Cyrptozoology Goes Digital

Log Info

Title: Cyrptozoology Goes Digital
Emitter: Amy
Characters: Amy, Sasha
NPCs: Frustrated IT Guy
Place: Thunderdome
Time: Evening
Summary: A computer malfunction turns a visit to Thunderdome to test Sasha's new rock climbing mod turns into a battle with a Sasquatch. Hilarity ensues.

Just the Thunderdome on a lazy Monday evening. It's active and programmed up, which isn't surprising - Sasha tossed out a text saying she'd be there around now. Inside it's programmed for an intensely craggy, rocky terrain, like one might see in the mountains. There's no enemies to be seen, but then again, no Sasha to be seen either.

Amy ambles into the simulation, looking around her curiously. "Eh…Sasha?" she calls, scratching at the back of her neck where that damned costume they insist they wear always chafes.

There's a scrambling noise up above a cliff and something moves into view. First a long, articulated leg, a huge spiked thing, mounted on an armature connected to a more horizontal leg. Another comes and it crunches into the rock, seeming to anchor itself there. A strambled horizontally down the rock face - all the legs meet up at an articulated pod, which flows up into Sasha's hips. Sasha's hair falls at a strange angle as she comes down the rock face. "Hey Amy!" she calls.

Well, there's something you don't see every day. "Eh, you know we have a climbing wall in the gym." she points out with a wry chuckle. "Neat trick." she adds. "Didn't know you could do that."

"This is more fun!" Sasha says. Her legs scramble some more and find up depositing her on the ground and bringing her over towards Amy. "New thing I've been working on over the summer. Got some help with the basics and decided it was time to field test it. Or kind of field test it, anyway."

"Good thinking. At least here, if it goes wonky on ya, you don't have the whole 'deceleration trauma' thing to worry about." Amy nods. "So you warming up for your run at Everest?" she smiles.

"I figure it's good to be flexible. It's kind of my thing, right?" Sasha asks. "And flying…I think that's still a long way off, anything beyond gliding, which doesn't go with.." she gesutres with her hand, "..upness."

"Heh, well, who knows what you could come up with." Amy replies with a shrug. "You'd just need to figure out how to configure yourself. Maybe transform your wings into some kind of wing, stick a propeller on your engine's driveshaft and..hey…there you go."

Sasha huffs and flails her arms. "But that's exactly it! You guys seem to think I just dream this stuff up. I can't. It's all got to be carefully designed and built out and tested and callibrated and do you have any *idea* how complicated aircraft are? Bikes I know inside and out and this," she gestures down at her four legs, "isn't really that complicated."

"Hey, I didn't say it would be easy." Amy protests with a chuckle. "Just saying it would be possible. Who does all this for you, anyway?" she asks curiously. "No way you're doing the fabrication and all the design work on your own."

Sasha gasps and looks at Amy. "I am too!" she says, sounding genuinely offended.

Amy's eyes go wide at that bit of information. "No shit?" she asks, jaw dropping open. "Where? How?" she asks, confusedly. "I mean, you'd need one hell of a shop for all this." she points out. "I can't see a machine shop fitting in your dorm room unless you've got a bigger pad than I do."

Sasha's cape jumps up a level. "Are you fucking….the crash, the fire, the hospital, the nanites?" she sputters.

Oh dear…She's done it again. God Bless Sasha, but the girl really needs to take a pill, or several pills, or different pills. Touchy much? How to defuse this little conversational hand grenade? "Am I fucking?" Amy replies, smirking a little. "Gosh, that's kind of a personal question, ain't it?" she replies with a chuckle. "Not doing anything this particular moment…but in general…? Eh…In the interest of my privacy, I can neither confirm nor deny that allegation."

"Right, right," Sasha says, waving a hand, "taunt me some more." She takes a few steps with her spider legs. There's a ripple along them, as they become liquid metal, condensing and reforming into her more usual legs.

"Heh, well, it broke the tension." Amy replies with a shrug. "Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't know how they worked. Jeez, Sasha, can't believe I gotta keep telling you, but until a couple of months ago, if I wanted to talk to someone with unusual abilities, I hadda talk to myself." she replies. "Give a girl some time to get her feet under her, okay? No offense was meant."

Sasha takes a seat on a big rock. "Right….right. I have to explain all this shit so often, I thought you knew the deal. Racer? Crash? Fire? Horrible wounds? Experimental procedure or living in a bed the rest of my life? None of that rings a bell?

"I knew that part, but I didn't know the specifics." Amy replies, finding a rock of her own to perch on. "Okay, I'm an asshole, I admit it." she adds in self-disgusted frustration. "Guess I just didn't think it through."

Sasha's face wrinkles up in a few different ways. "What, you thought I had a garage full of all these different parts?"

Amy chuckles. "Hell, I dunno what I thought." Amy replies, stretching out a little. "Heh, I could get used to this. The great outdoors, minus the bugs and bad weather."

"We could code up some bugs," Sasha offers. "It's kind of convenient. As long as I've got plans for stuff, I can form just about anything. Anything mechanical, that is. And I have to design all the stuff myself."

Amy bobs her head. "Yeah, that makes sense. How do you program the nanites?" she asks curiously. "Heh, it's a wonder Samantha's not all over you, you know what a tech-head she is." she chuckles. "Please, no bugs. I'm from Florida, I'm up to here." she says, pointing to the side of her head. "With frickin' bugs."

"I feed it stuff from my computer. Dad helped set me up with a CAD system, so I almost treat myself like a CAM device," she says. Sasha pauses, "Okay, that sound stupid when I say it aloud." Sasha shrugs and stands up. "Haven't spent much time with Sam. Maybe I'm not her type?"

"Heh, just a bit." Amy replies to the 'stupid' comment, chuckling. "I think Sam's pretty much straight, at least, far as I can tell, anyhow." she shrugs. "After Adrian, I've given up on the idea of gaydar." she smirks. "So, now that you've put your new gear to use, what's your evaluation?"

"You're a true friend, Amy," Sasha says with a snort. "I didn't mean like that. I think she does more software. I'm more hardware. I'd ask Cordelia for help with the flight stuff if she weren't such an impossible bitch," Sasha says. Bitter much? Yeah. Sasha knows how to hold a grudge. "Good for rock climbing. Don't think I can stay in it that long. The spikes on the legs go through rock great but if I were stuck in sand or something, I'd be in deep trouble."

"Heh, I try, Sasha, I try." Amy replies, hopping off her rock to take a gander at the cliff face. "Sounds about right." she nods. "But I bet it makes it a hell of a lot easier than this." she says, trying, and failing to get a handhold.

Sasha lunges forward, bursting up from her seat on the rock. "Woah, Amy! You're not a cyborg," she reminds the girl, moving to try to catch her and keep her from falling.

Amy does fall, but seeing how she was only, at best, eight inches off the ground when she lost her handhold, it's not really that big of a deal.

Meanwhile, deep in the guts of the massive supercomputer that controls Thunderdome, a few stray electrons inside a microchip zig when they should've zagged, causing the chip to send a single faulty command into the system. That command leads to an error, which leads to other errors.

It still could have lead to a twisted ankle - admittedly not something Sasha worries about for herself as much as others. "Guess you don't do a lot of climbing in Florida?"

"Oh no, we do loads of climbing in Florida." Amy replies with a chuckle. "We climb trees, ladders, stairs, ropes…rocks? Eh, not so much." she laughs. "I've never even been on a rock wall until I came here." she adds, getting set to try her ascent again in an easier-looking spot. "But there's, ya know, safety systems in here, so I don't think it'll let me kill myself."

Back inside the computer, that one error is having the effect of a rock thrown into the middle of a calm pond. Errors lead to other errors, with more and more bad code being fed into the processors. In a normal computer, this would lead to a system crash, but here, the nominal AI that oversees things starts doing what AI's are meant to do - interpret. Orders are fed into holo projectors, systems are switched on.

"That's good to know," Sasha tells Amy. Sasha rolls her shoulders, then shifts over, a bit of a distance from Amy, and reforms her spider-legs. They chunk into the rock with hydraulic power and Sasha climbs rapidly.

Amy doesn't have hydraulic powered spider legs, but she is fairly nimble and marginally stronger than she looks. Soon, she's two feet up the cliff face, then three, then four. "Okay, so far, so goo…." she says, then squeaks in panic as she's reaching for her next handhold and nearly misses it, causing her to flail for a moment. "So what.." she says, panting for breath. "Okay, note to self, don't let go until you know you've got a grip." she says, wincing a little.

In the woods high above them, there's a loud bellow that echoes off the rocks menacingly.

Sasha's just gotten to the top, and turns to lean back down and look over the ledge at Amy. "Seriously, you break you're neck, I'm going to laugh at you." Her head perks back up. "What was that?" she asks.

"Ah, there's nothing…~nff~ quite like the…~ohshit!~ confidence of your friends…~Oh thank you, God..thank you,thankyou thankyou~ to inspire you to greatness." Amy calls back from below in a tone that practically drips sarcasm, "What was….~dammit….dammit…there!~ what was what?" she adds, having been just a hair too busy trying not to kill herself to take heed of anything else.

Another bellow rumbles through the forest, along with the sound of heavy footsteps…

Sasha reaches out a hand towards Amy as she comes up to the top. "Gives you something to prove, doesn't it?" she asks. "That's….not right," She says, making a face. "Did you program something new in?"

"Are you nuts?" Amy replies, flailing a little as she finally reaches the top. She seems very, very grateful for the hand. "That was hard enough." she says, hauling herself up as best she can. "Like we need anymore excitement." she scoffs, just as a third bellow booms out. "Though…I think we're gonna get some anyhow…"

"Okay, somebody's fucking around with us," Sasha says, more annoyed than anything else. "Let's just cancel this sim, maybe head out and hit the pool," shes ays with a smirk. "Use it while we still can."

"That sounds like a plan to me." Amy replies, nodding repeatedly. "Hope the pool's heated. Be a shame not to be able to use it during the winter." she says. "So…how do you turn this thing off?

"Um…." Sasha says. She turns, "We should just…" she calls in al ouder voice, "End simulation," she barks.

The computer receives the request, compares it to a set of self-generated goals and, finding none of them met, promptly ignores it. The woods beyond the cliff grow ominously silent before a flurry of birds burst from the trees, squawking and whistling their anxiety as they flee the scene.

"Eh….Somehow…I don't think that worked." Amy points out needlessly.

"I know. I don't think that's possible?" Sasha asks. She sputters a couple times, and then says, "You're electro-Amy. Just short the whole thing out."

"Oh, right…Heh, good idea." Amy replies. "Stand back a little, I don't wanna scramble you." she cautions as her electromagnetic shield snaps into place. The young brunette closes her eyes as she gathers up a powerful burst and aims it in the direction of what she hopes is a nearby projector. The air around her roils as a strong arc of electricity issues from the girl's fingertips. Only to have it reflected right back at her by an invisible shield. It doesn't hurt, but it definitely startles the living hell out of her.

Sasha backpedals rapidly, giving Amy exactly the berth that she asks for. She hasn't been zapped and doesn't plan at all at starting now. "Woah, what happened!? You okay?" Sasha asks rapidly, watching the electricty arc around.

"Yeah, I'm good." Amy replies, nodding. "What the fuck was that? Guess this thing's got a means of defending itself." she muses, as if it hadn't just been demonstrated. "Makes sense, all the crazy shit than can go down in here. But this is a hell of a time to find out about …." she says and is cut off as a massive rock comes whizzing in the two girl's direction, accompanied by a much louder, much closer and much more angry bellow.

Sasha starts to nod in agreement. "Guess it does, but I thought the simulation was supposed to catch all that stuff? Maybe you can try…." but there's no time, since there's a big rock coming towards them. Sasha spins around rapidly, four legs thrusting her to tackle Amy out of the way. Once she's got the other girl down, Sasha rises back up, her left arm forming into a long tube with vent ports along it.

"Holy crap!" Amy replies, then offs as she's knocked down and away from the rock that was meant to send them hurtling off the cliff behind them. "Okay…This is really getting annoying." she says, pulling herself back to her feet and readying another electrical strike.

Another roar and a second, even larger rock comes straight at Sasha.

"Who the fuck is throwing rocks at us!" Sasha calls into the distance. "Fine! You asked for it!" There's a clunk-clunk noise and then an object goes shooting from her left arm, into the distance, where it explodes and a greyish cloud can be seen expanding. "Tear gas. Should settle down…whoever it is."

"Eh…I don't think that's a some_one_." Amy replies, grinning as the tear gas grenade explodes in the woods. "But that oughta convince 'em to back off." she chuckles.

Of course, there's also Option C: Charge those responsible with the intent to rip them limb from limb! The ground beneath them trembles slightly as twelve feet and several hundred pounds worth of shaggy-furred, heavily muscled Sasquatch comes barreling out of the forest!

"I do high explosives t…..fucking hell!" Sasha shrieks. The spider-legged woman skitters backwards, as the huge creature comes charging down on them. "This is *not* what I asked for, machine!" she shouts upwards, as if the computer can hear her. "Stall him a sec," Sasha asks of Amy, as her left arm starts flowing and resetting itself into something else.

"Stall him, my ass!" Amy shoots back, firing a long arc of electricity that strikes the Sasquatch in the chest. Fur scorches, flesh burns, and, alas, not much else happens other than causing the Sasquatch to howl in pain and rage and turn to charge Amy. "Bad idea!" the girl yelps, backpedaling frantically.

Just enough time, though. "Amy? Duck!" Sasha warns. A moment later there's a huge wall of fire, sprawying from Sasha out towards the violent, angry creature. "Zap him again! I have no idea what it takes to take it down but it's just a crazy simulation."

Sasha's fire hits the Sasquatch square between the shoulders and immediately the flames begin to spread. "Right. Okay, ugly, have a taste of this!" Amy calls, hurling a ball of pure electricity like a major league hurler. The ball hits the beast and stuns it, giving the two girls a narrow window of opportunity.

Flame-kissed, electro-fried Sasquatch. That's probably on a menu, somewhere. Sasha keeps up the flame, making sure the monster is thoroughly alight. "Nice shot, Aims!" Sasha says, impressed by the other girl's hit. "Let's see…." she says. Her right arm, still free and human looking, starts to morph over, shanging shape into yet another tool.

Burning or not, the Sasquatch is now not only mad as hell, but in pain and determined not to go down alone. With enemies in front and behind, the beast, in its desperation to get away decides the best way to do that is through Amy.

For her part, Amy isn't in the mood to become the critter's rip-apart stress doll, and she steps forward to punch the beast in the face hard as she can. A punch made all the more powerful when she uses her body as a taser.

Once they get too closer, Sasha shuts down her flamethower, not wanting to fry Amy in the process. Caution she promptly throws to the wind as she raises her other weapon. "Amy? You *so* do not want to get this stuff on you," shes ays. There's a gloppy sound, and then a baseball sized chunk of silver goo smacks into the Sasquatch's back. It doesn't just sit there, though. It begins to spread and ooze over the creature, while at the same time eating into it. Sasha's never used it on something 'living' before.

Amy doesn't have to be told twice, and dances aside as Sasha's goop splashes onto the Sasquatch's back. The nanites within it work quickly, but there's a lot of material to be disassembled. The pain the simulated beast receives, however, is intense. Desperate to scrape the stuff off its back, the Sasquatch makes the mistake of rubbing at it with it's hand, exposing it to the nano machines.

Sasha gives even her own weapon some berth, finally looking away with a rather queasy look on her face.

Amy watches as the Sasquatch's effort to run away send it perilously close to the edge. "Okay, I can't listen to that anymore." she sighs, and fires another jolt at the beast. The jolt knocks the animal over, and it falls, howling in agony until it hits the rocks below with a heavy thump.

Sasha takes careful steps over to stand next to Amy, pausing at the ledge with her. "I don't think I'm ever doing that again," she asys with a dour look.

"What the hell was that?" Amy asks, peering at Sasha's weapon with disgusted curiosity. "And, no, I wouldn't reccommend that you do." she nods. "Cause that was just……uuugghh…"

"Nano-disassembler," Sasha says. "I mean, it's basically just my own nanites, told to go break something down and then stop. I'd only ever tested it on inert stuff before. I….yeah," Sasha says with a deep frown. Her limbs rippled and she leaves the war-cyborg of death look behind.

"Ouch…no wonder that thing freaked out the way it did." Amy replies, wincing a little. "Well, gruesome as it was, it worked." she adds, smiling a little. "Okay, now if this blasted computer would just END SIMULATION!" she shouts the last two words. "Maybe we can get outta here."

"I guess," Sasha admits. She crosses her arms and looks down at the waves, lapping the cliff-face below. "Let's get the fuck out of here," she says, looking around the door in the artificial scenery.

"Hello?" a voice calls over the speakers. "Anybody in there?"

"Yes!" Sasha shouts. "Sasha, and Amy. The system just threw a Sasquatch at us. How does it even *know* about Sasquatch!?"

"Oh for the love of…" The voice grumbles. "Wait…I told them I had to work on this thing today." the man says. "I swear, sometimes you wonder why you even bother. Hang on a second, this thing's stuck in some kind of loop. Probably because I didn't get to pull this card…" it notes. "Got it." And with that, the simulation ends and Thunderdome goes back to being a blank space. "Sorry about that, girls."

Amy rolls her eyes and shakes her head in disgust. "Great, we nearly get killed because some jackhole didn't pay attention to a service call." she growls. "C'mon, Sasha, I think we oughta go give the Dean a piece of our minds."

Sasha nods a couple time. "I expect a full refund," she says. "Come on, let's see if there's late dinner or something."

"Forget dinner, at least, until I can get that whole nanite thing outta my head. Let's hit the pool." Amy grins. "We can always snag something at the snack bar after."

"Sounds like a plan," Sasha agrees. "I'll show you one of my other toys."

Amy laughs! "Heh, okay, I'm gonna give you a pass on that, just this once." Amy giggles. "But next time, I am _so_ going to frak with you if you say something like that again."

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