Re: DEATHGAME 9000 [S!3] Round One: Gamexus X99
03-16-2012, 12:42 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by Adenreagen.
“So…” Eris began. She had been following the others for about five minutes now, at times checking on the various creatures the others fought, sometimes walking, sometimes floating. She decided it was time to say something. Something big. “You gonna hurry up? I’m getting old watching fluffy and long-face fight everything we see. Don’t you two have something special you were picked for? Besides having others do your work? I mean come on look at them! They look tired and that’s just slowing things down. Lynette, can’t you just command them out of the way like in the field? And Wolfonrollerskates-“ “That’s Bearonrollerblades.” “Yea, same difference. What do you even do? Look like a princessdoctor?”
You’re a fine one to talk! You haven’t done a single thing for hours; just watch us do all the work. The only thing you ever did was dump oil on that kangaroo-thing! And I take back what I said,” she said turning to Trisha, “Eris isn’t very helpful. Just childish.” Vigil, taking some gasping breaths, nodded. He had watched her in the gaps between fights and all he had really seen her do was watch the fighting. If he hadn’t seen Eris conjure burning oil from thin air and encase a woman in a block of ice he would’ve doubted that she was actually able to do anything other than complain.
”You mean Burnaby? Well, yea. Besides that one time, nobody here wants to fight me. They’re only interested in those two.” She gestured to Vigil and Hippocrates. “Whenever I tried to do anything they went on about trainer regulations and how I should send a “Faunatura” to fight in my place and just ignore me. When I said that I was the one who did the fighting they’d just look at me like I was crazy, but I can do way more than their dumb animals ever could. More than biting and kicking like they’re doing with all the…the… STUFF here…”
While Trisha wasn’t sure that ‘stuff’ was the appropriate term to use, she had to admit that the animals they had been fighting since falling in the pit looked nothing like other animals she, and presumably any of the others, had seen. Moving piles of sludge, legless bats, giant insects (for lack of a better word) and metal balls that shot lightning and occasionally exploded when hit, and that was just in several hundred feet since the pit. Who knew what else was lurking in the hallway that stretched on in the darkness? This was the first part of the Deadly Maze that she felt might live up to its name: it was certainly dangerous though it lacked any of the branches that a maze would have. It only had storage rooms and poorly-equipped labs full of these creatures, but never people. She supposed that that was why everything seemed to converge on them all at once: they were human, not these animals that seemed to co-exist in this building. (At least she thought they co-existed. She hadn’t seen them attack each other, only their small group.) Another thing was that she knew the person who had spoken to them at the beginning of the pit was still watching them; she could see the red lights of video cameras stretching in the distance.
“Lynette, you’re hardly more than a child yourself, no offense. I’ve had little experience in child medicine, and I know that Eris isn’t being helpful, but maybe that’s because she feels we aren’t letting her be.” She took this moment to squat down to Eris’ level so she could look her in the eye. “Now, Eris. I know you’re bored, but you can be helpful if you want.”
“Don’t talk down to me lady, I’m at least ten times your age.”
”Well you don’t act like it. You’re acting like a child that wants her way.”
”My parents would've been happy to hear you say that.”
”REGARDLESS,” And ignoring what you just said about age because I have a hard time believing it “you just complained that you’re bored and have been for a while, and you’re saying that it’s because the trainers don’t want to fight you, right?” A head nod from Eris. “Do you see any trainers down here? Because I sure don’t.” At this Eris began to perk up, and she began to grin. “Now. You say that you can do better than Vigil and Hippocrates?
”Well, yea. I could clear this hallway in, like, thirty seconds. A minute, tops.”
“Oh yea? Prove it.” As Trisha said this, Eris’ grin grew even wider, and she got a glint in her eye that Trisha was kind of glad wasn’t directed at her, but at the opportunity she was being given. “See?” She turned back to Lynette who was watching with skepticism on her face. “Like a child. If she’s bored, give her something to do. She just wanted a chance to prove herself. And now we’ll have this hallway cleared for us.” And get a taste of what she can actually do.
“What if she can’t clear the hallway? What if she can’t really do anything other than dump fryer oil everywhere?”
“Well then we’ll know she can’t, and you can tell her to shut up the next time she wants to whine. This way she gets to do something potentially helpful, and we don’t have to listen to her issues with boredom.”
“I’ll agree with you there. She at least looks like this is going to make her happy for a while.”
“I can still hear you, you know. I’m adorable, not deaf.” Eris had walked up to where Vigil and Hippocrates had been fighting, standing to Vigil’s left. The two animals and Eris stood in a line, Vigil in the center, looking into the poorly lit hallway for other creatures. “It’s no good. I can’t see anything. How can I fight if I can’t see?” She clenched her eyes and concentrated.
“Great, more whining.”
”It’s not whining it’s concentrating. I’m fixing the problem.” Eris muttered through closed eyes. A change began to spread across the floor from her feet, only going in the direction they were headed. The air got a bitter, sharp smell to it. “There." She sounded a little out of breath, as though she had just finished running.
“There what?”
“I turned the tiles into hand sanitizer. And you said I couldn’t help.”
“That doesn’t help at all! You aren’t even doing anything now!”
“Yes I am, I’m waiting. You just don’t get chaos.”
“Waiting? Waiting for what?” She heard a rumble come towards them. A sure sign of the electric ball-shaped creatures.
“For this.” Eris concentrated on the thing as soon as it rolled into view, and it eyed Vigil angrily, clearly expecting a fight. A look of pain came over its face for a second and then it turned entirely to rubber, to everyone’s surprise but Eris. She picked Vigil up (with protest) and began ruffling his fur as quickly as she could. “It’s too dark to see, see? So we need a light of some kind, like fire. And you know what burns really well?” Pause for effect. “Rubber and alcohol.”
Her hand-rubbing had been to a purpose. She set Vigil down on the floor, hard, causing the static she had built up to spark from Vigil on the tile and arc onto the newly-converted sanitizer. It began burning, quickly spreading to the now rubber ball and lighting that as well. Eris gave it a strong kick and it bounced down the hallway, spreading it’s fire every time it hit the ground. The grime and sludge based Faunatura contained large amounts of oil, which they spread in a trail behind them as they moved, and quickly burst into flame, turning them into flailing torches that spread their fire to the other less-flammable creatures as they spun. The group now had a clear view of the hallway up until a door in the distance.
Trisha was horrified at the dying animals she could now see. The nocturnal ones screamed at the sudden light, falling to the burning floor if they weren’t there already. All the sludge ones were now slumped on the floor, unmoving. The Electric metal balls exploded when the flames grew too hot for them, only adding to the conflagration that had consumed the hallway. It was gruesome. It was heart-rending. It was disturbingly efficient. When she heard Eris giggling behind her hand, she rounded on the girl.
“You’re a monster, Eris! You’ve just killed dozens of animals in a habitat and for what? A solution to boredom? We were only knocking them out!”
“Really?" She said, still laughing despite Trisha's claim. "You’re going to turn this on me? I offer to help and this is the thanks I get? They probably would have killed us given the chance, so it’s only fair. Also, this is a building. They clearly don’t belong here. It’s like dealing with ants, or mice. Besides,” she said pointing back the way they came, “they’ll be getting up to chase us from behind.” She turned to the now quiet hallway, noticing most of the fires were out. “They won’t.” With that she turned and began to walk back down the hallway, kicking piles of ash that were once living animals and giggling as she ran through the clouds, somehow remaining spotless.
The remaining women and their animals began walking after her. “In a way, she’s right. And besides, now we know she can do this, and that she is a better at taking out large groups of these things than Vigil, no offense Vigil.” Vigil shrugged, watching Eris with ruffled fur and a new wariness.
“But she didn’t do that much. She didn’t set the hall on fire, she turned the floor to alcohol. It’s not tactics or fighting how I’m used to seeing. It’s…random." It doesn't make any sense, but as she said, that's not her thing. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it. She’s a clever little girl, and if she can do this regularly,” She gestured to the destruction around them, “I’d hate to be on the receiving end of what she does. I guess I’m glad she’s on our side.” For now she added sullenly in her head.
Eris had reached the door by now. "Hey! The hallway's better lit here, it looks like people might actually work in this part. What kind of person would build a pit that connects to a building anyway? Whoever they are I like their style."
===
Behind his desk, father pleasant watched the group from the monitor. He had seen everything that happened, but without audio he didn’t know that it was the girl that had done it.
The Rabbit had set the entire hallway on fire with a spark, and turned another Faunatura into what looked like a giant bouncing ball, which that little girl had kicked away in what he assumed was panic when it started on fire as well. Most Faunatura only fought to subdue others, but this one was apparently too powerful to do that when it used something other than melee attacks, that the slightest spark from it would kill them in droves. Oh, how badly he wanted this one under his control.
“Let Agents 11 and 12 know that the group is going to be there sooner than expected. This Mystic is very powerful indeed, to do what it just did.”
“So…” Eris began. She had been following the others for about five minutes now, at times checking on the various creatures the others fought, sometimes walking, sometimes floating. She decided it was time to say something. Something big. “You gonna hurry up? I’m getting old watching fluffy and long-face fight everything we see. Don’t you two have something special you were picked for? Besides having others do your work? I mean come on look at them! They look tired and that’s just slowing things down. Lynette, can’t you just command them out of the way like in the field? And Wolfonrollerskates-“ “That’s Bearonrollerblades.” “Yea, same difference. What do you even do? Look like a princessdoctor?”
You’re a fine one to talk! You haven’t done a single thing for hours; just watch us do all the work. The only thing you ever did was dump oil on that kangaroo-thing! And I take back what I said,” she said turning to Trisha, “Eris isn’t very helpful. Just childish.” Vigil, taking some gasping breaths, nodded. He had watched her in the gaps between fights and all he had really seen her do was watch the fighting. If he hadn’t seen Eris conjure burning oil from thin air and encase a woman in a block of ice he would’ve doubted that she was actually able to do anything other than complain.
”You mean Burnaby? Well, yea. Besides that one time, nobody here wants to fight me. They’re only interested in those two.” She gestured to Vigil and Hippocrates. “Whenever I tried to do anything they went on about trainer regulations and how I should send a “Faunatura” to fight in my place and just ignore me. When I said that I was the one who did the fighting they’d just look at me like I was crazy, but I can do way more than their dumb animals ever could. More than biting and kicking like they’re doing with all the…the… STUFF here…”
While Trisha wasn’t sure that ‘stuff’ was the appropriate term to use, she had to admit that the animals they had been fighting since falling in the pit looked nothing like other animals she, and presumably any of the others, had seen. Moving piles of sludge, legless bats, giant insects (for lack of a better word) and metal balls that shot lightning and occasionally exploded when hit, and that was just in several hundred feet since the pit. Who knew what else was lurking in the hallway that stretched on in the darkness? This was the first part of the Deadly Maze that she felt might live up to its name: it was certainly dangerous though it lacked any of the branches that a maze would have. It only had storage rooms and poorly-equipped labs full of these creatures, but never people. She supposed that that was why everything seemed to converge on them all at once: they were human, not these animals that seemed to co-exist in this building. (At least she thought they co-existed. She hadn’t seen them attack each other, only their small group.) Another thing was that she knew the person who had spoken to them at the beginning of the pit was still watching them; she could see the red lights of video cameras stretching in the distance.
“Lynette, you’re hardly more than a child yourself, no offense. I’ve had little experience in child medicine, and I know that Eris isn’t being helpful, but maybe that’s because she feels we aren’t letting her be.” She took this moment to squat down to Eris’ level so she could look her in the eye. “Now, Eris. I know you’re bored, but you can be helpful if you want.”
“Don’t talk down to me lady, I’m at least ten times your age.”
”Well you don’t act like it. You’re acting like a child that wants her way.”
”My parents would've been happy to hear you say that.”
”REGARDLESS,” And ignoring what you just said about age because I have a hard time believing it “you just complained that you’re bored and have been for a while, and you’re saying that it’s because the trainers don’t want to fight you, right?” A head nod from Eris. “Do you see any trainers down here? Because I sure don’t.” At this Eris began to perk up, and she began to grin. “Now. You say that you can do better than Vigil and Hippocrates?
”Well, yea. I could clear this hallway in, like, thirty seconds. A minute, tops.”
“Oh yea? Prove it.” As Trisha said this, Eris’ grin grew even wider, and she got a glint in her eye that Trisha was kind of glad wasn’t directed at her, but at the opportunity she was being given. “See?” She turned back to Lynette who was watching with skepticism on her face. “Like a child. If she’s bored, give her something to do. She just wanted a chance to prove herself. And now we’ll have this hallway cleared for us.” And get a taste of what she can actually do.
“What if she can’t clear the hallway? What if she can’t really do anything other than dump fryer oil everywhere?”
“Well then we’ll know she can’t, and you can tell her to shut up the next time she wants to whine. This way she gets to do something potentially helpful, and we don’t have to listen to her issues with boredom.”
“I’ll agree with you there. She at least looks like this is going to make her happy for a while.”
“I can still hear you, you know. I’m adorable, not deaf.” Eris had walked up to where Vigil and Hippocrates had been fighting, standing to Vigil’s left. The two animals and Eris stood in a line, Vigil in the center, looking into the poorly lit hallway for other creatures. “It’s no good. I can’t see anything. How can I fight if I can’t see?” She clenched her eyes and concentrated.
“Great, more whining.”
”It’s not whining it’s concentrating. I’m fixing the problem.” Eris muttered through closed eyes. A change began to spread across the floor from her feet, only going in the direction they were headed. The air got a bitter, sharp smell to it. “There." She sounded a little out of breath, as though she had just finished running.
“There what?”
“I turned the tiles into hand sanitizer. And you said I couldn’t help.”
“That doesn’t help at all! You aren’t even doing anything now!”
“Yes I am, I’m waiting. You just don’t get chaos.”
“Waiting? Waiting for what?” She heard a rumble come towards them. A sure sign of the electric ball-shaped creatures.
“For this.” Eris concentrated on the thing as soon as it rolled into view, and it eyed Vigil angrily, clearly expecting a fight. A look of pain came over its face for a second and then it turned entirely to rubber, to everyone’s surprise but Eris. She picked Vigil up (with protest) and began ruffling his fur as quickly as she could. “It’s too dark to see, see? So we need a light of some kind, like fire. And you know what burns really well?” Pause for effect. “Rubber and alcohol.”
Her hand-rubbing had been to a purpose. She set Vigil down on the floor, hard, causing the static she had built up to spark from Vigil on the tile and arc onto the newly-converted sanitizer. It began burning, quickly spreading to the now rubber ball and lighting that as well. Eris gave it a strong kick and it bounced down the hallway, spreading it’s fire every time it hit the ground. The grime and sludge based Faunatura contained large amounts of oil, which they spread in a trail behind them as they moved, and quickly burst into flame, turning them into flailing torches that spread their fire to the other less-flammable creatures as they spun. The group now had a clear view of the hallway up until a door in the distance.
Trisha was horrified at the dying animals she could now see. The nocturnal ones screamed at the sudden light, falling to the burning floor if they weren’t there already. All the sludge ones were now slumped on the floor, unmoving. The Electric metal balls exploded when the flames grew too hot for them, only adding to the conflagration that had consumed the hallway. It was gruesome. It was heart-rending. It was disturbingly efficient. When she heard Eris giggling behind her hand, she rounded on the girl.
“You’re a monster, Eris! You’ve just killed dozens of animals in a habitat and for what? A solution to boredom? We were only knocking them out!”
“Really?" She said, still laughing despite Trisha's claim. "You’re going to turn this on me? I offer to help and this is the thanks I get? They probably would have killed us given the chance, so it’s only fair. Also, this is a building. They clearly don’t belong here. It’s like dealing with ants, or mice. Besides,” she said pointing back the way they came, “they’ll be getting up to chase us from behind.” She turned to the now quiet hallway, noticing most of the fires were out. “They won’t.” With that she turned and began to walk back down the hallway, kicking piles of ash that were once living animals and giggling as she ran through the clouds, somehow remaining spotless.
The remaining women and their animals began walking after her. “In a way, she’s right. And besides, now we know she can do this, and that she is a better at taking out large groups of these things than Vigil, no offense Vigil.” Vigil shrugged, watching Eris with ruffled fur and a new wariness.
“But she didn’t do that much. She didn’t set the hall on fire, she turned the floor to alcohol. It’s not tactics or fighting how I’m used to seeing. It’s…random." It doesn't make any sense, but as she said, that's not her thing. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it. She’s a clever little girl, and if she can do this regularly,” She gestured to the destruction around them, “I’d hate to be on the receiving end of what she does. I guess I’m glad she’s on our side.” For now she added sullenly in her head.
Eris had reached the door by now. "Hey! The hallway's better lit here, it looks like people might actually work in this part. What kind of person would build a pit that connects to a building anyway? Whoever they are I like their style."
===
Behind his desk, father pleasant watched the group from the monitor. He had seen everything that happened, but without audio he didn’t know that it was the girl that had done it.
The Rabbit had set the entire hallway on fire with a spark, and turned another Faunatura into what looked like a giant bouncing ball, which that little girl had kicked away in what he assumed was panic when it started on fire as well. Most Faunatura only fought to subdue others, but this one was apparently too powerful to do that when it used something other than melee attacks, that the slightest spark from it would kill them in droves. Oh, how badly he wanted this one under his control.
“Let Agents 11 and 12 know that the group is going to be there sooner than expected. This Mystic is very powerful indeed, to do what it just did.”