Khellendrosiic

“Looks like someone already opened a few, boss,” mentioned Large Toy as the group slowed their charge almost as soon as it began.

The inside of the cargo ship and been gutted, and a sophisticated command and control center had been built in its place. The stairway that they had all just run down opened up onto a multi-level structure built in the center of an empty ship. From what Toy could see Barracuda had already been through here and she seemed pissed off. Since Toy could see quite a few Longbow lying on the ground and all Longbow came with a medicom teleporter that only failed if the user was dead, Barracuda was in quite a mood.

“Screams coming from up ahead, boss,” Small Toy said as its laser hand scanned the area before them.

Of course, as soon as Small Toy mentioned them, the screams were cut off abruptly.

“Great, a pissed off super villainess,” Toy cursed as he started walking forward. “Try to find her but keep yourselves unobserved. I want to see if I can cook up and ambush.”

“She’s already found, boss,” Combat Toy said as it took a couple of steps forward and pointed over the side of the top level.

Hurrying forward, Toy saw Barracuda, with a pair of Crab Spider Slicers by her side, watching a Longbow Ballista on the lowest level being beaten up by a small mob of other Crab Spiders. The beleaguered Ballista was stumbling around, clearly at the edge of his strength, while the soldiers smacked him around. The wounds he had suffered clearly warranted an emergency mediport but apparently Barracuda had brought a portable teleport blocker, which might account for the unusually large about of dead Longbow agents.

“[censored],” Toy said simply. “I hate it when I have to deal with these people.”

“Not all Crab Spiders are bad, boss,” said Block Bot. “Remember that Hughart guy?”

“Yeah, yeah. But I’m not talking about all Crab Spiders. I’m talking about the [censored] that pal around in Mako’s personal guard. You can tell by the big tooth symbol on their helmets.”

“Damn,” said Combat Toy. “What do we do? These guys are supposed to be super tough.”

“As I said earlier, I want to try an ambush. Large Toy, I want you to run over and grab a gun from one of those dead Longbow. Everyone else, head on down to the bottom floor on the opposite side of this blood sport. Take up concealed positions and wait for my signal.”

“And what’ll you be doing?” asked Mini Bot as the others ran off.

“I’ll be pulling Barracuda over,” Toy said as he put his rifle away and pulling the mask off a corpse next to him. Slipping the mask over his head, ignoring the tears his sat comms made, Toy sat back and waited for Large Toy to bring him an unbroken weapon.

“Good luck,” said Mini Bot as it ran off to hide.

Large Toy came back with the sniper rifle of a Longbow Eagle and then ran off to join the others. As Toy Dispenser checked the weapon over to see if it was usable, he heard the Ballista start shouting at Barracuda. It seemed like a standard hero speech, the one that called the recipient a brutal, heartless monster and seemed perfectly suited to this situation. Just as Barracuda started to laugh and shout for her soldiers to finally kill the poor [censored], Toy leaned over the edge and shot at her.

His aim was poor and the bullets just rattled all around her, but the damage was done. Spinning around in a rage, Barracuda saw his mask and his gun and jumped to the conclusion that he was a surviving agent. Since sticking around wouldn’t help his case any, Toy spun around and ran for it.

“Hold the prisoner!” he heard Barracuda shout. “This one is mine!”

Hook, line, and sinker, Toy thought as he jumped over the side and landed with a thump amidst a bunch of crates.

A lighter thump behind him prompted the mastermind to turn around and toss his weapon in an underhand throw at Barracuda. Startled by his nonchalant attitude, Barracuda caught the weapon reflexively and just stared for a moment as Toy ripped off the annoying mask.

“Fast, aren’t we?” Toy said. “But a little slow on the uptake, regardless.”

“You,” Barracuda hissed and the rifle in her grip suddenly froze over and shattered into a million pieces. “You are that villain who kept me from learning about what I am.”

“Yep,” replied Toy as he unlimbered his own rifle, assembling it quickly and efficiently. “You got a problem with that? Cause, I mean, you if you do, I bet this ambush will finish you off even faster than last time.”

As soon as he said the word, all of his bots sprung out from behind crates and opened fire. Barracuda was knocked flying as the laser, missile, and photon grenade barrage threw her into the main structure, causing its frame to buckle.

“Cake walk,” stated Combat Toy just before Barracuda jumped out of the hole, screamed “DIE!” and shot a spout of water out of her hand that blasted Small Toy backwards into a pile of crates.

“Take her down!” Toy shouted as he lifted up into the air and motioned for the other two drones to circle around her.

Force fields quickly sprang into existence around the robots as Toy’s wrist flanges glowed and following water spouts splashed away upon hitting the fields. Combat Toy moved forward and spewed flames from its arm, causing Barracuda to fall back and right into combined laser fire from Mini Bot and Toy Bot. Barracuda shielded herself with her arms, the flames peeling away the top layers of her protective coral armor. The coral hybrid retaliated with a blast of psychic energy that caused Combat Toy to fall back, the impulses of its brain temporarily shorted out.

“Stun her now!” Toy shouted as Barracuda threw a water twister at the hovering mastermind. The android easily dodged it and fired on her, distracting the villainess long enough for Block Bot and Large Toy to maneuver themselves to either side of Barracuda. As one, they fired a pair of photon grenades, the bright lights and concussive force acting as a pair of close range flash bangs.

Stunned, Barracuda could only stagger around as Mini Bot and Toy Bot dashed forward and twisted her arms behind her back. As the coralax hybrid shook her head and tried to regain her bearings Combat Toy stomped up in front of her and raised up its arms.

“Your head needs to be flatter,” it rumbled before bringing both arms down.

There was a sickening crack and a loud pop as Barracuda’s mediporter activated, carrying her to safety. Back on the other side of the transport there suddenly arose a great commotion. Apparently Barracuda had kept the teleport blocker on her person and with her escape the Ballista was teleported away as well, leaving the Crab Spiders without any prey.

“Time to bail,” Toy said as he floated upward toward the door. “Make your way outside and then initiate return protocols.”

“Got it, boss!” called out Mini Bot as it vaulted up the few levels to the door with the other bots close behind.

Kicking open the door, Toy Dispenser was the first one out and he accelerated toward the waiting submarine. Behind him his bots roared up into the sky on trails of flame until they reached the maximum retrieval distance for the teleporter on the manufactory satellite.

“Well,” he said to himself as he slipped down the hatchway. “That went well.”

"Statement: The real fight begins now," said Chertak as he pivoted toward Hallucinogen and fired a blast from his rifle.

Chertak muttered to himself and grabbed a passing thug. With a tug and a push, the Rikti slammed the human into the ground and then planted his foot on him. A second thug reeled past from some other attack and Chertak reached out and slammed his rifle into the human, knocking him up into the air and then down into unconsciousness.

"You all know what you're here to do," Bruno said to his assembled gladiators. "Now go out and do it. Chertak, you're up first."

The Rikti nodded stiffly and exited the locker room.

******************************************

Chertak stepped out onto the field and quickly surveyed his targets; eight humans with no discernable super powers. As a human would say, it was a piece of cake. Drawing his rifle, Chertak took aim at one of the humans and opened fire.

OOC: Yo soy un bored! Yo (spanish word for play)!

BIC: Master: Bruno Rayson - No one knows how Bruno came into money but everyone agrees that it was probably for the best. Bruno used to be one of the more...aggressive...members of the Family before the Rikti War. Sometime during the war he disappeared and when he came back it was as a changed man. He had gained a large fortune and lost half of his body. With the entirety of his left side replaced by cybernetics Bruno quickly gained a frightening reputation. His ruthless business practices helped in gaining that reputation greatly.

Gladiators:

1) Warmaster Chertak
Background: Somehow Bruno has a Rikti working for him. And this isn't just any Rikti, this is one of the more well known of the Traditionalist faction. Chertak does not speak of what causes him to be fighting here and no one has yet dasred to ask him.
Powers: Rikti Rifle, Rikti Warblade, Super strength. Chertak is a well trained and experienced Rikti soldier that has fought throught the invasion and in numerous engagements after that. He's seen just about everything Earth supers can do and is quite capable of turning almost any disadvantage to an advantage.

2) Wolf Spider Warrior
Background: A former Arachnos soldier of some amount of fame, Roger Sullivan is apparently working off some sort of debt to Bruno.
Powers: Energy melee, Kinetic shielding. The entirety of Wolf's power lies in his mechanical right arm. His armor also generates a miniature vibrating field a milimeter off of his body.

3) Captain Daniel Farfield
Background: Once again, no one knows where Bruno enlisted the aid of this gladiator. Since the Crab Spider Webmaster has refused to discuss his terms and generally seems as irritable as hell everyone is left guessing.
Powers: Crab Spider powered armor, Arachnos military training. Farfield is a high ranking member of Captain Mako's Crab Spiders. While he doesn't display the ferocity that Mako prefers in his men, Farfield's sheer competence sometimes allows him to accomplish missions that would otherwise have been lost. Farfield was once an accomplished knife fighter and brings that skill to the wrist blades on his arms.

4) A.R.C.
Background: A fully fledged Sky Raider Jump Bot. ARC is talkative and apparently mafunctioning in some way. But however much it talks about, the machine never says anything about the Sky Raiders or how it came to be here with Bruno.
Powers: Assault rifle, Super speed, Jump jets. A symptom of ARC's malfunctioning is the ability to move much faster than a normal human can percieve. Effectively, ARC can move as fast as it can think for short periods of time. However, ARC is extremely unstable and may sometimes break down or simply do something unexpected.

5) Charred Skull
Background: Skull seems to be an impossibility considering the hatred with which the Hellions and Skulls direct at each other. But Skull has a unique way of dealing with his dual loyalties; he is two people. Skull has a split personality, one of which is a Skull, the second of which is a Hellion. Over the years, the two personalities have learned about the other and more or less reconciled their differences. However, they still keep secrets from one another, despite how difficult that is when one shares the same body.
Powers: Dark blasts, Flame blasts, Street fighting. When one personality is dominant, Charred Skull will only use the appropiate attacks. But generally the gangster fights as a one man team in order to make use of both fire and dark attacks. His distinctive face mask, half skull and half demon, leers at his opponents as he uses his showboat style of fighting.

OOC: And as that cook from Futurama would say: BAM!

"I'm starting to think I shouldn't have gotten out of bed today," Jay said to himself as he followed Allen out of the bar.

His gaze shifted over to the multitude of forms and creatures walking through the streets and his systems automatically started drawing threat diagrams. Jay irritably switched this function off when almost every visible thing was labeled orange for 'Potential Hostile'.

"Gonna be a long day."

Jay had listened intently throughout the whole explanation and was feeling a little out of his depth. He had signed on to blow up some demons, look good, and then get the Paragon Metahuman Agency to approve his liscense. He hadn't come to Japan to get caught up in some pan-dimensional power struggle that may or may not result in the earth's destruction. Well, at least he had made notes, the way Chihaya rambled from point to point had made it a little difficult to keep up.

"So now we're looking for this ultra-powerful demon, right?" Jay asked. "And our only hope of finding him is that were-wolf there?"

OOC: And you just told all this to Jay? O_o

OOC: A quick summary of the stuff that I wasn't around for, like the part about the evil big bad demon, and the rest can do a fade out thingie.

"Any of you mind explaining what the hell that you're talking about?" Jay said, exasperated.

As he watched Allen enter the door in the alleyway and most of the others follow him, Jay sighed to himself. Apparently this world wasn't always going to size itself for his convenience. However, this was an excellent time to test out one of his experimental subsystems.

Flicking up a button cap with a picture of a helmet on it and pressing the button under it, Laserblade started to shake and groan. A bright light oozed from its joints and soon the mecha was subsumed by a nova of light that started shrinking. After a few seconds the light faded away and revealed an armor suited figure painted in Laserblade's colors. A pair of thin boxes were folded out of the way on his back while his left hand ended in an open muzzle for his laser cannon. The hilt of his energy sword rested on one, slightly blocky hip and his right hand was currently held up in front of his wrap-around visor.

"Cool, it worked," Jay said and then looked up at Toshio. "And I just remembered why I hate getting out of Laserblade, I'm so damn short."

And he was, Jay was about five foot nothing and resented every inch of it. Every other genius was tall, but was he? No, he was shorter than just about every other person he ever saw.

"So what happened to you?" Jay asked Toshio as he started walking toward the alleyway door which was still open.

"Wait," Jay said after he dialed the volume down a bit. "What are you guys talking about? I'm not getting anything on my sensors..."

Jay trailed off as he saw a little red light blinking intently off on a corner of his control panel.

"Well this just opened up a load of possibilities," Jay said to himself as he reached over and flicked the switch underneath the light. Now, a fundemental flaw with Laserblade's construction was that Jay had built it in such a way that it ignored impossibilities. Of course, he had made sure exceptions existed for known magical groups like the Circle of Thorns and their brand of magic but other things like cars with mouths in a street full of otherworldly stuff caused the sensors to throw fits and not show them up on screen.

The switch that Jay just flipped removed several safeguards on the existing system. Now he should be able to see what was really out there but a side effect would be seeing some things that weren't there. The tricky part was figuring out which was which. Which is why Jay was both extremely surprised and surprisingly calm to suddenly find himself looking at a Toshio with bat wings with a background of improbable things and creatures.

"Is that a giant snake made of legos?" Jay asked as he pointed Laserblade's finger at the offending thing. "And sorry if I did something wrong, but I wasn't able to see any of...whatever the hell this all is until a second ago."

OOC: No way am I doing something with only myself for company. Enter the strangely sized London transit system.

BIC: "Now this is why I sometimes didn't want to join the superhero business," remarked Jay to himself as he looked at the subway car he was in.

Everything looked normal, if a little empty, for your standard London subway, except there was one problem. He was still in Laserblade.

After getting seperated from Toshio during the second demon attack and learning that the man went off with a bunch of other people to a subway, Jay decided to follow along, especially since Akihabara looked like it was doomed. The rest of the pilots had already begun evactuation procedures of the civilians and there was nothing for him to do. And if there was one thing Jay hated being it was being the fifth wheel.

Thus, he went to the same subway track that the group had been seen entering and followed them in. The train that might have been there was already gone, but Jay easily tracked it with his sensors. Then, about ten minutes in, he had found a train sitting on the tracks. But of course this one was lareg enough for Laserblade to climb in the back and ride along as it went where ever. Which was what he did.

"But damn this is going to be worth it," Jay said as Laserblade exited the train and walked up a flight of stairs that were also mecha sized to find himself on a normal-ish London street facing a group of people further down the street.

Kicking up the magnification on his screen, Jay identified a number of people from the SDF, some sort of demon thing, and a were-wolf.

"Gotta love this job," Jay said as he checked his read-outs.

Laserblade had taken only minor damage during the fight, something his relatively unadvanced nanobots could easily fix. He also hadn't used many missiles during the earlier fight, so his ammo situation was good.

"Might as well figure out who they are," Jay said and then turned on the mega-phone. "<Identify yourselves!>"

OOC: Yes I know that isn't all right, but it's the closest way I'm going to get some action.

The waves washed against the hull of the surfaced submarine and explosions rumbled in the background as Toy Dispenser climbed up the ladder and jumped out onto the top of the sub. Off in the distance, Toy saw the modified Longbow cargo ship, which appeared to be dead in the water. Flying above the cargo ship was an Arachnos Flyer dropship, desperately chasing around a half dozen Longbow Chasers. The Flyer seemed unable to make a single kill, as the Chasers would dart in, sting the larger ship, and then dart away as the Flyer impotently fired its large chain guns. Ignoring the antics of the flying craft for a moment, Toy activated a zoom function and looked at the deck of the cargo ship.

Several pylons stood on deck, with small AA turrets firing upon the Flyer from below. The small caliber rounds seemed unable to penetrate the thick armor of the Flyer but they tried anyway. To gain entrance, it looked as though Toy would have to take down those four turrets. Seemed easy enough, although it’d be nice to lend that Flyer a hand, seeing as how it was sucking horribly.

How can I do this? Toy thought to himself as he studied the way the Chasers were flying. And then it hit him. The Longbow craft were using some sort of pre-made engagement plan, probably pulled off by the Chasers’ AI while the pilots focused on firing their weapons.

“Lazy bastards,” Toy muttered. “And in about twenty seconds, they’ll be right about…there.”

Flipping up his wrist panel, Toy tapped a long sequence of commands into the keypad and then flipped it shut. Counting down the seconds, Toy looked up into the sky and waited. At second fifteen, he could see a quartet of bright dots in the sky. At second seventeen, he could make out the individual forms of his bots. At second twenty, two Chasers suddenly exploded as a pair of RED-C, Rapid Entry and Deployment Capsules, smashed through them and fell into the waves. The third capsule clipped the Chaser it was aimed at and sent that aircraft tumbling into the water, which was as good as destroying it. Combat Toy descended a bit slower, its flight controlled by a pair of large jets in its feet. The Chaser it targeted was flipped around as Combat Toy smashed an arm into its front nose. Combat then fired a full load of missiles into its underbelly, prompting the Chaser to explode in flames.

Then, down on the deck of the ship, a pair of flashes heralded the arrival of Large Toy and Block Bot. Each protector bot clutched a grenade in its hand and appeared right next to an AA gun. Quickly tossing the grenade down each turrets’ gun barrel, the bots dived for cover as the turrets exploded in balls of flame.

“Time to move!” Toy Dispenser cried out. “Get your [censored] out of the water and onto the deck, we’ve got a ship to sink and a super villain to take down.”

Activating his anti-grav jets, Toy skimmed along the water as he hurried to get on deck himself.

“Eliminating the remaining turrets,” Combat Toy said over his command link. “Almost there. Turrets down! The way is open!”

“I’m up!” shouted Mini Bot. “Longbow [censored] climbed out of his scrap heap and tried to knife me, though.”

“Objective complete,” said Toy Bot. “Awaiting further orders.”

Coming up on the side of the cargo ship, Toy suddenly pulled himself up and over onto the deck. What he saw pleased him. All the turrets were destroyed, the Flyer was hunting down the last three Chasers with ease, and all of his bots were undamaged and waiting by a blown open door leading inside the ship.

“Nice of you to join us, boss,” Combat Toy said sarcastically. “And here I was thinking I’d get to have some fun today.”

“Sorry, Combat,” Toy said as he put his rifle together. “We’re fresh out of fun. But we do seem to have a large stock of cans.”

“Wha-?” stated Mini Bot, confused.

“Cans of whoop [censored], my dear Mini,” Toy said. “Let’s go open a few.”

“Oh yeah!” shouted Combat Toy as it spun around and charged through the open door.

The rest of the robots followed it through shortly thereafter.

OOC: Does anyone know what power sets Barracuda uses? Please tell me in a PM if you do. Next chapter can't go up till then.

OOC: I just realized I utterly forgot about this thread. Could I get a quick recap? And maybe an idea of how to get my mecha pilot to where you guys are?

“This is Scirocco. Talk.”

“Hey Scirocco,” Toy said into his comm. device. “You really should get some caller ID.”

“Ah, Toy Dispenser, good to hear from you. How did your encounter with Black Scorpion’s lackey go?”

“Well enough. A couple hundred bucks worth of repair need to be done but really nothing big. She accepted the message and ran home, just as we thought. In fact, she should have talked to Scorpion already since I waited a bit to call you.”

“Very good. I shall go and speak to Black Scorpion now. I’ll call you once I am done.”

“Good luck and you know my number. Toy Dispenser, out.”

There was a click as Scirocco hung up his phone and Toy closed the link. Then he looked down to see how the repairs were progressing and gave Mini Bot a quick smack on the head.

“Are your eyes malfunctioning or something? You’re painting the new armor yellow. My leg is green.”

Mini Bot looked down at the paintbrush it held in its hand and then at Toy’s leg.

“Yep, I think that Tarantula hit me a little too hard on my head,” the drone responded as it ran a quick diagnostic. “Nothing serious though. Although now that I see it, that yellow looks really good there, boss. Makes you look edgier.”

“No it doesn’t,” Toy groaned. “And I’m not supposed to look ‘edgy’ anyway. You and I both know I’m supposed to look bright and cheerful, the better to throw people off when they see me.”

“Fine, I’ll fix it, sheesh,” complained Mini Bot as it grabbed a new can of paint and quickly slapped on a fresh coat of green. “There? Happy now?”

“Yes, yes I a-“ Toy froze suddenly as his head rang.

“Call for ya,” Mini said ingratiatingly.

“I noticed,” Toy growled back. He really did need to fix that ringing thing. But until then, Toy reached up one hand and pressed it against one of his sat comm. links to answer.

“Toy Dispenser here. What’s up, sir?”

“Black Scorpion refused,” Scirocco said, disgust clear in his voice. “I said he’d prefer to sit on the sidelines and wait to see how this went. Apparently he would prefer to see me fall and then try to take power for himself.”

“Well, that certainly sounds like him,” Toy responded. “Probably rooting for Serafina too. So what next?”

“We still need allies and as much as I would prefer not to, we must try to enlist Captain Mako’s aid,” Scirocco said after a moment of thinking. “Of all of the patrons, he would respond best to seeing his lieutenant beaten and returning with a message. Mainly because Mako is nothing but an animal and animals respect little more than strength.”

“Well, if Barracuda was as easy as Mantis, then I won’t have any problems. Do you know where she is?”

“Yes. As of thirty minutes ago, Barracuda left with a detachment of Crab Spiders to attack and sink a Longbow ship that has mistakenly entered Rogue Isles territorial waters. While I agree that the ship would be better of sunk, this is the best chance we have to isolate Barracuda and defeat her.”

“Thirty minutes is a long time. You sure the battle isn’t over yet?”

“I had one of my mystics perform a scrying. The Flyer that dropped Barracuda and her assault force off is still around and there appears to still be fighting on the deck of the ship. I have ordered the captain of one of our submarines to take you to the ship. If you can get to the sub’s position just off of Grandville quickly, the captain can get you there within ten minutes.”

“Sounds good. I’ll be there in five.”

“Good. But be wary around Barracuda, she has a long memory for insults. Good luck.”

With a click, Scirocco hung up and Toy took his hand down from his ‘ear’. Jumping to his feet, the mastermind grabbed his laser rifle from a nearby charging rack and started walking toward his base’s teleporter.

“Here’s the deal, boys,” Toy said to his bots as he walked. “I want all of you up in the satellite ASAP. I doubt there’d be enough room in a submarine for all of you, anyway.”

“Why are you going in a sub?” asked Combat Toy as a pair of robotic arms reattached its arm.

“Off-shore target,” Toy replied. “I’m going to call you guys in for an orbital strike. I figure it’s the best way to neutralize whatever defenses Longbow would have left by the time I show up.”

“Aye, boss,” said Toy Bot as it straightened up and clicked its heels together. “Returning to base now.”

With a flash and a pop, the powerful teleporters in Toy’s manufactory satellite snatched up the little drone and deposited it up in orbit. The other bots soon followed and Toy was left by himself, all the rest of his villain group being off elsewhere, before he stepped backwards into the teleporter and reappeared at the teleport end point in Spider Tower. A couple of anxiously waiting civilians cast him a glance as he appeared but since villains popping into existence in that corner of the room was pretty common, they didn’t really take much notice of him. Nodding at Arbiter Daos as he left the building while disassembling his rifle and slipping it into various slots and pop-up holsters, Toy switched on his anti-gravity jets and soared into the air.

OOC: The correct term is 'drama-wh0re'. And I come up with this stuff cause I want to be a writer some day. Flexing the imagination is fun, too.

OOC: Did you know that...?

Toy Dispenser was originally supposed to be the Toy Box, because I loved the idea of controlling robots and I liked making guys that either don't look like villains and are so cliched they hurt. But since the Toy Box was already taken back in the Beta Test, I dispaired for about ten minutes until I came up with Toy Dispenser. That was how Toy was born to this world.

BIC: Hero Corps Field Report: Subject Toy Dispenser's past

Funded by the United Nations and developed by Shynn-Carlyle Industries, the Mastermind class android was created to serve as a hub for automated defense systems. Utilizing its advanced neural network, the Mastermind androids would control these defenses and operate them more efficiently than the simple AI that was built into existing turrets or even a human operator could. The first Mastermind, dubbed Droid Control Prototype 1, was first deployed in Paragon City under the jurisdiction of the PCPD. Although the research team is still confused as too why the prototype was deployed so quickly, or even why it was sent to Paragon City, the results were clear, the Masterminds were not ready for line production. Prototype 1 was destroyed in a routine bust of a Freakshow hide-out.

This did not daunt the members of the Mastermind development team as they made various changes and improvements until the Droid Control Prototype 2 was ready for testing. This new android featured a much stronger outer shell, improved using UN approved Rikti metallurgy techniques. Its circuits and extremely expensive neural matrix were heavily insulated and backed-up, insuring that only complete dismemberment and destruction would put the new prototype down. A pair of force field generators were also added to provide extra defense to itself and its allies. And the coup de grace was giving the android complete control of an orbiting factory satellite which would eventually supply the needs of every Mastermind android provided Prototype 2 lived up to its expectations.

The Mastermind class Droid Control Prototype 2 was cleared for combat testing by the UN security council and several members of the Freedom Phalanx. Learning from their past mistakes, the DCP2 was deployed to the Ziggursky Maximum Security Prison. The development team felt that dealing with those it would eventually combat in a controlled environment would give the android a useful edge when it came to actual fighting. The transfer to the Ziggurat was effected on August 15, 2005.

The prototype served well, sending back constant reports that Shynn-Carlyle researchers used to begin construction of a line production model, until October, 2005. During that month, a massive break-out was orchestrated by an organization known as Arachnos that was based in the Rogue Isles, an island chain in the Atlantic Ocean. During this break-out, the prototype was laid low by an Arachnos sleeper agent and was somehow turned against its former masters. Various reports have already been filed by other personnel, so the details will not be bickered over in this report.

For the next month, Shynn-Carlyle Industries stock plummeted and many employees were laid off. However, the company showed signs of coming out of its slump caused by the disasterous PR of the rogue android when a huge explosion utterly destroyed the company's London based HQ. Officials blamed the company for storing volatile chemicals without proper safeguards as the cause of the explosion. The pending lawsuits, both civil and federal, brought the company to its knees and what was left of Shynn-Carlyle was bought out by Crey Industries. Whatever the officla reason, this research team believes that the Shynn-Carlyle HQ was destroyed by Toy Dispenser. Rumours had been circulating that the company was planning on releasing a new version of the Mastermind class and apparently the only existing Mastermind android took offense at this and decided to keep itself unique. The fact that it has taken several months to figure out that it was Toy Dispenser that had done this is troublesome. If it could accomplish such a task at the relatively low threat level it was projected to be at the time, what damage could it do with even more advanced technology at its fingertips?

Khellendrosiic's Files: What really happened.

Prototype 2 was assigned control of the anti-aircraft defense systems during its stay at the Zig. Thus, the first action for any Arachnos attack would be to dispose of the android. But rather than see it destroyed, Lord Recluse got it in his head to have this potentially valuable piece of electronics on his side of the fence. So the sleeper agent among the guards at the Zig was slipped a small flash drive containing a virus that would rewrite the android's allegiance protocals.

But things didn't work out that way. The guard managed to deliver the virus by sticking it into the back of Prototype 2's head while the Self Defense Battle Drone shot the guard because it percieved an attack on its boss. As the false guard died and Prototype 2's systems went into turmoil, it cut all links to the outside world, throwing the AA defenses into chaos and its lone guard drone into shutting down.

Luckily for Prototype 2, the virus was unable to locate the code that it was supposed to rewrite, forcing it to fall back on secondary commands. Unluckily for Prototype 2, those commands were to completely erase the entirety of Prototype 2's systems.

But because of Prototype 2's unique brain set-up (that of multiple CPUs working independantly in parallel on top of one another) the virus got confused and tried to erase each CPU at once. It got about half way through before the various anti-virus programs managed to adapt and delete it. But then came the trickey process of rebuilding what was lost. The remaining half of Prototype 2's brain managed to recode most of the basic functions from surviving bits but then a new dilema was reached: Who did it belong to?

Activating its sensors and looking around, Prototype 2 found the dead body of a guard lying at its feet, killed by laser weaponry, and prisoners running amok. Considering that the prisoners were also fighting the guards and that none of them were giving it orders, Prototype 2 decided that it was allied with the prisoners, but didn't have to listen to them.

The name Toy Dispenser was gained after its first battle drone was demolished and it needed to call in another one. As the drone hit the ground and deployed from its capsule, one of the inmates laughing told one of his buddies, "Man, that robot's like a walking toy dispenser!"

While his buddy described what he could use as a toy right now, Prototype 2 decided that what it had been called was as good a new classification as any. Prototype 2 didn't seem to fit anymore. Thus, was Toy Dispenser born.

And now you know.

“Nice digs,” Combat Toy remarked as the group of robots entered the office building that Nemesis was using as a front.

“Could use a better interior decorator,” Block Bot added. “I don’t think this whole dismantled robot theme works for me.”

The front entrance was torn up pretty badly, furniture thrown about and wall paper torn down. Several shredded Nemesis automatons lay scattered about, their office worker disguised exteriors looking out of place when combined with all the steam tech that dangled from their innards. Most of them looked as though they had been sliced to pieces while a few definitely suffered from extreme machine gun to the face syndrome, implying that Silver Mantis either didn’t feel like, or was too distracted, to kill all of the automatons.

“Anything salvageable?” Toy asked Large Toy as the group started moving again.

“Nothing worth stopping for,” replied the robot as it scanned the demolished Nemesis machines.

Unlike other masterminds, Toy Dispenser didn’t create his own technology and tried to buy as little as possible. Instead he scavenged whatever he could from different groups and then incorporated that technology into what he already had. Over the time since escaping the Zig, Toy had gathered quite a collection of Rikti, Nemesis, Council, Freedom Corps, and Arachnos tech, among others. A primary goal of any mission was to take what he could. In fact, the only reason he hadn’t been stripping the earlier Arachnos bases clean was because he was working for a patron and it would have been more than a little embarrassing to be caught lugging a load of Arachnos war maces back home by the follow-up forces.

“I hear something up ahead!” called out Mini Bot as it cupped one hand to the side of its head.

“Sounds like Arachnos blaster fire,” Combat Toy added.

“And a certain feminine voice cursing her heart out,” Toy said as he nodded and drew his rifle.

Passing through one last door, Toy and company found a small group of Wolf Spiders and Tarantulas watching Silver Mantis brutally massacre a pair of out-matched Nemesis automatons. Hidden gatling guns and pop-up storm cannons were no defense against super hard metal armor and extremely quick reflexes. As Toy watched, Mantis ducked under one clumsy arm and threw a metal spike at another automaton that was trying to line up a shot. The spike slammed into its head and pinned the robot up against the wall. Mantis then smoothly extended a pair of steel blades from his wrists and then cut off the arm she had ducked under.

While the machine tried to step back and gain enough distance to open fire with its storm cannon arm, Mantis jumped over it and landed on the shoulders of the last automaton. She slid down its back a little until she had wrapped both arms and legs around its torso. Then spikes shot out all over her body and impaled the machine a dozen different ways. Then the spikes facing the final moving machine shot from Mantis’s body and shredded it. Mantis jumped off the automaton she was holding in a death embrace and the two machines hit the ground at the same time.

“Now that,” Silver Mantis said, rolling her shoulders. “That was fun.”

Then there was a loud crack and the automaton that had been pinned to the wall went limp once more, its power source destroyed.

“Just cause it looks like you won doesn’t mean you should let down your guard,” Toy said as he lowered his rifle. “I’m not sure how tough you are, exactly, but I think that gatling gun would have dented even your pretty metal hide if you weren’t expecting it.”

Silver Mantis glared up at Toy as he and his robots filed through the door, fanning out on either side of their boss. The Arachnos soldiers also spread out and moved to flank Mantis. Two Fire Tarantulas backed up by a quartet of Wolf Spider Huntsmen. Not a bodyguard to scoff at.

“And just who the hell are you?” Mantis finally said, looking Toy up and down.

“My name’s Toy Dispenser. I think we’ve met before,” Toy said and, seeing the look of confusion on her face, elaborated. “Circle of Thorns temple on Sharkhead Island?”

“Oh yeah,” she nodded. “I remember you now. You’ve got some more friends since last time.”

“The name is Combat Toy,” Combat Toy growled. “You got a problem with that?”

Silver Mantis’s eyes narrowed dangerously and Toy held up an open hand for peace.

“Calm down, Mantis. I’m not here to fight. I just have a message to deliver from Scirocco.”

“Scirocco? What the hell are you doing working for Scirocco?”

“We’ve worked out a business arrangement. Now, are you going to let me deliver my message or what?”

“Like I’d want to listen to whatever that pansy [censored] wants to say,” Mantis said, a pair of spikes slowly growing from her wrists. “Tell you what, though. You beat me and then maybe I’ll listen.”

As soon as she said that she spun around in a quick circle and hurled a pair of spikes at Toy Dispenser. But being a robot has its advantages, one of which is a super fast reflex; so Toy easily dodged the flying spikes easily and then gave leave for his bots to attack.

“Small fries first, folks,” Toy ordered as he raised a force field in front of a charging Fire Tarantula, knocking the soldier sprawling.

Silver Mantis charged forward but was stopped as Combat Toy loomed up in front of her and its arm came flying through the air to hit her. Mantis dodged to one side to avoid the blow, which gave Combat Toy enough time to swivel both arms up and blast a Huntsman in the face with both plasma cannons. The Wolf Spider fell to the ground and then flashed as his medicom activated, teleporting him to an Arachnos hospital.

“Small Toy! Drop!” Toy shouted and the named battle drone threw itself prone, allowing a mace beam to pass right over it.

“Toy Bot! Up and over!” he ordered again and Small Toy got up on its knees while Toy Bot jumped on top of it. The drone on the bottom pushed up while Toy Bot jumped, throwing it up into the air and landing directly on the Huntsman that had attacked them. Once in close combat, the durable little battle drone quickly disabled the Wolf Spider and then turned to the next one as the wounded Huntsman disappeared.

“Stop ignoring me!” Mantis shouted angrily as she jumped up into the air and slammed a spike into and through a hovering Toy Dispenser’s lower leg. Toy cursed and fired a laser blast point blank at Mantis’s face, knocking her off but leaving the spike lodged in his leg.

“If you insist!” Combat Toy shouted as it hunched down and launched a ripple barrage of missiles at the super villain.

Mantis took some hits, dodged a few more, and the rest missed but while she drew herself back to throw a spike at Combat Toy, a quick burst of laser fire slammed into her from behind. She spun around to see Mini Bot waving cheerfully and pointing behind her. The furious villain slashed out behind her as she spun around and cursed loudly as she saw she hadn’t hit anything. Then Combat Toy landed on top of her with a loud thump.

“Get the hell offa me!” Mantis shrieked as she struggled to free herself from under Combat Toy’s feet.

“You might be super tough,” Toy said as he floated down to land next to her head. “But you aren’t incredibly strong. And Combat Toy weighs a hell of a lot. Now, are you going to listen or am I going to have to order Combat to tap dance?”

Silver Mantis spat at the mastermind and then stopped moving. “Talk.”

Toy wiped some of the spittle off his faceplate and wiped his hand off on the floor while he explained the problem to Mantis.

“Here’s the deal. There’s this nasty genie called Serafina running around and…”

Toy Dispenser watched as a pair of normal Bane Spider Commandos dragged the former base commander, another Executioner, away. All around him were regular Arachnos operatives cleaning up the base that Toy and his group had so recently reclaimed. Watching for a moment as a Tarantula fumbled with a broken computer, trying to slot the mostly undamaged thing back in its socket, Toy eventually decided that it was time to go. Of course, the sidelong glances that the low ranking Wolf Spiders kept shooting at him were making the mastermind nervous and he was anxious to leave and report to Scirocco. But before Toy could get too far down the hallway, he was stopped by the bulk of Operative Hughart looming up before him.

“Hey, Toy Dispenser, do you mind if I ask a favor?” asked Hughart nervously.

Crossing his arms, Toy twitched his head to the side.

“Shoot.”

“Well, I was thinking since I, you know, helped you out,” Hughart stumbled along until he took a deep breath and said everything in one go. “Since I helped you out I was really hoping that you could put in a good word in with Scirocco for me because I’ve heard you’re working with Scirocco and after a mess like this it’d be really good to know somebody that could put in a good word for a guy.”

Hughart wheezed for a moment as he finished his run-on sentence and then straightened out. It must have been nerve wracking to ask a guy whom he had just met for something like this, especially a guy who had just recently been beating up on his former buddies.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Toy said a couple of moments after Hughart had collected himself. “I can’t promise anything but the work you’ve done here today will speak well in your favor.”

I sure am getting used to a position of power quickly, aren’t I? Toy thought to himself as he patted the Webmaster on the shoulder and then walked past him. He still had a report to turn in.

******************************************

“…so that’s how it went down,” Toy finished, sitting across from Scirocco. “Magical stuff gone, everyone except Hughart mind controlled, and not a damn clue except for a name. Serafina, whoever that is.”

Earlier during their talk, Scirocco had grown silent after Toy Dispenser had mentioned Serafina’s name and now he was doubly so. From the looks of things, this Serafina could be some sort of arch-nemesis of Scirocco’s or maybe a jilted lover or something.

“I haven’t been entirely truthful with you,” Scirocco said suddenly as he glanced up at Toy from staring at his steepled fingers. “I suspected Serafina was involved in this the moment you came back with your first report but I had hoped it wasn’t true. Now that it is confirmed, well, this changes many things.”

“She a bad one?” Toy asked, leaning forward a bit. He liked a challenge. “All I’ve seen so far is her ability at manipulating minds, which won’t work against me very well. But if she’s like most psychics then she’s mainly a one trick pony.”

“Serafina is not an ordinary psychic, Toy Dispenser,” Scirocco said with a bit of steel in his voice. “She is an very powerful, very old genie. Not the kind that grants you three wishes but more of a genie that is bound to safeguard a particular object. In her case, she was charged with the task of transferring on an item of great power, one of the legendary mantles of the four winds.”

“Wait a second,” Toy said, suspicion in his voice. “Don’t you have a-?”

“Yes,” Scirocco interrupted. “I own the very mantle that Serafina is bound too and that is the reason she is coming after me. You see, I didn’t come by the mantle by any ordinary means. I took it from her when she was weak. At the end of the Rikti War, when the earlier Scirocco had been killed and Serafina herself gravely wounded. I took it from her when she was weak and now that some of her powers have apparently returned, she seeks to return it to an owner that she herself has picked.”

“Most likely some Paragon City hero,” Toy guessed and Scirocco nodded.

“Exactly. But I fear that she is too powerful for you and I to handle on our own, which is why I have been trying to lay some groundwork for your next mission while you were busy with Arbiter Daos,” Scirocco paused for a moment and then pushed himself away from the table and stood up. He started pacing a little bit as he continued talking.

“To ensure that Serafina does not succeed, we are going to need allies. Unfortunately due to the infighting among our ranks none of the other patrons are likely to heed whatever warning I might give them, let alone a plea for assistance.”

“Which is where I come in,” Toy said.

“Which is where you come in,” Scirocco agreed and the passed Toy a piece of paper with an address and a time written on it. “I want you to first meet with Silver Mantis, Black Scorpion’s protégé. At that time at that building she will be busting a covert Nemesis operation. The cell had been discovered some time before and Mantis displayed a powerful urge to get at them herself. I expect that most, if not all, of the automatons will be destroyed by the time you get there and all you will need to worry about is Silver Mantis and her bodyguard.”

“So what do I do when I get to her? Talk with her?”

“You will probably need to fight her. Creatures such as Black Scorpion and Captain Mako respect only strength and beating their lieutenants on an even playing field will at least make them listen to my entreaties. But if you can, avoid fighting her and just give her a message asking Scorpion for aid. If we are lucky, she’ll listen.”

“But not likely.”

“Correct.”

“Oh joy. It’s always been my dream to beat up a crazy metalhead.”

“Then I am sure you’ll enjoy yourself.”

“So says the guy who just has to order me off,” countered Toy as he stood up.

“True, but I am stuck with the paperwork,” Scirocco responded as he reached out to shake Toy’s hand. “Good luck with her, she isn’t a pushover.”

“The Wind Man speaks truth!” Toy said sarcastically as he walked over to the door. “Good luck with that paperwork, by the way. I hear that stationary print really bites.”

Scirocco had already sat back down and waved a good bye at the android, who quickly stepped outside and closed the door. Checking the paper again, Toy made sure that the date was set for tomorrow and then set off for the secret hidey hole in a small house in the Gutter that held a teleporter leading to his super group’s base. Tomorrow would be a busy day and he needed to get a start on repairs.

“I’m getting’ a feeling of déjà vu, boss,” remarked Mini Bot as it stepped over the unconscious, bound form of a Crab Spider Slicer.

“Yeah,” said Toy Dispenser. “The whole love thing they’ve got going is just as creepy as last time.”

“Well, that too. But I mean that all these Arachnos bases look exactly the same and-“

“Mini Bot, shut it and start shooting at those charging Bane Spiders there.”

What followed was a short, quick engagement that ended with Block Bot lying on the ground with a crushed head and three Bane Spiders scattered about the floor. Toy shook his head at the waste and tapped a few commands on his wrist pad. With a flash, another protector bot teleported in from Toy’s orbital manufactory satellite. The new robot looked down at the dead Block Bot and shook its head.

“Which one of those bastards got me?” the new Block Bot asked.

Combat Toy wordlessly pointed at a blackened smear on the ground. That Bane Spider had been hit with an entire barrage of inferno missiles, a photon grenade, and several laser bursts, leaving just that black smear on the ground.

“Nice to see I’m still appreciated,” Block Bot mentioned while it started dropping more force fields on the others.

“Hey boss!” shouted Small Toy. “I’ve got something interesting up here!”

Glad to get away from the scene of carnage, Toy hurried on his way over to where Small Toy had been scouting ahead. Combat Toy and the other clumped along behind and they all stared out into a small room occupied by a menacing Webmaster, an equally menacing Executioner, and a lowly Fortunata. What was odd though, is that the Webmaster seemed to be arguing with the high-ranking Bane Spider.

“Are you sure that you love her?” asked the Executioner as he tapped his mace in one hand.

“Of course I do!” shouted the Webmaster, his extra spiders legs twitching. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“We don’t think you do,” answered the Fortunata.

“We don’t think you love our Serafina,” added the Executioner.

From Toy’s point of view, the Webmaster didn’t look like he was mind controlled; otherwise he’d be babbling on about ‘love’ like those other two were. Which meant that the soldier was in deep trouble, as the Executioner could easily kill him, even without the help of the psychic. So Toy could save the Webmaster, hoping that the soldier wouldn’t try to fight him because of some stupid orders, or he could just wait until a fight started and then sneak past.

Like hell I’ll leave that guy behind, Toy thought to himself. Out loud, he said, “Aim well, boys, we’re going to the rescue.”

It was probably the clanking noise from Combat Toy that alerted the Executioner, but reasons didn’t matter much as he quickly clouted the Webmaster on the head with his mace and spun toward the group of robots.

“Serafina warned us about you, Toy Dispenser!” he shouted as the Webmaster slumped to the ground.

“She told us to stop you!” added the Fortunata.

“Enough talk! Die now!” roared Combat Toy as he fired a barrage of smart missiles at the mind controlled Arachnos soldiers.

The smart missiles registered the Webmaster as an ally and made every effort to avoid catching him in their explosion; which resulted in the Fortunata being thrown across the room, the Executioner being knocked off his feet, and the Webmaster being untouched despite his proximity. The battle drones focused on the weaker Fortunata, trying to take her out of the fight quickly, while the protector bots started spawning seeker drones that lunged at the prone Bane Spider, disorienting him further.

But Bane Spider Executioners were not considered the best of the best for nothing, and this one was no exception. He sprang to his feet and knocked a seeker drone out of the air with one swing of his mace. On the back swing, he launched a ball of red energy that slammed into Combat Toy’s chest and exploded. The expanding energies knocked Mini Bot and Toy Dispenser flying through the air while the rest were protected by their shields.

As Toy picked himself up, he saw a green energy beam lance into Combat Toy and watched as the gaping wound knitted itself together under the influence of the nanites transferred by that beam. Leveling his laser rifle, Toy fired his own shot at the Executioner and then ducked as the beleaguered soldier took a swing at him. Toy responded by booting the man in the stomach as another barrage of missiles finished him off. The Bane Spider fell, his armor smoking, and Toy quickly pulled out a thin strip of metal from his belt that snaked around the Executioner’s wrists and pulled tight.

“He’s still alive, boss,” Large Toy in reference to the Webmaster, who seemed to be waking up.

“Ugh,” muttered the Arachnos soldier as he sat up suddenly. “What the hell are you?”

“I’m Toy Dispenser,” Toy said, stepping into his line of sight. “And that’s Large Toy. Who’re you and why shouldn’t I shoot you now?”

The Webmaster shook his head as though to clear out some cobwebs and made to stand up until he noticed Combat Toy at his side. Under the assault bot’s baleful glare, the Webmaster sat back down and told his tale.

“Toy Dispenser, huh? I’ve been briefed on you. But I’m operative Hughart, I worked at this base until a little while ago. I just showed up a little while ago from my vacation and everyone was acting nuts. I figured it was some sort of psy-op so I just suited up and tried to act normally. Hmph, you can see how well that worked.

So while I could, I tried to find out what this Serafina chick did to the base. It turns out that she just teleported in out of the blue and started taking over minds left and right. I also learned that the base commander himself, old tight wad MacGuin himself, opened up the vault for her to look through. I checked it out and the whole thing was empty, all the stuff from Scirocco was gone. I would’ve tried to find out some more, but this guy got a hold of me. Suspicious [censored] and I don’t recognize him too.”

Toy took a moment to mull this over but eventually came to a decision. He stood up and patted Combat Toy on the arm. The massive assault bot looked down at his boss for a moment and then stepped back from Hughart with a palpable air of disappointment.

“Get up, Operative,” Toy said. “You can help us take care of the rest of your unfortunate comrades. Just try to avoid shooting to kill and we’ll get along fine.”

As the other pilots congratulated the firer of the last shot, Laserblade seperated from the rest and approached the downed former Tsoo. All sorts of sensors scanned the man's form but could find nothing wrong. After seeing all the negative reports, Jay keyed up the loud speaker.

"<Hey, Toshio. It's me, Laserblade. Are you alright?"

OOC: Shadow demon? At Akihabara? It dead yet?

“So that’s all I found. An empty vault, mind controlled soldiers, and footage of some genie,” said Toy as he wrapped up his report. “I kept casualties down as much as I could and fulfilled all objectives that I could. I assume the credits have been forwarded to my account?”

After an initial bout of questions, Scirocco had fallen into a contemplative silence with his fingers held steepled in front of him. The mystic nodded absently as he continued to think and after a while Toy Dispenser began impatiently tapping his fingers against his armrest. Finally, Scirocco stirred and sat up, looking at Toy with a serious expression on his face.

“You did an admirable job considering what you were up against,” Scirocco said. “While the loss of the artifacts is annoying, they were ultimately not important. But I believe I know the source of the problem.”

“You think you might know who that genie is?” Toy asked, leaning forward a bit. He was very curious about this extremely strong magic user.

“I certainly have my suspicions but they can wait. What I want you to do now is speak with Arbiter Daos. I want you to ask him about any other bases that may have been attacked. But be warned, Daos is the most powerful of the Arbiters and is not one to trifle with.”

“Alright, I’ll watch my step,” Toy said as he stood up. “If Daos has anything important to tell me, I’ll make sure to get it to you ASAP.”

“Very good,” Scirocco said. “And if Daos asks you to perform a service for him in return for this information, do it. You will be paid as though you were working for me.”

“Which, in a way, I will be,” Toy added.

“Indeed you will,” Scirocco said and then waved Toy away. “Now go, there are some matters I need to check up on.”

“Good luck with that,” Toy said with a nod as he turned and left the room.

“Anything interesting, boss?” came a high-pitched voice from his right.

Turning and looking down, Toy Dispenser put both hands on his hips and tried to express his displeasure at Mini Bot, who had been adamant in refusing to go back to base. Like all the other times, this failed, Mini Bot being about as thick to such things as Black Scorpion’s skull.

“I’ve got to talk with a guy who could order me erased from existence,” Toy finally sighed as he headed down toward the elevator.

“Well, boss, think of it this way,” said Mini Bot as it trotted alongside. “If you were going to get erased, you wouldn’t be here right now.”

“Mini Bot, no paradoxes today, ok?”

“Oh fine,” huffed the drone as they got into the elevator.

The two walked in silence for the minute and forty three seconds it took to reach Arbiter Daos at his post in front of the Lord Recluse patron statue. The bald, gray armored man was conversing quietly and at length with another villain in bright red armor and Toy decided it would be a better idea to wait. After another minute, the other villain walked off with an expression of rage on his wolf-like face and Arbiter Daos was left shaking his head.

“What do you want?” Daos suddenly asked, looking in Toy’s direction.

The man’s sudden refocusing of attention and the very force of his personality momentarily threw the android off for a second. It was possible that Arbiter Daos noticed it but if so he had an excellent poker face.

“I’m here to speak to you about a problem that needs correcting,” Toy eventually got out, moving forward to face the Arbiter directly.

“There are many such problems that I know of.”

“This one involves bases suddenly cutting off all contact due to the interference and mind control of an unknown agent.”

“Ah, that problem,” Daos said, a deep scowl suddenly appearing on his face. “Three bases in the past week and another one just today. That damnable woman is getting on my nerves. What do you want to know?”

“What connections, if any, the bases had with each other.”

“Easy, they were all repositories for artifacts in Scirocco’s keeping. None of them very powerful, but all together they represent quite a loss. I assume Scirocco is intending to do something about this?”

“Yes. He’s having me track down this woman.”

“Good. Then I am sure he won’t mind me borrowing you for a small task.”

“It would be my pleasure.”

“Heh, manners, how quaint,” Daos laughed lightly. “I want you to secure the base that went off-line today. The thief might still be there but even if she isn’t, recapturing the base so soon after she left might garner us additional information. Are you up to the task?”

“Very much so,” Toy said. “All I need is the location and the codes to enter the base.”

“You shall get them,” Daos said and then turned away for a moment.

He seemed to talk into a communications device built into his wrist plate and almost as soon as he put his arm down, another white clad Arbiter was hurrying out of a side door and handing him a data disk. Daos gave the disk to Toy Dispenser and the mastermind quickly scanned and downloaded the data. He handed the disk back to Daos and turned to leave.

“Good hunting, Toy Dispenser,” Daos said as Toy walked away.

“Thanks a lot, Eraser Dude!” shouted back Mini Bot as it waved its gun arm in the air.

Toy sighed and grabbed Mini Bot by the shoulder. He had had to drag the little combat bot away from situations such as these many times before.

"<If somebody's got some precision weaponry, now's the time to use it,>" Jay said to the other macha on his command circuit. "<Let's give the electric dude a hand.>"

"<I've already got a shot lined up,>" replied one pilot. "<My beam rifle will end this quickly, I just need a clean shot.>"