"If he was referring to you, he wouldn't have attacked the prison," Goodwill pointed out. "He'd have gone looking for you."

Knowing that Captain Crazypants wasn't there for Lynx, though, wasn't the same as knowing what he was there for. They'd just have to follow the guy and make sure he didn't blow things up worse than they already were.

Cosmic Girl pursed her lips. "We'd best get after him." She peered out of the hole in the wall. "I've not seen her before," she remarked about Twist, "but we could use some more help. I'm not sure I want to go into a super-powered person prison where they might be out of their cells, not without as much backup as we can get."

She waved a hand, beckoning Twist and her Cogster cohort to join them. She called out. "Going in to sort this all out! You're welcome to join us!"

She gave a sly wink to Lynx. Whatever else happened, she would try to keep her friend's true identity a secret. Cosmos trusted the government implicitly, but it was not her place to put her friend into their clutches!

"Rather good points, both of you. I am likely worrying for nothing. Hopefully, the situation out there will be fine for a few moments. The only major-looking threat left appeared to be a odd man in a suit that The Impersonator said could steal abilities? With so many agents around, I'm sure the outdoor area will be fine."

Lynx returned with a crisp wink back at Cosmic Girl before raising her own hand to join her in waving over the hero-villain duo. More forces would be a good idea, particularly since The Cogster should at least be able to recognize parts of the facility, even if only his own cell.

The group of 4 heroes (and The Cogster) delve deeper into the prison... following the one trail of walls and doors that have been punched inward, not outward.

They come to a deep underground level that none of them have seen before.

In it, in a very round room, standing near the punched-in entrance, is Captain Cosmos.

In the middle of the room, floating in a sort of glass sphere, is a young woman (maybe 24 or so) with white hair and white clothing.

The glass sphere also contains a light green vapor.

Also, the young woman is glowing, pulsing with a very light-green light. The pulsations are slowly growing stronger.

"That," says Captain Cosmos, "is the problem. It looks like they've sedated her, but she shouldn't be in this dimension at all. She's been here too long. So the question is, what to do about it? Who is she? And does this planet have frequency-harmonic interocitors?"

Surprisingly, it was The Cogster who spoke up. "I don't know much about her," he says, "but I think I know more than these four vigilantes. Her name is Echo, and she's from another dimension. There was a vigilante-- don't remember her name-- who could become immaterial, intangible. She lost control of her power while attempting to stop a crime, and when the figurative smoke cleared, Echo was here instead. She talked about being from another world where I think all heroes were villains, and I presume vice-versa. I wish I could answer your second question as informatively-- this planet does not have frequency-harmonic interocitors at the moment, and I don't think I have time to build one..."

Cosmic Girl's aura cast an eerie greenish-purple glow as they made their way through the corridors of the prison, past the broken doors and debris of the Captain's passing. She kept alert, ready to blast down anybody who looked like causing trouble. The inmates, however, seemed to consider discretion to be the better part of valour, and had kept out of Captain Cosmos' path. Sensible decision.

As The Cogster spoke, she muttered to herself, "Not a vigilante, I'm a government-sanctioned agent. I've got paperwork." But this was neither the time nor the place to make an issue of it all. Instead, she floated closer to Echo, and peered into her sphere. "Is it safe to remove her? And does that mean she is from a version of Earth that is back to front? I don't like the idea of there being an evil version of me anywhere!" It was a valid concern. Cosmic Girl showed restraint, and was still able to level buildings as easily as swatting a fly. She had proven that all too graphically when they had been hunting down the malevolent Norwood. A version of her who actively revelled in destruction was a daunting prospect indeed. "And wouldn't that mean that there was another Echo here already?"

Lynx wasn't about to balk at being called a vigilante. The term was technically accurate, even if that was just a cover. She'd been doing the work of a vigilante for a while and there was no authority on the planet that would even be aware of her true purpose, other than that of the allies she'd already informed. For all intents and purposes, she was a vigilante.

Additionally, the concept of another world where heroes were villains and villains were heroes was quite interesting, particularly since it seemed to support some sort of binary idea of good and evil... What would that mean in her case? In truth, she was really only posing as a 'hero', instead working on behalf of the Brin Monarchy. Of course, she'd found 'heroing' to be... a worthwhile occupation. Yet, the Brin Monarchy was primarily interested in expanding and improving its society rather than the sort of 'good deeds' she and her fellow superheroes attempted on a daily basis. Would they remain unchanged in this alternate reality and would that mean that a Ch'rava not so different from her would have wound up posing as some sort of villain on the planet? Or would circumstances have already changed enough on Earth such that someone else would've been in the path of her ship? Would this other Ch'rava have even crashlanded?

Still, this was not the time to get bogged down in ontological concerns. It was time to problem-solve. Captain Cosmos wasn't here for her in the slightest, so she could stand to let go of her paranoia. A little.

Lynx cleared her throat. "Perhaps that other vigilante was an alternate version of this Echo? That could explain why she disappeared when Echo appeared. And, if that's the situation we're in... Echo herself could be capable of swapping places with that vigilante again, could she not? Perhaps only if she were to 'lose control' in the same way or if she were to become stronger in some fashion, however. And that's assuming they were even actually alternate versions of each other in the first place, which I don't believe we have a way to confirm."

"Safe for whom?" asks The Cogster. "For us? I think so. That gas would seep down to the floor, and wouldn't knock us out for several minutes. Safe for Echo? I think so. But if you do, she'll wake up soon, and I don't know what mood she might be in..."



The Cogster opens his mouth to reply, but--



"Just the sort of thing I was about to say," says The Cogster. "I agree. Somewhere in-- in World-B, let's call it, if we want to think of ours as World A-- somewhere, there is a vigilante, who is presumably needing to return to our world right about now..."

"How exactly would we accomplish that?" Goodwill asked. The conversation was in danger of going completely over his head at this point, but he was still hanging on. Other worlds. Sure. "I don't even know what an interocitor is."

(Charming roll, please...)

Goodwill rolled 8 using 2d6+1 ((4,3)).

"...I could tell you... what might work... but I would need a deal for full amnesty... or at least immediate probation. Please go and get Agent Delancey from outside."

Captain Cosmos flies over to Goodwill. "This situation is cosmically dangerous," he says quietly. "If the floating prisoner, Echo, is allowed to continue in this pulsating state too much longer, it might release an energy discharge that-- well, from what I noticed when I flew down here, I think this region is far too heavily-populated with innocent civilians for extended haggling. That large island off the coast nearby looked much too crowded to evacuate in a hurry."

Twist collectively queried Captain and Cogster: "This interocitor thingie... is it some sort of oscillator to harmonize different dimensional vibrations? Could its abilities be recreated by using any sort of device capable of producing the proper frequency? Because I'm basically a human rubberband. If you pluck me, do I not thrum?" She flung her arm across the room, plucked at her elastic appendage, and did in fact thrum.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:46, Mon 31 Oct 2022.

The Cogster looks very anxious suddenly. "No no, my dear-- that would be much too dangerous for you..."

Twist flashed her teeth at Cogster. "Danger is my middle name, hon."

"Uh, yeah," Goodwill agreed. He wasn't sure about letting the Cogster out of jail, but that could be Delancey's problem. "I'll go get him."

Sooner or later, he'd like to introduce himself to the new girl, but now was not the time. He lifted back up off the ground and in a bright golden glow he streaked back out of the prison.

Lynx was confused for a moment — wouldn't it make sense for the speedster to fetch the agent? But, she supposed, she understood. It wasn't like Delancey could travel back with her the same speed.

"At the very least, could getting Echo out of there stop the pulsating? I'm assuming that's probably a negatory, but if so, that could give us more time."

Twist replied to White Lynx. "I'm gonna guess waking her up would just hasten the process. If that's knockout gas in the orb with her, she's doing this in her sleep."

Lynx nodded. "It'd be nice and convenient if her being awake meant that she'd be able to stop the lightshow herself... But you're probably right. It could be too dangerous."

Cosmos frowned. She was still just a teenage girl with limited scientific knowledge. She'd cut up a frog, and made a crystal in a jar, but beyond that, she was just a kid. So this was all a bit over her head. "Would she know how she got here? Could she replicate it? I mean, if we let her out, and we need to get her somewhere away from people, I could pretty easily fly her out to sea or into a desert or something. But it might be better to have her just go off home." She tapped the sphere. "I could cut this open in a jiffy, I expect."

Twist again queried Captain and Cogster: "Assuming you have the means to detect this, is her pulsation changing frequency, increasing in output, or both?"

Outside, that one guy is causing a lot of trouble for Delancey and his agents-- he keeps breathing fire at them, yikes.

It looks like he's trying to get to a couple of teenagers over to the side-- The Impersonator and Blue Dragon. In fact, it looks like he's about to succeed...

---

"Yes, I think waking her up right now might only speed that up slightly," says The Cogster...




"The wavelength of her energy remains... roughly the same," says Captain Cosmos, squinting at Echo, "but what concerns me more is that it's slowly building..."
This message was last updated by the player at 16:13, Mon 31 Oct 2022.

Twist bobbed her head once. "So output is increasing and frequency is unchanging. We need the equivalent of a lightning rod, to ground out her power build-up."

"If we could somehow convert that energy to electricity, I could try to absorb some of it and then send it somewhere else, but that leaves us without a converter or a ground rod." Lynx shook her head. The idea was interesting, but the energy wasn't compatible. Besides, she still remembered the last time she'd tried something like this. "Care to share your bright idea yet, Cogstopher? Goodwill's already gone off to get the good agent and you're not gonna get a good deal if we're all dead."

The scene that greeted Goodwill outside was one of continued chaos. He had really thought that the authorities had the rest of the bad guys contained, but that one guy was still making a mess of things. In fact, it looked like he was about to char-broil Impersonator and Blue Dragon.

He didn't give a moment's consideration to the fact that they were criminals. Rather, Goodwill swooped in and did his best to clobber the nameless opponent with the bad breath.


Goodwill rolled 10 using 2d6+3 ((4,3)).
--Hit hard
--Avoid collateral damage (e.g., to Impersonator and B.D.)

Cosmic Girl studied the vapour in the sphere carefully. "It looks a bit like the energy I produce. Do you think it could be? If that were true, I doubt it would hurt me. I could fly her off somewhere where she can't do any harm? Or open the sphere without anybody else needing to stand too close. Captain?" She looked at him. "What do you think?"