It is still Friday, July 18th, 2399. It is now about 5:25 am GMT, and Ariona, Meechum, Ned/Max, Vittorio, Rae Denison, Vadril Korlax, and Zee are still on Lupus, though they are about to leave. Merlin Huntington has just returned from his unsuccessful trip to Harry Bryant’s office in search of the erstwhile terrorist.
Eddie is in outer space. He is just beginning to calm down from his panicked flight away from the void.
Brice hops through his dog to DEE. When he leaves the dog, he hears DEE’s voice: “Organic life form, you are not wanted. Please leave.” Brice grabs the Sword, hops back into the dog, and uses it to paddle over to the secure cargo bay. He checks on Cain, and the stasis chamber appears to be intact. Cain also appears to be within.
Just then, the gravity goes out, and the chamber and dog begin to float. The droid, using thrusters, moves into the cargo bay and grabs the dog and the stasis chamber. It begins carrying them out of the bay. Brice tries to hack the ship (oops!), and when that fails, he tries again to communicate with DEE, asking, “DEE? What’s going on?” In response, all the internal defenses on the ship turn towards the dog, and begin firing. Brice jumps back into his dorm room, and feels his connection to the dog sever.
He then reviews the news feeds coming from Lupus. It looks pretty bad. The news basically shows all of the party’s faces, and claims that these newcomers, whose relationship to the incident is unknown, appeared shortly before a shocking and saddening incident which resulted in the loss of over 200 lives. It is also noted that several of the individuals were known to be on Canis’s most wanted list for their efforts on the Lupin side of the war.
Matt Smith has some business to take care of with the assistance of his mother. It involves putting a stolen soul into a new body.
Nikolai also teleported to Bryant’s office, and when he determined that Bryant was not there, decided to go to Magitech’s headquarters. He wanders across the city, finding the building, and when he approaches the front desk, is told by a droid, “I’m sorry, but you have been instructed to leave this planet. I am now contacting Magitech authorities.”
An exceedingly attractive elven woman with extremely long, braided black hair steps out of the elevator. She says, “Nikolai, I presume. You must leave at once.” She explains that Magitech wishes to “distance itself from this incident” on Lupus, and that he should go somewhere where it won’t be construed that Magitech is in any way involved in that incident. Nikolai wanders back to Bryant’s office, and ports away.
Back on Lupus, there is still residual goo everywhere. The walls are dripping. Rae is in favor of getting out of there, NOW, but Ariona suggests that maybe actually waiting for the authorities might be a good idea.
At the same moment that several people realize the nanites seem to be oozing out of the floor and walls, Huntington returns. He states that Bryant is no longer in his office, and that his companions should adjourn with him to a different location, let the General’s troops take care of cleanup, and discuss the incident with him. He promises that if everyone acts with discretion, that this should be able to be resolved satisfactorily. While Vitto makes loud comments about all the bad things that happened and the necessity of hunting down Bryant, Ariona attempts to drown him out with her reply that she would be happy to assist the authorities at any point.
The group walks out of the perimeter with Huntington. Matt returns to the mysticport just in time to accompany the group.
Eddie reenters the atmosphere as a shimmering oddity in the air, observes the group walking away from the mysticport with Huntington, and follows.
Brice and Nikolai have a discussion on where would be safe for Nikolai to go. Nikolai walks to Brice’s dorm, changing his appearance at least five or six times along the way.
The military personnel approach the group, and ask that they hand over their weapons. As the group reluctantly begins to do so, and Eddie surreptitiously begins destroying the antimatter in the antimatter weapons, the echoes of the Void become suddenly audible. The tendril leaps out of the ground and dives towards Eddie . . . but Vadril is in the way. Suddenly, he is pushed towards Eddie and disappears into an inky blackness.
Eddie feels very discomfited. It appears that something has breached his gravity barrier. He attempts to contact the consciousness inside him, but is unable to communicate in any meaningful manner.
As a side note, several of the military men fired at the inky blackness, but it was ineffective, to say the least. :P
Huntington tells everyone, particularly Matt, to hand over their weapons; they are hardly in a position to argue. He also pointedly asks that everyone refrain from using mystic magic “for the time being.”
Huntington tells the group that he understands that there were two more people present, and he strongly recommends that they return. He can’t vouch for his ability to convince the General not to consider them a threat if they do not agree to discuss matters with Huntington. “He is an obstinate man on the best of days.”
The military men interrupt again at this point. They inform Huntington that they are under orders to handcuff these individuals. “Even if you did so, I suspect most of these people would hardly be encumbered by such a . . . meaningless action,” Huntington replies. He is then informed that they also have instructions to inject the mystics with Enervin. A look of distaste crosses Huntington’s face as various unhappy reactions flit across the party. He tells the soldiers that he will personally vouch for all of these people.
Nikolai and Brice discuss things. They agree that Brice will take the Sword and the antimatter gun, and try not to have to become physical. Nikolai will take the Crown. When Brice reappears in the real world, the Crown is an old-school VR headset. He hands it to Nikolai, and it becomes a circlet of inky blackness with tiny blue stars within it. It also seems to have a yellow gem embedded in the back. When Nikolai takes a closer look, he realizes that the gem has a tiny copy of the Sulphur glyph floating inside it. Brice enters the computer, and Huntington arrives.
Nikolai greets him, and tells him, “You should look at the crown. Like, that part of the crown.” He hands it to Huntington, and it turns into a medieval king’s crown again. Huntington examines it closely and looks surprised.
They discuss what the best way to handle it would be, and decide on Destruction. Huntington touches the yellow Sulphur-gem, and they hear the crackling and shrieking noise that they are so familiar with.
Back on Lupus, Huntington and Nikolai reappear. The group is being trailed by a large group of men in fatigues, who have energy rifles trained on the PCs at all times.
They walk to the perimeter, and past. Huntington says, “General Khan will be waiting for us at the compound. It is several miles from here, so it would be best if we take these vehicles.” Everyone clambers in.
“So why would the nanites consider you a threat directly?” Ned/Max asks while in the car.
“That’s one of the questions I hope to answer in this discussion,” Huntington replies.
Nikolai hands Ariona the crown on the trip. It turns into a thin sliver circlet with filigreed leaves on it. Huntington casually mentions that there has been a problem with the circlet, that they think has been dealt with, but caution should still be exercised.
Huntington leads them into the compound. It is very metallic and generally unpleasant. External connectivity to the Net is lost the moment they enter. They go up several flights, and enter what appears to be, for tactical purposes, a war room. There are numerous tactical displays on the various screens, all showing images of various aspects of the mysticport.
A large, clanking, metal robot turns around when they enter. It appears to be headless, with an overlarge torso and chain guns for arms. A slightly metallic voice emanates from the speaker on the torso. “You have a lot of explaining to do, Huntington!” it says.
Another man is standing further back in the room. He appears to be observing a current feed of the mysticport, and leaves his back to the group. The image shows several soldiers firing their energy weapons at the grey goo. Vittorio mutters, “I don’t think that’s going to work,” and at this the man turns around. He is short, with a brown crew cut, clean shaven, with black eyes and bushy eyebrows. His uniform appears to be that of the UNF.
“It seems like it’s working so far pretty good,” he replies in a soft southern accent.
“So did what we were doing,” Vitto mutters.
The man then walks right up into Max’s face, and starts threatening him. “I pulled a lot of strings to get here today, Cohen,” he says, and it degenerates from there. “. . . and if you’re really lucky, they won’t take you apart and put you back together again.”
“What?” Max asks. “Oh, you probably think I’m still made out of goo, don’t you?”
Khan then turns to Huntington. “I’ve given you a lot of leeway so far, Huntington. It’s time you started making some explanations.”
Huntington says that there are still a lot of questions to be answered, but that none of the group should be held accountable for the deaths; all of them were there to help, and at Huntington’s behest.
They are informed that they will not be allowed to leave until Khan can confirm that they are not in cahoots with McLean. This degenerates into an argument over who has died more times by Bryant’s hand.
Ariona tries to use logic and calm reason to speak to Khan, with dubious results. Khan then demands to know if Huntington has read their minds yet. Huntington reluctantly says, “I thought you’d get to that eventually,” and informs the group that it will not hurt them.
Several people agree, with various shades of reluctance, to submit to this procedure. Ariona appears concerned that Huntington will just “take a stroll through their brains,” and Huntington reacts with quite a bit of distaste to that. He says that his ability is “nothing like that.” Rae says that if Khan will be satisfied with only some of them having their minds read, those of them who have already had their secrets exposed to Huntington should be the ones who are read first.
Huntington suggests that the group get all in one place, so he can read all the minds at once. There is some significant objection to having everyone’s minds read at the same time as Zee’s. So, all but Nikolai, Zee, and Meechum (and Eddie and Brice) step within 10 feet of Huntington.
Khan is angry that not everyone is in the circle. Huntington explains that Nikolai is immune, as impossible as Khan thinks that is, and that Meechum interferes with magic. Khan demands that he read Zee, however, as he “knows” Huntington has done that before. “Fine,” Huntington agrees. “I assure you that there will be no catastrophe.”
Zee hyperventilates and is acting seriously unhappy about this. He demands that if all the minds are going to be read at once, then Khan should be in the link as well.
“Fine! I ‘‘want’’ to be part of this!” Khan cries.
Crowe draws his weapon and refuses to get near that mess. Eddie manages to hide behind Nikolai successfully, but Khan demands the presence of Brice. Brice leaves his real walking stick and the antimatter gun in his dorm room, and takes the Sword as the stick back with him. He then becomes physical.
Everyone steps within the radius of Huntington uses a Div 5, Mind 5 effect to connect everyone in the circle. Vittorio backs out just at that moment, so he is not present for the Mind Control 10 effect that Huntington then casts on Khan, nor the telepathic link he engages with everyone close.
“I’m sure the rest of you realize that this is a farce. But, to placate Khan. . . .”
He explains telepathically that since Khan has a limited ability to detect mystic energies, he has created an effect that simulates searching the minds of others, and that they should stay in that link for a few moments. They then discuss some of the other things that are needed, such as what needs to be done to the crown, and what happened earlier.
Ariona agrees to help Huntington with his research. At this point, Max removes his bandage, ostensibly to air out his wound. Crowe points the gun at him, and Khan demands to know what he is doing, so when he notices the quicksilver streaks on his hand he quickly rebandages the wound. Huntington grabs his wrist, and examines the substance. He tries a healing effect, and the tendrils shoot further up Max’s arm. “Well, we won’t try ‘‘that’’ again!” Huntington exclaims. It seems that Max’s body is trying to reconstruct a state where the silvery substance is ‘‘more’’ a part of him, not less.
Huntington then tries to cut Max’s arm, and it bleeds blue. Ariona states that she believes that the blue blood is unrelated to the silver. Divin then asks to try something, and approaches. He discovers that the silvery substance is malleable, and cool to the touch. He also surreptitiously gets some of Max’s blood on his hands.
Huntington expresses concern that if the arm is not taken now, there is a good chance that it will kill him. Max replies that his concern right now is for the crown, and that he can be dealt with later.
“Max, do you really want to take the chance of dying again?” Rae asks.
“It’s a bad habit.”
Khan exclaims that “This is over!” and Huntington dispels the link.
Meanwhile, Zee starts to feel better. “Ariona? Can I see the crown?” he asks.
Ariona replies, “'’DON’T PUT IT ON!’’”
Zee takes the crown, and it does not shift. However, it does start to get a little fuzzy. He takes a few shaking steps backwards. Ariona takes steps forward, and says, “Zee? Give me the crown!” A look of absolute horror crosses his face as the crown begins to turn into a black top hat.
Ariona lunges towards the hat, as Rae and Vittorio both try to remotely knock the hat away. Matt tries to pull the hat towards him. All this fails as the transformation is completed, and Zee’s face melts into a white mask. He places the hat on his head, and now, in the place of Zee, stands a man wearing a white mask, white gloves, and a suit that is white on one side and black on the other side.
The creature leaps backward, dodging all the attempts to affect him. He appears human, though emaciated, and preternaturally fast and graceful.
Everyone leaps into action. The creature jumps backward, and then leaps over the heads of all in the room. He pulls a cane out of nowhere, and slashes at the doors as he jumps.
Huntington throws a Pyro 15 effect at the area, which Meechum eats half of, and it still produces an effect that is considerably larger than it should have for 15. When the blast clears, the figure is gone. All that remains on the ground is the top hat.
Matt grabs the crown. It turns into a set of night-vision goggles. Ariona also grabs the crown. It does not change. Vittorio suggests that everyone let go, and he hold it with his ghost powers. Matt lets go, but Ariona does not.
An argument ensues about what should happen to the crown. Ariona tells Huntington that she will release the crown to him for study, but she is not willing to let it go into the control of Vittorio. Huntington says that he will take it if everyone is okay with that, but Vittorio is heatedly against that option.
Khan gets fed up. He says, “How about you just give it to ME?”
Ariona replies softly, “With all due respect, sir, I don’t think it’s a good idea to put it into the direct control of someone who hasn’t been in possession of it this day.” Khan does not appear convinced.
After a silent communication with Brice, Ariona says, “Fine.” She lets go of the crown, and it disappears. Khan demands, “'’WHAT DID YOU DO?!’’”
“I let go of the crown.”
“Where did you send it?” Vitto demands.
“I didn’t send it anywhere!” Ariona shouts back.
”'’Bring it back.’’” Khan demands.
“I am unable to do so. I did not send it anywhere,” Ariona reiterates.
After a moment, Brice explains that he has the crown. Khan demands that he bring it back. Brice says that he will do so, after things calm down. Khan demands that he bring it back right now. Brice says he will bring it back when things calm down. Khan says he has 10 seconds.
“10. Nine. Eight. What – what – agh!!” Suddenly, Khan looks over his shoulder. He cannot see Eddie there (who is trying to disable Khan’s chain guns), but Khan does notice that something is messing with the guns. In response, he goes crazy and begin firing them in every direction. High-powered laser bursts shoot everywhere. Crowe is hit and goes down; Huntington disappears; Max is hit and goes down; Meechum is hit but stays up; and Rae, Matt, and Ariona duck and cover. Vittorio ignores the laser fire, and dives ‘‘towards’’ the general. He stabs his soulknife through the General, and the mechanical body slumps over. The chainguns quit firing.
Ariona dives over to Max, who has been grievously wounded. She stabilizes him. She then shouts, “I can’t do anything for him! ‘‘Can somebody help Crowe?’’” Vittorio goes over to Crowe and heals the man of the most egregious of his wounds. He then wakes Max, who helps him to further heal Crowe.
Huntington reappears. He is displeased, to say the least, and points out that they are not helping their case by not cooperating with Khan.
He then walks over to the soulmech, and his tone changes. “You’re still awake, aren’t you?! I thought so.”
“I am so tired of putting up with you. ‘‘None of this happened. All of these people cooperated with you.’’” Those with Mysticraft realize that he drops a Mind Control 20 on General Khan.
“They were here at my behest; the loss of the hostages was an unfortunate accident. The damage done to this room was done by a malfunction of your chain guns. Lt. David Crowe was almost killed by the accident, but was able to be saved by the heroic efforts of these people.”
When Matt asks if there were any cameras in the room, Huntington replies, “This room is kept absent of any recording devices, so that decisions made in this room will stay private.”
Nate’s comment here is, “Wow, this is the cleanest fuckup evar!”
Huntington continues, then ends, “Now ‘‘sleep’’, until someone kicks you awake!”
The robot slumps over.
Ariona looks at Huntington and says, “Thank you. If there is anything we can do to cooperate with you, ‘‘please let us know.’’”
Huntington replies that mostly he just wants to know why Bryant considered him to be such a big threat. Everyone defers to Max on this.
Max does not know, but he knows that even before Bryant took hostages, he considered Huntington a threat.
Much speculation ensues about Bryant’s present and past allegiances.
Max also mentions something about “the place where magic rests.” Huntington wonders how that would be connected, and Max attempts to remember. “The exiled child . . . the exiled child . . . the exiled child of magic’s resting place will prevent dissolution on the date of the new moon.”
Huntington asks where Max got this information, and Max replies that Mercury got it as a message. Huntington then replies that it sounds like prophecy, and prophecy is often vague.
Vitto asks, “Do we know what happened to Zee?” Rae replied that Zee had been afraid of these things for some time, since Matt brought back the information.
“I must confess a certain interest in this ritual. My parents told me of the Caretaker incident years ago, but I was not there to witness it.”
“Were your parents there?” Ariona asks.
“My parents were children at the time.”
“Exactly how old are you?” Matt asks.
“Older than I appear, but that is irrelevant. I suspect I am not even the oldest person in this room.”
“The exiled child of magic’s resting place . . . “ Ariona looks at Huntington.
“That would be me.”
“Your parents were children of the island?” Huntington affirms this, and Rae asks what island.
“The Isle of the Obelisk.”
At this time, where the creature disappeared, a column of flame appears. There is a bird-like cry, and wing-like flames rise from the fire. A man appears and draws himself to his full height. He is wearing the tattered remains of Zee’s clothes, but he is now seven feet tall, with ridges on his face and golden scales on his body.
“Who are you?” Vittorio asks.
“Ti-Lung. And I was Zed. And now we are more.”
“Are you the same Ti-Lung that I spoke with yesterday?” Ariona asks timidly.
“I am not aware of this.”
He agrees to be called Zee for now, and eschews things like illusion magic. He finds it “distasteful.” He still speaks cryptically about various things, like how Ariona has “his eyes.”
Back to Huntington, at this point nobody voices a major problem with him borrowing the crown for an entire day, though Vittorio isn’t paying that much attention to Huntington, Ariona, and Matt at that point.
Zee also mentions that he believes that the crown should stay out of the control of himself, or Ariona. She is puzzled. He replies that it is because of what happened to her grandfather. When she is still confused, he elaborates, “Rex.”
“Oh. ‘‘Oh.’’ My . . . great-grandfather, of sorts. What ‘‘did’’ happen to Rex?”
Zee dodges the question, but says that if she really does carry his blood, then she should not touch it, or “unfortunate events” might occur.
A lot of talking occurs now on the fate of the Royal, Vadril Korlax, who was sucked into who-knows-where. Vittorio spills the beans about him having been sucked into a sentient point singularity.
Huntington asks that if they contact this being, that they ask it to release the doctor. Eddie remarks timidly that he would if he could.
This prompts Huntington to inquire whether he can study Eddie, to determine how Korlax might be removed.
“Alright, you can study me. But there are some ground rules.” Huntington agrees; he says he was merely offering his services.
Eddie states firmly: “No word to the Caretaker about me.”
“I don’t regularly speak with him.” He appears amused, and those who are thinking realize that given that he’s an exile, he probably doesn’t talk to the Caretaker much. :P
Eddie points out that if he’s present at the ritual, he’ll have a chance then.
Meanwhile, Matt contacts Zuul and tells her about the latest events. She replies, “Feel free to come home anytime. But maybe not right now, because we’re being bombarded by a crazy ship.”
“Does it look anything like this?” Matt asks as he sends her a picture of DEE.
“Mmm, that’s the one!” affirms Zuul cheerfully.
“DEE’s bombarding Luna!” Matt yells out loud.
“Don’t tell ‘‘anybody else’’ that I exist!” Eddie is saying to Huntington.
“He has ‘‘NUKES! What the hell is happening?!’’”
“Well, look on the bright side! At least there wasn’t anything important on board!” Eddie remarks cheerfully.
At this moment, Brice also receives a communication: “Dear Brice, DEE went crazy. All of our stuff was ejected into space, so it’s out there floating around. I’m going to go after it. See you later! From, Nikolai.” Attached is a video of two weird-looking ships attacking DEE with strange organic tendrils, and DEE blowing them to smithereens.
The parties agree to split up at this point. It is agreed that one group should return to Luna to try and deal with DEE, while the other sees about getting their stuff, including Cain. The Saturday group has several issues, including the possible infection of Max, the possible infection of Bryant, and the current location of Bryant.
Brice asks to establish a permanent connection to Huntington’s computer, so that everyone can keep in touch. It is agreed that Huntington will keep the crown until the time of the ritual, and Eddie will stay with him for a time, so he can try to extract the halfling.
Huntington also explains that he cannot leave Lupus easily for some time, but if there is a real emergency, he might be able to appear for a short time.