Curl up and rest.
Let's say you're OK now. No need to spend a turn with everyone just waiting for you.
...
seriously? they left me behind?
If stabbing this heart-thing starts a countdown we are going to be in so much trouble.
Hop on top of the device, then lean down and forwards and bite the handle and try to stab the heart with the Device somehow, despite my size.
((There's a reason I'm pretty sure I have to wait on them, not the other way around.))
You step on the device, the pulses of energy it emits making you feel uneasy. You're glad your stomach is mostly empty.
You bite the handle and try to lift the spike. It's surprisingly heavy, yet with a tremendous effort, you manage to lift it. You walk towards the heart, the muscles in your neck and legs straining, your teeth hurting. You try jumping towards the heart but you can't make it all the way.
You collapse from the effort and the spike clatters to the ground.
Perhaps some help from your teammates is in order?
The restraints around you are bulging dangerously and are making noises that aren't in the least reassuring. Very small tendrils of flesh have begun forming in the bones supporting the heart. There is a small tremor and after a few milliseconds, somewhere very far away, you can hear something metal breaking and reverberating.
"Containment Failure critical on levels Minus One and Minus Three. Gamma Contingency activation sequence initiated. Attention all personnel, you now have 15 minutes to reach minimum safe distance. Please, remain calm and converge to the nearest designated assembly points where the security personnel will lead you to the nearest exit."Yep. That's all we were missing right now. Such a cliche, the secret base
self destructing. What's next, the Director taunting you from the speakers while you fight?
Fniff & Harry BaldmanOne of the restraints holding the ship at the far end of the room has been broken.
"Containment Failure critical on levels Minus One and Minus Three. Gamma Contingency activation sequence initiated. Attention all personnel, you now have 15 minutes to reach minimum safe distance. Please, remain calm and converge to the nearest designated assembly points where the security personnel will lead you to the nearest exit."Perhaps this is your cue to decide what the hell you are going to do and get the hell out of here?
Practice!
You practice dancing tango. You now have a +1 bonus for dancing tango. Use this power wisely.
((I'll hold you to this!))
Design a (VR) dancing robot that looks suspiciously like Salma Hayek. Tango!
((What, are you going to suggest the next challenge be some kind of dance contest?))
You spend some time choosing actuators that can cope with complex dancing and balancing the robot's weight to optimize its dance performance. You also spend some time working on its aesthetics choosing the look and materials for the robot as well as making sure the noise from its actuators is muffled.
With a few VR tests and final adjustments, you complete the design and summon your robodancer girl, a humanoid with female characteristics made of soft grey semi-transparent plastic-like skin with chrome accents. The table even has a "Dancer's Module" in its list of parts for whatever reason so you don't have to spend time downloading the dance program to your robot. She raises her head, looks at you with her glowing solid blue eyes and smiles.
She tilts her head to the side and
music starts playing from her high quality speakers. "Shall we?"
With the fluid movements of two people who have done this thousands of times before, you embrace each other closely, her hand going around your back while yours goes to her waist, your other hands clasped together, ready for a dance of Tango Argentino. Her flesh feels warm, almost human-like, the skin conducting the heat building up from her actuators and generator, just like you designed it.
You dance well and she doesn't do so bad either. You make a few errors (most notably a small slip in one of the lifts), probably because you aren't used to her different weight distribution and her machine learning algorithms are still adjusting to you and her new body.
As you dance, it strikes you as strange how something not living can look so... human, her eyes and smile so expressive.
You finish by doing a few back ochos and then pushing her away and pulling her back in while doing a small lift,
her legs a great distance apart as she lands and you lean over her.
"How are they stored?"
"They use people like you to hold them, people who have been identified as 10-T. We just teach them some extra things first."
Well, it's not like I'm going to exploit any information. I'm just trying to be friendly, Zechariah thought, disappointed. Then again, who knows what Artemis will do with my memories if I meet him again?
"Okay... well, were you ever not a entity? If so, what was it like back then? And what do you do as an entity, if it's not too secretive?"
"I was, and still am in a way, a Bond-former. A Witch the humans called me, the most powerful magic user of our kind. A being that can do anything her heart desires. Change form, destroy entire armies, spy the other side of the galaxy, ignore gravity, bend the laws of the universe and fly as fast as light itself." The volume of her speech rises near the end, her voice filled with elation.
"But even those paled in comparison to my... other skills. Aaah. That was a good time. When challengers were plenty, every day was filled with new things and there were others worthy of sharing my time with." She stays quiet for a while.
"Now things are... slower. The realms I manage are numerous and their number grows every day along with my power. And yet I feel restless. I choose an avatar and search the world for challenges, for experiences, for places and people worthy of my attention, but those are rarer now. I am glad I at least have the one I respect the most with me in those travels." She sighs.