Re: Public RP - Rebirth of the Technowar

[Polo trapped in an inkpot]

"You don't trust me." Ace stated expressionlessly. It was not a question. "The purpose of my very being is to ensure your safety and success, Master. I shall always fulfil that purpose to the best of my ability, regardless of the circumstances."
He left his words hanging, then tightened his grip on Crisco's hand and began to run - his invisible feet bringing clouds of dust from the dry ground on each step.
His master had much to learn... There was simply no point blaming an automata. Ace's kind had no means of 'paying' for their errors... And besides, he was at Crisco's command. Any fault of his was fault of Crisco's command over him.
But all the same... He relished his master's words. They made him feel a sense of responsibility, and for that - he was grateful. It was almost like being human...

[Batcat]

[[May as well post on this. I'm in this sort of mood xD]]

Crisco allowed himself to be dragged at a running pace. He moved his feet faster and faster until it felt as though he was flying. He knew Ace was the one carrying him now, and a mix of fear and exhilaration shot through him. Why was he afraid? Because for so long he'd relied on his own instinct, and now he was forced to trust another. That excited him, and he felt an almost childish rush of joy.

[Polo trapped in an inkpot]

((Woop! XD I forgot about this RP - actually very keen to continue with it. ^_^ ))

Ace's eyes darted to Crisco's face, and a small smile lifted his lips at the joy in his Master's eyes. On impulse, Ace decided to quicken his pace just slightly. Crisco was a weight on his arm now - but but no more so than a feather on a bird.
They were nearing their destination now, and Ace began to slow his pace gradually.
"The dust." He said simply, referring to the thick brown clouds wafting up around them.
He slowly came back to a stop, and waited for the dust to settle before edging toward the building, Crisco's hand still grasped tightly in his.
"Your orders, Master?" Ace asked in a low whisper, his eyes darting quickly around in search of an inconspicuous entrance.

[Batcat]

Crisco's eyyes watered as the dust wafted around him. Ace must have good eyes, he thought to himself, because I can't see anything! He sighed and saw Ace absentmindedly glancing around, as if looking for an enterance. Smart of him.
"My orders..." He trailed off, pondering what exactly he should do. It hit him that he should have thought about it on the way here, but he was having too much fun for that...
"We go into the building and try and be as unnoticed as possible. If we do manage to get to her unharmed, then we can pick her up and blast a hole in the roof and fly out. If we are discovered, however, I want you to cause a distraction - kill as many ass you like, but not the servants - and buy me time to free Avani. Then we'll blast a hole in the roof and fly out. Either way, we can leave a sign that Ace is coming and he's ready to destroy." A smile tugged at the corner of Crisco's mouth.

[Polo trapped in an inkpot]

Ace nodded in understanding - then remembered that a nod was rather an inappropriate gesture for an invisible automata. So he spoke, instead. "So we enter in our current states - and sneak to the slave quarters? That will be the most difficult part, I think. There are likely to be guards... But we want to avoid attacking them if possible, or we'll be noticed..." Ace frowned - visualising the plan in his mind.
"Would it not be best to keep to the teleportation plan? As you said - if they discover that I have been activated, we lose the element of surprise, which is our main advantage at the moment. If we blast through the roof, we'll attract attention... And besides, we face the risk of either you or your friend falling..." He trailed off, his frown deepening. "I'll follow your orders," Ace concluded with a shrug, "I'm just saying that it might be safer to teleport - it'll take a lot out of me, but I can easily replenish my energy afterwards..."

[Batcat]

Crisco nodded thoughtfully. "I changed plans because I wasn't sure how long it would take you to replenish your energy and get back. You will be able to if you do that?" He looked at the barn again, noticing the streaks of red shooting across the sky. It was getting dark out, and Crisco wished to be as far away as possible when that time came...

[Polo trapped in an inkpot]

"I don't know my own limits yet." Ace replied simply, "But there's no point worrying about the aftermath until the rescue is complete, right? Whatever - I'm bored of discussing this - let's go!"
Impatient as ever, Ace seized Crisco's arm - mostly to show his master where he was - and crept quietly toward the doors.
Nothing productive was coming from second-guessing every plan, and being overly-cautious toward every problem that cropped up.
He would take matters into his own hands if he had to - he was programmed to do so. Rather ask forgiveness than permission...

[Batcat]

"Teleport out of here." Crisco whispered, just a bit irritated for Ace's obvious impatience. Wait. Impatience? That was a human feeling. Could he really feel that? He shouldn't be able to, but then again, he was special...
He shook his head to clear it and continued walking, not making a sound. Years of hunting in the Drilbot infested woods had made him into the stone-cold killer he was.

[Polo trapped in an inkpot]

"Understood." Ace murmured softly, accepting the order. He crept toward the doors of the building, and peered inside.
"Two guards." He stated quietly, "One sleeping."
He turned his head, and glanced back toward Crisco - squeezing his hand briefly to get his attention.
"Your orders, Master?"

[Batcat]

Crisco cocked his head to the side lightly, thinking of a faint plan that had begun forming in his mind. Ace was completely invisible; he wasn't. "Do you have any way of knocking out the awake guard without making any noise?" He asked quietly, not wanting to attract any attention. Obviously Ace was over by the front of the door.

[Polo trapped in an inkpot]

"If I can get through the door, sure." Ace replied in a low voice, glancing the heavy metal door up and down. It was easy enough for him to see through it - but slipping through unnoticed was another story.
"I wonder if I could disintegrate myself, and rebuild myself on the other side..." He murmured thoughtfully, "It might be possible - but I don't know how much energy it'll take out of me. And there's a chance I won't be able to revert back to my original state, and turn into a pile of high powered dust..."
If an automata could have a dry sense of humour - Ace clearly did.
"What do you think?" He asked, sizing up the door again.
"I could just melt the lock - and try my best to knock those two out before they sound the alarm. Or I could kill them.
I can kill them, right?"
He glanced toward Crisco, and had he not been invisible, a childlike excitement would have shown on his face. But as it were, his voice expressed it plainly enough.

[Batcat]

Crisco couldn't help but chuckle. Maybe it was the nerves, but it seemed completely irrational. He sighed and looked at the closed door. "You can kill them," he began carefully, "but make it look like it was a human. Not an automata."
He sighed and examined the situation more closely, wishing he could see inside.

[Polo trapped in an inkpot]

Ace smiled slightly at the sound of his master's laughter. He approved of that sound...
"Understood." He murmured quietly. With that, he began to melt the lock on the heavy metal door.
Finally, he saw the door loosen slightly - and squeezed Crisco's hand to indicate that it was about to start.
His eyes slid out of focus as he adjusted his vision to stare directly through the door - waiting with bated breath for the opportune moment.
The one guard was still snoring... The other was watching the door closely, though. Ace grunted in frustration...
But then his moment came. The guard raised a hand to his mouth, drawing in quick, shaky breaths. Then, just as he closed his eyes to sneeze, Ace burst soundlessly through the door - punching him hard in the face with a metal fist.
Whirling around, he repeated the procedure on the sleeping guard - and they each fell to the ground with no more than a muffled grunt.
Ace did not kill them. He wanted to - but he had more important things to be getting on with, and neither of them had seen him... Naturally.
"Master, quickly." Ace said quietly, letting himself become semi-visible to attract Crisco's attention.

[Batcat]

Crisco watched Ace's procedure with careful scrutinty. The actions were perfect - well, from what he could see. The only problem he found with it were the slaves in the barn that would talk. But then again, most of them were asleep. He looked to his left to see Avani, wide awake looking as bitter as ever. This made him chuckle as he quickly dashed over to pull the girl to her feet and run back to Ace.

[Polo trapped in an inkpot]

"This all?" Ace's disembodied voice asked quietly, "Just the pair of you, or are we rescuing any others?" He glanced from Crisco to the newcomer and back again - invisible eyes finally coming to rest on Crisco. "Your orders, Master? And quickly - I'm relatively certain we set off an alarm coming through that door."

[Batcat]

"Just her." Crisco said with confidence, waiting for Ace to go and magically teleport them away. It made him nervous that he couldn't see Ace. He still didn't trust the automata fully yet, and he deemed it a very real possibility that they could be left there.

[Polo trapped in an inkpot]

"Understood." Ace replied quietly. He gripped both Crisco's and Avani's arms - then concentrated all his energy on breaking the group - including himself - into teleportable particles.
It happened in an instant. One moment they were standing in the filthy, reeking barn - and the next, they landed in a cloud of dust in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere. What is really was, was simply the furthest place Ace had been able to take them before his energy ran out.
As he, Crisco and Avani were instantly rebuilt into their forms, Ace's knees buckled. Fully visible now, he crumpled to the ground like a puppet whose strings have been cut.
His human qualities were becoming less distinguished. His skin was less like flesh, and more like cold metal.
His eyes were dull, blank and staring - like the marble eyes of animals in a museum.
All life seemed to have left the automata.

[Batcat]

Avani looked at the automata quizically, obviously not getting what had just happened to him. For all she knew, that happened every time he did this. It probably did, too. SShe turned around with a sigh, glancing around at their surroundings.
Crisco, on the other hand, immediatly dropped to the ground beside Ace, shaking him trying to get him to 'wake up' or do whatever automata do to get their energy back."Ace!" He called, quietly, careful in case they were in Drilbot territory.

[Polo trapped in an inkpot]

Ace remained unresponsive at Crisco's shaking. The automata had foolishly used up the entirety of his energy reserve.
Thankfully, being an advanced model, Ace had a store of emergency energy - which he was only supposed to tap in to to allow himself to activate during emergencies - like this one, for example. Unfortunately, he could only replenish his energy while activated, which was exactly why he needed the emergency store...
Unfortunately, Ace had not foreseen this problem... Therefore he had left Crisco no instructions on what to do in this situation...
The only hope was that Criso would manage to find Ace's emergency-activation switch himself.

[Batcat]

Crisco swore and called Avani over. She was a genius with automata and robots and such. She walked over in her quiet, brooding way, crouching down next to Crisco.
"What do you want?" She asked sullenly - as always.
"You used to build automata, what do we need to do to get him back... awake?"
"It's called reactivated, smart one." She teased, not laughing, and felt around Ace's metal body, finally finding a series of switches. She flipped him over to examine.

[Polo trapped in an inkpot]

((Bed soon. ))

When Avani flipped the correct switch, a soft whirring sound was heard in Ace's chest as the cogs that powered his mechanical heart began to turn - and soon enough the mock-organ was beating.
Drawing upon his emergency stores, Ace gradually reverted back to his usual humanesque state, blinking once to unglaze his eyes.
Other than that, he did not move - it was of the utmost importance that he drew in energy faster than he used it...
Unfortunately, in this barren place, there were not many things he could drain. At this rate, his recovery would be a slow one.

[Batcat]

Avani sat back, obviously satisfied. She looked up at Crisco with an amused expression. "He'll be fine." She began in a deep tone, almost deeper than Crisco's - he was a late bloomer. "He just needs to draw in some energy from around here." She glanced around. There was snow everywhere. How far did they travel...? Before they were in what used to be Egypt. She guessed they'd head north, which meant they had to have gone at least to Europe or Asia...

[Polo trapped in an inkpot]

Ace remained in his unresponsive state a while longer, since energy in this vast place was scarce. Beside him sat two glowing, boiling vats of it -and it was so tempting to absorb just a little, but Ace didn't dare cause harm to his master, or his master's friend. Nevertheless, if an automata could feel true temptation - Ace certainly did at that point.
But thankfully, after hours of drawing from the environment, Ace had squeezed enough energy from the barren wasteland that he was able to resume motion. Slowly, he shifted himself into a sitting position, and flexed his fingers.
"Was I satisfactory, Master?" He asked quietly, turning his head to fix his intent red gaze on Crisco.

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