2025-11-19 - Imp Invasion: Sealing the Rift - Part 2
In which our heroes manage to extinguish the device that caused the imp invasion in the first place.
But where did it come from?
IC Date: 2025-11-19
OOC Date: 11/19/2025
Location: Lost City/Construction Zone
Related Scenes:
Our heroes, along with two guys from Security stand in a pit located at the end of a rough-hewn tunnel that construction dug out to provide access to what they believe to be the source of the rifts the imps are coming through.
There is a hole in the earth above them that something fell through. And that something appears to have smashed into the rock below and melted partially into it. The device seems to be slowly cooling but is still quite hot, causing the temperature in this cavern to be quite toasty. It is some kind of metallic cage around a red glowing center.
Dylan's little robot does not, in fact melt, after taking its images and returns to him safely. Ideas put forth to deal with it include cooling it rapidly with dry ice, powers that lean in that direction, telekinetically moving it, or potentially using the switches to open it up -- all of which come with potential risks.
<FS3> Robin rolls Mime: Good Success (7 6 6 5 3 2 2)
<FS3> Mac rolls Power: Good Success (8 7 6 5 5 5 5 2 2)
Robin watches the discovery happening with a lot of curious and concerned expressions in the mix. While working on an idea he gestures to the group making a hole, and pulling out of it...oven mitts. Maybe it's a far more obscure sign he doesn't expect them to know, or prefers the exercise of creative conveyance, but he is serious about the offer to get some, so says his body language.
"Well. Let me see if shadows do anything to it. I don't think so, but I've never tried to magically cool a device from a hell dimension before, so you know, maybe physics are different," Mac says, with a shrug of shrug of her shoulders. "What could go wrong?"
She grimaces as she says it, but it's mostly for the sake of being amusing when she has no other ideas -- other than dry ice -- of what to do.
At Robin's suggestion, she shrugs theatrically with an exaggeratedly thoughtful face, then signs, What could go wrong? But, she adds, be careful; those only protect so high.
Her expression turns to one of focus, and she looks around, finding a shadow to pull at, lengthening it like taffy to pull over the device, and then another and another, pulling different shadows from different places to layer atop the object blocking. She moves close, careful not to touch it, to see if it's doing any good.
Birdie has lingered back, and her hands hang loosely at her sides with her nails black and shiny—and looking very, very sharp. She shuffles slightly in her stance, frowning as she looks between Mac and Robin. "Oh god, did you really just say that? Everything," she laughs, "everything could go wrong."
But she does slowly shuffle forward, looking unsure.
What could go wrong? Dylan makes a gesture that probably translates to something like 'see previous rambling', because why go into reality-rending and universe-exploding again? It doesn't, however, look like it's intended as any kind of dissuasion; there's nothing they can do here that doesn't risk that, including leave it alone, right? In fact, Mac gets an interested nod and shrug. "I mean, imps," he agrees, not that they prove much about physics.
Robin's miming gets a wrinkled brow and then a pause. "I dunno, man. Oven mitts are meant for, like, oven temperatures. Even if this thing's not melting-point-of-stone anymore, we're not really down to charcoaled-cookie levels yet." The engineer considers. "If you can reach into my apartment, I've got a pair of heavy-duty gloves I use when I'm welding and shit... but I'm thinking it's gonna be hard at best to lift, and trying's gonna get it in contact with parts that aren't covered enough. Plus if it melted the rock and cooled down some, there's a decent chance now it's melted to the rock..."
He tilts his head, considering the thing again. "If we want to move it, I think we need either a real good telekinetic, or a way to cool it down more and a dolly. Plus maybe someone who does earth magic to get the stone away from it if it's stuck." The thing gets another beat of thought. "I say we science it. Hypothesis: flipping the switches is our best option. Method: I'ma flip 'em."
Shadows lengthen and shift around the device, the darkness encompassing it and cutting off some of the red glow that fills the room, which leaves their flashlights to give the room a more white light look than the ominous red of before. And while the shadows do encase the device, nothing out of the ordinary seems to happen other than it being somewhat obscured from view.
The closer that they get to the device though the more it is clear that it is pretty melded to the rock that it's in at the moment, so unless they've got a sword-in-the-stone situation going on where one of them can pull it out wearing the Mitts-of-the-Chosen-One, it doesn't look like it's going anywhere any time soon.
And so it is that Dylan is able to flip the switches (one assumes, with the aid of his robot friend, or the oven mitts, or anything other than his bare hands).
The flips switch, and there's an instant click, and a whirr, and then the housing of the thing seems to open up, the top flipping back and the red pulsing core is exposed within. The center is still blazing hot, but there are black lines formed across the surface where it has begun to cool like the surface of lava flowing across open earth.
There's also another one of those ripping sounds nearby, and another, and another, as several small tears open up within the cave, red smoke beginning to billow out of them.
Once it's clear the shadows aren't much but protecting their eyes from red glare, Mac drops them, and studies the thing with a baffled expression. When the rips start sounding, though, she looks alarmed, a knife coming out of somewhere.
"I didn't do that," she says, in case anyone wants to blame her and her shadows for the new rifts. "But I think it's doing the opposite of what we want. Can you close it again?" she asks Dylan.
Robin turns to see what the noise is. Eyes huge he turns back to Dylan and points to the problem(s). Robin signs back to them, "Maybe break it? Is it summoning them? Tell them to take it back" suggests he with a little shoo! gesture at the end for good emphasis. As Robin is not a robotics guy looks to Dylan who is point on this to see if he's got ideas. Meanwhile Robin looks for things that might obscure and block the hole they can move there or shield themselves behind.
"I don't think they're going to take it back," Birdie says under her breath as she whips her head around, taking in each tear that drags her gaze around. The red smoke causes her to scramble back away from the closest wisps. "Red is bad, red smoke is really, really bad."
"Are... we sure we were supposed to flip that switch?" She says this to Dylan. "Can we flip it... back?"
She hasn't dropped her gaze away from the tear closest to her.
Dylan is, as it happens, ideally suited to flipping switches. And not just by nature! He's got pretty decent technopathy, so those switches are so at-a-distance flipped!
On the bright side, the universe does not immediately end, nor are they bombarded with shrapnel. However, the 'more tears' thing is not ideal. "...Discussion: oh shit," he says, looking from one of the new openings to another, "Nah, I think that was me. I mean it could be coincidental..." But with two clearly expressed 'can we close it again' sentiments, he does just that, again without actually going near the thing.
Even as he does, he says, "Though to be fair this's kinda what it's been doing since it presumably got here, right? Make holes, bring smoke and imps. So, experiment two, does closing it help. Because if not, I'm thinking maybe we should try to extinguish that thing inside, instead. In fact, even if it does help," he looks to Robin, with a nod, "yeah, that might suggest blocking or otherwise fucking up that part's the key."
With the switches flipped, the red glowing candy center is once more enclosed in its encasement.
This does not, however, seem to be stopping the rifts from forming, or the imps from beginning to claw their way out. The good news is, these tears are fairly small and the imps trying to get through them have only managed to get their little clawed arms through.
The bad news is, closing it doesn't seem to be stopping more rifts from forming.
<FS3> Robin rolls Alertness: Good Success (8 8 7 6 5 4 3 1)
<FS3> Dylan rolls Alertness+3: Success (8 7 5 5 4 2 2 2 1 1)
<FS3> Mac rolls Alertness+1: Good Success (8 7 7 6 5 5 2 2)
<FS3> Birdie rolls Alertness: Good Success (8 6 6 5 5 5 5 4 2)
<FS3> Robin rolls Power: Good Success (8 8 8 8 5 4 4 3 2)
<FS3> Mac rolls Power+1: Good Success (8 8 6 5 4 4 4 4 1 1)
"Let's see... there should be water around here somewhere... maybe a spigot or faucet somewhere for a hose hookup?" Mac says, brows up as she looks at their faces, then around the tunnel.
She has a flashlight, which helps, but she also has a power, and she reaches out, fingers snapping in on her palm to make a fist, and the shadows along the walls all close in on themselves, as if lit by a hot noon sun. The goal here is to reveal the piping, and look for a spigot.
If there's no spigot, well. They'll have to break the pipe.
Robin looks at Birdie with a nod of agreement, then the holes then the core and after then make a snap decision. He mimes unzippping a hole and stick his arm through it, but the couple frozen ice packs from the apartment freezer are in hand. Judging by the molten nature of this thing they're not going to get them back either. That's going on the shopping list. Approaching carefully he makes the effort to try to pack the burning shielded core-thing in.
"Should have grabbed frozen steaks. Then we'd also have lunch" he may do that next.
"I think I saw a hose bib, actually, back that way," Birdie points over her shoulder back the way they came. She starts to turn, but hesitates a moment. "Um, I'll be fast." She starts to move quickly, aiming to try to get back as soon as possible. Luckily, she's going to find someone to help her out with this mission!
"Please, don't flip any other switches," this is called over her shoulder.
<FS3> Robin rolls Composure: Good Success (8 7 6 5 3 1)
"Conclusion, doesn't really make a difference," Dylan decides, and breaks into a grin when Mac suggests the likelihood of water around here, doing a snap-point at her. "So try to put it out faster it is, yeah." And the switches get flipped again, making it possible for Robin to toss his ice packs in there. They are definitely not getting those back, but a start's a start, right?
"No other switches, check!" he calls after Birdie. Which is accurate. It's only the same switches that got flipped a third time.
While Mac manipulates the shadows to reveal the rough-hewn walls of the cavern don't seem to have any immediate piping in them, Birdie recalls that there was a place to hook up a hose back out front. One of the security guards goes with her to help her hook it up and bring it back while the other does his best to keep an eye on the portals, occasionally smacking an imp in the head that tries to push through.
Robin throws some ice packs into the molten hot center once Dylan opens it up again which explode into steam that fills the room making everything a little bit harder to see.
But when Birdie returns with the hose and it's turned on full blast on that molten core, the entire space fills up with steam. It's not hot enough to scald the bystanders, but it sure is like a steam room or sauna in there. The shrieking of imps can be heard as some manage to wriggle free into the room.
Others are caught up in the sealing rifts as the core begins to cool, more and more steam pouring out and escaping through the hole in the roof.
It takes some time, and a bit of a struggle with some of the imps, but eventually the steam begins to subside as the core grows cooler and cooler and then finally black, and the rifts vanish along with it.
"Good thinking," Mac tells her roommate when he uses magic to empty their freezer of first-aid supplies. "Also good thinking," she tells Birdie when the other woman returns from getting the hose hooked up and turned on full blast on the device.
She stands with her knife at the ready, prepared to slash at of the imps that escape the holes and come toward the group, but none come too close.
"This reminds me -- just a few more days til Stranger Things," she says, signing over to Robin, We need to finish our rewatch of season 4 before it starts.
Robin looks wary of the thing that is kicking off a lot of heat, but it's not fire and it's not the room. At the approval from his roomie he gives her a salute bringing him to see what Birdie's doing so he can move out of the damn way. When she hits the core with water he looks away backing up and hissing back at one of the little imps now writhing in discomfort half in and out of it's tear of reaching.
Hair steamed and plastered to his face he wipes it back and signs 'Let's just hope we don't run into an actual Demogorgon first. Birdie, it's working!' There is hope here, though he finally asks Dylan wht the thing even is by pointing at it and making an open gesture of 'Annnnnd?' with his hands.
Hosing down potential demon infestation is definitely not something Birdie had on her bingo card!
She braces her feet as she feels the release of pressure through the hose almost push her backwards. Steam coughs up around her, and she shakes her head as her hair turns into a wavy mess. "Worse than the sauna," she grouses. But the sign from Robin has her flashing a bright, fanged smile at him before she starts to notice the rifts are closing, disappearing.
Birdie gets a thumbs up from Dylan when she brings back the hose, and only a small sound of dismay when the inevitable steaming of the entire area ensues. He should absolutely have expected this. "I feel like we're supposed to go jump into the lake now," he replies to her remark on this vis a vis saunas, as he looks around for the shrieking imps. Hopefully the place they are is not near him; if they are, hopefully they're low down so he can see if kicking them does any good?
"This is gonna be great for Flash's circuitry," he mutters, probably making a note to enhance the bot's waterproofing ASAP.
Finally things seem to be settling back down, and he runs a hand through his sodden hair, slicking it back. He takes a good look around, then flashes a grin at the others. "Go team! I think we did it." As far as the 'aaand', Robin gets an apologetic shrug, though the engineer then starts moving carefully toward the capsule to try to get a better look at it. Who knows, maybe there's even a label in there.
It is damp and muddy and kinda gross in the makeshift cave now but at least the rifts seem to be gone and whatever imps were left have scrambled out through the hole in the ceiling. Someone will probably have to deal with them at some point when they turn up in the park, but considering how many of them have been turning up lately, a couple more can be easily dealt with.
The more important thing is that the rifts themselves seem to have stopped.
The mechanical device doesn't seem to have a label on the inside any more than it did on the outside. And the core in the center is now a mostly lifeless still-warm but no longer active lump of vaguely magical.. something. It weighs about as much as a large bowling ball though the housing is probably permanently fused to the rock that it's in unless someone gets in their with a chisel or something and hacks it out of there. The core, on the other hand, can now be safely lifted with oven mitts. For certain definitions of "safe".
Birdie pries back the shutoff latch so the hose stops gushing water everywhere, and she wipes her forehead with the back of her wrist. She frowns as she looks around, as if making sure that, indeed, all the threats are gone... for now. "Um... can I suggest we put that in a deep freezer?"
"Agreed," Mac both says and signs to Robin.
When everything's calm, she wipes her wet face on her coat, a mix of steam and her own sweat brought on by the steam. "Maybe we can do this on purpose and call it the hot springs spa treatment, make some money on the side from the dumbest of the tourists," she asides, as she pulls a hair tie from where it lives around her wrist when it's not in her hair. She winds her long dark hair up and with a few deft movements, it's in a messy bun and out of her face, though a few strands still cling to the nape of her neck.
"That looks like a job for not us," she says of the casing still melded to the floor. "I don't know about the lake, but a nice indoor pool swim might be nice."
"I've done the lake in winter. Pool sounds good," Dylan agrees. "Also I think we were talking about mozza sticks? Because I'm definitely feeling like some mozza sticks." He nearly pokes the now-inert thing with a finger, stopping the urge just in time to prevent instantly regretting not doing so.
"Deep freeze sounds good. So does quarantine. So I vote we get it into a freezer in quarantine. All in favour say aye... would like some mozza sticks."
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