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Post by Kuma on Sept 17, 2017 22:34:59 GMT
Sidney was lucky, as a speck of Benkeinium, one that was splattered into the ceiling was still dripping down so she managed to pick it as it fell. Upon inspecting the Zyborg she might notice something that they didn’t check before. The implants are too primitive to properly move bodies as they did, parts that would usually be associated with advanced robotics were a noticeable missing ingredient on the creature’s robotic innards. It wouldn’t be hard to speculate that these creatures shouldn’t be moving at all, as the missing parts were more than enough evidence. Seemingly the Benkeinium was animating this things.
-You'rrre rrright, you rrreally did young damsel, now I'll ask to stop hugging me... Is embarrrassing.- If Wolf could blush this would be a situation in which he would do it. He was way older than anybody on the room, at least from what he could gather, so this was a bit uncomfortable, especially as he lacked proper feeling when it came to gentle contact, it would be almost like having an itch you can’t scratch, as he could barely feel something around his neck, but he couldn’t perceive it properly. -Zese crrreaturrres arrren't what scientist verrre planning on... how odd.- He commented looking at the ruins of the Zyborgs. The moment he woke up and saw them moving he knew something was off, but he didn’t want to look misinformed to the group so he lied.
Riku stood up and obeyed Marika’s command. He took his shirt and jacket off. A very large bruise formed on the side of his chest, as dark as black ink, he received one hell of a wallop. The rest of his body wasn’t doing okay either, he was in superb physical shape, at least superficially, not an ounce of fat on his slender body, clearly he trained as hard as he could, looking more like a crossfit fanatic or a world class mma fighter. Yet upon closer inspection of a trained eye, it was clear he was overworking his body, old wounds covering his body, mostly from training equipment, the coils of a restraint jacket leaving regular scar patterns across his chest and arms. It was evident that he sacrificed a lot to reach to his current level, with parts of his skin so damaged that he started getting calloused.
The Vengeful Boxer looked defeated, he didn’t even have strength to wince when Marika tightened the padding, even as he could feel the pain coursing through his nerves. His shoulders were hunched over, his eyes were locked on his shivering hands. He didn’t listen to the commlink too deep in a pit of despair to care. Yuu would have to call him a couple of times before he replied. His reply would be just a weak murmur. -Never heard of him.- Before standing up and putting his clothes back on, still surrounded by an aura of defeat and depression. He truly never heard of Masako, not as a Hidden World Denizen or a regular human. But moments after he replied a new message reached their commlinks, seemingly it was a audio file that Shikishima sent while fighting whatever he was facing on the entrance.
“Development Diary of Doctor Kago - Day 710
My studies on the K-01 subject reveal many interesting things. Seemingly the body hosting the K-01 used to be called Masako Hihashi and still remains calling itself like that even after proving my initial hypothesis. Upon receiving K-01 from my employer I did a cursory medical examination to check for any kind of vitals. The inspection was swift thanks to my immense medical acumen, revealing several important facts.
- The host body was mostly human, except for some advanced genetical splicing aimed to increase its mental capabilities. Basically the host body was an Esper and according to previous information it was some kind of extreme sensorial enhancement, he was capable of tasting DNA, plus his telekinetic abilities, that seemed nonexistent to the untrained eye were pretty powerful, being capable of altering his own genetic composition to emulate whatever it tasted.
- My investigation allowed me to discover the terminology used to refer to these kind of alteration. The host body was classified as a “Reitter” part of some sort of experiment that ended when the host body killed the others and consumed them to copy their powers.
- The host body had bonded with K-01, somehow feeding on it to keep replicating, that was part of its importance, as K-01 didn’t happen naturally on Earth and we required a steady supply of it for BEEEEP BEP BEEEEP BEEP.
- Most importantly the host body is clinically dead, only kept working by K-01 that completely took over the bodily functions and seemingly was permeated by Masako’s Hihashi’s psyche. In layman’s terms K-01 believes to be Masako Hihashi, but Masako Hihashi is dead.
- The reactivation of dead tissue is one of the many applications of K-01 but we needed it mostly for BEEEEP BEP BEEEEP BEEP as instructed by our employer.
Adaptative properties, technological mimicry and upgrading and dimensional alteration are other of it's functions.
- In a personal note I’m lucky that my usage of K-01 happened after we managed to harvest more than enough materials for BEEEEP BEP BEEEEP BEEP or I would be already dead or even worse, working for that crazy hack Shikishima or that depressed asshole Lazarus.
- The K-01 also known as Benkeinium, is a living organism with properties similar to metallic elements of our periodic table, but capable of shifting states on its own. I wasn't able to properly study it, but most signs point to psychosomatic effects being able to damage or strengthen the substance/organism. Still more testing is needed to corroborate that theory.
End of Development Diary - Day 710.”
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Post by HungryHunter on Sept 18, 2017 0:23:50 GMT
Marika had no outward reaction to the state of Riku's body, or Riku's body in general. Miles turned her on. Everybody else was just parts. And parts in bad shape at that. If this guy keeps doing this to himself, he's not going to make it to 30. She predicted. You didn't get into the fashion business without looking at a few anorexic models. Broken bones, heart damage, even brain functions could be lost. However, none of that was her problem. Marika finished up with a prick of a needle tipped with just a tiny portion of her venom.
Such a small quantity would act as a local painkiller for the bruised region, rather than paralyzing him. It wasn't the best, but it was all she had. "You'll live for now, but one last thing, Riku." Marika gripped his shoulder as tight as she could and whispered in his ear. "Don't die here. Not for your sake but because Yuu will be sad about it, and then it's my problem. Go die on your own time. You're already halfway there." She finished hissing and stepped away. "He's okay, Marika?" Yuu questioned. "He's bruised, but with some padding he should be good until we're out of here. So yeah, he's okay. Now let me work on this!" Marika pointed at the recent stitch in Yuu's leg.
"It's fine, Marika. I already sewed it up. Anything further will have to wait." Yuu was testing how much weight she could put on her leg when the com link opened up again. She listened and shuddered. That was what was in here with them? Still, if it was the same substance that had empowered these zyborgs, they knew its weakness now. The diary so much as confirmed it. She groaned inside. She was going to have to make a therapy session with everybody to get them psychologically positive enough to take down this Masako. Even the ones most successful here weren't reliable. Except her. Hopefully. Yuu told herself she could count on herself to do the right thing, so surely she could?
"Nooooo, I don't want my DNA tasted!" Jane wailed, releasing Wolf. "We must be quite the menagerie, being from so many sources. Eat my eye and you taste demon. Eat my arm, just a wicked human." Chelsea chimed in. "Oh, that would be fascinating, wouldn't it? We are quite the collection. Also fascinating; Martha, are you asexual or is this just one of your late bloomer things?" Sidney asked without looking up from the zyborg. "I'm not a late bloomer! I just like people being in clothes cause that's normal!" Yuu protested, but already Sidney had lost interest.
"Not as planned, you say?" Sidney confirmed to Wolf, looking at the shoulder joint of the fallen zyborg. "Yeah, these things shouldn't even run. They look unfinished. Sloppy, sloppy. Unless they expected to be invaded by a molten metal monster thirty plus years later, in which case it's okay I guess." Sidney began prying at the joint she was exploring. "Well, my shoulder's bust, so I'm gonna replace it with this and a drop of that Benkeinium stuff." "Sidney, you maniac! Get over here and let me sew up your arm!" Marika screamed. "That's less effort though so I'll just do that." Sidney shrugged.
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Post by Kuma on Sept 20, 2017 2:48:49 GMT
Riku was silent, sunken into his own mind, drowning in a sea of self-pity and regret. He trained, and trained and trained, but no matter what he did he always fell short. It was a miracle he reached so high in the Spirit Boxing Federation rankings with his lame excuse for skills. Most of his matches were won through a combination of pinpoint counters and a very healthy dosage of luck, as his slender frame could only take a small amount of punishment before crumbling. He was more accustomed to weaving and dodging than to close range combat slugfest, like he had mostly being using in this mission. He was underestimating the danger in front of him, confident about winning a bunch of fights against humans, who are known to commit mistakes.
And thus, just like them he made mistakes and got pummelled for his insolence. All this and more rushed through Riku’s head, as he leaned against a wall looking at his still trembling bandaged fists. He grabbed his wrist trying to stop them from moving, but it was to no avail, he just stood up after taking something that would’ve killed him if he didn’t use his Fighting Spirit at the last moment.
While the Vengeful Boxer wallowed in a puddle of pity and regret, something was happening with the sample Sidney managed to get. The drop of Benkeinium was at first inert, then like an animal dropped on an unfamiliar environment started moving around the container as if it was looking for an exit. Finally, upon realizing it couldn’t escape the basic instinct on it returned. It needed to go back to the main source. Slowly its movements ended up homing down and following the path they didn’t take surely the Benkeinium was aiming directly to wherever it came from. The commlink activated at that point, but static took over the line, stopping even the faintest message by Shikishima to reach the group.
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Post by HungryHunter on Sept 20, 2017 22:54:17 GMT
Sidney pulled her turtleneck back on after Marika finished sewing both it and her shoulder back together. Like Yuu's sewing, it was a surface level job. Marika had spread some healing paste over it, the kind that made the wound burn and smelled like rotten lavender, but even then it would be a week before it was back to normal. She glanced over at Riku. She hadn't been a fan of removing her sweater in front of him, but he seemed to not have even noticed, just staring into space. He had been like that since the fight ended.
Marika would have noticed if he had a concussion (presumably, she didn't really care about brains come to think of it), so it was probably something emotional. Sidney found it difficult to figure out what it may be. She was a beacon of apathy in the sea of emotions that was the kaspa. Not only did she not have emotions, she didn't want to deal with them. It wasn't like a machine, where you just have to figure out what the problem was to fix it. She knew why Jane came running to her for help after seeing a spider, but there was no mechanism to fix it. She couldn't just lubricate her joints or tape down a moving part that wasn't supposed to move.
The prospect of wallowing in Riku's emotions, trying to find the right thing to fix them, was more unappealing than the idea of bathing in broken glass. Ah, glass! "Martha, asexual club meeting with Riku, have fun. I'll help Yuu." She floated up and tapped Yuu's head, lessening her weight like she did to Josefina. Yuu waved unsteadily, feeling like she was on the moon. Her leg still hurt, but without putting weight on it, it was fine. "Thank you Sidney. Martha, I won't need your help for now, so yes, go talk to Riku." It wasn't ideal, but it was better than needing to use Martha as a crutch. She couldn't show so much weakness.
"Oh, fine. But I'm not asexual!" Martha declared as she walked over to Riku, leaving Sidney to examine the odd feeling in her little capsule. She could feel the Benkeinium moving around inside it and began experimenting. When she turned the capsule around, it turned around and began pushing at the new front. It was definately trying to go a specific direction. "I have a compass it appears. What do you think it's pointing towards?" She asked Yuu. "Its originator. Masako Hihashi." She turned to face the dark hallway they hadn't ventured down. Despair seemed to yawn from it. Yuu felt it pulling at her, invisible hands of darkness intent on dragging her into the jaws of a beast that believed itself to be a man. "We don't have many options, let's go." Yuu took a few odd, clumsily hopping steps down the hallway, trying to control her lighter body with little success.
Martha grumbled and groaned on her way to Riku. Dumb Sidney. Still, it looked like hanging out with Riku was smart. He seemed even quieter and weirder than usual. Somebody talking to him should help, but about what? It seemed anything really should do. She didn't really know his interests beyond fighting, or if he even had any. He seemed the sort where it was entirely plausible that he didn't. So anything, yes. She walked up next to Riku as the group started moving down the hall. "What the fuck does asexual mean?" She asked.
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Post by Kuma on Sept 29, 2017 4:51:55 GMT
-I don’t know and I don’t care.- Riku shrugged her question and followed the group dragging his feet, supporting his battered body and even more battered spirit against the wall as he limped forward. -Just leave me alone.- His mind, usually racing underneath his facade of stoicism was now almost as dead as his eyes, any spark of his previous killer intent, curiosity or slyness gone, replaced with an empty void encircled by dark red clouds. The Vengeful Boxer was broken, incapable of feeling the pain, but noticing the impediment to his movement, slowly walking alongside the others, less out of will and more out of need. Riku didn’t even look at Martha, or wondered if the rest was okay, too sunken into his own self-pity to care. The group kept advancing until the hallway they didn’t take reached an end, on that end there was a spiral-staircase, one that was being aimed at by the fragment of Benkeinium.
Wolf, who had been there before, mostly moving through ventilation shafts, got closer to Yuu. -Young dam....- The Canine Cyborg stopped and rephrased it, as after seeing her fight he was sure it would be kind of insulting calling Yuu a Damsel, or any of the Dolls. -Young lady, I must inforrrm you zat underrrneath us zings arrre morrre dangerrrous.- His tone was more serious than before, as he talked more like a drunken russian uncle before. -I don't rrremember much as I vas dazed after vaking up, but what I do rrremember is seeing morrre of zese crrreaturrres.- That was actually true, as he did saw the Zyborgs moving, much to his surprise, as even he knew that the scientists who found him weren’t able to even copy his most basic electronic components. -I didn't see living metal, but maybe it vas burrroving inside zem.- Eastern Wolf quickly assumed that, maybe the metal was what was moving them, even the ones that didn’t have exposed parts.
The group was on a crossroad, they could keep moving down or attempt to escape. It was their choice, but something was clear, whatever was down there, being Masako Hihashi or something else, it was dangerous and allowing it to keep expanding its influence would be dangerous. Something curious to comment on would be that know, if Chelsea used her unique skills she might feel a soul, one that didn’t belong to anybody of the people around her. It was weak and wavering but it was clear it was a human soul.
Below them, in a large chamber, Masako Hihashi, or whatever was actually on the driver’s seat, was sitting on a large pile of destroyed parts. His eyes burning in the darkness, his sharp smile, each teeth ending in a crooked point, shining in bright red with each momentary particle of light hitting them, piles of animal bodies resting underneath him, seemingly bought by the Zyborgs he animated, sharing part of his Benkeinium to complete them. His hands, covered in blood had a metallic sheen, as the metal that was part of him, or maybe totally him, turned his hands into sharp implements he used to tear through the skin of deers, bears and other creatures to munch on their innards. A couple of Benkeiborgs flanked his makeshift throne as if they were guards protecting a king.
The rest of the room was in darkness, only silhouettes of Zyborgs moving around carrying cables and equipment. Finally a sound broke the eerie silence, only sound before were the sounds he made while eating and the steps of the Reanimated Creatures. A large electrical growl echoed as a couple of Zyborgs flew across the room, getting shocked while connecting a bundle of cables. The clatter they caused was ignored by Masako as the light’s above him starting turning on, then rows and rows of lights on the walls, half covered by hundreds if not thousands of tanks filled with liquids of many colors. The newly turned on lights phased through the liquids filling the area with a multicolor spectacle of radiance. Masako’s disgusting wolfish smile grew wider as words slowly came out from his toothy maw. -Yes… Yes… I knew this place had a nice smell, the smell of death, the stench of carnage… The sweet aroma of corpses, a veritable bloody buffet.- He snapped his fingers and two Benkeiborgs came from a back room, dragging an old man dressed in rags.
His long white beard was dirty and full of dust, his bald head only felt as an extension of his extremely wrinkled brow, underneath two large light blue eyes, made even bigger by overly sized handmade and improvised spectacles. He was hunched over, his body shivering and his hands shaking as the monsters left him in front of Masako who leaned forward with a mixture of sadistic glee and expectation. The old man kept his head low, his eyes locked on the dirty floor as the Apex Predator slowly walked down from his slapdash throne, his clawed feet clanking against the Zyborgs Implants used as steps. -You… you’re going to help me…- The old man, upon hearing Masako’s voice stopped shivering and, still afraid, looked up with a hint of curiosity on his tired eyes. For a moment and awkward silence reigned in the room as the looming inhuman figure of Masako towered on the frightened old man.
Then the tension was broken as the tensed up body of the captive relaxed noticeably and sighed with relief. -Ты не он...- He said in Russian, a rough translation would be “You are not him”. Masako, who seemingly understood this was, for the first time, showing cracks on his sadistic smile and confident eyes. -Я думал, что ты его, но ты просто сумасшедший.- The Old Scientist, now noticeable up close, as his rags seemed to have a partially decomposed Lab Coat mixed in, kept talking, saying something on the lines of “I thought you were him, but you’re just a mad man” This infuriated Masako who moved to hit the man, but stopped before reaching him, something the Old Scientist didn’t even react to, and slowly got closer, right on the man’s face. -What do you mean? Who is him? Why aren’t you scared anymore?- The captive smiled, directly on Masako’s face, and spoke in a very accented japanese.
-I saw the face of Death boy, I’m not scared of you.- Masako’s blood boiled upon hearing that, slashing apart a Zyborg with a gigantic axe-hand. -But don’t worry, I’ll help you, so you can stop your tantrum.- He stood up, clear much more relaxed as he walked towards the primitive terminals nearby the tanks, as if he was working in an office. He swept dust from one of the seats and sat down, turning his head and asking Masako who was still burning with badly contained rage. -What do you want to know?-
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Post by HungryHunter on Sept 29, 2017 6:18:13 GMT
"Hey jerk, no need to be... a jerk!" Martha yelled, drawing her fist back for a wakeup punch. "I can't let you out of my sight for a second! Get over here!" Yuu snapped, stopping the assault before it took place, and sighed. "Sorry about that." She apologized to the Siberian cyborg. Being down here was clearly wearing on everybody's moods. Riku was a shut off wreck and the dolls were getting testier. Even Yuu felt her nerves thinning. How long had they been down here? She checked her phone and despaired. Only 2 and a half hours!? And they were already at each other's throats? At least Eastern Wolf seemed okay with it. Of course, he had had years to acclimate himself.
She didn't like the sound of any of his words. There was worse here than what they fought? That didn't even include this Masako figure. "I peer into darkness, and I see a soul. A human is in here." Chelsea pointed deeper into the complex. "Do you think that's Masako? If the Benkeinium took his personality, perhaps it took his soul?" Yuu suggested. "I just see the souls, I cannot tell you who they are." Chelsea absentmindedly pet Eastern Wolf before fading back into the gaggle of dolls. Yuu looked down that dark hallway. They could probably still leave. But that just left Masako down here. They had already seen how dangerous he was. "We don't have to do this if you guys want to just leave. I won't force you to risk your lives for a fight that isn't ours." She said to the gathered dolls.
"Come on, you know we have to kick this guy's ass! He's a monster!" Martha declared. "We really don't. I'm sure he'll sort himself out." Jane glanced around as if he might already be lurking near in the shadows. "I still haven't seen a single decent part and I'm not leaving until I do." Marika grumbled. "My dark soul craves more destruction, and who am I to deny it? Yes, let us rend this Masako! We shall melt him into a statue depicting the human condition! I will title it "Glad I'm not one of them".""I'll come if Josefina carries me." Sidney said. Josefina was silent on the issue of carrying Sidney and on going further.
Yuu couldn't help but smile. "That's pretty close to unanimous. I'm sure that now we know his weakness, Masako won't be a threat, right?" Yuu gave the dolls her schoolteacher grin, the one that made them all feel ten years younger than they appeared. They grumbled, but some of them smiled back, and one or two more smiled internally. Jane especially glittered with enthusiasm. Yuu's confidence infected her. They were adventurers, lead by their paladin into the depths of the blackest dungeon to slay the fearsome dragon, and nothing could stop them.
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Post by Kuma on Oct 7, 2017 18:14:45 GMT
The spiral staircase drilled into the bowels of the complex, each step causing a small metallic echo, when their feet touched the floating steps. After 30 solid seconds of walking down anything the group could see was steps over them and under them, encased by curved walls. The creaking got louder the more they descended, even worse with each of Josefina’s steps. The eerie silence apart from their steps was slowly reaching into Riku’s mind. He was barely able to follow them, leaning against the wall and refusing any attempts of help from anybody, the Vengeful Boxer’s inner fire was dying out, realizing that maybe his direct approach to training wasn’t going to take him anywhere. As every echo of the steps reached him a flow of memories hit his head like a wave crashes against a cliff. He trained for years, spending every moment of his day pushing his body beyond his limits, but all that work, the pain, blood and sweat poured on the already worn out floorboards of the gym he inherited from his master were for nothing?
He couldn’t even defeat a single monster on his own? Was this the limit of his skills? Cursed to chase behind an impossible goal for the rest of his life wallowing on his own powerlessness and self-pity? At the moment he couldn’t think about anything else, but his attention was caught as they finally saw a change on the scenery. A green light filtered through the step underneath them, not too bright, just a low glow that was cut by the holes in each step, letting out lines of light climbing upward. Finally the staircase reached another location a large, massive, room, probably the largest of the complex, with the walls covered with green tanks of different sizes and contents. From their high position they had a clean view of most of the room, with almost a hundred glass cylinders lining the sides. This was the motherload promised to Marika by Kuro-san, pieces of hundreds if not thousands of creatures floating in preservative fluids, keeping them as fresh as the moment they cut them. Not only the parts were a treasure, but the fluids, that could keep body parts intact, could be of great use for the Psychotic Seamstress.
But there was a hurdle, as in the middle of the room, atop a throne of gore and disassembled mechanical parts, was sitting a man nobody had seen before, tall and thin, with patches of metal covering his body more like an illness than a boon. Flanking him two of the artillery bears and half a dozen Blitz Wolves. Seemingly he was occupied reaching into different containers and eating from them with a delighted sadistic smile on his face. A very old and raggedy looking man, the source of the soul Chelsea detected, was working on the terminals nearby the tanks to the right. If there was a moment to plan it was right now, as the moment they choose to start moving on the last stretch of the stair it would be when Masako would see them. Wolf, looking at the area, whispered very softly. -There!- He pointed with one of his front legs at one of the Bears. -That big one has my weapon on him. Apart from the large cannon the monster had a smaller one on it’s shoulder, three long and curved horns that spiraled into a point. -We need to be carrrreful with it.-
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Post by HungryHunter on Oct 8, 2017 4:18:21 GMT
The dolls slowed down when the green lights started showing through the floor panels. There was a building feeling of dread with every step of the stairs. "Preservatives." Marika mumbled. "What, honey?" Yuu glanced behind at the wiry-haired girl. "I smell preservatives. Top dollar. The parts must be down here." Yuu just nodded. She was picking up on the scent of pickled parts now too. A slight wave of nausea came over her. It reminded her too much of the basement and the horrible things done there in the name of Marika's art. She stopped and held out a hand when she caught her first glimpse of the room.
Marika had been right. The parts were here. Hundreds of them at the very least. Maybe thousands. All of them a life. Marika's eyes glowed. It was like a holy place to her, or the ultimate candy shop, the Willy Wonka's of necromancy, Frankenstein's Vatican. To Yuu, it was just one more reminder that she had failed to turn Marika from this path. But if she takes parts from here, she does not need to kill for them. It's a good step. She smiled weakly. This will help her. She won't kill for years with this sort of collection, and in that time we can prevent her from ever doing it again. Her soaring heart took another nosedive when she looked past the rows and rows of tanks. Masako. It couldn't be anything else. And he wasn't alone.
"Wolf, do you know who the human is?" She was shocked a human was down here at all. She got the impression this place was abandoned long before Masako came to it, but apparently not. Unless he brought the man with him. She would leave room in her plans for him, as a threat or an innocent or something in between. "Either way... here's the plan. First, Josefina will make the ground rise up in the back of the room as a distraction. Sidney, you fly to that bear with Wolf's weapon and try to remove it. Chelsea, cover her. Martha, try to fry the other bear like you did back up in the room with the doors. Jane, Riku, Marika, try to work with Josefina to get those wolves dealt with. I want Jane melting armor, Riku and Marika attacking the unarmored wolves, and Josefina covering them. Wolf, stay out of trouble until we can get you your weapon, then join whoever needs you most. I'll deal with Masako. Does that sound good to all of you?" She stopped to check for other opinions.
Sidney tried to get a good look at how Wolf's gun was attached to its unrightful owner, but it was too far to do anything but guess. Still, it was a mere piece of hardware. She had a full set of tools hidden in this coat of hers. There was very little she couldn't take apart, and slightly more things she couldn't put back together. "I'll have the gun off and back on Wolf in a minute." Chelsea stepped forward to stand by Sidney. "I shall prevent this bear from reaping my sister. If we survive this battle, it will make a good poem." She hefted her shotgun in one arm and her kriegsmesser in the other, smiling far too broadly at the prospect of using them.
Jane shuddered, looking between her teammates. Riku still looked catatonic from his inner demons. Marika was looking at the vats with avarice painted on every millimeter of her iris. She looked at the wolves, hunched and terrible figures of steel and fur. She looked at her gun, felt it in her hand like a little plastic toy. "Jane." Marika said. "I made you, and while you're weaker than everything else I've ever seen, I don't make things to get destroyed. Stop being a fucking pussy and stay alive. Melt them into puddles so Yuu can kill that fucking maniac and I can have my fucking parts." Marika lifted her own little plastic toys and glared at the wolves who kept her from her prize. Jane at Marika with tears in her eyes and nodded. "I'm ready." The wolves were scary, but they were nothing compared to Marika.
Martha was the last speaking doll to chime in. She glared at Yuu, then out past her, not at the bear, her intended foe. She scowled at Masako himself. "Don't get yourself killed fighting him. Jane would cry." And that was all she said. She just nodded and took her place on the lowest step of the stairs, waiting for Wolf and Riku, the last members, to agree or disagree with the plan.
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Post by Kuma on Oct 15, 2017 22:52:18 GMT
-Da, he muzt be one of the sczientists…- Wolf replied while looking at the raggedy lab coat and the balding head. The Cybernetic Canine was assuming, as he didn’t actually recognize him, but at this point lying was more a defense mechanism than an actual conscious choice. He listened to Yuu’s plan and turned to Sidney before she could have any chance to leave. -Young lady…- Wolf moved closer and looked up at her. -You must be karrreful, if Bearrr shoots my veapon you must dodge it. Or you vill be caught by it...- He made a pause and then, as if remembered something he continued. -Not initial laser, zat's just forrr aiming, but sekondarrry firrre, larrrge ball of enerrrgy, I don't underrrstand what it does, but somebody I fought against said something about varrrping space, if zat makes any sense to you.- Seemingly his weapon had some kind of effect to the fabric of space around it, warping it to catch whoever was unlucky enough to be close to it. Wolf turned to face Yuu. -I apprrrove of zis plan, just be karrreful, I still vant to get out zis place and, young ladies arrre my only ticket out.-
Riku, who was still looking down, seating on the steps with his eyes locked on the floor and his shoulder hunched forward meekly nodded, just wanting to leave this place, hoping this would be the faster way out. He was experiencing a severe crisis of confidence, not knowing how to proceed after being taken so far away from his natural environment. He was aimless and as much as he tried to deny it, scared. Maybe entering the Hidden World was a mistake, maybe aiming to become a monster wasn’t something he could do. Because only a monster, not a human, could become as powerful as he needed to become. Upon reaching that realization something locked into place inside his head. He had been trying to do this the wrong way. Hardwork and dedication are fine for a human, but to truly become a denizen of the Hidden World he needed sacrifice, the kind of sacrifice that erases his humanity, the kind that helps him become a monster.
He stood up, moving abruptly, almost loud enough to be heard by the enemies below and moved directly towards Sidney. His eyes had a strange glow, not just the determination he had before, but something more dangerous. His cold stare locked on to Yuu as he extended his hand towards Sidney. -I’ll accept your plan under one condition.- His whole body tensed up as if he was preparing for something. -Tell her to give me the vial of metal. I want that.- His burning eyes were too zealous to hide his intentions, it was clear he was planning to cast away his humanity by hosting the metal inside him. He thought that would give him the edge to become stronger. -The vial, now! Or I will shout and get us all killed.-
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Post by HungryHunter on Oct 16, 2017 5:57:49 GMT
"Warps space? Fascinating. Like a black hole? What a weapon. I should test it on Martha, she's tough." Sidney's grin was haunting. Martha shuddered and did her best to ignore that. She was pretty sure Sidney was kidding. She was too lazy to actually try that. "Sidney, don't test anything on anybody." Yuu ordered before Riku spoke to her. She seemed to age ten years before his eyes. She could practically feel the desperation that would lead to such a decision, but she couldn't do anything about it. She had tried to get through to Riku since his first blue screen moment and nothing had worked. Like Marika, he had set his path and she couldn't dissuade him from it.
"Sure, take it." Sidney tossed the vial to the mad boxer without hesitation. I wanted to experiment with it, and this is a hell of an experiment. "Sidney!" Yuu gasped. "I just want to check up on you on a regular basis to track the results." Yuu ground her teeth, but she didn't have a better solution for it. "Riku, please don't use that. I won't stop you, but I don't want you to turn into Masako." She drew her sword and sighed. "Move out." Her body ignited and a great boom rang out from the other side of the room at the bottom of the stairs, hopefully drawing Masako's attention as the dolls rushed in.
Martha was first to her target, rushing through the wolves like a winding breeze to rush the less heavily armed bear. She threw the first blow in the battle, an uppercut right for its chin. Chelsea swooped towards the other bear, firing her thermal shotgun at its face. Flaming shards scattered forth as Sidney slowly hovered to get overhead. She would drop when she felt the moment was right. Jane and Marika rode Josefina into battle against the wolves. Jane sprayed foam from on high while Marika shot at those that had their armor damaged, shots hopefully whittling down the targets.
Yuu moved alone, a flaming flag waving through the center of the room. She rushed around the Josefina and the wolves to rush head on at Masako. She jumped into the air to avoid climbing his hill of corpses and came down at him foot first. "Masako!" She declared as her boot came down at his scrawny torso. "I'm sorry." She stabbed at his face, trying to finish it as quickly as possible. For Riku's sake, she decided. I need to show him the weakness this power brings.
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Post by Kuma on Oct 20, 2017 3:08:32 GMT
If this was somebody else he might’ve have thought twice about what he was about to do, but Riku’s insane determination wouldn’t let him back down. Upon being offered the vial he didn’t even wait for Yuu to finish her plea, he uncorked it and drank it. At first he could only feel a moment of coldness as the surprisingly cool metal slid down his throat. That split seconded ended and let through waves of heat, first just warm, but soon Riku fell on his knees as the rest of the group charged to battle. -Ack...Agh…- The Vengeful Boxer grabbed his neck while resisting the gag reflex. His eyes became bloodshot as he groaned in pain, his whole body shaking as burning heat, a veritable blazing inferno, extended through his body. The metal wasn’t just consumed, it started expanding, phasing through his organs, or even piercing through them, swirling inside him and feeding off his negative emotions.
The Blitz Wolves didn’t even react to Martha, seemingly incapable of noticing such a fast moving target. Her uppercut connected with the even slower bear with quite the powerful impact, shattering the dried out jaw of the beast. The moment that happened the Benkeinium inside surged like a torrent and picked the pieces mid-air, dozen of tendrils drew the pieces back into shape, the fissures filled in with the metallic sheen of the Xenomineral. Chelsea and Sidney tag team advanced on the other bear, as the shotgun slugs hit the creature, the cannon perched on it’s shoulder started moving on its own, aiming at the floating lazy doll. As Wolf mentioned first there was a thin line, like a laser pointer, that targeted her and then with a resounding “BLAMF” a large sphere of energy, around the size of a soccer ball, blasted out from the three spiralling coils that formed the weapon cannon.
The sphere was warping space around it, like a heat mirage thrown into a blender. Colors and shapes besides it became a spiralling blur. If Sidney passed 5 mts near it in any direction she might get caught on the space whirlpool and sucked towards it. This wasn’t a gravitational effect, it was a spatial distortion. Even passing outside the range could prove to cause some damage, at least superficially. A lamplight hanging from above wasn’t in the range but it still twisted around, the cable splintering into dozens of small filaments that retracted like the feet of the witch under Dorothy’s house in the Wizard of Oz. The weapon was connected with brute force welding, with cables connecting its generator and the Bear’s power source. While this happened Yuu’s charged through the minions aiming to get a clean hit on Masako.
Yet the Alpha Predator was ready, and as the Leader of the Dolls’ blade descended his arm parried the blow, becoming larger, same thing happened to his other arm, both becoming much more muscular and elongated. -sOrRy!?- His smile widened as his body grew larger alongside his arms. A couple of bull horns sprouted out of his head, his arms ended up in long clawed fingers, his chest was covered in a insect-like plate and his legs exploded out his pants, turning into large tentacles. Seemingly he had consumed a mixture of monster parts that he copied and replicated with the Benkenium. -wHy aRe yOu SoRrY!?- His teeth also became larger and sharper, making his smile much more sinister as an evil glow radiated from his eyes, now fortified slits, akin to castle windows. -yOu BrOuGhT mOrE fOoD! i WaS gEtTiNg TiReD oF cOnSeRvEs!!!- And with a roar that seemed a mixture of several different beasts, a cacophony of monsters, he launched several tendrils towards Yuu, whistling through the air, capable of denting steel.
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Post by HungryHunter on Oct 20, 2017 6:50:35 GMT
Martha looked confused for a second when the bear wasn't instantly dropped, then sighed. She forgot to shock it! "Sorry, I meant to do this!" She drew her fist back and threw another punch right for its nose, this time releasing a jolt upon impact. She tried to channel good thoughts to make it effective. She thought of getting back to the surface with her sisters intact and Marika and Yuu not. Hopefully the smile that put on her face was enough to wipe the smile off of Masako's when she blew up his teddy bear.
As expected, the shotgun fragments didn't pierce the bear's hide. Unfortunately, the real reason for the shot also failed. The bear didn't turn its attention to Chelsea like expected, instead firing at Sidney. Sidney changed her personal gravity and went shooting for the wall, but she felt the pull of the strange sphere all the same. Her finger bones felt like they were turning into rubber for the split second she was in range before she doubled her personal gravity and rocketed towards the wall. She slammed into it hard, the wind getting knocked out of her by the impact. She was certain she broke something in the landing, but she didn't have time to think about that. The passion of discovery was filling her bloodless veins. She couldn't wait to put that gun on Wolf so she could see it shot at things she was allowed to destroy.
After dropping her gravity to regular levels, she picked herself up and ran along the wall to flank the bear, faster than she had ever moved before. Chelsea saw her plan and dove in to keep the bear occupied. "Spirit of Russia, I must stain my blade with blood as red as your flag. Prepare yourself, for I am the winds of global warming come to ruin your permafrost." She declared, blade raised, and charged to stab at its face. Sidney reversed her gravity again and fell towards the bear's flank while Chelsea was attacking.
Josefina attempted to stomp on a blitz wolf while Jane poured foam like rain. Marika devoted most of her efforts to keeping Jane seated on Josefina's shoulder as the giant shifted and stomped. Not far away, Yuu backed away down the throne. "That should have gone right through you!" What had gone wrong? Was it just that the main core was more resilient? She was forced to retreat in the face of the tendrils, too many to deflect. She slipped and rolled off the throne, coming up on the other side smeared with blood.
She began backing up, dripping tacky tears. She planned to make him advance onto them, where he would get stuck. It was only a spark after that and he was swimming in flames. She braced herself for killing. She had killed much better people than Masako. It didn't get easier for all that. She didn't like blood on her hands. I suppose it's good he won't bleed then. Said a jovial voice in her head. She didn't like that voice. It sounded too much like Marika. She had heard it first at a school in Japan, and on and off again since then. "You know you're not the real Masako, right? You're just metal who thinks it's a serial killer. I believe that anybody can change and there's no better reason than that. Your memories are fake, your impulses are fake! Just stop and we'll let you leave!" She made a last second appeal.
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Post by Kuma on Nov 8, 2017 3:44:16 GMT
Riku’s body twisted into a knot, he grabbed his chest with a pained expression and suddenly spurted a bloody cough, spraying the metallic steps with the crimson liquid. -Agh…- He groaned trying to stand up as finally the first signs of the Benkeinium started to become visible on his body. Small lines, barely 1 mm thick, slowly extended across his skin in straight lines that branched into diagonals to then become straight again, almost like some kind of circuit appearing on his skin, like an electronic tattoo. -It burns…- He whispered as he started hyperventilating while the battle raged on beneath him. He attempted to move down the spiralling staircase, but he slipped, losing his balance and falling several steps until he landed in an awkward position, his head hanging of the staircase and his limbs convulsing as the dark metal slowly expanded through his skin, not just marking it but also making it stronger.
As he was suffering his own idiocy, the rest of the team kept fighting against the monsters. The Artillery Bear facing Martha swiped at the air, trying to catch the Brawling Doll with his decayed yet reinforced claws, but the metric fuck ton of armor he carried, mostly designed for anti-artillery purposes was slowing him down, giving more than enough time for Martha to connect her second attack. The added lighting seemingly managed to cause a bigger effect, as lines of blackened and charred tissue appeared all over the creatures’ necrotic body, as the electricity releases burrowed through the veins, filled with the Benkeinium and decomposed liquids, conducting it through the body and leaving a haunting cobweb-like design with it’s epicenter on the monster’s chest. The emotion charged behind it wasn’t strong enough to destroy the creature, but the influx of positive vibes weakened the Benkeinium coursing through the bear’s body, making it sluggish and slow. Once again it attempted to throw his paws across Martha’s face, but this time around he was even more lethargic than before.
Chelsea lunged with such speed that the Artillery Bear’s reaction looked almost as if it was in slow motion. He swung both armored paws down, like a hammer, but the missed their mark, the Gothic Doll’s body, by quite the distance. Her sword pierced into the snout of the beast. Her confidence wasn’t necessarily a positive emotion, but it wasn’t negative either, so some damage managed to reach the reanimated nervous system of the creature. The bear buckled back as jolts of pain, something a dead body shouldn’t be feeling, made it recoil. That’s when Sidney crashed against the creature’s flank, pushing it enough to make it lose it’s balance. The undead abomination crumpled into a pile of dried up flesh and armor, not really injured, just caught by surprise from the combination. The forcibly welded weapon was almost in the Lazy Doll’s reach.
Josefina’s and Jane’s combo was quite effective, taking out a couple of Blitz Wolves after the Golem stomped them and the Petite Doll spew on them, melting their plating. Their crispy corpses attempted to move, still being puppeteer by the disgusting alien metal, but the other two managed to gain some distance. Moving as one both Blitz Wolves turned into Sphere mode and rolled away, performing a sharp turn in unison and then charging towards Josefina from the front, both coming in 45 degree angles, trying to force Josefina to block one and expose her back so the other could smash into Jane and Marika. It was basic strategy, one serving as a decoy and the other as the true attack. Their jet exhausts burst aflame as the plates of their armor cracked the floor underneath them as they advanced with kamikaze like fervor.
-kUkUkUkU… i DoN’t cArE! i’M hUnGrY!! i WaNt To EaT yOu!!!- Clearly Masako had lost some brain power when taking so many beast traits. The horns of a Minotaur, the arms of a Troll, the chest of an enigmatic insectoid being hidden underneath the arctic called a Kuul and his lower half copying the shape of a mighty kraken. It was a deadly combination but it also pushed the natural instincts of the monsters into his already shattered psyche. The Alpha Predator advanced, his tendrils piercing the floor and walls to drag him towards Yuu. He might have a lot of attack speed and resistance, but this cumbersome form was slowing him down when it came to sheer mobility. He launched three attacks, whips of Benkeinium sailing down from the ceiling, like three massive curved claws, aimed right on Yuu’s location. -i FeEl LiKe HaViNg BuRgErS!!! sO bEcOmE mInCe MeAt!!!- He roared with an insane cackle as he added another couple of tendrils to the attack, in a sweeping motion parallel to the floor, aimed at her left side. He was so focused on the attack that he didn’t even notice the sticky tears under him, touching some of his tendrils.
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Post by HungryHunter on Nov 8, 2017 6:33:05 GMT
"Oh, come on you fucking-" Martha steamed when the bear didn't drop. "Sorry. Let me cool off!" Martha casually stepped out of range of the bear and dashed off to a corner. She contemplated the Benkeinium's weakness. Positivity. Could anybody really just make themselves happy? She guessed they couldn't, or there would be more happy people.
Thinking was very hard for Martha, but she had made a resolution to try using her brain. She thought and thought, but couldn't crack it. An idea did dawn though. If her brain wasn't enough, borrow another. She rushed through the battle again to stand by Yuu. "Hey, what do you use to hurt these things?" She asked as Yuu sidestepped two of Masako's tendril strikes, the third cutting down into her shoulder. "Argh! You have a good heart, Martha. Just stop thinking about it and do- woah!" Yuu yelped when Martha yanked her back just in time to avoid Masako's secondary attack.
"Got it, Yuu! Thanks!"
Martha rushed back in front of the bear with a smile. "Sorry about that!" She was a few feet back this time and pulled back her gauntlets, holding them both to one side. "Come on..." She got the result she was desired. A ball of blue lightening began to form between her palms, congregating from two bolts traveling back and forth. The glow began to overtake every other light source as it grew. Martha looked at the bear, the past it at the wounded Yuu facing down Masako. "Can't believe I'm doing this..." Martha grumbled and fired.
"Oh well. I didn't need them anyway." Martha threw aside the gauntlets, causing splashes on either side of her body. She rushed the bear again, jumping with the intent of landing on top of it and axe kicking its cannon shut. "If I can't crack this nut, I can't possibly stop Masako from eating Yuu and making Jane and Cass cry. So crack, nut!" She dropped another axe kick, this time right for the top of the bear's head.
"I picked good parts for you." Marika crowed when Jane and Josefina took out a wolf. Jane wasn't sure whether to take that as a compliment. It seemed to mostly be self praise. Marika was good at that. Except when she went into one of her depressive fits. Then she was as good at insulting herself as she was insulting everything else. She quickly caught on to the trick of the remaining wolves and glanced helplessly between them. Josefina raised her arms to defend against the first, but was unaware of the one coming behind. "Jose-" Marika slapped Jane's mouth shut hard. "Wait." She demanded with a wicked grin.
The wolves drew closer rapidly, skidding off the stone floor as they came and spraying steam and flame. Finally, when they were almost there Marika's mouth opened. "Josefina, fall forward!" Josefina's body obeyed on its own and she toppled right at the wolf in front, dragging Marika and Jane down with her, hopefully quick enough that they were pulled out of the path of the blizting ball coming from behind. Jane was kept from flying off by a few sticky threads, although that didn't stop an involuntary spray of foam.
"Awaaaaaa! I don't want to work with you, I want to work with Riku or Martha or Yuu!" Tears of terror poured down Jane's face and her pants below the knee had been melted by her foam. "Hush, you baby! There's still another wolf! Kill it!" Marika demanded, but before Jane would have a chance to obey, Josefina summoned up an earthen dome over herself, blocking off the wolf and anything else that may try to get in, light included. The casting of darkness didn't help Jane's mood any, causing her to only wail louder.
"What the hell, Josefina!?" Marika kicked Josefina's big rocky body. Josefina couldn't explain it, but she figured that an upset Jane would only empower the wolf. As a result, she had to be removed from the situation until better. The dome collapsed as Josefina stood, blowing away like dust inches from her rising body. She gently plucked Jane from her body and set her on a slide rising from the earth. The slippery mud of the slide slid her swiftly back to the entrance and Josefina attempted slapping the blitz wolf between her palms like a fly.
Jane screamed even more on the slide, already in a mood of abject terror, but that faded when she saw what lay before her. "Riku!" She scrambled off the slide as gracefully as she could (not very) and ran to his side. She pulled off her coat and attempted to wrap him in it to at least lessen the thrashing. "I can't reverse what you did, but I hope I can make it a little less painful to get wherever you're going." She mumbled. It was terrifying to see somebody more helpless than her, but terrifying in a way that compelled rather than paralyzed. It was a new kind of fear to her.
On the far side of the room, Yuu was trying to move her arm on the side Masako had slashed her. No good. He must have cut her threads. She was as good as a stringless marionette with that arm now. At least Martha had pulled her away from the other tendrils. "I see there's nothing left for me to spare. I can only free you of the pain of your hunger." Her eyes sparked and all the tears on her body and the ground ignited, creating a pool of liquid flame on the ground.
Yuu backed away, leaving him in the sticky mess. He could barely move as it was with his chimeric form. She had plenty of time to shoot. She raised her crossbow, checking the nearly-full ammunition she had at her side. She fired it right for his chest. She would have aimed for the head, but she was unsteady with only one working arm and an injured leg. She wasn't sure she could land a shot like that now.
A blazing blue light ignited behind the canibal's shade. The earth seemed to jump with the sound of the thunder and Martha was blinded for a few seconds by her own attack, Yuu equally blinded on the other side. Instead of the bear before her, Martha had fired at Masako's back. The bolt shrank down until the gauntlets died with a sputter and pop. She looked down and saw just how damaged and dented they were, smoke coming from their energy meters. Maybe they would have survived going all out if she hadn't punched so many things with them, but as of now they were kaput.
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Post by Kuma on Nov 13, 2017 0:59:24 GMT
The bear facing Martha was utterly confused, his paws didn’t reach the nimble fighter in front of him and when he attempted to follow her, once she left to talk with Yuu, he discovered that whatever her punch did it was more than just burning him. The creature gave a couple of weak and confused steps, swaying its enormous armored body left and right, almost as if it was drunk. Benkeinium was coursing through its body and reanimating every vital function, like for example, the nervous system, and that was currently on the fritz. It wasn’t like the Alien Metal could move a body on it’s own, it lacked that power, but using existing systems was among its powers. That’s why it needed a body to properly exist, they couldn’t just copy stuff from scratch, they needed a basis to replicate it, just like Masako needed to consume the flesh to obtain the genetic advantages.
When she came back he attempted another attack, shaking his snout in anger and throwing both paws towards her, trying to rend her into pieces, but the static field generated by her sudden change of target and method of attack reached the incoming attacks from the Artillery Zyborg, who, guided by instincts awakened by the Benkeinium backed away in fear, remembering the previous attack. This allowed Martha enough space to charge up and launch her Tesla Death Sphere style attack. Out of balance and paralyzed by instincts that once were dead the hulking moving carcass didn’t even manage to react to Martha’s next attack, her leg twisting the cannon on his back and then shattering its helmet, sundering the pieces into the dried up skull, this time around there was too much damage for the Benkeinium to repair and the massive monster fell on its back, the metal sipping out from the wounds and forming a disgusting black puddle beneath him.
Josefina’s evasive moved worked, but there was still one Blitz Wolf spinning, faster and faster, turning around towards her and Marika. While this happened Jane got near a feverish Riku. The Vengeful Boxer’s skin was covered in veins of Benkeinium, like roots of an old tree stretching around a ruined building. He convulsed again, his eyes closed from the pain and the constant movement inside of his body. The Blitz Wolf revved up in place, the concrete floor cracking each time the creature’s plating touched it, spinning and red hot. As Jane worried, the wolf kept speeding up in place, becoming a ball of flames. Finally the creature shot forward like a flaming bullet, directly aimed at Josefina. But as it did something else became a blur of motion. Jane’s coat was left empty, hiding a couple of foot imprints on the floor. Crimson and Black lightning streaked from Jane’s position until it reached the space in between the Golem and the incoming Blitz Wolf. The figure standing there was more nightmare than man and it unleashed a flurry of blows that sounded as if somebody was swinging a sword.
The Blitz Wolf passed by the dark figure still moving, but when it was just meters away from Josefina it stopped mid-air, collapsing into a pile of sliced portions, as if it passed through a gigantic sharp net. The Crimson Lightning subsided a bit revealing a horrible sight. Riku was standing there, only wearing his pants and ragged scraps of his shirt. His skin was painted with black lines extending from his heart and reaching every inch of his body. His eyes were pools of black ooze, bubbling around burning red points in the middle. His hands were completely shattered, each finger bent in a different direction. His neck was slanted and his articulations were in disarray, as if each of them were moving with a mind of their own. There was something else, a thin aura around him that made it look as if he was tripled, constantly buzzing and vibrating in place. The Benkeinium had a strange reaction with his Fighting Spirit, as it was an Emotionally powered variant of Ki, it was kind of obvious that something might happen if he took in an alien parasite that feed on negative emotions. As he turned around he looked at Marika and licked his lips creepily. The metal coursing inside him started moving over his skin into his fingers, forcing them back into place as he walked towards the Psycho Seamstress. Whatever was guiding his steps saw her as a meal.
Yuu’s plan worked, Masako tried in vain to advance. -wHaT!? A tRaP!?- His frantic blood red eyes darted in all directions, seeing his tendrils caught in the sticky slime on the floor. -yOu SnEaKy FuCkEr!- He roared struggling to move his tendrils out of the trap, yet it was useless. Yuu set him on fire and shot the prototype rail gun, the projectile pierced through Masako so fast that he even took a couple of seconds to realize the hole it punched through his chest. The Alpha Predator looked dumbfounded at his body, a circle, 1 mt in diameter, was created by the hyper-fast ammunition. He tried to speak but a gurgle and a spray of blood was the only thing coming out his irregular and sharp fangs. His hands moved towards the hole, shivering as they attempted, quite futilely, to close it. -yOu BiT…- He attempted to insult Yuu but he was cut short by Martha’s attack. A massive detonation shook the room as Benkeinium splashed out of him, splattering the floor, the ceiling and the walls.
A large cloud of dust, smoke and debris covered his position and for a moment it seemed as if their combined efforts downed the Alpha Predator, but soon the droplets of Benkeinium started moving towards the epicenter of the explosion and from the cloud, running like a bat out of hell, an horrific visage, charging towards Yuu. Masako was more bones than flesh at this point, the skeleton covered in slimy chunks of meat, dripping with Benkeinium, was dashing erratically directly at Yuu, burning red blazes on his half destroyed eyes and the trail of Alien Metal behind him moving to catch up with him. The smoke cleared with a loud boom as he broke both the sound barrier and his legs, jumping forward with a flying headbutt. His jaw moving trying to curse the Leader of the Dolls, but lacking any vocal chords or throat made the attempt fruitless. He was directly aimed at Yuu, moving faster than they naked eye could see, ready to connect with his head into her chest.
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Post by HungryHunter on Nov 13, 2017 7:58:47 GMT
Sidney greedily wiggled her way up the bear's body, ignoring the pain in her chest and pulling tools from holsters on the inside of her coat. She worked at the bolts, trying to work the weapon lose. Chelsea landed in front of the bear, aiming her sword for an eye socket. She stabbed, hopefully snuffing it so her sister could work. Sidney was moving with fearsome pace. It was uncanny coming from such a sluggish creature as her. Sweat poured down her face and her eyes were wild with a light like lightning on a stormy night. "Maybe I'll put it on somebody else. Or set it up outside my room. Wait, no, I have to put it on Wolf. But think of the possibilities!" She ranted to herself as she worked.
Josefina looked down at her chest, where a few flaming scraps of blitz wolf bounced off her chest. "What the fuck was that!?" Marika yelled, running towards the new figure to avoid the rain of shrapnel. She skidded to a stop when she saw him. She scanned him through her thick lenses. Even somebody like her could instantly recognize the utter wrongness of his form. "So you actually did it. I have to admit, I admire that dedication to perfection." She smiled for a moment, but it faltered when he returned.
She jumped back onto Josefina as Jane came running back out from the entrance. "Rikuuuuuuuu!" She charged up behind him and stopped when she saw the flickering aura around the twisted thing he had become. "You didn't have to do that... couldn't you see you were already strong?" Tears began to flow from her eyes. She thought back to him rescuing her in the rushing rapids. How could somebody capable of that think they weren't enough? What was inadequate were Jane's soft limbs that couldn't stop a charging butterfly. She could only back away in the face of terror, leaving Josefina and Marika on their own. But what would she contribute anyway?
A sonic boom rocked the cavernous room and a white blur passed in front of Riku. Marika came to a stop on his other side, fist out after an attempted punch to Riku's face. "You can eat Marika. Hell, I'd help you if I had the choice. You can throw away your humanity. I don't give a flying fuck about humanity. But you made my sister cry, so I'm going to punch your teeth in." She turned towards him and sighed. "I don't want to have to do this, Riku, but you had to go and fuck it all up, didn't you?" Josefina stepped up behind Marika, crossing her arms. Marika peeped over her shoulder, not adding much to the threat they displayed.
Yuu was blind. The flash from the lightning was burnt into her eyes, like a great dollop of white out into her pupils. She kept backing away, not sure of what the attack had done to Masako. She only stopped when she reached a wall and rested against it. Objects were beginning to blurrily come back into focus. Had that done it? She saw no signs of him with her recovering vision. She could hear her family all active. They had made it through. "Rikuuuuuuuu!" The shout rang out in her ears and she turned to face it. Had something happened to Riku? She took a faltering step in the shout's direction, but another sound broke through.
Masko's horrible footsteps rang out, a wet patter over the floor. She turned and raised her crossbow, aiming at the shape rapidly approaching. She pulled the trigger and was rewarded with a terrible, hollow click. She hadn't reloaded a bolt. She dropped the crossbow and her hand was halfway to her sword when Masako's head met her chest. If she was human, she might have been killed instantly. Her ribs and breastbone shattered, shards of each escaping deeper into the organs they were supposed to protect. A million little points of pain broke out as she fell back, sliding down the wall and landing on her bad arm. She managed to grab her sword and swung wildly, but she wasn't even sure if Masako was still in range.
That won't keep him back, you know that. The Marika voice hissed. He'll eat you and use your fire to cook your family. Oh, who am I kidding, this brute only eats his food raw. She didn't listen. She couldn't listen. Marika voice could never be right. She couldn't let her-it-be right. She wanted to cry out for help, but moving her mouth produced no sound. There were sunken ships more airtight than her lungs. Help? For you? Come on Yuu, when do you get help? You always do it all alone. Fuck. She had let Marika voice be right. Fine. She would do it alone.
She couldn't stand. She couldn't see. These were just things she had to work with now. She handled worse. She lived in a house with Miles. She rolled away, towards Masako's throne. He had left the containers of some of his smaller meals here. Bottles. She gathered intact ones in her arms, ignoring cuts she got from the broken ones and the viscera that surrounded them. She stuffed them under her face and poured into them her unending flood of tears. She just needed to fill a couple and Masako would be no more.
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Post by Kuma on Nov 22, 2017 5:16:27 GMT
Sidney would struggle to take off the Wolf’s weapon from the The only way to remove it was by brute force, as it wasn’t bolted, somebody haphazardly had welded the lower part of the gun on the creature’s shoulder plate. But upon a closer inspection the Lazy Doll might notice that the metal that seemed welded was just solidified Benkeinium. So something else than brute force might be needed to take the weapon out. Luckily for Sidney she had the help of Chelsea, who managed to score a pretty damaging blow right into the reactivated brain of the creature, making it stop moving, the Alien Metal flooding into the wound trying to seal it and repair the damage, but at least for half a minute the bear was out of combat. If Sidney really wanted that weapon she would have to think in somebody else than herself or the uses she could have for it.
Riku barely moved, his whole body seemed to be much limber than before, as if the lines of Benkeinium coiling around him worked as some kind of suspension, reinforcing his ability to move and reducing the strain. His Fighting Spirit was barely there, making any kind of Ki-sensing useless. He swayed his neck to one side, letting the punch slip right past him and at the same time he replied with a punch of his own, a blood-curdling cross-counter, the Konote-Gashiwa, a straight punch that gained Riku one of his nicknames on the Spirit Boxing Community, as whoever received it ended spitting a cloud of blood, thus they named him Chikumo. The technique was originally created by Riku’s teacher, but the Vengeful Boxer version was more extreme, adding his full body weight behind the blow. It was named after a legendary japanese blade, one known for it’s impressive edge.
Masako was a horrifying visage, a half melted skeleton barely standing up. Pieces of Benkeinium dripping off his body, boiling bubbles of dark mercury splashing on the floor below him. His skeleton was completely covered in the alien metal, that had permeated even the inside of every bone. The Alpha Predator was as blind as Yuu, not from a flash, but from lacking any eyes, still not being regenerated by the Alien Parasite that had become him. Slowly pieces of the metal slid on the floor towards him, homing for some obscure reason to him. Maybe the weight and depth of his negative emotions was so large that even after death he managed to keep the Benkeinium drinking it from his bones. Patches of muscle, with the color and texture of the metal, started growing from the bones, as if he was blowing into balloons made of grey colored flesh. It might take a while for him to fully regenerate.
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Post by HungryHunter on Nov 22, 2017 7:18:04 GMT
Sidney placed her tools back into her coat when she realized they wouldn't do. This was no good. Sidney looked at herself and thought of her core components. She was a soulless construct born of murder to commit acts of mad science. Nothing about this said she was good enough to remove a benkeinium plate. She thought about testing some new horrible thing on her sisters, mostly Martha (she was durable), daily. It only now even struck her this might be a bad thing.
"Hey, this thing won't stay down forever! What are you doing!?" Chelsea withdrew her sword with a sharp tug and looked into the wound, seeing the liquid metal stir. "Having a moral crisis! Silence until I figure this out!" Sidney was sketching equations on the back of the bear in permanent marker. Could good be measured? Was it objectively preferable over evil in all circumstances, or could evil prove useful in small portions? Was somebody who did more evil deeds but for a good cause more or less evil than somebody who did less evil deeds for an evil cause?
Questions that had burned holes in the heads of philosophers for millennia now ignited the fires of her mind. Before she wouldn't have given it a second's thought, but with the puzzle before her, she finally had the qualifier she had always needed to care; a practical application. Quickly a simple formula came to mind. Altruistic was good, selfishness was bad. It was more complex than that she knew, but simple math would do for now. So caring about others would be the simplest way to do this. There came the hard part.
Did Sidney care about anybody? She barely knew her sisters really. She was born only a few months ago. That wasn't enough time to make an attachment, and she wasn't born with one existing. She couldn't even pretend to care. A sharp pain pricked a heart that wasn't there. What's this, regret? She thought. Yes, it was. Sentimentality, emotion, those things she thought herself immune to still demanded human connections like anybody else. But she had none in her memories. What if she went deeper?
All dolls had a loose collection of Marika's memories. They could speak English, Greek, and that bit of Japanese that Marika had learned, and knew all the little bits of knowledge she absorbed over her life. When it came to personal experiences it was fuzzier. They couldn't remember much about Marika's real parents, or why they were killed, but the newer ones felt an unavoidable spark of affection looking at her boyfriend Miles. Similarly, if they focused, they could get impressions of past events or people she knew, particularly ones that drew her ire, which was common.
Sidney now thought back, trying to steal that connection from Marika's memories. She was looking for Miles, but something else caught her eye. A brief flash of a young man, lean and muscular. It wasn't his looks that interested her, but the blast of pain she remembered associated with him. She focused harder on the memory and got flashes of more pain, disaster, utter failure and hatred beyond anything else she had ever felt. She even noticed images of a man who must be the Ikari who worked for the man they got this job from.
She went back to the one associated with pain. That brought a smile to her face. Somebody who actually managed to hurt Marika? Who could have gotten past Yuu? She made a snap decision. Find him and know what he is. And do this for him, a perfect stranger. What could be more altruistic? Sidney drew her blast and changed it to its axe form. She brought it down on the seam of the benkeinium to carve it apart.
Martha felt her fingers whisper past Riku's head and knew by instinct the counter was coming. But she was tired and cold and Riku was running on hate. Her arm was only halfway there when his was turning her jaw sideways. It seemed to sink into her to the point she swore she could feel Riku's cold metal fingers on her molars. Half her teeth were left behind when she was thrown back across the room. She had no blood to lose, but it didn't make the damage less gruesome.
Somehow she was standing at the end of her slide, even if she hunched over awkwardly. "...thath ith? Thath's all 'ou go outh of thith!? If even I can sthand after 'ou 'ith me, 'ou've gained nothing!" Martha rushed forth at Riku, throwing an identical punch to the one that had just failed. If anything, it was weaker and slower, given her injuries. However, Riku would be met with surprise if he dodged the same way he had before. A glass bottle flew behind her fist to strike any face that narrowly avoided her knuckles. If it shattered on Riku's nose, he would find it to be full of lemony soda no nicer to get in your eyes than glass shards.
"Hey, my soda!" Marika angrily called from the shoulder of her personal giant. Josefina paid no mind, waiting for Martha to flop forward on her stomach before swinging her hand down to smack Riku, fingers brushing Martha's back with the distance they cleared. Josefina felt both joy and sorrow. She and Martha were finally fighting in perfect unison, but against somebody who had been a comrade on this downhill climb. She wished she could speak and call out to him, but she couldn't reach him any better than Martha. Perhaps he couldn't be reached. Perhaps like Masako, they would have to kill him. The hand that swung at Riku twitched.
Masako wasn't coming, Yuu realized after several seconds without footsteps. There were noises. Horrible noises. Yelling at Riku. Her tears poured harder. Her family faced him alone. She only had enough will left to face Masako, if that. Her vision was recovering, but darkness ate at its corners. Was that death, or just unconsciousness? She wouldn't know until it took her, although she didn't have long to wait.
She saw Masako's form. She couldn't pick up on its gruesome details, but she could tell from his motions he was hurting. She could do it. Her plan could kill him. It had to. She put her hands under them and tried to push off the ground, but her legs didn't cooperate. They just kept slipping under her. She collapsed in a shuddering heap, over and over. More darkness in her vision, the octopus just out of the corner of her eye spraying the ink that would carry her away. She lurched over onto her back and sat up. She could still do that. That would have to do. She wrapped her fingers around one of the glasses she had filled with tears.
"Masako! Is there anybody you care for? Please think of them!" The words were more than a call of empathy. They would make Masako turn towards her, turn his chest to the bottle that sailed to shatter there and splash him with tears like a bucket of napalm. Another followed, another after that, two more. All told, five full glasses filled to the brim with flammable, sticky death were hurled by Yuu's sure eyes. But they did more than that. If Masako had the slightest spark of concern for anybody in his life, it might be enough to sour his connection to the metal that knew only cruelty and hate.
No matter the result, Yuu couldn't hold any part upright a moment longer. She toppled forward into the edge of the puddle of tears. Her eyes sparked and the lake was lit ablaze. If the dolls breathed, they might notice that the oxygen in the room was sucked away for a few seconds, all fed into flames that touched the ceiling. Chelsea and Sidney looked away from their gun to stare. Marika stood upright on Josefina's shoulder and pressed her palms to her open jaws. Tears dampened her cheeks, something impossible rocking her; thoughts for another.
They had left Yuu all alone against Masako. What had he done to drive her to such an explosion, and was she alive among it? Nobody could tell, and now the fires died. If Masako lived among them, he was a problem for others now. Yuu lay still and cold on a smouldering pile of ashes that were the dribbled remains of Masako's meals. Victor or not, her fight was over.
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Post by Kuma on Nov 26, 2017 4:53:09 GMT
For a moment nothing was happening, Sidney’s attempt to connect with the idea of revenge, or at least karmic justice against the man who broke Marika’s jaw, was not working. The feeling of doing something for another was there, but it wasn’t something positive, basically each time she hit her axe against the metal it was only making it stronger, tougher and tougher, as it was feeding the same kind of emotion, in a much lesser degree, as Riku was giving the metal. But unlike Riku, who was up and running, the bear was out cold, thanks to Chelsea poking its brain. The lack of neuronal activity wasn’t exactly an issue for Benkeinium, it could still feed from a corpse, but if it reanimated a body it was attached to, it used the brain as extra computing power. A sudden disconnection from said enhancement would force it to revert into a more instinctive and less flexible thought process. Flexible is a key word here, as the metal kept drinking in the emotions in Sidney attack and doing the most basic function, strengthening itself. But there was a problem.
Benkeinium is naturally fluid, but when needed it can turn solid to block attacks. “When needed” is an important fact, even when appearing solid the Alien Metal is in flux, maybe not at a surface level, but internally. Taken to a primal point, the Benkeinium went into full defense mode, taking the energy and using it to tighten the bonds among its molecules, making it harder and harder. The first hit made it full solid, the second hit made it way harder, the third hit, after receiving such detached and cold vengeful instinct from Sidney made it so hard and so lacking in flexibility that a small piece chipped off upon impact. Even sentient alien minerals couldn’t escape the brittleness index. Wolf, who had been waiting for the right moment to pounce, upon hearing the cracking sound rushed across the room, avoiding piles of corpses and Zyborgs to reach Sidney - Young Damsel, is veapon rrready forrr me? I kannot vait to help you and frrriends to defeat zis evil.- Wolf tone was weird, maybe Sidney, if too focused on the task at hand, wouldn’t notice, but there was something off about him, apart from being the brain of a soviet soldier from another dimension implanted into a mechanical wolf body.
Riku was standing without a guard, his posture was nightmarish, his arms and legs in awkward positions after punching Martha, it was more as if he was some kind of sinister puppet, controlled by shining threads of dark silver, wrapped around his body. Maybe the dolls would note the irony of fighting something that looked like a human but behaved like a toy of something more wicked. The bottle hit the Vengeful Boxer square on the head, but he seemingly paid it no mind apart from staggering for a moment from the sheer force of the impact, but as the Golem and the Brawling Doll charged in, Riku’s body jerked back forward, as if he violently pulled from his hair. Contorting his body beyond the possibilities of a human he moved forward with strange wavering steps, but with inhuman speed. Instead of dodging to the sides or to the back he choose to dash in-between their punches.
Riku’s body rolled like a ragdoll barely grazing their arms and as he finished his spin, his fist, covered in organic-looking knuckle dusters spun with him aiming a massive hook against Martha’s nape. It was a “Rabbit Punch” a forbidden move, a move that was lurking deep inside his mind and whatever was controlling him used it. It was the technique he was developing as his Winning Combination Cross move, the Spinning Hook Counter Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi. If this connected against a human fighter it meant instant K.O or even worse, death. He performed it without a hint of doubt aiming to shut her lights out, considering her a much more dangerous enemy than the lumbering and slow titan that was Josefina. He wasn’t even paying attention to Marika or Jane, guided only by the instincts of the metal currently “piloting” him. He didn’t stop to check if he hit or not, either way after finishing the blow he would roll backwards, his movements becoming more feral, arching his back and using his hands, knee and foot to stand.
Masako, at first, while he was still reforming, didn’t hear Yuu’s call, but his ears sprouted back from the molten metal and he caught the last part of her plea. Her words would never reach the Alpha Predator, who turned around facing her. His face was a visage of death, you might confuse him with some kind of Cyberpunk Grim Reaper. A metallic skull with patches of skin growing into shape, malformed holes barely resembling ears and a nose. A single glowing eye and a set of cracked, metal covered fangs. Without a second thought he charged towards Yuu, his arms extending and regenerating, fingers surging from where there were stumps moment before. In this feral state he didn’t even see the bottles coming, the first one hit him but didn’t stopped him, the second one tagged him on his foot and his maniac charge stopped as the sticky gunk chained him to the ground.
He roared a silent roar, swiping his claws into the air, his arms slowly resembling those of a large feline. The third and fourth bottles got him in the arm and the chest, while the final one went straight for his head. The tears contained his weakened form and when she set them ablaze the silent roar became quite audible, as his throat regenerated just for this moment. An earth-shattering scream echoed in the room, some of the smallest and thinnest tanks on the walls exploded into clouds of glass and waves of conservative fluids. The shriek cannot be described in words, I can only say it was like some kind of primitive yell, from something beyond the boundaries of Earth a sound never heard before. The flames weren’t the true source of damage, but Yuu’s spirit of self-sacrifice, going this far to protect her sisters and Marika. The towering inferno of crimson flames licked the roof of this massive storage room, the wave of heat blasted off, radiating in circles of distorted air.
When the flames stopped a large pillar of black smoke surrounded the area of ignition, the ground itself was scorched by the pyroclastic column. Silence filled the room, only broken by cracks suddenly appearing on the floor, that was cooling off after the blast. From the shadowy black smoke an horrible sound started echoing in the room. -kUkUkUkUkUkUkU…- It started softly, like the buzzing of an insect. -kUkUkUkUkUkUkUkUkUkUkU!!!- But soon it became a torrent of grotesque laughter as the misshapen form of Masako was revealed. The metal had melted over him, turning his body into a barely humanoid pillar, like a tree with roots of darkened silver. Patches of the surface were blackened, others still red hot. Only one of his arms and part of his face and chest were of the main pillar and that arm started moving. It was painful to watch, like attempting to bend something really brittle. Cracks formed on the articulations as the arm slowly aimed directly at Yuu.
A disgusting wet sound surged from the cracks and a torrent of liquid Benkeinium came out in jet-like pressure flying towards Yuu like a flying river of death. The tip turned into a drillbit like point, ready to pierce through the doll’s chest. -yOu ThOuGhT yOu CoUlD kIlL mE!!? tHiNk AgAiN, yOu BiTcH!!!!- He roared with a coarse and strained voice, as if he had been smoking for ours in a blizzard and just entered a warm room.
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Post by HungryHunter on Nov 26, 2017 7:31:50 GMT
Sidney frowned at the first hit. She frowned deeper at the second. Well crap. Maybe liking a guy for breaking somebody's jaw was bad. Fascinating. However, the third hit intrigued her. Well that was nice. Although it would take forever. "Yeah, Wolf. Chelsea, you cut it loose." Sidney handed over her hatchet, figuring the shorter weapon would do a more delicate job.
"Sure. Just a sec Wolf!" Chelsea sheathed her sword and leaned into the task. She had it a lot easier than Sidney. Under her surface of pure edge, she cared deeply about her siblings and creatures that most would write off as horrifying or bizarre. Even Marika wasn't off the table for her affections. But now it was Wolf that drove her blade. "Wolf needs this." She said under her breath and began working at the Benkeinium with Sidney's axe. If it came off, Sidney would begin properly attaching it to Wolf.
Martha, having dove to avoid Josefina's swing, was in the middle of rising when Riku struck her. Her face slammed into the ground from the force, and for a second, all she could see were stars. She was back on her feet before her vision even recovered. A pounding headache was a new addition to her quickly growing list of damages, but that's all it was. She moved to attack, but her eyes flickered upwards when Marika screamed. "Yuuuuuuu! Josefina, get me to her!"
From her vantage point, Marika saw Yuu lying still and heard Masako's laughter, like a gurgling brook of blood. Josefina's slow arm had started moving the moment she demanded action, reaching up to grab her. Marika understood and nodded. She didn't have time for other options. She curled into a tiny ball in Josefina's palm and felt terror creeping up in her as Josefina's palm slowly drew back. It didn't have time to take hold when she was snapped forward.
Marika whistled through the air and came down hard on the pile of muck and organs Yuu had dug for glasses among. She landed on her back and rolled down, cushioned by livers and lungs. She put her palms to the ground to stand up and found herself pushing off of broken glass. She bit her lip and tears welled up, but what she saw didn't let her stop. She was too late.
Masako's drill had penetrated Yuu's sternum, deep into her torso. Marika's red eyes flared with a volcano's fury and she lunged into action. "STOP! HURTING! MY! MOM!" She swung her scissors at the benkeinim mass. It would be hopeless were it anything but benkeinium, and worse than worthless if she were her usual self. But now she stood between Masako and Yuu, well aware of how tiny she was.
"I'll take out your eyeballs and stuff them back in backwards if you kill her!" The normal Marika wasn't entirely gone, but under the rage was a willingness to stand before something she couldn't possibly beat with no more than scissors in her hands to defend her loved one, a woman who might already be dead behind her. She raised scissors and threw them, right at Masako's eye in the desperate hope that it might make him just go away.
Back before the other Benkeinium monster, Riku had unwittingly rolled right next to the doll he had ignored. "Riku!" Unthinking, Jane threw herself at the feral warrior. "Dane, no!" Martha yelled through broken teeth. She rushed with all her speed at Riku to take her sister away, arms not up for defense or attack but merely to pull Jane from his arms. But even with her speed, she was a second away. Whatever Riku did, she wouldn't be able to change.
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