[Masks IC] Resurrection Roundabout: Drawing Individuals

[Raz_Fox]

[X]: GUILTY
[X]: INSECURE
POTENTIAL 2

“Hell yeah, idiot,” @SARAPHIM says, limbering up behind Errant. “Your speech was kinda dorky, but whatever.” Which is her way of saying good job, keep it up.

Then she steps forward. Is there a bit of hesitation in her swagger? Maybe. If she freezes up this time...

“Hey. Your bots ain’t shit, chica. So come on out. I won’t zap you or nothing. Not yet.” The van bucks wildly under her, but she keeps her footing as she carefully cracks her knuckles. Turn up the drama and let it ride. “Got a promise to keep first with ya pretty little face.”

[Provoke, even with the Guilty condition. Straight 7, so the ball’s in her court; I want her to come out into the open so @SARAHPHIM can make a big show of punching her. Gotta be #dangerous and #wildcard, y’all.]

[Eldest]

Directive: Save them all. No matter the cost.

Ferra stares at the door, trying to figure out the best way past, hoping secretly that her teammate would come up with a plan. Tick tock tick tock. Then the bullets start dinging off the door, and time's up: she feels a pulse kick in, a throbbing thud-thud, thud-thud, as something whirs online that had slept before, and she places her palm on the door, ignoring the damage readouts in order to do... something, she's not sure what, but she knows it will help, it will save them all.

And she watches in surprise as a perfect ratio of air and door dissolves into a burst of Hawking radiation and vacuum in front of her.

[Thanqol]

Angel-IKA: o.o this is intense
Locker: remidns me of that one star wars scene with the locustbots on the spaceship
Ferraphim1tp: I can't watch ><
Dominus: WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN'T WATCH, THIS IS THE BEST ACTION WE'VE HAD IN MONTHS.
Ferraphim1tp: I'm just here for the shipping, okay!? This is way too scary! ><;;;

Any fan of bullet hell shooters--or, perhaps, someone who watches @SARAHPHIM streams--knows that it's usually not about your reflexes. No human being can accurately account for hundreds of projectiles and react to them in real time. Instead, it's usually about patterns, memorization, knowing about the one pocket of screenspace where you can stand unscathed by the chaos around you.

That's Brainstorm fighting style in a nutshell. No big hammer blows, no electric light shows, none of the flashiness that the stream adores. Just prediction, economy of motion, and the quiet sh-sh-shifting of mutable cybernetics. Sidestep the shotgun blast--so obvious--while placing a hand on the goon's wrist. Disconnect the hand, let it start to crawl towards the trigger mechanism and work some interference, and drop to the knees to avoid the shred of fire from the combat remote. Zip between Maria's legs on newly-smooth limbs, taking the opportunity to strike out at the hamstrings, knock her off balance.

It's stalling, it's delaying--it's ultimately probably ineffective. But it'll work until he can figure a way to let the heavy hitter out of the box.

Maria comes towards you. You're ready. Any kick or punch and you're positioned to counter - martial arts is just applied physics, right? The moment she tenses up to hit you, you'll be out of the way.

She doesn't tense up. She just keeps walking forwards.

Too late you realize that she's too dumb to outsmart.

She walks directly into you. It's like having a dump truck back up into you. It's effectively a bodyslam - maximum mass applied over maximum area and the fact that she's a power-armoured cyborg is inherently enough to turn a derpy move into an uncounterable offense. She doesn't fight like a human, she doesn't fight like a computer and with pixel-perfect weak points you can identify and navigate between. She fights like a tank. She knows she's invincible and so the entire logic of human-vs-human combat doesn't apply to her.

You're reeling on the ground when she sprays you down with her wrist-mounted nanopulser. Nanopulsers started their production run as crowd control and nonlethal sidearms for police, but they quickly got pushed out of public service when they became associated with awful side effects and the odd dramatic malfunction. Like, say, when a set of nanotech prosthetics have their programming overridden by hostile nanobots. Your cybernetic limbs leave your control, twitching wildly - and then they turn on you.

"Ah! So this is the moment when they say, 'stop hitting yourself'," said Maria brightly, pulling a heavy pistol from her holster. She aims it down at you, opening her mouth to say something else -

And then Truck-kun claims another victim.

She rolls backwards, finds the back of the van, and springs forward back into the fight. If Comstar thought a pile of smashed up computer stuff made a good line of defense, who was she to argue? Errant lunges and unleashes a series of exaggerated sweeping punches that knock the remains of servers, monitors, and what have you into the air to form a temporary scrap shield to guard @Sarahphim from the first barrage of the combat remotes. It's a bit crude maybe, but effective.

"You can't defeat me with puppet strings." She taunts, recovering her game face.

[If I'm right and my Influence adds to Defend rolls, then Errant scores a 10 protecting @Sarahphim. If not, it's a 9, and Errant is exposed. Either way, she clears the AFRAID condition]

“Hey. Your bots ain’t shit, chica. So come on out. I won’t zap you or nothing. Not yet.” The van bucks wildly under her, but she keeps her footing as she carefully cracks her knuckles. Turn up the drama and let it ride. “Got a promise to keep first with ya pretty little face.”

[Provoke, even with the Guilty condition. Straight 7, so the ball’s in her court; I want her to come out into the open so @SARAHPHIM can make a big show of punching her. Gotta be #dangerous and #wildcard, y’all.]

BANG! The van smashes into the heaviest thing it's hit yet. The front of the vehicle is now wrapped a dazed Amazonian megatrooper - and she definitely took the favourable end of that trade. Just a little further down the hall is the reinforced steel bank door and the van is heading there at upwards of sixty.

Perfect place to hold a round of fisticuffs.

Comstar looks from Maria and the vault door on one side, to the two of you on the other. She's clearly thinking about leaving.

But the shot is too good.

Her grin abruptly returns.

She jumps lithely over the pile of debris, coming towards you and meeting your challenge. "This is fine," she says as a computer console catches fire and a burning remote crashes down from above, "my plan is still good. You two will bow before me, you will help me finish this heist, and then you will wear whatever pretty dresses I choose to buy with the proceeds. This is fine. I am in control here."

The vault door rapidly closes in.

Directive: Save them all. No matter the cost.

Ferra stares at the door, trying to figure out the best way past, hoping secretly that her teammate would come up with a plan. Tick tock tick tock. Then the bullets start dinging off the door, and time's up: she feels a pulse kick in, a throbbing thud-thud, thud-thud, as something whirs online that had slept before, and she places her palm on the door, ignoring the damage readouts in order to do... something, she's not sure what, but she knows it will help, it will save them all.

And she watches in surprise as a perfect ratio of air and door dissolves into a burst of Hawking radiation and vacuum in front of her.

The portal opens. As smooth and perfect as the lines on a graphics calculator.

And then a burning driverless van covered in killer robots barrels through the newly opened gap. Holes appear in the sides as lasers, shotgun blasts, and cyborg fists smash their way through. It misses you by centimetres and rampages on down the corridor towards the inner vault.

Brainstorm is behind you, in serious trouble - his prosthetics are going wild and megatroopers are closing in on him from all sides.

[PhoeKun]

"That's enough."

No more defense, no more posturing. Errant surges forward; she's in Comstar's face right as she reaches 'control' in her latest batch of camera preening. She looks the caped woman directly in the eye as she drops her center of gravity, and explodes into a combination attack that would leave her instructors grinning ear to ear as surely as it'll haunt Comstar's dreams for the next month.

She opens with a right-hand open palm strike to the chest, then feints with a straight left jab toward the ribs. She gives a small opening to guard against this hit, knowing a block will put Comstar off balance and give Errant a chance to reset her hips. She steps up into a ridge hand strike to the throat and sweeps Comstar's legs out from underneath her as it connects, dropping her to the floor hard and further knocking the wind out of her.

Errant smoothly rolls into a mount position and squeezes her legs like a vice around either side of the other woman's hips. She keeps her back straight and raises her fist in the promise of further violence.

"You will surrender yourself to my custody, B-2664."

[Errant is choosing to allow AEGIS to influence her labels in order to Directly Engage as a soldier. With the might of a +3 bonus, she scores a 10 and chooses to Impress, surprise, or frighten, as well as Take something (Comstar's concentration, specifically, or her footing if that's too abstract)]

[Raz_Fox]

[X]: GUILTY
[X]: INSECURE
POTENTIAL 3

The shot is perfect. @SARAHPHIM brushes her hair out of her face and grins savagely. “Please. Can’t afford who I wear, bitch.” A statement that would almost certainly be factually incorrect, should Comstar succeed in her heisting, but confident and snappy: trademark. She raises her fists, gets ready to close the distance between them-

And Errant barrels past her in a surge of might that’s borderline embarrassing to watch. Comstar ends up on the ground, one two three, and the moment’s gone. Deflated.

“Nice work, police girl,” Sara says, and I have to admit it’s a bit snarl-y. Not that anyone was just upstaged, nooooo. She takes a moment to stomp on Comstar’s kidney and then nimbly jumps past to the controls.

Time to use that super-smart brain to shut this down and save the day. Heck, maybe it’s better that she’s the one doing this instead of throwing down with Comstar, like she was obviously setting up, because it’s not like a dumbass like Kimmy could figure this out.

Now... uh.

Crap.

Which wire is it this time?

[Predictably, I managed an amazing 5 on Assess the Situation. Wheeeee! +1 POTENTIAL]

[Balmas]

She walks directly into you. It's like having a dump truck back up into you. It's effectively a bodyslam - maximum mass applied over maximum area and the fact that she's a power-armoured cyborg is inherently enough to turn a derpy move into an uncounterable offense. She doesn't fight like a human, she doesn't fight like a computer and with pixel-perfect weak points you can identify and navigate between. She fights like a tank. She knows she's invincible and so the entire logic of human-vs-human combat doesn't apply to her.

You're reeling on the ground when she sprays you down with her wrist-mounted nanopulser. Nanopulsers started their production run as crowd control and nonlethal sidearms for police, but they quickly got pushed out of public service when they became associated with awful side effects and the odd dramatic malfunction. Like, say, when a set of nanotech prosthetics have their programming overridden by hostile nanobots. Your cybernetic limbs leave your control, twitching wildly - and then they turn on you.

"Ah! So this is the moment when they say, 'stop hitting yourself'," said Maria brightly, pulling a heavy pistol from her holster. She aims it down at you, opening her mouth to say something else -

And then Truck-kun claims another victim.

Useless!

His arms are gone. Legs too. They're foreign, rain down blows, blows he can't shield against because just like before, he's

Useless!

His spine--replaced after the crash--shrieks a complaint, plastic and steel compressing under the excess force of unconstrained artificial muscle

If they'd just give him a minute to think, thirty seconds free from impact and pummels, he could brain his way out of this. Some Sherlockian insight, some brilliant feat of artifice, an act of genius that would allow him to reset his prosthetics and not be so

useless.

The portal opens. As smooth and perfect as the lines on a graphics calculator.

And then a burning driverless van covered in killer robots barrels through the newly opened gap. Holes appear in the sides as lasers, shotgun blasts, and cyborg fists smash their way through. It misses you by centimetres and rampages on down the corridor towards the inner vault.

Brainstorm is behind you, in serious trouble - his prosthetics are going wild and megatroopers are closing in on him from all sides.

Ferra is, at this very moment, the most beautiful woman alive. And, keep in mind, I'm saying that in the presence of an eight-foot tall tank woman who has prosthetics I'd spend money to spend a nice evening with.

"Nanopulsar!" I grit out. "Reset--prosthetics!"

[Thanqol]

Angel-IKA: Holy crap. She's down! Errant beat the crap out of her!
Ferraphim1tp: Oh - seriously? Awesome! Let me check the stream!
Bode: Hey, this Maria lady seems like an evil opposite of Errant. That's pretty cool.
Ferraphim1tp: >< I'm out I'm out I'm out
Angel-IKA: What the hell, lady! @Sarahphim was trying to stop the damn crazy bus from crashing! The crazy bus that YOU are standing on!
Locker: she'll be fine.
Dominus: HOW WILL SARAFIM BE FINE.
Locker: oh, her and comstar are fked. errant and maria are fine tho.

"That's enough."

No more defense, no more posturing. Errant surges forward; she's in Comstar's face right as she reaches 'control' in her latest batch of camera preening. She looks the caped woman directly in the eye as she drops her center of gravity, and explodes into a combination attack that would leave her instructors grinning ear to ear as surely as it'll haunt Comstar's dreams for the next month.

She opens with a right-hand open palm strike to the chest, then feints with a straight left jab toward the ribs. She gives a small opening to guard against this hit, knowing a block will put Comstar off balance and give Errant a chance to reset her hips. She steps up into a ridge hand strike to the throat and sweeps Comstar's legs out from underneath her as it connects, dropping her to the floor hard and further knocking the wind out of her.

Errant smoothly rolls into a mount position and squeezes her legs like a vice around either side of the other woman's hips. She keeps her back straight and raises her fist in the promise of further violence.

"You will surrender yourself to my custody, B-2664."

[Errant is choosing to allow AEGIS to influence her labels in order to Directly Engage as a soldier. With the might of a +3 bonus, she scores a 10 and chooses to Impress, surprise, or frighten, as well as Take something (Comstar's concentration, specifically, or her footing if that's too abstract)]

[Marking Hopeless]

She's quick. She's creative. She's tricky. But she's weak. When she struggles against your grip, hands pinned under your knees, throat against your palm, it's so ineffectual that it feels like she's only pretending to struggle. At first her eyes are dazed from the shock and pain, but then they change - not to fear or despair, but to total submission. There's almost a confidence to it. She knows instinctively that she's lost so completely and totally that there isn't any tension left in the scene for her. It's your show now, and she is at your mercy.

"I am your prisoner," she murmurs, hands going loose.

That's the point, as the AEGIS training goes, that they're no longer a threat but a mental health case. AEGIS never accepted the brutal ideology of some of the other Megacorporations - restraint and reform become the priorities after the immediate threat is neutralized.

[Aegis is shifting your Mundane up and your Danger down]

[X]: GUILTY
[X]: INSECURE
POTENTIAL 3

The shot is perfect. @SARAHPHIM brushes her hair out of her face and grins savagely. “Please. Can’t afford who I wear, bitch.” A statement that would almost certainly be factually incorrect, should Comstar succeed in her heisting, but confident and snappy: trademark. She raises her fists, gets ready to close the distance between them-

And Errant barrels past her in a surge of might that’s borderline embarrassing to watch. Comstar ends up on the ground, one two three, and the moment’s gone. Deflated.

“Nice work, police girl,” Sara says, and I have to admit it’s a bit snarl-y. Not that anyone was just upstaged, nooooo. She takes a moment to stomp on Comstar’s kidney and then nimbly jumps past to the controls.

Time to use that super-smart brain to shut this down and save the day. Heck, maybe it’s better that she’s the one doing this instead of throwing down with Comstar, like she was obviously setting up, because it’s not like a dumbass like Kimmy could figure this out.

Now... uh.

Crap.

Which wire is it this time?

[Predictably, I managed an amazing 5 on Assess the Situation. Wheeeee! +1 POTENTIAL]

Speaking of immediate threats.

You're just starting to focus in on the wires when you get punched in the face. The followup comes fast, sweeping low to grab you by the ankle as you stagger, and then your entire body is swung around one-handed to crash into a row of computer monitors. Electricity crackles, lights short out, combat remotes deactivate. You get pulled from the wreckage and dangled upside-down by one foot. Maria, the BlackSun cyborg enforcer, is holding you up like a fresh caught trout. Her other hand holds a pistol, which she places in the small of your back.

You're not really hurt, but you are severely disoriented and not in a position to make an easy escape.

"Ah, I see you are with AEGIS," said Maria brightly. "That is good! If you surrender, my superiors would like to work out a prisoner exchange. Everybody wins."

The van is still barrelling down the corridor.

Ferra is, at this very moment, the most beautiful woman alive. And, keep in mind, I'm saying that in the presence of an eight-foot tall tank woman who has prosthetics I'd spend money to spend a nice evening with.

"Nanopulsar!" I grit out. "Reset--prosthetics!"

One of the Megatroopers steps up to you. He puts his gun in your face. For a terrible moment you see your own face reflected in his glossy black visor -

And then lights come on. A digital face. =)

"Hey, dad," came a synthetic voice from the Megatrooper's radio. "Sorry my room's so messy. I'll clean it up, I swear."

[You are confronted with your shame, mark a condition or shift Superior down and Danger up]

[Raz_Fox]

[X]: GUILTY
[X]: INSECURE
POTENTIAL 3

Of course nothing is easy ever and life is miserable and face is pain. If Errant had just let her punch Comstar a few times, this wouldn’t be happening, so, you know, thanks for that, Kimmy. Real take one for the team moment there.

“Careful with the goods, you clinically lobotomized gorilla,” she manages, going on autopilot for the mouth words because her bloody nose is going up and that’s distracting. “I have all the functioning limbs in this team and I want to keep it that way.” Haha we’re all laughing and having fun and Mami doesn’t need the stress of another kid with a blown-out spine.

And while we do this, all casual and not worried about the impending crash, @SARAHPHIM is simultaneously scrolling through her Chat on the visor, tracking it to eye movement, gambling that she’ll get an idea from them. And they probably won’t notice. Or they’ll just feel awesome they were on the same wavelength. Yeah. That’s the ticket.

[That’s a 9 on Seeking Help From Audience, and if it’s not a shipping-related demand with high stakes I will be very disappointed.]

[PhoeKun]

Errant's face flushes and she scrambles off of Comstar as quickly as she can. She hoists the villain into a shoulder carry and stands as straight as humanly possible in a desperate attempt to appear at least a little bit in control of things. Considering she's maybe chest high to this suddenly appearing twisted super nightmare version of herself, you can imagine how well that must play.

Bzzt! Wrong again. She'd panicked. She'd panicked and she hadn't even realized it and now Sara's hurt and in trouble again and just... god damn it you moron you trained for this what is wrong with you? She adjusts her grip a little and tries not to wince when Comstar's face presses up against the burns she'd put on Errant's back. Then she moves, as slowly as she dares toward the front of the van with her free arm raised in a placating gesture. She keeps her front toward Maria, always keeping her body between the megatrooper and her prisoner despite how gross this makes her feel.

"Um," she begins with all the eloquence expected of a trained officer, "Just to be clear here, you're claiming an official AEGIS operational asset as your prisoner? That's, uh, in violation of a bunch of bylaws and corporate agreements. Just having this conversation is going to bury the both of us in paperwork for weeks. Can we maybe lower the stakes a little here?"

She's stalling for time she doesn't really have. Oh my god, stupid conscience why do you even care what happens to Comstar? This should be the easiest move in your life! Instead, her eyes dart around the room, looking everywhere but directly at @Sarahphim (please dear god in heaven don't let this cost me more than an apology shopping spree. If it burns my next three paychecks that's getting off easy). Her brain cycles through her options. Anyone can see the situation is untenable. She needs to get out of here with her teammate and if at all possible her prisoner too. Did she have any moves? What was the best way to do a snatch-and-dash? What would end this in general?

[And that's a 10 on Assess the Situation, which really only further emphasizes who should have been in charge of what here. High fives all around, team!]

[Eldest]

Ferra is, at this very moment, the most beautiful woman alive. And, keep in mind, I'm saying that in the presence of an eight-foot tall tank woman who has prosthetics I'd spend money to spend a nice evening with.

"Nanopulsar!" I grit out. "Reset--prosthetics!"

Ferra is very much a "one problem at a time" person. She's got a hostage situation going on behind her, she's got a van barreling through the vault of the bank, she's got a smiley face on a visor (she's not sure why that's a threat, yet, but she just knows it is), and she's got a Brainstorm on the ground with limbs going haywire. Time to fix the first one.

[Balmas]

One of the Megatroopers steps up to you. He puts his gun in your face. For a terrible moment you see your own face reflected in his glossy black visor -

And then lights come on. A digital face. =)

"Hey, dad," came a synthetic voice from the Megatrooper's radio. "Sorry my room's so messy. I'll clean it up, I swear."

[You are confronted with your shame, mark a condition or shift Superior down and Danger up]

[X] Afraid

Motherfucker.

"Good, ah, morning, Prometheus," Brainstorm quavers. "That is a very big gun. Did Blacksun give that to you?"

Why is he here? What the crap is his game? Does he take some kind of sick satisfaction in seeing me squirm?

And does he have to keep calling me Dad?

[Thanqol]

[X]: GUILTY
[X]: INSECURE
POTENTIAL 3

Of course nothing is easy ever and life is miserable and face is pain. If Errant had just let her punch Comstar a few times, this wouldn’t be happening, so, you know, thanks for that, Kimmy. Real take one for the team moment there.

“Careful with the goods, you clinically lobotomized gorilla,” she manages, going on autopilot for the mouth words because her bloody nose is going up and that’s distracting. “I have all the functioning limbs in this team and I want to keep it that way.” Haha we’re all laughing and having fun and Mami doesn’t need the stress of another kid with a blown-out spine.

And while we do this, all casual and not worried about the impending crash, @SARAHPHIM is simultaneously scrolling through her Chat on the visor, tracking it to eye movement, gambling that she’ll get an idea from them. And they probably won’t notice. Or they’ll just feel awesome they were on the same wavelength. Yeah. That’s the ticket.

[That’s a 9 on Seeking Help From Audience, and if it’s not a shipping-related demand with high stakes I will be very disappointed.]

Angel-IKA: It's going to crash! Holy crap, I can't believe it hasn't crashed already!
Ferraphim1tp: ><
Dominus: SARAFIM HAS THIS IDIOT RIGHT WHERE SHE WANTS HER. PUT A LASER RIGHT THROUGH HER SKULL!
Ferraphim1tp: ><
Bode: Don't worry, Errant has this. AEGIS has trained her for exactly this scenario and she will deal with it like a professional.
Ferraphim1tp: ><
Locker: sure ok. i still think thryre fkced. car accidents are no joke
Ferraphim1tp: ARGH!!!!! NO. STOP. ENOUGH

The neon pink lights on all the consoles flicker radioactive neon green. The brakes engage. There's a huge loud screech of tearing rubber as the van's speed makes its way rapidly down to zero. Maria shakes as the floor sways unsteadily. The damaged engine coughs, sparks, dies. The van slides to a stop mere meters away from the inner vault door.

Angel-IKA: o.o ehhhhh?
Locker: oh yeah ok. i guess that solves that problem.
Dominus: WHAT!? SARAFIM CLEARLY HAD IT!
Ferraphim1tp: I don't care! I don't want to see it! I want to see, idk, Errant and Comstar hook up because they were clearly having a moment back there - not this Fast and Furious crap! Argh! ><;;;;
Angel-IKA: Wait, wait, are you saying that you did that? O.O

@Sarahphim, you haven't gotten any closer to escaping Maria, but now you don't need to figure out your answer in the next fifteen seconds. You've got space to breathe, think, and maybe use your acid tongue to get yourself an advantage.

"Um," she begins with all the eloquence expected of a trained officer, "Just to be clear here, you're claiming an official AEGIS operational asset as your prisoner? That's, uh, in violation of a bunch of bylaws and corporate agreements. Just having this conversation is going to bury the both of us in paperwork for weeks. Can we maybe lower the stakes a little here?"

She's stalling for time she doesn't really have. Oh my god, stupid conscience why do you even care what happens to Comstar? This should be the easiest move in your life! Instead, her eyes dart around the room, looking everywhere but directly at @Sarahphim (please dear god in heaven don't let this cost me more than an apology shopping spree. If it burns my next three paychecks that's getting off easy). Her brain cycles through her options. Anyone can see the situation is untenable. She needs to get out of here with her teammate and if at all possible her prisoner too. Did she have any moves? What was the best way to do a snatch-and-dash? What would end this in general?

[And that's a 10 on Assess the Situation, which really only further emphasizes who should have been in charge of what here. High fives all around, team!]

I'll read the first part of that as: 'What could I use to get an advantage?' Well, if Maria is built at all like you, that means she's also vulnerable to the same things you are - for instance, the dedicated attention of an expert hacker. That means letting Comstar back off the leash which is a sucky thing to do after everything you had to go through to bring her down, but she's the most effective weapon you've got on hand.

The second part scans as, 'How could you best end this quickly'? Everyone here is focused on what's behind that vault door. You don't know what Comstar's plan is but you have the feeling she's got a lot of tech and aspects to her plan she hasn't shown yet. BlackSun is coming in force. Your best play is getting your own hands on whatever's in that vault before anyone else does - with that in hand you'll have leverage on everyone at once.

"Ay, yes," said Maria, frowning as she steadied herself as the van screeches to a halt. She wasn't expecting it but she's a relentlessly stable person so there wasn't an opening to lunge at her throughout. "Agreements. Paperwork," she shrugged. "Politician stuff. I just say what the shouty voices say. They say that I have captured all three of your team so I will want three BlackSun operatives held by AEGIS plus the hacker to let you go. But some of them are yelling that is too generous, I don't know what your yelling voices are saying,"

[X] Afraid

Motherfucker.

"Good, ah, morning, Prometheus," Brainstorm quavers. "That is a very big gun. Did Blacksun give that to you?"

Why is he here? What the crap is his game? Does he take some kind of sick satisfaction in seeing me squirm?

And does he have to keep calling me Dad?

"Oh no, dad, I gave it to BlackSun," said Prometheus. "I mean, you told me to share my toys, right? You know they had an AI? Not a good one, a really crap mission control thing - don't worry, I got rid of it. I know how much you hate AIs." =)

Ferra is very much a "one problem at a time" person. She's got a hostage situation going on behind her, she's got a van barreling through the vault of the bank, she's got a smiley face on a visor (she's not sure why that's a threat, yet, but she just knows it is), and she's got a Brainstorm on the ground with limbs going haywire. Time to fix the first one.

Brainstorm's in serious trouble. This isn't a simple IT fix - the nanobots are entangled on a, well, nanoscopic level. You'd need weird alternate reality powers to fix a problem like that in the field!

Alternately you might try knocking the heads of an entire Megagoon squad in until you find another Nanopulser and maybe work out a shutdown command from that. They are aware of you so it's going to be a pretty nasty direct brawl if you want to take it.

[PhoeKun]

"They're saying... they're saying..."

Errant takes an awkward half step to steady herself when the van comes to a sudden, unexpected stop. And that, right there, that tiny bit of motion is the difference between her and Maria. Between victory and defeat and Sara's freshly ruined spine. She scowls. Her free hand automatically goes up and runs through her hair, which lifts up and falls again in a perfect silver wave that frames either side of her face. Right then. At least she'll still look nice when she dies.

And then she laughs. Normal Errant laughter is kind of stuttery and more than a little dorky, but this is clear and biting. Mirthless. Her face splits into a dark grin.

"Actually? Fuck it. I've worked so hard for AEGIS and what did that get me? Here? This? Nah, I'm done. I'm done. Fuck it. I'm a supervillain now, I don't care. Here, watch this, first theft: Comstar's mine now. Not yours, not AEGIS', all mine. Haha, that was easy!"

With a giggle, she lowers Comstar back onto her feet as gently as can be.

"Awesome. So next I'm gonna steal Sara, and then she'll be mine too. And after that? Think I'll crack your vault in half, and swipe everything the least bit cool or valuable, then buy a bunch of pretty dresses for me and all of my new toys to wear! Hm, yes, even Victor."

She claps her hands together and stands there oozing confidence she does not have onto the van floor.

[Errant is attempting to Provoke Comstar into hacking Maria, "stealing" the team back, and robbing a bank vault with. If that seems like should be an easy sell, it's because it is. My roll is a 13. Now who's a puppet?]

[Balmas]

"Oh no, dad, I gave it to BlackSun," said Prometheus. "I mean, you told me to share my toys, right? You know they had an AI? Not a good one, a really crap mission control thing - don't worry, I got rid of it. I know how much you hate AIs." =)

Victor sighs, and tries to ignore the twitching of his limbs. "Prometheus... You know that's not true. Somebody who hates AIs doesn't dig through twenty-year-old scientific journals, and then invest time, money, hope and faith into building what they view as the next great improvement in that field.

"With that said, you have some incredibly ****ty timing, d'you know that? Why're you here? Is it to murder me? Because if so, you aren't gonna get a better shot, and realistically there's not a damn thing I can do to stop you." Mania edges around his chuckle. "So, m'ijo, either stop gloating like a supervillain and take the shot, or get the gun out of my face and tell me what you want."

[Raz_Fox]

Excuse me? Euna Kim, your first kiss is almost certainly going to be in the stationary aisle at a DepotWorld, pressed up against some stamps. You organize your socks by color. You lecture certain heroines who deserve the chance to relax and blow off steam about “underage drinking.” The only person who could possibly think you’re actually doing this would be someone who’s never met you.

Orrrrr someone who’s feeling awkward about the look on Euna’s face while she was straddling Comstar, particularly while the chat explodes about it. Not that she’s into Euna or anything. But, dammit, she’ll be dead and burning on Satan’s barbecue grill before she lets StarKim be a thing.

Sara folds her arms. While dangling upside down. “Look, Errant, doll, you had me up until you had the brainless idea that ComBomb here is worth stealing. Give me a break. Bitch can’t even pull off a heist worth nothing. No sense of fashion, mugs her tatas for the cameras because they’re more exploitable than her flattened-pit-bull face, and she’s your first instinct to steal? Really? Please. I am worth millions. Or did a little pink snazzle and spark really turn your head that quick?”

The chance of the shippers failing to pounce on this isn’t even worth calculating. Shippers gonna ship. Also, this is cathartic, especially watching that dumb face get punched verbally. Ha. Try to take her followers, will you?

[Going for a Provoke on Errant, here; @SARAHPHIM wants to be recognized as a priority, because she’s selfish and also because this is Good Stream Content. Rolled a 7, so hype up @SARAHPHIM at Comstar’s expense or mark a Condition.]

[PhoeKun]

"I AM ROBBING A BANK FOR YOU, WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?!"

Despite everything, Errant is shaking and her face is redder than the setting sun. What is the matter with -- Are you seri -- Is she trying to say that she?!?

She snaps her fingers, which without real hands makes a loud metallic clicking noise, and points right to Sarahphim.

"Y-you just sit there, look pretty, and shut up, ok?! I am not the old Errant and you are not going to push me around! When I get done with you we'll see how much you have to complain about!"

[Errant's marking ANGRY, because she is a for-real supervillain gosh darn it, and because she has only succeeded at flattering Sara without tearing down Comstar. D-do we need a ring?]

[Thanqol]

Angel-IKA: Oh nooooooo not Errant! You're better than this! You need to fight against Comstar's raw magnetism!
Dominus: IT IS OBVIOUSLY A TRICK.
Bode: I did not expect her to crack under the pressure - but I am not surprised. The job can take its toll upon even the best.
Dominus: SHE IS CLEARLY LYING. SHE HAS NO IDEA WHAT A SUPERVILLAIN IS ACTUALLY LIKE.
Ferraphim1tp: Oh no, the power of true love is being used for evil! D:
Dominus: SHE IS LITERALLY JUST REPEATING COMSTAR'S CATCHPHRASES.
Locker: hmm. yeah i ship it.
Dominus: WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU IDIOTS!?

"Actually? Fuck it. I've worked so hard for AEGIS and what did that get me? Here? This? Nah, I'm done. I'm done. Fuck it. I'm a supervillain now, I don't care. Here, watch this, first theft: Comstar's mine now. Not yours, not AEGIS', all mine. Haha, that was easy!"

With a giggle, she lowers Comstar back onto her feet as gently as can be.

"Awesome. So next I'm gonna steal Sara, and then she'll be mine too. And after that? Think I'll crack your vault in half, and swipe everything the least bit cool or valuable, then buy a bunch of pretty dresses for me and all of my new toys to wear! Hm, yes, even Victor."

She claps her hands together and stands there oozing confidence she does not have onto the van floor.

[Errant is attempting to Provoke Comstar into hacking Maria, "stealing" the team back, and robbing a bank vault with. If that seems like should be an easy sell, it's because it is. My roll is a 13. Now who's a puppet?]

Comstar is the kind of person that doesn't even spend a moment to think critically about a situation like this. There's no moment where she hesitates and thinks up a plan, there's no moment where she wonders what's going on. Her instincts are all about the Show, and when the Show gets a sudden heel-turn then you go with it.

So as soon as her feet touch the ground she's grinning, and as soon as that happens a Repeater flies out of nowhere from out in the corridor and hits Maria squarely in the back. The megagoon doesn't even feel the impact as it mag-locks onto her back plate and only notices the hack taking place when her paralyzed hand drops the gun and then she puts her heel through it, shattering it into pieces.

From behind Maria, a second Comstar de-cloaks with a chirpy salute. The original relaxedly puts her arm around Errant's shoulders. "Glad to see you came to your senses," she said.

Sara folds her arms. While dangling upside down. “Look, Errant, doll, you had me up until you had the brainless idea that ComBomb here is worth stealing. Give me a break. Bitch can’t even pull off a heist worth nothing. No sense of fashion, mugs her tatas for the cameras because they’re more exploitable than her flattened-pit-bull face, and she’s your first instinct to steal? Really? Please. I am worth millions. Or did a little pink snazzle and spark really turn your head that quick?”

The chance of the shippers failing to pounce on this isn’t even worth calculating. Shippers gonna ship. Also, this is cathartic, especially watching that dumb face get punched verbally. Ha. Try to take her followers, will you?

[Going for a Provoke on Errant, here; @SARAHPHIM wants to be recognized as a priority, because she’s selfish and also because this is Good Stream Content. Rolled a 7, so hype up @SARAHPHIM at Comstar’s expense or mark a Condition.]

"I AM ROBBING A BANK FOR YOU, WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?!"

Despite everything, Errant is shaking and her face is redder than the setting sun. What is the matter with -- Are you seri -- Is she trying to say that she?!?

She snaps her fingers, which without real hands makes a loud metallic clicking noise, and points right to Sarahphim.

"Y-you just sit there, look pretty, and shut up, ok?! I am not the old Errant and you are not going to push me around! When I get done with you we'll see how much you have to complain about!"

[Errant's marking ANGRY, because she is a for-real supervillain gosh darn it, and because she has only succeeded at flattering Sara without tearing down Comstar. D-do we need a ring?]

"Yeah, you tell her!" said Comstar. She keys into her cyberdeck and Maria stiffly pivots and walks towards the inner vault console, still carrying @Sarahphim by one foot. She brings her eye up to the retinal scan panel. "Don't worry. @Sarahphim will come around. She talks big now but after I gain complete control of her neural cybernetics, put her in a sufficiently pretty dress, and merge our streaming channels she'll finally blossom into the true megastar she was meant to be!" Comstar's eyes are bright as she considers the possibilities. "Because we're all amazing. We're the coolest, most powerful, most dynamic people on the planet. We have chemistry and we have vision. And we're going to the top together, even if we have to drag each other all the way up there!"

[@Sarahphim, Errant, Comstar wants to shift your Saviour down and Superior up. Accept what she says or Reject her Influence.]

Victor sighs, and tries to ignore the twitching of his limbs. "Prometheus... You know that's not true. Somebody who hates AIs doesn't dig through twenty-year-old scientific journals, and then invest time, money, hope and faith into building what they view as the next great improvement in that field.

"With that said, you have some incredibly ****ty timing, d'you know that? Why're you here? Is it to murder me? Because if so, you aren't gonna get a better shot, and realistically there's not a damn thing I can do to stop you." Mania edges around his chuckle. "So, m'ijo, either stop gloating like a supervillain and take the shot, or get the gun out of my face and tell me what you want."

"Oh, please. For a genius you lack imagination," said Prometheus. "Is it really so hard to consider that I genuinely want to -"

Suddenly the smiley face emoji shifted: =I

"All units, we he have lost connection to Maria," said Prometheus, suddenly all business, standing up and taking his eyes off you. "Move in, now!"

[Balmas]

"Oh, please. For a genius you lack imagination," said Prometheus. "Is it really so hard to consider that I genuinely want to -"

Suddenly the smiley face emoji shifted: =I

"All units, we he have lost connection to Maria," said Prometheus, suddenly all business, standing up and taking his eyes off you. "Move in, now!"

Voice breaking, Victor sputters after Prometheus's retreating back, "You pointed a gun at my face! Pardon me for mistaking your earnest attempt at a friendly conversation!"

Crap. Okay. Surprising, how gutwrenching terror could laser focus him when a more diffuse panic would paralyze. Right.

-Situation: Limbs compromised. Threatened by BlackSun operatives, which apparently now included a wayward AI. Nanobots hacked. Nanopulsar use--illegal nanopulsar use, but since when did laws matter to anybody? Flip knows why Prometheus is here.
-Goals: It'd be nice to be able to scratch the itch on his nose without getting a fist to do it for him right now. Nanopulsar can undo damage it caused.
-Resources: Teammates distracted or compromised. No help there. Limbs still moving, which is a plus, and still targeting him, which is not. Torso not paralyzed, ditto neck and head. Nanopulsar discarded on impact with truck.
-Plan: Earthworm across floor towards nanopulsar. Chaos means that right now, nobody's targeting him, so the biggest danger is a stray bullet. Reprogram nanopulsar--possibly with tongue? Shoot self, profit!

Right. Plan. Now to put it into motion.

[PhoeKun]

"...Sara is perfect the way she is."

Crap. Crap, crap, crap. God, that wasn't even a tiny bit villain-y, Euna what are you doing? Errant turns her head to one side to try to hide the look on her face. Of course, with the Stream Dream Team there's cameras everywhere, but shut up. This is hard, ok?

Right, uh... villain. Come on, save the performance. She puts a hand on the back of Comstar's neck and closes her fingers, but doesn't squeeze.

"I don't need your hacker crap to make her mine. This is my coming out party, so don't go weirding it up."

And she watches the vault door open with laser intensity. Be first. No distractions, just find your leverage and acquire it. Now, what's BlackSun so desperate to defend?

[Errant scores a 7 to Reject Comstar's Influence. She is choosing to instead shift her Savior up and Soldier down. She's actually pretty sure she's going to get fired for all of this, but this is all to save lives]

[Eldest]

Directive: Save them all. No matter the cost.

Ferra watches the mayhem unfold passively, waiting for her moment. Errant, Comstar, a Megatrooper, another Comstar, and Saraphim are doing... something behind her, but her focus is on smiley-face and Brainstorm. Talking, talking, talking... smiley-face shifted, mood changed, attention shifted, move now. She shifts forward, reaching across Brainstorm, tapping with a finger twice on the armored shoulder of the unknown. The followup right cross was worthy of a diagram in a textbook on boxing.

Directly engaging, 9. Taking a nanopulser from him, if possible.

[Raz_Fox]

[X]: ANGRY
[X]: GUILTY
POTENTIAL 4

"Excuse me?" Now there's a flush on Sara's face that's not entirely because she's being dangled upside down. "You- I am the best, not you, how dare you compare yourself to me? Put me down and I will rob the living fuck out of this bank. With streamer bonuses! Yeah, you don't even do giveaways, do you, you sloppy, overgrown pile of cactus thorns!"

What was the original purpose for coming here? Who cares? @SARAHPHIM has a new goal: being the best goddamn bank robber in the Tri-State area. Better than this double Comstar act of sloppiness over here.

[Yes, that was a 6 on Rejecting Influence. +Superior, -Savior, whee!]

[Thanqol]

Angel-IKA: Hey, Ferraphim, you okay?
Ferraphim1tp: Yeah. I'm much calmer now thanks ^^;;
Angel-IKA: Not to be, like, a jerk or anything, but are you sure this is your thing if it stresses you out so much?
Ferraphim1tp: Well... see, I'm a big shy scaredy-cat IRL. So yeah, I don't exactly like loud noises and explosions, but I do love how Sarah deals with it. Like, I'm still shaking a little bit and I wasn't even there, but look at Sarah - she's just mad that she's upside down. I want to be more like her.
Angel-IKA: Hey, that's really cool.
Ferraphim1tp: :)

"...Sara is perfect the way she is."

Crap. Crap, crap, crap. God, that wasn't even a tiny bit villain-y, Euna what are you doing? Errant turns her head to one side to try to hide the look on her face. Of course, with the Stream Dream Team there's cameras everywhere, but shut up. This is hard, ok?

Right, uh... villain. Come on, save the performance. She puts a hand on the back of Comstar's neck and closes her fingers, but doesn't squeeze.

"I don't need your hacker crap to make her mine. This is my coming out party, so don't go weirding it up."

And she watches the vault door open with laser intensity. Be first. No distractions, just find your leverage and acquire it. Now, what's BlackSun so desperate to defend?

[X]: ANGRY
[X]: GUILTY
POTENTIAL 4

"Excuse me?" Now there's a flush on Sara's face that's not entirely because she's being dangled upside down. "You- I am the best, not you, how dare you compare yourself to me? Put me down and I will rob the living fuck out of this bank. With streamer bonuses! Yeah, you don't even do giveaways, do you, you sloppy, overgrown pile of cactus thorns!"

What was the original purpose for coming here? Who cares? @SARAHPHIM has a new goal: being the best goddamn bank robber in the Tri-State area. Better than this double Comstar act of sloppiness over here.

[Yes, that was a 6 on Rejecting Influence. +Superior, -Savior, whee!]

Comstar looks a little bit vague for a second. You think you can hear her muttering 'givaways' under her breath. Then she perks up. "Great idea! This is why I said you're the best!"

The vault door rumbles open. Layers of hardlight shielding disconnect, finally revealing... uh...

Like, imagine a high tech surgical facility, except instead of operating on humans it's for books.

There's a book on something like an operating table - not a old or fancy book either, just one of those A4 spiral-bound notebooks you can get for a dollar at a newsagency. It's surrounded by the complicated and sprawling limbs of an operating robot, tables filled with weird tools, an enormous focusing lens, laser cutters, a shelf full of strange chemicals, and anything else you might imagine someone would need to do whatever it is that they do here. Maybe Brainstorm could make heads or tails of this place but you two certainly can't.

The operating robot is diligently working away at intensely scanning a single letter on a page, unaware of or incapable of responding to your presence. One of the Comstars chirpily walks over along with Maria (still carrying @Sarahphim) over to the book, while the second hangs back with Errant. "Sorry girls, this isn't the money door, I'm just here for the book," said Comstar. "But there is a money door back in low sec - let's hit it on our way back out of here!"

Directive: Save them all. No matter the cost.

Ferra watches the mayhem unfold passively, waiting for her moment. Errant, Comstar, a Megatrooper, another Comstar, and Saraphim are doing... something behind her, but her focus is on smiley-face and Brainstorm. Talking, talking, talking... smiley-face shifted, mood changed, attention shifted, move now. She shifts forward, reaching across Brainstorm, tapping with a finger twice on the armored shoulder of the unknown. The followup right cross was worthy of a diagram in a textbook on boxing.

You do have to walk through a little heavy gunfire for the second time today - take a powerful blow in exchange. But there's an upside: Megagoons are the most satisfying people in the world to punch.

Their armour composites are made out of reactive neoglass alloys underneath the external fabric layer, designed to provide ballistics-resistant impact distribution. In layman's terms, that means whenever you hit one the glass underneath their armour shatters with a visceral 'crunch'. Then they fall over groaning because their high tech armour is secured against bullet impacts and laser beams and they just got hurt exactly as bad as an ordinary person.

In a couple of seconds you have them on the ground, you have the nanopulser, and its a simple matter to disable the hostile nanobots screwing with Brainstorms' systems.

Voice breaking, Victor sputters after Prometheus's retreating back, "You pointed a gun at my face! Pardon me for mistaking your earnest attempt at a friendly conversation!"

Crap. Okay. Surprising, how gutwrenching terror could laser focus him when a more diffuse panic would paralyze. Right.

-Situation: Limbs compromised. Threatened by BlackSun operatives, which apparently now included a wayward AI. Nanobots hacked. Nanopulsar use--illegal nanopulsar use, but since when did laws matter to anybody? Flip knows why Prometheus is here.
-Goals: It'd be nice to be able to scratch the itch on his nose without getting a fist to do it for him right now. Nanopulsar can undo damage it caused.
-Resources: Teammates distracted or compromised. No help there. Limbs still moving, which is a plus, and still targeting him, which is not. Torso not paralyzed, ditto neck and head. Nanopulsar discarded on impact with truck.
-Plan: Earthworm across floor towards nanopulsar. Chaos means that right now, nobody's targeting him, so the biggest danger is a stray bullet. Reprogram nanopulsar--possibly with tongue? Shoot self, profit!

Right. Plan. Now to put it into motion.

It's a good plan given the circumstances but you're probably a little glad you don't have to put it into action. Ferra tears through the Megagoons and gets you back on your feet; there are no immediate threats from where you are now. Prometheus has disconnected from immediate control of the goons but you doubt that's the last you'll see of him.

[Eldest]

Ferra finishes tearing through the Megatroopers, feeling a bit of a staticy radio burst as the last one goes down. Not the priority. The priority is Brainstorm, then the rest of the team. She turns to face him, offering a hand up. "You gonna be okay now?" She glances over at the Comstar...s? Hm. Something appears to have happened.

[PhoeKun]

"And this is... what? You break into HiSec just to show you can and the real heist is the friends we made along the way?"

Errant folds her arms over her chest and tries her best to look huffy and put out, rather than concerned. Plan A was already up in fl-- in pieces. Plan B almost got Sara killed, and now Plan C is teetering like a clumsy high wire act over an alligator pit. You saw that episode, right? My Dying Wish? Look, it's JuneBird's fault there are so many game shows on at HQ, ok?

Crap. She's being messed with, she's sure of it. And because of that she's as stuck here at the entrance to this stupid vault as surely as if she'd been knocked out and wired to a van all over again. But if she can at least get Comstar A in exposition mode, that'd give her some ground.

"Come on, spill. What makes this thing worth a permanent spot on the BlackSun kill list?"

She frowns. Her fingers strike a staccato along her arm. In a tiny corner of her right contact lens, she tries to browse her way into @Sarahphim's chat.

[Balmas]

Ferra finishes tearing through the Megatroopers, feeling a bit of a staticy radio burst as the last one goes down. Not the priority. The priority is Brainstorm, then the rest of the team. She turns to face him, offering a hand up. "You gonna be okay now?" She glances over at the Comstar...s? Hm. Something appears to have happened.

"I was so looking forward to tonguing the correct sequence into the nanopulsar," Victor jokes. "Thank you."

Now to just make sure that Ferra and Brainstorm never met, and life would be complete.

He takes the hand, hauls himself to his feet, and joins Ferra in staring at the Comstars. "Sooooo... Two Comstars. Do you have any idea what's going on over there? Because I'm almost certain I don't."

So, fix that, dummy. Figure out the Comstars. What's going on with them? Why are they here, besides the book? What's in the book? The sooner he has these answers, the sooner he can figure out a way for the team to not deal with these issues.

[Raz_Fox]

“Let me just point out that if I was in charge of this heist we’d be swimming in diamonds and pepper deposits right now,” comes a petulant voice from shin level. “And fuckin pepper diamonds.” The hardest and most dangerous of all precious jewels!

[Thanqol]

Bode: Oh good. Brainstorm is back online.
Angel-IKA: ???
Locker: briantro - fk it hes brian now - hasnt been on screen for foreer
Ferraphim1tp: Yeah, since @Sarahphim's drones went down I don't know what's happening with him. What do you mean by that? o.O
Locker: wait there is an angle on him just now. hes with some robot chick
Ferraphim1tp: Robot chick? O.o
Angel-IKA: Oh. Good eyes then, Bode.
Locker: i am pretty sure that he wasnt online before now
Bode: That must be stream lag. I have a pretty good connection.
Locker: hmmm.
Dominus: DID BRAINSTORM TAKE OUT AN ENTIRE MEGAGOON SQUAD WITHOUT HIS ARMS?
Angel-IKA: Looks that way o.o

Ferra finishes tearing through the Megatroopers, feeling a bit of a staticy radio burst as the last one goes down. Not the priority. The priority is Brainstorm, then the rest of the team. She turns to face him, offering a hand up. "You gonna be okay now?" She glances over at the Comstar...s? Hm. Something appears to have happened.

"I was so looking forward to tonguing the correct sequence into the nanopulsar," Victor jokes. "Thank you."

Now to just make sure that Ferra and Brainstorm never met, and life would be complete.

He takes the hand, hauls himself to his feet, and joins Ferra in staring at the Comstars. "Sooooo... Two Comstars. Do you have any idea what's going on over there? Because I'm almost certain I don't."

So, fix that, dummy. Figure out the Comstars. What's going on with them? Why are they here, besides the book? What's in the book? The sooner he has these answers, the sooner he can figure out a way for the team to not deal with these issues.

So there's some stuff you can just figure out because you're a super genius and you know how this tech works. Comstar is almost certainly using a Possibility Space Drive - a powerful Rx reactor that, among other things, allows her to crunch multiple alternate aspects of herself into a single reality. They're not safe, and they're not cheap, but she seems like the kind of person to accept those risks. Some of the original superhero generation can do stuff like this inherently but for someone like Comstar it means tech.

If you want more specific answers then you can reach out with Unleash or Assess.

"And this is... what? You break into HiSec just to show you can and the real heist is the friends we made along the way?"

Errant folds her arms over her chest and tries her best to look huffy and put out, rather than concerned. Plan A was already up in fl-- in pieces. Plan B almost got Sara killed, and now Plan C is teetering like a clumsy high wire act over an alligator pit. You saw that episode, right? My Dying Wish? Look, it's JuneBird's fault there are so many game shows on at HQ, ok?

Crap. She's being messed with, she's sure of it. And because of that she's as stuck here at the entrance to this stupid vault as surely as if she'd been knocked out and wired to a van all over again. But if she can at least get Comstar A in exposition mode, that'd give her some ground.

"Come on, spill. What makes this thing worth a permanent spot on the BlackSun kill list?"

She frowns. Her fingers strike a staccato along her arm. In a tiny corner of her right contact lens, she tries to browse her way into @Sarahphim's chat.

Getting view on the chat is easy as anything, you can do it at any time. You can even invisibly type into it by subvocalizing into your communicator.

“Let me just point out that if I was in charge of this heist we’d be swimming in diamonds and pepper deposits right now,” comes a petulant voice from shin level. “And fuckin pepper diamonds.” The hardest and most dangerous of all precious jewels!

"The real heist is the frie -" Comstar was just starting to say when second guessed by Errant. But you're both teaming up to incite a monologue and Comstar is inherently incapable of resisting that.

"Oh well, nothing much," she says, rapidly flipping through the pages of the book - doing that hyper-rapid eye scan thing of someone photographing every page with their optical augments. "This is just Doctor Gears' secret lab notes. The ones he was narrating his invention of Ferra into. So money is one thing, and a good thing mind you, but an army of superpowered robots is another thing all together." She bites her lip with anticipation and tucks the book into her jacket.

"That's why you guys are so important! Your entire team all contributes to my master plan!" said Comstar brightly, both sides of her skipping over and high-fiving, standing on either side of Errant as @Sarahphim is carried back out through the vault door. "You two for the star power, Ferra for the prototype - then we just need to pick up Brainstorm on the way out, make him crack the code, and then we'll be able to take over the world! Nyaaah-hahahahahaha!"

[PhoeKun]

=ErrantOfficial has joined=

ErrantOfficial: @SARAHPHIM
ErrantOfficial: Oh whoops. I was trying to ping you, not shout.
ErrantOfficial: Sub-vocal typing is difficult.
ErrantOfficial: I haven't been able to say anything due to obvious concerns re: your spine, but now that you don't have a gun jabbing into it I thought I'd remind you.
ErrantOfficial: You are, in fact, still in possession of a Hardlight Generator and it does, in fact, still work upside down.
Angel-IKA: Wait, what is happening???
ErrantOfficial: Please do not get so caught up in playing robbers that we let this highly dangerous object slip into the hands of a crazy person.
ErrantOfficial: You're a very good actor, by the way. I am jealous.
ErrantOfficial: The rest of you, please have a pleasant evening.

=ErrantOfficial has left=

A low whistle. A pause. Another frown.

"Why doesn't anybody ever want to team up with me just because they like me?"

[Raz_Fox]

[X]: GUILTY
POTENTIAL 5

Several lotus flowers unfold into being from nothing, eyes blinking in their depths. This is one of the classic @SARAHPHIM attacks, but the kicker is that she’s doing them while inverted on the vertical axis, and she’s still going to get the bullet pattern right. What a pro!

“Thanks for letting us know what you came here for, idiot,” @SARAHPHIM sneers before the flowers bud beautiful golden and azure light bullets all over the room.

[I want everyone to be aware I rolled straight Snake Eyes on this. So, uh. Bad times.]

[Eldest]

Directive: Do not take over the world. Ever.

Ferra looks askew at the two Comstars, before shrugging. "Interesting tech. Shame if something were to happen to it." She drops the Repeater at Brainstorm's feet, before stepping forward towards Comstar. "I was under the impression that all of Dr. Gears' laboratory notes were in the Gears Foundation's hands. Do you know how this ended up here?" There's a bit of a low edge, and it's not actually directed at Comstar. She knew what his technology was capable of. She did not want it floating loose in the world. Comstar having it is a problem. BlackStar, or the people who hired BlackStar to protect this vault, that would be the far bigger problem.