4914/Swords & Visions

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Swords & Visions
Date of Scene: 14 July 2018
Location: unknown
Synopsis: The secret origin of the Germination threat is revealed. The Titans receive new high-tech weapons to fight them. The plan:
Cast of Characters: Robin (Wayne), Brick, Stardust, Breath
Tinyplot: Germination


Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     Damian's week had been very quiet on the Titans side. After posting in the communal area that should anyone feel they need to vent at him, to do so this week, no one has taken him up on it. Of course, to Damian, this had meant that everyone was fine with it, other than Colette, and Vorpal of course.

  The boy hero had been working in the Danger Room, no violence, or portmanteaus of himself here, just what seemed to be a serene looking island, the waves of the ocean clashing on the beach, Damian was sitting at an easel, painting the midday landscape carefully in oil paints.

Brick has posed:
Brick was quite surprised when Maire Boit informed him that he had an actual ROOM here at Titans Tower. Partly this surprised him because he normally kept rooms at the compound where his parents worked for Star Labs (because it allowed Star Labs to monitor him) and of course he had his Secret and Completely Inaccessible Lab in the insides of a quake-proofing system of a Metropolis skyscraper, but while his Fortress of Springitude is known to exist to certain others, he hasn't actually taken anyone else there. At least, not that they KNEW about -- the Hush Door is located in that secret lab, as is the system that delivers the "pneumatic boom tube" pods to his location wherever he is.

And, two of the larger crates that can fit his Pneum Tube system are in his room. They had custom ceramic swords that Brick created for other titans to test out against the Shroom Menace.

He goes to the Danger Room to test the newest models. Spotting Damian, he says to the young man in an Arabic dialect, "Do not mistake: I have not spoken with you not for approval of your actions. You failed as a leader and have made some critical errors, but you are no fool, and you will be able to determine what they were. I'll talk with you about how you plan to avoid similar failures, when we are not facing a world-ending disaster."

Stardust has posed:
"I liked your note," a palm tree says, with Colette's voice. "Rainman may take you up on it. Breathmints wants to bawl you out, but... we'll see. Brick's sis will probably give you an disapproving 'ping'. I doubt you'll hear much else." She steps through the holographic tree trunk and peers over Damian's shoulder at the painting. "Hey Brick. Any luck with those swords?"

Colette looks up from the canvas to the holographic landscape and back down again a few times. "Annoying. There needs to be more things you're bad at, Damian. Full marks for an imaginative use of the danger room." She looks speculatively towards the control console. "Hmm, I wonder if I can get it to simulate different acoustic environments. That could be really handy."

Wandering off a little way, Colette sits cross-legged on the sand, and pokes at it. "It's a shame the simulation can't do textures better. This doesn't feel remotely like sand. Water doesn't work properly either. On the plus side, that does mean that the danger room isn't being permanently used by Kori as a beach to lounge on. So yeah, that probably works. Oh, and I have news. I know what the mushrooms are, and where they come from. Well, kinda."

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     Damian was enjoying the serenity of this virtual Infinity Island, but that had been interrupted by Arabic, something he has not heard in a long time. The background of the twin volcanoes left a gentle plums of smoke into the air.

  Once Brick had said what he cared to say, Robin says back, in the same dialect. "You have the courage only two of your peers have. But it was no failure, it served its purpose."

  Colette's entrance only gets him to give a smirk. "Well, no one has so far. They've got three more days." The comment on his artistic skills only serve to make him smile. "This Island...the real one. Is where I lived, before Gotham. What you don't see is the League of Assassins headquarters I purposefully left out of the simulation. The angles didn't work with the island's curves."

  Damian continues to work on the painting, listening to Colette as she explains.

Brick has posed:
Brick is carrying a box, and opens it. Inside, there are three swords, two of them structured like slightly larger machetes, and one like a standard longsword. They have very slightly larger than usual handles, and are made of a slightly warmer than usual, not-so-reflective ceramic material... which is not fragile because why would he make them out of a fragile ceramic?

"Want to try these out? And where did they come from?"

Stardust has posed:
"My story starts a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away." Colette pauses. "Well, I'm fairly sure about the long time ago. But we'll have to settle for a planet far far away." She peers into Bricks' case, oohs appreciatively and pulls out the longsword. She swishes it inexpertly through the air a few times, then runs a finger gently over the edge. "Sharp. Light. These are pretty cool. Why's this one cooler than the other ones? I want this one." She looks over to Brick, suspiciously. "It's Damian's, isn't it? Because it's a proper sword and he knows how to use swords. I still want it." She sighs, and hands it to Damian, pulling out one of the machete style ones instead.

"Anyway," Colette continues, trying out the second blade with a few swishes, then studying both blade and handle closely. "There were some aliens who built things out of fungus. Like basically everything. Entire cities out of fungus. They made our mushrooms. Or... well. Maybe they didn't. But they come from their world. There's like... two versions. I think the main one was some kind of recycling thing. Eats waste, grows food. But there's this other version. Maybe what they engineered the recycling one from, or maybe..." She looks up from the sword, frowning. "Look, I can't really explain how I know this stuff, I just do, okay? So like maybe the bad mushrooms were mutant versions of the good mushrooms, or maybe the good mushrooms are mutant forms of the bad mushrooms. Or maybe they made the bad mushrooms as a weapon, because there was a war and the bad mushrooms took over the entire planet."

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     Damian turns to look at the instruments. Only putting down the brush after Colette has her turn with the longsword. The expert swordsman takes it and stands, performing a horizontal swipe, a vertical slash, a forward thrust, one backward thrust, and a corkscrew flourish.

  "The balance is good, the blade is...very light. Dangerous to beginners. They're more liable to overcompensate and hurt themselves." He comments, looking over more of the sword. "So, can our mushrooms help in this? A battle of fungi? With the fate of the Earth at stake?"

Brick has posed:
"It's balanced for you, Colette," Brick says. "but you MUST train with it properly. Get help from your invisible friends if you must. Maire Boit tells me that Damian would be offended if I simply MADE a sword for him, and so I have not. I was waiting to ask him if he wanted one. I have machetes for Breath, Rain-man, and Moon-Moon, in my room. I could keep playing with the designs, but as is, they're completely functional. The cold effect works best if you hit them and let the cold spread before removing it."

Stardust has posed:
Colette sighs. "More training? It's a sword. You slash and stab and hack. It's not going to try fencing with me. It isn't the Dread Mushroom Roberts. Hack hack hack, freezy freeze, dead mushroom." She eyes the longsword again. "So I get the cool one? And you're gonna make Damian a freezy ninja sword? Awesomes. Do they have a button for turning the cold on and off?"

"Actually Robin, that's a really interesting question. Cos at first, I saw some of the bad mushrooms hanging out with the good mushrooms, and everything seemed fine. Lion and lamb deal. But later, after the war had started, the bad mushrooms started growing everywhere and took over all the good mushrooms. So maybe something was changed in the bad mushrooms to make them aggressive. Or maybe they were biding their time and waited until they outnumbered the good mushrooms before they made their move. Or something. Anyway. The aliens evacuated their planet. So we should go into space and find them. Or look for a sample of the good mushrooms and figure out what makes mushrooms attack."

Colette steps back as Robin does his flourish. "Hmph. Showy!" she declares, grinning.

Breath has posed:
Lyssa slips in, trying not to be too terribly noisy, and leans on the railing. She frowns and looks around, listening for awhile. "I've never used one. Do we have a plan other than macheteing everything?"

She pushes off of the railing and wanders down. "Well, I heard back from my contact in the camp. One of them anyways. They armed the bejeezus out of the place, and they've got her in sleep deprivation and identity destruction. Now I'm not sure how to get in. Too bad I was busy staring at a hospital ceiling when the best window of opportunity came up. But nobody asks me what I do when I'm not here."

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     Damian tosses the blade in the air, catching it and holding by the blade and the blade guard, offering it to Stardust. "As he said, it's yours." He could tell it wasn't for him, the blade didn't speak to him like his others did.

  "She's correct. A sword is made for its weilder. If the intent is to stab, make mine a Jian. I can take it from there." Damian comments, before he looks over to the incoming Breath. Her remark doesn't elicit a reaction from Damian, but he did hear and pay attention.

Brick has posed:
Brick sighs and Maire Boit *pings* with the same slightly exasperated tone, because she'll have to be swinging overhead sometimes to hit Sporelings, which can be distressingly mobile, or beside herself or others, and the sword is SHARP. But, he did mention her Invisible Friends, and Maire Boit has PINGED a warning to them, if they're listening.

"Wait, you have a friend who is under age and is being forced to suffer through sleep deprivation and brainwashing? Give me the coordinates. We'll have every one of them out faster than you can say BOOM."

Brick pauses for a second before saying, "And please don't get snippy and passive-aggressive about not being asked things when you don't ask us the same things. We all have private lives, we are responsible for bringing to the table those things we wish to share. Nobody here is a mind-reader."

Maire Boit notices that Damian wants a Jian. A scanning beam passes invisibly over his body as she determines the parameters to feed to the forge to make the ceramic sword.

"It can be to stab, or to slash. What would you prefer?" Brick asks, handing the machete in his hands to Breath. "This is yours."

Stardust has posed:
Colette stares at Breath. "Camp? What are you talking about? Someone's been kidnapped?" She stops, blinking a few times. "And you decided it was a good plan to wait for someone to ask? 'Oh hey Breathmints, do you happen to know someone who's been kidnapped who you forgot to mention to us at all', something like that?" She pinches the bridge of her nose. "Breathy. We have three people who can teleport kidnapees away. Raven could blast the guards into mewling, terrified puddles of tears and regret. Several of us think being shot at by high calibre weaponry is a fun way to spend an afternoon. Cassie could probably pick the entire camp up and wander off with it. This is kind of the entire point of teams. Teamwork."

Taking the sword Damian offers, Colette takes off across the sandy beach, stabbing at imaginary foes. "Have at thee, varlet!" she yells. Her form is TERRIBLE, but you still wouldn't want to be standing in front of her. "Oh..." she winds down, facing Breath again, eyeing the machete that Brick has handed over. "Which reminds me. Look, I know there were funny things going on with that Bandersnatch. We both got hit by that anger spit. But... you're not front line. It's like playing an MMO. Everyone has their role. Leave being a tank to the tanks. You've got awesome powers, don't waste them pretending to be something you're not. It's like I kept saying about your blowgun idea. Nobody can breath like you can, so don't waste your unique power recreating a mass produced firearm. Anyway..."

Colette resumes slashing at invisible foes. "How do we get into space? We need a space ship. And some way of tracking down the Mushroom Makers. Hmm. Needs a better name."

Breath has posed:
Lyssa takes the machete and examines it carefully, though with not a lot of skill in swording things. "Can I change the scene here? I have the map in a scenario I was wanting to look through. It has the Google Maps coordinates and everything. And I would actually love to be able to update people on stuff, but I don't actually know what we are doing for logging our stuff. Yeah, I got a lead on an illegal conversion therapy camp. They're bringing in kids and supplies by float plane. They're off the grid in Pennsylvania. I had it sorted, until all this stuff happened."

She fumes. "I was TRYING to stay away from things! Ugh."

Brick has posed:
Every one of the machetes and swords has an embossed spot on the handle that's easy to feel. Pressing it makes the sword go cold, and pressing it hard makes it coat the blade with liquid nitrogen.

"Damian, could you please fix ... that ..." Brick asks, waving at how Colette is flailing about with her sword aggressively. Perhaps giving her a balsa wood training sword...

"Yeah, it's simply the risk of being a glass cannon," Brick says to Breath. "You got emotion-controlled by the Bandersnatch, nobody could have predicted that."

He lowers his voice a bit. "I'm not sure why Colette is dissing your dart gun idea -- there's plenty of places that still use them, because no requirement for gunpowder -- but you'd probably end up putting lethal holes in people if you did it wrong. Might need to get some less lethal ammo. Anything new you try, you should maybe test it out here first."

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     "Computer, save and halt Infinity Island simulation delta five." Damian says, before raising a brow to Brick. "How bad could it..." He sees just mow haphazardly Stardust had been slashing at things. "Nevermind."

  Damian gathers up his art supplies, and folds up his easel. He offers the painting to Colette. "Let it dry for a couple days."

  Breath's info garners a bit of a scowl from Damian concerning the camp. "My note in the community area worked fine." He notes.

Stardust has posed:
Colette arches an eyebrow at Breath. "You tried to crawl into its mouth. Even I wouldn't try that. We have computers and stuff. Even I file reports sometimes. 'Mold Smiths'? 'Fungiformers'? I think their actual name is like..." she closes her eyes in concentration. "Something like pulsing sky blue cube, red flower thing, sun, five-sided orange spinning pyramid. Yep, that was it. Something may be lost in translation."

Holding the sword up, Colette depresses the button and watches in fascination as frost coats the blade. "Cool. How much nitrogen is in this? Can I get like a refill backpack or something? And I'm dissing the blow pipe because it's pointless. Until someone invents a tornado-in-a-can, Breathy has unreplaceable skills. Making something fire out of a narrow tube isn't one of them, and has an awful rate of fire. And making something fire out of a narrow tube slowly enough to not kill people means scaling her powers so far down she might as well not bother."

Losing interest in the sword for now (thankfully), Colette takes the canvas with a blink of surprise. "Thanks Robin. That's really nice of you." She holds it up to study it. "It'll work when more people shout at you," she says as she looks the painting over with a smile. "So. Boom tube over there, Breathy blows the walls down and takes to the air, blows everyone over, supplies air support. I go after the heavy weapons guys and wreck shit up. Robin ninjas at the ground troops to keep them busy. Brick booms out the entire isolation room thing. Sound like a plan? Oh and let's go visit that Stark guy, he seems to be leading up the mushroom fight. How about 'Mycopoeses'? Or 'Mycolurgists'? I kind of like that."

Breath has posed:
Lyssa nods. "I wanted to use it to launch things like smoke bombs, fireworks, flashbangs, stuff like that without making a huge noise. So I could distract people and stuff without having them go after me right away. Say, so I could make a flash happen behind a guard that doesn't know I am there yet." She sighs and looks around a bit. "Open Wolf Pond Camp map."

The sky turns plain blue, and the ground is covered in a heavily pixelized satellite picture plus topographical lines. Towers and cabins appear, again pixelized with textures painted on haphazardly from various aerial photoes from different angles. Black stick figures appear in the towers, holding rifles from stock photos of AR-15's. A couple of markers appear in the air, circling above the buildings here and there. Two blue ones, and some smaller green ones, along with a couple of question marks of various colors.

"There's your map. There's some details I don't know yet. I want to grab evidence and kids and flatten this thing. I don't want it to pop up again in a month. You have a plan? Awesome."