Spoiler: A Caged PhoenixGreen Lantern's stentorian voice softened a bit when he answered your first question, losing some of the stiffly professional edge. "Honestly, I'm not sure. But...well, I've learned in my day to give credence to J'onn's instincts." Much though he might have been a prisoner to the Green Lanterns as an organization, Earth's Green Lantern was, himself, a Justice League alumni. He knew J'onn as the Martian Manhunter.
Evidently, despite everything, he still considered his word to carry weight.
He nodded at your request, waiting patiently while you finished things up. Once you had returned and asked how you were going to get there, he only gave you a bemused little smile. The next moment, the two of you were surrounded in a vibrant green energy construct. It had the outer shape of an oversized fighter jet, but inside there was room to walk around and couch-like seating sized large enough to fit you comfortably. Though it was all made of the same energy, the cushions of the "couches" were soft and plush, and he had even left some openings in the backing to allow for your tail. The construct was largely opaque in most places, but some sections were nearly entirely translucent, offering windows to look out of.
With nothing more than a thought from the Green Lantern, the jet took off. If you closed your eyes, you wouldn't even notice you were moving - there was no sense of acceleration or inertia. But if you looked out the windows, that illusion would be shattered into smaller pieces than She-Hulk had left the outdated buildings in.
You were flying through space. And not just a quick jaunt up to a space station, either. Earth shrank behind you at physics-defying speed, the planet dwindling down to the size of a gold ball, a dot, and then becoming lost to your site entirely. By the time you could find the sun, it looked no differently than any of the billions of other stars that went zipping past you like fireflies on a race track. In sparse seconds, you could see the whirling lights of the Milky Way trailing off behind you. Less than a minute later, and the galaxy itself might have been a single star in the night, as far as your vision could tell.
"We should be at Oa in a little under ten minutes," Green Lantern said as if he were giving you a ride to the local supermarket, taking a seat on one of the couches and leaning back, relaxed. "Is there anything you'd like to discuss in the meantime?"
Spoiler: Lotus Hacking...You know, it was actually kinda hard to say. One of the problems with predictive algorithms was that they got less and less useful the fewer variables you had to put into them, and as you ran your mental model on possible results of entering the Lotus Breaker, one of the first things that became clear was that you were still just scratching the surface of the ancient magitech. There was more to learn before you could really make a strong prediction.
Based on what you did know, though, you felt certain that you wouldn't be able to release yourself from it internally. That was easy enough to figure, considering what you had to go through to get Katie and Rachel free of it. You could be confident but not certain (supra-90%, as your grandfather would say) that your failsafes could get you out, since you had the helmets on hand to set them up. You could be similarly confident that if you did put yourself inside, you would experience the same sort of virtual reality that Katie had been exposed to, and fairly confident that it would be drawn from your own mind and as such...not particularly fun.
What you couldn't be certain of was whether the machine would cause some manner of harm to you. Without someone directing it it presumably wouldn't actively drain energy from you the way it had from Katie, to fuel powerful combat effects. But you couldn't be sure that it wouldn't passively drain energy from you to power the suits. If it did do so...there was a question of risk. Power didn't come from nowhere, after all. Superman got charged up by the rays of a yellow sun. The Flash had the Speed Force. Mutants had {honestly I have no idea what the explanation is for what powers mutant abilities, but let's be honest Sarah probably does}. And a wizard like Katie had a personal pool of magical energy. Call it mana or essence or life energy or aura or whatever. Point was, they were all able to produce or tap into some greater-than-biological energy resource to fuel their powers.
And while you absolutely tapped into an extremely powerful energy source to charge your technology, it wasn't quite the same thing. If this machine tried to drain energy from your body, you didn't really have evidence to say that you had some sort of greater reserve. If it tried to suck as much energy from you as it had from Katie, and you didn't have that kind of reserve, you'd be putting your life at risk, even with failsafes.
There might have been ways to mitigate that risk, but you couldn't predict them algorithmically; you'd just have to settle for good ol' fashion ingenuity for this one.
Spoiler: OOCFor the record, I'm not saying for sure that Sarah doesn't have some manner of powerful spirit/life force/whatever that could tank the drain - and she's got Fortitude 8 and Will 14 just her if I'm not mistaken, so if anything that's suggestive that she very well might. I see that as more for you to determine, but I figured it would be at least a concern, and one that Sarah herself may or may not know for sure.
Spoiler: ...That's Your Evil Plan?Well, you called it. The teller gave you a slightly-brittle smile and said, "Oh, yes, there does seem to be a bit of an issue with the account. One moment please, I think this one will need to be passed up the chain."
She stepped away from the window and into a door leading back to the offices. About a minute later, she came back out with a slender, dark-haired man wearing a very nice suit. Like the bankers you had seen, you had no trouble placing him as a demon. He regarded you intently as they approached, clearly studying your appearance closely, but the flicker of an uncertain frown passed across his face. It appeared your illusion was still holding strong.
He came out from around the counter, leaving the teller to return to the window while he approached you. "Good day, ma'am. I understand there's some trouble with your account. If you would follow me, we can get that all cleared up," he said smoothly.
Spoiler: If you choose to follow himHe lead you into a private office, asking you to take a seat and offering you some water while he pulled something up on the computer. "Well let's see here...it looks like this account has been inactive for quite some time. We've placed an administrative hold on it, to protect against identity theft. It shouldn't be any trouble to clear up. We'll just need you to answer a few questions about your prior usage of it, and provide two forms of photo ID. That won't be able trouble, will it?"
Spoiler: OOCWhether you follow or not, Gethsemane is subject to a Mind Reading attempt at [roll0]. If you fail to resist it, please include Gethsemane's surface thoughts with your next post, and continue doing so until you can make a DC 20 Will save to end the contact. If you fail by two or more degrees, he uses the first round's question to learn Gethsemane's identity. This effect is Subtle 2 unless resisted, so if you fail the check Gethsemane isn't aware of the attempt, but if you succeed she is.
Spoiler: Happy ThanksgivingWanda returned your hug, but you could feel a tension in her body. "Pumpkin pie, huh?" she asked. In a voice that was about two-thirds self-deprecating amusement to one-third concern she said, "Just...fair warning I don't really...cook much."
Aunt Judith just laughed and handed her an apron of her own (this one reading "Your opinion wasn't in the recipe") and said, "Well, you'll fit right in then!" as she went back to kneading the stuffing.
Wanda gave a little laugh and put on the apron, before going to wash her hands and then stepping up beside you. "Alright...what am I doing?" she asked. There was a slightly uncertain smile on her face...but it didn't reach her eyes. You could recognize as well as anyone the signs of someone putting on a cheerful face for the benefit of others.