Skyside 5

[Lord Magtok]

[Thunderhead - Junkyard/Warehouse]

As they approach the coordinates, Krystal leans out the window a bit to get a look at the area. She cracks her knuckles as she surveys the scene below.

She nods a bit to Malice, not taking her eyes off the goons. Yeah, should be good. Might hurt a bit, but that's okay. Get to vent some frustrations, too. Always a bonus.

She notices two of them beating on another person. Krystal grits her teeth a bit. She found her first targets.

Krystal points to an alley nearby.

Drop me there.

"Break a leg. Preferably someone else's," Malice waves as Krystal presumably gets out of the cab and gets ready to go on the warpath. He won't be sticking around long enough to make sure Krystal's ambush (or whatever she has planned) goes as intended, however. He's got to get to that third site ASAP, and hope it isn't nearly as well-defended as this one was. A fake gun and literal brass knuckles can only get you so far, and Krystal's probably going to expect him to keep thug casualties to a minimum.

[Earl of Purple]

Tempest Row- Stalking Shunt

Don't let Shunt hear you call it a force-field. It's a telekinetic bubble.

It's a force-field that doesn't work against energies or gasses. So it's not a great force-field, but it does push things away from him. Such as the rocket-fist, which is going to be propelled out of the bubble away from Shunt. Since it's on a cord, it's not going out at the same angle it went in. And that means Shunt has no idea where it could go, unlike bullets and other such things which usually, if they're going to hit him, go out the same way they went in- or nearly so. Inaccurate fire's the worst, because Shunt's bubble doesn't just affect bullets that would have hit him, but also every bullet that gets even remotely close to him.

[Recaiden]

Technically, the skin would count as something unusual, but never mind. Bit late now.

"I do have a Power, yes. It's... Not a pleasant one, and it came with worse side-effects than I'd hoped for. I have rather severe ones." Its side effects included 'physical mutation' and 'weight gain'. He wasn't morbidly obese before he took it. The restraints are strong enough that if the physically-boosted minion tried to grow whilst secured in them, they would slow him down enough for Professor Payne to get away in case said lackey was hostile to him.

He'll help Chevin restrain herself, since it's hard to tie down both wrists, and then ask hir to open hir mouth and inject his serum into her gums. It'll hurt a little. Actually, scratch that- the nerves in the mouth are really sensitive to pain, which is why tooth extraction needs strong pain killers. It's probably hurting more than a little.

It turns out that really does hurt a lot.
Chevin chokes back a scream, settling for whimpering pathetically at the pain of the injection.
Which goes okay. It's not that shi has mechanical limbs, just fairly many mechanical parts in living arms and legs. Still need veins to deliver lubricant and replacement gears, after all, and muscles to work the levers.

As it starts to take effect and generate a Power, objects around the warehouse may find themselves subjected to a force that tends to send them flying towards Chevin in the ominous dentist chair.

We'll have to see how badly the side effects shake out.

[Hattish Thing]

[Thunderhead - Junkyard/Warehouse]

As Krystal draws closer, the pair of junksters assaulting the downed factory worker glance over, cruel half-grins formed upon their masked faces. They seem thoroughly unconcerned with her appearance for several seconds, up until the superheroine tosses several crystalline shards towards their legs, the speed and velocity in which she throws her makeshift blades causing the shards to bury themselves deep, where they can.

The first junkster goes down entirely, collapsing, while the other merely falls to a knee, a thick combat boot having protected his ankle.

--

Immediately in response, the three junksters against the wall draw melee weapons; rusted pipes, spiked chains, and grisly knives. The one at his knee in the front, however, retrieves a pistol before violently slamming the barrel up against the temple of the crumpled figure upon the ground, the innocent factory worker.

Grunting through the pain, the man with the gun pressed upon the other man's head sneers and mutters a threat.

"Nrghhh. Here's your one chance, freak: **** right off, or some kid somewhere's gonna lose a dad."

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Thunderhead - Junkyard/Warehouse]

Well...

****

Time to think fast.

Krystal stopped walking, but she doesn't drop her weapons yet.

Instead, she gives a slight smirk.

Ah. Afraid of taking on a lone woman with a couple of clubs. So you gotta threaten an innocent guy that clearly can't put up a fight anymore. Makes sense. You seem like the type.

Here's hoping the guy decides to aim at her instead of the poor guy on the ground.

[bc56]

Tempest Row Patrol

Peeking into the mechanisms, Ghost can see that it probably is an elevator, and this is probably the top floor. Rather than on counterweights, however, this elevator seems to run on a complicated system based on compressed water pipes. It's hard to say exactly how it works.

[Rebonack]

[Tempest Row Patrol]

Better safe than sorry, right?

Ghost leans back out of the box.

"Looks like an elevator and we're on the top floor," she reports. "Pull that lever, it probably operates it."

And...

Probably best to be careful, too.

Nothing worse than having an elevator open to a bunch of thugs with guns.

That never works well.

[Tempest Row - Stalking Shunt]

The rocket fist is launched off sideways, jerking the cord taunt and yanking the robot over sideways. It was already off balance from its visor being destroyed, and getting pulled around by its fist didn't help matters at all.

Well!

All three robots appear to be destroyed or damaged to the point of being inoperable. And whatever it is they pulled partly out of the pavement is still sitting there in the cavity they had blasted open. And... frankly... that leaves more questions than answers. What IS that thing and why did they want it?

Probably something valuable if they went to all this trouble.

Through the whole scene, the invisible stalker has watched.

And what happens next?

Well.

That should be very instructive.

[Earl of Purple]

Warehouse 89

Nothing in the warehouse resists being pulled towards Chevin, except the chair upon which Professor Payne sits. He's managed to use his considerable weight to brace himself and the chair against the pull. He'll also unshackle one of Chevin's hands before standing and walking- well, waddling, really, holding his immense belly and panting as he moves his considerable weight as fast as he can away from Chevin and the centre of the pulling effect.

The girl kicks off her shoes and steps barefooted onto the concrete, sinking slightly into the surface as her body and clothing transforms into concrete. The bare-chested man bulks up to make himself as heavy as possible, coincidentally making himself stronger and more able to resist the pull, as the electrocutor tries to keep as far from the epicentre as possible; he's not as heavy as Professor Payne, but he's far fitter, and hopefully better able to resist.

Tempest Row- Stalking Shunt

Shunt lowers his telekinetic bubble, and approaches the robots. He'll try to climb onto the most recently disabled one, before channelling a cone of push into the robot's chest. As he's standing on the war-bot, the robot can't be pushed away, so hopefully he'll rip a hole in it... And maybe damage the surface of the road underneath. Then he hops down and goes to look at the thing they were pulling from the road. "Anybody know what this thing is, and what it does? And somebody get to work on scrapping these things before their master turns up to reclaim them. I'm sure there's valuable tech in them. Maybe even stuff that's repairable." Like the servos for the limbs, and some of the metal plating, maybe.

[bc56]

Tempest Row Patrol -> The Belly of the Beast

Recoil steps onto the platform and pulls the lever. With a shudder, the platform begins to rapidly descend. As it falls, the sound of machinery, great cogs turning and huge pistons pumping, grows steadily louder. After a few moments, the elevator arrives safely at the bottom of the shaft. A long and narrow corridor stretches in front of the heroes. The walls are plated in steel, and along the walls are glass pipes full of a glowing blue fluid which illuminates the room in a haunting cast. The liquid in the pipes is being pumped to something ahead, although what it might be can't be seen.

[Rebonack]

[Tempest Row - Stalking Shunt]

There's a nasty sound of rending metal as the torso of the downed bot gets caved in, followed by a flash of sparks and molten metal as its hyper-capacitor power source is violently quenched. That may be somewhat hazardous to Shunt, who happens to be standing on it at the moment. Those storage devices hold a tremendous amount of energy and dumping it all at once is dangerous.

As far as the device yanked out of the street goes...

Shunt will get a bit of mumbling and non-committal answers. Apparently Doctor Diabolical knew what it was. Valued it enough to try and salvage it, too. That's something of a pattern with the mad engineer. Always stealing or finding these weird machines scattered around Skyside. No one is every really clear on who put them there or what they're for. But now that... whatever this thing is has been exposed? The folks living here can bet that other dastardly neerdowells will probably try to lay claim to the thing just because Doc D wants it.

They might have won this little skirmish, but winning just put them in the cross-hairs.

Content to leave its spybots to keep an eye on things, the roof-top stalker slinks away into the night.

One fellow approaches a downed robot, frowning at it. "Plating looks like stainless steel with a bit of chrome. Nothing too valuable," he muses. "We'll need a cutting torch to get it apart."

[Tempest Row -Belly of the Beast]

Ghost steps out into the hall, her motions tense. She's like a coiling spring, ready to fly into action at a moment's notice. It is clear enough that she's fought before, often even. Her form is good, if improvised. It's just this hero thing that's new. Expressions are hard to read with that featureless mask of hers, but her body language suggests nervousness and excitement more than fear.

"Why do these places always have tubes full of glowing fluid?" she mutters to no one in particular as she begins pacing down the hall with even, silent steps.

[Earl of Purple]

Tempest Row- Stalking Shunt

Shunt's going to leave the scrapper to it, because if he were to climb in and just push out he'd probably destroy the most valuable bits as well as recover the cheaper plating intact.

The fact that this thing, whatever it is, is just going to attract more trouble is not welcome news. Shunt could destroy it, deny it to everyone, but that's not helpful. And for all he knows, Doctor Diabolical only wants part of it, not the whole thing, and he's just saving the bad guy some time and trouble. He's new, he doesn't have the contacts with anyone who might be able to figure it out and put it back, or use it for good. He doesn't even have the contacts to get other heroes on board to keep it safe... Unless.

Shunt goes to where he left his bag, and fishes out an old, battered mobile phone with a cracked screen and faded number pad. He dials a number, and rings somebody. "Hey, Professor? I've... Got a thing here. You might be interested. Something Doctor Diabolical wants. What? How am I supposed to send you a picture? You gave me this phone, you know full well it doesn't have a camera. Some big robots ripped it from the road. Three of them. Yes, they're dead, yes, I killed them. ...What do you mean, how? I shoved them around and pushed stuff through their armour. I think you'd be interested because it's dripping green goo, and... And what? No, I don't know what the goo tastes like. Are you insa- actually, don't answer that. I'm not eating the stuff. If you want to know, come here and do it yourself. Sure. Fine. I'll see you soon, then. I'll destroy this piece of junk if you bring a replacement, not before." The other end of the call, if Doctor Diabolical traces it, is Warehouse 89 in a different part of Skyside.

[bc56]

Tempest Row - Belly of the Beast

"I don't know, but I doubt they're zoned for this." Recoil walks beside Ghost, seemingly very casually, but this belies his readiness and confidence. The passage continues for a good 50 feet before ending in a door, a bronze plate etched with geometric patterns. A large round button is on the doorframe. There are two round glass windows built into the door, but they're both fogged over, preventing vision of the room beyond.

[Recaiden]

Nothing in the warehouse resists being pulled towards Chevin, except the chair upon which Professor Payne sits. He's managed to use his considerable weight to brace himself and the chair against the pull. He'll also unshackle one of Chevin's hands before standing and walking- well, waddling, really, holding his immense belly and panting as he moves his considerable weight as fast as he can away from Chevin and the centre of the pulling effect.

The girl kicks off her shoes and steps barefooted onto the concrete, sinking slightly into the surface as her body and clothing transforms into concrete. The bare-chested man bulks up to make himself as heavy as possible, coincidentally making himself stronger and more able to resist the pull, as the electrocutor tries to keep as far from the epicentre as possible; he's not as heavy as Professor Payne, but he's far fitter, and hopefully better able to resist.

The professor's weight will help him waddle off. The pull varies wildly in strength, weak, strong, slowly tapering, flaring up again...
The electrocuter might end up getting dragged in. Depends on how much of his strength he can actually apply to keep himself in place.
Chevin is going to be moderately bruised from all the warrehouse gear pelting towards hir as shi tries to undo the rest of the restraints.

After a minute or so, the Power settles down and things stop flying about.
"So, I guess it worked?"

Stranger things have happened by coincidence.

[Earl of Purple]

Warehouse 89

The electrocutor does have trouble saying still, falling over and finding himself pulled closer to Chevin, which he's not too pleased about.

When the pull has ended, he stands up again, and everyone starts to dust themselves off. Fortunately, none of the other injections have broken, which is good for Chevin's bank balance. Professor Payne pants, exhausted by the exertion. "Yes, that was you. It will take time before you know the limits and figure out the tricks. I can't help with that, all the Powers are different and don't work the same way. Even if another developed your pulling telekinesis, it wouldn't work the same way. Nobody can help you learn how to do what you do better." He's guessing it's pulling telekinesis, though it could be limited gravity manipulation.

I think payment's a thing that still needs doing? Chevin can leave without paying, but she may have some difficulty, since that's why the Professor has goons.

[Recaiden]

Chevin got out the payment while asking hir questions a page ago. The coins are probably scattered around the warehouse a bit now. Whoops.

"Don't worry, I mostly remember how my powers work. I look forward to seeing them in action." Shi finally finishes undoing the restraints - hir fingers are oscillating jerkily still - gets to hir feet, and immediately crashes to the ground. Hir Power pulling the floor of the warehouse closer, side effects, or just ordinary clumsiness? Hard to say.
"Ow."
"Do people ever, uh, have the same Power? Is it impossible, or just unlikely?

[Earl of Purple]

Warehouse 89

"Each dose is slightly different. Can't be helped, given the nature of the ingredients. On top of that, each person is slightly different. Even twins are different, shaped by different experiences and memories. So whilst I don't want to say it's impossible; really, nothing is impossible if you try hard enough, it is really, really unlikely. And I've never seen the point in trying hard enough. Half the fun is in seeing how the subtle differences in formula interact with the subtle differences in biology. Even if they look similar, they're different. If another person got pig-mask's lightning throw, they might be more, or less accurate, or throw it in a different way, or it might be a beam of electrically-charged light, or a different colour, or voltage. Or they might have different side-effects. Maybe they can see electrical fields, maybe they can use their power to operate electrical goods instead of a conventional power supply. Or they can convert electric currents into energy they can use instead of eating. Or it might even be so simple as not glowing from within every time they throw a bolt of lightning." It's hard to tell the pig-masked electrocutor glows when he uses his power because he's got clothes in the way. Speaking of, he's managed to stand up now.

The dog-masked brute shrinks back down to his usual form, holding his trousers as he walks off to fetch a new belt. Sudden growth isn't great when it doesn't affect clothing. The cat-masked statue steps up out of the concrete floor and lowers her power, turning back into clothing and flesh. She's left footprints in the concrete behind her, though she doesn't appear to have noticed.

[Rebonack]

[Tempest Row - Belly of the Beast]

"Zoning?" Ghost asks. The way she airs the question suggests that she might not be sure what Recoil means by that.

Come to think of it, Ghost isn't THAT tall. It's quite possible that she isn't that old. Practically a kid who stumbled onto super powers somehow.

That wouldn't be TOO weird, though.

That's Captain Marvel (I won't call him Shazam, shut up) and Spiderman's whole MO, isn't it?

Totally normal for super heroes.

Regardless!

Ghost pushes the button.

Because... you know, why not? She could peak through the door, but that would allow whoever is on the other side to see her. Probably. If they happen to be watching the door.

[Tempest Row - Stalking Shunt]

As it happens, Doc D doesn't have any stingray towers set up in the immediate area, so he has no way of tracking cell phones. That sort of thing would probably be reserved for areas with more cell traffic. And let's be real here, Tempest Row isn't exactly the ritzy sort of neighborhood were cell phones would be carried around commonly.

Which means...!

Shunt is basically free to finish up his evening.

Yay?

[bc56]

Tempest Row - Belly of the Beast

"It's a legal thing. You're only allowed to build certain things in certain areas," Recoil says as the door slides into the ceiling. Beyond it is...

.. an empty room?
Well, not quite empty. The pipes of blue liquid are here as well, running along the ceiling and terminating in a metal vat which stands in the center of the room. The metal is the same as the blade of the knife that Ghost took off the dwarf, slightly bluish and not like any typical alloy. There are two other doors out of the room as well, identical to the one that the heroes just opened. In addition, four large hyraulic pumps are in the room, clearly the mechanism by which the fluid flows. One sits in each corner of the chamber.
However, if anyone was expecting a boss fight, it's not here.

[Rebonack]

[Tempest Row - Belly of the Beast]

"Oh," Ghost hums. "I wouldn't think people around here would care much about that?"

What with all the mad science and evil industrialists.

Zoning violations would be where they draw the line?

And then-!

ROOM!

Kind of a neat room.

But not much going on.

Aside from the weird tank full of blue goop.

"This room seems awfully big for just holding that thing," she says as she moves closer to inspect it.

[bc56]

Tempest Row - Belly of the Beast

"Yeah, I smell a trap." Recoil cautiously moves into the room as well. Once both heroes are in the room, suddenly, the door closes with a rush of air. Compartments in the walls open, disgorging four more spider bots. Two are the same as the ones encountered upstairs, whereas the other two are larger and more robust, carrying tanks of the blue fluid on their backs, and their brass shells crackling with lightning.

[Earl of Purple]

Tempest Row- Stalking Shunt

About twenty minutes after the phone call, a battered van pulls up. It's got four mismatched wheels; they're all the same approximate size, but the tyres don't match (except by all being worn nearly bare) and each was produced by a different company. The panels and doors are likewise from different original vehicles, and it's likely that, like many of the cheaper vehicles in Skyside, it was built in a warehouse by mechanics from scrap, maybe with the odd decent stolen part. Or perhaps that's just what it's intended to look like.

After it pulls up, the doors open without falling off, which is a little surprising. Out hop three people. First is a young man wearing a pair of loose trousers held up by a belt with a lot of added holes for the buckle, his torso bare and not especially impressive, with a hairy belly. He's also wearing a dog mask. Next is a woman wearing a white lab coat and a cat mask hiding her face and slotting over her head. Finally, an obese man hauls himself from the driver's seat. He's not wearing a mask, just a white lab coat that hangs open because it doesn't fit over his vast belly, and a black t-shirt that fails to conceal the entirety of his paunch.

Shunt walks over. "Will you be able to lift it? No offence, but it's big, and the people you've brought don't look strong." He looks the two masked people over, who in turn stare back.
"Of course, of course! Heavyhanded, Statuette, see if you can lift the thing." Professor Payne waves them over. Heavyhanded, the bare-chested man moves first. As he walks forward, he reaches down and loosens his belt as he bulks up in muscle. He grows another half a metre and splits his arms into two, so he has four, and his fingers likewise split to make his hands wider and more grippy. Statuette, the woman, touches the side of the van and her hand turns to metal, the slightly rusty iron-grey of the van's bodywork continuing up her arm and from there across the rest of her body- complete with faded and chipped white paint. Shunt shuts up and the two powered individuals walk forwards to pick up the piece of equipment revealed by Doctor Diabolical's plan.

Professor Payne tosses a bag at Shunt, who catches it. "Some money, and a replacement burner. Destroy the old one." Shunt nods and drops his mobile onto the ground, steps over it and activates his cone centred on it so it takes the full blast and gets smashed into smithereens by the focused force of Shunt's telekinesis.

[Rebonack]

[Tempest Row - Belly of the Beast]

Ghost frowns behind her mask. "It's, 'I got a bad feeling about this,'" she retorts, just as the killer robots are released into the room. "That's a classic."

She draws the pistol at her hip, takes aim at one of the bulky electro-spiders, and fires off a pulse of stone shattering, metal rending force.

"Or maybe, 'It's quiet, too quiet,' if you really have to."

These things are important!

Gotta keep things up to cinematic standards.

Otherwise how will Ghost and Recoil ever get their own movie?

Sure saving the day is amazing, but getting your own movie? That's really cool!

After popping off a shot, Ghost needs to wait a few seconds for her power to build itself back up again. In the mean time she breaks into a sprint, aiming to keep distance between herself and the shocker bots even if it means getting dangerously close to the stabby ones. She's pretty sure her suit can take a few hits from the stab-bots. They're a known threat. The lightning bots? Not so much.

[Recaiden]

"Each dose is slightly different. Can't be helped, given the nature of the ingredients. On top of that, each person is slightly different. Even twins are different, shaped by different experiences and memories. So whilst I don't want to say it's impossible; really, nothing is impossible if you try hard enough, it is really, really unlikely. And I've never seen the point in trying hard enough. Half the fun is in seeing how the subtle differences in formula interact with the subtle differences in biology. Even if they look similar, they're different. If another person got pig-mask's lightning throw, they might be more, or less accurate, or throw it in a different way, or it might be a beam of electrically-charged light, or a different colour, or voltage. Or they might have different side-effects. Maybe they can see electrical fields, maybe they can use their power to operate electrical goods instead of a conventional power supply. Or they can convert electric currents into energy they can use instead of eating. Or it might even be so simple as not glowing from within every time they throw a bolt of lightning." It's hard to tell the pig-masked electrocutor glows when he uses his power because he's got clothes in the way. Speaking of, he's managed to stand up now.

The dog-masked brute shrinks back down to his usual form, holding his trousers as he walks off to fetch a new belt. Sudden growth isn't great when it doesn't affect clothing. The cat-masked statue steps up out of the concrete floor and lowers her power, turning back into clothing and flesh. She's left footprints in the concrete behind her, though she doesn't appear to have noticed.

Chevin starts leaving the warehouse again, more carefully this time.
"Well, sometimes you can't get to 'hard enough' from where you start, but yeah, that seems mostly the right way to think about it. I mean, why not? People love consistency."
"Anyway, good work, don't stay too easy to find once the villains start lining up for powers."
Shi waves to the henchmasks on the way out the door.

...
That went way too well. Does he really just want the money?

[Rebonack]

[Tempest Row - Shunt's Neighborhood]

As the weird canister is manhandled, anyone with any degree of biology knowledge will probably be able to tell that the 'glowing' green goop is just algae suspended in a nutrient solution. It only APPEARS to be glowing due to lamps on the inside of the canister supplying the algae with light.

What would the point of such a thing be?

And why on earth would Doctor Diabolical be interest in it?

More questions are added when the metal worker gives a yell as he peels away the outer armor plating from one of the robots Shunt had smashed the torso of.

"Ugh! It smells like something rotten got cooked in there."

Sure enough, there's a strong scent of broiled fat to go along with the whiff of ozone from cut metal and quenched hyper-capacitors.

Why would there be something organic inside-

Oh right!

Doctor Diabolical's 'robots' tend to have brains in them. Though it sounds like the one being observed at the moment isn't very intact. They would need to have an un-exploded torso to get any real information on them considering that sufficient heat to sublimate steel is going to cook neural tissue in a hurry.

[Earl of Purple]

Warehouse 89

"Not in superheroes and supervillains, they don't. Everyone's got to be different for marketability. If everyone's wandering around with the same variety and degree of super-strength, the victors aren't the ones with super-strength. It's the ones who can be smart with their strength, the ones that have boosted their natural strength so the enhancement already lies on top of impressive physical ability." It's Professor Payne's professional opinion that consistency is over-rated.

"Oh, my dear. This is Skyside. What gives you the impression there's any difference between the heroes and the villains? They all dress in funny costumes and use powers to further their own aims. Speaking of, if you find anything... Unusual, especially if it's organic or chemical, I'll buy it from you. Organs from strange mutants, vats of glowy chemicals, that sort of thing. Here, take this burner phone. My number's programmed into it, just click one repeatedly." Professor Payne reaches into an inside pocket of his labcoat and pulls out a very old fashioned mobile phone. It's at least ten years old, and could be fifteen.

Tempest Row- Shunt's Neighbourhood

"Wait, stop. Drop that thing, it's only algae. Crack the other robots up, I want whatever that is inside." Statuette and Heavyhanded nod, dropping the bio-furnace and heading to the robots. Statuette pulls out a machete from inside her lab coat and starts to carve away at the side of the robot; as she pulls it out, there's a ripple as the metal of her body briefly becomes person and clothing again, before turning back into metal- but this time, rather than the rusty steel of the van, she's high-quality machete cutting steel. She'll start to cut at the side of the least damaged robot as Heavyhanded reaches forward and grabs the edges already cut to force them further apart so she can salvage the brains and, if possible, the fluid surrounding it.

[bc56]

Tempest Row - Belly of the Beast

It's probably a bit early to be thinking about movie rights yet, this is only Ghost's first mission.
The electric spider takes the hit, and endures. It's shell gets heavily dented, but it's clearly far sturdier than the smaller spiders, one of which stabs at her leg, and the other of which just got broken to pieces when Jason punched it. The two electric spiders are slower, they move in, trying to trap the heroes between them.

[Rebonack]

[Tempest Row - Shunt's Neighborhood]

The remaining robots are torn open! Unfortunately, the damage Shunt did to them caused their power units to dump all the stored energy. Which means... basically everything in their torsos has been melted into slag.

Doc D's robots are known for this, actually. Disabling them without causing them to self destruct and melt all their really good parts is a large factor in why getting one intact is such a prize. Sure, all the bits for moving limbs and the like are still there. And the death ray in one of them is probably salvageable. But the hyper capacitor, digital processor, and wetware protected inside the torso are toast.

That's...

A shame, really.

There are ways to disable these things without them melting themselves, but it's tricky.

The safest method, of course, is finding some way to tap their power supply and prevent it from violently quenching when they're destroyed.

But that's easier said than done.

[Tempest Row - The Belly of the Beast]

It is NEVER too early to be thinking about movie rights!

Ghost gives a grimace as the robot jabs her in the leg, and she retaliates by trying bring her foot down hard on the thing with two quick stomps. The amount of force there is pretty significant. Apparently she doesn't have the limitation on recharge with melee attacks like she does with her pistol.

Speaking of!

Another blast of force is launched at the already damaged robot, aiming at parts of it that look compromised. That done, Ghost will scan the room for anything she can try leaping on top of. Those lightning bots are getting too close for comfort.

[Earl of Purple]

Tempest Row- Shunt's Neighbourhood

"Well. Grab the algae anyway. And that death ray thing. This was... Nearly a waste of time. Still, here. For you. Next time, smash one of those robots without damaging the torso, or don't bother calling me after. OK?" Professor Payne tosses over a bag of coins to Shunt, before climbing into the car whilst Statuette and Heavyhanded haul the big bio-furnace to the van. Once it's loaded, Statuette returns to her natural state and Heavyhanded goes to grab what he thinks is the death ray before they all climb aboard the van and drive off, back to Warehouse 89.

[bc56]

Tempest Row - Belly of the Beast

Another one of the small spiders is destroyed, and Ghost's shot hits the larger spider and smashes open its casing. The blue fluid leaks out, glowing as it flows into a pool, then cooling and darkening in a puddle around the machine's carcass.
If Ghost is looking for a safe place to stand, she could try the edge of the vat, however she would risk falling into the blue stuff, and who knows what that might do.
The last spider closes in and launches out a Volley of lightning bolts at everything nearby it, including the two heroes. Recoil jumps away, but not fast enough, a bolt catches his leg and he looses control of his leap, crashing to the ground. Maybe Ghost is luckier?

[Rebonack]

[Tempest Row - Shunt]

If Shunt hadn't used that finishing attack on the last robot, it probably would have been salvageable. But lesson learned, right? At least he got some valuable combat experience and learned some new tricks.

The robots and algae furnace will be collected without too much trouble-

-though due to how it was wired into the power grid lights in half the neighborhood just went out.

Whoops!

[Belly of the Beast]

Ghost tries going incorporeal as she leaps away from the lightning bot!

"AAAAAAGH!"

Well.

Looks like her incorporealness doesn't protect her from lightning attacks. That's an important thing to remember.

She thumps to the ground, still aching all over, and quickly scrambles away. She flops over onto her back and unloads another force pulse at the machine!

Pew!