there's a lot of trouble lately (part LXXI)

(Roleplay entry. Continued from part LXX. My gods, everything queued for today, WHYYYYYY...)

"My gods," Emilly said. "Everyone's taking potshots at the poor thing, it's going to get a complex."

"So sorry," Deebs called out over her shoulder.

"So, there's a round stone circle behind you..." She and Justine watched as Deebs rapidly walked away. "Or...she could walk..." She shakes her head. "Well, I'm going by port circle."

She arrived on the rift circle pad, half a floor below the tower room, taking the stairs quickly. Deebs looked up as she opened the door.

"...Not sure how selective this will be..."

Emilly peered as Deebs unleashed bolt after bolt from the energy bow. "I'm not sure it's doing more than cracking the dome..." Which was worrying in itself.

"Nor I." Deebs furrowed her brow. "Hhh..."

Emilly looked closer. "And it's still able to push out, here and there...Eep. That's not good."

Deebs thought a moment. "What if an irresistible force...Let me see if I can shove it down the wormhole..."

"Okay," Emilly said, then "What??"

"More...power...TO it..." The golden woman seemed to brace herself, gritting her teeth.

Was the energy in the bolts coming from her, Emilly wondered.

"Urrmffff...." Deebs finally said, dropping the bow. "Not enough Ens in the local aether streams."

Emilly thought. "Localized wormhole, or--do you mean the rift behind me?"

"Localized wormhole," Deebs murmured, but looked up at the shimmering rift.

Emilly bent forward, fretting as she saw the dome rise a tad, more of the tentacles pushing under it.

"Given the absolute lack of response to blasts into the big rift, I doubt I can jam the rift closed with this shield," Deebs muttered.

Emilly nodded, thinking. "Mmhmm..."

"Let me nudge it..."

Emilly lookd up. "Does the color change mean anything?"

"Umffff," Deebs groaned. "Just...eddies...in...the local...streams..."

Emilly blinked. "Wait. You're trying to move the rift to IT??"

Deebs shook her head. "More...no...I--"

Emilly's eyebrows shot up as the thing hissed loudly and phased through the floor.

"ACK--"

"I thought to look and see if I could collapse the rift into itself--" Deebs said, turning.

Emilly looked around wildly. "Where--"

"Yes, where indeed?" Deebs mused. She looked up. "Not up there--"

"Ah, hell--and not anywhere here..." She pulled out the hand unit again, setting the drone for local scan. "GAH--" she shouted. "Found it--" She bolted out of the tower room, heading down the stairs.

Deebs sighed. "We're going to need that bigger gun..."

Deebs reached the doors to the science lab just as she flung them open. The multiple-tentacled thing hissed at them.

"Ahem," said Deebs.

"All right," said Emilly. "It doesn't seem to be moving much. Maybe we can just lock the doors and see what we have." She reared back as it reached out, slamming the doors in her face. She opened them again.

"What is it trying to do with the color shifts, blend in?!"

Deebs shrugged. "Possibly."

Emilly watched Justine walk down the stairs. "Justine, be careful!"

"What's going on? Is--there something in the lab? I--I was just in there!"

Emilly grimaced. "Damn thing phased under the dome. Through the floor."

Deebs added helpfully, "M. Tentacles is locked in the lab."

Justine blinked. "Mother[F**KER]."

"Not averse to that, but not now," Deebs said. Both women turned to look at her.

"Focus."

Emilly blinked. "Right. I've never seen anything like that. And it attacked you, Justine?"

Justine nondded. "Yeah. upstairs. Are--you sure this is the same one? Have you been up there? And..." She paused, fidgeting. "I have seen somethng like this before."

"Oh?" Emilly asked. "Where?"

"We were just there, trying to whack it..." Deebs said. "And then trying to implode the rift with the full Shield Protokol."

Justine looked down, whispering. "In the cargo bay of the Prometheus. Supposedly sealed in."

Deebs stared at her. "...Oh. Glorious."

Emilly stared at the door, thinking. "Yeah...I think things were more or less in place until she hit the rift--" Then she paused. "Void stars, the room-filling pod of tentacles?? Or--the other one?"

Deebs shrugged. "No sae sealed, then."

Justine looked at her feet. "The grabby one."

"Oof," Emilly said. "Great. Now we have our OWN grabby one. Perfect."

Deebs looked sympathetic. "Well...now what? I left the samovar elsewhere."

"Samovar?" Justine asked. "We're thinking of coffee now?"

Meanwhile, Emilly was ticking fingers off on one hand. "Your laser pistol took out one earlier, the Martian flyer took out one. The Prometheus' solid plasma bolts took out two."

Deebs nodded. "Surely."

"Can I peek into the lab?" Justine asked.

Emilly frowned. "I thought energy blasts WORKED--" She looked up. "Sure..."

Justine opened the door and grimaced. "Oh, [f*ck]...Yep, yep, that's the one..."

"Let me change up a bit," Deebs said.

Emilly heard the hum of a comm channel opening. "Duchess...question..." she heard the Duke say. "The dark carnival...can it appear in spring?"

Emilly stopped breathing. What??

"Shields," Deebs said, re-engaging them. She positioned the new weapon and fired.

"What was--" Emilly began, then yelled in frustration as the doors slammed shut once more. "Stop closing the doors, you stupid thing!"

"Tightly focused bolts," Deebs murmured.

Emilly watched the tentacles turn red. "Is it just me? It looks--angry--"

"Emilly, keep opening that door," Justine said. "I'll prop it."

Emilly pushed hard on the door. "It's holding it shut!" She pushed harder, and with a crash, the door flew open. "There it goes. Damnable thing..."

Justine nodded. "Got it--" She tapped something on her hand unit, and the door folded back and stuck open. "That was...hard..."

Deebs began to visibly sweat, her arms shaking. Emilly watched the thing disappear, running forward to make sure.

"Yay!" Justine said."

Deebs shrugged. "Yay, or did it phase?"

"Oh, [f*ck]..."

Emilly stepped where the monster had been in the lab. "I have no idea. What's under here?"

Justine turned to leave. "I'm going to check downstairs!" She thought for a moment. "The arcana library?"

Suddenly a tentacle wrapped around Emilly's ankles. She felt dizzy. Then she felt herself falling through the floor.

"AAAAAAH--" Emilly yelled. "Pulling me through the--flrm..." She coughed as she was pulled through brick and mortar, through a somewhat nauseating spinning energy field in a cage, she could only assume part of what powered Steam, and then fell through the ceiling onto one of the leather library chairs while the thing hissed and reached for her. She half climbed over, half fell over the back of the chair, scooting back, and falling to her knees.

Justine ran in to find her blinking on the floor. She looked up.

"I didn't think *I'D* phase WITH it!"

Justine threw up her hands. "[F*ck]!"

"Though, I can now inform you, part of the power generator to the house? Is between the library and the science lab, so....it dragged us both through that--"

Justine blinked at her. "Okay..."

"Plus side, being here?" Emilly stood, brushing off her dress. "That is a rug, but it's also an active holding circle, just in case." Though she wasn't entirely sure it was tentacle-monster-proof.

Deebs walked in, shaking her head. "MOAR power to you, beastie." She pulled out a projectile gun and rapidly fired into it while it howled in a thin, unearthly voice.

"Well, the one in the tower didn't hold it!" Justine yelled.

"Okay," Emilly said. "Solid bolts don't work, the energy bow didn't, I do NOT want the Prometheus to arm and fire into the house--what's--oh dear--"

There was a burst of light. Justine covered her eyes.

"Oh [f*ck]!"

"What--was--that?" Emilly asked. "And did it go somewhere ELSE??"

(Continued in part LXXII.)