I KNEW IT! My flame manipulation abilities HAVE been completely redesigned from the ground up, a mere mimicry of the results, not the method, no wonder I'm having so much trouble controlling them. I shouldn't have been able to affect things outside this plane, but these entities are so used to using extra-planar shortcuts...
I should have known from the start, when my connections were severed, when I was able to be burned, when my control was so... loose. I'm no longer tied to my surroundings the way I'm used too, INCLUDING my connection to flame itself. They just gave me a mundane flame manipulation and resistance. A pale mimicry of what once was.
So why the illusion? Am I just a copy of my personality and memories or did they really maim me like this? Do, or did, I scare them? I... I shouldn't anymore.
Is this revenge against one of the others? Are they going to try to use me against them? Do they even exist anymore? Just how much have the entities been lying to me, really?
...
I need to calm down, I have to focus, to mimic the terrible thing I once was, long long ago. I have to draw on all the ruthlessness I can muster, and let the recoil and loss flow later with Stellar.
I must stride on.
"Damn it. Why... No. He knew the risks, he even insisted on it. I... We... must keep going."
Through interface, to team: <Zech, the parasite, and the host are all dead. Kill the reactor. D, What do we do with the device now?>
Stand clear and await our next instructions.
Through interface, to Stellar: <Is trying to win this game really the right thing to do?>
"I'm not sure. I know it's the best thing for for you but... I don't know. Maybe if things had gone differently... I don't like this. Any of this."To team through interface: <Great! Too bad about the guy, but glad to hear that the problem's resolved.>
Cut the power!
(On one hand, we lost a team member, on the other hand, Jordan got to prove his point.)
Jordan doesn't look as surprised as he should. Why was he so concerned with one woman? I killed dozens of guards, and they all had families. He didn't care about them. Hell, the self-defense argument doesn't even apply here either, because she was trying to kill us too. Did he fancy her or something? Unlikely.
To Team: <"I expected that would happen. We're lucky that didn't effect us. Let's not have a repeat of that. Keep an eye out everyone, I'll keep watch.">
Keep an eye out for guards. If I see them, kill them.
Ike twists the wires he'd been holding and several cables connected to the top of the reactor disconnect with a show of lightning. The lights flicker for a moment but remain on.
"Reactor offline. Emergency backup generator online." announces the female voice from the speakers.
Your Interfaces blink once green and once orange.
"Objective complete. New objective: Take the Device to the final level."Your earpieces remain quiet.
Zechariah felt like he was falling through the Medium again, shards of glass and memories from above, falling down with him to the primordial chaos.
Suddenly, he stopped falling, and the air below his feet solidified to form an invisible platform. His view righted itself, and in front of him was Artemis Dimikaelo, smiling.
"So, how did being the hero work out for you? Did you save her, hm? Did everything turn out happy and dandy, where everyone lived and no one dies?"
Artemis cackled, and the air shifted with electric energy and a tinge of amethyst. Zechariah balled his hands into fists, angry that Artemis shot down his efforts.
"I did what I could and I did what I wished. You already know that, that's how I got here in the first place. I told you that the entities are toying with me, pulling me around. Using me, just like Eido Aeterno did. I... I just hope that woman is somewhere safe now, that the entities spared her soul. At least, the others can win now. You know that I don't care about my own survival."
Artemis put a finger up. "You see, that's the kind of thinking that gets people killed. It got you killed, it got her killed, it'll get EVERYONE killed - which is why no one except you thinks like that. Simple evolutionary concepts, hm? Self preservation exists to guarantee the survival of your kind. Looks like you're getting pulled out of the gene loop, haha!
"Maybe if you had a brain, you could've saved yourself. But unfortunately, that did not happen, did it? Now all you have is to wallow in your defeats. Zedekiah was right: you are a selfish, blindsided child, who thinks that the world revolves around himself." Artemis gave a final smile and dissipated into the darkness. The invisible platform vaporized, and Zechariah fell back through the nothingness again.
Eido, Zechariah thought to himself. I failed to ascend. I failed to go beyond human.
Attempt to reform myself into something more than a simple consciousness.
Nope, doesn't work. You focus so hard you would have probably gone red from the effort, if you had a body, yet nothing happens.
Also, Scion would like to kindly ask your delusions to stop stealing her lines. It's going to start sounding repetitive when she's berating you.
Nah, just kidding.
Coat my foot in that kinetic absorption gel that Billy Mays once advertised and kick one of the crabs off while whacking another one with a plunger!
((Indeed. I do enjoy the fact that while everyone else is doing important mission stuff or experimenting, Alan ends up fighting debris crabs with twin plunger swords on top of a mobile squid raft-throne 
))
((Googled that and
man does that guy shout a lot.))
You get an absorption pad. You are trying wedge it on the front of your shoe when the crabs attack.
One manages to jump on your face and pinch you in the nose while the other nibbles at your legs. Ow, that stings!
You manage to throw the one crab off of your face and on to a trip in the void, but kicking the other produces no effect, except pain on your leg when one of the wires the crab is made of goes through your shoe and pierces your toe. Aaaaaouch! Telemarketing lied!
While you're jumping up and down holding your foot, another crab and an orc land on your squid.
"Perhaps, or perhaps your allies will keep you safe."
Victor has moved to the side and is talking to himself. That guy may have gone crazy.
"Okay, Charlie! How have you been? And what have you been up to? And who are you, by the way?"
"Most of me has been fine, working mostly, some explorations here and there. The fact that you probably won the last mission has set my plans back a bit on universe 1058, but nothing I can't handle. As for who I am, that's a very vague question. Perhaps you should tell me who you are so that I know how to answer it."
John eyeballs the table. Too easy.
"Zero, what is the purpose of this table? Why does everything feel TOO easy with it?"
"This table is primarily used by the chief engineers of Flagship 2.43 to work on designs in private or in their spare time.
The parameters of this area have been altered to accommodate the entire range of your abilities with minimal effort. Specify an environment for more accurate results."
Peregrine
((Sorry, been busy writing stuff for university.))
...But aren't..
"You're a wolf," Theri said, lowering her guard. "and I'm quite lost, yes. I mean, you -do look like- a wolf and...I'm quite a stranger here, aren't I?
"Erm, thanks for the compliment, sir." she said as she moved towards the wolf-kin. "Is...there anything about me that you found out?"
Good work, self. Be intentionally vague!
Follow the wolf because I trust him! If any kind of attack happens, go to defense protocol 1:
Raise spear and defend self, but do not attack.
You walk towards the cave, the wolf still talking with that half-amused tone of his.
"I do look like one, don't I? But I'm fairly certain wolves around these parts don't talk. At least not like I do. Besides, when was the last time you saw a wolf looking that nice? Nature seldom is so kind." His appearance is indeed too perfect. His thick black fur is clean, unknotted and shining in the dim light, he seems well fed and with no injuries. An animal that has to survive in the wild would rarely be in such pristine condition.
"But I understand that my appearance might bring you discomfort. It is the right response to a predator, after all. I'll do something about that."
With that, you reach the cave.
"Welcome to my den."
Inside is a small, roughly square room made of rock and dirt. There are two passages leading out of this room, one in the left wall, the other on the right.
At the opposite side of the entrance, there is a decorative arch carved from the rock. Under it is a red fire, floating inside a glass dome, the same fire that is illuminating this room. Above the arch are the crude carvings of the sun and the moon.
In a corner near the entrance lays a pack of wolves. They perk up when the one you're following enters, wagging their tails a bit. They give you some wary looks.
"Make yourself comfortable. I will just take a moment to change. I will answer your other question when I get back." he says as he disappears inside the right passage. "I find modesty unnecessary but I have come to understand people like others to follow certain rules." he shouts from the other room.
The wolves, seeing that their alpha doesn't regard you as a threat, get back to what they were doing. Mainly dozing in their corner or playing with their mother's tail in the case of two pups.
Poll
15 (42.9%)
Author
Topic: Special People: Mechanical Syndrome (Read 1140912 times)