What Remains

by **Narrator** » Sun Sep 22, 2019 4:51 pm

The room with Ashlie's main terminal looks okay as Natalie approaches it but the air is filled with the stench of smoldering electronics and as she gets closer she can see the smoke gathering against the ceiling and the foam spilling past the little room with the admin controls. The cavern that is usually sealed off by the back of the terminal is open where fire has burned away at it and fragments of electronics are scattered around.

And past the torn and melted entrance to the cavern proper are the ruins of the expansive computer. One server rack still sticks out from the slowly deflating foam but it's partially melted and metal shrapnel has penetrated it. The rest of the system is still partially buried in foam and as it slowly collapses it reveals the burned out husks of the rest of Ashlie. Melted plastic, bent metal and pieces burned beyond recognition form a picture of utter destruction with a distinct center. One of the server towers almost looks like a bizarre blooming flower with how the casing is torn and bent outwards from the explosion that tore through it and started the fire that is smoldering here and there in small pockets. Directly above the epicenter is a perfectly circular tunnel maybe four or five inches across extending up through the ceiling.

A single pale crystal extends out from the ceiling near the hole, covered in soot and scorchmarks but otherwise untouched.

by **Natalie Denisov** » Sun Sep 22, 2019 5:43 pm

"What?" Natalie says, trying to take it all in and reaching out to the equipment, though in its shape she knows she's not going to find anything. She wades into the foam a bit since breathing it isn't going to hurt her, trying to find something, anything, that's still intact.

by **Toshiro Narumi** » Sun Sep 22, 2019 5:56 pm

Tosh hurried in but stopped at the edge of the foam, painfully aware he could do nothing.

"Oh my god..." he said, shocked by the devastation.

by **Janice Gilbertson** » Sun Sep 22, 2019 6:13 pm

"What... what even happened here? Did the nanites do this?" Janice asks as she follows.

by **Narrator** » Sun Sep 22, 2019 6:23 pm

Here and there a couple of sparks discharge in the wreckage and as the foam turns into slush it reveals a small puddle of silvery liquid that has collected in a crook of some bent metal, sitting inside of it the inert hard-light emitter, the lens cracked.

by **Natalie Denisov** » Sun Sep 22, 2019 6:27 pm

"Maybe," she says, holding a hand over the liquid as she tries to get a sense of whether the nanites in it are still active.

by **Narrator** » Sun Sep 22, 2019 6:32 pm

A bit of static electricity discharges as she holds her hand close, but she can't sense any activity. The nanite's network is gone, the miniscule robots powered down or destroyed.

by **Natalie Denisov** » Sun Sep 22, 2019 7:07 pm

"Not sensing the nanites anymore. They seem to have shut down," Natalie says, trying to find something to focus on other than her worries. She moves to look closely at the crystal, tracing its path into the computer.

by **Narrator** » Sun Sep 22, 2019 7:26 pm

The crystal is inert, showing only a bit of a pink hue from where it changes color partway into the bedrock. The new pale growth is vaguely pointing at the epicenter of the destruction.

by **Janice Gilbertson** » Sun Sep 22, 2019 7:32 pm

"What is that thing? Did it grow here?"

by **Natalie Denisov** » Sun Sep 22, 2019 8:05 pm

"I don't know. Maybe?" Natalie follows the crystal to the center of the destruction, looking closer and trying to figure out what happened.

by **Toshiro Narumi** » Mon Sep 23, 2019 2:30 pm

"It's the remains of a computer system that was here before. I read about it back when I was suspicious of Miss Minamida... before any of us knew what she is."

by **Janice Gilbertson** » Mon Sep 23, 2019 3:06 pm

"Wait, so the crystal's a computer? Can Nat interface with it?"

by **Toshiro Narumi** » Mon Sep 23, 2019 3:20 pm

"It can be interfaced with, but that was an intact version that appeared during the dimensional breakdown. I honestly can't say how it would respond."

by **Natalie Denisov** » Mon Sep 23, 2019 3:59 pm

"Can't hurt to try," Natalie says, "Well, it could actually hurt a lot, but it's better than the alternative." With that, she reaches out to touch the crystal.

by **Narrator** » Mon Sep 23, 2019 4:32 pm

There's a sudden flash of data, visuals of a brightly shining citadel that slams into Natalie's mind and makes her stagger backwards. The others can see a light flare up in the crystal and then fade, it's residual charge spent.

by **Natalie Denisov** » Mon Sep 23, 2019 4:38 pm

"That's..." Natalie puts a hand to her head and shakes it, "That's a lot of data." She glances at the crystal, noticing the fading glow. "Tosh, I think we need power."

by **Toshiro Narumi** » Mon Sep 23, 2019 6:36 pm

"I don't know if it even uses electricity," Tosh answered.

by **Janice Gilbertson** » Mon Sep 23, 2019 6:37 pm

"...so zap it a little, see what happens, and if it's good, give it more power?"

"It's like you don't want to be an electric shark man."

by **Natalie Denisov** » Mon Sep 23, 2019 6:45 pm

"Maybe something more controlled than Bruce." She looks at the Crystal. "As tempting as it is to just hook this up to a generator, maybe we can come up with a more appropriate interface."

by **Toshiro Narumi** » Mon Sep 23, 2019 6:53 pm

"I have the power system for my hydraulic vehicle project that I haven't hooked up yet. It can do low output."

by **Natalie Denisov** » Mon Sep 23, 2019 7:11 pm

"Let's take some readings and draw up some plans," she says, extending her hand towards the crystal again before stopping herself. "I have a feeling we'll want to clean up in here as well. Controlled conditions and all that."

by **Toshiro Narumi** » Mon Sep 23, 2019 7:24 pm

"Let's get to work then," he said. He went back to grab his custom scanning tool and returned to use it on the intact crystal.

by **Natalie Denisov** » Mon Sep 23, 2019 7:27 pm

"I'll go pull up the power distributions and interfaces for my suit. Might be something there we could use," she says, glancing towards Janice. "Would you do me a favor? Go make sure my body gets to the infirmary. Tell them I've jumped again like last time. They'll know what to do."

by **Janice Gilbertson** » Mon Sep 23, 2019 7:28 pm

"Okay but... if you've done something embarrassing while out of your body, I'm going to use gloves." She says to Nat as she goes.

by **Hank McCoy** » Wed Sep 25, 2019 4:36 pm

"I'm sorry, I came as soon as I..."

Doctor McCoy trails off as he takes in the scene.

"...oh my stars and garters."

by **Natalie Denisov** » Wed Sep 25, 2019 4:54 pm

Natalie glances up from where she's picking over the computer equipment. "Doctor McCoy. We're not sure what happened here, but it seems to have something to do with the crystals and the nanites," she says, gesturing at the pool of silvery liquid. "We're trying to get some readings on the crystal so that we can hopefully charge it back up. It was partially charged when we arrived and discharged some data and it's energy when I touched it." Natalie's tone was some flat and businesslike, obviously trying to hold things together.

by **Hank McCoy** » Wed Sep 25, 2019 5:04 pm

"That's... that's the Mastermind system. There aren't supposed to be any crystals left. Braddock destroyed them."

"Granted, during the recent dimensional overlap there was a resurgence, but I thought they'd all faded away after the conjunction ended."

by **Natalie Denisov** » Wed Sep 25, 2019 5:25 pm

"When I touched the crystal, I saw some sort of shining... city? Castle maybe? The image doesn't render well when I try to generate it from the memory."

by **Hank McCoy** » Wed Sep 25, 2019 5:42 pm

"...the Starlight Citadel," he says, his eyes widening.

"Then it's not just functional, it's connected."

by **Natalie Denisov** » Wed Sep 25, 2019 5:53 pm

"The nanites seemed to have received data from somewhere, but I was a bit too busy at the time to really trace it too far. They seemed to be trying to 'repair' our world to some sort of spec."

by **Hank McCoy** » Wed Sep 25, 2019 5:59 pm

"From Braddock's notes, this system doesn't normally need external power. It's self-sustaining in a way that frankly makes my head hurt."

"At the same time, that was regarding a substantially larger crystal structure. It's possible it needs the larger system in order to accomplish that."

by **Natalie Denisov** » Wed Sep 25, 2019 6:09 pm

"If the system is contact sensitive and can interface with machines, it might have something to do with why I'm not sensing Ashlie. Maybe if we can figure out how this crystal regrew then we can use that method to restore the rest."

by **Hank McCoy** » Wed Sep 25, 2019 6:17 pm

"This was the central node of the system. By the time Braddock destroyed it, it had spread to most of the underground areas on the estate. I believe he suspected it had even infiltrated into the walls of the manor."

"So it's possible I may be able to get you more of this material, but I need you to be sure."

"Did you sense anything resembling a guiding intelligence when you made contact?"

by **Natalie Denisov** » Wed Sep 25, 2019 6:21 pm

"Not that I recall. Mostly it was just images of the... what did you call it? The Starlight Citadel?"

by **Hank McCoy** » Wed Sep 25, 2019 6:29 pm

"It's one of the few places that isn't somewhere so much as everywhere. It's the home of Merlin's daughter, as outlandish as that may sound."

"Mastermind was one of the things gifted to the Braddocks to help defend against incursions from other universes. It was frightfully powerful, more intelligent than anyone was ever really comfortable with, and ultimately it turned on the family."

by **Toshiro Narumi** » Wed Sep 25, 2019 7:07 pm

"Now I wish I had thought to just ask you after I found the broken crystals," Tosh said as he gathered readings.

by **Natalie Denisov** » Wed Sep 25, 2019 7:30 pm

"Well, we supposedly have the daughter of the Lady of the Lake living here, so what's the child of one more mythical being," Natalie says, "But we've had problems with incursions from other universes, so it seems reasonable to beef up our defenses."

by **Hank McCoy** » Wed Sep 25, 2019 7:36 pm

"Right. So you two continue as you have. Get me as much information as you can."

"I'm going to pop down to the containment units to see what I can get you. We might just have a chance to figure this out."

Doctor McCoy obviously doesn't intend to delay, deftly bounding down the passageway on his personal mission.

by **Narrator** » Thu Sep 26, 2019 2:31 am

Readings are coming in on Tosh's scanner. It shows a strange composition for the crystals and the new addition is slightly off. Artificially constructed rather then grown, probably by the nanites, considering the scale on which it was put together. The crystal itself has very unusual properties. Conductive, but he also keeps getting data that vastly exceeds the scale of the material. Like each facet is resonating in multiple dimensions somehow. Just from how light refracts through it he can pick up some notions about how calculations might happen as light, electricity and other forms of energy pass through it, none of which is happening at the moment aside from ambient illumination. It's like an antenna, processor and storage medium at the same time.

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