Re: Intense Struggle Season 2! (Round 1: Training Facility ONX)
08-24-2010, 10:22 PM
Originally posted on MSPA by GreyGabe.
Well. This is just becoming an absolutely amazing, complete and total clusterfuck of epic proportions.
The doors were open, and dozens of strange artificial creatures were swarming in the room, screaming, cackling, moaning, and howling. Marcus began firing indiscriminately into the approaching horde, Retribution’s battle-cry combining with the cacophony.
After a second’s deliberation, Marcus activated his pain suppression implant. He hated using the thing, and not just because of the chance that he could worsen existing injuries. The implants were quite safe, not using any kind of chemical or drug. They simply prevented the pain from reaching the brain. Or something like that. Marcus had failed biology. Point is, it didn’t make him groggy or slow his reaction time.
However, use of the implants could be highly addictive if abused. Not to mention the fact that if you became to dependant on the things, you lost your ability to cope with pain naturally after a while. So Marcus avoided it whenever possible. At this point, however, he didn’t feel he had a whole lot of choice. He’d have to be able to move if he was going to deal with this many threats.
Marcus glanced at the others. Charlie had come to the conclusion that the approaching creatures were the greatest threat currently, and was also firing his weapons into the crowd. Karen was flinging fire into the crowd, while the little girl cowered behind her.
Reudic was recovering from its near brush with incineration, but looked more or less calm. Of course, Marcus had never seen a plant look scared or angry, and wasn’t sure he would know it if he had. Sarika was nearby, leaning on her staff. Lloyd stood next to her, staring nervously at the mass of creatures and wringing his towel in his hands. Dekowin had mostly recovered, and glared at Charlie once before turning her attention to the creatures.
Marcus began to shout over the noise. “Sari--”
“Got it!” Sarika nudged Lloyd with her staff and began limping towards Karen and Lillian. Lloyd looked at the creatures a second longer and hurried after her.
The creatures were almost on them, now. Marcus emptied the Retribution’s current clip, ejected and slapped a new one in place. As he was doing that, Dekowin leapt forward, slamming an armored fist down onto one of the creatures leading the charge. There was an audible crunching and the creature went down twitching. Dekowin waded into the press, claws flashing, her expression a mixture of anger and joy. Marcus hoped she was working out some of her issues. Reudic floated forward, wrapping a rather large primate-like beast in its tentacles. The creature thrashed wildly for a few moments, and then slowed. After a time, Reudic released it, at which point it turned and began attacking its former allies, striking them and crushing them in its huge, knobby fists. Charlie had waded into the fray, engaging multiple hostiles at once, crushing, slashing, shooting, and burning, cutting a huge swath through the enemies’ ranks (“ranks” being a term used very lightly in this case).
Marcus himself was hanging back, firing at anything that tried to get the drop on the other contestants, occasionally stopping to knock away anything that got too close. A fireball flew over his shoulder, impacting one of the creatures approaching him. He glanced over his shoulder at Karen, who was still standing her ground in front of Lillian. Lloyd stood beside her, shifting from foot to foot. Behind them, Sarika sat on the floor with Lillian, holding her close and trying to comfort her. Marcus turned back to the fighting. All-in-all, this wasn’t so bad. Or it wouldn’t be, if not for the noise and the killing and all. Still, he reflected, the press seemed to be abating somewhat. Maybe they would actually get out of this in one piece!
The floor began rumbling, and the giant worm erupted from its hole, shrieking its outrage for all to hear. Marcus decided that optimism was a highly unhealthy habit to be getting into and he was going to leave off it for good. The gargantuan worm's small, pale eyes blinked blearily in the light as its head swung around, taking in the chaos. Finally, it rushed down at the thickest concentration of food, which just happened to be where Charlie was fighting. The worm made a loud sucking noise, and the creatures surrounding the machine, along with the machine itself, disappeared.
“Oh no. Not Charlie. He and I were such good pals. And now he’s gone! Oh woe, oh misery, et cetera.”
Marcus’s grin died somewhat when he saw the rippling movement on the wall, climbing steadily upwards.
“Ah. Huzzah. He lives.”
Energy bolts flew from the rippling mass, hitting the worm squarely in the eyes. The huge creature shrieked again, flailing wildly. It slammed it head into the walls, attempting to crush Charlie with its bulk. Charlie easily skittered out of the way, letting loose more shots. It didn’t seem to cause much damage, so much as just piss the giant worm off. Marcus turned his attention back down to the dwindling crowd of creatures in time to see Dekowin being overwhelmed. Reudic was pulling some of the beasts off with its vines, but there was only so much the sentient plant could do. Marcus groaned and began firing. Dekowin burst out a few seconds later, covered in ichor, shaking herself and sneering.
“You okay?”
Dekowin told him to do something unpleasant and probably anatomically impossible. Marcus decided she was probably okay for the time being. Looking around, he saw that there were only a few dozen of the smaller creatures remaining, along with the worm that was being harried by Charlie.
A few creatures had went around the other side of the worm’s hole, and were trying to take down Karen and her charges, but she was dealing with them easily. Lloyd even had one down on the ground, kicking it repeatedly. Marcus had to admit the guy had balls. Reudic and Dekowin had pulled back some, as had the creatures. A few seconds passed before the beasts began to charge again. Marcus could feel the pain inhibitor beginning to deactivate (for safety reasons, a safeguard was in place that kept it from operating for more than ten to fifteen minutes at a stretch. It only stayed fully active for a few minutes, then began to cycle down, opening the channels slowly so as not to send the user into shock). He hoped they would be done with this soon, as he took aim and began to fire.
Well. This is just becoming an absolutely amazing, complete and total clusterfuck of epic proportions.
The doors were open, and dozens of strange artificial creatures were swarming in the room, screaming, cackling, moaning, and howling. Marcus began firing indiscriminately into the approaching horde, Retribution’s battle-cry combining with the cacophony.
After a second’s deliberation, Marcus activated his pain suppression implant. He hated using the thing, and not just because of the chance that he could worsen existing injuries. The implants were quite safe, not using any kind of chemical or drug. They simply prevented the pain from reaching the brain. Or something like that. Marcus had failed biology. Point is, it didn’t make him groggy or slow his reaction time.
However, use of the implants could be highly addictive if abused. Not to mention the fact that if you became to dependant on the things, you lost your ability to cope with pain naturally after a while. So Marcus avoided it whenever possible. At this point, however, he didn’t feel he had a whole lot of choice. He’d have to be able to move if he was going to deal with this many threats.
Marcus glanced at the others. Charlie had come to the conclusion that the approaching creatures were the greatest threat currently, and was also firing his weapons into the crowd. Karen was flinging fire into the crowd, while the little girl cowered behind her.
Reudic was recovering from its near brush with incineration, but looked more or less calm. Of course, Marcus had never seen a plant look scared or angry, and wasn’t sure he would know it if he had. Sarika was nearby, leaning on her staff. Lloyd stood next to her, staring nervously at the mass of creatures and wringing his towel in his hands. Dekowin had mostly recovered, and glared at Charlie once before turning her attention to the creatures.
Marcus began to shout over the noise. “Sari--”
“Got it!” Sarika nudged Lloyd with her staff and began limping towards Karen and Lillian. Lloyd looked at the creatures a second longer and hurried after her.
The creatures were almost on them, now. Marcus emptied the Retribution’s current clip, ejected and slapped a new one in place. As he was doing that, Dekowin leapt forward, slamming an armored fist down onto one of the creatures leading the charge. There was an audible crunching and the creature went down twitching. Dekowin waded into the press, claws flashing, her expression a mixture of anger and joy. Marcus hoped she was working out some of her issues. Reudic floated forward, wrapping a rather large primate-like beast in its tentacles. The creature thrashed wildly for a few moments, and then slowed. After a time, Reudic released it, at which point it turned and began attacking its former allies, striking them and crushing them in its huge, knobby fists. Charlie had waded into the fray, engaging multiple hostiles at once, crushing, slashing, shooting, and burning, cutting a huge swath through the enemies’ ranks (“ranks” being a term used very lightly in this case).
Marcus himself was hanging back, firing at anything that tried to get the drop on the other contestants, occasionally stopping to knock away anything that got too close. A fireball flew over his shoulder, impacting one of the creatures approaching him. He glanced over his shoulder at Karen, who was still standing her ground in front of Lillian. Lloyd stood beside her, shifting from foot to foot. Behind them, Sarika sat on the floor with Lillian, holding her close and trying to comfort her. Marcus turned back to the fighting. All-in-all, this wasn’t so bad. Or it wouldn’t be, if not for the noise and the killing and all. Still, he reflected, the press seemed to be abating somewhat. Maybe they would actually get out of this in one piece!
The floor began rumbling, and the giant worm erupted from its hole, shrieking its outrage for all to hear. Marcus decided that optimism was a highly unhealthy habit to be getting into and he was going to leave off it for good. The gargantuan worm's small, pale eyes blinked blearily in the light as its head swung around, taking in the chaos. Finally, it rushed down at the thickest concentration of food, which just happened to be where Charlie was fighting. The worm made a loud sucking noise, and the creatures surrounding the machine, along with the machine itself, disappeared.
“Oh no. Not Charlie. He and I were such good pals. And now he’s gone! Oh woe, oh misery, et cetera.”
Marcus’s grin died somewhat when he saw the rippling movement on the wall, climbing steadily upwards.
“Ah. Huzzah. He lives.”
Energy bolts flew from the rippling mass, hitting the worm squarely in the eyes. The huge creature shrieked again, flailing wildly. It slammed it head into the walls, attempting to crush Charlie with its bulk. Charlie easily skittered out of the way, letting loose more shots. It didn’t seem to cause much damage, so much as just piss the giant worm off. Marcus turned his attention back down to the dwindling crowd of creatures in time to see Dekowin being overwhelmed. Reudic was pulling some of the beasts off with its vines, but there was only so much the sentient plant could do. Marcus groaned and began firing. Dekowin burst out a few seconds later, covered in ichor, shaking herself and sneering.
“You okay?”
Dekowin told him to do something unpleasant and probably anatomically impossible. Marcus decided she was probably okay for the time being. Looking around, he saw that there were only a few dozen of the smaller creatures remaining, along with the worm that was being harried by Charlie.
A few creatures had went around the other side of the worm’s hole, and were trying to take down Karen and her charges, but she was dealing with them easily. Lloyd even had one down on the ground, kicking it repeatedly. Marcus had to admit the guy had balls. Reudic and Dekowin had pulled back some, as had the creatures. A few seconds passed before the beasts began to charge again. Marcus could feel the pain inhibitor beginning to deactivate (for safety reasons, a safeguard was in place that kept it from operating for more than ten to fifteen minutes at a stretch. It only stayed fully active for a few minutes, then began to cycle down, opening the channels slowly so as not to send the user into shock). He hoped they would be done with this soon, as he took aim and began to fire.