|
Post by Victoria Raines on May 18, 2011 23:39:21 GMT -5
"I have not asked you to recognize my authority Mayhem, nor have I attempted to claim," note that he does not say RE-claim, "the role of Decepticon commander. In fact, I am specifically prohibited from doing so."
"It was my wish that, in the event of my forced absence, to be able to see what those who would claim my position would make of the foundation I had built. Also, I wished to continue to protect my people, for there are things in my research which are far beyond the ken of any of you."
Frenzy breaks through a level of coding, only to find himself within the proverbial puzzle box, the walls closing around his jacked-in persona and constantly shifting, like an organic form of Tetris.
"I am not a part of Ship. I am a Transformer, for I can transform. If you would have the proper answers, then you must ask the proper questions." The shifting of I from meaning the construct to meaning Shockwave and back is possibly headache-inducing.
"Did it not occur to you that I would leave some sort of failsafe and/or cache of information for you, Scourge, given how I have groomed you? Did it not occur to you to ask rather than take?"
|
|
|
Post by Needlenose on May 19, 2011 13:50:04 GMT -5
Needlenose is highly tempted to rub his temples to sooth himself, except that he has a little man in each hand, and those little men are likely not to appreciate it.
"'If you would have the proper answers, then you must ask the proper questions,' huh?" Needlenose asks, tone faintly annoyed with being jerked around by what seems to be a computer. He extends Zigzag towards the... whatever it is that looks like Shockwave.
"So what happens if I just start shooting?"
|
|
Barricade
Minor
Knight of the Spastic Sword
Trust Me
Posts: 372
|
Post by Barricade on May 23, 2011 15:42:32 GMT -5
Puzzles. Puzzles made of razor wire and high voltage. Frenzy is a master of puzzles, though, even if he does have a fragment of his concentration pinned to where that little dart of viral code had injected itself. He doesn't even see the hole it made any longer, doesn't feel it, but it's there, and he knows that it's just waiting for a moment to unfold and strike. That's the way it always works.
Unlike in the real world, where Frenzy is restricted to a mere four hands, here, he has all the hands that he has concentration to control, and with survival on the line, he can control a lot of hands. It's almost a shame that no one else is in here watching to see how he manipulates the lines of shining code, flicking and tying and slotting and slicing, knotting it all together in on itself like a snake devouring itself from both ends and the inside out. The final keystone slots into place, and with a gentle nudge from Frenzy...
|
|
|
Post by Sable Conolly on May 24, 2011 21:13:49 GMT -5
"If you know me, you know I wouldn't ask. I take," Scourge replies steadily. "You sure are a Shockwave, throwing puzzles at me like that, but you'd know that I hate these puzzle games, too."
He radios Needlenose and Frenzy, //What about just cutting all our computer power sources?//
Maybe the thing can hear radio. It is worth a try.
|
|
|
Post by Victoria Raines on May 26, 2011 19:12:05 GMT -5
"Then you will do much damage to this lab, and trigger more active defenses," Not-Quite-Shockwave answers Needlenose.
The image sighs, "Yes, Scourge, I know you. I expected this, else I would not have created me, but it is rather frustrating none the less, Commander."
Apparently, the imitation Shockwave also has the real Shockwave's tendency toward dry sarcasm. Also, Imitation Shockwave can listen in on radio, which is something the real Shockwave could likely also do, except his player thinks it's twinky and reserves it for special plot-specific times.
//I would not recommend trying that.// The assembled Decepticons might notice that this doesn't sound quite like a radio hail. There's an odd, almost echo to the words.
Frenzy, jacked in like he is, might notice the white hot shiver that runs through the systems. Not fear, but eagerness. Rage swiftly cooled to patience. Beyond the active defenses working against him, something now seems to be coiled and waiting, but its attention is not on Frenzy. It's almost as if Scourge's suggestion startled awake something that had been sleeping.
The puzzle box unlocks and dumps Frenzy into... nothingness. No code, nothing to latch onto. No chatter of circuits. Silent emptiness.
Then a whispered thought, Why? It is not Shockwave's voice.
Not-Quite-Shockwave says to Scourge, "I will show you what was left, but not until Frenzy is out of the main system. He can vent his frustration on the locks I left on your inheritance."
|
|
|
Post by Needlenose on May 27, 2011 18:56:31 GMT -5
Needlenose shakes his head. He lowers his guns, but his words show that he's still very much on the defensive, and very much desiring to go offensive. "Lord Scourge, I suggest we find a way to destroy this thing. We don't know how deeply it's jacked into our systems, we don't know how much we ca- strike that, we know we can't trust it. It's an invader with potentially unlimited access to our resources, unknown motivations, and a preference for puzzle games. None of that adds up to anything good for the rest of us."
|
|
Barricade
Minor
Knight of the Spastic Sword
Trust Me
Posts: 372
|
Post by Barricade on Jun 7, 2011 22:35:49 GMT -5
With a cackle of glee, Frenzy dives through the opening into---
Nothing.
No sight, no sound, no substance, nowhere. It does not exist, nor does anything which it does or does not contain. There are no walls because there is nothing to contain. There is no substance here, nor a lack of substance, for even the lack would be something.
There is merely... nothing at all. Not even the traces of the path he had taken to get... here.
Nowhere.
Frenzy shrieks with terrified rage as he thrashes and spins and whirls, claws and blades and sharpstars flying in every direction, desperate to find...
...something. Anything.
|
|
|
Post by Sable Conolly on Jun 13, 2011 20:03:09 GMT -5
"Hmm, Shockwave would have to know that I would try to destroy it. That is my nature," Scourge replies to Needlenose. "He probably has all sorts of hope chests left behind for different potential leaders, all cued as puzzles to unlock for a particular leader's style, Shockwave's way of giving tailored guidance from beyond the grave. So I would suggest that, yes, we ought to try to destroy it, because that is what Shockwave would have expected of me, and even if we do not destroy it, we will find what Shockwave left for me. However, we ought to also think like... Starscream. What would he do? So as to find his inheritance. And Hook. And Barricade. All of them."
He stalks over to Frenzy and attempts to gently pick him up. If they're going to go in and physically start breaking things, the hacker's job is done. That, and he seems to be in some amount of distress, and perhaps the shelter of Scourge's hand will provide an eye from this storm. Scourge doesn't care if Frenzy cuts his hand. That is Frenzy's nature.
|
|
|
Post by Victoria Raines on Jun 13, 2011 20:51:20 GMT -5
As Frenzy rages against the ghost in the machine- or lack of ghost as the case may be- the little hacker might notice that the coiled something that was just beyond Frenzy's senses before is moving, unwinding and slipping around Frenzy's jacked-in self. There is something where there was nothing but that something is also nothing. Nothing that Frenzy can harm or latch to, at least.
Abruptly, Frenzy is plunged back into his safety net of code and information, forced out through the most direct path and back into his bladey little body. This ejection coincides with Scourge's comments about unique puzzles, and the tanker's moves toward the hacker.
Not-Shockwave, who has not moved much since the invaders breached the lab, is suddenly just behind Scourge's left shoulder. "And so you have learned something from me after all. Good." Then Not-Shockwave is gone. For now.
In the place where he originally stood is a box. Actually, it's a chest. A particularly carved chest made of a particular material known for it's preservative qualities, which Needlenose may recognize as one those hopeful of marriage tended use for their trousseau. However, it appears to also be made up of tiny puzzle blocks, like some sort of 3D Tetris creation.
Scourge specified a particular type of chest when he talked of inheritances, didn't he? And declared that there should be puzzles, didn't he? Curious, no?
OOC: ejection of Frenzy with permission. Not-Shockwave will stay in rotation for sceneing purposes, and because he might decide to pop in again. >_>
|
|
|
Post by Needlenose on Jun 14, 2011 8:52:13 GMT -5
Needlenose's antennas droop, as do his wings.
"This is not going to end well," he mutters. Then he straightens, shaking out his wings like a bird ruffling his feathers.
"Think like Starscream?" He looks at the box and tilts his head, considering. Does that mean writing poetry to the box, the way Starscream wrote poetry to Underbase? Or simply trying to stuff the box in his chest? "Easier resquested than done. Thinking like Hook is easy enough. Just assume that everyone else is doing it wrong and only you can do it right, by taking considerably more time than needed. You're holding onto the best source for how Barricade thinks outside of Barricade, but I'm not sure how open he is to helping you."
He aims Zigzag at the puzzle box, closing the distance first to try to compensate for Zigzag's inaccuracies. "I can shoot it, or you can solve it, but shooting this 'box' isn't going to get Fakewave out of our computer system."
|
|
Barricade
Minor
Knight of the Spastic Sword
Trust Me
Posts: 372
|
Post by Barricade on Jun 17, 2011 14:51:28 GMT -5
From hell, back through the looking glass, back into himself, with all the sensations of light and sound and touch and taste and smell all swirling around him in a confused sort of whirlwind that threatens to erode the very precarious hold Frenzy has managed to keep on himself. It's too sudden, too abrupt, especially after the Nothing from before.
He won't resist if Scourge, or anyone else, picks him up right now. He's curled up into to tight a ball trying to sort out real from unreal at the moment to resist anything.
skippable until he gathers his wits about himself again
|
|
|
Post by Sable Conolly on Jun 18, 2011 21:30:56 GMT -5
Lacking any better idea what to do with Frenzy, Scourge puts Frenzy on his shoulder and calls it good.
"No, it won't," Scourge agrees, and he gestures, commanding, "Dismantle the whole system. You know circuits. Figure out what's essential... and take that out. Jury-rig something with the tertiary systems."
Taking out the primary, essential systems would be crazy. It's not really Scourge's style, to do such a thing to what is now his ship. That's why he's suggesting it. Maybe it'll flush out one of the prizes meant for a more chaotic commander.
For now, he steps forward, and he tries to put his free hand on the box, to clasp it, and he growls, "Scourge, transform."
Shockwave took that from him, just the two of them. What better key to use, than the words that were the key to Scourge's own binary being?
|
|
|
Post by Victoria Raines on Jun 19, 2011 8:50:18 GMT -5
The puzzle box shimmers under Scourge's hand, and then shivers at Scourge's words. It seems to almost collapse into itself as the tiny blocks begin to rapidly shift and move, reforming into-?
A scale model of Scourge in vehicle mode, complete with trailer. The model is not in Scourge's colors, but instead is more silvery with a faint reddish tinge.
Close, Scourge. Very close.
|
|
|
Post by Needlenose on Jun 19, 2011 11:36:15 GMT -5
"You got it, Lord Scourge," Needlenose answers cheerfully, keeping at least enough of a mind for protocol to avoid calling Scourge 'boss.' He slides over towards the nearest terminal and then starts to examine the wall panel next to it, checking to ensure that it's not trapped before attempting to pry it open.
|
|
|
Post by Sable Conolly on Jun 20, 2011 21:32:15 GMT -5
Faint red? It's a pink Scourge, then?
Scourge's grip turns a bit crushing, and he growls, "You told me that you're not immortal. Your puzzle won't outlast you long, now will it?"
It's... violating, to think that Shockwave shared their private meetings with this other intelligence. Scourge feels a pang of jealousy at this development, actually, like meeting a half-brother for the first time.
|
|