Natalia, from her upbringing, certainly wasn't one to speak when authority figures were around. Moley had summarized everything perfectly, and Richard filled in the rest. She had no need to slip anything else in there, and so she tried to look 'pretty' and normal, sitting up straight and listening to the discussion closely.

In reply to Mindhaze (msg # 12):

Thinkmaster glares at Mindhaze, and raises a digital eyebrow. "I expect a report from all of you." She says flatly.

"Now, now. We don't need to start scolding our valuable operatives, do we?" Alderwood said with a chuckle. "That being said, Mindhaze your value to the team is apparent and your observations unique. You can sense things your other two teammates cannot, yes? We would like to know your thoughts."
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:28, Tue 09 Jan.

Looking surprised, she shrugged,

"I'm not really sure what else I can offer. I am sorry." she said awkwardly. She honestly had nothing more to say, and she clearly struggled with what to say, "It was almost exactly what Bri... umm, Moley said. Necromizer has some telepathic abilities, I think, but beyond trying to convince me to give up the team, nothing beyond that. No attacks, nothing else." she shrugged again. She really hoped this didn't change the other's opinions of her.

Thinkmaster seems annoyed, but then turns to the team as a whole. "Your instructions where to avoid the Amazonian. The risk she posed was too great. When you refused to follow that direction, the scanner was quickly retooled. We had to use an experimental processes we had wished future testing involving Warhead's powers could result in a possible treatment for the infected. Against my advice...again...the Omega went from theory to active application."

"BUT..." Alderwood's holographic head interrupted Thinkmaster. "...we seemed to have great success. For a brief time, the Amazonian was returned to us. Granted she had not recovered fully, as her lack of speech suggests. The infected rarely speak, even to each other. Granted her sacrifice was tragic, but by sealing herself and the Necromizer into one of the magical planes of existence, she had created a hole between dimensions. The Haze no longer fully cuts off the sources of magic from earth! This is a great achievement which could be used to gather help and resources by the mystics of earth. Perhaps even a way to get the normal citizens to a safe dimension and out from our force bubble cities. We are much closer to a solution to our many problems, and Team Moley should be proud of this achievement."

The floating ghostly head looks over at Thinkmaster, who seems intent to ignore him.

Moley nodded to both the arch druid and Thinkmaster. “We thank you both for your critiques. I will state that we did fully intend to avoid the Amazonian and did so until she was upon us with her amazons. We had not fully gathered all the necessary data the bracelet needed. So we had to engage in order to complete our mission that you assigned us. The high level Infected are usually territorial. With the Amazonian now out of the picture, will the other neighboring ones move in to claim it or leave it as a vacuum for now? Do they even know when another has been defeated?”

In reply to Holey Moley (msg # 18):

"Unknown. The Alpha infected are often very chaotic in their habits. Some are capable of organized plans, but that quickly breaks down when it comes to competing for food. The Amazonian had actually abandoned her normal hunting ground to chase after the Necromizer. We also have no idea what will happen to Alphas that draw their power from magical energy. They had been slightly weakened due to the Haze, but very well may be restored to full strength." Thinkmaster said, almost sounding grim.

In reply to Thinkmaster (msg # 19):

"Or..." Alderwood added, clearly gainsaying Thinkmaster once more. "The fresh flow of extradimensional energy may allow them to overcome the endless hunger that drives them-even for a brief time. We could use that to try and convert them to our cause." Thinkmaster actually rolls her eyes at that statement.

Richard frowned at the holographic representation of Thinkmaster. He was liking her/them less and less as time went on. They weren't pawns to be moved around on a chessboard, but he figured that she/they thought of them that way, or even as less than that, probably. His eyes shifted to the other person, the one he didn't know occasionally.

He let out a sigh and rolled his eyes when Thinkmaster brought up ignoring their advice the second time. "Oh STUFF it! We weren't gonna let all those people die to avoid the Amazonian or the Necromizer, so get off it and ignoring your 'advice' already."

He quieted down after that outburst and let things continue. The mystic stuff he couldn't speak to really so didn't interject.

In reply to Warhead (msg # 21):

Thinkmaster narrowed her eyes at Warhead. "The reasons for our orders was for your safety. You are all too valuable to throw away on a hopeless battle."

"That is up for debate as well. From what we gathered, the three of them held their own without being infected, dying, or reanimated against not just the Amazonian-but Necromizer as well. At the same time no less! Impressive!" Alderwood smiled while Thinkmaster seethed in her non-emotional way.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:37, Wed 10 Jan.

Richard stared right back at Thinkmaster. "Moving on...any more questions? Or can we find out what the fancy gizmo told you? I admit I find myself curious what, despite the Omega Strike or whatever, happened, what data was able to be collected and what use we can make of it."

He wasn't trying to be a pain in the ass, he just...he wanted to be done with the briefing. He had some things to think about, maybe some things to try out.

Thinkmaster was quite rude, and Richard wasn't wrong. Its not like they'd had the capability to just 'jog away' from the Amazonian and the Necromizer, and so they were being blamed for something out of their control.

Agreeing with Richard, she verbally sent her agreement,

"Agreed. Its not like we were prepped well enough to be able to escape them anyways. More like we were thrown to the wolves and had to fend entirely for ourselves against the two forces that even these two seem afraid of." she said, facing Richard, even though her words were clearly spoken loudly enough for everyone to hear.

Turning back to listen, she was quite curious as to Richard's questions being answered. She too was curious, and waited for a response.

In reply to Warhead (msg # 24):

Thinkmaster glared at Alderwood for a second, and seemingly ignored everyone else in the room. Then she sighed and spoke to all. "Yes, the data the reader sent was used both for our research into a treatment for the infected, and for the Omega strike. However, I will require you to give up the device so we can remodel it for the next time we need further data."

Sure enough, the gizmo was still on Warhead's wrist. It had not been removed, even when he was unconscious.

Richard looked down at his wrist as if he hadn't even noticed he was still wearing it, which elicited a frown. He made himself slowly and carefully remove the device instead of quickly. He didn't want to damage it.

"No problem. Here you go." He set it down on the table.

In reply to Warhead (msg # 27):

The device detaches from his arm, and there is a visible rush of energy from Warhead into the gizmo. Warhead feels drained for a second, and then a rush of power fills in the brief 'gap' when he felt almost human for a second.

"Excellent. You will all be contacted for your next mission soon. In the meantime the new members of the Freebooters you brought in can be found everywhere in the complex. You should all get some rest as the next task you will be assigned will occur very soon." With that, her face vanishes.

Alderwood smiles even as the device Warhead put on the table fades from view. "Thank you all again. Do not think we have seen the last of the Amazonian. She has defended this earth for 1000s of years. She will rise again when needed." Then his face vanishes from the hologram display.

"Ughhh." He grimaced. "Damnit! Hey!" He grumbled more quietly, "...stupid energy-stealing thing...could at least ask or buy me dinner first"

He took heart that the Amazonian might be back. But did that mean the Necromizer might be back too then? He didn't like that thought at all.

He let out a sigh and stood up, heading out of the briefing room.

Standing up with Richard, Natalia frowned,

"So it is just business as usual now?" she asked, following him out of the room, but glancing to make sure Moley knew he was welcome to join them, "They send us on a deadly mission, with no support and no great details... lecture us on how we perform, take our 'spoils', and then just tell us "be ready to go do this again"?" she shook her head, clearly thinking this was unfair.

Moley observed the interactions but stayed mostly quiet. Once they were dismissed, he walked alongside his comrades. “Yeah that’s basically how it goes. The whole point is the time in between the missions. Living and laughing with friends without fear of getting bitten. Let’s check back in with the people that came with us.”

Richard didn't stop but he looked over at Natalia with a gaze that...spoke volumes of different emotions. His voice was flat when he spoke too, hiding anger, disappointment, maybe a couple of other things too.

"The unfortunate truth is that to Thinkmaster we're valuable but ultimately expendable assets." He snorted and shook his head. He didn't like that thought one bit. He didn't think he much liked working with or for Thinkmaster either.

But here they were, with no better choices.

He let out a long sigh. "Sure. Let's go get something to eat. Clean up. Relax. Whatever, I guess. It could be worse."

Hearing the way the two men coped with the situation gave Natalia a bit of a pause, and thought, but she said nothing of it. She could see it from their perspectives, she guessed.

"Ok, let's check back in. See how they all are. Hopefully they're finding themselves at home, but given the way Thinkmaster treats us I hope they aren't being treated even worse." she shrugged, figuring it couldn't be worse than being out there.

"Maybe Thinkmaster needs to become "Think-second-in-command"." she joked sticking her tongue out at Richard and Brian.

You leave the conference room, and head into the main base itself.

OOC-move your posting to the Mole hole. You can stay togeather or spilt up to do diffrent things.