Re: Grand Battle S3G1! (Round Three: Caelo Ruinam)
06-05-2012, 02:56 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by Anomaly.
Tengeri detested fighting.
The endless, twisting, identical halls of Caelo Ruinam were absolutely full of unusual creatures, creatures which seemed interested in nothing but killing anyone who came into their sight. She tried to escape them when she could. Oversized rodents attempted to sink their teeth into her, but were stopped by the field of water surrounding her body. More problematic was just about every other being in the place. Robots weren't much of a problem - she had plenty of implements she could use to deactivate or outright destroy them, and she had no qualms about doing so. It was the same with other non-organic beings - creatures made of rock or even fire weren't especially difficult to take down.
The issue came with fighting living things. Non-intelligent as they were, Tengeri couldn't stand to end their lives. She avoided them whenever possible - driving them off or knocking them unconscious with an especially powerful spray of water. This wasn't always possible. She took a wrong turn at one point and ended up facing a being vaguely resembling the Kryesan of Typhra, except much larger and with many more fire-spewing heads. She was essentially powerless against something of that scale - its spiked tail had left a painful blue-green gash in her side as she turned to leave.
She could do nothing but run (figuratively) as the halls of Caelo grew more and more perilous. Her supply of water had dwindled significantly, and her map hadn't given any clear indication of either anything of monetary value or an exit to the fortress.
Finally, it seemed her luck had taken a severe turn. A massive open area gradually appeared on her map, complete not onlywith indications of strange energy fluctuations within, but also with confirmation of the presence of water. Even the presence of a large number of life signs didn't discourage her - she shot through the corridors with earnest toward her target.
Tengeri's target turned out to be a massive, open cave, complete with an inexplicable waterfall pouring down at the side. A maze of apparently-natural walkways twisted and turned in random directions above the water flowing below. Enormous flying rodents plagued the area, hanging from the stalactites, waiting to swoop down and devour anything unlucky enough to be spotted, as demonstrated by a hapless human who, for some reason, thought it a good idea to wander around with nothing but a primitive firearm to protect him.
Fortunately for Tengeri, the rodents also appeared to hate water, judging by the lack of action against the human's friends, who had decided to bail into the river below. Tengeri wasted absolutely no time in diving from the walkway herself, splashing down in the surprisingly monster-free subterranean waterway. She immediately began following the walkways overhead, having no trouble in navigating the already fully-scanned maze. Whatever joy she might have felt from the rapidly-flowing river was immediately marred when she surfaced, though, as a video feed of Scofflaw, dressed in flamboyant red, inexplicably appeared in the corner of her eye.
"You're live," someone whispered from offscreen. Tengeri could have sworn it was also Scofflaw, but she must have been mistaken.
”Okay. Hello. Tengeri? Are you there? I just wanted to say, first of all, that I’m really so, so sorry about everything that I’ve done to you,” Scofflaw began. Something about his tone of voice was off, but Tengeri couldn't exactly tell what.
Tengeri stayed silent for a few moments. "Scofflaw. I don't know what you're after, but you're not getting it. You have exactly ten nanocycles to tell me why I shouldn't block this transmission," she spat.
The abnormally pale Scofflaw looked extremely distressed by her response, an emotion she didn't realize he was even capable of expressing. Futhermore, on close examination, he appeared to be standing on... some sort of chair? It wasn't easy to make out.
"No, no, I mean it. Please, you just need to listen to me. I was wrong."
It was almost certainly just another ruse. A new round, a new disguise, a new piss-poor attempt at an alternative identity. He was probably secretly trying to get her in bed or something. The thought disgusted Tengeri, but she was simultaneously tempted to burst out in laughter at the utter absurdity of it. Was he really this stupid? He must have had another motive.
"Really, you were wrong. I never would have guessed that after you took over everyone's minds and forced them to kill anyone who might have threatened you."
"I don't know how to tell you how sorry I am about that, Tengeri. Even if you weren't converted, there's no way to justify what I did to everyone else."
"You would have converted me if you were able! You're the lowest scum I've ever had the displeasure of meeting, Scofflaw. This transmission is over."
"No, wait!"
"Wait for you? There is nothing you can say, Scofflaw, that can convince me that you're anything more than a lowlife, a murderer, and an outright bastard. We're done." In spite of her hostility, Tengeri noted what might have been a tinge of sincerity in Scofflaw's chubby, detestable face. At least, it might have been sincerity. She couldn't read the emotions of humans very well.
"You're trying to get a weapon, aren't you?"
Tengeri stopped fighting the current momentarily, being swept back briefly before she began hurriedly swimming forward once more. She didn't bother to ask how Scofflaw knew that - for all she knew, he could see anything her cybernetic eyes picked up, or at least had the entire fortress monitored somehow.
"What about it?"
"We, er, I can get you the money you need. I want out of this battle just as much as you do, but the Fool would never let me get close to him. It needs to be you."
Tengeri found herself at the side of a huge, cylindrical rock formation, apparently perfectly flat on top, connected to a small walkway leading to a door with a large chain on it. On top of the formation dwelt some sort of enormous creature, threat level registering near the peak of the scale (though still comfortably under the Fool).
"So you're willing to give me a bunch of 'gilderupees' so I can buy the weapon. How are you planning on getting them to me?"
Scofflaw responded by discontinuing the feed. Typical. Tengeri rolled her eyes at the massive waste of time and began climbing the cave wall, taking care to not make herself known to the creature. The creature, in this case, was certainly not a giant bat - it was instead some sort of metal-plated reptilian creature, at least five times Tengeri's size. It lay curled on the ground, enormous wings of fire folded inward, but didn't seem to notice the water-covered serpent sneaking past it. Evidently it hadn't expected someone to come through the quickly-flowing river below.
Tengeri reached the padlock unnoticed, and silently shifted one of her manipulators to a sort of lockpick. Tengeri quickly caught it as it fell from its place, unlocked, and silently forced the unusually lightweight door open. Beyond lay a very small, circular room, the only object of note being a wooden chest in the middle of the room. Tengeri threw it open without great difficulty, revealing...
Numerous bags of money, each with a cartoonish green dollar sign painted on them.
A mostly-unwelcome face appeared again in the corner of Tengeri's vision. "That's all you'll need, Tengeri. Please, forgive me for everything I've done. I was wrong, but I've learned from it now."
A quick scan revealed that the money bags had definitely been at some point handled by Scofflaw, if only briefly. In spite of apparently being full of gold coins, the bags weighed virtually nothing, and Tengeri found no problems in carrying them.
"Thanks, I guess. I don't know what you're up to, and I'm just going to make this clear. I still don't trust you, Scofflaw. But you've helped me, so I'll consider what you've said to me. I'm going to block whatever signal you're using to control my cybernetics like this now. Goodbye, Scofflaw."
All foreign frequencies jammed. Chance of failure: minimal.
Ready to take the money and hurry back to the shady salesman, Tengeri noticed something else at the bottom of the chest. Some kind of gauntlet, glowing faintly and covered with deep purple, unrecognizable runes. It didn't look especially useful to her, but it was the source of the energy fluctuations in the cave. Almost as an afterthought, she shoved the gauntlet into her storage unit (a very tight fit) before turning back to face the merchant again.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Ah, you've returned! Have you brought me any treasures? I see that you're carrying quite a few things with you."
Tengeri floated the soaking-wet money bags over the counter and dropped them in front of the merchant with the annoyingly long name.
"Ah, you've been quite busy! Let's see here..."
Tengeri waited several minutes as the man dumped out all of the bags and counted up their contents.
"One million, three hundred and eighty-five thousand, one hundred and twenty nine gilderupees! A very impressive amount, indeed!"
"Will you give me what I need, then?"
"Well... There is one more thing."
"What is it this time?"
"Well, I've heard that this fortress contains a creature known as a 'Dracodactyl', a very rare find! And you see, as it happens, I've been trying for a very long time to acquire a feather from one of these creatures, and it's not often that such an opportunity arises. Bring me one, and you get the weapon."
"What? That... wasn't part of the deal."
"It is now. Do you want a demon-slaying weapon or not?"
Tengeri sighed. "Fine. Do you know where I might find one of these 'Dracodactyls'?"
"Certainly. I recently saw one heading toward the lodgings of one Lady Midday while I was scrying the corridors of the fortress. If I recall, she's the psychopath who runs this place. Try to make sure that neither you nor the Dracodactyl gets vaporized. Especially the Dracodactyl. Just follow the corridor to the left and take the stairs up. I'm sure you'll be able to find it."
Tengeri didn't feel entirely comfortable responding to the man's last statement, and left without a word. As if things hadn't already gotten bad enough.
Tengeri detested fighting.
The endless, twisting, identical halls of Caelo Ruinam were absolutely full of unusual creatures, creatures which seemed interested in nothing but killing anyone who came into their sight. She tried to escape them when she could. Oversized rodents attempted to sink their teeth into her, but were stopped by the field of water surrounding her body. More problematic was just about every other being in the place. Robots weren't much of a problem - she had plenty of implements she could use to deactivate or outright destroy them, and she had no qualms about doing so. It was the same with other non-organic beings - creatures made of rock or even fire weren't especially difficult to take down.
The issue came with fighting living things. Non-intelligent as they were, Tengeri couldn't stand to end their lives. She avoided them whenever possible - driving them off or knocking them unconscious with an especially powerful spray of water. This wasn't always possible. She took a wrong turn at one point and ended up facing a being vaguely resembling the Kryesan of Typhra, except much larger and with many more fire-spewing heads. She was essentially powerless against something of that scale - its spiked tail had left a painful blue-green gash in her side as she turned to leave.
She could do nothing but run (figuratively) as the halls of Caelo grew more and more perilous. Her supply of water had dwindled significantly, and her map hadn't given any clear indication of either anything of monetary value or an exit to the fortress.
Finally, it seemed her luck had taken a severe turn. A massive open area gradually appeared on her map, complete not onlywith indications of strange energy fluctuations within, but also with confirmation of the presence of water. Even the presence of a large number of life signs didn't discourage her - she shot through the corridors with earnest toward her target.
Tengeri's target turned out to be a massive, open cave, complete with an inexplicable waterfall pouring down at the side. A maze of apparently-natural walkways twisted and turned in random directions above the water flowing below. Enormous flying rodents plagued the area, hanging from the stalactites, waiting to swoop down and devour anything unlucky enough to be spotted, as demonstrated by a hapless human who, for some reason, thought it a good idea to wander around with nothing but a primitive firearm to protect him.
Fortunately for Tengeri, the rodents also appeared to hate water, judging by the lack of action against the human's friends, who had decided to bail into the river below. Tengeri wasted absolutely no time in diving from the walkway herself, splashing down in the surprisingly monster-free subterranean waterway. She immediately began following the walkways overhead, having no trouble in navigating the already fully-scanned maze. Whatever joy she might have felt from the rapidly-flowing river was immediately marred when she surfaced, though, as a video feed of Scofflaw, dressed in flamboyant red, inexplicably appeared in the corner of her eye.
"You're live," someone whispered from offscreen. Tengeri could have sworn it was also Scofflaw, but she must have been mistaken.
”Okay. Hello. Tengeri? Are you there? I just wanted to say, first of all, that I’m really so, so sorry about everything that I’ve done to you,” Scofflaw began. Something about his tone of voice was off, but Tengeri couldn't exactly tell what.
Tengeri stayed silent for a few moments. "Scofflaw. I don't know what you're after, but you're not getting it. You have exactly ten nanocycles to tell me why I shouldn't block this transmission," she spat.
The abnormally pale Scofflaw looked extremely distressed by her response, an emotion she didn't realize he was even capable of expressing. Futhermore, on close examination, he appeared to be standing on... some sort of chair? It wasn't easy to make out.
"No, no, I mean it. Please, you just need to listen to me. I was wrong."
It was almost certainly just another ruse. A new round, a new disguise, a new piss-poor attempt at an alternative identity. He was probably secretly trying to get her in bed or something. The thought disgusted Tengeri, but she was simultaneously tempted to burst out in laughter at the utter absurdity of it. Was he really this stupid? He must have had another motive.
"Really, you were wrong. I never would have guessed that after you took over everyone's minds and forced them to kill anyone who might have threatened you."
"I don't know how to tell you how sorry I am about that, Tengeri. Even if you weren't converted, there's no way to justify what I did to everyone else."
"You would have converted me if you were able! You're the lowest scum I've ever had the displeasure of meeting, Scofflaw. This transmission is over."
"No, wait!"
"Wait for you? There is nothing you can say, Scofflaw, that can convince me that you're anything more than a lowlife, a murderer, and an outright bastard. We're done." In spite of her hostility, Tengeri noted what might have been a tinge of sincerity in Scofflaw's chubby, detestable face. At least, it might have been sincerity. She couldn't read the emotions of humans very well.
"You're trying to get a weapon, aren't you?"
Tengeri stopped fighting the current momentarily, being swept back briefly before she began hurriedly swimming forward once more. She didn't bother to ask how Scofflaw knew that - for all she knew, he could see anything her cybernetic eyes picked up, or at least had the entire fortress monitored somehow.
"What about it?"
"We, er, I can get you the money you need. I want out of this battle just as much as you do, but the Fool would never let me get close to him. It needs to be you."
Tengeri found herself at the side of a huge, cylindrical rock formation, apparently perfectly flat on top, connected to a small walkway leading to a door with a large chain on it. On top of the formation dwelt some sort of enormous creature, threat level registering near the peak of the scale (though still comfortably under the Fool).
"So you're willing to give me a bunch of 'gilderupees' so I can buy the weapon. How are you planning on getting them to me?"
Scofflaw responded by discontinuing the feed. Typical. Tengeri rolled her eyes at the massive waste of time and began climbing the cave wall, taking care to not make herself known to the creature. The creature, in this case, was certainly not a giant bat - it was instead some sort of metal-plated reptilian creature, at least five times Tengeri's size. It lay curled on the ground, enormous wings of fire folded inward, but didn't seem to notice the water-covered serpent sneaking past it. Evidently it hadn't expected someone to come through the quickly-flowing river below.
Tengeri reached the padlock unnoticed, and silently shifted one of her manipulators to a sort of lockpick. Tengeri quickly caught it as it fell from its place, unlocked, and silently forced the unusually lightweight door open. Beyond lay a very small, circular room, the only object of note being a wooden chest in the middle of the room. Tengeri threw it open without great difficulty, revealing...
Numerous bags of money, each with a cartoonish green dollar sign painted on them.
A mostly-unwelcome face appeared again in the corner of Tengeri's vision. "That's all you'll need, Tengeri. Please, forgive me for everything I've done. I was wrong, but I've learned from it now."
A quick scan revealed that the money bags had definitely been at some point handled by Scofflaw, if only briefly. In spite of apparently being full of gold coins, the bags weighed virtually nothing, and Tengeri found no problems in carrying them.
"Thanks, I guess. I don't know what you're up to, and I'm just going to make this clear. I still don't trust you, Scofflaw. But you've helped me, so I'll consider what you've said to me. I'm going to block whatever signal you're using to control my cybernetics like this now. Goodbye, Scofflaw."
All foreign frequencies jammed. Chance of failure: minimal.
Ready to take the money and hurry back to the shady salesman, Tengeri noticed something else at the bottom of the chest. Some kind of gauntlet, glowing faintly and covered with deep purple, unrecognizable runes. It didn't look especially useful to her, but it was the source of the energy fluctuations in the cave. Almost as an afterthought, she shoved the gauntlet into her storage unit (a very tight fit) before turning back to face the merchant again.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Ah, you've returned! Have you brought me any treasures? I see that you're carrying quite a few things with you."
Tengeri floated the soaking-wet money bags over the counter and dropped them in front of the merchant with the annoyingly long name.
"Ah, you've been quite busy! Let's see here..."
Tengeri waited several minutes as the man dumped out all of the bags and counted up their contents.
"One million, three hundred and eighty-five thousand, one hundred and twenty nine gilderupees! A very impressive amount, indeed!"
"Will you give me what I need, then?"
"Well... There is one more thing."
"What is it this time?"
"Well, I've heard that this fortress contains a creature known as a 'Dracodactyl', a very rare find! And you see, as it happens, I've been trying for a very long time to acquire a feather from one of these creatures, and it's not often that such an opportunity arises. Bring me one, and you get the weapon."
"What? That... wasn't part of the deal."
"It is now. Do you want a demon-slaying weapon or not?"
Tengeri sighed. "Fine. Do you know where I might find one of these 'Dracodactyls'?"
"Certainly. I recently saw one heading toward the lodgings of one Lady Midday while I was scrying the corridors of the fortress. If I recall, she's the psychopath who runs this place. Try to make sure that neither you nor the Dracodactyl gets vaporized. Especially the Dracodactyl. Just follow the corridor to the left and take the stairs up. I'm sure you'll be able to find it."
Tengeri didn't feel entirely comfortable responding to the man's last statement, and left without a word. As if things hadn't already gotten bad enough.