Holy @#$%. I've tripped, hit my head and now I am in a Doctor Who coma, Nijad thought. Either that or one of those guys shot me and this is my weird not-so happy place I've gone to while they take turns with my body before finishing me off.

Nijad sighed.

I am so @#$%ed.

  " Well aint this a fine kettle of..."  Rhic looked about the cave. He was used to some fairly out of the norm situations but this was somewhere so far beyond reality he had to let out a little chuckle as he studied his situation. " This is definately not Kansas."

Recovering from the vertigo atttack the left him dizzy and nauseous, Malcolm studied the scene and a mild panic gripped him. The one thing he actually feared in his existence was to be under another's control.

"Aww, crap..."

Looking around and testing tube-thing he muttered, "...first steps into a larger world... crap..."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:00, Fri 20 Jan 2012.

   The portal of light bursts into existence once more, and from within step four more individuals, young types, who's dress seems to suggest they may be from some school or university.  They are dragging an unconscious red-golden haired female in a rather old fashioned looking skirt and torn blouse.  She is clearly wounded, the blood visible through the bandage visible inside her ruined upper garment.  With little fanfare, they place her in the glass prison between Malcolm and Nijad, then give the other captives a cruel smirk before they turn and leave.
   The lady groans quietly, then cracks open an eye.  Seeing that her captors have made their exit, she sits up, pulling her legs to her chest and lays her head back.

   "Hello," she says in a pretty lilting brogue, as she briefly scans each of the men in turn.  "I'm guessing you must be the other neophytes.  I thought I'd find you here.  Not to worry, lads, help is on the way."  She gasps as a spasm of pain ripples through her, then manages a weak, but encouraging smile.

"I'm thinking.... Daleks? The little guys are gonna climb into trash cans and exterminate us soon, right?"

He looked the woman over.

"You're the plant put here to engender our trust by exploiting your ah... assets and turn us on revealing where the nuclear launch codes or something?"

  Nien, dis is da Lair of Herr Docktor Tottenkampf." Rhic chuckled grimly. He relaxed easily against the wall of his container and crossed his arms studying the movements and activity of the creatures in the cavern eyes focusing on anything that might serve as a weapon. " Daleks tend to be a little more grandiose. I mean this cave is not even half a mile across and they don't even have the big thingie with the sparks jumping from it."

   Lady If you know something about these, people I'd really appreciate the heads up. Id like to know the names of the people I am going to instruct in reasons why not to ruin my day off."

Malcolm started to get a feral look in his eye as his panic gripped him further. His nostrils flared as he strove to take in more oxygen. His mind was going to a place it hadn't in almost a decade...

   The young Lady looked to be certain they weren't being observed, then attempting to sit up, she grimaced in pain, and blinked.  Recovering quickly, she gave Nijad and Rhic a quizzical look.

   "Well, first of all, REAL Daleks are far too xenophobic to ever use humans for agents, so you could be certain I wasn't a "plant" as it were, if these creatures were actually Daleks, but of course they're not, so I certainly could be.  But of course they wouldn't do that, it would be about as subtle as a supernova after all, and these beings can be extremely subtle when they wish to be,"
   She sank down onto her elbow, one hand holding onto her chest as she fought for breath...after a moment she continued, her voice quavering from the effort.  "They call themselves, the Mari'Onek, though most Terrans and their allies refer to them as Puppet-Masters, for rather obvious reasons."
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:58, Sun 22 Jan 2012.

  " Now earlier today I'd have laughed at you and called hte looney bin to see if they were missing one." Rhic spoke up after a minute. He was watching one of the remote controlled humans with a critical eye. " But seeing as things have gotten a bit, strange...I'll assume your not out of your mind. How do you recomend we get out of these over sized mason jars."

Nijad muttered something uncomplimentary under his breath.

"Lady, there isn't anything obvious about this entire situation."

   The Lady smiled weakly, though her breathing seemed to be improving already, she was still moving slowly and wincing with each motion.  She nodded approvingly.

  "Critical and forthright, not afraid to say what he thinks, you must be Nijad.  Well, it helps that its on your name tag of course.  I suppose introductions would be best at this point, and we do seem to have the time.  I am Charlotte, and I know all of you, by name if not by sight.  I'm going to hazard a guess:

John Rhictor (points to Rhic) Nijad Maroun (naturally) and Malcolm...your last name escapes me, mate, but I'm sure its something eminently practical.  Now I do agree Nijad, the reasons behind our current dilemma are hardly obvious, but I do have a theory about it, and unfortunately, I am partly the cause I'm afraid.  These fiendish little brutes wouldn't have been able to mess with you now if they hadn't managed to ambush me and steal my Time Ship.  Well, not me, precisely, actually a future me, but it all really comes down to the same thing I'd say, wouldn't you?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:53, Mon 23 Jan 2012.

His name knifed its way through his horrifically over-active Fight-or-Flight instincts... His feral eyes whipped in the direction of its utterance.

Seeing the wounded woman crumpled in the giant-from-a-50s-sci-fi-movie-test-tube prison cell, a bit of rationality trickled back into his mind. Her words still sounded like they're coming from a Charlie-Brown adult... "mwa-ma-mwa-mwaa..."

But he heard his name, and it was a human name, and he was human.

For the first time since the assault on his senses ebbed, he noticed that he was not alone.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:33, Sun 22 Jan 2012.

  " Okay I'm willing to go out on a limb and say some strange things are going on." His manner was relaxed but his eyes and his voice were dead serious." Rhic stood up and looked the woman up and down. " But time ships are a bit much to take on faith."

  "If you know these little monsters can you suggest a way to get out of the test tubes, fight off these Puppet Masters, and escape with nothing more than we have on us?"
  I'm pretty sure those little guys can take a punch but those zombies they are riding might be up to a brawl."
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:32, Tue 24 Jan 2012.

"Uh... So Miss Pond, I take it we're looking out for your Rory come to rescue?" Nijad asked, before turning the man with the gun.

"And what were you doing bring a gun into my shop anyways? What the hell, man. If I'd gone for the shotgun under the bench you could have got hurt! Were you expecting those guys? Who the hell are you?"

  " Part of the job." Rhic smiled and shruged." I seem to need one more than most people. Those boys made my skin crawl from the start."

  Though I figured it was, employment related." He added as he watched the roving drones. watching for any behavior he could exploit.

"So you're what? An action figure for a living? Who needs a handgun for work shopping in a pawn shop?"

He scowled.

"You must have done this. I should be fixing a toaster right now and you've gone and signed me up for anal probing. Not cool, not cool at all!"

"Hehe..." Malcolm said, still glassy-eyed but starting to come to his senses, "anal probe... that's funny."

For the first time since actually took a look at his surroundings.

"Aww crap."

 Rhic Chuckled raising his hands to malcom with a good natured touch to his nose." I do some interesting, investigative work."
  "And I did end up needing it. I always end up needing it." Rhic sighed and shrugged." Trust me freind if I didn't it would be gathering dust on my mantle."

Nijad shook his head.

"Sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy. You should put a warning label on, maybe wear a bright orange vest?"

  " You might have a point." Rhic gave a dry laugh. He looked around the room." I don't suppose anyone else here has anything special they can use to get us out of her. Since our lady freind seems to have lost her ride."

   Charlotte listened to the discussion as it grew more animated, shaking her head at the direction it was rapidly sliding towards.  She took a moment to observe the Mari'Onek and their human puppets movements, making sure the volume of their voices weren't drawing attention just yet.
   "Amy Pond?" she replied in her almost sing song accent, trying to keep from laughing.  "Honestly Nijad, you really do need to get out more, you closet Whovian.  Your fascination with that British science fantasy is actually interesting, and oddly useful, but I must warn you it is filled with inaccuracies; this is probably not the best time to have that particular discussion however."
   She gave Rhic a nod. "A man of action, oh I do like that.  Very well Rhic, you see that central computer over there?  If I were a betting woman I'd guess that there is an over ride for the magnetic locking system being used for our prison cylinders.  How exactly to reach the over ride...well that's the part I haven't quite figured out just yet.  I am  hopeful however, that your companions arrive presently.  Perhaps I AM a betting woman after all."
    Charlotte turned back to Nijad, hearing him accuse John.  "Look, I do understand that this is a bit of a shock and you do have a right to be angry, I certainly would be, but for goodness sakes, you need all the allies you can get right now and, if I were you, the very last thing I would be doing is making more enemies.  Trust me you have quite enough already.  But I do agree with Malcolm...anal probing is rather funny, unless you happen to be the probee I suppose."

"You're hurt," Malcolm said to the woman in the next test tube... woman.

Aw crap, there was another woman, the animal-girl, with him when they were jumped by the fake cops. He looked around to see if she shared his fate. He didn't see her... but that was either good, or very bad.

His mind was definitely coming back to him as his thoughts moved more than a few inches away from him. He checked himself. His gun and cuffs were gone, but he still had his badge, holster, and pistol magazines.

"Uhm... Malcolm Laurence, FBI. Where the hell are we?" he said to no one in particular.

He was back to a rational state of mind. And now he had to deal with... this.

Nijad waved off the woman's accusations. She had a time ship, it wasn't like she had the same sorts of problems normal people had.

"Magnetic locks?" Nijad mused, crouching down the best he could to examine the floor of his prison tubes. "Are they waterproof? And what are we doing locked up, instead of being saddled up by some Private Reach-Around with a big head? I mean, I was joking about the anal probe, but that's nothing anyone needs repeating. Not that there's anything wrong with it... Are they going to eat us?" he asked, changing the subject.

Clever people always tried to lock things away too cleverly, in Nijad's experience.

   Charlotte smiled. "That's it, you're asking the right questions now, that's far more helpful."  She smiled to Malcolm gratefully. "F.B.I?  Well now that explains a great deal.  Yes, I've been better, admittedly, but our priority has to be finding a way out of this abysmal place.  If we stay here too much longer, none of us will be in very good health, of that I'm certain.  As to where we are, I'm not entirely sure, still on your home planet I suspect, in a very deep underground complex, prisoners of an alien race known as the Puppet Masters...don't call them that though, it does tend to rather annoy them."
   She bit her lip as another spasm of pain went through her, but managed to maintain her composure with an effort.  She nodded at Nijad's pondering, glad to have something to focus on besides her pain. "I think we will find they are waterproof, but its a good idea to consider possible weaknesses in our current accommodations, since your companions do seem to be taking their time about getting here.  And no, they won't eat us, they aren't cannibals, but they will eventually use their psionic-parasite ability to make us their slaves.
   Listen to me carefully.  Sometime in the future, you will encounter this race and their leader, IMIRRHOS, and you will thwart his rather vile attempts to usurp power for himself.  You all are his enemies and I assure you he loathes you more than you can possibly imagine at the moment.  I am certain his intentions in coming here were to capture you for that very purpose: to bring you under his control before you ever become his adversaries.  Its the only thing that makes sense."

   Nijad examines the floor of his cylinder and finds it made of some sort of slippery metallic substance he cannot identify.  The cylinder itself appears made of some kind of hardened alloy, transparent as glass, but far stronger.  Striking it causes it to make an odd high pitched hum, but has no other discernible affect.  Outside of the transparent cylinder, at base, are four six inch long box-like mechanisms that presumably contain some sort of lock.

Still crouched, Nijad reached into his back pocket and got out his tools. Obviously they weren't worried that his non-spaceman equipment would work against their Lord Emperor Ming's mighty technology, but Nijad didn't think he'd look good with a little man riding his back for the rest of his life. It was bad enough having a parole officer.

"Isn't that a bit self-fulfilling? Shouldn't they have just gone back and killed our grandfathers? Or enslaved the planet before we were even born or something?"

He had an epiphany.

"You've got a time ship, right? Once we're out of this, you should probably go back in time and pack yourself an extra Martian medpack before you get caught by the aliens. Then you'd have one of those hidden in your...shoe? And the Fed over there could have one of his bullets replaced by some super shaped charge capable of blowing a hole in our space bongs, ensuring we can escape and go back in time and plot our way out of this mess in the past from the future."

He sighed.

"Or else I'm gonna piss in my cage and see if anything shorts out. Which, I don't mind reminding you, gets fairly nasty if it doesn't work... I like my other idea. And we don't even have to take Napoleon to the water park to make it work! Excellent!"