Kid Kinetic and the Space Knights Issue #3 - Running for Home...

"Here." said Cutthroat. "Check this out."

The once assassin turned adventurer leaned over a table which glowed with light and showed a star map. White dots basically but it was a touch screen so could 'zoom in' to star systems.

"You wouldn't believe how full space really is, but populations are so far away from anywhere else that you have to be careful who you run into. It's a long way away from any friendly help out here."

With Ian stood next to Cutththroat, all scowls and crossed arms, the massive DepthCharge leaning against a wall and ducking for the most part because the ceilings were only 7' high and most of the New Knights in attendance in the room it was pretty crowded.

"We are here." he said, pointing at a dot. "It's hard to find your Earth on this map. Marionette (the sentient starship they all rode in) has to work with what she can make of the junk we salvaged. She needs updated information, energy, new components and such."

"So here..." he said, pointing at another dot, "We have what looks like a mining system. Independent I think. They drain gas giants, refine and purify it and then ship these massive moon sized chunks off to be sold. Takes months, years to get where they are going but with so many tugs going to and fro its a profitable past time - assuming they get there."

"Here..." he said, pointing at another dot and drawing a little circle with his finger "We might want to avoid. The Skro Empire... that's a rough translation... are lizard people who have a high opinion of themselves. They think their Queen should rule the universe. The problem the rest of the Universe has is that the Skro aren't very nice - even to each other. They also breed like crazy and their overpopulation means they are always looking for planets to colonise even if someone lives on them. Their technology is pretty advanced. We really could use a lot of their stuff, make Mari 'ship shape'. Dangerous though."

"And here... is a Trading Hub. Set in and around a bunch of asteroids that were mined out and left lots of holes to build in, you can buy, sell, fix, get hold of pretty much anything. Information, spare parts, food, maps you name it. Problem is that everything is for sale and that includes information on us. If the Psions poke about they'll be sure of hearing about pink skinned bipeds who can do some wacky stuff."

"After that, round here? We'll run out of fuel heading for anywhere else. We can jump to one of these places and will be dead in the water."

"Great. Not much in the way of options then!" said Matt/Bioforce.

"Hey kid, these are the cards that got dealt. Play with 'em or fold." said Cutthroat.

He seemed pretty smug with that turn of phrase having spent some time on Earth to absorb the culture, customs and language...

"Let's face it. Psions on our tail, short on supplies, things are looking bleak but they could be worse when you're ..."

Ooc : Sorry about the delay. Not sure how I.missed this.

The trading post seemed the most expedient route. Moth Lady and Deothcharge were anything but pink skinned and throat and Joe could change their appearances. Those four could go in to the post and barter for supplies while Tim opened a psi-link from the safety of the ship.  The problem was they did not have much to barter with, that is, unless Ian agreed to use his powers to synthesize what they needed. And Ian could be quite the contrarian when he wanted. "Aw, what the heck." Ryan thought.

"Transmuter, what do you think would be our best course of action?"

OOC No worries about delay. Real life takes precedence, always.

Ian (Transmuter) looked over where he was trying to make sense of a panel.

Cutthroat walked past him, pulling a face from beneath his full face mask and walking up to the higher level of the bridge to look out the viewscreen. The lower level of the bridge (where the map was sprawled out on a screen) where Depthcharge was chatting to Joe (Mimic Lad).

He looked up after Ryan addressed him. "Oh? Someone is asking me? The Leader of the team?" he scowled.

Frowning, he turned to the desk/display and looked. "We can trade for supplies and information. Your buddy with the attitude seems to be able to talk to anyone...."

"Helps find out information on who ya need ta 'off'" shouted Cutthroat from above.

"Quite." mutters Ian. "We should avoid that Skro thing. We want to get home, not get tied up in more mess."

Depthcharge turned "Marionette says she needs raw materials to transform into mass." he grumbled.

"So we could do with a visit to the Mining system. Probably get things cheaper if we can trade for what we need. Between us we can find untapped deposits, take what we need and leave the rest for the miners." he said, chin in hand.

Rachel came over, wrapped in a silvery blanket but otherwise not much the worse for wear from her ordeal after getting some rest and food. Whether she'd be up for participation in missions for a while was another question.

"Thanks again for coming back for me." she said with a look at Ryan. She scowled at Ian and walked off before he could retort.

With a sigh Ian shook his head. "Go where you like! It's not like anyone listens to m..."

"Hey! Shut up!" shouted Cutthroat. "We got something. Distress call. It's faint, but it's coming from a system not far from here. We could check it out and take their stuff!"

"THIS guy you choose over your own team?" asked Ian, with a thumb in the direction of Cutthroat who was flipping Ian the bird.

Kid Kinetic instinctively straightened up in response to Transmuter's question. "Cutthroat needed my aid against the Psions so I gave it to him. Should we help people because we think they will be appropriately grateful or simply because they need help? Speaking of which,...can you make out what the message is saying, Cutthroat?"

Cutthroat frowns behind his full face mask.

"Not sure. Alien language but its garbled, like the signal is degrading. 'Aid requested...' " he said, translating to English "from Free trader ⏚⟒⍜⍙⎍⌰⎎. Can't translate that easily. Wolf? I guess? Whatever a wolf is. Something wolf."

Depth Charge grumbles in his deep baritone. "They may have crashed. A free trader might have supplies we can salvage and sell for information and things we need."

Cutthroat shrugs. "Sounds like a plan."

"Wait, what if there are injured?" asked Rachel. "We can't just turn up and rob them!"

"Why not?" asked Cutthroat. "if they need help, we'll help 'em. The kid..." he says with a nod towards Ryan "Wouldn't have it any other way I'm guessin'. If they aren't alive... well, it's our chance to get a score and get us the things we need."

Transmuter shook his head, disgusted. "That's not a heroic way to ..."

"Hey kid, unless you haven't noticed we're in deep space being tracked by Psions who have a kind of binary view of enemies. You are one, or you aren't. They don't discuss things. Want to bet what they view all of us as?"

"How about we hand you over to them?" asked Ian, sneering. "Might get them off our backs."

"Might... or they might take you down for harbouring an enemy. Psions like to make examples, keeps anyone with any funny ideas in check." replied Cutthroat.

"They sound like Space Fascists." said Rachel. "There's no way we can deal with those guys!"

Transmuter shook his head. "Our priority is to get home! Not wander about from place to place helping people!"

"Now THAT doesn't sound very heroic." chuckled Cutthroat. "What do you say kid?" he asked of Kid Kinetic...

On the run. In short supply of food, power, necessities and well, everything. Ryan was not used to being in this position. He'd lived in a mansion for as long as he could remember and did not want for much. The thought of salvaging what they needed from a distress call had simply not occurred to him. Beings like Cutthroat and Depthcharge obviously had a much more difficult road.

"I think we should check it out. But I don't think we should respond to the distress signal. We don't know who may be listening."

CUTTHROAT and TRANSMUTER threw up their hands in frustration, albeit for different reasons.

"We're NEVER getting home if we divert to help every stray!" spluttered Ian. "I'm supposed to be team leader! I'm supposed to..."

He stopped as the other New Knights appeared having been drawn by the noise.

"We're going to help someone in distress." said Rachel.

Joe (Mimic Lad) shrugged. "Fine! What are we waiting for!"

"Will we need space suits?" asked Tim (Mentallica) "This is so cool!"

Sam shrugged "I have no problem with that. I mean, it's why we do what we do, right? Help those in need, use our powers for the greater good?"

Matt nodded "Sure thing Sam. Wouldn't have it any other way. Say, what were you guys arguing about?"

Ian shook his head. "Never mind. Set course for the distress signal." he said to Cutthroat who turned as if surprised to Ian. "Eh? Who are you to give orders? HE'S the one in charge!" he said, pointing to Ryan (Kid Kinetic).

Depth Charge chuckled, shaking his head and sat on a bench seat, which creaked in protest.

The ship got the message and Marionette spoke out over the comms "All passengers please prepare for the jump into hyperspace. Course laid in. Ready in 10, 9, 8..."

=========

The Marionette/Valkyrie ship dropped out of hyperspace at the edge of a system with two suns, one much weaker. Several dots - confirmed as planets - orbited them.

"Preliminary scans indicate thin atmosphere on one of the moons where the distress beacon is transmitting from." she said over the tannoy. "Whilst not completely hostile to human functionality it will require the use of space suits and breathing equipment beyond a few minutes of standard Earth time." she explained.

"We will need to manufacture suits for everyone. I can form them from the structure of the Valkyrie..."

Ian groaned. "You know Father is going to flip when he sees what happened to his baby!"

Rachel shrugged "He'd call it 'thinking on our feet'. You know like that time he took us on a field trip at night, we flew for hours and he dropped us off in the middle of nowhere ..."

"Nova Scotia." added Tim.

"Yeah and we had to make it back with no money or supplies?" added Joe. "That was fun!"

"Remember who created the stuff we needed." muttered Ian.

"Gotta be useful fer somethin..." muttered Cutthroat.

"What?" spluttered Ian. "I heard..."

"ATTENTION!" said Marionette over the tannoy. "Another signal has been detected in system."

"Another space craft, closing in on the moon with the distress beacon..."

"No problem. We'll just activate our cloaking device and let them pass. Er, we have one of those? Right?"

Ryan hoped it was just another good Samaritan responding to the distress call and not hostile. Better safe than sorry though.

"Can we make it to the moon first?"

Cutthroat leaned over the sensor display and shook his head.

"They got there first kid. Scan shows... something going on. Ship is in orbit and ... not transmitting standard friend or foe call sign..." muttered the once assassin.

Depth Charge thumped over with heavy steps and towered over the smaller humanoid. "Pirates." he growled.

"Maybe. Maybe probably. They will have heard the distress call and homed in, looking to beat anyone else who got here and get out of system before too much heat turned up." admitted Cutthroat.

"What does that mean?" asked Rachel. "We have to get over there and stop them don't we?"

Cutthroat scowled behind the mask. "Kid, we do that and we're looking at a fight. We can't get a look at their ship until we get closer. By closer I mean in missile range. There are risks involved. I say we turn around. Not worth the risk."

Ian, chin in hand, muttered "We just can't leave those people..."

"Kid, a minute ago you said we needed to head back to your home as quick as possible, now...?" spluttered Cutthroat.

"We don't have a stealth mode, as such." grumbled Depthcharge. "We can use the celestial bodies in this system to disguise our approach..."

"Not you too?" spluttered Cutthroat. "This is nuts! Kid, what do YOU think?" he asked of Kid Kinetic...

"Okay. For starters, Transmuter is the leader of the New Knights. We, motioning to the various aliens, are the All-New, New Knights. Uniforms will be forthcoming. And I think we should help who or whatever sent the distress call."

"Well THIS won't get confusing." muttered Joe (Mimic Lad) as he turned to Tim (Mentallica) as they wondered if they were New or New New Knights.

"So what do we do next?" asked Rachel (Shadowhawk). "If they are Pirates they need stopping! We can't let them do... whatever it is they want to do to those people in distress!"

Cutthroat sighed. "Alright! Alright. If you are so insistent on checking out every distress call we come across, best to play it smart."

He called out "Marionette, plot a course to leave us in sensor shadow of celestial bodies and get us closer."

"Plotting course. Laid in. Chance of sensor invisibility 84.2% The background radiation in this system is quite high. Shields are at maximum which will limit sensor range. When we get closer in system our shields will have to be turned up otherwise you will all die of radiation poisoning."

"Yep, this seems to be a REALLY good idea so far." muttered Matt (Bioforce).

"Well I think we should help people." said Sam (Mystralla). "Even if it puts us in danger. It's not like we can't take care of ourselves, right? I mean, we're Super Heroes!"

Tim (Mentallica) agreed. "Father wouldn't expect anything else from us. Whoever we help might give us information or supplies that can get us home, too!"

Ian (Transmuter) rolled his eyes and threw up his hands "Argh!" he exclaimed. Then he sighed and muttered "You're right. Get us over there and when we get closer we will need a plan..."

=========

The Valkyrie/Marionette drifted amongst asteroids in the shadow of a large rotating rock the size of a football field.

It wasn't that large though - others ranged from the size of a truck to the size of the the North American continent...

They'd moved in system whilst keeping planetary bodies - mostly gas giants or dead moons - in between themselves and the Pirate ship in orbit of the almost but not quite human friendly atmosphere planet.

Closer now - only ten minutes away but that involved exposing themselves to sensors - the crew of the Valkyrie had to make choices.

"We go in with shields up and at high speed and try to catch them off guard..." said Cutthroat "OR... we can go a little further out then round and come at the planet from the opposite angle. From there we could enter the atmosphere and check out the distress signal. Maybe avoid a fight with that pirate ship which is like, much bigger than this bucket of bolts."

"I prefer a fight to sneaking around." grumbled Depth Charge.

"That's not a fight. It's a massacre." said Cutthroat looking at the dot on the screen. "Those Pirates have us outgunned. Massively."

"We need space suits to get down there." said Ian. "Maybe the Pirates have something we can use."

Marionette piped up "If we were to take control of the Pirate ship I could adapt that to our needs."

"Hey, we'd have much more space!" remarked Matt. "I'm bunking with ten in my tiny cabin. You have no idea how bad the smell is. I don't know if it's my bunk mates breath or their butts!"

Rachel frowned. "Whatever it is we do, we need to act now. There's no telling what the Pirates are up to down there..."

"Cutthroat says they have us outgunned and I think we should listen. He has experience and we don't. If we enter the atmosphere we might be able to get to the signal first. We will have a much better chance on the planet where we can use our powers."

Ian frowned. "Alright, plot a course to have the planet hide us in its shadow."

Cutthroat turned. "Now ya learnin' kid. Go on..."

"And... we'll jury rig space suits. The New Knights don't have anyone who can exist in hostile environments. That means suits and being careful. We trained for things like this though..."

"Not in outer space light years from home we didn't!" spluttered Joe/Mimic Lad.

"True, but Father set us up in scenarios where we'd be out of our comfort zone. Remember the time he brought in some friends of his who pretended to be supervillains?"

"Yeah, I thought they were there to join up until they started attacking!" said Matt/Bioforce. "We really got our butts handed..."

"Until we started working as a team and took the fight to them." said Rachel/Shadowhawk. "If we stop sniping at each other we can work something out! Ian, you can create oxygen, right? We just need to jury rig something up as breathing apparatus and suits..."

One of the workers they'd rescued piped up. Cutthroat turned and looked back at the group. "He says that despite the fact you only have two arms and he ... it has three, you could try one one of the welding suits they wear to work in outer space. The breathing gear has a gas in it which I can't mangle into human words but..."

"I can transmute it." said Ian. "I think."

"Ok, let's get to work!" said Tim/Mentallica.

=========

"I look suck." muttered Joe/Mimic Lad.

He had a point. The over large space suit with sleeves for extra limbs was tied up with ratchet type straps and a fishbowl like helmet had been sealed with tape.

It had taken a couple of attempts but Transmuter had sorted out the breathing gas. Matt was sat on the side with a light head after the first try had left him gasping.

You all look rag tag/ridiculous with hodge podge lashed together stuff.

Tim looked forlorn though. Nothing could be adapted to encapsulate his chair and it had been agreed he'd stay on the ship.

"Closing in on the planets atmosphere." stated Marionette over the Tannoy.

"This is it." muttered Ian. He turned to Kid Kinetic. "We need to check out the place first before we go charging in." He looked ridiculous in a too large purple space suit with straps all over the place. Mind you Kid Kinetic wasn't a fashion icon either in his bits of this, some of that, lashed up and jury rigged and hope it all stayed together.

"Looks rough down there." grumbled DepthCharge. He was another who'd had to stay behind without a suit big enough to serve his needs. He wasn't happy but understood.

Mystralla/Sam clomped along in a vaguely diving suit type look, peering over the bottom edge of the helmet and barely able to see. "This is really heavy!" she complained.

"Lighter down there. Less gravity." said Cuttthroat. He looked ridiculous like everyone else but seemed happy just with breathing gear rather than needing a suit. Perhaps he was resistant to the cold that showed on sensors to be around -50 degrees Centigrade...

The Valkyrie/Marionette blasted into the atmosphere and immediately the ship suffered violent turbulence! People were thrown about initially before hanging on and multiple warnings and lights flashed on the control panel of the hybrid space vessel.

"It's going to get rougher! Hang on!" roared Depthcharge.

It did indeed...

Violent bangs and crashes rung off the hull and instruments went dark momentarily.

"We've been struck several times by some kind of lightning!" said Cutthroat. "Marionette! Can you... Marionette!"

"Rebooting." said the sentient computer mind of the robot. "Systems operating at 20% Emergency crash landing procedure in place!"

"What?" spluttered Joe. "Crash? Are you..."

"HANG ONTO SOMETHING!" roared Depth Charge.

The ship rattled and shook all the way down then seemed to slow and smooth its descent.

"Reboot complete." announced Marionette.

All breathed sighs of relief.

"We've been blown way off course and... we took damage." said Depth Charge. "We need to set down somewhere right now and start repairs otherwise we might not get off this planet!"

The Valkyrie set down on a rocky plain. The view through the clouded viewscreen showed violent purple skies with lightning flashing and driving wind throwing up rocks and dust. Everything looked purple.

"At least you're dressed for it." muttered Matt to Ian in his purple suit.

OOC What's the plan? Go out and start walking or wait till the storm plays out (if it will) or help with the repairs?

Waiting out the storm was not an option. The pirates could beat them to the source of the distress call. Besides, the planet surface was so cold everyone was in danger of freezing to death. Maybe not Cutthroat and some of the aliens but all of the New Knights. They needed to get to the downed ship first somehow.

"Um, Marionette?" Ryan still felt weird talking to a machine. Alien life forms were one thing but artificial ones were new to him. "Can the Valkyrie be converted into a hovercraft? Mimic Lad and I could propel it."

MARIONETTE spoke up through the speaker on the wall.

"Affirmative. I can... split... part of myself from the Valkyrie once everyone has moved from those sections. It will take a few minutes." said the female robot voice.

The group heard Marionette issuing instructions for people to vacate certain parts of the ship.

"Looks cold out there." said Joe/Mimic Lad. "What do we do if anyone 'springs a leak'? Any plan?"

"I can help. I think." said Ian/Transmuter. "You need to make it know and I will either repair the suit by making a sticky patch of some kind or ... I'll come up with something else. Something hot."

"Wait..." offered Sam/Mystralla. "The only elements that are hot are radioactive, aren't they?"

Ian looked surprised then frowned. "You're right. We need to think of something else."

Marionette spoke up "I have reformed part of the ship into a hovercraft. I cannot split myself into two vessels so the Valkyrie - less the parts I have taken - will be immobile and inoperative in the time I am gone. Basic functions like life support will run for a few hours and emergency lightning should last from the batteries. After that, the occupants will expire."

The New Knights looked at one another. Cutthroat shrugged. "So, we're on a clock and if we take too long, everyone here will die!"

"More than that. The hovercraft will have battery power only for the same period of time. To divert power from the Valkyrie or the Hovercraft will greatly reduce the other, so I took a balanced approach and the air and power will run out at roughly the same time on both vehicles." replied Marionette.

"So...we all get to die at the same time if we take too long?" asked Matt/Bioforce. "Who's stupid idea was this anyway?"

Rachel/Shadowhawk laughed "Quit complaining! We're Superheroes! We save the day, work against the clock, beat the odds all the time!"

"Uh, we're trainees." said Joe. "We haven't done any of that stuff yet."

Ian turned to Ryan. "Seeing as you're vying to be the leader, make the call. Hovercraft and potentially doom everyone or on foot and just doom us in our ghetto spacesuits that might leak or freeze us to death. Call it..."

Eyes turned to Rya/Kid Kinetic...

"Vying to be the leader?" Ryan cocked his head. "I AM the leader...of the Newer Knights!" Ryan bent his elbows and struck a heroic pose. "We should take the hovercraft and try to beat the pirates to the distress call "

Transmuter scowled and turned away with a dismissive hand wave. "What EVER!" he declared.

With the bulk of the Valkyrie and the morphed/amalgamated/conjoined parts from another ship sat on the dusty rock strewn desert like ground the being known as Marionette used her amazing abilities to scythe part of it off and it transformed like those robots in the movies into a hovercraft. Albeit a ghetto 'craft that needed a paint job and some more panels to cover the exposed wires and guts in places. More windows too - it only had a front one. It would be cramped and sure enough when the back opened up there were hard benches lining the walls and the team (less Tim on the 'mothership' ) had to cosy up with knees and elbows vying for space.

"Well this is comfortable." grinned Matt/Bioforce as Joe pulled a face whilst the slightly bigger built team mate wriggled to make make his own space.

Ryan sat in the pilot chair with Cutthroat crouched over his shoulder. "You couldn't make something with more headroom?" the once merc complained.

"To do so would compromise the structural integrity of the Valkyrie and reduce their capacity to function." replied Marionette in a crackly voice over the tannoy.

"So? you don't hear me complaining." muttered Cutthroat as he banged his head. Again.

Ignoring him Marionette spoke out again. "There are two controls on the bench in front of you. Push both levers forward to move forward, both to move back. To turn apply one lever less than the other side to turn that way."

"Is there like, a manual or something?" asked Joe/Mimic Lad. "Pretty sure Ryan dinged one of dads cars backing out of the drive."

"Yeah, the old Bugatti. That took some fixing!" laughed Matt.

With a steady hand Ryan eased the craft forward...

=========

"We could make good use of that eh Marionette?" asked Cutthroat.



"Affirmative." replied the android/hovercraft. "Repairs to the Valkyrie are much needed and the ship can be made bigger."

Sam leaned forward into the crowded cockpit. Ryan tried his best to act cool. "If we strip it for parts the survivors won't be happy."

"I have no sensors on board this limited craft." stated Marionette. "There may be survivors, or not."

The group had been travelling some time over the featureless deserts and tracked a thin column of black smoke. Eventually they slowed to check out a wide furrow in the ground which suggested the ship had struck - there was partially covered debris scattered over a wide area - then skated across the desert floor to finally rest. Enough parts - metal and smashed bodywork - scattered around suggested the spacecraft would not fly again, or at least not enough to escape the gravity pull of the planet. Then the question of whether it was space worthy would be raised.

From the looks of it, not likely.

"Looks quiet." said Joe.

"Too quiet." muttered Ian. "I think the Pirates got here first and this might be a trap."

"For once you and I are in agreement." said Cutthroat. "Still, we are here now. What's the plan?"

Ryan had an idea but he did not want to step on Ian's toes yet again. His control issues could be exhausting at times.

Kid Kinetic tried to get Shadowhawk's attention and motioned with his eyes towards the wreckage. He hoped she would understand and go investigate in her 2D form. With any luck, Mimic Lad would follow suit but he had a tendency of forgetting he could copy that too.

Shadowhawk nodded... then she frowned.

"I can't change into my shadow form AND keep this clunky breathing stuff on! My clothes, sure, but it needs to be within... I dunno, millimetres of my skin. This...?" she tapped the breathing mask. "I'm not gonna..."

"Wait." said Ian/Transformer. "I didn't say to use your powers yet! Power down! We need to think about this!"

Cutthroat rolled his eyes. "I believe the young lady DID think about this. All of you guys with fancy powers that change appearance or form or whatever are gonna struggle. Gotta think smart, like she did. Bad idea to go off half cocked and find out you can't breathe on this mud ball of a world!"

Transformer scowled. "Yeah, well, whatever you guys want to do, run it by me... by everyone first."

Matt/Bioforce frowned. "Not gonna be able to change into energy form. Well, not if I want to be able to breathe."

Mimic Lad/Joe ran a hand through his sandy hair. "Yeah, I'm thinking we need to stick to powers that will work from a distance."

Cutthroat turned to Ryan/Kid Kinetic. "What say we go take a sneaky peak over there and come back to report to the fearless leader?"

"Hey!" said Transformer. "I didn't..."

Mystralla/Sam sighed. "Ian, some of us are better at sneaking about than others. Ryan is the fastest and can get in and out of there before anyone can see!"

"Yeah? And what about the alien nut job?" asked Transmuter referring to Cutthroat. "No offence." he said as an aside to the once assassin.

"None taken, guy with stick up his ass." quipped the alien. He turned to Ryan. "Well kid?"

"Kid Kinetic nodded.at Mystralla's suggestion. "Yeah, I'll do it. Cutthroat can watch from the air. In and out. No one will see us."  He looked at Transformer. "And I'd like Mimic Lad to come too if it is okay with you."

CUTTHROAT CHUCKLED...

"I jump kid, I don't fly. Not yet anyway. Been tryin' hard ta upgrade. Maybe I should flap my hands faster..."

Ian scowled. "Whatever! If you get yourselves killed, don't blame me!"

Joe chuckled and clapped Ryan on the shoulder. "Dream team again pal!"

Outside the Marionette/Hovercraft the trio breathed nervously. Any leak in their suits would be disastrous and possibly fatal, so each took turns to examine the others suits for hissing air. Cutthroat had a minor leak fixed by tightening some straps.

"Right. I'll get closer, jumping about and get on the roof of that thing. You two approach at ground level sticking to cover. If anything springs out and attacks me I'll jump away to draw it off and you two make for the ship to check it out. Sound like a plan?" asked the once assassin.

"Any thoughts on whose powers I should copy?" asked Joe/Mimic Lad.

For all his raw power - Joe could copy any power on the team and was probably the most powerful member thanks to his sheer versatility - he was sometimes lacking imagination and smarts. Maybe it was nerves and he would grow into his powers more. Father had privately spoken about the potential of the team. Kid Kinetic, he'd said, was able to run faster than he'd shown so far and had a natural aptitude for hand to hand combat that made him deadly, an expert fighter even though he'd barely started out. About Joe/Mimic Lad he'd suggested that in time the youngster would be able to increase his range and effect to copy virtually any super power on Earth and that would make him one of the Earths mightiest heroes! Some of the others had great potential too - Transmuter could in theory craft elements of any kind and even ones not yet discovered by mankind. Bioforce was a powerhouse, Mystralla could blast magic and hoped to learn other spells to increase her usefulness and so on...

Of course, that was all theory. Theory that had been blown out of the water when the entire team of New Knights had been transported across the Universe and forced to fight for their lives!

OOC Are you approaching the ship or waiting for Cutthroat to get closer and seeing if he gets attacked? Any suggestions for Joe?

The plan sounded risky. Ryan was none too keen to use Cutthroat as bait but the alien had likely done this sort of thing before.

"Mimic my speed, Mimic Kad. And try to get Mentallica's telepathy. We can use it to stay in touch "

Mimic Lad nodded. "Right. Makes sense. Two of us fast. Tim's telepathy too. Hold on."

OOC Mimic 12 + 2d12+0 10,2+0 = 12 (24) vs
OV11 + 2d12+0 6,1+0 = 7 (18)

Success + 3

EV12 + 3 (EV15) vs RV11=4 RAPs

Mimic lad gains Superspeed 10, not quite as fast as Kid Kinetic...

Mimic 12 + 2d12+0 7,12+0 = 19 (31) vs
OV7 + range 7 + 2d12+0 3,7+0 = 10 (24)

Success + 4

EV12 + 4 (EV16) vs RV7=9 RAPs

Mimic Lad gains Telepathy 7

'Can you hear me ok?' Joe says, muttering under his breath. His eyes glow like Tims do when he's using his ability at range.

'Yeah i can hear ya kid. Just. Like you're at the edge of range of something. What does the 'Boss' say? Want me to run interference for any traps then you and he zip in and take a look around?' replied Cutthroat. Joe repeated his words and looked to Ryan for the plan.

"Uh, right! Better be on the look out for traps."

. o O (Traps? The bad guys have traps? That never occurred to me. Wait, am I broadcasting this out loud? Cripes.)

"Just jump around and be a general nuisance, Cutthroat. Mimic Lad and I will do a quick reconnaissance. Besides, they are just pirates. How sophisticated could their defenses be?"

Mimic Lad passed the message on and the pair of them sped up towards and around the craft.

They couldn't be sure but it looked to have been here some time. Weeks certainly.

Obviously alien (they were deep in space, EVERYTHING was alien!) it was huge and Mimic Lad waved Kid Kinetic over. "This metal feels weird. Not metal at all, not in the usual sense anyway. More like a kind of ceramic or plastic I suppose. Ian would be the expert."

Continuing to dash about the ship and stick to cover, watch for a while then move on, they came to a section that was broken and a split in the side of the ship. Somewhere they could gain access.

"Hmmm. That's weird." said Mimic Lad. The pair were crouched behind rocks. "I just sent a thought to Cutthroat. No answer. Waited a bit, sent another. Nothing. You suppose he's ok?"

The pair couldn't see Cutthroat from here. Up close to the ship - it was at least fifty to seventy feet high, hundreds of feet long and no long flight worthy thanks to the damage that had 'broken its back' so to speak.

"Mind you, he's probably just messing about." said Mimic Lad, though he wasn't convincing. "Do we go in, check the ship out? Or do you want to go find Cutthroat first?"