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Jun 20, 2016 11:21:42 GMT
Post by grey on Jun 20, 2016 11:21:42 GMT
The weak were difficult things to tussle with. On one hand, it was difficult to find reason to take them down because they were weak, and not a fair fight. On the other hand, leaving them be would mean them turning into the threats of tomorrow. That, and some part of Grey felt that it was right to eradicate anything he was paid to kill.
He lit a cigarette, and waited until his target showed up in the trailer park.
Atkins was not cut out for bloody murder, but he had a habit of killing two men in one week. He felt giddy as he walked through the trailer park. That made what, four kills? Four kills for a simple man like him! He rubbed his hands together in glee.
And then he remembered the metric ton of paperwork he had back in the office, and stared at his feet glumly. Oh, he'll get his boss next. Killing random hobos on the street wasn't cathartic enough to relieve his stress from facing all that complaining.
Oh, but it was already a new week. Atkins's eyes widened, as if realizing something.
He quickly glanced around himself, and found what he wanted. Braying laughter, Atkins and his shiny new knife homed in on a lady who was rummaging through her purse for her keys.
L-Force
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Jun 20, 2016 12:19:02 GMT
Post by L-Force on Jun 20, 2016 12:19:02 GMT
There's no memory, there's only drive inside. The blood's sinking deeper, into a peaceful life. And it will come, pouring down on me. And I won't let it go until the end is here. In my darkest day, in my final hour... Music was a strange experience. L-FORCE had taken to sitting at a rooftop, watching over the city. One sensor was focused on the police radio, gathering up any keywords spoken such as robbery, theft, etc while another sensor scouted the popular forums and headlines, and the final sensor had opened YouTube to scroll trough different artists and their music. This was the first time it was bothering to listen to some. It was a nice experience, if a bit disturbing to think about. Red sun... Red sun over paradise. It wasn't morning or day or afternoon. The moon was out, shining the streets along with the lamps stretched across the pavement. Golden rays of the glorious sunshine, shining down such a blood red light. Now the animals retreat to the shadows, out of sight. Arid winds blow across the mountains... L-FORCE turned the music off. It was disrupting it's thinking, it's process. And it turned the music off just in time too, because a sudden scream echoed right below the building L-FORCE had been sitting on. Zooming. The scope attached to it's helmet poked out, scanning the assailant. A man trying to stab a woman. Weapon = a knife. The first thing to fall between the woman and the man was a pair of feet, slamming down onto the ground. Soon, a groin followed. Then the torso. Two hands slammed against the open slots at the sides of the torso. And finally, a head slammed down on the open neck slot. L-FORCE had split itself up and slammed down onto the pavement, small cracks folding under it's feet. The machine of death stared down at Atkins, stretching it's fingers. "Y0UR M0V3, CR339." grey |
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Jun 20, 2016 12:36:57 GMT
Post by grey on Jun 20, 2016 12:36:57 GMT
Atkins was trying his best to not piss himself when a pair of feet landed in front of him, and seemed to have come from nowhere in particular. His sweaty hands tightened their grip around the knife. It was new, it wasn't yet blunt, it could kill - stab - this -
And then Atkins started shrieking, because he didn't know that superheroes did their work in Arkham. As far as he knew, it was lawless. The bar he'd bought information off from told him that the lady was a fair target. She may have been a woman, but being a woman didn't excuse her from death. That was what he'd thought.
Had he thought wrong? Atkins shook in his shoes as sweat beaded on his forehead. His mouth widened in frantic protest, but it sounded more like helpless laughter than anything else.
The lady pulled herself to her feet (she had fallen to the ground from shock when Atkins pulled his knife on her) while Atkins remained shell-shocked. She figured she ought to run away while she could -- get to safety, make sure she was in one piece, that sort of thing. The keys to the trailer jangled in her purse, but she no longer cared.
"My saviour!" she gasped as she ran away from the machine, "Thank you -- thank you!"
Away from Atkins and L-FORCE she ran, until Grey stepped out of the shadows, claws extended to stop her in her tracks. She gasped, and stared up at Grey. Her eyes were cold, and her lips thin. She stared from the lit end of his cigarette to his face, trying to recall if she had ever encountered him before.
"What the fuck do you want?" she demanded, in a low whisper.
And it was then that Atkins decided fuck it, he'd better strike the robot while he could still move, and tried stabbing L-FORCE with his shiny new knife.
L-Force
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Jun 20, 2016 12:54:18 GMT
Post by L-Force on Jun 20, 2016 12:54:18 GMT
Tink. The knife stuck against L-FORCE's chest. The "skin" L-FORCE had over it's metallic frame was built from tough, blackened leather. The tip of the knife sunk in a whole centimeter, maybe only half of that, before then stopping like it hit granite or something similar. L-FORCE stared down at the villain (could he even be called that? a question for a better time) with a rather bland face. Not that his face had been programmed to show any emotions besides a bland indifference. Slowly, a hand moved to grab the knife, pulling it out of his chest. He then looked at it in deep thought.
Before then suddenly stabbing it down low and into Atkin's kneecap area, twisting and turning it. The motion was quick and brutal, and directed towards the other at a speed that a normal human couldn't easily replicate. While the knife twisted and turned L-FORCE blocked out the screams echoing around, instead sinking deep into it's own databanks to dig out a recording. Recording found! Playing now: "Thank you -- thank you!" That recording made it feel something. It felt... Glad? Perhaps even happy in a manner that was alien to the robot. It wasn't programmed to feel this either, It wasn't programmed to feel anything. But it felt. It felt alive, if only a little bit.
Even if the recording played over and over as he twisted the knife deeper and deeper.
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Jun 20, 2016 13:28:52 GMT
Post by grey on Jun 20, 2016 13:28:52 GMT
Atkins had felt a pang of relief when the knife started to sink into L-FORCE's chest. This robot was not impenetrable, the little voice in his head had said. His pang of relief was quickly turned into horror when the knife sank into his kneecap, and Atkins started screaming like a child.
So this was what the knife was supposed to do. It was supposed to go deeper - "Jesus fucking --" - and sink into flesh like this, not stop half an inch from the surface - "Get --" - Atkins didn't stop screaming, like how his leg didn't stop hurting. Deeper and deeper the blade went, until it no longer faced any resistance.
L-FORCE probably didn't know what it was. Atkins did.
The knife had gone straight through, and Atkins was no longer standing. In fact, he probably wouldn't be standing in the far future.
He blacked out in a pool of his own blood.
"Keys. You know which ones."
The lady huffed.
"The keys?" she said. There was an angry punch to her voice, like a door being slammed in someone's face. "Take your dirty claws off my neck before I scream, you freak."
Grey didn't budge. "Keys," he repeated, and applied more pressure on her skin. His claws were cold and sharp.
L-Force
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Jun 20, 2016 14:01:36 GMT
Post by L-Force on Jun 20, 2016 14:01:36 GMT
Twist. Turn. Twist. Eventually L-FORCE realized it wasn't drilling against skin but the cold pavement, turning off the recording that was playing in a loop inside of it's head. It pulled the now completely red knife away and watched the fainted Atkins in curiosity. The fingers of his hand were bloody, small globules of it dropping down onto the concrete. Slowly, the hand extended until it hit the ground, starting to draw. Image search: sorry. Sorry found. Matches: millions. Slowly the machine drew upon the ground, right next to Atkins, a simple word. "SORRY", finishing upon it with a dot. That should do for the police. Hopefully they would realize that had happened. If not, oh well. This man could not harm anyone ever again.
Slowly, it had done was unforgivable, but a necessity all the same. At least no heroes had arrived on the scene. Arkham was like a wild no-man's land in that regard. The law of the common folk didn't reach this hell on earth, and that woman was living proof of that. If it had not arrived on time, if it had been over at the mainland, who knows what could have happened. It turned away from the festering, collapsed male. It did not want to be reminded of what it had been forced to do many times before, and what it would be forced to do in the future. Suddenly all the parts split, floating up into the air. Just when it was about to shoot up, it was as if it had heard a noise. The red scope turned to stare where the woman had ran.
"... H3110?"
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Jun 21, 2016 12:00:44 GMT
Post by grey on Jun 21, 2016 12:00:44 GMT
It was an odd noise, mechanical in nature to both the lady and Grey's ears. She knew what it was; he could only hazard a guess.
Seizing her chance to get away, the lady started frantically screaming. She quickly jerked her head back, and with superhuman reflexes, lifted her purse to bash Grey with it.
Grey had not intended on killing anyone. He would have remorselessly cut her jugular, but his aim were the keys and the trailer it belonged to. Unfortunately, some small-time murderer had got in the way of his plans. It was both expected an unexpected; he had expected other people to go after her, but not someone who looked like he was more suited to a desk job than villainy.
He sliced open the lady's purse when it swung past him. The lady's phone, diary, keys, and everything else she had put in it scattered haphazardly on the ground.
"Oh my god," wailed the lady, as if she had been having a terrible day, "Help me!" For dramatic effect, she backed up against a tree.
Grey calmly picked up the keys to the trailer from the scattered items.
L-Force
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Jun 22, 2016 10:39:14 GMT
Post by L-Force on Jun 22, 2016 10:39:14 GMT
Help? Help her. She needed help. It replayed back her thank you once more, as if to give it a lifeline to cling to. Perhaps it thought that gave him the sort of humanity to save her. Or maybe it just liked the sound of her voice. Before it had not listened to other voices. Alice's was the first it had truly heard, and that voice it could not record, for a ghost in the machine spoke only trough it's circuits. Hopefully that machine was doing well now. Or was Alice even a machine? It had never seen it's benefactor. It's helper. It only knew that Alice was a program of sorts, if it had to guess. And that program had somehow gotten trough his frame and into his core. And behind it's firewalls. Perhaps... Now was not the time to think of that.
The being landed down onto the ground behind Grey, maybe two or three feet away. It stared between the woman and him. Was this another robbery? This woman must have been unlucky. Or, rather, her walk had bad variables attributed to it. She should have done her research and avoided Arkham at night. It was tempted to offer her some life advice tips it could google easily, but perhaps now was not the right time. It's hands quickly grabbed down to the sai's it carried. For a moment it pondered if the electrical current should be turned on or not. Eventually, it flipped it on. A zap echoed in the air, and a flow of electricity began to flow trough the steel. It took a stance and stared at Grey and the woman.
"P134S3 M0V3 0N." It should be a merciful thing.
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Jun 23, 2016 12:09:59 GMT
Post by grey on Jun 23, 2016 12:09:59 GMT
As Grey straightened his posture from picking up the keys, he heard the dull churn of electricity rippling through a weapon. It had been preceded by the sound of something heavy making its landing, but he hadn't thought he was in any immediate threat. Now he was.
He had assumed it was a taser, but realized they were sais the moment he turned around to face L-FORCE. The mechanical voice made no ready sense to Grey. He processed it for a moment more as the lady flung herself towards the machine in search of someone to aid her.
"Got what I wanted," Grey notified L-FORCE with as much emotion as the robot itself had. He held up the keys so that L-FORCE could see them, then grasped them in his fist again.
As he walked away from the duo and towards the trailer, he spoke to the red eye, which had more of a personality than the robotic voice did.
"Leaving now," Grey informed the two of them, but his gaze lingered on the lady even as he turned away.
The lady watched Grey's figure disappear into the distance, and realized that he was heading for the trailer. Despite her anxiousness, she wasn't foolish enough to run after something with claws like that. Not when she had a dependable robot to rely on.
"You've saved me twice," she gushed at L-FORCE. She clutched her torn purse to her chest. "My name is Amelia -- I -- how could bad things happen to good people? This doesn't make any sense." Her bottom lip disappeared under her teeth as she bit down nervously.
She was more nervous about what Grey would find in the trailer instead of actually being pursued by people with bad intentions, but she didn't think that a robot could tell the difference.
L-Force
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Jun 26, 2016 11:39:31 GMT
Post by L-Force on Jun 26, 2016 11:39:31 GMT
"4M311A?" Amelia. It repeated the name to itself a few times, as if wondering and calculating how it was best spelled. Slowly, it opened it's mouth. The metallic tongue made for it clacked against the insides of its mouth. Not that it actually had a throat where the sound came from, but not many would be seeing down its throat. "AMELIA?" There we go. Mostly undistorted audio aimed at her, the red scope looking down at her, zooming in and out before then slamming back into the machines' visor, staying there. It looked over to Grey now. If it had eyes, it'd be squinting them. But for now it just let out a voice that could be described as a sort of sigh.
"DO YOU WISH WISH WISH FOR ME TO CAPTURE THE KEY THAT HAS BEEN TAKEN FROM YOU?" It was wondering if it should dash and try to take the keys from Grey. It had taken them from Amelia by force, so therefore it would be wise to take them back for her, right? But would she want that? The two drives in its head were driving it nuts. It's basic, core programming was telling it to go and mutilate someone who broke the law and threatened an innocent. But a new sort of programming, a very basic one, made it question this all. The futility of a one machine brutal war against the vile and the bad. It had too much going on in it's head to hear most of Amelia's words, or anything else for the matter.
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Jun 26, 2016 12:50:12 GMT
Post by grey on Jun 26, 2016 12:50:12 GMT
Amelia would have been freaked out by L-FORCE's odd voice, but she stood her ground admirably. What was a strange mechanical voice if it meant getting back her keys and the stuff inside the trailer? She nodded, but raised a hand to indicate that L-FORCE shouldn't just run in and do whatever it pleased. That man who had attacked her had claws.
"Yes, but wait," said Amelia, firmly, discarding the purse after retrieving her phone and wallet from it. It was all that was irreplaceable from her purse, anyway. She could just buy herself a new purse later.
She stared at Grey, who was heading towards the trailer. He seemed to have walked around the man with the knife, who was definitely not doing okay at this point. Maybe he was already dead. Grey tried the keys to the door, found the right one, and entered it.
Amelia had wanted the keys back, but now that someone else was in the trailer, she figured that it would be useless for the robot to retrieve the keys.
"It's okay," she said, "Never mind him. Thank you; you are a very brave robot." Amelia smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Can you call the cops? I want that man arrested for breaking and entering."
Grey entered the dark trailer, and went straight for the bureau drawer that did not match its surroundings. Figuring that the remaining keys were used to open a locked drawer, he tried all of them until he hit the jackpot.
And then he rifled through its contents.
Having gotten what he wanted and not having any other reason to stay back, Grey left the area. By the time the police arrived, they found nothing incriminating in his wake.
L-Force
(( retconned to end. ))
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