The Gadgeteer (Hits: N/A) Mk.II Armor PsyCoins: N/A Aether: N/A Inventory: GamePlayer X+, 5 GamePlayer cartridges In a back alley in Metrobelt-2 (known as the west coast before The Change) a flash of light occurred, caught by a security camera. The Gadgeteer looked around, and then up, to see that drab skyscrapers went up for about 11 stories before meeting a sky polluted with thick black smoke clouds... "Well, this certainly doesn't look inviting..." The Gadgeteer said to nobody in particular. But the cameras heard everything. They always did after The Change. The Gadgeteer walked out of the alley to find small, dirty shops staffed mostly by foreigners. Of course, after encountering a few universes where the Natives of North America never met the colonial Europeans, his definition of "foreigners" had shrunk a bit. They didn't appear to own any motor vehicles either. All he saw nearby for transportation was roller skates (and not even in-line) and bicycles. After looking around carefully, he retreated back into the alley. The Mk.II's adaptive camouflage changed to portray him as a young person similar to one of those street vendors. He continued further into the alley, intending to come out at a different spot. Suddenly, a pair of thugs came out from behind a dumpster and pointed pistols of an unknown make and model at him. They said something to him, but it was in a strange street slang that seemed to borrow words from Russian, English, Chinese and Korean, according to the universal translator, and some of those borrowed words were being used in a different context. The Gadgeteer knew better than to open his mouth at this stage. He ignored their angry voices and prepared for what would come next. Sure enough, a shot to his knee was the response to his lack of any. He pretended that he was in extreme pain and knelt down, gritting his teeth beneath his breathing mask and shouting gibberish through it as if in agony. Unfortunately they weren't as stupid as they seemed, shooting him again, this time in the head. Of course, that wouldn't penetrate the Mk.II's defenses. It was designed with the best tech that the Scribe industrial empire could buy and/or reverse engineer, and though powerful weapons like sustained machine gun fire or a grenade could do significant damage, and magic was something the Mk.II's creators never expected, a gunpowder bullet fired from a pistol was one of the first things the designers and engineers protected against. The bullet ricocheted off the titanium-alloy armor conspicuously, and the adaptive camouflage was disrupted. Obviously the jig was up. Looking at each other, the two would-be muggers each shot at one of his knees in the vain hope that the pain the Gadgeteer had faked was a sign of an Achilles heel, only for those to ricochet off as well. The Gadgeteer pointed his arms at them, and a ring of panels extended outwards from both his wrists. The laser gatling barrels began rotating menacingly, and the failed muggers turned and ran in fear. Once they were no longer in sight, the barrels stopped rotating and retracted back into his wrists, the panels neatly fittingly back in place. "The best fights are always the ones where you don't even have to fire a shot..." the Gadgeteer thought, smiling beneath his breathing apparatus. He turned to return to the main street to see a clueless shopkeeper closing off the alley with a mechanical gate. Turning back the other way, the alley faded into darkness beneath a structure of indeterminate purpose. He turned night-vision on momentarily, but it seemed the attempted muggers had pulled several heavy crates down to aid their hasty escape. Looking around for any other route, the Gadgeteer spotted a door to his left with its window boarded up. Seeing no other option, he jiggled the doorknob and was surprised to have it come off in his hand. Using the hole left behind as a makeshift handle, he pulled the door open to find a pair of stairwells, one leading upward and the other downward. Deciding to get a clear view of the area, he headed upwards. Despite only seeing 11 stories from the outside, he must have climbed about 20 before arriving at a door at the top of the stairwell. It was unlocked, so he went through onto the roof of the building. The view was... disconcerting. In every direction for miles were buildings, arranged in a slipshod fashion that just screamed "fire hazard", separated in spots by low-lying thick black smoke which obscured the smaller structures. His quantum computer didn't detect any wireless transmissions, but judging by the power lines the amount of wiring was impressive. It was likely that the density of the buildings did not allow for reliable radio communications. Not knowing what he could possibly do, he looked around and spotted a metal shipping container, similar but not identical to the intermodal containers of Timeline 1. Although the container itself was locked shut, there was a tarp draped over the side of it and onto a few wooden crates in a tent-like manner. He crawled into a small nook in the arrangement and waited, hoping he could spend the next 23 hours and 35 minutes in peace. Little did he know he was being watched... (Don't feel daunted by the wall of text. I just wanted to give a good picture of what this place is like. You, as players, only need to post 2-3 paragraphs. If you can think of more, then go ahead, as long as you don't steal the spotlight and you're not in a fight!)

The Privateer (Hits: N/A) Messor I A crackle of blue electricity disrupted the... peace? No, peace was too gentle a word. It disrupted the uneasy silence which was common here. With a bright flash of light, the sound of thunder, and a smell like burning sawdust, the Messor burst out of nothingness and straight into the middle of a crowded alleyway. Unfortunately, this left the massive machine wedged uncomfortably between two buildings, and a courier on a bicycle, being forced to stop, got off of the bike, banged on the outer casing of the timeskip battery, and swore profusely in what the timeskipper community would come to call "Kowloon Creole". The hatch on top of the Messor slowly twisted open, and the Privateer climbed out halfway, brushing her black hair out of her face and looking around to get her bearings. People were now looking at her. She always hated this part. Did anyone speak Latin in this world? "Ignosce, sed ubi sim nescio. Quid me vis?" The response was more guttural cursing. Splendid.

"...it! Shit! Shit!" The Traveler shouted as he appeared in Timeline 3. "Note to self: don't try and get a better view of a civilization's sacrificial ceremony... by posing as the sacrifice." The Traveler then rose from the ground, holding his head in his hands. "Ow. Okay, where am I?" he said after downing three ibuprofen's with a few sips of a water bottle he kept in his backpack. He walked out of the alleyway, looking for the nearest person he could find. "Hey you! Um... you don't happen to speak English do you?" The Traveler asked the stranger. The man turned to him and said something that, to The Traveler, sounded like a bunch of gibberish. "You don't say?" he replied. The Traveler sighed, then rubbed his forehead. "Fuck this headache. And fuck language barriers! Alright, where to now?" The Traveler asked himself out loud, the man who was native to this timeline staring confused at the young Timeskipper.

The Privateer (Hits: N/A) Messor I The Privateer climbed out of the Messor, securing the hatch behind her, and climbed down to the ground using the copper rods lining its edges as a makeshift ladder. She'd never seen a world quite like this one before. It was so dingy and coated in smog that it almost looked like nighttime. But that was of no importance to her at the moment. She inspected the treads, noting just how thoroughly they were stuck. She wasn't getting it out in any reasonable timeframe, that was certain. So with no other options, she headed off down the alleyway on foot. The aggravated courier kicked the ground, hopped on his bike and rode away in search of another path. The alley led into a square, packed with people of all descriptions, most of whom were wearing black and possessing either a tattoo or a piercing. This was as good an opportunity as any. The Privateer reached into her pocket and pulled out a small device she had "acquired" from one of the universes she had previously been to. Positioning it in front of her face, she proceeded to take a snapshot, which fluttered out after a few seconds, imprinted in full color on a small piece of photo stock. She had to be careful with a device like this - after having taken it apart once, she had discovered that it only had about thirty of the things inside. In other words, it was a good thing she'd also "acquired" a box of spares before she'd left. She quickly placed the miniature instant camera back into her pocket before it attracted any undue attention.

Little did each of these individuals know that the cameras were watching. The local law enforcement, though often corrupt and prone to bribery, still followed their job description when it came to the average Joe on the street, and seeing a diminutive figure in high-tech armor appear in a flash of light, a woman in strange clothing speaking a strange language climbing out of a contraption that appeared in the middle of an alleyway only to get jammed between the sides, and a teenager speaking in a possibly different strange language fading into existence all in the same day in the same district of Metrobelt-2 was enough to mobilize their forces...

---

The Gadgeteer (Hits: N/A)
Mk.II Armor
PsyCoins: N/A
Aether: N/A
Inventory: GamePlayer X+, 5 GamePlayer cartridges

The Gadgeteer sat inside the small alcove, using a small electronic device called the GamePlayer X+ which he had taken while passing through Timeline 64. He had traded a pair of augmented reality glasses from a different timeline (his own suit included a pair of AR goggles he couldn't take off anyway) for the device and several games. With the volume muted, the WiNET transciever turned off and the screen turned to minimum brightness, it probably wouldn't attract any attention. Probably.

The thing about his gatling setup was that it drained a lot more power while active than the normal operation of the Mk.II, and essentially halted the capacitor charging in its tracks for about an hour after being used, provided all he did was rotate the barrels. If he fired a quick burst it would take 3 hours, and prolonged use could set him back anywhere from 4 to a full 24 hours depending on how long he used it.

The Gadgeteer shut off the GamePlayer and looked around carefully. He swore he could have heard something. Putting the device in the pouch on his right hip, he locked it shut and listened as carefully as he could. Although the suit had many enhancements, some of which were overkill, better hearing was not one of them.

In fact, the Gadgeteer's original and badly-burnt ears had been replaced by lifelike artificial ears, as a way of making it possible to recognize him as human. Unfortunately, since the tech for it was for the most part not reverse-engineered from the highly advanced armor found in the rubble of that factory in Timeline 10810, the best they could do was close to on-par with the real thing in terms of performance, maybe an extremely small amount less.

He did hear something though. Footsteps climbing a stairwell, the one he had climbed to reach this rooftop. The door to the stairwell opened and several men and women in something similar to SWAT gear emerged, faced the Gadgeteer's hiding spot and pointed their weapons. They said something in the local language, but without any samples the Gadgeteer had no idea what it was. They threw a gas grenade into the small alcove, which emitted a yellow-green smoke, but his breathing apparatus filtered out the chemicals easily.

They weren't done yet though. When they realized the knockout gas had failed, they launched a small device at him. They were probably guessing when they did so, but they guessed right; The armor's metal panels were titanium alloy in a composite with layers of carbon nanoweave... and iron. The device jumped onto his cybernetic left hand, and the electromagnetic force attracted his other hand and his feet, also cybernetic, to it. He was hogtied by a freaking magnet.

The computer system of the Mk.II was fortunately shielded against such an event, but the magnet prevented him from using his laser gatlings. All he could do was struggle hopelessly as they lifted him up, tied a steel cable around his already-incapacitated limbs just in case (not that they needed to, since it wasn't like he had enhanced strength), and marched down the stairs.

After an unknown number of stories, they reached the bottom of the stairwell, where a subterranean rail freight station had been built. A small self-propelled vehicle was waiting, and they threw him in the cage in the back of the cart. The vehicle sped off and after arriving at another station, a crane picked up the cage and sent him through a complicated "storage" system. Hundreds of cages, each containing a person, were paced in what could only be described as a human warehouse. But instead of dropping him off, the crane switched rails and he went through a small tunnel. The crane stopped, and he was shunted sideways into a "cubbyhole".

The tunnel was closed off from him via a heavy security door, and he was left alone with nothing but a concrete stool and desk with a cathode ray tube computer monitor and a strange keyboard built into it. The bulky monitor and keyboard were both flush with the surface, giving the Gadgeteer a clear view of the characters on it. However, he didn't recognize most of the letters.

The door opened and a man in a green uniform stepped in. Closing the door behind him, he sat down at the desk and typed something into the command line quickly.

The man spoke a few times, presumably asking questions, giving the Gadgeteer's quantum computer samples with which to translate the language. Fortunately, his ears heard things using a piezoelectric microphone and thus were not disrupted by the electromagnet. Finally the system gave him an all-clear, and he prepared to speak through the thermoacoustic speaker on his breathing mask.

"So you won't talk? Alright. Let's see how cool you'll play this tomorrow." the man said, getting up to leave.

"Wait!" the Gadgeteer said. "What do you want to know?"

The man turned around, stunned. "How old are you?"

"Chronologically? 14, almost 15. This armor keeps me from growing somehow, though." the Gadgeteer explained.

"You do realize this technology you're wearing shouldn't exist?" the man asked.

"Not in this timeline. Think of time like a growing tree. The world as you know it is just one branch. This suit is a way for me to jump from branch to branch."

"I see..." the man said, then leaned forward. "If I were you I'd be careful just how much you reveal about this." he said, his eyes wandering up and to the right. The Gadgeteer followed the direction and noticed a security camera on the wall.

"Look, I'm not here to harm anyone." the Gadgeteer said.

"Unfortunately, some camera footage from earlier today says otherwise." the man replied. "You pointed what appears to be a weapon at two individuals in an alley."

"Self defense. They shot first." the Gadgeteer explained.

"Doesn't matter when you're fused to some of the highest technology this world has ever seen. They'll have you dissected before you even make it to the local tribunal." the man warned. "I've got kids of my own, I don't want to harm you, but you deserve to know what will probably happen to you."

"Then can I ask you a favor?" the Gadgeteer asked.

"What?" the man asked.

"Have me put somewhere the rest of your police buddies won't suspect. All I need is a day. You'll see why."

The man nodded. "It was... interesting meeting you kid. I'll see what I can do, but I can't say the same for the others."

"Others?" the Gadgeteer asked.

"So you don't know about them. I can't tell you any more, but you aren't the only weird thing to show up today." the man said, typing on the keyboard. The door to the tunnel opened, and the Gadgeteer's cage was lifted by a crane and carried back out to the "warehouse".

The crane placed him in an empty slot on the "shelves" and then receeded. The prisoners in the cages surrounding him took a bit of notice. The ones that were awake that is. The one above him was carving up a block of "food" with a knife, as apparently they just left the prisoners in their cages and never got near them, so no items were confiscated.

The one below was asleep, the one facing the other aisle was humming on a harmonica-like instrument, and the two on the sides were trying to pry at the door and carving a shiv respectively.

"This is going to be a LOOOONG day..." the Gadgeteer thought to himself bitterly.

---

@MisterEightySix

The square was soon blocked off on every side, every exit either guarded by "police" officials, or blocked by a closed gate. The Privateer was boxed in.

---

@Guess Who

The Traveler might have noticed that he was being followed by each security camera as he passed it. Meanwhile, "police" officials were converging on his location.

The Privateer (Hits: N/A) Messor I The Privateer looked around. This was strange. Nobody should have been able to see her. Why were there-? She turned around. A security camera stared at her from the corner of a building. She placed both hands on her face in exasperation. How had she not seen this coming? No matter. This wasn't the first time she'd been surrounded by guards, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. Not as long as she had a say in it. The Privateer sprung into action. They wanted a confrontation, but they weren't about to get one. Her eyes darted around the area, hunting for something, anything, that she could use to her advantage. That was when she noticed a pile of small crates stacked up against a building with a low overhang. As quick as she could muster, she took off running, scaled the crates, grabbed the overhang, and pulled herself up, all in one smooth motion. Thank the gods for standard shipping containers. She couldn't imagine how she would fare in a society where everyone used barrels. That would just be weird. The people in the square could only watch in surprise as she bolted across the rooftops, clambering up gutter pipes and leaping over back alleys. Of course, she didn't have anywhere to run - the Messor was still stuck, and even if it wasn't, she wouldn't be able to make a Timeskip for almost a day. Naturally, she wouldn't make it very far before she was hit with a gas grenade and fell painfully onto the concrete road. As she lost consciousness, the police hurried to throw her into a cage in the back of a van, and drove off toward the very same prison which was now holding the Gadgeteer. If police protocol had been a little more like that of Timeline 1, they might have bothered to check her rather deep pocket, but when the police force is paid minimum wage, they don't tend to care a whole lot about protocol...

The Solver (Hits: N/A) The TEACUP (Timeline Emmigration Allowance Contraption Undermines Physics) PsyCoins: N/A Aether: N/A --- The TEACUP found the perfect spot to "land." An abandoned building was quickly replaced by a cafe, with bright crimson red walls and a black awning. The door opened as a little bell was heard, indicating that someone entered or left the eatery like many small resturants did, and out came the Solver, standing six feet tall and wearing his suit and coat as always. He was wearing a pair of stylish glasses which he took off, lookong around the area, striking that pose in the picture. His black eyes looked around the area, examining the people walking about and the buildings around him, he tried to get a feel for the type of people that were in this timeline, managing to overhear a language which he couldn't place his finger on. He folded his pair of glasses before hanging them on the neck of his suit, proceeding to walk upon the designated path, nowhere in particular. He saw a squad of "police" run towards a designated area, which he himself found curious. He calmly tailed the squad ox officials, before reaching into his pocket and pulling out his SDGXL (Silver DualGear XL) it was similar to a half of a 3DS XL but a bit bigger, enough so that the screen was the same size as one of a 3DS, though it was a bit thicker, this was due to a smaller and second screen that could be retracted at will to multi task both playing the game and doing something else on your system, or using it with compatible games. He loved his SDGXL, he got all the systems and games his Father made so of course he knew everything about anything about videogames in Timeline 64 and Timeline 89. He looked down at the screen calmly, which he held in one hand, acting like he was doing something. He heard the heavy footsteps of the squad of soldiers stop before placing his game system back inside his pocket and looking up, to see a boy about seventeen, confused out of his mind. "Guess I won't be playing my Throwing Daggers remake right now..." He said, before beginning to watch the scene unfold before his eyes.

The Traveler continued walking down the street, completely oblivious to the cameras watching him. However, as the "police" began to close in on his position, he realized that there was something up. Even before he gained his abilities, he had been mugged enough times to know when he was being followed. "Alright, let's see. That guy and that guy are definitely watching me. They're planning to do something, specifically to me. So, what do I know? I know I'm on a pretty populated street, meaning that these guys don't really care about civilians or law enforcement. If that's true, then the reason is most likely because they ARE this world's law enforcement. So, where to?" The Traveler thought trying to inconspicuously look for an escape route. He continued walking casually to give him more time to think. Unfortunately, the "officers" didn't want to give him that time. Suddenly, the nearest "officer" lunged at The Traveler. He easily dodged the tackle, since the "officer" didn't realize The Traveler had spotted him. Then the second one came out of a nearby crowd. This one The Traveler had to do a roll to avoid. He still successfully avoided him, though. "Yes! This just like those awesome chase scenes from an action movie. Now, all I need is a cart full of fruit to push over to slow my pursuers and then afterwards, pull a whole bunch of cool parkour moves, and make my esca-" A third "officer" that The Traveler hadn't noticed suddenly tackled him to the ground, cutting off his thought. "Hey! No need to be so rough." The Traveler told him as he was picked up and began to be escorted to a nearby van. "Hey, uh, anybody! Wouldn't mind a little help here! Please? Doesn't anyone speak English?" he shouted as he came closer and closer to the vehicle. "Not again," he thought after letting out a heavy sigh.

The Solver (Hits: N/A) The TEACUP (Timeline Emmigration Allowance Contraption Undermines Physics) PsyCoins: N/A Aether: N/A --- The Solver found an actual English speaking person, he saw the "officers" take him away and quickly decided to spring into action. From his OTHER coat pocket he took out his pair of brass knuckles, there was an obvious catch though; he aimed at at the officers trying to take the boy into custody, shooting off the taser at the officer. Immediately electricity jolted through the officer's body which made him have a mini seizure before falling to the floor. The other few officers charged at him, one swinging a overhead with the butt of his gun, and the other trying to kick him in the ribcage. He quickly semi dropped to the floor, using his flexibility to get under the kick before coming up the other side, pressing the brass knuckles on the taser, sending a quick jolt into the man's leg, paralyzing it. He pushed the man against the other man, making them stunble into each other and fall over. He quickly went over to the boy, aiming his arm backwards where the brass knuckle taser sent off two jolts at each of the officers, paralyzing them and making their bodies go numb. He heard a heavy rain of footsteps approaching and looked over at the Traveler. "Come on, they'll be sending reinforcements soon." The Solver said to the Traveler. Keeping his brass knuckles readied.

Suddenly a quadcopter hovered over the area, a strange device aimed at them. Arrows began rapidly puncturing the ground near them at a high rate of fire; they were firing the carbon-fibre projectiles from an arrow-launching "machine gun", developed in the absence of metal to be wasted on bullets. The stream steadily moved toward the Traveler and the Solver.

The Traveler was a bit shocked to meet The Solver. It wasn't the fact that he had just single-handedly taken down the three men on his own, though that was awesome to see, it was the fact that he finally found someone who spoke the same language. "Oh my God, yes! Finally someone who speaks English," he said while following The Solver. Not knowing that The Solver had come from another timestream like he did, The Traveler started bombarding him with questions. "Who are those guys? What do they want from me? Who are you? Where are we even at?" he asked in quick succession, not really giving The Solver any time to answer any of the questions. The Traveler then heard a loud whirring noise coming from behind them. "And what's that thing?" Then the small quadcopter began firing at them. "Oh, it's dangerous. Okay." The Traveler than grabbed a nearby trash can lid and used it as a shield to block most of the small arrows coming at the pair. Unfortunately, two of them ended up puncturing his leg. He threw the trash can lid at the quadcopter and limped after The Solver. All he could think at that moment was, "Please, don't let these things be tranquilizers... or poisoned. That would be bad."

The Solver (Hits: N/A) The TEACUP (Timeline Emmigration Allowance Contraption Undermines Physics) PsyCoins: N/A Aether: N/A --- "Damn it!" He exclaimed before running from the incoming arrows, he grabbed the trash can lid in one hand and the kid in the other, trying to get the kid to safety. He pushed the boy inside an alley where he quickly dove in afterwards, just as an arrow grazed his leg. As the quadcopter came around as to try and shoot at them, The Solver mentally aimed at the arrow device, not even aiming directly at the intended target. His pair of brass knuckles taser shot off electricity towards the arrow mechanism and then attempting to shoot the control panel. He quickly grabbed nearby trash cans and stacked them in front of him as a sort of barrier. He turned to look at the kid, motioning him to get down as he himself dropped. A stray arrow came at him, which surprised him but served for a good decoy, he dropped right before the arrow hit him, allowing him to play unconcious, dropping ruthlessly to the floor. The Solver whispered, "Hold out your leg, it's best if we get those arrows out of your leg fast...this should ease the pain." He showed him the taser/brass knuckles.

Fortunately the arrows were merely a deterrent. Their "sharpened point" design meant that, unlike a barbed or even tipped arrow, they didn't penetrate far and could be removed easily. They did however contain a payload of a weak tranquilizer, meant to slow down escaping troublemakers, though it would only make him drowsy and not knock him out outright. Before the Traveler and Solver could discover any of this, the "police" had already converged on them. Aiming their weapons at the two to keep them from trying anything, one of them which was wearing a distinctive white helmet bent down and carefully removed the arrows from the Traveler, taking out what looked like a glue gun and injecting a bio-degradable anti-biotic foam into it, which would gel to stop the bleeding. Protocol may not have mattered for much, but the brutal death of a suspect was not looked upon well by a hyper-urban "community" that constantly balanced on the edge of chaos. Soon after, the two of them were cuffed and marched into the back of a van. As it traveled along the bumpy and debris-covered cement roads towards the nearest freight subway station, they had a moment to actually explain to each other who they were. (Sorry I overrode the situation, but the characters need to meet up and I didn't realize they would be so far separated for so long. I really don't want the plot to drag on too long or people might complain. PM me if you can think of a better way to handle this situation next time.)

"Well this is a fine situation I've gotten myself into. Sorry for getting you pulled into this as well. Whatever this is. I'm a bit confused about what's going on to tell you the truth. If you couldn't tell, I'm not from around here," The Traveler said to The Solver. Still not knowing that the man he was speaking to wasn't from this timeline either, The Traveler started thinking of ways to carefully word what he said so it didn't give away the fact that he was a Timeskipper. "For now, you may call me The Traveler. Do you happen to know anything about our current situation, Mr...?"

The Solver (Hits: N/A) The TEACUP (Timeline Emmigration Allowance Contraption Undermines Physics) PsyCoins: N/A Aether: N/A Inventory: Brass Knuckles Taser, SDGXL, SDGXL Charger --- "I'm the Solver, I solve stuff." He said, reaching inside his right coat pocket, feeling his brass knuckles. "It seems my items weren't confiscated, strange, they should have been after what I pulled." He said, feeling his left coat pocket where he took out his SDGXL as if were nothing; he quickly removed the game cartridge and SD card if it were to be confiscated then just merely looked at it, as to draw attention to himself. "Right then!" He looked up at the officers. "First off, I'm clearly not from around here, neither is here, second of all, you REALLY need to deploy your soldiers better, you could have lost three men if they decided to 'play' aggressively, and third of all, THIS..." He held up his SDGXL, "....is a game console, not a bomb or anything..." The Solver said. He was playing an extremely risky and brave card, perhaps the "officers" respected strength? Either way, the Solver was in one of his 'moods' continuing to look at his system before popping it back into his coat pocket.

The Privateer (Hits: N/A) Messor I PsyCoins: N/A Aether: N/A Inventory: Miniature Instant Camera, Flat Screwdriver, ??? --- The Privateer was never one to sit back and just let the situation happen to her, so she crawled toward the front of the cage and felt at the lock, forming a mental image of it. No dials. No keyhole. What kind of lock was this? How could she possibly break out of a lock that didn't seem to have any method of opening? Up front, a small device hanging on one of the officers' belts read "ZapLock" in white letters. This lock used laser technology, not unknown in Timeline 1, but relatively rare. Too bad the Privateer didn't know that, but on the other hand, it was a good thing their design standards weren't all that high. The Privateer reached into her pocket, feeling around for the fine, flat-headed screwdriver she kept in it. She managed to keep a lot of things in that pocket, considering that despite her profile picture, it was roughly the size of a purse. Steadily, she ran her fingernail along the groove separating the halves of its plastic shell. When she found a weak spot, she jammed the tip of the screwdriver into it and began prying. But one of the officers looked back through the grating between the cab and the box, and she was forced to stop so as not to tip him off. Still, she knew the weakness of the lock now. Under that plastic would be metal, and then she could pick it apart and make her escape. Soon.

The Gadgeteer (Hits: N/A) Mk.II Armor PsyCoins: N/A Aether: N/A Inventory: GamePlayer X+, 5 GamePlayer cartridges The Gadgeteer sighed in his mind, the other prisoners said some pretty nasty things to him but he pretended to be knocked out so they would just stop and ignore him. According to the HUD, he was at 15% of the charge required for a timeskip. Still a long while yet, and his arms and legs were beginning to hurt. He heard a door open to the warehouse, and some shouting from an angry individual. "What the hell is it doing there?! Get it into the medical ward! We need to find out what that... thing... is capable of! The Gadgeteer gulped and started struggling as the crane headed to try and pick up the cage. Suddenly the electromagnet deactivated, and his limbs were left free. Turning to the lock, he realized he had a big problem... A gatling isn't accurate enough to shoot a lock off. The crane picked up the crate and began carrying it towards a tunnel. He would need precise timing for this... As it passed over a stack of empty cages, he fired the gatling upwards, tearing the crane arm to shreds. Halting in its tracks, it began flying apart under the sustained fire and finally gave way, causing the cage to plummet 2 stories. Upon landing, the force blew the cage door wide-open, enabling the Gadgeteer to escape. An alarm was pulled, and the doors to the building began to lock down. The Gadgeteer made a mad dash for the nearest one, and did a slide through it just before it closed. On the other side, he found himself on a train platform where several small rail cars were unloading fresh prisoners... --- @DiamondBlizzard @Guess Who The officer began speaking in a strange language with a few borrowed words from English, with plenty of French, German, Russian, Spanish and even a couple Native American words in the mix. Though they didn't know it, it had a distinct accent from the street slang the muggers spoke when attacking the Gadgeteer. While they couldn't make heads or tails of what the full sentence was, they did catch the words "cage rules". They might notice that seemingly there was no way for a human being to access the cage, only a door on the side which seemed to have been freshly built, an object resembling a certain plumbing fixture bolted to the bottom of the cage, and a couple of hookups on the walls as well as one leading from the "object". It was as if the setup was designed so they would never have to be let out... --- @MisterEightySix The electric "police van" arrived at a garage door with an emblem on it. The door opened, and the van traveled down a spiraling tunnel until it reached a small platform. The van's roof opened up, and a crane lifted the cage out of the vehicle, placing it on a small self-powered rail car guarded by two more "police officers". A mechanism locked the cage into a slot on the rail car, which prevented the door from opening even if it was unlocked. It sped along the tracks for a few minutes, but after reaching a certain point an alarm went off and a large metal door closed the route behind them off. Although the Privateer couldn't understand them, one of the guards said something about an attempted escape. It arrived at a platform, but the guards suddenly took out their weapons, which she could now clearly see were a sort of pneumatic arrow launcher. A diminutive figure in some sort of strange armor revved up a pair of gatlings built into his wrists, fired off a few rounds at some security cameras in the station, then shouted something to the guards the Privateer wouldn't understand. "I don't want to use these, but they aren't exactly planning to have me go to the tribunal or whatever they called it! You can try and let them dissect me, or you can say I overpowered you and let me go!" The guards looked at each other, pressed a button on the control panel of their vehicle and abandoned the rail car as the two doors blocking the subway tunnels opened again. The Gadgeteer hopped in the driver's seat and pushed the throttle forward as fast as it could go.

The Privateer (Hits: N/A) Messor I PsyCoins: N/A Aether: N/A Inventory: Miniature Instant Camera, Flat Screwdriver, ??? --- The Privateer seized her opportunity. There wasn't much time. She jammed the screwdriver's tip into the lock and pulled, cracking open the lock, then began picking apart the mechanisms inside. Even without being able to clearly see, she was able to pry a few bits out over the course of a few minutes, and gave a hard kick, only to be blocked by the cage being locked in place. Still, the lock was out, and for the first time since she got here, nobody was watching. As soon as the door was open, she was out of here. Still, she couldn't help but be curious about this strange boy who was inadvertently helping her to do so. She made a mental note to track him for a while and see what he was planning.

The Gadgeteer (Hits: N/A) Mk.II Armor PsyCoins: N/A Aether: N/A Inventory: GamePlayer X+, 5 GamePlayer cartridges The Gadgeteer checked his power reserves. The use of the gatling had taken off a full 2% from his capacitor, and even though that was hardly anything compared to the total energy required to timeskip, every bit counted. "Darn it..." he thought, slowing the throttle on the rail car. He turned to the woman in the cage. The Gadgeteer didn't know much about the local customs, but her type of dress seemed different from the norm here, where clothes were loose-fitting and hardly washed. "Why exactly did they bring you in?" he asked the Privateer in the local dialect. She didn't seem to respond. "Do you understand my speech?" he asked in the street slang that he had also encountered. Once again, no response. "Do you speak English?" he asked one last time.

The Solver (Hits: N/A) The TEACUP (Timeline Emmigration Allowance Contraption Undermines Physics) PsyCoins: N/A Aether: N/A Inventory: Brass Knuckles Taser, SDGXL, SDGXL Charger, Various SDGXL Cartridges --- "You plan on leaving us in here?" The Solver said, looking at the officers defiantly. "I don't see what wrong this boy did, if anything, let him go and take me, after all, I did take care of three of your lackeys." He said, his right hand going into his right coat pocket. He knew he wasn't understood and made hand signals as to try and say to take him instead and not the boy. He pointed at him and showed three fingers before punching those three dingers, as to try and tell him he took out three "officers." The Solver stood up to face the officer, he was always a rebel and thus was currently wolling to take more violent actions, maybe...if he was fast enough he could take all of them on. He stared at the officer defiantly, not wanting to stay in here forever.