[Teaser] A Very Rogue Gallery

[Conduit]

A stolen ferry sits at a private pier belonging to a house sitting higher up on the rocky shore, wooden steps winding their way up towards it. The rich owners are, well, probably cybernetic landshark chow by now. A thick cable throng winds it's way from the house down to the pier and onto the boat where lights are flashing amidst banging and buzzing noises. And through the clamor the sound of music playing through tinny speakers and a girl's voice sing-songing along.

"I'm sinking deep, I'm going under. That sugar coated... Iceberg tastes so sweet until you tumble..."

Inside the lower passenger cabin Conduit is dancing around between various piles of technology sitting on benches, cables are strung haphazardly to and fro, forcing even the diminuitive technopath to duck underneath them at times. There's parts of the boat's engine that look like they exploded and got glued back together inside a tornado. Parts of much more high-tech looking pieces are welded to it, vaguely recognizable as pieces of power suppression collars. Computer monitors are hooked up to a string of hard-drives that dangle like garlands. Conduit passes underneath them, plucking two of them down, doing a little spin and reaching up to plug in different ones from her stuffed pockets full of tools and electronic brickabrack. Lines of data run over the screens in a rhythm that follows her singing while others show images of pulsing geometric shapes.

But the center-piece of the whole setup is a metal support pillar that has been repurposed into some kind of antenna with prongs that seem to jitter in and out of existence, occasionally giving off arcs of energy that spark and fizzle. Around the antenna is a wide circle of what at first just looks like a random assortment of stuff. A block of wood. A water bottle. A stack of gossip magazines. A little pile of computer chips. A severed human hand. A landscape painting that seems straight from a cheap motel. A mini-fridge. A sandwich. A Shrek 2 DvD. An empty can of beans that's been filled with oil and set on fire as an impromptu lamp of sorts. A shark tooth. A phone. A folded tourist map of Scotland. A jar of bugs. There's no real rhyme or reason to any of them beyond just stuff Conduit had available.

But when the antenna sparks it's the circle of stuff that has her full attention, eyes darting around to see what the energy is arcing towards, pointing a little hand-held scanner thingie at it with pursed lips, then holding up a loose pile of papers, awkwardly flipping through them with one finger while still holding on to her scanner. Print-outs and drawings of weird shapes with esoteric names scribbled next to them in Cailleach's less-than-stellar handwriting.

[Reach]

In a different part of the UK entirely...

Blood drips onto a computer keyboard from the scientist slumped over the console, labcoat drenched in crimson and parted in the back is a huge gash cutting across in a diagonal from hip to shoulder. Clean as if opened by the edge of a scalpel, the source of which is spinning between Reach's fingers like a pen. He turns around to the security guard that has burst into the room and his power flows into the spinning straight-razor, projecting the properties of the cutting edge and it's erratic spinning pattern outward. The room erupts in sparks as cuts erupt all around Reach, severing cables, sparking against metal girders and leaving dozens of deep slashes in the poor guard who manages to blink before his eyelid separates in to along with his eye and the rest of his head before he collapses into a heap.

Reach is already turning his back on him and walks up to the large piece of machinery dominating the room. A massive telescope pointing up at the closed curvature of the roof of the Greenwich Observatory. The twirling razorblade snaps closed and Reach slips it into his pocket as he reaches out to caress the large array of lenses and mirrors. He has no clue how to operate it even if he did have the password for the controls. Getting them out of the scientist would have been simple enough but he's not in the mood to deal with a panicked sheep right now and wait for machinery to open the roof and meticulously scan through the sky with cumbersome computer controls. Instead he let's his power flow into the telescope array and he feels the almost abstract property of gazing out to the stars bloom out and his eyes grow unfocused as images of the sky and the endless darkness of space fill his field of vision.

It still takes him almost an hour of searching the skies, sweat beading his forehead from the continuous use of his power, his beck-muscles tense and cramping, but finally he spots what he's looking for. The tiny shape of a mostly black humanoid against the stars above. "Oh you look angry." he chuckles to himself as he watches Void curl herself into a ball and snap out, fingers reaching for the planet floating beneath her and decaying her orbit by a tiny fraction...

It takes some trial and error but eventually Reach manages to estimate a general area of south-east Asia for re-entry of the indestructible mutant within the next month or two.

[Conduit]

And back in the Ferry around August...

The scene aboard the stolen ferry has only become more messy, empty bags and containers of fast food and instant meals are piled on seats and tables that aren't already loaded with tech debris and scattered among everything are countless cans of sugary sodas and energy drinks. Scorch marks from who knows what kind of discharges decorate the floor and ceiling and more than one contraption is nothing but a pile of burned and twisted metal, silicone and melted cables. But in the middle of it all, Conduit is putting the finishing touches on something that looks downright pristine compared to the surroundings. A barrel longer than the girl straddling it protrudes from the main assembly and though it is a hollow tube it more resembles a lightning rod than an actual cannon. Especially with the rings that encircle the barrel along it's length, clearly made from modified power suppression collars and held in place by magnetic rails. Conduit finishes adjusting the last of them and gives it a spin, causing the other ones to also begin rotating, alternating between clockwise and counter-clockwise. Even this simple process already fills the air with a hum that sets the hairs on Conduit's arm on end and she grins and she hops down from the barrel.

"And the silicone chip inside her head... gets switched to overloaaad..." she sings along with the music playing.
Oh and nobody's gonna go to school today,
I'm gonna make them stay at hooome
Sweet fourteen, ain't that peachy keen
Now it ain't so neat to admit defeat
They can see no reasons
'Cause there are no reasons
What reasons do you need? Oh! Ooh oooh ooh!"

As the collars are rotating the barrel begins to fill with the glow of gathering energy and Conduit claps like, well, a little girl.

"I wanna shoo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oot. The whole. Day. Down!" she finishes loudly, then stares out the window at the rivulets of rain running down the glass with an almost disappointed glare. After a couple of awkward moments the jagged fork of a lightning illuminates the night and Conduit cackles in time with the thunder crashing.