Fate Hates You, Torchwood

Participants:

dee_icon.jpg scrivner_icon.jpg vette_icon.jpg

Scene Title Fate Hates You, Torchwood
Synopsis The Torchwood band attempts finding out some of the secrets hidden behind the high security areas, only to have the hub turn against them and nearly kill their seven rescued Scions. Dee gets a snootful of happy gas. Tyr drops by for a visit. Vette goes virtue crazy. Scrivner just about loses his shit.

The Birdcage Brownstone

The door from the alley opens into a small room or short hallway in this brownstone. At the far end is an antiquated lift that looks like a birdcage, complete with manual levers for operation. Dispite its age, the mechanism appears to be well cared for.

At the bottom, the lift opens into some sort of antechamber from one corner of the room. Before the open cage door is a plain, unornamented wall of what appears to be granite with a thick wooden door set inside it. Engraved above the door archway is "Special Immigration Office: East"

Access is only granted with the proper key. Once opened, the granite door swings inward as a computerized neutral voice intones, "Provisional Access Granted. Containment and Research are currently under lock down. Efforts to penetrate secure doors will be discouraged." Through the doorway, there's a large console in the middle of the chamber with a three dimensional display of the New York City atop it. The holographic display is a fairly complete representation of New York City and it's environs. Mostly there is a very simplistic representation of structures, although the map does have a few colored markers. Numbers and figures at times scroll past, apparently having meaning to someone. Computer workstations hug the walls, along with filing cabinets and desks. Several cots and assorted supplies are pushed into out of the way corners as well, with the idea of long stays. The room is some sort of think-tank, apparently. The only other unlocked door leads to a small kitchen and dining area, which are well-stocked.


What a night. Rufus and Vette got home late and with a whole bundle of naked bodies plus one sky chariot that disappeared shortly after it arrived to help them dump off their load. Needless to say, Vette is having a Hell of a time trying to play doctor, keeping seven Scions - including Marius - unconscious in the hub's infirmary. Space is pretty limited, since it's not equipped to actually take seven at a time, so after spending several hours helping Vette to make some arrangements, everything is settled and done. While she is still dealing with the unconscious brood, the Englishman emerges from the infirmary. He's still wearing a new set of armour - plate and chain mail, greaves and bracers. As he starts pulling off everything so he can get more comfortable, he looks around. Is Dee back yet?

What a night. Dee got home much less late than Rufus and Vette, and she returned with far less body. Less than one, even. A single body part. She didn't put it on ice when she got it home. It had been in a vault. Obviously, it wasn't going to rot. It was just going to stay disgusting. It's carefully wrapped just now, and she's keeping it on her person rather than risk it vanishing when she isn't looking. She didn't expect Rufus and Vette to be back yet, if they got her message and went after the others. Hopefully they did, and it didn't go very poorly. There would likely be no other chance if they didn't go right then. She wasn't home when they got there, though she'd already been there. It's about the time that they have the others settled - more or less - that she returns.

Looking up as the lady finally returns, Rufus opens his mouth to speak, but then he falls silent to see that …. /arm./ "Deeeee?" he says slowly, drawing out her given name juuuust a little bit. "Why are you carrying an arm?"

Dee replies, glib, "Because tonight didn't cost quite enough to get a leg too?" She casually sets it down on one of the tables. "How did it go?" she asks then, her demeanor becoming more serious.

"That's repulsive," Rufus states, as he stares at that arm, transfixed. Tugging at laces, he loosens his armour enough to pull it off of him, yanking it over his head and then laying it out across a rack he monkey-rigged out of some old pipes. "It was a bloody disaster," he tells Dee, looking straight at the woman. "Just about everything that could go wrong did, but we managed to get them all out, alive and stable. I don't know when they'll wake up. Vette's still working with them and will hopefully be able to help them. I managed to kill the Advocate that was guarding them, and there was this psychotic little girl in there who kept raving about you."

"Mmmmm." Dee says. "It really is. But it was also in a vault, and according to Puros' daughter, it's crafted godflesh. I thought I should relieve the Atlanteans of it." she tells him also studying to icky thing. "Ahhh… Speaking of Puros' daughter. He's the one responsible for the change into New Atlantis, by the way. She thought I was being snitty or cheeky with her, or something. I was really just in a rush. I'm glad you're both alright. And that you got the others out."

"She was really furious about you. She kept going on and on about how she had been giving you a test to see if you would be a champion of humanity," Rufus goes on to say. Still eyeing that crafted arm, wrinkling his nose at it, he sinks down into a chair and takes his weight off of his feet. "I suppose we impressed her at some point during the madness. I told her off and then she just… changed. She stopped being /quite/ so psychotic, said we did well, then handed Vette and me a jewel." He holds up a little gem between his fingertips. "She said if we should swallows these in the hour of our darkest need, she would help us. Then she summoned a chariot for us so we could take everyone home. Dee, who is Puros?"

Dee nods to him as she listens. "Obviously, she isn't capable of seeing into someone. She saw me being rushed, and made her own wrong decisions about me. That's life." She says then "I got one when I first met her. Along with Jacob and some kid Scion who is both stupid and delusional. She offered me a trade. Said that if I gave it to her she'd tell me who was responsible. Since her brother had made a point of saying she favors humanity and wants to give them a chance, I chose not play semantics, and was wrong in that. I took the deal, and all she said was her father's name. I'm sure she was very pleased with herself. I suspect that if I'd tried to narrow it down, she'd have just taken offense that I didn't trust her. So, eh. I don't know exactly who or what Puros is, aside from her father. I have to do some research on it."

"Does this girl have a name?" Rufus asks, unable to keep from looking down at that god arm again. Gah. He wrinkles his nose again. Blood and gore don't usually faze him in the heat of battle, but having something like that on his coffee table… blergh. He leans forward and rests his elbows on his knees, steepling his fingertips to tap-tap-tap together.

Dee replies to him "Her brother called her Mary. I have no idea if that's a nickname, or a name she took for the human form." She sets about getting herself cleaned up.

"Mistress Mary, quite contrary… How apropos," Rufus drily answers. Watching Dee get up, he tilts up his head a bit, and then again he looks down at that arm. Warily he stands up, unable to take seeing that thing anymore, and he walks away briefly to come back with an old towel and drape it over the limb. He wraps it up, and then he says, "/Why/ would anyone want crafted godflesh?"

Dee replies "You saw the captives. The had some implants and such. Maybe they were hoping to replace someone else's arm with it somehow? I have no idea though." She continues washing thoroughly, as though she was just touching icky things. Which she was. "I had a choice between that, Melanope's royal jewelry, and the other Scions. My first choice was the Scions, but there was no way I could take more than two of them with me. That's why I sent the message to you two, once I remembered I wasn't here by myself." She looks a little chagrined, and adds "Not really used to having back-up, when breaking into a place."

Once he's done wrapping it up, Rufus hoists it up into his hands and looks over at Dee. "I'm going to set this in one of the vaults," he tells her. And as he turns away to go walking into the other room to do so, he hesitates. "Don't worry about it. It all turned out well enough in the end. I suppose our next immediate step is to figure out to whom this belongs and return it."

Dee nods to him. "That's certainly on the list." she says to him. "Depending on whose it is. Most cases, definitely. There's weird things going on with the gods, though." She dries her hands, then heads towards the kitchen. "It's going to be a long, long next few days. I'll get the tea going."

"Brilliant idea," Rufus says, shortly before he disappears. While she putters around in the kitchen, he heads down to the vaults to slip the arm safely into hiding. Eventually he comes back, heading into the kitchen to join the lady, and as he approaches the tap, he glances over his shoulder at her. "What do you think we should do next about the Atlanteans?" he quietly asks.

Dee shakes her head slowly. "I have no idea. Until we know what exactly Puros did to cause the change, we can't even begin to figure out how to change it back. We need more data. So, next is a lot of research."

He nods his head to that, and turning back to the sink, Rufus spends awhile washing his hands under hot water. He turns it off and then wipes off his hands on a nearby towel. "That sounds more suited to Vette and to you than to me, though if there's anything I can do to help, you've only to ask." He falls quiet for a few moments, scowling to himself. "You wouldn't happen to have a way of contacting one of our families, would you? The gods must know more about Puros than any mortal source of information. Otherwise, the only alternative I can think of is to somehow break into the Atlanteans' sources."

Dee hms, then shakes her head again. "I've never tried, though." But she pauses, before pursing her lips. "The demigods. I mean, not us. The others. Maia. Jason. Them. They're higher on the food chain than we are, and I know where they live. Why don't you see if you can get in touch with them, while Vette and I do what we can?"

Rufus meanders away from the tap and crosses the small kitchen, looking around for tea bags in the cupboards. "Give me their contact information and I shall see what I can do," he says, smiling faintly in acquiescence. When he finds his box of Earl Grey, he pulls it down and open.

Dee nods. "No problem. Assuming they're at home. If not, maybe they have staff who know how to get in touch. If you have no luck there, I know a warehouse where I might be able to get word to Jason. Not sure, though." The water's boiling, so she takes it off the heat.

It's several hours after the big ass raid on the Atlantean palace, long enough that Rufus had finished helping Vette to rearrange their infirmary and pull out extra supplies to accommodate seven unconscious bodies. A short while ago, he left the redheaded lady to finish doing whatever she was doing with the patients, and he's been spending some time talking with Dee. Right now, the pair of them are in the kitchen. She is pulling a kettle off of the stove, and Rufus is dipping dry tea bags into three empty mugs. "Thank you, Dee," he says. "We'll give it a shot. Even if they're not home, hopefully one of them will be shortly."

"Hopefully." Dee replies to him. "Of course, there could also be more information here in the base somewhere. We still haven't pried too far. Maybe it's time to change that, in case there's something in there that can help us? You know, divine CB radio, or something?" she suggests, though the latter's clearly a joke.

Vette comes out of the infirmary, smelling of infirmary things. "I've made them comfortable," she says, "and put them all on ivs full of painkiller. Fortunately nothing that was done to them was of a lethal nature, so with time to recover they should all be fine."

Turning towards the stove, Rufus takes up the kettle to pour hot water into the mugs, letting the tea steep. Mmm. Earl Grey. "You do have a point. We are less likely to get our arses fried prematurely by whatever is down there now, I suppose." Looking up at the sound of Vette's voice, he smiles warmly at her, and he sets the kettle back down. "Good. That's an incredible relief. We should probably make preparations to help them get out of the city, after all of this. There's no telling how they've been traumatised or affected, mentally speaking."

Dee nods to Vette. "Thanks. It looks like in some cases, they were being made maybe stronger?" she asks. "Different experiments, I guess. Also, let me know when they're coming to. If they were mind-fucked by the Atlanteans, maybe I can help them shake it look." She hms, then says "We should corner Jacob sometime soon, too."

Vette purses her lips for a moment, but finally she downs her tea. "Well," she says, not willing to address the subject any further right now, "I'm ready to be about our plans for today if the two of you are."

Looking regretfully down at his unfinished cup of tea, which hadn't even finished steeping, Rufus sets it down. He'll have to enjoy it later, he supposes. They /do/ have a lot of work to do. "Hm." Briskly dusting off his hands, he turns away from the counter to walk out of the kitchen. "I suppose we should get our work done before they wake up, yes. When they do awake, they are going to need our attention. Gather your equipment, ladies. Let's see if we can get those doors open and what lies behind them." He is going to get his freaking armour back on. If something opens up a huge rift down there, letting through a monster that might bite off his head, he wants to be prepared.

Dee watches Rufus put down his cup. "What? We're in such a rush you can't drink your tea? I think after our night, we deserve to at least have a cup of tea. At the least, bring it with you." She picks up his mug, to carry it back over to him before going to collect her tools of the trade again.

Vette says, "I'm already ready to go," and goes over to the infirmary to make one last check on the "patients." She's really got to do more reading up on medicine, fun as all this hands on experience is.

Blinking at the cup of tea that she gives back to him, Rufus cannot help but smirk in vague amusement. "Yes, Mother," he drily quips. But he sets it down so he can get into his armour, as that is a job that takes two hands. By the time the ladies are ready to go, though, he is as well. Armed with his sword across his back and his cup of tea in his left hand, he sips as he walks forward, waiting for them.

Dee smirks at Rufus, and replies "Good boy." she says to him. The arm has been carefully wrapped up and stowed in their own vault for the moment until they can figure out whose it is. Once she also has what she needs, she heads to what they've determined is the main control panel. "Let's get this part started." Her words are light, but her demeanor is very serious.

Vette nods her head and says, "Can you hack it, Dee?" She seems to be letting go whatever issue had her pursing her lips. She'll ask the questions that last adventure generated later; now it is time to concentrate.

Coming up to stand behind the ladies, Rufus tucks a fist at his back and very helpfully sips his tea. It keeps his mouth shut, keeps him from distracting the women as they work. He watches, though, very attentively, keeping his eyes peeled and his ears pricked for any hint of something going wrong.

Dee's full attention turns to the machine in front of her. She sips her tea, then sets the mug carefully to the side to see what she can do about the controls to open up more of the hub. They need hacking, though they've been hesitent to push too hard before now.

The computer pulls up the screen as it always does. All this time they have been allowed a basic layer of access to the base systems, enough that they can turn the heat up if they want to and monitor the external surveillance at least. Still.. there is a lot more to the system hidden between various prompts for everything from secured files, quarantined software, what they want now though probably is to bypass the blinking "Base Under Security Lockdown" that shows on almost every menu somewhere or other. There are a few potential approaches to hack past that, one might try to bypass it to open the door locks specifically, that would probably be the easiest. A bit more effort would be required to convince it the emergency has actually passed, but if the system believes that it is likely to disengage all those secured doors at once (but whatever internal security measures are in place would likely remain active), probably the most difficult to accomplish task would be to change their own profiles in the system so they had the proper authority to actually end the lockdown. That might take some work, and risks really pissing off the system if they get it wrong, but is probably the most thorough solution.

Vette looks over Dee's shoulder as she works and says, "I'd just start with the doors. We don't know /why/ it went into lockdown, or why that daughter of Columbia decided to pass it to us without any security protocols."

"Desperation on her part?" Rufus ventures to guess in answer to Vette, but as he has nothing else useful to add, he turns his eyes back to Dee. He watches quietly, then looks back at the computer screens.

Dee hms, considering her options. "Yeah. If she was the last of her Band, she might have thought there wasn't a choice. And if they have files in here on some of us she might have known there's far worse out there for the hub to end up with." Though, she nods to Vette's other comment. "We don't know why there was a lockdown. Maybe I should first see if I can find that information. If it was just set as a precaution, I'll try to slip us into the permissions file. If there's something else going on, we'll try it a section at a time."

The systems of the base are not terribly stingy with the reasons for the lockdown. Given the surprising and worrying disappearance of almost all of the original team here it seems logical to deduce something was targeting them due to their association with Special Immigrations. Given that each possessed knowledge that might be used to access the secured area of the facilities a lockdown was instituted so that standard protocols would be changed until more information was obtained and new personnel had been assigned. Given neither of these has come to pass the facility has kept itself locked up tight.

"Can you assign us as the new personnel?" Vette asks thoughtfully as she reads this over Dee's shoulder. "That might make this easiest. It might at least open up some new things for us at that point."

"And hopefully give the security systems a reason /not/ to target us if it recognises us as authorised," Rufus adds from back there in the peanut gallery. He takes another sip of tea.

Dee nods slowly as she calls up the information. "That's what I'll do, since it doesn't look like the lockdown is keeping something from getting out. Just protecting the base from intrusions. You know, like us." she adds with a bit of a smile. "I'll add us to the authorized personnel list." She decides, then starts her work.

It's an epic battle that Dee is having with the computer system, the inputting of new profiles proving to be both time consuming and difficult as it continues to pop up one security check after another, one request for verification finally slips past her too many times and the screen goes all "….."

There is a sudden whir of machinery in action as concealed doors slam into place sealing the exits, that has never happened before! An automated voice saying, "Authentication of new personnel failed during security lockdown. High security protocols initiated. Please remain where you are until verification of your status by an authorized member of the Immigration Branch. Attempts to tamper with base systems or facilities may result in use of force to protect this facility. Please remain where you are.." the automated voice starts a repeat cycle.

Vette murmurs, "Well, get ready to fight, since it looks like I'm going to have to start tampering. Maybe I can hit the right wires to calm it down, though, too." She takes out her little electricions kit and and starts tampering. First she'll try to find the wires that will calm down the high security protocols, then she'll try to open the door.

Dee could feel herself losing it, but not fast enough even to warn the others. As the security measures are triggered, there's a stream is very unladylike words from her. A lenghty stream.

Vette murmurs, "Well, get ready to fight, since it looks like I'm going to have to start tampering. Maybe I can hit the right wires to calm it down, though, too." She takes out her little electricions kit and and starts tampering. First she'll try to find the wires that will calm down the high security protocols, then she'll try to open the door.

Rufus pauses in mid-sip of his tea to look sloooooowly up at the ceiling, eyebrows raising to his hairline. There's something about this that is probably funny on a cosmic level, but he's looking less than amused. He refrains from sighing or voicing even one single complaint as he sets his teacup down off to one side.

Wires that can calm the high security protocols are kind of tough to find. The computer is the computer and whatever orders it have issued have doubtless gone to numerous systems, sub systems, and controls around the base. With a bit of effort she could sever the computer from the network but the results of that are unpredictable. The exterior door is at least a single system to look at, more designed to keep people out than locked in she at least can get at some of the systems wiring but sensors studded around hint it has been made sabotage resistant, if not sabotage proof.

Vette pops open the top cover and starts stripping insulation away from wires. Then she twists them together, humming under her breath. The door slides open, and she tucks her kit away. What is she humming? The theme song for MacGuyver, which is what she nearly always hums when she does this stuff.

Dee watches around them, frowning and obviously trying to work through what she did wrong. At least she's not steady-stream cursing anymore. "What's the plan, folks?" she asks the others.

Well, at least they can /leave./ They won't be trapped like roaches in a paper motel with him having to bust out through the walls. Scrivner exhales a breath and looks up and around again. "Onwards," he suggests. "Hopefully we can find something like an instruction manual to this place."

At least they can get out. That's something. Dee isn't the sort to give up that easily though, like her compatriots. "Alright. We'll do this more subtle-like." she says with a bit of a smile. She is usually subtle. That wasn't her most subtle attempt, though. She goes to one of the doors that they hadn't yet been through, and sets to work just trying to get into there. It's more specifically her milieu.

The door upon inspection to trained and skilled thiefly eyes proves to have two man braces holding it shut, one upper and one lower. It's really a pretty solid looking piece of hardware, that door. Still Dee manages to place her explosives properlly and soon enough there is a muffled BOOM as they blow. The upper brace has been sheered clean through and the lower remains looking ragged but holding. Applied force could probably get it open, or an applied blowtorch.

"Tampering detected" calls out that voice from around them, "Attempt to violate secured sections of the base under way. Security measures level one activating." The sprinkler system overhead comes to life but it is not water it is dispatching, jets of pressurized white gas beginning to drift downward and quickly cloud the chamber.

Looking up quickly, Scrivner's eyes widen to see all that gas jetting down at them, but he's already taken a breath. Quickly, he clamps a hand to cover his nose and mouth, and he backs away a step before reaching out his hand to grab Vette by the arm, ready to drag her out and back through the open door if need be.

Vette throws an arm over her own face. Well, she'd have been disappointed if this had been easy, and it's fascinating to see what's in place. She reaches out to try to help Dee out, realizing the gas is barely effecting her. "We'll just let it ventilate out. Let's go open the front door. I'm sure it'll stop in a minute. I'll try to take the doors electronically in a sec."

Dee winces again. Some days you're the windshield. Today, she's the bug. Her attention was on the door, rather than on the vents, so the gas catches her more by surprise than it might have otherwise. She gets a lungful of the stuff, and gets woozy enough to be on her knees quickly. She's not going anywhere on her own.

Seeing that the redhead is fine, Scrivner steps forward a few paces to catch Dee. He's just a wee bit dizzy himself, but he hauls the woman up and over his shoulder. Right, time to evacuate for a short while. He's coughing as he starts walking out of that hall, trying to get some fresh air, and he looks back at Vette. "The infirmary," he rasps. "Sealed, right? Marius and the others? They'll be all right?"

"Sealed," Vette confirms. "But I'll go check on them." Once Rufus gets Dee she'll break away to go do just that. "Man. I knew this place would be a tough nut to crack, but this is hard going. Maybe we'd better try to hack again, once Dee's alright. Rufus, go open the front door to let some more of this gas out?"

Dee is just coughing, and not doing anything at all to either help nor hinder Rufus. She is messed up for the time being, and will be no help at all.

"On my way!" Scrivner calls back. He carries Dee out at a brisk trot, right up to the front door, so he can step out into the tunnels and let some of the gas escape. There he sets the lady down, crouching beside her and lifting her chin to look down into her eyes. "Don't go anywhere," he murmurs. "I'll be right back." He stands up again, and then he goes back inside to make sure Vette won't need any help. But knowing how Fate goes, she probably will.

Vette realizes that most of her patients are going into shock. "Shit," she hisses. She starts working on them, trying to help them out. She'll do all she can; darting from patient to patient. If it were still New York, she'd have taken them to a real hospital, but they couldn't do that just for the Atlanteans to take them again. "Shit fuck shit," she hisses.

Don't go anywhere. That's funny. Dee is definitely not going anywhere.

In the Infirmary the seven rescued Scions are on their beds. Kailin, Marius and Zach all look pretty as they have been. They are sprawled out immobile and dozing away quietly looking like nothing in the world will wake them. The steady rise and fall of their chests taking in the gas venting in this room as well with no real signs of distress. Glory, Amirah, Elin and Corgan are all made of weaker stuff. All are shivering uncontrollably, bunks rattling while their frames twitch. Vette's inspection of them all Elin is probably the least far gone at this point, her reactions a touch less extreme than the others.

Coming back around to the infirmary, Scrivner opens the door and stops short to see gas inside of it. "Oh, shit!" He may have no medical training at all, but that look on Vette's face is clue enough. Things are going bad. He darts forward, then, and he hoists up Marius and Zach onto his shoulders, so he can get them out. It's bad that the four smaller Scions are going into shock. It'd be even /worse/ if the stronger ones took in too much and then went into shock too. He's going to get them out into the hall with Dee before that happens.

It's not easy working here where the gas fumes are still intense, a fog of white clouding the vision and causing wafting tendrils of fog to follow every motion of a limb. Vette somehow though manages to get Glory stabilized, the right treatment of drugs pumping into her system and working that careful balance of boosting her system back up without causing the organs to burn out. She drifts up towards a peaceful still state. In the meantime the gas proves to be too much for Amirah and Zach, both entering into a period of frenzied jerking motions about the same time before their bodies finally go still and lifeless. Dead eyed stares aimed at the ceiling. Elin is continuing to get worse, her convulsions growing more violent as time goes on.

Vette darts to Elin next, preparing another syringe. Her mouth is set in a thin line. She can't help the dead; she can only help those still living. They couldn't have known, but she still feels horribly guilty. She injects Elin with the same drug cocktail.

Darting through the hub now as fast as he can, moving like a blur of motion, Scrivner comes back to hoist up Kailin and then Glory onto his shoulders, to get them out of here and join the others before they have a relapse. His eyes fall upon the two dead ones with a twitch at the corners of his eyes and mouth, and he looks back at Vette with desperation. But he leaves her to work and instead hurries right back out.

Elin is doing better under Vette's surprisingly skilled ministrations. Not nearly so well as Glory was after her ministrations but better. Still her heartrate is unsteady, frame shaky, if she is going to make it then someone had best get her out of the gas quickly before she can take any more of it into her lungs.

"Rufus, get Elin next, she's stable," Vette says. She isn't strong enough to haul people out into the hall without hurting them. That's all there is, so she just covers the two dead ones up with a sheet.

When he comes in, seeing her pull that sheet over them, Rufus hoists Elin up onto his shoulders and snaps, "No! Don't you dare give up, Vette! Get the defib paddles, get some adrenaline in them! Revive them! Come on! You're the only one of us who has a chance in Hel of doing it!" How long does it take for the brain to start suffering damage? Couple minutes? He can't remember, but he'll cling to hope. He seizes Amirah up onto his shoulder next, because if they're going to revive anyone, it'll probably be easier /out/ of the gas chamber.

Dee might not be unconscious, but she kinda wishes she was. She just lays there where Rufus put her, marveling about how today is ending so badly.

Vette looks at him for a moment, then prepares adrenaline shots and pulls out defib paddles. At least they've been stocking up all this time, but holy Hell. She's not a doctor. "Alright, here goes." She'll work on Amirah, now that Rufus has her out of the gas.

Amirah spasms in place, even with paddles and adrenaline it takes awhile to get her going again and yet soon her heart is beating away once more. Go go Doctor Vette. She doesn't look /well/ exactly but she does at least seem alive and likely to stay that way in the immediate future. White gas continues to drift out of the half open outer door, the interior slowly venting way once more.

While his lady is working on Amirah, Scrivner rushes back inside the hub to hoist up Corgan and carry him out. He lays the poor kid down beside the others out in the hallway, pulling back the sheet to get his chest bared. Then he moves away to the others, giving Vette space to work, and so he can go get blankets and sheets to wrap up the others. We do not need the kids going into shock because they get too cold from lying on the floor.

"Yes," Vette growls. "Good call, Rufus." That leaves one more. The moment he's out into the hall, she starts working on him in the same way. She doesn't waste a moment. Now that she knows it's possible…she takes a deep breath, summoning up everything she's got to give him one more chance at life.

Thank goodness for air. Dee loves air. Air is good. Finally, the fog is starting to leave a little, but she's not getting up yet. Once again, she's had to leave the rescuing of the seven to her Bandmates. Hopefully not a trend.

Zach is pretty far gone at this point. She does manage to get his heart going again, eventually, but it is very weak and unsteady and the man is obviously still in some state of shock. If he's going to remain alive it's going to mean some real managed medical care for awhile, and even then it seems not unlikely he'll have suffered some sort of brain damage in the process. Still, hope springs eternal.

Vette shakes her head. "We can't keep on like this. Not until these guys are out of here. I'm going to have to sit here and try to keep Zach here alive, and that means reading every medical textbook we've gathered here between treatments. If we had any idea where Simone was I'd feel better about this, but we've got to abort the project."

For awhile Scrivner crouches near to the kids, pausing in wrapping up one of them in a thicker blanket. He wants to go back in, finish the job. He /really really/ wants it. But then again… these people need him, and there are more important things than finding out secrets and mysteries. Drawing a deep breath, he has to make a visible effort of will to quietly say, "We'll try again on another day. Dee's looking woozy, and these kids definitely need us. I'll help you get them warm and secure, then I'll go back inside to do what I can to clean out that mess in there."

Dee mms quietly. "Woozy. I love that word." she says, er, woozily. "Woozy." Then, though, "Shit. This was not my best work." she observes unnecessarily. "I'll help as soon as I can with stuff."

There's a sudden coughing. It's a ruff and gruff kind of coughing as someone steps through the hazy mist. It's a rather rough and gruff older man, very Daniel Craig in a way, if he was wearing thick furs of Scandanavia. He has a little bag in his arm as his brows raise and he lets out a soft chuckle of amusement. "Fate hated you all today." he says. Oh look, it's Scrivvy's daddy!

Vette stands and stares for a moment. "Of course, if we don't do it today we might find unexpected problems down the line. But if we /do/ do it today we'll get more gas on our patients. We should take them to the hospital so they could see real doctors, but of course if we do they'll just get captured again, which means they'll surely die. I could try to learn what needs to be learned, but I'm not a real doctor of course." Vette sort of ineffectually frets with one of their blankets. She stares up at Tyr and says, "I could tell Tyr this is exactly why I think Atlanteans are horrid, or I could keep my mouth shut, or I could ask him what he's doing here, or I could see if he wants tea and make some…" She seems unaware that she's analyzing all of this out loud. "Uncertain outcome for all actions…"

Scrivner /had/ been about to lean in towards Vette, and when she just starts babbling, he stares at her in some confusion. Poor Dee gets a glance and a wry sort of smile. And then? Coughing. Still crouched on the ground, the man looks up at his father. His eyes widen, his jaw hangs slack and then? He claps his hand over Vette's mouth to shut her up. He sounds strangely calm and nonchalant as he says, "Hello again, Father."

Dee looks at the unfamiliar man, trying to place him somehow. Of course, Scent the Divine tells her quite a little something, at least. She's slowly trying to get up, but it's not her most graceful moments. She does agree with him, though. "Fate hated us. The Scions are more important than cracking the base. We take care of them, first." And then, huh. Tyr. "Wow. We must have really, really screwed that up. Well, mostly me." She's willing to accept her screw-ups. "We'll take them across a river, to a normal hospital so the Atlanteans don't get them back."

"I decided that I wasn't going to give you this before, but considering your father.." and he looks towards Vette before turning his attention back to his son, "And I were watching your antics in the Atlantean palace, I figured you might need this." And he pulls out a lawn gnome. He's chubby, has a white bushy beard, a red conical hat and a blue tunic with brown pants. "His name is David." Oh geez, David the Gnome.

With her mouth covered, Vette doesn't continue analyzing out loud, but her eyes keep whipping up, down, and sideways, indicating thought happening at something like, Mach 5.

Scrivner stares at his father, blinking a few more times, then he stares at the chubby thing. "David… the Gnome," he repeats, as if he cannot quite believe he's really hearing this. "Ahhh… thank you." He pulls his hand slowly from Vette's mouth, giving her and Dee both an unreadable look before he stands up on his feet. "What does it do?"

It's… a lawn gnome. It's like he's daring them not to laugh. Fortunately, the day has sucked enough that Dee is not all that tempted. Likely, Rufus is terribly relieved. She instead works on becoming more vertical, still coughing some.

Dee winces some then though, as something comes to mind. "The arm." she groans quietly. "It's still in the vault."

Vette 's gaze turns inward as she continues to stand there, thinking. Occasionally she mutters probabilities, but she does at least seem to have taken herself out of the conversation while she overthinks /everything/.

"It'll kick you when you're about to do something stupid. In the crotch." Tyr says completely deadpan.

There is a loooooooooooong silence after that one, one which leaves Scrivner staring at his father, trying to determine whether or not he's serious. Does the god of justice have a sense of humour? There's a distinct wariness in the man, and his shoulders tense up as he slowly replies, "That is seriously going to reduce the chances of me continuing the line, Father."

Wow. Dee just stares at Tyr. Never for a moment does she think he's kidding. This particular god is not known for his sense of humor. It's not the first time she's grateful for her own father being Hermes. Not that she doesn't think he's wondering what's wrong with her at the moment, after that mess.

Vette arches an eyebrow at that one. She can think of a few things to do with David the Gnome. Hang it upside down by shackles over a bathtub, for example. Of course, that could have 105 dire consequences. She looks a little more out of it as she starts to consider each and every one.

"Then all the more it serves as a reminder for you not to screw up, boy." he says with a cheery and most charming smilehe can muster, even if it means that his son might get kicked in the family jewels for a few times. "When I told you to not act like a raging murderous psychopath, I meant to think about situations before acting. Trying to negotiate with an Advocate of Versak is time to act like a murderous raging psychopath. Dealing with kids on drugs is not." he says matter of factly. "Am I clearer now?"

There's a flush of colour in Scrivner's cheeks, not out of embarrassment, but out of temper. For a few seconds, he stares at his father with his teeth slowly gritting and a defensive fury getting him to bristle. But he swallows it down, and he stands up to his full height and lift his chin just a touch. "Crystal clear," he quietly states. "In my own defence, Father, I did not know /what/ that thing was. For all I knew, it could have been sentient like the kappa were and willing to get out of my way without me having to resort to violence. Once it proved itself unwilling, I was more than willing to strike."

Dee feels so badly for Rufus. She is so not getting involved, though. He's a god of justice. She's a demigod of thieves. She loses. She's actually surprised he doesn't dock his son just for having anything to do with her. On the other hand, who knows what all David the Gnome will kick him for?

Vette could scowl, but she can think of all the reasons that could go wrong! She claps her hands to her head. It could go right, too, if she could talk Tyr down…she shakes her head from side to side, closing her eyes. Outcome uncertain! Too many variables!

"But like I said, David the Dvergar will help you. He will guide you, and he'll only kick you only if you're going to dosomething ridiculously stupid, asa sort of negative reinforcement. It was Hephaestus idea anyway." he says with a dismissive wave before hehrmms for a few moments before looking at the two women in the room. "Besides, I have messages for all three of you."

Hephaestus. Rufus' fury drains slowly away as he glances at Vette, and seeing her looking so distressed, he frowns and edges back to her side. Silently, he rests an arm around her waist and rubs his hand over her back, trying to silently reassure her. "We're listening," he says.

Dee looks at her Bandmates, as it becomes obvious there's been some sort of dealings between Tyr and Hephaestus. Huh. Then his attention turns to her and Vette, and she fights back a wince. She was so hoping to be beneath his notice. She listens attentively though, rather than open her mouth and remove all doubt as to whether she's a fool. She slides a glance towards Vette, though. She's the once being all weird at the moment.

Vette blinks at her father's name. But that sets off another chain of decisions, and she opens her mouth stupidly while she tries to decide what she should say next. She can't decide, because there are too many potential consequences, so the end result is her saying nothing!

"Something is happening. As far as we can tell, three young demigods, such as yourselve have recently achieved apotheosis. Thing is, we didn't do it." Tyr says matter of factly. "I believe you're familiar with two of them, a Haldor and a Jason. Haldor has the stink of Ymir on him. That much we know. Jason, something else entirely that we don't know. Your fathers.." he says, looking towards Dee and Vette, "Want you to investigate this Jason fellow. He likes women apparently." he says with a sage nod. "You, I want you to investigate whether Ymir is back. If the Thorson reached apotheosis due to one of the Titans that bodes badly on impending Ragnarok."

Frowning, Rufus listens to the news with a scowl on his face. But something said in the midst of all of that causes the man to blink, then tighten his arm around Vette's waist. "There is a problem with this," he states. "I will go and investigate Ymir as you ask, and if I must, I will go alone to do it, but I am not going to leave the ladies to investigate some philandering asshole and allow him to make unwelcome advances on them. Granted, if Miss Floros wishes to do that, such is her business, but I will /not/ allow Miss Adams to go anywhere without me."

Dee's forehead furrows deeply at the mention of Jason and Haldor, and then she looks at Rufus. They'd just talked about finding them for information. "Fate really does not like us today. I'll talk to Jason, if I can find him. We know each other." "Three." she echoes quietly. "The third is Maia? She is involved with Haldor." Then though, she frowns deeply and says "The first part of the prophecy recited right before Porus changed New York into New Atlantis: "The Flame of the Heavens has awakened. Beauty will conspire with him and will empower the Flame-haired Fiery Hunter. The Moon will wear the Tiara of Dreams and Illusions. The Trickster works with the Fangs of Devastation and the Interpreter of Condolences will arise. Woe be to the Dodekatheon, the Aesir and the Amatsukami. The bell rings and the twilight of the gods is at hand."

Vette stares off into space for a moment and says, "Why are the Gods unable to find this information for themselves? Sending demigods vs. gods—interesting thought process. Like sending pawn vs. Queen. It can work, but only if the set up happens correctly." She goes mumbling off about chess moves.

"Oh, don't get your panties is a wad, boy. Jason likes his women divinely beautiful. I would too after sleeping with the very embodiment of sex itself, but oh well, what can you do.." Tyr says as he rolls his eyes and gives another dismissive wave as he lets out a soft chuckle under his breath. "Aye, there is that Maia girl. Nice girl, but Susano-o and his cronies have plans for her. But I was speaking of a third, another young woman by the name of Xenia, daughter of Ares. She recently achieved apotheosis without the help of her father, Ares. That is the other they would like to to investigate. Jason and Xenia are the two priorities for Miss Adams and Miss Floros. Haldor is yours."

He then looks at Vette for a few moments. Face meet palm. There's a loud smack. "Because we're busy fending off Titans from our realms." It's like a duh moment for him. "I thought you were smart, girl." Cranky Tyr is cranky.

"She is brilliant. Don't you dare insult her, Tyr," Rufus snaps, his temper climbing ever higher. He takes the slightest of steps forward, scowling as he nudges Vette just a little bit behind him, because if all Hell breaks loose… well, it's his duty to take the brunt of it. "Your godlings will be investigated as you ask, though I have to wonder how we are to do it? Simply question them? Capture them and bring them back to you?"

Dee doesn't look pleased when Tyr insults Vette, but she doesn't really look surprised, either. What she does do is watch Rufus, cause that could end really badly. She blithely ignores his father's shot about them not being divinely beautiful. To be fair, they're not. She's okay with that. She seems to know what's expected of her, and remains silent. Though, she does move to Rufus' side. She might get her ass handed to her for it, but they're her Bandmates and she stands beside them.

Vette settles behind Rufus and blinks at Tyr. Something still doesn't add up to her, but her eyes go unfocused again. Now she's mumbling through the different potential consequences of capture vs. intrigue. She doesn't even seem to notice the verbal smackdown that she just got from Tyr.

"Bahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!" Tyr wipes a few tears from his eyes as he chuckles and just shakes his head at the thought of the young demigodlings capturing the godlings. "They're on a whole different league from you son. I said investigate. Face them head on..I was there when Haldor regaled us with tales. He defeated a god in a Titan realm. He's built like something else. Jason found New Tartarus for the Titans to be bound. Maia nearly destroyed the Amatsukami, the Kunitsukami, the various Kami, Japan and all it's people and then healed it all. No. This is a time when you must not be a murderous raging psychopath. They are young gods, their humanity still remains in their heads. Use that to your advantage. You cannot fight them head on." he says matter of factly.

"But Xenia is the one who worries your parents the most. She summoned and channeled the power of Nyx and brought forth a hand which almost destroyed Olympus." he says matterof factly. "Her sweet honeyed words are starting to seduce young idealistic demigods to her cause that Olympus must be brought down and there must be a regime change. She scares the shit out of your parents. I think it's hilarious!" he says with a mighty bellow.

As he gets his temper back under his control, Rufus clenches his hands into fists and breathes. Deeply in, deeply out. Eventually he relaxes, enough to the point where his figurative bristling relaxes a little and the line of his shoulders inches downwards. "We'll do our best then," he says in answer, managing to sound calm and appropriately civil once Tyr's had his shout. "Have you got time to answer a few questions of ours while you're here?"

There are a lot of questions Dee has, but some gods are more prickly about being questioned than others. She's going to go ahead and guess Tyr might be one of them. She does toss in quietly "Like whether you know any gods that are missing an arm." Though, then she says "Does this mean we're not to work on stopping Puros and restoring New York for now. Or is it beneath us now?" That thought obviously bothers her a lot, but she understands that one works up to one's potential, and demigods deal with bigger things than many of the more direct threats to humanity. She's not sure where the Puros matter falls, though.

"One of our patients is missing his arm. Is it not the same arm? Possible ramifications of restoring armdifficult to say," Vette says, hardly pausing for breath. "If it's not his arm, there could be a rejection from blood and tissue type issues. Possible evil ramifications from leaving the artifical armtoo many to count. Do not have sufficient medical equipment for either course of action. Could try to take over hospital—further negative press, further risk, does not help with current assignment…" This overload of intellect is drawing her in a million directions at once.

"Beneath you? The gods themselves don't know how the strands of fate were switched. We're still trying to figure that out ourselves." he says with another mighty laugh as he shakes his head and grumbles something under his breath. Idiot may have been one of the words he muttered. "And no, no gods are missing their arms. Tezla-whatever is missing a leg, but he has a wierd shadow leg." he says before shaking his head. "No, you are still to figure out what is going on, consider this extra credit."

"We have been told that a Titan named Puros is responsible for it," Scrivner briskly says, lifting his chin a touch higher. He resists the temptation to look back behind him at Vette, though there's a tightness at the corners of his mouth and eyes that suggests a wince. Gah. "Who is Puros? Rather, what is his domain? And /who/ are the Atlanteans? What is our history with them?"
Dee is quiet for now, and listens again. She does glance towards Vette, looking a little concerned.

"It is something that your mind cannot comprehend at this time. Even our history of it was lost." he says matter of factly as he sighs softly, taking a deep breath while hrmming for a few moments.

"Atlanteans are bad. Annexed a piece of our nation. Terrible experiments. Bad people," Vette murmurs under her breath, eyes unfocused. "Very very bad. Yet what is the solution? Go leftkill them alland we perhaps unbalance what we do not know. Go righttry to resolve peacefullynothing happens, they stay in power. Go centerwhat we're doing, catch as catch canperhaps impact, perhaps not…" She's staring at the ceiling now, as if watching roads branch off from roads there.

He doesn't like hearing that, not one bit, and Scrivner scowls at his father. He does not challenge that, however, and hearing Vette again behind him, he sighs ever so quietly. "Very well then," he says in answer. "Thank you for the… gift. And your time." He looks about to say something else, but whatever he's thinking, he decides to keep it to himself and instead says, "If you want to stay and make yourself comfortable awhile, the hub is a bit of a mess, but you're welcome here." In other words, he's got nothing more to say, so he glances back at the two ladies, in case they want to have a go.

Dee says to Rufus, "We need to get her drunk after this. See if we can't reboor her brain." Then, to him and Vette "The Atlanteans are… bitter. They were apparently taken down by the other pantheons. I have no idea why. It doesn't excuse what they're doing now, though. Not at all. If I thought there could be some sort of negotiation, I'd be all in favor of that. But now we've seen how they handle power, and what they've done to our own. They were going to slaughter the homeless. We all have to stop them." Rufus' offer to his father to hang out in the hub causes her to glance towards said hub. "I… don't think we're in fit shape to entertain at the moment…" The whole idea, after they screwed the pooch trying to hack in, almost does make her laugh.

"If you want to find out what happened, find the last book by Plato, the Democritas." Tyr replies as he bows and suddenly disappears.

"It must have been their charming personalities," Vette says, waving her hands around vaguely. "They're so much fun to be around. After all, all they want to do is harvest your eggs and take off your arm. Rufus, I might have punched your father except that I postulated negative outcomes for that action…what should we work on first? There are so many different ways this could all go wrong. Only a few ways the could go right."

After his father's disappeared, Rufus stands for a moment in silence, contemplative. He walks forward to take up David the lawn Gnome, turning him about in his hands a few times. Then he taps a fingernail against his nose. Taptaptap. Then he turns to look over his shoulder, arching his eyebrows. "No, we can't get her drunk. If the Scions go into shock again or something goes wrong, she needs to stay sober, but we /do/ need to do ….." Then an idea hits him. He stares at Vette for a moment or two, and he asks, "Miss Floros… Do you think you could watch the kids for about thirty minutes? Miss Adams and I will ahh…. discuss the finances. That might help."

Dee's eyebrows widen at the mention of the book, and she nods as he vanishes. "I'll get us the book." she says. When Rufus suggests alternatives to getting Vette drunk, Dee chokes. It's a good thing she wasn't drinking anything. "You two… go 'finance', if you like." She doesn't look like she thinks it'll help.

"Do we have finances anymore?" Vette asks vaguely. "I wasn't sure where we stood with that, when the entire thing changed…of course we could have switched out our currencies…of course, we're terrorists now…"

There's another sigh, this one deeper and wearier. "Don't leave them alone," Rufus quietly says, gesturing down at the unconscious kids. "Come and get me if something goes wrong. Worse comes to worst, I…." His voice trails off. "Actually, if things go wrong again, I haven't the faintest bloody idea what I'll do, but we'll manage something." He takes Vette by the arm, turning her towards the hub and poking his head in to see if the gas has cleared out by now. "Yes, dear, we have finances. /Something/ has to pay for the food and the medical supplies."

Dee nods, turning her attention towards the other Scions. "Really, we should get them to a real hospital before anything else." She might be able to figure out some things. She is a Jack of All Trades, after all, but that's not something to bet lives on if they don't have to.

"Only if we can get them out of the city," Vette points out. "We'd need a way to transport them. We'd need a truck large enough to let seven people rest comfortably. Then we'd need to not get caught. Then we'd need a way to re-enter the city if we intend to carry out our tasks here. Then we'd need a way to avoid questions when we drop off 7 people. That also assumes that mortals can handle the problems left by the Atlantean technology. Of course, not doing anything continues to rely on my own ability to care for them."

"Yes, yes, that's lovely." Rufus all but pushes Vette through the door once he's ascertained it's reasonably safe to go inside. Annnnnnnd…. about twenty minutes later, he comes back. He does not look all that…. happy. There's a grumpy sort of stomping in his steps, and when he brings Vette back to her patients, the first words out of his mouth are a snippy, "Maybe we should resort to Plan B and pump her full of beer."

Dee has just been keeping an eye on the kids. She hides a smirk at Rufus' grumpiness, and is clever enough to know not to make any comments at all about whether he was inadequate to the task. "How about we just make her sleep. She's not very useful to us as she is now." She sleeps, you watch the kids, and I'll work on transport. Unless you want to go find us something?"

"If I sleep, something could go wrong with one of the patients. Of course, if something does go wrong with one of the patients, what would I do about it at this point?" She goes babbling off on a tangent about different treatment options, the vague look still on her face.

Because of her prudence, the lady will be spared a frustrated roar. Rufus settles Vette down beside her patients and sighs at her, some of his irritation mingled with worry. "That sounds all right to me, Floros," he says, looking back at the other woman. "/However./" He's just remembered something. "We have two black SUVs and a black towncar parked in the garage," he says. "They belonged to the Band before us. We should use those. I don't believe we've ever pulled them out of long-term parking. They shouldn't be recognised."

Dee nods slowly to that. "Three, three, and one." she says. "Think Vette can be trusted to drive in her condition? Also, are the bridges even open? I was thinking we might need to fly them out."

"I can drive, just as soon as I pick from the 104 possible routes out of the city," Vette says absently. "And of course weigh the advantages, disadvantages, and possible complications of all of them…" she goes /stock still/ as she tries to work this out.

There's no hesitation here. "Absolutely not," Rufus briskly states. "She's in no condition at all to drive." He watches her go stock still, then he sighs again. At least now his irritation has diminished. As he rubs at the back of his neck, he says, "One of them has had an arm grafted on him. We can't exactly take him to a hospital, not without attracting attention. And one question on my mind is what we do with them after we've taken them to hospital. We can't exactly just dump them and walk away."

Dee notes to Rufus, "For reference, if I ever do something like that? You have my permission to knock me out. It'd be a mercy sedation." She thinks about it, then says "We see if Maia and them are home. She's a healer, remember? And like the others, still human enough to care about a few Scions."

Vette says, "Isn't Maia the one who threatened to kill us for trying to kill Princess Evil? " Prepare to be treated to a long long list of potential consequences of the actions of taking her there.

"Vette, that was," Rufus starts to say, while she's in her rambling. "Vette! That was not Maia!" The man clears his throat and then scowls again. "Perhaps," he says. "Though Father mentioned that Susano-o and his friends had plans for her. Is it safe?"

Dee shakes her head. "I have no idea. But they're closer, she's a healer, and even if they're not home it might be a safe place to keep them for now. And we're low on options."

She sure looked like Maia to Vette, but she just switches streams in her babble without even pausing for breath. According to her they have /plenty/ of options. She'll explore each one. In depth. Just…few good ones.

"All right," Rufus says, still sounding rather doubtful as he just talks over Vette's stream of babble. "Here's a compromise. Contact Maia and ask her if she's willing to help. If she is, then we'll transport the kids over to her. If not, well… what can we do as a Plan B?"

Dee hms. "I don't know. Let me try to get hold of her, though." She gets herself pulled together and ready to go."

"All right. Good luck," Rufus says with a brisk nod. He steps back to let Dee pass, and then he walks around Vette in order to check that all the kids are still breathing and still have a pulse.


Thank you Char and Pika! XD


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