StormLord

[83] Vepr-12 presses the series of buttons again and out comes the second orb of light, only this time instead of raising to eye level it quickly sort of...breaks apart and shifts into a pale pinkish/red heart that drifts upwards like a balloon and eventually disappears. The first Jack walked into the room, squats down, and pokes at the odd floating disk. It seems to sort of...blink out of existence, which is odd because he's fairly sure the puddle isn't actually deep enough for it to sink and be completely covered. Eventually it does reappear though. The other Jack quickly follows suit and gets about the same result. [43] Zoe's investigation seems to go only slightly better as she comes across some complicated lab notes stained with an unknown substance. Suddenly a hideous man-hand reaches out of the black sludge and wraps around Jack's leg. With it a small humanoid pulls itself out of the sludge with bright yellow disk-like eyes and another after it, and a couple after that. They're each solid black and look almost like they're made from the sludge, they appear muscular, short(easily three foot or less when hunched), and lack any real features beyond eyes and two long angular antenna protruding from the backs of their heads. Around that time in the other room one of the tables rumbles before practically exploding off the wall, luckily it fails to hit anyone, but now standing where is was is an odd vaguely humanoid creature. It's a littler taller than average, it seems to be wearing something akin to an armored coat, and it's holding a large metal slab as a shield. Two points of light appear at roughly head height with it and two mor creatures pop into existence. Both roughly bell shaped with a black sphere holding yellow eyes in the middle of a split of two segments where the bell would begin flaring out. One is a dark red with a silver "hat" and the other is a dark blue with a golden "hat". Init: Status:

"Bah. People get shot all the time, and obviously he survived. So as long as we are useful to him and he is useful to us business can continue." With that Friedhold took a step closer to the table to examine the papers and noticed that Heidrun was still visibly nervous. "You look like frog about to be dissected. Calm yourself. If the case does explode it is very suddenly no longer your problem."

Tim scratched his head and shrugged as Leo worked on his golems. Finicky beasts he never had the patience for. "Well come get me once you've got all that worked out. I'll be down here." He gestured to a patch of currently-but-not-for-long solid ground before pulling out a small charm and beginning the process of borrowing a large pit. Tim uses his Gem of Eternal Density to mine a pit about a meter across with a reasonable gradient. Once he reaches about three meters down he'll arch over the roof and start going fully underground.

[96] Vepr-12 rotates the first full cylinder to the front and presses the button to withdrawal the orb. After spending a second or two in the workings of the machine the orb pops out of the hatch. Instead of bouncing randomly or floating still though, it moved upwards drifting around Vepr-12's movements with a will of its own. It reaches eye-level with her and just sort of sits there for a moment occasionally twitching or pulsing. Without warning in a sudden burst of speed it flies into Vepr-12's chest, disappearing and causing a feint glow where it impacted. Vepr-12 now has a warm fuzzy feeling. The other orb is still bouncing without any pause or concern.

"CFW Brave is...well we aren't sure if he's a man in power armor or simply a conscious robot. Either way he is mostly robotic, the most likely to avoid collateral damage, and will bring drones or robotic backup." She gestures and a small hologram appears in the middle of the table, it shows what can only be described as a transformer with a giant sword smashing through building after building. "CFW Trick is easily the most strange of the Four Felons he...uh it?...well take a look." The hologram shifts, this time showing a large yellow skinned beast dragging itself along with front claws and using a long prehensile tongue to grab someone and swallow them whole "He's large, slow, and usually keeps normal size henchmen around to get into places he can't reach." The hologram flickers again, changing this time to a huge dome over a city sized scrap yard. "CFW Magic is a different story, she's the leader of the Four Felons and by the time the other two are defeated and her barrier is brought down there is no tell what she'll have been up to. She's known to employ powerful monsters and wide area spells." The hologram shifts again, this time to a continent like a large upside down "U" with a monstrous "Island" to the south. "Trick was seen to the north in Lowee and Brave to the East in Lastation. Magic is in the Graveyard in central Gamindustri." Three blips pop up showing the various locations on the map. "We'll use the same teleporter you arrived on to get you close."

Vepr-12 tests the first two buttons and they seem to function just as she figured. The first of the other buttons causes a small hole to open on the bottom of the inside of the machine. The front most(and empty) cylinder slides down, the machine makes some odd sounds, and a hatch opens out the front. Nothing comes out. The second bottom actually seems to do the opposite. A small hatch opens in the front, closes, and the the cylinder slides back into the machine full of nothing. None of Jack's code manage to garner more than a flash of red on the display. Scarlet's code however brings a flash of green, a short click sound and the release of the door handle. Upon opening the door Scarlet finds another lab inside similar to the one everyone is already in, only completely ransacked. Piles of broken glassware on the floor, mixing solutions in puddles, smashed and unseated machines, a flipped table. A couple of the puddles look almost like thick tar with glowing yellow disks floating on the surface.

"Flux is like a layer of scum on the aura, a lingering taint that festers into magical equipment drawing there from. Something tells me that's not how your golem normally acts?" Tim sort of stares out into the horizon, squinting to see as far as he can. He pondered if anyone else was in this place? or if they would miss that portion of the skyline. "You had something you needed me for? I should be working on making dark matter, or infusing more artifacts."

Ignia stands with nothing in particular to add.

Sha'Tith shook his head slightly at the explanation, argument, and re-explanation. He pauses a moment to think before responding in a sort of disapproving disappointed tone. "How....Mundane." He sort of dropped the box of tacks back onto the table, managing not to spill them everywhere in the process. At that point he heard a familiar name and unmistakable description. "Leo. Foolishness. Curiosity without restraint always leads to the same place, down the wrong cave and the throat of a Magma Worm."

Owen shrugged, it was really all he had left at this point. "I woke up one morning to find this-" He reached to his side and tapped the pommel of Fragarach. "In a box at my house, I don't know where it came from or who sent it. But something gave me a feeling that I'd find answers in Sendo city. Just like something told me it was a good idea to head down that sideroad, or stab that jackass Cu Chulainn knockoff shooting at you. What even was that by the way?" He glanced over to the woman, presumably an acquaintance of theirs judging by the fact that none of them were remotely surprised by her presence. "I too would like of complete rundown of what just happened."

"Thumb...tacks?" He held one of the "tacks" up to has own hand comparing them to his claws. "Are Skyfaller claws so frail something such as this is even an improvement?" With aa minor effort he bends over the end of one of the tacks as if to test just how unsuitable they are. "I thought they might be spears for tiny warriors or children."

Nepgear seems a little surprised at Lyra's sudden fall, but Uni doesn't even have the energy to react. "I agree we should head back to the basilicom. We're all tired and Histore will be able to give to better answers." A hop, skip, and travel sequence later and the party arrives at the Basilicom. Histore sends Nepgear and Uni to get some rest before leading the rest of the group off to a side wing of the Basilicom and into a conference room. Here there are comfy chairs aplenty, some food and beverages, and bottles of something marked "Hero's Drink". Histore makes he way over and takes a hovering "seat" at the end of the table and waits for everyone to settle down before speaking again. "Since you've all returned I can only assume that CFW Judge has been defeated, if so that is probably the best news I've heard all day, and probably the last for a while." She paused just enough for someone to correct her before continuing. "While you were away three other sightings have been made, each telling of one of Judge's associates. CFW Trick was spotted near an amusment park in Lowee far to the north, CFW Brave was seen approaching an industrial factory in Lastation to the east. A large shield has appeared around the Gamindustri Graveyard, something telling of CFW Magic. I'll try to answer any questions you have."

Vepr-12 finds the large machine in the corner. It's got a glass upper portion and metal lower portion, almost like some kind of high tech claw game. There are eight cylinders each about six inches across inside the upper portion, six of which seem empty and two have curious glowing orbs bouncing up and down. They're terribly mesmerizing and Veper-12 finds she almost loses herself just staring at them for a few seconds. There is a small panel just below the bottom of the glass portion of the machine, on it four buttons. Two are clearly linked and probably rotate the cylinders, the other two are unmarked. Currently an empty cylinder is up front. [100] "Kupo Kupo Kupo Kupo Kupo Kupo Kupo Kupo" Yup, it's written in Mooglish. One of the hardest languages for outsiders to learn without being in constant contact with Moogles. Something Zoe learned just to piss them off. The book itself is a guide detailing theory around middle level elemental magic and effects. Once per plot per user the book grants a +5 bonus to learning/improving a trick based on one of the following elements: Fire, Ice, Thunder, Wind, The Stars, The Planets, or Time. It's a door, reinforce with metal. lots of metal. There is a small pad next the handle where a lock should be that has a small display, a series of numbers, a red "X", and a green ">".

Spicy HG uses Flame Bind on Kino adding 48 fire damage to her next attack.

Cell gives a possibly over excited for the situation thumbs up and nod indicating he's alright, before gesturing to the others in a way that vaguely indicated they should climb up and walk along the roof to the hole he made.

Friedhold stood at the back of the group for most of the conversation with an irritated look at Heidrun and Lilliya's almost assuredly counter productive efforts and frustration with his own lack of contextual knowledge. This wasn't the first time he'd done questionably legal work for a shady company, hell most of his time in Rapture was just that. Rapture was just that. What he did lack was how half the things flying around their heads worked, or what they were called, or what they even did and he didn't like the idea of the man standing over there somehow figuring that out. Needless to say once the man finished speaking he made sure someone grabbed the brief case before politely making his way out. Nothing more to say. Once he was down stairs he did in fact head over to the counter to look for some armor or something else to keep him from dying. After all he had some money left from last time.

Tim disappears into the interior of the ship for a moment before reappearing at the main doorway. A look of disgust flashes across his face before he banishes it and moves forward while calling back to Leo. "Boy someone needs to educate you on the difference between a good place to experiment and an unstable flux plains." As he approaches he starts tapping the skull ring on his hand until the eyes finally flicker and light up again. "I wouldn't be surprised if the magic here is in a state of lopsided balance just waiting for a few good shoves to knock it into all out anarchy. I'm a bit shocked that there aren't already flux pools and tentacles sprouting from the ground yet."

Sha'Tith gave a bit of a huff of smoke as Harry proceeded to answer all of the other Skyfaller's questions without even acknowledging him. He couldn't exactly blame the Skyfaller, if there had been another Lumarian here he'd put them on a priority above anyone else. So instead of waiting he decided to move over and look at one of the tables covered in...things he could only theorize the purpose of. Some of the were definitely weapons and others he recognized as torture devices, but a few baffled him. It was strange to him, that he had heard Skyfallers refer to his people as brutal, violent, and animalistic(not that he knew that at the time, stepping through the portals to other worlds had certainly revealed things he hadn't expected.), and yet here he was in a room surrounded by implements of violence on display. His attention was torn from the metal hooked device on the end of a set of hoses(he'd seen Skyfallers use something similar to cut metal beams before, but didn't know how to make it glow) when he saw a box of tiny metal spears. At first he considered that perhaps one or both of these "Uber" and "Leet" were simply diminutive and needed such a small weapon, but quickly dismissed the theory due the the prevalence and size of other equipment. Maybe they were fired from some kind of larger weapon? They looked about the right size as other things that Skyfallers shot with fire and steel....but no they were too flimsy for that, they'd be vaporized on impact. Perhaps they were training an army of tiny soldiers? But why have tiny soldiers when you can have large soldier? Then it occurred to him, they must be for use by children. It was no secret that Skyfallers considered children just as viable threats as adults despite most hatchlings being hardly able to leave the nest much less put up a fight against their weapons. Something his people had witnessed first hand during the massacre of the starry meadows. They had awoken to the death cries of hundreds of dying Spectral Children and the rifle fire of Skyfallers. Something ancient and terrifying awoke that night as well. He took the box of tiny spears.

Ignia looked surprised at the sudden city-scape and holograms, but she overcame the shock quickly and started staring down at the city below until she heard Nader and Lucine from behind. "No see look here." She pointed down to a monstrous beast standing as a street vendor selling food to some animal like creature. "They're clearly the pinnacle of darkness and evil, not to be trifled with." She was speaking in an almost painfully sarcastic tone with a slight backdrop of horrible mocking.

The lizard-man wasn't exactly phased by the sudden teleportation, it wasn't anywhere near his first time dealing with such things. He glanced around the workshop environment with disease, it had been a while since he'd been anywhere like this and honestly he'd hoped he'd never see anything like the Skyfaller "labs" again. His interest was peaked when the one who called himself "Harry" mentioned not doing anything strange around the people of this world. Assuming that he meant strange by Skyfaller standards he decided to speak up. "What would you have me do then?"

Living Quarters: Scarlet skims the papers to find that they're some kind of research documents, something about "The Heart", "Heartless", and "Nobodies" are mentioned several times though never described in detail. It seems she has picked up only a small piece of a much larger document. Hirata manages to find an odd heavy black coat folded in a drawer of the bedside table. It's got an excess of chunky silver zippers and chains. T1-N opens up the small box to find a large ornate ring of sorts, it's made of a black metal with three blue beads and single dangling white crystal. Akihiro finds the first book completely incomprehensible, it's written in some kind of weird chicken-scratch language of the same character over and over with very minor alterations. From his best guess it lists out some kind of formulas and recipes. The second book is mostly philosophical waxing on "The Heart" and other seemingly related subjects with little practical information to be gained. Lab: Stella inspects the downed Loader while Jack stabs it a few times and takes its gun.

Ignia walks over and checks in the garden, then wonders over to the box while watching the floor and walls. "Freshly watered, no dust build up or cobwebs, people have been here recently. Maybe we spooked them? Maybe we just missed them by coincidence? Maybe the paranoid fellow is right and they're waiting in the shadows to ambush us." Ignia stood turning her head and shifting in place while she examined the rest of the room from a distance, then she eyed the next doorway on from here. "If there isn't anything else you want to check I think we should move forward, there clearly aren't people here no matter their disposition." ((Assuming there isn't anything worth mentioning, move to the next room.))

Cell walks a little further on, no need to be risky with this, then he stands atop the roof a jumps several times while invoking his Belier's Rune. With any luck the repeated impacts will serve to break a hole through the ruin roof that the others can follow.

Living Quarters: Scarlet steps through the energy field and is immediately greeted by fresh air as her Oz-kit automatically powers down and retracts. Everything was extremely neat and tidy, two books sit on the desk along with an ink pen, a folder that looks like it has some papers in it, and a note the reads "0457". Over in the corner is a small ornate red and gold box. Lab: Inside the lab Stella recognizes about half of the tech and magi-tech here, but the purpose of the rest is lost even on her. The room seems to be divided with a solid wall cutting it in half, a reinforced door with a codelock leads to the other half. Leaning against one of the tables covered in magi-tach Stella sees a deactivated Loader with numerable claw marks, charred areas, and what looks like a limb shattered off. It's got a yellow and silver shotgun in it's remaining hand. Closer examination of the room reveals a number of bullet impacts on the walls and several piles of shattered glass, presumably from getting hit.