maskormenacelogs | Tell me why I had to be a powerslave

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Tell me why I had to be a powerslave

WHO: ImPorts vs. the Cain Cabal: rematch round
WHERE: Enoch, uninhabited island off the coast of Florida
WHEN: Morning of Saturday, December 12th
WHAT: The Cain Cabal swapped imPort powers, burned a chunk of Heropa, and staged an ambush, all so they could live forever. Now they're going down- hard. Come arrest some villains! See this post for reference.
WARNINGS: Violence. Remember that any NPC deaths in this log will have to be processed through the plotting post!

For the second time in a week, the call goes out: heroes needed. This time, the authorities aren't asking for volunteers to fight fires: it's to help fight the people who started the violence in Heropa last weekend. This time, it's not a trap. It's payback.

This tropical island has long been uninhabited (or supposedly uninhabited) for a reason. There really isn't much here besides sand, trees, and the odd wandering animal, many of them escaped from the Cabal's labs. Who knows how the Cabal was able to build a base out here in secret and keep it running for years- the cost must have been astronomical. But promises of eternal life have a way of attracting money and resources, and the Cain Cabal has no shortage of either.

That all ends today, though. Thanks to imPorts, the secret is out: the Cabal has been exposed. Your characters know who their enemy is, where to find them, and that they have their own Porter copy which must be neutralized to reverse the power swap. All they need to do is enter the enemy's heavily-defended trap-laden doom-fortress and bring down a secret society. Just another day for a group of heroes, right?

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The operation begins shortly before noon, with government-provided boats making a stealthy landfall on one of the island's unguarded beaches. Federal agents in tactical gear are on hand to back your characters up and make arrests- they'll follow the lead of the heroes, and are currently setting up a forward staging area.

The enemy isn't aware of your presence yet, so you can use this time to organize, plan, and conduct scouting before moving on to the main base at the center of the island. This is also a good place for healers and commanders to set up if they're planning on hanging back from the main offensive. A previous scouting mission secured images and video of the area and planted a device to listen in on enemy communications: this intelligence will be available to your characters as they lay their plans.

Be careful, though: there are booby traps buried around the island. They're designed similarly to land mines, but extrude poison needles when stepped on. The poison is nasty, but it can be treated by swift medical response. Patrols of enemy gunmen may be encountered among the trees of the island's interior as well. Picking them off silently will weaken the Cabal's forces, but remember: this is a police operation, not a military assault, and prisoners are expected over corpses.

[Miles Edgeworth may not be here in person, but he is here in spirit, and anyone wearing headsets or carrying a radio device will hear his voice crackling over the airwaves]

This is prosecutor Miles Edgeworth speaking, and I'm here with one of the Cain Cabal's American recruits. She's been, ah, convinced that it would be in her best interests to provide you all with assistance. She knows the island inside and out, and will be guiding you past any traps laid in or around the base.

[And soon, a deep, feminine voice drawls over the signal]

You heard the pretty boy. Consider us your guardian angels.

[Indistinct voices mutter in the background, and nothing can be heard aside from faint static. When Edgeworth returns on the line, his voice is much more tense than the cool, professional tone used earlier]

That's all for now. Edgeworth out.

[CLICK]

[OOC: Edgeworth is here, providing backup alongside a former Cabal NPC who cut a deal wih the government. If you'd like your characters to get help navigating past boobytraps or finding certain locations, you can either tag me here, or, if your character's in another thread, send me an OOC note and I'll tag you over there Or you can just hit them up for obscure proverbs and monster movie references, if that's how you roll]

Agent P is going in to help stop this operation. After all, this is the first time in awhile that he's had to fight bad guys who were, for lack of a better word, this interesting. However, he hangs back a little bit so that he can help aid the imPorts before they set out.

Namely he bought some knives this week to hand out to any imPort that wants one. Ever since he found out that these guys were wanting to kidnap the imPorts he's been stocking up on them from his Secret Shopping job so that everyone can defend themselves. After all, even if these people were going to thwart these guys, a little extra protection never hurt anyone.

Of course a small platypus carrying a large amount of knives and offering them to people isn't really the most comforting image, but he has to make do. And luckily he brought a notepad and pencil in case he gets asked any questions.

Is that a platypus.

Is that a bipedal platypus wearing a fedora and handing out knives.

... Huh. Well, it's not the weirdest thing he's ever seen. Whenever Agent P gets around to Qubit, he just holds up a hand to politely turn it down. "No, thanks. I'm set."

Perry seems a little shocked that someone turned him down on the offer, so he takes out his notepad to write him a message.

You sure? It never hurts to be careful.

"No, I'm sure," Qubit says with a nod, after reading it. "Have a look." To demonstrate, he makes a gun shape with his fingers and points it a palm frond fallen in the sand. A green laser point appears there, but only for a second before the frond smolders and ignites. Not a big enough flame to be dangerous by any stretch, but big enough to prove his point.

The main enemy compound is at the center of the island, in the middle of a clearing in the trees and guarded by imposing laser turrets. The building itself is a large dome, with an outline reminiscent of a human skull (the Cain Cabal is quite dedicated to their aesthetic). Hostile mercenaries walk the roof, armed with poison dart rifles.

Whether through stealth, trickery, or blatant force, your characters must gain entrance to this dome. There are multiple entry points, and multiple tactics that can be employed to get past the defenses. At first the enemy isn't expecting company, but at some point during the mission they will realize they are under attack. When that happens, loudspeakers on the exterior of the dome will blare a sharp challenge:

"ImPorts! You cannot deny us the future! Your deaths are a necessary sacrifice in the cause of Life. We are the ones that will change the world. WE WILL LIVE FOREVER!"

Yeah, they're that kind of villain group.

Edited 2015-12-13 03:04 (UTC)

Robo's approach was very straight forwards. He waited for the stealthy types to do what they could, but once the alarms started going off and the loudspeakers started broadcasting typical mad science garbage (and WOW these guys were playing their expected role to the hilt.). Then, he broke cover from the woods and sprinted towards the dome at almost 45 miles an hour. Poison darts bounced off his metal skin harmlessly as he ran until he was maybe a hundred feet away from the dome. From there, he leaped up to the roof in a single bound and landed in the midst of the mercenaries up there. "Last chance to drop your guns and give up peacefully, guys."

Predictably, their response was a hail of gunfire, which was largely ineffective beyond making Robo wince. "Seriously? No one? You're all going to fire dart guns at the guy armored like a tank? That's not even-OW! RIGHT in my eye."

He went about pummeling them into unconsciousness, but it was only a matter of time before someone brought out a bigger gun that might ACTUALLY be able to hurt him.

Once inside the base, heroes find a warren of corridors and rooms. The aesthetic is high-tech and antiseptic, with gleaming black floors and dull walls, while the locations mix the exotic with the mundane. Sure, this place has an armory full of high-tech weapons and laboratories dedicated to bleeding-edge science, but it also has a cafeteria (today's special is the chicken fingers) and janitorial closets. Heroes will have to work their way through the place room-by-room in order to shut this scheme down.

The Cain Cabal fights them every step of the way. Enemies come at them with guns, lasers, knives, poison syringes, and nunchaku. Trapdoors open up beneath their feet, plummeting into deep black shafts. Your characters will also encounter noncombatant members of the organization, scientists and technicians in white coats. They're scrambling for safety, trying to hide as heroes and government agents take them into custody. Every one of them is wearing a skull mask, even in their own base.

The base's computer core is located in a sub-basement near the center of the facility. It's a dim, low-ceilinged room, packed with electronic databases and processors, filled with noise from whirring fans and humming wires. Many of the Cabal's secrets are within these machines, but heroes will have to act fast: the enemy has released many cyber-viruses into their network to scrub incriminating evidence while their base is falling. Tech-savvy characters must use their skills to retrieve as much information from the computer core as possible, before this precious data is lost forever.

Successful characters can obtain the following information from the computers, which they may or may not pass along to their government allies or other characters.

The Doctor's been shoved to the computer core after getting in the way of the Pillar room one too many time. So hey, here he is, in the computer room, poking at the computer core, typing away while alternatively hitting or kicking the machine. The Doctor's not a computer person (he's more of a physically poke at the machine than try to cyber-fiddle with it type of person) but Time Lord intellect and familiarity with offworld computers is winning out.

That being said, he needed a bit more help. So, as soon as someone else enters, the Doctor yells at whoever enters, "Hurry up and give me a hand! I've got the halfway sonic in my pocket, if you keep trying to stop them this way, I can boost our computing power...hopefully."

Magicman is skipping all that pesky 'physical input' and going straight into the computer system itself; viruses surge to the attack, clashing with these foreign entities to protect what's left of the data in the machines. He makes sure to leave an escape route; they're retrieving data, not trying to preserve it. It only has to survive long enough for them to make a copy, after all.

He pushes back against them, attempting communication and finding nothing but a kind of static hunger; he won't be able to control these ones. But he can certainly buy time.

Magicman isn't the only one taking the 'direct approach' to getting this data. Megaman's right up in the thick of it, firing into the horde and relying on the lack of any visible strategic intelligence on their part to keep himself safe; he doesn't have to worry about tactics and adapting as long as he remembers to keep moving. Magicman's viruses certainly help in that regard (not that he'll ever admit it).

It feels good to actually be in a real fight after so long, even given the circumstances, but damn if these things aren't disturbing as all get out. The faster they can get this done and get out of here, the better.

"You wouldn't happen to know any tricks for--" And that sure is something snapping right at his face, time for strategic repositioning. "For speeding up downloads, would you?"

For the love of all that is good in the world, please say yes.

"Break it into parts, download them simultaneously," he says, stabbing a virus that doesn't belong to him and throwing it back into its fellows. A few more colourful viruses that do belong to him are fetching and carrying data, working on breaking it down into components. "A lot of my usual tricks don't work when there's only one source for a file, but that one should."

He kicks away a virus that's getting too close; purple fire scorches a line in the digital space, forming a barrier that moves outwards slowly. While it doesn't stop them, it certainly gives both the navis some breathing room.

"They're certainly ugly, aren't they," he says, with some amusement. "But I suppose they do the job they're made for."

He happily takes advantage of that space buffer to start prepping a charge shot. Even if the fire is...really uncomfortable for him.

"They're creepy." Not that he ever has any other opinion on viruses, Rush notwithstanding. The ones in this world are extra unsettling, though, especially these ones in particular. That single-minded behavior without even the most basic behavioral coding or survival instinct is all kinds of disturbing. "I can't tell if we're distracting them or just getting in their way."

"It's all I have to work with," he says apologetically, after a moment. Fire is uncomfortable for Megaman, he knows. But it's better than getting eaten alive, so...

"We're getting in their way. They have no consciousness at all." If he had a proper face, he'd be grimacing. As it is, he just sounds grim. He spears a few and tosses them aside - it's a good thing they can't regenerate, but there's a lot of them. "How's that data coming?"

It's not helped that it's Magicman's fire in particular. Doesn't matter that it's not the modified Life Magic version, having some of it punch through his combat programming and out his core made for a rather negative impression.

"Slowly!" He knows it's not the fault of Hiro or anyone else manning the consoles, but still. Ten minutes is not an estimate he particularly wanted to hear. "Nothing damaged yet, though. Head's up, I'm firing!"

Magicman you have like six nanoseconds before that charge shot blows through the biggest group of virii in firing range, moving might be wise.

He wouldn't feel the same way, but does he really take anything the way other people do? He thinks that probably not.

"Well, that's good. As long as we can prevent undue damage," he muses, casually hopping to the side to dodge the charge shot and stabbing a few more. "This is quite the output. It's a shame we can't actually disable the source, but we would need more firepower for that."

The risks are too high and they've already got humans working with them. Better to wall in defenses here and dig in for a while, then abandon it.

"How are you holding up? No serious damage?" He's sporting a few injuries, but nothing vital.

Sabriel's tagged along, although she's mostly focusing on 'hit things with a sword.'

Not that bringing magic into a computer system would be a good idea in the first place, but she finds herself reaching for it anyway, only to feel a little frustrated and stupid each time.

"How many of these things are there?" Sabriel's lost count after the first few dozen.

Magicman is forcing the enemy back with his own abilities, but he knows this is just a stop-gap measure. There's simply far too many of them, and not enough proper infrastructure to deal with them - they're simply buying time for others to download the data.

"They'll keep coming," he says, slashing and blasting away. It's a good thing data beings don't feel fatigue like normal humans, otherwise they'd be in trouble right now. "We'll have to let them have it eventually. How are you holding up?"

"Fine- this would be easier if I could use spells, but since I can't-" She hacks one virus in two, then moves on to another's legs as she speaks, "-I'll manage!"

"Tell me if you need any help and I'll back you up," he says, stepping closer to Sabriel to help her out a little and give her a breather if she needs it. It's disorienting for humans, after all. "Don't want you to get injured. Not sure how it would manifest outside."

"Let's hope we don't find out," Sabriel's grateful for the help, "Do you want to try fusing, or will that not work here?"

With a little bit of a breather, Sabriel seems to have recovered her focus- she's fighting on the defensive, focusing less on dealing devastating strikes and more on slowing her opponents down.

[It should probably be incredibly sad that this is the closest Megaman's come to feeling at home since he got here almost a year ago. Seriously, infiltrating the computer systems of terrorists with disturbing goals? Fighting off hordes of viruses that want to destroy important data? This is what he knows. This is his wheelhouse.

Not that he can handle it all on his own. He can fend off the viruses, or he can move and copy data, but he sure as heck can't do both at once. He needs some backup.]

Hey! I can hold these things off for a while, somebody needs to start downloading things!

[ Hiro, meanwhile, has been incredibly frustrated with this whole situation. Not being able to go into dataspace has hurt so much more than he realized ... and it's only a relatively recent power. He just feels helpless not being able to get in there directly.

But he can support Megaman, at least. So that's what he's gonna do. ]

I've got it! You take care of things in there, okay?

I'll do my best! Just keep me updated, okay? [The more he knows about how much they've gotten done, the better he can focus on what's left.

And honestly it's a good thing Hiro isn't in here, he'd be eaten alive. Literally. Fighting an army of mindless data-destroyers is hard enough for Megaman, and he's designed for this; he's not exactly used to something this mindless, though, and while it's not throwing him off it does mean he can't really use his usual tactic. Which is baiting them with a deliciously complex navi core.

The closest he can get to that right now, though, is to just keep throwing himself in front of the viruses and hoping they'll target him first. Which is...not exactly ideal, really, but if he keeps moving he'll be fine! Probably. Hopefully. Maybe.]

How fast can you do this? Because the sooner we're done the better!

[ Hiro would probably have done very badly trying to handle the swarm, but it wouldn't have stopped him. It's a damn good thing he's stuck on the outside.

Not that he feels particularly grateful. Mostly he's terrified, unable to do anything directly, just hacking in as fast as he can to keep the download moving smoothly. And constantly check on Megaman's status. ]

Ten minutes, okay? I'm going as fast as I can!

Ten minutes?! [WHAT ARE YOU TRANSFERRING THIS DATA WITH, TIN CANS AND TWINE?] Hiro, I don't know if we have that long!

[Megaman's fine for now, relatively speaking - he's gotten nicked pretty good a couple times (and shrieked very, very loudly at one point when one virus gave him an extreme close-up of whatever passes for teeth on these things) but it's all frame damage. Nothing critical, just painful and annoying. He knows better than to expect that luck to last, though, especially when he has to keep jumping in front of the swarm just to get them to go after him instead of the data. What he wouldn't give for a couple Spreader chips right now - or hell, a Program Advance; one good Hyper Burst would work miracles here.]

It's not my fault! It's the connection! If I could get in there and anchor it --

[ If he were smarter goddammit. His head throbs any time it gets close to a breakthrough and he hates it. Ugh. How does he make this better? He can't lose Megaman to this, he can't--! Megaman's already saved him so many times ...

So find a different angle, dummy. He pauses for a moment as he think through his options. If he can't increase the connection speed, he has to make sure Megaman can survive ten minutes. That's what he needs to do. ]

-- I'll program something for you, okay? What do you need?

[That question is music to his audio input. Hiro, you are a godsend.]

Offensive program! Something big - something with spread! Area targeting, splash damage, something that'll clear a lot of them at once!

[He deeply regrets he can't memory share with Hiro while he's out there, he really wants to send him the visuals for what he wants.]

Area affect damage. Okay, gimme a sec --

[ It's less something programmed from scratch and more a mass-deletion program jerry-rigged into something Megaman can use. Good thing Hiro's been studying up on those programs recently. Still, Megaman should take care not to delete part of himself. ]

Try this!

[Hey now, Megaman knows enough to not delete himself on accident. ~~He only does that on purpose.~~

It takes a bit for him to get the breathing room he needs to really aim the program properly and not risk hitting the important data. That means a lot of dodging and kiting and getting hit a few more times, so enjoy listening to that for a bit.]

How many times can I fire this off? [Translation: how big of a stupid risk should he take with his targeting.]

[ Hiro winces every time he hears Megaman get hit. That sound is going to haunt his nightmares for a while... ]

Uh - I dunno, until it breaks? I'll keep working on another weapon, so just use it as much as you can okay?

The central chamber of the base is a large circular room with an arching ceiling, reminiscent of an auditorium. It is built around a thick column of metal and plastic, glowing with energy. The same energy flickers through the traceries of circuits and data paths that are visible running through the walls, ceiling, and floor. The colour of the energy is blue: a blue that should be quite familiar to imPorts.

This is the Pillar of Fire, the Porter copy the enemy used to teleport their forces and swap your characters' powers. This is their secret weapon and crowning achievement, as well as the power source for the whole base. It must be deactivated or destroyed for your characters to return to normal. This is easier said than done, however: the Pillar is not sentient, but it does have automated defenses. If threatened, it may:

-zap characters with electrical discharges
-protect itself with energy shields
-teleport enemy reinforcements into the chamber
-teleport characters away (to locations ranging from outside the base to the middle of the ocean.)

This thread is an open-ended confrontation: feel free to split into different sub-threads rather than trying to keep things strictly in a single stream of continuity. The Pillar is vulnerable to tech sabotage, magic, and hacking as well as physical assaults. Once the Pillar is shut down or destroyed, the power swap will begin to reverse itself, and the Cain Cabal will be defeated (at least for now).

ImPorts have been wanting to get at the Porter for a long time. Maybe they can look at this as an opportunity for catharsis...

Edited 2015-12-13 03:33 (UTC)

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Tell me why I had to be a powerslave

BEACHHEAD and INTERIOR

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BASE EXTERIOR

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BASE INTERIOR

COMPUTER CORE

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PILLAR OF FIRE CONFRONTATION