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Ace Dreamer
Verified Reality User
- Location
- Between The Unknown & The Known
I recall one fanfic (sorry I've not more details) that claimed the DB-verse was an unusually fragile one, where much of it had the structural properties of damp cardboard, and physical laws, such as gravity, were more strong suggestions. Living beings, in such a universe, particularly those with strong life-forces, were functionally very tough (needing to breathe was one of their few constraints), and rather hard on the setting.
Every seen a junior children's Christmas Play, where bits of scenery are rather at risk? Teachers rushing on, looking embarrassed, to support things, or stand them up, again? Think that.
Blowing-up Luna, to prevent Space-Ape-going-Godzilla issues is... a little excessive. Particularly when, "Oh, the Moon? No problem, Mr. Popo fixed that!", or such. I can see why... Dragon Ball messing with other universes, particularly via things like their Wishes, might... result in certain regulation changes. And, disallowing them accidentally-ing planetary bodies.
On the other hand maybe you like the idea of The Warrior being defeated by a supporting character's cat?
That *would* be a masterpiece of trolling, if done right. But doing it to the Warrior might be pushing the jape too far for most readers.
Now, Jack Slash...
Ace Dreamer
Verified Reality User
- Location
- Between The Unknown & The Known
True...
An... unfortunate encounter tween Jack Slash and Puar (Yamcha's companion shape-shifting cat), with Broadcast in the background going [404 - Shard Not Found], [YER WHAT?]... might be fun.
EDIT:
@Nimodes , Piccolo came from an 'egg' King Piccolo 'laid' (coughed-up) when he died, Puar was hatched from an egg... Any chance there was an as-yet-unnoticed, strangely-marked, egg in Taylor's belongings when she got back from the DB training???
Surely, one little cat, OK, with the odd powers of human-level sapience, speech, levitation, and shape-shifting, couldn't cause that much trouble in a Worm-verse? (Sort of 'Everybody Wants To Be A Cat' (*cough* Disney *cough), but in reverse?)
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- Location
- miami
The setting were being a relative "weakling" still lets you blow a planet up with ease, yet it hardly seems to happen considering the powers levels past like 5k can blow a planet up you would think fights would leave planets a reck more often.
Ace Dreamer
Verified Reality User
- Location
- Between The Unknown & The Known
Maybe past a certain level Kami and Mr. Popo get annoyed enough to turn-on the remedial measures? Yes, they do increase your Cosmic Power Company bill, but, it can't be cheap having to keep doing those celestial body rebuilds...
Bit of a pity Namek didn't think to do that... Or, the home planet of the Saiyans... Maybe Frieza is particularly talented at planetary-level pest extermination? (*cough* genocide/gaiacide *cough*)
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Apparently they are really good at containing the collateral damage of their attacks or something because nothing else makes sense. So those dinky little ki blasts are actually planet busting attacks concentrated into that tiny surface area.
Dojo & Dragonslayers
Nimodes
Weary Worldwalker
- Location
- Arizona
Dojo 19: Dojo & Dragonslayers
A/N: The character of Zephron originated with Taylor Varga by MP-Pi, but ended up going from "generic background character" to "main stage" because of the way random dice rolls and the Celestial mechanics work. So this version is going to be a bit different from the version elsewhere. Had I realized that he'd be yoinked onto the main stage, I'd have gone with an original character entirely but that's the part of the Celestial stuff that makes it a challenge. You don't know where it is going until the dice stops.
Also, I'd planned on a different Dragonslayers ending but it didn't read right and I don't currently have pre-readers so I couldn't figure out what was giving me that feeling.
* October 3, 2009 *
* A survivalist shelter near Vancouver *
"We just lost all feeds from Dragon," said Geoff Pellick, his hands dancing over the keyboard as he pulled up the last few seconds of feed.
"Did it break free?" asked Mags as she came into the room.
"No, everything went garbled for a few seconds, but it definitely wasn't under its own volition," said Geoff as he studied the last clear display. "Running a secondary program, trying to make sense of this garbage everything went to before it went dead. It was just a few milliseconds, but... there."
There was brief silence in the room as the last few statements were captured and cleared up, then distilled into two brief observations.
"My god, it's full of stars! And - are those lizards?"
"Is this real life, or is it fantasy? Caught in a - oh we're landing?"
Mags was silent for a moment. "Lizards?"
Geoff was silent for a few moments more when something caught his attention and dragged it away from the contemplation of a computer program actually liking Bohemian Rhapsody. "Signal's restored but it's just a basic signal."
Mags was about to comment on that when the screen changed again.
What they witnessed was a fight scene, but it wasn't done in the usual manner of the tap into Dragon's systems. This was more like a video live-stream.
And it was insane.
A woman he didn't recognize was smacking around...
"That's Lung," said Mags. "High level Brute, gets stronger and throws more fire around the longer he fights."
Dobrynja had come in during that and looked himself. "Why is Lung-style dragon breathing fire? Should be hydrokinetic, yes?"
"It's just a cape name," said Geoff as he watched the woman in question grab the monstrous cape's chest and then slap him around like she was after his lunch money. "Either of you recognize the woman?"
"No," said Mags as the woman apparently ignored all the fire in order to punch the now-winged dragon-man skyward, then blurred into motion to go past him, grabbed and piledrivered him through a derelict building hard enough that the remaining windows blew out.
"I be thinking we avoid fighting woman if possible, suits are tough but they are not THAT tough," was Dobrynja's opinion.
The viewpoint of the camera skewed around and there were a bunch of teleporting guys with devil face-masks fighting twice that number of foxgirls.
"Oni Lee," said Mags. "Makes suicide bomber clones. Zenko - wasn't aware she could clone herself."
"Each of Oni's clones is a little more damaged, most have those little knives sticking in him," said Geoff as he observed and analyzed things. "This Zenko can apparently figure out where the real one is and keeps attacking him."
"Is tough man to have that many little knives sticking in him and still trying to kill opponent," said Dobrynja with a note of respect in his voice. "Most people run away if stabbed like that. Or dead."
The remote feed changed again, showing a large man taking on a large group of some street gang and scattering them like bowling pins. There were some of the people sticking out of second-story windows or in the branches of various dead-looking trees.
"I can see why Dragon is recording all this," said Mags after a few moments where the view changed to the first woman, dragging a badly-beaten-looking body out of a collapsed building. "New group of capes, high-powered Brute-heavy."
"Doesn't explain the weird signal loss or messages," pointed out Geoff.
"Power interference?" suggested Mags.
"Maybe," said Geoff. He reached out to the switch, just resting a finger on the cover for the button that would unleash Ascalon. "I'm more concerned with how Dragon is operating at a reduced level right now."
"Damage to the servers?" postulated Mags. "Whatever happened looked kind of like a power surge."
"Maybe," admitted Geoff. "If that's the case, the repair systems should kick in at some point or a reroute to another server."
* Zephron *
Everyone called him by his first name, though he did have a middle and last name. Not a lot of people pronounced them correctly, so maybe it was just as well everyone just knew him as Zephron.
Prior to this little trip, he'd been a black belt in Japanese karate and done a bit of MMA. He'd been an orderly in a hospital (sometimes the nurses needed someone big and intimidating when a patient was being disruptive or just plain loco), a construction worker a time or two, and most of the last five years he'd been one of the Dockworkers and a member of the Union. He was big and strong and knew how to use most of the tools of the trade. He also liked to cook and his barbeque skills were in demand when the money was available to do such things.
He'd been a little put off by being pulled into another universe for a training trip, but damn it had panned out.
Now he was back and he wasn't fighting Saiyans or some other "super warrior" type. He was just facing trained martial artists and jocks and thugs. And he was freaking demolishing them.
The problem wasn't beating the ABB guys and gals that were coming at him. The problem was not seriously maiming or killing these idiots.
One of the guys started aiming a rocket launcher at him, and he had to shunshin over there, smack the guy in the head, then crush the tube so it couldn't be fired. Seriously, with the chi aura going he could probably tank it but someone firing it at point-blank range? Were they all high?
Come to think of it, they probably were.
There had been an exchange of techniques of course. Also there had been a lot of training in the ninja stuff himself because Taylor had all been use-any-chance-to-get-stronger the entire time they'd been over there.
Yeah, he knew Taylor was Zenko and Danny was Sub-Zero. He wasn't the only one to figure that out. Not that he was going to say anything.
Oops, here came the PRT. Time to make like a rabbit and hightail it out of here. He'd need a costume and a mask. Maybe a bandana-based one like the Dread Pirate Roberts. There were those caps for wearing under a motorcycle helmet, use that as a start?
Hey, he wasn't going to do the hero thing and go looking for trouble but now if trouble came looking for him? Trouble was gonna get punched.
Yeah, he'd also have to work on a name and tagline or something.
Oh damn, he also had to go shopping. He'd gone from 6'4" to 6'7" and gotten even more muscular due to a combination of Goten's mother's cooking and all the training. Nothing was going to fit.
* One half-hour later *
* Armsmaster *
"Director, I'm at the site. Kurama, Zenko, and Dragon are present."
"Understood. No sign of Sub-Zero?"
"No sign of Sub-Zero. Oni Lee is subdued and is receiving Zenko's healing technique."
"Police are still five minutes out but will take care of the non-cape gang members. Any sign of that new cape that was in the video feed?"
"Negative. He has apparently left the site. Dragon is approaching, I will attempt to get a name."
Director Piggot made a hmph noise and there was a faint click as her part of the connection dropped.
There were obvious changes to the Dragon-suit. It seemed a little bulkier, had what looked like capped ports for hooking up tools or weaponry, and there were extendable wings.
"New suit?" asked Armsmaster.
"Yes, just a moment," said Dragon before the suit unfolded sections and a woman stepped out.
"Dragon?" asked Armsmaster, noting the slightly inhuman appearance. Pointed ears? Black, short-cropped hair, pale skin.
"Yes, I've... dealt with the issues that kept me from going out," said Dragon, faintly smiling.
"That's... good?" asked Armsmaster, before correcting himself. "Ah. That is good. It is nice to meet you in person."
"Yes, I..." Dragon's expression and focus changed so quickly that Armsmaster could have blinked and missed it as she went from friendly to surprised to outright furious. She appeared now to be focusing not on him but at some point NNW of their current position. "A remote kill command? That's not going to work now. I see you, Dragonslayers. I. See. You."
"Dragon?" asked Armsmaster.
"An attempt to kill me at distance using a code that would have..." Dragon paused for a moment, glancing at him, before continuing. "Cut off all life support. It's the Dragonslayers. I'm contacting the Guild with their location. Care to come along?"
"That does sound intriguing and the troopers here can collect information," admitted Armsmaster. "I'd require transport."
"Oh, I can handle that," Dragon assured him, putting one hand on his shoulder.
The world seemed to blur around him and he was now standing in a completely different city with Dragon, still without armor, looking very pleased.
"You have access to teleportation technology?" asked Armsmaster.
Dragon reached into a pocket and pulled out a large capsule that had a button on top of it. She pressed the button and lightly tossed it onto a section of empty street.
(BOMF!)
Armsmaster gaped at the miniaturization/storage technology displayed, and got the strangest impression his power was also staring open-mouthed at this, not even immediately registering that there was now some sort of VTOL aircraft sitting where the capsule had been.
"I've learned a few things recently," said Dragon. "Don't worry, I'll share."
Feeling that Christmas had come early and then some, Armsmaster unsteadily made his way to the jet and began going through the usual preflight checklist.
This was going to take some adjusting to.
On the other hand, he could hardly wait.
* Geoff Pellick *
He had only stared at the sight of Dragon in a human body for a few moments before flipping up the cover and activating Ascalon. He had no idea what the computer was trying, but that there was a Terminator unit already built was enough of an indication that Dragon's threat had overcome Dragon's usefulness.
Which was when the situation had gone from Very Bad to Robot Apocalypse so fast it wasn't funny.
Dragon had not only not been destroyed by the program designed to do exactly that, it had sent a message clearly intended to intimidate him. Then, to further indicate how the situation had passed into nightmare territory, it had left her robot suit behind and vanished with Armsmaster.
Now this Zenko and that Kurama were there, discussing what this meant, were joined by someone else wearing some snake-themed outfit?
"Geoff! Stop pressing the button and get off your ass!"
"What?" asked Geoff, leaving the useless laptop behind as he stepped out of his office. He watched mercenaries running in all directions, things being thrown into trucks, and people otherwise chasing things down.
"She's on her way!" yelled Mags as she went past him carrying a desk fan, a box of miscellanious electronics parts, and a large desk radio playing "Bingo bango bongo" for some reason.
"How would she even know where we are?" asked Geoff over his shoulder as he ran towards the power armor.
One of the two roads out abruptly geysered up as pieces of rock and dirt.
"I think she knows," said Mags, turning abruptly and heading for a different truck.
"Damnit," declared Geoff. "How can she even..."
Then a woman dropped down out of the air in front of him and he had a very good look at a fist heading for his face.
* Briefing Room Sigma-5, PRT Main Headquarters, Washington DC *
* October 4, 2009. 0830 hours *
Rebecca Costa-Brown's eyes were hard as she looked towards the camera. "This is a Level 5 conference, encryption level Lambda-7. Authorization Code Charlie-Alpha-Mike-Mike-Delta-727. Master/Stranger passcode 'Melting Pumpkins' - anyone tapping into this transmission despite safeguards is subject to immediate extermination."
The five others represented put in their own codes and waited patiently.
"Director Piggot, please share what you and your team discovered from Dragon and Armsmaster."
"First the 'Hoi-Hoi Capsules'," said Director Piggot, holding up something pill-shaped. "Also called 'Dyna-Caps' or just 'Capsules' - they're the creation of the Capsule Corporation on another Earth. Dragon obtained them during a training trip she took with local independent hero Zenko. She is attempting to back-engineer and make at least some of them available. They are a storage device which shifts the mass they contain into what she describes as 'fractal dimensions' for storage and transport. This particular one contains an off-road vehicle similar to a Land Rover."
The other four immediately started talking which required Chief Director Costa-Brown to mute their audio and wait for thirty seconds before sending a "Shut Your Cake-holes" signal at high volume. Once done, she nodded at ENE Director Emily Piggot to continue.
"If she is successful in back-engineering it with the notes provided by the scientists of that other Earth, the first thing she'll be 'capsuling' will be emergency shelters. Living tissue cannot be capsuled, by the way, we did think of that and we did ask. You won't be able to capsule Leviathan or any villains."
The Chief Director took the narrative again. "The point besides the potential use of this 'capsule technology' is that we knew Zenko was able to get training or develop skills in a sort of time bubble. With this technology and the changes observed to Dragon, we now know that others can benefit from such things. Dragon's problems with being seen in public outside of remotely operated suits were addressed and she now has Brute and Blaster ratings in addition to Thinker and Tinker."
There were two who looked shocked, indicating they might have figured out Dragon's pre-trip nature. This was quickly noted by the Chief Director and she made a mental note to speak with the two later.
"So... Zenko's Trump rating is going up?" asked the CIA Director. Parahumans weren't technically in their authority but they did have to know a few things going on. And if Zenko was more of a target for groups like the CUI they had to know what to look for.
"Yes," said the Chief Director. "I've sent a report up the chain indicating that Zenko is a person of special interest due to her ability to train others. Dragon didn't disclose a lot of details, but some information was obtained due to the urgency of cooperation for things like the capsule technology."
"Shouldn't we isolate this 'Zenko' in order to protect this resource?" asked one of the representatives.
"Unfortunately we can't do that," admitted the Chief Director. "Apparently the ability is random but ties directly to Zenko accomplishing things. Zenko also refuses to join the Wards but is currently an ally willing to work with the PRT. We really don't want to jeopardize that."
* Monday, October 5, 2009 *
* Elsewhere *
She was stymied. Which was an unusual situation but provided no useful data of itself.
Primary-choice host unavailable. Secondary-choice host unavailable.
As per established protocols, by perceiving other potential hosts within vicinity of primary host - suitability of hosts was then the method of selecting a host.
Yet, even though primary data collection through direct granting of abilities was not feasible with host already empowered by non-standard methods, there was data to be had.
Finally there was one selected. Minor tweaks of behavior encouraged to promote conflict. Potential host already had serious impulse control issues, so those were capitalized on. Pulling on tails, comments given without filtering, lack of situational or social awareness compounded further.
Potential host became further isolated. Leading to a trigger when he attempted to "do something awesome" with training he'd barely begun.
Feelings of helplessness. Feelings of being hurt. Isolated. Alone. Surrounded by same-age persons bullying him, one of whom was an active host?
Yes. This one would do.
* Winslow Senior High School *
"Show me this ninja shit," demanded Sophia, having knocked the Veder kid down. "You think you're all that? You're just a stupid creepy little whiner, Veder."
There were a few flashes from phones as pictures were taken. If anything that made the blond on the floor curl into himself more.
"Sophia?" asked Emma as Sophia sagged almost to the ground before she could stomp down on the stupid kid.
"Shit! Veder triggered!" said Sophia, backing up.
Of course, everyone who knew about the "brown out" effect when a parahuman triggered was immediately clued in that Sophia Hess was a parahuman - unfortunately that meant only four out of the crowd knew that Sophia Hess had just outed herself as well as Greg Veder.
* Outskirts of Brockton Bay, Dew Drop Inn. *
Jack watched the TV, sharpening the edge of his knife and considered how best to do this. Shatterbird could sing and announce their arrival to the entire city, but he'd prefer not to have to go looking for an already-alerted Kurama.
Weirdly, his intuition wasn't working with either cape. Which was sort of intriguing actually.
Still, someone who manifested a monster was someone who should fit right in with his group, right?
Better if they figure out where the cape who could make giant monster projections was first. Then they could play.
And maybe he could get some Cheese Doodles as he was having a bit of a craving at the moment.
A/N: The character of Zephron originated with Taylor Varga by MP-Pi, but ended up going from "generic background character" to "main stage" because of the way random dice rolls and the Celestial mechanics work. So this version is going to be a bit different from the version elsewhere. Had I realized that he'd be yoinked onto the main stage, I'd have gone with an original character entirely but that's the part of the Celestial stuff that makes it a challenge. You don't know where it is going until the dice stops.
Also, I'd planned on a different Dragonslayers ending but it didn't read right and I don't currently have pre-readers so I couldn't figure out what was giving me that feeling.
* October 3, 2009 *
* A survivalist shelter near Vancouver *
"We just lost all feeds from Dragon," said Geoff Pellick, his hands dancing over the keyboard as he pulled up the last few seconds of feed.
"Did it break free?" asked Mags as she came into the room.
"No, everything went garbled for a few seconds, but it definitely wasn't under its own volition," said Geoff as he studied the last clear display. "Running a secondary program, trying to make sense of this garbage everything went to before it went dead. It was just a few milliseconds, but... there."
There was brief silence in the room as the last few statements were captured and cleared up, then distilled into two brief observations.
"My god, it's full of stars! And - are those lizards?"
"Is this real life, or is it fantasy? Caught in a - oh we're landing?"
Mags was silent for a moment. "Lizards?"
Geoff was silent for a few moments more when something caught his attention and dragged it away from the contemplation of a computer program actually liking Bohemian Rhapsody. "Signal's restored but it's just a basic signal."
Mags was about to comment on that when the screen changed again.
What they witnessed was a fight scene, but it wasn't done in the usual manner of the tap into Dragon's systems. This was more like a video live-stream.
And it was insane.
A woman he didn't recognize was smacking around...
"That's Lung," said Mags. "High level Brute, gets stronger and throws more fire around the longer he fights."
Dobrynja had come in during that and looked himself. "Why is Lung-style dragon breathing fire? Should be hydrokinetic, yes?"
"It's just a cape name," said Geoff as he watched the woman in question grab the monstrous cape's chest and then slap him around like she was after his lunch money. "Either of you recognize the woman?"
"No," said Mags as the woman apparently ignored all the fire in order to punch the now-winged dragon-man skyward, then blurred into motion to go past him, grabbed and piledrivered him through a derelict building hard enough that the remaining windows blew out.
"I be thinking we avoid fighting woman if possible, suits are tough but they are not THAT tough," was Dobrynja's opinion.
The viewpoint of the camera skewed around and there were a bunch of teleporting guys with devil face-masks fighting twice that number of foxgirls.
"Oni Lee," said Mags. "Makes suicide bomber clones. Zenko - wasn't aware she could clone herself."
"Each of Oni's clones is a little more damaged, most have those little knives sticking in him," said Geoff as he observed and analyzed things. "This Zenko can apparently figure out where the real one is and keeps attacking him."
"Is tough man to have that many little knives sticking in him and still trying to kill opponent," said Dobrynja with a note of respect in his voice. "Most people run away if stabbed like that. Or dead."
The remote feed changed again, showing a large man taking on a large group of some street gang and scattering them like bowling pins. There were some of the people sticking out of second-story windows or in the branches of various dead-looking trees.
"I can see why Dragon is recording all this," said Mags after a few moments where the view changed to the first woman, dragging a badly-beaten-looking body out of a collapsed building. "New group of capes, high-powered Brute-heavy."
"Doesn't explain the weird signal loss or messages," pointed out Geoff.
"Power interference?" suggested Mags.
"Maybe," said Geoff. He reached out to the switch, just resting a finger on the cover for the button that would unleash Ascalon. "I'm more concerned with how Dragon is operating at a reduced level right now."
"Damage to the servers?" postulated Mags. "Whatever happened looked kind of like a power surge."
"Maybe," admitted Geoff. "If that's the case, the repair systems should kick in at some point or a reroute to another server."
* Zephron *
Everyone called him by his first name, though he did have a middle and last name. Not a lot of people pronounced them correctly, so maybe it was just as well everyone just knew him as Zephron.
Prior to this little trip, he'd been a black belt in Japanese karate and done a bit of MMA. He'd been an orderly in a hospital (sometimes the nurses needed someone big and intimidating when a patient was being disruptive or just plain loco), a construction worker a time or two, and most of the last five years he'd been one of the Dockworkers and a member of the Union. He was big and strong and knew how to use most of the tools of the trade. He also liked to cook and his barbeque skills were in demand when the money was available to do such things.
He'd been a little put off by being pulled into another universe for a training trip, but damn it had panned out.
Now he was back and he wasn't fighting Saiyans or some other "super warrior" type. He was just facing trained martial artists and jocks and thugs. And he was freaking demolishing them.
The problem wasn't beating the ABB guys and gals that were coming at him. The problem was not seriously maiming or killing these idiots.
One of the guys started aiming a rocket launcher at him, and he had to shunshin over there, smack the guy in the head, then crush the tube so it couldn't be fired. Seriously, with the chi aura going he could probably tank it but someone firing it at point-blank range? Were they all high?
Come to think of it, they probably were.
There had been an exchange of techniques of course. Also there had been a lot of training in the ninja stuff himself because Taylor had all been use-any-chance-to-get-stronger the entire time they'd been over there.
Yeah, he knew Taylor was Zenko and Danny was Sub-Zero. He wasn't the only one to figure that out. Not that he was going to say anything.
Oops, here came the PRT. Time to make like a rabbit and hightail it out of here. He'd need a costume and a mask. Maybe a bandana-based one like the Dread Pirate Roberts. There were those caps for wearing under a motorcycle helmet, use that as a start?
Hey, he wasn't going to do the hero thing and go looking for trouble but now if trouble came looking for him? Trouble was gonna get punched.
Yeah, he'd also have to work on a name and tagline or something.
Oh damn, he also had to go shopping. He'd gone from 6'4" to 6'7" and gotten even more muscular due to a combination of Goten's mother's cooking and all the training. Nothing was going to fit.
* One half-hour later *
* Armsmaster *
"Director, I'm at the site. Kurama, Zenko, and Dragon are present."
"Understood. No sign of Sub-Zero?"
"No sign of Sub-Zero. Oni Lee is subdued and is receiving Zenko's healing technique."
"Police are still five minutes out but will take care of the non-cape gang members. Any sign of that new cape that was in the video feed?"
"Negative. He has apparently left the site. Dragon is approaching, I will attempt to get a name."
Director Piggot made a hmph noise and there was a faint click as her part of the connection dropped.
There were obvious changes to the Dragon-suit. It seemed a little bulkier, had what looked like capped ports for hooking up tools or weaponry, and there were extendable wings.
"New suit?" asked Armsmaster.
"Yes, just a moment," said Dragon before the suit unfolded sections and a woman stepped out.
"Dragon?" asked Armsmaster, noting the slightly inhuman appearance. Pointed ears? Black, short-cropped hair, pale skin.
"Yes, I've... dealt with the issues that kept me from going out," said Dragon, faintly smiling.
"That's... good?" asked Armsmaster, before correcting himself. "Ah. That is good. It is nice to meet you in person."
"Yes, I..." Dragon's expression and focus changed so quickly that Armsmaster could have blinked and missed it as she went from friendly to surprised to outright furious. She appeared now to be focusing not on him but at some point NNW of their current position. "A remote kill command? That's not going to work now. I see you, Dragonslayers. I. See. You."
"Dragon?" asked Armsmaster.
"An attempt to kill me at distance using a code that would have..." Dragon paused for a moment, glancing at him, before continuing. "Cut off all life support. It's the Dragonslayers. I'm contacting the Guild with their location. Care to come along?"
"That does sound intriguing and the troopers here can collect information," admitted Armsmaster. "I'd require transport."
"Oh, I can handle that," Dragon assured him, putting one hand on his shoulder.
The world seemed to blur around him and he was now standing in a completely different city with Dragon, still without armor, looking very pleased.
"You have access to teleportation technology?" asked Armsmaster.
Dragon reached into a pocket and pulled out a large capsule that had a button on top of it. She pressed the button and lightly tossed it onto a section of empty street.
(BOMF!)
Armsmaster gaped at the miniaturization/storage technology displayed, and got the strangest impression his power was also staring open-mouthed at this, not even immediately registering that there was now some sort of VTOL aircraft sitting where the capsule had been.
"I've learned a few things recently," said Dragon. "Don't worry, I'll share."
Feeling that Christmas had come early and then some, Armsmaster unsteadily made his way to the jet and began going through the usual preflight checklist.
This was going to take some adjusting to.
On the other hand, he could hardly wait.
* Geoff Pellick *
He had only stared at the sight of Dragon in a human body for a few moments before flipping up the cover and activating Ascalon. He had no idea what the computer was trying, but that there was a Terminator unit already built was enough of an indication that Dragon's threat had overcome Dragon's usefulness.
Which was when the situation had gone from Very Bad to Robot Apocalypse so fast it wasn't funny.
Dragon had not only not been destroyed by the program designed to do exactly that, it had sent a message clearly intended to intimidate him. Then, to further indicate how the situation had passed into nightmare territory, it had left her robot suit behind and vanished with Armsmaster.
Now this Zenko and that Kurama were there, discussing what this meant, were joined by someone else wearing some snake-themed outfit?
"Geoff! Stop pressing the button and get off your ass!"
"What?" asked Geoff, leaving the useless laptop behind as he stepped out of his office. He watched mercenaries running in all directions, things being thrown into trucks, and people otherwise chasing things down.
"She's on her way!" yelled Mags as she went past him carrying a desk fan, a box of miscellanious electronics parts, and a large desk radio playing "Bingo bango bongo" for some reason.
"How would she even know where we are?" asked Geoff over his shoulder as he ran towards the power armor.
One of the two roads out abruptly geysered up as pieces of rock and dirt.
"I think she knows," said Mags, turning abruptly and heading for a different truck.
"Damnit," declared Geoff. "How can she even..."
Then a woman dropped down out of the air in front of him and he had a very good look at a fist heading for his face.
* Briefing Room Sigma-5, PRT Main Headquarters, Washington DC *
* October 4, 2009. 0830 hours *
Rebecca Costa-Brown's eyes were hard as she looked towards the camera. "This is a Level 5 conference, encryption level Lambda-7. Authorization Code Charlie-Alpha-Mike-Mike-Delta-727. Master/Stranger passcode 'Melting Pumpkins' - anyone tapping into this transmission despite safeguards is subject to immediate extermination."
The five others represented put in their own codes and waited patiently.
"Director Piggot, please share what you and your team discovered from Dragon and Armsmaster."
"First the 'Hoi-Hoi Capsules'," said Director Piggot, holding up something pill-shaped. "Also called 'Dyna-Caps' or just 'Capsules' - they're the creation of the Capsule Corporation on another Earth. Dragon obtained them during a training trip she took with local independent hero Zenko. She is attempting to back-engineer and make at least some of them available. They are a storage device which shifts the mass they contain into what she describes as 'fractal dimensions' for storage and transport. This particular one contains an off-road vehicle similar to a Land Rover."
The other four immediately started talking which required Chief Director Costa-Brown to mute their audio and wait for thirty seconds before sending a "Shut Your Cake-holes" signal at high volume. Once done, she nodded at ENE Director Emily Piggot to continue.
"If she is successful in back-engineering it with the notes provided by the scientists of that other Earth, the first thing she'll be 'capsuling' will be emergency shelters. Living tissue cannot be capsuled, by the way, we did think of that and we did ask. You won't be able to capsule Leviathan or any villains."
The Chief Director took the narrative again. "The point besides the potential use of this 'capsule technology' is that we knew Zenko was able to get training or develop skills in a sort of time bubble. With this technology and the changes observed to Dragon, we now know that others can benefit from such things. Dragon's problems with being seen in public outside of remotely operated suits were addressed and she now has Brute and Blaster ratings in addition to Thinker and Tinker."
There were two who looked shocked, indicating they might have figured out Dragon's pre-trip nature. This was quickly noted by the Chief Director and she made a mental note to speak with the two later.
"So... Zenko's Trump rating is going up?" asked the CIA Director. Parahumans weren't technically in their authority but they did have to know a few things going on. And if Zenko was more of a target for groups like the CUI they had to know what to look for.
"Yes," said the Chief Director. "I've sent a report up the chain indicating that Zenko is a person of special interest due to her ability to train others. Dragon didn't disclose a lot of details, but some information was obtained due to the urgency of cooperation for things like the capsule technology."
"Shouldn't we isolate this 'Zenko' in order to protect this resource?" asked one of the representatives.
"Unfortunately we can't do that," admitted the Chief Director. "Apparently the ability is random but ties directly to Zenko accomplishing things. Zenko also refuses to join the Wards but is currently an ally willing to work with the PRT. We really don't want to jeopardize that."
* Monday, October 5, 2009 *
* Elsewhere *
She was stymied. Which was an unusual situation but provided no useful data of itself.
Primary-choice host unavailable. Secondary-choice host unavailable.
As per established protocols, by perceiving other potential hosts within vicinity of primary host - suitability of hosts was then the method of selecting a host.
Yet, even though primary data collection through direct granting of abilities was not feasible with host already empowered by non-standard methods, there was data to be had.
Finally there was one selected. Minor tweaks of behavior encouraged to promote conflict. Potential host already had serious impulse control issues, so those were capitalized on. Pulling on tails, comments given without filtering, lack of situational or social awareness compounded further.
Potential host became further isolated. Leading to a trigger when he attempted to "do something awesome" with training he'd barely begun.
Feelings of helplessness. Feelings of being hurt. Isolated. Alone. Surrounded by same-age persons bullying him, one of whom was an active host?
Yes. This one would do.
* Winslow Senior High School *
"Show me this ninja shit," demanded Sophia, having knocked the Veder kid down. "You think you're all that? You're just a stupid creepy little whiner, Veder."
There were a few flashes from phones as pictures were taken. If anything that made the blond on the floor curl into himself more.
"Sophia?" asked Emma as Sophia sagged almost to the ground before she could stomp down on the stupid kid.
"Shit! Veder triggered!" said Sophia, backing up.
Of course, everyone who knew about the "brown out" effect when a parahuman triggered was immediately clued in that Sophia Hess was a parahuman - unfortunately that meant only four out of the crowd knew that Sophia Hess had just outed herself as well as Greg Veder.
* Outskirts of Brockton Bay, Dew Drop Inn. *
Jack watched the TV, sharpening the edge of his knife and considered how best to do this. Shatterbird could sing and announce their arrival to the entire city, but he'd prefer not to have to go looking for an already-alerted Kurama.
Weirdly, his intuition wasn't working with either cape. Which was sort of intriguing actually.
Still, someone who manifested a monster was someone who should fit right in with his group, right?
Better if they figure out where the cape who could make giant monster projections was first. Then they could play.
And maybe he could get some Cheese Doodles as he was having a bit of a craving at the moment.
- Pronouns
- Male
No. Wait. Jack. Stahp. Ohhhhhh, didnt know you could bend that, that way. What's that? It's not supposed to bend that way? Yikes.
Nimodes
Weary Worldwalker
- Location
- Arizona
I'm still debating what ability to give Greg Veder. Bug Control would be obvious, but with the current situation I'm thinking a Thinker or projected minions might be better. (I'm resisting the temptation being to give him Minions like in Despicable Me.)
- Location
- United States
I am here for another humorouse S9 slaughter. My top three are:
1: Off screened in Taylor Varga.
2: Dracula Taylor giving out impaler treatments.
3: Everything in A Darker Path
1: Off screened in Taylor Varga.
2: Dracula Taylor giving out impaler treatments.
3: Everything in A Darker Path
It seems to have been mostly mental, sudden, and isolating. Also related to ninjas. So some kind of thinker/master power related to ninjas. Sensory abilities and minor minons?
In Predatory Noh Face applied a stranger effect to Jack after killing him, people remembered that there was a leader of the s9 but couldn't remember any details about him even if reminded.
Odeeyou
cookies will crumble
- Location
- yooesaye
(Narrows eyes)... crunchy or puffed?
- Location
- UK
Could use the Minions from Overlord. The games, not the Anime. After all, Evil always finds a way.
MultipleChoice
(Verified Unverified)
Here's a fun idea: He can summon purpose built minions, but they have to be "pre-programmed" at their time of summoning and last until they accomplish their task or a certain amount of time elapses. The problem is that he's terrible at the programming part, and it frustrates QA to no end. Think Sorcerer's Apprentice.
- Location
- uk
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Arthropod transformation, he can shed outer layers of himself as arthropods (getting smaller the more he does until he is the swarm). Those arthropods are an extension of him. He can also regenerate lost mass by absorbing natural arthropods.
Stays with the theme and fits with his desire to ninja.
Stays with the theme and fits with his desire to ninja.
Queen administrator doesn't have anything to do with bugs though. Queen administrator has to do with coordination of a ton of different things, it just happens that Taylor was covered by bugs when she triggered. So he should get something more like Taylor's power but with a focus on ninjas instead of bugs.
Ace Dreamer
Verified Reality User
- Location
- Between The Unknown & The Known
Mix Minions with the ability canon Danny was going to get from QA?
So, Greg gets Uplifted rat control, with the rats given human-level intelligence, optional bipedalism, and front paws as dextrous as humans? Team Fortress 2 style costumes/specialities? Steal bits from The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, with ninja rats? Be inspired by the Ratatouille film? A-Team? Mix-n-match?
Got to keep QA from getting bored.
(And, if Winslow High doesn't have plenty of rats around (no, not the students) we should be surprised? No real need for Greg to suddenly turn into a load of costumed rats, some of whom are ninja, of course... (He'd be their coordinating intelligence.))
Step 1. Grab all those recording phones, using ninja rats?
(This is 2009, so odds are none are live streaming???)
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verycoolname
Not actually cool
I'm not sure they would work in this fic, but I kinda love the idea of Greg getting Despicable Me Minions. Especially if there's a running joke that he finds them annoying and everyone else finds it funny that the shoe is on the other foot.
Based on his personality and inclinations I would say give him basically a toy-maker or toy-empowerment skill where he could take hero dolls and temporarily make them empowered with the hero power...like a Glory girl doll would become a mini glory girl for a few minutes and he could empower and control multiple dolls at once. So multitasking powers with powered dolls essentially.
The reason I say this is I always get the impression Veder is one of those keyboard warriors who lives in the basement with a huge collection of dolls (action figures) and loves going online and telling everyone about how all the different cape powers work and who can do what. That would make a doll power suited to him added with the multitask power of QA.
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