Weird Science (Unionverse Open RP)

((Posters circulates both the Etoile Isles and Paragon City town centers and the Internet, inviting all science-lovers to Aeon University's 'Weird Science' biannual academic convention, 6PM on Saturday 26th at the Cap Au Diable University. Your character may have been passing by when he or she notices it.))

((Poster art by @Bunny. Amazing job! Wasn't expecting anything this intricate. LOL. Feel free to post up reactions pre-Saturday guys. Enjoy))

"Tut tut!"

Doctor Wilhelmina Edna Coyote stared at the poster slapped across a wall opposite her apartment building in Cap Au Diable.

"Sloppy writing. Still, you can't expect a poster writer to be as intelligent as a scientist... such as my self."

She adjusted her lab goggles, smoothing down strands of frizzy grey hair which had escaped from the tight bun she wore on her head. The mature scientist fished a compact and lipstick out of her tatty black leather handbag, and proceeded to apply. Where the waxy lipstick met flesh, there was a brief sizzling followed by the faint smell of lavender and chloraform.

"Oh poot! Looks like I'm going to have to have another tune up. I can't very well be kissing delegates and burning their flesh!"

She gave a short, sharp cough and turned her attention from freshening up to making a date in her calendar. This involved putting the compact away and retrieving a bulky device which looked similar to a cellphone from the early '80s.

"Dr Coyote calling The Workshop! Please confirm my appointments for..." she checked the poster again, "the 26th of June, at 6pm."

There followed a series of bleeps and the sound of metal grating on metal.

"You have no appointments, USERNAME."

She sighed and was about to confirm the date when the robotic voice chirped,

"You NEVER have any appointments."

"Yes, thank you CHIPS! Remind me to reprogramme your sarcasm protocols when I return. And confirm the appointment."

Whirrs and clicks followed. After several minutes, Doctor Coyote sighed.

"Please!"

"Appointment confirmed. Where is this appointment taking place?"

Without thinking, Doctor Coyote replied.

"Cap Au Daible."

"Cap Au Daible does not exist, is hidden, or is not online at the moment."

Doctor Coyote grunted. "Just put down the University! And that reminds me - I must update your custom dictionary. Doctor Coyote out."

The woman replaced the bulky handset and fished out another object: it was a large picture in a frame, signed in an illegible script. She gently kissed it, causing the plastic cover to bubble, and placed it back in her handbag.

"Soon, my love. Soon you'll know who I am."

And with that, Doctor Coyote strolled dreamily to the ferry.

Doctor Mechan sat within the confines of his secret, illicitly funded stronghold of solitude.

'How long has it been since that moment ... since those black-clad, alternate Longbow minions nearly killed me?'

Ever since that fateful moment nearly 11 years ago today, Dr. Mechan never would've thought of himself as a common criminal. It wasn't until the operation that turned Dr. Elias Matthews, a once peaceful, brilliant and seemingly over-exhuberant young scientist working for Portal Corps; into the criminally insane, highly unstable, beyond genius level now known and feared as Doctor Mechan. Sure, he had made a full recovery from that operation. Of course, Portal Corps, hell, ALL of Paragon City welcomed him back. That still didn't derail the plans, schemes, and other nefarious plots and perhaps the very dark and untimely fate that would befall the once good doctor. Assigned menial tasks at work, passed over for promotions that should've rightly been his, erratic behavior, and perhaps worst of all: a sudden, unexpected amount of free time, perhaps even excessive free time; to be distracted by the shortcomings of an inferior design that he was supposed to live with for the rest of his life. Whatever the case for his decent into madness:
He would begin his own procedures while still working for Portal Corps: Constantly adjusting, rewiring, reprogramming every single bit of machinery that would soon lead to a revelation: He would need to construct a new cybernetic shell for himself, and he would need the help of a one young Dr. Vahzilok (back before he became the feared monstrosity he is today!), assisted by a group of high-level and highly skilled surgeons that operated behind the scenes for a new gang that had just started to appear in Paragon: The Freakshow.

The entire design was his, and his alone. Right down to the neural interfaces and muscular interactors. Every wire, plate, fiber optic, circuit...The Freakshow surgeons & Dr. Vahzilok would simply "install" it for him. After the upgrade operation, Dr. Vahzilok carried out Dr. Matthews' last wish as a human being, his last order as a legally liscenced doctor in the United States, and the first command of the latest horror of the world: the Freakshow-employed surgeons were systematically killed, each and every one of them slaughtered by the one that would soon become a monster himself.

Dr. Mechan didn't regret one single bit of it. Dr. Vahzilok, even at that young age, thoroughly enjoyed his work, and providing him with live subjects seemed to vitalize the would-be madman even more. With this new upgrade, Dr. Mechan would no longer be a welcomed, well-adjusted, fully rehabilitated citizen of Paragon City. He didn't even consider himself human any longer.

Now, eleven years later, he sat, stirring about in a massive complex; this compound built by machines, with materials acquired by ill-gotten gains. Each machine had its own individual purpose. Right down to the very picomachines he personally invented, to better maintain his own mechanical well-being. One section of the complex warehoused a massive, seemingly endless supply of a robotic army. Another portion held the transport bays and teleportation chambers. The walls, floors and ceilings, covered in an impervium alloy he had discovered while assaulting a secret gathering of Freakshow. Various other rooms, chambers, secret areas were scattered about the complex. It was within the confines of the command center, which held a gleeming, immaculate simple steel desk, that Dr. Mechan isolated himself from the inner workings of his sanctuary.

Today, the mechanical menace sat, contemplating a strange invitation. He reviewed the monitors built into the desk. Each one flashed screens of information, each one repeating a picture of a poster that had been plastered about both the Etoile Isles and Paragon City. Then they all flashed back to the invitation:

Dr. Aeon has requested the presence of the 
venerable Doctor Mechan at the Aeon University in Cap Au Diable.

The request comes giving you the honor to serve as a guest judge, 
special commentator and keynote speaker at the behest of 
Lord Recluse himself. All of Arachnos knows of your many 
achievements in many varying fields of science. Lord Recluse 
expects nothing but the finest. Be there.

Black Scorpion

One of his employees had bought him the poster.

Edward was grinning from ear to ear, "it's about time those two Arachnos flunkies got their act together and actually EARNED their Mad Scientist Union cards..."

He turned to Steve, "so...what you would recommend we take as our invention, I can't be taking any of the genetic template stuff, we've already done that and I don't think anything robotic is going to be too special..."

Steve gurgled and blurped...as he usually did.

"Well I can't take you, while yes you are a scientific marvel you're also a one off and we've been friends for quite some time now...you're not a new invention..."

Steve gave what could have been a sigh.

"Look, I'll go through my old inventions that never made it to public usage and I'll see if I can't get the R&D boys to quickly knock something up..."

There was a glare from Steve.

"Alright NOT the washing machine powered death ray, I'll try something else..."

With that Edward felt more inspired to do research than he had been in months, pulling down his goggles with a grin.

"Let's do this!"

He hurried off to find his pile of rejected inventions buried somewhere in the companies archives.

Long Island, New York

A dark and lonely tower far far away from all of civilisation. A pillar of iron girders and steel cables with nothing but glass windows to give away it's structural purpose. This was the secret lab of the very evil Doctor Muffin! "Muahahahaha" came the echoes of maniacal laughter. "Muahahahahahahahaha" he continued, his grey beard jittering in rhythm with his receding long hair, suitably cliché of a mad scientist. "An invite to an actual party? For meeee?" he squealed loudly, tripping on his deep c's and landing hard on his t's with a strong European accent, masked only by his long drooling speech disorder. "Oh how long I have waited for this moment. Our time has finally come my robot minions. Prototype Maim, Prototype Stun, wake up you lazy machines! Prepare the laser-death exterminator and fire up the particle accelerators. We have a contest to win. You hear me? We will finally show the people of this country what is the true meaning of power! And then... we shall take over the woooorrrrllldddd! Muhahahahaha-weeeee hee-hee... hee... Maim, quickly! Get my inhaler!"

The 73% repaired robot stepped carefully around the pile of “spare “parts filling the centre of the basement, and made its way to the work bench. There, one of its fellow bots was undergoing a patch and fix session. The robot's master peered round to see what the days scavenging had unearthed.

“Paper ? ..oh with drawings ..” the current machine form Signa was using took and read the flyer .

“Ooooh new toys, we so must go , Ok team ..break out the metal polish , and get my suit pressed.

Cap Au Diable, Aeon University. Saturday 26th, 17:55.

The upstairs lab was now packed with a crowd of nerds and brainiacs; a sea of white coats comprising of science students and practicing professionals. A few members of the general public dotted around; spotty teenagers, sci-fi loving dads and their young kids. The infamously useless stand-in science lecturer Professor Samuel O'Reilly and the equally dishonourable but credibly mad ex-private and lead inventor Professor James Bright took to the central podium and began tapping away at the flashing computer screens. The two of them would be browsing through the many prototype and experimental inventions now set-up around the lab. They alone would be judging the Master Inventors contest. James was preparing to commentate while Samuel assumed his role of speaking and lecturing to this new audience. The crowd was visibly excited while the mad scientists mostly looked nervous. The event was about to begin.

((Written with Pious by-the-way))

A fumbling old man stumbled through the campus muttering madly to himself while two of his robot machines wobbled along behind him, gingerly balancing a giant metallic contraption only partially concealed under a large white cloth. "Come on, come on" he stuttered, rushing to a set-up spot and urging his bots through the laboratory door. "You lousy piles of scrap metal. It's starting, it's starting! We're going to be laaattee! Come on!"

Edward parked the truck into the parking space that he'd managed to find, "come on...we're going to be late...can't have that..." it seems the one thing in common with all mad scientists was poor time keeping.

Edward had rented the truck..well..not so much rented as stole but you can't make an omelete without breaking a few eggs, he'd return it once he was done.

Steve begun to haul the 'thing' he'd brought with him which was covered by a sheet. Moving into the lab and getting everything setup.

"Wish I'd known about this sooner, was the best I could do on such short notice...lets hope the wiring holds..."

Tap, tap tap tap ... beep, tap tap tap tap ... beep, tap tap tap tap....beep

The coordinates had been inputted. Rising from the sturdy executive chair, Dr. Mechan's clawed feet clanked on the floor as he made his way to the teleportation chamber.

As he reached the chamber, he paused for a few moments. Raising and bending his right arm, his left hand reached over, and again ... tap tap tap tap.

Red lights activated within one of the warehouse rooms. In unison, six of the Doctor's robotic bodyguards were activated and stepping out of their charging stations. With loud, thunderous cracks, they stepped forward. The biggest one activated its comm unit.

"Bzzt...Yeah boss, where to?" the synthesized voice chimed in over Mechan's internal comm system.
"Teleportation chamber, and move it," Dr. Mechan's command cracked back to the assault droid.

While he waited for his personal bodyguards, one more tap activated a large, imposing dispersion field around the mechanized man. Then he saw them approaching.

"Mechaloid, Mechazoid, Mechanoid...no foolish antics today, got me?" his optics focused in on the three small battle bots. "Function, Fixer ... good. Everything in top order?" his synthetic voice queried of the somewhat larger robots standing to the sides of the battle bots.
"Yes Doctor," Fixer's synthesizer chimed in, "Systems optimal, shields set," then Function's synthesizer cut in, "Operating parameters set to default, executing all standard functions."
"I really HATE it when you do that, Function," Dr. Mechan retorted, "Now, c'mon, start moving onto the pad. MOVE! Ah, Breaker..." he trailed off as he looked up at his impervium alloy-clad enforcer. "Hold up, open access panel." Mechan tapped a couple buttons hidden beneath the access panel of the assault bot. "There. Close access panel." With a woosh, the access panel slid down, thunking back into place.
"Yeah boss, thanks ... systems report a tune up will be due in two weeks," the booming voice of the assault bot informed the Doctor. "Where we headin' to, anyway?"
Of all the robots, Breaker reminded Mechan more and more of a childhood robot he had created. "Nowhere in particular, just some convention at the Aeon University. All thanks to that ... snnnrkkkt, you know who."
"Oh, Black Scorpion, the BS robot, boss?" Breaker's 'nickname' for Lord Recluse's technological expert seemed appropriate to Mechan. His synthesizer let out its best approximation of a chuckle as possible.
"Yeah, that fool. Now c'mon, time's awasting. Up onto the platform you go!" he motioned his robotic entourage. As they all clanked and clattered around on the teleportation pod, Dr. Mechan tapped a couple buttons on the console as he stepped between the metal mass of bodies. With a flash of light, their particles were scattered, collected and then transmitted via an ultrahigh frequency of light.

Cap Au Diable
The sudden appearance and loud thundering clunks of the robotic force was becoming more and more a common sight these days, but what wasn't too surprising was the sight of six robots surrounding a smaller, somewhat skinnier appearing man. Even though this time it seemed there were seven robots, the people on the streets all knew who he was: Doctor Mechan, a force to be reckoned with in his own right, the mechanical menace himself. The passerbys steered well clear of him. Several Luddite archers, surrounding one of their preachers, began approaching him, obviously against their better judgement.

"You! You mechanical devil!" they shouted as one, two of the archers staying behind the rest as they drew crossbows from the belts of their outfits...
"Oh, big mistake," Breaker's mechanical voice broadcasted over the built-in speakers. A volley of incendiary missiles launched from the racks atop the robots shoulders, taking the entire group by surprise, but more importantly...
"Seeing as how you guys don't like technology," Dr. Mechan broke into conversation, "guess you guys will be making a trip to the morgue instead othe ICU..."
With horrible looks on their faces, the group of Luddite monks burned to death in mere moments.
"C'mon boys, lets not ruin the paintjobs already," the command crackled over the internal comm systems built into all of them. With that, Dr. Mechan activated his built-in jump accelators, arriving at the University in just a few leaps. Standing at the back door to the University, Dr. Mechan awaited for the auto-porters to kick in on his droids. Mechaloid, Mechazoid and Fixer were the only three to arrive that way.
'Sigh, always having to wait for at least two of them!' A couple minutes later, the rest of his robotic minions arrived. "About time! What'd you three get into, site seeing? Souvenir shopping? Get your servos in gear now!"

With that, Dr. Mechan entered the university, already abuzz with activity. He made his way up the stairs, following what appeared to be some haphazard, lackadaisical student. Breaker promptly clutched the student by the collar, tossing the now frightened out-of- his-wits kid over the railing.
"Out of the way, beatnik," the bot's speaker jettisoned the words out as if it were a cannon firing off its shot. "Next time you will move with a purpose!"
Stepping into the upper labatory of the university, Dr. Mechan purused the surroundings. Professor Bright, and who was this - Professor O'Reilly from the city?...were standing at the podium. The mastermind approached the podium, handing Professor Bright the Arachnos insignia stamped invitation.
"Professor Bright, always a dishonor," The Doctor handed over the invitation. "Lord Recluse and his cronies ordered me to attend this ... gathering on behalf of Arachnos. You will extend all respect and courtesy to me as if Lord Recluse himself were here, understand?" The index finger of his robotic claw extended out, then a weird sound echoed through the lab. Suddenly, he held the digit upwards, and the arachnos insignia appeared above his head; the holographic lightshow illuminating the labatory in an eerie, red glow signifying the dominance of the terrorist group over what the island residents affectionately referred to as the Rogue Isles.

Edward looked deeply peeved...

"Who let the Arachnos flunkie in?!"

"This is a Mad Scientist Union convention...Arachnos have no jurastiction here and no, I CERTAINLY wont afford you the one courtesy I afford old spideylegs and that's a tithe of the profits my factory make, I was told there was only to be two judges...highly respected judges at that, I demand to know why these last minute changes have gone into effect..."

"Brothers of science, rally to me, let us turf this interefering Arachnos interloper out on the street!"

Edward aka Dr Mechano, always did have a flair for the dramatic.

Meanwhile, on the streets of Cap Au Daible - uh, sorry, Cap Au Diable...

"Fire! Damnation!"

A bald man dressed in a grubby tunic thrust a flyer at the slightly-out-of-breath figure of Doctor Coyote.

"Repent! See the wicked error of your ways, citizen!"

Doctor Coyote looked flustered - she was running late and, because she was attending a very public event, she had decided to wear the catsuit. Back in the '60s, when she was a young scientist, the catsuit had seemed like a good idea. She had found employment with an International Crime Syndicate and, as a lab assistant to one of the greatest Mad Scientists operating at the time, she felt she needed to look the part. Nowadays, however, a lot of corsetry was required: A lot of corsetry that tended to make her feel light-headed and precluded running for more than two minutes.

"Eh... excuse me?" she panted

"Doctor Aeon! Cap Au Diable! The monster that lurks beneath that will consume us all!" the Luddite Friar replied, as if this was explanation enough.

Doctor Coyote looked at the flyer in her hand, then she looked up to the zealous face of the Friar, then she looked back down to the flyer. She shook her head. The Friar's hard-set features softened into surprise - perhaps he'd finally found someone who would stand and talk about the evils of Aeon Corp?!

A mechanical voice sprang from inside Doctor Coyote's 'going out' bag.

"Come on fatso! You should have been there twenty five minutes ago!"

Doctor Coyote grimaced. She crumpled the poorly-produced flyer in her hand. She could feel the gall rising in her, quite literally. With a moment's consideration she spat on the ball, making a very toxic projectile which she flung on the floor. It began to burn into the concrete. The Friar went from excited to infuriated in an equally short space of time.

"Infidel! You're as bad as Aeon!"

He drew his sword but Coyote was in no mood for a pitched street battle. With some considerable practised effort she swung at the side of the Friar's head. Her bag, which to the Friar felt like it was lined with impervium, hit home hard. He fell to the floor, not dead but with the need for some kind of medical assistance. Luckily for him, a patrolling group of Luddites approached.

Doctor Coyote, pleased with her literal strike against the anti-Mad Science movement, wasted no time in picking up the felled Friar's sword. She turned on her heels and ran. The University sprung into view. She was going to make it!

Leeches hummed to herself as she casually got to work making yet another cyborg zombie when one of her scientists barged in, she glared at the scientist who jumped back a little.

"What is it?

Then she saw the poster he was holding and looked at it. She smirked and put down her tools.

"A science convention, why didnt you say so, but thats today, you fool quick to storage!

She hurried to her storage area to see if there was anything she could take, mobile clone lab, no that was too top secret, Cyborg zombies? No too common or at least not strange enough. The doom weed? No, needed to be something pratical. The she smiled oh yes, yes that would do nicely, this would show them all oh yes.

Then she hurried to the university flying and carrying a large box, she landed at the doorway and said to her armour.

"Configuration nine bussiness suit!

Then ther was a click and a flash and she was in a black skirt and blouse and jacket and she calmly walked inside and got set up on a spare table in the universitys lab. She saw a rather heated argument spring up but didn't pay much attention she was in a rush, finally she took a deep breath. It was done and she was about to revolutionise medical science. Let the others try but her genius would outshine them all.

Cap Au Diable, Aeon University. Saturday 26th, 18:00.

As the Arachnos scientist made his way out, Professor Samuel O'Reilly loaded up a slideshow presentation cataloguing the various scientific works of the University students. "Good evening all and welcome to the Weird Science Biannual Academic Convention" he announced. "The projection behind me shows the wide array of brilliant inventions built by the young minds of this University. Before we begin the main event; our Master Inventor contest sponsored by Dr Geist and Dr Forrester, allow me to showcase the works of our six top students. Unlike the unveiled scientific marvels before us, these are of course only theoretical."

"First up is Master Chang..." he continued, the gallery of work from the six top students went on for about half an hour, stirring applause and silent debates.

((Since this plot may carry on in-game on the Union Server, I spoke to Kyzock and he's stepping out.))

((Not like you left me much choice. Since NOW you're declaring this thread corresponds with in-game stuff, this final post will strictly remain an OOC comment. It's also obvious, from here on out, that ANYTHING with the words (Unionverse Open RP) is strictly (Unionverse "Closed" RP) and that not just any forum goers can participate in them. I've never had any such reception as I have had with this one thread, the IM, the general "get out of 'our' thread" attitude. Oh well. On that note, I take my leave. Yes, I'm leaving Dr. Mechan exactly where he was last spotted: He's mearly observing now as far as you're all concerned.))

Sgna maintained a low profile , lurking amid the clutter of journalists and reporters.
A pair of expensive sunglasses hiding his electonic eyes , as they drank in the data on display.

His glove covered robotic hands snatched up any offered leaflets and promotional flyers, as he slowly circled tthe hall, stopping briefly at each display.Even the halls lighting warrented a close inspection.

Signa , found a nice wall to lean upon as the slideshow started.....

Once the showcasing was done the projection flickered off and Professor Samuel O'Reilly took to the microphone once again. "Our young geniuses everybody!" he said, cueing applause. "We now invite our mastered scientists to unveil their practical works of wonder! We'll move round in a clockwise fashion and let the inventors have the microphones. Remember, we're marking the winners on originality, creativity and most innovative concept. Your inventions must be complete, workable and well articulated. Entries will also be judged on their potential value to society; socially, environmentally or economically, and on the scope of use. James and I will be judging, decisions will be final. The winning invention will be supported financially by our sponsors from Aeon Corp. Over to you Doctors!"

((Its no longer an issue. Leave it to PM's and lets continue with the plot please.))

A door burst open and the panting, heaving, red-faced, and heavily-corseted figure of Doctor Wilhelmina Edna Coyote fell through the doorway.

"Uh, wrong door?"

The 'space' looked like a utility cupboard, only bigger. There was a distinct smell of bleach.

Another door opened. It was the burly figure of The Janitor. He smirked.

"You on the list?"

Doctor Coyote nodded. Slowly.

"You Mad Scientist types don't talk so good. Or play. You missed the junior talent contest." There was a suggestive tone added to every other word. If Coyote had been twenty- okay thirty - okay thirty-five years younger...

"Thank you. And thank goodness. I've never been good at masking my abject indifference to young people. Especially science students..."

Doctor Coyote clambered to her feet. There was a pinging noise. She dashed through the open doorway, muttering a thank you. Time was running out!

Signa adjusted the hang of his crisp white jacket, fiddled with the contents of the left pocket, and then made a slow move towards the rest rooms, which given his fully robotic head, did draw the odd odd look.

Signa exited the rest room just at the exact time to see the newly formed dust , that had been Doctor Muffin's machine, collapse into a small heap.

He stared at the dust for a moment, and was about to start clapping, when he saw the Doctor's dejected face. Passing the clap off as a unaimed wave to a someone in the crowd,Signa move rapidly to hide once more within the crowded of reporters and other note takers ...

Ping!

Doctor Coyote made it to the assembly hall to witness the destruction of Muffin's machine. She facepalmed.

"Oh Doctor Muffin, when will you learn?!" she muttered, in an animated way, to nobody in particular.

The ambient temperature in the room was hotter than usual.

Ping!

Panicked, Doctor Coyote tried to raise her voice above the murmuring crowd.

"I have arrived!"

A few spectators at the back looked round to see a middle-aged, red-faced woman in an ill-fitting catsuit.

"For it is I, Doctor Wilhelmina Edna Coyote!! And I insist on going next!!!" she struck what she thought was a dramatic pose, and then produced a ray gun from her handbag. The device could easily have passed for a hairdryer with bits on.

Being a Mad Scientist was, in Doctor Coyote's opinion, as much about style.

Ping!