Zeta Complex

Lily glared at Maxfield. "Little girl my ass," she muttered under her breath, "If I'm a little girl, you are an asshole."
Hearing the voice, she started and glanced over at Aphrodite. "Hey, you sure you don't want to be the leader?"

Carson watched the fight over the bag unfold; he tried to interject a few times, but they moved right on without him. The old man wheeled himself away and the announcer spoke over their heads. Jessica indicated the circlet, "Uhhh, right. We should do that." He reached out and took the circlet, then placed it on his head. "I feel ridiculous," he muttered.

Jessica smirked at Carson. "No, it suits you," she lied.

They gathered around and touched the circlet, feeling a little unsure of what this was supposed to achieve. Suddenly though a sharp tone emanated from the crown and Carson felt a momentary pressure from it. "Leader Selected for Group Twelve", spoke a bright, emotionless female voice, similar to the one the vending machines sometimes used.

Various screens briefly flicked on around Carson showing all kinds of information about the team such as their current health, balance and location, amongst other things - presumably he could recall them at will, the same way most of the other devices worked. He soon realised, however, that he couldn't take the circlet off - it was fixed firmly to his head, although apparently not by any adhesive. Amongst the controls on the screens were options to change the circlet's appearance, or turn it invisible- presumably by the same kind of holographic wizardry that made the screens possible, but while projections such as masks were possible, the system wouldn't allow realistic faces or anything beyond the vicinity of the head, so the holograms weren't much use for disguise.

Jessica withdrew her hand. "I guess you're the leader now. Now what?"

"Time's up!" spoke the Voice. "That was the end of Round 3, the first Voting round! Congratulations to those of you who could decide on a leader- you are eligible to participate in Round 4! Those who couldn't... I'm afraid you'll have to find other ways to amuse yourselves for now, although you will be able to re-join the competition later."

"Round 4," it continued, "is a Trading round. You see, Round 2 left a number of participants... disqualified, which means their powers have been returned to the mainframe. Likewise, a number of groups failed to choose a leader, which means their team balance has been confiscated. However, their loss can become your gain! Simply proceed to a team departure pod, and further details will be explained."

Lily rolled her eyes. "So what, we're just gonna sit around and do nothing? So unfair," she complained. Walking over to a table, she sat down and waited for the hologram.

Roselyn couldn't contain a giggle snort when the crown seemed to sit eerily steady on his head, "It's a nice look for you."

Speaking of powers, Roselyn was still unsure as to what her were let alone others' powers. Anxious to find out what the next challenge was, she approached a pod and waited for the rest of the group.

Carson looked through the menus that kept popping up for him. They seemed to be navigated by his eyes and what he was thinking, so at least it was intuitive to use. He examined the different things he could do; it seemed to display where the other people on the team were. He moved to try to take it off again as Roselyn giggled, but found that he couldn't. After trying repeatedly, a menu popped up asking him if he wanted to change how it looked. Several options popped up; invisible, a few hats, various circlets that looked like they belonged on Disney princesses. He cycled through several of the options before realizing, based on Roselyn's laughter, that he had been changing the look on his head the whole time. He currently had this ridiculous Queen's crown on. He quickly scrolled back to the beginning and made the thing invisible, although he could still feel it on his head.

When the voice spoke, he turned to everyone else, "Well, this thing certainly moves quickly. I was hoping to get a chance to check out my powers." That actually gave him an idea; He started scrolling through the crown interface, trying to see if he could find his own or his teammate's powers.

Aarón watched as Carson scrolled through various hats amused at how Carson seemed oblivious to the physical changes to the crown. Aarón turned his attention to Jessica, saying. "I wanted to apologize again for what happened during the last round, I know it was reckless, but that's just a part of who I am to an extent. I feel like we got off to a bad start, and you seem like an extremely level headed woman. I acknowledge that I am entirely reckless, yet we complement each-other perfectly. Care to give this partnership another chance?" at this point he offered her his hand. "I'm not asking to be best friends or anything, your level of seriousness is kind of a turnoff for me. We need to be able to work together though, and maybe friendship will follow that" He finished the statement with a smile as if the thought comforted him.

"Well," began Jessica. "if we're going to be on the same team, I suppose we'll have to find some way to get along one way or another, won't we?" She reached out and shook the proffered hand, smiling bemusedly. "You're probably the strangest person I've ever worked with, Aarón. But I can't truthfully say you're the most unpleasant, so maybe there's hope for you yet. Don't let it go to your head though, a rabid raccoon would probably make for better company than some of my colleagues."

Meanwhile, Carson was browsing the powers section of the crown interface. He'd succeeded in finding information about his own power, though it didn't seem to have instructions on how to use it. Aside from what he'd discovered though, a surprising quantity of his teammates information seemed to be restricted, even things like age and sex. He did succeed in finding a list however, of what he assumed were the names of the powers - some seemed to be pretty descriptive, while others were a little cryptic. No further details were provided - he supposed he'd have to ask them to look up their powers and tell him if he wanted more information.

Aarón Giron Nieto: Dysnomia's Deed
Roselyn Shault: Super Hacker
Jessica Moore: Fractal Crystalline Body

[By the way, team 37 players (LeNarcissus, TaniaSoulEater and 4ndy5ixx and AliceHearts  if they're still around), you can say your team chose a leader before the deadline and participate in round 4 if you want. Otherwise, you could have your characters explore the complex or mingle a bit, maybe try to escape, it's up to you.
If Aphrodite and Azzix don't show up, to simplify things I might arrange for Misha and Lily to be reassigned to team 12 after the next round.]

Lily, upon hearing the voice, glanced, exasperated, at Aphrodite, then raced over to the crown. She picked it up and put it on her head. Rolling her eyes, she looked around at the rest, daring them to snicker or laugh.

Misha now leaning against the wall, was pissed off at what Roselyn had just done. 'We are imprisoned like dogs and she helps the captors' Misha thought as he leered at Roselyn. Vowing revenge he turned his attention to Lily who had taken the crown. Limping towards her, Misha checked for the third time for his bottle, each time coming short and each time remembering he had downed it all anyway. "Leader where we go from here?" Misha asked Lily, doubtful she was capable of leading a group.

Lily shrugged. "Yeah, I'm not too are either," she replied casually. Noticing the scroll down menu, she walked over to it and tried adjusting the crown, finally succeeding in rendering it invisible, just as Carson had. Glancing at Misha, she saw his slightly sneering expression and felt uneasy. What if I am incapable of bringing the best to this group? she worried inwardly. I don't want to let anything happen to them!

Jessica joined Roselyn in the departure pod, nodding slightly nervously to her. The last challenge had almost killed her so she was a little concerned, but what could be dangerous about trading?

When the groups had gathered in the pods, the doors shut, and they began to move.

[Jessica, Aarón, Roselyn, Carson -> Arena 12
Aphrodite, Liliana, Mikhail, Azzix -> Arena 37

For convenience, every time the groups are split up, I'm going to re-use the same 'places'. However your characters aren't actually returning to the room from before, they're staying in the pod. It's just to keep the threads separate, I hope this doesn't confuse anyone.]

Carson looked at the options, and the coins. "Well, for now, we'll have to see what we can get," he said, "but, I did manage to find the names of our powers, if anyone is interested. I don't know what they all do, but it can give us a better idea of what we're trading." He paused, remembering the list of powers, "Out of personal opinion, I think Roselyn should keep hers, no matter what."

Looking at his own tokens, he knew he wouldn't be able to do any bidding this round. He wasn't exactly sure how he'd ended up in the negative, but it didn't bode well if they didn't get something for the team soon.

Picking her head up off the wall she asked, "Mind cluing me in on what mine was?" She hadn't seen the screen that informed Carson of what hers were and she was itching to know. The powers that could be won caught her eye. They all seemed to be physical powers, something she could definitely use given her weak physical state.

Carson typed a message to the nameless group: We promise not to bid on Iceworks or Shadow Extrasensory if you promise not to bid on the tokens or Cannon Punch. He looked around the group, "Seems fair to me. We'll see what they say. I agree with Roz that we should try for Cannon punch, and the Shadow thing doesn't exactly sound useful to me. Since the groups are anonymous, we could always go back on our word if we have to, but I'd prefer to stay honest with them."