Re: The Savage Brawl [Round 1: Afterlife]
03-09-2010, 09:24 PM
Originally posted on MSPA by slipsicle.
The old machine glares at Calm. It takes three steps forward. The fourth step never touches the ground.
Given that Hoss has had no previous contact with Calm before this instant, he is unaware of the strength the demon possesses. And what Hoss does not know, so too with the cyborg.
A single punch, delivered with inhuman strength, and at speeds which a machine currently struggling with its host mind cannot react in time to, serves sufficient to send the cyborg flying backwards. It recovers quickly, but its intent focus on Calm does not alert it to the raging meat which has positioned itself to tackle the cyborg upon its landing.
Heavy, fleshy noodles envelope Hoss's construct in an abyssal embrace, every gram of force Gormand can muster in his noodley appendages working towards a singular purpose: to crush the metal he has seized.
Calm, not one to lose such an opportunity (a strangely fortuitous one, considering his oft calamitous relations which Lady Luck), lunges, hellknife in hand. Even before it reaches them, its blaze blisters Gormand's flesh, and singes the cyborg's tattered overcoat.
Calm's aim is true. His knife sears through hardened, artificial flesh, and strikes the magnetic shielding of Hoss's dormant black hole heart.
The result is anticlimactic. The hellknife merely slides off, tracing a burning path through the cyborg's chest. Calm pulls back in time to prevent serious injury to his ally of convenience, and Gormand, seeing that his crushing power is yet insufficient to overcome the cyborg's shell, instead tosses it aside.
It lands unceremoniously amidst a pile of rubble. Its limbs flop uselessly as it hits the ground. Calm and Gormand share a confused glance (mostly Calm, since Gormand's single eye is more for show than anything); the cyborg had previously shown near-instantaneous reaction to any obstacle. Now, it appears almost... shut down.
In this case, appearances are not misleading. The scattered fragments of Hoss have finally come together within his vessel's mind. The cyborg's unthinking rage has set him back quite a bit; where his previous energy reserves had been enough to last him for weeks, given the injection of reaction mass earlier, the cyborg has, in its recklessness, wasted almost all of that buffer. Hoss decides to deal with that later. He replays the events of his insanity to come up to speed with his current situation; the explosion, the awakening of a god (which he supposes is likely; magic being a reality here, so must gods), the slaughtering of zombies, the arrival and subsequent battle between himself and the other inhabitants of the cave, minus one Diego Red. Hoss gathers himself and reviews his next steps. His first priority is the two beings advancing upon his position, one of which has wounded him severely. His second priority will then be to find more reaction mass. Again. His third priority is to protect against future breaches in will.
As Hoss spreads his indomitable will back through his vessel's neurons, both organic and cybernetic, his body is left temporarily offline. Lying in the rubble, the ancient machine slowly begins to surrender to its master. Its muscles twitch. It begins to move.
When it rises, it is Hand of Silver which gazes out through its mercurial eyes, now using methods other than simple violence to consider how to deal with the approaching entities.
Given that Hoss has had no previous contact with Calm before this instant, he is unaware of the strength the demon possesses. And what Hoss does not know, so too with the cyborg.
A single punch, delivered with inhuman strength, and at speeds which a machine currently struggling with its host mind cannot react in time to, serves sufficient to send the cyborg flying backwards. It recovers quickly, but its intent focus on Calm does not alert it to the raging meat which has positioned itself to tackle the cyborg upon its landing.
Heavy, fleshy noodles envelope Hoss's construct in an abyssal embrace, every gram of force Gormand can muster in his noodley appendages working towards a singular purpose: to crush the metal he has seized.
Calm, not one to lose such an opportunity (a strangely fortuitous one, considering his oft calamitous relations which Lady Luck), lunges, hellknife in hand. Even before it reaches them, its blaze blisters Gormand's flesh, and singes the cyborg's tattered overcoat.
Calm's aim is true. His knife sears through hardened, artificial flesh, and strikes the magnetic shielding of Hoss's dormant black hole heart.
The result is anticlimactic. The hellknife merely slides off, tracing a burning path through the cyborg's chest. Calm pulls back in time to prevent serious injury to his ally of convenience, and Gormand, seeing that his crushing power is yet insufficient to overcome the cyborg's shell, instead tosses it aside.
It lands unceremoniously amidst a pile of rubble. Its limbs flop uselessly as it hits the ground. Calm and Gormand share a confused glance (mostly Calm, since Gormand's single eye is more for show than anything); the cyborg had previously shown near-instantaneous reaction to any obstacle. Now, it appears almost... shut down.
In this case, appearances are not misleading. The scattered fragments of Hoss have finally come together within his vessel's mind. The cyborg's unthinking rage has set him back quite a bit; where his previous energy reserves had been enough to last him for weeks, given the injection of reaction mass earlier, the cyborg has, in its recklessness, wasted almost all of that buffer. Hoss decides to deal with that later. He replays the events of his insanity to come up to speed with his current situation; the explosion, the awakening of a god (which he supposes is likely; magic being a reality here, so must gods), the slaughtering of zombies, the arrival and subsequent battle between himself and the other inhabitants of the cave, minus one Diego Red. Hoss gathers himself and reviews his next steps. His first priority is the two beings advancing upon his position, one of which has wounded him severely. His second priority will then be to find more reaction mass. Again. His third priority is to protect against future breaches in will.
As Hoss spreads his indomitable will back through his vessel's neurons, both organic and cybernetic, his body is left temporarily offline. Lying in the rubble, the ancient machine slowly begins to surrender to its master. Its muscles twitch. It begins to move.
When it rises, it is Hand of Silver which gazes out through its mercurial eyes, now using methods other than simple violence to consider how to deal with the approaching entities.