Chapter 2: The Ruler Convention
Chapter 2: Return to Crystal Kumen
Session 179: Seperate Directions
Location: The Academy
For the teams of Geyze and Kumen, jumping into the future and battling Destiny, has caused several months to pass by the time they return. Qui, it seems, had taken over the academy the past 4 and a half months to build it up and make it larger, building embassies for each of the Kingdoms so they can do business while at the school and help do more. Since Qui and Gwen were chosen to remain behind, fearing that if they came along they might be forced together as one again like last time, Qui was the de-facto leader and spent a lot of the time holding the school together while the major leader of the uniting force was gone, turning the Academy into a small town practically, with new teachers and students since it is graduation time.
The leaders have been gathered to discuss the fact Shion is gone, with Cypher down there as Kumen's representative, and later that day the other two teams will be heading down to discuss the Compass they discovered after the battle. Kalam is now the leader of the Spiritalists, the sole one currently until two others worthy of being leaders with her, and Qui has passed on the Headmistress duties to Sasha, leaving Celes the true heir to the Hapian Dynasty. Though with how the Academy is slowly becoming the center of Geyze, one wonders if Sasha didn't come out better. With Sasha planning to resume the Academy as a place of learning and start a new school year, it seems that everything is returning to normal, but now the other kingdoms are working jointly, with the old Tamae system now demolished. The Kingdoms will work to send their best and brightest to assist the Academy because they are all in this together instead of working against each other.
After the Academy's new year starts, the teams arrive and meets together to discuss the compass, with the three teams trying to figure out what it does. They also learn the Time Gate is now gone, meaning they can no longer go into the future, nor have invasions from it. While trying to figure out what it does, they decide to visit the Spirit Homeworld and have Sylph take them, but she has trouble warping them, nearly fumbling them, stating feels "off" on some of them, unlike in the past. It seems those who are holding shards she can more easily grab for some reason and it helped bring them along. As they reach the doors that sealed Chronos and Pyro, they find the room has been emptied of crystals and other things. Airym and Simon study and anaylze the situation and learn that Ske'ral have raided the spot somehow and made off with all the shards and crystals. Figuring out what the compass does, Yuki asks where they went, but only gives them a vague direction until they think to ask it for more detailed directions.
Once back, Vyvy seems concerned about the problem has with teleporting them and those who have shards can be pulled easier. Yuki and the others work it out that holding a shard and focusing on a spirit makes a blue hue surround the person, and Sylph is able to lock onto them, giving the person a Spirit affinity. The team gathers their shards stockpile and begins to work on gathering affinities, ending up with:
Blue - Spirit, Red - Casuality, Black - Supernatural
Yuki - Spirit, Cookie - Spirit, Vyvy - Spirit, Rain - Supernatural, Luci - Casuality, Ceilia - Supernatural, Simon - Casuality, Ellie - Spirit
Yuki focuses and manages to get the compass to turn into a galactic star map, the group pauses on working on the shards for now, and learns how many they have, see they have an outrageous number: 40 on Geyze, 35 on Kumen and they see a mass is on Ske'ral now, totalling to 120. They also see the other has 70. Yuki and Erica decide they will prepare to go after the Ske'ral shards, while the Academy units will work on finding some of the other shards. The Cypher team will look into some up on Kumen to on the side. The three teams prepare to head off on their own missions once again.
Session 180: In Search of Truth
Location: The Club
Despite the revelations they learned a few days ago, the Cypher group is relaxing with Riki stealing sweets and waddling around, ready to pop out baby Ruhi any day now. Asarar and Logan work for the most part, ignoring the antics as they work on detecting the shards sinee there is only one compass, while also digging into the Corporate Leaders in case they have anything to do with them. Asarar also looks for Caesune, following up on her promise to Logan, but also since they learned who Caesune is to Chelsea - her mother. Luci spoils and plays with Nell, who was born during the Destiny Arc in the other turns - sure hope nothing bad happens to Nell because of that - while they look into their two respective problems. Ymir, dressed in a business suit, teases Wolfe when he walks funny, getting a growl from him and she acts timid, since once he used to act all cute with her.
They head off to the space port to say goodbye to the Aquarius team before they head off to space. They notice Pyro getting onto the ship, apparantly living on it despite his disdain of humans, and they invite Chelsea to come along, but she declines. With that, Yuki and Wolfe say goodbye for now, brother and sister hugging. Yuki gives Wolfe a letter from Cheryl, stating she looks forward to meeting his wives and bringing them all home soon. As they get back to the club, they find that Ymir has brought a surprising person in - Samson. Having hired Samson, unaware of him trying to sell them out, he agrees to work for them now since Yggdrasil is gone and helping them defeat Destiny.
With it settled, Asarar turns her focus back to Caesune, noting that looking back into the day they brought down the Corporate Leaders, not all of them were killed. She sends the team to the jail where the rogue Corporate leaders are being held to question them on where Caesune might be located. Entering a maximum security prison, they enter and the inmates for once do cat calls at Chelsea, ignoring the loli that is Luci, until they find their target: Drek. While Luci works on his mind, the others question him, and together they learn that that Caesune had a bank where she kept files. He also gives Ylva a warning about Twilight (though later Ylva would later question her and learn the truth about her race and accept it). The group heads to the bank to see what they can get on Caesune, hoping it leads to her.
Session 181: The Book of Answers
Location: The Academy
Grad Classes are now being offered for the Units, to further their own education, by experts from each of the kingdoms as well as the units now teaching classes themselves. With the compass they have been gathering shards and so life has been going on like normal the past month. Sasha also looks into the mystery of what is plaguing Rain, eventually learning that she is now some sort of half vampire, half human since Yggdrasil brought her back to life temporarily, which brings about many questions of what she is now - though it makes her more easily able to go into bloodlust. Though since her body is now alive, what else can it do that it could not before - like have children? As Qui and Gwen spar, Chronos approaches Simon and tells him about an ancient book from her time that could answer questions if a person asked it, sparking his interest. She tells him that he should begin his search in the Spiritalist archieve if he wants to find it, since it collects such things.
Kalam authorizes such a search, so they head up to the castle to find the archieves. They find it has been mostly repaired since the big battle against them, and they are led in. They find the cloak of invisibility hanging there that the kids used in the future, and other relics. Plus the books are filled with ancient tomes and information on material from all ages and periods that is overwhelming. Ellie finds a relic weapon that is tune with the wind and Vyvy talks her into using it, though it's a sword; it can change shapes and is a legendary weapon, giving her her first legendary weapon.
Eventually they find the book and are tasked with answering it's riddles, which takes a group effort. Ellie manages to answer the first riddle, then Alita the second, allowing Simon to ask his first question, though he almost slips up but the book is surprisingly kind, understanding what he meant to ask: Great book. We have encountered beings from another world, another reality. We have noticed that the two worlds are in turmoil, as if one cannot exists without taking from the other. Is there anything we can do to achieve a balance and peace between them? It gives the answer of using the shards and make sure they are balanced in the two realities another is to have Kaori nurture her reality powers, and another is to have people unlock the power of the shards, explaining the meaning of the three colors. And finally the last route is to allow Destiny to bring back Yggdrasil and use it against hm to bring the two universes together to fight him. And all the options might be needed in the end.
Simon's second question: Kumen tech does not work on Geyze. It would be a great boon for us to unlock the ability to power their technology. What do I need to do in order to get mana to power the kumen technology? The riddles are then answered by Simon, then Alita and Sasha. He explains that using spirit-tech and slowly weeding it out as the atmosphere changes, it will change the world. And if they do combine the two worlds, it will change everything and immediately change the universe.
Alita asks the third question: What are Destiny's plans now and how is he bringing them about? It takes three riddles to answer this time, with them having to get all correctly. Ellie gets the first right correctly, Alita the second, and Ellie the third. Allowing them to learn what Destiny will do next. The book states: Destiny attempting to steer events subtlely that will lead you either to fail so he won, or leading to his tree. Fate directing to defeating him. Sometimes directly putting players on the field to aid you, or hinder you in other directions that might lead you to him in other ways. With the information, they decide they need to find a way to contact Kaori so she can pass on the information they have learned.
Location: Kumen, Cypher Group
The group heads into the bank that Caesune used to learn more about her and to discover clues on where she might have gone; Asarar leading them since Cypher is pregnant. While they are going in, Bruno the guard sizes Max up, immediately having a thing for him like one alpha male to another, Riki is having discomfort and beginning to go into labor. The bank looks rather slummish, since it is in the slums, and doesn't seem to have much security, so they simply walk inside.
Chelsea uses the false name they got that Caesune used and gives it to the slum bank lord, hoping to get in, while Bruno tries to lure Luci out with sex, likely to piss Max off. It turns out though that a thumb print is needed as part of a two part verification code.
Back at the Club, with Riki's water broken, Cypher quickly gets out of there, leaving Jan to deal with Riki. Ymir pops up, offering to deliver the baby for them, but Wolfe shows up and she gets pushed aside. She declares she will deliver Jan's baby, but then Jan ends up going to the hospital later instead. Wolfe and Su help deliver the baby together, despite Ylva saying they should have Ymir do it, and it all works out. Riki immediately declares Ruhi her new successor upon holding her up for all to see.
Back at the bank, Jelly somehow hacks the device despite it not being hooked up to a system, and it dings green. But that also means he can't find the code in the system for Chelsea to enter, so she enters a guess - her birthday. It goes green again, and the sleezy man nods, allowing two of them to come into the back. While Asarar pets Jelly's tail as a reward, Logan and Chelsea go into the back and find a box, while Ortora distracts Bruno. Inside the box, they find paper documents which are unusual for this era, with paper documents and a brown enevelope as well as a key and a computer chip. While Orta drains Bruno drain, the two work their way through the documents.
Back when Caesune was first running the Biotech Company. It seems to show how she provided medical supplies around the world 30 years before Chelsea was born, trying to clean up what her predecessor did. It also shows the tracking and medical work with new breakthroughs she was researching, at the deteriment of her company. After that is Chelsea's birth cerificate and 1 year check up performed by Caesune. Chelsea was born Natalie and born in Caesune's office. The next white paper shows a traffic accident report and apparantly the hit and runners took Caesune's baby;. ;t was all over the news and apparantly Caesune suffered head damage. The final few papers show brain scans with damage and after that Biotech became the ruthless company it became today after Chelsea was never found.
The brown envelope shows a map of Geyze and Kumen with red circles in key spots. They decide it is a clue to where Caesune might be now so they head back for the Club. Kira provides a meal and Riki shows off Ruhi to everyone, with Wolfe taking a cigar from her. Brooke shows up to see the baby and once there, Cypher asks about the brain damage and if it can be reversed, seeing how down Chelsea is as well as Logan. Brooke believes it is possible, despite how long the damage has been, but it might be difficult. Cypher makes a compromise to the two - capture Caesune and restore her mind, so Chelsea can have her mother back, and if her crimes did lead to Logan's mother back, she can still serve some time. With that, they plan to solve the map they have before them. They also do not notice that after sometime after Jan gives birth in the hospital, Ymir has left.
Session 183: The Many Faces of Pepper
Location: The Aquarius
Having been traveling through space since 3.22, the crew has begun to get restless, with Saorise and Erica playing strip poker of sorts. Interrupted by Yuki showing off their daughter walking, they hear the alarm that means they are exiting into space. Arriving on the bridge, they see Mireille has baked a cake for everyone out of boredom, using the computer's database. As they exit, they see the Ske'ral system has a massive space station to scan for spaceships and protect their planets, which means they have to get past the space station before they can learn where the stolen crystals are located.
Docking arms grasp the Aquarius and place a device on it to keep them from using their weapons, which weakens Mireille, before allowing them onto the station, where they are met by Ske'ral - some in their native forms, though some are in other alien forms, including one that looks human with black hair. Though one which might be trouble later is a massive giant with 4 arms. They are led to their rooms where they are given IDs to roam the station which allows them to explore the station.
Date: 4.4.5992
They find the station is rather tightlipped over the next few days, and apparantly a place where other races come to hire Ske'ral for jobs like assassins or other stuff a shapeshifter is needed to do; they do learn about a hanger where goods and materials arrive, but their IDs do not allow them to enter and the firewalls on their terminals are likely to raise alarms if they are not careful. They notice the long haired woman, most definitely one of the Ske'ral, is staring at Pepper, and realize she was staring at her at the first meeting also. When they go to talk to her, she runs off and leaves behind a gold ID, one of the higher security cards. As they go to enter the hanger, lights begin to get brighter each time they enter but when Pepper enters, the lights go back to normal, but it also reveals - she is a Ske'ral. Everyone takes it rather well, surprisingly, as Pepper goes back to her human form.
They find a Ske'ral foreman whipping the woman for losing the card, the whip making her true form show up due to the pain of the whips. Pepper suddenly rushes the foreman and knocks him over, as the black haired woman rises up, even as other workers move over to help the foreman. She punches out the foreman to protect Pepper oddly enough, but Cookie runs the workers off. As Erica and Airym learn the shipment was shipped to the Ske'ral Homeworld to powerful Regant on it, the woman explains she was a friend of the family. That Pepper's family had a one way job to do so they must have left Pepper on Kumen so she wouldn't get caught up in the Ske'ral way of life, hoping she could find another way.
They head for the Aquarius with the Ske'ral over them, the illusions Cookie only scattering some of them. The Ske'ral Leader of the Station insists they surrender so he can turn them over to said Regant, but the team fights their way past the giant creatures they turn into. Mireille however helps out, tossing them their weapons and disabling the dampener, and they manage to fly out and escape. The team flies and hides in a nearby nebula for now, while the Ske'ral fleet searches for them, hoping the nebula will hide their signature until they give up.
Location: The Academy
The group sits there debating how to contact Kaori to alart them to the information they learned about Destiny back in Session 181 when Shade informs them that she felt the Kumen group having arrived on Geyze and done some business around ten days ago, which will be seen in Session 185. Sasha joins the meeting when Kito and Delgi do not answer the bell, Delgi still recovering a bit from the damage she has taken, though she is now on her feet. She learns that Kito has begun to join a mysterious new teacher that looks a lot like Ellie, though the teacher is a big breasted woman, who is teaching basic summoning courses - apparantly Kito throwing herself into classes since losing her chance to bring back Neekito in the Destiny Arc. They learn that Kito has been checking out ancient tomes from Kalam lately and working on projects in her room a lot lately.
Simon takes the compass and thinks to ask it how to contact their allies in the other world, thinking maybe it can give them directions to a source. It spins to Vyvy, crystals, then at Qui, strangely enough, leading them confused. Figuring out due to Qui's connection to Vyvy, and Qui being a virgin queen, they use her blood and have Vyvy picture Kaori, which opens a gate way to the Crystal Pathways. However, at that moment, Talia's pocket begins to glow and when she holds up Ire's gun that she stole, her body is taken over by Senreich. He loses the gun as Alita and Ceilia attack him, but he manages to teleport away with Sasha, kidnapping her.
Delgi and Kito - who is dressed like a Black Mage - arrive and upon learning what happened to Sasha become enraged. With Sylph not there, they are dependant on the other spirits like Aska to warp them to the dead city of the Magi where Senreich ran off. However, they are attacked by Magi Machines that are suddenly springing to life. As they battle the legions of them and destroy their weak points, they form into an even larger one, forcing them to destroy the critical point and drop it. The Magi Tower itself has a strange Nazi symbol all over it as Mykel flies them up to the second floor. As Delgi frees Sasha, they find the Magic Cannon has been exposed by Senreich, where they find him learning how to use it.
As they arrive, they learn Senreich has connected the Magic Cannon to the teleporters and if Mykel had attacked the roof like he almost had, he would have killed the Royal Family, where Liana has gone to rest while pregnant. Claiming Talia is gone forever while Sasha works on dismantling the Magic Cannon once again, and failing, Mykel manages to stop Senreich from hitting the button just in time, allowing Sasha to continue. Mykel psi blades Senreich in the head, damaging Talia and allowing Senreich to throw a knife at the button, but Simon and Alita deflect it. Delgi suddenly stabs Senerich and begins to do damaging blows, and Ellie attacks too, making him drop; he poofs back into Talia a moment later, bleeding but Alita heals her poor familiar.
They return to the portal where Ceilia is helping Vyvy keep it up and head inside. They find the Avatar program inside the and mourns the fact she is still in no yuri mode. She opens up communication to Kaori as she showers, startling her. They explain what they learn and how they can open communication to their side as well with a virgin and all that and someone close to Kaori. As the call ends she states she hopes they do not lose all their virgins as she likes virgins just as much as yuri.
Session 185: In Search of Caesune Guane
Location: The Cat Mewship
Over the past few months, Chelsea has completed her own ship with the help of Cypher giving her a hanger of her own to work in, as well as Ymir paying for a crew to work to help build it, with Ymir joining in before she left, they managed to get the Mewship built faster. Though they used a lot of the Aquarius technology to do it, Chelsea discovered a lot of prototype materials that was discarded by Tora back in the day, despite being stronger, and the spheres that use it refer to some sort of master system that constantly ask if Cypher wish to activate it - though she has not activated it yet. For some reason the system seems to be the prototype to the spirit system that made Mireille, which could mean all sorts of things if used. Once activated, SHIP - the computer system - does alert that a lot of the systems remain offline due to the useage not being activated, but the rest Chelsea herself installed runs perfectly, and the crew installs a cute cat voice for SHIP.
Bonnie flies them in and lands at the Academy, where they meet with some of the Academy people. Sasha gives them a flying carriage and Sylph as their guide, who leads them up to the Amazon lands. They have realized the map, after studying the red circles on the Kumen side, are key spots that if something is unleashed, like say a virus, could devastate the population, and figure the same thing could happen to the Geyze population. They hope that someone there might recognize Caesune once they arrive.
Date: 4.12.5992
Arriving at the Amazon capital, they see it is full of water and life, which pretty much verifies their thoughts. As they explore, they see a lot of topless women - warriors mostly - training and surprisingly spot Ymir there among them, trying to train despite not being strong and being a bit of a klutz. They realize Tenebrae, one of the spirit children who snuck around, recognize Ymir, showing she stopped at the Academy before coming here, calling her a Warrior Cat.
Chelsea for her part asks around and not many people recognize her picture that she is showing around until Asarar suggests she ask Qui or Brooke. It turns out that Brooke does recall her - Caesune came here a few months go and confessed to Qui that she came here to do them harm. Apparantly she came to poison the waters, but after watching them, she felt she could not do it, seeing the beauty after coming from a place of darkness. After staying for a time, she snuck off in the night and went into the plains. Ymir tells Luci that she is here to get stronger and that she just gets in people's ways, forcing herself on people, and that she doesn't want to go back. Sylph leads the team into the grasslands to seek out Caesune.
Date: 4.14.5992
When Logan makes a joke about imagining how many skyscrapers could be in the plains, Sylph crashes - with them on the carriage - and they all have to get up painfully. However they did happen to land near a hut that has Kumen part, which lets them know they found Caesune at least. There are a few traps around the hut meant to deter people, but Chelsea and the others blitz through it easily. Knocking, Chelsea gets a gun in her face, making her jerk as she recognizes the team; if one studies hard enough they can see the family resemblence between them and Caesune's silver hair is showing now, down to her mid-back. Trying to escape, but she is tackled by three people easily. She seems more unstable than before, since Caesune was rather sane back then, but as she is tied up now she is speaking in broken sentences, as if the facade of running the company is gone now.
Revealing she is Caesune's daughter, it seems to break her, since in her mind Natalie is a toddler and second she tried to dump acid on the team at once point. However she does seem to have some sanity left, grabbing Chelsea's face and noting she is healthy, then mumbling in past tense, as if she is cognant enough to realize the truth. They decide to take her back to the Amazons and Brooke, to hope that she can be fully fixed.
Date: 4.16.5992
Arriving back at the Amazon Capital, they find Ymir and Tenebrae playing as if have been for 4 days now. Caesune, hiding behind Chelsea, is led up to Brooke who takes her head and focuses her healing powers, informing them the damage is long lasting and will be harder than Jelly's, letting them know she might fail. Having Chelsea touch as well to be her conduit, they link up and she begins the process, and manages to heal the majority of the damage that was inflected long ago. After it is over, Caesune apologizes and the two embrace.
Date: 4.20.5992
Introduced to their Club and home, Caesune is informed the President lives here and more. Realizing they live in a seedy part of the town, Caesune says she has a lot to make up to Chelsea for the life she had to live, promising she will do what she can to make it so.
Location: The Aquarius
Since the incident at the Ske'ral Station, the Aquarius has hidden in the nebula until the Ske'ral ships have left one by one, thinking they have left, finally allowing them to continue their mission. As they prepare to speed as fast as they can to the Ske'ral Homeworld without being detected, Mireille shows up as an adult woman, apparantly aging herself, deciding to access her abilities to allow it, since she is much older than all of them due to the time hijinks with the Kids Arc. Pepper accidently calls her and Cookie old when she learns of the time stuff, making Mireille all sad like a kicked puppy, but she Spirit Jumps them to the planet, the speed increased by 1.5x when she is older. The team heads down to the planet to find the Regent, leaving Saorise and Mireille in charge of the ship.
Location: Ske'ral Homeworld
They arrive in the largest city, which is rather bland and gray looking with a militaristic feel, with a sterile feel and tons of schools and academies for young Ske'ral to teach them so they can perform jobs for clients around the galaxy. They see the markets and stores are run by weaker Ske'rals for the students and citizens of the city as the team moves through it. As Airym scans for the crystals, a Ske'ral in a tentacle monster form challenges Erica to a form, which she turns down, though Yuki seems a bit skeeved at the form, mumbling about Japanese hentai and picturing Erica being molested by tentacles. Yuki finally brings them to the Regent's home, the one building with some color and Airym picks up some readings, which might indicate the crystals could be inside.
Yuki uses her summon ability to bring Mireille in, then having Mireille anayalze a safe spot to take them to the roof. Mireille teleports them to the roof and floats herself on a large disc nearby, warning them about the door having 3 different type of alarm systems. Yuki uses her sword to cut a hole in the roof, her eyes glowing red, taking them down a floor, and soon they reach a vault where Mireille warns them about the security alarm lasers and hidden cameras. After some debating, Mireille warps to the guards' location and takes them out for the team, holding them up, but one goes for a pocket alarm. Erica and Pepper go for them, knocking them out, but the pocket alarm slides across the room and the vault door, thankfully not being activated thanks to their quick actions.
Cookie uses her mental powers to lead them all through the lasers and the team reaches the vault door, where Airym cracks the door. Mireille meanwhile plays with her breasts, fascinated by them and their size compared to her younger body. As the team finds the crystals, with 80% still there, and they begin to gather them, they don't notice that a hidden alarm was placed in one of the boxes, alerting the Regent. Pepper, going into tentacle form, gathers up the crystals even as Regent shows up with his guards, noting that he was warned to place sensors in the boxes due to the fact someone might try to steal them.
The Regeant orders them to surrender, or he will kill Pepper's black haired Ske'ral friend, pulling her out by the hair. The group works together and brings the Regeant down while Erica saves the hostage, and the team locks the Regeant in his own vault. As they teleport up to the ship, they make a blind jump out of the system to escape the fleet pursuing them.
Location: The Academy
Rain and Sasha discuss holding events in the school and more importantly, a sanctuary for the growing number of children all of the teams appear to be accumulating. Others struggle to find their place as teachers, some taking to it like water and others like Gwen failing miserably.
Ellie recieves a letter that her father is dying and a request to go visit him. Ellie is reluctant to go, but decides it is her duty to do so. She is called to the office and makes this resolution, and Sasha gathers the group to go with her for support.
Once gathered, the group is fully brought up to speed about Neekito's rebirth into a spirit and clothes are found for her. She seems much more free spirited now but it is a marvel that she has managed what was considered impossible up till now. The group then teleports to Ellie's hometown.
Location: Ellie's Hometown
The group then comes to learn that Ellie was once called Elliot, and her parents have refused to acknowledge her true gender. The group protests, showing immense support for Ellie, finding it perposterous that her parents could act so petty. It becomes clear after a bit that Ellie's mother is not the real problem though, but her dying father. A truth helped by the presence of actual Spirits who are more than glad to attest to the fact that they could actually care less about gender or orientation, despite the claims of bigots.
The group then meets Thomas Allaway, Ellie's father. His protest against Ellie's lifestyle falls short when his claim that the spirits would disapprove is rebutted by Sylph herself. He falls into a violent coughing and Alita identifies his monster related fever. It is Neekito however who heals him, once he accepts the help. A healing that could not have worked unless he in some way accepted Ellie for who she was, despite his refusal to acknowledge it.
After the family Doctor looks the man over, he's given a clean bill of health and, except the agreed upon diagnosis of asshole, a thing no one can cure. Lindsey Allaway finally fully acknowledges her daughter and her true name. The group then heads home together, Ellie's family set to rights.
Session 188: The Final Breaking of Jelly
Location: The Club, Kumen
As the members of the Tech Team relish and relax amongst babies, and with more expected soon, Asarar brings them together to reveal an interesting discovery. Throughout the Colony there are dozens of barely detectable signals that are similar to the Net Core Jelly had interfaced with months ago (Session 162). Concerned that this may somehow be harmful to the Tech City the Team heads out to the nearest Quad with an active Net.
While making their way through the Net in Quad 2 they find that they can only detect the Nodes themselves, not the dozens of weak signals they were seeing before. When they arrive at the Node they find it protected by extremely difficult protective measures that would take the combined skills of every Tech-Runner every member of the Team knows. As they discuss their next move Fate appears and reveals another truth; Destiny created the Net by linking together hundreds of minds while Tora was creating this mirror reality. He tied the Spirit World into it in order to corrupt its connection, the Net ultimately running off of the combined processing power of those minds who are kept in a comatose state in the Colony itself.
Hitting upon the idea that the weak signals Asarar had detected are, in reality, the minds themselves; and the Team arrives at a Cryogenics Hospital for the Terminally Ill, here they find a small portion of the sleeping Net CPU痴. As they begin attempts to bring the Net down for good and free the minds they are set upon by attackers in the Net and wearing Optic Camouflage.
Once the attackers are dealt with, and Jelly and Simon have introduced a Logic Bomb into the Net's base coding, they realize something vital. To safely free the minds comprising the Net somebody will have to serve as an anchor or lightning rod for the emotions and thoughts of the hundreds of minds processing the code. The only answer to this is to render Jelly insane once more and use him.
When complete, Luci finds that she can't repair Jelly's mind as easily as she unhinged it; but she does discover that despite Jelly mumbling in nonsense once more, It's mentioned that this must be what the prophecy of the broken mind breaking other minds meant.
Location: The Aquarius
The Aquarius, having done a blind jump, floats in unknown space with Mireille, back in child form, tries to compare their location to the star charts, even using what little information they have been given by the black haired Ske'ral they rescued named Miranda. With Saorise playing with their baby, Yuki and Erica try to help Mireille with the crisis on hand, while Pepper asks what all do they have for entertainment, since it looks like they might be stuck here - for a long time. Mireille announces that a ship has been detected, wondering if it's a tow ship, when a strange ship exits light speed that looks frankensteinish, made up of parts of other ships. Cookie and Airym recognize the ship as a Bot ship from the Striker files, from when Taiga and her team encountered them long ago, the race being one that assimilates technology and rids itself of organic life on ships.
With their scans bounced back, Pepper hails the ship, which is accepted, allowing them to try to communicate with the Bots. Their response is a flat one, stating their technology will be assimiliated and will be added to their collective, a scan passing through their scans, locking onto Kaylin, and others with machine parts. A Bot enhanced C'en probe begins to drill into their shields, trying to get to the Aquarius, forcing their hands, so Airym tries to communicate, stating she is a Mother Node, having become one in the Striker Arc where they first encountered them. However, due to Mirror Verse/Prime Verse differences, it seems these do not recognize Airym's authority and state she will be added to the collective and studied.
Kaylin fires and destroys the probe, which Airym states was unwise, making 4 probes attack the shields at once. The team opts to retreat, so Erica begins to fly them away from the Bot ship, and Mireille plots a jump into lightspeed. They jump and a moment later the Botship enters after them, though they are now a few minutes behind them. They debate what to do once they exit lightspeed, dropping mines at the exit point for the Bot ship, using the probe with their reconfigured coordinates, and more. Yuki observes there are strange power fluxations on Deck 21, so some of the crew - Kaylin, Pepper, Cookie, and Airym - go down to investigate while Yuki, Erica, and Mireille remain on the bridge, waching the count down until the emerge from light speed, with 18 minutes remaining.
As they explore, they see the power is going in and out, with human organic substance smeared all over the walls to help grow the circuits, and green circuity covers the walls here. They even witness a human dissolving before them, becoming part of the componets. They begin to evacuate the floor, when Bot attacks the team, injecting something into Kaylin's neck. Cookie fires into her, then Pepper and Kaylin, their combined attacks droping the Bot finally. One floor above, a Bot attacks Denise in the kitchen, having ruined most of it, and she begins to go wild on it, stabbing wildly and she she eventually takes it out, but only after losing a hand. She rips it's head off as a trophy.
Cookie, Pepper, and Airym begin to help Kaylin back to the bridge to get her into stasis, to try to stop the infection of the nanites in her system. As Pepper helps Kaylin into the stasis pod, Yulindhe looking over her, Yuki begins to shut down power to those floors as they debate how to deal with the infection in them. They figure the Bot got into the ship when they jumped into the lightspeed for the brief moment shields were down. Airym and Erica work on creating a virus to destroy the infection, while the mine Pepper and Mireille designed together before they left and Mireille continued is finished. Having 10 more minutes until the Bots arrive, they begin to prepare their various weapons.
Pepper sets the mine up where the Bots are likely to appear, while the virus begins to work, the infection rate on the ship dropping rapidly. Yulindhe applies the virus to Kaylin so she can be woke up and Cookie retrieves Denise to bring her to medical. However, at that moment, the Bot Ship arrives and the explosion can be felt even from the Aquarius as it lands on the Mirelepper Roundup mine Pepper set up. At that moment, the robotic head that Denise got was uploading information to the Bot Ship begins, until Cookie smashes it to bits, stopping it. The small remains of the Bot ship float on and Kaylin is brought out of stasis somehow, and Erica orders a barrage of missiles, with random callibration. Mireille complies, and adds spirit weapons, destroying the ship piece. As it blows up, a voice comes out of Kaylin's mouth that sounds like the Bot, stating they will find them.
Date: 5.15.5992
Location: One Jump from Kumen
As Yuki does one final examation of the Aquarius, Erica states that she hopes Denise will accept an officer's commission while Saorise bounces Yurica. Saorise states she is taking maternity leave to be away from that prattle, making it hard to know if she is serious, but also perhaps wanting to play with their child, flying Yurica around, who gurgles happily. It is interrupted by Mireille letting them know there is a situation and as they arrive, they see a Bot Ship before them, somehow having tracked them down, with Kaylin following, as if compelled. As Erica opens a channel, the Bots speak through Kaylin, stating:
We are the Bots. Sign a peace treaty with us or face assimilation.
Some of the team remains wary, as the Bot sends the treaty to be signed over. Saorise wants to know what they consider an ally, which they state o unite formally, as by treaty, league, marriage, or the like (usually followed by with or to): then follow it with sign or assimiliate. Seeing it to have no loopholes of the sort, though it does state they will assist them if they are in trouble and the Bots will do the same, Erica signs, much to Pepper's objections. Afterward, the Bots conclude with saying the unit Kaylin will be our reprentative. You may marry, unite, league, or the like, leaving Airym to note Kaylin has been repurposed as the Bot Ship flies off. Pepper wonders if they are going to take Pepper apart to get rid of the Bot influence, and Erica rejects it, saying she is an office. Others suggest less lethal ways to break the Bot influence until Yuki points out the Bots might see it as a treaty violation.
As they begin to approach Kumen, Yuki reads over the datapad, and sees that her cousin Vyvy's team has managed to find a way to contact her world, and send information/retrieve it, leaving Yuki wanting to visit the Academy, hoping to maybe talk to her family once again, and bring Erica along.
Location: Hapian Castle
The Academy and Club teams are at the castle to check over the Sanctuary, which has been completed, observing where the children will be staying at 5 days a week and during missions. It seems to be rather impressive, with staff around the clock, play rooms, teachers, and everything they need, and will be able to take children once they no longer need mothers (such as babies). Neekito and Kito have tagged along for some strange reason, having insisted, and sneak off during the tour, catching the eye of a few of the team such as Sasha. Liana, Ellie, Simon, Qui, Gwen, and others sneak after them to observe what they are up to, while Tenebrae tries to stage a coup of being there, making a few other children like Soren tattle against her.
The group finds Neekito and Kito talking about Keero and Neek, where they confront them about why they came here, causing both of them to jump up in surprise - Neekito leaping up on a statue in fright. They reveal they were hoping Neekito could remove the limiters on them like Neekito did to Kito in death long ago, but it seems she is unable to do so, even though she is a spirit. They go to the office of Malfoy, where Kito admits she does not like going there, revealing to Ceilia that she would sometimes be made to stand in the corner and be spanked. Liana uses her master key to unlock it, but they find a monster guarding it - it immediately attacks them but Sasha uses the magic word to bring it to heel - heel backwards. Ceilia claims it and makes it her pet, naming it Granthor the Annihilator.
Liana's grandfather arrives with Vyvy on a leash for some reason, announcing he is planning to leave for a time since Selena has finished basic training and is doing well. He promises he will return when the baby is born - during this Sasha finds Malfoy's hidden documents. They discover in them documents on the Tamae, dated after they were disbanned, a well as ownership documents where Malfoy got Keero and Neek, and Neekito and Kito. Amongst the Tamae documents is also a map with some hidden notes that the team requires time to decode, so they decide to take it back with them. During this, Selena and Tenebrae spy on the team from a hidden passage in Malfoy's office, deciding it might be fun to get involved while Neekito and Kito decide to turn the search for a cure to the Cypher group, since it looks like they the 4 of them were bought from Kumen and there might be more clues there.
As Vyvy is soon freed from her fate on being dragged off by Grandpa by Shade, Tenebrae and Selena's plans are almost ruined by Soren down the road. Cypher accepts the assignment and Neekito decides to come up to Kumen with them as Cypher and Chelsea head back up with Luci and Max.
Session 191: The Price of Life
Location: The Bar
The Tech Team responds to the call from Geyze regarding the limiters by heading out to investigate the lead, with them is Kira who is happy to be back from her maternity, a tan and black fox...who is either Jelly gone wild or a living breathing wild fox and the Spirit Neekito.
Arriving at the location of the Slum-Based corporation, Ymir greets them and they're all astounded to learn that despite purging the questionable departments and seedy businesses that were tied to Macross, one may have slipped through the cracks...the one that designed and created the Mod-Tech Limiters. Realizing though that they won't find any concrete information here, they head to the Slums themselves and where Fauna selling used to be prevalent. Due to Riki's presidential law against buying / selling Fauna, the trade seems to be dying; but there are still a couple of dealers. The one dealer they find tells them that for triple the price he can make the servants stronger, smarter and faster; however, he'll need 3 days.
Instead of waiting, the team waits for the dealer to leave; the fox proving useful in tracking the guy without catching his attention as he moves to other areas of the slums. After buying a baby fox fauna, led by an angry ankle-biting fox, the team jumps him and takes him into custody; the baby fauna being returned to its mother.
After they turn the dealer over to the cops and Ymir starts studying the limiter compound, Hood arrives to give all of the newly liberated Fauna a new home. Jelly is absolutely mortified when he appears rubbing his jaw to learn that he was biting a Hobo, and Ymir and Ylva have a bit of a heart to heart as the others rest up while Riki makes up a new law: Fauna will be born only, all natural, no making in labs and selling them to be sold.
Location: The Academy, Sasha's Office
With no one on the team being perceptive enough to figure out Malfoy's map, the team gathers in Sasha's office with Liana, despite her being heavily pregnant, to help them figure out the secret behind it since she can do it. While Liana works on figuring out the secret, the team is up to their usual antics - like Neekito trying to figure out if Neekito has any special spirit body parts like Shade or Aska under her wearing normal clothing - and the team getting covered in powder making Vyvy looking like a ghost. The team is also not happy that Vyvy is holding one of her children in the meeting and not using the newly formed Sanctuary, fussing at her about the dangers while Liana reveals the map using candle heat, that shows some circles around the Legion plains at a Trading Post/Fortress. They have Liana take the child back with Kito and Neekito escorting them, while Vyvy calls Salamander to warp them to the fortress and Sylph riding along on Ellie's head.
They decide to investigate the fortress to see if Malfoy had traveled through it before at any point. Alita sketches Malfoy for them as they enter and they ask around and use Salamander's status to find a Legionare officer. Being led to an officer, the officer begins to act a bit strange while going through the documents of people who have passed through the Fortress, clearly hiding something and being am an who is obsese, enjoying living a life of luxury and pleasure. Giving them a document that shows Malfoy came through twice, 10 months ago and 6 months, both times coming through (not leaving), the team notes Malfoy must be moving throughout Geyze a lot. Seeing that he is still hiding something, Alita and Salamander push him and learn that the Tamae is involed, promising the man can join them if the team showed up and if he sent a signal to a location - which he did.
For those unaware what the Tamae was the team explains how the Tamae were made up of the various kingdoms and were made as a check and balance system to Miyuki. They also were made as a system against the other kingdoms and sometimes worked against each other even as they taught the students. As Shion and Qui shifted the academy, they were tossed out long ago and when the Alliance was formed, they were no longer needed. The team heads for the signal, thinking Malfoy was likely Hapian's Tamae overseer and seeing the queen being eaten might have made something snap in him. They find a quaint cottage and Alita senses mana all over, with Ceilia deciding to use her willpower to blunt force her way through. Alita throws up her shield in time to save most of the team but Ceilia has her heart temporarily stopped until Talia restarts it and tries to collar her.
Avoiding a log trap, the team arrives inside and finds a ragged Malfoy. Vyvy arrives with Maeda, the old Daemon Tamae leader who retired after they were no longer necessary and started working for the Empress again. After Malfoy reveals after talking to him that his goal was simply to delay them there so the Tamae can take back the Academy, Sylph warps them there as Maeda whacks on Malfoy, the group finding the Academy being attacked by spirit-tech mechs and buildings on fire; students are being captured and lead off. The team leaps into action, with Alita calling on Brooke, and Simon using his magicks. Sylph and Ellie form into their combined form and Vyvy going dragon. The forces quickly begin to get destroyed and even when they try to escape, with Ceilia helping Sasha get the students to safety, Alita uses the students to pound on them with magic.
Afterwards, 12 buildings are demolished and 10% of the current student body has been captured and the Tamae leaders are not there, meaning the Tamae forces captured and Malfoy will need to be interrogated. As things settle down, Rain hires out and calls for a character named Rada, hiring him on a contract based basis to see how he works, and he will arrive in a few days. And that night, Ellie and Sylph join Gwen to go on a mission to find a final plant. The three overcome a powerful monster, with Ellie getting a new legendary armor and she takes the plant, her body transforming completely now.