Rebel_Scum

Pax smiled at their concern, but shook her head. "No, nothing's out of whack right here and now. Well, there was but that's over and done with. I was, as Eileen suggested, taking some time off before moving on. You'd be surprised how relaxing it is to do more mundane hero work when most of your time's spent with such confusing things as time travel."

She paused a moment, collecting her thoughts and putting them into a coherent idea before continuing. "As for who decides? I dunno how the others do it, but for me it's more intuitive than anything. When I look at something that shouldn't be happening or something that shouldn't exist, I get this overwhelming feeling of wrongness... I'm sorry, I can't explain it very well because I don't entirely understand it myself. And before you ask, no I don't just go based on that. Typically if I follow the sequence of events back I'll eventually come to the point at which what did happen diverges from what should happen. More often than not, it's another time traveller."

She stopped, chuckling quietly at a memory that surfaced just then. "As the Fugitive puts it...", she didn't bother trying to imitate the man's voice, since she knew she wouldn't be anywhere near close. "Most time travellers spend the majority of their time and effort preventing other time travellers from getting anything done. We're an amazingly ineffectual lot, all told."

[ QUOTE ]
"Well..." he looked to Valerie, "...maybe not all. Who're you...and, um...why are you following us?"

[/ QUOTE ]

"I'm Valerie", she replied simply. "And I was following you cause I kinda got the idea you did something to piss off the Sovereign or his subordinates, so I was going to offer a little help. But since you so obviously don't want me around, I think I'll head back to that shop and get out of this uniform. What with the whole 'shoot on sight' thing, swapping it for something less conspicuous is a good idea. And for the record...", she glanced to the two mercenaries. "I probably am a little insane. I'd have to be, to go up against the Sovereign."

With that she turned and walked back in the direction they'd come, past the bikers (one of whom hastily got out of the way before she walked right over him) and toward the now somewhat derelict-looking store. Outside the griffin's bubble, it seemed whatever that energy had been had certainly taken its toll on everything man-made.

(( Khell, Devious? Anyone have something for Isabel? ))

[ QUOTE ]
"I don't know..." she returned to Pax, her tone one of dismissive doubt, but also holding an underlying worry, "And I'm not saying that - I just don't think there's any way you can know for sure, to know truly beyond any doubt.

[/ QUOTE ]

Pax shrugged. "I'm exaggerating for effect. I do that, don't worry. As far as I know, apart from the Cascade Failure that ended the timeline the Fugitive came from, we've never caused anything on quite near that scale. Not through lack of trying on the part of some stunningly stupid people, though. As for not knowing, yeah I don't and I can't know for certain. But I trust the people who told me, and for me that's enough."

[ QUOTE ]
"Paradoxa." Sarah gave a nod, as well as a slight shiver, "Which I don't like. Every time Bill gets going with those, I wind up with a migraine. But seriously: I just can't believe time works like that. There's just too much that can happen that couldn't happen if it did."

[/ QUOTE ]

"You're not the only one who gets migraines thinking about it, trust me", Pax replied with a laugh. "I've never caused one that I know of, but as I understand it when faced with a paradox the universe tends to stabilise in whatever way causes the least stress on the fabric of space-time. For example, in the classic 'go back to kill your own father thus erasing yourself from existence so you can't go back' situation, your father will remain dead. The universe will actually create you out of nowhere to kill him, after which you will disappear and that will be the entirety of your existence."

[ QUOTE ]
"My baby brother, for example- Energon X- could erase a significant chunk of the known universe by getting too excited at the wrong time, just because of the way his powers work. It wouldn't be instant- I'm pretty sure his abilities obey local lightspeed restrictions- but I'm not sure it could be stopped if it got started."

[/ QUOTE ]

Pax gave her a curious kind of look, seemingly unsurprised by the revelation that Eileen's brother could erase a large part of the universe if he lost control. "I know of at least three potential timelines - that thankfully never happened - where he did exactly that", she commented almost absently. "It was one hell of a show, I'll tell you that. Even with the whole running for our lives bit thrown in it was still impressive to see."

Pax considered herself lucky to have been standing over the corpse when it exploded, for considering how much it hurt she didn't want to consider what it might have done to their somewhat less durable allies. Fortunately, her being right next to it had shielded them from the full force of the blast. The greenish light of Kheldian healing energy flashed around her, a number of broken and damaged armor plates reforming before she teleported over to the biggest concentration of shadows.

These, she reasoned, might be more susceptible to her energy attacks based on the whole light versus shadow thing. Of course technically that meant she'd be more susceptible to them too but she didn't stop to consider that. She stomped, a wave of energy bursting out from around her foot.

----------------

Cassie grumbled to herself as she saw the enemies they'd put down already getting back up. "Didn't work the first time, why can't they just stay down and save us the trouble?", she asked no one in particular. One of them that got a little too close for comfort got a bolt of force from the device on her wrist, rendering him suddenly airborne before he was shredded by three drones worth of lasers.

Meanwhile, seeing the agents relatively clumped up, Mac chuckled quietly to himself and fired off a few incendiary rockets from the rocket pack above his head. The ground around the agents burst into flame as the rockets landed.

Cassie was going to say something to the effect of 'all hell's breaking loose, like always' over the radio in response to Drago, but since the others beat her to it she didn't see the point in adding her voice. Instead, she focused on the chaos erupting in front of her as one of the cyborgs or whatever they were made the mistake of looking just a little too hostile in the eyes of her bots. In unison, the six of them discharged a stunning array of plasma bursts, photon grenades and laser blasts into the unfortunate victim.

An ordinary human would have hit the ground as nothing more than perforated and charred meat, though that didn't necessarily mean this thing would. Thus, the bots discharge a few extra shots into the possibly lifeless corpse before turning their attention to anything else matching a similar description. As yet that list of hostiles didn't include any of the heroes, so no shots hit any of them until they did something to attract some.

-------------

Seeing that blunt force seemed to have more effect than energy-based attacks, Pax changed tactics. Instead of wasting energy in her blows, she simply lashed out around herself with all of the Dwarf's considerable strength. A number of foes abruptly found themselves airborne as they got too close to the sweeping claws. Somehow, despite the apparent recklessness of her attacks she avoided hitting any of the other metas, both villains and heroes. After all, red and blue finding themselves on the same team wasn't unheard of.

[ QUOTE ]
"So anyway: unproven theory. And I still don't think there's any way you could've made sure no one ever found it. There's just too many forms of intelligence, a lot of which we can't even see."

[/ QUOTE ]

"And there's way more forms of intelligence than even I know of working on our side, too. Some of them I can't perceive in any way, let alone by sight", Pax answered, her tone suggesting that someone as apparently smart as Sarah really should have considered there being such beings on both sides of the line. "But yeah you're right, we can't stop people building time machines. What we can do though is detect them, explain all this stuff to them and convince them not to mess with things that shouldn't be messed with. And of course if they refuse to see reason there's always the 'kill them' option but we try to do that only when we absolutely have to."

She sighed, obviously sick to death of explaining this stuff to people. "Time travel is perfectly safe, so long as you follow the rules. The universe is remarkably resilient, up to a point. Go past that point, and horrible things happen. Entire galaxies popping out of existence, that kind of thing. Usually we can get them back, but not always."

She looked up as another knock sounded on the door and Akemi got up to answer it. "If you're a Nemesis automaton I can't be held responsible for how many pieces you end up in", she called over the other girl's shoulder without getting up from where she was sitting.

[ QUOTE ]
And a painful shock reverberated up the energy "crab's" arm.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ok, this thing actually managed to hurt her in Dwarf form. With only one hit. Well then. "Gah!", Pax yelled in a mixture of pain and frustration. "Bad robot!", she added as she backhanded the offending robot, or cyborg, or whatever the hell it was with enough force to send any normal human and most superpowered ones across the room.

Looking to the others who hadn't approached to close range, she teleported over to them - people always forgot the Dwarves could teleport - and stomped hard on the ground. A flare of bright blueish energy radiated out from the impact point, battering them and throwing them off their feet.

------------

Raising an eyebrow at the sounds of combat inside the warehouse Cassie tapped the device on her arm again and a further four portals appeared, resulting in the arrival of Mac and her three drones. After both she and the two Protectors applied their various force shields, she ordered the bots forward and approached somewhat more cautiously than the others behind them. Keeping a tight grip on her plasma rifle, she looked around for a ground-level door to the warehouse and motioned for the bots to enter through the closest one.

And that they did - without bothering to open it first. Cassie grumbled a little to herself. "I know I built you guys smart enough to open a damn door without being explicitly told to...", she muttered as she followed them through.

"Yeah, but smashing it down makes a way better entrance than just coming in quietly", Mac replied in a cheerful tone before pointing a plasma cannon at the closest thing that looked threatening. The other five bots followed suit, taking aim at any possible hostiles with their various weapons. A faint hum was heard as one of the Protectors warmed up the repair device attached to its other arm. As yet though, none of them fired. And they wouldn't, unless something fired at them first or Cassie gave the order.

Pax sighed. "A hundred different time periods and I still haven't learned not to offend people. And I didn't...", she paused as she went back over what she'd said. "Hmm, yeah I guess I did. Sorry, I didn't mean to. Poor choice of words. So, where is this island anyway? I'd kinda like to see it, now."

[ QUOTE ]
"Now you think you're so smart that you know everything there is to know about a whole planet?"

[/ QUOTE ]

"Technically it's not even a planet, more of a really big asteroid. And no, I never said I knew everything about it. I said it was never discovered by any intelligent species. And yeah, that one little fact I do know with a fair degree of certainty, since I made damn sure of it before I did anything I might regret later."

[ QUOTE ]
"Besides, if you're that worried about 'changing history', why didn't you just go there in our present?" she added, already a good bit more mellow again, "Then you wouldn't have had to think about that. Not to mention it's an unproven theory anyway..."

[/ QUOTE ]

"History does extend past this present day, you know. For a good long while yet, as far as I've seen. Except in those timelines that were too close to the one the Fugitive came from. They got erased, or so he told me. And before you ask, no I have no reason to doubt his story. Hence why it remains an unproven theory to the general public, a lot of effort from a great number of people goes into ensuring that since the vast majority of people can't be trusted to not abuse it."

[ QUOTE ]
"Go..."

[/ QUOTE ]

By the time he was even half finished saying it, Pax was already moving. She dropped smoothly through the jagged hole left from Arek's blasting the hatch, and transformed on the way down to the Dwarf form she typically favored when going into a mostly unknown situation.

Landing with the thunderous crash of multiple tons of armor coming to a sudden stop, she looked around for the potential hostiles Arek had given the locations of. The moment one of them did something to confirm that hostility, a good half-ton of Dwarf claw applied repeatedly if needed to their face would quickly render them non-hostile again.

---------------

[ QUOTE ]
The force lance spoke, blasting apart the hatch with a brief crack of thunder.

[/ QUOTE ]

Cassie looked up as the noise shattered the peaceful mostly-silence. "You guys hear that? Something tells me we have company..."

To hell with laying low, no way was she going to be caught off guard with none of her bots around. A quick double-tap on the watch-like device attached to her wrist produced two short-lived portals, through which stepped her two Protector bots. Immediately the two applied protective force bubbles around their mistress, before then bubbling each other as Cassie applied similar bubbles both to the bots and to her teammates.

[ QUOTE ]
She repeated with a soft sigh, "Therapy...yeah..."

[/ QUOTE ]

"Don't worry about it", Pax looked to her with a grin. "This is very nearly the craziest place that has ever or will ever exist, you'll get used to it if you stay here long enough."

[ QUOTE ]
The Tornado's attention refocused on her with a wry smile, "Oh? Try me..."

[/ QUOTE ]

Pax just gave her a cold stare. "Do you really think I would be stupid enough to take things from a planet that anyone will ever discover? If I did that I'd be changing history, 'cause stuff that should have been won't be there when it's supposed to be discovered. Like I said, I ain't that stupid. Came from some undiscovered and uninhabited rock out in the middle of nowhere where civilisation will never ever reach."

[ QUOTE ]
Crushing the persistant robot under her heel, Rose sighed, "I hate this city."

[/ QUOTE ]

"Who doesn't", Cassie added as she walked up behind them, her plasma rifle swinging loosely from one hand after she'd used it to prove to some Lost that no, she wasn't a defenseless citizen after all.

"I swear, this place has even more 'villains' than the Isles do."

----------------

[ QUOTE ]
Or does one of you have a different idea...?"

[/ QUOTE ]

"Not a different idea as such, but I could point out that I can put out one of those bigass flashes of light like most Peacebringers can", Pax added, with a smile they couldn't see what with her still being invisible and all. "It's been pretty effective against large groups of pretty much anything in the past, if we get into trouble."

[ QUOTE ]
"I think I told you to [censored] off." He snarled at her, staring down his irons.

[/ QUOTE ]

"And I think I told you I will do no such thing until you tell me why you're in such a hurry. Actually, let's add why you hate me so much to that as well", Valerie replied perfectly calmly, not even bothering to retrieve her rifle from where she'd slung it across her back. Not like it'd do her any good anyway, if they were this bad just cause she walked up to them - for the very obvious reason of not wanting her stuff destroyed - then she'd be willing to bet she'd have more bullets in her than flesh before she got the weapon even half drawn.

(( I could swear I posted this once already... Either I'm really not properly awake or the forums ate my post. ))

[ QUOTE ]
"Get lost." Famine snapped at Valerie from his position behind Griffin, whom War was leading away at a healthy but cautious jog.

[/ QUOTE ]

Valerie did nothing of the sort. "Answer my question and I might", she shot back in a more than a little irritated tone. Until they did, they weren't getting rid of her. She did however stop as she noted the... whatever that was... generally wreaking havoc on anything man-made. She also noted the sphere of space around Griffin that apparently remained unaffected, and hurried into it before anything became damaged beyond her ability to repair.

----------------

[ QUOTE ]
It would be a brief lay-over to drop off some of the more critically wounded soldiers and bring the metahuman aboard.

[/ QUOTE ]

Isabel went fairly quietly, though they undoubtably would notice her taking note of anything she passed that might be of use, and several things that probably weren't. Although she had no plans to attempt an escape at the moment, it never hurt to have the plan ready in case it because necessary to do so. Mostly she watched the android as it paced around Zeo. If the worst came to the worst and she had to bail, he and his minions be most of what might stop her from leaving.

Pax chuckled a little at the question of how heroes made their livings. "Let's just say there was a tiny smidge more valuable minerals and such on a certain planet a long way from here that none of you have ever or likely will ever hear of, before I messed with it", she said not so simply. Apparently she wasn't quite above abusing power for material gain.

[ QUOTE ]
Do you dream of steampunk sheep?

[/ QUOTE ]

"I went to an alternate timeline once where such things actually existed", Pax mused more to herself than to the others. "Not very useful for anything but I'd be lying if I said they weren't hilarious to see."

[ QUOTE ]
"Cloak: Life-signs: Not always: Cloak: Mind-signs."

[/ QUOTE ]

"Yeah, but I doubt they're going to take the trouble to hide one and not make sure they've hidden the other as well. From what I saw, they don't seem the type to do things by halves", came Pax's voice from off to one side, the peacebringer still not completely in this time or place.

----------------

[ QUOTE ]
"I agree with Rose. If Synapse were to find us, it would be most unpleasent. I'd rather us just sneak in, get the informaton and then head back."

[/ QUOTE ]

"Speaking of sneaking...", Cassie muttered, before disappearing as she climbed back inside the chopper and thus inside the cloaking field. Inside, she grabbed a number of small devices with a single button on them before climbing back out and handing them around so that everyone had one. "They're recall beacons", the mastermind explained. "Hit the button if you're in trouble or after we're finished our job here and you'll teleport back to the chopper. And... don't yell at me if they don't work properly, I still haven't gotten around to properly testing them. But they should work."

Since they were meant to be laying low here, she didn't summon any of her robots and wasn't presently carrying her plasma rifle. Both were only a moment's notice away, though.

"Well, they are meant to blend in as normal humans until something triggers their programming", Pax commented. "One would think they'd need some semblance of intelligence to do that."

"Also, Clockwork Nemesis? So what, that dimension doesn't have a Clockwork King and a Nemesis as seperate entities, but has them both in the one guy? Man, that's gotta suck." Idly, she wondered if they guy had the King's psychic powers and Nemesis's army of automatons at the same time.

[ QUOTE ]
"Hey, there lady. You all right?"

[/ QUOTE ]

"I'm fi- Wait, the hell did my gun go?", Valerie replied, looking around in search of the misplaced weapon. Finally spotting it nearly hidden under a bundle of clothes near where she'd landed, she went back over and pulled the high-tech looking rifle out from under the clothes. "Right. Now I'm fine", she added, before looking to the retreating backs of the two mercs and the griffin with a frown. "The hell are you three off to in such a hurry?", she asked as she hurried after them.

(( Not jumping out of it. Landing it on the roof of the warehouse they needed to go to. Or on the next building over.

Also I just noticed this:
[ QUOTE ]
All of the circuit blowing, diode glowing dimwittery...

[/ QUOTE ]
You left a piece out?))

[ QUOTE ]
"Its in Skyway. Take a cab, risk the train?"

[/ QUOTE ]

"I still don't understand why we didn't just land closer to the damn warehouse", Cassie answered somewhat irritably. She'd wanted to do exactly that, but no they had to come here to meet up with the others who'd decided to take a different route. Their own bloody fault for taking the slow way, she thought.

While waiting for the others to be ready she leaned casually against apparently thin air, though on closer inspection a faint shimmer in the air would reveal the presence of a cloaked helicopter. The cloak was good enough to stop the heroes that swarmed through Paragon from finding it unless they were specifically looking for a cloaked helicopter in that particular area and if they did find it, the automatic defenses were set to remain silent until detected and then open fire. Since this was only King's Row and the chopper's defenses were built to stand up to almost anything short of Statesman himself, Cassie really wasn't worried about someone messing with her ride while she was gone.

-------------

[ QUOTE ]
"Suggestion: Close range. Possibility: Myself: Detect: Active minds."

[/ QUOTE ]

"Sounds like a plan to me", Pax replied before flickering out of sight again as she shifted partially out of sync with this point in space/time. "Though I honestly doubt there's anyone there, the place looks abandoned. Either that or they're really good at hiding", her voice added from apparently thin air. Still, she followed Arek down to the roof hatch and waited while the draconian messed with the lock. Just in case, she powered up all three of her energy shields.

(( Ok. Think I'm waiting for Kyo then. ))

[ QUOTE ]
"Hello?" he called out, "Is...is anyone hurt...?"

[/ QUOTE ]

A muffled yell that was most likely "I'm fine!", came from under a pair of clothing racks against the far wall, Valerie struggling out from under where they'd fallen on top of her. She ducked hastily behind one of the few still-standing shelves as the tank went by outside, though really she probably didn't need to. Still, better to be safe than sorry.

-------------

Isabel whistled softly at the views of the destruction being reported on the local news, as she leaned against the door of the cell they'd put her in. "Yeah, I think surrendering was the right option after all", she commented to the two guards stationed outside who were currently watching said news on the small TV that sat on their desk. They didn't answer, apparently having been ordered to not talk to her or some such.

She did wonder though why they thought she deserved two guards - without her powers, she would be hard pushed even to overpower one before he managed to raise some kind of alarm.

(( So... waiting on Khell? Again? ))

Not spoiling it. Just saying it is awesome.

Assuming this is the same story that's on the protector fiction site, I know how it ends and it is awesome.

(( Except that Cassie quite obviously left the group, after it was apparently decided that some or all of them were taking her chopper. So... we have some coming by cargo and some coming by chopper? Or are my actions just going to get retconned? ))