B O N E S A W
: Paradox Engine, Simulated Universe #1 (Open Fields, Current Simulation: Unknown)
Mentions: Driscoll
@Mintz, Cyrus
@Randomness, Shadow Moth
@TruthHurts22, Poison Ivy
@Crimson Flame, Ganon
@ActRaiserTheReturned, and Horus
@Dead Cruiser.
Ooooooaaahhhhh~~! Bonesaw’s grin widened at the sight of the robot’s pieces beginning to form into brand new bodies of their own.
“So that’s why the weaknesses looked deliberate!” she proudly chirped from behind Mr. Driscoll. At Mr. Horus’s bellow of warning and admonishment of the adorably enthusiastic -and apparently equally baitable- Mr. Moth, the little blonde’s excitement only grew.
“Nanomachines~?!” she practically squealed at the sight. She’d only
heard about that kind of technology, and even the Nine didn’t go around bothering the Machine Army back on Bet just to change that. She gushed,
“Oh! Where do they get the mass?! How are they-?” She let out a girlish breathy gasp, as the one Mr. Horus split from shoulder to nuts
adapted.
And it
was adaptation. That much was made clear by the next few instances of the drones taking any form of injury.
“Oh my, Crawler would have loved it here~!” Bonesaw hummed aloud, looking for all the world entirely unconcerned with the threat of an eternally replicating and adapting foe, as she began fiddling with her fingers and then wiggling her feet. To the sharp-eyed, one might catch the vaguest hint of something…
shifting beneath the skin of her fingertips.
The Forever King, for his part in things, was entirely too absorbed in the conflict to witness such strange happenings. As he feared, it took only seconds for these fools to break into the Wardrone…And thus, complicating their situation immensely. Only one of them even had something
close to what he would dub a success, and, well…The hail of laserfire upon Cyrus spoke to the contrary.
“Yes, nanomachines. I cannot speak to the exactness of their functions, but the Techadons are mass-produced war machines, able to regenerate from past failures…And adapt to them, as one could plainly see.” Driscoll merely motioned to the catastrophe before them; the charging duo of drones, equipped with heavy-duty armor and vicious Talons, and the one who had now begun bringing hellfire to the poor plains were clear evidence of that.
“...I am also painfully aware that I do not know their weakness, although….” The Forever King began to take account of the situation. Something had to be missing here…When all of these constructs were struck down, it never seemed to sit…Except one. He glanced towards the smoldering, inactive remains of Cyrus’ first Techadon. Something happened to stop that one, but what..?
“...It’s the head. Whatever process they use to reform and adapt, it originates from there; if we can dispose of that, it should fall. It will not be easy…” He finally turned his attention back to the small child.
“If you intend to run, now is the time.” With that, he rose back to full height from his huddled formation, flexing the mechanized muscles of his armor back into force, and forming a warhammer of sorts in his hands. Slashing them apart did not work, but a single crushing blow to their central processing? Well… That ought to do just fine.
Bonesaw’s only immediate response was a giggle, before Driscoll felt a weight settle onto the back of his armor. Hardly anything enough to disrupt his balance unduly, but it was there. Bonesaw’s hand clasped into each of his pauldrons, as she briefly leaned over and gave him an all to wide pearly grin.
“Don’t worry, Mr. Forever King Sir~! The Slaughterhouse Nine never runs… except when running would mean we win even harder next time~!” Giggling again, the child moved back and settled herself more, before letting out a brief
“Oh” and scrambling a bit, as Bonesaw pulled off both her shoes and socks and slipped them into the front of her apron, wiggling her toes happily.
“As it so happens, Mr. Forever King Sir, I used to have a teammate who worked a whole lot like these drones… except, you know-” she giggled.
“Organic!” The fingers on either side of Driscoll’s head, clasped to his pauldrons began to… twitch and
flex in a manner that seemed distinctly uncomfortable, not that the child gave any sign that it was. Continuing on, as if discussing the weather, Bonesaw said,
“He had this real neat acid spit, and I got to work with him often while he lasted~! Long enough to figure out how it worked and make something just. As. Good~.” In unison, and then in sequence, her fingernails flapped upwards like trap-doors, before finally setting back down again.
“I’m something of an ace with cybernetics, you know?” Bonesaw’s grin was one that could practically be heard.
“So I made some capsules filled with that super special acid and stored one in each of my fingers and little toesies~!” Humming for a moment, she chirped,
“But no more than that~! No sir! That stuff is super volatile, way too risky to stuff more than that in. It’s a self-replicating acid filled with all kinds of digestive enzymes, you see? Once exposed to basically anything other than the inside of its capsule, it’s honestly one of the most reactive substances I’ve ever had the distinct pleasure to study!” Giggling girlishly again, Bonesaw whispered,
“This acid can melt through concrete, steel and so much more in practically an instant~. One capsule to the head should be enough for each of these naughty naughty bots~!”Abruptly, she let out something of a small whine.
“Moouuu~! But, I need to get close to do anything, you know? I can launch the capsules with my needles, but the range is pretty bad, and there’s no way I want to break them while they’re still on me! So~? I guess that means you and I will be staying real close for the next little while~!” She hummed cheerfully.
“Now then~! Who to target first, hmm~?” she wondered aloud in what almost sounded like mock thought.
“Well~, Mr. Cyrus is the only one so far to not make things worse,” she posited, pointing towards the bot that was currently barraging Cyrus’s position with a blaze of blue fury.
“Maybe start with that!”Driscoll gave a good laugh as the young lass clambered atop him.
“My, aren’t you a brave one, young Riley? And wise at that…I can agree with that sentiment when it comes to fleeing, and running from this problem will only prolong it. We end this now.” Before he could launch into the fray, however, Bonesaw had spoke up once more, about an old teammate, and potent acid, promptly revealing it to the Forever King. Her lack of response to such….Morbid methods of arming oneself was surprising. Perhaps, just as she had mentioned this teammate’s ability, she too possessed some form of unnatural trait. Well….Beyond her very nature, he supposed. Still, this was an agreeable outcome, for once. This could make the process exceptionally quick. Especially if…
Before he could continue that thought, though the small lass had been too focused in her demonstration to realize, Driscoll caught something; a new Techadon, a fresh one, barreling straight towards them.
“Hmph. Hold that thought. We have ourselves a challenger..” As it ran forward, looking to smash headfirst into the King, he took a low stance and slammed his energy warhammer straight into the chest of the machine, as small chunks of metal and hardware flew to the ground and the construct went hurtling across the plains, crashing back down nearly a dozen feet off.
“Oh~! Nice one~!” the child cheered enthusiastically.
Driscoll wouldn’t give it the time to recuperate and reevaluate this situation. Charging forward with Bonesaw squealing in joy from his back, the two looked destined to meet in a frontal clash, but at the last moment, yet again taking advantage of the sluggish nature of the machines, the Forever King went low and hit true against the knee of the machine, staggering it to the ground. Without time to waste, he quickly decided a smarter method; with a flex of his gauntleted hands, the energy of both reformed into twin armblades that promptly sunk deep into the thin crevice between the head and torso of the machine. Bonesaw could hear the exertion of Driscoll, putting his full force behind it. And just as it looked like the attempt would fail, and the Techadon began to rise up once more…
“Go~, go, go goooo~!” the little blonde chanted.
The armblades met in the center.
The head of the construct clattered to the ground, cleanly severed from the rest of its nigh-indomitable form. With only brief moments of activity left, it weakly tried to raise itself back up…Only to fall before Driscoll.
“Alley-oop~!” Bonesaw tittered, hopping down from his back, clasping the hem of her blue dress, as she practically skipped over to the downed head. Humming, the little blonde took hold of the large fallen head, and with far more ease than a person her size should, flipped it over, giggling.
“Oh!” she said after a moment, humming.
“I see, very little nanotech in the nerve center, hmmm~?” Nodding, she grinned.
“Makes sense! You know, even with how amazing nanomachines are, I guess even they have some limits~! Sure must be hard stuffing all that fancy programming and adaptive learning tech in there~!”Nodding to herself, she skipped back over to Driscoll and clambered back onto his back.
“They must have had to partition things, so if you can separate half the equation from the other, neither can work~! Symbiosis~! Two entirely different species of codependent nanomachines forming a working ecosystem of simultaneously robust strength! A strength and weakness all in one~!” Bonesaw squealed in excitement.
“Oh~, I just can’t wait to dig around in there properly~!” Sighing in longing, her chirpy voice filled with faux seriousness,
“But before we can play, there’s work to be done for all good little boys and girls~!” Stabbing a deceptively harmless looking finger forth at the bot still menacing Cyrus.
“Mr. Driscoll Sir, let’s free up the only other successful ally we’ve got!” She didn’t feel the need to include Mr. Moth in that statement, because honestly, she was being merciful enough not mentioning him at all.
Driscoll toned out Bonesaw about halfway through her monologue. Her prattling sounded like she was learning something valuable about these machines, but he couldn’t quite grasp all she spoke of. Symbiosis? Codependent nanomachines? Well, at the very least, she seemed knowledgeable in the subject. A useful thing to take note of.
However, more pressing matters still stood. The Forever King felt…A modicum of confidence in the towering Horus, in spite of his situation. If he was proven wrong, then so be it. And as for the strange woman who seemed obsessed with the greenery around her, well…Perhaps her being burnt off the stage would not be a bad thing. She already
sounded troublesome, and he hadn’t even properly met her. Thus, it left one target.
“Agreed….Tell me, how much pressure do you believe those capsules can withstand?” A devious plan began to hatch in the King’s mind, and if it went as planned, this would become even easier than he had begun to anticipate….
“Moouu~!” Bonesaw hummed in thought.
“Well~, a lot, really. Might break if you stomped on one real hard in your suit. I needed to make sure they wouldn’t accidentally pop inside me, you know?” Nodding resolutely, she continued.
“So, I mostly launch them with my needles in order to puncture it mid-flight, but I can eject them manually…?” She trailed off questioningly.
“If you would be so kind as to offer me one. I believe I have a method that will suffice beyond needles…” With a brief flex, his left arm dissipated his armblade, and formed itself into a cannon-like shape.
“This fixture fires off a highly-pressurized blast of water. It was meant for a more…Specific scenario, but it will function well for this.”“Hmmm…” Bonesaw murmured, before pulling herself up to sit fully atop his right pauldron. Reaching down to her bare left foot, the pinky toenail flapped open, and the little girl plucked a viciously-green colored capsule from some sort of crevice within, a tube leading deeper into the appendage visible behind where the capsule was taken… were one to have the right angle.
The toenail closing, Bonesaw’s smile remained, but there was a certain wary skepticism to it.
“Well~, it’s your suit, Mr. Driscoll Sir. For safety’s sake, take this as a Doctor’s professional warning! If that hose is comparable to a pressure washer, might want to dial it back just a bit on launch before ramping it up on impact~! Otherwise…” She grinned leadingly and handed the highly volatile Tinkertech weapon over. Little more needed to be said on the matter. A screw up was not going to be any joking matter.
“Understood.” Tapping a finger to the side of the newly formed armament; a portion of the metallic plating slid open to reveal a dial; perhaps a bit rudimentary, but with his systems all but fried, he would have to handle things manually. Turning it back from maximum pressure, he brought it down all the way to a ‘one’ on its scale; admittedly, even that low was still comparable to a pressure wash, but Driscoll had confidence in his scheme. One had to wonder what he had intended to douse with the maximum of ‘ten’...
Regardless, he took the deadly concoction delicately in the giant fingers of his suit, and carefully placed it within the cannon. In spite of what failure could mean, the Forever King would not know of the word; not anymore. Taking strides towards the now mostly-reformed Techadon, he rose his weapon to bear…And fired.
“Oohhhoooo~~!” Bonesaw could feel the brief spray of water that came off from the jetstream that fired, heading markedly towards the constructed menace; and with the capsule riding perfectly in the front. Just before contact was made, with a grin only he knew he bared, he cranked the pressure back to max.
It was evident immediately that it worked, judging from the fact that the jet of water punched straight through the machine’s torso, and over the rushing sound of water, the brief cracking noise of a capsule could be heard. As the Wardrone crashed to the ground, spraying laserfire wildly, the acid took violent effect; already, most of its torso was eaten away, and as it reached its arms down to try and stop the process, one touch of their fingers was all it took to begin dissolving those as well.
Its last moments were those of helpless resistance, as given only a few moments, the Techadon was no more, with nothing left to mark its presence. Bonesaw gave an enthusiastic smattering of rapid applause, smiling brightly at the successfully hatched scheme. Driscoll merely gave a nod of approval at the work it had done, before quickly referring to Cyrus….Though not before a small sigh could be heard by Bonesaw escaping him.
“Cyrus, see to it that the greenhouse madwoman doesn’t get turnt to cinders. We will see to that.” He shouted across the field, glancing towards the sky; the last Techadon was still yet to land, and its delayed entrance spoke silently of its importance. While a huge difference was made by this pair, the fight was not quite over yet…Lastly, the Forever King took notice of Shadow Moth, and his seemingly claimed Techadon.
“I don’t suppose you’re up for another, mm?” 
