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Audrey Basque	IO, JUPITER'S ORBIT, SOL SYSTEM     It's rather irrelevant which Sol System; one of millions, different only by some odd readings that are near Earth (but not currently of interest), and the fact most of the system seems, if not colonized outright, at least sufficiently so that various FTL lanes are present between many moons, planets, and even planetoids. There is no Warpgate on Io, and so Audrey requisitioned a Concord transport for the trip. She's even wearing a standard issue Concord spacesuit, not an especially baggy one but one that was certainly a bit more form-fitting than she'd have liked, under which her school uniform was still her go-to.     She'd spent most of the trip, especially as the ship emerged out a Warpgate somewhere in the vicinity of Mars, by one viewport or another, excitedly looking out. And since almost no one comes to Io, these days, there were no locals to greet people arriving, and descent to its surface is uneventful aside from the sights once the ship switches out of the FTL lane.     Which, first and foremost, means Jupiter. It's hard to miss, and the transport has to do a fly-by the gas giant on its approach to Io. Get your cameras out if you got them!     Io itself is a lush, green and green-yellow moon. Most of its surface is rocky hills and plateaus, covered in a thin layer of moss that likely explains the atmosphere given the entire moon seems to be that way. There's some grass, sometimes, and the rare tree or two. Jupiter looms in its sky, taking up a good quarter of your vision, with only rare clouds to otherwise ruin the view. The sky itself isn't too unlike a night sky on Earth, but tinted just slightly deeper blue and green. Gravity is also Earth-like, oddly, if perhaps a tiny nudge lighter.     Two particular landmarks make exception to this: the first is a big crater, in the center of which is a ruined, perfectly circular city. Judging by the lay of the vegetation, it gives the impression that it's the origin point of the terraforming. The moss and grass grows outward, from the crater's edges, but not inward towards the city.     The second landmark is where you're headed. The tip of a massive pyramid of various metals and stones, composited and arranged unnaturally, juts out of the ground like it erupted from it. Some segments float around it, ominously suspended perfectly still, while others break out of the ground further around to imply a vast construction network underneath the surface. Blinking blue and red lights occasionally light this pyramid, and a section of it is open, right at ground level, like an inviting gateway into its innards.     There is a makeshift camp, constructed hastily on a hill overlooking the pyramid, where various research equipment and journals are strewn about. Whoever tended to it is currently absent, though there aren't any signs of battle.     The transport lands nearby, its door swinging down like a ramp. Audrey steps out first, proving that there is indeed air and it isn't deadly. "This is it. The Nascent Star was last believed to be here. There's only one place on the whole planet giving off an energy reading that could possibly be it, and it's..." She gestures ahead, towards the Pyramidion. "Local reports urge people to avoid needless travel to the area, because--"     Well, you quickly find out why.
Audrey Basque	Blue and white light begins forming into roughly nine foot tall bipedal robots surrounding the ship. Though it looks like simple teleportation, if anyone is inclined towards temporal mechanics, it's more like they've added themselves to the timeline at this exact moment.     These are the Vex!     The Vex GOBLINS that have surrounded the ship have a very distinct look to them; their head features a large red eye and an odd head-top like a paper fan. Black and silvery machinery is protected by thick layers of bronze or brass armor, their hands having long multi-jointed fingers evidently capable of holding and firing guns, considering the large firearms matching their aesthetics they're all holding. On their chest, a glass casing shows what seems to be a shimmering white and silver liquid, glowing unnaturally. Their stance is slightly slouched, and their head is even held down so as to not expose their necks at all.     Also they're firing at the transport! The Goblins are all holding the same type of multi-tool looking rifles, which fire bolts of extremely hot light. There's a fire elemental typing, for the more elementally inclined. It's not TOO dangerous for the transport just yet, unless you let them keep having at it.     Audrey's immediate reflex is to bend a region of the ground up in front of the ramp to prevent the group from being fired at immediately, though the next observation she makes seems to have her extremely puzzled. "That didn't FEEL like they were bending space to appear! But their guns are! It's like... whatever the tech equivalent of tapping into ley-lines to fire magical blasts instead of doing it yourself is!"     That's all nice and good but...     "Petra you said you'd introduce us!!"     It's not like she didn't know the risks, but she sure hoped they'd make it off the transport at all before the problem manifested itself.
Kukuru	There's at least one camera on board today, because Kukuru's all too eager to take pictures of neat things she's seen. She's been to space a few times before, but she'd much rather replace her previous memories with better ones, and what better way to do that than to have visual reminders of where she's going? Like Audrey, she's dressed in a standard-issue Concord spacesuit, but she still manages to pull out her usual array of snacks and drinks from the almost non-existent pockets of the (new) cardigan she's wearing over it. She has to make sure everyone's well fed in time to get their work on Io done! After taking some distant pictures of the big crater from a distance, Kukuru gets her game face on as the transport lands at the pyramid. Following Audrey down the door-ramp with a somewhat concerned noise up until Audrey proves to not die by not dying, Kukuru does a quick visual sweep of the area before looking over at the pyramid. "Then it shooould be easy enough to get in there. If we can pinpoint it, maybe I could even-" Oh. Someone's firing at everyone! That's no good. "They can move like me? Oh, that's gonna be tricky if we go straight at them. Good work keeping us safe, though, Audrey." Kukuru pats Audrey on a shoulder gently as she steps past her, cracking her knuckles unnecessarily before pumping her fists at her sides. "Noooow.. My turn to help keep you safe~" She boasts, then reaches forward through an inky cloud that appears right in front of herself. A second portal appear behind one of the Vex Goblins she had seen earlier, and Kukuru grabs on hard before yanking whatever/whoever she's got a hold of back through her portal to try and claim a hostage! One she's holding close to herself in a hug that easily transitions into a bear hug if the goblin so much as tries to move the wrong way. "Now now. Tell your friends to settle down, okaaaay? Or something bad'll happen to all of you reeeeal soon."
White	White's approach to group events is probably becoming clearer over time to those who see her often; she shows up at least a bit early when she can, makes near-silent greetings to the people she knows, then sits down or stands somewhere and barely moves until she has to, or until someone speaks to her. This means when she gets the location from Audrey, White seats herself on the shuttle-ship a bit out of the way of the viewports (which are doubtless going to attract some people's attention, so she needs her space!) and sits there like a pretty rock for most of the trip. She's doing her own share of sightseeing through the hull herself, but it's not easy to tell that she isn't sleeping until later when she's on her feet again as soon as the ship touches ground. It's not White's first time *in space*, or on another planet of course, but secretly it feels like she's checked something off of her bucket list by riding in a spaceship.      Impressions about the crater-city are shelved for consideration when she gets more context naturally for now, even if it stands out a bit. She's here to assist, not simply ask trivia questions, and the pyramidic structure being more directly related to their goals here makes it more of a focal point. The way it juts from the ground almost looks like a poorly-shaped form of Earth Magic to her, like the aftermath of certain battles she's been a part of if not for the sharp angles and drifting debris around it. The lights, if anything, leave her the most concerned. She remembers mention of some sort of... Cyborgs, or some such, living here? She wonders if they did the light installations...      Regardless of her inside-thoughts though, she steps out of the ship and down the embarkment ramp without concern just behind Audrey, about to work up the courage to ask something when... They're surrounded! Abruptly, and nonmagically, with guns! It's stressful! Audrey bends the ground up in front as a shield, so White naturally tends to the other side, murmuring "Terrain Wall." and raising the rock and soil into a condensed barrier around the other sides of the ship; if it's a relatively small shuttle she can probably finish covering the other sides in a moment or two. She doesn't stop to check what Kukuru is doing before following up, peering through the obstacles created by herself and Audrey, flexing her fingers and projecting tight cords of thread through spatial warps of her own near her fingertips. Space-cyborgs or not, as far as she can tell it's a safe bet that if they don't see the attack coming from the other side of the wall, they should have a hard time dodging the numerous reaching tendrils of steel-wire-like webbing before it can snare at least a cluster of them. Then it's just a matter of yanking to tighten it, clumping anyone she's caught together into a rather uncomfortable and immobile ball of jutting limbs, so that Audrey can afford to focus on something besides the frontward barricade hopefully.      She does seem to be lingering close at Audrey's back, too, having naturally assumed the younger mage is... Well, significantly less able to take a bullet than she is. Not that she wants to be shot either, but she's probably going to be splitting her attention with keeping her would-be metal detector un-holey.
Sarracenia	Sarracenia, unsure if her ships could travel in actual space, has opted to join Audrey in the Concord transport. And also like Audrey, Sarra is spending her time looking through various viewports. Her phone i out and taking plenty of pictures. She hasn't been on a tour of the Sol system before! She hasn't even toured her own system yet!      Flying past Jupiter leaves her somewhat awestruck. It is HUGE! "It is entirely made of gases?!" she exclaims after a quick Google search. "Surely not. It looks like a perfect place for some villain to make their base. I would not be surprised if Dr. Eggman has a base here." Judging by her expression, she is already imagining a heroic adventure to find the hidden base and destroy it.      Sarra is also in a space suit, but certainly not a standard issue one. She has had one specifically tailored to her desires. It is black with a shimmering pattern of small silver beads flowing across the chest like a starfield seen at a distance. The torso is quite form-fitting, though with the padding and other layers needed it is not overly so. The starfield pattern flows down over a skirt that is cut at an angle so that the right hem is higher than the left, and is stiff enough that it does not float about. The legs are form-fitting similarly to the torso, but instead of solid black it has a gradient pattern fading from black to midnight blue to evening purple as it goes down. Heeled midnight purple space boots finish the outfit. It also has a bubble helm that lets her keep her usual headwear the same, though her long silver hair is done up in a cinnamon roll-like bun to keep it secure and out of the way while in the suit. And as usual she has her bottomless satchel purse with her to carry her various power-ups and weapons.      And since at least a few of them on the transport are taking pictures, Sarra asks Audrey and Kukuru (and whoever else wants to) if they would like to take a group selfie in front of one of the windows.      ...then they reach the moon and it is fully colonized and terraformed. Audrey just steps out without a sealed suit. Sarra gets such a deadpan look on her face. "...seriously..." she mutters very quietly to herself before opening the front of the bubble helm. In a more normal voice she says, "...my researchers told me that moons around this planet had no atmosphere."      There is little time for discussion though! They are under attack in short order by robots! Audrey's wall comes up, giving Sarra time to talk a look around at the bottom of the ramp. The ship is surrounded on all sides. Kukuru takes a hostage to try and negotiate a quick ceasefire. "These seem like automated defense robots to me, Miss Kukuru! I doubt if that will work!" Still, she is willing to give it a chance.      Even so, she pulls out her DK Iron-bound Staff, and morphmetal flows from her lotus hairpin to form it into a proper hammer. She gives the robots about 15 seconds to respond to Kukuru. If they do not, she goes in swinging.
Petra Soroka	Yay! It's a trip to Io!     Petra's feelings aren't particularly complex about this, all things considered. Io's Io, Jupiter's Jupiter, and though it might be a little nostalgic to watch the swirling orange atmosphere around the great red spot through the porthole window below, it's not... debilitatingly so. Really, it's almost like she gets *less* sentimental as the spacecraft draws closer to its destination, compared to how she is when looking up at the night sky a million miles away; poetics and philosophy thrive on nonspecificity, and the gears of Petra's mind are greased with both.     So instead, she spends the trip leaning on Angela's shoulder and watching the starscape go by. This is partly because of the necessity of keeping physical contact with her, to limit the strain that it puts on Petra as much as they can during the travel time, but also because this is Angela's first time in space! It's Audrey's too, but Petra isn't about to lean her head on Audrey's shoulder rather than comfortably absorbing whatever Angela's feelings and responses are to the long-awaited experience.     Petra is also not wearing a space suit. She could, but she knows she'd get all sweaty in it, and even though the Concord ones are sleeker than the ones she remembers-- (though, is that really true? What is she remembering? Four years ago, or ten? Is she really certain that Applied Ontology didn't have these exact same space suits, and the malaise at the time in her memories is making her confabulate the ones from her childhood superimposed over them?)-- they'd still be annoyingly more clunky than her typical outfit. She figures if she gets launched out into the vacuum of space, she'll just shoot herself in the head with the transteam gun and be fine. It's not a big deal, to be in a t-shirt in space.     Once she's on the surface, she might as well be on an alien planet. Even the view of the sky is only vaguely similar to the Io Petra knows, without sulfur-tinged clouds perpetually shrouding Jupiter and the stars, and the composition of the surface isn't the same at all. She intertwines an arm with Angela's, braces her knees like she's going to leap off the ramp, and then decides that would be a very bad idea when it might result in her getting squished like a grape under Angela's hull. "The Nascent Star was last believed to be here. There's only one place on the whole planet giving off an energy reading that could possibly be it, and it's..."     "The giant fucked up pyramid, yeah. That's where *I* would put the cool magic relic, if I had one. It'd be a shame to put it anywhere else. Then no one would go in my giant fucked up pyramid."     Petra is, from a start, thinking about this from the perspective of the person with a giant robot army, rather than the one about to oppose one. As that thought occurs to her, she turns to look over at Angela. "Hey, Ange-- Audrey did mention that there would be a killer robot army we're fighting to you, right? Is your EGO... or, are *you*...? Ready for that?"
Petra Soroka	Well, for Petra at least, she *is* ready! As ready as she can be, rather, which turns out to be less than she expected the moment that the light-blobs form into robots surrounding the ship, and her first motion of taking a step forwards to draw out her mirror brings her just far enough away from Angela. Under the first barrage of lasers, Petra's counteroffense is cut off by her vision pulsing black and her heartbeat stuttering in her ears, briefly losing consciousness and wobbling with feathers dripping blood off of her arm. When her body flickers and shifts out of the way of an incoming laser bolt without her conscious response, she leaves a momentary silhouette behind like Light burned into your corneas in her shape. "Petra you said you'd introduce us!!"     "I was--!" Petra coughs out a clump of feathers and hastily gets back to Angela's side, whipping out a bubble of morphmetal to shield both of them for the moment. "I was joking about that, you know! I don't actually recognize these guys' designs. I could maybe guess some info about their build and origin, if they've got any weak points, if I saw their *manufacturing*, but, like, no one I know is responsible for this."
Petra Soroka	"It looks like a perfect place for some villain to make their base. I would not be surprised if Dr. Eggman has a base here."     "Not as far as I know," Petra drawls, lounging around mid-air in the spaceship. "But maybe I *should*, actually. There *is* a bit of a solid core, though-- semisolid, at least-- but it's, like, hotter than the surface of the sun down there. I don't even... I bet Bowser's done something like that before in one of his space castles or whatever."
Angela	Angela saw an opportunity to go out into the greater multiverse once more. That is to say, specifically, she saw an opportunity to help Audrey with her project and that was a perfect excuse to leave the Library and see-- Angela has spent most of the journey out staring at the stars through one of the Concord Transport's windows. There's a strange sparkle in her eyes, an energy that is so rarely behind her eyes--something Petra hasn't seen much of in Angela's face since she was, essentially, a child. Something that was gradually worn away in her as the life at Lobotomy Corp peeled away the wonder inside her. She feels more comfortable in space, generally speaking, and is smiling more often and isn't obscuring her feelings nearly as much behind professional courtesy as before. Petra's presence is a delight, of course, leaning back up against Petra, craning her head to see the stars flit by the way one might watch trees on a non-interstellar highway. She isn't sure why traveling amongst the stars appeals to her so much. It's different than her pull twoards beaches and oceans and just 'the outside' in general. And so she doesn't vocalize it. But this isn't virtual. She IS really here. She's REALLY here. With Petra. It's a dream come true. Another item crossed off her bucketlist. She isn't wearing a spacesuit either but it's not like she needs to bleed. "Is it still exciting for you?" Angela asks. "Even after you've traveled as much as you have? ... One of my big worries is that it'll all somehow become banal to me. Once I'm free it won't be special--that even outside the cage will just be inevitably a bigger cage." It's a frequent fear of hers. "...But right now it is wonderful. I've never been this far away from the Library before. Or from anything." Not really.5r ''Audrey did mention that there would be a killer robot army we're fighting to you, right?'' "I must have missed it." Angela says. "My EGO should be suitable for fighting. Better to test it here than not." Angela doesn't really approve of killer robot armies. She blames killer robot armies for causing her as much trouble as she has to deal with than the humans. She's never been shown any evidence of the killer robot armies--outside of the knowledge there are killer robots in the Outskirts--but it makes sense to her. There were killer robot armies so people didn't like robots. Makes sense. Maybe too much sense. Reality doesn't usually seem to follow rules of coherency. Angela doesn't dodge laserbolts. Instead she gets clobbered right in the side and just remains standing there, visibly unharmed except for some light scorches across her arm and a partially burnt uniform from where the bolt impacted against her arm. MEANWHILE IN THE LIBRARY Hod yelps as a book in the Library catches fire. She baps it rapidly with her hand to put out the flames in a panic, letting out a relieved sigh when the worst is prevented--though the cover of the book is still significantly scorched. She rushes off to Malkuth to try and find a way to replace the cover or at least repair the damage. BACK HERE 5r"Hello." Angela says. "Fellow Killer Robots. I extend greeting to you through the--" This time she ducks under another magical bolt only for Petra to summon a shield out to protect the both of them. Angela places a hand on Petra's arm before holding up her book in her other hand. The pages flip automatically through her will before the veins of the Burrowing Heaven lash out of the book, trying to punch through the robot's body. There's eyeballs too but that's not really relevant to her attempts to do harm through her book.
Angela	"Heyalexa is a good girl. She is friendly and never tries to shoot or insult me." Angela decides. "I'm very proud of her finding a path of success that does not purely rely on violence."
Audrey Basque	Audrey nods to Kukuru. "Of course! This kind of support is a bit more suited to me, I think!" To her credit, she reacted pretty quickly. She's improving!     KUKURU grabs ahold of one of the Goblins through a portal! It... doesn't talk, or communicate. Actually, it seems to recognize the action immediately, because its head just pops right off its body. This causes the Goblin to start sparking wildly, and then EXPLODE. The explosion is electric, but it has a secondary component: that odd fluid in the robot's chest bursts, risking to splash not just Kukuru but anyone around her just a bit!     If anyone is hit: the Radiolarian Fluid STINGS. It actively tries to convert your flesh, or clothes, into the same material the Vex are made out of, though a single Goblin exploding isn't enough to do it. It just hurts! But it's an immediate red flag.     WHITE provides cover for the shuttle! And manages to string a bunch of the Goblins up. They don't seem particularly inclined to flail or make erratic movements; even as a bundle, a few of them continue taking shots, while a few... glitch out? The same kind of white light that made them appear. They disappear from the bundle, to reappear in their original positions. Bundled up? Never were! Just a quick fix. The raised terrain is keeping them from closing in at least, but it seems clear they're coordinating somehow.     SARRACENIA goes in swinging, considering the Vex aren't inclined to reply. Smashing them with her hammer is a coinflip on the result: if she knocks their heads off, they explode, much like the one Kukuru grabbed, and with the same stinging splash of silvery-white liquid and electricity. If she merely smashes their bodies... that's it! It works. Sometimes the simplest approach just works, and this neatly takes care of a few, though it draws increased fire on the princess!     PETRA is mostly getting shot at but then no longer getting shot at between all the cover and her momentarily blinking out of the way. So she's no longer getting shot at! Audrey turns back to reply, though, "I thought I did! ... I did, right?" It's hardly the time to do a mental checklist. She... might have forgotten. Angela all but confirms it.     "Sorry!"     ANGELA doesn't get any more of a response from the Vex; though when she whips a book out and trashes one of them, the others converge on the odd threat... and likely suffer the same fate.     But let's be real: these are fodder. They're not lasting. Once the bulk of them have gone down, the ones still tied in White's bundle detonate like the one Kukuru had grabbed, splashing electrical arcs and nasty stingy conversion goop all around.     This, handily, takes care of the Vex that had surrounded the transport. Audrey opens a gap in the terrain she'd bent, and then, if everyone else follows, closes it behind-- along with White, she imagines they can easily just hide the shuttle outright while they're out.     "Well... alright. That could have gone much worse," Audrey says, scratching the back of her head. "Onward, I suppose."
Audrey Basque	While the Pyramidion is quite large, it does only have one visible entrance (unless you insist on making another), which is easy to find and head down into.     The inside is mostly carved stone, with metal formed into it. Carved might be a misnomer though; everything sure looks cleanly cut, sharp angles and tidy, but there's no signs of the stone having been worked or the metal having been added. The planet's crust is being converted, rather, into a series of rooms and tunnels, but most of it is... empty, aside from the occasional light.     Until you get to a massive chamber.     ... you're still indoors, right?     The room is pyramid shaped, but immensely large. It makes no sense, though Audrey recognizes the kind of nonsense that's happening. "Oh. They can do that too." Bigger on the inside!     It's so large, that through pieces of the ceiling that are missing, or not constructed yet, you can see distant similar constructions against a black nothing. It almost looks like the night sky, as lights litter the exterior of those places.     And then the floor goes missing.     Except under Audrey. Whatever just pulled the rug out from under your feet couldn't do it to her, so there's an awkward circle of floor just left floating as Audrey watches the party fall. "H-Huh?! H-Hey! Hang on!!" She leaps down to keep up, falling slowly and safely.     YOUR FALL is not safe though! There are platforms randomly floating in the air you could use, and there's a clear bottom with another archway leading further down, but it's a several miles long drop. If it were just platforming, it'd be one thing, but...!     Large Vex turrets, CYCLOPS, whirr to life on some of the platforms and fire massive bolts of void energy and awful radioactive exotic matter at everyone! While smaller flying units, HARPIES, either try to tackle you and detonate into fiery explosions, or shoot bright white lasers in bursts. Those zap! They're electrically charged.     "The bottom! I think I see the way!" Audrey insists, while barely managing to shield herself from a handful of lasers hard-focusing her due to lagging behind.
Kukuru	EARLIER Selfies! Kukuru is absolutely going to join Sarracenia in taking selfies, but she makes sure to take some pictures with nobody in the shot, too. She's actually pretty particular about making sure she has at least one good shot that would make for a really nice landscape print, perhaps even gifts and souvenirs. She also makes sure to take some pictures for anyone who wants them for their own souvenirs. NOW "These seem like automated defense robots to me, Miss Kukuru!" "I was joking about that, you know!" "They are? You were?" Kukuru's gaze shifts from Sarracenia to Petra as she takes in this new information, then puts it together with the context of what she's feeling and seeing. The Vex do look rather robotic, but it's not like she hasn't spoken to AI before. Angela's right there, and she's got nothing but love for Angela! These ones, though, don't get that benefit off the bat. She does give the one in her hands a chance to answer, but that proves to be a pretty bad idea when it explodes right on her. It's defintely painful as the splashing electric liquid burns and converts her skin, forcing her to hang back for a bit while her nanites work to reverse some of the damage to her flesh, if not necessarily her spacesuit or jacket. "Again...? Messy, messy... Stay close if you're hurt, anyone!" Letting out a quieter distressed noise after that, Kukuru spreads out her healing abilities to anyone else that got caught in the splash zone, occasionally stepping through a cloud to toss a Goblin into the distance before getting right back to healing. "It's kind of a shame we couldn't talk with them, but... Well. Nooow we know what to do if we see more." She murmurs, sounding just a bit disappointed despite the look of relief washing over her. "Simpler this waaay... Oh. Should I be worried about this?" Kukuru taps at a lingering metallic patch on her arm, trying to deconvert it with some more focused nanite application and watching it closely. Following Audrey into the Pyramidion, Kukuru actually stays on alert even as she snaps more pictures of her surroundings, being careful not to accidentally take unwanted pictures of anyone on this excursion to get the Star. As she slips the camera back into her cardigan's pocket, though, she starts falling forward, and it takes a full two seconds for her to realize she's even in danger and that there's platforms in the air. It takes another second for Kukuru to open up a portal in her falling path, popping herself back up above one of those floating platforms to tubmle into it and break her fall. She's still pretty slow about getting up, though, focusing on getting more of those teleportation clouds open to save anyone that needs it with little regard for how she's also giving the turrets time to get free shots in on her. "Ow ow! Lousy... Cut that out!" Leaping off her platform towards one of the turrets, Kukuru snags a Harpy out of the air by whole-body tackling it in return, using another cloud-teleportation to adjust her flight path so she can start smashing it into a turret. Eventually, though, she tries to just wrench the Cyclops itself out of the platform so she can start using THAT as a bludgeon against more of those turrets and Harpies instead.
White	White notices Angela take a hit, and her shoulder turns a bit in that direction. But Petra is there, and Angela is fine, and Petra has recovered from her mishap in stepping away from Angela quickly enough to go on the defense. With one hand's fingers curled tightly toward her palm, maintaining tension in her webs, she raises her other hand to chest height and calls her scythe from a ripple in the air, feeling it spring into her palm as if thrown out of her spatial pocket. In that moment she feels the webs go slightly slack as some of her captives escape, and a slightly grumpy frown crosses her face as she tightens the snare further for those that remain. If she's splashed with transmutive liquid by the one that blew up near Kukuru she still doesn't make a sound in pain, just matter of factly (if a bit sharply) twisting to decay the substance off of her skin with a black haze in her palm and let the wounds repair themselves properly.      But, for now, there's really not much more for her to do. She sees the battle going perfectly fine without her moving from where she is, so she stays out of the others' way and maybe teleports one or two of the goblins into Sarracenia's path when the hammer-swinger runs out of targets. The aftermath sees her soundlessly motioning a sigh, propping her unused scythe up against her shoulder, and following along at Audrey's back. The soft glow of her eyes briefly sweeps over the others to confirm their status, then aims onward at their destination.      Surprisingly, White hasn't been in a spatially dilated location before. She's been in artificial spaces, overlapping spaces, bent spaces... The pinkish gleam from her eyes reduces as she squints in annoyance at the next sudden change of situation after moving deeper into the structure. She doesn't particularly seem to startle or flinch as the floor comes away under her, and spends a moment in thought considering who actually needs help in a freefall like this. Audrey has the Gravity Mage subclass, of course, so as long as she's not tied down she should be able to handle it... But if she doesn't get the chance, it seems like Kukuru and Angela *should* be okay one way or another, and Sarracenia has some kind of flying suit if she remembers right. Petra, she's less sure about, but she can't just rip her away from Angela...      White prioritizes, reaching out without looking and aiming to teleport Audrey to herself, and grabbing the back of her space-suit tightly to hold Audrey away from the gunfire. Then, another muttered spell name of "Black Blade." heralds the rather predictable result of a massive, sword-shaped sheer plane of dark magic in front of herself as a shield; it seems like a better barrier against lasers than the floating rocks would be, and she doesn't want to slow their fall and take Audrey further away from the others after she dove down to follow of her own volition! If Vex get close enough to try and ram her, they're going to be pulverized by either the Black Blade or her scythe, but she's foregoing ranged attacks for the moment to focus on Audrey's defense; Between her omni-directional vision and her reaction speeds, she should be able to handle at least a handful of the robots firing in her direction for a little while just by tracking where their weaponbarrels are pointed before they can fire.
Sarracenia	BEFORE LANDING      Sarra notices Angela and Petra are not taking pictures, even though Angela is very clearly enchanted by the experience. It is an unusual but nice change from the cold, hostile robot that Sarra is used to and it inspire Sarra to do something unusual. She hesitates at first, but eventually says to Angela, "I know you have that whole time-slowed memory, but...perhaps we should take some pictures of you looking out into space? Pictures help to relive the experience, and if what you said about why you like books is true then perhaps some souvenir photos would be good! I will not even insist on being in them." Sarra says, holding up her phone as if to indicate she would however be happy to take the pictures.      NOW      Not as far as I know, but maybe I *should*, actually. There *is* a bit of a solid core, though-- semisolid, at least-- but it's, like, hotter than the surface of the sun down there. I don't even... I bet Bowser's done something like that before in one of his space castles or whatever.'      Sarra rolls her eyes at the mention of Bowser and nods. "I am not sure if he has one in space, but he is quite a fan of putting dungeons in hot, lava-filled places full of groups of fire-based minions." Lava is as hot as the sun, right? Well, it is in Sarra's mind.      Sarra rarely aims for the head with her hammer strikes. It is harder to hit and more likely to kill something, and when you have a hammer the size of the one she is using headshots are overkill and these are just mooks. Once the shuttle is clear Sarra shoulders her hammer and follows after Audrey toward the Pyramid...ion.      It being much larger on the inside causes Sarra's eyes to widen. "Something akin to your skill?" Sarra asks Audrey.      Then...the floor is gone! Sarra blinkblinks almost comically a few times before actually starting to fall. She lets out a surprised yelp, but it is mostly from the floor disappearing and not the actual falling. The falling she can handle just fine. She jumps from perfectly good airships all the time!      She positions herself in a skydiving pose almost instinctively, arms and legs slightly outstretched to control her speed and her position. She is doing quite well until one of those turrets powers up and fires at her! The princess yelps again, getting smashed into the wall from the blast and bouncing off. "Rude! Can a princess not just enjoy free falling without being blasted?!"      She reaches into her purse, and a moment later bob-ombs start raining down on the turrets. With careful aim, Sarra intends to knock out every single one if she can. And those drones that fly in at her are met with that hammer, sending them careening into the wall or into one of those turrets.      And it is probably hard to miss the slightly maniacal grin on the princess's face. She gets to cause wanton destruction and beautiful explosions and it is all part of the mission for once! She doesn't have to be careful about blowing up civilians or their stuff! "HAHAHAHAHA!"
Petra Soroka	"Is it still exciting for you?"     Petra gives Angela's question a long, long thought, which is especially notable when she typically tries to curtail that instinct for the sake of Angela's perception. Eventually, while rotated 45 degrees up off the ground while floating with her head anchored on Angela's shoulder, she carefully formulates a response while keeping her eyes locked on Io as it slowly comes closer outside the window.     "I think... doing the same thing over and over again... it'll always become boring eventually. Traveling the universe, there's... infinite places to see, but only so many responses you can have to it, I think. Stagnation isn't something you can avoid just by making the rut you wear into the ground wider." She takes a soft breath and closes her eyes. "... But that's only if you're alone. I've been in space a million times, and this time's special because I'm with you. The potential of a person is expontentially higher when you include other people. So I'm happy you're having a good time, sis." "I thought I did! ... I did, right?"     "You did to me, at least!" Petra calls back to Audrey reassuringly, while taking a minute to recover from her psychic strain with the morphmetal bubble protecting her from the Goblins. She's dazed and dizzy, practically supporting herself upright on Angela's shoulder while appreciatively watching the combat applications of her EGO for the first time, as Burrowing Heaven rakes through the robots.     "Is that a page you got from the Burrowing Heaven? Or is it just being channeled through your EGO since it's contained in a book? Also, yeah, every one of my evil robots is a sweetheart compared to the kind of stuff you find in the Outskirts or Outside. I guess not the robotomized Quicknest ones, but technically I didn't make those. Heyalexa's not even the same type of thing as these drones, though."     As derisive as she is about the robots, it takes until everyone else has dispatched them before she's really able to move again. She takes a single staggering step, then grabs Angela's hand and squeezes. "Cool, I'm good. Let's go into the big fucked up pyramid."     On the interior of the Pyramidion: Petra pokes the tip of her boot at the construction, pondering it. "I do wonder who's responsible for all this, though. The locals didn't know anything? I've kind of always had a bit of liking for that kind of, self-replicating, conversion-type construct-- well, by 'always', I mostly mean since getting along better with Dimo. So I wonder... they don't seem to be actively directed by anything, either." "Oh. They can do that too."     "Considering what you said about the Pole Star, it makes sense, right?" Petra pays attention during lectures!
Petra Soroka	And then it's time for a platforming challenge, which is normally Petra's very favorite thing! However, her way of dealing with a multiple mile long drop through the outer tectonics of a moon is to slide down walls and rapidly jump between platforms while controlling the rate of her fall with air dashes and morphic mobility tools-- Angela, on the other hand, typically just tends to drop like a rock.     A half-whip-grappling-hook combination strand of Silver pools in Petra's hand the instant the floor drops out, angling her momentum towards the nearest wall, when Angela's hand slips out of her grip. Petra's eyes widen and a strangled yelp escapes from her throat, rather than an adrenaline-fueled whoop, as the psychic connection between herself and Angela strains taut in a split second, threatening to snap like a red string of fate. A series of panicked frame-skips accelerate her own fall to keep up, and then her morphmetal snaps out to yank her back to Angela, arms wrapped around her in freefall.     Pale and shaky, Petra says, while the air streaks past them, "You know, this method's actually pretty risky when out on the job, ahaha... I hope we make some progress with the Light soon."     Petra's psionics don't do anything to bestow the power of a platformer to Angela, and so she's forced to do without them for the moment. She clicks the Silver FullBottle into place in the transteam gun while Angela takes care of the robots harassing them in freefall, and clicks the trigger right before splattering against an island below, synthesized callout ripped away by the speed of the fall.     STING SILVER craters the rock below the impact of her boots, legs spread wide and sparks mixing with dust and smoke. Petra holds Angela's dense metal body draped over both of her arms in a princess carry, and gently sets her down after taking the collision entirely into her own armor. Slightly distorted by the mask, her heavy breathing still comes through.     "... A little scary, yeah. But we got it."     After that, Petra plugs an extension onto the transteam gun with a callout of RIFLE MODE, aiming blasts of concussive laser-like energy right back at the robots. Now that she's properly equipped, it's much less of a big deal to just tank falls with Angela, or carry her between long leaps with boosts from Sting Silver's jets. But she's a little grumpy about it! This is supposed to be her *element*, but she's struggling!
Angela	BEFORE VIOLENCE Angela has to admit Sarracenia has a good idea with that. "Photos... I hadn't thought to preserve memories but that might have been a good idea." She doesn't normally need help reliving experiences but one of the things she wishes to earn is the ability to forget. When that happens, she'd probably wish she had photographs, wouldn't she? ... She doesn't exactly like that Sarracenia seems to be reading HER. But she can't exactly be so spiteful when she's suddenly worried she'll forget this day along with the memories she actually wants to forget if she doesn't have a token. And Sarracenia is the one with a tool and an offer. "Understood. Very well." And she looks back out the window, stalling as Petra gives her own answer. Angela has to smile at that doesn't she? She might be a cold unfeeling robot but she isn't that cold and not that unfeeling and, increasingly, not that robot. She smiles. "...You're right. Even that prison felt less stifling once you joined me in it." Hell isn't other people, Hell is no other people, apparently. This seems to boost Angela's mood significantly. Whatever she does, she has to ensure that she can still go out there with other people and rely on them to make even the repetition different and new and exciting. "I am having a good time, Eonni. MID/AFTER VIOLENCE Angela does seem to be keeping an eye on WHITE. She is glancing back at her periodically--just checking in, it seems, to make sure she isn't getting swarmed or taking on more than she can handle. She knows, of course, that White is actually quite capable but Angela has had it ingrained in her that even the most capable people can be pushed past their limits if their competency is relied upon too much. No, Angela needs to keep tabs on her close friends. Even Kukuru gets a glance now and then but Angela is less worried about her because she's not even sure she can be killed or harmed in any permanent capacity. Angela doesn't have radial vision or anything like that, every glance to someone else means less attention is paid towards her own wellbeing. She is, at least, able to judge quickly at a glance to see how everyone is doing. Angela doesn't have an emotional reaction to destroying Vex. She isn't sure if it's actually KILLING or not, but even if she was--she reasons that she has killed again and again before--sure, she was forced to this time and now she's doing so just to lend Audrey a hand, but they also read more like Ordeals to her than people so she doesn't hesitate too long. It's the humanity, the personalness of suffering that would get to her--not the abstract of it. She nods to Audrey. It COULD have been worse. And it can be worse still. Angela doubts that was the worst of it. The floor gives out from under her as she's frowning up at the ceiling--or rather, the black nothings that are where ceilings should be. Angela plummets like a rock. "Audrey do not jump down after--" ''She leaps down to keep up.'' Angela frowns. She has no mid-air mobility so she's going to collide comically against platforms all the way down unless Petra does something.
Audrey Basque	KUKURU would be able to tell ignoring the area hit by the Radiolaria would be a bad idea; the conversion would spread, although... incredibly slowly, if nothing accelerates it somehow. We're talking it could take months or maybe even years if, say, your hand got converted, for it to reach your head without any further exposure. Still! Best NOT to play around with that, since Kukuru has the means to heal it.     She also confirms the discovery Sarracenia had made: blunt force trauma is an excellent weapon against the Vex. Hurling a Harpy into a Cyclops isn't enough to shut the turret down wholesale, but picking it up and smashing it into another one results in a detonation of void energy that takes them both out! ... also it might irradiate Kukuru a bit. Void energy seems to like making your cells volatile. Like getting hit could make you explode.     WHITE secures Audrey, which is great because for a second there she looked stunlocked by the lasers she was focusing on keeping from reaching her. It's notable that there's some kind of resistance against the teleportation - one White is powerful enough to overcome, but there's just something about Audrey that interferes with that kind of thing. She had to actually try!     "Waaah!"     Audrey's doing her best, she's not used to being yanked by OTHERS like that, both through space and physically. She at least knows better than to make herself difficult to rescue, and so, avoids flailing, focusing instead of blocking incoming shots with a layer of distorted space.     Blade and scythe are fine tools, much like a hammer! The Harpies DON'T explode when sliced and cut, so it seems to be a self-destruct they have to engage on impact. This makes it easy for White to establish a sphere of safety, especially if she's also deflecting shots.     SARRACENIA rains explosives down and takes advantage of how little collateral damage would matter here. Cyclops seem to take especially more damage when struck directly in their eye - who would have guessed - which is also the cannon. The indiscriminate bomb rain does a good job covering the fall, and stray bombs even blow up a few Harpies and not just the Cyclops. Don't celebrate too quickly though, there's MORE! Or rather, they were always there. That's how the Vex send reinforcements. Blue-white light, a few minutes ago, and suddenly there's another wave!     PETRA focuses on ANGELA's safety; if she makes straight for the bottom, there's a lot less blasts to dodge, especially in the midst of Sarracenia's explosions and Kukuru smashing turrets together like action figures. Thankfully Petra is quick, and Angela sturdy, so no harm down.     From further up above, Audrey yells to Angela: "SOORRRYYYYYY!" In response to having just dived after them. Honestly falling isn't a threat to her, and it seemed safer than staying up alone.
Audrey Basque	Finally, a breather. Hitting the bottom of the chasm and regrouping, possibly having clearing out the few Cyclops and Harpies that reinforced the previous wave, mostly leaves the group in relative silence. There's a hum, electronic, but it's not directed in any particular direction. Like that odd static you can just feel on the surface of your skin when you're in the same room as a working but muted television.     A large gateway leads further down; so much further down that the team has a good ten minutes to chat to themselves, going through tight, poorly lit rectangular tunnels. It's not even particularly maze-like! Though, you could swear that path behind you was different.     Or perhaps it was this way all along.     The area is temporally reconfiguring itself. If you can't feel it-- don't worry about it. If you can, well, maybe worry about it! It's an odd feeling, but not aggressive in nature. Like your memories are off, and then they're fine.     Audrey uses the time to answer a few questions, after thanking White several times for the catch. "Well, I don't know anything about this place. What few reports we could find were full of redacted bits. Apparently there's a researcher on this planet who specializes in studying these things, but I couldn't get ahold of him."     MUCH EARLIER     Asher Mir, a blue-skinned man with white hair and a Vex arm for his right arm, listens to the message beamed to him from a Concord line, asking for his assistance. He cuts it off halfway.     "Ugh, tourists. I'm too busy for this."     He takes his stuff and leaves his camp.     BACK TO NOW     "So, kind of doing this blind. Sorry," Audrey sighs.     "But it's going great so far! No one's died!"     After a while, the tunnel finally ends and gives way into another massive chamber. No, not a chamber. A starry void, with the vague hints of a massive metallic cage far off in the distance keeping it contained. There's a platform, the size of a football field or so, triangular in shape, which you walk onto a point of from the tunnels.     In the center of it, a glowing lake of Radiolaria. The silver-white fluid lights up the area with its eery glow... and this seems to be a dead end.     Even Audrey's puzzled.     "So... robot swimming pool. But the Star... feels like it's here?" Indeed, if anyone has magical senses, it IS here! ... in the lake. Or perhaps under it.     "Figures. Ideas?"
Angela	Angela, thankfully, is caught by Petra! Angela is heavier--especially when at a deadweight--than a normal human but not beyond what Petra can handle. She even gets the princess carry treatment on the way down until Petra finally sets her down. ''A little scary but we got it.'' "...Yes, that could have been ... actually quite suddenly fatal for both of us." She studies Petra for am oment. Breathing heavy, but she's not hacking and wheezing. Angela can get them back to the Library lickity split if she has to but that's a last resort option. "I appreciate the assist, though I am making it more difficult." More platforming occurs after but Angela feels distant despair at not having a sticker sheet like Malkuth. That way she could give a sticker. Maybe one of those that when you scratch emits a pleasant scent of some kind. Angela may be overly cautious actually. It DOES make sense that the group would be safer than staying up there alone--but Angela's experience with death traps is considerably less fair than this one. And it DOES seem to be a death trap--even if it ultimately failed to produce the death. Angela thinks it needs more spikes. Maybe it's because of her time with Dr. Robotnik but it feels like it definitely could've used more spikes. Gravity does half the work in that case anyway so it's very efficient. "It is not a wonderful sign that you couldn't get ahold of the researcher. I hope nothing unfortunate happened to him." The cutaway gag happens after Angela says that. "Indeed, nobody died." Angela says. Angela doesn't really have magical senses. And she doesn't think to investigate the glowing lake in any sort of investigatory capacity, tohough she does look at it with the power of normal vision. She watches the lake light up and glow. Robot swimming pool? Angela approaches the lake. "..." She pokes the lake. Not because of the magical sensors but because Audrey called it a robot swimming pool. She wonders if it feels different from normal water. "Not particularly." Angela admits.
White	White furrows her brows slightly at the resistance to her teleportation, but chalks it up to an inconsequential mistake of her reflexive choice of method. That, and maybe feels slightly relieved by the fact it worked anyway. But, more importantly, after one-handedly dual-wielding dark-emitting blades in Audrey's defense and clearing the space around herself, White pivots around in the air at just the right time to handle the impending landing, and not by coincidence. A strand of webbing links her to the wall and pulls her toward it when it doesn't seem like Audrey is going to take care of breaking the fall, and she makes a bit of an inadvertent show of running down the wall itself with Audrey under her arm like a suitcase, and deliberately eating up the soles of her tough boots against the metallic stonework to bleed off speed. Then, one more teleportive leap takes both of them to the bottom just ahead of Petra and Angela, only taking a *moderately uncomfortable* landing rather than a dangerously hard one. Audrey is placed on her feet and her suit is released!      Only then does White abandon the Black Blade, releasing the lesser-used spell in favor of a dozen smaller glyphs to help knock down any pursuing robot drones with Black Bullets, a sort of impact explosive-corrosive spell; this is seemingly much more her element, and she even has time to create a non-stick webbing safety net for the others, casting it out overhead with Earth Magic-manipulated columns to hold it high off the ground so that it has room to stretch. The main downside is that if multiple people land in it, they'll end up rolling to the center together in a bit of a heap.      Afterward, Audrey's thanks are met with a polite raise of her hand as if she's saying 'no thank you' to a gift, but she doesn't look displeased. In fact, she's happy to be thanked rather than taken for granted, but every 'thank you' is an implicit pressure to respond in some way and it's a little overwhelming. She once again takes a moment to check that everyone is still in good shape, out of habit, though she winces each time she does so to Petra. It's hard to just get used to a prickling sensation in the eyes from the Evil Eye trying to see Petra's noncorporeal information, even if she's felt it a few times! While Audrey is further apologizing for the lack of instruction, White outright steps away from her to offer Angela a silk cloth; smashing through floating rocks is dirtying business. "I could tie your wrists together." White offers as well, but it might just be a joke... She looks a little too expectant of a reaction, but maybe it's just that she doesn't usually have her eyes open to stare like this.      Moving on again, White is trying to be more vigilant with her supersight. Observing parts of the floor (and beneath it) for signs of more traps or even for the Star itself, looking at the strange glowing fluid for information about its purpose, and extending her visual acuity forward to more closely examine the cage-like structure and its contents before the group is close enough for something annoying to happen. Between 'x-ray vision', magnified sight, magic-interpretive senses and her Evil Eye of Analysis, surely something useful will come to her awareness before long?
Audrey Basque	ANGELA pokes the lake of Radiolaria with a finger!     Her finger is aggressed by billions of tiny things that try to convert her into a Vex. This doesn't work, because her skin is simply too hard, and so she's simply left with a little drop of the silvery fluid dancing at the edge of her finger and tirelessly trying to do what it can't.     It's trying its best.     WHITE uses her multiple sightly gifts to analyze the area. It's a bit hard to make out exactly what's going on beyond the boundaries of the cage; it could be a visual, or they could be in one of countless structures arranged across space and time. This would make this place a single node in a larger hub, disconnected physically from the Pyramidion itself. Are they even on Io anymore?     The Radiolaria is way more interesting to look at in terms of getting answers. That liquid is alive! It's, also, billions upon billions of infinitely small beings. Calling them sentient or people would be a huge mistake though. They're... patterns. The physical representation of a single will divided in infinite cells. You could compare them to nanites with a hivemind.     The Nascent Star, indeed, is at the bottom of the lake. It's a few dozen feet deep, at most, but that's still deeper than anyone should want to go in that liquid.
Sarracenia	EARLIER!      Sarracenia is a bit stunned when Angela not only says it is a good idea, but agrees to let Sarra take pictures! Sarra is already taking plenty of pictures of course, but now she also starts including pictures of Angela doing space things such as looking out the window. And begrudgingly of Angela and Petra doing space things together. Like talking to each other aboard a spaceship or looking out the window together! "I will ensure you get proper prints of the photos." Sarra says as they land.      NOW      Angela is falling with no apparent mid-air mobility. Sure that Petra is definitely going to deal with that, Sarra just continues blowing up turrets and drones. As they near the bottom, Sarra pulls out a feather power-up ad in a puff has a golden cape to go with her space suit! It billows out behind her dramatically and her descent slows quickly until she can gracefully and safely land at the bottom of the chasm.      Once they are landed and the rest of the Vex are cleared out, Sarra looks to White. "That was quite impressive! You fended them off effortlessly while caring for Miss Audrey the entire time! And, thank you for the help earlier. Having those robots appear in front of me saved me the trouble of chasing them down!" she says with a smile. "If you would like, I can send you some copies of the various pictures I am taking."      'So, kind of doing this blind. Sorry. But it's going great so far! No one's died!'      'So... robot swimming pool. But the Star... feels like it's here? Figures. Ideas?'      Once they reach the lake, Sarra takes a few pictures of it and the area around as well. "It is not often one finds an underground robot lake. I assume it would not be healthy for us to go swimming in it?"      Sarra ponders a moment. "Ideas...well, I have a couple. If we can pinpoint the location of the Star then I am sure White or Petra would easily retrieve it with either silk or Silver. If we cannot...then perhaps a Metal Cap would help. It would surely be difficult to be contaminated by this icky stuff if we are already covered in metal." Sarra reaches into her purse as she is saying this and pulls out one of those Metal Caps. As the name implies...it is a solid metal cap, similar to a newsboy cap.      Sarra puts it on and over a second or two is seemingly converted into a living metal statue of rose gold! "What do you think?" she asks.
Kukuru	Kukuru is, if nothing else, thorough about wound treatment. Even though she's not necessarily a medical expert or even trained in conventional first aid, she's certainly the type to overcompensate when it comes to fixing up wounds and treating stranger maladies like the flesh-to-metal conversion present here.  And so long as she can rely on her nanites to stop feeling so off after getting irradiated from smashing the Vex into each other, she'll keep on doing it until everyone's safely at the bottom! Sounding more tired than anything else by the time the group reaches the bottom, Kukuru is once again back on healing duty to make sure nobody transforms in ways they're not ready for. "Is everyone okaaay? Nobody's got those metal splotches anywhere, riiight?" She asks in that usual doting tone of hers, although she does make sure to give everyone a once-over in case she spots any lingering wounds or patches they may not have even noticed. "Or... Oh. Does anyone need anything to drink or snack on? We've been heading down for a while, so it's important to drink uuup." With that moment to breathe, it can't be too surprising that she's checking on that, too, although Kukuru only brings out water bottles and little meaty food bars rather than her usual semi-lavish packages. There's still work to do, after all, and the real meals can wait until later. As attentive as she can be towards wounds and basic physical needs, however, Kukuru doesn't notice that the paths have been changing behind the group. Instead, she's putting most of her attention on the aforementioned wound tending and drink/food providing, and she hums softly as Audrey answers questions about the Pyramidion. "Redacted info and a missing researcher... Huuuh. Do you think he's still in here somewhere?" A beat, and then Kukuru taps her chin. "Or was...? If you haven't heard from him, maybe he's not here anymore." She suggests, leaving what kind of 'not here' she means up in the air. And then there's a lake of Radiolaria! Kukuru peers at the fluid in the lake closely as Audrey mentions that the Star might be in there. She looks like she's about to dive right in, but quickly remembers just how it felt to be splashed by the stuff. Diving in... "... Hmm. Going in would be a pretty bad idea, I think." Kukuru concludes, hurrying over to Angela to dump some nanites on her hand even though the fluid isn't actually doing anything to her finger. "Caareful, Ange... Hmm. Oh, but what if we moved the water somewhere else?" She suggests, as though that's something easy to do. For Kukuru, though, it might very well be. She looks around the lake of Radiolaria a few times to do some vague sort of mental calculations, then points towards the tunnel from where everyone had come from. "I could get real big, dig out a biiiiig hole further out that way, then a... You know, the river things farmers do? Irrigation ditch over to that big hole to let aaaall the stuff out over there." A beat, and then she looks back over at Audrey. "Do you think this place'll fall apart if I dig that much?"
White	White watches Sarracenia glide down to safety at the bottom of the chasm, still watching Sarra as she's complimented and takes the offer of photo-sharing with a small tilt of her head in thought. She doesn't *need* them, but- "Sure." she says, nodding a little deeper than normal. It'll be nice to show Ariel the pictures, since the Demon Lord might never get a sightseeing opportunity like this. And hey, if Sarracenia is grateful for White pushing more of the work off on her, then all the better!      She frowns a little as she's looking around, walking a short distance ahead of Angela, then stops and looks sidelong into the living goop-lake. She stays there, staring, thinking about the issue. How does she convey her findings? One hand comes off the haft of her scythe and levels out to point, firmly aimed in the near-exact direction under the goo where the Star seems to be. "Found it." Of course, she's not exactly leaping at the opportunity to go jumping into a body-converting living fluid, and she's just a tad hesitant to go trying to directly teleport the Star's container. She *could* reach it, but... Well, if she fucks it up somehow, that's not going to turn out very well, is it? She's not much of a 'stellar artifact' knower...      Sarracenia mentioning her silk makes White's frown tilt slightly to one side in contemplation, a string emitting from her fingertip and arching up like a translucent-white snake. The goo might convert her silk, since it's at least a recreation of something organic, but it *is* abnormally tough as far as webbing goes... It's an idea. If nothing else, and Sarracenia does give in to the fey urge to leap into the stuff while metallicized, White can at least teleport her back out if something happens... Probably.
Petra Soroka	"I appreciate the assist, though I am making it more difficult."     "Don't worry about it, Ange." Petra pets Angela on the head with a gauntleted hand, in a way she hasn't done in a long time. Knowing her inner thoughts well enough to preempt them to an uncanny degree, she adds, "I was actually thinking it'd be cute to get a sticker like Malkuth's from you specifically, to add to my collection. So really, I'm just happy to have a chance to do a little task well like this to deserve one, eheh."     Petra drops to the bottom of the cavern with a pulse of propulsive energy from her armor's calves to land almost gently. In contrast, she rips the bayonet of the transteam rifle out of the Cyclops she skewered through the eye, causing it to explode. The resulting shower of Radiolaria splatters all over Sting Silver, hissing where it makes contact with the rivulets of morphmetal running down her gauntlets, and Petra shakes her arm like she's being harassed by a mosquito. Drops of Silver coalesce into a rippling sheathe over her arms, churning to expunge the surprisingly similar-looking alien fluid, and she wipes the fluid that got on her mask away.     "Ow-- ow. This stuff hurts even through the armor. I think it's..." A globule of morphmetal floats up in the air in front of her, and then spits out a droplet of Radiolaria. "This stuff converts the Silver too, it looks like. So it's not just organic matter. That means it's probably responsible for that architectural conversion effect we saw above, and... it's sort of viral, right? Like the material itself is what's propagating itself, and the robots are more like shells for whatever hivemind lifeform this is."     Petra's suit vanishes in a burst of black sparks, and she has a thoughtful frown on her face when it's revealed. "It's kind of cool. I was joking about it before, but now I kind of *do* want to be introduced."     She cups her morphmetal in the air, a small amount of Radiolaria pooling inside of it. Reaching out with both cybersynaptic handshake impulses, and telepathic queries, Petra pokes at the pool she's holding. <<Hello?> Are you <intelligible dialect>? I'm <student of technology/propagation nexus/acknowledgement across the battlefield>.> "So... robot swimming pool. But the Star... feels like it's here?"     "Oh, I was honestly thinking, like... if the floor dropped out to prevent us from getting to it, then we might have to climb all the way back up, since you jumped down. But this is way easier."     Knowing that Sting Silver hurts when doused in Radiolaria makes the prospect of wandering into an entire lake full of it unpleasant to Petra. She'd *survive*, certainly, but it wouldn't be great to drag herself and Angela to walk into the bottom of a pain pool as one of her first outings. Also, she's unsuited right now, so she'd have to strain her gun a little bit to use it!     She crosses her arms and looks over to Audrey. "If it's in there, couldn't you compress the lake so it's just... like, waist high instead of super deep? And then... well, probably any of us could get in there as long as Kukuru's here to heal us. But I volunteer Sarracenia." "I could tie your wrists together."     Petra thinks about this, and then eventually nods and holds her and Angela's conjoined hands out to White. "That actually sounds super convenient. I mean, it's basically unbreakable too, right? Er-- as long as that's okay with you, sis."
Petra Soroka	In order to cut through the indecisiveness, Petra holds up a hand and a borble of Silver for gesticulating, listing out their options and knowledge. "So, this stuff is trying to convert everything it touches into robots. I was able to *remove* it from the Silver, so it's not going to dissolve us in seconds, especially not if we're protected, but it does *hurt* and that's a lot of it. Maybe if we could get in and out in moments, but..." Petra looks at White, as the most probably able to do that in her mind, with Kukuru second.     "I don't know if silk would work, but... well, you're strong enough that you might just be able to power through, but that's kind of maximizing surface area compared to volume, right? So it'd be the least durable thing to the conversion thing we could do. Our best bet might be... Audrey squishing down the depth of the lake, Sarracenia or someone else jumping in, and then Kukuru teleporting them back out and then healing them. I vote Sarracenia because she doesn't even complain when she gets ran over by a train, so obviously this would be nothing to her."
Audrey Basque	To SARRACENIA, Audrey shrugs, not harshly, but more like... "I have no idea. This kind of thing is... not even a little bit in my field. I would certainly NOT want to take a swim in it, though." But then again she takes things as safely as she can. "Though, if you're asking how it looks... that's kind of cool," she asides, of the metallic transformation.     Audrey takes a bottle of water from KUKURU happily. "You really like carrying a lot of food around, huh? It's appreciated!" She'd already been exposed to plenty of it, but this is the first time it comes directly in handy!     "Um. As for digging, I mean... I have no idea." Audrey looks around, but comes to the same conclusion. "Yeah. No idea. This place is all stretched out, but the bottom's too far too see. It could just fall on our heads if they looped the edges."     Audrey edges closer to the lake when WHITE points in a direction, tapping her chin. "Ah... yeah, I kind of see it now. I'm... worried that teleporting it would be a bad idea. It's a star in a jar, what happens if we break it?"     Nothing good. Definitely, nothing good.     The thread might be a good backup considering PETRA. She's pretty on-point with her guesses! She tries to communicate, and while her psychic impulses receive no response, her attempts to interact with handshake impulses receives a short response.     //HANDSHAKE REFUSED.     //TYPE.EXTERNAL/NETWORK KEY INVALID.     You might need a specialized hacker!     Audrey shakes her head to her suggestion though. "I don't want to risk distorting space around that kind of artifact until I've had time to study it... but your idea isn't bad. If I avoid the bottom it should be fine. Okay, we'll do it that way."     A plan is hatched.     Audrey takes a few minutes to circle the lake, before finally tugging at something unseen and 'squishing' it. Thirty feet deep can become two feet deep.     Sarracenia, secured by White's silk, volunteers for a quick dive. It's PAINFUL, but the defensive properties of the metal cap aren't useless. Of course, it's... impossible to see anything in the lake, it's like a flashbang in there, but she can feel warmth from the Nascent Star, and grab it. It's a glass tube, about a foot tall and half a foot wide. It's not locked at the bottom, but slotted into something. A good yank will free it safely.     Audrey advises against teleporting it again; but between all of them, surely they have the strength to tug on White's silk and pull Sarracenia out.     She'll need healing! That's what Kukuru is for. Not a moment too soon, at that. Sarracenia isn't going to have robot bits or anything of the sort, but it's very unpleasant nonetheless.     This whole plan results in a loud rumble, across the Pyramidion. Someone, or something, is very unhappy about this.     Inspecting the Star, Audrey frets a bit. "I think we should go." It is incidentally quite pretty! A glass tube full of colorful gasses, caught in the act of compressing one last time as a large spark ignites the center. Warm, not burning hot. Emanates the kind of magic you'd use to power a whole city... or an ominous fucked up evil robot pyramid, as Petra would point out.
Angela	Angela, after this mission, is going to meet with Malkuth and obtain Petra a sticker of a BASEBALL glove that says NICE CATCH! When scratched it smells like popcorn! "I see. ... Yes, perhaps I should adopt that strategy from Malkuth and bring stickers with me in the future." The Star is here? Can stars be in pools of water. She thinks of the Rivers. Perhaps it's actually normal for Stars to be in pools of water, now that she thinks about it. She shakes her hand off before looking to Petra. ''This stuff is trying to convert everything it touches into robots.'' Angela looks down at her hand and then looks to the pool and gives it the smuggest smirk you've ever seen. "Heh." She taunts the water.