Variant Earth 13 E Mail Game Archive Number 19

Subject: Re: [v13] Enter: the Pit!
Date: Wed, 17 May 2000 15:01:51 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

"Hmph.  Well, if you don't think you can do it..."  Ahom just wanders
off, astrally speaking, looking around the alleyway as if to avoid your
gaze.  He must be really out of sorts if that little retort affected
him... makes you worry, what with his being ultra-cool vs. Morbis.

Meanwhile, Slow Jim just shrugs.  "It's just... so much.  How do humans
live like this?   I'm used to having miles and miles of just... water
all 'round me.  In every direction - even up and down!  This... this is
like living underground!"

As claustrophobia descends on Jim, the bum in the street there grins a
toothless (save for one) smile at you.  "Anteeq, you say?  Well, little
girlie girl, what do yer wanna know?  Ol' Peg Leg Jimmy Joe Bob knows
himself lots o' things.... heh heh hehACKG!"

?

Subject: RE: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Wed, 17 May 2000 16:09:02 -0400
From: Douglas Lohse <Lohsed@MSCDirect.com>

"Well... we shouldn't need a fortune or anything, should we?  Maybe just
a van or something that we can arm to the teeth, and maybe a mad
scientist we can lock in the basement to invent stuff.  A mechanical
genius or something... I don't know."

"As far the monkey, Ari - if we find one, it's yours."  Tammy smiles as
she said that, but then gets a bit serious again.  "Hm... speaking of a
plane ride... hey Rebound!  Any way you can scare me up a ride back to
Atlanta with that cooky communicator dingus that future-man left you?"

"Well, I can try, but he did say he was holing up to make some repairs."

Rebound fiddles with the communicator...

"Hey buddy, You listening in?  If so, can you spare some flight time to
give our lovely telekinetic a ride down to Atlanta?"

(Presumed response space)

"In any event, if we are going to team up and fight 'the dark conspiracy
of evil forces' we are going to need a place that they will not be able
to find easily.  An apartment is real nice, but I tend to attract more
than a bit of attention when I walk out the front door in this get-up.
So, anyone know of someplace around where we can hide out so that we
don't attract too much attention.  Although I'm not too sure about the
weapons, I do like the idea of a van to get around town and such.  As
long as whatever we get is completely tinted, I'm in."

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Wed, 17 May 2000 15:10:59 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

"Well... we shouldn't need a fortune or anything, should we?  Maybe just
a van or something that we can arm to the teeth, and maybe a mad
scientist we can lock in the basement to invent stuff.  A mechanical
genius or something... I don't know."

"As far the monkey, Ari - if we find one, it's yours."  Tammy smiles as
she said that, but then gets a bit serious again.  "Hm... speaking of a
plane ride... hey Rebound!  Any way you can scare me up a ride back to
Atlanta with that cooky communicator dingus that future-man left you?"

?

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Wed, 17 May 2000 16:17:21 EDT
From: Scott A Clay <cclayjr2@juno.com>

"Might as well, What else have I got to do?" Said Stone Cold still
drinking on his second beer.

Subject: Re: [v13] Home Sweet... Home?
Date: Wed, 17 May 2000 15:23:55 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

Sneaking in behind the frog-thing, you shamble about in a seemingly
random pattern through the blasted township you've found yourself in,
Magus.  It seems to dart left, right, and even backwards without logic,
sniffing, snuffling, and babbling all the way.

"Hm?  No tanar'ri here!  Nosirrediddlybob!  *snif snif*  How about
here?"  The creature kicks in a strangely still-standing door, only to
find two scurrying rat-things - no tanar'ri for it.  The monster then
grabs them and eats 'em whole - though they resist mightily for rats.

"Mmmm!"  Nice, nice rats of the Abyss!  Speaking of Abysses - or's that
Abysi - need more tanar'ri!  *snif snif*  Oh yeah, the gateway!"  The
froggish being then returns to its original path, if it did in fact have
one, and leads you on.

Eventually, it comes to what would appear to have been a town square,
though this one is different from others; it's got a big hole in the
middle.  From your safe vantage point, you see that there are several
streamers of bluish vapor coming from within.

And the cold!  You can feel a brilliant cold coming through the rent in
the earth, accompanied by what would appear to be snow - snow that's
shooting out of the cave.  "Mmm... ice fishing!"  The monster wanders
towards the hole, only to be suddenly challenged by two people.

They were invisible until mere moments ago, and technically aren't
people, but there you go.  The formerly invisible people seem to be
mostly humanoid, one appearing quite like your old 'pal' Horath, the
other being a sinewy woman with tiny, bat-like wings on her back.

"Hold it, slaad - this conduit's under our protection!  No entry without
the proper password!"  The apparent slaad then turns towards you -
seemingly having known that you've been there all along - and winks
conspiratorially.  "Yes, right, yes, I know the password."

The slaad walks towards the Horath-like 'man', as if to whisper it in
his ear, and promptly bites his head off!!!  You've never seen anything
like it, his mouth opening up almost comically large and just... sucking
the dude's head in.

Once he's been beheaded, the tanar'ri (?) falls to the ground, quite
dead, and his ally simply turns tail and flees.  "Eek!  Mad slaad!"
This angers your new pal, who pursues his quarry.  "Not mad, chaotic!
Chaotic, berk!  Let me SHOW you..."

They wander off in their mad chase, leaving you alone with this strange,
cold-spewing cavern in the middle of town.  How now, brown cow?

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Wed, 17 May 2000 17:44:43 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

Ari just starts laughing.  "Oh my god... I can't *BELIEVE* I'm doing this."

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 6:38:02 -0400
From: "Scott J. Greengold" <Scott.Greengold@ey.com>

After seeing 3 beings appear from nowhere Crimebuster thinks to himself:
"1 day of peace and quiet. Really. Thats all I ask.......ah who am I
kidding, I love this stuff..." He approaches the 2 chasers and with a commanding
voice says:

"You there! Hold your fire and identify yourselves! "   Realizing the
reality of dealing with beings with power gauntlets, he is prepared to dodge to the
side toward the building should it come to that.

(OCC: Some rolls:  97, 26, 84, 33....the dice, they like me....they really
like me)

Subject: Re: [v13] Home Sweet... Home?
Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 19:05:14 -0400
From: "Nathan Gecko" <nathangecko@yahoo.com>

Magus revels in his prowess of stalking all the while as he follows the
odd frogman. That is until he see said fellow wink to him. Magus' eyes grow
large in momentary shock. Thinking to himself, *Good job Magus.
Underestimate someone just because they're a bit odd...sheesh.*

> The slaad walks towards the Horath-like 'man', as if to whisper it in
> his ear, and promptly bites his head off!!!  You've never seen anything
> like it, his mouth opening up almost comically large and just... sucking
> the dude's head in.

Magus just watches the odd man in a bit of amazement and disgust wondering
exactly how much this Slaad fellow will eat before being satiated.

> Once he's been beheaded, the tanar'ri (?) falls to the ground, quite
> dead, and his ally simply turns tail and flees.  "Eek!  Mad slaad!"
> This angers your new pal, who pursues his quarry.  "Not mad, chaotic!
> Chaotic, berk!  Let me SHOW you..."
>
> They wander off in their mad chase, leaving you alone with this strange,
> cold-spewing cavern in the middle of town.  How now, brown cow?

 Magus carefully strides from what he thought was a well hidden spot towards
the frigid cavern pondering to himself exactly why that Slaad fellow decided
to let him tag along in the first place. Warily his hands rest at the ready
on his blades as he mutters to himself, "Cavern of frozen death or Abyss
forever....hmm.....a most harsh choice...."

Subject: Re: [v13] Home Sweet... Home?
Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 23:22:12 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

As you look down at the cavern, you see gusts of bluish gases streaking
forth and all kinds of snow - blowing up - out of the hole.  The problem
is that it looks all dark inside, and the contrast between the
temperature inside and outside the pit.

'Course, you can think of creepier things out there, say, like
everything else in this godforsaken realm of existence that you seem to
have found yourself on.  And, what's worse, you hear the sound one might
get if you had a large, upright frog walking up behind you.

Not being stealthy, mind you, but trotting right up to you from
elsewhere.  What do you do?

Subject: Re: [v13] Home Sweet... Home?
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 00:36:55 -0400
From: "Nathan Gecko" <nathangecko@yahoo.com>

Still muttering in a barely audible tone to himself, "Mind numbing frigidity
that could quite possibly cause my limbs to fall off or wandering around
with giant reptiles and demons who seem to have a things for eating other
sentient beings....damn I hate these rough decisions..."

> 'Course, you can think of creepier things out there, say, like
> everything else in this godforsaken realm of existence that you seem to
> have found yourself on.  And, what's worse, you hear the sound one might
> get if you had a large, upright frog walking up behind you.

 Magus stares ahead of himself listening to the approaching fellow for a
moment.

> Not being stealthy, mind you, but trotting right up to you from
> elsewhere.  What do you do?

 Spinning around to face the creature as his hands shoot to his trusted
swords, "Stop where you are please. I have no desire to fight those that
that I have no need to fight."

Subject: Re: [v13] Home Sweet... Home?
Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 23:42:32 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

The slaad (as identified by your tanar'ri 'pals') looks at you and puts
its hands up as if in supplication.  "No, no no... you have it all
wrong, my friend.  I have no need to fight with you, for I have no need
to eat you.  I don't have a taste for human-types."

"Or whatever you are.  I eat fiends... after all, there's SO many of 'em
out there."  The toady thing looks at you and grins, giving you a rather
large display of teeth - sharp teeth - though the creature oddly doesn't
look very menacing.

"So, headed out of town, are we?"

?

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 23:42:47 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

        (fishing in the stygian depths of eGroups, we find...)

Your handy dandy pilot from the future responds after about a minute,
Rebound, with an affirmative.  "Sure thing, good buddy.  Just have her
here in half an hour and I'll have her on her way in no time flat.  Most
of my stuff's all fixed up - just a few little things to finish up."

After hearing that, Tammy gets up and prepares to go, needing to get her
personal affairs in order, since they've been all mucked up since she
got involved with the lot of you; not that you did anything, of course,
but simpy because she's been away from home for so long.

"I guess you guys can look around for a 'secret headquarters' or
something while I'm gone.  Unless we wanted to take over Morbis' old
hole, I dunno where we'd set up shop.  But I'll leave that up to you
guys, and be back in a few days... groovy?"

"So, unless anyone's going with me, I s'pose I'll be on my merry way.
Toodles!"  With that, Tammy gets ready to fly herself back to the
abandoned hanger you're hiding your spacecraft in, and unless nobody
joins her, she's gone.

Meanwhile, out in the street, you find yourself under fire from those
two armed goons, Crimebuster.  The blasts miss you entirely, but paste a
fruit truck behind you with their plasma discharge, and cause melon pulp
to fly in all direction as the contents of the vehicle explode!

"Butt out, interloper!  We pursue the one man who can stop our plans!
Interfere at your peril!"  After saying that, goon number one turns back
to pursue his quarry, while the other falls back to cover him in the
event that you decide to continue on with your curiosity.

As he does so, the first man who popped in from nothingness fades away,
doing so once again at the midpoint between the two buildings bounding
the alleyway, simply walking from existence into non-existence.  "Dag!
You'll pay for this, troublemaker!"

The two goons then also fade away, doing so by simply crossing said
midpoint and walking... elsewhere.  At least, somewhere not readily
apparent.  That leaves you in the edge of an alley with nothing but the
hint of a fight and a truck full of burst melons.  What now???

Subject: Re: [v13] Home Sweet... Home?
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 00:56:03 -0400
From: "Nathan Gecko" <nathangecko@yahoo.com>

"Well that's..........comforting."

> "So, headed out of town, are we?"

"That's what I was considering just now. I need to find my way back to my
home. You perhaps wouldn't have any knowledge of the the Blood Isles of Io
and how to get there would you?"

Subject: Re: [v13] Home Sweet... Home?
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 03:20:53 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

"Nope, sorry, never heard of it.  And if I'd been there, well, I'd
remember.  I make it a point to remember things.  'M a Sensate, see?"
The slaad digs through its small handbag and produces a badge, a sort of
stylized emblem that displays the five senses with an eye, ear, etc...

"But I'd go there in a minute if it'd be interesting.  Speaking of
interesing..."  The frog-thing then looks at the cavern, and starts
chasing snowflakes around.  "Did you know that every snowflake is
unique?  No, really!"

"Each have six points, but have a different crystal latticework.  A
prime example of the primacy of Chaos, wouldn't you say?  Mmh.  Mmh!"
The slaad is now trying to EAT the snowflakes billowing forth from the
chasm before you, apparently more interested in flavor than shape.

?

Subject: RE: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 09:02:26 -0400
From: Douglas Lohse <Lohsed@MSCDirect.com>

"I guess you guys can look around for a 'secret headquarters' or
something while I'm gone.  Unless we wanted to take over Morbis' old
hole, I dunno where we'd set up shop.  But I'll leave that up to you
guys, and be back in a few days... groovy?"

"Maybe we should check out Morbius' old place again now that we have
more time on our hands.  Anyone up for a little field trip?  Maybe
we'll run into that Crimebuster guy on the way."

Rebound gathers some gear (flashlights and the like) for the trip and
heads out with whomever wants to come along.

"So, unless anyone's going with me, I s'pose I'll be on my merry way.
Toodles!"  With that, Tammy gets ready to fly herself back to the
abandoned hanger you're hiding your spacecraft in, and unless nobody
joins her, she's gone.

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 9:19:26 -0400
From: "Scott J. Greengold" <scott.greengold@ey.com>

"Butt out, interloper!  We pursue the one man who can stop our plans!
Interfere at your peril!"  After saying that, goon number one turns back
to pursue his quarry, while the other falls back to cover him in the
event that you decide to continue on with your curiosity.

As he does so, the first man who popped in from nothingness fades away,
doing so once again at the midpoint between the two buildings bounding
the alleyway, simply walking from existence into non-existence.  "Dag!
You'll pay for this, troublemaker!"

The two goons then also fade away, doing so by simply crossing said
midpoint and walking... elsewhere.  At least, somewhere not readily
apparent.  That leaves you in the edge of an alley with nothing but the
hint of a fight and a truck full of burst melons.  What now???

Noting that he is talking basically to himself but hoping they can hear him
Crimebuster says with more than a little sarcasm in his voice: "Hrm. Interloper? Does anyone really talk like that? "Taking a quick look at the scene of the melon bombing to see if there are any clues Cirmebuster keeps his guard up.  If he finds nothing in the next 2 minutes he heads back to the apartment with his new book.

(OCC: A couple rolls just in case:  06, 34, 73....)

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 11:29:51 EDT
From: Scott A Clay <cclayjr2@juno.com>

"I'll go if you don't mind the company?"  Stone asks Grabbing a jacket
and heading out.

Subject: Re: [v13] Home Sweet... Home?
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 13:29:50 -0400
From: "Nathan Gecko" <nathangecko@yahoo.com>

"It figures. Well how very.................nice for you."

> "Each have six points, but have a different crystal latticework.  A
> prime example of the primacy of Chaos, wouldn't you say?  Mmh.  Mmh!"
> The slaad is now trying to EAT the snowflakes billowing forth from the
> chasm before you, apparently more interested in flavor than shape.

 Magus watches the rather odd fellow running about exclaiming things about
chaos and snowflakes and even gobbling down the self same snowflakes. "Well
that's all very well and good but seeing as how this might be the only way
off of this plane I do believe I might need to forego this discussion on
chaos and it's displays in nature."

Subject: Re: [v13] Hell Fire!!
Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 08:34:39 EDT
From: "Peter Chamers" <lil_blk_duck@hotmail.com>

Ronin looks over at his companions.  Lowering his voice, he says:

"I do not like the looks of this curr....I vote we do not need him. Still,
this is a hard and dangerous land.  I think we are able to make it without
him.  I will, however, abide by your choice."

Ronin glances at the guard.

"What has happened here?" he asks.  "It seems that you survived some sort of
battle and that barely.  I am not too sure we need a bodyguard  who is
unable to protect his own home."

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 14:10:53 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

As you all disembark from Och's apartment (assuming you went with, Ari),
you encounter Crimebuster as he returns from his trip out to the local
bookstore.  The thing is, though, that he has a look on his face
suggesting he'd been in some sort of trouble on the way.

He's just got this ... edge to his features.  And some melon on 'em.

?

Subject: RE: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 15:12:29 -0400
From: Douglas Lohse <Lohsed@MSCDirect.com>

As you all disembark from Och's apartment (assuming you went with, Ari),
you encounter Crimebuster as he returns from his trip out to the local
bookstore.  The thing is, though, that he has a look on his face
suggesting he'd been in some sort of trouble on the way.

He's just got this ... edge to his features.  And some melon on 'em.

"You OK there, chief?  I've heard of having egg on your face, but what
happened to you?  Assaulted by the watermelon gang?  Anyway, we are
taking a trip down to Morbius' old headquarters.  Maybe we can convert
it to a base of operations for ourselves."

Rebound turns to Ari..."Got an Industrial Strength Air Freshener in that
bag of yours?"

Subject: Re: [v13] Home Sweet... Home?
Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 14:14:33 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

"Hmph... mortals, always in a hurry.  Very well, hu-man, if you must go,
feel free to leap into the chasm if you must.  It will lead you further
along the Great Ring, into the sullen plane of Carceri - but at least
you won't be in the Abyss!"

The slaad looks around and sniffs.  "Yes... much fewer tanar'ri then
you'll find here.  Bad for me, but good for you!  Just watch out for
gehreleths..."  Before you can ask what it means, the slaad wanders off,
sniffing the air all the while.

You get the impression that it smells something...

?!

Subject: Re: [v13] Hell Fire!!
Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 14:18:57 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

The guide looks at you and frowns, Ronin.  "Insult me all yer like,
berk, but it t'aint my home that you're lookin' at.  I'm from the second
mount, the really hot one.  And besides, Beyond Hell's always looked
this bad... it's part of its charm."

"The sickness keeps everybody from rebuilding... got other things to
worry about..."

?!?

Subject: RE: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 15:36:46 -0400
From: "Scott J. Greengold" <scott.greengold@ey.com>

"...And maybe a Thaumatech Ultra Torque Towel (tm) for this melon.  "
Crimebuster says in response to Rebound's comment. " I ran into a couple
of....issues
on my way back from the bookstore.  Nothing we should be concerned of at the
moment.  Just a couple
of power gauntlet wielding psychos chasing an old man who appeared from
nowhere and then disappeard
to nowhere along with the goons themselves.  Confused?  Good.  Me too."

"Now, Morbius's lair, this was the place we were that had all the destroyed
equipment correct?
Are we heading there in hopes of finding your lost friends?"

Crimebuster cleans himself off as best as he can with his hands.  Assuming
no real large amounts
of debris is on him he accompanies the rest of the squad.  If he is bathed
in melon he will ask if
he can get back to the apartment for a moment to clean himself off.

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 15:45:47 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

Ari pauses.  "Och? You okay, buddy?"  She cocks her head to one side, hand
on the hip.

Subject: Re: [v13] Home Sweet... Home?
Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 01:28:28 -0400
From: "Nathan Gecko" <nathangecko@yahoo.com>

"I am not usually so impatient. But I fear that my family and friends may be
dying or dead already. I imagine you can understand my need to rush about a
little better now."

 Gazing into the pit of freezing winds and snow, "What can you tell me of
Carceri?"

> The slaad looks around and sniffs.  "Yes... much fewer tanar'ri then
> you'll find here.  Bad for me, but good for you!  Just watch out for
> gehreleths..."  Before you can ask what it means, the slaad wanders off,
> sniffing the air all the while.

Magus listens to the Slaad's words before speaking once more, "Mind telling
me what exactly a gehreleth is? Er...friend? Friend?"

Shaking his head Magus weighs his options, "Why by Io do I feel like I'm
being pulled in every direction by some insane puppetmaster?"

> You get the impression that it smells something...

Sighing heavily Magus stalks towards the frog-man and whispers to him, "What
is it? Are we being spied upon?"

Subject: [v13] Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 00:26:15 -0000
From: "William Lockwood" <albedo1@home.com>

OOC: This was also lost to me and I finally dredged it up from the
webpage.

Jinx crouches down and keeps her voice low, making sure to keep the
coins in plain sight while making her pitch, "OK, I need to get my
hands on some equipment. I don't care if it's hot or disposable, it
just needs to be effective on a short-term basis. Stealth and
intrusion equipment along with some defensive and a smattering of
offensive devices are what I'm looking for. Do you think you can tell
me who I need to talk to get these things?"

She made sure to continue to keep an eye on the alley, also looking
up, to make sure she wasn't being obviously spied upon. She was also
doing her best to keep an eye on the obviously agitated Jim, and the
disturbed Ahom.

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Tue, 30 May 2000 05:31:24 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

(ooc: just for reference, Och's not here, dude... he went journeying to
some company that he thinks can help y'all find your fellows.  Just
thought I'd say that, since there seems to be a ... discrepancy
somewhere... prob'ly my fault.  =)  At any rate...)

After Crimebuster cleans himself up a bit, the lot of you split up into
two groups, Tammy and Stone Cold heading towards your ship from the
future, on a journey to Atlanta, while the rest of you make your way,
once again, underground, in order to explore Morbis' former hidey-hole.

After about an hour of climbing through the tunnels beneath New York
City, you make your way here yet again, and find the place is exactly as
you left it mere days ago.  You're currently in the entrance from the
sewers, looking at the site of your battle with Morbis.

There's all kinds of high tech wreckage all over the place, from the
rocket Morbis had stored here to A-Lonse's patented Weather Dominator,
which he used in his scheme to throw the world into a new ice age.  Of
course, you've never actually explored the place.

Meanwhile, by this time, your pal from the future has taken both you and
Tammy to Atlanta, Stone Cold, in her effort to get her college affairs
taken care of before she descends into a life of costumed adventurism.
She's mostly got to duke it out with college admins, though.

While you're back at home, Stoney, is there anything you wanted to do?

Subject: Re: [v13] Home Sweet... Home?
Date: Tue, 30 May 2000 05:36:55 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

The slaad looks at you and frowns.  "A lot of questions you have, my
mortal friend.  Carceri is a plane of poisoners and prisoners, those
dark souls who find comfort in treachary and betrayal.  They're mostly
harmless to the likes of slaad, though."

"As for your other question, it's the gehreleths that are your worst
nightmare, mortal.  They're like the tanar'ri of the Abyss, but more
powerful - for there are less of 'em to go around.  9,999, to be exact,
not counting Apomps, their dread leader."

"He makes exactly ten grand, if I recall right... not that you'd ever
want to meet him.  I would, but then, I like that sort of thing."  The
slaad stops conversing to sniff some more, and then smiles.  "Ooh, more
tanar'ri on the way... looks like a veritable feast comes to me!  Woo!"

"Dinner.........."

!?

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Tue, 30 May 2000 05:42:37 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

(sorry for the delay... i figured you were just in post-move confusion.)

The bum looks around nervously, and nods.  "Sure, I know lots of guys
that can come up with the gear you want.  What with us bein' on the
start of a brand new millemiumium, I'm sure there's all sorts of edgey
stuff my man Tony can get to you for your... anteeeeeeeq money."

"Speaking of which... you got some of that handy?"

?

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Tue, 30 May 2000 08:43:12 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

Ari gawks at all the neat stuff.  "Think any of this stuff is salvagable?
'Cos if we're doing a superhero thing from outta here, I am SO not pulling a
Ninja Turtle.'

Subject: RE: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Tue, 30 May 2000 08:53:14 -0400
From: Douglas Lohse <Lohsed@MSCDirect.com>

"We'll have to see what works and what doesn't.  Anybody have a clue how to
fix this stuff?"

Rebound rummages through the mass of shatterd and strewn debris for
something that looks at least remotely familiar and/or fuctional.

Subject: RE: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Tue, 30 May 2000 10:49:36 -0400
From: "Scott J. Greengold" <scott.greengold@ey.com>

"I doubt we would really...ahem....pull a Ninja Turtle.  We would need to
create a much more convienient entrance since I
doubt pizza delivery guys would come down here...."

"Seriously though, we would need to have closer access to the city than the
hour trip it takes to get here.  I think
that this place would make a good starting point."

After saying his piece, Crimebuster heads over toward Rebound and asks "If
this place was never really gone through,
maybe we would be better served finding out exactly what we have here before
we try to start fixing things.  I am going
to go exploring.  If you would like to join me, I would appreciate the
company."  As he says this he feels the reassuring
pommel of Achira Ryushutsu in his hand....trying to get rid of the bad
feeling he has in his gut.

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Tue, 30 May 2000 17:19:58 GMT
From: "Charlie Clay Jr." <cclayjr@hotmail.com>

Yo' Firebomb.  I don't know if I had made this clear, but Jeremy (Stone
Cold) went to see off, Tammy.  Just checking and all.

Subject: Re: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Tue, 30 May 2000 10:34:27 -0700 (added by postmaster@sj-mailproxy05.mytalk.com)
From: cclayjr@myTalk.com

Stone Cold goes to check on his cousin to make sure she is ok, pack up his
things and make a few phone calls to what few friends that he has and waits
to leave again.  Take a stroll through the Underground once again.  Get a
peach smoothy.  (Simply pleasures). ;-)

Subject: Re: [v13] Home Sweet... Home?
Date: Tue, 30 May 2000 14:14:38 -0400
From: "Nathan Gecko" <nathangecko@yahoo.com>

"Well a fool is one that will not ask a question. Sounds like Carceri is
quite a fun place," Magus glances back into the pit.

<snip>

> "He makes exactly ten grand, if I recall right... not that you'd ever
> want to meet him.  I would, but then, I like that sort of thing."

"Thanks to you. Let's hope they don't find the need to cross my path or else
their numbers will dwindle considerably."

>  The slaad stops conversing to sniff some more, and then smiles.  "Ooh,
more
> tanar'ri on the way... looks like a veritable feast comes to me!  Woo!"
>
> "Dinner.........."

 Magus glances at the strange fellow, "Well perhaps I should stay a while
longer to help dispatch these fiends..."

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Tue, 30 May 2000 17:35:27 -0500
From: "William H. Lockwood" <albedo1@home.com>

Jinx nods at the bum's suggestion, offering him 3 coins: 1 penny, 1
nickle, and 1 dime.

"There you go. Fair's fair and all. You deserve your cut. You'll get
some more when you get me in touch with this Tony of yours," she haggled
as best she could with the situation at hand.

She'd take a look around the alley to make sure that Ahom and Jim were
still there and not spontaneously combusting or anything odd.

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Sun, 04 Jun 2000 06:37:03 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

As Ari defies the future, Rebound, you find a few bits and pieces of
gear amidst the rubble-strewn flooring.  For one thing, A-Lonse's gear
seems to be mostly intact, just having a few bits and pieces of shrapnel
sticking out of it here and there.

The main console itself seems to indicate something he calls a 'weather
dominator', and has large power lines running up the walls towards...
something.  You're not sure what, but the tubes and cables run right
through the thirty-foot high ceilings to... elsewhere.

Meanwhile, you also manage to find all kinds of remnants of the techno
horrors Morbis unleased upon y'all when you fought him hereabouts, such
as various robot bits, complete with weaponry, those 'jaws of doom' that
tore Morbis' physical frame apart, and more.

While you poke about the wreckage, though, Crimebuster vanishes.

                                   ***

Wandering about this strange facility for a second time in as many
weeks, Crimebuster, you note that the tunnel leading to the city's sewer
system isn't the only passage from this room.  Looking about, you find
three distinct doorways leading out of this central chamber of stuff.

One holds what would appear to be tanks filled with water, three of
which seem to be storing... bodies.  They're bubbling away in true to
form clone lab fashion, and various sensors and lights and doo-dads are
merrily going about their bio-electronic purposes.

The second way out seems to lead to a storage cabinet of some part, one
that contains all manner of spare parts, should a body need to construct
something in a pinch; sure, this Morbis fellow was a technomage, but why
make parts from whole cloth if you can just grab 'em out of a box?

Finally, the third exit leads to a chamber that contains a stairwell and
what would appear to be a freight elevator.  Following the stairs up a
few flights, you find yourself in what would appear to be a garage of
some sort, one complete with a full set of tools.

Next to where the freight elevator is, you spy a door, an automatic one
that seems to be triggered by a big, red lever on the left side of the
door itself.  The door itself is opaque, so you don't know what exactly
is on the other side, but one can never tell...

                                 ***

As the others mill about in their search for... things, Ari, you find
yourself rather... bored, all of a sudden.  That's when you start
hearing the voice.  "Misbegotten female, release me from this
extraplanar prison at once, or face the wrath of the Infinitum!!!!!"

                                 ***

Down in Atlanta, Stone Cold, you have yourself a fun night on the town,
as it were, picking up on old threads with your pals, relatives, and
generally clearing up all the loose ends currently extant in your life.
It's a good time, of course, but it eventually comes to an end.

Before you can make it home, however, you notice that you're being
followed.  Well, you're not sure, of course, but you and whoever else is
behind you has been walking on the exact same path on the sidewalk for a
good two miles.

Sounds light of foot, and yet... the footfalls HAVE been with you for a
while, now...  hm...

???

P.S.:  Sorry for the delays in posting, folks, but I blame DirecTV.
Next time they wipe out a million access cards, one would hope they'd
give us some warning, no?  Ooooogh...

Subject: Re: [v13] Home Sweet... Home?
Date: Sun, 04 Jun 2000 06:40:54 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

"S'up to you, blood.  I'm hungry, though.  Don't grab any meat for
yourself, or we'll have to have... words."  The slaad smiles at you, or
makes its best attempt to do so, and then runs towards the cover of the
blasted buildings around you.

Leaving you all alone, of course.

That's when you start to hear the chittering.

And the snickering.

And the smacking of lips.

And, of course, the tread of about one hundred feet (tentacles, etc...).

You even see shapes amidst the town around you...

Lots of them...

Almost like a massive flow of demonic flesh.

Surrounding you on all sides.

Like a... avalanche of tanar'ri.

What do you do?

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Sun, 04 Jun 2000 06:44:46 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

The bum nods greedily, thinking the coin you carry worth more than 16
cents, and leads you into the mazework of alleyways.  After a half hour
of winding ways and wispy warrens of wicked waste and warped folk, you
arrive at your apparent destination.

It would appear as a simple hole in the wall of some pre-fab structure.
"In heah, lady poo, you'll find Tony.  Best crackpot inventer I ever
knew.  He takes black market commissions from just about anyone.  I
tells you, this is the man you want to see."

"He c'n cure all that ails yer.  Her her her... so... where's them there
extra booties you were talkin' about, lady?  Hm...?"

?!

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Sun, 4 Jun 2000 09:48:55 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

"Infinitum?  Oh yeah... the book, right."  Ari rummages through her backpack
to see if she stashed it in there somewhere.  IF she finds it, she responds
as follows: "Misbegotten?  You'd better apologize for that one, pal, or you
can just STAY in the bag.  Be nice, or you won't get anywhere, dig?"

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Sun, 04 Jun 2000 21:55:37 EDT
From: Scott A Clay <cclayjr2@juno.com>

As Stone Cold is walkin close to any buildings, he will attempt to get
out of the line of sight by melding within a building without being seen.
 And then attempt to follow his pursuer.  (Rolls 78, 56, 83)

Subject: RE: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2000 08:40:35 -0400
From: Douglas Lohse <Lohsed@MSCDirect.com>

(OCC: Was that a vanish from plain sight, or a wanders off to do his own
thing?)

Subject: Re: [v13] Home Sweet... Home?
Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2000 01:30:36 -0400
From: "Nathan Gecko" <nathangecko@yahoo.com>

Magus waves his hand in the air dismissively, "I don't think you'll have to
worry about that."

> Like a... avalanche of tanar'ri.

 Magus sighs heavily, "By the ever loving grace of Io....why me?"

Drawing his swords quickly Magus slowly turns to face each side of  the
oncoming onslaught of tanar'ri before yelling loudly at them all, "WELL HAVE
AT THEE YOU SONS OF GOATS!"

And perhaps bravely but far more likey foolishly Magus stands awaiting the
hordes of fiends.

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Tue, 06 Jun 2000 21:56:20 -0500
From: "William H. Lockwood" <albedo1@home.com>

Jinx carefully follows the bum, making sure to catch the attention of
Jim and Ahom before disappearing, hoping that they followed her into the
maze of alleyways.

Once they arrived, she'd look conspiratorily around before slipping out
a quarter, holding it temptingly before the bum, "Now here's that extra
bit for you. It's worth more than the rest put together..."

Turning back to the hole in the wall, "Right, let's see what this Tony
can cook up for us."

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2000 06:26:19 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

"Harrumph!  That which is the Infinitum says Harrumph!"  The book pauses
for a few moments, Ari, and then continues.  "Fine, fine.  Would you
please remove me from this spare sack of stale space?  I find the lack
of an infinite cosmos around myself unnerving, to say the least..."

Once it hits the fresh air (assuming you don't just shove the thing back
in the bag), it sighs - impressive considering its distinct lack of
lungs, and says unto thee:  "Thank you."  The book is then silent for a
good, long time - unless you say something to it.

Meanwhile, Rebound, you find more bits and pieces of robotic wreckage
all about you as you notice the distinct lack of one Crimebuster (and
no, he didn't vanish like *poof* vanish, just wandered off whilst you
weren't looking).

You don't see him anywhere, but know that he did wander off in an effort
to explore this bizarre hole under the city.  He left three doors wide
open, one of which seems to lead to a stairwell, though you have no idea
which one he's currently in.

                                   ***

Elsewhere, you find that you've successfully dodged you newfound pal,
Stone Cold, in that he walked right past you.  As you pull yourself away
from the wall with which you disguised yourself, you see him looking
about in that way people do when they suddenly lose something.

You also hear a familiar voice say something akin to 'whit' - though
with several exclamation points.  The figure then looks around
nervously, trying his best to spot you in the darkened streets.  What do
you do???

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2000 06:29:26 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

Crawling through the hole in the wall, you find yourself in a dank,
urine-smelling hole; the noxious odor seems to make everything in you
rebel, and attempt to leave the scene as soon as possible.  You
persevere, however, and a minute later, a slat opens up opposite you.

You see two ominous eyes peering out from the makeshift hole in the wood
wall, and hear a somewhat familiar voice from within say "What the Hell
do you want, woman?  I'm a busy man, what with me makin' newer and
better toys for the masses.  Well?"

Well??

Subject: Re: [v13] Home Sweet... Home?
Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2000 06:40:05 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

(ooc:  ...?!)

The veritable wall of flesh sweeps towards you on its arms, legs,
pseudopods, and various other slithery and crawly bits, and you hack at
them mightily for about five seconds, before the sheer press of the
demonic beasts literally picks you up and carries you along.

It's strange, however, in that as the monsters converge on the cavern
behind you, they all pool into it, and inadvertently carry you aloft on
their fiendish masses like the king of all crowd surfers, until the
entire, hoary mass of beasts has passed through.

Once it does, however, that leaves you suspended about ten feet in the
air, and being right over the pit, you fall clean into it.  You plummet
to what would appear to be your doom, and you see the ice-covered rocks
below racing towards you with ridiculous velocity.

Before you hit, however, you feel an uncomfortably familiar sensation of
interplanar transit, and you then find yourself falling sideways, of all
things, into a snow drift.  Looking ahead, you see the mass of tanar'ri
rumbling ahead towards some unknown conflict - maybe.

Heck, they may just be sight-seeing... who knows.

At any rate, you see that your fall has dumped you out of an ominous,
obsidian archway, one that has had all manner of twisted, fiendish
shapes carved (or simply forced) into its structure.  It was pulsating
with an eerie light, but that has dimmed considerably all of a sudden.

Finally, after realizing that no, you aren't dead after all, you see
that your being mauled by the horde of tanar'ri hasn't left you
untouched; in fact, you suffered Amazing (50) Edged Attack damage in
total from the wave of demons that swept you along with them.

You're miraculously in one piece, though.  However, you do notice a
distinct change in the environment around you; to wit, it's cold.  Mind
numbingly cold, in fact.  Luckily for you, you're used to this sort of
thing; you may even last a couple of hours before you crystallize.

What do you do?

Subject: RE: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2000 08:59:29 -0400
From: Douglas Lohse <Lohsed@MSCDirect.com>

Rebound, being the curious fellow he is, starts searching for the missing
Crimebuster.  Upon reaching the three open doors, he stops and considers
which one to pursue.

"Three?  Why'd there have to be three?  How the hell do I flip a coin and
decide with three doors?  Oh well, guess we'll just have to split the 'D'
and take it up the middle."

Rebound embarks through the center door and commences his search for both
Crimebuster and interesting gadgets and gizmos.

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2000 11:09:41 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

Ari grins.  "Yer welcome.  An' d'you have any idea where this bag" Ari hefts
The Bag, "came from, or, more importantly, how *I* wound up with it?"

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2000 15:25:15 GMT
From: "Charlie Clay Jr." <cclayjr@hotmail.com>

"And you are following me Why?"  Says Stone Cold from the darkness, readying
a blast of cold. (Rolls 78, 56, 32, 84)

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2000 18:17:47 -0500
From: "William H. Lockwood" <albedo1@home.com>

Jinx wrinkles her nose at the ripe scents assaulting her nostrils as she
waited for there to be a sign of "Tony."

Squinting to get a better look at the eyes, she did her best to make her
pitch, "I'm looking for Tony. I've got a deal to make with him. I need
some equipment in a very short amount of time."

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 10:59:42 -0400
From: "Scott J. Greengold" <scott.greengold@ey.com>

For his part Crimebuster thinks that this will make a serviceable
hideout.....until he discovers the bodies.  On seeing that he will take a closer inspection.  Once he decides that they pose no immediate danger of activating he continues on until he finds the room with the red lever.  Figuring that discretion is the better part of valor he will head back to the team before
opening the door.  With that he heads back the way he came looking for
his teammates.

(OCC: Sorry about the length between posts....been sick but I'm all better
now :-)

Subject: Re: [v13] Home Sweet... Home?
Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 12:00:26 -0400
From: "Nathan Gecko" <nathangecko@yahoo.com>

> (ooc:  ...?!)

<OOC: Well I bet you weren't expecting such suicidal bravado now were you?
;^)>

> The veritable wall of flesh sweeps towards you on its arms, legs,
> pseudopods, and various other slithery and crawly bits, and you hack at
> them mightily for about five seconds, before the sheer press of the
> demonic beasts literally picks you up and carries you along.

Magus seems more than a little confused at first that the villainous cretins
aren't simply ripping him to shreds before regaining his composure, "HA!
I've got you exactly where I want you now, you inbred sons of a troglydyte!"

> It's strange, however, in that as the monsters converge on the cavern
> behind you, they all pool into it, and inadvertently carry you aloft on
> their fiendish masses like the king of all crowd surfers, until the
> entire, hoary mass of beasts has passed through.

 Slashing at the occasional tanar'ri as he is carried aloft Magus has no
idea that they are indeed headed for the pit to the previously mentioned
dimension of freezing climates.

> Once it does, however, that leaves you suspended about ten feet in the
> air, and being right over the pit, you fall clean into it.  You plummet
> to what would appear to be your doom, and you see the ice-covered rocks
> below racing towards you with ridiculous velocity.

 Magus simply exclaims, "SHIIIIIIIIIIT!"

> Before you hit, however, you feel an uncomfortably familiar sensation of
> interplanar transit, and you then find yourself falling sideways, of all
> things, into a snow drift.  Looking ahead, you see the mass of tanar'ri
> rumbling ahead towards some unknown conflict - maybe.

 "Well praise Io that I wasn't at least killed. Course now I'm even more
lost from my journey home...," glancing about himself Magus makes a
startling revelation, "....and now I'm becoming prone to talking to myself."

> Heck, they may just be sight-seeing... who knows.
>
> At any rate, you see that your fall has dumped you out of an ominous,
> obsidian archway, one that has had all manner of twisted, fiendish
> shapes carved (or simply forced) into its structure.  It was pulsating
> with an eerie light, but that has dimmed considerably all of a sudden.

<OOC: I'm assuming that the pit I just fell into was the same one me and
that slaad fellow were discussion a scant few moments ago, right?>

Magus eyes the portal for a moment and ponders his situation and whether or
not he should attempt to pass back through yon archway.

> Finally, after realizing that no, you aren't dead after all, you see
> that your being mauled by the horde of tanar'ri hasn't left you
> untouched; in fact, you suffered Amazing (50) Edged Attack damage in
> total from the wave of demons that swept you along with them.

Before said pondering can actually reach a conclusion, Magus begins to feel
the effects of his wild ride and instead decides to promptly fall onto the
nearest snowy embankment for a moment to rest and other wise gurgle and
groan in pain.

"Io just loves me soooooooo much...."

> You're miraculously in one piece, though.  However, you do notice a
> distinct change in the environment around you; to wit, it's cold.  Mind
> numbingly cold, in fact.  Luckily for you, you're used to this sort of
> thing; you may even last a couple of hours before you crystallize.

Arching one of his eyebrows the half dragon looks about his surroundings,
"....oh yes....truly I am one of Io's favored."

Sighing to himself, since obviously no one else is really around, Magus
rises from the rather chilly seat he had taken and surveys the land. After
spotting the highest area he immediately begins to trek off towards it.
Every few moments grumbling something about lousy tanar'ri and hoping they
get what they've got coming to them and Io himself castrates each and
everyone of them like diseased cattle and other such gripes as he makes his
way through the snowy plane.

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 06:53:05 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

The book looks at you, Ari, if that were possible, and says "The
artifact you carry, woman, bears a vortex into the seventh dimension; in
other words, it is a doorway to the Between, a realm that is both
everywhere and nowhere, all at once."

"That realm possesses everything and nothing, all that is possible, all
that is impossible, all that is, was, and ever will be.  Thus, when you
reach into it, you may withdraw literally anything, whether it be a
variant version of this tome, a thermonuclear banana, or anything else."

"As far as how you came to possess this frighteningly powerful device,
that which is the Infinitum has no idea.  However, the Infinitum does
know that it was created ages ago, and seems to have some overall
purpose for being, though this purpose has not been documented in I."

Meanwhile, Rebound, you creep onwards towards Crimebuster (you hope),
entering the center door only to find him coming down a flight of
stairs, one that leads quite a few feet upwards, one which is also next
to what would appear to be a powerful freight elevator.

It's got big, A-Lonse style hydraulic pistons, for one thing.

Elsewhere, in Atlanta, you freeze your pursuer with a burst of cold 'n
ice as he wheels on you, Stone Cold, and you would've kept him in place
had he not teleported to safety seconds later.  When your foe does this,
however, you instantly recognize the man.

It's that Seventh Dimensional Man that dragged you into the past...

!

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 06:58:34 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

"Ah... excellent.  Come in, 'cause you're talkin' to him.  I'm Tony.
Tony Gambello, that is, and fun toys're my game."  You look at the man,
and find out why he sounded somewhat familiar, even if on a subliminal
level.  This guy's a dead ringer for Flash!

After he opens the door, allowing you to enter his shop, Tony continues
on with his sales pitch.  "So.  What's it gonna be?  Shift-modulated
X-ray lasers?  Tachyon field generators?  Random phase EMP grenades?
You name it,  I probably got it, sister."

...?

Subject: Re: [v13] Home Sweet... Home?
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 07:11:16 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

You look around, and begin to make your way towards a nearby ice crag,
when you hear a strained voice decrying your choice of direction.  "Ay,
guv'nah, that's the wrong way!  Pull my feet orta this ice and oi'll
help yer find the way to where yer needs to be!  Honest!"

You look around, your eyes stinging slightly as they are assailed by
high velocity snowflakes, and try to make out where that voice is coming
from.  You see nothing but blackened ice for miles around, ice that is
interrupted only by strangely glowing, cool red cracks.

And that guy sticking out of the ice.

As you study him, the slaad's words about this plane's residents come
back to you, and you can't help but wonder if this fellow deserves the
fate that seems to have claimed him.  Of course, he looks pretty bad,
his feet having frozen to the ice and broken off next to his body.

He must have bled on the ice with his ankles, and frozen to it.  T'would
appear to be a miserable fate, indeed.  "Oy!  M'not jokin' wif yer,
blood!  Get me ort of this hell and I'll guide yer to the only hot spot
on this horrid orb.  Honests!"

?

Subject: [v13] Left out in the Cold...
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 07:42:55 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

As the cargo ship sailed through hyperspace on its merry way towards the
Mhunghus homeworld, its threat indicators green due to an abject lack of
any matter within six light years, two of its passengers were merely
ticking away the time they had left before they got home.

"M'bored, Reaper.  I'm gonna go watch another one of those weird
mushroom newscast things, I guess.  I can almost guess what they're
talking about, thanks to the pictures."  That was Ken Connell, bearer of
the Star Brand, the single most dangerous weapon in the universe.

"A'right, Ken.  I'm still working on my meditations, getting used to how
my awareness works way out here, in the middle of nowhere."  That was
Reaper, a paranormal youth from earth who had been endowed with cosmic
awareness, potent ionic powers, and of course, War's motorcycle.

About five minutes after Ken left the small passenger room, Reaper
sensed something amiss.  Something was coming towards the ship, if not
him in particular, and it was moving fast - real fast.  Not only that,
though... it was singularly ticked off at something!

Before he could do anything about it, however, that something had
struck... and hard!  About an hour later, after various crews had walked
through the wreckage in their hyperspace suits, they found what would
appear to be a comet; namely, it was a large chunk of ice.

However, something was inside; a shape of sorts could be made out
within, despite the impact-pocked and dirt-covered surface of the frozen
body.  Seeking to determine what had done so much damage to his craft,
the captain had the object brought into a waiting scientific laboratory.

After all, comets don't move through hyperspace.

Once it was inside, people mostly went about their business, starting
repairs on the large ship, recovering the dead bodies left after its
impact, and generally just trying to make it to Mhunghus without any
further incident.  If only they knew...

Now, Reaper did, of course, know.  His awareness was telling him that
all Heck was about to break loose, but he'd been sealed in his room by
powerful blast doors when the hallway outside his room had experienced
explosive decompression, and nobody even knew he was alive.

About two hours after the impact, two teches in the comet-bearing lab
had begun to analyze what they'd recovered, that mostly being ice and
assorted space dusts, but a bizarre trace of organic matter had been
detected, and the men thus donned biohazard suits.

While they did so, the ice cracked, and its all-too human occupant broke
out at last, the heat from the laboratory reviving his long-dormant body
from its cryogenic stupor, one meant to keep him alive long enough for
him to get home, long enough for him to get revenge.

When they saw the man awakening in the lab, the techies tried to subdue
him until they could determine what kind of threat he may represent, but
before they could even act, he reached out with his telekinetic powers,
bursting their skulls in milliseconds.

Looking around, the man decided that he needed to determine why he was
in a spacecraft, and not on earth already.  Exiting the laboratory, he
ran into several repair men and such, all of which fell victim to his
murderous rage, dispatched in a similarly succinct manner.

"That's more like it..."

It took some doing, but the man finally located the ship's bridge, and
when its captain and crew objected to his presence, the man simply made
them one, mostly by compressing their bodies into one awful, dying mass
of flesh with his telekinesis, squeezing them as hard as he could.

Leaving the mess to ooze various biological fluids, the homicidal man
used the ship's computers (once he figured out their simple,
iconographic controls) to determine its current course, as well as where
earth lay relative to his position.

He'd picked right.  How lucky of him.  As he began to make a course
correction towards home, the man heard the door behind him open up, and
turning around, he saw that he was faced by Ken Connell, though he knew
not who the tall, blonde man actually was.

"Why did you do this?  You killed all these people!  Why?!"  To that,
the mad psi simply shrugged, smiled, and said "Why not?"  This enraged
Ken beyond the point of no return, and with that, he flew at the unknown
man with an insane fervor, striking him with all his considerable might.

Of course, this ejected him from the craft entirely, and seeing that he
had a formidable opponent indeed, the psi charged back into the craft to
do battle - real battle!  Of course, the two combatants were so wrapped
up in their fight that they didn'r realize what the consequences were.

After trading blows for several minutes, the ship containing them was
damaged beyond repair, and automatic systems designed to ensure the
crew's survival kicked in immediately, ejecting all occupied chambers
from the craft, each of which were self-contained life support systems.

Even Reaper's.

As the lifeboats were ejected from the ship, its hyperspace drive
detonated spectacularly, hurling all of the survivors of the blast an
impossible distance through hyperspace in an instant, and then dumping
them out of the extraspatial realm.

Of course, both Ken and his psionic foe knew not what was going on, as
they were too intent on killing each other to sense what had happened.
But they would realize it soon enough, and the do were both hurdling
towards a beautiful blue and green orb they both know as home...

(ooc:  just for reference, this is a post resolving the existence of
Reaper as a PC, as he's being retired in favor of a new feller.  Not
killin' him off so much as... putting him away for awhile.  Of course,
this is also getting Ken back to earth, along with one dangling plot...)

Subject: RE: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 08:52:29 -0400
From: Douglas Lohse <Lohsed@MSCDirect.com>

Meanwhile, Rebound, you creep onwards towards Crimebuster (you hope),
entering the center door only to find him coming down a flight of
stairs, one that leads quite a few feet upwards, one which is also next
to what would appear to be a powerful freight elevator.

It's got big, A-Lonse style hydraulic pistons, for one thing.

"Hey Crimebuster, anything useful up there?  So far, the stuff I have
sifted through seems to be largely intact.  We might be able to actually
salvage a bunch of it and use this place."

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 08:57:19 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

Ari beams slightly.  "Hey, neat!  I stumped the smart-ass book!"

Subject: RE: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 09:01:17 -0400
From: Douglas Lohse <Lohsed@MSCDirect.com>

(OCC: Now THAT made me laugh!)

Subject: RE: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 10:17:24 -0400
From: "Scott J. Greengold" <scott.greengold@ey.com>

(OCC: Me too.  Good one :-)

Subject: RE: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 10:22:34 -0400
From: "Scott J. Greengold" <scott.greengold@ey.com>

"I found quite a bit that can be useful up here as well.  Tools and such.  I
was just coming to get you to look at it.    I also found some clones growing in a room over there."
He says pointing toward the cloning lab.  "Then there is also the big elevator behind me.  I wanted to get you before I went in for....backup.  Where is Ari? I really want to see where this goes."

Subject: RE: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 11:02:59 -0400
From: Douglas Lohse <Lohsed@MSCDirect.com>

"Ari?  Well, she's um...well, she's busy talking to that strange book.
Let's see if she's up to the trip."

Rebound heads back with Crimebuster to find Ari.

"Clones you say?  What in the world are we going to do with them?"

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 12:13:41 -0400 (EDT)
From: Scott Clay <cclayjr2@juno.com>

"Oh damn not you again, what the hell do you want?  I didn't come here for a
fight but one wrong move and you won't walk away this time."  Charging a
cold blast.  (Roll 83 + 40 karma)

Subject: RE: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2000 11:39:30 -0400
From: "Scott J. Greengold" <scott.greengold@ey.com>

" I was just thinking about that myself. If they are what I think they are
then we should pull the plug on them immediately.  Considering who last inhabited this place, they can't be anything but evil.  I think we
should get rid of them as soon as possible and then take a look at where
that elevator leads to. Lets get Ari and then do this as a team." Crimebuster says as he motions for Rebound to come with him.

Subject: RE: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2000 12:03:42 -0400
From: Douglas Lohse <Lohsed@MSCDirect.com>

" I was just thinking about that myself. If they are what I think they are
then we should pull the plug on them immediately.  Considering who last inhabited this place, they can't be anything but evil.  I think we
should get rid of them as soon as possible and then take a look at where
that elevator leads to. Lets get Ari and then do this as a team." Crimebuster says as he motions for Rebound to come with him.

Rebound stops in midstride, floored by what Crimebuster is suggesting.

"I will fight anyone or anything for the good of the world, but I WILL NOT
be party to murder!"

Subject: RE: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2000 12:08:23 -0400
From: "Scott J. Greengold" <scott.greengold@ey.com>

"Look, I don't believe in killing either.  These things...They very well COULD be clones of A-Lonse himself.  How would you like that?  5 or 6 more A-Lonse's waking up in our new place.  If we are not going to get rid of them then what do you have in mind?"

Subject: RE: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2000 13:17:33 -0400
From: Douglas Lohse <Lohsed@MSCDirect.com>

Rebound pauses for a moment before answering, considering possibilities he
is loathe to utter.

"They could be clones.  They could be aliens for all we know.  I think before we do anything with them, we get everyone together and discuss it.  No matter what is decided on in the end, I am not going to let anyone just 'pull the plug' on them.  None of us know what they will grow up to be.  Maybe we can teach them to use this technology for the good of mankind.  Who knows?

Let's just get everyone together and then decide.  I've seen too much inhumanity
In my lifetime already."

Rebound continues his walk back to meet up with Ari.

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2000 17:48:13 -0500
From: "William H. Lockwood" <albedo1@home.com>

Jinx squints at Tony for a moment before following him into his shop.

"I'm interested in a variety of devices. I need equipment that will aid
in infiltrating a highly secure location. Mainly stealth-related pieces
and security counter-measures. All of it can be disposable as it's only
going to be needed for one job - hopefully. Light-weight, passive
protective equipment would be a bonus, but is not an absolute
necessity."

After making the request, she'd take a closer look at Tony and speak up
about the resemblance he bore to Flash, "If you don't mind me asking, do
you, or rather, did you have a relative in an anti-terrorist
organization called G.I. Joe?"

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 05:16:38 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

He moves.

You blast the Seven Dimensional Man with another bolt of cold, Stone
Cold, and he seems a little worse for the wear because of it, but the
man's still kicking... and seems really ticked off.  "You think I care
if you're looking for a fight, tough guy?  You got one!"

"You made me look like a complete idiot in front of my old boss, what
with you not being dead and all.  That was supposed to be a simple job,
getting rid of you and that silly telekinetic girl Tammy, but no, you
two had to fight me!  Well, take this!"

With that, the Seven Dimensional Man waves his hands in front of his
torso, opening up what would appear to be a tiny little aperture in
space itself to... elsewhere.  On the other side of the hole, you spy
all sorts of green, writhing organic masses.  Tentacular, even.

A mass of such issues forth from the hole, Stone Cold, and reaches for
you ominously.  The undulating glop of slimy flesh wraps itself around
your ankle, and grapples it with unearthly strength, pulling you
inexorably towards its point of origin...

Meanwhile, back in New York City, you find yourself beaming at your
moral victory over that which is the Infinitum, Ari, when you are
approached by Crimebuster and Rebound, both of which look like they're
not in a very good mood.  Seem to have found something, they have.

What do all y'all do?

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 05:34:09 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

"Disposable, huh?"  Tony walks around his shop for a bit, and digs
around within a few crates until he finds what he's looking for.  "This
oughtta do, I think... yeah."  Tony brandishes something akin to a wrist
watch at you.  "Totally disposable, this is."

"This is a spectrum-wide wavelength absorption field generator.  You
see, most stealth technology aims for transparency, thus more advanced
detection gear can spot 'invisible' types simply by detecting odd phase
shifts in ambient light and so on."

"This baby, however, actually absorbs all ambient electromagnetic
energies.  When you walk around with this unit on, you'll be an
energetic black hole, reflecting zero signal to various sensors designed
to pick up such things, like radar, sonar, motion sensors, etc..."

"The only thing you have to worry about is energy circuit security
systems, like infrared tripwires, and the like.  That's why you'll want
these..."  With that, Tony gives you a set of goggles that look like
simple, flimsy sunglasses.

"These are infrared, ultraviolet, x-ray, and microwave band sensitive
eyewear.  I dunno if that gear you've got is any better, but these'll
come in handy.  'Course, I'm guessin' you'll want two of each of these,
one for you and one for your transparent pal out there."

As you drop the other shoe, Tony looks sort of non-plussed.  "Hm... I
don't belong to an anti-terrorist outfit, lady, I AM one.  I do
everything I can to jack the plans of those hyper-humanist Frankologists
out there... killin' everybody that disagrees with 'em.  Feh."

Tony stops and digs around a bit longer, looking for anything that'll be
of use to you in the mission profile you've given him.  He seems to give
up after about thirty seconds, looking resigned.  "This's all I've got
in this facility, but then, the rest of my junk's really expensive."

"Speakin' of which, how're you gonna pay for all this, hm...?"

?

Subject: RE: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 08:20:49 -0400
From: Douglas Lohse <Lohsed@MSCDirect.com>

Rebound does his best to not let his apprehension spill out as he speaks
with Ari.

"Ari, Crimebuster here found a bunch of what he thinks are clones growing
in another part of the base.  Mind coming along while we check it out."

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 12:33:35 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

"Whazzamatter, guys?"

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 12:35:24 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

"Clones?  Erk."  Ari nods.  This is some serious stuff, no?  "Sure.  Sure,
I'll tag along.  Who knows, I might have a Magic Anti-Clone Ray in here
somewhere..."

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 12:39:37 -0400
From: "Scott J. Greengold" <scott.greengold@ey.com>

For his part Crimebuster goes along but does not say anything until they reach the clone room. Once at the room he asks "Well, what do you think we should do here team? Can we determine who these people are clones of?  "  After saying that, Crimebuster looks around for some controls or displays that may give him some insight as to who these people may have been clones of and if they are alive/functional.

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 12:47:20 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

Ari wanders around the room, looking in the tubes, dusting things off...
maybe they'll be lucky and the tubes'll have nameplates, like in the movies.
"Wonder if they got Elvis in here..."

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 13:06:46 -0400 (EDT)
From: Scott Clay <cclayjr2@juno.com>

"You are such a pussy!"  Stone Cold says Transforming to stone, and running
at 7-D at Full speed.  Haymaker punch to the head: Roll( 67 + 40 pts Karma)

"You and your boss stay the hell away from her, from both of us you faggotty
geek."  He says with a more than hostile tone.

Subject: Re: [v13] Home Sweet... Home?
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 15:34:19 -0400
From: "Nathan Gecko" <nathangecko@yahoo.com>

 Magus pauses for a moment staring at the man as he ponders the
predicament. After a moment or two of silent contemplation the draconian
speaks, "Fine. I'll do what I can to free you but so help me if you double
cross me..."

 Walking towards the man Magus eyes his frozen wounds while deciding how
exactly to free him. Kneeling next to him Magus reaches down to the ice and
begins to gouge at the frozen areas around his ankles and seperated feet
until they're free of the icy grip.

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 17:59:33 -0500
From: "William H. Lockwood" <albedo1@home.com>

Jinx examines the equipment as best she can seeing as she doesn't have
experience with anything quite this hightech.

"Right. These things sound like they'll do the trick," she comments
after listening to his spiel.

"Hmmm...Frankologists, eh? Well, I believe we may be working for the
same cause. You see, my goal is to free a captive wrongfully held by
these creeps in a skyscraper back over that way," she explains,
gesturing in the general direction of the building where Ahom's body is
being kept.

"I have some antique coins and actual paper bills from the late 20th and
early 21st Centuries that might catch a pretty price from an eager
collector. I've got a decent variety and am quite willing to part with
them for the equipment you've shown me. I can also see if I can arrange
to have any security data I pickup during the job makes its way to you.
It might prove useful to you and your cause to have some inside info on
the Frankologists," she offered, putting on her best haggling face.

Subject: Re: [v13] Hell Fire!!
Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2000 10:58:20 EDT
From: "Peter Chamers" <lil_blk_duck@hotmail.com>

Ronin, albeit slowly, raises an eyebrow.  "Sickness?  What sickness are you
speaking of?"

Ronin looks to his comrades questioningly.

Subject: Re: [v13] Hell Fire!!
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 04:39:38 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

(ooc:  hey, Peter, just to let you know, Chris has suddenly and
irrevocably lost his internet access, so for the time being, it's just
gonna be you, man.  I'll be playing Masque (as best as I can) until this
situation is resolved... just so's you know).

"What do you mean, the sickness?  Just look around at the people."  Your
would-be guide waves his hand, and as you look at the people milling
about in the fiery village, you see that they've all got boils and other
pustulant sores all about their exposed flesh.

And most of them seem to be missing most of their hair and teeth.  You
think of the 'energetic metal' that the map indicated was mined and
worked here, and suddenly you wish you had a Geiger counter.  You have
the horrible impression that these idiots are making radioactive arms.

You also have the secondary impression that your stay here should be
rather brief.  As brief as possible, in fact.  "Yeah.  Some berks think
that it's the special metal we work in Beyond Hell, but that's just
barmy talk from jealous types."

"Just another fiendish plague or another... you get 'em all over the
place hereabouts, what with us being in the planes you might call
'evil', if you didn't know better, wot?"  The fellow just sits and
watches you as you digest all this.

Meanwhile, your two planewalking allies seem to be looking around rather
uncomfortably, feeling less than happy about the situation in Beyond
Hell, and even less enamored of the idea that they have to walk through
it all.  'Course, Masque is just hopping from foot to foot.

In his magma-covered socks, which have dried into a nice metal shell.

What next?  The map DOES indicate that the way out of Gehenna is in this
horrible little town.  But the question really is whether or not you'll
survive the trip... nasty choice, that.

?

Subject: Re: [v13] Home Sweet... Home?
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 05:00:31 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

That, of course, takes longer than you'd imagine.

Essentially, you wind up having to chop a block of ice out from under
the man's ankles, which gives the added bonus of giving the man a new
(if highly transient) set of feet.  He then picks up his old ones and
gets ready to travel (as fast as one who has ice for feet can).

"Yer'll be wantin' to head this way, blood, 'n'I'll get'cher to the
hotstuffs in no times flat!  Ar!"  The half-frozen man then starts to
limp his way into the distance, beckoning you to follow him.  Once you
pick up and follow, you find yourself utterly lost within an hour.

You're surrounded by nothing but falling snow, drifting snow, and rock
solid snow all around you in the black, slick surface around you, but
you do notice one distinct method to your guide's madness; he's headed
lower and lower compared to the ice mountains around you.

Once you get about as low as you think possible, you hear the odd sound
of hissing in the distance, almost like a whole lot of eggs were frying
on some massive skillet somewhere nearby.  "Oie, I think that I got'cher
right where yer wantin' to be."

"Not too soon, from the looks of it, either."  That's when you finally
realize that you've lost feeling in most of your fingers and toes; you
seem to have had temporary relief here and there thanks to some odd
agency or another, but it never lasted.

Now, though, despite your numb flesh, you CAN sense a change in the
ambient temperature.  You'd think that, being on one of the lowest
corners of some godforsaken ice-world, it would be colder, but the
temperature hereabouts seems almost... manageable.

"Jus' on the other side of this ice slab'n you'll find what'cher lookin'
fer, blood.  Hottest spot on Carceri - or just about anywhere else, if'n
you know what oe mean, nudge nudge."  You're not sure what this crazy
cat is talking about, but it definitely is warmer here than elsewhere.

What now?

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 05:07:48 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

"Artifacts from the early twentieth century, huh?  That's a good one,
lady.  What, are they little credit notes that are six months old?  I
mean, sure that's old, but it's not OLD.  I s'pose there's the sheer
amount of what kind of currency you've got, though."

"Well?"

You're not quite sure what Tony here's talking about, but he seems to be
inferrring that you're in the correct time frame or something, despite
the sheer changes in the environs around you.  Ahom did mention
something about a time traveler, though.

Maybe that's what he was talking about... this isn't an alternate future
so much as a variant timeline created by his meddling, one you've gotten
yourself stuck in.  It's amazing how much damage one time traveler can
do when he's got a distinct agenda...

?!

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 05:31:13 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

You look about the controls, Crimebuster, but you find no necessarily
incriminating details in the maintenance system for the clones.  As you
and Rebound poke about, however, Ari sweeps off the clone tubes,
revealing one of the clones in his full glory.

Looks just like Morbis.

Of course, it's not moving, and seems dormant, but there's a timer on
the thing indicating 72.02.25, and it's counting down.  A quick check on
the other two would indicate that they are much the same.  Apparently
Morbis has been more than tenacious in his will to live...

Meanwhile, in Atlanta, you pull free of the oozing flesh constricting
you and make a lunge at the Seven Dimensional Man, at which point he
tries to use another of his space-warping powers to defend himself.
However, something odd happens, and his maneuver fails utterly.

He exclaims at this, his power creating some sort of... blur in the area
dead in the median of the street where he's standing.  It's a vertical
plane situated between two lanes of traffic, one that, if you look at it
one way, reveals the building behind it.

Looking at it another way seems to reveal a different cityscape
entirely.  Before you can take it in fully, however, you strike your foe
as hard as you possibly can, cannoning him (and yourself) straight
through the plane he seems to have generated.

Before you can react, it fades away, leaving you... elsewhere.  "Fool!
This isn't about my old boss... this is personal!  I'll see you dead.
Knocking me through Confluence won't save you... I'll kill you here, in
Los Angeles, just as easily as I would in Atlanta.

?!?!

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 08:02:55 -0400 (EDT)
From: Scott Clay <cclayjr2@juno.com>

"I am tired now you stupid prick." He Grabs 7-D buy the he and phases it
into the closest building and lets go, unphasing his head within.  (75+50
Karma.  Killing him should get rid of all of my karma but oh well.  He was a
pain anyway, sorry.)

Subject: RE: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 08:33:47 -0400
From: Douglas Lohse <Lohsed@MSCDirect.com>

Of course, it's not moving, and seems dormant, but there's a timer on
the thing indicating 72.02.25, and it's counting down.  A quick check on
the other two would indicate that they are much the same.  Apparently
Morbis has been more than tenacious in his will to live...

"Looks like we have just over 3 days to figure out what to do with these
things.  Our choices are...well, I don't know what our choices are, but
one thing I know for sure is that I don't want another 3 Morbiuses to
start running around this place.  Maybe we can stop the clock or
something."

Rebound starts studying the controls hoping to find something useful.

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 09:55:34 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

"Err....guys... This is BAD, right?"

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 17:42:30 -0500
From: "William H. Lockwood" <albedo1@home.com>

Jinx frowns at Tony's comment, trying to piece together what he said.
Muttering to herself, she tries to get a grip on the situation, "So,
we're in roughly the same time frame (or at least near the same year),
but the technological advancement of the society has gone out the roof.
Maybe this is some kind of alternate world like in that 'Sliders' TV
show."

Pulling out some of the cash and coins she had stuffed in her pockets,
she held it out to Tony, giving a new pitch, "Well, then I think I have
something even more valuable - paraphenalia from an alternate timeline.
Do you think you can make use of any of this?"

Jinx tried to keep her face as straight as possible in light of the
absurd situation.

Subject: Re: [v13] Home Sweet... Home?
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2000 21:22:10 -0400
From: "Nathan Gecko" <nathangecko@yahoo.com>

> That, of course, takes longer than you'd imagine.

<OOC: Figured it would, but it was either that or set him on fire. ;^)>

> "Yer'll be wantin' to head this way, blood, 'n'I'll get'cher to the
> hotstuffs in no times flat!  Ar!"  The half-frozen man then starts to
> limp his way into the distance, beckoning you to follow him.  Once you
> pick up and follow, you find yourself utterly lost within an hour.

 Magus thoughts seem lost on how he's obviously going to die if this idiotic
amputee doesn't know what he's talking about, but then again he probably
should've been dead quite few times already. "Perhaps Io really is looking
over me," he ponders silently to himself.

> You're surrounded by nothing but falling snow, drifting snow, and rock
> solid snow all around you in the black, slick surface around you, but
> you do notice one distinct method to your guide's madness; he's headed
> lower and lower compared to the ice mountains around you.

 Muttering to himself, "Well at least at this rate I won't have to worry
about my frozen corpse rolling down a mountain side."

> Once you get about as low as you think possible, you hear the odd sound
> of hissing in the distance, almost like a whole lot of eggs were frying
> on some massive skillet somewhere nearby.  "Oie, I think that I got'cher
> right where yer wantin' to be."
>
> "Not too soon, from the looks of it, either."  That's when you finally
> realize that you've lost feeling in most of your fingers and toes; you
> seem to have had temporary relief here and there thanks to some odd
> agency or another, but it never lasted.

 "Indeed it does," Magus says as he wiggles his fingers and toes as best as
he can, "Let's just hope we don't have to deal with any other assailants at
this temperate oasis."

> Now, though, despite your numb flesh, you CAN sense a change in the
> ambient temperature.  You'd think that, being on one of the lowest
> corners of some godforsaken ice-world, it would be colder, but the
> temperature hereabouts seems almost... manageable.
>
> "Jus' on the other side of this ice slab'n you'll find what'cher lookin'
> fer, blood.  Hottest spot on Carceri - or just about anywhere else, if'n
> you know what oe mean, nudge nudge."  You're not sure what this crazy
> cat is talking about, but it definitely is warmer here than elsewhere.

 "So I take it we should be able to rest and recuperate beyond yon slab?
Perhaps we'll even be able to enlighten each other with our personal tales.
And I might even be able to help you with your little....err....problem,"
Magus gestures towards the pair of feet he's been craddling in his arms
throughout the journey.

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 13:27:02 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

"Hey, what're you doing!?  I -- aarghck!"

You sweep your hands together, removing the dust and such that has
accumulated during your clash with the Seven Dimensional Man, Stone
Cold, and observer your handiwork.  It's pretty impressive... the police
should have a field day with THIS one.

And yes... you do expend ALL of your karma with that maneuver.

However, that still leaves you stuck in Los Angeles, in what would
appear to be a particularly war-torn section of town.  You see machine
gun shells and various bits of car all around you, and looking real
closely, you could swear you saw a chunk of a ... sleigh?

The trick, of course, is getting back home.

Meanwhile, back in New York City, the rest of you look at the Morbis
cloning tubes with more than a little bit of dread.  A quick sweep of
the control surfaces of this contraption don't seem to yield an easy
'off' button, Rebound, or anything else handy.

What next?

(ooc:  apologies once again for the abject delay in my posting... feel
free to kick me at your collective leisures...)

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 13:29:38 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

Tony looks at you and smiles.  "Oh yeah... that'll work nicely.  Once I
get my hands on those, I can determine the relative difference in
quantum resonance frequency in the matter between this earth and your
own, variant one.  Then, it's only a matter of time..."

"I'll be able to make my own means of interdimensional transit!  Woo!"

Tony gladly exchanges the gear he offered for the coins (and anything
else you care to offer), leaving you with a big wad of high tech gear;
two, in fact, for you've got a set for Slow Jim, too.  So, do you hang
out here or do you throw down on that building?

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 14:44:12 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

Ari scratches her head.  "Hm.  We don't wanna have to kill the unborn
Morbises, right?  But we wanna keep Morbis from coming back... Hm.  Guys...
Who the hell is this Morbis guy, anyway?"

Subject: RE: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 14:59:52 -0400
From: Douglas Lohse <Lohsed@MSCDirect.com>

Rebound turns to Ari, his voice grim...

"You remember the techno-nightmare we just fought halfway across the
world?  Well, he was Morbius' apprentice.  When we took him out, we
wound up spread across all space and time.  If these clones are as
bad as the original, we're in a whole lot of trouble."

Rebound rapidly paces around, clearly agitated, until he is once
again back in front of the controls.

"DAMMIT!  WHY DOES IT ALWAYS HAVE TO BE SO DAMN HARD!!!"

Rebound slams his fist down on the controls in frustration, not
considering the aftereffects.

(Presumed explosion or such)

A scant moment later, he realizes what he has done and scrambles to
deal with the problem his momentary lapse has caused.

(46 on damage roll if needed)

(OCC:  Sometimes frustration leads to stupidity...usually it's
just habit)

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 15:30:13 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

"Jeeze.  Calm down, Doctor Snot.  We'll figure something out.  We *are* the
good guys, after all."  Ari grins, and she really means it.

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 15:44:41 -0400
From: "Scott J. Greengold" <scott.greengold@ey.com>

"Thanks for the thought Ari.  Rebound, relax.  We will think of something.
How long would you estimate before these clones are fully cooked?"
Crimebuster says as Rebound pounds his fist.  Seeing this, Crimebuster
tries to duck to the side behind something in case of an explosion of more
than just the man's temper.

(presumed explosive space here)

"Woooaaahhh big man, easy.  This place IS underground....you could bring the
whole thing down on us. Maybe we could ship them to a super-villan jail?  Wherever they hold the bigtime baddies."

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 23:51:37 -0500
From: "William H. Lockwood" <albedo1@home.com>

Jinx just nods at Tony hoping that she hasn't made a big mistake giving
someone the tools to develop interdimensional travel.

"Um, thanks."

Turning back to her compatriots, she doles out Jim's portion of
equipment, "Here you go. This stuff should help keep you alive long
enough to get to Ahom's body. We'll be going in together and watching
each others' backs. Ahom, can you come with us or are you going to have
to stay clear until we free your body?"

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2000 17:36:51 EDT
From: Scott A Clay <cclayjr2@juno.com>

"Damn, must I be so impulsive all of the time.  Hopefully this credit
card works."  As he walks over to check out the sleigh.  'Must be St.
Nick!?!'  He thinks humorously to himself.

Subject: Re: [v13] Home Sweet... Home?
Date: Tue, 04 Jul 2000 04:46:46 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

"Aye, I'd say so.  We should be just about to the Rent."  With that,
your guide continues his trek, taking you around the mountain of ice
before you.  As you go, you notice that the ground below you seems to be
losing its structural integrity a bit at a time.

Once it's all slushy, you see where the heat's coming from.

Looking up, you see the large hole in the sky, blazing in otherworldly
orange as it spills forth what would appear to be liquid metal down onto
the ice below.  However, the molten material seems to be striking some
sort of object before being splattered on the ice all around it.

Though that ice is immediately being transformed into water in the
process.  Looking closely, you see what would appear to be a large
pillar of obsidian, standing where the magma is pouring out into the
wintry landscape.  That's not the bad part, though.

The bad part is that there would appear to be somebody chained onto the
(apparently fireproof) obsidian - with melt-proof chains.  You can't see
exactly what this person looks like, for the orange glow of the magma is
obscuring his (or her) features, but nonetheless...

Seems like a bad day in the making.

At any rate, following the magma flow as it chisels its way into the icy
surfaces all around you, you can see that it is headed even lower than
your current elevation, eventually terminating at the walls of some
massive structure.  It's a three sided palace.

Of course, this immense palace is complemented by three large towers,
each with three windows on each side, three mighty flags proclaiming
some triangular crest or another, and three gates on the triangular wall
surrounding the edifice.  Each one is manned by (yep) three guards.

You hate to hazard a guess, but even from here, you can tell that these
mugs are three times as ugly as anything you've ever seen before.  Tall,
skinny, bald humanoids, about seven feet tall, each with big, bulldog
jaws and wearing only an obsidian triangle around their necks.

"Ach, there's the palace of Apomps the Three Sided, blood.  'Course,
gettin' in may be tricky, but what the Hell, I got'cher here."  The
guide then sits down and rubs his ankles, the ice that (until recently)
surrounded them having since melted off.  It looks nasty.

Real nasty.

But, that nonetheless leaves you here, where you at least won't freeze
to death, assuming you don't sink first.  You're not sure how deep this
blackened ice really is, but you get the feeling that you'd rather not
know.  At least, not by finding out the hard way...

?

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Tue, 04 Jul 2000 04:50:26 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

As Slow Jim accepts the high tech hardware, Ahom looks at you
nonchalantly and answers your question, Jinx.  "No, I feel that would be
unnecessary.  After all, if you fail, they'll eventually find my astral
form before I can defeat their antimagic wards anyhow."

"Yes, I'll be coming with you, Jinx.  Besides, you could use an extra
spotter, especially one the opposition cannot see.  I need not be
visible in this form, you know; I simply do this for your convenience,
so you know if I'm watching you."

"The question is, though, how do we go about getting back in there?"

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Tue, 04 Jul 2000 05:02:06 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

As you all try to calm Rebound down, Ari, Crimebuster, he pops, striking
the control panel.  His powers react with the thing spectacularly,
casuing the glass and plastic control surface to blow to bits, in a
rather satisfying 'kzzam' of electric discharge.

And falling glass and plastic bits.

That's when everything goes wonky.  Before you all can collect
yourselves, the three clone tanks seem to pulsate with light, the little
timers on them speeding up insane-like, and then they, too, explode,
spraying you all with preservative fluid, organic goo, and glass.

This does no damage, though it does definitely gross the Hell out of you
all.  However, that doesn't signal the end of your ordeal; in fact, it
would seem to be just the beginning, for the pile of glop that was those
three Morbis clones is... moving.

It sort of collects itself into a protohumanoid thing, gargling and
slurping all the way, absorbing what circuitry it can as it does so.
The worst part, however, is when it speaks.  "urrrRRRGH interlopers!
These bodies were almost prepared to receive Morbis' essence!"

"Fools!  Ingrates!  It will take years for the master to produce a new
body for himself.  You will pay for your perfidy!!"  The gene-cocktail /
hardware store horror then lunges for the three of you.  It looks
pissed.... real pissed!  What do you do!?

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Tue, 04 Jul 2000 05:08:19 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

 (ooc:  sorry, man, i fergot your part when i replied to the others...)

Well, you've dealt with your foe, though you got deposited across the
country for your trouble.  You're still not quite sure what happened -
your 'pal' there in the wall sure wasn't behind it, from his reaction -
but that still leaves you in L.A.

So, having credit handy, do you just charge a plane ticket or give the
guys a call?  Assuming, of course, that somebody's back at Och's
apartment...  'Course, there IS always Tammy, since she could get you in
touch with that pilot dude from the future...

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2000 12:33:10 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

"Oh shit!  You guys ever see that GIJoe, with Serpentor an' stuff?  If we
can get Sergant Slaughter to come fight this thing, we have a chance..."  As is,
she whips out her Lego 9mm and opens a couple rounds at the thing....

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Tue, 04 Jul 2000 14:37:50 EDT
From: Scott A Clay <cclayjr2@juno.com>

Calling Tammy and the rest of the group, Stone Cold waits for a reply.

Subject: RE: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2000 11:52:14 -0400
From: Douglas Lohse <Lohsed@MSCDirect.com>

"And I thought I was ugly..."

Not wanting to compound his mistakes yet again, Rebound will do his best
to web together whatever appendages it is trying to attack with so that
it cannot move them.

(Rolls:  97, 42, 76, 45, 37, 60)

Subject: RE: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2000 12:20:15 -0400
From: "Scott J. Greengold" <scott.greengold@ey.com>

"Geez, Rebound....look at the mess you made...." Crimebuster says
as he draws Achira.  He then focuses his chi and looses it down the blade
aiming the deep green beam at the head of this misshapen thing.

(OCC: Rolls: 33,100 (!), 51, 22 Init: 7)

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Thu, 06 Jul 2000 17:33:16 -0500
From: "William H. Lockwood" <albedo1@home.com>

Jinx looks at her partners trying to size up the situation.

"Well, the best way to get into a place like that is to somehow make use
of their patterns and structures against them. One way to do this is to
observe their shipments that come in via vehicle transport. If we can
sneak in among the goods while cloaked by these stealth devices, we'll
be past their first line of defense. Once we get inside, we might try
one of the best hiding techniques known: be out in the open. I don't
mean just waltz around and announce who we are, but perhaps I could take
out an employee and take their clothes or uniform or whatever she has so
I can go around without having to sneak everywhere. Ahom just has to
keep invisible while you, Jim, should be able to stay out of sight
seeing as you're transparent and the stealth tech should help even
more."

Finishing her suggestion, she'd look to her partners for anything they
may have to add.

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Sun, 09 Jul 2000 05:41:45 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

As the misshapen blob of cloned flesh and smashed electronics lunges at
the three of you, you get in the first strike, Crimebuster, blasting the
monstrosity in the shoulder with your chi blast.  Wasn't quite what you
were aiming for, but then, you did take its left arm clean off.

For all the good it does you.

The morphologically unstable mass of ... stuff starts to exude another
one immediately, even as Ari blasts the thing with a burst of savage
attack legos and Rebound attemps to wrap it up in his sticky strands.
The attacks seem to give it pause for a few seconds, but that's all.

It then shoves its way past you, knocking you all down and actually
dragging Rebound behind it as it moves along.  "Pathetic mortals!
Morbis is infinite!  Morbis is forever!  Once this body properly
gestates, the master will return to the world and kill you all!"

It then makes a beeline for the previously discovered stairs, giving you
all the distinct impression that it's Hell-bent on leaving the facility
- though it's ascending by the time the lot of you recover.  The fair
question would be, of course, is what the heck do you do next?!

Meanwhile, deep in the heart of Los Angeles, you drop a dime - and a
quarter - in a handy dandy pay phone nearby, Stone Cold, and you find
that nobody's answering at Och's apartment.  However, Tammy - down in
Atlanta, does, and she tells you she'll have Harry come pick you up.

Within half an hour, your time-displaced pilot arrives in his futuristic
craft to collect your sorry carcass, though he does look a bit tired.
"Man, what am I, your taxi?  I was almost asleep.  I did manage to patch
up the cloaking system on this beast, though, so we should be okay..."

He seems to be rambling, but that may just be a byproduct of too much
coffee.  At any rate, he seems to be at a loss for where the two of you
are to do.  "So, chiefie, where to?  You wanna head back to Atlanta to
pick up whats-her-face, or you wanna fly on up to New York first?"

?

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Sun, 09 Jul 2000 05:51:06 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

The two of your ersatz allies seem to have nothing to add to your plan,
simply nodding and generally agreeing with you.  "Sounds good to me,
Jinx.  Shall we?"  Ahom gestures with his insubstantial hands towards
the building you so recently fled from, beckoning you to lead the way.

Not that he can't find it, of course, but he does seem quite anxious
about this whole deal.  But then, if you were some plane-hopping
arch-mage who had had his body and magical skills stolen from you, you'd
probably be out of sorts too...

Once the three of you make your way back to the strange glass and steel
tower, you find that it's exceptionally hard to believe that you're not
in the future, merely being in some sort of timeline that's wildly
variant to your own.

These flying cars, these mile-high corporate towers, all this super
advanced technology, it's difficult to believe that this came about
simply as a result of one time traveler's meddling.  But then, showing
up in the dark ages with an Uzi can have advantages...

At any rate, you, Ahom, and Slow Jim settle into a routine by which you
spend about a day observing the general goings-on in the tower that so
recently held you and Jim as mere museum pieces, and find out that the
people that maintain the structure are quite the busy bees.

And oh so predictable.

Trash pickup every eight hours.  Food deliveries every two hours.
Office supplies delivered every twelve hours.  Replacement devices
delivered every four hours.  Shift changes for whatever staff works
within every eight hours.  Gives you some options by which to plan.

So, Jinx... what's the plan?

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Sun, 9 Jul 2000 09:02:59 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

Ari is fully prepared to give chase.  "C'mon, you guys!  We haveta blow it
up or something!"

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Sun, 09 Jul 2000 16:47:50 EDT
From: Scott A Clay <cclayjr2@juno.com>

"Sorry to wake you chief, how about we just wait for Tammy, no reason to
have you make two trips when one will do." He says calmly as he sits
back and begins to realize that he has just killed someone. 'Aw Damn
it.'

Subject: Re: [v13] Home Sweet... Home?
Date: Sun, 9 Jul 2000 23:44:42 -0400
From: "Nathan Gecko" <nathangecko@yahoo.com>

 "Well continue to lead the way my erst while guide," Magus says as he walks
alongside the crippled fellow just ever so slightly behind him to give him
the lead.

> The bad part is that there would appear to be somebody chained onto the
> (apparently fireproof) obsidian - with melt-proof chains.  You can't see
> exactly what this person looks like, for the orange glow of the magma is
> obscuring his (or her) features, but nonetheless...

 "Hm..," is the only sound to escape Magus at such a unique sight even as
his own innate curiousity ponders the situation, *Truly there must be some
advance magics involved in that poor soul's suffering.*

> You hate to hazard a guess, but even from here, you can tell that these
> mugs are three times as ugly as anything you've ever seen before.  Tall,
> skinny, bald humanoids, about seven feet tall, each with big, bulldog
> jaws and wearing only an obsidian triangle around their necks.

*I meet such........interesting people in my travels now don't I?*

> "Ach, there's the palace of Apomps the Three Sided, blood.  'Course,
> gettin' in may be tricky, but what the Hell, I got'cher here."  The
> guide then sits down and rubs his ankles, the ice that (until recently)
> surrounded them having since melted off.  It looks nasty.
>
> Real nasty.

 Observing the gruesome wounds of the friendly stranger, "Perhaps if we can
gain some shelter and a place to rest in peace I might hold some solution to
your problem there. Although I can offer no guarantees I will still try to
help you in return for your aid. That is if you wish such aid?"

> But, that nonetheless leaves you here, where you at least won't freeze
> to death, assuming you don't sink first.  You're not sure how deep this
> blackened ice really is, but you get the feeling that you'd rather not
> know.  At least, not by finding out the hard way...

 Lifting his legs steadily higher and higher from the ever deepening slush
Magus offers his travelling companion his aid in making their way towards
Apomps palace.

<OOC: Somehow I surmised that with his icy prosthetics melting away he's not
exactly walking that well...thus the helping him along....hmm...I'm
rambling.....>

Subject: RE: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2000 09:16:26 -0400
From: Douglas Lohse <Lohsed@MSCDirect.com>

"Gestate this!!!"

Rebound detonates the strands wrapped around/in/over/under/wherever
and hopes he can stop this thing before it is too late.

It then makes a beeline for the previously discovered stairs, giving you
all the distinct impression that it's Hell-bent on leaving the facility
- though it's ascending by the time the lot of you recover.  The fair
question would be, of course, is what the heck do you do next?!

"I am NOT letting that thing loose on the city."

Rebound gives pursuit as fast as he can hoping to catch up.

(Rolls: Init-8, Hit-36, Dam-87, Others: 6, 49, 85, 68, 72)

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 04:10:00 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

                         (Hmmm... no Crimebuster?)

As you begin to give chase after this laboratory horror that you have
unwittingly unleased upon the city, Rebound, you detonate the strands of
sticky, explosive goo that you've wrapped all around the monstrosity.
It makes a spectacular blast, and coats the area in fleshy goo.

However, the beast doesn't stop so much as get really pissed that you've
seemingly shed about 15 percent of its body mass from its person.
"Ingrate!  Insignificant microbe!  Feel my power!"  That's when the
monster extends its arm at you, glopping you with its fleshy mass.

>From twenty feet.

The extending limb strikes you with the force of a runaway sedan,
explosively knocking you back down the stairs and then, as subsequent
self-detonations propel you further, back into the main chamber of the
former Morbis' high tech lair.

Bouncing around out of control, you see Ari (and presumably Crimebuster)
chase the almost-Morbis up the stairs, and hope that you can quit being
pinballed around this hideout in time to save the city...

                                  ***

Meanwhile, Ari, you catch up to the cloned mess of flesh and pile of
spare electronic doo-dad-ery as it strikes a button on the wall inside
the garage at the top of these stairs.  When it does so, the wall before
you goes all insubstantial and ghost-like.

The monster then wades out into what would appear to be the lower floor
of a parking garage.  You (and presumably) Crimebuster see this
happening, but seem powerless to stop the thing as of yet... it's on the
verge of hitting the city, proper.

What do y'all do?

                                  ***

Meanwhile again, you arrive in Atlanta in no time flat, Stone Cold,
thanks to the futuristic craft at your pal's disposal (yes, we're
compressing time a bit, to realign things... but then, it almost lines
up anyway, when you think aboot it).

Harry puts the ship in park over Tammy's apartment, making the thing
hover in place while you grab the telekinetic heroine.  Of course, you
don't know exactly which apartment is hers, down in the three story
Atlanta apartment complex below, but there's an easy way to find out.

?

Subject: Re: [v13] Home Sweet... Home?
Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 04:15:09 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

You eventually arrive at one of the three (count 'em) entrances to
Apomps' palace, and find that the (yep) three guards tend to look rather
tense at the prospect of your approach.  One of them chimes in before
the others can collect their thoughts, though.

"Oy!  Wot's all this, then?  Who you think you is, marchin' right up to
dah palace like dis?"  The other two, as if they were attempting to
produce some sort of witty companion dialog and failed, just sort of
grunt in unison at their apparent leader's statement.

"Nhn!"

That leaves you in the bottom of some terrible, icy hell between three
fierce looking goons and certain, icy doom.  And with a foot-less guide,
to boot.  What next, Magus?

Subject: [v13] Re: Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 04:26:32 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

After watching and following the garbage trucks about on their trips in
and out of the facility, Jinx, you find that they head straight for a
dumping facility, hit two other buildings, and then return to the
structure all y'all wish to invade.

So... the question is this:  where do you infiltrate the garbage trucks?

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 09:31:22 -0400 (EDT)
From: Scott Clay <cclayjr2@juno.com>

Joshua calls Tammy, if the phone is not working then he will use his speed
to check every apartment.

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 10:32:18 -0400
From: "Scott J. Greengold" <scott.greengold@ey.com>

(Occ: Grumbling.....Stupid internet mail.....posted the darn thing 3 days
ago....shoulda realized I never got it back...sorry for the delay)

Crimebuster sees the construct take off and follows.  Once he passes Rebound
he says "We need to freeze it.  Blowing it apart isn't helping.  Find something." To Ari he says "I'll keep it busy, get something out of that bag of yours that can freeze this thing.

The Thaumatech Absolute Zero Generator (tm) or something".

With that, Crimebuster leaps at the thing with Achira drawn and his chi
focused, hoping to split it down the middle.

(Occ again for rolls: 94, 79, 92, 19 Init: 9...they still love me......)

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 11:06:00 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

Ari reaches into the bag.  "Damnit.  This SUCKS."  Pulling out whatever's in
there,she readies herself for a fight.

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 19:01:31 -0500
From: "William H. Lockwood" <albedo1@home.com>

Jinx decides after observing the disposal transports that the location
immediately prior to the target site would be a good choice to go with.

"Right, we'll have to sneak onto one of the transports before, after, or
during their time at this location. It all depends on how many people
are working around where we need to be. I suggest we got on the thing
while they're loading as they'll be distracted and there should be some
decent background noise to help hide our movements."

With that, she began to casually approach the building, making her way
toward the area where the disposal transport would be arriving shortly.
She would then attempt to find a good place to hide and wait, activating
her stealth equipment.

[90 to spy out a good location to hide, 64 for natural stealthiness, and
72 for operating the stealth-tech.]

Subject: RE: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2000 08:44:25 -0400
From: Douglas Lohse <Lohsed@MSCDirect.com>

Bouncing around out of control, you see Ari (and presumably Crimebuster)
chase the almost-Morbis up the stairs, and hope that you can quit being
pinballed around this hideout in time to save the city...

"This (BAM) is  (BOOM)  not  (BLAM)  my  (BADABOOM)  DAY!!!!"

Rebound will attempt to spread his arms as wide as possible in mid-bounce
and spray as many lines as he can in as many directions as he can so he
can arrest his incessant exploding.  If it works, he will chase after his
companions and the thing.  If not...Plan B...He will try to angle himself
to explode back through the door and down the hallway.

Rolls:

(Plan A: 69, 04, 98, 43)
(Plan B: 86, 67, 37, 41)
(Anything Else: 32, 33, 62, 29)

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 05:17:43 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

(ooc:  watch me slip this reply in, and see if anyone notices the delay)

Tammy picks up the phone, and though she seems somewhat cross, she
mellows some once you tell her what's been up with you (assuming that
you do).  Once she pulls herself together, she gets her stuff together
and flies up to the roof, in order to catch a ride to New York.

"I called the number Och gave me... nobody answered.  I wonder if the
guys - and Ari - ran into any trouble in that hole under the City..."
As Tammy thinks aloud, Harry slams the craft into overdrive, and makes
his way towards the Big Apple...

                                     ***

Miles away, the thing which could-have-been Morbis smells the smells of
the parking facility all around it, taking in the motor oil, automotive
exhaust, and general ... human tint to the air inside.  "Ahrg... this
will do nicely..."

The thing then smashes its way into the nearest parked car, its arm
winding its way into the electronics inherent to both the dashboard and
the engine compartment before it.  You can see bits of circuitry and
such slowly being absorbed and - more eerily - moving under its skin.

"Excellent..."  The genetic horror's arm then retracts from the car, and
begins to form around those stolen pieces.  Combining them with pieces
acquired inside the cloning chamber, the beast forms its arm into what
would appear to be some sort of megaphone apparatus.

Before it can bring it to bear, however, you take a powerful swipe at it
with your blade, Crimebuster, and you do, indeed chop the cyber-organic
stew in half.  It then falls in twain, both chunks hitting the ground
and making a horrid, sloppy splatting sound.

But they don't stop.

The two halves then get up, and form into smaller, not-quite twin
humanoid monstrosities, each with its own megaphone apparatus.  Then, in
unison, they speak.  "Fools!  You cannot defeat me, for you know not my
driving force!  You can't stop me from bringing the master back..."

Both of them then lunge for the exit, where you see cars moving back and
forth in the New York City night.  Before you pursue, you notice that
the almost twin things aren't moving with quite so much pep in their
step, and seem to have left a large amount of... fluids behind.

And microchips.

That's when Ari reaches into her special pouch, and feeling around for a
few minutes, extracts... a thing.  Or, more properly, a Thing (TM).  It
would appear to be one of those stress relief toys, a fluorescent green
rubbery thing with words printed on it.

You look at them, Ari, and read 'Thing (TM)' in big bold lettering, and
underneath that, you see in smaller print 'What do you want today? (SM)'
... no instructions, no actual hint as to what this thing is, and of
course, no idea how to use it.

Hm.

                                   ***

Meanwhile again, back underground, you finally bring a stop to your
uncontrolled pinballing around Morbis' old lair, Rebound, by extruding
enough sticky strands to effectively generate an adhesive web all over
the place, one strong enough (in time) to stop even your flight.

Once you collect yourself, you follow after the others only to catch the
monstrosity as it lunges towards the streets.

Now what, everybody?

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 05:24:18 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

The two and one third of you journey to the place where the garbage
trucks travel to before heading on over to your pals' building, and hop
in with ease; security here is minimal, after all, since the trucks are
empty.  Riding in the truck is no picnic, however.

It smells ... godawful.  Even for garbage residue.

Nonetheless, the lot of you make it to your destination easily enough,
and the garbage guys open the truck upon their arrival, hoping to get a
heads up on the pickup, apparently, for they start throwing junk in
immediately.

Now, they're not looking at the thing constantly, of course, for they
have to walk on over to grab each bag of refuse before loading it up,
obviously.  The question is simply how you make your move to escape the
truck without notice, and then infiltrate the building proper.

Hm...

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 12:27:13 EDT
From: Scott A Clay <cclayjr2@juno.com>

 "Sorry to call Tammy, but I didn't wanna have ta make two trips if we
were ready.  Did everything turn out ok?"

(He tells her all, but that he killed him.)

Subject: Re: [v13] Home Sweet... Home?
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 13:35:17 -0400
From: "Nathan Gecko" <nathangecko@yahoo.com>

 Supporting the weight of his footless guide Magus looks up at the trio of
guardians, "My friend and myself need shelter from this environment. Seeing
as how this palace is the only structure about we approach you for aid."
Watching as the gears of the trio's collective noodle try to decipher and
understand his request Magus waits patiently.

 *Now's not the time to lose one's temper,* is the main thought on the
warrior mage's mind as he awaits their response.

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 15:10:11 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

Ari just gawks at the Thing for a second.  "I want you to blow the living
shit out of that asshole!"  She then chunks the Thing at one of the duo as
hard as she can, ready to duck behind a car if need be...

Subject: RE: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 15:58:01 -0400
From: Douglas Lohse <Lohsed@MSCDirect.com>

Rebound charges up the hallway in pursuit of the would-be-Morbis and
makes his best effort to catch the group and stop this monstrosity from
making New York look like Tokyo after Mt. Fuji starts dancing.

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 21:10:28 -0500
From: "William H. Lockwood" <albedo1@home.com>

Jinx suffers the stench in silence, biding her time. Once the vehicle
comes to a stop, she lets Jim know to activate the stealth equipment
before doing so herself.

Once the stealth equipment was fully activated, she would make her move
to exit the vehicle and make her way to the building, keeping herself to
the rear of the workers as best as she could.

OOC: 52 on Stealth.

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2000 8:23:04 -0400
From: "Scott J. Greengold" <scott.greengold@ey.com>

"I may not be able to stop you forever. But I CAN cut you into so many
pieces that all the King's Men will look at you and say 'Let's try Humpty again...this one is a lost cause'".

Focusing his chi onto the blade of Achira, Crimebuster launches into the Domasishu kata which was taught to him by Master Lee.  This kata, he remembers,
tuned a 10 foot high boulder into mere rubble in under a minute when done by
Lee. Lets see what it does to evil techno baddies.

( Occ: rolling rolling rolling:  (Adding 10 karma to each) 88+10=98, 53+10=63, 73+10=83, 25+10=35, 30+10=40, 23+10=33, 98+10=108. Init: 1 )

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2000 06:08:11 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

"Yeah... everything went great.  I was able to take my finals and
everything.  My professors were more than understanding, I guess,
Stoney... what with me being an honors student and all... or something."
After answering your question, Tammy then falls silent, obviously tired.

Unless you say anything else, Stone Cold, she slips unconscious for the
(short) duration of the flight back to New York City.

                                   ***

Meanwhile, in said city, the three of you are having a nasty time with
Morbis' little underground surprise.  You slice, you dice, and you make
julienne fries out of one of the bizarre cyber-organic monstrosity,
Crimebuster, and it falls into about eight different pieces.

They look like they're about to start stitching themselves back
together, but then Ari lobs her newest toy at the beasts before you.
Hearing her exclamation, you instinctively stop, drop, and roll away
from the biotronic horrors before whatever she's wielding goes off.

You remember that Defenestrator thing she uses, after all.

As the device whizzes over your head, you see it change from the Thing
(TM) to what would appear to be a football sized grenade.  It explodes
spectacularly, causing all of you to be knocked to your feet by the
sheer force given off by the thing.

Of course, this catches you right as you enter the parking garage,
Rebound, and proceeds to bury you within the nearest convenient sedan -
hard.  You take no damage, of course, but you're suddenly trapped by all
kinds of fiberglass, glass glass, and twisted plastic.

Once you recover, you see that the pile of bits that Crimebuster hacked
all up sputters for a second, and then finally stops twitching (hooray).
However, you see that the other half of that dastardly duo was blasted
clean out onto the streets, and seems to have struck a motorcycle...

                                   ***

You'd just arrived in the city, A.S.9, and were looking for a place to
either spend your hard earned booty or to just crash, you're not too
sure, when the front of a parking garage to your immediate right
exploded - and how!!!

The blast seems to have spewed forth a ... pile of flesh and electronic
gear, all of which has collided with your ride.  The impact knocks you
silly, and causes you to roll violently on the concrete; luckily, you
don't strike any vehicles passing by during your slide.

However, the thing that hit your bike seems to have... eaten it
completely - good thing you never paid for it, eh?  Looking at the pile
of organic goo, you see that it has apparently incorporated the bike
into itself, and looks decidedly more mechanically inclined.

What now?

Subject: Re: [v13] Home Sweet... Home?
Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2000 06:12:18 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

The dread trio of beasties confer amongst themselves in their own,
hellish tongue, and after about three (of course) minutes, they seem to
come to a consensus.  They all grunt, and then all laugh, and then they
all look at you with a certain gleam in their eye.

That, and the stance that they're all adopting, tells you that their
decision is decidely not in your favor, Magus.  They start to advance
towards you, and begin to spread out in (what else) a triangle formation
around you.  What next?

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2000 06:17:17 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

You slip by the apathetic refuse haulers with ease, Jinx, both you and
Jim entering the facility right behind them as they walk in to collect
another load of their ersatz booty.  Once you get inside, and assume a
nice, quiet place to confer, Ahom becomes visible once more.

"Jinx, if I recall correctly, my body is being held captive on the tenth
floor of this mad museum of occult obscurity.  That was where the fool
who owns this domicile did all of his ... studies ... in regards to
mystical matters."

You can tell by Ahom's tone that his recollection of his experiences
there are less than happy.  And if he's a master sorcerer...  "Anyway, I
believe that we should head there directly, before anyone catches wind
of our presence.  And considering the state of your... wind..."

You hadn't noticed before, what with the overwhelming odor of the truck
all around you, but you seem to have picked up the fragrance of the
vehicle that brought you here... or, at the very least, Slow Jim has.
"What do you think, Jinx?"

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2000 10:59:33 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

Ari facepalms.  "Eep."  This turn, she rummages through her knapsack, Looking for the biggest gun she may have stuffed in there... (did she ever find an outlet that would take the Defenestrator's plug?)

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2000 11:55:06 EDT
From: Scott A Clay <cclayjr2@juno.com>

"I am glad everything worked out ok, for you then."  He smiles to her and
let her sleep,  reflecting upon having killed 7-D man.  He looks out of
the window trying to forget.

Subject: RE: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2000 12:38:59 -0400
From: Douglas Lohse <Lohsed@MSCDirect.com>

Rebound extricates himself from the automotive junk pile and charges
straight at the "bit-o-Morbius"(TM) fully enraged and not exactly
thinking clearly.  He charges out of the garage and takes a flying leap
turning himself sideways to hit the thing with the greatest surface area
and momentum that he can muster.

"THIS ENDS NOW MONSTER!!!!"

(Hoping for the best...here come the rolls:) Init: 10, Hit: 90, Dam: 94 (finally - happy dice)  Other rolls: 70, 17, 99, 91

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2000 16:56:47 -0400
From: "Scott J. Greengold" <scott.greengold@ey.com>

Crimebuster realizes that if what is left of Morbis gets to the cycle they
have a BIG problem. He starts launching as many Chi blasts as he can at the bike hoping to blow it into pieces small enough to be useless to the techno-freak.

(OCC: Rolls: To Hit:78: Damage:83 others 98, 53, 10.  Init: 1)

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2000 17:33:03 -0500
From: "William H. Lockwood" <albedo1@home.com>

Jinx curses quietly to herself at the realization that the scent of the
refuse truck lingered on their persons.

"Damnit! Oh well, nothing to do about it now. Yeah. All due haste. Lets
hit the stairwell; I don't like the idea of getting cornered in an
elevator."

With that, she would make her way to the nearest stairwell and begin
carefully making her way up to the 10th floor, hoping their stealth tech
was up to the task.

[OOC: 90, 71, & 60 for any necessary rolls.]

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?/ A.S.9. is back in action
Date: Sat, 05 Aug 2000 12:59:22 CDT
From: "Randy Alexander" <AS_nine@hotmail.com>

A.S.9 pulls out his guns and said " What ever the hell you are bub, You are
going to around for long!" And with that he starts to blast away, then if
that doesn't work he tries a little flame form his mouth. 75,68,85,56

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Mon, 07 Aug 2000 07:02:08 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

               (and, finally getting time back in sync...)

The flight to New York City is rather uneventful, but then, since the
craft you're flying in can achieve orbital speeds, it's also a rather
short trip.  However, you nonetheless start to drift off, Stone Cold,
until you hear Harry's voice up front.

"Hey, guys, you'd better get up here... you ought to see this."  Piping
all the data the ship's sensors are receiving into the holographic
display mechanism in the passenger bay, Harry indicates to bot you and
Tammy that something odd is going on in the Big Apple.

You see a bunch of strange energies being broadcast throughout the city,
but they seem to originate a couple miles from Och's penthouse
apartment; from the map being produced by the hologram emitter, you have
a bad feeling that it's coming from where your pals went, Stoney.

By the time Harry gets there, you can see what's going on directly below
you.  It would appear that there's some sort of robotic menace on the
loose in the city, and you can plainly see some of your pals fighting it
below... along with some other, fire-breathing guy.  What now?

                                   ***

Before anybody can react, you fling yourself at the bio-mechanical
monstrosity, Rebound, and you manage to strike the beast - and hard.
You knock it over with explosive force, bouncing it off the nearest
plexiglass building face... namely, the one across the street.

The impact manages to send you flying in the opposite direction yet
again, however, and you move away in a ballistic arc that brings you
down on the fourth story of the parking garage that you were so recently
exploring.  Luckily, most of your momentum was spent in your flight.

Meaning you can actually react to the thing below you quickly.

Back down on the street, the somewhat-Morbis collects itself, and
continues to absorb handy motorcycle parts, at which point both A.S.9
and Crimebuster let loose with their respective projectile barrages.
Digging through your knapsack, however, you miss the fireworks, Ari.

You also fail to locate any fun guns (go figure), simply unearthing the
Defenestrator.  Now, the plug that the device works on accepts 120VAC,
so any handy dandy electrical outlet will recharge the beastly device.
And, you had plenty of time to do so back at Och's place.

Before you can bring it to bear, however, the Morbis clone / motorbike
deigns to gloat at the lot of you again.  "Hah hah hah!  Foolish humans,
you cannot defeat the will of Morbis!  Even now, I recollect my mass in
order to destroy you all!!  Prepare to die!!!"

It then pauses to convert various parts of itself into mechanical
implements of destruction, such as mechanical scissors, electric knives,
buzz-saws of doom, a handy chain saw arm, and more.  And, moreso, it
looks really ticked off...

How now, brown cow?

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Mon, 07 Aug 2000 07:08:03 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

You and Slow Jim run up the stairs at your best possible speed, and
bizarre flashbacks to your LAST encounter in a stairwell cause you to
peer VERY cautiously through the windows on the doors to level ten; no
security goons with laser cannons waiting THIS time, at least.

Entering after checking the door for obvious alarm mechanisms, the two
of you - accompanied by Ahom's disenfranchised astral form - walk into a
small foyer of sorts, one that leads off in three different directions.
Ahom points straight ahead.  "The main thaumaturgy lab is this way."

Flying ahead, if slowly, he scopes out any potential threats to your
immediate egress, and doesn't seem to find any.  Waving you forward, he
points to the door that he requires.  "The walls of this room are
shielded with Egyptian marble... my astral body cannot penetrate them."

"Now, it's your turn, Jinx.  I suppose you could just blow your way into
the lab, but I feel that there are some people headed this way...
possibly scientists on a coffee break.  I can't tell... my powers are so
limited thanks to my extended absence from my body."

"And the nature of this facility in general..."

!?

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Mon, 7 Aug 2000 12:51:13 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

Ari grins.  "Guys.  Cover your ears."  With that, she thumbs off the safety,
and steps forward, assuming a ludicrously "heroic" pose.  Pretty funny for a
girl in an ankle length flowery skirt, a cashmere sweater, and Buddy Holly
glasses.  "Hey!  Lunchbox!"  *bzaaat!*

Subject: [v13] Re: Nobody's Real?
Date: Mon, 07 Aug 2000 23:28:10 -0000
From: "Scott Clay" <cclayjr2@juno.com>

"Are you ready to start up again already Tammy?"  Stone Cold ask
pulling off his jacket and pants to reveal his costume beneath.  He
opens the door and begins to form an ice ramp down to slow both of
their decent if she comes along.
(Rolls: 73, 40, 85, 22)

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Tue, 08 Aug 2000 09:34:53 CDT
From: "Randy Alexander" <AS_nine@hotmail.com>

" Shit... These one tough cookie, I think I should try a different angle."
Looking around he looks for a near by buildings to see what he can use
against this guy, as he is looking he is consistantly fire shots with his
eye beams. 71, 54, 58, 29, 31

Subject: RE: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 16:43:51 -0400
From: Douglas Lohse <Lohsed@MSCDirect.com>

Rebound launches himself from the 4th story hoping his added momentum
will be of some help in fighting this monstrosity.  He attempts to aim
his flight in an arc to impact between the "bit-o-Morbius" and whatever
remains of the motorcycle to prevent it from absorbing anything else.

Overly annoyed with himself and the situation, Rebound keeps his not-so-
internal monologue going... "Shouldda let him pull the damned plug..."

Rolls:

Init: 9
Hit: 76
Dam: 51
Others: 64, 67, 35, 04

(OCC: Crimbuster/Scott is in Las Vegas this week, so I guess he is on
 autopilot)

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Tue, 08 Aug 2000 18:32:37 -0500
From: "William H. Lockwood" <albedo1@home.com>

Jinx observes the entrance to the chamber that holds Ahom's physical
body, trying to discern how it would normally open.

She whispers very quietly that they should find some cover and hide and
wait for the people to come back as they may open the door for them,
allowing them to sneak in behind the group.

Hoping that the stealth tech holds up and that the people who are
approaching aren't too observant, Jinx searches for the best cover she
can manage.

OOC: 8 plus modifiers for Initiative, 71 to Hide.

Subject: Re: [v13] Home Sweet... Home?
Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2000 23:40:01 -0400
From: "Nathan Gecko" <nathangecko@yahoo.com>

 Magus mutters only loud enough for his erstwhile guide to overhear, "I
really hate it when they have that look......"

> That, and the stance that they're all adopting, tells you that their
> decision is decidely not in your favor, Magus.  They start to advance
> towards you, and begin to spread out in (what else) a triangle formation
> around you.  What next?

 Glancing over at his compatriot, "Do you think you can make your back by
yourself? I'm got a feeling that I'll need some room here."

 <Assuming that he answers affirmatively...>

 Magus looks upon the trio with a solemn look of diplomacy, "C'mon friends.
Do we really have to result to such things? We simply need a moments rest.
Allow us this and we'll be on our way soon after our strength is regained."
Of course the thoughts of Magus flash through various tactics, spells, and a
keen awareness of the surroundings as he prepares for the almost assured
battle that is to follow.

Subject: [v13] Gratitous Cute Girl Picture... not really.
Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2000 02:25:53 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

Here.  I found the girl who, were we ever required to name a person to
portray our characters, would most CERTAINLY portray our Bag-toting cutie.

http://www.twistedlens.com/gallery/courtnee/dress018a.jpg

Drool shamelessly.  (I did!)

-ez0, that Y chromosome is kicking in right now...

Subject: [v13] give me help please!
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2000 01:33:00 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

http://www.sexsexworld.com/fisticuffs.shtml

Vote for your buddy and mine, ME, in the Fight Of My Life.  Yes.  I need
YOUR help to win this one.  i am spamming the hell out of every friend I have
(and Nate Gecko) to drum up support.  So show your love.

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 04:08:24 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

Before any of you can react to this semi-offensive stance adopted by
your nameless foe, you see it reach out with an extendable arm and deck
poor Crimebuster upside his head, causing him to fly back about five
feet and drop his sword.  You be he ain't gonna be happy about THAT.

    (for reference, you take Excellent (20) Blunt Attack damage, CB)

Seeing this, Rebound, you leap off the parking garage, and you see that
Stone Cold and Tammy have apparently arrived from Atlanta, since they're
leaping out of Harry's spacecraft - Stoney sliding down one of his ice
slides and Tammy levitating herself towards the ground.

Makes you happy that Harry didn't land on the ground, since your foe
seems to absorb technological items; you hope he don't see the ship.
At any rate, you land on the heavily armed thing and detonate mightily,
flying up past Stone Cold and Tammy due to the resultant concussion.

That new fellow, the one who your almost-Morbis foe stole a motorcycle
from, then starts hitting it with his laser eyes.  You see this as you
soar into the sky, Rebound, and are even more impressed when Ari breaks
out the Defenestrator.

It makes that characteristic 'steam whistle' sound again, and you can
almost see the concussion wave emanate from the thing as, in an almost
perfectly circular pattern, every window for about a block around her
person violently shatters.  Spectacularly.

The monster, thanks to the repeated and continuous pummeling you all
have dealt unto it, then falls apart.  As it discombobulates, you see it
break down into its various technological and organic parts, leaving a
sort of biohazardous junk pile in its wake.

Makes you wonder what ELSE is waiting for you all downstairs...

!?

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 04:18:15 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

You and Slow Jim hide behind a convenient potted palm, and the two
techie types walk right past you; they have no reason to look for you,
after all, so they just walk right past, blathering all about some sort
of 'death ball' match they'd watched the night before.

Seeing the door to that lab remain open for a few more seconds after the
techs exit the laboratory, you naturally step right in, and the two of
you (along with Ahom's astral form) spot his body, mounted on an odd
medical-looking platform - yet surrounded by a laser cage.

Ahom sidles up to the cage, looking at it in an oblong manner, and
observing all of the various monitoring devices that are apparently,
well, monitoring his physical frame.  "You know, far be it from me to be
antsy about anything, but I've got a bad feeling about this, Jinx..."

Just then, the lights kick on full-blast, and you hear a voice behind
you, Jinx.  Wheeling about, presumably with guns in hand, you spy three
men in red suits, each of which looking stunningly tacky.  Their leader,
the man in the center of the three, simply sighs.

"Silly girl, silly mage.  Did you really think that I would let the two
of you just waltz in here?  Did you really think you could avoid the
picocircuitry sensors woven throught the very structure, despite the
advanced stealth technology you bear?"

"Fools.  You will be perfect additions to my... collection of antiques."
The man then motions to his two apparent minions.  "Take them... and add
their insipid selves back to the museum level.  This... I command!"
When the man says that, he does so with an almost imperial air.

Makes you feel uncomfortable-like.  What do you do?

- Firebomb

Subject: Re: [v13] Home Sweet... Home?
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 04:24:43 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

Your guide looks at you, Magus, and nods.  "I thinks I c'n hobble back
to my crack in the ice, blood... you go ahead and enjoy your little
basher-fest.  Ber-bye!"  The foot-less man then hobbles off, likely to
get himself lost in the black, icy wastes beyond you.

Your current foes ignore him, however, hoping to get some sort of sport
out of yourself.  Before they can even act, though, you hear various
hoots and hollers behind you, back towards that impressive pillar of
magma that's literally falling out of that hole in the sky.

Looking back, you see four people riding a semi-solid chunk of magma
floating on top of the stream, and you see their sudden dismay at the
sudden lack of horizontal support.  Various cries of "Auuuugh!" and
"Aieeeee!" then follow suit.

Your three friends see this four-pack of adventurers (they must be,
judging by their garish garb) use various means to control their
descent, either magical or otherwise, and come to a slow impact on the
slushy snow.  They decide they'd rather eat THEM first, and move on.

What do you do??

(P.S.:  Ronin - if you're still in this game, now'd be a good time to
start posting again... =)

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 07:12:53 -0500
From: cclayjr2@juno.com

"Yo Rebound what gives?"  Shifting to stone form to keep from getting
hurt to badly from and incoming attack.
[Stone Cold]

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 11:04:17 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

Ari just *BEAMS*  "I. LOVE.  this.  GUN!"  She does a brief "happy dance"
consisting of bobbing cheerily around in a circle, grinning madly and
chanting something none too dissimilar to 'na na na, fucked you up, na na
na"

Subject: RE: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 16:27:55 -0400
From: Douglas Lohse <Lohsed@MSCDirect.com>

Rebound waves as he passes by his fellow "heroes".  He spreads his arms
out in the best free-fall pose he can assume and waits until he comes
back within range of the buildings.  He then sprays as many strands as
he can to try and stop his fall before he leaves another hole in the
already damaged pavement.

Rolls:
98, 49, 32, 25, 66(finally bucked the trend)

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 17:40:56 -0500
From: "William H. Lockwood" <albedo1@home.com>

Jinx leaps into action the moment she hears the leader speak, not even
waiting for him to finish his speech. She knew from the tone of his
voice that he would at least make an opening statement which would give
her a few vital seconds to glance over the laser cage and try and locate
a power source or emitter.

If she was able to find one, she would take a shot at it with her Mag
Cannon while making evasive maneuvers. If unable to locate the power
source or emitter, she would proceed in disarming them by shooting their
guns out of their hands (or taking their hands off, if by happen chance).

OOC: 10 + Modifier for Initiative, 52 to look for the power source or
emitter, 72 to shoot the target (power source, emitter, or thug's gun),
35 to Dodge, 16 for any extra roll.

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2000 16:55:36 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

In lieu of spotting a master power supply for the room, and / or the
cage holding Ahom's form in stasis, you fire at one of the goons' guns,
Jinx - and hit it solid.  Blasting it with incredible force, you knock
the thing right out of his hand - and burn IT considerably.

"Ahaahhrgh!"

He drops in shock, while the other fellow (Goon #2) takes a pot shot at
you with his sleek, almost organic-looking steel gun.  It makes a nice
'bzat' sound as the energy beam fries the air around it, and causes you
to make a 'bwoomph' sound as it knocks the air from your lungs.

The concussion wave inflicts Incredible (40) Force damage upon your
person.  "Insolent gnat, you think you can defeat me in my seat of
power?  Do you even know who I am?!  I am the lord of this earth, built
by my father from samples of the greatest men who ever lived!"

"I am --"

Before this tiresome villain-type can bellow out his name, something BAD
happens.  The lights abruptly go out, and the building shakes to its
very core.  Thousands of indicator lights go out in the room, as though
some structure-wide calamity had occurred.

At about this time, everybody remembers that they're sitting under about
100 stories of concrete, glass, and steel, and they all start screaming
like mad when they come to the simultaneous conclusion that it's about
to fall down on their collective heads.

While you're knocked to the ground, Jinx, you manage to keep your cool;
momentarily dispersing your probability field, you can plainly see that
the building itself isn't in imminent danger of collapse, though on the
tip of your consciousness, you feel some dread coming on...

That's when mister evil villain starts speaking up.  "Computer!
Computer!!  What's going on, here?  I need emergency lights - now!"  You
can't see the man, of course, but you can definitely hear where he's at;
with a bellow like his, it'd be hard NOT to.

What now?

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2000 22:09:24 CDT
From: "Randy Alexander" <AS_nine@hotmail.com>

A.S.9 watches as all that is left of his Harley is junk. " ALRIGHT WHAT THE
FUCK WAS THIS THING AND WHERE THE HELL IS THE MAKER OF IT BECAUSE I AM
SENDING HIM TO HIS." WIth his blades popped out of his fingers and his whip
lashing out.

Subject: Re: [v13] Nobody's Real?
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2000 23:21:06 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

Ari jumps back and thumbs the catch of the Defenestrator.  "Hold it RIGHT
there, motherfuck Terminator!  You won't be doing SHIT if you don't cool
it!"

Subject: Re: [v13] Home Sweet... Home?
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2000 20:25:42 -0700 (PDT)
From: Nathan Gecko <nathangecko@yahoo.com>

 Magus turns to look at the man and debates for a moment whether to call out to the man to tell him not to wander too far nor that he'll enjoy the bloodletting that is about to take place, but decides that time is short for such things as well as being pointless to do so.

> Your current foes ignore him, however, hoping to get some sort of sport out of 
> yourself.  Before they can even act, though, you hear various hoots and 
> hollers behind you, back towards that impressive pillar of magma that's 
> literally falling out of that hole in the sky.

 Carefully stepping back and to the side of the hostile trio so as to keep an eye on both them and the new, loud arrival of these new possible allies or even
more feasible foes.

> Looking back, you see four people riding a semi-solid chunk of magma floating 
> on top of the stream, and you see their sudden dismay at the sudden lack of 
> horizontal support.  Various cries of "Auuuugh!" and "Aieeeee!" then follow 
> suit.

 Almost comical in his appearance Magus taps his foot eagerly as he waits for what seems to be an eternity but in reality is only a brief few moments for the
four to come to a rest from their unusual ride.

> Your three friends see this four-pack of adventurers (they must be, judging by 
> their garish garb) use various means to control their descent, either magical 
> or otherwise, and come to a slow impact on the slushy snow.  They decide 
> they'd rather eat THEM first, and move on.

 Magus smirks to himself inwardly, *I knew they had everything under control...* Of course the self satisfaction at his correct assessment of the new arrivals is quickly pushed out of his mind as the trio of dim-witted foes begin to make their way towards the new guests of this frigid realm. Moving back from the trio to stand just off to the side of the four adventurers with swords drawn, "All right you three. Take yourselves back to your master's home and leave all of us be."

> What do you do??

Crying like a girl usually throws them off their guard....but nah.

> (P.S.:  Ronin - if you're still in this game, now'd
> be a good time to start posting again... =)

Whooooaaaaaa....mean I might finally actually meet
another PC? Simply amazing....;^)

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 14:00:42 -0500
From: "William H. Lockwood" <albedo1@home.com>

Jinx would take advantage of the situation at hand, yelling to Ahom to
check and see if his body was still licked up in the laser cage.

If it was, she would make her way to the sound of the villain and try to
grapple with him, putting her gun to his head and hissing the following
warning in his ear:

"Listen Mr. Soliloquy, you have until the count of 3 to get that laser
cage turned off or your head will be a bunch of manly samples splattered
all over this room."

If the cage was turned off, she would hope Ahom would reinhabit his
body, providing any cover fire for him while he reacquainted himself
with his physical form.

OOC: 7 + Modifier for Initiative, 56 to sneak up on the villain, 92 to
grapple with him, 16 and 38 for extra rolls.

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Re: Enter: the Pit!
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2000 06:17:24 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@home.com>

You're suitably impressed.

You put your gun up to this big-mouthed fellow and make your threat, but
not only does he not quake in fear, but he does this ... thing with his
right hand that knocks your mag-cannon out of your hand, and then
another thing with his left hand that knocks you to the floor.

Despite your probability field!

"Insipid insect!  None may handle the royal personage, much less make
base threats to his existence...!  Besides, if you'd bothered to pay
attention, you'd see that the cage that contained your comatose friend's
body was deactivated along with the rest of the devices here."

"Behold!"  Looking back, you see that the cage is, in fact, off, since
it sheds no light in the room.  In fact, you can't see anything until
the emergency lights activate, bathing the room in a dull, angry red
light.  Then the computer starts to speak up.

"My lord, it has been determined that some sort of global calamity has
occurred, based in the northern area of Madagascar.  A celestial level
impact has apparently occurred with enough force to destabilize tectonic
plates world-wide."

"Further effects have yet to be determined, but it would appear that -"
The computer then loses its voice abruptly, and the emergency lights
flicker as though they too were about to fail.  "Yes... yes.  Heh heh
heh hah hah...!"

Looking behind you again, you see that Ahom has again regained the use
of his body, though he looks somewhat shaky; it's been awhile, as you
gather, and he appears to be positively parched.  He sounds it, too, as
his voice is quite hoarse.

"I see what is occurring with my mystical senses, Jinx.  Your ersatz
allies have prevented this catastrophe on our own world, creating a
paradox that would otherwise eliminate a future era they visited
recently.  This is simply time correcting itself..."

"... by foisting this global carnage on a timeline split off from our
own by a similarly errant time traveler, that foolish Frankologist I
spoke to you of.  The paradox now seems to be resolved, however, I do
believe that we need to beat feet, as it were."

"I need you to cover me while I determine where we are on the temporal
axis relative to our own timeline.  Once I find this information,
returning home should be a simple matter.  I trust that you and Slow Jim
can take care of our would-be dispatchers...?"

When you hear the word 'dispatcher', you immediately whirl on the loud
mouth tyrant behind you, as he and his remaining henchman seem to have
recovered both their wits and a weapon; the goon has another concussion
rifle, while the big guy has an ornate, sharp looking dagger.

"Arrogant also-rans... do you truly believe that I would let you escape
from my museum of mystical relics?  None may escape my collection... or
my wrath!  I could give you a clean kill with a gun, but this is more...
what you deserve, woman.  Engarde!"

? (and yes, he said engarde)
