Strider

Ena found herself ignored. A quick search through data banks revealed a number of possibilities. She might have said something insulting. Perhaps the woman the question too often. Or, perhaps she was distracted, or hadn't heard. Most humans wore earplugs when firing guns, so if this person was human, that was a possibility. Either way, the amount that could be gained from repeating the question was small. She'd been curious, but the information was likely not important. This, she exited the room, searching for any symbols or obvious language that might say something about operating the derelict.

As they spread off in the multitude of directions to explore the derelict, Ena first turned to the woman who'd supported them in battle. "You're blue. Are you human? If so, why are you blue?" As she asked this, the robot explored the current room, searching out things that might indicate the function of the machine. Perhaps an instruction manual, to control and bend this thing to one's use. Unlikely to be in this room, but it was courteous to remain in the room when one asked a question. Didn't matter if you could hear them from outside the room, or so Suhkrab had informed her. Thus far most things had been applicable.

"Well that was pretty fuckin weird." Liliya murmured, slightly unsteady on her feet. She wasn't sure what the beast had done, but it was definitely. . .odd. She'd have to pay attention, to make sure that this weakness didn't get worse with time. Liliya uses a basic attack on Bel Lahmu A 3d6+DEX damage, with a DEX% chance to crit for 2x damage. Damage is unholy.

"Reinforcements. The more the merrier, I'm guessing." Harry nodded quickly as he left Kusuke to chase another patient. He settled on Lucille and Lilly, calling her down when she got the chance to get a quick patch up. Harry uses Slap on a bandaid and call it good enough on Lucille and Lilly. Heals for 1d4+13 HP, first strike. Heals Harry for half the damage healed. Harry also gets 10% of his HP regened at the end of the round. Remember his flaw causes him to take hits from the enemies targeting those he heals.

Ena grabbed one of the healing devices, the force shield, a grenade, a strange vial of purple goo, and a night vision scope she found. If the man with the gas complained, she might give something to him, but these seemed useful, and nothing else piqued her interest. Once she had gathered this, she headed inside the derelict, to stand at the back of the group interacting with the sniper.

It seemed that Harry didn't have to wait long for his job. As soon as he saw the blows begin to fall, he rushed out, aiming for those who'd taken the most beating. Harry uses Slap on a bandaid and call it good enough on Frigus and Kusuke. Heals for 1d4+13 HP, first strike. Heals Harry for half the damage healed.

"We're not civilians." Harry stated as he arrived at the outskirts of the battle, unpacking his medkit. Harry does nothing. I packed a bunch of heals, and the ones I'd actually use are first strike now, so there's no point in really using them on the first turn.

"I'm alright. Wurmple's a bit weak, and while I normally wouldn't judge just on that, I'm not the biggest fan of bug pokemon. I mean, I like some, but on the whole, definitely not my favorite type." Shelly shrugged as she responded, passing the question off to Frederick. She'd get something else later, she was certain, and if she didn't, it just meant more battle experience for Axew. Though. . . she would need to get the little mon a friend sometime soon.

After the missile exploded, Ena hopped down from the ledge, following the small girl through the battlefield. As she walked, she observed the corpses searching for any usable gear among the detritus. Specifically, those shields they all seemed to have, the glowing canisters with which they healed themselves, and the rifle that they sniper used. She was curious whether it was superior to the one she held currently. When she noticed that Lucine was stumbling, Ena spoke up. "Do you want some help? I can carry you, or serve as support."

"Guess something decided we were necessary." Harry muttered. With the imminent battle, it seemed likely that this might be short like their previous mission. Only two samples to judge from, but it would be interesting to note whether arriving directly at a battleground implied a shorter visit. Being at the back of the bus, Harry had to wait for others to exit first, so he hung back. It occurred to him that in the future, they would need some detection systems on the outside of the bus, to determine whether toxins were present in the local atmosphere. He wouldn't personally be much help with that. . . though perhaps he might be able to help with pointing out unlikely gases that might be present and have an effect. . . but in any case, working to passively protect himself from those problems seemed important. "Guessing we're meant to help the ones swinging wristbreaking slabs of steel around? Seems likely, but it'd be nice of the multiverse helped us out a bit with that."

"Probably better suited to upper level management. Delegate tasks to Satomi or Mirri." Harry said to Proditor before staring curiously at the minion. He then his attention over to the blueprints. "What're they fo--agh!" Harry suddenly felt piercing pain, and a general pressure, squeezing in on his head from all sides. After a moment of confusion and pain, Harry thought to push back against the pressure, to form a bubble with the physical force he'd almost used on his own brain, in order to push back this incursion, by someone. The pain did lessen slowly, and Harry discovered who had done it when Jun apologized, then curled up holding her head. He nodded curtly in response, and pain having almost fully faded, he turned back to Arminius. "What do they make? Can you guide her, set a task, get her to draw up designs for what you want?"

"I see." Harry hadn't meant to conceal what he'd nearly done, but the alien hadn't commented on it, which intrigued him slightly. For now though, he was going to avoid messing around in his brain. He'd need to work on precision, and creating the psionic energy Proditor had mentioned. So far, he'd only felt the--admittedly amazing--ability to push things mentally. "Probably a good idea to wait till I've got more control, I suppose." With the goal of control in mind, Harry searched through the supplies of the medical bay, pulling out a small sewing needle. He made a small loop of string, as small as he could get it, then hung it from the ceiling of the bus with a small piece of tape. He then began slowly lifting the needle, and threading it through the string loop carefully. He did this, attempting to avoid touching the edges of the loop until he tired. He then put down the needle for a few moments, before continuing. "So you said Squealer's abilities were connected to vehicles? Any idea--Oh. Arminius, how much of a person do your s--minions retain? Do they keep the powers? And, is the Squealer one still connected to the shard?" Harry addressed the questions to both Proditor and Arminius. This minion that the man had might be interesting in learning more about these shard connections.

"Squealer, right? The addict mechanic? That's interesting. So you can steal ideas from other peoples' minds . . ." That could be extraordinarily useful. On any tinker really. . . biotinkers in particular, and perhaps, if they ever ended up going to Proditor's world, they might be able to gain info from ADVENT? No, they'd probably have some sort of defense for that. It was at this point that Harry decided to feel around a bit, to see whether he could do something similar with his own mind. Create a barrier, to prevent infiltration? He was feeling around, when he realized something. He could squeeze, directly onto a blood vessel, and probably other parts of his brain. As this thought passed through his mind, he rapidly ceased his experiments with the power. He could probably use that, but for now, god damn was that a scary thing to be so close to doing. "Do you have any advice for going about creating defenses against psionic powers, with or without them? Specifically, preventing someone from bursting a blood vessel in my brain? No reason in particular."

"I hear ya, but I've got an opening on the beasts, and with their slicing last turn, I'm not passing this up!" Liliya replied to the angel's command. It wasn't disobedience, at least in her mind, simply performing where she did best, and could hurt the enemy the most. Liliya uses Punishment on the DT Beasts. Deals a basic attack (3d6+DEX) with DEX% chance to crit, doubled if the enemy inflicted a status on the previous turn.

"Merchants were just the shippers. I doubt they knew what they were. . . you probably saw their minds though, right? Anything interesting? From what I personally gathered, the powder was manufactured by a biotinker named Blasto in Boston, and the powder was being shipped to New York. When the powder is immersed in water, it creates a small plant creature, and once it's removed from water, it began spewing a burning liquid. Napalm may have been a bit mild of a descriptor, since it started to melt through the asphalt on the pier before Lucille neutered the threat, and we turned it over to the PRT. Was just curious if you knew the whole story. Personally, I appreciate a bit of resolution after a mission, or a successful fight. Lets you see who's going to be gunning for you. Specifically the Merchants and Blasto in this case." Harry shrugged, attempting to lift the forceps again as he spoke.

"Jesus. That's old. Explains the whole wise old mentor thing, I suppose." To be honest, while Harry had mentioned continuing with questions, he was having difficulty coming up with stuff to ask. Without context, there was little more to ask about this Angelis. Maybe questions about the society they came from? In any case, Harry instead shifted the subject. "Back on Earth Bet, when you got shot. That was when you were fighting with the Merchants, you said? With a drug shipment? Could you tell me a bit more about that? Because the powder wasn't drugs. It was napalm spewing bioweapons."

"Thanks again. So. . . mind continuing with the story time? I'm curious, how old are you, since you said you were one of the oldest." It had been interesting, and Harry was both slightly uninspired with regard to continuing work for Tattletale and the Ethereal, and slightly distracted by the newly unlocked powers he had found.

Harry nodded, after hearing the Ethereal's response. Simple use was the best training then, something that it made sense to begin, since he had nothing else to do. The whole psionics thing was a sort of distraction from the task of helping Tattletale, but it seemed worth it. Huh. Harry wondered if the cape would want her potential unlocked, presuming she had some. For now though, he simply stared at a pair of forceps sitting in front of him. In a sense, he felt the whole of the object. But not with touch, or any other sense he was familiar with. Perhaps it could best be described as pure knowledge, of the object's essence. Without being able to quite describe it, Harry began to exert a small pressure on the thin metal instrument. Not air pressure; perhaps some type of warped gravitational effect? Harry didn't know the mechanism, but that didn't really matter. All that mattered was that the gleaming instrument slowly rose up, hovering with a slight wobble a few inches above the table. With another small bit of pressure, he carefully spun the thing. It rotated smoothly for about a minute, until Harry began to tire. As his stamina wore out, he gently dropped it to the table, where it landed with a very small clack. "What are your capabilities as far as psionics go? Like, what else can you do, besides lifing stuff and reading minds?" Harry asked after Proditor finished unlocking the diplomat.

When the alien's hand snaked out, Harry suppressed the urge to flinch away from the touch. With what he had been briefly contemplating before, i.e. the ability of someone with psionic power to control the groups perception of them, or worm their way into people's minds, and so--and then it began. His final slightly distracted thought before the rush was "Was he a lighthouse under that helmet all along", before thoughts began to fuzz together. Then, as the yellow light grew brighter, it began to shift to purple, and the Ethereal's voice range out in his ears. His name was mentioned, wasn't it? He'd never heard that tone before, but the voice was familiar. The large thing? The quiet one? Purple, that fit too. Bright, bright purple, not a color that he saw often. Uniforms were black. The sky was blue, but not like this. Pale, almost gray even on the clear days. The buildings were white, gray. People might dress in purple? But it would never be this vibrant. Maybe--the purple was covered. Images began flashing, the first of a building, people above, staring down, machines, but it quickly changed, and once the images began changing, they didn't stop. Too fast to consciously interpret. Just a series of flashing strobes still speeding up into a fluctuating gray. Tension, as time seemed to wear on, with the flashing, and sound, until, there was a click, metaphorical, then silence. Harry opened his eyes. Or rather, the light cleared from them, and he blinked, the world coming into focus. It was a surprising amount of focus, and after a moment, Harry had once more regained his thoughts. He'd been given standard treatments at birth, so his eyesight would be improved by much. Simply greater awareness it seemed? There was also a strange lightness, familiar from the feeling of when one drops a burden off their back. Almost a feeling of strength, but a strength which Harry had had all along. "Well. That was quite the ride. Charge some money, make your own psionic amusement park. Some people like that kind of rush. . . Ah, sorry. Thank you. This means a lot. I'll do my best to repay you, however that might be, in terms of time walking these worlds, or otherwise. So I need to train this. Specific ways, or just. . . try to lift random stuff with my mind every so often?"

"I see. Any reason not to work on genetic self modification to keep yourselves alive as a backup? Before you discovered humans, or as a failsafe? Eh, probably doesn't matter though. . .If you'd like, I can try to work on some stuff to keep you up and running a bit longer. No rush, it sounds like, but I mean, do you want a few more years of puttering around?" Harry turned, noticing the strange lizard thing again. "Uh, I guess? Does that make any sense, Proditor?" Harry didn't mention it, as that would have undermined anything interesting, but he was personally curious what Proditor could find if he were to probe this thing's mind. "Any ideas how one goes about unlocking psionic potential? Throwing shit with my mind sounds fun."

"That's good to hear. Now tell me, what exactly is keeping this hive queen from turning all that genetic engineering prowess to making you some new bodies, or fixing you all up?" The quick pressure and release was frightening, and it put Harry slightly on edge. However, he knew he was pretty good at concealing fear, so unless the Ethereal prodded him, he expected he would be able to cover his paranoia. "Could this group take on an Avatar? With everyone's specialties used properly?" To be perfectly honest, this race sounded like a problem, a scourge deserving of resistance. "Remind me, you said that the reason you--your people--started invading planets, and harvesting their occupants as soldiers, crushing resistance, possibly taking over bodies of humans, was in order to defend against a world invading scourge? Might not be quite equivalent, but that's more than a bit ironic."

Harry listened, face only mildly expressive at the story. It was certainly distasteful, but the implications seemed more interesting. "Well, can't really say much about that. Definitely, horrible, but it sounds like the battle's already been lost. Sounds like Angelis is quite the pest." "But, why would you need humanity when you say they only rivaled the Ethereals? Something that made it easier to genetically alter them than Ethereals? I could see the reasoning of performing 'animal testing', but there would still be risks when you try to figure out how to transfer consciousness. . . So, tell me, did you share the same mind sets?" This was a delicate spot, and it occurred to Harry, that it wouldn't be difficult for a beingwith telepathy to convince people of his trustworthiness.

"So, you went around the galaxy, collecting species, and modifying them. Attempts to create psionic power, and simply soldiers when that failed?" Well that was slightly abhorrent. "Excuse my being rude, but do your people have any form of morals? Just pointing out that stealing creatures--sentient? Sapient?--, and turning them into weapons is not. . .the best?" "Anyway, what's up with humanity? And are they pretty much the same humans as we've got on this mission? That'd be an odd coincidence, I suppose."

From his position in the medbay at the back of the bus, Harry responded. "Well, when would you prefer to begin investigating? You mentioned feeling better, but is the headache completely gone, or just on its way out?" They certainly had time, it seemed, as no one had mentioned why they were staying here, though if anyone would know it'd be Proditor. "If you've still got some lingering symptoms, we can wait, I think. You don't know why we're waiting here though, do you? Since you took the wheel." "So, your race--Ethereals, you said--granted psionics genetically? For yourselves, or for other creatures? Because the first sounds like it would require prior knowledge that moving stuff with minds is possible, maybe from some existing animal in the ecosystem, or through physical principles. . ."

"Hmm, well then. At some point if you're willing, I'd like some more knowledge of your own abilities, but for now, I'm losing focus." Harry shook his head, considering the possibilities. "If you could figure out where the Corona Pollentia is located, and how it interacts with the surrounding tissue, maybe even its method of operation, that'd be fantastic." "Oh, and if we figure something out, I may be able to modify any performed procedure for your physiology to prevent future Thinker headaches for you. Though I'd need more information on you brain, blood, and previous history of headaches after prolonged psionics use."