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Those first steps
Topic Started: Nov 4 2015, 07:42 AM (7,374 Views)
technoRomancer
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Pokémon Trainer
[ *  *  *  *  * ]
Joe gave a nervous, defeated laugh. This was the Grimer being affectionate? He would have to be sure to never, ever leave this thing out while he was sleeping. In fact, he intended to never let it out unless he absolutely needed to. But for now... best to find out as much as he could about it, right? The more he knew, the less likely he was to accidentally get killed. There would be plenty of other things attempting to kill him out there. His panic beginning to subside to regular levels of nervous discomfort, he held a shaking arm towards the Grimer and scanned it.
Edited by technoRomancer, Nov 7 2015, 04:58 PM.
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Lockdown
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I SEEE YOUUUU
[ *  *  *  *  * ]
"Scanning and analysis complete. Subject identified. Nidoran♂, "Poison Pin pokemon". Initially marketed as a companion for small children, its genome was re-purposed for debilitating enemy agriculture. The larger the horn on their head, the more potent their venom. Subject tapping into 5% of full potential. Likely attack capabilities are Leer, Peck and..." There's a pause, followed by a series of strange noises. "Extremely anomalous attack found, Confusion." The screen on Bunnie's vault-dex fills with an in-depth scan of her partner's brain, several areas being highlighted, before an outline of some kind of long-legged and necked quadruped is shown. "Extreme splicing confirmed. Possible genetic shift in the future. Splice source not found in data-bank."

Back in the lab, the Grimer curiously eyes the scanning laser as Joe, Amber and Christine's dexes all chime, indicating new data. After a moment, Joe's dex speaks up. "Grimer, the sludge pokemon. Initially deemed a failure early on in the production of pokemon, it's ability to produce highly toxic substances and extreme malleability of form caused its genome to be pulled out and repurposed as an infiltration and assassination asset when war broke out. Subject tapping into 5% of full potential, likely attack capabilities are Poison Gas, Pound, Harden and Acid Spray." The buzz once again. "Anomalous attack, Acid Spray. Analyzing. Genetic Splice confirmed." There's a readout of the Grimer's body, followed by a slender undulating shape, overlaid by a question mark. "Splice source not found in database."

Skrub lets out a breath through his nose. “Now please, all of you recall your creatures. I’ll meet you at the Vault door to release you out into the world, but there’s some last minute things I need to look into. Hopefully they’ll make your journey a little easier.”

The five of you are left at loose ends for the next half hour. Some of the other citizens of the vault congratulate and thank you. Others simply give you looks of pity, or jealousy. However, the time finally comes, and the five of you are found and escorted to the only egress the Vault has by security, while others keep the halls closest to the door empty of gawkers or daredevils that might get it into their heads to risk the Vault’s location for a lark. Skrub is there, along with the head of Security and the chief of the agro-ponics division.

“Alright, we’ll be opening the door in a moment. But before I do that, I found something in the archives that could be of great help to you.” He holds up a small datastick, looking ridiculously tiny in his hands, before he passes it to Amber. “It’s a mapping program that has a topographical map of the area. You can load it into your Vault –dex with the data-link there.” He indicates a small cable that extends from the housing. “ And, if there’s still any satellites active, it should be able to scan an up-to-date map to your Vault-Dexes. Unfortunately, you’ll have to log any points of interest you find your selves, but if there are any places with active radio signals still, your Vault Dexes will be able to guide you in their general direction.” Stepping back, he ushers you all to the gigantic gear-shaped door, stopping you well short of the faded caution lines on the floor.

Moving back, he and the two division heads move to a console. The two heads produce odd keys, plugging them into the console and turning them in synch after a three-count from Skrub. A red light begins flashing as a klaxon blares. Skrub then lifts up a panel, placing his hand down. There’s a small flare of green light for anyone watching… and then it happens. With a furious series of hisses and screeching, the door begins to move backwards, pulled along by mechanical waldo-arms that descend from the ceiling, before rolling to the side. A light breeze caresses your faces, cool and slightly damp. The doorway opens up onto a rough-hewn tunnel, faint greenish light visible around a bend.

One by one, you take those fateful steps. And as soon as the last of you is across the threshold, the door seals itself again, screeching and sparking, and then settling into place with a final, bone-shaking "THUNK!"

With no other recourse left to you, you slowly make your way down the tunnel. The muted glow brightens, and strange, foreign scents reach your nostrils. There is the smell of water, yes, and decay, but overlaying all of it is a strange medley of scents that you simply cannot quantify. The closest experience is the smell of growing things from the Agro-Ponics division, but this is something... more. Something primal, not caged or regimented.

Finally, you emerge into a world of green. Stepping out, you find yourselves on a steep slope, with the faintest traces of a paved road still visible, trees and plantlife springing up around you at a whim, some of them obviousl having pushed right through the pavement, crumbling it to dust in their surge to be free. Through a break in the foliage, you can barely make out shapes in the far distance, blasted skyscraping towers leaning drunkenly against one another. The city of Seattle, or at least its remnants. Closer, but only just, you can see areas clear of plantlife. Settlements? Blighted areas where nothing can grow?

As you take in the tableau, you notice faint noises beginning to sound, closer and closer, as the indigenous wildlife, whatever it may be, begins to return. No doubt the opening of the vault cased many creatures to flee in terror at the noise, only to return with the resumption of silence.
Edited by Lockdown, Nov 9 2015, 09:22 AM.
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Robot
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Giant Mecha Enthusiast
[ *  *  *  *  * ]
Cecil squinted against the light, raising a hand to shield his eyes. The warm yellow cast of the sun felt good against his pale skin, and was almost a violent difference from the cold white light that filled most of the vault. More then his body though, the sight warmed his soul. This was his life now, outside. He smiled, just casting his senses for a moment, and basking in the raw newness of it all. The sights, the sounds, the smells!

"This is it Bunnie, livin' the dream." He gave her a wry smile. "Now we just gotta make something of it, yeah?"
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Dark Shadow
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Reploid
[ *  *  *  *  * ]
"It's so...bright. And open..."she whispered to herself. Okay, Christine, calm yourself... take stock of the situation. Look around. You can panic later. "Oh, god, the world's so big... That's a lot of searching we'll have to do."

The colours seemed more vivid than in the vault, more well defined. She both wished she could explore it, and wished she could return to the world she knew...
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DavidHilm
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[ *  *  *  *  * ]
Green. It was so beautiful. She had spent so long being told it was rubble, that there would be nothing out here but death. Her whole life spent in that vault, generations of her family kept inside that stupid building, when outside it looked like... This. Why were we in there? Why hadn't we come out yet? There had to be some way to know that outside was... This.

Cecil's statement makes her smile.

"Let's do this."
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Slytherclaw
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Storyteller
[ *  *  *  *  * ]
Amber can feel her heart racing as the door slams behind them and she emerges into the warm sunlight. Which...she'd read about it, of course, the way it warmed you with light, but she'd never /understood/. And everything is so green and moist and bright... Her fingers itch for a pencil and a few minutes to just try and capture it on paper. She can hear the sounds of wildlife beginning to return, and there's a part of her that knows she should be scared, but it's so different from the sounds of machinery humming that she's honestly too stunned to make the connection.

"It's so pretty..." She mutters, looking around. She pauses for a moment and pulls the map program she was given, connecting it to her dex to upload before she gets /too/ distracted. She sets it to download and install, so they'll have something to look at later. "What...what do we do first?"
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technoRomancer
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Pokémon Trainer
[ *  *  *  *  * ]
Cowering near the back of the group as the ancient door shuddered open, Joe practically had to be pushed towards the open passage, managing a half-hearted glare at the security officer that had shoved him forward. "Yeah, yeah, I'm going," he muttered weakly. "Goodbye, safety."

He'd tried to say goodbye to his father earlier. Their relationship wasn't exactly strained - it was more nonexistent. The older Vargas had retired right around the time Joe had begun taking up his duties, having lost a leg when some machinery malfunctioned. He had spent the intervening years absorbed in the same old entertainment recordings. His father had barely registered the announcement when Joe had been chosen, and given him a dismissive wave when he attempted an awkward farewell.

Now, squinting up at the too-bright, too-wide sky, Joe quailed in terror, unable to take a further step beyond the cave opening. The others seemed to fall somewhere between excited and overwhelmed; Joe was certainly feeling some degree of whelmed. Was 'hyperwhelmed' a thing? It wouldn't be the first time Joe had been forced to find new, appropriately descriptive names for his particular neuroses. "... do what?" he squeaked, cringing in shame at his own voice before clearing his throat. "I... I mean, uh, what she said -" he pointed a finger at Amber that was definitely not shaking faster than an air recycler on its last legs - "Where do we even start?"

He mustered the - not courage, that was far beyond an overstatement - the stubbornness to take a single step forward. And then another. And one more, despite himself, until he was standing among his fellow Vault exiles, taking in the view. "Every single one of those - those trees and bushes -" He pointed accusingly at the offending, unfamiliar foliage, his voice rising in volume as indignation at their situation began to overcome panic - "could be hiding something much nastier than the little homemade monsters we're carrying." Then again, his normal speaking voice was quiet enough that he still wasn't close to shouting. More like standard conversational volume at this point. "So sure, that dead city over there might be our best chance at finding salvageable equipment, but if there were any survivors it has to have been picked clean by now. And if not, it's got to be a veritable zoo of living weapons of mass destruction." He glared miserably down at the broken concrete beneath their feet.

"Even if we could find any survivors, which I do not have high hopes for - assuming they haven't turned to mutated, atavistic cannibals over the last couple centuries, we'd have to convince them our skills are worth trading for any usable tech they might have scrounged up, and then manage to get back here without being followed, all while contending with the wild remnants of a war humanity lost against itself - can't you see it's hopeless? I might as well just let that Girimer smother me now."

His anxious tirade was probably more words than any of them had ever heard Joe say at once.
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Dark Shadow
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Reploid
[ *  *  *  *  * ]
Oh, god... no, don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about it... "Don't worry about it, Mr. Vargas," Christine forced herself to say, cheerily. "I'm sure we'll be able to find something." Erm, wait... Uh, what parts exactly were we supposed to find again? Oh, god, Christine... this is something important. If you're forgetting something literally steps out from the Vault. No.. no, it'll all be all right. It has to. She looked around for something to occupy her attention, before fixating on a glinting rock on the ground. Oh, that's really cool. I wonder what makes it shine like that? she asked, her panic forgotten, as she leaned down to pick up the rock. It was almost a perfect oval, shot through with gleams of crystal. "Wow... I'd never have thought that something like this could have existed right outside our world."
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DavidHilm
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[ *  *  *  *  * ]
Bunnie continues to take in the beauty of the scenery. The sights, the smells, all of it brings to the front of her mind that for the first time in her life, she is truly free to find someone to love. Amber's question and Joe's panic attack shoot her back into reality.

"Well, its a hell of a lot more simple than you're making it out to be. If there aren't survivors, we have the Pokemon with us to help protect us. Sure, some of the things we're about to come across might be stronger, but we likely out number it. I mean there are ten of us, and even if we aren't all particularly adept at fighting, we can all throw a punch if it comes down to it. And of course, we've each got Pokeballs. If we can't beat it, we can always catch it."

She takes a breath.

"If there ARE survivors, how likely do you think it is that they aren't either from a vault themselves, or at least children or grandchildren of vault dwellers? They'll understand out problem. Depending on conditions, we might even be able to convince all of them-"

She points to the vault.

"to come out here! There are literally an endless number of possibilities for us to experience out here at the moment. We CAN do this."

Turning towards the ruins of Seattle, she takes a minute to think. What would she do if she had to rebuild civilization. Setting up shop in the city makes sense. As much sense as anything else anyway.

"We're going down there. We'll stay on our guard, being careless is only going to get us hurt."
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Robot
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[ *  *  *  *  * ]
Cecil brooded, scowling at Joe. It was written all over his face that he was about to lay into the timid man in such a scalding fashion that the most hardened security officer from their shared home would've gone flush. Till Bunnie stepped in. Something about the way she carried herself, and handled situations, made it easier to just look at the big picture. Yeah, Joe was a dweeb, but they were free.

Taking on his usual callous veneer, Cecil started up the road at a mellow pace. "Whatever we decide on, the old man didn't want us giving the location of this place away, and daylight's burning, so if you're done crying about could be's and might of's, probably a good time to show a clean pair of heels."
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