Today is Friday, July 18th, 2399. As a reminder, Ariona, Meechum, and Eddie, along with the body of Cain, are hanging out in the vicinity of the asteroid belt aboard DEE. Ned is in Valhalla, attempting to contact Matt Smith, Rae Denison, Vadril Korlax, and Zee. Nikolai went home to visit his folks, Vittorio is on Earth attempting to contact his father and the “organization,” and Brice is somewhere in the security network on Pax.
Ned speaks to Ariona about a researcher at StratCo who has been researching “the white stuff,” the xenobiological compound which is bonded with the nanites and which dampens mystic energies, absorbs them, and energizes itself with them. Supposedly, Adana Cassenti told him that someone at ))StratCoEvanStratCo. Ned replies that he got the impression that it was more of a grunt there. Ariona mentions that a lot of people work for StratCo and don’t know it; for example, she used to. She used to work on a project that was funded by StratCoRudolph BernsteinStratCo(( now, according to the publicity. At Ned’s request, Ariona sends a message to Bernstein, asking him to contact her. However, it is not flagged as urgent, and he does not respond immediately.
One of the other topics of research currently under development is the effects of Forterol and Enervin on the nanites, with an eye toward (if possible) experimenting with their effects on “the white stuff” as fused with the nanites. Also, Divin is planning to attempt to duplicate the “hive mind” effect of the white stuff, if we can get a sample of the white stuff in question.
At 0400 GMT, news broadcasters around the galaxy began running a disturbing story. Apparently, a terrorist is attacking the main mysticport on Lupus, demanding that if Merlin Huntington, second-in-command to General Khan Ji-Tae, the founder and leader of Lupus, is not turned over to him immediately, he will kill 20 hostages per hour. He has a group of over 200 individuals at this point. The man does not look familiar, but has displayed powers with which everyone is quite familiar – the nanite-tech of Harry Bryant.
This, unsurprisingly, puts everyone in “panic mode.” Ned immediately goes to contact his people, Vittorio tries to get in contact with his father at once, and everyone else either abandons their research or speeds it along as much as possible. A great debate is quickly had on whether to try to save the hostages or not. Oddly, though the possibility is mentioned more than once, no one really seems to doubt that Bryant is somehow involved in this terrorist attack. It is pointed out that the guy doesn’t look anything like Bryant, but that is dismissed with the fact that Bryant can look like anything he wants at any time.
Ned gets a hold of the group he wanted to contact, and with Nikolai and Vittorio goes to speak with him. The seven of them meet in a location in Valhalla, and Nikolai transmits the conversation, through Brice, back to DEE (and Eddie and Ariona and Divin). After a few minutes, Vadril, Matt, and Zee connect to Nikolai’s computer through their ‘jacks, and Rae clumsily uses headphones to connect as well. Just as this happens, Brice transmits what’s happening on Lupus: the terrorist looks at the camera and declares, “Ten minutes, Huntington.”
The conversation gets really frantic at this point, and the question arises as to how the group in Valhalla can get to DEE. They react with surprise when DEE is mentioned, and pleasure that they can see him again. Ariona drops from the conversation at this moment. On DEE, Divin and Eddie see her step to Eddie and disappear. A moment later, she reappears holding a flute case. “I can transport anyone who needs it.” She begins playing the flute, a haunting melody which echoes after she disappears. It is nowhere near as impressive as Basilie’s performance, but still quite good. She appears in Valhalla, informs everyone that they should step through the portal, and begins playing again. They enter, and reappear on board DEE.
Nikolai offers Ariona the roller skates as a last resort. She dons the hot pink skates. He also gives a gun-type weapon of some sort to Matt and Vadril, and tells them not to fire them at point-blank range.
Meanwhile, Brice contacts Merlin Huntington and tells him that he represents a group that can help. He replies, “I have five minutes to respond to this terrorist before he begins killing people. How can you help me?” He also asks if Brice’s group could get there immediately, and Brice replies yes, if they can get a visualization. Huntington provides it; he is in container A11 in the mysticport on Lupus. There is plenty of room for the party, along with him and his few guards. Brice gives him some important information, like the fact that the terrorist is made up of nanites, and is probably being controlled by a pair of devices. Huntington tells Brice that if his group really wants to help, they should transport themselves there immediately.
Ned returns to the room where the actual conversation was taking place, and is confused. He can’t get to DEE, he says, and Ariona mutters and goes and gets him. When he arrives, he approaches Nikolai, and demands to borrow the sword. Nikolai tells him that he won’t lend the sword without a good reason, and Ned replies that it will only take a second. Nikolai shrugs, and goes to get it.
Ned takes the sword, which turns into a spear, and points it at his left hand. He begins to try to put it partway through, and instead stabs it all the way through his hand. An incredibly horrible, screaming, shrieking, nails-on-blackboard noise is heard emanating from the hand. Blue blood gushes out all over, and Ned begins screaming in pain. “Was that the plan?” Nikolai asks.
“The plan was to threaten!” Ned replies.
As the terrorist approaches a group and says “The deaths of these people will be on your head, Huntington!” he suddenly stops, lowers his hands, and stands there.
The sword flies out of Ned’s hand. Huntington asks what they did. Ned faints. Meechum/Divin turns himself into a giant wolf. Ariona begins playing the flute again, and everyone steps through the portal to Lupus. Vittorio drags Ned’s body through the portal. Nikolai leaves the Sword on the ship, with the intention that Brice can return for it if necessary.
The guards on Lupus raise their weapons, but Huntington says, “Stop. They’re friends.” He then notes, “I should have known you would be involved,” in reference to Rae’s group. When Ariona makes it through, Huntington asks if she can open another portal. As she begins to play, Huntington says as an aside, “Just so you know, we have 10 minutes before Khan begins carpet bombing this place.” Ariona chokes and puts the flute down, then shakes her head and begins attempting to play again.
A portal opens to the main area of the mysticport, and everyone begins stepping through, Huntington in the lead. Ned wakes up just in time to join everyone in the ‘port.
Matt Smith goes first. He gives the terrorist an EMP-gun blast full in the face. It appears that a hemispherical shield is surrounding the terrorist, but the blast still knocks him off his feet. He twitches a bit. Matt then pulls out the gun he got from Nikolai, and fires it at the terrorist. A globe of some strange energy flies toward the man, and when it hits him, it contracts, and then a gigantic, terrible thing ensues. Everyone dives backward, and when they can see, a 20-foot radius area is void of material. The terrorist is gone, all the people he was threatening are gone, and Nikolai says in a small voice, “I told you not to fire it that close!”
Rae floats up off the ground in a wobbly way. She prepares to attack the terrorist if necessary. Vadril appears to wait. Ariona says, “There’s something wrong. With the statues, I think.”
Ned steps to the edge of the crater. Then, he turns into Max.
Brice, though no one knows it, attempts to cover everyone’s asses. He tries to send the feeds from the cameras that saw the gun through to DEE, in the hopes that DEE can alter them to erase the gun. DEE, however, disturbingly enough, does not respond. Brice then tries to send the feed to his dog, with the same purpose.
The voice inside Matt’s head, i.e. Ivan, then tries to attack Huntington. For once, Meechum/Divin’s magic-eating properties actually do something good, halving the effect. Huntington seems to resist the effect to the best of his ability, and appears winded.
Nikolai takes out the rust-monster tentacle, and begins wiping the face of one of the “statues”. A terrified-looking middle-aged man begins shouting for help, until Nikolai covers his mouth. This does, however, confirm that the hostages are still in fact alive.
Meechum/Divin/the wolf-creature moves away from the group, turns back into humanoid form, and reaches toward a person.
Zee looks around, and moves away from Meechum. He then holds out his hands, and some sparks flutter around them. He gets a dramatic, desperate look on his face, rears back his head, and breathes fire over a large area of statues.
One of the statues on the edge of the arc that Zee hit starts to shake, shudder, and then flies toward Huntington. Rae zaps a destruction beam at the stream, and a significantly smaller jet of metal continues on its way towards Huntington. Huntington smirks, and disappears. Those with Mysticraft realize that he had a precognitive warded effect to teleport himself away from danger.
The jet streams past where Huntington stood, and reforms as the blond man. “This is all your fault, Cohen!” he shouts. Vadril then shoots a stream of destruction energy as well, but it appears somewhat less effective than Rae’s.
Vittorio shouts a wordless cry, and charges at the terrorist. He runs through several things in the way, and stabs his blade into the man.
Several chairs and benches begin flying around, and some of them hit the terrorist in the face. He appears slightly wounded by this.
Matt attempts to throw a gravitic grenade at the terrorist, who dodges. No one else was caught in the blast.
Zee shouts in rage and tries again to blast the terrorist. This time he uses a mixture of Pyrotechnics to damage him, and Kinetics to slow him down. He specifically targets the terrorist’s face. The horrible, nails-on-chalkboard screaming is audible again, and the glyph on the terrorist’s forehead appears, then explodes.
Ariona runs over to the terrorist and yells, “Bryant, get the crown off! This is NOT what the Caretaker wishes!” She releases the massive Enhancement warded on her, and feels that the effect had the desired result, though whether or not Bryant will agree with her view of the Caretaker’s intentions is unknown.
There is a rippling in the terrorist’s chest, and a mouth appears. It mutters, “Consume!” and explodes. Everything nanite-related explodes as well.
Everyone hits the deck as everything explodes. There is a horrible echo of screams from the Void as Nikolai disappears. Vittorio hides in the floor, and Divin laughs as the nanites attempt to burrow into his skin. Rae, Vadril, Matt, and Zee are protected by their force fields, and Eddie is immune. Ned and Ariona pass out.
All the statues appear to have been destroyed in the explosion.
Eddie begins screaming as the shrieks of the Void approach him. He starts the same cacophonous racket, on all possible frequencies, as the black swirls of the Void dive through the floor after him. A tunnel appears in the floor behind him.
The grey goo left after the explosion is also sinking through the floor. Vadril and Zee notice that a particular lump of goo appears to be larger, but is also falling through the floor.
Brice connects to the cameras in the basement, and notices that one of the lumps of goo dripping through the basement ceiling appears to have something contained inside it. The crown falls to the floor. While continuing to project the image from the cameras to everyone over the Net, Brice makes himself appear in the basement, and hobbles toward the crown. He reaches down to pick it up.
Huntington appears in the basement. He looks up at the grey goo, and says, “Die, you son of a bitch.” A gigantic stream of electricity hits the mass of goo, and it blorps down onto the ground right next to Brice.
Vittorio steps between Brice and Huntington.
Up on the main floor, Zee and Nikolai look at Ariona with some concern. No one seems nearly as concerned with Ned.
Two last mystic effects occur now. Matt disappears, and the other Displacement effect appears timed to coincide with the effect, such that it is much, much harder to notice.
In the basement, Huntington mutters, “Damn. We can trace the teleport, but it will have to be quick.”
Around this point, Eddie exits the planet on the other side. The crater fills in pretty quickly, but there are some earthquakes on Lupus caused by this. The tendril of the Void chasing him is called to heel by Nikolai.
Zee uses Healing to wake Ariona and Ned, and they confer with the people in the basement. The second that Brice touches the crown, he disappears.
Huntington traces the teleport, and determines that whatever it was went to Bryant’s office on Luna. Brice goes there immediately, and determines that he’s already gone. When he conveys this information, Huntington notes that he could trace it one more time, but it’s probably not worth it. Anyone smart would just go to at least four places before stopping.
Vittorio considers what Bryant might consider to be a safe place, and murmurs, “My father!” He is unable to provide Ariona with a visual, however, since he does not possess a neural jack.
The session is called here, without a real resolution, with the intention to continue next time. Some people intend to track Bryant, some people intend to take other actions, but it will be taken care of at a later date.