Strider

"!" Memory problems! The blank expressions, the confusion, the complete fixation on a single idea. . . Well, Ena wasn't going to fall for that, oh no. First, she checked that all of her internal clocks seemed to be ticking. After that, she could get to leaving messages to herself. Crude, perhaps, but if something messed with her internal systems, this might prevent it. But for now, more data was necessary. "I can't very well tell you what to do if I don't know what you've already done! . . .What've you already done?"

Ena approached, and responded, "What would you do if I do tell you that's who I am?" In the meantime, something was off, so very very off. Her primary sensor suite was a warning system, barely more than voice shouting to be prepared. But it was a very sensitive system, and was rarely wrong. Could she afford to procrastinate? Well, things didn't look too bad. And there was a conversation at hand that might be important. She'd run the detailed diagnostics later, those worked best in stillness and isolation.

"It's alright Gozer, we'll just do a couple fly across trips, if there's nothing on the other side." Edmond said consolingly, before getting ready to fly across. "I'll go across first, and make sure it's all safe. Can you all keep an eye out for anything that looks like a trap activating? I'll do the same, but if any of your magics detect something like that, it'd be immensely useful." With that, Edmond propelled himself up into the air, before beginning to cross the chasm. Slowly, slowly, always oriented in a way that he could get all his thrusters behind him at a moments notice to blast back across the chasm towards the group if there was a trap.

"Hey, ya know, sometimes it's just a little hard. You get swept off your world on a grand big ole mission where no one really knows the rules, and then suddenly, BAM! You're in a world that hates you 'cause you're wearing the wrong color hat or something. I'd say shooting someone as pleasant as you is a bit. . . more of a problem, but still! You can't expect us to really know what we're doing on a world for a while. Sometimes people just need a little guidance!" It occurred to Liliya here, that this might very well be a problem on some world. For at least the first bit of time on any world, they'd be in the dark. And if someone with bad intentions moved quick enough, any of these small groups could probably be used for undesireable ends.

"Of course! So long as I've got a good man to back me up!" Poncio goes to open the door. The normal way first, then with his sword if it proves too difficult. He'll keep his other arm raised, still embedded in a panel of wood from the first door, as a shield against any possible attacks.

"I can still fly, given that my suit's been integrated? I think I could try to carry some people across, though it might be a bit awkward. If we needed to string a rope across or something I could do that, or wait on the other side to catch people." Edmond experimentally tests his suit, making certain that the acceleration and stability he had before have remained the same.

Poncio looked arount the room eagerly for a foe as he entered, and finding there was none, sagged in disappointment. However he soon perked up at the sound of snoring, and headed over to that door. "Char--Spook! Right, care to breach again? We'll take down whatever foul sleeping foe lies beyond this door!" Poncio would never admit it, but the atmosphere of all these rooms was getting to him. He'd seen stage blood so often, but there was something about knowing this was real that was getting to him. And the only solution to this creeping unease and hints of nausea was action! Action and a brave face!

"Well that was terribly informative." Harry remarked, sending a pointed glance Nader's direction.

"I shall of course be first! But, young lady, before that, the armory is thataway isn't it?" Poncio points directly behind him, back to the door through which they'd entered this bloodstained room. They'd followed the blood trail from the other room--the delivery one--into this one, right? And on the other side of the delivery room there'd been a door marked armory. He didn't however, wait much after making his statement, and instead charged forward, ready to swing open the door. "Nevermind that, let's breach!" If the door does not open via the knob or handle, Poncio will begin to slash wildly at it.

"Yeah, that should be us. And if it's not us, well it could be us, for suitable compensation, if you know what I mean." Liliya gave her best friendly smile, which, well, it would suffice, but it certainly wasn't great. Then after the briefest of reconsiderations, she said hesitantly. "Or you know, it could not be us, if you wanted it to not be us. For suitable compensation." "Still, that's no manner of greeting! What's up? How're you doing, all that? And what can we do for you?"

"Fair enough." That'd all be fine, and, hopefully, he'd be back on Earth Bet to pick up the folio that he'd asked Uber and Leet for. As if on cue, one of their voices spoke from an unseen speaker, perhaps on the drone bay. After they'd made their request, Harry stood up. "Sure, sure. I'll go ask it. Might come back with like. . . a quest or something, I don't know if they just hand out blueprints. I'm sure we can handle a little old quest though." With that, he headed off to inquire to the training computer. After a little while, Harry returned, and made a brief search for a place in which to speak, concluding with just speaking into the air. "Alright boys, this is the best that Miss Scathach could come up with. Everything else needed to teach you how to draw runes, or the entrails of magical beasts--though I'm sure if you'd like to come on an adventure with us something could be figured out." "What you get is this 'Heroic Training Manual' thing. Get buff in a hurry, and I guess you'll be able to power your own machines or something, something about bicycles was mentioned."

Harry gave a perplexed expression as Alan waltzed back into the bus celebrating becoming a wizard. "Congratulations Alan, you did great, well done. Good job." The doctor answered bemusedly. Turning back to Tattletale, Harry raised his eyebrows. "Well, stronger throat and lungs is all well and good, but--" He concentrated and reached out mentally, feeling that sensation of reaching out without a limb, some small semblence of what amputees must feel, he reckoned. "--what if you didn't need them?" "I'm still selling, I guess. But anyway, that's all stuff we should be able to do. Make it so you can always get your words in, and can always flee or whatnot. It can be much more than just reinforcing the throat and limbs."

"My sword! My sword should work, shouldn't it?" Poncio cried out, and then leapt forward into the pose he'd made previously, attempting once more to call upon the power that was granted him. "Bring forth the sword of victory!" Should he succeed, he will then take a look at his reflection in the sword, and judge whether it would be suitable for the desired purpose.

"You know, I don't think I'm selling this quite right. How about being able to extend your senses over a ten foot sphere? Might help with info gathering. Burst a blood vessel in someone else's brain at will, I'm sure you could figure out numerous uses for that. Lifting objects from a distance is useful too, so you really might want to consider giving our buddy a call. If you're worried about interactions with the shard, well, it can wait, but it's worth looking into, you know?" With that, Harry quieted back down, and waited for the show to begin.

"Sure, sure. But sometimes you need to punch someone, knock them out, and not get hairline fractures through your hand. Now, would you want a quick and 'easy' fix, or something a bit slower, but more involved?" He shrugged at the news that he'd not get anything from the visions. He could ask later about particulars, and while her guesses might be more inaccurate later, he could just try to account for that. And work on the thinker headache thing, though he'd want to have Earth Bet's people take a look at that first. Harry pondered in silence a moment, then commented, "You should get Proddy to help you learn Psionics, if you can. Watch." He stood up, and pulled at the little mental threads that he was slowly learning to grasp at, working to slowly erase his presence from this girl's senses. Jun, previously:

Harry stepped up, letting Nader do what he'd like with the phone. The visions would come soon, so he grabbed his tablet, and a piece of paper, best to have backups, and headed over to Tattletale. "Hey, we're going to be getting some visions from Dr. Ebon soon. I get it if you're all tuckered out, but if you notice anything in them, I want to hear it." He sat down, then asked quietly, "Hey, do you care to be able to be able to punch people harder at some point? Bone density manipulation, literal brass knuckles, pain supression, the works? You interested in any of that at some point?"

"I wonder, would a bullet still hurt me when I'm transformed? Airi miss, you could shoot me, right?" Poncio pondered as they walked, skipping every so often. For however much he was out of his depth and confused, he was so, so pleased that he'd gotten so lucky. Like, look at some of the other people here! "No, wait, that's a bad idea maybe. Let's forget that." When they arrived in this room stopped and took a sniff of the air. "Ew." "You know, that door there, that looks mighty suspicious! What say you all, may I open it? I'll close it real quick if anything bad's on the other side!" Poncio gestured grandly towards the door with the bloodstain heading from it to the corpse.

Harry chuckled. "You know, I rather like that nickname, quite the conversation starter." "However, since you were not here before, I should inform you. These visions will all be cryptic, since apparently that's Dr. Ebon's preferred method of communication with us. Dunno why she'd do that, but apparently it's efficient. Maybe she just doesn't want to talk to us, couldn't really blame her. . ." "Anyway, last time we chose visions of the future, and we got a glimpse of information from a world we had already visited, from probably about a week or so after we left, with snippets involving various important info--local impressions of us, politics, other effects of our presence, some unknown parties who may be involved soon--on that world. We do have yet to confirm it. My point is, I wouldn't expect visions of other worlds to be significantly easier to verify than visions of the future, at least based on the previous point." "I'm not saying you're wrong in your choice though. I think, if there's nothing else in more options, it'd be good to choose what you chose. Eventually, we should try every option, so that we can cater our choice to specific present needs. The mere names might be misleading, so trying all as soon as possible would be good."

"Hey Nader, ask for more options first, okay? Then pick. Number four is the best option though, if you're in a rush. You can dial it, let me speak, and I'll ask them to return our defective tin man for a more cooperative one." "And you know, these are kinda rare, so maybe explain why you want visions of other worlds so quickly, so other people who've seen these before don't freak."

"No need to force it Leo. If he doesn't want to do anything with it, you'll just have to make the most of the next few hours." Imprinting it would have been useful, but Tim probably had more important things to work on. If they couldn't get another, then it made sense to obtain as much info as possible about it now. Not imprinting it might be for the best, Harry considered. He wanted too keep most of the possible biohazards contained in a location with the means to deal with containment breaches. If Time imprinted stuff like this--though this one seemed relatively mild in terms of threat--, there was always the possibility that he'd reproduce it on some random world like Earth Bet, and either inadvertently giver some Biotinker villain a set of tools, or simply call the PRT down on his ass.

"Alright. We can do some tests, and then you can keep it, do what you like with it. Given it's your blood obviously it's yours, but still, I definitely don't need it." "What I hope to get out of this is. . . more along the lines of what's understandable to me, stuff that I trust." After mentioning this, Harry began. prep for taking a DNA sample, and identifying some of the molecular structure if DNA sampling proved useless. After a few tedious chemical tests and sequencing the genome, he murmured, "Stuff that's understandable, like that." He put down the tablet, and turned to Leo. "Here's the thing. This little guy, he isn't exactly stable, I don't think. Something in you allows your body to replenish, or not need the proteins coded for by someone like mine's genome. But this guy, well, it looks like he doesn't have whatever coping mechanism you've got. No real way of repairing or replacing damaged cells, or replenishing much of anything. I'd give it ten to fourteen hours." "Other info I've got: No real nervous system, it's movements are entirely built in--poorly--and in response to stimuli. But there's some promise, I think, this." Harry pointed out the specific set of genetic markers that he'd noticed something in. "It's, well, it doesn't work exactly, but it's got the building blocks for some specific tissue, which would absorb nutrients pretty well. It hasn't quite got the hang of using it. Imprinting it seems fine, I don't think there's a limit to how many things Tim can imprint, right?" "After that, well, let's pick a path, focus on something specific you want to do with it."

Following the creation of this device, Harry had no real desire to use it immediately. It would work later, and he'd have better ideas if he gave himself some time to turn things over in his head. It was without really thinking about it that he said "sure" to Leo's request to test it. In seeing the result, Harry felt some disgust. "Well that's rather disturbing. That what happens if you get irradiated?" "What now though? Dunno if I should do any tests or if it'll just make all my tools melt."

Law Nader: Proditor: "Sure, much appreciated. I can come along if you'd like though."

Arminius: Law: Jun: Alan: Being essentially done with the checkups save for some ongoing conversations immediately after some of them, Harry contacts Proditor, to make sure that they got everyone.

Law: Arminius: