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| The Curse of the Gatekeeper; Lysses (Solo PS) | |
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| Topic Started: Sep 30 2014, 11:15 PM (362 Views) | |
| Future Gohan | Sep 30 2014, 11:15 PM Post #1 |
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The Harbinger
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His hands worked tirelessly, moving with machine-like precision in order to place wall panels and raise his platform higher in order to place glass. The building he was working on was supposed to be done before the day was out, but something told him that even for someone with superhuman speed, the order was a tall one. It was supposed to be about thirty stories tall, with an elaborate archway logo design and a number of special features that he couldn't have cared less about. Honestly, he wouldn't have even known how to go about constructing the place... not without the panel of carpenters and specialists that watched him work from the base of the now growing tower. The Sasebon Hotel was one of worldwide renown before the battle of Sasebo. It had been demolished in Unit 5000's shock wave against the city, leveled and scraped away to the base at the center of the blast. It wasn't anywhere near the last building that Lysses would find himself working on, but it was arguably the most iconic. People had grown used to seeing it light up against the twilit skyline from all ends of the island, and to restore it would be a huge boost of morale for the people that lived on Amenbo. They would be thankful, and even though he wasn't getting compensated for the work he was putting in, their gratitude would be more than enough. Of course, thought Lysses, bitterly, Getting paid would be pretty nice too. The director of the project called to him from below, but the sound of tools fast at work and the settling of equipment somewhere below drowned out the old man's voice. The project director was a Roger Sprout, an experienced architect and constructionist that had been working in West City for the last ten years as a chief planner of urban growth. Fortunately, he had volunteered to assist with the construction of the iconic Sasebon Hotel Spire, informally dubbed "Sasebo's Spire." He, of course, was getting paid. Lysses paused, letting go of a breath he'd been holding in for what felt like years, and glanced down to the construction site below. He could hardly make out the figures of the workers, who looked like ants, and briefly wondered why the hell the old bastard had bothered calling up to him in the first place. His left hand flickered to the ear piece that was attached to the backside of his earlobe and flipped a little switch in order to activate the "Talk" function. The basic idea of the device was that it functioned as a two-way radio, with which he could communicate his thoughts and receive input to and from those below. "What is it, Mister Sprout?" he mumbled, resuming work at a slower pace. In the distance, clouds spread out into infinity and gave way to the oranges and pinks of a crepuscular sky. "It's getting dark, kid. You'd better hurry up!" barked the old man, as if Lysses wasn't working about two thousand times faster than the average human could ever have dreamed. The old man's ingratitude was irritating, but Lysses resisted the urge to bark back at him. The East, West, and South walls were already done. All he needed to do was reach the top of the spire on the North side and attach the lettering for the Sasebon design. "It's nowhere near dark already, calm down. I'm approaching the last few stories now. Does the crew have the lettering ready down there?" The old man grumbled something inaudible into the headset to his assistant, before muttering something like "hang on a sec, kid." Lysses, in the mean time, continued to work. [align=center]650[/align] |
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| Future Gohan | Oct 1 2014, 12:55 AM Post #2 |
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The Harbinger
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The lettering went up just before darkness fell, having been placed on the building at exactly 7:54 PM Southern Standard Time. Lysses watched the ceremony with little fanfare or appreciation for his work, having chosen instead to make his hasty escape toward the nearby headquarters for the construction crew. They, as a whole, were ungrateful. Then again, they had mostly been imported from various areas of West and South City, which hadn't been too badly hit by the war on Earth. In fact, West and South City had been ignored for the majority of the war. This was, in no small part, due to the fact that the city was awkwardly named and had little to nothing in the department of exportation. They had some fish, they had some crops, and their industry was still in development. He wormed his way across the compound, basking in the silence that he had been temporarily afforded. The workers wouldn't return for another hour or two at the least, and that was the pessimistic estimate. The majority of them had made plans to go out drinking in order to celebrate the completion of the tower. Lysses couldn't blame them. Sasebo was a city ripe with business; everyone wanted to make a buck in order to buy their old lives back. The only workers that remained in the compound were security guards, who were there to make sure the city's visitors weren't taken advantage of, and the secretaries, who mostly served Sprout. His boots had been removed long before he reached the makeshift locker room where his spare clothes had been stored. Despite the fact that the work on the tower hadn't been hard, it had taken him most of the last three days and forced him into a light sweat. He stowed his boots, which he'd been carrying through the halls, in his locker at the end of the first row. As he moved to open the locker door, which was cracked and crimson, his eyes darted about the room. Most of it was covered in the clothes and tools of the other workers. Such lazy bastards; I'm shocked their wives put up with them, he commented, internally. Argus did not respond to his comment. For a long time, Argus had been silent. Since his battle with Elric in the woods of West Country, he'd been brooding. They had soundly trounced the boy and his Patron, Shamshire, but the wounds of the fight hadn't yet healed. Of course, Lysses hadn't actually been hit, but the mental and emotional grievances laid against him had more than made up for that. Instead of brooding on the past, he ripped his towel off of the locker's hook and walked toward the showers. He had avoided using them in the days prior out of an urge to quickly and peacefully finish the project, but now their hot, rushing waters were to be his trophy. Gratitude of the city was nice, and so was pay, but neither beat the feeling of bliss as the evidence of a hard day was washed away. His skin shivered as his exposed feet met the tiled flooring of the Washroom. The air was cold, but that wouldn't be the case for much longer. "Finally, some time to myself," he murmured, peeling his clothes off and tossing them just outside the doorway. [align=center]586 1,236[/align] |
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| Future Gohan | Oct 1 2014, 01:10 AM Post #3 |
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The Harbinger
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The water was his salvation; it washed away the sins of his survival and granted him the absolution. He basked in it, enjoying the piercing silence being overridden by the falling rain that was the shower head. Steam had begun to rise around the edges of the room, fogging the mirror in the center and blinding him. He didn't know how long he stood under the rushing water, but it had been easy to lose track of the time. While his hands had been rummaging around in his hair, his mind had been left to wander. He thought of the day's work. He thought of the past. He thought of his friends and the little family he had remaining. He thought of his new acquaintance, the boy named Alistair. He had been strong and resilient, if not foolhardy and brash. He would be a decent enough ally for the months to come. If he came through on the bargain to feed Lysses information on the storm knights, he would become an amazing asset and tool. If he ended up being a traitor, he was not strong enough to miss. Trusting the boy was a low risk investment on all fronts. Hopefully, it'd work out. While he thought of the future, the threat outside of the compound's doors evaded his notice. He should have picked up on it when the nature of the silence changed, but the steam and the ease dulled his senses. That would be his first mistake of the night. Outside, a lanky figure approached the security desk from the side, examining the interior. Rudy Begar had been a security guard for exactly twenty-two years. In his youth, he had worked mostly for banks and private contractors. Now, in his mid-fifties, he found himself working for a well-enough-off construction company while the city was being rebuilt. During the catastrophe that had since been dubbed the "Battle of Sasebo," he'd been on holiday with his family on the outskirts of the island. When the news broke, he had wept. However, at exactly 8:24 PM, he was having a rather difficult time with an obstinate game of solitaire. "Damned fuckin' game," he mumbled, working over the poorly aged mouse with his poorly aged fingers. Rudy was nearing fifty-six, but he looked at least sixty. The main reason he'd gotten the job at the construction company was because of the distinct shortage of applications they had received. That was likely because of the lack of tourism and travel the Battle had generated. Not many people wanted to live in a city that had no quick exit in the scary, post-war world. It was tragic, but it was true. Many long time residents had fled the city immediately after peace had been declared, mostly by boat so as to avoid air travel. "I'll die before I lose a game of fuckin' solitaire," growled Rudy, completely unaware of the accuracy of his statement. [align=center]500 1,736[/align] |
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| Future Gohan | Oct 1 2014, 01:30 AM Post #4 |
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The Harbinger
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Unit A-34 made no noise as he moved across the lawn of the compound, approaching the security desk with a wary caution. His scanners illuminated the guard inside from the other side of the wall, showing a hunched position and a relatively low heart rate. It bumped and spiked every few minutes, as if the old man, who (according to Sasebo Security's database) was named Rudy Begar, were having a mildly difficult time with some kind of task inside. A-34's scanners proceeded to check the layout of the compound and the projected location of the facility's employees. TYPE 1A - SECURITY PERSONNEL RUDY BEGAR - ALIVE (30M) ACTIVE TURRY NIPS - ALIVE (2400M?) INACTIVE SGT. TOM EITO - ALIVE (1250M?) INACTIVE TYPE 1B - NONESSENTIAL WORKERS STEPHANIE REWT - ALIVE (550 M) ACTIVE RHUBA ARBAROSS - ALIVE (125 M) ACTIVE Five personnel were supposed to be on duty. According to the cursory scan he'd just given the compound's grounds, only three workers were actually on site. The actual construction workers had been last observed headed towards the Stray Dog, a local pub, by Unit B-34. B-34 was the reconnaissance unit attached to his own program. B-34 would be unavailable in the event a scuffle broke out between A-34 and his target. TYPE D - PROGRAM TARGETS LYSSES OF PHAGE - ALIVE (120M) ACTIVE (20,000 POWER UNITS; RESTING) His target, according to the blueprints he had downloaded, was most likely in Shower Room B. He would not see the attack coming, nor would he be able to sense it. Stealth Units did not have a detectable power level, and as such, could not be detected by conventional means. A-34 approached the back end of the security desk, briefly noting that the structure should have been named the "Security Hut," and overriding the blueprints in his database with the proper indicator. Incorrect intelligence was not something to laugh about, but even if it had been, he would not have laughed. Humor was not something he registered. His right hand made contact with the South Wall of the now properly named Security Hut, and began to throb gently. Rudy Begar would not see the attack coming either, but he wouldn't have been able to respond even if he had. His registered power level, at peak measurement, had been 10. Now, in his resting state, it hovered around a high 3. INITIATING ELIMINATION PROTOCOL... The last thing the cameras on the interior of the Security Hut managed to catch was the sudden popping of Rudy Begar's skull, and the slumping posture his body took as it fell out of the chair. Intensive review would show that a small, but bright light had burst through the wall behind him. It would not be recognized as ki energy until the release of Groundbreaking Physics, some ten years into the future. The game of solitaire would go unfinished, and Unit A-34 would go on to enter the compound unnoticed. Somewhere within the depths of the building, Lysses of Phage continued to bask in the glory of his shower, applying enough body wash and shampoo to clean twenty other men and extend the time he spent inside for as long as possible. APPROACHING TARGET D... [align=center]556 2,292[/align] |
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| Future Gohan | Oct 1 2014, 01:49 AM Post #5 |
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The Harbinger
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Lysses first felt the change an entire five minutes late, picking up on the vague presence of another figure in the room outside the shower. He could hear it, just over the sound of the water, creeping across the floor. With the new, strained silence that now stretched over the shower filling his ears, Lysses turned, one eye closed, to examine the disturbance. He could only imagine that it was one of the secretaries, coming to deliver him some kind of message. If that were the case, he hoped they weren't surprised when he kicked them out of the room and told them to leave the message on his locker. "Rhuba, if that's you, it can wait. I'm in the shower," he called to her pre-preemptively, his hands latched firmly against his sides. His manhood hung majestically between his legs, while his muscles continued to unwind despite his waning patience. He knew he should have brought up the essential nature of his private time upon entering the compound. It wasn't like she wouldn't have understood. Rhuba was a smart girl, and only a few years older than he was. She should have known better than to approach him while he took a shower anyway, right? It wasn't a known Earth custom to approach people in the shower. Unless, of course, they wanted to catch a glimpse of the goods. Lysses smirked at the thought, mentally flexing his muscles, and called out again, this time to taunt her. "Hey, Rhuba... you shouldn't invade on someone's privacy, y'know? You might catch a glimpse of something big and scary!" He flexed his train engine playfully, flexing and putting on a stoic face. The train engine quickly shrank down to the size of a single car when a burly looking man appeared in the threshold. "Holy shit-- you're not Rhuba!" yipped Lysses, quickly moving to cover his manhood and hide himself from the stranger. "Who the hell are you--?" "TARGET IDENTIFIED: LYSSES OF PHAGE. POWER READING: 20,000 UNITS AND RISING." What kind of weirdo came in on a guy while he was taking a shower, and then had the sheer GALL to label his masculinity a 20,000? Then again, maybe it was a 20,000 out of 20,000? No, even then, it was the creepiest shit he'd seen in a while, and he'd seen Walid in a dress. Well, he'd kind of seen Walid in a dress. It had been a mental image, and not the real thing, but that didn't matter. The Phagian's willy, which was to say: his gender symbol, practically receded inside of him as he remembered the thought and shuddered visibly. "COMMENCE WITH ELIMINATION PROTOCOL ALPHA, DIRECTIVE CONFIRMED." Everything seemed to sober up in the span of about thirty seconds. From the red, almost demonic glint in the man's eye, Lysses could tell that the shabbily dressed stranger was not there to join him in the shower. Within the stranger's voice, a metallic droning seemed to hover under the simulated tones of a middle aged human. He was being ambushed while naked, in the shower, with shampoo still in his hair. He groaned in frustration as the creature's hand leveled with his chest. He wasn't stupid. He knew what the stranger was there for. It was fucking go time. The blast erupted with a deafening roar, taking out the wall as Lysses jumped to the side. [align=center]600 2,892[/align] |
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| Future Gohan | Oct 1 2014, 02:04 AM Post #6 |
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The Harbinger
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The wall exploded in a blur of motion and fractured bits of sound. Shrapnel peppered the blonde's back and legs as he slid forward along the floor, feet sliding over the wet tile and shampoo still glittering in his hair. The robotic stranger that had invaded the shower room adjusted his hand in a flash, releasing a second blast that flew directly toward Lysses' chest. His hand quickly rose to his defense, deflecting the red ball of energy with a powerful slash so that it went flying into the ceiling. Alarm bells rang and steam escaped into the night sky as the fight in the compound continued to unfurl, both fighters practically oblivious to the cost of their surroundings. Lysses closed the gap just in time to knock the robot's third blast off course, batting at the creature's wrist and sending a second bolt of ki flying through the ceiling tiles. The shower beneath the Phagian's feet evaporated when his power reached its zenith, materializing in the form of a flickering, golden flame around his body. His brow furrowed in focus and frustration as he thrust his left arm forward, hoping to bury it in the cyborg's chest and send him flying back through the doorway it had come from. Unfortunately, it managed to raise an arm in defense just in time to stop the assault, though it still slid backward across the floor. Lysses spun quickly, unleashing a powerful, rotating roundhouse to the side of the robot's head and sending it crashing through the wall. It let out a guttural grunt in vague response, displaying what Lysses imagined was some form of robot-pain. In his experience, robots did not personally experience pain, but he had seen enough combat to know the equivalent when he saw it. The creature hadn't expected his power to rise any higher than... well, whatever 20,000 units had been. Despite the grim circumstances, he smiled. That smile still hung on his lips while he made a dive for his boxers. His fingertips grazed the waistline when a new volley of blasts unleashed themselves upon his location. With no time to react, he took three to the torso and was sent sprawling backwards across the cool concrete. He groaned as the pain spread through his body like a blossom, reaching his extremities and marking him with thin scorch marks that decorated his flesh. He reached again for his underwear, but the Android saw his desperate grab and blasted at the floor in front of him. The result was a powerful explosion that shook the foundation of the building and silenced the alarms that had begun to blare like furious klaxons into the city night. "Damn it, Argus-- he blew away my fucking pants!" growled Lysses, slowly pushing himself up off of the ground. For the most part, the blast had left him untouched. It had, however, decimated ALL of his clothes. If he wanted to grab another pair, he was going to have to go to the locker room down the hall, where his spares were. On the upside, the quick burst of hot wind and smoke had mostly left him dry... although, it had left an unpleasant amount of shampoo in his hair. He was going to have dandruff. "You're going to pay for that--!" he screamed, stepping forward and cupping his hands together. Flecks of brilliant, golden light congealed and coalesced in his fingertips, slowly massing into a throbbing sphere of energy. Nobody blew up his clothes, dirty or not, and got away with it. Except, of course, for the time Walid had crashed an entire fucking space ship full of his stuff. He was never going to let that go. "Kakusandan!" [align=center]659 3,551[/align] |
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| Future Gohan | Oct 1 2014, 02:33 AM Post #7 |
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The Harbinger
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A surge of fluorescent arrows shot forth through the cramped room, breaking through tile and bursting through the concrete flooring in order to rip a path toward their target. The Cyborg had managed to regain his bearings at the other end of the room, having been sent crashing through the wall a moment or two prior. The creature reacted with surprise as it ascertained the strength of the blasts, covering its body with its arms as they converged upon it. A ferocious, ear-splitting screech filled the air as they detonated in unison, tearing away at the very fabric of reality and creating a massive cloud of smoke that hung in the air as a dark cloud, clinging to the walls and streaming out of the building in quick, intermittent huffs. Making use of the time he'd made for himself, Lysses scrambled down the hall. The locker room was just on the other side, around the corner. If he could make it there, he could put on some clothes and fight with a degree of comfort. Though he had a much higher range of motion while nude, it made him generally uncomfortable. He'd been in the papers shirtless, with holes in his pants and burns covering his entire body... but never fully nude... and judging by the way his night was going, he and his new acquaintance were going to end up on front page of the Sasebo Civilian under the headline: [align=center]"PHAGE DISCOVERED NUDE, MALE LOVER UNIDENTIFIED?"[/align] And so he ran, sliding around the corner and ducking into the locker room with as much speed as his body would allow. His fingers fumbled with the combination to his locker. By the time he thought to remember his combination, he had already broken the crimson door open and started pulling on some pants. His shirt and coat were still on the hook when a sudden rumbling signaled the collapse of the wall beside him. Why hadn't he thought to break through the wall? That would have saved him a full two seconds of time. In that time, he could have easily put on a shirt or something. Instead, he was forced to settle for buttoning the top of his pants together just in time to evade a rather potent lunge from his opponent, whose metal skeleton had been exposed by the potency of the Kakusandan. The creature's hands clawed through the distance between them, ripping through the metal of the lockers and shredding it. It danced around on its feet, spinning so as to face Lysses again. By that time, the blonde had already struck forward with a counter attack. His left hand embedded itself deep in the creature's nose, sending it stumbling backwards and granting him enough time to grab his shirt off of the hanger. He pulled the shirt over his head as the creature dove in again, kicking up off of the ground and throwing his torso backwards. The shirt was just a plain, white t-shirt, but it was better than being shirtless. The creature's claws fell short of Lysses' midsection, stopped by the sick ass dropkick that Lysses totally son'd him with in mid lunge. The blonde fell back to the ground as the cyborg reeled back, clutching its chest and growling aggressively. He rolled backward across the floor and tumbled onto his feet, hands clenched tightly into fists. Lysses straightened in unison with his opponent, right hand flickering to the top of his head in order to shake off the dried residue of cheap shampoo. It fell from his hair easily, jogged loose by the action and the speed of the engagement. Thank the Patrons for that. He hadn't been looking forward to a SECOND shower. The first one had been bliss, but the second one would have been tainted by the distinct lack of success of the first. "I just don't get it," he started, voice low and dangerous. "You've got an infinite reserve of energy, and you think it's put to good use attacking me? I think you overestimated yourself." "ORGANIC: LYSSES OF PHAGE. POWER READING 25,000 IN CURRENT STATE. THIS UNIT'S POWER EXCEEDS 30,000. THE ORGANIC IS UNABLE TO COMPLY WITH THE EXTENT OF MY POWER. THE ORGANIC WILL BE ELIMINATED." The robot droned on, as if it were repeating itself based off of a script. Lysses knocked the water out of his ears with a quick smack and tilt of the head as he listened, disinterested by the statistics he was being given. "I think you've made a grave miscalculation. If you're talking about my current strength, I'm hovering at around a quarter of my fighting power." "THE ORGANIC IS BLUFFING. FIGHTING POWER OVER 25,000 HAS NOT BEEN RECORDED." Lysses smirked. The flickering flame that had surrounded him earlier suddenly exploded, popping holes in the air around him and filling with a glittering white lightning. The cyborg had made a grave miscalculation. It had become apparent to him that the poor creature had taken a measurement of his power from his battle on Sasebo, earlier in the year. If he expected that the blonde hadn't improved, he was horrifyingly wrong. The world around them exploded as Lysses' power expanded, his muscles going taut and the full extent of his strength becoming apparent. To the android, his strength would have appeared to double. To him, he was hardly hitting his halfway point. "Let's see how you react to twice what you'd been fighting before, you walking hunk of crap!" He could have sworn that, in that moment, the robot with no lungs let loose an audible gasp. [align=center]995 4,546[/align] |
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| Future Gohan | Oct 1 2014, 02:55 AM Post #8 |
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The Harbinger
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[align=center] [/align]It hadn't taken him more than an hour after hitting the halfway mark of his power to dismantle the would-be assassin. It hadn't been strong enough to survive a second Kakusandan, which, though it had left the blonde sweating, had done an effective job at absolutely destroying the poor creature. By the time the blast wave subsided, the remains of the robot could have been collected in a plastic West-Mart bag. Coincidentally, that was what Lysses had done with them. After he'd finally gotten dressed, he'd snagged a couple pieces of the robot's remains, mostly things that looked important and tech-y, and then deposited them in a little bag so that he could get them examined. When the newspapers had asked him about the events of the night, he had explained that there'd been a horrifying gas leak, which had broken out from beneath the security desk. The city labeled it poor planning, and a scarce few details were released to the public. Rudy Begar's family had been compensated generously for the death of their patriarch, and Lysses had been invited to the funeral... but he didn't attend it. Instead, he spent the next few days scouring the island in search of a contact he'd once helped with a demon problem. He stared down at the picture in his hands through thick, tinted sunglasses. The plane rambled on through the skies on its approach to Amenbo North, from his previous search in Amenbo South. He could have easily flown across the country himself, but something in him had felt the need for privacy. Ironically, that was best found in acting like a normal civilian. As a result, when the flight came to an end, he would stop to grab his overhead bag and depart just as frustrated as the other passengers. However, flying on a plane had its perks. The long flight gave him time to think. Despite the kicking and crying of infants, something about air travel made focusing easy. He could get sucked, metaphorically, out of the window and into the palace that was his mind's eye. The Doctor was young and pretty, and as such, should have been easy to find. Unfortunately, she had moved since her brief stint in Eastern Amenbo. He'd been to all four corners of the island except for the Northern half, where she was rumored to be staying with a small hospital just off of the coastline. Apparently, it treated mostly refugees from the catastrophe and the war in general. Many former patients spoke of the place with a mixture of tender love and hesitant fear, but had given him no clues as to its location. It had taken him the better part of the weekend to find someone willing to discuss it, but the most he had was a crudely drawn map and a vague idea of how far out the island was. However, finding the Doctor would be worth the hassle. She, herself, was not very technically savvy. Her assistant, however, had been known to dabble in the "mad" side of science. With any luck, he would be able to identify the pieces of tech that he had managed to hide in his overhead bag. Without it, he would be forced to go to someone else for help... which would have been a significant enough annoyance. Lysses leaned back into his seat as the plane descended over Northern Amenbo, taking a steep dive toward the runway thousands of miles below. Soon. [align=center]605 5,151[/align] |
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| Future Gohan | Oct 1 2014, 03:14 AM Post #9 |
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The Harbinger
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The Oceanview Memorial Hospital was not impressive on the outside. It stood approximately three stories tall, with no visible parking lot or landing pad for visitors or patients. He could only assume that incoming patients were life flighted onto the roof, where they were taken inside from the top and cared for somewhere on the way down. Lysses removed his sunglasses, letting his tempestuous eyes appraise the building without interference, and then stepped toward the double doors that served as an outside entrance. Despite the lack of a parking lot, a small, concrete lane arced around the front of the hospital. He assumed that it was for the employees and patients to step outside and stretch their legs. Even the sick and chronically overworked needed a chance to breathe every once in a while, after all. He approached at a casual, but determined pace. The doors opened automatically and granted him entrance, where he was met with a series of arrows and text that was meant to lead him toward his desired department. Elevators, bathrooms, leisure rooms, and worker break rooms were located to the left. To his right were the first floor emergency facilities, terminal patients, and special ("exotic") cases. In front of him was a help desk, manned by a rather masculine looking woman, who wore a tight sweater vest and a short sleeve shirt that really put her biceps on display. [align=center] [/align]Lysses damn near fucking choked at the sight of her, suddenly wracked with a painful, almost paralyzing fear. By Argus, she was fucking massive. "WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY FOR A VISITOR, HOW CAN I HELP YOU?!" barked the attendant, gruffly. "Yes, I'm here to see a Doctor Conley Hermin? Or, if she's not in, her assistant, Gregory?" The she-gorilla glanced down at the desk and scanned through a short pile of papers. He could only assume that they contained the names of the registered doctors at the facility, or at the very least, some kind of sign in sheet. "SHE IS LISTED HERE, WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO PAGE HER FOR YOU?!" Ignoring the fact that he'd already said he wanted to see her, Lysses nodded and leaned forward against the front of the desk. "Tell her it's Lysses, from the Gate event a year ago. She'll know who I am," he said. The attendant turned around and dialed her desk-phone, seemingly insecure about the way Lysses was staring at her. That is to say, the pack elephant was afraid of the horrified termite staring up at her. He'd have laughed if he weren't so terrified of getting squashed by her beefy ass leg. When she finally turned around, Lysses struggled not to shoot back in fear. "DOCTOR HERMIN ISN'T IN! SHE'S CURRENTLY OUT ON THE MAINLAND TO COLLECT A PATIENT, BUT HER ASSISTANT, GREGORY, HAS REQUESTED TO MEET WITH YOU IN HER STEAD, SIR." Good old Greg. "IF YOU GO TO THE THIRD FLOOR, YOU'LL BE ABLE TO FIND HIM AT THE BACK OFFICE ON THE LEFT." Lysses nodded and stepped to the left, so that he might go toward the elevators. When he turned to leave, she let free a horrifyingly blatant wink. He jammed his undercarriage on the corner of the desk on accident in his attempt at haste. [align=center]590 5,741[/align] |
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| Future Gohan | Oct 1 2014, 03:38 AM Post #10 |
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The Harbinger
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[align=center] [/align]Gregory stepped out to meet Lysses as he approached the office, hand outstretched in greeting. Gregory Sherman was not an intimidating man. He was short and gruff, but he gave off a pleasant aura that seemed to catch visitors off guard. Though Lysses had been subject to it before, he couldn't help but smile warmly in the doctor's direction. The smile quickly fell as he realized exactly how stupid he looked, prompting the Doctor to recoil in what must've been confusion. He gave the blonde a skeptical look, as if appraising him from a new light, but continued on to speak in a friendly tone. "Ah, Lysses-- of Vag was it? Good to see ya, man! Good to see ya!" "Actually, it's Lysses of Pha--" Lysses began to loudly correct the Doctor, but the man quickly cut him off with a quiet 'ssssh.' The Phagian, visibly taken back, had been about to speak again when the Doctor chimed in. "There are a lot of sick patients on this floor, y'know. Some of 'em are terminal, others are just stressed to hell. I've got my office up here so that they can wander on the roof when they need it, seeing as it's fenced in. Mostly. Well, I mean, once one guy falls off the roof you've gotta stop the rest from doing it, right? A rotten apple ruins the whole bunch," laughed the Doctor, seemingly unaware of the plight of his patients. "I... wasn't aware you had an actual medicinal degree," stuttered Lysses, sounding wary. As far as he knew, Gregory was the science-y kind of Doctor. Had he somehow managed to flip them in his head? Was the girl the smart one? "Oh, I don't. I just fill in for Conley when she's gone. She's collecting some guy while the rest of us work; she said she'd bring back some good mainland food though, which is nice." While Gregory rubbed his hands together, apparently eager for some 'mainland food,' Lysses stepped into the office. Immediately, he understood that the office was Hermin's. Had he gotten a look at it before encountering Gregory, he would have picked up on that. The walls were all pink and blue, with a spattering of colors and posters and charts. She had clearly decorated the place with her unique flare, which he couldn't say he despised. It was a bit over the top, but most of it seemed to be some kind of research. "That is nice, but that's not what I'm here for. I've got some materials I need you to look at." Lysses hefted the bag over his shoulder and plopped it down on the desk. Gregory took his time getting to the other side and examining the bag's contents, rifling through it willy-nilly until he found the metal chips that had belonged to the Sasebo Robot. Lysses took his seat while the dark haired man went about examining the pieces with his eyes, squinting until his eyes were practically closed. "Oh, this is interesting... These pieces seem to be some of Doctor Bright's work. Are you familiar with The Red Ribbon Army?" Lysses shook his head. "Well, basically, this unit that you... well, probably dismantled, was A-34. If Bright were a mainstream scientist in the Red Ribbon Army, then that'd mean 'Android 34,' but he wasn't really that accepted in their ranks. At least, so the stories say. If you, you know, believe them." "Assuming I do, is there any way to track this Doctor Bright guy?" Gregory turned the pieces over in his hands, one at a time, methodically examining them. After a few moments of pensive consideration, he glanced up at the blonde, looking markedly hesitant. "If you give me a day or two, I'll see what I can do. I'll have to somehow salvage the data off of this to get it working. You're lucky you grabbed a memory drive, or you'd be screwed. Did you snag this on purpose?" Lysses crossed his arms over his chest. "Grabbed it more out of instinct than anything else." [align=center]750 6,491[/align] |
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| Future Gohan | Oct 1 2014, 04:07 AM Post #11 |
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The Harbinger
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[align=center] It took Gregory the rest of the evening to get the data Lysses needed from the spare parts that had been recovered, and it took him the next morning to get it decoded into a format they could both read. Lysses, himself, helped very little in the process. Instead of muddling with the dark haired doctor's affairs, the blonde settled for visiting with some of the patients around the hospital and dodging the manly looking attendant from the help desk. Most of them didn't recognize him from Sasebo, but those that did refused to respond to him. Their reactions served as grim reminders of his failures. He had visited them out of a morbid curiosity, and as he waited on the rooftop for news from Gregory, that curiosity had been well sated. Being inside of the hospital reminded Lysses of how much he hated being inside of hospitals. They were filled, rather obviously, with the sick and dying. It had been over a year since his last visit to a human hospital, and he found himself hoping that it would be even longer until his next visit. Gregory emerged from the door on the roof around noon with heavy bags under his eyes. His skin was pale, as if it'd been working in front of a computer for the duration of the night. He, clearly, had been hard at work deciphering Doctor Bright's code. That was, at least, if Doctor Bright had been the one who sent the machine after him in the first place. It was quite possible, according to Gregory, that the machine had been a hold out of the Legion or some kind of general war machine. It could have been the work of a copycat or an admirer. "Hey there, guy. I managed to get some info on your attacker." Lysses rose, expression blank. He didn't want to look hopeful, just in case the information was underwhelming or otherwise unsatisfying. The odds of that were pretty high. He'd been disappointed by more suspenseful things. "What've you got, Gregory?" Gregory pulled a cigarette from his pocket and put it between his lips. He fumbled with the lighter in his front pocket for a second before his eyes darted back up to greet Lysses, while his brain struggled to summarize the information he'd gleaned from the robot's database. Lysses couldn't blame him. Human computers could hold an awful lot of data; it was said that the strength of a computer's memory surpassed that of its makers. Others said that those claims were unfounded. Some people said that the claims that the claim was unfounded, were, in fact, unfounded. Earth Science was fucking confusing. "Well, long story short, Doctor Bright is real. According to the info on his robot's hard drive, he's working on some pretty radical projects. Some of them are pretty crazy. He wants to gather cells from the world's strongest fighters to create a mixed amalgamation of DNA for a clone, he wants to create some crazy, rebellious teenage things... and he never stops mentioning somebody named Gero, trying to steal his work. Or maybe he was stealing Gero's? I don't know. Most if it was still pretty heavily encoded in some other language, even when I got to the root. Last I understood, he was working on something called 'Project Allbright'--" Lysses held a hand up to cut Gregory off, clearly not impressed by Doctor Bright's crazy ass projects and shit. "Cut to the chase, Gregory. Where can I find him? Was that on the drive? If he wants me dead, I'd like to at least pay him a visit first." Gregory milled about, lighting the cigarette between his lips and taking a long drag. "Last I managed to learn was that the robot was sent from somewhere in the Cardinal Mountains, between Central City and Satan City. I can give you a map to get there with, but you should know that there's another robot on your trail somewhere. Apparently, it's labeled B-34, a sister unit to A-34. It just seems to be a tracker droid, so it probably won't attack you... but Bright will know that you're coming." Lysses nodded in response and extended his hand to the older man, who shook it with a distinct lack of vigor. The news that Doctor Bright was alive didn't seem to please him. If anything, he looked a little bit afraid. Shaken. "Don't worry, that won't save him. I've got big plans for that guy, and none of them involve letting him get away." Lysses turned to leave, facing the other end of the roof so that he could take off without sending Gregory flying. "You know he's not going to be as easy to take down as those Gate Demons were, right? He's got to have at least a few more of those robots laying around." "Yeah? Let's see how that works out for the Good Doctor Bright, shall we? I'll talk to you when I'm done with him, Gregory. I'll try to bring something back for you," growled Lysses, voice practically shaking with anticipation. He had been about to take off when Gregory called out to him, suddenly and hurriedly-- "Hey, don't forget the map!" [align=center]929 7,420[/align] |
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| Future Gohan | Oct 1 2014, 04:43 AM Post #12 |
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The Harbinger
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[align=center] [/align]The Cardinal Mountains were practically hidden among the dense forests that separated Central City from Satan City, but Doctor Bright's hideout had been easy to find among the spires of the mountains. At the center of the middlemost peak, a thin metal door provided an obvious entryway that seemed to lead into a bigger, internal complex within the mountain. Lysses took the time to examine it from the sky, checking to see if anything came out before he went in. If Gregory had been right, the Doctor knew he was coming. His fingers adjusted the sunglasses that hugged the sides of his face when the fifth minute passed. Surely, if Bright had been planning to send something out, it would have come by then? He internally debated milling about outside of the door for a while, but finally seemed to settle on making his entrance. He descended from the sky, combat pants flapping in the breeze as he made his way down. His shirt clung tightly to his body, showing off his musculature and highlighting his physical qualities. The halberd he typically carried into battle was fully extended and ignited, glowing against his back and humming gently. His hand-axe rested against the left side of his waist, tied in with the belt and attached securely to his belt-loop. Unless he somehow lost his pants, he'd always have at least the hand axe. His boots hit the ground with a quiet, but solid thud. In their wake, a thin cloud of dust drifted off the side of the mountain. Lysses examined the gigantic metal doors that now lay in front of him, each one sufficiently daunting enough to warn away the few timid visitors that must have wandered up. For those that hadn't been warned off... well, he could still see their bleached bones sticking out of the dirt. Lysses lifted his sunglasses so that they hung in his hair, over his forehead. "So, should I just knock, or what?" The sound of birds flapping away in the distance served as the only answer to his question. There was a rule of thumb on Zaun. You could usually tell where your prey was hiding based off of where the birds were flying away from. When birds flew away from a location, it was usually because something bigger, something scarier, had entered the vicinity. With that said, something was behind him. He turned sideways, so that half of his body could face the forestry below. If he needed to turn toward the doors quickly, he wanted to make sure that was an option. He still couldn't be sure that nothing was planning on coming out. "Hiding, eh?" he whispered, lifting a hand toward the woods. Swirls of golden energy flickered and danced in the air around his fingertips, crackling and glowing as it spiraled together and formed a single, solid looking ball that surrounded his hand from the wrist. Assuming the robot from before had transmitted the data from their fight, it was safe to assume that whatever was out there would see a Kakusandan coming. However, maybe if he fired off a different blast-- one with a high velocity and explosive range... would he see that coming? Lysses doubted it. The robot could sense energy, but it had no way of knowing where Lysses was aiming. It would, undoubtedly, know that he was charging up for something though. Lysses watched as the birds fluttered away, his eyes tracking the source of their flight. If their trajectory was to be trusted, they'd come from somewhere around the bottom right corner of his vision, since they were floating to the upper left. He took in a slow, deliberate breath, and prepared to quickly adjust his aim. Right now, it looked like he was guarding himself. If he gave away the fact that he knew where his assailant was hiding, he would move positions. Lysses didn't want his prey to get away. His left hand cut through the air in a tight swathe, releasing a wave of dense energy that split the air it touched and caused a ripple of explosions to follow in its wake. Something blurry jumped from the center of a tree as the blast passed it, barely avoiding the fault line of detonations that had followed in the wave's wake. Lysses stepped forward, now turning his back to the door, and bringing his other hand into the equation. "Now I've got you!" he cried, as a volley of bolts loosed themselves from between his fingertips toward the moving target, each one sparked with dancing fragments of bio-electricity. The world lit up and the sky darkened as fire spread across the landscape, wrought by Lysses' carelessness. His opponent darted between the blasts headed his way, weaving in and out as he approached the still-firing-berserker. "Not quite--!" [align=center]836 8,256[/align] |
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| Future Gohan | Oct 1 2014, 05:20 AM Post #13 |
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The Harbinger
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[align=center] [/align]The fighter wove himself in between Lysses' shots with an unfettered grace, his body gliding through the sky like an angel parading himself through the clouds. A single bead of sweat beat its way down Lysses' face as the robot, who now seemed to be an Android, popped up into his guard. It was then, and only then, that Lysses managed to get a good look at the guy he was about to be fighting. He was markedly different from the older, clunkier android that he'd done battle with in Sasebo. Not only was he more graceful, but he was also more realistic in appearance. He wore a crimson cloak that seemed a bit too long for him. It ran down to his ankles and then spread out to allow him freedom of movement, while maintaining a tight hold on his torso and keeping his upper body motion compact. The fighter's hair was a tinsel-y silver, offset by two differently colored eyes. The left eye was a bright green, and the right a rich reddish brown. It was only after making these unnecessary observations about his opponent's face that he noticed the massive sword coming in toward his hips. He winced, vanishing from sight and letting his afterimage get ripped in half by the Android's blade. It could feel no agony, but as Lysses re-emerged above, he couldn't help but feel a phantom spasm of pain in his hip. The Android, seeing that he'd shredded an afterimage, directed his gaze upward, piercing the Phagian's eyes with his own mismatched pair. In a blur of red, the stranger was upon him again. Lysses had managed to free his halberd of its resting place on his back by the time the stranger caught him, and put it to good use by blocking the first strike to come his way. The residual force sent him flying through the air, forcing the halberd to vibrate and shake from the collision. Gregory had been right; this android was on a completely different level than the one he'd faced before. This one was actually strong, and that was something that Lysses didn't say lightly. With a violent pop, Lysses managed to find his bearings and put on the brakes. His opponent was already in hot pursuit, his massive blade following around his heels. Lysses could feel it coming; an upward strike? When the stranger closed the gap, Lysses sidestepped and sent the sharp end of his halberd slashing downward toward his enemy's exposed chest. Somehow, unbelievably, the Android's off-hand deviated from the course of his sword. It shot off to the side, gripping the shaft of Lysses' halberd with just enough force to slow its descent. He quickly shoved the strike off to the side and brought his blade back around for a heavy, overhead strike. Lysses forced himself to the side, holding in the urge to wince as the blade went sliding through the air a mere inch from his body. The Android's blade best resembled a heavy handed cleaver, but he, himself wielded it with grace. Lysses spun around his opponent, sending a backward facing kick toward the Android's smug ass. The Android was pushed forward from the power behind the blow, but his body spun quickly in response. His free hand signaled something in the air, releasing a literal firestorm of energy in Lysses' direction. "Starburst!" He didn't have the time to dodge. The display of firepower lit him up like the Fourth of July, sending his nerve endings into overdrive and forcing a pained grunt to break free from between his lips. He emerged from the searing heat of the Starbust with thin tendrils of smoke trailing from his shoulder blades and singed hair. His sunglasses had been lost somewhere in the previous trade, which, if he had to guess, he had lost. He adjusted his flight path and came to a casual drift as he neared the ground, slowing so that he landed comfortably. He had managed to hang onto his halberd, which boasted a new scar across the center from the strike he'd managed to block. He hadn't expected the android to be so strong... or so fast. He was fearsome to say the least. "Are you... one of his projects?" Lysses asked, as the Android landed across from him, cleaver-like blade hovering just above the dirt. He seemed to mull over his answer, but when he spoke, his voice was smooth. Like a long drag on a good cigarette, it seemed to hang in the air long after his response had finished. "You could say that," he began. "But I'd prefer you didn't. We consider ourselves as children more than we do test projects." "However, you should be more concerned with escaping from here with your life than what I prefer to be called." As if to threaten Lysses, his fingertips tightened around the blade. It was held with a strange grip, allowing for an easier, more heavy handed swing. Lysses, vaguely, recognized the technique as Roland had taught it. The Android's technique, though, was different somehow. It was more precise. More aggressive. He hadn't yet blocked with the blade. "I'm more worried about getting through that door. I've got some business with the guy on the other side." The Android took in a slow breath, not too different from the one Lysses had taken moments ago. "You know I won't let you through, Lysses of Phage. I am not here to let people through the gates. I am here to stop them. I am the Gatekeeper of Professor Bright's fortress, and I don't intend to let you through." "Then I'm not going to waste another breath on you. I'm going to save the trash talk for after I kick your ass!" [align=center]1,019 9,275[/align] |
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| Future Gohan | Oct 1 2014, 05:47 AM Post #14 |
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The Harbinger
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[align=center]![]() 1 YEAR PRIOR[/align] A-72R rose from his seat in the laboratory to examine his Father, mismatched eyes full of curiosity. In front of him, his Father continued to work. His plans and efforts were displayed on the screen above his computer terminal, which blinked and flashed with every new update. The plans looked to be for a new model of Android, or otherwise synthetic being, but they were completely foreign from everything A-72R recognized. There were nearly no clear mechanical parts. Most of the pieces and devices seemed to work off of an organic engine, which was supposed to power the other units in the Android on screen. A-72R's eyes narrowed in confusion as he tried to analyze the plans in his Father's database. The project title glittered and flashed at the top of the screen, wiggling like little blurs just outside of his gaze, no matter how intently he looked at it or tried to focus it. His internal computer struggled to put it into an acceptable view, but the image just continued to shift and squiggle the more he tried. He huffed, childishly, before finally speaking up. "Father, I can't read your diagrams." Doctor Thaddeus Bright tutted over his son's interest as he continued to key in various code combinations. He seemed to be in the initial stages of programming the unit's AI, which was meant to give the unit a baseline personality and establish the three laws of robotics within its core system. Or, at least, Father's three laws. They were, subtly, different from other versions of the rules of robotics. Father's three laws were simple enough.
They were very simple, and fairly loose. They were just tight enough to prevent physical harm from coming to the Doctor, not that any of the units had ever planned to do him harm, but also loose enough so that he could order his units around and force them to follow his orders. That wasn't to say that the units would not have followed his orders anyway. He had given them life, after all. They would have followed him to the end of the Earth or the edge of the Galaxy. "I bet your brothers can't read it either, Butch." A-72R, also known as Butch Cassidy, frowned. "Are we not allowed to read it, Father?" Thaddeus' heart rate seemed to rise. To the average human, it was imperceptible. To A-72R, it was obvious. He had made a misstep by asking the question and irritated his father. Had he a heart himself, it would have, undoubtedly, been beating rapidly. Instead, he was forced to suffer through the silence alone, unassisted by the beat of a thin kettle snare in his chest. Father would either tell him or scold him. "I wasn't aware I had programmed you to have such curiosity," said the Doctor, clearly wondering whether or not to deflect the question. Doctor Bright had always been good with machines, but not with people. He was an astonishingly gifted scientist and physician, capable of reproducing the human body via sketch to the neatest little molecule. He was a gifted visionary and a wonderful testament to human ingenuity. "If you must know, I'm currently invested in an important project... the revival of my child." He sounded proud of himself, and his heart rate spiked again. Butch's frown didn't quite leave his face, but he tried to put on the vague ghost of a smile for his father. Another android, at least, a classified Android, hadn't been created in quite a long time. He had been the middle child of the group, having been created five years prior to that day. His youngest brother, at that point, had been created two years after he had. His oldest brother had been created two years before. Why were extra years being put into the development cycle of a new Unit? When had a unit died to be revived? "You already have three sons, Father. You haven't had any before us, according to the database." He continued to tinker with the designs. "I don't store my personal life in the database. Before I created my Androids, I had an actual son," started Doctor Bright, clearly disgruntled. "You boys were created in order to help me fulfill my dream. This, as you may have been building an assumption toward, is my dream. I would like my son back. The son that I miss so dearly; the boy that I loved." Butch didn't blink, choosing instead to glance at the plans on the screen once again. "Do you love me, Father?"[/i] [align=center]"No one can love the Butcher, child. I wouldn't take it too personally."[/align] [align=center]880 10,155 [/align] |
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| Future Gohan | Oct 1 2014, 07:43 AM Post #15 |
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The Harbinger
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[align=center] [/align]Their battle resumed with the fearsome clanging and clattering of steel on steel. Lysses' halberd sung, vibrating from the force of the collision with the Gatekeeper's weapon. Across the veil, the red clad swordsman remained passive, a stark contrast to his snarling opponent. Lysses was an emotional fighter. He had learned to harness his passions and make them his strengths, but he was now fighting an emotionless, logical machine. While his fighting style had worked against the inflexible androids of the Steel Legion, the machine in front of him seemed to be part organic. It breathed and blinked, unlike the Legionnaires he'd become so accustomed to fighting. Most importantly, it had the power of creative thought. Their collision came to an abrupt end when the Gatekeeper suddenly swung his blade to the side, forcing Lysses to go swirling off to the right, following the direction of the swing. He had already caught on to the fact that he controlled the tide of the battle; if he forced Lysses to block, he would be able to force him on the defensive for as long as he pleased. Eventually, when Lysses grew tired, the Gatekeeper would not. That was the Android's best chance for victory. Lysses, in response, had to find a way to shut the android down or otherwise disable it before it could threaten him with fatigue. The Gatekeeper came in for a follow up swing, his massive blade cutting through the air. Lysses brought his legs up to his chest, cannon-balling in place in order to keep the strike from bisecting him. He came out of the tuck-and-roll maneuver with his Halberd high above his head, having kept it at his center during the spin. The Gatekeeper gasped, but slid to the left just in time to avoid the strike entirely. He knew the consequences of being hit by an energy halberd. That thing was clearly made of Legion Steel. If it connected to him with the energy blade, it would send an EMP through his system and override it. He would be unable to move until the charge cleared. He had to avoid being caught out or he would be left to rust in the dirt, stuck with the souls of the lost travelers he had kept at the gate's entryway. Butch brought his left leg up in a flying knee, his sword hanging and lagging behind his wrist. Lysses, who had invested in the halberd strike, took the blow directly to the face and reeled back. The Phagian's hand grabbed at his nose, from which a flowery paraph of blood fell free to sign a macabre signature in the skies. He groaned from the pain, giving Butch a chance to grip the handle of his blade with both hands. He swiped at Lysses' midsection, knowing well that he would find it the hardest to defend. Lysses forced his elbow down toward the broadside of the blade and brought his legs to a diagonal, sending the weapon sliding low when his joint detonated with a cacophonous BOOOM. Butch used the momentum to continue his swing, speeding up and bringing the blade back down at a diagonal toward the Zaun's jugular. The blade was too long for Lysses to jerk back; it was too fast for him to try and out run. He adjusted his halberd so that the shaft protected his neck from being sliced open. Unfortunately, the motion and the resultant force of the collision forced his wrist to twist and bend, dislocating the joint and forcing an audible scream from deep within his gut. His right hand rose in eager reply, leveled with the Android's shoulder. "Shit! You dirty asshole--!" The energy built up too fast for Butch to dodge, but he managed to create a thin barrier over his synthetic flesh in just enough time to prevent him from being blown apart. The wave of golden light exploded from the raging Berserker's fingertips and sent Butch flying through the air in a black cloud of smoke, which hung like an ominous thunderhead in the crisp mountain air. Lightning and electricity continued to fluctuate and explode from within it as Lysses continued to grow in power. The warm up, as it seemed, was over. "Alright! Let's see why they call you the Phagian Berserker, huh?" taunted Butch, as he released the limiters on his own, equally formidable power. [align=center]755 10,910[/align] |
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| Future Gohan | Oct 1 2014, 08:11 AM Post #16 |
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The Harbinger
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[align=center] [/align]Deep inside of the inner sanctum, miles below the Earth, Doctor Bright watched two furious Gods clash in the skies above his Mountain Fortress. They waged war on each other in the most brutal fashion, each one seeking to cut deeply into the flesh and cleave the soul. On one side, a creature born of pure passion and instinct, and on the other... a demon not too dissimilar. A-72R had always been different than his other creations. Whereas they thrived on the cold existence of logic and their synthetic live, A-72R had sought a life of his own. He had not enjoyed being assigned the duty of Gatekeeper, but it was one he did well. He was a demon. A blight upon his foes. As Lysses of Phage was finding out, A-72R was easily the most skilled combatant he had ever created. Whereas most generals favored putting their weakest troops out on the front line to tire out their foe, Doctor Bright knew the startling truth behind fear and despair. Those who came before and conquered the weak would have hope when they did battle with the titans he held in his labs. When they finally met his children, his projects, that spark of hope was quickly snuffed out. In terms of sheer power, A-72R was a near equal match for the Berserker's newly registered power level. During the last year of testing, after the arrival of the Phagian onto the global scene, A-72R had received a number of power and combat upgrades. The upgrades were, in part, meant to prevent the Legion from discovering and entering his Mountain Fortress, and in part to deter the strongest warriors that could already deal with the Legion themselves. A-72R had been upgraded until he was just over three times the strength of his foes, who had been averaged by the Phagian's power level. Now, as Bright watched the battle unfold, his fingers folded themselves into a makeshift tent. The final scans for Project Allbright were coming to fruition. Soon, he would be able to send the word to his other "children." They would learn their place once their usefulness was outlived, not that they were aware. He hadn't been the fool Gero had. He had been sure to install an ignorance of his own planning and work in the minds of his soldiers. They could not read what he didn't want them to. It was often said that "what one didn't know couldn't hurt them." Unfortunately for the A-70R series, they were going to quickly discover the false nature of that statement. Bright had discovered it years ago, when he'd failed to detect the illness that had made his son its unwilling host. They would discover it once he finally completed his research. The final scan and then the casting of the body's shape was all that remained. He had already acquired the necessary materials and ingredients to create a human-enough body. His son would, once again, live. Unit A-71R stood behind him, hands clasped behind his back as he observed the fight. He had, naturally, been the opposite of his younger brother. A-71R was a cold, emotionless machine. He had no care for the motivations or the morals or the lackadaisical whimsies of humanity. Where A-72R was prone to painfully passionate streaks beneath his logic circuits, A-71R was not. Not only did he lack the sensitive emotional systems of a human that his brother had, but it often seemed like he lacked a reason to care about them. "Unit A-72R's opponent seems to be increasing in power," he remarked. "I don't think it's of much concern. The Lysses-fellow is unaware of A-72R's hot streak. He seems to be under the impression that he's fighting an opponent just a little smarter than one of those Legion robots." "Lysses of Phage will not be able to sustain combat with A-72R when he cuts loose," said A-71R, matter of factly. "Samson, if I didn't know you better, I'd say you were worried for him," snorted Doctor Bright, turning his eyes back to the scan that was running on the nearest monitor. Twenty percent. All A-72R had been meant to do was buy time in the event a strong opponent came through... but he seemed to be baiting the fight in the direction he needed it to go. In a drawn out confrontation, A-72R was nearly unstoppable. Nearly. "Will A-72R's body hold up to the strain, once his system malfunctions?" asked Samson, eyes not leaving the screen. Doctor Bright feigned a sudden interest in the scan's details, eyeing them over with machine-like precision. "Is that important?" [align=center]805 11,715[/align] |
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| Future Gohan | Oct 1 2014, 08:57 PM Post #17 |
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The Harbinger
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[align=center] [/align]Energy surged from Lysses' every pore as he reached his full, unadulterated power. He screamed in pain and frustration as he hit his maximum, his fists clenched tight enough to draw blood from the flat of his hand; the halberd in his grip fizzled and exploded with excess ki as he channeled more and more energy through it. The ki exploded from his halberd's tip like a flamethrower espousing flame, withering and surging back to life with the flow of an unseen tide. Below, from the ground, the Phagian's opponent watched with mild interest. Lysses' power readings were raising toward the 80,000 unit mark. Though they were slowing down their rise enough that it was apparent what the warrior's maximum was, it was obvious to Butch that his own strength would not be enough... at least, not in the current state. He grinned, fingertips rolling along the guard of his weapon. The fight had just gotten interesting. The Phagian's maximum power was much closer to his own than that of his resting power. With that in mind, it was obvious that he was going to be relying more off of instinct than actual combat prowess. That was what he'd called himself, after all. The Avatar of Passion and Instinct... whatever that was supposed to mean. Butch's left hand, which had been hovering at his waist, slowly rose to his chest. Energy flocked to his fingertips as he closed the hand into a fist, gathering power so that he might resume combat. He could feel the strength entering him; his flesh was synthetic... but not all of his systems were. A trademark of Doctor Bright's work was that he found ways of working humanity into his systems. Butch was not the cold, emotionless machine that Lysses had predicted. He had the emotions of a human, and despite the fact that they were limited in comparison, they gave him a certain freedom not afforded to other units. Like the freedom to play with his food. The energy congealed in the form of a crimson claw, which fit neatly over his wrist and flexed with his fingertips in real time. The energy spread like wildfire as he gained control, running rampant down the length of his arm until it exploded off of his shoulder. In order to do combat with Lysses on an even scale, he had been using a fair sixty percent of his power... however, now that the Phagian's power level was exceeding his resting strength, the need for more strength had become woefully apparent. His right eye filled with red, while the green eye went dim. His scanning systems were sent to a background process, meant more to scan his own person rather than to scan the opponent. He could feel the power, surging through his circuits and lighting him up; on the outside, a grisly red cloak surrounded him, eating away at the physical jacket he'd been wearing for the fight. "That's all you have, Lysses of Phage?! I'm disappointed!" he called, seeking to taunt the alien warrior into attacking once again. Lysses, from above, finally glanced back toward his opponent. Energy crackled in the air around him, snapping and biting at the air with a filthy violence. Lysses' anger was on clear display; he was no longer the matadore. He had become the bull over the course of the brief battle. What he had expected to be simple was now causing him more trouble than it was worth... and he would not be defeated before he walked in the fucking door to the laboratory. He looked down at his opponent, shrouded in red, with a glittering, ruby claw attached to his arm. It seemed as though he'd pulled out a new trick in the time that he'd been powering up. He should have attacked while he had the chance. Lysses let go of his halberd, forcing it to float in the air around him. His fingertips stretched forward, pointing at the Android in order to aim the attack that was to come. The sky once again went dark as his energy lit up the sky, shaping itself into several spears of light that surrounded him in circular formation. On the ground, Butch watched with curiosity, eager to inspect this new display of strength and skill as it came. "Ha!" The spears lunged forward in unison with his halberd, twirling and rotating throughout the pack of blasts on their way down. It was up to Butch to discern which spear was the actual halberd, or, failing that, to somehow rid himself of the blasts before they hit him. In a blur of passionate red, he swerved to the left in order to avoid the lead spear-- and then, like living lightning, danced back to the right in order to avoid the second. He continued to weave forward, eyes never leaving Lysses' own as the spears buried themselves in the dirt around him. Each one exploded into a sea of stars and light that showered down upon the now de-cloaked fighter, lingering in the air and bearing over him despite his display of agility. "I've got you now!" Lysses screamed, bringing his hands together as the real halberd buried itself into the dirt. The energy that had risen up around Butch's body suddenly coalesced into a massive sphere, which surrounded him. His fists clenched, prompting the energy to hum-- and collapse into its most unstable state. The explosion took half the mountainside out with it, reshaping the landscape and creating a massive cloud of dust and debris while the world settled. "Third time's the charm, buddy!" roared Butch, as he flew free of the massive, brown cloud. Behind him lay cataclysmic devastation; before him lay the warrior responsible. His claw struck out first, flying forward at Lysses' head with a powerful swipe. The blonde ducked, and Butch rolled with the momentum so that he flew over him. Butch's knee flew up as he passed overhead, forcing itself deep into Lysses' face for the second time. Soon, he would have to learn to stop trying to duck swipes like that. Then again, he no longer had his spear to block with. While he had managed to do heavy cosmetic damage to Butch's exterior, the fight was still raging. If he had held off on the shock wave attack until later on in their duel, it may have been enough to work. Unfortunately, he'd blown his load a bit too early. Lysses reeled back, letting himself fall backward through the sky, forced to follow Butch's momentum. His hands hung limp at his sides from the momentary disconnect of nerves, but quickly flew up to his defense when he regained control of himself. His hands came together, underneath the Android Assassin's body, taking aim at the creature's underside. "Damn right it is!" A volley of machine-gun blasts rocketed free of his fingertips, forcing the machine higher and higher with every tiny explosion. Lysses didn't let up, firing repeatedly at the creature's midsection in an attempt to expose his guard. If he didn't block it soon, he was going to get overwhelmed by the blasts... not that that wouldn't have happened naturally at some point. Butch grunted, and then he screamed. Energy exploded from deep within the space where his lungs should have been, breaking out from behind his lips in the form of a massive energy wave that devoured Lysses' tiny blasts. The Phagian groaned as it made contact, exploding with a gigantic BTOOOM that forced him back to the ground below. He had, somehow, managed to take the bad end of that trade. He hit the ground with a powerful thud, making sure to roll backward quickly so that he couldn't be collapsed upon by his opponent. So far, they were trading powerful blows back and forth, but he knew that the trades couldn't go on forever. Even at full power, he was already starting to fall off in combat effectiveness. The robot would be able to fight forever, as far as he knew. That was the thing's goal, wasn't it? To out last him? His hands ignited with golden flames, snapping and biting as the creature landed across from him, red cloak tearing and ripping at the world. There was something dangerous about that cloak, but he couldn't put his finger on it. It was, somehow, essential to the battle... he knew that, but not how. Why couldn't he have been the Avatar of Wisdom and Knowledge? Roland would have been able to pick up on the cloak's nature. With Walid, it wouldn't have mattered. With Elric... well, honestly, Elric had a cloak of his own. "C'mon, then!" [align=center]1,515 13,230[/align] |
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| Future Gohan | Oct 1 2014, 09:17 PM Post #18 |
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The Harbinger
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[align=center] [/align]They fought tooth and nail with an increasing bitterness as the battle wore on; their elegant weapon trades had turned to violent melees when Butch's sword had been knocked aside and off the cliff by a stray bolt of energy. The rewards of their bloodsport became evident on their bodies; where Lysses had cuts and scrapes from the sheer force of his opponent's strikes, Butch had black patches and swathes of exposed metal. The both of them had been fighting for what felt like an eternity, and that was beginning to show. Sparks flew from Butch's cheek as Lysses' fist grazed it, forcing him to lock up. Lysses' arm came back quickly, jutting into the Android's face with a vicious elbow that sent him crashing to the ground. For a moment, as Butch recovered, both fighters seemed to freeze. Lysses had paused to regain what he could of his breath, while Butch's systems ran a brief check on his status. He seemed to be running at 40% combat effectiveness; by manually diverting a scan toward the Phagian, he could see that Lysses was hovering around the same. Even if he got further into the lab, he would not be able to bypass the perils within with his limited combat power. While the projects in the lab were not as strong as he was, they were dangerous enough to cause harm to the phagian at his full strength. Defeating him at forty percent would not be difficult. Still, it was growing difficult to move. Every time the Phagian hit an exposed wire, he had been forced to stop and stutter. That was the downside to his Ruby Cloak. It broke down the materials in his synthetic flesh, exposing him to more and more damage as time wore on, which in turn ate at his energy reserves. He, too, was a Berserker. "Surrender now, and I might let you live, Android. You've got a warrior's heart, not that I wouldn't like to see it for myself." Butch smiled, straightening as best he could. Sparks continued to flutter off of the exposed patches on his skin. If the Phagian had picked up on his weakness, the battle would not last much longer. The sky above was starting to grow dark, and the mountains around them had been completely reshaped in their scuffle. Fires raged in the forestry below as a reminder of their carelessness, ravaging the local ecosystem and tearing apart the communities of thousands of creatures. They were not waging war for the safety of the world, or even their own. It had become a matter of simple gratification. "Surrender is not recognized in my terms and conditions," he joked. "Your... what and what? Aren't those parts of a surrender?" He had forgotten that Lysses was a fucking space alien. God... god damn it. [align=center]501 13,731[/align] |
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| Future Gohan | Oct 1 2014, 09:38 PM Post #19 |
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The Harbinger
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[align=center] [/align]Lysses' fist found purchase in the Android's face in their next engagement, forcing the fighter to the ground with a painful groan. The sound hadn't come out of real pain, but out of the circumstance. That much was obvious; something was slowing him down at a much faster rate than Lysses was. He was, metaphorically and perhaps literally, losing steam. Lysses himself was now hovering at around a third of his power level, but the Android seemed to have lost a lot of it whenever a powerful hit connected. From what Lysses could tell, their fight across the mountain was now coming to an end. Butch went sliding across the dirt, toward the edge of the mountainside, which had been redefined by an earlier blast. His systems were going critical in all aspects; his core temperature was dropping dangerously low, and his scanners were starting to shut down. Every hit that had connected to an exposed bit of his endoskeleton had crippled him in some way. He struggled to reorient himself on the ground as Lysses approached, hand raised in the air. A sea of light broke out over his fingertips as his halberd materialized. It had fallen off of the cliff earlier, but it seemed like he had some kind of link to it. Could he summon it at will? Butch's face contorted with anger. It was already lit up by electricity, but the new display of power from the Phagian was just infuriating. He could feel the anger inside of him, and for a fraction of a second, he could feel it converting into strength... but then it shot out in a burst of electricity from his cheek. He couldn't maintain the power he was generating to fight with. "Is this what you wanted? I just don't get it; earlier you said that you consider Doctor Bright your father. Is he really worth dying for?" Butch said nothing in response, but propped himself up on his elbows. He would not shirk away from death. The Phagian would not survive inside of the fortress. He would be overwhelmed by his father's works. Lysses' eyes narrowed, suddenly dark. "Look at you! You could have been a powerful warrior! You could have gotten glory, or fame! Instead, you've become a butcher." He hefted the halberd over his head, spinning it so that the blade of energy now pointed toward Butch's torso. If he plunged it down, the pulse would first disable his systems... and then the blade would pierce the engine in his chest, shutting him down for good. "You don't know anything! You don't know what this life is like, you don't know the burdens of the butcher, Phagian! Don't speak as if you do!" Lysses glared down at his opponent, examining him with a mixture of both curiosity and regret. Despite the fact that his opponent was both an Android and an Assassin, he couldn't help but feel a distinct pang somewhere in his gut. He could have easily ended up the same way. He had been a gladiator for many years, murdering in the arena for the sake of his people and their glory. It hadn't been until he'd been sent to Earth that he'd managed to find himself. He had become more human than Gladiator, and while that had its own dangers... "Don't speak as if you know me. Your database has information on me from after my arrival on Earth. Not from before. You've no idea what I went through, what my people have suffered. You may be a butcher, but so was I, once. I've killed more men than you've ever seen, Android." Lysses plunged his blade downward-- and to the side. It stabbed deep into Butch's thigh, pinning him to the ground and sending a pulse of electromagnetic energy through his system. "I hope you're not afraid of the dark, Android. I'll see you once I'm done with your Father." He turned as Butch lost consciousness, determined to return his focus to the task at hand. For now, the Gatekeeper had been defeated. [align=center]730 14,461[/align] |
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| Future Gohan | Oct 1 2014, 09:59 PM Post #20 |
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The Harbinger
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[align=center] [/align]The doors before him loomed like ominous warnings of the perils to come. It had been hard to find an opportunity to bust them open to begin with... Now that the Gatekeeper had been dealt with, Lysses would be able to break them apart. However, he had no idea what else lurked inside. Somewhere within the Mountain Fortress was Doctor Thaddeus Bright. He was the goal; Lysses had to get inside, gank the guy, and then shut down whatever projects were still lingering within. If they were as strong as the last one he'd defeated, he was going to be in some serious trouble. Lysses exhaled slowly, letting his power surge out from within. Even if he took a short break, he would only be able to fight at 50% of his own power while inside. He couldn't afford to wait around until another assassin was sent after him. The odds were pretty spot on that he'd have to rely on his Patron's power while inside, but the truth was that he didn't know how much he could trust that. Argus only spoke when he was speaking through him, not to him. For all he knew, the Patron just wanted him for his body. He wondered, briefly, if the other Avatars had to worry about things like that. He could hardly remember life without the influence of his patron, but lately... Lately, Argus had just been dark. He rarely spoke, choosing to exhibit his gifts rather than to give actual guidance. His help had won Lysses a fair share of fights, but there was something awkward about a silence between two beings that were sharing the same body. White energy swirled around his body as he gathered the strength to destroy the door. He was going to have to rip it open. He'd wasted too much ki blasting away at the Sundance kid back there. His fists clenched tightly, more to flex his fingertips than to display his aggression. The weak points in the door were apparent in the center, meaning he was going to have to fly up there. The air in his lungs went cold as he approached the weak spot, his fingertips glowing with a brilliantly shining light. They buried themselves in the steel as Lysses pushed forward, ripping the metal apart in order to gain entrance. The doors, themselves, seemed to be as thin as they looked... but he knew better than to try to open them manually. He didn't know the passcode and he hadn't killed the gatekeeper. The laws of the universe wouldn't have allowed them to just open up for him; he met NONE of the requirements. So, he found himself shredding through the metal like a hot knife through cold butter. Had he been able to feel anything in his hands, he would have surely been grunting in pain. Thankfully, for once, the nerve endings in his fingertips had been burned to a crisp in the event that had set him off on the path he found himself. Now, that wound, which had once been despicable, now granted him entry to the final leg of his journey. "Here I come, Doctor Bright... I hope you're fucking ready." He darted through the hole like a gnat through a mesh net, plunging headfirst into the darkness that greeted him. [align=center]572 15,033[/align] |
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