Wakes from his nap, as one of his clones hears awful racket when passing by a duct...
You hear two other students walk by outside, they are speaking softly about the logistics of heading all the way down to Sub-Basement 13.
"I enjoyed myself al lthe same. Thanks for getting me out of here for a bit. I think we're targets just for being champions, and as paranoid as it may sound I don't think we should ever let our guard down, here or anywhere. We'll get back out there, sometime, after this is all over, I'm sure" he says with a smile.
He gives her a hug
"Thanks for being my friend, Ephebe."
She hugs him back (slightly awkward with the height difference, but not as bad since he's a little taller than he used to be).
"I couldn't ask for a better friend than you.""I guess I should go check in with my parents and let them know how things went."
"Say hi for me. I'll go see if I can find any new Champions...they seem to be gathering here at Avalon."
Casts status on Ephebe
"Old habits..." he says with a wink
@Kitty, @Michael, @Asch (and @Enre? Maybe?): The song fades out on the radio, then there is a burst of static, and it starts over again from the beginning. One of the boilers makes a hissing noise.
The clicks and thumps continue. There is a distant, tortured squeak, like a muffled rusty hinge, far away.
Brave. Professor Sunwake say we are what we make ourselves. Bravery. That sounds like something is being hurt. Vai's pace increases, now heading for the door with the malfunctioning Exit sign.
"Say hi for me. I'll go see if I can find any new Champions...they seem to be gathering here at Avalon."
Casts status on Ephebe
"Old habits..." he says with a wink
Ephebe laughs.
"Well, let me know if you find any more of them....so far we have Darkness, Love, I think I met Hope...he was kind of a jerk. No doubt we've had more show up in the few hours we've been gone. I'll see you at dinner."
She headed off in search of either of her parents.
Grins to himself as he heads out to catch up with Micheal and Kitty. He'll quietly make his way up to them...
Stealth.
He'll get close, then realize they're not sneaking away, but looking for something. He'll whisper:
"What are you guys lookin' for?"
@Vai: The scratching speeds up to match your pace, though you notice you are able to stay ahead of it if you jog. You reach for the door handle...
*ZZZZAAAAAAATTTTTTT!* a giant blast of electricity hammers through your body, knocking you back and to the ground. Somehow you are completely unhurt.
*THOOM* Something hammers at the wall to your left, cracking it. Then, slowly, the door opens, and a thing shambles out. It was probably a student once. Maybe. But now is covered in glistening cogs and gears. There is a weird grey stripe on the thing's face, like wet paint. Dried blood is everywhere. Its eyes and teeth have been replaced with a weird metal, the jaws open and close soundlessly, like a hideous marionette. It shuffles out at you, those awful, blank eyes unseeing yet somehow triangulating on your position.
"mmmmgrrrrrrrggbbbbbbmmmnnnnn!"
You hear shambolic footsteps behind you.
*THOOM* The wall is nearly shattered. You are surrounded.
Grins to himself as he heads out to catch up with Micheal and Kitty. He'll quietly make his way up to them...
1d20+35 Stealth.
He'll get close, then realize they're not sneaking away, but looking for something. He'll whisper:
"What are you guys lookin' for?"
Watches as Ephebe leaves, then heads to the cafeteria.
Grins to himself as he heads out to catch up with Micheal and Kitty. He'll quietly make his way up to them...
1d20+35 Stealth.
He'll get close, then realize they're not sneaking away, but looking for something. He'll whisper:
"What are you guys lookin' for?"
Kitty shrieks.
"Oh. Ryuzo. It's you. Goodness, you scared me. Ummm....there's a weird noise coming from inside the boiler room...we thought maybe it was some small demon that escaped from the chaos earlier...but now I'm too scared to go in there and check," she added, blushing.
"Meep!" Saffire agreed, clinging tightly to Kitty's shoulder.
That's odd... Asch thinks to himself. ::There are some strange noises coming from the boiler room. I'm not sure what's going on yet just be ready to teleport both you and Enre in here if needed.:: He says to Amada mentally through their link.
Grins to himself as he heads out to catch up with Micheal and Kitty. He'll quietly make his way up to them...
1d20+35 Stealth.
He'll get close, then realize they're not sneaking away, but looking for something. He'll whisper:
"What are you guys lookin' for?"Kitty shrieks.
"Oh. Ryuzo. It's you. Goodness, you scared me. Ummm....there's a weird noise coming from inside the boiler room...we thought maybe it was some small demon that escaped from the chaos earlier...but now I'm too scared to go in there and check," she added, blushing.
"Meep!" Saffire agreed, clinging tightly to Kitty's shoulder.
"Oh, ok. No problem."
Suddenly a copy of him is standing there"Go look. End if you are seen."
It nods, and moves of to investigate...
"Let's see what 'I' can see."
Vai stops and stares at the creature for a second, before opening her mouth to scream. The scream is amplified by the lightning that rushes out from her mouth towards the creature behind her, blocking her escape route.
electricity damage
If this causes the creature behind her to be stunned, Vai will flee back from where she came from.
@Vai: *PFOOOM!* The lightning that shoots out of your mouth splits the shambler into several disgusting pieces. Bloody gears and cogs spew out from the wounds, ricocheting and caroming off the hard walls of the school. You run pell-mell down the hallway, deftly avoiding the metal bits scattered all over the floor.
@Ephebe: You hear a high-pitched girl's scream and smell the distinctive tang of burnt ozone, as from a lightning strike, coming from the next hallway over. Rapid footsteps suddenly are coming your way.
Those in Sub-Basement 13: Kitty shrieks, and the noises stop. There is a groan.
"Mrrrrrrrrnnnnnggnnnnnohhhhahhhh"
The sound of whirring gears can be heard; purposeful, loud, klakking and spinning.
There is a slight blur and Ephebe is gone. She stops once the blond girl who was running away is behind her and stands facing something that looks almost as odd as the rest of the things she'd fought today.
"What the..."
Her eyes turn purple-black as she brings out her flaming chakrams and throws them at the creature.
Vai is sprinting, knowing this should be exhausting, but adrenaline has woken her up. What the hell was that? I shoot LIGHTNING? Vai turns the corner and smashes straight into Ephebe, toppling them both to the ground.
@Ryuzo: Your duplicate strides forward, winding its way in and amongst the boilers. Through its eyes you see the ancient gridwork of the walkways, gaze down through that same grid into the alchemical tank half a kilometer below. Are...are things moving in there?
There is a flutter of movement to "your" right. Two hunched-over figures are working on a PLC summing box that is grafted wart-like onto the side of one of the older, larger boilers. You hear the clockwork-y sounds of gears and machinery by them as they fiddle with the thing. Both are in union suits, as would befit an Operator. One seems to moan, as if in pain.
Ryuzo's eyes glaze over...as he 'hops' into the duplicate.
Clone 1
"You ok, buddy?" he says to the moaner...
Vai is sprinting, knowing this should be exhausting, but adrenaline has woken her up. What the hell was that? I shoot LIGHTNING? Vai turns the corner and smashes straight into Ephebe, toppling them both to the ground.
@Ephebe: The chakrams sail over the remains of...something on the floor and smash into the shambling walker that came out of the stairwell.
*PHUD! THUD! WHUD!*
There is a strange sucking noise, and the thing explodes. *fffffvveeeeeeeeK-WHAMMMM* Gears and levers and tiny clockworky parts rain down on the hallway floor.
The wall splits and a bizarre, baroque farrago of spinning machinery and horrid biomass trundles out. It is on one wheel, two treads, and raw bogie spinners. The body of the thing is a globe with a spike on top, and on the spike is a very old, desiccated orc skull. Fleshy pink tendrils drip and ooze out of the head's orifices and flick and flutter around it. The globe part spins, and the thing comes at you, but it is very slow.
The orb body bisects itself on hinges you didn't know were there, revealing shark-like triple rows of adamantium teeth. It makes an incongruous spitting, snorgling noise like an asthmatic hog. Flecks of blood spit out from its treads as it grinds towards you.
@Ryuzo Clone 1: "mmrrrrNNNNNghhrrrrrr" is the reply you get.
Clone 1
'Well, that's effing bizarre...' he thinks to himself. He reaches out to spin the guy around...
Ryuzo's blank stare changes into a kind of 'WTF?' look, but he says nothing...
Vai stops running abrubtly. Did that happen? She thought she had run into something. She can hear something happening in the hallway behind her. Someone is fighting. Vai turns around and peaks back around the corner.
@Fei: On the roof, you see two of the old service bots gathered around...something behind one of the AC units. The AC units are monstrous white boxes with multiple shielded fans, all are discolored by time and sun exposure. As you are looking at whatever is happening, you are startled by a support tech, an elderly human, walking towards where the droids are while dragging a santa-claus like sack behind him. The sack has things moving inside it. He does not appear to see you.
@Fei: On the roof, you see two of the old service bots gathered around...something behind one of the AC units. The AC units are monstrous white boxes with multiple shielded fans, all are discolored by time and sun exposure. As you are looking at whatever is happening, you are startled by a support tech, an elderly human, walking towards where the droids are while dragging a santa-claus like sack behind him. The sack has things moving inside it. He does not appear to see you.
Fei begins to move in an arc to get a better view behind the AC unit as he calls out to the technician:
"Excuse me...is everything...alright up here?" he asks as he spares a glance to the sack and its moving contents.
@Ryuzo: Before you get to the guy, he gets up. Or rather, both of him do. You are looking at what was maybe two humans recently, but are now a hideous amalgamation of hissing and spinning what-looks-like machinery and flesh. A blood-soaked umbilicus bridges the two fat men from stomach to stomach. It makes gross belching noises and bulges and flails. Each of them have random tools and pieces of machinery brutally stuck into their bodies and impossible and meaningless angle, and their eyes are gone, replaced with dully gleaming sheets of some metal. Their teeth are pointed and serrated cones. One of them has an arm that terminates in a mass of pink, hairy tentacles. The other has a pipe wrench for an arm. Wires come out of their calves and steady them on the grate.
They knock their heads together and their craniums fuse and begin growing a third that looks just like you.
@Asch: There is a shadow, and you notice several figures shuffling around outside the door you all entered through. They make no sound. A hand comes up to the window that looks like it has been run through a paper shredder. The doorknob starts to turn.
No one else sees it.
@Anyone with hooks into an intrusion detection system: The school's internal systems and structure monitor is throwing a segfault error. Something is wrong in one of the sub-basements, down by the furnaces. There is a critical AC fault on the roof.
The text of the error message blares out to you: "GILLIGAN! GILLIGAN! SOME MOSH THE DOOR JAMB AND YELLOW SHEEP!"
Aananda flinches as her security system develops unforeseen errors. This was going to take hours to sort out.
::Ryo, I've got trouble. The system alarms are going off, but the system is going haywire. There's trouble on the roof and in the basement, at the very least....This is just going to be one of those days.::
@Fei: The tech stops what he is doing and turns to look at you. He opens his mouth to speak and says "mmmmlllllphhhhblg!" His lower jaw, to your astonishment, continues to lower. And lower. And lower. It unhinges itself and juts out a few inches. His jaw tears off, spattering blood all over. You see two tiny pistons holding it in place. One of his eyes begins to rotate madly around. There is a strange grey stripe on the side of his face, like wet paint. His left arm bends at an impossible angle, making sick wet splintering noises as it does, then suddenly starts to sprout a screwdriver. The sack tumbles open, and in it is a roiling mass of human internal organs: unwound intestines, lungs, liver, everything. All roiling and spinning around. They each burst out of the sack and speed towards you, hideously, on tiny tank treads, each with a single tooth mounted on the front, roots out, each root sharpened and serrated.
The service droids seem still to be ignoring you.
The wall splits and a bizarre, baroque farrago of spinning machinery and horrid biomass trundles out. It is on one wheel, two treads, and raw bogie spinners. The body of the thing is a globe with a spike on top, and on the spike is a very old, desiccated orc skull. Fleshy pink tendrils drip and ooze out of the head's orifices and flick and flutter around it. The globe part spins, and the thing comes at you, but it is very slow.
The orb body bisects itself on hinges you didn't know were there, revealing shark-like triple rows of adamantium teeth. It makes an incongruous spitting, snorgling noise like an asthmatic hog. Flecks of blood spit out from its treads as it grinds towards you.
"You have got to be kidding me."
Ephebe stands her ground long enough to throw a barrage of white flame chakrams at the creature.
Clone 1
"That's really disturbing...but not impressive..."
He changes his appearance to include another head, disfigured like thiers, and has similar gears and metal bits violently appear about his person, one arm seeing to fall off as a twisted gorey clockwork one sprouts in it's place.
"See?"
@Ryuzo Clone 1: There is a wet sliding sound behind you.
@Fei: The tech stops what he is doing and turns to look at you. He opens his mouth to speak and says "mmmmlllllphhhhblg!" His lower jaw, to your astonishment, continues to lower. And lower. And lower. It unhinges itself and juts out a few inches. His jaw tears off, spattering blood all over. You see two tiny pistons holding it in place. One of his eyes begins to rotate madly around. There is a strange grey stripe on the side of his face, like wet paint. His left arm bends at an impossible angle, making sick wet splintering noises as it does, then suddenly starts to sprout a screwdriver. The sack tumbles open, and in it is a roiling mass of human internal organs: unwound intestines, lungs, liver, everything. All roiling and spinning around. They each burst out of the sack and speed towards you, hideously, on tiny tank treads, each with a single tooth mounted on the front, roots out, each root sharpened and serrated.
The service droids seem still to be ignoring you.
"....Everything is not alright, then..." Fei says in answer to his own question at the sight of the squeamish horde of mobilized viscera and their mutiliated owner. ;D
He quickly vaults up onto a nearby AC unit in order to give himself some distance from these...things, as well as try to get a vantage point to see what the droids are so attentive to.
@Jim Rivets: As you finish your last bit of repair and cleanup on the school, a man in a grey business suit rounds the corner and hails you. "HELLOFRIEND!" He yells. He is walking with a limp, but otherwise his appearance is mundane.
She needs help! Vai steps into the hallway, and opens her mouth and tries to spit lightning again, but nothing comes out.
The disfigured head turns around to look at whats causing the noise, while he moves to keep the techno-ettin and the newcomer on either side of himself...
Turning to the figure:"Ermmm.... Do I know you?"
@Ephebe: All of your chakram hit the gross thing on treads, shredding bits of it off until it violently explodes, sending old body parts, fleshy bits, and tiny metal fragments all over.
Behind you, the blonde girl is peering around the corner. In front of you, nothing moves except a couple randomly spinning parts, still moving from momentum. There is a strange *WM* noise, then nothing.
@Fei: The little wheeled organs slam into the AC unit with terrible splatting sounds and move no more. The tech is doing some weird shivery thing with his legs, and his upper half is spinning around like a top, flinging bits of flesh everywhere.
From your new perch, you can see the lower half of a human on the gravel between the service droids. With pliers and screwdrivers and things they are pulling it apart; they tear out a chunk of bone and hold it up to one of their scanners, then fling it away. They do the same with a piece of muscle, and continue.
There is a cracking sound behind you, and you see the tech has smooshed himself down into a weird fleshy tripod and is turning the rest of himself into a single giant arm with a beach ball-sized fist on the end. It is made of equal parts metal (it seems) and biomaterial.
Solivala is still reading his book, for the tenth time or so. The cat glides up to him and rest it's face on top of the book staring. An orb attempts to shoo it away until the cat gives it a nasty look. He turns a page.
"Is their something you need?"
The cat jabs a claw over its shoulder to the screen.
"It was a minor error, something attempting to corrupt the system. It has been taken care of."
The cat runs a paw up the book leaving torn paper in its wake. Solivala looks up.
"Hello, the school is having problems.....again.....so soon after the fiends.....what are you going to do?"
His orbs move over the damaged paper repairing it.
"I have not been asked to do anything."
The cat's jaw drops.
"Are you kidding me, their is trouble on the roof and basement. Both involve students with what could be another sort of attack and your not going to do anything?"
He looks back down to his book.
"Correct."
The cat snatches his book.
"Your........never......cant believe....."
Solivala looks back up at the cat.
"Got you. Very humorous was it not."
The cat falls over without a word.
"I see this is not the time for humor. I will make my way to the roof sense it is closer."
Solivala's orbs begin to orbit and a dark cloud lefts him thru the door and out of the top of the clockwork tower. He floats over to the roof where the detection was found.
@Jim Rivets: "HELLOFRIEND!" he says. He speeds up a little and extends his hand as if to shake. His limp seems to be getting worse. As he gets closer, you notice a weird grey stripe on his face, like wet paint.
Ephebe turns around and looks at the blonde girl, her eyes fading back to their normal human appearance as she does.
"Are you okay? What was that thing? Was there an accident in the alchemy lab or something?"
Vai steps out into full view, and a piece of hair falls to cover part of her face. "Um.. I don't know. Professor Aananda gave directions to go to my room and these things came out of the walls and start attacking me." Vai steps forward again, twisting a piece of hair anxiously in her hand. "That was amazing. My name is Vai."