2014.03.30 - Going Where Even Time Dies

Billions of years ago the Manhunters annihilated every sentient being of Space Sector 666. Quadrillions of beings across several million galaxies. The human mind just can’t process those numbers.

Perhaps the universe cannot cope with it either. Space Sector 666 has been a vast desert in the maps of the cosmos since long before the current major galactic civilizations achieved space flight. Many planets in the sector have breathable atmospheres, but no life beyond some simple moss and micro-organisms has developed in a forever. Attempts of colonization have failed; there is something in the region creeps out even the most stalwart space wanderers. Some psychic-sensitives have claimed that it feels like standing in a graveyard.

No one comes to investigate when something seems to happen in this sector. There might be a Green Lantern appointed to watch over this region of space somewhere, but it must be the most boring assignment on the universe. Not much happens here, and when it does, no one cares, no one is in danger. A whole galaxy could fall into a black hole and there wouldn’t be any sentient injured. No one would even notice until the light of that galaxy blinking out vanished from the skies of the closest inhabited world, millions of years later.

“You will need spacesuits,” said Adam. They are not going to use a spaceship, it would take a week to get there, as the hyperspace paths in Sector 666 have not been charted in millennia. But the Continuum Cortex teleport can handle navigation even there.

Spacesuits! Pah! Phyla-Vell doesn't need one, thanks to the Quantum Bands. She says as much when Adam suggests they suit up. When she brought Moondragon to the meeting, she made only the briefest of introductions. No time for more, really. Stuff had to get done, and now she's waiting patiently for everyone to get ready so they can teleport across the galaxy.

Groot stands rooted at the center of the chamber. His great shoulders sag for the weight of his long arms and when Adam issues his command the Colossus's back slouches a bit and he seems to size the Warlock up with a slow look, "I am Groot." He says the deep timbre of his voice dismissive of the fellow.

Turning then he plods towards where Rocket is busing himself (should he show) and then opens the bulk storage space high above where the Raccoon could ever manage. Long arms grow outward into the space and then seem to retract coming out with massive 'jet pack' that is similar to what his companion wears.

With slow movements he straps it onto his space suit and, for just a moment, the weight of it seems to pull him downward. Hunching his weight forward beneath it there is the groan of vine and wood as Groot expands his form until he feels he is the perfect size for the device.

Larger than before he lopes back towards the center of the room.

This is it. Visiting Knowhere, encountering Johnny Alpha and his spaceship, even the excursion to Monster Island, all of that was a warm up. When Adam says 'You will need spacesuits', that's when it all becomes real for Rachel. It's far, far too late to back out, even if she wanted to.

Which she doesn't. Not even a bit.

"Got it." Was all she said, after taking a second or two to get used to the idea, and then it was just a question of finding a spacesuit in her size, which proved a lot more straightforward than she'd expected. As a result, she's where she's supposed to be, pretty much on time, in a spacesuit, albeit with the helmet tucked under one arm for the time being. There's even a directed energy weapon (raygun, to her mind) strapped to her right hip, because it was offered and well, why not? She's poking experimentally at the control panel attached to her right forearm, with no real idea of what she's doing, when she realises the others are beginning to assemble. "Ready when you are." She tells Adam, silently adding an 'I hope!' inside her own mind.

The tall, bald form of Moondragon seems never to be very far from wherever Phyla is, whenever the group assembles. She nods momentarily to Adam as he speaks of their need for space suits. She, of course, is already wearing one when this is mentioned. Her usual attire is a space suit, sans the helmet. She merely is actually carrying it, hanging from a clip and velcro-like tie at her waist, until it is time to finish suiting up. She doesn't bother with a jet pack, since her telekinesis can manage in most circumstances. If they actually need fractional-C speeds without a space vessel, she won't be the only person lagging behind, so plans will have to be made.

Since Phyla doesn't require a check of suit seals, Heather doesn't offer. Instead, she just pulls on her helmet, seals up, and runs diagnostics to check seals, pressurization, atmospheric internals. Her suit has no comm system to interconnect with anyone else. Then again, she's a telepath; why would she bother? << What is it we will be looking for, Warlock? >> she inquires.

Adam knows Moondragon, he seemed quite pleased to have her in the crew, although as usual he wasn’t exactly effusive in his welcoming. Something about her presence greatly improving their chances. That is a great compliment coming for him. He is not bothering with a spacesuit either, trusting his powers to keep him safe.

There is a small delay as the technicians of the Cortex work to compensate the spatial anomalies. Extraction, they are warned, won’t be instantaneous either.

As Moondragon asks a very important question, Adam frowns faintly. “The anomalies don’t seem to be full rifts, yet they are persistent and some... extra-dimensional mass has shifted into physical reality. We are aiming for the largest of those objects.” Then the passports activate and they are elsewhere.

It is a chunk of white matter the size of a small island. It looks frozen and it is very cold. In fact it is so cold they can feel it through spacesuits, which is strange because they are designed to operate in absolute zero. It is not absolute zero here, in fact there is a star close enough the area is brightly illuminated and the polarization filters of the suits activate automatically. Also, there is normal gravity, which is impossible because the space object is way too small to have a gravity field.

“This,” comments Adam with an unequivocally disapproving tone, “this thing shouldn’t be stable. Even nowadays, with reality in flux, it should have decayed catastrophically within minutes!”

Well, this is not what she expected either. Even with the Quantum Bands working, she can feel something of the chill of this place. And that's unsettling. Phyla frowns deeply; she glances around to make sure everyone made it, and then slowly turns to see if her Quantum Bands pick anything up. "I'll take this to unstable any day," she notes, "But the cold is... not fun. I shouldn't be feeling this. What in Pama's name is going on?"

Rachel listens to Adam's explanation, then shrugs to herself and just assumes she'll know it when she sees it. Being the rookie when it comes to this kind of thing is definitely proving to be a drawback.

Unlike the others, she doesn't have much of a frame of reference for the situation they find themselves in, but even she thought it was odd to be feeling the cold. A little worried that messing around with her suit controls is to blame, Rachel's eyes scan the panel quickly, but all the telltales are coming up green. A telekinetic shield springs into place around her, but somehow she doubts that'll keep the cold off either. She looks up when Phyla speaks, a touch of relief flashing across her features before she ruefully comments, << I'm glad it's not just me. >> She takes a look around, then glances over at Adam with another shrug. << Adam? Any ideas? >>

Groot shifts faintly upon arrival the usual sounds of wooden frame silent for the vacuum of space. He moves forward with long plodding steps and allows his arms to fall and sway silently at his sides, "I am Groot." He remarks quizzically over the com-channel and then slowly, very slowly, collapses down to one knee such that he kneels upon the fragment of astral ice, and spreads his long root-like fingers before pressing his palm to its surface. For several moments he moves his palm back and forth over the surface, "I am Groot." He declares and then shifts to look far-out into the cosmos.

His long fingers ball themselves so the tips are poised upon the surface. They wriggle and then plunge into the surface burying themselves in the ground. A moment passes and he pulls at the shoulder ripping a section of the white substance from the ground. His gaze turns back to admire his handy work as he comes to stand again. Then, winding his arm backward, he hurls the chunk with incredible strength and watches the arc it takes. How far does this gravity field extend, you might wonder?

<< To generate a gravity field, this is superdense. We're walking on starstuff. White dwarf matter. >> And yet it's still cold. Cold straight through the space suit. It shouldn't be possible, but it is. She sweeps the area around them, looking for signs of ... anything, her mind probing the reality, looking for signs of what was, what is, or what will be going on here.

“It is not ice, or matter, it is time... solidified and frozen,” Adam seems vaguely horrified. “It will slow you down, causing a sensation of cold. Our technology is ill-suited to deal with something like this, but it shouldn’t be dangerous if we stay here just a few minutes. It is just... it shouldn’t be this stable. It has been here for three Earth days when it should have collapsed in less than three hours, causing a massive rift.”

Groot tearing a chunk of the icy substance reveals stone underneath, bricks and plaster, and a golden plaque that falls to the ground, silently rolling to Rachel’s feet. There is something written there. The thrown projectile shows the gravity field is just about a hundred yards high. It could be an artificial gravity field, like most starships have, but most likely it is just another unnatural phenomena produced by the anomaly.

There is no other sentient mind besides the Guardians in countless light years. However Phyla’s bands detect a working, normal (if very sophisticated) piece of technology not far from the group.

"This way," Phyla advises, nodding in the direction the signal is coming from. "Something over here. Technological, not organic." Although depending on the creators, is there a difference? Even as she leads the way, Phyla remains close to Moondragon. Primarily because, having fought at her side for much of the Annihilation Wave, she knows the two of them work well together. It is something of an oddity to see the gravity - artificial or not - work in this way. Chunk of ice rotating briefly and brought back down. "Well, at least we can't go hurtling off. I hope."

Groot watches the massive chunk of time arc strike the edge of the field and then briefly lose the effect of gravity. Perhaps satisfied he turns slowly and looks after Phyla as she bades them on. Without argument he keeps a slow exaggerated pace behind the rest of them a single long stride made for every three or four of the rest of them.

"I am Groot." He remarks to the idea that they cannot go hurtling off his bass tone even and without even nuanced inflection.

Solidified time. Frankly impossible by any measure, and yet Adam Warlock speaks of it as one might speak of the Higgs Bosun. It generates a gravity field, acting super-dense. Heather honestly has very little reference to make sense of any of this. She stays close and stays alert, but there is little more she can do, right now. Even Titan science has nothing on this impossibility incarnate. But perhaps the technology will be less so?

"Frozen TIME?" Rachel's voice crackles over the comms, faintly incredulous. "How does that even work?" She's asking the question even though she knows she's unlikely to get an answer, or at least an answer she's likely to understand. Moondragon's comment about walking on starstuff she could get her head around, but ice made out of time is a step beyond even that.

Rachel nods her helmeted head as Phyla indicates a direction, but stops in her tracks when that golden plaque rolls towards her, running out of momentum and falling over right in front of her. Rachel's lips press together, but then she snorts quietly to herself. It all feels just a little too ominous to her. "Hold on a second." She says, dropping to one knee and reaching down to pick up the plaque, flipping it over and dusting the icy residue from it with her gloved fingers. "Groot's experiment dug... something..." Rachel goes quiet, looking at the plaque in shock, reading the inscription again to make sure it really reads:

1407 Graymalkin Lane

"Guys? This isn't possible." She feeds the image of the plaque into each of their minds. "I /LIVE/ there."

The piece of tech is a cylinder of dark metal, maybe 12 feet tall, five feet diameter. Those with an eye for technology can identify a hyperspatial engine and small intertial drives. It is some kind of drone, the technology extremely advanced although not entirely incomprehensible. “This,” states Adam, “this... device is keeping the anomaly stable.”

Because ‘solidified time’ is completely impossible in the physical world. At least when the laws of physics are all working as they should (which is the main problem!).

Rachel’s question does not surprise him too much. It makes some sense they are standing in a time-lost fragment of Earth. Why it is precisely where Rachel lives is a mystery for which he has no answers right now.

Phyla-Vell didn't react in surprise to the idea of solidified time. Oh sure, it's a wtf moment. But trying to pry answers from Adam Warlock is never easy, and Phyla's learned that lesson. She stops short of the bit of tech, looking to Moondragon to see if she can ID it. She's the one better with tech than she is. Then she glances further back to Rachel. "What do you mean? It has your home address written down?"

Groot circles around the group with one long step and approaches the cylinder. At roughly twenty-feet tall he's easily a head shoulders and chest taller than the object. The Flora Colossus comes to stand near-to it and then bends forward to examine it from a birds-eye-view, "I am Groot." His deep voice sounds cautious, maybe even warning, and he raises a hand to point to down at the thing with his long fingers.

Then he makes a broad gesture sweeping his hand over the top of the device dismissively and steps backward.

It takes a few seconds for Rachel to get over her shock. She's kneeling on an impossible frozen iceball of solidified time, in a spacesuit, holding what is unmistakably a plaque from her home. Even with her unusual life, these things take a moment or two to process. When she finally does look up, it's to Adam that she looks and, as she should have expected, no answers are forthcoming from that direction. Gritting her teeth a bit, Rachel directs an annoyed look toward the back of Adam's head, then realises the futility of that and climbs back to her feet.

Boots crunching through the ice, Rachel walks over to the others, still carrying the plaque in one hand. "As crazy as that sounds..." She replies to Phlya, in the tone of someone who knows exactly how crazy that sounds, "Yeah." She holds up the plaque for inspection, and then projects an image of a pristine version attached to an imposing mansion, taken directly from her own memories. She looks around at the others and then shrugs helplessly. "It doesn't make any sense to me, either." She hasn't really been paying attention to Groot's investigations, but when he speaks, Rachel nods absently. "You said it, big guy." She's doing remarkably well in adapting to the walking tree. Probably because the talking raccoon vouched for him.

<< It's an interstellar drone. Inertial drives, small but functional. A hyperspace engine. And the hyperspace engine is still active, low-power, generating a field that is allowing a similar violation of the laws of basic physics to continue inside. >> Moondragon comments. She 'says' nothing about Rachel's home, though she has heard of the school. It's not a place she ever hung out, however. It means little to her, all things considered. What's already here with them means more. << It might almost seem as if someone is intentionally making this possible ... keeping this possible, in the impossibility of it all. >>

Adam is studying the machine too, and nods to Moondragon. “Agreed, someone has deliberately kept this place stable. This technology would be of great help in our task.” He glances to Rachel briefly, “apologies, Starchild, I do not have the answers you seek. We are on the remains of a time-lost Earth, perhaps from our future, should we fail. It might be your current dwelling has some metaphysical importance that preserved it through whatever cataclysm brought this fragment of other reality to us. I wouldn’t know.”

He steps back, considering how to bring the drone back to Knowhere and at the same time neutralize the anomaly. It is too massive for the passports. Although perhaps not for Groot’s.

But his train of thought is interrupted. A telepathic message comes to the minds of all the Guardians. Delivered with terrifying strength and clarity. <>

Then the starship materializes, leaving hyperspace barely a mile from the anomaly. It is huge, easily a mile long, although it looks fragile, a thin metal construct with the engines at an extreme and what must be living quarters at the other extreme. An array of tractor beams all over the main axis hints it is some kind of transport ship.

Moondragon and Rachel can feel some minds on board, one of which obviously belongs to a very powerful telepath.

Her mouth opens, but before Phyla can offer any words, the telepathic message comes in. Of course. Her reaction is instead to summon up her Quantum Blade, which shimmers into existence quite quickly. "'Interlopers'?" she mouths, looking at the others. "Pama, someone thinks highly of themselves."

Rachel's a bit surprised to finally get an answer of sorts from Adam, but she's somewhat comforted that he's as much at a loss as she is. She nods after a moment, and finally shifts her attention from the plaque to the machine that seems to be the cause of all this. It's far from her area of expertise, but before she has time to do more that look at it - the ship arrives. Rachel draws in a sharp breath as she feels the force behind that telepathic message, and her shields slam into place instinctively. "Seems like it." She replies to Phyla. "I'm sensing a lot of power, though. They might have good reason." Rachel's not about to roll over just because a telepath with a starship's turned up, however, and pushes herself off the ground, hovering a few feet up - and letting enough of her telekinetic power out to sheathe her body in red-gold flame. << Adam? >> She asks, without taking her eyes off the ship filling the sky. << Want Moondragon and I to try to shield us all? >> She knows the other telepath hardly at all, but between them, perhaps it'll be enough.

Moondragon is unimpressed, telepathically speaking. When you've conversed with Galactus, mind to mind, little really surprises or overwhelms. Not really. (When you take your name from that of a cosmic entity of corruption you defeated as a teenager, arrogance is just second nature. Sorry.) But she lifts off a bit as well, not bothering with flashy lightshow displays (because that's just not how her powers work, and more's the pity; she hates being shown up by anyone, and tends not to admit that even to herself). << We are here for information gathering, not necessarily to engage. It may be worth playing this out to see what more we can learn. Or, if you insist, I can see about tearing what we need from its mind. >> Arrogance, remember?

Adam nods to Rachel, “the newcomer is clearly hostile, I expect he will...” he is interrupted by the tell-tale glow of multiple teleportations around the group. Dozens heavily armed robots, and a single humanoid. The telepath.

He is about eight feet tall and massively built. Hulk-like. The red skin seems scaled in some areas, and on his bald head there is a 10 inch tall fin running from forehead to nape. The most notorious characteristic, however, is the third eye in his forehead, which glows baleful gold, loaded with immense psionic energy. He wears little on clothes, grey pants on his legs, but his four-toed feet are bared. A blue cloak held by a golden ornament, reaching about his knees, and a utility belt on his waist holding several pouches.

“I am Despero, little worms. And now, I am afraid you have to die. Kill them!” The robots move forward, producing wicked-looking vibroblades and energy weapons.

Not a name Phyla knows. Maybe if her mother was available she could ask. But Elysius is not, and therefore she can't. Still, robots she can deal with it. She draws on the energy of the Quantum Zone and lets loose with bursts of golden energy. "Robots. Why is it always robots out here?" Out here being space. She's not foolish enough to push forward to engage. Let them come to her.

Rachel doesn't get the feeling that this is a social call, but Moondragon's words make sense - at least until she gets to the bit about tearing things from the mind of the new arrival. Rachel moves to look over her shoulder, but her space-suit helmet rather gets in the way, so the other telepath is spared the raising of Rachel's eyebrows in a dubious 'really? You're THAT good?' look. Adam makes his decision before Rachel can say anything - and then the decision is taken out of anyone's hands as Despero arrives. << Good luck. >> Rachel sends to Moondragon, and then the flames around her suddenly burn more intensely, the red-gold fire taking on a vaguely avian shape as she extends her psi-shields around the non-telepaths. "Robots aren't so bad!" She calls to Phyla, reaching out a hand toward the closest - and then convulsively clenching her fist. With any luck, her telekinesis will do the rest. "I don't feel AT ALL guilty beating robots up!"

<< Worms? How polite. I presume we are allowed to deal with this severely? >> Moondragon inquires of Adam, as the team forms up and prepares to do battle. Instead, she lowers herself to the 'ground' and prepares to do battle. She twists and dodges as the closing robots attack, then tears away the vibroblade from one and throws it into another. Armed, now, she is better prepared to do battle with beings unaffected by telepathy. How inconvenient and annoying.

Adam gesticulates, raising an energy shield to stop the robot blasts coming from a side, and then nods to Moondragon. “Indeed. Please, deal with him that maniac ‘severely’, Groot and I will make sure the robots are not distracting you.” Because while the robots are being all distracting and trying to stab and shot them, Despero is reaching towards the minds of the Guardians with every intention of doing some mental smashing. He finds Rachel’s mind-shield blocking him, and growls, clawing at it with pretty horrifying psychic strength.

Psychic energy is one of the few things the Bands can't cope with controlling. Nor is Phyla aware that she could use them to render herself immune to such things. As such, she concentrates on the robots and allows Moondragon and Rachel the pleasure of dealing with Despero on the mental plane. Her sword swings gracefully, neatly avoiding the bodies and attacks of the others as she slices in and out of the other robots.

Despero reaches for Rachel's psionic shielding, and Moondragon catches the other woman's incredulity. Unused to shielding large numbers of other minds from psychic assault, she doesn't try to help the defense of the team. Instead, she waits until he and Rachel are fully engaged telepathically, and then reaches out at the right moment and unleashes the full might of her own telepathic strength in a lance of power aimed directly at the core of the alien fin-headed freak's power: that third eye.

Rachel grins a bit viciously to herself as the robot she targeted crumples in on itself under her telekinetic assault, and falls to the ground as a ball of scrap occupying about half the volume it had before she started. She doesn't get chance to enjoy her victory, though, because her mental shielding is suddenly under a fierce and sustained attack. As the claws dig in to the barrier she's erected, Rachel hisses to herself in psychic pain and wobbles in the air, dropping to the ground and going to one knee as she lands. Looking up, her eyes narrow on Despero, and through clenched teeth she grinds out, "OK, if THAT's how you want to play it...!" On the astral plane, Rachel's psi-shield seems to catch fire, becoming a roaring wall of telepathic flame as she draws deeply on her telepathic reserves, sending the strongest jolt of feedback she can manage through the point of contact.

Despero attack on Rachel’s mind-shield was vicious but somewhat careless, as if he thought it would easily crumble her defenses. When Moondragon attacks him, he roars in pain, and is forced to pull back to build up his own shields. Just as Rachel counterattacks too. The combined psychic attacks tear through his mental walls, but he rebuilds them with enviable quickness, halting the women attack before they can get past his surface thoughts. They have surprised them, that is clear, and just got upgraded from ‘worms’ to ‘dangerous’.

Instead of attacking in the mental plane, where he would need some instants to gather strength, he strikes in the physical plane, lounging towards Moondragon with incredible speed, trying to grab her and smash her against the ground.

Meanwhile Adam is blasting to atoms the robots closer to the three women, and Groot is kicking around all the others, some holes appear in his thick bark from the robots blasters, but he is 25 feet tall, those are scratches.

Those surface thoughts that were just exposed are enough to show Despero's intent before it happens, which is more than enough time for someone of Moondragon's skill and training to get herself out of the way of that bullrush of speed and brute power. Agility and not getting hit are something she has had to be very good at, for her own survival. She's not the telekinetic powerhouse that Rachel is - more is the pity, in her opinion - but she's not laughable, either. Frankly, Phyla would be better at this, given her paragon-like strength, speed and quantum weapons. But for now, Moondragon keeps out of his way. Sadly, this means she hasn't the concentration left to keep up her side of the psychic attacks, and has to pull back on that power somewhat. It will have to be up to Rachel to hammer things home, if she can.

That makes it Phyla's turn. She's been staying close to Moondragon the entire time, they're artful way of dancing around each other as they attack more than obvious to any onlooker. She spins in time to see Despero lunge. And while she's more than sure Moondragon can protect herself, offering a little help never hurt anything. "Oh no you don't!" Her arms go up and the Quantum Energy flows into a convex shield around the position she briefly shares - because Moondragon is indeed moving.

Rachel's still crouched on one knee, and despite her show of bravado she's still reeling slightly from the attack on her psi-shield. She needs the moment to catch her breath almost as much as Despero did, and she's surprised by how quickly he's able to get himself together and lash out at Moondragon. She's also slightly miffed - despite it really not being the right time for such a reaction - that she's clearly been identified as the lesser threat! That causes her temper to flare a bit! << Forget someone? >> She yells into Despero's brain - if there's any crack left in his shields - throwing in a spike of psychic pain for good measure. But that's only to distract him from trying to swat Moondragon. The followup punch is a big chunk of time-ice, about the same size he is, flung right at him with all the telekinetic muscle she can muster behind it.

If there were air to transmit sound, Despero would have come close to break the sound barrier. Instead he smashes on Phyla’s quantum barrier. For a fraction of a second, the shield holds. Then the alien roars, and shatters it like glass with his fists. But Moondragon is no longer there. Instead he gets hit by a telepathic attack, which makes his mental shields rattle, and a chunk of, well, time.

The kinetic impact of the icy substance is enough to push him away several feet, but when the time shatters, he gets hit by wild chronal energies, and for a few seconds Despero seems torn apart by the released tachyons. He screams, the psychic scream far worse and much louder than the sound the Guardian communicators translate. It is quite an impressive sight to watch how he pulls together again using a combination of telepathy and telekinesis, backed by what must be an almost-Kryptonian grade of raw toughness.

But now he is vulnerable.

With the moments of peace given by Despero's desperate situation with that chunk of time and its side effects, Moondragon is given the chance to stop and once more martial her resources and concentration, building up and readying herself. << All at once, now ... three ... two ... one .. . NOW! >> she sends to her teammates, as she herself launches another incredibly powerful spike of telepathic force and will aimed directly at Despero's eye, as that eye is only barely starting to come back into cohesion. Best time to attack the enemy: when he's not ready for it, and busy with something else. WHAM!

The Quantum Barrier does indeed collapse, at least a little because Phyla had only intended it to last momentarily. Despero just pushes the deadline up by beating no it. She spins out of the way and briefly pushes into the air to give herself distance. More energy comes through from the Quantum Zone, but she doesn't bother with the blast: this time she forms a giant spear of Quantum Energy, throwing it down towards Despero at the same moment Moondragon calls for the combined attack.

Rachel's eyes go wide behind her helmet's transparent faceplate as she sees the result of her attack. It's a lot more impressive than she thought it would be! ...and not quite as impressive as Despero pulling himself back together after suffering it. The big guy is clearly even tougher than she thought! Shaking off her surprise, Rachel pushes herself back to her feet - and then back off the ground completely, levitating once more, the flames still crackling around her. As Moondragon contacts her telepathically, Rachel divines her plan instantly and grins. << You got it. >> She sends back, and on cue, strikes out with her telekinesis, pummeling Despero from all directions with invisible blows, aiming to keep him distracted and off balance while the others take him down.

Despero barely has time to mount a defense, still trying to recover from being almost erased from the timeline. He would dodge, he is very quick, but Moondragon blast crashes through his mental shields and stuns him, and then he is being blasted by telekinesis and a quantum spear stabs him on the chest, managing to go a few inches through his almost invulnerable flesh. For a few seconds he struggles to stand, cursing and swearing bloody revenge... and then steps back and collapses on his back, knocked out.

Rachel can 'see' all the punishment Despero is taking - Phyla's quantum spear, Moondragon's mental assault, her own telekinetic strikes - and at first she's impressed by the amount of punishment Despero is soaking up, but then starts to wonder what it's going to take to put him down! And then he is down and, for the moment at least, it seems to be over. For a few seconds she remains hovering, staring at their fallen opponent, and then the telekinetic flame outlining Rachel's body winks out. She drops lightly to the ground, and then strides briskly over to where Despero lies. "OK." She says after a moment, the comms carrying the edge of amusement in her tone. "Now what do we do with him?"

"I'm tempted to say we deal with this mess, and go. Leave him here." Phyla gestures with a hand, a quantum tray picking up the discarded, bent and ruined future address plaque for Xavier's school, which she brings to Rachel. "May as well keep it," she suggests. "Consider it a memento of impossible things."

“We can’t leave him here, he will recover very quickly,” notes Adam, joining the women. All the robots have been reduced to scrap. “We need to know why he wanted this,” he gestures to the impossible landscape. He raises his gaze and frowns; the ship that brought Despero jumps to Hyperspace right then. “Someone has found a way to stabilize anomalies and prevent rifts, but if it was Despero, it won’t be for a reason we would approve. Moondragon, can you recalibrate the passports so you can return with the drone and Despero? Rachel, keep him unconscious, please. I will remain here a few minutes to destroy this place and mend spacetime.”

<< My suggestion would be that we deactivate the engine and take it back with us. The 'asteroid' of frozen time will disintegrate, and quite possibly take Despero with it. >> Heather offers, cold-bloodedly. 'Cause it would be such a shame if that erased Despero from the Universe. (OK, OK. He's a villain, and he'll never stay gone. But it's a good idea!)

At Adam's suggestions, Moondragon merely nods. < Very well. I will recalibrate Groot's passport. It will take me a few minutes. When we get back, I can interrogate Despero's mind, while his defenses are weak. >> With the drone gone, this place should disintegrate all on its own, but if Adam wants to stay, she's not going to argue. << Phyla, watch him, please. >> Careful is as careful does.

Rachel's already nodding, with some feeling, in agreement with Phyla's words when Adam makes his pronouncement. Rachel shoots Phyla a wry look. << I think I liked your idea better. >> Comes Rachel's voice in the other woman's mind, even as she's replying to Adam with a swift, "I'm on it." Her expression clears and she smiles when she's passed the plaque, though. "Thanks." She offers quickly, and then turns her attention back to their defeated opponent. This time there's no showy outward display of flame - but Rachel's green eyes go white hot and blank as she exerts her will to keep Despero under.