Paradigm_Shift

OOC:

Decloaking in Dr. Mechan's room. Since there was confusion, let's do a small reset and have the Spec-Ops decloak now rather than then.

BIC:

Recycler-33 went wide-eyed as the Tiberium pinning him to the ground detonated. He, for reasons currently unknown to all except for Mechanomorphic and Nightshade, was immune to Tiberium exposure and its various nasty qualities. So while the explosion wouldn't hurt him, he was ever bit convinced that the world was about to end and that the atmosphere igniting WOULD do the job the Tiberium detonation couldn't.

To his amazement, nothing much happened. He sat there, stunned, staring into space wide-eyed and shaking slightly. Doomtastic spoke, and he suddenly snapped to attention.

".....Right. Our base is IN Warburg. We have some points with the authorities there, and we are privy to access codes. Just grab a few and call it even." He accepted her hand and got up, dusting off his clothes.

"Go on ahead inside, I can call up some more minions from the truck and hold everyone that comes forth off long enough for us to tag what we need and get out of here."

***

Before Dr. Mechan's robot minions could go to work, a Longbow Spec-Ops suddenly decloaked at a terminal by the giant blast door in the right wall and started frantically tapping on the keys.

OOC:

No, diner is next to the office, not in front of it.

OOC:

Only the diner was destroyed, the office/lab is still entirely intact. Sorry for not being clear on that. >.>

OOC:

Here's a post on Tiberium, should tell you everything you need to know about it. A few details are left out, but are not critical.

"Wait, are you using a Warburg missile?!?!?" Recycler-33 said in a panicked voice. "Let's not be hasty here, we can talk this over, there's no need to..."

Too late!

In an entirely different universe altogether, the last time somebody had tried ousting a growing Tiberium deposit through immense destructive force/weapons of mass destruction, the end result was this. Thankfully, the chemical burn warhead DID NOT cause the Tiberium to react in this way. The first reason being this was solid Tiberium, not liquid-The second being that the air was not sufficiently ionized to fuel a Tiberium detonation, and thirdly because the weapon being used was not all that destructive on the greater scale of things.

The Tiberium crystals exploded, taking the building it had devoured along with it, leaving nothing but rubble behind. Thankfully, the crystal had converted all of its mass to fuel the explosion, which meant it was now gone...

"Leave the generator intact, we don't want anymore attention while we're here. Just search the room for any large and bulky machines. Anything bigger than a computer terminal." Nightshade's voice said.

That's also when the Longbow Spec-Ops decloaked as he rapidly tapped on the controls for the giant blast door set into the right-most wall...

***

Tiberium could be easily crushed, shattered, and cut. However, it was an extremely volatile substance and it could react with absolutely ANYTHING. As the ground cracked and split, the mass of Tiberium and the various shards created thus fell into the fissure and started converting rocks and debris within into more Tiberium and spreading. Doomtastic found that her little fissure was filling up with Tiberium crustal spires rapidly, and they were heading right back for the source...

Her Widow had a bit more luck. While the Tiberium reacted with his wrist-blades, he was fast enough to make these reactions negligable. He was making good head-time through the mass of green crystal-and then he found himself in a prison of Tiberium. The chips and bits of hacked and slashed Tiberium had fallen all around him and reacted with the ground as they landed-crystal spires had erupted all around him, and even now a few were begining to form directly beneath him...

[ QUOTE ]
((Doom knew Recycler wasn't a Petless Mastermind, her thoughts lend themselves to inane or humorous tangents.))

Doomtastic frowned at the green crystal exploding from the cafe. Positron was probably going to use his phenomenal luck to bounce back soon and it looked like she was out of exploding trucks.

"Boss? You okay in there? I'll take screams for no."

[/ QUOTE ]

"Screams." A very sarcastic and muffled voice issued from the crystal-filled building. "I'm immune to this stuff, but it's still heavy mass. I'm pinned down, and we only have around fifteen minutes until the Tiberium starts to ionize the air and spread."

***

Functionary and his drones, and those following him, trashed Longbow on the way down the allway, meeting plenty of resistance that was easily put down without effort. Finally, they arrived in a room that changed from office to lab-and there was a giant generator in the middle of the room with an alcove to the side with various equipment scattered around. The entire right-hand side of the room had a giant blast door, currently closed.

Nightshade's voice came in over the comm:

"Keep a look-out people, Longbow tried to spring some two-story robot on us in one of these rooms, we nailed them before they could activate it. This thing looks nasty, if there are more of them, be on the lookout for longbow trying to turn em on."

The room was very notably lacking in Longbow. Or was it?

OOC:

His entrance put him on top of a nearby building, he would have had to jump through the gigantic explosion, past the two obvious hero targets, down a long stretch of hallway, and then slightly around a corner to fight them.

I assumed not.

"I will require this reward up front." Masquerade replied with complete indifference. "That is the protocol for servitude. A sign of trust. And I don't trust you."

Recycler-33 wasn't a petless mastermind, all his pets had simply been killed by Positron. As it were, he was still inside the restaurant collecting his wits. The liquid Tiberium seeping out of his tank had started going to work the moment it hit the ground, and to put a long story short, Doomtastic would NOT have any trouble finding her would-be employer.

The windows of the restaurant suddenly shattered as green crystal spires pressed against it, to extend a few more feet before halting. The door had been mangled by another several such spires-The entire place was filled to the brim with Tiberium!

***

And that was that. All three Ballistas had been eliminated. Sounds of fighting came from the corridor Mechanomorphic and Nightshade had gone down, and they hadn’t called for help so it followed that they were fine. The corridor the Ballista had come down beckoned…With Longbow mini-gunners beginning to emerge from it.

OOC:

Wait for others, Kyzock.

The six beings found their voices met with harsh laughter.

"No." Masquerade chuckled. "I serve only my own interests. I will not be commanded by you nor anything else unless it suits my own needs. You are boring me, playthings. Either give me knowledge I can use or you will be discarded like the errant daydreams you are."

And this was a perplexing statement-this weak creature before the six magnificent beings had no physical strength to speak of, an extremely frail body and no magical or technological influences that could give him power. The only thing he had going for him was an extremely small selection of psionic abilities, which were not extensive or to be relied upon solely in any fight. He either had to be ignorant or mad to threaten the six, and beings such as they would probably know this...

OOC:

Pssst! Catsi! The Ballista are inside, not on the street.

Recycler-33 was no robot, and did not have a machine's stoic calmness. He dived for safety when he saw the car heading his way. After both cars were deflected he got back onto his feet and reoriented himself to get a good look at Mr. Invincible.

What he saw was Positron and Doomtastic crashing into Mechanomorphic’s van, causing the fusion generator within to detonate along with most of the heavy ordinance within. It wasn’t just a fireball-The explosion stretched out to the sidewalk on both ends of the street and left scorch marks on the buildings, and smelted the asphalt street into tar. The other two trucks survived as shielding flared up, but there was nothing to protect Recycler-33 or anyone else. The currently petless mastermind was thrown off his feet and through the window of the restaurant, where he crashed and flipped over the counter to land on the floor where his tank of liquid Tiberium cracked open. He was too busy counting the stars orbiting his head to notice this.

***

The first ballista deftly avoided Breaker’s attacked and counter-attacked with a tank-cracker punch from the side.

The second had finally had too much, between being shot in the head and tossed around like a rag down he fell to the ground and whimpered, stunned.

Masquerade responded to the six beings with cold and apathetic words.

"Life itself is only a vision. A dream. Nothing exists save empty space and you. And you..." He waved an arm to indicate the six beings. "Are but stray thoughts, all to be forgotten."

His fingers starting glowing faintly with golden energy.

"Unless you are thoughts that can hold my interest. I have been asleep for a long time, and I awaken to a raving creature who may or may not have awakened me for his own purposes. Either confirm my suspicions or turn me loose, while keeping in mind that there is no such thing as middle ground."

OOC:

Does maskie get a reply? :3

Recycler-33 didn't let up with his liquid T spray, he went right after Mr. Invincible with every intent to hose him down with the vicious stuff even as the hero was bombarded by robotic minions.

***

The Ballista that had been trying to rip off Fixer's head staggered back as he was hit in the forehead by the drone's attack, and then the damndest thing happened. Something grabbed him by his legs and tried to toss him into the nearby wall. This only half worked, causing the super-soldier to stumble and crash into the wall still standing up. The shot to the head had disoriented him, and the wall certainly hadn't helped.

Then he was hit by a sniper round, this being the third time he'd been shot in the head. This time, he went down and didn't get up.

The Ballista being beaten eventually recovered the use of his eyes, and while he played punching-bag with the two drones, he punched at one as he was shoved at it with the Ballista's signature tank-cracking punch.

The ballista trying to repel Breaker got close.

Masquerade was not impressed by Abdul's light show. He didn't see things physically, he saw the world around him as concepts. But Masquerade figured that this man HAD helped him by touching the mask, so perhaps it would be worthwhile to just see what he wanted.

He went through the portal.

OOC:

I hope so, anyway. :P

BIC:

Positron flailed wildly before his visor adjusted to compensate for the fog so he could see the incoming knock-out blow. And then he did something only people as skilled and experienced as the Freedom Phalanx could do:

He grabbed Doomtastic's blow by her wrist and squeezed, hard. He didn't have super-strength, but his armor helped quite a bit and the radiation emitting from his gauntlets always helped plenty. His other fist came around in an irridated punch at Doomtastic's face.

Recycler-33 scrambled back to his feet, and took advantage of Mr. Invincible's blindness to dash in close and start spraying with his tank of liquid Tiberium.

***

The ballista heading for the sniper drone was blinded instantly by the flash grenade and started flailing around wildly, but the other two were protected sufficiently by their dispersion fields. The blinded one was being slashed at and he started to punch in random directions with his fists.

The one flying at the other's throat was still doing so, even while being attacked. His powerful hands breeched the shielding and went for the throat.

The one battling Breaker activated a repulsion field, and then attempted to give Breaker a bear hug with it turned on. A super-strength crushing bear hug.

OOC:

I know, I re-read your post and took that into account during the edit. ^.^

OOC:

Gah! Sorry, keep mixing Fixer and Breaker up. Fixed.

Recycler-33 had pulled the trigger of his Liquid Tiberium sprayer the moment Mr. Invincible had twitched, but the voracious liquid was impeded by the chunk of street hurtling at him. Deadly or not, the liquid would take a precious second or two to eat all the way through the thing and in the meantime it was still a large heavy object flying through the air. Recycler-33 let up with his Liquid T spray and dived to the side, landed on his side with a thud and rolling to orient himself and prevent the backpack from cracking.

Positron matched Doomtastic's charged, ready to engage her in an epic brawl with his powerful armored and irridated fists. He decided to soften her up mid-way and twin beams of radiation shot from his visor at her.

***

The Ballista Breaker was attacking could do very little at the moment, having recovered but finding himself unable to cover the distance needed for a counter-attack. He took the blast and slammed into the wall, and this made him fairly pissed off.

He projected a dispersion field. Now both sides had shielding.

This prompted the other two Ballistas to activate their dispersion bubbles as well, and Functionary found that his detention bubble didn't work! The stacked dispersion fields from two Ballista at once was too much for a detention field to overcome.

On the plus side this meant his shot hit. The Ballista's head snapped back violently on impact, but he was tough and the blow had been weakened by his shielding. So he stormed over in Functionary's direction, murder in his eyes while his companion got shot in the gut by fixer. The majority of the bullets were deflected but a couple got through, which sent the Ballista into a bezerker fit that found him lunging at Fixer's throat...

OOC:

Did I misword the direction they went in? My bad. >.< I meant to have them going in the opposite direction in relation to the Ballista.

BIC:

*click*

"YOU stand down." Recycler-33 said to Mr. Invincible. He was wearing a backpack device with a transparent cylinder, filled with a dark green vicious liquid that was glowing very lightly. A hose and pump extended from the bottom, emerging as a nozzle in the mastermind's hands. A stray droplet dripped from the nozzle, and the ground where it hit sizzled before suddenly turning to crystal, which then expanded slightly until there was a tiny crystal spire sticking out of the ground. There was extensive labeling on the cylinder-Radiation hazard, bio-hazard, and a bunch of other hazard signs as well that nobody in their right mind should have ever put in the same spot for the sake of their sanity.

Liquid Tiberium...

"Or I spray you down with this." He said, a very nasty smile indeed crossing his face.

The spectrals all charged in, but Positron blasted them all to smithereens and into death with a single blast of radiation about him, before turning his focus to Celes and throwing an anti-matter burst at her.

***

The Ballista quickly recovered from the attack, and while the one attacked by Breaker stumbled away, the other two went into melee range. Robotic drones went flying as fists hit their shields with enough force to split tanks.

OOC:

It's a blessing and a curse to be back-Mox shouting into my ear being the cursed bit.

Also, has Yosef been abducted by aliens? Do I need to go on another idealistic crusade? My last one fizzled out and now only appears in the scoop. :/

OOC:

If you can pull it off, yes. Nothing that they wouldn't normally say, which is not an extensive list. The in-game NPCs say some really stupid things.