I'm Setting Booty Traps.

[ngm_miscellaneous]

In the desert outside of Sedona, Arizona a large, metallic structure appeared after an evening of strange lights swooping and whirling around in the skies. A couple locals went into the one story structure to check it out. Their truck was still sitting outside of the strange building a day later. The police were called in. The local sheriff didn't trust the federal government, but he knew superheroes could probably handle whatever this thing was.

He put in a call to the Future Foundation. Then he sat back and waited. Also, he kept an eye on making sure no one else did something dumb like go into that thing like Larry and Daryl.

Comments

[clobberin_kid]

Jacob didn't know why anyone was trying to talk to this guy. Whoever it was, it wanted their attention and he decided he wasn't going to give them the satisfaction.

He stepped back out of the way to let Alexa see Remi thorough the window.

[realstarpower]

"We are normal," Ryan gently argued. "Normal is subjective. The sooner people learn that, the sooner we'll actually have some peace." Ryan, waxing philosophical? Shocking, yes. But he isn't always an airhead.

Ryan walked up to the consoles and studied them intently. "Look, I'm friendly with a cell phone and great with an X-Box, but this is so far out of my league." He turned back around and spread his arms out in an arc, creating a shimmering arc of cosmic energy.

He moved the energy around until it formed the words "Uh, help?"

[aqua_gambit]

Remi was not going to argue at the moment. He had other priorities, so he settled for ignoring the other blond. If he could focus on saving Alexa and their baby (and probably the rest of the team) he might not crack and put an invisible gag on Ryan.

Instead he gave Alexa a thumbs up.

[stormy_skrull]

Mary stiffened when the voice spoke up again. And she made a vow that even if the rest of them didn't make it, she was gonna make sure Alexa got out of here.

She frowned. "That... didn't much sound like a computer. Somewhere... this is a man... at a control board?"

[soulstealingstark]

"Griffin, you and I are going to look at this eyeliner replica of the control panel things of doom over there and see if we can't sort out how the system works. Remi, when we figure out what we think works I want you to execute it. Just hit the buttons I tell you."

The idea that this could go badly wasn't one that she wanted to dwell on. She'd vomit if she did. No one wanted that.

"Probably some nutjob alien with his pants around his ankles enjoying this all far too much. Screw him," she said to Mary.

[ngm_ff]

"Okay. Which one of you has the tapeworm?" The voice asked from the speakers. "Because I find parasitic infections fascinating!"

When the voice went quiet, there was faint cracking sounds from the opposite side of the room.

[stormy_skrull]

"I really don't like that sound," Mary said. She was pacing now, clearly agitated and nervous. As she paced, armored platting began sprouting all around her body.

[clobberin_kid]

Jacob winced at the cracking sound. He stepped forward quickly toward it. If something was coming through, something alive, he wanted to be out in front of it. If it was something else... well, maybe he could find a way to hold it off until after Alexa and Griffin figured out the doohickey Remi and Ryan needed to get them out.

"Stay close to Alexa and Griffin," Jacob told Mary. "Get them out the second they get the doors open."

[realstarpower]

"..."

Did the voice not realize that Alexa was pregnant?

Ryan opened his mouth and shut it again.

No. This? This was not something that even he was going to screw up.

"Gimme something to do," he said, turning to Remi.

[aqua_gambit]

Remi clenched his jaw. He could hear everything from the other room, but he could be no comfort to any of them. He took in a deep breath and nodded to Alexa through the window.

He turned to face Ryan. "Stand by those controls. Do exactly what Griffin and Alexa say. No more. No less."

For himself, Remi went to cover the other control panels and wait for word of what to do.

[innameof]

He starts looking at the eyeliner with a slight frown. If he lets is full frown out of the bag things might crack.

"Wait. I see why I haven't been detecting signals. He's been piggy-backing on a sub-atomic particle wave given off by the air being recycled into the room."

At least that what it looks like. "What we need to do is get a signal to disrupt the carrier signal that is feeding back to his counsel. That's.... at least one theory I have. But this is different. Do you see the numbers, Alexa? These aren't running on a base ten system like we're using. It's base six.... I think. I could be wrong. Any calculations we need will have to be checked again."

[soulstealingstark]

Alexa took a look at the numbers, choosing to focus on them rather than the parasitical infection comment. When they got out of here--and got to this guy--she'd show him a parasitical infection alright...

"That's...base five. The recycling of the air and particle waves is resulting in everything being decreased by halves. It's operating on base ten, but the circulation process is causing it to drop to five, which also lets him piggyback."

Alexa sketched out some quick calculations on the floor next to her mockup of the console.

"Anything we do will be cycled down by half and since we're operating at five right now, at least on this side of things, our inputs will go in at 2.5. That won't be enough to do anything more than turn us into a stain of amino acids and organics on the floor. That's what he's counting on and I'm willing to bet that's what happened to the other guys. They came in, pressed a few buttons and became splatsauce. Anyone got a paperclip?"

Alexa walked over to Mary, tapping the glass back case of her cell phone against Mary's armored plating to create a crack large enough that Alexa could pull the device apart.

"We're building a signal amplifier. Everything is being decreased by halves. We need to power at baseline for two consoles in a second room. We gotta boost system to base forty for our inputs."

[ngm_ff]

As Jacob neared the far wall, he could see small cracks on the glass surface holding back the poisonous gas. The cracks were making a spiderweb like pattern as they expanded across the glass. Also as he inspected it, Jacob's reflection stuck his tongue out at the original.

[clobberin_kid]

It took a second for Jacob to process what he'd seen. Then he frowned and stepped closer. That couldn't be a good sign. Especially not when there was poisonous gas swirling around behind the glass.

"Faster would be better, guys. Real fast is best."

[innameof]

"Got one." He had found is struck so something in his shirt pocket. He moves to join Alexa adding in his own expertise at building things on the fly.

"If we had something slightly sticky this could work better but... you work with what you got," he says blandly.

[stormy_skrull]

"How sticky do you need?" Mary asked. "I can think of all kinds of critters who secrete sticky things."

[realstarpower]

"There's gotta be some alien species that secrets something really sticky, right? Like alien gorillas who secret alien gorilla glue?" Ryan asked out loud before he realized that, no, they couldn't hear him.

Cripes.

[aqua_gambit]

Technobabble was not getting Remi anything to do beside worry. His feet touched down on the floor. He tried to figure out strength of shields if he had to cover the team in the room. If he could.

He looked down at the control panel to makes sure he could do everything asked without killing anyone.

[soulstealingstark]

"Just something sticky enough to hold these two bits together and conduct a smidge of energy...preferably something clear so we can see what we're doing. I don't even care if it smells weird."

[ngm_ff]

Jacob's reflection continued to raspberry at him. The reflection also added two hands beside its rocky head with the thumbs against its temples. The reflection also might have done a butt wiggle, but there was a definite distraction of more small cracks spreading across the glass.

Meanwhile, the voice came back. "Oh. It's not a tapeworm but a baby. Well... same thing really. Let me guess, the guy who thinks he's the father is one of the two simpletons locked outside?"

Directly beside Ryan, the sound of a chainsaw starting up played. The speaker that played the sound was well hidden.

[realstarpower]

Ryan cursed and threw up a shield of cosmic energy around himself and Remi, his eyes darting around, trying to figure out where the hell the sound was coming from.

[stormy_skrull]

Mary thought for a second. "Got it," she said, starting to shift, until she had become a small, alien spider of some type. Falling as she did so, she landed on Alexa's hand.

Carefully, she began to excrete a clear, but strong webbing to hold the bits together.

[innameof]

"You're wonderful," he tells Mary as he adjusts things just a bit.

He is pleased with how things are looking so far. Then he decides he should always carry extra things like paperclips just in case they need them. It's good stuff. He makes a few adjustments quickly then looks at Alexa and nods.

They are good to go.

[clobberin_kid]

"I've got all kinds of cracking going on here, guys. We need an exit like now." Speaking of cracking... his reflection was definitely starting to weird him out. What was worse was that he was becoming sorely tempted to stick his tongue out right back.

He glanced back at them and then at the Mary-spider. "Can you, very gently, stick some of that on this glass? Keep it from breaking any further?"

[aqua_gambit]

Remi was extremely intent on the control panel. His jaw was clenched tight enough he could chew marbles. They just needed to tell him what to do. Then this simpleton could get his team out of the building.