Archive Mutants & Masterminds: Legacy - Issue #1 - Hellgate Part 1

[Joani]

The new Legacy Team boarded another shuttle since MegaGirl had wrecked the first one beyond repair. Still she was the fastest way to get them there and the young amazon was more than eager to ‘zoom’ away again. They already lost too much time waiting and talking to her taste.

MegaGirl picked up the shuttle as gentle as she could and made sure she hit the right angle before she lift off and sped away. Within seconds she accelerated to incredible speeds overcoming earths gravitic pull until she entered space. She had to do some minor readjustments before she prepared to ‘zoom’ when suddenly the alarm went off.

Matrix familiar voice rang in their heads using the Legacy Rings comlink. *Our deepspace scanners and telescopes have picked up a very disturbing and alarming change concerning Pluto. See for yourselves.*

On the screen they could see that a good deal of Pluto has been ‘bitten’ off. It was exactly that part of the planet which ‘housed’ the delta prison. The black cloud and event horizon had disappeared and there was no more sign of it but the huge artificial ‘asteroid’ now drifted through space towards earth.

*I calculated it’s trajectory – it is going to hit earth in exactly 12 days if you can’t stop it.*

[MegaGirl]

MegaGirl cocked her head in mild confusion. The AsteroidPlanetThing wasn't moving like normal, so she would have to adjust her zooming in a way she didn't normally do. But she could it!

"We're still going, right Watchwoman? It'll be even faster since it's coming closer. And the BlackCloudThing is gone. We gotta find mom!"

"And the stop the BadWordGate, of course."

[Tesstarossa]

"That's not very good."

She looks up to Karra. "For now the Hellgate doesn't seem to be an issue. What is an issue is stopping the remains of Pluto from causing an extinction level event here."

She looked to Watchwoman and cocked an eyebrow. "He prepare you with a way to knock a planetoid from its course? Dad and I only got up to picking up locomotives..."

[Djane]

Djane bobbed next to Watchwoman, looking at the screen with shock. "They just tore a chunk of planet out and threw it at us..."

She shook her head. "Yeah. I'm coming. Maybe I can... uh, cover the whole thing with a wish? How did the Jade Djinni handle this stuff, any ways... I mean, there were still bad guys so she couldn't have been a god..."

[SalmonMax]

"No," Echo replied flatly. "You've already seen that using your power has limits. Otherwise we could have just wished that everything was okay, and we would never have had to go to Pluto in the first place."

"First, I think we need to go to that prison and rescue whoever we left behind. We also need to see if anything else has changed. It doesn't seem like destroying this, or knocking it off course, would be TOO hard for a defense fleet. So there must be some other reason this was done."

[z-Watchwoman]

"Echo is right," Watchwoman said. "MegaGirl, can you land us on the chunk of planet safely? By the hanger bay again, if you can reach that."

She should be nervous. But she felt her mind going into Emergency Mode, and she could feel her emotions getting pulled back. Her anger at her mother was subsumed beneath her sense of duty. She had to do this - there would be time to deal with her hurt heart later.

[MegaGirl]

"I can do it!" MegaGirl said, her voice ringing with certainty. A slight furrow appeared between her fiery brows. "It - it might take a little longer - not a lot! Only a little! I have to hop-zoom, so I don't miss the funny moving planetchunk. Is that okay? That's okay!"

Karra drifted to the top of the new shuttle, a pleased little grin on her face. This was a slightly different model, and had grips specifically for someone mega-strong - like the Mighty MegaGirl! - to carry it without damage.

"You're ready everyone? I'm ready! Let's go!" MegaGirl took off, with a slightly more gradual rate of acceleration, which was still greater than that of nearly any commercial vehicle and taxed the inertial dampeners in their ability to compensate.

Once out into the black, Karra oriented herself according to the data she was receiving from Echo over the Ringnet, her mouth tight with concentration. Then she began to hop-zoom.

The shuttle crew could feel the same feeling of falling forward and a little to the left, the sensation stopping as soon as it began. Before any of them could take a breath, the sensation happened again, and again and againandagainandagain.

Suddenly, they dropped from zoom-speed, and MegaGirl was above the planetchunk and slightly behind. She pushed her speed, and some quick maneuvering got her and the shuttle in the hangar bay.

No sooner had MegaGirl set the shuttle down, than it began to slid across the ferrocrete and leave contact with the planetchunk. MegaGirl herself instantly loss contact with the ground, seeming to fly back as if shot from a photon cannon, taking out a large piece of the hangar bay doorway.

An *Ooops!* could be heard over the Ringnet, as MegaGirl kicked in her flight once more. She swiftly caught the shuttle before it got too far away, giving everyone inside a hard jounce. She flew back to the hangar bay, this time holding the front of the shuttle (causing a little bit of hull damage) and bashing herself a handhold in the ferrocrete, so she didn't 'blow' away.

"Um, girls? I have to hold onto the planetchunk so I don't blow away. But I have to hold onto the ship too. What do I do?"

[Celestial Centurion]

Centurion floated out of his seat and to the back of the shuttle, opening the entry hatch. Exiting the shuttle he inspected the area and located some cables, "Perhaps we can tie this vessel down?"

[SalmonMax]

"This shouldn't be happening," Echo said irritably as she climbed out of the shuttle. "Once we all matched speeds with this fragment, we should have been at rest compared to it. The only reason this would be happening is if the prison is somehow still accelerating towards Earth, instead of just drifting."

She reached down and touched the ground. Her hand grew silvery for a moment, and that silver sheen spread out into the ferrocrete of the landing platform. A second later, that tough material started to bulge up, sculpting itself into a large, strong hook that fit over one of the landing struts.

"Remember to scoot back a bit before trying to lift off when we leave," Echo said as the silvery liquid pooled back around her hand and vanished into her skin. "I'm not sure if the ferrocrete or the landing gear will break first."

(Using Shape Matter ability to shape the platform material into a hook to hold the shuttle down.)

[Joani]

With relative ease Echo managed to 'fuse' the shuttle with the platform by creating makeshift hooks. The shuttle was secured but they would still have trouble keeping their grip outside without any means to secure themselves until they reached the doors.

MegaGirl was able to maintain her position but she had to do so under her own power. It looked like Echo was right - the 'rock' they were on seemed to be accelerating towards Earth.

[Djane]

"Okay... let's see if this works." Djane activated the ring, and lifted off the floor of the shuttle slightly.

"Huh. I like flying on my own more, but yeah. S'nice." Oh God, I just talked about flying without thinking about it, get me outta this lamp...

[z-Watchwoman]

Watchwoman pulled out her grapple gun, leaned around the edge of the shuttle and eyed the door. Nodding to herself, she pulled out the magnetic grapple 'hook' and loaded it, then shot the metal wall next to the door. There was a beep and a soft green flash of light as the magnetic lock engaged, and Watchwoman tested the seal. She tied the cord off to the shuttle and then turned to the watching Legacy members. "I hope you all can climb. Who can't?"

[Joani]

With some effort and sustaining help from both Tessa and MegaGirl the young Legacy team managed to get to the sealed door. The pull was still dangerous and if they didn’t hold on to each other using Watchwoman’s grappling hook they’d surely would lose their grip sooner or later. Looking back they saw how Pluto slowly vanished in the distance. There was really no sign of the event horizon anymore and the black cloud was gone, too.

Echo scanned the immediate area and frowned a little at the results. There was no energy left that powered the facility. The door had to be opened manually somehow.

MegaGirl nodded enthusiastically and set herself to open the door. Her muscles tensed from the exertion and she could tell that she had never pushed herself so hard. Slowly the door moved but there was no telling if she could actually open it without destroying it.

Tessa quickly helped MegaGirl using her formidable telekinetic powers. MegaGirl felt the support and smiled nodding at Tessa and with a female grunt she managed to push the door open without damaging it. The team quickly got into the hangar and the hydraulics of the door sealed the exit automatically. Inside they still felt the pull but it was not as strong as outside.

The hangar looked a bit different compared to their first visit. The bloodstain on the floor was gone but instead there was several runes drawn on the floor in deep crimson red bordered by light eating blackness.

Both Djane and the Celestial Centurion could feel the evil emanating from the runes and the whole facility. The place was haunted and empowered by darkness itself.

(ooc: You got trouble moving without constantly readjusting to the lack of gravity and inertia control systems. It is actually easier at the moment to float/drift using the Legacy ring unless you can magnetize your boots to the floor)

[Rorx]

Hype moved to one side, between the wall with the hangar doors in and the floor. After brief glance around to check there was no immediate danger, he swung the daysack off his back and pulled out the pair of magnetic boots and a flashlight from inside the bag.

As he does up the seals he looks around at the others, "I brought these in case I needed to move about on a ship hull, but I guess they should do the job in here as well. After the damage this place had taken last time I thought a flashlight wouldn't hurt either."

Standing he looks at the marks on the floor, "Someone has been busy. I quess that's magic stuff, Djane?"

[Tesstarossa]

Tessa smiled, finally she felt useful. "I'm good she said as she floated through the bay. "Let's find the others that we left and get out of here... I don't like this creepy feeling."

[MegaGirl]

MegaGirl turned to look back at the hangar-bay door, her grin victorious, but also a bit petulant. That had been the toughest door she had ever encountered - she had to be careful around most not to rip them out of the frame - and she had opened it! But she hadn't been strong enough to do it herself - she had needed Tessa's help or she would have broken it. She didn't see why that was a bad thing, but Watchwoman said it was, so it must've been.

Still flying, Karra spun around to look at the rest of the hangar. When she noticed the designs on the ground, she backed up a bit - not because she was scared - she's not! - just careful - magic was scary stuff. The black around the edges of the red runes reminded her of the black hole prisoner in the prison cells down below.

"Those look bad. We should go. I need to find my mom."

MegaGirl made her way to the elevator they had used before, moving around the edges of the hangar, carefully staying away from the baleful runes. She placed one of her powerful hands against the sliding door, the young amazon preparing to pull it open.

[Djane]

"Uh, it is magic... stuff... yeah. Don't ask me how I know, I guess it comes with the job..."

[Celestial Centurion]

Centurion had no trouble manuvering, he was more than capable of flight without the ring though he found that it augmented his abilities by an order of magnitude. Gliding into the docking bay he noted the sigils and runes on the floor and frowned, there was a great evil at work and due to the Watchwoman's rash wish earlier it was possible that that force had gotten free of the prison. "We should not have left when we did. I fear we may have unleashed more evil than we know. Watchwoman, you are the leader of your team, how shall we proceed?"

[z-Watchwoman]

There it was again - that slight shiver of terror whenever she was reminded that she was responsible for them now. "Let's get down to the cells, see what's there," she said, glancing at the runes. MegaGirl, the door. Djane, can you discern anything else about the runes beside 'magic stuff'? And does anyone have anything else to add?"

Using her subvocal mike, she said to her HUD, "Hudsy, start scanning. Infrared and do close-up scans. Let me know if you see anything useful. And cross-reference the symbols with those in the database, please."

[Joani]

Watchwoman's HUD worked the symbols through the data base and came up with alarming results. The symbols were all identified as cuneiform runes which are all connected either to hell in biblical form but also from any other form of religious belief which mentions a place like 'Hell'. Either this was some kind of big bad taste joke or it was really serious...

[Tesstarossa]

Unbidden, Tessa began scanning for any sort of mental activity as they prepared for their descent. She'd help with the doors when needed, but always remained in the air.

[Djane]

"It's... bad. It's like a hole into the grease trap of the universe. What they used to call Hell."

[SalmonMax]

"The prison doesn't have power," Echo said after a few seconds of staring absently off towards nothing. "Network's down. Systems are down. We won't have to worry about security at least."

She coasted towards the elevator, using her ring.

[Celestial Centurion]

"Excellent. Watchwoman, if you will allow it Hype and myself can scout ahead through the walls." Centurion's form burst to light and he became incandescent as he was when they had first met him. "Speed will be our ally here, this facility and this mass must be diverted or destroyed before it is allowed to harm any innocents."

[SalmonMax]

"I have an idea about that too," Echo said. "This prison is under acceleration. How, I have no idea, but there must be SOMETHING driving it forward. If we can find it, and get control of it, we can use it to change this rock's course."

[Rorx]

Hype turns to Watchwoman, "Well Boss Lady, what do you say to that idea?"

[MegaGirl]

"Me, door! I don't have to be careful with this one right?" Without waiting for a response, MegaGirl turned her full attention to the elevator doors. These doors were much smaller than the other door, and she was not going to need help.

With a thunderous boom, the sound reverberating around the room, MegaGirl's large fist struck out, forming a severe dent where the sliding doors met. Now with something to grip, she reached out with both hands, grasping each door. The young, amazonian giant's muscles tensed with effort, her bulging chest straining her green uniform near to bursting.

Releasing a sharp growl, she pulled the doors apart with the sound of screaming metal, peeling them back like duratanium leaves. Though unnecessary, she spared the time to pull the doors apart so wide that they curled back against the walls beside the opening to the elevator shaft.

"MegaGirl, door. I win!" Secretly, Karra was glad the door wasn't as strong as the other door, or that it hadn't sprayed the icky, bad orange-calcium on her.

MegaGirl floated closer to the opening, keeping her head low to avoid bumping the ceiling, and peered down the elevator shaft, her golden-green eyes easily piercing the darkness and the distance.

Click to reveal.. (Notice, if needed)

Notice (+8), if needed:

(17:27:23) ChatBot: (MegaGirl) rolls 1d20 and gets 16: 16+8 = 24

[z-Watchwoman]

"Centurion, Hype, go scout. Be careful; we'll start down the shaft and you can catch up," Watchwoman ordered. Finally, a break: no power! "Echo, can you sense what is pushing us?"

A groan of metal showed that MegaGirl was hard at work. "Excellent. Let's move, team."

Let's get done and get out of here.

[Rorx]

Hype nods to Watchwoman, then zips over to Centurion, "Right lets get going then."

With that he goes insubstantial and heads his way down through the levels towards where they had found their parents.

[Celestial Centurion]

Centurion nodded and his armor began to glow as well until his entire body was suffused with light, resplendent in the life giving energy of the stars. "You should know, if it comes to combat I need to return to solid form to fight. Watchwoman, we'll check in in five minutes until you meet back up with us, sooner if we find something of note. OK, kid, lets do this." His body now no more than plasma and light he slid through the walls as easily as he a whisper through the air.

[Joani]

Originally Posted By: MegaGirl

MegaGirl floated closer to the opening, keeping her head low to avoid bumping the ceiling, and peered down the elevator shaft, her golden-green eyes easily piercing the darkness and the distance.

Click to reveal.. (Notice, if needed)

Notice (+8), if needed:
(17:27:23) ChatBot: (MegaGirl) rolls 1d20 and gets 16: 16+8 = 24

MegaGirl peered down into the darkness which was all consuming. Even with her new enhanced eyes it was hard to make out any shapes. The elevator shaft went on endlessly and she swore she saw some kinds of shapes and... voices calling out to her. This was really really creepy and she felt her heart skip a beat.

In the meantime the Celestial Centurion and Hype started their descent into darkness. The facility had 5 levels and the last time the dark writings were located in the 5th sublevel - or Epsilon as the blueprints revealed. Hype's flashlight only helped poorly to illuminate the shaft. The darkness was swallowing light to a disturbing level.

The Celestial Centurion could feel the evil growing exponantially the closer they got to Epsilon level and even Hype had to admit that he had a sudden case of 'that creepy feeling' paired with goose bumps.

After what seemed an eternity they finally reached the high security area and peered through the door. What they saw behind almost made their hearts stop...

Click to reveal..

The entire Epsilon level is gone - in it's stead you see a vast landscape belonging to some kind of red planet or moon. You can see several other planets 'floating' in near distance and there is a sun not too far away which emanates a cold reddish light. The desert you look at looks barren and there are strange limb-like shapes scattered all over the area.
CC - you can instantly tell that passing through that door feels like stepping through a warp gate - your cosmic sense can't tell you were you are - this is a first time experience for you.

[MegaGirl]

"Ummmm," MegagGirl whined, oddly high-pitched for such a huge girl. "I think the BadWordGate-Thingy got free of it's prison and it's taking the elevator up, trying to get out."

The others could hear the pout in her voice. "I can't see anything in the dark, which is unfair because Djane made it so I can see in the dark."

[Rorx]

Hype maintained a link to the others over the Ring network, making sure they were up to date in case anything happend to Centurion and himself. He stopped in the doorway looking through at the vision beyond and unwilling to commit himself without feedback from the others. After all there was no guarantee that the Ring network would be able to work across whatever spatial/dimensional gate/rift was at work in the doorway.

[Tesstarossa]

TK looked around and shrugged. "I'm still not picking up any minds other than our own."

She looked to Watchwoman and Echo. "Is there another way down, unless you want to charge into whatever's coming up?"

[Celestial Centurion]

The portal appears to have opened or otherwise become traversable by light. The entire lower level is gone, replaced by some other world, a landscape of barren red desert. I believe if we proceed any further we may cross the gate boundary and I have no way of determining where we will end up or if we will be capable of returning. Centurion broadcast his thoughts to Watchwoman directly, no need to worry the other young members of the team, he would allow her to decide how her people proceeded. For his part Centurion knew that he needed to pass through the gate and seek out the source of this evil.

[SalmonMax]

"There are emergency stairs and service shafts," Echo said, "But nothing that would be faster than the elevator."

She glanced at Watchwoman. "We can either head down right away, or try to work more on determining what's propelling the prison. I'm not sure I like the idea of going through some kind of portal between different worlds. Time might not run at the same rate between here and there. Megagirl could fly and check the far side of the prison rock, and see if there's some kind of engine there...and do it very quickly."

[z-Watchwoman]

Watchwoman's face paled under the mask. After a moment, she sent to the Centurion, Understood. Thank you. Aloud, she said, "Centurion has said that the bottom level is now a gate to somewhere else, with no guarantee of return. We need to split up at this point; half need to stay and stop the asteroid, in case we can't come back. And half of us need to go and try to close this gate, from the other side.

"I'm going through the gate. Watchman would do it, and so will I," Watchwoman continued. "Echo, Tessa and Djane are best suited to stopping the asteroid. I would ask that you three, and possibly Hype, remain here and work on that resolution. MegaGirl needs to find Dawnstar, and I... Watchman would go. I will leave the choice to Centurion, as well."

She stepped out into the shaft and began to lower herself down it. Hudsy was telling her that there was nothing there, but the strange noises and shapes seemed to be real, not phantoms. Swallowing hard, she continued. Speaking through the ring, she added firmly, "I'm not making anyone go anywhere, not when we might never come back."

[MegaGirl]

Though her heart beat wildly beneath her breast, Karra had to go - she was a Hero and her mom had to be on the other side of the oozing black stuff. She would find her.

Swallowing, her luminescent golden-green eyes wide, MegaGirl went down the elevator shaft, moving ahead of Watchwoman. She was tougher and had to protect the leader... unless the leader told her not, but not all the - mom had tried to explain about following orders and sometimes not following orders because that was what the leader really wanted... but it got confusing.

[SalmonMax]

"Wait, I have an idea," Echo said. She looked away, her eyes moving rapidly from side to side as if reading something invisible.

She uplinked with the shuttlecraft's computer and had it run several scans with its much superior sensor suite. A few seconds told her everything she needed to know.

"There's no power source, no thermal variations, no plume of exhaust or magnetic or gravitational disturbances." Echo looked at Watchwoman.

"I can't tell why this place is moving. It shouldn't be. There must be something on the bottom floor that explains this. That's where this phenomena started. There's no reason to split up now though. There's no answer out here I'd be any help finding."

[Tesstarossa]

"I don't have the power I need to move it on my own either. If there's no propulsion, then there's obviously something else in play here."