RE: THIS PROGRAM HAS BEEN CANCELED [S!1][ROUND THREE: PORT CERIDWEN]
11-22-2017, 07:15 AM
(This post was last modified: 11-22-2017, 07:17 AM by Solaris.)
Some time before Tschic and Bennie simply walked down into the waters of Morfran’s Ward, two watery jets sped out via the ocean-side exit. The merpeople were fast swimmers for sure, and the years of fighting on the front lines had ensured that they had an impressive endurance and stamina as well, but there were still of course times that called for something a little extra. A mermaid and merman set of scouts were riding on said little extra, squids that had been specially trained to shoot out air in a way not dissimilar to a jetstream, capable of propelling a scout through the ocean at extremely high speeds.
Tirion, the male of the pair, spoke with his partner, “Is this really worth even us going after it? I understand the circumstances are odd but how could this be as big a deal as what’s going on with the egg?”
Veltria, the more scarred of the pair, sighed, “What’s going on with the egg is exactly why we need to go after this… ship. You’re right, that it could be nothing, but what if it isn’t? Whatever this thing did, it scared the pirates up there enough to ask for help.”
Tirion furred his brow, while the pirates and ocean fey weren’t allied, they weren’t enemies either. There was a causal relationship of agreeing to ignore the other, as long as each of them kept their messes to themselves, and helped the other when there was crossover, and whatever this was, it definitely seemed like crossover.
What the scouts knew was that some sort of creature, structure, or corruption of dreams and nightmare suddenly appeared above the ocean around some pirate ships, grew to an enormous size, was fired upon, and then sunk into the ocean, taking with it not only all of the remains of it, but its crew, and some of the crew of the other pirates as well. The pairs mission was to go to the scene of where the ship manifested, track it down, and if it was a nightmare, subdue it.
As Tirion circled around the area, he looked above at the pirate ships that didn’t leave the scene. “I still don’t like this, why do we tolerate those pirates anyway? What if this is a trick?”
“It isn’t a trick. I can feel it. Whatever that thing is, it definitely was here.” Veltria looked at the water, it clearly had been through something. She waved her hands through the changed waters and focused for a moment. “There, the trail is hot, but getting cold, we need to hurry.”
She rushed off without another word, and of course, Tirion followed.
---
Acting-Captain Saint stood at the helm of the ghost ship that currently was the Traveller’s Rest, turning the wheel to follow a map, as any good pirate would do.
It wasn’t the easiest to navigate in the current conditions, when the Traveller’s Rest reformed after it’s wreckage upon arriving inside Port Ceridwen, the shape it took was very… peculiar. While the previous forms had had their quirks, they had also been much more real than the rainbow mist covered ship full of holes, that seemed to be floating on hopes and dreams, though fear and nightmares was also a good guess to go with. Still, it did the job that it did, even with the missing pieces and the much more importantly missing Captain O.
“Saint, it seems like we’re hitting a lull in the wind, surely you can take a break now?”
First Mate Maria stood near the captain, her face much older than when Saint last saw her, but still the same as always.
“Sure, I’ll go below decks in a bit.”
Maria nodded and slowly left Saint to her musings, but hesitated, for just a moment.
After making sure that Maria had left, Saint looked at the other parchment left to her by Captain O, trying once again to make sense of it. There was something about an egg, a nightmare, a city, it didn’t make sense, and she couldn’t figure out what it had to do with the treasure they had to find either, but this is what they did, right?
Saint sighed and went to the decks below...
---
Calibration at 94%...
The computer ticked onward, calculating with as much certainty as it could the multiversial coordinates of the missing Eagle, Freefall. As soon as it finished, a portal could be opened, and the course of action would be clear. To retrieve their friend.
95%...
Magenta was calm, meditating and focusing her powers for whatever was waiting them. This was clearly not the plot of a regular villain, and definitely not anyone from their world. It was a force far greater than that, but no force that she had ever faced could overcome the power of friendship, companionship, and teamwork. She hoped that whatever the situation was, Freefall was doing her best.
96%...
M.E.T.A.L.’s fingers were outstretched on the keyboard, his robotic hands typing and manually adjusting the calculations the Eagle’s computer was outputting. This had to be perfect, there was no room for error. Freefall had vanished from one corner of the multiverse to another twice now, there was no telling when it would happen again. Time was not on their side, and he wasn’t sure if anything other than his teammates was.
97%...
Ace clenched his fist, worried about what it was they would find on the other side. He had hoped that he and M.E.T.A.L. would have been able to keep this from Magenta, to ensure that they could do what they needed to do, get Freefall, no matter what. He hoped that it wouldn’t come to that, that whatever the situation was, there would not be a need for a hard choice. But if there was, he would make it, it was his responsibility after all.
Calibration at 98%... 99%... 100%
In that moment, the portal opened, a whirl of intense energy starting in the center of the room. The three superheros looked at each other, nodded, and stepped through, the metallic interior of the Eagle’s Nest fading into the ocean of Port Ceridwen. Or, to be specific, far above it..
In an instant, Magenta wrapped the trio in a protective bubble, massively slowing their descent and leading her to give Ace a slightly smug smile.
Ace sighed and said, “Yeah, yeah, you don’t have to rub it in. Just land us safely. M.E.T.A.L., where’s Freefall?”
M.E.T.A.L. nodded and began to attempt to search for Freefall, when suddenly, rainbow mist started to appear around Magenta’s bubble. After a longer silence than he had hoped, the machine lifeform spoke, “MY SENS0RS SUDDENLY HAVE MET WITH A MASS1VE 1NTERFERENCE. 1 AM AFRA1D WE W1LL HAVE TO LOCATE FREEFALL THE 0LD FASH10NED WAY.”
Ace clenched his fist tighter, but kept his cool, “Fine, Magenta, how far do you think we are to the surface.”
“I do not know, this mist is… far thicker than it seems, I,” *THUMP*
The bubble popped against the mast of a ship, causing all three of the heroes to fall onto the deck below.
The fog was heavy, Ace could hardly see his own hand in front of him, but he didn’t need to see an attack coming to dodge it. The superhero dodged out of the way of a spear that came from the fog.
“Damn it.” said a male voice from the fog.
Ace reached for his utility belt and pulled out his staff, easily dealing with the attacks from the fog, “I don’t have time for this!” He was upset, starting to become angry, but still more than capable of holding his own against the mysterious attacker.
He was not, however, capable enough to avoid the second attacker, who snuck up behind him and grabbed his arms.
“Tirion, enough with this, we are here for a mission, we can’t afford to waste any more time.”
Ace knew how to deal with this sort of maneuver, and prepared to shift his weight to counter the hold, only for something to coil around his leg, causing him to fall to the floor instead. “What?” he yelled on his way down, as he finally got a good look at his attacker.
Veltria was towering above him, as a veteran mermaid, she wore more scars than the battles she remembered, and while signs of her age were present, it was obvious that she was growing into it like a fine wine. Ace was impressed with her, but wasted no time in slipping backwards into the fog before either one of his attackers could draw a weapon on him.
It didn’t work, with Veltria quickly stabbing her trident into his ankle, luckily only scraping at his skin. “Now, outsider, tell me what you are doing here.”
Ace’s brow furled as he considered his options, deciding to start with something he was pretty good at, “I could ask you the same thing, you have a mission on this ship don’t you? Well, I have a mission of my own, a friend I need to find before it’s too late.” Ace dramatically looked to the side, wondering where his teammates had gone and why they hadn’t come to help him yet.
Veltria sighed and rolled her eyes, but Tirion seemed interested, Ace getting a good look at the other merperson who he had been fighting, this one much less scarred, but no less toned and handsome. “Really now? And what does that have to do with this ship? Or the mist?”
Before Ace could rebut, two pink beams of light shot out from the mist, knocking the scouts back and restraining them. M.E.T.A.L. stepped above Ace, removed the trident, then helped him up to his feet. “ARE YOU ALL R1GHT?”
“Sorry for taking so long to find you, this mist has been unkind to both mine and Metal’s senses.” Magenta then turned to the scouts, “Who are they, is this ship theirs?”
Ace shook his head, “I don’t think it is, and I get the feeling that this is just a misunderstanding.
Magenta looked at Ace, then at the two very attractive merpeople, and then back to Ace, before sighing and turning back to them, “If you do not wish us harm, then we wish you none as well. I am Magenta, the person you fought is Ace, and our large friend is Metal. We have travelled here from another world in search of our friend Freefall, who we believe is somewhere… here… not necessarily this ship. Who are you and what do you want?”
Tirion struggled against Magenta’s binds, confused at how his fey strength could be so easily thwarted, while Veltria took a breath and calmly explained herself, “I am Veltria, Scout of Morfran’s Ward, and this is Tirion, my fellow scout. We have been tasked with scoping this ship out for our superiors, to ascertain whether it is a threat worth following up on, although I now see that we have far more… interesting matters to deal with. I apologize outsiders, for our attacks, but it seems you are unrelated to this den of nightmares and this concealing mist. I cannot help you with locating this, Freefall, character, but I feel like we can come to an agreement.”
Magenta lowered the scouts to the deck as Ace stood forward, “So if you came to investigate this ship, does that mean you don’t know what it is?”
“Only that it is a den of nightmares and corruption, and that this mist makes it difficult to locate and track, though its thickness is an advantage on its deck. We have encountered no others here than yourselves, and as we were expecting outsiders, well.. We may have acted with more haste than necessary.”
Ace held his hand to his chin, the gears in his head trying to decide the best course of action to take… Could this ship be related to whatever Freefall was going through? Veltria seemed to think that it was not a local to the universe they were in which meant someone could potentially know more about what was going on, but finding Freefall before whatever force had taken her whisked her away again was key, they did not know how much time they had.
M.E.T.A.L. put his hand on Ace’s shoulder, “1 KN0W WHAT Y0U ARE TH1NK1NG.” He turned to Veltria, “1 AM 1N THE PR0CESS 0F CAL1BRAT1NG MY SENS0RS T0 P1ERCE THE M1ST THAT SURR0UNDS THE SH1P. AS Y0U HAVE YET T0 F1N1SH Y0UR SC0UT1NG DUT1ES, MAY 1 SUGGEST 0NE 0F Y0U STAY W1TH ME, S0 1 CAN A1D Y0U, WH1LE THE 0THERS RETURN T0 M0RFRAN’S WARD T0 ATTEMPT T0 F1ND FREEFALL AND REP0RT 0N THESE 0UTS1DERS?”
Veltria thought for a moment, then nodded, “That sounds like a fine plan. Tirion, take Magenta and Ace to the Ward.”
“What, are you sure?”
“Yes. When you get as old as I am, it’s the kind of thing you can feel in your scales.
At this point, Magenta had freed the scouts from their bindings and M.E.T.A.L. had returned Vetria’s trident to her.
Tirion stretched himself, then started to go towards the railings. Before he turned to follow him, Ace felt the need to ask one last question, “Veltria, you accepted this quite quickly, how often do you deal with… outsiders?”
Veltria chuckled, “All the time, although I admit, it’s been a while since I’ve gotten to talk to one instead of just killing them, be careful down there. Not everyone is as nice as I am.”
Ace nodded as he and Magenta prepared to leap into the waters below, to follow Tirion back to Mofran’s Ward.
Unbeknownst to either party however, they were being watched. A shadowy, dreamy eye set itself upon the party as they rode a squid back home, along with who knows what else… Below decks, Saint felt the map shift, they would have to change course soon...
Tirion, the male of the pair, spoke with his partner, “Is this really worth even us going after it? I understand the circumstances are odd but how could this be as big a deal as what’s going on with the egg?”
Veltria, the more scarred of the pair, sighed, “What’s going on with the egg is exactly why we need to go after this… ship. You’re right, that it could be nothing, but what if it isn’t? Whatever this thing did, it scared the pirates up there enough to ask for help.”
Tirion furred his brow, while the pirates and ocean fey weren’t allied, they weren’t enemies either. There was a causal relationship of agreeing to ignore the other, as long as each of them kept their messes to themselves, and helped the other when there was crossover, and whatever this was, it definitely seemed like crossover.
What the scouts knew was that some sort of creature, structure, or corruption of dreams and nightmare suddenly appeared above the ocean around some pirate ships, grew to an enormous size, was fired upon, and then sunk into the ocean, taking with it not only all of the remains of it, but its crew, and some of the crew of the other pirates as well. The pairs mission was to go to the scene of where the ship manifested, track it down, and if it was a nightmare, subdue it.
As Tirion circled around the area, he looked above at the pirate ships that didn’t leave the scene. “I still don’t like this, why do we tolerate those pirates anyway? What if this is a trick?”
“It isn’t a trick. I can feel it. Whatever that thing is, it definitely was here.” Veltria looked at the water, it clearly had been through something. She waved her hands through the changed waters and focused for a moment. “There, the trail is hot, but getting cold, we need to hurry.”
She rushed off without another word, and of course, Tirion followed.
---
Acting-Captain Saint stood at the helm of the ghost ship that currently was the Traveller’s Rest, turning the wheel to follow a map, as any good pirate would do.
It wasn’t the easiest to navigate in the current conditions, when the Traveller’s Rest reformed after it’s wreckage upon arriving inside Port Ceridwen, the shape it took was very… peculiar. While the previous forms had had their quirks, they had also been much more real than the rainbow mist covered ship full of holes, that seemed to be floating on hopes and dreams, though fear and nightmares was also a good guess to go with. Still, it did the job that it did, even with the missing pieces and the much more importantly missing Captain O.
“Saint, it seems like we’re hitting a lull in the wind, surely you can take a break now?”
First Mate Maria stood near the captain, her face much older than when Saint last saw her, but still the same as always.
“Sure, I’ll go below decks in a bit.”
Maria nodded and slowly left Saint to her musings, but hesitated, for just a moment.
After making sure that Maria had left, Saint looked at the other parchment left to her by Captain O, trying once again to make sense of it. There was something about an egg, a nightmare, a city, it didn’t make sense, and she couldn’t figure out what it had to do with the treasure they had to find either, but this is what they did, right?
Saint sighed and went to the decks below...
---
Calibration at 94%...
The computer ticked onward, calculating with as much certainty as it could the multiversial coordinates of the missing Eagle, Freefall. As soon as it finished, a portal could be opened, and the course of action would be clear. To retrieve their friend.
95%...
Magenta was calm, meditating and focusing her powers for whatever was waiting them. This was clearly not the plot of a regular villain, and definitely not anyone from their world. It was a force far greater than that, but no force that she had ever faced could overcome the power of friendship, companionship, and teamwork. She hoped that whatever the situation was, Freefall was doing her best.
96%...
M.E.T.A.L.’s fingers were outstretched on the keyboard, his robotic hands typing and manually adjusting the calculations the Eagle’s computer was outputting. This had to be perfect, there was no room for error. Freefall had vanished from one corner of the multiverse to another twice now, there was no telling when it would happen again. Time was not on their side, and he wasn’t sure if anything other than his teammates was.
97%...
Ace clenched his fist, worried about what it was they would find on the other side. He had hoped that he and M.E.T.A.L. would have been able to keep this from Magenta, to ensure that they could do what they needed to do, get Freefall, no matter what. He hoped that it wouldn’t come to that, that whatever the situation was, there would not be a need for a hard choice. But if there was, he would make it, it was his responsibility after all.
Calibration at 98%... 99%... 100%
In that moment, the portal opened, a whirl of intense energy starting in the center of the room. The three superheros looked at each other, nodded, and stepped through, the metallic interior of the Eagle’s Nest fading into the ocean of Port Ceridwen. Or, to be specific, far above it..
In an instant, Magenta wrapped the trio in a protective bubble, massively slowing their descent and leading her to give Ace a slightly smug smile.
Ace sighed and said, “Yeah, yeah, you don’t have to rub it in. Just land us safely. M.E.T.A.L., where’s Freefall?”
M.E.T.A.L. nodded and began to attempt to search for Freefall, when suddenly, rainbow mist started to appear around Magenta’s bubble. After a longer silence than he had hoped, the machine lifeform spoke, “MY SENS0RS SUDDENLY HAVE MET WITH A MASS1VE 1NTERFERENCE. 1 AM AFRA1D WE W1LL HAVE TO LOCATE FREEFALL THE 0LD FASH10NED WAY.”
Ace clenched his fist tighter, but kept his cool, “Fine, Magenta, how far do you think we are to the surface.”
“I do not know, this mist is… far thicker than it seems, I,” *THUMP*
The bubble popped against the mast of a ship, causing all three of the heroes to fall onto the deck below.
The fog was heavy, Ace could hardly see his own hand in front of him, but he didn’t need to see an attack coming to dodge it. The superhero dodged out of the way of a spear that came from the fog.
“Damn it.” said a male voice from the fog.
Ace reached for his utility belt and pulled out his staff, easily dealing with the attacks from the fog, “I don’t have time for this!” He was upset, starting to become angry, but still more than capable of holding his own against the mysterious attacker.
He was not, however, capable enough to avoid the second attacker, who snuck up behind him and grabbed his arms.
“Tirion, enough with this, we are here for a mission, we can’t afford to waste any more time.”
Ace knew how to deal with this sort of maneuver, and prepared to shift his weight to counter the hold, only for something to coil around his leg, causing him to fall to the floor instead. “What?” he yelled on his way down, as he finally got a good look at his attacker.
Veltria was towering above him, as a veteran mermaid, she wore more scars than the battles she remembered, and while signs of her age were present, it was obvious that she was growing into it like a fine wine. Ace was impressed with her, but wasted no time in slipping backwards into the fog before either one of his attackers could draw a weapon on him.
It didn’t work, with Veltria quickly stabbing her trident into his ankle, luckily only scraping at his skin. “Now, outsider, tell me what you are doing here.”
Ace’s brow furled as he considered his options, deciding to start with something he was pretty good at, “I could ask you the same thing, you have a mission on this ship don’t you? Well, I have a mission of my own, a friend I need to find before it’s too late.” Ace dramatically looked to the side, wondering where his teammates had gone and why they hadn’t come to help him yet.
Veltria sighed and rolled her eyes, but Tirion seemed interested, Ace getting a good look at the other merperson who he had been fighting, this one much less scarred, but no less toned and handsome. “Really now? And what does that have to do with this ship? Or the mist?”
Before Ace could rebut, two pink beams of light shot out from the mist, knocking the scouts back and restraining them. M.E.T.A.L. stepped above Ace, removed the trident, then helped him up to his feet. “ARE YOU ALL R1GHT?”
“Sorry for taking so long to find you, this mist has been unkind to both mine and Metal’s senses.” Magenta then turned to the scouts, “Who are they, is this ship theirs?”
Ace shook his head, “I don’t think it is, and I get the feeling that this is just a misunderstanding.
Magenta looked at Ace, then at the two very attractive merpeople, and then back to Ace, before sighing and turning back to them, “If you do not wish us harm, then we wish you none as well. I am Magenta, the person you fought is Ace, and our large friend is Metal. We have travelled here from another world in search of our friend Freefall, who we believe is somewhere… here… not necessarily this ship. Who are you and what do you want?”
Tirion struggled against Magenta’s binds, confused at how his fey strength could be so easily thwarted, while Veltria took a breath and calmly explained herself, “I am Veltria, Scout of Morfran’s Ward, and this is Tirion, my fellow scout. We have been tasked with scoping this ship out for our superiors, to ascertain whether it is a threat worth following up on, although I now see that we have far more… interesting matters to deal with. I apologize outsiders, for our attacks, but it seems you are unrelated to this den of nightmares and this concealing mist. I cannot help you with locating this, Freefall, character, but I feel like we can come to an agreement.”
Magenta lowered the scouts to the deck as Ace stood forward, “So if you came to investigate this ship, does that mean you don’t know what it is?”
“Only that it is a den of nightmares and corruption, and that this mist makes it difficult to locate and track, though its thickness is an advantage on its deck. We have encountered no others here than yourselves, and as we were expecting outsiders, well.. We may have acted with more haste than necessary.”
Ace held his hand to his chin, the gears in his head trying to decide the best course of action to take… Could this ship be related to whatever Freefall was going through? Veltria seemed to think that it was not a local to the universe they were in which meant someone could potentially know more about what was going on, but finding Freefall before whatever force had taken her whisked her away again was key, they did not know how much time they had.
M.E.T.A.L. put his hand on Ace’s shoulder, “1 KN0W WHAT Y0U ARE TH1NK1NG.” He turned to Veltria, “1 AM 1N THE PR0CESS 0F CAL1BRAT1NG MY SENS0RS T0 P1ERCE THE M1ST THAT SURR0UNDS THE SH1P. AS Y0U HAVE YET T0 F1N1SH Y0UR SC0UT1NG DUT1ES, MAY 1 SUGGEST 0NE 0F Y0U STAY W1TH ME, S0 1 CAN A1D Y0U, WH1LE THE 0THERS RETURN T0 M0RFRAN’S WARD T0 ATTEMPT T0 F1ND FREEFALL AND REP0RT 0N THESE 0UTS1DERS?”
Veltria thought for a moment, then nodded, “That sounds like a fine plan. Tirion, take Magenta and Ace to the Ward.”
“What, are you sure?”
“Yes. When you get as old as I am, it’s the kind of thing you can feel in your scales.
At this point, Magenta had freed the scouts from their bindings and M.E.T.A.L. had returned Vetria’s trident to her.
Tirion stretched himself, then started to go towards the railings. Before he turned to follow him, Ace felt the need to ask one last question, “Veltria, you accepted this quite quickly, how often do you deal with… outsiders?”
Veltria chuckled, “All the time, although I admit, it’s been a while since I’ve gotten to talk to one instead of just killing them, be careful down there. Not everyone is as nice as I am.”
Ace nodded as he and Magenta prepared to leap into the waters below, to follow Tirion back to Mofran’s Ward.
Unbeknownst to either party however, they were being watched. A shadowy, dreamy eye set itself upon the party as they rode a squid back home, along with who knows what else… Below decks, Saint felt the map shift, they would have to change course soon...
Standing here, The way ahead's becoming clear
All across these new frontiers
In my hands I hold the ones I love
Walk forward through the cold dawn
Always to new horizons
All across these new frontiers
In my hands I hold the ones I love
Walk forward through the cold dawn
Always to new horizons