Session 363: The Future of God and Men
Location: The Aquarius
The team has been informed Rada has left them due to events, joining the Empress to be one of her men due to the looming threat of the Serpent in the far future, and while the kids have had a chance to relax with the teleporters, with Rachael and Moira getting closer during their down time at Vesper's, the Aquarius has finally begun nearing their destination. The planet seems to be a planet for rich people, with schools, art galleries, and other stuff, without the black market underhandedness they have dealt with so far, having been directed there by Iceheart and Freyja to look for both the Gods and Shapeshifters who are inflitrating the Cartel leadership. While they debate how to approach the situation, and wonder about Cookie's state of mind due to all the drugs she has been taking lately, and Jelly mentioning laying Maka girls, which gets him shunned by the group since Sabrina is 13 years old, they prepare to head down to the planet - despite his protests he was talking about Zayne. Erica finally concludes he needs mandatory therapy, especially if he will remain around younger girls.
Dressing up all fancy in rich outfits to blend in with the people on the planet, the two teams has the Aquarius land on the planet below and make their way off of it. Being told by Iceheart that this art museum does some shady deals at times, the massive team heads in that direction to investigate the claims. Due to their incredible size, the teams decide to split up, with Lorelei's group deciding to head off to look elsewhere while Erica and Taiga's team checks out the art museum since Erica has the background for such a thing. Inside the art museum they find all sorts of pieces, many rare and from many worlds, even Geyze and Kumen, on display and some even being sold. An Erusian is there studying the Erusian pieces and appears to be stolen, mumbling about it being stolen, and Pepper approaches the Erusian, striking up a conversation. Cookie meanwhile starts a conversation with the woman running the art gallery and manages to get an address where a meeting is being held for those who love art will be held, managing to get the group into such a meeting later; Pepper, striking out with the Erusian, rejoins the group but Erusian studies the group.
Location: The Rich Planet
Lorelei leads her team to a college campus after studying her paper and the kids seem surprised at the location. The group, over dressed now due to the museum, peers about and wonders if they should go back when they feel a slight tickle of a God somewhere on campus. With that Lorelei decides she will enroll the kids and they head back to the hotel to meet with the other team who is arriving. Checking into rooms for the boys and girls, they two teams plan what they are doing over the next few days - with Erica's team doing the party with the museum and Lorelei's kids doing the school scene. Talk turns to Rada and it's obvious Lorelei is salty of him leaving to join the Empress, believing she seduced him with her breasts. Moira also teases Valen, informing him over the trip she used the teleporters to see Vesper for massages with Rachael, making Valen annoyed he didn't think to do that.
Zegretta and Kaelan kiss and make out during all this talk, but during it Kaelan suddenly begins to black out and faints, making Zegretta scream. As the others hurry to the room, Zegretta is stammering that her kiss made Kaelan pass out and she seems beside herself with worry, so the others examine her and she seems fine. As they are examining her Kaelan finally rouses and announces she saw something while unconscious, explaining she saw someone, a male, saying there was more than two Tarehian Gods on the planet. The team is disturbed by the news, since they have trouble taking one out at a time, much less possiblely two or more.
Date: 10-639.5.26
Location: The Hotel
The kids eye their school uniforms and it is classic uniforms - the girls in needlessly short skirts and a mix of catholic / japanese school girl outfits and the boys in simple plain outfits. Rachael protests the gender discrimination against the girls, so she and Valen swap outfits, with Valen wearing a girl's outfit and Rachael wearing the boy's outfit. Lorelei asks Kaori to babysit them and make sure they do not get in trouble while she investigates a few things with the others. Taiga and Erica prepare to head out with her group in a bit, leaving the two teams to head out and prepare their missions on this brand new world.
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Thena Side Story continues arriving at Geyze, which would be 12.9.5997 (9, 10, 11 all take place on 5.25 for reference). They contact Shion on the way down, noting their need for a spirit like Mireille, making Shion pause at that but grants their request to land and moves to meet them. She notes that she will ask Chelsea to come back from her mission of watching Agni up north to confer with them but they are welcome to stay until then. She notes these days Athena has her own agenda it seems and might be home already, coming and going as she pleases - and before she finishes Athena tackles Thena and nuzzles her daughter. Heaven tells her how she is teaching Thena to use her powers much like Heaven uses her dream form, not being a true child in many ways. Shion returns to her duties and lets the family talk with Athena sizing Thena and Heaven up, as well as Rio since Thena and her are close, then Athena seems to sense something is off about her daughter but can't put her finger on it.
They talk and Sammael comes home finally and Thena jokes she wants another sister one day, since Athena has not had a child since the early The Alien Wars 5 days and has seem adverse to it for years, with Thena pointing out that Sam and her had never had children. Athena notes she cannot get pregnant due to needing to something important soon and is training everyday and Heaven stays quiet during it all, perhaps a sore point to her. Eventually, for some reason, Athena agrees and takes Sammael off upstairs for some alone time while Thena and Heaven go talk to Shion like promised. She notes she has called for Chelsea and Cypher to return and they should be there in a day or two. Thena prods at Shion for why she is alone still all the years and she points out no one has come close to her standards and she is simply happy being alone. Eventually Thena asks if Shion could set up a marriage ceremony for her with a spirit as well as gather her family like Erevis, Xanatos, and Jaime, which makes Shion hesitate a bit for some reason. She tries to play it off like she is unsure where Erevis, Xanatos, and Jaime are at but she could look for a spirit for them; she dissapoints them in saying Shade is missing these days but she gets Salamander for them.
Salamander seems baffled that she can marry people but is browbeaten into it by the group. Heaven decides to have Salamander look for Gnome to find Jaime for Thena - the two vanishing. During the talk Shion mentions perhaps having some information on Cheryl - at least a sighting on a planet though she dismissed it because it did not sound like her. She will find it for Thena and bring it to her as soon as possible. During the talks she has Thena sign a contract about not discussing where Jaime and the others are located since she knows Heaven and Salamander will find them. And indeed, Salamander and Heaven lead Thena not a snowy fortress in the Spiritalist lands where they are staying in Kalam's place looking for the next decendant. What about their mission at the academy last session? See the Royals Phase.
Back at the Academy, the family is reunited and talk, hang out together, and just be together while they spend some time, each talking about what they want for their weddings. When Jennifer returns home as well from active duty up north, Athena has Jennifer examine the kids - especially Heaven since she is a dream kid. Athena wonders if say Jennifer were to die, would she fade away. Making it sound like Athena is planning something dangerous later and opens up that she can't let it stand with the PAX. Erevis outside begins to teach Jaime a bit of royal lessons as well and how to hold herself better and more regally, as well as some arts in seduction, feeling she has not been teaching her these things well enough due to Jaime leaving the PAX, the other kids like Athena and Isis, and so on.
12.10.5997 Chelsea and Cypher return from the north temporarily Cloé meets them, showing some food she caught - a bird wrapped up from a store. Seemingly pleased and claiming to be a Hunter, Cheryl sighs and says she will handle it since clearly someone as Cloé will not know the concept of paying for the bird. Knowing they have visitors about Aimée, they continue toward their home where they meet Thena who stalks them. Rio waves, having come along with Thena and both come into the Sweet home. Bonnie shows up and joins the conversation, holding her daughter, studying Rio who is being played with by Cloé. Thena tells them she needs a spirit ship for her journey and assures them they are not here for Aimée, but an inactive egg. Chelsea warns her it is a prototype like Aimée and might be off-kilter and could be a dangerous, so she might have her work cut out caring for it. She also warns the ship will be to be retrofitted with spirit-tech to accept the spirit to work properly.
Cypher seems annoyed when her wife gets roped into it, though Chelsea seems not to mind when Thena says money is no problem to retrofit Heaven's ship. During all this Aimée is listening in on them talking about the other egg that was originally with her. After asking why they want the spirit and learning, Chelsea says she does not mind using the prototype but suggests an alternative: Cam'dee. Since she has ties to Samson long ago being on the Aquarius. Chelsea explains the history of Cam'dee; when Gor woke it up it mingled with the ship's computer a little and became one and somehow became unstable along the way. Cypher suggests talking to Asarar who seems to be back these days and learning more about Cam'dee if they want to know more about her but she is at Hood's otherwise, huffing at the thought of Asarar. They learned Asarar was back when she showed up awhile back - Geyze time - and seemingly flirted with Chelsea some heading back to check on Kira and prepare the place they were staying.
During the talking Aimée sneaks off to search the house for the spirit egg while they talk about the ship's manual so Chelsea can begin. At that moment Heaven enters and her Dark One energy makes Chelsea and Bonnie go on edge as she hands over the manuals and asks if they need anything else. Afterward, she promises to stop by to help with the retrofitting though admitting she mainly tinkers with the ship with updates and is not up to Chelsea's level, leaving with Thena and Rio and making Bonnie watch her leave warily.
12.11.5997 Thena, Rio, and Heaven arrive at a multi-story building on the upper levels of the main city of Kumen, the city mostly deserted these days. There they find Asarar and Luci and talk to them about Cam'Dee, learning about her history. Starting off as a computer named MAC she grew close to Gor and began to flirt and grew out of her shell a lot during that time. MAC made holographic projections that could touch and move about the ship to be with Gor and Gor gave MAC the name Cam'dee. Eventually it came time to use the spirit-engines and Cam'dee the spirit was born and the computer version was gone; likely Asarar muses it was designed that way perhaps. Maybe it was so the spirit could learn a bit as a computer before being born as a spirit. However Cam'dee was locked to the ship for life and could only move around it, unlike other spirits like Mireille. After Gor and Kitty began a sexual relationship, Cam'dee tricked Erica and Gor into unhooking her in attempt to move freely and kill herself and endangered the entire ship.
Gor and the others managed to save her, Asarar notes, but she had issues with trust still for a long time when she came to her. She heads out to meet Hood, with Luci stalking, and talks with Cam'dee and initially fails to convince her to come. Disappointed, she speaks with Hood, who mentions she has a roommate, Ortora. Speaking with her, she gets to know that Cam'dee is likely afraid and has some issues, so the two speak and Cam'dee agrees after listening she needs to confront some things of her past but only if Ortora comes along. Luci comes out of hiding and speaks with the two, since Luci was like a step-mother to Cam and friend to Ortora and sees the two off back to Geyze and the project begins to retool the ship.
Session 364: The Art of the School
Location: The Hotel
Taiga and company look through art books trying to learn about the art world with Pepper wondering why people throw so much money at such things. While they must on trying to get someone who knows more about art, such as perhaps summoning Neekito since she was into art, Airym notes she can download the knowledge if needed. After a bit of time, they decide to scope the place out. Meanwhile, Lorelei is with Kellin, Durt, Orihime, and Michelle, driving around in a rented vehicle getting a feel of the area and checking out the rich neighborhoods. The team notes how secure the neighborhoods are and the security is at with it rivaling even some military bases as they drive around. While Lorelei's driving freaks out Kellin, making him panic every now and then, as they try to get a ping on a God. As they discuss various things they continue to move about the richer neighborhoods seeing if anything is felt.
At the school, the kids go through their classes trying to feel out a God and enjoying their classes, though they note some of them are very strange. With runic classes and other weird classes that do not seem to fit into a rich person's school, it seems the Headmistress is eccentic and only took over within the last year. Orihime joins them from Lorelei's team to supervise them as does Michelle, both looking out and Orihime poses as a student, getting a lot of students to be her friends, much to the ire of the kids, wondering if it's "sex friends". While Orihime is gathering connections, the others continue to work on their classes and feeling out for anything.
Elsewhere, Taiga's team reach the art gallery and is working on trying to see if there is a God here, making connections and being invited to a special event at a home later for special backers thanks to Cookie. While Cookie is doing that, Pepper approaches an Erusian woman admiring art and begins to talk to her, getting the attention of the Erusian. As the team leaves after securing the location of the special art event for those who "are into art", the Erusian woman studies them and seems to follow them. It seems the art will be at the house of someone called "Nasami Ed".
Session 365: Investigation Time
Location: The Hotel
The teams are back for the evening with the Erusian woman who has followed Erica's team to the Hotel making the kids wonder who she is and the Erusian woman thanking Taiga and Erica thanking them for rescuing her from the boring party. She gives her name as Lady Xeres and notes anyone could hear them plotting and Yuki protests she was never taught how to deal with in the rich people's world, shifting the blame to Taiga who glares. They talk and it is discovered that Xeres somehow detected Cookie's scan so Erica puts her in charge of keeping an eye on Xeres who seems to be intent on sticking with them for the time being; due to their interaction, the kids note that the adults seem to be more like children than they really are actually. As they talk, Xeres shares some secret information about herself and her abilities/connection to the Erusians that leaves Taiga going ice cold and looking shutdown. Taiga suddenly requests to take over keeping an eye on Xeres due to whatever was told to her while Yuki and Cookie are talking about her pot brownie habits and Yuki being worried about it since in the past Cookie did not need them.
Rachael approaches and tries to weasle money out of Erica, saying their normal monthly allowance is not enough to cover the costs on this planet, but Erica is more worried that Lorelei is not around at the time. Rachael, having been working with Moira on a plan to get more cash to help spending efforts and fitting in the school, tries other people in the group until Si steps in to cover their expenses, despite Gor's objections since he already told Erica he'd help with the Hotel costs.
Date: 10-639.5.27
Location: The Hotel
With the kids at school already with Lorelei who returned later on, Taiga has a map of the city laid out on the table as they decide what to do next in their investigation. They discuss the name of the person supplying them art, Nasami Ed, and Taiga offers a look at Erica's breasts to the first person to get information on her making Erica deadpan. People note Taiga seems out of it during the conversation and Taiga states she just spent a lot of time researching last night and is tired but seems to be hiding something. Mireille and Sabrina show up, running late for school as does Yurica, Yuki and Erica's daughter, so Mireille takes Yurica to school with her since Mireille has been playing student for fun while at the planet. Yuki tries not to think of the revelation of how Yurica snuck out of the ship from Saorise to get all the way to the hotel.
Getting information on Nasami they see she is a huge fan of art as well as running culture events and throws parties in her mansion and has one planned for a spring event coming up soon. Taiga notes she will talk to Iceheart and Freyja on the ship soon, sharing a strange look with Sabrina, and see if they have any connections to help them get in. With everything in place the team prepares to get their plans in motion.
Location: The School
Lorelei gives the kids some additional funds on the way to the school where they admire Valen's commitment to his wearing girl's clothing, especially after he states he will spend the money on a cute belt. They all divide up into their respective classes and head out, later meeting in a fancy cafeteria that looks better than most resturants. Hanging out in it and Mireille feeding Yurica, they all enjoy themselves and make friends with some students; Rachael even talks about her strange mystic classes some. As they head out Moira gets a ping from someone in the cafeteria and wonders if it might be the Headmistress or someone else in it.
As they arrive back at the hotel that evening, Kaori has someone cover her face with her hands and surprises her. It seems somehow Ren has used the Aquarius' teleporters and tracked the team down to pay them a visit.
Location: Resturant - Private eating booth
After Lorelei's team has left, Ren is sitting in the booth with her mother and sister staring at her in cocnern while the team eats. While Ren hangs onto Kaori, they begin to talk and Ren updates them on the information she learned from Session 350 when they scanned everyone for shapeshifters and she believes that Iceheart and Freyja might be fakes, with signs pointing to the two might being elsewhere; with the team musing that the two are not on their iconic ship, it is a bit suspicious. She also updates them a bit on Earth and the situation there - with Cran working on the Reploids and Earth trying to get ahold of them and that she is working for Alexander Cran. The team muses after hearing everything and wonders if Iceheart and Freyja led them here where there are no other Shapeshifters to do away with Gods, since there are three of them, to help weed out problems for the Shapeshifters. Which means they will need to deal with the Shapeshifters and find where they did not want to go - likely back to the Cartel Homeworld.
Erica and Yuki, as well as Taiga, debate and the team finally vote on definitely taking the Aquarius and leaving, even if it means leaving Lorelei and her team facing three Gods on their own for the chance to sneak off while the two Shapeshifters are not looking. After they finish talking they get the bill which is in the hundreds and the team decides on no dessert, except Si'Chii and Gor, getting stares from the team.
Location: Rich Planet
Lorelei's team plots to split up and find information on the Headmistress and trying to find her plan as well as more information on the school - and enjoy school. While moving around and falling in with the cool kids, they are led around with Mireille taking Yurica along since she snuck out of the Aquarius. They enjoy themselves as they follow the kids and learn about the school, while also trying to see if they can feel the ping from the God in the school. In the end, Valen ends up going with the rich kids to do some gambling, much to Rachael and Moira's disbelief and Mireille and Yurica go to see flowers.
As they end the day the only information they seem to find on the Headmistress is Sistere - her name and as they head back they learn that Erica and Yuki are preparing to go, much to Mireille's disappointment since she is enjoying school. Taiga hands over the cases they were doing investigation wise so that Lorelei's team can take it over and see if it leads to a God, since they will have to handle it now and the Aquarius perpares to sneak out without the fake Iceheart and Freyja knowing.
Session 367: Spring Event Party
Location: The Hotel
Lorelei goes over the information the other team has gathered on the art people and Spring Event Party updating herself and her team. While this is going Rachael and Moira seem to be in disbelief that Valen gathered money from his gambling with the students and did not lose, the girls in the team commenting on it and whispering with Rachael mentioning she thought she was the bad girl of the siblings, mentioning she used to gamble on Yggdrasil in some of the villages on it. Lorelei goes over what they know so far, noting the Spring Event seems somewhat new yet the people of this planet seem to love their events/parties and enjoy throwing them. The team notes that it leans toward two Gods due to the possibilities - Manus Dei or Di'Mantha and with the students having a few days off due to the partying, they will use it to their advantage to move about the city. Using the five invitations they have on them, they make plans to use the abilities of the others for them to come into the mansion later on after those inside need help if they encounter a Tarehian God.
That night the kids check out the mansion and the yard, learning the lay of the land to prepare for tomorrow for the festival and seem to decide they are indeed ready.
Location: The Aquarius
Mireille stubbornly wears her school girl outfit on the bridge, having not wanted to leave the campus on the planet, and Cookie, Pepper, and Sabrina wear one as well. When Jelly makes a jailbait comment, Taiga accuses him of having done something to Mireille which opens up a slew of comments on him once again. Yuki and Erica discuss opening up a school on the Aquarius, especially with Yurica getting older. They go back to the topic of the Cartel with them talking about where the homeworld would be located and Taiga notes she wishes she had Iceheart there - the real one - since she might know where it was located. Believing the Cartel Homeworld would be hidden in a place no one would think, aka a planet that would be ordinary compared to their flashier worlds, Taiga has Gor and Jelly as well as Airym work to do a process of elimination to try to find it on the space charts.
Mireille sheds her clothes and enters the ship to help with the process and after they locate what they believe to be the homeworld, the ship leaps into hyperspace/spirit boost to travel. However along the way a ship uses some strange device to try to yank them out of hyperspace with some new tech. Realizing it is a Cartel ship using a mixture of tech, likely borrowed from various races like the Maka and others on Geyze, they realize it is likely trying to stop them from reaching the homeworld. Since it seems the ship cannot yank them out they decide to out run them and they use the spirit-drive engines and put distance between them in hyperspace. During it, Jelly works on reprogramming a probe to use later.
Session 368: In The Grasp Of...
Location: Aquarius
The Aquarius has been taxing the Spirit Engines and even Mireille is no longer responding as often anymore due to how long the crew has been using them. Erica manually overrides the Spirit Engines due to Mireille not responding due to the massive lead they have on the other ship and when Mireille emerges she is naked still instead of her clothes reappearing like spirits normally do. The Aquarius seems jerky and Yuki works to stablize the flight lest they crash into the hyperspace tunnel while Erica tends to Mireille. Having Pepper take Mireille to medical, Taiga returns and notes that with the Spirit down the Aquarius is down 75% of it's main systems right now due to her being tied to many of them. Thankfully once they exit hyperspace, their systems do come online though like Taiga warned not completely well.
Moving to hide the Aquarius they perform scans of the planet below before the ship chasing them catches up to them. Seeing a world that looks ravaged and with only a few cities, it doesn't look like some homeworld you would expect out of the Cartel, leading Taiga to wonder if it is their original Homeworld before they left to greener pastures. Soon the ship chasing them catches up and floats in space idlely, doing nothing. As they wait the crew soon begins to grow restless and Yuki even talks to Erica about finding the perfect room for Yurica to serve as a school for her and other children on the Aquarius. After not being able to decide much on what the planet could serve to the Cartel, they decide to continue to wait for now to give Mireille time to recover so Taiga decides she will spend this time to talk to Yashna about the new Erusian they picked up and learn if what she was told from her was true regarding the Erusians and Xeres' role to battle Dragoons.
Location: The Rich Planet
Lorelei's group is dressed up in for the summer event going on outside so they can blend in and explore what is going on. As they study booths and other stuff, they come across Sia and Lia selling lemonade at a booth with Vesper during this with Cersei standing by to help the twins out. The kids enjoy their time exploring the booths and for once are able to relax some, with Zegretta and Kaelan going around with each other and buying necklaces for each other, Moira and Rachael doing fish catching stuff, and Valen looking for Vesper for a date. Moira meanwhile notices the event also taking place in the school; Rachael investigates else where while Moira sneaks in to try to get into the headmistress' office to get evidence when she is caught by the Headmistress, being lifted up.
Meanwhile Lorelei, Kellin, Michelle, Durt, and Orihime are dressed in fancier dresses and clothes to go to the mansion with the art group. Seeing them appreciate the art and looking stuff, they study and try to feel out who is the God among them. However they soon begin to feel weird in the room and barely slip out before they are paraylzed like the rest of the guests in the room before some people enter and realize there are two Gods in there. One in woman in normal clothes who the other, the maid of the rich woman who owns the mansion called. And they are Manus Dei and Di'Mantha. There seems to be some tension between the two Gods despite them working together, with Manus torturing the people they are hypntosing while Mantha is more interested in just robbing them without Manus Dei' extra interests. Deciding to bug out for now and get back to the kids, Lorelei and the others leave the mansion.
Session 369: Hidden in Plain Sight
Location: The School
The Headmistress finishes lifting Moira up threateningly before setting her down, accusing her of stealing stuff from her office. After some back and forth about the issue, the headmistress lets Moira off with a warning after Moira's student ID. During all this Rachael rejoins Valen and the others, stating the coach is a bust, seeing Sia and Lia doing their business with Vesper, selling their lemonade. They also move on to discuss Valen and the girls begin to discuss ways to dress him up and teach him how to be more girly. Moira catches up to them and states she believes the Headmistress is a God and when they learn she saw Moira's student ID, they worry she knows who they are and might be watching them, so the group decides to follow the others, with Valen worrying about his dinner with Vesper later and if he will miss it.
Arriving back at the hotel, Lorelei examines the children worriedly, a little too thoroughly, telling them they ran into two of the Gods and was worried about them and the kids tell they believe they have found one as well. They discuss the Gods, as well as if Vesper being there for the festival if she will throw a wrench in things or if she is the "third" God and the Headmistress is not one. They discuss Manus Dei and Mantha and work on ideas on how to play them against each other, since observing them they saw cracks in their relationship and how Dei obviously did not respect Mantha, despite being the Mother of the Gods. As they discuss the school, Rachael goes over the school not having all the weird classes like the runic classes, magik, and others until the last year when this new headmistress showed up and changed a lot of stuff. Rachael also states she has been learning it slowly, having been practicing it on Moira as the two have gotten a little closer and used a few runic spells on Moira the other day. They also wonder if the Headmistress might be the most dangerous as they discuss the various types of runes and how she might could use the students in various ways, such as controlling them or draining them. Studying the lay out of the school for anything new, they see a greenhouse has been added since the new Headmistress has joined and decide they will investigate it during the festival.
Date: 10-636.6.3
Location: The Aquarius
The Aquarius slowly repowers back up over the day and reaches it's full power, allowing the team to escape if they need to do so as well as use their spirit-tech to the fullest. Mireille wanders onto the bridge looking tired, these days keeping her hair much longer, down to her butt, which makes it look a mess due to having been sleeping on it for a day. Jelly and Gor also are exhausted from working on systems and Taiga has finished talking to Yasha about Xeres and learning about the Erusian seceret projects, as well as telling Xeres about Yasha. And the strange Cartel ship that chased them is still out there in position, as if waiting on something. After some talking they begin to move in with their cloaking, doing mild scans to see what is in front of them, learning what it is there can be ahead.
Detecting anaomlies and other stuff in space, they begin to debate what it can be, with Erica even musing could it be a planet hiding like back in the Mirror Universe. Cookie does a mental scan and feels a lot of people out there in the in the empty space where the anamolies are occurring, making Taiga and the others begin to muse on what that can mean, not noticing Yurica has entered the bridge. They decide that it is likely a lot of ships cloaked around the damaged planet, but they can't decide why that is yet. When Taiga asks to do a scan of the planet, Yurica at that moment hits a random button on the console and the Aquarius decloaks for all to see, sending the crew into panic mode. They manage to recloak quickly and Taiga goes ahead and does a scan despite the risk, getting them informtion they need: their scans are blocked when they try to scan beneath the cities.
Deciding to have the Aquarius fly away from their spot to hide and have Mireille teleport them down to the surface, Taiga begins to prepare them for a surface mission to one of the cities and find out what is beneath it. Handing out devices that changes one's appearance as long as they have it buckled to their person, each of them get one as they all gear up and prepare to head down to the planet as the Aquarius moves away from the Cartel Homeworld.
Location: Cartel World
The group dresses up for the spring event to look incognito, except Zegretta who dresses up like a phantom thief, making the others quickly correct her. After kicking Leruste out of the girl's changing room and finishing dressing up and blaming Durt for raising Leruste improperly, the group prepares to leave while Lorelei gives lessons on how a man can win a girl. Which all the men completely fail at by not listening. Passing the booths with Sia, Lia, Tanan, and Juliet selling stuff, they head to the school. While arriving, Kaelan mentions the Fashion Club and her interest in it, wanting to become a fashion designer like Ulieah after this is all over. Deciding they will pretend to be Kaelan's models as an excuse to be on grounds for the event, they walk along toward the Fashion Club when they spot McTreggor eyeing the green house, then moving off into the school building C. Orihime decides to follow after him to observe the mysterious man.
Peering into the greenhouse, Durt has Rachael fly up and scope the greenhouse out. Rachael notes that the plants inside make a pattern and she looks down at the book to see it is a minor activation runic spell already activated. After telling them it likely is designed to activate something major and is aimed at either Building B or Building C, Kaelan puts her bets on Building C due to the weird classes and McTreggor, so the team heads there. Getting a creepy feeling as they enter the building as if they are being watched and Lorelei has Kellin use his janitor sense to find the next runic symbol in the building. Kellin uses his hyper senses and soon they reach the basement where they find Ori in the corner with giant runic symbol of blood. Reading the symbol, Rachael informs them it is a draining symbol and points to A and B.
Noting that none of them feel sick, Rachael surmises it must be a slow energy drain and it's purpose to drain the students a little bit every day when they come to school. Rachael and Valen head off to find the Headmistress, while Kellin ties to wipe it up, the symbol sends him flying across the room painfully, indicating it can't be removed easily. As they exit they see students and teachers surrounding them and begin to grab onto the team. After a scuffle the team manages to escape the building barely, heading to the Headmistresses room and the team begins to search it. Finding a special book with runic symbols on it behind a painting, Moira discovers it right as the Headmistress returns and the team realizes she is Solistice.
At a standstill because Solistice notes if they injure her she can drain the student body, including Rachael and Valen, to heal herself in seconds, the two sides sit down to talk. When asked why she drains the students, she notes she takes a little bit every day to strengthen herself and notes she takes half a year of life at most and never unhealthy students. When asked if she is in league with the other two gods, Solistice seems generally confused. The two sides agree to a truce and Solistice notes she will not battle the other two Gods unless they attack her school; she does lend them the Runic Book as a sign of good faith for the time being. Returning Rachael and Valen, the team leaves but Lorelei notes when the other two are dealt with she will not forget Solistice.
As they are gone though and begin to muse on things, especially why Solistice would want to be storing up energy and how Kaelan got the vision, the team begins to question things. And soon they realize that likely due to Harbinger touching Kaelan, he likely has a connection to her and is in her head. Lorelei admits it is probably true and if Harbinger awakens, it will most likely be in her body when it happens.
Session 371: The Cartel's Secret
Location: Unknown Cartel Planet - The Homeworld?
Teleporting down to one of the largest cities on the planet, the team sets out while being careful except for Sabrina and Si who are posing and being silly, earning caution from the others. Entering the largest city where Cookie feels mental signatures, they find the city looks old and not high tech like current Cartel cities, almost like something out of 1950's. Cookie would continue to pick up on a person very strongly a mile away, as if trying to lure her away, while the team continues, but they all decide it is most likely a trap. Restraining Sabrina from investigating it when blinks out, the team goes into the core of the city where it becomes more modern, which is the opposite of most cities, driving the team nuts. The people of the city seem to ignore them as they go and explore it so far and eventually they take the sub-ways, all the way the person doing their on and off trick psionically at Cookie.
Studying the sub-way tracks and looking at it, the team has Gor study it and hack the city's systems to learn more about the Subway system since they want to get underground. Laying the city map and subway map over each other, Gor shows it to the team so they can study it. Eventually finding something that is worth investigating, a tunnel that makes no sense and has been closed off, they set off to look into it. Going down the abandoned tunnel, with Yuki and Gor using foxfire to light the way until they reach a deadend. Finding it bricked up, Erica and others tap on it and find it hallow in places so Si punches her way through it. Discovering hi-tech systems on the other down and a platform that goes further down into the ground, Taiga hacks the platform so they can ride it down by going 7 Tail Kitsune mode and using her reality power to help give her luck.
Taiga seems discontent about her success all the way down and wonders if there was a secondary trap she missed. Gor double checks and as they step into the room as they reach the bottom they find the Cartel's secret: they have been stockpiling things for decades - every sort of rare item, especially weapons and kept them down here, even after they said they had destroyed them, including the Dragoon Virus. There are also Anti Maka tech down here missing and other things that could be a problem later as well as Spirt-Tech. The main problem is there is one canister of each thing missing, indicating that someone has taken something and the group fears a shapeshifter has stolen them. Running into Shiva down there the team confronts her for fear she is the shapeshifter while Gor downloads the information.
Shiva notes the only reason they are alive is due to her bond with their parents, eyeing Taiga at that. Sabrina declares her clean from what she can tell and Shiva notes she is alive again due to Loki, indicating something happened in the past, and that this stuff is to protect them due to all the stuff that has been happening over the years: dragoons, kitusune, Makas, spirits. After some talking and letting her know Loki is aware of the threat, and Shiva indicating she no longer cares about life after being brought back against her will, the team leaves unmolested. The team fears that some of the stuff will be used against Yggrasil and even perhaps Kaori, so Taiga plans to head there but only after they go to Loki and deal with the shapeshifters that are no doubt in the Cartel once and for all.
Session 372: Mother of the Gods
Location: Rich Snob Planet #323
Having made a shakey alliance with the winter God Solistice, the team set out to find the Mother of the Gods, Di'Mantha, but with little leads on where she might be located they have been watching Manus' manor to see if she will show up there. While watching the manor, Zegretta has been having Kaelan acting like a dog, feeding her treats for shaking hands, sitting, and other basic commands a dog might do, telling the others that a God would not do such a thing so if Kaelan ever fails to do it, she will know Kaelan has been taken over, despite the others thinking it is some kinky sex play between the two. They also discuss the master book they took from Solistice and Zegretta notes that Ulieah will help them get in touch with the Empress once they have a chance, though others wonder if it is such a good idea to have someone like the Empress read it for them, though they are unsure who else can do it, since Kellin cannot read it.
Eventually Lorelei and Kellin announce they think they know where Di'Mantha is located, not in a rich neighborhood but in the area that the worker families live at even though the neighorhood there is fairly well off as well; they soon locate Di'Mantha's home and find it has a large gate with lots of plants on the other side. Being the Spring Goddess, it seems Di'Mantha is at the height of her power with the amount of plants and other things growing in her yard with just a small trail that one can walk to her front door without something and blocking it. Lorelei tells Kaori to be on standby with her cannon, in case they need to burn the plants to the ground, and they debate if crossing the yard is safe at all. Durt volunteers himself and opens the gate, stepping into the front yard to see what happens.
Durt is immediately entangled with plant vines that tie him up and strip him of weapons and armor, leaving him hung up for all to see. As the girls swoon and laugh at it happening to a guy for once, Leruste uses his super speed to try to rescue him, cuttting at vines and angering the yard, so they begin to tangle him up as well. He burns a lot of his speed to get out of the yard with his hide intact, making the girls boo at him and others state they feel no need to yell for Mantha, enjoying the show as they take pictures of the sight. After a bit, Durt is dumped back out on the street in his underclothes, minus his weapons and armor. Before anyone can plot a way past the plants, Durt just tells out Di'Mantha's name and states they want to talk. It works and Di'Mantha allows them to speak with her.
Di'Mantha discusses Manus and other things and the team realizes a few things seem a bit off with the Gods and Gartareh, Moira hitting the nail on the head that Gartareh no longer backs not only Mantha, but all the Gods as they talk. Just as she is about to launch into a triade about the past - or the alternate future really - she is distracted by Kellin telling her they are only interested in is stopping Manus Dei and not having a repeat, so Mantha begins to talk about Manus instead of whatever information about the past. Stating there is no much she can do to help them against Manus, she says she will help them and she will contact them later, leaving the team to go back home, wondering what Mantha will give them.
Date: 10-639.6.7
Location: The Hotel
The team is awakened by Di'Mantha pounding on their hotel doors in the middle of the night, looking shaken and confused and the soon figure out that it is not really Di'Mantha but the host woman she took over over a year ago. The woman describes being confused with flashes of images over the year and found her house completely different and that there was datapad recordings she did not make and so she came to them since the latest recording talked about them. The team is baffled since they thought only Lorelei could do something like that and wonder if there is someone else out there who can do something like Lorelei or is it something else. Deciding to go to Di'Mantha's house for these recordings and other stuff, they leave Di'Mantha behind with some of the others to be watched over.
Arriving at the house, they find a motherlode of information that surprises them, some of it hidden, other in plain sight. They learn that a God can jump to another person if their host dies if they do it within in an hour, which is worrisome, according to Di'Mantha's logs as well as doing it even if the host does not die, though it takes a lot of energy. Mantha also notes she seems to remember more of their past lives due to being closer to Gartareh during his downfall in the final battle, having been quizzing Manus Dei, and wonders if it is due to that. Mantha states she thinks the Gods no longer factor in for him due to their failure and that while she feels him sometimes, it fades away like a blink, and she believes he must be somewhere that shields his a presence, perhaps at the Tree of Life or somewhere else that is strong enough to do it.
They debate if the Tree might be in danger and note that Cheryl should still have it locked. Listening to it they decide that they need to deal with Manus and that there is nothing redeemable about her, especially if she might be behind the attack of Mantha, though some think it might have been Gartareh.
Session 373: Will The Real Shapeshifter Stand Up?
Location: The Aquarius
After going deeper into the Cartel systems learning where the Cartel leadership is located the Aquarius is nearing where they believe they are located when Taiga showd up via the teleporter, havingng been out doing stuff.
Taiga notes she plans to leave everything in Erica's hands when they arrive since the Cartel responds to Erica. The team once again debates selling Jelly after he makes a quip about Erica leading once more without Taiga giving input as they arrive at the planet and Yuki notes this planet likely will fetch a good price after they scan it; meanwhile Si nibbles on Taiga and Taiga tells her to stop and it is one reason no one respects her and she will call Gor in with her Gor buzzer and so far Taiga acts completely disinterested in anything. After Erica's credentials are accepted and they land without anyone calling them or stopping them, Taiga muses this is likely the Cartel doing that they do best - waiting for them to make the first move since Loki had Shiva following them.
Erica suggests using the cover story of selling Jelly on a black market and Taiga admits she has chatted with Chad Winters and knows about Cartel black markets. Taiga heads off with Si to put eyes on the locations while Erica heads off to do her plan. Arriving at a suspicious building, Sabrina notes she feels uncomfortable here due to the vibes it gives off. Bribing their way inside the black market, Pepper helps Sabrina who looks ill being near all the evil people while the team checks out the auctions. They notice they are selling people like usual, pieces of Erusian Angel Ships, a dragoon weapon, and a Dark One orb of darkness. Erica and Yuki move off to see if they can bid and free any slaves while Gor gets into a bidding war with a man that works with one of the Cartel heads and bids 1.5 billion, shocking his teammates. Gor decides to withdraw his bid after some thought though at the urging of his teammates and the man wins the bidding and the orb.
Afterward Sabrina hugs Gor and tells him the wealth his in his heart and he should not steal the orb, but when she learns he makes his money through porn from Cookie quickly lets him go. Erica notes Taiga has been acting weird since she got back from her mission looking into contacts and wonders if Taiga hasn't been switched and Yuki thinks maybe Taiga's heart just isn't in things anymore and putting the work on Erica unfairly. They soon meet up with Taiga and Si near Loki's place with Taiga keeping Si off her from molesting her. She notes she did some recon and Loki has all the Cartel leaders on the planet except two - Shiva and Medivh, which leads the team to worry the latter might be trying to get revenge on Valen. As they walk in the woman at the desk notes Loki has been expecting them and are brought up to meet him on his floor.
Erica and Loki begin their face off with each sparring verbally and feeling each other out. She reveals that they know of the existence of the homeworld cache and that Shiva was the one who showed it to them, while Sabrina scans him and tells Erica he is clean. After some more verbal sparring and Erica suggesting he brings the counsel together, the team's datapads begin to beep with a virus as does Loki's. Taiga notes what happens when you have everyone in the same place together and they explode and wells; the team ops to throw the into the elevator and Erica grabs Taiga, blaming her as a shapeshifter. As they hold her down and Sabrina scans her and Cookie scans her, Sabrina notes unless she is a Hunter she is fine but she has a lot of negative energy. Cookie notes Taiga is filled with a lot of tired energy and seems to be checked out.
Taiga suggests to Erica that they be blamed for a failed attempted assassination attempt on Loki. Erica rolls with it and tells Loki to put them in jail and bring the council together to try them for the attempted assassintion of him and to execute the group. The team groans at the idea of going to jail and Loki is delighted at the idea.
Location: The Hotel
The team has been spending their time going through all the material they retrieved from Di'Mantha's place and go over Manus Dei's M.O as they wonder if they can get into the bank vault where they have been putting all the money they have been collecting into so far. Lorelei notes that Dei likes to collect rich and beautiful people to make as her pets, collaring and mind breaking them and sometmes torturing them for pleasure, being a real sadist who has an eye for beauty. Discussing where Aschae has been at so far as well as the Goddess of Hero, she finally informs them what happened at the Zhenmei house so long ago; Lenneth did not turn into the Goddess of Heroes again but instead it was Lenny, Godiva's second born child and somehow the girl aged up and looked a lot like Lenneth, perhaps chosen since she might would have grown up to have a strong resemblence to her grandmother. Aschae, Godiva, Lenneth and others were tasked with dealing with the new Goddess of Heroes and tracking her while the main team was on their mission. This makes many in the group concerned if that means the Gods might be reborn in some of them if they can do that to Lenny due to the bloodlines thing and Kaelan though Lorelei seems not quite so sure about that being a possibility; Lenneth was the original Goddess of Heroes and Kaelan had a connection to Harbinger.
Rachael suggests they go in as maids and try to get into Manus' employment, bringing Moira, Kaori, and herself in maid outfits to show they'd look good in them and might could appeal to Manus' desire to covet beautiful things. While Zegretta images Kaelan in a maid outfit, the others seem to think it risky and Rachael asks what Valen's plan is which turns out to just rush in and fight Manus immediately. After a comment by Moira that she'd look better in a maid outfit than he would, Valen soon puts one on and Rachael begins to ponder if Valen is simply into crossdressing these days. Lorelei notes that they'll get some more maid outfits for Rachael's plan but she seems to be musing on Valen's idea as well.
Date: 10-639.6.9
Location: Rich Snob Planet #323
While still doing through investigations and preparing for Manus Dei, the team notices a protest going on in the streets and near the college that Solistice runs, so the team exits the hotel and begins to move down to investigate what is going on. They see that many of the parents are protesting the gates, calling for the Headmistress' resignation and that some of them are people that Manus Dei' no doubt controls, having learned that during their investigation. Spotting McTreggor in the crowd, a few in the team move off to follow after him as he leaves the protests and begins to move down the streets into a store. Valen, Kaelan, Leruste, Zegretta, and Durt follow McTreggor into the store and begin to try to follow the steps he does inside it, but the people in the store seem to take note of it immeditately as he goes into the back, especially since the steps seem strange, perhaps some sort of agreement between them. Lorelei, Rachael, Moira, and Michelle move on into the school, bypassing the parents protesting and moving into the campus to go see the headmistress.
As Valen follows McTreggor into the back room, McTreggor grabs him suddenly in the room, then proceeds to grab each of them with his hand, letting each of them go after each grab and Kaelan figures out that it is his way of figuring out they are not shapeshifters. As he turns the lights on they noticed two decaying shapeshifters pinned on the wall, unable to dissolved like normal once killed. He begins to explain why he is still around, having sensed three powerful beings and they discuss the Gods with him and he listens and agrees to help with the Manus Dei situation, all the while studying the Kitsune traits on the people. Kaelan tries to ask him questions about who he works for, guessing at Templar origins but McTreggor plays dumb and reveals nothing on his face.
Meanwhile Lorelei and the others speak with Solistice in her office and informs them that Manus Dei is trying to crack down on her now, convinced that she killed Di'Mantha. And the only way for peace is for Sol to work under Dei and do as she says. Michelle and Moira tell her it will be better for her to resist and fight against her then have someone like Manus controlling her and Solistice says she will consider it, dismissing them. The team rejoins each other back at the hotel, with McTreggor studying certain members, while Lorelei muses on what to do next. Valen tries to get a rise out of McTreggor, who has stated he is part of a group, by calling it a cult when Lorelei says Valen is right and they will attack Manus head on without the need for the maid plan, much to Rachael's disappointment. As they prepare, Zegretta gives Kaelan a ring to hold on for after the battle, her way of proposing, and the group heads for Manus Dei's mansion.
They find the mansion mostly desserted of people as a storm seems to be forming but as they reach the basement they find Manus surrounded by men and women chained up in various BDSM like poses only it is clearly torture and twisted, not true BDSM. Using her God powers and techniques to bring about pleasure through pain. After getting angered by Valen, a battle begins to break out as the two sides exchange blows when the ceiling crashes in and Tsukiyomi appears, the Moon Goddess crackling with energy and proclaiming she has finally found Manus, saying she remembers everything she did to her.
Session 375: Harbinger of Pain and Torture
Location: Manus Dei's Basement
Tsukiyomi seems so enraged at the moment due to the Tarehian Gods' return, for some reason remembering the alternate future where she was held in the moon as a power source, that she does not seem to register the team fighting Manus Dei. She also seems weakened somewhat (see next Phase - The Ninth Circle). Lorelei's team decides to ignore Tsukiyomi and Thara, who joins her, for the time being and the battle begins anew as Manus Dei battles the new forces, McTreggor aiding the kids in their battle against Manus. She seems to pull out all the stops, healing herself at times and Tsukiyomi in her rage seems to strike at anyone and everyone, even hurting the kids at one point as the battle rages on. Finally Kaori uses her special canon blast on the floor and Manus vanishes in the smoke as a hole appears in the floor and the team moves down into the sewers to fight her, where Leruste tries to distract her, but it fails. Finally, they manage to drop her with a final blast from Kellin and Lorelei sucks Manus out of the maid she had taken over, defeating the torture God.
Location: Cartel Hub World
The Aquarius team sits in a prison cell on the Cartel World, where Sabrina seems overly depressed, wondering if she has failed being a Maka if she has gotten herself thrown in prison. Erica reminds her they are there for a reason to do good, while Pepper freaks out at being in jail and Si plays at being a "changed" person from being in jail. After a bit the guards let them out and leads them to the Cartel chamber where all the Cartel Leadership is located except for Shiva and Medivh; along the way Gor and Si flirt and Taiga notes that post prison sex will fix Gor's downswing and Erica seems disturbed and Yuki notes she tunes anything dealing with Gor and sex after his time on the Aquarius the first time.
Once in the chamber, Taiga lets Erica take over talking with the council who seems dismissive of the team and especially of Erica while Loki sits back and seems to not care one way or the other. Erica has Sabrina trying to sense out who the shapeshifter is among the leaders and positions her to feel them out, but Sabrina seems to be having trouble, peering to the left, then right, since the council members are in a half circle with 4 on the left and 3 on the right. Erica begins to retell what happened in Loki's office and then kicks it off to Taiga, who mentions datapads and mentions something she has in the datapads since she designed it, having Airym do something that pings one of the council members after having Loki drop the shielding on the room. Airym determins that the person who hacked into the datapads from Asmodeus, making all eyes turn toward him. Asmodeus begins to put up a quirky defense and argues, but at this point Loki semi begins to step in and aid them in the matter, while Taiga leans over and points out that Erica will have to figure out who the other shapeshifter is since Sabrina seems to feel there is two of them.
Erica beings up that someone made bids for a Dark One item that is extremely dangerous and Loki eyes the records and see that it was Balthasar and clearly Asmodeus had no idea of him trying to get it. As the two shapeshifters try to dance around the subject, finally Asmodeus grows frustrated with Erica and Loki and finally rises up, firing a gun at the cartel members, gooing them and trapping them while others quickly begin to escape with Loki, leaving the team to battle the two shapeshifters. They quickly deal with the two shifters and Erica manages to finish one off and Yuki takes out the other one. As the members are freed, the team prepares to go and the Cartel members wonder if it is wise to let them go, and Loki notes if they try anything he will take them out.
Location: The School
Tsukiyomi apologizes to the team as they approach the school with Lorelei planning to take out Sol while they can before leaving the planet, not wanting to leave a God nipping at their heels and one that is inclined to take over students and use them. However they come across what appears to be Lenneth holding Sol until they realize that it is not Lenneth, but Lenny the new Goddess of Heroes. Kellin seems to be the first to realize but it is too late, with Lenny stating that she will get Sol out of the hands of the God Slayers when an older modified Cartel ship flies in and lands near them. Lenny opens a portal and escapes through it when Aschae, Godiva, and Lenneth step out of the ship along with Iceheart, making the team tense up wondering if she is a shapeshifter until she proves herself and that this is her home and the ship she always uses. Iceheart offers them a ride to try to catch up to the Aquarius
Date: 10-639.6.11
Location: The Aquarius
Erica and Yuki detect Iceheart's ship approach in space, damaged, and are hailed by Kaelan who looks ready to pass out herself and note that there is some sort of gas leak due to something going wrong inside the ship. The ship is brought in and they find everyone in the ship passed out and Kaelan almost passed out herself. As they get everyone into medical to be looked over and as people began to wake up they realize someone on the ship has snuck off using the teleporters: Kaelan. Realizing Kaelan likely damaged the ship to knock people out and managed to stay awake to do the distress call and then escaped. Zegretta manages to wake up and finds the ring she gave Kaelan on her lap, unaware Harbinger has taken over Kaelan's body already, and waits for her to return, positive she will soon.