Location: EarthGov Military Base
While waiting on Chad to produce the material they want before confronting the President, Lemon has been going over the stuff Chris managed to get them in Phase 5. They discuss the material they have gathered after mocking Chad for a while and note that the group is believed to be ancient and around since before EarthGov was created and went by another name back then. And believed they could secretly rule the world. While Angela and Mi'Na have Chad scanned at Adeline's mocking, Marcus asks Tabetha if they were ever actually in control when she brings up organizations like the Templars and other organizations. Lemon notes the group would split up and disperse again over times and would nudge and prod history in directions that they wanted such as Cran being elected. And it is believed the Circle had a hand in Sunny's dad's fate and could be why she is after them.
When the joking on Chad moves over to clones, Adeline grows annoyed and notes that they have guests at the front door. Weapon XII and XIII step inside to be interviewed and Lemon leaves them to Marcus for the time being. They evade and do half-truths to Marcus and Tabetha's questions and Darien notes they have been trained by Chad for such things. They do show their powers off to them and answer that there are 11 Weapons created by Chad in all and they claim that none answer to Chad. They claim though that none of them have teleportation abilities when asked and the team finds that shady. When asked to keep and eye out for the teleportation signature XIII declines but XII agrees since she is keeping an eye out for Aya.
Elsewhere near the Presidental Building, Zayne and Sunny arrive inside with Zayne's magik. Using her magik they transform their clothes to street clothes and prepare to go inside to find their target. And inside the Presidental Building, Dias senses an intruder and runs off to find them, making Saf and Stacey stare after him.
Location: Military Base
The team is going about their daily business - Adeline going over reploid files while Lemon shuffles through Ninth Circle files and Ren runs about the base in her kit fox/wolf form trying to steal food from people in the cafeteria. After a quick moment between Adeline and Reikana after she comes in late talking to her agent, with Reikana teasing Adeline about in a mood due to being dumped and Adeline spatting she is like 13 going on 14, the team soon is called for a team meeting. Gathering both teams before Marcus could go over the Ninth Circle files, Lemon informing them that Vice President Stacey called them, asking them to come to the Presidental Building-Senate Building due to a sighting of what appears to be Sunny and Zayne. She states it seems they are not going after Dias, but they do seem to be going after high profiles in the building, likely other Senators and Dias has run off after them. At this point Marcus brings up the Ninth Circle confusing the group bringing up comments about stuff like Dante's Inferno, but Lemon says they do not have time now to go over the entire thing and they can talk about it later. She splits the teams into two - one to go after Dias and see which one is the true President Dias; Mias or President Dias in office. The other group will go after Sunny and Zayne and stop them from doing something disasterous. Lemon places X in charge to go after Dias and sends Marcus after Sunny, stating she wants Marcus not to get distracted by the Dias situation, and the teams head out.
Location: Presidental Building - Team Marcus
Marcus, Vesta, Wyrd, Zephyr, Tabetha, Truth, and Rea, head into the building, finding it still full of people and nothing out of the ordinary so far. After the team wanders aimlessly for a bit Tabetha uses Aces of Spade to help them find where Sunny and her magical girl might be going and as they head toward the Senate Building, she would sense that the walk-way between the two buildings is wired to explode if tripped. After dismantling it and continuing, they find one of the doors has a trap if opened, giving them a clue to what Senator the two have triggered. Some of the team manages to get under the trip wire and into the Senator's room to find a dead senator - his face pained from what looks like having been questioned - with Sunny and Zayne exiting the window.
The team rushes in and begins to engage the two in battle, which begins to become an all out-brawl between the two teams. With Zayne's powerful magic rifle that can blast through people if they are not careful and Sunny's powerful explosives, they manage to hold their own, but the team's numbers they begin to overpower the team. Zayne's magical familiar - Tsukaima - begins to talk to Zayne it seems mentally and she agrees, and it seems to glow evilly. Chad finally shoots the thing and doing so drops Zayne oddly, but it unleashes a powerful sonic wail that knocks everyone down painfully, even knocking Wyrd back to black hair mode and disables Rea's Ground Out ability. The Tsukaima then begins to float and unleash it's own attacks that AOEs and powerful in themselves, enraged at being shot and damaged, and one flies at Marcus - who earlier had taken a gun shot blast by Zayne and was already bleeding out - when a figure jumps on his body and takes the magic blast, shielding Marcus.
John rises after shielding Marcus and lifts him up over his shoulder like a princess, while Truth picks up the unconscious Zayne - angering the Tsukaima even more, who then gives chase and fires more magical blasts after the team. Even Sunny follows them, firing shots after them. After most of her team - Wyrd, Chad and others - tell her to just leave the girl, with Sunny throwing grenades and others, she throws the girl back and Rea fires at the poison container, poisoning Zayne and Sunny to slow them down. The team then books it out of there as the Tsukaima pauses, then fires one last fuck you blast at the ceiling, burying them under rubble.
Location: Presidental Building - Team X
As the other team nears their target, they get a bad feeling something might have happened to them, sensing the shaking in the building, but they press on. Entering a room they find President Dias scribbling on a floor with Saf his battleplans to deal with Sunny and Zayne in crayon. Upon seeing him, Mias declares him fake and as does President Dias about Mias and the two begin to do battle immediately in front of the team as they watch, deciding whoever wins must be the real Dias. However, to their surprise, President Dias begin to show the tattoo on his left arm like the real Dias, while the Mask Dias does not seem able to do so. However, the fight is interrupted when everyone, including the two Dias' are hit by powerful shockers as military troops enter and three Senators they know walk in - Senator Hamilton, Peter and Hale. Laying there, Reikana/Noire begins to see something odd - she sees that the three are all shapeshifters, not the real thing, as they kneel to talk to the group.
The Senators order the troops to get Stacey, The President, and Saf to "safety" and then begin to talk to the group, thanking them for setting this all up for them and show them they have doctored the video of group attacking the group using a fake Dias to try to overthrow Dias and the chaotic battle with Sunny and Zayne. A new senator they do not recognize walks in - who seems to be a genuine human - walks in and seems to be running the show and hints they are working with the shapeshifters to make their move and seems to be part of the Ninth Circle. And in return they are going to give the shapeshifters what they want. The Senators then begin to take the team off to get rid of them. Much to Noire's rage, they decide to keep Ren there due someone having connections and she is taken elsewhere, but she is unable to do anything at this time, despite trying to do so. As they are taken to a van to be taken off, Daiman attempts to trigger adrenline to help X and the others gain their abilities sooner.
Location: EarthGov Military Base
Thanks to the warning by Angela through her dragoon powers, Lemon and those back at the base begin to download all the important files while Adeline wipes what is on the computers to keep it from the government. Everyone on the base begins to move to X's awesome shuttle/car ride and begins to get in it as the computer people finish. Cherry, learning about what happened, warps off to try to find Marcus and save him. Handing Warren a detonator to the base, Josephine gives Warren the honors of blowing their base up to help cover their tracks, which he happily agrees, blowing it up as the vehicle drives off.
Location: Presidental Building - Team Marcus
One by one the team is unburied from the rubble and find themselves being arrested for trying to overthrow the government, Cherry lurks nearby to try to rescue them. As they are moved along, John bleeding heavily from shielding Marcus a second time due to the ceiling coming down, the others are not doing that well either, with Zephyr and the team barely standing and Wyrd acting a little off. Once in the van, Cherry busts in and prepares to warp out Marcus but is talked in to warping out the entire group. They appear in a field where X's group is appearing, having escaped as well, X holding her chest from doing such a ripple so soon after being drugged and being given adrenaline. Darien notes that with them being on the run they have to becareful now about what they do and how they approach things. They decide to head to the safehouse and from there see how much Alexander Cran knows since he was likely the one who had Ren pulled out due to the "connections".
Location: Kane's Safehouse
Kane and Adeline are working to get the advanced computers on Kane's safehouse off the main grid so they can use them without fear of being detected. Adeline's blonde hair has been slowly going white over the past few weeks making it a mix of blonde and white. Noire so far has been refusing to change back to her normal form and seems to be twitchy due to the prolonged time being in the form since Ren is captured while the others get the safehouse all set up and ready. Lemon notes she gives them two weeks to find this location due to EarthGov's capabilies to locate warping powers and knowing the team's patterns. While they debate where to fall back next and what their next plan will be, Adeline points out running would be unwise due to how far EarthGov's reach is and how many allies they have right now. And they are hitting up friends and could be turning them into shapeshifters, meaning more hostages.
Adeline also notes the Speaker of the House is likely an enemy since he is running the show. The team decides to look into Cran to see if he has been compromised and it will let Noire see if Ren is okay since Cran grabbed her. After some getting ready and thinking they heard Chad being called a butthole, Marcus notes despite his desire to see Chad arrested right now, does he have any hidden bases they could relocate to temporarily and throw the enemy off. Adeline also notes as the team begins to throw some blame around and tensions rise that there has been an inquery into Senator Denham due to the team going rogue and thought to be shapeshifters and the failure to capture Lev due to Chad. After they finish, Cherry wraps the team to the Repliforce Base.
They find the Repliforce Base on higher alert and having more security than before when they arrive and Angela notes who did it will matter the most to the team. They have Cherry do her younger form and do the old distraction tactic while the team begins to try to sneak inside. Meeting up with Blue the team is quickly ushered inside to a building out of sight. Explaining the situation to Blue as best as the team can manage so she takes them to meet with Cran. Angelos meets with them as well as they step into the office and see Cran and Ren, much to Noire's delight and notice Ren is all dressed up like a lady these days and working for Cran. When asked if he knows anything, Cran notes he has been suspicious of the government this past year and has been going over the team's case files. When Chad brings up the Ninth Circle, he notes he has never heard of such a group before but when Tabetha mentions the Illuminati he does pause then.
Cran explains that the Ninth Circle and all the shadowy groups like the Illuminati or Free Masons or any other such group might be one and the same; they all try to direct Earth in a way they feel is proper and make changes subtlely behind the scenes. The team and Cran begin to wonder what made them begin to take a more direct hand unless it was Yggdrasil and everything being unbalanced in the galaxy recently. At that moment a large EarthGov force teleports in outside and they realize a reploid must have reported them. Cran, Ren and Angelos decide they need to make things convincing and Cran pulls out a stun gun while Blue heads out of the office to try to delay the EarthGov forces. Marcus calls Cherry in while Cran fires stun shots at the team while Ren and Reikana talk, with Ren promising to write her when she has a chance and Noire noting she hadn't been able to transform back to Reikana properly since learning about Ren being taken. The team is warped out by Cherry as Angelos and Cran are dropped and Ren makes sure to stomp on Angelos' junk for having 100 kids.
Arriving back at the safehouse, they find Lemon and Adeline has the safehouse mostly packed up while they were gone. They seem reassured that Cran is on their side though X notes they should be wary since Cran is a good liar and wonders what is up with having Ren dress up in that dress. As they teleport to Chad's safehouse, they begin to lower deep into the base underground for 2 minutes, making people wonder about Chad and his designs. However they find a group waiting on them down there - Asarar's team. Asarar steps forward and hands Marcus the data crystal that he wanted before all this mess containing all Chad's files on all his Weapons, this base and all his other locations. She also seems to recognize Chris for some reason on their way out after delivering it. The team wonders why Chris was being looked at so Tabetha induces major stress into Noire to activate her powers to do the shapeshifter thing.
Location: Chad's 2 minute Deep Hermit Base, Now Known As Hermit Base
After Tabetha has overly stressed Noire - enough to begin making her hair fall out if she keeps doing it too much over a few day period and multiple times a day (that type of stress) - she awakens Noire's strange Dark One power to see shapeshifters once more. She begins to look at each of her allies one by one to see if they are shapeshifters. First up is naturally Chad and clears him. Next Lemon checks out; during all this Adeline slips behind Lemon to avoid being looked at for some reason. After a comment by Noire to make something fresh again, Lemon muses that she hasn't made food in forever it seems since taking on the role of Cheryl. Attempting to look at Adeline, even sprinting to do it, Adeline dodges her, using her future power to move around Lemon and others to avoid her. Tabetha backs her up saying she has been in her mind and does not think she is one, making Adeline mutter that she will get back for that - making Kane and Lemon think Tabetha forced her way in but Adeline notes that it was a competition thing and Adeline was over confident and lost.
Climbing up to a higher vantage point, Noire begins to focus on the room in one sweep, looking at people one at a time while Cole activates his weapons to be safe. Kane is checked off as safe, then Marcus, then Tabetha. Rea shows up out of the middle of nowhere, wondering what is going on, which makes X suspicious since he seems unaware of what is going on and wants Noire to do him and Rea and Chris immediately do a wordplay of how X phrased it. Noire notes she does it rough to Rea and so Lemon begins to cover Adeline and Wade's ears during the exchange, especially when Rea can take anything Noire throws at him with interest, making it sound more sexual. Sadly though Rea is clear.
X is cleared next, with a high clear rate. Then Truth is cleared. During this Adeline leads Wade away from Noire's prying eyes, especially when Chad makes a comment and Marcus notes someone should look at Chris, especially in case she has been Sunny the entire time, getting a scathing look from Chris. Angela is cleared next by Noire, then Mi'Na. Katherine is cleared as well, who is standing by Cole. However, Noire gets a strange reading from Wyrd, getting a not quite right feeling from her - an offness. Wyrd notes it might be she's feeling her death feel she is feeling and Truth believes maybe Wyrd was made from elements of Dark Ones to get Wyrd's power. While the others get their weapons ready and X advises Truth to get away from Wyrd, Noire moves on to peer at the others, clearing Reese, Vesta, Darien, and Warren.
Marcus muses and has Cherry come out, who appears from the shadows and asks Noire to compare Cherry's scan to Wyrd's, after noting Cherry has Dark One stuff in her butt and other places, getting a jerk out of her. She gets the reading of a fellow Dark One out of Cherry, with no offness feeling. As she goes to look at Wyrd again her powers begin to fade away and power down to how often she's been using them, exhausting her. Wyrd notes she can just leave if they do not trust her but Chad thinks they should seperate her from the rest of the team instead of letting her leave or interact with the team to be safe, since they cannot be sure either way. Truth hugs onto Wyrd who notes that seems fair, deforming the scythe she had out the entire time. Adeline eyes Daiman who didn't get scanned by the team and moves to mess with the computer systems, not trusting him while Chad thinks that if Wyrd is a shapeshiter she might kill Truth and replace her but Marcus points out you'd need two to manage that feat.
Lemon notes that for now they need to get some rest and plan a course of action in the morning. The enemy is continuing to pick up their family and friends, hoping to learn more about the team's wereabouts and replace those they know about. She moves off to join Wade in bed, while Marcus has Cherry move off with him, the two going over the datachip that Asarar gave Marcus; Cherry helping him access the datachip so Marcus can read the contents on it. Zephyr meanwhile claims she will just go to bed and brood after realizing her mother is a target in the hospital that she was placed in after her coma, going off to bed. Adeline meanwhile muses and theorizes a bit on the shapeshifters and how they get so good at mimicing people, especially those with bonds. She believes that they are likely about to copy their target to get the memories to help them learn about the target and act like them better, and if there is a bond target keep them on ice somewhere as not to alert the other person with the bond. Either that or they are very good at learning manerisms, or perhaps a bit both. But Adeline therorizes they likely keep targets alive until they are done with them somewhere. Kane decides they need to capture one of the shapeshifters to learn more about them and Adeline points out until they manage that they should ask Tagia's team for information on the shapeshiftes since they are hunting them, so the team sends out a call for information.
Date: 10-639.4.23
Location: Hermit Base
While most people are still sleeping, Zephyr and Darien gear up to go to the hospital and retrieve Ariel before she is taken by the shapeshifters or the Ninth Circle. Adeline and Chad ignore the two as they are joined by Angela, Cole Rea, and Mi'Na as they head up the elevator platform to the surface. After they leave, Chad and Adeline rise from their fake sleap and Adeline goes back to working, finding something that makes her wake Kane to tell him that he might want to wake the rest of the base. As they all begin to gather, she plays a message she found where a unit has discovered Vice President Stacey and her bodyguard Saf. Their orders are to pull back while experts will be sent in to deal with them.
Adeline notes it is a small military unit that discovered them and will likely be disposed of and they are in a suburb area outside Mega City. Marcus makes the call to grab the two; from there they will make the call if it is a trap. Daiman goes to see if Truth and Wyrd are okay and to get them ready for the mission, opening their door. He finds Truth handcuffed and Wyrd straddling the naked Truth sexually, giving Daiman a dark look and flings a scythe at him. X frowns, since she is convinced that Wyrd is a shapeshifter after what Noire felt, wondering why they would be with Truth in that way, but the team heads out on a mission. Josephine and Adeline remain behind as mission control as Marcus and X head off to try to rescue the Vice President from whatever the "Expert Team" will be.
Location: Mega City Hospital
The Ariel Rescue team arrives at the hospital, trying to blend in as they do so. They see their faces on the holovids with information displaying about their crimes but thankfully the nurses and adults around in the main floor do not seem to be looking outside a little child, who fails to get the attention of her mother. After locating Ariel, they are ambushed by military agents who dampen their powers with some item and they are forced to do battle to escape. During the battle, Ariel begins to glow like she mght awaken, almost like the fight is waking her up, but they manage to dispatch the enemies before she fully wakens and take out the dampening field and the glowing light dies down, with Ariel slipping back into the coma. From there, Cole teleports them and Ariel back outside where he has to rest for an hour, meaning to get back to Hermit Base it will likely take a few hours, or at least until they reach a safe location to find a shuttle to fly there.
Location: Mega City Suburbs
As they had out, with Vesta flying low with Chris and Warren having trouble climbing fences to cross yards, they finally spot a wounded Stacey entering a person's house with Saf to seek shelter. However, they are being stalked by four people who look like X, Spirit, Ripple, and Virulent, much to the team's surprise - especially X. A battle breaks out with the two teams battling one another until X manages to ripple and grab Saf and Stacey, bringing them to the their team and they manage to escape out with Cherry's dark warp before teams are crushed by the four elite shifters. Noire manages to get one look at them and gets a similiar feeling from them as she did with Wyrd. They manage to make it back to their base where they recover and wait for Cole's team, while they patch up Stacey beside John.
Session 345: Government Action (2200)
Location: Hermit Base
While Adeline and Kane look for the missing families, the rest of the team tries to set up a trap to catch the fake Dias and capture him once and for all. While Katherine works on getting Cole powered back up, others work on other projects and Lemon hangs up Christmas lights to make Chad's base feel more cheerful and cooks pancakes, noting it has been forever since she cooked something since pretending to be Cheryl. While there is brief talk about pain killers by Chad, getting chiding responses from Chris and Kane and fishy looks from Warren and Chad, Adeline brings up that Wyrd has been acting strange lately and moving around with Truth's knowledge. She also reveals that they leaked the location of the fake Dias and notes it is probably a trap to lure Dias in the hopes of battle, knowing it will draw Marcus and the rest of the team. Or as Angela puts it Marcus to rescue his lover and she'll have to save both of them, to her dry humor.
As the team heads out Adeline asks what should those who remain on the base do if Wyrd is a shapeshifter and she has the death ability Wyrd is known to use on people. Since it is likely going to come down to flight Kane and family prepare to keep and eye on Wyrd as X opens a ripple to the location Adeline gave them and the team heads there. As they leave, they get a transmission from Taiga and Erica on an unknown world. They talk about shapeshifters and what all the know about them and go over Hunters and how deadly they are amongst the shapeshifters and how Makas can detect them somewhat. Adeline notes that they haven't seen their EarthGov Makas since going on the run and hope they are safe with Senator Denham.
Location: Near The Base
Appearing through the ripple in the Siberian cold, they begin to trek their way through the rigid weather toward their target. They spot what looks like Dias doing battle with the guards outside the base and so they head down there to catch up with him and give support. Noire seems to be in a more seductress mode as they go, telling Tabetha to stick close to her as they reach the base. Getting there, Marcus splits off to give Dias back up and has X take command. Noire meanwhile is getting stress headaches from using her ability to detect shapeshifters and Saf warns her not to burn herself out. As they continue Chad and Kane have hacked into the base and have eyes on it, seeing Dias and Marcus are trapped in some sort of jello elsewhere in the base much to their lameness according to Noire. X opts though to go to the other Dias' room while Noire still has some energy left in her Shapeshifter detection power and opens a ripple there, having her people jump through.
Location: Senator Denham's House
Lemon, Kane, Chris and Reese arrive at Denham's house to follow up on the Makas to see if they can check up on them and see if Denham is still okay. Adeline guides them on comms and notes if they do manage to find them to grab their pet so she can become a magical girl; they find the Makas are living with the Senator now and he tells them he is having trouble finding a unit that will work with them. Lemon and Kane explain the shapeshifter situation and why the shapeshifters are likely throwing their weight around to keep them out of EarthGov right now. The two Makas agree to assist the team in the shapeshifter hunt, the younger one being all for it. Adeline notes when she tries to bring them back that the teleporters are being jammed before communication is cut off and so they have to rely on the Makas to get back there.
Location: Siberian Base
Marcus and Dias find themselves trapped in gel together and are about to be teleported and try to fight their way out. The soldiers do not believe Dias is the real President as they set up the teleporters and after a bit a fake X walks in and sends them away. After ordering the soldiers dealt with after they are out of sight she turns her attention to Dias and Marcus who grab onto the wall and begin to break free, making her form a ripple to slice their heads off, launching her attack. Meanwhile, X's team arrives in the Faux Dias' hospital room where he attacks Reikana, upper cutting her. At that moment Faux Ripple and Spirit step forward to join the fight, surrounding the team. As they try to contact Adeline to get a teleport out of there they find the communications are cut off on the other end, forcing them to face the shapeshfiters.
Session 346: Battle Against The Shifters
Location: Hermit Base
While on the headset trying to aid the team, Adeline's procog psionic abilities allows her to grab her strange staff made of wood and roll out of the way of Wyrd's scythe as it comes down where she once stood in what would have been a killing blow, destroying the computer console and knocking out communications with the team. Able to easily dodge Wyrd's attacks as she leads Wyrd toward Cole, she suddenly drops to one knee due to Wyrd's death range, realizing she is having her life force drained without even being hit by the woman. Confused, Wyrd announces she is using Wyrd's life force drain on her - revealing she is indeed a shapeshifter - and before she can take out Adeline she is shot in the back by Josephine. Attempting to pull Josephine into range, the woman runs off but Wyrd does not pursue even after being shot once more; however the battle does alert Katherine and Cole during all this and they split up - Katherine going to check on Truth and Cole to help Josephine and Adeline.
One by one the rest of the base begins to arrive such as Darien and Cherry, and they all engage Wyrd, attempting to defeat the shapeshifter before her death drain takes them out. As the team keeps hitting her with everything they have, attempting to take her down, they chip away at her life and barely do much damage when Katherine finally arrives with Truth, who had been handcuffed in the bedroom. As the team prepares to get the wounded such as Stacey and Ariel out with Daiman's help, Truth begins to face off with Wyrd, enraged with the betrayal she feels - likely the dom sex thing the shapeshifter Wyrd did to her. Daiman finds John missing - having stuffed a doll in his bed that looks like him - so they move on, with Stacey helping Daiman get the other patients out.
The battle begins to get more heated as the wounded are evaced, as the shapeshifter Wyrd goes into her second form and tries to kill Rea with her super move but Truth manages to block the move just in time, seconds before Cole. She pauses sensing Kane's team returning from getting the maka and she pulls out a personal teleporter, retreating, much to Truth's anger, but as she is teleporting Rea strangely ground outs the teleporter, dragging the battle out despite the team being bloody and near death. She only pauses when Truth pauses that she will let Wyrd go if no one attacks and Wyrd dubiously takes it, figuring the odds are against her despite the team being wounded, moving past Kane and Lemon's people to go up the elevator pad to the surface, leaving Lemon wanting answers as she checks on Adeline.
Location: Fake Dias' Room
Surrounded by 5 shapeshifters, Chad and Angela bicker like old times - with Angela claiming they are not there to fight and Chad saying why wouldn't the shapeshifters fight, having them where they want them to kill the entire team with no witnesses, and Angela promising to take down at least one of the shapeshifters in the battle or all of them. Ripple notes that the team will just continue to get in their way and that is why they have to fight and he does some sort of ripple shot, the ripple blast just appearing inside Angela to cause bleed out damage. And so the battle begins, with the team having to fight until they can find an escape window as X tries to get her ripples to operate once more with the shapeshifter ripple interfering in this room.
Not all the shapeshifters seem to be entirely in it, despite them all seeming to be Shapeshifter Hunters/Elites, as Virulent and Spirit seem to be shy and polite during the battle, while Ripple seems to be eager for the battle and Dias seems to just find it fun to do battle, acting like it is some sort of game/role he is doing. The Fake X seems to be hard to read but definitely does not hold back either in the battle as they fight and the team decides to focus the most on the Faux Ripple, since he is the most dangerous in their eyes. As the battle ranges on, the team begins to weaken but they do inflict some decent damage on a few of the shapeshifters like Ripple, especially with some of their high level moves and Angela and Mi'Na combining their powers to form a single being briefly. Finally X opens up a ripple and the team begins to escape through it, with X grabbing Spirit, the tamest of the shapeshifters, as they go through, surprising the girl. Chad manages to deflect one of Ripple's blades as he throws it after the team into the ripple to stop them as they all escape.
Location: The Hallway
The Faux X launches her attack at Dias and Marcus, aiming at Dias first, having the two trapped in gel so they cannot escape her. However during the battle they manage to break free - Marcus transforming into a partial werewolf and Dias using his strength, allowing them to begin to do the battle proper. John eventually shows up to lend a hand and the three of them use the time to distract Faux X by Marcus offering Faux X to leave this place and join him - and John being in a hospital gown - notes the true way to do battle is to show one's manliness. This leads to him and Dias ripping their shirts off - and Marcus - which just enrages Faus X more - acting like the true X - who wants them to do battle the normal way. They use the moment to escape while Faux X is distracted, promising to end them when she meets them again.
Location: Hermit Base
Spirit sulks in a cage the team has locked her in, eyeing the team wondering what they plan to do to her while Lemon looks over Adeline for wounds. X seems to think Kane should cut the shapeshifter up to learn their weaknesses while he thinks they should worry about escaping to a new base first before they do anything like that first. Spirit bemoans her lot to be cut up by bad people for a science experiment and when challenged that she is the bad guy and they are the good guys, she simply eyes Chad and Dias. Marcus asks the shapeshifter Spirit questions which she surprisingly answers: Yes she is a shapeshifter, she fought the team due to orders and that she could be like old heroes who retired and the orders came from the leaders of Earth. When asked by Angela why she was framing Spirit, she thought that Spirit was dead and hence choosing her and did not know Spirit was happily retired these days. When asked about Ripple, Spirit in a sad monotoed voice said she thought their Ripple wast just redeeming the name cool once more.
Meanwhile Dias notes to X that Marcus was trying to woo the Faux X and get close to her, making X raise an eyebrow at Marcus. He notes that he was using his brain to escape without a fight - before X erupts and begins one right there and then. When Saf points out that Ripple was doing an evil laugh and doing the bad guy thing to Spirit, trying to steer the conversation back to the topic on hand, Spirit notes that is why one should be a hero and should not get into character too much. Saf and Chad both muse on that answer - though with how Ripple was acting it is hard to believe he is a bit timid like Spirit. Noting that Spirit said there was one place the met a lot once, the team keeps her alive once and does not cut her open like X wants, instead getting DNA samples from the mouth and move on to a temporary base and ditch this one.
Location: Secret Chad Base #782
X and Adeline are going through the computer plans while the rest of the team broods due to recent events. They make travel plans and after coming to the conclusion they need to travel in smaller groups lest they are caught in one large group, Lemon drops the bombshell that she plans to take Adeline, Wade, and Jenny to Geyze and get them out of harm's way, much to Adeline's chargin. Many of the team decide to go to the moon to deal with the Ninth Circle and to hopefully rescue their family - wherever they may be held. Spirit agrees to help and hides behind Marcus, hiding from Truth as she holds a sack and not wanting to be put in it. Meanwhile the group begins to break into groups, some going to Geyze with Lemon, others getting ready to go to Luna and prepare to hunt the Ninth Circle.
Location: Unknown
Asarar's team works with Sunny and the Cobalts and are given an assignment to escort them to a building on Luna. Asarar's team will download the information on the servers. As they head out, Asarar's group is a little wary of Sunny, knowing her reputation and not knowing who Zayne is right now. Making a note to keep the kids like Nell and Bella safe, they head out to do their jobs.
Location: Luna
After evading some guards and running around Luna, the team meets up with a bandaged John who joins them on their quest. They head to Chad's next base and begin to set up camp there and Chris notes that Luna is a lonely place, noting her family is dead and she's considered dying a few times herself but it would be a depressing place to die. Faux Spirit points out locations for them to investigate and might be of importance, though it is hard to tell how earnest she is despite her acting like it. While eyeing the monitors they spot Asarar's team appearing out of thin air at one of the locations pointed out and Chad flatly notes that's how they got into his base, much to his annoyance.
Location: Strange Building
Arriving at a location near the terraformed areas of Luna, Noire has to work with the others in Tabetha's battlemeld to break down an impressive protective field to get them inside. They see posters talking about being a better person and other motivational posters all over the place. Further in they see videos of all the teams worst moments, from Xanatos destroying a hospital, to Chad being Id, Cheryl being a drunk, destroying the Dark One race, and more. They see that someone has been through the files before them and that most of it was not on computers but in hand files. What was left shows that the the Ninth Circle and the shapeshifters made some sort of deal a while back and were working together. They note it is like Asarar who has the files and head out to learn more.
Location: The Moon - Meeting Location
Asarar meets with Sunny and Zayne out in the open while acting casual. Asarar tells her about The Cube, a prison out in space for the worst criminals that EarthGov sends to without letting the public know about them and throws the lock and key. Sunny becomes interested in the location over going after the Ninth Circle members right now. She lists the Cube's power and other problems and Sunny eyes gleem with the idea of getting a prisoner army.