8491/N.O.W.H.E.R.E. in the Dark

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N.O.W.H.E.R.E. in the Dark
Date of Scene: 30 October 2021
Location: Colony 1, technically on an island halfway between Venezuela and Puerto Rico.
Synopsis: The Outsiders invade Colony 1 and find a nightmare. Mix aliens and zombies and we will get N.O.W.H.E.R.E.
Cast of Characters: Conner Kent, Tim Drake, Jason Todd, Nadia Pym-van Dyne, Bart Allen




Conner Kent has posed:
Lost tropical islands are really nice, although for some reason this one is devoid of animal life. Not even insects. It is a little weird.

Anyway, this island is technically part of Venezuela, but was bought out by a ghost corporation, which belongs to a trust found in Jersey, owned by someone in Madripoor, which... well, that is where the trail ends. At least for now. Maybe Oracle could unravel the murky information trail, but it is not important now.

There is no doubt N.O.W.H.E.R.E. has hidden one of their tesseracts here (called Colonies for some reason, they are weird with names). Nadia's super-science instruments make it very clear (but only if you have a physics doctorate or three). And she is confident her machine can tunnel through subspace into the hyper-dimensional construct. Although she has never tested it, because tesseracts are kinda hard to find on Earth. It is probably safe!

Conner drew the short straw, so he is staying behind with instructions to open the tunnel every two hours, and come to the rescue in 24 if no one has returned by then.

Ready? Go!

Tim Drake has posed:
    Well, Tim managed to nod along to the salient points of Nadia's explanation and even had a couple of questions! Sure, he doesn't have a physics doctorate (no less three), but he carved out some time in his overburdened schedule to do some reading up on the subject beforehand.

    Either way, he's ready to trust science and yeet himself through the tunnel once it's opened. He pauses beforehand as they stand besides the jet, first to steel his nerves, and then also to take in the atmosphere. Or the lack of one. Which, spooky. "So, is al of the wildlife dead because of N.O.W.H.E.R.E.'s science shenanigans or is this mother nature warning us that we're the prey and there are predators afoot?" he asks, voice deadpan. Maybe he should stop watching horror movies.

    Either way, he's the team leader, so he volunteers himself to go through the tunnel first. Therefore: yeet!

Jason Todd has posed:
This is Tim's fault. It's always Tim's fault.

Jason is tagging along because, well. He is. Who is going to stop him? He was pretty quiet on the jet, only occasionally flicking things at Tim, because that's what big brothers do. He spent most of the ride in his own head, still a little shaken by his recent encounter with the Joker. And his continued failure to beat the clown to death.

As they land, he puts his helmet on, the data feed doing its thing. He rises and checks the holsters at his hip before he straps (1) one sword and (1) one crowbar to his back. As they move to the site, he sticks close to the group and keeps his eyes open, one hand on the grip of a pistol.

When Tim yeets himself into the tunnel, Jason shakes his head and follows.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia is dressed in her Waspette armor, minus the helmet, and staring at a StarkTech tablet that Tony was nice enough to give her while they were working on the Brainiac problem together. "This is the place. There are definite out of phase transdimensional energy readings, entangled photons without any visible pairing. Give me some space this is going to take a moment."

From her pocket she produces a few items that might be mistaken for some sort of action figure playset. That is until she begins shooting the pieces with one of her gauntlet beams. The first becomes a device that looks like it belongs on the set off Stargate, a giant metal ring covered in various wires and blinking lights leading to a nearby console. It is the sort of thing you'd normally want in some very clean lab, not a clearing in the wilderness, but work with what you've got. The second item seems to be a generator of some sort and not the garden variety you can get at Home Depot either, upon closer inspection one might come to the conclusion she has miniturized a Thorium Nuclear reactor, which is then hooked up to the console linked to the gate.

"Nowhere's Tesseract spaces take a lot of juice to set up, like massive, and we need a pretty insane amount to penetrate them, too. Dimensional Travel tech hasn't reached the point of energy efficiency yet." The seventeen year old girl genius explains.

The startup procedures don't take too long and once the spatial coordinates and transdimensional telemetry gleaned from NOWHERE's hard drive is fed into the system a small glowing dot appears in the center of the ring. The dot quickly begins to expand until it is a roaring vortex of energy that eventually shapes itself into a Quantum tunnel through sub-space and into NOWHERE's sealed off dimensional bubble.

"Next stop, Colony 1!"

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen looks over and says "Last time, I tried to phase through I ended up in, but in a lab away from the spot I should have come in." He tells Nadia and Harper. He has done a circuit of the island at speed to make sure no surprises for later, and now, back with the others he will follow along through the tunnel. The young man, scans around them getting a look of where they are comparing it to the previous base they were in.

Conner Kent has posed:
There is a moment of disorientation, but then they hit solid (metal) ground. The tunnel ends in a mid-sized chamber with a large rectangular blast door at one side and a smaller one at the other side. It is fairly dark, the illumination given by what seem low-yield red emergency lights.

Much of the room is taken by a large computer console similar to the one in Colony 2, but the lights are turned off, the console has no power and if the 'position' of the Colony can be moved, it is not from here.

Gravity is fine. There is no laser blasts aimed at them, or alarms wailing. But the air reeks. It is humid, warm and smells of rot. In seconds the Outsiders find themselves with breathing problems. Even drawing deep breaths it feels not enough. A brief scan reveals oxygen content in the air is just 8% instead of 21%. It is dangerously low. Maybe a malfunction on the environmental controls. Or maybe N.O.W.H.E.R.E. set it up like this when they left. In any case for normal humans it makes exerting themselves without additional oxygen difficult and dangerous, and can cause fainting.

Opening the big blast door would be... really bad idea. Extra-dimensional void, probably. It might be the Bleed, which is not totally hostile to life. But it might also be nothing at all.

The smaller door can be forced open or the electronic lock picked. It leads to a set of dusty, Star-Trek style corridors.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Everything is Tim's fault. He accepts culpability. Which is partially why he goes first through the tunnel. As he emerges through on the other end, his boots hitting metal, Red Robin pauses to scan the area with a rapid sweep of his head from left to right. The lack of oxygen hits him pretty much immediately, and he removes a rebreather from his utility belt, affixing it to his face. It won't provide additional oxygen but it will help to gather slightly more of it with each breath, aided by mechanical action. Not enough for him to be working at full effectiveness, though.

    "Not a good sign," he says, through the hiss of his rebreather working to provide him every extra bit of O2 it can. "I have a spare," which he produces from his belt, holding it out for another member of the team to take. "But we need to find environmental controls."

    His words are clipped, in deference to saving as much air as he can. He tips his head towards the smaller door and then heads that way to examine the lock, getting to work on hacking through it.

Jason Todd has posed:
Jason's HUD immediately starts yelling at him about the O2 concentration. Luckily, there is a rebreather in the helmet.

Regardless of what he may or may not do now, he is still one of the Sons of the Bat. He's always prepared.

Much like Tim's, it just buys them time. Unlike Tim, he just grunts in affirmative response. Also unlike the Red Robin, the Red Hood draws his crowbar and starts to try and pry the smaller door open, alledgedly helping Tim to get it open.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia spends a few extra moments triple checking that Conner knows the appropriate sequences to open and close the portal. It's not that she doesn't have faith in him or thinks he's dumb, it's just really complicated stuff and she doesn't want to be lost in space. She already had to rescue her father from that once.

Firmly affixing her Waspette helmet in place and activating the environmental seals, because she has at least that much sense, she brings up the rear following the others through the quantum sub-space tunnel into the Tesseract suspended between worlds.

She nods slowly when Tim makes the assessment about the inside environment, seeing similar data play out across the internal HUD of her visor. "Noted. Helmet stays on. I think I have at least one spare oxygen tank for my suit's internal supply if it becomes necessary."

Nadia isn't actually walking, her feet never touch the ground out of an abundance of caution, instead she is floating along on the rapidly vibrating bio-synthetic wasp wings extending from her back. She follows Tim towards the smaller door in order to assist him in getting it open.

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen will hold up a finger and is out and back before the portal can close, it helps to have a speedster around, in his arms, are some of the masks and O2 supplies that were on the ship, he hands one to each of the robins ex-robins and fastens one on himself, with a couple spare tanks now attached to his belt.

Conner Kent has posed:
Conner nods to Nadia instructions, actually recording them in his Starkphone just in case. It is complicated, but Tim made them learn the workings of more complex devices at the Roost. "Good luck, guys," he says. Then Bart returns, zooooms, "hey, what?" Uh, did he see oxygen supplies? "Fine, be like that," he mutters to the too fast speedster. Then he closes the portal. Fortunately he has his cellphone to entertain himself.

The door opens faster to guile than to brute force. Although the crowbar would have worked given a few more minutes. Short circuiting the lock is faster, as the door was not secured. Again, no alarms. But the lights are out, only dim emergency ones.

A little exploring reveals little of use, although the storage areas contain interesting computer and machinery parts. Finally, there is an intersection with labels. Xeno-biology in one direction. Hidroponics in the other.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Lucky that Bart was here, as none of the rest of them would have been able to make that round-trip back through the portal before it closed again. Tim is more than happy to swap out his rebreather for a proper oxygen mask setup. The mini-tank gets hooked onto his belt, behind his grapple gun. "Thanks," he says with a nod to Bart, and then his attention returns to the lock.

    Jason can put as much effort into yanking the door open with his crowbar. Don't mind Tim. They're *definitely* not racing. It's not competitive!

    Which means it's strange how Tim straightens up as the door unlocks and grins over at Jason. Sure, Nadia helped, but it still counts!!!

    The nightvision in his lenses toggles on as he looks down the hallway past the now-opened door. "This feels more like long-term storage than actually abandoned," he notes as they work their way through storage rooms. When they come to the intersection, his head tilts to the side. "Scooby-Doo splitting up seems like a bad idea today for some reason." Maybe it's all those bad vibes. "Hydroponics first." And off he goes.

Jason Todd has posed:
Jason is delivered an O2 tank by Bart. He just nods to the Very Fast Dude before he links it via hose to his helmet. Yes. Good. Breathing is easier now. He still doesn't want to waste a lot of breath, so he will communicate in gestures and grunts.

Or, you know, Bat Family Hand Talk.

He keeps the crowbar at the ready and also draws the sword, realizing that the guns are mostly useless, given the oxygen saturation in here is garbage. He lets Tim take the lead, slipping down the hallway after him, just nodding once before heading towards the Hydroponics area.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia is really half helping get the door open and half marveling and taking notes at the sophistication of NOWHERE's technology. The more of it she comes in contact with the more impressed she is, often with moments of 'why didn't I think of that?!' Good job NOWHERE, you're messing up the timeline, or perhaps it is a recursive loup that always was and she was meant to see this tech or perhaps... it may be better not to think about it too hard. Some of those machinery and computer parts are definitely pocketed along the way though

Bio-synthetic wings flutter caughtiously after the others even as she reduces her size to more of a large pixie. If there is trouble ahead, no sense in giving them a larger target than necessary and it also gives her more space to fly around. As they move forward, she takes her time scanning the walls, looking for things like power relays and junctions. If they can get the power on, they can get the environmental controls back and hopefully lower the atmospheric danger of the place considerably. "Xenobiology? That can't be good..." Say her words and yet her voice is dripping with curiousity, because aliens! "Yeah, Hydroponics is probably safer." Famous last words.

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen follows along with the others. his eyes do go towards the Xeno side of this. It aint like Nadia and he were talking about Aliens last night, or that some of their best friends fit in that category too. He sighs and reluctantly fallows along, not running off on his own no matter how tempting it is.

Conner Kent has posed:
The hydroponics way leads upwards. Through staircase, since the elevators don't have power. Dust is replaced by red-ish fungus a few yards before the door of the Hydroponics area. It is not a lab, though; it is a large greenhouse where at some point thousands of plants would thrive.

Well, if they had sun, which they never did. Or sun-like artificial light, which they was, but it was shut down months ago. All that has survived is fungus, and the predominant species seems to be a reddish one, tiny stipes a few millimetres high. It grew over the trunks of the other plants, cannibalizing them. It is not a species any of the heroes is familiar with. And on a second view, none of the vegetation remains is familiar.

The labels on the sides make no sense. They are not even Latin names. But after a short research, there are a few that are 'from so-and-so'. With names like Kundia, Tamaran and Rigel V, it is obvious these are the remains of alien plants.

Colony 1 was to study alien life, after all. But the vegetable one is all dead, except for that red fungus that seems to have eaten everything else.

Ah, there is also a corpse at the end of the room. Or rather, an skeleton covered by red fungus. The remains of a N.O.W.H.E.R.E. smartsuit clinging on some areas. Hard to say what killed him (her?) on plain sight.

And there are doorways with labels. 'Power' says one of them, 'Living Quarters' and 'Xeno-biology' the others.

Tim Drake has posed:
    "I *just* watched Annihilation," Tim mutters as the dust motes in the air are slowly replaced by fungi spores. It's a good thing they're all breathing tank oxygen. He takes note of the various labels on the shelves, but for the most part he leaves that all to be further researched later, once they're safely back home.

    He glances over towards Jason, who is of course wearing a face-covering helmet, but Tim himself is broadcasting his unease in a way that any of the Bat-folk, at the very least, would be able to pick up on. He's genre-aware enough to recognize the signs, here. And though he pauses briefly to secure a sample, he double-bags it and seals it into the pouch just behind his left hip, which is specifically reinforced to carry potentially dangerous materials.

    Read: originally for kryptonite or the equivalent, though Tim isn't quite Bruce-levels of paranoid.

    As he stands up from sample-gathering, he exhales heavily into his oxygen mask. "Waspette, think we can get the power restored? Maybe if we can tap into the security system..." Whatever he was going to say, Tim holds off. Let's not jinx things.

Jason Todd has posed:
As they creep into the hydroponics room, Jason frowns beneath his helmet as he looks at all of the red fungus. The stripped skeleton isn't helping his mood, either. At least he can run his mouth now.

"This is ... Weird," he finally says, his voice muffled and distorted through his helmet. He recognizes Tim's obvious (to him) distress, but he makes no mention of it. This is at the very least a dangerous situation.

He'll pick on him about it later.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia stops up short at the red fungus that seems to cover everything. Things like this are why her suit has full environmental seals and she's flying. She too, pauses to try and get a sample of the strange otherworldly fungus, no doubt the GIRL biology and genetics crew will have a field day studying it. Hopefully that thought doesn't end with GIRL HQ covered in red alien fungus, but what's discovery without risks.

Making her way deeper into the room she peers at the labels on some of the displays. "Rigel... that's a star in the Orion constellation and Tamaran, that's where Kori, I mean Starfire, is from, I think? It's like a greenhouse of alien plants, or was before they all died. I don't like the look of this red mold though." Her eyes fall about the essentially eaten skeletal remains of a NOWHERE goon. "It seems like really bad news."

A nod is given to Tim when he asks about the power. "Right, I'll go check it out, hopefully whatever generators they use are still functional, though they'd have to be or they would have fallen out of the Tesseract state. I'll see what I can do." And with that she flies over towards the doorway marked 'Power'.

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen will skirt the edges trying not to touch the fungus. He ponders trying to blow it all back in the corner, but thinks making it airborn is probably not the best idea. He will go along with Nadia, just in case the generators need a jump start. He will ponder something he may have to try sometime, back at the base.

Conner Kent has posed:
The Power chamber is actually disappointly small, lacking anything that looks like a real generator. Nadia might be expecting something super-powerful, as to keep the base out of regular space, but instead what she finds is some kind of odd (read: super-interesting for her) reception relay for energy. Turned off computer consoles, as usual. No corpses, no red fungus, but... something that could be bloodstains on the computer screens.

What kind of energy? Ooooh, mystery. But after a few minutes or reading faded displays in the dark room it is obvious Colony 1 does not generate its own power, but receives it from /somewhere/ else /through/ Hyperspace.

Probably, maybe... Colony Zero.

That one is an impressive piece of technology of a design Bart would find familiar from his childhood. Also, something stirs in the darkness at one of the room corners. Something humanoid? No, it has wings. And then it growls and charges. A winged woman, but wrong. Putrid flesh and dead white eyes, the magnificent wings rotten, scarce of feathers, yellow bones visible. No lips, but a mouth full of sharp teeth.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Tim doesn't follow Nadia all the way into the Power room but he doesn't go off exploring on his own in the meantime. He waits nearby, staff held defensively in one hand though not yet telescoped out to its full length. For now he's just staying out of her way, as Tim is perfectly fine with acknowledging when someone else has more experience and skill in an area than him.

    Oh, the wonders of leading a team. So much character growth potential.

    "Bad vibes," is all Tim says as he stands there. And then his nose scrunches, like he's smelled something awful. Actually he's just realizing he's quoting someone unconsciously.

    But then he actually smells something bad. Rotting flesh. Something *dead*. And with a flick of his wrist, Tim's staff extends as he steps towards the door marked Power.

Jason Todd has posed:
Jason follows Tim, giving him enough room to use his staff, but staying close enough to watch his back. He might be, on some level, on the outs with the Bat Family at large (it really depends on the day, and wind speed and barometric pressure), but he's still got their backs, even if they don't like how he does it.

The helmet keeps him from smelling the rot, but body language, and the extension of the staff, get Jason's attention. He brings up the sword to a defensive position while dropping the crowbar lower, giving him more room to swing with it as he follows Tim.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
"Okay... let me see here..." Nadia flies into the power room looking over the setup with some fascination. "Huh. Their power sources seems to be remote, it's like what Tesla wanted to do beaming unlimited wireless power wherever it was needed! I think this device might actually harness energy from /Hyperspace!/" Just how amazingly cool she thinks that is positively drips from her voice. "Also uh, maybe it's nothing, but now that I look closer these monitors are covered in blood stains..." Because leave it to the starry eyed science girl to get so distracted by alien tech as to overlook massive bloodstains.

As the thing stirs in the corner, it is almost like a scene out of Alien. The movement in her peripheral vision causes Nadia to look up just as the rotting bird woman charges right at her, that lamprey-like mouth getting within inches of her faces before face before she throws her wings into reverse. "Aieeeeeee! No! No! No! Bad undead bird lady!" Back hitting the wall, the wind is nearly knocked out of her before she forces herself up towards the ceiling firing an energy blast from one of her arm gauntlets!

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen looks over at the computers, and says "Hey I know that set up, that's the compo 74000." He says as he recognizes the set up. "They had one of those in my set up before I came back here." He blinks at the zombird, and says "Ok that's just freaky," He hmms and should get a utility belt like Rob has they could be useful, with without one, he will take one of the mini O2 tanks and shove it into Zombird's mouth "Chew on that." He does not think she can break the steel but should keep her from biting anyone.

Conner Kent has posed:
The winged rotting woman attempts to grab Nadia, jumping after her at frightening speed. Well, not frightening for Bart that manages to shove the oxygen tank in her mouth. Nadia's blast takes a chunk of rotten flesh from her torso, but that slows her down just a fraction of second.

The oxygen bottle gives her a momentary pause as she crushes the tank between her teeth as if it was a cheap soda can. Then she twists her body in the air, sweeping at Nadia and Bart with the wings.

Just as Robin and Hood arrive. More food!

Jason Todd has posed:
The monster comes and is terrible. It goes after Nadia, and that's also pretty bad. What does Jason do? He looks at Tim and says, "Handle it. I'm gonna check for others."

Then he darts off through the hallways to make sure there aren't more.

Because he's a dumbass.

Tim Drake has posed:
    The ends of Red Robin's staff hum and crackle with electricity as he ducks down into a roll, going low while leaving plenty of room for Red Hood to go high. And say what you will about the Bat-family's general lack of powers, they are on the whole very, very talented at smacking things with pointy sticks. Thus, that is what Tim aims to do.

    "I knew it," he says as he jumps back up to his feet, pivoting so that he can aim another swipe of his staff at the zombird's back. And he doesn't even get that expected backup from Jason, because he's off to check for other hostiles. "Have you never watched a horror film?" he screeches after his brother.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
As the hideous wing swipe comes towards her, the Waspette shows off her Wasp skills almost seeming to vanish. She isn't gone though just very small. Judging that the creature is likely too strong to engage hand to hand and her energy blast didnt seem to have a whole lot of impact, she instead darts forward, zipping around the horrific monstrousity.

"It's tough! Really tough! I'm going to try and limit her mobility!" She zips down towards the back of the seemingly undead bird lady's knees and throws a cluster of sticky time bombs from her belt at each of the joins on a 3 second delay before zipping away again. "Opening in 3!"

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen hmms and nods "Gotta get some gadgets, if going to fight the undead." He says but he starts to pummel the Zombird with the speed of a flash mostly concentrating on her wings to limit her mobility "Rob, got some rope she can't break?"

Conner Kent has posed:
There are some snarls from the bird woman, probably at frustration because Nadia 'vanished' and Bart is too fast. But Tim? Well, she goes for him next, but then the sticking bombs go off and shatter the bones of the wings and legs very messily.

Being crippled certainly makes her easier to avoid, but she keeps coming, crawling with her arms to try to grab Tim's leg for a bite or two.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Nope, no, no thank you, Tim is not getting zombified today. When Nadia calls out the countdown on her sticky bombs he's out of there with an efficient backflip, fully out of the room through the doorway. Lots of space put in-between him and the zombird. And since she's still moving even after the pop-pop-pop of the bombs, Tim decides the only appropriate choice here is the application of long-range weaponry.

    AKA a cryo-grenade. He underhand lobs it at the zombird since she's not exactly a difficult target to hit, and then he starts to unwind a backup spool of grapple-line. "Here," he says to Bart. "It's high-tensile steel cable."

    And then he takes another hefty step backwards, though he's careful to stay aware of his surroundings, peering over his shoulder with every expectation of there being another zombie about to chomp him. "Waspette, any luck with the tech in there?"

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia zips over towards the power controls, "I was a little busy being attacked by a zombie bird lady! Keep her busy!" She sets to work on the console using what she already knows about NOWHERE tech from that drive and Hyperspace tech in general trying to bring the console back to life. "There's only one problem, since it draws power remotely, probably Colony Zero, they'll probably notice the power has turned back on and could also probably turn it off again, so no telling how long we will have it."

Behind her mask she makes an Ooooh face when Tim uses the Cryo-grenade. "Did you make that yourself?! That's awesome! Why did I never think of freeze grenades, I bet those are super useful!" Even as she talks, she flips the switches and pushes the buttons going through the final sequences to (hopefully) get the power back online, for however long that may last.

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen Will start tying the bird up more, trussing her where ever she aint frozen or puttied, and will find something sturdy to tie her to so she can not get to anyone.

Conner Kent has posed:
There is no way to get full power online, because the relay is only receiving the minimum to keep the systems running. The console will work if she jury rigs some external power feed, though.

Numbers roll. It is receiving enough for the environmental controls to work, so the low oxygen levels make no sense. It is possible to divert some energy, cutting life support, for instance, towards some other system. But it wouldn't be a good idea to do it for long.

Something is obvious: NOWHERE is used to direct enough energy to power whole countries very easily. Also, it seems right now the base is disconnected from the main network. The password extracted from the drive in Colony 2 are working.

The good news, they have now a frozen and tied up zombie bird woman. Mostly broken (likely still willing to eat them alive if unfrozen).

Tim Drake has posed:
    Tim continues to give the zombird a wide berth, even if she's now trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey. Which, erg, is not a mental image he needed right now. He scans the hallway up and down, brow furrowed, though he's doing his best not to broadcast how uncomfortable he is with the whole situation. And, you know, Jason off somewhere alone.

    Look, seriously, it's just bad news when the team splits up in a horror film, and it definitely feels like they're the stars of the newest slasher flick right now. He's genre savvy!

    "<<Red Hood, any news?>>" he asks over comms.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia continues poking and prodding the console trying to make it do what she wants. It is a test of her intuitive ability and deductive reasoning more than anything else trying to puzzle out the future technology, even with what she's already learned about it from NOWHERE's files, but the basic foundations of the scientific principles hold true so at least she has something to work with.

<<It's no good. It draws power from a remote source and without the tap being opened further at the other end can't forcibly draw more. I might be able to rig up something external but honestly I didn't think I'd need more than one nuclear reactor today. It might be possible to reroute things, but that's like dialing back life support to turn on the lights, not exactly the best of choices.>>

She makes a face staring at the console like she has half a mind to just kick it.

Jason Todd has posed:
<<Nothing yet, Double-R,>> Jason replies to Tim as he barrels through the halls, hunting whatever terrible creatures may exist in this awful space. He's vaguely aware that the others fought something in the other space, but he missed it. Which is fine. He might stumble onto something else.

He grips his crowbar and sword as he skids around another corner. Yeah, he has no idea where he's going. He might die. Again.

Conner Kent has posed:
Nadia and Tim currently seem to be in the lowest point of Colony 1. Like the other N.O.W.H.E.R.E. base, the facility seems to be a sphere, although this one is larger. Probably because the hydroponics section was huge.

They can return there, or go into the living quarters, which should also be connected to xenobiology. Somewhere in-between there should be a room for environmental controls, too.

Meanwhile Jason does hear a shuffling ahead. And right, there is man moving slowly in the hall ahead. And by saying man, we mean zombie. He is pretty big, with white, soulless eyes, bloodless pale skin and no lips. He wears a black outfit, slightly torn, and there is a big S in the middle of his chest. A very familiar big S.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Tim's weight shifts as Jason's answer comes through over comms, like he's vaguely considering going off after him. But that would just mean splitting up the team further. Instead, he looks over at Nadia, and then past her, at the console she's looking at. "As if the general vibe of the place wasn't enough of a red flag," he says with a disbelieving shake of his head. What in the world was NOWHERE up to, here?

    Though technically Tim supposes, depending on your interpretation of the facts, they weren't up to anything in the world. Outside of it, though, maybe.

    "<<We're going to check out the living quarters,>>" he reports, and he's unsettled enough that he doesn't even make a quip about it being more like the unliving quarters. Look, he thought it, but he didn't say it. Some things are too much for even the innate Robin reflex of snarking in the face of danger.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia gives the console one last annoyed look, next time she is bringing one of Shuri's miniature star fusion power sources. If there is a next time.

"Yeah, it looks like there's not much more we can do here without significantly increasing our risks. Let's go." She follows after Tim with a sigh as they head towards the living quarters. Her elbows are hugged to her sides though, keeping her hands and by extension gauntlets raised, as if anticipating a horror movie jump scare at any moment.

Jason Todd has posed:
<<Oh. ... Oh shit,>> Jason says, skidding to a stop. He takes a couple steps backwards. <<I ... I think they were trying to clone Superman or something? This one looks dead, even though it's still moving.>> He does a pretty good job of keeping the panic from his voice. Tim can probably tell he's a little shook.

Jason Todd isn't afraid of many things, but a zombie superman clone? That's terrifying. He decides to be Smart<tm> and he books it back the way he came. <<Heading your way. Hopefully it won't follow me.>>

He risks a look back. <<Hopefully.>>

Conner Kent has posed:
Yes. Into the unliving quarters. Where there are a surprisingly small number of unliving. They do stumble into a couple corpses. Or rather, skeletons. This time there is no red fungus to hide the bite marks on the bones or the fact the flesh was probably torn off them violently. Still, few corpses compared with what must have been dozens of scientists and technicians. So, perhaps most managed to escape.

There are also some signs of struggle. Blown up doors, remains of small fires, broken furniture and even one of those fancy sci-fi submachine guns. Looks in working order, but without ammo.

And there is a voice in the distance, or maybe two voices that seem to be arguing. Some office space ahead, and yes, monitor and control rooms.

That is where Jason can catch up with them. Looks like no one followed him. (Something dead definitely followed him!).

Tim Drake has posed:
    Though every new discovery in the unliving quarters is more gruesome than the last, at least everything they come across is just plain dead, not undead. Unlike Jason, apparently, and as soon as the word 'clone' is said over comms, Tim comes to an almost stumbling stop halfway into a room. "<<Say again, Red Hood.>>"

    Not that Tim necessarly needs it repeated, because he's already doubling back to try and meet Jason halfway. Whoever he can vaguely hear arguing in the distance, no matter how significant they might be in terms of whatever NOWHERE knowledge they might have in their head, a Superman clone takes priority.

    The pieces start to snap together in Red Robin's head, everything he saw during their corpse recovery mission in the previous Colony flashing before his eyes. If Tim didn't have training for a pretty exhaustive list of horrors, he might be queasy right now. Okay, he's still a little nauseous. Even Batman can't fully prepare you for a potential zombie version of one of your closest friends. "<<Waspette, is there any kind of science miracle you can whip out for us right now to get that portal back open?>>"

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen will look over and says "Well they did have the extra failed clones of SB, at the other place, maybe they were trying to clone some of the big guns or just aliens in general, and using alien plant good to fill in the missing things sorta like that Jurassic Park movies. " Bart will grab the sci-fi gun as he things might prefer something to hit the undead with besides his fists.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
It's a good thing Nadia has her helmet on, that means the others can't see the unease in her eyes or the various expressions her face twists into with each new horror. She takes a moment to look over the various skeletons in the unliving quarters, making mental notes on the apparent cause of death and putting two and two together that the bird lady probably ate them.

Jason's report causes her to freeze. A Superman zombie? The Red Room prepared her for a lot of situations but she doesn't exactly have kryptonite countermeasures in her back pocket. The voices that filter into the room cause her head to jerk in that direction as well, but given Jason's situation she seems to come to the same internal call as Tim. <<We need to get to him /now/!>>

Even as they are moving through the corridors to meet Jason halfway, the gears are turning in her brain both on how they might get out of here before the portal is ready and how to even slow down a zombie superman. <<I have one idea, but you're probably not going to like it. If we fully destabilize the power supply, the Tesseract should collapse and shunt us back to Earth. Just like Colony 2>>

Jason Todd has posed:
Jason skids to a stop as Tim and Nadia meet him halfway. The helmet is featureless save for the glowing ehite eyes, but Tim surely can tell that Jason is spooked.

His crowbar doesn't even have any blood on it!

His gaze flicks between the two as Nadia gives an idea. <<Fuck it. Let's do it. We shouldn't be here. If I, the Red Hood, say we shouldn't be in a place, you know it's true.>>

At least he still has his sense of hu--Oh no, he's serious.

Conner Kent has posed:
The good news is it is not Conner's clone. The bad news are that it is Kal-El's clone. "Xenovirus-2149 can stabilize Kryptonian DNA!" shouts a voice in the distance. Someone is arguing it is a very bad idea because of 'a necrosis factor' and something, but it is not shouting, so it is hard to understand.

The zombie stumbles into the corridor, obviously following Jason. He freezes a second at seeing not one, but four very tasty living humans. Then opens his jaw impossibly wide, and hisses. Moving faster towards the heroes.

Faster than a human, but not as fast as one would expect a Kryptonian to move. Unless the Kryptonian has been without sunlight for months.

Tim Drake has posed:
    It shouldn't be a relief, to see that it's not Conner's clone but Clark's. And Tim will definitely feel a little guilty for that thought, later down the line. But right now he's still focused on screaming internally about how Very Not Good this whole situation is, so.

    Control the controllables.

    Tim can of course tell that Jason is unsettled--and the feeling is mutual. And Tim has enough of his face exposed that it's probably evident even to Nadia, who is the least familiar with Red Robin on the team at present. He's really not hiding it well any more. Which is indicative of just how not okay Tim is right now.

    As is his immediate leap to breaking out the big guns. From the pouch just behind his left hip, the one specifically lead-lined (along with various other protective countermeasures) he pulls out a small container that he flips open with his thumb as he shoulders his way past Jason, putting himself between them and the zombie clone. The green glow of kryptonite floods the corridor.

    "<<We have scientists still on-location by the sound of it. Let's get them and get the hell out of here.>>"

    That Tim resorts to swearing while in costume is just more evidence to support his discomfort.

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen is the moving fast one here, and as Robin steps up with the ring, and the zombie having not seen sun in some time, Impulse comes in. The rifle comes into play, hammering zombie man over and over from different angles and at speeds he is a blur to the others. "I was able to phase through it, with the other one not sure where we would end up, or how pleasant it would be but possible." More butt strokes of the rifle, back, kneebaps, and head all getting equal treatment.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia looks between Tim and Jason and then her eyes go wide when she sees the glowing green rock, <<Is that.. but where did you.. do you have more..>> Game Face she tells herself slapping the sides of their helmet, right now that kryptonite is needed for them to not die as much as she /really/ wants to study it.

<<Okay, but like Red Robin, I just want to make sure you understand, this means bringing everything, all of this zombie apocalypse nightmare, back to Earth with us.>> She'll probably go through with it, but even the 'mad' (not mad Happy!) scientist has reservations with this plan.

Jason Todd has posed:
<<Alright. You use that Chaos Emerald to hold back the undead, I'll get the nerds,>> Jason replies to Tim. He gives his crowbar a little flourish, then he bolts back towards where the voices are coming from. He politely hits the 'Door Open' button.

If that doesn't work, he has a crowbar! Even with the threat of SuperZombie, he smiles a little under his helmet. He might actually get to hit somebody on this trip.

Conner Kent has posed:
Can a zombie feel pain? This one might, when Tim pulls out the small green glowing rock. It twitches, faltering in his charge, hitting (and cracking a wall). There is a low moan from his lipless mouth, and then Bart is hitting it at high speed.

Putrid flesh splatters, but not as much as expected. This zombie is pretty tough, and the rifle comes apart before Bart manages to break any important bone. The zombie flails, trying to swat the speedster away.

Jason runs to the voices and finds... a computer, still with power, caught on a loop. On the screen, a bald scientist with a bionic eye is arguing the wonders of some extra-dimensional virus that can be used to make their alien clones more stable. Jason arrives just in time to see something moving behind the scientist. "Is that an alarm? What is going on... aaaaaaaah!" Blood splatters over the screen, some horrible cross between an insect and a shark is briefly seen. And all that blood is still there. Brown-ish, long dried blood, all over the screen.

Tim Drake has posed:
    If this were a raging, living Kryptonian, Tim would probably be a little more judicious with his application of targeted radiation, here. But instead it's a zombie, and so he holds out the container of glowing green mineral for long enough to--well, he assumes it would be long enough to kill Superman. Though the zombie is already dead, despite the fact that Bart is doing more damage to it.

    This is just too much. Eventually he snaps the container closed and steps away, shoulders hunched up nearly to his ears. "<<No, it's definitely not. You saw nothing.>>"

    Even someone Tim trusts enough to bring into the Outsiders fold like Nadia isn't going to get access to it. It's as big a deus ex machina as the Bats can claim to have, and they don't advertise the fact that they can somewhat reliably take down the Earth's (arguably) strongest defender. Or his various family members. He glances over at Waspette with a grim shake of his head as he backs up further. "We should probably just wait it out," he tells her, even though his tone of voice suggests he would like to do anything but that.

    Still, he's as good as rescinded the order, such as it was. "<<If you find any zombie clone Themyscirans, Hood, I'm never bringing you on a mission again I swear to god. Uh. One of the Greek ones, I'd assume.>>"

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen looks around and frowns, luckily he wears gloves so he starts punching with his fists with an ew ew ew. He makes sure to stay out of the grabbing hands of the zombie, and then steps back trying to make sure the zombie concentrates on him

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
With the zombie superman held mostly at by Red Robin's glowing green rock of doom and Impulse already going to work on the creature, Nadia joins in as well. Reducing her size and increasing the intensity of her blasters, she zips around this way and that putting blaster bolts into what would be human weak points with a sniper's precision. She doesn't want to get close, really in the back of her mind this is all terrifying, but what choice do they have.

<<Yeah.>> She agrees with Tim. <<Hopefully we'll be able to. It's still an option though. Let's go meet up with Red Hood>>

Once they reach Jason, <<Red Robin, give me a hand, if we can download the data from this computer it might answer some questions. I don't like the sound of this alien Xenovirus. And then I guess we need to decide if he fortify here and wait for the portal or go see if there are more answers in the Xenobiology wing...>> It is obvious she doesn't really want to go, but acknowledges that maybe they should.

Jason Todd has posed:
<<Just a looping video. Dammit,>> Jason says. <<Waspy, get in here, this thing still has power, maybe you can make this stop.>>

The Red Hood bolts from the room, dashing back through the hallway to help out Bart with the zombie. It might be tough, but Jason is determined. Plus everyone is helping. Jason lashes out at the thing's joints with his crowbar, hoping this thing isn't tough enough to bend it.

Conner Kent has posed:
It takes a good deal of time to finally stop the Kryptonian zombie. Not the Zombie of Steel, fortunately, but tough enough and lacking most of the vulnerable spots a normal humanoid would have. Only when his brain suffers massive (crowbar) damage he does finally 'die'.

Watching the two mad scientists argue the virtues of a zombie virus is, in comparison, pretty relaxing. At least until a zombie broodling wanders by. But it is not as tough and strong as the Kryptonian. Just far uglier.

The bad news, that virus is super-contagious. Don't let them bit you!

The good news, they are more or less prepared to the visit to xenobiology. There might be nightmares, because the abundance of alien corpses. Khunds and Dominators, probably captured during the invasion, massacred and devoured within their holding cells. The corpse of an alien brood queen, also torn apart and eaten in the middle of the main lab. Dozens if not hundreds of clone tubes. The ones that still have bones are probably the 'good' ones, and not roaming corpses somewhere.

All in all, they still have to destroy another dozen zombie monsters before Conner calls them by the comms. The way out is open for a minute, so... how goes the adventure? Did you have fun, guys?

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen when he hears Conner's radio call, Bart breaks into action, first Jason is just gone from the room they are in, and then Nadia, and finally Tim. Bart takes them out and through the complex through the portal one after another, with only a minute to get out and not wanting to let the zombies out, Bart is taking on full speed. Once all three of them are out Bart holds up a finger and is back in and back out in record time holding a couple of hard drives he pulls out of computers "We can hook these up to new computers""

Tim Drake has posed:
    The order of the day is just to put down as many zombies as they can before the portal re-opens. They can reassess later, once they're free of this place and have time to plan strategy, but with the knowledge that this virus, whatever it is, could potentially cause an actual Walking Dead sort of apocalyptic scenario... the focus is on making sure that doesn't happen.

    Seriously, NOWHERE, what the hell.

    Though they do of course scrape what they can from the computers and labs that they encounter, plus the goods Bart hauls out at the end. And there's the recordings from Tim and Jason's HUDs and probably Nadia's too for later perusal. Still, none of that is high on Tim's immediate priority list.

    By the time Red Robin is the last one getting escorted out via Impulse's super speed, his staff is dripping with zombie ichor. He's gone through a good chunk of his utility belt's contents. And Tim is fairly sure he isn't going to eat anything for at least a week, after this. Conner doesn't even get a response--Tim just finds a wall to lean against, the heel of one palm pressed to his temple.

    Nope. No, in fact they did *not* have fun.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
<<Okay Conner..>> Nadia starts to say over the comes when her surroundings suddenly shift at blistering speed. "Oh hi Conner." She says to him since he is now in front of her, all of them now being on the other side of the portal.

To her credit now that they are safe, she doesn't actually vomit after all the horribleness that she witnessed inside. "That place is bad news. I'm shutting this down for now. "But we can't just leave it, if NOWHERE cuts the power to the generator or even if there's some accident at Colony Zero that cuts the power for completely unrelated reasons, that is a zombie apocalypse that will just get dumped back on to Earth. We need to destroy it, like really really destroy it, atomized, nothing left."

She says this her fingers dance across the console, powering down the space/time tunnel that breached the Tesseract's space and begins putting the equipment away.

Jason Todd has posed:
Jason makes ready to do more violence to the undead. He steps forward, lifting his dripping crowbar, and---

He swings it hard through the empty air of the outside. "What." The Red Hood squints for a moment before he realizes that Impulse must have dragged him out at the speed of Yes. He looks around, flicking the goo from his crowbar before replacing it on his back.

By that time, Impulse has brought everyone else out that should be out. "That was ugly. Next time, we set someone else on the controls and Superboy comes in with us because sometimes even I can't hit hard enough."