Dark Reign - Insurrection: Chapter 3 - Nexus of Chaos

[Aidan]

Elyas was of only limited value against the eggpawns. The confines were too close to make use of grenades, and his laser rifle wasn't strong enough to down the large ones without several shots fired. That was fine, though - his companions' magic was more than a match for old Eggtech.

"Walk and talk!" he said as they met up with Kapp and Metzli. "You know where we're supposed to go?"

"Took the words out of my mouth," Aidan said to Yuki as the two groups merged and proceeded deeper into the ship.

Another deep shudder reverberated through the flying fortress. Just ahead of where they met Kapp and Metzli was a stairwell that led up and down, albeit with textured ramps instead of stairs. Beside the stairwell was a lift, large enough to accommodate them all, that Avatar - via the tablet in Kapp's hand - was easily able to access.

[Resonance]

Reson joined Kapp and Metzli, "lead the way, we've got you covered."

Mei smiled seeing Kapp and Metzli, glad to know they were okay. They didn't look upset, so it was likely everyone else was okay - but just to be sure, "is everyone else already heading to the right part of the ship?"

[Kokinyu]

"Yeah, getting into the lower ascension engine was a piece of cake. It was weird - barely any resistance. Avatar did the hard lifting." Kapp waved and grinned at Mei before pulling the tablet up to view it. "Alright, where to next, Avatar? We've got a bigger crew, a little less mobile, by there's fliers and firepower." Kapp bounced on his heels awaiting an answer, though his eyes were drawn to the lift. He approached. "Hey! Can we use this?"

Grenadine Caught up to the newcomers and fell into the middle of the group, taking cover behind the ranged fighters and powerhouses. She glanced and called after Kapp and Metzli. "Wallss may not be an obstacle. If we need accesss to maintenance shaftss or shortcuts, I may be able to provide thosse.'

[Uberwulf X]

"Oh, and I made a whole presentation and everything," Avatar lamented at Yuki's news that the team knew where to go. Her image also blew a two-frame kiss when Kapp praised her.

"One thing you guys probably don't know yet is that Nexus led me to find the information we have, and only gave me a basic fight. I'll put her in the same column as Abyss-- not an enemy so don't fight her, but not a friend so don't get chummy. That said--"

The lift doors opened for the team. Once they were on, she began to ferry them to the appropriate floor.

"Yeah," she said with a nod to Mei, "they're on the way there now. It was kind of really important to make sure you knew what was going on and get there since you're the heavy firepower, but... y'know, the alarms kind of spoiled the surprise, as it were. I'm probably kind of redundant here in that sense, and I'd go back but we're all rushing to the same spot, y'know? I'm confident Eden will keep them hidden though, and Ender can punch his way through the rest."

[Kyt]

Yuki's ears perked. "Nexus? Abyss?" She looked over at Kapp and Metzli, more used to interacting with them. "You saw Abyss?"

[Aidan]

The Raiders entered the lift as Abyss manipulated the controls remotely, using a backdoor access she had established on the ship's network to perform local wireless hacking without drawing attention.

"Lower Ascension Engine?" Aidan asked, taking the moment in the elevator to check his sword, his buckles, and then flicker electricity across his fingers as a warm up. "There's an Upper Ascension Engine?"

Elyas was likewise checking the charges on his weapons. "The files suggest Nexus is Demandred's closest ally. If she's allowing you access to the ship, that's... suspicious."

As the Raiders chatted amongst themselves, the turbolift brought them up four levels before pausing, the doors before them opening into a hall lit by red emergency lighting. The ship shook violently, enough to make the Raiders stagger. Down the wide hallway, in the direction Avatar next indicated, was a closed blast door with a narrow window strip in it's upper third, through which a sliver of daylight was growing.

[Resonance]

"I get the feeling we don't have a lot of time left to get to where we need to go."
Reson glanced to the others as she stepped out of the lift. "Avatar, do you know how long we have?"

Mei reached out and gave Kapp a quick one-armed hug while they were in the crowded lift. When the doors opened she frowned at the flashing red lights, getting a little anxious.

[Kokinyu]

Kapp pulled Mei in as she reached to take his arm, smiling and nodding. "Good to be back." He chuckled. The conversation shifted and turned around, drawing Kapp away from the brief reunion. "Yeah, uh, the lower engine looked like it was the one used to super charge Vulcan. Like, one mobian at a time. The stuff Avatar dug up about the upper engine is sketch as hell, though. It sounds like it effects the area around it, like... A pulse. It's too important to leave behind if this thing crashes- that's why it's getting jettisoned. So clearly we need to break the hell out of it before that happens."

Grenadine frowned and glanced at Kapp as he relayed that information, squinting. "...An... area of effect- a zone that givess meta abilitiess to mobianss...? That'sss..."

"Insane, yeah."

"Irressssponsible, alsso, but yess. Inssane." Grenadine huffed and looked toward the elevator doors. "... We've ssseen what abilitiess like thiss do to young people like usss. You can't jussst... inflict super powerss on people- they'll losse their mindss."

"Yeah, that's one of the side-effects too. Avatar, do we have time for the presentation while the lift does its thing?"

[Uberwulf X]

Damien remained quiet as others spoke, slowly tightening and loosening his fists, eyes on the ceiling.

Metzli nodded quickly to Yuki. "She showed up and we talked, for a few seconds. She said she'll be thankful to Demandred for saving her, but she thinks he lost his way, y'know?" She gave a small shrug. "So, we couldn't get her to come with us or surrender, but she's not stopping. And Avatar said the same thing might have happened with Nexus?"

"It's my own educated theory that many members of Argus did use the Ascendance Engine," Avatar commented. "Nexus and Abyss may have seen the changes it caused their commander, and decided that he was unfit to lead, that his mission was doomed for failure. Unfortunately, there's not much time to theorize more than that-- the growing daylight is proof of the separation in progress. Apologies Resonance, I don't have an exact countdown for this event. Please continue past the blast door," she advised while opening said door for the team.

[Kyt]

Yuki nodded after Avatar spoke. As much as she wanted to ask questions and talk about the possible diseension among the Argus members, now really wasn't the time. She followed the directions given, not wanting to get caught on the bad end of whatever was happening with the ship.

[Aidan]

"Growing daylight... please proceed.... oh, hell." Elyas sprinted down the hallway toward the closed blast door and checked the keypad beside it. "Locked - options?"

Abyss was out of the fight... and a peaceful withdrawal at that. That was good. Elyas' exclamation brought his attention to a much more difficult situation - the locked blast door. Aidan dashed after him, moving up to the window to peer through.

About six feet away was another closed blast door, growing further by the second - the other end of the hall way, on the side of the ship that they really, really needed to be on.

"Ships are separating quickly... Gren, make a hole." he stepped back from the blast doors and looked over the team. "Kapp and Yuki, start charging - once Grenadine has created an opening, flash-freeze the blast doors on the other side. Damien, a good fireball or Venom will break through and create an opening. Everyone else, get ready to jump, dash, or fly!"

[Resonance]

Reson ran after the others. She nodded as Aidan made a plan, puffing out some air as she backed up a bit readied herself for a sprint and jump. “We’ve got this.”

Mei nodded once and covered herself with shadows, extending her claws and tail extra long for assistance in reaching the other side should she fall short.


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[Kokinyu]

As the moments passed, the reality of the situation grew more and more dire. After Elyas bolted forward and announced the door was locked, Grenadine was already formulating a plan before Aidan called the order. She didn't know the exact composition of the doors, but had a fine enough understanding of steel to estimate. "On it." She rasped as she clapped her hands together, both crackling with pale blue light.

Stopping beside Aidan, she stood several paces away from Elyas to ensure her power wasn't nullified by the magical sink hole he was. Palms struck the blast door with a dull, resonating "Whud." The blue light crackled outward as the steel composite doorway began to sizzle and smoke.

The surface splintered and flaked like charring wood as a gap opened, bowed inward, and widened over the course of a few seconds. As Grenadine pulled away, a smoking hole twice the size of a mobian had been created. She pulled away, fingertips and palms smoking, flakes of liquified steel clinging to her prosthetic left hand. "Go- Go!" She rasped and coughed, ducking away to take cover from the imminent magical assault.
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Kapp had been ready and prepared to move, the rime frost on his hands and feet acting like elongated climbing claws since he and the two others had broken from the second party. Once Grenadine was free and out of the way, he nodded.

"Alright! Team attack hyper strike gaiden requiem rising revengeance go!" He made a series of superfluous hand gestures before striking the ground with his left foot, simultaneously thrusting his palms forward. A wave of frost pulsed outward from his form, a roiling wave of super-chilled air which rapidly condensed the water into smoky, shimmering white mist. When this twisting ball of cold struck the door beyond Grenadine's opening, it thumped and splashed outward to create a sizeable layer of frost along it's surface.

[Uberwulf X]

Damien and Metzli held their positions, ready to start pummeling things in their own way once the door was opened.

[Kyt]

Yuki started at the realization that the ship was actually already separating. She'd thought the daylight was just....windows. Preparation.

Thankfully, Aidan took charge, utilizing his team. She nodded, mimicking Kapp, (although an ear flicked at the exceedingly long name he decided to spout) with her own variant. She worked to time it with him, her own tendrils of frost twisting and spreading around his to extend further into the material.

Once done, she quickly stepped back to leave Damien a good opening for his attack.