Turn 74: Better Dakka, Living Machines, and Hard Talks

--- Maya ---

Knowing that the greatest flaw in the newest addition to her arsenal was the fact that she needed to detonate them manually, she decided that the most important upgrade on her agenda was making sure they could recognize when something entered their range. And while creating a motion detector was a reasonably simple feat that she knocked out in maybe half an hour, it was the fact that she had to create additional detectors to attach to all of her other bombs that really made this particular upgrade a problem.

“Yeah, we kind of jumped the gun setting the explosives up before making sure they were ready.” She sighed, making her dozenth or so motion detector.

(Well, we were in a hurry to have some kind of contingency to deal with the Creeps.) Her inner reason consoled her. (Better to have a minimal defense than none at all.)

(Yeah, besides we built more dakka.) Her inner madness added. (You can never have enough dakka dakka.)

“True.” She admitted. “But I think this counts as a case of not having enough dakka when deploying said dakka.”

(That just means we need even more dakka.)

Scene Consequences

-Concussive Explosives upgraded to Mk 1.1

--Explosives will now auto-trigger when something enters their max range.

-Gained 1XP to Electronics

--Currently: Electronics Lv. 6 (5/14)

---

“Now this metal here is gallium, which has a number of interesting properties.” A male M.A.D. named Victor told the handful of children visiting. “For instance as a liquid metal, if you were to pick it up in your hand like this, it would actually melt in your hand. Though be sure to wear gloves if you don’t want to stain your hands with it.”

Victor showed the kids his hands as the metal slowly melted before dumping it in a container with hot water where it spread out a bit.

“Now if you add sulfuric acid to this it’ll cause the gallium to increase in surface tension.” Her fellow M.A.D. continued, pouring a second clear chemical into the container and causing the squished gallium to slowly turn into a more well rounded blob. “Now if you keep watching you'll see bubbles beginning to form on the edge of the gallium where its ionization process is leaving behind little bubbles of hydrogen.”

“If you introduce iron to the equation you can lower the gallium sulfate back to a more normal state, reducing its surface tension so that you can do this.” Victor pulled out a small pin like piece of metal before poking the metal blob and dragging a line of metal away from it. Of course this effect is only temporary, so if you move the iron too far…”

The line of metal snapped leaving a small spike pointing off of both the iron pen and the gallium blob, until after a moment the blob’s spike seemed to zip back into the blob. Smiling at the awed kids, her fellow M.A.D. stuck the pen back into the blob and messed it about until the blob was a contorted shape, until after another moment it seemed to snap back into its more spherical form.

“Now this next bit is the really cool bit.” Victor assured the kids, as he poured a vial of a yellow liquid into the container. “By adding aluminum dichromate to the sulfuric acid and gallium, we will cause a dual series of reactions where the liquid metal will oscillate between expanding and contracting in a way that almost looks like the metal has its own heartbeat.”

As she alongside the crowd of kids watched the metal beat away to its own rhythm a little voice in her head couldn’t help but wonder, (out of curiosity… how hard do you think it would be for us to make a living liquid robot?)

(Significantly harder than we are capable of at the moment.) Her inner reason admitted.

(Also aren’t you the one always going on about us skynetting the world?) She reminded herself. (Building the liquid guy from terminator 2 isn’t exactly stopping that.)

(As if I actually care about stopping us from skynetting the world.) Her inner madness chuckled. (I just wanted to make sure ‘robot revolution’ was the world domination plan we wanted to go with.)

Scene Consequences

-For helping out at the M.A.D. club, you earned ((Metal Working: 2D6=11) + (Total M.A.D. Level = 20) = 31) Dollars.

-Thanks to Crit gained 1XP to Metal Working.

--Currently: Lv. 5 (5/12)

---

“Alright, how does that feel?” She asked DM-1 as she finished adjusting the little drone’s limbs.

DM-1 shuffled around a bit as he got used to the new joints in his limb allowing him to more easily shuffle about before saying, “Move quicker.”

“Yep, that was one of the points.” She nodded, before dropping a bunch of cubes in front of the little drone. “Now try picking as many of these dice up as you can, and remember you want to do it one dice at a time.”

DM-1 gave her a nod before shoving his face towards the dice, at which point his mandible-like appendages tried to scoop them up, only to fumble half of them.

The little drone made a growl of frustration as he glared at the even littler cubes.

“It’s fine.” She told him. “Take your time and get used to them, you’ve got more joints there two so you don’t have to grab them all at once.”

DM-1 stared at her for a moment, before once more shoving his face into the pile of dice. Only this time instead of trying to grab the dice all at once he used his new lower mandibles as a sort of plate while using the upper ones to slowly curl the dice onto it.

“Much better.” She praised the little drone once he had managed to gather a decent amount. “Now you just keep practicing at it while I get DM-2 set up with her upgrades alright?”

“Alright.” DM-1 told her before getting back to his exercises, as he trained his programming to properly use these new appendages.

Turning to her other drone she began hooking DM-2 up to her computer equipment. “Now then I’m just going to put you in sleep mode and when you wake up you’re going to have a bunch of shiny new upgrades.”

“Okay, mama.” DM-2 nodded as she settled in.

(Ah~ She’s going to make such an adorable little world conqueror!)

Scene Consequences

-Drone Minions upgraded to Mk. 1.2

--When using Tools and/or Weapons all drone minions gain +1 to Tool Efficiency and/or Weapon Accuracy.

-Gained 1XP to Electronics and Metal Working

--Currently: Electronics Lv. 6 (6/14) and Metal Working Lv. 5 (6/12)

---

“You know I am legitimately surprised you called me again.” Decker admitted as she escorted him through the halls of the hospital.

“Well, as close as it is to Halloween I don’t want to risk them getting out.” She explained. “Especially since you said everyone is caught up with something else.”

“Fair enough.” Decker nodded. “Takes a big person to admit they can’t handle a problem on their own.”

“Right so… this is the place.” She told him, gesturing to the bomb covered entrance to Creep infested section of the hospital.

“The Alchemilla wing?” Decker read off a nearby sign. “Oh, that is definitely the kind of place you cover in bombs.”

“What do you mean?” She frowned.

“Eh, Madness has a sense of humor…” Decker answered, before quietly adding, “A really messed up one when it wants.”

(I wonder what that means?)

“So out of curiosity, I need to worry about any fog or evil nurses in there?” Decker asked.

“No, but there’s this pack of these Bloodhound things.” She warned him. “They’re like these wolfman things that can cause a fear effect throwing you off completely.”

“Ah, Fear, that can be a nasty little debuff depending on who uses it.” Decker agreed, before contemplating something as he stared at the door. “Hey, how many entrances to this wing are there?”

“I think there’s like six?” She shrugged. “A bunch of the halls and stairs are falling apart, but that’s all I could find.”

“I see.” Decker snapped his fingers and a swarm of pixels erupted nearby before merging to form one of the Bouncer Bears she’d seen at his rave. “Mind taking me to the other entrances so I can drop a few more of these guys off?”

“Uh, no, sure. Uh, this way.” She told him, continuing down a hall.

---

“So, um, how many of those things can you make?” She had to ask once he’d left yet another Bear at the final entrance.

“More than enough.” Decker assured her in a way that did little to reassure her given how he was still a gang member and her a hero. “And even more than that when I’ve got my music board with me.”

“Good to know.” (So glad I broke that thing when I had the chance.)

“Yeah, sis was not happy I had to replace that.” The gang lieutenant admitted. “Still I was due for an upgrade anyway.”

“Glad there’s no hard feelings…”

“Mm-hmm, so the bombs?” Decker asked.

“Uh, right… just give me a second.” She told him, before using her COMP to temporarily shut the bombs down. “That should do it.”

“Fantastic, now come on.” Decker told her walking through the doors. “Any idea where these Creeps are?”

“Um, the last time I saw them they started spawning while I was near an archives room.” She answered, gesturing down a hall. “It’s about five minutes that way.”

“Cool, and how do you want to handle this?” Decker asked, clapping his hands together.

“What do you mean?” She frowned.

“Well there are three big ways we could handle this,” Decker explained. “The first is that I go in there and wipe them all out single handedly which, yes, I’m ninety-five percent sure I can do. Or alternatively I could be here as a safety net, while you go in and take care of things yourself, only stepping in when you absolutely need it. Lastly I could help you fight them, but more in a support role in case you get whammied by that fear effect thing.”

“Okay… and if I’m using a favor to get your help, why would I fight these guys myself?” She asked him slowly.

“Because you need XP.” Decker answered bluntly. “I mean I get you’re new to this whole Mask deal, but the fact that you’re asking me for help with a small Bleed tells me one of two things. Either you’re weak and need to level up, or you’re extremely unconfident and need a win to get you some confidence.”

“That’s not… I told you, I could handle this if it weren’t for the time restriction.” She argued. “I mean, with a bit of time I could be ready for anything.”

“And that’s the logic fallacy of M.A.D. heroes.” Decker sighed before giving her a long look.

“All right, real talk because I think you need it.” Decker told her. “It’s a common issue with M.A.D. Masks where you all think with enough time you can beat anything so half of you turn into lab hermits who never actually do anything outside of your labs. Which leads to this spiral where you think you need even more equipment before you can go out, because there is always one more thing to invent.”

“I’ve done stuff outside of my lab.” She told him petulantly, knowing that she did spend most of her time in her lab.

“Really? Because after you proved ballsy enough to challenge me on my home turf I decided to try and keep an ear out for you.” Decker admitted before raising his fingers. “Three months and I’ve heard one report that could’ve been you, both from the cops and other contacts.”

“I’ve only been at this for a few months!” She tried to argue. “You can’t expect me to be ready to be a hero that quickly, it takes time to sort this kind of stuff out.”

“True, but there’s also a drive factor, a determination to be a Mask.” Decker pointed out. “You are showing you don’t really have that drive.”

“Fuck you.” She spat at him.

Decker gave her an unimpressed look. “I personally know at least a dozen teens who were thrown into the Mask life, each made a splash pretty quickly once they were dragged into it. Even the few that have popped up in the last couple of months have made a decent showing of robbing gangs, rescuing kidnapped kids, and even fighting an A-Rank Demon for one insane bastard.”

The gang lieutenant sighed and his face softened a bit. “I’ll admit, a fair number of those new Masks get out of the game once they get a real taste of it, which is why I played that whole little game when we met. So you could win a bit, lose a bit, and get a taste of it all.”

She was silent at all of that.

“Now, I’m not trying to be mean here, but given what I’m seeing with you and what all I saw in the dungeon, I feel like you need someone to explain to you that the Mask game is not for the weak willed.” Decker continued. “Now I know you’ve got some bite, but it’s up to you whether you’ve got enough bite to stay in the Mask game or not.”

The older Mask gestured down the hall. “So like I said, you can handle this by yourself with me as a safety net, I can give you some help and show you how it’s done, or if you don’t think you’ve got enough bite I can take care of it myself.”

Decker gave her a hard look. “So what’s it going to be gamer girl?”