interstellar5555 | ☆TRACK VIII: I'LL REACH YOU BELOW

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☆TRACK VIII: I'LL REACH YOU BELOW

Who: All rescuers!
What: The trio is here to give you the deets.
When: The evening of February 18th.
Where: An abandoned subway.
Warnings: Nothing predictable, but you never know.

“Word has it on the wire
That you don't who you are.
Well, if you could jack into my brain,
You'd know exactly what you mean here.”

☆I'LL REACH YOU BELOW

The notification is sudden. A several hours in advance, all rescuers will receive a ping over the network from Shep that they are to gather at a specific location late that evening. The location will not be given out until one hour in advance of the meeting, but they are advised to be ready to receive it and move out immediately.

When they arrive, the meeting is taking place in an abandoned subway. At first it doesn't seem like there is a way in, but after slipping through the rubble in some collapsed tunnels, you'll find it. Shep, Gold, and Silver are all present, and will spent the first while doing a careful headcount of those that show up, until approximately 15 minutes after the starting time. The results seem to be disappointing. People who were here the first time are missing, that much is obvious just from looking around – the leaders’ unease with it is clear.

However, it doesn’t cause them to panic or change the point of the meeting, either. At 11:15 PM on the dot, then Shep will begin the meeting by explaining what they are all there for: information. There have been details that the team has been holding back on giving until now, and Shep will somewhat sheepishly explain that it’s because they didn’t want the risk the change of it being leaked in the event that new recruits were incapable or unwilling to blend and lay low for the time being.

Thankfully, he’ll explain, everyone here has more than proven themselves capable of working within Vista’s system. So, they’ve been brought together so they can be fully brought up to speed. Information will be delivered in three parts, by each one of the leaders. Afterwards, questions can be asked, and the rescuers will be allowed to mingle and discuss for a few hours.

All the information is concise, and in the end the actual explanation will end up taking a half hour or less. Afterwards, Gold has brought snacks to share, as has become customary. Hopefully you like pastries.

“So, if you've got the time,
Set up the tone to sync.
Tap in the code,
I'll reach you below.”

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Shep is the first one to begin speaking, taking out a palm sized triangular prism and setting it on the floor in front of him. It begins to glow at his touch, projecting pre-programmed holographic images into the air around him. It begins as a series of faces – all people that can be recognized as veteran performers of both Pride and Virgo.

“First up, let’s talk about...the enemy.”

The crystal flashed through a series of profiles with names and statistics – these include all the members of Predator, along with Anasi and Juno from Virgo.

“Since you all made it here tonight, I’m going to assume none of you actually encountered these guys. Santiago and Blanche aren’t the only ones in the know around here – each of them works with a large network of connections, the crappiest of which are these guys...performers that have, for whatever reason, decided that they like being kept of pets and have volunteered their loyalty to their owners. Sometimes it’s been manipulated out of them with brainwashing or mind control, and sometimes they genuinely just suck that much. This wouldn’t mean much, if the bulk of them didn’t have magic powers.

Gold and Silver know more about the magic stuff than me, but the important part is that these people are all witches who can kill you. They only get used as agents by their labels for serious business, at least, so odds are you won’t see them until you’re in the thick of it. Never underestimate them, they are a huge pain.”

The images change to a series of suit wearing men and women with blank expressions, and then a series of very colourful individuals – the managers of each fledgling band.

“Most of the time you’re gunna be dealing with these guys – the lackies. Most of these guys are just robots. They don’t have souls, or a will of their own, so if you have to kill them you don’t need to feel too bad about it. But...sometimes the people leading them will be humans, so watch out for that. The robot guys are super strong and super durable, so don’t fight them if you don’t have to. They’re dangerous.

The ‘managers’ that herd the captives around are all robots too, except they are programmed to have personalities, and usually just act like normal people until they start kicking your ass. They’re stronger and smarter than the grunts, and also more likely to hold a grudge. As far as any of us know, they don’t really have a will of their own either, though it can be harder to tell. Watch out for these guys, they’re wily.”

The holographic images will change to images of Santiago and Blanche – the primary targets.

“And then there’s these jerks. Evidence suggests that these guys have been on this planet for hundreds of years at this point, and have been trafficking beings for just as long. They’re basically invincible, as far as anyone’s ever seen. They’re super strong, they can shrug off lasers, and they can teleport massive amounts of matter with trivial effort. These guys are powerful sorcerers, and they are not human. And I mean that literally. They’re not any of the species you guys are, either.

And they’re not from the planet. Information about these bastards is nearly impossible to find out, but after a lot of looking we got a name: they’re called Nebulae, and as far as anyone knows, they had godlike power even before they started leeching tons of soul energy. Some kind of spacial energy beings, I guess? Whatever they’re doing it needs to stop – not just for the sake of their slaves, or this planet, but for everybody. Until then...avoid direct contact at all costs.”

He exhales, slowly, releasing the tension he’s built up while talking.

“Any questions?”

Next up is Gold. They come forward with a flourish, and manipulates the crystal into displaying nothing but a vibrant image of a disco ball, which starts refracting light all over the subway cavern.

“Music magic. Music magic is what happens with the energy of a being’s soul and the pathos of the music they perform gets together and makes a magic baby. The resulting power can be manipulated into bending reality in pretty much any way you can imagine. Some musicians from the labels develop the knack for using sorcery and other don’t, but both Santiago and Blanche are ‘capital M’ Masters.

This energy source is what all your friends and family have been brought here for. When they perform in front of massive crowds like the ones the labels can provide, they generate massive amounts of the stuff – most of which gets immediately siphoned off by the CEO’s symbiotic connections to their slaves. What’s left over sometimes allows them to start using magic themselves...or it allows Silver and I to manipulate it into giving them back aspects of their real selves. This has a resulted in a lot of crazy shit happening within the walls of the HQ.

Due to one particular anomaly, the musicians that have recently been recruited have been developing this energy at rates that are totally unprecedented. What they’ve developed in a few months took the generations before them years to gather. A lot of these guys have already started showing magical potential, which is pretty much unheard of this early on...which would be great and all, if it wasn’t falling straight into the big bosses’ plans.

Santiago and Blanche have an angle – there’s a point to all these energy they’ve been gathering, and it isn’t just for shooting lightning out of their palms. Information suggests that they are both struggling to gather a certain quantity of magical energy before, you know it, some kind of fucking cosmic alignment bullshit. The cliché is real. This is a race to the top that’s been building for centuries, and no matter which one wins, we’re all totally fucked.“

They spread their arms enthusiastically.

“Now...questions?”

And now Silver comes forward, as sombre as ever. They manipulate the crystal with a wave of their fingers, causing it to display and image of a brain with some sort of chip being shown at an insertion point. A medical diagram.

”How do we get them out, you wonder? With any mercy, none of you have already gone and blown the whole load to the enemy yet, because getting the captives out is going to be delicate. Dragging them out now will only result in you, and them, getting killed, because each of them has had a tracking chip and controller device inserted into their brains in a way that is not trivial to remove. “

The chip animates, sliding deep within the grey matter. Animated waves come off of it, portraying a wireless signal.

“Given the need their locations can be tracked down a precise radius, and most of the typical materials are incapable of blocking the signal. If their owners are given a reason to look for them, they can potentially appear within moments, thanks to their teleportation abilities. I’m working on getting together a chop shot built for removing these things and disrupting their functions, but it’s not quite finished. If anyone wants to help me gather supplies to make it a reality, I would be appreciative.

The end goal is that we get into a situation where captives can be brought to the chop shop fast enough that we can get their chips out before they can get tracked down by their bosses. Mental programming aside, once the chip is out they’ll be as free as any of you. Of course, who knows what kind of exciting new trigger based programming they’ve been installed with these days – but that’s a hurdle we’ll cross when we get there.

Of course, as soon as we have a few successes, there’s no telling how they’ll change up the plans in order to fuck with us. So, let’s make those victories count, hm?”

They wave a hand through the brain diagram, and it disappears.

“That’s all I’ve got. Questions? No?”

[There's a sigh that just radiates the sentiment of 'of course that's what's happened'. At least that explains things.]

I assume, then, that an aspect of this power is influencing other people's emotions?

[Yes, as a matter of fact, and Mammon steps forward again.]

Do you have blueprints for the kind of equipment you need?

[Pearl looks simultaneously determined and thoroughly grossed out. Humans are gross man.]

How are you going to take them out? If I'm not mistaken human bodies don't heal quickly after they've been cut into.

"What kinds of supplies are we talking here?" Sparks isn't thick enough to assume it's the kind of stuff available at the store, but asking can't hurt.

Yep.

[Gold crosses their arms.]

Music has a way of affecting mood just naturally, so the magic just solidifies that. It's pretty much one of the easiest things you can do with sorcery.

Yes. If you're interested in helping out, I can forward you the details later.

Surgery, presumably. Is that not a thing that gems do?

[Silver shrugs.]

Robots. Now this is territory Sparks is familiar with. He has been going stir crazy over here.

"If they're robots, they got programming, don't they? We can try hacking them, get info out of them." Like, maybe one. And he can punch the rest. Man he's so ready for a brawl.

"The usual," they say. "Rare metals. Surgical tools. Classified technology. I have lists."

So it's not a huge worry if a musician has only gotten to that point, huh?

I think I'm one of the more useful people here for this purpose, actually. It would depend on the complexity and amount of gear you need... But I could just temporarily create what you need, or replace things that aren't working.

"The usual." Figures. "Surgical tools ain't likely hard to come by. You got any sort of leads on where the rest might be kept?"

Not really. I mean, them learning those tricks could even be to our benefit, but it does make it harder to pull them away from their boss, when it comes down to it. The symbiotic magic going on between them makes things get kind of...weird.

"Um. Yeah, like, that's true. I'm pretty sure Silver has hacked them before, actually...it's just harder to get at the ones that know anything about anything, you know?" He holds out his hands helplessly. Shep doesn't know anything about robots except that they're robots. "Definitely something we should consider trying."

[It wouldn't be a Varia rescue mission if Xanxus and Squalo didn't make this needlessly difficult. They shouldn't even be surprised.]

Define that for us, won't you?

Of course not. Our bodies are made of light. It's much more efficient, in my opinion.

[But wait.]

You're not... the one who's going to be doing the surgery... right?

"Hah. I'm not talking about scalpels, buddy. I'm talking about legitimate medical machinery - like hell if I'm just digging in there with a knife."

Yeah. If I have to, anyway. Haven't found anyone better, so far.

[They sound sort of ambivalent.]

...You'd. Just create it...?

[They sound dubious.]

It can mean a lot of things...depending on the guys involved. It mostly means that if the boss decides to put on the charm, it's going to work.

[Oh god she is NOT ON BOARD WITH THIS PLAN SO FAR.]

Do you know what you're doing? What if you hurt them!

What if we leave the chips in their heads and space enigmas come and kill us? What choice do we have?

[With the helmet, their expression is unreadable.]

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☆TRACK VIII: I'LL REACH YOU BELOW

SHEP DISCUSSES ROBOTS AND WITCHES

GOLD DISCUSSES MUSIC AND MAGIC

SILVER DISCUSSES CHIPS AND CHOPS

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