9073/Metropolisn't: Anomaly Garden 2: Meanwhile Back At The Ranch

Metropolisn't: Anomaly Garden 2: Meanwhile Back At The Ranch
Date of Scene:	14 December 2021
Location:	Not Wonderland, but also not NOT Wonderland
Synopsis:	It starts off as Wonderland but ends up Jack Parsons.
Cast of Characters:	Terry O'Neil, Kian, Nadia Pym-van Dyne, Victor Stone

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Terry O'Neil has posed:
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DEAR READER: This is a branching narrative that originally started in issue 8984- be sure to check that out first, true believers! (https://heroesassemble.mushhaven.com/scene/scene.php?id=8984)

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MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE RA-- THE OTHER PATH:


The rescued chicken lets out a pitiable 'squawk' as it is rescued. It clearly has been in the midst of a massive effort, and it finally passes out from exhaustion on the grass.

The egg, on the other hand, lies there, glistening and perfectly whole.

The Cheshire cat glances at his team-mates and gestures to the enormous thing. "So... what exactly are we supposed to do with an egg? I don't see any Madam here..." he glances back at the poules "Unless it's one of them. But I doubt it. The size difference alone-"

Kian has posed:
    "The egg is what we're after," Kian says.  "I sensed two strong signals.  One was the giant, and the egg is the other one.  What I *don't* know," he continues, "is whether we should get into the egg ourselves or take it to the giant as-is on the assumption that he'll know what to do with it."
    Kian huffs with not a little exasperation.  "This is not the kind of logic I am used to."
    He adds, after a brief reflection, "I *can* illuminate the egg from behind, so you can see if there's anything inside it beyond, you know, the normal parts of an egg.  If that will help."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Climbing out of the pool, Nadia is now soaking wet. "Hold that thought." She says pushing wet matted hair out of her eyes. For a moment she disappears and there is a splash of water hitting the ground, before she reappears again, now dry but a little frizzy haired.

"Okay so," Nadia begins as she walks over to pick up the egg. "Kian, you're not going to like this, but the French, the puns, I think we had madame all wrong. He might be after a Croque Madame, Janet ordered me some from her favorite French bakery once. It's like a grilled ham and cheese sandwich with a poached egg on top, and this," She holds up the egg. "May be the madame."

Victor Stone has posed:
    "...You're kidding." Vic stares at Nadia, but then he sighs. "...And there was a ham and cheese sandwich back at the table. Yep. Croque Madame." He shakes his head. "Well, at least I'm starting to get a handle on the logic here. Puns."

    He eyes the egg. "Alright," he says. "Let's take it back to the giant and go from there? I hope he doesn't want us to cook the thing." He glances to Kian, as if wondering how the bird-man's going to take this.

Kian has posed:
    Kian genuinely blanches.  "This is... is an Earth food, not his /q'tenar/?" he says, genuinely scandalized.  "I... look, do what you have to do with it, but don't tell me, and come get me when it's done, because I want to pretend I don't know about it!"
    And he gives Terry a genuinely baleful look, as if this is his fault.  "And if you can find a way to pun everyone out of this," he says, "I'll... well, I don't know, but I'll make it worth the effort.  Somehow."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"I... so we're getting a sandwich to the giant. Okay." Terry frowns. "IF this is Wonderland... shouldn't I know that? Or is it because /I/ didn't take French, I didn't catch on to it?" He frowns at their avian companion. "Kian..." he reaches over and kisses the Avian's cheek. "Stay right here. We'll be back."

When they bring the prize back to the giant and the flowers, there is an air of celebration, the hyacynth gesturing to the giant, "Monsieur! Monsieur! Regardez!"

The giant's plate-sized eyes light up, and a torrent of words that not even Nadia can decypher, so quick they spill forth, come out of his mouth. In an excess of effusion, he sweeps Vic and Nadia off their feet into a massive hug- but gentle enough so as not to break the egg. This particular delicacy, he takes between thumb and index finger and, once Vic and Nadia are back on terra firma, with the flick of a massive thumbnail he takes the top off the egg.

Glittering white and golden yolk crash upon the sandwich below, and Kian might have blanched, but as the glop hits the sawdwich, there is clearly some mistake. That was no egg, all the rippling transluscent material was clearly just a flutter of pettycoats, and the gold of the yolk was merely the yellow summer outfit and parasol of a very delicate lady, now sitting opposite the giant.

"Phillipe!" she cries out,
"Phollope!"

There is much embracing, kissing, and then the two of them thank Nadia and Victor, and then stop dead in their tracks when they see Vorpal, as if noticing him for the first time.

"Oh...
"OH."

The two, arm in arm, turn around and walk off to a side-path that hadn't been there before, and then the path vanishes, hedges closing up behind them!

And then there is a loud *bang* from the door. One of the two locks (had they been there before?) falls to the ground, and cracks open, spilling golden yolk onto the ground before seeping into the ground.
One lock remains.

"Well... that wasn't awkward at all. Let's go get Kian and-"

But there's a problem. The other path, leading to the swimming poule, has vanished as well, leaving only the path with the honeycomb sign, and the poison sign.

"Oh no, Kian!" He runs over and pushes against the hedge... but the hedge doesn't give way. Scans would show there is nothing behind it.


============ELSEWHERE=============

The room Kian is in is different. The change was so fast, that it almost feels like it has /always/ been there. It is a garden, a massive garden with plants that tower over Kian. In fact, everything towers over him.

"And who..." comes the voice behind the Akiar, "Are you?"

A massive centipede, smoking a cigar, is sitting on top of a log, staring down at Kian.

Kian has posed:
    Everything *always* towers over the little birdman, so that's hardly new.  Regardless, Kian makes a little startled sound, but not one of panic.  He turns around and flits upward, so that he and the centipede can see eye to eye.
    He also fans the cigar smoke away.  Smoking is an uncommon habit among his people.  They generally prefer their psychoactives in the forms of edibles and potables.  When you spend a lot of your time in the air, you have more respect for it than to cloud it with particulates.
    "Me?  I'm Kian s'Kai'Eryn t'Kaeh.  I think I've seen you in the books Terry gave me, but a lot of it didn't make sense."
    After a moment, he adds, "Which is probably what I should expect from something Terry is involved in."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia smiles as the giant and his madame vanish, that was trippy as hell but they seemed happy which made her happy in turn.

But then the way back is gone and Kian lost somewhere in the maze. "Oh no." She looks back at Terry. "We need to find him!" Stating the obvious. Which naturally leads to the choice of the two paths with their two interesting signs.

"I vote for magic bees." Because of course she does. "Pirates are cool, but Bees have wings, so I BEElieve we will find Kian this way!" Now Nadia is punning, too. Where will this madness end?!

Victor Stone has posed:
    Vic blinks rapidly in confusion, but... oh, /another/ layer of puns. Seriously? And then they get hugged, and that's a thing... and then the hedge has closed and Kian's out of sight.

    "There's nothing there, Terry... we're going to have to get through the maze to find him." He considers the other paths. "I'm with Nadia on this one. We've got Waspette, so we've got an advantage with bees, right?" And he'll head that way unless Terry has any major objections.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"... right, the bees... let me just try-"

Terry frowns, and for a moment attempts to cast a Rabbit Hole to get to where Kian is-

But a blast of something that looks like green light hits him, and sends him sprawling across the ground.

He immediately gets to his feet. "Never mind, then!" he says, and quickly follows Nadia and Victor.

The path opens into a massive clearing, where large buildings that resemble beehives have been erected. There is a large crowd of large bees milling in what passes for the town square, everything a-buzz with excitement... or anxiety? There is a feeling that panic might just break out at any minute, from something in the dead center of that crowd.

===============ELSEWHERE=====================

"Hah, You've seen me in books? You must be thinking of my cousin Bib, he's the bookworm."He takes a drag from his cigar, and exhales a large ring of smoke, which smells like chestnuts for some reason.

"But I didn't ask you what you are called, I want to know... who are you?" The centipede glances at Kian with a raised eyebrow, "Do you know where you are? Do you know /anything/?"

Kian has posed:
    "Then maybe it's your cousin," Kian says agreeably.  "It's not like the books made sense anyway."
    Kian never had a lot of patience for philosophy, but the nature of his existance -- and the nature of his people -- forced at least a little contemplation of that on him.  "What I am called is at least in part who I am.  I *chose* the name, so it *is* me.  In part, anyway.  As for where I am, I suppose some blend of Wonderland and Metropolis."
    He adds, with a gleam in his eye reminiscent of a scientist on the track of something, "And most knowledge is provisional anyway, so how much I know against how much I think I know is a matter of conjecture."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
"Wait, what was that?!" Nadia wheels around when Terry is sent flying across the space. She looks down the path towards the clearing with the Bees, she definitely wants to go there! But! SCIENCE! calls and Nadia answers!

"That green light," She tells Terry. "I think we've seen it before!" In this case 'we' is herself and Vic. "Can you," She hesitates because it looks like it kinda hurt. "Can you do it again? I want to take some readings with the sensors in my suit. It looked a lot like that green portal that didn't trigger the dimensional scanners." Big SCIENCE! eyes, she really wants to test this and try to observe and analyze the unknown phenomena.

Victor Stone has posed:
    There's a reason Victor and Nadia should /not/ be left alone, and it's because his reaction is /really/ similar to hers. "Whoa! That... yeah, that's the light we saw just after the top hat guy and his friend showed up!"

    He focuses on Terry. "Do that again," he urges. "It might be important." He's got all his cybernetic senses up, preparing to scan the /heck/ outta Terry.

    Kian didn't get left alone in the maze... Terry got left alone with the science nerds.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry heaves a very heavy sigh, and glances at the bees. Then at Nadia and Victor, seemingly unable to decide which will be worse-

"Okay."

And there is one more attempt at the Rabbit Hole. This time, it works- sort of. There is a bright purple light, and there is Kian.

"Kian!"

There is no ceremony, Terry reaches out to grab Kian by the waist and /yoinks/ him back, just as the Centipede suddenly tries to reach for Kian with those poisonous barbs of his, but too late.

But just as Terry pulls Kian back, the sky flashes a sickly green and more blasts from that light come down. Vorpal pushes Kian out of the way by instinct alone.

And Terry flies across the area, each time hit by those green blasts and forcing him to change direction.

He goes through several of the buildings which, fortunately, are made of wax. Unfortunately, wax can be hard, so... ouch.

Kian has posed:
    "Wha--oof!"  As if things aren't confusing enough, Kian finds himself snagged by cat and yanked clear of the centipede before... well, before something happened, it's hard to say.
    And then "Oof!" again as he's unceremoniously shoved aside.  "Wha--?!"
    Right now, the translator's doing precious little for his conversational skills.
    But when the green lights start falling from... well, from wherever, Kian's on the move at top speed.  That game his people play?  Yeah, there's a reason he's good at it.  "Terry!"
    He's just not making up enough ground (or air) on the ricocheting cat for his liking, though, so he flips over and returns fire at wherever the blasts are coming from.  It looks like lightning... and it very nearly sounds like it too.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
"Oh it worke.." Nadia doesn't quite finish the last word as while Kian is pulled through the green energy comes blasting down again and she watches Terry do his best impression of a pinball game smashing through the beehive buildings, if only she knew what pinball was.

Nadia winces a bit with each impact, sympathy winces, but this is for SCIENCE! and so she keeps her scanners trained on Terry as he bounces from building to building around the clearing. Besides Kian is already helping him. This is fine. Everything is fine.

Victor Stone has posed:
    Cyborg takes a step back, keeping an eye on Terry as he uses his Rabbit Hole, pulls Kian through... and then there's /multiple/ blasts sending Terry flying. He keeps his sensors trained on his friend as he launches himself to try to intercept Terry, stop him bouncing all over the place. It might give him more proximity to the energy, too, to get a better reading on it.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry finally lands a few feet away from Vic. The ground is nice and soft, so instead of injuring himself, he ends up with a mouth full of grass and a twitching frame. Kian will probably land in soon after Terry's own landing.

"..... Grnnnr..."

"YOU!"

The crowd of bees has parted like an ocean, and a towering bee-woman is approaching the Titans now, waving an indignant leg in the air. Her head sports a crown that glistens in the sun, looking like amber... or solidified honey. "You are being disruptive!" she buzzes indignantly, "You can't be mis-beehaving here! Who will bee the one responsible for this disruption?"

Right out of the corner of your eyes, you might see a remnant of that green light, repairing the buildings, sealing up the holes in the wax, as if no holes had ever been there.

Kian has posed:
    Kian is reaching to help Terry up as soon as he touches down, and once he's sure the cat has his footing, he turns and... stares.
    "I may not have thought it all the way through when I said I was coming back to Earth," he mutters, then, more sharply, "Disruption?  /This/ is the disruption!  We're trying to put things back to normal!"
    There he goes, trying to be reasonable again....

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia's face goes through a fascinating series of contortions as she studies the data coming across her HUD and cross-exchanges back and forth with Victor across a secure dataline and then she just kind of stares at the Queen Bee for a moment.

It is something Kian says that makes her snap her fingers though"Disruption! Yes, that's it! Brilliant!" Nadia exclaims her eyes lighting up, "Vic! I have a plan that may let Terry use his powers more and help these people. They," She gestures at the bees. "Are people by the way. Their minds aren't bees. People being forcibly transformed and made to act like Wonderland beings." Every once in awhile Hank's weird tech comes in handy, well other than for summoning horrifying swarms to torment her foes.

"It's strange. The green energy is LIKE Terry's but way more powerful, it's Wonderlandy, but less refined? Less fully formed? Anyway we might be able to turn Vorpal into a TRUE disruptor, if we could alter the phase and frequency of his energy, make it less refined, I almost hate to say it but make it /more/ Chaotic, he might be able to reflect the green light instead of being bullied by it AND if he can do that, he can probably disrupt the same green energy that is covering these people and transforming them. It's like a remote signal, if that could be bounced back too, in theory they should return to normal!" Though how to do that is a question she is still turning over in her brain as she looks between Vic and Terry.

Victor Stone has posed:
    "Can we turn him /back/ once we do that?" Vic's mind is already off down a path of... how? How to take magic and calibrate it through science? Well, if magic is colored light then... then maybe...

    "What if we... okay, either we've got to hit Terry with a chaos beam of some sort or we... if magic is colored, then cast his magic through a color filter? Like, a green one. To make the magic green, see?"

    ...Look, it works for light, why not magic?

    He's eyeing the bees, though. "Never liked the head cheerleader types," he grumbles. "They always get so upset when you disturb their little hives."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry is a little out of it, which is part for the course for having been thrown through wax walls. The Queen Bee doesn't take to Kian's back-talking kindly, her face scrunches up with disapproval-

Wait. How can you tell if bees are disapproving?

"The sheer ... gall! I can't bee-lieve this!"

Responding to some unspoken command, the other bees start moving towards the Titans, menacingly.

"... guys," Terry says, rubbing his forehead, "Whatever you are planning to do... you should do it now."

Kian has posed:
    There are plenty of things to do with light -- destructive interference, dimming it, changing its wavelength -- but the question is will any of them work on a /magical/ light?
    There is, alas, only one way to find out.
    "She has an energy feed coming in from... somewhere," Kian explains, slightly less than helpfully.  "It's, I don't know, it's coming in through a rabbit hole of her own?  Just appearing there."
    There is a certain advantage in being a generalist rather than a specialist: Kian can try messing with the green glow in several ways, first trying to shift its color -- to Terry's usual purplishwhatever, or at least to not-green.  If that doesn't work, it's on to dimming it.
    If that doesn't work... well, maybe Nadia or Vic will have an idea before everyone gets stung a lot.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia nods in agreement with Victor's plan, "Yes, do that! Maybe work with what Kian is doing. Either way, re-calibrating Terry seems to be the key here. I Bee-lieve in you both!"

Nadia is not SCIENCE!ing Terry, not this time, that will probably happen in a GIRL laboratory later.

Right now there is a nother problem to deal with and she steps away from the others letting them SCIENCE! the magic while she activates the outbound and control functions of her insect telepathy, assuming an aura of royal authority like the Wasp Princess that she is. <<Stop!>> The command is broadcast across waves carrying Psion particles that only the Order Hymenoptera perceive. <<Stand down! Do not cause any further disorder here!>>

Victor Stone has posed:
    Vic isn't talking about changing the bee's light. He's thinking about changing Terry's. He reprograms one of his lasers to be far less potent, spreading out wide instead of focused, and to be the same green as the weird blasts that have been coming after Terry.

    He shines the light out at Terry, a cone of sickly green spreading over his friend. "Do something!" he says. "Rabbit Hole or glitter or... or /something/!" He can survive a bunch of bee stings, but it'll /hurt/ a /lot/. Hopefully either his calibrating Terry or Kian's calibrating the bees or both will work!

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Anything? Okay.. here goes-"

He tried Rabbit Holes, so this time he decides to unleash his chaos wave.

Well. It has certainly lived up to the name. As the changes to his frequency take place, there is a tolling like the sound of a bell. The bees had stopped under Nadia's imperious tone, and then they started to waver like reflections on rippling water when Kian started affecting the energy that came through the queen. It is perhaps because of this interference, along with Vic's that, when the new volley of light comes down to strike Terry, it doesn't send him flying to the ground. Instead, the blasts seem to go /into/ him.

"Uh... Guys.... I don't feel so-"

And then, a shockwave of purple-green explodes outwards from him, lifting him into the air. The bees are struck by the light first, and they collapse, unconscious, on the ground in the form of Naval officers. The Queen Bee is ext, and she regains her form- that of an admiral.

Another explosion of light, and Terry suddenly starts flying across like a balloon whose air is being let out, faster than even Kian can fly.

"GuuUUyysSSs I thiiIIink I aamm GooiiIiIInng to yaaAAAaaAAArrrkkA AAAAAAAAH LOOKOUT!"

He passes between Victor and Nadia, leaving a glittering trail behind him. All around them, the beeswax buildings melt, and then vanish into nothingness, leaving only the clearing and the hedge.

And then Terry's trajectory takes him to the hedge. At the hedge. Towards the hedge.

And BOOM.

Terry goes through that impassable hedge like a knife through butter, his combined magical aura burning through it and leaving a permanent hole behind him. The tunnel runs for quite a distance, but eventually it emerges into...

The center of the maze.

The hedge walls slope down to a less dizzying height, coming up to a mere twelve feet for the final inner walls of the rectangular space. The area of the center is roomy, though not nearly so open as the great checkerboard battlefield one party of Titans had fought their way across to get here. Just a few feet away from it, Terry has landed, face-down and knocked out, a trail of sparkling green and purple corpuscules in his wake.

    Within the space is a table, overthrown with broken crockery scattered across the ground, and close by it a tall stone sundial, beneath which a slender-limbed bird faintly resembling a shabby pink dandelion clock, with ragged feathers sprouting all around and a beak resembling a parrots, only upside down. On spotting the visitors to its lair, the bird lets out a passionate squawk.

    What really dominates the scene though is the tree in the middle. Although the trunk is not very broad, it is twisted ad convoluted as if it has grown for a great number of years, and the branches spread out in a wide, almost flat canopy of leaves overhead, sheltering the very center of the maze with soft shadows. Nestled into the roots of the tree and leaning up against the trunk is a most peculiar musical instrument, something like a four-stringed guitar with a body resembling a battleship in shape. It even looks like it has tiny cannons.

    All in all it would seem like a reasonably serene and peaceful place, were it not for the fact that a tall, gaunt man wearing a top hat is nailed to the tree by his hands. At first it looks like he may be dead but a few moments after the heroes arrive he raises his head painfully and looks at them, licking his dry lips. Tucked into the brim of his hat is a hand-written price card reading 'In this style, $49.99 or 0.012 Frabcoin.'

Kian has posed:
    Kian is off like a shot after Terry, although he can't catch up, and doesn't even pause to take in their surroundings until after he's satisfied himself that the cat is at least breathing on his own.
    "Uh."  It's about all he's capable of.  The bird gets his attention first; he's pretty sure he hasn't seen its like before.
    The man on the tree elicits a sharp gasp, and Kian whitens and backs up, and the translator can't keep the stammer out of his voice: "Wh-what do we /do/?"

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
That... is not quite the result Nadia was expecting but she really shouldn't be surprised given Chaos Magic. Unexpected results are kind of baked right into the name. Her eyes get a bit wide as she watches Terry begins to sail around shooting about the clearing. But sure enough, the bees begin reverting back to their original human shapes. "It worked!" She exclaims just in time to see Terry go shooting past her through the edge like a runaway glitter filled bottle rocket or some manner of sparkle dust comet.

"Oh wow. That, that is a thing! We should probably go after him." She comments to the others as she peers through the first of the series of holes that Terry has melted through the hedge maze.

"I think we're on to something though!" She says as they walk down the newly blazed trail. "That definitely produced results! Maybe we can develop a belt or something to let Terry adjust his own color coding. A Color Belt!"

The clearing brings her up short again, because if this maze is anything it is a source of neverending weird. "Is that a Christian thing? Does Wonderland have Christians?" She asks upon seeing the figure of the man nailed to the tree. "Wait, that's probably another real person! We have to help him!"

Victor Stone has posed:
    Victor blinks only for a moment before taking off after Terry, through the trail the Cheshire Cat leaves through the hedges, his rocket shoes letting him almost keep up with Kian, at least. Nadia can gather data as she walks; he wants to be certain Terry's okay.

    He, too, stops at the end of the trail, however, and stares at the tableau. "This... is... something, anyway." Kian's making sure Terry's okay, so he starts toward the man on the tree.

    "That'll be the Mad Hatter, I think," he says. "...Or else somebody dressed up as him." He doesn't like the turn this has taken, at all.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
======================

IT appears that our heroes have reached the heart of the matter... but what strange adventures await them? Who is behind this wonderous phenomenon? Join us for the thrilling conclusion of this adventure, true believers, right where we started at: https://heroesassemble.mushhaven.com/scene/scene.php?id=8984

Excelsior!

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