AndyC

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

<Snipped quote by Pacifista>

Wraith was contemplating writing a post just because it would be funny

@Sep

New strategy unlocked: declare the game dead as soon as it starts, then get everyone to keep it going in perpetuity as a troll.

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

For real, though, hmu.

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

I'm considering digging up a pitch I did that kinda flopped, and re-work it so that hopefully it doesn't flop again.

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

<Snipped quote by Retired>

Because the veil has been lifted. We no longer feel the pressure of 'oh we better not post in the OOC cause I don't have time to post and I don't want to feel/look bad

@Sep

In a similar fashion, the pressure of "oh, I was going to bang out a couple of paragraphs, but it's been a couple of weeks and I don't want to look like I've been slacking off so I need to post a full-length novel or people will hate me" has been the death knell of so many of my characters I can't even count.

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

I can sympathize-- even without the same condition, I can't even begin to say how many times I've gone whole-hog into a character, story, or whole RP with so much enthusiasm that it's all I can think about, only to have my focus and motivation dry up. For what it's worth, I'd been completely checked out on the superhero genre for a good long while until I saw this, and getting my first try at playing Wolverine rekindled my love of the classic X-Men comics as I looked for reference material, so if anything I want to thank you for reminding me of why I love these characters and worlds so much, and how much I enjoyed writing stuff with you crazy kids. My own life got a bit too crazy to keep up with posting, but the spark is back, and that's thanks to youse guys.

I'll be there when the next one of these comes, and hopefully I'll have more time and energy to put more of my ideas to screen.

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

“Is this really where you meet up to do covert black-ops stuff?” Kitty asks as we reach our contact’s location. “I was hoping for, like, a high-end casino or the balcony of some skyscraper or something.”

“Well, those aren’t exactly covert, are they?” I say as we slow the truck to a stop outside a high chain-link fence topped with razor wire. “Besides, there’s more to this place than you’d expect.”

“I guess,” Kitty says, careful to avoid a rusty piece of jagged sheet metal as we step out of the truck. “I just wasn’t expecting it to be so…junky.”

CC & JR's Scrap Yard is a several-acre landfill on the outskirts of Winnipeg. It's a cemetery of old machinery, as piled-up husks of dead cars and trucks, old kitchen appliances, retired school buses, and outdated construction equipment make a winding maze among the junk heaps. The piles of machinery stack up nearly twenty feet high in places, and the peaks of the makeshift hills are crisscrossed with wires and netting. In some places in that maze, it’s hard to see the sun through all the junk overhead, and the path is filled with switchbacks and dead ends.

For your average scrapper, the layout is inconvenient, sloppy. For someone wanting to stage a raid on an old Mutant Rights fugitive, it’s a death trap.

“So, like, what is this guy, the Jigsaw killer or something?” she asks, stepping over the faded white door of an ice cream truck.

“Forge used to provide my old team with gear for our missions,” I tell Kitty. “Guy wasn’t just a genius; he had the ability to see mechanical energy in action. He could instinctively understand what kind of work might need to be done, and put together exactly the right tool for it. He was the first of our team to remember he had a conscience and walk away, and he wanted to make sure no one from the bad old days ever tried to drag him back in. So he made himself a place where he could be left alone, filled with some pretty nasty surprises for anyone who comes calling without his permission. Stay with me, don’t wander off, and don’t touch anything.”

“That part so won’t be a problem,” she says with a giggle, then casually waves her hand right through the husk of an old sedan.

Slowly, we make our way down the path, and I guide Kitty through the maze little by little. Where the path forks, I take a moment to recall the right route, and take whichever the less obvious way is. When there’s an apparent straightaway, I veer off onto a passage that’s all but invisible unless you’re looking at the right angle. I don’t go out of my way to make noise, but I don’t hide the fact that we’re here. I want Forge to know we’re coming, and that we don’t mean any trouble.

“Oh hey, before we meet him,” Kitty asks, “What should my code-name be?”

“This again?” I sigh.

“Well, come on! You’re ‘Wolverine,’ he’s ‘Forge,’ and I’m not about to dox myself for some stranger.”

“Suit yourself,” I say with a shrug, as I carefully step over a tripline and point it out to her. “Let’s see, what’s a good call sign for a rookie…”

“Ooh, I’ve got one!” she says. “How about ’Shadow Cat?’”

I raise an eyebrow.

“It’s totally cool, right?” she says, clearly proud of herself.

I chuckle. “Yeah, it’s not half bad, actually. Just one problem.”

“What’s that?”

“You’re a rookie,” I say, grunting as I sidle through a tight squeeze between a rusted-out Cadillac and a pile of old Maytags. “Rookies don’t get cool code names. Once we complete the mission, get you safely to Xavier, then you can be Shadow Cat. Until then…”

I sniff the air, and amid the dust and dirt and old motor oil residue, I still smell that fake-coconut lotion that I told her to stop wearing.

”Until then, you’re Coconut,” I decide, and grin as I see that the name annoys her.

Eventually, we reach what appears to be a dead end. There’s a small clearing with a pile of TVs,surrounded by garbage heaps reaching up a good ten to fifteen feet in all directions. For a second, I think I’ve taken a wrong turn, when I see one of the screens flicker to life.

It’s just snow and static, but after a few seconds of hiss, I hear a voice.

”You really shouldn’t have come here, Wolverine,” says the thin, raspy voice of an old man.

”Wouldn’t have, if I had a choice,” I say back. “Got pulled into a job, need passage into the States, and you’re the best bet on getting us there.”

There’s a pause, then Forge speaks again.

”Who’s the girl?”

Kitty crosses her arms. “Just call me Coconut,” she says, giving me a hard glare.

Another long pause.

“Were you followed?” Forge asks.

I shake my head. “There’s heat on us, but we don’t have an immediate tail. The quicker we get this done, the less time we spend here, the easier it’ll be to say you never saw us.”

There’s another long pause, then the pile of TVs begins to rumble and slide to one side. Underneath, there’s a hatch about the size of a manhole, which slides open and reveals a ladder.

“Come on in,” he says, “Let’s not waste time.”

---

”Okay, really, why a bow and arrow?” Floyd Lawton asked Clint Barton over the roar of the C-130’s propellers. “You do realize that guns exist, right?”

“Versatility,” Barton answered with a shrug, “I can do stuff with a bow that you can’t do with a gun.”

“Yeah?” Lawton sneered, “Like what?”

“Arc a shot over obstacles, bounce it off walls, load it up with speciality ammunition,” Barton answered, “Oh, and I can shoot my bow without needing ear protection and alerting everyone within a half-mile radius that I’m there.”

“Pfft,” Lawton scoffed, “Give me a high-powered rifle, and I’ll shoot through your walls and obstacles, and drop anyone who hears the first shot so they can’t get off a warning.”

“And if we want to take someone alive?” Barton asked, “You know, the whole point of this mission?”

It was Lawton’s turn to shrug. “Bean bag rounds.”

“Uh-huh. And that’s going to help you take down the Wolverine and grab the intangible girl?”

“Got better odds than using a weapon from the damn Stone Age.”

“Oh, I’ve got some surprises,” Barton grinned.

“Last I checked, arrows and bullets don’t travel at the speed of light,” said Buchinski.

“Technically, electricity only travels around 80% of the speed of light,” said Jenkins, “and that’s through a good conductor. Lasers, on the other hand…”

”KING SHARK IS A SHARK.”

“Enough measuring dicks,” Colonel Flag cut in. “Intel has just given us a location. Beetle, you’ll do a flyby and provide recon when we’ve reached the site, backed up by Fixer’s drones. Once we have the target sited, Team A will engage with Wolverine. Incapacitate if possible, otherwise just stay alive long enough for Team B to advance on the primary objective. Team C will stay in reserve and go where the mission deems necessary.”

Everyone’s stomachs shifted as the plane banked towards its new destination.

“ETA thirty minutes,” Flag said as he walked towards the large crates in the plane’s cargo bay. “Time to gear up.”

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

<Snipped quote by AndyC>

I enjoy your superman but by law you have to retain both Wolverine and the Ghost Cowboy.

@Sep

I'm absolutely sticking with Wolvie. Jonah I'm struggling with; I had a concept I liked, but I kind of shot myself in the foot by setting him up in a way that keeps him from interacting with other characters, and I feel like I went way too edgy-for-the-sake-of-edgy with my first couple of posts, so now I just feel kinda gross trying to write him.

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

I went ahead and removed myself as Hulk, too, if anyone wants him. Superman I'm still going to attempt a return with, but I won't contest any applications for him either.

@Master Bruce

Not contesting competing applications, you say....

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

Huh, didn't realize that was an option. I may weigh my options and see if it's worth throwing some elbows, at least to keep some folk on their toes.

Mechwarrior: Disposable Heroes

NPDRE Forward Operating Base
North Nui Awa
0130 Hours
30 March, 3030

"Get a load of this shit," Jester 2 said with a derisive chuckle, beckoning the timid AsTech over to her. In the couple of days she'd had since she and her Mech had avoided the shootout in the mountain pass, she'd taken to tormenting the skinny blonde tech as a way to relieve stress, make herself feel more powerful as events in the war seemed to be totally out of her hands. Whatever the Crimson King had in mind, whatever the Duchess's grand plans were for sending them to this backwater planet in the first place, it wasn't her call to make. All she was here for was to shoot who the King told her to shoot.

"What's wrong, sir?" the AsTech came rushing over, her eyes heavy with sleeplessness after yet another double-shift, her voice filled with trepidation. "We've run diagnostics on every system on the Warhammer and triple-checked, she should be combat-ready once the machine gun ammunition is--"

"Quit yapping!" Jester 2 barked from behind the laughing-skull paint job of her helmet. She raised a backhand, and was satisfied to see the AsTech flinch. "I told you to come watch, not talk. Check it out; the Crimson King just forced the Green Knights' hand."

Pulling up the live feed on her noteputer, the Crimson Fist Mechwarrior displayed a broadcast from a stone-faced man the news identified as Colonel Gaius Wayne.

"--reject your accusations outright, and demand the right to defend our honor. Since arriving on Espia, the actions of the Crimson Fists have not been of Mechwarriors worthy of the title, but of bloodthirsty thugs and cowards. Whoever you are, 'Crimson King,' I know that under your mask, you aren't the fearsome mercenary you pretend to be. You're likely a vain, spineless little man, maybe an idle noble too far from succession to have a title, maybe a corporate trust-fund layabout. A spoiled brat of a child, playing at war. And when we started breaking your toys, you decided to throw a tantrum."

"Oh, King's not gonna like that," Jester 2 said with a tssk.

"Still, even though I know I'm talking to a puffed-up parody of a Mechwarrior," the Colonel continued, "I can tell that you also can't resist the chance to put on a show. By the tenets of the Lorix Creed, by the honors of war, and by my own merits as a warrior and as a man, I challenge you to single combat. You have my Battlemech, a BLR-1G Battlemaster identical to the one you pilot, in your possession. Bring that Mech to the coordinates I'm attaching to this message, and the two of us will be on equal grounds to settle this. If you have any shred of integrity, the slightest whiff of a warrior's spirit-- to put it quite bluntly, if you have the balls for it-- you will fight me at dawn, and maybe, just maybe....whatever parent or authority figure you're currently failing to impress will think better of you when it's done."

The instant the message cut off, Jester 2's comm-link went active.

"Attention, all Crimson Fists!" came the voice of the Crimson King. "Mount up, and prepare to move out!"

Jester 2 laughed. "Oh wow, that really got under his skin," she chuckled, heading towards her tent. "Help me get the links for my Neurohelmet attached, and I'll get the Warhammer spun up and ready to roll. Promise not to step on ya on my way out."

"Right behind you..." Wrathchild said, her knuckles white as she gripped a heavy actuator wrench in one hand, and stepped into the tent after the enemy Mechwarrior...

---

M I S S I O N S T A R T

Outside Fort Tie Shan
Before Dawn
30 March, 3030

"Ah, okay, everyone," Lieutenant Lyons called out from the command console of the Mobile HQ, seated back a few kilometers from the Fort. "We're in position, keeping overwatch. Average response time for aerial defense assets is ten minutes, five if the Espian Guard is on high alert. So we'll need to move quickly once the shooting starts. We'll be scanning the area for enemy contacts and calling them out to you!"

Lyons clearly wasn't comfortable with the Colonel gone, but they had a job to do, and an awful lot of people counting on them. Higgins and Windham were actually behaving themselves for a change, as even they could appreciate the seriousness of what was at stake.

"Comms chatter is looking light so far," Cadet Higgins said, "Sounds like the Colonel pissed off the fists enough that the Mech force is all a good ways west of us. A fair amount of regular chat among the personnel. I don't think they know we're coming."

"Seismic sensors show two fifty-ton contacts, and two twenty-fivers," Cadet Windham said. "Given their movement profiles, we're likely looking at a garrison force of armor, probably a couple of Scorpion light tanks and a couple of medium hovertanks. On top of the turrets, those might be a problem."

"APCs and evac fleet are in position," Sgt. Dalton called in. "Give the word, and me and the Boys will start making some noise."

"We're all counting on you, Green Knights," said Lyons, "Good hunting!"