WS ST Posted August 4, 2017 Share Posted August 4, 2017 The pain faded. It was dark Sean looked out of the a city scape and had moment of vertigo she was high up on the side of a skyscraper hanging by a thin strand of cable. The moment of shock passed. She was alone her mind links non functioning but everything else was normal, well, at least as normal as a boy who became a girl then was a boy and was now a girl again could be. But what in the world was she doing hanging on the side of a skyscraper in the middle of the night. A light slashed across the building a couple of stories up, she flattened herself against the building instinctively and looked for the source. She found it instantly but couldn't believe her eyes. It was a Police car... a FLYING police car... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Cassidy Posted August 5, 2017 Share Posted August 5, 2017 Her eyes followed the black-and-white airborne vehicle until is was hidden from view by another skyscraper, a faint frown on her lips. The disorientation from finding herself in a new place, hanging against the side of a skyscraper was gone, but that didn't mean she knew where she was. She didn't think about how natural and comfortable it felt to be back in her quantum-enhanced female form, the strength, agility, and vitality permeating every fiber of her being, the clarity of thought and hyper acute awareness returned to her. Still, another channel of thought dwelt on the regret that she - they, she presumed - hadn't remained in the other reality long enough to get a chance to see what it would have been like to get intimate with Sara as a guy, as much of a guy as she had been, anyway. Alas, for what ifs. Sean took a quick inventory. Boobs - check. She seemed to wearing a PAM suit - a closer look revealed it to be an upgraded version - patterned in black and grey, some parts with a glossy finish, others matte, perfect for urban camouflage, urban camouflage here, at any rate. The cable she was hanging from was attached to a motorized ascender which in turn was connected to a tactical harness. The harness held several tools and devices, including a pair of pistols. Very Black Widow or The Major. She pulled one of the pistols free and gave it a quick perusal. It looked like one of her coilgun pistols, though a more advanced model with what looked to be an integrated suppressor. It must have worked on different principles however to be effective on the hypervelocity ammunition. She'd take a long look later, she had to find out where she was now and what the situation was. Sean activated the ascender and rose up the skyscraper swiftly, a deft touch of a hand or foot keeping her from banging against the side or spinning. Seven minutes, thirty seconds later, she flipped over onto the roof of the building. The cable had been hanging from a brace clamped to the railing around the rooftop. The rooftop was flat, with a section that seemed to parking for flying personal vehicles. Sean unclamped the brace and shrugged the snug pack from her back, but before she stored the brace or looked to see what else she was carrying, she looked out over the cityscape. She didn't gasp, she was too collected and cool for that - or at least felt that she was - but her heart rate did quicken at the sight. It was a dystopian cyberpunk scene straight from Blade Runner or Deus Ex. Skyscrapers everywhere. The building she was on was 311.57 meters tall and it wasn't the tallest one. All gleaming steel and dark concrete and reflective glass (or derivatives/alternatives) and neon lights, holograms and animated images on their sides. Layers of traffic - ground bound and airborne - flowed below in swift, uniform rivers of fiberglass, rubber, metal and light. Autonomous vehicles, clearly, or mostly. The only vehicles Sean saw moving out of line on what had to be manual control appeared to belong to the police. And the police seemed far more prevalent here, where ever here was, spot lights panning around as though searching. The background noise of the city was different than what she was used to or would have expected, the air much cleaner. Electric or fusion powered cars, the flying ones must use magnetic or gravitic principles for flight rather than conventional ones. Sean took a closer look at the terrain, the topography of the city and any writing she could see, trying to decipher where she was. She was alone in a Philip K. Dick or William Gibson world, her mental links down. She didn't know if Lilly's attempt had caused this - she wouldn't have expected it to affect the rest of them. And though she was alone right now, right here, it didn't mean she was alone in this reality. The transference might have disrupted their mental connections until they could meet up and reestablish them again. Sean saw two main scenarios - they were all in this reality, but scattered. Or they had each 'fallen' into their own. Well, potentially three scenarios - this could have been a future version of her own timeline, she supposed, but lets just deal with different realities instead of adding time travel to the mix. The Asheen were purported masters of Portal technology - that could easily translate to facility with pocket or alternate dimension technology. She looked up, focusing her vision to block out all the light pollution, looking up at the sky and beyond, looking for any significant new construction or objects in orbit and slowly widened her awareness towards any immediate threats. Were the Asheen here too? She would have to see if she could get online, see if there was anything on her friends - or their analogs - here, see if they existed here. And she would have to find out about this world, this reality, how it differed and how it aligned with her own, if she wanted to figure out how to get back home and back to Sara. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sara Hutchins Posted August 5, 2017 Share Posted August 5, 2017 Sean felt a vibrating at the small of her back. Reaching back she felt an oblong object tucked into a pocket, a phone. It was not a phone she was familiar with very compact almost all screen. It vibrated again and she saw a button flash, she pushed it and Sara's face appeared. It was Sara and it wasn't. The same features sharper her hair was cut much shorter than she had ever seen almost a buzz cut and there were line at the ends of her mouth and eyes. "Thank god when the link when out I thought... you know. Are you alright? Did you get it?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Cassidy Posted August 5, 2017 Share Posted August 5, 2017 At least one of the Irregulars have an analog here. Sean felt a bit of relief at seeing Sara in the remarkably clear screen of the smartphone, even if it wasn't her Sara. This Sara was older, harder, with hair shorter than Sean had ever worn it, even as a boy. Sean wasn't much of fan of it, preferring something she could actually run her fingers through. She wondered what differences she had painted with - in the dark, the reflective glass of the skyscraper hadn't been clear enough to show her any changes to the feminine features she thought of her natural ones now. But now wasn't the time to try and explain things, which would be better in person anyway. Nor was it the place, especially if she had just stolen something. She could feel the extra mass of three items in the pack she still held. "Something happened, I'm a bit disoriented, but I got it, babe," Sean replied smoothly. Just act like it's a job in Shadowrun and you're a Prime Runner. A rank 20 Initiate Elven Adept has nothing on you. "I'll explain when we meet up and get clear. Are you still able to extricate me or will I need to make my own escape? I'm on the roof right now and the coast is clear for the moment." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WS ST Posted August 5, 2017 Author Share Posted August 5, 2017 "Six seconds." was the quiet reply and then the phone went dead. Sean looked around the seconds went by like an eternity when suddenly a high pitched whine came to her ears and a few feet away on the edge of the roof a horizontal rip in space appeared and shimmered. Almost immediately lights zeroed in on the roof and with her senses she could see feel and hear the various Police aircraft vectoring toward the building she was on. The nearest less than a mile away let loose with some sort of automatic cannon the round striking the building several floors low chewing into the interior and working it's way up as the pilot adjust his aim and intercept. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Cassidy Posted August 5, 2017 Share Posted August 5, 2017 "Well... fuck." Also very Shadowrun, Sean thought, returning the phone to the holster in the small of her back and resecuring the slim pack on her back, the authorities showing up just before a clean getaway and with a complete disregard for collateral damage. The police aircraft had responded so quickly to the forming portal that very accurate sensors to detect spatial disturbances/anomalies must come standard. The reaction of the police strongly suggested the apparent portal was her escape plan rather than another response by the authorities. Though six seconds was fast, it wasn't outside of the realm of possibility for Sara to come flying in, considering how fast she could fly, if she was on standby. That was what she had been expecting, but had begun considering other options when she'd been given the six seconds response. A portal worked, but just in case she was wrong, Sean drew one of her pistols. "Here goes!" I hope I don't regret this! Moving at a staggered pace to throw off any predictive aiming, Sean took several steps towards the tear in space then dove for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WS ST Posted August 8, 2017 Author Share Posted August 8, 2017 Sean hit the ground and rolled up into a crouched shooting position a quick assessment of the area showed that she was in a small basement or cellar. The only entrance a wooden door at the top of a rickety stairs Directly behind her was the purplish slit in space which suddenly vanished with a loud cracking pop. Back in front a ragged desk with a couple of mismatched computer screens and a rack of servers beside it. In front of the computers is a curly haired boy of perhaps seventeen with an odd head set on attached directly to the computers. Off to the side smoking a cigarette is Sara. Immediately Sean notices that there is no quantum emanations coming from Sara and that she looks worn and tired. A look of relief at seeing Sean fills her weary eyes. “Thank God you made it.” Sara comes froward and takes her in an embrace. “Did you get it?” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Cassidy Posted August 9, 2017 Share Posted August 9, 2017 There was the briefest of hesitations before Sean put her arms around Sara, this world's Sara, her embrace slightly tentative. This Sara looked weary, so weary in a way her Sara never did and she felt... delicate. Still, it was undeniably Sara and with all the unexpected deviations for their porting, it felt good to have her arms around her. Sean held the embrace for a long moment before she stepped back and unslung the pack from her shoulder. "See for yourself," Sean replied as she glanced around the... lair (?) with incisive perception. Sean could sense the boy - boy? He might be a year older than I am, subjectively, anyway - reacting as pretty much all men did, but he dutifully kept most of his attention on the monitors. Monitors... Could the Asheen be watching her, them, to see how they would react, using this reality, these realities as pseudo-simulations? A faint frown tugged at her lips. "But there's something more, Sara. something serious." Seam took a deep breath and holstered her weapon, subtly conveying she offered no threat, nor was it imminent. "I don't remember this... reality, this... time. I know you, Sara, or a version of you, but not... this, or him." Sean gesticulated at the cellar, the boy, and then wider, indicating the city, the world. "The last thing I recall was us, you, me, the rest of the Irregulars teleporting to China to stop the Asheen and then everything going wrong. Have the Asheen been here? Are they still here?" Sean sighed expansively. "I'm afraid I'm not the Sean you know, Sara, not entirely." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WS ST Posted August 10, 2017 Author Share Posted August 10, 2017 It took several seconds for Sara to sort through what Sean was saying and once it registered Sara dropped her arms and stepped back warily. "Your not Sean 'my' Sean. How did you get here and where is the real Sean?" "I am he real Sean just not exactly the one you know and I wish I could explain it...I have theories but none of them really make all that much sense. What can you tell me about this world?" Sara cautiously moves around the desk putting it between her and the new Sean, the boy just sits looking back and forth between the two women. "We never went to China, never got the chance. We were sold out by the Deviants. The Asheen never came here after their first probes. they made contact with Deathotter somehow and brokered a deal. We got blind sided by Dan. Me kia and alec all lost our powers and The deviants basically took over the world we've been on the run ever since." Sara say with very little emotion. "And you were supposed to be stealing a serum that could restore our powers. But instead you comeback with some crazy story." Sean felt the familiar buzz of guild chat and then Abel's urgent thought <"We seriously need to talk."> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WS ST Posted August 10, 2017 Author Share Posted August 10, 2017 INTERLUDE NOW The Universe blinks. POP! Spoiler As in all interlude you may spend XP however this one is different. At this time your characters are in a state of Quantum Instability. You may change your powers by redistributing points or drop powers you do not wish to pursue. If you drop a power calculate the amount of xp it would have cost to buy said power from 0 level this is how much xp you get back. Everyone receive a +1 to their Quantum Score and +10 to their Quantum Pool You may buy additional levels of Quantum Score at the normal cost of current score x 8 You may buy new powers for xp as normal (try to stay with in the theme of the character) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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