Sometimes it was one thing after another with this crew. Other times, it was several things at once, as evidenced by the most recent series of events.

But Leon had to handle all of it. He was in the big chair now, literally in this case. He was in the Captain's Office, located just off the main bridge. It was fairly sparsely decorated, but had one hell of a view of the Bleed.

Not that Leon was taking too much time to enjoy it, he had a lot of work to do.

Ever since exposing GLaDOS's true function, Claire was starting to remember people she'd forgotten. It was kind of weird, some things had clicked back into place immediately, but others had taken time to recall. And since she became aware of it, there was a constant feeling on the edge of her mind that she was still missing something and it was important, but she just couldn't get a grasp on it.

That, of course didn't stop her from trying. She was determined to remember what it was, even if it didn't seem like Stacy quite wanted her to. All this excess thinking left her wandering around with a slightly spaced out look, however, and she'd been more than a little distracted. So when she was interacting with the kids in her class she had to push it back, which made it harder for her to try to get a hold on it, again.

So, anyone happening to wander through hydroponics may come across Claire sitting in one of her favorite spots, back up against a tree. She's half watching Boon run around and throwing a ball for him, but for the most part she's off in her own world.

The infiltration team has had a long, hard slog through everything GLaDOS is capable of throwing in their way. Lasers, pitfall traps, rooms with mildly toxic gas, anything that she can spring on them with minimal prep time at her disposal and whilst at the mercy of the path they blast through the walls.

||Haha-a. Well done.||

The AI's voice is entirely mirthless as the team finally reaches their destination. It's cooler in this final hall and the floors and walls are mostly fleshy once again. There are more metallic intrusions here than much of the rest of the ship, but it's a sharp contrast to the stark whitewalled test chambers.

At the end, it opens up into a circular chamber with a narrow metal walkway spiraling up from the floor in the middle. Hanging from the ceiling in the center is a strange combination of wires and smooth, curved white metal with four spheres with colored "eyes" protruding from the tangle. The eyes roll toward the infiltration party.

||You ^have passed your test. Please wait _{for your} cake to be dispensed. Obey ^all cake awaiting procedures and _remain here un^til the cake arrives. Refrain from moving from ^{where you} stand or there will be no cake.||

How could something so apparently helpless possibly do anything to harm them now that they're out of her little "kingdom" of chambers and she can't keep playing her sick little games? It has to be a bluff.

Hasn't it?

This ship was still a dangerous place. There were a lot of things that were out of their control, and problems they could manage, but few that they could fix. One of the biggest ongoing problems was GLaDOS, who routinely caused crew members to disappear, some for good.

Worst of all, there was nothing that could be done about it.

Until now.

Which was why Leon was putting a team together, the members of which he had called to meet him at the Precinct. They'll be the ones to finally deal with the AI once and for all.

Miku had decided that today was going to be a good day. Having recovered from Nanoha's gentle teasing over her love life (and promising to herself never to confide the "suggestions" Nanoha had given her to Steve), Miku had decided to busy herself. She... didn't really have anything to do yet, after all, so the time could be used as she needed it to be.

That said, the appeal of meditating faded against the appeal of learning better recipes to impress Steve with to include into her very slowly growing repertoire. American food struck her as a bit greasy, and a bit too rich for her palate, but never the less, she found herself turning "pages" on her omnicomm of an old American cookbook.


Beef and Barley Stew sounded promising, but she'd probably have to wait a long time before she made it (or until Steve was comfortable with the Sensoriums again). She murmured the ingredients as she wrote them down. "Stewed tomatoes, pearl barley, London broil - cubed..."

Yeah, it had been months since Steve had renounced his feelings for Claire, and he even had a girlfriend now. But something still ate at his nerves whenever it came to talking privately with her. Especially when she was the one who asked him to come talk to her. And especially when she wanted to meet somewhere strange, like hydroponics.

Steve had never actually been to hydroponics, so he was struck in awe as he stepped into the massive terrarium for the first time. Nice to know there was such a green place that wasn't virtual. Though there were probably man-eating alien plants or something creepy here.

At least his wandering train of thought was doing a good job of distracting him from worrying about what Claire wanted.

Well, until he saw her, anyway.

"Hey Claire," he said with an awkward little wave. "This is kind of off the beaten path..."

Oh boy.

Samus has had an excellent start to her new job. She was a little wary to take on the responsibility of security. After all, she always considered herself better as a free agent rather than part of the organized system. She always seemed to need to bend the rules in order to get things done. Leon understood this, though, and still offered her the position. Maybe it would even give her a bit more freedom in her methods, having to answer to less superiors. Maybe this would be a good thing.

Except for the fact that it now gave her adopted bird son even more unsupervised freetime around this very dangerous ship, which is exactly why the new Chief of Security was sitting with her head in one hand next to the passed out Komali in the Med Bay instead of in her new office in the precinct. Oh the joys of being a single parent.

So, the votes were counted, and Leon had won. So what was supposed to be a temporary job just turned into a full-time gig.

Okay. Deep breath. Get to work.

But first, he was going to have to talk to Claire and Sherry. Both of whom, he figured, would be looking for him, and both of them would find him in his quarters at the moment.

[bendytimed a bit, it wouldn't have taken her QUITE this long to get to the bottom of things, orz]

It didn't really take Claire that much detective work to figure out who on her narrow list of people aware of Steve's unique condition were responsible for the boy's current unfortunate state. Her gut instinct of who was responsible had only been verified by a quick check of Stacy's records, and that was really all she needed, for the moment. She'd make plans to figure out how to deal with the AI later (something involving a brick of C4, perhaps) but for now, she needed to have a word with Lex Luthor.

She didn't know much about the man, but she knew enough to know he'd more or less taken up the bar in the crew lounge as his own, so she headed directly there, intent to wait him out of she had to. When she spotted that very distinctive bald head she quickened her pace, her right hand balling up without her even thinking on it.

"Luthor!" The second Lex turned to his name, he'd find himself getting a square crack in the jaw by one angry Redfield.

[ooc: BENDYTIME, ACTIVATE! Anytime after the crew has returned to the ship.]

When the medics finally woke Steve up from his healing trance, he was not in the best of moods.

For one thing, the trance had left him feeling much, much better than before-- but had not done much for the virus. A good supply of bandages were able to conceal many of the external signs, but he couldn't very well wrap them around the green marks on his face, his fingers or both of his eyes. His levels were stable but until the virus had gone back into remission, he was stuck in quarantine.

For another, there was no news as far as what had caused GLaDOS to go off on him. No clues as to who found out about him, no sign of who might have done it-- just the knowledge that someone on this crew, who he was supposed to trust, was capable of attacking him like that and there was little to be done about it right now.

And of course, someone had to inform him that Zokez II had been nearly annihilated by the Ohm. The beautiful beaches, resorts and cities-- the places where he spent a happy week relaxing, feeling normal, and spending time with Miku-- were gone, destroyed, the people fled and with no hope of rebuilding. His week had been cut short anyway, but now it felt like the whole thing had been ripped away from him. Even the happy moments he had here on this ship were fleeting-- in the end, everything was now just a memory, stuck in the past and never to come again.

And furthermore, he'd slept through it. The first encounter with the Ohm, the stupid aliens who were the whole reason he was awake on this goddamned ship in the first place, and Steve was too busy sleeping off a virus outbreak that nearly stole his mind from him to help out.

"A mistake" indeed.

Steve was not in any kind of mood at all as he sat on the floor and leaned against the bubble, staring at the ceiling. His silhouette was visible through the dimmed bubble.

Leon's shore leave had steadily become less and less of a vacation. First Sherry trying to sneak out at night, then that business with the Major, now he had to return to the ship early to deal with the situation with Steve.

He arrived at Quarantine shortly after coming on board, though he stopped off by the precinct to pick something up first.

"Luis, status report." Does he need to kill Steve now, or not?

This was a conspiracy. However Sherry and Vivio's respective parents had come to the conclusion that it would be a good idea for them to room together, must've have certainly forgotten how much Sherry disliked being stuck in small rooms with people she barely knew.

And a few words here and there when Sherry went to download a new book or watch a movie in the Media Library didn't count as a long and lasting friendship between children. Be nice, her parents had said.

Well, she hadn't said anything particularly blunt lately, did that count? Sherry rolled over to her side in the dark room and looked at the back of her roommate's head. Their parents had done their final check up on the girls before turning out the lights and going of to do whatever it was adults did once they sent their children away.

"Vivio. Vivio. Are you awake?" Sherry whispered loudly.

Suddenly, the usual relative peace of the ship is disrupted by a rather loud announcement from Stacy.

||Attention, Attention. All personnel please report to the Observation Deck. Attention, Attention. All personnel please report to the Observation Deck. Attention, Attention, all personnel...||

It's entirely likely that she won't stop repeating the announcement until, well, everyone reports to Obs Deck. The mouth in the huge statue on the wall opens, revealing a screen. On it, the dossier for the mission flickers into display, understandable to every person there. Smaller copies of the dossier appear in holographic form in front of everyone.

The planet's stats, right next to a rotating picture of it, blue with thousands of small islands just barely visible, are as follows:

( Mission Dossier )

--

...Waitaminute. That's no mission.

It's a goddamn vacation.

[ooc: SHORE LEAVE IS GO.]

After Stacy's announcement that she was going to allow the crew members access to the memories of their home worlds being destroyed, Claire had been unsure if she wanted to go, or not. She hated not really knowing for sure what had happened, but part of her was also worried about what kind of consequences that knowledge might have. There was also the slim possibility that it was all fabricated, as well.

She was having a lot of trouble coming to a definite stance or conclusion on the whole thing.

So, she did what she usually did when she had a big heavy topic she couldn't sort out by herself. Stewed about it for a bit longer before going in search of her husband boyfriend.

There were probably a dozen places he could be, but she decided to start with his room. She paused when she got to his door, exhaling slowly to psych herself up, and raked a hand back over her hair, pushing her bangs back, while she lifted the other to knock on the door.

"Leon? Are you in there?"

Yes, Leon did occasionally take a day off. They were few and far between, but even he had had no intention of working 24/7. Since there was, for the moment at least, no impending crisis hanging over their heads, he could afford to take off an extra day or two here and there.

At the moment, he was at the bar in the Drunken Dragon, having a beer. He hadn't had much time to come before, but he figured he'd check the place out.

Given that he's not busy, and beer puts him in a less linefacey mood, now might be a good time to approach him if you want to have a word.

If there was anything to say about Sherry, it was that once something got into her head, she certainly didn't let it go until it was finished. She'd found herself a new hiding spot (though not specifically hidden, as she'd made sure to say something to her parents about it) in the city at a small building that didn't seem to have one extraordinary purpose or another. It had walls and a dumbwaiter, doors and a floor, two stories. It was perfectly functional for holing herself up in and studying, or reading, or whatever little growing girls did alone when they didn't want to be bothered.

She'd spread out a bit of old paper, and sat herself in the middle of it, frowning at the pair of scissors she'd found in Possessions (what? It wasn't like she'd not seen other people rummaging through things that weren't theirs. At least she'd promised to return the scissors to Stacy when she was done). So, she was really going to do it, wasn't she?

Sherry brushed her hair out carefully, her nose twitching as the long bangs slipped past and tickled. A look in the hand mirror told her exactly what she already knew; her hair was growing quickly, just like the rest of her. It brushed her shoulders and fell just past her chin.

"Okay," she breathed and picked up her scissors. "It's just a little bit. Not as though I'm going to shave myself bald." Boy, but wouldn't that be more efficient?

Snip.

Snipsnipsnip.


Snipsnipsnipsnipsnip.

At least this wasn't too hard; Sherry already had a good idea of where her bangs were. But why wasn't this line straight like the other one?

Oh well.

Snipsnipsnipsnipsnipsnipsnip.

The rest of the crew assembled on the Observation Deck to meet the latest editions to their numbers. After the revelation that their worlds are gone, many of them are even more eager to see people they knew from home.

Several people are set up near the doors to provide the new people with omnicoms and comm rings. New crew-mates might see a green-skinned alien and snake girl among their number. There are also several authoritative-looking figures ready to introduce themselves.

There's a lot to tell the new people. It's going to be a lot to take in.

[ooc: Only new characters and Command Staff can start new threads for introductions, to limit the number of threads. Everyone else, just tag in and have your guys greet the newbies.]

Sherry had roused slightly, but hardly remembered being carried back to her room to sleep. She certainly didn't remember when her little wounds and goose egg had been attended to.

She'd buried her face in her pillow and exhaled, slowly waking up. One hand patted the space beside her bed where Bandit had been occupying (she hadn't dreamed that, right?), the other went to push her hair out of her face and just stayed there.

"Come on," she urged herself, the words muffled around her hand. "Get up, Me." She needed to go ascertain that her dad was really okay and sleeping, find her mom.

She just needed five more minutes. "Come on..."

Welcome to the Unholy Cathedral at the heart of Escherville. It is here, in this place, that the Nightmare King has made his bid for release.

And he will not be stopped by the likes of you.

More monstrosities pour out of every angle, intent on ending this adventure. These monsters are every bit as horrific as the ones you all faced to get to this point, though you will quickly notice there is something drastically different about them.

Magic does not affect these creatures. At all.

Your spells do nothing. Your prayers are meaningless. The power of your God is useless against them.

No force in heaven or hell can affect them.

Nothing at all Magical can hurt them.

You're the ones who are good enough (or lucky) enough to be close to Escherville. You've had the good fortune to be scooped up and now you need to regroup and get ready to take on the Nightmare King himself. Time to reorganize and gear up as best you can with what you've got. The Nightmare King isn't going to wait for you.

Get moving.

_{((OOC: This is for the various groups/peoples who will be fighting the Nightmare King directly or assisting in that endeavor. If your character was in one of the Challenge from Beyond Groups, tag them in here! Feel free to do some tagging back and forth and enjoy yourselves. Please get tagged in by Tuesday night, March 2nd though, so we can get the Final Fight properly organized. ))}