09-23-2016, 03:38 PM
"Shit. Shit!" Hiro yanked the drive shaft and pulled some levers, and the car did a smooth 180. Thank Omni he'd made the decision to keep the leg switching mechanisms on pneumatic power, although it did make it more difficult to execute the maneuver without the anti-lock assistance. The ice cream music grew steadily louder as Hiro peeled away and sped off down the street, searching for an alleyway or some small alcove they could duck into.
Madotsuki lowered the auto-targeting screen, which was showing a staticky black and white snowfield, and reached behind her seat to the weapon racks, pulling out a sleek looking Imperial blaster rifle. Hiro was puzzled as to where she got it, but shrugged. They had bigger problems on their plate. He took a few sharp curves, and they blew past the huge, slow bulk of Azteca coming the opposite way. The other racer seemed focused on the approaching ice cream truck, and their weapons were already priming and launching down the street.
The piloting hacker took a few more hairpin right angles, and managed to slot the car in between an alley full of dumpsters and a laundromat. He shut down the engine and any other running power sources except for the main terminal, to avoid detection. Rapidly, he lowered his goggles, jacked into the main BIOS of the car, and began to look for trouble. "Reason is fucked....circuitry is fused. The poles are stuck in their retraction sockets. I had most of the automatic weaponry separated from the operation systems. Those are running on redundancy right, only reason we're still mobile."
As he was splitting his attention between the computer console and their surroundings, he looked out the window and let out a surprised yelp. A metallic, fanged monstrosity was scraping needle like claws across the window at him, the smell of burning oil in the air. He was on the verge of panic, when he realized he recognized the ghastly apparition as the dataghost that had spooked him in Dante's Abyss. But....Okor wasn't in this race. And the machine-spirit wasn't attacking him, it was...curled up on the roof, almost protectively. He raised his goggles and it disappeared, then lowered them again to see it fizzle back into view. Confusing....but this would have to be investigated when they weren't under threat of attack by a deranged clown.
As to reinforce his thought, Madotsuk spoke into his head. "I hope you're almost finished....Azteca was just taken out. The leaderboard updated. It's us and Sweet Tooth left." She lowered her own window and peered out the window, the large blaster pointed down the street towards a cloud of smoke and ash. Hiro kept working on the console, managing to restore main power to their drive section and most of the auxiliary systems. The machine spirit prowled in the corner of his vision, but he tries his best to ignore it. "Okay, that's all I can do. We've got the machine guns, the fist, and I've got a couple tricks up my sleeve. Let's take this clown out!"
On cue, the battered ice cream truck screamed out of the cloud of smoke, guns blazing as the music took on a warped, hellish melody. Strapping himself back in, the hacker floored it and peeled out into the street, revving the engine and traveling ahead of their adversary. A high whistling noise sounded three times, and Hiro was alerted to incoming projectiles, performing some fancy lateral shifts and angled maneuvers to avoid the mortars that screamed out of the sky towards them. Madotsuki was firing at their pursuer, but the ice cream truck was reinforced with armor plating and she wasn't doing much more than scratch damage.
More mortars sounded in the air, and Hiro chanced a look backwards, only to find a missile tracking their course and getting perilously closer. He swore, and jammed his palm into an indented section of his console, screaming out a command code. "Faraday shield!" His mesh vector program expanded around the car just in time for the missile to hit it, detonating too far away to do any real damage. Madotsuki wiped her brow and leaned out the window, taking careful aim before letting loose a full auto burst from the rifle, this time aimed at the ice cream truck's wheels. The bolts hit their mark, and the front wheel exploded into shreds of rubber, sending the Sweet Tooth into a wild skid.
Bullets flew through the air, penetrating the green-shield as it failed and puncturing the Digital Nightmare's armor. Both the hacker and the dreamer yelled out in pain as shrapnel ripped through their clothes and pockmarked their bodies with flesh wounds. Hiro spun around, their velocity unchanged and still traveling in reverse, and held his hand out the window, concentrating as a drop of blood smeared his goggles. "Grrhh.....Chernobyl Packet.....execute!" A series of spiky red balls coalesced in the air and zoomed off towards the advancing ice cream truck, Hiro watching as the clown twisted the wheel to try and avoid the explosive programs.
It was no use. The Omnilium born viruses impacted the truck's siding and stuck there in a star pattern, then exploded in a red flash of glittering data residue. The impact made the clown's conveyance lurch, and tip onto the busted wheel, pitching onto its side and starting to barrel roll straight at Hiro, Mads, and the Digital Nightmare. Hiro revved the engine and rereversed their direction, now heading back towards the oncoming truck. They had been running out of road, anyway. The hacker's impeccable reflexes came in handy, and just as the truck bounced off the asphalt and came up towards them like a spinning bundle of dynamite, he dropped their suspension and cruised underneath it, spinning back around and watching the truck come to a skidding stop on its side.
"Yeah!....wait, where's the announcement..."
Madotsuki shrugged and leaned back out of the window, then ducked back inside, pale. She pointed towards their opponent. "Look." Hiro looked.
"YOU....YOU TRASHED MY RIDE! I'M GOING TO TRASH YOUR LIIIIIIVES! HHRRAAAAAAGGGGHHH!"
The clown was half out of his passenger side window shaking his fist and roaring at the sky. There was a whirring, scraping, grating sound as various mechanical shafts and gears ground against each other, the boxy shape of the ice cream truck unfolding into what was now obviously some sort of battle-mech complete with grinning ice cream cone for a head.
The hacker ducked back inside with a manic grin on his face and buckled himself in. Nearly shouting with excitement, he turned back to his partner. "I told you! I told you, Pod! Let's fucking do this! Yeah!" He flipped a covered box on his driving console marked "Rock N' Roll, and punched the big red button underneath it, throwing a few levers and making the car spin on it's axles.
As it spun, the modular sections he'd so painstakingly set onto rails and gyro sockets disengaged and relocked into a different position. The car's wheel assemblies locked together and became two short, stout leg appendages, while the gunner's cockpit swiveled up and locked into place above Hiro's compartment. Everything locked back into place, the retractable fist serving as one arm and Reason's bulk serving as another. Hiro took a deep breath and slid both of his hands into the depressions on his console. "I'm gonna be powering this thing...you've got near complete control in your section now. I hope you got better at video games while I was gone!"
Hiro gritted his teeth as Sweet Tooth finished transforming and started to stomp towards their half assembled mech, laughing in a sinister tone. "Alright....here goes! Metaverse Mode! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH!"
The outer plating of their mech torso sparked with green electricity, power readings surging to the top of the scale as thin green lines blazed in right angles over their vehicle. Sweating, Hiro bit his tongue and felt the outline coalesce fully, his perfected overclock mode translated into a suit of green, crackling vector armor for their vehicle, a green sword enveloping Reason's hilt with tracers in the air. The two mechs faced off, one with rusty scrap and steel bones, the other a fusion of a solid core encased in shining, sparking armor.
Madotsuki lowered the auto-targeting screen, which was showing a staticky black and white snowfield, and reached behind her seat to the weapon racks, pulling out a sleek looking Imperial blaster rifle. Hiro was puzzled as to where she got it, but shrugged. They had bigger problems on their plate. He took a few sharp curves, and they blew past the huge, slow bulk of Azteca coming the opposite way. The other racer seemed focused on the approaching ice cream truck, and their weapons were already priming and launching down the street.
The piloting hacker took a few more hairpin right angles, and managed to slot the car in between an alley full of dumpsters and a laundromat. He shut down the engine and any other running power sources except for the main terminal, to avoid detection. Rapidly, he lowered his goggles, jacked into the main BIOS of the car, and began to look for trouble. "Reason is fucked....circuitry is fused. The poles are stuck in their retraction sockets. I had most of the automatic weaponry separated from the operation systems. Those are running on redundancy right, only reason we're still mobile."
As he was splitting his attention between the computer console and their surroundings, he looked out the window and let out a surprised yelp. A metallic, fanged monstrosity was scraping needle like claws across the window at him, the smell of burning oil in the air. He was on the verge of panic, when he realized he recognized the ghastly apparition as the dataghost that had spooked him in Dante's Abyss. But....Okor wasn't in this race. And the machine-spirit wasn't attacking him, it was...curled up on the roof, almost protectively. He raised his goggles and it disappeared, then lowered them again to see it fizzle back into view. Confusing....but this would have to be investigated when they weren't under threat of attack by a deranged clown.
As to reinforce his thought, Madotsuk spoke into his head. "I hope you're almost finished....Azteca was just taken out. The leaderboard updated. It's us and Sweet Tooth left." She lowered her own window and peered out the window, the large blaster pointed down the street towards a cloud of smoke and ash. Hiro kept working on the console, managing to restore main power to their drive section and most of the auxiliary systems. The machine spirit prowled in the corner of his vision, but he tries his best to ignore it. "Okay, that's all I can do. We've got the machine guns, the fist, and I've got a couple tricks up my sleeve. Let's take this clown out!"
On cue, the battered ice cream truck screamed out of the cloud of smoke, guns blazing as the music took on a warped, hellish melody. Strapping himself back in, the hacker floored it and peeled out into the street, revving the engine and traveling ahead of their adversary. A high whistling noise sounded three times, and Hiro was alerted to incoming projectiles, performing some fancy lateral shifts and angled maneuvers to avoid the mortars that screamed out of the sky towards them. Madotsuki was firing at their pursuer, but the ice cream truck was reinforced with armor plating and she wasn't doing much more than scratch damage.
More mortars sounded in the air, and Hiro chanced a look backwards, only to find a missile tracking their course and getting perilously closer. He swore, and jammed his palm into an indented section of his console, screaming out a command code. "Faraday shield!" His mesh vector program expanded around the car just in time for the missile to hit it, detonating too far away to do any real damage. Madotsuki wiped her brow and leaned out the window, taking careful aim before letting loose a full auto burst from the rifle, this time aimed at the ice cream truck's wheels. The bolts hit their mark, and the front wheel exploded into shreds of rubber, sending the Sweet Tooth into a wild skid.
Bullets flew through the air, penetrating the green-shield as it failed and puncturing the Digital Nightmare's armor. Both the hacker and the dreamer yelled out in pain as shrapnel ripped through their clothes and pockmarked their bodies with flesh wounds. Hiro spun around, their velocity unchanged and still traveling in reverse, and held his hand out the window, concentrating as a drop of blood smeared his goggles. "Grrhh.....Chernobyl Packet.....execute!" A series of spiky red balls coalesced in the air and zoomed off towards the advancing ice cream truck, Hiro watching as the clown twisted the wheel to try and avoid the explosive programs.
It was no use. The Omnilium born viruses impacted the truck's siding and stuck there in a star pattern, then exploded in a red flash of glittering data residue. The impact made the clown's conveyance lurch, and tip onto the busted wheel, pitching onto its side and starting to barrel roll straight at Hiro, Mads, and the Digital Nightmare. Hiro revved the engine and rereversed their direction, now heading back towards the oncoming truck. They had been running out of road, anyway. The hacker's impeccable reflexes came in handy, and just as the truck bounced off the asphalt and came up towards them like a spinning bundle of dynamite, he dropped their suspension and cruised underneath it, spinning back around and watching the truck come to a skidding stop on its side.
"Yeah!....wait, where's the announcement..."
Madotsuki shrugged and leaned back out of the window, then ducked back inside, pale. She pointed towards their opponent. "Look." Hiro looked.
"YOU....YOU TRASHED MY RIDE! I'M GOING TO TRASH YOUR LIIIIIIVES! HHRRAAAAAAGGGGHHH!"
The clown was half out of his passenger side window shaking his fist and roaring at the sky. There was a whirring, scraping, grating sound as various mechanical shafts and gears ground against each other, the boxy shape of the ice cream truck unfolding into what was now obviously some sort of battle-mech complete with grinning ice cream cone for a head.
The hacker ducked back inside with a manic grin on his face and buckled himself in. Nearly shouting with excitement, he turned back to his partner. "I told you! I told you, Pod! Let's fucking do this! Yeah!" He flipped a covered box on his driving console marked "Rock N' Roll, and punched the big red button underneath it, throwing a few levers and making the car spin on it's axles.
As it spun, the modular sections he'd so painstakingly set onto rails and gyro sockets disengaged and relocked into a different position. The car's wheel assemblies locked together and became two short, stout leg appendages, while the gunner's cockpit swiveled up and locked into place above Hiro's compartment. Everything locked back into place, the retractable fist serving as one arm and Reason's bulk serving as another. Hiro took a deep breath and slid both of his hands into the depressions on his console. "I'm gonna be powering this thing...you've got near complete control in your section now. I hope you got better at video games while I was gone!"
Hiro gritted his teeth as Sweet Tooth finished transforming and started to stomp towards their half assembled mech, laughing in a sinister tone. "Alright....here goes! Metaverse Mode! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH!"
The outer plating of their mech torso sparked with green electricity, power readings surging to the top of the scale as thin green lines blazed in right angles over their vehicle. Sweating, Hiro bit his tongue and felt the outline coalesce fully, his perfected overclock mode translated into a suit of green, crackling vector armor for their vehicle, a green sword enveloping Reason's hilt with tracers in the air. The two mechs faced off, one with rusty scrap and steel bones, the other a fusion of a solid core encased in shining, sparking armor.
Quote:You! Dig! Giant Robots! We! Dig! Giant Robots!
Quote:Hiro used T1 Power-Up: Ronin of the Metaverse, Vector Faraday, Chernobyl Packet
Word Count: 6783 + 1463 = 8243/7500 Minimum
![[Image: MZSDl2O.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/MZSDl2O.jpg)