2Spooky Etc. (Seam, Skyler)

"No, Martin, dammit, you can't go!"

"Weird, cuz I'm going."

"I said no!"

"I actually have no idea if that's true, gonna be totally honest, I listen to maybe seven percent of what you say? Nah, maybe eight. Yeah, solid eight percent."

"You. Are not. Going. Anywhere!"

"But I've already got my adventuring goggles on. See, they're different from my regular ones because they're jauntier."

"They're not- well, maybe a little bit, actually, they're- don't try and sidetrack me!"

Martin paused in his hurried dressing and readying. He stopped and looked Pedro directly in his one, really freaky eye.

"Listen. Pedro. My buddy. My man." Pedro was unamused. "You know Middlefield is where I need to go. That's where we CSI'd the evidence back to, that's where at least one of the pseudo-Nazis came from, and that might be where they took the crystal. For Christ's sake that crystal gave me, like, crazy super powers! You really think we need to be letting the- alright I honestly can't think up any more names to call them, you really think we need to be letting those very angry burly men with guns be having that kind of power? Nah man, that's bonker-onkers."

"I know, but Martin, for God's sake, that's Lovecraft country!"

"So come with me! That way you can keep a lookout for all the crazy demons and crap! Man, you know how fast I am, I can be in and out of there in literally ten seconds, and I'm freaking impossible to surprise now, the only thing I have to worry about is Goddamn Nyarlathotep rising out of the deep to try and eat me and you can help stop that from happening!"

Pedro paused, and after a moment, let out a very pronounced digital sigh. Martin did not realize the quandary in that.

"I'm really not gonna convince you to just stay the hell home, am I?"

"Nice 'yes' brah."

And before Pedro could even react, Martin had plucked him from the air and ran straight out of their Boston apartment. By the time the poor droid got a word in edge-wise, they were practically halfway across the state. Pedro spent most of the seven minute run across Massachusetts shouting and cursing at Martin, who pretended not to hear him.

Pedro damn well knew Martin could hear him.

As they reached their destination, Martin came to an abrupt halt. The town was very, remarkably, ominous. There was a thick and swirling fog that bathed the land in the eerie glow of an unnerving twilight; the forest surrounding the town borders seemed increasingly hostile the longer Martin lingered in his spot. He could barely see into the town, but still felt watched from all angles.

"Pedro, man, something's wrong here, I can feel this fog way more than I should be able to, like it's thick in a really unnatural way, it's freaking me out." Pedro wiggled free from Martin's pocket, making spitting noises as he shook off any lint still stuck on him.

"I told you. I warned you it was gonna be weird out here. This is Cannibalville, USA, not to mention whatever other nasties might be lurking, not to mention the commando raid squad you came out here to track down."

Martin momentarily ignored the uneasiness to give Pedro a sour look.

"Christ man, nag any harder and you're gonna cause the nag singularity. Jesus."

"Whatever. Just, be careful. Be cautious. Take it slow, be alert. Hopefully we won't see anything in there other than what we came to see, but if we do, I don't need you running into it headfirst like a jackass."

"Please," Martin said, finally beginning to move, slowly and with care, "when have I ever been a jackass?"

God coughed lightly.

Martin creeped, creepily, through the dense fog surrounding the town, Pedro petering along behind, swiveling his body around nervously to track his surroundings.

"You know dude, honesty hour right now, seriously my bad for not giving you a rotating camera, must be disorienting to have to spin around all the time. Really should have been design point number one."

"Martin, it's fine, just be quie-"

"Well, that's not true, really should have been design point number two, design point number one should have been more lasers, those are always necessary, I mean obviously not necessary but there's not a point in not having pretty much as many lasers as-"

"Martin, God's sake, shut-"

"Oh crap, Pedro quiet, someone's coming!"

Martin could feel the presence of another person through the distant fog, approaching rapidly, at nearly half the speed of sound. Focusing his Kinetic Sense, which he had only a little practice with, he could feel the person was a woman,  average build, but clearly with some extraordinary abilities to move as fast as she was. Within a moment, she had raced to practically within spitting distance of Martin, to the point where he could actually see her through the swirling mists. She stopped and caught her breath, apparently winded from her exertion. Martin had a brief flash of terror; he assumed he had been tracked, and that whatever group had taken his crystal had sent some sort of superhuman after him as retaliation. A myriad of, admittedly mostly terrible, possible plans of action raced through his mind, from running away, to initiating conversation, to puffing himself up like one would to scare off a bear.

He chose option 'C'.

"Martin, calm down. You can't panic, we don't know who this person is and making a hasty decision right now might make a mess that no one wants. Just don't panic."

"Hey you! What are you doing here?" The woman cried.

Martin panicked.

"Gah! Demon woman! Cannibal of the mists! Wait, you ran here you're not even from the- I mean you're still a crazy soldier lady and- I want my crystal! And I'm not gonna get gutted by some Nazi goon in the middle of Hickville USA!"

Pedro began spinning and sputtering in astonishment.

"No! No I said don't panic, you're panicking!"

"Pedro! Yes! Fight her! Protect me! Use your laser!"

"What? No, I-"

Martin, with all the quickness of a terrified jackrabbit, lunged and grabbed Pedro from the air, facing his laser-eye towards the woman and accessing his favorite functionality: Pedro's laser button, for when he was being stubborn and wouldn't use it on his own. "Martin, I'm not going to laser-cook your dinner, it'll start a fire!" this, and "Martin I'm not lasering your cat!" that. Laser button sure showed him.

Turning the droid into a handheld cannon of, quote, "badass laser death", he began shooting at the ground around the woman in an attempt to ward her off while he bought some time to come up with a better, less bear-specific plan.

She was obviously more similar to a mountain lion, anyway.

"What?!", Martin screamed, sounding stunningly similar to the shrill cry of the exotic Golden Pheasant. Such majestic birds. Martin was less majestic. What with the terrified flailing. He imagined it was hard to be taken by surprise by a pair of walking tanks, but such was the situation he found himself in. While he could now feel their position and movements, his Kinetic Sense had provided no warning as to their appearance; Martin hypothesized that they were not purely physical in origin, and thus couldn't have been anticipated by the predictive capabilities of his Kinetic Sense.

This was all, of course, rushing through Martin's head as he completely lost it at the sight of them. He watched Pedro's laser bounce harmlessly off their metal hide; had it not been obvious already, these behemoths were forces to be reckoned with. Legitimately fearing for his robuddy's safety, Martin tossed the little fella to the side, outside the epicenter of what was to be a chaotic showdown. Just as he did, the woman who had summoned the beasts charged him. Martin's mind blanked; he slipped into the pure autopilot of the Kinetic Sense, his body moving entirely on its own without any conscious input from him. Deftly and gracefully, it spun slightly to the side, just diverting the woman's charge; as he stepped into prime position, much faster than she could close the distance, he waited what seemed only to be but a heartbeat for her to come within critical range. As she did, he shot a devastatingly fast clothesline elbow out to intercept her face.

Meanwhile, Pedro spun helplessly through the air, choppily screaming, "Martin-Goddammit-Iamnot-your-Goddamn-bouncyball-you-can't-keepdoing-thistome!" He managed to stabilize himself just barely, swiveling quickly to see the two metal monsters rush into the blur of motion that was Martin and the strange woman's battle.

Feeling frustrated and useless, Pedro cried, "Martin, I swear to God you better not die or I'm taking all your science stuff!"

Martin's elbow connected, the colorfully dressed woman having twisted to avoid taking the brunt of the blow. She was still struck with considerable force, but it merely stunned her instead of, y'know, collapsing her skull. She staggered back, holding her head and crying out in pain.

"Whoa! Pedro! Dude! Did you see that? I looked like a total badass!" Martin cried ecstatically, spinning to face his floating companion. "She was all 'grr!' and I was all 'uh-uh honey!' and then 'bam!'" He was overcome with a rush of adrenaline and joy, feeling utterly invincible as he basked in the glow of beating up a woman who was effectively defenseless against his pure speed.

"Yes, yes, I saw, cheers and applause and all, but do you not see the giant metal titans charging you?!" Pedro cried, his eye lighting and flickering with emphasis.

"Huh?" Martin glanced over his shoulder at the slow beasts that were effectively motionless compared to him. While imposing, with his new found confidence he deemed them little threat. "Oh, yeah, no, I saw 'em. Well actually technically I'm tracking them wit the Kinetic Sense, which I really gotta figure out how that works soon. Actually, I have an idea on that-"

"Martin you need to take this seriously! This is life or death!"

"Yeah, sure sure, but first, how do you feel about dissecting a clone? Any moral conundrums? More pressingly, how long do you think it would take to genetically engineer a fire-proof goat? It's extremely important for the experiment."

"Dammit Martin, we need a plan of attack here, and- what's that?"

"What's wha-" Martin paused mid-sentence, his Kinetic Sense going haywire as he felt the same unintelligible ripples that he had felt when those golem-creatures had come into being. He spun to see the commotion; he caught the tail end of the latest summoning, where three giant monsters phased into being.

"Are those... ragdolls with machete arms?" Martin said quietly.

"Those look terrifying. Can we leave now, Martin? Pretty please?"

"Oh man, those things are awesome! How do you keep doing that? I'm digging the vibe, too, real kinda 'creepy colonial' thing going on! I mean, you know, please don't kill me and all, but still, you gotta tell me what those are!"

"Martin if we go home I'll buy you ice cream."

"Pedro I'm gonna trust you right now, I really want that crystal but you know how little I get ice cream, and- wait a second, I never installed pockets on you, where would you keep your money? "

"I, uh-"

"Wow. That cuts deep man. I'm feeling really betrayed right now. I gotta deal with these scary things, but believe you me, we are gonna have a long talk about false ice cream." He grimly turned towards danger; he knew now how war could turn brother against brother.

With fire in his eyes and hurt in his heart, he pointed his sadness at the blade-armed beasts. He decided to make the trip out here worth it; having injured the rainbow woman (who was now standing behind the monsters she had summoned), Martin was hopeful this was a fight he could win. He figured that if he could incapacitate her, he might be able to get some more information about the group he was up against and, possibly, what sort of obstacles he would face further in the town.

He tried to focus, to channel mental capacity to his Kinetic Sense, which he hoped would be a workable tactician for him. It began to intensify; and though Martin couldn't process it with his conscious mind quickly enough to understand it, it rapidly formed a strategy. An image flashed through his mind's eye as his body began moving on his own: a super fast charge, followed by a graceful leap and spin over the foremost golem's blade arm. Then he would touch down on the shoulder of the other one, kick off of that with massive speed-bosted force and twirl into a spin kick of the third, before landing and whipping around to launch a flurry of blows under the first monster's arm.

The Kinetic Sense would adjust his body's motions on the fly, to account for the maneuvering of his enemies, but with his speed, the battle would be over before Martin's conscious mind finished registering even the initial attack plan.

Faster than sound, his body rocketed at the deadly inhuman warriors.

(OOC: Chelle wanted us to skip her for a turn, so we could finish up the fight and have her join in right after.)

Martin's moves were rapid and powerful. As he planned, he flipped over the first creature's arms, blew the second away with a powerful super speed kick, and launched into a punch on the third. It was just fast enough to twist a little, and Martin's position in the air prevented him for countering with his own maneuver, but he still managed to land a decent enough hit. He landed and spun, only to wind up face to face with the third monster's arm. It was in prime blocking position, and was on the upswing for a follow-up attack. It would never be fast enough, but it delayed Martin's assault long enough to allow him the opportunity to notice the soldiers approaching his position.

In a flurry of motion, he automatically bolted from the fight with the golems, the Kinetic Sense deeming the advent of ranged weaponry to be a far greater immediate threat. He pounced at one of the soldiers, attempting to wrestle his gun away before he could be shot. The soldier had no time to react; Martin was on him in a flash.

That's when things snapped back to real time for him. He was trying to force the gun out of the man's hands, dancing around his elbows and other offensive attacks, not having the natural strength to actually take the weapon away unless he used a speed-assisted tug (which would more than likely rip the man's arms out of his sockets). Wondering why his body had effectively paused, it dawned on him that the men were... shooting at the golems? That was strange. Were they not... were they not on the same side?

Oh dear, Martin thought.

"Oh dear," Martin said.

So bewildered was he that the soldier actually managed to gain the upper hand for a moment and connected a bone-shattering punch to the mad scientist's face. Martin's entire world rattled and shook as he collapsed to the floor in a pile of useless man-parts and blood. He cried out in agony and could have sworn he felt bits of cheekbone bounce around inside his nostrils for a minute. He regained his faculties, after spazzing out on the ground like an epileptic at a dubstep convention having the time of their life, just in time to avoid getting shot by the angry soldier in decidedly imposing jet black body armor. With instant acceleration, he bounced up form the ground, the Kinetic Sense careful not to move his body in such a way so as to aggravate his wound, and chose a smarter tactic. He swung around behind the soldier and kicked at the back of his knee, then, as he buckled, sent a hugely powerful fist right at the center of his spine to launch him forward into the Earth; all before the man could have pulled the trigger. The man crashed to the ground like a meteor, but like a true soldier, reflexively spun to track his target with weapon raised. Martin simply rushed him and bopped him on the helmet a few dozen times, trusting the Kinetic Sense to know how much force to use to knock him out without killing him.

Coming back to normal speed to devote a little conscious thought to the situation, he sensed that the golems and soldiers were too busy fighting each other to notice him. Gauging the golems to win that fight, he turned his attention toward the woman who summoned them.

"Hey crazy lady? Hey, yeah, hey, heh, my bad. I, uh- yeah, just, uh, my bad. I mean, not entirely my fault, you know, things happen. But is that- is that one thing of your's dead? Like did I kill it? I totally didn't mean to kill it. Scout's honor. Are you mad?"

"Of course she's mad, jackass!" Pedro shouted, sensibly.

Nah, she's not mad, Martin thought.

"Nah, she's not mad," Martin said.

(OOC: Sorry it took so log, I was waiting a bit for Chelle then I got all wrapped up in school/personal stuff. Should have more free time now.)

"Yaaay!" Martin cheered with a big, dumb grin. "I didn't kill your pets! And you're not crazy!"

He turned to Pedro and whispered, "She's probably still crazy."

"Martin, quiet." Pedro floated over to the woman, hovering at about head-level. "I'm so sorry for this misunderstanding. This fellow here in the goggles is my companion Martin, and I am-"

Martin, with a burst of speed, rushed up beside his metal friend And cut him off. "This is my bird, Pedro."

There was a long pause as both Martin and Pedro stared at the woman. Pedro slowly rotated to face the goggled scientist.

"I'm not a bird, Martin."

"Sure you are!"

"I'm round. And metal. And I talk."

"You're an exotic bird. Imported from the Caribbean, probably."

"...I'm not a bird, Martin."

"Eh. Agree to disagree."

"I'm not going to-"

"So anyway!" Martin shouted, snatching Pedro from the air and juggling him between his palms. "My name is Martin, this is Pedro, we're here for what I'm pretty sure is some kind of hippie crystal?"

Pedro broke free of Martin's juggling and flew around to the air by his head, clearly perturbed. "More like an ancient eldritch artifact of unimaginable power."

"Sure, sure, sounds jammin'. Anyway, I'm pretty sure these guys-" he paused to bolt over to the soldier he had knocked unconscious and remove his helmet. He revealed a particularly grizzled looking man with scarred skin. "Ew, gross dude, don't you shave? Hygiene, man! It's important!" He glanced at the man's name tag, then took his face and pointed it at Pedro and the woman, using it as a ventriloquist's dummy. "Heh, 'hi! I'm Paul!' Heheh." He ran back to the group.

"Yeah, but those guys have it and they're in the town. So I have four questions for you, ma'am! One, who are you, two, why are you here, three, will you help me, and four, do you have any moral qualms about dissecting a clone?"

Pedro sat flabbergasted.

I'm going to be his only friend forever, at this rate.

He reflected on all his life decisions that brought him to that point. He was disappointed in himself.