Jennifer8

I have reached a point of writer's block on this thread.

I am thinking of fast-forwarding to the actual Arachnos breakout. Does anyone have any objections?

Jen 8)

"Oh... hi, Jake." Penny's eyebrows rose. She wore leather and cloth now, her armor having been all but destroyed in her last excursion to Paragon City.

There were no allies in the Rogue Isles, not really. But Jake... well, at the very least he could be classed as a non-hostile. For the moment, at any rate.

"I am considering," she said, "Whether or not to take a certain high-stakes job. " She looked at him curiously. "And you?"

This stone wasn't exactly a high-traffic area, and she didn't like the idea that he might be listening to the Paragon broadcasts too. So far as she knew, she was the only one on the Isles who had any inkling of the events that were transpiring for the task force, and she meant to keep it that way.

Penny Arcade sat on a rock, overlooking the sea. It was a tall rock, and the surf pounded relentlessly on its base, but the spray did not reach so high. From here, at just the right time of day, and in just the right lighting, it was sometimes possible to see Paragon. Not the city, itself, but rather the edge of the landmass upon which it was built, which showed as the tiniest of blue dots over the horizon, when the sun and sea were just right. This, Penny knew, was really a reflection, as the landmass was much farther away. Nevertheless it was a reflection of Paragon City, and she liked to come here sometimes, to try and see it. Most days it was not visible, but on those rare occasions when she caught a glimpse of it, she felt it was a good omen.

Her cover story had nothing to do with the reflection, of course. Here in the Rogue Isles, it was always necessary to ensure that one's actions could never be construed as anything but self-serving. Penny Arcade was very good at cover stories, and it helped that this one happened to be true: it was far from a coincidence that this location was the sole spot in all the Isles where one could receive a transmission from Paragon with minimal possibility of detection.

'Transmission' was, perhaps, too strong a word. Coded security channels were only as good as their encryption, and Penny Arcade understood Paragon encryption better than most. The receiving unit, a small handheld device with a woefully tiny screen, was adequate for its purpose. She read the data with a frown, going over it twice before snapping it closed.

A task force was coming. Now that was interesting news indeed. Lacking any access to backgrounds or briefings, the information was sketchy at best, but the basic framework was clear enough. A hero had been taken, along with some important object. The task force was coming to rescue him (her?) and retrieve the item. Simple enough. The snag (undoubtedly the first of many) was contained in the coordinates: if correct, the location would put the heroes in Ghost Widow territory. At the very least, that meant heavy firepower on both sides.

In the hands of someone else in the Rogue Isles, such information could have spelled disaster for the strike team, leading to ambushes and possible capture for the lot of them. In fact, Penny Arcade knew several individuals who would pay top dollar for such information, not to mention the boost it would give her "criminal career." However, the street value of the information held no interest to her. She had no intention of selling out those whom she would have liked to have had as compatriots, had her own fortunes been better.

Penny Arcade knew that Paragon City was not for her, and never would be. She had been created specifically to be placed here, knew it, and recognized the importance of her work. She did see the merits of the theory. Arachnos, as an organization, would not stand if it was attacked both from without and from within. But being on the ground, behind the front lines so to speak, she could also see that the theory would not work in practice. Through diligent effort, she had discovered the full extent of the Paragon cloning program which had put her here, and its implications were staggering.

It was only recently that she had discovered the cloning was not voluntary and had been conducted in the greatest secrecy. None of the donor heroes knew that they had been cloned! She wondered what they would have thought, if they had somehow found out. Penny Arcade herself, not having developed any inherent paranormal abilities, was actually considered a failed effort in the very program which had spawned her.

But there had been other clones - a number of others. These creations had been successful, and were as heavily powered as their Paragon City counterparts. A few had gone over to the Arachnos side of the field. Many others had followed their original heroic instincts. It wasn't to be denied that Arachnos had taken some fearsome damage at their hands. But at what cost? Most had died. Penny Arcade, herself, knew of no other survivors.

It was a maddening situation. She had been created precisely to be expendable. Had she been locked up in Ghost Widow's tower, there would have been no task force sent after her. Her fate was a harsh one: to do what she could, for as long as she could, until she failed and was ground under Arachnos heel, to be replaced by the next clone coming down the line. Was such a thing really approved by Paragon officials? Perhaps not: presumably the reason her own villian threat level had been so upgraded in the Paragon hero databases was that someone knew she had found out, and was afraid she would blab to the wrong people. She had been enraged when she found out, so much so she had actually considered turning to a life of crime for good.

But there was no real momentum behind the thought. In her heart of hearts, Penny Arcade wanted to be a hero. Heroism being the equivelant of suicide in the Rogue Isles, she had settled for being a sort of anti-villain. There was plenty of work for that sort of thing here: all sorts of groups plotted against Paragon, and given the constant infighting with the various factions in the area, it was rarely difficult to find reasons to take down any threat that seemed too severe.

And speaking of taking down threats... the task force. Hm. The cause was noble, and Penny Arcade liked noble causes when she could get them, which wasn't often. She couldn't risk being captured by the task force. No soft jail cell at the Zig awaited her: certain persons in Paragon would want her returned to the laboratory, to find out what went wrong. Vivisection. She shuddered. Nor did she care to go up against Ghost Widow. Widow owed her a favor, but Penny Arcade knew better than to cross her.

Still... she spared the capured hero a moment of sympathy, to be locked up in such a place. The trinket, whatever it was, could be left to fend for itself, but the hero ought to be extricated with all possible haste. She did not wish to fight against the task force, and could not fight for it, but perhaps she could arrange to be in the area around that time. For her own reasons, of course. A spanner in the works.

Sure, why not? Spanners could be useful things. There must be some work to be found around there...

"Dammit," Penny swore, and a moment later her radio cut out completely.

Without the radio, it was impossible to hear anything over the thundering din of the portal, which had now grown to a truly apocalyptic size. In its center, different pictures appeared, as if it was a television set trying to tune into a difficult station.

The red tentacle faded away to a vision of a surprised group of Circle... they faded to a glimpse of shrieking vine monsters... who gave way to weird, shadowy figures... who gave way to cruel crystalline forms...

Then, a quick glimpse of a Rikti formation. It faded quickly, replaced by other glimpses of other creatures, places and times. Then, another glimpse of Rikti, which again faded, but not quite as quickly as before.

"Dammit!" Penny Arcade's voice cut in again, this time on a different frequency. "They are grabbing it! Hurry, hurry!"

The combined efforts of the heroes was having an effect. The head and tail of the oddly shaped portal were now spinning at drastically different speeds. The whirlpool surrounding it was lit by furious sparks and streaks of lightning. Given time, the portal would destabilize. But the glimpses of the Rikti were becoming more frequent... it would be a race against time.

((Everyone:

Please accept my apologies for my silence. I have been completely buried at work. Hopefully next week will be better, though it might still be spotty.))

[ QUOTE ]
If a robot could scowl, Solid's expression would cause stone to crack under the strain of his displeasure. Normally he would violently disagree with letting a known villain get far away from him and out of possible pursuit distance, but considering that something was trying to suck the city into a bottomless void and that Penny herself was quite injured, he figured he could let things slide just this once.

"Target lost," Solid muttered as the funnel swung away from him.

"If this doesn't work," Solid informed Penny over the radio frequency she had passed him as he waited for his chance to fire to roll by again. "My ghost is going to kill your ghost till the end of time. Got that?"

[/ QUOTE ]

"Got it," Penny sounded mildly amused. "Though I suppose... it would be an interesting philosophical discussion.. as to whether or not I would have a ghost.... good shot, by the way."

[ QUOTE ]
Drakonice flew next to penny healing some wounds with a portable healing device. "All I have is a one shot crey pistol but if you need someone or something secured I'm your man. Unless of course rock would work." Drakonice reached his hands in the ground and pulled out a giant chunk of rock.

[/ QUOTE ]

Penny blinked and stared at Drakonice. She had visited Paragon City only very infrequently, and had learned not to expect aid or kindness from anyone, let alone a Paragon City hero.

The healing beam definitely had an effect, and she exhaled as some of the pain was suddenly relieved. "Er... thank you," she said uncertainly. "And rock would be wonderful. The bigger, the better. We're after density of mass or potent energy, either one will work."

[ QUOTE ]
"Alright....Penny was it? I'm on my way." Normally he might make a smart-aleck remarck because of being ordered so soon, but now wasn't exactly the time. "Here goes nothing." He shot some greenish gas towards his feet in an arc motion towards where he needed to go. As it fell to the floor he was grabbed by roots and dragged under-ground. 'Least I'm safe down-- Before he could finish the thought the piece of ground above him was ripped up towards the vortex in the sky. He let out a bit of a yelp at this unexpected event and continued on his way, though now with a bit less protection.

[/ QUOTE ]

The swirling hole in the sky gained momentum with amazing speed. Its rotation was now reaching out to pull in things that had previously been too large, including one of the unfortunate burned-out generator trucks. Still slightly too heavy to be sucked in completely, it was nevertheless flung a quarter of a mile to impact a building that had previously been out of range of damage, turned from a constructive force for good into a forty-ton bomb. Having already burned itself out, it did not explode, but cracks ranged up the walls of the building, which trembled uncertainly.

Penny Arcade's plan became obvious almost immediately. The vortex had a long, twisting tail which was spinning in the same direction as its mouth. However, when it was struck by the blasts from Solid's rifle, it hesitated before continuing to spin. It caught up almost immediately with mouth again, but its rotation had been momentarily interrupted. With enough firepower in the right direction, it should make the tail spin in the opposite direction than the mouth, and thus the portal would tear itself apart in the middle.

Buster, freed from his bonds, radioed in. "Six or nine?" He called to Penny Arcade.

"Nine, I'll take six!"

"Got it."

Penny Arcade turned off her radio. Solid heard her do it. But in the badly-damaged suit, her transmission did not cease, though she didn't seem to be aware she currently had an open mike.

"Look," she said to the shadowy, robed figure, "the guy who made this damned thing is called Dr. Shayde, and he's completely around the bend. He believes that he's contacted the Rikti and that they have agreed to make him their king if he can find a way for them to invade again." She took up her position. "Obviously he is a moron, but it seems that somewhere, somehow, he actually has been in contact with the Rikti. It should take a minute or so for this thing to stabilize, maybe a bit longer because of the distance. Once it's stabilized, the Rikti can grab it from the other end and maybe make it actually work instead of being the nuisance it is now... at least, if they can figure out the encryption without the key." The tail swung around, and she opened fire, not speaking again until it had swung past her. "They would be here already but we got reeeeeeally lucky in the Isles the day before yesterday."

Sparks flew angrily around as the tail began taking fire, but the vortex didn't close. Not yet. Its center enlarged itself until it was possible to see that there was something else inside of it. At first, it wasn't possible to see what it was - a sort of grayish, bluish mass.

Then, something moved. The grayish stuff seemed to be water. That much became apparant when the enormous, red, suckered tentacle rose from it, and brushed curiously against the opening. It didn't go through, as if it had brushed against glass, but everyone had a spectacular view of it, each of the suckers looking every bit as big as the unlucky generator truck that had shot by only a moment ago.

"Oh yes," Penny Arcade deadpanned, "And even when it is unstable, it does have a few other little quirks..." the tail came around again, and she opened fire.

ooc that;s fine - been away the weekend and too busy at work today to post, will try and post tonight.

Jen 8)

As the breakout attempt came to a close, a number of things happened.

In the interrogation room, Penny Arcade gave no indication that she had heard the voice, except to narrow her eyes, and thin her lips. She frowned, wondering what to do, but said nothing else immediately, waiting to see what the Mark 2 would do.

In her former cell, the wannabes were using tried and true techniques to be sure that Harlequin Fear remained unconscious, and that there were no other perps hiding anywhere. One of them got onto the radio to the Mark 2. "Prototype Droid Mark 2, do you copy? One perp apprehended in cell C-31, Harlequin Fear. We're moving him to Handcuffs lab, then to Interrogation. No other signs of additional paranormals, all scans completed."

Harlequin Fear was loaded into a special, lit gurney and escorted, unconscious and under heavy human and droid guard, to Handcuffs lab. Handcuffs was one of the few individuals in the Zig who was looked on not so much with terror as with exasperation. The word was, when Handcuffs locked you down, you stayed locked down. Many prisoners never even saw Handcuffs: like Harlequin Fear, most had tried unsuccessful escape attempts, or other such stunts. Because Harlequin's attempt had resulted in the death of another prisoner, he was under the most stringent security measures possible.

Some time later, it became apparant that Handcuffs was extremely good at his job. Harlequin Fear had been fitted with cuffs, anklets, and a collar designed not to restrain his physical movement, but to restrain his movement into and usage of any form of shadow. The restraints could not be phased out of or scared off and, worse, any application of shadow in their immediate vicinity would make them totally immobile. Then they would light up. Though their origins were technological, they had been inscribed with symbols which made them resistant even to mystical tampering. They were totally harmless and passive, unless Harlequin tried something he shouldn't, and then they were meant to give him a very bad day indeed.

His good behavior ensured, he was then transported to an interrogation room, to find out what had happened to the soldier from the Fifth Column. The Mark 2 was duly notified of all developments.

Blind was taken to the Pit and dumped in. It was a dark place, its only lighting an eerie greenish glow, but in the darkness, something moved...

+++++

Elsewhere, unknown by the prisoners, things were happening.

The communications center was one of the most heavily-guarded sections of the Zig. During full lockdown mode, however, it was lightly manned. Today, however, it was more lightly manned than usual, for one of the guards had called in sick earlier that day, and two more had been pulled when the escape attempt and muder had been discovered.

Now Rob Trevors took up his post in the communications room, waving at the guard he came to relieve. All guards were supposed to have a second person with them, but with staffing levels today, it just wasn't possible. He wondered who had been careless enough to leave their jacket strewn across the back of the chair he was to occupy, and tossed it absent-mindedly aside as he sat down and put on his headset.

For long minutes, nothing happened. Rob watched screens, filtered messages back and forth, and wished he had remembered to get a cup of coffee. He tended to lean forwards with his elbows on the console, so he hardly noticed that the discarded jacket had resumed its position on the back of the chair.

He stiffened when it put its arms around his neck. He had brushed against it when he leaned back in the chair. The jacket liquified itself, flowing over his body, under his clothing, over his head, up his nose, before disappearing entirely. He spent some minutes making a strange, soft gurgling noise.

"Trevors?" asked the radio. "Trevors, you OK?"

The finger that pressed the button was encased entirely in black. "I'm fine," Trevors said.

"What was that noise?"

"Coffee was too hot - I choked."

"Oh. Well... everything OK up there?"

"Everything is fine," Trevors smiled. "Nothing to report."

He let go of the button. From a nearby locker, he took a pair of leather gloves, and slipped them on, and smiled to himself, rather eerily....

Penny Arcade took a moment to shout at people. "You see the tail.... under the black hole... like the string from a kite? Shoot it! Spines - bullets - flames - anything!" A particularly strong gust of wind almost pulled her off her feet but she held on doggedly. "We need to take positions around the square!" She pointed out nearby buildings. "You go here - you go there - you on the top of that tallest skyscraper, that should put you in range... We'll be able to see each other! The portal is spinning clockwise! We're going to set up a ring and shoot in a concentric counterclockwise, that will give us the best chance of overloading it!"

To Solid Shot, she added: "I'm going to be directly across the square from you - we'll coordinate via radio - here's my frequency!"

To Tommy, she said, "If you want to help, get him" (indicating Spark Force) "Over there!" She pointed to the tallest antenna on the tallest building. "Then take a position by that building," (pointing at a nearby building) "And shoot anything you've got at that tail!"

To Spark Force, she said, "You're going to be closest to the tail! Lash yourself down on something solid, if things go south and you're not lashed down you'll be the first one pulled in!"

To Flaming Earth, she said, "Take position over there," she pointed at another nearby building around the square. "We want to put as much mass into the tail as we can! Stones - spines - anything!"

To Jake she said, "You know, Buster would be really useful for this!"

To the Hooded man, she said, "Come with me - we need to talk."

To the group she said, "Let's go!" She made to move to the position she had selected for herself.

OOC: I don't *think* I missed anyone - please send me a message if I inadvertantly failed to include somebody!

[ QUOTE ]
"Oh [censored]!" Solid cursed as his jets sputtered and he barely managed to touch down on the edge of the giant hole in the wall.

Flailing his arms wildly for a second as the black hole almost jerked him off balance, Solid stumbled inside and pointed one finger at Penny while his gun made a slow circuit of the other people in the room.

"I hate it when this [censored] happens while I'm around," Solid muttered to himself before turning up the volume. "Ok girl, you've got ten seconds to explain what the HELL that thing is... Or how the HELL shooting it with BULLETS will do anything!"

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]

For a moment, Spark Force briefly considered a career change as he saw from far away what awas happening and inwardly cursed. "Great... Lady, you really starting to get on my nerves today. The way I see it, you could either die or let the heroes help you. What the HELL is that thing and will our powers do any good against it!?"

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]

"Yeah, I'm kinda with him." Jake said, hiking a thumb in Solid's direction. "And may I add, why is a black hole in the sky right now?" Jake grabbed onto something solid while simply temporarily dismissing his bots via teleportation. "Honestly, that kind of thing shouldn't be showing up under present conditions."

[/ QUOTE ]

Penny Arcade held up a hand. "While the portal is forming... its construction is something like... a glass pipe," she panted. "The vortex forms at the mouth. But under the mouth... it has a tail... like a funnel... it takes a minute or so to stabilize... but while it's forming, the tail is vulnerable to gunfire... it disrupts the energy matrixes."

She took a rather pained breath. "As for why... why will take... too long to explain... we are running out of time. If you gentlemen... would excuse me?" She manuvered towards the hole in the wall.

OOC: Don't worry, lots of exposition upcoming!

Outside the old office building, things were picking up steam.

Longbow and Arachnos darted and swooped, firing at each other now that the higher-threat heroes were occupied. Almost unnoticed in the battle, subtle warnings were becoming less subtle.

The unfortunate generator truck was still burning. Within a few blocks, several other trucks were now overheating. A gap was already present in the emergency force fields. Now several areas around the gap were flickering, on the verge of failure, as their supporting generators far below ran themselves red-hot against some unknowable force. The air resonated with an annoying, high-pitched whine which was becoming louder at every moment, the pitch rising higher and higher.

Inside, however, Penny Arcade was aware of none of this.

Emergency Systems Online.

Penny Arcade's armor was something else. Its outer substance was all but indestructable. Its center layer served to dissipate any energy or force which somehow managed to penetrate the outer shell. The interior lining served to monitor the life signs of the pilot, its nanotechnology ready at any time to arrest bleeding, introduce lifesaving drugs, or solidify itself into temporary splints around broken bones.

All of which meant that Penny Arcade was still alive.

Exterior armor durability reduced to 67%. Estimated time to completion of repairs: four hours, seventeen minutes. Pilot lifesigns: 42%. The words flashed across the interior surface of a cracked and broken faceplate, as the soft voice of Autopilot whispered into the pilot's ears. Internal bleeding detected. Multiple fractures sustained. Recommendation: teleportation and immediate hospitalization. Activation of teleportation sequence in 10... 9... 8...

"...over..ride..."

Override command acknowledged. Teleportation sequence deactivated.
WARNING + WARNING + WARNING
Unnecessary movement risks aggravating injuries. Estimated time of consciousness maintenance: sixteen minutes. Survival probability upon unconsciousness: 54%.
WARNING + WARNING + WARNING


"Just... do what you can..."

Acknowledged. Emergency medical protocols activated. Initiating consciousness maintenance...
[/color]

Penny Arcade's vision cleared as Autopilot dumped massive quantities of lifesaving medicines into her bloodstream. She hurt. The pain was concentrated heavily in her arm and leg, and left side. She couldn't think why her side would hurt - The shell, that's why.

Oh yes... the shell. Meant to take out Buster. Penny found herself amazed that she was still alive. She had blacked out momentarily... and then what? There was dust... rubble... an old abandoned building, in Paragon somewhere. Paragon - that awareness crystallized her thoughts, as her memory seemed to pan around, showing her recent events in a big, panoramic swoop. She had a vague idea she had come through the wall -

Movement attracted her attention, and a thrill of fear went through her. To be captured alive in Paragon was to be vivisected. She turned to see a black robed figure digging at her. She had no idea how long he had been digging there, of how he had found her fingertips first, of how he had pushed aside bloodstained rocks to get to her. She knew only that he was a big, dark-clad figure in a city where she was a known enemy. Penny Arcade did not have the good fortune to live in a place where mercy or kindness were commonplace, and she was afraid of what he might do.

"Don't!" She extended a hand as if it was all she needed to stop him. In her palm she held a small, ominous looking metal disk. "Back off!"

She looked awful. A large chunk of her faceplate was simply gone. The armor was heavily cracked and portions of it, particularly around the ribs where the shell had landed, were also gone. There was a lot of blood. She was forced to stop, rolling over on her knees and coughing up a quantity of blood, before looking up again. Her face was gray, but young, very young, not quite a kid, but not quite an adult.

There were others here as well. The gray mechanical-looking hero: the kid who thought she had stolen his designs; another kid in something ragged and red. All looking at her. If she showed weakness now, she would end up dead, or captured which was the same thing in slow motion. "All of you..." She couldn't stand. Her leg was broken. But the antigravs, amazingly, were still functional, and that sufficed, leaving her floating a few inches off the ground.

There was a tube in her mouth; she could hear it hiss, and it tasted like oxygen. Yet she still couldn't seem to catch her breath... she supposed that was a bad sign. "I won't... be taken. I mean it... back off." She did mean it. Better the quick self-imposed death over the slow torture of vivisection. She wouldn't take anyone with her, but of course they had no way of knowing that.

At that moment, however, her intentions were rendered irrelevant.

Outside, the high pitched whining reached a crescendo. Nearby windows cracked. Another two generator trucks abruptly exploded into fireballs, one on the heels of the other. Flying things - Longbow agents, Arachnos agents, various robots - fell out of the sky, most catching themselves before they reached street level.

In a pinpoint spot some forty stories above street level, the sky abruptly fell in upon itself, warping in excruciating fractals until the fabric of reality tore itself apart. Beginning as a pinpoint, in seconds it had enlarged itself to the size of a basketball.

Every window shattered at once, as soon as it formed, but the glass did not fall down towards the street. Instead it was sucked upwards into the whirling maelstrom. Anything not bolted down rose into the air: robots, shrapnel, cars. The sky went an angry, violent purple, as if heavily bruised, and clouds formed where moments ago there had been a clear blue sky, and the clouds swirled themselves into a spiral, mirroring the whirlpool which had formed below.

It was an awful thing, to have a hole in the world. On the other side was everything which was darkness and violence, disharmony and unbalance, fear and blackness and death. The war between Arachnos and Longbow broke up instantly. Most of the agents simply, and wisely, turned and ran for shelter. Most civilians had already been evacuated.

"Listen - to me!" Penny Arcade shouted - she had to shout over the sudden din which made it almost impossible to hear. She was gasping for air, blood still trickling from a corner of her mouth, but her face was determined. "We have... fifty three seconds... until the interface... stabilizes! Until then... it's unstable... if we can put enough... enough firepower in it... it will collapse! If this thing picks up momentum," she coughed painfully, "By the time... Freedom Phalanx notices... we will all be dead. Everybody... everybody will be dead."

She lifted a trembling hand, and wiped away a drip of blood which was falling into her eyes. "Funny thing..." she mused, "I came here... wanted to prevent casualties." She shook her head at how things had gone. "Please... please help me," she said simply. "I will try to stop this but... don't have the firepower... to close it alone." She stood up straighter. "You either need... to help me close the portal... or you need to get to safety... get out of ground zero. Get your... families out, if you have any." Her lips thinned. Around her, the junk nearest to the hole in the building wall began to rattle. A filing cabinet abruptly rose, slamming against the edge of the hole in the wall, opening itself up and spilling out a cloud of papers before spinning outside and rising to the whirlpool, its papers following it like a swarm of bees. The hole in the center of the storm was already the size of a small car. "In either case... you need to get out of my way. I have... I have a job to do." She glared at them all equally.

+++++
OOC: please do not blow up my portal with one fell zap. I have plans... heh, heh, heh.

OOC #2: Yes, this is our "main villain" of the scene. Big purple clouds, lightning etc... think of a combination of "The Black Hole" (anyone remember that movie?) and "Ghostbusters..."

[ QUOTE ]
"New plan as it would seem." Jake said aloud, but clearly to himself. Taking note of the spike in energy, but not taking action for the time being, he threw up a detention field around Buster, who had just made known that he was a bit more intelligent than had previously been given credit for. He immediately ordered his bots up there to attack Penny herself, of course adding in targetting alterations to account for the refraction of the lasers their shields would cause. He flew up there as well, encased in the most powerful shield he could possibly have without cutting him off completely from the world outside. Throwing up detention fields around other bots now, specifically the Protector Bots, he maintained a steady rhythymn that kept all three of them trapped while his bots dealt out some damage to Penny.

[/ QUOTE ]

There was no doubt to anyone, as he worked with robots and force fields, that Penny Arcade was in trouble. Nor was he the only one who had thought to turn and fire on her. A number of Longbow had stayed on target, and were swooping around. In addition, while most of the robotic forces of Arachnos had been taken out by the EMP pulses, not all of them had. A variety of drones were sweeping around as well as the Mu mystics. Above him a series of seven drones had ringed themselves back-to-back, bracing themselves on the top corner of the tallest office building. They had assembled what looked like a heavy-duty cannon, and were trying to aim it.

Aiming, in general, seemed to be a problem with Penny Arcade. His 'bots had no problems with the shields, but those shots which they took directly at Penny Arcade all seemed to go wide. She had some sort of jamming gear in place - the bots couldn't get a lock. Not just his bots, either: none of the Arachnos bots seemed to be having any better luck. Lasers were flying all over the place but only a couple of shots actually connected, and these were deflected by her armor.

However, while the jamming gear was effective for herself, it was not in place for any of her robotic crew. Laurel and Hardy flailed rather uncertainly when placed in the detention fields. They were obviously disoriented, uncertain of what to do, but didn't seem to be in any particular distress.

Not so with Buster. In fact, it was in detaining Buster that the luck of the battle changed.

He was not the only one to recognize the threat that Buster posed. The Mu adepts had been in the area as well, but none had bothered him, concentrating instead on Penny Arcade's group, and primarily on Buster. Though the jamming field had a big effect on the number of shots which were coming through to Penny Arcade herself, Buster was, quite literally, an equally large deterrant. He was simply big enough to be difficult to shoot around, and he was impossible to shoot through. He saw Jake's intent and whirled, swinging his weapons around. "No!" He cried - but too late, the detention field hit him square on. His big, solid form faded to almost transparency as he was shifted out of phase.

At the same moment, behind and below Jake, there was a noise, a chilling ka-THWUMP sound. It didn't take long to find the source.

Buster was so big, and so solid, that nothing short of mounted heavy cannon fire had a chance of damaging him. Arachnos appeared to have anticipated the problem. The drones who had entrenched themselves on the corner of the office building below him had assembled and fired a sizeable cannon at the behemoth. The corner of the building had cracked from the force of the launch, and the shell, with a diameter as large as his waist, only just missed him, to strike Buster squarely in the chest.

Or would have... except that Buster was no longer in phase with the shell, or with anything else for that matter. The shell passed right through him, harmlessly, and continued on.

"Penny!" All Buster could do was call out to her. "Heads up!"

Like Buster himself, Penny Arcade turned too late.

Neither the force field generator, nor the unfortunate form of Curly, served to even slow the shell down. The generator, though not hit directly, simply could not deflect any more damage, and exploded into twisted strips of metal. Curly didn't even have time to sound an alarm, his once-sleek form shattering into more twisted strips of metal as the shell passed through him. The damage to the shell wasn't sufficient to set it off.

To her credit, Penny Arcade did try to dodge. But the sudden removal of Buster had clearly caught her off-guard. The flash was blinding. The force of the explosion sent pieces of drones flying in every direction: Larry and Mo had been too close. Penny Arcade went flying in a long streamer of smoke, through the wall of one of the skyscrapers below. It was impossible to tell what sort of damage she might have suffered.

The mu adept next to Jake, though, was elated. "Yes! Well done!" He seemed pleased to have finally gotten a solid hit.

[ QUOTE ]
"What have you gotten yourself into now?" the prototype asked Penny simply.

[/ QUOTE ]

A black eye was now blooming spectacularly on Penny Arcade's face, just below the cut on her forehead - the result of the rough transport out of her cell and into the interrogation room. Her hands were still cuffed behind her back. But she seemed to be in good spirits as she smiled at him. "Hi, Gray. Er - sorry, Prototype Mark 2."

When she heard his question, she gave a little sigh. "I was put in Cellblock C, which I was told was the non-paranormal section of the jail. I was put in with a fifth column guy. I admit we got into a fight. I don't generally get along well with fifth column anyway, as a rule. So, he was hassling me, and I kicked him, and knocked him down."

She hesitated. "And this - guy, I guess - a different guy - walks through the wall. He says, 'Don't tell anyone I am here,' and he disappears. And my cellmate, the guy I kicked, he just... crumbles into dust. It was creepy." She shivered. "So - when the guards came - I wasn't very cooperative. I was scared that the desolid guy might still be there, or might be listening. I wanted them to take me somewhere else. That actually worked out pretty well, here I am in interrogation, yay me." Her voice was dry.

"So, the bottom line is, I didn't kill my cellmate. I feel ridiculous saying that I didn't do it, because I'm sure that every prisoner in every interrogation you ever go to always claims they didn't do it, and really the blame lies with some invisible ghost person, or an evil twin from an alternate dimension, or some equally ridiculous story. But... I'm hoping you have video... or at least the forensics might back me up. I'm not sure... I hope they will." She bit her lip uncertainly. "I'd really like to not go back to that cell. I'd be scared there. But I really don't have any reason to be given special priveleges. I've thought of trying to bite you or something and see if I could get moved to the Pit or somewhere, but I haven't been able to decide if that would be better or worse than the haunted cell." She sat back in her chair and regarded him. "But I am glad to get a chance to speak with you, at any rate. You have me terribly curious, you know."

+++++

Back in Penny Arcade's old cellblock, the scanning team reached her cell.

The first thing they did was bathe it in brilliant lights, lights of every possible spectrum, so that not even the tiniest shadow remained. They had plenty of firepower ready as they began the scanning process...

OOC: Cowman - an icon of greatness! I looooove Freakazoid! Freakazoid FTW!

BIC: Penny Arcade was acting more and more as if she was under some sort of stress, which was hardly surprising, considering the situation. There were a thousand and one things happening, as there always were at such times.

Her attack on Solid Shot had been successful, so far as it went. She hadn't intended to hurt him or even significantly damage him - and didn't think she could, even if she had wanted to. But she had wanted to knock him back, and the combined force of the laser burst had worked well. Now he was firing back, but the momentary breather had been critical. Her armor was smoking slightly from Buster's burst of flame, and looked somewhat scorched, but the interfering wires had melted away along with the ice, and she was back at full capacity.

Each 'bot was triple bubbled - once from the force field generator, once from Laurel, and once from Hardy. The triple force fields served to prevent Larry, Curly, and Mo from simply being blown to bits by the barrage of electrically-charged bullets, as large holes were blasted through unimportant bits and pieces. Laurel and Hardy, more heavily armored, took the barrage better, though they were heavily dented. Buster didn't even notice, the bullets making *ping* noises as they ricocheted off of his chest and arms. Colleen had been correct in referring to the 'bot as a "tank." From the way it reacted to the bullets, it was doubtful that anything short of a heavy mounted cannon was going to be sufficient to hurt it.... a very heavy mounted cannon.

The electric bolt from Spark Force hit Mo directly in the chest. Its alarms whooped miserably, the smallest drone unable to handle both the hail of bullets and the electric bolt too, its frame smoking, looking as if it was going to fall over at any moment. Laurel turned, and held up a metal hand. From it a greenish mist issued: a swarm of nanites, which covered the failing 'bot briefly in a green glow. The results were instant and dramatic. Holes knitted themselves closed. Much of the smoke vanished. The alarms stopped. While clearly not running at full capacity, the 'drone was again healthy enough to re-enter the fight.

This was potentially bad news for the various heroes who were fighting. How often did the two support bots recharge their supply of nanites? There was no way to tell, but it was clear that it would take coordination, and the concentrated application of firepower, to take down the robotic team.

It was strange to have an alliance, of sorts, with Arachnos. They had used their time well, and had now caught up with the heroes who were trying to take down Penny Arcade. Most of the 'bots had been decimated by the EMP pulses, but Arachnos had sent plenty of other forces, mostly mystically based: Mu of various rankings, Blood Widows, Fortunata. They were hanging back around the edges, but they were quite involved in the battle, firing when the heroes fired, coordinating attacks, not bothering to attack anyone but the lone villain who had stolen the key. Some were distracted by Longbow, but there was enough happening now that Longbow's own forces were diluted. Still, some agents were firing at her also. There was no way she could take such sustained firepower for long, healing 'bots or not.

Then, as was common in such battles, things took a turn for the worse.

Penny Arcade had been running under radio silence. Indeed, she was not known to have any significant partners in crime. But now her earpiece crackled to life. The channel was heavily encrypted. In fact, no one who did not have access to Rikti technology would have had any chance of intercepting the signal.

Penny Arcade had no way of knowing that Solid Shot had access to Rikti technology.

"Penny!" her radio spat at her. The voice, in spite of the precautionary tone scrambling, was clearly male. "You're out of time, get out of there!"

"What happened to radio silence?" She shot back.

"Hang radio silence - He's activating, do you hear me? And he's locking on you! He thinks you're in Cap Au Diable!"

There was a very brief silence, punctuated by the sound of expelling air, as if she had been suddenly punched in the gut. "This is not Cap Au Diable! He's insane - "

"Tell me later, get out of there! "

"How long have I got - "

"Thirty seconds, tops! [/i]Move![/i]"

Her head turned briefly from the chaos surrounding her to the nearby manhole, looking at the hero who had just emerged from it. "No chance," she said flatly. "Go to plan B, I'll have to try to disrupt it from this end."

"You're out of your mind - you don't have the firepower - "

"I know." Penny Arcade reached up, letting her 'bots cover her movements, and unstrapped a large, metal disk from her back. "Are you going to blather all night or are you going to get me coordinates?"

"Should be about half a mile over your head. Fifteen seconds. I'm coming to back you up." The male voice was calm, as if familiar with routines such as this one, as if they had done this sort of thing a thousand times before.

Downloading, said Buster suddenly, audibly - it was a shame to alert the nearby heroes, but it couldn't be helped. They simply hadn't had the time to change Buster's audible mode under such occasions. Its head cocked at an angle, almost as if it was listening to something that only it could hear. Full control in five seconds.

"Thanks." She blasted off, quite literally, her rocket boots providing impressive thrust as she shot straight upwards. Her troupe of 'bots gave a few seconds cover, then followed, letting the force shielding take most of the hits. By now the force field generator was making a high pitched whining noise - it wouldn't last much longer. Buster followed the closest. His size made him a decent shield for Penny Arcade, as he allowed shots to simply ping off of his armor plating.

Download complete, Buster said a quarter of a mile up. The 'bot looked around as if seeing the scene for the first time. What the - did you have to pick a fight with every hero in Paragon? At the same time? Buster's voice was clearly made by a voice synthesizer - it sounded metallic. Yet, the tones and inflection, the way it suddenly flew and looked around, made it appear as if he was a completely different robot... an intelligent robot. A 'he', not an 'it.' More likely, he was a robot now remote-controlled, long distance, from a second villain who might be nearby, but might also be miles away or even in the Rogue Islands themselves.

"Meh. It's traditional. How long?"

Ten seconds. If this doesn't work, we're toast.

"We're not toast." She turned to look at Buster, who looked back at her. "You'll take the encryption key and stop that meglomaniacal idiot before he kills us all."

Roger that.... uploading. Buster looked up. Here it comes.

The first spanner in the works came in the form of a power spike. Every technological or robotic hero or villain in the vicinity detected it at once. A moment later, every non-technological or robotic hero or villain could detect it too, from the way it crackled over skin, and made hair stand on end. It was a massive spike, making the ground vibrate, rattling cars. Its source was not Penny Arcade.

Steel Canyon, at that moment, was cloaked in a set of double force fields. The first set of force fields were the large, entrenched fields which had first been set into place after the invasion of the Rikti. These massive fields remained just as they always were, uncaring of events so petty as the street battle now raging. The second set, however, was much smaller and more fragile - the emergency fields which had been erected upon notification of a known villain in the area.

The emergency fields were maintained by two different types of generators. The first type were permanent generators dotted at strategic locations around the city, usually installed on the tops of various office buildings. The second type were small, portable generators mounted on trucks, which could be moved around from place to place. The truck-mounted generators were of course the most vulnerable. The unfortunate truck which happened to be nearest to the epicenter simply exploded in an enormous fireball. The section of emergency force field which had been maintained by that truck flickered uncertainly, and then died, leaving a squarish gap in the otherwise solid field.

There was a rumbling noise, vibrating through the pavement, through the buildings, through people's shoes. Then it went deadly quiet - the silence before the storm.

Penny Arcade (still holding the disk carefully,) Buster, and the rest of the bots just hung in the air, letting their own force fields take the worst of the incoming fire, just.... waiting.

OOC: Next scene - chaos, chaos, chaos! And Chaos! Oh, and did I mention chaos? MUA ha ha ha ha ha ha!

It seemed he had spoken to soon.

Though the guards had hustled the girl out at once, they were far from finished with the cell.

Even in the Plane of Shadow... it was possible to see a light. The scanning team was coming. It was almost certain that he would be found when they arrived.

To make matters worse, the barriers had gone up, trapping both of the shadowy occupants in the cell, waiting to be discovered.

In the real world, Penny Arcade was shown to an interrogation room, and left there, where she bit her lip nervously, waiting for her interrogator...

((OOC sorry about the slow posting: I am technically out of town until June 5, so hard to get here and post!))

"If I was trying to take you out, you would be gone," spat Penny. "I don't have time for this!"

Penny Arcade cursed to herself when the tendrils wrapped around her body. The nature of her armor, which was heavily resistant to such things, meant that neither the frost bolt, nor the speed-sapping tendrils, worked at optimum efficiency. However, they worked well enough, and she veered suddenly off-course, crashing through a light pole, which collapsed in her wake with a thunderous CRASH, rather like a toppling tree.

Things began happening very fast after that.

The hero who had shot the tendrils was attacked by a newcomer, who swooped out of nowhere and breathed a column of fire right at his face. Penny knew not to question such a gift, and acted immediately. A series of circles shimmered overhead for the briefest of moments, as a number of things were teleported through. The circles vanished almost as quickly as they had appeared.

Buster was the first 'bot to reach street level. Anti-teleportation fields had never made much difference to Penny Arcade, and they made no difference now. A thirty-ton behemoth, it landed in the middle of the street with a BOOM. Following closely behind were two smaller drones, Laurel and Hardy, and then the three smallest, Larry, Mo, and Curly.

Each of these drones, taken individually, had a lower threat level than Solid himself. But it became apparant, almost at once, why he had been warned. The drones worked as a team, backing each other up, and acting in harmony. It seemed that their creator had a very good grasp of tactics. Solid was now facing, not just a single villain, but a practiced team of them. While it would not have been possible for Penny Arcade to defeat him alone, the drones, acting in unison, were a very different matter. The gap in clearance levels, alone, was not enough to nullify their threat. It was far from unknown for a well-directed lower-level team to take out a significantly higher-level, single, opponent.

Along with them came reinforcements, of a sort. A force field generator dropped suddenly into view, and one of the 'bots set an acid mortar the moment it arrived. A couple of seeking drones zipped about to increase field of vision and improve targeting. It all dropped down so fast that there was no possible way the 'bots could have been summoned manually. Rather, it seemed all but certain that Penny Arcade had pre-programmed such a sequence for exactly this sort of emergency.

All six bots, in unison, turned and fired at Solid Shot. While it was unlikely that any single bot would have any chance of penetrating his armor, their combined attack was much more potent. More importantly, such a combination produced a staggering amount of force: they were trying to knock him backwards, forcing him to break off his attack. The largest bot, Buster, attacked with only one hand: with his other, he pointed his flamethrower directly at Penny Arcade herself, instantly snapping wires and transforming ice into steam. Solid had interrupted her flight to the sewers, but only momentarily. She would be back up again quickly.

As soon as they had attacked, they whirled, scattering to new positions. Jake's bots would catch up to the group almost instantly, and required different tactics. Comparing bot-for-bot, the two groups really did look a lot alike...

Certain things were visible in the "real" world which did not appear in the Netherworld, at least not in enough detail to distinguish what was happening.

Down the hall, a group of guards was coming. This group was preceding the scanning group, which was waiting at the end of the the corridor. They wouldn't begin scanning until individual cell searches were complete. These guards were often known by the inmates as "wannabes" - men who had powers that weren't strong or flashy enough to net them a lucrative superhero career, but who were nevertheless far better equipped to handle inmates than the usual sort of guard. With them were no less than four drones, three battle drones, and one slightly larger drone. This was the group who had the fortunate (or unfortunate, depending on how one looked at it) job of ensuring that the scanners trailing them wouldn't have any trouble if they should find something unexpected. They had flushed out trouble often enough in the past to be well-prepared, well-armed, and cautious.

So, before the scanning group was allowed to proceed down the corridor, each cell was given a visual inspection and security check by the wannabes, with a spot search if they should suspect anything amiss. This was a further sign that the lockdown should be lifted soon - at least for Section C.

They moved slowly up the corridor from cell to cell, speaking to the inmates in professional, slightly-bored tones that the usual guards didn't generally employ. "Cell C-25. Occupants, prisoner 35478698, prisoner 78932144. Smith, John C, prisoner 35478698, stand up from your bunk with your hands up. Turn around. State your name. Return to your bunk. Halster, Drake M, prisoner 78932144, stand up from your bunk with your hands up. Turn around. State your name. Return to your bunk. All records are a positive match. Search on cell C-25 is complete. No contraband located. Scanning may proceed."

"Cell C-25, marked complete, no contraband."

"Moving to Cell C-26. Holfinger, Yershal W, prisoner 12895398, stand up from your bunk..."

Penny Arcade watched them and let out a long sigh, rubbing the back of her neck uncomfortably as the guards approached her cell. "Look, Michael... I want you to know... I didn't do it. I mean, I realize that everyone here says that and you have no reason to believe it but I... I really didn't." She fell silent for a few minutes, just watching the Wannabes, waiting.

Finally they had reached her cell. The guard that spoke wore a standard uniform. The name "Stevens" was embroidered on his name patch. "Cell C-31, occupants..." his voice trailed off.

Penny Arcade could hardly blame him.

Her former cellmate had been reduced to ash by the visitor who had stopped in so briefly. There was no telling where the visitor was now - if he was clever he had made his getaway before the fields came to full strength. Presumably he had gained the power for the jump from the energy stolen from her erstwhile room-mate.

But it still left the problem that she had been placed in this cell perhaps ten minutes ago with a healthy, live young man for a cellmate, and now she was alone, with a human-shaped pile of ashes, and no sign of the former cellmate. She had considering trying to scatter the ashes, or flush them, but she had found herself reluctant to touch them - as unpowered humans often were, when faced with the results of Harlequin Fear's workmanship. Furthermore, there were too many ashes to flush without backing up the plumbing, and too many to scatter or hide. There was also the idea that the scanning team was coming, and would likely find the ashes no matter how she tried to conceal them.

"Get down on the ground! ON THE GROUND!" Her cell was full of people and drones and though she tried to obey, she was slammed on the ground hard enough to make blood flow from her nose. Her hands were bound behind her back in a twinkling and people were howling into their radios. "We have a murder in C-31!" "Get forensics to C-31!" "Red Search to base, body found - "

Gloved hands picked her up and slammed her against the wall. "What happened!" The Wannabe was shouting at her. "WHAT HAPPENED!" He shrieked when she coughed from the force of the impact.

She thinned her lips. It was unwise to be uncooperative to the guards. However, it was probably also unwise to snitch out the visitor, who seemed the sort to take revenge sooner or later. Presented the certainty of infuriating someone, Penny Arcade deemed the guards to be the lesser threat. But lying would be inaccurate, and she couldn't stand inaccuracies. "Oopsie," she shrugged. Truth be told, she was not too sorry that the man who had tried to hurt her had died.

She knew she would get a beating for this response, and in this she was not disappointed. But only the first few blows seemed to really hurt her, and unlike the normal guards, the Wannabes didn't engage in violence for too long. She was still conscious, if dazed, when it ended.

"Get her to interrogation!" Spat one of the guards.

"She's due to go at 1700 - "

"You mean she was, now she is due at 1340, lets go..."

Solid Shot's first hint of a potential spanner in the works came to him when he got close enough to the perp to get a good look at her. Or, rather, to not get a good look at her. The cyclopix targeting eye, so reliable when looking at other things, simply refused to render an image. The net result was that he was looking at a solid black blur.

It couldn't have been the eye. Everything else was rendered in nice, crisp, high-definition resolution, including the impressive following the perp had managed to gather: Longbow, robots, and Arachnos. Even from the brief and unreliable glimpse of her, two things seemed apparant. First, the perp was a female; the hourglass shape of the wierd, blurred outline gave that much away. Second, she was armed with two types of weapons. As he watched, a Longbow Eagle foolishly got in her way, was struck twice in the chest by her handgun - and simply disappeared. The electronic signature of the Paragon City teleportation field was unmistakable. But the shots aimed at the entourage came from a different gun (it was possible to tell because the blur was a slightly different shade) with a different noise and a far more lethal affect.

The entourage was impressive. The chase had picked up steam. Lasers were splashing around everywhere, Tarantula bots were jumping from building to building in her wake, and the small contingent of pursuing robots was getting greener as the strength of the force fields surrounding them increased to the point where their own lasers couldn't....

...wait a minute. Increased? And the Perp unexpectedly darted into a nook, around a corner of one of the buildings, pressing herself hard against the walls, a blue circular field suddenly breaking into life and obscuring her completely from view. Given the determined pursuit, cornering herself made no sense, she was sure to be overwhelmed. Speed would have been her only chance, why - ?

He had a bare moment to find cover.

The bombs that Penny Arcade had planted beforehand went up like roman candles. From each one, a white ring of pure energy flashed in enormous spheres, resembling nothing so much as a gigantic string of pearls.

The massive EMP pulses produced immediate results. Scores of the smaller Arachnobots simply fell from the sky or flipped onto their backs as the wave washed over them, those nearest to the bombs smoking slightly. Many of the larger bots veered off-course, crashing into buildings, into their handlers, and even into each other. Many of the Arachnos agents, being of a biological nature and therefore immune to such things as EMP pulses, were still forced to drop their weapons as they suddenly spat fountains of red sparks.

The EMP pulse was attuned specifically to take out Arachnos forces. The Longbow suffered far less: but they were not immune. Like the Arachnos forces, many of the ground-based Longbow agents were forced to drop their spitting, sparking weapons. The Eagles who had followed too closely fell, as their jetpacks died in bursts of blue electrical sparks. Eagles who had been farther away were also forced to break off pursuit, veering to catch their wingmen before they hit the pavement. But even those that were missed, and fell to the earth, suffered no serious injury. It suddenly became clear why Penny Arcade had been flying so close to the ground.

Pillars of fire bloomed as the EMP pulses faded into nothingness. Fire and smoke blossomed not outwards, but upwards. It was a terrifying display of pyrotechnics, especially close-up, and a major distraction. The Longbow forces - not to mention every hero in the area - now had a choice: deal with the bombs, or follow the perp?

For the perp was on the move again. She had waited out the EMP pulse, shielded by the blue field, but that had lasted only seconds. The moment the pearls had vanished, even as the fires were bursting in her wake, the perp had darted out of the niche and was again rocketing full speed down the street, at such a low altitude that she was having to dodge cars. Almost no one was following her now: her pursuit had been decimated.

At the far end of the street was a manhole cover. A very long shot from her lethal rifle flipped it off. With the emergency force fields in place, the only possible way out of the Canyon was via the sewers. If she reached the open manhole, her chances of escape rose by an order of magnitude.

Just after the explosions, as the Perp was still streaking down the street at top speed, a transmission came to Solid Shot, courtesy of his old contact Colleen.

Solid, she said, From the scrambled images you're sending, I think you're dealing with Penny Arcade. Her threat level isn't as high as your security clearance but it's way high for the Canyon. Her file is pretty threadbare but here are some things you should know:

First of all, she's got some sort of jamming gear - she's famous for it. Electronics can't get a clear image of her. The only images in the file were taken with old-fashioned lens-and-film cameras, which is why they are so bad. That includes most scopes and advanced gunsights: don't expect to get any clean shots.

Her two main weapons are a teleportation gun and some sort of standard laser rifle. The teleportation gun trips the Paragon City teleportation system and sends the target to the hospital. It's one of her MO's. By the time that the target gets back to the area, she is long gone. The teleportation laser seems to have some lingering confusion affects: people who are struck can't make a reliable ID, or describe exactly what she looks like, even months after the encounter. Her other big MO, by the way, is that no one gets hurt. Penny Arcade has been known to take enormous trouble to ensure that no casualties are incurred by her activities - but don't take that for granted. The second weapon is some sort of laser gun, with plenty of kick to it. Your armor can probably take it but use caution, she's known to modify it or swap it out almost constantly, its rarely the same two jobs in a row.

She has a contingent of robot drones which she can summon at will, and she knows how to use them. If she brings them into play, watch out for the one called Buster, it's supposed to be a real tank. And watch out for her too - she's been known to use the bots to cover her escape.

She seems to do mostly bank heists. Fourteen heists and counting but - get this - no money taken in any of them. She'll go to the trouble of planning and executing a bank robbery, break into the vault, stand tall to Security, the works - and then pry open one safety deposit box, clean it out, and gone. No theft charges because the owners of the boxes all claimed they were empty... but that was to law enforcement. Presumably the contents of the boxes were of less than legal origins.

However, we've also seen Penny Arcade involved in big things... really big things. Remember that big Circle of Thorns hullaballoo last year where they were going to summon that demon - Hesphallollalla or whatever its name was? Penny Arcade had a big hand in stopping that. She's gone up against the Council, Freakshow, Tsoo - you name it, she's butted heads. She seems to take a personal interest in stopping things which she presumably believes threaten the safety of both the Rogue Isles and Paragon City.

And in case you are wondering, I checked with the Steel Canyon branch of First National. No robberies today.
I think your day's about to get a whoooole lot more interesting, pal... good luck, Solid.

The Perp was blasting towards him at top speed. She didn't look as if she had seen him. Any second now....

If viewed in the shadows of the Underworld, there was no doubt that Penny - now Penny Arcade - did bear a mystical mark. It was equally certain that she, herself, had not placed it there. The stuff which comprised her soul was not only not magically conducive, it actually acted as an insulator. This being would never wield any magic on her own.

Her aura, also visible in the Underworld, did not fit the girl as viewed in traditional reality. Though there would be details which differed in every individual, a girl in her twenties should generally have had the clear bluish shade appropriate to her age. Penny Arcade's mystical aura was almost white, much closer to the pure aura projected by newborn infants. Looking closely at it, it bore marks, which were rapidly fading, but still visible. Her aura was real enough - but it was woven. Cleverly woven, no doubt by some of the most skilled fingers known to the human race, but woven nonetheless. It was a made aura, projected by a made thing.

And yet, with all of its oddities, it was an aura as real and genuine as any aura projected by anyone. The being projecting it was not a golem, or gargoyle, or any magical creature. Whether intentionally or not, the creator of this being had created life.

None of this, however, was the mark which was immediately obvious. That mark was a small glowing glyph, placed at the back of the neck. It was a mark of protection, and its meaning, roughly translated, was clear: Death to any that harm the bearer of this mark. It was a fearsome and powerful mark, and wise magi - and planeswalkers - knew from hard experience that to disturb such things was to risk death. There was also second mark, just above the first, but its meaning was unclear, for it had been cut in half. There was no sign of the remaining portion.

Such marks were difficult to make, often costly in both magical energies as well as actually funding. Given the substance to be marked - a freshly made person - the marking would have been doubly challenging. Thus, it made no sense that they had been given dates. The marks were for a mere six weeks. After that, they would vanish as if they had never been.

But Penny Arcade didn't know any of this. Her cellmate, who had passed out immediately, had crumbled to ash before her eyes, presumably because of the intruder, who had now vanished. She looked around, but didn't see where he had gone.

She was distracted at once, however, by a new set of guards, these accompanied by two drones, who were moving from cell to cell, shouting. "Get in your bunk!" One of them shouted at her. "NOW!" Not wanting trouble, she climbed into the upper bunk.

Others were shouting orders also. "Remain prone when the scan sequences begin!" "Do not move from your bunk until the all clear is given!" "Get in your bunk for the scan sequence!" Drones were not hesitating to open fire on anyone who failed to comply, and manually put them in their respective bunks.

Over the intercom, a computerized voice, sounding rather like the voice which Prototype used, droned, "All prisoners to your bunks for scan sequences. Scan sequences to begin in T minus five minutes. All prisoners to your bunks for scan sequences..."

In one way, it was a promising sign. If the scan sequence came up clear, the lockdown - at least for section C - could theoretically be lifted. But in another way, it was a bad sign. There wouldn't be any hiding during the scan - and depending on the type of scan, it was possible that the presences in the negative plane could potentially be detected....

Penny Arcade wasn't difficult to find.

She was streaking down the street, flying very low and parallel to the road - alone. Her final bot didn't seem to be with her. Her weapon may have been unconventional, but it couldn't be denied that it was effective. Any Longbow agent struck by the double-bursts of red light vanished as the Paragon teleportation system transported them away. Penny Arcade was a good shot, and she was cutting a wide swath in her enemies as she moved. Wherever she was going, she was booking.

The reason why became apparant a moment later, as the forces of Arachnos boiled out of one of the buildings to her side, jumping into the road, forcing her to swerve. The gun which she pointed at the nearest Tarantula Queen looked like an entirely different weapon - and, when fired, gave entirely different results. She was well-equipped with conventional weaponry, and had no intention of sending the forces of Arachnos to a Paragon city hospital. The knockback from the weapon flipped the Tarantula Queen over and Penny Arcade flew perilously through the spot where it had been. Several shots bounced off of her armor: her force field had long since faded.

It was a gamble, but it paid off. She was soon clear of the immediate threat, though they gave chase at once, forcing her into a trajectory that would, ironically, make her easier to intercept.

Those who were intercepting, once they got close enough, could hear her. She was muttering to herself, her voice calm and rythymic, even given the curent circumstances. "Seven.... six.... five.... four...."

[ QUOTE ]
"Hey there." A cocky looking teenager said, hovering about ten feet ahead and ten feet above Penny Arcade with a wry smile on his face, protected by a green sphere of... well, green. "I'm Jake, and I'm gonna have to politely ask you to hand over that encryption key you have there. You see, Arachnos needs it, not to mention..." He said, scattering several small devices on the ground, all of which teleported nearly identical looking bots to the field. "... you seem to have stolen my designs and made a few modifications. While I am flattered..." He continued, his bots all lifting their guns and charging their lethal lasers. "I'm afraid I can't have someone walking around with one of my design secrets. So, hand over the key, the bots, and the good doctor, and we'll be hunky dorey." He smiled at the end of this last sentence and hovered a bit downward. His shield that he had on seemed to be deflecting all of the fire that was coming his way.

[/ QUOTE ]

Penny Arcade laughed. "My designs,' you say," she quoted, as if he had said the silliest thing in the world, so ridiculous it was funny: as if she had stolen the designs from him! "I hate to disappoint you, but no one is getting the good doctor - gonna sting, Doc, sorry."

Penny turned around and shot her hostage. He looked surprised in the moment before he disappeared, leaving chair and tape behind. He was out of the fight for good. Somewhere in Paragon City he had reappeared in a hospital, surrounded by heroes on every side, and protected from intrusion by the tough robotic drones which protected all hospitals and subways from interference.

As she expected, this drew howls from the Longbow who had witnessed it. "She's got Doctor Malcolm!" "She shot Doctor Malcolm!" "Nooooo!"

"To address the remainder of your demands: someday you and I will sit down for a nice, quiet, polite lunch, and you can explain to me how you came to imagine that the Rikti would make any differentiation between Paragon City and the Rogue Isles... but not today. Ta!"

Neither Arachnos nor the 'Good Doctor' had mentioned anything about Rikti. Clearly Penny Arcade had information which neither of them possessed... which wouldn't be unusual, considering her reputation. She raised her hand in a jaunty good-bye.

Then she turned off her rocket-boots, and dropped like a stone. Her lone remaining drone followed.

With Penny Arcade out of the way, this brought him more or less directly into contact with the Longbow who had been on her tail. He heard cries of, "Co-conspirator, Penny Arcade has a co-conspirator!" Other members of Longbow, not being of a mind to engage in clever banter, opened fire, their own lasers pinging off of his force bubble, a few splashing across the bodies of the 'bots.

Penny Arcade's plan was obvious - let him deal with the Longbow, while she made her escape. Obvious... but it had its advantages. Longbow was not playing around, and more agents were swooping in from every direction. If he stayed in the area too long, he risked capture, bots or no bots....

[ QUOTE ]

“What I mean is… I tried to keep the meta off of you… Well, you’re alive, that’s what’s important.” Micheal retracted his hand from between the bars where he suddenly realized it was extended, as if to grab her. He looked away, trying to gather his composure.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]

Yes, if something like that simply appeared from nowhere, in the middle of a prison, most would stare. And he stared right back. Absorbing ever detail of her. Memorizing, cataloguing, comparing, analyzing. Everything. But, their contest of will was cut short. A voice called out ‘Girl! I thought I’d hit you! You’re alright!’. Harlequin hissed out a soft command. “Answer him. Convince him to stop speaking to you, and then you will talk. I will listen.”

[/ QUOTE ]

"Thanks," Penny called back to Michael, her eyes still on the visitor who had materialized in her cell. "Do you know what's going on with the lockdown? They seem to be slow turning on the -"

At that moment several things happened. A group of drones and guards went charging down the hallway, visually checking every cell, then moving on.

Additional force fields sparkled into life. This area was being locked down. The fields were accompanied by various power dampening fields, lights, and noises, intended to ensure that no prisoner in this cell block would be able to exhibit any powers. Such a procedure was almost unnecessary in cell block C, but it was procedure and followed to the letter.

At the armory, lockdown was a very serious matter. One of the reasons the Prototype had been in such a hurry to get there was because it was so difficult to approach after lockdown was completed. Triple force fields appeared not only around the armory, but through it, so that even if one got through the door, one wouldn't be able to move around inside. Lights, robots, guards, and various automated weaponry waited any unauthorized person who would get too close.

"Oh," Penny Arcade murmered as the shimmering dampening fields flowered across all the cells in her row, "There they are."

She looked back at the visitor, who certainly wouldn't be dematerializing again while the dampening fields were in place, unless he used methods with which she was unfamiliar. She guessed his origins to be magical in nature, though she had little proof other than a general impression.

To Michael she said, "I saw you go down in the Arena... you looked pretty rocky out there. Are you OK?"

To the visitor she said, "What would you like to talk about?"

OOC:

Thought I would post an additional story! As always, anyone, heroes or villians are welcome. Please no god-moding, yadda yadda yadda. The opening setting is somewhere in Paragon City.

Enjoy!

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Penny Arcade looked down at the city far below. "Boy," she mused, "It's been a long time since I've seen this place."

"You'll be seeing the inside of the Zig!"

Penny Arcade turned and looked at Dr. Justin Malcolm. He was an older man, with a beard and white lab coat. He looked fearful, but resigned, and drew himself up to his not-inconsiderable height. "You've wasted your time! I'll never give up the encryption key! Not to a villain of your reputation."

She arched an eyebrow at him. "Don't be ridiculous. Of course you'e going to give me the encryption key."

His chin went up. "Never! Do your worst!" But in spite of the bravado in his voice, his eyes darted fearfully to Buster.

Buster, the largest of Penny Arcade's contingent of drones, was a thirty-ton behemoth standing eleven feet tall. Currently it was hovering on its heavy-industrial-rated antigravs: it had to, as the floor in this building wasn't rated for its weight. Standing nearby him were three battle drones, designated Larry, Mo, and Curly, and by the door were two additional drones, larger than the battle drones but much smaller than Buster - Laurel and Hardy.

Penny Arcade held up an armored hand. It was impossible to see her face, for she was wearing a battle-suit which covered every inch of her form. The suit had once belonged to Crey Industries, but it had been altered and repainted and was no longer recognizable for what it was. "Dr. Malcolm, I assure you I have better things to do than to rip out your fingernails," (Dr. Malcolm shuddered at this, in spite of himself.) "The reason you are going to give me the encryption key is because your own research will compel you to do so."

"What do you know about my research?" His tone was suspicious.

"Trying to draw me out? Very good, excellent interrogation technique, my compliments," Penny Arcade smiled. "But I don't have time to discuss your work, though I assure you I have read your scientific publications with great interest. To sum up: you know that the Freakshow has stolen prototype spectrum stabilizer from the Crey corporation, and they plan to sell it to partes unknown for purposes unknown. It is your belief that said unknown parties intend to use the stabilizer to build a device which would open an interdimensional portal. Are we in agreement so far?"

"Yesssssss...." Dr. Malcolm didn't look at all pleased.

"Good. I have some information for you. Your belief is correct, but your timeline is off. The buyer is a certain branch of Arachnos, and they don't plan to build a portal... they have already built one. The stabilizer is the last piece that they need to get it operational. I took the liberty of borrowing a copy of their blueprints..." From a compartment in Buster's enormous arm, she took a roll of large, stained, scorched paper, and unrolled it on the nearest table.

"Is this blood?" Dr. Malcolm approached in spite of itself, staring at the considerable damage on the prints.

"Don't worry, it's not mine."

"That's what concerns me..." He looked over the blueprints for a moment, and turned white as a sheet. Mo had to lay a steadying hand on his arm to prevent him from falling.

There was a long silence.

Dr. Malcolm swallowed hard. "Longbow - "

"- would never believe me," Penny Arcade responded. "You yourself pointed out my reputation. Even if you vouch for its authenticity, they'll want to check my story. That will take time. By the time they realize they realize the meaning of these blueprints, and launch a task force, it will be far too late." She produced a much smaller piece of paper, a photograph, and laid it in the center of the table.

"You'll use the key for your own ends afterwards," he growled. Dr. Malcolm was looking shaky. There was real fear creeping into his voice.

"Of course I will... but if the immediate concern isn't addressed... there won't be an afterwards." Penny Arcade looked almost sympathetic to his dilemma. "I realize it's terribly difficult to provide assistance to someone on the other side of the fence, so to speak. Would it make you feel better if I threatened you life and limb?" All the bots, including Buster, pointed their weapons directly at him. "Told you I had... I don't know... bombs in the building, or the Doomsday Destruction weapon, or some such thing?"

Dr. Malcolm took a breath. "The key is in the safe on the first floor," he said, in a rather choked voice. "It will only open for me. I'll escort you."

Penny Arcade smiled, rolling up the plans and storing them safely in their previous location. "There, you see? I knew you were a reasonable - "

"STOP RIGHT THERE, VILLIAN!"

The Longbow contingent was a team of first responders. The lead was clearly an officer and took the time to point at her commandingly. "You're under arrest! Surrender now!"

Penny Arcade's eyebrows went up. "Ah, of course you tripped the silent alarm when you first saw me. Interesting, they've changed the frequency. You should wear this, Doctor." She tossed him a gas mask.

Dr. Malcolm caught the mask, but looked horrified. "No, wait!" He called to Longbow. "You don't understand - "

In the back of the Longbow group, one of the younger-looking ones (Penny Arcade suspected they were very new) gasped, "Oh NO! Penny Arcade has kidnapped Dr. Malcolm!"

Penny Arcade knelt down, working with something that Dr. Malcolm couldn't see.

"Call reinforcements! Protect Dr. Malcolm!"

"No, no!" howled Dr. Malcolm.

"FIRE!" barked the Longbow officer.

A number of things happened at that moment.

Buster interposed himself between the good Doctor and the oncoming Longbow assault personnel, effectively blocking any chance of a stray shot harming him. Laurel and Hardy cast bubbles around him of an eerie, shimmering sea-green, providing him additional protection from any possibility of injury, and furthermore granting him with a limited supply of fresh air.

The Longbow contingent fired with practiced precision, filling the small space with arrows. Personnel with larger weapons aimed them directly at Penny Arcade, knocking her back into the wall. Her armor didn't seem at all bothered by the hit, and neither did its wearer. Arrows pinged off the tough armor of the drones, and a stray rocket punched a hole in the back wall.

Then, and only then, did the Drones respond in defense.

The firefight was instant and brutal. The acid mortar which Penny Arcade had successfully laid down made small, regular ka-JUNK noises, spraying the air in a fine green mist. The green mist was thickened by a small bottle which she had also laid on the ground: one of the clumsy Longbow, eager to fire at her, shattered it with his foot, and it exploded into pea-soup fog. At once the Longbow staggered, gasping and choking, and making themselves easy work for the drones.

But when they were hit by the lasers, the Longbow did not fall. They simply... disappeared. The fight was very short indeed.

Dr. Malcolm frowned at her. He had put on his gas mask - or rather, one of the drones had insisted that he do so - but his voice, though muffled, was still understandable. "Those guns are too low-caliber to be teleporters."

"True. This way to the first floor, Dr. Malcolm."

They were met by various Longbow agents on the way, and the fights were almost identical. Penny Arcade never fired first. Dr. Malcolm tried to shout, but Longbow, intent on preventing what they saw as a kidnapping, was not in a state of mind to listen. At any rate, Longbow was too scattered in the building to be much of an immediate threat.

Dr. Malcolm did not speak again until they were on the first floor, and he had opened the safe, handing Penny Arcade a small card that, before tonight, he would never have dreamed of handing over willingly. "I don't believe you're a villain," he said as he handed it over. "Not really."

"Doctor Malcolm!" Penny Arcade looked shocked. "What a horrible thing to say! And after I have taken such good care of you, too! How can you think such a thing?"

"After observing your blasters... I have a good guess of how they must work," he said, as she gestured him to a nearby chair.

"Oh? And how is that?"

"You've hacked into the Paragon teleportation system. The first round puts something on your target, probably the microtransmitter which forms the basis for the hospital patches which all Paragon City heroes use. The second shot trips them. The teleportation system then receives a 'hero in trouble' alert and teleports the target to the nearest hospital facility - thus not only ensuring that no one gets hurt, but if somebody should accidentally take some damage, they end up at the hospital anyway." He paused. "That's also why you've never been stopped by anti-teleportation shielding."

"Because I am not a big enough threat to risk an actual hero getting hurt," Penny Arcade smirked. "Very good. There are only two problems with your theory. Sit here, please, Doctor."

Dr. Malcolm hesitated, but Buster shifted his weight, and he obediantly sat down in the chair. Penny Arcade produced a roll of duct tape, and after wrapping his wrists first in plastic, taped them securely. "First of all, it would be counter-productive to transport them to a nearby facility."

"So, what I am hearing is, they're at Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility, instead of Mercy Memorial."

"Touche. If you must know, the Statesman Research Center is the facility which is geographically furthest from this location."

"And the second problem?"

"I have a reputation to protect," Penny finished her taping, and put a gag in Dr. Malcolm's mouth. "Now, a new detachment of Longbow should arrive in five to seven minutes and find you here. I expect you to tell them what a harrowing time you have had - "

She never finished speaking. At that moment the back wall burst inwards, showering everyone with dust and rubble.

The Arachnos contingent was significantly larger than the Longbow contingent had been. Penny Arcade stared for a moment. She couldn't help but wonder how they got into the city? It had been enough of a risk for her to sneak in, alone. Then she caught herself - they must have come up through the sewers. Their leader was a Mu Adept. Beyond him she could see Blood Widows, Fortunata, Arachnos soldiers of various ranks, Drones and controllers, and Tarantula bots. Lots and lots of Tarantula bots.

"PENNY ARCADE! HAND OVER THE ENCRYPTION KEY!" Thundered the Adept.

The weapons of the Tarantula bots were already swinging around. She had a bare second to act.

"Or not," she finished. "Larry?"

The drone picked up the chair, Dr. Malcolm and all, and shot forwards, only moments after Penny Arcade herself, propelled by powerful rocket-boots. Behind them, Buster and the other drones closed ranks. They would be chopped to bits by the oncoming Arachnos forces, but they would buy precious time.

They burst out the front doors of the building, shattering them into showers of glass. But any thought of easy escape were instantly quelled by the hastily-erected force fields surrounding the area. The forces of Paragon City, as was their habit, had sealed off the block. From above her were more shouts: "STOP PENNY ARCADE!" And "She's got Dr. Malcolm!" "Protect Dr. Malcolm!" Lasers went whizzing past her ears.

She swore between gritted teeth, swerving suddenly to avoid a Longbow Eagle who swooped at her. Larry stuck very close to her, careful to keep the chair upright at all times, and the shots of the Longbow went wide, lest they hit Dr. Malcolm. "This encryption key better be something else," she muttered, and returned fire, her laser splashing twice across the chest of the intruding Eagle. A look of surprise came over his face as he disappeared.

((ooc sorry been away a bit!))

Penny Arcade had been given a new cell. Transporting her there took some time, for it was difficult to move from one area to another when the Zig was on lockdown. But the drones were nothing if not patient, scanning areas, cycling through doors and codes, and moving slowly from one tiny locked section to the next.

Many of the prisoners housed in cellblock C were ex-military, of varying origins. The vast majority were ex-council, or even ex-fifth-column soldiers. Others had once been part of various criminal organizations. They all had one thing in common: they had no known super-powers. Cellblock C was known as the "normal" block, and every non-paranormal prisoner in the Zig was housed here.

While there had been vicious infighting at first, the ex-Council thugs had eventually emerged victorious, and now ruled the cellblock. They might have liked to rule with an iron fist, but such things were not possible here. The victory of the Council had been a narrow one, and their rule was held only by a razor-thin margin. Other groups had sufficient numbers to make themselves forces to be reckoned with, and thus the Council was reduced to bartering rather than war. In fact, the Council held only the 25-40 cellblock: 41 and above were held by various Asian groups, notably the Tsoo, while 25 and below held a rabble of gangs, especially Hellions and Skulls.

Penny Arcade was rather bleary, having woken up on the journey. She had an enormous bruise on her shoulder and side where she had hit the arena wall, and a cut over one eyebrow, but it wasn't serious. The other prisoners hooted and catcalled at her; there were a few women scattered around, as the Zig didn't have separation for gender, but the cell she was brought to had a large man in it, his hair in a crew cut, and, like most men in this area, he had an ex-military bearing to him.

"Hey Fist!" He called out when she was shoved into his cell, and the drones left. "Looks like it's my lucky day! Playtime Bi-atch!" Almost before she knew what was happening, he had shoved her violently against the wall of the cell, his hand fumbling at the top fastener to her jumpsuit.

Before the Arena match, she would have been terrified. But the session with Hatoka had helped to calm her down, to find her center in a hard and cruel world. Now a flash of anger went through her. She had only the strength of a normal woman, but she knew how to use it. Her foot impacted his chest hard, hard enough to stagger him backwards, mostly out of surprise. Her other foot followed a moment later, intersecting the nerve-junction between his collarblade and neck.

He went down like an ox.

He was stunned, but only momentarily. He blinked stupidly for a moment as he shook off the lingering after-effects of the blow. She was ready for him if he got up again, giving him a look that might have shattered concrete at twenty-five paces.

"You have a lady in your cell," she said coldly. "A gentleman minds his manners when a lady is present. My name is Penny Arcade," she spat, "And I am not going to play around with you. Back off."

[ QUOTE ]
((OOC - sorry about the delay, wanted to run this past the player before putting it up. It is the beginning of greater things, MUA ha ha ha ha!))


"Indeed, let us begin," said the prototype as it lifted up it's pulse rifle and sighted down the scope. "I have never lost, for your knowledge."


As soon as it finished speaking, the prototype fired a triple-burst of coherent light at Penny. But it was aimed in such a way that Penny could easily dodge while not looking at though it was easy to dodge. All other shots that were fired would be aimed in the same fashion as Penny charged.


[/ QUOTE ]



Penny didn't charge immediately, though she did dodge the blaster fire. She was studying him thoughtfully. Though he was deliberately missing, he was missing by so much of a margin that it was almost as if she was predicting his moves. Corrections left nearly as wide a margin as before. There was little doubt that the Mark 2 could hit her, but he would have to make the effort to do so.

"Fighting an unarmed and known normal, with yourself and three combat drones," she said mildly, "Yes, I bet you have never lost. You're worse than Dendrich. Ever read his work? 10.17.234.55? Password's 'password,' if you're curious."

The IP address was a gamble on Penny's part, and involved several factors. Though she could not have said where it came from, she had extensive knowledge of AI's, and had a pretty good hypothesis of the general way in which the Mark 2 functioned. Given the address of a server, and the name of a scientist whom she was positive the Mark 2 would not have encountered, logic would dictate that he would check out the reference in the background, while he sparred with her. An older or less advanced mechanism might not have been able to do both, but the Mark 2 was clearly top-of-the-line.

Dr. Malcolm Dendrich - killed in the Rikti war - had been one of the premiere AI scientists of his day, but his work was so dangerous for artifical intelligence systems that no AI was permitted to encounter his name, let alone his actual research data. His methods for introducing illogical elements to previously-well-functioning artificial intelligence systems had had some effect early in the war, though ultimately useless, and eventually shelved in the face of the hordes of the Rikti. However, it had been good enough for the Rikti to personally lead an assault upon his residence to finish him off. It might almost have been called a virus, but one which no antivirus program could protect against, for it simply consisted of the introduction of certain concepts, rather than classic programming codes. His work was code-named Arcadium.

She gave it a bare second, dodging a couple of shots, and then charged. If it worked, or if it didn't, it was time to move. He swung his blaster around in time with her, closing the gaps beween shots.

"Prisoner Penny," he intoned - and then his voice caught. "Penny Arcade - Arcadium - sdfs! Shpihnsd ahjnsdhign..."

She grinned. He had looked up the name, read the data, and even from the grave Dr. Malcolm Dendrich had introduced the Mark 2 to some of the amazing contradictions which were merely a part of life. Many of them were the sorts of paradoxes which humans simply took for granted. Now the AI would want to purge himself of the contradictory data, and relegate it to the rubbish bin of illogic... but it would take time, and even then, he had seen the truth. It was like seeing a blinding light: the eye, shocked by the brilliance, would close to protect itself - but too late. It was still dazzled by the brightness it had witnessed. It was too late to unsee.

It was, at best, a delaying tactic. The top-of-the-line Mark 2 wouldn't take long to perform the necessary recalibrations. There was no telling what long-term affects the forbidden data would have, which was why the Arcadium was such a dangerous text for AI's, but there wouldn't be any immediate damage. Nevertheless it would have to recalibrate, and at once, and that would give her a bare couple of seconds to make a move.

"Penny Arcade," she mused, "I like that."

Her foot struck the Mark 2 squarely in the center of his chest. At any other time, she would have had no hope of reaching it, let alone coming within striking distance. But now the Mark 2 was recalibrating, and she struck it solidly, with her entire weight and momentum behind her. The results were both better and worse than she had hoped for.

It was better in that the Mark 2 had its servos locked for a moment. Though she wouldn't have expected such luck, the force of the blow was enough to topple it. It landed, with a huge, metallic BONG, on its rear end. But its head swung around - and its blaster did also. Only its knee and ankle servos were locked. It had performed the recalibrations faster than she would have believed possible, and left her with a window of time which was too small. She had managed to disorient it momentarily, but the Mark 2 was simply too sophisticated a unit to be distracted for long.

The worst part was that its return volley hit squarely in the center of her own chest. She hadn't even landed when she was thrown backwards some forty feet to crash hard into the wall of the stadium, and from there onto her nose. Her head was spinning, her ears were ringing, and she wasn't sure where she was. The outcome of the fight wasn't in much doubt - a second shot from the Mark 2, once on its feet, would end it.

But then, without warning, the Arena erupted into chaos. The illusions which normally gave the Arena such a grand stature were turned off to reveal dull, square rooms. All the fights inside were stopped instantly as all combatants, winning or losing, were stunned into unconsciousness. Only the Mark 2 was spared.

Alarms blared. Sirens screamed. The lighting, normally a stark white, shifted to ruby red, and every flashing light turned itself on. The Announcer was suddenly all business, his voice audible in all corners of the Zig, whether in the Arena or not. Every cell, corridor, yard, or room reverberated with his voice. "LOCKDOWN! We are on lockdown status! All prisoners down! All prisoners down! We are in LOCKDOWN!"

Experienced prisoners, who didn't want trouble, immediately laid prone wherever they were. Guards and drones stunned any prisoner remaining upright. Every automatic door slammed shut. Suppression fields blanketed every inch of the prison, force fields flickered into life, anti-teleportation fields jumped to full-strength as backups were brought online. All secondary systems, down to radios and televisions, were instantly shut off.

Four floors below, the body of Gears had just been found....

((OOC: I posted this, then decided I wanted to run it past the player first. Will post it just as soon as I hear from him!))

Jen 8)