Spider is still attached to the hovermobile. Hooray.

Truce - Pier
Aile loads himself onto the ferry with Spider attached, his spiderchair and hostage earning a strange look from the ferryman.
Shrike - Ferry to Shrike
Spider has boarded the ferry.
Milo has boarded the ferry.
Axl has boarded the ferry.
The ferry shoves off, and Truce gradually fades into the horizon.
Spider says '...Hey, Aile. Wanna play some poker?'
Aile says 'No. That would involve untying you.'
You say 'We can play some word games if you like.'
Spider says '...Verbal poker?'
You say 'No, Spider. I don't even want to -know- how you'd cheat in verbal poker.'
Spider says 'I have four aces. I win.'
Axl merely keeps still and quiet, unusually smug for some reason or another.
Sunflash says 'Please, no word games. It hurts the brain.'
Spider says 'Like I usually cheat?'
Spider says 'Erm, I mean...'
The ferry pulls up next to the Shrike dock.
the Captain says 'Arr, we've arrived! Everybody off the boat!'
The Captain walks over to the gate and opens it.

Shrike - Loading Dock
Sunflash hops off. Rawr and all that.
Spider gives up on poker.
Aile spiderwalks off the ferry, holding Spider steady with two legs just in case.
Milo flies over the rim and water. Boarding plank? What boarding plank?
Sunflash looks around then, getting his bearings. "Okay then. Nakajima, right?"
Spider says 'Sure, Nikafija or whatever you said. As long as they know what they're doing.'
Spider is almost lounging, as best he can in his current position.
Milo says 'I bought my shield there.'
Sunflash snorts. "Yeah, okay then. Everybody here? Noone jump off the ferry?"
Milo says 'Shall I show the way?'
Sunflash says 'Sure, knock yourself out. I'll be rearguard.'

Nakajima Robotics - Sales Desk
A man wearing a uniform stands behind a counter, selling mechanical goods.
Aile looks around. 'Nice place... could do without the slave trade, but other than that, it looks like a decent chop shop.'
Sunflash saunters in behind everyone else, slipping back into quietly observing mode.
Axl remains as quiet as ever, but seems just a bit unsettled at the atmosphere of the room. Nothing on the scale of 'slave trade', though.
EngineerCar beeps loudly.
Sunflash blinks rapidly. "...WEll. That's a new one."
The Nakajima Robotics salesman stands up, wiping off the front of his shirt. "Wow, hey, customers. What can I do for y'all?"
Spider says '...I need some help.'
Sunflash snickers softly.
You say 'Oi, shopkeep, drone. Either o' you ever heard of the Maverick Virus?'
Spider says 'Aile, it's not the Virus.'
Spider says 'It's the Chip and lots of lots of force metal.'
You say 'It'll give us a starting point, though.'
The Nakajima Robotics salesman glances between Aile and Spider. "Uh.."
Sunflash rolls his eyes. This is about as much fun as explaining to Rika why he would prefer to not lose his arm again.
Milo says 'We believe the upgrade known as a Copy Chip is causing their insanity. That one *points* also has a Force Metal overdose.'
Axl turns away from the group as much as he can in order to hide a look of disgust...
Spider is trembling slightly at the talk of Force Metal...
Milo figures simple, straightforward sentences work better than vague mumblings. Wonder where he got that idea.
The Nakajima Robotics salesman scratches his chin. "I.. haven't heard of that kind of chip. Or Force Metal."
Spider sighs. "Well, we know it causes damage to the CPU, so can you just check me for damage?"
You say 'Preferably in as good or better state of restraint as he is currently, please.'
Sunflash raises an eyebrow. "I'm watching you Spider..."
You say 'If you can just open him up where he is, that'd be great!'
Spider says 'I'm in pain, shaking, and tied to a chair. What can I do?'
The Nakajima Robotics salesman blinks. "Uh, sure. I guess. You look like a pretty new model, though, so I can't guarantee anything." He moves from behind the counter, armed with a small toolbox.
Milo says 'Wouldn't that just be treating the symtoms, not the disease?'
You say 'You can cheat, Spider. You're not currently trustworthy. Now stay put.'
Sunflash says 'Go insane and start firing those exploding poker cards everywhere? I dunno."'
The Nakajima Robotics salesman looks Spider up and down, strapped where he is. "Uh, you don't mind if I untie him, do you? I'll need to find some kind of access panel."
Spider gives another sigh. "I'll shut myself down while you work, K?" With that, his eyes go dull, and his head lolls...
Sunflash considers, and moves around to where he's standing right next to the door. Rawr.
Aile unties Spider slowly, holding him down with three legs while untying him with two and the arm. 'I still don't trust him right now.'
The Nakajima Robotics salesman begins to heft Spider onto the counter, then stops. "Uh, could one of y'all give me a hand? He's heavier than he looks."
Milo says 'It's three against one. He'd be stupid to try anything now.'
Aile easily lifts Spider onto the counter with the four front legs.
Sunflash mutters idly, glancing about the room now and then.
Milo watches the proceedings, calm but alert.
Spider remains unconcious.
EngineerCar clambers up onto the counter, and shines a worklight down onto Spider's chest.
Aile digs around in the central front of his chair, and comes out with a spare arm.
You say 'Before I forget in all the excitement, once we have Spider here all fixed up, would ya mind attaching this? I'm a little bit unarmed at the moment, despite the extra legs...'
The Nakajima Robotics salesman pries and tugs at the armor on Spider's chest. After about ten minutes of prodding around and some pliers work ("damn non-standard bolts"), he manages to take a chunk off of Spider's torso.
Sunflash could've taken the chunk off alot quicker if he'd only asked...geez.
Axl keeps his gaze averted from the sight of Spider being, well, disassembled for lack of a better word.
Sunflash would like to note that he is -not- an engineer.
Spider sleeps on. The blank eyes are slightly creepy.
The Nakajima Robotics salesman peers down into Spider's chest cavity, with its eerily-similar-to-human-organs parts. "Copy Chip? Would it have been something he was made with or that was put in after?"
You say 'After. He didn't have it when I worked with him originally.'
The Nakajima Robotics salesman points with his screwdriver at some seemingly-innocent circuit board. "Right here. The soldering's different from anything else in here."
the Nakajima Robotics salesman says 'I don't.. see anything wrong with it, but it's hard to tell. Do you want me to take it out or what?'
Milo says 'Umm... I don't know? Just ripping out a chip could cause some system errors, but keeping it doesn't seem safe.'
Axl innocently mutters, "Or it could kill him."
Milo says 'Ideally, we'd figure out just what it does and debug it, but that could be difficult.'
the Nakajima Robotics salesman says '"It'd be a little like doing a lobotomy.."'
Sunflash glances at Axl...Hrm. There's something. Noone ever told him what the deal was with the gunslinger guy.
Aile shrugs. 'It's the best lead we have. I vote remove it.'
The Nakajima Robotics salesman waits for a response/consensus.
Spider would flip Aile off if he was awake.
Milo says 'I'm still reluctant.'
Sunflash just shrugs. "I don't know know squat, don't look at me."
Milo says 'We should really figure out what is going on before we change stuff.'
You say 'If we just leave him as he is, we've made no progress.'
Axl keeps quiet, not having much of an opinion one way or the other. At least, not one that he could say anything about...
Milo says 'Well... aren't there some diagnostics we can run? There must be ways to debug stuff without ripping it out.'
Sunflash hrms softly, then nods towards Axl. "Let's hear the gunslinger's opinon, maybe?"
Aile sighs. 'I'd love to ask Axl if he wasn't freaking out in the same problem.'
Sunflash says 'Ahh. I see.'
Milo thinks to himself /Sheesh. I wouldn't like to have a surgeon randomly poke around my insides without knowing what he's doing if I needed an operation. Or really anytime./
Axl seems to take that as a challenge of some kind(or just an opportunity to seem normal), as he finally pipes up. "If it's anything like mine... there should be an internal diagnostic. But that's the problem, Spider would have to do it."
The Nakajima Robotics salesman shrugs. "I couldn't tell you, I only know about robots like this one here." He jerks a thumb at the squat EngineerCar.
Sunflash says '...Sooo....for those of us still in the dark...what -is- it, exactly?'
Aile shakes his head. 'I don't trust that at all, Axl. It's like asking a burglar how good your security system is as he's leaving with your stuff.'
Milo says 'We can try, if we keep him restrained. We probably need to look deeper than surface diagnostics.'
Milo says 'Hmm, yes. That might be a good question to answer.'
Milo says 'From what I understand, it's supposed to be a chip that allows one to change shape.'
Milo says 'But it appears to cause mental instability or something as a side effect.'
Axl sighs a bit in exasperation, looking nowhere in particular. "It's not the chip that makes them insane, it's what they -do- with it."
Sunflash says '...Huh. I can see how that would make me insane. Two personalities fighting for control would drive anyone batty.'
Milo says 'Well, Mr. Expert, what do you propose we do?'
You say 'Can we wipe the bank of copied Reploids clean?'
Axl shrugs nonchalantly. "You could try, if you really wanted to. Of course, the memory of all that DNA Data is so close to the chip itself that even the tiniest little mistake could ruin everything."
You say 'But would that even help?'
Axl says 'Couldn't say. Never seen it done.'
Sunflash says 'Hrm. One way to find out huh?'
Sunflash says '...wait a min.'
Sunflash says 'You said the chip thingy allows the Reploid to change into someone else...is that just the SHAPE and personlity of teh other person, or what?'
You say 'I say we try it on Axl first. That way, if he's full of shit, only he suffers for it.'
Axl leers at Aile, keeping his expression nearly forced to normality. "Do you -want- to take out about fifty miles of this place?"
Sunflash says '...I was just wondering if we should start watching out for an angry Redips or something nutz.'
Milo says 'I know for a fact that it changes physical appearance. I don't think it's SUPPOSED to affect personality, but who knows what went through the minds of the designers, and clearly it IS whether it's supposed or not.'
Aile smiles. 'If that's what it takes, you already know I'm prepared.'
Spider seems to be stirring very slightly. He likely set a time to turn himself on again, after all...
You say 'The rest of you can clear out if you like, of course.'
Axl says 'And the personality doesn't have anything to do with it. The only data taken is the schematics for the other reploid's form.'
Sunflash thinks for a good moment or two, then snaps his fingers. A shimmering field surronds him. "Okay, I'm ready."
You say 'Force field? Nice thinkin', Sunflash.'
Sunflash shrugs helplessly.
Sunflash says 'Actually, Manasheild. But close enough.'
Milo says 'Why would it cause an explosion? And you seem to know more than you're letting on. Spill it.'
Milo says '...Did Spider just move?'
Aile restrains Spider with a few legs. Again. 'I got him.'
Spider says 'nngh.'
Axl starts to struggle a bit. "It'd make an explosion 'cause you'd have to be, like, a -nanometer- away from my reactor to even get close to my chip! Just take my word for it, okay?"
You say 'Well, it'd certainly make sure you don't betray us anymore.'
Milo says 'So? That's why we SWITCH OFF the reactor.'
Sunflash blinks in utter disbelief.
Axl says 'Yeah, only switching it off would -kill me-!'
Milo says 'Plus, I know enough about reploid physics to know that one reactor failure wouldn't blow up the block.'
You say 'Again, betrayal insurance, Axl.'
Axl struggles a bit more, trying to back away from the others. "Look, you're not doing anything to me, okay? Whatever you wanna do, do it to Spider!"
Zeru walks into the room. "I wouldn't go poking around inside Axl if you are unsure of yourselves...".
Sunflash sighs, raiper flashing upwards to hover near the newguy's face. "Annnd who the bloody 'ell are you, kind sir?"
You say 'Uhh, you'll not wanna do that. That'd be Zero, and he could probably make mincemeat out of most of this room.'
Milo spins around. "Zero! If you saw us, why didn't you show yourself earlier?"
Axl suddenly stills, gaze snapping to... "Zero!" He -tries- to stand, but fails miserably and just keeps looking to him, alight with relief. "Yeah, that's right! Zero knows what I mean!"
Zeru closes his eyes for a moment then opens them slowly. "I was pondering about this whole ordeal since I seen you last".
Zeru eyes Sunflash, almost as if challenging him. Then walks past him to stand over Axl, looking him over.
Sunflash doesn't move his rapier, still watching this 'Zero' fella. "...Zero is it? Where's One and Two then? And how the hell am I to trust you as well?"
Axl is currently wrapped in copious amounts of rope around his chest and boots, but looks eternally grateful to even -see- Zero nonetheless.
Aile sinks his face into his hand. 'PLEASE don't start on the names again, Sunflash.'
Sunflash says 'Okay, fine. So no name calling. But really. What's so great about him that I we can trust him?'
Zeru says 'I'm not great... and I give no reason for anyone to trust me, they just listen to legends and rumors'
You say 'I see you speak as harshly as the rumors say, at least...'
Sunflash says '...Well. You just went up about 3 and a half points. First time a total strangter gets to -10 on the scale in ten mins.'
Milo says 'Look, can we maintain some semblance of order and just share what we know instead of everyone trying kill each other and pushing their own approach to the situation?'
Axl stiffens once again, but in much more startling a manner. It seems to be a repeat of yesterday's little spell, or at least the beginnings of it.
Zeru smirks and walks and bit near Aile. "Anyways, the problem at hand is that Axl's chip is nothing like Spider's"
You say 'How so, Zero? I'd think a copy chip is a copy chip is a copy chip.'
Sunflash's rapier is now resting on the floor per his normal stance, listening...with his manashield still up, of course.
You say 'Aren't they just, well, copies?'
Zeru says 'Spider has a proto-type version. Where Axl has a completed chip, so it seems'
Axl is trying his best to take his mental struggle as far away from the group as he can manage. Sadly, though, this doesn't seem to be too far off since he's still bound.
Milo says 'So? Must still be based largely on the same design, just with bugs ironed out.'
Milo says 'Not well enough, apparantly.'
Spider says 'nrghl.'
Sunflash says '...Why do I have this bad feeling?'
Milo says 'Because Spider is about to wake up? Because we're about to start fighting each other over how to proceed? Dunno. But worrying about feelings isn't going to get us anywhere.'
You say 'Wow, Spider's making more sense than usual.'
You say 'Funny, I don't remember him as a morning person...'
Zeru says 'Thats what I figured, Milo. I also think that the reason Spider used so many Force Metals was to keep the chip working, to prevent some sort of flaw, though I am unsure if this is correct'
Spider manages a weak nod.
Zeru glares at Spider. "Only he knows..".
Axl struggles and groans a bit more, rolling over enough to barely make eye contact with Aile. "Hey... you! Still--" He's cut off by -something-, probably caused by his seemingly spontaneous fit, but recovers soon enough.
Axl says 'Still... got that taser?'
Spider says '...chip... wasn't designed for me... hurt...'
Spider says 'hurts...'
You say 'Of course I do.'
You say 'You want to try it now, Axl?'
Axl gets caught in a few more spams of pain, but manages a weak nod. "Quick... if you don't mind...!"
Aile pulls out the taser and zaps Axl with it.
Sunflash quite suddenly feels -extremely- out of the loop.
Milo just shakes his head.
Axl goes completely rigid for exactly five seconds, then falls lifelessly, not making even the slightest of movements...
Milo says 'Any idea what that was about?'
You say 'Dunno what's wrong with the kid, but it looks like it's nothing a few hundred thousand volts won't solve, eh?'
Zeru says 'Pains me to see him hurt...'
Milo says 'Remember we do want to eventually fix him so he is functional while awake.'
Zeru says 'I wonder...'
Zeru says 'If you can make a small bolt of electricity like from that taser strike Spider's copy chip and just destroy it from within him?'
You say 'I could certainly try, but I can't guarantee precision.'
Sunflash coughs loudly.
Sunflash says 'How much voltage would one need?'
You say 'I generally just go up and ZAP someone with it, it's not exactly a surgical tool.'
Zeru says 'Get someone with a more accurate aim then, and you instruct them.'
Sunflash rolls his eyes. "Hello dumb and dumber. My name is Sunflash. I happen to be a mutli-elemental wizard. Guess what one of those elements happen to be?"
Milo says '...How would electrifying it work better than cutting it out?'
Milo says 'Problems are possible side effects of removing it, and risk of damaging something besides the target.'
Zeru says 'Hmm, good question... though I think if the bolt was thin enough one could just focus all of it's strength into the chip to avoid the bolt wavering any'
Milo says 'Same holds for normal surgical removal. Our problem is the fairly large risk of side effects.'
Sunflash says 'Look on the bright side Milo. If I try to fry it, it'll still be in there for to try to take out later."'
Zeru says 'Well... on one side of this...'
Sunflash says 'Okay, vote or something people. Am I frying this thing or not?'
You say 'I say fry.'
Zeru wields his Z-Sabre holding it over Spider's body. "How important is he alive?".
Sunflash sighs.
You say 'And while that's all going on, shop boy, can you pop my arm on for me, PLEASE?'
Milo says '...From what I recall, you are more trained to deliver giant blasts of destructive energy than accurate surgical operations.'
Sunflash says 'Back away Zero. And hush Milo. I'm multi-trained, thank you.'
Milo walks over to Zero firmly. "We are the army of the people. We do not kill if it can be avoided."
Sunflash steps up the Spider's cut-open chest, peering in. He points, "That one, right?"
Zeru's Z-Sabre cuts out, being damaged from battle before.
Zeru looks to Milo, wanting to say something about that but just turns and walks over to Axl's side.
Milo says 'I say if we're committed to removing the chip without considering the possible ramifications, let the trained engineer do it.'
EngineerCar buzzes loudly.
Sunflash mutters distractedly.
Sunflash says 'I thought we were FRYING it, not removing.'
The Nakajima Robotics salesman snaps out of his daydream. "Oh, oh, right, your arm, sir?"
Aile nods and presents the arm to the shopkeep. 'Please.'
Milo says 'What do you think now that you're... sorta... awake, Spider?'
Spider says '...just make the pain stop.'
Milo says 'And frying, if I am not mistaken, would render it irreparably inoperable, thus being effectively equivalent to removal.'
The Nakajima Robotics salesman says 'I can re-attach the wiring and try to arc-weld the joint back, but I can't do anything about your armor.'
You say 'That'll do for now, thanks. I just need the limb working.'
the Nakajima Robotics salesman says 'Okay, hold still, this'll take a while.'
Aile makes a face. 'I don't need to look -pretty-. Not that that's a possibility in this orange.'
Milo says 'Hey, I like orange.'
The Nakajima Robotics salesman wipes his brow and gets busy with a soldering iron and some duct tape.
the Nakajima Robotics salesman says 'By the way, which one of you is going to foot the bill for this one?'
Sunflash points at Milo accusingly.
Sunflash says 'he's got the purse.'
Milo says 'Fish out Spider's wallet. I gave him some money I realize he didn't deserve, so use that up first.'
Aile shuffles through his compartments. 'That won't do... that either... I doubt he's interested in THOSE magazines... and I -hope- he's not interested in THOSE...'