Had Signy been moving at full speed, the snake might have tripped her. But as it was she came to a stop and tried to step on its neck.

Terrance listened intently as Kami explained the rules. "Yup, uh uh..." was the extent of his replies, until she got to the runes.
"This one looks kind of familiar, I think my mom had a tattoo of it. It means 'healing' or 'protection,' or something like that. Guess it didn't do her any good in the end," he said. If he was questioned about it, he would simply dismiss it as tired ramblings. It had been a long day, after all.

Suddenly, there was a burst of new people coming in. It was the others that he'd seen fend off the creature and the maniacs! "Hey there, do you guys live here too?" he called out, but the news of ice cream had them moving upstairs. That, and the fact that he was probably hidden behind the suit didn't help him to be noticed all that well. He tried to join them by climbing into the suit, but he fell to the ground again. Still, he was only missing out on ice cream, so he decided to try again on his own without calling for help. However, he fell down again. And again. And two more times before he heard the sound of glass shattering. He wasn't about to let that go unanswered, so he just pushed against the suit until it fell over. Luckily, he didn't dent the jetpack. After he climbed in and reminded himself of the boot up process, he ran upstairs to try and find the source of the smashing.

Signy heard Technosis warning someone named Oom to be careful, and noticed that the strange crystalline entity had taken care with its shot, knocking the snake downstairs, so she figured that was Oom. She turned to follow it, leaping over Tobias's prone form in a lunging grab for the tail...

Between Signy and Terrance, all though one is encased in ice, the snake has no where to go. Signy catches hold of it, while it reacts, several vertebrae release spikes and start spiny while the snake writhes in her hands. Blind and trapped it's minimal defenses are useless, even with Terrance and Tobias both tripping over themselves.

____________

Tech dashes past Oumm and the others down the stairs and halts just short of getting his suit slashed by one of the rotating blade son the blind, glowy, mechanical snake.

"UGh, I think this explains some things..." He mutters, staying well away from it, he can't very well electrocute it with Signy holding it....

"Is there ever a plan?" Terrance asked as he pulled himself free from his icy prison and threw a blast of cold air at the creature. It was all that he could think to do to slow it down without hurting Signy.

The mechasnake starts to dim as the ice hits it and condenses against the cooling metal. The spinning completely stops as it's held taut and slowly frozen. It tries writhing and pulling free but being exothermic, resistance if futile. The fist of earth and stone finished incapacitating the four foot long creature.

_____________

"Yeah... No plan works pretty well..." Tech ran up the stairs as fast as he could to his clean rooms and comes back down with one of the surviving reinforced glass cages. "Put it in here!" He said, holding the thing open for them.

"I'm pretty sure this thing is left over from that attack 10 months ago, when the uhhh Lizard things, first arrived..." He explained. "Now we have a sample!" He grinned, the tank wasn't just a tank, it had tesla coils sprouting out of each corner.

_____________

Tobias finally got up and groaned again.

"I thought we were done with Mech monsters... Can't I just cut it up?"

_____________

"No." Terry commanded as he got to the floor, having taken his time for some reason. "Laurn needs to study it."

____________

"I told you, they look like the Laserta demons from hell, remember Toby?" Kami asked.

With a wave of his closed hand, Cam moved the fist over to Laurn and dumped the snake into the Tesla box. Once Laurn had it sealed, the earth constructs dissipated and flowed back out through the vents. Cam then walked over to the Tesla box and squatted down to peer into it. "So, what is it?"

Laurence closed the Tesle Box and activated the Tesla coils, a small bubble of electricity formed around the snake and suspended it well away from edges of the class in a compact little ball. It roiled and coiled itself inside the ball and seemed to go completely inert as the electro-magnetic shield inhibits its processes.

"Ugh... Well, 10 months ago when we first got the base we saw some of those Lizard things, they came in through the basement and tried to reach the Machina Mana node at the top of the tower, one of them most likely left this behind." Tech took the tank up stairs and put it in one of the clean rooms to study later.

________

Kami gave Terrance a hug from behind.

"Thanks!" She grinned, grabbed her ice-cream and headed down the stairs to join Mar at the TV, just in time for him to find an episode of the Rune Fortress Anime playing.

________

Tobias sighs and calls down the stairs.

"Bed after that, it's too late for you to be up." He sighed, Bucky appeared out of nowhere again and glanced around.

*Is it gone?* Bucky asked, slinking around Tobias' legs cautiously.

"Yes, Bucky, it's gone." Tobias rubbed the back of his head, grateful for sturdy bones...

_______

"That makes sense Tech, but do we know anything else about them?" Terry raised his eyebrows at him. He followed Technosis up stairs to look at the creature he put in suspended animation, or whatever.

Terrance returned the hug as well as he could from inside his suit without crushing Kami. When the topic suddenly changed to bed, he remembered that he didn't have anywhere to sleep. In between yawns, he turned to Tobias and said, 'speaking of bed, is there a spare room or a couch or something that I can sleep on tonight? I can be out in the morning, but I just need one decent night's sleep before I try going home.'

"I am? Well that's a stroke of good luck, then!" Terrance said as he managed to brute-force his way out of his icy situation. He followed Tobias up the stairs and hope that this Terry person wouldn't mind having him hang around for a while.

Laurn sighed and ran his hand over the back of his neck and shrugged... He looked a bit wiped and worried as well, since the tech hero tended to want nothing more than to know everything going on with 'his' base...

"Well, yeah, I thought so too, but we must have missed something, or it was cloaking itself..." He sighed and rubbed his temple, setting the tank into a machine to be protected, powered and analyzed. "I mean, maybe it doesn't have a mind, so, no intent... I can't say how it managed it without study of it's systems..." He sighed, feeling like he was letting her down.

___________

Tobias lead Terrance upstairs to meet Terry and ask is he could stay.

"Hey, uh, Terry, right? So, Terrance here, ha..." He bit his lip. "Sorry, lots of Terrances, terraces of Terrances..." He grinned then shrugged, since it wasn't that funny. "Anywa, he needs a place to stay, we got a spare room? Oh, and you miiight wanna put in some kinda... ramp... lift... thingy... " He shrugged.

___________

Terry was watching the snake from outside the clean room where Laurence and Sabrina talked about the breach of security. It bothered him too, but it really only pointed out to him how little they knew about the place, and the weird enemy... He turned when Tobias addressed him and blinked...

"Oh, well, yeah, sure. You thinkin' about joining the YW?" He smiled, he shrugged though. "It's not a requirement that you be a hero, simply a teen with powers who needs help, so there's a bed open, pick a room and crash, so long as there isn't someone already crashing there. Second Floor is Junior living, Seniors are on the third floor." He smiled. "Lemme show you around."

Mar had fallen asleep in front of the T.V. watching the late night cartoons. Showing his mental age he was actually sucking on one of his thumbs.

Laurn was one of the few people who didn't have school, so he was here for Mar's confused outburst, or inburst? HE shook his head with a chuckle and climbed down one of the vined trellises from the library.

"No, it's okay Mar. The trees are going dormant, so the chlorophyll in their leaves decay, they turn yellow, or orange, or red, and fall off." He walked up, ready to go full nerd on this and provide waaay more info than necessary. "See, when autumn starts, the angle of the sunlight hitting the earth changes, and we get less direct sunlight, the weather gets colder too, and since the leaves are all there to collect sunlight as energy for the plants, they shed them and go dormant. The trees on the roof are still green, but Kami and Garrett did some weird magic for that." He pointed up.

Laurn gave a quiet grin, instead of laughing at Mar's misunderstanding of the word. He shook his head jerked his head towards one of the holographic terminals on the second level.

"Dormant." Laurn corrected as he got to the terminal and pulled up the definition of it on the flat screen, then a diagram of the solar system. "See, the earth," He points at it. "Moves around the sun, which is a lot bigger than that. So, you're sort of right, we do get a different angle all the time." He moved the holo model to show the earth and sun at a different point in the year. "But right now the sun is hitting the earth with light at a different angle, which means that the plants get less energy." He toggles light-ray visuals and has the model spin through another year very slowly. "Here." He hands Mar a book on botany, and a dictionary. "Those should help."

At that moment, Cam walked into the room. He'd heard the conversation from the other room and decided to join in. "The Earth is depicted as being tilted because it is, in essence, tilted. In a galactic sense, the axis of our planet does not point straight up and down. That axial tilt is one of the main reasons why we get less light this time of year and why the trees are 'dying'. As to the size of the Earth, it's circumference is 24,901 miles or 40,075 kilometers. The reason the world seems flat is because it's so big."

Mar tilted his head not sure what they are talking about. But he looked at the model. "The Earth is floating? What we floating in?"

"Earth is surrounded by what humans call outer space. It's a great vacuum of nothingness that is dotted with planets, stars, and other celestial bodies. Earth is just one of..." Cam stopped as he heard a faint crash from upstairs. "Did you hear that?"

Cam was already atop the railing and in an athletic bound, he flew into the open space. He caught the swinging vine and kicked off the railing to swing back over towards Laurn. Even as he did this, dirt from the obstacle course floor flew up the open space and began coalescing into 'gloves' around Cam's hands and forearms as he landed next to Laurn. He turned back to throw the vine to Mar, idly wondering if he'd use it, climb along the wall, or just swing over on a web-line.

Meanwhile, Terrance had gone from worried to full-blown panic. "Just got to remember what to do, Dad showed me..." he said to himself. He took a breath, closed his eyes and tried to think back.

"Just remember, if you do find yourself trapped in your own ice, all you have to do is-WORTHLESS INGRATE!"

"Great, not only am I about to freeze myself, but I've got daddy issues," he muttered as the ice began to slowly creep over him. He didn't know what else to do but stay perfectly still, which seemed to hold off the ice more than struggling.

Terrance's eyes widened as the doors swung open. "No, I don't want them to see me like this!" he exclaimed as he repeatedly beat against the ice with his free arm. It got him nowhere, but it was all that he could think to do. If he had the suit, he could easily whip up an ice door or something to keep them out, or just free himself. For now, he was a prisoner of his own powers.

Cam followed Laurn towards the cold spot in the Junior Dormitory. His movements were calm and poised, ready for whatever they encountered.

When Oumm burst through the door, Terrance nearly jumped out of his skin! He still wasn't quite used to the golem, even though he'd seen it many times. Just as he managed to calm himself down, Laurn entered. As soon as he was asked if he was okay for the second time, all he could say was, 'I...I had a bad dream.'

Trying valiantly to keep a smile off his face and his amusement out of his voice, Cam moved to assist Oum. The dirt that covered his lower arms dispersed and formed a series of small wedges that began driving into the cracks slowly, pushing until the ice began breaking into chunks. "Laurn, where's the nearest window large enough for these chunks?"

Terrance frowned. 'I haven't iced the bed in years. I didn't know I could even make that much without the suit,' he said as he shifted himself into his wheelchair. He was embarrassed that he'd been found out, but at least he was free. After he warmed his arms up a bit, he noticed his stomach rumbling. 'So, who's up for breakfast?' he asked as he moved towards the doorway.

At Mar's comment, Cam could no longer contain himself and he started chuckling as he grabbed the handles of the wheelchair. "It's okay, Terrance. Lots of young guys have had their fair share of nocturnal icemissions..."

Terrance blushed. "It wasn't one of THOSE dreams..." he said as he tried to get himself moving, but he was still tired and frustrated from the morning's events, so he let Cam do the work. Why he'd even had the dream was beyond him, but he knew that that was all it was, a dream.

"As for breakfast, I could throw something together...I mean, I've never cooked for this many people, but I can give it a go. Besides, my bacon can't be beat!"

"Oh, if you can cook, uh, I'll make more coffee." He nodded and got out of the way so Terrance could leave in his wheel chair. "I didn't have powers, but I did get in trouble for taking apart the breaks on dad's car when I was seven." He nodded. "Impressive display though, " He shook his head and went into the kitchen. "Oh, the quote unquote Elevators, are operational, though the one to the showers is a long trip... Ask Kami, she made em... It's weird... Door's under the stairs." He called from the kitchen, grinding the coffee. It was literally his best dish.

Mar hopped off the ceiling and just scooped what ever seemed interesting to eat. "Yummies!" Oumm moved like the artificial being he was to stand out of the way observing. Mildly it was wondering when they would notice he spoke with their language.

Laurence stayed out of the way and just got things out or put them away during the cooking process. He grinned and was half way through his food before he realized he'd missed something, then Cam brought it up and he stared for a minute.

"How did we miss that till now?" Laurn laughed once then went back to eating his bacon. "Next thing we know you'll connect to the wifi. Passwords Like1TurtleD0." He shrugged, considering the weird technomagical explosion that made the golem and it's jumps of capabilities, he was ready to accept anything from the golem as 'possible.'

"Really? You've just worked it out? I just thought you didn't want to talk," Terrance said as he twirled his fork a few times. Oumm was proving to be quite an interesting...person? Creature? Whatever it was, Terrance hoped that it wasn't going anywhere soon.

"My reason for being is to protect the Mecha mana in this location. To do that communication was deem needed for better serve that need." Oumm sated and Mar looked over to the construct "So if a baddie not attacking this place is doing something bad somewhere else you won't help us stop them?"

After Terrance had finished eating, he chimed in on the subject of learning curves. "Actually, several of the mutants at my school learn at different rates, even the twins. I've never found much evidence for origin meaning anything." He might have missed the point, but this conversation was at least steering away from his little incident this morning and he was glad for it.

Terrance shuddered. He hadn't really used the suit since he'd joined up, but he knew that Laurn had the best intentions, so he reluctantly said, 'Just, uh...let me brush my teeth and stuff first, then I'll meet you in the garage. That's where I parked it.' He quickly slipped out and headed to the bathrooms, where he not only brushed his teeth, but had a full-blown shower and spent far too long checking for pimples in the mirror. He decided that if he was going to have to do it, he'd put it off as long as possible. Once he ran out of things to do, he made his way down to the garage. He couldn't see Laurn, so he assumed that Laurn was just behind him or something.

'Okay, I'm not sure if you're here or not, but if you don't have a spare pair of parallel bars or something, I'll need a hand getting into this thing...'

Terrance flinched when he realised that Mar had appeared. "Gah! Where'd you come from? Never mind. C'mon, my suit's right over here, but be careful; I'm really cold for some reason," he said as he went over to the thing that had once held him captive and reminded him of his dad. He still didn't like the looks of it, but something seemed different about it as he passed his hand over the chest, allowing it to open.

Terrance let Laurn look as much as he wanted while Mar slid him in. Terrance had barely scratched the surface of what this thing could do, so an extra pair of hands to work it would be appreciated. 'Yeah, this little cap here attaches to my head and bypasses the severed connections in my spine by picking up electrical impulses in my brain. It sends those impulses to the required servos and lets me walk, fly, whatever. As for my powers, I kind of passively make stuff cold and I can make little frost puffs if I really try,' he said as Laurn looked at the suit. He was clearly into it.

'I haven't even used it since the whole giant lizard thing, but it doesn't seem to need much maintenance. I wouldn't mind a hand making it a bit less, y'know, evil looking...'

"Hmmm... Yeah, it does have a certain aggressive feel to it..." He nodded, inspecting the outside quietly, then retrieving his multi-spectrum goggles from a nearby shelf and scanning it with ultrasonic pulses... "Also, I wouldn't short change your powers, you made atleast two inches of ice up stairs under mental duress, maybe you can flex your proverbial muscles..." He pulled the goggles up and grinned broadly. "I like that idea! I mean, I've got a certain amount of assistive servos and solid rods through out my suit to keep me from tearing my arm out of socket when swinging, or from crushing my knees when landing... " He handed Cam another set of goggles, forgetting that he had the earth sense.

Terrance closed up the suit. He felt oddly exposed while it was open, like someone was just about to take a shot at him. "I guess a smaller suit for getting around'd be nice, but I'd be just as happy to get my hoverchair back. We worked so hard on that thing...' he trailed off as he mentioned the various features that he and his dad had installed. He was particularly proud of the force field generator that he had built from a desk fan, paperclips and a big battery that he just happened to have lying around. He snapped back to attention just long enough to hear what Laurn said about his powers. 'Well I can't do that on purpose, unless my target's already wet. Even then, I need to have contact with it. I locked myself in an iceberg once, and I definately don't want to do that again...'

Laurn tilted his head quietly and then back the other direction, leaning in as he strafed around the suit... He looked up towards Terrance's face even though he was currently inspecting the spine of the suit. He chewed his lip and nodded...

"Well, no reason we can't do both? I mean no offense but it is a bit hard to make a clock tower wheel chair accessible, though we tried. " Then his jaw dropped and he stood up straight looking Terrance in the eyes... "What if we made it both!?" He grinned and almost skipped over to the holographic display nearby. "Extrapolate and explode, level three efficiency testing..." He ordered the computer. The machine quickly threw a holographic display of Terrence's suit, though the casing was missing and so were quite a few other bits. The computer may not understand what those parts were for, it was automated after all.

Mar nodded "I can feel things. The whole room even. Don't need eyes all the time."

Cam had arrived at the same conclusion as Laurn about two seconds after him and they had their heads together at the computer, comparing and contrasting ideas while drafting a diagram on the screen. Currently, they were quietly semi-arguing over whether the suit / chair should have wheels or be hover-capable, à la a popular comic book character. Cam looked back over his shoulder and grinned cheekily. "No peeking. It's a surprise."

Terrance looked away from the monitor. 'A minion is pretty much the lowest level bad guy there is. They're really only good for letting the bad guy get away. What I meant when I said my dad was talking was that I said something that he'd say, but I don't think it's the case,' he said. As he turned back to the monitor, he tried to make it colder, so that Laurn and Cam would either get closer for warmth, or move away and let him get a peek.

Terrance groaned in frustration. 'I'm gonna be wearing the thing, I should get a say in what it looks like!' he exclaimed. Once he had calmed down a little, he took a deep breath and sent the cold away. Even though he didn't much care for being in his suit, the degree of control that it gave him was nothing short of astounding every time. As the super nerds got on with their thing, the regular nerd made basic, three-dimensional shapes in ice. He started with a sphere, then a cube, then various prisms. He couldn't help but wonder if he could have done this all along if it wasn't for the iceberg incident, that one horrible day...

Suddenly, he lost control of his mini-shape, sending shards of ice all over the place. 'Whoops, sorry...is everyone okay?'

After seeing that everyone was okay (more or less) Terrance peered at the monitor. 'Well it's not bad for a prototype, but you'll want to extend the back here and curve the top, in case I get E.M.P'd and thrown around. Trust me, it happens. I know it'll decrease performance a little, but try and have the sides angle out. It makes it harder for people to pick me up. Yes, that happens too. Other than that, it's looking pretty sweet.'

'It's great, but does the colour stay in chair mode? It'd be a bit of a give away to who's under the helmet if it does...also, I'll need a hand getting in, unless you like seeing me fall over,' Terrance said as he looked the suit over. It was smaller than his current one, due to the lack of superfluous spikes and less room for growing.

"Oh, yeah... Hmmm..." He tilted his head and tapped a few things into the keyboard, moved a few things around. Currently it wasn't a physical model, just a good holographic projection of it. The suit changed, so now all the parts visible in chair mode were black or silver, like a chair should be. He converted the model back to suit mode, most of the black ended up on the back. "Want to start printing up the carbon-fiber design?" Laurn grinned, "Sorry, do you wanna mess with the design a bit?"