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legionmissions2017-09-22 07:47 pm
letsgolegion) wrote in legionmissions2017-09-22 07:47 pm
Entry tags:
THE NINTH GATE - [modplot]
Who| Anyone who signed up
What| "The Ninth Gate" plot
Where| It starts on Rimbor, moves to Earth
When| The same time as "Gone-Away World" and "Total Eclipso the Heart"
Warnings/Notes| Lots of really fucked up suicide cult stuff.
It's not that difficult to get a lead on where the Catastrophists are recruiting, but so far the survival rate of undercover Scicops is...bad. As in, none of the undercover cops that have been sent in have come back. So with the rise in Catastrophist activity and losing several of their top undercover officers, the Science Police has actually asked for the Legion's help for once. A few tips from their contacts have made it clear that something big is coming, a terrorist attack of sometime, and time is running out. They need to get someone on the inside that actually survives, and they're hoping the Legion can do what they couldn't.
Fortunately, there's an easy in to at least start the undercover op.
The Science Police has long since determined that the Universal Brotherhood is just a front for the Catastrophists, largely due to the references to Apokolips and Darkseid they keep dropping. Science Police specialists and Legion intelligence officers handle the initial contacts, creating fake personas that they chat out as getting duped into embracing the Catastrophists' cause. They even donate enough credits to make it seem like the personas are emptying out their modest bank accounts to support the cause.
The next step is a very thorough briefing given to the Legionnaires going undercover on this mission, so they know every possible detail about their fake personas, and have access to all the chats they need to pretend to remember having.
Then, they're armed with very advanced technology to use to infiltrate the group. Super advanced subdermal hard-light hologram generators, sensor emulators that give off biosigns that fit their personas, advanced psi-blockers that even allow them to project surface thoughts that fit their cover. They have all the knowledge they need to infiltrate the group - now they just have to survive initiation.
They're sent in three pairs to sign up for recruitment in a shady bar on Rimbor, at separate times so them showing up together doesn't seem suspicious. Rimbor is an urban world that's just layers and layers of city on top of older cities. They're all led underground, to abandoned under-levels that used to be on the top levels of the cities only a few hundred years before, but are now that are deemed uninhabitable even by the lowest dregs of Rimborian society.
Once they're in, there are only two ways out: through surviving initiation or in body bags dropped in Rimbor's massive trash incinerators.
What| "The Ninth Gate" plot
Where| It starts on Rimbor, moves to Earth
When| The same time as "Gone-Away World" and "Total Eclipso the Heart"
Warnings/Notes| Lots of really fucked up suicide cult stuff.
It's not that difficult to get a lead on where the Catastrophists are recruiting, but so far the survival rate of undercover Scicops is...bad. As in, none of the undercover cops that have been sent in have come back. So with the rise in Catastrophist activity and losing several of their top undercover officers, the Science Police has actually asked for the Legion's help for once. A few tips from their contacts have made it clear that something big is coming, a terrorist attack of sometime, and time is running out. They need to get someone on the inside that actually survives, and they're hoping the Legion can do what they couldn't.
Fortunately, there's an easy in to at least start the undercover op.
The Science Police has long since determined that the Universal Brotherhood is just a front for the Catastrophists, largely due to the references to Apokolips and Darkseid they keep dropping. Science Police specialists and Legion intelligence officers handle the initial contacts, creating fake personas that they chat out as getting duped into embracing the Catastrophists' cause. They even donate enough credits to make it seem like the personas are emptying out their modest bank accounts to support the cause.
The next step is a very thorough briefing given to the Legionnaires going undercover on this mission, so they know every possible detail about their fake personas, and have access to all the chats they need to pretend to remember having.
Then, they're armed with very advanced technology to use to infiltrate the group. Super advanced subdermal hard-light hologram generators, sensor emulators that give off biosigns that fit their personas, advanced psi-blockers that even allow them to project surface thoughts that fit their cover. They have all the knowledge they need to infiltrate the group - now they just have to survive initiation.
They're sent in three pairs to sign up for recruitment in a shady bar on Rimbor, at separate times so them showing up together doesn't seem suspicious. Rimbor is an urban world that's just layers and layers of city on top of older cities. They're all led underground, to abandoned under-levels that used to be on the top levels of the cities only a few hundred years before, but are now that are deemed uninhabitable even by the lowest dregs of Rimborian society.
Once they're in, there are only two ways out: through surviving initiation or in body bags dropped in Rimbor's massive trash incinerators.
no subject
It's childish, but reflexively so. This is old patter, old teasing.
Fortunately, it's over. It's a five minutes that felt like an eternity but it wasn't actually one. Brother Rellick finally stops and withdraws his hands from where they'd hovered near Kyou's head. When the pain stops, he's still looking up at Carolina, expression fuzzy, but his eyes clear just slightly.
"Ow," he understates, and then panic sets in, his brain freaking the fuck out over being hurt so badly. Unburdened by distraction since the pain is now gone, he shoots upright, and gasps down breaths now that just breathing doesn't feel like exhausting agony.
His one hand is still holding hers and his grip tightens again.
"Stop stop stop stop stop," he rambles, even though it already stopped. "Stop."
Where...am...my whole brain is crying.
He's seriously disoriented.
no subject
Pain that it is going to be her turn to go through in just a moment. She flicks her gaze to them again.
"Give me a moment to calm my brother," she asks, and moves in a little closer. She doesn't pull her hand out of Kyou's.
Deep breaths. Don't say anything out loud, okay?
no subject
The words come out like a mantra, like it's something he has to tell himself too often. But he manages to calm himself down. Her comfort does actually help. Ever since his family died, he'd had to face terrible shit like this alone. Meeting his friends at school had changed that, but after leaving them behind due to being drawn to the Legion's universe, he'd figured that it'd be right back to having to look out for himself.
Maybe he was wrong.
"I'm okay. I'm okay."
And he actually is now.
Thanks for the breather.
"This pain, this suffering, there is so much pain like it in the universe. This is our truth," says the guide. "And this truth is what fuels our every action."
Kyou has to hide his expression, which clearly says, 'If you say another word of cultish gobbledygook I'm going to smack you in the mouth.' He does it by turning towards Carolina and putting a hand on her shoulder, using it to move so she can take his place, and making it look like he's trying to give her some support to brace her for what's next.
I really hope we get a chance to knock his teeth in before this is over.
"Your turn. I know you're strong enough for this, sis."
If we do, you can have the first punch.
By Kyou's standards, this is a gracious gift that he's offering, in exchange for her having his back as a teammate.
"Prepare yourself," says Brother Rellick, gesturing for her to lay down in Kyou's place. The guide moves the bite guard that'd fallen out of Kyou's mouth halfway through out of the way and offers Carolina a new one.
no subject
Thanks, she thinks (and also says out loud) at him as she lays down, projecting a little mental smirk - a burst of warmth. Pretty sure the thought of knocking his teeth in is going to keep me going.
She takes the bite guard and places it in, laying back.
Just imagining it now-
She never finishes her thought, since Rellick starts without telling either of them. The scream that she gives is muffled behind the bite guard, what it's there for, and her fists ball up. Her back arches while her legs kick out, bending and then flattening.
She's been through torture. She's been in a frozen lake with AI ripped out of her mind, she's starved for eight days straight - and still somehow nothing compares to it feeling like she's going through all of it at once. She has to breath through her nose or risk spitting out the guard and splitting all their ears with a shriek.
She squeezes her eyes shut, digging her fingers into the ground under her. It hurts - but she has to keep going. She has to shoulder this.
I can do this. I can do this - I have to do this.
She doesn't realize she's sending it to Kyou, a desperate mantra that she has to do this, that it'll be over. Somehow, she manages the five minutes, even though by the end her throat is raw and there are tears in the corner of her eyes.
no subject
I was bad enough going through it himself but watching someone else go through it makes him want to force them to eat their own intestines.
Yeah, sure, Kyou kills people. Like a lot. But he makes it quick and usually those people suck anyway, so who cares? But this, forcing already broken people through stuff that's meant to break them more? What the hell.
He can't do anything about it, though. He can only watch, like she did, and be grateful they didn't walk into this as messed up as the people that sign up to the Catastrophists for realsies. Even though he's a little awkward about it, he holds her hand through it, too, the way she'd held his, and gives her the same comforting words, the focus on my voice stuff. It's the least he can do.
Then it's all over.
I've got you, he says, quietly, helping her sit up and making it so his arms can keep her upright for however long it takes it her to steady herself. Take your time. It's almost like an out of body experience. Took me a few seconds to make my brain connect with my body again.
It causes one hell of a feeling of dissociation but he doesn't know the technical word for it.
He stalls the way she did. "Just let my sister catch her breath and then we'll be ready to face what's next."
no subject
But her breathing is ragged when it stops, as it takes her to feel like she can feel the rest of her body again. There's grime under her nails where she scraped the ground and she takes deep breaths, focusing on Kyou's voice to help ground her. It helps.
That's one hell of a way to describe it, she tells him, finally able to get her legs under her.
"I'm fine," she says out loud - shaky, but true. Someone determined, hopefully, in the Brotherhood's eyes.
this will be a short exchange
He gives them time to stand, understanding they might be wobbly and when they're ready to follow he leads them into a massive circular room.
Now this one looks...ominous. They're in an indented circular area, an ampitheater. Standing above them, around the circle, are masses of cultists.
About twenty other conscripts, still in normal clothes like them are standing in the circular area. Some have hazy expressions of uncaring nihilism. Some look scared. A few look bitter, as if they resent their treatment slightly. (After that pain trial, who wouldn't?)
The door slams shut behind them and the guide stands on a metal disc on the ground. He extends his hand and reveals himself to be a Braalian by levitating the disc and himself up above them.
"Conscripts, now is your final and most important trial," he says. "You have proven your sincerity. You have shown us your endurance of pain and how it's given you conviction."
He smiles and it's not a nice smile.
"Now you have the generous gift of having a chance to demonstrate your utility."
no subject
Her malice is why she was chosen for the role she's in.
"My name is Granny Goodness, and I will be administering your final exam. This final test is to weed out the weak and any naughty children that try to infiltrate our ranks for their own purposes."
She wags a finger at them.
"Being willing to die for the cause is not enough. You still have to fight those who would oppose us. Very few of you likely have such skills already. Fortunately, Granny can teach you. Granny has braved the terrors of the Necropolis of Apokolips to learn the old ways from those long gone."
no subject
The crowd repeats the chant.
no subject
Apparently, the Catastrophists have decided to start emulating some seriously fucked up shit from history.
A hole appears in the dirt floor and a platform rises up. It's nearly overflowing with weapons. Some are likely familiar, others are alien. All of them are bladed or blunt weapons. The only projectile weapons are limited ones, like bows and arrows or throwing knives. Not guns.
"Now, fight for the glory of Apokolips! Fight for your right to stand with us as we bring about the end!"
no subject
Kyou's legs are already moving as soon as he sees the weapons, which helps him get the jump one some of the other conscripts, who are still blinking in shock.
He's fast. Fast enough that he might be the first one there.
We're going to have to be careful about this. If we fight like we normally fight, they'll peg us as moles. We're going to have to get real creative to win without making it look easy.
The next thought comes in a rush.
Also, what weapon do you want? Dibs on the katana.
thiiiis is late
She knows that if it really comes down to it, they can kill. With her skillset, though, they should be able to make sure these people have a chance at being helped.
And they definitely can't be too good, like he pointed out.
The first conscript who rushes her instead of the pile of weapons gets sent to the ground quickly. She doesn't even have a weapon - she just uses her fists.
no subject
Ugh, what is it with superheroes and their not-killing-people fixation?!
This could probably be considered an exception to the stupid rule, but given that they've been handed the option of just humiliating their enemies, he can't really justify killing them. They're mostly civilians and with how good a fighter he is, there's no way he could make the case that he was outmatched and needed to be that brutal to save his own life or save Carolina's. He absolutely can put these people down without killing them and without giving away that he knows how to fight.
So instead of picking up a katana, he picks up a bo, and grabs and tosses her a baseball bat. Those will be easier to hurt people with while still faking that they don't know anything about fighting. He starts swinging the bo more like a bat than using it the way he should.
It's pretty obvious that this whole thing is to weed out Scipos not comfortable with attacking civilians or to ferret us out by accidentally showing off we've got actual moves but it's like they forgot that knee caps are a thing, he says, casually slamming the bow into the kneecap of one of the other wannabe cultists.
no subject
Her tone is almost sing song, catching the bat. The one who attacked her gets knocked out - look, a gentle tap to the head is nice, right? Right. Don't worry about it.
Scipos would worry about hurting them even with kneecaps. We don't. She is worried about hurting them, don't get her wrong - but she also knows her own strength. And she knows that a little pain will go a long ways for the greater good.
God, she hopes she doesn't have to say that aloud.
But she holds the bat - not correctly, of course, but with a firm enough grip - and makes sure to aim for the knees or the arm. A broken arm is also recoverable, but she doesn't want to send anyone into shock and make it hard for them to be helped.
She also can't stop the other cultists from killing each other. But at least for the ones she does fight - she doesn't kill them.