Grudge Battle
Training Room - Skull Fortress
This majority of this room when inactive is nothing but a giant black box with an overlaid shimmering green wire grid, dotted with holographic projection orbs at regular intervals on the ceiling, and a control panel for programming simulations. The only other feature is a shielded viewing balcony above the entrance, where one can watch without fear of stray fire. When turned on, however, the holographic generators can create any scene imaginable, even modifying the laws of physics at will. Thanks to the technology of simulated damage, Masters can use this room for combat training as much as they wish, and no medical drones are necessary.
Sword Man [Normal] [RM]
Reinforced Doors leads to Common Room - Skull Fortress.
Sword Man taps a few keys on the terminal and the room flashes and remolds to reflect the changes.
The black and yellow grid melts away in a flood of yellows, greys, and browns. Finally, the rooms finishes it's shift, the training room now becoming an old castle. The ground upon which you stand is one of the roofs of the lower embattlements of the castle. Yellowed bricks and wooden doors surround you, as well as the blue sky above and the green grass below. There is a faint breeze coming from the west, causing a flag on one of the towers to flap. It is not a strong wind, but enough to set a small projectile off-course if you're not careful.
Gemini Man usually trains 'alone.' Seeing that the room is set up for someone else at the moment, then, looking to see that someone else busily doing forms, Gemini waits near the entrance, leaned up against a castle wall to watch. Noting that Sword's motions seem a bit stiff, he wonders momentarily, but decides its likely he's just getting used to the new rebuild.
Sword Man might chalk it up to that, but for anyone who might have overheard his "talk" with Yamato last night (which is hopefully no one), it might be slightly attributed to that. However, all thoughts of that burn away as Sword does, flaring up his sword, with his body surprisingly following suit. He doesn't seem to mind, however, thanks to his unique armor designs. Instead, he uses this in a remarkable, yet still slightly mechanical, set of attacks, his body launching up like a rising rocket, then descending like a meteor from the blue. And as all this goes on, he remains oblivious to the Twin Master's presence.
Of course he does. Gemini Man isn't actually bothering him for the moment. He watches Sword Man, then, his optics move away, and he checks the holo-castle's far battlements. Wondering why more Masters don't set their training holos up to default to areas with cielings. And charting geometric diagrams. Finally, he waits for Sword Man to reach the highest arc of a swing, and pipes in: "Hey there."
Sword Man barely hears Gemini over the crackling fires of his body. He quickly shuts off his flame emitters, extinguishing both sword and self, and turns about toward the entrance, just before the start of the drawbridge. He bows, as usual. "Sir Gemini. I did not hear your arrival." However, before Gemini can respond, he quickly jumps down from the wall and impacts on the other side of the bridge, waiting for Gemini to respond accordingly.
As far as taking wild leaps goes, Gemini Man will get there when he gets there. By the usual method. Sword Man doesn't hear an impact, but, when he rises up from his jump, Gemini Man is standing right there. "How's the tournament going?"
Sword Man narrows his eyes at the clone that pops up in front of him as he lands. He glares at it before walking by it and moving toward the real Gemini. "It is doing well. As of now, Sir Ice and Sir Centaur have advanced along with Sir Charge. I still must arrange the other participants to have their matches soon."
Gemini Man narrows his eyes at Sword from across the rift, not actually responding right away. "Rude of you," says the voice at Sword's back. "SNAKE Man gets away with ignoring me."
"Pathetic of me..." Gemini Man says after a second thought... "losing to a moron like that, on my own turf."
Sword Man ignores the Clone's protestations, instead advancing on what he feels is the real Gemini. "It was merely a chance of fate. However, I need to talk to you about other matters, ones more pressing than the tournament."
Geminis meet eyes with each other from across the rift, passing a paragraph's worth of conversation in the moment of a second. oO(...Hooboy, here it comes...)Oo seems to be the conclusion they come to, and the hologram even makes a slight roll of his eyes. It is the clone that speaks out first, the original shortly after, almost overlapping. "Such as?" "Let's hear it."
Sword Man closes his eyes as he steels himself. "First off, I must talk to you about the incident in Khartoum. I still fail to see how shooting into the crowd would have solved the problem of the riot instead of just inciting more panic within the masses?"
Being ignored, the holographic clone starts making 'Blah blah blah blah blah' motions with his hand and mouth.
"That's because you don't know a lot about riot control. A riot's a violent animal." Gemini shrugs. "Humans use rubber ammo. Gas. When those don't work, they step it up. The flashbomb didn't work. I stepped it up. Get roadblocks on either side to prevent the riot from spreading too far. If people are too scared they'll get hurt SERIOUSLY, the riot stops."
"The masses are like a tinder. Introduce an incendiary element to it, they will burst aflame as well. Remove it, and the flame stops. It is all a matter of removing what causes the masses to rise up and they will fall back down. Simple as that." Sword says, unmoving in his very overreaching trust of human nature.
"Such philosophy is very nice, but it isn't practical."
"Besides," says the Gemini Man still behind Sword, taking a break from mocking him, "there wasn't much reason to have the tank there in the first place. What did you THINK was going to happen? Good guys were going to show, and blow it up. We blow up their tanks."
"About the only thing it was useful for was the riot control. Control which would have worked had Option A not collided with Option B," finishes the first twin.
Sword Man sighs. This conversation seems like it's going nowhere. Like a brick wall trying to convince a steel door. "Fine," he says bitterly, not conceding, but not willing to follow down this avenue any further. "I also must ask you about your confrontation with Sir Crystal. All I know of this is your report and Sir Yamato's own words on the situation. I would want to hear what you would have to say on the matter."
oO(We're programmed differently. We have different views on the topic.)Oo
oO(And also, we're right.)Oo
"Geez, where should we START?" asks the first Gemini. As a bit of a token of good-will (after all, at this point, they're on a topic they might share a bit of agreement about), the first twin leaps over to Sword Man's position, landing lightly down at his front.
Sword Man says, "Very well, first off, tell me the specifics on what happened. What did Sir Crystal do that is in question?"
"What didn't he do?" Gemini Man says.
"Only decided that the Repliforcers would be his new best friends. Hanging out with them on his off-hours. Offering to burn a pyre over Repliforce Island," says the clone, ticking off the points on his hand.
"Crystal Man LOOOOOVES our enemies," says Gemini. "Loves them like equals."
Sword Man grunts as he processes this. "Continue." Looks like he's gonna wait until he gets the whole story before he comments.
Gemini Man gives Sword Man an incredulous look. Was that somehow not enough? "Want us to start at the beginning? HYMN. Repliforcer? Crystal Man spends time with him on his offdays. CONSIDERABLE time. They chat on the radio."
The clone assumes a whiny voice, "Hi, how are you doing? Keeping busy? Crushed our operation yet?"
Gemini clenches his fist. "The Elites do NOTHING. So, we did some digging and got some tape. Cystal Man crying on Ring Webring... ...Damn."
"Wing Wed... damn."
Both twins: "RING-uh REDD-Wing..."
"...'s shoulders." Gemini Man sighs. "This and that."
"Nobody underSTANDS me," whines the clone. "Noone knows how I SUFFER!"
"He wants to leave," Gemini Man pronounces his final judgement. "That, or DIE. Perhaps the latter, or he wouldn't have been so careless."
Sword Man narrows his eyes, this time at both Gemini's. He stays silent for a while, looking off in the distance, not wanting his gaze to betray any sentiments he might have before he's ready to talk. With a sigh, he looks back to the real...er....well, ONE of the Gemini's... oO(Blast...must he always keep himself this way?)Oo ...before finally speaking. "I do not fault Sir Crystal's intentions. I do not agree with them, but I will not fault him for them." Simply stated. Now he waits for the clones to pick their proverbial jaws off the floor should they drop at this.
The Gemini Men are indeed surprised, but they don't allow their jaws to hit the floor. Rather, the twin faces go dull, as they are momentarily caught in a state of speechlessness. A single eye in four--one of the original's--twitches. Then, he asks, "All right.... what PART? The part where Crystal Man should leave,"
"Or the part where he should DIE?"
"Neither. I mean his liasons with the one known as Hymn. He is very entranced with his faith, and it seems only proper he be able to confer with one who might understand it as such. And while I do not know the circumstances with his contact with Ring Redwing, but until understand how this impedes our advances, I will say nothing. I would espouse on this further, but I doubt you would be one to appreciate what I would have to say." Sword folds his hands over the hilt of his sword at this, waiting for Gemini's to likely chew him out. oO(How would he understand the ideas of purpose and history as I see them?)Oo
At Sword's first words, the anger building in the Geminis is evident, and it smoulders as he speaks, until both of the twins have shaking shoulders. "Have you ever listened to Hymn TALK?!" shouts the first twin. He thinks that OUR father is INSANE and in need of mental help. His faith is SECOND priority to his DESTRUCTION of OUR way of life."
"Naive white-panty MORONS!" the second twin adds. "Don't you UNDERSTAND that despite what a nice, kind little 'forcer might SAY, their purposes are nothing but COUNTER to ours!? We can't just sit around and drink tea together!"
"We KILLED THEM for a reason. We should spit on their graves instead of holding them a FUNERAL."
"The same way they would SPIT on ours," the Master twin finishes.
Sword Man simply states, "I am a knight. I cry for battle, not for death. You would not understand." He makes no movements, but just stares intently at Master and Clone.
"So what the hell are you fighting for?" chime both twins at once. One of them is raising his gun-arm, slightly, a counter to Sword's hand-to-hilt gesture.
"I fight for father's dream. But as I said to Sir Yamato, history will judge us by how we attain our victory, not just the victory itself. I will not fight only to be seen as a knight in the midst of barbarians. I will fight to further father's reign, as well as show the world we are better than those who claim to be it's savior. If that means a display of fleeting compassion towards those who may be our enemies, so be it. We cannot simply obliterate our enemies. We must show them their wrongs. I fight for only this. Honor is in the means, not just the ends. Remember that well, brother." With that, he lifts his hand from the hilt and pushes the cannon aside, replacing his own weapon by his side.
The twins chuckle softly. Gemini Man doesn't seem to take offense at having his cannon pushed aside, but he meets Sword Man's gaze, the irritation now melting slightly out of his eyes. "All right. Then answer me this."
"If the vision of Wily is intended nothing but pure..." speaks the clone from behind...
"Nothing but noble and righteous," the original adds...
"If we're to TALK our enemies to death rather than hit their weaknesses and kick them while they lie on the ground..."
"If we as an ORGANIZATION are so concerned with honor and nobility and producing justice..."
The hologram vanishes, and Gemini Man crosses his arms, ready to make his point. "WHY build ME?"
Sword Man narrows his eyes. "You may work however which way you please. I shall do my part in furthering the cause in a manner of my own choosing. You shall not convince me otherwise, nor will I likely be able to convince you." He turns away from the terroristic master. "I will not fight for victory for us to place in father's hands a globe of shadows and dust. I will fight to ensure that when father's reign comes, it shall not be for naught. Good /DAY/, Sir Gemini." As surprising as it is, Sword just....walks away. No bow, no formal gesture of ettiquite or politeness. Just his footsteps.
Wait until you see how easily South Africa falls. It's going to be comical.
Sword Man turns his head slightly, just so he can see Gemini out of the corner of his eye. "It is a figment. A shell. A mere ghost of an image. It is false." Apparently, Sword don't like holograms....
Gemini Man doesn't like that answer at all. Holograms demand attention, and his twin is every bit as much substance as he is, when he chooses to be. "For future reference..."
A single white shot comes ringing from the top of the simulated battlements, fired from the vantage point of a newly projected image...
"That's a STUPID idea."
Freeze Man walks through the door into the training room, just in time to see Gemini's clone shoot Sword. He says nothing at the moment, he only moves to the side to watch.
Sword Man his taken aback at the sudden shot, the laser piercing right through his shoulder. "Very well..." Growling, he quickly jumps up onto the castle battery and lets out a loud cry of "HAVE AT THEE!!!" then quickly seeks to smack the clone about silly with his sword.
As the hologram can strike, so can it be struck, and the sword's flat connects with his face, causing the Gemini clone's head to snap sideways. Just as quickly, he snaps his head around again. "Touche." Making a flourish with his fingers, he brings his hand around, and meets up against Sword Man's blade with a long, white broadsword of his own. Down on the bridge, the original Gemini is distracted as he calls up the weapon by pushing a few buttons on his arm. The clone smacks the flat of the blade against Sword Man's a few times, then lunges forward. It's clear he in no way approaches Sword's skill with a melee weapon; he's just using it for kicks.
Sword Man grunts as the holo-sword, while potent, doesn't do much. After all, he is a master of the Blade himself. A fellow swordsman would be hard pressed to hurt him like that, how would you think a novice would fare? "You wish for your hologram to be treated as real? Fine, I shall treat it as such." With that, he grabs the clone and attempts to toss it at it's source.
Gemini Man's hologram is lifted and thrown, tossed to the bridge next to the original. Luckily, the original looks up in time to jump aside: the holo lands in a heap by his feet. His hand looses on the false sword, which clatters onto the bridge and is summarily discarded. Gemini Man looks down at his clone, as if urging him to simply continue. "...Well?" The clone rises then to its feet, dusts himself off, and then charges at Sword Man, helmet-first, trying to off-balance him.
Sword Man sidesteps the charging clone and instead opts for running down the true Master, barrelling down the bridge and trying to backhand Gemini, possibly off the bridge and in to the moat.
Gemini Man is not surprised at this, and makes another backward leap, stepping back and aside from Sword Man's attack. "No fair getting ME involved; I thought your quarrel was with him!" Oh, well. Seems as if Sword Man wasn't going to play that way, so, neither was Gemini Man. Just fighting him with the clone was something he only did to fighters he wanted to insult. At the moment, the clone takes time to slow his velocity, backpedaling from the missed attack just before charging into one of the simulation's walls. Gemini Man himself drops down, trying a manuver intended to accomplish two things: first of all, to kick Sword Man's legs out from underneath him, and, secondly, to stand up with the sword his clone had previously dropped.
The kick hits home, but it doesn't take both legs out. Only one. And that's not enough to take down Sword this time. Instead of falling with the blow, he uses the momentum and comes around with a wide downward slash, possibly meant to disable the holographic controls.
Centaur Man trots in. The hooved one seems to be as serious and clean as he always is. Noticing Sword fighting against Gemini, the hooved one stands somewhere off at the side, brushing his tail, and watching his brother spar.
CLANG. Gemini Man may have not knocked Sword Man down, but he DID manage to snag the blade. As the slice comes down, Gemini brings the holographic blade up to meet it, and Sword Man's slice finds it just as unforgiving as any metal. "Still think it's just a ghost of an image?" Gemini Man asks, as he pushes up against the attack, trying to stand up despite the downward push of the taller, stronger Master. Gemini Man doesn't manage to stand up entirely, and, his knees still bent, he doesn't risk moving the sword. Good thing he's got another arm... Pushing up with his left hand, he moves his arm cannon around, and throws out a shot. Slightly off-kilter, it tags one of the castle walls rather than Sword Man himself, and Gemini silently curses as he fouls up an attack at point-blank. After a moment, however, the shot hits one wall, then another, then returns.
Sword Man is too busy with the lock up to notice the return of the shot. That turns out to be a very bad thing, as it strikes him straight in the back, causing him to stumble forward. However, not willing to take this lying down, he uses the momentum from the blast to push Gemini away and come around with a vicious thrust straight toward Gemini's chest.
Gemini Man doesn't wear much armor, but the plates across his chest should do SOMETHING to block a vital shot... However, in this case, it does not. Wide open after the staredown splits, Gemini takes a thrust straight between the two plates of his armor, and is pierced directly through by the wide blade. He makes a choking sound as the blade splits out his back, his face reflecting surprise. Then, he grunts, and forcibly pulls himself back off the sword--mechfluid stream mostly hidden, at least, by the black coloration of his torso. His clone blinks off its spot, and reappears behind Sword Man, and, momentarily forgetting he's still holding the false blade in his off-hand, Gemini Man and the clone both train their guns on Sword Man, and fire.
Sword Man is sandwiched between the two energy beams, which manage to make two good size holes within his armor. Both start to bleed very profusely, having hit some vital components. But now....now, Sword has gotten to the point where he's fed up with things. That said, his sword blazes white hot, and his body along with it. "ENOUGH!!!" is heard just a split second before Sword starts spinning around like a burning top, blade extended, circling around his legs in hopes to strike both Gemini and the clone.
Both are struck. The Gemini clone is taken completely unawares by Sword's move to hit two targets, and takes the cut soundly, falling aside and nearly tumbling entirely off the bridge. The original remembers his own meager blade soon enough to attempt to raise it, but fails to parry, and is cut down. Both twins have burning cuts across their armor as they simultaniously stand, the orignal bleeding black onto black. And both twins rush a charge at Sword Man as he winds down from his spin, trying to pin them between their dual shoulder-rushes and simply stop him from any further technique.
Sword Man lets out a gutteral roar as the twins manage to sandwich him between two shoulders, his armor denting and cracking under pressure. Too bad they just got a little too far in range for him. Sword and armor still blazing, he quickly swings wide and hard, hoping to take out a good size chunk of Gemini's armor and fry him from the inside, as well as showing him that a hologram ain't nothing when compared to real live metal and flames.
Freeze Man continues watching for a while, but soon grows bored. He heads out the door.
Struck down from shoulder to hip, Gemini Man finally drops the holographic blade, straight out of reality. Even as it drops from his hands, it fades into nothingness...just light and shadow, after all. The holographic clone takes a wide step back out of the arc of the firey blade, as Gemini Man himself cries out in pain. Slashed, cut, and now with a melted interior, Gemini Man is not yet beaten.
"Don't forget," he says, coughing, "that even all of THIS has been holographic combat." Gemini Man raises his arm and fires, point blank, a white-hot beam. "But it still HURTS."
Sword Man falls to the ground, unconscious, due to massive systems damage.
Sword Man stumbles back as the shot rips through his chest, leaving a good, head sized whole within, spanning both sides. As he clutches his chest, he narrows his eyes and lifts up his sword.....only to fall, mechfluid and sparks spilling out from him. Even with the damage only being holographic, it DOES still hurt. So much so it still take Sword a while to recover once the room clears the damage.
Medical Drone has reset your health to full endurance.
Gemini Man deactivates his clone, and, walks off to recover the holographic damage. "And that is that," he remarks, as the holodamage fades away into his ordinary armor. He shoulders past the observers on his way to the exit.
Holographic Terminal
Obvious exits:
There are several ladders coming down from the wall as well, leading down to the drawbridge that covers the entrance. Not only that, but there seem to be several vats of boiling oil and several clattered spears around. Apparently, this specific castle just suffered a raid. Whether it succeeded or not is unknown, considering the suits of armor down below bear no specific markings.
As one would enter the training room at this moment, one would see not the usual Green and Black gridlines tracing the walls, but a Grand European castle, set amongst rolling green fields. Well....it WAS a grand European Castle, before the apparent attack earlier. The shells of armor left behind seem testament to that. And up above, on the castle walls, is the one RM that would feel most at home here, none other that Sword Man. He seems to have taken this empty structure as a training grounds....but he seems admittedly mechanical in his forms. They lack the usual fluidness within his movements. Strange.
And then you'll see that, like it or not, terror WORKS.
"Hey..." Gemini says, at Sword's retreating back. "Why the hell do you ignore my clone?"
You strike Sword Man with your Clone Laser attack.
Sword Man strikes you with his Flatside Swipe for 8 units of damage.
You strike Sword Man with your Hologram Slash attack.
Sword Man strikes you with his Throw for 1 units of damage.
You miss Sword Man with your Headbutt attack.
Sword Man misses you with his Bash attack.
You strike Sword Man with your Roundhouse attack.
Sword Man misses you with his Overhead Slice attack.
You strike Sword Man with your Ricochet Blast attack.
Sword Man strikes you with his Thrust for 10 units of damage.
You strike Sword Man with your Double Shot attack.
Sword Man strikes you with his Fire Slash for 12 units of damage.
You strike Sword Man with your Double Team attack.
Sword Man strikes you with his Flame Sword for 21 units of damage.
You are below your courage-endurance point.
Freeze Man has left.
You strike Sword Man with your Gemini Cannon attack.
