legionworld | Whistling in the Dark

Entry tags:

Whistling in the Dark - Mod Plot [Log Post]

Who| Everyone who signed up!
What| Whistling in the Dark Plot. The gang has to deal with threats around Legion World and the possessed
Where| Everywhere!
When| After Ferro's post on the network
Warnings/Notes| N/A

Everywhere around the ship things start to fall apart. Aside from the juddering as it shakes, lights start turning off, life support starts failing, the artificial gravity starts malfunctioning, and strange bursts of energy from the ship's engine causes electronics to stop working. And that's not all: it seems like every possible system that could be acting up is acting up.

In short, Legion World is a mess. And all they know so far is that some of the support staff may be responsible and that they're also possibly possessed by some kind of alien infestation that occasionally makes their eyes flash black.

It's time to get answers -- something that will be difficult with all the threats they're facing on the ship. Not only do the Legionnaires have to survive, the support staff will occasionally need rescue, too.

With the rate that systems are failing, the odds are not in their favor, especially since these malfunctions caused the escape pods to automatically launch without any crew in them. They'll have to work fast to stop the threat before everyone on Legion World dies.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Rich yanked his helmet from where it was folded and clothlike, tucked in his belt, popped it open so it hardened into actually effective head protection, and popped it on his head.

Couldn't do the hero thing without the ol' bucket.

"Yeah, not good," Rich said to Donnie, yanking off his prosthetic and leaving it on a random console. The transuits were created to allow them to fire off powers without destroying them. Rich suspected they were made of unstable molecules or something, just like a lot of people's uniforms were back home.

His prosthetic? Not so sturdy. With them unable to clone him an organic arm that wouldn't explode if the Nova Force ran through it and also unable to create a prosthetic that wouldn't do the same, he was limited in options. Fortunately, he'd figured out a workaround in the Sim room. He figured out he could form a very crude arm...tentacle thing out of the Nova force in the place of his missing arm. It was clumsy and really only good for gripping and hitting things but it was better than nothing. (If only he had his brother's fine control over gravimetric fields, maybe he could've managed enough nuance for some precision.)

In any case, that was all he had to work with so off the prosthetic went and then he was stuck with the task of working the transuit over his uniform one handed -- no easy task when the limited Nova Force in his body had left him so uncoordinated with what body he had left.

The ship shuddered again and the lights started flickering.

"Even less good."

At least Brainy had given them a heads up on what they might face but that wasn't going to make this any easier.

Despite his own slightly awkward anatomy, Donatello was having a much simpler time getting his own transuit on. Clearly, the thing was designed with an eye for adapting to physiology that had things like big honking shells to worry about it.

(Whatever might be wrong with being stuck centuries and realities away from home, he really couldn't complain about the marked decrease in human-centric everything.)

Even as he finished pulling it into place with one hand, he was already reaching for a nearby console with the other - not really even tapping buttons. One touch was good enough for his powers to kick in, and while the flow of information was a lot to sift through at once, he'd been getting plenty of practice at it before now. He could feel where everything in the ship was working; it was just a matter of looking at where it was working from. The fans and air filters scrubbing waste gases into breathable air, the heating, the gravity generators...everything linked back to a main conduit for power, and if one followed that back -

"We're five levels down from the power controls for this section. If those go, we'll be losing a lot more than lights."

Nova finally got his transuit on and nodded.

"Lead the way, kiddo," he said, taking to the air with his flight ring.

It was much better that they prevented the damage than got bogged down with Donnie having to fix it while the saboteur ran off to break something else.

"Here's hoping these things are nothing like the last few creepy aliens that possessed people that I ran into."

Before this, it'd been Harrow, who possessed people on the worlds Galactus fed on, causing pain and torture and death to enhance the suffering of dying innocents because he fed off it. Before that, it'd been Abyss and his crazy space zombies. And before that, it'd been the freakin' Phalanx and their techno-organic virus -- something Rich'd fallen victim to himself.

"I am so goddamn sick of alien possession."

Donnie followed suit, his own flight not quite as sure as Rich's as he took to the air, but still well controlled and reasonably confident. He'd had a lot of things to try and split his attention between - just about all of the technology had been fascinating enough that he could've dedicated himself to that alone and still found plenty to occupy himself - but no ninja worth his training would allow himself to be too much of a klutz in the face of learning a new way to move.

"You know, the fact that you've apparently done this enough to be sick of it..."

...actually, he wasn't going to finish that thought.

"We might shave a couple minutes off if we get into the ducts instead of taking the corridors, but I...uh. Don't know how well you'd fit."

"Won't know until I try it. Worst comes to worst, if it narrows down too much, I can find the nearest hatch, leave, and go another way."

But chances were if Donnie could get his hard shell through an opening, Rich could get his squishier body through one, even if Donnie was a lot smaller.

"'Sides, without the arm, I bet I can squish a lot more easily than I could've before."

At least that was one perk, right? Maybe it was just the one, but it was a perk. Silver linings and all.

"In that case..." He stopped, looking up. The closest grate that opened into the ducts didn't show up very well in the dark, but Donnie and the dark were well-acquainted. It'd take more than that to throw him off.

He floated up a few feet, reaching for the grate and giving it a hard pull.

"The good news is, it's not that slow going if we don't have to worry about doing it quietly."

"Not everything needs stealth. If we sound like a bunch of shoes rolling around in a dryer, we sound like a bunch of shoes rolling around in a dryer."

He gave Donnie a little devil-may-care grin, the glow of his eyes lighting up his face just enough for Donnie to see it in the limited light. So far every time he'd talked to Donnie, he'd been good-natured, calm, and relaxed but right now he was making a sudden transformation into something else, something wildly different.

Because by his nature, Rich wasn't relaxed. He was a human rocket, always on the move, fueled by the fire of an exploding sun. He lived a life that was electric and now that there was some action that electricity was lighting him up again.

"So let's roll."

It was about time life got back to normal. He'd had his little time to adjust and enjoy the fact he was alive, but now he was all revved up and ready to live.

He threw Rich a thumbs up, then thought better of it - a little dark for that - and added out loud, "You got it."

And up he went.

It was easier going than he'd planned on, but then, he was still getting used to the idea of being able to fly everywhere. A straight vertical shaft of this width wasn't exactly a problem even without it - just wide enough to brace himself across, not narrow enough (yet) to give him problems with fitting the shell - but being able to go straight up?

Convenient.

Maybe a little too convenient.

Edited 2016-01-28 04:49 (UTC)

Definitely too convenient. Because right now they were facing enemies determined to make everything inconvenient.

The service tunnel widened, making it easier for the two of them to fly side by side, and they made good headway...until one of those tech-wrecking pulses hit. The entire tunnel vibrated and their telepathic earplugs emitted a shrill ringing noise.

It was the exact second that the noise stopped that their flight rings cut out.

Nova let out a yelp as he felt the familiar lurch of his stomach rising up in his throat, and flailed, reaching up his hand instinctively to try to grab at anything he could. Unfortunately, he was closer to the middle of the tunnel and that meant it was a straight shot down to the bottom.

Which was kind of a bad thing.

Because they were several storeys up and that meant there was nothing to stop Nova from going splat.

It took all of a millisecond for Donnie to realize they were hosed, and for instinct to kick in.

(If he made it out of this in one piece, and out of all of this to actually get home, he was going to have to thank Leo for those nights of ceaseless drills when he'd rather have had more time to be tinkering with tech.)

One hand went back to yank his bo staff free from its place on his back.

The other reached over and down as he twisted himself to grab Rich's - hand, wrist, anything, because now was the last time to get too picky.

He jabbed the staff against the side of the tunnel as they fell. The tunnel was big enough for people to maneuver in, there had to be something - he thought he saw something when they were ascending a few seconds ago -

And then there was a snap as he found a handle built into the side of the wall, wedging the end of his bo into it and catching them, and it took just a moment longer for the strain of what he was doing to finally start registering in his arms. How much did Rich even weigh? He probably didn't want to know, actually. Because trying to run the numbers in his head might or might not actually make him feel any better about this.

The Fugitoid had provided Donatello with a new and improved staff, when he'd replaced his shell. How improved...well, who knew? Improved enough not to snap under both of their weights, he sure as hell hoped.

If Rich hadn't been snagged right in the middle of the process of falling to his death he might have complimented Donnie on being smart enough to use his staff to snag something instead of just his hand. More leverage.

Because Rich had been one hundred and ninety pounds last time he'd stepped on a scale and while he had probably lost a few by having his arm hacked off, that was still a lot for a tiny turtle-guy to hold onto -- something Donnie's shoulder would probably make very clear the moment Rich's full weight started tugging on it.

That was why Rich had to act quickly. The last thing he wanted to do was yank the poor kid down to his death with him and with how hard Donnie was holding onto his hand, a heroic self-sacrifice by letting go wouldn't have been easy.

Fortunately, the handle Donnie'd managed to grab onto was not so much a handle as actually a rung of a service ladder. Unfortunately, swinging towards it at the speed Rich swung toward it meant his side slammed into said ladder so hard he probably busted a rib.

Rich was certainly used to pain -- invulnerability on the scale he played on just meant it took tougher enemies to cause it, and he faced enemies like that regularly -- but it still was something of a surprise for something so minor to hurt that badly. Usually it took something like a punch from guys with titles like "The Mad Titan" to bust up his side that bad.

So for a second Rich saw white and it took half a second for the ringing in his ears to stop for him to even realize he was already talking. It was in English now -- since the telepathic earplugs had cut out -- and as was appropriate for cursing of that caliber, he had an incredibly strong Queens accent.

"Jesusfuckingmotherofall--"

But even while cursing and seeing white, he still managed to form the little gravimetric arm he'd learned how to make, and used it to grab onto the rungs of the ladder so he could support his own weight.

"--fuckme," the cursing finally stopped because he finally had a solid hold. "Okay, leggo! Leggo before you fall, I'm good!"

He'd even managed to get his foot on a rung of the ladder.

Donnie didn't have to be told twice. He let go.

And then rotated his shoulder a few times, wincing. It didn't feel like anything popped, at least. One bright spot in the absolute crapstorm today was turning out to be.

"Okay, so flying's out." Even if the disturbance turned out to be momentary, the possibility of it happening again was still on the table, and that meant doing things the old-fashioned way.

Not really a problem, for him, but how well that worked for Rich was going to depend a lot on whether the service ladders were close enough together for comfort. "Are you okay?"

"Blue blazes," Rich breathed out, his voice still shaky.

He felt bad for cursing so much in front of the bitty teenager, so now that he was a little less terrified he went right back to the more family friendly pseudo-cursing he'd used during most of his youth to avoid getting his mouth washed out with soap by his father.

As far as realizing--really realizing--how vulnerable he was now without his flight and invulnerability, that had been one hell of a wakeup call.

Rich realized he hadn't actually answered Donnie's question, so he said, "I'll be fine. I maybe busted a rib or two but that's better than having to be scraped off the bottom of this tunnel with a spatula."

Thank God Donnie had been that quick and quick-thinking. Maybe it was the ninja reflexes.

"Thanks, kiddo. I owe you one."

What a good kid. It was a thought that kept repeating the more he got to know Donnie. It was a shame Donnie didn't have hair, Rich thought, because he would've wanted to start ruffling it at the next possible opportunity. Hell, he was probably going to take five seconds to affectionately noogie him a bit anyway, even with the baldness.

Edited 2016-02-03 05:03 (UTC)

"At least that medical insurance we were talking about ought to cover it." It was a little flip, but that could've gone much, much worse for them, and they both knew it. (And if he was honest with himself, Donnie was a little curious about just how quickly the medical advances here would help take care of something like that, even if he was less thrilled that they were going to find out the hard way.)

He swung himself around lightly, pulling himself up a bit on his staff to get a hand on one of the rungs of the ladder and set himself against the side of the tunnel more comfortably - and take a look upwards.

"Looks like the ladder goes up at least a bit further. There's probably access back into the corridors up there; it'd be kind of stupid to put in a ladder that doesn't lead to anywhere people are going."

Rich snorted when Donnie brought the insurance thing up again. Flip was good. Flip was fine in situations like this. Made him feel like he was back home on Earth with the Warriors.

"Let's get a move on then. I can use the Nova Force to replace the arm I lost since I can't use the prosthetic with my powers, but I've never tested doing it for that long."

He really did not want to still be on this ladder if it gave out.

Edited 2016-02-06 09:04 (UTC)

"On it."

And, indeed, he was already moving before the words had finished leaving his mouth, sliding his staff back into its holster on his back and taking the ladder perhaps just a little quicker than most people would consider advisable.

(Hey, most people weren't ninjas. He's got this.)

"Are you going to start melting rungs if you're in one spot for too long?"

"I'm good. My powers are partly gravimetric. I can make the arm burn but it can also just be a solid construct made out of gravity fields."

At least that was something that worked right, despite his diminished powers, the balance between genuine firepower (as in it actually burned like fire) and solid constructs and concussive force

"Can't manage any dexterity with it, but it's better'n nothing."

Really, it was kind of more like a tentacle than a proper arm. He couldn't even make fingers.

But it was still enough. It looked like they didn't have far to climb to reach a service hatch.

The service hatch was a welcome sight, even to someone as comfortable with heights and leaps of faith as Donnie, and he swiftly twisted the lever to open it - and stopped, not going through just yet.

"Looks like we've still got lights in here."

For now.

And then in one smooth motion, he swung through the hatch, throwing his weight into a roll and then stopping in a ready crouch.

"And nobody else around."

For now.

No way was Rich rolling into a room all dramatically with rolls or crouches or anything like that when some of his ribs were busted. He had a hard enough time pulling himself through the hatch without blurting out more curses.

"Let's keep moving before something else --"

The gravity malfunctioned before he could even finish the sentence, first yanking them towards a wall as if it was the new floor, and then giving out entirely.

Rich wasn't able to adjust to the shift in time, which meant he slammed hard into the wall before he bounced off and started to float in the zero G.

"Son of a bitch!"

There went his resolve to not curse in front of Donnie, flying right out the nearest airlock. It didn't feel like anything new had been hurt but if his busted ribs had just been bruised before, they were almost certainly broken now.

He hated how sluggish his reflexes were after having so much of the Nova Force cut off. At full power a) he'd have been able to fly under his own power and b) even if his flight was gone, he'd have had the reflexes to land on the new "floor" with his feet instead of side first.

This was his first trial by fire with so much of the Nova Force missing and it was going even worse than he'd expected. It was frustrating.

He hit the wall shell-first, making a noise of surprise that sounded like he was good at suppressing reactions but didn't quite get it together for this one.

Points off, Donatello.

"Gravity controls should be in the same place as everything else."

Which meant someone - something - had probably beaten them up there, and things were probably about to get a lot darker and colder if they didn't hoof it.

He'd worked through pain before. Lots of it. Back when he'd been fending off his Phalanx infection sometimes it felt like every one of his nerves was on fire. Right now he just had to get past the surprise of being hurt so easily.

This ain't your usual universe, this ain't your usual body. You're squishy now. Get used to it. Look at the kid -- aside from the shell, he's squishy and he ain't complaining.

He reached out and grabbed a rung on the hallway wall -- it looked like they had handholds to use in case of zero G. Even just extending his arm was misery but there was nothing to be done for it. He managed to bring down any potential cursing to a grunt of extreme malcontent.

"Let's keep moving. Looks like they have some emergency handholds."

They'd still have to kick off things and work hard to keep moving in the right direction but that made it a little easier.

"If the gravity's out, basic life support probably won't be far behind."

Edited 2016-02-18 16:14 (UTC)

"...and that means heat."

Low gravity? Annoying to work with, but not unbearable. No lights? Sure, who cared, he was a ninja. Working in the dark was just part of the package.

Heat? Bit of a problem for the cold-blooded folks in the room.

He managed to float slowly, a little awkwardly, to the closest handhold, which he immediately used to give himself a good hard push in the right direction.

"Aaah, you're coldblooded, aren't you?" That was bad. He was right that there was a huge risk of losing heat. "If the heat kicks out anywhere, I'll get you somewhere with life support. You're tiny. Even with my ribs busted, I can carry you."

Even without super strength and while injured, Donnie didn't look all that heavy. If the gravity was out when it happened, even better. He could just tow him along.

That was when even the dim emergency lighting kicked out. Everything suddenly went pitch black.

"No lights now. That's great. Wasn't like we needed those."

He amped up the brightness on his false arm to try to give them more light but it only created a little circle of it around them that only went so far.

"Normally I'd beg to differ, but..."

Finding his way down a hallway in the dark was no big deal. Even figuring out the control panel once they got there wasn't something he needed much light to deal with. No, the real problem he saw with the dark was that -

"Those things are going to be a lot harder to spot coming."

"We should be able to still hear them, at least. And they'll be hampered by the zero G, too. It looks like they prefer bodies, right? That means we'll be more likely to come across them inside other people than floating around by themselves, and there's only so quiet they can move. So as long as we stay pretty quiet ourselves we'll --"

Several things suddenly happened in incredibly quick succession. First, a small explosion rocked another place in the section they were in. The sudden explosive decompression sucked them through a hallway junction up ahead so fast that if they'd hit the walls on the way through it, they would've been bashed to a pulp. It was only through sheer luck that they didn't knock into anything as they were sucked through the junction. The air got sucked clean out of their lungs before they could even think about making the mistake of holding it, their glitched out transuits failing to protect them.

Because the sudden pressure sucking them through lessened after the initial decompression, the zero G left them still floating in the air as they were dragged towards the hole. Then, mercifully, the hull breach emergency shielding dropped into place.

In that short moment between the shield sealing the hole and the area getting repressurized they were exposed to near-total vacuum. Pretty fortunate that people could survive vacuum if it was for a very short time, right? Fortunate but highly unpleasant. Rich felt his skin swell and his vision went black. Right as he was about to lose consciousness, air rushed into the room again as it repressurized, and he started gulping it down.

He heard the doors to the section locking down -- the computers couldn't read correctly that the breach had been fixed and started locking down the section. The gravity randomly turned on again as part of the botched self-repair process, tossing them both to the floor. Even though the section was repressurizing, they weren't in the clear. Sure, they were getting air, and they got gravity back, but because life support was so messed up, the air being pumped in wasn't heated. It was ice-cold.

Worse than ice cold. Ice was only 0 degrees Celsius. The air that was kicked out by the ship's oxygenators was usually -30 degrees Celsius before it was heated. It poured into the section unheated and the water vapor in it immediately started condensing, fogging up the air, and then flash freezing on every surface.

As soon as Rich could breathe enough to, he croaked out, "Donnie!"

His vision was still blurry -- probably from being exposed to vacuum. He'd learned about what happened to people when they were exposed to explosive decompression -- it'd come up sometimes when rescuing people. Sometimes blurry vision or blindness was a thing -- had to do with dissolved gases or something. Rich knew the blurring would go away and that he'd be able to see clearly soon enough, but right now blurry vision was yet another complication he didn't need.

"You better still be alive, kid, or I swear to God, I'm gonna murder you!" It was still dark and even forming his glowing, false arm as he knelt there wasn't enough to chase the darkness away when it was partly due to his eyes being messed up. "And, yes, I'm aware that's counterintuitive!"

Even though only seconds had passed, most of his body had already gone numb and he felt like his lungs were freezing more and more from the inside out with each breath. The only thing that felt warm was the stubby stump of his right arm, at the point of contact where Nova Force energy poured out of his body to create his false arm.

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are you up for tech failures right about next tag because i sure am...

hells yeah

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gravity problems!

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how's this for catastrophe!