17 roleplays and exploration of the city made this a hell of a mission!

Especially since it was basically booked as a filler mission. It provided some exceptional moments, all leading up to the two part Finale! Here's part one.

 
Three days prior

 
Moments ago, there had been a brawl of significant proportions which started when Becky attempted to save Fumblies from being kidnapped. After Becky, Fahari was the next to catch up to Fumblies. Becky found Vixen on the scene too. Vixen was only too glad to help. Cattaras and Aleena also made their way onto the scene.

As they did, a mysterious figure watched from nearby, keeping out of sight. Oddly, none of the "furries" could detect him via scent nor did Aleena's suit register his presence. Yet this important figure had great interest in the battle. The adventurers handled well against the Philler Gang, at least until Liet Nien subdued them in a burst of lightning. As per the agreement, the space elf would be kept to the care of Liet Nien. Mr. Philler knew there was a good chance she'd be aided in her escape by one or both of the swordsmen. It would only be an opportunity for Liet Nien to capture them of his own accord. The only important thing was that his plan to bring chaos was now underway.

Seeing things were well in hand and the selected prisoners would be taken to be secured, Philler turned to return his attention to more important business, even as the foxlike Vixen and Becky Joy were added to his collection as well. It was just another key to Philler's ongoing plan of chaos.

Ahh, but there were more heroes to collect and two of them were attacking now!

Several minutes earlier

Things began unfolding at a lightning pace, starting with Sir Fumblies plotting and executing an escape from his holding cell. It was Philler himself who had planted the seeds for the escape attempt yet none but himself would ever possess that information.

Fumblies assumed leadership of the generous potential army with relative ease although not quite as quickly as Philler would have liked. His tactics were highly unusual although chaotic as well, starting a riot in order to allow for an escape. Fumblies had quickly learned of the nearby presence of his four brutes and used that to his advantage. Of course the unconventional tactics also attracted the attention of several guards, much to Fumblies annoyance.

 
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Three days earlier part II

After teleporting to the relative safety of a nearby rooftop, Aleena and Cyber Sunset took a second to compose themselves before deciding their next course of action. Requesting help from other heroes of the city was an option, but not one which interested either Aleena or Cyber Sunset.

Aleena had already alerted Dash to the situation. The next step seemed to be to make their way to the Pellr Hotel mentioned on the matchbook which Aleena had found during the previous encounter with Liet Nien's crazy casino of catastrophe. The trip was aided by Cyber Sunset's cutting edge technical teleportation abilities and Aleena's otherworldly futuristic cysuit, allowing them to catch up to the Philler gang hauling off the prisoners just a few blocks before the so called "hotel."

"We've got a fight nearby," Cyber Sunset called out as Aleena landed on a large rooftop, right near the spot Sunset had just teleported to. "You'll never guess who."

"Sure I will. I can read life signs," Aleena said with a grin. "Ready for round two with the Philler Gang?"

Aleena took off. As he followed her, the swordsman smiled and whispered, "Cheater."

As they reached the next rooftop, Aleena turned and gave him a wink to let him know she'd caught that. Sunset pointed to what looked to be the blindside of the mob, and made a few hand motions to Aleena, who picked up the general gist of it. Aleena turned her attention to contacting Dash as Sunset teleported straight into the action.

Philler didn't realize how close the heroes were until he picked up Cyber Sunset teleporting into the battle. Philler, however, wasn't present to interfere but simply to observe at this point.

Sunset planned to set the prisoners free, but as soon as he teleported in, he found they were far better guarded than expected. Still, Cyber Sunset had dealt with this kind of adversity before and this time he had backup in the form of Aleena. Sunset battled against the thugs of all sort. A few seconds later, Aleena joined him.

"You weren't supposed to jump in yet!" Aleena complained as she used a razor sharp line from her suit to slide down into the action before using the very same wire as lethal offense.

"Sorry," Sunset replied as he cut into the enemies. "Didn't think you'd be too busy sightseeing to join me."

"I was contacting Dash," Aleena said, dismantling one enemy after the other. "He's only about six blocks away. Not that we'll need help with Liet Nien out of the way."

"Bet you we can defeat them all by the time he gets here," Sunset said with a smile, impaling another enemy in his sword.

"No doubt," Aleena bragged, knocking out another enemy with a perfectly placed roundhouse kick to the head. "He said to fight defensively until he can get here. Should we?"

Sunset gave her a "Are you kidding?!" look, to which she shrugged.

"Guess not," Aleena replied, grabbing his hand. Sunset teleported the two into the heart of the matter, intent on freeing Cattaras, Fahari, Fumblies, Becky and Vixen, but they found themselves instantly ambushed by enemies who were prepared for the tactic. Sunset found himself mobbed by enemies who forced him to teleport away from Aleena, who found herself overwhelmed by magic, leaving Sunset alone until Dash arrived.

Dash immediately tried to rush to Aleena's aid, but the group was just too overwhelmingly prepared for them.

Philler smiled sinisterly. Just as he had planned, Aleena and Sunset's individual egos and competitive natures combined to make them careless and suspect to a little planning to take advantage of their own tendencies towards brash recklessness. Dash's own obsession with being a hero had drawn them in and now, as the others would soon be, they belonged to the Philler Gang!

And yet, his plan was just beginning to unfold.

At that very same moment, Liet Nien, just recovered, noticed the coin left lying by his hand from earlier. Turning to examine it, he noticed it face heads up, still glowing. When he turned it over, the glow stopped, so he ignored the back to examine the head of the coin. It had an image of a city in the middle of a mountain top, with the coins 'lettering' upside down. Liet Nien smiled ruefully, as he proclaimed, "Leo Philler must be made aware of this flip of fate."

With that, he turned to find the mysterious Philler.

 
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Earlier today, by Aleena and Dash

Deeper into the massive underground Philler complex, grey metal walls and harsh artificial lighting cast two prisoners' sharp shadows upon the cell floor. They were each held in the air by invisible fields of force giving them individual small, spherical spaces in which they could move. It almost felt as though they were lying on jello.

Well one figure was lying on it. The other figure sat cross legged, deep in thought.. well, shallow in thought in this case.

Aleena let out a soft moan as her consciousness struggled to reassert itself. The first thing she heard was a semi familiar voice asking her, "Aleenie.. I said, 'Do you want tea or somethin else?'"

Aleena blinked groggily, as her suit gave her a summary of her current predicament. "How in the h... Damn." She cursed, focusing on the second prisoner. There was no friction for her to push against; so the elf simply curled up the bottom of her force cage.

"It's you."

"Uhhuh," Becky Joy answered from the next cage, currently focusing on her task at hand, which at the moment was crafting a couple cups of ice out of nothingness, as well as a couple small 'serving plates.' Becky looked up at Aleena with large, innocent eyes. "Do you want tea? It's only imaginary, but it's very good."

"Someone's gone to a lot of trouble to capture us, and keep us alive."

"Yeah, they must like us and wanna keep us safe," Becky whispered.

"I sincerely doubt that." Aleena gazed at the floor. She thought it was just a floor, but then it moved, a pseudopod reaching up towards her. Though it was unable to penetrate the force cage, Aleena still could not stifle a cry of surprise.

Becky looked over. "Yeah, I don't think that thing is gonna protect anybody!"

Becky made herself a Sherlock Holmes style hat and pipe out of ice, and walked around her small cage, looking confused. "Hmm.. it would seem we've got quick the pickle. Do you like pickles with sandwiches?"

"Ergh. I don't know how you are walking on a frictionless..." Becky heard her and immediately fell on her butt before Aleena can get to the last word. ".. surface."

"Ow.. by tryin' no to think about it and walkin' on ice," Becky explained, holding her head.

The elf focused, squinting her eyes as she looked inward. Outwardly, her suit changed colour, from her customary black, to a new silvery sheen. Wings sprouted from her back; great feathers stretched, moving and testing the air around her as the cysuit morphed to connect it to her body and support her weight. Becky ooh'ed, impressed and grew two ice wings of her own, which, being made of ice, immediately fell off her, quickly dissolving.

"Ooh, you didn't say Simon said, sorry!" apologized Becky.

The elf tried to unfold her wings, but she found the boundaries of her force cage instead. Like some washed-up bird, she struggled in her limited space but, ultimately, had to give up. Aleena thought for a moment. "Hey, Becky, can you freeze things at a distance?"

Becky's eyes lit up. "I like to freeze things! Like candy.. and.. ahh.. I like to freeze things outta air too!"

"Okay! Freeze this room! Freeze the floor, the walls, the ceiling! Everything except for me, of course."

"And not me either, okay?!" Becky pleaded.

"It would go without saying, but with you I'm not so sure. Don't freeze yourself."

"Thank you!" Becky smiled cheerfully and pulled the toy yeti out, then started brushing the toy's hair and fur. "Wanna help?"

"... no. And besides, I can't reach you from here."

Becky shrugged and then focused her magic through the focusing device. Aleena could see the results instantly in the distance as rather icy crystals started to form outside the cage and on the walls around it. Becky frowned.

"I dunno.. I .. this's a lot to freeze!" Becky complained, but she kept at it, and Aleena could feel the chill emanating from around Becky. The two cages started to freeze over next, although despite the cold, Becky almost looked to be sweating a little. Her muscles strained; she was in pain. "How much mooore?!"

"As much as you can," Aleena cried. Becky had managed to call up a blizzard, and Aleena had wrapped her wings around herself for added warmth, despite her suit's normal protection.

"I.. I try!" Becky said, her voice already noticeably weaker. Despite this, she channeled her power through her entire body. A small trail of blood appeared on her forehead as she slumped forward, barely holding onto her toy yeti, but the cage started to visibly tremble and shake as it froze. The trail of Becky's blood froze as her face started to turn slightly blue. Becky closed her eyes, and the temperature around her plummeted, although the area directly around Aleena stayed somewhat warmer. The cage again shook violently.

There was a loud crack, and suddenly, the force fields holding the two prisoners vanished. They both tumbled from their suspended space. Aleena's wings unfurled instantly allowing her to cross the short distance between herself and Becky. Though it was only a few meters drop, the elf caught the other woman and broke her fall. They landed with an "Omph," on the solid remains of the slime monster that had menaced them fruitlessly. Becky's toy rolled out of her hand as they fell. She immediately tried to roll to get it, but could barely move. Tears rolled up in Becky's eyes as she let out a pathetic whimper. "Toy..."

Aleena held the weakened mage, reaching over to pick up the strange doll and hand it back. "Here. We won't leave your magic focus behind. You did good," she said, trying to comfort her ally, carrying her to the wall.

"Thankies," Becky muttered in a weakened voice as she slipped her focus device/ toy safely into an interior pocket. "Soo c-cold.. n-never felt cold b'fore."

"My turn to get us out of here." The elf grinned, pressing her hand to the frozen wall. Her nanites quickly set to work, eating their way through to the hallway -- and warmth beyond.

 
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Cyber Sunset awoke to a throbbing headache and clouded vision, or so he thought. He awoke to find himself bound to the wall, with a colorful gas being pumped at him in regular, intermittent pulses. It was the gas clouding his vision. Sunset looks around, realizing he'd been suspended above another cage, which obviously has some sort of person or animal inside it. The second cage is also suspended high in the air.

Through the haze of the gas, Sunset could see sheer metal walls which looked to be quite frictionless.

On the upside, there were no armed guards. Counting on the obvious, Sunset called out, "Aleena, are you awake?"

"Try again," an unfamiliar voice shot back. "I know Aleena but I'm not her."

"Er.." That threw off Cyber Sunset, who'd naturally assumed since they'd been captured together, they would have been jailed together. "Who is it then?"

Sunset heard a long, drawn out sigh. "Name's Arc Nicholas, but most call me Vixen.. Let me guess, you're one of the adventurers in this city."

"Hero," an irritated Cyber Sunset answered. "I'll show you the documentations when I get out of here, if you like."

"Uhhh..." Vixen answered.

"I've got..." Whatever thought he had was interrupted by another puff of that strange gas shooting into his face. "This's getting really annoying. One second."

The familiar yet painless feeling of an electrical shock went through Sunset's body. Even if he teleported the 'cuffs,' at least he could teleport out of captivity to the cage, which he'd determined with reasonable certainty looked safe and secure. Yet, he found himself still bound. The nearby machine, as if in defiant response of his attempts to escape, irritated him with another puff of the strange gas. Eyes closed, Cyber Sunset made three more attempts to teleport out, which did nothing other than tire him out as the puffs of gas got quicker. He struggled physically against the cuffs holding his wrist, and then yanked them back suddenly in pain.

"Damn it," Sunset cursed aloud.

"What?" Vixen asked from the other cage, sounding somewhat bored.

"Tried to yank free of the restraints, but when I did, something sharp dug into my wrists," Sunset said, ignoring the puffs of that weird gas being pumped into his face in ever bigger doses. "And this gas is really getting on my nerves!"

Whatever it is, it was messing up his focus enough he couldn't teleport out, though Sunset couldn’t figure any logical correlation between the gas and his abilities being suppressed.

"Yeah, they get worse when you fight 'em," Vixen said. "The best thing to do is relax and enjoy it, man."

Clearly she'd gotten quite a large dose of the "relaxing" gas, but it did give Sunset an idea.. if he could force himself to relax enough, the gas would let up. And if it let up sufficiently, then maybe, just maybe, he could pull his willpower together for one short range teleportation to get him out of the distance.. Just maybe...

 
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By Aleena and Dash

 
"Dash? Dash! Can you hear me?" Aleena's voice echoed in Dash's mind, causing Dash's mind to snap back into consciousness. Aleena knelt on the floor of an out-of-the-way closet while Becky stood guard nearby. "Dash, I'm coming in. It might feel a little strange."

There was a *pop*, almost like a headache. But the pain quickly went away. Aleena saw through Dash's eyes, could hear through his ears. And Dash could feel Aleena, but something wasn't quite right. It was like.. no, Dash wasn't fighting the connection, but something else was. Like the stories Aleena had heard of when they installed firewalls into people's minds before effective ways of defending against mind hackers had developed.

Dash's voice came through, clear as a bell, although his mind seemed clouded. "Aleena! You've escaped from Zedika Dark.. good job. How are the others?!"

"Thanks. Though, who is Zedika Dark?" Aleena inquired. She did not know the name of her former captor; perhaps Dash could spread some light on the situation -- and the grey fog she found herself in. She had lost all touch with her body and hoped Becky proved to be a competent guard.

"Aneela said they'd try to mess with your mind, but try to remember! You and Cattaras went to fight the last rebel princess while the.. er... other Cattaras, the one from our dimension, went with Lady Whiteclaw to secure Mountaincenter Village. Runic and Bandit might have messed with your mind. Lady Whiteclaw said- speak of the devil, I see you. Stay calm, I'll see if I can sneak up on--"

The connection between the two seemed to backfire violently on Aleena, forcing her back into the real world. Aleena desperately tried to reestablish contact, but something was successfully fighting her. Even so, she forced her way through the connection and the world around her shifted to show another world through Sebastian's eyes, with dark gray snow on the ground and more pouring down every second. Dash yelled out as in the far distance, a fight broke out between some familiar but unrecognizable figures and... Aleena? Dash yelled out in horror as the faraway image of Aleena, dressed in a skimpier version of her cysuit, seemed to be mortally stricken with what would be a fatal blow to anyone else. Aleena knew exactly how the wound would be repaired even though she'd never experienced it herself.

Dash clearly didn't; his fear and sorrow was palatable. Heartbreaking. Aleena had no time to comfort him before the connection broke off, forcing her into the real world. Becky was just starring at her with a frown.

"We've got to find Dash," explained Aleena. "Give me a moment, I almost have a fix on him - a direction and distance to his location."

"Can't we just pull over and ask directions?!"

"One more trip into Dash's mind, if you please?"

"Oh, oh.. ow.. OH!" Becky said, still getting over her power overdose. "I wanna go wif.. Can I go with?! Plllease?"

Aleena turned inward, ignoring the Becky. The way this was working, she'd be back before a split second had passed, although it clearly would feel longer to Aleena. The Beckster wouldn't notice at all. Beckorama.

Aleena had no idea where that came from, but within the span of the thought, she established her way into Dash's head. This time, she knew what to 'listen' for. Yeah.. there was a presence, but it wasn't a sentient presence. She should be able to stay if she didn't get Dash's attention or the attention of those around her.. still, she had to figure what was going on. In the meantime, she focused on their surroundings, which were quite different than she'd expected. She was standing in what looked a lot like a holy temple she'd seen on one of her favorite worlds, long before she'd come to this strange world. Aleena quickly hid in the deep shadow's to avoid being seen as Sebastian Dash, two Cattaras Whiteclaws, and someone who looked like Catrina- but was very modestly dressed, carried Aleena's own body, skimpy cysuit and all, to a great alter.

How strange! She'd seen this place, but she doubted Dash ever had. So how could she be seeing this if it were simply a dream?

The image in front of her made her dizzy.

This dream will be continued in the Typical Tavern. In the real world, Aleena came to once more.

"Ugh, that was an experience." It was a complete understatement. She picked herself up from the floor. Being trapped by that virtual intelligence was not in her plan, but fortunately, she knew exactly where Dash was. Even better, she knew how to get him out of his predicament!

"Let's go, Beckster."

Becky stopped. "Did you go back in?! That was too fast! How silly!"

"You're right, it is silly. It's quite normal, actually. He's in a dream like state, so to Dash and therefore to me, it felt like a lot longer. But that isn't important. I know where Dash is."

Becky nodded and followed Aleena, but something was driving her nuts! Something was bugging her brain. "I.. how long did it seem like?"

"Quite a while," Aleena answered, not wanting to get distracted from her goal.

"Was it scary?"

"Very," Aleena said, keeping her pace.

Becky scampered to keep up with her. "Aleenie."

"Aleena."

"Aleena, I think you gotta go back into Mr. Dash's mind and protect him! Hurry!"

Aleena increased her pace slightly, knowing time was of the essence in any case, but she did glance at the ice mage. "Why?"

"Umm.. it's probably nothing but if they're pushing Dash's mind, what if they're trying to make it burn out?" Becky frowned. "Or is that stupid? But if they're pushing his mind really fast like that.. it's like pushing a record player too fast.. You'd make it burn out."

"Of course they're going to burn out his mind. That's why we need to get there in a hurry."

"Okay, I was gonna say I could carry you if you wanna go back, but let's keep going!" Becky said with a determined grin.

"This way." Aleena turned sharply and stopped at a large, metal door, which she immediately set about hacking. The still weak kneed Becky instinctively took to standing guard as Aleena set about trying to free Sebastian Dash.

As you can probably tell, I only focused on part of the PC crew for this one. I'll get to the rest and wrap this up in the second and final part. Hell of an ending ahead of us!