Fallen Star

Fallen Star
Date of Scene:	16 April 2013
Location:	Eastern Continent - Bare Desert
Synopsis:	Rumors say a star has fallen in the desert near Fluorgis. Several adventurers seek it out, and find a lot more than they were expecting.
Cast of Characters:	Reize Seatlan, Avira, Vespa, Violet, Alberic Lux

---

Alberic Lux has posed:
The desert south of Fluorgis is empty of anything worth mentioning. An expanse of sand and sun, the desert is remarkable for its location and for little else... but that doesn't necessarily mean nothing remarkable could appear within it.

Rumors passed from lips to ear in taverns throughout Fluorgis and beyond that speak of a falling star cloaked in darkness. Supposedly, it fell to the desert only two nights prior. Astrologers have been worried by the phenomenon, and marks have already been put out for people to investigate. Of course, the reward is paltry for the possible danger, but you get to keep whatever you find inside...

The desert sun beats down on the sands of the desert as you cross through whichever means an individual might prefer. It isn't terribly difficult for a skilled adventurer to figure out where to go, and once you've got the general direction, the location of the fallen 'star' becomes remarkably clear. In that direction, the dunes begin to follow a pattern, quickly falling into an obvious ripple out from a central point. Going across them is simple.

The centerpoint is a crater, filled with bright glass glittering in the sunlight. On top of it is what looks like a massive chunk of dirt and rock, seemingly scooped up from somewhere else and deposited here. The incongruous plateau of sorts is covered in green grasses, flowering plants and broken hills, the landscape shattered and dropped partially off, leading to grassy cliffs winding up the sides of the 'star.' At the very top is a structure, but it's difficult to tell what of from the edge of the crater.

An enterprising adventurer has already put up a rope bridge from the edge of the crater to partway up what looks like an easier advance through the broken cliff faces. It's the easiest way to get onto it, though it means someone has beaten you here.

Avira has posed:
To Avira, this portion of the desert was officially "flyover country." Or it would be flyover country as soon as she got her airship. Chocobos would have to do for now. Her purpose for coming to Fluorgis was actually to recruit the aid of certain allies residing in this city.

...buuuut being here also gave her the opportunity to pick up a mark or two. Given the "storm" coming to Traverse Town, Avira was well aware of her future need for funding. Paltry rewards and possible treasure were well worth the effort-and things that fall from the sky are practically MADE of treasure. Or alien symbiotes that grant unfathomable power at the cost basic thinking.

Avira marshals her chocobo atop the crest of a sand dune, lifting a fingerless-gloved hand to drag her goggles down to around her neck. Her position gives her an excellent view of the crater with its rather unusual land formation in the middle, which immediately draws a raised eyebrow. Such an oasis was not typical of this section of the desert and such a thing would have been well documented already. "Fascinating." she drawls, spotting the rope bridge and urging her chocobo towards it. She doesn't cross upon the beast, but dismounts and ties it down to one of the nearby rope posts.

Well aware of what the presence of this bridge means, Avira hurries across it.

Vespa has posed:
Vespa came along with Avira, to the location of this falling star. She had heard of stars falling out of the sky, but to see what acutally fell. Now that was intersting indeed! Could be tresure or something else. She was hoping for the treasure.

"That a pretty big crater..", Vespa says looking down into the crater. She quickly follows behind Avira onto the rope brige.

Reize Seatlan has posed:
The rumors of a fallen star is something that worried the young adventurer. While normally, this sounds like a very exciting tale for an adventure, Reize was partially worried due to his pendant. How affected or connected is it to his 'star'? That, the boy doesn't know.

Nevertheless, the leader of the Shard Seekers made his move. With his fellow Shard Seeker not too far behind him, Reize is leading Violet along to the centerpoint of the rippling path. "Oooiii, Violet! There it is!" The boy waves a hand, running off to pursue it.

And yet, when a rope bridge is set at the crater, Reize blinks and he says, "Awww, someone is already here!" He blinks, "Oh! Avira!" The boy waves a hand her way, then he hurries along the rope-bridge.

Violet has posed:
Violet tries to keep up with Reize, though the excited boy has the tendency to move at his own pace for the most part. The soft blonde tail of her ponytail sways back and forth with her movement as she finally catches up with the Shard Seekers' leader, coming to a pause just long enough to see the rope bridge. "Already?" she asks with a frown. "That was rather quick."

Alberic Lux has posed:
The rope bridge proves sturdy, as do the posts holding it up from either side. Whoever set it up knew what they were doing. It gently sways as people cross, the desert wind whistling between the strange object and the glassy crater. From the bridge, it looks like a climb is going to be necessary. Given the rather impressive drop...

Thankfully, it isn't. The bridge leads to a section of the fallen land-mass with a steep incline running up the edge of the cliff. Narrow, sure, but it isn't a sheer cliff. Getting up to the top of it will merely take a minute of quietly cursing whoever invented hills.

The land-mass levels out on top. There's something of an overgrown lawn leading to the structure itself, now much more easily visible. The multi-story building is made with what looks like white stone from the outside, with gracefully curving architecture. It looks ancient... or it would, if it weren't for the metal-and-frosted-glass double doors in the front, the keycard reader to the side of it, and the geodesic dome attached to the far side of it. In actuality, it seems like a very strange mix of modern and ancient styles.

The entire mass is slightly tilted. There are broken panels on the dome, and the upper stories of the building are collapsed inward, though chunks of rubble litter the lawn that look like they could've been from the rooftop. Water pools on the other side of the structure and runs off of the entire mass, evidence of a shattered pipe somewhere over there. Investigation will in fact yield such, and big enough to crouch in.

You have several ways in. There is no evidence of which way the others went. What do you do?

Avira has posed:
Halfway across the bridge, Avira hears a familiar voice that makes her cringe a little. On one hand, yes, she did want to catch up with Reize. On the other...well, now they're both competing for the same treasure AND there's that teeny, tiny, other little Reize-based problem to deal with.

His horrible luck. Fearing this will manifest itself in the rope brige suddenly snapping or giant vultures attacking, Avira quickens her pace across the bridge, motioning for Vespa to follow. "HI REIZE FANCY MEETING YOU HERE HA HA HA ...hah."

She scrambles to the other side and claws her way up the incline, taking a moment to sit on the edge of the cliff for a few seconds once she has scaled it. A hand is offered down to Vespa to pull her up.

"Huh..." Turning to face the ruins, Avira looks surprised. "You know, I heard that when a star goes out in the sky, that means another world has fallen. So maybe shooting stars are pieces of worlds? This would definitely be a big shard."

Drawing closer to the building, she looks it over, quickly recognizing the more modern aspects integrated into the architecture. She reaches out and touches the keycard reader, her lips drawn into a thin smile. Pulling her hand away, she starts to circle the grounds, looking up at the higher levels. "Let's get inside-oh, here we go."

Avira heads for the geodesic dome and starts to scale the side to where the missing panels are as a means to get in.

Vespa has posed:
Vespa quickly follows Avira, across the brige "Thanks Avira.", she says as she takes Avira hand and get pulled up.

Vespa hmms thinking on Avira's question. "That a bit depressing but and intersting theory. I heard one theroy that all gold comes from stars. " She follows Avira scaling the side.

Reize Seatlan has posed:
The feeling of the sturdy rope has Reize grinning, "Whoaa! This will definitely work!" He starts climbing along it, feeling it sway around. Even as the rough desert wind continues to sway them around, Rize looks at Violet.

"Come on! Let's go! Hang on tight as well!"

Once the bridge leads to a section of the landmass with a steep incline. Reize is making his way along that incline. It's a long, trudging trip along the hills. However, Reize remains spirited and strong! He shall brave this steep hill! While the structure becomes visible, Reie looks up with a whistle, "Whoooaaaa..."

He gazes in awe over the building's archiac architecture and the shape. He eyes the dorway, tilting his head at the tech. As it presents itself to be tilted, Reize eyes the panel and he looks at Avira and the others.

"...I wonder that as well." He shuts his eyes, "... I partially wonder if it is similar to the pendant." He pauses, "Nah, can't be." However, her words does make Reize think. What if someone's world has fallen. "..Maybe a survivor?" he blinks.

He starts rummaging along, then he sees a path on the other side, "Oh hey!" There is a shattered pipe over there. Reize looks at Violet, "Violet! Let's go in through here!" There is a bit of the competetive edge in the boy regarding the clan rivalry. Get to the treasure first.

Violet has posed:
Violet isn't as confident as Reize is, eyeing the rope bridge for a long moment or two even as he starts climbing across. At least it's sturdy.

Gripping the sides tightly as advised, the pale-haired girl follows her leader towards the other landmass, towards the crater where the star was supposed to have fallen. Once on solid land, Violet breathes a silent prayer for but a moment before her interest is drawn towards the building as well.

Her bright blue eyes scan in curiously before her attention is pulled away, to Reize as he calls her name. Blinking once, Violet frowns as she nears him, "Through a pipe?"

Alberic Lux has posed:
The dome's lowest broken panels are about ten feet up. Avira and Vespa climb up without issue, using the metal bracing on the outside for hand- and foot-holds. The inside is dimly lit; the interior surface of the dome is fogged up with something or other, appearing almost inky and black.

Hmm.

The dome is quartered off into what look like small habitats, full of odd plants, sand, rocks, and water, respectively. The duo have dropped into the rocky portion. There is a silver dagger here, slick with dark fluid. The door is torn off, opening into an observation chamber with a white, sterile hallway leading deeper into the facility. All the other doors are wrecked, too. Evidence of a battle is clear.

Reize and Violet instead go for the pipe. It's a wet, crouching trek into the dark interior, with the sound of rushing water as their company. Fortunately, it doesn't look like a waste pipe; the water is crystal-clear, and the source is apparent as they get further in: a reservoir, a huge holding tank stuck partially in the floor of a big, now-flooded room. The water is flowing outward. The room looks like it's full of pipes and fuseboxes, with some kind of computer terminal attached to the wall. The computer, and the room, are dark.

Stairs from that room lead upwards, further into the interior. The door at the top of the stairs is twisted on its frame, and will need some muscle (or magic) to get open -- and the length of piping serving as a door bar from this side might need to be removed, too. Who put it there? Did they get out?

There is a quiet groaning noise throughout the whole facility. Lights flicker on for a second, bathing the interior rooms in white light before going dead again. The dim boom of thunder is audible from deeper inside, followed by a crash of metal.

Avira has posed:
"Isn't it? Kind of makes you sad when you gaze at the stars." she pauses, "Gold from stars? You know, I hope so, because that means we'll find some gold in here!" Turns out Avira's pretty good at climbing and she scrambles her way up the metal struts of the dome very quickly. Before dropping down, she peers inside as carefully as possible. "Seems like there might be some smoke or something in there. I think I see light too..."

Nonetheless, she takes a second to prepare and slides her goggles back over her eyes. Carefully, she sits on one of the metal struts, wrapping a leg around it, and grabs an object out of one of her many pouches on her belt. Turns out it's a miner's flashlight, meant to be mounted on a hat, but the head strap works fine against Avira's head.

Dropping down, she peers about carefully, noting the discarded weapon and the signs of a fight in the immediate area. Gingerly, she picks up the dagger and shows it to Vespa, gesturing at the tip, then miming 'quiet' motions.



Her movements become very quiet afterwards as she slinks after the path of destroyed doors. It's almost as if she's practiced moving quietly quite a bit!

Vespa has posed:
pose follows Avira up smiling. "..any sort of treasure would be nice..", she just watches Avira surpised at now nimble she is. She spots the dagger too, silenty wishing to herself that she had a smaller weapon on hand, Al was too big and would make too much attention if she bought it out.. She follows Avira moivng silenty and carefully after her, almost as if done this kind of thing before...

Reize Seatlan has posed:
"Of course," answers Reize.

As they travel further within the pipe, they are treated to the sound of the water. As they make they way ahead, the boy looks down at the crystal clear water. "Ooh! Fresh water!" He leans over to smell it before chancing a sip. The two arrive at a reservoir. "... Whoa!" He looks around to see the strange technological devices.

The boy is looking at the computer terminal at the end.

Popping over his shoulder, Ivo in a devil outfit says, "Reize, press some buttons. You can get this running."

"Really?" Reize asks.

Devil Priel appears over his other shoulder, "Yeah! Press it! Press the buttons! They're shiny!"

"Okay!" As Reize chimes out, both influences disappear and Reize makes his way to the computer. Yep, Reize is pressing random buttons. "I think I've seen this on the magical box that's at Manhattan before! I think Zia called it a TV!"

Violet has posed:
'Of course' he says. As if crawling through pipes were an everyday occurrence. Violet gives Reize a brief flat glance for a short moment before she follows him into the pipe, with some reluctance. Thankfully the water wasn't as she anticipated. Otherwise she would make Reize pay for a new dress.

That should be a clause in the Shardseekers' Contract. That should Reize led any of the girl adventures into mentioned adventures resulting in ruined clothing, he would be responsible for replacing said garment.

Violet makes a note for that later.

Once inside, she pushes herself to her feet and blinks her crystal blue eyes at the technology around them, frowning just slightly with confusion. "Where are we?" Her question is forgotten however when Reize steps up to the equipment and starts pressing buttons. Allot of them.

Alberic Lux has posed:
Reize does the daring thing and pushes a whole bunch of buttons. The terminal lights up after the first one, showing a desktop of what looks like some kind of airships in a parade formation. A window pops up and covers it a few button-presses later. There are pressure readouts, all of them with meters almost bottomed-out, and some kind of emergency evacuation plan along with a map of the area. It looks like it definitely used to be part of a larger facility. There's a clicking noise like the computer was thinking, hanging for a couple seconds.

Three hundred instances of single player Triple Triad pop up, simultaneously and inexplicably. The entire machine crashes and dies.

If that wasn't enough, the room gets brighter very suddenly. The water in the yellow</span>. They are watching you.

Avira and Vespa sneak off deeper in. The hallway's lights flicker on and off, making it tough to watch the floor for debris. The hallway past the destroyed doors and the dome branches, with the main tunnel leading off to the left and curving into another observation area. If one of them dares peek in, they'll see scattered chairs that used to be bolted to the floor, with a few still set and pointed at windows that look down into a bigger chamber.

Inside the room is what looks an awful lot like a Heartless. It seems grey instead of pitch black, with the same yellow eyes, but it seems terribly fragile. It is long and lanky, hunched over, with long claws and a mouth that hangs open that seems to just be the outline of a jaw with nothing inside. It is accompanied by three of its fellows. Three of them are rooting through what looks like piles of machinery of some kind, carefully peeling them apart to see whats inside. The fourth is clawing at the sealed door into the room the chamber overlooks.

There are two bodies in the room. You can see a gauntlet underneath some rubble, and a booted foot near the door. Neither are moving.

Avira has posed:
Progress is slow since Avira doesn't want to make much noise. The small silver dagger has been stowed for now in one of Avira's pouches-seems she too isn't all that accustomed to small arms, preferring the longer reach of the Spine. The light upon her head does seem to help mitigate the constant flickering but even after a while, it still grows irritating and distracting.

Slipping through the halls, Avira gravitates to the observation room and peers down. Spying the creatures within, a gasp escapes her before she covers her mouth, then covers the light with her.

"Heartless!" she hisses quietly, looking through the window, counting them. Their behavior is unusual, oddly careful around the machines. Normally Heartless, unless being -directed by someone- did not move around objects with such care. Her attention is quickly drawn to the fourth, which claws at the door.

Strange. Heartless should just be able to melt into the ground and escape, right? "Or maybe not.." she looks to the bodies. "...Heartless don't leave behind bodies. Whatever they are, I think they're trapped."

It looks like a pair of adventurers trapped them at the cost of their own lives too, she notes. "We should probably leave them trapped. Let's keep moving."

Vespa has posed:
Vespa follows Avira walking slowly and quietly as as she can. She looks down at the creatures to.. She wonders looking the heartless like creatures.. She not sure what they are. She nods in agreement with Avira, best idea is to avoid a fight. "Yes, best to err on the side of caution.. Onward."

Reize Seatlan has posed:
Lots of buttons yield the group a nice terminal that lights up and shows a desktop of some airships in parade formation. As there are pressure readouts, Reze looks at the screen. "Oooh. Oh hey! There is a map!" He glances back at Violet.

He is certain that the two aren't quite nearby, "Anna, what can you make of this?" He gazes at the screen, peering closely until....

Three hundred instances of Triple Triad pops up and then crashes.

...

"... Oops."

And the room brightens. Reize twists around to see the water rising to waist level, "ACK!" It is glowing and the light blossoms from it. Annnnnd they are yellow eyed.

"...Uuuh, Anna?"

The boy is withdrawing both of his boomerangs, "We may want to prepare to fight and to go up those stairs!" Gesturing one of his boomerangs along the stairs leading further into the interior, Reize shifts his stance to cover Violet.

"Move!"

In fact, Reize could had sworn he heard some groaning noise earlier. ...Hopefully those yellow-eyed things aren't it.

With those stairs leading along, Violet may find the door at the top twisted along the frame that may require some magic--- as well as the length of piping serving a the door bar that needs to be removed.

Violet has posed:
Violet blinks her eyes against the light as it suddenly brights up the screen, her gaze flicking over the images with a confused frown. She pauses for a full moment or so, considering Reize's question, before the computer crashes. "Um, so much for that... whatever it was."

The water quickly rose and the glowing... "Yeah, I am starting to think that it is not safe in here." she agrees. The hand is quick to go to the hilt of her sword as they both hurry towards the stairs, water rushing off when they climb two or three steps at a time to a door at the very top. "Should I freeze the door?"

Alberic Lux has posed:
The Heartless in the observation chamber don't spot their observers. Small favors.

Avira and Vespa can follow the branching corridors into another chamber at the end of a longer corridor. The door appears to be jammed open, slid partway into the wall, some sort of metal security door. The interior is dimly lit with a bluish radiance, but you can't see the inside from the hall; it looks like there's a coat-rack (plus coat) in sight, but the rest of the room is off to the left past the door.

The other nearby branch of the corridor leads to a sheer drop off the edge of the land-mass, into the glassed crater. You may not want to go that way.

Down in the flooded room, though, Reize and Violet begin to have some problems. The bright yellow eyes follow them as they retreat to the damaged door. The water ripples, and a half-dozen of the grey Heartless rise out of it, all in a cluster, all in a row. Water seems to get dragged up with them, streams of it absorbed into their bodies. They bloat up, tinting blue and looking a lot more... well, watery. It's like they just adapted to what they were sitting in. Now they're more like /balloons/ with claws.

The groaning noise happens again. The entire facility shakes, very slightly. The lights flicker again. All the Heartless advancing on the pair stop and look straight up for four solid seconds.

Avira has posed:
Once out of earshot of the Heartless in the room, Avira breathes a small sigh of relief. "Well that was a little too close for comfort. At least they seem trapped somehow." She stops for a long moment and looks back towards the room, an unreadable look on her face as she thinks about the pair of people that met a miserable end here. Adventurers, just like them.

The next branch they investigate seems to lead to the outside to a drop-off into the crater. Avira only goes far enough to confirm this is the case before backing out of the branch entirely. After that, the next branch leads to the longer corridor with the security door.

Avira tries to peer inside, but doesn't get very far since the door is mostly blocking. The dim radiance suggests maybe consoles are activated within. "Get your weapon ready, Vespa, I'm going to squeeze into there." she warns, moving to do just that. In one hand, she starts to prepare some of her ice magic, just in case something unseen inside the room attacks her.

Vespa has posed:
Vepsa breaths a sighs of relif as they are away from the Heartless, she tires her best not to let the fate of what happend to the two people that were in that room.

"Okay", Vepsa says nodding in response to Avira question. Her huge axe appearing her hands, she holds it veritally the top of the blade hitting the ceiling while the hip of the hande touches the floor."Be careful Avira", she says ready to pry open the door if anything goes wrong..

Reize Seatlan has posed:
"Freeze the door and pull it apart! Quickly!"

That is all that Reize could command out as the Heartless are all emerging from the water. The boy is already running aling the stairs, trying to get away from th monsters. Given the fact tht those half-dozen of the grey heartless cluster up, Reize wants nothing to do with them.

Oh wow, they adapt to their surroundings like chameleons. That's kind of scary.

"Hurry!" Reize calls out, then the groaning noise happens again. When the facility shakes, the boy notices the flickering lights.

The attention is off of them!

Reize makes it up the stairs with Violet, then he starts tugging on the door and even go as far as feeling around until he finds the handle bar. Reaching into his bag of tricks, he is using a small mallet to strike at the bar to loosen it from the door.

Violet has posed:
Didn't have to tell her twice. Already her sword was becoming a bright glow of white frost as Violet take a few precise steps towards the door, towards her target. With three slashes through open air, frost swiftly travels outwards over its surface to completely freeze the door through and through. And with one hit, it shatters into pieces.

Violet snaps her eyes over her shoulder at Reize, only to tense to see the number of Heartless that were emerging. "Come on!" she grabs for his hand, pulling him into motion.

Alberic Lux has posed:
Avira squeezes past the door. The longcoat on the coatrack in front of her is a very dark green, covered in dust and obviously old. To her left is the room itself, opening into a wide, circular space after she descends three metal steps.

There are consoles. They are arranged on either side of a grey metal slab. Inside a recession in the slab is what appears to be a metal rod, or a sheathed sword, primarily white with a red bar lengthwise up the middle of it. It has a hand-and-a-half grip but no crossguard, and is squared at the edges. To Avira's tech-savvy eye, it looks kind of like a recharging cradle. Despite being in the center of it, though, the consoles are not the primary feature of the room.

Behind the cradle is the source of the light: a statue of a man, tall and lanky, with his hands placed on the back edge of the slab. The man is rendered in smooth, unbroken blue crystal, down to his neck-length, somewhat messy hair, and the crystal labcoat falling just where it would have if it were real. He stands in the middle of a formation of the same crystal, blunted spikes of it fanned out behind him. To the right collector, it would be worth a fortune -- but that doesn't explain why it's here.

And, behind the statue, there is what is definitely some kind of reactor. Two truncated cones point into a middle point, where a mass of white and grey energy roils and swirls. It pulses violently, and the room lights up again for just a second. That is probably the source of all the weird tremors.

Reize tries to take the slightly more careful approach to the door. He gets the bar most of the way out, but the way the door is warped makes it difficult to fully remove it. Violet solves the problem by just out-and-out shattering it, scattering shards of ice all over. There is a creak of metal, and a deactivated and damaged security robot made in sleek, angular metal falls inward, tumbling into the water. It might have been the reason the door was damaged.

The hall beyond is clear, save for dark, long-dried stains. There is another staircase at the far end, with the hall on that end collapsed inward. A maintenance hatch is slightly ajar to the side of the stairs, leading into the same lab that Avira has found herself in. You'll have to crawl, but it looks too small for the bloated Heartless to follow... if they can't just go through the walls.

They focus their attention on Violet and Reize as soon as the door explodes. The Heartless bounce forward, another six of them swarming out of the water. These dive for the robot chassis, pushing past one another and melting into it. It spasms in the water, arcs of electricity shooting off of it as they cram themselves in. They get jammed up in the doorway, grasping claws reaching for the adventurers.

Avira has posed:
Green happens to be Avira's favorite color! That coat on the coatrack is swiped by the scarred woman and thrown over a shoulder. Once she gives the room a good and quick look, she motions for Vespa to follow. "All clear." she says, figuring that she'll want to put Al away so she can follow.

A closer examination of the room follows with Avira pointedly not messing with the consoles. She's quick to point out the reactor-like device to Vespa. "These panels are probably linked to that. Looks pretty unstable. Seems like this thing is providing the power to this facility."

Avira examines the recharging cradle next, again hesitant to touch it. "A weapon...? Looks..." Cautiously, she touches the grip but does not try to pull it out of the slab. "Looks like it might be charging there."

Inevitably, she's drawn to the crystal, which she walks around in wonder. "Woooow, look at this thing. I bet it'd be worth a fortune." She reaches out and touches the face of the statue. "But I have no idea how we'd manage to move it out of here."

Vespa has posed:
Vespa follows Avira in, after she give the all She looks around, smirking a bit at Avira new coat. "I hope we get something more that just a coat from this exploration! She look at the reactor and the panels. "I have no idea what any of this stuff does.. Unstable. Great.", she looks at the statue as well. "I don't know either.. Breaking it apart would make it lose it value.. Take a while to get it out of here. Not sure we have the time do that..", she hmms a bit pondering..

Reize Seatlan has posed:
His careful manner did not work as intended, given that the door is warped. However, Violet does a great job in shattering it with her arctic abilities. "Wooo! We did it!" The boy glances at the bloated creatures, "Okay! We better go---"

Suddenly, a damaged security robot falls inard, tumbling past them and falls into the water. "Whoa!" Reie looks down, then he sweatdrops, "I guess that solves that?" He shakes his hed, then he walks ahead.

As they walk along the hall, Reize looks around until he sees the staircase ahead. Of course, the hall is collapsed inward.

"We'll have to crawl through."

Reize turns his head to see that the Heartless are bouncing forward, "Grrrrr!" Reize yelps, then he ushers Violet maintenance hatch. "Let's go!" Reize is preparing to follow her, looking back to beat back any of the Heartless with the boomerangs, if necessary. However, given that they are jammed at the doorway, it will buy them some time.

Violet has posed:
Violet glances over to the edge of the water with caution, if only for a moment of apprehension. "Lets keep moving before more show up..." she murmurs softly, looking just a bit longer than Reize before she quickly turns to catch up with him.

Entering the hall, he spots the staircase first and points it out to her, though unfortunately collapsed into itself.

Sounds of the Heartless are quick at their heels, and Violet gives Reize a worried glance if but for a moment before she enters first, pushing way pieces of the building as she makes her way through.

Alberic Lux has posed:
Touching the hilt of the weapon -- for it is clearly a weapon -- yields a brief shock. It isn't from poor shielding or anything, but more from Avira getting an instant feel for the kind of power it holds. She may not be a /powerful/ mage, but she is still a magic-user, and the barest touch tells her that, yes, this thing is getting a magical charge, and a /big/ one. Which means that the reactor is...

Vespa's pondering may pay off. There is a box in the corner of the room, and a large one at that. The box is labeled 'SECONDARY SPECIMEN STORAGE NO. 3' in big, block letters printed on the lid, and is stacked on two others. It's small enough to pick up and move, and durable enough that you could probably drop it from a height and only worry about fragile things inside of it. It feels a lot like a dungeon-specific treasure chest.

The Heartless finally get through the door. Reize will have to hold them off for a moment; four of the watery ones are diving for the two of them, coming forward fully with intent to slice him up with their claws. Behind them, the other water ones cram through the door, and behind /them/, the security robot gets up. It has a greyish cast to it now, with bright yellow spots where its sensors would be. Metal forms into claws where its hands would be, and what looks like some kind of projectile weapon forms beneath those. It starts forward just as Violet gets into the hatch.

The reactor surges again. The entire building shakes violently, tilting to the right a few degrees as the land beneath it starts to give way. The lights brighten to painful brilliance. All at once, they die, leaving the interior of the building swathed with darkness -- including the lab, where the light from the statue gutters out at the same time, and the reactor's energy casts only flickering shadows. A handful of seconds later, reddish emergency lights flicker on all throughout the facility.

Avira is abruptly face to face with a man and not a statue. He looks right at her, a serious expression on his face. His right eye is dimly luminescent for a moment, glowing with a white light in some sort of complex vertical pattern for just an instant.

"Is that my coat?" he asks, sounding genuinely puzzled.

Avira has posed:
Avira does know a thing or two about charging a weapon with magic. She does it all the time when fighting! Of course, this kind of charging registers as kind of different to Avira so she immediately jerks her hand back, thinking it to be electrified for a few seconds before realizing that the 'shock' she got was not electricity.

Slowly, she touches the hilt again, letting her fingers wrap around the grip. At that very second as she starts to pull on the sword, the reactor surges and grow unstable. Yelping, she shields her eyes as the lights become too bright, then suddenly die.

Then she finds herself staring at an actual person. The man will, in turn, get Avira's headlamp aimed at his face. The huntress yelps in alarm and steps backwards, backing onto the sword charging station.

She looks to the coat slung over her shoulder, then back to the suddenly very alive man that was very clearly just a crystal statue. "I don't know, is it?"

Vespa has posed:
Oh look a box! Shiny... She goes over to it about to pick it up when Avira screams. She turns around swing her oversize axe the blade scraping the ceiling and she points it at the man that seemingly appeared out of no where. Where dhd the statue go? Oh the man was the statue or something.. She a bit glad she didn't try and break it! She keeps her axe pointed at him.

"Are you okay Avira?", she sighs. "Just give him the coat.."

Reize Seatlan has posed:
"...I'll catch up."

Reize immediately moves over to push Violet ahead, then he turns to face the Heartless. Both boomerangs readied, the boy grits his teeth and he sucks in a breath, "Okay! Here we go!" He begins to move about, shifting his stance to take an aggressive one; both boomerangs are held inverted as he leans forward.

He had enough of trying to run.

The boy springs ahead, swinging his leg out to strike one of them owards the other.

A boomerang meets with heir claws, and then a burst of speed erupts from him as he seeks to send them bowling back to the security robot.

Everything goes to hell. The entire building shakes violently, causing Reize to stumble over. And lights go out. "Bwuh?!" Next, red lights flash across the facility. "Whoa, what's going on?!"

Violet has posed:
Giving Reize a apprehensive look, Violet complies (for the moment) and digs herself through the rubble, making a path as she goes deeper. She doesn't dare a glance back for if she does, she'll just end up rushing to his side to fight the Heartless off together.

After a few minutes is when the building actually shakes and Violet feels the floor move beneath her, just before whatever lights there are disappear completely.

Alberic Lux has posed:
The man cringes away from the lamp. He holds up a hand to shield his eyes, turning his head away from it. He frowns. "Would you please look up? Or down? Or left?" There's a slight pause. "Not right," he adds offhandedly.

The emergency hatch pops open on Avira's right from stress alone an instant after, with the Heartless, Reize and Violet on the other side. They're fended off by Reize's deft display of boomerangmanship, deflected back and staggered by resistance they clearly weren't expecting. They hit the robot, one striking an outstretched claw and bursting, disintegrating into a cloud of grey dust. The possessed machine fires wildly, a bolt of blue energy lancing out past Reize's head and blasting a hole in the rubble behind the two of them. The noise is audible through the hatch.

"Secondly --" Vespa swings her huge axe down. The edge scrapes against a conduit in the ceiling, sending down a jet of steam towards an unoccupied side of the room with a loud hiss. The man frowns a little more. "-- would you please cease threatening me with your... is that an axe? How delightfully quaint." He carries on as if he hadn't said anything. "Would you please cease threatening me with your axe, before I'm forced to do something..." He trails off. He looks to the side for a second, tilting his head. His eyes flick back to Vespa. The emergency lighting seems to catch off his strange eye. His expression is cold, despite the casual tone to his voice.

"...unkind?"

"And thirdly --" The room shakes again as the reactor pulses. The groaning is louder. The sounds of cables snapping in the distance and of glass breaking echoes through the mostly-empty halls. The man turns around, regarding the boiling energy. "-- what happened to my entropic reactor?"

Digging through the rubble is possible, but time-consuming. There is still an open passage in the wall, though Reize can hold off the Heartless long enough for Violet to clear out the rubble behind them... in theory.

Avira has posed:
"Look-" Avira reaches up, while taking note of the strangeness in this man's eye, and turns off her headlamp. "Near as I can tell, this building, this piece of your world broke off. Probably when your world was destroyed. It crashed down in the middle of a desert so whatever damage you are seeing to your entropic reactor..."

She pauses to reflect on that phrase, which translates to 'stupidly dangerous power source' in non-SCIENCE speak. "..probably happened on impact."

She looks towards the hatch and hears the sounds of battle beyond it. She can recognize Reize because she knows what he sounds like when fighting.

Resigned, she tosses the green coat at him. "Vespa, we've got to get out of here. I strongly suspect that-" she points at the reactor, "-is going to explode."

Vespa has posed:
Vespa says, "Quait? Quaint? You take that back! You hurt Al's feelings!!!" , she hmps and bring her axe up to her side.

"Oh. Oh. Is that all. Okay time to leave then!", she grabs the treasue box too. She not leaving her empty handed!"

Reize Seatlan has posed:
The good: The Heartless are driven back. Reize manages to knock them away from getting to Violet. Given that Reize took a stance in order to protect his teammates, he wanted to keep the numbers down as well.

The bad: Oh hey, robot is firing--OH GOD LASERS! Reize yelps and he dives away, "Aaaaackkkk!" The laser strikes near the hatch. Reize grits his teeth and he quickly makes his way along the rubble. "Okay, we beter hurry!" And as Reize goes through, he is making his way to steer Violet along the open passage.

And then... he hears a voice. Or two. Or three. Both of them are familiar, "Ooooiii! Avira! Vespa!" They said it's time to go?

"Grrr... that's it." He reaches for Violet's hand. "I got an idea! ...Hold on tightly."

This is not going to end well.

....Imagine a massive burst that explodes everywhere. Yes. Reize decided to blow a hole in the entire structure. They needed an exit and lord did they need to get rid of the Security Bot as well.

Reize used his spell to make things explode.

...Violet is likely covered in soot, but otherwise, unscathed.

Reize, however, is charred.

Cough.

Smoke expels from his mouth.

"Exit made."

Alberic Lux has posed:
The man blinks a couple times when the light is off. He adjusts his collar slightly, looking back over his shoulder at Avira now that she's not shining a light in his face. "Thank you. Now!" He claps his hands together and looks back to the reactor. There's a long moment while he examine it, looking into the expanding cloud of odd light. "Aahhh, it used to be so /beautiful/," he murmurs, shaking his head sadly. "If only..."

Another tremor, this time from Reize. The wall between the lab and the maintenance corridors Reize and Violet found themselves in disintegrates. The outermost wall blows outward at the same time, opening to a now-charred swath of land and a sheer drop. Light floods in, illuminating the chambers as the emergency lighting... well, ceases to exist. The tremors, however, do not stop -- they become constant, and a rattling builds as things begin to shake loose all around.

The man looks to Reize and then the reactor. He looks stunned for a moment. There is a brief instant where his expression reads 'nice job breaking it, hero' before he turns to the thing in the cradle.

"Damocles," he says, speaking softly, as if to a child, "awaken."

The cradle hisses, and there's a series of clicks as internal clamps release. He reaches in and plucks the weapon out of it, holding it one-handed. He eyes Vespa for a second, and her axe. "I'm sorry, Al, if I hurt your feelings." He sounds gentle again. "Now then. I have been asleep for quite some time, and I don't have any particular desire to experience --"

The reactor promptly explodes.

A cloud of grey and white light, like puffs of smoke boiling outward, engulfs the land-mass the building and the adventurers are on. The desert outside is mirrored inside the cloud, images of it warped and twisted every which way. There is a sensation of being crushed and twisted, and a droning noise like the world was objecting to whatever was happening to it, and doing it amazingly loudly. Everyone experiences terrible vertigo for what feels like hours, but is, in reality, a span of seconds.

Then, falling. They hit the dunes outside the crater, clipping the top of the sands and rolling down the side of one of the largest. The entire group of them comes down near the same place. A rain of stones and metal follows, bits and pieces of the odd oasis falling across what must be miles of desert. The sky is, for a brief instant, dominated by a pool of inky blackness that hangs in space.

The blackness disappears. The sun comes back out. The man stands up with a muttered, "That." He brushes himself off, picking up the weapon and looking across the sands. There is an expression of mild frustration on his face, and he sighs, perhaps long-sufferingly. He walks over to Avira and plucks the green coat off her shoulder, tossing it over his own.

The three crates promptly fall from the sky, lids vanished. Turns out they were full of munny and tons of the items you expect to come from beating up Heartless. Who knew?

GOOD END
TRIPLE TRIAD PC: DESTROYED FOREVER