Super Smash Quest - Story - Chapter 431: Burnt Innotek Sandwich

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Date: January 31st, 2008.
Metal Man (GM): The Questers are, again, at HQ. There's screens showing the damage from the big laser from the Eclipse cannon.
Dragoshi: *Looking at the damage. He wonders how much has been done.*
Metal Man (GM): Metal Man stands by, looking at it. Some pictures show Dr. Proctor wandering around.
Deloth: "So did we blast 'em off the planet?"
Halbardeer: "Who's the wimpy looking guy walking around?"
Metal Man: "Sort of... there's residual movement being picked up."
Julian: *Julian's looking at the pictures as well, wondering what Proctor's up to...Most likely just gathering bodies, but didn't our little contract not let him do that by himself?*
Metal Man: "That's Dr. Proctor. He's up to something, picking bodies up himself. We also have detected his energy signature... he's reviving them for experimental research."
Deloth: "Sort of? We busted up an Arwing, wrecked an MTA, and made me pass out from an adrenaline dump for a SORT OF?!"
Julian: "Didn' our little deal we set up prevent him from goin' off by himself?"
Metal Man: "These people are stronger than anyone we've fought before. The deal probably does. He doesn't seem to care. That's why I'm sending you out to off any survivors and stop Proctor."
Deloth: "Can we use lethal force on him?"
Julian: "Figures the one time we try diplomacy, the other party don't hold up their end of the deal."
Halbardeer: "So what's so special about this proctor guy? He a cleric?"
Deloth: "I think he's just a mad scientist."
Julian: "He's a doctor that's workin' on a revival machine that smacks the evil outta people or somethin'."
Metal Man: "Well, you did sort of neglect to send him corpses... Anyway. Some things to beware."
Metal Man shows a picture of some half-melted machines.
Dragoshi: "Such as?"
Metal Man: "Electricity still runs through some of these. Nobody knows what all of these are for. There is a chance of psycho half-dead robots... and of course, Dr. Proctor may even revive some and let them escape. You never know. Additionally, it's a pit. Some stuff may fall down at times. It may collapse. Be careful."
Deloth: *blandly* "Whee.
Metal Man points to the warp room. "I managed to get you a warp... no need for extra briefing this time."
Halbardeer: "Okay, so we're going to... gather bodies for this proctor guy?"
Metal Man: "No, no, no. Proctor's gone off to do it himself. You need to stop him... and check out this wreckage."
Dragoshi: *Just moseys on along to the warp, nodding in agreement to what Metal said.*
Julian: "Got it." *to the warp.*
Deloth heads to el warpo supremo.
Halbardeer: "Okay then." Halbardeer mutters before heading through the warp himself
Metal Man (GM): WARP! You appear at a... very strange location. You're near the bottom of a gigantic pit.
Halbardeer looks at this strange location strangely.
Metal Man (GM): Light shines in from the sky, but this far down, it's... dim. It smells of smoke and melted plastic/metal.
Halbardeer: "Anyone bring a torch?"
Julian: *Well. Julian looks for a way out :V*
Metal Man (GM): The shiny blue material used to make this place is all melted.
Julian: *Julian has an Electric Torch and lights it up.*
Metal Man (GM): You don't have a way out; the place you want to go to is at the bottom.
Deloth looks for some hand holds to start climbing down with.
Julian: *Down we go, then!*
Metal Man (GM): The melted grating does just fine for grip.
Deloth grabs said grating and starts descending.
Metal Man (GM): You can see down... it's dim, though, you'll need to climb a bit.
Dragoshi: *Follows behind the others.*
Halbardeer follows the others, giving himself a bit of distance so he doesn't accidentally crush anyone if he slips.
Julian grips the Electric Torch in his teeth and starts climbing, then...
Metal Man (GM): You climb on down... and land on a walkway with an interesting sight. A man, on the ground, bits of stuff stuck to him. He looks pretty much dead, laying there. He clutches a disk, which is partially broken.
Julian: *Yoink.*
Metal Man (GM): You take it from the dead man's hand. It has a label.
Dragoshi: *...That actually is somewhat interesting. In any case, Dragoshi decides to examine the guy's corpse. Just 'cause.*
Metal Man (GM): 'EMERGENCY AI DEACTIVATION PROTOCOL' Too bad it's broken. Next up, there's a big gap with a wall to the left and a pathway continuing just a bit ahead.
Halbardeer: "Well, I guess he didn't evacuate the facility."
Julian: "..." *Onwards!*
Deloth backs up a bit, then runs and jumps! Huzzah!
Halbardeer throws his ax across and chain dashes over after everyone's clear.
Metal Man (GM): Deloth makes it.
Julian: *Jump.*
Dragoshi: *Decides to also follow Del's method and jump as well. Whee...*
Metal Man (GM): Hal barely makes it. Dragoshi and Gooj made it... Gujin and Dragoshi leap across, finding themselves at a nice little area... hm. A nook which wasn't 100% blasted. There's a dead computer. It could be turned on.
Julian: *Lolcomputeruse.*
Dragoshi: *Sure, why not. >_>*
Metal Man (GM): Indeed. *BLIP* *BEEP* *BZHTZBTHZ.* It flickers on. Then it freezes. But it shows something important between all the gibberish. 'PROJECT... 39120ET351ERNI... TY IS 32923. 200 OK...AT '145 Pe... rcent... #@(!12012'
Deloth: "Project Eternity... that can't be good."
Metal Man (GM): There's nothing more to be done about the computer. You have your way further down, where a weak-looking door blocks your way down on the catwalk.
Julian: *And on we go.*
Dragoshi: *Moving on...*
Metal Man (GM): The door has a sign hanging onto it. 'DANGER: EXPERIMENTAL SUBJECTS INSIDE' 'DEATH OR WORSE MAY OCCUR IF SECURITY FAILS'
Julian: "Nothin' we haven't handled before."
Metal Man (GM): It's also in the way, of course... It wouldn't take much to displace.
Deloth: "Yep." *rears back and makes to smash that door off its hinges with a Bomb Kick.*
Metal Man (GM): *SMASH.* It flies off, revealing an entire floor. Wow. Some stuff -did- survive... not much.
Dragoshi: "..." .oO(Nice kick.)
Metal Man (GM): Charred cylinders... Obviously containment units. There's biohazard symbols. All that is left of the people here is a single hand. The hand's holding a lever. 'EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN' The hand succeeded.
Deloth: "...Ouch. Talk about obliteration."
Metal Man (GM): There's no obvious way down from here, and it smells sort of like hot dogs in here. The one computer remaining has been roasted to bits. The containment units seem to sag on the floor. The floor itself's slightly sticky.
Deloth: "They need to mop this place. There's deadjuice all over the floor."
Dragoshi: "...Eh." :/
Metal Man (GM): There are minor control assemblies next to the containment pods... What do you do?
Deloth looks around for a way further in.
Metal Man (GM): You see none, except the sagging bits of floor... ...which are where the containment units are.
Deloth: *heads over and examines those...*
Dragoshi: *Follows behind Del slowly.*
Metal Man (GM): Extensive destruction and heat caused the floor to sag. You can see tiny holes in the floor near the units. Apparently, before now, the floors below were airtight and sealed.
Deloth: "Hmmm..."
Metal Man (GM): There's also weird trapdoors set into the bottom of each containment unit.
Deloth gives one of those floor tiles a stomp.
Metal Man (GM): *SMASH!* You fall through! No light down there, though...
Deloth: "WhoOOOAAAAAAA!" *thump.*
Deloth picks himself up, makes sure nothing's in two or more pieces, then tries to see if there's anything he can make out in this fizzlefracking darkness...
Dragoshi: *Welp, Dragoshi glides on down then, and pulls out an Electric Torch of his own.*
Julian follows.
Metal Man (GM): Julian leaps down, unveiling that this part hasn't been utterly annihilated. Just heated to the point of destruction. You see Proctor's tracks in the dirt and a bunch of dead nanite-bot bodies strewn about. There is, most importantly, another disc on the ground, next to a door which Proctor locked behind himself...
Deloth: *grabs that.* "Want me to take this back to that reader?"
Metal Man (GM): This disc is another 'AI DEACTIVATION CODE'--better shape, but a tad burnt. So you've got the locked door and the disc, and it's pretty dark in here even with the light.
Julian: *Julian knocks on the door, looking for weak spots...*
Metal Man (GM): It's got a half-melted doorknob. Feeling pretty weak. One could also climb back up to the room filled with destroyed people.
Deloth: "I'll take this back to the disc reader. We might be able to get some more info."
Julian: *PAUNCH.*
Deloth climbs up the rubble and heads back to wherever they checked out the first disk.
Metal Man (GM): *Smack* *Broken* The door reveals a final stairway down to the very bottom floor. Deloth gets there, only to discover the computer is still frozen. It has a disc reader though.
Deloth puts the new disc in.
Metal Man (GM): The screen flashes many colors, then the computer turns off. Apparently that disc really works! The screen blinks 'AI SHUTDOWN COMPLETE'
Deloth: "...oops."
Julian: *Onwards!*
Metal Man (GM): You can take the disc out.
Deloth: *ejects the disc and pockets it, then heads back to the others.*
Metal Man (GM): Julian reaches the very bottom. Dr. Proctor is busy working on another dead nano-person... ...he marks a check off. '#10'
Julian: "Yo."
Deloth takes his sword out when he notices Proctor... hoo boy.
Dr. Proctor: "Oh, hello. I thought I'd save you the trouble." He looks to you, and then to the wreckage. "You killed all of these so well, but forgot to send them to me. So far it's been a failure, though... they're much harder to revive when they've been microwave-cooked to nothing."
Julian: "Yeah, sorry 'bout that. Got kinda wrapped in the whole 'Protect the Eclipse Cannon' thing. So you need some new subjects?"
Dr. Proctor: "No, these will do. I think I fixed the machine with the data. I hadn't been using dead enough people... all it was doing was shocking near-dead people back to life. Good, but... not a real reviver. That was just defibrillation."
Julian: "So, uh, you need any help here?"
Dr. Proctor: "Not exactly." He flips a switch.
Metal Man (GM): *BZZTTTT* The robot bits he zaps suddenly come back to life.
Dragoshi: *Just watches...*
Metal Man (GM): The robot comes back alive... wait a minute... it's not just a robot... it was a projector.
Dr. Proctor: "They left this behind, thinking it useless. Hah! Now we have all their secrets!"
Julian: "Coo'. Go on."
Computer: "Bzzzzt... unknown year... time reset... extreme damage... BZTZT... acquiring people..."
Dr. Proctor: "They use this machine to monitor their activities... you see... I found it, just by luck, and now..."
Metal Man (GM): He types on the hologram.
Computer: "BEEP! You requested, 'All active activities.'
Metal Man (GM): It shows several images. Firstly, the man you saw in the video with a few people. He must have escaped! Secondarily, an entire 'nother base of a different design (partially obscured by a mountain) in a snowy area...
Deloth: "...How did he get out of THAT one?!"
Metal Man (GM): It's made of many buildings. Thirdly... ..and most importantly...
Deloth grinds his teeth and mutters various obscenities as he continues watching the video...
Metal Man (GM): It shows several scientists checking out The Void's last resting place, which, apparently, is somewhere in space, and is labeled 'Progress has been made'.
Dr. Proctor: "..."
Metal Man (GM): He types more.
Dragoshi: "..."
Julian: "...Son of a bitch."
Dragoshi: *Watches a little more closely but not too closely, 'cause god dammit.*
Computer: "PROJECT ETERNITY-- TO BECOME NEARLY IMMORTAL Analyzing the failure of The Void and Kuja, it has been found that immortality makes one weak to certain things. We are researching a limited form that would be harder to dispel."
Deloth: "...Well, I suppose we know what our next mission's gonna be now."
Computer: "The Void used a form like it. We have been implanting DNA from his host subjects into various prisoners. However, the DNA is impure, and often incomplete. Records show he left some true imprints where he died... but he was not a DNA organism. Our first base was ready to create a different creature which would do the job, but it was summarily destroyed by... ruffians."
Deloth: "Damn straight."
Computer: "This has forced us to rely on our less successful option, which requires The Void's energy signature, as we no longer have any DNA samples anyway. We have attempted to contact a Dr. Proctor, however he has evaded all detection. How he knows and why he does it is beyond us."
Dr. Proctor: "Simple!" He laughs. "You'd want my divine invention, you idiots!"
Computer: "For some reason these people know confidential data. We are attempting to find the leak and kill the one responsible. Data appears to show a strange transmission to be responsible, but all attempts to analyze it short out equipment. It, oddly, is similar to the waveform protecting files over in Site 315A."
Metal Man (GM): It shows... it can't be. In Mobius, underneath the Strider robot area... ...Gerald computers there. Not active, but there.
Deloth: "..."
Computer: "We do not understand why this is, for we do not intend to harm anyone and have not declared war against any group. The Questers are not a threat to us; neither are we to they."
Julian: "Fuck no! How the hell is he still alive?!"
Dr. Proctor: "Ha ha ha. No, Gerald is not alive. Those are his computers."
Metal Man (GM): He brings up more data. It shows they're very old computers, from when Gerald wasn't 'evil' They're protected by a strange mechanism which makes them unable to start up or be scanned. At least, not normally...
Dr. Proctor: "I scanned his research. Intelligent, but foolish. He let others control them. Not me! We work together, don't we?"
Julian: "Sure do. So, now what? We go an' take out the other base?"
Dr. Proctor: "Your choice." He gives you ten coins. "That is for not attacking me before asking questions. Had you done that, all manner of security systems may have been activated by this thing... I know how it is secured." He taps his forehead. "They tried to hire me once. I went to a seminar just to steal their technology. They aren't as deadly as you claim, being populated by idiots, but... you're free to destroy them."
Julian: "Will do. So what're you gonna do now that you got the 10 bodies you needed?"
Dr. Proctor: "Well, If it is okay with you..."
Metal Man (GM): He picks up the projector, closing it and putting it in his pocket.
Dr. Proctor: "I will keep this, and then we can meet again... once I am done reverse-engineering it. If you keep fighting them, I can trade you what I pry out of their dead bodies. They have many secrets. I can unlock theirs of life, and you can learn their little Void plans."
Dragoshi: "Fair enough."
Julian: "Deal." *extends hand for handshake to finalize it.*
Metal Man (GM): Dr. Proctor shakes Julian's hand. Just as they do that, the place begins to shake.
Dr. Proctor: "It appears we should leave now... your friend destroyed the defense AI. Therefore there is no enemy to fight... except for the lack of any computer holding this wreck together."
Metal Man (GM): A warp appears to HQ.
Julian: "Got that right." *Into zee warp.*
Metal Man (GM): Dr. Proctor takes out a sphere and chucks it to the ground, making a warp to his own place.
Dr. Proctor: "Away!" He leaps into the warp.
Deloth: *Outta there! That disc may be useful elsewhere, I suppose... or it could be a nice coaster.*
Metal Man (GM): Mission complete!

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