[Meanwhile, Billie and Chess wake up in hospital beds in a white square. There's no walls or ceiling, just a floating white square. You can see the cosmos, though. There's also a white door at one edge of the square.] [Start] * Billie nrgs. "Sun...?" Her eyes pop open. "Sun!" She sits up, putting her hand to her head, and tries to think. ~Sun, where are you?~ * Chess groans and sits up in bed. I'm gonna... Not on me. That way. * Billie gestures the way that is not on her. * Chess points vaguely towards the door. "Door the open. That thing. Not throw up." * Chess yawns and gets up to check the door. [There's no mail.] (Does it open?) [It does open! Into a hallway. A white hallway with another door at the end.] ...There's another door. You gonna come with? * Billie takes a deep breath. "Yeah. Chess, Sun's in a holding cell... she says people are getting taken away, and tortured, I'm guessing." She pushes herself out of bed - what is she wearing, anyway? [Nothing. Neither of you are.] * Billie frowns down at herself and materializes some clothes: a t-shirt, jean shorts, and some sneakers. Along with underwear and socks, of course. * Chess notices rather belatedly that she is naked and imagines some clothes onto herself. Red tee, khaki shorts, plain sneakers. It doesn't seem to bother her much at the moment. * Billie also thinks to Sun: ~Not sure where I am, but I'll come for you as soon as I know what's going on. Keep me updated and sit tight. I'm with Chess.~ * Billie then walks to the door and opens it. Her t-shirt's white, for the record; she's clearly not devoting brain power to being creative. * Chess yawns again. "You think we died? This looks pretty out-there, I'm guessing we're back at HQ." Maybe. But I don't remember how we died, if we did. Do you? Not a bit. Takes me a while to wake up, though. Ask me in half an hour, or after coffee. [Beyond the second door is the white-tiled floor and grey walls of Zomegar's sanctuary. There's a bunch of spheres floating around the room of various shapes and sizes. Jack Frost is running around in a circle, waving his arms about and shouting "Heehoheehoheeho!"] * Billie looks at Jack Frost blankly for about two seconds before yelling, "Hey, Jack! Did we just die or something?" * Chess stares at Jack Frost for a moment, then ignores him in favor of creating a cup of coffee and drinking it. [Jack stops running around, but not waving his arms. "Yes, hee! No, ho! Sort of!"] ... Care to elaborate? * Billie turns to Chess. "Can you make me some of that?" * Chess makes another cup of coffee and hands it over. "It's my dad's favorite blend. He imports it or something." [Jack runs in another circle. "We were attacked, ho! Someone attacked you directly!"] * Chess takes a large gulp of coffee before asking, "Do we know who did it? Or how they did it?" ["We don't know, ho. But it was someone powerful."] Anything we can do about it? * Billie sips the coffee, blinks at it, and then conjures a little cream and sugar in there. Sipping again: "Like a deva?" [Jack shakeshakeshakes his head. "Bigger, ho. Someone attacked the master's connection to you directly."] * Billie frowns. "Awesome." So, where's everyone else? ["Master managed to stop the attack in time to save Raxa, Josh and Yoshiko, ho, but you two suffered heavy damage. Hee couldn't maintain your corporeal forms. And Logan's gone."] * Billie chokes on her coffee and starts coughing, nearly dropping her mug. "Gone?" she manages between coughs. ["Gone, ho."] * Chess freezes. "You told us... you said if we served, and didn't get knocked up by a demon, we shouldn't be able to die." ["Unless something attacks your spirit directly, ho."] Holy... what the... can this happen again? At any time? * Chess downs the rest of her coffee and lets the mug vanish. "Okay, -now- I'm awake. There's got to be something we can do to prevent this from happening again." ["I hee hope not! Master is taking steps to prepare against it, but it's not like he can predict when we'll be attacked..."] Well. Guess it's like nukes, then. But we got nuked. * Billie puts the coffee on a table that appears from nowhere. "So, can we teleport straight to the others? Or to our disciples?" ["I theenk so, ho."] * Billie 's hand shakes slightly as she sets her mug down. 'kay. And is there any way we can communicate with each other, like, across long distances? [Jack shakes his head. "Unless you've got a heeciple to talk to them."] * Chess crosses her arms. "If we're back here, then we probably left bodies down there, right? We don't want to just randomly show up again back in the prison if we're supposed to be dead." [Jack shakes his head. "Your bodies are gone, ho."] ...Okay. Then it looks like we vanished, which is a hell of a lot more suspicious than randomly dying. Right... like that chick with the axe. * Billie turns to Chess. "Remember? She was probably a deva." Right. I want to check up on the others, but it sounds like Sun's a priority. I can get to Sun and you can go to the others. What if we both go to the others, then you grab Yuki and pop over to Sun? Then we can stay in contact. ... Yeah, that's a thought. Let's do it. * Billie looks to Jack. "You know where they are? Still in the prison?" (Brett?) (Um... ninja AFK?) (I believe that to be true!) [Jack nods. "They're still there, ho."] Right, let's go. * Chess starts focusing on being in an inconspicuous place near Yoshiko. (Transfer goes through just fine?) ( Yep ) * Billie nods and concentrates on teleporting as well.