Kid Kinetic and the Space Knights! Issue #2 "Ummm where are we?"

The group made it's way through the jungle, guided by Ryan and Joe.

They paused when they got to the entrance of the space ship and Matt/Bioforce turned to Kid Kinetic. "You've been in there. What do you suggest?"

"China in a bull shop?" asked DepthCharge. He'd 'charged' his body up with a dip in (and out, quickly!) of the water and his internal clock was ticking. Every minute out of water would mean he was closer to losing that vast superhuman strength and durability he could muster.

Cutthroat muttered "Something like that. Maybe we should send in a scout to clear the way."

"We should stick together." said Tim as he floated in his chair. "If we are divided, we get conquered. Or something."

Mystralla seemed determined "We can't stand out her figuring stuff out. Rachel is in there and we need to get her out!"

"There's more than just Rachel." said Joe/Mimic Lad. "These aliens keep a whole bunch of... uh, people... from all kinds of places locked up in their ship, sucking their brains away for food. Just like the Matrix!"

"That was a cool film. The sequels were garbage though." admitted Tim.

"Yeah they... let's get back on track. What do you suggest Kid Kinetic?" asked Matt/Bioforce.

OOC: Sorry about the delay!

"We can't free the captives from their tubes before we deactivate them. Those things altered the beings inside.  Changed them somehow. They need to breathe that weird liquid. Without it, they will suffocate. The most direct route to the control panel for the tunes is through the duct work. Problem is they are too tight of a squeeze for Depthcharge and Mentallica."

Ryan pondered his options before deciding an a course of action. "I think we should split up. Mimic Lad can got to 2D and Bioforce can use his energy form to navigate the tubes back to the control panel. Mentallica can link up with them telepathically and guide Mimic Lad through the shut down procedures.  The rest of us should cause as much damage as we can to distract the ship's security. Hopefully, that lumbering hulk will be vulnerable to Mystralla's abilities."

"I like the boy's thinking." grumbled Depthcharge.

Cutthroat shrugged. "Make some noise and kill anyone that gets in our way? That sounds like a plan."

"No killing!" said Matt/Bioforce. "We're super HEROES."

"look around you Matt." said Samantha/Mystralla. "We're light years from earth in an alien jungle where even the plants and insects are deadly and there are giant monsters running or flying about that make dinosaurs look small. We're about to enter an alien spaceship where the bad guys hook people up to a machine to give them food and energy and they have purple skinned bruisers that make the blue skinned guy over there "(pointing to Depthcharge) look like a toddler. "And you say we need to go easy on them?"

There was a pause then Matt conceded. "You have a point. We need to get Rachel out and as many others as we can then shut the place down for good."

"I can get by without my chair." said Tim/Mentallica. "Only problem is my Telekinesis is kind of tied up by floating my body around."

"Don't sweat it." said Matt. "Ok, we'll go with Ryan's plan. Me, Joe, Ryan head for where Rachel is being held. The rest of you start trashing the place but make sure not to go too crazy and blow us all up. And don't get killed. And don't kill anyone you don't have to. And..."

"Be careful." said Samantha with a pat on his shoulder. She walked past Ryan, gave him a look, then moved on, pulling her mask on and getting her 'serious' face in place.

"The deeper we get in there, the better it will be for me to make contact with Rachel." said Tim, pointing to the side of his head. "At the moment I'm getting nothing, but my range is like, a few hundred yards of clear sight, not through walls of Alien metal and machines and other Alien brains and what not."

=========

Five minutes later...

Alarms rang out, smoke spewed from a conduit that had been breached and filled the corridor with yellow gas and the three of them covered their mouths whilst they considered their next move.

"It was right here." said Joe as he pointed at the gaping hole where a corridor had been. It had been shredded by something with vast superhuman strength on a rampage! There was no real way to tell which way was the right way through the twisted metal and burning mess the Purple Hulks had left! It seemed that more than one of them had gone crazy trying to tear up the ship and find them!

"And, like, we've been creeping through the ship, alarms are blaring and so on, but the lights are flickering and the defences aren't as keen as they were. We've seen no robots. Or aliens. What gives?" asked Joe.

"Maybe they are fighting the others, trying to pin them down? We need to keep moving! Which way?" asked Matt, in his buzzy electrical energy form. "I can move through little gaps but haven't cracked moving through objects yet. Father says its a matter of time. Father. Man. He's going to be pissed when he figures out what we did."

Ryan looked about. They could continue in the same general direction but ... he frowned. Aside from smelling funny the yellow gas that was seeping from a ruptured conduit appeared to be getting thicker... and yellower.

Somewhere in the distance in the depths of the ship they could hear a sound like a war being fought with explosions, smashing metal and crashing noises like someone was punching their way through bulkheads. Ryan looked at the way ahead. Devastation, like a 1000lb living engine of destruction had passed this way, chewed everything up and spat it out. Pretty much covered it.

Time was running out. The trio needed to get to the controls as quickly as possible. Ryan was confident he and Joe would be able to withstand most toxins courtesy of their systemic antidotes. Matt still need to breath even in his energy form.

Hold on a sec, guys. Let me seal this thing up."

Kid Kinetic waded into the gas cloud and tried to plug up the ruptured conduit with his enhanced strength. He hoped the visibility was obscured enough so the others wouldn't notice. This was not the time to discuss the symbiote he had bonded with. Truthfully, Ryan never intended to. He'd felt as if the symbiote was another part of him and always had been even before the PSION attacks. The PSIONs. Could they be responsible for this devastation?!

Kid Kinetic moved into the smoke and Matt called out "You idiot! What are you...?"

"Relax" said Joe. "He's got this. His metabolism is so fast it burns through anything in his system! Remember that time we snuck out with a crate of beers into the woods? Ryan got us back because it didn't make a dent in him. He was pretty unhappy though when the rest of us were having a great time."

"It wasn't great in the morning. I still remember that headache." admitted Matt.

"Yeah, and when Father found out we were cleaning the toilets for a week with toothbrushes." muttered Joe.

The poison gas - some coolant of a type unknown - spewed out and Ryan breathed in... and out. Unaffected.

OOC Well, let's see...

Poison Gas 8 + Roll(2d12)+0: 2,12,+0 Total:14 (22) vs
OV13 (Body + Systemic Antidote) + Roll(2d12)+0: 8,3,+0 Total:11 (24) Poison Gas failed. No effect.

The symbiote shifted and changed, running over his body to become an exoskeleton of sorts and boosting his strength massively! Already strong, pretty much superhuman, now it seemed like there was little he couldn't do!

OOC Str 9 + Roll(2d12)+0: 4,12,+0 Total:16 (25) vs
Body of pipe 7 + Roll(2d12)+0: 7,8,+0 Total:15 (22) Success + 2 (to 11EV) vs RV7=4 RAPs. Success.

The gas slowed, then stopped. Stepping from it with a wafting hand Ryan waved his friends forward.

"Man, Ryan, you are SO much better than I gave you credit for!" said Matt. "I mean, I thought you could just run about, get homework finished really quick and out drink the rest of us. Oh, and eat Pizza faster than the rest of us combined." He looked at the crimped/crushed/mangled and twisted pipe. "Remind me NEVER to get into a fight with you buddy."

Joe looked at the pipe, raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.

The trio continued into the depths of the ship. Everywhere twisted metal marked the passing of the insanely angry Purple Hulks as they'd torn at the ship to get at the intruders.

Then all three stopped.

Amidst the shredded devastation of a corridor there were bodies up ahead. The massive form of a Purple hulk lay in the corridor, filling it, and three of the aliens with squid heads lay around it. Well, technically, they didn't have squid heads any more. There was a lot of purple goo all over the place - blood splatter - and it was clear the Squid Heads wouldn't be getting up ever again. The Purple Hulk though...

It was still breathing, with a massive chest going up and down.

Matt gaped and gestured for the other two to come back for a chat. "What the HELL is that?"

"Dude, we've been telling you about these things!" said Joe. "THAT is what was following us!" he said, pointing the massive form of the Umber Hulk blocking the corridor.

"Do we... go over, around it? What?" asked Matt.

"What if it's just playing possum, waiting for us to get closer?" asked Joe. All three turned to look at the massive form. It hadn't moved other than its massive chest rising up and down...

"The hulk looks like it was hurt pretty bad by whatever tore through here earlier. It might not really be our enemy. Those squid heads could be controlling it. Heck, it might even be their pet. Mimic Lad, use your telepathy and see if it needs any help."

Mimic Lad/Joe glanced over and gulped. "I'm kinda not wanting to know what's going on inside that head."

[Hello. Can you hear me?] he pulsed, fingers pressed to his forehead.

[RARRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!]

Mimic Lad reeled and staggered back, eyes wide and breathing hard!

"That ... thing! It's so angry! These squid head guys control them. To get them to do anything they 'nudge' it with their minds. If they nudge too far these big purple dudes go crazy and start smashing the place up. Seems they - like everyone else round here - came from another place and probably doesn't want to be here but these squid head guys make them do stuff." said Joe.

Matt/Bioforce frowned "Slaves? You're saying these squid guys use these massive purple dudes as slaves? Man that sucks."

Joe nodded, still catching his breath. "All I caught were images before I had to get out of its head but they are taken when young and controlled all of their lives. Only when there's fighting or killing to do are they 'let off the leash' and by then they are pretty angry. One of them went nuts looking for us and started to trash the ship to get to us and the Squid heads tried to calm it down. It took so many Squid Heads that they lost control of the purple dudes they normally control and this one - and maybe more of them - went nuts and starting ripping the place up too."

"So..." said Matt. "We need to take out the squid guys, the purple dudes lose control and start trashing the space ship. In the confusion we sneak in and get Rachel?"

"Or get trampled by these purple dudes. They are like, WAY above our pay grade." muttered Joe. Then he looked at Ryan and added "Or maybe they are. I don't know."

Matt didn't catch that and pondered, chin in hand. "What would Ian suggest in this?" he pondered. He turned to Ryan "What do you think?"

"There are more captives than just Rachel. A lot more. We should continue to head to the control room as planned.. Then we shut off the tubes and free them. All of them. Nobody deserves what they are going through."

Matt glanced at Joe and shrugged. "Sure buddy, we had no intention to leave anyone behind. You ok? You normally seem ... I dunno, lighter." he said to Kid Kinetic.

Joe nervously laughed it off. "He's fine. Since we've been on this planet he's been kicking ass. If you ask me, Ian should step..."

The trio had been picking their way through, up and around the wreckage that had been left in the wake of the one of the Purple Hulks' rampages - which wasn't easy and certainly slow going - when they could hear something up ahead. Lighting was sporadic, flickering and disjointed because of hissing steam and escaping gasses as well as debris in the way.

Something had growled. Whatever it was seemed to be buried under a mass of twisted metal.

Matt/Bioforce pointed out (from a safe distance, about thirty feet) where a foot - three toed and massive, like that of a Rhino - jutted from underneath a pile of wreckage!

"It's one of those things!" whispered Joe.

"We should kill it!" said Matt.

"Dude!" gasped Joe.

"What? If we don't you know they'll take us out and the others will come looking for us and we'll end up like Rachel!" explained Matt. "That thing is under that wreckage cause it went crazy and they had to stop their own guy. What do you think will happen if we let it out again?" Matt turned to Ryan. "What do you think?"

The group could climb up/over/around the wreckage if they were careful. Or they could dig the beast out and see what happened...

OOC Somehow my post from this weekend got eaten.

Ryan sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "We don't really have time for this but it is still a prisoner. Well, sort of. Mimic Lad, tell it we will free it form the wreckage if it helps us stop the squid heads. Or, at the very least, if it won't try and stomp us to death."

OOC Hope you had a great Xmas! Post rate slowed down as you'd expect, but should be more back up to normal speed (every day or at least every 2-3 days at the slowest) from now on.

Mimic Lad frowned. "I guess. It's just... I think this thing is kind of ... angry."

Matt looked uneasy and remained in his energy form to blast at the creature if it went berserk.

"You guys ready?" asked Mimic Lad.

At a nod from Kid Kinetic and Bioforce Joe/Mimic Lad put his fingers to his temple.

[Uh hi. We are good guys and we're kind of thinking that we can help you get out of that mess you are trapped under if you help us. Or don't go crazy at least. How does that work for you?] he pulsed.

[(*&*&^&$O(£%"^$£(&$)_"&!^!%^!^!] came the reply.

"Uh, I think there is a language barrier." said Mimic Lad. "Or this thing doesn't communicate like we do or something. It heard me, but whether it understands what I'm thinking to it, or whether it understands but wants to rip our heads off, I don't know."

Suddenly the mountain of metal started to shudder and move...

"Should we..." started Bioforce "Um, help it get out or what? Cause whatever Joe just said to it seemed to have woken it up and ..."

The mound of twisted metal started to creak and bounce up and down as a pounding sound could be heard!

Kid Kinetic tensed up then relaxed just as quickly. He had been quick to assume Cutthroat and Depthcharge were villains due to their strange appearance. It would be unfair to slap a label on this alien. Kid Kinetic used his newfound strength to clear the metal trapping the hulk. "Let's give our new friend the benefit of the doubt, shall we?"

Bioforce and Mimic Lad glanced at each other, quite unsure of helping to free the Purple Hulking Alien!

With a shrug they helped, every pair of hands revealing more and more of the great arms... shoulders... head...

Those eyes!

"Don't look!" said Mimic Lad! "There's something ... hypnotic about it's gaze!"

Matt blinked then looked away, backing up and changing into his energy form. "I... wow! I just caught a glance and it does something! Makes the world spin if you catch more than a glance!"

Kid Kinetic stood in the lead of the heroic trio as the hulk rose under its own strength, the mountains and piles of ruined metal and pipework falling away as the creature rose, towering over Ryan... Those fists looked big enough to pound a tank into scrap! Matt was right about the trio of eyes. There was something off about gazing at the thing directly! That was the least of his problems though as the creature took a step forward, within swinging distance of Kid Kinetic!

"Get back Ryan!" cried Joe.

"Dude!" cried Matt. "If it swings... you'll be in the way of our blasts!"

OOC Stand your ground or wait... and hope it doesn't swing with those mighty metal crushing fists???

Kid Kinetic waved the others off and put up his oalms in a defensive posture. "Easy there, big fella. No one here wants to hurt you. Heck, like we even could." Kid Kinetic glanced over at Mimic Lad. "Um, does it have a name?"

Mimic Lad was aghast! "Dude! A name? This?"

He shook his head then placed a finger against his temple. "No. Not in any way or shape that we would recognise. I sort of ... got an image. Think of it as what the Borg do in Star Trek. They have a number of a section and use that. No way am I calling it 7 of 9 though!"

Matt pulled a face. "Eeewww. No. That would forever ruin my thoughts about Jeri Ryan, and she's just fine as she is!"

Kid Kinetic looked at the creature - without looking directly at it's face. Those eyes...

Anyway, it seemed like the creature wasn't attacking. For now. It breathed heavily and KK noted there were cuts and bruises all over it. Not surprising if its enraged efforts had caused a huge weight to crash down on it! If there was a good time to take it out... this was it.

It seemed that the thing was muscle packed on muscle. Up close its skin was slightly scaled like a fish and shimmered with a purple/greenish hue. Where they came from no longer mattered. They were the slaves of the squid heads and the muscle. If this one decided to stand against its masters... could a thought from them turn it back on Kid Kinetic and his friends? He shuddered.

The beast waited. Expectant. Of a fight, or something else... who knew?

"Dude? What now?" asked Matt. "Do we just stand here or... We can't talk to it, or it us. At least it isn't ripping us to bits."

"At the moment." muttered Mimic Lad.

"Ummmmm, okay. We need to go. Try giving it a mental image of the control room. Maybe it will follow us?"

"Huh. What does a control room look like?" asked Mimic Lad. "This place is like... Alien dude."

Matt shook his head. "I have a feeling the alarms and running about of these things won't last forever. We'll just have to press on." He moved - carefully - around the behemoth and tried not to look petrified as it towered over him, shoulders thicker than his entire torso...

The trio climbed/hopped/flew over the trashed metal and plastics (or equivalent of plastic) to move through the corridors and into the depths of the ship.

"I keep trying to contact Rachel." whispered Mimic Lad. "Nothing yet. Maybe she's asleep. Those pods they were in... uh guys?"

All three looked behind and saw the hulking purple alien crunching metal and moving through the corridor slowly after them. They stopped walking. It stopped. They started again. So did the Alien.

"We made an impression then." muttered Matt. "Whether that's a good or bad thing though..."

=========

Minutes later the three had followed the corridor to a sturdy looking set of swish to the side double doors.

"These look like 'Blast Doors' in Star Wars. See that panel at the side? Maybe we can use that to get in." said Mimic Lad.

Matt, who'd watched the corridor and the hulking Alien as Ryan and Joe were checking side rooms and finding mostly storage or fairly spartan crew quarters, sized up the door. "I could have a go at melting through but..." He looked doubtful. "I'm not even sure I could warm this up."

Mimic Lad shrugged. "We could turn round. Find another way. Get into the air vents. Melt through the floor?"

Thud, thud, thud...

All three looked about. The Purple Hulk was stood over them, and the heroes had to avert their eyes from that bizarre insanity inducing gaze...

Then the creature turned and looked back the way they'd come.

Sounds of 'thudding'. Another creature heading this way, out of sight because of the corridor bend.

"We have company." muttered Matt. "If we book we can get to one of the side rooms and hide I guess. What about our puppy dog following type alien friend?"

Kid Kinetic rolled his eyes at Mimic Lad. Joe could be a real space case at times. "We were in the control room earlier, remember? It is where we knocked out the purple guy. Here, pluck the image out of our.. uh, that is, my head Then turn 2D and slip under to unlock the blast door."

Mimic Lad looked blank then gaped as if waking up. "Duh! Of course! I didn't realise THAT was the control room! They all look the same to me! Good call on the paper thin thing as well. You really know your stuff buddy."

Matt stayed quiet through the exchange but seemed to be listening.

"Whatever you do, do it fast Joe! We have company!" he muttered.

Mimic Lad 'looked' inside Ryans head and nodded. "Gotcha. Ok, let's see..."

Becoming a shadow, he flowed down the length of the door and vanished from sight!

"That just leaves us to deal with whatever's coming around that corner Ryan! Any bright ideas, or do we get ready to fight?"

OOC Just a heads up - I'm on holiday from Saturday 22nd to Saturday 29th but hope to be able to update at some point depending on internet access and time! If I can't I'll be sure to be updating by 30th (Sunday)! Cheers, Paul

No bright ideas this time. Kid Kinetic pounded on the door with a hammer fist. "Hurry it up, Mimic Lad!"

The pounding feet got louder.... any second now!

Suddenly the door hissed open with Joe stood on the other side!

Matt wasted no time and rushed in, Ryan after him. Behind them the purple Hulk stood alone at the corridor end waiting for the newcomers...

Joe moved over to a panel and frowned, then hit a sequence of symbols on a touch screen.

He glanced over and... HISS! The door closed.

"Basically pressed everything I could at random to get the door open. You see how thick it is? Man, we'd take forever to get through that..." he muttered.

Matt was looking around. "Woahhh.." he muttered.

The room was tall and round. In the centre was a pulsing 3m wide tube that looked like thick glass with plasma balls floating in some kind of blue liquid, giving off sparks especially when they got close to one another.

"Engine room! Gotta be!" said Matt. "This is like, a warp core or something dudes! We HAVE to be careful in here or..." he made a motion like things separating...

The walls had touch screen panels on them the symbols alien and indecipherable seemingly. There was no way out on this level but several levels up was a walkway...

From outside the door there was sounds of thunderous combat!

Kid Kinetic wondered how long this strange alien vessel had been buried underground and if it were still "space-worthy". The ship their team arrived in was in desperate need of repair and they'd only Marionette to service it. A ship this size could house all the prisone...refugees and withstand much more punishment should the Psions return. But he doubted the squid heads were going to give it up without a fight and there was still the matter of freeing the captives. Things were about to get ugly.

"Up the ramp then let's find the control room as fast as we can. Joe, copy my speed."

"Dude, it's the first power I copy!" laughed Joe. "Soooo useful, slowing the world down to a crawl. You have no idea how much fun I have in the... uh... let's ummm do this."

Matt raised an eyebrow but followed the other two to the upper level of the power room.

The door out of this place was solid and the trio feared it would locked but it opened with a spin of a handle.

Stepping out into a corridor they moved along and checked in side doors. Many of the rooms looked to be spartan living quarters for a large crew compliment, all empty now and had been for some time it seemed.

At the end of the corridor a pair of double doors stood and lights on the side panel indicated it was some kind of elevator. With a wave of a hand near the panel it swished open and after a glance the trio stepped in.

"Top floor dudes?" asked Matt/Bioforce. "Gotta be where the head honchos hang out. What are we up against Ryan? More purple dudes and squid face guys? Any plan or ..."

Joe leaned in looking at the alien squiggles on the panel. "No real clues as to where they are keeping Rachel but if we get some of the bosses and do some digging in their heads I think we can get some idea."

Both of the heroes were looking to Ryan to lead them now. His experience in this place and seeming competence were giving them the encouragement they needed to overcome their inexperience and nervousness.

"So, top floor and maybe take out the bosses of this place or do we sneak about some more and find Rachel first? Thing is the longer we look around the more chance we have of running into bad guys and becoming more brain food for the squid heads." asked Joe.

"We already know where Rachel is. She is in one of those strange cocoons along with with the other prisoners. But we have to deactivate it before we free her or she will suffocate like Joe almost did. First, we have to reach the control room then decipher the aliens" alphabet to know which buttons to push. Let's go there then link up with Mentallica. Hopefully, he can probe one of the squid heads telepathically and guide us through the shut down procedure."

"Ok, control room has to be up, right?" asked Matt, glancing at his team mates.

Joe shrugged, Ryan considered then nodded. "Yeah. Makes sense." nodded Matt, agreeing with the others and himself. He pressed the symbol and the doors hissed shut and the elevator jolted slightly, stomachs lurching suggesting the lift was going up...

Then it stopped.

It lurched to a halt and the panel flashed all blue, or sort of blue.

"Has it broken down?" asked Joe.

"Dunno." muttered Matt, looking it over. "Maybe broken down or..."

It was Ryan who noticed the tiny vents at the top of the elevator walls. Now some kind of almost invisible mist was pumping out, coalescing... sinking to slowly and steadily fill the lift!