The Sensoriums were full of music once again that evening when most of the crew had gone to bed. Matt was leaning back, playing on his guitar. While he preferred to make his own music, there was the rare few times that he played from other people's productions.

The holographic band were idly playing along and he rose his voice in song.

You could say I lost my faith in science and progress
You could say I lost my belief in the holy church
You could say I lost my sense of direction
You could say all of this and worse but

If I ever lose my faith in you
There'd be nothing left for me to do

Some would say I was a lost man in a lost world
You could say I lost my faith in the people on TV
You could say I'd lost my belief in our politicians
They all seemed like game show hosts to me

If I ever lose my faith in you
There'd be nothing left for me to do

I could be lost inside their lies without a trace
But every time I close my eyes I see your face

I never saw no miracle of science
That didn't go from a blessing to a curse
I never saw no military solution
That didn't always end up as something worse but
Let me say this first

If I ever lose my faith in you
There'd be nothing left for me to do

The ship was to loud, or to quite, Alia didn't know. Hrr sheets hurt her skin, her mind burned with a grandfather of a sandstorm, tearing her flesh from the inside out.
The voices...
Since last week, when she had shouted at the memories of her grandfather, Baron Valdimir Harokonnen, things had only become progressively worse. Every soul with in here was clawing tooth and nail for control, for a moment in her flesh like she had given to him. They all wanted their piece of her, and she had none of herself left to give anymore.
The sorrow of her dear brother's death burned like a fire in her heart, paired with the loss of her husband, and her arrival here where she was prodded and probed by her family from the future.
They all knew something, they all knew what the future held and they would not tell her. The Bene Gesserit witches holding their power over her, as they always had. Even here she could not escape their tyranny and oppression. They had created the monster she was, and then left her to suffer under the weight of her own abomination that was crushing her even now.

It had been hard to find him, with out the use of a computer. But somehow in Alia's tormented state she was able to find the door.
Alia stood there now, just before it, her body trembled like a leaf, her mind screaming. If she where not fremen, she would have cried.
Hesitating, Aia did not knock at first, her eyes closed tight against the pain within her.
"duncan..."
But Duncan was not here...
He was all she had to turn to...

Alia raised her hand and knocked unevenly, with out rhythm, shaking and crying she waited. Praying with the only silver of her mind she still controlled that he would answer the door and save her with those blue eyes that reminded her so much of his.

Jean-Paul couldn't stand it. He was too restless, too driven at the moment. There was so much he had to do, so much he needed to finish. And everyone here was holding him back. He wanted them to let him do what he wanted, let him finish the fight like the REAL Batman should.

But, someone had other ideas...

||Jean-Paul Valley, you haven't been kind to your fellow crewmates.|| a voice echoed out.

"What in the...?!" Jean-Paul snapped, watching as tentacles extended out and wrapped around him, peeling his equipment off of him. "NO! THE SUIT! GIVE IT BACK!"

||You taunt and attack everyone you see. I'm afraid I have to take away your belongings until you can start befriending people.|| the voice replied.

"STACY! GIVE IT BACK! GIVE IT BACK!" Jean-Paul said, trying to chase it down, but stopping and dropping to his knees. Without the suit, without the mask, the hold The System had on him was starting to die out.

And, then... it hit him.

"Oh, my lord... what... what have I...?" Jean-Paul muttered. Everything came back to him. All the people he mauled, all of those he left on the brink of death... or actually killed. All while using Batman's name, Batman's visage.

"...I am nothing... I... I was never Batman... never was, never will... I'm nothing..."

With that, he hunched over in sorrow.

To a few onboard Stacy, some would recognize the surroundings in one of the Sensoriums.

It was Gotham City. But, not just any Gotham, it was the Gotham before the earthquake, before No Man's Land, before its rebirth. To some, it would be a bit of a nostalgia, especially after what they've learned some time earlier.

Of course, the painful screams and breaking of bones certainly something that would either creep people out or add on to it.

The source of that? One Jean-Paul Valley, the second man to take up the Mantle of the Bat, tearing through everything coming towards him. Small time crooks to those such as Mr. Freeze, Killer Croc, the Scarecrow and more - all fell to his blades. The System, the psychological brainwashing the accessed his skills, kept pushing him on, driving him more and more, not letting him stop...

...until he heard it.

"JEAN-PAUL VALLEY..." a voice called out. As the last crook dropped, Jean-Paul turned his head and looked up. Underneath his helmet, his eyes widened. Above him was a man, garbed in nothing but Crusade-era armor, a sword and shield in his hands.

"...Saint Dumas... you're okay! You're safe!" Jean-Paul said, his voice wavering.

"DO NOT PATRONIZE ME, JEAN-PAUL." Saint Dumas said. "YOU HAVE FAILED IN YOUR MISSION. THOSE YOU WERE CHARGED TO PROTECT ARE NOW GONE. THOSE ON BOARD THIS VESSEL HOLD FAITH IN THE OTHER AND YOU, WORSE OF ALL, HAVE FORSAKEN ME FOR ANOTHER..."

"Forsaken... I haven't forsaken you! I swear!" Jean-Paul said.

"YOU HAVE FORSAKEN ME FOR ANOTHER HERE. YOU DISAPPOINT ME, JEAN-PAUL. YOU WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO HERE AND FOREVER MORE..." Saint Dumas said, disappearing. Jean-Paul dropped to his knees.

"No... no I haven't forsaken you. I... I can still complete my mission, I can still protect those I am charged to protect..." Jean-Paul muttered. He lifted his head up and thrust is arms into the air "DAMN YOU, SAINT DUMAS! DAMN YOU AND YOUR WORDS! I WILL COMPLETE MY MISSION OR DIE TRYING!"

If anyone saw Jean-Paul during all this, they probably would have seen him arguing with thin air.

Stacy jerks and shudders to a sudden stop, likely upsetting more than a few things already upset because the comms have stopped working. And deep down inside Stacy, on the first level, a little section thoughtfully titled "Contagion Containment and Quarantine" spilled open.

Hal 9000 had opened it up. And the things that had been kept there were still alive.

Or at least, they were moving...

Their groans echoed through the lower level as they spilled out of Quarantine 1, shambling and shuffling toward the Hub. The Hub would take them where they wanted to go. And what they wanted to do first was make some new friends.

So they went to the Pod Caverns. Then, after that, the zombies started heading up to the City...

[[OOC: Holy $#%&, Team Left Behind, ZOMBIES. Going to set up some subthreads, please wait until I do! INFO HERE, FIRST SUB-THREAD GO GO GO!]]

The Vatican had a lot of ground to cover. Normally covered in expansive gardens (just empty plots on the ship) and comprised of a multitude of buildings, holing up there meant holing up in simply a part of the Vatican. The group was therefore in St. Peter's Basilica, which had had most of its entrances sealed off. Now they had to work on small windows and a few other entrances left neglected, but overall, it was a very defensible position. There were no exits other than the ones leading to the sacristy and treasury--which was their main avenue of escape, and heavily guarded. The prisoners were being kept in this area, and guarded by the rear guards, as leaving them in the prison was deemed too dangerous for their safety. As bad as they'd been with the Yeerk conflict, they were crew, and no one wanted them to die.

The courtyard was a chokepoint. Gunners could sit on the roofs of the buildings running alongside the courtyard to strafe St. Peter's square from the sides.

The various chapels and vestibules along the sides made excellent areas for food, medical, and weapons supplies to be gathered, and most were clustered in the middle of the basilica. The Medical area was in the Chapel of the Column, the main weapons and ammo caches, and Food storage areas were in the two Transepts, respectively, to the sides of the Papal altar. Pews all in the main areas had been converted to sleeping areas, right in the center of the whole place.

There was still work to be done, before the other group could leave. Last minute barricades, blocking more windows, moving the last of the medical supplies, inventorying the food, and so on. Then it would be time to hunker down.

So push up your sleeves and lend someone else a hand, folks.

[ooc: Read instructions for these threads here!]

Jaime Reyes voice sounds over the comm-rings--all of them--and it sounds very urgent.

« Everyone on the ship, listen up! This is Jaime Reyes, your local 'Blowing this pop stand' coordinator and escape facilitation engineer. I need everyone on the ship to come to the City, in front of the Precinct, immediately. Grab people who don't have their comm rings with them--and tell them to grab their comm rings, people who are sleeping, whoever you find, and try to make sure everyone on the ship knows to come. This is very important. This is "getting the heck out of here" important. »

When they arrive, they arrive to find the Command Staff waiting, and a tiny, tiny young man standing on stone ledge from a fountain, waiting for them.

Here goes nothing.

The Chief's got the sensoriums up with a shooting range. It's not the one he's called up in the past, this is an outdoor range. There are several different target distances, including the long, long rifle lines for things with considerable scope to them, at the end of the range are some somewhat chewed out hills deep enough to catch most impacts. There's plenty of open space off to one side with some practice dummies for melee training, and plenty of open space in general. It's relatively sunny and the air is fresh, but the weather's an after thought. They needed a range. Chief called one up.

They all have a lot of work cut out for them.

The Chief is in full armor, doing a little quick rifle maintenance before anybody shows up. It's holographic, but it serves his purpose for now.

[OOC: This is a FULLY OPEN post. Subthread all you want. Tag each other, teach each other, ask questions, branch off. It's like a big social thread with guns!]

([Also OOC:] If you need to talk to the Chief, just warning you that I'm a bit swamped right now. I'll get back to you but it'll be a slow process. @_@)

Meet n' Greet, smell my feet, gimme something good to eat! Unfortunately, the newbie meet and greet takes place the same time the command staff is congregating, so they might be a little late to the party.

But the crew is there to welcome the newcomers and explain their situation. At the end of the milling and spilling about, the command staff is going to start a general meeting to apprise everyone of their situation and discuss their next course of action:

Getting off the damn ship.

[ooc: Newbie Helpers List | Instructions: Post your character with one post establishing them as being podpopped. 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... )