14501/The Door to NOWHERE: Oblivion

The Door to NOWHERE: Oblivion
Date of Scene:	31 March 2023
Location:	The shores of Lake Erie and what lies below.
Synopsis:	The crew travel through the Nowhere installation, only to find more horrors at the end. To be concluded!
Cast of Characters:	Divine, Emma Frost, Cindy Moon, Alura In-Ze, Karen Starr, Clarice Ferguson, Tabitha Smith, Neena Thurman

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Divine has posed:
Upstate New York, the shores of Lake Erie. The second smallest of the Great Lakes, the world's largest freshwater seas, lies on the border between Ontario Canada, New York State, Pennsylvania and Ohio on the east, and Michigan and a touch of Indiana on the west. It's still an enormous body of water, covering the horizon to the west. Sea birds soar and dive as spring is truly coming in earnest, the orange and violet glow of the sunset giving a tranquil sense that belies the purpose of the crew here.

Destruction.

The assembled group is in the middle of nowhere on an uninhabited and off the grid section of lakeshore. Divine paces, clearly impatient as she focuses her vision in and in and in, hunting. Sure, there are other Kryptonians here who could help her with this, but she feels she has to. She stops, a strange look crossing her face as she kneels, driving her hands into the ground. She clearly grabs ahold of something and lifts, almost seeming to strain as she pulls up, working her way to standing.

She has wrenched open a hatch, wide enough for three or so people to walk abreast into. It goes down into the dark, angling steeply and then leveling out, the path disappearing. Divine looks to the rest of her companions, smiling reassuringly at Cindy, and then descends into darkness. Into the belly of the beast that made her. Her voice comes up out of the black.

"Thank you all for coming with me. I appreciate each and every one of you. Now...let's finish this so no one else has to suffer like I did."

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma is there. Having brought some.. Unique assistance with her in the form of a pink elfin girl wearing a green bodysuit that many might not have met or been familiar with. "I thought a.. Acein the hole would be useful." Amongst a team with multiple Kryptonians present as strong arms. "This is Clarice. She's a very, very effective teleporter that can help move us about quickly." Emma speaks to introduce Clarice, then gives her full attention to Divine.

"WE're all here for you and we're going to stop these monsters once and for all." SHe's lead hte assembled mutants here and spent what favors she can to get some extra backup present.

Cindy Moon has posed:
Cindy Moon, wearing the costume without her mask, crawls across the ground looking for something. Leaning into her senses to pull her in whatever direction they might, but always ending up standing near to Divine. At first this feels like a failure... she wants to help.. she wants to find these bastards that are hurting Divine... What happens when she does?

She takes a breath and reaches out to lay a hand upon the Half Kryptonian's arm. Smiling. Reassuring. And then peering down into the hatch she'd pulled open from the sands. Emma, talks first because she always does, so what else needs to be said?

Time to go be the 'find out' part of these guys 'messing around'.

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Cloning Kryptonians was illegal on Krypton. There was no debate left in the matter and hadn't been for hundreds of years. Once they realised just how hard it was to get right and the unfortunate ramifications of getting it wrong, there was a moral imperative to ban it.

Over time this transformed in to a distrust of clones and the very nature of being a clone was illegal itself - not just the act of making one. But since coming to Earth and meeting not one but two clones of Kryptonians; 'solved' with the inclusion of half the human genome, she came to realise that the distrust was misplaced.

Somehow these clones, significantly weaker in all aspects to a born Kryptonian, were full people with full lives ahead of them. That did not, however, negate the crime of the people who made them to begin with. That is why Alura is here today. To back up Divine but also to stop these unconscionable experiments.

"Of course Divine. You're family," she replies matter of factly to Divine. A small wave is given to Clarice, "That's a handy ability to have." She nods to the people around her, "I'm Alura. The media has dubbed me Superwoman." She smiles a little at that.

Her eyes catch note of the intimate and encouraging touch from Cindy. A small side long glance at Karen to see how she reacts to that. Then, she enters the facility too.

Karen Starr has posed:
Power Girl is in costume, of course, and isn't much for being chatty. She gives a simple nod to the comments thus far, before looking into the open shaft with her various super-visions. "Do we have any idea what we're getting into down there?" She looks to Divine, finally piping up with a comment.

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
Clarice Ferguson has been alongside Emma for the duration and looks at those nearby as Emma explains her name and her powers. She glances at Emma though as she mentions the monsters and looks serious as she maybe contemplates what dangers lurk ahead. She frowns and seems quiet for the moment, maybe unfamiliar with Divine or some of the others nearby, including the super powerful Alura, "Hi," she says simply. She looks past others and toward what Divine has revealed, as if still seriously contemplating what's down there in the darkness.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
"You have to wonder just how many underground slash lake hidden bases there are in upstate New York!" Tabitha wonders aloud as she joins the contingent of mutants. Wy is she there. Well Divine had pitched in on the hero thing for some of the folks in Westchester. This is just being cool.

Plus the blonde, in a mostly black shiny and clingy synthleather X-Suit with padding on the shoulder's arms, chest, back, and knees in yellow. There's a red synthetic leather jacker in biker style over the top. inside a bunch of puches and pockets. Full of very useful items.

"So,we know the layout of the place? There's gotta be a bunch of that if we got half of krypton with us? X-ray the place. Emma and I can like share the deets. And then we can plan. Find anyone captive, cause there's always those. Find the main power plant. I can boom that. Aperture can 'port us the hell out and we can kick back on the lake, watch the fireworks and sip mimosas till dawn!"

It's kind of a plan!

Neena Thurman has posed:
Neena Thurman's feeling lucky, but that's pretty normal really. She's also feeling a little withdrawn it seems, or maybe she just gets a little less gregarious when mission time is approaching, running her hands along combat webbing in the umpteenth check of her equipment. Pistols in shoulder holsters, two spare magazines in holders worked into the holsters... combat knife rigged for a reverse draw, more magazine pouches at her hips, larger magazines for the compact assault rifle she's carrying, and a set of four grenades hooked to her thigh by another equipment strap, each painted carefully with a colored stripe around the middle.

Her right ear has a wireless earbud inserted, her left empty for proper hearing.

But then, maybe Neena's just being quiet because this is bringing back bad memories. Hidden labs. Secret scientist assholes. Experiments that should get the experimenters a one way express ticket to hell. But this is different, she reminds herself. She didn't have a group of certified superpowered badasses about to descend on the lab /she/ grew up in. Neena crouches down to doublecheck her boots... lacing tight... boot knives in place. Didn't she just check the knife on her shoulder? Sure. But why have one knife when you can have _three_ knives?

Always be prepared to butter someone's toast. Which is definitely a euphemism for killing them.

Clarice gets a crooked little grin and a nod, something a bit more friendly than the cool 'Ready to go, boss' nod Emma gets. But then, when you pay the bills, you get Neena's professional side. Plus, that whole 'bordering on traumatic flashbacks' thing. She's really going to enjoy this job. Once it's done.

Divine has posed:
For a moment as the group begins to descend, it's dark. The only light coming from the outside. Without warning, save to the heightened senses of the Kryptonians, the lights kick on, thunking down the long and descending hallway ahead of them. It is, largely, a featureless hallway of metal, only broken up by LED fixtures that pour out bright, clinical light.

Divine ducks down low, kissing Cindy atop her head with supreme gentleness before she turns her head back to speak to her sister and, well, mother and everyone else. "Only bits and fragments. Either I was only really set loose in one or two rooms, or they fucked with my memories so I don't remember much," she says with a shrug. "What I do know is that they'll be prepared for Kryptonians. They are after me and have to know I've ... made peace with you all. So Cindy and the rest of you will be ... wild cards. I hope."

The group descends deeper under the water, walking through the nigh barren hallway for at least a mile. It's boring and quiet, the only sounds coming from their footsteps and whatever chatter happens.

Eventually, though, the crew reaches a door. Well, more like another hatch. Seamlessly melded into the wall, the only sign that a door is there is the keypad that randomly sits in the blank dead end.

"Anybody, uh, good at this? I'd rather not start breaking shit yet."

Emma Frost has posed:
A low nod is given to Divine by Emma Frost. A smile back to the other mutants with her. She glances at Power Girl and Alura with a 'you first' as far as offering tactical suggestions. The two have the most firepower on hand after all. And what wit, guile, and cunning can't always win, overwhelming force often can.

They ahve their wild cars here with Neena's luck and Clarice's teleportation. And Cindy's danger sense. So hopefully that will give them enough variety to deal with the inevitable surprises.

Emma goes, "I'm going to setup amindlink to let us all share information. Those whom do not wish to be a part of it we will be maintaining contact by earbud. When we encounter threats, I would suggest letting Clarice bypass them with Neena to try and flank them but I'll defer to you." SHe's leaving it at the call of the Kryptonians unless they would indicate someone else to be in charge here.

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
Clarice Ferguson shoves her pink hands into her crazy, multicolored 90s jacket, which she maybe learned from the awesome Tabitha. She also apparently inherited that awful nickname too, and she squints upon hearing it again, but doesn't blurt out a correction so as not to be rude. She thinks about the plan instead and comments after a second by saying, "It'll take good timing," she says, "But I don't think I can get you down there to start, you know...cause I can't really picture it," she says, trying to describe the thing about her powers, but maybe sounds confusing as a result, "Maybe out," she adds. This is why she starts walking with Emma behind Divine down into the dark. She stops and looks at the reinforced door, then thumbs at Tabitha repeatedly.

Cindy Moon has posed:
Cindy stares down into the darkness with her thoughts kept largely to herself. Her expression may hint at some creeping wave coming across her.. a phobia... a ping of some forgotten fear. Her expression pulls tight for a brief second, memories of a bunker that wasn't so long escaped. Brown eyes blink several times, drawn back from that rogue memory by the kiss upon the top of her head.

She glances up at Divine and smiles.

Then steps out over the hole to fall as if she's got exactly zero concerns for what dangers await her below. The fact that her Silk Senses have alerted her to none is all the motivation she needs.

As they walk, she stays near to Divine. Reaching out to pull her fingers across the wall... tactile... she rubs those fingers together, inspecting for any dust that may be on her the tips of her gloved digits. Until they reach the mechanical lock... Suffice to say she was not brought along for her intellectual skillset.

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura can't help but notice how thick the doors and walls are - and they're definitely under the lake. Perfect for hiding from a Kryptonian's super senses. She gives a not to Emma's suggestion and says, "Of all the people here, I know Power Girl has had a life of superheroing. Me? I've had a life of science, survival, and parenting. Two of those were surprisingly similar to each other."

Which is to say, she'll take PG's advise when it comes to the action. But Emma's reasoning is sound. She looks to the lock Divine has found and says, "It looks state of the art.." Which is to say, light years behind Kryptonian technology.

She motions over the bracer on her leg arm and a holographic interface appears. The lights dim briefly as it draws in power and she focuses its sensors on the lock. The circuits behind are well hidden from Kryptonian eyes but not from a portable quantum computer.

Alura watches the symbols as the hover past over her forearm and then she reaches out and types in the code to open the door. A satisfying tsss as it unseals itself. With a swish over her bracer the holographic interface shuts off. Better this than ripping the door off and alerting the whole base.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
"We've had some like really bad hangovers like that. There was this one time in Vegas, there was some really good drugs and an alligator and we never did find out what we did." Tabitha commiserates.

There's an adjustment to the shifting in and out of lit areas and some blinking of eyelids At least she didn't have to illuminate things herself with a plasma ball yet.

Key word yet.

"Well lets take a look at this thing. I doubt I'm blowing it in quickly. Can probably slag inside any mechanisms. Dunno if they'll have logging and alarms on any attempt to open the damn thing. Any attempt to get in. Biometrics and all that stuff. They wanted to keep Divine in right? So if hacking the panels don't work, I can maybe try creating a short and melting the insides." It's some technobabble crap but she can probably get it open eventually. But what might be waiting might have time to set an ambush. How much conductivity she can make use of is a different matter as well.

Karen Starr has posed:
"I have..." Power Girl replies to Alura. "But I wouldn't be the one to take the slow and steady route here. I would probably just have torn the door off." She admits. She'll stand there, patiently, as the lock is cycled through. Well...okay, not really patiently. She's waiting on the other shoe to drop. If this place is expecting Kryptonian trouble, they're going to throw everything and the kitchen sink at them. It's just a matter of when.

Neena Thurman has posed:
Neena's aim with her rifle snaps up as the lights begin to THUNK to life, gaze steady, alert... until she huffs out a low breath. One day, when she's some sort of sociopathic lunatic billionaire building /her/ underground lair, she's going to pay the extra for lights that turn on without sounding like someone kicked over a filing cabinet.

Having considered the relative abilities of the rest of the cohort, Neena's apparently tasked herself as rear guard, pretty much following the group while keeping her eyes backward, sparing a glance for the reinforced door and its keypad lock. For a brief moment she considers her grenades... or Tabby's far more /economical/ grenades.

But Alura is stepping up to do... some kind of Kryptonian whizbang stuff that Neena's pretty sure she hasn't got the education to fully appreciate. Well, to appreciate the details of. She appreciates how it's handling the lock /plenty/.

Divine has posed:
Unknown to the, honestly, pretty sizeable squad moving through the tunnel, they are being watched. In a dark control room, lit by monitors and red lights, three people watch. Two are seated at consoles while the third stands behind them, arms crossed over his chest.

"The target's arrived, sir, just like we thought. She's fulfilled her directive too. Look at all of those specimens. I mean, look, she's even brought her donor along! This is -wild-!"

The man in the suit just nods. "Start sending out resistance. We have to make it look like we want them repelled instead of the fact they're walking into a trap."

"On it. Hellhounds first, I think."

Back in the hallway, Alura's alien technology hacks the lock like butter. Hydraulics hiss in the walls as the slab of metal starts to slide into the floor. Said door, upon inspection as it recesses is nearly a full two feet thick. On the other side of the door is an octagonal room. Four of the sides have low hatches, two are blank and the other two have human sized doors.

The hatches hiss and rattle, those with enhanced hearing can hear what sound like claws on metal. They rip upwards and four ... things bound free with slavering growls and snarls. They are very doglike, about the size of a Tibetan Mastiff, but without all the good parts. Their flesh is lumpy, almost runny. Faces pointed with the flesh peeled back along the jaws full of wicked fangs. The four of them look at the group in unison and...

Set loose heat vision?!

Eight beams of directed heat energy lance out at the group before the beasts pack up together and charge!

"Oh shit, I don't remember these!" Divine exclaims, shooting back.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would hiss over as she would duck against the wall, instinctively giving directions to her fellow mutants while going to give a mental link amongst the team that wished it, simultaneously speaking along the radio for those that didn't <<Blink, hit them from behind. Domino, BOom-Boom, at your discretion go with her>> IT was best to let the other two decide how to do things.

Emma, meanwhile, is well out of her league when it comes to a melee with enhanced hellhounds. So she can mostly focus on bracing and trying to make sure to keep the rest of them in coordination and not to get blasted herself!

A quick attempt is made over at a psionic scan of the hellhounds, but there might not be enough mental coherence left in them to have a mind -to- control.

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
Clarice takes a step back to let others closer to the huge door blocking their path and seems comfortable letting them plan a way past it, as it were. She seems surprised that Alura doesn't brute force it and smiles, looking pleased at the new era of smart superheroing. From the back, she tries to look around Cindy and Tabitha and Neena to see what's going on like the most curious person ever. Can the door really be bypassed? Or will it have to be boomed apart? Or ripped open?! "Wow, good job," she finally says as Alura is successful.

Clarice smiles with pride for the victory over the door but sees the evilass dogs coming right at them after a few moments of people shuffling along and walking into the next room, "Watch out!" she lets out helpfully. She furrows her brow and concentrates, suddenly a portal appears in front of her and Domino and Tabitha, if they so choose to BLINK! The sound and the teleport will take them across the length of the long room to the other side of the threat (if they so choose). She then strides forward to open another portal from inside the nearest threat, hoping to tear it apart, now the surprise herself because she'll be behind the heat vision, maybe with the others.

Cindy Moon has posed:
Nagging...

Cindy cants her head, blinking a few times as Alura is working on the door lock.. her brow furrows as if something itches in a place she can't quite reach. At the back of her skull, right where it connects to her spine. A tingling.. a nagging, itching, tingling. "Guys." She says quietly at first, perhaps regretting having not shared in that mental link. Until she remembers how much she doesn't trust anyone who can /do/ a mental link in the first place.

That's just setting yourself up for all kinds of mental malware that she's got no interest in.

Nagging...

"Guys!" What even good is it to have someone with danger sense.

The hellhounds bound out from somewhere and let loose heat vision. Cindy leaps up in a backflip and clings to the wall, pushes off into another aerial flip, landing her on the ceiling, with webbing firing from both the fingertips of both hands. If one of the hellhounds is struck, she'll pull with a surprising amount of force to swing it like a pendulum. Spartial awareness completely changing as if up is down and down is up there on the ground...

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura looks up in surprise. The big thick door did its job of hiding the welcome party. Four dogs is three dogs more than she can handle at once. But she did note Karen's preferred method of entry. It seems stealth is a moot point now.

Alura in a blur grapples one of the dogs. Her hand covers over its eyes and smoke begins to rise as it burns in to her flesh. She lets out a pained howl of her own, lifting up in to the air so that the dog has nothing to use as purchase to struggle against her hug.

She can't bring herself to simply kill the slimy not-quite-a-dog but she is depriving it of air until it stops struggling and she can lay it down on the floor. A compromise for her morality, one she might have to abandon if things get too dicy with these things.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Hellhounds, leaving out at the group. Eye lasers.

They definitely get a huge 'Ewwww" from Tabitha as she jumps and dodges. Not being a Kryptonian or Spider-Powered, she lacks the speed, merely human momentum. But she does have one trick she can use to fight back.

She can actually handle extreme heat pretty fine. You'd have to when you can hold so much volatile plasma in her hand. The closest Hellhound near her. She has to time things just right as she charges up that plasma in a spheroid bomb. Bowling ball sized for know, comes with plenty of concussive force. And with that lets the bomb detonate right in it's face. Inside, who knows if it might kill it. She's not quite ready to kill a dog.

"Crap, they have Kryptonian dogs now?" she yells in query and a lot of worry. "Crap, crap, crap!"

Karen Starr has posed:
    Power Girl knows some of the people here personally, some by reputation. What she also knows is that psychics, as a rule of thumb, suck against physical attack. So, despite the fact that she'd really, REALLY like to go jump in there and attack, she moves to put herself in front of Emma. Clarice teleported several out of the way, and she's not worried about Cindy's ability to dodge it, or the Kryptonians' ability to tank it. Hit me with focused solar energy. Whatever you do, don't throw me into that briar patch.

Aside from being a Kryptonian shield for the telepath, her other reply is to look over to the dogs, and she cuts loose with a focused burst of super-breath at a single dog. That's the only problem with working with squishy teammates; the things that'll squish the bad guys will squish them too.

Neena Thurman has posed:
Neena hasn't got danger sense going for her. But she's got 'Listen to her teammates and don't hesitate' sense. So when Cindy yells out her warning, Neena's diving into a roll, just in time to dive under a sweeping arc of heat vision. And suddenly Neena's remembering. This isn't her usual slap and tickle, relax and have fun merc game thing. This is that other thing. That costumed powered hero thing. That X-Men, Avengers, whoever thing.

That thing where her luck power will save her skin, but there's a _lot_ to overcome. Because no matter how lucky she is, if these things are bullet proof, she's not sure her backup plan of harsh language is going to work.

And that luck's on point as Neena dives through that suddenly provided portal, only to land in a smooth roll, coming up onto one knee, rifle lining up. She's not sure what the moral compass of anyone else in the group is... but those things are a clear and present danger. And hey, if they're part Kryptonian, maybe a few rounds of 7.62 will just be a nice tickle on the ears. Or at least she'll distract them long enough for one of the heavy hitters to... hit them? Heavily?

Divine has posed:
The group is pretty good at laser dodging. This is a good thing as where the heat vision hits the wall, it leaves black scorch trails. They move like dogs in long loping strides, but every now and then they seem to flicker and change locations. Clearly the super speed of Kryptonian DNA.

Emma's scan results in one thing: A headache. Hideous, burning static eminates from these creatures mentally, a roaring and violent mental noise. It doesn't seem natural at all.

Cindy, always clever and quick, thwips one of the mutant creatures, wrenching it off balance and using the Spider Skills of Physics to use its own momentum against it, hurling it with a mighty, twisting heave into another of its fellows. They both tumble for a moment in a tangle of snarls and scrabbling limbs.

Power Girl's breath rushes out and gets a two for one deal, as the one she targeted is the one that just got bowled over by its friend by Cindy. The two creatures are rapidly encased in a layer of ice, freezing over and going still as the wash of fog billows from the new ice sculpture.

Alura sleeper holds one of the dogs, the hybrid chimera unable to escape the awful grip of the true Kryptonian. It rages and snarls, firing heat vision into her hand, but eventually, it goes inert, breathing still, but unmoving.

Well, it breathes until Clarice's portal opens inside of it and eviscerates it. These things happen fast, targeting isn't always super easy. It dies messily, body falling into more than a couple pieces on the floor. At least it was quick.

Tabitha's blast of concussive plasma hits the dog-thing. It howls in a mix of pain and fury as it's hurled across the room, blasting into one of the hatches frames hard enough to dent it with a grotesque crack. It slumps to the ground unmoving.

Neena pings out the old reliable in a staccato burst. They ping into the hellhound in the instants before Karen's breath freezes it solid, the heavy rounds piercing the flesh of the creature, but not enough to kill it. Though after they're frozen, the rounds burst through, launching chunky gibs of frozen flesh across the room. Another two for one sale.

Divine, for her part, remained focused on protecting Cindy, even though the spider is exceedingly capable. Luckily, it wasn't necessary. This time. She looks up at her with a wan little smile before looking at the gory mess. "What the -hell-," she says, looking disgusted. "What the actual -hell-." She looks around, knowing there are cameras in here. It's a gut feeling. She stares up in a corner (the wrong one) and points. "We're coming for you! We're ending this!"

In the control room, the man at the console shakes his head. "They're tough. What should we do next? More next time? Overwhelm them? The Liger Men?"

The other man shakes his head. "No. Prepare a containment protocol, I am going to go and run startup on the Weird Sisters."

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would lean back, "Whatever those things -are-, there's nothing inside them!" Even something artifiical shouldn't be able to block her telepathy so -well-.. So whatever they are is definitely aberrant even beyond most things around. Emma goes to quickly assess the others in the room as she moves to take stock of the group. Then Emma goes to close her eyes as the group goes to quickly rally. And she moves to spread her mind if she can throughout the facility. SHe has just a bit of rage over to her now. Ruin her outfit, how dare they..

So, Emma starst to expand her consciousness, trying to search out any sort of human minds or anything that might have some sort of pattern of thought to them that she can pick up on. At the very least she can hopefully give some warning. And if she's lucky.. Well.. Someone she can immedaitely start to brain drain for anything useful.

Cindy Moon has posed:
Cindy, still standing on the roof, kneels down as if gravity is not a thing that bothers her much. It still tugs her hair down, dangling it off her head. Fingers spread out in front of her with her knees bent, she creeps along the ceiling above the others in a half crawl. Listening to those familiar tingles that always seem to come when danger's around the corner. Brown eyes do, however, cut back to Divine.

With a hop, she hangs from her fingertips and drops in a spin to land beside the Half-Kryptonian. Not necessarily leaning against her, but definitely staying close at hand. She's seen what these people have at their disposal.

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
Clarice Ferguson takes in where everyone is and how they are doing, looking a little relieved that things are actually handled. She walks over with Emma and looks around as the mental super woman does her thing, "Good job," she says to Cindy and Domino and Tabitha as she passes them. "Where's the next door?" she wonders. She looks around the strangely shaped room and squints at the hatches and places where the dogs came from. She walks toward one of them.

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura lowers back to the ground with the hell hound and then.. then it explodes. Blood splatters over her white uniform like a Jackson Pollock. She shudders and looks down at the inverted creature and then looks over at Divine and Karen. This isn't going well.

"These things are hardly Kryptonian dogs.." she snaps with a touch of annoyance at Tabitha's assertion that these monstrosities would be considered Kryptonian at all. A little bit of that familial anger all Kara's are well acquainted with.

She rises back up and her lips twitch in to a frown as she looks to the cameras and then to her compatriots. "We're going to need to coordinate ourselves better than this if we're to shut them down." And they're going to need to be smarter too because Divine's initial study was correct - this place was designed to keep Divine in, yet they let her go.

It's clear on her face that she's thinking this through. She had to out think the likes of Dru-Zod but - she knew him very well. These people she doesn't know. The depths and depravities these humans are willing to go are foreign and alien to her.

"No more surprises. We need eyes and ears..." She floats up to the nearest camera watching them and swipes over her bracer to bring up the interface. "Whoever you are. Your senses will become our senses-" she says as she begins to try and hack the facility itself.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
"Sorry puppers. You didn't deserve any of this but they made you grow up to be like too harsh." Tabitha laments when the animals are down. She's never been a fan of animal abuse and turning dogs into these things clearly has her hackles up.

And while Emma is probing for someone to psychically work over she maintains the psi-link for those down.

The camera, and any others visible soon get blasted out via plasma streams from Boom-Boom's finger tips.

<<We probably should find us some computers or something with network access. Make delightfully judicious abuse right back at these assholes! Also if we find any actual puppies. Umm, do we know any good shelters that can handle doggos with eye lasers?>> She adds and shrugs her shoulders as they get a move on. "Blame the owners, never the animal." she adds under her breath. They'll be blaming the owners alright. Upside their heads.

Karen Starr has posed:
Power Girl looks over. If Emma doesn't need her protection (and she doesn't seem to), that's all the better. She can do what she does best. "See what you can find out, Alura." Not "mother". Not yet. Instead, there were two other doors in this room. She's going to stride up to one, haul back, and hit it. Pretty darn near full-strength, too. Knock-knock-knocking on baddies' doors.

"Give up now. It'll be a LOT less painful." she says, to no one in particular. Evil Bases always have cameras everywhere.

Neena Thurman has posed:
Neena's lips are pressed in a thin, serious line as her bullets wind up blasting chunks out of a frozen hellhound. There's no bravado, no joy... that poor thing didn't /want/ to be a heat-vision blasting threat to them. Someone made it. Someone watching through the cameras that Divine is (almost) yelling at, and then Tabby is /definitely/ exploding.

Figuring that there's minimal likelihood of more canines coming from behind, she focuses on aiming down the hall ahead. It's actually kind of a relief working in a team again. For one thing 'Being lucky' is not a great tactic, and working with a group of professionals... or at least costumed Justice Enthusiasts means the team overall has a lot of talents she hasn't got herself. For one thing, Alura's doing some kind of techno-hocus-pocus to get the cameras on their side. Nice.

Divine has posed:
Divine looks down at Cindy and smiles. She shuffles a half step closer, just wanting a bit of the comforting contact. This is stressful. She does not like it here. She is thankful that people she cares about, plus a couple extra, have come with her to stop this. To make sure it never happens again. She doesn't have a Silk Sense, but her stomach churns with the thought that it's too late. That it's already been done.

Tabby fries a couple cameras, but there are always more. In a place like this? It's safe to assume you're being watched all the time.

Which is why Alura's skills are so incredibly handy. The cutting edge Earth technology fights back. It tries very hard to resist, but it's a war it never could win. Almost immediately, she gains access to the visual feeds. It's a lot of hallways. A lot of empty, almost desolate hallways. Where are all the people at? As she flips through the various feeds, she finds one room. It's a deep pit with steep sides with what looks like seating in the circle above it. An ... arena? It looks clean, but the walls are marked. Claws and scorches, a few dents. There seem to be doors on either side of the arena, both above in the seats and below into the pit. Standing in the middle of it is a man in a suit. He's incredibly nondescript. Average height and build, boring executive haircut, and his hands are clasped behind his back, though something is held in one of them.

Emma does, in fact, feel one mind. It is human, male and ... somehow blank? It's not projecting thoughts or feelings. It honestly feels ... dead? But dead men don't have active psychic profiles, do they? It's like her senses keep sliding around, unable to touch for very long.

Karen blasts a door with a punch. It actually takes -two-. It crumples under her fury, blasting down the hallway in a cacaphony of squealing and crashing metal. The hallway is much like the others, save that it starts to curve and descend again. It's clear of bogeys for Neena to plug or for anyone else to punch. Sad.

The group advances further in, Divine looking nervous and furious at the same time. Soon enough, they hit another hatch. This time, there's no keypad. No way through. It seems like a dead end until hydraulics hiss and the door starts to open on its own.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would close her eyes over as she would focus and try to get the mind. It's somehow if not blocking her then just a decoy.. Or at least.. Inert. If she had to guess it was waiting for programming or activation to be put in.

<<One mental sign detectable. I can't get a handle on it. I might call it dead but it's active. Inert. Nothing here is letting me get a solid grasp on it>> As a telepath, she finds this sort of thing incredibly annoying. She goes to share with the others where her 'sense' of it is - not that's immediately useful when they have no real idea on the layout of the base and Emma's having to play mental sonar and estimating the distance from the mind based to the distance from them..

Not something she could even ask Clarice to teleport them to if she could. It's irritating. <<Something is fully blocking me and they're extremely ready here for high end telepaths.>> Given she's made a point of -trying- to keep ahead of the technological curve on these sorts of things, she finds this netirely irritating. AH well, something to dig out from their corpses later, take the data, and then patent it.

And then the hydraulics go in and Emma curses. Lovely. They've just entered themselves over to some sort of crossfire, haven't they? She goes to lean back against the nearest wall, ready to brace and duck or coordiante the team. Trying to pinpoint exactly -where- whatever will be bum rushing them towards will come from.

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
The force of Kara's blast causes Clarice to topple over onto her backside, "Whoa!" she lets out as the door crumbles, for all purposes answering the question about where to go and what door to use. She inclines her head and looks down the dark corridor as everyone else files down to go to the next door. With a sharp BLINK! she joins them with a quick teleport through a portal and pops in next to Divine and Emma, then quickly turns her head to look at the new door shifting open, as if expecting something new to jump out at them, "Emma, is something coming at us? Should we go back to the other room...?" she wonders, raising her hands as if ready to create portals to do just that.

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura presents a hologram in to the center of the room that shows the layout of the facility. Even as she does that, she takes away their sight. "Their eyes are now our eyes. But it seems this place is mostly abandoned. They clearly knew we were coming - otherwise why is that man simply standing there."

She taps a her index finger to the knuckle of her opposite index finger in thought. "This is a trap but what kind of trap I'm not sure. That one lonely man is going to have answers for us - perhaps not the ones we want to hear."

She looks after Karen as she starts punching through door ways and then follows after her. It's time for her to follow Peeg's lead - after all, she's been doing this superhero thing longer than Kal-El, longer she suspects than anyone else here.

Cindy Moon has posed:
Cindy isn't kicking any doors in, she's following her nose... which in this case isn't really her nose, so much as her Silk Senses, but they haven't stirred her wrong so far. Walking along side Divine, if only because being close to her makes all of this a lot less weird. These halls, while not nearly as sterile in her bunker, remind her very much of a very dark period of her past. Which isn't so far removed as to not still cause some feelings... truly unpleasant ones... to surface.

Things that could distract her.

Things that are better left buried and delt with in therapy that she's definitely never going to.

So she stays close to something constant. Everyone else here is... well... they're... Family. Or friends. Emma, Clarice, and Tabby? Alura, Karen, and Divine? She peers around from behind a wall of black hair as they punch through walls or approach under Emma's telepathic guidance. Until they come upon a door with no latches and no keypads.. Behind which Emma telepathy is having trouble breaching.

Cindy, however, is fidgeting. Something's not right. Her brow furrows... This doesn't feel like ... nothing is threatening. At least not to her, but it's definitely /A/ threat. It feels a lot like when Divine got attacked before... "Uh... guys." She points at the hissing door. "Whatever's over there probably isn't good." That's obvious. Peering from Karen, to Alura, to Divine. "I think it's... Those sun weapons.. or..."

Tabitha Smith has posed:
There's a grin as Tabby watches Alura make needing to destroy cameras, and a grin to the others. There's even a peek over and around shoulder and chest to look at the feed, so she's nosy. "So we have a map now? Eww, dog fighting pit. So like if we find any people working here, and we wreck them before I blow the place up. If anyone forgets to save them, I don't think anyone is losing sleep.

Emma's scanning gets a hmm. Tabby doesn't try to poke at the presence. <<Probably lucky we can even use telepathy in here.>> she points out and grins.

Leading into the new chamber, was it the fighting pit? WHo knows. <<Dom, got any flashbangs in there. Throw them all in. To all you you guys. Like totally plug your ears. It's gonna get loud for a while!" she suggests as a warning and if people are gonna think about rushing ahead and lead us into ambushes.

They'll have to wait for any ears to stop ringing as Tabitha starts pumping her own flashbang equivalents.

It's tactical.

Just dialed up to glass shattering levels of loud and all on mixed mental timers.

"Tick... Tick... Tick..." She has fingers in her ears too and a rather wicked grin as she leans against a wall next to the door where she can't see in and get blinded even with sunglasses on.

Neena Thurman has posed:
Neena goes back to watching the team's back, frowning thoughtfully on the way through one of the doors... she's /very/ tempted to leave a tripwire and a grenade. Buuuut... if they need to beat a hasty retreat, or they find some innocent victims who need releasing? Too risky, even for Lady Luck.

Tabby announces things are about to get loud, and Neena takes a knee, plugs her ears, and opens her mouth. Because while she's acrobatic and nimble, she's /also/ experienced an inner ear imbalance from explosions going off too close to her.

And while it looks funny to everyone else when the albino stumbles around like she's on the pitching deck of a ship, it's actually not that fun.

Divine has posed:
Divine can feel the tension in Cindy. She reaches a hand over to gently squeeze her shoulder, smiling at her. She just mouths 'I love you, thank you for being here.' She does frown at the potential of those damn red sun guns. Or more Kryptonite. She trusts Cindy's senses implicitly, so she is certainly on edge.

The door starts to drop, and Tabby does what she does best. Makes explosions. The dim room on the other side is lit up like noon in Las Vegas, blindingly bright and blindingly loud. The noise is horrific, resounding down the halls enough to easily make the Kryptonians wince. Divine does, flinching as her ears blast out to a loud ringing for a moment. It -hurts-, and she nearly stumbles under the audial assault. Nearly.

So does Karen. It's uncanny how the two react nearly identically. Stumbling in mirror, growling in the same tone. They truly are twins of a kind.

The door keeps dropping, the lightshow gone. Smoke from the detonations streams back through the now open door as the group is deposited into the arena. It's much more beat up than the images showed. Scars of conflict and battle abound here, the metal of the walls and floors carved through jaggedly. War has been done here and, it seems, will be done again.

The smoke wreathes around the man, but about two feet from his body. There's a buzz as a forcefield drops in a hiss of visual and audio static. He smiles, it's a glad-handing smile that you would get from a middle manager. It never touches his oddly colorless eyes. They're flat and dead like a shark's. His voice is pleasant enough as he steps forward.

"Thank you, Divine, for bringing us all of your ...," he smirks, almost in disbelief. "Friends to us. Though...can you really have friends? You're just a clone, after all. Not a person. No soul, you see." He brings his hands out from behind his back. In his right is a strange looking gun. Gripped in tines at the back end is a horrific looking black crystal. It seems to eat light and exude hate. "And I will prove it."

Divine is, obviously, goaded. Poked and prodded by this man who throws all of her terrors and insecurities back into her face as facts. She does not quail or cry. No, she reacts like her sister. She hurls herself at him, roaring in fury as her eyes blaze red.

The gun lifts and he takes aim, loosing a single black beam that strikes Divine in the center of mass. She drops, howling and writhing. Her screams are those of terror, rather than pain. Wordlessly fighting something as the man turns his back and snaps his fingers.

The door on the other side of the arena starts to open, hissing downward to reveal two people in silohuette. Feminine in form, there's something off about them as they stepp through. Their gaits are odd. As they step into the light, Divine rises. She looks at the two and then turns to face the group with them at their back.

The two are dressed in almost prison-style grey jumpsuits. Baggy and featureless. Their faces, though, are Divine's if she were made of soft wax and bony plates at the same time. For her part, Divine's already pale skin has gone a sickly grey, and the look in her eyes is a mix of madness and blind fury and hate. The man, as he starts to head towards the other door says, voice echoing through the arena,

"Behold, our three finest creations. The Weird Sisters."

To be concluded in: THE PATH TO NOWHERE: PANDAEMONIUM