Aberrant: The Long March - Chapter 9: Where the Road Leads

[Omar]

All Omar could do is shake his head at Andrew's lack of caution. When he sees Joani jump in after him, he chuckles. "It looks like I'm going to have to take the long way down."

Omar grabs the rungs and begins to climb down into the facility.

[Courier]

Steve waits for Omar to go down a story then follows him. Almost as an after thought he starts to glow.

{Biolum on}

[Andrew Murphy]

Andrew only smiles broadly, though the effect is touched with just enough insanity that it becomes off-putting. Andrew doesn't bother to wait though and pulls the hatch on the elevator open and sticks his head down into the darkness.

[Joani]

Joani shook her head and followed Andrew, adjusting her eyes to the darkness and reflexively changed the spectrum of light she could see.

Sending over the link she simply stated *Andrew obviously decided to spearhead this without waiting for backup. I won't let him go alone, though. Just try to catch up with us*

Silently she cursed again at Andrew's obvious lack of caution and positioned herself quickly next to him ready to intercept any possible attack.

[Mr Fox]

Steve's light helps considerably with the visibility thanks to your adjusted eyes even with him nearly 14 floors above. Inside the hatch Andrew can see that the elevator doors are closed, but still can't detect any light sources below. Joani can see into the elevator with no difficult thanks to her Xray vision.

Above the others make their way down to the basement as quickly as they can.

[Andrew Murphy]

Andrew looks up at Steve, "Oh DUH!" He says as he epends a mote of concentration to alster his body to glow in a similar method. "Ahh, much better." Andrew drops down into the elevator proper and pushes his hand through the seam in the doors and then pries them apart.

[Joani]

"Wait!", says Joani raising her voice and reaching for Andrew to try prevent him to move further. "The whole room is wired to several metal boxes and cameras. I can't tell if there is still power in the lines but the room as such seems to be boobytrapped. Maybe I or Omar should go first?"

[Ulric Reikspar]

Ulric makes his way down the shaft as quickly as possible, though he uses his headset to give him light amplification.

[Andrew Murphy]

Andrew stops, "OK, but I think that you both are relying on your invulnerability too much. Why don't we send a clone. They're much more expendable, cause I can just *pop* make another one as needed!"

[Joani]

Joani raised an eyebrow at Andrew, "If that is what you think my reasons for caution are... go ahead. But don't blame me for who I am, I'm not relying too much on anything - you should know me better.", Joanis voice was sounding a bit upset at the end.

[z028 Riley]

Kyria followed quietly behind the others, taking up the rear position and thinking over the entire scenario so far. The elevator shaft was creepy and the entire world was stuck somewhere between despondent sorrow mind-numbingly horror. She'd be happy when they left this place and hoped that the other worlds they visited would be something more like home.

{Activating Quantum Attunement (once at/in the elevator) and Prodigal: Tactics.}

[SkyLion]

*Damn it!" Cody says, thinks as Andrew descends into the darkness.

*We don't have the leisure of being reckless now Andrew. If you set off any traps, ALL of our lives could be at stake. If you don't reign it in and show some caution you can teleport back to the ship right now!*

Cody is pissed but also nervous. He makes his way to the head of the pack as soon as possible and uses his intrusion skills to get a look at the lockbox. Hopefully his intuition warns him before anything dangerous happens, to him, or those around him.

((OOC: remember Cody's intuition has the effects others extra...))

[Courier]

Steve says nothing at this point and just stays observant.

[Joani]

Using her heatvision Joani burnt through the elevators ceiling like a melder making an opening large enough for everyone to pass through without damaging any of the electronics connected to the elevator. Then she looked at Cody and Andrew obviously waiting for a reaction. "If this was a Paragons mission Omar and I would take head..."

[Andrew Murphy]

Originally Posted By: SkyLion

*We don't have the leisure of being reckless now Andrew. If you set off any traps, ALL of our lives could be at stake. If you don't reign it in and show some caution you can teleport back to the ship right now!*

Andrew rolls his eyes, "Sure, yeah and if you happen to be the one who gets blown up shall I just grow you in a dish up in the lab? I'm pretty certain that you are are somewhat irreplacable, on the other hand I can keep making Clones 'till the cows come home."

[Omar]

Omar interrupts Andrew. "If the explosion is very large, we could lose the original and the clones." Omar shifted his gaze to Joani. "I would also suggest that one of us takes the lead. Both of us could survive such a blast....the rest of you would not. Your chances of survival increase the further back you get."

Omar shrugs his shoulders in resignation. "I am not going to force anyone to do something they don't want." The last remark was directed at Andrew.

[Mr Fox]

After Joani rips off the roof of the elevator and wedges it up against the side wall of the shaft there is plenty of room for everyone to get inside. Instead Omar, Joani, Cody and an Andrew go first, leaving the original Andrew standing on the remains of the elevators roof, and Steve, Ulric, and Kyria hanging on the ladder just above. Cody does confirm that there is no power to the cables that Joani was worrying about. Once inside Joani grabs one door and Omar the other and wrenches them open revealing the room beyond.

The first time around, in the other timeline, what the group found was rotting and dessicated corpses and a room that had been throughly ransacked since the occupants had been trapped inside until they starved to death. This time the scene is a bit different. Eerie, and bizarre are the first words that come to mind. The room looks well used and lived in, and is filled with people in various positions. Some sitting around tables or desks, some standing in conversation, some performing other tasks. All of them motionless as if frozen solid, in fact after the first shock passes you notice that they look like concrete cloths and all. After a moment is is apparent none of the figures move and feeling a bit more confident Omar steps inside the door shining his light and focusing on the closest person. It is a man in a very nice business suit with a briefcase in hand looking like he is waiting for the elevator. Closer inspection reveals that the statue is connected to the floor as if it is part of the floor.

[Courier]

Steve says,

"No one move just yet."

Steve turns on his enhanced vision and checks to see if these "statues" have dust on them.

[Joani]

Joani instinctly floated next to Ulric trying to cover him as much as possible. In case a bomb went off she was ready to engulf him in her cape and protect him from the blast using her body as shield. (ooc: Joani doesn't have Eufiber but her Suit is attuned to her)

[Mr Fox]

There is dust on the statues but not a great deal, and it is really pretty hard to see since the lighting in the room isn't very bright. Add to that the fact that dust is pretty close in color to the concrete and you can really only see that the ones near you are in fact covered in dust.

[Ulric Reikspar]

Ulric smiles grimly over towards Joani.

"Pleasure to see not everyone has forgotten that were all not armored, bomb-proof, or growable in a dish upstairs," he jokes.

"Can I come down now?" he quietly asks to those already in the elevator, or room. "I'd like to see how they organized themselves. It could tell me a good deal about there purposes of their organization."

[Omar]

Omar was not sure it was safe. He had never seen such a strange occurance, and many theories ran through his head. For one of the few times in his life, he was hesitant. There was definitely something wrong.

"Andrew, since your clones are expendable, why don't you send it in to examine on of the bodies. It hate to become like them." His finger pointed to the motionless people in the room. "Also, find out why they are fused to the floor."

[Courier]

Steve ups his glow and moves so he can shine it into the room without going in himself. He sends,

*Time Stop maybe? They might still be alive... I wonder what happens when a Temporal Manipulator Time Stop's himself?*

[Mr Fox]

Upping the glow makes a few things more obvious, these are statues, or that's what it looks like from the elevator. They are pretty well done by a competent artist, but they definitely don't have the level of detail that they would if they were real people turned to stone. There are probably 20 or 25 throughout the room in all kinds of positions, the concrete appears to have been scooped up out of the floor to create them. On the other hand, perhaps the concrete was used to encase real people that would also explain the lack of fine detail. On the other hand some of the statues are of children playing and there is even a dog being walked on a leash. Some of these statuses/people don't belong in a Proteus facility. On the other hand some of them very easily could have been people you would expect to see down here.

Seeing that Omar is wisely hesitating Andrew grins as if to say, 'I told you so', and after moment sends a clone ahead.

The clone vanishes.

There is no sign of damage, no visible effect. One moment the clone is there, the next it's not. There's just a moment to react before one of the statues, a man with a tennis racket in his hand standing a fair distance away, moves. He straightens out of his backstroke and turns in place to face the group. His mouth, really just a dimple in his head, doesn't move, but a deep voice comes out of him with a thick accent...somewhere between German and Russian.

"Good morning. First, I would like to just get to know you."

Then it becomes darker and each of you feels very drained.

(PMs to each of you as well as what others can see of you.)

Omar's glowing nimbus which doesn't really provide much light to see by winks out. Over the past few years it had become so ubiquitous that it wasn't even noticed anymore, but it's sudden absence is ominous. He doesn't really shrink, but somehow he looks smaller and vulnerable.

The real Andrew standing on top of the elevator rim suddenly stumbles feeling almost ill, and almost passes out before he sucks in a deep gasping breath into lungs that are suddenly integral to his continued survival. Instinctively he tries to lash out and grab one of the elevator cables with one of his tendrils only to realize too late that there is no tendril to reach out with.

Courier's self made light vanishes instantly just before the statue speaks, and he feels suddenly very weak and slow, the grace he has known for the better part of one-hundred years is just gone. For just a moment it is all that he can do not to stagger into the wall of the elevator.

Along with the other vanished lights, those on Cody's battle armor suddenly dim to almost nothing, and the cannon attached to one arm sags toward the floor as it's weight drags it down. From within there comes a strangled croak from vocal cords that haven't been used in a lifetime.

The former President of the human race, suffers less than the others from the sudden change as he holds tight to the ladder, but he is a shell of his former self. He is still as strong and handsome man, but the nova level charisma and looks are no longer in evidence.

The woman once known as SuperGirl nearly fell to her knees as the nova created lights winked out a look of horror on her face. She looks weak and vulnerable and though it isn't as obvious as with Omar, in some ways it is even more disturbing to see. While much of Omar's sheer presence was in his strength, with Joani it was part of who she is and to see these two in such a state is nearly as frighting as anything else you can imagine.

Highest person on the ladder, Kyria really does seem least effected, but perhaps that is just her youth and not a matter of proximity.

Besides all of this, the room is now in near darkness with only a couple hand lights and Cody's armor shining weakly into the darkness. The statues seem much creepier under the circumstances, especially with one stone figure moving and speaking.

[SkyLion]

Originally Posted By: Ziggurat

Omar interrupts Andrew. "If the explosion is very large, we could lose the original and the clones." Omar shifted his gaze to Joani. "I would also suggest that one of us takes the lead. Both of us could survive such a blast....the rest of you would not. Your chances of survival increase the further back you get."

Omar shrugs his shoulders in resignation. "I am not going to force anyone to do something they don't want." The last remark was directed at Andrew.

*Fair enough. I don't have to go first...I can detect danger to the rest of us just as easily, but don't stray to far...*

Along with the other vanished lights, those on Cody's battle armor suddenly dim to almost nothing, and the cannon attached to one arm sags toward the floor as it's weight drags it down. From within there comes a strangled croak from vocal cords that haven't been used in a lifetime.

"Ungh!" The sound of Cody's voice startles him more than anyone.

He drops one shoulder towards the ground with his heavy canon. First he attempts to send it back to its space-fold but if that doesn't work he hits the emergency eject system and slides it off it's cowling.

*Micahel, Lorean, are you reading this?* he attempts over the link. Regardless of whether they reply or not he addresses the tennis playing statue, he voice weak and gravelly from atrophied vocal cords.

"Who are you?"

[Mr Fox]

Cody motions with his canon arm, but it doesn't do whatever he was trying to do so he lowers it to the ground and then the canon slides off with a thud in the quiet room.

After a moment a voice is heard from inside the armor, one the newer members of the group have never heard and those the older members don't recognize. "Who are you?" in a voice gravelly and unused to speaking.

From the statue comes the response, "I am Quaid," with an

odd bit of emphasis on the 'am.' Then it asks, "What do you want from me?" There is something a bit odd about the voice.

[Omar]

The effect to Omar was staggering; it had been so long since he had felt like this, it semed a lifetime ago. In fact, it brought him back to his pre-eruption days a century before. I am still a wrestler. If trouble comes, I can still fight. Omar readied himself to do battle.

Just then, Omar thought he understood what happened. He spoke so that those near him could hear. "Thetus's Quantum Nullifier must have been turned on."

[z028 Riley]

Kyria adjusted her grip on the ladder, compensating for her balance, and shined a light down the shaft onto the others. "Is everyone alright?" Hearing the gravelly voice and metal scrapes of armor, she added with a touch of worry, "Cody?"

[SkyLion]

Quote:

Kyria adjusted her grip on the ladder, compensating for her balance, and shined a light down the shaft onto the others. "Is everyone alright?" Hearing the gravelly voice and metal scrapes of armor, she added with a touch of worry, "Cody?"

"Kyria! hold bac*cough cough*" Cody's warning disolves into a hacking cough worse than a centarian tobbacconist.

Originally Posted By: Mr Fox

Cody motions with his canon arm, but it doesn't do whatever he was trying to do so he lowers it to the ground and then the canon slides off with a thud in the quiet room.

After a moment a voice is heard from inside the armor, one the newer members of the group have never heard and those the older members don't recognize. "Who are you?" in a voice gravelly and unused to speaking.

From the statue comes the response, "I am Quaid," with an
odd bit of emphasis on the 'am.' Then it asks, "What do you want from me?" There is something a bit odd about the voice.

Cody recovers from his hacking, clearing his throat.

"Quaid." he rasps, attempting to build rapport with the strange concrete creature.

"We didn't know you would be here. Or anyone for that matter. What have you done to us?"

[Joani]

Joani was still struggling to regain her bearings. She looked around squinting her eyes in vain but her powers failed her. Panic slowly got the better of her as she remembered the painful encounter she had when she had lost her powers years ago and almost died. "oh no... oh please...no!", she stumbled backwards, almost falling over those standing behind her.

[Andrew Murphy]

Andrew tumbles to the floor in utter shock. Half of his mind is crying out in utter horror at being rent from his powers while the other is laughing joyously as having an actual beating heart, breathing lungs, and more. From his prone position Andrew looks into the hall at the being known as Quaid. "H-how?" he askes unable to decide if he hould be angry or joyous.

[Courier]

For Steve comprehension is painfully slow as the world gets 'grey'. It's been almost a century since his senses and thoughts have been this dull. He feels weak and slow and for a long moment that stretches he doesn't understand why.

For a long moment he expects to die... then he looks at his hands and sees they are still young. Dimly he realizes that he didn't get old. Awkwardly he stands up and finds his balance.

[Mr Fox]

In response to the questions about what he's done to them:

Quaid barks in an impatient tone, "Stop whining!" He pauses, then adds sternly, "I'm going to ask you a bunch of questions, and I want to have them answered immediately."

Finally he demands, "Who are you?"

[Omar]

"Who's whining?" Omar said to Quaid, as he took a step foreward. "I don't need my powers to kick your ass or grab a stick of metal and ram it into the holes in your head!" Omar was pissed and wanted to his vent his anger on anyone. Quaid seemed like a likely candidate.

"Of course..." Omar's voice softened. "...We could SHARE information instead. Maybe even help one another out."

((OOC: Intimidation))

[Mr Fox]

Quaid hesitates for a moment, then makes an awkward saluting gesture with his tennis racket.

"Let's do it," he says warmly. He then snaps, "What do you want?"

[Joani]

Joani flinched when she heard Omar voicing his anger towards Quaid. She felt helpless and vulnerable and was afraid that they could get into a situation she couldn't handle. She braced herself starting to feel cold. The suit she was wearing was barely able to hold off any environmental condition or temperature. Her thoughts were circling around the trauma she had and her heart beat fast. She was truly scared.

[Omar]

"What happened here, Quaid?" Omar smiled to the strange man with the tennis racket before he continued. "Why is everyone frozen in place?"

From the corner of his eye he saw Joani blanching. She looked like she was going to be sick. Omar understood her shock and shot her a sympathetic wink as if to say: 'I understand your pain'.

"As for who we are?" Omar said to Quaid once more. "We are travelers in search of knowledge."

[Mr Fox]

Quaid shakes his stone head and says, "Come on, don't bullshit me," in a humoring tone.

[z028 Riley]

Kyria listened to Omar and Quaid, climbing down the last few rungs to stand with the others. She laid a hand on Joani's shoulder and smiled at the Paragon. They'd get through this. Powers were nice and part of being a nova, but even without quantum they were still novas. She held a hand out to Andrew to help him up if he wanted, but her main attention was on the Quaid-statue.

"Mr. Quaid," her voice wasn't loud, but it was pitched to carry, "Are you aware of the conditions outside of this facility? Of the state of this world?"

[Courier]

This was all maddeningly, painfully awkward for Steve. It was like the world was functioning on fast forward and he was wearing bottle thick glasses with the wrong prescription. Still some things were becoming clearer even if it was painfully slow for him to reach those conclusions.

Steve says,

"Years down here without any food, and no powers, and your speech patterns... those phrases are canned aren't they? Ergo you're not a living creature. So... Artificial Intelligence? Are you the only robot in there? Or maybe a better question is what is your primary purpose?"