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Stark Transcendent (Iron Man/Marvel Quest)

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[X] Fear the Reaper [Death] : You have come this far; you cannot falter now. There might yet be survivors of the Solution, and you cannot afford to let them get away. Especially not if they knew what you'd unleashed. Regretfully - they all had to die.
 
[X] Proper Sabotage : There are huge stockpiles of ammo and explosives outside - more than enough for a chain reaction. If you can sneak out and hot-wire a few of the active bombs, you might be able to trigger a properly big boom. Should be some good fireworks...

Stop being utter dicks, the Reaper option is subsequent execution of everyone in there, the phoenix option is slightly friendlier but still bad, the explosives option is the best for a moral Stark, so unless you want AN ASSHOLE STARK pick this one.
 
banelord said:
[X] Proper Sabotage : There are huge stockpiles of ammo and explosives outside - more than enough for a chain reaction. If you can sneak out and hot-wire a few of the active bombs, you might be able to trigger a properly big boom. Should be some good fireworks...

Stop being utter dicks, the Reaper option is subsequent execution of everyone in there, the phoenix option is slightly friendlier but still bad, the explosives option is the best for a moral Stark, so unless you want AN ASSHOLE STARK pick this one.
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Asshole Stark isn't exactly OOC for the comics, you know...

Anyway, let's not act like doing one horrible thing makes you instantly forever evil. In canon, Tony's guilty of wanton illegal killing too, and it doesn't really seem to bother him that much until quite a ways in.
 
Roarian said:
Asshole Stark isn't exactly OOC for the comics, you know...

Anyway, let's not act like doing one horrible thing makes you instantly forever evil. In canon, Tony's guilty of wanton illegal killing too, and it doesn't really seem to bother him that much until quite a ways in.
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TBH I don't mind if Phoenix or explosives win, but Reaper seems a bit too merciless for stark
 
[X] Proper Sabotage : There are huge stockpiles of ammo and explosives outside - more than enough for a chain reaction. If you can sneak out and hot-wire a few of the active bombs, you might be able to trigger a properly big boom. Should be some good fireworks...
 
GenoDragoon said:
I think people are exaggerating how everyone will react to Tony using a chemical weapon to escape from the terrorist holding him. He has no real combat training, no way of knowing whether anyone would rescue him, and a bunch of scraps to built a weapon to kill a bunch of other guys who do have abit of experience in killing. I doubt those close to him or other powerful individuals will shun him for choosing what he believed had the best chance of getting himself out alive and I think it will help greatly if others see he is bothered by what he had to do. The media will obvious cryout about the use of chemical weapons but then again they already say he is war profiteering.
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The GM did say that it would heavily penalize our relationship with the Dr, Who we wanted to not die.
 
[X] Proper Sabotage : There are huge stockpiles of ammo and explosives outside - more than enough for a chain reaction. If you can sneak out and hot-wire a few of the active bombs, you might be able to trigger a properly big boom. Should be some good fireworks...

*Sigh*

I can already perceive what direction this Quest is going to go in...
 
And the leading choices are between Death and the Phoenix Force, with the Phoenix Force taking the lead.


Oh, here we go.
 
[X] Fear the Reaper [Death] : You have come this far; you cannot falter now. There might yet be survivors of the Solution, and you cannot afford to let them get away. Especially not if they knew what you'd unleashed. Regretfully - they all had to die.
 
Oh, people are still voting? I probably didn't make it clear the other page that I was writing the phoenix option...

Just did, actually. Update soon.

Just checked: even with the new votes, Phoenix still wins.
 
DarkAbstraction said:
Well,, considering every option is basically this:



Are you really surprised?
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Aside from write-ins, there were several options which didn't involve mass-murder in separate votes - I thought I balanced it out fairly well with given options (since people are liable to pick those unless someone has a really good argument.) That people love to just make the most dramatic exit ever? Yeah, that's just SB.
 
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Prologue 5 - Lighting the Pyre
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    • Zen said:
    Yes, but more importantly, what about Deadpool? :cool:

    My priorities. They are set.
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    There's an interlude coming up that has the merc with a mouth in it. [thumbs up]

    Anyway, Update time!

    XXXXXXXXXX

    [X] Light the Funeral Pyre [The Phoenix Force] : There is one more reason you called Solution 4 'Pyre' - something you'd never even told Obi. It was time to end things now, once and for all - and everything would burn like the heart of a sun.

    (After this, I'll probably toss in an interlude that has no choices first, before going on with the next part based on the decision made here. The interlude is a sidenote, if you wish.)

    XXXXXXXXXX

    You could tell from the way he glanced at you, eyes barely visible behind the slits in his mask, that Yinsen was not very pleased. Honestly, you weren't terribly happy with the lengths you'd taken to end the mess you were in - but you had to stick with your plan. This was certainly not the first time you were responsible for people dying; not by a long shot, given the kinds of things you built for a living. You had to suck it up, and deal with it.

    It was the silence that was the creepiest of all, even now - it reminded you that the Pyre spread through these caves without encountering any resistance, flowing through cracks and holes to reach its targets, killing without warning. Most of the extremists would have been sleeping, as it was late - they would not even have had the instant of recognition between the freezing of the muscles and their collapse. They were just - gone.

    You could see why Yinsen was revolted, even though he acted to assist you. He was smart enough to know that there was no going back. It was doubtful that your would-be-friend would ever trust you again, though.

    "The cave has been saturated," you said shortly. "If anyone were still alive - I think we would have noticed by now. They might have gas masks stashed away somewhere, but I doubt any of our 'friends' swaddled themselves in thick cloth. The lesions -" You shook your head. "
    "Trust me, they wouldn't last very long."

    Yinsen took a shuddering breath, though it might just be the rattling of the filter that made it sound that way. "What comes next?"

    You gestured down the hallway. "It's evening - we have the cover of darkness, even if we'll be heard coming from a mile away in these suits. It shouldn't matter, even if there's anyone still alive out there - they won't dare come close to the entrance if they know something bad's in the air. Odds are, though, that any survivors have hightailed it out."

    "And…?"

    "We take shelter. There's Pyre everywhere - we have to find somewhere it hasn't reached yet. Outside, needless to say." You turned around, taking a few steps back to the vaporizer that still lay abandoned in the middle of the corridor. With a quick twist, you pulled a handle to the side, and you felt it warm up under your touch. "We have five minutes to find a spot."

    Yinsen twitched, and did not protest as you pulled him along. You took long paces towards the cave's mouth, focusing on reaching it above everything else, ignoring even the bodies that you had to step over, some of which had a fearful expression frozen on their face. These men, then, had seen death coming - had seen it take their allies moments before the Solution reached them.

    There was an ominous click from right besides you.

    A bullet ricocheted off your helmet, burying itself in the cave wall, and you threw up your hands just in time for two more bullets to bury themselves into your forearm, just barely nicking the sheet metal you'd shoved in between your skin and the thick insulation that kept you safe.

    "Look out!" Yinsen cried, bringing forward a gun that he had to have taken from one of the dead, firing a burst into the dark corridor that split off from yours. There was no shooter in sight - but it was not hard to pinpoint where the shots had originated. Someone from inside had survived, had gotten his hands on a weapon and come hunting.

    An eerie prickling sensation started under your protective layers, right where the bullets had penetrated. You cursed softly as you tried to find a weapon.

    "STARK!" a voice cried, but it was not Yinsen's. There was fury in that cry, hatred. You recognized it - you'd heard it before. He was the man who had interrogated you, who was there when you'd been pushed underwater time and again, pushing you to the edge of drowning. "YOU! YOU DID THIS!"

    You didn't answer as you dove for the nearest corpse and ripped a Kalashnikov from his rigid fingers, slapping yourself for your reliance on the Solution. Two more bullets buried themselves into your excuse for armor - one slammed harmlessly into metal, but the other did not. You felt it rip through your side with a flash of pain - and through the wound was very shallow, that didn't matter.

    There was no time to rethink things; you knew what you had to do. Ignoring the bastard ringleader that was hiding out somewhere in the dark, you dragged Yinsen along towards the exit, as the latter kept firing. There was a glimpse of a gas mask as you turned the last corner and you left the rocky protection of the tunnels. You barely glanced outside before barreling into moonlight; you had no choice.

    Time was running out.

    Your mind was beginning to fog up - you could feel your movements slowing. It was the Pyre. You hadn't breathed it in, or you'd have been a corpse already - but you'd been exposed. Unless you got out fast, there wouldn't be any escaping at all. Transfer through the skin was much slower than through the lungs, especially in tiny doses, but in the long run it could be just as lethal. You looked around desperately for a safe place, and though your eyes had difficulty focusing, you saw something you recognized.

    A few dozen feet from the cave mouth, a familiar metal shipping crate had been parked, still mounted atop the stolen truck that had been transporting it inland. The doors were closed, but the truck's tires didn't seem particularly stressed - it had to be empty. It was massive, probably meant to transport high-value goods, and above all it was untainted.

    "Cover my ass!" you instructed Yinsen as you ran over to it, cursing your leg as it almost gave out. The door was not locked, thankfully, though the latch was tight. It took a few moments to tear it loose, and to drag yourself bodily into the space behind it. Yinsen followed you, still holding his gun as he glanced between you and the dark.

    "He's still out there!" Yinsen said sharply "He'll find us!"

    There was a distant rumble, a creaking of metal. As bullets landed at your feet in the ground, and bounced off the heavy metal door of the container, you acted, dragging Yinsen in as you kicked at the latch. The container's door slammed closed, locking you into perfect darkness. The rumble outside grew louder, and it turned to a screech - then a roar.

    "It doesn't matter anymore," you said faintly, as sparks seemed to ignite behind your eyes, the signs of Pyre messing with your neurons or your retina. You grimaced as your fingers twitched in protest. "It's over. Everything is dead, now."

    That's when the fireball arrived, to prove your words. Your container was hit by a wave of force so powerful that you could hear the truck's tires popping, its frame groaning as the whole thing was shoved against the mountainside. Then the real shock wave arrived, and for a few long moments, you had no idea which way was up, or down. You were fairly sure you'd flown for a bit, there. The landing was harsh, but you'd been able to hold onto the irregular grooves on the side walls, and rode out the destruction.

    This was the most dangerous aspect of Pyre - something you'd discovered but never disclosed, even to Obi. Far from being inert, your Solution was an extremely reactive substance, given the right catalyst. The activation energy for a reaction was high, and it would take a hell of a temperature to get it going - but when it did, it was monstrous. And you'd put twenty-seven butane torches under a canister filled with the stuff.

    You knew exactly what happened next; you'd seen the simulations a thousand times.

    The flames weren't yellow or red; instead, a blue-white inferno burst forth from the cave system that could not contain its exothermic fury, and the narrow corridors served as the barrel of the world's biggest cannon, filled with explosives and fuel. The titanic explosion rippled out from the cave's entrance, blasting a crater into the side of the mountain as it tore its way to freedom, covering a square mile with burning gaseous death. The same square mile which happened to be dominated by huge piles of Stark ammunition and stolen missiles.

    If a small nuclear weapon had gone off, you were pretty sure it could not have made a much bigger boom. Even with a helmet on that dampened your hearing, your ears were ringing and your teeth chattering. Missiles blew up as their jury-rigged triggers gave in, and a chain reaction billowed outwards that finished what the Pyre started. A huge plume of fire rose up into the sky, brighter than the moon, and it scorched the night like a flare that even neighboring countries would be hard-pressed to miss.

    Your shipping container wasn't safe from the onslaught - it was made of thick metal, built to last, but you could hear it buckle under the stress of the shock waves. You could feel the sweltering air as it rushed in through minuscule gaps and crevices. You had already backed away as far as you could, towards the back end which was laying against the rocks, and Yinsen had followed without comment - and it was still nearly too much.

    If anyone else in the base had survived your toxic cocktail before, it didn't matter much now. Because there was no base.

    It took a long time for silence to fall.

    "...And now we wait," you said, slumping against the side of the container. You pulled off your helmet, taking a long, deep breath, much to Yinsen's shock. You smiled tiredly. "Don't worry. I can't feel the prickling anymore - the gas didn't get to spread here much. The fire burned off the rest, I'm sure." You sighed, dropping the heavy metal helmet as you grimaced. "Right - that's what hurts... I think I've been shot. Ow."

    XXXXXXXXX

    It took the army almost three hours to pinpoint the site of the explosion - but what they found were the remains of a terrorist camp that had been utterly decimated by the weapons they'd stolen, and nothing more. There was no cave system anymore, nor any chemical samples, as they were certainly hopelessly degraded by heat and a thousand explosive residues from weapons both ancient and new.

    Rhodey was the one that heard the banging on the shipping container's walls. If he noticed the piles of insulation material and makeshift helmets that were piled up in the corner, he did not comment on them. Yinsen had even hugged the man, which was disturbing for everyone involved.

    You did not admit what you'd done - not even to your best friend. Yinsen would certainly not blab about it, at the very least to protect his own skin, but he did thank you for saving your life. Whatever goodwill you might have had, however, would take much longer to recover. The army, of course, would realize that you'd set off a hell of an explosion - but as long as that was all, they would not hound you too much. You hadn't exactly taken out toddlers here.

    As you flew back across the ocean, though, side swaddled in bandages and fingers still occasionally twitching as your nerves got over the shock they'd had, you finally had time to reflect a little, to think about the consequences of your choices. For one day, Solution 4 had been in use again - and you were not sure if anyone would forgive you for its use, if they ever found out. You were not entirely sure you could forgive yourself.

    The image of Death loomed again in your memories, and you shuddered.

    You were alive, and that meant you could change. Whatever it was that you wanted to be now, you were not the arms merchant from before. Whatever illusions about your trade you'd had were gone, and you saw all too well how terrible your creations could be in the wrong hands, or perhaps, even in the right ones. Perhaps you'd learned something.

    Wherever you went from here, and with it Stark Industries, it would have to be somewhere new. Somewhere better.

    After the burning of the funeral pyre, you could use some fresh air.

    XXXXXXXXXX

    Soon, you'll have to adapt to life back in California. What will you do first? Choose one:

    [ ] Get in contact with (Ally) : Choose from the list! (Pepper, Rhodey, Happy, JARVIS, Obadiah, Yinsen)

    [ ] Go to Stark Industries : You've had a change of heart, and you can't rest on your laurels while your weapons are ending up in the hands of insurgents and worse. You need to put a stop to that as soon as possible.

    [ ] Hide out in your Garage : Right now, what you really need is a little peace and quiet and some time alone with your gadgets and tools, not people yammering at you over your miraculous survival. You have enough shit to deal with.

    [ ] Write-In

    XXXXXXXXXX

    "Yes, I can confirm that the compound has been used, judging from the waste products. Just as you suspected, sir. This is - troubling."

    S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury nodded to himself, his eyes narrowed. "I'm putting them both on the watchlist."

    "Understood, sir. The survivor will be transported to the Helicarrier within the day. Coulson out."
     
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    • Use Chemical Weapon - Find out Stark has Secret Super Murder Death Weapon that other's actually know about.
    Welp. We need to talk to people to avoid any of this backfiring.

    [X] Get in contact with Rhodey

    Rhodey is a bro. He'll have some good advice.
     
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