Countdown to 475 - Part 10
Location: Geyze, The Academy
The club attends the 10 year reunion of the first class of the Academy to keep an eye out for trouble as well as enjoy the proceedings of the Academy enjoying the celebration as well as Geyze - and ignoring the fact the Ancient Temple Sasha uses as her place of operations is parked next to the rec center. Lumi is back in her old instructor outfit from those days and goes to where the Unit 6 used to be housed and picks up Gwen, Alita, Ceilia, Qui, Vyvy, Commodus, and Sasha, as well as Kito and Neekito. Alita points out that most of the team is royality now and Talia becomes excited at the idea of becoming a Princess, even if Gwen himself is now in line for the Amazon throne, her child might one day if Qui has no children. Taiga discusses with Nicolette how Unit 6's actions essentially formed Geyze into what it became today as they all march onto the podium and the two discuss the history of Geyze as well as the place of the team; Liana's face is on the podium since she did not make it due to royality matters. Vyvy waves at the Elder Spirits, clearly interested in getting to know more about them as well talking to Mélodie and Aimée, causing Sparkling Justice to pull the two younger spirits closer to her in a huff.
Shion eventually steps onto the podium and greets the crowd, as she was the second headmistress the Academy ever had, and greets the students of the past and the current ones as well as future ones, then introduces the person who created the Academy, motioning at Isis and Miyuki. Miyuki, dressed in all snappy like usual, steps up and delivers a nice speech to everyone, then has Isis walk up, who heads out graduation papers to the current class while Miyuki heads awards to the old team, earning waves from Vyvy. Each of the Unit 6 members receive a medal around the neck for their service and a comment by Isis. Afterward, Miyuki and Isis head off to make love while the rest of the classes go to enjoy the buffet that has been set up for everyone. Vyvy summons Salamander and Shade to join her like Jaime summoned Gnome and the party begins in full, only for the attack to begin.
Various people are all over, including Kidd, Shinobu, and Rain, as they eat and enjoy each other's company - Ren is chowing down on a ton of food with Charlotte, Noire, Taiga, Jaime, and the others partake, when Nicolette, Sparkling, and Sabrina feel a Hunter among the crowd. While Sasha notes to Kito and Neekito her mood is dampened due to the temple's location, which Simon and the others are currently inside working to move it back to it's proper location, people who have been eating food begin to fall over - the various Thenas collapse, Asha, Shinobu, and even Ren who throws up due to how much she was scarfing food down. As students go down the team realizes the food has been poisoned, the team works on healing everyone as Charlotte vows revenge; Talia, Sabrina, and Sparkling work on healing everyone while Alita brings in Brooke to help out with the mass healing.
Rain takes Shinobu back to the Dark Lands while Nicolette tries to narrow down the wrong feeling from her cards, ordering Sparkling to kick over a table and revealing a bomb. The team works together as Noire uses her tendrils to throw it into the air as Jaime speeds up the timer and makes it explode in the air. However particles begin to fall down that seem to interfere with magik, probably aimed at crippling the Maka, so Jaime and Alita work on funneling them into an earth made jar to contain them. Kito and Neekito move off to help with the injured and are not seen again. After it is all over, the team realize it is another shapeshifter attack and check to see who all is still here since the shapeshifter feeling is gone now; Undine/Brooke continues to help people and gets Ren on her feet, telling Charlotte she needs to recover and seems to whisper something in her ear about her condition that seems to surprise her. Shion decides to lead the group to the first of the two people who left during the chaos to see if they are the shapeshifter.
Location: The Amazon Capital
Shion leads Taiga, Sabrina, Nicolette, Jaime, Sparkling, Asha, and Noire into Qui's tent to meet with Gwen and Qui where they learn they are here to learn if Qui is a shapeshifter or not, insulting Gwen. Qui is talking her to advisor, a massive Amazon and when she learns their purpose here, offers to cut her hand, revealing red blood but Nicolette still reads Qui and finds her clean, though her advisor seems to have darkness in her that might be a problem down the road. Qui also seems shocked at learning about the bomb, having been dragged off by Vyvy, another of her advisors. Noire taps into her power she used long ago that causes her a headache and nose bleed and checks everyone's auras, seeing they look clear: Gwen has a middling aura, Qui has a pretty nice aura, the advisor's aura is dark - clearly not a good person, Jaime's is eh - probably a Progenitor thing, Asha's is golden. They say their goodbyes, with Nicolette giving Qui a warning about butlering, and Shion takes them to the Dark Lands next.
Location: The Dark Lands
The group arrives and meets with Shion who is nursing a headache, which is unusal for a vampire, and they discuss the incident with the food and their suspecting a shapeshifter, leading Shinobu being annoyed at them thinking it must be her since Qui is cleared. Sparkling clears her while Nicolette says be wary of strangers, leading to some confusion while Shinobu notes she is waiting for Rain to come back with some herbs for her head; Rain steps in soon and heads over the herbs to Shinobu while Nicolette gives Sparkling her planchette to "help" detect them easier. While using it, Sparkling declares for everyone that Rain is indeed the shapeshifter, causing the Hunter to try to activate a trap, but the team stops it just in time. It becomes clear the Hunter has copied Rain's memories and abilities, much like they did in Act 1 - Phase 9. The team subdues her and tries to threaten the Hunter, but it appears the Hunter doesn't care about their threats of doing things to it, noting if they do anything it will break the connection to Rain to signal to it's allies to kill the real Rain. As Shinobu protests to them, Noire threatens her so it breaks the connection and tries to transform and escape but it caught; with the real Rain probably in danger somewhere, the team decides to hope in vain they can find clues to her whereabouts at her house.
Countdown to 475 - Part 8
Location: PAX
As Taiga hangs up pictures of the original Reality Striker members on one wall and the Fumoffu members on the other wall, leading to Nicolette wondering if the two sets of pictures are having a staring contest, and Kaori and Hess do a comedy routine with Hess losing almost losing her hand to Kaori's mouth and interdimensional stomach. After the club members settle in, Taiga goes over the shapeshifter incidents on Geyze lately and catches people up on it, especially since the team has been encountering them a lot lately, and goes over things from receiving samples of the Hunter Shapeshifter DNA that they captured as well as regular Shapeshifters to be studied, so they decide to let Ceilidh study the samples after she volunteers. After she is gone, Taiga brings them to the case and notes while it isn't in their wheelhouse, it was drawn to her eye after she reveals the bomber blew up a school owned by Kitty, ticking Taiga off it seems. The bomber giving off a warning before they destroy the building and using unique bombs to do it; after some prodding the team is dragged off to investigate the bombing.
Location: Mega City
The group studies the ruins of the destroyed school and at first some of the team doesn't realize that Giblin is Hess, Kitty, and X's last name, earning stares from Kaori and Hess, before they look into the other bombings and see if are connected to the Giblin name on Durt's suggestion. While Thena keeps going on about the gators, earning back talk from Noire and Charlotte,
Taiga has her Taiga A.I go through the bombings and note that other than a bombing a Mizukaze building owned by Cheryl for parts for her building stuff for the family, due to the Mizukaze's not being as rich as they used to be in the past after funding all the teams. As Hess investigates the building she finds the bomb's location to have been set off in a janitor closet, or what was left of it, while Taiga reads out the message sent condeming the Giblin school in some insane message. The Taiga A.I scans the residue for the team while naming off a Nue building being targetted as well, leading the team to wonder if it means the person is going after them specifically; the residue turns out to be rather rare and found in only 4 places on Earth or in black markets on the Cartel.
While Charlotte mutters about the Cartel always coming up in these cases, Adeline points out that they are a good place to buy stuff if you need to go around normal channels and notes she does it all the time, leading the team to joke about Red Fox's increasing her influence into a Red Market to compete. They decide to call up Lemon to use the satalites on Earth to scan for the materials and while she works, spend some time talking about various subjects until she gets back with them that outside the bases, there is no sign of it being on Earth, leading them to decide the bomber must not be on Earth anymore. Noire suggests maybe they could be bold enough to target the PAX and so they decide to give it a try, returning to the ship. Once back on the ship, Taiga sends Thena to alert the Empress to try to locate the substance while the others check on Ceilidh and see how her work has been going along.
Ceilidh announces she has made a serum to help Makas and those like Noire detect Shapeshifters easier if they take it before using their powers. Taiga gives her a gold star and as she and Jennifer note they can make multiple serums for use; during all this a Janitor with the name tag Ted moves about cleaning things. It's decided that Nicolette will take the serum with her so it can be tested later as the Janitor puts the trash up in the closet and leaves, leading to Charlotte to look up the Janitor's name in database. The bomber's warning comes up, giving them a 2 minute warning before it goes off, as she reaches the Te's and sees there is no Ted, and CHIP gets in touch with them about needing a scan. Taiga heads to the auditorium since the person seems to be using the public PA system to catch up while Noire rips open the cleaning closet and finds the bomb mixing to try to evade CHIP's sensor's, but he announces it's in the closet - perhaps to be ironic.
CHIP announces he might can disarm it with 20 seconds - maybe, but there is only 40 seconds left. He does give them the order to cut the wires, with only a 85% probability he's right and so Ceilidh of all people takes the chance and cuts them in the order he gives, facing her fears of the past and disarm the bomb; then he ruins it by announcing he only sees in one color. Taiga returns with the janitor gagged and Nicolette gives Ceilidh a gold star for her work. Ao arrives with Leyeah to take the bomb and prisoner, praising Ceilidh for her work and noting the Empress wants to talk to her later. Jaime has a dark moment for a second about offing the man but decides to take him to the cells for Ao and Leyeah and Ren wonders about why the man would target medical if he was making points, peering at Jennifer and Ceilidh.
Location: The Academy
Ceilidh has been assigned down to the Academy with the serum and Nicolette droops at being back at the place, probably due to all the problems going on here lately. Celes and Liana are packing their bags to make a trip to the ecastle and she notes she will try to make the trip quickly to Sasha and invites her along to the celebrations taking place there, noting that Spiritalist Kingdom and Naturalist Kingdom seemed clean of shapeshifters in positions of power. It seems today is Luna's birthday and she wishes to make sure the castle is clean before she assigns Eve to be in charge incase Selena leaves or to look over Selena if she stays behind. She invites Nicolette to come along to the party and Kito notes she will stay behind if Sasha is leaving while Ceilidh marvels at Talia being a talking cat.
Sylph takes them to the Hapian Castle, now fully restored now that the Spirit Realm is back, where Eve has thrown a tradtitional Hapian birthday party wih all the nobles about to meet Luna to help make connections. While Sasha and Celes are not thrilled, Eve notes Nicolette and tells her even word of her has reached her at the castle and she is interested in learning more about her. The party goes on without a hitch and there are no shapeshifters, showing the castle is clean and Ceilidh gets some plushies from Syph and Neekito of themselves and she even meets Qui who talks about showing her around Geyze somtime.
Countdown to 475 - Part 7
Location: PAX
Taiga holds the Fumoffu club meeting in Katrina's bar where Taiga and Lorelei subtlely study each other as the group orders food and settles in. While Thena distracts Lorelei, being her usual self, a hooded Erevis walks into the room and enters Katrina's office and shuts the door after herself. Almost immediately afterward, something crashes onto Durt's lap, spilling the coffee he is bitching about and knocking it all over; Andrea lays there smoking and bloody from some battle. After reforming her looks and clothes, she explains the situation to them all; it seems Andrea, Marcus, and X have found the shapeshifter from one of Erica missions, the one that stole a bunch of Cartel weapons. While they were out there in deep space, they discovered evidence the shapeshifter was testing some of the stolen materials. After Andrea reaches into the air and pulls out some evidence that is covered in dark sludge, that appears to be data disks, broken vials, and oddly corpses - which freaks out Rachael. The group studies what Andrea brough and it seems that the vials look are broken, but perhaps there are still particle samples in them, the data disks still could have iformation on it, despite the corruptive sludge coating them, but worst of all are the corpses are Guardians.
The hooded figure exits Katrina's room and looks upset at the Dark One talk as she leaves, holding a data chip, and Andrea exits and promises to return if they all chant her name three times. The team moves into action to deal with this situation and they head to medical where Jennifer and Cuddles handle the disks where Thena wonders if X will be a risk since she is part Dragoon now. Chad and Adeline work on the disks while Jennifer and Cuddles work on the bodies and vials, the two teams soon getting results; Chad and Adeline learn the shapeshifter took the body of a prominent scientist to use their body/mind to "become" them and worked a new virus, using the original virus from Viral Exodus days as a baseline. After some more work, they learn the new virus just makes them very sick and takes their power away, thus leaving them powerless and taking out the dragoon power base - it will target anyone with the Dragoon DNA. They wonder if the cure from long ago will still work or if this new variation will be able to get around it, so they decide to work on a new cure.
Since no one is allowed to enter the PAX right now, all the dragoons are safe here, but they do a search for all their allies and see if they can locate where the shapeshifter might strike while Jennifer and Cuddles work. Jennifer makes Taiga and those with any Dragoon DNA suit up in hazmat suits before they go to Earth to try to find Cheryl or any who might be in danger incase the shapeshifter goes there. Rachael meanwhile barges in on Valen and finds him in a creepy conspiracy theory room set up on who might be Gartareh and Durt asks Lorelei about what is up with her and Taiga as well, but she is mum with Thena around. Eventually Taiga's group teleports down to a base run by Peter and Hale, post elections and no longer Senators, where they also find Emeralda, Vodka, Lemon, and Cheryl. The only one that they can't track down, even with Warren on the comms, is Zephyr at the moment.
After getting everyone up to speed, they learn everyone is gathered due to an unknown craft in the area so the team, so they use the virus pattern to scan and they get a hit of it in the area. Cheryl manages to get in touch with Zephyr, but she refuses to go into lockdown wherever she is located and notes she will handle it for them before ending contact, causing Drasek, Emeralda, and Lemon to want to go out of the base, which has gone into lockdown mode, and find her. Angela and Vodka decide to help with the creation of a cure while the others go to find Zephr and the shapeshifter. Jennifer, Vodka, Cuddles, and Angela begin to work on the cure on the PAX with Chad on the comms and patching through to Virulent as well. Together they begin to create the cure and Jennifer manages to make, bragging to Cuddles, but it can only be made on the PAX. They decide to prepare cure shots and take the cure down to the Earth via ships like the Aquarius while Rachael whispers to Kaelan about Valen. The Aquarius lands on the Earth with the cure and they begin to inject those who remained behind with it and Taiga is able to scramble out of her suit finally. Peter and Vodka talk about becoming President and Vice President during the next election while the team prepares to follow Drasek and the others.
Drasek, Lemon, and Emeralda soon catch up to Zephyr's location where they find her shooting down a shuttle and it spewing something into the air all over the place. Drasek hyperspace pulls her away from it, but Lemon notes it might be too late since it was covering the area for a while now. Drasek uses his hyperspace to destroy the shuttle and stopping it from spreading any further, though it looks like it covered a few blocks. Zephyr and Angela/Montana take out the shapeshifter as he exits the shuttle and it seems to be over as they are given the cure, though each of them have trace amounts of the virus in them. After Zephyr and Chad have strange moment, Lorelei notes she is late and grabs Taiga, running off and Pepper notes she is drafting up a bill for the taxi serive.
Back on the PAX, Lorelei drags Valen to the bar where his birthday party is being held and everyone is present to wish him a happy birthday. It seems like a perfectly normal moment and everyone has a nice moment. And back on Geyze, Erevis pushes her hood back and studies the datachip, revealing information on the Empress as well as sighting of Wind recently before using her spirit glove to melt the datachip.
Session 22: Spirit Mysteries in Space
Countdown to 475 - Part 6
Location: PAX
As the group gets into the club room, where the gators have popped up once again, the topic turns to Reikana not showing up the other day due to an artist moment which leads to Ren being confused if Reikana even has such moments and for those not present they discuss how Jennifer saved the day by making a second defense to the new Dragoon Virus 2.0, though they only suspect it might have affected 3 people that they know of right now. The topic of the shapeshifters come up with Noire wanting to know how many are left and Nicolette curious if people are keeping count, so Taiga brings out her tally and informs them she has been; it is beleived the 30 Hunters divided their forces, 10 to the Erusians, 10 to the Tsivrixshs, and 10 to do odd jobs. The team managed to kill 6 of the 10 on the Erusians, they have not touched any of the Tsivrixsh ones but believe one has copied the Tsivrixsh Emperor Kyuun, and they have killed 2 and captured 2 of the 10 odds and ends one due to their focus on Geyze - dropping the number from 30 to: 20 alive, 8 dead, and 2 captured.
Taiga then lists the various activies she has on the docket the group can choose from: a haunted Cartel resort, a space race to win a relic with spirit properties, and the third is reports of a Spirit in Cartel lands, but not be a spirit. The third is on a backwards planet that is still being developed so it's hard to get information out of it. The team debates and it's decided to focus on the race since it's a limited time thing and the race could be won by someone else. They decide to seek out the Aquarius since none of them have space
Location: The Aquarius, Cartel Space Race World
The group has Yuki go over the rules of the race and while most of them remain on the Aquarius to watch the race, a few of them decide to partake of the race to win the relic after Yuki and Taiga help them get some smaller ships ready to match the race's modifcations; while Mireille pouts at not being allowed to race due to the Aquarius being considered cheating, Ren/Charlotte aer in one ship, Thena is in another ship to be her nemesis, Kaelan is in another ship, Jaime using Xanatos' flying style, a Red Ship, a Black Ship, and a Maka all take off when the race begins and Yuki notes that the rules state the other races can do anything they want as long as it doesn't kill the other racers.
Thena uses her hyperspace powers to take on the lead, which spurns on Charlotte to try to catch up. While the group watching debates on if Thena's cheating ways would make for a good Empress or not in this climate, Nicolette noting she is cheering for the Maka, they soon reach the first trap where the asteroids go after the person in the lead and try to smash Thena. However she purposely slows down to let Charlotte take the lead and deal with them and follows behind Charlotte as they both navigate the asteroids; Charlotte manages to get through the asteroids with only a few whaps to her ship which Thena gets as well, but they make it out otherwise. The Maka tries to use the asteroids on the ships behind her and takes out the Black Ship, but the others continue by and Kaelan and the Maka begin to have a little competition between them as she uses her tendril to spank her.
They soon reach a debris field with traps inside it and all of them begin to catch up to each other and battle it out as the Maka takes the lead briefly, but the traps wear her out and Kaelan checks on her despite the two going at it for the better part of the race; the Maka laying on top of her ship to race while Thena, Charlotte, and Jaime continue on ahead. As they near the finish line, Kaelan and the Maka help each other out as Charlotte and Thena battle out for first and second place. Somehow despite the odds, Charlotte takes first place with Thena getting second place and the Maka gets third place due to Kaelan. Charlotte wins the the spirit rod that can extend and mimic spirit powers to a lesser degree and even those who use spirit powers. Thena wins a lifetime vacation at Jarivan and the Maka wins a modeling/idol gig which she tries to run awa from but is dragged off by the Cartel until Kaelan rescues her. The group votes to check out the possible spirit that might be out there next with the remaining time they have left while Jaime pouts at losing the rod.
Location: Cartel Planet? at the border of the Suisen/Erusian Territory
Using the Tiger Jump, the Aquarius arrives at the planet and they land at a makeship space port due to the low technology level of the planet; it seems to be a mining planet with cities slowly cropping up around the mines and it is clear in a few decades it will become a power house in the galaxy. It has a mix of old technology and modern as they head into a city with dirt roads and buildings that are a mix of modern and old looking and enter a tavern for information about where the spirit might be located. While Nicolette plays cards and wins a lot of money, the others question the bartender and learn their target is in the forest; heading there they discover two cloaked figures healing people and doing sermons. It appears the one person doing healings is someone who uses a lot of magik and seems to be a Maka, and the other is none other than Mercy.
It turns out Mercy was allowed to escape the Templars by Leon and discovered the girl with the talent to use powerful magiks and see auras like Angel Ruun and took her in to use her. Realizing that this means they could use Ruun to maybe discover shapeshifters easier, they talk with the girl and Kaelan and Mercy connect a little. The Maka introduces herself as Layla-Rose as the two leave and it seems the Spirit rumors have been debunked and some in the group worry about the Maka being in Mercy's hands.
Location: PAX
Taiga talks with Charlotte after it is all over and having been watching Charlotte and Ren lately decides to give her old ring of her's and Ouka to Charlotte to give to Ren, encouraging her to propose to Ren when she thinks she is ready. Due to Ouka being off in deep space for a long time now, it seems Taiga doesn't think she is coming back, or thinks something might be happening to her. Charlotte seems encouraged by her blessing and takes the ring.
Countdown to 475 - Part 4
Location: PAX
The team meets for their meeting and Taiga brings a new case forward about a sharpshooter that shoots people, but doesn't kill them, and leaves evidence of their crimes on their bodies. Taiga wonders if it might be Zayne and wonders if someone like Nicolette could approach her with Charlotte noting she freaks her out. After Nicolette contacts Zayne, she arrives with little Sunny and she notes these do not fall under her parimeters, but she has heard of a dark haired female sniper. Zayne heads out to deal with the vigilante and leaves Sunny with the team, so they debate doing another case of the haunted resort or following Zayne and end up going after her.
Location: Mega City
They arrive in an area of complexes owned by powerful business men that produce stuff via automatic production, warehouses to store it, and a main building, all of it legit looking so far. They find Zayne stalking a target and not caring for the damage caused to find them; the target she is chasing seems to be going after a man that flips a switch to cause all the machines on assembly lines to begin combining and it forms into a giant robot, however Asha manages to stop a piece from attaching and cause a weak point. The target continues with some continuing while others deal with the Killer Robot and Zayne takes Sunny and leaves. Montana and Noire take it out using the weak point and continue after the sniper, finding the business man shot in the leg with evidence pinned to him as well as Angela healing him. Using cameras they find that Zephyr is the sniper and wonder if she is doing missions for someone or acting on her own for some reason; Nicolette wonders if she has gone rogue and dealing with criminals that can't be dealt with legally.
Location: PAX
Zephyr and Zayne arrive at the club, with Zayne showing off little Sunny to Nicolette and Charlotte, while Zephyr notes this is what she was made to do, her eyes oddly changing colors based on the coversation topics. She promises to stop and that she'll turn over any evidence she has gathered to Lemon if she feels the urge or work with others from now on. Zayne also notes she would like to stop by more often, noting Sunny seems to like Nicolette. Angela explains that Zephyr has changed a bit to her original self lately as well as some powers, leading to Charlotte to ask some questions while Zayne leaves while Adeline notes she wants to look into Zephyr's black ops files to learn more with Angela.
Location: Cartel Haunted Resort
The team arrives at a foggy beach like resort with a carnival next to it and began to look into the mystery that resides inside it. There also seems to be another van of anothr team with a cute fox is painted on the side a group of teenagers investigating the resort; a lanking guy in a green shirt, a short girl with short hair, a man with an ascot, a girl with long red hair who looks a bit like Erevis, and a fox who goes yip. The team works on solving the mystery, playing the various attractions and winning dolls of Zero and other things, encountering the ghost, only to learn it is the owner trying to do an insurance scam due to barely making any money on the place.
They return back to the PAX where Adeline and Angela give their report on Zephyr, noting she doesn't have a split personality but personas to help her do her job, noting her eyes change based on her persona. Charlotte and Noire talk a little about Noire and her family as Taiga calls the meeting and Angela and Aloutte get into a talk about Alouette's attitude toward Zero taking the name of the legendary Zero from her world.
Countdown to 475 - Part 2
Location: PAX
The Club meets and starts to go over their activities of late, having accumulated a lot of small requests and the ever outstanding case of the Meth Gators looms over them. With Angela and Thena absent, they decide to put that terrifying task aside and clean up the rest of the list. Taiga brings the group to Mega City to deal with lots of small jobs. Cats are saved from trees, old men find their way home and Noire even stops a purse snatching. Then they come to a Waterpark where people have been going missing for 15 years.
Donning fanservice, the group enters the water park to meet forboding Gator Mascots. They are aided in getting away from it and shown where to start their hunt by a helpful bear mascot in a hat and tie, the same mysterious character that helped them fight the killer robot. After inspecting the back of the park they find a grate and sewer access leading to a secret room under the rides. They find a trophy room of the victims, and evidence that the bear has walled off another access where a monster once lived and already solved the case. They bring the evidence to the authorities.
On the way back to the teleporters, the group finds a burning building and together they save several families, Taiga getting a bit singed in the process. After which they attend a Magical Girl convention dressed as magical girls, identifying that there may be Maka attending these things. They also see some of the latest games Andrea might be responsible for based on Noire.
Later on the PAX the group gets rid of all their marked tasks but the Meth Gators, and Ren jots a new one on the board: Gartareh. Taiga lets the group know they'll discuss it next time.
Session 25: Ending Point (Part 1)
Countdown to 475 - Part 1
Location: PAX
A wedding is held to unite Charlotte and Ren together as wives, most of the family there to observe. Aya and the kids are even there, with Aya acting a bit strange and quite happy lately. Miyuki even brings the ranks of flufflings to observe. After a calm ceremony, the group parties and celebrates with the two before getting to work.
Taiga decides to celebrate by getting the single most annoying task off their list, finally looking to mark off the Meth Gators that mysteriouslyt keeps appearing on the board. Who knows how it gets there it's totally mysterious. Taking the group down to the North America State, they go Gator Hunting.
Tracking down a chemical dump in the swamps, they discover evidence that the Omega Coke makers are at it again, dumping hyper potent drugs into the innocent wilds. Angela proclaims innocence about this, but nevertheless is used as bait to track down the Omega Meth Gator. The group takes down the Gator and reports the dumping, and Angela decides to take steps to retake that old company over just to shut it down.
Afterwards, the group reconvenes for more serious issues. Taiga informs her group that Lorelei suspects her of being Gartareh, and of course, those in Lorelei's group already know this, but are surprised when Taiga informs them she suspects Lorelei is actually Gartareh. So she outlines a plan to confront her sister and shows her reasoning, the group knowing that if that's true, the kids are screwed due to their deep link through the Angel Marks.
The group shares theories, while Durt, helpful as ever, goes to inform Lorelei of Taiga's moves. Fate shows up and gives Valen a glimmer of hope, in the form of a glimmer, or shard of power that might awaken Dusk. She states that someone is going to die the following day, and maybe more if the team does not play their cards right. Everyone goes to rest, plan, and make their moves in a game of whodunnit, where both sides suspect the other of being the evil God.
TAW Session 475: Turning Point (Part 2)
Location: PAX
Valen, Rachael and Moira visit Andrea's place on the PAX late at night. Here, Valen shows Andrea the shard of Dusk and asks if she can use her Dark One abilities to revive the fallen Goddess. Andrea swallows the shard and tells them she'll need some time to process, so they ready themselves for a long night.
On Geyze it is early morning, a meeting is called to discuss the trip to the Past to find out the secrets of the Ancients, and as they discuss the long term issues involved, Si'Chii unexpectedly arrives. She tells Lumi that Taiga needs her and after Lumi agrees to go, mentions they have someone else to pick up, heading off with her as the rest of the group makes their choices. Gwen, Lana, Talia, Simon, Alita, Celes, and Liana all decide to go, leaving Selene as Queen in Celes' absence.
A few hours later, back on the PAX, tension is in the air. The Aquarius in the hangar is brought to life as alarms go off, not to address the rising tension between sisters, but something worse, Dark Ones headed for Geyze. The PAX and the Aquarius mobilize to defend the planet. At the same time, the PAX goes into a lockdown while something else is happening in Taiga's room. The Space group makes a mad dash there only to find a busted in door and a trashed room, a device on the floor, quickly identified as a teleporter. The group's ping tells them that Lorelei is definately off station, but evidence suggestions that Lorelei took Taiga, not the other way around.
As the decide to follow the teleport, Si arrives with Lumi and Garterah, the original alien being that the Zodiac Gang befriended so long ago. The group together takes the teleporter to none other than Striker Station, the traps just about to activate. Si thankfully knows the codes however and halts them going off in the group's face. They then encounter Lorelei and Taiga battling one another, with evidence that Durt has been involved.
The God Hunters find themselves in a battle to save Taiga from the Evil Gartareh possessing the body of their Angel. And together, with much effort and intervention on Lore's part, where she severs the ability of the Marks to control the party, the group is able to subdue her. Taiga is mortally wounded in the process and Si does everything she can to save her wife's life. With Gartareh seemingly contained, they rush the two to the PAX medical unit, where Jennifer and Cuddles work together to keep the two alive.
Meanwhile, Geyze comes under the assault of the Dark Ones ship. The PAX and the Aquarius together manage to chase it off, however a single seed gets through and heads to the surface, where the Academy team meets it and the Dark One in charge of it. As they fight the corruption, the Dark One, who Jaime names Bobby, meets face to face with Andrea. As the two are about to duke things out, Bobby decides to steal an advantage for herself and teleports, somehow, Lorelei and all those who were around her to the surface. She pulls Gartareh out of Lorelei and takes it into herself.
The Academy and the God Hunters are suddenly united to face a Dark Gartareh. Jennifer uses this weird opportunity to have the Academy Mages like Alita heal up the two fallen sisters. The rest, joined by Marcus and Dias, fight the Dark Goddess and manage to knock Gartareh right out of her. He attempts to steal the body of the original Gartareh but is thwarted by the group as Andrea beats Bobby and earns her semblance of loyalty. A shade of Gartareh seems to get away, vanishing as it flies off, but the groups succeed in stopping Bobby and Garterah, the Academy saved from Seed Corruption as well.
Afterwards, Erevis and Xanatos are on board the PAX as everyone recovers and celebrates their victory. The Angel Kids happy to have Lore free and Gartareh gone, the PAX happy to have scared off the Dark Ones. Erevis moves back into 2b and down below on Geyze, the Academy team works on clean up before man of them ready for their next great journey.