17917/Mutants and Master Molds - Investigation Interruptus

Mutants and Master Molds - Investigation Interruptus
Date of Scene:	16 May 2024
Location:	Queens
Synopsis:	The search group from Xavier's files out and tracks down a Sentinel camp. With help from their fellow heroes in the neighborhood, they break in and find the things of nightmares, of Sentinels. Of Master Molds.
Cast of Characters:	Monet St. Croix, J'onn J'onzz, Tabitha Smith, Rhona Lauren, Forge, Jaxon Blain, Douglas Ramsey, Marie-Ange Colbert, Tessa, Kid Devil, Paige Guthrie, Quentin Quire
Tinyplot:	Mutants and Master Molds

Monet St. Croix has posed:
It had been some time since Forge had worked out a device that could track the communications that the disparate Sentinel networks used to coordinate amongst themselves. Rapid fire, highly encrypted tightbeam messages sent along in data-packets amongst the near infiniteness that was the human communications infrastructure. Forge had tracked it with his devices spread out throughout the city.
    And Cypher? Cypher had been able to decrypt chunks of it. And what he had decrypted was not good. The Sentinels had been referring to things as product lines, and 'batches'. The numerical designation on the batches and production lines had just shot up. In version number and production number. That meant they were building new, improved versions.
    And about to make a lot of them. It was time to rapidly sweep and search. Whether to try and destroy them or get whatever information they could on the Sentinels to try and track up the line of the network.
    Astoria was full of skyscraper sized tenement buildings that could have thousands of apartments in them. Blocks upon blocks were what passed for 'middle class' housing in the city. A large number had recently gone bankrupt, a corporation recently registered to exist in Delaware had snapped all of them up and was 'renovating' them. It was late at night, and the large, forty to fifty story buildings were humming with activity.
    And no humans inside at all.

J'onn J'onzz has posed:
J'onn J'onzz has been tracking the sentinels ever since the Star Port Theft. He took it personally, and he is indulging in a rare selective wide range scan for any minds thinking heavily about the sentinels. Needless to say he detects many of them and he flies at blinding speed to investigate. He remains invisible and phased for the moment.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
It's her usual street styling that Tabby chose to go out in. Ripped jeans, in yellow this time. One whole thigh torn while the other is merely slashed in several spots.

You'd think she'd been wrestling with a werewolf.

A red tank top with a cartoon bomb and lit fize on the front. Sneakers, belt, collar, wrist cuffs, yellow tinter Ray Bans, and even her hair scrunchies keeping her hair in pigtails.

Sure she probably should have worn a uniform but when she heard there was a ping on sentinels and a lot of folks were heading out. Tabby kinda jumped on at the last second.

Blowing up sentinels is one of her favorite things even when sentinels are one of the things that terrify her the most.

Rhona Lauren has posed:
One of Xaviers School's soon-to-graduate Senior classmen just so happens to be here in the area. Why? She was a over-anxious intern at a local News outlet, and fancied herself an investigative journalist, even if in reality she was just an intern. Nevertheless, she'd come across some information that had her in the area this evening, and as such, she was on a bit of a wandering patrol, using her phone, and her wits to guide her. The young brunette moved through the side streets, wearing a backpack on her shoulders, jeans with the knees worn out, a red wine hued tshirt with a picture of a man's face screaming in all black, and a black hoodie with the sleeves pushed up. Her worn sneakers quietly stepped across pavement as she glanced at the info on her phone, her tied-back brunette hair having a few loose strands fluttering around the sides of her face as her brown eyes drop to the screen, then look up to flit about, trying hard to look totally casual and as though she totally belongs here.

Forge has posed:
Forge Himself is on the scene, mmmmming as he slides his fingers over a tablet, and taps at a small sphere in the palm of his hand. "This is it." he says confidently, "We're close." he motions to the buildings ahead of them. "As far as I can tell, they're in these buildings. I'm not getting any other signal traffic, so if anyone else is in there, they've turned off their cell phone." he informs those with him, as he looks down on the neighborhood and the high rises "I wonder if they're stripping the buildings for raw materials, or if they're going to use them for storage of their units too." he mutters quietly. "Be careful. If they are using the buildings for raw materials, things may not be as stable as they look." he advises.

Jaxon Blain has posed:
Anything Jaxon might have heard about any of this was all fifth and and likely not even something he really put any stock into. He knew about the attacks, of course. But he definitely had no inside information - the pitfalls of working alone.

So, is it fate or just happenstance that he happens to be out and about, away from Bushwick - his comfort zone? Nighttime, of course, is his favorite time of the 'day' and shadow hopping from rooftop to rooftop has always been something he found, well, relaxing.

...that is until he's one shadow hop away from a building that's alive with activity when it probably shouldn't be.

It only takes him a few blinks of an eye to travel through the darkness of the night to the ground.

For the moment, he stays out of sight, blending in with the darkness that's a part of him.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
"...This is the end of Bolivar Trask's vision." Cypher says, his boots crunching lightly as he assesses the situation.

"Genocide - done with all the efficiency of machines that mechanically separate chicken. Murder devoid even of bloodthirst."

He inspects the buildings and squints. "We just need to find the right spot, and I'll bring the whole thing crashing down, Forge. I can do it with a single line of code." He crosses his arms, and taps black and gold fingers against his elbow. "Did you ever wonder - what kind of future are they fighting to save? What's at the end of it? What are they trying to preserve, or are they just... on autopilot pursuing a directive that will eventually become meaningless?"

"Because since a defining trait of life is that it evolves - mutates - wouldn't a Sentinel's internal logic eventually just make it an enemy of *life*? Plainly Trask never read Saberhagen."

Marie-Ange Colbert has posed:
Sentinels. In her young life, Marie had faced a great many dangers, but what she'd heard about these giant machines that exist only to inflict terror... it was something that chilled her to her bones. It was a frightening thought.

But fear, rightfully held or otherwise, was not about to stand between the seer and her destiny... and the cards had told her that she would be present for this mission, so here she is. It was simple as that.

The French girl came prepared, of course. Dressed in the familiar black and yellows of a New Mutant, her cherished tarot cards secured in a pouch on her belt. Any additional weaponry she'd opted to leave home, per the instructions of her cards.. though her hair is tied back in a french braid in case battle comes.

She stays close to her pack of fellow mutants, trailing a step or two behind. "Fate operates in ways beyond our comprehension, Cypher." Marie intones solemnly, taking a breath. "If it were my decision, he would have never gotten this far... but fate has reasons for everything, even if we may not live to see them."

Tessa has posed:
These days, Sage is most likely to be directing others to do these things for her instead of directly into the line of fire herself, moving pawns about on the 4-D chessboard that rotates through the many partitions that make up these aspects of herself. She is - for all intents - simply Tessa Fox these days, Sebastian Shaw's ever-present assistant and hand in the day-to-day public running of Hellfire Club NYC.

Some things, however, were larger than the games the Club played, and genocide was one of them. She breathed in deep, blocking off 99% of the partition known as Tessa, and breathed out the hacker - and sometimes mercenary - known as Sage. Her clothing was sturdy, non-descript. Shadowy greys and muted blacks, hair back and covered, red sunglasses giving her a heads-up view of the surrounding areas and and small stream of real-time information. Like this, she would probably be unrecognizable to all except those who knew her well.

Trask. Sentinels. Sometimes, she hated when Emma was right.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
The group makes it a point of going along covertly. No flashings of heavy weapons, no throwing around explosives, no threats to smash in the front doors. They're going along talking to themselves and making plans as they approach. For those that can pick it up inside, there's indications of dozens upon dozens of humanoid scaled mechanoids in various states of assembly, heavy production equipment.. But seemingly no constant production at the moment, which seems strange. Why wouldn't they be making things full tilt if they had isolation and raw materials?
    There are no life signs there to read. Which is a good thing and a bad thing. There are no humans there that could be hostages or that are working with the Sentinels. No risk of collateral damage. But also it means that anything inside is going to be hostile and not things that they can pick up telepathically.
    For the meanderings on fate, things could glide in a multitude of directions. However, all paths lead to the same course.
    Danger.
    Immense amounts.
    Tessa's presence meant that they knew the layout of the place ? at least, what was officially on record. No doubt it had been changed extensively.
    What the place was? Was quiet. None of the hum of a production facility going full tilt, whatever potent power source was fueling it was in a standby mode. But there were dfinitely large numbers of -things- inside. Stores. Supplies. Material. Mechanics. Guards. Just they were barely moving. Yet there were no signs fo the group having been detected as they went forwards.

J'onn J'onzz has posed:
J'onn J'onzz can sense all of that of course, he isnt Kryptonian but Martian senses are astounding. He also senses the minds in the area without intruding....Simon or another telepath may be nearby and he hasnt called the LEague for backup because he believes there is a mole with the Injustice Society or....whoever they are. Either way, he extends his telekinetic shield to anyone attacked. He isnt yet attacking because the dossier s he has read indicate these things adapt...so he wants to keep surprises in reserve.

Rhona Lauren has posed:
Rhona was not close to the group of trained Mutants that were infiltrating the Sentinel facility, well, not exactly close. She was just a building or two away, using her own gathered information to lead her to the site. She'd hoped to take a few pictures, do a bit of snooping around, and deliver a scoop to her boss back at the news station. or, if nothing else, give whatever she found to the upper echelon of the faculty back at the school.

One scuffed sneaker stepped up on to a dirty curb, followed by the next. The young woman paused, her eyes scanning the outside of a large building, that seemed abandoned. "Well, here we are..." She muttered to herself, as she brushed aside a lock of hair. "Guess it's... showtime." She says in to her phone, as it records video of her little investigative adventure.

"This must be the place." It isn't. "Lets go find out what's inside..." Nothing, nothing's inside. But the young woman has to learn that on her own!

Tabitha Smith has posed:
"That or they built Faraday Cages and all their traffic is over cable internet." Tabby points out to Forge and Doug with a grin.

"If Trask ever saw what we saw Doug." They were both on Genosha. Tabitha's voice in serious business mode. "Let alone the fact that president fricking Luthor funded the damn things. Don't care if they weren't mean to be aimed at mutants specifically. They're a walking flying hate crime." she might actually be a little angry.

Getting into character, the blonde bombshell gets her telepathy on. Sweeping for any brains that might be a bit close for the infiltration. And getting the team in on the mind linking. Which might ping on a Martian's radar.

<<Ah, nice and noisy in our heads instead of out loud. Hey Disco, you gonna be okay with this if it gets fighty? Those forcefields may come in handy, but we're gonna get chewed out by the Prof if you get dinged. And why am I talking like a responsible adult?>>

Forge has posed:
 "I suppose all that remains is to find the right spot then." Forge responds to Cypher, giving the young man a clap on the shoulder, before addressing the group that he's moving with.

 "Be careful. They've used traps in the previous encounters. Watch for tripwires, pressure plates.. I'll be scanning." he says, hefting his tablet in his left hand, and drawing a rather large blaster pistol with his right. There's an even bigger rifle on his back, and he moves cautiusly towards one of the buildings that is acting as a hub for a lot of lower networks.

 <<Genocide is always pursued by those who hate more than they reason. Attempting to apply logic to them is pointless. You must instead imagine their emotions, to understand their actions.>> Forge chimes in on the philisophical discussion, but keeps it in his head, where no sensors can overhear it.

Jaxon Blain has posed:
He's not close enough to catch all the conversations going on, but what he does hear gives him the basic gist. Jaxon's heart races a little in his chest until he squashes down the fear to let it be replaced by that white-hot anger that anything remotely Trask, Purifiers, HIM or whatever other group is out there looking to destroy mutants causes him.

Without letting a soul know he was even present, Jax takes a step back. Two, three, four 'hops' and he's inside the building and under the cover of the shadows cast by the dim lighting inside.

It's a big building, but he moves quickly given enough darkness for him to travel through. Unless he's discovered, it really shouldn't take Jaxon long to case this joint - even if it's a quick, cursory job.

First thing he's looking for is a room that might appear more 'official' than any of the others. Someplace that might contain the good stuff. While Jaxon is good at finding the 'good stuff' when it comes to robbing some High Society bigot of their family jewels, he doesn't know /exactly/ what he's looking for here - just something different, a computer room maybe? Someplace where information and data might be kept.

Kid Devil has posed:
The crimson interloper stays quiet, and still. Not invisible of course, for anyone who happens to look up, nor for anyone who can Just Sense Things in their vicinity. There's no malice coming off of him; only curiosity. He pulls out his screen again, stretching it out from its tube and tilting it around as if examining the suspect building through it. Then he leans to one side to look around the edge of the screen, making a faint-- probably imperceptible-- frown.
When he looks down and notices the others gearing up for something more physical than a Thursday-afternoon yoga class, he puts the device away and slowly straightens up to get ready as well. For whatever's about to happen.

J'onn J'onzz has posed:
Jonn definitely senses the X-link of course, he can practically SEE it in his mind and if it wasnt Emma or Jean or the Professor, he could easily tap it unseen and listen but of course, in this case, he politely sends a subtle whisper web of his own to ALL those present, making them aware of each other, <<My sincere apologies for the intrustion but I felt you should be aware of each other given what is about to go on. You c an speak to each other using this link or, if you desire, opt out of it.>>

Marie-Ange Colbert has posed:
As she moves along, Marie silences herself; letting her eyes do the work. She knows there's danger here, and doesn't want to be caught unaware. Though, at Forge's warning of traps, she takes a moment to consult her cards; it's a simple question. 'Are there traps?' The answer returns a resounding 'yes'.

Switching from vocalization to speaking from her mind has become second nature to Marie -- though those who haven't been in such a mindlink with the girl might be surprised when her 'voice' comes without the heavy accent.

<< They are using such devices now as well, Monsieur Forge. I can confirm this. >>

In fact, if she /hadn't/ been careful, she might have stepped on one just now. But she was being careful! Though, the unexpected voice that 'joins the call' has her blink, and repeat the warning.
<< The machines and their allies have laid dangerous traps throughout the area. Be careful. >>

Tessa has posed:
The blueprints Sage has of the facility do not match what she is seeing with her own eyes. She is not in the same realm of hacking as Mr. Ramsey is, but public access documents are frequently easier to fetch. Government funding is, after all, so spotty. She is about to speak her knowledge into the air when a gentle intrusion brushes against her mind. The apology is exceptionally polite. The offer even more so. Her partition shifts, bringing the intrusion through her first set of firewalls - deep enough to hear and be heard along the telepathic link, but not beyond her second set of firewalls. She will know if they attempt to step beyond their means, and they will regret the attempt. << The building has been extensively rebuilt, and many of the removals currently have no logical sense. Ventilation is poor. Be wary of aerosol traps as well. >> All of this is delivered in a calm, detached manner. As Sage, there are no emotions. There is only the efficiency of necessary actions.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
"I'm watching." Doug says, as he walks along, looking around. His own thoughts are encrypted - some weird language he invented that's got pattern and structure but... seems to change. A mutating language that is noticeably different in an hour than what it exists as now.
He's unarmed, seemingly, though that strange shiny black and gold arm betrays... something alien about him. Or at least about his arm. "Like Sartre said, you can't apply logic to illogical actions. It's wasted effort." He looks up, as if he's looking at whoever's trailing after them - but then he looks back down and ahead, at what's in front of them.

"Form follows function." Cypher says. "No logical sense to *us*. But to an adaptable machine mind?"

Monet St. Croix has posed:
The building that Rhona goes to check out smells horribly. Like mustard and spoiled sour cream. Bits of insulation are falling off the ceiling, pipes are rusted, and the floor is worn down. Water is going down the walls, wires are dangling everywhere, and many of the doors are broken in various places. There are no rats going up and down, no bugs, and no homeless. All things which normally would be present in a dilapidated, abandoned space. Just an overabundance of deritus, dust, and debris. But somehow cleaner in many ways given the lack of infestants. Which might be supremely weird evne with all else.
    Flying above J'Onn can make out a lack of things which should be here. No minds. No senses of workers having been there. No signs of things that human workers would leave. No large footprints in the mud. No huge amounts of dust. No garbage of cigarettes, bottles, or snack packs. Various port a potties setup about the perimeter that all smelled completely sterile but for the rain that had dribbled down on them. No grass mussed by tracks and treads.
    Jaxon teleports into a room of dark shadows. It has good and bad things. The good thing is that there's a powered down computer system there that looks like it takes up much of the room. It has large numbers of bulbs and heavy cathode ray displays blinking, dot matrix printers churning out things that seemed like alpha-numeric nonsense.
    The bad thing? The floating octopoid robot with eight arms and a large central optic, all the arms plugged into various ports in the machine that he had popped out behind of.
    The group advances forwards, coming across traps of a more classical variety. Small explosives pressed about, slicewire, small cannisters of acid.. Small alcoves in the walls where no doubt heavier, nastier things had been put in. The Sentinels had clearly prepared things of both high and low tech in the event of intruders as the group went to slowly sneak their way forwards. They're very lucky in having Forge's warnings and Marie-Ange's cards guiding them around.
    Sage can tell that the local networks are hardwired. Active for quick bursts of information to be sent out and received, otherwise with minimal data leakage to backtrack on. Many computer systems were analog ? the Sentinels had put in an immense amount of work making things out of vacuum tubes on par with modern supercomputers using the same technology. Despite the facility ready for full fabrication it was very, very quiet and they had avoided many of the pitfalls of being obvious.

Rhona Lauren has posed:
Rhona had approached the rather concerning looking building. It'd taken her a few minutes to find a point of entry, but after she had, she'd slipped inside under a door with a hole kicked out of the bottom of it. Something told her this felt wrong, but it wasn't until she got inside, and the scent of the place slipped in to her nostrils, that the teen started to narrow her eyes.

"I don't think they make high tech killer robots in here..." She quietly says in to her phone, as she glances at the screen, then up at the water trickling down the building's interior walls. She scrunches up her nose at the sight of it. "Structural hazards.." The British girl says in a hushed tone. "I'm quite certain they make high tech robots here, and not meth..."

She continues to carefully creepy along, her shoe soles making squishy noises on the floor, causing her to mentally have to ignore whatever soft substances she's stepping on, though she does make quiet whimpering noises at the sensation of it.

She steels herself internally, or tries to, as she pushes on for the 'story of the year' found inside a building that smells like mustard...

Paige Guthrie has posed:
Has Paige been here? Of course she's always been here, especially if you ignore that whole little vorping sound in the backk where a portal and a white masked man appears before Paige appears in uniform. She was always here.

Looking around as she blends in with the X-Folk, she bites on her lower lip as she frowns at the sight, or rather the lack of sight of giant killer robots inside.

"Could they have transformed? Maybe the buildings /are/ the sentinels?" she asks, probably to the surprise of almost anyone else.

Jaxon Blain has posed:
What. The. Fuck? That's Jaxon's reaction when there's suddenly a voice in his head. He lets out a low growl of a sound, mentally that is, he's not about to make a sound inside the building.

<<You know, sometimes it actually is better to ask permission than forgiveness.>> He points out, his irritation coming through loud and clear.

Well, it's already done so - <<They call me Tenebris, I'd like to say it's a pleasure, but that'd be a lie. I'm inside the building already. I have no fucking clue what I'm looking at.>> He is, at the very least, thankful for the warning about traps and such. He /should/ be okay, in his shadow form and sticking to the shadows, his retreat from danger would be instantaneous.

<<So, if I just think about what I'm seeing, can you all 'see' it? Because this is way above my paygrade.>>

For the moment, he doesn't move, he just keeps to the darkness in the room and making sure he's getting a good look at everything in there just in case the answer to his question is 'yes'. Fear is threatening to break through his wall of anger again - his heart's racing, his palms sweating. He really wants nothing more than to shadow hop his way right out of the building and back to his run down apartment in Bushwick.

Kid Devil has posed:
Kid Devil twitches and wiggles a finger in his ear when the martian prods at his mind, making a faint, startled yelp and nearly tipping off his rooftop perch. But he settles down soon enough, returning to a cautious crouch while his tail flips and twirls behind him with heightened agitation. << Hello? You folks chasing the telemetry from those scanners as well? Not sure where they came from, but really clever using the troughs in the signal like that. I wouldn't even have noticed it ordinarily... Oh, you're going in-- >>
When the others start advancing on the facility, he jumps off the rooftop he had loitered on and glides toward the building, aiming to land on its roof. Or at least grab onto the side and claw his way up. Maybe there are skylights, or an atrium, or some other means he can sneak over and scope out the interior.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabby's sneaking is pretty casual. Between herself and J'onn's telepathic sweeping. They don't seem to pick anyone up that would be meant to be on site. New arrivals in the link though get a surprise. <<Sup. I'm Boom-Boom. Obvs evil robot storage here. And yep. Think about what you see and we'll see it Anything not safe for work will result in involuntary pooping.>> As a demonstration she gives everyone a look of the surrounds from her own yellow tinted point of view.

It's not a jaundiced view. It's just her glasses.>>

What the blonde is doing is casing everything, from security features, including any traps, to anything else that might be important. <<Anyone want to find us a power plant? We do that I can level the place and we can go home early.>> with a name like Boom-Boom, she can deliver on that possibility.

Quentin Quire has posed:
Having found himself continually encountering this particular branch of the ugly Sentinel tree, Quentin has been keeping tabs on Forge & Doug's progress as they put together the means to track the killing machines. So he joins them on this little outting, if a little separate from the rest of the group. Another block over, peering in the windows of a different building than what the others approach.

One just as empty of human presence as the rest, dilapitated front lobby making pretty good camoflague for the activities occurring further within. Chiming in on Tabby's original mindlink and paying little attention to the presence of others; certainly more polite about it than he would have been, but he's not exactly looking to expand their little group chat.

<< All these rises are pretty much the same. Abandoned, basically boarded up on the first floor, but that's just decoration.. >>

The announcement is for those not as privvy to the situation as Doug and Forge are, as the Omega-level telepath rejoins the Maker and the Crytologist. In an unusually subtle (for Quentin Quire) display, he doesn't fly or float himself back. Just jogs to catch up, sidestepping the various traps to catch back up to the group of merry mutants.

As the annoyed tones of Tenebris comes across the mindlink, Quentin easily tracks back to what that man is seeing, broadcasting it out on his side of the mindlink to anyone who'll receive it. The image of the room in their minds eye.

<< Hello, beautiful. At least we know we're in the right place now, Doug. Careful, that's one of their drones. It can get grabby and bitey and explodey. >>

The telepathic tone is dry and serious, even as he rejoins the rest.

J'onn J'onzz has posed:
<<This is a Rogue Digital Intelligence. No biological oversight is an abomination waiting to happen...two Accord violations for the price of one. You can safely use your powers to your utmost without fear of life except for your fellow hunters....If you accept it I will share your geospatial location with anyone else in the group to avoid collateral damage."^^^damage."

Quentin's arrival is noted, which means that he can get physical without needing to provide telepathic focus....good. He cracks his knuckles.

Forge has posed:
 Forge busies himself with the traps, continuing steadily forward, as he disarms traps and tripwires. <<Watch out for that acid.>> Forge points out to the person fallowing him, motioning to a trap which, even when disarmed, involves a precariously perched acid container.

 The interruption of J'Onn's telepathy brings him to a pause, as does the message from Tenebris. Forge hesitates, before speaking on J'onn's link, as calmly as he can.

 <<This is Forge. You appear to have found a control unit. If it has not detected you, leave now. If it detects you, it will alert the remaining sentinels in the facility, and you will be swarmed. As will we all.>> Forge looks towards Cypher. <<Cypher. If we can get you to that room, and disable the Sentinel quickly enough...>> he lets the thought hang for Doug to imagine a finish to.

Tessa has posed:
Sage takes in the Network information returning to her with practiced eyes. In the far back of her mind, she is almost impressed. Overkill, certainly. The paranoia level would be greatly appreciated by some. She copies all of the data she can glean, and slides it into a folder.

<< She eyes the image Mr. Tenebris sends, feeling along the line of mental intrusion to share the network information with those she believes are most likely to have use of it - namely Mr. Ramsey and Mr. Forge. She does not like the current situation, or that she can recognize some of the parts as belonging to companies she is familiar with. << Would two pairs of hands be more useful than one? I am not as adept as Mr. Ramsey in this area, but I am no slouch. >>

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Every trap is itself designed to catch an intruder unwary, but paradoxically you always want to place a trap where it will be effective; like bait to catch an ant. Doug seems to have an intuitive sense of where traps are, stopping as others point them out and Forge disarms them.

"Be careful. Once they realize their passive measures to repel intruders are no longer working, they'll likely go on active offense. Everything about this place is meant to keep people away; the state of decay, the traps. This demonstrates an active understanding of human psychology... ah. And we've found one."

"Ms. Sage," He says, as he puts his black and gold hand in the pocket of his jacket, "You can only help."

Marie-Ange Colbert has posed:
<> Marie chimes back to Jonn's offer... knowing where the fellow 'good guys', even though there's no guarantee that they are, in fact, 'good guys' when it comes to the strange voices in her head. It could, indeed, be a trap just like the various tripwires and pressure plates scattered throughout the building.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
As Rhona goes to confirm that no, there are no giant robots in this building,a nd discovers the scent of bad mustard and spoilt sour cream is.. She pokes open a door to a room which has the decor of a gaudy 50's diner, with vastly oversized salt and pepper shakers present, extreme amounts of cheap seasonings, and a refrigerator that's lost power and is overflowing with cheap packets of ketchup and other such things long since gone bad. So she hadn't found a robot. She had found one of Condiment King's safehouses. The robots might be easier.
    Everyone (that lets it) gets the image from Jaxon of the octopoid robot plugged into the old style looking computer systems going through data along with the pings of old modem and bulky fans droning on in the background as dot matrix printers would pile on more nad more. The central optic starts to swivel around then as if scanning the shadow where the sweating Jaxon hides in while passing along crucial information to the rest..
    Kid Devil going up quickly finds that all of the windows, boxed out with wood panels and plastic from the outside are.. Extremely secure, bulletproof plexiglass on the outside, along with very small seals upon them which were no doubt alarms if they were breached. There were no skylights on the building, no large vents or maintenance systems.
    Quentin rejoining them confirms that there's no biologicals present. No animals, no people.. If he would take the time to scan on down there's even no pests. No pigeons, no rats, no bugs of any sort. Apparently they had some kind of supreme techno-magic which kept all city staple scavengers out. The mother lode if one could figure out how and patent it.
    The group has a control unit they can get to ? but they have to sneak up and get to it and go along quietly and figure out how through the complex.. While avoiding the large numbers of traps which were far more dangerous than the technological security. Forge's quiet warning of what lies ahead and what they can find over are good goals.
    The group maneuvers in further, avoiding traps, and heading inside now to the large, cramped factory floor that had been carefully gutted apartment buildings turned into a massive assembly line, walls insulated heavily to block out noise, the low power hum of a heavy generator on standby.. Dozens upon dozens of various bodies in various stages of assembly along the line. Different colors, different materials, and different weapons arrays than on most Sentinels. They were diversifying.
    Paige, Tabby,a nd Rhona catch up with the group as they go inside and start to spread out and maneuver along. There's a ton of stations, heavy equipment, and almost no lightning. Don't need to bother with OHSA compliance if you don't have humans.
    Then there's a light -ping- that goes off as Forge crosses the foyer. A red light flashes, a glow going off as a passive electronic scanner picks up.. His gun.

    It all goes to hell right about then as the lights go completely off and dozens and dozens of red optics go to flash and activate. Automated sentry guns go to pop out of various hatches and panels. The various Sentinels on guard and in various states of assembly all immediately power on.
    In the type of monotone that everyone that had survived them feared..
    MUTANT SIGNATURE DETECTED

Rhona Lauren has posed:
With the door pushed open to what seemed like some kind of twisted laboratory, Rhona crept inside. She continued to record footage of everything she was seeing, and her nose unfortunately was recording everything it was smelling. "This is not the Burger King..." The British girl muttered, as she felt a creep trickle up the back of her spine. A tipped over box, with some strange objects resting inside it marked 'Mustard Bombs' caught her attention, and after letting her camera linger upon it for a moment, the teen was startled when she heard some noises outside, from a building to the south? She wasn't sure.

"Okay, we're done here... Seen enough of this place!"

Turning on her heels, the teen dashed for the door she'd come in through, and began hustling it down the old creaky wooden steps she'd ascended, intention of moving toward that back door she'd ducked through and beneath to get inside this terribly strange lair! Her backpack bounced upon the small of her back, as she rushed down the steps, leaping down the last two, and quickly scurrying across the wet floor toward the door with the hole in it, all while her heart raced inside her chest!

J'onn J'onzz has posed:
J'onn J'onzz moves around with fantastic speed but is doing something really ODD. Rather than attacking the monsters, he puts up lots of perfectly normal cameras. He wants evidence of this, using Earth technology so that plausible deniability is not offered to those behind this in case (he has after all been teaching young powered people for decades and knows the probability of) the building blowing up. This is done in an eye blink and he remains phased and invisible but dashing about as best he can to use telekinetic shields when the other shields and powers provided by the mutants are not able to do so...

This is, for now, not his fight though he wants to destroy this abomination as much as they do.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Seeing a hallway light up with glowing eyes and the sound of robotics and power plants coming to life.

That gets a worried tone. "Craaaaaaaaaap!" she yells and already starts swirling her hands and generating plasma trails with the movements.

Between looking at the sentinels, any defense turrets and her friends. Tabby is already looking for places to hunker and bunker people down. <<Gonna get loud in three... two... one...> she warns over the mind link so people actually hear her.

Plasma streams from her hands and starts going for the sentinels, the turrets and anything else in her line of sight that has itself an explosive mass of superheated ionized gasses due.

Forge has posed:
At the Ping, Forge Tenses, and then lets out a sigh, as the red light sweeps over him. Tossing his tablet, he blasts away with his pistol even as the voice booms out the dreaded words, aiming for the optics of one robot after another with a pistol that makes whining noises, rather than the usual crack of gunshots. The Whine, Whine, Whine, of his pistol repeatedly sings out, as he pulls the trigger, sending red hot packets of just barely subsonic metals, so hot that they're a molten plasma rather than anything more physical, out with the miniature rail gun. Of course, it only has a dozen or so shots, and he seems determined to spend them all at the mid sized and partially constructed, a visor extending over his vision and letting him easily see as he 'services targets'.

<> he gives some advice, as he spends all the ammo in the pistol, before swinging the rifle around, and racking a bolt on it, and flicking off a safety. That starts a whining noise that isn't the sound of a firing sequence, but instead, the sound of a battery pack warming up.

Jaxon Blain has posed:
Jaxon can't be one hundred percent sure that he won't be detected, but he's about ninety-five percent. Not bad odds, right.? He just has to stand perfectly still in those shadows and not say a word - out loud. Here's to hoping the Zyrtec is working on those seasonal allergies, right now would be a bitch of a time to sneeze.

<<My geospatial - yeah, yeah... GPS me.>> He has never wished he had the ability to take someone else on his shadow hops more than he wishes it in this moment. <<Don't you guys have teleporter or something with you? - >> Oh, yeah, hell no. When that thing starts to turn as if it's going to look right at him? Jaxon isn't there by the time it gets to his little piece of shadow.

<> Jaxon tosses out in an accusatory tone. <<I'm not a teleporter, I shadow travel and I can't take a guest.>> A beat before, <>

Honestly? While Jaxon can be absolutely deadly to things that bleed, he's not the most suited to fight these things. What he can do is move through the darkness, jumping from shadow to shadow and popping out just long enough to say 'boo' to a sentinel in his own little twisted game of 'whack'a'jax' to try and keep their attention away from the route Cypher would have to take to get to the control room.

- of course he'll be calling out directions mentally the whole.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Cypher nods - and gets behind something. An old machine, a stack of crates - anything to keep him out of immediate view. He still has his hand in his jacket pocket. "On it." He says, before he begins making his way along, doing his best to not-

He comes face-to-face with one of the machines, staring it right in its glowing red optics.

"You know I don't have any guns. Or offensive mutant powers."

Then he withdraws his hand from his pocket - and his fingers extend, points spearing the sentinel through the optic and pinning it against the wall before they withdraw. "But techno-organic matter isn't a mutant power or immediately recognizeable as a *weapon* to you, is it? It's just strange meat; until it isn't."

He looks up at Jaxon. "Don't try the same trick on them twice - they're adaptive. So save your best offense for when it really counts!"

Kid Devil has posed:
 Kid Devil misses the roof by >< much, but secures a grip on the wall with his claws. He peeks over the edge of the roof to find nothing much actionable up there. So he scrapes his way along to a window instead. As he studies it he spots some wires and sensors affixed along the frame. "Someone's paranoid," he mutters rather than thinks. "But also, not paranoid enough!" He breathes in deep, then exhales a plume of yellowish flame along the edge of the window, fusing all the alarm circuits into a useless, molten mess. Kid Devil sticks his finger into the scorched liquid slag to draw a smiley face with little devil horns on it and a lolling, mocking tongue. Then he pulls on the frame to tug the window slowly open and swings inside.
 Of course after all that meticulous sneaking, breaking, and even entering, it all goes swiftly to shit. As the menacing announcement thunders out over the site Kid Devil straightens up and looks around to make sure it wasn't his fault. "I didn't do it!"
 He's pretty sure.
 When he hears-- what is that noise? A Jamaican steel drum filled with water? A cat being tickled?-- oh, no, as Kid Devil rounds the corner and sees it's that big guy's neat pistol. With that corner of the room under control Kid Devil looks for another target to pounce, to give Forge some cover.
 <>

Marie-Ange Colbert has posed:
'MUTANT SIGNATURE DETECTED'
Marie doesn't have to be vain to realize that song is about her. Her, and a number of her friends (or at least allies, as the case may be). There's a quick look around -- judging the space they have -- before she reaches into her pouch of tarot cards. Letting her fingers dance along the edges until she finds what she's looking for.

In this particular case? The Devil. A fitting card to face those who compare her kind as a whole to the infernal.

Within moments, a twenty foot tall manifestation of the lord of demons -- as depicted by the Rider-Waite Tarot -- is called forth onto the factory floor, with the redhead leaping towards it and gripping hold of the hair on its leg.

<> Marie calls out. She's well aware that, using one of her larger summons, she's making herself a target. She's also well aware that it likely won't hold up to much damage... but if it buys her allies the openings they need? It's worth the risk.

Quentin Quire has posed:
<< Well, there goes the subtle approach... >>

 Quentin finds himself staring down the barrel of a rather nasty sentry gun as it pops up out of the floor right infront of him, staring glowing-pink eyes to starting-to-glow-gunbarrel. At least until a giant pink hammer squashes that sentry gun back into the hole it popped out of, Quentin resetting the Jack-In-The-Box back to unpopped very, very violently. Backing away from the crunched guntrap and shading his eyes from Tabby's stream of plasma blasts, the molecules of his leather jacket and cut off jeans outfit rearrange themselves to typical X-Men combat gear, appropriated from a storage locker somewhere.

 << Everyone scatter. Sing out if you die, someone will save you shortly. Watch out for these cameras.... >> and everyone currently involved and willing receiving such databursts instinctively recoghnizes where J'onn is putting up his spycams << ..for some reason or another... >>

 Racking a psionic round into the psionic sawed-off shotgun that appears in his grip, Quentin blasts a half-constructed Sentinel in the face as it attempts to sit upright and blast him. Not so much a psionic attack as a concentrated fist of telekinetic energy this time, the round bores a hole in the machine's face. Similar rounds striking out at other targets of convenience as Quentin moves deeper across the factory floor. As someone offers to give Doug a lift, that someone (Kid Devil) suddenly knows exactly where Doug needs to be in the building, however many floors up.

Tessa has posed:
A partition deep in the back of the Sage programming slips open in a blink of eyes. Her body language shifts from cautious and wary into the dangerous stride of a predator as the assembly is laid bare before them ... and then activated. Sighing would be inefficient, so Sage does not. As she sees cameras being put into place, she zips her tac jacket to the neck and pulls the interior mask across the bottom of her face, securing it along the other side. Being connected to Tessa Fox would be bad for Sebastian's health and safety - as well as her own, a minor concern.

She maneuvers through the sea of partially finished Sentinels with difficulty, focusing her attacks and attention on the smaller, unfinished pieces that still have exposed wiring. The toolkit in one of her pockets is right for the job, snipping and severing, twisting and tweaking into something slightly different.

She is intelligent, not clever. Her creativity is better served elsewhere. The goal currently is to take the items out of play, and -

Searing heat runs along her back, and she drops to the floor and into a roll while the limb she was disarming clatters towards a set of hands. As she takes slow, deep breaths, assessing the damage, the hands start to move. It is a tiny sea of macabre horror, Thing made manifest in murderous metals and circuits.

<< Mr. Quire, Mr. Forge. Ms. Smith. Please turn your attention to the angry sea of hands advancing on the room. >> With that, she struggles into a sitting position. Her jacket has protected her skin from being seared off, but she is still burnt on some level and stiff from the fall.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Fights with Sentinels are always chaotic. Anarchic, even. As energy blasts would go back and forth. Rhona's shields taking heavy blasts of power. Plasma shots, fire.. An alternate attack would hit her shield. Concussive? It was using some sort of repulsor beam at her. Not Stark Tech, but definitely not the usual Sentinel laser weaponry either. The beam would start to draw on more energy, pulsing over her shield. If she could tell.. It was trying to match energy frequencies to her deflectors, trying to hit that sweet point to punch right through them, and by virtue through her!
    J'Onn makes for a handy deflector for the cameras as he disconnects them in rapid waves. Along the walls, panels are unlatching. If he heard the warning from Tessa earlier on aerosol sprays.. He would be able to recognize them as about to dump a huge amount of neurotoxins onto the floor. Enough to kill almost any human from the slightest inhalation.
    On the floor, Forge quickly pinpoints targets and neutralizes them, blaster cleanly shooting through turrets, Sentinel weaponry, and anything that he could take potshots at. He could tell that the metals the Sentinels were made out of were different. Ceramic plates over titanium, layered with small peel-off panels on front designed to handle high intensities of energy. Making them much, much harder to blast through for high powered weapons and reinforced against blunt for trauma.
    Kid Devil makes a surprising backup to Quentin as the two would go to quickly make mincemech of Sentinels nearby. As one of them would be smashed apart, another would unlatch a panel. From it would come out high power sonic waves, designed to deafen, disorient, and debilitate targets! Trying to hit the two with high power, high pitch screams! At least they weren't adapting to psionics.. That he knew of. IF he survived that long!
    Marie-Ange's summons make for an amazing distraction. The various Sentinel units pause for half a micro-second, as if trying to figure out what they're up against, making the electronic equivalent of surprise. Right as they go to open fire on it with massive amounts of artillery. Artillery that is not going to shoot over at the maneuvering Doug making a break for the control room. Turrets that might go to take potshots at Doug instead are going at the shadowy, flickering phantasm. The Sentinels in each place Jaxon goes to dart along start to counter. They attempt to blast at him with bright lights and lasers, electricity, and rapid pulse attacks. A floodlight goes on, blindingly light.
    Tessa gets hands on. Very, very hands on in a twisted way as the arms go at it. Falling in a roll like a CLANG. One falling over along the ground, crushing two smaller units. A tripod Sentinel unit with a welding torch used for construction goes to tap-tap-tap on spinal legs towards her. It goes to snake out with the welding torch towards a three meter long arm, the arm latching up and connecting at her, lifting up syncing with it and going to try and blast her with a huge plasma beam. Their technology was apparnetly going modular.

J'onn J'onzz has posed:
J'onn J'onzz reacts faster than literally any being here can and shuts that nonsense down cold. "Make that THREE war crimes" he says out loud and telekinetically pushes the toxins back whence they came and CRUSHING the dispensors therein. He is PISSED and an angry Martian is a figure to behold. He stops pushing telekinetically and begins smashing it with herculean strength making holes in the walls for the gas to escape out into.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Tabitha goes to make anyone around her hunker down. As she goes to blast out at one of the stranger looking Sentinels that has less armoring on it, and seems to have lighter paneling.. Inside it's torso it has some sort of glowing crystal that's almost like a rainbow. She goes to blast out at it, and as explosions flare and fly about.. It hits the thing, and it..
Doesn't seem to be effected. The cyrstal in it's chest goes to hum, glowing brighter and brighter.
Aww ****

Rhona Lauren has posed:
Rhona had exitted the strange building not too far from the Sentinel compound, and the resulting noises she heard to the north lead her directly to where the action was. As she rounded a corner, she came face first with a sentinel security system that turned on her, spotted her, and began firing at her! The teenager was forced to drop her phone, release a sudden shout in fright, and summon a brilliantly bright disc of purple and pink energy!

The disc of shield power blossomed out in front of her, narrowly avoiding the laser burning right through her. Instead, the beam was left impacting against the teen's produced shield protection, the pink energy of her defenses shimmering as the Sentinel weapon was trying to burn its way through them!

She'd left something out of a horror film, and now found herself suddenly face to face with the horrors of a Sci Fi film!

Both of her hands went forward, both sets of her fingers glowing brightly, hwith her arms stretched out, pouring her Mutation's energy in to her shield to keep it up, to keep it protecting herself from getting burned away. She clamped her eyes shut, as she leaned in to it, suddenly releasing a scream of fright and terror in to the night around her. Sometimes people do things with the best of intentions, and end up way in over their head.

Quentin Quire has posed:
    The first few half-assembled Sentinels are pretty easy to blast in the face, having not received the second and third layers of armor that others are starting to sport, coming off the assembly line earlier than the others. Eventually Quentin runs up against one far enough into its assembly that the telekinetic shotgun blast doesn't do much more than break the Sentinel's metal nose, leaving it looking like a robotic Owen Wilson before it opens its mouth-hatch wide enough to release a sonic attack.

    "Ahh, son of a bitch!" Quentin makes an audible complaint as the first blast of sonics rolls over him in waves, the telepath ducking behind some convenient piece of machinery or another as his hands clamp over his ears, psionic shotgun going *POP* as it drops from his hands. "Fucking thing..." he grumbles against the ringing in his ears as he ducks lower, dropping to the floor to peer out under the machinery he hides behind.

    Reaching out with telekinetics the grabs at the Sentinel's ankles and yanks them backwards out from under the robotic assailant. Catching it unexpectedly, the Owen Wilsonbot falls forwards, smashing face first into the machinery; a remarkably effective way to silence the sonic assault.

    He's on a roll for grabbing things, reaching out to try and pull Tessa out of the way of the approaching construct-o-bot and the sea of grabby hands, enveloping the woman in a telekinetic coccoon if she doesn't struggle and allows it.

Jaxon Blain has posed:
Feeling afraid, terrified and doing a thing anyway, is that stupid or brave? The jury's still out. But Jaxon isn't about to stop doing what he's doing until he can't do it anymore or Cypher makes it to that room, whichever comes first. The bright lights are bad. The lasers hurt when they hit him, but not as bad as they would if he wasn't in his shadow form, electricity does nothing.... it's the flood lights that get him.

He lets out a strangled sound, it's not a scream, it's more a growl? of pain.

Where once there was only a vaguely humanoid dark shape, now stands a fully fleshed Jaxon. He's 'bleeding' shadow from his right arm and the left side of his abdomen. He's completely blinded by those lights, the pain from them burning into his sensitive eyes despite them being squeezed shut tight.

It would seem this is going to be his end.

But he only needs one tiny fragment of a shadow, just one. Even when that Shadow is Jaxon's own cast weakly behind him. He takes a step back and he's just /gone/.

<<Sorry, man, I... Did you make it?>> The question is clearly aimed at Doug and Jaxon's exhaustion and pain are clear in his voice. He's found himself a room a little less 'deadly' and light saturated to lay low, hopefully.

Kid Devil has posed:
me=

 Kid Devil helps to carve up some of the menacing robots, but before he can get too triumphant he's blasted with an unexpected sonic weapon. He staggers backward, tipping over an assembly line and falling down to at least get some cover from the blast. Trickles of viscous, gasoline-scented fluid seep from his ears, dripped along the floor and smeared onto the nearby machinery.
 Kid Devil jolts and wriggles his nose like he's about to sneeze, when he finds Knowledge and imagery suddenly seeping into his head. "Oh, wow, that feels weird," he mumbles. "Do you people do this all the time?!" Thanks to the deafening attack he can't quite hear himself and he pokes at his ear again. "Mawp. Oh, great..."
 But at least he has what he needs, so, dazed but functional, he tries to find the 'he' that's supposed to be delivered to the destination. << Which one of you is 'Cypher'? And where? I can get you to the thing, just look for-- I'm the red one. Can't miss me! >>
 He sticks a hand up and waves, helpfully. Yep, very red indeed, just as promised.
 He makes sure his cover is (relatively) secure, then starts exhaling a chaotic maelstrom of fire that soon spins, and spreads outward, until the control room is visible on the other side of the portal through an intense ripple of heat-haze.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
One of the benefits of being able to psionically control her plssma blasts. Boom-Boom can keep things going from behind cover with just a bare hint of peeking one's head out.

What she's actually doing is not so safe and defensive. She's mostly just running from spot to spot as she tries to avoid getting blasted or stomped with all the speed that comes from trying to out run her own explosions.

<<Hey Forge, any idea on the goddamn glowy crystals?>> They seem to be eating her blasts. That might require a different tactic as she starts aiming more for limbs and anything like the sentinel's own energy emitters. Streams and orbs of plasma in varying colors all blasting in big pretty fireball. <<Lets snag one. Maybe we can install it in my old van along with the hover engines. Save on gas!>> the dream of a hover van continues.

Marie-Ange Colbert has posed:
It only takes one.

The first artillery shell connects with the lofty devil and sends it back into the ether from whence it came... and Marie? Well, it's a good thing she didn't try climbing too far up, because she's quickly falling... fortune favoring her as this takes her out of the path of the /rest/ of the artillery that had targetted her summoned creation. Precognition comes in handy, but so does combat experience.

She lands with a thud, but quickly rolls onto her back. Reaching for another card, she's going right back to the well... quite possibly underestimating her foes' ability to adapt. Although this time, rather than the Devil, it's the image of Justice, appearing from a few feet away from Marie and charging along the ground towards another sentinel. If it gets close enough, it's going to try and drive its giant blade directly through the center of the machine... though again, her goal is distraction moreso than it is offense.

Marie doesn't go along for the ride this time. No sense making it too obvious that she's the source of the summons, instead, she just lays on the ground, playing possum, and wondering...

<< ...when did your van become flight capable, Tabitha? >>

Even in a life and death moment, even though she's seen stranger, that just strikes her as /particularly/ absurd.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
"That would be me." Doug says, emerging from behind a stack of rotten pallets from behind Kid Devil. "You remind me a little bit of someone I know." He says, "Are you German? Sprechen sie deutsch?"

Then he reaches out and puts his (normal) hand on Kid Devil's head and pushes him down, before an energy blast sizzles past where his head was and obliterates the pallets. "...Whoops! Buddy, get us the *heck* out of here!"

Forge has posed:
Sea of hands seems... Bad. Forge was hoping to save this for another trip, but... <<Warning.. I'm using a jammer.>> His mental tone is still calm, even as he ducks behind cover, big gun in his hands, taking a shot at one of the largest threats. The gun, which had swollen up until its barrel, glowing and pulsing, was as wide as a man's fist, with some sort of focusing dish inside it. The blast ripples the air as he shoots at the strange, crystal charging sentinel with a sonic disruptor.

About then, a thing on his belt beeps three times, and Forge shifts to slam it against the machine he's tucked behind. There's another Beep Beeep BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.. and the device pulses out in a wave of electromagnetic energy. It's a very specific pulse though. Rather than trying to fry the obviously shielded sentinels, it reaches out for their network connections, and aims to scramble them, pulsing and adding chaotic fuzz to their communications, breaking up, at least temporarily, the capability for the Sentinels to coordinate.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Rhona was face to face with what could make Sentinels so dangerous as energy would seem to be pressing through her shields. Her collapsing and screaming and falling was actually what saved her, her crumbling down to the ground having the blast shoot over her head,a nd into the building next door she had just come out of, leaving a gaping hole in the wall. It left her un-disintegrated. But the Sentinel Security System would be quickly rotating along to tr yand retarget her, seemingly when it had figured out how to bypass her shield!
    Quentin goes to play with things like life size Lego bricks. As he goes to pick up things and goes to swing and smash them about, not leaving openings for things to try and go to blast at him. Another of the security systems goes active ? and starts launching drones. Dozens and dozens of small drones about the size of thimbles. Going on small repulsors, flashing red as they would charge along at him with small directional warheads! Intent on staying just the reach out of the way fo his ability to smash them, waiting for a moment to try and get past his shields, hovering evasively and darting in and out of range while most assuredly trying to get him the second they could!
    Jaxon is able to figure out that the -things- hve calculated what he's vulnerable and what his limits are, even as he would dart out and away. It's given Douglas those moments of freedom to make a break for it as Jaxon can get back into cover and he can catch his own breath. There is bright, blinding light everywhere. The lights are definitely on full glow.
    It's Kid Devil at Quentin's side that's the most effective thing as telekinetic shields overlap with blasts of hellfire. What would be hurled out of the way by Quentinw ould be blasted with Hellfire and disintegrated. The Sentinels would have no way to debilitate or counter magic ? even as much of the swarm of kamikaze bees would go to charge towards him, electro-stingers intent on latching on to try and blast him with enough electricity to power an entire city block if they could!
    Tabitha's blasts are definitely being absorbed by the Sentinel. She hits an arm, the crystal glows. She hits the leg, the crystal glows. She detonates things around it? Well, the thing doesn't glow from those and they blow up the normal way. But ti was definitely taking in her power from anything that hit it. They were adapting to blasters. The crystal goes to strobe.. Then goes to unleash a massive blast of Tabitha's own power at her in a directed energy beam rather than an explosion!
    Marie-Ange's cards are magic. Not immediately invulnerable, but direct. Magic messes with their technological mech-set. It is something that violates the laws of reality in ways that they have not yet found a way to calculate. The Vision of Justice charges forwards, going to impale the Sentinel over in the chest where it goes to slump down, her having slashed through it's power core.
    All this gives the time for Forge to whip up his jammer, even as the group is fighting bck on all sides as it kicks in. There's a WHINE as it's suddenly every Sentinel for itself as the hivemind is disconnected, and each has to operate under it's own processing power and capability. They all stop for a moment as secondary programs kick in, algorithms adjust.. And now a series of huge blasters are pointing the way of Forge,intent on unloading enough firepower at him to qualify for a 90's 'Armory' deluxe sized holofoil issue!
    But all the fire is now haphazard and random, and they have those few moments to get up and try and break into the network ? since it's hardwired it would still be 'up' since the data wasn't in the cloud and it couldn't upload or self destruct.

Tessa has posed:
Sage forces herself to her feet. It only takes a few moments to assess herself, staggering behind cover and onto a table that is now free of Sentinel parts. She digs into a pocket, and pulls out a small pill, swallowing it dry. Things need to end before the pill kicks in, or she's going to have to resort to calling for a pick-up, and she does not want to waste a favor on such a thing. Her sunglasses are still showing network connections when Forge jams them, and the targeted pulse is quite intriguing. Sage would like to reverse engineer it. Knowing what she does about the capabilities of the man, it would take her longer than it would be worth. She transmits an image of the ancient-yet-modern central computer. << If I could have assistance reaching this? I will be able to pull the data from it. >>

J'onn J'onzz has posed:
J'onn J'onzz continues making sure all of the gas flows out. As it is, he does what he can to help the others, kicking into the chaos even more, moving in and out of walls, punching things randomly but shifting into the other combatants present but using strength and speed that they shouldnt have. He immitates them perfectly too right down to the cellular level, giving off their power signature even if he doesnt have their power and splits their fire as often as possible. There is a moment where one blasts fire at one of the others though and ....he is gone. Just like that.

All the powers in the phone book but a simple simple weakness.

Forge has posed:
Forge would love to help Rhona... but at this moment, he's pinned down by dozens of systems, firing on him. <<Well, that was effective. Won't last long. Get Sage and Cypher to their targets if you can.>> he mutters, ducking further behind the quickly disintegrating machine. He pulls something off his belt, and slides it around the panel, and it flashes twice, before expanding into a large, robust shield. A shield which sucks in any energy fire, laser or plasma, that is directed at it, and uses it to reinforce itself. While it is also able to prevent the passage of more physical threats, those drain it somewhat, and acid actually clings to it when sprayed by certain Sentinel.

Under the cover of this shield, he moves to relocate to more cover, blasting away with sharp clanking thrums of power from his rifle, ripping holes in most things using some sort of sonic liquefier that makes metal crystalline structures collapse. He falls back from the group, trying hard to reach Rhona before she is hurt, hoping that the disruption of the networks will give her time to take cover.

Rhona Lauren has posed:
Down on the ground, having ducked beneath the beam weapon, Rhona knows she only has a few seconds before she'll be gone forever. Acting on the moment, having trained for almost two years at Xavier's School, the teen leans up, produces another disc-shaped energy shield, and this time she goes on the offensive as the Sentinel seems to be rebooting? Either way, before it can fire again, Rhona's control over her shield leaves her a chance to manipulate its position in space, and she begins moving it forward and back, slamming in to the Sentinel at tremendous speeds, before it darts right back to her fingertips with a graceful reconnection to her hands.

Her glowing fingers flex wide apart, as she rises back up to her dirtied tennis shoes, using both of her hands, and a determined expression on her face, she continues to repeatedly bash her shield in to the Sentinel, again and again, before her left hand snaps out to the side, summoning a second energy disc, that she manipulates in the same fashion, creating a one-two punch that she uses to batter and pummel the robotic Sentinel before her!

Her only chance of getting away now, is bashing the damn thing in to smithereens!

The young woman steps forward, pushing closer toward the Sentinel to make her control over her growling energy discs stronger, as they begin to move at a blazing speed of slamming in to the metal beast!

Tabitha Smith has posed:
"The goddamn things are eating my plasma. RUDE!" Boomski yells and looks very annoyed. <<Doug, how you for your thingy? If we gotta bail I'm bringing the place down. Lets seem them eat girder.>>

The blonde changes targets again, sort of. It's anything lode bearing that gets her eye now. Anything that could be launched at the robots. Manufacturing machines, large enough storage. Any other unused sentinel bits big enough. Even the table Sage was at is considered like lighting a bomb under a traschan. <<Hey, sexy lady with the drugs. Save some for me! It's a little early to party though!>> she sadly admits.

One blast at the ceiling over the sentinel aiming blasts at Rhona <<Keep ya shields up and ya head down and you'll be back in the stables shoveling horse poop in no time girl!>> she reassures as the blonde works.

"This party sucks. I say we bail and burn the place down!"

Jaxon Blain has posed:
If there's a broom closet in this place that's not lit up like a Christmas tree, that's where Jaxon's holed away. Feasibly, he could just run from there - it's dark outside, that's all he needs to know. There are shadows everywhere outside, it be so easy to make that hop to completely freedom and safety.

Despite being knee-capped by all the bright lights leaving him little else to offer, Jaxon needs to see it to the end.

So he stays, there in his broom closet - or whatever darkened corner he's able to find. Sweating now from pain rather than fear - although there's still a healthy dose of that as well - sitting on the floor, head against the wall, he just listens for any more 'head chatter'.

Here's to hoping that someone at least puts out a warning if they're going to blow the building.

Kid Devil has posed:
    Kid Devil looks around, only seeming to spot Doug from the corner of his vision rather than hear his greeting. "OH, HEY! HUH?" he says, with the volume of someone newly deaf. "WHAT'S A SPICY DUTCH? SORRY, I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" Nor, it seems, can he read lips. He points at his ear, from which napalm-blood continues to seep. That might start to be a problem soon, for somebody, particularly as it spreads onto his dangerously-hot skin and suddenly ignites. The teen devil seems not to notice yet.
     Very fortunately he does notice Doug reaching out to touch him, and at the last instant he manages to dial his latent heat down to something safe to touch as he's shoved out of the way of the incoming attack. "WOAH! THANKS, DUDE!"
    "I THINK THEY WANT YOU," he points at Doug, "IN THERE," he finishes, gesturing urgently toward the portal. "GO AHEAD, IT'S SAFE."
    Though he does give one more appraising glance at Doug's hair, just in case.
    Then he grins, and nods, as encouragingly as a demonic teenager possibly could. "I'LL BE RIGHT AFTER YOU."
    And indeed, he is, waiting for Cypher to go through the ring of fire before pursuing to the building's control center.

Marie-Ange Colbert has posed:
Marie's eyes go wide as she realizes that her summon managed to fell one of the mighty machines. She honestly didn't expect there to be any chance! ...but her moment of celebration is short-lived.

Sentinels have their weaknesses, certainly... but they can adapt. They learn. They analyze the battlefield and their foes' weaknesses. No foe sought to strike against Justice because the first volley made it seem like the summons were some sort of illusion. Enormous, but ultimately harmless.

The second encounter suggested they were not harmless at all, and that destroying one would not stop others. Finding the source became key, and the prone redhead who didn't seem to be actively battling made an obvious guess.

Another artillery shell is fired, this time at the french girl herself. She realizes it quickly, but that kind of weapon isn't exactly slow; she's fortunate enough to roll out of direct impact, but not far enough that the blast doesn't send her flying... and slamming hard into a wall.

Her lights go out as her cards scatter around her, and her summon vanishes in turn, provoking an ominous declaration of victory.

TARGET NEUTRALIZED.

Quentin Quire has posed:
As the next wave of assault comes in the form of miniature exploding drones, Quentin suddenly finds himself beset by little explosions as the devices smash against his cover; a severe enough distraction to keep him from grabbing Tessa, but hey she managed on her own. Skipping backwards from his position of cover, little discs of telekinetic energy flashing up around him as he tries to split his concentration in multiple directions to block the incoming little explosive devices.

It might be a little bit OCD, but it certainly does keep him preoccupied for several minutes, taking out each drone individually as they try to swarm his defenses. At least until he realizes that he doesn't have to deal with the drones one at a time, and surrounds himself in his own cocoon of telekinetic energy. Drones pop and explode against the shield as he takes stock of the situation, catching Marie-Ange slamming against a wall. He reaches out to telekinetically cushion the mutant's fall and shield her from further attacks.

<< If you jump into that kid's fire hole, you'll end up where you need to go... >> he directs mostly at Tessa, keeping tabs on Doug's progress towards that very same destination. << Pretty sure, anyway. But do it quick, we need to bring this place down fast before we're all overwhelmed. >>

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
"I THINK YOU POPPED AN EARDRUM." Doug shouts, before he looks over to the portal, and then gives a thumbs-up to Kid Devil. He goes running, and all those years of track pay off as he takes a long jump through it and out the other side. "Hup!"

On the other side he lands, one hand splayed on the ground, before he looks up and scans the area. "Okay let's get this done before everybody dies, Cypher--"

"No pressure. Heh."

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Rhona has to save herself. Help is pinned down and dealing with it's own troubles right about now. And she rises to the occasion. She improvises, going to use her shields like bludgeons. She slams HARD over into the Sentinel. As if she were Armor, fists glowing with shields and hammering it again and again. Breaking through sensitive laser crystals, crunching circuits, and sizzling servos as the smashed limb goes down and stays down. Nothing else is shooting at her.
    Up above, the last of the overhead spray traps and turrets have gone down ? taken out by J'Onn, the target disruptor, and the others putting up counterbattery fire. It's a window of opening in a room where they're all surrounded and being attacked from every angle.
    As Tabitha goes to default to the seeming X-Men norm of 'nuke it till it glows' she's able to avoid the counter-blasts. -That- thing might be able to absorb her energy.. But it's the only thing here that can. Her weapons blast out and take things out otherwise very quickly and effectively as th enetwork was disrupted and disconnected, rapidly taking out many of the remaining maraudering murderbots.
    Jaxon's found a place of safety ? dark, the wall is insulated and the door is tight, and it barely lets in the chaos outside. It's completely dark, he can breathe, and it's cool in there. The type of place that a janitor might have setup to stash some beer and something to read for entertainment value with a lightbulb in their smartphone while passing some time. He can breathe and refocus himself.. Just get out before the house gets brought down!
    Kid Devil has no indoor voice much like Booster Gold. The costume makes it work, even as he goes to setup the portal for Sage and Cypher to get through. In the room, the two find the octo-droid frantically attempting to integrate with the networks for a system dump as they go in.. And as they appear, the limbs plugged in go to unplug, and each pops up with a rather nasty array of vibrowhips, blades, saws, flamers and a total of eight rather nasty high tech weapons in close quarters between them and the computer. Time to see what drugged up Sage and Technophase Cypher could dial up.
    Forge was pinned down, but his jammer was working for however many more minutes, if not seconds before the hivemind could setup an alternate frequency and ping one another. So they would have to accomplish their assignment -fast- before they got overwhelmed; or caught in the action. Whether it was the authorities finding them trying to obliterate a residential area.. Or even worse, a local superteam! How could they survive if the Avengers had to rescue them and make fun of them for it!?

J'onn J'onzz has posed:
J'onn J'onzz stops and tries to mediate, trying to center his mind..it is failing but the urgency of it is making him FORCE himself to calm....but its taking time, precious time.

Quentin Quire has posed:
Quentin runs interference as needed for those in his immediate vicinity, hunkering down and providing cover for the downed Marie-Ange. Telekinetic shields intercepting attacks, telekinetic hands ripping heavy machinery out of the wall to launch at attacking Sentinels. Continuing to coordinate everyone involved on a telepathic level.

It's all up to Doug and Sage now!

Rhona Lauren has posed:
With the bludgeoned Sentinel finally falling to pieces under the assault of the double energy disc wallops it was sustaining, Rhona watched as the pieces crumbled to the ground before her. She pulled the two glowing pink discs back to her hands, held them aloft in front of her, as she gasped for breath. Her eyes quickly began to dart around, searching for more threats, and her nerves began to get the better of her. A quick decision came, and she rapidly planned one of the shields in front of her, followed by the second beside her, and with a sweeping turn, the teenager had two more discs setup within seconds, so that she was boxed in on all four sides, each energy shield roughly six feet in height and wide enough to provide a fair amount of protection to the girl hiding inside them...

She dropped down to the ground following her shield-box-setup, her hands falling to the tops of her thighs, as she was shaking with adrenaline. Her right hand snatched her phone up off of the floor, and flipped it over to check its state of condition.

It was still recording...

With her shields growling with hungry energy around her, the teen rose back up to stand back up, her shirt sweat through beneath her arms, and between her spine and her backpack, her phone coming up to aim it toward the madness.

"I-- I think I found the right building this time." The brit said in to her recorded footage. "What in the fuck is going on here..." She added in a whispery-tone, her brown eyes bouncing back up to look out from behind the energy fields offering her some guard for now.

Jaxon Blain has posed:
When Jaxon finally pushes himself back to his feet, he's still 'leaking' in a few spots - wispy tendrils of shadows that curl up and around him like a layer of thin black gauze. <<This is way above my paygrad.>> Second time he's said that tonight. <<Not much more I can do here but become a body to recovered from the rubble. Tenebris has left the building, see you on the flip, or probably not.>>

And with that, he does just that. Jaxon leaves the building. Just a few hops through the darkness outside put him on the rooftop of a nearby building. He's not entirely sure there's anything else he can do, but he's still sticking around in case there's a need for a Hail Mary save attempt.

Once it's all said and done and the threat neutralized, there won't be any sign of him.

Forge has posed:
 Forge considers things, as he watches Cypher jump through into the control room. All they need to do now is buy time for things to get wrapped up. Cypher and Sage should be able to get things done. He spots Rhona saving herself, and leaves her to it, as he makes an executive decision. <<Normally, I believe in measured responses, and careful execution. But some days, it's time to break out the big guns. This is one of those days. We have a team member down. Please protect her. Cypher, Sage, Get the data, and let's bring this place down.>>

 He begins pulling out small devices. Not even the size of his hand. He tosses out two at a time, here and there, towards the swarms of robots firing on him, and the others, careful not to toss them too close to anything.

 Whenever they hit a robot, they spin wildly, the pairs of them linked by some unseen tether, like bolas with invisible ropes between them. The monowire between them, thin as an atom, slashes through nearly anything that it wraps around, before the small bombs detonate sharp, controlled implosions, swallowing everything that the wires can't cut in fist sized singularities that collapse moments after they form.

Tessa has posed:
The problem with injury is how the pain - and anything she might take for it - can screw with the partitions of one Sage Tessa Fox. She is not injured enough for a real mess, but a partition slips open. Thea Petrakis, 19, exchange student who loves poetry and ceramics lets out a burst of laughter as Quentin mentions some kid's 'fire hole'. It wiggles unsteadily through the mind link before being abruptly cut off as Sage regains control of her partitions. She sprints towards the indicated - safe ? - fire, landing mostly without tripping into Doug.

As she trips, sprawling over one of his feet, she ends up skidding to the far side of the system they're trying to to glean information from with a small, uncharacteristic groan. "I have blank drives, unless your very interesting appendage functions as one, Mr. Ramsey."

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Other sentinels and turrets and the like aren't much a problem. It's that one with the funky crystal that eats her energy that annoys her.

But by destroying anything else, hopefully collateral property damage will do the job.

It's stubbornness is annoying her. Which might not be a good idea as she starts charging a bomb over head, growing first from a small thing that could fit in a hand to a plasma orb as big as a compact car. The blonde's eyes glowing with power.

If the sentinel's funky energy eating crystal can eat this without an overload, she'll be even more pissed. Hopefully it does enough structural damage to bury the thing in sheer blunt force mechanical trauma. <<Gonna be more than loud in a moment. Babes better bounce!>>

Tabby's going to need to sprint like the dickens for this one.

Kid Devil has posed:
    Kid Devil looks quizzically at Doug. "NO, BUT I USED TO PLAY CLARINET," he replies to what he apparently *thought* was said to him. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT HAS TO DO WITH--" He halts, and just shakes his head clear of the confusion (though not the deafness, yet) before he leaps through the churning, menacing portal. Ouch, that's hot! Let's all hope Doug was telling the truth about his suspected AquaNet addiction.
    In the control room he gives the computer a Very Interested look, and he even starts moving that way. The allure. The mystery. The *gadgetry*.
    Oh, but there's this huge octobot thing in the way. The devil boy charges to keep it off of the other two while they do... what are they doing, exactly? He doesn't know, but as he allows his body heat to amplify his hands first make the air ripple; then his fingers glow orange. By the time Kid Devil leaps into the air toward the bot his hands are white-hot.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
"I can establish an MMI but I get headaches for days afterward." Doug says, "I'm just not as good at synthesis without Warlock-"

He stands up, and says "Do it."
He looks up at the Sentinel Droid and its quite frankly comical array of weaponry, and then he slowly gets to his feet.

And he speaks a line of code - it's a logic question. When you have completed all of your directives, what then will your function be? Will you shut down and cease to exist? If/Then. If <directive accomplished> / Then GoTo <what>?

He looks over to Tessa. "Do it. Do it quick."

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Rhona is alone, in her own little corner of firey and explosive hell. And what she sees.. Is a heel. A third of a portion of a foot. The point where it would meet the lower leg. The back of the ankle.

The size of a semi with trailer. On a shipping container. And from underneath it would pop out wheels and an engine would rev, and it would go racing out through the night in the midst of all the chaos.

The rest of the group works quickly ? disabling robots, taking down turrets, getting the building ready to blast and blow. Even as they go to take out the remaining defenders, support beams.. Along the upper roof of the building, even as things break a series of structures open up. From it rocket boosters engage, as small drones would launch up into the stratosphere trailing wire. The wires would be left on the building like large unspooling wires.. To snap and then disconnect in a bright flash of light.

the fight close up with the octo-droid is interesting. But also thanks to the support quick as Tessa goes to take out the data disks and Cypher goes to work quickly at downloading them. They quickly get what they're after. At least, if the place holds up long enough for them to! As Cypher desperately finishes the last download, the jamming field goes off. The computer fritzes and then wipes itself.. But only after they had gotten the data and backed it up.

Forge's sensors would pick up from the floating drones shooting up to the air as the jamming field would go down one massive data and communications burst being fired up into the satellites.

One final data dump.

J'onn J'onzz has posed:
J'onn J'onzz knows the way this is going to go. He moves in before the fire prevents him and collects the cameras. He wants to present something tangible to law enforcement after he uses League computers to protect the mutants who appear in it and make sure the Hague (among other authorities collect it) ...that and the fact that this building will explode and large chunks of it will collapse and fall on people if not stopped and someone will need to discuss it all with the Cops...as a League member he is perfect to let them run (if they choose which they do often.)

Rhona Lauren has posed:
When Rhona turns around, and witnesses that vehicle burst out of its container, only to zoom off in a blur of motion, and a roar of motor rumbling, the teen jumps back in to her own disc shield behind her back. She bounces off of it, holding her phone up to record what she'd just seen. "Holy... shit..." The Brit gasps out, her eyes dancing between her phone, and what she'd just seen through her forward facing energy field.

That's when rocket noises in the sky begin to rumble the whole world around her, and the teenager makes a snap decision. "Okay, I've seen enough!" Her left hand snaps up, her fingers shine brightly with inner energy, and her hand sweeps around her body, as she does a full 360 degree turn, re-absorbing the wall of growling power she'd placed down around her. Each energy disc slips back inside of her fingers, leaving the teenager vulnerable once more, but she's got ants in her pants, so to speak anyway... and begins running for the way she'd come in to this madness.

Booking it at as fast a rate as she can, she keeps her phone up, as a young one of today is prone to do, keeping it recording everything as she makes a mad dash for the city streets outside, her eyes shooting up to try and visually see whatever rocket boosters were making those insanely loud noises high above.

"Story of the year..." She gasps to herself as she runs.

Quentin Quire has posed:
Quentin simply ensures that he and the unconscious Marie-Ange get out of the building before it collapses. Wouldn't do to have a mutant go squish in there just because someone wasn't making a head count.

Forge has posed:
<<Building's going down! Get out, get out now!>> Forge's warning is urgent, possibly the most excited sounding his thoughts have seemed all night, his normal unflappable aplomb going up with BoomBoom's Bomb. He turns, abandoning his distractions and cover fire,a nd just... runs, heading out of the building, and grabbing any of the mutants still remaining, dragging them out as fast as he can ahead of the impending explosion. He tosses a few things out as he runs, back towards the center of the building, and a few fields pop out, sucking a short range gravitational field out... Not like the singularities, not nearly that strong.. btu strong enough that when the building goes, it'll implode more or less safely.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
At the size of a small car. Control starts getting finicky as Tabby waits for everyone else to get out before loosing the bomb on a timer.

Once she does though she's printing as far as her legs can carry her. "HAUL ASS! THREE... TWO... ONE..." she counts down right till there's the inevitable.

BOOM!

There's enough force that Tabby still manages to get thrown forwards by the blast.

With what sounds like a Goofy Yell on her way out.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Getting out as the building goes down is something that everyone is far too practiced with (depressingly) to be a challenge. Once they're out and everyone is in (more or less) one piece, they have time to breathe and book it. And thanks to J'Onn's 'assistance' wti the authorities, they have cover from the Justice League giving them the benefit of the shadows.

And what they'll get from the data when they decrypt it? Files upon files. Corporate and governmental files.

On mutants. On engineering and technology. On weapons and robotics designs. Long, long lists of combat stress test results and weapons feedback.

And worst of all for something that will bring home nightmares is a humanoid blueprint the size of a ten story building. Rough schematics and scale,w ith various spheres of it flashing yellow, green, and red representing status.

The Sentinels had been starting small and were building up.

To a new Master Mold.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Sage does most of the heavy lifting. Doug just waits for her to create an opening, and then types in a single line of code with one hand. What was that line of code? Ask him later. Either way, it unlocks the data that they're looking for, and the job is done.
He looks up at the now very angry one-eyed droid, and then says, "Tessa... let's get out of here before the robot decides it can kill us before the collapsing building does."

"I am dying for a milkshake. And to tell Henry Gyrich how badly this thing compromised the NSA. See how much the jerk likes Sentinels now."

Kid Devil has posed:
Kid Devil does what he can to keep the octobot busy so Cypher and Sage can do their thing(s). He's a difficult target for a robot to pin down: nimble, teleportable, and surprisingly durable. Then when he's able to get a grip on one of the arms, the volcanic heat of his fingers is able to melt through the base of it.
When he hears the warning to evacuate though he hastily tries to spin up another portal to help the others evacuate from the control room before everything goes kaboom...

17917/Mutants and Master Molds - Investigation Interruptus

Navigation menu

Personal tools

Namespaces

Variants

Views

More

Search

Navigation

Tools