"What in the grave is all that racket? Bananas?"
"Damn."
Jim tries to catch as many as possible in a cone of cold.
"These guys are squishy..."he says as he flicks viscera and oil from his claws.
[i]Seeing the operator, he indicates him to Asch.
"You wanna protect Mike n Kit here, or go take him out?"
While waiting for an answer, Ryuzo spawns 2 simul-clones, who take defensive positions, ready to fight, and activates his shadow clones ability , presenting the zombies with eight illusory targets to go after.
@Fei: The disgusting tripod-critter is smooshed down into a weird little bio ball. The flesh stops moving but there are still clicking noises coming from within it. You also hear unsteady footsteps behind you. Turning to see what's happening, you notice that the two droids have grafted each other together into one heavily armored whole, but have also fused their inferior little tread systems to the lower half of the now-destroyed human AC tech. The legs sort of "hop" the treads over obstacles, and then the treads motor it along over the gravel.
It has some kind of tazer/cattle prod thing on it, and it fires a blast of electricity out at you.
"What....is going on...!?" Fei asks to nobody in particular as he steps to the side to avoid the bolt of electricity, looking between the still-animate thing he just hit and the newly-created monstrosity that is now advancing on him.
Now fervently wishing he had done something to replenish the energies he expended on the Protean this morning, he quickly punts the 'bio ball' as hard as he can into a bit of concrete wall to try and silence it (and to get some distance from it), then readies himself to combat the approaching construct - the sound of settling scree emanating from him as he adopts a close-quarter fighting stance.
Vai steps back as the thing explodes. "What is happening Ephebe?" This school. Something is ALWAYS happening! "I wish I could help, but I don't know how to fight."
Vai steps back as the thing explodes. "What is happening Ephebe?" This school. Something is ALWAYS happening! "I wish I could help, but I don't know how to fight."
"It's okay, Vai. I wasn't really any good at fighting either when I first got here. I'm not sure what those things were or how they got in here, but I can bet you that if there are any more of them, they'll be dealt with swiftly and severely. But I'll stay with you until we're sure there aren't more, okay? No getting squished on the first day," she said with a reassuring smile.
Vai laughs nervously. "Should we tell someone about them? One of the teachers maybe?" The two young girls continue walking with Vai leading the way. She shaking slightly from all the excitement/
Vai laughs nervously. "Should we tell someone about them? One of the teachers maybe?" The two young girls continue walking with Vai leading the way. She shaking slightly from all the excitement/
"Well, that should have tripped the alarm system. But just in case I'll let Mom know what happened."
::Mom, I'm with a girl named Vai in a hallway leading to the dorms. Yeah, I got back a little early. And we need to talk about a bunch of stuff...But anyways, we got attacked by some weird biomechanical things. Thought you should know.::
"Okay, I let her know, so it should be fine. It's probably just a project gone horribly wrong anyways."
Vai nods as they walk along. Ephebe was a dragon too.. well sorta. They way she explained it was a bit confusing to Vai, but the point is, Vai felt a sort of kinship. "I heard there was a demon attack or something. Does that sort of crazy stuff happen here all the time?"
Vai nods as they walk along. Ephebe was a dragon too.. well sorta. They way she explained it was a bit confusing to Vai, but the point is, Vai felt a sort of kinship. "I heard there was a demon attack or something. Does that sort of crazy stuff happen here all the time?"
Ephebe stops and turns around, shocked. "There was a WHAT?"
"I was only gone for a few hours..."
Vai flinches and takes a step back at Ephebe's emotion. "Um, I'm not sure, I only heard."
Vai flinches and takes a step back at Ephebe's emotion. "Um, I'm not sure, I only heard."
Ephebe sighed. "I'm sorry, Vai. I didn't mean to startle you. I was just pretty startled myself. It's been kinda a long day," she said with a shrug and an apologetic smile.
Vai smiles back. "I'm sorry too. I didn't mean to be startled... it's just. I haven't been around any... I mean. If someone raised their voice at me, I was about to be hurt..." Vai looks at the ground, embarrassed.
Vai smiles back. "I'm sorry too. I didn't mean to be startled... it's just. I haven't been around any... I mean. If someone raised their voice at me, I was about to be hurt..." Vai looks at the ground, embarrassed.
"I'm sorry, Vai. I didn't know," Ephebe said contritely. "I'll do my best to keep calm around you until you get used to the idea that nobody is going to hurt you now."
"It's okay, there's not way you could've known." Vai says, almost dismissively, trying to play it off. "I have to get used to people again, the only way to do that is to spend time with them right?"
"It's okay, there's not way you could've known." Vai says, almost dismissively, trying to play it off. "I have to get used to people again, the only way to do that is to spend time with them right?"
"As far as I know," she agreed. "It - it gets easier you know. Not all at once or right away, but gradually it does get easier. There's a lot of people here who can understand that kind of situation. Who help make it easier to cope."
Even if this school is crazy, everyone here is so nice. Vai thinks, almost in tears again. Her voice has a bit of hoarseness when she says: "Thank you Ephebe. It's good to know that there are people I can trust here."
Even if this school is crazy, everyone here is so nice. Vai thinks, almost in tears again. Her voice has a bit of hoarseness when she says: "Thank you Ephebe. It's good to know that there are people I can trust here."
Ephebe impulsively gives her a hug. "You'll have more friends than you know what to with before you know it, you know."
Vai freezes up, unsure what to do. A tear escapes her eye, and she hugs back. "I... thank you Ephebe." Ephebe is alot more reassuring than Nasima's wildness, and Vai sighs contentedly.
At this point, the sounds of combat have drifted up from the Sub-Basements, accompanied by Kitty's shriek, and combat-ready students itching for a chance to prove themselves are hustling down there. Word has also spread of something on the roof, and random biomech zombie hordes in the halls. A cleanup operation is in full swing.
@Jim Rivets: Your cold stops the fleshy bits right in their tracks, but some of the slimier metal parts spin and wobble and carom off down into an air vent.
There is a horrendous crash behind you and the wall you built comes crashing and tumbling down in a huge pile. A 14' tall biped mech with reverse-articulated legs and a disgusting fleshy exterior is standing there. On one arm is a boulder-sized fist and on the other is a sawblade. Swiveling about on top of the thing is a disgusting parody of an elf's head that looks like a normal-sized cranium whose bones were removed, and then the flesh was simply inflated to be about a meter in diameter. The tongue lolls out and it yells at you.
"BOSSFRIEND!
CARDBOSS!
HELLOCARD!
BANANACARD!
UNION!
UNION!
BADFRIEND!
UNIONCHOICE!
HELLOCHOICE!
HELLOBAD!
Moving with surprising speed, it swings its sawblade arm.
@Ryuzo, @Michael, @Asch, @Kitty: You appear to be in some kind of stalemate. After Ryuzo and Asch ripped through the initial onslaught, the rest are all staring in the window with those weird, pupilless metal eyes, as is the Operator. The other Operator is yet to appear from out of the boilers.
Looking at the bodies that have fallen, you see that all are sporting a nickel-sized hole in the back of their cranium, and the inside appears to be hollow.
@Fei: The droid thing trundle-jumps forward a ways and stops just outside of your reach, at which point it launches a dismembered human fist at you from out of a primitive trebuchet on its back.
[ooc]ranged attack:
Damage (if applicable): bludgeoning[/dice]
The other creature that you punted is slowly melting into a pile of fetid flesh and whirring gears.
"You are a big one, eh?"
Jim returns with a few punches of his own.
Enre looks around hearing the noise. Sighing he says "This school seems to have a high chance of attacks doesn't it?" Shaking his head he says "Well I will go see if Asch is alright." He than starts to chant once he stops he disappears. He shows up once again in the sub basement. Walking around he finds some combat going on. Seeing odd things attacking Ryuzo, Michael, Asch and Kitty he says something before his mask and cloak change once again into a skull helm. He than says loudly "What are these"
@Jim Rivets: Your first punch smacks the thing squarely in the midcenter and causes a number of pieces to fall off. The next two, however, are blocked, and it uses moves that eerily mirror your own fighting technique. It punches back, this time with both fists.
The sawblade connects, although it merely scratches the heavy Adamantine plating on Jim's massive frame. Jim retaliates with a few choice swings.
The massive Zombie careens from the first punch, and in the opening, Jim connects again. Although the massive frame is unmoving now, Jim doesn't take any chances, and destroys the skull.
Jim takes out a device, slaps it on his chest, and the damage goes away.
@Fei: The droid thing trundle-jumps forward a ways and stops just outside of your reach, at which point it launches a dismembered human fist at you from out of a primitive trebuchet on its back.
The other creature that you punted is slowly melting into a pile of fetid flesh and whirring gears.
Adjusting his stance, Fei closes the gap and avoids the grotesque projectile. He then launches a volley of attacks at the construct, his hands and feet taking on a slightly sanguine, almost rust-colored aura.
Jim slap another device on his chest, turns invisible, and flies through the halls, trying to determine where these Zombies came from.
"What are these"
"I've got no idea..." Michael replies, his skin pale as his eyes take the morbid sight before him. "Why aren't they doing anything...?"
Shrugging at what Michael said Enre begins to cut his way through the odd beings to make his way to the others. Once at the group he says "So no idea what these things are? Any idea where they are coming from?"
Solivala looks over things. Unknown number, high chances of enemies increasing. Current spells inefficient. With in moments his dark cloud increases growing dense and black, almost like a ripe storm cloud. Then suddenly it lashes out in all directions filling the entire area. Solivala fallows the student construct floating along.
Hits all enemies with in 120 ft. from Solivala.
Recharge
"Heyas, big guy", Ryuzo says to Enre. "Glad you could join us. As to what these are...I have no earthly clue. They umm...are made of people and intelligent machinery. Something is mix matching parts of boht into these and trying to spread. That guy over there" he nods to the Operator looking guy "is hanging back. He might be in charge. Why don't you go introduce yourself?" he says with an evil grin.
Kitty watches the ...things, frozen with terror. She couldn't even process what these were. The fiends had been less scary than this. She stayed close to Michael, hand trembling as she held throwing stars at the ready in case any of these things got past the real fighters.
Enre nods at Ryuzo's he than places his sword before his face noting the change in it's appearance it than starts to glow and seems to blur in his hands. He than looks at the one thought was the leader. He than growls before making his way to the leader he than attacks the thing.
Michael could tell she was scared, at least as scared as he was. That made it worse. She was so much better than him in PE, were the ceiling was falling while rocks flew everywhere and spikes shot out of the ground, but now, facing these things, she was shaking!
"Kitty, w-we should get out of here." He had to fight to keep the tremor out of his voice. Go get Professor Sunwake or something."
Hears the screams, and imemdiately checks the status of Ephebe...she doesn't appear to be afflicted or otherwise hurt, so he heads to the sound of the screams. He turns ghost-like and floats down through the walls into the basement and sees a large number of techno zombies tring to get through a door...he reaches out to feel the source of power, but there is none.
"Not undead, animated by something else. No mater, everything dies..."
His scales calcify and seem to harden as he rolls up his robes' sleeves. He whips his staff out to the side...and the staff sprouts runes and a wicked scythe blade that seems almost translucent. His robes become more stately, the hems and cuffs lit up with dimly glowing runes of things necromantic. He gestures, and bones and bone chips from the unforetunate victims come to him and hover equidistant from him in a radius, and slowly start spinning as they grow sharper, forming a spinning barrier of bone blades, should they decide to come to him. He begins to chant leveling the staff-scythe at them, and utters the final word...and arcs of black lightning roil out into the crowd...
"Bananas, indeed."
"Hey Krays welcome to the party. It seems like someone invited some weird guests." Asch says as he fires multiple fire shells into the zombies.
"Amada should be here any moment to help." He says just as she appears next to him Caster drawn and ready
@Soli and @Jim Rivets: Floating through the corridors you see groups of students fending off the zombies as best they can. You find one cluster of the disgusting things that has some students trapped in a large utility closet and reduce the zombies to constituent particles, freeing the now quite-grateful kids.
Suddenly, Jim's backpack sputters and fails, and he starts hearing a loud voice echo in his head.
"BANANA!
GILLIGAN GUEST!
WEIRD!
KRAYSAMADA!
HELP!
UNION!
FRIENDFRIEND!"
As Jim falls, there are a number of screams from the girls' locker room by one of the pools.
@Soli and @Aananda: While examining your respective systems, you come across an odd negatively-charged anomaly; electron shunts are being put in place, reprogramming parts of your gear at the most fundamental subatomic level possible, and your internal repair systems are themselves being reprogrammed to assist in the reprogramming/hijacking of everything else.
In other words, to hell with machine-language, your stuff is being hacked by submolecular crackers.
As Jim falls to the ground, he grasps his head, saying, "Get out of my head!"
In other words, to hell with machine-language, your stuff is being hacked by submolecular crackers.
Everyone in Sub-Basement 13:
Enre and Asch and Krays and Ryuzo hammer and hack their way through the mob of zombies, which finally open the door and start staggering in. As the plinging sound of brass shell casings hitting the floor echoes in the silence that follows, Enre rushes up and hacks off one of the Operator's legs, but before it falls the other Operator comes out of the shadows and stands next to him. The umbilicus reconnects them, and they shout at you guys in one voice:
"KITTY!
WATCH!
BIGGUY!
MATTER!
UNION!
CARDFRIEND!
BANANA!
GOINGON!
HELLO!
HELLOKITTY!
HELLOUNION!"
Their flesh begins to knit itself together with some kind of carbon-fiber composite thread, and soon they have become just one giant thing. The heads knock together and start combining as well. One of the hands becomes a remote control, and buttons push themselves before your eyes.
An alarm goes off in the Operators' office, then another. The hissing of the boilers increases dangerously in both pitch and volume. Random parts of the floor, those hatches designed to dump malfunctioning machinery into the alchemical vat half a kilometer below - start to swing down of their own accord.
Doors open in the floor underneath Krays, Asch, and Kitty.
There is a moaning noise from behind you, and see that all the creatures you just hacked your way through or re-combining and reforming into one giant horrid fleshwad. A tentacle with a big phillips screwdriver head at one end lashes out at Michael while a sticky web of some kind of netting shoots out at Ryuzo.
In other words, to hell with machine-language, your stuff is being hacked by submolecular crackers.
@Soli: Jim suddenly plummets to the ground and falls prone.
** spoiler omitted **