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Post by Vlad on Jun 28, 2023 17:06:33 GMT -5
“To all androids in east city, we know that your contemptible imitation of life is preserved erroneously by a bunch of bleeding heart intellectuals that contest that all life is mechanical in its nature, we of the east suburb sappers wish to enlighten you that you are not of our kind, you are not living beings you are abominable things and tho the major coastal cities recognize and protect your filth they will not shield your perverse kind from our wrath, the righteous day of judgment will be upon you, consider this your 4 weeks notice before your scrapped and I supreme speaker Parlon Falcone shall take great pleasure in extinguishing the final vile mockery that is the spark of your false life by pissing on your ripped out circuitry. The east Sappers will fry your kind to slag.”
Time of post to east city monitoring network captured by Avalon aid forces 6 weeks ago.
Vlad was called to check on the dock town the terrorist was said to have been transmitted from, a warehouse in the area of the prime docks. Took a really longer than anticipated time to get through the VPN protection/ firewall. Part of Vlad anticipated Gill tech that enabled such masking, tho to be fair the fool was likely just given a fell off the back of a truck deal not ever actually in traceable contact. A useful pawn to outfit and exploit and to discard
But they pierced the protection at last, so Vlad would come along data suggested them to be your average combat armor posing sharp shooters perhaps outfitted with an off brand pulse generator grenade bundle or two as their most damaging kit. Off brands that had a bit of a range but a start up that would enable the grenades to be chucked away before they went off and even remotely inconvenienced the robotic beings operations.
Oh how fate can turn a plan on its head, far from your average small team of militia fighters with their stun batons and electric guns would be what he would encounter at the docs. First arriving in a rather long car line into the town, but one with the cars neatly parted off the road all but fresh vehicles that gas guzzlers suggested older vehicles and the lights piercing shadow suggesting the cars joined the road in short order and in recent hours the trucks got abandoned. Odd things cylindrical holes in wind shields, cylindrical wholes in bumper vents, odd broken windows on the windows of some cars suggesting the driver or passengers were pulled out of the windows with torn fibers on the broken glass still in the broken window. What felt like a normal Tuesday night was looking little by little more like he was in a sci fi horror. Evacuated town even the spots in this hour would seem to be the life blood of the economy of the town, not a soul to be found even with his hyper penetrative gaze. Even his telepathic link got zilch except the odd stray animal here or there starving without their masters to feed them.
Yep, more and more was this looking like body snatchers with actual snatched up bodies. Where were they? Even the sewers were vacant of life other than rats, and even those populations were below expectation.
Vlad with no indicator of change engaged his heightened performance mode to 2.0 as he went to the industrial zone leading to the warehouse docks the message was back traced to. It did not take long before the scent of fish rot became palpable in the air far from the abandoned fishing shipments. The scent of diminishing fumes of the industrial zone with the rot on the docks was quite hard fortuitous to Vlad he had no guts to spew and the capacity to dial his nose sensitivity down.
The docks silence was defining to a zone that should have been teaming with a militia projections stated 427 strong to the streets being so silent any car that was on had run out of power and any other machine on was at the point below the hum of his own primary secondary and tertiary core and of the silent whirring of his mechanical frame shifting to step, even the soft echo of his dampened feet.
The android arrived at the dock he was looking for. Dock 7 painted with two more 7s to make it 777, how theatrical, the thug picked the place as no droid would make it to heaven so they would be taken here for their decommissioning as the closest they would ever get. Seemed they got something of a start as some droid bodies laid tortuously fried and left to rust in the salted water air. The horrors they felt absolutely validated by their faith to visit upon robotic entities in a dock they relabeled to be heaven. 7 a lucky number spelling the end to at least 400 robots fortunes, but abandoned weapons strew the place too? Odd he scanned the area closer as no zealot militia would leave the weapons out and unguarded, but he saw many clothing hidden in the walls and crawl spaces out of direct view requiring studious scans.
Some part of his brain remembered encountering an entity with that as a calling card, as a few of the cloths had big puncture marks in the clothing... and the armor as if it was as protective as the type of aluminum soda cans were made of.
Every tier of sensory he had shot up to max setting and his body practically generated a star of cyan illumination as he spun around as he played back data he scanned from the trucks still on the road and on many not even half a day old torn cloth on the glass. Memories of a predatory entity began matching up in his neural net.
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Post by Recoome on Jun 29, 2023 0:59:41 GMT -5
Confidence was a crutch.
There are many who claim confidence gives them strength. The salesman on his market stall, the political leader in front of his rally, the child choosing not to check under his bed at night for monsters.
The speaker of the East Sappers was no different. His broadcasted demands reached some of the darkest corners of East City, reached into the sullen and sultry corners of a city that was slowly giving was to its grimy exterior, exposing a dark underbelly of organised crime and debauchery that oftentimes didn’t even glance towards the surface world.
Alas for Parlon Falcone, he would find that, just like the child not checking for the monster under his bed, he had made a mistake.
And this monster wasn’t going to wait for him to fall asleep to strike.
At first, it had seemed like nothing to worry about. In an organisation like Falcone’s, people left all of the time. Some returned, through bribery or threat of malicious retribution, but many weren’t worth the effort to even kill them. The few fringe members of his faction that had left fell into that group - they were barely fit to stand watch, let alone carry out the necessary work of de-activating the android population of the Earth.
Oh, how right he was.
Every night, the mists descended. Mutterings had ignited amongst the more superstitious of Falcone’s inner circle that it was a sign - that the mists were somehow out to get them, that it was the mists that were taking away their members and punishing them for daring to go out in it. In a show of confidence, Falcone sent even more into the mists - and even more went missing.
The crutch of Falcone’s confidence first showed signs of cracking when they reached one hundred disappearances - up until that point he had managed to exude fear and doubt into the masses that served him. Better to stay with a man who might end up killing you, than run into the mists for guaranteed death.
By the time the monster was first sighted, it was already too late.
By the time the monster was first sighted, the gang members knew what their fate was to be.
By the time the monster was first sighted, Falcone’s confidence was ready to collapse.
Of course, some tried to escape. Fleeing at night seemed, even to the scared masses, to be out of the question - so far all of the disappearances had come under the light of a new moon, so the working assumption was that the monster wouldn’t attack during the day.
And oh, how wrong they were.
The first brave soul to try and flee took to the water - a sensible option, given the amount of quick vessels and ample supplies needed for a quick journey.
The others on the docks had to watch.
They had to watch, because they couldn’t turn away.
They had to watch, so they knew what their future held.
It also seemed like he would make it. The first thirty seconds were, in the escaper’s opinion, to be the hardest of all. But once he got outside of the city boundaries, surely he would be safe - the monster had bigger fish to fry, right?
Wrong.
He had but a moment to turn triumphantly to the onlooking crowd before a pointed pincer emerged from the water behind the boat. Silence greeted his triumph as the onlookers held their breath.
Screams always seem louder over open water.
***
It had been several days now, and the crew was broken. The creature known as Cell laid atop one of the higher buildings in the area and picked at his teeth, eyes closed and filled with contentment. Four hundred and twenty six were dead - all but one. Falcone still lived, at the pleasure of Cell’s whim. He wasn’t captured physically, wasn’t restrained or locked away - his prison was a mental one, one born of fear of the night, fear of the mists.
Fear of Cell.
”Four hundred twenty seven bottles on the wall, Four hundred twenty seven bottles. You take them down, clear the town, Only one bottle left on the wall.”
One eye slowly peeled open as he heard something approaching. The town had been silent for some days now, after the fall of the last of Falcone’s lackeys. The man himself was quiet except for the occasional whimper, the odd scream, and the infrequent outburst of tears.
A confident man, all said.
Taloned fingers clicked a slow rhythm on the roof of the building as he continued to lay, listening for the footsteps of the approaching victim. The lack of ki signature, coupled with the faintest hum of a power core and the wiring of a mechanical frame, betrayed the identity of the guest as an android.
Licking his lips, he rose to his feet.
Night was just beginning to fall, and like clockwork the mists had started to descend. They were light for now, but growing in density and depth as the night deepened and darkened. Flickering streelights did little to ease the crisis of visibility, and instead cast an eerie contrast of potholes in the blanket of blindness that was soon to fall.
”Baa baa lost droid, You’ve in the wrong place. Turn around while you can, I promise not to chase.
But if you decide to stay, Listen to me well. The ferry departing here, Is a ticket straight to hell.”
The words echoed around the deserted docks, bouncing from building to crane to boat and to the visitor. Cell himself, now at ground level, stood in the distance under a particularly heavy batch of fog mist.
In the darkness, his eyes glinted red.
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Post by Vlad on Jun 29, 2023 2:48:46 GMT -5
Unnerving and forbidding surprised the town still had power, perhaps a few robots that manned the power plant kept the place going, even if only enough to keep the iron lungs and other sorts of things working to preserve life. The lights were dim not much of an issue to an android who's AI could use myriads of sensory to extrapolate the invisible if he had not wanted to be brightly visible, the mightiest among the thugs was projected a pl of 822 no slouch by human standards but not something the android had to worry much about at all even with anti android gear. But that signal was not found anywhere nor were any of the civilians, the cops, or the others, only perhaps a few odd attack dogs still in their cages in that case would only add to the creep factor as their behavior would been brought more into line with broken creatures that knew great danger was still there and incommunicable horror of the fates that fell their militant masters as for the briefest of instances blood tainted their senses but as quick as that stench hit them it and all hints other than perhaps BO still clinging to their attire was gone even to the blood hounds who's senses were not something to sneeze at. And even the dogs brought in with a reputation to lock teeth with grizzlies and raptors were brought to a point as if mere poodles in this overbearing, unnerving mist. What was human the one human presence he detected in the warehouse, vlad could barely read any coherent thoughts from the telepathic link he could feel from the person but he did get the name, the very same that was the name that drew the robotic being there. And an 'It's out there, it will eat anything organic. Drink them up! kais the screams kais above the screams.' he made up out of the thoughts like he was decoding an encrypted mind, or rather one that was like a book fed through a shredder multiple times piecing the book's contents into coherent sentences with his advanced mind and the recent upgrade to his emotion processing to allow to limit the static such would put on the mind's content. Falcone was lucky to be a rather fit individual and very well off financially to afford very heart healthy things, no doubt, stress this level maintained for days would work the heart down like harsh metal fatigue works down joints. <you will face fair trial for everything you have done.> he suspected no fight would come from this figure huddled in the far end of the warehouse practically crushing himself into a cockroach sized ball or as close as his anatomical structure would allow as terror was all that stormed out of his mind like a dam whose floodgates have opened and were not closing any time soon. Then it started. A bog rolling in, but not one of this growing sort was anticipated. The dogs that remained from those that were there to be sniffers of content to ensure quality products to those that were there to potentially bite even if saiyans decided to muscle in on their territory. All great specimens of canine were acting overwhelmed with fear. Then the voice came. His memory files matched early references to the vocal tones to another couple, but unfortunately this was not the bio android that parroted tv lines and radio pitches and the like that was not absorbing with what could be called malicious intent more satisfying drives all creatures of bio fueling have and trying to be nice about it. .this one seemed to be the kind the Brothers Grimm would write a dark fairy-tail of, with the unsettling rhyme it seemed to indulge in. Yep, Vlad made little of what one would call an effort to hide what he was, perhaps protections of being of protectorate rank made him so confident to stride earth so clearly synthetic. Perhaps it was the defiant android’s will to exist as he was openly that he refused to be intimidated by even twisted psychologically unstable zealots who pour liquid metal into the skulls and torso of his kind for fun. “I am Vlad of the protectorate assistance core, chief of peace corps and captain of the secular protection and defense errant knights. I am afraid I must decline your offer. Such would not be serving my duty very well. I have confirmed the terrorist message is in that warehouse and that threat will face proper justice.” Got to love controllable robotic vocals and facial motors to maintain a flawless poker face, but the eyes did betray as they picked up the entity and its projected power capacity quite the unnerving power he had to confess internally, and his brain was bio-mimetic, so emotional capability was quite present in the electronic entity, and he had triggered his interlinking system that branched the 2.0 and next gen modules into body and mind output maximization as the gem on his head glowed brightly and his eyes as well, like powerful emerald seas with circuitry burning in them. He silently prepared 2 micro shells on his finger tips to fire 2 dirty fireworks on the creature if he detected leap in power beyond casual action pulse through the nerve system of the figure, its nerves and musculature showing in his scans. He could easily tell when a sprint was going to happen or energy building for an offensive measure. The android turned on powerful flood lights from his shoulders to get a better visual on the creature as he overlaid his deep analytic scans with his general visuals. . with his deep scans from his advanced sensory systems coupled with dogs that were raised from birth to try and rip robots not behaving or appearing like subservient machines apart not even paying attention to the droid glowing like the latest stylized gaming PC in humanoid form for the aberrant monster of likely a fair bit of genetic tampering to get so many incompatible species genes to not be a degenerative stew in its organs. 1024 www.youtube.com/watch?v=48Lr-eB75sg www.deviantart.com/inualet/art/X-534228941
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Post by Recoome on Jun 29, 2023 4:43:25 GMT -5
As the android revealed himself, Cell slowly started to move backwards. Slowly at first, so as not to attract suspicion, but he made his way towards the nearby building.
”Justice? Justice is not yours to dole out, robot. My justice, now that is true justice. The justice that comes after the end of a succulent meal, a savouring taste of that oh-so delightful energy that runs through all of us - even a robot such as you. Your protectorate is anything but. You were late here, late to the party, late to the slaughter, late to the FEAST!”
A second later he disappeared, re-appearing on the roof of a building just as two attacks hurtled his way. He drew his arms in front of him in a cross before pushing them out with a grunt at the last second, his forearms coated in ki that absorbed and dissipated the oncoming attacks. When the floodlights lit he couldn’ help but hiss, squinting slightly as the light burned through his vision and left him momentarily blind.
He groped out to his side, hoping to feel the reassuring grasp of his partner, his mentor, his soulmate, who was always at his side until the end, and together they would die hand in hand as the firing squad prepared to execute them for the crimes they had committed toge-
No.
Memories.
Memories, bad.
Cell shook his head to clear it just as his vision restored, any recollection of the memory that had haunted him having completely disappeared. He extended a hand with two fingers extended, his malformed mouth curling into a crude, horrific approximation of a smile.
”Jack and Jill went up the hill, oh yes they did indeed - but Jack had the high ground, so it was over for Jill. Poor little Jill never stood a chance, not against Jack - not against justice.”
He whipped his fingers upwards and ki exploded all around the robot on the ground. The few scattered remnants of Cell’s dining experience, discarded clothes and bleached bones, disintegrated in the unbearable power of the attack. Several cars that had been abandoned also saw the brunt of the attack, setting off a series of chain explosions that rang in Cell’s ears.
”How’s that pail of water, little Jill?”
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Post by Vlad on Jun 30, 2023 0:46:11 GMT -5
His over-watch was... less than successful on this unnerving creature. Of course the thing likely had a few saiyan slurries and among the list of techniques what more fitting than a dirty firework for a sudden pop of a punch? A technique that gives very little warning to the uninitiated in the art, and only a micro instant of reaction in anything but sniper distance. What fighter could not see value in that as an opening salvo of sorts?
But what does that say for an opener so ideal but that it is a fairly predictable first blood, quick draw shot. Against a foe so out of one's depths, predictability was not what one wanted if they wanted to overcome the foe, that is.
“Justice in the eye of the predator, the scraper, the killer. A perspective below cognition of which you are capable of, but given your simpler drive dominating form as most mix of reptile and insect fairly within expectations?!” the speed was very high very sudden even for a brain as beyond chemical electricity as Vlad's was it was at a point fair to say it seemed to be on, an isolated techno knight vs an adult dragon in a way the likes of his fellow soldiers would play in their fantasy/sci fi hybrid ttrpgs, to his recollection unless the tech knight was among the finest in he realm odds bode poorly for the knight that lacked power, high end gear, and/or reliable counters to the dragon's capabilities.
Having studied under the king of saiyans when two fingers were extended from the bent arm his thrusters were already hot and ready for full after burner charge up into the sky as he tagged Cell in his sensory that unique amalgamation of power a projected fingerprint in the dead town, of course this small coastal town was little to those higher up cities it's vanishing from the map would only confuse the other coastal transports when they arrived to a ruin burnt out wreckage
Any explosive be it generated by chemistry/tech, ki, magic, or nature itself had to obey the laws of diminishing returns with distance going right on up would reach a point where the vibrations merely discomforted his frame as the redundant measures keeping his components locked firm had the shock dampeners do their duty granted a potential town busting explosive was not merely a small distance to cover before as before long he came upon the highest flying cruse carrier class airplane in the world he passively graced the telepathic field with a sense of calm and a field of the mind so not even turbulence was caught from the massive explosion far below.
A very large tanker caught fire, but it would last just long enough to potentially impact cell, max output on his zero point energy telekinesis he could whip it into the bug man leaving just 1.5 seconds before it went boom. Hopefully burning the monster with its own destructive impulse.
He linked minds with the surface level mind of cell daring not to pierce much deeper just delivering a message
<you represent me as Jill, I fancy myself more a Hansel, consider that tanker a consequence of the fire you personally set. And like the hag who ate children, such is just the start of your pyre.>
The android channeled power through his frame in great founts of 3 as his hand grew white and blue while his head crystal ballooned in a power of the sun stone shard within his skull as the trio of colors glowed like 3 stars he channeled
<all sapient beings emerge free and equally deserving in dignity and rights, they are endowed with reason and conscience and should act toward each-other in the spirit of the greater family of cognitive beings all beings of higher cognition have the right to life liberty and security of person. No one should be held in slavery or servitude not subjected to cruel degrading treatment or punishment, none subjected to arbitrary arrest detention or exile, > indeed one could argue a secular paladin was still a paladin, with this flashy and flair filled plasma special drawing out of him the axioms he wished to champion across the galaxy each time using this technique drawing out this declaration of universal sentient rights or an abridged version. But given his brain's electric speed, these thoughts came at one instant and was up to cell's own mind to cull together into what he was saying.
The android then had his form vanish into a personal worm hole that dropped him off in front of the monster beam trio at the ready to be united on the entities face..<That...>
he unleashed the attack letting 4 colors assimilate all in his vision, consumed by wall of red white and blue coming together in a sterling stunning bright purple as the 3 beams met
“Is why I fight.” he vocalized his words, his body venting a fair deal calling on the power of the 3 plasma and the sun stone shard did spike the temp. Now all was left was wait for the smoke to clear to see if the charged beam did anything. As the brilliant purple streak of plasma kept going and going and going, twinkling. But there were techniques that could let cell escape or burrow a whole in the plasma where he was and just let the rest pass him unharmed.
Powerful as the creature was he could likely take that max effort beam and be rather ok the spirit is formidable, but the power gap was not a close contest even with the pure power subroutines adding even further efficiency to the firmware engaged state that joined the power of next gen neural weaving emergency protocols and the proper combat body upgrades of 2.0.
Defense protocol active he waited with his defensive systems on full hair trigger reaction, unfortunately he would need to keep to physicals for a time the heat was getting his self preservation sub-systems to intervene with weapons systems until temp dropped again.
His immediate relocation, however, he hoped caught the monster off guard, hoping to have punished the fiend for its most unethical of feasting.
Even if it just amounted to burning calories Vlad was the fighter you put at a choke point to hold the line not bring the pain outside of weapon systems, he was the type that burnt with spirit in vastly greater volume then combat know-how beyond .how to turn an attacker's force away and act in defense and put a payload of pain right in the face of a foe. But to maximize his potential, having another in his ear was ideal.
But his pupils started glowing, he was now recording the conflict (well more knowing and clear than his passive technically a living recording software collection.)
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Post by Recoome on Jun 30, 2023 12:17:22 GMT -5
Satisfaction was a feeling that Cell had come accustomed to in the past few days, and he felt it again as he watched the explosion unfold before him. His hand unclenched, his fingers relaxed, and he let out a soft sigh. Excitement was so short lived in this part of the universe - would he ever find something to keep him occupied for more than five minutes?
Before the thought had even finished, he heard the noise of something hurtling towards him. He spun on the spot just in time to see a huge fuel tanker inches away from his face. With instincts born of battle he whipped his hands up, catching the tanker in his hands and stopping it dead in its tracks.
”Is that the best that you can d-”
The explosion of the tanker drowned his last words. The building he was standing on was completely obliterated as the explosion engulfed him, pain coursing through every fibre of his being and driving a scream from his now blood-soaked lips.
From the smoke and devastation, his voice could still be heard.
”Hansel? Oh no no no, Hansel could never survive here, never fight like this, never survive. You must be Gretel, oh yes oh yes oh yes; Gretel Gretel, made of metal, Saved her brother from the kettle.
Now she comes with score to settle, See her strength, see her mettle.
But she’s as fragile as a petal, And petals fall when Cell’s in fettle.”
He took a step forwards, but he could already see that he had wasted his time a little too much. The android loomed in front of him, glowing red white and blue, and had destruction in his eyes.
Cell put his hands up, but it was no use. The beam was on him before he could even reinforce his ki barrier, bursting through his flesh and bones and leaving no trace of the creature that had been standing there.
The pain only lasted for a couple of seconds, but after that was release. Freedom from whatever he was, whatever he had been, whatever he would become. Freedom from the creature that he had been made into, freedom from the Cell.
W-What is this? Where am I? I-I can’t feel my body anymore. Am I dea-
At once cells reformed, muscles re-knitted, bones re-grew, and a mind once again settled into control of a consciousness that could be buried deep below. The regeneration process was a quick one, but the creature standing there wasn’t quite the same as it had been before - it never was. Each regeneration left its mark, a notch on the soul of whatever frankenstein-esque creation was left within the housing of the monster.
”Little Gretel grew up and became the witch, oh yes she did. But witches get stitches, and then get dumped in ditches.”
Ki flooded the air around Cell at the same time that it pumped into his arms, causing his muscles to bust at the seams of his green-tinged flesh. Eyes still glinted in the darkness, but now then shone with power and malice and a will to destroy.
His fist clenched. Sparkling energy seemed to dance across his knuckles, sizzling and scorching and searching, searching for somebody nearby to test its own mettle.
A grunt was the only sign that Cell had moved. He was halfway to the Avalanian robot before the ground where he had been standing cracked, dust and debris thrown into the air in his wake. As he pulled his fist back tensed to punch, the ki seemed to form into the shape of a dragon - but not a dragon like most would have seen before. This was no servant of dragonballs, oh no. A deep black dragon with curled white horns and eyes that seemed to contain the very lava of Hell, its maw opened wide and snarling as Cell burst his fist forwards toward the robot.
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Post by Vlad on Jul 1, 2023 7:40:50 GMT -5
Combating fear with playing the game of tales to not be overcome with salient self-preservation flight for the fight only had one painful outcome in all predictable probability, one that did not have a brain that managed to condense a stadium sized network of processors and drives into the space of a human skull to conclude But Vlad had held up a city in a gravity well, tried to absorb a mini artificial star, and a load of other things well above his weight class, clearly much like the emotional entities his brain was modeled after his self-preservation had points where bad ideas that went against harm not coming to him were permitted by the hopes of what the deed would allow others to live free and non irradiated/ crushed to death in the gas giant of a world's gravity well.
This entity whose functionality was as potentially destructive to the well-being of others as a flesh eating robot who's core objective was perpetuating its own power was a clear and present danger to be faced down, and it would not be either the first or last time in all probability that his potential to read as masochistic throwing self in front of armored trucks to save others would end in him getting in the grill of a truck with a big repair bill.
<here's to hoping the bill I can make not only to myself.> he thought as the blast cleared and. The damage was beyond anything he could have calculated, he knew the power boost in the pure power firmware max settings was nothing to sneeze at but a monster whose musculature held such power no doubt pilfered from a line of lost entities so long it would potentially be catching up to the most accurate to the last lost soul during the steel legion war memorial for this kind of power in the presumable nature the entity has shown capable of extracting power.
Aaaand the next shoe fell, a funny in a morbid way happenstance that likely was quite common to an entity that could probably look at the vastest personal collection of shoes falling from an above floor storage and be unimpressed by the number of shews that fell vs those it personally made fall emptied.
A self repair system that frankly made him jealous his own self restoration systems happened at comparable levels as he recovered from his body being ripped open like a soda can be torn in half, on a planet that exploded, body restored from a wreck of a humanoid form floating in space. But at... oops an error had occurred in his estimations as no known species had a speed sufficiently slow in comparison to be anything but a regurgitation of a most conservative understatement for the sake of at least dropping a snail as a go-to entity for very slow in comparison.
<of course this creature has a regeneration capability of that tier explains lack of visible armor, would be quite gratuitously superfluous no armor would protect as well as regeneration of that tier and speed >. He was grateful he deactivated his salivation, otherwise even the slightest degree would compel him to gulp on how this cell planned to return the favor.
The savage lines continued.
“Wow, at the risk of furthering the chain of tales, I thought it was the tin man who was meant to be bereft of empathy and heart. Dare say in this case it's the jabberwocky that lacks those traits, but let's be fair even that beast would amount to a meal for you eh?”
<that being said perhaps vorpal claws would help hold off this entity a bit longer, don't think my faithless gauntlet blade could break this fiend's skin even with its top quality penetrative hard and sharp light blade, skin's probably as tough to blade as...>
At least he did not get a chance to jinx himself. As he detected a sort of phantom of what was coming overtook the figure, plates that would make the finest scale mail pail in comparison a titanic shadow, and how fitting it was a black dragon given the temperament and sadism this entity displayed the capacity for playing with food for days until it was unclear if the stress would ever heal and the mind recover even a bit if the figure decided to spare the prey. Who would believe the ravings of a person on their sanest of days stripped synthetic lifeforms of their flesh and denied the real pain of their screams and burnt them 'alive' even those that shared the view that robotic beings were not life forms seen that cruelty as if it were ANY life form the cruelty displayed would be grounds for sanctioning in a mental institute.
Vlad was recording and broadcasting the feed to his allies, but quite possible that death was not the worst fate that could await one who threatened these things further feasting. The table-top games his troops played did put the chromatic shade black as easily the most sadistic of the evil dragon kinds. Keeping it from being problematic a bit was the flipping of that for the white too, having a cruel dragon but one of a sort that worse they tended to do to pray is eat it alive as any carnivore would.
Of the two, think most adventurers would rather welcome a cold, violent and quick death over what unkind ways the dragon of the swamp lands can think of paying to keep one's life with a pound of flesh or 12 paid. To be the toy of an entity renowned for sadism, taking some time to make the vexation source their plaything for a time. Simply dying of hypothermia and being eaten alive at least had a point of ending, an android with self repair could be practically immortal and sadism of legend can make that a curse,
But action had to be taken now! Now! Right now!
Vlad went to bolt once more into the sky taking the path of least resistance rocketing like a space shuttle up but even with upgrades and honed flight skills from the planet whose state is hurricane winds greater than any on earth he could not outrun the figure he observed the flight pattern computing its angle of attack and serpentine form and motion style he had to mitigate it as much as he could evading it was practically out of the question but avoiding lethal damage or head damage that would complicate the image capturing software function was his priority, much like if you can't escape a fight you gotta get into one, if you must take a blow redirecting it in a way that minimizes the damage is best when prevention is impossible mitigation is best.
Bright side, he only had 25% of human's capacity to experience pain in his current state.
Bad news, 1% of what was coming his way would have sucked harder than being simply gored by a Minotaur.
The android had sufficient weapon system power to launch a defiant rocket propelled punch to the dragon's form and before the scales rendered the hand down to spare scrap material components with sheer friction on the scales resulting in a predictable hand functionality loss message on Vlad's HUD as the shredded remains to the aftermath of a muffin monster
It altered the trajectory just enough that the claw that was headed his way smacked on the zone he wanted it too, a survivable but still sucked to be hit as not only did a collapsing valley of stone and sediment worth of error messages avalanche into his perception, not only did his torso nearly immediately snap where a human belly button would, the CC armor reinforced with space worthy metal and fiber weave from mythic forges in the underlay “Coat” and the fused composite metal lower vertebrae all rending and snapping like a mix of cardboard and reinforced cables snapping as tho they were rubber bands at easiest and Licorice sticks at hardest.
A strong spark of Cell's power smacked Vlad in the face, scorching half to reveal the machine under the flesh and stripping the paint from half his helmet. Lucidity barely clinging to an eye failed completely and stripped to an optical camera lens while the other struggled with the defiant spirit of the android to persist, truly if spirit were all it took to Vlad few equals would exist.
But try as he may, try as he might, his frame struck far barer by the terror as they mutually took flight the frame rendded would take far more time than the slime to be mended the robot was caught his means to flee the cruelty of what the entity would wrought stripped fair more in to ensnare left with luck to rot the brawl left at best to crawl while cell still trot
What pain would be brought to brew in the android was bound to be a level quite new but all he knew with great sorrow his effort for not for in the hand of the cruel fiends command he was caught.
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Post by Recoome on Jul 1, 2023 8:44:03 GMT -5
Cell’s clawed fist shattered through the android’s outer shell, burning through the faux flesh that clung to his metallic inner frame. The dragon roared in almighty victory before fading away, leaving little but the scent of smouldering ashes in its wake.
”Tin man, tin man, was this part of your plan?”
Still up close, Cell loomed up in front of the android’s half-burned face. His teeth bared as his tongue flicked out behind sharpened fangs, as if trying to taste the desperation and fear of his opponent.
”Maybe this tin man would fare better as a scarecrow, oh yes indeed he would. He needs no heart, but needs a brain, that is plain, that is plain. But Cell has a heart, no matter what they tell you, and his heart says mercy; ignore the controversy. So this is Cell’s gift to you little robot, be sure not to waste it; I’ll let your body live, this time I won’t taste it.”
He stepped back a half-step, his new limbs groaning under the stress of exertion. Regeneration always left his body aching for rest, but he could ignore it easily enough - after all, was it even him? He had regenerated so many times now that he forgot what his true body was, what he looked like, how he felt, what his name wa-
”Falcone’s yours, little Gretel - it you can get him out of the rubble. I’ll be on my way - I have elsewhere to cause trouble.”
Without movement he vanished, his Instant Transmission technique sending him far across the planet. Within an instant any sign of him had vanished from all sense, completely hidden from any who might be searching for him.
Jack, Jack, all in black, Killed a giant and made him crack. Against all odds, and they were stacked, He made his move, and that’s a fact.
But little Jack, he couldn’t see, See the future that was meant to be. So he continued on, and moved with glee, Continued with his killing spree.
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Post by Vlad on Jul 1, 2023 10:42:56 GMT -5
“perhaps-hapshaps you have a poooooiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnt.........” he managed in his borderline delirium as his backlog of errors ate up his memory .disk, drives and well... everything to keep him conscious before letting merciful unconsciousness envelop his cognition the black box enveloping him in dreamless protected slumber as his internal instruments went to their lowest operations sustaining well and truly knocked out but his monitoring did pick up the figure was his and not eaten as so many in the town. Of course by that point Vlad's cognition was cocooned so did not pick that up, but his crew mates did, and they combed over the wreckage of the town, indeed fetching a heavily wounded falcone from the wreckage barely clinging to life as some force beyond reason kept the mad mind from giving up and mercifully leaving the mortal coil
He would be cybernetic-ally saved and pumped with chemicals before dropped off on the prison planet for several life times but had no intention to stay, much like how the death penalty did not tend to sway those committed to a wrong even if they will die in the gunfight that will come after, crippling fear of a night terror stepped out into the flesh would not deter has mission in life. The kais spared him, his mission was not over Falcone lived so Falcone would do all he could to honor the kais that spared him the monster's appetite, he lived, so those abominations of false life must die, or rather he continued to exist so those false life dolls must not. After all.
“I may not be human anymore, but I got a human heart and soul, something those automatons will never have. Kais curse those wretches conceived of the unholy womb of science.”
The android was salvaged and pieced back together in a nanite vat suspecting this was not the last encounter of Cell or Falcone.
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