08-21-2016, 01:15 PM
Quote:Resumed from http://omniverse-rpg.com/showthread.php?...9#pid79309
Sabrina has recovered her ship's Omnilium and traversed the gate to Coruscant.
The gate leading from and to Costa del Sol was guarded less heavily than Sabrina had anticipated. Costa del Sol didn't exactly seem like a very strict and safe environment, despite the patrols, so why were there only so few Stormtroopers guarding the gate when she walked through? Well, at least the ones who DID guard the gate briefly checked her, inquired about the reason for her to visit, and told her to stay out of trouble and such. She barely listened, as that wasn't her intention anyway. Once they were finished and let her pass she sook out the nearest Info office, clearly cut out for tourists visiting the place so that they may see the beauty and grandeur of this place and not the underlying filth and corruption upon which it was built, to ask for directions.
When she walked in through the rotating doors, Sabrina was all but overwhelmed by the flood of sensations. The place was scrubbed shiningly clean and white, it was painful to look at it all. It was unnatural to a borderline frightening degree – not just clean, but sterile, with bright lamps on the ceiling that reflected off the flawlessly white walls and the aluminum reception desk. A doctor could have performed surgery right there on the floor instead of the hospital operating room without endangering the patient. Add to that the scent of chemical cleaning agents and phenol solution for disinfecting that made each breath heavy and one could’ve told the patient that they’d done the operation in a hospital and the patient would’ve been none the wiser. The smell stung in her nose and the cool breeze from the wall-mounted ventilation systems made her eyes water when she stepped in. The only specks of color in this medically sterile office were the fake plants in the corners and the pamphlets and flyers sitting on the desk that were there for the taking, which drew one’s attention to them like a blot of ink on a white sheet of paper. Sabrina felt a headache building already. She needed to get out of here, as soon as she’d grabbed the info she needed.
The overwhelming sensations had hit her so bad that she hadn’t realized she’d stopped moving until the rotating door behind her spewed out three men in leather jackets and wearing sunglasses and neckcloths that covered their noses and mouths. The first to walk in shoved her further into the room. “Outta my way, bitch.” The other two laughed and the last one gave Sabrina another shove as she was just recovering. Struck with surprise she didn’t answer right away and before she could give an angry retort she noticed something that the employee at the front desk didn’t. Reflexively her hand reached for the Rocketballs on her belt.
Just then the second of the three men vaulted over the counter and hit the employee in the stomach to knock him backwards along with his office chair. Before the man could so much as scream he had a blade on his throat – the very same knife he had hidden behind his back until moments ago, that Sabrina had noticed when they’d walked past. The first of the bunch, the leader from what it looked like, produced a pair of large handguns from his jacket. ”Everyone on the ground and you’re not gonna be turned into a colander! NOW!”
Sabrina and the cleaning lady that had unfortunately come in just at the wrong moment each found a gun aimed at them, but unlike the cleaning lady who cowered, begged to not be hurt and allowed the third man, who himself had pulled out a small-caliber pistol, to tie her hands up Sabrina calmly detached one of the Rocketballs from her belt then raised her hands with it in hand.
“Hey, what the hell is that in your hand?! Drop it! On the ground, I said!!” the man yelled.
“That would not be a good idea.”
“DID I ASK YOUR GODDAMN OPINION?! I SAID DROP IT AND GET ON THE GROUND BEFORE I SHOOT YOUR HAND OFF!”
Sabrina obliged. The Rocketball, already activated, bounced once and released Slowking which blinked as it looked around, situating itself.
”Woah man, what the hell? Dude, where did that thing come from?!” asked the third guy who’d just finished tying the cleaning lady’s hands behind her back. His comrade, the leader, turned pale before firing two shots at the beast. Sabrina caught both bullets in midair and slowed them down so much that they simply bounced off of Slowking’s big stomach. He then turned to her and aimed both guns at her with bulging eyes and a face displaying a very interesting mixture of both fear and rage.
”CALL YOUR FUCKING PET BACK THIS INSTANT OR I’LL BLOW A HOLE THROUGH YOUR SKULL!!! I’M NOT JOKING!!!
“You want the cash, right? It’s not worth risking your life over a couple hundred. I recommend that you turn around and leave before my “pet” gets angry.” Slowking gave a deep growl and slammed its left fist into its right palm then took a menacing step forward to underline Sabrina’s point. The leader took a step back, but then regained his composure.
”You fucking wish I would, bitch! Go to Hell!” he screamed, though much quieter than the orders he’d yelled off the top of his lungs before, and fired more shots in a rage. Sabrina’s eyes glowed and the flame-like aura appeared around her as she used her Telekinesis to pluck about half the bullets out of the air and her Barrier to deflect the remaining half. In a few seconds the robber’s magazines were dry and his guns produced only empty click sounds as he pulled the trigger. Sabrina had never seen anyone’s blood drain so fast from their face. Frantically he reached for the inside of his jacket, no doubt for another weapon or magazines. Sabrina almost casually pointed at him.
“Slowking, attack him with Dragon Tail.” The hulking Pokemon obliged without a word of complaint and sent the man flying through the room with a slam of its massive tail. He was knocked into a wall and fell to the ground face-first, losing his guns in the process. Using the ensuing silence she made a Shadow Ball on her hand and aimed it at the other guy, who shrieked, immediately dropped his gun and held his hands in the air. The one who’d been attacking the employee behind the desk and only come up seconds ago needed no friendly hint and dropped his knife before Sabrina could even turn to face him, then kicked it out of his range and from behind the desk where Sabrina could see it plainly. In moments, the situation in the little store had turned around. However the leader of the group wasn’t done yet.
“Ghh… damn you…” He slowly got to his feet and pulled out a switchblade which he’d kept in his boot. With a scream he ran towards them. His advantage was that Slowking was between Sabrina and him, preventing her from throwing her Shadow Ball at him or grabbing him, and Slowking was, as its name implied, slow. Too slow to defend itself. Still screaming in mad rage he drove his switchblade into Slowking’s arm, burying more than half the blade’s length into the big beast’s arm and laughing as it howled with pain. However he made the error of going for a second stab after he’d pulled the blade out, rather than escaping, and Slowking’s counter-attack kick caused a sickening crack when it hit his leg. He fell to the ground, screaming his lungs out and grasping his knee. Sabrina walked around Slowking, which was holding its bleeding arm, and eyed the man on the ground with pure disgust in her eyes.
“Slowking, finish him off. Get him unconscious with Headbutt.”
“Sloooow… KING!” the Pokemon responded, reared its head back and slammed the massive shell that formed its crown against the robber’s forehead, knocking him clean out. The other two robbers winced in utter defeat but neither made a move until a group of Stormtroopers, called by the employee who’d reached for the phone the instant that things were under control, stormed in and apprehended everyone. Sabrina idly stood by as the two goons were handcuffed and taken away while the leader was put on a stretcher and brought outside. An officer approached her soon after.
“Lady, I’ll have to ask a few questions. And please make sure that your…”
“My pet Pokemon.”
“Yes, well, that it doesn’t hurt anyone. Was it you who attacked these men?”
“If you’re going to accuse me of using excessive force, they were all armed. The leader attempted to kill me.”
The officer eyed Sabrina, then produced his blaster pistol and put it to the unconscious leader’s head. The sharp sound of a laser blast tore through the incessant speaking of Stormtroopers and the blaring of sirens, the officer holstered his gun and turned away from the corpse. “We have secured a pair of guns with empty magazines and bullets all over the crime scene. It was obvious that your life was endangered. This man is a known criminal who’s robbed several stores across the tiers 1 to 3 of Coruscant with the occasional casualty, and sentenced to death long ago. While I don’t applaud your vigilante behavior I certainly have no grounds to arrest you on either.”
Sabrina shrugged and pointed at the Rocketball that was being taken away by a trooper collecting evidence. “I’ll need that back.”
“It’s evidence. I can’t give it to you.”
“Do you WANT me to walk around with my pet Pokemon out in the open?” asked Sabrina with a raised eyebrow. “I keep it in there because it’s from Cinnibar and I don’t want to cause a ruckus. I only brought it out for the fight.”
A man who’d been among the gathering crowd of curious spectators and apparently had eavesdropped on at least parts of the conversation rushed forward. The officer turned, visibly about to escort him away as civilians weren’t allowed around when the man flicked a badge. “Empire R&D, Unit 2, Prof. Dr. Vladimir Koronikov. I couldn’t help but to hear what the woman just mentioned. If you’ll excuse me, officer, I need to speak to her alone.” He turned to Sabrina. “You said you have a cinnibarian Pokemon, contained in this small sphere?” He snagged the Rocketball in its bag from the trooper that had passed by and brought it back. “Please, show me.”
Sabrina shrugged, removed the ball from its plastic protection and poked Slowking with it. In an instant the Pokemon was recalled into it and Sabrina shrunk it to portable size. “It’s quite common technology where I am from. Every trainer uses them.”
”I see… well, Miss, was it this Pokemon that eliminated these opponents for you?”
“Part. I used Telekinesis to keep the bullets from hitting it and me, and gave it orders to have it attack.”
”Telekinesis, huh? Well, that is quite the coincidence. You see, the leader of Cinnibar, Mewtwo, is a Prime with…”
“I know who he is and what his abilities are, roughly speaking. He’s from the same world as I am, and I’ve had… a number of run-ins with him prior to getting here, as well as a brief meeting after that.”
”Ah, wonderful... but the issue- wait, you said you briefly met him? When was that?”
”A couple of days ago, on Cinnibar. Why?” She knew why before he answered.
”So you must be Sabrina! We have received reports about the incident from the Imperial Navy. There are few that can pride themselves in escaping the Psychic Pokemon as you did.” He eyed Slowking’s Pokeball for a moment. ”You got this Pokemon from Cinnibar, you said… why is it obeying you?”
“For reasons I would like to keep to myself. But to answer your question, yes – I stole it from Cinnibar while escaping from Mewtwo.”
”Well, I must say I am impressed. Most impressed, really! Well, Miss Sabrina, I am now certain that I have approached the right person. You see, Mewtwo and his assistants, who in large part have psychic powers, are causing a lot of inconveniences for the imperial Navy – attacks on supply lines, sabotages, breaking out prisoners as they are escorted to Impel Down et cetera. To counteract this we need information, but our potential experimentation subjects are elusive, as you can imagine. You however have great psychic powers as you demonstrated so well, and would be excellent for our tests.”
“What kind of tests are we talking about?”
”Oh, nothing lethal or that would disable or disfigure you, I guarantee that. Testing the limits of your powers and potential suppressants such as mental inhibition drugs as well as aiding you to better control them.”
“To make me a better servant for the Empire, hmm?”
”Of course, your volunteering will be rewarded, Miss Sabrina. You will be given a honorary title and your name will be known to the imperial soldiers.”
“I would rather join the ERD, Mister Koronikov, as a researcher and subject. I’ll happily take a title, but if I work for the Empire I want to be more than a one-time guinea pig.”
”That could certainly be discussed… what qualifications can you present?”
“I have a Master in Pokemon Science with a specialization in Psychic and Ghost-types, as well as several years working at research facilities as a part-time job, parallel to that I led the Gym of Saffron City for eight years. Unfortunately I can’t prove any of that since these… accomplishments were attained in my home world.”
”That’s quite impressive nonetheless. Your work will be sure to draw the Emperor’s attention as well as that of the higher officials in the ERD. If you’re as good as you claim to be I’ll be happy to vouch for you and you’ll climb the ranks quickly.”
“Great. Let’s not waste any further time then.”
Taking care of things was quicker than expected. Sabrina signed a number of papers and Non-disclosure agreements and was interviewed for health and safety regulations. Despite their repeated requests she refused to sell them Slowking or Arcanine for experimentation though she promised that if she kept working at the ERD she would attempt to capture a few of them to bring back for research. After that she was given a simple coat and escorted to the changing rooms with the request to move into the decontamination area, which reminded of a tiled bathroom – or one of those places in a public swimming pool where one steps through a shallow pool of water to clean their feet.
“Oh, great…” she mumbled when the walls of said area began spraying her with a stinging disinfectant without prior warning. She closed her eyes and pinched her nose shut until the treatment was finished, only for a rapid shower to wash the disinfectant back off. She exited the room and grabbed the clean clothing – trousers, a T-Shirt, shoes and interior clothing, all shining white - that hung on a clothes hanger just outside. It itched all over and smelled weird. Looks like they were really strict about their health and safety regulations around here. When she found a pair of hair ties she also tied her hair back into a bun so it would not get in the way. Then she walked on.
Two researchers were already awaiting her, a man that she guessed to be in his mid forties and a woman only a few years older than her. They briefly introduced themselves as Kathryn Miller and Johann von Zweiberg before leading Sabrina to the prepared area: a room with black tiled walls that had a strangely crystalline look to them. Sabrina quickly deduced that they weren’t normal stone walls. In the center of the room was a round platform with dozens of cables coming from the floor. A stalactite of metal that could only be described as highly technical-looking descended from the ceiling down to around four meters above the center of the platform. Several more cables were hanging loose from that spike, waiting to be plugged into something. Sabrina was rapidly able to guess what this all was going to lead to when a technician brought in a man-sized aluminum crate with a hand trolley. Indeed, Miller opened it to reveal a metallic suit that reminded of armour.
“This is surprising. Mewtwo was placed into a suit not unlike this one”, she remarked. They didn’t look the same, but the similarity both in looks and in function, as had been explained to her by Koronikov, could not be denied.
”The suit was actually reconstructed based on a set of blueprints that the Empire came into possession of in the Vasty Deep. Of course we have since changed and improved it,” von Zweiberg remarked.
“Was it, by any chance, the scorched ruins of a laboratory on a barren island?”
”Indeed. Do you know of that place?”
“I do. It’s an interesting turn of events that I get to be put into a suit like this now.” She took her shoes and socks off and stepped onto the platform in the center. The two researchers looked at each other, visibly puzzled, then Miller helped Sabrina with putting the foot-pieces on.
The suit covered most of Sabrina’s feet, legs and arms, the head was almost completely encased, her chest was only covered by a very wide-fitted piece that was attached to her back and shoulders and her stomach was left mostly exposed, giving her some much-needed breathability. Each piece of the suit save for the helmet consisted of two symmetrical pieces that were attached together and fixated with safety locks. It was surprisingly light for the amount of metal and circuitry that it contained – Sabrina felt able to move freely. Through the stained glass visor of her helmet she noticed how the crystalline tiles on the walls were flickering when she moved her head. Were they screens? Interesting…
Then came the cables. Both researchers went to work on this, plugging in one cord after another into their intended sockets. A hum indicated that the suit was powering up, followed by a beep, then once again silence, disturbed only by the sounds of the two researchers moving about. They soon backed away again, their work finished, and Miller stepped in front of Sabrina. “Now, Sabrina… may we call you that?”
“For simplicity’s sake, until the experiments are over.”
”Marvelous. Just call us Kathryn and Johann then. The suit will monitor your life signals so you are absolutely safe. However if you feel nauseous, claustrophobic or find any other issues there is a microphone built in which links directly to the monitoring room and we will be able to shut things down. Otherwise, for this test there’s only a few ground rules: you may only move around on this platform, not off of it as the cables don’t range that far, and you may not use any powers or moves outside of your telekinetic ones.”
“You haven’t yet told me what this test will actually involve.”
”You’ll see. Now, just for safety’s sake, do the following movements to check that the suit is in place and functional…” She proceeded to describe a number of increasingly complex poses for Sabrina to get herself into. Being a fit woman and the suit being light and non-encumbering, Sabrina was able to do so. Miller then left and the room promptly changed completely. The walls fell back and revealed a large tennis court. A net was separating the two parts and Sabrina was standing in the center of one side. The only thing that remained behind, besides her suit, was the platform she was standing on – even the cables were gone. Of course, it was all an illusion down to the last pixel. Save maybe for the platform, that one may be real. No doubt did the crystalline walls project some image and the visor of her helmet was smoothening it to hide the screens. A lot of dedication for a simple project.
Von Zweiberg’s voice resonated in her head as a tennis player with their bat at the ready walked into Sabrina’s view on the opposite side of the court and pulled up a basket of tennis balls. ”Let’s begin. Your first task is to play a tennis match. Using your telekinesis, catch the ball and send it back. Your goal is to win the game.”
“I figured as much. Let’s get started.”
The match started out almost painfully easy. Sabrina activated her psychic aura and began catching the balls casually as they were shot across the net. The simulated opponent hit the balls lightly and they came over in clean arcs and slowly, where she could catch them with little effort and fling them right back. Soon, one of her shots hit where her opponent couldn’t reach and she scored.
When the simulated opponent hit the second ball it moved much faster, catching Sabrina by surprise though she was just barely able to catch the ball before it hit the ground and toss it back over the net. So they were gradually ramping up the difficulty, eh? Challenge accepted. She began exerting greater force, sending the balls back as forceful as she could and scoring another point. Halfway there…
The next ball whizzed past her so fast that she could barely register the blur in the air. By the time that she even realized she should be grabbing it the ball had long touched the ground and her adversary gave a mischievous smirk. However, von Zweiberg’s voice spoke as the simulation reached for the next ball. “Your suit is now being enhanced with Level 2 Sense protocols. You may feel weird for a few seconds but don’t let that throw you off.”
Sabrina shuddered as a rush not unlike an adrenaline kick went through her body. Then her adversary hit the ball with the same strength. Sabrina raised her arms and closed her eyses in a reflex to protect herself. When she opened her eyes again she found the ball floating before her, caught with Telekinesis. Somewhat startled at her own behavior she sent it flying back. The simulation smashed it yet again, and this time the whole world slowed down. The clapping sound of the bat hitting the ball became pitched lower and lower until it was a deep rumble of the dozen or so strings vibrating in the aftermath of the potent smack and the whizzing of the ball was an equally low-pitched hum. Her vision sharpened until she felt like she could count the specks of dirt stuck on the ball’s surface. It was as if stuck in midair, approaching her at a veritable snail’s pace. Catching it was a trivial matter.
She caught it, brought it around in a tight 180° turn just as it passed over the net into her side of the court and flung it back. As she let go time accelerated back to its regular speed and the ball picked up a speed even higher than what it had been when smashed by the opponent. It tore a hole through the other’s tennis rack, dug into the ground, carved a short valley into the red sand and came to a grinding halt over half a meter from where it had landed, smouldering ever so slightly. Sabrina’s eyes widened as she realized what had just happened. Amazing… but this was no doubt the suit’s work. Both the extreme acceleration of her brain functions to the point where she’d perceived time as passing vastly slowed and the enhanced force of her Telekinesis couldn’t be attributed to her natural abilities, as much as she hated to admit it. On the other hand, could this all be the simulation playing tricks with her mind? There was no guarantee that everything she had witnessed wasn’t just an elaborate trick played on her to make her believe she had become superpowered.
“It appears that the Sense protocols are functioning correctly. Your suit is being downgraded to Level 1. Please proceed with the match”, von Zweiberg’s voice once again spoke through the helmet of her suit. The simulated opponent continued to play as if the prior interactions had never taken place. Cold and emotionless it flung the next ball with its enhanced strength and Sabrina, while still outfitted with improved capabilities, found herself pushed to her limit with catching and returning the ball before it could hit the ground and make her lose a point. Neither side gained any advantage for a while, if one scored a point the other side caught up on the next ball and they were learning each other’s tricks and techniques too quickly to draw that direly needed advantage to score two points over their adversary. The only difference between them was that Sabrina was slowly tiring, becoming mentally strained from the effort of blasting the tennis ball around with such force. If she did not get the decisive advantage soon she would lose. Something needed to happen…
No sooner had Sabrina finished that last thought, when an alarm began its obnoxious blaring in the distance. It started out as an annoying hum in her ear not unlike a fly buzzing around her head, but then the suit powered itself down and the screens in the room flickered. The simulation’s façade crumbled then shattered entirely when the screens blackened out one after another. Sabrina was not in a tennis court anymore, she stood back on the platform, inside the suit, surrounded by black screens and by herself. What was going on?
Rapidly it dawned on her that this might just be a trick played on her. They were just pretending that the simulation was breaking down and presenting her with a fake scenario for her to explore her powers. Well she was one step smarter than that… so rather than doing anything unruly that may have put her out as unsuited for working for the Empire she tried to remove the suit first, then when finding that the pieces were tightly attached and irremovable by their wearer instead unplugged the cables with Telekinesis. Already something felt weird, she could just not put her finger on it… she dismissed it with a shrug and stepped down from the pedestal. Luckily the suit was much lighter than it looked, even though it was just a mostly useless hunk of steel limiting her movement freedom in exchange for some barebones protection right now. Now, she remembered that there had been a door somewhere in the vicinity of… ah, there. Pushing open the lock with a little fine-tuned Telekinesis was child’s play; after that she just needed to give it a nudge and the door simply swung open, letting her into the corridor through which they had previously come – the two professors and herself. The corridors were periodically lit red with alarm lights that Sabrina had taken no notice of before, and the sirens blared much louder.
Sabrina headed for the observation rooms which the professors would supposedly have retreated to, only to nearly bump into them halfway there. Miller and von Zweiberg were pale as paper sheets and Miller let out a scream when she saw Sabrina, but calmed a bit when she recognized her. “Turn around! We have to get out of here!”
“What’s going on?” asked Sabrina as she turned on her heels, let the professors run past and began running behind them. The suit was not made for such movements but she was able to keep up with some effort.
“An attack! Something huge has come out of the facility! There was shaking all over, explosions… part of the roof nearly collapsed on top of us”, replied von Zweiberg.
“No, I mean…” It was time to let the cat out of the bag. “I know the truth. This is all a simulation, isn’t it? You want to make me believe that this is happening.”
“What?! What are you going on about?! Why would we do th-“
Sabrina interrupted him. “To make me believe I have to push my limits maybe? To test my loyalty to the empire? Or even just my ability to realize when I’m having my leg pulled?”
“No! Listen, this… this isn’t a simulation!”
“I should prove it… okay. In a simulation I wouldn’t feel pain if I hurt myself, right?” She reached out with her power and grabbed the professor’s pen that was sticking out of the front of his jacket. With a confident smile she stabbed the uncovered underside of her arm – and let out a yelp when the pointed tip nearly broke her skin - and most definitely hurt. Sure she’d tried to prove her point but maybe she shouldn’t have stabbed herself so hard after all. So that was why she’d felt off earlier… having grasped the cables with Telekinesis had felt so real.
The three of them stopped in the corridor, amidst the still blaring alarms and both professors staring at Sabrina, who looked back. “Do… do you believe us now?” Miller finally asked.
“I guess… okay, we have to escape. Get you to safety, and fast!”
“The suit…”
“… is not our concern right now. The suit can be replaced, I won’t die permanently if I do, I can handle myself with it right now, but what’s important is that you two need to get out of here while you still can. I’ll help you with my powers. Just lead the way!” With that she shooed both professors before her and they began their great escape.
Before long they came across the ground zeroes of the incident… not that they needed to look especially hard. The laboratory facility was completely gone, the edges of the area showing only molten steel, crumbling rock and concrete that dropped into an enormous crater. How Sabrina had not heard that explosion was a mystery to her – it spanned nearly fifty meters and judging from the debris in the hallways it had to be the result of an unbelievable force. Sabrina turned her eyes up and saw their ticket to the surface: the explosion had torn a hole through all the levels from its point of origin to the surface of Coruscant through which the sun was shining down. Without a second thought she grabbed von Zweiberg and Miller with Telekinesis and took off. Neither even had the time to scream with surprise – and possibly fright – before the solid ground beneath their feet vanished away when Sabrina flew over the void with the two in tow. She brought them up to herself before her grip could slide; placing both over her shoulders like a pair of ordinary sacks of potatoes. Not that either of them complained once they realized what Sabrina was up to, though.
Two minutes or so later landed by the side of the crater, amazed at how fit she felt even after carrying two people. Had the training in the suit enhanced her strength? But she felt that this was not the end, far from it, and was soon to be proven right… she put the two professors down and looked around, catching sight of the passing Stormtroopers. Their weapons were held at the ready, the safety was disabled. Yup, this wasn’t a routine job… Coruscant was under attack. There were massive claw marks dug into the ground near the crater and a trail of destruction in that direction, the same one that the troopers were running towards.
“You two probably have your orders in such a case. If not, just go find a unit and let them evacuate you to safety! Coruscant needs your brains.” Von Zweiberg raised his hand, seemingly to object, but Sabrina heard him no longer. Already she had taken off to run after the troopers.
In the chaos of fleeing civilians and advancing troopers nobody took notice of the armoured woman that ran down the streets. She dodged the big alleys as those would be the most congested with fleeing people and abandoned vehicles, instead using the dark side alleys to get around. She overheard the occasional trooper speaking about… what? Some sort of mecha or robot. They spoke about a rampaging metallic beast of some description, maybe several. The mystery only thickened when Sabrina nearly tripped over a metallic carcass. A massive robot twice her size was laying across the street… she stopped her run and bent over to inspect it. Shot clean through the glass eye… the Stormtroopers had great aim. What was weird was that its armour was neither smooth nor unicolor. It moreso looked like it had been… hastily melted and cooled again when in its rough shape. And the purity was lackluster as well. What could this mean?
When she stood up a low hum caught her attention and she leapt to her feet. Just then a red beam hit the spot exactly where her head had been moments ago, creating a black smoking mark on the pavement. Sabrina looked wide-eyed at the robot that emerged from a side-alley, its single red glowing eye trained on her and with a three-clawed robotic hand raised. Energy emitters were worked into the palm of that hand, and right now they were charging up another red blast. The hum that had given the tin-can fighter away was coming from its antigravity modules that were keeping it a few centimetres off the ground. But now that Sabrina had turned her attention to it she could also hear the sound of the energy as it was being charged. “So there’s multiple of you…” She murmured as she raised her hand and countered the blast with a Shadow Ball – only to see the robot raising its other hand and absorbing the projectile before firing its own. Sabrina was barely able to leap out of the way, and even then the blast grazed her cheek and left a burn mark. Damn… these things were not to be trifled with! She scampered to her feet and began to run away. She needed to find a weapon, something not made of energy. A rifle, a metal bar, anything. The robot gave chase almost immediately, its hum could be heard right behind her.
As she was about to round a corner three new robots emerged from the side-alley and nearly blocked her way off – she only managed to jump her way past them with a dive, get to her feet and resume running without looking back. Two laser blasts hit the wall next to her, a third just barely flew overhead – she could feel its static load singing her hair. Now the armour was starting to present its disadvantages. Her dive had caused her to hit both her kneecaps on the inside of the suit which made her limp for a few seconds before the burst of adrenaline numbed the pain, and her field of vision was vastly reduced. And while light it was not weightless, and Sabrina, while fit, was not an athlete. She began to pant, cutting corners into other alleys and getting more and more lost with every turn she took and every new group of robots that attempted to get in her way. Before long over three dozens of the mechanized menaces were chasing her and even one seemed like more than she could handle. The Ember Celica may have worked here, but she had left that thing with the rest of her clothes when getting ready for the experiment. Curses!
The robots were catching up. She hadn’t run into any new bunch for a bit now but the ones behind her were more than enough. The hum of their propulsion modules was getting louder, as were the sounds of them charging their beams, and the occasional beam glanced off her armour, though each left a mark. She was coming to the end of her strength… and to make matters worse, ahead of her was a large open space with no covers! She ran out of the alley and turned her head to look at her pursuers and devise a strategy. It was just then that one of the robots fired its blast and hit her face, knocking her off her feet and sending her flying through the air before she hit the ground, rolled a little further and came to a halt in the midst of some rubble.
It was then that it dawned on her… They had made her go here. It had been a setup all along. They had blocked the streets so that she may not take an undesired turn and escaped their trap. Dozens more robots emerged from the rubble, other, seemingly destroyed ones stood back up and they gathered to form a circle around Sabrina. Yet others were on the rooftops or flying overhead, blocking her flight escape route. As if she could even attempt that – she would be shot down instantly by the accurate shots from the ground forces. She could hear yells from beyond the wall of metal that was now standing between her and the source, and heard gunfire. Stormtrooper forces? But they were too late. Three or four robots stepped forwards and raised their gun-arms to charge up the killing blow. They would vaporize her in her suit. This was the end. And all she could think was what a stupid way to go out this was – killed in a city with an entire army’s worth of military presence that could not hold these rogue robots off.
Just then she heard her name being shouted and saw a green glowstick flying through the air over the head of the robots and towards her. She first thought it was going to fly overhead but when it came close it changed its course and flew straight towards her, while she felt a strong attraction force towards it. In a reflex she turned herself away from it to cover her front. Then moments later felt the object hitting her back, which knocked her a step forward, and heard two clicks. The suit immediately gave two beeps, powering itself up just like it had done earlier, when they had inserted the cables into its sockets. Not that it’d help, she realized – even if her telekinetic powers were augmented she could not grasp what had no substance, like a laser beam. And the robots were unfazed by the spectacle that had just gone down, still they aimed their cannons at her and charged their beams. Then they fired. Sabrina closed her eyes, hoping that her end would be swift.
But the end did not come. She heard a number of distorted clangs as the beams hit an energy shield and bounced off! She opened her eyes to see that indeed, a semi-transparent dome of energy had established itself around her, and the energy was coming from her suit. The beams had been deflected, she had been saved. For the first time the robots seemed surprised and not sure about what to do.
“Hello? Sabrina, can you hear me?! The Kinetic Armour has powered up, right?”
“Kathryn? Is that you?”
“Oh thank the Emperor you’re alive! Sabrina, listen, we don’t ha- Shield Core capacity at 50% - must escape. Coruscant lies in ruins, the self-replicating robots are consuming the entire city for metal!”
“Not much time? I heard you! The suit’s shielding me but it’s not gonna last! I can’t escape! Where are you? Was it you who threw that?!”
“Yes – it’s a Fusion rod loaded with enriched Plutonium with magnetic ends on both sides! Your suit will be powered for a while using it and the magnets will keep it in place. You somehow walked in a circle after running from us, I’m at the edge of the space where you – Shield Core capacity at 25% -bots are at. Don’t worry about me, I got troopers protecting me!”
Sabrina gave a relieved sigh and only now took notice that the robots were firing indiscriminately at her shield, aiming to tear it down with pure firepower. Cracks were already appearing on its surface and the suit’s inbuilt AI was warning Sabrina of its imminent collapse. But she had regained herself. The professors were safe, she was empowered and there were no civilians to take into consideration. An evil grin formed on her lips. What had the professor said – self-replicating robots? So that’s why they were after metal, to build comrades. She’d have to destroy them all if she didn’t want them to just make more of themselves. A complete purge. Well, let’s see what this suit could REALLY do.
Sabrina reached out from behind the shield and grasped the air in front of herself. She formed it into concentrated spheres and blasted it at two robots, which were sent flying as if they’d been punched. They in turn were knocked into other bots which misaimed their attacks, some hitting their own comrades in their process. She repeated the process twice before the shield collapsed but by that time she had caused enough chaos that only sporadic shots from still-upright bots were fired her way. With a laugh she picked several more out of the sky and sent them ramming into each other whilst almost effortlessly protecting herself from the uncharged beams with her Barrier, now that the shield had faltered and needed to recharge itself. But her power trip was only beginning… she took off as soon as the sky was sufficiently cleared and used her spare mental capacity to create an especially stable barrier that took the shape of a rectangle, around the size of a tablet. As she flew higher up she sliced her way through the bots still in her way with that barrier turned weapon, a feat normally impossible as a Barrier would take too much mental capacity to uphold this long and this stable. But with this suit, anything was possible. It was enhancing her mental capacities and controlling her cerebral functions to a point she could not have dreamt of before.
As she ascended she could see a bigger picture of the damage. Large parts of Coruscant’s top tier were torn down, its buildings in ruins, its metals salvaged. More robots in the streets were collecting the scrap and carrying it away, probably to some safe place where they could use it to make new bots. Below her was what must have been a plaza, a park or a big highway. For half a kilometre the place she had been lured onto was a wasteland, reduced to stone rubble. Nearly a hundred robots were below, looking up at her whilst others were fighting against a number of Stormtroopers and those large bulky individuals that she had already seen accompaigning the diplomat before. More robots came streaming in from the alleyways however; it was a battle of attrition that the Stormtroopers would lose. They were losing ground. But that was to be understood, they were after evacuating the citizens, not winning. Except that now Sabrina was here.
Soon she was higher than any other bots, and those that attempted to reach as high were swiftly blasted back down by a forceful airblast. However the ones on the ground, out of the reach of her telekinesis, were aiming their guns up and charging up new beams. The powerful version again, and her shield was still recharging. If she got hit by those her barrier would not hold.
No matter. They would all be destroyed by that point. The time had come to explore what the limits of this suit really were. Instinctually, almost naturally as if she had worn the suit all her life, Sabrina drew from the mass amounts of energy in the Plutonium fusion rod and pointed her hands downwards at the mass of opponents. Of targets. “ESTABLISHING LOCK-ON”, it said across the visor in big red letters. Beneath that, slightly smaller: “TARGETS LOCKED: 45”, with a number that increased each second. Not that Sabrina needed the machine support, she knew exactly how many she had in her sights. “Now show me what you can do…”
She took one last look at the scene before rearing both hands back, forming them into claws. Finally she thrusted them down at her opponents. “Doombolt.” And the suit obeyed. Dozens of Shadow Balls formed behind Sabrina and rained death down upon the robots. Each Shadow Ball was sparkling with amassed electric energy and left a blue trail as they rained down upon the robots – one Shadow Ball per robot, perfectly calculated. The machines reached out and absorbed the attack as they had done before, and that proved to be their undoing: the numerous terawatts charged into each Shadow Bolt, enough to feed a small factory, was too much for their circuits to grasp. One after another they went up in fiery explosions. When Sabrina landed again it was not among enemies – it was among their mangled, shredded and electrically burnt remains.
Of course Sabrina was well aware that this was not the end. Those robots she had destroyed represented the majority of their forces, maybe, but there were more scattered around Coruscant. She did not even stay to let the Stormtroopers reach her, instead she lifted back off and took after the last bunch she had seen. If a single one of them escaped her grasp it would all have been for naught – they would just rebuild their comrades. But she had turned the situation around, now it was time to seal the deal on a victory rather than fighting a losing battle.
She already felt bad for the time when she would have to give this suit back. But she wanted to work at Coruscant, not be some sort of female psychokinetic Iron Man. Besides, being the hero wasn’t her thing anyway.
"(Note to self: insert quote & picture once I find stuff)"
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