Chapter 2: The Ruler Convention
Chapter 2: Return to Crystal Kumen
Location: The Bar
A month has passed since the last session, with Kumen slowly changing - trees and seed are being brought in and business is recovering and changing, with nature taking root with the Spirits and Geyze aiding them and Kumen technology is desired in Geyze as well. Riki is working with Ylva to overhaul the slums to make it better over time, though not at the bar since Kira turned her down at making it her head quarters, not wanting to mix it into politics.
At the bar, Cypher has been a bit nauseous lately - Hint the first sign she is pregnant by Chelsea. Asarar arrives with a job that she claims will have a lot of payout, explaining how with all the booming business things are over taxed with the bigger Corporations and it's even trinkled down to the smaller businesses having to take up the slack. There is a job for Couriers from the Corporations to the smaller businesses and they need Tech Runners to protect them while they do the jobs.
The team heads out to the job where they meet with a man in a business suit who works for Twilight, who asks them to follow the couriers for signs of espionage. The team follows them and they go along their route to each of the drop-offs to see if there is any tampering/attacks. Near the end there is a strange scan that hits the briefcase and when they return to the van, Cypher is missing, since she was watching it. They eventually find her near by, under the van hiding and wet. Leaving the mystery of who tried to get into the briefcase of the courier until later.
Session 162: Exploring The Net
Location: The Club
Asarar works on updating the Net Platform in the office to keep up with the technology jumps they got from the future, then states Shion wants her to explore the Net to map it out what with Geyze and Kumen becoming closer these days. Planning to go in solo, many of the others plan to join her such as Logan so that she is not left alone in there; since others are joining her, she has them synch up and join her in the van, moving along to search the squads. Driving to Quad 6, she takes them to a Seeker symbol and parks there, scanning and getting data on it. After letting Jelly study the symbol, she synchs them with her platform and pulls them into the Net, leaving them with their realm bodies.
Asarar wonders if the Net is like their form of the Spirit Realm but if so it is vastly differently, but finds the odds they are seperate things not likely. Working hard, Asarar removes the truth symbol wall, at least in the Net World - she advises they do not switch back to the real world lest they appear in the wall - and they travel down the passage it was blocking. They find an old fashioned church at the end, made when the colony was first being made and obviously built over. Inside they find floating glowing binary as well as Logan finding a hidden Book on Enightment hidden under the floorboards.
Asarar moves on through into the coding by visualizing a rope and they end up in a place with nothing but coding, the room full of binary - and are now trapped. Jelly and those with some Tech Runner skills aid him, allowing Jelly to connect to the Net Node that is here, shutting it down. With it shut down, the place shuts down and they are able to escape. They learn a few hours as they return to the Club with the unconscious Jelly the Net no longer works in Quad 6, unsure what the consequences will mean.
Location: The Club
While Cypher is at the bar doing cards, and Max trying to play go fish with her despite not playing it, Logan is out checking out Quad 6 to see how it is changed, noticing it has a lot more spirits appearing it now that the Net has fallen in the area. With Kira pregnant now as well the past month or so, she seems to be taking it easier, working at the bar a bit more lately, mixing drinks and doing paperwork, seeing their future daughter Bella having led Asarar and Kira to see a doctor off scenes to start the process. Cypher announces that there is a new club that has opened up that is inviting people from Geyze to come; apparantly Riki is offering businesses money to open up if they are more eco friendly and work with Geyze in some way, such as accepting customers from the planet. Once Logan is back and reports to Asarar, she and Kira decide to join Luci and Max in going clubbing, since most of the team is busy.
Arriving at the club Aces, they all head in to relax and have fun, meeting up with Ymir, Jan, Wolfe, and Riki inside. Logan, spotting Shiva and Celsius inside, goes inside to ask them questions about Quad 6, to learn more about how it's changed as well. Asarar spots out to Kira and the others still with her as people split up the club owner, Charlie, giving the Geyze customers inside free drinks and talking to each of them personally. Before her can move on Max, he and Wolfe roll off play fighting, so he walks to Riki and Luci, smoosing with them, while Logan returns to Asarar and Kira, dissappointed the two spirits were from Geyze and there to dance.
Working with Asarar, he and Logan dig into Charlie's finacials and Asarar does a facial scan to see if they can to turn anything up, both of them learning more about him - he built the place so fast due to loan sharks, in addition to Riki's money and his true name is Ralph Ketch, injured during a Geyze skirmish a long while back. Apparantly his medical bills bankrupted him and he still is in a state of constant pain. Kira notes that the place has been shoddily built for the short amount of time and him being nice to the Geyze people, it doesn't add up to anything good. After getting a scan on him, they notice Charlie/Ralph sneak out the back after taking note how many people are inside the place.
Asarar alerts Wolfe and Max about the situation and they head out after him, with Logan hacking into his communication to listen/track him. Kira pulls the fire alarm to get the people out, leaving the two ice spirits wet, and the others move in on their target. Finding him spilling gas all over the place, Max tackles him and he tries to throw the shelf onto him and run for it, before he is caught. They learn he didn't plan to kill anyone, but needed witnesses as the fire burned and would leave evidence the Geyze people caused it, still blaming them for his leg which was injured.
As they haul him off to jail, they come across yet another brother of the Osco family. With Posco dead, Losco also in the grave, and Rosco currently MIA, there appears to be yet another brother, this one wearing a priest collar, Bosco.
Location: The Club
Asarar goes over the various job offers, putting ones she dismisses into a stack slowly while Kira gives her a cup of coffee. An emergency job by Star Corps comes in for 100,000 so Asarar takes it and the team heads out to see what they are needed to do. Heading up with a pass from Riki, they walk in and meet with the Guard Captain, seeing that a party is being planned for the night. He announces that with Star Corps taking over from Twilight and with the new owner, since Twilight can't own two Corporations, stepping in and becoming more important with the trade with Geyze, things are more hectic lately.
Arriving at one of the top floors, they find Ymir, Twilight, and the new Star Corps owner, Grant. They find that a clerk that has worked here for 12 years has had a dagger through the heart and they want the team to investigate her murder. This leads them to work the case and find who did it - the boyfriend who she broke up with a few weeks ago, the recent new lover, or the new corporate owner? In the end they learn it was her old boyfriend and solve the case before the party begins.
Location: The Aquarius
Asarar sends her team to the Aquarius to gather more data and information to see what they can do about the Quad 6 situation that has arisen due to their tampering with the Net code. The Aquarius itself is still undergoing a major overhaul, with the future tech being added to it, and repairs to make it younger again due to the 100 year future trip it under went in the Future Arc. Also back at this point is Mireille, having been brought back by Erica's caring for her - and though she still looks like a child, there's still some mysteries about her that has yet to be unraveled. Logan and those with him arrive and brief Yuki and Erica's group on the situation, so they bring Mireille and Yulindhe along, both teams heading to see why so many spirits are gathering in Quad 6 now. Chelsea, since she is working on the ship, witnesses all of this, while the two spirits, are bribed to come along.
The two teams meet at the back alleys of Quad 6, near where the incident occurred. Using the equipment Yuki and Erica gave them, Asarar and Cypher detect large amounts of spirit energy in the area now and the spiritual energy seems to be all over the place, so they each take a spirit and divide teams, with Erica leading one team with Mireille and Asarar the other one with Yulindhe. Erica's team finds a noodle shop with their scanners and Mireille states it feels nice and calming, so they decide to go inside and investigate it. They ponder if maybe this, since their scanners identify as one of the souces, as being where the spirits are vanishing into much like the Net, so they decide to have Mireille and Kaylin help them to travel into it.
Cypher's team arrives near the spot they first find the Net Node, Asarar tries to run the Net code and gets an error, despite something trying to connect. Asarar sets a modified Net mini-teleporter down, and has Yulindhe try to enter whatever spirit core she feels holding Logan, with Luci touching both of them; together they both fade away from sight. Afterwards, Asarar follows by locking onto them and they find themselves in a setting that is like a mirror of their world except that it is evening instead of the Net like world that it normally is like for them. Feeling their abilities still working slightly, they follow Yulindhe over a wall and head onward. Erica's team meanwhile appears in the same type of situation in the noodle shop, void of people. They slowly head forward as well, exploring the mirrored world.
Asarar's team finds a shack with a glowing light coming from it and approach it to see what is going on. Detecting high spirit energy, Asarar ties ropes around herself and a few others, remembring them falling through the last time they explored a Node, and leans inside the shack to see what is inside. They see what looks like the Academy down below with spirits and other things in a foggy area, much like the Spirit Realm. Erica's group finds themselves in a similiar location, only at the Hapian Castle. After meeting back up, the two groups agree to keep quiet, realizing the Net was set up to cover up the fact much like on Geyze, Kumen is connected to the Spirit Realm, too. And if the Net is brought down all over, then anyone can start finding ways to it by being a NetRunner.
Location: Aquarius
While the Aquarius is being retrofitted and Logan is there helping the ship apply blocks to keep people from falling into the Spirit-Net, Riki calls and announces to Erica that she is sending a car to pick them up for a mission she needs help with completing. Wolfe drives them in a limo to Quad 4 where Riki is waiting to meet them and tells them there is a viral leak from the Corporate HQ that hasn't been replaced leadership wise yet. As they move past infected people laying on the streets, Airym would not pick up large amounts of the virus in the air as they suit up in hazmat suits, however there is a massive amount in the water. Attempting to take the elevator up to the Biotech Data floor, they find the elevator flooded with contaminated water. It seems as Logan and Airym work together to shut the sprinkler system down that someone has locked the systems down, an obvious sabotage of the building, while Wolfe picks up a scent a few days old.
Wolfe and Max follow the scent to a lab that mixes chemicals, while the rest check the floor for information on the virus. Narrowing down possible viruses on the computer, Asarar gets a hit on the terminal with two entries with Silent Killer and V. Testing. Logan helps Wolfe and Max find who used the mixing terminal last, then they compare it to the two possible entries for the viruses, to get a possible hit on the virus and who did it, while Cypher accidently gets wet with the containaminated water and strips down to her underclothes. Seeing it is the V one, Airym formulates the cure, while they learn that the employee is some gang member who seems to have stolen the information after the corportate shake up.
Erica leads the team to Quad 6 where the gang member is located and Logan would recognize the area where he did a job long ago for the Dragons, the gang that they are looking to find. They find them and bring down the gang rather easily to question the gang member they need on the V.Testing drug. They learn he was ordered by his commander to put it in the water since they were not sure the new Corporate President of Biotech would let them do shadey deals and it would drive medical prices, so he took an old drug to use that they used in the past. Giving up the commander who gave the orders to use it in the past and now, Logan realizing it was likely to silence his mother after a job he did, they go after him. For now though they focus on the virus, with Cypher promising to help Logan get his revenge soon.
Location: The Aquarius
The Aquarius has finished being retrofitted and Riki and Wolfe are there to see it off on it's second maiden voyage. Riki introduces Pepper as Erica's new crew member that she found hiding in the hanger, dusty from being in there, and seems a rather timid and scared to meet them. After Erica greets them and Riki takes Erica's Captain seat all excitedly, she gives them Ylva's assignment to give the Aquarius a test run to go around the system in a loop to work out any kinks there may be still in the system. Yuki runs through the upgrades on the Aquarius: special boosters, upgrades shields, upgraded hull, upgraded cloak, and weapons have new features, like cycling frequencies, as well as grapplers.
They head out into space and begin to pass the various planets on their route around the systems. They allow Pepper to test the various systems on the asteroid belt nearby as they go through space, letting her get some much needed experience. It also seems Mireille no longer needs to capsule if she no longer wants to, just needing to stand on a pad if she wants to power the ship. Next, Yuki brings up the optional joystick to pilot the ship and Erica flies them through the asteroid belt itself easily.
Along the way they come across a crystal ship going after a damaged ship, who pleads for them to help them. When trying to talk them out of going after the helpless ship fails, Erica goes to protect the vessel. With the Aquarius' upgraded fire power, they easily outmatch the crystal ship and take them out. They board the damaged ship to clear out any C'en that might still be on it to save the crew and begin to clear it out floor by floor. However along the way they come across an oily tentacle monster that tries to dissolve Yuki, beginning with her clothing, then her flesh, but they manage to stop it, with the only casuality being Yuki's modesty. They pick off what C'en they find along the way, they take on the bridge and deal with the remaining ones before they kill the crew. They learn the C'en invaded the crew's planet so they could set up spying equipment on Kumen so the crew went there since they heard Kumen beat the C'en in the past.
Once back, Riki reveals that they have been working to convert their ships into weaker copies of the Aquarius and she gives Erica a higher rank, Supreme Admiral of the fleet. Unknown to everyone, now that the Aquarius is done being retrofitted, Chelsea plans to work on her own ship for the club with Cypher's help and the knowledge she got for helping retrofit the Aquarius.
Location: Aquarius
The team is essentially relaxing on the ship - Yuki with the baby, Airym examining the ship, Erica sitting in her Captain chair, Pepper asking questions, Cookie being herself, and so on, - when Ymir arrives to announce the President requests their presence. Pepper is shocked Riki is the President since Riki introduced her to the Aquarius crew, finding that rather awesome, while Riki has Su, another agent of her's and friend, tell them they did some tests on the Net Cores the Club members discovered. Bringing down the Quad 5 core down, they had Ellie and Kalam, who has managed to be escape thanks to the Academy at this point, did some examination and with conjunction of the binary planets of Geyze and Kumen, think the Spirit Realm is actually not on either of the planets, but is it's own planet that is somewhere between them, and mirrors them.
Arriving back at the ship, they are met by Celsius, Ellie, Kalam and Sylph who joins the team to find the so called Spirit Planet to see if such a third planet exists, though to Kalam's chargin Tenebrae has managed to sneak onboard as well. They debate if the planet is invisible, or the dead moon, so they set out to search for it, while the spirits have fun and act up together, aweing Pepper. They find crystals on the dead planet that act like a prism, throwing out a refracting light that seems to be hiding something, something like a planet, so they head in the direction that Airym says that might be a planet due to the gravity she detects. Using the Aquarius, they disrupt the field to reveal a planet that has two major continents, one that has one that looks like Geyze, and the other looks like Kumen's. They wonder if maybe this is the main planet and Geyze and Kumen are the moons of it as they approach.
They head to a structure that is not on the Geyze maps and see that the Aquarius is being drained on the Geyze landmass, much like in the real world, so Airym suggests they either hurry or relocate to the Kumen landmass. So they instead have the Celsius warp them to the strange island with the structure and begin to scout it out. They find a large door sealed shut with two crystal slots to keep anyone from getting out, and the slots are rather large so normal crystal shards will not do. After asking the two if they know how to get in, the two peer at each other, then stab into their chests, removing their spirit cores, which are made of the same substance, and put it into the door; Sylph's doing it makes Ellie faint unfortunately. They remain alive only due to the amount of spirit energy on the planet but are now severely weakened as the door unlocks.
Location: Spiritalist Realm
While Simon and Vyvy guard the Spiritualist Council, Shade seems to sense a disturbance and reveals she senses that some of the others are about to enter a sacred chamber within the Spiritual World with Celcius and Sylph. Shade then takes Vyvy, vanishing Simon staying to continue guarding.
Location: Spirit World
The doors begin to open with the cores of Sylph and Celcius within them. Finding only darkness and no monsters, the team makes their way inside to find the crystals within beginning to glow and illuminate the area. The room is terribly humid, soaking them all near instantly, a pool of water before them and crystals floating about it the size of Spirit Cores. Cookie seems to believe the place to be a makeshift centerpoint, though Yuki points out Centerpoint didn't have any water, even if it was filled with crystals and pretty. Pepper points out a black crystal that they find among the others and that is when Shade appears to explain that what they are looking at are the souls of Spirits.
As Shade tries to explain to them that they shouldn't be there, the team takes a closer look and finds that the souls are familiar to some of them, particularly those from the Prime Reality. Airym identifies the black crystal pulsing with evil to be none other than Xevil. As they identify a few others, they come to realize that the Spirits may have been made from the souls of those they knew, or even still know, such as Cheryl and Chad. They press on and find a chamber past the pool, with a hallway filled with remnants of crystals, truly seeming to be a part of the shattered Centerpoint, and a its very center is a bed. There they find two corpses in an embrace, seemingly perfectly preserved for a room that has laid behind closed doors for thousands of years. Shade reveals that the two were the ones who were sacrificed to seal away the Pantheon Chamber. Cookie asks how they can be restored and Shade tells them, exiting shortly after as though she wants nothing to do with the ressurection.
Cookie, through either foolishness or haphazard wisdom, follows Shade's instructions literally, causing the Birthing Pool waters to be entirely used up as she creates new cores for the two spirits and brings them to the bodies to be ressurected. Thus the original fire spirit, Pyre is reborn as is the Spirit of Time, Chronos. The two don't seem too happy to find out that it is mortals that awakened them, or that it had been so very, very long since they died. Attempts to calm the two fail drastically when Vyvy comes in and unintentionally goads the two by not only telling them Shade is around, but that she is her lover. The two use their powers to distract the team and escape, Vyvy saves by Cookie, who Pyre takes a pot shot at. The team recovers and rushes out to the Aquarius to give chase and try and stop the wrath of two very pissed off spirits.
Location: The Club
Team Cypher is enjoying a quiet afternoon when they start to hear screaming outside and look out to see some spirit in the atmosphere starting to form a spiral of fire. Cypher realizes that it's going to burn the city, and at the time they all think it to be Salamander as they have no idea who Pyre is. Max gets ready to try hitting a fire spirit in the upper atmosphere, somehow, while Luci calls the President to get help. The rest of the team gets ready to help evacuate people into shelters.
Location: Aquarius
The ship breaks atmosphere in pursuit of the spirits. As they do they get a call from Riki flailing and asking for help from the would be attackers. They shift the ship into Spirit Mode to get there quickly and the ship in that mode grabs the attention of the Spirits when they draw near. They arrive in time to see Max hurled through the atmosphere at Pyre and sent hurtling back down to the ground, Cookie saving him via a teleporter to the ship. Meanwhile the others figure out a means to distract the Spirits away from their efforts, which are slightly impeded by Ylva in a mech on the surface until Pyre makes short work of it and burns Ylva within. They attempt to bring the spirits in, Cookie and Yuki moving to the hangar to meet and talk to them.
Chronos and Pyre allow the two to talk, Cookie taking the lead since she woke them up. At first they suspect the crew of wanting to use them, but Cookie makes it clear that they have no such intentions. Chronos doesn't trust them, as humans were the reason Kumen lacks any life on it, but those suspicious ease up when it's both pointed out how few of them are actually human and how those humans are 10,000 years dead. Cookie works to express sympathy that they were left for dead and seems to soften Chronos, Pyre merely following her lead. The two appoint themselves as members of the crew after peace is made and the emergency is averted.
Location: The Club
Ylva is delivered to the club to recover from her injuries... and get unwelded from her mech. Riki comes by looking for hugs and reassurance and Luci kidnaps her for pregnant girl time. The group deems the situation over for now.
Location: The Academy
The Academy Team learns of some troubling events. The spiritalists have formed a small army near the location of Simon and Vyvy, and the rest of the Summoni. Shion organizes the group to head out to assist them, calling in aid from the Aquarius and the greatest of heroes, Liana's Granddaddy.