Vincent cautiously entered the weapons lab. He'd taken into hiding during the fiasco with the slugs. It wasn't his fight, so he wasn't about to risk himself on behalf of the others. It wasn't as if anyone came looking to him for help anyway, so why bother? He wasn't beholden to them.

Meanwhile, he found his armor had been largely stripped of it's higher powered equipment. It was time to do something about that. Keeping an ear out on the others had lead him to this lab, and now it was time to get to work.

"I hope I can find a replacement ion projector..." He muttered to himself as he entered.

Inside the Vatican, the remaining free crew was putting the last finishing touches on their choke point/kill zone, or as someone had dubbed it, "the roach motel". They had cleaned out the first four rooms of both the Egyptian Museum and the Etruscan Museum on the floor above, so they could knock out the floor and shoot at the roaches below. That part had consumed more time than they wanted. At least knocking the floor in was simple enough. Those pieces were set up to provide cover, block doors, or reinforce the walls.

Hopefully the people of whatever universe this Vatican was from would understand.

Kurt would bait the roaches into entering the rooms, and the power-house team of Kon and Vincent would be waiting at the opposite end. Everyone else would be up in the Etruscan rooms where they would hopefully be safer.

Look alive and keep the friendly-fire to a minimum, people!

It took some running and some fighting, but they made it to the Vatican without losing anyone, or even any limbs. The Vatican itself seemed deserted, although it was unlikely that they'd take that at face value at this point. Roaches were good at getting in where they weren't wanted, why should seven-foot ones be any different?

At least it would stall them, let everyone catch their breath and recover. Regroup, take a headcount. Come up with a plan.

Because they really, really needed one.

It was time to get a little more organized, share some information with each other. She had a talk with that bigface kid, Jaime, to see if he could do anything to shield them from Stacy's prying eyes and he said he had a few ideas, so a meeting place was chosen, and it was time to gather.

Cybil had a good authoritative, shouting voice.

"Everyone, listen up! We're meeting down in the city near that big tree. Grab whoever you see and get down there."

Indeed they were. People were starting to gather there.

[ooc: Instead of little subthreads, everyone post in one thread as people arrive. Try to keep the convo general, like everyone talking to each other, instead of devolving into private conversations.]

After the most recent pod-pop had been completed, Stacy began encouraging the crew towards the Obs Deck. They would be most effective if they were familiar with each other, and as the Jaime Reyes Incident had proved, leaving them to meet whenever they happened to cross paths was not effective.

Anyone who stepped into the Hub would be transported to the Obs Deck, no matter where they had intended to go. Those who had been exploring the City were verbally herded towards the Hub, although the energy tentacles did not make an appearance.

||Please report to the Obs Deck for Crew Introductions.||

The Obs Deck hadn't changed very much since they'd last been there. The creepy sculpture was still present, as were the fleshy couches. However, the couches were arranged in a more obvious circle this time.

Come and meet the new -- and in some cases, weirder -- members of your crew.

Vincent checked and double-checked the runes he'd painted out on the floor, having found a suitably secluded hallway. He would have preferred to paint them with someone else's blood, but he was still trying to keep on good terms with the other selectees. Attempting to extract blood from the ship itself had only yielded more viscous goo, and a severe reprimand. Nevertheless, a little light-headedness was worth the potential benefits.

He knelt down in the midst of the runes and began the invocation. Tendrils of magic started creeping out from the wardings. Anyone awake in the ship would feel it as a persistent tugging sensation. There was strength in numbers, and Vincent's first priority was gathering any potential magical allies. The growing number of selectees already included a number of metahumans and technologically empowered inviduals, but ever since his falling out with his father, Vincent had felt more at ease employing magic to achieve his goals than through any other means.

"My name..." His voice would ring out gently into the minds of anyone magically aware enough to feel the call. "...is Vincent Amorason, Runecaster of Asgard. If you can feel this summons, please reveal yourself. I wish to gather allies against whatever force this beast has summoned us to deal with."

The city was enormous, as they could see when they left the tube and entered the level it was on. It was enormous and cobbled together, seemingly. So many different buildings, temples, cathedrals, a massive tree, a labyrinth, so many different things. And overhead, a sort-of blue sky that wasn't a sky, and a light that could've been the sun if you squinted, projected there.

This ship wasn't just a ship, it was a COLONY, apparently. With a whole city inside.

"Un-Fucking-Believable."

This was where the other pod-people supposedly were, in this city.

"Okay, kids in the middle. I don't care if you can fight or can shoot lightning out your ears, stay in the center where we can protect you. If there's something the adults can't handle, then feel free to jump in. Noncombatants are with them. Anyone with a weapon, if someone is engaging an enemy in hand to hand, obviously, hold fire, even if you're a crack shot. Safeties of your weapons on until it seems like we might be running into something. For most of us, being able to shoot is only a thumbflick away and I don't want any friendly fire. Be careful not to hit anything that looks like a window, so we're not all tossed into space," Cybil said, standing at the front of the group.

"Andromeda. Cortana. Let us know what you can as we go, and if you think there's something we need to see, let us know to take a look. You're our tourguides."

And the important part.

"If you think you heard or saw something strange, calmly let the rest of the group know, even if you're not sure. We shouldn't be jumping at shadows and we can't panic, but we shouldn't be too relaxed either. We have no idea who or what might be here with us. Be careful. Not careless. Not paranoid."

Her gun was out in her hand, safety was on for now, and it was aimed at the floor.

"Kara, Harper, and Flash, I want you on point with me. Sam, Connor, Murphy, I want you bringing up the rear. The other people with superpowers in the middle, where you can get to the front or back easily if you're needed at either and where you're closest to the kids and the people without guns or powers to protect them."

She would, quite frankly, be amazed if anyone actually listened to her. She was just a cop. But

"Everyone ready? Let's go."

[ooc: Read this before tagging.]

The AI of Seamus Harper's ship, the Andromeda Ascendant was trapped here along with everyone else, her AI core stolen or at least copied to Stacy's systems. Other AIs had been captured along with her. But she did have answers to some questions, and apparently was willing to tell the crew things Stacy wasn't willing to without being questioned.

Apparently, one of those things was that Cybil Bennet, someone who had popped recently, right along with them, and was merely a police officer back home, was the captain of their crew.

Their crew of what, Harper had asked?

Andromeda's answer:

"The crew of this ship, Harper."

It was then that the eyelid-like visors covering the windows of Obs Deck started to separate, letting in the light--and oh, was there light. They were in the currents of a multi-colored cosmic riptide, surfing the stream. Stars shot past beyond the lights, nebulae, galaxies sped along them as if they were what was moving and the ship wasn't.

It was beautiful.

It was horrible, because it meant they were in space--or something like it. That was a very long way away from their homes.

"We are a very, very long way from Commonwealth space."

Faith stumbled out of the Hub into a room filled with lockers, presumably with people's stuff inside.

A movement caught her eye, and she took a running leap at it. "Yaaaaah!" Looking before leaping was never her strong suit.

Pop. Pop pop pop. Poppuhpoppoppop. KASCHUNKhiiiiiiiissssss.

There was condensation and mist spraying out from cracks in oblong glowing things that were clustered along the floors and walls of the huge, ancient-looking caverns.

For now, the ones that were cracking were the closest to the floor, but perhaps later, the figures sliding out of the pods would be sliding out onto the slimy walkways and platforms above.

Pop. Poppop. KASCHUNKhiiiiiissss.

There was light, and unconscious minds breaking through the top of the briny, harsh waters of consciousness, as their bodies did similarly and broke free from the pods, sliding to the floor, shivering in pools of slime.

Once the temporary blindness that some of them had passed, and once they were free of their sleepy stupors: somebody had some splainin' to do.

But there would be no explanations, as the only thing that could explain was only watching, silently, almost as a mother would look at their child right after it was born.

Pop. KASCHUNKhissss.