As I pounded after the blue-and-gold figure, she chattered incessantly, apparently status updates. A hand to the side of her head revealed a likely earpiece,
and I deduced a radio link back to the group. I was in the midst of setting for wide-spectrum RF scan when my hud chimed a 'team invite', part of the
systems I had received as part of hero registration. I signalled yes, and Evangelia's chatter dropped into my ears via radio, instead of the nearly
unintelligible sound I was getting from running behind her.
"-o go now, I think. I found another tanker, he's an ice, like Entropic, so he should work right in. I gotta jet now the family is calling bye!"
With this pronouncement, Evangelia skidded to a stop and whipped around. I stopped as well, by the simple expedient of grabbing an upright pipe of some sort,
and letting momentum slam me face first into the wall. It's the little things about running around in powered armor, you know?
I rebounded off the wall, and ended up facing Evangelia, who looked rather startled.
"Errr, right. Down the hall, take the second left, listen to Cyberman, this is his mission, I gotta go, bye!" And with a flourished gesture down the
hall behind her, Evangelia sprinted back the way we had came, and a blink from my HUD showed her as having left the team. I blinked a few times, then got back
up to speed. A modification of the pipe manuever whipped me around the appropriate corner, and I bounced straight up an internal wall, landing on a mezzanine
at about the second story level.
And what to my wondering eyes did appear, but a sorely pressed Circle mage, his ornate robes in disarray and covered in shards of ice, casting ruin upon a
gentleman in a hat and a sheathe of ice very similar to my own. He held the mage's attention easily, while another masculine figure, either a robot of some
sort or a VERY skinny man in body armor, rained kicks and punches into the back of their target's head. Perched on a crate behind them was a statuesque
young lady in green and black, giggling to a cat held in one arm as she rained green fire down on the beleaguered mage with the other.
I stepped forward and made my own contribution, deploying the same Ice Slick that had served for the earlier demon. As the mage fell tuchus over bandbox, my
fist, the other ice gentleman's fist, and an axe kick from the martial artist arrived simultaneously on the mage's head. He crumpled, and I tagged him.
As he ported out to the Zig, I stood up and stood down the fields, revealing my face.
"Hi! I'm, err, Mag Flashlight, and I'm here to help!"
The lady in green waved cheerily, then made the cat, who was stuffed, wave also. "I'm Emerald Blast, and this is Mr. Whiskers. You have good
timing!"
The other icy figured apparently shut off his fields as well, since his ice shell had just finished subliming away into the air. "Greetings. I am the
Entropic Avatar. Will you be performing the duties of the Tanker class for us tonight?"
I nodded, and he bowed his head in response. "Fare well then, Mag Flashlight. If you continue your association with The Legendary, I would like to sit
down and discuss the technical aspects of ice armor operation, at some point."
With no further words, Entropic casually activated and tossed a small item onto the floor, which blossomed into a shimmering golden portal. I blinked again as
he stepped onto it and disappeared, just as his entry in my HUD fell off the 'team' listing. I looked up at the last remaining figure, a mechanical man
with a surprisingly human face. I wasn't certain, but I believed him to be either entirely or largely cybernetic, as he had the characteristic
'stillness' that only mechanicals and undead could achieve. Regardless, he was a valued teammate to these people, and I didn't have any issues with
mechanoids anyway. I stepped forward and held out a hand. "Hi! I'm Mag Flashlight."
This time, my 'Super Name' rolled off my tounge. The old reactions certainly come back fast. The mechanical man twitched his head downward to watch my
hand, and quivered momentarily before relaxing, with an almost audible click. "exiting combat mode" a tinny voice said from around his midsection.
"processing" the voice continued. "pr-", and was interrupted by the man himself.
"I am Cyberman 8, multifunction law enforcement artifical intelligence unit. I am pleased to meet you, sir." He intoned, and grasped and shook my
hand with a surprisingly natural grip. Emerald Blast tittered from her seat on the crate, and I glanced past Cyberman's slim form to fix her with a gimlet
stare.
"Sure thing, there, chewie." I wised, cranking the gimlet eye onto the impassive mechanical face. "And if you're an AI, so am I. Matter of
fact, if you aren't just a plain ol' 'person', I'll go buy a hat so I can eat it."
There was one of those moments of silence, where the inveterate prankster, here played by myself, begins to fear that he has misread his audience, which will
soon lead to gastronomic ingestion of footwear. Cyberman let me hang for a second or two longer, and as my face fell, his lit up in a grin that transformed his
entire visage.
"Good call there, Mag. My name's Pete, and while I'm 100% mechanical, there's a human in here, all right." Cyberman clapped me on the
back and turned to face Emerald. "And are you ready to carry back on, Emerald?"
Emerald leaned down, looking at the cat in a 'listening' posture. "Mr. Whiskers says he's recharged and ready to go! Let's go finish off
those demons!"
She jumped down from the crate, and I turned to face Cyberman more directly. "Alright, Cyberman. You wanna lead, or shall I?" Pete responded with a
rather graceful 'after you' gesture, and I struck a straddle pose as my hands wiggled. My fields started snapping up, and as the ice crusted around me,
I slapped an audio burst out the speakers. A thunderous shout of "FOLLOW ME!" echoed back from the walls as me, Cyberman, and Emerald hurtled forward
into the next room of the warehouse, and the future.
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies
and I deduced a radio link back to the group. I was in the midst of setting for wide-spectrum RF scan when my hud chimed a 'team invite', part of the
systems I had received as part of hero registration. I signalled yes, and Evangelia's chatter dropped into my ears via radio, instead of the nearly
unintelligible sound I was getting from running behind her.
"-o go now, I think. I found another tanker, he's an ice, like Entropic, so he should work right in. I gotta jet now the family is calling bye!"
With this pronouncement, Evangelia skidded to a stop and whipped around. I stopped as well, by the simple expedient of grabbing an upright pipe of some sort,
and letting momentum slam me face first into the wall. It's the little things about running around in powered armor, you know?
I rebounded off the wall, and ended up facing Evangelia, who looked rather startled.
"Errr, right. Down the hall, take the second left, listen to Cyberman, this is his mission, I gotta go, bye!" And with a flourished gesture down the
hall behind her, Evangelia sprinted back the way we had came, and a blink from my HUD showed her as having left the team. I blinked a few times, then got back
up to speed. A modification of the pipe manuever whipped me around the appropriate corner, and I bounced straight up an internal wall, landing on a mezzanine
at about the second story level.
And what to my wondering eyes did appear, but a sorely pressed Circle mage, his ornate robes in disarray and covered in shards of ice, casting ruin upon a
gentleman in a hat and a sheathe of ice very similar to my own. He held the mage's attention easily, while another masculine figure, either a robot of some
sort or a VERY skinny man in body armor, rained kicks and punches into the back of their target's head. Perched on a crate behind them was a statuesque
young lady in green and black, giggling to a cat held in one arm as she rained green fire down on the beleaguered mage with the other.
I stepped forward and made my own contribution, deploying the same Ice Slick that had served for the earlier demon. As the mage fell tuchus over bandbox, my
fist, the other ice gentleman's fist, and an axe kick from the martial artist arrived simultaneously on the mage's head. He crumpled, and I tagged him.
As he ported out to the Zig, I stood up and stood down the fields, revealing my face.
"Hi! I'm, err, Mag Flashlight, and I'm here to help!"
The lady in green waved cheerily, then made the cat, who was stuffed, wave also. "I'm Emerald Blast, and this is Mr. Whiskers. You have good
timing!"
The other icy figured apparently shut off his fields as well, since his ice shell had just finished subliming away into the air. "Greetings. I am the
Entropic Avatar. Will you be performing the duties of the Tanker class for us tonight?"
I nodded, and he bowed his head in response. "Fare well then, Mag Flashlight. If you continue your association with The Legendary, I would like to sit
down and discuss the technical aspects of ice armor operation, at some point."
With no further words, Entropic casually activated and tossed a small item onto the floor, which blossomed into a shimmering golden portal. I blinked again as
he stepped onto it and disappeared, just as his entry in my HUD fell off the 'team' listing. I looked up at the last remaining figure, a mechanical man
with a surprisingly human face. I wasn't certain, but I believed him to be either entirely or largely cybernetic, as he had the characteristic
'stillness' that only mechanicals and undead could achieve. Regardless, he was a valued teammate to these people, and I didn't have any issues with
mechanoids anyway. I stepped forward and held out a hand. "Hi! I'm Mag Flashlight."
This time, my 'Super Name' rolled off my tounge. The old reactions certainly come back fast. The mechanical man twitched his head downward to watch my
hand, and quivered momentarily before relaxing, with an almost audible click. "exiting combat mode" a tinny voice said from around his midsection.
"processing" the voice continued. "pr-", and was interrupted by the man himself.
"I am Cyberman 8, multifunction law enforcement artifical intelligence unit. I am pleased to meet you, sir." He intoned, and grasped and shook my
hand with a surprisingly natural grip. Emerald Blast tittered from her seat on the crate, and I glanced past Cyberman's slim form to fix her with a gimlet
stare.
"Sure thing, there, chewie." I wised, cranking the gimlet eye onto the impassive mechanical face. "And if you're an AI, so am I. Matter of
fact, if you aren't just a plain ol' 'person', I'll go buy a hat so I can eat it."
There was one of those moments of silence, where the inveterate prankster, here played by myself, begins to fear that he has misread his audience, which will
soon lead to gastronomic ingestion of footwear. Cyberman let me hang for a second or two longer, and as my face fell, his lit up in a grin that transformed his
entire visage.
"Good call there, Mag. My name's Pete, and while I'm 100% mechanical, there's a human in here, all right." Cyberman clapped me on the
back and turned to face Emerald. "And are you ready to carry back on, Emerald?"
Emerald leaned down, looking at the cat in a 'listening' posture. "Mr. Whiskers says he's recharged and ready to go! Let's go finish off
those demons!"
She jumped down from the crate, and I turned to face Cyberman more directly. "Alright, Cyberman. You wanna lead, or shall I?" Pete responded with a
rather graceful 'after you' gesture, and I struck a straddle pose as my hands wiggled. My fields started snapping up, and as the ice crusted around me,
I slapped an audio burst out the speakers. A thunderous shout of "FOLLOW ME!" echoed back from the walls as me, Cyberman, and Emerald hurtled forward
into the next room of the warehouse, and the future.
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies