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Captain Mourite
HP: 75/75

No damage! Will roll his response into his storm movement post!

Corrupt Super Lilith
investigating the tablet
3+ 0 = 3

Lilith was not, in her heart, entirely committed to this whole "Venture into the Rift" thing. But the heart of the matter was that she had to be as committed as possibnle, for as long as possible, until she was ready to play her final cards and run. So she signed up. So she followed her team down. So she idled, taking int he room, considering. She hadn't touched anything at first--it all seemed far too risky to do so.

That felt validated when things began to shift.

A storm. Lilith wasn't quite brave enough to fling herself into the middle of it in an effort to stop it, not when it had already hurt one of them. But the tablet-- there might be answers there.

"Tama! Can I see that?" Mauvians were unmatched with tech, of course, but, well...two heads, and all. "Do you think it might respond differently to a Senshi?"

One never knew, especially since it was magical in nature.

General Arsenopyrite
HP: 100

1 + 1 = 2

Arseno groaned a bit as he maneuvered himself off of the ground. He heard Valeria ask if he was okay and for took a moment to make sure that he was. He didn't seem to have broken or sprained anything and managed to get up without trouble. "Yes, I'm okay!" He said, calling back to her. He was glad that she had made it away from the terminal, but it was unfortunate that it was now lost.

There was another one, one that wasn't close to any of them with that skeleton. Unfortunately, even with their stronger jumping power, there was no way to get over to it. He moved over to Valeria, giving her a quick look-over to see if she was okay.

"We need to see if we can get someone over to that skeleton!" He said, mostly to himself and wondering how it could possibly done. Maybe they could throw the cat.

Numerous agents each braved the storm, and were each steadfastly repelled from their destination. For this, the storm had grown more volatile, once again tossing out chunks of broken steel frame and slabs of flooring at the remainder of the room. Bellalunae and Chambersite found themselves in the unfortunate crosshairs of the vortex.

Lilith [3] found the same cycle occurring before her as happened with Tama. It had begun with the spread of monochrome over the device, followed by the message ALL SYSTEMS NOMINAL. Another greyscale flicker and it again read BREECH DETECTED. ENGAGE LOCKDOWN? This time, the screen lingered for longer, waiting for anyone to touch YES or NO.

Heliodor's message was heeded, and Faustite responded after a moment of consideration. "Pluto symbols. There were Saturn and Cosmos ones in the other areas. Imagine there's more than that, too. Keep an eye out for more of those symbols; investigate them where you can. They might be the key to discovering the purpose behind this place – and what happened here to reduce it to a ruin in the Rift."

Roselite tried once again to encounter the storm, but his strength was beginning to fail; another brush with the storm may knock him unconscious.

More of the room shivered and shook. As the storm continued building and oscillating at the far side of the area, its constant battering of the few remaining structures caused another one to collapse. The island that once held a skeleton with a symbol underneath the bones began to crumble and collapse, abandoning any remaining clues to the pit below.

The teams were now at an impasse. The only way forward was either through the storm itself, or through the terminal that Tama had inspected earlier.

Faustite's voice came through everyone's communicators. "Checked the video feeds – see there's rocks with Jupiter signs on them. Had enough run-ins with Jupiter knights to know their magic is stormy. Ring might be a signet. Doubt it'll be of much use; rocks would be a better means of getting through. See if you can use them, or throw them in. If you don't stop it soon, that storm's going to eat the entire chamber. At that point, you're better off looking for another way in."

Quote:

Bellalunae and Chambersite, roll 1d6 (+ combat bonus) to dodge the debris. If 3 or lower, lose 5 HP.

If Roselite tries to pass the storm a third time, he will be knocked out for a round.

Options have shrunk to finding a way to puzzle out a storm, or looking for a way to go around it! The terminal is still available for inspection!

The next story post will come on 12/26/22 at 10PM EST or later. (( I work 28 hours over the weekend, so I won't have time to post otherwise! ))

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Team breakdowns can be found here!

aurelius0815

atheneite

ssbrosb

arsenopyrite, chambersite

sleet tempest snape

valeria

a-disgruntled-dragon

mourite

chi honda

bellalunae

sunshine alouette

roselite

kolina

heliodor

kaori_luv

taaffeite

meighei

tama

whimsical blue

fafnir

noir songbird

lilith

Fafnir told her to stay where she was or stay close and she wasn't sure what was the better option. She did want to stick close to Fafnir, but she was also in shock watching the storm before them. In the end he moved without her even noticing and the next think she knew that moment of indecision keep her from being as unconcious as Fafnir found himself.

She moved over to him and another senshi that go to him first trying to wake him up. She looked to the other, not really remembering them, before shaking the super senshi that was technically her boss. She growned, "Come on."

She looked at the other senshi, "can't we find a way to go around this ... its seems crazy to walk into through it ... isnt the only safe place of a storm the eye?"

She look around, eyes scanning the area to see if there was some area where they might be able to squeeze by the storm. How was there even a storm anyway?

HP: 50 [i think]

Super Corrupt Valeria.


"Yes, I do agree Arseno but how to go about it? Also, perhaps once we've found some safety we should check on everyone and handle any injuries?" She questioned the General, she had some first aid skills and had supplies after all. "Though I don't think anyone seems hurt really." Already she was looking over things, trying to figure how they might get over to that terminal and the body there. "That looks nearly impossible..."

And it was impossible once the storm took that away from them. This storm needed to end but how to do it?

Her attention, for a moment, left the blight they faced and instead turned to Tama. "Well, No Tama...but could they somehow lock their power into it? Like seal it into an item that when actived, in some way, it'll let that magic loose?" She questioned the mauvian, as she wasn't the most familiar with this sort of thing. She was hoping Tama might have an idea if her idea was even possible.

Approaching the terminal Tama had found earlier the pink haired senshi decided to see if anythiung could be done...if a way past the storm could be found.





HP: 75/75

rolling both Arseno and Chambersite

General Arsenopyrite
HP: 100/100

3 + 1 = 4

He nodded to Valeria. "That sounds like a good idea. Looks like we might not have much time left though." He said, looking at the worsening storm. He moved over to the terminal where the Corrupt was and looked at the screen. "I believe we should press "No". If we press yes, I think it would just make the situation worse, even trapping us here if we tell it that we should have it locked down!" He raised his voice as he said this, unable to hear himself as the storm worsened. He hesitated to press it however. Even as a General and of a higher rank than most of the others here, it didn't keep him from second guessing himself. Surely a lock down would mean that any traps would be activated, right? And if it wasn't locked down then perhaps they would be turned of...

He moved his finger over the word "No". But did not press it.






General Chambersite
HP: 100/100
6 + 2 = 8

The storm was getting worse and he only just managed to jump away from some debris that was headed in his direction. Unfortunately they were starting to lose more standing area. He did what was suggested and threw a rock into the storm as well, hoping that he hit whatever was causing all of this wind. Perhaps they were giant fans or some sort of magic whatever, but if he could just get one of them to stop that would be all the better.

Taaffeite [4] would find that a number of holes had been ripped into the sides of the room over time; perhaps one of them would dump them into a cave network and bring them closer to where they need to be. The storm had already proven itself a formidable force; if they could simply go around it, and find themselves on the other side, then they could avoid it altogether.

Once Roselite threw the rock into the storm, it reacted violently, shooting lighting into the same spots as it had before. The rock floated within the grip of the storm for a minute, as if magnetized by the electricity that was pulled from it, until the rock finally shattered and fell, leaving nothing but smoking gravel adding to the mess of a floor. At first, there was no effect – they simply lost a rock that could have proven valuable in an investigation. However, as seconds turned to minutes, the storm had begun to lose its ferociousness. Some of the clouds peeled away and dissipated, and its internal lightning stopped.

There was but one more rock in their possession, clutched in Fafnir's grip. It felt chilled in his hand.

Meanwhile Chambersite tossed a piece of rubble into the storm. He heard something buzz, like some kind of an electrical defense mechanism, when the rock had passed through the storm. It sounded like something important lay beyond the storm, though it was difficult to discern what that was.

When he threw it, Fafnir would see a similar effect to Roselite's stone – it seemed to be suspended momentarily in the storm, then it froze the rainfall within and collected all the hail about itself before it finally shattered. Bits of cold stone rained down into the rubble below, leaving the storm looking largely unaffected. But as the minutes passed, the storm began to unravel. More cloud cover peeled away and the winds died down until, eventually, there was nothing more standing in their way to the other side.

Finally they could see the other end of the room. It had a single exit point that was covered over with a forcefield, but the 4 symbol that sat at the center of it glowed bright green before dissipating. To the left of the forcefield was Chambersite's thrown rock. If anyone looked at the gaping ruin that the storm had left behind, they would notice a series of P symbols surrounding a 4 symbol that was carved into a lightly destroyed floor panel.

Even as Arsenopyrite [4] struggled with the choice of locking the place down or leaving it open, the terminal seemed to decide for him.

Whether or not Valeria [6] touched anything on the console, the wording shifted to LOCKDOWN ENGAGED. It blinked red, three times, before the console showed what looked like a video display. Figures in the distance approached down a hallway, and the sound of static-laden footsteps played from the display. As they neared, the person in the lead was recognizable as a Jupiter Knight. Following him were other knights of various allegiances, some easily discerned by their outfits, some not. As the group approached, the feed began to switch to different cameras to follow their progress.

"I'm coming for you, Arnaud!" The lead knight yelled down the hallway. When they reached a crossroads, the Knight gestured down one hall and yelled, "Your squad takes the left hallway! You three, you're with me!" Once the teams split off, the Jupiter knight with his cohort went straight, while the other group, led by a Uranus Knight engaged a group of Negaverse agents and their youma. The Uranus Knight's powerful roars echoed down the hallway, picked up on the video feed that followed the Jupiter Knight.

They were stopped, once again, by a pair of double doors. The terminals on both door panels screamed BREECH DETECTED, LOCKDOWN ENGAGED before they had begun transmitting the location of more intruders. The Jupiter Knight crushed his compass staff against the doors, the area around him growing rife with stormy bluster, before lightning began to crawl over the doors. Finally a boom echoed through the hall, fierce enough that the cameras cluttered over with static for a moment as they gained entry.

"You remember this hall?" The slightly out-of-breath Jupiter Knight asked the Cosmos Knight on his right.

She nodded quietly. The sharp feed of the cameras captured her solemnity. She motioned toward a great gateway at the far end of the room as she held onto her star-spangled staff.

"Got it. I'll whip up a storm. Call Triss for me, alright? We've got to make sure this one lasts if we want to finish the job."

The feed went dead as the monochromatic overlay collapsed back into the P symbol.

It seems throwing the rock forestalled any further destruction the storm would have wrought. They were safe, for now, but there was no way of knowing how long that safety would last.