Future-Shock: Machina ex Dei

So they were headed towards the rainforest city? That was not very good, though the mecha-man quickly began securing connections and trying to circumvent the firewalls placed by The Progenitor, hoping to get in contact with someone that could help them, someone loyal enough to their father, but smart enough to understand why something needed to be done. Especially before The Progenitor got his hand on them. Of course that was the question of the hour, both of them. They asked about what exactly, or rather whom exactly The Progenitor was. The mecha creature couldn't very well out and tell them. He feared for the worst case scenario where they would demand to meet him. The creature also contemplated simply ignoring them, however that was far from reasonable.

"He'sss well... It.... The Progenitorl; it's the father of the change. It'sss the reason humanity has survived and even thrived. The Progenitor is the creator of our race...the Machina-sapien. When the world was struck by The Blight, a human who was the greatest mind in robotics was able to merge both man and machine. In doing so, they managed to create something that was able to survive The Blight. When he saved us all many of us began to worship him and called him a God. He immediately rebuked us, and only three had ever held the right to call him father. So we gave it the name "Progenitor". As it was befitting of his role and his status." The creature explained, not at all shocked they were more interested in The Progenitor than they were in him. For the love of gravy they didn't even know his name yet. They didn't bother to ask honestly, though it didn't bother him. He knew them, and that was all that mattered.

"You ask too many questions little one. Your father taught you well." He said to Quinn with a little chuckle, quite fond of the concept that she had a different father than he. Despite both of their strong connections to the same entity...their fathers were quite different....even different for an adoption. Quickly the creature picked up on someone willing to assist them, though it was perhaps too late as the entire woods around them began to bend, funneling as the flora danced out of the way, parting until trees wrapped all around them. Quickly the branches began to weave in and out of one and other, forming a large tunnel like construct. The wood-work botanical tunnel lead out to a small distance and there stood a rather strange looking robotic creature.

With the snap of it's fingers, branches fired out and wrapped up the large spider-centurion and began to lift it off the ground slightly, preventing it from moving or gaining momentum. The grass parted gently as he stepped, as if the grass itself were trying to avoid being stomped upon, the light shined down as the robot stood there, scanning over Ryan and Quinn.

Displaced in time as they were, that meant they needed a way back before something bad happened. What that bad thing was he didn’t know but something about butterflies, because that had so many things to do with what was happening now. The scorpion robot thing would begin to finally tell them who or what this progenitor person was, as that was making no sense without context. Honestly it would have begun to annoy him if he didn’t know what they were talking about, kind of like a joke he wasn’t in on. Apparently they were a person that had done something for humanity because of some blight, which meant they weren't so bad now that he thought about. It had been done through melding humans with machine, which sounded kinda cool but made him wonder if there was a class about how bad it was. Quinn asked about her future self and that made him wonder about his own future self, though they were likely dead because he didn’t have any kind of immortality.

Unless he did and didn't know it, which would have been really sucky because a lot of his friends didn't have it. Coming out of his thoughts, he had a few questions but found something happening that once again drew his attention from that. Said thing was the plants around them moving, as if likely being manipulated by something or they were dealing with sentient plants. The latter seemed likely, so Ryan prepared himself for the worst, which could be the case in an unknown future. Quickly their robot friend was tied up, leaving them with someone that appeared to be scanning them."Okay plant man...put the um....guy down now." He needed to ask for a name, because calling them scorpion dude would have just been awkward. Should they not respond, well he would  make them do so, likely through the use of cutting said things binding them.

Quinn nods at what seemed to be a exposition at first glance, but didn't actually tell them anything useful at all. It didn't matter much to her though, seeing as how shed be able to learn about everything once she met up with her future self. Maybe? Hopefully? Quinn could be a rather stubborn person after all. "I see." It was then that the very plants around them start to bend and twist, forming around them to stop them from being able to move around. She looks at the plants, wondering how they were able to do that without breaking apart from the strain. "I wonder how they are able to get the trees to bend like that without taking any damage. It is really interesting."

Turing to the really cool looking robot man that was walking through a tunnel formed out of the plants. Almost hopping in excitement from all the interesting stuff happening around her, she points at the man who had stopped before them. "Look, the plants moved out of his way to not get stepped on! How do you do that? Are the plants able to move on their own? Do you cause them to move?" Just as she was about to jump into thousand question mode, Ryan's words brought her back to earth, making her realize that she just left her spider robot man thing high and dry.

"Yeah, Ryan is right, put our friend down before we have to beat you up. Making someone float like that without asking first is rude you know?" Did I mention that Quinn doesn't even really have the concept of fear?

"Leave me behind! The Ranger will not harm me, his priority is your capture!" The arachna-hybrid creation tried to inform them, though knowing of Quinn the odds of them actually leaving was rather small. Knowing Ryan it was going to blow things out of proportion. "Discrepancy detected. Why are Ryan Lester and- further discrepancy reported. The Progenitor demands these two be brought before him-HE WILL DISRUPT THE ENTIRE TIME CONTINUIUM-"THAT IS NOT...our concern. Perhaps change is what is needed. Perhaps not. I was simply sent to retrieve these discrepancies and rationalize them. Now I will take them to The Progenitor, and you won't stop me." The Ranger said, reclaiming his right as the dominator of the conversation, his vines constructing around the arachnid's leg joints. The Ranger then looked to Quinn and Ryan again, as if trying to measure them up, looking at them for some unknown reason.

"You are under my custody. You will follow me to The Progenitor, or I will take you by force by the authority that was vested within me. Will you comply?" The robotic creature asked, it's voice incredibly human in a stunning contrast to the mechanical arachnid.

The fact they would want to capture them was still something that made him wonder more than anything else, but then again things were how they were. The future was really weird, made him wonder how things got this way. Maybe this Progenitor guy could give them some answers, but maybe he wouldn't either, probably just wanted to mess up the timeline like all ambiguous evil types. They wanted to take the two of them before this Progenitor guy, and...well Ryan didn't see any alternative unless he wanted to fight this guy. Because honestly he was ready to do that, looked like the guy needed a good asskicking. Looking to Quinn who seemed to be not too against the buttkicking option, he weighed things carefully, as carefully as he could anyway and went from there. "Okay...so this Progenitor guy wants to see the two of us?"

It made no sense why such a big guy wanted to see him, maybe they had weird things in mind."What do you think? Should we go with him or beat him up?" He asked, looking to Quinn with a single raised brow.

Quinn tilts her head, trying to understand exactly what was going on. Under his custody? Does that mean she was being arrested? That's no fun at all. She turns towards Ryan, wondering what he was going to do, but it seems like he was leaving the choice to her. Quinn blinks a few times and turns back to the robot thing. "You mean we would not be able to go on our adventure? That is no fun at all."

Quinn stomps her foot in annoyance, ever since they got here it was nothing but people telling her she can't go explore and learn things. "Why is everyone being so mean? I just want to explore this new world and find interesting things! You! Weird robot thing! Put our friend down before I beat you up, then leave us alone." Quinn gets ready to beat up the weird jerk face of a robot, wondering if he was part of the fun police. She was willing to give him some time to back off though, since just attacking someone who didn't deserve it was boring and not fun at all. Fights have to be fast paced and interesting, or they aren't really fights at all.

"I cannot do that Mistress. One day you will understand...The order was given." The device said, immediately the trees began to rip at the spider-construct's legs, horrific snapping and roars of pain as his legs were beginning to sever off, like crab legs at the mercy of a fat child. "Testing statement of Arachanon validity against discrepancy's will." Of course it wasn't al that bad until the first leg was pulled off, the Ranger itself not even moving as blood and black oil spewed out like a fountain. The next thing to sever was the venomous prong at the end of the tail. Next roots actually moved forward and like needles began to dig into the arachnoid-bot's skin, grabbing muscles, circuitry and violently ripping, causing nothing but pain.

 "His suffering stops at your submission to regulation." The Ranger proclaimed, it's own calculative rationale showing Ryan's display coming up as "Kind-hearted but will attempt to stop with violence." Of course this was in stark contrast to when he looked at Quinn and the only thing displayed was a simple, three word analysis.

 "Gives no fucks."

Rather than just letting the scorpion down, they proceeded to start tearing them apart with the large plant things, which meant that Ryan would have to do something about it. "Okay, you just ruined any chance you had of me going with you." Ryan said sharply, breath hissing between his lips as anyone with a working sense of touch would likely feel the sudden drop in temperature. His flesh had begun to turn pale, paler even as his eyes turned a crystalline blue. "You have three seconds to stop. You're just a robot, so it won't count if I dismantle you, right?" Clouds were gathering rapidly, forming dark and full of moisture above them, and within an instant they release their payload down o them in the form of a thick shower. "I don't know who this Progenitor guy is but if he lets his flunkies do this kind of stuff, then he's probably not any good either." The pain they were causing this thing was obvious, and while Ryan didn't have any real reason to defend them, it just didn't sit right with him.

Water would begin to soak the ground, rising all with a single mental command as if to show that he had complete control over all of it. With each breath he let out, a small cloud of white mist accompanied it, as the temperature itself came closer and closer to freezing, even then lower than that. All with a thought, what appeared to be thousands of jagged shards of ice were sent flying towards the machine.

"Why does everyone want to ruin fun!?" Quinn complains as everyone else moves into action. The scorpion was screaming in pain from being ripped into pieces by the moving plants. She makes a quick mental note to figure out how they were moving like that without breaking from the stress. The ranger was controlling the plants and demanding for them to give up before it would stop. Ryan got angry at the ranger for doing the whole torture thing, which she guessed was bad? It was an ineffective method of getting information anyway.

Quinn figures that she should at least help her two friends, though it looks like Ryan has got this fight in the bag. Controlling ice like that was so cool, maybe she could be able to do it later. Creating a rather heavy looking pistol, she puts a clip into the Ranger, then waiting to see how the ice and gun combo did in terms of damage, mentally going over her weaponry to see if she had anything with more power in it.

While all of this is going on, Quinn has a stray thought. Why doesn't the scorpion just turn off it's pain? Not being able to do that seems like a huge design flaw.

Mist, the down pour that splattered the ground outside the tunnel they were in. Did the young man really believe that the Ranger was unprepared for such an attack? Did they believe this tunnel of botanical wonders was sheerly to keep them from running? The rain would provide little help here, though apparently the rules of the game changed when little pieces of water began to soak through the creases. The Ranger immediately went to tighten the forces, though quickly reconsidered. Simply allowing the water through, was safer on the plants than constricting them. Even if his plan completely had considered things, apparently the Progenitor was not on his side today.


Ice shards were headed his way, a flurry of them to put a number at it. Of course it was not just one stagnate attack it was multiple. Quinn herself had manifest a rather heavy pistol of sorts before firing it off. The Ranger immediately began to calculate the response, but it was not the most efficient response. First the grass beneath him grew rapidly, firing up and producing a wall of long grass which intercepted the ice, wrapping around it and holding it in place. The Ranger moved as best he could to avoid the ice as the grass released the flurry in order to avoid being destroyed by the bullet. With a snap of his fingers the mechanical arachnid was torn asunder, the legs removed and the venom piercing gland spewing.

"I take no pleasure in this. Forgive me brother. My orders stand." The device said, sounding actually a bit mournful for a moment before it clutched onto it's shoulder. Looking to Quinn it was obvious that he had his eyes set on the weapon-creating little warmonger. The tunnel appendages themselves began to warp as roots moved and actually began stuffing themselves into the open wounds, worming their way through the internal workings and "guts" of the arachnid-bot.

"I request one more time. Please desist and submit to processing. Failure to do so shall result in serious consequences." He held his hand up as if he were ready to snap, knowing the snapping it wasn't going to be a good thing. The obvious damage of Quinn's shot showed slight damage to the external armor, revealing a fleshy colored pigment with little charred marks around it. Was that a human under armor of some kind? Questions, questions. One final denial before the fight began.

Regardless of the assault directed towards the machine, they seemed to more than anything easily block said attack. This was followed by them....ripping them apart, forcing root into the things body. Ryan gritted his teeth, anger flowing through him molten as his mind thought over multiple ways he could tear the thing apart. Still, he found himself question if fighting would do anything good, beyond ending with someone being killed. He didn't really have any choices, unless he could deal with their....death or whatever anyway. "Fine..." he said, words sounding almost forced between his teeth. "I'll go with you." He relented, though his expression seemed to speak an unspoken threat.

Quinn stops and thinks for a second, seeing as how Ryan had already given up and the weird spider creature wasn't exactly in any position to do anything about the even weirder plant tentacles that were violently invading him. ...Yeah she wasn't going to go into how weird that looked from the outside, some people are just strange.

"That does not seem very fun, so I am not going to go with you." Quinn, of course, shows just how correct the Ranger's analysis was in two simple lines. It wasn't like he was holding Mindy hostage after all. Or Cale, she guesses, though Cale is super stupid about these things and would put the cuffs on himself. Summoning a second gun so that she had two, one in each hand, Quinn gives the ranger a sweet smile. "Do you want to play with me?"

"Acknowledged. Thank you Ryan. Your compliance is appreciated" it said, almost sounding happy, or relieved. But soon there was a divided stance. The Ranger couldn't help but recognize the glint in Q7's eye as she spoke innocently. The Ranger was slightly unnerved, though quickly let out a little sigh to regain his subtle mis-step. Then his mechanical voice spoke up.

"I do not...but if you insist then I suppose I must play this game, you twisted girl." It stated before swiping it's hand across the air, ten thin blades of grass illuminated a bright chartreuse color before arching out into the air and back down. Like dolphins breaching from water, the grass shot out before following their trajectory back down into the ocean of chartreuse. The grass all around these single blades began to illuminate as gold and chartreuse seemed to bring the entire area to life as these thin blades made their way right towards Q7, the Ranger watching to see what they would do in response.

As the glass begins to glow around the clearing, Quinn stares at it with wonder, this being the first time someone made grass glow for her. Pointing that the glowing grass excitedly, she looks over at Ryan, completely ignoring the fact that she is currently in the middle of a fight. "Look! Is it not pretty? I wonder if I could learn how to do that." Of course, just because she wasn't pointedly looking at whatever the mean robot man was doing doesn't mean she didn't have part of her head in the game.

The moment that the grass flies into the air, Quinn locks onto them, aiming and firing her two weapons as fast as she could, attempting to hit the grass out of the sky before turning one of her weapons towards the mean robot man and just squeezing out as many rounds as she could. Of course, her second weapon wasn't just doing nothing, Quinn using it to try to blast the vines currently wrapping themselves around the scorpion robot so that he could be less in the way.

Hitting some of the blades of grass didn't really matter. They were just strings of grass after all. There was nothing special about them other than the fact they were glowing. The poor blades of grass stood no chance as Quinn murdered them dead. The vines on the other hand were quite durable, and the onslaught of fire had done little more than to burst a few open and reveal the gushy watery innards of the vegetation. Continued fire would in fact free the large man, though how much use could he possibly be in such a weakened state?

The Ranger began to feel the onslaught of the weaponry himself, though eh raised his hands and a small wall of grass arrived to his aid, intertwining and hardening as it lost it's glow. The wall took quite a bit of punishment, but the damage had partially been done as it was. The Ranger looked to it's side, a small crack in it's armor was leaking. The wall began to crumble and fall, proving only a momentary reprieve from fire.

"If you weren't his I would SHRED YOU" The ranger shouted, his technologically altered voice making a grinding vibrational noise before it unleashed a wave of energy. The energy pulsed from his very being and immediately the grass became like that of water, or rather a bed sheet or fabric that was being shook in the air. The gras began to woble, crash and make waves, even pulling beneath Quinn's feet, likely tripping her up. Ryan's small section remained undisturbed, however.

Quinn stops firing at the lame vines that were holding up the scorpion robot, frowning at how ineffective her guns are. She just sighs and tosses them off to the side, seeing as how the mean robot man also made a wall out of lame vines that blocked her bullets, even though it was starting to break down from the bullets. She makes a mental note to get a weapon that does more damage against these more heavily armored people.

She was just about to make herself a more powerful weapon to use against him, seeing as how her bullets were doing at least some damage against him, but the moment that she was about to create her awesome gun of death, the mean robot man screamed at her. "Well maybe if you were not so mean I would play go fish instead!"

Then the ground shifted under her, making her fall down and land on her butt. Bracing herself as she looks down at the shifting ground, starting to get annoyed, almost like when she was fighting that stupid dodging speed samurai. Pulling out a sword, she stabs it into the ground, using it as a way spring up off the ground and land easily on the scorpion robot. A second later she was using him as a spring board and leaping over the vine wall that the mean robot man had up, the sword pointed downwards as she attempts to stab it into the robot. Of course, it didn't really matter if she missed or not, because either way she would give the robot a big smile. "I brought you a gift!"

Her gift being a high explosive grenade, which she helpfully let's drop to the ground right by them, not worried at all as it goes off and sends her flying across the arena.