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Post by Liang on Mar 1, 2015 0:53:13 GMT
[Heavy Weights ON]
After his climate training in the frozen north and meeting the Saiyan called Daiki, for a while things had returned to their average day to day routine with the exception of Liang's purchase of training weights which brought in a whole new routine. Feeling a bit of accomplishment (and fatigue), he'd decided to explore another kind of climate he hadn't exactly found himself familiar with; the desert. That morning, he awoke to his friend Xiapai already walking about the dojo, sprucing it up as he always did. He'd put on some warm tea and started breakfast, offering a smile to Liang as he stumbled out of his chambers and rubbed his eyes tiredly. ''I trust you slept well, Li?''
Well wasn't the word that came to mind. It was almost criminal how exhausted he was, and how deep the sleep he fell into after his first day with his new heavy weights. He offered a tired nod but quickly perked up as he smelled the food. ''It will be ready in a couple of minutes. Did you have any sort of goals in mind for the day, or were you going to resume your training? I saw those new weights of yours in the back room; you just don't know when to quit pushing the bar, Li!'' The older man laughed as Liang offered him a smile back, headed over to where he kept his travel bag.
''Actually, i'm headed to the desert today, Xiapai. Facing that cold climate that I did in the North was a real eye-opener. I think it'd do well for my stamina to have a trek through the desert and see how long I can last.'' ''Interesting! The Old Man did a lot of things like that, you know. Nice to see you're taking some of his example to heart. Wait; you're not skipping out on the meal, right?'' ''Of course not, Xiapai. I'm going to have to keep my strength up, after all. It isn't going to be easy out there or anything. I'm sure even i'll get tired out pretty quick.''
With a cheerful nod, Xiapai continued cooking while Li got some supplies together for his trip. He packed in plenty of water, some preservable food, medical supplies, and other basic supplies into the large bag before deciding he'd packed enough. He strapped on his new heavy weights he'd adapted into his training from a few days before, and he dug a long, blue scarf out of his haphazard piles of clean clothing in the back of the dojo, then returned to eat.
Not long after finishing his meal, he said his momentary goodbyes to Xiapai who had already begun cleaning up. Taking off toward the desert in flight, he arrived and landed slightly further than the border of the sands. He adjusted his travel pack a little and then got to work using his long, thin scarf as a wrap to cover his nose and mouth, protecting them from any blowing sand. Letting the remainder hang loose in one tail hanging from his right shoulder, he began a brisk jog with the intention of getting deeper into the sands; at least far enough to where he couldn't make out any trees off in the distance. Pulling a water bottle from his pack mid-stride, he took his first deep swig of the day and continued his pace for around a half an hour before he'd reached a distance he was satisfied with.
Looking around, he spotted a tall dune nearby and took his time climbing to the top where he could get a better lay of the landscape. He was certainly far enough in, and for the most part nothing spectacular had stuck out yet. He sat down for a moment as he admired the surroundings, looking for anything that could occupy his interest to keep him moving. After a few minutes' worth of scanning the sands, he made out something strange; what looked to be the tracks of a vehicle were leading deeper into the desert. They didn't indicate anything military, however. The tracks that he'd spotted looked more along the lines of a civilian vehicle.
What would a regular vehicle be doing driving so far out? The young warrior decided to investigate, sliding down the tall dune calmly. Upon reaching the bottom, he made his way across the sands headed for the tracks with the extreme heat bearing down on him; not to mention the wind that whipped sand at his body, making each grain feel like the sting of a needle prick. He turned left after his body reached the partially-covered tracks and began to follow alongside them curiously, keeping a medium-paced walk with his water bottle in hand and taking time to refresh himself with the fluid every so often.
Something was awfully familiar about the size of these tracks...
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Vi-Poi
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Post by Vi-Poi on Mar 2, 2015 23:43:38 GMT
(Thread PL: 41,815) (Heavy Weights On) (Power Suppressed)
They’d been searching the desert all night and further into the day for the bandits. The maps for the Fortuneteller’s were chancy at best. Vi-Poi’s built-in scouter detected no life signs in this great golden wasteland. The sun was rising higher in the air now, and though they found noontime shade in an up-thrust of rock, they were no closer to finding their quarry.
Just as they were loading up the buggy for a jaunt further to the west, Vi-Poi’s built-in scouter chirped at a large power spike to the northeast. “Hold on.” He said as he threw his ki-reading sensors in that direction. It was a substantially strong signal. “There’s something other than bandits here.” Vi-Poi said.
General Chartruese – posing as Titan – visibly darkened. He knew firsthand what it meant when Vi-Poi encountered someone of his own type. The powerful.
Vi-Poi moved into the driver seat and waited patiently for the old man Gramps and the wolfish Zoanthrope Curse to hustle inside. Curse was cursing quite dramatically at the prospect of facing “something weird” in the Desert, though she wore a small grin as she spoke, betraying her excitement.
Vi-Poi punched the gas pedal with the toe of his heavy boot, and they took off. The mismatched buggy’s parasol rattled in the wind from the speed.
The signal was still miles off, but the buggy could make good time in catching it. Whatever it was, it wasn’t flying, or moving fast at all. Vi-Poi cautiously let his heart reactor flood his circuitry, electron-ki converters at work as he infused his body. As he neared the signal he got a better read on it, judging it wasn’t as strong as him, but still worthy of investigating.
As they chugged along and crested the next sand-whipped dune, the target of his scouter was revealed. A simply-dressed man wearing a long blue scarf around his mouth and nose trudged alongside a pair of tire tracks.
Vi-Poi hmphed. Humans with such exceptional ki signatures were unpredictable, and typically more integrated in the martial arts schools, as the Turtle Hermit had painfully taught him. He spun the wheel as they aligned the buggy into an intercept course, and Vi-Poi gave a friendly beep-beep-beeeeeep! of its squeaky horn as to not startle him.
His scouter rang in its estimate:
>(2,425)<
Not a world breaker, this one. But still a potential threat. Or an ally. He hoped for the latter.
“Hey!” Vi-Poi called, waving his machinegun cheerfully.
Dressed in a battered red battle-armor vest over a standard issue grey jumpsuit, blue jeans, boots and goggles Vi-Poi might appear to the wary as a mercenary, which were commonplace in these parts. His pale and boyish face was smudged with smoke and oil above his butterscotch tartan scarf, further adding to the allusion. The blue-haired android’s ammunition belt jangled loudly as he approached the man, bouncing around his slender frame and clacking against his armor. If asked his name, he would give it as Golem.
The hulking General Chartreuse – also dressed in red armor, cuts a more imposing figure, but does not move with the same precision to a trained eye that Vi-Poi may. He sat in the passenger seat, judging the desert traveler more warily. He would call himself Titan if introduced.
Gramps and Curse were in the back seat, peering at Liang with curiosity.
(OOC: Vi-Poi would offer to go help with the bandits, thinking they might be his quarry. Don't worry about using him in ways like that, the only things I ask you let me decide are big shifts in the narrative such as you not goin after the robbers any more, Blue Banner questions or fighting of course)
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Post by Liang on Mar 4, 2015 0:21:00 GMT
Liang had curiously followed alongside the tracks in an almost zombie-like fashion of interest. He slowly paced along the marks, careful not to lose his way in the drifting sands or to otherwise disturb the marks. For a few moments, his clash with the Kickboxer flitted through his mind in short order; growling with a bit of annoyance and anxiety, he brought a hand to the front of his tied scarf and re-fastened it over his mouth and nose tightly. He debated making the thing into a full-on hood and mask, but the sands hadn't kicked up enough yet to warrant any drastic measures.
His first water bottle was beginning to run a little on the empty side, so he stopped for a short rest and squatted down to investigate the tracks more closely. It didn't help a whole lot, but his main goal was to try and figure out if they'd been recent, or if the desert had lent its calm to him to discover these late after the fact. He sighed and extended his legs, rising to his feet again; the burden of his weighted over-garments putting much less stress on his lower body than when he'd spent his first days with them.
Tipping his water bottle up to his lips, he drank down the last of the cool liquid, his peripheral vision picking up a dust cloud off in the distance. Was a sandstorm about to kick up, now of all times, to hide these tracks from him in a stroke of misfortune? It didn't seem so; the cloud was fairly sized, but far too localized to one specific area. He kept his pose with the now-empty bottle resting against his lip as he continued to stare at whatever it was that seemed to be heading in his direction, and fast. He blinked between the tracks and back to the cloud.
A series of beeps came from the suddenly appeared shoddy construct of a do-it-yourself looking buggy riding the sands like a canoe in waves, and he stashed his empty bottle in his pack before turning to face the driver, who had seemed excitable for the case of a first impression. The young stranger waved an automatic rifle in probably the only way it could be non-threatening, shouting out a greeting.
Sizing him up, the young man looked like either some sort of military contractor or a survival-savvy gear-head. Whatever the case, if he was going to open fire, he would have; they were in the middle of the desert with nobody else around for miles, and an introduction would have been a waste of time. His eyes slowly scrolled to the other passengers, and red armor seemed to be a common theme. They must have been some sort of military to be outfitted like that.
''Golem.'' He nodded simply to the young man. ''Titan.'' He offered another simple greeting nod beneath the muffle of his makeshift shroud, gripping it and pulling it free from his mouth and nose to make his voice a bit clearer. ''Those sound like callsigns or some kind of codenames. Or are you guys bounty hunters, maybe?'' He turned and slightly nodded to the tracks beside him that the buggy had obviously not made. ''I've been following these for a while. It kind of makes me wonder who'd bring a vehicle with tires like that out into the middle of a wasteland like this, y'know? If you're looking for someone, you just stumbled on a lead.''
He smiled in a friendly manner, stepping out of the way so they could get a better view of the tracks. Wiping some sweat-stuck sand from his forehead with his forearm, he bowed slightly at the pack of newly-met figures. ''My name's Li. I came out here for a walk, but I think I might end up being out here on business instead...'' He trailed off as his eyes stole another peek at the erratic blights on otherwise boring sand. He turned to offer another friendly, non-threatening smile.
''How about you?''
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Vi-Poi
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Post by Vi-Poi on Mar 4, 2015 22:23:39 GMT
Vi-Poi, posing as Golem, looked Liang over carefully, his bright blue eyes moving from him to the snakelike tire tracks that slalomed through the sands. “Business, like you.” Golem said vaguely, his algorithms calculating the size of the tread to not be in-line with the heavy crawlers their water bandits were said to use. Still, there was a chance that these were left by the quarry they sought. It was a sparse, lifeless land, and there would be too many out here in the deep dunes. Perhaps they changed their mode of transportation when not attacking water convoys.
“Maybe we can work together?” Golem asked, after a moment of contemplation. “Might of guessed we’re mercenaries. Freelancers. Clanless.”
General Chartreuse, in the guise of Titan, nodded and grunted gruffly, gamely handing Golem a water flask which he drank in mock thirst. He wiped his mouth with the back of his leather gloved hand, his sensors still analyzing Liang closely. He was powerful, but didn’t seem threatening. He’d had ample opportunity to attack when he first was come upon, if he’d chosen to. Allying with this desert wanderer could prove useful, even if these tire tracks didn’t belong to the bounties.
“We’re hunting bandits. We’ve a bounty issued from a desert town that’s running bone dry. Water thieves are hitting their convoys, highwaymen. The bandits blew up a few trucks during the raids and killed some workpeople too.” Golem explained, furrowing his brow as he peered towards where the tracks went. “I’m not sure if these are them. We'll share the bounty, if it is. I guess you’re following the tracks for a reason?” He inquired curiously, hoisting the heavy machinegun across one shoulder. Titan ahemed next to him hintingly, and Golem let his shoulders sag some and his lithe body bow slightly under the supposed burden of the large weapon.
Vi-Poi was still getting used to pretending to be Golem.
“Plenty of room back here.” Gramps said to Liang with a gummy smile after Golem questioned. He shooed Curse to move over some on the buggy’s back bench, who did so after a string of colorful and bizarrely-worded mutterings.
If Liang entered the buggy, the curious quintuple would bounce and creak its way along the tire tracks for some time. Gramps would regal Liang with tales from his younger freelancing days – some fantastic and perhaps unlikely, including and most notably one where he rode into battle on the back of a Paozusaurus to rescue a princess from an evil desert sorceress.
Curse would huff and mutter curses under her breath, slapping and swishing at Liang with her tail as he sat next to her. Titan would remain warily quiet.
If Liang decided not to join them in the buggy, they would politely part ways, with Vi-Poi following the tracks and maintaining a cautious focus on Liang.
Before long, they arrived before the crumpled remains of an old concrete wall, where the tire tracks led. Beyond it were ruins opened to the air, pockmarked by centuries of whipping sand and half buried by the desert. There would be no mistaking its spartan and utilitarian shape – this was once upon a time – a military base of some kind.
(OOC: Feel free to take creative liberties with what happens next I'm game for anything! General Chartreuse has a handheld 4-shot grenade launcher, Gramps has two Uzi-type weapons (and is very good with them ) and Curse uses a sniper rifle from long range, and a knife up close.)
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Post by Liang on Mar 8, 2015 20:18:34 GMT
Apparently this group of ragtags were also out here on business. Liang nodded in understanding. At the offer of working together from this ''Golem'', his initial suspicions seemed to be confirmed. These were a group of mercenaries who had likely taken a job from a village on the outskirts of this desert. After the one called Titan handed the speaker a flask of water to drink from, Golem continued his offer by providing a bit more information before the human warrior could inquire. Liang listened to his explanation carefully, shaking his head in slight disgust at the depravity of the bandits.
''That's awful. They're just murdering these people and destroying convoys, all for a shot at some water? I'm following the tracks personally because they remind me of a vehicle from a group of people i've dealt with before; that is, the tire tracks match up fairly well, but they used civilian vehicles and i'm not sure how well those would handle in a desert. If i'm on to something, they're either desperate or stupid. If i'm not, then i'd say it might be your water thieves after all. I'll tag along.''
He watched Golem sling his heavy weapon over one shoulder with surprising strength, prompting Titan to clear his throat slightly; this was a cue that Li didn't pay a whole lot of attention to at the time. After all, he could have accidentally inhaled some sand or something. Watching an elder fellow perk up from the back of the buggy to offer him a seat, Li smiled to him and nodded. He heard the more animal of the pair mutter some things out of earshot beneath her breath as he approached the vehicle and climbed in, plopping down semi-comfortably between Gramps and Curse.
Not soon after being seated, the bumpy buggy took off across the dunes, shaking its way along with the rough terrain. He could almost swear a tire was about to roll off and pass them, but after a while he settled down a bit as he became drawn in to Gramps' stories about mercenary work.
He wasn't sure about the Paozusaurus story about rescuing a princess, but he nodded along and smiled anyway. It was tough enough to do that with the woman on his other side slapping against him with her tail, muttering unintelligible things for the whole ride. Soon enough, the group of newly-formed allies arrived upon the remains of a withered concrete wall. It had to be some sort of military base just by peeking through some of the ruin into the layout of the interior, and being the tracks led here, Li doubted it was still active but was being used as a den for some criminal squatters. Li exited the buggy promptly.
Approaching along the wall carefully, he saw a door that must have still been operable to let vehicles through. Peeking up top on the wall, it didn't look like anyone was posted up to stand watch. It would obviously be smarter not to trek in through the front gate, so the obvious option would be to peek around at the perimeter of the base to look for any kind of gap in the walls.
Li got to work and after a few moments, found a small crawlspace next to a low-height ruined portion of the wall. Those who couldn't hoist themselves over could have crawled under, at least. ''Hey, I found a way in. Check this out.'' He stated calmly and knelt down to peek through the crawlspace, not seeing anyone on patrol. They must have all been huddled up indoors, whoever it was.
Getting a good jump, Li grabbed onto the ruined portion of wall and hoisted himself up, laying across it and extending his hand to help up someone else. Once they were all inside whether through crawling or climbing, Li began to investigate a bit more; a few surplus tents had been set up, and a lot of doors had been left open across the complex with fresh, sandy footprints littering them here and there. There was a main building toward the center, and the human spotted a slot for a pass card. He furrowed his brow, annoyed. Pressing his back against an abandoned vehicle, he peeked around a corner to see a lone guard finally on patrol.
Bringing a finger to his lips with a short and sharp nod toward the thug or guard on patrol, he knocked gently against the frame of the vehicle causing him to come investigate. As he slowly neared the corner with his gun raised, Li sprang out and swatted the firearm from his grip (!), then hip-tossed him into the ground and swiftly socked him in the temple to knock him out. He went through his things but didn't find much aside from some spare ammo for one of the mercenaries, but he dragged the unconscious man and eased him into the back of the unused vehicle, hiding him behind a folded-down tarp. It was difficult to see if it was a familiar thug, as he'd been outfitted in surplus desert gear.
''I don't mean to jump the gun, but they clearly aren't who used to be here. I spotted a card slot on a door over there. Think they might be holed up? I was thinking that guy might have been carrying one.''
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Vi-Poi
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Post by Vi-Poi on Mar 9, 2015 7:08:17 GMT
Following Liang as the human led the way, Vi-Poi was instantly impressed. The man was stealthy, and knew how to remain unseen if that was his wish. They quietly vaulted the buckle in the ancient wall of the base, and entered its perimeter with all the silent and efficient gusto of a commando unit in the movies. Well, except for when Curse muttered shit under her breath as she went over the wall. General Chartresue in the guise of Titan nearly fell, but managed to be lifted across by Liang’s guiding hand. Gramps moved with surprising spryness, bounding up the wall and only taking the hand for additional leverage. Vi-Poi was the only one among them who decided to crawl, not wishing to show his ability to Liang yet and certainly not wanting him to feel his true mass.
After they all went over the side and Vi-Poi wriggled on his belly into the facility, he climbed to his feet had a look around the base’s interior.
Vi-Poi recognized the layout and the design of the base at once for what it was. Old Red Ribbon. Dust had settled thickly across its ramparts and computer banks, but there was no mistaking it. He exchanged looks with General Chartreuse then fell back in behind Liang, huddling against the long body of the military vehicle. When Liang pressed a finger to his lips, Vi-Poi curled his finger around the trigger of his machinegun. This was sort of like the infiltration scene in Ornion Shallotnagger’s The Salad Tosser II: Thousand Islands of Doom, Vi-Poi thought, pleased. Though in the movie, the burly Majin’s entire chef-commando squad from the first film ended up getting massacred during the infiltration. He hoped that didn’t turn out to be the case here.
Liang surprised him with a series of expertly-timed strikes that easily disabled the approaching guard. “Electronic locks? I can open those.” Vi-Poi said, then added hastily, “With my… multi-tool.” He said, the last word coming out as more of a question before he pressed the butt of his machine gun to his shoulder and crept carefully from behind the truck.
Liang’s instincts were correct about the bandits not belonging to the base’s original owners. He wondered how much the fellow knew about Red Ribbon and the broader labyrinthine history of the world. There were gaps in it you could drive a tank through. Slowly duck walking as General Chartreuse had colorfully called it, Vi-Poi made his way to the door. He peered back at Liang to make certain that he was out of a direct line of sight, and hunched his body over the door’s key slot. He pretended to rummage in his jean pocket for something, then stuck his elbows out and jostled them around. He wasn’t certain what picking an electric lock would look like, and he guessed this wasn’t it, but it was the best imitation his systems could come up with. As he made a show for Liang, his communications relay easily made contact with the door’s firmware and instructed it to open. He also got insight into what the base’s network looked like. Besides these doors and a handful of other systems, much of the base was inactive. There was a No-Access block in the circuits, probably a hardline, physical disconnect that was installed by these bandits in order to prevent any wireless tapping of their main computer. It was a smart move, but a strange one for petty bandits to make. Come to think of it, the entire operation here didn’t exactly rate as second class.
The lock disabled, Vi-Poi curled his fingers over the door handle and with extreme caution slowly slid it open. To his misfortune, just as he was opening the door wide enough to peek through, a second guard was moving up the subterranean stairwell and out into rotation. He spotted Vi-Poi entering.
A radio call of “Intrude-!” managed to blaze across the airwaves before Vi-Poi was able to silence him with the butt of his machinegun. He’d managed to control his ki better that time, as the guard’s head hadn’t exploded or anything that would be deemed too unrealistic by General Chartreuse.
“What’s going on?! Alert! Alert!” The radio demanded.
Vi-Poi quickly grabbed the comm unit on the man’s chest and held it up to his mouth. “Uhh, negative, that’s a negative -- cancel that alert.” He said into the radio with near-perfect imitation of the downed man’s voice, peering back at Liang and the others who were still out of earshot but quickly approaching. If he’d heard more of the fellow’s speech pattern, it would have been an absolutely perfect copy. “I uh, err…” Vi-Poi struggled to think of something that would make a particular human frightful but not cause alarm in others. “I thought I saw a ghost.” He said, shrugging.
“A what?!” The man on the radio hissed. “Bery, is that you? You know the process. Raindrop! Give me your password.”
Vi-Poi hmphed, and threw the radio down. Verbal passwords. It’s what the military used to identify friend or foe during combat operations. There was no faking that.
“Get ready for a firefight!” Vi-Poi yelled to the others before racing down the stairs to meet the opposition head on...
(OOC: Full alert, no escaping this one! Do you have a Cardboard Box handy? XD)
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Post by Liang on Mar 12, 2015 3:02:56 GMT
Apparently, this Golem fellow wasn't just a deceivingly skillful mercenary; he'd also had experience with electronics, too. It was common for freelancers like this to each have certain specialties, so maybe it wasn't so surprising after all. Maybe Golem was their resident tech-savvy member? If he had to guess, Titan was their muscle. Focusing a while, it seemed strange that while a few members of the band of mercenaries did have some sort of readout to Li's sensing instincts, Golem in particular did not. The strange occurrence was quickly laid to rest with renewed focus as Golem seemed eager to show his stuff. For a while,
Li hung back with the rest of the group and kept a lookout for the young-looking man as he sneakily slithered his way over to the electronic card lock. Quirking an eyebrow curiously, Li tried to keep an eye on him to see him work his magic on the techno-lock but ended up focusing more on being a lookout with the others. He watched Golem fiddle about, the lock itself masked from view by the mercenary's body. Li tapped his chin thoughtfully in response to witnessing the delicate-looking procedure.
''Man, you guys must really know your stuff! I've heard of people picking old fashioned locks before but for a second there I thought an alarm was going to go off or somethi-...'' he kept his voice low as he crept along with the group quickly to catch up to Golem, and as they neared his position Li's side of the conversation was abruptly halted with the sound of rifle butt meeting jaw, and by the sounds of it getting intimately acquainted. As they neared ever closer, Li didn't manage to catch even a mumble of what Golem was doing at this point. The first and very sudden thing he'd heard let him know that the situation had taken a pretty dire turn.
He heard Golem shout to Li and the crew before he raced off to meet any advancing opposition, and Li offered a blink and a shrug before taking off into a run after him. Grasping the rail and beginning to flow a bit of ki through his right hand, he raced down the steps and rounded after Golem at the bottom, taking the nearest thing he could spot for cover. He watched as two men bounded down the hallway and took his chance before they dashed for cover.
Leaning up and holding out his palm toward the one on the left, his palm flashed dimly with a clear-white glow before loosing a ki bolt at the opponent, colliding with his chest and knocking him to the ground. One down. It was likely these two had just happened to be near this entrance and there were probably a fair deal more on their way; the main unsettling thing about it was how little the group actually knew about the ''soldiers'' they were fighting.
It was clear they weren't the ones who were supposed to be here, but there was no way to decipher how many of them there were, or what kind of technology they had tucked away in the armory of this place for them to make use of. Keeping a good channeled even flow of ki circulating through his right arm, he kept his head down and remained crouched but at the ready to cover the members of the mercenary squad. Golem seemed pretty sharp so far, but he didn't know what the others were capable of yet. Being he was a tag-along, he'd follow Golem's order in an engagement; he seemed to have a lot more experience in this kind of combat.
By this time, if Golem or one of the other mercenaries hadn't taken down the other trooper, Li would attempt to do so himself. He kept his eyes peeled on the others and especially watched the stairway they had come down. It was possible that these people might try something clever and send a small detachment through the stairwell to try and catch them by surprise. Liang would shift most of his attention to that thought, keeping a close eye on where they'd entered from. ''Golem, what's the plan? I'm kind of a sign-on here so i'll stick to your strategies. I've got my eye on the stairs if they try and sneak in behind us for now!''
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Vi-Poi
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Post by Vi-Poi on Mar 12, 2015 18:58:35 GMT
Liang’s ki manipulation was impressively done. He had the finesse to extend his ki outside of his body in limited amounts – something that more brutish ki users tended to overlook or never learn. Vi-Poi would have to assess it in more detail later, he decided. His social algorithms were starting to hint that bringing the amiable human into their overall deception may be a wise move. He was intrigued by this desert walker who so readily started a bandit hunt, traversing the smoldering wastes to do so. It was a certain type of individual who braved the Desert, on foot.
Despite its at-all-cost mentality, Blue Banner truly did want a safer, more efficient Earth. Perhaps Liang would see the value in that.
The stairs would be the most direct route to the control room. There was an above-ground route through the complex that required going around the surface buildings before descending into the databanks.
Upon Liang asking for ideas, Vi-Poi looked back at General Chartreuse with wide, excited eyes. The General tried to shake his head but Vi-Poi hmphed. “You’re about to see how the pros do it.” He said to Liang in perfect imitation of how Ornion Shallotnagger spoke to the rookie Bussel Cornshucks in Salad Tosser III: Dr. Catchup’s Revenge. He leaped onto the stern steel railing of the staircase and infused some of his ki, sliding down it as if his boots were slick as ice. He heard General Chartreuse groan in exasperation.
Curse and Gramps were following quickly behind, Curse with her knife held high and her long-range sniper rifle pressed against her shoulder, Gramps bounding with near as much spryness as Vi-Poi had shown, twin snub-nosed submachineguns in both of his fists.
Vi-Poi’s rapid slide in the stairwell surprised a guard, who he picked off with two fierce bursts of machinegun fire. At the landing he leapt upward and performed an expert roll, hurling a grenade to the side whilst in midair. The green bulb of steel bounced off the metallic flooring before perfectly lobbing in between a scattering of charging bandits, leaving two them shrieking in a squalling gust of flame.
Vi-Poi landed on one knee and began to unload, his expert systems perfectly delivering the bullets into the center of mass of a survivor who was running for cover.
As the rest of the banditry took cover, a line of reinforcements burst behind the corner of the downstairs hall, and Vi-Poi instantly picked off the leader of the queue with a lightning quick alignment of his gun and the firing of a single round.
The round slammed into the leader’s head, causing him to topple over in instant death.
Vi-Poi wasn’t done. He continued firing while strafing to the side, pausing and ducking here and there, judging the angles of their gunfire and managing to outmaneuver the directions of fire. The hail of heavy fire from his machine tore through the new opposition, until only two remained, huddling with the others while Vi-Poi reloaded.
He decided to duck behind a low row of metal crates now, for realism’s sake. In the smoke and heavy gunfire he couldn’t immediately tell if Liang had already branched off somewhere after descending the staircase – there was at least three directions to choose -- but he was sure that the others had joined him downstairs, as he heard more bursts of gunfire in other areas of the complex.
The blue-haired android pulled a clip from his belt and quickly jammed it into the heavy machinegun’s receiver before leaping out from behind the crates acrobatically, this time cartwheeling with a one hand while squeezing down on the trigger until all of the rounds were perfectly dispensed into five bandits who were arrayed in cover and half-exposed in their firing positions. They all dropped near-simultaneously, and Vi-Poi landed the bouncing cartwheel on both feet.
He smirked at their smoking remains, then peered down and fixed his butterscotch tartan scarf. It was getting lopsided during the fighting, unfortunately. He peered around for his friends, attempting to find them all starting with Liang. The fighting was certainly fierce – these bandits must be extracting extremely valuable materials or information from this old Red Ribbon base.
Vi-Poi would have to explain everything to Liang, when the time came. (OOC: Cranked up the game memes XD Vi-Poi is gonna have some 'splainin to do! Also, I was thinkin for our next thread we could do stuff with those lovely weapons you came up with, esp. the oni's club. Loved that.)
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Post by Liang on Mar 14, 2015 2:02:52 GMT
Quirking an eyebrow at the thought of ''seeing how the pros do it'', Li watched as Golem leaped into the air and landed on the railing that led down the stairs and further into the ruined base. With expert balance, he slid down it quickly, and Liang stifled a chuckle when he heard a drawn out sigh. He shook his head with an amused and impressed smile before darting after the squad of mercenaries, keeping in close proximity to see what they were made of. It was like Golem had flipped a switch out of nowhere; he was seeing moves that had to be extremely taxing and complicated to perform using gear like such as the mercenary leader's.
He only got to witness a short episode of the rampage however when his sharp eyes spotted a grenade landing next to a few combatants and he started getting ideas himself. The resulting explosion was going to draw a lot of attention, and he was about to pass by another corridor himself. He ducked away long before the explosive had time to detonate, turning around the corner and breaking into a hard run as winded down the hall and around another sharp corner.
What he saw then plastered his amused smile into one of excitement.
A reinforcement squadron was hastily making their way down the hall with their backs facing him, and one of them had been slacking. Breaking into a full-on sprint with surprising speed from his weighted cardio training, he sunk into a low running pose and locked his eyes on the small of the straggler's back. He drew his arm back a bit and put his elbow outward and as he arrived, used his speed to transfer into a powerful elbow straight into his target, causing him to lurch backward in agony.
Liang let out a powerful shout as his momentum continued, intending on the man as a momentary battering ram against the rest of his comrades. ''Haaaaaaa---AAAAHHHH!'' He roared fiercely as he applied the brakes for a sudden moment, sending him flying; the panicked remainder of his comrades opened fire, and the momentary shield combined with his own speed to keep him safe from any potentially dangerous barrages.
He banked toward the corridor wall and leaped toward it, bounding off toward the closest soldier with a heavy diving kick straight to the head. Springing off of him before he fell, he delivered a flying knee to the man behind him before tucking both legs in and then sharply extending them to smash the next two to the ground; using his remaining aerial momentum, he grasped the last by the collar and resumed his sprint down the pathway, encountering another squadron of goons.
The grunt emptied the remains of his weapon's ammo supply into the wall in extreme panic streaking it with holes, several empty clicks of the weapon signaling his arrival at the new group. He hurled him forward and channeled his Explosive Palm, braking and allowing himself to slide on his heels and carry him right into the center of the group. The sphere of ki in his hand expanding, it enveloped the tightly-grouped pack of armed thugs and sent them flying in a discombobulated heap; weapons, gear, and loose ammunition scattered about the corridor.
Wiping his brow and throwing up a confident smirk, he continued on as he tracked the sounds of Golem's now-familiar-firearm. Around the last corner he'd cared to take note of, he met up with a thug in heavier armor with a shotgun. Slapping the barrel upward, it fired into the ceiling, and the human warrior wasted no time in twisting sharply, ducking forward slightly, then sliding backward with a heavy step from both legs.
He extended his arms out wide and pointed his fists upward, colliding into the bulkier might-be-a-bandit with explosive contact from his shoulders and back. The result sent the overpowered but heavy-weighted mock soldier flying rag-doll down the hall a short ways until he slammed into the wall, making a large dent in the metal.
Following the last straight-away and coming upon a large open room, he met his last pack of adversaries. As the first charged in with another shotgun, he parried the barrel away from his body with an elbow, causing it to fire off into one of his opponents and drop him. He took the time of the momentary shock to twist into a kick, feinting the actual blow to hook his leg around the heavy's neck and whirl around his body a single time, striking two other bandits before tucking forward into a roll and hurling the heavy at the ceiling with the momentum of his swing-kick and the leverage of his lower body.
He jolted forward and crossed his elbows, landing them clean on the two kicked opponent's vulnerable faces, then launched upwards in flight to uppercut the heavy and send him a bit higher before boosting him once more with an additional kick, accelerating and kneeing him into ceiling afterward to finish him off. He grimaced as he felt the grunt's bones in his cheek, nose, and jaw shift, then firmly kicked off of the ceiling as the armored enemy's body dropped to the ground behind him in a heap shortly after he himself had landed . Taking a fierce and fired-up pose, Li's eyes quickly scanned for any more possible engagers; he was put at ease, however, when he thought he could make out the frame of Golem down another hall.
''Golem! That you?'' He took a few heavy and greedy breaths now that he didn't have to keep his breathing under wraps manually to help his focus. He'd wait for a confirmation before inquiring about the others, of course.
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Vi-Poi
Administrator
Premier of Earth
PL: 434,410
Soul(x40P), Overdrive(x43)
Zeni: 1,247
Tag: @vipoi
Posts: 2,833
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Post by Vi-Poi on Mar 14, 2015 17:21:22 GMT
Vi-Poi swept the warrens of the complex with his built-in scouter. There was nothing here any longer, save for the five of them. It was an efficient end. When Liang approached, Vi-Poi offered a smile. He had sensed the energy spikes coming from his direction, and heard some explosions. It must have been quick work, because the fellow had finished the job singlehandedly.
Vi-Poi waved to the skilled fighter, and then looked over the group as they reformed in an intersection of halls. Liang seemed unscathed. Curse had a wound on her arm, but it looked superficial. The long barrel of her sniper rifle was still smoldering, and her knife was red with gore. She wore a grim smile. Gramps was untouched, and quietly cleaning his weapons. General Chartreuse had also sustained some damage, but it all looked absorbed by his sturdy battle armor.
Vi-Poi nodded to General Chartreuse. It was time to end all pretenses. There was Red Ribbon data here, he could feel it. The dormant circuits sung to him with the familiarity of a homecoming. “General. Call in for a Science Corps recovery team. Some of the circuitry is damaged, and we’ll need bridges before I can access the entire file load.”
He turned his head back to Liang, bowing it respectfully. “I fear I have been deceiving you, Master Liang.” He said, offering the honorific afforded a martial arts master. If he wasn’t an official Schoolmaster, he was close to being one, given his movements. They rivaled the Turtle Hermit herself in form. “I am not Golem, and this is not Titan. Though Gramps and Curse are real enough.” He explained. “This is General Chartreuse." He said, gesturing to the large mercenary. "And my name is Virtual Poi, or Vi-Poi. I am an artificial construct, and I administrate an organization called Blue Banner.” He waited for this revelation to sink in, watching for signs of anger on the man’s face. “I apologize for the deception. I sensed you were a large power, and felt it best to continue my guise as a freelancer until I could better ascertain your character and general intentions. It is not often that we meet benevolent souls in this Desert. You may have heard of us from newscasts, though those newscasts are heavily biased towards the current government. We are a revolutionary organization, one dedicated to changing the Earth for the better. The planet needs protectors that are able to stand against powers like the Saiyans, who destroyed the World Tournament. The government was powerless to stop them. A government that cannot protect its people is no government at all.” He launched into further detail. “We do not intend to upend the democracy, or the government. We intend to safeguard it. The government is a very large and very stable system, which has efficiently served its people for generations. It is only now with this new threat that they are paralyzed, and unable to change. We represent that change.” He says, letting his ki aura surround him now in demonstration, a hot electric blue aura that scatters intensely bright hues light.
“The military that surrounds the government wishes to put its head in the sand, wishing for peace while the Saiyans ready to make war. They will sacrifice a future of peace and prosperity for the glimmering illusion of peace in the presence, a peace which is a lie. There is no peace for these power-mongers, only calm before the storm. I tell you this now to offer you a place among our ranks. We are democratic in nature, a reflection of the system we intend to save. You do not have to accept this offer. If you wish to part ways, we will do so amiably. But I hope that you will see the value of ensuring a more stable world.” His aura shifted to a less intense pulse of blue light which rose off of his shoulders gently. With this he extended a hand in a gesture of mutuality, and waited for a response.
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Post by Liang on Mar 14, 2015 21:21:34 GMT
The human nodded at Golem in a state of relaxed relief as he approached, and little by little the group reformed in the open room. Li couldn't sense any other energy signatures around them. He quirked an eyebrow as Golem made a request to the ''General'', calling in for a scientific division to help recover some files. It had begun to sink in that he wasn't exactly getting the whole story here. Freelancers, as they had called themselves, usually didn't operate under something large enough to commit to divisions of their forces. He watched Golem's respectful bow as he admitted to deceiving Liang, and he kept his curious look as the android began explaining. He listened intently, nodding along, but surprisingly not once showing a bit of anger or distrust. He offered a simple ''Hm.'' with a smirk. It was a clever cover-up they had going, but after listening to the android explain further, he could fully grasp their reasoning behind it. He continued nodding, allowing Vipoi to finish his explanations before he would respond. In the meantime, he began removing his heavy weights, dropping them into his bag calmly as he felt his power steadily surge up to its actual value.
It wasn't a threatening gesture by any means; it was simply a non-verbal confirmation that he hadn't been entirely truthful either. He eyed the android's electric blue aura flicker around him in constant surge, looking a bit impressed, and then watched as the android spoke his final words in the explanation with the aura settling into a calmer cloak. So that's why he couldn't sense any power from him earlier; he now remembered most androids carried an undetectable energy signature without specialized technology, and he didn't rely on such a thing. His curiosity had been peaked, and he opened his mouth to answer the explanations. ''Well, at least now I can admit things are making a lot more sense. There were very small details in what's happened today that made me a bit curious, but it's nice to have everything out in the open now. In your position, i'd have done the same thing. The news broadcasts paint you as some sort of criminal, as well as everyone associated with you.''
''It's only necessary to be cautious. Don't worry about it. I couldn't agree more on the state of how the current government protects its people; the incident of Jingle Village comes to mind when I hear you talk about that subject. I'm all for making my home a better and safer place. The world needs people willing to provide that duty. I sense power every day that worries me about how innocent, every-day people can hope for protection when recent events have afforded none. I've wandered a long time now with no real direction, helping where I can and becoming stronger. I think with this Blue Banner of yours, I can find a purpose I believe in to work towards. What can I say? I like what i'm hearing.'' He offered a genuine smile, and at the mention of Saiyans, kept a practiced straight smile; he'd rather keep it a secret on how he viewed Saiyans. If this would offer him a way to keep the more barbaric of the bunch in check, that was just icing on the cake.
He extended his hand as he approached Vipoi, giving it a firm grasp and a confident shake.
''Count me in.''
With that, the young warrior who had wandered alone most of his life offered a warmer smile than seen yet; he would finally have the chance and purpose to offer up everything he had around comrades who would do the same...
(END)
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Koramund
Archived
PL: 121,168
Bio Metabolize(x3)
Zeni: 2,003
Shoki: 7,708
Tag: @koramund
OOC Name: Saiyan, Namekian, Human
Posts: 694
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Post by Koramund on Mar 14, 2015 23:39:57 GMT
Liang WC 4681 (plpw is .735) Vi-Poi WC 3359
Liang PL gain = 8429 Vi PL gain = 4454 Added
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