[IC] MnM 3e - In the Shadow of Imperator: Deadline

[Supernaturalist]

Iona
HP:3
Cnd: Damaged (-2 to EM power-array)
PP:0

OOC: In cases where I must use movement to execute the standard action, I appreciate you allowing me to do so. Sometimes as we describe the combat situation verbally, I'm not totally certain where everyone is in relation to one another.

Anyway, here's my Toughness roll: Supernaturalist:1D20+12 → 29(17 + 12). So, a 29...a success.

The enraged monstrosity makes contact with Iona's body, and though blinded flails confidently in her direction with a hideous, mouth-covered arm. The female cyborg draws her own arm back in the nick-of-time as teeth clamp down on the edge of her jacket taking a bite-sized chunk out of it.

Iona continues to back away from the frantic thing until her movement is stopped by the wall behind her. From there she extends her right hand once again as she reflexively levitates ever so slightly from the floor. The calm of her beautiful face does not betray the rigid concentration of her mind as she creates the conditions for another violent electrostatic-burst.

OOC: Ok, I'm targeting the blinded one for Ranged Electrical Damage. Here's the roll: Supernaturalist:1D20+8 → 25(17 + 8). The roll is a 25. The damage effect is reduced to a 10.

[mrdent12]

Diego Gonzalez
HP: 0
CND: Haunted, but fine
Form: Liquid

The possibilities here were immense. Zombies or whatever the creatures were, if they could be trained or controlled would prove invaluable. Send two or three into a crowd, watch as the crowd panics, and the "good" guys are distracted. It was a pity these creatures didn't seem controllable. Stretching out his arm again, he goes to slice off the head of another creature.

"Do not mention this incident to anyone.", says Diego as if it needed saying. With Iona, it probably did.

Same attack as before with take 10 to hit for a total of 20 and if it hits DC 25 toughness.

[EnigmaticOne]

Peter Ezima
HP: 2
COND: -1 [Heal in 8 rounds],Fatigued

If any of the creatures survived Diego and Iona, Peter was prepared to finish them off. In any case, this whole situation was more complicated, since perhaps Jacob Thatcher wasn't even alive now.

If any survive, hitting them with a PA -2/+2, take 10 for total of 18, Toughness DC 27.

[Sakuro]

Iona primes her electrical projection system for an attack against the advancing monstosity. As she begins to levitate pain wells up in her. Then the steady pain turns to a surging pour that starts at her core and spreads outwards along her limbs. It was like trying to punch with a hand that hand broken knuckles. Every time she used her damaged systems her cybernetic body reminded her of her plight.

She was functional enough though. There is a short lived crackling noise as an arch of blue-white electricity briefly links between Iona's right hand and her target before ceasing. Black disgusting smelling smoke rises up from the impact site and the creature convulses for a couple second before falling to the ground.

Diego stretches out one of his black fluid arms and with a bladed end strikes at the remaining creature. Simultaniously Peter launches a spike into it's center mass. The inhuman monstrosity ends up headless and impaled before it's head and body tuble to the bground seperated from one another.

After the last twisted figure falls the room is still and silent. Peter and Iona now have time to take in the morque as Diego had earlier. It looks to be half manmade construction, half organic now. With parts of the walls seemingly turned to flesh. Black veins spread outwards from these flesh patches, pumping black ichor intot he walls themselves. On these organic patches there is an occasional eye, mouth, or vague semblance of a face. In the back corners of the room, away from the door, are piles of bodies. The room stinks ...

All remaining antagonists in the room have been killed. Combat ends.

[Supernaturalist]

Iona
HP:3
Cnd: Damaged (-2 to EM power-array)
PP:0

When the last enemy is fallen, Iona takes a moment to look vigilantly about the area. She has already made her way back onto Diego's (and perhaps Peter's) crap-list. There is no reason to make things worse than they are. Concerned that one of the gruesome bodies might rise at any moment to attack, her gaze alternates between the broken bodies on the floor and the blasphemous walls of the charnel room.

"What on Earth is happening here?" She mutters.

Enthralled by what she sees, she once again kneels near a body, it's head severed by one of Diego's strikes. "I need some way to collect its blood, a test-tube or vial of some sort." She looks at Diego and Peter and they perceive an undertone of excitement and curiosity in her voice. "May I pause for a few minutes so that I can collect tissue samples? There must be some swabs in here somewhere." She stands back up looking about the room for a medical cabinet or supply cart. Wary that her comments might be construed as flippant towards the mission, she quickly attempts to sooth Diego. "I could quickly do this while Peter attempts to locate our patient. I shall not take long."

OOC: May I use the roll I made earlier to get some small bit of info?

[mrdent12]

Diego Gonzalez
HP: 0
CND: Haunted, but fine
Form: Solid

With the fighting over, Diego shifted back into the form of a person. Despite being devoid of emotion, Diego still had a creative side and a perchance form his former state to be ironic. So, he took the form of a priest complete with the white frock, black shirt, and black slacks. Putting aside a priest being in the middle of a monster outbreak, people would be more inclined to trust him and not as inclined to question his credentials. It's not like priests had name tags.

Enthralled by what she sees, she once again kneels near a body, it's head severed by one of Diego's strikes. "I need some way to collect its blood, a test-tube or vial of some sort." She looks at Diego and Peter and they perceive an undertone of excitement and curiosity in her voice. "May I pause for a few minutes so that I can collect tissue samples? There must be some swabs in here somewhere." She stands back up looking about the room for a medical cabinet or supply cart. Wary that her comments might be construed as flippant towards the mission, she quickly attempts to sooth Diego. "I could quickly do this while Peter attempts to locate our patient. I shall not take long."

Diego looked at Peter, the hole in the wall, along the walls, and finally Iona. "Can you seal the hole, but make it easy to get through for an escape? If possible, maybe make it not look like someone burrowed through. Our target is less valuable if the news is out about these creatures. Stronghold and the government will want to keep a tight lid on this, which will suit our purposes so long as we don't provide a way for the creatures to leave right now.", says Diego looking at Peter.

Turning to Iona now, Diego is short and succinct. "You have as long as it takes Peter to do his part and for me to examine the area for possible hostiles upon our return.", is all Diego says to Iona. While emotionless and in his new native monotone, the meaning behind them is clear. Diego isn't pleased with Iona.

After quickly checking the state of the door, Diego turned to the interior. Walking along the walls and near the bodies, Diego examines it like one would deciding which block of cheese to buy. In his previous life, his nerves would be rattled. He might have shown a calm in control exterior, but before he would be getting nervous. Now, he viewed the current creature situation like pawns on a chess board where if moved the right ones he could get what he needed done.

So is the one Iona bound still alive?
Diego is not familiar with any of this, so it's mostly are some body parts still moving or things that look about to hatch.
Perception 13

[EnigmaticOne]

Peter Ezima
HP: 2
COND: Fatigued

As his injuries regenerated Peter nodded at Diego's request and turned around, heading for the hole. After a study of it, he created a new block of flooring to fill the first few feet of the hole. Enough to reasonably hide it, but enough that Peter could tear the hole open quickly come escape time.

Afterward, he rejoined Diego. "I've sealed the direct mouth of the tunnel, but I can quickly reopen it when the time comes. No one should be able to see that it's there right now."

Then, he extended his techno-awareness to see if there was an internal network active here.

Another Expertise: Computers check required just to sense? Or only for dedicated activity and access?

[Sakuro]

The first thing Iona notices is that each of the creatures is different. Even if they have some similarities. For example two of them have what looks like intestine handing out of their mouth. Two others have clawed hands. Some have multiple mouths, in varying locations on their body. These mouths appear to lead into the bodyr ather than serving purely as natural weapons. Some have tough leathery skin. Others have chitin like plates or scales at strategic points on their body. From Iona's observations it looks as though these things were changes in the process of developing, possibly rapidly, but they have human qualities as well. Some changes do not appear complete, or vestigial, such as a secondary pair of tiny arms growing out of the of the monster's sides.

Diego looks around the morgue and finds no twitching bodies ready to spring out in renewed life. No hidden lurkers under tables, in cabinets or hidden beneath corpse piles. No fleshy eggs ready to hatch or open up to some parasitic face hugging organism. Moving to the door he looks down the hallway and sees gore on the floor and walls. It looks like people were torn apart, their blood and viscera smeared over floors and walls like a child painting.

The morgue is pitch black. The hallways outside as well. Not even the glow or spark of a broken monitor is present. When Peter reaches out to try to search for the hospital's internal wireless network he finds digital silence. Feeling around to find his way back to the tunnel entrance he seals it with newly fashioned stone. It was imperfect. He couldn't see what he was doing. The seams weren't right. If anyone should see it, they'd know it wasn't the original floor. But it was dark … and push come to shove, yo could just cover that section of the floor with a table. Though Iona and Diego could see the flaw in Peter's work, as far as he knew he'd done a perfect job.

… and I forgot Peter should have been effectively blind that entire fight. Oh well. Not like I can give myself a HP.

[mrdent12]

Diego Gonzalez
HP: 0
CND: Haunted, but fine
Form: Mist

Diego covered the spot Peter patched with a table that fallen over. Based on what he saw in the hallway though, he didn't imagine many getting this far without thinking it was maybe those creatures. "We will need to move quickly out of here. I will take lead and alert the two of you if there is anything. In my native form I will hopefully be invisible to detection by the creatures and safe from harm.", said Diego turning back into a mist. The priest form would need to wait for later.

Speaking now at Iona and Peter as a cloud of nanites, Diego handles one other point of issue. "Stay close to each other you two. There is no light sources in the hallways and possibly all the ways to the stairs or elevators. If the basement level is this bad, we can only hope out subject is alive.", say Diego readying to move out a decent scouting distance ahead of the others staying in the dark spots for concealment.

Holding here to give everyone else a chance to post before moving out.

[Supernaturalist]

Iona
HP:2
Cnd: Damaged (-2 to EM power-array)
PP:0

… and I forgot Peter should have been effectively blind that entire fight. Oh well. Not like I can give myself a HP.

OOC: Could Iona spend an HP in order to find a small LED flashlight in a medical cart or cabinet? She can give it to Peter. That way he won't be tripping over things in the hall way, *and* he won't be blind in the next subterranean fight. If you disagree, I'll edit my post and add back the HP.

Diego makes himself clear, Iona has at most 5 minutes. She scrambles to find test-tubes, vials, swabs, anything that can be used to collect a tiny sample of both flesh and body-fluid. She does not know if these samples will survive the struggle to come or the trip back home for that matter, but she has to try.

Noticing some of Peter's difficulties operating in the dark, she hands him a small LED flashlight she finds in one of the medical-cart drawers. "It's not ideal, but it will help some." She says softly.

Stuffing the ichor and skin samples into the inner pocket of her hoodie-jacket, she moves over close to Peter and proceeds to move down the hallway, following Diego's instructions. For a brief moment Iona considers informing Peter and Diego about some of the difficulties she's experiencing with her internal systems, but then thinks better of it. They already question my competence, no reason to make them question me further.

[EnigmaticOne]

Peter Ezima
HP: 2
COND: Fatigued

"Thank you." Peter replied, flicking on the flashlight. At least now he wouldn't fumble around in the dark. "The network is still shut down unfortunately."

[mrdent12]

Diego Gonzalez
HP: 0
CND: Haunted, but fine
Form: Mist

"Thank you." Peter replied, flicking on the flashlight. At least now he wouldn't fumble around in the dark. "The network is still shut down unfortunately."

With no voice saying anything to the contrary, Diego takes one more moment to float back into the room. "We will need to find a computer you can use to access the cameras if they are still functional. Exploring the hospital in this condition will not be ideal. Is there a recommended location you think we should head that would be optimal?", inquires Diego of Peter.

Keep an eye on Iona. She is a liability and her curiosity may well ruin this mission. Leaving her here without a comms mechanism is not an option though., says Diego over the link.

[Supernaturalist]

Iona
HP:2
Cnd: Damaged (-2 to EM power-array)
PP:0

"We will need to find a computer you can use to access the cameras if they are still functional. Exploring the hospital in this condition will not be ideal. Is there a recommended location you think we should head that would be optimal?", inquires Diego of Peter.

Iona waits for the two Ascendants to finish before getting Diego's attention. "While you look for computer on this level, might I remain for a few minutes to inspect the pile of bodies in the corner? I promise to remain right here and not leave the room. I might not be able to glean much, but any insights could could prove beneficial. Right now, I dare not even speculate from where or from whom these creatures came."

OOC: If Diego says "no", then Iona will not argue. She'll be silent and follow. If "yes", then she'll look to see if the bodies appear to be merely food or if they also appear to have any of the deviant-organs that the humanoid-creatures have. Obviously, Iona can see any heat discrepancies with her Infravision as well as any light that might be emitted in the UV Spectrum (unlikely...but still worth mentioning).

[mrdent12]

Diego Gonzalez
HP: 0
CND: Haunted, but fine
Form: Mist

With the power out, Diego speculated trying to tap into the computers was likely going to be a waste of time. If the basement was out of power, emergency power might not even be running meaning the cameras would also be out maybe. Short of any means of getting feeds into the hospital they would need to search it the regular way of walking around starting at the xray area followed by the likely places Jacob might be such as with his coworkers.

Iona waits for the two Ascendants to finish before getting Diego's attention. "While you look for computer on this level, might I remain for a few minutes to inspect the pile of bodies in the corner? I promise to remain right here and not leave the room. I might not be able to glean much, but any insights could could prove beneficial. Right now, I dare not even speculate from where or from whom these creatures came."

"Every minute we are down here risks our mission being compromised. If you can, we may need you to power some computers or surveillance system to tap into cameras. Is getting your information from mutated bodies worth compromising this and the bigger mission?", inquires Diego. In the spirit of cooperation, he should at least let Iona make her case while he waited for any insights Peter may have on the search.

[Supernaturalist]

Iona
HP:2
Cnd: Damaged (-2 to EM power-array)
PP:0

""Every minute we are down here risks our mission being compromised. If you can, we may need you to power some computers or surveillance system to tap into cameras. Is getting your information from mutated bodies worth compromising this and the bigger mission?", inquires Diego. ", inquires Diego.

The young cyborg glances back at the bodies in the corner. "Well...no...analyzing the bodies isn't critical." An unmistakable tone of disappointment is in her voice.

Her slender frame slowly turns back to face Diego. "I can try to provide temporary power." Iona's eyes then begin to stray as they often do when she is in thought. Softly she mumbles, thinking out loud. "I could start on the low end...say 120 volts to be safe. If that is not enough, I could slowly increase until the systems start to function. It might take a few minutes to adjust but at least I shall not damage any equipment."

OOC: I'm assuming that Iona will have to spend an HP to do this. What I'm not sure of is how to mechanically do it within the rules. To me it sounds like adding a Feature to a power or simply creating a Feature for the duration of a scene. I wonder: Is this ability one of the many little power variations that Dr. Sokolov might have had Iona do when he was "testing" her capabilities? Also, if we decide to do this, is she able to just supply power to limited systems or will she end up providing power to a whole area of the hospital (or even the hospital as a whole)? It would be nice if she could limit it to just the systems desired.