legionmissions | Murderworld Endgame [modplot]

Really, a bunch of lame turrets never stood a chance against them. So after they're all systematically destroyed by their efforts, a few of the ruined turrets automatically descend back underground -- but one of the trashed ones is trashed in a way where the wreckage jams up the mechanism that would otherwise allow the base to descend and be swallowed up by the earth again.

They now have a perfect, mostly clear shaft down to what's very obviously a complex underground, complete with conveniently climbable crossbars along the sides.

With Arcade trying to watch multiple simultaneous fights all over the arena (thanks to him amping up the attacks of the Tributes) he's briefly turned away from their fight, instead focusing his attention on their teammates' struggles elsewhere.

Who knows what's down there in the dark? There's only one way to find out.

Had this been any other situation, Gohan might've been impressed by how effectively everyone took out the turrets. But as things were right now, he was just too angry to focus on that. The fact that something like Murderworld had been allowed to happen, that people were dead and would never come back, it got to Gohan in a way that not a lot of things did. But combined with the blase attitude Arcade displayed, and how the man was making a televised spectacle out of all this...

It reminded him of Cell. And that would never be a good reminder.

Without a word, Gohan dropped the shield once the turrets were disabled. A hard expression on his face as he gave the area a cursory glance, and finally got a moment to breathe. "Looks like the coast is clear..." He murmured, before his gaze fell on the jammed turret. Momentary confusion on his expression, before the hard expression came back, and he started walking toward the opening on the ground.

"I'm going in." He didn't turn to look at anyone else. "Arcade's getting what's coming to him."

"When did plan become a four-letter word?" The mutter is without ire - Wash is actually pretty impressed at how quickly and effectively everyone swung into action and wiped out the turrets. He takes a look around and catches sight of the downed and jammed turret at about the same time Gohan does, and sees Gohan's expression a moment later, and oh, that's not good.

"Not alone, you're not," Wash says, tone brooking no argument. "You've got the shield - take point. I'm after you. Chief, follow me; Gwen, after him; Videl, watch our six." Hopefully the tunnel isn't too small for Chief to move in. Hopefully Gohan manages to calm down before they find wherever Arcade is hiding. Hopefully Arcade doesn't catch them closing in and flood the tunnel with acid or something equally as deadly. That's a whole lot more hopefully than Wash usually likes in a plan, but there's nothing he can do about it; all he can do now is follow Gohan and, well, hope.

Videl wasn't done beating turrets into mechanical pulp when the shooting stopped and the turrets began to descend. She gave her turret one last kick as it left, breaking off a piece and leaving it firmly wedged in place.

Gohan was the first to break the brief second of silence. His tone of voice immediately sparked concern; he didn't sound anything like himself. She hurried toward him, intending to announce that she was going too (and honestly, who wasn't going?), but Wash’s instructions cut her off.

“But I--” She started to argue, to insist that she was going to follow Gohan instead, but when she looked at Wash, she could tell this arrangement wasn't up for discussion.

“Fine,” Videl conceded impatiently. She understood Wash’s logic without needing an explanation, but her concern for Gohan still warred against her good judgment. Crossing her arms, she waited by the opening for everyone else to descend so she could take up the rear.

Edited 2016-10-20 17:07 (UTC)

"God, he might just be the worst kind of supervillian. Setting up a trap and just sort of... expecting us to die to it, without actually watching."

Why was it that the bad guys always wanted to take the least amount of effort to actually try to kill them? Setting a bunch of automated turrets against them and expect that it would somehow be enough? Talk about halfhearted. That or Arcade was putting in way too much faith in lowly turrets.

The plan from Wash makes about as much sense as any, and it wasn't like she had any sort of problem against it. Now that she wasn't under attack from the turret army, she could actually, you know, keep a level head and keep going forward.

Probably.

She let out a deep breath and got into formation.

The Chief fell into line without argument, checking the battery on the plasma gun as he did. Not as much as he would've liked to walk into a fight with, but it was starting to feel like they'd finally cracked Arcade's containment. If they were lucky, this would be enough.

The nice thing about being Spartan tall was order didn't matter, he could shoot over anyone here's head with room to spare.

"Odds are he's a cocky idiot who forgot to consider backup security," he said. "But everybody stay sharp."

The underground complex is vast and full of complicated machinery. They can see everything from death traps, to cells containing wild muttations that can be released above, to weapons like the turrets.

But the oddest thing of all is a single metal cell up ahead, as if Arcade has a prisoner.

Edited 2016-10-22 22:04 (UTC)

This was... not what Gohan was expecting. Something that became pretty obvious, as he stopped in his tracks, and took a moment to actually process what he was seeing. His hard expression fell away, slowly being replaced with confusion and curiosity. He wasn't sure what he was expecting to find down here, but... somehow, this wasn't it.

"... What is this...?" He couldn't help but mutter, gaze falling on the cells containing the wild mutations. A small energy blast forming in his hands, just in case some of them were somehow released. His shield was still up, although it wasn't so much encompassing the entire group anymore so much as it was shielding them from the front.

But honestly, he was less focused on a potential ambush, and more focused on trying to figure out the logistics of having such an expansive complex.

"Do you... do you think this place is underneath all of Murderworld? Or just where we got sent?"

Well. This is hellish.

Somehow, Wash isn't terribly surprised. He's seen some of this stuff used on the surface of Murderworld; it makes sense that there'd be a storage facility for it somewhere, and it looks like they've managed to stumble on it. "Storage facility," he says by way of very brief explanation, noting Gohan's change of expression. Confusion and intrigue is a hell of a lot easier to work with than murderous rage. Good.

"I doubt it. There's probably tunnels or teleporters or something to put these where they need to go." He pauses for a moment, feeling the words out before putting them out there. "The best we can hope for is easy access to whatever control room Arcade is using - it might be here, or there might be a way to find it from here." Hopefully. "Either way, we should keep moving."

The cell up ahead catches his attention as he finishes speaking, and Wash moves closer to it (but not too close), cautiously, knife in hand as though it'll make a difference. "What's in there?"

The rows of cages were bothering Videl far more than she felt they had any right to. Was she imagining things, or did the muttations look more miserable than threatening? She barely heard what the others were talking about. Videl wasn't really paying attention to anything besides the cages (including watching the group's backs, as she'd been instructed to do) and didn't notice they'd stop until she walked right into Gwen.

"Sorry," she said absently, leaning around the group to get a look at what stopped them.

Another cage.

"No. No way, no." Videl pushed her way through the group and grabbed the back of Wash's shirt. "Do not go in there." She tried to sound authoritative, but her voice quaked. "It's definitely a trap. He's trying to lure us all in there so he can lock us in that cage and sic all these monsters on us. Trust me," Videl entreated, her grip on Wash's shirt tightening.

Was there ever going to be a moment when Gwen didn't wish she still had her spider-sense? No. This was probably how Billy felt. But he could be a hero without it, then so could she.

She had to be better.

Gwen's eyes went wide when they made it inside. Wash calling it a storage facility made sense, which put them in a pretty good position, all things considered. Gwen figured they could cause some real damage to Arcade's stupid arena from in here. They just needed to find a good place to start. Though she was immediately distracted by a bump by Videl. "Don't worry about it."

And the sight of a prisoner inside a cage. A cage that was... pretty ordinary, really.

"Hey." She called out to the one inside. "You alright in there? Don't worry, we're gonna put an end to all of this!"

Hell of a place Arcade had down here. Wash probably had it right, with teleportation technology there was no reason to have this staging area stretch out under the whole arena. It was still big enough to be a little sobering. They'd been thrown back and forth across the thing for three days, but it was so large inside it was hard to grasp the scale of the operation while you were caught inside it.

They passed death machines and neatly stored traps, muttations rattled cages or sulked in corners as the Chief passed the tip of the gun toward small motions. At one point, another of Arcade's xenomorphs rushed at them and attempted to lash out with the blade of its tail, the bars only just too narrow to let it through.

The Chief was very, very done with this place by the time they reached the apparent prisoner cage. He tended to agree with Videl, but saying that wouldn't steady her any.

"Nobody touch anything. It might be a trap."

When Gwen called out, he waited with the others to see what response she got.

Edited (html fail) 2016-11-16 01:19 (UTC)

Pained coughing answered them at first. It goes on for a minute before it becomes clear that whoever's in there is laughing.

"Please. Ow. Anyone with half a brain woulda made the cell the safe spot and trap the outside." The voice, definitely male, is silent for a moment. "'Course, he's too busy setting up his lazy Battle Royale knockoff to do anything interesting like turn the floors into a slide to dump you all into a bumper car zone, isn't he? No sense of style, the murderin' bum."

Upon closer inspection, there's a battered and bruised little man chained to a wall in there with unkept red hair, white clothes nearly identical to Arcade's, and a face covered in the ugly green-yellow of three day old bruises. There's no real bed in his room, but there's a toilet and a bowl of water that're both placed just out of reach.

Still, he beams, showing a broad smile that's friendly despite the broken teeth, and spreads his hands as best he can with his manacles. "Howdy, folks. The name's Arcade. And lemme tell you what. You promise to get me out of here, I'll give you a special, once-in-a-lifetime master password for this tacky, uninspired excuse for a Murderworld."

He tilts his head forward just a bit, watching them between some of the loose strands of his shaggy, unwashed hair like an expectant child. "What d'ya say?"

Edited 2016-11-17 10:26 (UTC)

For a moment, Gohan wasn't sure how to respond. After how mentally taxing the last three days had been, he wasn't quite ready to accept the possibility that there was an added layer of complexity to everything that what was going on. He figured it was gonna be simple enough: find Arcade, and bring him to justice.

But two Arcades? Well... there was really only one experience Gohan had when it came to duplicates of the same person.

"Time travel..." Gohan murmured softly, dropping his hand a bit. The energy blast in his hand dissipating, as he moved closer and easily broke off one of the chains with a simple squeeze. "You're him, aren't you. From another time, I mean."

Murderworld Endgame [modplot]

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