Log:Mechanon's Invasion

The Fall of Riddersholm 2018/07/04 Jak Cryostatic Malcolm Daemon Breach 5

When Jak returns to where he initially arrived in Riddersholm via blind teleport, he encounters a much different scene than before. The calm, idealic utoptia has been interrupted by chaos.

People are running and screaming from the source of the explosion, which Jak now sees is the SCEPTER building he delivered a mystery package to. The front of the building's first several floors have been blasted open, with black smoke pouring out and obscuring the view inside.

Chunks of masonary riddle the streets, as do injured or dead citizens caught in the blast. Patches of fire are scattered in the street and near adjacent buildings, but automated drones are quickly swarming to extinguish the flames.

One such sleek white drone starts to extinguish flames near the top of the hole in the SCEPTER building. It catches Jak's attention because it makes a mechanical squeal as dark metal wires reach out from the smoke and latch onto it before yanking it into the building and smoke to disappear.

Jak's eyes are wide in shock and terror. His mind races and his eyes dart from the terrible occurance to the chaos spilling out around it- fueled by a rigtheous & reasonable terror. These are people who have never truly known strife- not in generations. Not for ages. This is Utopia- and someone has brought war to its venerable shores. Jak of course realizes none of this and is instead torn between two conflicting parts of his ideology- his love for adventure and his love for keeping his own skin safe & comfortable.

His brings his hand to his belt as he thinks out of habit- but when the wires emerge from the smoke nd bring in the SPECTRE drone he activates his personal force field generator with one hand and draws his weapon with the other. "I'm pretty sure that's not supposed to happen." Like he'd know. Still he teleports into the first floor so he can see if there is anyone there that needs help, he'll go deeper and deeper (facilitated by his teleportation) until he finds osmeone in need or another situation in need of his attention.

Managing to teleport in without teleporting inside anything, Jak is met with thick choking smoke that stings at his eyes and makes it hard to see. Just inhaling burns at his lungs.

Through the smoke, there's a dim bluish human-sized glow that catches his attention.

Venture coughs and tries to see anything. Seeing the man-sized glow though gives him something to aim for. He teleports between the interveing space himself to see if its someone in need of help. If its not- he'll retreat to come up with another plan.

That close, Jak can see the source of the glow and flcker. Aval, the holographic AI whose body was out to lunch with a friend, is at the remains of the desk. Though her body's projection is incomplete, much like the front of this building. Her left arm and side of her torso aren't projected, and she looks in shock.

"P-l-ee--ease be inf-inf-informed that working conditions are unsafe. Evacuation is re-recommended," she glitches, but she recognized Jak enough to use English instead of Ridderspeak.

"AVAL! Oh crap- are you- I don't know, injured? Is there something I can do for you?" Jak asks in shock between bouts of coughing. "Is there anyone else here who's stuck- who needs my help?" He adds before stooping lower to the ground to gasp for a breath. He knows he's only got a few moments at most to make a move.

"I am happy to see you are unhurt. My functional-nal-nality has been disrupted here," AVAL answers. "There are several staff still trapped inside due to the debris, but the uninjured have evacuated. Structural integrity of the building is c-compromised."

She smiles at Jak. "Do not worried, I am uninj-oh! There...seems to be an error. But what?"

Her form starts to alter from its bluish glow. Starting at her left hip, there is a spreading spot where the blue has turned to red. "I...am being rewritten. There is an intruder."

Jak will most certainly feel guilty about all this later. But right now, he's not even aaware he might be the cause behind this. So instead he leans on the adrenaline and responds, "Is there time for you to tell me where the injured are?" He coughs. "And is there a way for me to stop your ... rewriting? This is bad, yes?" He asks with the urgency of the situation written clearly on his face. "And where is this Intruder? Should I call - cough - authorities?!"

"Yes. This is very, very bad. Locating five injured. Two in the lobby, 2 in the second floor, and one on the fourth floor. Most are near the north side." Since the south side is blown out.

"The intruder is...e-everywhere," she flickers as the red starts to spread faster over her form.

"Oh. My physical form is also being rewritten remotely. The infection is spreading-ing-ing. But...what will happen to my friend once my body is overwritten?" the AI asks, suddenly worried. Jak may recall when he met her, her physical housing was off in a break with a scientist friend, an organic.

"Intruders in floors 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6..." she starts listing the floors, probably all of them, but before she can go further, the spread of infection completes. Once she's completely red, her voice slows down and she flickers out of existence.

Venture can barely hear the sounds of the wounded moaning and coughing, enough to know what direction to go to. He also hears the scrapping of metal, faintly. The wind outside causes the smoke to thin out a bit, and gives him a brief chance to breathe. He sees the two citizens laying in the lobby, injured and burned from the debris of the explosion.

Jak coughs into his arm and looks away, but uses the breath gained to scan the room again and to say the following to Aval, "Send me the coordinates of where they are. I'll get help for them too. Fastest delivery time on Earth, remember Aval? Aval? Stay with me! Send me those coordinates and I'll get the people out of here. Tell your friend to run. NOW."

Then switching into a more focused version of himself- he teleports into the midst of the two burned people in the lobby. "Hang tight guys- I'm going to get you out." He tells them, only realizing as he shunts them away that they probably don't understand a word he said. Well here's to hoping they don't get teleport-sick by the sudden change of venue.

He doesn't stay long enough to find out- he goes from the middle of the street back inside, leaping directly up the hollow entry to the second floor and then again to the North Side of the building. It takes him a bit longer to get both of them out- but after prying up a book case off one of them and tripping over the second's unconscious body he manages it.

With the open foyer, he hops to the fourth floor and finds that man running in terror from something deeper inside. This time he doesn't bother to slow him down. He just matches his pace the otherway before falling behind a step and putting his hand on his shoulder- then he pulls them along lines of probability straight to the street outside.

He coughs again, wheezing to catch his breath but still he starts writing out a message on HeroNet- requesting the assistance of any meta that can make it. He tags it explosion, fire, hostile takeover, robots (because to him theyre still a bit of the same thing he's lost that bit of his culture).

He wonders what it means for an intruder to be everywhere? He wonders if they are teleporters like himself. He hopes not.

<< Robots? Explosions?! FIRE?! Sign me up! >>

Ivan Maddox blurs into full motion once he's out of sight of the campus security cameras. Between frames, Ivan's shorts and shirt get lost. Socks, sandals, and even sunglasses get launched randomly while he charges up to full power. When he stops, Cryostatic reaches up with one gloved hand to smooth back his hair as static electricity crackles through it, inexplicably shifting it from chestnut to gold with silvery highlights.

Picking up his PDA again, Cryostatic impatiently taps a booted foot as he waits for Jak to communicate where he's supposed to go.

Daemon answers the call as well- mostly due to the proximity alert going off thanks to his ARGUS protocols milliseconds after Jak sends coordinates of where to meet him. He's chosen the area just outside of Starguard Gamma base. Jak figures its an easy centralized point for heroes to get to and a landmark on his mapping app on his smartwatch. It was the least amount of clicks away.

He keeps wheezing having pushed himself a bit too far, but he's got a wandering spirit. He's gone a long way already and still a ways to go. So he takes one more deep breathe and jumps himself to the location.

Daemon meanwhile is not quite as fast- so he leaps off the MagLev line as he zeroes in on the coordinates given- per his usual styling, he is absolutely invisible, not choosing an identity until he sees who his allies will be.

Jak FINALLY* gets back to Cryostatic on where to meet up.

The Starguard building isn't that far away from campus. Cryostatic zips into full motion, blazing across campus like the slower-than-light energy weapon he is. He sizzles down the streets, occasionally zipping up walls and bouncing between buildings with arcs of electricity to help guide him. At one point, Cryostatic hops a ride on the back of the local MagLev and surfs while he waits impatiently for September to end.

Wait, that's not right.

Cryostatic leaps from the MagLev and zips up the street toward the designated meeting spot in the plaza out front of the Starguard building.

Breach steps up alongside Cryostatic from the opposite direction. He's wearing his full Breach Suit, helmet locked into place as his own HUD starts to light up the interior of his mirrored orange face shield. Quietly, Breach grunts at Malcolm.

Malcolm grunts back at Breach.

Cryostatic looks between the two elder heroes a couple of times before awkwardly turning aside. He holds a gloved hand up alongside his face, his other arm crossing over his chest as he mutters to himself under his scarf.

"Oooookay. Working with the Ambiguously Gay Dubros is going to be... Awwwwwwkweeeeeeiiiiiiirrrrrrrd today."

well be eternity to a speedster.
 * - "FINALLY" to Cryostatic may, in fact, only be thirty seconds. It may as

The Spyder deactivates his nanocloak and hangs from an overhead lightpole, letting his webline spool out so he's eye-to-eye with everyone else, though upside-down.

He'll figure out who the scarfed wonderkin is mid-mission he guesses.

"This looks like its going to be a delightful party. So where's our ride?" Daemon asks, feeling a bit impatient himself.

As if to make Daemon look like a total ass from the get-go, a soot-covered and still wheezing Jak arrives- stumbling to one knee and then falling to all fours panting for clean air.

"Oh god. Capes." He says looking up and around. "I needs capes." He of course doesn't find anyone wearing a cape, but there are plenty of heroes about.

"I just need a second." He says, panting heavily- trying to force himself to be ready for another jump with cargo.

A few moments later he's standing. "We've got a government building that's suffered an explosion." Jak says finally, "and I've got coordinates to a second location with what may be 'aggressive robots', but I don't know. An AI I knew said she was being taken over. I'm not a robotologist or anything."

Daemon speaks up, feeling like his own pride is at stake. "Impossible. I track every conventional NewsOrg on Earth. There's been nothing mentioned anywhere. What are you playing at?"

Hey. Hey! HEY!

Cryostatic is wearing an obnoxiously long scarf. It serves as both a mask for the lower half of his face AND as a gosh darned cape! Two capes, really, if you think about it! Don't you go calling him not a cape! Who are you? Lightning?

"Yeah, yeah. The boss lady got the "humanitarian crisis" thing out of your other memo," snipes Breach.

Malcolm shoots Breach a disgusted look. He looks over at the appearing Daemon and quirks an eyebrow, lips pursing for a moment as he regards the Spyder. With a shrug, Malcolm calmly suggests an answer that he hopes will soothe Daemon's ego.

"Could be a closed state. News might not've hit the wire just yet, especially if there's someone running robots and overwriting VIs. Local jamming or cyberkinetic lockdown or something like that."

"Roboticist," corrects Cryostatic, "Scientists that specialize in robotics are roboticists. Robotologist sounds like you pray to a Robot God or some nonsense. Don't be that guy, bro."

Breach offers little more than a long suffering sigh. Why are all of these "heroes" so focused on talking and not getting to the action? Do they all just like the sound of their own voice or something? Maybe he missed out on the social and genetic revolution that removed people who think better while acting than while talking? It's hard to tell, he thinks best when he's in action.

365 million miles away, Griffin is basking in the intense electromagnetic fields encompassing Jupiter. He tracked what he considers a 'sweet spot' and is relishing in the feeling and the surge of energy that seems to saturate each cell. He's been pushing himself lately- trying to live up to all the fanfare and its clearly taking a toll on his reserves. For once, he fears falling below some kind of imagined 'minimum' and loose his ability to move faster than light.

He tries very hard to keep a 'balance', secretly always fearful that he'll loose his ability to control his bottomless absorption but with no real way to feel where he's at besides overloaded or empty its more of a guessing game.

Feeling that by the time he tracks Earth again, he'll be about where he was and can patrol the West Coast since its fire season. Or that's his plan anyway.

He looks for the taletell pale blue dot that is his home- instead sighting Mars first.

He smiles as the thought of Kat comes to his mind and their trip to Barsoon City. He detours in order to 'get a better view' so he can get home. He pauses over the domed city a few seconds later- and then finds home.

Its as Malcolm is giving his well thoughtout statement to sooth Daemon's ego & Jak is wheezing a response that he sees the smoke billowing from the small island he's never seen before. He was on his way home to find Kat to say 'Hi' and maybe hold hands a moment and chat about their days before he hit the West Coast- but he doubts the huge smoke cloud is purposeful. His arrival is announced as he comes to an immediate halt above the small city/state and streaks into the building looking for injured with his energy sense.

Jak nods. "Its... its my home. Its crazy, I know but I've been looking for this place my whole life. We can't loose it today of all days. Please- *COUGH* -you've got to help me. I don't know what's going on- but these people, they're not like us. Their world ... it's... it's perfect."

Daemon tries to harumph but in Daemon's hyperaccelerated mind he has time for the the ARGUS protocols to suggest a different course of action.

He releases his line and flips to his feet. "Alright, Agent Gibbs. We'll play this your way. I'm in." The Spyder says. He looks to Cryostatic and says, "The kid's right. Its Roboticist. So... let's get a move on before anyone else dies. Or do you need some juice? A cookie maybe?" He ignored the ARGUS protocols. Now isn't the time for breathers.

Jak nods, standing taller than before. "Nice bedside manner, Mister Black-Onesie. If you're going grab on to me or to someone grabbing on to me." He summons all his strength and checks his watch for the coordinates from Aval for the first time- hoping against hope that they're there. He knows that the kind-hearted AI's friend may be in danger so he'll drop some off there first.

"Relax, Junior Mint," grumbles Breach, "We're in. Let's get going before your utopia's dead."

Breach promptly clasps a heavily gloved hand onto Jak's shoulder. He gives a reassuring squeeze though the visible lower half of his face remains a tightly compressed line. Not for the first time, Rick reads like a typical soldier of fortune type.

Malcolm also places a hand on Jak's shoulder and offers a reassuring smile. What else can he do in a situation like this? Noting the soot and smoky smell all over Jak's body, Malcolm draws in a few deep breaths to ensure his lungs are fully saturated with clean air. There's no telling what'll be waiting on the other side of the teleport.

Cryostatic blurs as Daemon suggests juice and cookies.

Everyone inexplicably finds themselves in possession of a small package of sugar cookies and a couple of boxes of fruit juice. Cryostatic inexplicably and loudly SLUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRPs down two juice boxes through his scarf in clear defiance of the laws of physics. Looking around, Cryostatic shoots a double thumbs up while he hooks an arm around Breach's shoulder, causing the Undead Soldier to bristle with hate(?) at the Scarfed Speedster.

"Everyone good on the snack front? Blood sugar equalized? Good! 3. 2. 1. GOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Inexplicably TANK! starts playing from both Malcolm's headset and Breach's helmet.

Breach bristles harder against Cryostatic's nonsense.

It WAS perfect. But the explosion at SCEPTER did more than just injure civilians. It knocked out the cloaking field and force field that kept the island nation hidden and safe. Things have rapidly gone to hell in Jak's short absence, but it was already going that way while he was there, hidden by smoke and invisible to those without the right senses.

For Griffin, he's able to sense several life sources to rescue in the streets, mostly injured that need aid, since the SCEPTER building has been evacuated of the living. But what Griffin can see with his energy sense is several energy signatures getting snuffed out or altered, and new energy sources popping up in their place. It's spreading like a virus, radiating out from the SCEPTER science building's ruins.

Deep within the smoke is the sound of metal. But no time for that when lives are at stake and in need of triage.

Daemon fights the urge to do a standing flip onto the top of Malcolm's head. The ARGUS protocols engage and suggest instead grabbing Jak's out stretched hand. He does so, almost shaking the smoky and shaken man's hand. He nods.

Jak focuses on the direction he's going and where it is on the map he has in his head- syncing it up to the informaiton garnered from his smartwatch and then - they all disappear, reappearing in an instant at the base of the SCEPTER building and then once more before anyone can react to 'home in' on the exact location given by Aval.

What he finds is Aval's body- but unfortunately not her mind.

Meanwhile, Griffin backs out of the eeriely room of shifting energies. It just feels unwholesome in there so its not like he needed the emergencies spread all over to pry him out of the remains.

He vanishes- appearing outside, already triaging the victims Jak left outside only moments ago so that he might find the most injured and begin working on them and then working his way down the line until proper emergency personnel arrive. He'll figure out how the hell this amazing jewel of human engineering has skipped by his reeducation of all things 21st Century.

What is left of AVAL's body is a shell with red glowing eyes, smashing up the outdoor cafe she and her friend were at. Really, she was just accompanying her friend while they were eating.

AVAL's body looks similar to her hologram, just made of some strange material that looks like carbon fiber, glossy and sleek. She flips a table that's between her and several cowering citizens.

One mature gentleman trembles. "AVAL, why are you doing this??" he pleads.

Down the street, other androids and bots are starting to jitter and act oddly as they're taken over.

Daemon doesn't realize who's who but he knows robots run amok when he sees them. His computer enhanced mind tracks a number of variable and prioritizes Aval's onslaught. He isn't capable of breaking the speed of sound but he's quick on his toes.

He leaps up, sumersaulting and corkscrewing in the air to get in front of the other heroes. Just before landing he shoots a webline out and attempts to yank her back before AVAL's body's new master can destroy the 'weak' form before it.

AVAL's body is webbed up from behind as she raises her fists overhead to club the cowering citizens. Her head turns to look over her shoulder, just as she's yanked back and towards the other heroes.

Cryostatic tenses to get into motion, but watches as Daemon leaps into action.

Sputtering, Cryostatic waits until AVAL's cyberjacked body comes skidding to a halt in front of the assembled heroes. He frowns under his scarf and just reaches out with one hand as white, super-chilled mist starts to pour off of his glove as though he were reaching into a cryostat full of liquid nitrogen.

"Bad robot. No Terminator: Genesis for you."

AVAL squirms and strains against the webbing as her limbs and yocto-matrix freeze up. Her movements slow until she starts making cracking noises and stops.

Some of the other robots down the street some fifteen meters away shudder as their systems are overwritten. As their minds are configured, so are some of their bodies. These aren't just pure classic machines. They're formed of yocto-technology, able to alter shape and matter.

And their shapes and form change to fit the grand design of the person behind this. Their white sleek forms darken into some dark reflective titanium. One rolling droid suddenly sprouts legs and a few red orbs in front and behind for a 360 degree view. A hovering bot grows metallic, bladed wings and starts to look more like a bird. And a simple delivery drone starts to grow several laser weapons and arms.

"Good teamwork," intones Malcolm as he watches Daemon and Cryostatic subdue the first of the rampaging robots. His steel grey eyes sweep over the area quickly, noting the other robots as they begin to run riot. A little sigh escapes him and Malcolm takes a step forward.

Beads of biometal start to escape Malcolm's skin as he moves as though he were sweating quicksilver. Coils of biometal ripple the legs of his pants as Malcolm starts to crouch, an ominous sound of tremendous mechanical tension resonating from below Malcolm's waist. A moment later, the tension releases and launches Malcolm through the air toward the nearest cluster of robot roughnecks.

In the air, however, Malcolm is engulfed fully in his Colossus' Flesh. Forge lands in the midst of the robots and straigthens up slowly, a frown creasing his glittering metal features as he surveys the gathered machine men. Shrugging his shoulders and twisting his neck, Forge cracks all of the tension out of his joints as he sinks into a comfortable fighting stance.

"I'm sorry. Civilian isn't on the menu today. Would you care to take a stab at something more your speed?"

Venture does what he does best and that's draw his weapon with blazing quick speed- so while Daemon and Cryo get first crack at AVAL's body he spots other droids acting strangely all around.

He levels his pistol at one within his range who also looks like they might strike out against their biological equals. His gun spools up, whining in a tone all its own as it does so as he acquires his target then he squeezes the trigger.

"Some utopia," mutters Breach as everything - EVERYTHING! - goes straight to Hell. He shakes off the teleportation sickness easily, brown eyes scanning the field of battle when he locks his eyes onto a drone.

The drone is clearly studying him, just as he's studying it. Breach frowns as his stance automatically widens. Some twangy music you'd expect in a Western starts to play in the background as the two eye one another up.

Breach acts first, practiced and fluid ease guiding his hand as he rips the Particle Revolver out of its heavy holster. It's a quickdraw holster, ergonomically designed to facilitate precisely this kind of thing. His thumb cocks the hammer as the oversized hand cannon rises. Forefinger just barely caresses the trigger, activating the gun's pilot laser while the accelerator whines to life. Another hand comes up, helping to steady Breach's aim as the pilot laser paints a brilliant red on the drone.

A split-second later, Breach pulls the trigger. Orange gold light pulses out of the muzzle, wrapped in crackling white and blue lightning, and streaks down the pilot laser toward the drone.

The drone is sent spinning and wobbling from the hit, a black singe mark on its newly darkened exterior before it adjusts itself to stay stablized in the air. It starts to fly towards the gathered capes, one of the newly sprouted arms growing a cannon that lights up and fires back at Rick in retaliation.

"Oh, son of a-"

Blue-purple plasma thunders into Breach's chest, narrowly missing his Particle Revolver in the process. There is a bust of smoke and a spray of plasma as the "bullet" explodes on impact with Breach's armor. Damage sensors light up in Breach's HUD as he staggers backward a half-step, hissing in pain as several of the non-armored pieces of the Breach Suit's vest super heat and sear at him through his suit's underlayer.

"Ugh. Bro. What smells like burning?"

Damn it, Cryostatic! Keep your witty repartee in your own poses!

Steelwing screeches and flies toward the group of heroes, diving towards Cryostatic as its red eyes leave trails from its speed. It tries to fly by him to swipe Cryostatic's side with razor sharp wings.

Steelspider finally gets used to its new legs and body. It tries skittering towards Malcolm and 8 times its usual speed before it tries leaping at him. It sprouts fanged mandibles that start generating a green acidic substance in mid flight.

AVAL makes a creaking sound, but the ice around her doesn't budge.

Venture throws a quick punch at the one skittering towards Malcolm and Cryostatic- attempting to tag it with its own disc made up of nanites meant to bond to their target and discharge their full capacitance over time. He thinks the ARGUS protocol is finally on to something. Helping out Malcolm! Well, maybe not to be a nice guy- but because he's certain that it will just eat him up inside.

There are some things all the programming in the world won't fix.

A disc is ejected and launched at the skittering bot.

Daemon throws a quick punch at the one skittering towards Malcolm and Cryostatic- attempting to tag it with its own disc made up of nanites meant to bond to their target and discharge their full capacitance over time. He thinks the ARGUS protocol is finally on to something. Helping out Malcolm! Well, maybe not to be a nice guy- but because he's certain that it will just eat him up inside.

There are some things all the programming in the world won't fix.

A disc is ejected and launched at the skittering bot.

Forge tries to knock aside the STEELSPIDER descending upon him, but it slams into his body and drives him almost to his knees. The metal man strains against the savage eight-armed beating that is served up to him. Acid sizzles and pops on his biometal surface, slender streamers of green-black smoke rising from the pock marks trying to dig down to the tender human flesh underneath the shiny chrome surface.

"What? Why is everyone so fast today?!"

Cryostatic is not accustomed to being outpaced by everyone. He tries to dodge away from Steelwing as the robotic bird stoops toward him. Largely escaping harm, Cryostatic winces as the razor edges of Steelwing's wing catches on his costume, spinning him around a few times without quite carving through the bulletproof spandex. When he stops, Cryostatic looks shook and he clutches at his ribs where the costume got caught, clearly more winded and bruised than he expected.

As the Steelspider's several legs move all around Forge, four on the ground to stabilize and four trying to get around him, Daemon fires off a high voltage stickydisc that latches onto the steelspider's back. Certainly not to save Malcolm for heroic's sake. The stickydisc discharges a heavy burst of electricity, causing sparks to arc around the steelspider's body. It shudders and jitters from the jolt.

Daemon is just buying time for his little machines to do their work. He knows Malcolm can take a little acid-y snuggle with a crazy-looking shapeshifting skittering robo-monster for a half a second. He wouldn't be able to keep his 'Very Special' Title.

Daemon throws a punch witht eh other arm and activates trillions of webspinning nanites which weave a sticky line from him and eject it at high speed at his target.

Daemon yanks the line and tries to put the robbot on a trajectory to smash into Steelwing.

Daemon's webline grows taut as its yanked hard towards Steelwing, causing the stolen bodies of the robots to give out on them- despite being made of superior technology. As Daemon has been learning over the eyears- its not what level of technology you had, its what you do with it.

Daemon looks to Malcolm and Cryo to make sure their alright per ARGUS teamwork efficiency protocols. People like knowing they have someone on to watch their back- something Daemon doesn't often require himself. So its not like its something that would occur to him despite literally having all the time in the world.

As steelwing and the spider come to a halt its clear they are damaged beyond their current ability to repair or fight on.

Daemon doesn't need a computer brain to do the math consdiering what he's seeing. There's going to be a lot more robots to smash before the day is out.