omegafriends | Summer Swarm [Action]

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bastion: sebastian

Summer Swarm [Action]

As summer has long settled in, the warm temperatures have been friendly towards Venture City's insect population. Warm weathers like these make them bolder and more numerous and no doubt even the heroes have had to contend with a mosquito bite or two. What may seem like a seasonal nuisance has given one supervillainous mind an ingenious idea for his own big heist.

Scattered across the city streets are robotic insects, small, yet strong enough to lift a wallet or valuable from anyone's pocket and fly off with it, programmed to gather at the rooftop of a random skyscraper. Dr. Nefarious, their robotic master, is lounging on top of a pool resting chair, sipping oil from a tall glass as the insects' loot piles behind him.

Lawrence, his long-suffering butler, stands by Nefarious.

"Ahh, Lawrence, for all the years I've lived, I'm telling you, the only way to beat the heat wave is with a crime wave!"

"Very good, sir. I can see you've spent all night coming up with that one."

"At least knowing that my Nefarious Swarm is pillaging the city under its very own nose is distracting me from remembering Devious being out there, stealing my thunder..." A pause. "... Great, it's all coming back to me!" he yells. Getting up from his seat, he stomps over to the edge of the skyscraper and throws his glass down at the streets. "Lawrence! Another glass! I'm going to make this vacation work even if it kills everyone else."

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Of course one of those swarming bugs stole the wrong thing. The City Crest from the pant leg of The Kid. The Kid was mighty reminiscent about that thing, I could definitely say why. Plus it made sure we could find him no matter where he was. Why he kept it either way. Too bad the kid wasn't able to catch the darn bug while it was easy to catch. No it was flying around with a small cog in the air back to base and the Kid just had a few moments to grab his gear to follow the stealing bug.

Breastplate and glove on, shield in hand, scarf up. His lifelong friend was helping him but so was a set of dueling slinger pistols. I remember when the Kid first found those things in a log. Barely could shoot them straight. Now he could knock a tin can off a fence at 200 meters with one. He didn't wanna risk missing though as he followed the flying bug. Too high to grab and he had forgotten to grab any of that fine Ura brew of butterscotch. He still managed to figure out where the bug was heading to. A skyscraper. The kid decided any supervillain worth his salt would be at the top, so he headed in and up.

"... Sir? I believe the building's landowner called in the exterminator," states Lawrence, casually. The butler turns over the video screen of his personal tablet, showing the Kid on screen entering the building. Nefarious blinks, gauging the significance of this scenario.

"A hero!? Here!? NOOOO-Janice, I'm dying... dying of that silent assassin, killing without distinction... a broken heart! But Lance, you can't die! You're a zombie-werewolf-vampire-wizard!" he recites, just before being given the obligatory slap by his butler, "OOOOW!? But it's my vacation! My time off!"

"You know what they say sir. Evil never rests. Good has no life," says Lawrence, dryly.

"Let him come, then... The elevators are down anyway. The moment he gets here after climbing all those stairs, we shoot him! With a laser, even! Muwahahaha!"

The kid had to admit, going up all those stairs was intimidating slightly. But he had walked 5 days straight to rescue Zia from the ura. The City crest was worth less than Zia, but was plenty close to him. So up the stairs. He kept going up and up.

He got to the top in about an hour. Even though he was determined, that was a LOT of stairs. He ran most of them too. Though he took a swig from his Bullrush near the top, so when Nefarious got sight of the Kid, he looked fit for battle, shield ready.

"Give me back the crest."

"Now, Lawrence! Blast him!" Nefarious shouts, pointing at the Kid with a shaking hand. The robot butler looks around. "Oh, I'm sorry, sir. Did you want me to do it?"

"LawREEENCE!" Nefarious jumps up and down, stomping his feet at his perfect chance gone awry. "Yes, you moron, you were supposed to shoot the hero when he walked through that door! It was implied!" Giving a deep sigh, the robot looks at Kid and leans forward with his claws at his hips.

"So what do you want, anyway?"

These jokers are supposed to be villains? What kind of place was this. The Kid expected to get shot at as soon as he walked through. Had his shield up for that. Having not been shot, he decides he has the upper hand. He puts his shield away and pulls out his twin six shooters. Had 'em both in his sights before long.

"I want the city crest of Caeldonia back. One of your things stole it and brought it here. But since I'm here, I would like you to turn the rest of them off too and return what you stole."

He's a different hero entirely, but the words rang too familiar. Nefarious threw up his hands in complete frustration at the situation. Not that he felt he was in any danger, of course. It's just, how are these heroes always so similar in every generation?

"Listen to yourself. I'm sure you've ordered dozens of other supervillains to do the same thing, but have they ever once ever obeyed?" he asks, narrowing his eyes. "Once?"

The kid had to admit, this guy was weird for not just attacking him. That's what he was used to. He took a beat before responding to the robot head.

"Most people who I have fought attacked me before I had any chance to talk. You're actually the first one I got a chance to say anything to."

The kid took a shot next to Nefarious's dome, making a shot through a robot that had been fluttering around behind him.

"And you look a lot flimsier built than anything I have already fought. On top of that, your... manservant does not seem terribly interested in doing your bidding."

Nefarious flinches and screams, ducking away from the shot. He looks at the kid, anger renewed. "... You're calling me weak, aren't you!" he yells, "Nobody calls the greatest supervillain of Venture City weak. Lawrence! Annihilate this... this kid!"

"Of course, sir," he says, tapping away at his tablet. A buzzing sound reverberates through the air, and the skies are blackened by clouds of robot insects.

"Even on vacation, my technological superiority can outmatch your squishy sharpshooting. Destroy him, my Nefarious Swarm!" he yells, shaking his fist.

A cloud of insect-sized insect robots zooms down at the Kid. Each shoot a tiny string of lasers that crosses and combines into a deadlier stream, aimed at the Kid. Getting caught in the cloud wouldn't be all too safe either.

"... Are you really not interested in doing my bidding?" asks Nefarious, looking over at his manservant. "Rubbing your feet and washing your undergarments give my life that extra bit of meaning, sir."

Edited 2014-05-31 21:36 (UTC)

The kid's gun fired the instant the manservant started trying to work with the tablet. He figured that taking care of some control unit like that would be good for his chances. At the very least he would have some help from now uncontrollable buzzing bots. The other pistol took a shot at Nefarious's chest. His aim meant for the robot's head, but he was trying to roll away at the same time.

The kid rolled back into the stairwell. In the end of the roll he tossed a grenade into the warm. Cael grenades would explode either if it touched one of them or they shot it. Would probably at least deafen the entire room Nefarious and Lawrence were in. The kid took another roll to the side.

"Oh. The boy shot the tablet, sir." Lawrence raises the tablet up, pointing at the scorched hole now on the screen.

"Not now, Lawrence, can't you see I'm trying to avoid gunfire here!?" he shouts, making flips and dodging the bullets aimed at him. With that last flip, the grenade taps the doctor, blowing up and sending him flying. A decent part of the swarm are caught by the flames, blowing up on contact.

"You insignificant, little..." he grumbles, "So what if I can't call back my insect horde. So what if they're out there, no better than the other horseflies and vermin flying around this filthy city. You haven't dealt with all the ones still here..." The robot gives a dirty smile. "Boys? Initiate assimilation sequence."

What's left of the swarm zooms around one another, gradually taking a denser shape. Hovering where the swarm was is now a moderately large beetle shaped robot with a green, blinking dome at the helm. The beetle bot still takes up a good quarter of the rooftop, indicative of how large it could have been had the entire swarm transformed together.

"Lawrence? We're leaving. Find a better vacationing spot for us."

As the Doctor and butler step towards the rooftop edge to take flight, the Nefarious Beetle charges for the Kid, summoning an electric shield around itself. The shield's currently intended use is more offensive.

The kid was rather focused on the two trying to leave. The standard supervillain MO of running away was rather unfamiliar to the kid. He always had them stay and fight. He was the one who ran off without subjecting things to too much pain. Of course when the beetle starts charging down the kid, his mind turns to that.

"By Pyth!" He said, whipping out his shield. Of course given his quick reaction, the Beetle's offensive shield would meet the kid's bullheaded shield right at the right moment. It would reflect back into the beetle. Probably send that metal bug back. Nothing worse than a lunkhead out in the wilds. Though the fact he bounced off the kid's shield would give him some room.

But he didn't use it. He gripped the handle of his hammer in one hand, shield up, pushing towards the robot.

One poor robot insect appears looking a little worse for wear with its wings bent a little giving it a weird little tilt to the left. Still it carried what looked like an employee scan card until it was dropped on the loot. If someone was to look at it, the card is engraved with a barcode on one side and has a strange looking armored face almost bug like. On the back, someone wrote in heavy marker "NICE TRY".

Nefarious picks up the card and looks over at it, steaming all the while. The gears in his head were spinning furiously. "This is an outrage! An insult! Someone had the nerve to nearly crush my insect and have it send me back... This!" he yells, slamming his foot down on the robot insect. "And who am I supposed to properly 'thank' with just a useless barcode written here!?"

He throws the card away. A sudden burst of wind blows it back, slapping the doctor in the face before flying away again. Lawrence raises an arm and catches it.

"We could always put it through the scanner."

If a scanner was applied to the barcode, a little tinny bell sounds, almost like the sound of a school bell. Right after that, a sing-song almost feminine voice starts talking.

"Hello, Doctor. How are you this fine day?" The voice is slightly mechanical sounding and... well familiar. "I am sorry I cannot allow you to steal my wallet, but I hope that you will enjoy this card and the many tricks it might be able to do. Please do not stretch, bend, break, tear, shot or get this card wet. It might cause you some discomfort."

The card dings a couple more time and then begins to hum in that annoying voice of that annoying person that the good robot doctor might have come into contact at a local arcade place a couple of times. It also refuses to stop humming.

[a familiar sounding ringtone plays on Nefarious's communicator before an override code causes it to pick up on its own, displaying a hologram of Dr. Eggman, holding a crushed insect robot in his hands in front of the robotic doctor]

Hello, Nefarious. How are you this fine summer day? I was hoping we could discuss an important matter...

Edited 2014-06-01 03:27 (UTC)

[Ugh, it's fatso again. Nefarious folds his hands together and smiles, giving a small laugh.]

Why, Dr. Eggman... my esteemed employer. I see one of my robot insects for my personal Swarm project has reached you safe... well, reached you, anyway.

Yes, about that...

[Eggman opened his palm, to show the machine to be quite crushed]

Your little Buzzbomber knockoff tried to steal my wallet!

Did it? [It was minor carelessness, honestly, but the scenario was still hilarious to Nefarious.]

Well, clearly, that one was malfunctioning. I'm certain that I had Lawrence program them to avoid present company. Besides, had it reached me, I would have given it back to you tout suite.

Edited 2014-06-01 03:50 (UTC)

Uh huh.

[Eggman's hologram glares at him for several moments, before he tosses the trash into a convenient robotic trashcan badnik]

Another thing... how come I didn't have the plans for these submitted to me?

I told you, they're a personal project.

[Even for employers or partners, Nefarious can only feign politeness to a certain extent. Even Eggman must have accepted that long ago.]

That uppity Dr. Devious is starting up trouble again. Trouble that I should be starting! Tonight is their test drive, and... I wanted to accompany a field report with those plans.

I see. And going behind my back is just an added bonus.

[Eggman stares angrily for several moments longer... before laughing and slapping his knee]

You almost got me this time, Nefarious. That means drinks are on you the next time we go to my restaurant, hm?

Should've known better than to get one past old Eggman.

[He joins in the laughing. Of course, most of what he said was a lie. The only truthful part is that bit about Dr. Devious.]

Fine. It looks like First National's going to have to foot the bill for me again.

You know, if you'd just learn how to make a boiled egg, you wouldn't have to rob anything. But nooo...

[and now it's back to business]

Anyway, get back to me. I'm already considering possibilities for these. They have potential as surveillance devices...

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Summer Swarm [Action]

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