2024-12-28 - Building a Mystery

In the manner of dreams, Ari goes from being in his comfies, horizontal underneath his blankets (of which there are many) to standing upright, dressed in his usual work uniform: blue-grey coveralls pulled up to his waist where the sleeves are tied like a belt, and a plain white t-shirt. He doesn't even question the dream logic of being told to get it working, he just grabs for the nearest tool and gets to work.

In this instance said tool turns out to be a screwdriver, and so he starts working on opening up a panel to get at the innards of the machine.

"Can I get some light over here?" he calls out, only to realize he has no idea who he's asking for help from. So Ari pauses, looking around, the first sign of him doing anything other than following the dream script.

Diana stirs "awake," squinting and blinking into bright artificial lab lights, perhaps the worst way to wake up. Realizing that she's no longer in bed, she quickly sits up. She's still wearing the cozy pair of black sweatpants and the black sports bra she fell asleep in. Her hair is still curled from the ball but tossed into a messy high pony, and there are still remnants of glitter on her cheekbones and shoulders.

She looks around and carefully gets up trying to make sense of her surroundings as a glaringly loud alarm begins to go off. She brings her hands to her ears just as a man starts barking orders only to be pulled into darkness. Di gasps and makes a b-line for the control panel. Whatever this alarm is for, it needs to stop. That is step one.

Saturday night and feeling fancy free! No not really. The last that Theo remembered was falling asleep in bed as any newly minted 21 year old would do. But when he wakes or what he thinks is waking he groans as he sees what is going on around him. "Oh my god. Is this what a hangover feels like?"

Holding his head as he tries to peer and figure out what is going on. "Oh shit! Another dream!" Looking around if there are any familiar faces. Last time he had only known one person in that shared dream. Only he shushes as if to hear what is going on and see if he can get any clues with the listening. He upholds the wall in hopes that these busy workers don't see him as he scans the area.

Thank god he's not in pj's. White tee, black sweats, and white socks. It will have to do. In seeing the first familiar face that is Ari Theo steps forward and pulls out his phone and uses the light app, "This is all I have. Hope it helps."

Even in the dream state, Zara is certainly of one thing: she's not here to fix anything. There are fixers and there are breakers. She is decidedly one of the latter. But even for one accustomed to 'breaking' as much as she is, the yell from the scientist-fellow has the hair at the back of her neck and arms standing on end. "..the fuck?" She curses through gritted teeth and looks around to see a number of other seemingly familiar faces (for the most part).

At least some that she would consider recognizable. Dressed (somehow) in all black attire, she almost looks more shadow that human. Were it not for her head jutting out of that tight turtleneck, one would be forgiven for making the mistake.

The alarm blares with ear-piercing regularity and she faces the door in a half crouch. Fingernails grow to sharp, two-inch long points as she practically snarls in the direction of what clearly seems to be incoming danger.

Huck looks around a little confused. He sees all the familiar faces around him and mutters to himself, "...again...?" His eyes dart around, taking in a quick stock of who is here, noticing in particular his friends, before he notices the man being torn through the door. He doesn't know what the man yelled, as it was just before Huck turned to look, but it's clear that the things coming in are not friendly. He slings his hands to his side, his sharp claws extending fully, and then he runs toward the door to take on whatever things await.

Angel's dreams often contain violence, but it's usually more from memory rather than a 60s sci-fi movie. She drank way too much eggnog. And worse, it's extremely vivid...like it's more than a dream. Like that pirate one people have told her about? She stands there in her full Security gear, so this is obviously a serious situation. Her pistol still holstered, Angel is letting her leech power to the surface. In front of people!

"You heard the man!" Angel barks to the others over the sound of the siren. "Tech heads on that machine. Everyone else guard the entrances. There may be more than just that door. Grab a weapon and don't hold back." She moves quickly towards the door where the old man had been dragged to his likely death.

A ponytailed lavender stands, watching with wide eyes as the older gentleman is dragged off. "That doesn't seem to bode well for us," she states, rolling up her sleeves. She's wearing an old fashioned mechanics coveralls of dark grey with heathered black striping. When she finishes rolling up the sleeves, both them and the hems of the pants are shortened a considerable amount, showing a pair of black Converse on her feet.

"Well, let's get to it," she says, taking steps toward the device to work with the others on repairing what needs to be fixed.

As Mac finds her way in a strange dream that she knows is not her own, she groans. "Whose drunk-ass dream did I fall into this time," she murmurs to herself, rubbing her eyes and looking around just in time to see the poor scientist hauled off by Redfingers.

But as the dream crystallizes into something more clear, she realizes this if far more vivid than those times she's accidentally slipped through the cracks to someone else's dream, much more real -- if surreal.

She's still dressed in her pajamas at the moment, fleecy Jack Skellington bottoms with a black tank top that shows off her tattoos along one arm. "Hey," she murmurs to those also speaking out. She squints at the lab equipment and shakes her head. "Not my forte," she says, before she turns back to the door, tipping her head as she considers what she might be able to do -- or not.

Esme went to sleep in her cozy little bed in her white nightgown with lavender flowers printed all over, while flower petals were strewn in her long dark locks like a halo around her head upon her fluffy pillow.

When she opens her eyes next, she looks very much Esme, but she has taken Ice Princess to a whole new level! In fact, she looks like the vivacious figure skater, but she's entirely made of ice! "Oh my!" She calls out as she looks down at her glistening arms. "What manner of whimsy is this?" And then all of a sudden one of her dainty ice hands shifts into a sharp sword hand! "Goodness! Now that doesn't look very safe..."

It's only then that she gets a good look around and she sees that there's other people. Familiar faces! FRIENDLY FACES too! And old creepy lab things. "Okay, is this one of those shared dream things you guys were talking about?" She says as she wanders over to where Theo and Huck are. Unless they are separated, then somewhere between, probably. "Where are we?"

And then Angel is giving instructions and she nods her firmly, "Aye, aye, Captain!" Which one was she? A tech head or...

Jett whirls around from the disorientation that... landed him here? No. Here is where he is supposed to be. He had a phone in his hand and he looks down at it; his own message was sent out: I'm where I'm supposed to be! He slides the device into a pocket? He had pockets. Yes. He remembered he was wearing a steampunk outfit but it's a lot more functional now. It's like he's an aviator mechanic and he has the full on goggles sitting on top of his drippy hair - he even had gloves on. His hands clench as he looks toward the older gentleman that gets dragged away while screaming at them to get it working.

Jett glances up toward the metal platforms, "I need to be up there." Somehow he knows? Maybe he's just dreaming that he knows. Maybe he's dreamed a lot of these before? Maybe this is literally a video game in his head and either way he's committed to the situation as it was. He side glances and spots Ari and Theo ... and Huck? "Good team in place," he notes and he is already trying to bound up the steps, taking them at a run to get to a platform with instruments that he has no idea what it does. But?! He might be willing to dive in a push and pull things - which by the way he is not LISTENING to anyone right now - this is his world and he's the superstar in it right now. He doesn't know he's dreaming. Maybe. Likely. "Just like that!" He says as he works on one of the strange instruments. It's probably not just like that but he has the confidence of dreamers.

Arrow's wearing a jacket that's heavier than her usual leather or wool, this one floor length. She's in all black as usual, her shock of platinum hair standing out against it. She fell asleep pleasantly, having stayed in for a quiet night in the suite, floating on a cloud of good food, good music, and a heavy smoke. She's not entirely surprised by the dream, maybe not entirely sure this is one yet. "Huh."

Having a dude yelling at her in a weird goggle, white glove situation is new. "Inside voice," she says. Like ugh. Cringe. She squints at Ari, then pats her pockets down for a torch. Nope. No phone either. That's weird. No phone, but a weapon. She pulls a firearm out of her pocket. It's a matte black 9mm. Theo gets a glance, then Diana, Huck, and Zara. She squints again. Aren't... these also people from the park? She doesn't know everyone here, but a few faces she's definitely seen before! "Hey, are—" Angel's appearance and order calling have her rolling her eyes. She was turned away for most of the dragging. "It's definitely not my drunk ass dream," she says to Mac.

Just because she wasn't able to go to the big Ball doesn't mean that Drea didn't find a way to celebrate the evening, and so she falls asleep in a nice warm, liquid state -- only to find herself in a mad scientist's favorite laboratory. She's just looking around in surprise, staring up at coils and wires and tools, and then over at the older gentleman in the white coat. "What?" Very intelligent-sounding, Drea.

Without worrying about her messy ponytail or her sleep shirt and yoga pants, she darts forward to try and help. The appearance of the man with blood red gloves and the long black coat causes her to start back, the cozy athleisurewear turning abruptly to a padded jacket and gauntlets, "Woah! Hey, bring him back!" And a sword appears belted at her waist just as she reaches down to grasp the hilt. Looking over to Angel as the woman barks orders, she nods, "What's going on?" Despite the question, she seems ready and willing to fight.

Arrow must still think this is a dream, because her response is... succinct. "Would you like to negotiate?" BLAM! She fires.

Huck has had a really shitty two days. Killing dream monsters is going to be unhealthily therapeutic. As he races toward one of the red gloved guards, he shucks off his flannel shirt so he can move better in his undershirt, leaving it falling to the ground. He lifts his claws and snarls as he starts swinging.

"I have no idea" Angel grunts to Drea's question, "But I know I'm not going to surrender to these guys and rely on their kindness. They didn't seem that kind to that old guy." A wry smile for her 'fellow' security in black and red. "No one has to get hurt? Where's the fun in that?" She looks accommodating for a moment. "But if you're willing to surrender, I'm sure we can look over your actions." Angel doesn't bother waiting for a reply before charging to try and rip the very life out of a guard...and hope Arrow is a good shot.

Jett leans over one of the instruments from up on one of the metal platforms, squinting ahead toward the center of the room. He looks down at the tools and metal components around him but he's unclear of what needs to happen with these ... alien looking tools. He turns back to where he left Theo and Ari, "The device in the center is pulling..." Then he scoffs, "Yeah I know that's not helpful." He looks up the stairs again to more of the metal platforms, pivoting a look back toward the door where the six figures demand that they give up. Jett hisses against his teeth against the 'authority' figures in this dream, searching for what he needs to 'push' toward the central device. He keeps trying one instrument after the other, seeing if any of the pieces give a forward momentum. "Are we in dungeons and dragons?" He calls toward Ari with a sudden weak laugh, not nervous at all of those devices that look violent. And of course there's an immediate 'sound' of someone firing a shot! "Shit..." he ducks and still tries to figure out this puzzle.

Upon alighting on Theo's familiar face, Ari's eyes widen for a moment in clear surprise, followed by his expression mellowing out into relief. "Theo, hey!" he says, and as soon as light is provided, he hums out a thanks as he finishes unscrewing the panel from the device and peers into it.

"Hmm... huh... oh! Uh... hmm."

He's completely oblivious to the shouting of the six guards, or whatever they are. Compartmentalization. That is someone else's problem. Ari's problem, on the other hand, is right before him. "Looks like this needs power," he calls out, to the wider technical audience. "I think if we fix this and get it powered, we might be able to get it up and running!"

That announcement made, he starts carefully poking through the innards of the machine. "There are some pieces missing, I think," he says, mostly to Theo, his voice lowered. "It's like a puzzle... gotta put everything back into place." And then that is precisely what he starts to do, only pausing to look up and grin at Jett. "Welcome to being an artificer, I guess!"

Diana picks up on the murmers around her through the blaring alarm and shouting. Dream. This was a dream?" She looked around, spotting a handful of familiar faces. "Is dream napping part of the employee handbook too?" She mutters as the six security guards walked in.

Di's hands go up, and she backs away slowly from the control panel. These guys don't look friendly. Her eyes flick between the guards and the device, which now feels important to fix. "Keep going!" She tells the builders, shouting through the noise. Di makes a hand movement and with any luck, there will be several decoy builders working alongside her coworkers. Sure, they might not be perfect, one might have an extra arm, but distraction was what she could offer (on a good day).

Yeah, never give an enemy the chance to get in the first blow. How she manages to pick out her poor target is likely just chance. They're all essentially faceless threats. But Zara bolts toward on nearest to her with heavy swings and slashes from her nails.

Esme now has to wonder who that old man was, but that doesn't last long. There's creeps in armor wielding wrenches heading their way and giving orders now too. They look official.

Esme sort of has to glance over to see what other people are doing right now, because hey, if security guards were telling her to move out, she very well might do just that. That was their job!

However, the first shot rings out and Esme watches as Arrow fires off at one of the guards. Then there's Huck going in for the attack. "Okay, we we can do this!" She calls out to no one particular. Or to everyone! Who knows! She... probably would've frozen that device anyway if she tried working on it, so... she'll go after the nearest guard type person in way.

If only the guy who was dragged off had given them more directions on how to get it working before he left. "Shit." Lavender looks at the device and lifts her hands in a helpless gesture. "Where do I even start?" She looks the device over, then looks around the lab for some sign or clue as to what she can do. She spots what might be toolboxes all around the lab, many with padlocks on them. One, up on a higher platform, seems a little different to her. It has lightning bolts on it. Well, this thing with wires and what not seems like it might require electricity, so she tells the others at the machine, "Going for some tools or something," then starts to make her way to the lightning box.

"Yeah, I don't think it's one of ours. Feels different," Mac murmurs, looking around and narrowing her eyes as she considers the other people who work with her -- she's seen some of them, if only in passing.

But there's not a lot of time to consider before those red-gloved, red-booted people come in, and Mac's Jack Skelly pjs are suddenly covered by similar tactical gear to the invading security team. She pulls a blade out of a pocket, ready to hurl it.

"How do we know the scientist is the good guy?" she cries out to the others. Even so, she narrows her eyes on those guards rushing in, trying to do something to make them less dangerous. "Fuck," she mutters, shaking her head as if to clear it, when she fails.

Theo is quiet and just smiles at both Ari and Jett He's totally out of his element so he just continues shining the light for Ari and listens quietly as he hears Ari. "I believe in you Jett." Trying to encourage his roomie to. Focus is on his immediate surroundings.

Drea looks surprised to be holding a sword, looking down at it and then back up again -- just in time for the additional goons to start pouring in and the gunshot to go off, "What in the hells is going on?" Either way, she draws her sword and her skin changes. The space between her pores spreads and broadens, hardening into scales of black with gold loops and whorls, paler gray along her throat, and bold orange lines driving back from her eyes. Circling to try and stay out of the line of fire, she advances with her sword extended out in front of her in an aggressive long point stance. "Just as long as no one knows what's going on."

Huck yells as his claws rend through the red gloved guard, dropping the dream monster in one fell swoop. Another line of attackers appears, and he growls, bearing his fangs as his tail swinging back and forth in excitement. "Bring it, Dr. Dreamy," he snarls as the lab-coated lightning eyed thing, and he lunges forward to attack.

Theo had been quiet because he was looking around his surroundings and also playing light for Ari. Ari knows this stuff better than he does and he trusts that one. He also trusts Jett. That is why he runs towards Lavender and to the box she's headed for. Lightening bolts means power source right. Calling to those that are working on the machine with him he calls out, "I think I found the power source. The missing one." Telling Lavender, "If you need distraction let me know." He does have his own weapon on his hip for that purpose.

Diana's little decoys appear to work, especially as the first guard swings his weapon at a decoy that vanishes into staticky smoke.

She paws around for a weapon, anything to actually defend with as the scientists storm in and tilt the numbers in their favor. The alarm blaring. Lightning meant conductivity and bad news when water was added into the mix, right? Di looks up and spots the sprinkler system. With another wave of her hand, it appears as if they are going off. Oddly, none of the park employees are getting wet, but for a possessed scientist? It might do the trick.

Arrow doesn't seem surprised her shot landed, and the faintest of smiles turns her lips upward. The blonde watches as Drea rolls in and just gets down to business with the business end of that sword vs one of those crackly-eyed scientists' neck. "Nice," she calls, lining up again on her target, hopefully before that creeper can close the distance to clock her with something heavy. The chaos of several powers being used at once is quite the show, but things move to fast for her to comment on much of it. "Mac, you good?"

"Right! Whatever the fuck that means!" Jett laughs back to Ari at being called an artificer, "But making things! I can do that! I definitely can do that!" He turns back to the instruments and then tools lying around, "What pieces are missing?!" Ari figured there were pieces missing so he's going to follow Ari's lead on being directed to things that look missing because it all looks sort of foreign and crazy to him and he sure as heck didn't get any insights on it himself. He's working through the various platforms, searching up and down the stairs, poking around at the instruments and devices, waiting for the guidance from Ari.

He notes that Lavender is going for something, "She might be onto something!" He doesn't know what but once Ari tells him where to go, he dives toward that section avoiding eye contact with the lightning eyes over there! Under Ari's direction he kneels down and runs his fingers over the parts that are there, figuring out what goes where, then back, trying to sort out what is missing. While he's not necessarily a good technician he does work with metal a fair bit and he's sorting out the missing cavity in one of the instruments.

Jett sits back and focuses on the spare metal lying around, possibly scraps, possibly parts of the stairs and metal platforms, possibly the tools. Regardless of where he gets the metal from his hands claw and he grits his teeth as he starts to reform and bend the metal, twisting it with some aggressive movements, before he slams the makeshift piece into place. It looks like it fits?! "There... that should work!" There's sweat pouring down the side of his face now though and he looks back toward Theo and Lavender, before he nods toward Ari, "What next?"

Esme is able to glide over to the security guards in her ice form with ease and she even gets to jab one with her bladed hand. Sadly, their armor is difficult to penetrate, which does get a pout from figure skater, and she even blows a puff of air up as it to clear some stray ice bangs from out of her face, but nothing really happens.

Though she is excited to see that several of the others red gloved individuals had gone down, just in time for their back up to join in the fun.

A glance is given the group doing the tech stuff, whatever that is, before she turns to her opposition once more, "Let's try that again."

Angel ducks the baton swung at her and tries to place her leeching hand on her opponent. It's barely a touch but it's better than nothing. Her eyes now black pits with tendrils emanating out through her dark skin. "Nice shot!" she yells back at whoever fired...just before she is sprayed with blood from Drea's victim. Angel should really use her pistol but it's not often she gets up close and personal these days. Why waste it?

"Oh, great!" Ari replies, when Theo calls out about the power source. He beckons Theo over, and then considers the panel for a moment longer, before he reaches in to pick out several pieces that are mangled beyond repair.

Holding them up, he says, "I need replacements for these, if anyone sees a box of parts or something!" After a second of thought, he looks up at Jett with his bonus for being on the high ground and flashes the parts at him. "This is what they look like!"

And then Jett seems to just manufacture the pieces out of thin air, somehow. Ari stares, slack-jawed, in shock for a moment, but then offers a weak thumbs-up. "Great job!" Now it's time to get that power supply that Theo and Lavender found installed. Properly. Without electrocuting himself.

After a scuffle with one of the red-gloved assailants, Mac manages to miss her throw and get clocked in the head by the club, sending her staggering back.

Arrow's query as to her status gets a grunt, as Mac reaches up to rub her head. "Not really but I'll be all right. This isn't a normal dream -- way stronger than any other I've fallen into before. I couldn't affect it," she tells Arrow, before reaching into another pocket and pulling out a gun this time. Her blade went skittering across the room when she missed the throw.

"I'll try again, though." She peers over her shoulder, to whatever it is the buliders are doing. "What are they making, anyway?" She has no idea.

The black-jacketed goon comes at Drea and she feints a slash at his arm and then loops her blade around the incoming club, the tip tearing across the front of the woman's throat and coming out red. She blinks in shock, her instincts bringing her sword up high at her right side to parry the backhand swing of the giant wrench with a clang of metal on metal. She hesitates as the other woman collapses down to her knees, and then down onto her face.

Shuddering, Drea backs up, and then spots another of the wrench-wielding attackers going after Mac and comes around toward the goon's right side, "Hey! Over here, wrench-face." She probably needs to work on her banter. With her eyes wide and something approaching a manic grin on her snake-skinned face, she glances over to Arrow, "Come see the show every day at the Arena of Champions."

Zara swings wildly, moreso than she would have done had this been most circumstances. But her task her is clear: elimination and, if not that, at the least: distraction. She goes to swinging and leaping again, keeping her full attention on the target that Angel is working on as well. Two seem to fall, but that alarm keeps calling. Focus.

The damn box is padlocked, but she has a katana sheathed at her back. Lavender pulls it out, trying to pry open the lock. "Keep a look out?" she asks to Theo as she works on popping it open. It does, and the lock goes clattering, revealing tubes inside, crackling with electricity. "Alright. Now to connect them."

Arrow laughs when Drea tosses out an invite to come see her show at the arena. Classic performer. She coughs and tries to sober at that, because it's hard to shoot when you're laughing. "That's... not good," she says of Mac's difficulty influencing the dream. "But things have been weird around the park. Two people tried to return tarot decks this week for being defective, because all their readings were too similar. I was like shuffle better." Pew pew!

She winces when her shot lands. Even tho she aimed for it. Harsh. She scans for another target, careful not to attack one who's also got melee engaged. Because decent shot or no, friendly fire is nobody's bestie. Least she can do is cover Drea! Which she does, with middling success. Maybe she bought the swordsman, and by extension, her roomie, some time!

Theo heard Lavender when she told him to keep a look out. That is when he finally notices Huck and Esme. A grunt when he takes notice that Esme is hurt. "For fucks sake!" But he has to focus and make sure that Lavender can mess with this power box or whatever it is that needs doing. Scanning the area in general. "This better be a fucking dream. Total nightmare." Yes, he's doing the commentary to himself as self talk in an effort to stay chilled.

Huck speaks with his hands, and right now, his hands seem to just be saying, 'die die die!' Slicing and slashing through another of the lab coated electromonsters, he takes just a second to choose his next target. Glancing around, he sees his friend take what looks at first to be a pretty rough blast of electricity. "Ez!" he shouts. Thankfully, she's seems to be still standing, but he's not going to let her fall. A quick leap into the air, he flies up a few feet into the air, closing the distance incredibly fast, to land beside her and help her dispatch the thing attacking her.

The blast throws Di across the room and slams her into the wall. Whatever illusions she'd managed to sustain were utterly destroyed with her concentration severed. She only has her hands now and the ringing in her ears. Wounded, she crawls back onto her feet and lunges at the closest body.

"Shuffle better -- can you tell that to my dating apps, too? They kept giving me similar red flag waving idiots," Mac asides to Arrow as she manages to duck a hit this time, but misses her own shot back. But then her own pew pew hits and she looks at the gun in her hand with some surprise. The team seems to have better and worse luck at once this time around, in a bit of pyrrhic victory.

"Trying again to see if I can get something to change," she mutters, focusing on another of the assailants.

Though she got a little healing buzz from her last Leech attack on her foe, Angel decides to change tactics and draws her pistol quickly and smoothly before firing into the armor of her opponent at close range. It at least stuns them enough for Zara to do her thing. "Good work" she upnods to her fellow Security officer before seeking out a new target amidst the rapidly dwindling enemy.

"How's the machine going?" Angel yells while doing a quick check for the body of the man who was dragged away. She will also have to check out Drea's show, the swordswoman is dangerous. The ice princess is down? "Someone help her" Angel calls out, hopefully needlessly, and Diana isn't looking too great either. "You might want to hold back..." Too late.

Twice, Icy Esme tried skewering one particular guard but either their armor deflected the ice blade attack or blocked it entirely. With a huff, she tries to locate a place that, you know, might not be as protected by armor! "Three is the magic number!" She calls out to the guard probably as she skates on over and prepares to leap and hopefully drive that weird blade hand into the guard's neck. At around that same time, she feels this surge of energy crackling at her ice armor and making her scream before she thrust back into an ice heap.

Hearing some concern coming from her friends, she's quick to crawl out of the ice, waving a hand up, "I'm okay!" No pain, no gain! Remember! So she'll put on her grrrrr face and looks like she's ready to... something!

Drea thrusts and slashes with precise, practiced motions, doing her best to ignore the trails of red that follow her steel blade. She gets a slash in along the goon's trailing leg, getting at least a bit of of his attention away from Mac, and then circles further around, leaning into a low, rising thrust that punches in under the red-gloved goon's ribcage and tents the far side. Granted, the goon took a shot in the head, so she might not have killed that one, but she definitely added insult to mortal injury.

Twisting her blade free, she gives a little cry as energy crackles around her, but apparently the sword grounds it out, as she's left with a bad case of Einstein-hair but nothing worse. "What in the hell was that?" Spotting the electricity wreathing the ice-formed Ice Princess, her eyes widen, "Oh no!" But there was Diana getting blasted too, and Drea takes quick, shuffling steps toward Diana's attacker, sword held low and at the ready. "Right here you gearpunk rejects."

Lavender looks down toward those working at the device then at the box she had opened. She grabs one of the tubes and starts to make her way down as quickly as possible. She studies the device while she's moving, finding the socket she needs to connect to, and shoves it in, watching as the control panel's keys alight, showing runes upon them. "Is that it? Is it fixed?"

"Oh man," Arrow says, when Mac bring up dating apps. "I wish." She has a few other things to say about dating apps, but not when there's still advancing shockers looking to zap some of her comrades here. "You got this!" Who got this? Whoever needs the world's shortest pep talk in this moment! She knows there are injured, but no time to look around. No eyes off the target.

"We're WORKING on it! Hold them off a little longer!" Jett fires back to Angel because there's only so many hands that can work to plugging in the power source and after he's finished making pieces for the machine itself, he is a little stumped. That means he hedges his bets and takes a moment to try to decipher the next steps. He does happen to hear the concern for one of his friends, looking back to see Esme up despite her getting flung. "Go get them Huck! Fire back Ice Princess! Imagine them all as rats!" That's the best advice he can give before he focuses his attention on the instruments again, looking toward Ari as if Ari could give some insight. But he has his own insight. "The buttons," he leans into them, running his hands over them, squinting at the feeling of .... siphoning? Why is that familiar. He frowns and then points at Ari, "Look, these ones. These buttons. These are the ones that you need to press but what order ... I don't know man!" He looks over his shoulder, "But you better hurry up and try."

With Jett's help, the pieces get reinstalled in their proper orientation... as far as Ari can tell, at least. He snaps the panel shut and steps back, and it's truly just now that he really takes in the amount of chaos going on around him. He's briefly struck still by it all, but Theo's mention of this being a dream (hopefully) drags him back out of it.

"A dream?" he asks, but then Lavender plugs something in and the control panel comes to life. And he doesn't recognize the runes at all. Ari is stumped.

Here comes Jett again with the save, though, and after pointing out which ones are needed to do whatever it is this machine does, Ari nods and gets to work on figuring out the sequence!

Huck gets alongside Esme and takes a swipe at the doc monster, but it strikes him with lightning, tossing him back onto his butt. Grunting, he forces himself back up, "...well, I didn't like that..." He readies his claws and prepares to hit it again if he can. And then the room is glowing. He slowly turns to look where everyone else seems to be looking - at the machine. He looks at Theo, then at Jett, and he slowly smiles.

And then he's back in his apartment, lying on the floor next to his couch, staring at the ceiling. He checks taps his body quickly, making sure he's not hurt, and then sighs. "Lame."

For a long moment, Zara forgets that there's even things happening behind her, that there's another team that's really working on a solution instead of just slashing and thrashing, hacking into enemies. While it could totally be chalked up to dream-paralysis (or something), her first few attempts at fending off the Red Gloves were...ineffective. But time and again with those White Coats, her hands found their marks and bought time, along with the rest of her defending cohorts.

A mechanical startup sounds just as she mollywallops another baddie and things...start to happen. She pauses because, so too, do the enemies. Zara looks at the arcing bolts zapping around and lifts a hand to cover her eyes...

...only to find herself sprawled out in bed with her hand still over her eyes. "...the fuck?" she mutters, trying to make a little sense of the nonsensical.

Finger smashing into the last button, Ari looks up. The whirr of the machine as it begins to active has Ari backing up nearly into Jett, risking that static shock of energy passing between them. Then that blinding light, and...

He tumbles out from underneath too many layers of blankets, right off the side of his bed and into a stack of books tucked against his wall. There's a remarkable crash as the teetering pile comes falling down around him, and Ari blinks the sleep out of his eyes as he stares down unseeing at the floor, heart hammering in his chest.

This is probably where one of the twins finds him, fully sprawled out on the floor.

There is a sound, a blue light, and then she is thrust into darkness, enveloped in the familiar cocoon of sleep. When she wakes, it's with as much panic as she'd woken in the lab. She pats down her body, quickly checking the locations she'd been injured, but everything is fine. "Jesus, this place is fucked," she mutters as she flops back into her pillows.

More electricity crackles around the area, and somehow Drea continues to move through it untouched. It's a little shift to the left, a half-turn to the right, a sweep of the blade across the ribs of the white-coated lightning-wielder that barely draws blood, and "Apps never work." But the 'gearpunk rejects' are indeed focusing on her to some degree, and she gets much busier, too busy to be witty. Alongside Zara, she slashes across the abdomen of her attacker, and all the rest of the hairs on her body (the ones not already standing up) start to rise. "Uh-oh." She backs up, looking at the remaining three (two and a balloon-headed red-glove) attackers, "The difficult we do immediately. The impossible just takes a little longer."

And then she starts up in her bed, reaching for her chest, and then her throat as she sinks back into her pillows and blankets. "Gods... what in the world was that?" Looking down, she shakes her head, "Just... tangled in the sheets...?" She doesn't sound entirely sure, even as she straightens out her sheets.

"Wow." Theo says quietly when the room lights up like Christmas. Sort of. Clapping the shoulders of Ari, Jett and Lavender and says, "Good job team!" Looking to see where Esme and Huck are and they get thumbs up. Whatever else he was going to say he doesn't because he's back in his bed and he's yelling across the hallway, "Jett, you there?!" Yes, he could have texted but well.

"Finally!" Mac exclaims when the red balloon pops into existence, replacing the guards head. "Definitely a dream, but not a normal dream, at least not by my limited experience. She's ready to go pop that balloon when the builders suddenly complete their task, whatever it was.

"I'm still not sure that's a good thing," she says, staring at the glowing blue device when it powers up, but whatever anyone has to say to that is lost as she finds herself in her own bed. She sits up and rubs her eyes. The bulldog at the foot of her bed snorts and looks up at her as if to accuse her of waking him.

Reaching for her cell phone, she texts Arrow: Gonna make some tea if you want some, chica, before slipping out of bed, shoving her feet in her slippers, and scuffing ehr way to the kitchen.

Shooting is something Angel is supposed to be good at. Alas, it doesn't usually involve people shooting lightning out of their fingertips back at her. Her chest burns in agony. Life rushing from her body. The dark void opening its nothingness to her pitiful soul.

And then Angel is awake in bed. Covered in sweat. Panting frantically just to be sure that she is staill able to breathe. A quick check to make sure her body hasn't been burned to a crisp. All good.

"Well...that just happened."

Arrow is hit, but only a glancing blow. Still, the location lights a fire under her ass such that she stumbles back a few paces and fires. When Arrow Glyph's feeling salty, she plays salty. "Go team! Mac, don't get clobbered!" She's just taking aim for a snap shot when she startles awake with the strangest feeling at the back of her neck.

She almost falls out of bed. "The fuck—" The mutters, "Never smoking that strain again."

Her phone pings at her bedside and she scrambles to pick it up, drops it, and leans over the edge of the bed to retrieve it. And is halfway through texting Mac an affirm when she slides the rest of the way out of bed and thumps onto the floor. "Fuuuuck." Ow.

Jett claps Ari on the shoulder as the puzzle solving seems to get them to land the right buttons in the right order. It's a celebration clap on the back and Jett looks behind him at the sounds of the battle rising up. He spots Huck getting up from some serious wound and sees Esme fire off the ice blast in time, "Yep, definitely villainess material..." he shows off a weak smile before he looks back to the control panel and the powering up of the device. His arms fly up before his face as the blue lightning crackles and comes to life, raising up the hairs off his arms from the energy. He takes a step back, "Shit...," he wonders, remembering a question someone asked earlier, "do we know if ... we're the good guys here?" He laughs a little sedately as if this was all going to turn out quite the opposite! Then he gives a yell when the blue light suffuses the room...

Jett's yell continues on from where he's at. Shit where is he at?! He pushes up swiftly and recognizes he's not in that place, looking aside back and forth, as there still seems to be a blue light in his face. But he heaves out a sigh of relief when the blue light is exactly the lighting in his room. He collapses back down and smirks, "An artificer?... I like the sounds of that." With a yawn he turns over onto his side and goes back to sleep, but not before yelling back at Theo, "I'm fucking sleeping!" He rumbles, "Such a good dream..."

In truth, Esme had a mind to charge at that scientist who electrocuted her. In fact, she sort of does! She makes her way, painfully, towards him to take a swipe at the guy, just as Huck comes to her aid. Which also puts her friend in the mad doctor's cross hairs as now Huck gets the electric shock! "HUCK!" She calls out, reaching out a hand as if that would help him. "That's it!"

"You want to play with ice, I'll give you ice!" No one asked for ice...

Rather than attempt to stab the guy with her blade arm again (it's going to be weird getting used to this thing), Esme, instead focuses an open palm at the white coat. Jett mentions rats. "This is what I do with rats." Then comes the deep freeze. Though in truth, she only really did that to a float, Jett and now this scientist guy. Rats were unharmed by this ice.

She looks pretty proud of herself too, even knocking at the block of ice once everything is said and done. Then there's the weird whirring sound and electricity in the air or something, she doesn't know what's going on. "Did we... win?"

Then she wakes up, seated upright in her bed with her cozy blanket clung within her grasp. Blinking once, then twice, she wonders aloud, "Was that... was that one of those super cool dreams? What happened? Where is everyone? What did we do??" She also comes to the realization, "Was I made of ice?"

Looking to Theo, Ari, and Jett, she nods a few times after Theo says 'good job'. It's her way of agreeing, and letting them know their efforts were appreciated. "Teamwork and shit." Then the device starts to whirr and glow brighter and brighter, blue lightning arching in its center. "What the..." Lavender lifts her arm to shield her eyes.

"Fuck." Lavender wakes up with a start, sitting up in bed. Her sheet pools around her waist and she spends a moment trying to catch her breath, now katanaless and wearing a white t-shirt. "No more spicy nachos with extra jalapenos before bed."