Help them, Guardi-Wan Kenobis...

[furtitude]

[Their network at the Pole just got haxxed, but to be fair, the magical network has been augmented for security by the Starfleeters to magically run on subspace and one of Little Cato's cellmates knows how to access that. Combined with Cato's 29th century hacking skills, it was piece of cake. Still, without McCoy, it would've cost Cato a lot more time - time they don't have when some of the components they stole won't last long.]

Is anyone there?

[The boy - and it's clear from his voice he is just a young teenage boy - on screen looks worse for wear, fur unkempt, clothes grimy, and scratched up and stained with dried blood in places. The two men with him aren't looking any better. They're all leaning over the comm with extreme interest. The lights above are harsh and impersonal the walls around them are clearly metallic and devoid of any decoration.]

[It's obviously a cell, with a massive, heavily armored door. The walls and door are scratched up in a way that suggest this cell has held many that tried to claw their way free.]

I don't know if you're like us, if you were from some other world and wound up on this one, and heard that voice talking about saving kids. But I'm Little Cato and this is Hellboy and Dr. McCoy. Right after we showed up here from our universes, some humans captured us. We're in some kind of secret facility. Other people that call themselves "myths" are imprisoned here and explained what they were. The humans think we're the same thing, I guess. They think we're dangerous, they're studying us.

They keep us locked up and run tests and scans on "myths." [A pause.] Or...worse. We haven't been tortured yet but it's only a matter of time. We hear screams sometimes.

We managed to steal some components and slap together this device to hack into stuff. We don't have long before the long-range transmitter burns out. Dr. McCoy recognized some parts of your broadcasting signals, though. He said it's from something called Starfleet? The organization he's in? If someone out there is from that, you need to know they've got one of your guys.

Please...

[There's a reason he decided to take point instead of having one of the others speak: Look at those big, cat eyes, shining with tears. Look at the miserable soppy preciousness. It's giving Miette energy. It's giving starving Victorian child. It's giving sad wet kitten in snow.]

[...It's also him completely hamming it up and putting on a sad kitten act because he knows someone fluffy, small, and cute, sounding super young and sad, might hit some people's guilt trip buttons, people that might be more hesitant to help otherwise. It's very convincing, too; how can you say no to those eyes? Even the small handful that knew an alternate version of Little Cato from an alternate Earth in an alternate dimensional adventure might just assume he's just that traumatized.]

Please, if you're not bad guys, if you're willing to help us, we need help, like, fast. Everyone here does.

Comments

[letskicksomeice]

[Jack is flying frantically into some kind of storage room as he records, one filled with artifacts and dusty tomes.]

Just hijacking off this, but [he twirls a hand around] assorted nerds! Assemble!

Everyone who can do computer stuff get to the lab and do some of that computer stuff really fast. Triangulate a - a something.

[He is way too old to understand any of this stuff.]

I'm looking for a backup to use at the same time. We have some magical stuff in here that we can maybe use for tracking.

[It feels like it'd be best to try both methods at the same time, while they still have a connection and a way of talking to the captives at all.]

[mostdangerousbird]

[ Tim is interjecting wherever he finds people talking about relevant things. ]

You have my blessing to say Titans Together and this nerd says I need anything you have on “Prometheus”.

[letskicksomeice]

Well, you mentioned the Titans: that's who Prometheus was. But that was way, way before my time.

[He rummages through a box. He really needs to organize this stuff better.]

Still, the basics of the myth are right: gave at least one community of humans fire, got punished by the Greek gods, yada yada yada. There was the whole thing about the eagle and his liver, but he got freed by Hercules.

He's long since faded, though. Only a few of the Greek god-types are even still around.

[ferengineer]

I don't think he means that Prometheus, Jack.

Anything you can think of in connection with myths suddenly vanishing?

[letskicksomeice]

Only that there have been rumors. Close calls with myths who felt like they were being tracked, but they escaped and never saw what did it. Or disappearances where it seemed like someone wasn't close to fading.

[He realizes he's glossed over fading for the most part. He's mentioned it but not in detail.]

That's what happens to us all eventually, when we stop having believers and stop having enough will to sustain ourselves. Myths fade and disappear. Move on, I guess. [His brows furrow a little.] The Guardians are the exception. We all took an oath and it binds us to the belief of the kids - the second the last believer stops believing, we'll disappear. It would be a lot faster.

But for other myths it's a slower process. You can tell when someone is getting close to needing their rest.

And also when they've still got a lot of life to them. There have been a few that disappeared despite not seeming like they were close to fading and the Guardians and other myths looked for them. And it was before Pitch ever opened the door to Kuk, so it wasn't Kuk and his crew.

But we never had any clues as to what happened.

This organization might be responsible for some of them.

[mostdangerousbird]

Titans is also a name my friends and I used to use, based on the myth. We didn't have a Prometheus, and no one turned into the Earth and sky themselves.

[ Tim gives Jack a look. ]

If the Greek gods are around, why aren't they here? They're myths, aren't they? Even if there's only a few, they could make themselves useful.

[letskicksomeice]

[Jack just snorts. Were he not preoccupied with rummaging, and were the situation less dire, he'd be cackling instead.]

We ask the occasional favor of some of the more minor gods and myths like when Epione and her daughters helped out in the Infirmary that one time but the heavy hitters that are still around are walking disasters. And extremely self-involved. They're not willing to stick their necks out.

Trust me, you don't want them dragging their baggage into our mess, anyway. Our mess is a nice mess in comparison. Nobody curses anyone or turns anybody into plants, objects, or animals in a fit of pique.

[He shakes his head, clearly amused.]

The Greek Gods helping. Ohhh, you guys kill me sometimes.

[divasmio]

[ Okay, look. Jack isn't wrong. "The Greek Gods Should Help More, Actually" has been the entire thesis statement of his six-month stint as a mortal.

but.

It is very awkward to have this conversation happening right in front of him while he's here to help. ]

Hey, uh, maybe this is a bad time for introductions, but hi! I just got here yesterday. My name is Apollo.

[ He lifts his golden bow as if to say, You know, THAT Apollo. ]

[letskicksomeice]

[He'd heard there was a newcomer from Phil but he'd crashed after that solo mission to sleep and hadn't got any details.]

[He thinks about what he said for half a second, but seems otherwise unphased as he moves to another box:]

It's nice to meet a different version of the other guy, thanks for being willing to help - since I assume that's the reason you're here instead of running off to do god stuff - but also, when it comes to the versions of the Greek gods from this world...

I said what I said.

[divasmio]

[ Apollo secures the bow to his back while Jack speaks, then he laughs. He throws his hands up in an apathetic shrug. ]

I mean, you aren't wrong. When this is all over I will happily trash talk my family with you, now that I am well out of their reach. By all means, continue.

[mostdangerousbird]

[ Tim’s nominally a part of this conversation, although he’s gone quiet trying to follow all the crosstalk and work simultaneously.

But hearing that Apollo Apollo is willing to trash talk the rest?

(Most of the Greek gods are assholes. Sorry, Cassie. Whereever you are.) ]

So if I said Ares is a shit-stirrer who needs a hobby.

[divasmio]

You have no idea. Sometimes he gets his war fix by stoking arguments on Reddit and Twitter. He thinks we don't know.

[mostdangerousbird]

Yeah, well, he needs to leave teenagers alone and get a life. He's not showing up, right?

[divasmio]

Well, good to know that's just an innate Ares trait across all realities, apparently. You'd think he'd learn after he got his ass kicked by a twelve-year-old!

[ Okay, maybe it wasn't his entire ass, but it was still an absolute riot. ]

I hope not. Can't imagine him getting chosen to come here.

[mostdangerousbird]

[ Tippity tip tapping at keys as he tiptoes around the issued. ]

I don't think people who identify as gods generally excel at learning from their mistakes.