trans_9 | System Shock - Fight the Power!

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System Shock - Fight the Power!

Gods could be too arrogant. Such was the case of SHODAN, who had turned the Pods into a nightmarish zone where she could freely amuse herself and torture those that had come here.

But arrogance breeds pride which breeds mistakes. Instead of killing everyone off, she had decided to do this more slowly – watch them suffer in a slow agony, and, therefore had not expected them to fight back.

It had been a lucky shot, really, one in a million, But one of the people present that day had accidentally shot a tiny, insignificant object. A tiny little drone, that, once it had been the source of the power damper, had fallen. The tables were turned, and the goddess had been forced to retreat from the pods.

Now she was on a panicked mode, not only because some of the other people on the ship had managed to work their way into her system files, using another AI to send pointless images and sounds to her, distracting her from her task, but they knew how they could defeat her and gain their powers back.

It didn't take long for the message to be sent out, as the word quickly spread. Find the tiny little creatures, and shoot them down. SHODAN couldn't work their shields properly and once they were found, it was only a short matter of time before the powers returned to an area.

It would take time, but, finally, the tide of the battle was turning on the side of the crewmen and women. In vain, she was throwing her all; even more strange robot creatures, attacking in packs, but with hope on their side, they could win this...

[OOC - OKay go for it! NPC players, feel free to NPC as many robots as you like. Players, once your powers return, feel free to make as much scrap metal as you like, no need to have people NPC for you if you just want to write tags of them kicking ass.]

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Kaya nodded without hesitation. "If I keep bending at the robots, my water is going to get pretty tainted: I'm not going to be able to do my own sort of healing until I get to a fresh source I trust. I knew that I was going to have to use the water to fight: it's why I haven't bothered healing myself."

That, and Zhin's death was still fresh in her mind: if her loyal companion had to die with no relief, the least she could do was power through this with her own injuries.

Of course, bleeding to death would NOT be honoring Zhin's memory, so Kaya would bend on that.

"Here," Cedric offered, gesturing for them to sit down. Low, under the window. He kept his wand at the ready, prepared to switch from healing to attacks at a moment's notice. At least they were in an area with full powers restored.

"Show me what you want healed. I'll be careful, I promise."

Kaya sat by his side, her hands moving restlessly toward her gun just in case she had to let loose with a few rounds to take down their opponent. If she was under a lot of pain, she did not allow it to show: right now, her face was a mask of impassive feeling.

"My left shoulder, my right leg, my left arm and my neck," she said. "Apparently aiding other people when all you have is a gun and your wits is more grueling than I thought."

"Tell me about it," Cedric muttered softly, failing to mention how much he'd been hurt and the rough bandages under his shirt. He pointed the wand about an inch from the designated areas, whispering the healing incantation. He took the most time on her neck, knowing how critical the area was.

"This wasn't the best time to learn to use a gun."

Kaya nodded. "My problem with a gun is something I never had been able to realize until recently: its a weapon of science. At first, I kept denouncing it because unlike bending, or a sword, a gun is not an extension of your arm: it kills from far away. But now I see its more a weapon of intuition, of angles: knowing when and how to shoot, and doing it quickly. I've gotten much better with it now."

She sighed. "How are things on your end?"

"It's hard for me too." He finished up, pulling back to let her check how she felt. "Wizards are arrogant, I'm coming to realize. We shun Muggle weapons because we're so sure our way is better, that we'd never need a gun when a reductor curse will do. We believed nothing could take away our magic, and here I am unprepared."

He lightly brushed the handle of his own gun. "I've been learning for two days. I can aim, but I'm not doing very well."

Kaya nodded. "I've at least tried to learn outside of my bending abilities: once I learned about the ship, and other worlds, I realized I'd have to learn more than that. There were too many variables to consider, too many things that could go wrong that I needed more than just bending. Eventually, I had to learn how to shoot these things."

She sighed. "I wonder how many of our people are hurt."

"I understand the need now. I'm sorry I've been so useless most of this time."

Cedric spun to peek out the window, ducking when he spotted another army marching by. "It's probably time to head out," he said, gripping his wand tightly. "Ready?"

"Our use co,es out in more ways than just one," Kaya said. "Don't be so quick to count yourself out. You're still capable of doing a lot."

Kaya cracked her knuckles, widening her stance and taking a deep breath. "As ready as I'll ever be."

"I'll do it." Cedric tried to look confident, ready to charge out the door. As long as they were in this area, the use of his magic was assured.

"Go!" He launched himself out of the building, flinging Reductor Curses at critical joints. It was so much easier and lighter to aim than a gun, and he could pull back and conjure a shield if needed.

Kaya nodded, and gave him a full ten seconds as her fingers moved deftly to her water pouch, letting the cool sensation run through her fingers before she burst into the fray.

It was as if the healing had been exactly what was needed to get Kaya motivated: she moved in zigzags, her water stretching as needed, then contracting and then even seizing a few robots and flinging them into another's path, resulting in several explosions.

Cedric was seriously impressed, he thought whenever he had the brainpower to spare. Kaya was a master of the battlefield, knocking foes over left and right. He just barely had space to cover her and weave spells of his own.

Saving the energy of the most complex spells for later battles, he helped to clear the way by knocking over robots. In the case of the larger ones, he pressed himself behind a pillar and transfigured a part at the waist into a gel. Down came the robot.

When all else failed, Reductor Curse shots worked too! "Down the block, you reckon?" He spotted a robot firing on them in the distance and scrambled to conjure a shield just in case.

Kaya was an expert waterbender, and right now she was running on anger and determination. She moved through the crowd, using her own body's trajectory to knock robots toward Cedric's line of fire.

When it came to knocked over robots Kaya moved through them swiftly with her swords, cutting into throngs of them , and when the larger ones fell, Kaya finished them off mercilessly.

Kaya looked toward where he was indicating and nodded, putting forth a burst of speed and coming at the robot with the sword like a javelin, making sure to tuck her body in and apply her force straight into its neck.

Bending could wait on close enemies: she had to conserve what water she had.

Cedric bounced the lasers back at his attackers if he could with shields. He was reluctant to leave his safe spot, but he knew he must if they were ever to hit the next damper. He could feel it beginning to interfere, so they must be getting close.

He thought he saw the small, shining object on a rooftop. "Up there!" Surely there would be another battle inside the building, one he didn't look forward to at all. Still he charged forward, shooting and shoulder-ramming a path through.

The injuries hadn't caught up to him yet.

Kaya knew she might have been spreading out a little too much, and to confirm this a laser shot came inches from her shoulder, promptly dealt with a moment later. They still had a damper to find.

And luckily, Cedric has sharp eyes because there it was, atop the roof. Kaya sighed: if she only had enough water, she would have just had launched herself upward, and there weren't enough precipes for her to climb it herself.

"Ok then, we charge the inside!" She said, a look of grim on her face before the water container was in her hands, ready to attack. "Let's go!"

"Right!" Cedric led the charge, thwapping another robot with his gun. He'd definitely need some treatment by the time they were through here, but he was standing and fighting all the same.

He flipped a table to block in the robots on one side of the space they entered, leaving Kaya the other. With some shots to knock something down---

"Duck!"

---yes, he shot down a chandelier to disorient one of his opponents. And it worked! He looked over to see how Kaya was doing.

Kaya, once they had entered the space, had decided to make use of the way Sheena had instructed her. She moved through the robots quickly, and a moment later, at least seven fell at her feet even as she was launching herself at more, sword extended again.

These robots, however, was a little bit faster, and once again she found herself narrowly missing being hit by a stray laser. She rolled on the ground and, sword sheathed, let loose with several rounds of the blaster, taking out five more robots.

She did look behind her and see that Cedric had helped to block some of them and gave him a thubs up before taking aim again.

Phew. Cedric set to work at what he was good at, smashing and blocking and using brute force. Kaya's abilities far surpassed his, and the most he could hope to manage was to help.

Finally, an opening appeared behind her and he darted toward the stairs. "They won't take too well to the stairs. We're almost there," he huffed, exiting gun-first---and it was lucky that he did, because a hole was quickly blasted in it, rendering it useless.

"How do we get out?"

Kaya was too focused on taking out any potential threat to think about anything else. Purpose drove her, and the quicker they took the damper out here the quicker they'd be able to do it elsewhere too. There had to be other areas in need of their help.

She followed him up the stairs. The offending blast at Cedric's gun was met with two shots point blank at the robot's head. Kaya winced slightly at the pointless destruction, but that was all. No lingering of empathy possessed her even a little.

"You leave that part to me, Cedric. We have a lot to do, and I'll be damned if its hindered by a roof."

"We're almost there." He peeked out for a second, as long as he dared, and spotted an exit door. There was a way, he just couldn't be very useful in making it past.

"I'll try something," he mumbled as another small plan formed in his head, looking at the singed and bleeding hand in dismay. "Can't promise it'll help much, though."

"I'll punch us through," Kaya said, looking where he was indicating, ready to do whatever she had to to make it work. "I'll do what...REALLY, CEDRIC?"

Now she looked exasperated, seeing his hand, shaking her head. "No, we fix this first, then.." But a shot over their heads changed her plans quickly, as well as her vocabulary. Damn it! We need more time!"

She shook her head in irritation, firing at the robots. "What did you have in mind?"

"I'm sorry!" he yelped, already in pain. It wasn't like he was trying to lose his hand, the blowback from that gun had just been intense. He cursed and lobbed the twisted pieces at the robots with his good hand, which unfortunately wasn't his dominant hand. They missed.

"Trap them. Knock things down." He shot out of their spot, rammed straight into a bookcase, and wedged his foot in the small gap that appeared. It would soon go down.

Kaya seized his hands, quieting the panic in herself, and pulled into a corner where they were both not going to get shot. She pulled out her Pactio card, shouting "ADEAT!" She wore a blazing white robe, although it looked a bit hemmed now.

It worked, but something felt wrong that Kaya knew, KNEW, she couldn't think about as a possibility right now. She instead concentrated the healing powers of the chalice that appeared over the two of them, and a moment later (MUCH longer somehow) they were both all right.

"Ok, I'll do that, but I'll need your help," she said. It had only barely come out of her mouth when he used the bookcase to his advantage. "Um, yes, like that."

Boy, did she feel about yelling at him for getting injured now.

Cedric started at the sudden display of magic. He felt a muted rush of power flow from her, concentration on his hands but trailing down to his other injuries. Soon enough, he was strong again.

With that renewed strength, he darted behind a robot and shoved it down. "Come on! Break for the exit, the damper should be right outside!"

Kaya grinned, and had to, because that lingering doubt of what was missing was playing in her head, and she knew she could name it and what that would bring, but she couldn't, not now. Not when they still needed their strength.

"GOT IT!" She said, and rushed forward, the robots failing to catch up with her speed as she broke and reached the exit, and a moment later the smashing sound of something falling from a roof a clear indicator Kaya had reached the damper.

System Shock - Fight the Power!

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