Because Kate would love using a few trick arrows on her circuitry, or even her wind Ranger abilities. It's not selfish when an INSANE AI is holding hostage, right? She sighed, and glanced around where she was dropped from the mazes this time. Felt like she had to run through those passages for a very long time. Much too long. She hoped her friends were still awake.

Looked like it was the City at least. She hoped everybody was ok, and started to take a look.

"Anybody around?" she called as she walked past the hodge podge placed buildings, and noticing the Kohaku river in the distance.

||Attention, Attention. The following personnel please report to the Observation Deck. Attention, Attention. The following personnel please report to the Observation Deck.

Billy Cranston
Jamie McCrimmon
Ron Stoppable
Lash
Kate Bishop
Punchy
Dustin Brooks||

On the Obs Deck, the following mission information was displayed, for any who cared to see:

Planet Designation: Kanpo
Status: Terrestrial, H-class
Non-sentient life: Extensive flora and fauna
Semi-sentient life: Yes
Sentient life: Extinct
Water: 70.7% of planet's surface
Climate: Earth-like
Landscape: Landscape at and around landing point is heavily foresred
Air: Normoxic concentration: 31% oxygen, 60% nitrogen, 2% xenon, 4% trace gases, such as hydrogen, krypton, and argon.
Air Pressure: 93.8 kPa (kilopascals) = 13.6 psi (pounds per square inch)
Sky: Blue.
Sun: Class G yellow star
Warnings: Occasional poisonous plant life.
Mission: Locate jungle temple. Disengage any defense measures temple might have and retrieve artifact.

Gods could be too arrogant. Such was the case of SHODAN, who had turned the Pods into a nightmarish zone where she could freely amuse herself and torture those that had come here.

But arrogance breeds pride which breeds mistakes. Instead of killing everyone off, she had decided to do this more slowly – watch them suffer in a slow agony, and, therefore had not expected them to fight back.

It had been a lucky shot, really, one in a million, But one of the people present that day had accidentally shot a tiny, insignificant object. A tiny little drone, that, once it had been the source of the power damper, had fallen. The tables were turned, and the goddess had been forced to retreat from the pods.

Now she was on a panicked mode, not only because some of the other people on the ship had managed to work their way into her system files, using another AI to send pointless images and sounds to her, distracting her from her task, but they knew how they could defeat her and gain their powers back.

It didn't take long for the message to be sent out, as the word quickly spread. Find the tiny little creatures, and shoot them down. SHODAN couldn't work their shields properly and once they were found, it was only a short matter of time before the powers returned to an area.

It would take time, but, finally, the tide of the battle was turning on the side of the crewmen and women. In vain, she was throwing her all; even more strange robot creatures, attacking in packs, but with hope on their side, they could win this...

[OOC - OKay go for it! NPC players, feel free to NPC as many robots as you like. Players, once your powers return, feel free to make as much scrap metal as you like, no need to have people NPC for you if you just want to write tags of them kicking ass.]

Despite having traveled with the Doctor and having been awake on Stacy for however long now, there's still certain aspects of 'modern' life that Jamie often finds himself fascinated by - even if it's something he's experienced before. Watching the moving pictures in the media library is definitely one of those things. There's so many to choose from, he often doesn't know where to begin. Usually, he winds up picking something at random. This time around, it happens to be something called 'Back to the Future II'. During the movie, he can't help but wonder about what he's seeing. For instance, what would the Doctor or any of his other companions think of a time traveling DeLorean? Or a flux cap...capic...that 'y' shaped thing with the glowing lights? But what catches his interest the most is the hoverboard chase. Stacy's a big ship. Something like that would come in very handy, if they could figure out how to build it. The main problem, of course, is how to get started.

However, there's an easy solution for that, at least to Jamie's mind. All he needs to do is go down to the Sensoriums and imagine up one of those boards to test it out. Once he's done that, he can maybe see what would be needed to turn it into something more real. It doesn't really occur to him that a fictional technology might not translate so well - especially since he never really got a good look at the inside of the thing. All he knows is that it won't work over the water, so he's going to avoid that.

A short time after the movie ends, he can be found down in the Sensoriums, ready to try out his idea. Something that resembles a skateboard without wheels appears, floating slightly above the ground. It's pink. Very pink. Jamie quickly switches it to a much nicer red color before hopping up onto the board, fully expecting it to start right up. It wavers a bit but doesn't otherwise move. Frowning, he takes one foot off and pushes it against the air, like he saw in the picture. It continues to sit there, not doing much of everything, and Jamie scowls down at it. "Och, why isn't it working?"

Kimberly walked around the padded floor and tried to clear her mind. She let out a deep breath and raised her hands dramatically. With one more deep breath she sent her herself flying across the gym floor in a series of back flips that ended with her on her feet.

Gymnastics had always helped Kimberly get to a better place back home. And it would surely work here as well. She repeated the act of back flips but this time added a spin before the last one. There was nothing like tumbling through the air. It was a rush, a full on thrill that nothing compared. Except for maybe the whole ranger thing.

As she again did her back flips, spins, and added kart-wheels and it almost felt like home. Like she was back in Ernie's juice bar practicing along with Jason, Trini, Zach, Billy and Tommy. But she knew she wasn't.

This time, Kate wasn't practicing her cello. With more going with the Rangers and missions lately, she needed to keep her skills sharp. She also now had additional skills to focus on with the morpher on her wrist. Though she wanted to focus on her physical fighting today. She was dressed in light pink and purple exercise wear as she worked out by the river in the city. Her bow was set down to the side by her while she went through motions and katas with the spear. She spun, twisted, turned, and thrust as she moved, letting her movements become fluid. Instinctive.

Like the very wind she was now in tune with.

Kate had been in Medbay recently for her injuries, but now her leg was mostly recovered as she slowly made her way to Hydroponics. She hadn't checked her omnicomm in a bit, preferring to focus on healing so she missed some of the recent news about teammates. Especially the latest about Lash turning evil.

She had some music from the media library since she was still too sore to play her music, much less train. There was a patch of warm grass to sit down in.

Kate gave a sigh and winced as she stretched her legs out before her, and turned up the music. The surrounding area filled with a bright song as she listened to Annie Lennox singing about a little bird.

After everyone and all of their ships were properly loaded the Quarter had launched successfully. The journey from Stacy to the Trojan Asteroid field trailing NiSaris took several hours, but they managed to approach the field with the people of the nearby world being none the wiser.

The problem was that the NiSarians weren't the only ones watching the skies.

As the Quarter approached and entered the asteroid field, all was quiet. But it was only going to be a matter of moments before that would change.


((ooc: See this post for instructions, but otherwise, have at it, and have fun.))

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.]

It seemed unreal, and yet Kate should have known. They should have looked harder. Other heroes came back before, it wasn't completely surprising for her. Even her father was back. But months past, and they were sure of it. Sure Cassie was gone forever.

Yet, they were wrong, and had no idea she was trapped somewhere. And the hell she went through before they somehow found her. It was heartbreaking. She had visited and made sure she was in Medbay all right, but eventually she stepped away to take a break while her friend slept. Plus with Scott back, he could give her much needed support and look after his daughter again.

She was going to go for a jog in Hydroponics, but she ended up flopping down on the alien grass. She didn't even realize how tired she was because she drifted off moments later. She dozed amidst the plants as some of the fauna occasionally sniffed her curiously.

The team was assembled and ready, now all that was left was to track down the Helmacron ship, which was harder than you might expect. Fortunately Brainiac 5, in spite of all his other failings, had provided them with an accurate location. Securely attached to the base of one of the untouched ships.

Now's your moment, boys and girls.

Querl had sent a message to all of the persons assigned to the exploratory team to meet him in Special Weapons. When they arrived they would find him giving a few last minute tweaks to a palm sized device. He waited until they were all assembled.

"I have constructed a device that will decrease you to approximately 1/100th of your present size. Once you have located the Helmacron ship, you must stand within 5 feet of this device. To activate it you must press here." Querl pointed out the largest button on the device. "I've even made it red so you will not be confused." Oh yes, he was being exceedingly patronizing. "The blue button activates an impenetrable force-field 5 feet in diameter in all directions. It has a limited charge but may be used multiple times. It can be activated for a total of 67 minutes so conserve its energy.

"Did I slow my speech sufficiently for your comprehension or are there any questions?"

[[Bendytimed to immediately after this.]]

Relieved that he had managed to finally managed to escape Scott Lang and leave him to mourn in peace, Jonas staggered through the corridors, desperately seeking out a private space where he could sit and not think about what he had just done.

He had needed to do it. It would have been wrong to leave Mr. Lang oblivious to his Cassie's sacrifice. That had not made it any easier to explain to the man that his daughter had died, that even if they did manage to defeat the Ohm and restore their worlds, a day could come where she would suddenly and inexplicably by their universe's knowledge cease to be.

He sat down in a hopefully-deserted area of the hallways, leaning against the wall and burying his face in his hands. After a moment, he pulled out his omnicom and sent a message to Kate, telling her that Scott Lang was awake, had been brought up to speed, and was currently in the Media Library if she wished to avoid him.

Billy had just launched another portal in that maze of mazes, exhaustion setting in. Surely this time he would land on another moving platform of death?

Nope, just the exterior of the finished bathhouses. All polished, systems running, and just about ready to open! Given how sore and exhausted he was, that sounded like an excellent idea at the moment.

With a quick message to the rest of the crew, he set out the 'Open' sign for the first time and took advantage of his owner status---the prime waterfall spot could be his!

((ooc: The bathhouses are now open! Feel free to mingle around, relax, and have a party. Or cause trouble, but that might invite more trouble. Just start a subthread with your character's location and have fun. For reference there are individual showers in front, followed by hot tubs centrally located, saunas further back, and private baths along the side. The showers, tubs, and saunas have smaller sex-segregated units along with a central group unit that's larger.))

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.]

It was inevitable for all of them. Something would push them, there would be cracks, and then the truth would find its way in.

How it changed for each of them would be different, but the end result would be the same.

The world would change.

Because they would change.

[ooc: I figured out a really good way to organize this with help from chat rather than a big messy communal post or spamming the comm with individual posts. Post each character with a blank tag with just the character's name in the subject. Underneath it, run as many subthreads for events as you need to set up for your specific character's change back. Hiccup's will be up as an example.]

Ah, the Fairplay Christmas Pageant. It took place in the Fairplay VFW Hall every year, which, due to the regular needs of the town had received enough money to expand the hall to use it for most community events. People filtered in and out all night so that most families in the town made an appearance at some point. There was punch, egg nog, Christmas snacks, a guy who dressed up as Santa, little kids doing the Nativity play, the mayor's speech, Christmas raffles...

Everyone was expected to attend. Everyone. Parents dragged their kids and teenagers sulked in the corners, presents were exchanged among members of the town, people who did business together used it as a time to talk shop and be a little social, and parents talked about how great their kid's grades were or how little Johnny was doing on the football field.

What a wonderful celebration of townish togetherness, right? People talking about gifts they'd gotten their family members as the status symbols they were, people trying to compete with others in a competition of "Who has the most impressive child?," people sniping each other because of what happened at the last PTA meeting or because they were jealous of another person's success with their business. Funtimes, funtimes.

And as sad before, everyone was expected to attend. Everyone.

[ooc: Follow the rules for each subthread that are in the ooc notes.]

Just another day at Fairplay High School...

It had been the usual mission briefing, not that any of them remembered it. The crew knew they were gone and had no idea when they'd be back, and likely wouldn't attempt rescue for quite some time, especially with Stacy considering the mission "ongoing."

They had no idea when they'd be back, either, namely because they never remembered being on the ship in the first place.

It was home. It had always been home.

Welcome to Fairplay, Iowa, folks, happiest little town in the Midwest.

[ooc: Read this before tagging.]

Ron, with his ever-present naked mole rat buddy on his shoulder, stood outside the sensoriums. Multiple turkeys, along with many other traditional Thanksgiving foods, were held inside, and now all that was needed for the cooking to begin was wait here for the rest of the Ranger team to show. He'd even managed to dig up color-coded aprons for all of them.