open | event | Thanks to the Rolling Sea

[ironwood]

Characters: Team Echo, Foxtrot; also, everyone!
Date: February 24th (through 28th)
Location: Underwater; beneath the turtle
Situation: The barrier that has kept Foreigners from diving directly beneath the turtle have shifted and something there awaits discovery.
Warnings/Rating: Squids; to be updated as needed.

OOC Note: This is the third and final phase the three phase February metaplot event! What Team Echo finds beneath the turtle will have far-reaching impact on the game, therefore it is recommended that everyone read the write-up under the below cut!

Underwater | Beneath Tu Vishan

Overview
The repair work on the surface of the turtle is completed and all major wounds have been tended by the kedan. Each shell break has been patched up with the strongest materials they have access to, with many buildings in the Metal Sector having been scavanged fo provide the resources necessary to complete this work. Whole sections of shell have been stabilised with metal support structures and there are teams of kedan drafting long-term plans to monitor the natural healing of Tu Vishan.

Each worksite has been shut down, cleaned up, and the police presence dismissed as life appears to return to normal in Keeliai. All prisoners rounded up and held on trespassing chargers will be released over the course of the day.

Meanwhile, as routine takes hold once more, three teams of kedan are moving quietly to the edge of the shell and lowering large parcels of equipment and supplies into the water. They are then taking on aquatic forms and moving the work to damage beneath Tu Vishan's shell unmentioned by Eshai on the grounds of out-of-sight, out-of-mind. Questions asked of these teams as they depart Keeliai are answered as heading out to routine surveying and one applying too much pressure is apt to draw the attention of an officer for obstructing a workorder -- a grave offence in the city's legal code.

Characters that can survive in water are welcome to explore beneath the turtle, discovering that the barrier that usually "disables" their bodies in the area directly beneath where Keeliai stands surfaceside has faded and they can freely roam the area. Be warned, though! Many, many kedan are patrolling the area in a variety of aquartic forms, from hybrids to replication of natural seafaring creatures. These kedan will not ask questions or arrest, but are ordered to outright attack any that enter this perimeter. They may appear initially shocked at a Foreigner accessing this supposedly protected space, but that will not detract them for long.

Team Echo:
This team will be discovering a cloning facility established beneath the turtle and it is here that their bodies are created and prepared for the arrival of their souls via Eshai's magic. Depending on the actions of Team Echo, this facility may be destroyed. An OOC post on the community will be forthcoming in the next week to explain the impacts, if any, of this find and the changes it may bring to the game..

Additionally: Until this information ICly hits the network, these details are ICly limited to Team Echo and anyone they subsequently mention it to in a thread. It will likely be a Team Echo member that posts about it and it likely will not be long before this information is spread, just please keep that detail in mind.

Team Foxtrot:
The details of this team's findings are outlined in the thread header provided in this post. However, how does everyone feel about calamari? 8D

OOC: As with all previous logs, headers have been provided for questions, the two teams, and any random divers that wish to explore! And a reminder: An OOC post on the community will be forthcoming in the next week to explain the impacts, if any, of this find and the changes it may bring to the game

Comments

TEAM ECHO are slow planners /cough

[littlecousin]

[Nearly dying in the Earth Sector fire had taught Nita a modicum of caution, so when the kedan in aquatic forms start splashing into water the above her with Suspicious Equipment, she hesitates. It is her native element, and with sea around her constantly replenishing her strength, she knows she's a match for any dozen kedan, but...

She's capable of exercising the better part of valor, and so she turns and darts away from the action, skimming unseen until she can surface somewhere out of sight--and then make for the city like a shot.

The list of people she knows who can survive underwater is short. Superman, Green Lantern, Kara, Arthur, Mera, Kaldur. Maybe Santo, but she bets he sinks like, well, a rock. Most of them are, unsurprisingly, in Water Sector, but a straight line back to Keeliai puts her over Fire Sector first, and she dips into the residential section.

Then yells.]

Kara! Kara, are you around?

[notdreaming]

[ Kara is out the door of her building in less than a second. She's really mastered the art of not breaking doors while moving at super-speed. And the shouting is just unnecessary, she would have heard even if Nita had whispered her name. ]

Nita? Nita, what's wrong?

[littlecousin]

[Well, that was prompt. Nita has no idea about super-hearing beyond the "normal" kind she has, and she wouldn't have heard a whisper.]

There are some kedan diving off the shell edge [she jerks her thumb over her shoulder to indicate where] with a bunch of crates and some stuff that looks like scientific equipment. They are acting all kinds of shady. You up for looking into why?

[Nita has every intention of proceeding to Water and picking up the Atlanteans if Kara doesn't want to go, but she's not wasting much time by asking first.]

[notdreaming]

[ Suspicious? Scientific equipment? This is completely up her alley, even excluding her membership with the BPRD. ]

Let me change.

[ She's gone for a second, and then another second later she's back, wearing her graduation suit. It's 100% more waterproof than her other clothes. ]

How long ago did you see them?

[littlecousin]

Ten, fifteen minutes.

[Nita's in her scaly green swimsuit. Pose for a half-page panel, because this crossover is on.]

[notdreaming]

[ That's a good quarter page of leg, but Kara gets the sense of urgency. ]

Should we tell someone where we're going?

[littlecousin]

We could flag a message for Arthur? He's the one best qualified to follow up if we don't come back.

[This "planning ahead" thing is hard.]

[notdreaming]

That would work. [ She should let Kal know, but... well she figures he can hear her anyway. If not, she can always scream if they get in trouble. ]

[littlecousin]

'Kay. From your console? You're way faster. I can wait.

[Look, what your older, more powerful, overprotective cousin doesn't know about, he can't stop you from doing.]

[notdreaming]

[ That also. She nods, and in a moment she's gone.

She takes just long enough to leave the message and then she rejoins Nita. No need to start a conversation. ]

Done. Lead the way.

[littlecousin]

[Nita immediately takes off for the water at her maximum airspeed, which isn't much. She's about as fast as a car on the highway. A car driven by someone from Boston, but still.]

You can pull me along if that'd work. I can survive being unprotected at supersonic speeds, I just can't go that fast myself.

[notdreaming]

I can get us as far as the water, but I don't know where they went. [ She offers her hand anyway. If they can manage without breaking Nita's arm, she's down for it. ]

[littlecousin]

[Nita readily takes Kara's hand. She's much tougher than she looks.]

No prob, I can take the lead from there, and this'll cut a good ten minutes off our flight time.

[notdreaming]

Alright. Brace yourself! [ Kara gives her a couple of seconds before they're blasting through the air too fast to really see the buildings go by. She stops right before they hit the water though. She's not sure how the surface tension might hurt Nita at this speed. ]

Which way?

[littlecousin]

[Nita giggles, enjoying the ride, but the tremendous wind dries her out, and she's more than ready to dive and renew herself.]

That way. We'll hug the barrier on the underside and approach from below. The kedan aren't natural amphibians, so they probably have trouble thinking three-dimensionally.

[With that, she plunges into the water in a dive so smooth there's barely a splash.]

[notdreaming]

[ Kara makes a few more ripples, but now she's figured out how to fly instead of swim and she keeps up much more easily.

Still not equipped for talking, sadly. ]

[littlecousin]

[Nita's eyes are highly adapted for just this situation, and as they draw closer to the group of kedan, she spots them, dark shapes moving against the dark underside of the shell, and points, putting her other finger to her lips to keep Kara silent.

Not that that's really an issue, but force of habit.]

[notdreaming]

[ Kara nods, and rather than glowing to increase her own field of vision she relies on Nita's eyes. This is no time to get caught. ]

[littlecousin]

[The kedan are moving slowly by Nita's standards--they're only as fast as the one least adapted to the water, after all, and they're burdened with equipment, so she has plenty of time to think while she and Kara tail them at depth. She whispers in Kara's ear, still not knowing it's unnecessary.]

They've been traveling in a straight line toward the center of the shell this whole time. We could swim ahead and see what's there. This crowd is so slow we could be there and back before they've made it a mile.

[notdreaming]

I could use my x-ray--

[ She sort of gargles. With the not breathing and all she forgot she can't really talk. ]

[littlecousin]

[Nita stifles a laugh for politeness' sake and to keep from being heard.]

Go ahead if you think it'll work.

[Not that Kara can really share her results.]

[notdreaming]

[ She nods, then squints in the direction of the kedan. In the shadow of the turtle they're just shapes in the darkness, but once her x-ray vision kicks in they become much brighter. Now they just have to contend with the bone of the turtle above them. From this angle she can make out the shape of a building, and she frowns at it. There's definitely more equipment inside, what look like they could be containment chambers, but in x-ray the details are hard to make out. They have to get closer. She mouths the word 'building'. Once they're inside sneaking up will be much easier. ]

[littlecousin]

[Nita nods.]

Right, let's ditch these losers.

[And then she's off in the direction Kara's looking.]

[notdreaming]

[ And Kara follows close behind, using her x-ray vision now to keep track of both Nita and the kedan. Why didn't she think of that before? Oh right, because her powers are still strange to her. ]

[kelpful]

[Percy had been minding his own business in the water next to the turtle when the kedan started dropping in. Not that he'd been able to see them at the time, but he could feel them entering the water from his position floating some distance away.

ADHD sort of goes hand in hand with curiosity, and he soon forgets that he's supposed to be figuring out how to deal with his new found fear of drowning. Dragging a nearby current towards him, he uses it to propel himself faster through the water, taking care to approach from a less visible angle until he's right on top of the barrier.

Or...where the barrier used to be. Percy's spent a lot of time underwater since he got on the turtle, and the barrier's been a constant source of frustration to him. Apparently it's not a problem anymore, and he hesitates for a moment, wondering if he should find Annabeth and tell her.

But if he leaves, it might come back. In Percy's experience, barriers are usually there for a reason, and he wants to now what's behind this one. He swims on, making sure to stay at a distance from the kedan. it looks like they're carrying equipment of some kind, and Percy squints down. Maybe there's some sort of underwater building going on? But the turtle's moving all the time, that doesn't make any--]

Whoa. [While he's looking down, he forgets to look ahead as well. He sets the current he borrowed loose again, coming to a stop before he runs into Nita and Kara.] Uh, hi. Exploring? [He's spoken to them both before and is mostly sure they aren't about to attack him, but not one hundred percent. He backs off a little bit, keeping his distance for now.]