Re: The Savage Brawl [Round 1: Afterlife]
02-23-2010, 08:56 PM
Originally posted on MSPA by slipsicle.
Hoss smiles inwardly. The Doctor's mistrust is well-placed; truth be told, he has other reasons for getting his hands on her precious cannon.
Hoss continues his probing questions while his modifications proceed. Guiding the conversation through the Doctor's past inventions, playing on her pride to keep her talking, Hoss begins to assemble a picture of the humanity of her universe. It is an image strikingly similar to his own, with one exception: he is absent. There were all the same wars of ancient history, all the same scientific breakthroughs, all the same social upheavals. Where their realities deviated was around the time Hoss was born; without Hoss, her humanity remained directionless, pointless, and prone to producing incomprehensible throwbacks like the mad scientist before him. The humanity she describes has grown stagnant, "boring" as she calls it. Her penchant for destruction began as her way of fighting a static universe. Hoss decides he has learned all he needs to from Dr. Anarchy; she is no longer useful as an information source. However, if he plays things right, she can play a different role...
Dr. Anarchy has become quite tired of all this boring talking. This silver robot man promised her explosions and... fun... stuff. Instead he's asking super-boring questions, about super-boring stuff. And... she's answering them, and at some length. She is puzzled by this, but only briefly. She is not aware of Ekelhaft's corruption eating away at the edges of what little sanity she has left; considering she is already quite mad, the corruption instead affects her ability to concentrate, thus her newfound verbosity. Her annoyance is punctuated by a loud drilling noise from across the lake, as Ziirphael bores through the rubble which had previously sealed he and Diego inside the cave.
Dr. Anarchy decides she's had enough of this blathering. Super-powered gun or no super-powered gun, if Hoss doesn't stop tinkering with her precious right now...
"All right, robo-dude. I'm sick of your questions. Gimme back my gun, OR ELSE!"
Hoss had finished his upgrades a while ago; he maintained the illusion of work to buy more time for his questions to be answered. Hoss raises a placating right hand.
"Relax. I have finished."
He recomposes his segmented left hand, and draws the newmatter tendrils back into his body. Dr. Anarchy wastes no time, and grabs her Death Ray. Before Hoss can launch into an explanation of what he's done, she aims randomly and pulls the trigger.
Gravity, as a weapon, is incredibly difficult to harness. Individually the weakest force, it has the ability to compound upon itself, nearly without limit. This is what Hoss has made possible in the center of the Doctor's weapon. A slight modification of its power source and various constituent parts turns her laser into a graviton beam emitter.
The name is misleading. Where other beam weapons emit a plasma or other physically destructive substance from the barrel, a graviton beam emitter does... something a little different. The weapon serves as a focus for the gravitational field directly in front of it, ramping up the force of gravity in a cylinder which appears to come from the weapon's front.
When Dr. Anarchy pulls the trigger on her new death cannon, Hoss's makeshift graviton manipulator fires into action, and the graviton beam slams into existence. A concussion wave pounds out from its path, barreling through Dr. Anarchy's body. The sheer power she experiences sends a surge of adrenaline through her system, her dilated pupils reflecting the beauty before her.
Every gravitational field warps the fabric of spacetime to some extent; the effect being more readily visible with stronger fields. When light passes through this warped spacetime, its path is altered, leading to an apparent magnifying effect. As an example, if one were to observe a black hole, one would only "see" it as a result of the light from stars which it occludes being bent around it. Its edge seems to condense more light than would normally be visible.
The beam which has erupted through the air of the cavern has much the same effect; stray shafts of light are bent and twisted in unpredictable paths, lending a scintillating aspect to the cave's walls. The beam itself is noiseless; it does not have a strong gravitational pull outside its edges, therefore no air rushes towards it, and what few particles are captured simply grow hotter due to a rapid increase in pressure, their energy release delayed until the beam passes from their location. This is where its true damage potential lies.
The coruscate cylinder hammers through the solid rock ceiling of the cavern, crushing everything inside its radius of effect to an impossibly small volume. The contestants fortunate enough to witness the resplendent apparition gape in awe, mesmerized by the whimsical dance of light along its edges. Silence rings through the cavern, foreboding in its potency.
Dr. Anarchy has held the beam on her target for about ten seconds, momentarily lost in the beam's prismatic display, before she releases the trigger. Mayhem reigns.
No longer forced together by an oppressively intense gravitational field, the atomic remnants of destroyed molecules explode outwards in a cataclysmic celebration of their newfound freedom. The heat which had built up as a result of all that trapped energy is released, and a ball of light expands from the last known impact of the graviton beam, spraying chunks of rock and tendrils of calefaction throughout the cavern.
Whooping, Dr. Anarchy turns back to Hoss.
"WOOOYEAH That was AWESOME, robo-dude! I take back everything I said before, this is KICKASS!"
"There are a few things you should know. Your weapon manipulates the gravitational field in a cone in front of it. The narrower the cone, the stronger the field. Conversely, the wider the cone, the weaker the field, yet you also have more control. I've added a few switches which will allow you to change the settings a bit. With a wide cone, you can change the direction of gravity in the affected area, making it point towards you, or away from you. It won't completely counteract the current gravitational field; everything and everyone in front of you will simply behave as if they suddenly found themselves on a steep hill, whose slope is determined by what direction you have chosen gravity to point. When in this widecone setting, the beam has a limited range; about ten meters. After that, the effects begin to taper off."
"Well goolllly gee thanks, Mr. Oldmandude! My handy cannon is now pretty awesome. But that means I don't really need you anymore, so, ta-ta!"
Dr. Anarchy begins a gleeful saunter away from Hoss. She only makes it so far before a low-power warning emanates from her gun. She glances down, puzzlement growing to shock growing to anger as the weapon shuts down completely. Whirling, she finds Hoss wearing a beatific, yet somehow mocking, smile.
Hoss can't help but gloat; his fraying psyche is no longer capable of maintaining his usual monolithic composure.
"Oh yes, one more thing. Your weapon's power source can't completely handle its new demand on its own. Out of the goodness of my... heart... I've tied it into my remote power transfer relay, which will wirelessly transmit the extra power it needs. However, in my weakened state, this transfer has quite the limited range, so you'll have to stay close if you want your gun to work. Oh, and it's probably in your best interest that I remain unharmed; my power grid is currently fragile, and even a slight bump in the wrong place could shut it down completely!"
Dr. Anarchy stares at Hoss as the full understanding of what he's done sinks in.
He's RAPED my baby!, she thinks. He's turned it, and me, into his... slaves! Ooohhh he'll pay for this. I'll find away to crush that ugly mug, and then we'll see who's laughing. ME! I'LL be laughing! HA HA HA. Just like that!
The Doctor, stewing in thoughts of vengeance, nevertheless returns to Hoss's side, recognizing that, until she can find away out of his trap, she must keep him alive.
It does not occur to her that she would have never given him the gun at all, had a certain madgod not been slowly devouring what is left of her rational mind.
Hoss beckons to the angry madwoman.
"Come, gunhand. Let us see what our earlier destruction has brought us. That cave was likely occupied, and we wouldn't want any survivors to have time to recuperate, now would we?"
Positively strutting, Hoss and his newly-acquired crazed mobile weapons platform make their way towards the collapsed cavemouth, and the three figures standing outside it. Hoss has acquired useful data from Dr. Anarchy, but needs more. His next target for interrogation lies ahead...
Unseen, a small stream of thick, green sludge follows the two humans, maleficent aura working its way through their minds. Ekelhaft's success at breaking their sanity is inevitable. It is only a matter of time.
Hoss smiles inwardly. The Doctor's mistrust is well-placed; truth be told, he has other reasons for getting his hands on her precious cannon.
Hoss continues his probing questions while his modifications proceed. Guiding the conversation through the Doctor's past inventions, playing on her pride to keep her talking, Hoss begins to assemble a picture of the humanity of her universe. It is an image strikingly similar to his own, with one exception: he is absent. There were all the same wars of ancient history, all the same scientific breakthroughs, all the same social upheavals. Where their realities deviated was around the time Hoss was born; without Hoss, her humanity remained directionless, pointless, and prone to producing incomprehensible throwbacks like the mad scientist before him. The humanity she describes has grown stagnant, "boring" as she calls it. Her penchant for destruction began as her way of fighting a static universe. Hoss decides he has learned all he needs to from Dr. Anarchy; she is no longer useful as an information source. However, if he plays things right, she can play a different role...
Dr. Anarchy has become quite tired of all this boring talking. This silver robot man promised her explosions and... fun... stuff. Instead he's asking super-boring questions, about super-boring stuff. And... she's answering them, and at some length. She is puzzled by this, but only briefly. She is not aware of Ekelhaft's corruption eating away at the edges of what little sanity she has left; considering she is already quite mad, the corruption instead affects her ability to concentrate, thus her newfound verbosity. Her annoyance is punctuated by a loud drilling noise from across the lake, as Ziirphael bores through the rubble which had previously sealed he and Diego inside the cave.
Dr. Anarchy decides she's had enough of this blathering. Super-powered gun or no super-powered gun, if Hoss doesn't stop tinkering with her precious right now...
"All right, robo-dude. I'm sick of your questions. Gimme back my gun, OR ELSE!"
Hoss had finished his upgrades a while ago; he maintained the illusion of work to buy more time for his questions to be answered. Hoss raises a placating right hand.
"Relax. I have finished."
He recomposes his segmented left hand, and draws the newmatter tendrils back into his body. Dr. Anarchy wastes no time, and grabs her Death Ray. Before Hoss can launch into an explanation of what he's done, she aims randomly and pulls the trigger.
Gravity, as a weapon, is incredibly difficult to harness. Individually the weakest force, it has the ability to compound upon itself, nearly without limit. This is what Hoss has made possible in the center of the Doctor's weapon. A slight modification of its power source and various constituent parts turns her laser into a graviton beam emitter.
The name is misleading. Where other beam weapons emit a plasma or other physically destructive substance from the barrel, a graviton beam emitter does... something a little different. The weapon serves as a focus for the gravitational field directly in front of it, ramping up the force of gravity in a cylinder which appears to come from the weapon's front.
When Dr. Anarchy pulls the trigger on her new death cannon, Hoss's makeshift graviton manipulator fires into action, and the graviton beam slams into existence. A concussion wave pounds out from its path, barreling through Dr. Anarchy's body. The sheer power she experiences sends a surge of adrenaline through her system, her dilated pupils reflecting the beauty before her.
Every gravitational field warps the fabric of spacetime to some extent; the effect being more readily visible with stronger fields. When light passes through this warped spacetime, its path is altered, leading to an apparent magnifying effect. As an example, if one were to observe a black hole, one would only "see" it as a result of the light from stars which it occludes being bent around it. Its edge seems to condense more light than would normally be visible.
The beam which has erupted through the air of the cavern has much the same effect; stray shafts of light are bent and twisted in unpredictable paths, lending a scintillating aspect to the cave's walls. The beam itself is noiseless; it does not have a strong gravitational pull outside its edges, therefore no air rushes towards it, and what few particles are captured simply grow hotter due to a rapid increase in pressure, their energy release delayed until the beam passes from their location. This is where its true damage potential lies.
The coruscate cylinder hammers through the solid rock ceiling of the cavern, crushing everything inside its radius of effect to an impossibly small volume. The contestants fortunate enough to witness the resplendent apparition gape in awe, mesmerized by the whimsical dance of light along its edges. Silence rings through the cavern, foreboding in its potency.
Dr. Anarchy has held the beam on her target for about ten seconds, momentarily lost in the beam's prismatic display, before she releases the trigger. Mayhem reigns.
No longer forced together by an oppressively intense gravitational field, the atomic remnants of destroyed molecules explode outwards in a cataclysmic celebration of their newfound freedom. The heat which had built up as a result of all that trapped energy is released, and a ball of light expands from the last known impact of the graviton beam, spraying chunks of rock and tendrils of calefaction throughout the cavern.
Whooping, Dr. Anarchy turns back to Hoss.
"WOOOYEAH That was AWESOME, robo-dude! I take back everything I said before, this is KICKASS!"
"There are a few things you should know. Your weapon manipulates the gravitational field in a cone in front of it. The narrower the cone, the stronger the field. Conversely, the wider the cone, the weaker the field, yet you also have more control. I've added a few switches which will allow you to change the settings a bit. With a wide cone, you can change the direction of gravity in the affected area, making it point towards you, or away from you. It won't completely counteract the current gravitational field; everything and everyone in front of you will simply behave as if they suddenly found themselves on a steep hill, whose slope is determined by what direction you have chosen gravity to point. When in this widecone setting, the beam has a limited range; about ten meters. After that, the effects begin to taper off."
"Well goolllly gee thanks, Mr. Oldmandude! My handy cannon is now pretty awesome. But that means I don't really need you anymore, so, ta-ta!"
Dr. Anarchy begins a gleeful saunter away from Hoss. She only makes it so far before a low-power warning emanates from her gun. She glances down, puzzlement growing to shock growing to anger as the weapon shuts down completely. Whirling, she finds Hoss wearing a beatific, yet somehow mocking, smile.
Hoss can't help but gloat; his fraying psyche is no longer capable of maintaining his usual monolithic composure.
"Oh yes, one more thing. Your weapon's power source can't completely handle its new demand on its own. Out of the goodness of my... heart... I've tied it into my remote power transfer relay, which will wirelessly transmit the extra power it needs. However, in my weakened state, this transfer has quite the limited range, so you'll have to stay close if you want your gun to work. Oh, and it's probably in your best interest that I remain unharmed; my power grid is currently fragile, and even a slight bump in the wrong place could shut it down completely!"
Dr. Anarchy stares at Hoss as the full understanding of what he's done sinks in.
He's RAPED my baby!, she thinks. He's turned it, and me, into his... slaves! Ooohhh he'll pay for this. I'll find away to crush that ugly mug, and then we'll see who's laughing. ME! I'LL be laughing! HA HA HA. Just like that!
The Doctor, stewing in thoughts of vengeance, nevertheless returns to Hoss's side, recognizing that, until she can find away out of his trap, she must keep him alive.
It does not occur to her that she would have never given him the gun at all, had a certain madgod not been slowly devouring what is left of her rational mind.
Hoss beckons to the angry madwoman.
"Come, gunhand. Let us see what our earlier destruction has brought us. That cave was likely occupied, and we wouldn't want any survivors to have time to recuperate, now would we?"
Positively strutting, Hoss and his newly-acquired crazed mobile weapons platform make their way towards the collapsed cavemouth, and the three figures standing outside it. Hoss has acquired useful data from Dr. Anarchy, but needs more. His next target for interrogation lies ahead...
Unseen, a small stream of thick, green sludge follows the two humans, maleficent aura working its way through their minds. Ekelhaft's success at breaking their sanity is inevitable. It is only a matter of time.