Re: The Savage Brawl [Round 3: Abandoned Park]
07-07-2010, 03:39 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by slipsicle.
Hoss had detected the falling pillar and subsequent damage some distance ahead, and guessed its origin and purpose quite accurately. His chance to strike was now. Kinetic emitters fired, and, with his hands crossed before him to shield from the impacts, he propelled himself through the remaining stone walls to come across a mound of rubble bleeding green, burbling ooze. A probing eye cast its gaze across Hoss, and suddenly the entire mass of rubble and blob lurched towards him. Hoss jumped, and came down on top of the hillock of psychotic rubble. Tendrils of green sprouting chainsaws of teeth screeched their way towards the descending cyborg, enveloping him.
Hoss swam through an acidic ocean of screams, single blade-arm slicing at every motion. His kinetic emitters fired bursts from knees and elbows, augmenting his blows and propelling him upwards once more. He broke the surface of the mass of ooze, fighting to stay afloat in a sea of madness. Ekelhaft, having absorbed the rubble which encased it previously, had increased in size, and seemingly in ferocity as well. Sickly webs of acid grabbed at a struggling Hoss, whose movements mimicked the vain bid for escape of one trapped in a tar pit.
An array of teeth sawed towards his face, deflected at the last minute by his synthetic arm; the blow, however, was enough to send him under once more. He sank, and as his feet touched-
-the cold, metallic floor of his ship, he realized how hopeless the situation was. Its hull falling apart around him, glimpses of the endless maw of madness itself, rending the fabric of his sanity could be seen through the failing emergency forcefields. An explosion rang through the thinning air, blasting him towards a bulkhead. His head hit-
-the ground, he fired another kinetic burst from his back. A bulge on Ekelhaft's side expanded and expelled a tattered Hoss. The mass moved once more, roiling across the ground, evincing yet more claws and buzz-saw teeth. Hoss stood his ground, ignoring the remnants of ooze which still clung to him, attacking him in any way they could. The mound of green reared, and Hoss readied the gravity blade, waiting for-
-that one, special moment when all would become clear to him. His hands beat his head, wondering why. Why wasn't his plan working? He'd done everything right, but the Equatorial nations weren't cooperating! Their subservience was key to the eventual formation of his Empire, but those wicked, twisted lumps of animals were laughing at him, he knew it, laughing and screaming and melting and dying and why couldn't they see how important the Space Elevator was? He glared out his windows, as if in the cityscape below he would find-
-the moment to strike. The blade vibrated, not just due to Self's struggle for freedom. The mass descended, and Hoss leapt, blade thrust before him. Its center swelled and its tip extended, forming an expanding sphere into which the falling ooze and teeth and claws were sucked irretrievably. The sphere tore a path through the acidic rain of insanity though which Hoss flew. Turning mid-air, he retracted the blade to its original form, further compacting the new detritus to join Self in its prison. With his feet now facing a recovering Ekelhaft, Hoss released the energy he'd been building up in his lower kinetic emitters through a forced feedback loop. A blast of pure kinetic energy flattened the blob against the ground, and flung Hoss into the air.
Not one to waste a movement, Hoss allowed his feet to overtake his head, flipping 'round and firing another blast from his lower emitters, instantly reversing his path and flying back down towards the burbling ground. The edges of the flattened Ekelhaft raised themselves to form a cauldron of deadly ooze around the hungry mouths which had opened to meet the descending tyrant.
Focused as he was on the mouths, Hoss did not notice a tendril flash towards his right arm. Razer-sharp teeth latch onto his bicep, churning and sawing through artificial skin and synthetic muscle, and the tendril whipped back, tearing the arm from its socket. Hoss screamed in-
-pain. He'd never felt this much pain before, never in his life! Tears streamed down his face, streaking his ash-stained cheeks as he lay against the wall. His lab, his team, his arm... gone, all because of one stupid mistake. He clenched his teeth against the shooting agony from his empty left shoulder as he tried to stand. His right hand, his only hand, held the makeshift tourniquet in place. He stumbled out of the ruins of his lab, glancing behind him at the fading eye of insanity, glaring back at him, daring him to succumb to its influence, whispering horrific truths. "It's your fault," the eye seemed to say, a sentiment echoed by the rotting, suddenly-maggot-filled bodies of his friends and co-workers. As they dissolved into puddles of an acidic green ooze, the eye shivered, single pupil dilating when he finally turned away. A stony resolve took hold of his features as he muttered to himself, "I need a new arm."
He lurched into the ruined hallway, trying not to whimper in-
-rage. The dirty, filthy alien had taken his arm! Ekelhaft's attack had also thrown Hoss off-balance during his descent, which sent him reeling into one of Ekelhaft's open mouths.
The mouth closed as his legs entered it, trapping him in the middle of the closing sphere of Ekelhaft. Left only with his blade arm, Hoss's options were limited. The blade was quickly becoming more of a handicap than a resource, but he was reluctant to reconfigure the arm and release the captured bits of Ekelhaft. However, he had run out of options.
The blade began to dim, and Self's prison to weaken and fade.
Before the process had finished, Self erupted from its cylindrical form at Hoss's wrist and swam up his arm, biting and slashing and frothing at every surface along the way until it finally reached his face. The ooze wormed its way through every orifice, infiltrating the multitude of malfunctioning safeguards and barriers until it finally reached Hoss's organic center: his brain.
At this point, the sphere of green ooze closed, and convulsed inwards.
Hoss vanished from view.
Inside the blob, Self and Ekelhaft both tore at Hoss's body and mind. Last-minute defense systems kicked in, shielding his brain from Self's intrusion, but the blob's proximity was enough to tear his mind from the cliff of sanity.
Rationality left the cyborg once more, and a vessel of destruction was reawakened inside the boiling sphere of madness.
---------------
Emperor Sol I of the Star Empire of Sol touched his brow, briefly. Something... seemed to be off, but he couldn't quite place it. "Probably the quantum interference field..." he muttered.
He was standing underneath a massive array of pipes and rusted metal walls, in the industrial underground of one of the Outer Planets' largest production cities. Steam and other more questionable gases erupted from the decaying pipeworks around him. Drops of unknown fluid were repelled by his high-tech disguise; to any without the correct quantumly entangled key, he would appear a simple repairman. Luckily, the agent he was here to meet had such a key and should be arriving soon. It should give him some time to nail down the kinks in this system; there were some errant data suggesting he'd just been in some kind of fight...
Hoss had detected the falling pillar and subsequent damage some distance ahead, and guessed its origin and purpose quite accurately. His chance to strike was now. Kinetic emitters fired, and, with his hands crossed before him to shield from the impacts, he propelled himself through the remaining stone walls to come across a mound of rubble bleeding green, burbling ooze. A probing eye cast its gaze across Hoss, and suddenly the entire mass of rubble and blob lurched towards him. Hoss jumped, and came down on top of the hillock of psychotic rubble. Tendrils of green sprouting chainsaws of teeth screeched their way towards the descending cyborg, enveloping him.
Hoss swam through an acidic ocean of screams, single blade-arm slicing at every motion. His kinetic emitters fired bursts from knees and elbows, augmenting his blows and propelling him upwards once more. He broke the surface of the mass of ooze, fighting to stay afloat in a sea of madness. Ekelhaft, having absorbed the rubble which encased it previously, had increased in size, and seemingly in ferocity as well. Sickly webs of acid grabbed at a struggling Hoss, whose movements mimicked the vain bid for escape of one trapped in a tar pit.
An array of teeth sawed towards his face, deflected at the last minute by his synthetic arm; the blow, however, was enough to send him under once more. He sank, and as his feet touched-
-the cold, metallic floor of his ship, he realized how hopeless the situation was. Its hull falling apart around him, glimpses of the endless maw of madness itself, rending the fabric of his sanity could be seen through the failing emergency forcefields. An explosion rang through the thinning air, blasting him towards a bulkhead. His head hit-
-the ground, he fired another kinetic burst from his back. A bulge on Ekelhaft's side expanded and expelled a tattered Hoss. The mass moved once more, roiling across the ground, evincing yet more claws and buzz-saw teeth. Hoss stood his ground, ignoring the remnants of ooze which still clung to him, attacking him in any way they could. The mound of green reared, and Hoss readied the gravity blade, waiting for-
-that one, special moment when all would become clear to him. His hands beat his head, wondering why. Why wasn't his plan working? He'd done everything right, but the Equatorial nations weren't cooperating! Their subservience was key to the eventual formation of his Empire, but those wicked, twisted lumps of animals were laughing at him, he knew it, laughing and screaming and melting and dying and why couldn't they see how important the Space Elevator was? He glared out his windows, as if in the cityscape below he would find-
-the moment to strike. The blade vibrated, not just due to Self's struggle for freedom. The mass descended, and Hoss leapt, blade thrust before him. Its center swelled and its tip extended, forming an expanding sphere into which the falling ooze and teeth and claws were sucked irretrievably. The sphere tore a path through the acidic rain of insanity though which Hoss flew. Turning mid-air, he retracted the blade to its original form, further compacting the new detritus to join Self in its prison. With his feet now facing a recovering Ekelhaft, Hoss released the energy he'd been building up in his lower kinetic emitters through a forced feedback loop. A blast of pure kinetic energy flattened the blob against the ground, and flung Hoss into the air.
Not one to waste a movement, Hoss allowed his feet to overtake his head, flipping 'round and firing another blast from his lower emitters, instantly reversing his path and flying back down towards the burbling ground. The edges of the flattened Ekelhaft raised themselves to form a cauldron of deadly ooze around the hungry mouths which had opened to meet the descending tyrant.
Focused as he was on the mouths, Hoss did not notice a tendril flash towards his right arm. Razer-sharp teeth latch onto his bicep, churning and sawing through artificial skin and synthetic muscle, and the tendril whipped back, tearing the arm from its socket. Hoss screamed in-
-pain. He'd never felt this much pain before, never in his life! Tears streamed down his face, streaking his ash-stained cheeks as he lay against the wall. His lab, his team, his arm... gone, all because of one stupid mistake. He clenched his teeth against the shooting agony from his empty left shoulder as he tried to stand. His right hand, his only hand, held the makeshift tourniquet in place. He stumbled out of the ruins of his lab, glancing behind him at the fading eye of insanity, glaring back at him, daring him to succumb to its influence, whispering horrific truths. "It's your fault," the eye seemed to say, a sentiment echoed by the rotting, suddenly-maggot-filled bodies of his friends and co-workers. As they dissolved into puddles of an acidic green ooze, the eye shivered, single pupil dilating when he finally turned away. A stony resolve took hold of his features as he muttered to himself, "I need a new arm."
He lurched into the ruined hallway, trying not to whimper in-
-rage. The dirty, filthy alien had taken his arm! Ekelhaft's attack had also thrown Hoss off-balance during his descent, which sent him reeling into one of Ekelhaft's open mouths.
The mouth closed as his legs entered it, trapping him in the middle of the closing sphere of Ekelhaft. Left only with his blade arm, Hoss's options were limited. The blade was quickly becoming more of a handicap than a resource, but he was reluctant to reconfigure the arm and release the captured bits of Ekelhaft. However, he had run out of options.
The blade began to dim, and Self's prison to weaken and fade.
Before the process had finished, Self erupted from its cylindrical form at Hoss's wrist and swam up his arm, biting and slashing and frothing at every surface along the way until it finally reached his face. The ooze wormed its way through every orifice, infiltrating the multitude of malfunctioning safeguards and barriers until it finally reached Hoss's organic center: his brain.
At this point, the sphere of green ooze closed, and convulsed inwards.
Hoss vanished from view.
Inside the blob, Self and Ekelhaft both tore at Hoss's body and mind. Last-minute defense systems kicked in, shielding his brain from Self's intrusion, but the blob's proximity was enough to tear his mind from the cliff of sanity.
Rationality left the cyborg once more, and a vessel of destruction was reawakened inside the boiling sphere of madness.
---------------
Emperor Sol I of the Star Empire of Sol touched his brow, briefly. Something... seemed to be off, but he couldn't quite place it. "Probably the quantum interference field..." he muttered.
He was standing underneath a massive array of pipes and rusted metal walls, in the industrial underground of one of the Outer Planets' largest production cities. Steam and other more questionable gases erupted from the decaying pipeworks around him. Drops of unknown fluid were repelled by his high-tech disguise; to any without the correct quantumly entangled key, he would appear a simple repairman. Luckily, the agent he was here to meet had such a key and should be arriving soon. It should give him some time to nail down the kinks in this system; there were some errant data suggesting he'd just been in some kind of fight...