Electric Boogaloo!

Electric Boogaloo!
Date of Scene:	27 April 2013
Location:	Goug- Underground
Synopsis:	Corporate Adventure. What could go wrong?
Cast of Characters:	Deelel, Stormfall, Emi Dennou, Blackbird, Souji Murasame, Serah Farron, Helena Celba, Alma Hyral

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Stormfall has posed:
The upper levels of the Goug underground have been secured and locked down pretty thoroughly. There are even cheerful maps provided to give helpful directions to people needing to around the city (Thankfully without an animated paperclip involved)

The lower reaches however are much more treacherous. A labyrinth whose passages, whose 'active' shafts are constantly changing as work continues on excavating ancient technology, much of which has been shifted and changed noticeably by the reformation.

The dormant and abandoned levels are the most dangerous. Only well equipped and protected parties venture into the deeper places in Goug which are usually laced with powerful monsters and ancient guardians gone amuck.

In the case of the tunnels which the next disturbance has been primed to happen, there is only partial information. It was an excavation done some years ago that closed down and was never reopened. It was then used as a storage area temporarily before it simple fell into disuse. Whether due to oversight or simply the area had been exhausted is unclear.

However, the first level of it lay before you. A long causeway beyond the cleared gateway leading down to this level (and the somewhat surly Moogle Guards) leads to a small cavern of worked stone. The floor has been leveled and forgotten mining equipment and materials have been left to either side here. Some of the parts have been obviously scavenged, leaving most of the equipment rotting chassis and gutted ruin.

A sharp curve to the left leads downwards towards a sound of dripping water while a rough incline to the right winds upwards and around a corner. There are cables running along the ceiling where lighting lay completely dark. A electrical power station embedded in the far wall lay abandoned, it's energy readings dark and power level at 0. The needle occasionally twitches.

Blackbird has posed:
Blackbird whistled cheerfully poked about Goug as she went from here to there to some other place over the past few days nosing around. Sre Encom had her hounding after dead systems more often than not but the wonderful thing about electrical theory is it remained the same no matter if it was for a computer, radio, pinball machine, city power grid. You just had diffrent amounts of current and systems needed to keep said current going where it was supposed to without doing things not wanted (like killing people.)

Unfortunately while Blackbird had a toolbelt full of things she thought she needed (multi-meter, soldering iron, solder, pliers, strippers, etc etc) she wasn't that versed in 'urban archiology. So she just sortof paced about looking at the mining equipment hoping to find something, anything, she could use.

How was this pitete lady seeing? The handy thing about being able to power your own gizmoes is you could afford to strap all sorts of lights to yourself without worry over battery life.

Serah Farron has posed:
Serah Farron for her side only has a flashlight. She's not even sure what she's doing down here. She was in Cornelia for the battle, and then followed some of the Academy people, even hitching a ride on Souji's airship, which is quite impressive. But what she's doing down in the mines is another story. She thought maybe she could offer some help in repayment for the transport. Its not like she really wants anything down here. In fact, she doesn't like dark and damp places like this. She tries not to complain though.

She looks at the electrical components, wandering idly if she could jump start those with Thunder magic. Not likely, but its a thought. Not that she knows much about electrical stuff. ".. So what are we doing down here exactly?" Looks like she's not up to speed.

Helena Celba has posed:
Helena today came with Souji to /investigate/ this strange occurance.

She has come prepared, her outfit not with a HARDHAT where her normal headdress sat, the hardhat, however, having the strange eye thing that her headdress has. She has her hair tied up in a bun that sticks out of the hard hat, and she walks with a slightly oversized Pickaxe that she weilds easily with one hand. She has a cool smile on her face, ready to start hitting random things...maybe even rocks!

However, as they get onto the darkened area, and she sighs...

"Should I use one of my spells to light the way for us, Master Murasame?" she asks her partner, already pulling out a data pad and accessing her spellbook PDA. The display coming over her glasses, as she starts sorting for the right spell.

"Hmm...Though I suppose something to ground us might be approprate too.."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel had caught wind of what was going on in Goug, also she'd needed money with the plans TRON and she had. Not to mention any thing to get the heck out of Town. She didn't feel safe in Tranverse anymore not by a long shot. There were things she'd have to look into eventually and isn't sure if she should tell TRON about it he might stop her. So here she is to see into what's going on here. The mine was old it felt strange it didn't feel right to he but much in this world didn't. She got a flashlight and a few other things here on het thankfully as ever she is emitting light from her clothes and those tattos it's enough for her to see by.

Souji Murasame has posed:
Souji Murasame is here. He's been observing the situation ever since he began searching for signs of a specific goal. The interruptions in Goug have gained his main attention, due to them being in close proximity to his competition in the world economic forum. The last thing he wants is to see is Shinra taking possession of what he wants to find.

Souji move with definitive steps through the tunnels, a crackling sphere of lightning in his hand lighting his way. The caverns are of interest to Souji anyway. The remnants in the depths of Goug... The word on the street says that there might be a lot remnants in the ruins beneath the city that would be of interest to the... opportunistic corporate leader.

He looks over his shoulder to his associate. "Yes. I have a feeling my talents might be... dangerous here." With a significant glance at the pinned meter. He closes his hand, extinguishing it so Helena can do the job.

Emi Dennou has posed:
Electrical disturbances eh?

The Network knows their electricity. And they should be well suited for handling such disturbances. She doesn't really know anyone here, this time, so she has brought along Umi for this particular adventure. The two have put on hardhats with little flashlights in the center so they can more easily see where they are going without having to carry a flashlight everywhere.

"Hello. everyone." Emi says, pausing as she recognizes Deelel, giving her a small nod, and then otherwise the two keep to themselves. A lot of electrical usage here. This should be good for their element.

"Your talents, The Network inquires what you mean." Emi speaks up while Umi quietly wonders whether they're 'together together' or just together.

Stormfall has posed:
The conductors of this ancient technology are a little rusted with time and the passage of the ages but they MIGHT be magitek. If that is the case, they might actually handle being powered with electrical magic instead of.. well. Smoking. Fizzling. Popping, melting and or exploding. Or all of those.

With the cables overhead and with the equipment scattered around, if the system was powered the lights would most likely come on.

There is the sound of water continuing to drizzle from the left hand corridor as well as something not quite loud to define easily. A faint tapping, a faint scratching that echoes hollowly through the abandoned shaft.

Blackbird has posed:
Blackbird frowned at one of the neater cut power lines and shook her head before walking to what she thought might be where a power core was supposed to go. "Well drek." Her voice was edged with frustration as she talked to woever happened to be with her. "I've seen work sites gone over for thigns like copper." Beat. "Every danged scrap and speck of the stuff, but the batteries?" Headshake." SHe moved over to the power equipment and frowned at it. The only indication she gave that she knew anyone else was with her was her continued talking. "Anyone from around here?" She continued expecting this and that hoping to find something useful, for the upteenth time cursing her lack of knowledge on the local terminology. "Is there anything that's supposed to live down here or around or anything that eats electricity? Or possibly stores it as a defensive mechanism?" Her mind spun out the idea o something like cave rats that could suddenly and violently electrocute anything they watned to eat, or possibly something trying to eat them.

Yea. Rats in the cablings. There was a dismisive snort. Rodents of unusual size? Probably didn't exist.

Finally she got to her feet and looked around. Deelel she recognized and gave a small smile to. Emi and Umi she did't recognize and the fact they were apparently children caused a raised eyebrow. "I'm more used to Proper buildings, machines... not cables snaking through dark caves probably containing a gru or three wanting to eat our faces. So who's taking point while we go see what's down thatway?" Thumb jerk to the dark and spooky where the drippy noise came from.

Helena Celba has posed:
Helena pauses and puts a finger to her lips for a moment...

"Maybe I spoke too soon, Master Murasame." She says, and poitns at the conductor. "I think your talents maybe VERY useful here." she says, with a small nod. "Judging by the looks of this, it might be magitek...though inferior to what we had back home." She shrugs, "But I think it's simplistic state should support a few regulated blasts...or explode in our faces!" she grins.

She then turns towards Emi and Umi. "Ohmygosh twins! There are so cute with their little outfits!" she almost squeels! "Can I keep them?" she probably jokingly asks Souji. Probably.

"I guess I can conserve my magic then, for later."

Alma Hyral has posed:
The newest hire had been lagging behind.

It wasn't because she was actually late to the expedition, in fact she'd been early. She had just volunteered for rear guard because Helena had put her in a state of complete terror after the previous evening.

Umi and Emi seemed harmless enough, and so she chose to follow alongside the pair of girls. "H-Hi." She offered them a timid smile. Every time one of the conductors fizzled, or popped, she'd look in that direction nervously.

And then Helena called attention to the pair alongside her. She seemed relieved that she hadn't yet noticed her. And so she was content in her position of rear guard, just behind the pair.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel looks at the tech for a moment grimaces for a moment it's old but she wonders if she might be able to do something with them uif they can get them powered up. She contiunes onward and looks over at BB for a moment "Energy can be worth more than ruined hardware. For some it's life."

She takes another look getting a closer look at the place, she waves over to Emi and Umi.

"So the TDA's in on this too? Good to see you."

Souji and hsi party is a bit more of an unknown to the Program and she takes a moment to size them up. Twins? Well more than that Deelel knows as much but it's not her place to say, that's the Network's really in her POV. Souji also geta a look over as she sizes him up for a moment before moving onwards.

"Might be something to salvage here if we're lucky but things decay really oddly in this world. Remains linker for longer than they should..."

Souji Murasame has posed:
Souji turns to look to Emi. "I am a son of Ramuh. My magical arts are based around harnessing the powers of air and lightning in conjunction with my sword skills." He answers simply and straightforwardly. Question answered, he looks back to Helena, frowning. He kneels next to the conductors. "They're cert rusted. They could be dangerous." He looks over to Blackbird. "You, with the toolkit. Clean these conductors and we can give this a try."

Provided Blackbird does so, souji looks back to Helena. "No. You cannot." He says. He doesn't need Helena being out of control when they're on the job. "They are here to help, they don't need your interference." That might actually make her leave them alone. For a few minutes. While Souji is watching.

Serah Farron has posed:
Serah Farron is just... slumping around with the others. Noone seems to really attention to her. Maybe she should just go back up. Well, she's a bit erased of a girl after all. She watches as Souji goes on ahead and orders his troupe around. Instead she moves to the side, and uses the flashing to try to find something of interest... books, bags, something that could be useful down here. As long as its not a monster.

Emi Dennou has posed:
"Oh that's interesting." Emi says after a moment. "We are, in essence, electricity generators. We should work well together." Frankly with all this electropower nonsense, this mission should be cake. Emi blinks at Helena a couple times. "We are not twins--" She begins.

But Umi interrupts as she spots Alma. "Hello!" She says, grinning wide as she waves a hand at her. "You alright there?" She will put an arm on Alma's shoulder unless she shies away. "Lets see... don't think we've met...? I'm Umi, This one inquires as to your name?"

Stormfall has posed:
This particular room of the goug underground isn't really all that interesting, especially with someone having gone through and stripped out and gutted most of the mining equipment here.

Moogle scavengers no doubt. Or other unsavory characters. Scratchclick.

It didn't seem like it was a sudden evacuation however, just that the heaviest items that had to be retrieved.. never were retrieved.

Time to get those conductors cleaned and prepped if that is the order of the day.

Blackbird has posed:
Blackbird grunted at Deelel's odd 'this world' view. Yet she shelved it since now wasn't the time. "Unfortunately I don't know enough about the gear to do anything with it anything less than a couple hours of complete teardown.

Then Souji asked, ordered really, that she clean a few connectors. She shrugged and went to work with a wire brush. "So." She talked while she cleaned this and that, make the rusty shine enough to get a clear arch across or whatever Souji had in mind... which probably wasn't that diffrent than what she could do if one thought about it. "I dun like the look of some of this stuff. I mean age aside who knows if when you start juicing the box here." Pat pat." It doens't end up causing something to go poof down the line."

Sudden flash memory of a time a squirrl got stuck in a transformer near school and caused like the whole block t ogo dark for most of the day..

Headshake. She could probably conduct the worst of it away from evryone if the power went all nutty. Once she took a few steps back she motioned to Souji. "Juice it."

Her attention flicked between the gizmo that was about ot get lit up and the crowd of co-adventurers. "Miss?" Her voice rose enough so hopefully Serah could hear her. "You look a bit lost. Going to be alright making sure us bit bangers don't end up getting our heads blown off?" She was concerned more than a touch since. Well. No need in having anyone not directly fixing the problem feeling like a fifth wheel. She's been on teams where one person feeling put out could sour everything. Didn't want that happening here.

Serah Farron has posed:
Serah Farron looks over to Blackbird with a smile "Ah, well a little. I mean, I offered to help out after getting a ride on Sir Murasame's airship. He did say that he didn't really need the extra hands... maybe I should have listened." She rolls on her heels a bit, just waiting and watching for now. She keeps pointing the flashlight down the path, just to keep a light toward where any incoming bad thing could be hopping out of. She's a heartless magnet as it stands, she wouldn't want to miss their arrival either.

Helena Celba has posed:
Helena siiiiiighs.

"Allllright." She says, and shakes her head...darn. She wanted twins!

Okay, well she has a pair of them already, and she bounces for seemingly no reason. Instead she looks away from Alma, not even so much as acknowledging her. Right now, she doesn't have anything to say, Souji is ordering things around, but she looks up when the twins say they are electrical generators...

"Huh...how did you come to such magic?"

Alma Hyral has posed:
"You can generate electricity?" She inquires, suddenly interested, her stutter fading as her curiosity was piqued and she grew more at ease. After all, she grew up on a continent named after the first god of Thunder, in a great sprawling modern city. "That sounds like a useful talent to have. So, do you use machines for that trick?"

And then she puts her hand on her shoulder. She actually doesn't shy away, she finds it comforting in a way. However it did bring back some measure of anxiety in her whenever she meets new people. "My name is A-Alma, its very nice to meet you, Umi." She then looks between Emi, and Umi peering closely between them, even readjusting and cleaning her glasses on a small piece of cloth. "You're n-not twins? But you are s-sisters, right? What's y-your name?" She inquires idly towards Emi.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel goes to lend Backbird a hand as best she can "I have some experiance with things let me lend you a hand if I may. I can at least tell if any of these systems get active again." She notes before going to help where she can. She takes a step back at this point. "Let's stick together the local..." There's a pause for a moment like she's thinking of the best term. "Wildlife can be dangerous. As for her being able to ... that's suprising." She peers so far as she knew users from her world could not use magic so this was strange.

Souji Murasame has posed:
"Her talent may be different than my own. It is interesting, however." He pauses, and turns his focus back towards the work Blackbird is doing. "Good." He says, when she has finished her work. When she moves, Souji raises his hands, and channels his magical power, sending a surge of lightning into the machine. If it's not enough, he could maybe get the others to help.

Emi Dennou has posed:
"There are six of us--" Emi starts but Umi interrupts again.

"That one's Emi." Umi says, still grinning. "The others are Ami, Imi, Omi, and Shida. You know, to make it easier to tell us apart."

But apparently not too much easier. "Nice to meet you, Alma." Umi is always around to make friends, that may be her role in the Ya Ya Sisterhood here.

Seeing Souji working on the machine, Emi offers some electric charges of her own to lend a hand--at least should it seem like it's not enough, if nothing else she can help keep it stable.

Umi turns her head, looking towards Helena's ... twins ..., "Uh, well, it's a bit of a story, The Network was made this way."

Stormfall has posed:
The blast of electricity from both Souji and Emi strike the drained conductor. The needle jumps and then starts to rise, a power meter beginning to raise into the red then into yellow and to the cheerful green of full power.

As this happens, there is several mechanical CHUNKS and KATHUNKS and hisses. Lights crackle to life. They pop and sizzle as they add a cold blue luminescence like water to the old tunnels. A buzz of electronics fills the silence. The left hand corridor from where the dripping comes from does not come on. Connection severed or useless.

The one to the right illuminates the path upwards. The scratchclicking noises suddenly becomes much louder, sounding like an entire orchaestra of snaps, whistles and clicks. The lights flare then dim and then start to explode from the right hand corridor. A horde of creatures, metallic and spider like with large sucking mouths like lampreys FLOOD into the room from the right hand corridor.

They attach themselves to the lightning gathering power source. The lights dim as they drain the energy from it. As each one drains, it begins to glow blue and there is a wave of static and a small explosion of energy as this blue reaches a high crescendo.

And where there were only one creature, there is now five smaller creatures that grow very quickly as they guzzle down the energy.

They then turn on the party. On every flashlight. They leap down from the ceiling and skitter over the floor and the walls in a wave of quickly multiplying force, particularly in the direction of Souji and Emi, but also towards Deelel.

Everyone is affected here. Pulses of technology disrupting energy fire as the creatures divide and then divide again. Flashlights and PDAs and Hats are attacked as well as anyone with innate electrical power.

Blackbird has posed:
Blackbird smiled warmly to Serah. "Just keep in mind what your'e doing is important even if you don't realize it since /somebody/ has to keep a lookout and point out when we're all doing something blatantly stupid." There was a soft chuckle. "Y'know like whenever you watch a movie and somebodys' blatantly going down a dangerous turn and you're shouting at them to look Right There but nope. Monster of the flick eats their faces off and plays football with the remains."

Her attention then turned to watch Souji's MAKE THIS DEVICE GLOOOOOW trick. Why? Mostly because she wanted to see if ther ewas any way she could duplicate the trick, if it was like how she kept her cellphone working even though she's lost the charger about a month ago, or if it's just a case of this guy being related to some oddball Thing that does Lightning as it's sphere of influince merely has a bigger charge than she does.

"Oh trust me being able to top off whateveryou're holding is a dead useful gimmick." Beat. "I mean i lost my phone charger just before Manhatten came back and most places don't have 110 AC anyhow. I mean I'm no Thunder God or have Great and powerful Magi in my family but I did pick up a few things off this elf... Nice fellow, bit wierd but eh."

She whistled a snatch of something Deelel might recognize. Yes Journy was on the brain. "Near as I can tell anyone can learn a little bit of magic. The trick is putting the process into a framework your brain can wrap around." And with that said she demonstrated by adding a bit of zappy to the proceedings since. Well. Demo time and the fact of the matter was this thing probably needed a /LARGE/ charge, more than any one person could provide. Her worklights dimmed as power directed away from them towards the generator.

"I wouldn't mind listening to how this Network of yours works Umi." Blackbird eyed Emi and Umi a bit. "Lot of questions like whether you're a single mind, simply share a deep connection to eachother and can access eachother at a whim, how between world communication works but... drawn out technical and I"m not quite sure I'd understand the answers with split attention going on."

Electricity making things Goooo! Blackbird grinned as Things started happening and then Then... Then then then.

"Oh... Crap that's."

She pulled a pistol out of her toolbelt and started shooting atthe bug crab insect creepy things. "Exit!" She didn't care how she sounded. "Now!" Where she was producing electricity she'd started channling her magic, fire this time for those in the home audiance, through her gun. Sure it wasn't strong magic as far as these things went but the upside was she didn't have to stop to reload. She normally would have gone for lightningbut since these thigns seemed to just /love/ the stuff. Nope! Fire Instead.Sure her hands moved thanks to the practice but her stance was shakey and many of her shots wide. Gods she hated fighting.

Alma Hyral has posed:
Alma smiles in Emi's direction. "Nice to meet you too, Emi." The two definitely put her more at ease, especially since they were so fascinating. "Six sisters! Your family is almost as large as mine."

Oh wait, her family was much smaller now.

To take her mind off the soul-crushing depression, she decides to just inquire more deeply about them. "Why do you call yourself the Network? Are all of you networked together? Or is it like, an inside joke because you have so much in common that its like you're linked?"

As the horde of battery mimics start to cause everything to go haywire in reaction to the generators powering up, she sort of hunches down, and tries to get out of the way. But then one attaches to her flashlight, and she throws it away with a screech as it sparks. "KYAGH!"

And then she's frantically kicking at the few trying to gnaw on her flesh through her frumpy robes.

Once she's not occu"Blessed Cosma, your touch is balm, your presence removes pain. Be with us now."</span> And then radiant yellow light would spread over the trio even without her physically touching them, preemptively beginning to heal whatever wounds might have been caused by the mimics.

Helena Celba has posed:
Helena looks surprised!

"...Interesting!" she says...these creatures, they are...interesting. They drain energy, and divide by eating energy! That's...useful!

Helena, however, comes under assault! They go for her PDA first, and she punches the first one, doing everything she can to protect the device. However...

Her hat is carried off, and she squeeks! "No my hat!" she cries out! Oh man...now she has to get a new one! She looks miffed, as a third one goes to the PDA again, and she instead catches it by the face, catching it before she channels a spell!

The creature is encased in a strange liquid, slowly trying to encapsulate it...and then FREEZE solid. She picks up the strange crystal, and pushes it into her...chest. There is probably a bag of holding there, because the crystal seems to have disappeared.

A fourth one comes at her, and she strikes out, aiming a powerful strike to it's mouth...this time attempting to drain IT of it's remaining energy. "BAD! BAD! Mommy spank!"

Serah Farron has posed:
Serah Farron smiles, nodding at Blackbird "I suppose a voice of reason can be useful sometimes..." But she didn't have time to finish that sentence before the flashlight disapears from her hands. She blinks, looking down in case she dropped it "Huh? What happened?"

But then, she winces. Something just clawed at her, taking bites out of her ankles. Oh no, here we go again. "Heartless!?!" She doesn't know any better, she hasn't seen much other monsters than those around recently. And zombies, but those aren't exactly monsters either. These mimics though, different story. She screeches a bit, and then throws a Fire spell at the nearest one, creating a momentary burst of list that might attract them as she pulls back toward the entrance, trying to get out of reach of them "What ARE those?"

Souji Murasame has posed:
Souji gets beset upon by a mass of surprisingly... appropriate monsters. "What..." Souji says, hesitating for a cricial moment. Suddenly, BATTERY MIMICS descend upon him, gnawing on him. His personal magical power discharges, lightning surging off of him and being absorbed into the mimic. "They feed on lightning!" Souji yells. "We have to dampen it!" grappling on the Mimic, he throws it down to the floor. "Murasame! Let us begin!" He reaches out, whipping the blade out, the black weapon hissing through the air and trailing crimson afterimages. The weapon is etched with runes that glow with hungry light.

With a swift motion, he cleaves one Mimic in half, but he is suddenly borne down, being knocked back by three more, each bitting into him and seeking more of his delicious mana. "I am /not/ letting random monsters defeat me!" Souji yells, indignant amidst the mass of skittering evil. The incoming healing closes some of his wounds, and he lashes out, striking again and again to try to get some breathing room.

Deelel has posed:
Clicky scratchy doom comes for her and eveyrone else she's no longer thinking abotu the machines that are operating. She could try to access any of their syst4ms temotely but something is coming for them he's not sure waht they are but she quickly udnerstands to her abject horror. She knows she's food to these thing and she's already backing off with a bit of horror she's also seemingly being effected b the pluses of engery. She struggles to keep free but it's clearl y she's not feeling so good. She's make a note about the famous general known as the thunder god but well she does catch the song she's just not feeling so well.

"Don't feel good."

See does have her disc off her back and she's still abel to make sue of it as she cleaves one in two and then throws it getting two more as it bounces about.

"Damn it this is almost like things from my home world!"

Grid Bugs, there were things that behaved like grid bugs here, lovely.

Emi Dennou has posed:
Oh no! They feed off lightning!

"It's not a joke." Emi says. "That's what we are." Though she does smile a little at hearing of Alma's family. Of course, she's also totally ignorant as to the true fate of Alma's family, so it's not exactly a full reaction to what's going on in Alma's head right now.

Emi pauses as strange creatures start filing in. Umi picks it up by adding, "Um, well, we've already explained it a few times, but we don't mind answering questions more or anything." She rubs at her forehead. "Anyway, this one isn't sure what you mean entirely? We are one, one are we. All for one and one for all? Maybe that makes it easier, The Network guesses. Anyway, what're those--AHH!!"

The creature doesn't actually leap for Umi but rather Emi who has recently just dispelled a charge. It leaps at her, biting and gnashing, getting a few quick swipes in while Emi is caught flatfooted. She sgrunts lightly and Umi says, "Um! I'll be right there just uh--just..."

Umi dashes forward and leaps into the air, snapkicking one of the creatures off of Emi. Emi, in turn, tries to draw some power BACK away from the creatures. Hey, power transfer doesn't just have to go one way!

Stormfall has posed:
The mimics drain the capacitor of the remains of it's energy, plunging the mine back into darkness again except for the light sources still available to the group.

These light sources are still enough to silohuette the seething, crackling masses of well fed creatures that scatter at the explosion of fire that causes some of them to fly apart. They are little more than husks as evidenced by very little splatter on their demise. Mostly they are oddly formed carapace and skittering bladed limbs and sucking mouths.

The one that gets drainked by Helba simply falls like a discarded marionette at their feet with a clatter. They are also easy to cast away, easy to chop and slice and cleave and shoot into julliene bug. The only advantage these creatures have is that of mobility and numbers.

In fact draining them seems to be an effective tactic because without power they wind down and come to a stop, sometimes mid lunge. The problem is STILL a logistical one since there are so many of them.

Blackbird has posed:
Blackbird made a mad cackle as her mind spun through the diffrent spells she knew. Other than the nice trick of her gun spitting fire what could help here? No. NO. She looked Serah's way. "We found our problem! Now. You." The last word held a undercurrent to it as her magic pulsed. "Focus!" Serah mighth ave felt the tingle of magic intended to hieghten her senses, give new vitality and strength. Why her? Souji seemed to be alright. Emi she wasn't sure if her magic could affect or if it'd splash over to the bugs attacking her... Plus Serah looked to not be getting swarmed as heavily as everyone else. Turns out being the 'normal' person in the crowd has it's advantages.

Helena Celba has posed:
Helena is being surrounded and hounded.

Due to, FOR WHATEVER REASON, they wanted her PDA.

She is forced to fight defensively against a large swarm. She controls her movements, fighting very tight to conserve energy and momentum, each strike aiming to cut at the things directly, aiming to move only when necissary.
However she gets bit every time she pulls her PDA out of their grip, causing a yelp, before she drains the creature attatched to her hand of it's energy.

She continues to fight defensively...forced into a bad situation,.

Alma Hyral has posed:
More healing!

Eventually everyone has a radiant yellow aura around them briefly, even Helena, continuing in her efforts to try and be proactive against healing whatever wounds they receive. While she figures that Helena can heal herself, she does it anyhow, since she appears to be having a great deal of trouble keeping them away from her.

After her flashlight is gone, she thinks to switch off her linkpearl for a while. That being the only electronic equipment she had left, the mimics all leave her alone. "Is everyone a-alright? Sound off if you need help!"

Serah Farron has posed:
Serah Farron is not exactly 'normal', but she hasn't been wielding thunder magic at least... but she could. It was just dumb luck that she used fire instead, just pure reflex. A few more fireballs seems to push the other hoppers away, although as she ducks through a doorway, several of them crash in the wall next to you, as they were trying to cut her off, but failed to anticipate the movement accurately.

She feels the magic being imparted on her, nodding to Blackbird "I'm okay! Stay safe!" She uses more of her magic, trying to keep them at bay from everyone else. Even if she can't get a clear shot at them, she can shoot to scare them off. She doesn't want to be hitting the other people by mistake either.

Fortunatly, aiming magic is relatively easy.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is very disorientated fromt eh pluses it's clear something down here is effecting her. It's not fatal but it's making her feel terrible sluggish and somewhat hard to think. She is caught bty the creatuer and they are chewing on them it's painful she lets out a cry of pain and she goes dowen hitting the ground with a thunk but she's still trying to get them off.

"Nug...hel....p...."

Souji Murasame has posed:
The mimics keep coming. Souji grits his teeth. "Damn you all!" He yells, irritated, as he inverts his blade... And then the Mimics lunge for him again, before Souji tiwsts and unleashes a wave of pressure that blasts the mimics back, just before they come slamming in for him. "And now... DIE!" He spins the blade, twisting it in his hand as he throws it into the mass, letting it cleave through them as it ricochets through the room. Souji turns, catching the blade as it passes back, and immediately twisting to blur forward, slashing into and through the Mimics that are bearing down upon Deelel.

Emi Dennou has posed:
Emi isn't so sure she's going to be able to draw power off too much since she'd have to expend some of it resulting in them just reabsorbing it and whatnot, so she just absorbs what she cans before falling back, allowing Umi to martial arts her way through the mimics, just plowing through them like someone who just enjoys fighting so much that it's hard to really keep them down. She's clobbered a few times, but that just seems to improve her day.

This is because Umi actually does enjoy a good brawl. Whether she's just an aspect of the network where this is siphoned off to or--

Once the battle clears down a bit, Emi manages to breathe out and looks towards Alma, "Are you alright?" Souji seems like someone who has his act together so she isn't really terribly worried about him. Reminds her a bit of Ang so far which, she supposes, is probably something that should concern her considering recent happenings but well someone can be similar to Ang and also not burn down VALKYRI.

Stormfall has posed:
Battery mimic: SMASH edition. ALL MIMICS MUST DIE.

Now with Kung Fu Grip! The mimics skitter in droves away from Serah's magic attacks, some of them getting caught in the blasts but many just getting in the way of eachother at an inopportune time and getting hammered by the rest of the group.

The ones hounding Helba gnom and gnom and leap and snatch until they can leap and snatch no longer, reduced to piles of scrap or drained husks. Some of the remaining mimics swarm around the downed Deelel, biting down and attaching those sucker mouths and draining whatever energy they can out of them at an almost frantic pace.

The blade ricochets through the room and then DECIMATES the remaining mimics clinging to Deelel. There is a sudden deafening quiet as the last of the mimics are dispatched. The sound of trickling water returns.. a constant drip... drip.. that joins the futile twitching of the last few creatures before they go still. The entire floor is carpeted with carapaces and the twitching remnants of the creatures.

Blackbird has posed:
Blackbird spun, snap reaction causing her mind to push everything away except for honing in on the source of that noise and dumping healing magic onto it. There were no words and only a soft blue-white glow around Deelel to signify magic at work. Yet her magic wasn't intended to deal with Programs and there were all those bugs possibly draining it away.

None of that mattered or regestered as more than enviromental variables while Blackbird's magic worked. This was her zen moment. She was a mender at heart rather than a breaker. Magic just gave her another tool to do it with.

Alma Hyral has posed:
And yet again, /more healing/!

This time focusing almost solely upon Helena and Deelel, she pours all of her white magic into the pair, trying her best to mitigate the damage. The two are literally glowing bright yellow, before this is over.

And then Emi inquires on how she's doing. "I-I'm alright. I'm more worried about them!"

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is food is mountains of food to her she lets out a scream they are baically sucking the life out of her she tries to fend them off but thankfully they don't last much longer as the blade is just going nuts and soon all of them are terminated. Deelel then starts to glow yellow from Alma for a moment and the strange injuries star to heal rickly rezzing back into place.

"Gug... those things were ... feeding on me...also thank you miss the name's Deelel and I owe you one."

With the healing she's back on her feet, yet wary those things could suck her dry like a Vampire could a human...

Souji Murasame has posed:
Souji looks over the fallen mimics. The enemies are defeated. He sheathes the blade, looking over them all as he clenches a fist. "... Is /this/ the reason foe the electrical disturbences? Who would make such /annoying/ creatures?" He looks up, pulling out a vial from his suit which contains a gleaming, syrupy substance. He drinks it down, grimacing for a moment and putting the vial back into his suit.

He turns over back towards the batteries, and with some annoyance, he throws his hand out and fires more lightning at the machine, trying to get the damn thing back online. "If I have to get out my murder suit, whoever is responsible for this is going to regret this."

He looks over at Deelel and nods. "Souji Murasame, of the Murasame Corporation." He pauses, "Celba. Farron. Hyral. Are you all intact?"

Serah Farron has posed:
Serah Farron reaches out of her hiding spot to give Deelel a hand too, if only to guide her to the relatively safety of the stairwell she was hiding into to cast her magic from. "Over here, they don't seem to be coming this far. Maybe there's something that keeps them from going any further." She's not entirely sure, but she's been observing them a bit. "Maybe its the conducts... or something like a leash?"

Helena Celba has posed:
"Yes sir." She says, frowning.

Her hat was gone...she sighs...her hat! It was GONE! These creaters /ate it/. She makes a long suffering sigh, and turn towards towards Souji, "This is annoying...so do we try and turn the machines back on, or do we just go with my spell to light the way?" she asks, "The problem if we continue on without light is that OTHER monsters might be attracted by us..." she shakes her head, "Even in my light spell, it'll still count as darkness to them."

Alma Hyral has posed:
Souji had to be having a laugh about having a murder suit. Right? It was just a joke. She actually gives a sort of awkward giggle at that, thinking it was really a joke. "I'm fine, Mister Murasame. T-Thank you for asking."

She then smiles at Deelel. "You're welcome, Ma'am. I'm just glad I could help."

Then at Helena's dilemma, she offers in a tentative tone. "I c-could light the way."

Helena Celba has posed:
Helena waves a hand, "Save your healing magic."

Helena raises a hand, accessing her PDA, and summons the right spell...

A ball of darkness appears infront of the group, before it switches into a ball of light. In a range of twenty feet around the ball Darkness became light, and light became darkness, swapping the intensity along the light scale so that people can see.

Emi Dennou has posed:
Emi nods towards Alma, cricking her neck lightly. "Ugh." She says. "Let's hurry and get this over with." She doesn't like being power drained either, she was hoping this was something a bit more suited for her but as it turns out--evil battery heartless, not as suitable as she initially anticipated.

"Heh--that was kind of fun!" Umi says.

Emi groans.

Stormfall has posed:
It'll be a hot time in the old mine tonight.

There is a sound that rises over the silence and the dripping water. A faint ticking. Tick. Tick. Clink. Clink. Tick. that eminates from the righthand corridor moving upwards. Clockwork? A bomb for someone to set us up for? It's not clear.

The same old trickle resounds from the lefthand tunnel leading downwards.

You are in a 10 x 10 x 10 cube. You see a drained electric generator against the wall. Exits are Left (Down) and Right (Up).

Command?

Alma Hyral has posed:
"It's not.." But then she clams up, deciding not to elaborate any further if her contribution was unwelcome. She wasn't even sure she really wanted Helena to see any more of her magic anyhow, as she'd already slipped once.

She gives Umi a smile, her enthusiasm infectious. "You really thought that was f-fun?"

Tilting her head, she listened closely to the ticking sounds. "Maybe, we should go up?" She gestures vaguely towards the right path.

Helena Celba has posed:
Helena focuses on moving the ball with them...

She is pretty quiet towards Alma, FOR SOME REASON.

"Why would we go up? Down is obviously where our object is." Helena says, shaking her head.

Serah Farron has posed:
Serah Farron sighs, offering a shoulder to Deelel a bit as she seems to be the weakest "... I'm just going to follow, I don't want to stay alone either, but if there are more of those things down there, I'm not sure our friend here will appreciate it too much." She looks around ".... This place is starting to freak me out a little... noone else feels like we're being watched by something?"

Blackbird has posed:
Blackbird huffed and loaded a fresh clip into her pistol. "I think," She shook her head to try clearing the cruft out. "I think we really need to get out of here." Blink. Blink.

"Pull back. Retrench. At least send someone off to let others know what we found in case we wake the queen up and end up cacooned to walls and turned into facehugger chow or something." Beat.

"Damnit pop culture refrences only work if everyone else understands what you're talking about." She huffed theatrically. "Damnit I hope that's all of 'em. I'm running on fumes here."

Yet more ticking and clicking and Blackbird just grumbled sour noises. "Gee Fred," Her voice had a 'dopey' sound to it. "Let's go explore the dark cave with lots of eaten up machines in it." Eyeroll. Yet she held her pistol ready in one hand and the fingers of her other flexed as she tried to concentrate enough to make with magics.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is looking about the cube and notices teh generator for a moment the could see about trying to get it going but on the other hand it could mean more of the grid bugs err mimics. "Those things got to have a nest around here wouldn't they?" She looks at Blackbird for a moment tilting her head for a moment "Look I'm on their menu more than you are!" She's appicative to Serah for the shoulder as she makes use of it.

" Sorry I don't know that much about your culture and what I do is music."

"We'd want to track them to their source..."

Souji Murasame has posed:
Souji mutters to himself. He looks around, left or right. He considers which direction they should go. "It sounds like the source of the creatures is above. Eliminating them might make our progression more simple. If we move downwards, I am not sure what threats there might be down there. We might need more light than what we have available at the moment to operate effectively. This is a problem."

He looks up, annoyed. "Let's go up. Eliminate the source of the mimics. Once destroyed, we can charge the machines and move down in relative safety.

Emi Dennou has posed:
Umi says, "Well," after a moment's thought. "I could be troubled every time a fight breaks out, but well--they happen so often, might as well try to enjoy it. Especially when it's with monsters because, well, there's so many!" She beams widely.

Despite that probably being the most depressing thing said today.

"The Network has been in a startling large number of conflicts. Technically speaking," Emi murmurs, "We have been engaged in battle more than when we were literally designed for fighting."

"That seems like a reasonble solution. We're here to solve the issues rather than go spelunking." Emi admits.

Stormfall has posed:
Going up and to the right leads the party through a series of passages, some blocked by falling rocks and debris and others used as storage rooms (which seem strangely empty except for a few stripped components). The more natural formations of the cave have been pockmarked with water damage and side channels bored straight into the ceiling.

The clicking and whirring gets louder and more persistant until the source if eventually found. Two or three knee sized clockwork automatons clatter and bonk through the corridor. They have a patchwork look to them, these constructs. Several glowing nodules are strung in a patchwork fashion around their bodies. They are only roughly humanoid in shape, almost like armored clockwork men.

They bounce and click slowly across the corridor, unthreathening as they make their way slowly past the party if allowed to do so.

Serah Farron has posed:
Serah Farron is still offering shoulder to Deele, as they trudge their way deeper into the mines. "What are we here for anyway? Is there some kind of treasure, or something that you found of value, in here?" She wonders why anyone would want to get further in a cave filled with trapped chests with teeth like that... At least they have light through magic, because it ate her flashlight :(

Helena Celba has posed:
Helena looks at the clockwork men.

"Nooooobody ever listens." She says, waving a hand, "They look harmless enough, they don't seem to be aggressive." She offers, "Unless you wana look around, I think this might be all we have here...unless you wana shoot them up full of electricty? That might draw out more of those...things." She offers, "Maybe even away from us."

Souji Murasame has posed:
Souji moves upwards in search of a way to deal with the constant oncoming horde of lightning-draining mimics. "I am watching for evidence of a specific item that may be present in this location. The electrical disturbences and these... entities... may be a hint as to what I am looking for. It might be what I want... It might also not."

Souji walks forward, and looks over the slowly moving mechanical entities. "Looks at the patchwork modules. They are either self-modifying or are scavenging. They may have crafted the mimics. Either way..." With a swift motion, Souji cuts out at the clockwork men, aiming to disable them with swift strikes to the limbs. "... I find them potentially useful, Disable them."

Alma Hyral has posed:
Alma Hyral traipsed along quietly near Emi, and Umi. She was afraid that she might have pushed Helena even further towards the edge.

As Souji explains what they're looking for, she'd nod her head with the explanation.

And the the clockwork men appear, she was content to let them walk on by. But then Souji attacks..

She'd sigh, and just try to stay out of their way as they battled them, waiting to assess whether the clockwork men would turn hostile and deem them a threat, as then there would likely be injuries to heal. The life of a healer on a dungeon crawl was fraught with suffering.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is recovering from what happened before but seems to be good enough. She doe sseem to be a bit concerned about the machinea about her she does keep an eye on thing she accepts Serah's help and looks to her. "Thank you." She seems to be not in any danger at the moment

"These things behave like ... creatures from my home world. It'd disturbing they have an analog in this world."

On a Lark Deelel will reach out and see if there's any computer systems in the strange machine sbut given their nature she does doubt it.

Stormfall has posed:
The clockwork men go down soundlessly, winding down without so much as a splutter. A few twitch, but that is really all that occurs afterwards. A few springs go 'sproing' from tension being released. A little red gem on each of them flashes and then goes dark.

And nothing seems to happen afterwards. Another group of clockwork constructs can be found a little further up the corridor, trundling along the corridor dragging a larger power core from some scavenged machinery that they rest up next to what appears to be another generator set in the wall.

Several nodules have already been heaped up on it like offerings. Wires and cables swarm around the conductor as these little clockwork men seem to be trying to splice these glowing nodules and power cores into the generator.

Emi Dennou has posed:
"Hm...interesting." Emi says as she looks at the clockworks.

Umi says, "But why do all this? I mean they can't just be operating on instinct, right?" She looks towards Alma and tries to reassure her with a shonen grin. It's so shonen, in fact, that the smile practically /jumps/.

Helena Celba has posed:
"Huh. So we have presents to take back to the ship." Helena says to Souji, "Did you even need to draw the blade for that?" She shrugs. "Well, we can leave them here for now.." She walks along,

"...Huh...are they repairing this? Why?" She asks, not expecting an answer, "Hmmm...if only there were some way to communicate with them.."

Serah Farron has posed:
Serah Farron tilts her head "What I wonder is how they are working... they are machines right? So why aren't the mimics attacking them?" She doesn't know much about these machines, constructs or golems mind you. She lets go of Deelel when she seems to be able to walk on her own now, as long as there aren't other mimics closeby.

Alma Hyral has posed:
Unable to resist the jumping shonen smile, she offers a timid smile in return.

"M-Maybe we should let them b-be, if they're r-repairing it..." She would walk closer to the generator, giving it a critical eye from a safe distance, to see if it was as it appeared to be.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel finds nothing she can even sense or tap into, so there goes that idea she had but she's going to hang back and she's watching looking t them and wonders just what they are doing here. "There's no computer systems in them, so I'm at a loss to how they function." She seems to have some way to know. "So that kills any ideas about direct communication I'm afraid."

Souji Murasame has posed:
Souji really doesn't seem to care. He's going to be taking those golems back. Anything that operates so efficiently on random electricity infusions like they have seen so far speaks of potential improvements to Ramuha electricity absorption technology.

When you live in a world that constantly has thunderstorms, you make use of it.

Souji has no change in expression as he proceeds. "If I shot them with lightning, they might react suboptimally." Souji replies. He steps forward, sparing the next group of constructs for the moment as he sees something much larger. "These entities are working to power this generator. There is something here..." He puts a hand out and places it on the generator, examining it intently. "Could it be another beast, or something else..." He says.

Stormfall has posed:
The conductor and generator appear to be the same as the one in the other chamber. It appears to be much smaller and more clunky, as if this was the back up generator where the other was the full one.

As such, a tangle of these power cores and other wires and spliced tools that have been scavenged has been accumulated like rust by these repairing clockwork machines.

The cables for this generator are spliced into the main system and run down the corridor the way they had come and continue up the corridor where another storage room quietly lays dark and dormant.

You may go backwards (down) or forwards (up). There is a backup generator here. There are a small crowd of repairbots at work here.

Command?

Alma Hyral has posed:
"I-I'd prefer we avoid suboptimal b-behavior from them"

She'd look up the tunnel leading further up, then back the way they came.

Then, timidly, she'd suggest. "Shall we press o-on, forward?"

Helena Celba has posed:
Helena shrugs, "I...Not my field of expertise." She explains.

"I have no idea what I am looking at, Sorry." She appologizes to Souji. "Perhaps we shoud move on."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel has given up on these machines she cna't really talk to them liek she'd hope. She has to agree with Souji's thougths though as she looks about and she humms "I would agree and this is a bit strange even for me." Deelel's still thinking but she's coming up with blanks for the most part.

Souji Murasame has posed:
Souji nods. "I see how this connects back to the prior generator. These robots appear to be ancient local maintenance drones. Interesting." He /definately/ wants to keep a couple for study. Everyone loves clockwork robots. But for now..." Let's move on. We don't need to trigger anything here." Since Blackbird has vanished and he doesn't have Myla or his own technical experts here, he ahs to fall back on his own knowledge. This isn't his specialty.

He leads the way onward and upward, "If we don't see a sign of the source of these creatures soon, we're going to head back. We're wasting time here."

Emi Dennou has posed:
"So you are here for purposes of salvage?" Emi asks. It's not really anything she's against but it's good to have an idea of what's going on. Alexander Academy has many survivors in the new world, it pays to understand and maybe even ingratiate oneself to them.

"We've taken a job, however." EMi tells Souji. "...Though at this rate, it may be a failure--we'd have to come back, though."

Stormfall has posed:
The repair workbots continue their work. The storage room a distance up the corridor is jammed and cluttered with old storage containers. Boxes and vases of an unknown plastic or metal containers that are dusty from the passage of time. There are holes in the ceiling as well. There are also cases of batteries.

Hundreds and hundreds of batteries that are moving. Tiny batteries that twitch and shudder but do not come to life although the outlines of the creatures that have been fought before are plain. Also plain...? What created them.

Something extends down from a hole in the ceiling. A /much/ bigger variant of the mimics seen before. It's sucking mouth makes a piercing /SCREECH/ as it legs down spider fashion onto the dusty boxes of it's lair and lunges to attack the group who have disturbed it's lair.

Blackbird has posed:
Blackbird had made a hasty report about the whole mimic bug electricity sucker things. That should have been the end of it. Leave anything else involving the bug hunt to people who /actually/ knew how to fight. However ther ewas just something nagging at her. She had to go back. So quick power bar and a little red bull later Blackbird was runing full tilt down the daves, by blind luck taking the righthand passage.

"Hey guys Wha'd I." Her eyes went wide when she saw what was going on. Were she trained and battle hardened she'd have opened fire. Instead best she could manage were some muttered words and blue healing light cascaded down. Useful, but it left her blind to the situation at hand. She just prayed to whatever powers that be would keep her from having rushed right into the maw of something wanting ot tear her head off.

Serah Farron has posed:
Serah Farron looks at the small batteries.... It'd be almost cute if they weren't just smaller versions of the chests that nearly bit her leg off before. Then, even admist the darkness, she feels as if something waslooming overhead. And she barely has time to move away as the giant mimic head comes crashing down. She dives to the side, almost crashing into the nearby wall, just barely rolling short of it as she leans her back against it, aghast "What *IS* that!?!" She screeches a bit, clearly not in her element here.

Alma Hyral has posed:
Alma's eyes go wide as the Mimic Queen pounces right at her. One moment, she's standing right in its path, the next moment...?

She's falling flat on her face as she trips over a cable, as she turns her head at the last moment to avoid shattering her glasses. "KYAGH!"

Fortunately for her, it causes the mimic queen to jump right over her. Since she had no electronics on her person other than her radio, it doesn't seem to bother with her after the initial attack. Getting up, she'd retreat to the back of the group, assessing if anyone took an injury..

Well other than her dignity of course, but that was always a lost cause.

Helena Celba has posed:
With Alma here...

She doesn't bother going on the defensive.

"Master Murasame, allow me." She says, and rushes the queen first. Alma can take care of healing and reenforcing them...

She'll worry about...

She leaps towards the large queen, aiming to litterally bounce up it's right leg and throw herself RIGHT into it's face. She punches for where the thing's eyes are, before aiming to flip down and send a KICK towards the head. Once more, she soars down, aiming to drive a first right through the thing...and starts to try and drain it's very essence, trying to weaken it's entire body, so that Souji can show them how it's done.

"Now!"

Souji Murasame has posed:
"Yes, for the most part." Souji confirms to Emi. "What is the job that you've taken?"

This is subsequently interrupted by GIANT MIMIC QUEEN. Souji looks up, clenching his teeth. "The mother! Be on your guard, this one will be much stronger!" Souji yells, and throws out a blast wave of air, interrupting the Queen as it falls and sends it falling back, the snapping limbs just barely missing him. "So fast..." He says, before he crouches slightly. Helena begins breaking down the Mimic's defenses, and Souji lunges, sweeping the Murasame Blade out to try to take out the limbs in a blurred strike... And then he turns, reversing his weapon and slashing upwards, trying to cleave upwards and through the Queen with a deadly blow.

Deelel has posed:
Avoiding getting eaten by what are flat out grid bugs. She's able to keep the heck away from the things and is staring at it for a moment.

"Oh for the a Grid bug queen? Really?!" She's got hee disc out againa nd she's ready. "This might all just be glitched technology that serves no purpose anymore."

Emi Dennou has posed:
Emi is a bit more ready for surprises this time. She hops back a bit before noticing Alma has tripped. She reaches out--but the mimic queen leaps over her and she ends up having to snag her hand back. She doesn't counterattack at the moment, rather preferring to lend Alma a hand in getting up, jogging back with her because you are a horrible party member if you let the healer get punked.

Besides Omi can handle monsters, she snaps a kick for the monster, laughing like a pirate.

"Clearing out the troubles." Emi murmurs to Souji.

Stormfall has posed:
DEADLY DRAINING BLOW. REVERSE SWORD COMBO!

Blurring swordwork and draining energy swiftly jointing the Mimic Queen and rendering it an inert husk.There is nothing else but silence.

And about this time the lights turn back on. There is a clunking of a generator slowly humming to life in the distance.

The blue luminous glow crackles and spits and the tiny batteries lunge up the walls, eggs cracking open to reveal the beetle like shapes underneath. The Queen mimic. Gets. Back. Up. Limbs rejoining and body reforming. It jumps onto the ceiling letting out an echoing sonorous SCREECH down one of the holes in the ceiling. They swarm with the queen to the light overhead that illuminates the storage room. The call for aid is then answered by more mimics willing to feast on the energy as more battery mimics descend while the tiny batteries quickly swell in size.

The hoard of batteries, battery mimics and the queen quickly overwhelm the clunky generator and everything goes dark again with a final SNAP-buzz-Pft. The batteries, driven into a frenzy by the brief contact with power, pour like a living wave of legs and twitching mouths with the double handful of full sized battery mimics and finally the queen who descends on Souji and Helba in particular with a wrathful vengeance.

Serah Farron has posed:
Serah Farron doesn't know what's exciting the queen, but the way it reassembles and disappears in the ceiling... that can't be good right? "I don't like this..." Her eyes watching the swarm of smaller batteries and mimics moving up to the ceiling with the queen "... uhm..."

And then the legs coming back down, as if tentacules trying to catch all of them. She has another screech "I don't like this at all!" Aiming her hands upward to the ceiling, shooting several balls of fire in the hope of scaring it off, or at least away from her and anyone close to her. She's pertty sure electricity doesn't work at all... but then she tinks.. Maybe ice? She aims again, more calmly, and tries to freeze the limbs of the mechanical monster with blizzara instead.

Souji Murasame has posed:
Souji strikes down the Mimic Queen.

"Wait." Souji thinks, and looks back at the fallen Queen. "That was too..."

And suddenly the masses arive. "TOO EASY!" Souji yells, putting himself on guard. But there are limits to such, even for the Murasame Heir. He turns, slashing and blasting with waves of pressure over and over, trying to keep them from swarming him under. "Stick together! We can't let them separate us!" Souji calls, as he launches himself to stand next to Helena. She is, after all, the one he knows the best out of those here.

Helena Celba has posed:
Helena is jumped on by the QUEEN Mimic. She ducks left and rught, but the claws of the queen dig into her side...she hisses in pain.

However, it was only ONE strike.

"I do not like it, when things stand back up...WITHOUT MY INTERVENTION!" Helena booms with annoyance, and suddenly and viciouly AGAIN plunches her hand into the monster.

"TASTE MY LOVE!" she says, and chanells darkness through the fingers...and attempts to EXPLODE the darkness into it's very soul.

OMNOMNOMNOM.

Alma Hyral has posed:
Alma continues to cower behind Emi for a time, and then something is said in her linkpearl. Raising a hand, she'd cause a radiant yellow aura to appear right over Blackbird and Emi in particular, healing their wounds. And then she'd murmur something to Emi. "I'll.. be back in a moment."

Emi would feel a rush of air, and a vaguely Alma sized shape, that looked more like a glowing yellow orb at its current speed would zip around the cramped room in front of them. When she was finished, Emi would feel another rush of air, and Alma would be back behind her. And yet it looked as if nothing had happened.

Until they looked up.

On the ceiling of the room were seven small magical arrays, joined together as if they were a constellation. Alma would whisper something aloud, that only Emi could hear despite the conviction in her voice. "Be judged by the seven stars."

And then from each of the arrays, hundreds of tiny little slivers of radiant yellow light would rain down, homing in and seeking out each of the mimics like deadly little lasers, showing the queen with tiny needles of holy magic. Despite the room being covered in them, they all appeared to have nigh-perfect accuracy, as not a single one landed amongst her allies despite the cramped quarters of the room and the hallway.

{{Blackbird]] has posed:
/span> Blackbird snarled. Dropping the rock and instead grabbing one of the bugs. "You will not take u." Fire swam over the mimic before she hurled it away from her like a miniature bomb. Green and Yellow light pulsed around her as Blackbird called on her magics. She didn't plan on using it to attack, not directly, but ot wrap web on web on web of defense and enhancements unto herself. She could do nothing ot help anyone if she was dead.
</br> So she started punching these things. Each blow aided and enforced by magic making each as hard as a small jackhammer. She had to survive this no matter how inelegant the solution or if she burned through her reserves. No sense in holding back if ther emight not be a later to hold back for.
</br>She was blind to everything but the swarm around her. She had to fight free.
</br>

Deelel has posed:
Deelel has a bit of a look of stark horror on her face after all they can indeed hurt her far worse than the rest of the party.. Even more so? There's just so many of the darn things it really is like dealing with grid bugs. She starts lobbing her disc as best she cna but she's not so lucky as she's caught and knocked down again which may be lead to them feeding on her and tha'ts not fun for her and well her disc is still bouncing abotu as she's trying to get back up and catch it.

Emi Dennou has posed:
Umi hops away from a biting mimic. "Ha!" She shouts.

One waddles up behind her and kicks her in the shin. "Gah!" She yells, hopping repeatedly.

"Emi!" She adds. "A hand??" Emi turns her head and raises her hands only for another mimic to bonk HER in the shins and she yelps, hopping up and down too. It's positively adorable. Alma indicates she is 'going to be back' and Emi looks around rapidly to look to see what she's up to. There's a rush of air and she is knocked forward, hitting the ground. She blinks rapidly and says, "Where'd she--" She stands up and then looks back to Alma. She's back again?!!? "...Huh." She says. "...Was that you moving at super speeds?" She lowers her foot. "...Pretty impressive."

Stormfall has posed:
OMNOMNOMNOM. Delicious.. SPAM?

Sorry Helena. Mimics don't have souls. Only spam. This is why tinned meat is so treacherous. However, whatever is contained inside the mimic queen is exploded with darkness just as the limbs are frozen by the efforts of Serah. The creature rears up a final time and screeches before exploding in a shower of shrapnel bits.

A rock and a hammer seems to be quasi effective against individual mimics but this frenzied swarm doesn't seem to care for anything except biting down on something electronic. Or in the case of Deelel or Souji or Emi, something close enough to count.

The battery mimics do not scatter on the death of the queen but rather devour the last dregs of essence from the carcass before again advancing on the party.

And then they are all simultaniously Laser'd.. and fall in droves, the hyper accurate lasers taking out droves of the smaller swarms and some of the larger ones. There is still an advance, but it is picked off until the room is completely and utterly silent save for the clicking of the clockwork men in the background.

Helena Celba has posed:
Helena pulls her hands out of the insides of the monster.

"Tch. Didn't even break a nail." She says, with a annoyed tone. "Well, I think that takes care of the...Mimic Queen...You'd think they would have known about her this close to the surface."

Serah Farron has posed:
Serah Farron blinks as everything gets LASERED around her ".... What... happened?" Is the only thing she can say, afraid of moving now.

Souji Murasame has posed:
Souji slashes and cuts repeatedly. The Mimics carve into him every time he turns, creating a situation where he cannot attack without taking damage, but he must attack else he be swarmed under. It is a terrible catch 22.

Nevertheless, the nickling and diming effort causes Souji's suit to become wet with blood... and then the rest of the team gives them an opening. Alma's lasers and Helena's Darkness Finger solve the major issues. Light and Darkness. Souji chuckles to himself as he presses the attack.

Soon, everything is clear. Souji looks down at the carnage, and he looks down, frowning. "It's over. Finally." With a sigh, the Murasame heir looks to the others. "Mark anything that looks interesting. We can send down a salvage group after we're done securing the area. We've certainly bled enough for this."

He signals to the others. "Once we're done, let's power the generators and head underground. There may be other things remaining here even if this was quite probably the source of the electrical problem." He looks to Emi. "Looks like your job might be completed after all."

Alma Hyral has posed:
She just beams a smile at Emi, but doesn't otherwise explain herself.

She nods wordlessly at Souji, and just starts pouring healing magic into everyone who was injured.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is shocked at their behaivour for only a moment, it makes tatical sense the queen was dead they wanted to keep the resources to the hive, right? She recovers her disc and just relaxes a little bit. "Sounds like a plan who knows what they were preventing from being found."

Blackbird has posed:
huffed as she looked around, finally realizing the attack was over. "Everyone still alive?" Somehow she managed to speak in spite of the bone weary exaustion she felt from overexerting herself magically. "Gods... I"m never going to get used to this cruft am I?"