2013.07.21 - I Want My MojoTV - Part 1: Money for Nothing

THREE MONTHS AGO:

It took a day or two of negotiating the twisted magenta and pink landscape of the planet--if it was indeed a planet--before Booster Gold found any buildings. At least, it had been roughly a day or two as far as he could guess; there was no sun in the sky, just a lot of clouds and occasional, localized bursts of energy, rather like fireworks.

The cluster of buildings was constructed of a durable blood red material, with tall skeletal towers rising high above into the static-charged mist. Through the goggles of his powersuit, Booster could detect signals emanating from the spires. That these signals to resolved into television programming was no surprise; even in the uninhabited areas of the swampy landscape, there had been floating television sets dotting the area.

Surveying the television studio, Booster spied a woman with enormous, glossy blonde hair—indisputably Missy Cramer’s expensively treated, highlighted, and extended hair. The figure slipped in through a doorway, and Booster flew after her, entering the building just in time to watch her walk down the dark, red corridor. "Missy," hissed Booster, catching up with her, touching her on the arm.

But when she turned around, it wasn't Missy. It was Missy's hair, all right, but sewn into someone else's head. The woman grinned.

"Oh, there you are," said the woman who was not Missy.

Several enormous, bestial figures materialized around Booster, nearly blocking the blonde woman from his view, but he could still hear her voice as he raised his fists.

"We’ve been watching you," she said.

As the short, brutal fight took place, the woman tilted her head so that the blonde locks slipped and tumbled over her perfect shoulders, perfect except for fine traceries of metal wiring just under her flawless skin. As Booster slipped into unconsciousness, he heard the woman’s pleasant, lilting voice.

"Mistress Spiral has been waiting for you."

NOW:

Skeets was true to his promise; when he finally tracked down the whereabouts of his boss, Booster Gold, the little robot contacted everyone who requested that they be contacted. While awaiting further feedback, Skeets continued to reaffirm and refine the trans-dimensional location that he has identified as the one where his employer is being held.

He must be held, otherwise Booster would have returned by now. Right? Right. Skeets clings to that logic. In a cautious tone, he explains, "From what I was able to ascertain, this was not an alternate Earth. It is a separate dimension, and the... for lack of a better word, the 'membrane' between this reality and the target reality seems to be somewhat permeable, but will still require some amount of energy and force to pierce it, in order to physically travel there and back."

Ricochet Rita put her head in her hands. "I just don't understand what this has to do with me. Why are my co-workers getting kidnapped by things from another world?" She had been under SHIELD guard since Booster Gold's kidnapping, and there'd still been no sign of Missy Cramer. "She knew my name. That thing knew my name. It has to be related, but I don't know WHY!"

Vorpal stands there with his arms crossed, listening to Skeets with a frown. "Great job, Skeets... I'm afraid I'm empty-handed, though. Something big must be happening in the magical world, because not a single one of my magical contacts has been around in Oblivion. Either that or they're having some sort of magical pool party nobody told me about... do we have any non hocus-pocus options to pierce this... membrane?"

Vorp had made tracks as soon as Skeets had contacted him. Three bank robbers were dangling upside down from a lamp-post thanks to some creative use of knots... but he had been in such a hurry, he forgot to make sure the knots were sturdy enough.

Ah, well, if the knots slipped, they deserved the headache from trying to take that old woman hostage. He looks at Rita.

"We're going to find out soon, I guess, miss. I want us to ask her some questions, and not in the nice way."

"I don't know anything about travelling through dimensions," Xavin quietly offers as she tries to focus on Skeets and not the terrified stuntwoman, "but I have energy to spare, if we need it." The ends of her hair and tips of her fingers briefly catch fire, and as the flames flicker out, she folds her arms over her uniform-clad chest and flashes a nervous smile in Rita's direction.

She wants to follow Vorpal's lead in offering assurances that Spiral will be brought to justice, but she's had the pleasure of fighting the sorceress twice, now, and she'd rather not lie to the poor woman.

"We'll find her, one way or another; beyond that... we're going to need to consider our tactical options," she says, looking Vorpal's way.

"That's what we're trying to find out, ma'am," the SHIELD handler replies.

As Doug Ramsey arrives at the scene, the SHIELD handler greets Doug with a nod. There's a quick summary of the situation, and then Doug moves over towards Skeets after a nod at Vorpal. On his way, he stops, reaching to pat Rita on the shoulder. "Don't worry, we'll get to the bottom of this," he says comfortingly, before moving on towards Skeets.

"All right. SHIELD's going to get the transdimensional portal set up and prepare soon enough. If you'll give us a half hour, I'm going to help set this up, and then go with you, in case of linguistics difficulties."

Soon enough, there would be a portal set up, one that looked rather like a copyrighted trademarked television sci-fi show.

"I'm going to stay on this side of the portal," Skeets says, and the regret is evident in his typically chirpy and upbeat voice. "I need to ensure that we remain chronologically synched, in case anything happens to the portal. As it is, this interference is causing issues--there are nuisances that linger in the space between dimensions, although the Legion is dealing with that matter."

The little robot goes to hover by the portal, which is starting to show glimpses of a land that has a rather garish color palette. Purple and magenta figure heavily in it. Skeets says, "I know that Booster is alive, and also seemed healthy. From what I could see, Ms. Cramer is also alive but..." he trails off, as he has been reticent about reporting everything he saw during his investigation. "So, hopefully, you can go in and bring them back without drawing any attention."

Rita stands up, resolute. "Okay. Whatever this is, we've got to stop it. If I do what's in my power..." the human stuntwoman frowns. "Hopefully that'll be enough. But this has to end now, today, before anyone else gets hurt."

Vorpal suddenly looks as if he wanted to barf the entire contents of his breakfast. In fact, he started looking a little green the moment the portal opened. Nevertheless, he grits his teeth and takes a deep breath to push back the nausea.

''~Why am I feeling like this? This only happened when I used the BiFrost...~''

And then it dawns on him.

''~...oh my effing crap... portals. Dimensional portals affect me...~''

The sensation was not unlike the sensation one gets when a flu is right around the corner- that sensation of 'wrongness' you feel in your bones. The unease and ill-being that wasn't quite sickness yet, but which would become sickness eventually and probably ruin your plans.

He had to get through that portal, and away from the other end, as fast as he could, or he would be useless. And he was not going to drop the ball on helping his friend.

"I agree... let's step through. I can become invisible, so I can go ahead and scout..." and get through the portal and put some distance from the immediate area of the portal, which was causing him to feel rapidly debilitated. "If nobody has any objections, I'll go ahead..."

Indeed, if nobody objects, he will step through the portal and become invisible and put some healthy distance.

"Good idea." Vorpal's suggestion earns a firm nod from Xavin, who marches a few steps behind the purple lad. A bit more of her fades from view with each step, so that she can lend a hand; two sets of eyes are better than one, after all.

"We'll probably want to stay close to one another," she whispers once she's on the other side. "This is enemy territory, after all..."

"All right," Doug notes, shifting to all business. Grabbing a SHIELD field kit, and replacing the gun with a crossbow, the young mutant steps into the field, moving along. Adjusting his communication headgear, Doug nods in agreement with Vorpal's request to scout ahead, as he steps in next to Rita, making sure that her own on-loan field kit was ready and set.

And then Doug waits for Rita to step right on through so that he can follow, so that he could keep an eye on the party in front of him, and also play rear guard.

The land here has a semi-melted but dusty look, with primarily garish, magenta soil. In the distance, the landscape has an odd dish-like quality, as if the land were within a sphere, rather than wrapped around one. Some swampy areas can be seen, the water inky black and the surrounding plants low, purple, and crabbed; however, these patches seem easy to avoid.

There is a lot of mist in the air, and this shifts in color slowly, bilious pastel shades such as aqua and lime. When the sky can be seen behind its cloud cover, it has a snowy quality, like static. Bursting and bright are what look like occasional fireworks, although they do not make any sound.

Here and there, randomly dotting the landscape, floating monitor screens of some kind bob in the faint breezes. A scritch-scratching of sound can be heard from their speakers.

Rita Wayword has been on many movie sets in her time, but there's something so tangible and real to this alien landscape. It makes all the special effects she's seen look like simple parlor tricks, like papier-mâché on a string. "Cripes," she mutters, looking around to try to get her bearings. When they told her she shouldn't go along, that she was just a human with no powers, she had defied them. Now she was not so sure. "Everyone make it through all right?"

Vorpal's invisibility is tricky. He cannot speak, or do anything that would betray his actual location, or else the spell vanishes, incapable of being summoned again until he's out of sight of those around whom it broke. So instead, he summons glowing purple letters before Xavin that read "ROGER" before vanishing.

Now, this place was... different. If it were not for the seriousness of the moment, he would quip that this was the first world they've visited where everybody else's colors clashed with the surroundings and not his. He was not near the portal to hear Rita... his dimensional weakness required that he put some distance, or else he would be completely useless. So instead he advances a little, hopefully with the invisible other one near him, to see if he could bring back any news of the surrounding area... or perhaps of any approaching threat.

Invisibly scouting hostile terrain alongside a partner, with no commlink (not that Vorpal would use it even if they were an option, apparently); Xavin says a few silent words of thanks to the instructors who drilled her in light-negative operations as she drinks in the alien landscape.

Tiny force-fields are flicked at plants, water, across the ground, and through pockets of mist periodically, just to reassure Vorpal that she's with him. In lieu of purple (or, well, flaming) letters, it's the best she can do, without overtly betraying her position. She makes certain to avoid interfering with the monitors, though, even if there's nothing better to ping a field off of; there's no telling what alarms they might be rigged up to. She does, however, keep an eye out for places where there aren't so many of them--if, indeed, there are any.

"Looks like it," Doug replies to Rita as he brings up the rear. With the invisible scout ahead, the only way he could apparently track was via the glowing purple letters.

Crossbow in hand, the blond mutant tries to get a read off the invisible ones. Oh. Gradually it sinks in, the unnatural movements of plants, water, and air. Those things spoke of a language to him, a way of identifying path, and it was the best way to go. "Come on, Rita," Doug smiles, encouraging her. Her expression and attitude reminded him of earlier days, and he had a certain sympathy for it. "They trained you how to shoot for stunts, right? Keep on guard."

Gradually, the way the monitors skritches and scratches is getting to be a pattern, but he couldn't quite translate them... the lights, the noises... they all reminded him of something that his ability to translate languages couldn't quite make sense of yet... what was it, like blinking traffic lights or... something more familiar around Rita's workplace?

The only signs of life, besides the plants, are small creatures such as insects and what might be invertebrate lizards. Or lizardy insects. They do not quite look like the fauna on earth, but they also do not seem dangerous.

The floating monitors do not seem hostile, either, but they seem able to sense when someone is nearby. As the group investigates the area, the televisions turn towards them and the static clarifies into imagery, with sound coming through loud and clear.

There is some kind of show playing on the various monitors, which are apparently all tuned to the same channel. At the moment, there is a human man and woman discussing something, possibly in some sort of office. A blond man--in fact, it's Booster Gold, although not in his usual costume. He is wearing a sort of white, deconstructed suit with blocky lines and rather than a buttoned shirt with a necktie, he has a blue and gold t-shirt under the jacket with his usual star right over his heart. The woman he is talking to looks like Missy Cramer, although her hair is different; it is a glossy ginger-red and cut in a bob. She is smiling very widely as she interacts with her co-star.

Booster is saying, "I'm sorry, Trixie, but you know you can't go with me. It's too dangerous! We have this argument every time--"

"And every time, I win and I go with you anyway," says Missy, or possibly Trixie, with a self-satisfied smirk. "Why not save us the time and energy and just let me have my way?"

"Michael, just let her go. Trixie, stop egging him on, you know he likes that," breaks in a mustachioed older man with curly auburn hair. "Now will you two please do something before we all get killed?"

"Sorry, Dirk," the other two chorus in unison. There is a mild laugh track in response to this.

"Oh, my God," Rita breathes. "What... what do you think this is?"

Oh my god.... Booster got syndicated.

"What the hell have they done to them?...." Vorpal says. He broke his invisibility before he spoke, so he wouldn't have to deal with trying to go out of sight. "... and why does this place look like something right out of Kidd Video? My eighties' nostalgia bone is hurting, and it isn't funny..."

"Let's--not--dwell on that," Xavin nervously whispers. Torture, mind control, drugs--the possibilities are already racing through the Skrull's thoughts at breakneck speeds. Looking behind herself, she asks, "Do you any of you recognize...?" loudly enough to be heard by Doug and Rita too, and jabs a temporarily visible index finger in the older gentleman's direction.

"... I don't know. It... it looks like a movie," Doug replies. "Or a soap opera." Trying to process all this, the young agent shakes his head. "Never mind! Can any of you trace the source of that signal?"

Scrambling through his field kit, Doug looks for something that might help. Communicator, maybe, but... wait, there had to be a sonar radar sort of thing.

Pulling out a SHIELD gadget, Doug fiddles with it to see if he could get something...

"No, I don't recognize him," Rita says, still obviously somewhat in shock. "I don't... he's not someone from the crew, and there's no other actors in the commercial or anything. I think... I think he's from here."

There is a signal feeding these televisions, and it is fairly strong; this makes sense, considering the clarity of sound and picture they are receiving, even though there are no obvious settlements nearby. It is not a problem to lock onto the feed with the SHIELD gadget, which gives the group a direction to go in.

And now, on the screen, Booster and Missy are running out of the office. The buildings behind them have a dark and rather techno-organic look, with a glimpse of that same cloudy, firework-riddled sky. There is a sleek sports car waiting for them, somewhat angular at the nose, a dark glossy royal blue with a big gold star on the door, and some gold trim.

"S.K.E.E.T.S., wake up! We're moving out, pal!" says Booster, who jumps and slides across the car's hood on his hip, to get to the driver's seat.

"Just as you say, Michael," says the car, automatically opening its door. As it responds, a horizontal band at its 'nose' lights up, oscillating red back and forth. Out of nowhere, there is music, a thrumming synthpop number. The passenger door opens as well, allowing Missy to hop in.

"Michael, there's something I need to tell you," Missy admits, as she buckles her seatbelt.

"Trixie, this really isn't the time to confess your undying love to me," quips Booster, putting on his golden-lensed, blue Wayfarer sunglasses. As he focuses on flooring the car so that the rear tires spin and smoke in a telegenic, squealing burn-out, Missy just sighs and rolls her eyes in exasperation, although she does not stop smiling.

There is a close-up on Missy as she pulls her shirt open, revealing a skin-tight suit of some kind beneath it, white with gold over the chest and shoulders, and a blue star over her heart. Then, this glimpse is lost from view as the car turns and roars away down the street.

"It's like they've been forced to act out... a parody?" Rita scratched her head. "It's like a TV show about him, but nothing makes sense. It's all wrong."

"Good," Doug, being the one to hold the equipment, calls out "Okay, guys, I have a lock on the signal. Gather around me, and follow me."

Trying to ignore the absurd 'dramatization' of Booster and Missy, Doug's only reply to Rita was "It's a dramatic fiction. Don't take it seriously." Whatever was going on, it looked like the actors being taken were being made to play out scenes.

As the signal grows stronger, Doug slows down, motioning for the two scouts to go ahead and check it out. "Be careful," he adds, perhaps unnecessarily.

"Maybe she's trying to ruin his reputation, somehow," Xavin thoughtfully murmurs. "Or blackmail him, or--"

Doug's gesture puts a stop to her musing, and with an invisible nod, the Skrull skulks forward to look for clues to the signal's source.

Vorpal groans. Michael? Skee--- of all the bad shows... but he also looks relieved to see that his friend was, indeed, alive. As long as that held true, he believed that any damage, or most damage, could be undone.

"... Whatever it is, the cavalry's here. We'll go ahead." The cat says, and vanishes again, taking the lead with the group to find the origin of the signal.

One of the annoying aspects of this world is that mist. It never seems to go away. It does not cause a hindrance close up, but it shrouds things in the distance, making it difficult to see far ahead. As the signal is followed, there are some shapes looming through the currently violet mist. As the scouts get closer, they can see that it looks like a series of metallic red buildings with tall skeletal spires, which seem to be the source of the signals.

The floating television screens are more numerous here, as if whomever was in charge of broadcasting wanted to ensure that no one would ever need to be far away from their programming.

On the screens, Missy (or 'Trixie') has just stepped out of the car and is yelling at Booster, who is ignoring her. He drives off towards a semi-hidden ramp and presses a button on the dash of the automobile. There is a sudden acceleration and a 'shhwooosh' and the vehicle launches into the air in an arcing jump.

"Activate interlock!" exclaims Booster, unhooking his seatbelt and taking off his sunglasses.

"Yes, Michael," says the car, which starts to transform with a sort of ratcheting 'ronk-ronk' sound. It splits apart and readjusts in mid-air and in seconds, Booster is wearing a suit of blue and gold power armor. It looks a bit like his suit, although bulkier. Still in mid-air, he punches through a small robot, which is all tentacles and extending jaws, smashing it into twisted components.

And then, just behind Booster, Missy-Trixie is flying into the air, her white and gold suit sparkling. She fires some sort of force-beam at another robot in the swarm, and it crumples into a tiny ball and falls to the ground.

The thing is, the sound on this is really getting realistic; in fact, it sounds like it's happening just beyond the shroud of mist, and when wisps of it get nudged aside by the breeze, parts of this combat are visible. This must be a live show.

Now Doug recognizes the particular TV show that Booster has been cast in, and the young man grimaces, as he stops short of the series of metal buildings.

"Okay, so scout ahead, and see if you can figure out which one of these buildings our target is in," the young blonde says briskly, motioning towards the buildings. "If you see anyone else, let me know who and what you see, in case there are more targets. For now, though, we need intel. Report back here. Do not engage unless unavoidable..."

Checking the field kit, Doug takes a few flares, holding them out for the scouts to take. "Fire these off if you run into trouble."

A glance is cast for Rita. "Do they really seem like natural actors to you, or are they being forced, you think?" Not that Doug couldn't tell for himself, but it would at least keep the stuntwoman thinking about things she could handle...

Rita just stares at the screen for a moment... then shakes her head. "Missy Cramer has never been this good. Have you seen Frankenteens?" Clearly, some sort of dark magic is at work.

"Purple cat," Xavin hisses once the sound of Missy's laser fire fades, "Do you hear that...?" The Skrull scampers right up to one of the monitors and presses her ear to a speaker with an invisibly furrowed brow for a couple of seconds before wrenching away with a grimace.

Combat is loud, as it turns out; at least she doesn't have to worry too much about permanent ear damage.

"Nnh, I can't--" she begins to mutter before catching a glimpse at the bright flashes and fast-moving shapes beyond the mist.

"Is--" She slowly turns from that window into the battle - already closed, thanks to the shifting of the mists - and peers towards Vorpal, her head becoming visible. "How are you in a fight?" she wonders of him.

The cat becomes visible and narrows his eyes, ears twitching at the noise. "I've got a few tricks up my sleeve." He looks back at the group and waves the flare, not setting it off. "I don't think we're going to need these..." he says, pointing towards the lights in the distance. But he was holding onto that flare... it could come in handy. "Let's go and see what the hell it is they're doing to them, and how we can get them out of this." The cat sprints forward, deciding to keep his invisibility off... just so he can turn invisible and use an illusion, if he needed to, for misdirection.

The closer the group gets to the battlefield, the louder it is. Movie and television sets often get rather noisy when real-time effects and stunts are used, but this is taking it to another level. Power-armored Booster is smashing the pouncing and flying robots out of the air with his fists, or using a disabled robot to clobber other robots. Missy is flying around using some kind of force to fling robots into each other, or firing at them with energy blasts.

On the ground, there are people running around and screaming in fear. They must be extras. Some of them look human, some are humanoid but have animalistic heads. Floating television screens are still hovering around the area, but in addition to these are flying cameras, swooping around to capture the best imagery possible. One of the robots leaps onto a fleeing extra and bites at his arm, tearing into the flesh. Red blood spurts out, and this does not look like a special-effects blood pack. He screams and passes out from pain and blood loss.

"Trixie!" Booster calls out, swooping down towards the fallen animal-man, clearly intent on trying to save him.

"Michael, no!" shouts Missy, trying to cover him, turning her attention his way.

Robots swarm towards Booster, dogpiling him and slamming him into the ground. He groans, clearly stunned.

Nodding, Doug looks back towards Rita. "Be careful," the young man replies, as he leaves the stuntwoman be, moving to follow Vorpal and Xavin. If he can get close enough, he'll murmur, "See if you can get me one of these robots," before pulling back to try and sort out a pattern from the cameras. All the moving cameras... there had to be a director somewhere, and it was worth checking out, at the least.

Without a word further - just a short nod before her head vanishes again - Xavin darts towards the battle with nothing its sounds and brief glimpses through the psychedelic haze to guide her. With so many speakers blasting those same sounds, of course, even they aren't entirely helpful, there, but between the two sets of stimuli, she manages to work her way closer until she's close enough to actually see the robots swarming Booster for herself.

If Doug wants them to bring one of these things back for study, the first task will be getting them off of Booster; to that end, she hurls invisible force bubbles and battering rams at the top-most bots to send them flying away. Which would be a perfectly stealthy combat maneuver, if it weren't for her impulsively hollering, "Stand down, techno-slavers!" as she fires off her first attack.

All he needs to see is the blood, and then the robots piling on Booster for Vorpal to go into action. As Xavin uses force bubbles, the Cheshire cat Sidesteps, getting closer to the action. He didn't have super-strength or super-speed, but he had his own way of doing things. The cat summons three large anvils to smash onto the robots-- not directly onto booster, but to attack areas in their outlaying parts of their bodies, to cause damage. "Get off him, you bad ripoffs!"

Booster looks dazed, and then a little surprised; perhaps this turn of events was not in the script, if they even use scripts, here. However, inaction on a battlefield is deadly, and it is clear now that this is a real battlefield. He rolls to his side, swings his arm to punch aside one of the damaged robots, and still checks on the bleeding man-beast. Unfortunately, the creature looks dead. Booster grimaces, then turns and raises his fists, firing missiles at the robot swarm to continue clearing the area.

Missy cries out as the whip-like tail of a robot lashes across her arm, marring the white of her costume with a bloom of red. She manages to blast it away, and flies down to stand back to back with Booster. Her eyes are open wide with fear, but she is still smiling.

Booster then says, "Thank you, but as citizens you ought to be getting to cover... it's very dangerous, here!"

Booster was physically able to fend for himself, and the other two were very capable of fending for themselves.

From what Doug was able to tell, the transmission that was controlling them was coming from a few miles away. However, the towers in the building... well, seeing as Xavin and Vorpal were busy working on the robots, Doug was taking the circumspect approach.

As the fight continues, the young man moves towards the building with the towers in the transmission, giving a wide berth of the battle, so that he could go in. At the least, cut off the transmission... and see if he could get the people controlling the scene to come here.

After all, if Mohammed couldn't go to the mountain, the mountain must come to Mohammed...

"Wh--" Xavin stammers; the upper half of her body fades into review, revealing that she's squinting bemusedly at the Golden One. "It is, yes--"

Given a fresh target, one of the robots tries to pounce on the Skrull, brandishing wicked, glinting claws; they and it slam ineffectually into an invisible field a couple feet out from his her body, drawing a small grunt of pain from the brown-skinned alien.

"--which is why we're here to extract you!" she finishes once she's looked up from the sparking and squawking machine's attempts to recover. There are entirely too many other robots - not to mention extras - for Xavin to be able to spare the focus to capture it just now, so instead, she runs a few feet away from the thing in case it gets back up and tries to thin the numbers of its robot brothers out some with more violently hurled force spheres.

Xavin's attempts are laudable, but the cat suspects that they might need a little.. persuading.

This is why you get the illusionist on the scene. The cat smirks and narrows his eyes at the cameras. He summons the infamous, dreaded Test Pattern. The multicolored nightmare that indicates "WE ARE HAVING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES" in front of each camera, following each lens as it moves. And at the same time that mustachioed man appears out of the mist, running towards Booster and Missy. Vorpal's got the appearance and voice down, and the man says "Change of plans--- you need to follow them out- there has been a change of plans!"

One of the straggler robots decides to try to take a bite out of Vorpal, which is successful at first- metal rending flesh and causing blood to flow down the cat's arm... but he reciprocates with a massive anvil to squash the metallic brute.. "Gah!'

"...Dirk? What's going on?" Booster really looks confused now, and so does Missy, despite her bright smile. He glances at the battlefield, where some of the humanoids are clearly hurt or dead, and at the still swarming robots. However, Dirk is apparently the one who calls the shots when it comes to combat, and Booster grabs Missy by her uninjured arm. "Come on, Trixie..."

"But, Michael..." the woman protests, although she allows herself to be hauled out of danger.

A few moments after the pair are away from the marauding robots, the various television screens hovering nearby buzz with static, and the cameras stop swooping around with intent--they just hover in place. Apparently Doug has cut the signals going to and from the transmission hub. Several seconds after this, the robots cease attacking and just stand around doing nothing. The 'extras', however, still lay where they were maimed or killed.

Booster is out of his power armor now, and the armor itself is a few feet away transforming back into a car. He and Missy stay close to each other.

Breathing a sigh of relief as the transmissions are cut off, Doug glances about, then checks his bag, pulls out a laptop, and begins the process of hacking his way into the robots' programming, and rooting around to find out any sort of information about just what was going on here...

While Vorpal goes for the diplomatic approach, Xavin just lets herself slip into the rhythm of robot-killing: force sphere, duck stray fire, force sphere, dodge, force sphere, protect a bystander...

If it weren't for all the innocent human/animal person blood spotting the battlefield, the whole thing would almost be relaxing.

As it is, it takes Xavin a few more disabled robots once Doug has worked his magic to realize that they aren't fighting back, anymore; once she does, though, she lets her cloaking fall completely away, scoops a downed machine up in an invisible bubble, and starts backing her way towards Vorpal, who seems to be getting through to the brainwashed action heroes.

Vorpal holds his injured arm. The cut is deep, but he's not going to let that stop him... especially in view of the carnage. These creatures looked like him...

~Whomever is behind this... I am going to have fifteen minutes in private with them. And a crowbar.~

"Stick with these citizens and stay with them. I will meet you on the other side." He narrows his eyes for a second. "S.K.E.E.T.S, stay here and establish a perimeter. Don't move until Michael comes back for you." And with those firm instructions, 'Dirk' runs off again into the mist, apparently having things to do, people to see.

It was sad that Vorpal was using TV logic on them. He had just saddled them with an 'escort the civilians' mission, but it seemed like the right thing to do to take advantage of what had been done to Michael and Missy and turn it against the brainwashers. Whatever 'S.K.E.E.T.S' was, it was not the real Skeets, and the sooner they put it behind them, the better.

He took some comfort in at least thinking that, if it hadn't been for Booster's advice, he probably wouldn't have thought of using his powers like this.

The cat gestures "Come on, we need to move..." he was losing blood quickly and he didn't want to become a liability.

"Yes, Mr. Davis," the car replies. It does not seem to have a complex AI running it, if it is even a legitimate AI. It stays put, however. Even the robots that are now inert seem to be basic. Doug's efforts find that the programming simply directs them to kill whatever has been designated as their targets. They currently have no targets selected.

"Michael, what's going on... this wasn't in our script briefing," Missy is whispering, looking nervous despite her smile, and clutching at her own bleeding arm as they follow the cat-man.

"Not sure," Booster whispers back, "Last minute change, again? Just go with it." And louder, he notes to Vorpal, "But the people out there," he gestures to the battlefield. "They need our help, even if the combat is over. A lot of them are hurt, we can't just leave them..." And then something dawns on him, and whispering again, this time directed to Vorpal, "...why aren't the cameras on us?"

Well if the programming couldn't be rewritten that simply, what could he do...?

Hm.

Setting about trying to rewrite their code, Doug looks for the intercom/communication systems at the same time. Once he's done so, he makes sure to set it local. "Okay, anyone from Earth, head to the building. The rest of you, hold on while I sort out a situation."

He'll repeat the instructions with any other language he could find in the database.

"We--" Beat; Xavin glances back at the people strewn across the battlefield.

"--you're right." Looking to Vorpal, she adds, "I can gather them up, if you want to stay with these two, but--he's right. All that blood--we can't bring these two with us and leave the rest."

After wheeling around, she makes it about three steps back onto the battlefield before Doug's broadcast stops her. Her index and middle fingers are already pressed gently to her temple to facilitate concentration, and rather than lower them, she watches the extras/hostage's progress for a little while, just to be sure they can manage heading to safety. Even when she starts backing up to follow after Vorpal, Booster and Missy, she remains ready to construct another field, just in case.

"That's why you're the one with the useful powers," Vorpal says to Xavin. Without missing a beat, he whispers back Booster in a hush-hush sort of way, "First person view cameras. We're going ground level point of view for this segment... just follow along." he mutters, and then he says out loud, "Let's make sure the injured can be seen to and then move on to the next waypoint."

Some of the people on the battlefield are stirring, and when Doug talks to them through the intercom, they turn blearily towards the building. Some of them are unhurt enough to help those who are worse off, helping to drag them off of the battlefield. Although many of them look more or less human, the animal-headed hominids look a little less like someone who might have come from Earth, saving Vorpal's presence. Although, a few of them look as if they could be his brethren, because not everyone has the typical tones of Earth-type hair and fur color. On this planet, though, purples and pinks and greens probably count as naturalistic 'earth tones'.

Booster seems mollified once he knows that the injured are not going to be left behind, and seems more inclined to follow, now. He has taken a handkerchief from an inner pocket of his white suit, and has tied it around Missy's bleeding arm. "What about you?" he wonders, gesturing to Vorpal's injury. "Mr...?" From the look on his face, he legitimately does not recognize the purple cat. "Are you badly hurt?"

There is a brief burst of static-noise that seems to come from the sky. All of the extras, as well as Booster and Missy, stiffen up and freeze for a moment. Booster and Missy's eyes go glassy and blank, and then they both collapse as if they were puppets with cut strings. They are alive, although staring in an unseeing manner, blinking and breathing slowly. The various extras remain stock-still but upright.

"Dammit!" Trying to figure out what that static-noise was, Doug starts scanning through the frequencies on the terminal, doing his best to hunt for details, and to jam the frequency, or at least to find a way to reverse it. "Vorpal, Xavin, heads up. Do not come in. I think we're about to get some company..."

Just when Xavin's almost feeling comfortable enough with the survivors' progress to turn away from them, static bursts through the sky and the bystanders' procession grinds to a halt.

"Cat! Humans," Xavin exclaims as her eyes dart disbelievingly about the eerie tableau. "Something's--"

'Wrong' is what she was going to say next, but once she spins around to actually face her fellow rescuer, she sees that he's probably already aware.

"Be--be ready with a distraction!" she orders Vorpal as fire races from the ends of her hair to consume the right half of her body. To Doug, she assures, "If someone is coming, I'm ready to engage them; that witch will get what's coming to her."

Vorpal frowns and kneels next to the collapsed stars, and then looks up, growling. He draws his claws and tears a chunk out of the lower leg of his uniform and uses it as a makeshift bandage. "... One distraction coming up soon..." he narrows his eyes, focusing his powers of illusion to be at the ready.

"... I'll hold your jacket."

*KRRRKKK*

Through the hazy snow of the Wildways, a larger screen than any previous crackles on through the mists overhead, as if it were lowering itself, pushing through the cloud cover. Spiral stands before the camera, her six arms folded haughtily. She looks none too pleased. "That's our highest-rated program, you philistines." Her image starts to pop up on the various smaller monitors floating around the area, including the ones within the transmission hub building.

The stock-still humanoids begin to move again. Even the injured ones start to move towards Doug within the building, towards Xavin and Vorpal outdoors. They do not exude the menace of hungry zombies, but they do have the mindless brute force of alive beings that are being forced to attack.

Behind Spiral, a figure comes into focus. Enormous, grotesque, like a lumpen yellow sack of fat with a face and long, spindly arms. Mojo, god-king of the Wildways, licks his pointy teeth. Rage boils under his skin. "SPIRAL! Dance your way into their midst! Cut their eyes out and make me a necklace!"

"So melodramatic," Spiral mutters, before bowing into a curtsy. "As you will, Mojo." The six-armed sorceress glances over her shoulder at the camera again. "I'll give you a two-minute head start, worms."

*CLICK*

to be continued...