Mutants and Masterminds: The Found IC

[Sliver]

MetaSoul glanced at the Detective for a moment. "The sorceress was trapped there for two weeks. In this time she was controlling her own body without knowing that she was controlling a shapeshifted Skrull, and everything that she witnessed was being recorded. We can't assume that we got the element of surprise at our side, but I believe there are no more Skrull among us. I have seen it..." MetaSoul then turns around and looks at a blank spot.

[Lost Demiurge]

A sonic boom follows a streak of gold flashing out from the city, jabbing toward Claremont Academy. It does a quick whip-round of the Skrull vessel, before stopping and hovering ten feet from the ground by the allies.

Judging by the mask, it can only be Doctor Dire.

However, the armor is different... Golden, glowing, seemingly made out of energy... And on the left hand, a gleaming yellow ring, barely visible against the gold armor.

The ceramic mask turns. Shehe surveys the ground for a full second, left arm held up and fist clenched, before nodding at Cael and the other Legacy members there.

"WELL. NEW FACES, LITTLE TIME FOR INTRODUCTIONS. IS THERE A PLAN IN PROGRESS?"

[Sliver]

"Eiko is setting up a device to teleport us inside..." Metamorph informs Dire "You aren't going to freak out and randomly attack us like Sentinel up there, right?" Jake looks at the ring. "When did you get that?"

[Lost Demiurge]

"ATTACK RANDOMLY? NO. DIRE DEPLORES SENSELESS VIOLENCE."

She kills the flight, and lands, flexing her knees to catch the weight.

"SENSIBLE VIOLENCE MUCH MORE EFFICIENT."

"RING EVIDENTLY THOUGHT THAT DIRE WAS MORE EFFICIENT AT CAUSING FEAR THAN LAST BEARER. AM TOLERATING THE INSOLENT BAUBLE FOR THE MOMENT. MAY DISINTEGRATE IT LATER, IF IT PROVES INSUFFICIENTLY USEFUL."

And Dire stops speaking, as her eyes light upon Athena. For a long minute she stands there, staring at the armored figure...

Finally...

"DAUGHTER," with a respectful nod of the head.

[Green Bean]

Seeing the rest of her team arrive, Ellen flies over. "Uh, hi guys. Long time, no see, apparently. I gather that since there's only one me here that you've dealt with my doppelganger?"

[Sliver]

"Not as well as it dealt with Dire's base." Metamind speaks up "It might become a tradition, going out with a bang."

[Unkabear]

Cael nods. "It looks like it. Dire, the situation right now is that" he has to force out the words "Next Gen" if his face had features his expression would have matched the distaste in his voice "is going up onto that thing by themselves to sabotage it from the inside. At the moment we are all just sitting here like ogling tourists. Though I would recommend some sort of statement that would draw their attention to us and allow the kids a chance to do something."

[Sliver]

"What?" Little Jake exclaims "No their not! We-" He motions at Navigation "-Were at their world, we defeated two of the super Skrulls, one of them used your powers, Legacy. They were alone that time, and defeated with numbers. Distracting a ship?! Finding out there was a Skrull among you caused you to lose your mind or something?"

[Unkabear]

The Detective looks at the little Jake. "Next Gen is already on its way. What would you rather, they go in there while we stand around with our pants down and they get slaughtered? OR, would you rather do what you can to bring the fight to us gaining that ships full attention and give them a fighting chance of disabling that ship without dying horribly?"

[Sliver]

"What are you talking about?" Jake points at Eiko working on the device "I'm talking about going in and bring the fight to them! Are you so thrilled about more destruction here when we can force them to take the defensive stance and crush them there?"

[Unkabear]

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This may be something, but to my knowledge, the teleport pad to get into the ship is in the science section of the school, and the rest of us are standing around outside on the lawn ogling this giant ship that has appeared through a wormhole. I thought the two groups were separate. Are they not?

Right now our powers cannot get through their shield, and only the dimensional teleporter could or something like that.

[Sliver]

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The Navigation group has appeared right in front of the science building, and there is a portal that Jake maintains to where Eiko is working on the device.

[SuperMuldoon]

Skidding to a halt, Synapse observes the rather chaotic scene. He sees Dire arrive rather spectacularly. "New look Doc? Have to say, I kinda liked the cold emotionless gunmetal...this gold isn't really your color." he says with a grin.

"Uh, hi guys. Long time, no see, apparently. I gather that since there's only one me here that you've dealt with my doppelganger?"

Synapse looks confused. "Wait what? Did I miss something here?"

[Sliver]

Synapse - You might want to respond to the fact that Ashley is here as well.

[Green Bean]

"Apparently, I was kidnapped and replaced a couple weeks ago by a Skrull. I've been unknowingly remote-controlling my duplicate from another dimension's moon up until a team of teenagers with attitude rescued me about five minutes ago." Ellen scratches her head. "And apparently, I've joined a career where you can say something like that with a straight face."

[Ladorak]

Look Pain, another one, that's four now. This one's a little on the small side though, maybe SCIENCE took him out of the oven too early.

The robot points at the three Jakes until his attention is distracted by Dire.

Well, that pretty much confirms it. The different colours represent the emotional spectrum. Fear, anger, hope... Orange. The Queen wasn't lying. Oh right, I haven't had a chance to show you all that yet. If we ever get five minutes to spare I have a lot of new information for you.

*******

'Speak for yourself Jake! My life would be a great deal happier if one of these adults told me I didn't have to go up there!' He waves his hand toward the navigation club 'We almost didn't all make it back this time. I'm going, but I'm not going to volunteer anyone else to go with me...' He stops, his attention distracted by Dire 'Guys, does that glow look familiar to you?

*******

Stormcrow floats invisible over the various groups, wrestling with his conscience. On the one hand he wanted to run very far away, super villians did not save the world! On the other hand... Most of these 'heroes' were children. He forces some humour into his voice as he keys Legacy's private comms 'Looking flash Doc, love the new outfit.'

[SuperMuldoon]

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Synapse - You might want to respond to the fact that Ashley is here as well.

she is? I'm pretty confused as to whats going on, where's she at?

[Sliver]

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she is? I'm pretty confused as to whats going on, where's she at?

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She is where everybody else are. We got teleported in front of the science building not long ago...

[SuperMuldoon]

Synapse notices Ashley standing amongst the gathered heroes. In an instant he is embracing her, tears beginning to form in the corners of his eyes. "ThankGodYou'reAlright!IWasSoWorriedAboutYouI'mSrr yAboutEverything!" he says, emotion making it difficult for him to speak at normal human speed.

[smuchmuch]

Compensating time distortion factor............Done//
Computing travel matrix.: 98 /° done........ 99/°.....................99/°............99/°

From Jake's portal commes the sound of someone trying the time tested strategy of slamming expertedly her hand against retive computer equipement (wich happens to he her own head in this particular occasion) to make it work.

Done.
//Checking.....................Complete
//Uploading data//starting booting sequence.

There is a spark as someone plug in in the right final two cables, and after a few seconds the faint sound of working machinery comming from the telepoter room amplifies.

"Device is now working at 60/° of it's capabilities and charging. Coordinates have been entered

Disclaimer: Using rift energies for space and time travel may cause: Return of the great old ones, extreme contrivience and unapropriate family reunions, one own grandfather/motherhood, spontnaeous interuption of existence, more Jakes to appears and headaches. The claremont faculty deny any resposnbility in case of accidental implosion of the universe. Please consult with you local Navimatrix before prolonged use.

15 seconds left before full readyness."

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should give enough time for the last people to arrive with all the teleportation and superspeed going around. if not then just replace by as much time ditacted by the speed of plot.

[kpenguin]

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Well, I thought everyone was next to a big hole in the science facility or something. I guess Hikaru stepped through the portal to check on Albright then.

On hearing Eiko's declaration, Hikaru moves to step back through the portal and into the science wing. He pauses, turns back, and speaks in his normal manner.

"Excuse me, sirs, madams. I assume some of you have dealt with skrulls before. Do you have any advice for us, the Next Gen,"

The name still feels odd on his tongue. He certainly didn't feel like a Next Gen member.

"If and when we encounter resistance?"

[Lost Demiurge]

Dire shrugs massive shoulderplates at Hikaru. "STANDARD SHAPESHIFTER PROTOCOL WOULD SEEM TO APPLY. KEEP IN SIGHT OF ONE ANOTHER AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, WORK IN PAIRS OR THREES WHEN NOT. HIT THEM HARD ENOUGH, THEY FALL. OH, AND EVIDENTLY THEY ARE NAZIS. LACK OF IMAGINATION PRINCIPLE TRAIT, POOR COMBINATION WITH SHAPESHIFTING POWERS. EXPLOIT UNORTHODOX TACTICS, TRICK THEM AS YOU CAN."

Dire keys the Legacy's frequency. "Admiration is noted, Stormcrow. Still on trial basis, though. We shall see if it has substance to back up style. So... This Jake variant is fairly mouthy. He may have a point... Two tactical options here. Serve as distraction for breach squad, or augment breach squad. Thoughts on these?"

[Unkabear]

"As much as I would love to be up there, perhaps I may do my best work down here, especially if someone can drop those shields. Until then i will monitor the platform and see if I can teleport someone back with it, though a techie would be appreciated." that and Cael really didn't want the Great Old Ones to return on his watch, that would just be embarrassing. "Lets send up our heavy hitters and have at it."

[Sliver]

"The first one we fought had strong mind protections, and both Skrulls we fought proved to be tough, but their body was weak. I have found disintegration to be quite effective. Nullifying didn't seem effective. There was something else... Oh, yes. When we were on their world, there were posters of firey monsters as enemies of the Skrull..."

[SuperMuldoon]

"Admiration is noted, Stormcrow. Still on trial basis, though. We shall see if it has substance to back up style. So... This Jake variant is fairly mouthy. He may have a point... Two tactical options here. Serve as distraction for breach squad, or augment breach squad. Thoughts on these?"

Synapse hears Dire over the comm. He looks to his sister, "It's time to for me to get to work...get somewhere safe!" he says as he urges her to get somewhere where she won't be abducted by skrulls or attacked by supervillains.

Synapse activates the comm. "These Skrull bastards made this personal when they abducted Ashley and then REPLACED her. I'd like to be on the front line and get some revenge against the shapeshifting scum."

[Lost Demiurge]

Over the frequency... "Split the team, then? Workable. Dire will accompany the assault. Always interesting to see new heroes in action, anyway. And if push comes to shove, might be able to draw some fire from them. If the Skrulls hate Ellen, they must LOATHE Dire. Besides, been decades since last punched out a hitler. Always calms stress, good way to relax."

"Anyone else have a preference? Ah, of course, Synapse. Come and welcome."

As she talks, Dire drifts toward the portal, and speaks out loud to Hikaru.

"YOUNG MAN, DIRE AND OTHER MEMBERS OF THE LEGACY WILL AID YOUR ASSAULT. WITH YOUR PERMISSION, OF COURSE." She pauses just outside of the portal.

[Sliver]

"The Meta will join the assault" MetaSoul says "And a possible explanation for the Skrull's hate towards Ellen is her opening the portal, allowing their opposition to come in. It is likely they already know of Legacy and their powers..."

[Green Bean]

Ellen heads for the portal. "I'm coming too. I don't appreciate being the damsel in distress, and I'm going to register my displeasure in person."

[kpenguin]

Hikaru nods at Synapse agreeingly. When the Skrulls kidnapped Mr. Albright and replaced him, they made it personal for Hikaru too.

"YOUNG MAN, DIRE AND OTHER MEMBERS OF THE LEGACY WILL AID YOUR ASSAULT. WITH YOUR PERMISSION, OF COURSE."

A few hours ago, Hikaru would have been intimidated. Now, though, his face remains calm and completely focused as he looks into Dire's red eyes.

"It would be an honor, Doctor. Thank you."

As he speaks, his eyes glow yellow once again, his body enveloping itself in the familiar aura of Light.

I'll make you proud, Mr. Albright. I'll make you proud.

He flies through the portal.

[Limos]

Pain follows Six through the portal in a vague way and surveys the situation. Or at least tries to. There are a whole lot of people and he doesn't really know (or care) who any of them are. Finally he focuses on the least annoying person he knows. "Dire. What is the situation?" He does a double take, "And where did you get that?"



************************************************** ***

In the other group Fabio tries to stay out of the way while processing the strange events of the day. He nudges one of the others and looks at them sheepishly, "Verily this is confusing. Who art all these strange creatures?"