Location: The Moon
After the Cub incident, the team has made it to an old base Warren had on Luna where those who were not caught have managed to get it up and running while they were gone. While it is old technology from The Alien Wars 4 days, the team gets it as updated as it can until Kane and Chad can upgrade it further with Darien's help, they prepare to tackle the threat of the Ninth Circle. While they begin their meeting, with Ash blocking the view of the Faux Spirit when she tries to take a look, Warren goes over the information they discovered while they were captured in the Cube. Narrowing it down to three Senators as being likely Ninth Circle members, Warren goes over what they know about the two types of Shapeshifters - the normal and the Hunters, as well as the fact Sunny has arrived on the Moon with her prisoners and will likely be a problem. While Wyrd continues to antagonistic toward the Faux Spirit, much to the discomfort of Truth, the team decides to head out in disguise and gather information and go after the Ninth Circle.
Seeing wanted images of themselves all over the city, including Sunny and Chris who share the same image practically, they try to move discreetly. The various holographic advertisements try to tease and do things, including a woman doing a dance for Marcus, which leads to a retort from Zephyr on him choosing to be celibate. Due to the amount of cameras all over Luna and the problems they pose, they decide they should tackle that problem and hack into the camera systems of Luna to try to get a look at Luna and protect themselves as best they can, which means going to the network where the cameras are located. X's team heads out to handle the camera problem for everyone,
Marcus leads her team to the first Senator belonging to the Ninth Circle and they sneak in past the guards patroling the yard. Working their way in they take down a few of the guards as they move inside but soon the rest are alerted and it leads to a brief battle. After dealing with them they secure the Senator easily who doesn't put up much of a fight. They do find a strange suit that would have powered him up by they managed to beat him before he could have used it and it was keyed to his signature only.
X uses her ripples to move the team from location to location while Cole feels out for the node where the cameras are located. After they locate it, X does a blind ripple jump underground with the team, arriving at the node. As they move about the mainframe facility, they come across the main running it, telling them how it works and that he is not in charge but his boss is above. At that moment Zayne busts in, knocking them all over with her magical blast. She says she is here to find the Ninth Circle worker here and the original files here that weren't tampered with by the Ninth Circle. Cole proposes they share some of the information they discover and Sunny comes over the communications, letting Zayne decide and she decides to let them have a copy. Zayne then grabs the man who tried to claim he was innocent and leaves with him.
Returning back to the base, they begin to go over the stuff they got from Zayne and begin to interrogate the Senator they captured, hoping to get closer to the Ninth Circle.
Location: Warren Moon Base
Watching camera footage in the hopes they can find something regarding the Ninth Circle, the team has been trying to find the two remaining Ninth Circle members on the moon since they have gone into hiding while X interrogates the one they captured. The team tries to ignore the screams coming from the room with those with ears good hearing not enjoying it - such as Gitari and Kitsune, leading to conversations between Angela and Mi'Na talking about her going full Gitari one day. Ignoring the tension between Dias and Angela due to their history, X comes out and mentions that the man passed out again. She reveals mostly what she is doing is for show, showing it by fake sawing Chad's arm to the group and then describes the various tactics on him making even Darien wondering where all she's learned the stuff. They end up sending Dias inside to "talk" to him and when Dias begins to talk innanely to the man as Dias is wont to do, it begins to drive the man insane over time - hell, it drives the people who has to listen to him nearby while protecting the President.
Meanwhile, the rest of the team decide to pay for Asarar's services to talk to her and her group for some information; they find Asarar and her team packing up to leave Luna and go home, having finished doing their assignment for the Cobalts and Sunny. Wearing various disguises they meet with them and Asarar asks for 500,000 credits from the group who is already strapped for credits. After the money situation is resolved, Asarar begins to talk to them, doing a poor job to talk to them about the Cobalts and Sunny, likely not caring she's breaking her previous client's trust since the team are friends, letting them know that the Ninth Circle has been around for some time and used the moon as a power base since the heroes weren't as numerous on Luna compared to Earth.
She goes on to explain they had hands on elections going back decades - even Alexander Cran's - nudging and suggesting things to help get outcomes they wanted - wanting him due to his Dragoon Project and seeing the potential that project could bring. She even blantanly explains why Chris and Sunny's father was murdered: he was investagating and getting close to the Ninth Circle's involvement on the moon and wouldn't back down. People on Luna were heavily under their thumb and he wouldn't be bought off or back down, so he was killed investigating a case made to look like it was going wrong and the Cobalts reached out to Sunny to help her look into it while Sunny helped them look into various organizations in return. Zayne got into Sunny's orbit because she was on Cobalt's payroll - she hunted down murderer's and helping Cobalt allowed her to get funds and make contacts and they were paired together.
Asarar also reveals the Ninth Circle seems to be working to destablize the other powers - the Tsivrixsh, Erusians and Cartel by working with the Shapeshifters. It will help them take over EarthGov and gain control easier if the other powers are having trouble maintainnig their own power struggles if they do not have to fear an outside force taking over while Earth has to deal with inner conflicts. Chad seems nonplussed at spending money at information they mostly had guessed for themselves but Asarar notes that the payment comes with them helping them before they go with their abilities and so Asarar agrees to help them get into the police station to get into their files. Asarar informs her team of what they are doing, getting Kira, Max and Luci.
Meanwhile at the Moon Base, the Faux Spirit lays there drooling from Dias' rambling while talking to the prisoner, having been stuck near the interrogation. Wyrd is highly aggressive and wants to stab the man while he weaps from Dias' talking and blame the shapeshifter, earning a frown from Truth. The man babbles that he will talk and tell Dias anything he wants as long as he will stop talking and so X removes her earplugs finally and those who remained at the base get ready to listen. Mi'Na notes she will not vote for him next election.
Location: Luna Police Station - Chris' Old Haunt
Asarar takes them to the Police Station though The Net, despite The Net having been destroyed when Kumen's Spirit Realm connection was taken down and they are not even on Kumen to begin with in fact. It is creepy and feels unnatural like something is watching them while they travel inside it. Asarar brings them out of The Net inside the Police Station, warning them they cannot remain inside of it for some reason. While exploring the station, Chris and the team overhear the Chief of the station talking about someone trying to break into Chris' files and he defends Chris' character when asked by another officer. After some antics they manage to download the computer files from the Police Station and escape undetected.
Location: Moon Base
As Warren reads through the police files they retrieved in the last mission with Marcus and Angela, the others move to prepare to interrogate the Ninth Circle member that Dias softened up. Kane leads a few with Dias to talk to the man while Wyrd and a few others vow revenge on Dias for the "torture" he made them go through earlier in the day. The man slowly begins to talk, recovering with some help and threats of hearing Dias talk some more. The Ninth Circle member tries to be wily, knowing Tabetha is mentally scanning him, he begins to explain how the Ninth Circle works, taking the time to insult Chad the entire time. Apparently the Ninth Circle has many circles that work individually and do their own things, with one person way ahead of them that they report to about things. They do not know who is in the other circles except for one member in the circle who can reach out to a second circle in case of an emergency and that circle has one member that knows someone in another and so on. No one know who is at the top of the food chain due to how they relay the information via meetings and giving their reports.
He essentially tells them to guess who among the other two members in the circle knows another circle since it is not him, but he does try to rile up X and Chad with other information. Telling them that they had a hand in helping Alexander Cran rise to power, they helped him with the Weapons Project because they felt Biological Weapons were the way forward. They helped him secure children that could be used in the Project and even though it was before this member's time, he looked through the achieves of past Ninth Circle members and knows the names of the children and who their families, which seems to trigger X since she doesn't even really know her real name. During all this Warren seems to be trying to get into the encrypted files on the police server, since anyone who has encyrted files it seems to be a red flag to him.
Finishing with the man, the shapeshifter Spirit seems to have recovered and Dias promises her a dog if she helps them work with her without any betrayals and she agrees to it readily. Though when he tried to make Truth said dog, Dias almost gets stabbed for his efforts. Wyrd seems to be displeased with the entire process.
Date: 10-639.5.19
Location: Moon Base
Lemon bemoans the fact they left Adeline on Geyze with the Shion and the others since she could have helped, however Kane and Darien along with Warren's help finally cracks the encryption files on the computer. While John and Dias compete at who can clean the floors the faster and the best, the others listen to the file on the computer where the Chief of Police who worked with Chris and had her join the team is talking to someone, clearly a Ninth Circle member, takling about putting them in a safehouse and that he will deal with Chris and for them not to hurt her; it seems to be blackmail perhaps but the Chief could just be a Ninth Circle member himself. Marcus decides they need to deal with the Chief and learn which safehouse the Ninth Member is stashed away, so Chris sets up a meeting with him. John picks on Chad mercilessly due to his outlook on life as they head out to the park which should have a decent amount of onlookers to protect themselves.
Meeting at the park, the teams see several undercover cops scoping the park; so far X has not shown back up since storming out a few days ago, leaving them down a man. The team sets up point around the park where they can watch Chris meet up with the Chief and after convincing the Chief to cooperate, he gives Chris the location of the safehouse though he says he has to make it look convincing and take her in - incase someone is watching. While leading Christina to his car, Wyrd rises up from the shadows and takes the address from her and brings it to Marcus. Once away a block, he uncuffs her and allows Chris to hit her and make it look convincing as she escapes and rejoins the others, who prepare to move in on the safehouse.
Meanwhile, John and Dias notice Zayne watching them with the address and she uses her magical girl powers to warp back to Sunny, reporting as she looks on the legion of convicts that Sunny now controls.
Location: The Moon
After learning the location of the safehouse from the police chief, the team begins to head that way while Chad seems to seperate from the team and do his own thing. While they head there, the team hopes that they do not run into Sunny and Zayne as they begin to enter a neighborhood, noting that the cameras in the area seem to be being redirected and scrambled. Warren notes on comms that it is not Asarar's team since she has already left to go back home so they conclude it is Sunny and her people most likely. As they travel, Warren announces that the ninth circle member that they encountered at the power plant was found dead along with his wife and the nine year old daughter has gone missing. After Reikana makes a girlfriend joke about Zayne and Sunny, the rest of the group feel even sicker at the prospect of Sunny and the 16 year old makai, despite Reikana's protests she was joking.
Arriving at the safehouse, guarded by police men who are trying to blend into the neighborhood, the team tries to decide how to get inside to the ninth circle member hiding in the building. As the team does theit usual antics and the cops are about to taze and bust them, Chris steps forward and IDs herself, talking to the cops and stalling them. Afterward, when it looks like her ID is about to be canceled, it is let through by the Chief and the officer waves Chris and the others toward the safehouse. Unfortunately they encounter Zayne as they are warning the cops about Sunny and her people. As Zayne and the convicts begin to break out into combat with the team, the cops move in to assist them.
While most of the team handles the convicts outside, stalling them and trying to keep them from grabbing the Ninth Circle member, Zayne slips inside. Some of the team quickly moves in to pursue with Noire and Cole moving from room to room trying to locate the Ninth Circle member. As Tabetha and Chris come in after them, they begin to explore more of the house room by room and finally as Dias, Angela, and Mi'Na get inside, Zayne gets up a magical barrier and they notice that Sunny has set up bombs inside. As the team tries to escape, Cole drills the barrier as the explosives go off. The team barely manages to get out, with Dias holding up part of the house. John and Dias work to get Marcus out since he was closer to the explosive and they manage to get him out before the entire building comes down on him.
Zayne is still there oddly and she begins to talk to Cole of all people, opening a dialogue with him. Chris tries to warn her about Sunny and how she will bring her down with her, but Zayne seems as emotionless as ever, noting that Sunny has the senator now, having taken him during the explosions. When asked about the family's death, Zayne notes that the wife knew the father's sins in the Ninth Circle but the daughter was innocent and taken for her protection. She agrees to contact Cole later if they get anything out of the Senator. Cole notes that Zayne did something magical to him and the team wonders what that might be.
Date: 10-639.5.21
Location: Starbucks
While Cole is at a Starbucks waiting for the meeting with Zayne, he is accompanied with Mi'Na, Chad, and Noire. Zayne appears in the middle of the room, much to the shock of the customers,
and tells them the Ninth Circle's plan is to crack the moon in half with a machine deep in the moon. While it is filmed by the people in the coffee shop, she gives the names of one person on Earth for them to go to next before leaving while Noire tries to convince the people in the shop they have been punked. Returning to the base, the team prepares to deal with the Moon Breaker device.
Location: Moon Base
Learning about the Ninth Circle's device that can crack the moon in half from Zayne, many on the moon are escaping it due them learning about it since the team decided to learn about the information in a coffee shop and the information has begun to become viral. X's team decides they will sneak down to disable the device while Marcus' team provides a distraction and serves as cannon fodder. Marcus and company arrive at the mine that will lead to the device and begin to head inside, searching for a way to reach it and after some time discover a hidden passage. However, as they get deeper into the mine communications with Lemon and the others begin to break up due going underground. After taking care of some guards protecting an elevator, and Angela earns the nickname Shield-chan, they activate an elevator and begin to ride down it. However, along the way down into a massive chamber that has been carved out inside this area of the moon, people begin to fire at the elevator while they are helpless, forcing the team to target the missiles and other weapons heading their way.
While Shield-Chan activates her shields to protect the elevator, Tabetha manages to take the first missile, protecting them, but more come in each time they go down further, and more of them. Chad takes out the second wave, Mi'Na and Chad the third wave, and Tabetha the final one. Arriving at the bottom, the team listens to the Ninth Circle member do his spiel when Marcus throws him off his game and makes him send in his elite mercenary forces, their armor actually pretty strong and giving the team trouble penetrating. Battling them and having to find weak points, the team struggles when Cherry returns and helps Marcus, having been sensing his pain the last few days, coming from Geyze where she was with Adeline. Marcus manages to steal a piece of armor from one of the mercenaries and wears it, while the others begin to take them down one by one until Angela is sent into a berserker mode when Mi'Na is almost hurt. Dias meanwhile sends a dark energy blast where the Ninth Circle member is at, using a lot of energy just to "punch" him, despite the far distance.
Elsewhere, X's team has reached the weapon's core while the moon is shaking as the weapon is beginning to crack the weapon. Finding the control room damaged due to Dias' punch earlier, they try to figure out how to stop the massive device in some other way. X ripples Chad to see if he can help and soon Tsukiyomi arrives, being the Moon Goddess, and feeling the moon cracking weakening. Together, they all find a way to disable the device using their various powers to diable the device in various points without destroying it and risking a chain reaction, then peer out the tower window at the others finishing off the mercenaries, Angela still in her berskerer rage.
After everything is cleared up, Tsukiyomi thanks the team for their help and touches the Ninth Circle member they managed to capture, giving them the information that is in his head to aid them in their quest and warps them to Earth instantly with her powers. Once on Earth, they see banners of President Dias everywhere, pointing at them saying "I Need You" and other propaganda, the Earth seemly embracing Dias more than ever. Back on the Moon, Sunny and Zayne note that with the team gone and the Ninth Circle defeated on the Moon, it was time for them to enact their plans of justice.
Session 381: All Hail President Dias!
Location: An Abandoned Apartment Complex
Finding an abandoned apartment complex that is barely standing to set up in with their stuff while Earth has been running ads to showing the fake Dias' face warning to look out for Shapeshifters and showing the team's faces to look out for them. Even Marcus notes how effectiev the fake Dias is at the PR game is and that Dias could be if he tried. Lemon notes that with all their family freed since the Cube incident outside those who were specifically coped by the Shapeshifters like Peter and Hale, that the team no longer has to worry about hostages being used against them. Warren and Lemon note that they have Em looking for the missing Senators for the team since she was freed from the Cube and will report back once she finds anything on them. The Fake Spirit notes that sadly out of the heroic fakes, she doesn't know which ones are Hunters or which ones are normal shapeshifters out to play hero like Faux Spirit was doing, when the team brings up attacking Faux Dias head on again like last time.
Lemon breaks down what they do know: They don't know how many Ninth Circle circles are on Earth, but they do know a Ninth Circle member is an EarthGov general in charge of the Weapons department. She notes that Senator Harrison is one as well due to their encounter with him. Noting it would wear them down trying to take down each individual circle like they did on Luna, especially with the heroic Shapeshifters like X, Ripple, Virulent, and Dias, she suggests a more direct approach while being careful and reaching out to their contacts. Deciding to head to Cran's to try to reach out for some help there, one team goes there while the other team looks for some others that might help them.
Location: North American State - Desert Region
Warren flies a shuttle out to the middle of nowhere with John, Chris, Marcus, Vesta, Zephyr, Tabetha, Dias, Angela, Mi'Na and Faux Spirit.
Warren and Marcus discuss Chad who did not come with them and how Lev is likely working for him and his Weapons likely working for him and doing other things while John begs Chris for forgiveness for falling on her lap earlier but getting sexual harrassment papers to the face. Faux Spirit follows along, now having a chihuahua named Lilith these days to be her dog to make her happy and to play the part of Spirit better. Zephyr goes red eyes on them and moves off like an assassin and soon Dias is moving off and acting strange herself as they go through the mining town until they come across Locket standing over some unconscious guards in front of a mine shaft.
Dias notes he feels something wrong down in the mines and Locket states she came across biological weapons protecting the mine. Warren states this is an EarthGov property and there could be a base here of some sorts. Warren decides to head on to contact Em while Marcus, Dias, Cherry, and Locket go down to the mining tunnel to check out the base and perhaps turn it into a new base. Soon they are attacked by some mutated Dragoon/Weapon hybrid in the tunnels and they have to fight it off and destroy the creature. Finding a science lab inside the mining tunnel, the three enter it and begin to explore the area to see what all they can find.
Warren flies Angela, Mi'Na, Zephyr, Vesta, Chris, and John to where Em was last spotted to check in with her. Going to a cabin located on the Rocky Mountains where they landed and encounter Em and Evette. Em states that she believes they are being kept unconscious since they are not responding but can feel them pinging somewhat and Evette is helping with her computer skills. Also Vodka is out here somewhere tying to help locate them.
Location: Alexandria Corporations
X, Cole, Reikana, Chad, Lemon, Truth, Wyrd, and Tabetha note that the Repliforce area has more EarthGov military personnel than before and looks much more guarded.
Due to the security and not wanting to risk teleporting or using their ripples, Cole contacts Blue with his datapad. After some convincing and getting Blue on their side, she speaks in code in case anyone is listening in before hanging up after spotting their location. After some time and it looks like the base is switching shifts for evening, Cran and Blue exit it via limo and go near the team's location. Getting into the limo quickly, they see on the limo's holovid the Faux Dias convincing people to join WATCH to look out for threats against EarthGov, including shapeshifters. After Cole accidently brings up a touchy subject with X and gets an icy look, the team begins to talk with Alexander and Blue.
Informing them that Ren is out getting information regarding the enemy right now, they go over their positions. Lemon notes Kaleb has been placed closed to the Faux Dias to be used later right now and Warren has been setting up their allies all around to help where needed. Alexander notes he will loan Ren to the team once she is back from her mission, much to Reikana's delight. Cran also notes that the enemy has been working hard to get control of Repliforce to use in EarthGov and speed up their deployment, which means the Reploids can be a problem soon as well. At that moment on the holovid, Faux Dias announces Luna has been cut off by Sunny, using the defense shield and turning off the teleporters. Many are annoyed at being played by Sunny but note she is a problem for a later time until the Earth problem is dealt with, especially since Sunny is a thorn in the Ninth Circle's side, too.
Location: Mining Research Base
The team is staring at the old research base that Marcus, Locket, and Dias have discovered and are eyeing it in disgust at the strange creatures in tubes all over it. Warren asks Chris what does he think Sunny will do next while Chad asks Faux Spirit what she thinks her team will do and she admits she has no idea. However while they are setting up the team suddenly gets a message from someone called "N" and they send a ton of classidied EarthGov information to them, much to Kane and Warren's surprise.
Session 382: Highway to Hell Part 1
Location: In a Mine, In a Research Base
The Team is in a haunted research base that Warren has nicknamed "Marcus' Folley", the team tries to figure out what the mysterious "N" sent them. While the others consider the place to be a creepy hellhole, with Chris even comparing it to a creepy sex dungeon and Tabetha believing some of the beings here have minds of their own, some on the team wonder where Chad has wondered off to and if the creatures in here have gotten him. Zephyr seems peeved at Chad and notes he's probably talking to his Weapons, calling them his love slaves to everyone's disgust, and she seems annoyed at Chad calling his little robot Id, feeling it is a slap in her face. Going over the information N sent to the team, Warren and Kane tell the team if they can trust the mysterious N the person sent them travel plans and locations for President Dias and where he will be making his upcoming speeches over the next few days as well; as a bonus it also goes into the WATCH program the fake Dias has set up and lists where the remaining family members are being held which is near where Em is searching in the mountains.
Vesta believes it is from Necia so Kane looks into it to see if N's style matches Necia's and uncovers that it does when Chad returns finally from whatever it was he was doing. Warren also notes that while here, they went into what the research base did here which was try to make Dragoon/Weapon Hybrids but they all broke down on a cellular level which is disturbing since X managed to become one. While they decide to deal with both the fake Dias and WATCh, a knocking is heard on the front door of the base. Finding a human sized package there after answering the door, leading to some wondering if Marcus ordered a sex doll; however Ren leaps out of it in wolf-fox cub form onto Marcus' head after he opens it, having come here after being requested to help the team. Marcus leads the team to deal with the fake Dias' team and Lemon goes after the WATCH organization, dividing the team between the two.
Location: The WATCH Facility
Lemon, Wyrd, Vesta, Darien, John, Zephyr, Cole, Tabetha, Chad, and Reese, scope out the WATCH facility and plan their way inside. Chad attempts to hack the emergency door first, then the building's security, and after seeing how much trouble Lemon just opens the door and hopes the people inside will just think it is someone opening the door for a brief moment if they hurry inside. Making their way in they note the narrow hallways which could pose a problem if they get ambushed and hurry in further.
Location: Marcus' Team
Marcus, X, Ren, Cherry, Dias, Mi'Na, Angela, and Reikana, sit out the building where the fake Dias is going to hold a speech for the masses. Locating where the Presidental convoy is located first, the team decides to have some of them go in to listen to the speech to keep an eye on him. Reikana, Ren, Mi'Na, and Angela go inside to keep an eye on the Faux Dias while the others stay outside and move closer to the transport. When Faux Dias goes into the back fo the building, the ones inside wait a bit then go and explore the backstage area to try to find him. Outside, X pulls around in her fancy car that she had back in the day that can turn into a shuttle, having stolen it back, and begins to follow the Presidental convoy.
Ren's group finds what looks to be a personal teleporter in the back, indicating someone used it to escape the backstage. The energy signature is small enough that it could be traced nearby, however at that moment the motorcade begins to attack X's car and draws them into a battle. Forcing Ren and company to steal a car to head off to aid Dias, Marcus, and X, they drive off quickly, while X and company do battle with the motorcade.
Session 383: Highway to Hell Part 2
Location: WATCH HQ
Lemon leads her team into the WATCH HQ to find where the people are being held that are signing up for WATCH and rescue them, leading Wyrd, Tabetha, Reese, Cole, Darien, John, and Chad deeper into the complex. Managing to locate the chambers in the basement and taking out the guards, they find gooey chambers that are a mix of Dark Oneish tech and EarthGov tech. After dealing with the Hybrids protecting the chambers and a difficult battle, the Shapeshifter Wyrd and Virulent step out after the group has exhausted themselves a little and prepare to rescue the civilians trapped inside. While the fake Virulent looks like she feels guilty for everything going on, the other Wyrd looks like she has has an axe to grind looks forward to it and tells Virulent to either join her or stay out of her way, which she does.
Calling them hypcrits in her eyes and destroying an entire people, choosing who lives or dies, and saving others on their whims, the Shapeshifter Wyrd points out their unheroic legacy and actions; how they will simply decide who will live and die. And she points out that Wyrd there will kill her no matter their actions the second she gets a choice, and indeed Wyrd is holding her scythe ready to strike, noting she feels violated that the shapeshifter ripped her memories and mind to so closely mimic Wyrd. A battle breaks out, Truth feeling betrayed that the fake Wyrd won't back down and impregnating her, and only due to Wyrd canceling the shapeshifter's death Wyrd move are they able to get in close to begin to weaken her. Finally, Truth promises to keep Wyrd off of the shapeshifter if she promises to behave and be a mother to the child and aid them; the shapeshifter seems amused at Truth but agrees. The shapeshifter Virulent them aids them in freeing the civilians immediately after the fight ends.
Location: Highway
X drives her car up beside the armored Presidental vehicle while Ren and company also finally enter the bridge. Angela calls down Dakota to slam into the pavement in front of it and smash the engine block but a ripple cuts the arm off; at the same time Marcus leaps off X's car to land on the armored vehicle and a ripple appears, making him fly off the bridge, dropping toward the water below. Cherry saves Marcus with her Dark One tendrils, yanking him back up with all her might back to the car while Dakota uses his cut off arm to smash the armored car and damage before dozens of mini ripples cut Dakota up. The armored car comes to a stop due to the damage, allowing X to stop beside it and Ren to catch up finally, and Mi'Na rushes ahead from Ren's vehicle to attack when she runs into a ripple; Angela barely saves her in time with Montana.
As the team converges on the armored vehicle, the Shapeshifter Ripple comes out and they see that the Shapeshift Dias is not inside the car. The team immediately begins to insult him and call him names, enraging him and making him demand they respect him. Suddenly a figure slams into Ripple knocking him off the bridge and into the water below and they see Ariel has returned, finally recovered completely from her coma. Though she seems a bit stiff, wearing bandages on her head and looks a little off, she is holding her holy sword and seems to be in fighting shape finally as Ripple returns with a ripple. Finally a battle breaks out and the team works to over power him, as he uses his ripples to throw them back, trying to make it so he can't counter their attacks fast enough. Eventually he takes enough damage and his Hybrid body breaks down and dissolves into nothingness.
Angela is overjoyed at Ariel being back on her feet and hugs her while the others ponder what to do about the fake Dias, since he got away. Ren notes that he used a personal teleporter and the car with it has gotten away by now since they turned around to help them all. They decide to wait for 2 days to see if the fake Dias will show up for his second speech and they use X's special car/shuttle to return to the base.
Location: Marcus' Folly
At the base the two teams have reunited, with Faux Spirit and Virulent now in uniforms and helping the team and Faux Wyrd locked up for now, though Faux Wyrd does not quite look like the real Wyrd anymore due to her battle and using her Dark Oneish powers - her Hybridish abilities having morphed her a bit to look more Dark Oneish. X notes that the Ninth Circle won't let them keep chipping away at the shapeshifters and will plan something, so she proposes they split the teams to deal with the Ninth Circle while the other team deals with the remaining Shapeshifters helping them. X points out that Senator Hamilton seemed to be a high up Ninth Circle member, maybe the highest one, and she will lead a team to deal with him. Marcus and Dias will help deal with the fake Dias if he shows up and deal with him for good and Warren will release the footage of the civilians being switched in WATCH HQ when the time is right from the base.
Session 384: Closing the Circle
Location: Marcus' Folly
Warren hands out new armor to the team based off the armor Marcus found on the moon while the team does repair and other stuff while having down time. For Reikana's armor she gives a shot to help make it stronger since she has the symboite. Having gotten Dakota repaired, they prepare to go back to Mega City and track down Harrison and try to end the Ninth Circle for good while the other team tracks down the Fake Dias.
Location: Mega City
After arriving at the city,
X, Cole, Chad, Wyrd, Truth, Zephyr, John, Tabetha, Reese, and Chris begin to hunt their target at the Senate Building. Noting how strange Zephyr seems to act, especially when her eyes change color and her personality seems to shift when she does, they debate how to get into the Senate Building due to it's security and guards. Kane and Chad use their hacking abilities to bypass the building's security, taking it down briefly for the team to get inside while Zephyr helps out with her scouting. As they move through the hallways and encountering some staff that Tabetha has to knock out with her powers, while taking the chance to download any data on the servers, they soon reach Hamilton's office. After raiding it they see he is in the Senate Hall and move there to deal with him.
Once at the Hall, they surprise Hamilton and a fight breaks out with him as he tries to escape and Hale and Peter begin to attack, being shapeshifters. As the Hall clears out, it looks like they might manage to hold the shapeshifters back and nab Hamilton, having him cornerned, when a new foe busts in and knocks them on their feat - Faux X.
Location: Town Hall
Marcus, Dias, Cherry, Angela, Mi'Na, Lemon, Ren, Reikana, and Vesta wait outside before deciding to sneak into the town hall to get a better look and listen in on a wrestler hype up Faux Dias. While talking they begin to feel tired and losing power and soon the audience begins to fall asleep, realizing that something must be pumping into the town hall to weaken them. Being captured, they wake up in a vehicle transporting them and Faux Dias standing over them. After some quips back and forth, he leaves as the vehicle continues onward and cement begins to enter it to bury them. They manage to escape due to working together and get out before being cemented alive. With Angela and Mi'Na combining, Marcus and Dias straining against each other, Rea using his stuff, and others, they break their Dark Oneish restraints and the armored trucks is lifted out by Cherry, weakening her.
The team hears about the situation at the Senate Building and realizes Faux Dias is probably heading that way, so they opt to return to help out and catch him there.
Location: Senate Building
X's team has chases the Shapeshifter X through the Senate Building as she tries to get Senator Hamilton out while the real Em, Peter, and Hale battle their shapeshifter counterparts in the Senate Hall. They chase her through the hallways until she ripples down to the ground level and tries to reach the shuttle port where Reese shoots her to stall her and Cole teleports the team down to ground level. Talking to the Faux X, they begin to come to an understanding as she lists what the shapeshifters want and where offered - their own planet close to Earth and Dark One remnants that have remained such as ships and relics. But before they can come to an agreement, the EarthGov army arrives and begins to converge on the team and take aim and the Faux Dias arrives finally by Cole since he has Hamilton, since it looks like Faux X is going to turn him over.
Ordering the troops to open fire, a battle erupts as the team is forced to take cover and Faux Dias is now in a speedo and oiled up for battle. Zephyr and a few others in the team move off to deal with the EarthGov troops that are firing them, led by a Ninth Circle EarthGov General, who Reese manages to shoot, and Chris also manages to shoot a grenade that is fired at them by a grenade trooper, protecting the team while Truth does the Angela Shield-Chan thing. While Zephyr, Reese, and John do their thing with the troops, Montana arrives with the other team and the two teams for up to battle Speedo Dias. He seems pleased they managed to escape to face him and pulls Faux X close to him, saying the two of them will team up to fight them like the Dias and X of old and using his hybrid Dark Oneish blood, states that he has solved the Dragoon/Weapon problem that kept leading to the trials to fall apart with said blood. Now a Weapon/Dragoon type being, or at least shapeshifting the equivalent of one, he forcefully bonds with Faux X against her will, becoming some massive being, much to the disgust of the Dragoons present.
Cole teleports Hamilton away before Speedo Dias can take him back as the team fights him, trying to bring the monster down, as Angela seems enraged, never happy with Dias, any Dias, to begin with. Chris tells everyone not to feel the Speedo Dias as he tells them team to feel his heroic justice. During the battle Kaleb hits him in the back, having pretended to be an EarthGov agent during Speedo Dias' reign, and joins the fight. During the battle Faux X is knocked free of Speedo Dias and she escapes from the area and soon the team manages to defeat him and he begins to do the melt thing shapeshifters do when they are overly damaged, telling them it was a glorious battle. The goo runs Marcus good by as it melts away and Reikana/Noire wonders how it would taste as it goes away and Angela wonders if they could put it in a jar.
Date: 10-639.6.1
Location: Senate Building
Senator Graham Denham has re-emerged with the two Makas that were once on the team, now working with him, as he meets with the team to discuss the future of the team. Dias, now President, and Lemon, discuss the team going back to Cheryl's mansion and acting like a semi-black ops again though Denham points out that this entire mess points out the danger of black ops teams. He is finally convinced and says he will stand down with and quit arguing against it the Senate and if the military and Dias wants them back, he won't fight it there. The team is back in business and they begin to move back in.
Session 386: The Sunny Side of the Moon
Location: Cheryl's Mansion
The team is back at the mansion after a few months of being away from it and even Adeline is back from Geyze meaning the entire group is together finally and Em is providing some help. While the team does various things like cleaning and getting the base back into shape after having it stripped months ago, X notes her group has been interrogating Hamilton and they been making progress on making him crack but she thinks the Ninth Circle members will likely run into the wind while they work on him and he's resisting somewhat. Lemon believes that the Ninth Circle has been shattered and scattered and will not be a problem for a long time and even if they do return it will be half-hearted attempts, especially since the Ninth Circle members did not really know each other's names outside their own circles. So the group turns their attention to Luna for the time being and how to deal with Sunny having taken it over and what they can do to take it back from using the PAX's teleporters to offering Hamilton as bait to try to lure Sunny out.
Dias arrives and announces his plan to have the two Makas loaned to them from EarthGov and with Senator Denham to be their ace in the hole. He plans to have the Makas deal with the problem on the moon since one of their own is on Luna and X is surprised at that plan since that means Dias passing up a fight. Lemon points out that could be a problem since Maka take Makai seriously and who knows what damage that could result from if the Makas get seriously if they call their own in to deal with Zayne. The Maka explain to the group what Makai are now - just hate and anger and can never be turned back to the light side and must be destroyed since they are now monsters who feed off negative emotions. The group decides to handle this on their own and if they fail they'll bring the Makas in since Cole wants a chance to talk to Zayne one more time.
Going to the teleporters after the Empress sets things up for them they split into two teams so they'll not be noticed on Luna. Marcus leads one team and X the other team; Marcus' team arrives first and finds the place looking normal and nothing out of the ordinary outside strange posters telling people to have a great day with smiles. Though some people seem on edge things seem orderly and clean and Luna seems to be doing perfectly fine, unnerving the team as they explore and look for information. As they move about Luna they find the cameras following them everywhere they go but nothing is done to stop them as they go and they discover it is a police state but it has food and everything the people need and zero crime and the prices are reasonable. Some people like the state of things, others are fearful and are unhappy as they talk to the citizens and learn about executions being held publicly about corrupt and evil people to keep the populace in line.
X's team meanwhile explores the police station and goes through all the deaths that have been caused through the executions. Adeline notes to Dias who thinks they are evil acts that every Ninth Circle agent has been killed by the executions and magical attacks are done against child murders and molesters are recorded. The executions though can range from farmers who abuse their animals to those who do murder so Adeline concludes the magical attacks are Zayne's doing on the side. The also note none of the police who are in charge are the same officers who worked there a few weeks ago. Meeting back up, the two teams get together and compare notes on what they have learned so far.
As they are talking Zayne confronts them and notes that the team is there to bring down Sunny's dream. When Dias states that is what heroes do, she seems to find that term dubious regarding the team. She suddenly begins to drag Chad along who grabs onto Angela, causing Zephyr to dive for Chad after Angela kicks herself free by kicking Chad in the face, who causes Marcus to grab onto her. Sadly Chad is whisked away and vanishes; when asked, Zayne points out the things Chad has done like freeing Lev and saying fuck Luna and the team still lets him stay around and then launches into everything he's done ever when Marcus' asks. When she gives Rea a scenario about using her magik to violate him to death, would he not find that evil, Rea sprouts out it would depend on local cultures and laws to a degree as well.
Just saying interesting, she tells them Chad will be publically executed and Zayne vanishes with her magik. Ren points out that isn't it odd that Sunny is now killing evil people herself when in the past she would kill anyone, which means Sunny is following Zayne's M.O a little now? Wondering if Zayne is influencing Sunny somewhat, the team quickly heads to the execution site. Seeing Chad being offered food, poems and other things for his final moment, which Chad flatly ignores, and the countdown begins to go down as Sunny appears to address the crowd. After breaking the execution up and trading words with Sunny about her justice, she sics Zayne on the team and leaves.
Location: Luna - Goverment Yard
Zayne stands before the team, mumbling incoherantly after called evil, a dark aura surrounding her as she forms her magical gun and after a moment or two she finally goes back to being emotionless and engages with the team. The team seems intent on trying to bring her back to the "light" as Fate appears, observing the fight from a distance. As they talk, they continue to insult and aggrevate her and many think that Sunny has trained and molded Zayne, which either amuses or insults her futher, as she slowly approaches the team. As Marcus and the others insult her by indicating she has killed innocents, she admits to killing molesters, rapists, or child killers, she has never killed an innocent - in her eyes - and can sense the evil in people's hearts, and she seems to be getting more and more aggrevated at them insulting her by indicating otherwise. Chris and others, meanwhile, seem to be keeping an eye out for the "pet" Fate keeps, but for some reason she seems to be keeping it away.
As the team rambles on, Zayne finally acts, thanking them for letting her get this close and attacks them with a full blast to take the entire team out but Rea does his fuck you move to cancel it out. She magic gun blasts at Rea to take him out, but he dives to the side and due to the power it goes toward the crowd in the distance so Zayne cancels it out, much to the shock of the team. Zayne then teleports into the ground, leaving the team behind and they make their way into the Luna Government building where they find it has been redecorated by Sunny. They come across the little girl of one of the Ninth Circle Members and after Marcus rescues her, she stabs him in the neck with a poison blade, aiming not to kill him but to weaken him. Chad stuns her while the others are stunned Sunny radicalized the little girl to her cause and Marcus, after being healed, is furious and wants Sunny's head once and for all.
Zephyr uses her dragoon bustah to blast a path to Sunny and the team arrives in the grand courtroom where they find Sunny standing where the Judge typically stands, surrounded by explosives all around in the room and Zayne off to the side. Sunny welcomes them to their trial and declares them guilty. The team begins battle with Sunny in the courtroom, with Zayne defending Sunny but oddly not participating fully in the battle. Through the battle, Sunny insults them and her twisted smile mocks them, even as they begin to wear her down, each side delivering comments to each other, Sunny judging them for how they act and coming her and taking Luna back from people who do not want it, and the team judging Sunny for her murderous ways.
As Sunny is clearly bleeding out and Sunny and Zayne are firm in their belief, Chad notes to Angela they they will not be budged in their beliefs. Sunny notes that neither of them want to be redeemed by them and not everyone wants to be their friend. They also talk to Zayne about emotions, which she finds amusing and finally reveals to them about her emotions - that they are muted unless greatly upset/angered/surprised, which makes them think that this is all ploy by Sunny to get at Zayne through her death to make her see her way of thinking. During all this Sunny and Zayne begin to talk about how they made a difference for a time at least and the people of Luna will always remember how they cleaned it up. Chad tells Zayne to take Sunny and leave but she refuses, saying Luna is Sunny's home, even as Rea and the others begin to inch closer home as Sunny is bleeding out.
Chris then does the final strike to kill Sunny, making it so that Sunny cannot have a chance of recovering even if Zayne runs away with her. Rea spots Zayne's spots and tries to groun it out but it manages to land on her shoulder and Zayne blows a hole in the floor and runs away, right into X's group; they shoot away and Zayne is forced to roll and protect her stomach, making Reese think she is pregnant until the creature leaps for his face. As the teams move on, Zayne leans down to give Sunny a bloody kiss and teleports away, leaving Sunny's body behind with them. Chris stops Angela from healing her and Darien notes she was bleeding out too much from Chris' shot anyway, damaged as she was already. Fate shows up already and notes Sunny's soul has moved on already and begins to talk with the team.
Fate, in her young kid form, notes Zayne is long gone from Luna and will not be back for many, many years and will not be seeking revenge, much to the surprise of some of them. She notes that Zayne will continue to do what she has always done - hunt down criminals and avoid the team. She joined with Sunny due to the darkness in her to learn from her and possibly deal with her later, but something changed and they began to see each other's point of view; Sunny learning Zayne's justice and way of thinking and Zayne learning a bit of how Sunny's world view and how she operated. She also explains that Zayne is unusual in that she became a makai due to great injustice and that her emotions were taken from her by her creature but also serve as her fuel/power. Hence she is emotionless unless something causes a great stir of emotion.
Fate heads back to Earth with the team to prepare training with Dias and talk about the future legend of the Golden Werewolf.