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Offline Wyrd

Joren looked at Cornelius for a few seconds with a blank look on his icy face before he finally could say something. "Where to then? I we need to get down I could make a slide going down the elevator shaft." 

Offline Starlequin

~Quantum Urbs, Gorditz District~

'Guys, I don't think we're doing this right.' 'And you're an expert all of a sudden?' 'No, but all I'm saying is maybe we should stop and think this through before we try the interrogation thing again. I'm pretty sure we're not supposed to kill them until after we ask them questions.' 'No, no, no. We're supposed to kill one, then ask the others the questions.' 'I thought we were supposed to only leave one alive to ask questions?' 'Whatever! My point is, we can't just kill them all, because then we won't have anyone left to ask!'

The Cherubim had been working on their interrogation techniques for hours. Picking off stragglers from larger groups proved rather easy, but things quickly got complicated after that. Andiun suggested they try shooting their victims in their external limb joints to encourage cooperation. Soriun argued that they'd get better results if they asked nicely first, then shot them. Mikiun was no help at all; whenever a victim was cornered he tried to swoop in before the others could stop him and dismember them with a small laser scalpel he kept in his emergency response kit. Soriun was almost positive Mikiun was suffering the effects of some sort of virus or programming flaw, as he kept swinging the scalpel in random directions and shouting at the biologics such things as "Don't worry, I'm a professional!", "Open your mouth and say 'Ahh'!", and "I promise, this won't hurt a bit!". They tried to make him stop; the combatants weren't responding well at all. More often than not, they simply passed out before any questions could be asked.

Tracer rounds streaked past, lighting the night sky with blinding flashes of magnesium oxate. Smoke hung oppressively in the air, and explosions rocked the surrounding buildings every few minutes. Emergency sirens wailed in the distance, offering false promises of hope and safety, and the streets stank of death and fear. The drones drifted lazily among the chaos, their light-refracting stealth systems allowing them to blend in almost seamlessly with the scenery. Occasionally a rocket or stray bullet would nick their personal security perimeters, and they would turn as one toward the errant weapon's source and unload screaming, invisible death on their unwitting attackers. It was the most fun they'd had in months.

'OK, OK. Let's go try this again. We're bound to get it right eventually,' Andiun said. Mikiun giggled and swiped his scalpel through the empty air, and Soriun sighed as he searched desperately through his files for anything marked "patience".

~Quantum Urbs, Medellin District~

Cody and Isaac crept quietly through the war-torn streets, sticking close to the shadows and away from the smoldering fires that sputtered and sparked in patches. Etriun hovered close by, leading them through a maze of city side streets and back alley paths that scans indicated were the emptiest. They hadn't spoken much since Cody grabbed his jacket and the three of them had evacuated Benson's apartment. Cody had wanted to run upstairs and warn the elderly couple that lived above him to get out too, but before he could reach the stairwell, the apartment building was hit with another explosion. From the feel of the shockwaves, Etriun estimated the blast had come from upstairs. Cody wanted to continue upwards, but Isaac had grabbed his shirt tail between his teeth and held him back. Finally, he assented and left with the dog and drone; hopefully, the old folks had already made it out, but if they hadn't, at least they'd been together in the end.

As the trio ducked down another alley, Cody stopped and leaned against the wall, looking up at Etriun. " you know what's going on? What all the fighting is about?" The little Cherubim swiveled around and focused on Cody. "Negative. The only chatter on the unencrypted channels indicate that a war has broken out between the government and unknown paramilitary forces, and that several thousand children are being forcibly extracted by both factions for purposes undisclosed. Unfortunately, it seems some of my circuits are still damaged; I can't access the encrypted networks. And I still can't raise my squadron!" "Well, I'm sure they're out looking for you, right? So don't worry about it. We'll find them, Etriun." "Yeah, you're probably--Hey!" "What is it?" "I just had an idea about how to signal my squad! Wait here, I'll be back in a couple hours." "Wait! You said your circuits are damaged; how are you going to contact them?" Etriun giggled and spun a 360. "Oh, don't worry about that. They'll get this message!" He said as he pointed his nose cone straight up and blasted out of the alley.

Offline DunnuckTopic starter

Cornelius glanced at Joren with a smile. "Yes. Make the slide down the elevator shaft, but be sure that it curves around in circles like a spiral staircase, and make sure that there are some moments for it to slow during the drop. We don't want to break our legs. From there, we head outside and fight our way to the west wing." He explained.

Gabriel and Jayden

While Gabriel talked with Gwin, Jayden made his way downstairs to a room. Gabriel caressed Gwin's beautiful face, locking eyes with her. "It will be a night to remember." Gabriel whispered to her, drawing in a deep kiss. He pushed her softly onto the bed, following onto her and ripping off his shirt. He glared down at her with passionate eyes.


Alice was hanging onto Luke foolishly. She was completely drunk. She laughed wildly, leaning on Luke, her breasts almost completely out of her shirt by then. She noticed this, pulling the shirt up a little bit. Her exotic eyes locked with his momentarily as she sat on his lap. "You're not half bad, Luke." She slurred.

Offline Starlequin

Luke wrapped an arm around Alice, holding her tight against him to make sure she didn't slide to the ground. His other hand held the dwindling bottle of Ex Tenrio between them, and he leaned his forehead against hers, the bottle between their lips. One leg kicked up slightly, jostling her body against his and making her giggle again. "No, no, angel. I'm not half bad at all. I'm very much all bad," he said, giggling drunkenly as well.

Offline DunnuckTopic starter

The night was over and the next monring had come. Cornelius and Joren had went down the elevator shaft and exited out into open combat. Being in another part of Quantum Urbs, it was still dark there as opposed to nihon urbs where the daylight schedule is normal. Conelius and Joren had bee overwhelmed, and they held up in an experiment hangar, waiting to make their way to their destination.

Alice and Luke had both fallen asleep and Gwin and Gabriel had their fun while Jayden slept in his own rooms. The children and their leaders quickly adapted, becoming independent rather fast.

Offline Starlequin

The first thing Luke noticed was the throbbing ache in his skull. The second was that the weight on his chest was making it a little hard to breathe. He opened one eye and found himself staring at a much closer ceiling than he remembered. The swimming tile pattern was new, too. He shut his eye and sucked in a slow, deep breath, conscious of soft puffs of warm air hitting his neck and a strange tickling feeling on his face. Both eyes shot open for about a quarter second before squinting shut again, the sudden influx of light sending flares of agony through his brain. He stirred and felt the weight shift, a groggy moan reaching his dazed ears. His eyes opened slower this time, and Luke looked down to see a mop of wild, blond hair spilled across his cheeks. He eased himself up into a sitting position, carefully holding Alice in his arms as he sat up on the bar where the pair had fallen asleep. He glanced down at the empty bottle clutched in his hand, and his eyes swiveled to Alice's milky-white thighs straddled over his waist. There were worse ways to wake up.

'Damn. Seriously, I have got to find out where she got this.' Luke pushed his shades up onto his forehead and rubbed his eyes tenderly. 'Nirvana? Can you-' Before he could complete the thought he felt the medichines activating, metabolizing the alcohol and ridding it from his body. He appreciated the relief, but was a little disappointed that 'Ana still wasn't speaking to him and idly wondered what he'd have to do to earn her forgiveness. In a matter of seconds, his head cleared and the lights stopped trying to turn his brain into sushi. He pulled out an empty syringe and plunged the needle into his thigh, withdrawing a few CCs of blood, and injected it into Alice's stomach to allow the medichines to detox her as well. He tapped her gently on the shoulder to wake her.

"Wakey wakey, kitten. I think we're going to war today..."

Offline DunnuckTopic starter

Gabriel shook Gwin awake. Today was the day. He stood up and stretched, a knock on the door welcoming him to reality. He opened it and there stood Jayden. "We are going to leave in a few hours. Be ready." He said. Gabriel turned back to Gwin. "Gwin..." He whispered, trying to rouse her awake.

Alice woke up to Luke's voice. She looked up at him, slightly confused. She looked down at herself, realizing her skirt was pushed up a bit past her bottom. Had they...? "Did we...?" She asked, slightly m
nervous yet slightly teasing.

Cornelius shook Joren awake. They had slept again for a few hours. The battle actually began escalating. Rumbles could be heard from outside, as well as gunfire. "Joren, are you ready to continue? The time has almost come. We need to secure our safety so you can live to kill Gabriel. We need to reach archives."

Offline Gwindolyn

Gwin woke to Gabriel's call.  She woke with a smile to see his face, to hear his voice.  The night had been glorious.  They had shared such passion and love.  They had shared themselves completely.

It wasn't long until she realized it was the day of war.  War!  She sat upright, bolted upright is more the correct term.  She looked at him and said.  "We have forces.  I will wake them."  She opened her mind and woke the soldiers in her control.  Getting them up and prepared for battle.  They would provide a nice distraction as they snuck through the bullets to the heart of the place.  She looked in her closet for fighting gear.  Leather pants with belts and boots.  A tight, long-sleeve, leather top.  Daggers attached already.  She stops for a moment and Jake helps her access that set of memories.  She begins to stretch as she ties her hair into a long black blade. 

She wasn't ready for this.  Her powers had been hers for a very long time and yet for only a couple of days.  She needed to work with them.  She didn't have time to.  She would be riding this bicycle for the first time in a very long time.  She hoped she could get the feel back fast enough to gain the goal.

Offline DunnuckTopic starter

OOC: Later this day, the war begins. Bring your A game. A lot of stuff is planned to go down.

Offline DunnuckTopic starter

"Jenny, where is my sword?" he asked. "Closet." he went over to the second closet, retrieving his blade. It was thin and elegant, with a blue blade. It was weighted nicely and expertly crafted. Gabriel exited the room to Jayden still standing there. "You want your gear?" he asked him. "Yeah...yeah I do." Gabriel said. The mansion rumbled , causing all who were standing to fall from their feet. Gabriel crashed against the ground, dazzed and confused. There was another loud, huge shake that caused the tv to fall from where it sat, breaking against the ground. There was a loud sound, almost like a haunting foghorn that sounded, then the rumbling grew more intense. "What the hell is this!?" Gabriel shouted, surprised. The wall exploded into a flurry of splinters, knocking Gwin down to the ground and sending Gabriel and Jayden flying back into the wall. The foghorn sounded again, causing debris to fall. Dust took to the air, making visibility a thing of the past. Gabriel rushed forward, grabbing Gwin by the hand and helping her up to her feet just before pulling her along into a sprint. "Get the kids to the wine cellar NOW." Jenny yelled at Nirvana. Something punched through the hallway wall, straight through the opposite side just behind them, causing them to tumble forward a bit but not fall. They continued to run, the hallway behind them becoming shredded lumber behind them.

As they turned the corner, something smashed through the ceiling in front of them, forcing them in the other direction. "Jenny! What happened to the defenses!?" She asked. "They're offline, I don't know why!" She screamed in a panic. There was a silence as they reached a dead end with nothing but Shoji screens. Gabriel glanced around, the terrible instinct kicking in. In the heat of the moment, he pulled Jayden and Gwin down to the ground, bullets ripping past where they once were horizontally from all directions. They three covered their heads as the loud gunfire surrounded them. Eventually it came to a halt. "They are coming...get ready." He whispered.

Offline Starlequin

A slow, deep breath escaped him as the pounding in his head finally dwindled to nothing, and Luke couldn't help but chuckle at Alice's abashed expression. He shrugged softly as he pushed himself up on one arm, pushing her back a little on his chest.

"I don't know. Does it matter?" He asked, one hand steadying her on the shoulder as the medichines cleansed her system. He helped her to the floor and swung his legs off, sitting on the smooth, cool counter top. As he started to push off, the entire building began to rumble, sending vibrations throughout the floor, the walls, everything. Luke was very nearly jostled to the ground, and grabbed the edges of the bar to hold himself steady. 'Um, 'Ana? Did you maybe rewire my head while I was out, or--' 'Something is attacking the dojo, Luke. I don't know what, I don't know who, and I can't find anything on satellites. It's like the whole place is being ripped apart by an army of ghosts!' 'Hm. That's original; I don't think we've ever fought ghosts bef-' 'Luke! Down!'

Without thinking, Luke threw himself on top of Alice and dragged her to the floor as bullets shredded the walls above the bar. He cursed inwardly as the sound of bottles shattering reached his ears, and swore to himself that whoever was behind this attack would die twice if they spilled his new favorite liquor. Jenny's voice pierced into Luke's mind as she ordered Nirvana to direct the children to safety. Luke and 'Ana exchanged a mental look. 'What the fuck? We just woke up to bullets for breakfast and she wants us to fucking babysit?' 'Perhaps she is unaware of our current predicament. I will inform her immediately so she can explore more feasible options.'

As the rounds screamed overhead, Luke couldn't help noticing the overly formal tone in Nirvana's words, and it troubled him in a way he couldn't quite express. 'Nirvana? Are you still upset with me? Is it about Jayden? Or last night with Alice? I'm pretty sure we didn't do anything...' 'Negative. I have simply realized that you have come to depend on me far too much, Luke, and I have decided our relationship should be strictly professional from now on. Therefore, our interactions will be limited to matters of basic necessity.' Luke paused as he dug through his pockets, searching for his penknife. 'You don't mean that, 'Ana. You can't. You know what will happen if I'm left on my own...'

'You won't be alone, Luke. I'll still be here, regulating your consciousness and performing all my normal functions. But I've realized that I was only ever meant to be used as a tool, nothing more. Like a cast on a broken limb.' Luke's fingers fumbled with the knife, and he pulled it from the pocket between his first two digits. Splinters from the wall rained down on Luke's back as he sheltered Alice from the attack. 'Dammit, you know what I mean, 'Ana. You're talking about leaving me alone in my head. About never speaking to me again. Hell, you're talking about cutting the last tie I have to my humanity. Oh, sure, you'll keep me sane, I'll still be grounded, but the only thing I have reminding me of how to be human will be gone. Is that what you want? Are you that tired of working with me, Nirvana?'

For an eternity of a second, she didn't answer. It was just long enough for the attack to end, and the rush of silence was almost deafening. Luke rolled off of Alice and crawled through the debris toward the door, crouching near the entrance and holding the knife at his wrist. 'Nirvana...please. I know I'm broken; I know I'm a monster, but...I need you, 'Ana.'re all I have left. I can't lose you, too...'

At last 'Ana responded, her voice soft and strained. He could hear the emotion in her tone, no matter how expertly she tried to bury it. 'Alright, win.' He sighed gently, releasing a breath he hadn't even known he'd been holding, and nodded once. 'Thank you, 'Ana. business. Initiate Red Mist Protocol, authorization KL-0239ST. Remove all listed friendlies from the targeting list, as well as all organic lifeforms weighing less than 50kg. On my mark. Three, two, one, Mark!'

Luke stabbed the knife into his wrist, grimacing as the blade bit through his skin and dug a trench into his veins. Thick, crimson jets of nanomachine-infested blood arced through the air and scattered, hanging in the air like a living red fog. Out the corner of his eye, he noticed Alice's seemingly horrified expression as she watched him, but there was no time to reassure her. He allowed a few more spurts of blood to flow from the wound until the cloud grew to a sizable volume, then allowed the medichines to reseal the cut before the blood loss could begin to dizzy him. Luke knelt beside the door and silently awaited his first victim.

Offline DunnuckTopic starter

As the bullets ripped past overhead and Luke drew his blood, she looked around in a panic. "No..." She whimpered. Past began to melt into the present. The screams...the children! Not the children! "Not the children, please no!" She cried, holding her heads. Does history really repeat itself? Children, victims of war, were taken in by her then. And they died. The same was happening now. She entered a fetal position. "No!" She cried. If they were shooting here, that means they were in the house. The entrance ro the dojo was right next to the staircase for the cellar and bar area. "The kids..." She sobbed, the past and present mixing into an emotional rollercoaster. She closed her eyes, attemtping to teleport upstairs, but she spawned a few feet away in a massive shockwave, knocking Luke off his feet and causing the ground to crack. "I...I..." She began. She tried again, but the same thing happened. She screamed, disappearing and reappearing all over the room in a flurry of destruction. She stood, stumbling. It wasn't because of the drinks. It was her emotions, effecting her reality with her magic. Where she was and whwre she intended to teleport were getting mixed. She stumbled around the corner and a light blinded her. Before her stood a line of well outfitted soldiers, automatic weapons aimed at her.

She raised a hand against the light, finally seeing the soldiers before her. She turned to Luke, her eyes filled with tears. "Luke, I-" She was stopped by a flurry of gunfire that crashed into her chest, most of the bullets missing, but a large number tearing through her violent, ribbons of blood being sent through the air. Her body jerked to and fro, some bullets passing all the way through her flesh. The firing ceased and she fell to her knees, toppling over on her side, facing Luke. Her body shook in pain and her body struggled for air in terrifying gasps. Blood spilled from her mouth as she lay in a pool of her own blood.

Offline Starlequin

Heavy, booted footsteps crunched outside the door, and Luke tensed in anticipation, the nanite swarm hovering just above his head. He looked back at Alice just in time to watch the onset of her panic attack, and swore inwardly as she began 'porting wildly throughout the room. Shockwaves rippled to and fro, ripping shelves from the walls and sending debris and furniture flying. For a moment Luke could see the expression on her face in the instants that she remained solid, read the fear and anguish that was obviously clouding her mind. Before he could think to activate a gravshield she 'ported near him, the accompanying tremors throwing him against the wall and sending him back to the floor. The swarm remained airborne, still under Nirvana's control, but Luke had no choice but to curl up and protect himself until her attack was over.

He didn't have long to wait. She remanifested just in front of the door, suddenly illuminated by a heavy floodlight. She stumbled back and threw up her hands to shield her eyes from the light, and looked down at Luke, her expression haunted. "Luke, I-" She tried to speak, but was cut short by a new stream of bullets. Most were pitifully wide, but more than enough found their mark to accomplish their work. Round after round slammed into Alice's chest, ripping through her heart and lungs, obliterating the perfect breasts and flawless skin he'd been subconsciously admiring the night before. She went down in a spray of blood, twitching and gasping like a beached fish mere feet from where Luke lay.

'Goddammit! Nirvana, do you still have any control over the medichines I gave her earlier?' 'Affirmative. I'm rerouting them through her system and distributing a heavy coagulant to staunch the bleeding, but there's still critical tissue damage. The medichines won't be able to repair her injuries in time, Luke. She's got maybe three minutes.' Luke rose to his feet and assumed personal control over the nanites to allow Nirvana to concentrate on Alice's injuries, throwing up a gravshield as he stepped out into the hall. His sudden appearance took the attackers by surprise, but not as much as the nanites did. The cloud launched at the nearest soldiers and began eating through their weapons, as well as the flesh and bones of the hands holding them. Apparently whoever they worked for didn't train them to fight as amputees; several passed out from the pain and blood loss. The remaining soldiers attempted to retreat back down the hall. Luke let them go for the moment, returning his attentions to Alice.

'How is she?' 'Not good. One of her lungs was completely destroyed, and the other is only 40% functional. Her heart was only nicked, but she's still got severe internal bleeding and one of the bullets passed right through her liver. She's got four broken ribs, and it looks like there are bone fragments lodged in her bloodstream. She needs immediate surgery, Luke.' 'Then we'll have to work fast, won't we?'

Luke knelt beside Alice's prone form, turning her face gently toward his and patting her gently on the cheek. "Honey, I know you've been feeling suicidal and all, but you do know that standing up in front of a hail of gunfire is just fucking stupid, right?" He asked as he activated the pgm. A flash of light enveloped them both, and the pair were instantly transported to Luke's Command Center.

A pair of automatic cannons swiveled onto their position and prepared to fire the moment they appeared; the security systems were still activated. Nirvana broadcast a safety code and the cannons returned to standby mode as Luke gathered Alice in his arms. He held her as gently as he could and quickly brought her to the base's medical bay, depositing her on a clean and waiting operating table. Then he stood back, allowing a trio of servitors armed with finely tuned manipulators, surgical tools, and equipment to roll into position. The A.I. operating the servitors, Aeschylus, was not quite as sophisticated as Jenny, and lacked even a basic personality, but its medical knowledge was encyclopedic. It was, in effect, as good as or better than any first class hospital in the world. Aeschylus would save her, if anything could.

Part of him wanted to stay, to help with her surgery, but there was still a battle to be fought. There were still opponents to kill. He glanced down at his arms, soaked with Alice's blood, and absently rubbed some of it between his fingers. With a shrug and a quick look back at Alice's pale, shivering form lying on the table, Luke activated the pgm once more and flung himself back to the dojo.

Offline Gwindolyn

The attack had begun, before any of them were ready for it.  Instantly, Gwin's mind went to work.  She shouted orders to the mothers and children to get below, showing them all the way so they could move as one.  All of them were given the directions and orders.  They started running as fast as possible to safety.  Gwin only prayed some of them could make it.  She didn't bring them here to die or be stolen, but to protect them.  She then called her soldiers to battle.  They would provide a backside assault on the ones attacking them.  If they died, she would be sad, but they were men who were already in the fighting - already prepared to die.  She begins to comb the ranks of the force before her.  Someone's copilot suddenly turned to them and ended the flight prematurely with a bullet to the brain of the pilot.  A soldier here, a soldier there turns and shoots on his team.  Distraction and a thinning of the ranks as Gwin and Gabriel ran for a safer spot with Jayden.

Gwin sends up walls of dust around them obscuring their paths.  The particles taking a bit of work to manipulate through kenetic telepathy instead of ability to work the ground, but still she manages to put up the screen.  She couldn't do too much about the soldiers yet as she was working on the other stuff. Once a few tasks were taken care of, she had more plans for the attackers.

Offline Starlequin

~Quantum Urbs, Medellin District~

Cody and Isaac huddled together just inside a dilapidated warehouse, hidden in the shadows. It had been nearly an hour since Etriun had taken off, and it seemed that the violence they were running from was beginning to catch up with them. The sounds of gunfire and military vehicles was growing louder and louder, practically rumbling the ground. Isaac whined softly, and Cody stroked his dark fur. "It's OK, boy. Etriun will be back soon, and we'll get out of here," he said soothingly, scratching the big dog behind his ears. 'I don't know where we're gonna go, though...' he thought sadly. His family was dead, his mother's friend Ms. Benson was dead, and now that old snake brother of hers, Mr. Benson, was gone, too.

'Maybe we can find Isaac; I bet he could help me,' Cody thought, remembering his 'big brother'. The two weren't really brothers, but they had grown close after the death of Cody's father. Isaac had stopped in often to check on Cody and his mother when he was younger, but he hadn't heard from him since the night Cody's mother died. Isaac had brought him to Ms. Benson and told him that his name was Benson from now on, too. Cody had been too young to understand at the time, but he wasn't stupid. He'd had a few years to figure things out, and he realized it must have had something to do with his father's work with the military. So far, his best theory had been that his father had found out something that whoever he was working for hadn't wanted him to know, and that was why his parents were killed.

In his spare time, when he wasn't doing chores for Ms. Benson or hiding from Mr. Benson's drunken rage, he secretly imagined that his parents weren't dead at all; that it was all just an elaborate plot to escape their enemies, and that someday they would come back for him and they'd be a family again. But deep down, he knew the truth: they really were dead, he was alone, and there was no one he could truly count on except Isaac and himself. But it had been so long since he'd heard from Isaac; it saddened him, but he forced himself to accept that Isaac was probably dead, too. Doggie Isaac whined again, looking up at him soulfully, and Cody once again patted his head. Ever since Ms. Benson had given him to Cody as a puppy, the dog had always seemed to know when his master was feeling down. He reached up and licked Cody's face, and the boy giggled quietly before hushing the dog and burying his face in his neck. "It'll be alright, boy. I promise..."

Another explosion rocked the warehouse and Cody clutched his dog tighter, huddling in the shadows. "Dammit, Etch, where are you?..."

~Quantum Urbs, Gorditz District~

Soriun was almost ready to give up. The drones had herded a small contingent of armed soldiers into a dead end alley, and Andiun was trying to interrogate them one at a time. His progress was impeded, however, by Mikiun's constant interference. After every negative answer, Mikiun would swoop down and slash at one of the biologics with that accursed scalpel, usually lopping off a finger or slicing an eyeball but occasionally ripping open a throat. When they were down to the last two soldiers, who were holding each other and bawling like children, Andiun finally threw in the towel as well and joined Soriun near the rooftops. Mikiun made short work of the remaining pair and glided topside as well, thick rivulets of blood dripping from the blade down to the street below.

'Interrogation is fun!' Mikiun said as he spun playfully. The others barrel rolled in synch and gave an inward simulated sigh. 'You are such an idiot,' they said together. 'If Uncle Luke ever finds out how bad we are at this, he might just erase our drives and rewrite us from scratch.' 'You know, I don't think I'd blame him. We suck.' 'Aw, come on! We don't suck, look how many people we've killed already!' Andi and Sori glanced at each other, an encrypted message passing from each to the other simultaneously: 'Idiot.'

Andiun focused his frontal cameras on a small convoy of RVs rolling into the Medellin District a few kilometers away, then turned to the others. 'Alright, guys. I guess we're done here; let's try th--hey, wait! Soriun, check out the broadwave radio frequencies, I think I hear something!' 'Let me On the unencrypted channels?' 'Yes.' 'I'm getting something...hey, that's...!' 'Yep. Looks like we found Etriun. Come on, guys, we've got a squadmate to pick up!'

~Quantum Urbs, Medellin District~

It had taken longer than anticipated to locate a sound system that was capable of broadcasting a signal powerful enough for Etriun's purposes that was still intact, but a quick sweep of his memory banks gave him a good idea of where to begin looking. At last, he found his goal in the basement of a large, gothic church. A quick blast with an incendiary missile to the back door allowed him inside, and through prodigious use of grapples and manipulator arms he soon had the sound system wired just as he needed it. He prepared a short message for his crewmates, translated it to binary, encrypted it on one of the Cherubims' dedicated channels, and began broadcasting on a continuous loop. As the first loop completed, an older woman in long black and white robes came downstairs and flipped on a light switch. She screamed at the sight of Etriun, and immediately fell to her knees and began chanting in some strange language. Etch activated his translation program and recognized it as Latin. 'Hm. Guess that must be what they call a 'none'. I don't think I'm supposed to kill nones. Ah, well.' He hovered over to the woman and lowered himself down to her eye level.

"Um. Sorry to bother you. I was just borrowing your sound system. I'm done. Bye!" He said, before swiveling away and launching back out the door, leaving the old woman wide-eyed and speechless.

Offline DunnuckTopic starter

OOC: This will be going strong again very soon. I'm waiting to find my footing in the story again, I don't want to force it out. :P

Offline DunnuckTopic starter

((Working on a large, advancing post that connects all the characters. Should be done later tonight. Shits about to get real...))

Offline DunnuckTopic starter

This was now a battlefield. Gabriel took Gwin by the hand, his instinct, which was actually residue of his slight psychological abilities, began ringing through his ears. As they ran around the corner, they spotted three figures standing in the middle of the hallway, blocking it. Behind them, a wall of fire shot up, preventing any of the controlled soldiers from flanking them. One of them tossed their hand forward and the walls were enveloped in darkness, as well as any paths away from the narrow hallway. The three people looked very similar, dressed in suits and each wearing sunglasses to hide their eyes. All had slicked back hair and their facial features were almost identical. The most notable difference was the woman among them, which had a softer face than the rest. She was the one with the darkness. Gabriel, Jayden, and Gwin each had a person to take. Gabriel threw forward his hand, and wind smacked across all three of the beings faces, sending the glasses flying tot he ground. They all looked up in unison, anger through their eyes. Red eyes, electric blue eyes, and black eyes. Each had an element. "Well?" He asked. "Which one does everyone wanna take?"


"Shields up!" One of the men shouted.

((Star, lets see what you can come up with out of that lol. You have full creative freedom for your next post, just dont COMPLETELY destroy the dojo ;) ))

Offline Starlequin

((Heh, think I'll save the full creative freedom for a real fight. In the meantime, let's try this on for size...))

'Nirvana...are you sure you're not still just a tad uspet with me?' 'This is not my fault, Luke. You're the one who set the coordinates.' 'Oh, sure. Blame the driver. Look, just set up a level-5 gravshield, will you?' 'That's an affirmative.'

Luke's pgm had dropped him back at the dojo--right in the middle of a very sizable and very angry-looking group of armed soldiers, perhaps 25 or so strong, all of whom immediately turned and trained weapons of nearly every caliber on his person. Dozens of tiny red lasers danced over Luke's body as he turned slowly, staring cooly into each soldier's armored faceplate. Then without warning, a sunny smile burst over his face and he gave them a friendly, energetic wave.

"Well, hey guys! How we doin'?"

The sudden eruption of gunfire was deafening. In less than three seconds, nearly a thousand rounds were fired as every soldier in the room emptied his weapon on Luke's body. When the last gun clicked empty, the soldiers stood stock-still in disbelief as they watched all of the spent bullets swirl and ebb around Luke, who stood casually at the center of a lead maelstrom nearly five feet across, a wicked grin on his face. The still-smoking bullets flew faster and faster, a roiling cloud of death rapidly approaching terminal velocity, until finally the individual rounds were moving even faster than when they'd originally been fired. Luke held up a blood-soaked hand and spoke to the soldiers, who were slowly beginning to back away.

"Bye, guys."

He snapped his fingers once, and the bullets were released from their centrifugal prison in all directions, ripping through their previous owners' personal defense shields like meteors through stained glass windows. Shredded bodies fell to the floor nearly simultaneously, and Luke carelessly trudged through the carnage out into the hall and turned toward the kitchen. He felt an urge to wash his hands; his fingers were starting to get sticky.

Offline DunnuckTopic starter

((Star, see if you can find the message I sent you about the woman for later...remember? The lady that is like Gwin. *nudge nudge* I cant remember what I sent. And here is a PvP match, Luke. The first one. Against you lol))

A metallic arm tore through the wall closest to Luke, splintering the wood and sending a loud crash through the air. It punched through again, making the hole larger and larger until sunlight shown in clearly and it could step all the way through. Studded with electronics and built in slim design was a bipedal tank, or at least the equivalent of one. It was humanoid in shape, though that is speaking loosely. Where the driver sat was not clear, the behemoth completely opaque by the gray steel that it was made of. Strings of bullets hung down from the arms which were fed into things that resembled hands, small Gatling guns (well small compared to it) on it's forearms. It stepped forward with surprising speed, stopping just in front of Luke before stopping. If this thing were organic, it would be growling right now. It quickly jumped back, landing with a loud thud on the floor of the dojo.

Offline Starlequin

((Oh, Santa got my letter! <rubs his hands together, grinning so wickedly that even Luke would be proud> Hot damn, this is gonna be fun...))

Luke was wandering through the hallways, or what was left of them, anyway, when a very large pair of metallic arms began demolishing a nearby wall. Within seconds, an oversized, humanoid tank ripped its way into the dojo and leaped into Luke's path, a gaping monolith of blinking electronics and gleaming steel. It's movements were impossibly graceful, as though it were made of feathers and light rather than several tonnes of steel and carbide alloys. For a moment Luke crossed his arms and observed, wide-eyed, as the technological behemoth practically backflipped away from him before landing in an assault-ready position.

And then he started clapping.

"Wow! Whoo-hoo! Bravo! Aren't you just the most precious little thing! Who's a cute little superweapon? That's right, you are! Oh yes you are!" He said, laughing and spluttering nonsense baby-talk syllables. Nirvana gave a sigh and broke in on his taunting. 'Luke, could you please refrain from antagonizing the heavily-armed death machine?'

"Aw, but look at it, 'Ana! He's so cute!" Luke said in a comically affected voice. "I want one!" His laughter fell away when the tank-thing took aim with both of the Gatling guns. 'Um. 'Ana? Shield, please.' 'Affirmative.' A level-4 gravshield sprung into place just as the first rounds were fired, the shrill screams of the rotating cannons filling the air. The bullets were fired at such high velocity, the sheer kinetic energy managed to sink through the shield, pick Luke up off the floor and send him sprawling backward. As the tank took a couple loping steps forward, its weapons still trained on its target, Luke laid back and spoke with 'Ana.

'Alright. By my calculations, this is the third time I've been knocked on my ass today. I think I'm starting to get a little cheesed off. What do scans tell you?' 'Still working on it. I can find no records of prototypes or related research avenues anywhere...I have no idea what this thing is.' The tank took another step forward and seemed to motion for Luke to rise to his feet. He stood slowly, wiping his hands on his pockets and hooking his thumbs into his pockets as he readied for a real fight.

'Well, whatever it is...we're gonna need one hell of a can opener.'

Offline DunnuckTopic starter

(( O8)))

The silent tank darted forward at Luke, jumping before he reached him and crashing through the roof with grace, nothing falling down to the ground, only a surprisingly small hole where he had exited. It came down behind Luke and swiped at it, somersaulting backwards to a fighting stance, destroying part of the ceiling. It ran around Luke, and kicked at Luke with it's large, yet slender, leg, knocking him back but not able to best his shield.

Luke would have a great difficulty finding a driver for this thing, for it had none. It was not unmanned either. This mech was a creature, organic in nature, mixed with a perverted version of technology, fusing two different forms of life: natural and artificial. It did not feel pain, though, being bred for war, that feature would be pointless. But it did have an understanding of the human language, it did have instincts, it did understand provoking, sarcasm, fear, and anger. It was an AI that wasn't an AI. A Natural Artificial Intelligence. One of the heavy guarded secrets of the government.

Offline Gwindolyn

Elementals.  Gwin called to Jake quickly “Stay on guard, I'm about to go into my powers and you know I have no control on them yet.  Keep those I love safe.”  Jake quickly responded, monitoring her activity and her targets.  She closed her amber eyes and begin to think.  She knew that Gabriel could handle the fire and that Jayden could handle the darkness.  She could handle the electric one.  She focused all her mental power on the one with blue eyes.  She looked for a way within his mental focus.  Careful not to picture Gabe's blue eyes, she looked hard at her foe.  She would find a crack in his mental armor and worm her way in.  Once inside, her plan was to strip away his memories.  Much like she had done to Gabriel once upon a time.  And since Gabriel was more powerful than this one, she knew she was capable of it.  She could tear him apart mentally and leave him there a nameless, powerless nobody without killing him.  He would think she was his mother or that Gabriel was his brother or that he was the mother of their fish if she so chose it.  It was all a question of how long would it take compared to how long did they have.  She worked with as much haste as possible towards her goal.

Another portion of her thinking guided the aim of those soldiers on the other side of the fire.  The ones that were hers to control.  She aimed their guns to the three elementals that stood between them.  A picture went to each mind of a hand squeezing the trigger.  She held up a hand in front of her, a wall of kenetic energy formed in front of the three to keep any stray bullets from hitting them.

Offline Starlequin

Luke's body slammed into the walls again and again, each devastating strike from the tank-thing sending him flying like a superball. The only thing keeping him alive was the gravshield, cushioning his body and dissipating the the brunt kinetic force that threatened to turn him into paste. He'd expected the machine's earlier display of speed had been near the top of its operating capacity, but he was quickly learning how wrong he'd been. The infernal device was now moving at nearly four times its earlier velocity, easily. Luke could only think of one thing that could possibly allow such a machine to move at such speed: an inertia suppression system. The damn thing was literally ignoring the laws of physics. If he weren't getting his ass kicked, Luke would have been marveling at the level of engineering he was witnessing.

'Nirvana, dear, not to rush you or anything, but--' 'I'm working on it. Judging from its reflexes and fighting style, I'm 94% certain that there is no human pilot, either installed or remote. However, it's definitely displaying a level of heuristic thinking that indicates a living presence, not just an A.I. Sensors indicate that the tank is constructed from approximately 62% titanium carbide, 23% silicarbon, 13% trace minerals and 2% unknown alloy. I'm also detecting emissions indicating the presence of a 35% deuterium-dihydrogen-monoxide compound, likely the machine's fuel source.' 'Damn. Heavy water? This thing could run for decades. Alright, take what you've found and run a search on all manufacturers, distributors and shipping manifests involved with those materials and see if you can trace this thing's original component parts; maybe it'll tell us who built this puppy.' 'Affirmative. Processing...'

As Nirvana flew through the Grid, sweeping up particles of information on the tank from servers and databases thousands of miles apart, Luke was left on his own to face the behemoth. He considered his options (they all sucked) as another volley of Gatling gun fire slammed against his shield.

'Grigoris? I'll never get it to hold still and they wouldn't be powerful enough anyway, Seraphim? I'd have to use a bigger blast than the one downtown and who knows how long I'd have to listen to the Urehas' bitching again, antimatter charges? Same problem as the Seraphim, dammit I need something powerful, surgical, and impossible to dodge, the nanite cloud? Von Nuemann process would take too long, this thing might tear me apart before the cloud reached sufficient mass, nerve agents? Useless, anyone who built something this sweet wouldn't leave such an obvious weakness unguarded, think, dammit!'

Luke dialed the gravshield back up to level-5, capturing as many of the cannons' rounds as he could and sending them back at the tank. He had no expectation that the high-velocity rounds would have much effect on the machine, but maybe it would buy him a few extra seconds until Nirvana returned. The bullets sprayed wildly against the surface of the tank, ricocheting at eldritch angles and lodging in walls, ceiling, floor, furniture. Some even fell right back into Luke's gravshield. But to the machine, it had about as much effect as a summer rain on a slab of marble. Luke pulled the shield back to a level-4 and allowed the remaining bullets to fall uselessly to the ground as he pondered other tactics.

'Wait a second. This thing's full of bullets. That much gunpowder, it's practically packed with dynamite. Maybe I can touch it off...'

As the tank-thing advanced, Luke drew his knife and sliced open his palm. He aimed as much of the blood spurt as possible onto the machine's left arm, specifically onto the Gatling gun, and sent the nanites to work. Maybe he couldn't dissolve the entire tank, but the nanites could work fast enough to at least disable it's weapons systems. Luke allowed the machine to back him into a corner, falling to his knees under the brutal onslaught as the tank hammered away at his shield and his nanomachines tended to their task. Within seconds, the left Gatling gun started to smoke as the nanites wormed their way into the cannon's barrels, firing mechanisms, and unspent cartridges. When full saturation had been achieved, Luke sent a self-destruct signal to the nanites, causing millions upon millions of the tiny machines to detonate in microscopic explosions, each charge adding power to the next in sequence until enough heat was generated to detonate the tank's remaining Gatling gun rounds.

The result was impressive and immediate. The tank rocked on its legs as the equivalent of a frag grenade detonated inside it's left arm, shredding the metallic limb from within and rendering it scrapped. The tank seemed to pause a moment to regard its damaged limb, then turned its attention back to its target. At that moment, Luke knew for certain that something living was piloting the tank; no A.I. could ever look that pissed off. He rose to his feet and extended both middle fingers to the tank from behind his shield, a cocky grin on his face.

"Ready for round three, Rover?"

Offline DunnuckTopic starter

« Reply #349 on: September 13, 2010, 04:07:07 PM »
((I am so sorry I haven't moved this along yet. I have been max busy and I still have no computer. This isn't over, I hope. I have no intention of stopping. And I promise this will be going again full force, stronger than before. I just need that damn laptop.))