Vortal Combat
Campaign
Campaign.
"Dammit, I am not in my element. No cars, no guns, no machines, I'm on the wrong mission."
Point my knife at the zombie then tsar it.
Then try to get up and follow the others to the hallway.
You reach inside your pocket and draw your knife, focusing on your ability, causing it to become enlarged, stabbing forward. But that zombie seems to be either too damn lucky or too damn fast, sidestepping the blow and counter-attacking with a slash of its sword on your recently repaired leg.
You try to roll away but something holds your leg down, preventing you from moving.
The sword hits your leg with incredible force, causing your entire body to vibrate, first from the force of the blow and then from the screams and the pain that fills your mind. You barely manage to remain conscious.
You are left without the strength to resist as something begins dragging you away, entangling you.
"Pedosera bikylo fiato es tontu!"Through your blurry, tear-filled eyes, you can see the shadow in front of you glow for a second. It becomes unmoving and falls to the ground a second later, thankfully not on top of you. You also feel the grip on your leg loosening. A few seconds later, you hear laboured breathing, someone grunting behind you as you are grabbed from under your shoulders. You begin being pulled in the opposite direction, your backpack scraping on the floor.
((I don't know, I think you can do pretty well in a fight if you use your powers creatively. And have luck on your side, of course. Remember your fight with miss Whipknife Sharksmile?
Unfortunately, luck is currently not on your side. If that guy had targeted your chest (which he actually had a higher chance of doing) he would probably had been stopped by your armour. Instead he targeted your most vulnerable body part.
Or maybe it is, if you're a glass half-full kind of guy. At least you're not dead (or even worse permadead) yet.))
Campaign, Ike!
Probably should defend the incompetent yobs, yes. Prioritize on nudging them toward the exit while keeping them from getting stabbed by enemies. Help whichever is in more danger - probably Nikolai if River's just going to talk gibberish in his direction and not actually help, but maybe Alan if that's not the case.
To Zechariah: "Hey, you mind helping me with corralling these people to a safer place? They seem very confused about a couple things. Like how fighting the legions of doom when they're surrounding you and also very numerous is a terrible fucking idea."
Seriously, get these people to move to safer hallways once they're not getting stabbed in the neck or whatever.
To other people: "Hey, guys, fighting the legions of doom when they're surrounding you and also very numerous is a terrible fucking idea! You all really should be leaving now!"
The octopi on the swordsman attacking Nikolai glow red for a second and subsequently fall off him onto the floor limp and unmoving, the swordsman following them there soon after, but not before he manages to seriously injure Nikolai in the leg. River gets over there and starts dragging Nikolai back towards the others.
However Nikolai's scuffle seems to have attracted the attention of other things around the room that are now making their way towards him and his rescuer, who doesn't appear to be in the best state to fight. For one thing, he looks like he's barely able to stand. And for a second thing he only has one good arm to use for dragging Nikolai, the other one being mostly limp, barely holding on to Nikolai's shoulder and bleeding moderately.
So you reckon it's time to rescue the rescuer! Let's just hope there's no need to rescue the rescuer of the rescuer, because at this rate we'll run out of rescuers.
You keep running until you make your way to the two and stand in front of them as they retreat, ready to intercept anything that approaches. Which happens to be two of those creatures, at least for now. You wait for them to strike, easily evade their strikes and then counter-attack, slicing one of them apart and cutting off more than a dozen of the other one's tentacles, an action which seems to persuade it to keep its distance as you continue retreating.
Campaign, Alan
Hmm. What kills octopi in their natural habitat?
...
I know!
Summon lawnmower! Rideable variant if possible.
Begin assaulting octopi with lawnmower.
Utilize lawnmoser as escape vehicle.
As the group starts running towards the gate, you call forth the power of the lawnmower.
It appears that the power of the lawnmower is much more easily brought forth than the power of the fridge. In fact, perhaps it comes too easily. Five lawnmowers are fired out of your hand, one after another, each preceded by a flash of purple light and a pop, like some sort of very weird gas-powered machine-gun. Your targets try to dodge, but only one manages to accomplish that, getting clipped and only loosing some tentacles, the rest becoming yellow stains.
However there are still some coming for you. But that is not very alarming, since Irene can probably take care of that. The more alarming thing is that one of your lawnmowers hit one of those red slabs in the wall on the left of the door. It appears to have cracked, much like a sheet of ice. And now it's leaking light. Very bright light. And the cracks are spreading.
"Fine, lets move then. to the hallway."
Move with group, probably to the hallway, but if they go somewhere else I'm sticking with them.
"Assuming I can focus on the shields around the portal, I will have range. It'll be harder for me to construct other shields, however. As long as we can do this quick, I'll be able to manage it."
Maintain the shields and talk.
((I'm going to assume that your previous action holds and that you don't just want to stand around in the middle of the room, you want to follow Irene's group.))
Irine, Campaign
"Here comes the hard part!"
If fate is real, then...
don't damage my flame-sources, the burning door, piles of burning debris, etc, but recall the rest of my flames to form a ring around us, then have the ring expand, tendrils of flame lashing out at any octopi / slaves near us.
"We have to stem this tide, both for the sake of the people here and so that we won't have to push through them when we return. This portal has to close before we leave here. If Zech can keep that portal blocked long enough for us to clear the room, we can smash the tablets it is using as a power source and shut this thing down. For now we might want to move to a corner so we can restrict the directions they can attack us from, but there's no point too leaving since things are probably worse outside, especially with those big things floating about and no overhead cover! If we secure this room we can make a controlled, much safer, advance!"
I cannot afford to fail...
...
...
I wonder if Zech...
EveryoneIrene's group starts making its way towards the door, Irene and Zechariah easily clearing the way without much trouble. They manage to make it halfway there before the slab Alan hit seems to reach its breaking point, the cracks spreading too far, the slab unable to contain the tangle of energy inside it. The light coming from it keeps getting brighter until it becomes blindingly bright. Zechariah makes a sweep with his staff, trying to strengthen his shields to protect the group but he's too late. There's a wave of heat, an explosion that causes the structure to rock, testing your balance. The structure rumbles as pieces of it are lost.
When the light disappears and the rumbling stops, you take a look around, blinking, trying to get the afterimage of the explosion out of your retina.
Nikolai, shaken back into full consciousness by the explosion and the pain, feels a burning sensation on his right side. A quick inspection reveals that there's red hot piece of rock embedded in his armour. He prods the piece with his knife to remove it and stop it from further heating his armour. He notices that he has stopped being dragged. Glancing
upwards, he sees that that's because River is currently on the floor.
Ike continues to be inexplicably fine. He is uninjured, on his feet, his upgrades making sure he gets no burns and that his sight continues to be unhindered. The worse thing that has happened to him today so far is probably getting parasite blood on his hair.
Irene feels intense pain on her left arm. She manages to suppress the pain and focus on standing her ground and maintaining her ring of fire, preventing the flames from being displaced by the explosion. A quick look reveals a small gash on her arm that is bleeding moderately.
Zechariah's already damaged eyes don't appreciate the sudden burst of light, but other than that, he is mostly fine.
Theri is surprised by the force of the sudden explosion and she falls backwards, rolling for a couple of metres.
Alan just stands there, wondering why everything he does tends to end in overkill. Probably. Maybe. Or maybe he's just wondering why the octopuses are doing a firework show. It's hard to tell with that man. For all I know, if the tower starts shaking because it is collapsing, he might think it's music and start dancing to the rhythm.
Speaking of octopuses, many of the ones near the slab appear to be dead, while the ones in the rest of the room look very agitated.
In other news, part of the wall and floor near the site of the explosion has collapsed. Looks like some of the pieces have reached the surrounding alcoves, causing small cracks to form on some of the surrounding slabs. If they cause a similar reaction, then that poll might not be so wrong after all...
And to continue this string of pleasant news, one of those yellowish creatures comes through the portal. And then another. And another.
But hey, at least it's not as bad as the other mission?
((Hooooo, reading up now guys!))
"Irene. I do not like this."
Ready up stance; wish I had handwrap for the oncoming fistfight. Wonder if I can get a weapon to wield or get up close to perform surgical strikes.
Good news is, your teammates managed to stop the parasites before they could get close to you, so you didn't have to fight them.
Bad news is, in doing so, your teammates caused an explosion that injured some of them and possibly started a catastrophic chain reaction. You were pushed backwards and away from the others as a result but were unharmed.
As for weapons, you could probably use that small utility knife that's in your backpack or you could search around for a sword.
Or you could tear some of your spare clothes to create handwraps.
You'll cause more damage with a weapon but are overall better in combat when unarmed since you have unarmed combat training, so it really depends on what kind of enemy you're facing.
Survival
Survival, Bryan
"I feel like we should avoid that place, there seems to be a whole bunch of people that aren't happy with us. If we grab a car it would only make us more noticeable. I'll leave that decision up to you, and I'll stand by your decision either way. Both choices have their merits and drawbacks."
Follow John's lead, remain cautious.
Follow the leader it is.
Survival
"Indeed, it is as he says. I shall follow thy decision."
Do as John does.
Follow the leader intensifies.
Survival
"Right. Let's keep moving."
Keep moving. Surely there's another not-broken vehicle somewhere on this blasted island.
As you half-walk half-roll down the street, your teammates trying to follow you (and not being very quiet), you imagine yourself taking part in a car advertisement. "John. He doesn't follow. He leads."
Seems like a silly slogan now that you think about it. Wouldn't something that leads, aka a prototype, actually be a bad choice if you wanted a good car?
Your thoughts are interrupted as you approach the old police station. The lights are on inside and there are a few cars parked outside. Civilian cars. That's not right. This place was supposed to have been shut down, there should only be a few officers guarding the building and an old evidence locker in there.
The building itself is a long two story thing with a parking lot in front of it and a boat parking lot behind it, all of it surrounded by a short concrete wall with a few guardposts, looking more like a military base than a police station.
As you watch, a shadowy form of a human appears in one of the windows. You can't tell if it's looking at you or not.
Survival
Find a gun and an energy drink. Afterwards, see where that group is going, and follow them without attracting attention to my self
Were there energy drinks in 1950s? I think the closest thing you could find to an energy drink would be coffee and there's no coffee to be seen, at least no coffee of acceptable quality. There's a box labelled coffee in a cupboard but you're fairly certain coffee beans aren't supposed to be green. Or moving. Or have bits of fur sticking out of them. OK, best to put that box down slowly now...
And you already have a gun. Did you mean gin? You don't find any gin either. Maybe you want some ammo? We can do ammo. *rolls* Or not. By some insane stroke of unluck, every gun and corpse you choose to check is empty. You give up and approach the little car crash you caused. You try to use your one good arm to lift the car so that you can get to the dead goons and their guns that you are certain have at least some ammo. Unfortunately, you miscalculate and end up trapping your leg under the car. It hurts a bit but fortunately you don't think it's broken.
You think you can hear a rumbling. Maybe it's distant thunder? The skies are looking cloudy, after all. If it starts raining, you'll loose the stock optimist phrase you could say right now.
Staging Area
"A blue apple? Intriguing..."
Eat the blue apple. Pocket the seeds for later experimentation
"So, I have two questions. Number one, if any of these enhancements include cybernetic body mods, I want the final say on the look of the mod. Wait, that was a statement. The next one is a question, though Number two, what is this 'business' of yours? Any juicy tidbit that you might be willing to divulge?"
You take a bite out of the blue apple. It tastes bitter, like unsweetened chocolate, and a bit salty, a kind of taste that you think would take a very specific... well, taste, the kind of thing that some people would like and some would hate.
"Yes, yes, of course, I understand the need to create your own look and feel, something you like and are comfortable with. Although, to tell you the truth, I try to make my work on my chosen employees... invisible. I see it as a sort of challenge. How much can I modify someone's flesh without the difference showing? Where would be a good place to hide a small extra organ? What kind of additions can I make to your DNA? Can I make nanomachines that mimic blood cells? Or maybe even other molecules?
And, it makes hiding it easier. I mean, if you have to pass through spaceport security, it's much easier to do so when you don't have to convince the guard at the scanners that yes, you do have a permit for that death laser in your eyes. You don't expect us to teleport you everywhere or give you your own private spaceships? Sometimes you may have to move amongst ordinary people, blend with them.
Plus, if I give you all the cool stuff, then you might end up looking cooler than me. Can't have that, now, can I?" He says and chuckles. You're not certain about whether he's joking or not.
You finish eating the apple. The secretary was thoughtful enough to provide you with a napkin. After wiping your hands and mouth, you wrap the seeds around the napkin and put it in one of your pockets. The secretary looks at you but says nothing. A suspicious man might thing that she's either judging you or that the seeds are proprietary and she is recording with her cameras, gathering info for a law suit.
"As for my business... or should I say, our business, since it is something I share... Hm... It's different for each of us, I suppose. We are all in the business of managing things. Managing people, managing worlds. Conquering them, to expand our influence. We each have our own, but we make sure to cooperate. War, after all, is usually bad for business. At least war with each other. We assimilate smaller companies very often.
You could best describe me as the... majority shareholder and the founder of our company. I'm not an elected leader, my position doesn't grant me any power, but then again, I don't need it to. I have enough power, enough cunning and enough respect to make the changes I need and to stay on top, at least for now. Some of my fellow shareholders plot against me and the group I lead, plus I've been having a bit of an annoyance with a... subsidiary. But I've been doing fine so far. And I have people like you to help me, so it's all good.
But the why... That's what I find more interesting. Some do it for the sake of power, or for what that power can give them. Some do it because of their morals. Some see it as a duty. Some do it because they feel it frees them. Some do it simply because they like it. Some do it in the pursuit of knowledge. And some do it because they simply see it as the best thing to do."
"If you want to drop the business metaphor and just call things as they are, then what we do is that we conquer worlds in a multitude of ways. We become their rulers, exploit them, guide them, protect them, ignore them. Whatever we feel like doing. But in the end, those worlds and their power is ours."
Name: Alex Raman
Birthplace: New
Age: 23
Appearance: His body is covered in sleek black and grayed metal plates. His eyes are still human, but they constantly glow green. He has long, artificial hair that is pure white and glows.
Quote: "Fear is a weakness. Magitek has purged fear. Without fear, I am a god."[/glow]
Power: Alex is a magitek cyborg, being a perfect combination of advanced tech and magic. He has superhuman levels of durability, strength, and can copy tech and improve it with magic.
So I assume you don't want the other thing you wrote in that first PM?
And I would just like to inform you that with those bonuses you will be forced to take some penalties as well to compensate, no matter how well you roll in character creation. Is that OK?
Poll
15 (42.9%)
Author
Topic: Special People: Mechanical Syndrome (Read 1141397 times)