The Meeting of the Minds [Semi-Open/Closed RP]
By
Big_Bear,
Posted on: 2006-08-20 17:58 in Roleplaying
Hallucinogen sat in the center of the floor. He was in a long hallway, with no visible lighting, but still the whole place was very brightly lit. Pictures of himself lined the walls, and a huge picture of a pink android rested at the end in an ornate frame. Hallucinogen occasionally looked at it guiltily.
An envelope appeared in front of him. Hal frowned: who on earth had managed to send him a message addressed to, well, the inside of his mind? After all, that was where he was. . .
Opening the letter, Hal attempted to decipher the scrawl.
"Hmmm. . .Need . . . help.. . come. . .to. . . the. . . dangit, what is this word? That's Paragon, I guess, assuming that's really a G. . . but Paraquu makes no sense. . . unless it's one of those Rularuu guys. . ."
"Okay, that's it! Paragon City Times building in Steel at 9 AM tomorrow! From. . . Excrement? Wait, never heard of. . . Ah yes, of course! It must be Experiment!"
Hal sighed with the effort of reading the letter, and raised his hand toward the wall. A yellow sticky note appeared on it. . .
Paragon City Times building tomorrow at 9:00 AM to help out Experiment. Don't be late!
And with that, Hal returned to being lost in thought.
Essex giggled good-naturedly, despite herself.
How Expiriment had managed to transmit something directly into her comm channel was beyond her, but she guessed it probably had something to do with his PDA. When his voice suddenly had made itself apparent, it had startled her so much that she jumped with a little yelp of surprise.
This startled Dr. West, who she had been assisting at the time, so much that he had jumped as well. As she listened to the message, her creator was simultaneously trying to stabilize the tech he had just knocked over...
...And two explosions seemed to happen simultaneously. One over the comm and one in Dr. West's face.
Trying to hold back her laughter, she helped clean the grime of the explosion off his glum face, none the worse for wear.
Maybe that's why I like Sir Expiriment so much... she thought. He reminds me so much of Dr. West.
She would be there at the appointed time, come toast or high water.
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
((I need help, I don't remember which one of my chars met Experiment 2.0 ))
(...Wow... I never saw the replies... Damn, I hate it when my computer 'malfunctions'... )
2.0 walked calmly to his sink. He looked at himself in the mirror, noting a large smudge of black.... "What is that?" he muttered to himself, "Soot? Ash? Oil?"
"Most likely oil." came an ominous reply.
The hero, in his usual, never-changing-except-to-be-cleaned-or-melted-down red armoured suit, sighed.
Ever since he had installed PDA's voice system into his own base, she had been a pain. As well as took over the controls of the base itself.
"You are a total pain." he quietly whispered to himself.
To which, the sink he was leaning over spat water right in his face, at the speed of a fire hose.
He flew upward, landing directly on his back, coughing up spurts that were in his lungs.
"I can hear you, John." spoke the PDA's female voice. The voice was odd, much like those you hear on answering machines, but somehow more... human.
However, 2.0 didn't let it bother him. Things had been changing quite quickly, what with this Assault Prototype affair.
He walked back to his desk, and sat there. He spun in his chair a few times, became dizzy, and leaned down on it.
"Okay, you are moping. What is wrong with you now?"
"*Sigh*... This whole thing! Not only this new villain, that seems intent on causing me some nice pain, but the whole hero deal!"
"Mhm. So, you have been a hero for, what, 15 years now... why?"
"'Cause, ever since I was a kid, and I saw my first hero save a child from a burning building, I have wanted to be that same hero... Why am I talking to myself about my own past? Isn't that like one of those T.V. and movie cliches? It always end in the guy doing it either quitting their job or dying..."
"Ugh. You are always so moody, E!" came his tech's reply. And, for some reason, unbenowest to 2.0, a true hose whipped out from his own desk, smashing 2.0 across the room with the force of its water propulsion. He collapsed into a tower of what appeared to be children's toys he had created, and the PDA's voice giggled.
The tower slammed down on the hero, covering him. On his head, seemingly exactly balanced, was a jack-in-the-box with a member of the Trolls inside. It popped out, with a single "Troll smash!" and then folded over onto the face of the now exasperated hero. He folded his arms in a child-like manner, and looked down grouchily.
"Aww... Is poor ickle John in a grump? Cheer up, damnit!"
"Hmph..."
"Well, I invited your little pink crush, so that should cheer you up."
"Ugh. I told you before, I am not the one with the crush on her."
"Oh? Who is then?"
"Hallucinogen. You know him, the green poofy smoke guy."
"...And you."
2.0 simply sighed, pulling a document over. He opened it, saying the word "Archivist" four times in a row. He waited about four seconds, and the folder opened. It showed a picture of some sort of armour, or even device, with guns and devices concealed, but marked.
The hero observed the document quickly, flipping pages.
He looked at a simple, digital watch on his right hand.
"4:00 AM?! Christ!"
"You should sleep."
"...No... No, I have to read this again..."
"For the four hundreth and sixty eigth time?!" came the device's now worried voice. "You are going to kill yourself, E!"
"Eh." he grunted in reply, getting back into his work.
OOC: Bugger. I don't think any of my guys have actually met Experiment. Maybe I could count Balsk, but I don't know. 
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
((Hmm, ditto.))
(( Well, in essence, 2.0 did meet both trolls, and Balsk, during GoCC. Balsk, he had a duel with, and the trolls... Well, he was always angry at them for kidnapping Essex. However, he is desperate, most likely he will send messages to everyone he knows can fight, or have intelligence. ))
((Plus, the birthday party. XD;; Reikoff, Toy, Ghoul, and Archlich were there - and that gave Expiriment insight as to how everyone fights, too.))
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
(( And I totally forgot 24HV! Suits m3h. What Essex says is true. He would most likely attempt to contact everyone who has even shown a slight chance of aiding.
However, it would probably be hella hard for 2.0 to actually attempt to contact villains willingly so... Yeah... Just know, he ain't gonna sound happy about it. ))
((So would it be fine to bring in Workout Man and Static Therapy? They both have met/fought/fought alongisde 2.0))
Reikoff got the message, and was quickly on the roof of the building, prepared to rappel down and in through a window.
Snikker and Prikker also came, pulling up in an old junker with several other Trolls. The loitered at the entrance, cautious about entering the reputable business, being Trolls as they were.
OOC: Yay! One order of roboty goodness coming right up!
BIC: "And once again, I have to remind you not to charge the Devoured One on your own."
"Well excuuuse me! At least I wasn't the one that got pinned to the ground by that big [censored] tree!"
"Do you have any idea how expensive each of your bodies are? You should know, I've had to replace it often enough!"
"Pfft, you won't ever stop me. I'm the real punch on this team and you know it."
"Ok! That is it! You are getting a complete hardware wipe! Maybe I can make something more agreeable out of your babbling remains!"
"Wait! Boss! I didn't mean it! Stop!"
"*ding* You've got mail."
"Hey boss!" Mini Bot shouted from its perch in front of the TV. "You've got mail!"
Muttering to himself, Toy Dispenser tossed away the broken memory wiper with which he was menacing Combat Toy and walked over to his computer.
The computer was situated on a simple wooden desk against the wall of Toy's room/repair bay. It was a simple flat screen monitor with a tower set underneath the desk and looked fairly normal. But looks can be decieving and that computer could outcompute about 95% of the world's current hardware. It was a gift from a grateful employer for saving the man's family from Wyvern agents.
Clicking through several windows, not bothering to directly interface with the computer at this point, Toy opened up his work e-mail account and looked at the new message.
"Huh, 'A Request' from an Ex2," he said as he opened the message. "I wonder what that hero wants."
Ok, look, Toy Dispenser. I don't like villains, you probably don't like heroes. But you've shown that you have some redeeming qualities when we saved Essex's life that one time. I have some information that I believe will point toward a plot against the destruction of Paragon City.
Now, you may not want to help out of the kindness of your heart so I'll make a note here. If Paragon goes, where will you get most of your business? This city is always being raided or attacked by villains and mercenaries are constantly in demand. If Paragon goes, I'm betting a large percentage of your income goes.
Meet me at the Paragon City Times building in Steel Canyon tomorrow at 9:00 AM. I'd prefer that you didn't come, but for the sakes of all our lives and Essex's good humour, I'm asking you to show up then.
-Experiment 2.0
PS. If you blow something up, I am still so going after you.
"Nice," Toy said as he logged the message and deleted any indication that it had ever been sent. "He sort of missed the mark on the threat part but I think I might go anyway."
"Go where?" asked Toy Bot from where it was flexing it's new claw hand next to the lab tables.
"Another white mission, boys," Toy answered as he leaned back and laced his fingers behind his head.
"Stupid heroes," Block Bot muttered. "Can't they ever get things done without one of us?"
Mini Bot snorted in way of an answer as it continued to watcth the TV, which had switched to the Daily Show.
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
John walked to his desk, rubbing his temples painfully.
He had been up all night, working on the latest edition of the PCT, was his excuse.
However, one of the office workers didn't buy it. Paul Lorsa came to John's desk, frowning deeply. "Okay, look, I wasn't gonna bring it up boss, but I have never seen you leave this building. Or, seen you actually working that much. You said you were here all night, but so was I, and you weren't here, so-"
*BZZT*
Paul had a blank stare for a second, before shaking his head. "Woah... man, I feel like I just woke up..."
He looked around quickly, noticing John smiling politely up at him. "Did you need something?"
"Oh... No... I didn't even notice I walked over here..." muttered the employee, dragging his feet back to his desk.
John layed his head down on the table, his face changing entirely from his smile.
Now, his eyes were bleek, and his hair seemed to fall slightly from his head in stress. He rubbed his temples again, moaning. "Ugh... I swear, I didn't even sleep last night..." he quietly said to himself.
However, he suddenly bolted upright. He totally forgot he had told his friends... well, friends and "people who can fight" to come to the building in-
He looked at his watch.
-"Woah... Wait, when did it get to 8:59?"
*Beep*
"9:00 even..."
Something tapped the window. Further inspection would find Reikoff impatiently waiting to enter.
---
The Trolls casually entered the lobby, grunting out "John" enough to get directions. This turned into a race up the stairs, in which several trolls participated, causing quite a ruckus.
((The other Trolls aren't coming.))
Similarly walking through the lobby was a man in a black jacket and pants,looking mostly boring. He got directions to E's place right away and hurried down. He was late.
Static Therapy came in similarly in a brown trenchcoat and hat. He too got directions and came down.
Green smoke burst into view, as Hal appeared inside the lobby of the PCT building, having walked in invisible. . . or so one would assume, but for all anyone could tell he had been there all night.
"I don't suppose you know the location of a hero by the name of Experiment?"
One of the closer employees heard the tapping, and turned toward the window inquisitively. She spotted Reikoff, and almost called security.
However, John stepped forward and put down the phone she had picked up. "Don't worry... *Yawn*... Invited 'em."
He walked toward the window, checking to make sure it wasn't the one that fell out if pulled back. Satisfied, he slid the window open, his eyes half closed still.
He started walking away, muttering "Close the door- Window, on your way in."
However, a crash jolted him slightly more than his remembering of this whole ordeal.
He was kind of sure who was coming up, but a smash that sounded like something rather expensive broke confirmed it.
The editor facepalmed, shaking his head. "Malta boy, I don't mind so much..." he muttered, before looking up at the roof, as if to ask it for answers. "But what drove me to invite the trolls?!"
*Smash*
"Ooh... I don't know whether that was a vase or a skull... Better be the former..."
The receptionist chewed her gum plainly as Hal appeared. She didn't seem too shocked. She nodded, and pointed at the stairs. "Top floor. You better be able to either teleport, or know how to work an elevator smokey, 'cause it is a loooong way up."
Just across the street, a group of black suited Crey officials were just exiting a small Crey-affiliated business that had been rudely surprised by a surprise inspection. The overly tall inspector with the slicked back red hair had shown all the proper identifications and then proceeded to harangue the manager about the declinging profits coming in. The man had groveled and apoligized and ultimately gratefully accepted some suggestions that the head inspector had offered. What the inspector had failed to mention was how those changes would cause the weapons that the small business was secretly constructing to self-destruct on their twentieth discharge. Or maybe it was the second discharge, the man wasn't completely sure.
For now, the group of men including the lead inspector, a giant brute of a bodyguard with wraparound sunglasses, and five other non-descript men, stood in the middle of the sidewalk conversing with one another, blocking the way for passerby, and returning dirty looks that some passing heroes shot them.
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
"Well," said Hal, materializing behind John, "I'm here. What's up?"
He had used the elevator.
John's face did not change from slightly groggy, but his demeanor was not slouched anymore.
"Greetings... Uh..." He rubbed his eyes quickly, and took in a breath as in thinking. He stared off into space for a second, before nodding. He was totally out of it.
"Right, problem. You guys should head into the bathroom down the hall... Uh, although, keep the trolls heading up the stairs in their destructive way from destroying the place. Once in there, just punch in the code and enter the doorway."
It took Experiment a while to snap his mind into place again.
"Oh, right... You guys haven't been there before, huh... You may just want to wait here then... It is pretty damn hard to get into the base if you don't know every step... Trust me on that one... Uh... I am pretty sure we have an arcade machine... Somewhere..."
He frowned deeply. "I did not think ahead now, did I..."
The Crey agents walked boldly into the lobby of the Paragon Times, flashing their IDs as they went.
"Crey Inspectorial Division," the lead inspector said to the receptionist. "We need to speak with your head editor. Now."
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
Now, the receptionist stood, scared out of her wits. "C... Crey never comes here... What do you need? John Ballard? He is upstairs. Top floor. Here, let me get the elevator down for you..."
She briskly teetered over to the elevator like a scared child, calling the elevator down. About five seconds later, the doors opened, completely empty.
"P... Please have a n-nice day!" she squeaked.
The lead inspector nodded in thanks and led his men into the elevator. As the doors closed, one of the shorter men lifted up his sunglasses and exposed a pair of flat red eyes. He grinned and waggled his fingers at the receptionist just before the doors shut and the inspector hit the 100 button.
"Damn it," groaned the man wearing a military style hat. "Why'd you have to go and do that?"
The short man put his glasses back and shrugged.
"I thought it'd be funny," he said and the grinned again. "And it was."
The bodyguard snorted and the rest of the ride up went in silence until the doors finally dinged and slid open. Striding out into the hallway as though they owned the place, the Crey agents accosted the first employee they found, got directions from him, and headed toward Jon Ballard's office. As they neared, the other men gradually slowed their pace until the lead inspector was standing right behind Hallucinogen, a creepy smile spreading over his face.
"Hallucinogen, a man that should't exist, and a couple of Trolls. What interesting company you keep Mr. Ballard," he said over Hal's head.
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
Ballard jerked up, spinning to see the "Crey".
"Oh... You guys are gonna stay like that until we aren't somewhere public, right?" John spoke, brushing hair out of his eyes, that simply flipped back into place uselessly.
(( Yes, I know, there are already two out there, but hell, is it MY fault I came up with a story at the same time the others had their ideas awakened in the recesses of their minds? Of course it is! But, let us forget that for a moment...
This, much like for the other RPs, is for those who have met Experiment 2.0. As in, actually have MET him, not have seen him, or fought him, without talking. 2.0 is one of those "Don't trust them till you know them" kind of people.
And, also of his nature, he has tried to contact people any way he can. So, it would go like so...
Natural: Recieve a letter, asking for help, and to come to the Paragon City Times building in Steel Canyon the next day at 9:00 AM if possible. Note, the handwriting would be rather messed up. Come on, he uses tech for a living, and types all of the time. You expect him to write well?
Science: Same as Natural.
Magic: A mystical voice would most likely reach you, sending the message directly into your mind. However, it would only have the vital information, and sound pretty messed up. 2.0 isn't into the whole "magic" scene.
Mutant: Again, same as natural. Easiest way to reach people normally.
Tech: Seeing as how he is into the whole Tech kind of thing, this would explain the most. It would explain where to go, when, and sort of explain the situation. Over comm. units given by City Hall, or just normal comm. units in general, 2.0's voice would be easily heard, talking about needing a large amount of help by anyone he can trust.
Note; If you have a villain that he has at least met, go ahead and bring them in, he is just gonna give you a rather hard time, at least for a while.
Also note; You can be contacted by any of those means. Letter, Comm., or by the magical wave. I am just pointing out the most likely ways he would contact each origin. You can also personalize the message, since it just wouldn't be nice for him to send the same message to every person.
...And I swear. this has got to be the longest OOC post I have ever written. ))
Earth Titania brought the hammer down upon the Lead Brick, sending the stone-user into the earth.
"Where you belong." muttered the hero, dropping a Tele-pad on the villain.
As he disappeared, Earth felt a sharp ring in his ear. He activated the comm. unit, sending a recorded message through into his ear.
"Earth Titania, this is Experiment 2.0. Do not reply, as I can not get to you. I am too wrapped up in notes right now, so I will make this brief. I need your help. I found some info on the guy that sent in the Assault Drone photo. I think Paragon City may be in mortal danger. Get to the Paragon City times at 9 AM tomorrow. It will arouse less suspicion if you arrive then, asking for John Ballard. People will simply think you just came in for an interview. Now, PDA, begin pulse-recording.
"I am sending messages to everyone I can trust. That may not sound normal, but trust me, I think I will need it when I finally figure this out. I already found the core of one of this guy's battle drones. I will conduct experiments while I explain. Not long ago, I started research on someone Hero Corps. asked me to write about. In a recording, he said he knew me, and it intrigued me. Now, I think I am getting closer to figuring out who this is."
A line of static spreads through the pulse.
"Agh, I don't know what is wrong with this core. It keeps buzzing."
*Clank*
"Woah, it had an outer panel! Cool! ...What the hell is with the numbers?"
*Beep...*
"Oh shi-"
*CRACKLE* *KZZT*
The pulse continues, spreading that recording out to the comm. units 2.0 had designated.
"Great... Experiment did it again. He blew up the damn lab again." muttered Earth Titania, strolling down the street now. "I swear, that is the third time this week."