On a Backwater Planet, a Metal Extractor is Built [PA/Multicross SI]
- Status
Glitchrr36
Slick's Short Company, CEO
- Location
- The Wastes
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The base is still HAL, but it now has various filters on it to make it sound more artificial.
- Location
- The Great Beyond
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
Honestly, it feels to me like most of the people suggesting Endbringers miss the fact that, pretty much, an Endbringer has...
1: a single sense. Leviathan tracks entirely through an awareness of water, for example. The SImurgh is somewhat strange from this perspective, seeing the past, future, and reading minds. Nevertheless, blithely assuming sight/sound/touch/etc implicit in the design is missing the point.
2: Most of the Endbringers, aside from the Endbringerness of sheer durability etc, can be summarized as possessing a single power. It's a really damn good one, but Behemoth can be reasonably stated to do nothing but his Dynakinesis.
3: Jobbing like hell.
I think I'm forgetting stuff but whatever.
So, for example, one of the possibilities for an Endbringer I considered at one point for a fanfic idea that may or may not ever be realized was an Endbringer who's things were...
1: has a sense of touch.
2: is a stretchy shapeshifty mass of tentacles. Find targets with littler tentacles, smash buildings with bigger ones, etc.
3: And of course jobbing would ensue by using this less than optimally.
1: a single sense. Leviathan tracks entirely through an awareness of water, for example. The SImurgh is somewhat strange from this perspective, seeing the past, future, and reading minds. Nevertheless, blithely assuming sight/sound/touch/etc implicit in the design is missing the point.
2: Most of the Endbringers, aside from the Endbringerness of sheer durability etc, can be summarized as possessing a single power. It's a really damn good one, but Behemoth can be reasonably stated to do nothing but his Dynakinesis.
3: Jobbing like hell.
I think I'm forgetting stuff but whatever.
So, for example, one of the possibilities for an Endbringer I considered at one point for a fanfic idea that may or may not ever be realized was an Endbringer who's things were...
1: has a sense of touch.
2: is a stretchy shapeshifty mass of tentacles. Find targets with littler tentacles, smash buildings with bigger ones, etc.
3: And of course jobbing would ensue by using this less than optimally.
- Location
- PR
So your Endbringer would be the Hentai Tentacle porn for japanese pervs the world over? You do know that those events will see a lack of female participation right? And those that show up are the super creepy weird ones.
Fair enough.
Glitchrrr36: Are you actually looking for OC endbringer ideas? I'm actually not certain.
Glitchrr36
Slick's Short Company, CEO
- Location
- The Wastes
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yes. Don't want to think of fifteen odd myself
Idea: Wisp of Radiance (name...? Ljósálfar ? Shamshel?[cue rage by NGE fans])
Appearance: ...Not quite sure, beyond 'glows too brightly for any chance at stealth'.
Sensory ability: Mote patterning (look at 'The Student' and imagine Dust's power to be the only thing they can sense)
Offensive ability: Can distribute and send off lots of little glowing motes; the things stick to whatever they touch, and damage whatever they touch when they dissipate. Motes can be used to intercept attacks. Glows like a chunk of dimmed star, exerting force on things near it(especially if touched/hit) and causing burn damage(i.e. heat + a touch of radiation.) Expect LOTS of collateral damage wherever it shows. If pushed, can control rate, movement, and discharge time of motes; motes erode material around them when they discharge(so armor won't last forever, no matter the strength)
Defensive ability: Teleports around like the capes around it have high ping in multiplayer(I'm here! No, I'm here, dummy! Over heere!) Also glows like a fragment of a proto-star and continuously pushes things away from itself. May only be a 3d portal through which something is shooting (a la Leliel from NGE.) Also, flies.
Jobbing aspect/'Let me pull a Taylor Hebert on you': Normally, rains very slowly (i.e. 'barely a rain' by weather standards', and distributes it widely, allowing it to be affected by gravity and wind and such, while moving 'slowly'(i.e. it's teleporting about, but you just know a good AoE can still hit it and there's a nice lag-time between hits). Can escalate rate as time goes on, from "maybe I should get an umbrella" to "dangit I thought danmakus fell out of popularity with Kyushu" to "I THOUGHT DANMAKUS HAD LOTS OF BULLETS THIS HAS ALL THE BULLETS". Also can control the movement of the motes, even if that isn't obvious at first; so yes, this Endbringer -SHOOP DA WHOOP - is capable of shooting 'beams' of motes around, and controls exactly when they discharge (after a while, immediately, at closest distance to that killbot, etc.) Teleporting might escalate to Asha*-can't-be-hit-in-her-final-fight-tier while still shooting, if the pressure is high enough.
Idling location: Space, possibly in satellite-level orbit (because we all love our TV, and Simurgh would enjoy the ability to troll with directed, unexpected mote storms on 'random' targets' if she were awake)
Preferred targets: Anywhere a change is being made for the better on a regional scale. So, had Sphere managed to turn the Sahara into a fertile grassland fit for farming, you could imagine this thing giving it a <sarcasm>helpful bit of rain</sarcasm> and leaving the place more barren (and glassy) than before. Oh, city X is turning its slow decay around! We can't have that, can we?
*from Iji.
Appearance: ...Not quite sure, beyond 'glows too brightly for any chance at stealth'.
Sensory ability: Mote patterning (look at 'The Student' and imagine Dust's power to be the only thing they can sense)
Offensive ability: Can distribute and send off lots of little glowing motes; the things stick to whatever they touch, and damage whatever they touch when they dissipate. Motes can be used to intercept attacks. Glows like a chunk of dimmed star, exerting force on things near it(especially if touched/hit) and causing burn damage(i.e. heat + a touch of radiation.) Expect LOTS of collateral damage wherever it shows. If pushed, can control rate, movement, and discharge time of motes; motes erode material around them when they discharge(so armor won't last forever, no matter the strength)
Defensive ability: Teleports around like the capes around it have high ping in multiplayer(I'm here! No, I'm here, dummy! Over heere!) Also glows like a fragment of a proto-star and continuously pushes things away from itself. May only be a 3d portal through which something is shooting (a la Leliel from NGE.) Also, flies.
Jobbing aspect/'Let me pull a Taylor Hebert on you': Normally, rains very slowly (i.e. 'barely a rain' by weather standards', and distributes it widely, allowing it to be affected by gravity and wind and such, while moving 'slowly'(i.e. it's teleporting about, but you just know a good AoE can still hit it and there's a nice lag-time between hits). Can escalate rate as time goes on, from "maybe I should get an umbrella" to "dangit I thought danmakus fell out of popularity with Kyushu" to "I THOUGHT DANMAKUS HAD LOTS OF BULLETS THIS HAS ALL THE BULLETS". Also can control the movement of the motes, even if that isn't obvious at first; so yes, this Endbringer -SHOOP DA WHOOP - is capable of shooting 'beams' of motes around, and controls exactly when they discharge (after a while, immediately, at closest distance to that killbot, etc.) Teleporting might escalate to Asha*-can't-be-hit-in-her-final-fight-tier while still shooting, if the pressure is high enough.
Idling location: Space, possibly in satellite-level orbit (because we all love our TV, and Simurgh would enjoy the ability to troll with directed, unexpected mote storms on 'random' targets' if she were awake)
Preferred targets: Anywhere a change is being made for the better on a regional scale. So, had Sphere managed to turn the Sahara into a fertile grassland fit for farming, you could imagine this thing giving it a <sarcasm>helpful bit of rain</sarcasm> and leaving the place more barren (and glassy) than before. Oh, city X is turning its slow decay around! We can't have that, can we?
*from Iji.
Glitchrr36
Slick's Short Company, CEO
- Location
- The Wastes
- Pronouns
- He/Him
... That...may work? The Simurgh was still puttering around after his death, even though he was technically alive as a clone.
Huh. I'll have to think of it.
- Location
- The Great Beyond
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
Depends on whether you assume that the "add two endbringers" thing is an extension of the "you needed worthy foes" (presumably "oh look, one died, better add two even more worthy ones!") or if you assume he "unbottled the genie" so to speak and the Endbringers spawning in is just sorta built in now that any are around.
Or it was just a lie to hurt him in a battle so that the enemy would have more time to do crap without him messing with their plans. Contessa isn't the only one with a path to victory style power. Jack isn't the only one with social fu as a power.
- Location
- The Great Beyond
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
Admittedly, since the line in question is apparently PTV-ed "how do I kill this guy" it's entirely possible it's merely a plausible lie.
- Location
- PR
Well killing Eidolon should be possible still and a valid plan.
Hmm considering Dragon got herself a Shard power, would it be possible for the Commander Glitch to get himself a shard as well?
Is the flying endbringer whose name I forgot stopping any shard user from creating a spaceship and launching it? If so the Commander placing orbital platforms in space and later using them to locate and annihilate Jack Slash merry band of brothers should be possible and easy to do. No powers to detect or enemies in a line of sight to see and they dont have a precog in the team.
Same as above for that Nilbog guy with the entire town.
China or their weird forgotname group.
Finding the Birdcage prison, getting Marquis out to mess with Amy's adoptive parents, getting that Professor guy who can give powers to test on you(later killing him). Killing that weird girl-lady who gets powers from dead people.
Many ways to 'fix' stuff without looking like you are 'fixing' stuff in the story and completely ruining Canon story in a unique way were nobody wins except you, with new bullshit tech and possible powers.
Hmm considering Dragon got herself a Shard power, would it be possible for the Commander Glitch to get himself a shard as well?
Is the flying endbringer whose name I forgot stopping any shard user from creating a spaceship and launching it? If so the Commander placing orbital platforms in space and later using them to locate and annihilate Jack Slash merry band of brothers should be possible and easy to do. No powers to detect or enemies in a line of sight to see and they dont have a precog in the team.
Same as above for that Nilbog guy with the entire town.
China or their weird forgotname group.
Finding the Birdcage prison, getting Marquis out to mess with Amy's adoptive parents, getting that Professor guy who can give powers to test on you(later killing him). Killing that weird girl-lady who gets powers from dead people.
Many ways to 'fix' stuff without looking like you are 'fixing' stuff in the story and completely ruining Canon story in a unique way were nobody wins except you, with new bullshit tech and possible powers.
Glitchrr36
Slick's Short Company, CEO
- Location
- The Wastes
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Possible? Yes. Will it happen? I have no idea, this thing mostly writes itself with me just being the helpful conduit from whatever nether realm fanfiction is native to and my computer.
Putting things in orbit starts around ~chapter 34, as I'm dealing with other stuff and capitalizing on it.
The various S-class threats all are mostly planned out, except for Noelle, the Blasphemies, and Sleeper, with Noelle just being me not having a set idea down yet. I have no information except the most vague things possible for the others.
Teacher is going to die. Once I get access to the bird cage.
Also had an Omake idea based around some stuff, expect it within the next week or so.
- Location
- England, Manchester
First of all, love this fic. Lots of humorous moments.
Now for my idea for an endbringer. I figure since we have a telekenetic, a dynakinetic, a chronokinetic and a hydrokinetic how about a gyrokinetic(gravity manipulator) or a general force manipulator
Appearance: Stands at 20-meters tall, has a large armoured shell on its torso it has a head simmilar to a snapping turtle with a lonfg beaked reptillian face. Has short arms with claws on the end and a large macelike tail. Its limbs and tail are covered in bony plates and it has four claws three on the front of the foot and one at the back (like a chicken but without the flesh part of the foot)
Power: Gyrokinetic (has the ability to manipulate the attractive and repulsive forces between objects cauing them to be pulled towards other objects at different rates. Capable of causing flyers to plummet to the ground by increasing the force of gravity on their body to such an extent they can no longer fly as well as creatiing immense pressure by causing the air to be more strongly attracted to the earth creating a pressurized area of high density air to crush opponents. Other possible uses include pulling opponents into melee range.)
Force manipulation: the same but with the additional benefit that the user can act without the necessity of a point of attraction capable manipulating motion on a much broader scale. however this route may need to be scaled back with limits on control ornumber of targets or range.
Now for my idea for an endbringer. I figure since we have a telekenetic, a dynakinetic, a chronokinetic and a hydrokinetic how about a gyrokinetic(gravity manipulator) or a general force manipulator
Appearance: Stands at 20-meters tall, has a large armoured shell on its torso it has a head simmilar to a snapping turtle with a lonfg beaked reptillian face. Has short arms with claws on the end and a large macelike tail. Its limbs and tail are covered in bony plates and it has four claws three on the front of the foot and one at the back (like a chicken but without the flesh part of the foot)
Power: Gyrokinetic (has the ability to manipulate the attractive and repulsive forces between objects cauing them to be pulled towards other objects at different rates. Capable of causing flyers to plummet to the ground by increasing the force of gravity on their body to such an extent they can no longer fly as well as creatiing immense pressure by causing the air to be more strongly attracted to the earth creating a pressurized area of high density air to crush opponents. Other possible uses include pulling opponents into melee range.)
Force manipulation: the same but with the additional benefit that the user can act without the necessity of a point of attraction capable manipulating motion on a much broader scale. however this route may need to be scaled back with limits on control ornumber of targets or range.
TheGuyInTheBack
Dapper Penguin
- Location
- Tornado Alley
Why would you ever use Teacher for anything? If he uses his power on someone, it allows him to manipulate them / acts like a drug, making them want more. (not sure which)
So why, why, would you use him instead of just killing him before he can make any problems?
Glitchrr36
Slick's Short Company, CEO
- Location
- The Wastes
- Pronouns
- He/Him
If he was offering good powers, I may consider it, but IIRC all of his powers are pretty shit.
slamer466
Engineer of Belka
- Location
- Dinsmark, Belka
Alright I got one for you.
Name: (if you want to change it then go ahead this is just for reference) Wasp
Appearance: 23 Meter long Wasp(Note. NOT ACTUAL WASP) with 2 extra wings mounted at the same point as original. The black is the same but the yellow is replaced with glowing red and its eyes glow red as well
Abilities: Creating energy fields of varying strengths(Note: Cannot be moved once created and have a 1/2 Second delay between dropping one and recreating it.). Spits Highly Acidic Venom. Flight, flies around Mach 2 for travel, and around 200 m/s normal.
Attacks: 1.Energy Sphere: Creates a sphere of energy around a cape or projectile and crushes it down to the size of a pin. can only create 5 at a time
2.It Bites
3.It Stings
4.It spits highly acidic venom at its target
Strategy: Creates a large energy barrier around the area of its attack which ranges from 3 miles to 10 miles radius(note: this uses one of 5 KNOWN barriers. This barrier is also known to be impenetrable to any type of attacks except scion however it cannot be shrunk down.)It must be dropped for wasp to escape the area as it is completely impassible, not even teliporters are capable of passing through.
Targets any Cape that is capable of keeping up with it while doing damage to infrastructure unless a higher threat is present
When not busy doing damage it likes to trick cape into traps which are mostly psychological in nature. (Note: For basically a giant insect it is smart, it has been known to trick most it comes across. Do not under estimate it no matter what the situation. Some have said it is smart enough to recognize individuals and remember them, specifically targeting ones that it has faced before.
Behavior: When dormant it wraps itself in all 5 barriers.
Mostly aims to disable Capes other then kill them while it destroys infrastructure
will pickup Capes and drop them to distract others
First appearance: (go ahead and use whatever you want but im just going to give a suggestion) Sydney, Australia (because where else would something like this show up)
Chapter Thirty: Speed Running
Glitchrr36
Slick's Short Company, CEO
- Location
- The Wastes
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Bleh, busy few weeks, a chapter I wanted to finish before I released this, and band camp do not a low chapter post interval make.
So, I'm almost done cleaning up the city. A few more Nazis to kill or capture, the entirety of the ABB to destroy, and Skidmark to remove, since an undrugged Squealer could be useful.
I'd find out soon enough.
The Empire would be the easiest to deal with, since the only heavy hitters they have left are hard countered by me, since I don't breath and can put stealth drones everywhere, dealing with Night and Fog, and the rest were either loyal to Purity or easily dealt with. Alabaster would just end up in a cell or foam blob, since he couldn't do anything useful. Cricket and Stormtiger (what a stupid fucking name) would end up dead, most likely. All I had to do was treat them like slightly stronger meatbags, with good reflexes and some boring air blades, respectively.
Bakuda hasn't triggered yet, since Cornell isn't destroyed. That's good, I can still acquire the bombs and stuff that will prove useful without having to take down an insane person bombing everything.
Oni Lee will be easy, probably. I just need blind him since teleporting is LOS based, probably with nanobots. They'll stick with him while teleporting, so that will be easy.
Lung will just require me to take him out when he doesn't expect it. Infiltrate, knock him out, keep him under until I can put him in the Birdcage, and be done with it. Most likely to go horribly wrong, but the Avatar is still expendable. If he burns it to a crisp, I'll just build another.
Hmmm… Isn't Canberra supposed to happen in a few weeks? I'll use that as my chance to try to get some infrastructure outside of Earth. Probably the outer solar system, Jig additions to my relatively paltry metal output would be useful. And some SSX around Earth, if I can end up with a grid to deal with most of the shit I don't care enough about to solve in person.
Now to go blow up more Nazis.
=====================================================================
It wasn't very difficult. I'd taken out their four heaviest hitters, and the rest were...pretty crap. Alabaster was a wonderful punching bag, since I could whale on him for hours and he wouldn't die unless I did something awful. I didn't so he just kept coming back for more.
Night and Fog were fairly easy, stealth drones and a vacuum were all I really needed. It was actually really funny to see the smoke in a transparent tube, since Fog couldn't shift back to normal, so he was just a decidedly angry looking thing of mist. Many keks were had by me.
He probably despises me now.
Stormtiger and Cricket were both pains, and were in less than mint condition when I turned all of them over to the PRT. I had to punch Cricket through a wall because she kept jumping out of the way of the mid-powered maser beams I had been using for low lethality take downs, and the sounds she made would scramble some of my sensory equipment and give me false returns, which weren't helped by Stormtiger shifting the air into a miniature tornado. He didn't dodge nearly as well. I was okay with that, since I got him out of the fight easily.
Hard to deflect energy with slight differences in air pressure, after all.
I left Crusader, Purity, Othala, and Victor alone, since Krieg had already gotten the hell out of Dodge when Kaiser fell. Purity had been trying to get out from Kaiser's grasp, and thus she wasn't actually going to come after me for revenge. Kaiser was currently in no position to get at Aster, which was the biggest thing she was worried about.
The rest either sided with her or wouldn't pose a threat to my plans later.
Speaking of Kaiser, he had graciously volunteered to be my first test subject on how Shards work. The research involved flooding his head with construction nanobots, sending them through the tiny wormhole in his Corona Pollentia, building a dimensional portal, based off of Dr. Haywire's technology, and then sending a fabricator or twenty through to see what happens when I change things.
I also got a look at a shard. I was not really prepared for what I saw.
In appearance, try to imagine a bacteriophage. Combine it with a Reaper, a glacier, and the inside of a massive geode. And it looks nothing like those in anything like those. It was difficult to look at, with massive, shifting chasms opening across its "skin," except for where what look like smaller versions of it cling to its surface. I think they're what generate the half dozen "secondary powers" that enable the use of the main power, like Skitter's multitasking and bugsight and stuff. I'm guessing Kaiser's relate to sensing metal, or something. I'll figure it out later.
There wasn't any good way to get how mindbogglingly enormous the shard was. The closest effect I can think of is landing on a glacier. Crevices that from the air look just large enough for someone to stand in and have their head and shoulders sticking out for a cute picture can fit entire buildings in them, and what looks like it could be a road where they converge can actually be made of boulders the size of school buses.
The shard was so large it was difficult to comprehend, in a way that was fundamentally different from the various Megastructures I'd come across. Fuck if I can explain how, but it just was.
After observing the organo-crystalline thing in front of me for what turned out to be several hours, I decided to get back to experimenting.
I only caused him to have a seizure a few times. Once I figured out the cause of those pesky brain phenomena, I nixed their occurrence. So now I could get him to test what they did.
I found I had control over… a lot of the power's aspects, really. The material would always be inorganic, but I could change the general type of it, making spikes out of rocks, plastics, etc. The speed was adjustable, from nearly instant matter generation to really slow. Everything else was roughly the same, and I could induce things like "slowly grows over time," or "only grows out of Kaiser's body," fairly easily.
I was really only able to figure all this crap out because I could simulate the shard's fuckery powers from its structure after a few tests, and after that it was just confirmation.
This would be extremely useful in the future. I can only imagine the utter bullshit I could get up to with, say, Sting. Or even better reverse engineering. Or any of the billions of theoretical powers that exist.
Hehehehe.
Hehehehehehehahahahaha
MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
I'm sorry, I let the power rush to my head. Probably won't happen again for a bit.
=====================================================================
Who do I have left? Merchants, ABB. Cool.
The Merchants just had Mush, Squealer, and Skidmark left. All could be a pain, but if I caught them by surprise, I could get them all down quite easily. That left the ABB.
Lung would be a pain to take down, hence my latest thing partially stolen from classified Dragon databases: Halbeard's prototype tranquilisers.
Enough tinkertech narcotics to get a small horse to go to sleep in seconds, all in one easy to apply package. Load it up into a modified sniper rifle, and I can make Lung go night-night without exposing myself at all.
Lee may still be a problem, but he's basically a ninja so I'll just light myself on fire. Ninjas can't catch you if you're on fire.
Really, I'm planning on just ignoring Lee as long as possible. All he really has is grenades and those wouldn't really do anything to me, since the armor of my Avatar's suit is stupidly durable.
Anyway, back to taking down all opposition.
Next up is the Merchants.
=====================================================================
So Skidmark. Holy hell. Where do I start.
For starters, the first thing that tipped me off that he was there was the smell. I don't smell in the same way an organic does, I get chemical data, and a really hard to describe impression of the smell. I know how it smells, but I don't actually do so. It's complicated.
From what I determined to be Skidmark's hangout, I detected traces of such lovely chemicals as Butyric Acid, Hydrogen Sulphide, Methanethiol, a variety of Terpenes, and a variety of other compounds that would lead to him and his building smelling like sweat, drugs, and a little vomit.
I could hear the very loud music, various exclamations that I'd come to associate with the various highs kicking in, and various other party noises, like loud talking and bottles being smashed. So about what I've come to expect from the merchants.
When I actually got within visual range to see if he was there, I could see all sorts of fun things like small porcupines made of used syringes, roaches from the hundreds of blunts that had been smoked, and, in a back room, Skidmark and Squealer going at it, an image I could have happily lived without.
I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do here. Do I let them finish or bust in right now and see all the gross needle marks and disgusting teeth and sores and general unwashed genitalia that barging in now would entail.
Fuck it, I can wait for them to get it back in their pants first.
In Squealer's case, there isn't very much pants to put anything back into, but still. Not going to barge in on them. I have gone this far with only nearly walking in on people boning once, and I would prefer to keep it that way.
=====================================================================
And they appear to be finishing up. Thank god, I had to shut down my visible spectrum sensors and just rely on the blurry return thermal gives from this distance to keep track of them. I didn't need to see any more of that than I had to.
And they should be clothed in a few minutes, so I can perform a smash and grab. Then burn all the drugs.
And three...two...one...go.
A quick teleport into the room lets me foam both Squealer and Skidmark, whose indignant cries are muffled by the spongy material, then drowned out by the loud music. Running up to the door, I prepare to bust it off of its hinges.
I unlock it, then make a quick dash at it, which throws it wide open, which causes like three people who aren't quite high enough to just not notice me to look over and start, shaking their stoned friends to get out.
I cut the music, since it is both A), really loud, and B), really bad. I don't even know what it was, just that it was awful.
Everyone who wasn't either passed out or tripping balls at this point looks around, and they finally notice me.
"Remember, crack is whack!" I accompanied the proclamation by firing a small solid slug weapon directly into the ceiling.
All of them, except an individual who I rapidly realized was Mush, scattered.
Mush did not have a very impressive power. He just rolled up the various detritus that was strewn about the floor, like a Katamari that smelled like weed, rotting garbage, and sweaty Merchant. He got going quite quickly, becoming a vaguely humanoid mass the size of a tank in seconds.
Unfortunately for him, I had the "reclaim" option.
It actually was more difficult than Hookwolf, since I didn't exactly need him dead, so I kept from blowing him to pieces, and he could hurl chunks of concrete and rebar at respectable velocities.
I actually had to dodge a few times. Still had the accuracy of someone who was on god knows how many types of drugs. He also kept picking up the trash around him, so whatever I reclaimed was almost instantly replaced.
Key word being "almost."
I was faster, and thus he only lasted about thirty seconds before I got to the smelly Merchant center of the Mush Pop. How many licks it would have taken to accomplish the same thing is something the world never wanted to know.
=====================================================================
About ten minutes later, I had managed to separate both of the foamed capes, and teleported Squealer back to my lair in a freshly made, plain room where she could rant and scream for a bit while she came off the high before I started detoxing her.
Skidmark and Mush went in a sealed container so the terrible smell they produced wouldn't leak.
The drugs were all burned. As was the warehouse.
Now to drop them off at the PRT.
=====================================================================
I love seeing the various PRT troopers' expressions when I drop capes in their lobby. They look so surprised.
A fast teleport over, a quick application of zip ties and another teleport later, and I'm dropping them off at the PRT lobby. The receptionist gives me a small wave which I return. She's been on duty when I drop off a villain before, so I don't think this fazes her as much. I think her name is Peggy. A quick check reveals that I am correct.
"Productive night, Commander?" She's always been a bit deadpan. I admire that.
"Yeah. I've only got the ABB left, really."
"Couple of quick questions. Where's Squealer? You haven't dropped her off yet. And why are they in an aquarium?" She looks at me with a slight curiosity visible on her features.
"I'm detoxing her and seeing if a sober vehicle tinker could prove useful. If not, I'll probably drop her off in Seattle or somewhere if I can get her to stop being a dipshit and being a cape who enjoys knocking over banks. If not, you probably have a cell for her. To the second, they smell really, really bad. I'm doing you guys a favor."
"Huh. Decent plan. Better than some of Uber and L33T's schemes. And thanks for the smell protection, they just cleaned. Is this all for the night?"
"Yeah, nothing else that I can accomplish now since Lee is going to be a bitch and a half to take down. Have a nice night Peggy," I give a small wave goodbye as I walk towards the door.
She waved back and went back to reading her magazine.
The fact that this is becoming their new normal amuses me.
=====================================================================
Being a sniper must be a really mind numbing experience. I've been sitting here for probably four hours, and if I wasn't able to get into the various multiplayer games on Earth Bet's internet, I'd be bored out of my skull.
I killed Uber in Halo a few times. It was pretty great listening to how pissed he got with all the plasma grenades.
And still waiting on Lung. Goddamn, what is he doing in there?
Scratch that, I probably don't want to know.
And some gang members are leaving the building. Good. Just have to wait till the giant man in the dragon mask pops out.
Now back to teabagging Uber in various other FPS games. I really wish he had facecam on, his expression would be priceless.
Wow, he's very creative with the insults. Never been called a dick shitting fuck waffle before.
=====================================================================
And another three hours later, I have my shot lined up. A quick squeeze of the trigger, and the big bad dragon man is down for the delivery.
As I teleport down, ignoring the ganger's guns, he gets up, already about seven feet tall. Those tranqs should have worked. Did I underestimate his natural regen?
Fuck.
And then he speaks.
"You are Commander? I approve of your dismantling of the Empire. But now you have insulted me. Take it quietly and it probably won't be as bad. Or don't. I'm hoping you choose the second. It has been quite a while since I've had a challenge." And he's growing. And gaining gleaming metal scales.
Double fuck.
So, I'm almost done cleaning up the city. A few more Nazis to kill or capture, the entirety of the ABB to destroy, and Skidmark to remove, since an undrugged Squealer could be useful.
I'd find out soon enough.
The Empire would be the easiest to deal with, since the only heavy hitters they have left are hard countered by me, since I don't breath and can put stealth drones everywhere, dealing with Night and Fog, and the rest were either loyal to Purity or easily dealt with. Alabaster would just end up in a cell or foam blob, since he couldn't do anything useful. Cricket and Stormtiger (what a stupid fucking name) would end up dead, most likely. All I had to do was treat them like slightly stronger meatbags, with good reflexes and some boring air blades, respectively.
Bakuda hasn't triggered yet, since Cornell isn't destroyed. That's good, I can still acquire the bombs and stuff that will prove useful without having to take down an insane person bombing everything.
Oni Lee will be easy, probably. I just need blind him since teleporting is LOS based, probably with nanobots. They'll stick with him while teleporting, so that will be easy.
Lung will just require me to take him out when he doesn't expect it. Infiltrate, knock him out, keep him under until I can put him in the Birdcage, and be done with it. Most likely to go horribly wrong, but the Avatar is still expendable. If he burns it to a crisp, I'll just build another.
Hmmm… Isn't Canberra supposed to happen in a few weeks? I'll use that as my chance to try to get some infrastructure outside of Earth. Probably the outer solar system, Jig additions to my relatively paltry metal output would be useful. And some SSX around Earth, if I can end up with a grid to deal with most of the shit I don't care enough about to solve in person.
Now to go blow up more Nazis.
=====================================================================
It wasn't very difficult. I'd taken out their four heaviest hitters, and the rest were...pretty crap. Alabaster was a wonderful punching bag, since I could whale on him for hours and he wouldn't die unless I did something awful. I didn't so he just kept coming back for more.
Night and Fog were fairly easy, stealth drones and a vacuum were all I really needed. It was actually really funny to see the smoke in a transparent tube, since Fog couldn't shift back to normal, so he was just a decidedly angry looking thing of mist. Many keks were had by me.
He probably despises me now.
Stormtiger and Cricket were both pains, and were in less than mint condition when I turned all of them over to the PRT. I had to punch Cricket through a wall because she kept jumping out of the way of the mid-powered maser beams I had been using for low lethality take downs, and the sounds she made would scramble some of my sensory equipment and give me false returns, which weren't helped by Stormtiger shifting the air into a miniature tornado. He didn't dodge nearly as well. I was okay with that, since I got him out of the fight easily.
Hard to deflect energy with slight differences in air pressure, after all.
I left Crusader, Purity, Othala, and Victor alone, since Krieg had already gotten the hell out of Dodge when Kaiser fell. Purity had been trying to get out from Kaiser's grasp, and thus she wasn't actually going to come after me for revenge. Kaiser was currently in no position to get at Aster, which was the biggest thing she was worried about.
The rest either sided with her or wouldn't pose a threat to my plans later.
Speaking of Kaiser, he had graciously volunteered to be my first test subject on how Shards work. The research involved flooding his head with construction nanobots, sending them through the tiny wormhole in his Corona Pollentia, building a dimensional portal, based off of Dr. Haywire's technology, and then sending a fabricator or twenty through to see what happens when I change things.
I also got a look at a shard. I was not really prepared for what I saw.
In appearance, try to imagine a bacteriophage. Combine it with a Reaper, a glacier, and the inside of a massive geode. And it looks nothing like those in anything like those. It was difficult to look at, with massive, shifting chasms opening across its "skin," except for where what look like smaller versions of it cling to its surface. I think they're what generate the half dozen "secondary powers" that enable the use of the main power, like Skitter's multitasking and bugsight and stuff. I'm guessing Kaiser's relate to sensing metal, or something. I'll figure it out later.
There wasn't any good way to get how mindbogglingly enormous the shard was. The closest effect I can think of is landing on a glacier. Crevices that from the air look just large enough for someone to stand in and have their head and shoulders sticking out for a cute picture can fit entire buildings in them, and what looks like it could be a road where they converge can actually be made of boulders the size of school buses.
The shard was so large it was difficult to comprehend, in a way that was fundamentally different from the various Megastructures I'd come across. Fuck if I can explain how, but it just was.
After observing the organo-crystalline thing in front of me for what turned out to be several hours, I decided to get back to experimenting.
I only caused him to have a seizure a few times. Once I figured out the cause of those pesky brain phenomena, I nixed their occurrence. So now I could get him to test what they did.
I found I had control over… a lot of the power's aspects, really. The material would always be inorganic, but I could change the general type of it, making spikes out of rocks, plastics, etc. The speed was adjustable, from nearly instant matter generation to really slow. Everything else was roughly the same, and I could induce things like "slowly grows over time," or "only grows out of Kaiser's body," fairly easily.
I was really only able to figure all this crap out because I could simulate the shard's fuckery powers from its structure after a few tests, and after that it was just confirmation.
This would be extremely useful in the future. I can only imagine the utter bullshit I could get up to with, say, Sting. Or even better reverse engineering. Or any of the billions of theoretical powers that exist.
Hehehehe.
Hehehehehehehahahahaha
MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
I'm sorry, I let the power rush to my head. Probably won't happen again for a bit.
=====================================================================
Who do I have left? Merchants, ABB. Cool.
The Merchants just had Mush, Squealer, and Skidmark left. All could be a pain, but if I caught them by surprise, I could get them all down quite easily. That left the ABB.
Lung would be a pain to take down, hence my latest thing partially stolen from classified Dragon databases: Halbeard's prototype tranquilisers.
Enough tinkertech narcotics to get a small horse to go to sleep in seconds, all in one easy to apply package. Load it up into a modified sniper rifle, and I can make Lung go night-night without exposing myself at all.
Lee may still be a problem, but he's basically a ninja so I'll just light myself on fire. Ninjas can't catch you if you're on fire.
Really, I'm planning on just ignoring Lee as long as possible. All he really has is grenades and those wouldn't really do anything to me, since the armor of my Avatar's suit is stupidly durable.
Anyway, back to taking down all opposition.
Next up is the Merchants.
=====================================================================
So Skidmark. Holy hell. Where do I start.
For starters, the first thing that tipped me off that he was there was the smell. I don't smell in the same way an organic does, I get chemical data, and a really hard to describe impression of the smell. I know how it smells, but I don't actually do so. It's complicated.
From what I determined to be Skidmark's hangout, I detected traces of such lovely chemicals as Butyric Acid, Hydrogen Sulphide, Methanethiol, a variety of Terpenes, and a variety of other compounds that would lead to him and his building smelling like sweat, drugs, and a little vomit.
I could hear the very loud music, various exclamations that I'd come to associate with the various highs kicking in, and various other party noises, like loud talking and bottles being smashed. So about what I've come to expect from the merchants.
When I actually got within visual range to see if he was there, I could see all sorts of fun things like small porcupines made of used syringes, roaches from the hundreds of blunts that had been smoked, and, in a back room, Skidmark and Squealer going at it, an image I could have happily lived without.
I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do here. Do I let them finish or bust in right now and see all the gross needle marks and disgusting teeth and sores and general unwashed genitalia that barging in now would entail.
Fuck it, I can wait for them to get it back in their pants first.
In Squealer's case, there isn't very much pants to put anything back into, but still. Not going to barge in on them. I have gone this far with only nearly walking in on people boning once, and I would prefer to keep it that way.
=====================================================================
And they appear to be finishing up. Thank god, I had to shut down my visible spectrum sensors and just rely on the blurry return thermal gives from this distance to keep track of them. I didn't need to see any more of that than I had to.
And they should be clothed in a few minutes, so I can perform a smash and grab. Then burn all the drugs.
And three...two...one...go.
A quick teleport into the room lets me foam both Squealer and Skidmark, whose indignant cries are muffled by the spongy material, then drowned out by the loud music. Running up to the door, I prepare to bust it off of its hinges.
I unlock it, then make a quick dash at it, which throws it wide open, which causes like three people who aren't quite high enough to just not notice me to look over and start, shaking their stoned friends to get out.
I cut the music, since it is both A), really loud, and B), really bad. I don't even know what it was, just that it was awful.
Everyone who wasn't either passed out or tripping balls at this point looks around, and they finally notice me.
"Remember, crack is whack!" I accompanied the proclamation by firing a small solid slug weapon directly into the ceiling.
All of them, except an individual who I rapidly realized was Mush, scattered.
Mush did not have a very impressive power. He just rolled up the various detritus that was strewn about the floor, like a Katamari that smelled like weed, rotting garbage, and sweaty Merchant. He got going quite quickly, becoming a vaguely humanoid mass the size of a tank in seconds.
Unfortunately for him, I had the "reclaim" option.
It actually was more difficult than Hookwolf, since I didn't exactly need him dead, so I kept from blowing him to pieces, and he could hurl chunks of concrete and rebar at respectable velocities.
I actually had to dodge a few times. Still had the accuracy of someone who was on god knows how many types of drugs. He also kept picking up the trash around him, so whatever I reclaimed was almost instantly replaced.
Key word being "almost."
I was faster, and thus he only lasted about thirty seconds before I got to the smelly Merchant center of the Mush Pop. How many licks it would have taken to accomplish the same thing is something the world never wanted to know.
=====================================================================
About ten minutes later, I had managed to separate both of the foamed capes, and teleported Squealer back to my lair in a freshly made, plain room where she could rant and scream for a bit while she came off the high before I started detoxing her.
Skidmark and Mush went in a sealed container so the terrible smell they produced wouldn't leak.
The drugs were all burned. As was the warehouse.
Now to drop them off at the PRT.
=====================================================================
I love seeing the various PRT troopers' expressions when I drop capes in their lobby. They look so surprised.
A fast teleport over, a quick application of zip ties and another teleport later, and I'm dropping them off at the PRT lobby. The receptionist gives me a small wave which I return. She's been on duty when I drop off a villain before, so I don't think this fazes her as much. I think her name is Peggy. A quick check reveals that I am correct.
"Productive night, Commander?" She's always been a bit deadpan. I admire that.
"Yeah. I've only got the ABB left, really."
"Couple of quick questions. Where's Squealer? You haven't dropped her off yet. And why are they in an aquarium?" She looks at me with a slight curiosity visible on her features.
"I'm detoxing her and seeing if a sober vehicle tinker could prove useful. If not, I'll probably drop her off in Seattle or somewhere if I can get her to stop being a dipshit and being a cape who enjoys knocking over banks. If not, you probably have a cell for her. To the second, they smell really, really bad. I'm doing you guys a favor."
"Huh. Decent plan. Better than some of Uber and L33T's schemes. And thanks for the smell protection, they just cleaned. Is this all for the night?"
"Yeah, nothing else that I can accomplish now since Lee is going to be a bitch and a half to take down. Have a nice night Peggy," I give a small wave goodbye as I walk towards the door.
She waved back and went back to reading her magazine.
The fact that this is becoming their new normal amuses me.
=====================================================================
Being a sniper must be a really mind numbing experience. I've been sitting here for probably four hours, and if I wasn't able to get into the various multiplayer games on Earth Bet's internet, I'd be bored out of my skull.
I killed Uber in Halo a few times. It was pretty great listening to how pissed he got with all the plasma grenades.
And still waiting on Lung. Goddamn, what is he doing in there?
Scratch that, I probably don't want to know.
And some gang members are leaving the building. Good. Just have to wait till the giant man in the dragon mask pops out.
Now back to teabagging Uber in various other FPS games. I really wish he had facecam on, his expression would be priceless.
Wow, he's very creative with the insults. Never been called a dick shitting fuck waffle before.
=====================================================================
And another three hours later, I have my shot lined up. A quick squeeze of the trigger, and the big bad dragon man is down for the delivery.
As I teleport down, ignoring the ganger's guns, he gets up, already about seven feet tall. Those tranqs should have worked. Did I underestimate his natural regen?
Fuck.
And then he speaks.
"You are Commander? I approve of your dismantling of the Empire. But now you have insulted me. Take it quietly and it probably won't be as bad. Or don't. I'm hoping you choose the second. It has been quite a while since I've had a challenge." And he's growing. And gaining gleaming metal scales.
Double fuck.
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RoyalTwinFangs
For The Chancellor!
- Location
- Somwhere not here
Were is the Lungbuster when you need one?
- Location
- Somewhere south of mars
Plan B is explosives right?
Kaesar
The Son of Mars
- Location
- USA
And triple fuck on sheer principle
- Status