ravnicrasol

Gamma Protocol (070)

[070]

“These clothes are too expensive to be this silly.”

The air of the “under-city” was damp and hot and dark, it reminded me of the factory floor, but ten times worse. There were chemical smells that lingered, making every breath thick and heavy, not a single stray breeze to be had this far down. The world above had been drowned out by roads and the walls, cutting off all natural light save one that came out of the rare entryway… or from our own clo...

Gamma Protocol (069)

[069]

By the time we’d found our likely culprits, it was getting late, and neither of us were in any condition to be taking a trip to the second district. Isia promised she’d make some calls and see if she could find some alternatives, and I… well, spent some extra time doing research on the “Red Panda” gang.

It was not a fun experience learning about the “lower levels” of the second and first districts.

If New Francisco were considered a mou...

Alchimia Rex (157)

[157] [Normalcy?]

Rick stood before a large metal… thing. It was a maze of tubes connecting to small spheres and boxes, each of them leading somewhere else or into one another. Some tubes looped back into the chamber they emerged from, others would split and head to other parts of the contraption. All in all, the item was as large as he was tall, with jewels embedded into various parts of the machine, alongside levers and valves.

His skin tingled whenever he s...

Gamma Protocol (068)

[068]

“Do the Sewer Saints have anything to do with why half the city wants Moreau dead?” I asked as traffic came to a grinding halt. As much as I hated my last interaction with the doctor, her words were still fresh. “She’d sent a drone to spy on my fight, and kind of implied ‘the rats’ were related to her whole mess.”

I didn’t want to share too much, especially when I didn’t know the level of the Saint’s involvement.

“Pff, as if we�...

Gamma Protocol (067)

[067]

The car rolled to a smooth stop, rain drumming on the rooftop.

“Out of all the places I would’ve expected ‘JackGab’ to be working from, this was not it,” Isia said as she looked upon the facade of the sex-shop. Neon pink and blue letters ‘Tail raiser’ flashed on and off, illuminating the alleyway that was practically buried underneath the slum’s improvised brick construction. A small barred bullet-proof window display showed an assortment o...

Alchimia Rex (156)

[156] [Health]

There was a great view of Sinco from atop one of the hills west of it. From it, Rick could look upon the remains of the battlefield as well as the untouched city, but he could only grimace at what lay there waiting for them. The land was pockmarked by scorch marks and unnatural, jagged cuts and craters. The trenches and tunnels had mostly collapsed, turning the terrain into an irregular criss-crossing of small crevices that’d filled out with water. Fu...

Gamma Protocol (066)

[066]

I woke up feeling like I’d gone to sleep through getting my lights punched out by a boulder. Then, as if someone had chosen to park that boulder onto my torso. Opening my eyes was the biggest mistake, the crustiness of dried sweat, mud, blood, and grime all clung to my eyelids.

“God, put me out of my misery.” I croaked, my throat was drier than sand. 

Dragging myself to the bathroom and turning knobs, the hot water couldn’t come out soon...

Gamma Protocol (065)

[065]

Shadow’s steps were swift, precise, and silent, hiding the limp as steely black eyes twitched at every door along the corridor. From time to time, her focus would shift to the older meguca walking slightly ahead of her. The elder’s steely silver hair was tied back into an iron-tight ponytail, she wore a picture-perfect suit, her expression as impassive and focused as it’d always been, heeled steps echoing up and down the metal corridor.

Though questi...

Alchimia Rex (155)

[155] [Jobs](Various)

Cliba had lived a very agitated life. The Neigix had been born and raised as a slave to the Orc tribes. The specific name of her original owners had not minded much since it had been, effectively, a lifetime of being kidnapped, owned, and kidnapped again. Cliba had lost count of how many tribes she’d been taken by, not that it mattered since, in the end, chieftain Urtha had been the one to join them all under a single thatched roof. Life under ...

Gamma Protocol (064)

[064]

I slammed the heavy metal doors of the production tower’s maintenance entrance, twisting the locks into place. I then closed the secondary set of doors, hitting the big red button behind glass. The one that had bright yellow and orange stickers threatening legal action and ten figure fines if locked without “reasonable cause”. For half a second I expected nothing to happen, but then the lights throughout the facility switched from the standard cold white t...

Gamma Protocol (063)

[063]

I groaned, slamming my massive left claw and crushing another G-class into mush, my body welcomed the tiny burst of healing as it patched more of the damage Shadow had caused. The next blow sent the other small monster flying off, careening and splattering the whole way down the mountain.

The assassin’s blow had nearly ended me, but I’d dragged myself out, surviving by a razor-thin edge. It’d only been possible thanks to a combination of factors all ...

Gamma Protocol (062)

[062]

The rain had not relented even with nightfall, and as sharp as my senses were, the darkness wasn’t doing me any favors. The streaks of lightning crossing the sky turned the landscape from stark shadows into a muddy hellhole as far as the eye could see. Every dead monster created a column of steam that would be shredded by the rain, even the shape of the body against the mud washed away in moments.

Being able to reduce my weight by half was a God-send, bu...

Alchimia Rex (154)

[154] [Overcome](Various)

Urtha’s nose caressed the branch’s surface, her body tense as stone, arms screaming for release, body drenched in sweat that slowly trailed down in rivulets. Elemental energy poured through her palms into the bark of the titan-tree, fixing her body into place as if she were embedded firmly into the tree itself even when her fingers had not even pierced through the surface. Beneath her was nothing, just air leading to the roots a hundred met...

Gamma Protocol (061)

[061]

Unsure what to expect, I pressed the red button on the communication device Moreau had given me. The device sparked and fizzled, letting out smoke as it melted with acrid plumes of plastic.

“Figures.” With a sigh of disappointment, I turned my focus to the task ahead.

The transformation started with a single breath.

Hunting Mode (1):

 -1 AP / Second
 +8 Senses / Second

Alchimia Rex (153)

[153] [Goals](Various)

Monica stared down at her prey, a prey she wouldn’t have been able to defeat on her own. The older stronger-maiden stared back up, wheezing, her lower half gone, destroyed by Monica’s special shadow-rock. They stared at one another, waiting for the end. “You’ll regret giving away your freedom like that.” The matron spoke, her own darkness trying to sustain the unsustainable, prolonging her life by mere seconds. “The weak… they clin...

Gamma Protocol (060)

[060]

I opened my eyes to the sound of an alarm, an incessant screeching beep that drilled holes into my skull. My hand fumbled around in search for the source of annoyance, patting my way towards the little-

CRUNCH

I’d just pulverized the cheap plastic alarm-clock under my grip.

“Fuck.”

Not the greatest of beginnings to what could be the last day of my life.

Staring at the ceiling, my eyes felt heavy, I’d barely slept a wink.&nbs...

Gamma Protocol (059)

[059]

It started with an itch.

The sort of itch at the tip of your nose right when you’ve got your hands occupied holding on to too many things you definitely should not drop. Except it wasn’t on my nose, it was in my bones, in my skull, my ribs, my knees, my everywhere. It was as if someone had gone and replaced the lining of my insides with velcro. I clenched my hands into balls and clutched at nothing as the itchiness was replaced by an ice-cold chill, th...

Alchimia Rex (152)

[152] [Reasons](Monica)

With the very shadows under the control of her enemy, Monica could only thrust herself through the physical world with all the ferocity she could muster. Wood and stone splintered under her paws as she used every available surface to push herself harder. Her opponent kept slipping through the gaps, vanishing before Monica could even land a meaningful blow. If it weren’t for the stupid-stink, she would’ve lost track of her opponent multiple ...

Gamma Protocol (058)

[058]

When I opened my eyes again, I was back in the Rusty Pitch, exactly where I’d sat down, except I was drenched in cold sweat, with many towels draped over my shoulders. I needed a moment to reorient myself, confirming that the bar was empty save Isia, who sat opposite to me, gaze staring off into something only she could see, hands moving in front of her. She was clearly doing something with her neuralink. I was a bit more bothered by the extreme thirst, howeve...

Gamma Protocl (057)

[057]

Level Up!
Upgrades Unlocked!

The system was happy, as soon as it had thrown the first pop-up into my face proclaiming I had “leveled up”, it had promptly proceeded to throw a whole lot more pop-ups at my face. Like a tsunami of unread notifications jumping at me now that I’d finally gotten back online, except it kept trying to determine what might be more interesting to throw my way, then quickly bri...

Alchimia Rex (151)

[151] [Wrong Healing](Dia)

Dia thrust her blade forward, a blur of motion of the enchanted thin pale-blue murisium needle. All around her, shadows thrust at her body, but she reacted, throwing gray flames in every direction to disperse the incoming attack into nothing. With a beat of her wings, she turned her lunge into a leap, air abuzz with the singing of her blade moving faster than her opponent could avoid. Her enemy, Throag, allowed herself to be pushed back, wat...

Gamma Protocol (056)

[056]

Stepping out of the conference room and closing the door behind me, I walked as if in a daze to the restrooms. I splashed my face with cold water over and over, trying to push away the feeling of disgust and wrongness. A part of me desperately insisted that those final minutes of conversation were indeed with Kali, and yet… 

And yet there was that tiny little voice wondering “what if?”. What if this whole thing was one massive elaborate hoax or ...

Gamma Protocol (055)

[055]

“We don’t typically get clients at this hour, so excuse the mess.”

The apparent owner of the Rusty Pitch was an older woman whose apparent age could’ve made her either someone’s grandmother or aunt, but not both. She just had one of those faces you could ascribe to someone both older and younger than she likely was. Light wrinkles graced her forehead, dyed short silver hair messily arrayed in every direction at the same time. With her casual jean...

Alchimia Rex (150)

[150] [Bonds]

Rick didn’t “run” as much as “waddled and wrangled”.

Moving through the swamp was not an easy feat under normal circumstances, and doing so while having to keep very tight focus on every single twitch and shiver of a dozen maidens was not easy. Every little thing, every little annoyance, threat, or feeling could lead them to pay attention to something else… mainly, each other.

It wasn’t anything personal, it was merely a whole l...

Gamma Protocol (054)

[054]

"I’m looking to commission a multi-component, radially segmented, load-bearing defensive structure, approximately 1.75 meters in diameter. The assembly should consist of six equal sectors, each featuring its own independent grasp point. These segments must integrate using a high-tolerance, self-aligning, interlocking system that ensures rigid structural continuity across the whole construct.” I leaned forward, showing the design on my datapad’s screen. “...

Gamma Protocol (053)

[053]

I woke up feeling uncomfortably good. There had to be some severe injustice in the world if I were to get the snot beat out of me by a meguca and then rise in the morning feeling refreshed. I definitely deserved feeling like shit, because there was a not-ignorable part of me wishing I could just stay in bed and wait out the clock. Maybe if I just slept for the next 72 hours, I’d wake up and it would all be solved.

Unfortunately, today was not going to be...

Alchimia Rex (149)

[149] [Escape](Various)

The Elementalist stood upon her tower, one shaped like a tiny dish balancing atop a candle. Above her the blue sky, and not a shred of anything else in any direction. The tower was taller than the tree-tops, and when standing upon the top, the brim was just high enough to hide them from sight entirely. The air shimmered and shook, power coalescing and condensing, taking form into a perfect olive green orb that compressed further and further. Wi...

Gamma Protocol (052)

[052]

“You sure know how to pick them, Vesp.” Bear gave me a hard, and painful, pat on the back as soon as we’d exited the tunnels.

To claim the interior of the sewage treatment plant’s main building had seen better days would’ve been an understatement. The Claws had clearly taken over at some point in the decomposition, but had done very little to repair the place beyond the bare necessities. The walls were all cracked, windows gone entirely, as were ...

Gamma Protocol (051)

[051]

“I knew there was something fucky about you.” Bear’s laughter echoed around the empty coliseum. “I just knew it in my bones, one look at how you squished those things, it just… agh! Fuck, you got me good. Did Vesp put you up to this? Pretend to be a guy? Is there some sort of chest-wrap with nano-makeup going on over there? Even this close, I can’t see any flaws in the costume.” She moved closer, reaching out to my naked chest. “What sort of-”<...

Alchimia Rex (148)

[148] [Watching](Dia)

“How much do you trust me?” Camilla asked, staring at the Nightingale.

“I wouldn’t trust you with a cup of water.” Dia replied in a deadpan. “Why?”

The Elf Queen didn’t answer, not right away. It was a habit the older maiden had, to leave things hanging in the air, prolonged silences, followed by a continuation of the conversation as if nothing had happened. Dia had to wonder whether this was just something to be expec...