[Nexus] Inside 55

[Earl of Purple]

Pokemon Park

Dwelling in the park is a pokemon that really doesn't like pokemon trainers, and has the power to protect itself against them. This is fine; but it also does its absolute best to protect others from them, too.

It smells an injured, unconscious thing and hears two trainers talking about a ponyta in the same area. This gets its ire up immediately, and it slithers out to intercept. The pokemon trainers may note the absolutely massive black and yellow snake with red fangs and a bladed tail headed towards them. They most certainly will see it when it rears out of the grass and hisses. "Ssseviper!"

[Gullara]

Bast's Animal Shelter

"Well my employers are a group of devils. I mean they seem reasonable enough so far, but isn't that how they get you?"

"And well... there was a murder at work today."

Otto's Manse

"Yes, pretty much exactly that. And of course. Being information and not wanting to be shut out of my own deal, it is double password protected. The first to give you a glimpse. The second for the buyer when it's sold."

2

[Bast's Animal Shelter]

"Oh God. What happened?" Arel is shocked. It's one thing to hear about a murder. Quite another when you're hearing about it from someone who saw it first hand. She's just glad he's not hurt.

[Otto's Manse]

"Good, but I suppose we need a computer." Samona looks over her shoulder to the blue skinned man by the door. "Clyde? Would you fetch my laptop for me? It's in the office." The man nods and heads off to do just that.

Inside Docks

"If we're lucky, somewhere between never and never." And that sums up Ken's thoughts on when is the right time to mess with legendary pokemon.

"Yeah, I mean none of my pokemon are really that hurt, but maybe they'll have some dry towels and a bathroom I can use. And after that, I think we should have a match. Just a friendly one, but you seem pretty capable, and I'd like to see what your partners can do." The look on Ken's face isn't exactly friendly. It seems like he has something to prove here.

[Inside Docks]

Ken doesn't even know about the bunk area the pokemon centers have for trainers to use? Maybe they don't have that where he's from. Whatever, he'll learn soon enough. More interesting, though..."

"Sure, sounds like a great idea. I'd be happy to beat you." Becca says with a grin. Now here's a topic she's absolutely confident in.

[Shadowcaller]

[Pokemon Park]

"I object to that!" Comes a voice from nearby as a group of three people, all dressed in brown outfits wearing creepy masks approaches the two trainers. "That ponyta is ours and so will our pokemon be if you don't scram." The three individuals all have pokeballs and some sort of gun holstered in their belts.

[Rebonack]

[Pokemon Park]

A wild seviper appeared!

Team Evil grunts want to fight!

"No way!" Joey declares as he grabs his two pokeballs. "We saw that ponyta first! It's ours! So if you want it you'll have to beat us first! And there's no way you're beating Rattata! He's in the top five percent!"

Carter looks a little more uncertain about this. "I dunno, Joey. They might steal our pokemon if we lose! It's just a ponyta, we can find another one somewhere else."

"Not a chance!" Joey yells. "I saw it first and it's mine."

[Earl of Purple]

Pokemon Park

... And here come the reason this Seviper hates pokemon trainers on a level not even matched by Zangoose.

Still, if the Youngsters (guessing! They might not be) and the Grunts want to fight each other, then that's fine by the Seviper; weakening the winner badly enough that it should have little difficulty protecting the Seviper.

[Shadowcaller]

[Pokemon Park]

One of the grunt puts his hand on his hip and scoffs. "A hero eh? Well, you know what we do with heroes right?" He looks at the other two grunts who both nods, possibly smiling even more behind those creepy masks.

He takes the only pokeball out of his belt and sends out a kingler who snaps it's pincers threateningly at the two as it slowly approaches. "Final warning. We aren't afraid to use deadly force if necessary."

Neither seems to be noticing the seviper at the moment.

[Rebonack]

[Pokemon Park]

"Ha! There's no way you can possible win! Not when I've got my buddy Carter here to back me up!" Joey proclaims.

Then glances over his shoulder only to discover that Carter is fleeing already.

Fleeeeee!

Apparently he has enough sense to recognize that these guys seriously out-class them.

Unlike Joey.

"Go Weedle!"

"Weedle," quothe the weedle as it shimmers and shines.

"Ha! You guys are in trouble now! That's no ordinary weedle! That's a shiny weedle!"

[Earl of Purple]

Pokemon Park

The Seviper lowers itself back into the long grass, hatred glowering in its eyes.

[Shadowcaller]

[Pokemon Park]

The masked leader just laughs. "Another one for the collection." He points at Joey's weedle. "Numrian, grip it by the tail, take it alive."

The kingler clips it's pincers together in response and then quickly reaches out in an attempt to grab weedles tail and lift it off the ground so it won't be able to use it's poisonous needle.

[Rebonack]

[Pokemon Park]

The weedle is captured with little difficult!

It wriggles around a bit, but that's about it.

"Oh you're in trouble now!" Joey fumes. "Got Rattata!"

Out comes the second his second pokemon!

...which isn't a Rattata. Apparently that raticate is just named Rattata. The pokemon looks absurdly strong and little wisps of smoke are curling out of its fur. Joey has been using Rattata since Generation 2. It hit max level years ago.

"Rattata! Use Giga Impact!" Joey practically shrieks.

The huge rodent hurls itself headlong at the Kingler like a cannon ball!

[Earl of Purple]

Pokemon Park

They seem less like Youngsters, now. Or at least, Joey does. Carter's fled, like most Youngsters would when an older boy (or girl) uses their pet to beat up his pet and steal their lunch money.

The Seviper remains, cautiously curled in the long grass.

[Shadowcaller]

[Pokemon Park]

The kingler stares in surprise at the huge ratticate before it's suddenly hit by it and is slammed into a nearby tree, the three masked persons barely having time to dodge the pokemon by leaping out of the way.

You don't even need to see their faces to tell they're surprised by this development. "Okay, change of tactics." The leader then promptly pulls out his stun gun and attempts to shoot Joey with it which would stun him for a good twenty minutes or so.

The other masked people are still staring at the OH-K kingler in panic. How did that just happen?

[Rebonack]

[Pokemon Park]

BZZZT!

Joey goes stiff as a board and falls over backwards. He's down and out!

Rattata is looking pretty loopy after his overwhelmingly powerful attack. It's going to take him a little while yet to recover from it.

And as for the apparent ponyta?

Well...

Ardent Heart is still laying there in the tall grass, utterly oblivious to everything that's going on around her.

[Earl of Purple]

Pokemon Park

The Seviper decides to act. It slithers around, to try and get behind the Team Evil Grunts. Then, it shall try to Lick the Grunt at the back, hopefully paralysing him without the other two noticing its actions.

[Shadowcaller]

[Pokemon Park]

The leader sends back kingler into it's pokeball before turning to the other masked persons. "Stop standing there, I, you keep the ratticate distracted. Y, take care of the ponyta. I'll grab the weedle."

The leader then goes to check on thew weedle, hoping he can stun it with his stun gun. But before he manages to do that the Seviper comes at him and tries to lick him! The leader tries to shoot it but he might miss as he doesn't have any time to aim at all. (I assume he was the grunt you meant Earl.)

'I' (which may or may not be a code name!) takes a deep breath to calm herself down and then sends out a horrible creature. "Uh, Princess. Lovely kiss the ratticate!" Oh gods, it's coming closer.

Meanwhile 'Y' is sending out a flying pokemon to hunt the ponyta down. "Storm, drive the ponyta towards us with water gun!"

The winged pokemon circles around and will then dive towards Argent Heart, spraying water at her. That got to be annoying.

[Rebonack]

[Pokemon Park]

Rattata will have none of Jynx' nonsense. The well experienced pokemon hops back a few steps to avoid the smooching and then flings himself forward for a body slam!

Should the weedle get stun'd at it'll offer no resistance to speak of. And that leaves us with...

~~~~~

Ardent Heart gasps when she's blasted with a torrent of high pressure water, her breath woofing out of her lungs while consciousness floods back into her exhausted mind. There are people yelling and monsters wailing. Chaos and confusion and pain. It hurts to move. It hurts to think. But she has to move. She has to get out of here. She has to-

"Aah!" Ardent's legs collapse under her when she tries to stand, another torrent of water knocking her flat. Some sort of... some sort of water spitting bird is harassing her. Attacking her. Why? Why is everything in this horrible nightmare world so violent?

She grinds her teeth and fixes the monster with her one good eye as seething anger begins burning inside her. Why are they doing this to her? What did she do to deserve this? Well if they're going to hurt her then... then she'll have to hurt them back!

Ardent Heart reaches out with her magic for whatever loose metal she can find. Coins, screws, nails, old cans. Anything in reach. The scrap is shrouded in a ruby red aura and begins to glow with incandescent heat as she pours her fury into her star field.

With an inarticulate scream of rage Ardent Heart hurls her white hot collection of junk at the evil bird!

[Murkus]

[The Misspelled Cemetary]

Spoiler

Show

Misspelled Cemetery

That's problematic. Absurdly so. The headless ghoul may find itself punching its own head. And maybe even realize that a strong, rather violent man is attempting to grab and break his limbs, starting with the arms.

Mispeled Cemetery

Celica waits for them to separate brfore attacking again.

The wraith turns itself incorporeal again and drifts backward, managing to avoid the worst of Okami's attacks. It's the claws he's mainly worried about. Of course, then there's Celica.

She manages to hack off an arm this time. Unfortunately, it's not the one with the sword. The wraith's disembodied arm wriggles toward Celica, trying to seize her ankle and drag her down.

The wraith's movements are becoming more sluggish. The damage to his incorporeal form may be causing him to lose his grip on this world.

[Earl of Purple]

Pokemon Park

The Seviper shrugs off the electricity; sure, it stung, but it wasn't enough. The Fang Snake pokemon will, confident the leader's out of the picture (at least temporarily) tries to distract the wingull by Crunching Y with its powerful jaws. It's not using the venomous fangs, however.

[Recaiden]

[Wrecked Center]

"What's that? No words for a mosquita?" Another kick. Unless Seiner does something to stop her, or he displays another reserve of power, 99 will likely beat him the rest of the way to death.

[Beans]

[Rec Center]
She doesn't have far to go; he cracks, shattering into multicolored shards.
Seiner, meanwhile, is very interested in 99's stomach and leg wounds, which is probably why she's reverted to human form and has given herself the hiccups crying about it, clinging to her friend desperately.

[Yumori Zatsuken]

[REC Center]

As Axel enters the door, he sees so many PCs. He says, Aw, hell yea, is that SpaceStrike over there? He rushes to the PC, plays SpaceStrike, but it crashed, and the PC deleted SpaceStrike. He notice Civ10, he then plays it and then names his country, Deltaaaaaaaforce

[Murkus]

[The Red Zone]

In the course of a day or two, the Red zone is practically overrun by advertising. The worst parts get the best of it - the slums, the tenements, the alleys crowded with homeless folk. There are posters plastered on every street, billboards built on every run-down rooftop, ads played on every TV in every storefront or apartment.

Strange, pale, beautiful people with glowing eyes or ears hand out fliers on street corners. Buses drive by with animated placards running across them. Whole condemned buildings are suddenly turned into gigantic promotional graphics, holographic or illustrated, with sound or otherwise. The poorest Zone is flooded with the kind of commercial propaganda that would put Las Vegas to shame.

So what do all these blurbs, broadcasts, promotions and proclamations have to say?

Elexxion!

Spoiler

Show

"Do you feel like you're getting old too quickly? Have deadly diseases or disabilities ruined the life of you or someone you love? Do you long for the beauty and physical freedom of a lost youth? Make an appointment with Elexxion!"

Elexxion can HELP!

"We offer the latest cloning, genetic engineering and prosthesis technology known to man! The wealthy or mystical elite of the Nexus won't be the only ones with easy access to immortality."

Coming soon to the Red Zone!

For one day only, you'll be able to obtain an augmentation FREE OF CHARGE! Be it a new face, a new limb, or the cure for a tenacious illness, we're giving them away! And if we can't fix or improve it, we'll provide a discount for your personal clone-body! No money? No problem! You can work off your bill at our state-of-the-art augmentation clinic, or even sign up for organ donation with our Pay-by-Pound system!

Be better! Be beautiful! Be bulletproof! Be Elexxion!

Cases of life-threatening disease will be prioritized. Non-human results may vary. Limit one (1) free augmentation per individual consciousness.

On and on and on. One commercial might provide an example of Elexxion's clone process, and how it works. Another might show a before/after scenario, where a disabled little girl receives a new pair of legs and goes running into the on-screen executive's arms. Still another describes and displays a facial reconstruction, transforming a disfigured applicant into a woman with the looks of a supermodel. They're very informative - Elexxion wouldn't want to scare anyone away with vague promises of surgical perfection. Contact information of all sorts is included with every ad.

They're determined to back up all their talk, and with the amount of time and money sunk into this campaign, they'd better.



[Red Zone - Skies]

The man called Maxwell sat in his tub and sighed. All the pleasures of Elexxion's neuro-net available with the barest flicker of thought, and he couldn't crave anything more interesting than heated water.

"You're dreadfully boring, you know that, sir?" Came William's voice, soothing and song-like. The silver-skinned youth watched Max like he always did, perhaps staring a bit longer than was strictly necessary given his employer's state of dress. Or lack thereof. Maxwell was entirely bare, excepting for his Silhouette's eyeless steel mask.

Max studied his camera feeds, grinning as he did so. "You don't look very bored."

"I am. There's a whole mad city out there, but you go and run a bath," William crossed his arms fussily, disguising his blatant ogling with a glare. "You promised me a trip down, Max."

Max barked out a laugh. "You sound like my first wife. Stop whining. We can't break off into public traffic until we reach our drop-off. Remnant's rules." Max rolled his eyes and sat back, propping his arms up. "Speaking of which, Gary, when is that?"

"Just now, Director, sir. Shall I have your personal vessel prepared?"

"That'd be well, thank you, Gary," Max disengaged his Silhouette, the metal plates folding back so he might look at William more personally. "There now, see, you big baby?"

William fumed and pursed his lips, glancing away.

"Come on, lets have a look," Max said, grinning wolfishly. The Director stood up, wrapped a towel around his waist and padded out've the bathroom without another word. William, eyes widening, scrambled to follow. Across the shaggy rug, onto the veranda, and there stood Inside in all its glory. Well, on the horizon, at least. Below them there was only the poor quarter, the place they'd come to conquer.

Max took it all in, the alien wind deathly cold on his pale body. William threw a robe about his shoulders prudently, and Maxwell granted him a small nod.

Suspending them in the air was the mighty, curvaceous vessel Elexxion had dubbed Brilliance. Half a mile from stem to stern, it was shaped like a huge letter 'Y', curving down at the rear as you approached its engines. The ship was a vibrant blue-gold in color, with a tremendous 'Elexxion Industries' projected across its belly via hologram. There was no visible bridge on the massive metal structure - likely because it was entirely internal. Even Maxwell's quarters were nestled inside a shielded alcove at the Ship's rear.

"Float us here, Gary. Ensure the city won't be needing a cargo check or any such nonsense. And get us in touch with the commercial division," Max ordered, lifting a pair of fingers to the comm-uplink behind his ear. He looked nearly disgusted at the amount of Elexxion signage they could see from the veranda alone. "This is approaching gratuity."

[Recaiden]

[Ruined Rec Center]

99 looks down at Seiner and her mangled leg, and manages to stand for just a moment before sort of falling over. She was too angry to properly account the injuries earlier. "Oh." The leg wound would probably be crippling in time, and the stomach wounds requiring of surgery, if not funeral services. As it is, well, she won't be walking out of here on it.
"Seiner. I need blood. To heal. Just his sword won't do anything. Permanent."

((As mentioned in the description one thread ago (forgiven for not finding it) this place is a run down, derelict, shell of a building without power or running water, much less functional recreation equipment.))

[GrandDM]

[The Red Zone]

In the course of a day or two, the Red zone is practically overrun by advertising. The worst parts get the best of it - the slums, the tenements, the alleys crowded with homeless folk. There are posters plastered on every street, billboards built on every run-down rooftop, ads played on every TV in every storefront or apartment.

Strange, pale, beautiful people with glowing eyes or ears hand out fliers on street corners. Buses drive by with animated placards running across them. Whole condemned buildings are suddenly turned into gigantic promotional graphics, holographic or illustrated, with sound or otherwise. The poorest Zone is flooded with the kind of commercial propaganda that would put Las Vegas to shame.

So what do all these blurbs, broadcasts, promotions and proclamations have to say?

Elexxion!

Spoiler

Show

"Do you feel like you're getting old too quickly? Have deadly diseases or disabilities ruined the life of you or someone you love? Do you long for the beauty and physical freedom of a lost youth? Make an appointment with Elexxion!"

Elexxion can HELP!

"We offer the latest cloning, genetic engineering and prosthesis technology known to man! The wealthy or mystical elite of the Nexus won't be the only ones with easy access to immortality."

Coming soon to the Red Zone!

For one day only, you'll be able to obtain an augmentation FREE OF CHARGE! Be it a new face, a new limb, or the cure for a tenacious illness, we're giving them away! And if we can't fix or improve it, we'll provide a discount for your personal clone-body! No money? No problem! You can work off your bill at our state-of-the-art augmentation clinic, or even sign up for organ donation with our Pay-by-Pound system!

Be better! Be beautiful! Be bulletproof! Be Elexxion!

Cases of life-threatening disease will be prioritized. Non-human results may vary. Limit one (1) free augmentation per individual consciousness.

On and on and on. One commercial might provide an example of Elexxion's clone process, and how it works. Another might show a before/after scenario, where a disabled little girl receives a new pair of legs and goes running into the on-screen executive's arms. Still another describes and displays a facial reconstruction, transforming a disfigured applicant into a woman with the looks of a supermodel. They're very informative - Elexxion wouldn't want to scare anyone away with vague promises of surgical perfection. Contact information of all sorts is included with every ad.

They're determined to back up all their talk, and with the amount of time and money sunk into this campaign, they'd better.

And Harald turns up at the Elexxion office/facility/wherever. At his side is an eight-foot robot with a smooth, blank face except for two clusters of three gold LED-like lights in place of eyes, and a hulking, muscled ork clad in armour of the same metal encasing the robot and with a huge hammer slung across his back.

"Good morning."

[Devixer]

Elexxion

Entering the Elexxion facility at about the same time as Harald is a very plain-looking woman. She looks around at her surroundings, grinning a little at the presence of the ork.

[GrandDM]

Elexxion

Entering the Elexxion facility at about the same time as Harald is a very plain-looking woman. She looks around at her surroundings, grinning a little at the presence of the ork.

The ork notices the grin and takes a step towards her.

"Something funny, ma'am?"

Harald, meanwhile, is waiting on the receptionist (assuming there is one).

[Murkus]

[Elexxion - Ground Offices]

The directions on the ads will have pointed anyone with an inquiry here. It's a tall building on a side street, obviously being renovated even as it accepts applicants for augmentation. High above, the Brilliance floats solemnly, watching everything through electric eyes.

Inside, a plastic desk made to look like wood has been prepared for the lobby. Behind it sits several receptionists, who are readily taking calls that the Brilliance is too busy for.

The first receptionist looks young, with a pale, gaunt face and lips that glow bright orange. Her dark, shimmering hair is drawn tight against her skull. She smiles at Harald and the anonymous woman, asking, "Can I help you folks?"

[Devixer]

Elexxion - Ground Office

"Oh, nothing," the woman says to the ork before turning away from it and towards the receptionist. "Just here to look around."

[Beans]

[Ruined Rec Center]
Seiner scrambles to grab one of the shards, poised to slice her wrist open.
D-d-do you need me to bleed like this, or... you want it from my neck, or... h-how do I get you my blood? She's shaking, not liking the idea of hurting herself, but seemingly would prefer that to 99 not being okay.
Brave little klutz.

---

[Elexxion Ship - Revenant Maintenance Cell 913-753]

Revenant Unit 913 is brought back to operating status. The pale, naked girl opens her sea-grey eyes, feeling the connector disengage from her spinal cableport. Sensations returned.
Who was she? Memory coming online, please hold.
Please hold.
█e t█a█m█, ██ p████e mé██se.
Rustling. Darkn██s. W█████. G██t██ w█ght. The pre█s of lit█e bo██es aga██st one an██her, sl██py and re██ing, w██ ███ow █i██ t█e dew ██ ██e█r f█st ███e████ng.
Ch█mel---Chl█e, I...
S█h, to ██eep ███h you. I█ a big day to████ow, n█n?
Eyes closing, sleep.
How many nights ago? How many hundreds of nights ago?
Did that girl ever really exist? If so, did she still exist, alive? If so, where?
If near, would she still... hold the same attachment?
Je t'aime, ma petite méduse.
Memory online.
Vesa Landers sat up, checking that her body still functioned as normal. As always, it did; she got out of bed and stretched, climbing into her suit application frame and Harness setup rack. The familiar mental sting as the cord from the Bell head unit was connected to her port before the internal processors took over in dealing with the data of the Sensacle and Bell eyes.

The lanky girl climbed out of the device in her dull grey bodysuit, adjusting her tactical halfskirt and holsters. Atop her head rested a structure like a jellyfish's bell, trailing twelve tentacles ending in a camera eye and a three-fingered manipulator hand.
Standard pistol, check. Dart pistol, check. Lethal and nonlethal charges, check. Standard combat knife, check.
Social skills that might prevent any of these weapons from being needed? Eh, not her department.
Allowing herself the luxury of the warmth of that tiny spark in her memory, Vesa Landers checks the Elexxion newsfeeds, wondering when Alia (more warmth spreads in her memory) will reactivate. Yes, Alia, friend, connected to Chl█e. ██lo█. C████. Chloe.
Back to work.

[GrandDM]

[Elexxion - Ground Offices]

The directions on the ads will have pointed anyone with an inquiry here. It's a tall building on a side street, obviously being renovated even as it accepts applicants for augmentation. High above, the Brilliance floats solemnly, watching everything through electric eyes.

Inside, a plastic desk made to look like wood has been prepared for the lobby. Behind it sits several receptionists, who are readily taking calls that the Brilliance is too busy for.

The first receptionist looks young, with a pale, gaunt face and lips that glow bright orange. Her dark, shimmering hair is drawn tight against her skull. She smiles at Harald and the anonymous woman, asking, "Can I help you folks?"

"My name is Harald. I'm here for information... and possibly business. I wish to speak to someone with authority."