Poughkeepsie Attacks!!!: Team Big Blue

[gone_byebye]

The IBM Supercomputer Benchmarking Plant in Poughkeepsie lies at the center of an enormous corporate campus on the northern side of town. As far as Ray can tell, that's where the really hairy readings were coming from, although he could of course be wrong.

He's about to find out. Ecto pulls to a stop just outside the main entrance to the IBM property. "Are we good?" Ray asks.

Comments

[wellthrownstone.livejournal.com]

He nods carefully before obeying Ray's request, carefully bending the sticks so as not to break them.

[gone_byebye]

Each capsule that breaks inside the tubes releases a flow of something. The least little motion mixes the two fluids, and the sticks start glowing brilliant green a moment later.

"Okay," Ray says, settling back into a crouch to get a good look at the putty eggs. "I think you can break those open now- I want to pour the glowing stuff into each of these. Wait until you see what these can do..."

[wellthrownstone.livejournal.com]

He snapped the first of them in half before doing as told, stepping back afterwards as he knows nothing of what might happen.

[gone_byebye]

One by one, the putty eggs begin to glow that same green- oh, not so brilliant perhaps, being diluted, but still quite bright. Ray reaches into his jacket pocket and extracts what looks like a video game controller. "Here goes nothing," he says, and starts punching buttons rapid-fire with both thumbs.

At first, nothing appears to be happening. Then, one by one, the contents of the eggs- the glowing green contents of the eggs- spill out, flow together, and begin to swell up to the size of some of the smaller cars that Garion's seen. Each one eventually resolves into a shapeless congerie of protoplasmic bubbles, greenly self-luminous, and with myriads of brighter eye-like bubbles forming and un-forming everywhere.

"Pretty, aren't they?" Ray comments cheerfully. "I almost got eaten by one of those once. I'm going to send them out after Peck's boys..."

[wellthrownstone.livejournal.com]

'...that's one word for it," he says weakly. "But I suppose it's pretty. In an odd sort of way."

[gone_byebye]

"Well, they're absolutely terrifying when they're bearing down on you, and the real things are literally mind-bogglingly revolting, but then the real things are also about the size of one of those subway trains we rode on that one time," Ray says. "These guys are practically cute by comparison. Anyway-"

He starts fiddling with the controls again and one by one, the glowing green mini-shoggoths start gallumphing off. "They're made of Daffy Putty," Ray notes. "One of Tyler's friends came up with it. When they encounter an enemy they can wrap around him and immobilize him, or engulf an explosive device or gun and keep the force from harming anyone. There's no actual creatures involved- these are just controlled shapes of goo, not something living."

One of the mini-shoggoths finds a sewer opening well down the way and oozes into it. A few moments later, there's incoherent screaming from the nearest storm drain.

"I think that one's running."

[wellthrownstone.livejournal.com]

"I'll have to keep that in mind," he says quietly, "how those work. I might be able to do something with shadows or maybe--"

For one brief second, he considers a monster like that made out of wool.

He dismisses it.

[gone_byebye]

The glowing blobs are reasonably quick-moving creatures, for formless protoplasmic (oh, look, that first one oozed out of the sewer, even though there's still screaming dopplering away below!) monstrosities of nanomachine controlled goo. It doesn't take long for even more screaming to start.

"Daddy," says a very startled Ecto through Ray's headset, "I broke Peck's encryption. Where did you get shoggoths from?"

"Tyler, kiddo."

There's a moment of silence, and then the car snickers. Ray looks up at Garion. "We should, uh, start heading in there now," he says. "No sense letting the blobs get ahead of us."

[wellthrownstone.livejournal.com]

"Sounds good to me. Follow me?"

And he started if not running than walking quickly. He's got some leg length on Ray, after all.

[gone_byebye]

Ray starts off at a run himself. He knows just how much Garion can outpace him.

The 'monsters' are doing their job and doing it well. Most of Peck's henchmen (including several battered-looking fellows who had been stationed at the Opera House) are on the campus just now, and a lot of them were milling around waiting for their orders. They're still milling now. It's just that they're milling for their lives, and screaming in the process like giant blind albino penguins hearing the Elder Thing equivalent of the Binford 2000 Vac-U-Lator on their tails. They barely even notice two more guys running through, and if they do, so what? The big one is blond and dangerous looking! Maybe he knows what he's doing!

... never tell him about that part.

[wellthrownstone.livejournal.com]

Yeah, no.

They make their way to a park where the employees eat their lunches (or that's what it appears to be, judging by the small tables and the planned gardening) which, for the moment, holds a rather large truck. Garion might be staring at it because it's entirely out of place, even for someone not particularly familiar with trucks.

"It's in there."

Or because it's got the Ark in it.

[gone_byebye]

There are about ten men in various stages of Nazi uniform armed with such guns as men with no scruples can pick up on the black market standing around the truck. They are the only ones in the green space not screaming or struggling with other people. Even the red-headed, absolutely livid one on top of the truck's flatbed is screaming.

Admittedly, what he's screaming is "STOP ALL THE GODDAMN RUNNING AROUND LIKE MORONS OR I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL KILL EVERY ONE OF YOU," but that's still screaming.

Ray's expression hardens, a thing it doesn't do often. "Ecto," he says into his microphone, "we found him. I think we're gonna need you."

[henry-jones-jr.livejournal.com]

A pair of headlights suddenly appear on the far side of the park. They approach rapidly, weaving through the benches and tables and making a big mess of the well-manicured grass. When they get scarily close to Ray and Garion, they veer sideways, and the minivan they belong to skids to a stop.

Through the open driver's side window, a calm female voice can be heard:

"Make a U-Turn, if possible."

At this point Indy climbs out, while Mel exits through the passenger window.

"Sorry if we're late," the former says. "We were bonding over Nazis and zombies. Tell me we didn't miss any of the good stuff."

[gone_byebye]

"About the only thing you've missed so far is some glowing green pseudo-shoggoths," Ray says with considerable satisfaction. "They're busy chasing down some of the rest of Peck's men. Illinois Nazis scream real good when they're under the impression they're about to be eaten. Tyler and Mirai are on their way back too, and I think we should be hearing from Andrew and Matilda and Flynn and Michael shortly."

[slayer_fray]

"Rocketship."

Mel nods towards the truck that appears to be the centre of attention. "Do we get to make these guys scream?"

It's worth noting at this point that both Indy and Mel are clutching McDonald's drink cups. Sure, there'd been a certain urgency involved in their journey from the Opera House, but it's hard to ignore a restaurant as prevalent as Mickey D's when your relative time periods have nothing of the sort.

To their credit, they did pass three other 24 hour drive-throughs before they eventually surrendered to the pull of the golden arches. And Mike will get some Happy Meal toys out of the deal.

As for their verdict? Not particularly impressed, but it filled a hole.

[gone_byebye]

"Scream is fine," Ray says. "Bleed is acceptable. Die, not so much, not unless they actively offer lethal force first. But scream? Sure. Scream is good."

Since nearly everyone here is screaming anyway, what would a few more terrified henchmen be?

[ultradreamer.livejournal.com]

Mirai comes running in, skidding to a stop, then throwing a salute. "Hibino reporting! G.I.G.!"

What? There's a crisis, he's reverting into 'how to deal with a crisis' mode as a human.

[basic_powers]

The mini-hero riding piggyback on Mirai drops off at the salute and tumbles before gathering himself up and giving Mirai a look.

They are so going to have a talk about sneaking around and how to carry people.

"Moon Shadow, reporting with cultist texts." He says before handing over the booklets. "It looks like they were trying to channel power to this place."

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

There's a sound approaching in the distance.

It sounds a little like WHURF WHURF WHURF.




Now it's a little more like WHURF WHURF WHURF (teehee!) WHURF WHURF WHURF.




The source of the sound, it becomes evident after a moment, is Matilda. Riding on Francis at top speed, giggling and holding Andrew telekinetically suspended a constant three relative feet in front of her, she makes... quite the spectacle.

Francis and his peculiar ensemble come to a halt at the fringe of the group and Tilda settles Andrew neatly to the ground.

"Hallo Ray," she says brightly. "I blew up a cough drop monster. How're you?"

[stilljustandrew]

*Andrew dusts himself off briskly.*

So do I take it the ally-ally-in-free means we found it?

[gone_byebye]

"Sure did, Andrew, Matilda," says Ray. "Hi, Francis."

"WHURF."

"Welcome back, Tyler, Hibino- I take it you disrupted their operation first? We haven't seen any particular signs of-"

Something green and glowing and hideously blobby and covered in multitudinous forming and re-forming and vanishing eyes glorphs through the other side of the park in pursuit of a cluster of running men. "Bullets won't stop it!" one of them wails before putting on a fresh burst of speed.

"-incoming new power. Ignore the shoggoths. A, they're on our side, B, they're actually animated restraining putty."

There's a series of metal-on-metal and electronic noises from behind where people are standing. "Daddy?" says the voice of a girl in the early stages of adolescence. "Are we ready now?"

"Just about, kiddo. Has anyone seen Flynn or Michael?"

Oh, yeah, this group is completely subtle and capable of staying out of sight...

[slayer_fray]

Mel doesn't go subtlety. Subtlety is for people who aren't Slayers. And maybe some Slayers who aren't Mel.

"I call the Nazis! she says cheerfully. Scythe is sheathed, gun is out, and she's already running. Apparently she trusts her dodge ability or her healing. One of those.

[gone_byebye]

When IBM hired the architects to design this park they put in a number of concrete bollards to keep people from driving in unless they were specifically authorized. There's exactly one opening wide enough for a vehicle to drive in that isn't currently festooned with the things, and that's the way Peck came.

We mention this because the Nazis in uniform can tell the difference between running-around-screaming and running-with-intent-to-commit-mayhem, and it might be wise for people to hide behind some of the bollards in question, or find some other cover.

[henry-jones-jr.livejournal.com]

Indy face-palms at Mel's exuberance.

"I guess that's my cue."

There's a shhlurrrrrrrp sound as he drains the last of his soda, then, tossing it into a nearby trash can, he heads off after her.

He has no plan. This is a 'making it up as I go along' phase.

[gone_byebye]

The biggest of the Nazis eyes the incoming pair and reaches up to thump the truck's bed with one fist. "Hey! Company!" he says; he's a man who practices economy of words.

Peck- who, unlike certain movie characters we could mention, has not bothered with replicating priestly regalia- looks up with wide, bugging eyes. "What are you waiting for?" he says. "Get them!"

The big fellow grins unwholesomely and takes aim at Indy, and his compatriots lock onto Mel. Peck starts dashing about the truck, flipping switches and twiddling with dials. It's not entirely a mad dash. He's extraordinarily careful not to cross over the police tape he's strung up at a six-inch distance from the Ark.