Recap Session 20: "Futurestock"

The future is now; the coolness is overflowing; nothing is as it seems. If you haven't been to Plant-17, better not speak, cause you don't know what it means. Black Sygma For The Win. At least none of NPCs that we love died... we think.

Last session our heroes were standing on the Edge, this session they jumped, and we're still waiting for the thump. It might last hours, might take weeks, but the fall is never going to end.

Our heroes had many strong words to say to each other. They wanted to know how to get in, they wanted to know how to get out. In they can use the Barrage form Plant-3, hastingly sent by Jetix cause those scrambling Sixty-sixes over at the Core came down hard on the idea of help. The Libby is a MERKAVA, this they know, but it means, they aren't sure. Can they use it to get out through Testra? Powell and Rain are against it. Niv ben-Lilith is not to be trusted, they say. So Achaea it would be, the system with the four gates and no control. Onwards to the Hells around the Gate-Keeper, the Cerbrian Systems. This is the way out, but first they have to survive. This, they fear, will not be easy.

Plant-17 is divided; one part darkness, two parts light. Above they make the chips, below they keep the people. So the group decides to split up, the first of many splits none of them good. Rain is in charge, and he looks over his troops: He has himself, the Wackyman, Hill, the Terrorist, Anansi, the Spider with the Key, and Zeb, the Soldier. Powell, Moneybags, is staying behind. Now come their unfathomable female friends: Gale, Alice and Saif. The sygboys sent Murphy and his Seeing Eye Assassin, Storm. Zeb insists on bringing Niv ben-Lilith; he wants him close so he can be used. Tragic. And the two wounded Lions, Ardemos and Arsinios, round up the bunch.

Our Mighty Ducks get to work, but before the main course we have the hors d'œuvre: Rain and his Lady's Night Out. They dress to kill (sorry for the pun) and head out to the Ambrosia. There they dance, drink, and have fun, before going to look for Julie, the Social Cruise Director. He's in his office, sans-head, and plus-Shepherd, who immediately jumps to fighting Rain. They exchange blows, then bullets. Rain's are real, the Shephers' are plastic. Allan comes in to help Neil, but the fight has to end: Rain got Neil, Allan has Gale. Rain is willing to let Neil go, but he wants Flame. Allan agrees. Rain exeunts, takes the broken body of Flame and leaves with the Veil. But not very far; he immediately comes back to the Blue Wing, to destroy the heinous things that used to be people, and collect what Anansi tells him are blueprints for a Gate-Detector. As if these things actually exist... So now Rain has Flame, and the Shepherds have Gail (and also, it seems, the knowledge to build gate-detectors...) Flame is in intensive care, and Rain might falling apart, but the buzz of Gale's phone brings him back. Someone called "Tide" is on the line. Rain sets up a meeting, and is in for a surprise: Tide is actually Tide the system-breaker, from AXE, and with him are two others (Rain identifies them as "Jack and Jill") Who are these people, what are they doing here, and what is their relationship to Gale? Good questions, all.

So now we have more people then before, but we're still missing one. Off to Plant-17 we go. Zeb stays on board the Libby, cause those are his orders. Saif pouts, but is sent away with the Spiral Dancers (is anyone keeping tabs of the bad decisions being made here? Did we forget Hill is a prime target?) to find out "the Big Secret" of Plant-17. Anansi is grouped with the other nerds (Tide, Alice, Niv ben-Lilith and Arsinios) to support the main group, the Nannies. They're here to rescue Hill's parents: Rain, Hill, Jack and Jill, Storm, Young Li Murphy, and Ardemos. If ever was a time to break into song, now's the time.

Things did not go as planned. The groups split into two teams, and the Spiral Dancers were off. Inside the darkened part of Plant-17, Niv ben-Lilith tells our boys he senses strangeness. The boys decide they want communication, but don't want to give themselves away. Anansi and the nerds are off to try and tap into the Plant's own systems from within its bowls (sorry, again). Niv ben-Lillith stays behind. Our Mighty Ducks wait, but the nerds don't come back. So they move on (why? I don't know). Deeper and deeper into Plant-17 they go, and the wrongness just keeps piling up: the halls are empty before they get to where the people are supposed to be, but instead, they find their living organs, sewed together to fashion efficient fusion-machines, to create the Sygma chips. Our heroes gulp, but press on. Meanwhile, the nerds reach "the Brain" (Anansi named him Steve, in a flash of pure genius) and start conversing. Alice is freaked, but Anansi and Tide are cool. Arsinios doesn't know what's going on, but that's normal. After talking with Steve, the nerds realize what we already guessed: that he's in charge of a huge "body", producing chips organically. They hear about "Father" and move on to meet him.

Back with the Guns-For-Glory, we find ourselves inside the stomach, actually a router that accepts raw chips and sends them on to be processed. In here, they split again: all the people who have capabilities, meaning Rain, Storm, and Ardemos, leave all the people with the brain: Hill and Niv ben-Lillith. Oh, Murphy's catatonic. He took the whole "My friends were cut to pieces and made into machines" thing pretty hard. Niv ben-Lillith pokes around. The Three Machos reach the mouth, and bring down two technicians. Niv ben-Lillith causes the "stomach" to shit them all out of there. The Three Tanors decide to bring their friends up. Niv ben-Lillith is leading his band of bros away from where they landed and into the station. The Three Nachos decide to move to "the Head" before "Steve" starts crying for his food.

The Three Muskets arrive at "the Head" with our Three Nerds (Alice isn't shown), who came to meet "Father". Father is disturbing. Also, pissed at "Tzefa" who promised some tasty brain but did not deliver. That is because "Tzefa", a.k.a. the man who paid Fury to kill Ratboy and probably others, is actually Niv ben-Lillith, and just trapped Hill and his friends in an airlock where they await their deaths. It comes in a different shape then previously thought. Anansi and Tide talk with "Father", but then He decides its enough time for talks: he wants to eat himself, and Anansi is the main course. Things, as in Monsters, start piling in. The shits truly hits the fan, and outside Zeb can see the soldiers going into Plant-17 and decides to act alone.

Battle ensues. While on other side of the station Theocracy soldiers capture Hill and the Rainbow-Eyed Man, and kill Jack, Jill, and Murphy (Storm, you dolt!), Our heroes battle everything from huge digital whales to soldiers and monsters. But they prevail. Anansi brings down the Head, Saif brings down the roof, and the band brings down the house. But Hill is still captured.

Our heroes, sans-the deceased, leave on board the Libby (still a MERKAVA, it seems), while the Snark-Hunter, the Cheshire Cat, and the Jabberwocky, fly off. But the enraged Saif is with them, and with her is the Secret: a closed circuit, carrying the insignia of Black Sygma. What it is, we still don't know.

We leave our heroes humbled, yet somewhat victorious. Niv ben-Lillith captured Hill, but they blew up Plant-17 and got the plans for the Gamma Key Bed. So some successes were made. Will they be enough?

Join us to find out, on the next episode of... "Owl Crossings", the show where if the NPC has a cool sounding name, he's probably bad!

Righteous.