Scene #8027: Another Doomsday, or the Razing of Robotropolis

Owner	Pose
Staren	BGM: Chrono Cross - 2-15 Dead Sea / Tower of Ruin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paeBY6BPiAs Visitors to this zone in the early days of the second Resonance Surge are confronted by silence and stillness. Also darkness, but that's just night time. There is no sound of life, or machines, or even wind. Because nothing is happening. Time is not passing. (You can somehow breathe and move through the air and interact with objects without issue, though.) The environs around the gate are temperate North American, the Most Interesting Thing in the area adjoining a river, surrounded by scrapyards and fields, in turn surrounded by forest. Without further ado, that most interesting thing is...Robotropolis. BGM - Sonic the Hedgehog SATAM - Robotropolis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3ldW2uo6A0 A sprawling complex of industrial grey and black buildings, metal and concrete, warehouses, factories, refineries, power plants, and structures of inscrutable purpose, many belching choking, poisonous smoke into the sky. From a distance the walls, roofs, pipelines, and such are an inscrutable mess of greebles broken only by main throughfares, narrow alleyways, and electric lights, as well as the glow of fire from incinerators and molten metal from refineries and forges. Many of the buildings are several stories tall, with a few buildings of skyscraper right towering over the sprawl (control towers? Transmission towers?) and a gigantic, egg-shaped structure in the middle of it all. In the streets and in the buildings are more robots than anyone can count. Most common outside are saucer-headed humanoids with spiked shoulders and energy rifles, frozen mid-patrol all over the city. Most common inside the buildings are robots shaped like anthropomorphic animals, around 3-4' tall and universally painted a boring, metallic grey; frozen in the middle of tasks like carrying things, doing maintenance on the city's machines, cleaning, repairing other robots, sorting junk, and every task except security or control. After setting up a basic outpost around the gate, Staren is exploring all of this in wonder, trying to understand what the hell is going on here, gathering knicknacks and bits of computer and robot to study. And then there's an explosion, a new hole in the side of that egg-shaped structure belching smoke-- and it is actively belching smoke, because time has started again. Robots go about their tasks and the noise of machinery is everywhere. Nearby sentry-bots at once aim their weapons at her. "INTRUDER. HALT." They are about to be the least of Staren's problems.
Midway	Something moves within the smoke cloud. Whatever caused the damage is still in there; evidenced by a humanoid silhouette of truly inhuman proportion rearing up to their full height. Eyes are visible; wide, perfect circles of blazing crimson set in a head whose silhouette has clear, if stubby horns. Radar energizes. A sonar ping vibrates faintly through the ground. Water starts spilling out through the opening as well, while the figure advances. But what actually emerges from the smoke is a swarm of spherical white things with teeth and flipper-like wings. Easily recognizable as Abyssal attack aircraft. Hellcat fighters ascend, while wings of bombers scatter in mixed groups of Avengers and Helldivers. As chaos begins unfurling, the humanoid figure at last emerges as well. Undeniably, the Princess of Progress. She plants one black heel-clad shoe down, raising her leading hand upward. Fingers, clad in corroded black metal braces, curl until the tips of her talons touch. She says nothing. The gesture is enough. While bombers begin runs on their targets, a flight of Hellcats descend; initially peppering the security robots, but also strafing the erstwile catgirl.
Staren	Staren's ears twitch. There's a lot going on, but that ping sticks out as a noise that doesn't... fit. Staren is on the street outside a foundry -- the buildings nearest to her are actually relatively short to keep hot air from building up, so she can actually see the distant control center(?) from here. While Staren is distracted, the SWATbots don't actually shoot as long as Staren doesn't demonstrate ability and intent to damage them. Their coding prefers to take prisoners alive... Fighters and bombers attack. One of the SWATbots is taken out, the others near Staren immediately turn on the new threat and fire their blaster rifles. They do not display knowledge of military tactics. Elsewhere, more specialized attack robots begin coming online. Staren is also caught in the bombers' attacks, diving away from an explosion with her coat and pants scorched and tattered around the edges. She shoots her laser pistol back at the abyssal craft(?), then ducks behind a thick pipe transporting something into/out of and then along the ground, following up with a stream of miniature comet-shaped plasma projectiles from her vambraces that 'splash' and try to seep into gaps on impact. "Princess?! What are you doing here?! ...Okay, I get what you're doing, but... I'm surprised you want to destroy this instead of study it!"
Alexis	While most flight capable pokemon are either really fast or capable of boosting their speed in some way, it still takes time for a response to a call for assistance to make its way through the warpgates across Secundus to reach the scene of the action. When it does arrive though, it arrives in style. And that style is the orange dragonesque form of a Charizard literally blazing out of the warpgate over the robotic city and onto the scene. Leaning over a little from his back Alexis has a perfect aerial view of the battle unfolding, squinting a little behind the Go-Goggles protecting her eyes from the harsh winds. "Looks like we arrived just in time, Redline." Alexis leans forward a little against his shoulders and hooked her feet around the base of his wings to brace herself. She has little idea what's going on, other than a friend is in trouble and that's really about all the Trainer needs. "Let's give her some air support." Redline growls in agreement, and with a powerful beat of his wings dives into the fray. His maw opens wide, and the growl turns into a roar that is echoed by the expulsion from his mouth, not quite the fire one might be expected but instead it's a burst of pressurized superheated air that while not quite as powerful has wider range of effect to threaten multiple of the aircraft rather than one or two!
Midway	The flight of Hellcats bank and ascend away out of their dive; breaking off into pairs when they receive counter-fire. The leading leftmost sphere catches fire, trailing black smoke as it takes damage. As it breaks off, plasma fire riddles its follower until both craft spiral down and crash into the street. Bombers scatter before the Heat Wave, varying their altitudes. A handful are overtaken by the flames, exploding outright or spinning downward. As the main aerial unit menacing the attackers, Alexis is soon beset upon by Hellcat fighters as well. A squadron of four dive-bomb her, strafing the trainer and dragon alike and zooming away back towards higher altitude. Another group falls in behind them, in pursuit, machineguns blazing. At street level, Midway advances. Each step she makes produces a sonar ping, vibrating through the ground. When SWATbots react to her presence, her response is swift and incredibly violent; grasping the machine by its head and slamming it down. Hauling the mangled machinery back up, she hurls it over her shoulder. Mid-step the sphere following Midway cracks, then splits open into a great tooth-lined maw, disgorging twin planes covered in cannon turrets. "I will study what has the audacity to withstand me." The left-side battery opens up with reports strong enough to shatter nearby windows, bombarding Staren's position as well as the remaining SWATbot drones around her.
Alexis	Alexis turns her head a bit to watch as some of the Hellcats recover from the assault and maneuver into attacking them. "Well, at least you got their attention." As the aircraft divebomb them the Charizard flicks his wings and goes into a lateral roll (ITS NOT A BARREL ROLL DAMMIT) to avoid their fire. Unfortunately one maneuver is enough to keep him from shifting to another to avoid the second unit coming up behind them, and machine-gun fire pelts the firebeast's hindquarters and underbelly while his evasive stunt has left them exposed. Redline snarls in pain as his endurance takes a sizable hit, but has to dip lower to one side instead of rolling completely away from the second barrage or he'd expose the Trainer on his back directly to the fire. It results in a stagger in midair of sorts, before he manages to glide down to one of the buildings still standing. Before Alexis can say much he reachs back to lift her off his shoulders, sets her on the roof, and points a claw at her wrist before banking around the building and rising back into the fight. "Wha.. oh. Right!" Alexis pulled up the sleeve of her hoodie to uncover the glove on that hand, and the gemstone inset in the back of it, that she slaps her other hand over. A glow can be seen between her fingers as the object is activated. "If the sea Princess wants to play rough, lets give her a MEGA sized problem to deal with!" A sphere of energy engulfs the Charizard as he shoots skyward again, the image of a double helix spiraling open into a flame pattern briefly appearing before the energy is absorbed into Redline and the glow fades to reveal him now a dark black in color, with a cobalt underbelly and the scallop edge of his wings being much more pronounced. The flame tipping his tail and now constantly streaming from the corners of his mouth burns so hot it has turned a vibrant shade of blue. Mega Charizard X actually has Dragon as a type, and Redline takes full advantage of this by rocketing back at the squadron of Hellcats, aiming to just plow right into them with a combination of momentum and brute dragonic strength!
Staren	The SWATbots are indeed a completely laughable foe for Midway. Why are constructs requiring such advanced technology, made to look menacing, and armed with energy blasters, so weak? Staren sees the battery moving to firing position and DIVES as the place she was standing stops existing, the oil spilling out of the blown-open pipe immediately catching fire as it spreads along the ground, encouraging Staren to take to the air, sweating from the heat and with much of her coat scorched black now. "Pointless destruction... why am I even fighting you?" As she speaks, motes of energy can be seen sucking into her vambraces. She points at Midway. "My gut says not to let this happen, though!" She fires that vambrace, plasma spewing out past her hand to form into a larger projectile almost as tall as Staren is, speeding towards Midway! Staren spins in midair and sweeps out her arm imperiously as homing HEAT mini-missiles warp in above her and ripple-fire at Midway, airbursting in lances of light, and then Staren fires the other vambrace, another of those big plasma projectiles flying at Midway while she's dealing with the missiles. "I'm tired of people just doing what they want... taking and destroying things..." In the meantime, several ovoid hovering transports about the size of cars have flown into the area, although the SWATbots piloting them seem to just observe. The transports are topped with a spinning red light like a police car's siren. Actually the way they're showing up and positioning themselves does feel a bit more like police cars, showing up to be Present but not to engage.
Midway	Abyssal aircraft continue to dive-bomb Redline and Alexis even while the pair split up to Mega-Evolve. While the planes do only briefly attack and then dash up and away, there are simply so many of them courtesy of the Princess' aircraft reserves that their attacks are relentless. They only scatter from the energy burst of the Mega-Evolution, but promptly recover and resume their attack waves while the dragon surges up into their formation again. With the trainer and pokemon separated, however-- and the pokemon now taking on the fighters directly-- a different squadron of aircraft bank into an attack run. They don't dive or the like; they simply pass overhead, dropping explosives from their undersides as they travel. At street level, Midway's advance resumes, peppered with laser-fire and missiles. There are clear impacts; scoring dark marks across her white dress and ghostly pale skin. Her expression is unchanged, however. Her jawline hidden behind that collar of gleaming black spines; her eyes wide open. Perfect circles of intense, burning crimson that shines even through the smoke otherwise obscuring her body. "If you are so tired of these things..." Her resonant, ghostly voice takes on a distinct acidic quality. "Complain less and do more." Her parasite makes a gurgling noise, then disgorges something into her waiting hand. Snapping it forward, she fires the weapon; what amounts to a set of nasty metal teeth on a cable, teeth which clamp shut upon hitting something. A cable that she wrenches on with that impossible strength. A target that is not Staren; but the architecture behind her.
Alexis	Like overhead many wartime cities the sky has turned into a destructive dance. Just in this case its minature aircraft dogfighting with a fiery dragon instead of other aircraft. Gunfire continues to pound his form, but now that he's back on the offensive Redline is, well, living up to his name, pushing himself harder and harder to keep the fight going. Dragonic claws and tail sweeps lash out at any that get too close, while streams of indigo Dragonbreath blast from his mouth at the ones that try to keep their distance. But we'll give Midway credit for not letting the Trainer off easy in the background of the raging fight. Fortunately Alexis has enough battlefield experience to, upon seeing the bombers coming her way, turn and run for the opposite end of the roof. Bombs slam into the structure, the explosions ripping downward through it and outward from the epicenter to fling smoke and debris into the air! Alexis jumps off the roof as she's reaching for a second Pokeball, but the shockwave of the explosion catches her from behind and sends her hurtling through the air even as Scorch emerges from his pokeball. The badger-mon grabs onto the girl and curls around her, taking the impact against another wall himself.... which drops them towards some pipe rail that runs through the city for no apparent reason than being there. Which is enough for Alexis to deploy the rollerblades from her boots and land on in a grinding mechanic. Scorch catches his hindpaws on the rail a moment later as he lets go of her. Looks up at the aircraft... Then leaps off the rail as his collar of flame ignites, rolling up once more. This time his entire form ignites as the spinning motion spreads the fire around his body, the Typhlosion hurtling at the craft like a blazing comet version of a certain speedster.
Staren	Staren's eyes widen when she sees that gun and she jukes to the side, narrowly missed by those nasty metal teeth. "Tch. Nice try!" And then a section of wall comes down, slamming into her and crashing to the ground. There's some grunts from under the metal, and then a series of slashes as Staren cuts her way free, bruised and scraped even through her defensive enchantments, now holding twin vibroblades and breathing heavily, glaring angrily up at Midway. "I AM doing more! Just because you're stronger...!" More transports show up. These disgorge three types of robots -- one, the size of the SWATbots but beefier in build but smaller heads, another the same as those but scaled up well over two meters tall, and yet another has a build in between the others, with spikier shoulders, a more humanoid head, and a green camo paintjob. The big and small shadowbots announce as one: "Surrender all hope and prepare to be roboticized in the name of ERROR_dictator_not_found" Despite the demand, the small ones open up with optic laser blasts, while the larger ones fire blasters from their hands at the group. The military-looking combots deploy tendrils from their forearms, crackling with electricity, and then turn invisible. Although, the advanced sensors in use here can still locate them as they circle and spread around, displaying some knowledge of actual tactics. Staren catches some blasts on her defensive wards as she tries to dodge between all of that, her vambraces whirring and then deploying protective gauntlets over her hands as panels on them start to glow brightly and arc with energy. "I'm STARTING with making you pay in flesh for the destruction you want to cause!" Staren screams, leaping and flying again as she swings one sword and then follows up with the second, the shredding energy field surrounding each blade suddenly conducting a huge discharge of electricity into whatever it hits with a CRACK like thunder, leaving the vambraces burnt and smoking!
Midway	While Hellcats continue to dogfight with Redline, they're learning the dragon'mon's tactics. The aircraft spread out more. Only dive in pairs, rather than quartets; giving him less targets clustered together for his flame breath to menace. He's still making a dent in their numbers, but the Princess' continued presence commanding them is making the 'same tricks' less effective. Scorch's flame wheel prompts most planes around him to scatter in all directions. He singes some. One trails a plume of black smoke; but the badger's inability to fly after them renders the initial shock and awe of the maneuver its only real value. He bought some reprieve for Redline, at the very least, while the fighters regroup and circle around and above him, some trailing smoke or wisps of flame. At street level; Midway's device rattles across the rubble strewn across the road, returning to its launcher. The teeth clamp shut a few times in demonstration. Her eyes remain as they are, and yet she is distinctly aware of the machines spilling out into the streets around her. Of the robots going invisible; and their exact positions regardless of that due to her radar. The Princess ceases her advance at last, planting her foot. The energy arcs slam into and around her, surrounding her in dust cast up from the ruin. When the cloud dissipates, she remains. Clearly wounded; although not in the least hindered. She raises her hand, fingers splayed out, "Minimal hesitation. Minimal doubt." Those fingers close, "You want to kill me." "The violence will persist until the lesson is learned." The Parasite affixed to her back retches, then rolls itself away from her. The mouth stretches out wide; disgorging a worrying variety of weapons of all sorts. While these open fire, indescriminately and wildly in all directions, it similarly disgorges a large barrel on wheels; lined with mismatched teeth. Rockets ignite on the wheels, sending the weapon on a wild charge. As it passes Midway, she quite suddenly rears back and gives it a solid kick; sending the weapon hurtling towards Staren-- and behind her, the building occupyied by Alexis after her skating stunt; where the Great Panjandrum violently explodes.
Alexis	We're going to be 100% honest here. The majority of Pokemon and Pokemon trainers just don't adapt tactics like that. At least not that quickly. Hell even a lot of Elites don't. So even for a Pokemon familiar with fighting things other than Pokemon, the sharp curve of his opponent's learning is throwing off Redline's combat effectiveness even with the Mega Evolution boost. It's true that Scorch can't fly. But the Typhlosion gets some karma for at least scattering the plane formations as Redline diverts out of his own attack pattern to catch the badger-ball, and swoop back towards Alexis' position before she runs short of Pokemon, and infrastructure, to protect herself with. While Midway launches some manner of wheel contraption/weapon ripping through the mechatropolis, tearing through Staren's ground forces and directed at the building she's grinding the rail down from. "Oh, shit, this isn't going to be good." Fortunately Redline has just enough speed to get a bit ahead of the Panjandrum, and uses what is not quite Seismic Toss to throw Scorch. Who tackles Alexis, rolling around to slam through the wall, and then gets grabbed by Redline as the Mega Charizard folds in his wings to dive through the opening as well. The weapon slams into the building, and explodes. Exploding the entire infrastructure as it takes out the lower levels. But the building is absorbing much of the blast, even though it's coming down around them. Everyone is getting roughed up as metal and plastic collapses on all sides. Then the trio by some stroke of luck fly into some kind of tube that must of been air ducting or whatever it would be in an automated factory city. Except the tube does some pointless curves and loop backs for no other reason that because whoever built it decided it should be that way, before shooting them out of the far side on the outskirts of what really isn't much of a city left at this point. All three have a rough landing, Redline devolving from his Mega X form during the crash, leaving them sprawled out. With a grunt Alexis lifts a hand to wipe some blood from a scratch across her cheek. "Ugh. Princess of Progress... More like Princess of Progressive Firepower." The two pokemon utter a vage groan of agreement. "Well, can't win every battle."
Staren	Wow, that actually HIT? And yet, Midway... isn't even slowed down. Staren looks up at her the way a hero who just gambled on a finishing move and had it NOT FINISH THE BADDIE OFF and knows she's in for it does. The Princess of Progress probably gets that look a lot. Staren winces slightly at the word 'kill'. The catgirl turns to run from the Panjandrum, but it's too late, she gets run over and rolled along with it like a katamari victim. Staren must have activated more emergency defenses, because instead of being smeared across the building's walls, after the explosion she's flung out a window and into the sky, over the city towards the distant fields. Meanwhile, the local denizens, such as they are, continue their mostly-mindless attack. The Parasite's weapons damage transports and make them retreat. Shadowbots can take some hits but just keep standing there and shooting back until collapsing from damage--finally, the last one left turns and runs for its nonexistant life. The combots stop wasting energy on cloaking as Midway can clearly see through it. These, at last, display performance characteristics suitable for robot soldiers, made of advanced materials lightweight yet durable and programmed to use intelligent tactics. Where the combots are hampered is their weaponry: Aside from laser eyes, every weapon they have seems designed for taking enemies alive for subsequent roboticization. They can turn up the electricity on those whips, but stunning spray, knockout grenades, and net launchers are of limited use against Midway and her planes. Their robotic stubbornness might make them last long enough to catch her eye for study, though. If only out of spite because their builder has tried to prevent that with cranial bombs that self-destruct when they're defeated. By now, air response is starting to show up, robotic person-sized wasps firing energy bolts from their stingers and flying military drones with built-in blasters. But... Something is missing. Nothing except the combots displays any sign of intelligent direction at all. Meanwhile, deep inside the massive egg-shaped control center: Screens flash red alarms and urgent alerts, demanding attention from operators who aren't there. Something exploded here, and the partially destroyed bodies of three humanoid robots -- a small one, a big round one, and one of the large shadowbots -- are strewn about, still smoking. The screens' automated demands for attention go unanswered. Robotropolis awaits a new master, whoever can hold it.
Midway	Alexis retreats; via tubes and possibly unintentionally. Staren's safeguard system combined with the Great Panjandrum's explosive payload has ejected the girl from the vicinity as well. The Princess of Progress recovers from the rearing position her kick had forced her into, planting her foot down with enough force to crack the concrete beneath her heel. Her parasite bounces around in utter chaos from weapons recoil, locked in a pitched gunfight with directionless robotic defenders. Her gaze lifts to the skies, still occupied with large numbers of her aircraft. A silent command is given; and the vehicles begin their assault in ernest, bombarding bridges, streets, and other infrastructure. Uncaring about buildings that get caught in it. She turns, heels clicking on broken concrete as she strides through the fire and destruction of her own creation. The Princess is likely to remain here for a while.
Staren	-=<SCENESYS>=- [Staren] Staren edited her previous pose: 278722. ALTERED: >>Robotropolis awaits a new master, whoever can hold it.<< TO >>What remains of Robotropolis awaits a new master, whoever can hold it.<<