Super Smash Quest - Story - Chapter 281: Robots, Ghosts, and Computers

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Date: 5:35:36 PM, June 8th; 5:56:42 PM, June 9th, 2006.

Metal Man (GM): You're wandering into the desert. Your way is unimpeded... which may have been bad.
The sand kicks up as you enter the desert, and you lose sense of direction out in the middle of a sandy nowhere place.
Hard to navigate out here.

Garrick Fy`aar keeps his body sheltered and his eyes out of the way of the sand... sooner or later, he'll get lost. And when he gets lost, he knows exactly where he'll wind up...

Metal Man (GM): Yup...

Garrick Fy`aar pushes onward, making sure he adjusts for the wind as he goes due south. His goal is the Gerudo Base...

Metal Man (GM): You get lost and wind up at E Li Three's Metal Temple.

Garrick Fy`aar: "...huh. ...not what I was expecting... but it'll do..."

Metal Man (GM): It's a silver pyramid, with a big neon sign.

Garrick Fy`aar pulls the cloak tighter, lets out a sigh, drinks the last bit of water he had stored up, and waits for nightfall when the temple will open.

Metal Man (GM): Indeed; nightfall comes, and the metallic door opens up. The neon sign, which is the only object of interest for quite a while, says 'E Li Three's Metal Temple'
Inside is a classical parlor with a checkerboard floor, and a bar with seven stools on it. Each one the color of a chaos emerald.

Garrick Fy`aar stands up and moves inside... he'll deal with E Li Three in order to find what he's searching for... and E Li Three would know easily. Well, he hopes he does.

Metal Man (GM): The ceiling is brown tile, and E Li Three is leaning over the counter--you can't really see beyond him.

Garrick Fy`aar: "...long time, no see."

E Li Three: "So, Garrick, what'll it be today? Perhaps... the test of Wisdom?"

Garrick Fy`aar: "What is it with you and tests?"
*He moves closer, taking a seat on one of the emerald colored stools to talk with him properly.*

E Li Three: "It's the only valid way I can help anyone."

Garrick Fy`aar: "Heh... well, maybe not. I have a question for you first. Then I'll take your test. How's that?"

E Li Three: "What's the question?"

Garrick Fy`aar sighs, pulls the hood of his cloak down so he can look E Li Three directly in the eye before saying with all seriousness. "About six years ago or so, when I came here, there was a rather large explosion of unknown origin in the desert. It was caused by a large, bi-pedal robot with extreme power. Now, seeing as you're... you, I'd think you'd have seen it or at least heard about it. Tell me, did anyone walk away from that crash besides me?"

E Li Three: "I'm not sure. Tell me more about it."

Garrick Fy`aar: "...Les Enfante Terible'... ...The Terrible Children. It's French.'"

E Li Three: "...That makes no sense to me, and I commonly make exploding bananas!"

Garrick Fy`aar: "Back in my wor--time, I suppose, now... the United States did this project that involved taking the cells from the greatest soldier in history and using them to make genetic clones of that same soldier. An army of super soldiers.
Well, only three survived the project. Two were killed by the third... my father.
Of sorts.
It turns out that the third clone, the living one at the time, had his own cells stolen and used to create a new form of Les Enfante Terible.
That was me."

E Li Three: "This sounds all too familiar... too bad I never talked to Metal. And... the robot?"

Garrick Fy`aar: "Years were blank to me... the first thing I can remember of my life is being twelve years old and meeting my father. Oh yes, the robot.
The robot was one of the more advanced pieces of technology at the time. It was called Metal Gear."

E Li Three: "I can't say I remember seeing any of this. Especially not in this desert..."

Garrick Fy`aar: "Well, that's the thing. When we arrived here, my father, myself, and the Metal Gear, it was on it's last legs. It exploded from the warp. It's remains might be out there... somewhere...
But when I came to, I never found my father. Just his tags."

E Li Three: "Well, that's nice. Drink any odd liquids recently?"

Garrick Fy`aar gives E Li Three a look...

E Li Three: *Scratches his head* "I can't really help you there... the desert is too vast for me to scan."

Garrick Fy`aar: "...well, then this is all useless."
*Myself, I do. My character, doesn't))*

E Li Three: "You need a time machine... not a gimmick. That is... to find out about this.
But I can't say I remember many time machines. There was one in the arctic..."

Garrick Fy`aar: "...maybe I'll go, sometime in the future... but it's too far. ...well, I suppose you've held up your end of the bargain... what's this test?"

E Li Three: "It's simple. I give you multiple choices, you choose the right answer.
Get it wrong, and a part of your body ceases to function. Get it right..."

Garrick Fy`aar: "E Li, it's NEVER that easy."

E Li Three: "And you get a point. Getting it right cancels out wrong ones, but to win, you must get more right than wrong."

Garrick Fy`aar: "It's always bananas and buttons and clues and tricks and other stuff like that... ...alright, fine."

E Li Three: "Question 1. You should know this."

Metal Man (GM): He displays three holograms.
All about 10 inches tall.
One of The Void, one of Metal, and one of some other guy wearing a weird suit but who resembles Metal.

E Li Three: "Which one of these is not Metal?"

Garrick Fy`aar: "...well, that's the Void... and that's Metal... and that is probably that Dark Metal guy I've been hearing about... Or evil Metal, or whatever..."

E Li Three: "...You must pick one, though. There is a right answer."

Garrick Fy`aar: "...the Void."
*He shrugs and leans back.*

E Li Three: "BZZT! There goes your... uhh... right foot!"

Metal Man (GM): Your right foot goes numb... and he points at the weird-looking Metal clone.

E Li Three: "That guy's Lachronikus, some dude from another dimension. He has nothing to do with our Metal. The Void is literally a part of Metal."

Garrick Fy`aar: "...pfft."

E Li Three: "Metal is, duh, himself."

Garrick Fy`aar: "Okay, c'mon."

E Li Three: "Number two... Which of the following is not a prohibited dark magic attack?
A. Reidz B. Dark Energy Wave C. Tombstoner."

Garrick Fy`aar: "...prohibited? You mean 'not allowed'...?"

E Li Three: "By the Mages's council."

Garrick Fy`aar: "Ohhh, that. ...well, I suppose it'd be the Tombstoner. No way would they allow the DEW...
Yeah. I choose the Tombstoner."

E Li Three: "DING! ...You have your foot back."

Metal Man (GM): Your foot turns back to normal.

E Li Three: "Now... question 3."

Garrick Fy`aar: "One sec. What IS the Tombstoner?"

E Li Three: "A fake pokemon move made by a pokemon gym master in some island somewhere."

Garrick Fy`aar: "Ohhhh... Okay. Fire away."

E Li Three: "What is the purpose of my temple? A. Hide important things. B. Subject people to tests to prove their worth. C. To sell hamburgers."

Garrick Fy`aar: "...we THOUGHT it was A, but it's B."

E Li Three: "You THOUGHT it was B, but it's A. BZZZ!"

Metal Man (GM): Your foot go numb again.

Garrick Fy`aar: "Huh? Oh. Meh, whatever.
Next one."

E Li Three: "Question four... who originally killed Zio?"

Garrick Fy`aar: "...Alys killed Zio."

E Li Three: "DING!"

Metal Man (GM): Your foot is back.

Garrick Fy`aar: "Yeah, she died doing it... But she did it."

E Li Three: "Name the boss of the Bronze challenge which Aribar fought in."

Garrick Fy`aar: "Let's see... Ari... was he there? Yeah... it was Zidane, right?"

E Li Three: "It was not him... it was... an Armadillo in a mecha. Once again... BZT."

Metal Man (GM): You lose the foot... again... this game is annoying!

E Li Three: "Now... how many licks are there to the center of a basketball?"

Garrick Fy`aar: "... ...how the -CENSORED- am I supposed to know that?!?!"

E Li Three: "Alas... the world may never know. ...I mean... next question. Name the four major races behind Atlantis."

Garrick Fy`aar: "Lunarians, Solarians, Atlantians... and... Ma... Mar... Mar... the ones that Ari are apart of. I can't pronounce it, but Ari is one... the left earth for Mars.
Martians...?"

E Li Three: "You've got all but one right, so... BZT! Not Lunarians. Those guys don't even exist in this dimension.
Neo-Earthians!"

Metal Man (GM): And now you have a numb foot... again!
Oh, right. Both feet.

Garrick Fy`aar: "Okay... next?"

E Li Three: "Question... uhh... six... name three of the Fallen Questers."

Garrick Fy`aar: "Skyhigh, Ryuvn, annnnnnd Linkbot. I'll throw in Jeff Maxwell for free."

E Li Three: "DING! ...Your feet must hate you."

Garrick Fy`aar: "Probably. I get both back?"

Metal Man (GM): Only one foot, apparently.

Garrick Fy`aar: "Ah... next?"

E Li Three: "Now... number seven. This one will get you good. Name a civilization which currently has ruins on this planet."

Garrick Fy`aar: "...Atlantians? Atlantis is a ruin, I'd think."

E Li Three: "Hmmm... hmmm... Well, I guess that works. But there's something more you should know anyway.
There's some Neo-Earth ruins in the north, the likes of not even I have seen."

Garrick Fy`aar: "...what? Hm... alright, thanks."

Metal Man (GM): Your foot is restored to normal.

E Li Three: "That's about it I can give you... you're not sneaky enough to outsmart my underhanded test."

Garrick Fy`aar: "C'mon, one more. Make it an even eight."

E Li Three: "Do you really want to lose a foot?"

Garrick Fy`aar: "Well, what happens if I get it right? Ehhh, nevermind. Think you can get me a warp up to those ruins?"

E Li Three: "No can do. The Void killed my warps and died. I can, however, give you a magical compass which leads you out of the desert."

Garrick Fy`aar: "Well, do you have anything that'd at least make the trip up there faster?"

E Li Three: "It always points away from deserts."

Garrick Fy`aar: "...well, let me ask something else. Do you have some advanced tools so I can fix up my armor?"

E Li Three: "Only for those who pass tests."

Garrick Fy`aar sighs...
"Well, I suppose I'm outta here then. Anything else you care to say?"

E Li Three: "Don't let the Mage Council bite."

Garrick Fy`aar: "I don't cast spells. They won't mess with me."

E Li Three: "Just a warning. They're nasty... but when they tried to bust me for warping reality, I hurled exploding bananas at them. They ran away screaming when I unleashed the army of one-sided pennies."

Garrick Fy`aar: "...right."
*He pulls his hood up and makes to leave...*

Metal Man (GM): You leave the temple, feeling sort of annoyed. Like most people!

Garrick Fy`aar sighs, uses the compass he was given to get out the desert. As soon as he's out, he heads north...

Metal Man (GM): Aaaand we pause here.
+1000 EXP to Garrick

Metal Man (GM): That's 2 for that one, 3 for Lost Outpost.
2 minutes.
1 minute.
MISSION
You're all in the Big Room. Metal is there... (Li's character Syaoran, however, isn't there yet.)
He looks at your selection, and puts a hand to his chin.

Editor's Note: Also of course Li's character is somehow also in the same log as E Li Three, further making it annoying to try and deal with Li's character being named Syaoran but him using his Li name. Fun!

Metal Man: "...So. You finally decided to help me..."

Gibby: "It'll make up for the last mission."

Trigger: "Yeah."

Metal Man: "I have long wondered the truth... perhaps it could give me reason to my current existence."

Kamui sits in his chair now, his rune dagger in his hand spinning it around softly with his fingers.

Gibby: "And who doesn't want that?"

Metal Man: "...I shall give a little background. My mind is... old... and doesn't remember all that I want to say... but this will do."

Digifanatic runs into the Big Room a bit late..."Sorry. What's going on?"

Metal Man presses a button, revealing... an incomplete globe of Neo-Earth.

Gibby stares at the globe.

Metal Man (GM): It looks similar to Nintendus, only it's almost entirely covered in water.

Metal Man: "There were two times in all of Earth's history when the world was this covered in water. The first... was responsible for the short-lived Atlanteans, who left their legacy to the Maricians.
The second generated my particular race.
...For some reason, an excess of water leads to technological discovery."

Trigger: "Which was..."

Metal Man points to a bunch of mysterious buildings, floating a few feet off of the water.

Gibby: "They're... floating?"

Trigger: "How?"

Metal Man: "...We had floating cities... and lived in the air, besides a few of the holiest people, who lived on a few islands. I... do not know.
...My memory refuses to reveal much more... but I can say...
That every building held a repository of our knowledge."

Digifanatic gazes strangely at the map. "Don't as me how they do that."

Metal Man: "...If you could check this building out and find it... we could have a lot of answers."

Gibby: "Sure thing, Metal."

Metal Man (GM): Digi: You can barely make out the statue of liberty, or at least an arm of it, protruding from the ocean.
There is also an island where Mount Everest used to be.
A very large island.

Digifanatic: "Oh man..." *Gazes at both of them* "That can't be..."

Kamui tilts his head to the side, then places the dagger back into its sheath.

Metal Man (GM): Not much else remains. You can't even find the US.

Gibby: "Huh? What's up?"

Metal Man (GM): The buildings hover near the island of Everest.

Metal Man: "...This map is incomplete. It is of the buildings I lived in, for a time... But then there is this."

Digifanatic: *At Everest* "But if that's almost 30,000 feet... then that ocean is 30,000 feet deeper than over... where New York City used to be?! Those are some strange plates, alright."

Metal Man switches the display back--the buildings in Neo-Earth resemble the ones sticking out of the Magnetic Wastelands.
"...Well... we actually found the arm and raised it up."

Editor's Note: In case it wasn't already noted, most of this gibberish is no longer canon, due to much later events that reset the world, then even more that changed the timeline. I shall eventually make a diagram... so! Enjoy this bizarre history, but rest assured, Nintendus is NOT some weird future of Earth or Neo-Earth.

Digifanatic: "Oh."

Gibby: "New what?"

Metal Man: "The rest, sadly, was gone. Those Solarians destroyed it. New York is a city of ancient legend."

Digifanatic: "It was a major city near where I lived before I started doing this."

Trigger: "I lived near there."

Digifanatic: "I believe it's where Julian's from." (considering he has known that IC)

Gibby: "Oh..." *He just shrugs his shoulders. It wasn't a place he was familiar with. *

Metal Man: "...You may go and check out the outpost."
*He steps back, the projection sinking into the floor. The elevator floats down.*

Gibby: "Will do!"

Trigger: "Ok."

Digifanatic: "Hey, if Ari was to show me a globe of Whaller, I'd feel the same way you are right now, Gibby."

Gibby heads inside the elevator.

Metal Man chuckles. "Whaller... the green planet."

Trigger heads over to the elevator.

Kamui stands to his feet, walking in to the elevator.

Gibby: "I'm sure New York was a nice place to live."

Metal Man (GM): You go atop the elevator, which floats upwards... and into the warp room.

Digifanatic: "Eh... lot of buildings."

Metal Man (GM): You warp... and in a flash, you are in front of the outpost... which is surrounded by purple sand.

Trigger: "Heh, I lived out in the country."

Metal Man (GM): Li's character also appears.

Gibby looks at the sand.

Digifanatic: "Whoa... what sorta strange desert is this?"

Gibby: "Hey look... it's purple!"

Metal Man (GM): Though, no point in talking to him yet until he posts in.

Kamui looks towards the sand, before picking it up and begins scanning it with his dex to see what happens.

Metal Man (GM): It's a massive building of faded blue material.

Digifanatic: "Someone figure out how to ground amethyst?"

Smash Dex: "...Magnetic sand."

Digifanatic: "Okay, that was lame."

Kamui tilts his head to the side.

Trigger: "Hmm."

Smash Dex: "The strange sand of the desert... it is purple... and inhospitable to all life. It has survived thousands of years."

Syaoran: *He looks around some blinking.* "Where the hell am I?" *He continues looking around and sees people.* "What the hell... I was at home... training... and now I'm where ever this is."

Digifanatic takes one look at Kamui, not really knowing him, listening to the Dex at the same time.

Metal Man (GM): The building ahead is one of five.
It is the shortest one on this side... and the only one with an uncovered door.

Digifanatic: "Hey... who are you, dude? Nice to see some new faces here."

Gibby: "Well... guess we better get started."

Metal Man (GM): The door is made of transparent bluish glass.
Two of them. They're shut, sliding-glass-door fashion.
They look like you could slide them open.

Syaoran: *He looks at the talking people.* "Where am I?"

Kamui: *Turns around, looking towards Digi tilting his head to the side. He then brings his left hand up, motioning the same old odd sign language* [I am Kamui.]

Gibby looks over at Syaoran. "Oh... uh, hello there. You a new Quester or something?"

Digifanatic: "Um... can you speak English?"

Metal Man (GM): The sand blows about, silently.
It is almost always daytime up here. The sun is rather hot.

Digifanatic: *To both Syaoran and Kamui's characters: You'd be looking at a somewhat large, 6 foot tall guy with brownish-blond hair. He'd also be wearing somewhat casual clothing, though still neat-no holes or anything. He also appears to have no weapons on him at the time... appears being the key word.*

Kamui raises an eyebrow, then shakes his head softly.

Digifanatic: "Can you even hear what I'm saying?"

Syaoran: "Quester? What is that? What's that?"

Metal Man (GM): The outpost sits there, untouched. The front doors hint at something inside.

Trigger looks inside.

Gibby: "That's what we are. We travel to distant lands and complete missions and such. But... how did -you- get here?"

Metal Man (GM): You walk up to the front doors; they are closed. You can't see through them very well, but it looks like you could push them apart.

Digifanatic waves his hand in front of Kamui's head. "Even if you don't know what I am saying, can you hear this?"

Trigger tries to open the doors.

Syaoran: "Why? And what's with the purple sand?"

Digifanatic realizes this is stupid because he can't speak English...
"Oops..."

Kamui nods his head softly.

Metal Man (GM): The doors slide open.

Gibby: "Eh... nevermind for now. Metal can explain it better than I can. Just follow us for now, alright?" *He follows Trigger to the entrance. *

Metal Man (GM): Inside... is a somewhat large room... it extends to your left and right.

Trigger: "Hey guys, I opened the doors, come on."

Digifanatic: .oO(Okay... he can speak... just not English.)

Metal Man (GM): It has a granite floor and blue walls; and a ceiling made of metallic floor tiles.

Digifanatic: .oO(Err--at least he's not deaf. Can't rule out inability to speak yet.)

Metal Man (GM): In the middle of the room is an odd panel.

Syaoran: *He just sighs and follows everyone.* "I better get a good answer..."

Metal Man (GM): It has glass control-things on it, and strange writing on it.

Gibby walks over to the panel to check it out.
"Wonder what this is..."

Kamui turns around and looks towards the rest of the people, tilting his head to the side.

Metal Man (GM): Up ahead, there is another door, but it's a shutter-style one.

Trigger: "Yo Gibby, be careful."

Gibby: "I know, I know..."

Metal Man (GM): The panel itself is devoid of buttons; it is made up of little glass sliders and palm-shaped bumps.

Gibby tries to make sense of the writing.

Digifanatic takes out his Dex and types out a message: "Are you able to read this?" He passes it to Kamui.

Metal Man (GM): Roll a Computer use check. It's d20-5 if you don't have anything in it.

Trigger goes up to the panel to make sure Gibby doesn't blow up the joint.

Metal Man (GM): The writing itself being a major part of the computer.
You stare at it... and can only make out '...At'

Digifanatic: "Trigger, I don't see any... you know. I think he'll be fine."

Metal Man (GM): The rest is mysterious to you.
You can, certainly, touch it.

Gibby: "Hmm..." *He looks at the others.* "Does anyone else understand this?"

Digifanatic walks up to it. (has both Comp Use and Archaics, if the latter makes a difference) "Hang on."

Trigger: "Let me see."

Metal Man (GM): Oh, well then. You can use Read Archaic on it instead.
Gibby can also do that separately from 'Use computer'

Digifanatic: "Hmm..."
*Archaic check.*

Metal Man (GM): You, too, see... '*gibberish* ...At'

Digifanatic: "Ugh... can't get much out of it yet..."

Gibby: "Must be some kind of ancient language."

Metal Man (GM): You can try actually touching it, if you want.

Digifanatic tries to study it once more.

Syaoran: *He is just looking around the room glancing around for something that might make this easier.*

Metal Man (GM): You see... 'In ???? ?? ??? ????????, ??? ?????s At ????'

Gibby: "We need a translator of some sort."

Metal Man (GM): Nothing else in this room. It's sorta dark.

Digifanatic: "Uh... may I buy an E, please?"

Trigger: "Hmm..."

Kamui chuckles softly at what Digi says.

Gibby: "Hey! You think Metal might be able to understand it?"

Trigger: "Maybe."

Metal Man (GM): It appears somewhat worn, possibly from people putting their hands on it.

Digifanatic turns around at that... .oO(Hmm... he understood I was trying to make a joke. He does know English.)
"Are you trying to fool around with me? You seem to have understood what I said."

Syaoran: *He walks over to the door and knocks on it a little, to see what it's made of, or at least how tough it is.*

Gibby: "Should we touch it?"

Metal Man (GM): It makes a dull thud; very thick, wood-like material.

Trigger: "Try it."

Gibby: "I mean... there's nothing else to do. Uhh... I... don't have hands. You do it!"
*He steps FAR back.*

Trigger: "Ok."

Syaoran: *He cracks his knuckles a little and grins, sliding one foot forward a little.*

Trigger touches it.

Gibby: .oO(I'm not going to explode again... no siree)

Digifanatic follows Gibby's suit...

Metal Man (GM): It lights up suddenly.
You hear ancient lights turning on; soon, the entire room is illuminated.
The sliding doors you entered from smoothly slide shut.

Digifanatic: "Ooh..."

Trigger: "Whoa."

Syaoran: *He stops with his hand right in front of the door, kinda startled by the lights going on.* "Huh?"

Kamui: *Looks around at the room slowly, tilting his head to the side* *Hm...*

Gibby: "Uh oh..."

Metal Man (GM): You see vertical strips of luminescent columns off to the side.

Digifanatic: "And dare I ditto that."

Trigger: "What is it?"

Metal Man (GM): The computer is fully lit up; you can see it in full detail.

Gibby: "Oh boy... computer stuff."

Metal Man (GM): Two places to put your palms, surrounded by rotating pieces of glass.

Kamui walks over to the computer, looking at the screen and tilts his head to the side.

Trigger: "NO MINE!!"

Gibby: "...fine."

Metal Man (GM): A hologram appears above it; it has a bunch of strange writing on it.

Digifanatic turns to Kamui again, trying to speak another time. "You chuckled at my comment. Apparently you understand what I am saying... yet you disagreed with me before."

Trigger: "Hmm... what's this?"

Gibby: "More of that funky writing."

Syaoran: "Can I just know the door down, then me move along?"

Trigger: "Think we should touch it?"

Digifanatic is trying to juggle between his conversation and the situation with the others.

Gibby: "Hold on..."

Trigger: "What?"

Gibby takes out his Dex and tries calling Metal.

Metal Man (GM): The dex reports not having any reception out here.
However...
Ancient words appear on it.

Gibby: "...huh? That's odd."

Metal Man (GM): Then the computer suddenly flickers, as a beam of light comes from the dex and into the computer.

Trigger peeks over at Gibby's Dex.

Gibby: "GAH! What the heck is it doing?"

Trigger: "What's that?"

Metal Man (GM): The computer's text suddenly translates itself.
You can see it now.

Gibby reads the text.

Metal Man (GM): '...Backup power initiated. It has been 10,000 years since last activation.'

Trigger: "What's it saying?"

Digifanatic: "10,000 years?!"

Trigger: "Damn?!"

Metal Man (GM): 'The Wraith also appears.

Gibby puts his dex away.
"Holy crap!"

Syaoran: "Huh? What's that?"

Metal Man (GM): A red warning flashes; then it suddenly shows an image of Neo-Earth, and an ! mark over the ocean.

Trigger: "What the hell?"

Metal Man (GM): 'Oceans appear to have evaporated. All networks down.'

The Wraith tilts its head to the side as it materializes just in time to hear that comment from the computer.

Digifanatic: "Evaporated?!"

Gibby: "The oceans evaporated?"

Metal Man (GM): 'Strange magnetic interference has disabled most sensors.'

Gibby: "That explains the purple sand."

Metal Man (GM): 'Planetary support network is still active.'

Gibby looks over to Wraith and gestures for him to come over.

Metal Man (GM): It then flashes again, now showing the ancient Nova system.
It updates itself with information from that.

The Wraith looks back and nods, following Gibby's signal.

Digifanatic continues to somewhat look at Kamui without trying to stare his brains out.

Metal Man (GM): '...Planet has undergone massive stress; destruction of several races. All of Neo-Earth has been... destroyed...'
A big word appears on the screen.
'EXTINCTION'

Gibby: "Wow... the place got wiped out."

Syaoran: *He is getting a little confused and irritated.* "What is it ranting about... Neo-Earth...?"

Editor's Note: You and me both, uncertain-if-it's-supposed-to-be-Cardcaptors-Syaoran-or-not.

Metal Man (GM): The words fade before it then goes back to what appears to be its standby mode.

Trigger: "Wow, indeed."

Digifanatic: *Trying to talk slower so he can process the sounds easier* "Can... you... understand... what I... am say... ing?"

Metal Man (GM): You could probably put your hands over the palm-marks... maybe it'd do something.

Trigger: "You want me to do that Gibby?"

Kamui looks over towards Digifanatic, tilting his head to the side. He didn't say something, he simply sighs and shakes his head.

Gibby: "Hmm... alright Trigger, if you insist. It worked last time."

Digifanatic: "Okay..."

Metal Man (GM): The room feels more comfortable now; it was sort of hot earlier.

Trigger puts his hands in the machine.

Gibby: "Temperature control?"

Metal Man (GM): Trigger would suddenly feel as if he could think into the machine itself... but he doesn't have any thoughts for it yet, so it continues to sit.

Gibby: "Just be careful Trigger... the thing's probably very fragile."

Syaoran: *He leans against the door looking around once again, maybe this time he can find something that'll help.* "I really need to get back to where I was..."

Digifanatic tries something different. He erases his last text message on the Dex, replacing it with "I am sorry for all the problems I am causing. My name is Ian but everyone calls me by the alias "Digifanatic" in which I am more well-known by here. I am just trying to be nice and to figure out some way in which we can easily communicate." He sends this over, asking the Dex to translate it into a language Kamui can more easily under

Trigger: "Ok."

Metal Man (GM): The machine displays a few commands, as a result of Trigger. 'All facilities have been placed into protective mode, to prevent damage to structure.'

Trigger: "Protective mode?"

Kamui looks at the dex, opening the message thing and raises an eyebrow at the text. He turns the dex around upside down, trying to understand.

Metal Man (GM): Yes, Syaoran.
You don't find much; the computer itself looks to be very advanced, though.
Perhaps it could help you.
However, Trigger is using it currently.
Otherwise, the room is small and full of vertical lights.

Gibby: "It was probably the security system used for the buildings."

Syaoran: *He turns back to the door. "Ok... I'm knocking it down now..."*

Trigger: "I hope it doesn't wanna kill us, that's all."

Gibby: "Try searching for any history on Neo-Earth going back 10,000 years ago."

Digifanatic goes back to Kamui, asking for the Dex back, motioning an open palm by his body.

Trigger: "Ok."

Metal Man (GM): It makes another message. 'Unknown users set as allies; however, one appears to be threatening main security door 1.'

Trigger: "Is that this location?"

Digifanatic: .oO(I'll have to ask Metal about him sometime, see if I can figure out some harmony...)

Metal Man (GM): 'Yes.'

Trigger: "Hmm..."

Syaoran: *He shrugs getting no objections. He gets into a solid stance and draws his hand back, then he brings his hand forward at full force on the door.*

Metal Man (GM): '...Neo-Earth history module has been damaged; will require repairing to access.'
Your hand flies into the door; a force field blocks it.

Gibby: "Huh?" *He looks over at Syaoran who is at the door.* "Hey! Cut it out over there!"

The Wraith drifts over to Syaoran, wagging its finger...

Metal Man (GM): 'Danger; attempted attack on Main security door 1.'

The Wraith: "..."

Trigger: "...You idiot."

The Wraith drifts over to the control, signaling Trigger to get out of the way as it approaches...

Syaoran: "What?!"

Metal Man (GM): 'Defcon 6 declared; please ensure safety of door before defenses must be activated.'

Trigger backs off from the computer.

Syaoran: "I said I was gonna' knock it down... you didn't say anything about it."

Gibby: "Don't touch anything! You might activate the computer's defenses or something."

The Wraith places its palm in the slot, and closes its eyes...

Metal Man (GM): Wraith: You can almost sense the massive amount of controls and information in this computer.

Digifanatic walks over to Syaoran, of course, not knowing his identity either... he surely needs to acquaint himself with a lot of new faces.

Metal Man (GM): Whatever you think... it does.
'...Defcon 6 cancelled.'

Gibby goes back to the computer and watches Wraith. What was this guy planning to do?"

Syaoran: *He sighs some.* "This is taking way too long..."

The Wraith then backs away from the computer, nodding... Then it starts rubbing its chin, thinking...

Metal Man (GM): 'History module remains damaged. Servicing required to access history, as was commanded earlier. Security override was left in place to protect module from theft.
...Must be overridden manually.'
It then displays a map of the tower; it's 5 floors tall, and each floor has two rooms.

Gibby: "Hmm... who here knows the most about computers?"

Metal Man (GM): You're in room 1, floor 1.
It shows, all the way at the top... 'Manual override room'

The Wraith mrr's a bit, then places its hand in the impression again...

Trigger: "...Well I'm good with almost all electronics."

Metal Man (GM): 'Emergency evacuation procedures also overridden normal Defcon in room 10, floor 5.'

Digifanatic: "Hello, newer recruit to this group. Don't mean to offend, of course" *He extends a hand out towards Syaoran.*

Gibby: "Well that's fine and dandy, but how do we get up there?"

The Wraith holds one finger up to Gibby as it holds its right hand in the impression...

Trigger: "Is there in elevator nearby?"

Digifanatic: "I just find it nice that more people are somewhat finding out about us..."

Metal Man (GM): 'Guiding is possible; safety is questionable. Extensive damage has left some systems in security mode; other sectors make it difficult to move through. Main Security door is only to be opened if this is an emergency. Confirm as an emergency?'

Gibby: "Well where there's danger, there's the Questers."

Syaoran: *He extends his hand.* "I have no idea what you people are, nor am I here by choice. I don't plan on staying either."

Metal Man (GM): '...'

Digifanatic: "Oh..."

Metal Man (GM): The computer flickers; the door ahead opens. The shutters are spun open, I should say.
It reveals your first room... a wreck. A sad one.

Digifanatic: "Well, it's still nice to see beings that are at least not against our cause."

Gibby: "There we go!"
*He walks into the newly opened room.*

The Wraith drifts back, nodding... then starts drifting toward the door.

Metal Man (GM): It's what appears to be room full of machines... which are half-crushed and thrown about by debris.
A large, wicked 'S' is carved into the other side of the shutters.

Gibby: "Wow... someone had a ball with this room."

Trigger follows after Gibby.

The Wraith opens its Dex, hoping it'd at least be able to communicate with the others...

Metal Man (GM): The debris is piled up, blocking access to a stairway...
Discuss amongst one another during my short brb.

Trigger: "What the hell happened in here?"

Syaoran: *He looks into the room and gives a soft whistle.* "Someone's got a sense of destruction... they even left a signature..."

Gibby turns his Dex on so Wraith can communicate with him.

Digifanatic: "To introduce myself, my real name is Ian but everyone here calls me Digifanatic, or Digi for short because that's what I originally introduced myself as. Time passed and then I became less secretive about my real name."

Syaoran: "I'm Syaoran..."

Digifanatic: "Ah. Cool name."
*He chuckles a bit.*

Gibby: "Nice meeting ya, Syaoran. Sorry about before. Just didn't want the place to explode, ya know?"

Trigger: "Same here."

Digifanatic: "Well, good luck with whatever you're trying to get out of this."

The Wraith's voice comes through which dexes are opened. A deep, and somewhat familiar voice to older Questers. "Use caution, friends... Something destructive has been through here, and is possibly here yet. At any rate, sentries are sure to be on perpetual kill-all-intruders mode..."

Digifanatic: "And Gibby, who was that other guy you were talking with? I don't know him, neither."

Gibby: "Who, Trigger?"

Digifanatic: "No, the other one."

Metal Man (GM): The debris is mostly of the blue material used for the building... but something else, something that appears to have crashed here, can be seen.
It, too, is behind the broken debris.
The room itself is totally offline.

Gibby: "Oh, you mean ghost boy. Goes by the name of Wraith."

Digifanatic: "Whoa... looks like something big happened here. And thanks, Gib."

Trigger: "Yeah."

Metal Man (GM): Which may be good; the exposed glass-like circuitry appears to have burnt the very walls itself with sparks.

Digifanatic walks to Wraith, introducing himself as well.

Metal Man (GM): The main problem is, of course, the debris.

Gibby: "Well... shall we get to work, guys?"

The Wraith raises an eyebrow as it drifts forward, closing its Dex... It drifts in and out through debris, checking to make sure it doesn't pass through any potentially painful live wires... It nodded to Digi politely as he approached.

Gibby would roll up his sleeves... if he had sleeves.

Metal Man (GM): Glancing about, you also see a vaguely human-shaped burn on the ground.
You float through the debris, finding the other way around.

Digifanatic: "I'm sure you may have overheard past conversations, so I'll keep it short--name Ian, nickname Digi, nice to see you here."

Metal Man (GM): There, you see the nose of a crashed white battleship, in this building... it is mostly destroyed; everything but the nose was, at least.

Digifanatic: "And I have to ask: Was this under your own will and interest?"

Metal Man (GM): You see more burnt images where human-like beings must have stood.

The Wraith touches its forehead and moves its hand forward in a form of silent courteous greeting before continuing to search around... Especially taking interest in those human-shaped burns, checking for remains...

Trigger: "What happened here?"

Metal Man (GM): No remains; you would see... whatever had died had been vaporized.

Gibby: "Looks like some kind of crash happened here."

Metal Man (GM): But... by what?
No presence of weaponry is here.

Kamui remains with the group, his hands in his pockets with a calm yet slightly bored look.

Metal Man (GM): Only destroyed stuff.

Trigger: "This is weird."

The Wraith is wondering just that... What did this? It drifts through and through, checking that other way around so that it can lead the others through it to what it had found...

Gibby: "Alright guys, stay sharp... whoever, or whatever, did this could still be here."

Metal Man (GM): They can't get through the middle of it; there's a big column in the way.
It needs to be blasted.

The Wraith looks up at the top of the column... Still connected?

Trigger: "Hmm, I could use my gun."

Gibby: "If only I had bought some explosives..."

Trigger starts to blast the big column.

Metal Man (GM): It's not connected to anything, but it supports more dead columns and the ship atop it.
Trigger: With what?
It's not strong enough.

The Wraith waves its hand at Trigger, shaking its head...

Metal Man (GM): The column is very... VERY... tough.
It took what appears to be a flying battleship to detach it.

Gibby: "I doubt my sword will be of any use..."

The Wraith floats up toward the top of the column to inspect that battleship...

Metal Man (GM): Only a well-timed explosion would take it down.

Trigger: "Hmm..."

Metal Man (GM): The battleship nose is white, and made of a different material... its construction is strange.
It appears to be held together by magic.

Gibby decides to check out the rest of the room. Maybe he'll find something useful.

The Wraith tilts its head to the side, looking curiously at this to see if there's anything he'd recognize about it... If nothing immediately, it would go to cautiously drift in to look at the interior.

Metal Man (GM): The room you can access, Gibby, has one broken computer (it's split in two, with a column crushing the middle)
The interior... it has very little, being only a nose. It's like a cone, the pointy nose part. None of the interior survived.

Gibby: "Yikes... not much here."

Metal Man (GM): Only a bit of a different, strange, writing is written on it.
The walls of the room which Gibby can see are made up of broken vertical lights.
The part where the ceiling was busted has various fiber optic tubes hanging out of it.

The Wraith arches an eyebrow as it attempts to read this...

Metal Man (GM): It says...
'The Slaughterer'
That must be the name of the ship...

The Wraith opens its Dex again. The others' would beep.

Gibby hears the beep and opens his Dex.

Metal Man (GM): It is different from the Neo-Earth writing... far more curvy, rather than blocklike.

Trigger opens him Dex.

Metal Man (GM): And in English.

The Wraith: "...Have any of you heard of a ship of old called 'The Slaughterer?'"

Trigger: "No, not really?"

Gibby: "Nope... why, is that what hit the place?"

Digifanatic: "I don't think so."

Metal Man (GM): Your dex lights up; a reply from the computer of the place.

Gibby checks out the reply with a raised eyebrow.

Metal Man (GM): '...It was a ship which crashed here during the destruction.'

The Wraith: "Mmm... Yes, that seems to be the name of... what's left of this ship. Keep that name in--..." It listens for the response...

Metal Man (GM): 'Unfortunately, the history module is offline. I cannot access what it belonged to.'

Digifanatic: "Ah..."

The Wraith: "...Is there any way to restore the history module?"

Metal Man (GM): 'You are on the way to doing so. Get to the top and manually override the manual security override.'

The Wraith: "Thank you."

Metal Man (GM): The column is still in the way; it can be accessed by any of you.

The Wraith starts looking around at what the column is in contact with, to see if there are any hazards in knocking it down...

Gibby: "Hmm..." *He takes in a deep breath and tries floating upward over the column and to the upper floor.*

Metal Man (GM): It would drop some debris down... granite dust and metallic plates.
The column completely blocks access to the upper floor.
For those behind it.
For The Wraith, it acts more like a ramp.

Gibby lets out the air and lands back down. "Darn..."

The Wraith: "Hmm... Computer, do not be alarmed; we are about to demolish an obstruction, but will try to minimize further structural damage. Guys, watch out for debris..."

Gibby: "Got 'cha!"

Metal Man (GM): Right. @_@

Digifanatic takes a few steps back...

The Wraith drifts down to the main group's level, and reaches into its own chest... It procures that strange, purple stone once again...

Trigger gets out of the way.

Gibby just watches hoping the building doesn't collapse.

The Wraith: "...Anyone else have a high-power concentrated attack? Preferably one with range, so you don't get squashed..."

Gibby: "No, sorry."

Trigger: "No."

The Wraith: "Very well, then..." It just braces itself, signaling the others to get clear as it unleashes its good ol' Thrash attack upon the broken column.

Metal Man (GM): The column crumbles, revealing the way for everyone else, and the ship.

Gibby: "Nice one, Wraith!"

Trigger: "Cool."

Digifanatic: "Ah. Nice."

Gibby makes his way up the stairs.

Digifanatic follows Gibby up.

Metal Man (GM): A metallic staircase goes up to the second floor... only a small gap between the top of that and another door.

Trigger follows behind Gibby.

The Wraith nods, starting to put the stone away... but decides against it, keeping the stone in hand as it leads the group.

Metal Man (GM): You go on up... the computer types in your dexes again.

Gibby looks down at the dex.

Metal Man (GM): 'It is good that you have these... sensing devices. I have scanned the area. It appears the weapons computer was destroyed here.
...The death-places of many an intruder, though.'

Gibby: "I see..."

Digifanatic: "Okay..."

Metal Man (GM): 'The main door apparently was sealed to keep them out of the main controls... which are one of the only rooms which were not hit. The next room is a part of the armory... and that is bad.'

The Wraith: "Thank you again... Hmm."

Gibby: "Bad?"

Metal Man (GM): 'A single Quint android device still guards it... and it isn't responding to commands.'

Gibby: "Well how hard could one android be?"

Metal Man (GM): 'They possess the powerful lasers which, after wounding the enemy enough, can totally vaporize them'

Digifanatic: "You probably don't want to--see?"

Gibby: "...Never mind."

The Wraith: "Quint... Any statistics on this android device?"

Metal Man (GM): 'I can't convert our numbers to your system... they have enough power, though, to vaporize at least three humans by themselves.'

Trigger: "Oh crap."

Metal Man (GM): 'They only have a laser system.'

The Wraith: "I see... Any effect on ethereal beings?"

Digifanatic: "Yikes."

Metal Man (GM): 'Their lasers can hit anything.'

Gibby: "Don't worry. We're Questers! We can handle those things."

The Wraith: "This could be problematic..."

Metal Man (GM): '...The History module would allow me to say why.'

Gibby continues his way down to the next room.

Metal Man (GM): 'If you can defeat it, though, the armory could be repowered.'
The doors slide open slowly; this area lacks much power.

The Wraith forms that dark barrier around itself... And Gibby.

Metal Man (GM): Sparks fly from them too.

Gibby: "Just keep an eye our for anything suspicious."

Trigger: "Ok."
*He follows wraith and Gibby.*

Digifanatic: "Sure."

Metal Man (GM): The next room is the same size as the others; the walls have sliding-door cabinets, though. The panel in the center of it is damaged mildly; a single floating dodecahedron-shaped thing about the size of a beach ball hovers around the center of the room, and the console.

Digifanatic keeps on moving.

Metal Man (GM): It is pulsing a red color.
You are about to walk near it.

The Wraith: "Arm yourselves..."

Gibby nods and unsheathes his sword.

Digifanatic takes a few steps away from the center if at all possible.

Trigger takes out his gun.

Metal Man (GM): One moment...

Kamui draws out his rune dagger, spinning it around in his hand then holds it tightly in his palm.

The Wraith goes to cast its barrier on each of the other Questers if it has time before something happens...

Metal Man (GM): The Dodecahedron suddenly stops patrolling.
It turns to face you all.
It turns solid red and moves to attack.
BATTLE!
Questers vs. Quint Droid

Gibby: "Here we go!"

Metal Man (GM): Inits?
Order: Quint, Kamui, Digi, Gibby, The Wraith
The Quint scans each of you, trying to determine which one is the biggest threat... please state your current levels.
It beeps, then fires a concentrated stream of photon energy, almost like a laser flamethrower, at Digi.
64 damage if that hit; it pierces DR.

Digifanatic is blazed without even getting a second to dodge.

Gibby: "Holy--I didn't think it was going to be THAT strong..."

Metal Man (GM): Kamui, Digi, Gibby, and s

Kamui watches on at the droid, his eyes open wide. He then holds his rune dagger tight in his hand before he then charges at the droid and begins to swing his tagger rapidly for any openings.

Metal Man (GM): Miss hit miss miss hit.

Gibby dashes towards the Quint, leaps into the air, and hits it with a spinning horizontal slash into a spinning downward slash.

The Wraith arches an eyebrow as it sees that damage... It does NOT want that to repeat if it can help it at all. So, it points one finger at the droid and shoots some tendrils out at it, followed by its infamous Thrash attack...

Metal Man (GM): Hit, hit, and hit.
Miss.
Damage for the stuff that hit?

Digifanatic sees the shield disappear before his eyes and looks pretty ticked off. Without sparing any time, he Fire Punches the enemy and then decides to pull an Aerial Strike on it.

Metal Man (GM): Hit, hit, hit, thanks to the Wraith.
Kamui: Damage for your attacks?

Gibby dashes back to the others.

Metal Man (GM): The droid explodes.
+150 EXP

The Wraith: "..."

Gibby grins and sheaths his sword. "Guess it couldn't handle all of us at once."

Digifanatic: "Guess so."

Metal Man (GM): The console can now be used; it needs to be activated.

The Wraith looks around for perhaps one of those palm indentations...

Metal Man (GM): Indeed. Two of them here.

Gibby: "Here we go."

The Wraith places its hand into the impression...

Kamui walks over to one and places his hand over one of the hand indentations.
He presses his hand inside.

Metal Man (GM): You both do it simultaneously; it activates.
The thing lights up, and the dormant room turns on... though the console sparks a little.
The text on it, however, is not very reassuring.
'Neo-Earth weaponry energy was depleted in storage.
It appears there is no way to recharge them until the main building is online... that will be quite a while in the making.'

Gibby: "Great..."

Metal Man (GM): 'This room is mostly functional, despite damage near the edge of it.'

Trigger catches up to everyone. "So, what did I miss?"

Metal Man (GM): 'The Quint are usually in much higher numbers than that. Be prepared to fight more later on.'

Gibby: "We blew up the android thing."

Kamui rests his arm by his side while he continues holding his rune dagger tightly in hand.

Trigger: "Ok."

Gibby: "MORE? Bah!"

Metal Man (GM): 'None. The Quint are the normal defenders, but they are mostly dead or in override mode.'

Digifanatic: "Okay then... just watch out for those lasers."

Gibby: "Agreed."

Metal Man (GM): 'More can be made later. The passive defenses ought to keep out any intruders. The next room is heavily damaged, though.'

Gibby: "Well... I suppose we have to move on."

Kamui looks around at the next room, blinking a few times as he begins looking through his dex to see if it will tell him what made this kind of damage.

Metal Man (GM): 'It is stable... just in bad shape. To get to the next floor, you may have to do some repairing.'

Gibby nods and makes his way into the new room.

Metal Man (GM): The doors to the next room open for you.
You see... a blackened room.
It can only be seen because lights from the previous room illuminate it.
'Affirmative.'

Gibby: "Can we get some light in here?"

Metal Man (GM): The room has several piles of dust in it.

The Wraith nods a bit, then lets go of the impression and drifts over to the room... It starts looking around for the aforementioned damage, and what must be done to get through...

Metal Man (GM): They appear to be the remains of Neo-Earthians.
As the dust is 'wearing' some old-looking blue uniforms.

Digifanatic: "Yeah, I wish I had a flashlight."

Gibby shudders.

Trigger: "Hmm."

Gibby: "Poor guys..."

Metal Man (GM): The room has blackened fiber optic cables everywhere, and a door... sliding glass... which appears to have melted shut.

Trigger: "I wonder what killed them?"

The Wraith: "Quint, no doubt."

Gibby: "What else could vaporize them like that?"

Metal Man (GM): The dex gets some text of its own.

Gibby checks the dex.

Metal Man (GM): '...Not Quint. They vaporize. That is clearly dust.'

The Wraith: "Perhaps what the Quint were designed to defend against..."

Metal Man (GM): '...Yes. That. What remains of my memory mentions a superweapon being triggered by the enemy.'

Gibby: "Hmmm... superweapon, eh?"

Trigger: "Hmm."

Metal Man (GM): 'It most likely burnt them to dust, but not enough to destroy the structure. Must be heat-based. The structural integrity of the area was damaged just enough to let a pinprick in... must have been enough for this hypothetical destroying weapon to kill them.'

The Wraith: "Hmm..." It swoops down to one of the piles of dust to inspect it for anything peculiar... If possible, it scans a pile with its dex to record for later studies.

Digifanatic: "Wow... a pinprick."

Metal Man (GM): the pile of dust is in the shape of a human. The uniform, strangely, is untouched.

Gibby walks over to the sliding glass door and tries his best to open it up.

Metal Man (GM): Despite the charred ash form of whoever wore it.
The door is stuck... the mechanism that moved it also appears burnt to a crisp.

The Wraith: "...Like mustard gas. From the sun. ...Or not... Hmm."

Metal Man (GM): It's one big worthless slab of glass now.

Trigger: "Well, now what?"

The Wraith rises up again and drifts over to the door... It floats through and checks both sides to see if knocking it out would clearly cause any structural problems...

Gibby: "It's stuck... well, guess I better improvise." *He takes out his sword, and uses the hilt to slam into the glass in order to shatter it.*

Digifanatic: "Dunno. Just have to look around and be cautious."

Metal Man (GM): The glass shatters into safety-glass like dust.
No structural problems are caused.
The staircase itself is intact; though the staircase area is as burnt and dark as the other room.
Thankfully, light strains in from the outside via hairline cracks in the wall.

Gibby: "There..." *He puts his sword away and cautiously steps through the formerly glass door. He then makes his way up the staircase.*

The Wraith nods a bit in approval, and drifts on... It halts for a moment, and puts another barrier on Digi, whose was broken earlier. This one is just a bubble-like sheen, seems to have no substance to it at all.

Digifanatic continues up...
"Thanks again, Wraith."

Metal Man (GM): You walk up. The door here is in perfect shape... but the dexes get more text on them.

Digifanatic: "Those barriers causing a strain on your energy yet?"

Metal Man (GM): 'Things are not quite so peaceful up here.'

Gibby checks the dex again.
"Now what?"

Digifanatic keeps his open (he somewhat has)...

Metal Man (GM): '...Damage is excessive. Power has been left on somehow.'

Kamui: *Was keeping up with the group, keeping his runder dagger tight in hand.*

The Wraith: "Nea, I have energy to spare, for the most part... I'm assuming there are more sentries ahead?"

Metal Man (GM): The door slides open for you.

Digifanatic: "Well, as long as we're not the ones being damaged..."

Gibby nods and slowly steps inside.

Metal Man (GM): You see a room that looks like it was torn apart. Craters line the walls and ceiling.

Digifanatic: "Man, oh man..."

Gibby: "These rooms go from bad to worse."

Metal Man (GM): A nearly perfect (no deterioration) corpse of a weird-looking person is on the floor, next to heavily taken apart glass circuits and fiber optics.

The Wraith: "And we've yet to see the worst of it, I'm afraid..."

Trigger: "..."

The Wraith drifts over to the humanoid figure, glancing around for potential threats along the way...

Metal Man (GM): The door is blocked because it appears the entire room from the fourth floor fell down on top of it.

Gibby: "Hmm... the corpse is in good shape. At least it's not ash."

Metal Man (GM): No threats; only a single alarm going on in here.
The lights on the side are red and flickering... it casts the area in an eerie red glow.

The Wraith inspects the body, for identity and probable cause of death...

Kamui: *His eyes scan the area, just keeping cautious, just in case.*

Metal Man (GM): The mysterious dead being has a gray uniform on. A large 'S' with a sun in the background can be seen on the chest...
It apparently ran out of food.

Gibby: "That S again... there's a connection here."

The Wraith: "...Solarians...?"

Metal Man (GM): A variety of magical food containers are thrown about.

Gibby walks over to a good container and takes a look inside it.

Metal Man (GM): There's also a console in the middle here; it was what this guy was hacking. He changed it so much it's almost unrecognizable.

Digifanatic: "Maybe."

Metal Man (GM): The container is a weird jar... you pull the cork on it and a little vacuum poof can be heard.
It's empty... but... you place the cork on it, and it reseals itself. Magically.

Kamui takes one of the odd jars, poking at it softly.

Trigger: "Wow."

Metal Man (GM): It's made of glass, and feels cool to the touch... like it's refrigerated. Both jars do.

Gibby: "Huh... cool technology."

Trigger: "Yeah."

The Wraith scans the body for research, as well as one of the containers. "Very interesting..."

Trigger: "What is it Wraith?"

Metal Man (GM): The ruined console has what appears to be a more or less technological appearance to it; the mysterious being appears to have attached a small, formerly wrist-mounted computer device with a keypad to it.
The body shows that it is preserved by unknown magic. The container, also, is magically enchanted.

Digifanatic checks out the thing on the guy's wrist.

Metal Man (GM): It, too, has a small 'S' on it. It looks like a slightly more futuristic keyboard.
You could try typing with it.

Kamui looks the container over carefully, then puts it away in to his inventory.

Digifanatic types out "This is a test message" to see what happens.

Metal Man (GM): Kamui obtained: Magic Container X1
*BZT* *SPARK* the console turns on.

Digifanatic: "Ah. Here we go."

Metal Man (GM): '...It appears that device was rigged to the computer ages ago. It appears to have been attempting to access the things which were emergency overridden.
...But it successfully reprogrammed the Quint in this tower.'

Digifanatic: "Okaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy..."

Metal Man (GM): '...It continued to work as it died... even after the planet must have been burnt to ashes by the superweapon.'

Trigger: "???"

Metal Man (GM): '...Approximately for a thousand years.'

Gibby: "Wow... that's what I can an efficient android."

Metal Man (GM): 'Our encryption was too much for it to crack, thankfully... save for the Quint.'

Trigger: "Is that the end of the voice log?"

Gibby: "Type in something else."

The Wraith: "Hmm... Do you know what race this subject belonged to?"

Digifanatic: "Okay."
(typing) "Who was the person or being to whom this unit belonged to?"

Trigger: "Slow computer." *Begins to kick it.*

The Wraith shoots a 'flick' of magical energy at Trigger.

Digifanatic: "Hang on. Maybe it's just trying to process a lot of information."

Trigger: "Ow, hey... that hurt."

Kamui looks over towards Trigger, rolling his eyes as if saying Oh yes, that's gonna work.

Gibby: "The thing IS old you know."

Trigger: "...Yeah, yeah."

The Wraith: "As did your kicking. Be careful, treat everything as if it's fragile... They're all ancient, keep in mind."

Digifanatic: "Yes, indeed."

Trigger: "Ok, I will."

Metal Man (GM): '...Unknown. Unknown. Unknown. History database was taken offline.
It must be reactivated before I can tell you.'

The Wraith: "Then we'll simply have to move on for the time being... Let's go. We'll gather information later."

Digifanatic: "Okay..."

Gibby: "Guess we won't find out anything until we get the security override out of the way."

Digifanatic: "Sounds fair enough."

Gibby moves on to the next room.

Digifanatic: "Was worth a shot."

Metal Man (GM): You have yourself the obstacle to the next room.
It's literally the wall of another room.

Digifanatic: *Continues.*

Metal Man (GM): Gonna have to find a way through it.

Trigger follows Gibby.

Gibby: "Hey Wraith, go through and check things out for us."

The Wraith raises an eyebrow, and drifts through that wall, looking for weak spots... and what's on the other side, while it's at it.

Digifanatic attempts to tap the wall to even perhaps get a feel as to how thick it is.

Metal Man (GM): '...Room 7, floor 4, appears to have fallen atop room 6, floor 3.'
You drift on through; the wall appears to be the thickness of 10 sheets of paper and brittle.

Trigger: "Great, the building is collapsing."

Gibby: "I'm surprised it hasn't already."

The Wraith just smirks, turns around, and pops a weak shot into the wall.

Trigger: "Your telling me."

Metal Man (GM): The Wraith sees the room past it; a horrible mess, a bunch of debris, burned human-shaped spots on the ground, dust, broken guns, and a giant hole in the wall from which the purple desert sand is slowly blowing in.
The wall crumbles to reveal this for everyone.

Gibby: "Perfect."
*He walks into the room.*

Digifanatic walks into that room.

Trigger: "Nice."

Metal Man (GM): The staircase from the previous room is in pieces and also in this pile of debris.

The Wraith: "...Looks like this is where they got in."

Trigger walks into the room.

Metal Man (GM): Absolutely no light is in here... the console that should have been here is another piece of debris.

Gibby: "This is the worst out of all of them!"

Metal Man (GM): And the console from the room above is smashed, upside-down, atop a preserved but dead 'S' guy corpse.

Trigger: "We must be getting close to the thing that did this."

The Wraith drifts up, to see if there is any way to climb up via the debris to the next flight of stairs...

Digifanatic: "Yeah. This is almost getting freakier by the minute."

Editor's Note: I see why I discontinued the Neo-Earth plotline; some 'noble lost civilization' concept NEVER fit Xavier, or Illian either.

Metal Man (GM): You'd have to leap on up to the next floor.

Digifanatic checks the corpse to see if there are any tags or ID badges.

Metal Man (GM): Jump checks for those who can't fly, or climb checks if you want to climb up.

Gibby takes in some air and floats himself up to the next floor.

Metal Man (GM): No ID; only the S with a sun on it, and a busted wrist device.
Gibby: If you can fly, you get up there. Otherwise, Jump check.

Digifanatic: "Yup. Solarian alright."

Trigger begins to jump up to the next room.

Gibby blows out the air as he lands on the upper floor. He looks down on the others. "Come on!"

Metal Man (GM): I'll hold back on describing the next room until everyone jumps up.

Digifanatic tries jumping up.

Metal Man (GM): Kamui leaps high enough to hold onto the edge by his fingers, as does Trigger and Digi.

Kamui tries pulling himself up.

The Wraith signals for Gibby to help them.

Gibby nods and tries helping Digi up.

Metal Man (GM): Kamui climbs up, as Gibby helps Digi up.

Digifanatic is hoisted on up.
"Thanks, dude."

Gibby then goes to Trigger and helps him up as well.

Metal Man (GM): Trigger is pulled on up.

Gibby: "There..."

Trigger: "Ah, thanks."

Metal Man (GM): You're all in the next room. Julian suddenly warps in with the rest of yas.

Gibby takes a look around the new room.

Metal Man (GM): The new room looks fine... except...

Gibby: "Hey Julian. Glad you could join us."

Metal Man (GM): Another S guy is dead on the floor, next to a computer which appears to have been left on.

Digifanatic: "Oh, hey Julian."

Trigger: "...Hmm."

Metal Man (GM): It's blood red ..It even talks to you.

The Wraith drifts forward, slowly, cautiously...

Gibby cautiously walks towards the computer.

Kamui looks at the computer.

Julian Sawyer: "...Man, what'd I miss this time?"

Trigger stays put.

Metal Man (GM): 'Well, well... it didn't seem possible that life had survived the destruction of our device...'

Trigger: "What was that?"

Gibby: "Who's there?"
*He looks around.*

Metal Man (GM): 'If I hadn't have taken over this worthless Neo-Earthian terminal, my mind would have perished with my useless body.'

The Wraith holds a hand up to the others, signaling for silence...

Julian Sawyer: "...An' you are?"

Digifanatic: "This may be our next archenemy."

Trigger looks at the computer. "There?"

Metal Man (GM): 'The computer system doesn't let me out of this miserable device... all I can do is control these evil and godless technology beings called the Quint.'

Kamui walks over the terminal, standing aside looking towards the controls.

Metal Man (GM): '...Who are you to walk up to me?'
The terminal is suddenly shielded.

Gibby: "So YOU'Re the one controlling those things."

Kamui jumps back quickly.

The Wraith: "Be careful..."

Julian Sawyer: "You haven't answered my question. Who the HELL are you, an' what're you doin' here?"

Metal Man (GM): 'Who the hell are you, weakling?'

Trigger: "Dude Julian, calm down."

Metal Man (GM): 'I don't answer to unknown hostiles.'

Gibby: "Heh... wrong guy to call a weakling, you know."

Metal Man (GM): 'I, Rathos Lell, will destroy you with your own ally's machinery soon enough.'

Digifanatic: "And that's why I hate arrogance and cockiness."

Rathos Lell: 'There is life in this world yet... you have awakened me to it.'
'...It must be irreversibly destroyed.'

Julian Sawyer: "An' I don' cooperate with asshole computers who call me a weakling!"

Trigger: "Hmm, like I didn't see that coming."

The Wraith: "I apologize for my comrade's... uncouth behaviors. I can't really control them, you see..."

Kamui takes out his rune dagger, holding it firmly in his hand.

Gibby: "Now hold on a second. We're only looking to get the history module up and running, that's all. We don't want any problems."

Rathos Lell: 'Just like a worthless Neo-Earthian. I relish the fact they all died.'

Trigger takes out his gun.

Rathos Lell: 'A shame we had to die too...'
'...But what remains of my mental patterns can use this technology to ensure whoever is alive now will meet us in hell!'

Julian Sawyer: "An' you gonna be wishin' you joined 'em in a couple'a minutes!"

Metal Man (GM): *Insert Metroid Prime semi-boss music.* (Relevant music: Sheegoth / Miniboss theme (Metroid Prime) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtz1kmO70aM )

Trigger: "That doesn't sound good."

Digifanatic: "But seriously, we don't want to cause any chaos or anything--we just want to know more about this."

Metal Man (GM): The other computer's writing appears on your dexes.

Digifanatic checks it out.

Rathos Lell: 'Oh dear. It appears he has roused as many Quint as possible. This could be messy.'

Trigger looks at his dex.

The Wraith casts a spell on Julian, and a dark barrier forms around him...

Gibby looks at Wraith and thinks to himself. That voice... so familiar....

Metal Man (GM): You hear lasers in the distance.
*BLAM* *BLAMBLAM* *BLAMMM.*

Trigger: "Oh, F**k."

Gibby quickly unsheaths his sword and spins around.

Metal Man (GM): Five Quint emerge from the wall that would lead to the staircase. They blast the door away with their red lasers.
'You are no match for this technology... I can sense it.'

Trigger spins around guns a'blazing.

Digifanatic: "You can say that again, Trigger, but I don't think it's necessary."

Julian Sawyer: "Psh. More robots. Like I haven't already killed 'em all."

The Wraith clutches its purple stone and puts its Dex away as it turns to face these Quint...

Gibby: "Julian, watch out for their beams. They can vaporize us!"

Metal Man (GM): Questers vs. Rathos Lell and Company

Trigger: "..."

Julian Sawyer: "Big mother-CENSORED- deal. There's only 5 of 'em!"

Metal Man (GM): (((((( Order: Quint, Julian, Kamui, Digi, Gibby, Trigger, The Wraith, Rathos (Terminal) ))))))

Trigger: "Don't underestimate them."

Metal Man (GM): Rathos Lell: "Yes... that's it... underestimate their power..."

Metal Man (GM): All five converge on Julian and open fire with flamethrower-like red lasers.
64 damage per hit; pierces DR.

Julian Sawyer: *BLOCK BLOCK BLOCK OW GOD*
"...Alright, that's it. You done gone and pissed me OFF."
*He Dexes the terminal.*

Kamui charges one of the Quints, swinging his dagger around rapidly for where their armor was weakest.

Metal Man (GM): The terminal shoots a red light at the dex.
Suddenly it turns off. I guess it can't be dexed.
Hit miss hit hit hit.

The Wraith reaches forward with both hands, shooting a tendril at the second one from the left, immediately followed by that inhuman blast of magic...

Julian Sawyer: "...You Mother-CENSORED-." *Julian charges the terminal, aiming to break through the shield with one well placed blow!*

Trigger aims at one of the Quints and takes fire. Magical shot (Damage: 5+weapon damage(2) magical damage, chance of confusing target. Accuracy: Weapon's accuracy (+8))

Metal Man (GM): Hit, hit. You hit the shield and it totally absorbs your attack.

Digifanatic attempts to make sure that these Quints will go down. He wastes no time on the first one, launching a Celestial Fury followed by a Fire Lunge.

Rathos Lell: "The technology here makes me unhittable. Hahahahahahaa!"

Gibby attacks the one the Wraith just hit with a running vertical slash into a spinning horizontal slash.

Julian Sawyer: "Knock you out, everyone else goes down!" *Looks around the room for a power source or something...*

Metal Man (GM): Trigger: Miss.
Digi: Hit, hit.

Trigger: "Grr."

Metal Man (GM): Gibby: Hit hit.
Julian: Search check; Ability usage eats 2 TP.
You realize, rather quickly, the terminal has a power source inside it.

Julian Sawyer: "...Son of a -CENSORED-!" *Julian kicks the terminal in frustration.*

Metal Man (GM): Your foot glances off of the force field.

Rathos Lell: "You lack knowledge. Be burnt!"

Metal Man (GM): The console sends more commands to the Quint.
NEW ROUND
The Quint

Julian Sawyer: "...Aw hell."

Metal Man (GM): All of the Quint open fire with smaller pulses at Julian.
10 d20+19

Julian Sawyer: *Dodged one!*

Metal Man (GM): 24 laser damage per hit.
Which, of course, evades DR.

Julian Sawyer: *Hate you ALL Dead.*

Rathos Lell: "Hahah! You die just like those worthless Neo-Earthians!"

The Wraith looks at the same Quint it attacked... How close to collapsing does it look?

Gibby just places his sword across his face and gets in a defensive mode thus ending his turn.

Kamui attacks once more, bringing his rune dagger up tight in hand. He charges one Quint, swinging his dagger rapidly left and right again.

Rathos Lell: "Soon I shall kill everything... once I get the main building under my control."

Metal Man (GM): It looks like a good smack could shatter it.
Miss hit miss hit hit.

Trigger attempts a rocket strike on one Quint. Rocket strike (Damage: 20, Accuracy: +5, Range 2 TP)

Metal Man (GM): Miss.

The Wraith holds its hand toward the damaged Quint, forming four dark 'shards' of magical energy... It launches them one at a time at the Quint. Should it fall in the midst of that, it would redirect the rest to the next most damaged Quint.

Metal Man (GM): Hit hit hit hit

Digifanatic decides to pull off something different this turn... he goes for the Icy Kick on the next weakest Quint, and then saves a TP for the next turn.

Metal Man (GM): Miss

Rathos Lell: "Stop fighting... you know it is futile. Neo-Earthian technology defeated us... and it will defeat you!"

Digifanatic takes the miss with a slight smirk. "Can't hit every time..."

Metal Man (GM): Quint 2 explodes.
That leaves... Trigger.
15 seconds.

Kamui brings a hand up, shielding his eyes from the explosion before looking back at the mess.

Metal Man (GM): Oh, right. Well... time's up for anyone who sat waiting.

Rathos Lell: "I'll show you the meaning of pain, ghostly destroyer!"

Metal Man (GM): The Quint are reprogrammed yet again.
NEW ROUND
Quint
The four remaining open fire with high-powered bursts.
64 damage, pierces DR. Weirdly, it's a laser which can hit incorporeal targets too.
No.
Only Wraith.
Questers--Julian is revived

The Wraith's barrier blocks the first blast, then shatters. The wraith takes the first two blasts alright, but then the third rips right through it, scattering its form all over the area...

Rathos Lell: "This battle will soon be over. Already, two are dead!"

Trigger starts shooting a Rathos. Magical shot (Damage: 5+weapon damage(2) magical damage, chance of confusing target. Accuracy: Weapon's accuracy (+8))

Metal Man (GM): It bounces off his shield.

Kamui charges at one Quint, before stopping just near it and brings his foot up charging up TP. He charges up 4 TP, before he then sends a spinning heel kick at one Quint.

Rathos Lell: "Foolish slime... my terminal is invincible!"

Digifanatic's saving of the 1 TP should come in handy off this turn. He starts out by Fire Punching the weakest Quint, then decides to take out the ol' 'Vice and give it not one, but two Light Rays.

Metal Man (GM): Miss miss hit.

Trigger attacks Rathos once again with a smash attack. Smash attack(10 damage, +10 for each turn spent charging)

Julian Sawyer: "1 down..." *Julian charges the Quint that looks the weakest, draws a pair of Brass Knuckles out of his belt, slips 'em on, shuffles back a bit, and SLAMS his fist into it's face/face-analogue with a Brass Knuckle Shuffle!*

Metal Man (GM): Damage for the light rays? Also, that makes the middle light ray hit.
And hit for Trigger, hit for Julian.
No, Kamui.
50, or more?
Ah...
One moment.
Quint 1 explodes...
Quint 3 is badly damaged.

Gibby gets out of his defensive mode and runs towards the Quints. He leaps up to the Quint with the least amount of damage and head stomps the thing in order to stun it. He then leaps at the weakest and attacks with two horizontal slashes. Finally, he jumps to a third Quint and tries head stomping that one as well.

Metal Man (GM): Hit.
Miss hit, and miss.

Rathos Lell: "...You are impressive warriors. Watch as I shoot you to tiny pieces."

Metal Man (GM): The Quint are reprogrammed yet again... it appears this is taking a toll on the Terminal's power source.
The Quint
The 3 remaining open fire at Gibby with quick pulses of their lasers.
24 damage, ignores DR, per hit.

Gibby: *The barrier knocks off the first two, and he gets hit by the rest. The barrier knocks off the first two, and he gets hit by the rest. (there)*

Metal Man (GM): The Quint are just about vanquished. However, Rathos continues to be vicious.

Julian Sawyer pinpoints the one with the least HP remaining again, and slams another BRASS KNUCKLE SHUFFLE into it!

Metal Man (GM): BLAM. Hit.

Trigger attacks Rathos again with a rocket strike attack. Rocket strike (Damage: 20, Accuracy: +5, Range 2 TP)

Metal Man (GM): That one explodes.
Hit.
The terminal blocks it with the force field.

Rathos Lell: "You are wasting your energy... and I like it!"

Gibby: "Trigger, quit attacking the terminal. That field won't allow us to hit it."

Metal Man (GM): You did... but he had a force field.

Trigger: "Ok, ok."

The Wraith lets out a strange rasping sound as it reforms its 'body'... It then wreaks vengeance on the robots, sending a tendril to wrap around one, then the ground beneath them turns red... If they are close enough, they would be caught up in a huge firestorm. Of fiery wrath.

Metal Man (GM): CRIT
Hit
They get scorched.

Gibby: "Nice one."

Kamui smirks, crossing his arms slightly in front of him with his rune dagger still in hand.

Metal Man (GM): Your turn, Digi.
The destruction pings off the force field.

Rathos Lell: "This is rather irritating... Neo-Earth warriors never came back to life against us!"

Metal Man (GM): 2 alive.
1 heavily damaged, another one scorched.

Digifanatic targets the weakest of the two remaining with an Aerial Strike, segueing into a Running Charge and then a Light Ray.

Metal Man (GM): Hit, hit.
And crit.

Digifanatic: *If that kills it, Light Ray will go to the other.*

Metal Man (GM): Hit.
It sits there and takes all of those without dying.

Digifanatic: "Dang, he's not dead..."

Gibby: "Huh... I thought that'd take card of it."

Trigger: "Guess not."

Digifanatic: "Least I jolted him a bit... oughta scramble his nerved for a small while."

Julian Sawyer: "They ALLLLLL goin' down next."

Rathos Lell: "Attacking me again, ghostly warrior? I'll just have to..." *Is offended by Julian* "Burn the mouth down!"

Metal Man (GM): They're reprogrammed... the field begins to flicker.
The Quint
The Quint power up; with the TP they've been saving, they each fire two high-powered deathrays each at Julian.
64 laser damage per hit.

Julian Sawyer: *BURNTED* "...That all you got?! You ain't got nothin'! NOTHIN'!"

Trigger executes a rocket strike on the weakest Quint. Rocket strike (Damage: 20, Accuracy: +5, Range 2 TP)

Julian Sawyer: *He checks if the shields are flickering.*

Metal Man (GM): Hit.

Gibby tosses Julian one of his mushrooms, and then makes his attack on the Quints. He vertically slashes the weakest one and then head stomps the other one.

Kamui looks at one Quint, bringing his free hand back and balling it up in a tight fist. He begins focusing up about 4 TP up again, only this time in his fist. He then fires off a Din's finger at one of the quints, basically a smash fire punch.

Metal Man (GM): Hit. Miss. Hit.

Julian Sawyer looks for any debris, like a pipe or something.

The Wraith lets out a fierce, ghastly growl as it charges for a second, then blasts a shot at the weakest remaining Quint... If it still stands, a similar blast follows up. If the first destroys the Quint, the second blast routes to the last survivor...

Metal Man (GM): Pipes? No. Broken vertical light casings (Like angular, sharp pipes): Yes!

Digifanatic goes up to that last Quint and goes for one more Fire Punch. Not risking a waste of TP, he continues up with another one of those Aerial Strikes, but this time, there's a bit of a jolt on that second shot (Elemental Will).

Metal Man (GM): The Quint Gibby attacked explodes.
The Wraith then hits the remaining one twice.
Hit, hit, Digi, on those 18s.

Julian Sawyer grabs one of those, walks over to the terminal, waits for the shield to flicker so he can get a clear shot at the machine, and WAILS on it with the debris.

Metal Man (GM): You smack the machine. However, it breaks off on the terminal, even when it hits it.

Rathos Lell: "It takes more than that to break one of these!"

Julian Sawyer: "...Son of a -CENSORED-!" *Julian wheels around, and delivers one last BKS to the face of the remaining Quint.*

Rathos Lell: "You are devious fighters, I must say that..."

Metal Man (GM): *Hit*
It explodes.

Digifanatic: "Well executed."

Metal Man (GM): +750 EXP to all

Kamui looks towards the machine, lowering down from his fighting stance but keeping alert.

Rathos Lell: "It appears you are stronger than you look..."

The Wraith levels up!

Rathos Lell: "Perhaps I should make sure you never get that worthless device."

Julian Sawyer: "NOW you gonna get it!"

Metal Man (GM): The console turns back to normal... then a red outline of an S-suit wearing guy flies upwards through the ceiling ..The normal text appears on the machine.

Gibby walks over to it.

Metal Man (GM): '...The Quints in this building have been destroyed.'

The Wraith growls and floats up, beginning to pursue...

Metal Man (GM): '...I have resumed control over their systems.'

Gibby: "Excellent."

Julian Sawyer: "...Get back here!" *Julian activates his Rocket Boots, and tries to follow him* "I ain't done with you yet!"

Metal Man (GM): Wraith: You do so, but then he suddenly vanishes.'
Julian: You fly into the ceiling. Ow.

The Wraith stops as the figure disappears, looking around for any trace of it...

Metal Man (GM): It seems to have vanished.

Kamui looks around, wondering what was going to happen next.

Metal Man (GM): The way ahead opens up; yet another staircase.

The Wraith descends back into the room, growling and muttering...

Julian Sawyer would have tried to punch a hole in the ceiling or see if there was one first before flying straight into it >_<

Gibby: "And the journey continues."

Metal Man (GM): The ceiling is too tough to punch through.

Gibby makes his way up the stairs.

Julian Sawyer: "GodDAMNIT!" *Punches the ceiling in frustration, and flies his way up the stairs.*

Metal Man (GM): Up the stairs, is floor 5.

Gibby: "Finally... the fifth floor."

The Wraith drifts on up the stairs with the others...

Gibby enters the room.

Julian Sawyer: "What the hell we here for anyway?"

Metal Man (GM): The ceiling is made of glass... in fact, it's a giant skylight.

Kamui makes his way up the stairs, his hand no longer holding his dagger.

Metal Man (GM): In the center of the room is a massive indentation, with a chair in the middle.

Gibby: "We have to look up information on this Outpost. It's for Metal."

Metal Man (GM): It has four terminals surrounding it.
In each corner is what looks like a massive, deactivated mainframe.

Kamui walks to one of the terminals.

Gibby: "Huh... looks complicated."

The Wraith rubs its chin, eyeing around as it enters the room...

Julian Sawyer: "...Man, I let you figure this out. I aint' too good with computers."

Metal Man (GM): You walk to it. It looks like you could try to activate it.

Gibby: "What a shock..." -_-;

Metal Man (GM): The chair in the center allows easy access to all four simultaneously.

Gibby walks to another terminal as well.

Metal Man (GM): Whoever sits in that must be able to control something big.

The Wraith drifts over to the chair and goes to 'sit' in it...

Gibby activates his terminal.

Metal Man (GM): You 'sit' in it. It would be comfortable, if you could sit.
Gibby's terminal flickers on.
No text is seen.

Gibby: "Might as well try this thing out... Kamui, turn yours on."

The Wraith looks for the controls from the seat... Any handprints or such?

Julian Sawyer: *Doing some basic math, Julian realizes that there are two unattended terminals. He reluctantly heads over to one and turns it on.*

Metal Man (GM): Hand controls on each terminal; two on each.

Kamui nods his head, turning on the terminal.

Metal Man (GM): The chair allows you to easily rotate to face each one.
Kamui's terminal flickers on, too.

Gibby then makes his way over to the final terminal and puts that one on.

Metal Man (GM): They all turn on.

The Wraith rotates to the vacant terminal, and places its hands into the slots...

Metal Man (GM): The entire room lights up...

Gibby: "Here we go..."

Metal Man (GM): ...And you realize the purpose of the glass ceiling.
A beam of light is projected out from it and all the way into space.

Julian Sawyer: "..."

Metal Man (GM): The text appears again.

Gibby: "Wow... shiny."

Kamui looks on at his screen, ignoring the beam of light as he watches on at the screen.

Metal Man (GM): 'Well, the link has been established. ...But somebody is preventing us from accessing the override.'

Gibby: "Huh? Who?"

Julian Sawyer: "That joker back there?"

Metal Man (GM): 'Unknown. I have also detected some very odd things...'

Gibby: "What do you mean 'odd'?"

Kamui tilts his head to the side, wondering what he should do now.

Metal Man (GM): 'A space station of inferior technology with somebody named Gunicard aboard.'

The Wraith keeps its palms in the indentations, eyes closed...

Gibby: "...Oh no."

Metal Man (GM): 'He appears to find me as strange.'

Julian Sawyer: "...Aw HELL naw..."

Gibby: "Crap... this is bad... REAL bad."

Metal Man (GM): 'Something about... "Unknown target. Unable to diagnose situation."'

Gibby paces around the room.

Metal Man (GM): 'Bad news?'

Gibby: "What do we do? What do we DO?"

Julian Sawyer: "That bat**** insane AI's got a goddamn NUCLEAR WARHEAD POINTED RIGHT AT US!"

Metal Man (GM): 'It does appear to possess a class 10 nuclear device.'

Kamui: *Gulps.*

Metal Man (GM): 'Which is odd... those are both weak and ineffective.'

Gibby: "Yeah, and the slightest tick will have that thing shooting it at US!"

Julian Sawyer: "-CENSORED-...You know if it's gonna fire? To YOU!"

Metal Man (GM): 'It does not list me as hostile. Upon the link being activated, it decided to scan the information and sit there... thinking.'

Gibby: "Well... at least it's not the worst case scenario."

Metal Man (GM): 'I will return to it later. There are worse things out there and here. The link is necessary for us to access the next building.
Without it, you cannot access the habitation tower.'

Julian Sawyer: "Jus' hook it up or whatever..."

Gibby: "Right... Wait... habitation tower?"

Metal Man (GM): 'There is a hostile presence in the next room. It has manually overridden all connections to that building and the history module.'

Julian Sawyer: "Lemme' at 'em."

Gibby: "Calm down, Julian. First we go meet the guy."

Metal Man (GM): 'He is likely to have come from the floor below.'

Julian Sawyer: "Did you not hear the word HOSTILE?"

Metal Man (GM): 'The door is open... tread carefully.'

Gibby: "Yes, but need I remind you of our last mission? There are ways to solve problems BESIDES violence."

Metal Man (GM): '...The enemy did not present to us any choice but violence. That is probably the same for our foe. Oh, yes. This Atlantean city you have revived is also quite curious.'

The Wraith nods and rises from its seat, drifting toward that door... procuring that purple stone as it moves...

Julian Sawyer: "An' this guy ain't gonna listen to reason. I can GAR-RON-TEE you the first thing he gonna do when we step in is attack!"
*He heads in.*

Metal Man (GM): 'They were truly insane... a god-making device? Good thing it was broken.'

Gibby: "You're probably right... but first we check."
*He steps inside the door.*

Kamui jumps to his feet, walking over towards the doors with his hands at one another, creaking loudly.

Metal Man (GM): You walk into the next room.
It's one with a large amount of manual switches.

The Wraith decides to switch out... It puts the purple stone away, and instead pulls out a... cyan stone of similar make. And it puts that dark barrier around itself, too.

Metal Man (GM): All of them are in the walls... and force fielded.

Gibby: "Hmm... more force fields."

Julian Sawyer: "Goddamnit..."

Metal Man (GM): They all suddenly begin wildly switching back and forth.
A red being appears out of the middle of the room. It is almost like The Wraith.

Gibby steps back and places a "hand" on the hilt of his sword.

Rathos Lell: "Look who walked into my favorite room!"

Gibby: "So it WAS you."

Metal Man (GM): It is like one of those S-sun guys, but ghostly. He also has his wrist terminal.

Julian Sawyer: "No -CENSORED- duh, Gibbs! What'd the computer just say?"

Gibby: "Shut it..."

Rathos Lell: "You're just in time... that nuclear satellite looks fun. A class 10 is lame, but, launched at a major population center, it should cripple the world."

Gibby: "You're not getting away with it!"

Rathos Lell: "I should be able to hack into it after killing all of you and overriding everything."

Kamui brings his hand around, drawing out his dagger.

Rathos Lell: "I'm already dead. What can you do to me?"

Julian Sawyer: "Like you'll get the -CENSORED- chance!"

Gibby: .oO(Damn it...)

Julian Sawyer: "Kill you AGAIN."

Rathos Lell: "But... you can't hit ethereal foes without special technology. Or magic, if you are so noble as to use it."

Gibby grumbles and removes his hand. "I can't attack him them."

Rathos Lell: "Tell me... what became of us? It is so desolate... machines everywhere... death. The Solarian cause was to make all eternally happy... and then we were destroyed for it."

Editor's Note: These were, of course, the 'false' Solarians, cartoonish as they are. But even among them, I doubt they all had this 'cause.'

Julian Sawyer: "You're all wiped out. Like you SHOULD be."

Editor's Note: I must note there are at least 10,000 yikes behind that sort of statement, and consider that a rather terrible response to what is probably an isolated extremist and not representative of all the 'False' Solarians...

Rathos Lell: "Hmmm..."
He puts a hand to his chin. "Thousands of years trapped in a computer is not a very fun existence."

The Wraith is making strange rasping sounds this entire time, as if speaking...

Julian Sawyer: "So maybe I should END it."

Rathos Lell: "Your primitive history dialogues show..." *Gasps*
"Sardis... mongul?"

Editor's Note: Case in point, ol' Sardis had... other plans...

Gibby: "What?"

Julian Sawyer: "What about him?"

Rathos Lell: "...How did he survive... how did... this Metal Man survive... how could this be?"
*Spins around a bit.*

Gibby: "You knew Metal?"

Rathos Lell: "My temporary existence is logical... but both of them are impossible."

Julian Sawyer: "It's complicated, an' I don't feel like explainin' it to you."

Rathos Lell: "Hmmm..."
He floats over by a solitary switch.

Gibby: "W-what are you doing?"

Rathos Lell: "Eternal existence as something which is not a Solarian? Or death from killing people who have heard too much?"

Gibby: .oO(This guy is NUTS)

Metal Man (GM): It is almost as if a question.

Julian Sawyer: "...Wha?"

Rathos Lell: "With this switch, I can infiltrate your network and escape through any machine on this planet."

Kamui tilts his head to the side with a confused look.

Gibby: "Look, I don't know much at all about you Solarians, but revenge isn't the way!"

Rathos Lell: *Laughs at Gibby... a crazy laugh* "Yes... yes... revenge isn't the way... I must live forever... live like all my friends wished they could have!"
*Insert creepy music.*

Editor's Note: Damn, why couldn't I have had him be this menacing when he attacked in the future? What happened to all of his horror movie-esque behavior? I wouldn't have considered him such a terrible villain if he was this devious in the future...

The Wraith drifts up toward the opposing wraith...

Rathos Lell: "I... too... can live... just like the worthless beings you are."
"Live and be useless... for what happens to Solarians? They die."

Gibby: "Everyone dies! It's a part of life!"

Rathos Lell: "Not I... I will live... live forever!"
He pulls a switch and things start going nuts.
The room lights up; the terminal in the center turns on.

Gibby keeps himself balanced and looks around the room.

Metal Man (GM): 'It appears he has activated the network.'

Julian Sawyer: "...This ****'s givin' me a headache..."

The Wraith continues its rasping noises as it drifts toward Rathos... then it drops to mutterings and stops as the switch is flipped...

Julian Sawyer: "Can you shut it down?!"

Metal Man (GM): 'The manual override? I am automatic, not a sports car!'

Julian Sawyer: "So where's the override?!"

Gibby rushes over to the terminal.

Rathos Lell: "So long... Questers... I shall be seeing you!"

Julian Sawyer: *Fu**! Quickly looks around the room for the manual override before he can escape.*

Rathos Lell: *Stops for a moment, to face the Wraith* "...Neither. For I am... my own existence!" *Vanishes.*

The Wraith just shakes its head....

Metal Man (GM): 'Well... that was a mixed bag. He's gotten out into the network, but he appears to be lost.'

Julian Sawyer: "...Son of a -CENSORED-!"

Gibby: "How do we stop him?"

Metal Man (GM): 'Luckily, I made sure he was sent to the least useful systems of them all.'

The Wraith opens up its Dex. "Try to keep him contained."

Metal Man (GM): 'I will. However, for the meantime, the link has been established... you there. The one they call... Julian. Pull the switch with a 4 next to it.'
Indeed, there is a switch with a '4' next to it.

Julian Sawyer: "...Righ'..." *PULL DA SWITCH.*

Metal Man (GM): 'He will be contained... but in his crazy state, one cannot tell what he will do.'

Julian Sawyer: "Where'd you keep 'em?"

Metal Man (GM): 'Ahhh... yes. The history Module is back online... but... damaged.

Gibby: "How damaged?"

Metal Man (GM): 'I sent him into the machines in the center of the planet.'

Julian Sawyer: "...That sounds kinda useful."

Metal Man (GM): 'The module is 75% destroyed. We shall need to use the main building one later. Those machines are old ones which were buried and disabled.'

The Wraith: "He will have to be exterminated eventually... Peace is out of the question, so oblivion is the only option he leaves for himself... And... Machines in the center of the planet?"

Julian Sawyer: "...Oh. Yeah, that'll work for now."

Metal Man (GM): 'With the history module... though... I have some information.'

The Wraith: "Good..."

Gibby: "Please, tell us whatever you can."

Metal Man (GM): A sort of holographic scene unfolds over the terminal.

Julian Sawyer: "Shoot."

Metal Man (GM): It shows... the tower... floating over the sea.

Kamui raises an eyebrow.

Metal Man (GM): A subtitle reads 'Neo-Earth, 5888 AD'
Then it shows an endless fleet of white battleships flying towards it.
Above it, it says...
'Solarians'
The Slaughterer is in the lead of them all; all 20 of them.

The Wraith rubs its chin as it watches this scene...

Metal Man (GM): It flies towards the 5-tower base, which then powers up.
From the point of the roof of the center one, a MASSIVE blue laser is shot.
It blasts the Slaughterer out of the air.
That ship crashes into this tower.

The Wraith: .oO(...I want one.)

Metal Man (GM): The other 20 keep on coming; they are hit by more lasers from the roof points of the buildings.
They get variously shot down.
A video shows, inside the tower, hordes of Solarians running out of the Slaughterer and being lasered to bits by Quints.
They cause some damage.
The battle appears won by the buildings; the few people inside them can be seen controlling a vast amount of weaponry.
Not only lasers, but also lightning is fired from the peaks of the buildings.
Quint also fly from the sides of the buildings through hatches and open fire on the ships. There's so many, they act like a massive cloud.
But then... some weird message appears in the middle of the picture.
'Device (0,0) has been overloaded. Da--'
The entire building complex is hit by a massive wave of fire, which incinerates everything outside.
And the water.
The buildings fall into it; a few Solarians remain inside; they try, in vain, to get the building functional.
It fades out as the sand overtakes the entire building.
'...An unknown device, presumably ours, malfunctioned and destroyed the entire planet.'

Julian Sawyer: "...Right, Metal said he did that."?

Metal Man (GM): 'This was a far-out outpost...'

Gibby: "Interesting..."

Metal Man (GM): 'I cannot be so sure. It doesn't match up with this time machine story. No time machine can shoot walls of fire.'

Julian Sawyer: "'Parrently he did SOMETHIN' to destroy a whole planet. This kinda fits."

The Wraith: "How, then, did the rest of the planet become repopulated, or even livable, if everything was so demolished..."

Metal Man (GM): 'That would probably be in here, had the fire weapon not burnt the module here so badly. Later on, once I unlock the next tower, it is possible for you to look for another module.'

Gibby: "Yeah, one that has more information on it."

Julian Sawyer: "Whatev."

Metal Man (GM): '...Beware of Rathos Lell. He may appear and attempt to attack you with machinery in the future.'

Julian Sawyer: "No duh, he pretty much told us that himself."

Metal Man (GM): 'I have activated the anti-static beacon. You may use your primitive warp technology to get home.'

Gibby nods. "Right... we'll be ready for him."

Metal Man (GM): 'I will ruin repairs on the building in the meantime...'

The Wraith: "Of course... We should hopefully be able to take care of him sooner or later. For now, all we can do is keep him in one spot..."

Metal Man (GM): '...Until he, an accomplished hacker, discovers how to escape. To hack the Quint would be impossible by most standards.
To hijack our systems to make himself an energy being, totally impossible.'

Gibby: "So we're dealing with the king of all hackers here... this is going to be tough."

Julian Sawyer: "-CENSORED- wonderful..."

Metal Man (GM): 'To then escape to the network... something that puts him only below our own Neo-Earth programmers. Your own beings would probably die just trying to comprehend the numbers.
All of the SIMBER and Gunicards and PSIMs and other beings... they are holograms. He made himself real.'

Gibby: "Especially those who aren't very good at math..." @_@;

Metal Man (GM): '...He is worse than a Solarian. His own words mark him no longer as one... he is some sort of abomination.
Be careful.'

The Wraith: "Quite... He seems to exist on the same level as myself, oddly enough. Do you have any recollection of this process...?"

Julian Sawyer: "We've dealt with 'em before, we'll deal with 'em again."

Metal Man (GM): 'It was so high a level of a process, I am only beginning to understand it. He invented it on the spot.'

Julian Sawyer: "Yeah, he died and became a ghost. There you go."

Metal Man (GM): '...He was already dead.'

The Wraith: "It's not so simple, Julian..."

Metal Man (GM): 'That was data of him which suddenly became a soul. ...Energy beings... are an order of magnitude above machines.'

The Wraith: "A mere ghost wouldn't have anywhere near the power that he and I have... Computer, if you process the data and find anything conclusive, please try to let me know..."

Metal Man (GM): 'It will take about a month, if not years.'

The Wraith: "I have patience..."

Gibby: "We don't have that kind of time."

Julian Sawyer: "Blah blah mother-CENSORED- BLAH!" *Opens his dex and sends the signal to beam them back.*

Metal Man (GM): *WARP*
You appear back at base... aaaand...

Gibby rolls his eyes.

Metal Man (GM): MISSION COMPLETED - 10,000 coins

Kamui walks over to his chair, sits down in it and yawns loudly.

Gibby rubs his eyes and looks around.

Metal Man (GM): You could have accomplished it had you killed Mr. Rathos there, but you did the objective anyway.
I shall now brb. My hands need a short rest.

Dragoshi walks into the room. "...Goddammit, really friggin' hate falling asleep for more than 14 hours. So, what did I miss?"

Julian Sawyer: "Hell if I know. Robots, ghosts, and computers. That's about it."

Editor's Note: Thanks, Julian, I think I will name this log "Robots, Ghosts, and Computers." Seems fitting to me.

The Wraith closes its dex, and just drifts away...

Gibby: "Too much!" *He walks by the others and goes to bed for the night.*

Dragoshi: "...Right. " *Walks away and goes back to his room.*

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