"Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating..." (Part 4: The Best-Laid Plans)

[meat_mooks]

At some time during the night, while some were still sleeping, and some were awake and wandering around the hotel common rooms--a massive explosion rocked the hotel the group was staying in

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[meat_mooks]

There were now massive holes in the walls and floors of the hotel they were staying at and it was likely that a few of them had some minor injuries that needed some basic first aid.

They also might notice some of their number were missing.

[ooc: Subthreading here. The hotel just got partly blown up! Some of their own might have been exploded, for all they know! Reactions!]

Re: Reaction Thread

[not_edd]

Zedd had been (restlessly) relaxing in his room when the hotel exploded, throwing him out of bed and gladly burying him in rubble. A few moments later, Zedd burst through the rubble and got to his feet, growling.

"What... what in the nine hells HAPPENED?!" he roared. In no mood for pleasantries, Zedd used his staff to blast his door off and marched out. "What's going on here!?"

Re: Reaction Thread

[level12headache]

Querl's personal forcefield had automatically activated. He was completely unscathed, yet when he left his room his green skin had gone paler and his eyes were wide.

"Everyone sound off! Any injuries?" Or fatalities...

Re: Reaction Thread

[kandrakar_heart]

"I'm alright!" Will shouted, making it up to her feet, head darting around and surveying the damage.

And trying to figure out just what the heck happened.

Bilbo Bilbo Bilbo Baggins, Bravest Little Soldier of Them All

[galilee_npcs]

Upon teleporting, the Stacy crew members would lose consciousness, then regain it to find themselves bound by what looked like vines of energy coming from a socket in the floor. All powers would be nullified. This was something like the technology the Galileans used on the clones to restrain them.

They were in a place that looked like it was actually underground. Clearly the clone underground took that a little literally. They were in a badly lit room, and standing guard over them was a tall woman, branded with a clone mark. She was Asian and well-built, and carried herself not with the bearing of a ragtag revolutionary, but that of a trained soldier.

In fact, in regards to that soldier thing, she had a very, very nasty-looking gun pointed at the group, and looked like she knew how to use it.

[Posting order: Bilbo, Sam Henderson, Rory, Ruffnut, Sakura, Signum, Bilbo, etc.]

[galilee_npcs]

Bilbo was impassive, standing at the "front" of the room the crew members found themselves in. She waited, patient and unmoving, for all of them to rouse before she bothered to speak. Even after that, she waited a little longer. Letting them collect themselves, find their bearings, center themselves before she began speaking

[needs_release]

Sam shook his head after he woke up. For reasons he couldn't quite place, he felt a bit drained. He tugged at the restraints a bit, but he couldn't break them. Not that he was terribly worried about the woman holding the gun. He could take more than a few bullets in the time it would take to get across the room and remove that gun from the equation.

But since that failed, he looked up at her, listening to her introduction. "I'd share the introduction, but I'm sure you already know who we are." While he spoke, he tried to reach out to Fletcher, but it was as though there was no connection whatsoever. Well, wasn't this just a pretty little picture?

[theboywhowaits]

His head was pounding, and that was a more immediate concern than the bindings. The fact that his head seemed to be trying very hard to split itself in two. It wasn't like he could do anything, even with normal handcuffs.

"Where are we? And how exactly did we get here?"

The last he remembered was talking with Sakura and leaning over his notes to show her something, and now there were...somewhere else. But where and why were the most important answers.

Harriet

[galilee_npcs]

As soon as Howard and Z arrived, they'd find themselves wrapped in vines of energy that sapped the strength from them, and dragged them to their knees.

"Harriet, I know these two are the ones you talked into things, but before you say a word, we have to restrain them all," said Edith, now out of her disguise, bright eyes giving the girl a piercing gaze. "Until Moses clears them. Guy's orders."

The unconscious forms of the clones, purposefully knocked out by the teleportation process when they were 'ported from the hotel, were dragged into the room by clones and secured the same way, with the energy vines attached to the socket in the floor. They would find themselves waking almost immediately after.

[Posting order: Harriet, Howard, Zouichi, Fate, Jr., Kang, Superboy, Harriet, etc.]

Re: Harriet

[galilee_npcs]

"Understood." She muttered.

Unhappily so, but understood. They wanted them to work with them, not hate them. It seemed like tying them up was counterproductive. But she understood the caution, even if she didn't entirely like it.

"Hello, my name is Harriet, I'm sorry about this. We mean you no harm, I can assure you. We only want to talk. The precautions are only because...well, many of you have powers, and we are few. As soon as our leader allows for it, you will be untied." She swept her gaze quietly over the group, smiling warmly. "You are with friends, and you are safe. Please do not be alarmed." She glanced nervously at Howard and Zouichi, feeling dishonest. They had been willing to come with her and she had helped lead them into this.

"I'm sorry to both of you, I hope you are not harmed."

Re: Harriet

[i_sell_drugs]

"What the hell are you doing, girl? This is a real lousy way to tell us you don't mean any harm."

Well, if you wanted to really ruin Howard's day, Harriet, you just accomplished it. See, now he's tied up on the floor, trying very hard not to cry and shake from the whole 'what the hell is happening?' vibe of the last half minute, and it's not even an especially comfy floor.

Not to mention what the hell, is Zouichi a secret drug mule? Kidnapping synthetic humans and company seems to be coming into vogue. "Zou? Are you okay?"

Oh, and there appear to be others there, as well, getting dragged in. Howard can make out the forms of Kang and Superboy and thinks he can see Jr. and Fate a little further down the line. Unlike Howard and Zouichi, they seem to have been knocked unconscious. "What did you do to them? Are they alright?"

He'd tell himself he wished he'd stayed at the hotel, except since he just saw that go up like an illegal firework, he figures maybe being immobilized and bewildered on the floor is a slightly better alternative.

Re: Harriet

[zouichi]

Betrayal, yeah
A stab in the back
Betrayal, yeah
I’m stretched on the rack

Zouichi did not look happy. But it was important to remain calm, especially in the face of Howard's distress. "...I'm fine."

He turned to Harriet. "'Don't be alarmed'? You do realize that this is exactly the same way in which the government chose to treat us? How do expect us to trust you when you're not willing to extend us the same courtesy?"

"And what did you do to the others? Those who are not here?"

Guy Fawkes

[galilee_npcs]

Upon teleporting, the Stacy crew members would lose consciousness (if they were capable), then regain it to find themselves bound by what looked like vines of energy coming from a socket in the floor. In Zetta's case, he likely would've been trapped immediately right after teleportation. All powers would be nullified. This was something like the technology the Galileans used on the clones to restrain them.

They were in a place that looked like it was actually underground. Clearly the clone underground took that a little literally. They were in a badly lit room, and standing guard over them was a young man, branded with a clone mark. He was blonde and angry-looking, and somewhat twitchy, but considering he was holding a nasty-looking energy weapon of some sort in his hands, that twitchiness was likely not a good thing.

[Posting Order: Guy Fawkes, Nightwing, The Doctor, Lash, Zetta, Guy, Nightwing, etc.]

[galilee_npcs]

"You wanted to get in contact with the CLF, you got your chance. I'm gonna be honest; I don't trust any of you yet to not backstab us. We've had others pretend to be on our side and screw us over before."

Guy liked getting straight to the point.

"Name's Guy Fawkes. You'll be untied when Moses says it's okay, but until then, let's just talk. What are your plans regarding us?"

[goddamnwingman]

In all honesty, Dick had woken up in worse situations. At least here, nobody was cackling over him and there wasn't any gloating going on.

Of course, judging by the energy vines, it wouldn't be as easy to break out of as most of those had been, either.

Dick tested the bonds first, then allowed himself to relax and look over the twitchy guy. "That's an interesting name," he said evenly. "Though perhaps not the best history behind it in my own world.

"I'm Dick Grayson. Lt. Commander of the Transmigration 9." No reason to keep that much information back, after all. He wanted to be as honest as possible. "At the moment, my main concern has been getting my people out of this situation without anybody else getting hurt. Other than that, I wanted to know more about what was happening here on the planet, see if there wasn't a way to bring the conflict to an end peacefully." A moment, then he sighed. "Of course, even if we tried that, we wouldn't be able to stay long enough to see it through. The ship's not going to wait that long."

[makeherblue]

He shouldn't be surprised.

After all, the Doctor had a rather exciting lifestyle and that tended to mean aside from occasionally getting chased, shot at, and then chased some more for good measure, you also happened to get knocked out every now and then.

But it was always still surprising to jerk awake and realize oh, you were tied up all over again and at least this time the ropes weren't chafing like the last time with Mother Reda. They were, however, distractingly glowy, the Doctor fidgeting where he'd been lying with a grunt as he strained his head to get a better look around, licking his chapped lips. Ah. Underground hideaway, guns pointed at them, their captor scowling at them (did they always have to scowl? Maybe it was simply one of those Things one had to do on guard duty), and the Doctor wasn't liking how twitchy this fella was. Twitchy meant twitchy trigger finger. The Doctor kept still, presenting himself as a reasonable man who didn't really need to get shot for no reason at all

Group 1 - To the Clonebanks - With Councilman Kanner Drayan [Ishfe]

[galilee_npcs]

The next day, the Councilors have made themselves available to help provide information and their services to the crew who survived the attack. Kanner leads one group to the clonebanks, to familiarize them with what there is to be seen there, and field all related questions.

[Posting order: Kanner, Brainiac 5, Daniel, Ildraniath, Lex, Kanner, etc. If your character wouldn't say anything for their post, either let the next person know to go instead, or post with something like "Brainiac 5 stood there and simply listened."]

[galilee_npcs]

Kanner greeted them all near the entrance

[level12headache]

Querl was silent as he followed the Councilor. He paid attention to everything Kanner had said but at the same time he was busy with a dozen mental calculations. He hadn't the patience to exchange pleasantries, that would be a job for the others.

[hi_there_aliens]

The fact that they hadn't found any remains had to be a good sign. At least, it corroborated with what he'd found last night, which was basically nothing: Daniel hadn't found any trace of the Doctor last night, not even teeth. He'd searched the wreck inside and out before moving onto the other rooms. Daniel didn't think the blast was nearly hot enough to vaporize bone completely, but then again, what did he know about off-world explosives? Maybe it could, but according to the Councillor, none of their crew had been killed in the explosion