Wendy's gadget sticks the monster's slavering maw shut, preventing it from biting her! It flails its tentacles at her, but she manages to dodge the appendages!
86 tries to fire her pistols, but they fail to activate. The creature batters her with its tentacles, knocking her across the room!
Scoping out the vault, Tumbler notices a large metal gong from an ancient Chinese dynasty. She could use her ferrokinesis to smash the credenza-monster with the gong, hopefully flattening it! The more heavy blows the team can land on the creature, the quicker they can end this fight!
Diego slashes at the monstrosity, slicing off some of its tentacles and avoiding the other ones.
Suddenly, the credenza-thing seems to collapse in on itself, then it explodes in a forest of writhing tentacles! It whirls about the vault, knocking several of the objects over and slapping both Diego and Wendy!
***
The Curator frowns when his knife fails to cut Wesley's skin. After a few tries, he looks up at her curiously. "It would seem you have been holding out on me, Cinnamon. You did not tell me you had abilities. Truly you are a wonder beyond most women. What else are you capable of?"
Wendy takes several slaps that remind her of those hard nights standing in front of a mirror—
”I’m not afraid of pain!” Wendy rips her blouse open, exposing a sports bra and perfect abs.
She presses toward the writing mess.
”But you better f%##ing fear ME!”
She stretches her arms out, making herself both wall and target so Carmen can finish the mission!
Diego rolls with the slam from the tentacle storm before popping back up and lashing out again!
The Curator frowns when his knife fails to cut Wesley's skin. After a few tries, he looks up at her curiously. "It would seem you have been holding out on me, Cinnamon. You did not tell me you had abilities. Truly you are a wonder beyond most women. What else are you capable of?"
Wesley numbs herself against the professor's flirting -- if that's what it is -- and remains coy and demure. "It's not something I advertise. Even the Sheik doesn't know," she explains.
"As for the rest of what I'm capable of, isn't the answer only found when we're put to the test?" she says, trying to sound enigmatic but humble.
"This mirror, it's made of volcanic glass, correct?" Wesley asks, trying to pull the conversation and focus away from her. "It's a lovely artifact."
"On it!" Ziss answers on the earbuds as she sets out to find the truck.
As she does and climbs to the driver seat, Ziss seems really small, removing her heels and finding a cushion that Tumbler has left there for her. "Right... D for drive forward... dis isn't dat difficult..."
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There's a sick slap followed by a thunk, and several crunching and crashing things as 86 gets flung across the room against the wall and lands in a pile of random things. Thankfully it seems the armor took the brunt of the blow and she begins the process of digging herself out.
While digging one of her hands falls upon something round and fragile and brings it to her eye finding it a beautiful and somehow untouched oblong spheroid of some kind. A wicked grin crosses her features and her grasping arms quickly go to work as she digs herself from the wreckage. Popping up she roars and tossed the egg now covered in a band of vibrant wires and what looks like a time piece up into her larger arms.
"Operimentum, Terran!"
The device sails through the air as she hefts it towards the beast narrowly missing the flailing wall of tentacles and honestly looking like it was about to go right over it. That is until the timer clicks and the faberge egg stops midair just above the creature hardens into an incredibly dense material and then falls directly onto the creature with a resounding Thwoom! that threatened to crack even the vault floor.
The Curator smiles. "Yes, it is crafted from obsidian. Sacred to the Aztec people who created it," he says, gesturing to the mirror. "It can allow the viewer to look upon any location he is familiar with, but it requires a bit of fresh blood as a sacrifice to function. Since we are unable to utilize yours, I will have to seek an alternate source."
He presses a button on the desk. "Miss Velez, would you come into my office?"
The Barbs Beret has her right Ear-Buddy linked to Wendy’s private Wendy-Wes channel. (Learning how to hack into Wendy’s private channels was easy for the doll.) When there is mention of the mirror requiring a new victim, the doll speaks to Wes.
”You are unable to take the mirror by force?
“To confirm you cannot, begin your next sentence to the Curator with a consonant.
“To tell me I am incorrect, you CAN snatch the mirror, begin your next sentence with a vowel.”
Tumbler grunts as she focuses her power on that massive gong. She struggles to lift such a heavy object, capillaries bursting from the strain and causing blood to trickle from her nose. She won't be able to get it going without a jumpstart - and she's perhaps a little distracted when Wendy decides to ruin the school uniform she let her borrow!
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Two of 86's predatory eyes swivel to see the strange disc like structure start to move up and then there is a satisfactory beeping from the weapon next to her on the ground. With a cackle she scoops up her fallen pistols aims and fires a sickly green bolt of charged ions that burn and break the supports away from the gong removing some of the weight from the metal object.
As Wendy ensures the monster will not damage the artifacts in the vault, it gnashes its teeth and spits out the goopy stuff keeping its maw closed! 86 giving ground allows it to concentrate and regrow the tentacles that Diego sliced off. Before it can attack again, though, Diego hacks at it again, then 86 creates a hyper-dense Faberge egg to weight down the monster. Its form starts to lose stability, becoming amorphous and unstable. Then Tumbler delivers the finishing blow, dropping the massive gong and crushing the beast into noisome goo! The effort of lifting the item takes a toll on her body, though.
Wendy catches Carmen in a princess carry. ”I gotcha… but not the mirror. It’s where Wes is, and that asshoIe professor.”
She looks about the room—can she crawl in the vents with Barbs?
The vents could take Wendy to the Curator's office. Dervish might also be able to teleport her there, but it could be warded against magical intrusions. Now that you've secured the vault, the best way to end things quickly would be to get the mirror and Arcana out and to make yourselves scarce before the Curator or the other villains here can stop you!
Wendy removes her shirt and shoes, but keeps her stockings on. She says to 86, ”I could use a pick-me-up.” She points to a grate in the ceiling.
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With the enemy defeated 86 looks for Wendy-Red and spots her with their other companion waitress? Terrans have odd naming conventions even for aliens but it seemed that Wendy-red was beckoning her over anyway pointing up to a ceiling grate, probably a maintenance shaft of some sort in whatever structure they were in. Confused but with no reason to not comply she knelt down to Wendy, lacing her two large hands together to form a step for her to nestle her foot into. Lifting her upwards in order to reach the grate shouldn't be too hard even easier than she thought given how light the human was.
Once Wendy-Red is sent off on her way through the vent 86's attention turns to the bubbling goop in the center of the room, unholstering her weapons 86 walks over to the deflating ooze pile and snorts, "Decet finem." It's worrying that something like this is here and there is genuine concern that this beast might be some off-shoot of the plague that made it to Tera. Fiddling with a toggle switch on the plasmoid pistol for a bit before leveling the weapon and shooting a gout of plasma onto the remains hoping to incinerate it and keep it from potentially spreading. "Metam three, destroy plague."
They make sure to be quite fulfilled in the task until approached, being thorough in incinerating every little bit that might remain. Should the now normal egg and gadgetry have survived longer than the expected timer it would surely be destroyed now.
While Professor Braithwaite focuses on calling Daniela, Wesley takes advantage of his divided attention. She slips the mirror under the voluminous folds of her niqab and conjures a psychic construct replica in its place.
Wesley is able to perform the swap without Braithwaite noticing. As she steps away, Daniela Velez enters the room. The girl glances at Wes briefly before turning back to the Curator. "Yes, Professor?" she asks.
"Hold out your hand, dear. I need some of your blood," he replies.
"Yes, Professor," Daniela says mildly. Her movements and speech patterns seem oddly stilted, and the fact that she offers no protest to the request seems to indicate that her mind is being muddled somehow.
She steps forward and obediently offers the Curator her hand. He slices it with his dagger before allowing a few drops of Daniela's blood to land on the construct Wesley has created. He stares at the mirror eagerly, but he scowls when nothing happens.
"Something is wrong," he says...
And that's about the time that Wendy makes it through the vents and looks down at the scene unfolding below her...
What do you do?
Wendy crawls into the vent. She tells the others, ”Pack efficiently. Move out. I’m getting Wes.”
In the vent she removes her stockings, then crawls along, and sees Wes with the enemy!
The buzzing of the Barbie doll in her earpiece has Wes worried about the others trying to act too soon.
"Amazing," she comments on the mirror. "But I have to wonder, why not just use a security camera? Blood sacrifices to magic artifacts seem... complicated."
When the professor looks in the mirror, Wesley concentrates and provides an image of the museum's atrium.
"That's incredible!"
Barbs gets a text from Wendy. She speaks to Wes:
”Look up to the vent, Wes. Wendy is watching you through the gate. If you have a gaseous form or other means to get to her, ask the Curator a ditzy question. That will be my signal to cut power. Go to her in the dark. She will open the vent and lower her stockings to you, if you are not with her three seconds after I cut power.
”—which I will do only if you signal me by asking a ditzy question.”
Barbs is ready to cut the power to the Curator’s room.
Tumbler is faint from exertion, but manages to keep herself together thanks to Derby's intervention to keep her from hitting the floor. But she's still out of it - enough that once she gets herself together she realizes that Derby has basically abandoned her position here, leaving her with Diego and a fully unknown if helpful...person? Beast?
"Okay, absolutely not part of the plan for her to run off on her own - everyone start loading the pallets! Ziss, back the truck up to the loading bay and let's get moving," She calls out. "Fast as we can do it!"
With a combination of her magnetic abilities and just physical might, she hauls items onto the pallets, stacking them as neatly and tightly as she can, before huffing and pushing and bringing them towards the loading bay area to wait for Ziss.
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After sufficiently incinerating any evidence of the mimic and her alien tech, 86 looks over to what Waitress and Ace are doing. 'Are they stealing these things or scavenging supplies? Surely these things can't be useful right' They watched for several moments at Waitress's struggles before holstering the pistol and padding over.
"Assist?" The alien asks before placing all four arms on the pallet and shoving it with much less difficulty using mass and genetically and evolutionarily engineered muscle groups to push it to where Waitress pointed out. Dropping low and utilizing her smaller grasping arms and one of the larger limbs to hold and steady the object. Utilizing the other primary arm and her back legs to find purchase in the terrain digging their metal capped-claws deep into the floor as she shouldered it along.
About a minute after Tumbler sends Ziss the message, the rear lights of the truck can be seen on the loading dock. While she did pretty well driving forward from the place it was parked to the Museum, now that she must back the truck up the loading area, she is having some trouble, but she eventually does it, even if as she opens the door, she looks really pissed, kicking the door and immediately regretting as then limps to help the others loading the truck. "Blasted machine..."
"Yes, it is impressive, which was the point," Professor Braithwaite mutters, distracted. He turns from the false mirror and pushes a button on his desk, causing a portion of the wall to slide open and reveal a monitor. Normally, the monitor would display images from security cameras, but thanks to the Beret's efforts, those cameras have been rendered inoperable!
"Damn! We've been compromised!" the Curator curses, slamming cane on the floor! A pulse of energy radiates out from it, and Wesley's psychic construct unravels as the energy dispels the magic creating it. The Curator whirls on Wesley and narrows his eyes. "You! What have you done?" he demands.
***
Meanwhile, Ziss pulls up to the loading bay as the doors open. Carmen, Diego, and 86 are on the other side with the pallets of goods from the vault. They quickly begin to load up the truck, but they don't get far before the doors to the museum open again. A trio of armed thugs emerge, and behind them stand Spinneret, with a sly smile on her face. "Leaving so soon?" she inquires.
Diego helps load up the pallets, making sure to line his own pockets with some choice items. Once done, he collects a few more armfuls of stuff as part of his “personal claim,” before hopping on board the truck!
Seeing Spinneret and her goons, Dervish says ”Eeeey, look who it is, Tumbler! She came back for another round! Must not have gotten enough of a butt kicking last time…”
A bare foot kicks out the vent’s grate, and Wendy is there in sports-bra and skirt brandishing a lasso made of braided stockings and the magical scarf. She whips it at the Curator’s cane!
If her aim is true, the cane should end up in the pocket dimension. (Only Daphne’s friend can remove it.)
When the Curator slams the cane down and dispels her magical construct, Wesley immediately looks over to Daniela to see if she still seemed ensorcelled.
"I think you're busy now. I'll check back later," Wes says as she tries to backpedal out the door and away from him. If Daniela is still around, she grabs her by the arm and tries to guide her out of the office.
Then Wendy drops in. Wesley's heart sinks. It wasn't surprising in the least that the Legacy would want a piece of the Curator, and now she was risking the whole mission by fighting him. Wes had hoped that just by retreating through the museum that she might be able to get away.
This wasn't going to end well. But maybe Wesley's ruse wasn't completely up.
Wesley shoves Daniela out of the office and grabs Wendy tightly from behind, snaking an arm around her neck. "Sheik al Fawari suspected you would need me this evening. You can thank him later. I'll deal with her, you try to find where her little group hid the Eye."
Spinneret gives Diego a disdainful look. ”Oh, please. You’re nothing more than a loud-mouthed hoodlum. I’m not afraid of the likes of you.”
***
Wendy snatches the cane out of the Curator’s hands, causing him to sputter with rage. ”What?!? How dare you?!? You’re one of Wesley’s little friends, aren’t you? The one who thinks she’s a hero like her auntie, when she’s actually just a little girl playing make believe!”
Wes quickly ushers Daniela out of the room before grabbing Wendy. The Curator gives her a grateful look. ”Make sure she stays contained! I will return swiftly!” he rushes out of the door, but stops on the other side and places a small cube on the floor. A force field springs up around the room, sealing all the exits, including the vents! Then the professor moves down the hall and out of sight...
Dervish conjures up a psi-blade. ”Lieing to yourself? Not a good look, Spinny,” he counters.
Wendy is hurt at first, but quickly follows Wes’ lead.
…and she’s not surprised her hair dye didn’t fool anyone. The price of a reputation.
“What are ya gonna do?! Report me? YOUR illegal activities are on MY camera you sleaze! All inadmissible unless YOU involve the authorities!
“I’m not make-believing anything! Stay the f&@% away from my friend!”
A vape bomb drops from her skirt—
—and as the cloud goes off she says to Wes, ”Let’s bring her—proof of mind control!”
"Quiet! Just be quiet!" Wesley hisses in Derby's ear. She doesn't let her go, even after the bomb is released. "I have the Eye, we should go now. Join the others. I don't-- I don't think we can rescue Daniela tonight. You with me?"
”Yes. I got bigger proof than her.”
"All right. Hang tight."
Tumbler is on the beach. She hears someone screaming but can't understand who it is. Her body feels so awful, her arm numb and someone's belt has been squeezed around her upper arm. Her hand is so black it gives off a blue hue to her vision. She's pretty sure her fingernails were falling out. In a moment, she realizes that the person she hears screaming is herself. Uncontrollably and horribly so.
Tumbler shuts down. It's like someone has cut her strings as her posture sinks, unable to do anything as she relives her trauma, the stench of her poisoned flesh all she can smell right now in Spinneret's presence. She stares catatonic out into the distance, past the actual Spinneret.
Ziss is more than surprised to see a Treznak on Earth and even more of seeing them helping Tumbler and Dervish to load the truck.
When she is about to question the several 'whys' of the situation, Spinneret appears and while she doesn't know who she is at the beginning, Tumbler's reaction quickly clears any doubt.
Reaching for her purse, Ziss grabs a carefully wrapped gummy bear and throws it at the Treznak. "Nunc autem comede!"
She then activates a small device on her purse that emits a disturbing frequency that would make anyone in a 60-foot-radius around her be overwhelmed with fear... well, anyone that had not ingested the protective nanites she smeared on the doughnuts she made sure everyone ate before starting the mission, and that was also on the gummy bear!
"Tempus ingentis rugitus, Treznak!"
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Seeing Ace fall into a offensive stance and conjuring a blade of some kind against this new entry 86 begins to go for their weapon when Wendy-Red's other companion Waitress simply collapses in a heap. That seems an odd response to stress given how they faired against the other beast, and this was just another member of their species so that felt especially strange. 86 grabbed Waitress by the collar and dragged her back to the vehicle bay out of the immediate conflict zone.
And then there was another human speaking... fluent Treznian this was certainly strange. Barely having time to react to the thing being thrown, 86 looks at the small gummy in her palm and grimaced before popping it into her mouth with a sickened look.
Quickly searching the pallet for something that would be a good base they grabbed what looked like a miniature being made of circles surrounded by suspended white fluff in a thick hydrogen solution. Diego and Ziss would see the hulking alien pick up a snowglobe, drilling a small hole into the top with her vibro-claw she injected a solution into the hydrogen orb giving it a violent shake. Throwing it shortly after Ziss activates her device. Letting out a bellowing war cry at their apparent foe.
"Sanguine et Furore ad Bellum Regina!"
'S too much to hope that she just needed the head...
Megan/Amazonia stalked in after Spinneret. "I'm disappointed, Spinneret. Did you step in some heroes and track them into the house?"
One of us needs to grab Carmen and jet, one of us needs to get out safe afterwards... Actually, Diego and I are probably the best two at either of those.
Noticing that the solution inside the globe hasn't mixed really well, Ziss yells to the Treznak as they are about to throw it. "Projice eum volubilem..."
Megan/Amazonia stalked in after Spinneret. "I'm disappointed, Spinneret. Did you step in some heroes and track them into the house?"
"Bay City's lousy with them. But there will be a few less after tonight," Spinneret says with a wicked grin.
That's when several things happen. First, a portal opens up and Wendy and Wesley emerge in a cloud of smoke. Then, Ziss's device emits a high-pitched shriek! Spinneret's goons cry out in fear as they stumble away, dropping their weapons. Finally, 86's cryo grenade detonates, filling the loading bay with freezing mist!
You've got a moment to yourselves, but it won't last long. What do you do?
Wendy sees Carmen is out of it. ”Move!—everyone!—NOW.” She scoops her up and zips into the van.
”You did great, girl. Proud of you,” she says as she’s in the van waiting for someone to drive.
Wesley decides it's time for Arcana to make an appearance. The clouds of mist coalesce and surround her as blue energy glows from within. She rises up into the air as her power crackles and surges. Though no one will be able to say what she looked like behind the swirling vapors and thrumming energy, no one will have any doubt that Arcanum is here.
Barbs is quick to take a few pictures—Cerberus—the remains of the mimic—86’s glass coffin…
By the time she’s outside, Wendy is boarding the van. She runs and leaps in!
From in the van, Wendy sees Wes would rather fight than flee.
Or is she just trying to complete the mission?
She’d rather fight too, if she’s to be honest.
Ziss starts to run to the truck as Wendy asked, but then she sees Wes charging up her power. She grabs her sleeve, trying to pull her towards the van. "Arcana, we can't win here... dere are sooo many villains inside, dat every second we waste here, de bigger de chance we'll get overwhelmed... we'll gain nofing by fighting Spinneret!"
"Then DRIVE!!" Wesley shouts if it seemed like everyone was bugging out. Arcanum throws up a large barrier as she starts to float in the direction of the van.
Ziss smiles before reaching the driver seat again and looking back into the van to check if she can get them out of there.
”Yup,” Diego says before shooting the bird to Spinneret while blowing her a kiss before vanishing in a flash of crimson light!