[h2][center] Titan's Fall, The Undercity, Underground Headquarters Ichabod [/center][/h2]
[hr]

To say that Maria Menagerie was having an [i]interesting[/i] day would be, above all else, quite a disservice. If it wasn't the fact that one of her more experimental project/facilities was completely AWOL/destroyed, it was the fact that some of those under her direct supervision were getting... Big for their britches. 
'The board' had wanted a meeting today. Apparently some site-directors of no small repute and size were getting nervous. They were losing sight of the future, and losing focus on the tasks at hand. 'The size of the projects, and the amount of them, are unreasonable!' they had decried.

Maria had rectified that. 
Reminded them of what [i]they[/i] could do with the limitless potential at their finger tips. Reminded them of what [i]they[/i] accomplished without her input, and how she fully believed they could manage this much. Reminded them that [i]they[/i] were the reason for this companies success, and that she only wished to see them push that much harder.
Reminded them of what they [SWORE], when they joined the upper echelon of employment at Menagerie Technical. 
Only one needed to be... Re-educated. His departure was saddening, for sure, but the chance to teach with his leaving was beyond beneficial. 
She hadn't even needed to be nearby to watch the [MANA] break his mind, to weave the threads of insanity that boiled and warped his thoughts.
He didn't know any of them! Where was he!? Who was he? Well! He couldn't very well keep the extremely sensitive data on his computer! This was after-all, not his to keep! 
He left the conference call at that point.
He would not be seen for weeks, only reappearing later, under the scalpel of one of their cyber-ware clinics, while another of the more... Questionably dedicated, was on site nearby.

Maria huffed. Twitching like a spider's limb as Thomas- Her assistant- leaned over and placed a cup of faintly luminous coffee on her desk.
She gave him a nod, mentally twisting on the corded [ROPE-BRAID-CHAIN-WEB] that spanned between them. Another silent conversation passed between the two, with Maria staring Thomas directly in the eye the entire time.
Thomas nodded once. The conversation came to an abrupt end, the man silently striding off, and out of her office. He knew what she wanted of him.

She turned then, tapping twice upon the table-top of her desk as a keyboard overlay formed itself in the glossy plas-steel. Two points of light bloomed on the far corners, cycling through a multitude of colors. Then, quick as a blink, a holographic screen displayed itself before her. 
Two taps; the screen shifts; and ID's tag displays itself on a map. Another two taps; the screen shifts only slightly; and MG's tag displays. 
This process continues for precisely two minutes, and only stops when there are a total of sixteen tags moving throughout the Under City. 
Maria hums, leans back, and watches quietly. 

Perhaps it was time for her to start getting [i]everything[/i] moving. Hm.


[hr]
[center][h2] Shieldtown, Interior [/h2][/center]

They were walking now. Why were they walking? What had happened?
A force. Right. [color=Teal][b][ARTEMIS][/b][/color]. Right. Where… On a wall. Right.

J-3 shook its head, grappling with discordant thoughts and observations. There was… A threat display! Right? It was a threat display, had to have been. The other one only ever did threat displays, the one of [SUN AND FLAME]. 
And then there was [EARTH], still there. Still under their feet, watching. Was it still watching? Where was it? Where had it gone?
Had it always been so stifling in this town? This was home at some point— Wait.

A memory; but disjointed and foggy. It skipped through their mind like a scratched vinyl. 
There was a flash; a familiar face; a smile given as he lifted— It skipped.
She was laughing; an instance cleared! Kasha was- It skipped.
She was crying; messy breakup; his was the only safe place to go- It skipped.
Chrome and plastic at her finger-tips; an attachment gone awry; a bad Fixer residing nearby- It skipped.
He was frowning at her now, she was yelling at him. An argument. She [i]had[/i] to go to the Graves— it skipped.
Scrambling through the rubble, running. A flash of fire, brilliantly hot. Debris flares to ash. A cry on the lips. 
“[color=DarkMagenta]Help me—[/color]” 
It skipped.

[i]THUMP[/i]
J-3 stumbled to a stop, shaking their head and staring upwards. They had walked into something. The idea of it just, wasn't coming to mind. Like sand in a sieve. The information just wasn't sticking! WHY!? Oh- Wait that- Never-mind. It was making sense now.
There was a building in front of them, and it blinded them with deja-vu. Did they recognize this house? And... And it [i]was[/i] a house. Two stories… and… And the finer details of it slid past their mind. Like trying to take in the shape of it was impossible. The [i]idea[/i] of a house was impossible to grasp. Shelter, yes, but, not what a house actually [i]signified[/i].
Where were they? What was happening?
Golden-threaded light danced in the air, abrupt and attention grabbing. The street. An intersection? Magic ward interlaced over the air. Unawakened and awakened both would [i]avoid[/i] the area.
Two familiarly unfamiliar signatures tainted the air, as J-3 moved to a better vantage point. [THE ONE OF SUN AND FLAME] and [EARTH] were communicating. Arguing. A [ZONE OF TRUTH] had formed. 
Their hearing was just sensitive enough to pick up what they were saying, from the distance that the two were at. 

J-3 twitched, watching as communications developed. Then, with grace and strength that belied the shape they were in, J-3 turned and sprinted away. They wanted no part of whatever was happening there. Where were they anyways? What was happening...?

Rat! Rat. They had to find Rat, and The Sword Queen. How long had it been? Why was it so hard to think?!

J-3 scrambled along. Unknowingly leaving whorls in the manascape around them. Inky black-purple-pink, swaying like kelp in ocean currents, and filled with terror and confusion.