[bendytime before Trudy's rally in Contagion]

[encourage]

Chancy as it was to move between levels, it was still quite often a necessity. Especially when there was more to try and get out of Medical and the nearby Science Department, before the cogs and wheels hands of SHODAN ran amuck over everything.

It didn't make for easy transitions, on the otherhand. Those traveling upward found themselves abruptly diverted to the second level, at the hub of the pod caverns. This unintentional side-effect of something the wired fiends were doing made it both necessary to stop off and stay out of a larger group's way, as well as finding immediate progress elsewhere inconvenient. Getting down to the MedBay again would be easiest, and with a safezone set up in Contagion it wasn't a bad bet.

The problem primarily being they still needed some contact and transfer of supplies between safepoints, if that really could have been left in more organized hands. Things the ship needed to work on? Possibly a sense of coherency, but Sakura was admittedly biased. It's what she expected from folks at home, and what she'd been made to act on and with during the war. Her war. Her world's war. Might as well apply it to space.

Whatever poor sods had also gotten the shaft and ended up in the hub to the pod caverns had similar options to what Sakura was facing. "They were headed this way. We need to move." Finding someplace to either be out of the way and line of attention, or to use as a stronghold if they needed to, would be important. If the metal and plastic minions were following them into the caverns, they'd hopefully leave soon afterward. If not...

If not, they had even more of the many problems SHODAN had dropped in their deliciously frail buggy hands.

[ ooc: Any and all who wanted to be around before the Pods were known to be under attack/to witness the Pods coming under attack, get in here! Trudy's rallying for a drive of robots out here -- SHODAN will be killing pods in this log. ]

Comments

OOPS I DID NOT FORGET TO CHECK THIS NOT AT ALL

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi slipped his way quickly and quietly to the pod caverns, attempting to avoid notice as much as possible. If he had his way, they'd be fighting off any enemy incursions into the caverns at the entrance, where no crossfire might injure one of the people still asleep.

So far, not too much movement. But that could change. He shouldered his coil rifle, hoping to find a nice place to set off a few shots before things got... intense.

[hit-girl-mindy.livejournal.com]

She had only stopped over where Billy was for two reasons: one, punch a hole so that the guys could reclaim the spot and two, to get herself bandaged up. She was more than pissed that she couldn't be automatically healed, but then aliens and robots didn't play by the same rules, right? In any case she was bandaged up enough: there were still places to give aid to, and Hit Girl wasn't stopping for anything.

Irritatingly, her ammo was starting to run out, and eventually she would be reduced to close combat. It was an ugly fact, especially when these robots had guns, but she wasn't about to let any of that get in the way of being useful.

[oh-itsasnake.livejournal.com]

Of all the people Sakura might have expected to come out... he was probably last on her list.

"Doing its best to cause suffering before slaughter? I appreciate this thing's motives and at the same time I'm appalled by its inefficiency."

The Pods

[thesystemshock.livejournal.com]

After fighting through the SAINTS, the group would find a grim situation.

Not only had the robots swarmed around, but had managed to get into some of the pods. It was only because SHODAN willed it so that not everything had been destroyed. After all, why just destroy their hopes and dreams when she could slowly remove the spider's legs one by one? Pod by pod...her voice was distorted, advancing and moving as always when she spoke.

||||

The robots were not moving, just standing together to hold them back, in the most frustrating way possible.

||||

The Pods

[encourage]

"No." Sakura hadn't meant for that to slip out, if it had. Her face had long lost the surprise it'd worn when SHODAN's voice first echoed through the area. Held off as they were by the SAINTS and the terminators, once they'd made it past the cleaning chambers, down the spiral walkways to the podcaverns themselves, she'd gone grim. Determined. Silent.

Except she couldn't stay that way now. Despite a burn that left the use of her left arm incredibly painful, Sakura had her fingers in her pouch and around one of her last smoke-bombs. Next to it, by the ribbon tied around it, was a light bomb, but they were still not quite what she'd been aiming them to be at their creation.

"Get a rewrite of your definition on hope." Her fingers pulled the bomb out and forward, wanting the cover, knowing it was useless on so many other designed levels. Too organic. "And get the hell away from our pods, you bitch!"

Tossing the smoke bomb at a group of SAINTs and a terminator, she moved through the haze of smoke, firing at the joint for the laser on a SAINTs shoulder without knowing if it connected. Only one thing to be thankful for from Galilee, outside of the medkits. She'd finally learned what it meant to have a gun, and was given the motivation to use it.

Re: The Pods

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi didn't respond to the machine's taunting. People died; even if they weren't embroiled in interdimensional conflicts, people died every day through every concievable means. Murder, old age, suicide, natural disasters, slipping in a moment of carelessness. He had been the cause of many deaths himself -- but even if he had never taken a single one of those lives, they would have eventually been snuffed out.

That was just the way things were.

But it didn't mean he was all right simply standing aside while SHODAN murdered those that the people around him cared about. He braced himself against a nearby wall, switched the coil rifle shell output to diffuse blast... and fired.

[thesystemshock.livejournal.com]

The first blow was hard. Then SHODAN decided to simply make the bar a little higher. Not only the people the ship cared about, but a proof that anyone could easily be killed, should she chose to use that power. Her glorious power. The crew was fighting valiantly, but there simply were too many swarming robots.

|| ||

Words she might have spoken to someone else before.

|| ||

One of the terminators removed himself from the crowd, far away where he could not be touched by their gunfire apart from a really good shot and fired his machine gun right into a nearby pod. The man fell out, a mixture of the normal goo from the pods and dark blood.

|| ||

Two more shots, and two other bodies came out from different pods.

|| ||

[oh-itsasnake.livejournal.com]

He still cared not one bit for the fools falling to the gunfire and slaughter. If they had any strength, they would have woken up by now. In the meantime, there were millions, perhaps billions, of people still in these pods. If SHODAN wished to play games, then it was valuable time wasted, time they could use to plan and counter this assault in general.

However, he had a more pressing affair. The shinobi reached out to seize Starfire and Beast Boy and haul them back -- perhaps a dangerous attempt given their state, but necessary. "If these deaths delight you so much you feel the need to add your own to the corpse-pile, that's your business, but if that isn't your intent maybe you should get yourselves back under control."

[monster-san.livejournal.com]

Fuu clapped a hand over her mouth to stop herself screaming when she saw the robots close in on the man and the woman. She tried to fight the robots, but she was even more useless than the others. Just too many robots and not enough firepower--!

She cringed when SHODAN spoke again, silently pleading for something, somehow, to stop her even though she knew that nothing would. It's up to us, and we can't--

More shots. Fuu wiped tears away from her eyes, keeping her teeth clenched with an effort. There was no point in yelling at SHODAN either, but her hands shook at the remorseless evil. Why?! she wanted to scream as she looked around for something to use--wait! Wait! She hurried over to one of the SAINTs that had been knocked over. It looked like it had accessible controls. Could she reprogram it?!

No... too complex. Fuu could try, but it was too likely that she would make it attack indiscriminately. "Do any of you know how to reprogram robots?!" she demanded.

[thesystemshock.livejournal.com]

|||| While the robots ranks were denting, the progress was slow, and there were so many pods to protect and with the enemies scattered everywhere. It almost seemed like for every shot, two more would appear.

||||

Other sounds of gunshots and this time two more bodies fell to the floor, in a scene that mimicked Sakura's own parents. This time the victims were...

||||

[thesystemshock.livejournal.com]

|| || she continued. || ||

There was a series of pods, nothing special, really, apart from how the AI seemed to be interested in them.

|| ||

The SAINTS fired their lasers this time, causing the pod's goo to ignite and the charcoaled remains fell to the floor, scattering into the air.

|| ||

A second body, and the fate was repeated, in every graphic detail.

|| ||

[thesystemshock.livejournal.com]

|| || Her voice seemed condescending, almost disappointed, || ||

One could argue it was a simple spin of the wheel, a random choice out of all the people on the ship, and who was running to stop here. There were more people now that the pod deaths were getting displayed everywhere. Someone else would have stopped here, considered it a victory and concentrated on something else.

But SHODAN did not understand that concept. God as she was, she was too bold, to brash, to self-served to think about such petty things as how these insects could actually beat her.

|| ||

As they watched, another pod was violently sliced in two, the mixture of blood and bullets and the pod's goo coming together in a nauseating melange of death.

|| ||

[masterofnun.livejournal.com]

Punchy, admittedly, got a little held up marveling that their battle droid worked, but he's been on the move since then, pushing through a variety of odd injuries he managed to get from tackling robots like a goddamn professional.

And it's like SHODAN's announcing his entry, and for a moment he feels so very badass. 'Like a hero' is only one step away from actually being a hero, and he's about to save the day. He's alive, so completely electrified on his own ego and addled with adrenalin. His boots pounding the ground echo as he books it into the pod caverns.

But far too late...

"Wait!"

He doesn't need to see the face to know. There isn't a face left to see. Even if there were, he might not have recognized her. She was so immortalized in his memory at nineteen years old, a shining flawless beacon he could show to people and say 'see, this is why I'm a hero, because of her'.

'Because if there'd been a hero like me, she'd still be here.'

He's here. She's still not. His big sister, the one who told him that the stories in the bible were just superhero tales without the pictures, the one who put the kitten up in trees just so he'd have something to rescue and feel good about, the one he's always been saying he would have saved, is a puddle of goo and blood and lacerated body parts on the floor.

There is no witty one-liner. Punchy can't even manage a dramatic 'no' for SHODAN.

And then the moment, like the one before it, is gone.

[hit-girl-mindy.livejournal.com]

"FOCUS." Hit Girl said this, keeping her voice level. "She's just trying to distract you with the body count, with the people that matter! Keep hitting, we have to make sure no more bodies get taken!"

She was serious about this, but the hysteria in her head was there as hard as she tried to ignore it. It was getting stronger, and right now, this wasn't the time for Mindy. Her leg was still wobbly and she still needed that drop of adrenaline to take these guys out.

[thesystemshock.livejournal.com]

It continued, as the names began to roll off almost like a list of the dead, SHODAN looking at people related to those already in the pod room.

|| ||

The killing was switch. The pod exploded violently, as the body limped out of the pods, lifeless. There was some damage that spread to the nearby ones. Wrong place, wrong time. I a way is was even more insulting having the names being said in her terrible voice like she was listing without a care in the world.

|| ||

[thesystemshock.livejournal.com]

Something was wrong, after that last one. For a brief second, something flashed ahead, but it soon disappeared.

|| ... || SHODAN was silent as if adjusting something. || ||

There. She had a name.

|| Madoka Kaname ||

But no pod...how odd. Something was wrong with the network. It didn't matter, she would get fixed it soon. However, there was still a matter of continuing this ruse, and so she did. A poor female, fitting about the girl's age, was the next victim. Her name would not be found out much, much later. However this time the order was given to the robots to completely obliterate her, and the body was struck with such violence, the crack echoed in the halls. Then fire, flames burning everything to a complete unidentified pile, that flew away in the air.

|| ||

Even if her small network problems, SHODAN was defiant.

|| ||

Another body fell out of the pods, covered in fire, destroyed by gunfire, and the goop, as they struggled for half a second, mercifully dying a second after which. The robots finished off the job, and there was soon nothing else but another pile of ass.

|| ||

Then one more.

|| || Her grip was loosing, or at least there seemed to be a bit more static again. || || Another one. || A friend of yours, Beastboy? Or should I call you by your true name...it doesn't really matter how you dress up an insect, they are still insignificant to my grand plan. ||

That was not Jeed. That was not Mindy's Father. Nor Rita Farr. Or Madoka either.

Four people whose identities would remain a mystery for a while. But people who, unfortunately nor bore the graphic details of deaths and names that SHODAN knew from searching in the databanks, wanting to hurt them at their closest.

The robots continued to fire, advancing for another round.

[sakutianomore.livejournal.com]

He never even had time to scream.

As what was left of the body hit the floor a flood of emotions hit Beastboy at once, memories sweeping trough him.

And when the princess kissed the Frog, he magically transformed into a handsome prince!

She used to tell him that story every night before bed.

The closest thing he had to a mother after being orphaned. She gave him a home, gave him a family....

You're going to be a big star someday Garfield, and you'll dazzle the world with your smile.

Tears streaming down his face, Beastboy hadn't been aware that he was running for the robots till he felt the impact of the first one against his fist. A Pitiful punch that would be lucky to even knock the slender legged machine off it's feet. But the pain felt good. It stung through his hand and he swung with the other, the pipe he still held so tightly finishing the job his fist started.

With a scream of animalistic fury he lashed out again and again at the robots seeing only red. The noise around him was gone and all he could hear was SHODAN saying her name.

When he swung again the pipe was gone and he couldn't understand why at first, but then he saw it on the floor and went to take it up again. When he realized he couldn't make his fingers close around it properly he realized that something was wrong. Blood ran down his fingers and began to puddle on the floor.

Grabbing the pipe swiftly with the other hand he stabbed it into the robot that had shot him, shocked by the feedback before it blew up. The pipe was gone now.

A feeling like a punch in the gut and he fell back to the ground. Arm trembling he tried to force himself back up as more crimson liquid puddled around his fingertips.

But the pain was fading. That was good. So long as he couldn't feel the pain he could keep fighting.

He looked up to see a skeletal like metal face grinning down at him with glowing red eyes before a foot was planted firmly in his face and everything went black.

But he was not out. He could still hear the noises of battle, feel the vibrations in the ground underneath him. The head of laser fire and always, SHODAN's voice.

The Beast within him roared.

[hit-girl-mindy.livejournal.com]

Everything seemed to fade for a moment: Hit Girl was hitting as hard as she could, she was still trying to give encouragement even as people started to lose their loved ones. It only made her do the best she could to try and get closer to where the the robots were killing the pods. Damn it, but she hated having her powers reduced! This was a pain, even if her leg was at least patched up...

And then she heard her name called out, and she turned pale. Her name called, and the blast came, and this time not even the dignity of having him say goodbye to his babydoll. Just more burned flesh, just mess, and the jeering of a life form so cruel it had taken her strength away and made her watch this.

For a moment, there was nothing but Mindy in her face. The moment was knowing it had happened all over again, only this time there was no triumph in knowing she had done all she could. There was only the biting slap of knowing he was gone from her life again, even if it had already happened before. They couldn't leave that alone though: bring him back, bring her hopes up.

And then kill him again.

That quiet pain, that scream in her, erupted out: and it wasn't the scream of Mindy, the girl who had lost both of her parents and had to live with knowing she would never be normal. No, this was the scream of the girl her daddy trained, the one who was now able to say FUCK THIS LEG and was now shooting despite the tears running down her face. Stop, wipe, shoot again. Tears cloud your vision. Kill first, mourn later. That was how it was.

She was Hit Girl right now. With luck, no one would have paid attention to the name of Mindy. She was not her, not now.

Reinforcements arrive here.

[thesystemshock.livejournal.com]

The power was restored and, a bit more confident than she already was, SHODAN decided to cause them a great deal of harm. As more crew of the ship came in, she would look around and pick someone that had been on the ship not too long ago that could server her purpose.

|| || she warned them. || ||

However, the flash from the shooting seemed to have touched an invisible creature that was cloaked nearby. A tiny movement, barely seen. It stood near one of the walls.

Quickly she had to act.

|| ||

And with that, his body fell from the goop, surrounded by many robots.

Yet something was wrong. That tiny little glitch in the system, that made the tiny little robot appear seemed to have affected the larger ones as well, as they stood unmoving for a second.

But a second was all they could need.

Dudududuuuuu!

[encourage]

One explosion, a ringing ear, and jarred painful burns on top of broken toes later, Sakura feels something sing through her system she hasn't had for a while.

No, not adrenaline, she's been existing on that and soldier pills like nobody's business. Chakra. It almost burns, the rush as she starts manipulating it all over again hits, and the pain is even easier to marginalize because of what that bitch is saying.

She couldn't save her parents. None of the people up to this point, those people pulled from the confines of the pods, shot full of metal while they lay sleeping inside, none of those had been in her ability to help.

But that was done. Everyone here, with extra powers or not, hadn't stopped trying the whole time.

Now the advantage was back on their side, however slimly, and SHODAN had announced another name she recognized. Rory.

She's off at speeds she didn't realize she missed as badly as she did, slamming into and through robots with a kind of cold calculation that belied how she'd shouted ages, ages ago. No words, only movement.

She knows she isn't the only one, and she is glad.

[changelingdude.livejournal.com]

Nearby covered in blood, a hand twitched.

pale skin began to shake and under the blood and tears that had soaked the skin fresh sweat began to bead and form.

Slowly a sickly green tint claimed the skin starting from the chest and working outward.

As Garfield Logan fell into darkness, finally allowing the exhaustion to claim him, his mind began to shut down and instinct took over.

When his eyes snapped open they were something else, something fierce and furious.

The slender limbs began to stretch and grow. The cracking of bones and the ripping and tearing of flesh as fur and muscle grew where none had been before. Claws burst through fingertips and the jaw ground as it reformed into wicked fangs.

Lumbering to it's feet a horrible beast let out a roar that vibrated the very air around it even as blood leaked from it's fur.

It most fast, impossibly fast for a creature that sizes one would think, but powerful muscles propelled it through the air as it crashed into robots shredding them with claws that crushed tree trunks and slashed through stone. One would do well to stay away from the unbridled uncontrolled fury of a wounded beast with nothing left but thoughts of revenge and death propelling the instinct to maim and kill!

[locked to Punchy]

[battorch]

While doing better from the healing he got from Fuu, Red Robin was still hurting and his costume was damaged. He was more distracted than he should have been. But at the time, he didn't find that he cared that much.

Forcefully, he jammed the end of his staff hard into a robot, the tip of it wedging itself into a joint, helping to both disable the 'bot and to get his staff stuck. The weakened metal ran the risk of breaking if he tried to force it out, so he poured his entire body weight into forcing it in further, sparks flying and burning against his injuries. He kept going, despite the pain, until he was forced to let go and moved backwards. But he was unarmed, and the enemy wasn't totally down and out. With jerky movements, it lurched rapidly toward him, while he scrambled to get out a new weapon out. He fumbled, keeping one arm up to defend himself.

Re: [locked to Punchy]

[masterofnun.livejournal.com]

Punchy, for a change, is using his head. Which would surprise people, except he's doing it literally. As in actually charging headfirst into the staggering robot.

Hey, whatever works.

He and the robot tumble head over heels, but he lands on top and punches it in the face. With his puppeted hand. After a few punches all that's left is a crater in the ground where the robot's head once was.

He staggers to stand up, blood running from a cut in his hairline, goggles fogged up with sweat and tears. He points at Tim. "You breezy?"

He doesn't notice the other robot coming up behind him, but it should be totally visible to Tim.

SOMETIME BEFORE NODES DEACTIVATE (tim and sakura get exploded sorta)

[encourage]

"Eight'o'clock!"

Either Sakura was trying to proposition Red Robin in the middle of an ongoing battle against robots and a psychotic AI taking sadistic pleasure out of murdering sleeping sentients in their pods, or she was giving out a warning for where she was currently firing, and what might be appearing there.

Really, it's anyone's guess as she lets of two shots before darting to the side to try and avoid being fried (she wasn't chicken, please stop, robots), and to check on who she'd been shouting at in a more general sense. Her face is still set in grim determination, and outside of soot and grime and some blood smeared across her face, carelessly being distorted by her own sweat (the loss of art! Sakura, what mock warpaint have you let go to ruin?), she looks fairly okay.

For being in this situation.

Pretty much.

[battorch]

Considering who she was talking to, the latter option was probably more effective, anyway. For his own part he assumed that was what it was.

He moved quickly out of the way when she fired, flipping back. He was hurting, but fortunately he hadn't received anything too bad yet. Mostly some damage to his armour and some soreness. He didn't, however, bet on the robots being nice enough to let that continue that way. The lower half of his face was a little cut up and grimy-- but since that was still the only real amount of skin showing, that was the only thing of note.

"We need to cover as much ground as possible," he said to her. "To be able to defend as many pods as possible. But without powers and due to being outnumbered, we can't let people fight alone either."