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Post by Gehn on Sept 4, 2017 17:45:35 GMT
She tried to have Axar kill me! Gehn all but screamed internally at what happened. He prepared for it, naturally, and made sure to leave the somewhat hidden compartment filled with the “Failure” Androids. He ensured that Sixty-Four didn’t notice and made his way towards the ship bay. He flew down the halls of the facility—most of these largely empty and entirely untouched by Gehn—until the hall started to widen. He finally arrived at a massive set of sliding doors that, when he opened them, revealed the oversized ship bay lined with pods in various states of disrepair.
One or two of them should work; or at least, that is what he hoped.
He worked his way through the rows of ships and felt the entire facility rumble. He had no idea what might be going on back there and, truthfully, his mind couldn’t be further from it. No doubt, Axar and Failure—Sixty-Four seemed too polite to him, now—would make their way here shortly, he realized.
Finally, he found a Pod that seemed largely functional. He pried open the door and hopped into it. The computer came to life with easy and his fingers, still familiar with the controls, flipped through the various menus and settings. A few things appeared broken, like the door’s automatic hinge controls and the communication system. Gehn shrugged these defects off—the engines checked out, as did the structural integrity of the Space Pod itself. If he guessed, he would have said that Xavier planned to finish repairing this one somewhat soon.
He had enough Androids that this ample collection of damaged Pods made sense. It also made Gehn wonder just how many were off-planet right now, and how many Androids he would find coming after him to avenge the creator they were almost freakishly loyal to.
As he continued to work, two more quakes rocked the facility. Gehn watched chunks of soil fall from the crease in the twinned doors up above him that would, shortly, spread apart and reveal the sky. For now, he continued to calibrate the Pod and set it for his ultimate destination: Back home to Earth.
Until, of course, the Scouter in his head came to life. A display appeared in the vision of his left eye and quickly pointed out a new presence and an associated Power Level.
7,300 and approaching relatively quickly.
He must have been outside the range of the dampener back in Xavier’s lab.
Gehn stepped out of the pod and walked to the front of the rows and columns of pods. As he did, he saw the silhouette of Failure make her way out of the main hall that approached the bay. His fists immediately clenched and his face turned into a scowl. Worse yet, she looked bloodied and burnt—a testament to her terrible decision-making.
“You betrayed me,” he shouted at her, despite the long distance. His voice sounded loud and cold. “I wanted to help you and you sold me out to him. And then, what? He didn’t believe you and nearly took your life anyway? I tried to warn you, Failure.”
Then, Gehn opened his hands and two, small, red balls of energy appeared. They whistled as they came into existence and continued to give off a high-pitched, pulsating tone as the enhanced energy of his body gathered into place.
“And if you think I’m still going to help you get home, I have a one hell of a surprise for you.”
Charged Thyym Cannon.
[Word Count: 585] KP: 3/3
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Failure
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Post by Failure on Sept 4, 2017 18:08:10 GMT
Blood oozed from her nose, pouring over her lips and then down her chin before dripping to the ground or her leg depending on which step she landed on. For the first half of the walk, she had tried to lick up the blood before it would fall, but eventually gave up the vain attempts and let it flow freely.
Now, a fairly obvious trail of blood splatters highlighted her mostly even walk towards the bay room. Occasionally, she’d stop to press her hand against the wall and catch her breath, noting how she’d leave a bloodied hand print. How she had gotten blood on her hands was beyond her, but not exactly something she was worried about.
In the distance, she heard the whirl of the large, circular doors open. Just as she had expected, Gehn was still alive. There was no way Axar was already there. When she had left, he could barely move – a fight she considered she had won despite being worse for wear.
By the time she, too, made it to the bay room and the impressive doors skated open for her, Gehn was already hopping out of the pod he had claimed, fists clenched in their usual way. At first, she didn’t look at him. Instead, her half-lidded stare focused on the nearest pod. Despite it clearly being too damage to fly, she walked right on over to it.
“You’re so loud,” she groaned under her breath in a voice too quiet to really be heard. With that, she leaned against the pod and huffed loudly. Now having something to fully support her weight, she felt like she could breathe a bit better.
Her hand came up to smear away the fresh trail of blood across her face, though it did nothing more than make her look even more beat up, and then looked at Gehn.
“I killed Axar and you’re safe,” she said plainly, this time loud enough to be heard. “I knew there was no way you were going to hide where you said you were going – you don’t trust anyone as far as you could throw them. If there was any place to lead him, I figured it was there.”
She gave him a tired glare, flicking her attention to the charged swirl of energy gathering around his palms. With a huff and a bit of sway to her step, she pushed herself from the pod and took a step closer. Her right arm hung at her side, still bruised and slightly mangled from the intensity of her own punch, but her left seemed otherwise fine. She formed a fist with it and then took a step forward.
“If you want to kill me for doing exactly what you told me to do, then bring it on.” Despite her words, she couldn’t muster much of an intimidating glare. Her breaths were short and ragged and the pain in her back was enough to bring a bit of moisture to her eyes when she thought about it too much.
She didn’t move from her spot. Didn’t put up her guard. Didn’t say another word. She just stared at him, waiting for him to make his decision. Though, invisible to the naked eye, she braced herself. Ki energy poured back through her body, giving it a false sense of rejuvenation and made her heart race in anticipation. It was nothing like the feeling she had when prepping for Axar, but it was something. Something she could defend herself with if it came to it.
[Overdrive v.2! x2 my base PL puts me at 14,600 PL for this thread] KP: 3/3
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Post by Gehn on Sept 4, 2017 23:38:55 GMT
“Oh, yes, what a wonderful job you did,” the sarcasm all but dripped off Gehn’s words. The red orbs in his hands only glowed brighter and brighter as his voice rose. They grew as well, ready to lash out and kill the Android indiscriminately—and vaporize the pod she leaned against.
She didn’t seem keen on just rolling over for Gehn, however. When she pushed herself back to her feet, steam started to roll off her thin, pale limbs. The display in Gehn’s vision slowly started to expand the number he saw attached to her until it reached a value about twice as high as its usual—and practically identical to his own.
“You expect me to think that you beat Axar like that? Even twice as strong as that, you’d never have stood a chance,” Gehn snapped right back at her. “And you expect me to believe that the only option you had was to lead him to the place you genuinely thought I was hiding? I heard the hesitation in your voice, Failure. You knew exactly what you were doing.”
The orbs grew yet again. They pulsed outwards, now nearly larger than Gehn’s own hands. The pulsating whine they gave off also grew in pitch and frequency. Then, all around Gehn, a furious, red aura appeared. Gusts of wind buffeted the Pods around him and whipped Failure’s loose, black dress across her body. His own, dark, bowl-cut hair swayed in the breeze it created around him.
But maybe she was right? Gehn’s one organic eye darted to the hall behind her that led into the facility. He couldn’t tell for sure if Axar was alive or dead: The doctor’s dampening zone hid his Power Level from out here. Or maybe the field dropped and Axar really had died, somehow, someway, because of this woman.
He still couldn’t be sure, and that meant he couldn’t trust someone who nearly got him killed.
“But what did I expect?” Gehn scoffed and shook his head. “You’re more machine than woman, now. Nothing more than a sociopathic monster like all the other Androids I ripped apart and vaporized. Whatever humanity, whatever soul, you once possessed? Xavier sold it to make you stronger.”
That was the only price a Saiyan wouldn’t pay for strength. Loss, defeat, grief, all their material and personal possessions meant nothing compared to becoming greater warriors. But to give up their selves, who they were as people, as Saiyans, as men or women? That defeated the whole purpose of becoming stronger.
With that final note, Gehn’s aura flared up even larger than before. The whipping wind lightly shook the pods around them and scattered small rocks and pebbles into the air. It continued to swirl around them even as Gehn stood there, fully prepared to confront this near-equal foe in a battle to the death.
He couldn’t remember the last time he honestly believed he would be able to. What was his Power Level, last he measured on Earth? Four hundred?
“Now, unless you can explain all of that away?” Gehn shouted over the wind. “You better start running.”
Continued to charge Thyym Cannon.
[Word Count: 522] KP: 3/3
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Failure
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Post by Failure on Sept 10, 2017 16:03:04 GMT
64’s tired frown shifted to a light scowl as she stood before Gehn in all of his anger. Red tufts of energy blossomed from the orbs on his hands, licking out at the nearby area before fizzling out. She had no idea just how strong the attack was, but judging by the way the pods around them swayed and the sound of their metal coats groaning in anticipation, it couldn’t be good.
“Do you really want to do this right here?” She said in her surprisingly calm voice as she lashed a hand out to the pod beside her. “Do you want to risk destroying your only hope of getting off this rock and back to Earth?”
Her hand fell to her side, clenched into a tight fist as she braced herself. Truth be told, she didn’t expect him to listen to reason. All he saw was bloodlust. No wonder the Doctor didn’t like people; if this was how they all acted, 64 was starting to feel the same way.
“Even with your fancy little light show going on right now, that’s not enough to kill me,” she pointed out. “So, let’s say, somehow, you’re skilled enough to fire that off without blowing everything in this room to rubble. I won’t lie down and roll over and you can bet your ass that if this turns into a fight, I’ll be damn sure to ruin every one of these pods before you’re done with me.”
She turned her body, but kept her eyes pinned on Gehn. Ever so casually, she started walking to the nearest pod that was in functioning order. Hands at her side, posture only somewhat tense, she certainly didn’t carry herself as someone who was on the high road to getting another beat down.
“Make your choice, monkey,” she snapped, picking up the derogatory nickname from Axar. “Fight me to satisfy your stupid thirst for battle and be stranded here until you eventually starve to death, or put away your guns and we go our separate ways.”
She placed her hand on the pod she had approached. With no hesitation, a flickering ember of Ki energy formed, slowly morphing into a more solid shape that threatened to burn away the pod at any given second.
KP: 3/3
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Post by Gehn on Sept 10, 2017 16:41:52 GMT
Xavier seemed to skip any intellectual enhancements when he constructed his Androids and Cyborgs. The reasoning that flew out of Failure’s mouth, even as steam rolled off her thin and feminine limbs, defied all understanding. She threatened the Pod next to her with a blast of energy and seemed to think that not a single pod would survive in the ensuing battle. Gehn grit his teeth while he listened to everything she said. Part of him wondered if, perhaps, she hid another plan behind this parade of nonsense.
“Saiyans aren’t known for their academic or scientific achievements,” Gehn explained as his red aura continued to flare and the energy in his hands continued to grow. “But we’re not fools either, Failure. Do you really think you’d be able to defend yourself against me and destroy these Pods? Do you expect me to believe that you could?”
Worse yet, she dropped the lie the moment she realized that Gehn wasn’t having it. He grit his teeth even harder. Then, he shook his head and scoffed at the idea.
“Of course you want me to hop in my Pod,” Gehn thought aloud. “It’d be trivial for you to destroy it, and me, as I take off. Do you really think I’m that daft, woman?”
He already knew the answer to that.
“We could have worked together,” Gehn reminded her, his tone almost regretful. “We could have helped each other. Me, to figure out who you were and where you came from. You, to help find a way to revive my family.”
Gehn never told her about what happened to him back on Earth, he realized. Although it was all a blur right now—and the adrenaline wasn’t helping his memory—he felt confident that he never shared the sob story of his butchered family.
“Earth possesses something powerful,” Gehn continued to explain. “Something supposedly called the Dragon Balls. Said to be able to grant any wish to those who find all seven. You could have helped me with that, and I would have gone to any lengths to return the favor and uncover who you really are.”
Once again, his aura flared and grew even taller. The pods around them rocked back and forth now. A couple threatened to roll away, but their sheer weight kept them in place. Silently, Gehn thanked himself for picking a half-working Pod many, many rows behind them. It probably remained perfectly still.
“I thought I made my willingness to help, clear,” Gehn said, quieter than his half-shouting a moment ago. “I understand that I probably seemed brash in my hurry to deal with Axar, but a momentarily sandpapery demeanor hardly seemed to warrant your total betrayal.”
He almost sounded hurt. He almost felt hurt. Months on the run only to have his entire body violated by a disgusting sort of bio-mechanical technology made by a psychopath in space? To finally run into someone who wasn’t out to kill him, take his money, or both, seemed like a blessing without the disguise.
Too good to be true, he realized.
“And after all that, you expect me to believe that you’ll just let me walk without trying to plunge a knife into my back?”
Finally, he paused, and gave Failure a chance to consider everything as the windstorm continued to grow.
“Convince me.”
Continued to charge Thyym Cannon.
[Word Count: 555] KP: 3/3
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Failure
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Post by Failure on Sept 10, 2017 17:00:13 GMT
Her free hand snapped to her face, fingers digging into her skull before drawing together to pinch the bridge of her nose. Eyes clenched shut and a heavy sigh racking her body, she jerked her hand away from the pod. The uneasy glow of the Ki blast dissipated into nothingness as she turned to face him.
For a moment, her lips flopped around helplessly while she tried to think of something to say. Something to just make it off this rock in the middle of space in one piece. Finally, another sigh washed over her and she let go of her nose. Eyebrows furrowed, blood starting to dry across her face, she just stared.
The steam coming from her body fizzled out and, with it, her Power Level plummeted to its natural state. Her muscles burned with exhaustion and, in the moment it took to calm herself down, she felt her vision blur. With a shake of her head, she focused back on Gehn.
“Fine, then, I’ll go first,” she said with an exasperated tone. “Or, hell, whatever. Blow me up. I don’t have anyone to go to. Nothing to do. I’m just a piece of junk that got tossed aside for no apparent reason.”
Her shoulders fell forward and she looked away. She really didn’t have a reason to keep going – nothing to really pursue. There was no point in her even fighting Axar, let alone Gehn. She just did because, in the moment, it was all she had going for her. Choices to be made, sides to pick.
Even in her time with the Doctor, she had never really been given those opportunities. Was it really a surprise she backed herself into this corner.
“If you were honestly afraid of me, you would have blown me up by now, I think,” she said, eyes staring holes into the wall to her left. “So if, even a little, you still trust me, I wouldn’t mind helping you find your ‘Dragon Balls’. Or, you can let me hop into one of these pods and find some other purpose.”
She paused for a breath and then looked at him. Tired, defeated, and ready for whatever he wanted to throw at her, she gave him one last option:
“Or you can kill me where I stand.”
[Dropped out of Overdrive. PL is 7,300]
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Post by Gehn on Sept 10, 2017 17:35:00 GMT
Her frustration practically dripped off her skin, in Gehn’s opinion. Everything about her looked like it was ready to rip itself apart from the stress and obvious irritation directed at him. He ignored it all and let her stew in it for a while longer.
Without speaking up, the aura around Gehn started to shrink. The wind died down and the Pods next to them stopped rocking side to side. The red orbs of energy in his hands slowly collapsed down until they evaporated into the air around the Saiyan. With a deep breath of his own, Gehn lowered his arms and allowed his entire body to relax once again. Even his flaming, red aura vanished entirely.
“That was a bold move,” he commented, half a compliment. He referred to the number in his vision that dropped like a stone all the way back to a Power Level of 7,300. With that, Gehn could almost certainly have obliterated her with a single blast. “You risked your life doing that.”
Nothing this woman did made any sense to Gehn. She betrayed him, but now she effectively surrendered. He could have killed her, right then. No trick, tactic, idea, or trap could have saved her life if he decided to take it away. She all but bent at the knee and swore allegiance to him.
What do I make of her? Gehn privately wondered.
“But I’ll be honest with you, Failure,” he kept using that name. As derogatory as the word was, it sounded better than referring to her by a number—or, at least, Gehn thought so. “I have no tangible evidence these Dragon Balls exist. I abandoned the Saiyans of Vegeta decades ago to pursue the rumor of them, and I never found anything.”
Gehn almost expected her to try to kill him the moment he said something like that. After all, how much did the idea of wish-granting orbs appeal to her and help her with the risk she just took? To immediately take that away, well, Gehn could see why she might want his head for that.
“But I still believe,” Gehn immediately continued, as to not give her a chance to complain. “The rumors were too specific, back then, to be fiction. Now? I’ve got nothing better to do than find out, once and for all, just what the story about them actually is.”
He shook his head, “But whether they exist or not shouldn’t matter to you. For what you want, you won’t need them. Help me and I’ll help you, just like I said.”
Then, Gehn glanced over his shoulder for a moment. When he turned back to Failure, he lifted an arm and pointed backwards with his thumb.
“There’s another Pod back this way that I believe I can get to work,” Gehn explained. “If we have a deal, I’ll program it to go to Earth and you can just hop in. And if you’re still interested after you cool off and get to the planet, come find me.
“I’ll be near a place called East Capitol.”
[Word Count: 513]
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Failure
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Post by Failure on Sept 14, 2017 23:01:22 GMT
In all honesty, she expected him to just blow her to bits. End her short life in that very moment. After all, given his hot-headed, huffy attitude, she had no reason to believe he would just calm down and spare her. Especially after his little rant just a moment ago. But despite her shock, she didn’t smile or relax anymore than she already had. She just stared with tired eyes, blood splattering to the floor in the moment of silence that followed.
She didn’t approach him. Didn’t say anything. Just stared as he talked, her vision blurring for a moment before she blinked and refocused.
Damn, she was tired. That blow from Axar had really done a number on her and without the comfort of her Overdrive, the exhaustion felt even more crippling.
“I don’t really care if they’re real or not,” she said plainly once Gehn had stopped talking and had started to walk away. “What I do care about is finding a purpose – something to pursue – and maybe getting my life back along the way.”
She let her words hang in the air, as if expecting him to scoff at her yet again. But, that was really all she had to say. There was no grand plan behind what she did. There was no rhyme or reason to the decisions she had made. All of it impulsive and born from her lack of experience in, well, most everything. It was only natural that she felt lost.
With that said, she trailed behind Gehn, taking uneven steps, and then made her way to the aforementioned pods.
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