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In

[b][u][h1]A Man Out of Time #13: Into the Belly of the Beast[/h1][/u][/b]
Location: Pacific Point, California[/center]
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Several questions came to The Wanderer's mind. How the spider hero came to meet a being named after a Greek God was of interest to him. Those questions were put to one side as there were more pressing matters at hand. The plan for Athena to teleport the whole group to the ship was a good bit of news during the invasion for him. Too bad Voyager wouldn’t be there for the initial jump into the ship, but the mutant had a feeling that she was not too far behind on matters. Two psionics that can throw some form of barrier to what he had in mind would be more than enough.

His plans of what to do on the ship were shelved for a moment as he witnessed a portal open in a space near them. His psionic blade began to form in case it was hostile, but when he recognized one of the three people that emerged from it he eased off. The appearance of the elephant man was different from what he could remember, but the psionic presence around them was unmistakable. And from the way he was greeted, the mutual recognition was there.

[color=4682b4]”And likewise, friend. Been keeping track of how many of these aliens you were facing?”[/color] The friendly competition to take down the enhanced metas from the Hounds of Humanity was still there, though who took the most metas down to save them was still up in the air.

When he was ‘talked to’ by one of the other faces that had just arrived, The Wanderer had to stop that reflex of throwing up that feedback he normally used when his mind was infiltrated by other beings. It certainly wouldn’t help his standings with the group if it caused harm to his potential new allies. Instead, he shrugged.

[color=4682b4]”Wasn’t planning on questioning the change in appearance,[/color] he replied back to the source of the voice. [color=4682b4]”Since coming to this timeline, I don’t know anyone well enough to know what someone’s regular appearance is supposed to look like. Besides, since my last encounter with some members of the group, there’s probably still a sense of uncertainty about the claims of my origin. But that can be answered at another point, with more pressing matters at hand.”[/color]

When the man who used telepathy looked at the invisible being and the resultant quip about who can or cannot see the invisible being, the mutant spoke up again.

[color=4682b4]”And as I have said, I can not visibly see who is there. But…”[/color] Without lifting any hand, he indicated towards his right eye, with his past ‘burn’ marks still visible for everyone to see. [color=4682b4]”With me, there’s more than one way to see beings.”[/color]

At one moment, they were talking about enacting the plan to get onto the ship before a tap on the street was heard. In the next, the scenery changed completely to what the mutant thought was the inside of the ship. The sudden change of lighting made things harder to see, but the psionics in the ship was as if he had been down on the streets. The feeling of phasing between the two locations, despite the methods being different, was nothing new to him so he felt fine in the aftermath. He finished his process of forming the psionic blade on his arm as the leader of the group spoke about acting on the element of surprise they now had in the ship. In the mutant’s mind, he had two plans on what they could do with the surprise.

Despite these plans, everything was interrupted when two aliens entered the corridor through a set of sliding doors. One of the archers, Odysseus, was quick to react and sank an arrow into the chest of one of the two emerging aliens as they scrambled to react to the sight of the group. 

The Wanderer was quicker than the second alien.

In a flash, he phased out of the space he was in. Before the others had a chance to react to Odysseus’s arrow, he was in the space in front of the second alien. His free hand snatched the weapon out of the uninjured alien’s hand. His other hand savagely tore into his opponent. The psionic blade slid through it as if it was nothing. The momentum carried on with the haymaker that the blade also connected with the already-injured alien. It might have been a ruthless display that shouldn’t belong in the present but when the world is at stake and your presence needed to be undetected for the briefest of moments, he was going to take it. Standing back up from the two dead aliens, the blade easing back out with little difficulty, he turned to the rest of the group.

[color=4682b4]”That should buy us enough time to get to work on the ship. I suggest that while we still have a moment before anything else detects our presence and the element of surprise is gone, we’ll need to split the group up into two teams. One of the groups will fight our way to wherever they control the ship so we can get full control of the ship. Another group, possibly smaller, should try and find the place where they communicate with the rest of their forces and disable their communications. No point in trying to take control of their ship when their allies get word of what is happening and respond to our boarding party. Sound like a plan? If we do this plan, I’ll happily go with the group to where they control the ship. I think they’d want to destroy the being that decimated the initial invasion force.”[/color]