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 Posted: Sat Jun 19, 2021 6:27 pm
Return of the Merchant (10) : Investigation for the curious meteor impact may yield few results for the civilian scientists of Destiny City--but they don’t have the keen eye and aura sensing ability of their local powered warriors. Cloaked by a mysterious device that emits a unique energy signature, the impact site of the meteor is hidden inside a strange, watery bubble that spans easily a hundred feet in all directions around it. This strange shield seems to reflect light, making it appear as though there is nothing inside--but, if you look for long enough, you can make out shapes and movement. You cannot pass through the barrier, nor can sounds or light. If you attempt to walk through it, you simply pass through the other side, as if you’d walked in a straight line. That might be peculiar on its own--except, there’s a sign posted where the energy signature is strongest. Painted in fancy, iridescent ink, elegantly scrawled, the sign reads ‘Temporarily Closed for Business.’ Beneath that is a painting of a wispy, floating little orb. Text below the picture reads, ‘WANTED. Will reward handsomely.’ The shop may be closed for tonight, but tomorrow is a different story. It might be worth comping back if you can find one of those wisps. For the last two days Jada Chamberlyn had been trying to find the time to make her way to explore the area where they claimed that a meteor had landed. Out of curiosity if nothing else, because the boom from the strike had caused a massive ruckus even out to where she and her family had been. A power outage had swept the entire town, and the ground had shaken possibly for miles around- that wasn’t what happened for just any small collision, was it? Not that she was familiar enough with the ‘impact’ of a meteor impact to say one way or another. Still, she was curious enough- and suspicious enough- to want to validate what she could with her own two eyes. Nothing that had fallen from space so far in her life was a good thing, and she felt, somewhat, that it was her duty to keep an eye out for what might cause further chaos. It was nearly 11 PM when Sailor Scylla began to make her way towards the impact site, moving quickly towards the strange area. She hadn’t seen the exact impact site, nor had anyone been able to tell her exactly where it lay, but in her powered form, the senshi of the Kraken could feel an energy signal. That was an easy enough guide to follow, and she let the feeling lead her. It wasn’t like the feeling of a Chaos signature, and neither was it similar to Order. Caedus hadn’t really ever revealed an aura to her, and Iya and the Makaiju hadn’t quite felt this way either. Not like Seal’s eye or Leopard’s Eye, not like the False Prince, and not like Alexandros, Laocoon, and Ares. As she moved closer to the signal, feeling it strengthen, she ran a list of auras through her head, but… nothing jumped out at her as being similar. There were other signatures she could feel nearby, including the familiar sting of Chaos, but the Transcended Eternal didn’t hesitate or pause as she moved closer. Sometimes these kinds of ‘third-party’ events would be acknowledged as an exception to the Chaos-Order war- not quite a cease-fire, but considerably less likely to waste energy fighting each other instead of other possible interruptions. Since none of the signatures felt like a Sovereign to her, she was comfortable in her ability to handle whatever might come out of this curious little adventure. As she came closer to the signal it was strange- there was something visible there, and it made the dark-haired woman pull to a halt, brow furrowing as she considered the phenomenon. It was… a bubble. A strange, shimmery bubble. Science fiction had prepared her for this- it was a shield. Clearly. She paced the edge of the bubble carefully, not quite daring to touch it. And then she bent over, hefting a thick, long branch and testing its weight before chucking it into the bubble. It disappeared. Nothing happened. No one came to beat her up, no one accused her of assault, and the branch didn’t come flying back out of the bubble to hit her in the head. Well okay, then. Crossing her arms over her chest, she considered the scene with a tilted head, lips pursing.
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Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2021 7:56 am
Nobleite wasn’t one to feel comfortable with sporadically powering up. He usually only did so when he was prompted to: when his general wanted him in Negaspace, when he’d planned an energy-gathering expedition to meet his quota, when he had an appointment with another agent. Outside of that, it seemed like an outright bad idea to go powering up all the time. As the lowest man on the totem pole (even youma would scarcely listen to him), he didn’t need to be out broadcasting his weak energy signature without reason, when he could do pretty much nothing to anyone who came upon him.
There were some small exceptions, of course.
Micah had been sitting by his kitchen window, scrolling through news articles on his phone while sipping a mug of warm tea after a day of work when something seared through the sky out of the corner of his eye. In that first instant, he hadn’t even thought to think it was strange. Then the ground rocked, sloshing tea from his mug, and the power abruptly flickered and died.
So it obviously wasn’t nothing. When he saw the flash spear through the sky, it had looked frighteningly close to downtown, where his ex-husband lived with their daughter… But maybe he’d just imagined that. Perspective probably made it look like it was close to everything. It could’ve been well into the wilderness, and probably was.
Probably.
He’d called Elias just to check and make sure that they were well, and that their daughter hadn’t been too frightened by the quake or the power outage. But no one answered. It wasn’t especially abnormal for his ex to ignore his calls, anymore. It was fine, Micah was sure it was fine. There’d be news popping up immediately if it had done damage to the city or if anyone was injured. He should just wait a few hours...
No news came, besides that there had been an impact, but there was nothing particularly remarkable about it. Nothing else for days. Nothing substantial. And he still hadn’t heard from Elias.
Could there be something? Probably not, right? It was unreasonable for Micah to assume that anything had happened when no one was saying that anything had happened… Except he knew the Negaverse could cover up anything it didn’t want getting out. And he knew now that there was more to space than just lifeless rocks. It couldn’t possibly be a coincidence that a meteor had landed here and caused nothing besides a small quake and a short blackout. He had to check.
And Nobleite would fare better than Micah. Hence, the ‘exception’ to only powering up when prompted.
It would be quick. He would be so quick. Just to make sure. Just to make sure it hadn’t affected his family’s home, even if it wasn’t someplace he was welcome anymore.
Sure enough, Nobleite made it to the scene within thirty minutes of fully deciding to check it out. The site wasn’t in the city center, blessedly, and the crater did appear to be placed such that it was at least potentially unlikely no one had been hurt. Though this was far from his area of expertise. The only thing he could say for sure was that he could feel an unidentifiable energy signature from it, and that absolutely wasn’t nothing.
It mingled with another signature, something bright and strong and very near, one he should be very obviously wary of, but he couldn’t see its source, and he had come here for the sole purpose of investigating this site. He should do that first, quickly, and then he would leave. There didn’t need to be more than that.
Nobleite moved slowly nearer to the impact site. He could see the crater it had made upon landing. It was larger than he had anticipated, though maybe he should have expected as much from something that fell from space, and the crater was ensconced in some sort of almost translucent dome. So there was almost definitely something here, and surely something inside. Nobleite’s body was tense as he stared, squinting at the watery bubble as he tried to see anything, to make anything out-
He gasped softly, twitching at the unexpected appearance of a stick hurtling out of the bubble off to his right. It wasn’t so near that it had been in danger of hitting him, and Nobleite wasn’t completely convinced that had been the purpose.
But the stick’s appearance meant that the dome-forcefield-bubble could be passed through. To some extent, probably. Admittedly, it was a lot of speculation and guesswork involved in these activities.
He reached a hand out, feeling the air millimeters shy of the bubble’s surface, only to notice nothing especially different. So he touched his hand to the bubble. It too, felt like nothing. It didn’t burn or shock him as he might’ve expected. His fingers passed through easily, though he couldn’t see them on the other side.
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Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2021 5:00 pm
She could feel one of the auras come to a halt closer to her, the small, stinging scrape of nails down her spine telling her it was Chaos. It didn't flood her with fear and dread, just touched her with the edge of caution. Be Wary, her nerves tingled, There could be trouble. And so while the senshi paced along her side of the bubble, she didn't move towards the energy signature, instead turning her attention to the bubble. From inside it, or on the other side of it, there was movement. It was hard enough to see that for a moment, the dark-haired woman thought that she had imagined it, furrowing her brow and squinting again. There were shapes, lower to the ground, and what looked to be a... something. It looked like a person, but she hadn't met a true human that fell from outer space just yet. Astronauts didn't count either, not that she'd met one of them. She was pacing along the edge warily, pondering what to do, when something caught her eye. Fingers wriggled through the barrier, and Scylla paused by them. The fingers, by themselves, didn't seem to carry an aura of one thing or another. Could this, perhaps, be something from inside of the barrier, looking to invite her through it? They looked like particularly human fingers, however, and her brow furrowed in consternation. Still, she did not give herself too long to contemplate. Her own hand reached up, and she grabbed the fingers with her own, giving a gentle squeeze, before stepping through the barrier, looking for whoever was on the other side. It was only like stepping through a doorway- not even a second, or a strange breath. She was just... there. On the other side of the barrier, staring a Chaos agent in the face. "Oh." her voice was flat, surprise clear on her face. "You weren't what I was expecting. Hello."
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Posted: Thu Jul 01, 2021 6:25 pm
Something touched him.
Something grabbed him.
Nobleite gasped softly in shock as something encircled his fingers on the other side of the barrier. It wasn't a painful grab, but it was unexpected enough that he wrenched back before he could even fully process what had occurred. And then there was a woman standing before him, and if he couldn't fathom that something could grab his hand, he certainly couldn't fathom how he'd just pulled a whole woman out of the bubble.
She glowed, and Nobleite wasn't so familiar with the intricacies of powered life that he understood what that meant exactly, but he could tell that her aura was expressly Order.
"You either," he admitted as he let his hand slip out of hers. She looked human, besides the glow. Her aura felt human. Could he reasonably believe that she hadn't fallen out of the sky? How had she-? The barrier wasn't solid- he'd put his hand through it. He cleared his throat and gestured very slightly to the bubble. "Were you trapped in there?"
She seemed significantly stronger than he was. It was hard to imagine that anyone could be trapped when he'd stuck his hand in so easily. And now that a powerful Order woman was there before him, no matter how cordial, he needed to be wary.
Even so, Nobleite couldn't help but glance back to the bubble barrier, eyes raking over it for clues of what it was or why it was here.
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Posted: Sat Jul 03, 2021 4:54 pm
Scylla didn't try to keep the boy's hand as he wrenched away from her grip; the smile she gave him was vaguely amused. "No, I wasn't trapped in there. I was on the other side of the bubble, I'm pretty sure. Which probably means this little thing is straight out of Star Trek or something. What do they call it, warping space?" Scylla hummed, moving over and picking up a familiar-looking branch, and- "Ooh, Star Charms." The black-haired senshi yanked up the star charms, keeping one in the Amber color since she didn't have it yet and tossing the other one to the Negaverse agent. "Collectibles~" He hadn't punched her in the face when she stepped out in front of him, so that was a +1 for cordial relations. And there was a relatively small chance that a Chaos agent would be here looking as confused and startled as she herself did if this bubble was some wicked new evil plot... So, Charming detour aside, Scylla carried her stick with her, and hopped up onto a low-hanging branch. "I wonder if we can kind of... drop something into it?" Holding her branch like a javelin, Scylla aimed, and chucked it. "Do you see where it went?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2021 1:17 pm
"The... Other Side?" Nobleite prompted uncertainly, hooking a finger in the direction of the bubble. The woman, the Order woman, had come from over there, through this hazy membrane? 'Warping space?' He didn't know much about Star Trek. The term was unfamiliar to him. But then, he was a little confused by the whole situation. He just knew that he had been standing here, and then a stick and a person had come out at him.
Nobleite blinked quizzically at her, expression faltering into even heavier confusion as she tossed a pinky-looking trinket at him? That she had just scooped off of the ground? "Oh, um, yes, thank you?" He guessed.
At least the stick she picked up looked familiar, and Nobleite didn't have to guess at where it had come from the first time. "You threw that stick a moment ago? From the other side? And it passed through the barrier and wound up here?" And then the senshi had followed hardly moments later. The stick disappeared as it made contact with the barrier, and Nobleite blinked a little stupidly at where it had once been.
"It really is kind of like teleportation?" He offered. "Just quite a bit more limited and on a smaller scale. So then, if anything that touches the barrier pops out on the other side, what do you think is actually in there?" He took a few steps to the side to try and see if he could tell what had become of her stick, but it was well out of his sight, totally blocked by the bubble.
Nobleite gave a silent shake of his head in response.
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Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2021 4:56 pm
"From what I can tell," Scylla answered the Agent's confusion as best she could, understanding how freaky it probably was that she appeared to have come out of... a big wall of watery... stuff... "This is kind of a half-sphere. I've never exactly tested how far I can throw things as Scylla, but the stick went through and came out on the other side, and this is not where I entered. And you were nowhere close to me when your hand came out- I couldn't feel your aura near me at all. I mean, I could feel you in the area, but not like-" she gestured between them. "Not like this." So, if it were teleportation... "You mean other than aliens?" the Eternal hopped down from her branch, almost falling forward as her thick rope of hair smacked her in the back. Ow. And very elegant, too. "No idea. But if you look long enough you can kind of make things out." Scylla moved closer to the Agent, using her hand to point out the faint shapes that- now that she knew they were there from seeing them on the other side- were easier to find but just as mysterious. "There's something, I just- got nothing on what it actually is. I thought I saw movement, but I've never met a human that fell from space." The energy signature was stronger over here, so Scylla paced past the stranger, tilting her head and tapping along the bubble, looking for any unusual sensation, following the gentle pulse of power.
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Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2021 7:22 am
That was right. He'd felt her aura before she'd come through. Hers was hard to miss and hard to mistake. It was unlike any other he'd felt in his powered tenure. Whether yards and yards away or directly next to him, he could feel that this was that same signature. She really had just popped from one side to the other... He'd barely even touched the bubble enough for his hand to phase right through.
"Oh, be careful," he cautioned as she stumbled. But he doubted she needed him to tell her as much. If her signature was anything to go by, she'd been doing this much longer than he had. So much so that aliens were still somewhat of a foreign concept to him.
The monsters in the Rift? Sure. Senshis' otherworldly abilities powered by distant planets? Very reasonable. But actual living, breathing, and thinking bodies that descended from the stars? Still new. He hadn't encountered much of that, yet. Not that much was unbelievable at this point, but he felt so small in comparison to everything else. Even his troubles felt like they should be meaningless in such an expansive universe...
"Do you think it's dangerous?" He prompted as she drew near. And it was only by force of willpower that he kept himself still. She was at least as dangerous as anything else he had encountered, and she was getting very close.
But when he followed the point of her fingers, he could see something shifting around inside. Nothing concrete that he could make out with any certainty. Nobleite canted his head, blinking quizzically. "What if it's an egg?" This reminded him somewhat of what candling a basic chicken egg revealed. It could be a giant, magical space egg. And he doubted they'd appreciate anything that came popping out.
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Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2021 2:59 pm
The fact that he warned her as she got beat up by her own hair was very gentlemanly; she kept her smile warm and peaceful as she approached. If his body was tense from the way that she drew close to point it out, Scylla did not notice, absorbed in her own thoughts on the situation they faced. "I couldn't say if it's dangerous." Scylla's voice was apologetic. "I'm sure there are people who might be more familiar with this energy, but it isn't like anything I personally have felt before." she cast a glance back to him. "I plan to assume that it's somewhat dangerous, be pleasantly surprised and try to make an ally if it's neutral, and weep joyfully if it's already an ally." It could be an egg, she supposed, but the things moving about inside it made her hesitant to agree. Finally she found the place where the energy felt strongest- and found a sign to go with it. "I don't think it's an egg!" she gestured to the Agent. "Come take a look at this." Elegant, iridescent script said- in perfect english- ‘Temporarily Closed for Business.’ Further down was a painting of a wispy, floating little orb. ‘WANTED. Will reward handsomely.’ A bounty hunter? Or were those here on Earth the ones who were supposed to do the hunting? "Does that orb look like anything to you?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2022 12:10 pm
She didn't seem hostile. She didn't even seem like she thought he was hostile (which wasn't inherently wrong, and he wasn't stupid enough to try and prove otherwise against an eternal). Nobleite wasn't sure if he was relieved that the mood wasn't headed in a southerly direction, or just skeptical. Probably safer to be skeptical. Of her and of anything else that seemed just as likely to be dangerous as not. The bubble clearly didn't want anyone getting in, though at least it hadn't zapped them. "Seems wise enough," he agreed at her interpretation of the level of danger, as he trailed after her.
As she beckoned him over, Nobleite peered curiously at the neatly situated sign, with perfectly legible English writing. Could aliens do that? Or was there a perfectly average, totally not-from-space human person in there? He looked to the senshi as if trying to nonverbally glean whatever she understood of the situation. "It's... It's a business?" He offered uncertainly.
Ridiculous!
What would something with this bizarre energy signature and even more bizarre protective forcefield want from someone in Destiny City? It definitely, definitely had to do with space or senshi machinations, or-?
Nobleite crouched to peer at the sign, as if closer observation would yield more information. "It looks like a spirit collectible in a video game. Or some Ghost Busters ghost fragment. ...But that's probably not helpful. If you mean have I seen one, like, in real life ever? No." Because he probably would've thought it wasn't real if he had. "Is it... an energy variant? Not to bring up a soar topic, but the energy orbs I've gathered are sort of shaped like that? ...And maybe similar in consistency?" Assuming he could tell the consistency of something from a drawing on a sign. But it looked wispy and ethereal enough!
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