It began with the Series Black morpher.

Tenaya had hacked her way past the genetic lock binding it to her brother, studying its powers to create new weapons for the crew, using it in battle against the Ohm invasion of Lirath. But she'd forgotten one thing.

Venjix.

The computer virus that had all but obliterated her world--she should have known better than to think that he would die so easily. Of course he would have downloaded himself into the morphers to escape his fate; he had access to the biofields, after all. He'd taken control of Dillon enough times to prove that he was definitely interested in getting control of at least one of the Rangers.

She should have known. And now, if she and Will didn't do something fast, the entire ship could be in danger.

A claw reached into the attackbot generator in Venjix Palace brought up a few Nitro Blasters and Engine Cells. Taking them, Tenaya cross-referenced information on her omnicomm before looking at Will.

"Looks like I matched up to most of Dr. K's blueprints, but I'm still missing something in the programming for the Engine Cells. And I need that if we're going to deliver the antivirus."

Welcome, dear visitor, to a world consisting entirely of plastic-looking city sets. My, don't they look ready to blast apart at a moment''s notice? It's almost as if an attack is expected in this sector.

But not to worry! The 'attacks' here are just goofy entertainment. Lovably laughable employees in dull green suits may make menacing gestures at times, but they're just a nuisance. The visitors to this section are protected by the Masked Rangers, the people in heavy helmets and spandex suits you might see from time to time. The acrobat-types, the ones in the flimsy suits, perform tricky stunts and wave 'blasters' that shoot a cheap spark effect from time to time. Driver-types wear heavier armor and traverse this section of the park in their specialized motorcycles, zipping down specialized roadways seemingly from nowhere.

Other than that, the environment is fairly industrial. The main attractions are in the 'abandoned warehouse district'. It features greasy food (and surprisingly good smoothies, strangely enough), alarm bells every now and then, and the crowning ride of this sector: an exciting cart ride through the warehouses that culminates in riding atop a giant mecha. The vibrations as the mech carrying the vehicle shoots its lasers are quite unsettling the first time or two, and riding through the smoke cloud of a post-henshin explosion can cause mild fits of coughing. This adventure is not for the faint of heart.

Simpler shows are done in the park-like area, where a few of the more acrobatic employees in helmets and flimsy costumes seems to dance-fight with several of the mooks. It's a cute show, and the only exciting thing is the spread of the explosion. It shoots up in a rainbow of colors when the heroes make a pose. Games can be played here, but always be ready to clear out and make way for the heroes! A little parade of motorcycles and mecha comes through several times a day, and masked characters address the audience with well-prepared safety tips and suggestions for community service.

Gift shops in this area feature knockoff Masked Ranger costumes, transformation toys that light up, toy mecha and motorcycles that combine in many very expensive combinations, and little sparkler lights. Fortunately, actual material for an explosion is not sold.

This nonsense might feel strangely familiar...

"I don't believe this," Tenaya said once she'd gotten to meet who Stacy had podpopped for her. "Sure, she could have popped, oh, say, my brother, but Stacy thinks to bring you?"

She was going to be annoyed, thanks. Dr. K was a genius, but there was the whole thing where she'd played a very loud violin to defeat Tenaya. Twice.

"So I guess I've got to take you out on a date or something now, right?"

There was a Grinder in the City.

A dangerous, world-conquering Grinder. A footsoldier in the machine army that had nigh-obliterated humanity on an Earth.

And it was apparently taking a casual stroll throughout the City.

It was certainly looking for something, but what?

As Billy finally finished with the backload of work left to him from the events on Lirath and the damages caused by the missions in between, his tired mind wandered back to one particular message. The words were phrased differently each time, but they all shared the same message: don't you dare overwork yourself, Billy Cranston. We'll hunt you down and make you regret it.

Deciding that it would be wise to pre-empt any admonishments from his friends, he submitted a request for a few hours' leave one particular afternoon for the next day. When morning came, he was off, creating his own personal paradise in one of the rear Sensoriums. Something with a slice of home would be perfect, he thought to himself.

A sandbar arose from the grey surroundings, with a roaring ocean on one side and a tranquil bay on the other. Just to make things interesting and create fun wave effects, there were two moons (one currently visible) hanging in a pale violet sky and the sand was red. A bright, rustic red. He considered it particularly festive.
( a bright beach with gizmos galore... )

((The invite is to his friends, but the door's unlocked :P. Feel free to be nuisances or just to have your own day of chilling out.))

Several significant data reports were still trickling in, and already Billy's overworked mind knew one thing: this workload was going to be one of his least favorites. Overwhelming, exhausting, sometimes confusing, and with the pressure of time attached as well. Stacy could simply not be relied upon to give the crew a break, and thus they needed to be prepared for a battle like that again. As soon as possible. But how soon was that? Today's meeting's purpose was to make it as soon as possible.

On the board against one wall of the lab, he threw up a starting list of repairs that needed to be made. All the significant weapons and armor that had been turned in, important communications equipment, crew items requiring immediate attention for that person's full functionality, the most often used generic vehicles, and the specialty/personally owned vehicles. That group would be the easiest to select, he hoped.

How easy or difficult this would be would not be fully known until he saw a spread of who was assisting, and how many. Could they complete everything fast enough for the crew's satisfaction? That would be the main worry from here on out.

Billy was almost relieved when they started trickling in. As he waved, not quite as energetically as usual, they might notice one or two signs of the battle. His movements didn't look quite as easy as before, some trace of pain still behind them, and a long bandage now tied around his forehead. Some would look better, some would look worse. He sincerely wished to see more of the former than the latter.

They needed all the healthy help they could get.

 As the battle raged outside, those remaining aboard Stacy had their hands full preparing for the incoming flood of refugees.

Positioned near the Bleed-Gate orbiting Lirath, Stacy stood ready to receive the refugees. Ship after ship ascended as quickly as they could, some of them making a break for the Bleed-Gate itself while the smaller ships were forced to dock at Stacy, unloading their cargo of refugees before setting off again for the planet's surface again to take on more passengers.

Several small units of GIA soldiers were also sent up to help the Transmigration crew take in the massive amount of refugees, many of whom were tired, wounded, and scared. It wouldn't take long for the ship to begin filling with people.

With the battle raging outside, and the Ohm clambering outside, trying to get in, it would be a tall order to keep all of the refugees safe and calm, but the crew didn't have much choice.

[ooc: Open!]

 After dropping off some of the crew at Balisair, it was time for the crew to set course for Lirath. The situation greeting them wasn't the most promising.

The cracked surface of the moon called Lirath was one of its most unmistakeable features. One of the three moons of the planet Kehoe, it had been terraformed and served as a settlement for a hundreds of different species, some humanoid, some not. Despite occasional class struggles, environmental issues, and speciesism blocking their way, the darker parts of Lirath's past were largely left behind, and an era of peace and tolerance had reigned for quite some time. The only problems they'd had recently were with a terrorist group whose cause for their actions had been a mystery, but they weren't tied to any particular species or social group and had been likened to a cult and had largely gone quiet in recent years.

Now the peace on the moon of Lirath had been shattered by the invasion of the Ohm.

The capital city had been destroyed. Now, all that was left of the peoples of Lirath was evacuating from one of its smaller cities, one known as Smyteval. A desert city, existing in a valley in between a rocky range of canyons and mountains, even though it was in the low ground, the natural channels of rock served as bottlenecks for any Ohm attacking from the ground.

GIA squadrons patrolled in space, locked in explosive warfare, protecting the Bleed-gate that had been activated to see the evacuated ships to the refugee world, and a shield created by massively-powerful shield generators extended around the city and up into the atmosphere, creating a shielded tunnel so ships could escape.

Word had come that there was a vital weapon to be deployed on Lirath, one that needed to be destroyed, hence why the Transmigration 9 had been called in. Given the diverse crew, and the ships that were in its hangar, there was at least someone or something on board that could blow the weapon up if it did show.

There was no sign of it yet. Right now, there was just chaos, streams of evacuees boarding ships, armies of Ohm engaged with GIA soldiers outside the shields, and forcefields that everyone hoped would hold out just a little bit longer.

The crew would be following Leon's orders but finding themselves fighting side-by-side with GIA platoons, full of various species that were currently all getting their asses kicked severely.

[ooc: STAGE 1 is now open! Please do not tage STAGE 2 until it's announced as open as well.]

[ooc: STAGE 2 is now open!]

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.

Intense light and heat spilled out of a portal from the mazes, and as it faded, Aqua emerged, an angry look on her face. Some distance behind her were Tenaya, Devlin (encased in a protective layer of stone), and Ren in Rider form. Tenaya's visor and Ren's helmet hid their expressions well, but Devlin was practically gaping at the Keyblade Master.

"Okay," Tenaya said. "Not ticking you off anytime soon."

Managing to calm down after the Mega Flare spell, Aqua dispelled her Keyblade. "At least we're out now."

The effects of the Melting Clock had been of great concern to the crew for some time now - but thanks to the efforts of those who had negotiated with the Time Dragons, a solution was now in sight.

That solution took the form of four Time Dragons, who had just been brought on board. They were here to destroy the clock - and to collect their booty, of course.

[[ooc: Okay guys! Billy's play will be played out here, as well as the destruction of the Clock (The other exchanges will be handwaved). This is also where the whole crew will be able to approach the Time Dragons. Virgin Princesses should approach with caution!]]

Billy hadn't the slightest idea how much time had passed since his rushed deal with Metronome for the Clock's destruction. He'd typed out a hurried plea for help on the omnicom network, sped off to download and review the play's script, and conjured an auditorium-like Sensorium for rehearsal. All that remained was the arrival of the cast and crew, and this probable disaster would begin.

Just what have I committed myself to? If my judgment is questionable for attempting to stage this production in just a few days, the cast...I don't foresee this ending well.

Once everything was prepared, he sent a quick message to the volunteers. They should be arriving any minute

((This is going to be subthreaded out in stages. Mingling, a place for comments from the peanut gallery, auditions/arguments, and brief rehearsal scenes. Thread out whatever you think is funniest! Final casting decisions will be happening here. I'll be on chat/AIM/Plurk during this post if you want me.

Now open for posting! Don't feel obligated to participate, we're not obsessively logging everything. This is just for comedy opportunities. Most of what I want to know is who's playing who. And it's okay to jump in even if you didn't sign up on the comm post. Everyone's welcome to audition!))

His omnicomm beeped with some vital message or another. He ignored it.

"Minion!" That was reflex. Minion wasn't here. "Brainbot! Your assistance, please?"

BAOW BAOW BAOW, the brainbot intoned.

"I just need a tentacle holding this right here--thank you. Whos'a good lil' brainbot? Whos'a good boy for helping daddy? You are! Yes, you are! Oh, look at you, yesterday, you were just learning how to fly and today, you're a big boy helping daddy around the lab!"

The brainbot's neural net sparked happily in response.

You never went wrong with positive reinforcement, as far as Megamind was concerned, and he really did appreciate the assistance. After the initial bad impression he'd made after pod release (really, what had he been thinking?), he was amazed they had even hired him to work in the Science and Engineering departments, and didn't exactly expect anyone to be willing to assist him with his project (not that he'd really asked, because if he had, he might have been surprised).

He was used to working alone, though, and he didn't have to work entirely alone, as one of his first projects had been making some brainbots out of the scrap material he'd found there.

What was he working on? Well, only something that'd get him in the good graces of the crew...he hoped. It had been hard enough proving himself to the people of Metro City. This paranoid bunch of motley do-gooders had apparently had some run-ins with villains before, and given his history, that mean he needed to start off on a good foot doing this good guy stuff.

And maybe, just maybe, if he kept it all up, Roxanne would fall for him again as deeply as she had before he'd been taken. Maybe. Of course, that was something he tried not to think about, the fact that she didn't remember a great deal of their history together. Six months was a considerable amount of time, time that could never be recreated, not exactly as it'd happened. He simply had to hope things would work out as well as they had the first time, that he wouldn't mess anything up, that...

BAOW? The noise was almost questioning, and Megamind realized he'd frozen in place, not doing anything, his eyes looking past his little project.

"Hmm? I seem to have gotten lost in my thoughts," he said to the brainbot. "Keep holding that right there, and I'll activate the energy core..."

The weapon sparked to life, a charge cascading throughout its circuits. It cast a crackling light over his blue face, and Megamind started to cackle loudly.

"With this weapon, I, Megamind, Master of All Villainy, will drive my enemies to their many-segmented knees!" his voice boomed through the lab. A thought occurred to him, thought, and he amended, "That is, if they even have knees! If not, it'll drive them to whatever body part serves the capacity of knees for their species! Or to some other assorted body part that's unpleasant to be driven to!"

He let off another masterful cackle, just because he felt like it. Old habits really did die hard.

That's when he heard the footsteps and noticed he had a visitor at the door. Looking back, goggles askew, he looked awkward for a moment, and quickly amended, "I meant: 'I, Megamind, master of all heroism.' This is a weapon to use against the Ohm. Not to use against innocent people, since that would, of course, be evil. Which I'm not. It's a horrible death weapon of--of...goodness."

BAOW, intoned the brainbot, and it was very clear what it was trying to say: Awkwaaaard.

[ooc: First person who tags in gets the monologue. Any others get similar evilish talking, so you can just assume he was cackling over his genius in any subthread.]

It had taken many months to get to this stage, gathering the materials, constructing and aligning each individual part, the long process of linking crystals. Now the project that had taken much of her time and effort since she had first began its construction not long after the battle of Zokez II, near six months past. The paired gateway system, a device that would(if all went to plan) connect two points in space to allow near instantaneous travel between the two locations, something that would greatly aid in evacuations.
( Read more... )
[[OOC: This post is for those she's alerted to the testing here and any they decide to bring along, if you've any questions feel free to IM me. Will set up a sub-threads for the appropriate sections of testing as things go along.]

Next to the Mall Hotel, a large bazaar sprawled out through the streets. Food stalls, jewelery stalls, plastic surgery stalls...might want to stay away from that last one. But since the bizaar was close by, it served as a good place for the crew to meet up and start their exploration of XaXing.

[[ooc: This is just a general mingling post guys, so jump in and start threads, tag into other people's, whatever you want!]]

Celena was always at home on wing, and now after recently arriving back from Orongo and being returned to her natural form she dropped off the things she had acquired on the planet to her abode and took the opportunity to take wing for the joy of it. Thinking back on her time on Orongo, of her time with Aibghalien she found herself once more full of joy, and she expressed it the best way she knew how, weaving and winging over the city at high speeds, diving down near to the ground right along certain streets before arching up and over the cityscape once more.

All the while though she kept an eye out for anyone of interest on the ground below, or indeed for a particular elf or dragon should the case may be. For a long time she just flew on and on, not really paying much attention to just where she was going apart from the route directly before her.

After some time though as she drifted by the park she decided to take a moment to land and rest, tilting on wingtip she circled over the park once before coming in for a graceful landing.

((OOC:Feel free to have your character spot Celena while she's flying about or come across her after she's landed in the park.))

Once Domalai made sure the crew was fully informed of what was expected of them in the upcoming rituals, he showed them over to where the Rituals of Judgement and Joining would be performed.

As they neared the gate that led into the city of Orongo, they could see many other people milling about, waiting for their turn to undergo the rituals themselves. The crew, of course, being a special case, are moved to the front of the line. Thankfully, everyone seems to be in a good enough mood that no one puts up a fuss about it.

The first area they were brought to had a simple stone circle, around which were three smaller circles. Two Moai priests were waiting there as they approached, and Domalai moved over to join them before speaking up.

[ooc: wait for subthreads to go up]

[ooc2: Ready! Tag away!]

Stacy's voice came over the comm, blaring across the entire ship.

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

The mouth in the main sculpture on Obs Deck opened, revealing a screen with the image of a mottled blue and purple planet, rotating slowly.
( Read more... )

Time for another mission, then.

Tenaya had been spending less and less time in Venjix Palace lately. Admittedly, part of it was that she had various projects in Engineering--and that stupid power converter she'd been working on with Celena was finally starting to work--but another part of it was that it was just plain boring in there, with no one around. It wasn't that she was lonely--she'd deny that up and down if anyone dared suggest it--but it was just unbareably quiet.

Hence why she was in the Sensorium in a simple shooting range. Energy projectiles flew around like skeet, and she shot at them with her fingertip blaster. When she scored a hit, the projectiles created small explosions, kind of like fireworks. It kept things entertaining.

They had all changed back. They had their memories again, although they still remember most of their fake lives, but those memories now seemed as hazy and false as they were.

They were themselves again. The problem with that is that it meant much of the group transformed back into draconians, Vikings, mutants, and other people that just generally did not fit into Fairplay at all. Even those that looked normal, their families and the people they interacted with every day now realized their minds have been altered by something and that the meatcrew hadn't always been there.

While some of their fake families still wanted to help, others recoiled in horror, and the townspeople had started to turn against them, terrified of the strangers in their midst. These people were something other, something that had been planted in the town right under their noses, obviously aliens or some other horrifying thing. Shot guns were being grabbed out of cabinets, people were snagging flashlights, and the night air around the town rang with cries of anger and panic.

The authorities had been called and the police were amassing the entire town police force to try to control the situation while they waited for the National Guard to come in--yes, the National Guard.

All the while, the group was almost drawn by instinct to a place in the woods, that could be reached by crossing some fields, a clearing, that somehow they knew would lead the way home. They might straggle in by themselves, or paired up with others, but in any case, somehow they all knew that was where they were supposed to go...

And then they got there, they found a fire burning right in the middle of the clearing, ringed with blue, and with no source of fuel, just floating the in the air, spreading a glow through the clearing. On the one hand, it was a horrible floating, deadly fire. On the other hand, some instinct they all shared, some indistinct notion was telling them this was somehow the way home.

Whatever they decided to do, they had to do it soon, because the angry voices were getting closer.

[ooc: More subthreads will be added, but since the reaction of the townspeople kinda depends on what the group is like when they arrive, I'm letting those subthreads happen first.]