It never ends, does it...

[cityship]

||Pod Release Protocols Initating|| Stacy's familiar voice sounded out to all the podmates.

In the Pod Caverns, there were the sounds of: Pop. Pop pop pop. Poppuhpoppoppop. KASCHUNKhiiiiiiiissssss.

There was condensation and mist spraying out from cracks in the pods, as the people inside slid out onto the floors, covered in slime.

Pop. Poppop. KASCHUNKhiiiiiissss.

Comments

[halfgoddess.livejournal.com]

The day's been long, and Cassie realizes, very quickly, with a great weariness, it's about to get longer.

She sits in the puddle of slime, shaking. An instant before she was somewhere else entirely; that place was the last place she wanted to be, yet at the same time, finding herself elsewhere, she just wants to go back to where Kon's body was. All of her emotions are balled in a knot, in her throat, and she can't even manage words to voice her surprise. Not yet.

Cassie is heartbroken, and feeling so utterly lost, but in a situation like this, she knows she has to pull herself together. She closes her eyes, wiping a film of slime off her face with the juncture of her thumb, and swallows her breath, picking herself up off the floor.

She isn't sure of what to do next.

[old-country-doc.livejournal.com]

About two pods down, a different kind of person entirely slides out onto the floor.

It was three days before he was set to ship out on whatever damn fool new craft the Federation had planned. That whole mess with the whales took another five years off of McCoy's life, and he still was getting ready to gallop across the cosmos again. He was getting too old for this...but as long as he had his crewmates and his friends with him, he had to go along just to make sure they didn't get into too much trouble.

But now...one moment he was going to sleep in his temporary quarters in San Francisco...the next he's on a floor covered in slime.

He's not a happy camper.

"Can someone tell me what the hell's going on?"

[halfgoddess.livejournal.com]

Cassie, glancing around her surroundings, is not happy to see other people, even in a strange place. Not when she's naked, and not when she just wants to find out where she is and get back to where she's supposed to be. She looks away.

But he's talking, and she realizes he might be directing it at her, even if her back is to him.

She works the knot out of her throat, and she blinks rapidly to dispel tears. She's a big girl and she can't be scared right now. Cassie just keeps her back to him, folding her arms uncomfortably. For the second time in twenty-four hours, her bangs are plastered to her forehead, and this time it's because of the slime, not sweat.

"I don't know," she manages.

[cityship]

||You have just awoken from Podsleep|| says a voice in their heads, calm and implacable. To McCoy, the voice may be unfamiliar, but the tone is, at least.

[halfgoddess.livejournal.com]

Cassie sets her mouth in a firm line. The voice in her head means nothing to her, and she just swallows it.

"Podsleep?"

[old-country-doc.livejournal.com]

Oh great, a Vulcan's in charge.

"Where are we?" he says in a slightly annoyed tone.

[cityship]

||You are in the Pod Caverns.||

So helpful.

[mapquest-titan.livejournal.com]

Waking up naked on a spaceship wasn't exactly something that was new for Cale. Waking up naked and covered in slime on a spaceship that looked like the interior of someone's pancreas, however, was.

He lay on his stomach, his cheek resting against the pulsing floor for a few moments before finally pushing himself up onto his hands and knees. He coughed out a huge wad of goo that had apparently gotten into his mouth while he had been sleeping.

"Ugh," he groaned, brushing some of the gunk from his eyes and wiping it on the floor. "I'm naked. Again. Why am I naked...again."

[ravaged-rose.livejournal.com]

Rose Wilson is used to living seconds ahead of the world, to the feeling of duality in her day to day existence. It's like sitting in a train car and looking out two windows at the same time, seeing tree, cow, telephone pole slide by in one frame and knowing that each will appear in the next in a moment or two. It is a constant of anticipation.

However when the first window shifts suddenly into some muted green vision of terror where previously there was a standard suburban scene...?

She has just long enough to stop mid-jog and say 'what the HELL?' out loud before she's dumped to the floor in a slick of wet mucus.

"What the HELL!?"

And that time her voice echoes.

She scrambles to sit upright, coughing, swiping at the slime on her face in a furious panic. Her hair is matted to her bare back and that's what makes her realize she's naked. She swipes her hand down her face again and realizes that even her eye patch missing, which prompts her to start fishing around half-blinded for her weapons.

Oh god, this feels so real, but it's GOT to be a fugue or something right? It feels nothing like the far-reaching visions she's had before though, not even a bit.

"Shit, shit, shit... where the hell am I?"

[cityship]

||You are in the pod caverns,|| a calm, monotone, feminine voice says in her head.

||Scanners indicate that you are in distress, Rose Wilson. Do you desire a mild sedative?|| the voice asked just as a long arm--with a rather large needle attached to it--descended from the ceiling and stopped a few feet away from Rose.

[ravaged-rose.livejournal.com]

Rose slams herself back against the breached pod as soon as she catches sight of the needle, plastering herself against the damp wall, hating how her footing slips in the wetness. Her heart pounds in her ears, adrenaline starting to ratchet up along with her panic.

"HELL NO I DON'T WANT A SEDATIVE!" Drugged is the last thing she wants to stack onto the naked-in-a-strange-place-and-covered-in-slime plate.

"What the hell are pod caverns?" She looks around hoping to find the source of whatever is talking in her head. "How did I get here?"

[cityship]

The needle retracts and disappears again.

||This is a pod-cavern,|| the voice replies. So helpful is she.

||You were Chosen.||

[ravaged-rose.livejournal.com]

"Chosen for what?" Rose climbs fully to her feet, trying to wring some slime out of her hair. God this place looks like something out of a sci-fi show...

"Tell me pod caverns have showers in them? And clothes?"

She wants to be washed, dressed and killing who or what-ever brought her here as fast as possible, but she gets the feeling she's not going to get any of that done without listening to the voice to start with. From what little she can see the place is vast and not exactly well-lit. She could wander for days in a place this big.

For now, any advice is good advice.

[cityship]

||For a great Purpose,|| the voice says in response to her first question.

My, how specific she is.

Then a series of phosphorescent light pustules appear on the floor, trailing through the pod cavern to a large winding stairway that leads to the ceiling. ||Follow the lights. You will be clothed.||

[literaryloser.livejournal.com]

Fitz isn't really a stranger to this 'Alien ship' thing. Nor is he a stranger to this 'captured' thing. Or, surprisingly, the 'naked' thing. Fitz...had led a fairly interesting life.

Thus, Fitz spent his first few moments on Stacy sprawled on the floor.

"...Doctooor?" Don't worry, he'll get moving eventually.

[firesoul-lol.livejournal.com]

A short distance away from the others, a girl pushes herself to her knees with a strangled gasp.

She takes in her surroundings with wide eyes, every sluggish muscle preparing for the heat of battle. Whatever she'd expected after giving her life for her princess, it certainly hadn't involved this. Pulsating floors, eerie lights, and an conflicting feeling of being both utterly alone and at the same time surrounded by an overwhelming foreign presence she couldn't hope to identify.

That's her next realization: the comfortable sensations that are no longer there tell her that a muzzle has been placed over her sixth sense. It's like being blinded and promptly thrust into battle, armed with nothing but whatever your body can do on its own.

And that's true too, because she's completely naked and no transformation pen is at hand. How's she feeling about this? Pissed off. But what can a powerless girl do? Storm up to the rest of the crew, get dressed, get armed, and demand answers, that's what. No creepy aliens or overwhelming odds are going to stop a fired-up Sailor Soldier.

Rei Hino is mad as hell and she's not gonna take it anymore.

[wendy-watson.livejournal.com]

She should be shocked.

She should be frightened.

Hell, she should be frakkin' freaking out like whoa.

Instead, Wendy Watson steadily rises to her feet, covers her naughty bits with her hands, and merely says, "Huh. This is new."

[cowsquirtdrinkr.livejournal.com]

"Oh. Hello Dubbie."

It's your boss. Your naked boss.

"I'm not entirely certain how we've ended up here, but I believe we're on a technorganic ship of some sort."

[wendy-watson.livejournal.com]

Ah, right.

Sexy Boss Man. Pillow Lips. Damn you, Lacey.

"The fact that you're here rules out some cold, cruel joke played by Ida. O2STK?"

[cowsquirtdrinkr.livejournal.com]

"It's certainly a possibility, though it may be unlikely. O2STK has always provided more conventional-looking tech." The Middleman rubbed his chim thoughtfully.

"You'd think if their personal preferences were Giger-like in appearance, that same preference would spread to the equipment we use. I believe a more likely assumption would be that we've been abducted to serve some purpose."

[wendy-watson.livejournal.com]

"Great. Kidnapped, stripped of our Middlesuits, and covered in slime. It's like we've been abducted by Slimer to be the flesh toned Power Rangers." She's decidedly not looking anywhere beneath her boss' neck. "I'm thinking we should go find some clothes and then find out who, why, what, and where."

[cowsquirtdrinkr.livejournal.com]

"And the when. Goshdarnit, there's no way of telling how long we've been in those pods."

[foursleeves.livejournal.com]

"Oh. My. God." Peter groans as he awakens from his slumber, naked, perplexed and covered in goo, "Twice in one week. This cannot happen twice in one week."

[cityship]

||You seem distressed, Peter Parker. Would you like a mild sedative?||

His spider sense likely tingles long before the needle arm comes out from the wall.

[foursleeves.livejournal.com]

"Nah, I'm cool," he replies, the spidey sense thrumming muggily after God know how long he's been asleep, "What I would like is for you to put a call through to my agent, tell them I'm through with this and then get them to call my lawyer."

He gets shakily to his feet, adding, "One question. Did I really have to be naked? Because if this is anything like the last place I woke up in, I'm really not going to be of any use with my jewels on show."