Paradigm_Shift

Egregore had started diving for the injured soldier the moment he had hit the pavement, but this unfortunately resulted in a chest-full of AP ammo. His kinetic shield did deflect a good majority of them, but they did not call them AP rounds for nothing-No less than five got through in fairly critical spots. Whether or not they were critical to the Cybernetic Egregore Device remained to be seen, but the shots DID seem to have exacted some toll on the man.

He had been falling when the bullets had hit him, so he continued to fall until he hit the pavement. His hand was reached out, grasped along the foot of the fallen soldier. They both 'ported, leaving nothing but a large cloud of green haze from the gas canister behind.

***

Egregore came out of his 'port atop the same roof as previously, and immediately started choking on something. On all fours, he pulled down his metalic mouth-cover and hacked and spat until several thick goblets of black bile exited his mouth and splattered onto the roof. At this point, he slowly got up and surveyed his wounds.

Two shots to the torso, one to the shoulder, two to the stomach. And that was enough of that, he now had to make sure his new aquaintance didn't die on him. A medical device materialized in his hands and he started applying its nano-repair beam to the man. The device was built for personal use-That is, for Egregore to use. He was still more man than machine, but the device had no way of telling the difference and would flawlessly reconstruct the same areas in exactly the same way.

So depending on where the soldier had been hit, patches of his flesh would be regenerated that would be exact copies of Egregore's own. The soldier's immune system would NOT like it, but the nanites would take care of bullets and stop blood loss at least.

Since getting Altisis, I think I would die if I tried to list all of my characters' tropes.

No.

OOC:

A'right, last post for a while then.

BIC:

'Ah. Now THERE'S somethin o interest.' Egregore thought as he identified the color difference between the two factions below...And their hostility to one another. 'He really got the details wrong on this one. Which group is which? .....This ain't good. Time for drastic measures.'

Egregore 'ported.

His contact hadn't given him exact information. There was too much confusion, he didn't know what was going on. The only people who knew that were the invading groups of soldiers. Suddenly, in the eyes of Egregore at least, they transformed from targets into captives. The rear-most of the fleeing grey soldiers barely had enough time to register that somebody had 'ported in front of him before a sap stick was rammed into his chest as Egregore attempted to render him unconcious or at least stun him for a few scant moments while his free hand non-chalantly dropped a canister of special gas onto the ground to spill its contents into the air. The same kind Longbow Cataphracts and PPD Enforcers utilized.

OOC:

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Flicking a switch on his rifle, Solid qued up an LRM and began locking on to where he wanted the thing to go. Assuming nobody shot at him, the android would be firing what amounted to an anti-personnel rocket straight into the guts of the tank with a happy cry of, "Missiles away!"

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What about the missile heading for the tank? :P

BIC:

Egregore leapt back onto his feet and 'ported away, probably somewhere high-up where he could get a good look of the battle.

Egregore stood slightly shocked when the Oberst's chest was not completely obliterated. 'The fug is wrong with this thing? Les see...'

The Oberst turned on his back.

'Ok. Yes. This is, indeed, sawed off. Glad the eyes are workin.'

Raised his mass driver.

'10 guage buckshot rounds.....Wait. BUCKSHOT? Am I hunting deer? What the hell was I thinking? Where were those...'

He noticed the Oberst had suddenly opened fire on him.

'Oh. Nerts. He's not dead.'

Unfortunately, the Oberst never hit Egregore-His soldier did. Egregore had shielding aplenty, (five different kinds, actually) and was currently using a kinetic variety. And while the shielding would effectively deflect any and all purely physical attacks, it did this by taking in a fraction of the momentum generated thus, and possessed no means to prevent the user from being pushed around, knocked down or back. Needless to say, automatic fire produced a LOT of momentum, and Egregore was sent stumbling backwards by the burst, and in fact started to fall flat on his back.

His shotgun vanished under mysterious circumstances, and a plasma rifle materialized where it had been. As he fell, he squeezed off a shot at the offending trooper who had shot him before impacting the asphalt.

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See, it's because of what happened in your thread I tried not to ask that here.

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Yes, we should AVOID this question as much as we avoid incest.

Wait.

DAMNIT.

OOC:

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((Yes. Yes they should be. ))

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OSHI- *Dives for cover*

BIC:

The Psi Bomb went off.

Meanwhile, crouched atop the Warehouse, Egregore was looking for the leadership of the enemy. Take the leader down, and the rest follow like dominos. He scanned the scene.

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And with their opponents apparently able to shrug off AP rounds from mass drivers, the Oberst didn't take long to order someone with a rocket launcher that he should take them out...

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'Bingo.' Egregore thought. He didn't understand German, but he he DID know that this guy was calling the shots. His stature, the way men moved around him, the way HE personally moved-He was a leader. 'Probably more than one, but takin him out is a step in the right direction.'

Egregore 'ported in behind the soldier wielding a sawed-off combat shotgun, loaded with 10 guage buckshot rounds, and fired at the man near point blank range...

OOC:

Russian? Shouldn't they be speaking German or Italian if it is Axis Amerika?

BIC:

And suddenly, atop the tank, Egregore 'ported into existence.

"Woah!" He said as "the man's" fire blade barely missed him in the hero's attempt to cleave the soldier in twain. "Watch it. Oh, and jump."

And with that last word, Egregore Device dropped a Vanguard Psi Bomb into the open tank hatch. And it would have been wise of the soldiers within to NOT underestimate the power of the explosive device-It was still extremely and fatally damaging to anything sentient. It just happened to be extra-effective versus psychic entities.

Taking his own advice to heart, Egregore had already 'ported away, and the hero would do well to do the same least he wanted to get caught in the powerful Psi blast.

OOC:

Tank is in Galaxy City, DooDaa.

Egregore (also "egregor") is an occult concept representing a "thought form" or "collective group mind", an autonomous psychic entity made up of, and influencing, the thoughts of a group of people. The symbiotic relationship between an egregore and its group has been compared to the more recent, non-occult concepts of the corporation (as a legal entity) and the meme. -An Encyclopedia

Device: a thing made for a particular purpose; an invention or contrivance, esp. a mechanical or electrical one -A Dictionary

The freelance mercenary codenamed "Egregore Device," was not a group mind and was certainly not a device. True, he was a cyborg, but he still liked to think he was more man than machine. He had the one brain with its one set of thoughts. Upon extensive examination, there was nothing in his background or immediate appearance and existence that justified his name.

Inquiry into this matter was often met with a solitary digit of Egregore Device's right hand, or if the inquirer was unfortunate enough, a shotgun.

***

[u]Boomtown, two days ago[u]

Egregore Device was currently located in a bunker underneath one of the countless piles of rubble in the god-forsaken hellhole that was Boomtown. He had gone to quite a lot of trouble to build the place. Getting the materials needed into the place without anyone noticing, leveling a sufficient area of ground, and constructing the thing without anyone SEEING any of it, and finally shoving a huge pile of debris and wreckage atop it. It had taken three years to do it, but it bought Egregore something priceless.

It gave him a fortified location where he could sleep without needing to keep one eye open. He had chosen Boomtown for that reason: Nobody EVER came to Boomtown. Not heroes. Not villains. Plenty of thugs, nut-jobs and clockwork, but nobody actually competent enough to find the place and actually decide to drop in. It was an excellent place to vanish to if he ever got in trouble with the authorities.

Within his bunker, Egregore Device was sitting at a table, legs propped up atop it, newspaper in hand. He was wearing pink floppy slippers, and they did not go well with his black trench coat, white metalic armor, his chest of dead grey skin with cybernetic joints and modules sticking out, a duster hat and a natty pair of goggles finished with a duster and combat pants.

But nobody was around to comment on this, and as far as Egregore cared anybody who found his dear floppsy slippers odd could go [censored] themselves.

Returning to the present scene, Egregore was reading the classifieds section of the Paragon Times, scanning it for coded messages his contact might have put in, and his eyes finally alighted upon paydirt.

For Sale: World War II Fifth Reich Officer Uniform. 1k or best offer. Contact for more info at 361-8073.

Egregore raised an eyebrow at this. He shrugged, slid his floppy slippers off and went to work. He trudged over to his communication center, a semi-circle of monitors hooked onto control panels with a neat swivel chair in the middle and useless blinking lights. Using the decoder key his contact had given him, Egregore carefully turned the phone number into a transmission frequency. The monitor before him hissed to life and a shadowy figure appear.

"Who is this?" The shadowy figure asked.

"Arc Light Black Ultra." Egregore said clearly. "Calling in to ask about help with the Fifth Column. Who, last I heard, were all taking a dirt nap."

"The Fifth Column, yes. But there are many...divergents. You were recommended because of your proximity to the target as well as your...adaptability. Your target is codename: Hydrophilic."

"Waitwaitwait." Egregore interjected. "HYDROPHILIC? Christ, I know there are loads of ya and you're all get high about secret codes and stuff, but HYDROPHILIC? That's almost as bad as code Breadcrumb!"

"Respect the code Breadcrumb." The shadowy figure said sternly.

"Whatever, drop it. Just come out and tell me what the hell I'm looking for." Egregore demanded.

"Ah. I can't say that over this channel." The shadowy figure said. "I'll transmit you encrypted coordinates though. Hang on a moment." The figure vanished from the monitor for a moment, and suddenly a series of numbers rolled across the screen.

"Hmm. Not too hard to pull off, but I'm going to need some special equipment." Egregore said after some musing. "I'm assuming he needs to be alive?"

"Correct." The shadowy figure said as he reappeared on the monitor. "And yes, you have been authorized for special equipment for this task. There should be an air-drop outside in an hour."

Egregore whistled. "Day-um. You mustuv had to go over some high heads indeed to get ahold of THAT piece of equipment."

"Sure." The shadowy figure said coolly. "Whatever. Your mission objective is to transfer the target to your base of operations and confine it. The target is to be kept in a weakened, vegetative state for an indefinite period of time. Are we clear?"

"Crystal." Egregore said, giving a thumbs up to the screen. "I'll go ahead and prepare, and be off in an hour once that air-drop gets here. And before you go..." The freelancer's voice suddenly turned low and nasty. "Is there any big major [censored] event about to hit the fan that I should be aware of?"

"Yes. But I'm still not telling you what it is. Writh in agony. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The shadowy figure faded in a storm of static.

Egregore gave the monitor the finger before getting up and preparing for his task. An hour later, he climbed out of his bunker into the wasteland that was Boomtown and was not surprised to see a camo-crate waiting for him. A few minutes of unpacking and assembly later, and Egregore headed into the distance, fading into thin air after a couple of steps.

***

[u]Present Day, Kings Row[u]

Egregore was patroling. Over the last couple of days, he had learned a couple of really nasty things. Things that made him want to hunt down his contact and give him more than just the finger. Possibly a shotgun blast right up the-

All he knew was the who. He didn't know the when, where, or why. So he was patroling, and with a little research he had determined the most likely area of occurance would either be King's Row, Atlas Park, Galaxy City, Steel Canyon, or Peregrin Island. He knew he did not have to worry at all about Peregrin, which narrowed down his patrol path to the former three locations. It was stressful work, Egregore did not know when the [censored] was going to hit the fan-

And it did. His stolen police radio suddenly squawked even louder than usually, and suddenly exploded in a violent uproar of noise-so much so that the Skull Egregore was cloaked next to jumped from the sudden noise and looked around wildly for the source.

And like the Skull, Egregore listended carefully for the source. And the source, according to the radio, was Galaxy City...

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Getting back to the story, I have to admit that I'm having a difficult time buying this one. I'm not sure that Stefan Richter requires the humanizing touch. I'm willing to see where it goes, though.

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I understand. I'm quite willing to concede that this story may fail. No one gets a home run every time they come up at bat.

I'll have more to say about the motivation for this story when it's done.

I will say this, though: the story is as much about Monica Cole as it is about Lord Recluse, possibly even more so.

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I'm finding this hard to swallow myself. I simply don't see Recluse doing any of the actions or saying any of the things he is in your story. He's an evil heartless [censored]. (And stone cold smexy, but don't spread it around.) He would probably first try to impale the ghost with his legs. THEN he would call in Ghost Widow and Scirocco. And THEN he call in the ghost-slaying tech if he can't use her in some obscure magical ritual that he can use to hurt Statesman somehow.

Really. His last real emotions vanished the moment he got the Destiny Portal up and running and invaded Atlas Park and set in course his plans for taking over the world. And can you say "Sky Web?" I'm sorry, but this could and would never happen.

But [censored] it. It's well written, so I think my suspension of disbelief can handle it. Keep up the good work. ^.^

I'd just like to point out that for Ms. Liberty to be Jessica Cole, Statesman would have had to marry her mother.

You know. HIS daughter.

Methinks this is not the case. Otherwise I want what the Devs were smokin.

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I have two questions...

How do you know Maiden Justice's name was Monica?

WHO THE [FRACK] WAS JESSICA!? The game info clearly says Ms. Liberty is named Megan Duncan, and that Miss Liberty is Alexis Cole. Who the Hell is Statesman yelling about in the comics!?

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Read ze books, heretic.

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Yes, yes... I hear this one a lot. Problem is, there's a schism as to whether or not all of that is considered canon (according to MANY arguments I've perused throughout the forums during my almost three-year tenure here). There's a lot of stuff in those that contradicts what's in-game, and the game is still running.

Another problem is that I can't find the books, but you're probably going to send me a link and mention something about "search-fu."

Condescension is the passtime of the Internet.

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You're joking, right? The search-engine here is crap.

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I have two questions...

How do you know Maiden Justice's name was Monica?

WHO THE [FRACK] WAS JESSICA!? The game info clearly says Ms. Liberty is named Megan Duncan, and that Miss Liberty is Alexis Cole. Who the Hell is Statesman yelling about in the comics!?

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Read ze books, heretic.

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In other news, ARGH!

I popped into Ouroboros last night, and I found Colin!

The Acolyte behind Mender Roebuck (the store in Ouroboros) actually has a physical look that somewhat matches my view of Colin.

So if anyone is curious what the love of Hope's life looks like, you can see him there.

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I think the npc menders in Ouroboros change appearance when nobody is looking. Can you display a pic or something? Physical description would be nice.

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Also, they may have plans of their own for CK and Penny ...

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If it's to be evidenced by the end of the mission where you rescue her from the Rikti and Clockwork in the LGTF, then their story borders more on the psychotic stalker side.

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Which, if I'm not mistaken, will eventually lead to the psychic clockwork king reality.

I likes it. I likes it alot. ^.^

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*blink*

...note to self: Read BlueBattler's other stories.

<_< God damn. So many good authors running around this place that I'm getting jealous.

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Just wait until mission architect comes out. Every member of the RP forums will be blown outa the water by writers who don't even know the forums exist.

Yes. Not sure what the limit is, but there is one, and it's actually pretty restricting for the more in-depth of us here.

Actually...Vahz presence in Boomtown is pretty large in the Northern sections. I'd bet they've gotten to most if not all of the bodies by now. :/

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0_0;; that REALLY doesnt bode well.....and are you sure that you arent Manticore in disguise?

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Nemesis.

OOC:

Why bother? Just include the Rogue isles in the normal thread. There is no logical reason why villains can't come from the Rogue Isles to Paragon City. There's no reason the termites can't get there. Arachnos has several bases throughout Paragon and CONTROL a port leading into the city. (Sirens Call.)

Also, you haven't responded to my question in your first thread.

OOC:

I'd like to pop in since my schedule is so barren, but a clarifying question first. Is all of Paragon City infested with the terminites or just certain sections?

a) Yes, posting more than one thread on the same story creates a clutter. It's also con venient to store all related stories in one place for easy access.

b) No idea. Not my character. In my opinion, directly interacting/controlling the surviving eight is off-limits because nobody can truely know just what they'd do except their creators. That's just me though.

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My understanding, however, is that it is neither. This is something not seen in game.

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Bingo.

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Knew it was the Nictus.

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But it isn't the Nictus. The Circle of Thorns summoned them, and they are scorpion-like insects made of crystal. If they were the Nictus they would have been crub stomped the moment they started their invasion.