Travels with a Kitsune (always open) [Chapter 3: The gate of water]

[e_voyager]

E's head has begun to fill like a network router he he scans over hearing most of the trasnmissions traffic. still with crystal on his feet the ship on the ground and DM providing healing assistance the was little for him to do except seek out his Nakama and see to it that they are well.  first on the list was Topher. "Crystal if you're okay then maybe you can help me locate Topher chee."

[Catffeinated]

(OOC: Sry, going to be away for two weeks, I might get a post in every once in a while after the first week though.)

"Sadly, I don't think it'll work," Omega sighed, "His processor is one of a kind. I've re-stabilized the portal, so, if you don't mind, could you get us back through it? The other AIs will take care of him there, this has happened before..."
"Don't remind me..." Umal groaned, "I'll leave a spyder to tell you when I've returned to the land of the living." He placed a small spider-like robot on the ground, which just looked around curiously, and jumped ontop of Nim.
"Umal, don't joke like that, you're just going into a controlled coma."
"Exactly!"
Omega sighed, "Just get us there. Oh! One more thing: If 'Code: Red' is all you hear, close the portal immediately!" She added before she, and Umal, shut off.

[Kitsune Ascendant]

(tis okay. We'll be here)
nim: <mkay. Since it's easier, I'm just going do do a short range portal and splice it onto yours. >
[nim opens a portal and lifts umal into it. the small portal reahes the one omega opened with no problems, and Umal is soon on his way]
Mina: <The rest of us need to get to that spaceport.>
*continues off*

[e_voyager]

E sighs as he knew about downtime. it was one of the least favorite things robot biased entities he was confident that Umal's people could repair him. now he had to get the the space station and find Mr Chee along the way.  oddly enough he thong back to anther chee he know a robot k9 of sorts who would later come to be called Eric. he smiled at the memory and  turned to Crystal whom he had not yet left. "can you follow Mina and Nim to the space station?" he asked planning of looking around for stray members of the party before he joined them via teleportation or storming  in. it's what his body was copied for it what his  rival was redesigned  for. even before his upgrades he was well suited for the task. unless his help was needed directly it was time to go in alone.

E shook his head he was starting to think like forte again. Still he was not sure sure that such thinking was wrong at this point.

[Snuggles]

Crystal is still more or less looking around his robes. "Yeah, sure. Where are Mina and Nim again." Not really paying attention to them right in front of him.

[DigitalMan]

"Well, I guess that makes me the undisputed technical genius around here!" DM starts following the squirrel-foxes while messing with his computer again. After only a few steps, he trips over a rock and face-plants into the ground. "... Ow..."

K2's wheels fold downward as the entire vehicle starts hovering a couple feet above the ground. A few CameraBots lift DM up onto the truck's hood, and K2 continues following the squirrel-foxes at a relatively low speed.

[e_voyager]

Es sighs and begins to call to Topher as he  searches the area. " Topher" he calls int both vocal and telepathic frequencies. topher has been missing for a bit and that was starting to worry him.

[topher chee]

  Topher was wandering his way through the rubbish of the woods when he heard a rather ringing noise that repeated.  It seemed to be echoing his voice.  "Who could it be?" he thought.  As he asked himself this question he thought back to his past and tried to remember who might be capable of such power.  It might be Kitsune he thought, but it could also have been E or DM...  In a fit frustration, he decided to blast his way up to the sky and send signals in every direction.
   Blazing to the top of the branches, he slung flames in every which way, hoping to grab the attention of the group he lost contact with.

[Kitsune Ascendant]

*one of the fireballs manages to hit the tip of nim's tail, setting it on fire*
nim: <what the? put it out! put it out!> *starts rolling in attempt to put the flames out*
mina: <you could probably just put it out with magic.>
nim: <uh... right. Anyways, I'm going to find out who did that and give them a piece of my mind.>
* a few seconds later, as nim arrives at the place tophar is*
nim: <they should be somewhere around here...> *bumps right into tophar's leg* <um... hi tophar. that fireball didn't happen to be from you, did it?>

[topher chee]

  Topher looks at nim with a guilty look on his face.  "Hehe, I'm afraid it is.  I was signaling my location hoping you and the rest of the group would notice.  Looks like I succeeded."
   Noticing the burn marks on nim's tail Topher chuckled slightly and said, "I hope that wasn't from me."

[Snuggles]

Crystal looked around a bit then put his hand to the ground. "Mina... lets get going if we are to make it. How about a lift?" He smiled a little bit.

[Kitsune Ascendant]

nim: <well, it was... I guess I can understand, though. c'mon, we need to get back with the group.> *shakes some ash off his tail, then runs back to the others*

Mina: <hmm. I usually only ride on moonsoul's shoulder, but since she's gone I guess I can make an exception. > *hops on and curls herself lightly around the back of Crystal's neck* <just keep heading that direction, we should be there by nightfall.>

[e_voyager]

E catches sight of the fire display. moments later he feels rather the hears the startled exclamation of a squirrel fox. he shook his head and smiled he's received messaged form Mel that she staying behind so was not worried about her and he had confidence that in most cases Zedd could take care of himself.  barring and attack on his person he no longer had a reason to run around. locking in on  crystal he  teleports  himself knowing that the teleporter will only land him with 15 meters of his desired location. and that is only if it can fine a clear spot to land him he sighed has he vanishes in a flash of purple light headed skyward

[Snuggles]

Crystal start to move. "i think i could get there a little faster but i don't know where this place is." Starting to pick up the pace. "So what is this place going to look like?" His pace quickening again helped by some wind.

[Kitsune Ascendant]

mina: <I suppose it would be easier if you had something to follow. > *creats a small a.b.o.l, which floats in the direction of the spaceport, keeping exactly 5 yards in front of crystal*

[Snuggles]

Crystal nod in thanks but consentrains on the wind behind him to speed him up. "So why do we need these key's again." He smiled. "I need a little refresher."

[DigitalMan]

DM perked up at the opportunity to explain something, even if he lacked all the details himself. "Well you see, these gates-"

"No, allow me..." K2 interrupts DM, his voice with a humoring tone. "We have to gather these Nexus keys, and use the keys to open doors. The more keys we have, the more doors we can open. Once we have all the keys, we can enter the last door, defeat the final boos, and rescue the princess!"

By this time, DM had fallen off the truck's hood and is laughing on the ground. It probably wouldn't be so funny if it weren't so accurate. K2 mutters something about the princess being in another castle.

[topher chee]

    Topher nods at nims suggestion and dashes toward the group that seemed to be preparing to leave.  Landing just as they started to take off he salutes the group with a thumbs up and a "Heeeeey".

[e_voyager]

after several attempts the teleporter finally locates a safe place to teleport E  and her lands around  6 feet to the left of crystal and 22 feet behind him. " sorry to take so lone

[Snuggles]

"Well, just keep up." he said quickly moving away from E that just landed. "So do people know what other worlds we need to go to?" He seems to test the knowledge of the others for some reason.

[e_voyager]

"at this point i believe we're playing it by ear unless Nim and Mina have a map they would like to share" E chuckled he had rarely used maps in his history of voyaging as maps were stagenet  but the worlds around them were alive and changing day by  day.

[Catffeinated]

Suddenly the spyder on top of nim jumped in surprise.
"Wha.. Ok, why am I on-line? I'm not fixed yet..." Umal grumbled through the robot.
"Sorry about waking you up, but the Fly King has informed me that the government has decided to try to take over the lab, and this was the only thing I could put you in." Omega apologized.
"Again?" Umal sighed, "This makes what, 317 times?"
"318, anyways, I'm activating Cerberus just in case, and setting Mars on standby."
"K, but I bet this raises a ton of questions from you all." Umal said as the Spyder jumped off of Nim and onto the ship.
"You see, I've been asked by the government to make my inventions known by the army approximately two hundred eighty seven times, I've refused every one, it would make our army too powerful. So, they have decided to take it by force. I have designed my AIs due to this. The Fly King is a spy AI, integrated into government hardware, Cerberus is designed to defend my lab, and does an excellent job, and finally, Mars, which, something tells me, you'll be meeting very soon, who is an experimental 'Alter Ego' AI, he takes over my entire body, and making me one thousand percent more lethal. However, there is my one failed experiment, which he also protects me from. His name is Silent Spring, be on the look out for him, he was made to work experiments on radioactive materials, such as Uranium, via radioactive wave manipulation, however, he went rouge, destroying one third of my lab. He has also stolen approximately thirteen fourteenths of my technology. And just to give you an example of his power: his track record is two hundred million in one on one, thirteen cities, and two entire planets."
"Umal, the link's taking too much power, I'm going to have to stop you there if you want to get fixed." Omega interrupted.
"Very well. If I'm lucky, I'll be able to see you soon without endangering you, if I do, I apologize." Umal announced before the Spyder scurried back claiming it's previous spot on Nims's head.

[Kitsune Ascendant]

Nim *channeling telepathic link through the spiderbot* <Thanks for the info. We'll be heading out into space hopefully in a few days, so let me know if you need anything special to portal into small spaces like a ship*

[soon, the crew can see a large, though primative looking city]
nim:<And here we are. The city, ironically enough, is called mos eisley. Something about the founders having been big fans of star wars. We might want k2 to hang outside the city, since most people go on foot and we'd be in pretty big trouble if someone ended up a pancake because of crowding. Other than that, I don't think we have any giant slugs or stormtroopers to worry about. > *leaps off of crystal* <c'm on, I know this place where a bunch of pilots hang out.>

[Snuggles]

Crystal looks around a little bit when they enter the city. "Wow, this place is big. Almost like a couple of towns near where Snuggles lives." Following Nim but slower because he doesn't like to use his powers in front of a lot of people unless need be. That and the fact he could kill someone if they step wrongly.

[e_voyager]

e nods and he walks  beside the others. " sound's like the Wily/ Wright er Light conundrum" he says. thinking abut how most of Wily's tech was stolen- copied and how if Light ever gave his tech the the army then wily would simply take over the army and have  copies of his tech en mass.

[Catffeinated]

The Spyder suddenly jumps off Nim, obviously distressed, scurries toward a large mass of people, jumps on one without being detected, and relays what it sees via a telepathic link with them all.
It was a fight between what looked like a bodybuilder and an Umal lookalike.
"Look, I don't want any trouble, I'm just looking for someone." The Umal clone calmly explained.
"You should have thought about that before running into me, punk." The bodybuilder said in a deep tone.
"Thought about what? The trouble or the someone?" The Umal clone smirked.
Obviously pissed off, the bodybuilder threw a punch. The clone's cybernetic eye glew a deep blood red as the incoming fist got near enough to grab. Instantly he grabbed the bodybuilder's fist and bent it back with ease. Apparently used to the pain, the bodybuilder only flinched in astonishment. Taking that to his advantage, the clone dug his hand into the builder's torso.
"Agghh! Please! Uncle, Uncle! Let me live!" The bodybuilder screamed.
"You should have thought about that before running into me, punk." The Umal clone mimicked in a deep, raspy, near demonic voice before ripping out his spinal cord Mortal Combat style. Everyone around them were petrified, staring at the bodybuilder, who they thought would win hands down. The clone then slowly turned to the Spyder and smiled as his eye slowly faded to it's normal, white color. He started to make his was to the group. 

[Kitsune Ascendant]

nim: <I swear, if you're an evil clone or anti-umal with little to no backstory I'll->
mina: <nim! Be nice long enough for us to find out who he is.>

[Catffeinated]

"He, He, no my friends, I am not evil." He said, "I actually came to you to deliver a message from the Umal you met. You see, we each created a device that can communicate with our alternative selves, at the same time, mind you, and we vowed only to use it under extreme circumstances. This is one of them.
"From what I've heard from the Umal dimension 2386G, the military's special forces are overrunning him with supersoldiers. We couldn't figure out how they were made, but they were. Anyways, to make matters worse, Silent Spring has decided to join in on the army's side, odd though, that he wouldn't just make his own side like normal, he must be up to something. Unfortunately, due to interdimensional policy, I can't go with you, else we might nullify each other. But I can help, here." he said handing everyone a small, wristwatch-like object. "These are Rad. Shields, specially designed to protect against Alpha-, Beta-, and Gamma-waves, however they do net defend against more charged Zeta-waves, which are like Gamma-waves, but disables electronics and magic even. It takes awhile to weaponise Zeta-waves, so you can tell he's using them by his charging Rad. beam, luckily, Zeta waves only travel straight, so just run like hell. Silent Spring's robotics is remarkably like yours." He said, pointing at E, "However, he doesn't have the Robotizer, and appears to have two flamethrower fuel canisters attached to his back, that's his Uranium storage. Also, don't ever let him near any more Uranium, he doesn't need it in the canister to manipulate it. Oh! And what you just saw was Mars in action, from the point of my eyes turning blood red, an unforeseen side effect, to them returning normal." He said as his eye scanned them "Well, I must go, I can see why he likes you guys though." He said shaking everyone's hands. "
Two techno-geeks, a mental impossibility, and then some, no wonder..." He mumbled as he walked away.

[Kitsune Ascendant]

nim: <hmm... rescue umal... rescue moonsoul.>
mina: <leaving either situation too long would probably be a bad idea.>
nim: <yeah. we need moonsoul, and fast. alright, much as I hate too, we're going to split up. I'll go with dm and e to see if we can hold off that army. meanwhile, mina, tophar, crystal, and zedd  continue to try and find moonsoul. >
mina: <alright. I'll keep in touch. send if you need us back.>

nim: <alright. hey spiderbot? do you have the coords of our friend?>

[meanwhile, mina and her group quickly enter something akin to a tavern]

[DigitalMan]

DM ponders over the prospect of helping Umal. He was good at decimating military forces - really good. It was the only way to keep his version of Earth in line. Not only that, it was thoroughly amusing. It might be harder without the rest of his crew and technology, but he had K2 and most of his weapons. As for Silent Spring, he sounded like DM on a bad day.

He smirks to himself, which turns into a bloodthirsty sneer. "It's a shame the enemy hasn't been warned. They should have time to pray."

He turns and starts walking back to K2. The truck had already activated its battering ram attachment, having reinforced bars over its grill and windshield. "To war," DM says loudly, then shouts again, "To war!"