erroneous messenger, sleep!

[incanted]

Brilliance is probably the first person to notice Rainbow's Janepoint broadcasting the message, "error 112358: inferior pattern recognition".

Comments

[cardistry]

He has enough time to show her that he loves her before he starts screaming again.

[incanted]

The first order of business is to take this asshole's staff. She squares it out of his hands, and out of the way; it might be loyal and explode or something if she tries to handle it herself. "Restore." For the damage already done; it's not much but it's something and it takes two syllables. "Who's hurting him?" she asks, pouring aura out; the threat sensor should help find the answer if this creep won't. This creep doesn't likely have her attentional capacity and she was losing it at the end; someone else has to be doing it.

[pythbox]

The major threat on board this ship is a magical weapons system attached to the ship itself. The asshole's staff is the next one down. Apart from that, there are a few more devices here and there that barely register, and then some humans with varying magical potential.

"Hurting who? The device? Lady, what are you after?"

[incanted]

Turn weapons system off. The staff's being quiet for now and might be alive; she lets it be for the time being. "The device. Who's hurting him? I am after it stopping right the fuck now. Who do I have to fucking kill to make it stop?"

She'd be less casual with the death threats if she didn't expect Jane back eventually to let her rethink any lethal decisions she might make.

[pythbox]

"Are you even armed?"

[incanted]

She flares aura, brightbrightbright, a powerful sorceress wants your entrails for decorations. "I don't have to be fucking armed! Do I have to magic your head from your shoulders to threaten the next asshole with? Who is hurting him?"

[pythbox]

"Calm down," the stranger says irritably, looking around for their vanished staff. "What's your stake in this? The noise is annoying, but you didn't have to come here and listen to it, now did you?"

[incanted]

Wish.

Aurora is now the first Bell to wish for super-strength she didn't already get accustomed to.

She grabs the creep by the throat, floats into the air so as to lift all involved feet off the ground, and goes looking for the next ping on her radar, posthaste.

She is not careful about offering air supply.

[pythbox]

The creep struggles ineffectually.

The next ping on her radar is a roomful of people - six in all - watching Brilliance from several angles on a row of screens.

When Aurora appears carrying their friend, with her aura still going strong, it causes something of a stir. (As one side effect, the distant sound of Brilliance screaming gets a little quieter.)

[incanted]

"Who," she says distinctly, "is hurting my Device, and how many of you do I have to murder before it stops?"

[pythbox]

"Look, put Gem down and we'll talk," says one person.

"If it's yours then why was it abandoned on an uninhabited planet?" says another.

"If we let it up it'll kill everyone! We've heard stories!" says a third.

[incanted]

Bella sets "Gem" down. Technically. She keeps her hand around their neck.

"Because we can fucking teleport, so it's not actually uninhabited, and he is not the one you should be worrying about killing you," hisses Bella, "let him up now, this instant, and I might not."

[pythbox]

Gem coughs and says, "Shut it down, shut it down," gesturing urgently. One by one, the other six people disengage from Devotion.

The distant screaming stops.

[incanted]

Bella releases Gem's throat.

She pops to where Brilliance is and scoops him up into her arms, hugging tight, and then pops back into the control room.

"Now," says Bella, "you're going to tell me who you are and how you got access to my Device's functions."

[cardistry]

Brilliance clings to her and whimpers.

Everyone else flinches.

"We had its access codes," says Gem. "Look, if you want it, take it. We won't bother you again."

[incanted]

"How did you get his access codes?" Bella asks, threading her fingers through Brilliance's hair.

[cardistry]

Brilliance sniffles and hugs her.

"From a combat cyborg named Teno. He said he worked on the original project," says Gem.

[incanted]

+Sunshine, are the access codes something I can change for you? Boot them from the system...?+ "The original project should have all died."

[cardistry]

"Take it up with Teno, if you can find him," snorts Gem.

+don't know. don't - don't,+ says Brilliance.

[incanted]

"I don't like your tone," Bella tells Gem. "My conscience is currently the only thing keeping you in one human-shaped piece, bear in mind, and you wear it very thin." Her aura's wrapped protectively around Brilliance, hissing and fizzing at Gem and the others. "What did you want with him?"

[pythbox]

"...It's a planet-destroying weapon, what are you using it for?" Gem says incredulously. "With that kind of firepower, we'd never have to worry about the TSAB again!"

[incanted]

"Of the two of us, one of us kidnapped the other's Device, and it's you. My activities are none of your business. I wasn't bothering you. What is the TSAB, and why would being able to destroy planets mean you didn't have to worry about them again?"

[pythbox]

Gem looks at her like she is the most incomprehensible thing they have ever seen.

[incanted]

"Talk," advises Bella darkly.

[pythbox]

"Make sense," says Gem. "What do you mean, 'what is the TSAB'? Are you trying to tell me you don't already know?"