"I canna believe I actually found you." Professor Vanessa Eirene, also known as Ultraviolet Nessie, barked a laugh as she sat down at the meeting table in the middle of the nerve center. "Ye've bloody well disappeared off the map, y'know that, lad? I'd nae imagine that ye'd have turned 'ero, and were th' one responsible for all o' these."
The woman gestured around at the reploids, her trademark jagged grin on her face. Her brown hair was straggly and unkempt, and the dim glow of the ultraviolet diode that replaced one of her eyes shone through her thick glasses. She dusted her ragged labcoat off idley before continuing.
"I'd 'ave never guessed that ye of all people, the brilliant little Occam's Laser, would end up doin' somethin' so grand as all this."
West sat on the opposite end of the table, quietly drinking a cup of tea. The reploids had since been freed, and were off talking with Vanessa's bots and working on the wall repairs. At the name Occam's Laser, he flushed slightly.
"I haven't gone by that name since I was in my twenties." he stammered, looking uncomfortable and uncharacteristically nervous. "Besides, you only had one or two robots back then, if I recall correctly, Nessie."
Vanessa chuckled again. "Aye, lad, those were the days." she said fondly. "Ye were a mystery to the Isles-side scientific community. Such a young lad and already so established! Even if yer name was a bad pun."
Daniel looked a little hurt at that. "I thought it was witty." he grumbled into his tea. "Enough about that, though. On to the matter of infiltrating my defenses."
With that, he turned his chair to the side, bending down to face his S6 unit. Essex fidgeted apologetically, looking quite ashamed of herself.
"Now, my girl, what did I tell you about letting strange scientists into the base?" West warned.
"I'm sorry, Papa..." Essex murmured despondantly, tugging at her hair. "I-I didn't mean to...She said she was hungry, and her robots were in disrepair, and I couldn't just..."
Daniel sighed, resting a hand on the little android's head and ruffling her hair. "We're lucky it wasn't someone who meant to kill us." he said with a frown. "All the defenses I have won't mean a thing if you let them in the front door, all right?"
"Yes sir." Essex said meekly, skittering off again shortly thereafter.
Nessie watched her go, an eyebrow raised. "She looks like ye, lad." she said casually. "Tha's the one with yer daughter's DNA in it, aye?"
"Yes, that's Essex." West said, resting his head in one hand with a sigh. "She means well, but..."
Nessie laughed in response, shaking her head. "Dinna worry 'bout it." she said, grinning. "Likely she'll nae make the same mistake twice. Now then..."
The woman stood, rifling through the pocket of her labcoat. "The reason I came 'ere...Wot, now, did I lose it after that bloody great entrance? Nae, nae...ah, 'ere it is." She slid a small data disc across the table, lifting her stare from it to meet Daniel's eyes. "I thought if anyone'd want to know about this situation, it'd be good ol' Occam's Laser. Do take a look at it, Ocky."
"How many times do I have to tell you, Nessie, that part of my life is over." West muttered, snapping up the disc and scanning it visually for a moment before slipping it into a small console near the side of his seat.
Not a minute into the presentation and Nessie's gaze was grim. West's lips hung slightly agape, his eyes wide at what he was seeing on the screen.
"What the...How is this even possible?" he gasped, a reflection of the images flickering across his glasses.
"That's what I'd like to know." Nessie said quietly. "Looks like it's somethin' big, lad. But I dinna know anythin' much about biology or th' like. So I thought I'd come t' you and see what ye make of it."
"...This is bad. This is very, very bad." he muttered, and then turned to Vanessa, stroking his chin.
"Vanessa." he said rather distantly. "This is something that will take the scientific community completely by surprise. I want you to gather all the men and women of science you know in the Rogue Isles. I shall open up my border laboratory in Siren's Call for this occasion. I don't really care if it gets ruined anyway. I will make an entreaty for the scientists of Paragon to gather together there. We want to meet there as soon as possible... with our busy schedules, let us meet this coming Sunday." He whipped a small business card at Vanessa, which she easily caught. "There is the address. The time will be 6 PM."
He eyed Nessie. "And make it clear that this is a scientific forum, not a bloodbath. This is something that we must all work together to prevent...and bickering will only impede our progress. And from the looks of things, we cannot afford any delays."
"Aye then, Ocky." Nessie grinned. "Ye're soundin' like yer old self again. It's nice t' ave ye back." With that, she stood, snapping her fingers to her robots. "Come on, you lot!" she snarled. "We're goin' back t' the Isles!"
"Do we have to?" one of the battle drones whined in a femenine voice, a red ribbon tied smartly about its head.
"Shut up, Spindle, do what Mom says." one of the Protector bots responded, knocking the smaller one upside the head.
With a great clattering, the company of robots left, leaving the Reploids to stare after them through the hole they created. Her assault bot, Gasket, lumbering beside her, Nessie waved back at Daniel.
"I'll let 'em know." she cheered back to him. "Dinna worry 'bout that."
"I'll go let them out." Ginstar said, standing to follow them.
West nodded at their departure, and then turned back to the viewscreen with a grim frown on his face. "Get to repairs, the rest of you." he said softly, and the reploids continued their work.
"...Essex." he said suddenly, turning to the little pink android, who looked up at him questioningly. "...Get me Alexei on the viewscreen. Oh, excuse me...I meant Vern."
((Okay! Here is my RP. Devious shall be helping me GM, thankfully. Scientists of the Rogue Isles will be contacted by Vanessa via mail, inviting them to a science consortium at the laboratories of Repliforce Paragon in Siren's Call. Heroes will be contacted directly by West himself. A matter of great importance to the scientific community is promised to be discussed!
Also, Disclaimer: Daniel West is WAY SMARTER THAN ME. D:< If I say something stupid, it's because -I'm- dumb, not him. 
))
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
OOC: *looks around* Can I come in 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.
"Knock knock," came an amused sounding voice from the hole in the wall. "Could someone explain to me why a drone belonging to a known villain kicked me in the shin as I was coming in? And why they blasted a hole in the wall when they could've knocked in the first place?"
Solid Shot, on-and-off member of Repliforce Paragon, stepped gingerly through the bit of hole that the reploids hadn't patched up yet and tapped the top of his assault rifle on his shoulder in an impatient manner. The flat grey blaster bot examined the room before him and, finding no damage on any of the reploids or Dr. West, chose to lower his rifle and sling it back under his cape.
"I know you guys have a lot of friends on the other side of the fence but geez, couldn't you have picked some with better manners?"
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.
T. P. S. GRONDKOPON
Buckshot System - Andromeda Transmitterroad
Status: In Transit
It was night. Not truly, of course, as technically it could be said that day or night were present with permanence on board any starship, depending on one's point of view. However, according to both the vessel's chronometer as well as the oppressive darkness that currently covered the artificial ecosystem's sky on the recreation deck, the ship's time cycle had reached the night period some time ago.
As a direct result, the regular patrons of the recreation deck had long since departed, the soft swaying of the spiral trees in the broken and rocky landscape the only motion about.
However, that didn't mean there wasn't anyone here. On a thick, gnarled branch of a tall spiral tree lay a creature that a human would imagine to be close to a miniature dragon - especially in the murk of night.
Of course, first impressions were often deceiving, as the quadrupedal being had about as much in common with that mythical creature as it did with the animal that humans often associated its size with: a species of dog called a Great Dane. The being was a Krayten, and though following a generally draconic form, the saurian head was free of any manner of horns or scales, a fact that also encompassed the rough, leathery hide that covered the being like an insulating blanket of organic armor.
And with its long tail and one or more tri-clawed feet dangling lazily from the branch, the reason for the Krayten's presence in the spiral tree was rather obvious: to sleep. Like almost all of his species, Vern felt most comfortable and secure in exterior environments (unless they were too cold, of course), but since these were hard to come by on starships, the recreation deck had to make due. It was a dark, quiet, and peaceful place.
Well, until the hovering intercom drone decided to play alarm clock, anyway.
With shrill report, the machine chased Vern from his slumber and back into the waking world, eliciting both an exclamation of surprise as well as a loss of balance. Before he even knew it, the Krayten had hit the ground below with a heavy thud.
"Why now?" Vern groaned in annoyance as the drone descended back into his field of view, the reptilian's slitted eyes twitching at the presence of the machine's bright-white communications screen, on which a crimson call symbol slowly pulsed. Rolling off his back and onto his feet (more or less), Vern tapped a claw to the touchscreen, commanding the machine to spill the beans.
"Incoming transmission." the synthetic voice of the drone came over a series of hidden loudspeakers embedded in the device, "Source confirmed as GLX system unit 1302. Awaiting orders."
Vern performed the equivalent of cocking an eyebrow, the hide that spanned the ridge of bone above his left eye socket displacing slightly. If memory served, that was one of the stations responsible for relaying transmissions from Terra. Furthermore, if it wasn't a priority alert, that meant it could only come form one source: Dr. Daniel West - or his reploids, anyway.
"Commence." the Krayten ordered, the machine obeying dutifully. It didn't take but a few moments for the nearest intercom's touchscreen to become an image that showed the other end of the line.
"Well, hello there." he switched to English as he spoke to the image of Essex, "Been a while. Something going on...?"
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Castle Castle
A door opened with a creek. It was a brand new door that had been recently oiled and was made of smooth inter-locking materials, but regardless, it creaked anyway. Doors opened by him always creaked.
The lights turned on.
Igor entered, humming a tuneless song. He hunched his way over to the brand new Impossitech 9000 Hyper Quantum Computer, which was covered in cobwebs and layers of dust, despite having been installed only last afternoon.
Igor settled into the chair. It creaked.
"Activath procedure." He said with an audiable lisp.
Outside, lightning crashed. There wern't any clouds in the sky and it was daytime.
Slowly, one by one, a series of statis tubes lit on the opposite sides of the room, each containing a horrible monstrosity.
Igor pulled a switch,m and the entiure room exploded into action.
A giant water-wheel on the west side of the room began to turn, powering a turbine which ran across the top of the room, which in turn powered a series of over-complicated reanimation machinery, which crackled with electricity. Various sinister looking equipment hummed with power and large pointless shinies sparkled.
Lightning flashed again, hit the lightning rod atop Castle Castle, ran down into the laboratory, and an explosion of sparks and electrical power surged through the five corpses.
A few short seconds later, the statis tubes opened and five living dead corpses shambled out.
"ITH ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVTH!" Igor howled. There was a *KRACK-THOOOOOOOOOM!* Of thunder in the distance.
He threw another switch.
A little paddle flipped out from the floor and smacked into the first zombie. It fell over into the next one, which fell onto the next one, creating a domino effect until the last of the five reanimated corpses fell over onto another switch which was conveniently placed within falling distance.
The room erupted into activity again. Igor would have been sweating had he had functional sweat glands. The turbine roared, electricity crackled about, and across the Eastern wall, a series of gears ground and tubes whistled as a heavilly modified steam-train chasis sprung to life and a fire began to roar. A large pillar of stone began to grind its way across a groove in the floor, spinning in place as it did so. What sounded like rain echoed across the stones. (Although it was not actually raining.)
Igor's hands flew about the instrument panel, hitting knobs and switches and pulling as many levers as they could reach, readouts buzzed and glew, and Igor knew that if he didn't do everything PERFECTLY and PRECISELY, everything would blow up and eradicate all life on the continent.
*Ding!*
A little plastic cup slid out of an opening in the huge engine, the coffee beans that had rained down earlier fell into the boiler, and eight seconds later, a stream of coffee poured into Igor's cup.
He picked it up, and put the cup to his lips. Then he put it back down, and put in earplugs, THEN picked it back up and drank it.
He still heard the lightning roar as the stuff slid down his throat.
"Morning Igor." Said Igor, who had just entered the lab and was staring musingly at Igor.
"Hi Igor." Igor said, taking another sip of his coffee. "Howth Igor?"
"Igor ith good. Heth perfthorming another labotomy today. Altho, Igor thopped by and athked me to tell you that the grinderth jammed latht night when he wath making thtring cheeth."
"Thath the sixth time thith month. I'll get Igor to fikth it." Igor said with a small frown that didn't completely form due to his stitching. "Want thome?" He asked, indicating his coffee cup.
"Naw, don't feel like putting the bodieth back into the tubeth." Igor said dismissively. "I jutht take pillth theth dayth."
The Impossitech 9000 Hyper Quantum Computer bipped.
"Ah! I havth an email methage!" Igor said, revolving in his chair, (which creaked) and accessing his Yoodle account.
"Sixthteen trillion dollar computer and we uthe it for email..." Igor muttered behind him.
"Ah, ith a methage for Igor, go and get him pleathe."
"Yeth matht-I mean, yeth." Igor said. "IGOR!" He called.
"Yeth?" Igor asked. He was right behind Igor. This didn't seem to bother her in the least though.
"Igor thayth you havth thome email." Igor explained.
"Ah, thank you Igor." Igor thanked Igor. "Let me thee it."
Igor hopped from the seat, (which creaked) and Igor got on it, (it creaked again) and checked the monitor.
"Hmmm. Interethting...Igor?" Igor said.
"Yeth?" Said Igor.
"I havth to go to thith, fill in for me, will you?"
"Yeth matht-I mean, yeth."
-----
Igor went into the carriage house and got into the driver's seat. There wasn't anybody occupying the actual carriage in itself, but it was TRADITION to ride at the driver's seat. That and he was going alone.
There wern't any horses. As Igor hunched himself into a comfortable position, the reins he held looped forward, down, and under the carriage.
"MUTH!" Igor barked.
The rocket engine ignited, and soon, Igr was a speck in the distance...
[ QUOTE ]
((Also, Disclaimer: Jake is WAY SMARTER THAN ME. D:< If I say something stupid, it's because -I'm- dumb, not him. 
))
[/ QUOTE ]
((Disclaimer fixed to fit my needs. 
))
Jake sat atop a rocky ledge somewhere in Port Oakes, watching as the hypnotic rhythymn of the waves relaxed him and freed his mind of duty, for the moment being, that is. He sat with his legs crossed and let his elbow rest on his thigh, which, in turn, allowed his head to rest on his open palm. His cell phone lay flashing at his side, signalling a variety of different messages displaying various requests by Arachnos officials and their plots to stab each other in the back.
"Feh..." He said as he grew tired of hearing it beep every other minute, scooping it up in his hand and pressing the off button, thereby ending his problem. Jake had been doing a bit of thinking as of late, as his last mission brough his mind yet again to the topic of Arachnos. Why exactly was he serving Recluse?
Well, that's easy. I was manipulated into doing it by a band of Fortunatas.
No, I mean, why are you working for Arachnos?
Oh, well... um... becuase...
Jake sighed. He still couldn't come up with an answer to these questions. He took his head off his chin and layed on the rocky ground, putting his hands behind his head and letting his eyes wander over the various clouds in the sky. It was almost dusk now, and the sun burned a bright red as it approached the horizon, inevitably lending the sky to the moon for about twelve hours.
"It's all just a cycle, isn't it?" He thought. "I'm just going to keep doing this unt-"
"BEEP BEEP BEEP!"
"Dammit. I thought I shut that thing off..." He picked up his cell phone and looked at it curiously. It was still off, as silent as he had left it only a minute before.
"Oh..." Jake said sheepishly as he realized the true source of the noise. Pulling his goggles down over his eyes, he went through his UI until he found his inbox, after which he read the email sent by Vanessa.
Jake read the email and groaned. "Stupid urgent situations..." He muttered as he got up. He looked up to the sky as he tried to get his bearings back, shortly after remembering that he had a detailed GPS system. As he charted the shortest path to Siren's Call, his boots roared to life, giving him lift into the air and the ability to soar through the sky.
And off he went to Siren's Call. An isolated war-zone.
"Ah, Solid." West said, turning to face the grey assault android. "Good to see you. Yes, yes...Vanessa isn't very good at knocking at all, is she?"
He seemed amused by the prospect, even though he surveyed the damage with an air of distaste.
"Still...she's brought me some interesting news...something the scientific community will certainly wish to take action regarding. What action, though, I'm uncertain." The man tapped his chin thoughtfully. "What to do, what to do..."
Upon noticing Solid's dry stare, he shook his head. "Nonetheless...Solid, among your associates, are you familiar with any men or women of science? Besides myself, of course. I am afraid it is a matter of some importance."
---------------------------------------------------
"Hello, sir!" Essex chirped on the viewscreen, eagerly smiling at Vern. "Papa asked me to invite you to his neutral laboratory in Siren's Call next Sunday, if you're free. He's acting as though it's very important...You know, when he sometimes gets those little worried creases in his forehead, and his eyebrows go like this?"
Essex raised her fingers to delicately rest on her own eyebrows in a mildly concerned expression.
"He's doing that. So I think it's probably important. Oh, you will come, won't you? It's going to be a scientific consortium, and it'll be so good to see you again."
She looked to the side, a little, with something of a frown. "He hasn't told me what it is, yet."
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
"'fraid not," Solid said as he absently rubbed the back of his head and stepped further into the room. "The guys I usually hang with are more the brawn over brains type. Maybe that Moonscribe dude but he's more mysterious annoying knowledge of oddness than actual book smarts."
"You could always ask that Toy Dispenser merc," Solid suggested. "He might be an [censored], but he's good in a fight and smarter than I am. I could totatally kick his [censored], though."
Nodding to himself, the blaster took another look at the busy reploids before glancing over at West.
"You need some muscle for this task force you're whipping up? I'm kind of in between worlds needing to be saved at the moment."
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.
--Grey's Army Base--
"Ninety-nine?" Sheldon asked as he stared at his monitor, "How would you like to go somewhere with me?"
"Sir?" the android asked, "Are you sure? I thought you were suspended..."
"I was. I'm not anymore."
"You're not lying to me, are you?"
A short while ago, Sheldon had been involved in an event that almost netted the Clockwork King a new body. Positron had suspended his hero license pending an investigation. The investigation was called off, however, when Wallace was kidnapped by Arachnos. It seemed Black Scorpion wanted somebody new to work on his armor, and after the Inevitable Incident, Sheldon became the prime candidate.
The ensuing battle as Sheldon attempted to escape and some of the heroes in Agent Wild's stable as well as members of the Brutal Warriors Order tried to mount a rescue wound up proving which side of the law the young inventor stood on. Despite the horrific violence of that day, Sheldon hadn't taken one life, plus he'd come back with valuable intelligence on the rogue government. Shortly after his return, Positron reinstated him.
Sheldon regarded the big machine. In most science fiction, when the creation exhibited the kind of independence the members of the Ryat series displayed, it wasn't long after that a "Robot War" scenario followed. However, the closest they'd come so far was Ryat84's rebellion, and it was largely an inept generic "Destroy All Humans" affair. The rest of the series was full of its own unique personalities, some heroic, some adventurous, some easily frightened... But no two were exactly the same. Ryat60, for instance, was deathly afraid of water, despite the fact that his circuitry was specially shielded. Ryat31 was also afraid of water, but could often get over the fear to get on with his work.
It was so strange that they regarded Sheldon not as their father or their creator, but as an equal. They certainly had some measure of awe for him, but they largely didn't need him anymore. Sometimes they deferred to him when it came to matters of organization, though 66 and 99 were considered the de facto leaders of the series. Largely, though, he worked on other projects.
Projects like the e-mail that had just arrived for him. He was concerned by what he read... It reeked of danger. Now, he wasn't necessarily a scientist. While he had the label of "Mad Scientist" lately, he didn't have the patience for scribbling notes, collating data, and experimenting. He was more of a "doer."
Of course, that was what made him "mad" in the first place. Real scientists experimented, checked their results, ensured they were in as safe an environment as possible...
Now, from what he saw on Dr. West's e-mail, it seemed as if it was going to be a frank discussion. Just an exchange of ideas. However, considering the fact that it seemed to be a call to a large number of the brightest minds in the city, it sent chills down his spine.
"I can assure you, Ryat, I'm not lying," he finally said with a grin, "You know I can't lie to you."
"I'm the one devoid of deception, sir," the big android rumbled back.
"In any case, this isn't about hero work... this is just a friendly invitation to discuss theory..."
"Uh huh."
"A lot of scientists..."
"Right."
"All in one place."
"Ah."
Ryat99 figured out why Sheldon wanted him along.
"So... Where to?" the big machine asked as he keyed up his sleek flight armor and it rattled out of his general purpose chassis, covering up holes and smoothing out bumps, "Steel Canyon? Peregrine Island?"
"No..." Sheldon replied as he threw his gauntlets into his duffel bag before donning his trench coat over his body armor, "We're going to Siren's Call."
"So... Steel Canyon, then?"
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
"Um, let's see, Sunday..." Vern mumbled, his eyes darting from one side to the other has he tried to remember what day that designated. Thankfully, he'd spent enough time on Terra for the answer to not stay lost for long, "Yeah, should be fine. But scientific consortium? Ess, your dad does know Dr. Kirov was just a fictitious alias of mine, right? I mean, I guess I know a lot by human standards, but honestly I'm no scientist. I'm just the guy who builds things. Your expression would be 'the grease monkey'."
"I mean, I guess I can always drop Ace a line," the reptilian's shoulders shrugged somewhat, "but generally he's the guy for the crazy ideas...and so's the Doc, but more into biology. Hm...I guess I do turn their insanity into feasible stuff sometimes. In any case, I'll bring any help I can offer..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Siren's Call
The Longbow Nullifier squinted up at the sky.
Was that a flea...? No, it was slightly too big...A fly...? No. Flies moved around more, and they didn't keep growing gradually bigger.
What wa-
*KA-FREAKING BOOM*
The carriage impacted the ground, sending rubble, rocks, and dubris everywhere. The carriage's structure split and cracked before splintering into hundreds of fragments.
Igor summersalted through the air with a surprising amount of grace. Lightning cracked in the distance. (There was not a cloud in the sky.) Igor performed a few flips and twirls mid-air before landing gracefully on his feet.
"Capital!" He said.
Then his left arm fell off.
".....I'm not quite thure what I did to dethervth that." He declared. Still, it wasn't much of a problem, that arm had been over three hundred years old anyway. He really should have checked it a bit more often. He could have probably replaced it a few months before he left. All that meant now was that he'd have to find another arm.
Igor raised his cybernetic arm to his eyes and surveye his surroundings. He immediately spotted the unconcious form of a Longbow Nullifer.
"Aha! Thomebody hath dethided to take a nap, I thee...How lucky for me..."
There was another lightning strike.
Igor hunched his way over to the ruins of the rocket carriage, and after rummaging about a bit, brought out his kit. "Where did I leave that turnip...?" He muttered. "Here we are..."
He pulled a turnip out of the bag. "Time to go to work..." He said in a decidedly sinister voice as he turned to the Longbow Nullifier.
-----
Some time later
Igor, with a brand new arm, hunched happilly across the landscape. A rather irked-looking reanimated corpse wearing a tattered and torn Longbow uniform trailed after him. Its arm was missing.
'Where am I?!?!?' Asked a frightened voice.
Igor calmly put down the source of the question-His bag-and pulled out the jar. The jar in question had a turnip floating in it.
"You are now a turnip." Igor declared.
Silence.
'Really?'
"Yeth."
'.....Damn.'
"Worry not, you thall lead a productive lifth as a turnip. I can already think of many utheth for you." Igor said to the turnip jar affectionately. "Thanthes are, thoon you'll havth a new body. If we can't fthind one, well...There's alwayth emergenthy rationth."
'I'm not sure I quite like the sound of that. I mean...It's all so sudden...I'm a turnip!'
"Yeth, I believe I did point that out..." Igor said, placing the jar on a nearby rock and beckoning the reanimated corpse closer. "Tho what? Ith not like you were very important anywayth."
'I object to being treated like this. I am a human being! What makes you think you can treat me like that? You can't just insult me!'
"Thut up, turnip..." Igor grumbled. "Your left arm wath and thtill ith a piece of crap, by the way."
The turnip kept complaining, so Igor tossed it off a nearby crevice.
"Come my vile minion! To the plathe!" Cried Igor. Lightning cracked in the distance again, and soon both Igor and zombie were happilly lurching and hunching their way across Sirens Call.
Jake arrived at the Arachnos Base in Siren's Call roughly an hour later, casually hopping out of the flier that had transported him, along with several other rogues, to the war-torn section of coast line. Flashing his identification card to the nearest official, Jake strolled into the interior of the base, as he attempted to find the Warzone Operative of this particular outpost.
After about a half hour of asking around, Jake finally came across Warzone Operative Massey, who, after being presented with his ID card, recognized him as a respected and higher ranked field operative for Arachnos.
"What brings you here?" He simply stated, his visor seeming to pierce Jake's soul. (With some of the things Arachnos throws into their soldiers' visors, this may not be so farfetched.)
"Well, sir, I was invited out here, to a scientific convention, if you will."
"Oh?"
Jake simply nodded.
"And what business is this of mine?"
"I was going to request that you reassign a group of soldiers to defend the location. Naturally, there will be those that wish to disrupt it, and I don't think this is a matter to be taken so lightly."
"Ah..." The operative smirked as he took a sip of his unknown drink. "I see."
Silence.
"Well, technically, you are higher ranking than me."
Jake nodded, but his eyes clearly showed that he knew where this was going.
"However, you aren't technically my superior. We're assigned to two seperate divisions."
Jake simply sighed and dropped his head, muttering some uninterperatable obscenity, and, after sucking it up, slid the Operative a hundred dollar bill.
"That what you were looking for?" He asked, scowling.
Massey simply grinned, pocketing the cash as quickly as a wolf would down a rabbit. "Of course. I assure you, there will be a division of Arachnos at your command during this time period."
"You have my thanks." Jake said, afterwards muttering under his breath, "You [censored]...
He took his leave and walked out the door, leaving the comforting warmth of Operative Massey's office for the moist cool of the island fortress.
"Corrupt. Every single one of us."
--Steel Canyon -> Siren's Call--
Ryat99 dropped out of the sky next to the Siren's Call entrance. Hovering a little above the ground, he clicked off his rocket boots and disengaged his flight armor. Shortly thereafter, there was a zipping sound as Sheldon arrived. He had a grin on his face.
"It feels good to yank some speed out of an Outcast again..." the inventor chuckled as he shoved the gauntlet back into the duffel bag.
"You really should have built something that enabled you to not require the presence of an enemy," Ryat99 chided, "Plus, there's always the chance for massive error."
"Indeed... But I'm more than equipped to deal with a botched attempt at siphoning the kinetic energy out of a criminal."
They showed their identification to the Siren's Call security guards and proceeded through the heavy armored gate.
On the other side, Sheldon pressed his fingers to his glasses.
"Did you get that?" he asked the large android.
"Yes. So... Am I to understand that all of this cloak-and-dagger stuff means this Doctor West is a tad... Paranoid?"
"From what reputations I could research of him... Yeah."
"Fan-freaking-tastic," Ryat99 droned in his monotone, clearly displeased, "A regular meeting fo the best and brightest across the world is about to happen, huh? So, what'll you say when you meet Lazarus Crom?"
"I don't think he's coming..."
Ryat99 turned to his creator.
"I was joking," he rumbled, "I could have said Aeon... Or maybe even Ryat Eighty-four."
"If he shows up, we're dismantling him."
"I don't think he will... Ryat Prime's been hounding him pretty fiercely."
"How is that all going, by the way?" Sheldon asked sadly.
"Bad. Every time Prime gets a hold of Eighty-four, he unleashes another one of those damn berzerker androids he's built and runs off... We may need to go after him ourselves someday, boss."
"Right..." Sheldon shook his head, "Well... Let's see if this map West sent me is any good."
"And if it's not?"
"Then I'm probably Stalker meat."
And with that, they headed off for West's laboratory on foot. Sheldon didn't want to risk being too far from his guard in case they ran into any trouble (which Siren's Call was practically rife with), and Ryat99 didn't want to watch Wallace get med-ported repeatedly.
When they finally arrived at where the map indicated for them to go, they were both speed boosted (Ryat99 from Sheldon's application of kinetic energy boosting nanites and Sheldon through his siphon) and the inventor was out of breath. A couple brutes and Arachnos patrols had made them figure it would be better to just rush it.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
West regarded Solid for a minute, and turned to face him more fully.
"Well, yes, I could certainly use your help as a peacekeeping entity." he mused, but regarded him with a slight glance over his glasses.
"...You would be under orders from both heroes and villains, however, and I'm not certain how you'd like that. And I have already sent Toy Dispenser an email to that effect...the subject is something I believe he may find interesting as well. As for Moonscribe..."
Daniel scoffed a little, packing some things to make preparations.
"I do not deny his intelligence. But his area of expertise is that of mysticism, far from an actual science. And I know there are some who would debate me on this, but this conflict is one of concrete physiology, and quite frankly he may be very disinterested in the subject."
Packing the disc away, he muttered to himself. "Nothing like a magic-user to disrupt a control group."
------------------------------------------------------
"Well, sir, I'm pretty certain that he knows that you're really not that kind of scientist..." Essex said hastily, looking up at Vern. "But you're a lot more knowledgeable about things than most humans, like you said. And Papa asked for you specificially...Bring sir Acid and the others if you like; I know Blade will probably be happy to see them. Rosie keeps pouting and mooning over Allen, though, so if he shows up she's likely to come and ruin everything..."
She hesitated at that, looking ashamed. "I don't think I was supposed to say that. I've been hanging around Papa too long..."
-------------------------------------------------
The Repliforce Paragon laboratories in Siren's Call were quite difficult to find, even with West's specific directions. The scientist was taking quite a risk revealing its location to the world, but the truth of the matter was that everything important had been moved from it long ago.
The entrance was that of a bombed-out building, the roof half-caved in. A door from the left-hand hall hung slightly open, and the shimmering of a light blue film was visible. As the door was pulled open, a small device slipped out of hiding on the left - a small, glowing lens, inviting the visitors to register their retinal scan in order to be gained entry.
It seemed West was very fastidious about his security...
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
"Still?" Vern laughed with a toothy grin, "I'd have thought she'd gotten over him a while ago. In any case, no need to worry there - Al's running security for one of our bigger projects right now, so he'll be busy for a while yet. I'm actually headed there myself right now, but I should be done long before this. So unless something comes up in the meantime, count me in."
"Oh, and one more thing." the Krayten remembered, having almost forgotten to ask, "I know that with the Kheldians and all, the situation on your planet's relaxed a bit, but I figured it's better to ask - should I or we be wearing a disguise or is it alright to just come as-is...?"
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((*deep breath* ahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahah Turnip soul transplantation...Diov you have officially made my funny bone crack form overuse.))
"You, dear sir, are a legend. "- nelly. "PIE DOESN'T HAVE TENTACLES!"
Bladewing Draconian lvl 30 KAT/SR scrapper
DarkNinjutsu lvl 50 DM/REG scrapper
Dajoji Hino lvl 50 elm/ela scrapper
Bloody Byakko lvl 20 claws/sr scrapper
"Hey boss, you've got mail," said Mini Bot miliseconds before a huge explosion went off in the distance.
"Think you could choose a better time to remind me?" asked Toy Dispenser as he ducked under a sword swing from a wild looking scrapper.
"Well, it did just sort of pop up," Mini Bot replied as it leapt on top of the scrapper's head and stabbed both tentacle blades into the hero's eyes. The poor [censored] dropped his sword and clutched his eyes while screaming until Toy commanded his subserviant Heavy Blaster to skewer the poor guy.
As the hero faded away due to his mediporter activating, Toy took the brief pause in the battle to face Mini Bot squarely and put his hands on his hips.
"Ok, what is it?"
"Something from ten years ago, boss," Mini Bot answered. "But since I just noticed it, I think it was sent out recently. There are some other e-mails from the same guy soon after the first one, but I'm ignoring them cause I don't want to break casuality again."
"Good to hear you learned your lesson from the first time," Toy muttered as he accessed his e-mail account and read Dr. West's message. "Huh. A meeting of the minds, eh? I can't say I'm that much of a scientist but I suppose I am damn smart."
"Comes with the territory, boss," Mini Bot as it nervously watched a tanker forcing her way through the nearby mob of Arachnos toward Toy's position.
"I suppose we ought to go and check it out," Toy mused as he absently directed the Heavy to take the tanker out. "After all, we've got this iteration of the dimension firmly in our grasp."
"We're leaving then?" Mini Bot said hopefully.
"Yep," Toy answered. "Round up the others and we can get going."
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!" Mini Bot shouted as it jumped up and down, performing a cartwheel to slip between two Bane Spiders as it ran off to find the other bots and help them disengage.
"Should be interesting," Toy said as he flicked his hand at a blaster who had appeared behind him, trapping the rifle-wielding hero in an impenetrable detention field. As he waited, he commanded his Heavy to sit on top of the bubble so that the hero couldn't go anywhere. Once the field ran out of power ten seconds later, the air was filled with spurting blood and quickly stifled screams.
"Very interesting indeed," Toy Dispenser repeated as he and his bots left Recluse's Victory for the real world.
************************************************
"I am perfectly willing not to shoot bad guys if they don't shoot at me....or shoot anyone else while I'm around....or do anything villainous like blackmailing or something," Solid said. "And anyway I'd mostly be going for Essex. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many disciples of Pedobear on the other side of the fence, if you know what I mean."
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.
Sheldon hesitated for a brief moment, but figured it was the best chance he had to seeing what all of this was about. he raised his shades and put his eye to the ocular receiver. He calmly allowed the laser to read his eye, despite the minor blindness.
"Now what?" Ryat99 asked as the inventor backed away from the reader and stepped behind the tank.
"I'm not sure if West has my retina pattern in his database... Unless of course he has access to medical records..."
Ryat99 made a grunted sound and his heavy combat armor clacked out of his chassis. This was further reinforced by a thick layer of ice armor riddled with nanites. The machine spread his arms out and started shaking his head.
"Godammit... Why must everything have so many variables?"
"Thanks for being my shield..." Sheldon chuckled a little.
"You didn't give me much of a choice in the matter, boss."
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
[ QUOTE ]
The Repliforce Paragon laboratories in Siren's Call were quite difficult to find, even with West's specific directions. The scientist was taking quite a risk revealing its location to the world, but the truth of the matter was that everything important had been moved from it long ago.
The entrance was that of a bombed-out building, the roof half-caved in. A door from the left-hand hall hung slightly open, and the shimmering of a light blue film was visible. As the door was pulled open, a small device slipped out of hiding on the left - a small, glowing lens, inviting the visitors to register their retinal scan in order to be gained entry.
It seemed West was very fastidious about his security...
[/ QUOTE ]
"Thith perthon theems to be vthery fathtidiouth about hith thecurity..." Igor grumbled as he and the longbow zombie tromped through the ruins of Eastern Siren's call, looking for the place.
He reached into his hand for the pocket digital-map he had made of the place, it would have his goal marked with a little star. What he pulled out instead was the old leathery map of the place that had come into being after the dital map had been placed in his kit. His goal was marked with a little red X.
Scowled as much as his scarred face would allow, Igor hunched the remaining distance to the door, which was already slightly open. He pushed the thing all the way in.
*CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAK!*
The retinal scanner lowered, and Igor, after musing over the device a little, reached into his kit and pulled out his eyes from six hundred years ago. He had never gotten them re-registered so he found it handy to keep them lying around. After giving both of them a quick sheen, he pressed them into the retinal scanner and waited.
"Halt." Jake shouted as he and the division he currently lead came within about a hundred yards of the destination. Jake double checked his GPS, which assuredly informed him that the location he was staring at was indeed the rendezvous(sp?) point for the meeting of the minds. He looked back at the group of soldiers he had, counting three Crab Spiders, five Bane Spiders and roughly ten Wolf Spiders.
I suppose he could've given me less and gotten away with it. He thought nonchalantly, turning back to the decimated buildilng.
"Alright," He announced to the men, "I, among many others, will be in that building there." He gestured to the wrecked building, taking care to make sure everyone was positive on the location. "You are to stan outside and guard. If anyone tries to force their way in, kill them. However, be sure to inqurie whether or not they're here for the meeting or not. It will do us no good to kill one of our own. Are you clear on your orders?"
A resounding 'Yes, sir!' sounded throughout the area as Jake and the group approached the buildling.
"Hello there," Ryat99 said to Igor's back, "My boss here already tried that... We're kind of waiting for the security to react."
"You might want to step back hee-" Sheldon noticed Igor's protean monstrosity shamble into the building, "Well... Now I see why we're here."
"I can take it if you can, boss," the android muttered, its arms still extended into a near perfect "T."
"There's time for scruples and unflinching morality later and with different individuals," Sheldon replied, "For now... Greetings. I am Sheldon Wallace."
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
"Greetingth mathter." Igor said, taking a very low bow. "I am Igor."
Lightning flashed in the distance. There were no clouds in the sky and it was still daytime.
"While we are waiting, would you like anything? Food? Drinkth? Thpare parth? Health clone? Death ray of undithernable purpothe?"
The Longbow zombie walked right up to Sheldon, and breathed in his face with foul breath that smelled of formaldahyde and negative energy. "Blargh!" It said.
"No..." Wallace replied in answer to all of Igor's suggestions, "Just.. Please call off your protean... To be quite frank, it disgusts me... And that formaldehyde certainly didn't help matters."
Ryat99 put a hand on the zombie's shoulder and gently pushed it toward Igor.
"There ya go," the android muttered, "No need to... Does that thing have a robot arm? Wow, that's odd."
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
((Please let me get the intro posts written before posting. :3 I shall open it up at the end of them, I promise. The first few posts are just kind of story-ish.))
"Crimson Drill Alpha, active! Peony Lambda 42UA Security Sequence Initiated!"
The halls of Repliforce Paragon shuddered as security sequences went into full force in abundance. Huge walls, several feet thick, closed off entire wings as Dr. Daniel West sat in the nerve center of the facility, coldly watching the monitors before him.
Radiation tore through the halls, specifically calibrated to drop any organic being while leaving inorganics alone. EMP cannons of a particular freqency were dispatched, and robotic guns and defense mechanisms slammed into place.
Ginstar, the purple and green reploid, and Delphi, the orange and green prototype, zipped around the perimeter of the nerve center with their respective weaponry systems at the ready. The two were built for speed, and so they made blinding circles about the large room.
Burner and Genki both stood at the Doc's sides, one a monolith of quiet determination and the other bouncing frantically from one foot to another.
"Where is Essex." West asked, typing calmly. It wasn't a question.
"She was just coming back from school, if I recall correctly..." Genki murmured a little. "She doesn't seem harmed, though, the intercommunication link is still open. She's just not responding."
"...Probably sequestered somewhere, Doc." Burner said, resting a heavy hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry 'bout it none."
"You're right." West said, standing. "There are other things to worry about at the moment." The doctor's face turned grim as his gaze narrowed through his glasses. "How on earth was anyone able to permeate our outer defenses? I thought I had covered every contingency."
The answer to his question was a shuddering explosion in the side of the nerve center. Delphi and Ginstar screeched to a halt, and Burner took aim at West's side. Genki's blades extended with an audible sssshink noise and he leapt in front of the main desk.
Suddenly, the sound of metal being compromised was heard from outside, and West set his chin. "Remind me to thicken these walls with a better alloy." he growled as he slowly reached for his laser pistol. The scientist cursed himself for leaving his large assault rifle outside.
A gaping hole exploded inward, the metal crying out with a final protest as it peeled inward. Ginstar and Delphi immediately leapt into action, the prototype bot rushing in with her long blade and Ginstar taking a secondary position to bombard them with powerful sonic resonations.
The two were quickly overrun, however, as three rather small robots literally ran over Delphi, overpowering her quickly, and two medium-sized robots encasing Ginstar in what looked like a pair of dispersement fields facing one another - nothing could penetrate the inside or the outside, and the android was basically trapped.
West's eyes narrowed.
"I suppose you were never any good at knocking." he called out towards the hole, his right hand on his gun. His left moved out to the side in a signal to tell the other androids to hold.
Smoke poured through the gaping hole in the side of the nerve center, and they could see a huge, hulking figure bearing a red eye-strip practically filling the breach...and much farther down, the glow of a single ultraviolet diode.
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace