After 5 minutes of nothing R4 got back to work, finishing setting up and repairing the server and setting up a new computronics core. The core was an odd thing the size of a bowling ball and covered in a strange protective coating. It was also over 40 kilograms, meaning R4 had a hard time loading it into its place. Data didn’t even bother to help, so he also didn’t bother to notice the tiny modification she made, a little piece that I instructed her to make while she was setting up the camera to observe the morphic concrete. Once the core was complete the entire room was bathed in a gentle red glow.
“It’s been an hour, ya’ got anything?” R4 asked.
Smucker’s mask flashed red again. “Nothing. I’m getting signal, but he’s not picking up.”
“He’s probably dead. Here lies Welch, dead becomes some suit couldn’t be bothered to put their remote server in a ghetto like a common person and had to put it in the undercity.”
“Look, Smucker’s already down, th’ least ya’ kin do is not rub salt in th’ wound.” R4 snapped. She extracted herself from the jumble of wires surrounding the computronics core and with a few hand motions the wires seemed to sort themselves. “We haven’t seen anything to confirm he’s dead, for all we know his phone jus’ died. I got close to the door and it drained my… blood sugar ta’ dangerous levels. Maybe it drained his battery, or knocked him out too. Maybe a few drops a’ glucose and he’ll pop back up like a spring.”
[[You have gained 20 empathy experience]] “Now let’s see if it actually works out that way.”
“One can pray so.” R4 trilled back.
Examining the door R4 quickly noticed an issue. It was heavily rusted. Upon examining the bone she had used to try and seal it she noticed it was completely rotted through and dead.
“This stuff is supposed to be self repairing for a year at least, and hold after that. What on Earth did that thing do to it.” R4 pulled on the emergency release, and heard a low CHUNK. “Well that’s not good.”
“What did you break Remote?”
“I pulled the emergency release, and a part of the mechanism broke off. Dang poor planning if you ask me.”
“Fine, I’ll open it the right way.” Data’s bird spread its wings and flashed with RGB lights… and nothing happened. “It’s dead, the door won’t respond.”
R4 waited for him to say something else, but he didn’t. “No snark about how I’m at fault?”
“This is serous Remote, these doors are rated to stop anything shy of Tier 2 anti-vehicle weapons, and even then I should be able to access the self diagnostics.”
“Let me try something.” R4 sprouted her claws, and grabbed where the rust was the worst. She poked, then threw a punch. A bit scraped off, but she didn’t make much progress. “Initiate flare protocol.”
“I just said it’s set to keep out tier 2 small arms fire, you’re not going to,” R4 threw another punch putting her whole weight into it. She winced when her claws hit, but a grin crossed her face as she ripped through a chunk of the door. “What the, do y’all have a voice activated boost injector?”
“Sort of.” R4 replied as she tore into the damaged door. “It allows me ta’ be Tier 1 for a few minutes.” As she tore away she found that the door got tougher as she moved outwards, but once the integrity was ruined it just took a bit more effort and she managed pretty quickly. “Of course, it’s also killin’ me ta’ do so, but I’ve got time.” [[Estimated time to ruin: 100 days]] R4 blinked. “And apparently less than I thought. I think that thing took more out of me than I thought.”
“It rusted through a tier 2 door, and gave you mild diabetic shock which you treated with a candy bar.” Smucker commented. “I think you got off lucky, and I will want to do a full diagnostic test later to see how.”
A wave of fear flooded over R4, but she hid it with a smile. “That’s a big no from me.” R4 replied. “Ya’ ain’t pokin’ me with needles nor stickin’ me in an MRI. Ain’t happenin’. Now, let’s go find,” She heard a low CRUNCH as she put her foot into a spot of rust perfectly shaped like a human footprint, “Welch, that can’t be good.” R4 eyed the tracks, which she noted had etched a specifically deep set of foot prints in front of the door, before walking off the way they had come. She backtraced the footprints down the hall, finding them exiting a side room. “This is the rest room right?”
“Yes.” Data replied. R4 knocked, “Why are you knocking? What if someone’s in there?”
“then we’ll know?” R4 asked, before pushing her way through the door which opened with a loud squeal. She sniffed, and what greeted her was neither the smell of rust nor blood, but oranges. “That’s odd,” she took a step further, and felt something bump her foot. She looked down to see a little black cleaning bot try to slip out, trailing a streak of black goo.
“Swifbots aren’t supposed to leak oil.” Data spoke first. Welch slipped past him and R4 and ran into the bathroom. “What’s wrong with you.”
“That is not oil.” R4 replied, her voice dripping with dread. For a moment she was 17 again, standing in the hospital, identifying the body of her brother. It had taken so long to sort through the carnage he had begun to decay, and no amount of citrus scented disinfectant could completely block out the smell. “That is gore, old gore.”
The scream came from within, and R4 had her claws out as she rushed in. The body was exactly as she feared. The skin had dissolved, leaving a strange sticky tar over a skeleton that was already beginning to grow brittle. Smucker knelt over his friend’s body. He had his kit open, searching for something that would work, something that would fix the problem. His fingers ran across bandages, syringes, ointments and pills. Each item had been clearly labled and organized, for in an emergency even a moment of fumbling could be the difference between life and death. Yet it was all for nothing.
“Smucker,” R4 spoke, hesitantly.
“Hey, Smucker.” Data spoke up, pushing past R4. He watched as Smucker went over his options for the third time. “ON YOUR FEET INTERN!” Smucker immediately stood up, spilling a bottle of RadTabs™. “He’s gone, even if you were in a Tier 7 facility right now with an unlimited amount of credits he’s gone. Suck it up, you can grieve when you get home. Grab his phone and his guns, we’ve got to go.”
R4 watched as Smucker hesitantly reached for his friends remains. His ID chip she quickly identified in his shoulder, while his phone was resting in his hip. For a while Smucker hestiated. For all his experience with the dead, trying to pull one more breath into unmoving lungs, he seemed unable to dig through the rotten remains of his friend. “Here,” With a gesture R4 called both into her hands, leaving the rot behind as she did, before handing them to Smucker. “You shouldn’t have to wade through that.”
[[You have gained 10 empathy exp]] The announcement make R4 wince. “Should I pause those?” She nodded. “Protocols adjusted.”
“I should have been with him.” Smucker mumbled.
“Maybe, but maybe we’d be mourning both of you.” R4 replied, picking up the firearm Welch had been carrying. “Look at this, it’s locked open. You know what that means?”
“He died fighting, trigger pulled.” R4 noticed tears welling in Smucker’s eyes.
“And do you see any bullet holes in the wall?” R4 asked, casting a quick glance. The bathroom was set up like many public bathrooms, toilets on one side sinks on the other and a short hall dividing them. The entire thing looked old and corroded, rust forming even on things that shouldn’t rust. The only exception was an odd shaped blob that was free of corrosion, a blob that formed underneath a broken sink. “I see one, two, maybe 5 holes. How many bullets does this gun hold?”
“45, and it can empty the magazine in 12 seconds.”
“Yeah, the barrel’s even a little melted here.” She paused, her throat closing up. Her mind went blank, there was something she should say, something she had to say. Instead she put a hand on Smucker’s shoulder, and drifted back into the hall. She looked to the left, then the right. On the right was the server room, to the left unknown.
“Yeah, the barrel’s even a little melted here.” R4 replied. “Your friend went out fighting, fighting hard too. I’m betting whatever did this, man, psycho, or Scath, I bet it’s hurting something fierce.” R4 put a hand on his shoulder. “Ya’ know what else, I bet whatever AI offered that experience to us hates that monster jus’ as much as you do. When we get out we turn over whatever info it thinks we have, and then this monster’s in trouble. But we have ta’ survive. Think ya kin do that, fer yer’ friend?” She reached out her hand… and the image faded.
“Bleeding Havoc!” R4 muttered. “Why couldn’t I have thought of that while I was there?”
“Comraderie. It’s a skill that builds off of Empathy. The ability to rally, to gather one’s resolve and bolster one’s friends. Mara didn’t think it a worthy skill, it relies too much on us vs them.”
“It would be pretty handy now though.” R4 snapped back.
“It’s kind of a chimera of comprehension and persuasion. Be glad you only have 5 skills for each attribute of FRAME, I put a lot of effort in picking those out, even if I couldn’t get Mind below 6.”
“Wait, you designed this?”
“Mara was busy, now eyes up, something’s not right.”
R4 looked up to find herself in a large open room full of stairs and balconies. She shot a look over her shoulder, to see the bathroom she had just left as well as the server room far down the hall. Returning her eyes forwards the entire room was white, with stairs leading to overlooks, and then more stairs which lead to smaller overlooks. Plenty of glass floors allowed anyone standing above to look down at someone below. The room was well lit by odd vertical poles that radiated a calming white light, or it had been. Several of the poles were either off or broken, making a the entire room a twisted carnival of shadows. As R4 moved so to did the shadows moved, light refracting off the glass and through it, only to be broken by the damaged poles, railings, or any number of things. Several of the shadows did more than that, moving even as R4 stood still to watch.
“What is this place?” As she entered R4 felt as if something was watching her. A shadow crossed her path causing her to whip around, then look up. Something above of her had stopped. A figure, so high she could observe it only by the shadow it cast down on her, stared down. “Is, is that it?” She eyed the staircases. “Maybe just a bit.” She quietly walked towards the stairs, and began her ascent.
“What are you doing? If that thing is the monster you have no way to fight it.”
“I need to get a picture of it. If I can get a picture, maybe whoever is hunting it down can get it.”
“Why?”
R4 paused for a moment, thinking, before continuing to climb. She made it up two separate sets of stairs, getting off at a balcony that seemed to be made from brass and stone, before selecting one that was covered in black and white tiles while not touching one that was made from ivory and another made from what might have been plastic or might have been bone. “I’m not sure. It feels, right. Back home there was a wild boar that wrecked a vegetable stand that was popular in town. You’d think it had kicked over an ant’s nest the way we mobilized to find the thing. My brother and I went out on his bike along all these back roads, it was a feeling like nothing else. I never got it back, until I got captured by the Dimdwell. It’s a feeling of danger, and of doing the right thing. When I was helping N2, something just clicked. I can’t explain it, but it makes me feel alive.” She made it onto a smaller balcony, this one lacking any stairs. She looked around, noting there was a section of this balcony that had no railing, and far below a deep pool glowed with blue radiation. “That looks, risky.” She stared, allowing her ravager eye to estimate the drop at 20 meters. “Think I could survive it?” No response. “Fine, be like that.”
The room had no real sense of what stairs led to what R4 climbed a stair that was patterned after a zebra, only to come to a balcony covered in sand and bearing a rope ladder made from vines which lead to a balcony styled after a jungle. Most of the plants had died due to lack of light, but she did find a staircase that led down into a room styled after a cave complete with glowing blue crystals.
“Think these are real?” R4 snapped part of a crystal off, only to reveal the crystal was hollow and glowing because of an LED behind it. “What a strange place.” At her words all the lights began to dim. R4 crouched, eyes open and looking for the source. She reached for her gun, but her claws were closer.
Somewhere in the maddening staircases she heard a crash. She ran to the balcony and looked down. Far below she saw a shape that might have been a man, might have been a humanoid robot. Whatever it was, it was leaking something black.
“Data, Smucker, you hear me?” R4 called into her phone.
“I am here.” Smucker replied.
“Where’d you wander off to Remote, I’m almost done with the boot up and I want out of this place. We’ve already lost one of us, and as little as I care about you I do get a bonus if you come back alive.”
“Just down the hall from the server is a room full of stairs. Somebody just jumped off one of the balconies.”
“And just what are you doing over there?” Data shot back. “Why did you wander off? I swear, you Remotes are trying to win the Darwin awards, and almost manage to every month. Did you at least find anything useful?”
R4 was already running down the stairs. “Lots of balconies, made of lots of different materials. Looks almost like an art project.” She stepped down, and let out a shriek as she fell. She hit the ground of the next floor, thankfully the one with grass, and managed to catch herself on her arms. Turning she saw a tiny cleaning robot climbing the stairs.
“R4, report. What happened?”
“Tripped, cleaning bot blended right in with the stairs.” R4 stood up and peered over the balcony. A black fluid was spreading out from the body. “If that’s th’ thing that got Welch, it ain’t movin’ no more.”
From the entrance R4 saw Smucker carefully step towards the body, kneeling to examine the body. “Another victim. He has the same wounds as Welch. Whoever did this…” He paused, then stumbled back. “No, stay back, keep away from it!” As he moved the lights around him and the body began to dim. The floor faded from white to a rusty red. R4 heard Smucker breathing heavily. “Subject appears humanoid, but has significant indications of decay. Skin is desiccated where present and discolored, eyes,” The creature looked up at him, its neck twisting at an impossible angle. “Eyes have been replaced with sensors indicating some manner of cybernetics! No tattoos apparent under extensive decay,” The creature rose. To R4’s eyes it appeared slumped over, and she could see no clothing. “Extensive bloating of the body in line with bloat stage of decomposition. Several noteworthy wounds appear to be leaking a strange black viscous material.”
“Smucker get back!” R4 yelled. “The rust is expanding!” R4 eyed the floor at least two stories down and made a mad dash for the stairs.
“Ok, the server room is locked up tight, time to delta. Before I go,” R4’s eye flashed white for a moment before returning to normal. Smucker let out a scream and clawed at his helmet. “Make sure you keep that thing busy.”
“What are you doing?” R4 exclaimed.
“I’m leavin’ you two cowpokes to hold that thing off while I get away. A bonus for keeping you guys alive is nice, but I’ve got to be alive to spend it.”
“Did… Did he just,” R4 paused. “You Two faced Chinerium plated Gonk.” She jumped the second half of the stairway, her gun already in her hand. Yer’ as loyal as a broke corporate an’ half as useful. Run to yer’ boss, an’ pray we never meet again, fer next time I’ll pump ya’ full a lead an’ vitrol, ya’ hear me!” Forsaking the next stairway R4 threw herself off the balcony and opened fire. Three bullets, screaming hornets in their own right, burst forth. Two struck the creature, one sinking into its back without effect, one striking its arm and actually spinning it around. R4 took one look at the thing and screamed.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Once it had been a man, maybe. Its head had long been encased in metal, red sensors looking out from where its eyes had been. The left half of its jaw had been replaced with metal at some point, while the other half had been left to rot and was now missing. What remained of its flesh was rotted and gray. Metal bones stuck out of one of its legs, and the flesh of its arm had sloughed off from its right metal hand. For all the metal, not one piece was free of corrosion.
Eyeing her, then turning its gaze back on Smucker the psycho lifted his arm which opened up with a wet plop. A river of decaying rot poured down as the damaged flesh no longer contained the decay, as R4 heard the telltale THUNK, and watched as a putrid glob of flesh and bone shot forth, striking Smucker right in the chest. Still struggling with whatever Data had done to his helmet Smucker was in no position to evade. As it hit the projectile exploded into a black mist. Even as she stared into it R4 felt weak and cold, as if she had been dropped in an ice cold tub.
[[Biomonitors: Unknown radiation detected. Consumed Rad Tab™ expired]] [[regeneration cysts: Host is being exposed to T1 radiation. Time remaining to corruption: 99 days. Further exposure will decrease remaining time at an exponential rate]]
[[Ravager_prototype: Unknown radiation detected. Unknown radiation is incompatible with resonant frequencies. ATP regeneration inhibited]]
[[Mandatory gig acquired]]
The Messenger Must Survive
Team size: 1
Hazard: bloody (hazardous enemy, suspected cyberpsycho, suspected warlock, suspected devil, suspected undead)
Company: Fangs of Mara
Contact: The Red Queen
Reward: 800 exp. Survival. Increase of rank. Ascension. Whatever you want, just don’t die.
I don’t know what that thing is, but it’s bad news. The fact whatever form of radiation is currently eating a tier 2 floor is worse. Your cyberware is recording extensive amounts of information, and lots of junk data, get it back to Mara and I will personally ensure you are elevated to tier 1.
Don’t die.
Please don’t die.
“Well I can’t jus’ let ya’ down then.” R4 trilled, turning and running back towards the stairs. Her feet felt like they were going through molasses. “Initiate flare protocol.”
The boost helped, but it wasn’t a panacea. R4 felt weak, and the air felt thin, yet she ran up the first set of stairs for all she was worth. As she made it to the top she felt a bit better, enough she could peer over the edge to look at the psycho. Below the humanoid was already following her with unhurried steps, its footprints leaving rust even as the ichor dripping from its arm ate into the floor like acid. As she stared a name appeared over its head. [[H4%@ 07 Atropos]] R4 felt the strange lethargy seeping into her bones again, and quickly found another staircase, this one made from wood, and ascended as quickly as possible.
“Hey Red, what are th’ chances it rots out the wood and falls through?” R4 asked.
“You are out of questions for today. To ask more questions,”
“Red,”
“I don’t know. This is a novel form of radiation and I do not understand it. This is likely why another AI is offering exp for data. Please, just escape.”
R4 looked at her options, there were more stairs, and more balconies. Some were larger than others, and they all were made from different materials. “Hey Red, how heavy do you think that thing is, it has to be at least 100 kilograms, and I’m only 75,”
“85, the prototype is accumulating mass and Force contributes a lot to muscle mass. Those bars you’re eating have a lot of protein.”
“We’re talking about this later, but if I stay to the most fragile materials then combined with its rot it should fall through, right?” R4 paused. “I hope.”
Up she climbed, following the paper stairs with a set made from thin wood, and turning away from a set of steel stairs for one made from what looked like living leaves. “So, ya’ want to bet this was some rich art student’s project?”
“You want to make a bet, now?”
R4 heard a low THUD and cast a glance down. Far below the psycho pushed itself up from where it had fallen, its limp arm catching on something. With a jerk the psycho stood back up, its dead arm falling away. Even as it continued to leak, the creature was already marching towards the next set of stairs. “Doesn’t know when to quit.”
The psycho looked up at R4 and lifted a hand. Viscous fluid flowed out, and R4’s eyes widened in surprise as she realized what was coming. With a low THUNK the grenade was in the air, a rotting cylinder loaded with a foulness R4 could not imagine. With a telekinesis enhanced leap, she threw herself halfway up the stairs just before the grenade hit the base. Had the grenade thrown out shrapnel it might have still harmed her, but the black mist was a cloying cloud that only reached out a few meters. It did not seem to rise nor sink, content to hang in the air in defiance of gravity.
“Not going that way.” R4 trilled, running the rest of the way up. She paused, eyeing the metal balcony. She looked up, and saw no new stairs. “Red, any thoughts?” She cast her eyes to one side then the other. Her heart rate skyrocketed, her breathing fast. “Red?” She began to tear up, quickly wiping the water from her eye and casting it to the side. “Ok, don’t panic, don’t panic. Look around, this is a metal floor, maybe the artist left something I can use.” Immediately she noticed something squirming on the floor, a little silver creature contained within a teardrop.
[[Ravager Isopod: Tier 0]] R4 froze, for a moment her mind stopped. She turned around, expecting to see Lopside or Ratface behind her, yet what she saw made her mind go blank. She was alone.
“R4, snap out of it.”
“Red, did that just,”
“Not important. It won’t survive long without water or a host anyhow, focus.”
“Water, that’s it.” R4 paused, and ran to the edge. Down below she saw the pool of water. “An’ me without my trunks.” She felt her dress begin to twist, before losing power. She peered down, eyes struggling to focus on the water far below.
A low crunch sounded behind her. R4 whipped around to see the rotting head of The Hand of Atropos coming up the stairs. For a moment it stumbled, the stair beneath crumbling.
“Geronimo!” R4 yelled, jumping. She crossed her arms over her chest as she fell.
THUNK! R4 looked up just in time to see The Hand had managed to move the four meters from the stairs to the side in an instant. Only the fact she was already falling at full speed gave her the chance to see the grenade flying towards her.
“One shot.” She trilled, lashing out with her claws. “That cannibal nutcase could do it, maybe, Initiate flare protocol!” Focusing not on power, but just trying to knock the grenade aside R4 reached out, more slapping the grenade than cutting it. Immediately it exploded, a burst of the strange weightless cloud reaching out, just barely catching her arm.
“R4 look down!” R4 did, just in time to realize her flailing had pushed her off course, she twisted, attempting to turn her bellyflop into something resembling a dive. In a sense she succeeded. Feet hit the water, and an instinctive use of telekinesis pushed the water back so she cut into it rather than striking it like concrete. Unfortunately as she flailed the arm that had already been damaged hit the edge of the pool, and with a CRACK shattered.
[[Critical damage sustained: Emergency detachment procedures initiated.]] Before R4 could protest everything from her elbow down went numb, and she saw the ruin of flesh that was once her arm float off. Even as it did, she saw it blacken and rot. R4 watched for a moment, before her horror was broken by the confusion of the creature’s hand falling into the water. It floated there for a moment, before a black murk erupted from the elbow and it shot towards her like a torpedo.
“SWIM!” R4 didn’t need further encouragement. The bottom of the pool was connected to a tunnel, and R4 wasted no time swimming down it. All thoughts vanished from her mind in her haste, choosing random passages and having to backtrack a few times as she came to dead ends in the senseless labyrinth that was the undercity’s waterways. Fifteen minutes of frantic swimming later she finally took a moment to take stock, and noticed something missing.
“Red, where is my leg?” She trilled, or tried to. She couldn’t quite do it under water. Of course, with no question asked, no answer was forthcoming. She felt no pain, just a sense of something missing. On some level R4 knew she should be feeling something, some level of loss or anger at losing two limbs, yet it was all distant. R4 kicked with her remaining leg, finding a small telekinetic field gave her plenty of surface area to work with. Examining her surroundings she found she was in a large flooded room. That, however, was a secondary feature to the fact the floor was littered with weapons.
Immediately thoughts of her missing limbs were gone, pushed aside by her curiosity and definitely not mental manipulation, as R4 swam deeper to examine the detritus. Immediately she noticed that most of the weapons were not rusted in the least. A few were, mostly guns, but there were an abundance of swords, maces, spears, and other blades. Each pristine as the day they were assembled. With her right arm R4 lifted a sword and made a gesture.
[[Legion’s Fist Power sword: Tier 1 power sword. Blade removes all fear and hesitation from user’s mind. Sonic vibrations increase damage and cutting power. Host’s tier is too low to safely use this weapon properly. Safety protocols overridden. Made By Mars Corporation]] Immediately R4’s mind was full of violent thoughts, she hungered for violence and blood. With her last coherent thought she let go, and the blade dropped back to the pile, before hitting something and throwing itself through the water. R4 looked and found a dozen of the swords, one of which still clutched in a rotting hand. A more elaborate blade called out to her. [[Legion’s Fist Commander power sword: Tier 2 power sword. Blade connects with LFPS helmet to allow user to give orders to lesser Legionares. Blade removes fear, doubt, and compassion from user. Host’s tier is too low to use. Safety protocols will prevent user from wielding]]. R4 quickly found the helmet, which bore several deep cuts. She considered placing it in her bag, but after eyeing the water tight seal decided against it.
Her musing was interrupted by a long blade piercing the water and very nearly piercing her as well. With a kick of her remaining leg she swam up towards the surface and peered over.
“Foolish hero, you have lost your blade. Now prostate yourself to my indefinite intellect.”
“Never villain, for Nu’Grav shall never bow to one such as you.” R4 eyed a familiar looking man as he threw a punch at a sickly looking man held up by several robotic tendrils. The man, or woman it was impossible to tell, wore strange blue hooded robes trimmed with gold cloth. Rather than standing the hooded figure was held aloft by an assortment of robotic tendrils that sprouted from their back as well as from beneath their robe. The sickly figure easily dodged out of the way before sending a lazy swipe with his own hand, which translated to a hearty smack from his tentacle.
“All brawn and no brain, you are truly lost foolish paladin. This city shall soon coalesce to the corrosion of my machine army.”
R4 eyed the man, or possibly woman, then looked around. She saw no army though there were several piles of half finished drones and bits of cyberware welded together in a vague human shape. With a gesture she reached out and grabbed at the sword she saw fall… only to see dozens of blades.
“Are you bloody serious?” She trilled, grabbing one of them. It immediately sent her a warning not to use it as she swam to the surface. “Issac, CATCH!” Or that’s what she meant to say. As the words came from her mouth her mouth involuntarily twitched. “Hero, CATCH!” As the blade flew from her hand she could almost feel something pull it from her grip and to Issac’s.
“Behold, your time is truly ended, for The Lady of The Lake has blessed me with a blade most holy!” Before R4’s eyes she watched as [[Brairhart sword: Tier 2 power sword]] was immediately rewritten to [[Blade Most Holly: Tier 2 power sword]] Immediately the blade seemed to gleam in the sunlight, despite there not being any sunlight, as vines made from metal grew around the hand guard. “Huzzah!”
Immediately R4’s vision was filled with flashing blades and cruel tendrils as the forces of good clashed with tendrils most unholy. Where Issac stood the world seemed a little brighter, while all around him the cavern seemed to be filled with the shifting darkness created by Dridgette the Lady of Tendrils. R4 blinked twice, then noticed she could actually see Issac’s and the tendrilled woman’s titles floating above their heads. Issac’s was emblazoned in golden block letters against a red background while Dridgette’s was carved crudely into a piece of rusted metal. R4 lowered herself back into the water, not wanting to get caught in the storm of blades and tendrils.
CLANG! The sword snapped, sending the blade soaring over R4’s head.
“Curses, for thy foul power of machinery have corrupted my blade! Traitorous steel, thou has abandoned me at this, my most critical moment!”
“Yessssssss, embrace the corruption hero, for thy will is but mallet-able flesh, while my steel is unyielding. Reject the weak flesh, reject the nanites, embrace solid steel.”
“No, don’t y’all listen Hero! Fool, hear the folly in y’all own words, fer you too use the nanites!” R4 called out. “Hero, another pig stiker fer’ this here hog.”
“You Harlot, you dare to call me mere swine. Once I have finished this hero I shall string you from your vocal chords and run a bandsaw across them to make you sing. Mark my words,” Dridgette never got the chance to finish as Issac speared her right through the chest with the long and slender rapier R4 had thrown. “Forsooth, I am slain.”
“And thus thou art slain.” Issac replied, pulling the blade back. “And justice is upheld beneath the fair city of tiers, and Nu’Grav is,” His speech was interrupted by the BOOM of a shotgun hidden within Dridgette’s sleeve.
“Alas ye fool, for thy honor shall be thy undoing.” She grabbed the rapier from the ground and threw it back into the water, nearly spearing R4. “A thousand heroes have I disarmed and within far pool lie their arms and flesh, food for the creatures that lurk within beneath the incredulous depths.”
“And that there arrogance shall be thy undoin’ Issac, catch!” R4 threw a third weapon to Issac, this one a grenade launcher.”
“A grenade launcher, fair maiden I cannot accept such an uncouth armament. If thou dost favor me, another blade,” R4 glared at the man as she tossed a spear to him. “Huzzah, thrice blessed am I among men.” He dropped the grenade launcher, which either because of the water damage or because it was being handled roughly went off and fired a grenade right into Dridgette’s chest.
“Trickery! Lowest of vermin art thou, that you might resort to such trenchery.”
“An honest mistake and an honest boon from the city itself. Nu’Grav, GRANT ME STRENGTH!” The spear blazed to life as he charged. Dridgette met his charge with her tendrils, reaching out to grab him. Yet at the worst possible moment her tendrils seemed to drop to the floor.
“What magic is this? Trickery!” With a single thrust Issac plunged the spear into Dridgette’s chest, the blow carrying them both to the far wall and impaling the Lady of Tendrils. She drew a final breath, and went limp.
“Hazzah! The day is saved!”
“Indeed, for that there crooked miscreant could never defeat the protector of Nu’Grav.” R4 replied, feeling strangely forced to speak, and also to not mention that she had flipped several circuit breakers hiding within the woman’s robes via telekinesis. [[Hero’s stage has ended. You have gained 100 exp for your performance]] R4 felt a sense of nervousness flow over herself, and quickly extracted herself from the water, nearly falling over as she did. Issac too suddenly looked far less confident “Woah, what was that?”
“Do you,” He took a deep breath, “speak of my heroic aura?” Issac asked, his face a wide smile even as he was out of breath. He took a few moments to try to catch his breath, though E4 noted him beginning to sag “A wondrous blessing bestowed by the protectors of Nu’Grav. It grants a last vestige of humanity to those otherwise lost to the darkness.” He gestured to Dridgette. “My associates and I chased her down here following an uprising of undying metal knights, and she had naught to say but strings of code. By the grace of our wondrous city she was granted a final minute that she might speak as a human.” He turned to her, only then noticing she was a hand shy with only one leg to stand on. “By their bountiful light, what happened to you?”
R4 considered how to answer, to pretend to be a hero and approach him as a fellow, or to play the victim and trust in the nobility of a chrome coated knight. Finally she came up with a suitable alternative. “Alas, my duty has led me to this wondrous yet horrific place once again. A power great and devious had commanded I repair a device of unknown use. Yet unbeknownst ta’ myself and my companions it lay in the den of a horrific undying brute, three meters tall ‘e was, built from the darkest of sciences, a dead man forced into ‘orrific unlife by foul machinery. Two of my protectors were felled, and one abandoned us to save his own skin.”
“What horror, surely such a man must receive punishment most divine! Let us seek him out without delay and bring justice to this deviant.”
“Easy there noble Issac, it ain’t your place nor mine ta’ go plottin’ revenge. Revenge ain’t a noble endeavor when evil be far more present. ‘Sides,” She gestured to her leg, “Present matters need ta’ be fixed.”
“Yes, I know an apothecary most skilled who had a deft hand at replacing lost limbs.” He took a deep breath and stumbled forwards. R4 moved to catch him out of instinct, only for both of them to end up on the floor. R4 felt something wet and warm, and when she managed to free her hand she found it was blood.
“You’re bleedin’.”
“Yes, I appear to be at 10 wounds.” with a click an inhaler was produced from a compartment on his hip. He took a deep breath from it and replaced it.
“10, that would kill me twice over.” R4 exclaimed.
“Worry not, for I am in the second tier and shall recover shortly. Before R4 could stop him Issac had scooped her up into his arms and was running at high speeds through the tunnels. She saw that the room they were in was sealed by two sets of metal shutters, one of which was the size of a regular door and the other was wide enough to drive a truck through. Issac kicked his foot through the larger one and kicked it up with frighteningly little effort, before dashing through. Within five minutes they were ascending at an elevator.
“Shouldn’t we wait for your team?”
“Nay, we were separated and they have ascended already. I remained as justice cannot be stopped by mere hardships as slight disembowelment and seven wounds at tier 2. For if I did pay for these wounds should I not use them?” He looked at her. “Look to thine own self, nay tier 1, and you have endured twice crippling injuries.”
“Um, I’m tier 0. I’m scheduled to ascend soon, but not quite yet.”
“And already you have done what many could not, thou hast survived a fight with a tier 2 monster of great danger in the service of our great city. Truly our meeting is divine and you shall make a fine bride.”
“Wait, what?” Issac did not elaborate. “Mr. Graves, what do you mean by that?” The doors of the elevator opened and he was off.
“I should probably remind you that in a fist fight with a T2 human even under flare protocol you would die, fast. While you may not feel it, you are at 2 wounds.”
“I think your phone is talking to you.” Issac spoke, his voice barely audible over the wind as he ran through the streets at speeds more akin to that of a car than a human. “We are almost there.”
“Where is,” Issac stumbled, “Are you alright?”
“I am fine, we are almost home.”
R4 did not recognize where they were, mostly because of the speed they were traveling. Before she could realize it he had stopped at a small parking area where a grav car that cost more than she could earn in a decade waited for them, door opening as they approached. The vehicle looked similar to the sleek cars she saw in her home town, save for the large anti-gravity devices posted at each corner, which resembled large rounded cubes which could rotate on multiple axis through hidden means. He placed her in one of the seats, which immediately molded to her body in a way that was strangely intimate and not entirely comfortable. “Welcome Issac Graves and unclassified guest. Per your preference vehicle has been set to tier 2 configuration. Please make yourself comfortable.” The car spoke. Issac wasted no time in lying himself in his seat. “Caution Issac: severe injury detected. Administering recovery agent and Rerouting to trauma center.” his seat immediately reconfigured itself into a lying position and he seemed to sink down into it.
“Nonsense, it’s just,” Issac winced as R4 heard a small hiss. “Just take us home.”
“Rerouting.” The doors shut, and R4 felt her sense of gravity fade as the car took off, its acceleration of no issue for a T2 individual, but for R4 her vision immediately darkened, tunnel vision threatening to consume her. “Secondary passenger is badly injured, administering recovery agent.”
“Wait, I’m fine, don’t administer,”
“Passenger is unclassified guest and lacks privilege of self determination.” She felt a prick and a low hiss, and all went black.