[dice=Coin Flip ('1', has cup; '2', does not)]1d2
** spoiler omitted **
Enyo pauses and stares at Theo with expectation. Not receiving an immediate reply, she says, "Don't you see?"
And, then, exasperated, "Just drink something from the cup and look at the mirror."
"Ha! Boy, did you pick the wrong crime to stop, super-dummy!" says the salesman, Mr. Really Cheap Suit. Then, turning to his client, Mr. Cheap Suit, the salesman says, "And you'll get to see these killing machines in action."
He pulls out a pad and tries to turn on his army of 20 androids.
The very attractive male and female androids 'turn on'. As they are activated, they say things like "Why, hello there!" and "What brings a nice guy like you to a dumpy warehouse like this?"
"Attack them! Sic! Get them!" commands the salesman.
"Well, if you say so," say several of the unarmed, partially clad androids as they begin to walk slowly and seductively towards you.
"I'm out of here!" says Mr. Cheap Suit who came here to buy an army. He tries to slip out across the lawn.
** spoiler omitted **
She sits down on the bed.
"I met with the President. Well, mostly with her chief of staff, but I had a quick handshake with the President and a short conversation with her."
She pauses and gulps.
"They want me to run TAROT. With Greer gone they need someone and I've already got clearance and I know the project so it all makes sense."
She smiles and blushes a bit.
"And, you know, President Wallace said that, as she is the first woman President of the United States after almost 450 years, she thinks we have a long way to go towards equality."
The buyer who ran onto the lawn is surprised to find the vegetation is alive. He is, quite wisely, more intimidated by it than Charles. Plants lash out around him. Since Charles pursued him onto the lawn and into the darkened area, one of the vines attacks Charles.
Dozens of the androids slink towards Verve asking her if she'd like to grab a drink or go somewhere more quiet. The salesman with the touchpad is still searching for the button to activate combat mode. He's having trouble finding it as lanky shirtless male android is running his fingers through the weapons dealer's hair.
Verve and Charles can hear sirens in the distance.
There are as many large wooden crates in the loading area as there are androids.
“Aaaand… it’s kinda related something I’ve been meaning to tell you. We’re actually one of 22 known worlds that have a TAROT team. I wanted to introduce you to the Marshall who runs TAROT on a world called Turokh.
“Now that you’re the head of our world’s TAROT, she’ll definitely wanna meet you!”
Nissa adds, eager with anticipation, “So, you said ‘yes’… right?”
"drop the tablet our I'll drop you." Verve said, one of her crystals hovering above her hand.
The plant that attacked Charles missed, but the guy who announced his intention of purchasing enough androids to take over a mining colony in space is now being strangled by Assassin Vines(TM) on the lawn.
"22 worlds? Like other reality worlds? So, one for each of the Major Arcana?" asks L.C. before adding, "I spent four hours studying tarot on the Infosphere after Colonel Greer first contacted me about the joint research project with TAROT. It's not like I've ever had a reading done."
"Well, yeah, I said yes," she says, looking less excited about it than Nissa is. "It's a good job for me. Just because I can do the tech stuff doesn't mean I have to spend my life being ordered around by people who can't. I mean, at one point Moore was trying for that job. Can you imagine? I had to say 'yes'."
Nissa fears she knows why, but she asks anyway.
Verve sends the crystal she had floating above her hand into the Assassin Vine.
As his, er, space-dinosaur head bites at the vines, his fox-like head says to the man, "You used this place as a secret meetup spot and didn't even know to avoid these things?"
Meanwhile, his jaguar head calls to Verve, "Maybe you can lure some of those things over here to distract the vines!"
** spoiler omitted **
Charles says, "You used this place as a secret meetup spot and didn't even know to avoid these things?"
"I told him to stay on the driveway and in the light," shouts the salesman.
Charles slices through one of the vines attacking the buyer.
Charles suggests to Verve, "Maybe you can lure some of those things over here to distract the vines!"
Police vehicles roar to a stop outside the warehouse, lights flooding the area. The plants retreat from the light. Three or four automated news drones arrive a minute later and begin filming the scene as the androids begin to try to pick up the police officers.
“President Wallace likes me? Especially me? She said the especially part… any particular reason why she singled me out? I mean, I voted for her, but she probably doesn’t know.”
She tries to relax. Did they give L.C. the same order they have Greer? But Scarlet has psychic powers… it was about the mind-reading.
"It's fine now. I'm sure these officers will be able to take things from here." calls out Verve, before turning to the man who was holding the tablet and saying "you're not planning on resisting arrest, are you?"
L.C. bites her lip.
"I think we're going to need to think about some stuff. I'm going to be your boss, Nissa."
She glances at the bed.
"I mean, not until noon today, but ..."
She shakes her head.
"I've called a meeting for 1:00 on the Flight Deck. To tell everyone."
He grins stupidly a bit and then looks at the drone and says, "Channel 5, could you send me that bit ... I'm looking to do some kind of commercial ..."
The police thank Charles and Verve for putting them onto the place and assure the heroes that the footage from the spy drone captured the arms deal going down. "You'll be needed as witnesses, of course."
"Drinking from the cup, should let us see this Dickens gatekeeper. It will let us see this as a gate. Or a haunt. Whichever it is." You both have drunk from it, of course. Enyo squints and stares at the mirror. Slowly the bearded Victorian author's image appears in the mirror. He seems to be beckoning to you both, as if inviting you to enter the room he's in, which is changing, losing colour, but also becoming a hotel room instead of a hotel lobby.
"See, I knew it, this isn't a ghost, it's a--" the smiling Dickens image changes. His beard lengthens, his fingernails grow, his teeth becomes fangs, and he lunges forwards, reaching his incorporeal arms towards Enyo and Theo.
"Okay! Nope! That's a haunt!! My mistake," says Enyo.
“Y’know… Greer and Scarlet were ordered not to date, but they never stopped feeling for each other. And the longing showed—I barely knew them, but I knew that—which is the reason I thought of Scarlet after Greer…”
Nissa can’t bring herself to say ‘died.’
“So yes, we should address this now. Because what was forced on Greer and Scarlet was so wrong, and I always wanted to say that, but… it’s too late now. For them.
“For us, you could be my girlfriend, my boss, or the woman the government forbids me to date like a homophobic parent, but no matter which, I’d still take a bomb for you. Nothing can undo the spark I felt the moment you smiled at me and extended your fingertip with the Bombshell on it.
“So here’s my super-strong opinion on the best way to handle this situation:
“I’ll be your supportive girlfriend, keep it professional at work, follow your orders and trust you not to show favoritism… these are all things I can do, easily. I want to.” She holds L.C.’s hands, if L.C. permits. “And the whole team knows how I feel about you, so there’s no impropriety. The team knows we’re an existing couple—including Kai—the new person.”
Nissa looks at the bed.
“So… assuming that Madame President has not given an order that damns us to an unbearable relationship-purgatory, how about we do like any other coworker-couple, married or not, would do if one got promoted past the other…”
“…celebrate!”
Around 5AM, Kai, Verve, Charles, Theo, and Nissa receive a message from L.C. Preston to meet on the Flight Deck at 10:00 AM for some news.
Nissa and L.C. are late.
“Heh… I could’ve sworn you said one o’clock. Not ten.” She then says, before arriving at Boston Scientific. “Loving you means I won’t kiss and tell, and I’ll address you as Dr. Preston in the workplace, or by title if you prefer.”
As Nissa steps onto the flight deck, her irises are a bright baby blue—almost like her natural eye color, but unmistakably, glowing. In addition to the usual luminosity, Nissa gives off a different kind of glow with the expression on her face.
Theo ducks out of the spirit's reach in time. "Listen fu<ker!" A moderately inebriated Theo barks at the mirror. "We're nephew and niece to our lovely Uncle Hades, God of the Underworld! You wanna be Cerebus's newest chew toy, you fu<k!"
"Of course officers. Happy to help. I do have a few questions now, if you don't mind?"
After stashing the black box in the omnisium vault and setting up monitoring systems, Kai finishes packing and goes to bed. Kai's sleep is only temporarily interrupted by the 5 AM message, so Kai shows up bright and early around 8 AM on the Flight Deck, compact travel backpack being carried by Legion.
Kai greets whoever happens to be around, then goes to check the readings on the box.
Noticing Enyo favoring the place the spirit slapped her, Theo asks, "Should we take you somewhere to check out the ghost owie? Shall we call it a night or continue our debauchery?"
"Verve," asks a camera drone, "Channel SuperheroWatch here. Could you tell us what you're doing at abandoned warehouse surrounded by the police and half-naked ... um ... sexbots?"
"Of course I will be happy to give a statement to the media, but first I need to question these alleged criminals."
Verve pulled the two men into the warehouse and started with "Which of you owns this warehouse or rented it?"
"You'll be able to call your lawyer from the car," says the police officer, putting cuffs on the gangster.
leaving the side area, Verve allowed the cameras to see her then said "While the investigation is still ongoing, there are a few things I can share. I and my friend were alerted by Police to activity at this warehouse, which is being guarded by rather dangerous plants - we had discovered this during a previous incident and were keeping an eye out for further activity. The fine officers in the BPD alerted us to something happening here, and we responded."
As she talked, Verve walked over, picked up the dropped tablet, powered it off, and handed it to police.
"What caught our attention was that this warehouse was being guarded by this thing" Verve picked up a rock and flung it at the Assassin Vine to show it reacting.
** spoiler omitted **
"Yeah, always remember your cup when you go looking for gates. The elves have a rhyme about it.
A drink to help you find the door;
A sword to help you open it;
A torch to light your way within;
A coin to buy your way back home again.
It rhymes in Elven. And sounds more serious too. It's also three times longer."
She hiccups.
"Everyone in the lobby is staring at us."
"Just a bit of harmless genetically-modified shrubbery, folks," smiles the salesman.
After stashing the black box in the omnisium vault and setting up monitoring systems, Kai finishes packing and goes to bed. Kai's sleep is only temporarily interrupted by the 5 AM message, so Kai shows up bright and early around 8 AM on the Flight Deck, compact travel backpack being carried by Legion.
Kai greets whoever happens to be around, then goes to check the readings on the box.
The next morning, early, Kai checks the readings show that the long thin crystal within the black box pulses about once every five minutes. It's giving off the type of electromagnetic radiation Kai finds around objects taken from wreckage of other the transdimensional encounters. As it pulses, it's sending out a burst of what could be data, but certainly isn't binary. None of that is getting further than the edge of the omnisium vault.
The crystal shard was like nothing Kai has seen before. It looked like it had been broken and then the pieces bound together by omnisium metal. Red Shirt Labs made the black box, but it's unlikely RSL made the crystal, if it is even technological.
Kai doesn't encounter anyone on the way from the cells to the lab with the omnisium vault.
She gets quiet for a bit.
"I can't believe he's gone actually. I've barely had time to think about it."
She tears up, then looks surprised at something, "Hold up ... did you say the Colonel had at thing with Scarlet Meadows? How did I not know this?"
Verve calls upon her power and uses it to push one of the androids into the assassin vine.
"Ummmm..." says the salesman.
"Woah, slow. down.... there." says the android, his voice failing at the end as the plant's razor sharp thorns slash through the circuitry beneath its realistic skin.
The news drones hover towards the salesman as the police drag him away. They bark questions at him about killer vines outside his warehouse, the illegal trade in androids, and his connection to the man attempting to purchase the androids.
“Yeah… Dwane and Scarlet were an item until Greer was given an order not to see her. Scarlet told me that bit. The rest, I figured out.
“And I knew she would be crushed, and yet she helped… and y’know? Here’s Scarlet going through this, and she’s reading my thoughts which were—well, y’know… I had a lot on my mind. And yet she told me what happened to Greer isn’t my fault.
“I don’t know if she really believes that, but it was kind of her to say.”
Nissa adds, “She even stayed after I left, to work with a sketch artist. We’ll have to take a look at that when we come in—errr… after the meeting of course. If I make you later you’ll have to fire us both.”
Describing the crystal as best as Kai is able, the questions pertain to its origins, nature, properties and possible means of conveying it to this world.
Kai also attempts to analyze the output of the crystal.
"Good thinking," he half-whispers. "I was trying to think of a way to help you out, but... I didn't think drawing attention to the fact that you were working with a seven-foot-tall four-armed monster-man would have been good in the middle of all that."
"You should be prouder of who you are. You're amazing." said Verve as she patted Charles on the arm.
"I'm proud of you, at any rate. I don't think I could have gone through what you did and stay as good a person as you are."
It isn't a big story on the news the next day, but Hawks News host Con Sanity has a field day with it. He mostly just shows video of the scene and asks, "What are they thinking, these so-called 'super-heroes'?" He then cuts to footage of his favorite superhero Red State whose only power is making things self-combust.
Channel SuperHeroWatch, however, starts with a report from the police. The police officer Verve put onto the warehouse is on stage with his Captain. He looks like he's about to be promoted. The Captain says that they are still investigating but she credits Charles and Verve for preventing what may have been a terrorist attack. The Channel SHW report ends with footage from a whisper drone that snuck up on Verve. It captures her saying "You should be prouder of who you are. You're amazing. I'm proud of you at any rate." They play it several times and post the video of it on their portal where everyone who needs to hear it knows where to find it.
Ron has put a plate of bagels and cream cheese and real coffee on the flight deck.
Kai is the first one to arrive. Kai also found out something last night.
The bear is more helpful and less mysterious than the masked man, "We'll be heading back to Tarokh with Mr. Moore today. When we do, we'll be opening the portal with this. As for what it is and where it comes from, there are different theories. My friend Gears says these are batteries. An elf I know believes they are shards of the crystal ship piloted by the celestials to the center of the Shuffle to bind together the Tarotverse and all its subdimensions in one navigable realm. Mr. Mysterious over here calls them 'wands'."