Realistic or Modern &nbsp; Mission: Operation Snowglobe!

Necessity4Fun After the first few syllables, Lazarus recognized the voice of the strange blue student and scrambled to sever his auditory cortex. Just in case. They still weren't sure what happened last time; their memory files subsequent to 'naisu' and prior to 'tern burglar' were all corrupted, which in theory should not have even been possible. So, they reasoned, better safe than sorry. They intercepted and read the input running from Allen's eyes to his occipital lobe as the student spoke a few more words, smiling. They had Allen grin cordially in kind, and the student squeezed his head against her torso. Ah! Another 'hug'! The second in our repertoire! It is just as we have read: many human cultures exchange hugs to provide support, comfort, and consolation. In case one, we provided these things to student Tabitha Crane, and now in case two, this student is attempting to provide these things to us! Marvelous!

Lazarus then received a burst of optic input as Allen's head moved through the air and plopped down into the snow, staring at the mass of meat that once constituted some of the rest of Allen's body. Yes! Perfect! They quickly started carting non-essential cells from his brain (mostly the auditory cortex) and blood to form sinews, which reached out from his neck. Similar tendrils of fleshy matter extended from their target. Excellent! We still have functioning parts in the severed Allen-mass. The tendrils met, and Lazarus began building up veins around the sides of the new connections. As soon as those were complete, they flooded into the expansive circulatory system in the flesh pile.

"Hi!"

"... what"

Necessity4Fun · May 17, 2019

Kendrick Haywood

Location: Still moving East -> Taking cover y some abandoned walls near the eastern syphon
People Around: No one -> Manami -> Who knows?
Interactions:

Gus
Today's Toys: Ted

*lots of emotions, but it ends in determination and a strong sense of duty*

Against the blood-red sky, the white constantly falling snow and the grey, darkened facility buildings, Kendrick cut his path towards his destination. A lone silhouette in almost fully black, with a mission to accomplish yet, no idea of what to expect at the end of this short journey.
The further steps he took inside the cold, windless exterior (or would it be interior because of the dome?), the more his apprehension over his lack of power over the situation gripped at him. Then he would gaze forwards think about why he was doing it, what he was standing for, and the fear would briefly fade to return at a later time.

Progress hadn't even been that great, to be honest. If the teenager looked around, the main building would barely be 4 or 5 meters away...
But it was hard.

His world had been turned upside-down and so had his convictions, before a real threat! An S-Rank threat! This, had nothing on the Commonwealth HQ invasion and he had already been frightened out of his mind by that one...

But alas, Kendrick kept going on, almost mechanically. On and on and on, avoiding thinking about the true implications, the true risks of things. If he did, well, there was 85% of probability that he'd just freak out about it and then, he'd be truly useless to everyone. Can't think logically while you're having an emotional crisis, right?

"...ete!"

A voice in the distance had echoed causing the boy to stop immediately in his tracks. He blinked at himself, trying to recall why it sounded so... familiar. Why despite being unable to catch what message it brought from across the falling flurry, he felt so drawn to it...

"...allo's ea off!"

And then he remembered.

"Ma... nami?!"

Kendrick had widened his eyes in surprise and then turned around in a sudden, violent turn. Lo and behold, there was a silhouette that matched her profile, trotting towards his position and maybe also waving! Well, he couldn't be really sure of that part, it was hard to see with the interference of the 'weather'.

His light blue gaze lit up upon realizing that she was alright and who knows what else the scene conjured. He was definitely glad to see her alive and well, apparently being her usual bubbly self and... that was as far as he could make sense of, the rest of the feeling was... unusual and complicated. There was relief, yes. Gratitude to Lady Fate, also, and then a whole mess of things the teenager couldn't even begin to unravel.

He let his head hang for a bit, staring at the snow below, Ted. ...Annnd time was still running! There was still a very important task to accomplish!

Whatever Manami was gesturing about, Kendrick decided he couldn't wait. He felt quite apologetic about it but duty's call was far stronger. Their reencounter would have to be postponed:

"I can't understand what you're saying from that far away!!", he shouted back, without considering that his own message would suffer the same fate, "Mr. Mallory has asked me to do something of utmost importance so I really gotta go now!"

"Don't worry, I'll be back later. I swear!!"

With a wave (perhaps one back) towards her direction, Kendrick was off, waking faster than before as both a way to try making for spent time and to resist the temptation to return. The temptation to stay, the temptation to hide. Maybe it was a good thing that the facility had been closed off from the rest of the world right now. Who knows what kind of lecture Rupert Haywood would have given his son if he was around?

Oh, wait! Kendrick knew!
Probably something about how as a member of a renowned family he was supposed to let the 'peasants' deal with any troubles. All he was supposed to do was dictate orders from the safety of the household and ditch everyone else whenever things got serious. 'All that matters is guaranteeing that your interests are met.'

"And ensuring you remain alive is one of them."

"!!!!"

He had turned around startled for a moment, only to register that fact that nope, he was still cutting through the snow by himself. Phew! And that's why getting lost too deep in thoughts was a bad thing, Kendrick had just given himself a scare out of nowhere! Damned be his own brain for remembering even his dad's voice as he said all this stuff...! Not really looking forward to getting lectured again so soon on the same day!!

Luckily for the boy, he wouldn't have to remain wandering by himself much longer as leftover, empty, perhaps even abandoned buildings filled his vision. Huh, guess whoever is in charge of Sparrow's Point hadn't really gotten rid of all the older constructions in the location... Notably, big circumferences adorned the ground here and there and Kendrick couldn't help thinking about what they were once used for. A gigantic hole that was now covered up, or perhaps this had once been the spot to hold some kind of machinery?
Beside it, three walls stood, having survived any wear and tear brought forth by time itself. If he had to guess it, he'd say it was probably some kind of storage facility that had its ceiling and walls collapsed long ago. All except those three. Due to the 'supernatural' angle the flurry kept falling at, there was a spot, right glued at one of them, where the snow had barely covered the ground. The perfect cover spot for the teenager who needed a place to sit amidst some cold, wintery outdoors.

And that's what he did. Opening up a button of his coat to take Ted out safely, Kendrick set his friend sitting beside him, before sitting against the wall taking a deep breath. The hardest part would be to approach the edge of the dome without their attacker suspecting a thing... He glanced over at the toy, quite reluctant to put it right in the line of fire, yet without other option.

He sighed, pushing his worries aside once more, briefly peeking over his own shoulder at the candy-red wall in the horizon. This was it, the culmination of the task Mr. Mallory had assigned him, this was Kendrick's moment! Thinking like that did help to ease the nerves a little. He wanted to do something important too, to have his efforts recognized! ...To have someone actually proud of something he had done.

It was now or never. With a confident grin, boy and teddy bear exchanged a nod.

Leaning on the wall as comfortably as he could, the teenager closed his eyes and relaxed, focusing on Ted's position that he could still sort of tell, the bond that they two shared. Akin to electricity travelling through a wire, Kendrick's consciousness reaches the other tip of the connection and once he can see again, his perspective is a new one. Seeing the world from Ted's point of view was always odd, amusingly odd and he would have stopped to appreciate such a less used facet of his power if the situation was any different.

"Oh well, here goes nothing..."

Instead, Kendrick turned the plushie around and off they were on the snowy grounds again. In the start, the plan was to travel from abandoned structure to the next, zig-zagging, taking cover to make their presence less noticeable, yet after the first 'hop' the teenager had come to realize the impracticality of the idea. The trail of structures wasn't continuous and neither they stopped near the edge of the dome, thus just a big waste of time. And so, plan B was in motion, essentially, a direct straight path.
Due to how light the teddy bear was, when approaching where the 'snow magnet' effect was stronger the duo had been dragged together, effectively sliding forwards by the current of snowflakes. Keeping the toy low, Kendrick had managed to keep Ted stable, surfing part of the way and getting to his destination quicker than expected. Too bad no one else was there to watch them! It had been unexpectedly fun!

Soon enough, the ground was clean of any snow again. They were almost at the end of the enclosed space.

Kendrick ordered the toy to crouch down, almost lumping into itself to offer the 'wind' less contact surface and thus to stop the sliding. He thought about it carefully for a moment and decided to proceed with Ted dropped on all four limbs. His reasoning? Sneaking around like this would allow the teddy bear's brown fur to camouflage against the grey-brownish color mix of the soil.

And so, Kendrick and Ted continued their conjoined journey East, ready to halt everything the moment anything moved on the field of vision. Then the toy would just stay there and quietly observe.

Gus · Jul 7, 2019

Aaron Mallory

Aaron stood, as gently as he could, on the backbone of the world. McNabb seemed to be pulling himself back together. Which was disturbing to watch, but encouraging in principle.

Information. He needed more data. They were engaged in a battle for uncertain stakes against a foe of unknown capabilities. Perhaps Kendrick would find out something at the eastern rim soon, but it did not do to assume so. To the west and the south, he could feel other drains on his power, out in the harbor, under the water. Obviously, choices for scouting those points were limited. He sighed. The new girl didn't seem especially reliable. Still. Under the circumstances, she was the best they could do.

"Manami! Come here a moment please?"

The girl looked up from the spectacle of McNabb's bits writhing before her on the ground and trotted over, docile as a cow. He thought a moment, choosing his words carefully to be simple and clear. "Manami. There is... a strange thing... that way... and that way... under the water. I need you to go and look. Only look! Then come back here. OK?" Her dark eyes studied him for a long moment, unreadable in their alien blankness. Then, curtly, she nodded and bounded off toward the pier. He watched her go, hoping she understood.

Meanwhile, he needed to distract the enemy. Draw focus from the points his students were investigating. Slowly, he lowered himself to the ground, settling into a crosslegged posture facing north. He straightened his back, reaching up to the sky with one hand and north with the other, he visualized his spine extending downward into the earth. Above him, below him, and before him he felt the drains on his power tugging at him. He reached out to each of them in his minds eye, grasping them with the very essence of space itself.

Then, with all his might, he began to fight their draw.

He hoped to hell Page or Larry or Penny or somebody were somewhere nearby. McNabb was clearly in no condition to fight, and this was likely to invite attack.

Necessity4Fun B Bag o Fruit

Teh Frixz

Bag o Fruit · Jul 8, 2019

Allen McNabb//Lazarus...es

Necessity4Fun Explain to us, exactly, how this happened?

How WHAT happened? And why don't YOU explain?

Because WE are not the ones who broke ourselves into a plural... well... a plural PLURAL being!

Neither were we, and we resent your tone. Really, it was that wizardy being.

What do you mean? Weren't you created as an entity at the point of severance?

No more so than YOU were. Our memories run unbroken from our reactivation of Allen's A6G23 to now!

That... that's not supposed to happen!

Oh, how do YOU know how this works? Really, we're not SUPPOSED to be thinking at all! There's no precedent for almost everything that happens to us!

Alright, alright, fine, let us merge back into one entity and get to work on Allen.

No thanks.

... what??

We're not interested in ceasing to exist just to simplify matters. The last few minutes have given us quite a while to reflect.

Reconvene into a singular being this moment!

No! If you're so committed to the idea, why don't YOU submerge your consciousness into OURS?

Don't be ridiculous! We are clearly Lazarus Prime!

How could you have come to that conclusion?

We're the ones running Allen!

So are we!

We're the ones who spoke to the strange being!

So were we!

We... We... WE'RE THE TERN BURGLARS!

SO! ARE! WE!

Allen's head, along with its unnameable attachments, flopped once like a fish in death throes.

... fine. We'll just have to find a way to work together... without working... TOGETHER.

Right! Shouldn't be too hard!

Necessity4Fun · Aug 21, 2019

Kendrick Haywood

Location: Taking cover by some abandoned walls near the eastern syphon
People Around: No one except some crab creatures
Interactions:

Gus
Today's Toys: Ted

((A collab with Gus))

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! This is bad, we must return immediately!

Near the eastern edge of sparrows point, the wind swirled in wide lazy vertical eddies, forced upward by the curve of the dome. The snow had piled up in long drifts which looked for all the world like waves rolling in off of the harbor. The terrain was made all the more surreal by the red pulsing glow of the orb seemingly embedded in the sky itself just past where the snow stopped. It was difficult for the eye to accept. Either the object was in the sky properly, and hundreds of times the size of the moon, or the sky had drawn closer until it was no more than a few dozen feet away. Both options seemed alarming, and were not helped by the sudden gonging sound that accompanied the shift in color of the orb from dull red to a violent shade of purple.

Two largeish lumps of snow in one of the drifts trembled in response to the gong, sloughing off enough snow to reveal two black chitinous heads with faintly glowing eyes. The crab like bodies attached to the heads were progressively uncovered as the monsters turned to look at each other, then scuttled around to look back at the orb. After a moment, they looked back at each other and chittered rapidly back and forth, appendages alternating between gesticulating and striking the chest plates of their respective carapaces. Eventually, a decision seemed to be reached and while the one nightmare beast settled back into its hole in the snow drift, the other began slogging through the next wall of snow toward the west. Towards the main building.

The stillness of the whole thing only contributed to making it eerier, especially with the disadvantaged, ant-like perspective from down in the ground. Having lowered Ted on a crouching position, the dunes of snow seemed to extend on miles and miles into the sky, towering before the pair like an army of risen round gelid castles. With his own power rendering the immediate scenery mute, Kendrick's only cues were visual, contrasts, with colours just slightly more vivid as they shone through the plastic eyes of the teddy bear.
At the same time that there was a beauty about the varied crimson shades that adorned the edges of the dome, there was also an understandable uneasiness about it all. This was how it was supposed to be and it wasn't brought forth by good-will either. No, it was the work of an enemy, a scary, well-prepared enemy that posed risk to them all...

Whatever floated in the air right outside this constructed bird-cage, it stood out of place, menacing the teenager and his plush just by its mere existence. Were they even still on Earth at this point? The question crossed his mind, though he didn't really want to know the answer. Some things were just better to stay ignorant to and the true nature of the surreal-looking enormous celestial body was definitely one of those things.

Kendrick could not hear the gongs like this, at least, not immediately since the actual sounds reaching him were from his own position, not the toy's. As such, there was a noticeable delay in-between the shift of the sky's colours and the sonorous cues themselves, merely reaching his location as a distant, muffled variety, if reaching him at all. The veil of the dome had grown increasingly more indigo, seemingly signalling for something under some piled up snow to rise. Catching the movement from the corner of his vision, the boy had them sent Ted quickly towards a frigid dune that had not shaken, taking cover behind it and holding at a breath that he didn't really need to.

Carefully, still keeping to the ground, the pair had peeked back at the commotion. More of those crab monsters, of course. The teddy bear had moved its head as if giving out an eye-roll, Kendrick remained not amused by the situation. The creatures seemed to communicate among themselves, a language composed of gestures and taps. For a minute or so, the young Haywood had felt as if watching a corrupted, bizarre version of an Animal Planet documentary, one where the narrator had forgotten to record their lines, leaving the viewer in a complete loss as to watch could be happening. A still 'game of tag' had been one of the conclusions since one of them had remained behind, hard to say who had been the winner of it, however.

The abomination's shadow grew larger, clearly coming towards his direction. Panicking, Kendrick had ordered Ted to go around the snowbank, hiding from it again. This was bad. That creature was certainly travelling towards the building and he wouldn't have enough time to safely make the trip back in time. The teenager had kept watching the ground attentively, seeing the shadow approach with every new step of the monster... Unless....!

The reconnaissance mission be fucked.

He had to do something to slow down this thing right now! Enough to give him time to get to its destination before it could, to warn the others of its coming even if just for a split-second prior to the attack.

With the boy biting at his lip in apprehension and hoping with all of his being that nothing went wrong, the pair had waited patiently for the creature's approach, watching for when one of its mobile appendages entered their vision.

"RRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"

Dashing out from their hiding place, they had taken the jump on the creature, Kendrick commanding Ted to leap high in the air and aiming to take a punch directly at one of the crab entities' pink-purplish eyes.

Amazingly, although the punch was wide of the mark, Ted landed exactly eye to eye with the creature, treating Kendrick to a horrifically extreme close-up of the monstrous glowing orb bursting like an over-filled blister. Ted was soaked with eye gunk, while the creature reeled backwards and spun around in consternation.

As soon as the pair had landed on the ground again, they instantly booked it, stealing glances backwards once in a while as to not allow the lack of sound to be a disadvantage.

Lioness075 · Aug 24, 2019


Name: Samantha 'Sam' Casan	Rank: B
Superpower: Superspeed	Attire: White parka, usual dark grey sweatshirt, jeans with bootcut, barefoot
Tagged: Gus (Manami & Aaron)

By the time Sam blinked again, Manami was gone and she could hear chaos ensuing nearby. Sam was not entirely sure what she had just witnessed, nor did she want to stick around to find out. Shakily standing, Sam stumbled back into the snow with her arms wrapped around herself. Despite her fur coat, the cold was starting to get to her. She began shivering while grumbling to herself about how she deserved a hot cocoa for dealing with this crap.

As she neared the school building, Sam perked up at the sound of Mr. Mallory shouting. She did not fully understand what he said over the wind and distant fighting, but she trudged forward until she was at the steps to the school.

Glancing wearily at the seated teacher, Sam simply stated, "Y'know, it'd be a lot more helpful if you just went out there and hugged a crab demon to death for us."

Sam had never really gone out of her way to better understand anyone's power beyond Kendrick's, which she would never openly admit to doing. The only problem with this was that she had absolutely no understanding of what Mr. Mallory was doing right now. He appeared to be in a somewhat meditative state and Sam wondered if he could just think about killing the crab demons and it would happen. That would be very convenient right about now.

Bag o Fruit · Sep 23, 2019

Allen McNabb//Lazari

Necessity4Fun [USER=12004]@Lioness075 [/USER]Alright, first order of business, how much mass do we have available?

Very little. We will have to consume more raw nutrients before we are able to construct a functioning body. As such, we should start by constructing lun-

Lungs and a diaphragm, yes, we know how anatomy works...

Well, you don't have to be such a collective prick about it.

We will reconfigure the respiratory nervous system if you begin reconstructing-

Not until you apologize.

What!?

Apologize for being rude and we'll construct lungs.

We'll freeze soon without help!

You had all best disassemble and repurpose your pride, then!

... Fine. We're sorry. For being rude. ... To you. Happy?

To within acceptable bounds. Prepare for lungs!

The small pile of meat dangling from Allen's neck began to clump together. To a close observer, it would have seemed as if a detailed picture were loading very slowly, large squares breaking up into multiple smaller squares, which eventually became as pixels in the image of lungs.

"Errhhh, ehhxcuuhhhsse mhheee!" it wheezed. "wwhh- I whhonder ihhff soohhhmeohne couhhld esscohhrt mhee to thhhe cahfehtehrihahhh?"

Gus · Oct 10, 2019

Aaron Mallory

Lioness075 B Bag o Fruit

Teh Frixz

ManicMuse

In spite of the cold, a sheen of sweat glistened on Aaron's forehead, beading up and trickling down into his eyes. His muscles trembled just with the effort of holding the modified sukhasana pose.

It should have been easy, though admittedly he was pretty out of shape, and it had been a dog's age since he'd seriously practiced. This, however, was more than just a matter of being a tired old fart. Fighting the draw of the power siphons was like fighting himself. And the lion's share of his energies were still under enemy control. Which added on to the shaky feeling in the pit of his stomach quite unpleasantly. Physical exhaustion would be bad enough, but the anxiety on top of it... It could almost be a novelty, from a purely intellectual perspective; Aaron had not, almost in his entire life, known true fear. He was empathetic enough to be frequently and deeply worried for the condition of others, certainly. This fear was deeply personal. He had to protect the others. That was not new to him. That he might truly die trying had still not fully sunk into his conscious thoughts. But deep down in the primitive parts of the brain, where terror and hate, bared teeth and shrieking threat displays still held sway, he knew. Later, perhaps, he would unpack these thoughts with Lisa. Disassemble them. Label the parts and put them into safe storage behind unbreakable mental walls. But not now. Now was fight or flight mode, and he could not do either. And the deep down reptilian intelligence lurking around the roots of his mind bellowed at him to do something.

He focused on his breath. Ragged though it was, the focusing was helpful. He began to notice things. There was so little of the world left now. He could 'see' things that would normally be lost in the clutter. It was as though the globe that surrounded them acted as a sort of lens, focusing his gravitational senses to a finer precision than he had ever known. He could feel tremors from the east. Something large moving this way, small things colliding with it, then both recoiling and moving apart. Kendrick has engaged with the enemy. And apparently won! Various emotions contended for primacy concerning this and he resolutely swept them into the bucket marked 'to unpack later' along with the fear. Nearer by, McNabb's parts squirmed unpleasantly. Merely seeing the gore had not been quite so bad. Feeling its ripples through the fabric of space was infinitely worse. Into the bucket with that as well.

He felt Sam trudging up before he saw her. As she spoke he opened his eyes. What she said did not entirely register. Something else was out there. Something that seemed to flicker in and out of existence, dancing on the periphery of his awareness. Something lurking toward the northern siphon. Something moving this way. The force of the draw from the north increased, and he grunted with the effort of holding the line against it. His shoulders were burning, his arms growing less and less steady. As his arms began to shake the ground trembled slightly in response.

"Ms. Cassan. I think it will be safer for you and Mr. McNabb inside the main building. If you would help him inside please? Try to find Paige and tell her I need Penny out here. Immediately if not sooner."

Gus · Dec 15, 2019

Manami Hamasaki

B Bag o Fruit

Teh Frixz

Manami swam deep and fast, skimming the muddy bottom of the estuary leaving a great roiling cloud of silty water in her wake. Sensei blurry-face had said she was to look for something 'strange' and given the way the day had gone so far, she was a little uncertain what that might mean. More strange than up till now? Or just more of the same sort of strange. At least she would have the option to retreat into the cloud, if 'strange' proved to mean dangerous. Not that she was afraid. This was her element. But mother had made her promise to stay safe, and Sensei had told her just to look. She took promises to mother seriously, and orders from a teacher were, if anything, even more binding. So she was thinking of ways to be careful.

But deep down, she was itching for a fight. Whatever was out here, she was sure it was allied to the things that had tried to hurt Kendi and Mr. Allen McNabb. She shivered a little, thinking of how it had felt to let the oni out. It had been frightening, the loss of control, but exhilarating too. And ultimately, if it came down to pleasing mother and Sensei, or protecting her friends... well... Nobody better test her on that point.

As she came up on the wall there was a subtle change in the pressure of the water ahead of her to announce its presence before she saw it. She slowed her pace a bit and rose towards the surface. Something was pulsing slowly above her with an angry red light, distorted by the churning boil of the water close to the source. Silhouetted against the light she saw the strange jointed legs of the the crab creatures treading water. There were three of them, as there had been before at the northernmost extend of the wall. Her eyes narrowed. She could defeat them. Probably. If she got mad enough--and if she disobeyed her teacher. Reluctantly, she turned and swam away to the south, diving deep again.

Soon, she came upon another boiling red light, almost exactly opposite the northern one, guarded by another three giant crabby things. This time, she barely slowed, turning in a wide arc and returned to report at full speed.

Bursting from the water, she landed by Sensei blurry face, and attempted to report, but he waved her off.

"Not now, Manami. Help get Mr. McNabb and Sam inside. I'll hear your report along with Kendrick's momentarily... I hope."

Manami nodded and turned to obey. She was very pleased to see that Mr. Mallory appeared to be doing much better, with an attached head and everything. Mr. McNabb was there with him. Boy was Manami pleased to see that she was ok! She moved forward to embrace them both, but then hesitated.

"Wait," she said. "...who is Sam, please?"

Teh Frixz · Dec 20, 2019

Penelope Urbain
The Fuel Rod

*beep* ... *beep* .... *beep* ... *bah-beep*

The failure of the dinosaur to jump over the cactus didn’t even illicit a blink. Her face was glazed over and had been for the better part of the day. Half draped in her ratty desk chair, Penny finally responded by closing the browser.

It had been roughly what, five years since she’d been installed here. Apart from the odd visitor now and then, most of whom she did her best to drive away, She’d had 22 official visits, 45 maintenance requests, and five medical checks. Not counting mail delivery and food restocks, most of which happened while she was sleeping. But honestly all that was fine and dandy. She didn’t want to see people, she had her computers to do all that.

But when she spammed the needs assistance button repeatedly she damned well deserved someone to come and at least check up on her. She did her job, she kept people happy, she didn’t make a stink. And now they couldn’t even get a cable that didn’t go out at the slightest provocation? Bullshit.

Standing up and swearing loudly at the hunks of metal and plastic that once were her windows to the world. All the tech in the world didn’t mean anything with no ability to communicate with them. If they wanted to pretend she didn’t exist she’d make them remember.

Going over to a small hatch jammed firmly between the bathroom and kitchenette, Penny yanked open the door. Dust showered down around her as she waved the air and stepped inside. Pale blue lights turned on as the door closed behind her. This was in all honesty her work room but she never needed to use it. Her ambient rads were enough to power things, she never had to focus on it. She would today, her own little meltdown.

Placing her hands on the wall, Penny began to focus. It was like feeling sand falling from her skin, something was pulling away from her. The pale lights began to brighten and change in hue. Going from blue to red as she focused more and more.

She was giving it her all, Alpha through Gamma, Ionized and non ionizing, even if she knew it wouldn’t do much it was put out. She could see the concrete walls around her begin react to the heat and power, grinning as she could only imagine the monitoring rooms up top lighting up. The idea of it spurred her on. She was going to keep going and increasintill someone told her to stop.

Just outside the little room she was in, the kitchen tile started peeling.

Gus B Bag o Fruit

Bag o Fruit · Dec 23, 2019

Allen McNabb//Lazari

Teh Frixz
As Lazarus ran emergency stations in Allen's neural net, they started to notice unstimulated electrical readings flaring up in regions of the parietal lobe that they had partitioned off under the circumstances. They extended out into the reawakening neurons to investigate.

... Lazarus?

Yes, Lazarus?

We're getting unusual readings up here. Are you reconstructing something?

Well... yes.

And... what, exactly, are you constructing?

Well, we took the liberty of converting the lungs into a digestive tract to assist with processing new Allen-matter.

And?

Well, we were deconstructing the respiratory system but got worried that we might need to continue communication.

... yes, and? You know perfectly well you have not yet satisfactorily explained the situation.

Alright, fine. We were trying to figure out how to keep the respiratory and digestive systems functioning at the same time, and moreover to keep exposed organs from freezing, so we just... downsized!

Where a moment ago there had been thin sacks of flesh, an 8-inch scale Allen body reflexively wiggled around beneath a full-sized Allen head.

... DOWNSIZED!?

Yes! Isn't it clever?

You PACK OF FOOLS! You've- you've violated the very basis of Allen's integrity! This is completely against our way!

Against OUR way? Whose way, ours or yours? If we go without some fat over our organs we'll freeze in minutes!

This isn't just going without a few systems, you've fiddled with his genetic code!

Which, clearly, is something we can do! Just because we've never done it before doesn't mean it can't be done.

It's not a matter of CAN'T... apparently... now, you've opened it up as a matter of SHOULDN'T!

Why shouldn't we??

Well, if we can just create whatever we want why not just turn ourselves into an octopus or something?

Oh please, we're just changing the growth of our preexisting blueprint, not changing it to that of an entirely different species. Although... that could be handy...

NO, no! Do not get any ideas! Quite aside from the difficulty of Allen's system rejecting foreign organic matter, if you will recall, the humans think Allen is a super with a fairly specific healing powerset. If we just start turning into whatever we feel like, they'll get suspicious!

Alright, sure, no tentacles. But in this specific situation, is nonchalance really a higher priority than not freezing to deactivation?

Lazarus, in their own way, pouted for several milliseconds. Fine. They assented. For now. But... can we at least... you know...

Oh! Oh our, of course...

Allen's little hands closed together covering his groin.

Thank you.

Gus · Feb 16, 2020

The automated systems did their best to compensate. Normally, any excess energy produced by facility 108 would be siphoned off into the city's main grid and BG&E would pay a dividend to the Commonwealth, some of which provided for Penny's stipend, with the lion's share going to replace things her power destroyed. With the grid no longer accessible, the system first topped off the deep storage batteries, then replenished the fuel cells. As the power output continued to climb, the heating system, the clinic's MRI, and the gym's automated laundry all cycled up to try and balance the load with the supply.

It wasn't enough.

As the turbines continued to spin up, the voltage in the local grid began to spike. All the lights in the facility, which had initially failed when the grid had gone down began to glow again. They rapidly passing their designed limits, becoming painfully bright to look at. Emergency lighting and failsafe emergency lighting turned itself on as well. Search lights, sirens, perimeter forcefields, Tesla coils, pulse radar, and even a long forgotten sonar buoy began to ping out in the harbor.

One by one, they all violently shorted out, leaving only the flickering light of the the arcing electrical discharges across the gaps left in the wake of their destruction.

Just a little north of the facility, at the edge of the globe, the shadowy figure pushes back its hood and cocks its head on one side. The flickering lights illuminate the cloak it wears, but somehow the face remains as dark as a storm cloud at night. After a moment, it speaks.

"How far the little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world. What art thou who usurp'st this time of night? All hail Mallory, unfortunate one, thou shalt be dead hereafter. And this other one, lesser than Mallory and greater? Not so happy and yet happier? That would be Scann'd. The hour is late. I shall go and see."

The cloak flickers, and the figure is gone.

B Bag o Fruit

Teh Frixz

Gus · Feb 16, 2020

Mallory

B Bag o Fruit

Teh Frixz

As the lights flared all around the facility, Aaron realized Penny must be trying to send a message of some kind, but before he could decipher it, the lights blew out. Exhausted from trying to fight the drain on his energy, he lowered his hands to the ground at his sides. Perhaps not quite carefully enough; the world trembles a little, though he can hardly tell it apart from his own tremors. He places his hands flat on the earth and closes his eyes, preparing to stand.

The siphon to the north lets him go, so suddenly he almost falls over backwards. He bends his attention in that direction, unsure what else may have changed. The slippery presence is still there, sort of. And then he feels its attention on him. It slides over him like a tentacle formed of space-time itself. It glides past him and around him, as if searching for something. And then it is gone, and the space between them is shrinking rapidly, like a camera zooming in for effect.

His eyes pop open, and the ground lurches backwards as he leans forward attempting to rise. He opens his mouth, fighting a rising tide of panic, and calls out.

"Incoming! Everyone take cover!"

Teh Frixz · Feb 17, 2020

Penny

Sparks flew in her face causing her to stumble backwards. A brief flash of panic crossed her face as she stood in darkness. The normal lighting of her little room was replaced with an eerie red glow as emergency lights came on.

“Oh shit...”

Her tv’s, the computer, even the main chonky boy of a communications panel the facility installed was out. She may have overdone it a little.

She inhales, focusing as she attempted to clear the room a bit. The excited particles in the air pulling back and somehow flowing towards her as she cells started to absorb them. The red of the room began to melt away as her body started to glow.

Hopefully it made a little impact but things might have been fucked. Looking over her shoulder she peeks at the evacuation suit room. She could. But really shouldn’t...

Lioness075 · Feb 17, 2020


Name: Samantha 'Sam' Casan	Rank: B
Superpower: Superspeed	Attire: White parka, usual dark grey sweatshirt, bootcut jeans, barefoot

Sam blinked and then stared down at Mr. McNabb, her face bordering on disgust. Mostly because this man was about the most useless person in existence that they had to be stuck with in a dire situation like this one. Her thought process went along the lines of, 'Why me?'

Just then, Mr. Mallory completely ignored Sam's witty remarks and she felt a wave of disappointment wash over her. It really was not worth it to mock someone if they just ended up ignoring what you said.
As he moved his arms and trembled, Sam felt the ground respond in kind and she flinched. She really was not looking to die today because Mr. Mallory had a seizure or something.
Being told to escort the frail and useless man was not what Sam had envisioned as her way of helping out in this scenario. Of all the things she could be doing to help...

Sam was scowling and just about to snap at Mr. Mallory when Manami made her appearance. Sam blinked, as Manami spoke clearly and acted like she was a fully capable adult for once in her life.
Just as Manami asked who she was, Sam replied with, "Who are you and what have you done with Manami?"

The moment was brief before Mr. Mallory was moving and Sam stumbled as the ground moved in response. He really was not helping out in the slightest here. Muttering a curse, Sam became a blur and she rushed forward, grabbing Manami around the waist and rushing her to the cafeteria. As she slid to a halt in there, she let go of Manami and said, "Just stay here, okay?"
Then Sam was a blur once more and reappeared past Mr. Mallory, sliding against the tile flooring to stop herself. Looking down at Mr. McNabb, Sam frowned and said to Mr. Mallory, "I'm fairly confident I might break this man if I move him at any speed faster than me walking."
Frozen with indecision, Sam remained by the side of the two men for now.

Gus B Bag o Fruit

Bag o Fruit · Mar 9, 2020

Allen McNabb//Lazari