The two groups were free, Punchy had been safely left in a shield bubble, and now that Brainiac 5 was free from his mother's control and closer to himself again, it was only a matter of stopping Brainiac 4 from enacting her plans to harm the crew.

That task was probably easier said than done, of course.

Things were looking rather dire for the captives of the Brainiacs. They were very securely trapped, no one knew where they were, the old Brainiac 5 appeared to be completely gone, incapable of his old morality, and apparently, Brainiac 4 had some sort of plans that involved getting past Stacy's defenses.

Danny was, quite frankly, irritated beyond all belief. A little bit after his clone/cousin/sister Dani had been repodded, he too had been dumped back into podsleep for who knew how long. And really, it had been horrifying enough the first time. He hadn't really wanted to repeat the experience. But of course Stacy, GlaDOS, or maybe just his avia had other plans.

He stalked his way back up to Weapons and Possesions, and, diving straight into the piles of junk, started looking for his stuff.

"Nope, nope, nope, come on, where is that dang Fenton Thermos?" Danny muttered, elbow deep in a box

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 tall man in green armor 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.]

[ooc: Newbie Helpers List | Instructions: Post your character with one post establishing them as being podpopped. Tag each other in groups of 2's, 3's, and 4's, to get some interaction to start with. If a thread doesn't already have 2 or 3 people tagged in, tag it with your character's podpop popping near the other people, rather than making a new subthread. If you would like to play out them talking to the AI, please send an email to the mods making the request--we do this only by request. Then move onto the big Newbie Meeting. Once your character has gotten the rundown from the old crew, you may start posting entrance posts and freely tagging.]


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

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

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

--

( There was nothing... )

Danny, when dealing with grief, tended to skip the denial phase altogether and go straight into anger. Dani, the clone that was, for all intents and purposes his little sister, had been repodded, and Danny really needed to punch something.

He blasted, punched and kicked his way through a sensorium-made ghost army. green ecto rays and blue ice beams flying. Finally, the halfa screamed in rage, letting loose a ghostly wail, before dropping or his knees, exhausted.

Those left outside the city would find their experience to be far less exciting, but at least it was still relaxing for the most part.

The accommodations they were given were relatively spartan but well maintained, and the locals seemed nice enough. The food was good, and they were treated fairly well despite refusing to undergo the rituals.

But strangely, by the time night started rolling around, the locals began hurrying to finish up whatever they were doing, cutting conversations short and rushing back inside. By the time the sun fell, none of the locals were outside.

...Well. That certainly wasn't ominous.

[ooc: secondary plot is go! try to keep everything in one thread for now]

After finally being done with that weird maze…thingy, he was able to do a bit of wandering. Waking up covered in goo and naked was one of the least appealing thing that has ever happened to him. At least the gloop he had to eat was more filling than cardboard and boiled cabbage.  Then again, fried fish beat out gloop.

Now it was time to explore. Maybe there would be some familiar faces around. If not, he could ask someone where the library was located.

Jaime had had a lot to think about lately. Biggest among them was this ship and the people on it. Who could he trust? His other self had made it pretty clear that there were very few people that he could deal with without worry, and only a few of them, like Paco, were people he actually knew. As it was, he had taken to wandering the city, trying to get his mind wrapped around what had to be done.

Plans to be made. Alternate plans to be made. People to talk to, information to gain. Saving the world--he'd done that, he could deal with it. Saving the multiverse? That was almost something else entirely. He paused in his walking and sat heavily on the curb of the street he was walking down. What was he supposed to do? He was just a kid.

But he was also a hero. He groaned, rubbed his face with his hand, then glanced upwards.

"I didn't ask for this! Why is it always me?" He questioned the open air, questioned God. Questioned the Reach, the Ohm. Whoever was listening.

Sometimes he wished he could be normal again.

Those heading to the sensorium after Commander Rahk's announcement would find themselves inside a rather technologically advanced looking base, a number of armored soldiers bustling about.

Rahk himself was there, standing in front of a command station with a large screen overlooking the waiting battlefield outside, which appeared to be the ruins of some advanced city. By the serious look on his face, he was certainly ready to get this test underway.

[ooc: tagging's open! get going!]

[ooc2: sorry for the confusion, the other sections are open for tagging too.]

Way up on Stacy's top level, the Hub opened and spat out four crew members. They hadn't been gone for very long, only a few shipboard "days" or so, but long enough for the crew members in question to be irritated.

"Who wants to hit the Sensoriums?" Paco asked, scrubbing his normal hand over his face. "I wasn't expecting to actually get cake, but I've got a massive craving for it now."

"[I will pass on that, thank you all the same,]" Jonas said, rising smoothly to his feet. He looked over at Jeka and Ax, who were in the process of untangling themselves from their pile on the floor. "[I believe that you two are both members of Security, would one of you care to escort me back to the Brig? I have no intention of going anywhere besides that, but I probably should not be walking around unescorted.]"

Ax and Jeka exchanged looks. < I'll take him down to the Brig if you report our return to the Head of Security, > Ax said. Jeka nodded. "Done."

"...So, no one else wants cake," Paco said incredulously. "Okay, I know two of you are aliens and one of you is, uh, an artificial person--"

"Synthetic," Jonas and Jeka corrected in unison.

"--Synthetic person then, but dudes. Cake!"

"My species is primarily carnivorous."

"[I need to go back to the Brig.]"

< He has requested an escort. >

Paco shrugged and turned to head for the Sensoriums. "More for me then!"

[[OOC: Say which of these four you'd like to thread with in the subject line. Jonas is going straight to the Brig if you want to thread with him, but the others can be anywhere you'd like.]]

Danny, once again arriving back in the room after a long day of Rogue Squadron training. He collapsed on his bed without bothering to remove his flight-suit, waking Cujo, who leaped on to the bed, and licked at the ghost-boy's face.

"No boy, donw! Down1" Danny groaned and batted at the dog's head.

Trudy wasn't much of a programmer, but she thought she'd finally gotten the Sensoriums to understand what she wanted. The simulations of Zokez II had been modified to have all their pilots removed from the sim. Now it was just swarms and swarms of Ohm.

But the arriving pilots wouldn't know that right away - one of the things they trained on the least was actually getting into your ship and getting out the hangar door, and now that they had the carrier, that was even more vital.

So when the pilots arrived in the Sensoriums, they would find themselves not in Stacy's hangar, but in the hangar bay of the Macross Quarter. The fighters and gundams were arrayed throughout the hangar in neat ranks, all ready to go.

Trudy herself stood in her eyesore of a flight suit, her helmet tucked against her hip, waiting to greet people as they came in. She had some new faces to meet, after all.

But before anyone could get too comfortable, the wailing tones of Stacy's red alert sounded through the Sensoriums. [[Attention crew]] came Stacy's voice, [[We are under attack. Repeat, the Ohm are attacking.]]

"Get to your fighters! Rogue Two to the bridge - Wash, take us out!"

((OOC: Anyone currently in Starfighter Command or interested in joining is free to participate and hop in a cockpit. Shuttle pilots and crew will be manning their shuttles. The command staff and the council are welcome to observe the exercise but Trudy would prefer no civilian observers. Have fun! Shoot the Ohm with yer lazors, pew pew!))

Bedrest in the Medbay wasn't that bad. It wouldn't be for long, after all. But it was a little boring, and Hiccup spent most of his time talking to Astrid, who had taken to hovering periodically, or reading messages on his omnicom, or reading books on his omnicom.

Mostly, he slept, because he was in dire need of it.

One his leg was finished healed up around the new dock, he'd get his automail attached to the dock for the first time, and then have to worry about the rehab.

For now, though, he certainly didn't mind visitors, whether they were were his friends on ship or new people just wandering through.

"Bored bored boredboredbored booored bored..."

Kon had a plan. Y'see, they'd gotten well and truly trounced planet-side, even if they saved the people and walked away, and that was something of a bummer. Total bummer. Of course they'd picked up and carried on, but Superboy was all for having fun in the face of crapitude.

So Kon had a plan that would both act as valuable training (totally valuable) and be tons of fun. (With way more emphasis on the fun part).

That was why the doors to one of the Sensoriums was left open, an announcement was made on the omnicomms, and... there was a supermarket in the Sensorium. As if this wasn't odd enough by itself, there was someone creeping down the aisles humming the theme to the A-Team.

Then silence.

Watch out, meatshippers, BREAD ROLLS FLYING AT YOUR HEADS FROM AISLE FIVE.

"FOOOOOOD FIIIIIGHT!"

As soon as the Ohm appeared, Wedge had begun moving. He practically sprinted off the Obs deck, yelling at Stacy as he headed for the hangar bay.

“Stacy, I need our fighters prepped now..” He doesn’t wait for an answer, instead lifting his comm ring to his lips and speaking into it, the message transmitted across open channels to everybody in range with their own rings.

“Attention, Rogue Squadron. Scramble, scramble, scramble! All pilots report back aboard Stacy and to your fighters. This is no drill! Again, Rogue Squadron, scramble! All pilots to your fighters!” He glanced back at the others who had been close enough to the Obs deck to accompany him back aboard Stacy.

“This is it. We’ve trained. We’re as ready as we can be now. This is for real this time.” With that he headed deeper into the ship.

As he arrived in the hangar, he was already discarding the civilian clothing he’d picked up and was half-running, half-hopping across the bay to his fighter as he struggled into his flight suit. His helmet was waiting in the cockpit. He clambered up into the cockpit, kicked the ladder free to be caught by a tentacle and tugged his helmet on. No time for a walk around. He simply had to trust that the ship was in shape to fly. He keyed the comm system on the fighter, as well as speaking into the comm ring.

“This is Rogue Leader to all fighters. Launch as soon as you’re ready. Form up in wing pairs and engage the enemy. Our primary objective is to keep additional Ohm fighters from reaching the planet and from attacking Stacy. Fly your best out there, everyone. May the Force be with us.” With that he, began a quick-start check of his systems, and punched the throttle as soon as he was sure that his fighter wouldn’t explode when he launched.

“Rogue Leader is away, four lit and green.” His fighter slashed out into space, free of Stacy. And the Ohm were everywhere.

( OOC Stuff beneath the cut )

The reactor may have been saved, but the Ohm's primary purpose in overloading it had been achieved: the planetary defense network on Zokez II was now deactivated.

It was now the true invasion could begin.

A matter of minutes after the reactor had been saved, a number of vast, Ohm Leviathans appeared in orbit above the planet, some of them devouring those fleeing ships they could get their hands on.

Across all of the islands on the planet below, numerous shimmering lights appeared, and out of them poured hordes of Grunts, Grenadiers, Tanks, and all manner of other Ohm types. They swarmed over the cities, destroying everything in their path, and slaughtering anyone unfortunate enough to be caught in their way.

Wherever they went, destruction followed. Left unopposed, they would raze the entire planet without any effort.

But they are not unopposed.

It was time for the crew to finally do what they were Chosen to do.

[ooc: General Ohm fightyness! Check here before posting.]

Stacy's voice speaks over the whole of the ship. What she has to say has become very familiar over the the podlings have spent here.

||Pod Release Protocols Initiating,|| she says. ||Please proceed to the Observation Deck to meet your new crew mates.||

Those crew members that don't head to the Obs Deck on their own are hurried there via gentle but insistent tentacles. A few people stop by Engineering to help bring and pass out omnicoms and comm rings to the new crew members as well.

[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.]

He has eaten and napped. It was now officially time for Paco to get some socialization going. Fortunately, he had allies.

Or at least other people who were interested in doing something fun.

Paco parked himself in one of the Sensoriums, transforming it into a living room populated by couches and beanbags and other squashy sitting furniture, send out a message over the comms, and sat down to await the appearance of his people.

Enough crap had happened lately. Time for some low-key fun.