Date: 5:38:13 PM, March 22nd; 6:16:57 PM, March 29th, 2015.
Metal Man (GM): Recap. Last time, the Questers went to Alsa again. There, they activated the defense system of Capital City so as to disable the GUN Remnants there from interfering. The Questers have taken up temporary shelter inside the ruins of a distant GUN airbase, one that was destroyed by Xavier quite a while ago. The plan to mine the ancient wreckage for parts to re-equip the Wing Fortress to take on the Time Cop fleet is nigh. Lessee. Some other pieces to remember: The group gained "Joe", a semi-friendly GUN soldier who defected due to lack of food or... anything from his home faction. And that should be it. Might take this a bit slowly, since I seem more... energized than the others, who have variously been afflicted by being busy or obligations or stuffz. Continuation. Xavier is sitting there by the parked fleet of vehicles, as he contemplates the ocean. The sun is bright, there aren't any GUN people coming, and some faint metallic objects can be seen inside the blue yonder.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Hm... how are we to get out there from here... ...and why did I willingly decide to go into the ocean when I hate water..."
Gelato: *He's bringing his ham over to Joe, continuing to tend to him.*
Joe: *Eats some of the ham* "Little did I know when I signed up for this that I'd be out here, eating ham with traitors and Questers... this is a strange year."
Santigue finally walks out from wherever she'd been previously, likely under a floor panel inspecting... Everything...
Joe: "Yes, actually..." *He'd set down the rest of the ham.* "I'm just unsure what to do next."
Metal Man (GM): Xavier would gesture at Santigue.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Hey... can you go underwater?"
Santigue: "Yes. My gear allows that, why? You saw me survive in space."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "We have ships that are underwater to deal with. I figure your prying bar can help us steal everything inside them."
Santigue: "Probably."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "They have weapons we need... better than what we currently have."
Santigue: "Yes. Pocket, Gelato. We may need you."
Gelato: 'Yay, pocket!' *He hops over and slides in, snug as a bug.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Only other data point is that these places might have defense systems, but I doubt they're worse than the ones we just got through trashing on the mall planet."
Santigue: "So long as there are no 80's here."
KitRedgrave: "2080s maybe."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "While these Time Cops can tend to have 80's in them, I would consider them some sort of... yeah... Much more... futuristic."
Santigue: "Perhaps they will have a Vox Relay." *She'd put a cookie into the Gelato pocket.*
Gelato: *She could hear enthusiastic crunching coming from it.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Once we have everyone gathered, we can take a look. We can probably deal with the lack of air with some of those suits we had... this is all shallow waters. Back when I last looted them, even, it was as shallow as to be above water, but the tides shifted and the ships settled into the sands."
Santigue: "Probably." *She'd put another cookie in the same pocket.* "Shouldn't have gotten much worse. Could likely freedive from the sound of that."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Yeah... Borne destroyed the ships near the beach so they'd remain nearby. He looted them before I did, but because he didn't know the tech, he missed the choice pieces. And these successor people don't even know as much as he did. Outside of automated defense systems we should be cool."
Santigue: "Borne sounds terribly destructive in his free time."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Borne has destroyed many things, and before Garrick slowed his roll, almost did destroy several moons worth of things. ...Inside these ships, we will find advanced laser cannons and emitters. Devices the old Time Cop Fleet used."
KitRedgrave: "I hope they're still usable after all this time."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I can repair them, at least. I think I can. If Illian can't fix 'em, then we can find somebody... hmmm... what will we do with Joe anyway? We can't leave him alone with our ships, but we can't easily leave the ships alone..."
Metal Man (GM): Ederick? walks over.
Ederick?: "Leave me here, I'll keep them safe."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Ah, right, forgot he was here, that should work."
Santigue: "Who are these people anyhow? Why've I missed everything?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "You got lost inside the Wing Fortress a while, then when we landed our ships here, you were inspecting my limo for soldering flaws in the wiring. Trying to inspect it can take a lot of time."
Santigue shrugged. "I must've been tired or something. And. Who are these people, once again? Are they heretical?"
KitRedgrave: "Wow, that's dedication. You know you're working hard when you forget that you've spent that much time..."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "That guy is actually Borne." *Points to Ederick* "Joe is... ... not Heretical, he was being forced to work with terrible people."
Santigue still looks confused, shrugs, puts another cookie in her pocket. "Riiiight... So he's a proxy heretic."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Let's see. With all of you then, we can get to the wreck. But am I forgetting something???"
Metal Man (GM): Ships start flying overhead... weird, blue ships. One of the ships is the old Quester ship, not that anyone currently active would know what that is Icly.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Oh... right."
Ivan: *R* "Sorry for taking so long, but you said something about how you needed that ship here and everything." *R* "I don't recognize most of the people with you, but since you aren't carrying Illian's colors, I can be certain it's you."
Xavier Ridgecrest: *R* "Yeah, just park the ship here. Did you have any issues?"
Ivan: *R* "I saw a couple police helicopters demand us to tell them who we were. So we carefully captured them in tractor beams, disabled their helicopters, disarmed them and turned the people loose in the nearby woods so they wouldn't bother you."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "...Yeah, that should help ensure no GUN Remnants bother us."
Ivan: *R* "By the way, this place is nowhere near as deadly as you kept telling me it was. Nobody even got in our way to fly out here."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "You missed the part where everything was exploding."
Ivan: *R* "Anyway, I'm a busy scientist, and this area doesn't need much else other than what I've sent. I'll leave some men to ensure you aren't hassled while you're... 'mining.'"
Santigue: "Mining..."
Metal Man (GM): Some dropships land and some... weird, Nintendian Toads with Laser Blasters casually set up a perimeter around the base, making it safe.
Ivan: *R* "Ah... some sort of talking... ...being... that's interesting."
Metal Man (GM): Mario Toads, to be specific. Battletoads, while appropriate for the role... haven't been used in SSQ before. Yes, imagine Toads yelling army things at eachother. Thanks to that, Santigue will most likely be imagining all the chants done by an army of Toads. They do seem fairly... seasoned, despite being short beings. You can only guess no one will mess with the airport now. The new old Quester ship lands, with giant paint describing it as the "Fy'aar"
Santigue: "Xenos... I'm surrounded by... Xenos..."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "What a funky name. Well, this ship is the best one to fly to the ocean with."
Metal Man (GM): Xavier goes to walk aboard the Fy'aar, gesturing to the others.
KitRedgrave: "I think that's not gonna change anytime soon..."
Santigue follows, with Gelato in-pocket.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "This way, Santigue. There aren't any Xenos in the ocean. ...I hope..."
KitRedgrave says that AS one of the filthy Xenos. :P
Santigue: "Better not be. Uhg..."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I know Valron had this all customized to fit his claws or something, but that last mission made him really tired, so I'll fly." *Grabs the joystick and spins it around. Nothing happens* "Oh... that's only active when the recovery claw is active..."
KitRedgrave: "You sure we can fly this thing? ...Without making it a mess of improvised controls and/or setting us all on fire?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "...Mostly."
Santigue: "For the record, I'm uncomfortable with this."
Metal Man (GM): Xavier presses several buttons and the ship flies into the air.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "...I just realized the irony of this, too. I'm flying a ship, named the Fy'aar, and I'm intentionally going to land it on the ocean. In case you didn't know, it's named after a man who thought he was the master of piloting ships, then proceeded to crash this very same ship into the ocean. Over in that corner looks to be a piece of the legendary smithing table he built and then was destroyed and forgotten many years ago." *Is speaking through the inside speakers like a flight announcer* "Some say he is, and others disagree. I don't know, to be honest. Thanks to Garrick's inability to fly ships, this ship has a special feature."
Metal Man (GM): Xavier presses the Autopilot button after putting in the coordinates.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "So... ...that would be why it's not going to crash like most of my ships do. Also it can fit all of us... ...also also, I see a docking bay sticking out of the water. We won't be quite as soaked as we would expect."
Metal Man (GM): The ship flies towards a giant collapsed mega-spaceship.
Santigue: "Still not comfortable with this."
KitRedgrave: "Well that's convenient."
Metal Man (GM): Valron, presumably, would have been wordlessly watching the proceedings until now, not finding anything wrong enough to comment about... yet. XP The ship would casually go to land, opening a bay in the middle of the floor. It would then land atop the metallic opening, one that was normally sideways but now sticking up into the air.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Ah, right, that's the one, the same one I ripped into and stole things from a while ago."
Valron: "...In all honesty, I hadn't even considered the irony in the name, but that's amusing enough for me to let slide." *Chuckles.*
Gelato: *He wiggles, ready for action... having absorbed every bit of those cookies.*
Metal Man (GM): The door is rusted shut, with the deep kind of rust sitting in the ocean for ages does.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I believe this door is ready for Vitamin Crowbar."
Santigue looks down at her wiggly pocket. "Hyper?" She'd walk over to look at the hatch, pulling out her halligan bar and starting to pry at it. "Halligan bar... Not crowbar."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Right, right... I forget sometimes."
Metal Man (GM): The door slowly begins to creak open, some pieces falling off of it. The rooms inside have been set on their side, making it sort of a drop (but not too long of one) to get inside. Some dim lights can be seen inside, plus a smell of corroded metal.
Santigue keeps prying and pulling to get them wedged open before stepping back. "There we go."
Metal Man (GM): Xavier casually climbs down and then drops about 5-7 feet, landing on something that makes a loud cracking noise when he hits it.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Wow... it's dark and crunchy in here."
Santigue flicks on her helmet lights and seeks to climb down somehow with her tools rather than potentially breaking through a rusty floor-wall.
Valron turns on his visor's lights, before going to drop down as well.
Metal Man (GM): Climbing down, you'd see Xavier standing on some crunched up floor-wall, inside a room that's got some water sloshing about on the ground. And a sideways door ahead, rusted shut, plus some red emergency lighting that's so dim it may as well not exist. There's another sideways door going back, but it appears to be buried in debris. A few specks of light come out of the parts facing topside, due to rust holes.
Santigue looks down at her pocket. "Debris or the other door, Gelato?"
KitRedgrave would don one of the probably-good-for-this-too spacesuits, and just kinda featherfalls down to join you.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I'm equally torn as to which way to go, given this ship is sunken sideways and I can't tell which end we're closest to."
Valron: "And I take it it's not going to exactly be easy to distinguish between the two ends, or...?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Well, I don't know anything off the top of my head that would help."
Santigue: "Gelato's awfully quiet..." *She'd go over to the debris-laden door and start digging.*
KitRedgrave: "Hm... it seems we need a map of some sort. Didn't you have one on the Smash Dex when you were last here?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I had a Smash Dex, yes."
Metal Man (GM): Xavier turns it on in the dim darkness and scans.
Smash Dex: "DING! Time Cop Ship."
Metal Man (GM): He then pokes buttons.
Smash Dex: "Unable to generate map; no data."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "...We could hope we find a computer to download a map from, maybe... Samus style."
Valron: "...I'm not exactly surprised. That thing was never good at maps."
Metal Man (GM): The debris starts getting moved out of the way, slowly.
Valron regardless, he goes to assist with digging out the debris.
Metal Man (GM): The door's already bent open, and underneath it is a room with a few more lights in it, but also even more debris. It looks really wet down there, too.
Santigue digs out enough to squeeze in and tries to do so. "Water..."
KitRedgrave: "We could... if there is one. If not, we could always just cheat if we have to. Would rather we not get in the habit of doing so, because it probably damages the universe or something. I dunno."
Valron: "Mmhh... I'm sure we won't really need to, though."
Metal Man (GM): The water fills the area over there, but you can squish inside it. It seems to open up after you go a bit into the water. It's lit up in here, some ancient lights defiantly glowing white into the dark murky water, only obstructed by a bunch of metal pieces and rocks, since the ship ran into some on its way here.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Cheating it would be nice, but I figure we can figure it out ourselves..." *He would go to dig at the buried area as well.*
Santigue: "Don't see much down here. Might want to go the other way, yes, you can Gelato. Look in the little places for things of use."
Metal Man (GM): Inside the buried debris is another door that goes sideways... let's call it "North"
Nonna: "How are you holding up?"
Gelato: *He quickly wiggles out of her pocket--the pressure doesn't bother his gooey little body, as well as the lack of air. He quickly starts doggie-paddling along, right into the ship!*
Metal Man (GM): Hmmm... how to handle Nonna's side with the current side simultaneously... don't want to get it too confusing, so I'll get to the side Nonna is at in a moment. There's the door to the North down there, or that door back the other way that hasn't been opened. Down in the muck and dirt, the only other door is one that continues downwards. That one appears to have a giant hunk of metal jammed into it.
Valron: "Not surprising, given where the ship's been stuck."
Gelato: *He paddles over to the closed door, trying to see how it opens.*
Metal Man (GM): The closed door... you mean the North door, or the downward door? (Confusing, but that's what I expect for this wreckage) Or all the way back by the beginning closed door?
Santigue stands by idly, waiting on Gelato to figure things out.
Metal Man (GM): The North door as it were, is just closed. You can push it open without much help.
Gelato: *He body-slams it, trying to push it open!*
Metal Man (GM): It slams open. The water is sucked inside and everybody in the water would slowly be moved towards a more open area that looks like it was the main part of the ship. A really open area with catwalks everywhere and large platforms... all sideways.
Valron: "...Ah. Well, then."
Metal Man (GM): Of course that means you can only stand on the fairly precarious railings and walk sideways across them. It's a pretty long way down, too.
Valron: "Tad precarious..." *Glances around, letting out a soft hum as he examines the room.*
KitRedgrave would free up room on said precarious railings by just flying over to the side of them and looking around.
Santigue takes that bed, climbs on one of them, and starts walkin'!
Metal Man (GM): Xavier carefully walks on it, as it would become a bit more clear that the large war effort was here. At the bottom is a giant mass of destroyed armor suits, smaller ships and tanks.
Santigue: "Well, there's plenty of stuff down there for you to use, if you don't mind scooping the fish out of it."
KitRedgrave: "I'd be surprised if there's anything useful in all that if it's been soaking for that long."
Valron: "I... wouldn't be too surprised. They seem like the sort that'd make their stuff last, even in spite of a couple years of neglect."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I'm going to vote 50/50. That stuff may be of use, but it isn't going to be the most useful... ...most importantly, we have no way to get it all the way up here."
Valron: "And there is that, yes."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "The main reason I wanted the guns were they would be on the outside."
KitRedgrave: "Not things that heavy, no."
Metal Man (GM): He points across a gap with which there's no more railings to walk on, then a door on the far side of the wall.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "If I read that sideways writing correctly, the Engineering and war room are over there... but there's this 25 foot gap we have to cross without anything to walk or climb on..."
Gelato: 'What next?' :D
KitRedgrave: "...yeah, that kinda makes it hard on you. Maybe there's something here we can fill that gap with."
Gelato: *He peers across the gap...*
KitRedgrave: "There is one way but it's kinda mana-expensive."
Valron: "Let's see... Gelato and Kit can probably just fly over to the next room. Not sure if I could, though. Don't think I have enough room for that. And besides, there's always Baton Toss for those who can't fly."
KitRedgrave: "Yep, that is exactly the plan."
Santigue scratches her neck, starts looking for the supports that hold 'up' the catwalk and seeks a way to a wall that-way.
KitRedgrave: "It gets expensive if you want to go BACK, though."
Metal Man (GM): The supports under the catwalk occur at continual intervals, a little long to reach across but feasibly to try to create a better bridge with if you have something to do so with...
Gelato: *He's already Kirby-flying across.*
Santigue decides to just wait for them to come up with something.
Metal Man (GM): Gelato gets across without too much difficulty.
KitRedgrave: "We could maybe try bringing some of this junk from below up. Sure to be some flat bits that might support your weight. Or we could cut up some catwalks for you."
Valron: "I can just cast Baton Pass from my book, so... it wouldn't be expensive for me. Just a little time-consuming."
Santigue: "I was going to climb down one of the supports and tool-walk the wall over, honestly. I think it might work that way... Not sure."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "You know, if we had a blunt enough object, maybe we could punch holes in the catwalk and make it work like hand holds."
Valron: "That could work... Now the only real question is, does someone have something like that on hand?"
Metal Man (GM): Xavier digs through his armor. He takes out various objects.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Sword... golf club... DVD launcher..."
Santigue: "Well... I can punch holes in things... Got my axe and bar."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Maybe you can punch some holes with it, then. The golf club isn't quite hammer enough to do it."
Valron: "Seems like the most sensible choice."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "So, I guess, just punch us a few holes and we should be able to get on over, Santigue."
Gelato: *D* *He sits on the other side, waiting for them.*
Santigue: "Right o." *She'd take out her axe and use the flat head's corners to start beating through everything to make hand-holds.*
Metal Man (GM): Xavier would follow. On the other side: Another door, though this one is rather blinky. It looks like it actually has power now. Weird.
Valron: *Follows along, of course. He does pause once he sees that door is powered for some odd reason* "...Huh."
Metal Man (GM): The open button is there, too, all... lit up.
KitRedgrave: "...oh this has got to be a trap or something."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "That is pretty fishy..."
Valron: "Did you really think it was going to be that easy?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Nope."
KitRedgrave: "Would've figured everything would've run out of power by now, but maybe the main core's still going."
Santigue hops off the wall or catwalk or whatever and follows along with everyone else.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "So... anyone want to push the button, or think we should do something else?"
KitRedgrave inspects the door with her magesight. Maybe there's some sort of tripwire or something. "Did you make it to this section last time?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Nope."
Metal Man (GM): The door appears to just be normally powered, but behind the door appears to be a bunch of cylinders that suggest some sort of machinery.
KitRedgrave: "Door doesn't look like it has any curses on it, but there are some suspicious-looking cylinders on the other side. Let me see if I can pull the transparent door trick again. You may want to stand back... well, about as much as you can. If there were a bomb here then that'd be a pretty good play of them."
Gelato: *He wanders backwards, blinking.*
Valron: "Noted." *He makes sure to stand back a bit.*
Xavier Ridgecrest stands back as well. "Ready when you are."
KitRedgrave would carefully start casting Alter on the door, making it look like it's made of transparent glass instead of steel. From the side of the door, so if there were some laser or something it wouldn't fry her or trigger anything. Paranoia!
Metal Man (GM): A laser turret inside the door turns and opens fire at the door. The door makes some loud noises as that laser turret hits the door, but since the door is shut it can't really get at you. Some really broken alarms sound, as if the remnants of an alarm system with waterlogged speakers are futilely sounding the alarm.
KitRedgrave: "Well, so much for 'stealth'. Does kind of make it hard to get inside to turn it off though."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I'm not sure if the dead corpses here are as lively as they were in that mall."
Metal Man (GM): It continues to shoot lasers in vain. The door takes some more damage.
Valron: "Can't just Panel them, I take it?"
KitRedgrave: "You think maybe it'd just run out of juice? Not sure if I have the range to Panel it."
Valron: "Well, I'd think that if you could see it, that it should be in range."
KitRedgrave: "...Oh. Inside the door. Got it. Right then." *A Panel to calm down the pointlessly firing laser turret, as well as see if there's any backup traps in the door.*
Metal Man (GM): The turret turns off, deactivated. Other traps... ...you do detect something else in there, it appears to be some sort of 'robot defense system' inside there.
KitRedgrave would just go ahead and look at that one a little closer, to see if it's safe to deactivate.
Metal Man (GM): It's... tricky. The robot apparently has some degree of advanced AI. Trying to tamper with it will activate it, but so will not turning it off. The only good part is that it's been sitting for quite a while in the rusted hulk of an area. The others could see the windows facing the open sea, blurrily visible through the transparent door.
KitRedgrave: "...we got robots on the other side, most likely. Can't turn them off, or they'll just get mad instead. Hopefully they're too rusted to do anything."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Oh good... Alsan... or Time Cop... or both at the same time robots. Do we have anything to just fry 'em with, or shall we go blow them up in person? ...Or mystery option 3?"
Valron: "I'm guessing it'll still get mad, regardless. I'd say it's worth a shot, but... Eh. In any case, I doubt it's too rusted. Might not be operating at its' best, but still going to be annoying."
KitRedgrave: "Mystery option 3... is I just try to brute-force cut off the power and hope for the best. Too many security checks to try and trick it. Hopefully at worst it has a very damaged battery that won't last very long."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Hm, yeah, give it a couple zaps of Panel before we deal with it."
KitRedgrave would go and sever the power link. Or attempt to, if that's even an option in here.
Metal Man (GM): The robot's defense systems prevent it from working, costing you a Panel. However, you did disrupt its behavior, causing it to activate and begin to search the room for enemies.
Gelato: 'What should we do if they get mad?' D:
Metal Man (GM): It cannot yet see you.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "...Let's hang to the side of the door so it can't see us. If it gets mad... we blow it to pieces, Quester style. That said, this world of stealth works just as well for me." *Leans to the side.*
Valron: "Agreed."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Maybe we could... lure it over here and push it to its death? It's a pretty long fall, anyway."
KitRedgrave: "Even if it doesn't die, it probably can't get back up here anytime soon."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "So, who opens the door? And when?"
Metal Man (GM): The robot continues bumping around in there, unsure who was screwing with it.
KitRedgrave would go and create another Fox McCloud distraction in the room, and choreograph it running through the door opening at the right moment away from the robot.
Valron: *Just makes sure to stand aside so the robot doesn't see him and accidentally screws up the plan.*
Metal Man (GM): The robot chases after it, being fairly unable to figure out what's going on. It nears the door, making rather loud stomping noises and beeping "DESTROY INTRUDERS" The door is still shut at the moment.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "...I get to push the button, don't I."
KitRedgrave: "Would you? Thanks." :P
Metal Man (GM): And now a commercial break while I wait for Sorcerynet to un-split. I'd do Nonna's side, but she's on the half of Sorcerynet that split away.
KitRedgrave: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJqpaprs1 -A Commercial!* :3
Metal Man (GM): Ok... now that the network is done exploding...
Xavier Ridgecrest pushes the button.
KitRedgrave has Fake McCloud go for the button at the same time, and trying to get out the door as quick as possible away from the shover robot.
Metal Man (GM): The robot lurches out the door, figuring that hologram is its real foe. However, it fails to discover that there's no floor where it's going, and ends up lunging after it into the abyss. A rather loud crash is heard at the bottom of the shaft, followed by no more robot noises.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Hmf. Good riddance. I'd hate to waste time shooting my valuable ammunition out of it." *Quietly puts away DVDs of From Justin to Kelly.*
Valron: "...Right. That worked out quite well, then." *And with that, he enters the now robot-free room.*
KitRedgrave: "Heeheehee. I love it when a plan comes together." *He follows on in.*
Metal Man (GM): In this room: The aforementioned magic cylinders, Time Cop tech is all over the place. And an interesting conundrum: There's laser cannons all right, but they're externally mounted. It's possible to open a hatch to get out to them, but they're out there in the water.
Valron: "...Huh. Well, that'd be a bit annoying, but... I can just go out into the water with little trouble. Though, ah. How difficult would it be to actually get the cannons once they're no longer mounted?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Hm... I'm getting an idea... it involves large balloons... ...Magical balloons... wait, no... we could have the ship grab them once we get them loose..."
Valron: "Oh, so no real big deal. Shall I go and loosen them, then?"
KitRedgrave: "Tractor beams would be the thing. I guess we needed to come down here to loosen them up from this side."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Yeah."
Gelato: 'Let's use balloons! Let's use balloons!' *Boing boing boing.*
Valron: "Alright, then. Will do." *And he goes to make his way out from the hatch, going to head into the water to get to work on the cannons... While making sure he keeps his footing in the water. Good thing he doesn't need to care about such things as 'breathing' anymore.*
Metal Man (GM): Upon going to do that (using the still-functional double-door system intended to work in space that, thankfully, is still powered) you find that there's some electrical conduits that connect them to the ship you can't sever safely outside. Since... water and all. However, you easily loosen all the bolts and such. Those are half rusted away, anyway. The guns look pretty forlorn with their huge rust deposits and bits of seaweed on them, anyway.
Valron: "If one of you folks could de-power the conduits so that I don't electrocute myself, that'd be great."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Hmmm."
Valron: "...That aside, I think we're gonna be in for a bit of work restoring these things."
Xavier Ridgecrest: *Looks at the machinery.* "Ah... that's right."
Metal Man (GM): Xavier flips open his left arm's metal cover, revealing his time device. He types some things into it and then looks at it, then types some other things into the console of the ship's device, causing the conduits to spontaneously TIME... I mean disconnect properly.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "There. I was wanting to do something like that earlier, but I can't wirelessly type into consoles. ...Yet."
Valron: "Alright, then! Thanks." *He then gets back to work, going to finish up loosening the cannons now that the conduits are de-powered.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Seems good enough." *Cracks his metallic joints* "That was... not the simplest, but I think good enough... anything else in here you want, Kit?" *Picks at the electronics* "Nothing much seems to be left, to be honest. These power cylinders are too volatile to just remove..."
KitRedgrave: "I don't think there's gonna be much of use here we can find anytime soon. Would rather look at a specimen that hasn't been sitting in the coast for who knows how long."
Valron: *Once he's done getting the cannons all loosened up, he nods to himself, before going back in* "So, are we good on returning to the ship?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Yeah. I figure if we stay too long, we're just asking for trouble."
KitRedgrave: "I think so, nothing much more we can get out of here for now."
Xavier Ridgecrest: *He'd go to climb back to the ship, casually stepping across the hand holds.*
Valron follows behind, also making judicious use of the handholds.
Gelato: *He flies right back across, hopping onto Valron's shoulder when he arrives.*
KitRedgrave just Midna-style floats across like no big deal.
Valron: *He shoots a nod to Gelato as he plunks down onto his shoulder.*
Metal Man (GM): Getting back to the ship is easy enough. Xavier warms up the engine and casually moves to get the laser turrets out of the water with the claw.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I forget. Since we finished the war, there are no real... problem people left to accost us here on Alsa."
Metal Man (GM): He glances to Kit.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Anything you think we should do before we leave Alsa, anyway?"
KitRedgrave: "There's a couple more things I wanted to do. Maybe you'd like to tag along?"
Valron: "...Oh, huh. They installed a claw on this? Well, good to know we don't really need to just have to use its alternate form for carrying these back. Anyways... What'd you have in mind, Kit?"
KitRedgrave: "I think I figured out where Sonic and the others got lost at."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "We're already here, so we can probably help. Yeah... I told Ivan what we were doing prior to him coming out here. It's partially why it took him so long to get here."
Valron: "Do they need to be rescued again?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Hm, so you did... I guess that might be relevant, because I doubt that leaving them wherever they are without investigating would be the wisest decision."
KitRedgrave: "Not really, more like told they can stop hiding. Or, would need to be when we finish cleaning up here. In any case, it's some sort of weird dimensional gate thing. I was gonna look into it, but it's probably better if you come with me in case it sends us somewhere weird I can't just cheat out of."
Valron: "Aahh. I see, I see."
Metal Man (GM): The ship grabs the guns, then goes to carry them over to the airport, where Nonna and the others are. It is... pretty much uneventful, so far.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Well, we can probably secure the weapons to be sent back into the portal, then discuss with Nonna and the others what to do next."
Valron: "Sounds like a good course of action."
Metal Man (GM): The ship lands, and sets the parts aside. Xavier walks out and surveys the area, finding things as they were left beforehand.
Nonna: "Welcome back."
Metal Man (GM): Now the only limit is that I'm feeling a bit sleepy. Might want to pause after a few more moments.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Hi again. We got the laser guns, leaving us with... plenty of time to contemplate what to do next. Seems like opposition is much less... thick now that Ivan's people are here."
Metal Man (GM): Joe would be continuing to sit around, rather downcast. Erderick? is off to the side, discussing things with one of the Toads.
Gelato: *He immediately marches over and snuggles with Joe.*
Metal Man (GM): Joe sighs a bit, one hand on his chin.
Joe: "Still unsure what will happen to Capital City. You guys can't just invade it, but if nobody does something about the people who run it, there might not be anything left to live in in a couple years..."
Nonna: "I think he still needs time to adjust."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "He's been living a nightmare for a while, I believe. So yeah."
Valron: "Yeah, I'd imagine..."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "We heard from Kit there's a portal to where the relatives of Kit live, Nonna. It may be that if we could bring Sonic and them back, this nightmare could end."
Valron: "Or at least be a step or two closer to ending. We've still got quite other problems to deal with on here, after all."
Nonna: "Well, that's good to hear. This place is... unpleasant."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Most importantly, they could act as a native force to defend this area, because GUN itself... seems to be a bad institution, anyway. No offense to Borne, but 9/10th of the people who've ever served in it seem to be insane maniacs on par with Charles Magellean... Yeah. You know, Nintendus was like this once."
KitRedgrave: "Really?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Of course, we had a huge allegorical fight with giant flying hands and stuff to help signify the entire battle with it, then Illian had to kill Kuja a third time, then everyone had to go here and rebuild Nintendus again. It only was truly rebuilt due to going back in time and preventing the destruction from happening. That said, unlike Nintendus, the magic of this place isn't gone. It's just... not being used."
Valron: "I thought it was being guarded by a demon in its' core or something equally problematic."
Gelato: *He curls up on Joe's lap, taking a nap while the adults talk.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Yeah, we should probably go destroy the demonic entity down there too..."
Nonna: "Run into any trouble?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Security systems... Kit toasted them. Security robot... Kit lured it into the abyss. The ships have been soaking for years now. Anything competent dried up a while ago. There was a great abyss, Santigue made a nice walkway across it."
KitRedgrave: "It was a team effort, really. I wouldn't have thought the abyss trick would work."
Valron: "Good to see it did, though."
KitRedgrave: "Indeed. Thank Xavier for coming up with it."
Valron: "And I mainly just went outside and actually got the lasers out... once Xavier de-powered the conduits, anyways."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Heh... don't mention it." *He holds a hand behind his head.* "Gelato didn't get to do too much... oh, wait, Gelato got to open the door for us, so there's that."
Nonna: "Security systems in there, after so long?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Time Cops tend to consider time something that their systems must survive. More would be online had I not pillaged the engine to that place years ago... or was it months? I forget."
KitRedgrave: "I'm surprised it was still active. That's a long time to be without the main power core."
Valron: "Long-lasting auxiliary power, I guess."
Nonna: "Hopefully it wasn't indicative of something else."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "The question is, who would be doing that? Sloan isn't a Time Cop, other Time Cops haven't been here for a while... I don't know who would be doing that, especially in an area we couldn't seem to access without doing a lot of archaeology."
Valron: "Bit of a pain, that..."
KitRedgrave: "I thought we already kicked everyone who could do that out already... or would have-already did-time-travel-tenses-are-hard."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Pretty much. So, outside of visiting that spot Kit mentioned, I think we're pretty much set."
Valron: "Sounds like we've got our next destination set, then."
KitRedgrave: "Set for now, anyway. We'll have to make time to really clean this place out for them." *He totally does not even heed the fact that Joe is right there and could totally get GUN to... ...do nothing, because they can't do anything about it.*
Metal Man (GM): And I feel like pausing now, since I've run out of gas for the nonce. That said, I now have a good idea of some more actiony stuff for next time. Pauzei. Also will deliver EXP before the next one, and prep for some sort of battle... I'm thinking battle, though it may not be of the hostile battle kind... perhaps just more of a practice sparring thing.
Metal Man (GM): Recap. The Questers were on Alsa, looking for Time Cop weapons to juice up the Wing Fortress with. While most of the Questers went off to the wreckage to go investigate, Nonna stayed behind with Ederick? and "Joe." Anyway, they're hanging out over there, by the Spirit of Vengeance, waiting, currently, pretty simple setup. Ostensibly out there in the distance is Capital City and the GUN remnants trapped inside the field as well. Continuation.
Ederick?: "It's... eerie to be here." *Stares at the city* "Feels like I was last here a lifetime ago..."
Metal Man (GM): Joe would continue to sit in the Spirit of Vengeance, staring blankly at the wall.
Nonna: "And you still want to save it?"
Ederick?: "I built the defenses... I saved it multiple times. Even now, it is still salvageable. My people aren't in there--those people who disobeyed me are. If the traitors could be ki--pacified, then the entire deck of cards could be reshuffled, and once again, I could defy the odds. The main issue is I do not wish to have to lead them for all eternity. For what is that? A horrible life of bureaucracy, continually forcing people against their own nature to cooperate. That is the only reason I haven't so aggressively pushed things. They began to look to me as some sort of God. And I do not wish for such a position in anyone's mind. That's the sort of thing my mother or father would do... and you might know what happened to them."
Nonna: "What is a country without its people?"
Ederick?: "Well, it's not really a country. Technically the country I led is out there in the X-Zone right now. Sort of ironic that I had to copy from what the Mobians did. I wonder if they didn't come back because where they hid was better than here."
Nonna: "What I'm saying is... even if we win these buildings back, and get rid of the bad people, what is there? Without the people you wanted to lead and protect, can it really be considered your city anymore?"
Ederick?: "Well, I would just bring my people back here once the bad people were removed. Continuity of rule and all. It would be the ultimate revenge against Garrick and... yes, Ederick too."
Nonna: "And you know where to find them?"
Ederick?: "Yes. Inside the X-Zone, in the defense zone I placed them. Had to move them around due to Sloan attacking, but he was chased off by Illian and I was 'dead' when I went to move them the second time... The reason the whole area is so abandoned is because of how many people were evacuated."
Nonna: "So we'll need to contend with Sloan before we can do that, too."
Ederick?: "Potentially, although he's not been sighted in this realm since the Illian Event. Granted, once he realizes Psycho Illian isn't ready to kill him, he could try to return here."
Nonna: "And one more obstacle."
Ederick?: "Though..." *He holds out a GUN computer.* "The intercepted information I got suggested he went outside the realm when we broke the seal on it... I've been tracking the comms when I can. He betrayed me, so he must die, you see. He was my Corporal, my spymaster, the one who ensured all my missions succeeded. Until he slipped away and became a spy for himself."
Nonna: "It's about Joe. He was working for the bad GUN, but until we actually got up close and personal to him, we never would have known he was an unwilling combatant. Just... how many others are there like him?"
Ederick?: "I can guarantee plenty. If we give them a choice and return the original GUN here, these fools will most likely buckle underfoot. They built this shanty town of a fake GUN to play cops n' robbers. Most of them aren't even high rankers from the GUN I ran. They were the ones who, somehow, survived staying here during the occupation by Illian and Sloan. So they're all wild-eyed and messed up, 'survivors'... you see them glorified on TV shows, but the reality is, anyone who does nothing but survive and forgets the future is an idiot."
Nonna: "Pardon me for asking, but what is your reason for coming on this journey with us?"
Ederick?: "Ah... you actually pay attention, don't you. The Questers rescued me from the ruins of my plans, when Garrick and Illian blew up my ship and destroyed my attempts to defend this city. Dragoshi... Valron I mean, defected from Illian and revived me, and then I used the Black Ship to destroy most of the enemy fleets that were attacking the planet, and gave Illian serious pause. At the time, afterwards, I wondered if I really belonged back here, and in further adventuring have seen that perhaps I do not. I don't know where the other place would be yet, but I can see that staying down here... damages one's perspective."
Nonna: "So, aside from restoring your people back here, you don't know why you're on this journey."
Ederick?: "Not so much, no. To be honest, I expected to be dead."
Nonna: "That's okay. Finding a reason or having no reason at all is just a valid a reason as any."
Ederick?: "Down the way from here is the facility where my self-preservation research was done. After many attempts, the cure was finally successfully made, and thanks to the Questers, I finally got it. Garrick's main mistake in stopping me from using a clone of his body is... well..." *He flexes a hand, showing off the nanites.* "It forced me to finish the older work on repairing my nanites. But of course, I did everything expecting to die and pass on the work to my own creation--the 'Defenders', whose name I confuse with Illian's Protectors. The Defenders though, were short lived, as they had no reason to work together. I had mistaken the Questers' random collection for being something that could just be... copied..."
Nonna: "Do you plan to live forever?"
Ederick?: "Not so much. As a machine, I strictly see life in binary terms. Once my function is accomplished, I can turn off. However..." *He holds up a hand.* "As a machine, I don't really need to stay off permanently. If one day a threat as massive as Robotnik, Time Cops, or the Alsan Questers or Sloan showed up, I could be reactivated... should anyone want to go out of their way to do so."
Nonna: "You make it sound like it's out of your hands. I don't care what threats there are, or what functions there are remaining. What do YOU want to do?"
Ederick?: "The last time I had clear wants, was when I was here, consolidating my power against the weak Marley government and ending the threat of remnants of the cultists Jack created. I spent my time building monstrous machines out of Eggman's remnants, cataloguing the history of Alsa... But every time I want something, someone else comes to violently try to smash it to pieces, like Garrick, the Alsan Questers, and Sloan and Illian did. It is better to not have such a weakness anymore."
Nonna: "Strange, I didn't take you for someone who cowers from the shadows of your enemies."
Ederick?: "Organic tendencies to need to look 'tough' in the face of suicidal odds don't apply to machines. To try and demand things despite the inability to do so without them being smashed... that was a thing Julian did... and Sergeant Levis smashed him and his dreams into a fine powder. On this planet, an entity within the crust can smell if you have dreams, and conspire to end them sooner than you can figure out what's happening."
Nonna: "Life is in itself a war of your desires against the desires of others. To give up on dreams and desires is to give up on life itself; throwing in the towel without a fight. Letting the other team win by default."
Ederick?: "Desire... a fundamentally organic emotion. I was made in emulation of an organic being, one that hypothetically could have existed. I tried to emulate that so much that nobody could tell the difference between me and a normal human. And all I got for it was death. The second time... that was when I was justified. I was saved from death because I was doing the right thing." *He would dust off his uniform.* "Panzer told me similar things, when she overthrew Anthon Tark's attempt to conquer this place and set me back here despite being dead at the time. In the end, though, if I have nothing I want to do now, then there isn't anyone to defeat me; I don't have any desires beyond completing the restoration of things to how they were without Alsan Questers, Sloan and others' destruction."
Nonna: "It will take time, but you'll eventually find something, and you'll feel it for real. How is Joe holding up, anyway?"
Ederick?: "The way most survivors of being with 'survivors' do--shaken up and stunned. He's no longer physically ill and weak, but his mind is still un-snapping from being with those savages."
Nonna: *Yawns and stretches* "I guess I'd better pay him a visit then. Sorry for bothering you."
Ederick?: "It is all right." *He stares at the buildings.* "With what I'm used to, a discussion is far less aggravating than... well, those maniacs who invaded my hometown and built a gladiatorial arena and mafia casino atop it."
Nonna: "Don't let it aggravate you. You're stronger than that." *She'd head into the Spirit of Vengeance.*
Ederick?: *He continues to observe the city as that goes on.*
Metal Man (GM): Joe is busy staring at the wall, not moving very much at all.
Nonna: "Hey. Are you seeing something in that wall that we can't?"
Joe: "...Huh?" *He seems to wake up from a trance.* "No... just... the memories... the things that happened..."
Nonna: "Well, I can't give you any particular advice or anything, but the people who did all of that to you won't be allowed to get away with it. There's even a nice place you can relax in once we're done here, with a nice beach."
Joe: "It's... mostly just..." *He pauses.* "You know when people you thought were your friends turn out to be monsters?" *He trails off.*
Nonna: "Do you regret feeling like you could have any friends?"
Joe: "Not so much... it's more just seeing the world I knew... destroyed. I had a family... some of them vanished. Others were killed..."
Nonna: "So a lot of these problems were... recent?"
Joe: "Fairly so... last year or two."
Nonna: "That's uh... news to us. When did these changes start? Did some new people arrive whom you had never seen before?"
Joe: "After Borne vanished, Sloan's men moved in. They ripped everything apart. A group of us, the people who refused to leave our homes, began to die off. The few who remained were only the most... well, resourceful. Unfortunately, that included leaving others to die, since anyone who was too slow had to be left behind. Or at least, so Jane said. Everyone took to following what she said, regardless of how ruthless it was. We... changed as people. It was thought that perhaps, nothing would ever be normal again, and so, there was no limit to what we could do in the name of self defense. Killing anyone, no matter how young or old, if they happened to be in our way or have supplies we needed, became routine. I abstained from most of it, but in order to do that, I had to volunteer for all the most dangerous defense duties... and the enemies I faced... they were far from human. Monstrosities and robots left behind by Sloan and activated by Illian, including some strange whispy elf people who fired evil curses that would make people slowly die agonizing magical deaths that were impossible to cure..."
Nonna: "Is Sloan still around?"
Joe: "No. His men were left behind, he ran away so fast that none of them really knew what happened to him. A handful of them began to make their own fiefdoms, since Sloan couldn't control them. Over on the other coast, I've heard some of them have made their own 'kingdoms'... and though some of them are as barbaric as Sloan, most of them aren't. We traded with the less insane ones."
Nonna: "What spooked him, I wonder..."
Joe: "The most I could glean was that some of the stragglers who were on Angel Island sent back panicked radio messages that said 'A Vengeful God Has Awoken AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH' or similar."
Nonna: "Also, you said you recognized my uniform earlier... it's best not to bring that up for now. Things are just going to get complicated if that got out."
Joe: "Oh, I see." *He taps his foot.* "We had a situation like that ourselves, you know... most of us were Marley's men, not Borne's. In the event his people came back, they'd probably try to kill us all."
Nonna: "Perhaps I'd better do this in case anyone else there notices too." *She's inscribe a Gebo rune on herself to change outfits.* "There we go."
Joe: "Yeah..." *He would cough.* "Part of the reason we did what we did was so that if the Borne people return, they wouldn't be able to ask them what happened."
Metal Man (GM): He would take out an old nametag.
Joe: "Jane killed several Borne soldiers just to collect these uniforms for us... it was awful. Borne is dead, otherwise he would probably do unspeakable evil to her over such a thing, but his men are still liable to do evil things..."
Nonna: "I'm sure if you're truly sorry, and... got out of there too, they wouldn't do things to you."
Joe: "Well..." *He would glance to you.* "The Questers came here and decided not to slice me into a million pieces. That in itself is a miracle. If Borne's men do appear, they aren't likely to try to fight you guys. Sergeant Levis died, and unless he has a hidden mystery brother or son around, none of Borne's men other than Borne himself would dare fight Questers anyway."
Nonna: "I'd appreciate it if you could let us know which people are which when we deal with this problem; we'd rather avoid creating unnecessary victims."
Joe: "I will make sure to do so. Those who are on my side are less likely to... get in the way, but with me pointing them out, we can avoid doing things like Jane did..."
Nonna: "And don't worry about the bad people, we'll protect you from them. So just.,...take whatever time you need to recover and think."
Joe: *Nods.*
Nonna: "Hopefully they come back with good news..." *She'd nod and head back outside.*
Joe: "Yes... hopefully."
Metal Man (GM): And.... Pause.