Where Is Where

This mission was originally supposed to be the second half of the previous session.

Where is a shapechanger.

Where?

No, his name is Where. He was taken at a spaceport. Probably was taken while posing as a port official. Not certain why Neilatech would want him, but it was a ship with their insignia.

We consider our options. We don't have many because we have no idea where he is being held.

But if they were to capture Shroud, they'd probably take him to the same place. and Michael Schroeder could probably create a device to allow him the full use of his powers, and make him traceable too.

Two days later, and Michael has produced two devices. One will integrate with one of Shroud's implants, and Shroud can activate it to nullify any nullifying fields. When activated it will also emit a pattern of Andromeda Radiation which with the other device Michael has produced, can track such radiation. Uh oh, Jeff rolls a natural 1 on the design of the second device. Wait, Jess, why are you smirking? Jess, please...

In the mean time, I talk to Carlon at the Ace of Spades. He's heard they have some sort of underground ring, that nobody comes out of. He knows because a bounty hunter came through, who had sold some there.

I thank him for the information, and on my way out I notice a dark haired woman, wearing a knee-length flowery dress. But then she's gone. Could she be the same woman where Lady Liara made an entrance?

Jack McCoy sets up a delayed message to Nicolai, in case something goes wrong.

Shroud takes his device from Michael, and leaves to make a mess at Neilatech Headquarters. Shouldn't be hard to get their attention, especially after Jack has amped him up. Literally.

Neilatech Headquarters is kinda egg shaped, and in front of it is two olive laurel leaves with some spindly towers in between, each maybe seven feet wide, ringed by a fountain. Laurel leaves...

The rest of us hang out around ground level to observe, while Shroud makes a literal entrance into Neilatech Headquarters from above. He makes it several stories in, dispatching several employees, with his corrosion aura making quick work of the structure. But three stories down, and the alloy the floor is composed of slows him down significantly.

Lights flash, and shocks ripple through the floor. Shroud slows his corrosion aura briefly to regenerate, and he can feel Neilatech forces approaching. Shroud uses his mind scream and knocks many of them out, although some seem immune or resistant, so he creates a boulder to batter those ones. white and red uniform full helmet

As he sinks deeper into the floor, Shroud creates a stone dome to protect himself until he makes it all the way through the floor.

The floor has servers, and energy seems to be flowing through all surfaces. Weapons systems are embedded in the ceiling, which seem to be powering up.

Shroud puts a wall in their way.

An intercom crackles on, and a voice tells Shroud to cease resistance. Shroud asks where Where is, and he hears a muffling sound as the intercom shorts. Oh, and apparently the room is equipped in an acid sprinkler system.

Shroud decides to enter this floor via another point, so he goes up and back down.

This room has a bunch of people. One of them is rather large, and seems important. Fat person, also he's not really fat. He has a device on his wrist, that looks like a bracelet.

Shroud repeats his question. Where is where?

He also mocks Neilatech's security system.

The man opens a portal on Shroud, sucking him in.

Gas fills the small room Shroud finds himself in next. It has no effect, but the field on the room does.

Jack is blinded by the light. revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night Michael isn't, and sees the meteor strike the building.

It's Shroud.

Really wasn't that loud. Almost like the sound of a car backfiring. Please, when was the last time you heard a car backfire?

The two central towers between the laurel leaves seem to be gathering energy, and the sheen on the building glass intensifies. None of the windows are ghosts. All of the windows are ghosts? Don't write that down. I already wrote that down. They're not ghosts, just so we're clear. THEY'RE DEFINITELY NOT GHOSTS. Okay.

There is panic on the street. Police arrive, and try to impose order and determine what is going on.

We leave after a bit, but not before Jack spreads some rumors of a terrorist attack, and also aliens. There also seems to be a rumor of an experiment gone wrong, but Jack didn't start that one.

Shroud recovers, and finds himself in a large holding pen with tesla coils that seem to be emitting a suppression field in each corner.

There's about thirty others in the pen with him, including a very large mammoth, several genovarans, and a tall shaggy creature.

On the outside of the holding pen are several alien enforcers, with chips in the back of their necks, much like Salem .... One of them looks like the harbinger (the generalganger).

Shroud talks to the Mammoth. He's not Where. He doesn't know where Where is.

Shroud talks to the nine foot shaggy creature, who seems reluctant to talk at first. But once Shroud mentions X, he seems a bit more interested, and wants to know what Shroud's plan is.

Shroud tells him to wait.

Shroud finds a bit more information out from Where. No food comes in, but every fourteen hours the entire pen is knocked out and several are taken down that tunnel and don't come back. Where also points out a tiny window hole, and thinks it is security. There's the giant door, too, but it's very large and solid.

After about six hours of waiting, the towers energize and make a sputtering. They shoot something into the cell, stunning everyone. A few of the prisoners taken out, and although Shroud is currently powerless to do anything, he notices the suppression field itself has temporarily evaporated.

The enforcers leave, and the field goes back up.

Shroud activates the device implanted in his body. His powers are back (although he doesn't want to flex them yet), and surely we'll be able to detect him.

Michael Schroeder, Jack McCoy and I take a visit to Neilatech Headquarters, where Michael's device indicates Shroud is. Jack introduces himself and Jeff as Chuck Finley and Sam Axe. Jack is Michael's supervisor and liaison between maintenance. I'm hidden, of course.

The security guard tries to check the work order which doesn't exist, and since Michael can't hack it without his suit, I possess the guard and fill in a fake order right there. The guard is a bit confused, but hey, suddenly the order checks out.

A trio of Neilatech guards arrive to escort us. They're wearing their standard helmets.

One of the guards uses his glove on the elevator control panel, and it door opens. We pile inside, and he punches some codes on the elevator control panel.

This elevator seems to only go down, and the elevator buttons seem to be grouped by color. The first eight subfloors are colored white, and there's a gap of several numbers. The 11th button is wider, and 13 through 17 are green buttons. The 21st button has a trash symbol on it.

We go to the seventh floor first, and one of our escorts confers with the security guard stationed. He shouts unclear, and we're ushered past rows of desks.

Our escort pulls out a keyring and unlocks the security box. Michael inspects it, confers with his device, and then says one floor up. Jack glares at him, and says we need to check one floor up.

The sixth floor has a long hallway with door after door with combination locks. Half the floor looks blocked off, and in one corner is one guy looking at some monitors. He's happy to lock his workstation and leave, since he "needs his coffee anyway". He doesn't really.

Michael mutters at his device. It's not in this building after all.

Our business here is done, at least for now.

Michael says it's in the state penitentiary.

Okay, we'll go there. Jack calls up Lux, and she gets us access.

We get to the utility room, and Michael's device indicates it is about 500 below us. No, it's 300 feet up, near the highway.

No, Shroud is moving around. Floating around. Like a butterfly.

No, he's below ground now.

Michael has conviction. His device is working properly.

But despite Michael's insistence, it doesn't seem to be working to me, so I scan his surface thoughts. Apparently he's actually not so sure he designed it right. It's probably detecting too much.

I telepathy tell Jack I think we probably lost Shroud and Michael has no idea what he's doing, and Jack asks Michael what the problem is.

Michael protests. He can fix the device he swears. He knows what is wrong.

Michael repairs the device, or he thinks he does.

But it's pointing at two different locations. One is about a mile down here, and the other is directly below Neilatech.

It's probably below Neilatech we think, but perhaps I should check here first. I shouldn't be gone more than ten minutes.

I go down and fall through into a room. I can see Shroud below me.

I can't get back up though.

I let Shroud know I am here, but he isn't happy to hear that I don't really have much in the way of help.

But after a few minutes, the alarms go off, and a hole appears in the ceiling above us. Michael and Jack have drilled their way to us, apparently using a bunch of junk Michael jury rigged.

The large security door blends with the rest of the stone, and the enforcers run forward and surround the cell. Enforcers surround the holding pen, and the stun is emitted on it.

Shroud smashes one of the towers into another.

Michael hacks one of the devices in the enforcers. There's a computer on the other end. It's very pleasant. Michael doesn't think listening to the computer is a good idea, nor does he think he's more persuasive.

The prisoners rise up against the enforcers. The enforcers seem to have the edge, as if they're amped up.

Where makes a shield in front of himself and and Shroud and asks what the plan is now. Shroud says it's time to leave. He creates a portal, and he and Where leave.

I fly up into the hole Michael and Jack made, mentally blasting some of the enforcers as I leave. Michael decides to destroy the harbinger's chip as he leaves.

The mammoth tramples an enforcer, and they glom onto it.

Where is where?

We have him.