Rebel_Scum

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Rose nodded at Cassie, "We'll take your transpo, whoever needs a cover, or just wants one ready when we land, let me know, we'll pick them up in Paragon."

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(( This here, led me to believe they were taking the chopper. Was that not the intended meaning? ))

(( Ok, I'm lost. I was under the impression the villains were travelling there in the helicopter Cassie offered them. Is this not the case? Also, if that is right then ask yourselves this: Why would Cassie land said helicopter anywhere other than as close as she can reasonably get to the place they need to go? Also note the chopper is and has always been equipped with a cloaking device. ))

Pax almost laughed at the girl's suspicion, then went over what the man and his friends had been through - and she'd bet she didn't even know half of it - and decided she was probably right to be suspicious "No particular reason", she replied. "Just wondering if it was the same guy. And yeah, I have. Time travellers tend to keep an eye on one another, so we know who to blame if we wake up one morning to find the universe has imploded. Though I'm still not entirely sure Professor Winthrop counts as one."

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"So you see why his little clockwork spies aren't particularly welcome... although I have to admit, with a little rewiring and some solder, they make excellent teapots."

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"Are you sure you're not a hero?" Pax asked with a grin. "You certainly have the attitude to match. And yeah, those rumors are true. Don't tell anyone I told you that though, I'm pretty sure it's still 'highly classified' or some such silliness."

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"Thanks for jumping him. This Nemesis bonehead is getting really annoying..."

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"Yeah, the old man's good at that if nothing else", Pax laughed, watching as one of the dragons came over and fiddled with the thing. "Not to- wait, Winthrop? Not Charles Winthrop AKA Steampunk Charlie, by chance?", she asked in a curious tone.

(( Hate being in limbo With both characters even, until Soviet or Crimson post. ))

(( I'd be fine with you writing it Grey. ))

Pax had been about to ask exactly what she'd said that was apparently so high and mighty, but the man's mention of Nemesis cut her off. "Bloody automatons, I'm sick of destroying these things", she muttered in the tone of someone in no hurry despite how possibly urgent the task was. The reason for that of course became clear as one looked over to the car, where a second Paxtera appeared in a golden flash to halt the man's escape, several moments before she'd actually disappeared with a similar flash inside the house.

Not that she needed to, given Eileen's and Sam's swift reactions. "And here I though I was the hero here", she grinned at the pair as she walked over to the now subdued man. "So, you feel like talking or do we pull you apart and read everything you know off a lifeless hard drive?", she asked in a pleasant tone.

"Hardly standard", Pax replied with a grin. "Surely the- no wait, 21st century Paragon so that is an everyday occurance around here. Nevermind."

She did wonder at Cher'tak's unusual method of defense. It wasn't the standard Rikti armament, that was for sure. But she said nothing of it, waiting for Arek to tell them what his scanners had found if anything.

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"Where are we going to make entry?"

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"I'm fond of rooftops myself, but that's just cause I typically arrive in Paragon by helicopter", Cassie commented. "Anyway..." she rattled off an address in Cap au Diable, instructing that that was where the craft she'd mentioned was currently residing and that she'd have it ready by the time they got there. With that, she activated her recall beacon and disappeared with the signature popping noise and bright flash of a teleport.

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"Please disengage your shield and I can assure you that you will not be harmed."

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Isabel cast a suspicious glance towards the choppers still rather obviously targetting her, but after a moment's hesitation complied and allowed the man to place what she assumed to be power dampening handcuffs around her wrist. Almost instantly she regretted that decision, as all hell very nearly literally broke loose around them.

"Still think you can assure me I won't be harmed?", she asked in a surprisingly calm voice as first one then another of the three helicopters got almost casually swatted out of the sky by the suddenly-appeared dragon, followed by an impossibly cold wind and a most definitely unnatural darkness descending on the area. "Same Chinese guys that attacked us on the train, if I had to take a guess. I'd help, but... Well." She waved her handcuffed wrists to illustrate the point.

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"Has this place just gone completely nuts...?!"

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"More or less", Valerie replied before proceeding (Assuming no guns got pointed in her face by trigger-happy mercenaries) to give them a quick rundown of the situation. How they'd attacked the parade in an attempt to capture the Sovereign but it turned out to be a trap, and how she for all she knew was the only one to survive. Though she really hoped that part wasn't true. Taking a glance out the door at the chaos she added, "Looks like the CPSR decided to try something too."

Isabel swore loudly as the chopper started blazing away at her with its minigun. She swerved and zigzagged in an effort to evade as many of those shots as possible, inadvertendly dodging flame and car alike in doing so. "Why did I forget the choppers. I shouldn't have forgotten the choppers, Kruger even pointed them out", she muttered to herself. Thankfully her shield was holding - for now. Likely it wouldn't for much longer.

Which left her with three options. Die to the chopper, die to the fire guy, or take either one out with her. Or... Yeah, regardless of what she'd said before it was probably the only way to come out of this alive. So much for principles.

Thus, she raised both hands above her head in the traditional gesture of 'I surrender'. Though, she kept the shield up until they'd stopped firing. Assuming they did stop firing.

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Valerie didn't even look back at the chaos erupting behind her as she ran. In fact she paid little attention to where she was going as well, apart from 'away from here'. Thus, she was understandably surprised when she ran right smack into a certain bunch of mercenaries and thugs and their nonhuman friend.

(( Devious I was waiting for Khell. But, since he's MIA again... ))

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"Paxtera?" Arek performed the equivalent of raising an eyebrow when the Kheldian seemed to space out.

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"Hmm?", Pax replied absently, glancing around at the draconian. "What? Oh, right." And she disappeared with her usual golden flash. Moments later, her two companions would feel the characteristing nondirectional tug of someone trying to teleport them, but with a slightly more wierd feeling attached due to being pulled through time as well as space.

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On a rooftop across the road from the warehouse she saw the van drive into, Pax waited for the others to appear (And tried again to recall them if need be) before gesturing to the warehouse. "That's it there. Either he's there, or there'll be something to indicate where they took him from here." The third possibility that it might be a dead-end she didn't bother to mention. "Watch out for booby traps and the like, I wouldn't be surprised if they've rigged the place after they left if they indeed have left."

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"I won't be needing a disguise either. If anyone notices me, I'll find something to make cover"

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"Nor I", Cassie added. "I'm not wanted for anything in Paragon last I checked. I can provide transport too, if we don't feel like being reliant on Crey." The way she said it suggested she was taking her own chopper regardless of what the others decided. Working for Crey was one thing, but being dependent on them was quite another.

Isabel's personal forcefield shimmered into existence as the tanks landed, and she looked around slowly at them and the soldiers that had arrived with them. "I told you, I don't do surrender", she said quietly as she rose slightly into the air. "I do however do 'run like hell', when the situation calls for it", she added before abruptly going from not moving to top speed.

Aiming for the nearest building she flew in an erratic zigzag and hoped that, combined with the suddenness of her departure and her forcefield would allow her to get out of the line of sight of anything shooting at her before they managed to actually shoot her down.

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Valerie had much the same idea. There was nothing she as a single soldier could do against three tanks and their supporting infantry. "I'm bugging out, unless you have a better suggestion", she sent over the comm lines, hoping for dear life they were still secure. If no such better suggestion came she would do just that, following her sister's example and retreating further back into the park. Being captured really wasn't on her list of things to do today, especially since she remembered what they'd done to this world's Isabel when they captured her.

(( *pokes thread* Anyone? Anyone alive at all? ))

(( If you guys are waiting for me, I'm waiting for Devious's tanks to land. ))

Hence why you read the last 50 pages, so you can come in and fit in a little better rather than bulldozing over everyone.

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You're wringing me for information I've already given Longbow..."

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Pax chuckled quietly at that. "Yes, but Longbow don't have time travel on their side. Or last I checked they didn't, they don't develop their own version of that until- nevermind, not supposed to be talking about future stuff. And," she turned to Arek. "Did you say Groul is missing too? Guess that explains why you guys got mixed up in this. Don't worry, we'll find him. Anyway, off to last Thursday..." And with a flash of golden light she was gone, presumably to last Thursday as she said.

Moments later, she reappeared in that same light. "Well, that was interesting to say the least. Anyway I know where they took him, or rather I know where they took him last Thursday. Likely he's been moved since then but it's a start at least." Thus, she proceeded to retell them all what she'd seen.

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Pax was true to her world, going back to early morning last Thursday and taking up a position on the rooftop opposite the warehouse before settling down to wait. She hated waiting, there was a reason she'd asked for the exact time. But it wasn't really worth arguing over so she sat down to wait, making sure to shift herself slightly out of sync with both normal space and normal time, such that she could still observe but not be affected or detected by anything. A useful trick when one wished to see past events without inadvertently altering them.

When the group of heroes finally arrived she followed them in, hanging back just enough that she wasn't in their way but not so far she couldn't see what was happening. Though once she did have to flatten herself against the cave wall as they unexpectedly changed direction and went running past her. Muttering something about caves and dead ends, she continued following.

It wasn't until the end that anything interesting and important actually happened. She ducked out of the range of what appeared to be a sort of flashbang grenade just in case - she was fairly sure she wouldn't have been affected anyway but there was no reason to take risks one didn't have to. She watched as the dark-suited men dragged the now missing hero away, and followed them as best she could. Understandably they were taking pains to avoid being followed but she managed to keep up with them.

Standing upside down on the bottom of the Dauntless statue's arm, she watched as they loaded Ripper Shredder into a van and went their seperate ways. But she didn't bother following them, rather she followed the van. The objective after all was to find and hopefully rescue the hero once she returned to when she'd left the others. As the rogues moved off, she flew just above the van as it moved off to the south, eventually ending up at an abandoned warehouse next door to a company called Sedadyne. Satisfied for now, she again disappeared into that odd golden light. After getting out of sight of anyone who might see, of course.

(( Edited at Grey's request. ))

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Cassie and her assault bot just hung back as the demon and the stalker annoyed one another. Though she was a little curious about the substance the Spider and Dr. Lore were discussing, she didn't interrupt. She'd only have been in the way, her area of expertise was mechanics and electronics after all, not chemistry.

Listening with uncharacteristic patience to the Spider's story of the robbery, she got the distinct feeling there were things not being told. But he was a Spider and Spiders not telling everything was nothing new so she didn't pay it much attention. Idly, she wondered if this supposed anti-meta venom would do anything much to her since she was effectively a normal human if one discounted her technology. Still, sounded almost like something the Malta group might come up with to her.

"So, what's our next move?", she asked the room in general.

"True, I suppose just because I haven't come across it yet in my travels doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I can't keep track of the whole planet in every time period, after all...", Pax called back over her shoulder to Eileen, trailing off and smiling slightly as she remembered something particularly amusing. "Not even Dippy or Tempus can do that I think... Well Dippy can maybe but he has help so it doesn't count..."

She turned back to the man standing on the doorstep. "Well? Are you incapable of speaking?", she asked a little impatiently.

Doodaa if I could join it after 900 pages, you can join it after 1100. Just read the last 50 pages or so to get caught up on the characters and storyline before jumping in.

I'd rather start a new storyline in a new thread, so we don't have to keep the old arcs alive and such. Maybe like a new semester or something?

Well there's Paragon University but of late that's been about anything but the university itself. There was some talk a while back of restarting SH101 but nothing came of it, I'd be up for another crack at it if enough people are interested.

(( Ninjin I didn't mean to offend, just was saying you'd mentioned it to me. Badly phrased, probably. ))

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"Its not pure Nem. Probably cobbled." Dynamo Rose said, shrugging. Glad that she wouldn't have to shoot herself--at least for now. Hearing the annoying trill of her communicator she added, "Excuse me."

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"That's a relief", Cassie almost visibly relaxed. She hated dealing with Nemesis, the old man's plots were so convoluted they confused even her. Anyone who wasn't Nemesis was far preferrable.

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"All that's left of him is ash, so we couldn't get anything from him. I'll see if any of the robots got pictures. If we get some, I'll send it over."

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Not like a robot to laugh, but none the less that was exactly what the big Assault Bot did. "Consider them sent", he informed Rose in a voice that held far more emotion than the typical robotic monotone.

Cassie just glared at him. "Thought we agreed you were going to act like a normal robot?"

"Sorry", Mac replied, though he didn't exactly look sorry.

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"Hacked police scanners, near empty base, bright light, temporary paralysis... Nope, doesn't fit the MO of anyone I know of", Pax said. "When exactly did you say this happened?", she asked curiously, fully intending to go back to exactly then and watch it happen rather than relying on a secondhand description of events.

(( If the 'other guy' you're referring to is the one who's waiting for this scene to end before bringing his character in, I know who it is. He was bugging me ingame about it yesterday. ))

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"What if I said that far out in the ocean, a long way away from any other land mass, there's an island that's been hidden for a thousand years..."

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"Then I'd say either it's been hidden for way longer than that, or you're making stuff up", Pax replied. "'Cause I've been further back than a thousand years and never come across any islands in the sea with dragons on them. But whatever, let's assume you are in fact telling the truth. Why would you hide for so long, rather than being a part of the world at-" World at what, she didn't say as her attention was drawn away by a knocking at the door.

"Want me to get that?", she offered, getting up regardless and going over to pull the door open. "Did you want something?", she asked the young man standing on the doorstep.

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((She asked if you wanted coffee. ))

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"Coffee would be nice, thanks", she replied absently

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((Nyeh. And if I remember rightly the last one of these you ran effectively killed that thread. Anyway...))

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"But I guess you want to know what happened to Kei-er-Ripper Shredder... Such a silly name..."

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"Ripper Shredder...", Pax mused quietly to herself. "Why does that sound familiar? Wong didn't tell us his hero name so that can't be it..." She rambled more or less incoherently for a bit, trying to work out where she'd heard that name before. Eventually she just chalked it up to being someone she might have met in a different time and left it at that before turning back to Bronze Shield, belatedly noticing there was coffee on the table and taking a mug for herself.

After taking a sip of her coffee (Which was slightly too hot for her liking, she'd let it cool down a bit before drinking it), she looked around at the other two before speaking up, "Anything you could tell us would be helpful, Ma'am. What he was doing and where he was when he disappeared, any strange happenings in the days before he disappeared, if anyone tried to rescue him. Anything that might give us a clue as to how to find him, anything at all no matter how minor it might seem to you."

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Cassie looked around as a cellphone or something beeped in the room. Glancing over to Mac, the big assault bot nodded almost imperceptibly. He had the call tapped and traced, and would have a recording of it should she want to listen to such later. Mac was good like that, a lot of high-quality hardware went into that robot. The plasma cannons however still didn't stray from Drago until Cassie waved him off. The Spider wasn't going to give in, that was obvious enough. No point threatening him and despite earlier threats she wasn't the type to just obliterate someone for no reason.

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"what've you found here...?"

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"None of your bloody business really, unless you felt like actually being helpful instead of just annoying", Cassie nearly snapped at the man, irritated by his stubborn refusal to show even the slightest concern at his possibly impending demise via plasma cannons.

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((Come on, folks... I'm going to take that and run. There's a player waiting for this scene to end before his grand entrance.))

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(( Well, if I had any clue whatsoever as to where this is supposed to go or how we're supposed to go about getting there... All you said was go talk to her. We did that. ))