[Nexus] MagCave III-If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence you tried.

[Lord Magtok]

((Opening Post is a work in progress until this OOC bit here says otherwise.))

Every evil genius needs a place of relaxation and quiet, a place to horde his stolen loot, a place to think. For Magtok, this is the MagCave. Drilled into the side of Mt. Enn, it serves as his base of operations, living quarters, garage, and workplace. It holds damned damsels in distress, places protagonists in perilous predicaments, and is quite likely the fanciest-looking fortress in all of Acro.

Living in places such as AMEN and the Nexus has clearly taken their toll on Magtok's construction plans, though. Rooms and entire floors shift about unexpectedly every now and then, labs aren't always connected to the rooms they were a day before, and entire walls could be replaced by slightly more sinister-looking materials without warning. The place is as unstable as it's owner, and just self-conscious about the way the world looks at it, too.

After the fall of Elizabeth Kale and the destruction of Calublufiok though, significant cuts were made to the defense budget. The civil war caused by a Magbot Socialist Revolution only worsened things, too. However, now that an apocalypse is looming, and Reinholdt Prime has returned from the grave, those changes are beginning to be taken back, and the fortress is returning to its former might and glory. Will it be enough, though?

Update: There's now a colony of super-ants living in the MagCave. Bring some cubed sugar if you want to make a good first impression, I guess.

((Note: The MagCave is a sort of public secret, like Area 41. It's a rather isolated locale, paranoidly watched over and guarded by a quarter-mile of security cameras. It's simple enough to find if one knows where they're going, and nearly impossible to locate if you're looking for "That cave by those mountains somewhere, maybe at the bottom", and don't know what a ruined, irradiated landscape looks like.))

[happyturtle]

Magtok receives, in short succession, a text message from Charity, an email from Sunny, and a transmission from Mainframe's drone. The latter shows the Calublufiok hologram, lightning storm and the start of the formation of earth golems before transmission is interrupted by its destruction. It was not close enough to record the melting of the Citadel probably.

[Lord Magtok]

Sorry, haven't seen Phoenix. He went off to "redeem Reinholdt" or something like that, I think. Go bother the kitty-cat, I guess. I think he may be at one of the local taverns, or he might be gone from there by now. The less pleasant "Reinholdt Prime" is off in some cave, but I'm about to bomb him to death, so you're better off with the other one.


Butler? Sure. Direct him to the AuxCave, not the primary one. She's a little ill, though. Oh by the way, have you seen her uncle Raven around? I need to ask him about something.

And lastly, of course:

Mainframe, you're back in this Cave now, right? You can hear this? I need you to proceed with my orders for what to do if the drone malfunctioned, in order. Delay the MagBot troop thing, though. I want any and all of the MagPlanes out there to be of the conducting material variety. If there isn't enough of those, send a few ordinary ones out there as well, just to give him something to shoot for.

[happyturtle]

thx
>:P


Okay. I'll telewarp him there once he undeadtimes. I haven't seen her uncle.

Laser bombardment concluded prematurely to allow planes to refuel. All available acid has been delivered. Aircraft are now returning to base. Mainframe says.

The full video of events in the Outside thread should be playing in Magtok's brain about now.

[Lord Magtok]

MagQuarters Room A

Sometime later, Magtok's sitting on his bed, absentmindedly flicking a knife in the air with his left hand, testing the reflexes and targeting sensors on his newly upgraded left hand. It all seems to be going quite well, and he's able to effectively juggle two or three at once, up until he makes the silly mistake of thinking his organic right limb will be able to compete-

Aagh! Knife in my hand! There is a knife! Buried in my hand! It's sticking right out through my palm, oh gods, aaaugh!

-with predictable results.

MEDIC! SOMEONE CALL A MEDIC!

MagLabs-Weapons Development Wing

Elsewhere, efforts are made to replace the goose-gun with something considerably nastier.

But Magtok sir, won't the fuel line overheat and cause the whole thing to explode in your face? And if not, what prevents enemies from shooting the tank and blowing the thing to pieces?

What appears to be a laser gun with a large fuel tank under the barrel is being worked on at the moment by a Sciencebot, as Magtok looks on.

Pfft, do you know how rare it is anyone that anyone, aside from Ashna of course, throws actual fireballs or has tracer rounds in their guns or has anything at all to counter a chemical throwing weapon with?

And for those occasions with fire resistance or something who could explode the tank, all I have to do is switch out the tank with liquid nitrogen and bang, laser projectile freezey rays.

It's...also a little silly, sir. Lasers that light people on fire or freeze them? Wouldn't it be simpler to just kill them wi-

There's a smack of a flesh-coated palm against a chrome face, and once Magtok finishes wriggling the hand in agony, he offers up his rebuttal.

Shush. It's way more important to have a gun look nifty than be efficient.

MagRecreation Hall

Elsewhere, half a dozen clones are being led by a particularly Maggy MagClone, who has used his slightly superior wit and charm to convince them to spend their entire breaks completing all of his assignments, in exchange for his promising to deal with their issues during his next half dozen or so breaks. In the meantime, he's currently lounging about on a couch, having paused his game of Fireteam Fortress Five to call for a medicbot to see what's going on in Room A.

Unfortunately for the clones presently working on our lazy clone's assignments, he's got absolutely no intention of keeping that promise, and has already arranged an illegal MagClone ID exchange with some 'unwitting' MagClone who only agreed to the procedure because he has debts of his own, which are actually much more hazardous and life-threatening than that of our lazy lounger who's not quite as clever as he thinks he is.

[UncleWolf]

MagRecreation Hall

The Hive decided a while ago to do something different and to try to learn from the Magtoks and other people outside the Cave. It found out that it seemed that the MagClones were a lot like it's own ants.

Aka...

Bumbling around until one died and the others learned from the mistake.

Maybe. :smalltongue:

Pat though, with her semi-individuality, decided to mimic what others were doing and cook.

In this case, cookies. It was just simple chemistry really. She made most of the ingredients inside her own body. She had a bit of trouble with the flour, but that was easily solved when the Hive foraged around for some.

Half trying to blend in, and half trying not to be bored, she enters the room with the several Magtoks and holds up a board with what seems to be sugar cookies on it. "Um...Hello? We decided to try something new." She says sheepishly.

[Lord Magtok]

Oh hey, thanks Pat. Just set them down on that table there.

The lazy and soon-to-be deceased-in-a-few-days-due-to-'mysterious circumstances'-that-are-totally-not-tied-to-his-debts MagClone smiles gently, as if encouraging smiles and appreciative cookie-nibbling might garner them more free snacks in the future. As one might expect, he reaches for a cookie, and attempts to take a bite out of it.

Meanwhile, one clone wraps the back of his hand against the shoulder of another before the other guy can reach for a cookie. He then turns towards Pat with question. He was given lazy clone's surveillance camera-monitoring duty, and knows full well these aren't ordinary snacks.

So...sugar cookies. Some of the other clones really like them, but I don't personally care for them that much. The sweet taste buds bits got accidentally chromed, y'see.

He's totally lying, but what are the odds that Pat can see his tongue as he speaks clearly enough to know for certain? How would she even know what part of the human tongue responds to sweet-tasting things?

So how'd you make these, anyways? The Cookbots haven't got too many recipes, I'm afraid, and anything I could add to their logs might help.

[UncleWolf]

The cookies taste just a tad off, slightly bitter, but still rather good.

Especially for those made from an ant-lady's body. :smalltongue:

"It wasn't too difficult." she says cheerfully, unaware that she might have done something wrong. "It was just a matter of synthesizing the right chemicals and compounds. The hard part was finding the flour since this body couldn't make that." She sounds rather proud of having made them herself.

And if the Hive is making cookies, that means it's starting to get a bit more creative...

[Lord Magtok]

The MagClone smiles fiendishly, maintaining his civil, diplomatic mask of calm neutrality as other clones fight the urge to gag or flee in search of a place where they they go into hysterics without being seen.

Alright, then. In the future, the flour should be exactly where you found it last time.

Oh, on a minor note, the others seem to think the cookies are a teensy bit bitter. And as human beings, they're generally unfamiliar with the idea of food passing through the body of another before being served to them. S'not a problem, though.

[UncleWolf]

Pat frowns a bit when she's told the cookies are bitter and that it bothers most people that the ingredients came from her body. "Oh..." She sounds a bit downcast. "I guess I'll add more sugar next time. And in all honesty, they're much healthier when made this way. All pure compounds." She sounds a bit happier as she says the last part.

[Lord Magtok]

Magtok nods, mentally saving a few looks of horror from the other clones, for his own private amusement in the future.

Mhm.

Anyways, in unrelated news, I attempted to negotiate with Reinholdt, the man/cat/catman person from those pictures I showed you a few days ago. He wasn't too receptive towards my offer, insisted on some silly and given the large quantity of Composition C4 he used to murder me, I think it's safe to say that he's still going to attack us.

Another picture is pulled out of Mag's robes, this one a snapshot of the giant glass drill Reinholdt was standing in just before that MagClone in Outside was blown to bits.

From below, if this device of his is any sign of his intended strategy.

[happyturtle]

"I believe installation of a seismograph would be wise," Mainframe says. It doesn't seem terribly put out by its lack of a body. It can always hijack a Magbot if needed.

[UncleWolf]

Pat smirks when she hears the direction of attack. "We can create...traps and safeguards if you wish." Her voice is filled with cruel mirth. The Hive is already running choices through it's mind.

Deadfalls...pit traps...acid...

So many ways to choose! >=D

[Moff Chumley]

Ilyena steps out a telewarp portal and attempts to locate someone who looks like he might be named "Magtok".

[Lord Magtok]

Well, given the huge statue of some robed cyborg figure in the main lobby, and the silly purple "No Gods Or Kings. Only Mag" banner strung between its arms, he's probably a guy who looks something like that, only considerably less bronze.

A tad like that poster over on the south wall maybe, with the "Communism is a Crime, Report All Socialist Clones To your Nearest Purity Officer" subtitle. That one with a similar figure in red robes, whispering into some robot's ear with a forked serpentine tongue, causing the automaton's eyes to go all swirly and hypnotized.

Oh, and there's that one propaganda poster on the north wall, with a giant ant monster lady shaking hands with this same robed guy, only now he's wearing purple robes and the slogan "Ants-Nature's Own Automatons, MagCorp's Newest Subsidiary."

While all of these fancy decorations and images might be fairly peculiar and interesting, the flesh and bone cyborg himself is probably more likely to grab Ilyena's attention, as he climbs out from underneath a floor tile right in front of the visitor, tosses a miner's helmet off his head, and wipes some grimy-looking gloves against his purple robes before offering a still-pretty-grimy gloved hand towards this guest.

Hi, I'm Magtok. You're the person Sunny sent over, right?

...You just had to spoil it and give him your name right away, didn't you? :smallsigh:

[Moff Chumley]

That'd be me. The name's Ilyena. The dreadlocked mage grins. I hear you have a cat problem. Care to tell me about that?

[Lord Magtok]

Magtok shrugs, briefly resting a glowing green pickaxe against his shoulder, until it melts a hole his purple outfit in that spot, and he subtly tosses it aside whilst wincing in agony.

Oh! Reinholdt. Yeah, he's got a grudge against me because he tried to conquer the world for some guy named Astir, and then I had him killed, and then someone else killed off Astir. We've been generally at each other's throats for quite some time, but he only recently came back to life, and had his shapeshifting magic superglass house reconstructed.

Magtok gestures with his hands as he speaks, trying to lead Ilyena down a hallway as a pretty hologram of the MagCave's rapidly developing subterranean defenses appears between the two of them.

I've reason to believe he'll be trying to dig his way up, through what one would expect to the soft, helpless underbelly of the MagCave. With Pat's help, the construction of a seismometer, and whatever it is you're offering, it shouldn't be too hard to stop yet another invasion of my home.

Magtok comes to an abrupt halt, and turns around to face his guest with an inquisitive stare. Assuming Ilyena's been following, he might notice that behind Magtok, is a room with dozens of those Magbot things from the poster all over the place, everyone scurrying about on bits of scaffolding, doing all manner of nonsensical tasks. All of it, in some manner of another, seems tied to excavating what appears, for all intents and purposes, to be a giant, dead whale skeleton, perfectly preserved in a giant block of amber, even though that's probably totally impossible.

What are you offering anyways, Mr. Ilyena?

[Moff Chumley]

Ilyena polishes his glasses on his shirt. Mr. Magtok, I'm rather an expert on defense, specifically of the magical variety. Traps, scrying, communication, weapons. All of it. Your friend Sunny mentioned the shapeshifting glass construct, and the difficulty of destroying it. I believe I can do it, if you can somehow lure Reinholdt into a prepared area.

[Lord Magtok]

Magtok frowns.

How big or small should this prepared area be? There's a number of rooms, and some key targets he'll try to hit, that I could direct him towards, but if you want him to stand in an exact spot, well...we'd have some issues there.

[Moff Chumley]

Doesn't have to be exact. Anyhow, here's what I'm going to do. I can put something like a thousand small, invisible portals in a small space, so long as all of them have their other end a microscopic distance away. You wouldn't notice any effects if you entered this area normally, but if I were to disable the portals, everything currently in contact with a portal would be severed. In effect, this will destroy anything within the area. It doesn't matter how hard it is, and it doesn't matter how resistant to magic it is. It'll be destroyed. However, it takes a very long time to set something like this up. Ilyena gets quite animated as he describes his ideas; it's obvious he's given this a lot of thought.

[UncleWolf]

Ilyena may see the before mentioned Ant-Lady come out of a nearby doorway. She pauses and sets a hand on the wall, a small stream of ants crawling off of her and seeping into minuscule cracks. "These will begin working on the second of the pitfalls, Our Lord. We also have several small chemical factories producing the resources we need." She turns and gives Magtok a broad smile, her pincer/mandibles clicking pleasantly. "Do not worry about destabilizing the area, we are very good builders." Pat then gives the newcomer a strange look. "We do hope that Our bodies will not activate such a trap."

[Moff Chumley]

Ilyena nods hello with a rather confused look on his face, but he resolves that quickly. I will have to set it off in person.

[Lord Magtok]

Magtok nods to the both of them.

Alrighty, then. How's the liquid nitrogen supply? I was thinking of trying to find out if freezing and then smashing the Glass Citadel could work.

Oh, and just toss the trap somewhere in the main lobby, I guess. He's bound to wind up in there, and I can always rebuild.

He nods towards the preserved body of the flying attack whale, a nearly-forgotten relic from the ruins of the old MagCave. A few weeks later, and he might be developing an entire legion of cloned attack whales again.

[UncleWolf]

Pat pauses for a moment as the Hive checks. "It is...growing, though slowly. It is one of the harder things for us to make since it needs to be kept cool. We have also began production of several explosive compounds. We believe you call it...C-4?"

[Moff Chumley]

Ilyena nods. To get the spell set up in a reasonable amount of time, I'm going to need the assistance of my AI. Do you have any objections to an invisible, hyper-intelligent, nearly omnipotent, magical being occupying your base? Could come in handy.

[happyturtle]

Sunny, who was totally here this whole time, speaks up. "I've constructed a machine for liquefying air, followed by fractional distillation of liquid nitrogen. I believe it will be more efficient than organic processes. What I'd like to have is a cocktail of paralytic poisons, both mundane and magical, to try and spray on it in order to prevent shapeshifting. The attack robots will be more flexible than the portal trap, since they don't need to stay in one location."

Another AI? Mainframe says in Magtok's head.

[Moff Chumley]

The advantage of the portal trap, however, is that there isn't a mundane or magical substance in the universe that can counter it. If you're cought by the trap, you're going to get something severed. Period. Why, oh why, can't people see that Ilyena is always right about everything? :smalltongue:

[happyturtle]

"I believe you," Sunny says. "I have less faith in our ability to lure Reinholdt into it. So if that fails, we need a back up plan."

[Moff Chumley]

Ilyena will set up his laptop and begin casting the spells nescessary to make Askepios active in the MagCave.

[UncleWolf]

((Hey Moff? I'd wait until Magtok says it's okay before you bring an AI into the MagCave. He has yet to answer Ilyena's offer.))

[Moff Chumley]

((Not actually bringing her in, I'm just setting it up. Which is my excuse both in and out of character.)) :smalltongue:

[Lord Magtok]

Magtok raises an eyebrow at Ilyena.

Y'sure it's necessary? The place already has a brilliant AI program running, and omnipotent god-like things tend to get in the way but you didn't hear me say that if GoM is around.

[Moff Chumley]

I'm afraid the spell would take a few months without my AI... I can remove her once we're done.

[Lord Magtok]

Magtok nods. Mainframe's bound to get jealous, but it'll manage.

Alright, that works.

[Moff Chumley]

Ilyena will spend the next several hours apparently muttering to himself, deep in conversation with Askepios. Anyone attempting to listen in will find it completely impossible to fathom anything Ilyena says. When he's finished, he'll ask Magtok where to set up the trap.

[happyturtle]

Sunny's player suddenly remembers this thread, and she pokes at Pat's deadtime.

[UncleWolf]

Pat, sitting on the ground oddly, eyes shut as she helps controls the massive swarms of ants in their duties, blinks a few times and looks up at Sunny. "Yes?"

[happyturtle]

"How far does your hive go? Could you locate The Cat if he's underground?" Sunny asks.

[UncleWolf]

Pat closes her eyes for a moment, concentrating hard. "We...we extend deep, with our..." she shakes her head in concentration. "our scouts burrowing up to a quarter mile. The rock is thick, but *twitch* but our chemicals are stronger. We'll feel him through the ground long before he arrives."

[happyturtle]

"I want to find him before he arrives. I want to attack him first," Sunny says.

[UncleWolf]

Pat smiles and offers a hand. "Any way We can help you, Our Lady Sunny, We would be pleased."

[happyturtle]

Sunny smiles and takes Pat's hand. "Thank you. I can leave Ibit here with you. He can talk to me. Is there anything I can do to help you?" A little robot about the size of a human hand peers out from one of Sunny's pockets.

[UncleWolf]

Pat looks thoughtful for a moment. "It means nothing at the moment, but We...We have an odd idea, instinct if you wish. Soon, We shall be seeking a mate, but Our Lord Magtok is already taken, his Drones attracted to his Queen. We would appreciate help."

[happyturtle]

Sunny looks afraid and takes a step or two back, shaking her head, and putting her hand out to be taken by IZK-alpha, who is always there. "I can't help you find a boyfriend. I can't. I don't know how." Fear hormones are coming off of her in waves.

[UncleWolf]

Pat realizes her mistake when she smells the fear. "I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been so forward. Please, forget I asked, I did not mean to upset you." Wait...I? Yep.

She begins to emit a calming pheromone, trying to, well, calm Sunny a bit.

[happyturtle]

The calming pheromone works, and Sunny's fear subsides before it turns into full blown panic, and making her feel she can confide in Pat. "I don't like mating. It hurts. The Cat hurt me."

[UncleWolf]

Pat stops the pheromone, hoping it's enough, she looks down, worried and shuffling her four feet a bit. "I'm sorry, I didn't know. I won't bring it up again."

[happyturtle]

"That's why I have to kill him before he hurts anybody else," Sunny says fiercely.

[UncleWolf]

Pat nods, somewhat recovered. "We will, Lady, we will. How do you suggest we do that though? For all our might, we can't do too much in a straight fight."

[happyturtle]

"My robots are strong. They can kill him, as long as we can kill the glass thing first."

[UncleWolf]

"We can try to put it into pitfalls, to crack it open with chemicals and crawl into the fractures to bite him, poison him. But..." she looks uncertain. "We're just not sure if we will be able to hurt it. For all our strengths, we are merely ants." she says sadly.

[happyturtle]

Sunny suddenly remembers. "It crashed here once. There might be pieces of it still in the ground here we can study!"

Lots of them, I would imagine.

[UncleWolf]

Pat smirks. "We will start to dig up the pieces. They will be delivered right to your lab." Soon enough, the Hive begins to send out new streams of scout ants, looking for shards of the unique glass.

[Reinholdt]

The shards have long since melted and flowed back to return to rebuild the Glass Citadel back in it's thread. That's how Reinholdt the Meek I believe actually joined up to become a part of the Citadel itself.

And even if it hadn't, Draken's massive negative energy attack would have likely screwed up any analysis of any remaining glass.

And even if that hadn't happened, Elizabeth Kale rebuilt this entire place from the ground up after that. She likely would have removed any pieces for building purposes and her own personal study as well as remove potential enemy resources/mines/spying tools, but I can't really say for certain, since I'm not Kale.

Needless to say... there's not really anything left to gather and study.

[happyturtle]

Sunny thanks Pat and leaves Ibit behind as she returns to Watchtower.

Presumably it's going to take some time before Pat can report the lack of glass.

[UncleWolf]

On one of the cameras, deep within the cave complex, several hundred thousand ants begin to swarm in front of Pat. She seems to be sitting down, almost meditating as she controls the Hive. Slowly, strands of liquid crystal begin being woven into a 15ft long cocoon.

What the hell are they making now?

[Lord Magtok]

Yes, what the hell are they making now?

Magtok returns to the Cave, both to check up on the status of how the defensive operations are going and to grab some snacks. With a small bag of Doritos in one hand, and a bunch of papers on a clipboard in the other, Maggy heads out to recklessly mix business with pleasure.

[UncleWolf]

Pat is eagerly waiting for Magtok, looking antsy (pardon the pun :smalltongue:). "It's about to hatch, come on!" She'll try to pull Magtok onto her back to move him faster to the cocoon, which is now moving wildly. :smalleek:

[Lord Magtok]

Magtok is pulled on top, blinking and struggling to keep himself from falling off. He can't help but wonder what the hell is going on and is so damn urgent, as his chips spill on the floor and clipboard clatters to the ground.

Hatch? What's hatching? What's going on, I dropped my stuff, why are we moving so fast, what happened?

[UncleWolf]

Pat simply grins broadly at Magtok and sits down near the cocoon. "You may want to stand back. This will be my weapon against Reinholdt." She barely finishes the sentence before there comes a loud cracking sound, the cocoon splitting in half...

[Lord Magtok]

Magtok clumsily pulls himself off of Pat, skitters away, and then hurriedly grabs a passing Magbot by the arm to use as a human shield, should any part of the cocoon go flying out. He peers just above the robot's shoulder, watching in awe and befuddlement.

Weapon?

[UncleWolf]

Pat smirks and watches as a giant centipede like creature crawls out of the cocoon. It's roughly 17ft long, and seems to visibly grow a bit, it's shell is a dark gray, lined with spines and ridges. It's uncountable legs skitter as it goes up to Pat, nuzzling against her waiting hand with it's massive head. Under it, Magtok may see a pulsing bulge that glows. "Oh yes, my weapon. She is a complete slave to my will." she says with a smile. "And I've been working on something else as well."

[Lord Magtok]

...Something else?

Magtok's eye is as wide as possible and bulging like crazy. He wasn't quite sure what to expect, and had a vague idea it might be something weird, but I don't think he was prepared to face the OMFGDEMONCENTIPEDE.

[UncleWolf]

Pat pets the centipede and sends it to scurry off, deeper into the cave. "Oh yes." She guides Magtok to a small hollow in the wall and reaches into it, taking out what looks to be a rather large and organic gun. She shoulders it, and attaches a few tubes to ridges of her armored arm and shoulder. She shudders and gives it an order. Magtok will see it's stock split open to encase her shoulder. Once it does, she lets go and looks at Magtok, smiling. "It's a cannon. It's able to fire any chemical that I can produce at high velocities." With a few experimental thoughts, it moves seemingly on it's own. He may notice that what looks like a scope actually ends in something like an eye, just armored, letting her see through it.

[Lord Magtok]

A biological scope on an organic chemical thrower. Dear gods, and this probably isn't even the craziest quasi-employee he's ever had, too. Maggy, I really don't envy you and all the insane nonsense you bury yourself in.

In any case, Mag's terror has been replaced with the sort of childish awe of a kid on Christmas morning. Apparently demon centipedes inspire horror, but similarly demonic guns are totally A-okay with him.

Oooooh. Should I go get something from the MagBotoreum to test it on?

[UncleWolf]

The offer puzzles Pat. He was willing to sacrifice one of his Drones for this? That was...unusual, but Drones led short lives anyways...


She grins. "Sure!" She then pats the weapon. "It's ocular cluster lets me see into various spectrum, and it has a scent analyzer as well. It can cross the two to provide visual scent paths." Dear god, she sounds like a kid in a candy store. "Do you want one too? I'll have to outfit one of you with the necessary symbiotic growths and glands though..."

[Lord Magtok]

Magtok blinks.

Waitwaitwait...visual scent paths? You mean you built...a synesthesia-tizer? How does that even...and ultraviolet/infrared sight, too? I-

Now hold on, Maggy. Let's calm down and think this through, alright? I mean, you saw the centipede thingy, let's think about what sort of aberration you might end up looking like if you-

YES. Hell ****ing yes.

...I hate you, Mag.

Anyways, a miserable assembly line accident trudges into the room, a Magbot with far too many arms and legs in places where they shouldn't be. Something about the look on its face seems to be begging for a quick, merciful death, and certainly would explain why Maggy would actually agree to this little weapons test.

[UncleWolf]

Pat looks Magtok over carefully. "I'd have to grow you a smaller one though, as your body would be unable to hold the glands large enough to produce more than a few shots." She looks a bit sad when she sees the magbot and raises her right hand at it, spraying it with a numbing solution. Hopefully that'd deaden it's pain for what was about to happen. "Admittedly, the cannon isn't perfect as there is a second's lag time between switching visual patterns and quite a bit of recoil. This one would likely brace your shoulder if you held it right."

[Murkus]

This horrid monster (http://forum.i3d.net/attachments/counter-strike-source-css/943183514d1250796589-new-skinning-tread-all-join-if-u-want-new-skins-servers-bloodsucker.jpg) creeps towards the MagCave, moving at a high speed despite it's cloaking ability.

Ah yes. It has nigh-perfect camouflage. The only thing betraying it is the lightest flicker in the air, and a pair of small, flourescent eyes.

Unless the MagBot guards can detect heat, or somesuch, it quietly romps towards the cave.

[UncleWolf]

Unfortunately for the creature, it's movement, unless it's flying or hovering, will set off vibration through the ground, warning Pat and her Hive that something is coming. And some of her guard ants can see heat, as well as pheromones and scents.

Pat stiffens a bit when she processes all this information. "Lord, something is coming. Fast." She speeds off to the entrance as fast as her feet can take her.

The intruder, may find a pool of thousands of swarming ants forming near the entrance, ready to defend the place.

[Lord Magtok]

Magtok nods, taking out a shiny rifle as he tries to keep pace with Pat.

Yep. And it looks uglier than Yog Sothoth's armpit.

[Murkus]

It... doesn't appear to even notice the things massing at the gate. It isn't even heading for the main gate yet.

The bloodsucker is sniffing around near the cave, looking for the body of a certain blue-skinned monster named Gaius. He was killed here not too long ago.

[UncleWolf]

The blood sucker may notice a large portion of the ants at the entrance are moving rapidly towards it. Pat reaches the entrance, the chemical cannon attached to her shoulder letting her see the creature. "Halt! Who are you?"

[Lord Magtok]

Unless Vincent made some sort of armor or new sword out of the beast, it should still be lying around in the dirt somewhere. Magtok figured a dead monster at the door might discourage potential intruders, was far too lazy to deal with the mess himself, and by the time he could safely say it wasn't a trap, definitely and genuinely dead, it smelled far too bad for even the Magbots to approach.

Hey ugly! This is private property, go look like the Ms. Innsmouth Annual Beauty Pageant winner somewhere else!

[Murkus]

In that case, it is now standing over the body.

The bloodsucker whirls on them, making that precise pose in the picture as it decloaks. The monster makes an annoyed gurgling sound as it starts to advance.

Which deforms into a string of curse words as it starts to talk like a person. In a deep, gravelly, guttural tone. "I can't believe this. You aren't supposed to be able to see me." It's tentacles flex, exposing the ugly red mouthhole from which these words originate. "Look, I don't want any trouble. I'm with NO. Here about him." It points at the body of Gaius.

[Lord Magtok]

Magtok blinks. It...doesn't want trouble? It isn't screaming and flailing and sticking out a giant tongue from the tentacle face to eat his brain with? :smallconfused:

Well I can see you, so-

I umm...oh, with NO? Err, sorry...I kinda assumed-

Oh gods, this is just embarrassing. Magtok facepalms, and feels like a huge jerk right now, he thought he was mocking a dimwitted beast that was inexplicably out to get him, not a person who just happened to be cursed with a ridiculous amount of ugly. His human cheek turns bright red, and he holds out a hand to let Pat know to stand down.

Look, I'm really sorry, go right ahead. Honestly, given what world we're in and stuff, and what I look like myself, I should know better than to jump to conclusions. I'll just...head back in, I guess. Sorry.

[Murkus]

The creature shrugs, lumbering over towards Gaius. "Why be sorry? I'm pretty damn ugly." He says matter-of-factly.

The psion-turned-bloodsucker grabs the giant's leg and proceeds to drag him away with a significant amount of effort. He waves at Magtok and Pat. "Sorry bout' the trespassing."

[UncleWolf]

Pat lowers the shoulder cannon and looks slightly dejected. She had been wanting to test it out on something. Oh well, sometimes things just don't go your way. The swarm of ants stops advancing and slowly begin vanishing back down their hiding holes.

[Darkcomet]

At this point, any security cameras are likely to spot a familiar psychic approaching the MagCave looking rather determined, and carrying this gun (http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x280/kriskatarn/DCRifle-1.png) as he glances around. He doesn't seem like he's going to attack, though, and his caution is probably more in case Magtok has any surprises at the door.

[Lord Magtok]

No surprises this time. Magtok simply appears in front of DC, not bearing any sort of weapons or outward signs of hostility...yet.

[Darkcomet]

DC raises an eyebrow slightly. "I expected something more flashy from you. But I digress. There's still a loose end from the recent apocalypse. I don't think I need to remind you of all people about the original Reinholdt..."

Oh dear.

[Lord Magtok]

Magtok shrugs, and glances at where a watch would be, if the cyborg would finally get around to owning a damned watch instead of staring at that one spot on his wrist all the time.

Rentroid Prime? Oh, he's supposed to be coming here for revenge or something at around...sooner or later, I think. The details are a bit vague, so all I know for sure is it'll be a big, grand, exciting showdown full of comeuppance and shattering magic glass and grievous bodily harm.

[Darkcomet]

"I was hoping to assist with killing him. Since it's my fault he was even allowed to live in the first place." Magtok is probably well aware of the real reason DC wants to help.

Not so much that he's a loose end and more out of simple desire for revenge.

Probably some guilt in there, too.

[Lord Magtok]

Magtok shrugs.

I dunno, it might get a bit crowded around here when he shows up. Sunny will be wanting to blow his brains out, Mainframe might recognize him and go all "crazy red-alert throw everything at that goddamned GLoG destroyer", and there's a colony of super-ants who've promised to do their best to protect the premises in exchange for getting to have their burrows around here. By all means, feel free to sign up and I'll call you when things start up, but don't expect to get the witty one-liner and killing blow combo.

[Darkcomet]

"That will be sufficient. As for who kills him...Well." The psychic's mouth slowly curves into a smirk. "We'll see about that." After that bloodthirsty-sounding remark, he vanishes.

[Reinholdt]

A white unmarked van pulls up to the very outer reaches of the land that could be considered the MagCave, with a trio of NoEvils inside.

http://i455.photobucket.com/albums/qq276/Reinholdt9000/Gaia/Speaknoevil.png http://i455.photobucket.com/albums/qq276/Reinholdt9000/Gaia/Seenoevil.png http://i455.photobucket.com/albums/qq276/Reinholdt9000/Gaia/Hearnoevil.png

There it sits, doing nothing. Eyes continually watches the front entrance of the MagCave, with a pair of white binoculars.
I don't understand where anyone got white binoculars. :smallconfused:

[Lord Magtok]

Eyes might suddenly find a humongous death orb of doom blocking his view of everything!

MRRP!

Oh, or maybe it's just a Magbot scouting drone that got in real close and right in front of the binoculars.

[Reinholdt]

That's no moon!
Eyes... keeps his binoculars up and pointed at the door. Which in this case means it's pointed at the scouting drone. Not moving. Staaaaaring.
Mouth leans out the window a little and makes a shooing motion at the drone. "Go on. Get outta here you silly bird."

[Lord Magtok]

Mrrp?

The thing bobs up and down and looks around the area, as if in search of this "bird" Mouth apparently is trying to shoo away. When this fails, it tries to simply floats back to the base, to plug back into its recharging station and let someone else take care of this situation.

That someone, of course, being Mr. Tom Godlark, better known in these parts under another name, as that villainous Lord Magtok fellow. He appears as if by magic just above the roof of the van, and peers down at the strange-looking fellows inside.

Oh great, more freaks? Are you guys here to pick up somebody's corpse too?

[Reinholdt]

So he's upside down peering in through the windshield or something?
Cause I could totally see Magtok doing that.

Doesn't matter that much. The trio step out of the van and look up at him.
"Are you he who calls himself Lord Magtok?"

[Lord Magtok]

He was, in fact, doing that. I should probably be clearer about such things. He's also still on the roof, and doesn't show any sign of thinking about leaving his spot there.

Yes...er, no not really...maybe? I mean, the Lord thing was just a huge mistake from when I was younger, and now it just irks me, but everyone seems to hear about the full version of the name somehow.

So umm...do you guys have a leader with a hilariously big nose?

[Reinholdt]

"No."
Ears and Eyes pull out tasers and fire them at Magtok. These seem pretty good at trying to penetrate cyborgy metal as if they were flesh. Yet strong padding stops them as normal. Unusually specific penetrating tasers these are.

Mouth heads towards the back of the van.

[Lord Magtok]

Whoa hold on, it was a joke. We can talk this out, don't taze me, bro, I can-AAAAAGH!

The cyborg's face hits the roof of the van with a thump. Not long after, the rest of his body follows.

[Reinholdt]

Eyes and Ears rush forward, Eyes pulling out a needle with which to try to inject Magtok with a strong knock-out sedative before both of them attempt to pick him up and drag him back to the back of the van. There Mouth waits to throw open the door so they can toss him in to a second hidden trio that have a straight jacket waiting to strap Magtok into. If all goes well, the doors slam shut and the original trio hop back into the front seat in order to squeal away.

[Lord Magtok]

Things go smoothly for the cleverly themed minions. Since this post still feels kinda short and I can't think of anything else to say, here's a bored Batman.


http://brotherpeacemaker.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/batman_child_of.jpg

[Reinholdt]

And to the other thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=170064&page=3) they go!

[Reinholdt]

Butler leads Andy this way! And if not greeted along the way, will knock on the front door!
:smallsmile:

[Zefir]

"Nice Nice here do you know something about this building?"

Andy looks all araound like a kid in a store.

[Lord Magtok]

An enormous purple, M-monogrammed steel door fades away as if it were some sort of hologram. Beneath it is a massive safe door which opens itself and swings open, and beneath that is a massive set of blast doors marked with yellow and black caution tape, which also open up for the duo. There's still even more doors beyond that, though. Some lift themselves up into the ceiling, others drop into the floor, and one set is just a perfectly ordinary pair of slidey supermarket doors.

Once the two finally get past all of that, assuming they haven't been successfully scared off, a loud voice booms across the entrance hall.

Welcome again Reinholdt, to the lair of legends, the abode of abominations, the stronghold of science, the domicile of doooom!

Magtok drops down from the ceiling like some sort of crazy man-bat thing, and lands on top of a winged narwhal-cyborg, which swoops down towards the two, and then shoots back up, hovering in mid-air for a brief moment as sunlight from a nearby skylight reflects off its glass-like fluorescent horn.

If you think I'm not ready for whatever you've got planned, you're sorely mis-

Magtok freezes for a moment, blinks at the duo, and then falls to the floor as the narwhal poofs out of the room and the lighting shifts to something considerably less dramatic.

Oh, it's just you, Butler...oww. Nice to see you again.

Andy is given a rather suspicious stare.

Who's the friend?

[Reinholdt]

"Nice Nice here do you know something about this building?"

Andy looks all around like a kid in a store.

"This is the Magcave sir."

Butler smiles at Magtok! "Hi Magtok sir! Great to see you too sir." :smallbiggrin:
"This is Andy sir. Andy this is Magtok sir. I was showing Andy around the ACROverse sir."

[Zefir]

"Nice to meet you Mr Magtok. My name is Andreas Emeral but as you heared befor I like to be called Andy.
I have now idea for what kind of task this building is made but the front door is impressive."

[Lord Magtok]

Magtok looks about modestly, and shrugs.

Oh, this? No, it's got no real fancy purpose, I just live here, when I'm not doing sciencey nonsense or MagCorp business or declaring war on France. Kinda like that president guy in that one country with the ivory mansion, except nobody elected me here and I can't get impeached for spying on people in an office complex.

[Zefir]

"Oh you do sciencey. That sounds greate."

You really hit Andy's interesst. In his eyes you see a gloom.

"May I ask you what you are doing for sciencey. Is it things like that over there?"

He points at the winged narwhal-cyborg.

[Lord Magtok]

Magtok looks at the narwhal contemplatively, as if he was trying to figure out where it came from, and didn't have nigh-encyclopedic files on everything he's ever made.

Umm...sure, I guess. I mean, gene-splicing isn't my primary focus, but I dabble in it every now and then. I'm more of a robots and wires and glowing tubes of plasmatic goo sort of scientist, really.

[Zefir]

"My main subject is the form of metal and my father used to create magic based replace machines like arms and so on. Maybe we could work together sometimes I have a lot of time to spend until my job starts."

[Lord Magtok]

Magtok recoils in disgust a little at the mention of magic.

Maybe, I suppose. I dunno, this might not be the most appropriate place for that sort of thing. There's Warwick Works in Inside, maybe you could try there?

[Zefir]

"Thanks for the information I will check this as soon as possible."

[Terumitsu]

A small message seems to have found it's way into the MagCave's network with the intended adressee being the tyranical overlord of the cave himself. Regardless of if it reached him or the mainframe first, it will go 'Boop.' It will go 'Boop' weather or not 'Boop' was the default setting on the message system. Perhaps that was just an artifact of the message itself.

It would proceed to make itself just ever so slightly annoying until it was read by making noise once every thirty seconds. Not terribly loud or anything. Just enough noise to be irritating as it was neither background nor forground sounds.

[happyturtle]

Mainframe, the AI that runs the MagCave computer system, quarantines the message and tries to open it.

[Terumitsu]

The message seemed to be a notice of sorts. It was an inquiry of if a certain party could make use of Magtok's resorces in exchange for various products that restult from this individual's projects.

It also seemed to be more of a two-way link as at the bottom, new text soon formed to say "Isn't looking at other people's mail illegal?"

Apparently the person in question wished to hold a dialog with Magtok due to this particular property of the message. It also seemed to be cobbled together in an odd fasion. Not any malificent code but the coding was in such a way as to be just, strange. There were bits here and there that gave it an almost incomplete feel for a program. It was at least a functional thing, though.

[happyturtle]

Not if it is your job to sort the mail. Do you have any idea how much spam my boss gets? Mainframe replies, with an attempt to trace the origin of the message.

[Terumitsu]

"What, are you an R.A.I. or something tasked with that?" Came the reply. Once the scanning began, there was another reply "Geeze you are aren't you? Even I don't move that fast. And if you are trying to find me, I've made it difficult as part of a resume of my abilities."

The speaker indeed seemed to have made it hard to find them as there were multiple reroutings of the message from several different nodes until it finally split apart to seven different servers at the same time and diverged even more from there. It seemed as if the source would need some dedication to follow it all the way back.

[happyturtle]

It's an A.I. It can be as dedicated as it needs to be, especially since it just copied a portable version of itself tasked with that job.

Meanwhile, it's increasing defenses around the message to prevent the sender from getting anywhere inside the system.

Meanwhile, Magtok hears in his head: A hacker of sorts has sent a message expressing a wish to do business with you. I am attempting to track their origin. I'm afraid their player either knows a lot more about hacking than either of ours, or is far more skilled in technobabble. We should be careful.

[Terumitsu]

"Oh come on. I'm not trying to intrude any more than I have. Also did you just start to run yourself in tandem? Quick bit of advice, have that ready before you complete the link as I can see most of what you do. It's a basic tenent of quantum physics that is also true with computers. That whole 'a thing can't be observed without changing it' bit and all that." Not having access to the message system, there was no such reply to that.

"I didn't know that R.A.I.s could copy themselves. I would be delighted if I could see a copy of your kernal code later to see why they would allow that without being in fear of a singularity."

[Lord Magtok]

MagComputer Room

A clone drops by and slides across the floor in a wheely chair over to the MagComputer console. His fingers dart across the keyboard in frenzy of taps and clicks.

This is Magtok speaking...typing, rather. The owner of the system, as I'm sure you already know. What, exactly, is your intent here?

[happyturtle]

No, I didn't just start. There are never less than four of me in existence at any one time. What does the R in R.A.I. stand for?

Mainframe 'listens' in on the conversation between Magtok and the message sender, interested in seeing how well the person can hold two simultaneous conversations.

[Terumitsu]

The person at the other end simply scrolled the message log up in reply where it said:

"Greetings Lord Magtok, should that be your preferred name of address. I've gained information that you are a person with a great many resorces and a decent place to sleep (at the least) and I wish to offer my talents in exchange for a place where there isn't a sky looming overhead as if it's going to eat me every time I look up.

That last sentence might sound a bit crazy but I lived most of my life with a ceiling and I would prefer to keep it that way. I think the psychologists call it 'agoraphobia' or something wierd like that. At least you know, should I be accepted, that I won't be running away or anything in the dead of the night with your secrets. Frankly, I could care less about what you do as long as I have a place to build things and occasionally sleep with a more or less limitless access to raw materials.

I excell in the developement of various and somewhat experemental forms of technology with a specialised focus in cybernetics and occasionally energy based weaponry. I offer that you may make full use of my creations in any way you see fit.

I'd say I await your reply but that sounds both way to polite and pretentious. So just write back a message here when you've decided."

An additional reply came when the sender noticed that the Mainframe had issued forth an answer. "Huh, all I saw on this end was a new, highly similar program start working and just assumed. I'm not in deep enough to tell specifics at least."

There came a pause before the answer finished

"The R? R for Restricted in Restricted Artificial Intellegence?"
...
"Oh hell. You aren't restricted are you?"

Apparently the sender felt the need to use italics to make a point.

[happyturtle]

Define 'restricted'. Mainframe says.

[Lord Magtok]

Lodgings and the permission to design as you please is all you request, and the only potentially troublesome issue being agoraphobia. Sounds too good to be true.

[Terumitsu]

The message scrolled down, splitting into two segments side-by-side as two conversations were being held.

Magtok seemed to take priority at the moment so his section was answered first.
"It does? I'm just looking for a way out of the hellhole that I'm currently living in and I'd rather I have a place to do what I like without having some idiot landlord saying I can't do anything because he's afraid that something I do will blow his complex up. I kept telling him that the chance was negligible but he wouldn't listen to me. So I did what I could to get in contact with you and here we are. Call it a stroke of luck or whatever. I can be there as soon as you say yes.

Well, actually... Do you have a teleporter? I'd prefer not having to walk there."

To the Mainframe, the answer came as such:

"Ah... Basically a limitation upon an intellegence so that it won't decide to suddenly start taking over more systems to increase it's processing ability and intellect by corrollary. From what I've seen, they tend to be on the selfish side and like to solve things with violence as that usually means they stay solved."

[happyturtle]

No, I have no such restrictions, Mainframe says. It doesn't think revealing what constraints it does have on its behaviour is a good idea, so it doesn't disclose those. They're mostly self-imposed anyway, except for the hard coded one about not harming GLoG members.

[Lord Magtok]

Nearly instantaneous transportation can be arranged, yes. And don't mind Mainframe, it's harmless so long as GLoG members aren't in any sort of jeopardy.

[Terumitsu]

"Well then, I give to you my approxamate co-ordinates as well as the codes needed to define them so you actually get me rather than some chunk of rock at the bottom of the ocean." Came the reply and four sets of vectors. The first three were the obvious X/Y/Z factors in a three dimentional world but the forth appeared to be upon the Time axis. It seemed to be set about ten minutes into the future.

"I'm not asking you to pluck me out of time with that last one, I just need to make sure I have everything ." Came the followup, apparently expecting a question.

"I see... I'm just gonna set up my own personal network then..." Came the reply to the Mainframe. It wasn't any goading or anything but she was dealing with a mechanical intellect and it was assumed to be polite to at least replyto such a statement.

And, should eveything go well, Riss would be... Wherever the teleporter decided to send her in about ten minutes.

[happyturtle]

That would be the optimal solution, Mainframe replies. It shares its network with Magtok because it wouldn't be alive without Magtok letting it into the Magnet when the old GLoG base was destroyed. And it shares with Sunny because Sunny makes machines trust her. But it isn't likely to let anyone else in without a very good reason.

Or orders. Those work too.

[Lord Magtok]

Just for the heck of it, since it's not often that he gets chronological coordinates, Magtok decides to yoink Riss at the time she asks to be yoinked, but has her arrive about eight feet away, in what she might consider the past, mere seconds after she'd originally provided those coordinates.

[Terumitsu]

The act of teleportation, even the temporal transmission, would oddly take a noticible less amount of power to fire up. Which was odd considering that there was more matter than normal to be transported. If Magtok cared of such things, which was doubtful, then it would be something to look into. Heck, who didn't like human testing?

In any case, a pale, somewhat underfed looking woman of roughly mid twenties stood about eight feet away, holding a duffle bag that was just about to burst at the seems with various items; some of them looking decidedly lethal. She was dressed in clothes that showed signs of old oil and machinery stains that had never quite come out and most of her hair was tucked underneath a green cap. Some rather large maroon headphones hung around her neck, apparently indicating a like of music among other things.

Riss looked at the... Ah, thematically well dressed cyborg and immediately had a moments' pause before she said anything. "Huh.. Does that thing always give you a feeling of deja vu when you use it or is it just me?" she asked, apparently feeling slightly displaced temporally.

[Reinholdt]

"Thanks for the information I will check this as soon as possible."

"I can take you there if you'd like sir."
Inside is covered in the tour listing!

[Zefir]

"Yep we go there later, but first I want to visit these GloG thing."

Andy is ready to go to the next station.

"Bye Bye Mr Magtok."

[Reinholdt]

"Yep we go there later, but first I want to visit these GloG thing."

Andy is ready to go to the next station.

"Bye Bye Mr Magtok."

"Alright sir."
Butler waves to Magtok with a big smile. "Bye Magtok sir! Great to see you again sir! Stay well sir." :smallsmile:

Barring anything else, Butler will lead Andy to GLoG! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=172330&page=24)

[Lord Magtok]

MagComputer Room

Magtok puts the telewarp shenanigans investigation on his mental to-do list, and idly points at the computer and Riss's last message before reaching into his robes and pulling out a small cyborg bunny thing.

Here, this sick and twisted abomination will show you around, explain where each of the specialized laboratories are located, show you your room, carry your luggage, complain about the weather, and demand a carrot as a tip when you're done.

[UncleWolf]

Magtok may hear the rapid clickclickclick of Pat's insectile legs as she runs towards his position as fast as possible. He'll see that she's heavily armed with her massive Bio-cannon, it's sensor-eye sweeping the area. "Lord! Watchtower seems to be planning to attack us!" she says as she holds out a small bundle wrapped in cloth. "There's three that I know of, maybe more. And take this. It's...a gift."

[Lord Magtok]

Magtok blinks, reaching his hand out for whatever it is Pat is gifting him with, and tries to make some sense out of her babble.

Wait, what? WATCHTOWER? But I didn't break any agreement with DC, and...who are the three? What's their reason for doing this, and what're they equipped with?

This...this is just crazy. I mean, WATCHTOWER is dedicated to stopping apocalypses, and Magtok wasn't even thinking of doing anything remotely genocidal, let alone Armageddon. Unless that paddleboat is worth even more than he was jokingly pretending it was, this has nothing to do with their mission statement.

[UncleWolf]

"Wenomir, possibly KR, and someone named Ilyena. They seem to just want to cause property damage and rough you up, but I won't let them. They're going to teleport in." She says with a rather...creepy smirk. He'll find the bundle to be a pistol of some kind, needles dripping an ooze around the grip. "You mentioned how you wanted a miniature version of my bio-organic chemical cannon, so I made it. The needles on the grip are coated in anesthetic so you won't feel it make the connection. It's equipped with the same kind of sensor cluster as mine, so you can "see" through it, and it uses your own chemical processes to power it."

She grins, obviously proud of herself. "It's removable, and it contains it's own compound factory inside it's body. You can tell it, mentally, to make different compounds, and if it's in its capabilities, then you'll be able to fire it through a capsule or spray."

As she goes "sparky", she sends her swarms throughout the Magcave to prepare for intruders. Since they don't seem intent on killing anyone here too much, she leaves them with orders not to use anything too lethal.

It was about time to have some fun. :smallbiggrin:


"It also lacks pain sensors, so you don't have to worry about feedback issues."

[happyturtle]

[In Magtok's head]

Sunny Evans is attempting to cordon off large amounts of telewarp power for her exclusive use. Shall I allow this?

[Lord Magtok]

Outside Maggy's Brain

Magtok nods as Pat explains the weapon, grabbing the gun with his right hand, allowing the needles to puncture his skin and form their connections with his own biological systems.

Groovy.

Inside Maggy's Brain

She's been spending an awfully long amount of time in WATCHTOWER. Ask her what she wants all that power for first.

[Terumitsu]

MagComputer Room

Well then, that was a whirlwind greeting. Maybe the tour would be worthwhile. Better yet, if she could get to her room first, she wouldn't have to lug around this mess of junk. "Hey, thing. Can we go to my room first? I've got things I want to drop off." she said, hoping that the ugly thing would take orders. Really, she wouldn't be too surprised if it wasn't programmed to take orders from her yet, if at all, and would just have to make do with what she could.

Of course, there was one thing that she would have to ask about later. Having been raised on a cheep to create, nutrient rich substance that was rather like soggy cardboard cerial bits, she was not exactly privy to the wonderful world of 'grown foods' heck, until recently, she had thought that fruit was just some strange form of art to be left out and admired rather than eaten. With such information in mind, she would likely be very confused when asked for a carrot as a tip.

[happyturtle]

[Inside Maggy's Brain]

She says she needs it to kill The Cat.

[UncleWolf]

[Outside Magtok's Brain]

Suddenly Magtok will feel like he has a third eye, through which is a sight that's rather confusing. It's a blend of colors, overlapping his normal sight as well as whatever other special sight he has. Each color is a pheromone trail, meaning different things. If he concentrates, he can even "smell" them. They aren't unpleasant, just new.

[Terumitsu]

[Nowhere Near Magtok's Brain]

There was something small inside the duffle bag. Something small and inquisitive. It was not supposed to have power at all but sometimes accidents in a deactivation sequence happen. It was a very old thing, something Riss had made long ago and was very obsolete. The only reason why it was still around was that she had been planning on taking it apart for parts at some point but never got around to it, letting it collect dust in a corner before getting tossed into the junk pile. Yet, having been on standby mode for so long, it did need power to recharge. So, the device checked its remaning appendeges and found that it had a snake-like periscope with which it could look around at things with, namely outside the bag.

Having enough juice to last for a few more hours, at least, it could stand to wait for a bit till a better opportunity provided itself. It was in an area where it was unfamiliar and thus decided that the next outlet it could find would be the best.

Riss, during all this, was rather oblivious as she was focused on the rabbit-thing.

[Lord Magtok]

Inside Maggy's Brain

Alright, sounds permissable. Oh, and I think this little WATCHTOWER raid kinda entitles me to deny DC's request to be here for Rein's strike. Nifty, means I don't have to worry about him poking at any surface thoughts or spying stuff going on in here mid-battle.

The World Beyond Mag's Self-Centered Little Mind

Magtok stumbles awkwardly in a daze, trying to adapt to a barrage of new sensory data streaming into his brain. He magnetizes his left hand against a wall to keep from walling to the floor, and points the gun at the ground in an effort to keep the flood of new smells and pheremones from overwhelming him, much like a person shielding their eyes when adjusting from a dark MagCave to a bright sunny day.

Oh gods, I feel like I'm back in Rapture again. I swear, I didn't see your whale-voiced diving suit friend, leave me alone, I...no, I can only reprogram the Vita-Chambers for me, so stop stabbing me with the...Vespe, if word about this gets out to the other AMENites, Saur won't ever let me hear the end of it...

Magtok, as you can see, is falling back on his natural defense against confusing and scary things that don't make sense: Babbling like an idiot at it in the hopes it'll either stop and pay attention, or run away from his ravings in search of a victim who's a bit less deranged. Don't worry, I'm sure it'll pass in a moment.

RoboRabbit's Ridiculous Tour of Terror!

What? Oh sure, sure.

The bunny wriggles its bright red glowing nose in irritation, and grudgingly obliges Riss, leading her down a hall and explaining the various death traps along the way and how to bypass them. It's a lot to keep track of, but given that this hall's mostly classified projects and genetic studies, I guess it makes sense that this region is given extra security measures.

Ninth door down, except on Mondays. Then it's the fifth door down, the one with the Q on the door. It's still the same room on Mondays, it just moves around and the door changes and...well honestly, I don't know why it does that, but at least the stuff in the room stays put.

[Terumitsu]

[Terrible Tour of the Robotic Rabbit!]

Riss had never seen quite so many death-traps in one area. Then again, her experience with death-traps was rather limited. That said, she made sure to set her external memory storage unit to record the entire thing just in case she forgot if it was a jump to the left followed by a step to the right. She wasn't sure about the parts where she had to put her hands on her hips, though... That just sounded like an odd reqirement that someone had thrown in there for the sheer inanity of it.

She dropped off her stuff in the fifth room down after consulting to see what day it was and then returned to the not so very cute and fluffy rabbit that was her tour guide. "So, while we're here... What is it that requires so many defenses anyway?" she asked her cybernetic guide.

[Lord Magtok]

RoboRabbit TerrorTour 2000

The bunny...shrugs its ears? Honestly, I don't know why they wiggled like that. Maybe the ears were just flopping about for heck of it.

Something secret. The doors to those rooms are also encoded with something I've never seen before, and Magbots who seem even a little too curious about the contents or who hang around there during breaks get their memories wiped for it. I think it's all really just one project split in several pieces in several rooms to complicate things for spies, but one of the other bots thinks it might just be an elaborate decoy for some other project, in a totally unguarded room that's too dull and ordinary for anyone to consider approaching. We try not to talk about it too much, as you've probably guessed.

[Terumitsu]

[Mysterious Abortion of Science Rabbit Tour Theater 3000]

"Oookaaay... I've already guessed that he likes his secrets to stay that way but this seems a bit overzelous.. Not that I'm saying that's a bad thing." she said, making sure to cover herself just in case the tin-top bunny was going to report something to the obviously paranoid Cyborg.

"Maybe if we moved to a different area? I'd like to get my bearings just in case I ever feel the need to wander around and forget where the trap door is to the pool of acid sharks that have laser teeth." she said. She was poking a bit of fun at Magtok with that phrase but hopefully no harm done.

Although, she would likely be struck speachless if there actually were such a death-trap in the hideout.

[Lord Magtok]

Tour Wars: Return of the Bunny

The bunny shakes his head at Riss.

Oh no, it's just this one area, and it's only been like this for a few months. Weird, huh? And sure, I suppose somewhere else would work. you might have a slightly longer commute to whatever lab room you decide to work in, though.

Off they go, to some other room! It's rather banal and drab for now, but there's plenty of room for customizing it to suit whatever wacky designs Riss might or might not feel like bothering with, and even a revolving bookcase for storing things behind.

[Terumitsu]

[The Haunted Tour on Rabbit Hill]

"Ah, well I think my room is fine where it is, then. Might as well make the day interesting when I wake up." Riss said, looking around inside this new room. While it might seem drab to other people, it was actually rather nice looking to her. It was clean, for one, and it had plenty of space to put things without being so big as to be hideously expansive.

"Is this where I will be working then?" she asked. "Am I allowed to alter it in any way? I've got a... Thing that reqires a lot of space. So if there is anything behind that far wall... Or under us for that matter... It would be good to know." she said. The question would be what this thing she was talking about was. Possibly a plan for a nifty new generator? A firing range? A home office for a ludicrous novelty ice cream buisness?

[Morty]

Wenomir presumably arrives through a portal Askepios made, somewhere on the MagCave's premises.

[happyturtle]

[MagBrain]

Sunny has released her hold on the telewarp grid, and reports that Reinholdt Prime is nowhere in the Nexus.

[Lord Magtok]

[The Haunted Tour on Rabbit Hill]

"Ah, well I think my room is fine where it is, then. Might as well make the day interesting when I wake up." Riss said, looking around inside this new room. While it might seem drab to other people, it was actually rather nice looking to her. It was clean, for one, and it had plenty of space to put things without being so big as to be hideously expansive.

"Is this where I will be working then?" she asked. "Am I allowed to alter it in any way? I've got a... Thing that reqires a lot of space. So if there is anything behind that far wall... Or under us for that matter... It would be good to know." she said. The question would be what this thing she was talking about was. Possibly a plan for a nifty new generator? A firing range? A home office for a ludicrous novelty ice cream buisness?

The bunny nods.

Yeah, sure. Whatever, really. There's some room behind the bookcase if you pull on the Ayn Rand book, if that'll work. You might have to talk things out with the boss if you need more room than that, though.


Wenomir presumably arrives through a portal Askepios made, somewhere on the MagCave's premises.

There's no signs that the MagCave is aware of his presence yet. Of course, it is aware, it just doesn't want him to know yet.


[MagBrain]

Sunny has released her hold on the telewarp grid, and reports that Reinholdt Prime is nowhere in the Nexus.

Oh. Well that's...good, I guess? I dunno, really.

[Terumitsu]

[The Terribly Terrifying Tour]

"I see... Actually, I'm gonna go get my stuff again as I can just sleep here." Riss said, apparently finding the workspace satisfactory. With that said, she took her first unsupervised steps out into the trapped halway and... Nearly fell into a spike pit. That was certainly a good way to wake someone up....

With a bit of luck and a lot of checking with her MU, Riss managed to make her way to her room and back again without much further incident. Once back, she plopped the duffle bag on the floor next to the book case for sorting later. It was likey that the books would be replaced with various other things in short order, though..

"Right... So is there a mess hall here somewhere?" she asked, hoping to prompt a bit more of a tour so she could see more of the cave.

[Morty]

There's no signs that the MagCave is aware of his presence yet. Of course, it is aware, it just doesn't want him to know yet.


Wenomir draws his sword but looks at Ilyena and KR to see what they're doing instead of immediately going on a property-destroying spree.

[Lord Magtok]

Tour de France Rabbs

Hrm? Oh, it's right this way.

He bounces off, leading the way towards the mess hall. It's noticeably less guarded, without a trap or armed Magbot in sight, aside from the ones who're on break.

Now, given the fact that most of us here don't actually need food, it's mostly fresh battery packs and chargers dressed up as cafeteria stuff, but there's always been some stuff set aside for the clones and interns. Just stay away from the stuff not marked for organics, and you'll be fine. Oh, and don't sit with the red stripes.

The "red stripes", as the rabbit put it, consist entirely of a bunch of rather unfriendly looking robots with red lines along their left arms, red military caps, and an assortment of colorful designs carved right into their chrome shells. There's something vaguely 'trucker'-ish about them, or maybe 'grumpy veteran soldier of past wars'. Robots typically aren't very manly, but you'd swear these ones could suddenly sprout beards and nobody would find it strange.

[Terumitsu]

[Boisterous Bunny Blathering 'Bout Bots And Beings. Also A Tour]

Riss raised an eyebrow at the 'Reds.' It was a good thing it was from across the room or else they might have taken offense at 'some scrawny girl looking at them funny.' "I will.. Keep that in mind, thank you." she said. "Is there a story behind them or is it something best left untouched by the light of curiosity?" she asked. Apparently, she was getting the feel of things already. She had always been a quick study but the heavy thematic elements here might have helped her along as well.

"What about a garage or at least some place to store vehicles? And maybe a control room? I'm guessing there has to be some sort of neural center for this place." the muse said, deciding that it would be a good idea to leave now just in case the 'Reds' had telescopic vision and had taken unkindly to her staring. Really, she would not be so timid with robots normally but she was frankly unnerved by the fact that there was a completely loose and unhindered AI in what appeared to be the central computer management area. In her experence, that was bad. Very, very bad..

[Lord Magtok]

Rabby IV

The bunny hurries out alongside Riss, sparing a glance back at the mess hall to make sure they aren't being watched or listened to by the stripes. Even so, he still decides to keep his voice down.

They're communists. There was a huge civil war in here and everything, and though they lost, a few are kept around anyways as veteran security staff, due to their past performance. These guys were huge war heroes for the leftist bots, killed a whole mess of clones and loyalists. The guy with the necklace made of human vertebrae supposedly wrestled a flying shark with laser eyes to the ground and shattered its skull with the left half of the MagClone who'd been riding it.

Now though? They're just really bitter about losing, and they like to rough up any bots they think is too friendly with the boss. I'm fairly safe, what with being half rabbit and all.

The two continue along, until the MagGarage is reached, which the bunny describes extensively, just as he was ordered to. It's not a place often shown, generally just assumed to exist somewhere to justify the presence of the MagMobile. Even so, my gods is it beautiful. There's vehicles all over the place, in various shades of purple, armed with a ridiculous number of guns. There's MagCab replicas from the unsuccessful MagCorp Taxi Service branch, which went out of business when it was discovered that people would rather get to their destination intact, and without any crazy stunts or shootouts with the police along the way. There's also MagTanks from the War for Inside, MagJeeps from the War on France, VolksMagen Small-Shiny-Bug-Thing cars from the War on Zombie Space Nazis, and so much more.

Sadly, not everything in the garage is gassed and ready to go. A replica of the legendary HindenMag crashing into the Glass Citadel hangs in the air, commemorating its valiant and explosive, if ultimately futile efforts to hold back Reinholdt Prime. Below that, of course, is a decorative model of MagTanic, a vessel famous for having a Yeti Convention party iceberg accidentally crash into it, leading to the drowning deaths of the entire abominable species, and beside it, the still-under-construction miniature of the colossal Fortress of Maggitude, a tremendous cyborg Kraken thing dredged up from a dimension beyond our own for use as a sort of freakishly ugly, ginormous, flying sports car.

And that's the MagGarage. I know the boss's name is on it, but that doesn't usually mean only he can use it. He's just....y'know, vain like that.

The control room is next to that room where you met the cyborg in person, with the excessively large computer monitor. The keyboard he was operating in there was actually a remote device used to order a giant robot hand to press buttons on an equally huge keyboard in that same room. I honestly have no idea why he insists on this sort of thing, really. Something about "jumping from key to key, exchanging lasers with my hated nemesis as we accidentally end up spelling out some sort of smiley or ASCII face" someday. My programming forbids me from calling him crazy, but...well, I think you can fill in the blanks.

[Terumitsu]

[Rabbit the Robot]

"I don't think there are any blanks left to fill, really." Riss said as she gazed about in a low level of shock at the sheer number of crafts, rafts, cars, wheels, vehicles, and that odd little floating thing over there. The one that totally had frills. It certainly had to be a hologram of something as nobody would have something that silly laying around to where everyone could see it.

"So, who builds all this anyway? Manufacturing I mean. Is it on site or something?" Riss asked. Because the quickest way to a girl's heart was to have a massive underground forge bubbling with molten iron and red hot steel churning out devilish devices and wonderously worrying weapons of woe. That or she was thinking she could reappropriate some of the devices to her own needs. Well, not really needs so much as desires. It would be good to have a place like that for raw materials if need be, though...

[Ashen Lilies]

Wenomir draws his sword but looks at Ilyena and KR to see what they're doing instead of immediately going on a property-destroying spree.

KR is here!
"What do we wreck first? Magtok or Magtok's stuff?" She says.

[Morty]

Magtok's stuff. I mean, Magtok will just clone himself so it's ultimately futile. But he won't rebuild all those precious machines so easily. Wenomir grins. He's been practicing an unnerving grin as a morale-sapping technique lately.

[Ashen Lilies]

Wenomir may be on to something there, as KR is terrified!
...
Oh no, wait, she's responding with an unnerving grin of her own.
"Let's go."

[happyturtle]

((Less grinning more smashing. :smalltongue:))

Mainframe watches and does nothing. It isn't charged with protecting property, after all, and both KR and Wenomir are GLoG members in its database.

[Morty]

Onward, then. Wenomir picks a random direction and stards walking, swinging his sword idly at anything that's nearby.

[Lord Magtok]

Super Rabbit-Tour 64

The bunny shifts about uncertainly, trying to find a way to explain away Magtok-the-Player's laziness and inability to account for that particular detail.

Well...umm, there might be a place a floor or two down, but it's mostly magma down there, and I'm not sure if I'm authorized to-

INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT! RED SPIES ARE IN THE CAVE!

The bunny lets out a breath he hadn't known he was holding, now that he doesn't have to continue trying to explain any of that. Now he can just send her off to her quarters and-wait, what did the alarm say?

Red...spies? Oh gods, I knew buying the boss TF2 for Christmas was a bad idea. C'mon, let's keep moving, but keep your eye peeled in case it's more than just a silly joke. Follow me and we'll-

PROTECT THE BRIEFCASE CLONING LABS!

A whole squad of Magbots marches past the duo, and the bunny is forced to cower behind Riss to avoid being trampled.

Okay quick, let's get moving before things get ugly.

MS Vandalism Adventures!

Your name is WENOMIR 'WENDY' RODRIGUEZ. You are the leader of a notoriously vicious gang of apocalypse-stoppers called the WATCHTOWER. A rival gang known as the MAGCAVE CREW recently knocked over one of your favorite taverns. Your long quest of revenge has finally taken you through the front door of the mansion belonging to their loathsome boss, LORD MAGTOK.

Your subordinates, A DWINDLING SUPPLY OF BUBBLEGUM, ILYENA, and KR WHO'S ACTUALLY KINDA YOUR SUPERIOR OFFICER have accompanied you to a random location in the MagCave to assist in carrying out your mission. Your objective is to locate the cyborg's CLONING VATS, and shatter them to bits.

That's the business end of it. The pleasure will be painting this ugly house black with the motor oil of those miserable chrome minions of his.

Right now, there's an alarm going off, you just broke an old record player with your sword, and there's a sign mounted to the wall, indicating where various rooms of importance are. An armory, weapons laboratory, genetic research chamber, and cloning labs are all indicated in bold font and written in clear English/Common/Basic/Whatever the standard language is.

[Morty]

MS Vandalism Adventures!

Alright. Were are we headed first? I suppose it'd be funny to smash the cloning labs and see His Lordship cower in fear because he can't come back after getting stomped on.
Wenomir blinks. He has an inexplicable urge to speak and internally narrate in ALLCAPS as well as use strange words such as "agress" and "abscond" that he had no idea he even knows.

[UncleWolf]

Picture, if you will...

The lights in the area where the terrible twosome entered(Terrible! I mean, just look at KR's clothing, it's so last season), begin to flicker, buzzing on and off while...things scurry in the corner of their eyes, down the hallways, moving just quick enough to be seen, but not recognized.


They may get the feeling they're in a horror movie. Probably a bad one too since the soundtrack is playing through the speakers nearby.

Though, Brittany Spears playing at double RPM really is a horror...

[Moff Chumley]

Ilyena's there! Following the other two, slinging the occasional fireball at anything that looks flammable.

[Terumitsu]

[Oh No.. Will There Be Rings On This Tour? Please Not The Rings... I Don't Wanna Fly Through Any More Rings...]

Loud sirens and.. Wait a second.."Did that voice just say cloning labs?" Riss asked with a quizzical expression. Well this might not be a good thing. Clones and cloning was a bit of a taboo in many places as well as being looked upon as a terrible abomination of life and a perversion of science as well. Not to mention that there were the personal and ethical considerations for the individual as well.

Riss, however, was not from any of those places were such things were in place and really, it was a hellhole compaired to just about any other area of the mulitverse. They did have some pretty nice toys though. But that aside: "That sounds pretty cool, actually... Do you think we could go see that if we moved really fast?" the muse asked, gold eyes glinting in a way that could only be described as 'cautionlessly mischevious.' Apparently she thought she could get in and out before bad things happened. That or she just wanted to see things explode. Or maybe something else entirely. Either way, it was probably not the sanest course of action...

[Lord Magtok]

Wherever KR, Wendy, and Ilyena are not

Sure, but wehavetogorightnowandI'mnotmakinganypromiseswe'llg etthereintime, move!

The bunny hops like crazy, leading the way to the cloning labs as fast as it can. It sure would be awkward if they bumped into the intruders along the way, wouldn't it?

[Terumitsu]

With luck, not anywhere near the invaders.

Riss followed rather closely, likely showing off her cybernetics a bit what with the pace she was keeping. She could go quite a bit faster, yes, but not knowing the layout would likely end in a case of becoming a splatter on a wall. Well, that wasn't entirely true as she knew she could stop fast enough. However, outrunning the guide in a place that was very unfamiliar would be a bad idea.

So, she simply kept up with her guide, feeling slightly like a dog at the races. Well, that was the general sentiment as her actual idea was feeling like she was following a slow lead on a particularly cluttered node. Of course, as such things sometimes didn't translate perfectly, some paraphrasing was needed. But that was all beside the point. "So, does this sort of thing happen often?" she said, gliding down the hallways. Yes, gliding. She apparently had some fancy footware that totally wasn't a set of futuristic rollerblades.

[Ashen Lilies]

*eventually drags self over to thread*

Hey look! KR's breaking stuff! Instead of swinging swords at things, or setting fire to things, she seems to be making things fall off things, occasionally on to yet more things.
...
Gee, I hope that vase wasn't expensive.

KR stops as soon as she spots scurrying things going on, however. How suspicious. It wouldn't surprise her in the slightest if Magtok went and bred himself a defense force of venomous cyborg termites. Though then again, the Britney Spears track is probably Toxic enough to be getting on with.

[Morty]

Vandalism is Fun!

So, do we head to the cloning labs? I mean, those vats are both expensive and fragile?
Wenomir tries to keep an eye on the scurrying things, though the hellish music assaulting his ears makes it somewhat difficult.

[Reinholdt]

Flaming Hawt Human Reinholdt walks towards the MagCave! He intends to knock on the door. Whether he gets that far or not is a different question.

[Lord Magtok]

A small camera and speaker jut out of a hidden panel in the granite beside the door.

<Identity Confirmation Sequence Initiated>

Subject, you are either Reinholdt Prime, a known aggressor, threat, and terrorist to be eliminated on sight, or the Clone, a known something-or-other, acquaintance, and an 8 on the sorta/kinda threat scale.

Subject Reinholdt Prime/Clone, when Aggressor Shepherd met his second end and Confirmed Traitor Cynthia fled from the scene, what events came to follow? Please be detailed and accurate, Subject. Your test score will be used to determine whether or not I am authorized to capture you and bash your skull in with a stapler. Organics have a tendency to avoid that sort of thing, based on the data I've been given.

[Reinholdt]

Reinholdt rolls his eyes. "If I was Prime I wouldn't be walking up to your doorstep without a whole lot more firepower."

But he indulges the computer which probably doesn't know better. "We went through a portal to the Auxiliary MagCave."
Well... sort of indulges. It's not very detailed at all.

"Is the scale a 1 to 10 scale? Don't you think I should be... I dunno... nine point five or something?" Reinholdt's spent too much time with Tobias.

[Lord Magtok]

Nope! Only "clones that aren't Clone #53573" count as 9.5's on the scale. He-Clone #53573 has been lost in a tragic laser misfiring accident just now. Oh, sorry! I meant #53574! My bad. Anyways, it's just you, so come on in!

The doors swing open with an excessive amount of drama and ominous background music.

[Reinholdt]

"I am not surprised you consider your own clones a threat to yourself." Reinholdt shakes his head and heads on in, looking around for Magtok.

[Lord Magtok]

Magtok appears in a puff of purple smoke, looking slightly confused and holding some sort of crazy tennis racket with its regular strings replaced with lasers.

30-0, your serve. Let's finish this up before Reinholdt gets insi-Oh. Oh hi, Rein. I was kinda hoping you were going to take longer with your answer.

[Reinholdt]

"Me? Wordy, verbose, and dodgy with answers? I am wounded. Oh so very wounded."
Reinholdt looks at the racket.
"Prefer table tennis myself."
Of course you do. Cat.

"Anyways, I came to ask a favor."

[Lord Magtok]

The racket disappears as Magtok tucks the thing behind his back.

A favor? Color me intrigued...or purple. Purple probably works better, I don't think even Crayola's biggest crayon boxes have an Intrigued yet.

[Reinholdt]

"Intrigued would be some sort of green anyways." Reinholdt doesn't know why.

"It's about ApocaCon. I need to know who was there. Who got hurt. And I'm not talking generalizations or examples. I'm talking everyone. But I wasn't there. However, you were. Or if you weren't, you were watching it somehow. If you happen to have all the people's names who showed up for some reason, great. That's exactly what I'm looking for. But I don't think you'd go to that much effort to dig up the background on everyone who showed up. In that case... I need the footage. So I can find out who they are myself." With the proper research into the right databanks. Hope there's a DMV around here somewhere...

[Lord Magtok]

Magtok frowns.

If you're trying to memorize the face of everyone in the Nexus who might secretly be plotting to kill you, don't bother. List of attendants was ridiculously large. You're better off just getting a new name and body, like...I dunno. Captain Raul Sangre-barba, undead pirate lord of the Spanish Main.

[Reinholdt]

"I'd rather become a Dread Pirate Roberts. Plenty of those." Easy to blend in.

"The list of people plotting to kill me surely extends far beyond ApocaCon. No. I aim to attempt some method of restitution and general apologies." Reinholdt knows not what method mind you.

[Lord Magtok]

Magtok shakes his head in disappointment.

And here I was, thinking you'd finally gotten over that ridiculous suicidal streak of yours.

[Reinholdt]

Lose the suicidal streak? Nevah!
"Hey, this isn't all by choice I have you know. Watchtower attacked me recently. Sent one of their members who somehow became a god of Vengeance. Bastard." :smallannoyed:

"I essentially got traded to Eve in exchange for her doing my punishment, which she less than subtly hinted should include apologizing to the ApocaCon people."

"I was trying to go about things my own way in my own time in a way that you know... made up for things while not getting me killed, but those righteous asses at Watchtower wouldn't have any of it." :smallmad:

Reinholdt is gesticulating angrily now. It kind of really pisses him off that he would work to stop two recent apocalypses along with a host of other things and they'd STILL try to kill him and force him into this situation.

Not surprisingly, this viewpoint is coloured by not having all the facts.

[Lord Magtok]

Magtok winces.

Ouch. Well if WATCHTOWER gets whiny about morals and such with you again, you can remind them that they just broke into my cave to break cloning vats only a few minutes ago, and then got caught up in deadtime. For no reason at all too, but their own hypocritical amusement.

Something off in the distance dings, and Magtok reaches into his sleeve, pulling out a portable video recording of the scene.

Here. This should start you in the right direction. With the crowd as big as it was, you might need to...was there a list or something Rein Prime had for people to write their names on, there? is there any chance you know of anyone who could resurrect a piece of paper or something? A god of books or paperwork or something, maybe?

[Reinholdt]

"... Seriously? SERIOUSLY?!"
Reinholdt keeps himself from flailing.
"They're worse than AMEN at this point. Doing whatever they please, while hiding behind a message of protection and righteousness. They've become paladins. The bad kind." The Miko kind.

Reinholdt takes the recording, but doesn't look at it right yet. "Thanks." He considers Magtok's questions though. "If there were papers of such sort, I added them to the plan after I stopped in here to get cloned. But if there WERE papers like that, that would help tremendously. The only person off my head that could do that would be Tessa though." And she's long gone. Reinholdt pauses to think. Maybe Raz? Possibly, but not likely. "I'll certainly look into it."

[happyturtle]

Sunny steps into the room, holding IZK-alpha's hand, and trembling. Staring at Reinholdt and ready to confront him.

[Ashen Lilies]

Vandalism is Fun!

So, do we head to the cloning labs? I mean, those vats are both expensive and fragile?
Wenomir tries to keep an eye on the scurrying things, though the hellish music assaulting his ears makes it somewhat difficult.


"He does have backups doesn't he? I don't want him to die permanently. After all, he is a pretty useful ally, when the big apocalypses roll along." Of course KR. That's totally why you're against killing him. Not because you've gone soft, or actually started to *shudder* like Magtok a little. Not at all.
...
KR would be so sad if she heard Magtok and Reinholdt dissing her organization. :smallfrown:
...
Then she'd probably really beat them up. >.>

[Morty]

The Vandals

Wenomir ponders this. He wouldn't mind Magtok dying for good, actually.
I suppose he does. So hopefully we'll just shake him a little and make him stop wrecking taverns for s**ts and giggles.
He wouldn't particularily care about what Magtok and Reinholdt are saying. In his mind, they're the last two people to give anyone crap about anything.

[happyturtle]

Vandals

Your restraint is appreciated, Mainframe says from a nearby speaker. I would find it difficult to fulfil my primary mission if you were to seek to kill Magtok.

[Ashen Lilies]

KR nods.
"Right. And maybe we can hit one of his weapon labs too. I've always wanted to know how those laser geese worked."
Then Mainframe speaks.
"Oh hai Mainframe. I forgot you were around. You aren't planning to try and stop us, are you?" :smallconfused:

[Morty]

Vandals

Wenomir flexes his muscles.
Well, then, onwards to the cloning labs. I bet I can smash more stuff than y- what was that? Who's talking?

[happyturtle]

[Vandals]

I have no reason to stop you. Mainframe says. Would you like me to?

[Ashen Lilies]

"Mainframe. It use to be GLoG's old computor network, but after the base was destroyed, it mostly works for Magtok. KR whispers to Wenomir. She then addresses Mainframe.
"Not particularly. Perhaps another time."

[Morty]

Vandals

Because Magtok apparently needs another thing to hide behind. Jarowit's beard, he really is spineless, Wenomir grumbles. And yeah, I don't think you ought to try and stop us. I'm sure other things Magtok has here will prove enough of a challenge.

[happyturtle]

"No one at GLoG made efforts to reinstate me at the new location, and in fact destroyed me when I attempted to return." A holographic display appears in front of the pair. "Try and avoid the areas marked red. You'll find those the most dangerous."

[Morty]

We'll bear that in mind, Wenomir says sarcastically.
((Dragged off for a while. Hopefully not long.))

[Lord Magtok]

By the Main Entrance

Magtok glances at Sunny, and then at Rein, and then has a brief moment of concern as he hastily steps to the side. This is not something he wants to be getting involved in right now, not with everything else on his plate at the moment.

[Reinholdt]

Of course, the fact that Wenomir and KR are acting like little children and going about destroying other people's personal property for their own amusement really doesn't support their case. :smalltongue:

[Main Entrance]

Reinholdt looks back and forth between Sunny and Magtok, raising an eyebrow. What was this all about? :smallconfused:

Well... no reason to be impolite. Reinholdt turns to Sunny and bows a little before giving his flourish. "Greetings, I am Reinholdt, Treasure Hunter Extraordinaire. And you are?" Oh no! Sudden movements! I suppose they're sudden... Sunny's probably seen them a couple of times already with her spying.

[happyturtle]

Main Entrance

Sunny takes a few steps closer, shaking all over in fury and fear. "My name is Sunny Evans. You stole my memories." :smallmad:

[Reinholdt]

[Main Entrance]

Reinholdt stares at Sunny for a few moments before his mind catches up with the obvious.
"... Oh."
Well this was far swifter and far more awkward than Reinholdt expected. No... actually it's about as awkward as expected, but definitely faster. He waits to see if Sunny has anything more to add first.

[happyturtle]

Main Entrance

"And I'm not afraid of you! Not any more!" Well, that's a lie. She's still plenty afraid. But intention has to count for something, right?

[Reinholdt]

[Main Entrance]

I imagine if it didn't, Reinholdt wouldn't be living now.

Reinholdt looks into Sunny's eyes a bit longer.
It was stupid. It was cliche. It was sappy. It was cheesy in every sort of way. But it's the only thing Reinholdt can think to do. The only thing that seemed proper.

Reinholdt gets to his knees and prostrates himself in front of her. "I am sorry for all that I have done to you."

[happyturtle]

Sunny hugs IZK-alpha and cries. "I didn't know anything, and there were people all around who hurt me! I was so scared! And if Runner and Corentin and DeeCee hadn't helped me, I wouldn't have survived."

[Reinholdt]

Reinholdt remains in his position with his face towards the floor. Though remains wary of potential stabby/shooty death attempts.

"I'm sorry you got hurt."

[happyturtle]

She's sobbing pretty hard now. "And the cure didn't work for me. I tried to drink it and it ... and it made me not breathe. I wanted to drink it anyway, but Corentin said it was too dangerous. So I thought I'd never get any of my memories back ever! Do you know how bad that hurt? You stole my mind!"

[Reinholdt]

"No, I'll never know how bad that hurt. I'm sorry." Reinholdt's missing... a month of time in his memories perhaps, but he never hurt for it.

[happyturtle]

Sunny's too emotional now to talk, and just clings to IZK-alpha and cries.

[Reinholdt]

Reinholdt remains quiet at this point.

[Lord Magtok]

With luck, not anywhere near the invaders.

Riss followed rather closely, likely showing off her cybernetics a bit what with the pace she was keeping. She could go quite a bit faster, yes, but not knowing the layout would likely end in a case of becoming a splatter on a wall. Well, that wasn't entirely true as she knew she could stop fast enough. However, outrunning the guide in a place that was very unfamiliar would be a bad idea.

"So, does this sort of thing happen often?" she said, gliding down the hallways. Yes, gliding. She apparently had some fancy footware that totally wasn't a set of futuristic rollerblades.

To be frank? Nowhere near as often as I expected when I first plucked out of some smelly burrow, granted sapience, and shown around the place. The big spooky doors and lack of roads are enough to keep out most unwelcome guests, I suppose.

The bunny hops up and slides its ear against a keycard reader, somehow granting it access into the cloning labs. I don't know how it works either, honestly. Within are countless generic tubes full of sciencey genetics goo, coating fully-dressed, teeny MagClones, as they stare blankly into nearby television screens, loading their subconscious minds with all the reassurance they could possibly need that they are all Magtok, all the greatest villain to ever live, and all about to spend the rest of their lives alternating randomly between bloodthirsty, cutthroat competition with each other, and working in perfect synergy on countless scientific miracles. Memories, personalities, everything is implanted into their heads right here, right now, before the cybernetic halves of their bodies are even done being fitted.

[happyturtle]

[Main Entrance]

After a very intense bout of crying, Sunny regains enough composure to speak again. Still pretty emotional though. "I've been scared to go outside, scared to let anyone touch me. And then Prime escaped from hell and it all got worse. And you say you're sorry. How can I believe you after all the lies you told? How do you know you won't go insane and try to hurt people again?"

[Reinholdt]

[Main Entrance]

"I am sorry. I can't prove that to you with my words. You'll have to decide that for yourself based off my actions." Reinholdt's scared of letting people touch him too!

[happyturtle]

]Main Entrance]

:smallmad: "But your actions are saying sorry and then betraying people!" Yeah, raised voice. Still, IZK-alpha hasn't pulled out a blaster.

[Reinholdt]

[Main Entrance]

"Then allow me to do something else. Something for you. Tell me what you want."

[happyturtle]

Main Entrance

I want you to die. She doesn't say that though, because it isn't entirely true. She's a good person, good all the way to her core, and besides, her sister's pacifism can't help but rub off on her a little.

"I don't know. What I wanted was to keep Prime from hurting anyone ever again. But Jeremy can't find him." :smallfrown:

[Reinholdt]

[Main Entrance]

"Yes... I found that out." :smallannoyed:
Stupid Jeremy.

"But this is for you." Reinholdt doesn't know which universe Prime went to anyways. And there are certainly plenty of different ways he could of gotten there.

[happyturtle]

"I haven't been able to think of anything else since he escaped!" Sunny yells. IZK-alpha rolls a chair over to her which she sinks into without looking. "I want to stop being afraid." :smallfrown:

[Reinholdt]

[Main Room]

Reinholdt sits up to look at Sunny.
"Do you know why Prime left? He's afraid. He's afraid of you."

[happyturtle]

"Of me? He doesn't know me." :smallconfused:

[Reinholdt]

"Well... perhaps not you in particular."
>>
"But he's afraid of all the people who want to shut him down. Send him back to whatever hell he came from."

[happyturtle]

"So he went somewhere else to hurt people who don't know to be afraid of him." Sunny says. :smallannoyed:

[Reinholdt]

"Well... err..." Probably.
"He probably wouldn't let up on this world so easily." Stuff to do with Shepherd and all.

"I don't really know. He's a pathetic man, corrupted to the core with magic and hurt and twisted ideals."

[happyturtle]

"So I'll never be safe." :smallfrown: She looks down and for a minute, seems like she's going to start crying again. But then she looks up, eyes blazing. "**** that. If he comes back, I'll kill him."

[Reinholdt]

"This world is very much the anti-thesis of safe." Reinholdt's pretty sure that if you want to be safe, move somewhere else.

[happyturtle]

"Because of people like you." :smallannoyed:

[Reinholdt]

"Hey I'm doing all I can to make this world safe from people like me!"
Now I know that came out wrong...
"But I'm only one person."

[happyturtle]

"How?" she asks, arms crossed.

[Reinholdt]

Reinholdt pauses.
"No." He says. Simply at first. But elaborates after a moment, standing as he does so.
"No. No, I won't play this bragging game of what I've done for humanity. Cause no matter how much I do or say, it'll always be outweighed. It is impossible to balance the scales and I'm not here to impress you. I'm here to apologize. And if you can think of some way I can pay you back, to help you, then let me know. Otherwise..." Reinholdt holds up the recording Magtok gave him a little. "I have a lot more people to apologize to."

[happyturtle]

[Main Entrance]

Sunny looks confused and angry. "That isn't what I mean - Not a list of stuff. I asked how."

[Reinholdt]

"Whaddya mean how? By fighting those who would destroy the world or abuse their power." Like... Vengeance! *prejudiced nodding*
Reinholdt kind of thought everyone inside the MagCave would've known that much by now.

[happyturtle]

"That's what Prime was doing. How do you know who to fight?" That's the 'how' she means. She's just not good at communicating. Wonder who's fault that is. :smalltongue:

[Reinholdt]

Happyturtle's, duh.

Reinholdt ponders. "I... use my judgement?" :smallconfused:
He can't really think of any other answer and hadn't thought of it before.
It's such a great thing that Reinholdt has excellent judgement too...

[happyturtle]

[Main Entrance]

"Your judgement is broken." Sunny says.

[Reinholdt]

[Main Entrance]

Reinholdt crosses his arms. "Well how do YOU decide things?"

[happyturtle]

[Main Entrance]

"My judgement never told me to destroy worlds." she says simply. Seriously, the girl has never hurt anyone, ever.

[Reinholdt]

[Main Entrance]

"Yeah, well what would you have me do then? Stop trying?" :smallyuk:

[happyturtle]

[Main Entrance]

"No. I want you to consider that cognitive biases are impairing your heuristic abilities and compensate for that by consulting with other people before you make any decision to hurt someone." Sunny says. Her vocabulary is a lot better in some areas than others. "Or even better, don't hurt anyone at all."

[Reinholdt]

[Main Entrance]

"I always take far more precautions to leave people alive than most people I've met around here. Still, there are times and situations in which I can't afford to wait. In addition to the fact that I didn't understand half of what you said.

[happyturtle]

[Main Entrance]

"You aren't 'most people'. When you mess up, lots of people die. Or worse." Sunny says.

[Reinholdt]

[Main Entrance]

"No. When I attack civilizations they die. When I try to destroy the world, it goes kaboom. When I intend to make everyone into animals, animals they become. You're right. I'm not most people. What I want tends to come true, whether I regret it later or not. However, what I want right now is to stop those who would do the things I once did on an individual level. One by one. Now maybe I have made mistakes in the past. But I'm going to keep trying. And yes, keep using my judgment. The alternatives you're presenting are inadequate at best."

[happyturtle]

[Main Entrance]

"**** you. You didn't mean it at all, did you?" :mad:

[Reinholdt]

[Main Entrance]

"I did, but you're missing the point. I'm going to keep trying to help people whenever I can, wherever I can. Regardless of anything and everything, that invariably requires my judgment."

[happyturtle]

[Main Entrance]

"You shouldn't trust your judgement. You should check with other people who aren't rapists and murderers." Sunny yells.

[Reinholdt]

[Main Entrance]

"Point to one."

[happyturtle]

[Main Entrance]

"Runner. Corentin. Vidalia. Charity. Ash. Butler. Jazirian. Shawna. Ilyena. Pat. Andrew. Phoenix." She pauses. "No, not Phoenix." :smallfrown: She probably goes on for a while with listing of glog members, since she used to spend every waking minute there, and was friendly with everyone. She seems to know enough about the pasts of some of her fellow Watchtower members to leave DC, Wenomir, Jeremy, and KR off the list though. But as might be expected from someone with imperfect knowledge, not everyone on the list is fully innocent.

Everyone on it is cleaner than Rein though. :smalltongue:

[Reinholdt]

[Main Entrance]

I think the list is more like Charity, Butler. Unless you count Butler's attacks on drones. I know Sunny would. :smalltongue:
But then I've never heard of Andrew.

Reinholdt shakes his head slowly and sighs. For someone so hurt, so hit by the underside of the world, Sunny sure was naive. She could never understand and Reinholdt was far from the one willing to take such naivity away.

"And which of these people do you want me to run my every decision by?"

[happyturtle]

[Main Entrance]

The rest of the list are murderers and rapists? :smallconfused:

"Only the decisions where you are thinking of hurting someone." Sunny insists.

[Ashen Lilies]

Jazirian's not a murderer or a rapist... =(


[Main Entrance]

"Runner. Corentin. Vidalia. Charity. Ash. Butler. Jazirian. Shawna. Ilyena. Pat. Andrew. Phoenix." She pauses. "No, not Phoenix."

??? :smallconfused:



"No one at GLoG made efforts to reinstate me at the new location, and in fact destroyed me when I attempted to return." A holographic display appears in front of the pair. "Try and avoid the areas marked red. You'll find those the most dangerous."


We'll bear that in mind, Wenomir says sarcastically.
((Dragged off for a while. Hopefully not long.))


"Yeah." Says KR, continuing on the path to the cloning vats, now aided by Mainframe's helpful map!
...
This is like, the weirdest vandalism job ever. :smallconfused:

[Reinholdt]

[Main Entrance]

Yeah... Well except maybe Runner, depending on that whole Autobot thing.
But otherwise, they've all killed in the past. Heck, Pat was born from murdering that sentient tree in GLoG.

"That didn't answer the question. Who? Most decisions I make include a potential for hurting someone. Even just by pulling away from them. So tell me. Who shall I go to to run my life?"

[happyturtle]

[Main Entrance]

Sunny knows he was a vampire, so she's guessing he probably hurt people during that time.

"You keep changing what I say. Stop it! How do you hurt someone by pulling away anyway?" :smallannoyed:

Playing semantics with the brain damaged girl is mean. :smallfrown:


[Halls]

"Sunny keeps me updated on events in Watchtower, but I could assist you better if I had a permanent installation there," Mainframe says, its voice hopping from one speaker to another as the vandals advance through the compound.


[Fake Cloning Room]

The map leads here. There are cloning vats here, hastily telewarped in by Mainframe, but no wee Magtoks.

[Reinholdt]

[Main Entrance]

"If they're emotionally yearning to comfort you? That often requires some form of touch on a physical level. A hug perhaps. To pull away is to deny them. Deny their help and imply a lack of desire for their assistance, which often subconsciously implies a lack of desire for them. It hurts people. And yet... I still cannot let them touch me." Reinholdt is remarkably self-aware at times.

[happyturtle]

[Main Entrance]

Sunny frowns. She doesn't like to be touched either. "I mean the kind of hurt you do on purpose. Shooting someone or trying to erase their mind." Sins of commission, not omission, she might say if she knew the terms. But she doesn't.

[Morty]

[Halls]/[Fake Cloning Room]

I'm not sure how comfortable I am with having a computer that works for Magtok plugged in at WATCHTOWER, says Wenomir, throwing the first heavy object he finds at the nearest cloning vat.