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[superposition]

[Those who've met Qubit may notice something a little different about him in this video: namely, that his skin's literally glowing. He's attempted to figure out the dimmer switch on this power, but without much success as of yet. Anyway, he's had a lot of other things demanding his attention.]

First of all, I'd be very surprised if anyone's managed to avoid hearing about Sunday's attack on Heropa yet. If you hadn't, well, now you have. Congratulations on being the last one to the party.

Second, I've more or less figured out how the assailants 'ported in. [He holds a small, high-tech-looking disc up to the camera.] These. They're conduits for a remote teleportation matrix. Analogous to receivers, in a sense. We found them hidden under the emergency vehicles present at the scene. So keep a sharp eye out for more like them. If you find any, report them to someone immediately; then disable or destroy them, if it's safe for you to do so. I can't stress that enough. What happened on Sunday had "opening salvo" written all over it, I very much doubt we've seen the back of those maniacs.

[He puts down the device and rests his chin in his hand.]

What I haven't figured out is what they did to our powers. Can anyone shed some light on that? [beat] Not literally, of course, obviously I've got that covered. For the record, I'm supposed to be technokinetic. Somehow I wound up with healing abilities, as well as... whatever this is. [He gestures vaguely at the whole ... glowiness thing.] I mean, it seems completely arbitrary, but there's got to be some connection.

Anyone else who was affected, here's my question for you. Question and a half. What power are you supposed to have, and what do you have now? With any luck, we'll start seeing a pattern, and that'll put us one step closer to reversing this. Thank you.

[He reaches for the camera, then remembers the other thing he was going to say.]

Oh, and on a related note, if anyone happened to pick up my watch that night, please get it back to me as soon as possible, before it takes your arm off. I am not exaggerating. [He is exaggerating, but not by much.]

Comments

video | id reads "karen starr"

[boobwindow]

It kind of goes without saying, but if you need some time off work till this is sorted out...

[ And why does he have a watch that can blow up someone's arm? Qubit... ]

[superposition]

[Nonono, Karen. The question is, are you really surprised he has a watch like that?

But oh yeah he kinda forgot to call in, didn't he. OOPS.]

That... yes. I'd appreciate it. Transportation's a bit limited anyway, at present.

[boobwindow]

Are you... doing okay?

[ Is the glowing safe? ]

[superposition]

Me? Yes, I'm fine. [ Miraculously. He really needs to quit flirting with death before he wakes up married (and/or dead). ]

[boobwindow]

Is the glowing safe? It's pretty bright.

[superposition]

I'm not radioactive, if that's what you're asking. I checked, it peaks in the visible spectrum.

[What, you mean normal people don't carry a Geiger counter around?]

1/2

[boobwindow]

I... what?

2/2

[boobwindow]

Are you nerding out over this?

[ Well, freaking out isn't a better option... ]

[superposition]

... Well, you have to admit it's interesting. Fascinating little things, photons. There's a lot of potential here, if I can get more minute control over it.

[He might be nerding out a little.]

[boobwindow]

I'm more concerned it isn't reversible. Quite a number of imPorts were affected, were't they?

[ She's glad to have missed out on that incident, to be honest. She without her powers and someone else with them? That would only end in disaster. ]

[superposition]

That's true, but we've no reason to believe it's irreversible. Even if the effects are technically permanent, once we know how they pulled it off, we can simply do it again.

[boobwindow]

Is that what you're trying to figure out?

[superposition]

Yes. Well, indirectly. At the moment I'm trying to find out where the portals originated. There's not much to go on, but the data I do have is starting to form patterns.

[boobwindow]

I wasn't there when the attack happened... what did happen?

[superposition]

Apart from what you've seen on the news, you mean?

[He takes a moment to organize his thoughts.]

First there were the fires. Arson, of course. That was to lure out the firefighters and EMTs, as well as however many imPorts we could muster. Then, just as we were bringing the situation under control, that's when everyone's powers went haywire. Which caused as much chaos as you might expect. One fellow turned into some kind of living flame, even.

[That was Kon. Qubit tried to put him out. It didn't work.]

So the attackers 'ported in in the midst of that, using these things, as I described. [He holds up a disc again for a second.] They outnumbered us probably three to one, and they were coordinated and well-equipped. Body armor, laser pistols, poison darts, the works. I'm not sure why the darts, the lasers were much more effective. But... I won't lie, it was sort of a bloodbath. They were targeting imPorts, I'm reasonably sure, but they caused a lot of civilian casualties in the process. Like their lives meant nothing.