Sell my soul... (Alexander, Faust, Coronel, Khell. Arc NPC: C.O.N.D.U.I.T)

"What do you mean it escaped!?" An older voice asked, shocked to be sure if not slightly disappointed. The phone to his ear as men in suits whispered around him. The Agency was busily at work today. This was the first they had arrived on the scene to actually implement their actions rather than sit in the shadows and observe. Their expertise was supported and it made their jobs much easier.

  "I told you, I let it go. The radiation it was emitting was enough to have been a 5000 ton nuclear megaton bomb. Gadget, did you find anything?" Williams asked through the device built into his glasses.

  "I'm here. The subject is indeed highly irradiated. The good news is that it's decaying and approaching it's half-life at exponential speeds. It seems as though this creature is feeding off of radiation to sustain itself." The voice chirped from the other end, seemingly fascinated by the creature, or rather enraptured by its peculiar nature.

  "So it will seek out more radiation. I'm willing to bet the survivors from the plant have more than enough for it. Well...looks like that takes care of two birds with one dog. Just make sure someones on standby to put down the dog. Masters-" The director began, however he found himself cut off. Normally he would be irked that one had the audacity to interrupt him, but he was talking to Agent Masters, whom knew better than to do so unless it were urgent.

   "We've got a problem here sir! Unknown mechanical entity spotted. Cloaked in black, the area around it is cut off to Agents and metahumans alike. There are three energy sources on the inside of the barrier, in the middle...there are also three other sources of energy!" Masters said. The director calmly walked out of the area and over to his car, sitting himself in and closing the door, as the car turned and left the plot of land.
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   Reports of a nuclear explosion in Chicago has erupted, along side with a recent "health outreach" to regenerative metahumans who have been found susceptible to a strange cancer, and reports of a large death machine has wracked the area. The subject of this story is the rumors surrounding the large death machine that seems to have taken itself into the sewers of the city. An entire city block was evacuated in a panic but it just so happens that three metahumans had been "trapped" in this Death machine's barrier.

  This barrier cannot be exited, and it cannot be entered. This matters to you because YOU just so happened to be in it, for whatever reason you can think of.

  Your objective is to find a way to disable this death-machine and escape the barrier holding you captive within this city block. I will be playing this NPC Death Machine.

   Good luck!

Dr. Darrick Lee Faust ran down the steps of his house. He was already on his way out of the house when his cellphone rang. It was the police, asking him to come down with any medical help that he could gather, and to scatter around the city. Darrick already knew what all the fuss was about.

Some... Death Machine, had gone around the city massacring every person in sight; obviously the news would be covering it. Not only that, it was giving off some sort of strange radiation giving cancer to metahumans. Oh, he forgot to mention that it also blew everything up, and after its spectacular performance, it disappeared.

Darrick, went straight to the van. He didn't want cancer either, so he quickly switched out into his costume, giving himself charges that would help against the radiation. Wouldn't be much help if he couldn't focus it ,though.

When Darrick got into the driver seat, he immediately noticed four things. One: he forgot to call back a girl last night. Two: There was a massive dome of energy around his house and the surrounding area. Three: There were three hotspots of energy within the dome (they kinda tickled his electric buttons). And four: He didn't even get the name of the girl.

"This is crazy. I haven't seen the city so blasted and lit up since...well the Avenged Sevenfold concert a few weeks back. Wow, my ears still hurt from that!"

He drove off, into the heart of the city. Darrick, knowing that the barrier probably cut off PEOPLE, but not SIGNALS, as his TV and phone indicated, sent a call out to all the hospitals in the city.

"Any facilities inside the barrier, I need all able medical personnel scattered throughout the zone in AR-Haz suits. You guys know, the ones I designed for, coincidentally, an occasion just like this one? Yeah, I need you to put on those. Faust, out."

No police facility was inside the barrier at all, meaning that there was no reason to call any of them. It also meant that he, and whoever else was inside, including, hopefully, good-intentioned metahumans.

The darker side of Faust was hungry. The good doctor could feel it. Unfortunately, the bad doctor was feeding off of this radioactive energy. The cops knew and accepted that he might accidentally kill suspects and criminals, but it didn't clear his conscience in any way. Faust punched his chest to distract his mind, and drove on, to the heart of this city.

"Holy shit..."

Darrick was not expecting the carnage that was at the heart of the city. No one was.

Jesus shit... even Hiroshima looks like a kernel of popped popcorn compared to this...

"Why the hell did I take this contract?" Khellendros had no idea what he was looking for in this damn windy city, he had brokered a contract with the city to locate... some sort of death machine or other that had taken up residence in the area. No known origin or otherwise known reason for such a thing to even be here, and the city decided it was a good idea to hire him on to find and deal with it, but first he had to locate the stupid thing and that was not going particularly well.

"This is getting me nowhere!" In frustration, he activates the communications link in his armour to contact his employer, considering how easy the negotiations went for the contract, he was expecting to get put through quickly but instead got a please hold message from the secretary, "Get him on the damn phone or someone that can confirm the info you guys gave me was even remotely correct! I am sick and tired of looking around the city for something that may only be a rumour!"

Eventually the contractor did get on the phone and was assuring him that the info was correct before the signal was cut off, "The hell?" Figuring that he had been hung up on "Alexander did they just cut the signal on their end?" Asking his suit's AI only gained him the response, "Signal was cut off by an external source, neither party was responsible for signal loss."

"Well that's weird. Any explanations for it? Scan the area for strange signals." and thinking about it, he added "And run a diagnostic on Stormbringer, wouldn't want to run into any problems that we aren't ready for, or for the seals to give out in this radiation." While he waited for Alex to complete his commands, he took a seat on a nearby apartment's front steps. "Sure hope the armour isn't on the fritz, that is something I can't afford right now."

Alex eventually chimed in with his results, "Sir, there is a strange energy signature surrounding the area, unnatural in origin, unknown point of origin, there also seems to be others within the area based on a radio transmission, possibly medical personnel. Stormbringer is operating at peak levels."

"Good, looks like we're actually in the right place and we're not completely screwed." Getting back up, he freed up Wrath and Aegis from lockdown to quick access and started heading further into the abandoned streets.

Bernard hated Chicago, mostly because of the whole New York vs Chicago thing. You couldn't get a thin crust slice here if you went to every pizzeria in the city. He usually avoided coming to this dirt hole of a city, but he had a contract to fulfill.  He was going after a guy named Khelledo or something odd like that, apparently he was also a merc and had a contract here. He was probably a pro if that was true, so Bernard took caution. That caution was increased even more given that parts of the city had reports of high levels of radiation, and guess where Bernards target was. Radiation wasn't a problem if he kept moving because he could phase through it or burn it off, but if he stopped for more then a minute or two it would effect him.

He hoped this wouldn't take too long, but it was worth the price on this dudes head.  There were strange things happening all over, and he had people out to kill him. He needed every bit of money to disappear for good, he was going into retirement a little earlier then he expected but that happens alot in his line of work, one way or another.

He sped through the streets not to far from where his boss said the guy would be, after a few minutes of looking he saw the metal robot guy that fit his targets description. But he also noticed some sort of energy field enveloping the area, he would have to deal with that later, right now he had a job to do. He wanted to get it done quick so he rushed him at top speed with a fist aimed at his jaw. At this speed only a high meta human would be fast enough to react, and this guy didn't seem quick.

In the heart of this barrier, there is yet another barrier. One even more difficult to pierce than the last...the last being impossible to break should make it clear how powerful this barrier was. Almost too conveniently there was a manhole uncovered that led to the only place that wasn't covered by the interior barrier. The ground, the sewage system. This Death machine may have rampaged and obliterated a few buildings, but the sewers were something else to witness. It was disgusting, it truly was. The sewers looked like mass graves. Mangled and skinned bodies lining the sides, even the waters were clogged with ripped open and half "processed" bodies. Some of them were burned some of them literally waterlogged into a bloated and easily torn form. It looked more like a landfill of zombies and half decomposed corpses than any actual bodied. It was unfortunate that none of these bodies belonged to humans. These were all metahumans, all of them. You had a landfill of corpses and not a single one being human.

It was apparent whatever this thing was, it was targeting metahumans. No humans died to it's rampage, and there were minimal human casualties, but the metahuman body count was racking up. Thankfully it seems that there was a straight shot once you were down this manhole, the walls being lined with corpses all the way to the only other exit that was about sixty meters ahead, a way to climb back up into the surface.

A Hole. That was the simplest way to describe it. Yes, it required a capital H. Why? Well because it was THE FUCKING HOLE. Specifically, one that opened up into the sewers. Darrick lit up one oh his mask-mounted light and lit up the sewers. Seemingly, a mass grave filled with the bodies of the dead, whose scent was mixed with that of the sewage. Simply gross. But that's not all.

The Hole was fucking DEEP in some areas; it easily spanned miles downward. Darrick had only come to the edge of The Hole. He was not in the presence of the second barrier. Yet.

"What the fuck is happening?" Darrick said.

A fitting questions, as no one knew the answer to it.  Just carnage emerged.

Darrick went back to the van, and after locking the doors of course (wouldn't want that to be stolen!), began to inspect The Ridge, as he called it. Why a ridge, and why a capital R? Well, the earth curved up into a large ridge all around the hole, thus being named that way. The reason for the capital is probably because the ridge was also very, very tall. A quarter of a mile up.

The bodies were stacked so high that you could see them poking over The Ridge.

Darrick looked away from the decay. The dark doctor would love for Darrick to become enraged. However, with no target to channel the anger on in sight, Darrick did not even know who to be angry at.

But whoever you are, whatever you are, I will find you, and I will kill you..., the dark doctor said in his mind.

He steeled himself as he began to descend into the hole, preparing himself for the worst.

That's when Darrick heard the shout. From behind the van.

He turned around and, just in sight, was able to see two armored men duking it out. In the middle of a fucking massacre. Darrick felt the rage coming to him. He didn't know who would come; the side that would talk those two out of it, or the side that would rather settle the problem by killing them instead.

"Holy shit balls, why does this all have to happen now?!"

Darrick ran toward them.

"Sir, there's an inbound entity moving at high speed." Was the only warning Khellendros got before getting blindsided by the incredibly fast meta, charging at him and slamming their fist into the lower portion of his helmet with a ringing strike. Disorientation only lasts moments, but the hit was definitely damaging, Khell could feel the bruise from the impact already starting to form and he wasn't sure if his jaw was broken, "TAG HIM! CALCULATE SPEED!" he roared to Alex, guess his jaw was still intact since that didn't bring more pain than the bruise, a small blip appeared on his HUD denoting where his fast opponent's heat signature was in relation to him, deploying Aegis and drawing Wrath.

Getting a readout of what speeds his opponent was travelling at, he figured he only had a few options to try and slow them down, making a prediction on where they were going to come from, he readied Aegis for an intercepting slam intended to throw them off or stun long enough for him to slice a serious chunk out of them with Wrath.

Alex chimes in again, "Sir, there is another heat signature approaching from your flank. They appear to have arrived in the vehicle that was transmitting earlier." Khell's anger was just not destined to abate right now was it? "Tag them and prep the suit for overdrive, warn me if they get within 20m." Thinking to himself, This is going to be a long day and a major pain in my ass. Who the hell is this guy? Am I not the only PMC out here? Why the hell is my day going so shitty?

The punch landed as planned, but Bernard now realized the metal man could take a hit. After he landed the strike he started running in a circle around his target, attempting to confuse him. He then charged him full on from the front, it looked like a straight on frontal assault but Bernard had a trick up his sleeve. When he got into melee range he vibrated his molecules so fast he became incorporeal, allowing him to pass right through the metal man and any attacks made with that nasty looking sword. Once he passed through him he found himself directly behind the male, this was another opportunity to land a hit. He worked up all the power he had and jumped into the air, then brought his leg down at wicked fast speed aiming for the armored dudes head. If the attack were successful he would attempt another quick strike then run off to gain a distance of about 30 feet. This is the point where he usually would taunt his enemy, but he had to keep moving or the radiation would get to him. He then saw another obvious metahuman approaching the fight. Now just what the hell did this guy want? He might have to take him out as well.

Darrick ran towards the two armored hulks. Their armor looked bulky as shit, however the smaller one was fast. A speedster.

In any case, their armor looked much more mobile than his FUCKING SPACE-COWBOY SUIT. The long coat was bothering him. However, it did have one advantage: lots of pockets.

Okay, that was irrelevant to the topic at hand. These two were in the battle of the ages. He would have to stop it. Why? One: it was seriously inappropriate considering that it was practically Hiroshima again. Two: the dark doctor wanted to take out his anger on these two. To stop THAT from happening, Darrick couldn't let it escalate.

Darrick knew they could see him coming. At the very least, they heard his footsteps. He was hoping for that.

Using his magnetized soles, he created a pull on the larger one's armor to ground the doctor for his maneuver. Darrick pointed his gun towards the ground and blasted himself into the air. Before reaching the peak, Darrick strengthened the pull, causing him to be shot downward towards the larger man. As Darrick fell, he let out a large pulse of electricity from his entire body that easily spanned a two-mile radius. Not enough to kill, mind you, just enough to paralyze for a few seconds.

"This ends here!"

The plan was perfect, except for the part where his target PHASED RIGHT THROUGH him! It caught him off guard, but surprised was just another word for dead in the field of battle, when the speedster launched himself into the air, Khell prepared for the next attack. He definitely wasn't expecting the next warning from Alex, "Sir, the second target is generating some sort of magnetic field, non-lethal."

Well great, looks like the other one isn't trying to kill me outright at least. Was the thought running through his head before the ensuing electric blast that rained down on him and the one assaulting him, causing him to spasm and drop to one knee.

"This ends here!"

WORST. FUCKING. JOB. EVER. Clicking his suit's audio output to on, Khell decided to address the issue on hand that seemed most important to him, "Which one of you fucks is here to get me? I am officially beyond pissed off, and if the answer's both, I'm going to make you pay for every drop of blood!" Cape billowing out, he raises his sword and shield into a defensive stance and awaits the next attack. Going to have to mod the armour after this... If I even get out of here alive at all... Not a pleasant thought at all.

The guy approaching the area jumped high into the air, then came down on Bernards target with electric fury. The kinetic blast spanned a large area, surging through the ground and somewhat the air all around the two hostiles. Bernard evaded most of it by jumping into the air, the electricity was mostly pulsed outward at about shoulder level, so clearing that reduced the damage he took greatly. He landed on the ground grunting from the pain of a few minor 'bolts' of electricity that hit him, but for the most part he was unharmed. Blindside zipped in and stopped when he came into view of the two men. "That would be me" He said the the armored man upon hearing his voice.

Evidently the lightning guy wanted the fight to end, and bringing his attention back to the barrier around them he could see why. He could feel the radiation get higher then it was before, he was still vibrating at high speeds to burn it off but he still felt it. He assumed the other too had their own ways of dealing with it, or they would probably be on the ground seething from radiation poisoning right now. "Um, probably not exactly a thing you would tell a guy who just tried to kill you but.... Do you know anything about that?" Bernard said to the armored guy, pointing to the barrier around them. At this point Bernard was worried about dieing in here horribly, he couldn't evade the radiation forever. Right now those too were the only others in the barrier with him that he could see, so asking them was only logical. He shifted his purpose from removing his target to removing himself from this barrier. "What do you say we help each other get out of this barrier, then continue this little thing we got going?"

(Enemy Action/movement next round)

Darrick was happy again. He stopped the guys from fighting and let out his anger without letting out the dark doctor. Yes it seemed very bipolar, but Darrick was truly happy despite the massacre that had occured. His mind was still on the objective though. Just in a really off-topic, fucked up humor kind of way.

Darrick  smiled a toothy smile.

"Well, I know something about that! The radiation causes cancer to only metahumans; so unless you're protected from it, you're fucked!! If you're wondering why I'm so excited about that, it's because I'm a doctor! Also, some kind of Death Machine has gone around destroying half the fucking city and has something to do with the radiation and the barriers!"

Darrick looked at their dumbfounded expressions.

He then proceeded to burst out laughing. Then just as quick, he became stoic.

"Just kidding! But seriously though, we have a fucking problem, and I don't think that you'll be interested in whatever grudge match you two have after we get out of this...if we do..."

The good doctor looked towards The Hole filled with the bodies of the innocent, reeking of sewage and decay.

"We're gonna need all the help we can get...."

Darrick snapped his head back towards the two. He smiled his toothy smile once more.

"Anyways, my name is Dr. Darrick Lee Faust, M.D., also known as the space-cowboy Supercharger! What's yours?"

Darrick then proceeded to extend each of his hands to the two men.

We're hunting an extremely lethal killing machine and this guy is smiling? Well, better than travelling in the company of cowards at least. Khelllendros put Wrath away long enough to shake the strange doctor's hand, "I go by Khellendros while on the job, professional soldier for hire." He eye's Blindside warily, "As for you, I am more than interested in why anyone would be out to get me, I generally avoid jobs that get me put on revenge lists of any kind, besides, I could probably pay you more to leave me alone than what they're paying you." Now that his assailant was sitting relatively still, he started to notice that the armour being worn didn't seem particularly built for anything like the area they were in. "Also, if we were to continue our little... tussle after this is over, I get the feeling I'd be down an advantage somehow, you don't seem overly well equipped for hazard traversal." Drawing Wrath once more, he headed over to the hole in the ground the doctor kept eyeing.

Welp, much worse than originally suggested, but not too surprising I guess... Deah machines aren't generally butterflies and rainbows. "Well... This is pretty grisly looking. Might as well take a look though." He'd seen similar carnage in his lifetime, but this was more reminiscent of something from a history textbook... Thinking about it, he could definitely equate this with the mass graves the Nazis put people into during WWII These poor souls, what the hell could do something like this? Was it all random or something more sinister?

Jumping into the open hole, he was more than glad that his armour was self-contained, the smell would have probably set even his hardened stomach off. "Watch my back and your step, whatever indignities these people suffered at the hand of their killer should not be amplified by our clumsy passage."

Blindside just stared at the electric guy, wondering what he was on. But he did take what he said seriously. "Its quite a long story, but i'm sure if we get out of here we can make a deal. Your correct, i am not equipped to deal with this level of radiation. But i am burning most off it off and phasing through the rest, I'll be fine" Bernard said to his previous target before following him too the hole.

"Smells like Paris, you guys ever been to Paris?......Ok, i'll stop talking" He said looking down into the hole. The gore was quite disgusting though, semi dried blood caked on every thing and bodies everywhere. Mostly cut up or crushed, but some were scattered everywhere. He didn't want to get in the hole, but for some reason he knew it was the way out. "I have a feeling this has something to do with that barrier, and we might as well go underground with all the radiation moving around" He said as he followed the armored dude down the death hole. This was getting scary.