Scene Listing || Scene Schedule || Scene Schedule RSS
Owner Pose
War Witch     Portal Corporation's new facility was already more or less completely built here before their main head quarters in Woodvale was overrun and destroyed by the Devouring Earth. The impetus for beginning construction was Unification. They were already aware of the Multiverse (or at least A 'The Multiverse') from their prior efforts at interdimensional exploration. But finding themselves now physically integrated into another one on 'this side' of their portals threw a lot of calculations and theories out the window. It's only been recently that serious efforts at multiversal exploration have resumed. While some calculations had to be adjusted, the math itself remained mostly intact following the discovery. Most of the alterations had to do with changes to astrogation due to the altered constellation arrangements post-unification, and that has little to do with what's on the other side of the portal.

    After all, it's not like there's another Multiverse (big 'M') in an alternate version of Primal Earth, right? ...Right? Well, that's the theory anyway. So now exploration efforts are underway again, and heroes have been called in to be the brave few to step through the portal and explore a brand new world!

    Unai Kemen is their contact. He's a man in a black t-shirt, matte black slacks, and shined back shoes. Short hair, combed back. He is probably not what most people would expect either Portal Corp's Security Chief to look like, nor a dimensional exploration contact.

    When introduced to him by a prior Contact, the heroes here today at Portal Corporation's outside courtyard, beyond its expansive parking lot, surrounded by decently high walls, they'd have been given a bit of information about him. If they dug any deeper than that, they'd have found out even more.

    Unai Kemen was given his name by a set of young Basque twin girls that he was hired to bodyguard. In their language it means 'Strong Shepherd'. Tragically, the girls were killed by a super powered villain and Unai retired. It was years before he was contacted by Portal Corporation to coordinate their security. He refused at first, but relented when the Freedom Phalanx sent Statesman to encourage him. Unai still has no idea why he was asked to assume so much responsibility, but he is determined not to fail again.

    He is friendly and informal when he greets the heroes, but determined to find out what threats to this world could be out there in the multiverse BEFORE they show up. He explains as much.

    "I've got a job for you to do. Portal Corporation just located a new dimension. We're calling it Tau Delta 8-7 for right now, but the first person to explore it gets to choose the unofficial name. If you're up for it, that could be you. What do you say? Want to explore a brand new dimension?" He then shrugs and says, "When I say brand new, of course, I merely mean newly discovered. This world has had millennia to develop and grow on its own. It's possible you'll find just about anything there, so be on your guard."

    Assuming the heroes agree (if they weren't going to, why would they be here?), they're told which portal room to go through, have the navigation beacon marked for them if they have the devices or magical whatsits or whatever for it, and then they are able to go through to... A very impressive room with lots of loud machinery, and a great big ring with swirling energy and light inside of that looks distinctly portal-like.
Ainsley     For once, Ainsley is arriving to attend a mission to explore that does not have huge stakes associated with it. Because she's just here to step through a portal and see what's on the other side, she is immediately agreeable to the idea, having had her curiosity piqued without even needed the honor of naming the dimension for the Portal Corporation.

    Ainsley is equipped with her sword and her arcane book, and a great deal of confidence in her smiling reptile face. She doesn't have much to say besides confirming that she does want to be here and that she is excited to get started, and she only waits long enough to make sure anyone that's also going on this trip isn't lagging behind. She may even be the first one through the portal, being as excited as she is to go through. "As Amelia Earhart once said, 'Adventure is worthwhile in itself'!"

    And then she is through.
Maya Maya was not in her costume today, no that would be unwise with them going through a portal into the unknowen. It would be foolish she was in leather and metal amrour with a big damn rifle over her back as she made to follow up Ainsly nd X as they arrive. She doesn't waittoo long.

"A curious line of thought Ainsley."

Maya doesn't say more as she oto leaps on through the portal. Maya sadly has no idea what happened to Amelia in most worlds. She died on many and if she was lucky? Aliens grabbed her...
X Exploring the Multiverse is X's main business right now! So he's looking forward to the opportunity. Whatever strange place this links to is perhaps one that can't be easily reached via warp gates, making it even MORe intriguing! He's readily agreed to this idea, and shown up... as he usually does. Little pomp or circumstance, he's just standing with the group, smiling merrily as he ponders the journey ahead!

    But then... the portal opens.

    "We'll be sure to make the return." He notes, given the depressing angle of that story...
War Witch     The portal, already thrumming and vibrating the entire room before they even came near it, may LOOK like it's going to fly apart at any time, but considering they apparently keep multiples of these running 24/7 despite the absurd energy costs, and people have been going through and coming back just fine since before Unification, it's a very stable piece of technology. The world they see when they pass through to the other side, though?

    They come out into a city. An Earth-city. Paragon City most likely. But it seems to have been in a fight. While not utterly destroyed, there's visible damage to the structures, broken street lights and windows, and so on. There's an office building of some kind ahead that is most likely no longer in business. But the heroes hear a strangely unemotional voice say, 'I need to see those TPS reports.'

    Perhaps business as usual is still taking place even if the city isn't what it used to be?
Ainsley     Ainsley's reaction to this strange but almost the same world is that of momentary disorientation. She looks around at the broken city and assesses the damage. Her whimsy has drained away with startling speed because it's clear something caused all of this damage. While she is in no rush to find out what is responsible for such devastation, she does have a way to gauge if there are any real survivors, or, well...

    She pulls a piece of paper from her arcane tome and holds it up in the air. The paper burns bright blue, and emits a wave of bluish energy into the air. When nothing happen, Ainsley frowns deeply.

    "This is a dead world. No electromagnetic communications whatsoever, on any band," she tells the others, but she glances over her shoulder and realizes X is with them. "Err... You could've figured that out, huh? Well, you can confirm for us, too." She looks a little embarrassed about getting ahead of herself. "We should expect ghosts and undead, or at least very unhappy or unfriendly survivors. Whatever caused this would not leave behind fun and rainbows."

    And then she starts toward the building where the voice came from, keeping her book under one of her arms in case she needs to use it. Her other hand rests on the hilt of her longsword, a weapon she hasn't actually used very much throughout her career as an adventuring hero sort. It doesn't occur to her that she's practically taking point for this adventure, even though one of the other two might actually be more appropriate. Her adventurer's spirit is making her a little brash!
X Of course X can pick up electromagnetic stuff! But apart from the jarring issue of losing contact with his typical services... it takes him a minute to realize it's ENTIRELY EMPTY HERE, at roughly the same time Ainsley brings it up. "No radio traffic at all! Not even local wifi interference... just background noise from cosmic sources. I think." It's hard to be entirely sure with his gear. he's not THAT sensitive...

    "What do you mean 'dead world?' I just heard something...." Somewhere?

    X tries to pin down the SOURCE of that voice. But as he scans the surroundings and makes note of all the ruin... "Hard to imagine anyone cares about reports when the place is in shambles..."

    Ghosts, huh?

    Although he doesn't have muscles and certainly can't tense up appropriately, X's EXPRESSIon says it all. He's starting to get creeped out....
Maya Maya Says "If there are undead? I'm very ready to deal with such."

Maya's world had a long history of issues with the undead and even with it finally under control it's doubtful the skills will vanish due to the multiverse and there being udnead everywhere. She takes a moment to look about and she pauses for a moment.

"I just did too but just because something's dead X doesn't mean it will stay in it's grave..."
War Witch     The source of the voice appeared to be the office building directly across the street from their arrival point. While there is electromagnetic activity in the sense of metal and machinery in the area, and further, a type of machinery that X detected relatively recently that was sophisticated enough to pass for human, it is just as diffused and indistinct as that prior encounter. The fact it's diffuse and indistinct in the SAME WAY as fake-Shirou is what makes it distinct though.

    None of these signals seem to be tied to communications equipment though. Just general activity in the area. No one approaches to attack them, and any scans for magic or ghosts turns up nothing one wouldn't expect for a world magically identical to Primal Earth. There is background energy not unlike cosmic radiation, but no sign of spells, spirits, and so on. Unless one counts whatever this world's equivalent of Dark Astoria is, way far in the distance, if senses can reach that far. But that is both subdued, and at least fifty to a hundred miles away or more, and likely out of immediate sensing range for something that isn't standing out above background levels much.
Ainsley     Ainsley hasn't much to say about what the others feel about this. She shrugs her shoulders at what X says, and then speaks up in support of Maya.

    "Exactly."

    Unless something stops her or otherwise distracts her, she's intent on entering the office building in search of the source of that voice they heard when they arrived. Something had to have made that noise. If all else fails, she'll use her Sight to pinpoint where it would be based off of the residual echoes and a bit of magic from her written spells to help her figure out the spatial specifics.
Maya Maya hs made ready and she's now prepping some sort of barrier magic for herself and the rest of her companions. Runes would appear under the willing's feet as they would soon fine they had a faint yellow glow which would be a tell tale sign of Maya's warding abilities.

"Keep alert and don't consider the ground you stand on is safe."
X With his scanners picking up a few oddities, X is getting jumpier by the moment. Still though, he has yet to activate any weaponry.

    "There's SOME gear ..." The fact that he's getting such weird readings,that now has him wondering... "What does TPS stand for? I think there might be a patrol in the area. Question is... who's patrolling, and what for?"

    For now, all he can do is head towards the office building. Though... he tries to stay inconspicuous as much as possible. It might not be, really.
War Witch     The office building seems to be open and unlocked. The hallways are dark, though there are indications of power if dim electric lights around the bend in the hallway ahead are any indication. The sound of more bland chatter of office workers or something can be heard, and occasional foot falls, but it doesn't sound like anyone is running computers and copy machines in here.

    If they peek around the corner, they'll find a medium-sized reception area, with a front desk/booth sort of thing, and a bunch of people in worn business suits, dresses, and casual civilian wear standing around, apparently oblivious to the fact that neither they nor anyone else nearby is alive. Except, of course for the explorers.
Maya Maya pasuses as they make their odd discovery of people standing about. Well what might be people. Maya will take scan fate card out and start to take a closer look at the people using a magic spell. There's a brief flare up of blue fire from her body, as she casts. She can't hide she's doing something but it might give them some more information on just what they are dealing with.
Ainsley     Ainsley doesn't make a noise when she comes across the strange businessmen. Their appearances are unusual and she knows that there's something strange here beyond the simple threats of the dead. She decides to lift herself up off the floor with her flight ability and slowly retreat away from them to a distance where Maya and X can handle it if it gets violent. She knows she's fragile, and she knows these two can get into a direct fight better than her.

    "They seem pretty solid for ghosts," she speaks to them, using a quick hand gesture activated spell to keep her voice from travelling to the group of 'office workers,' "And I will be honest, I don't like how this feels. Be careful." Especially directed to Maya, who might be drawing any aggressive attention with her spell.
X Robot apocalypse?! X has nothing against robots, but the make of this particular model is just not quite... right. Something WRONG about them. Something missing, something.... totally off...

    He ends up FREEZING in the face of all of these odd office workers who apparently don't care that the whole citys in ruins.

    In all honesty, he might prefer ghosts...
War Witch     They don't seem to be paying much attention to Maya's spell casting at the moment. The gloom and dust filtering down from the ceiling doesn't seem to bother them as they stand around with empty paper cups, with a toppled and thoroughly empty water cooler lying nearby, after spilling its contents on the floor. It would probably have some small remnant stagnating inside if half of it wasn't utterly flattened as though from some huge weight being put on it.

    "Janice says that Accounting is preparing a pot luck for this Sunday."

    "The fax machine needs an upgrade."

    "Why hasn't the electrician fixed these lights yet?"

    "Where are those TPP reports?"

    This and other emotionless, canned dialogue keeps spilling out of them in a conversational-volume babble that can be heard like a backround muttering at a party throughout the building, but there's no party here. Just... Automatons.

    Maybe they've been standing here so long they don't know how to respond to new things anymore. Or maybe they just aren't programmed to react to strange magic lights in the hallways unless they present some immediate cause for concern.
Ainsley     Ainsley listens in on the figures and... eventually comes to the conclusion that they may just be androids of some variety, or maybe whatever killed this world replaced the people as part of the process. She soon steps around the corner with absolute silence, using her ability to fly to keep herself hovering just above the floor. She has drawn her longsword by now but holds it in a neutral way. She is ready for violence but she isn't expecting this situation to explode into deadly circumstances over a bunch of... office androids?

    "Hello?" she greets them, tentatively. Part of her is expecting them to just be haywire from years of neglect, but another part of her thinks they're insane infiltration robots.
Maya Maya does see if she can tell something very wrong with these things and she thnks back to the false Shirou and wonder if it's the same sort of thing. She's on her guard however as she hangs back and let AInsley do her thing. She doesn't know it yetbut she's basically of the same mind as Ainsley on the whole affair had Maya concerned and it was showing on her face. She keeps expecting the strange beings to flip out on them at any moment.
X "These things... I'm getting similar readings to that human-mimic robot." X remarks warily as he dares to look around the office-building. "But they don't seem as... autonomous..."
War Witch     As near as Maya's magic can tell, these are, indeed, some sort of androids. The men and women in a mix of aged office wear that seems fairly modern, and clothing that might have been casual back in the 50s in terms of style, and a couple others wearing mundane utilty-worker jumpsuits, and so on... All of them together, every last one of them, is some kind of robot. Very sophisticated, but not living beings.

    Ainsley drifts towards them, slowly, silently, unnoticed, weapon drawn. She greets them.

    And like a switch has been flipped, all conversation in the room ceases. She becomes the target of the cold, mechanical eyes of all of the robots, up on the balcony above, behind the reception desk, on the other end of the room by some cracked automatic doors that are probably unpowered... The group that were chattering and talking moments ago orient on Ainsley and stare at her in total silence for what feels like an eternity.

    Analyzing. Calculating.

    And then, still without saying a word, they all rush her. The crowd moves with surprising speed for machines that may have been here for so long. Some of them draw bayonets from their pockets, some up on the balcony pick up large-bore rifles and take aim while others vault the railing, drop to the floor, and are running towards the explorers without missing a beat.

    And all of them attack in silence. Right up until the rifles start firing, shooting three high-caliber rounds with every shot, tearing through anything in their way.
Ainsley     Ainsley stares like a small animal caught in the headlights of a sixteen-wheeler. She stares until they silently move all at once with aggression, which immediately has her darting for cover before her mind can even process what all of them are using as weapons. She takes off at full speed AWAY from the building.

    "We need to leave!!" she barks to the others, because this world feels like the apocalypse happened and only killer robots remain. "There'll be too many to fight by ourselves, we need to get back right now!" she emphasizes as she makes distance from the threat as quickly as she can.
Maya Maya is able to confirm the people before them are androids and that they seem to be pretty old as well. She doesn't make hostile action. That goes out of the window as the machine launch into action attacking Ainsley and Maya is going to unload her with her rifle on them the wepaon roars as she lets lose with a barrage of sire trying to keep from getting caught up in melee range.

"Okay they are androids and they are none too friendly1"

has has to agree with Ainsley

"IT's time to go!"
X YEEEEK! X's blood would run cold if he had blood. He knows that look. That's a mechaniloid figuring out whether to attack or not. Blank as it is... "Gaaah!" It's a good thing he's armed himself! The blue bomber of tomorrow opens fire with a series of shots at the rushing horde but kicks backwards to put some space between him and them! "Agreed! Let's get OUT of here now! Back to the portal!! We've got NOTHING to gain from fighting these!"
War Witch     Fire is exchanged, automatons give chase as the heroes flee, but the Elites manage to make it out of the building and onto the street... Where some big mechanical monster is standing like it was waiting for them. A tri-clawed appendage is already swinging towards the space that Ainsley's head occupies since she was the first to emerge, but if she ducks or dodges quickly, it will pass right through without injury, except to the building face with is gouged with the strength of industrial-strength demolishing equipment.

    The thing is like a mecha or something, with a big green water tank or something sitting inbetween its 'shoulders'. It percolates and bubbles away, whatever the tank is made out of and whatever the fluid is too dark to really see what's inside, but it looks like there's a silhouette or something in there... Humanoid in shape... Is that... A body!?

    Regardless of the success of its attack, what may very well be some sort of prosthetic body for a long-dead corpse starts yelling at them. "Nemesis is our master. We must defend his domain!"

    Its other appendage sweeps across the street, spewing fire from a built-in flamethrower.

    And those automatons aren't giving up the chase at the door, except for the ones damaged too much to keep fighting. Oddly enough, when they took hits from Maya's rifle or X's buster, they took their injuries and collapsed more like the humans they resemble than machines. No sparking wires, no explosions, they just hit the ground like dead people. Someone really wanted to make sure these things passed for people as much as possible.

    Across the street from the office building, if they can just get away from the flamethrower stream long enough, the faint swirling in the air indicates the portal is still there, exactly where it was when they arrived. If they can just get to it, it should activate for them automatically and let them go through!

    ...And potentially bring all of these things with them.
Ainsley     Ainsley is not fast enough to completely avoid the hit and ends up slamming into the pavement and sliding from the hand clipping her on her way through! She lets out a loud animal-like howl of pain and comes away from the experience with a nasty road burn along one of her arms, but managed to get back up into the air without becoming a fireball in the vague shape of a lizard person. She realizes they'll never get to the portal and keep these things from coming through without also getting seriously hurt in the process and ignores the blood dripping off her arm to hold her book up to demonstrate what is actually a brand new ability for her.

    "Urashima Taro! Tamatebako!"

    Like by instinct, she peers into the book with the surface angled up into the sky and blue light bursting up from behind her manifesting a strange entity as if summoned by magic. The figure of a turtle man in modern fishing gear overalls, floating in the air, smoking an old corn cob pipe. He acts quickly, whipping a fishing net off his back with his off hand and up into the air, where it vanishes and...

    Mirror-like barriers appear to impede the flamethrower attack, at least to a limited degree. What it also does is deflect the fire right back toward the flamethrower weapon itself, which may not be designed to deal with such an abrupt backflow of combustion.

    And Ainsley proceeds to plummet out of the air and land on her feet, then collapse to her knees behind cover, exhausted by the impact of the attack already.
Maya Maya Meanwhile is doing ewhat she can to take down the machines that are attacking. The rifle's forward casing opens up and missiles launch from inside seekng out harder targets while Maya keeps shooting and one might see the blue fire from her spell casting leech it's way into the gun. She keeps on shooting but is moving to try and get out with her friends because she knows it's not a good idea to stay here. With Ainsley handling some support? Maya's going to be laying on more firepower at this point.

"Damn it I see why my brother doesn't like the idea of mass produced automated combat machines!"
X "Especially when they don't have a conscience or at least an overseer with one!" X agrees, diving straight through a window and shooting wildly behind him without looking much. So long as there's none of his ALLIES in the way, he doesn't care what kind of collateral's levvied here!

    The MONSTROSITY that awaits in the streets just serves to redouble his agreement with this principle. This guy clearly has no conscience, he's just insane. But X's gaze lingers on that suspended body, the sight bringing a look of horror to him! But he keeps leaping backwards the moment Ainsley puts up her barrier, now taking a few potshots at the big mech while he retreats!

    "The moment we get through, tell them to shut it down! They can't all rush through at once!"
War Witch     Automatons fall before the onslaught, missiles, rifle fire, busters... Fire pours back upon the worn Warhulk that produces it, damaging the flamethrower arm itself and preventing any more fire from pouring out. Then it starts shooting with the weapon above that nozzle, firing a compact shell that explodes with the force of a heavy grenade or rocket shell...

    And causing the building the portal entrance floated in front of to collapse on top of it. The automatons seem to more or less have stopped emerging from the office building, but it looks like some robot strength may be needed to clear the rubble, and that having the time to do so is dependent on finishing off the Warhulk. It's damaged, and now it's fighting three Elites alone.

    Maybe they can do this! It's right arm is even still on fire, indicating that even if it's built like a walking tank, it's not invulnerable!
Ainsley     Ainsley grimaces behind her cover as Urashima Taro evaporates into blue light in the air, the pain on her arm throbbing and the exhaustion of using that reflective shield really digging into her ability to focus. However, she doesn't have much else she can do... besides either slash it with a sword, or do something particularly creative with her magic. She doubts these things have egos complex enough to do any real hindrance with the Persona itself. Her only option left after all of that is to rely on the other two while concrete dust kicks up around her from the explosion and the piece of crumbling building.

    She summons the strange turtle man again, and calls out, "Bright Shine!" An odd name for a spell, perhaps making one expect something entirely different. Urashima Taro's right eye opens up and it appears to be bright blue, projecting a strange light across the way.

    A magical force washes over Maya and X. Despite the terrifying circumstances, the magic tries to lure their positive emotions out of hiding and then use it to bolster their combat abilities directly! Perhaps with the feeling that they can definitely win, and escape intact!
Maya Maya has been in bad sports before, but with experianc and good friends she's made out always. So far at the very least. However she hadn't been thinkiung about that much until Ainsley's magic draws those feelings and memories fo the surface. Maya keeps shooting at the automate attack drones wondeirng just how long these things have been rampaging over a ruined earth. There isn't much they can do other than escape.

With the drones down she focuse on the big remaining strange robot which will end up getting a full on energy beam blast from Maya's rifle right at it hopefully it will help bring the damn thing down so they can escape.
X BARRIER POWER! X regards this sudden glow with a bit of uncertain awe... then clenches a fist with renewed vigor! even though he got a bit scorched from some of the flames, even as he's pelted by shrapnel that tears nasty gouges across his armor... he's yet to take a serious hit that affects his systems. A bit of shrapnel's just cosmetic damage!

    But then DOWN goes their exit plan... X frowns fiercely, turning back towards the Warhulk. THAT was a mistake. NOW he has NO CHOICE but to take it down if he's going to keep his friends alive!

    POWER builds in his systems and he levels his weapon of choice at the thing's legs. In a few moments... a huge plume of crackling plasma's unleashed!

    "Fine, now I've no choice but to take you down!!"
War Witch     With the buff from Ainsley, Maya's beam rifle and X's powered up buster shot both deal heavy damage to the Warhulk disabling it and causing the rusty, burning, and bullet-scarred machine to teeter, fall forward, and then hit the ground noisily.

    It lies there immobile for a few seconds as the green fluid tank atop its torso stops bubbling. Then it EXPLODES, apparently self-destructing! Thankfully, the Elites were all attacking from range, so they shouldn't get injured, but that's still a clear sign that things could have gone poorly for them if they hadn't been able to bottle-neck the emerging automatons at the office building entrance or had been a little bit closer when they fought.

    Ainsley is probably glad she decided not to try using her sword on it.

    Whenever they turn to start clearing rubble from the portal so they can leave, they may see that the building directly behind the portal, that partially collapsed, as been opened up as a result of the damage. There, in the middle of a spacious room, is a large coffin with a large stone obelisk looming over it. The skylight in the ceiling causes the sun to shine down upon it dramatically, probably by design.

    Examining the epitaph on the obelisk will reveal the following message:

    'I no longer have any hope of saving myself from this despicable disease. One thought alone consoles me: My creations will not allow a single thing to survive me. They will rule this world forever, alone, in the name of Nemesis.'

    Some villain, in an act of pure spite, ordered his mechanical forces to wipe out every single living thing on the planet, just so no one would outlive him. Unai Kemen will probably have something to say about this when they report back about Tau Delta 8-7's scouting mission. But for now, it's better to clear the rubble and go home.