The Last Oddetsey

[steven_mcg]

Vengeance pulls up the file of the Botanist:

THE BOTANIST
Real Name: Unknown
Species: Unknown - probably a Post-human
Status: Alive
Known Affiliation: The Old Worlds Society, Every Botanical Journal in existence

The Botanist is a rare example of an Elder of the Multiverse, possibly the only one currently living - a being who has dedicated their life to one occupation to such an extent that they have come to embody that concept for not just an entire universe (see, the more common "Elder of the Universe" designation), but for all Universes. He is also one of the few surviving beings to be from a previous multiverse - and furthermore one of the four remaining attending members of the Old Worlds Society.

His physical flesh has long decayed when this universe came into being, and resembles a skeleton suspended in a turquoise gel like substance in a general humanoid form. The gel is some miraculous substance of his own design, which has defied analysis, but seems to be capable of storing vast amounts of data and has been witnessed seemingly digest seeds of plants only to be able to replicate them later. There is speculation he might be responsible for bring a large portion of the plant species to this world.

SCANNING:

Recent Contacts:
Spodra, The Night Pine, The Catalyst, Aurelia, Twitch, Marisa

So apparently the clues to saving creation lie with a jellied skeleton who also happens to be the multiversal god of horticulture.

I'll say one thing about this place, George - at least it isn't boring.

You keep an eye out for our dinner orders; I'll play around with the flight computer and see if we can't program a flight path to the Botanist's doorstep using his profile information. If that bloody parrot could find him, then so can we. Perhaps our flower-arranging friend can tell us what Doomy-Drawers is planning and where we can go from here.

[kodster]

Forward thinker... clearly, Eudial scowled. She let the thought go, though, as another issue arose. Her arms were beginning to itch again. "God damn it..." she grunted, before she could stop herself. She was sure Gaunt had turned to look at her, but still ignored it. What was that blade doing to her?! She wasn't even holding it now!

Looking for something to take her mind off it, she said aloud, "I suppose we should look for the other member of our party, if she's not fallen victim to severe migranes..." Cats... really, now? Wonderful.

[NFX]

"Choke it with a fish, right..." Twitch mumbled, head still inside his bag of iteming, "I don't think I've got one of those nearby." He kept his head down for a moment while Marisa gave her opinion, scratching idly at the ground with one of his claws. "Maybe don't draw too much attention to yourself," he suggested, "your singing's doing alright. I'll try and find some way into the tower first." The parrot brought his head back out of the bag, and began examining the tower, when Marisa called back to him about plants or something.

"Uh..." The parrot gave a quick scan of the ground. "...no, I'm afraid not..." he told her, "I'll get back to you when I've sorted the penguin, you keep the singing going, it's really good." With that, he grabbed his trusty bag once again, fluttered back into the air, and began flying in a circle around the main tower, trying to figure out a way in.

[alex_holt]

PROFESSOR VENGEANCE

After a while, Vengeance gets the hang of the controls enough to be able to operate the movements of the great floating castle. It seems unwieldy to begin with but after a few moments he gets the idea and with a sudden movement the castle is away accompanied by the sound of snapping vines and branches as the pillar of rock lifts into the air and moves outwards. It soon picks up speed and as Vengeance looks at the screens which show the view outside, he sees that the great fortress is quickly approaching the edge of Melded, then over the city itself. It seems to end up suspended in the air near to some kind of military looking base, and the engines thrum softly.

AURELIA AND MARISA

The vast fortress also sails over the Capella singers and showers both them and the metapenguin security team with soil and bits of loose root, causing them to splutter and stop singing to shield their faces from debris. A miniature blue mammoth, which floats lazily inside a bubble of energy (which had had a very impressive baritone) voice shouts out "Doomforall has returned! He shall save us all! We are saved!"

TWITCH
The Metapenguin stares out the window in disbelief - and following her line of sight, Twitch sees why - what is essentially a small mountain, encrusted in vines, and topped by a castle of sorts has suddenly begun hovering nearby - pretty much directly over the Old World Society. The Penguin looks slightly freaked out by this, talks into her walkie talkie, extracts what looks bizarrely like a mortar that fires little robotic armadillos and then waddles off outside, presumably to try and deal with this colossal apparition.

Twitch is left outside the control room, now only housing the flimsy Paper Golem which is only paying attention to the keyboard.

EUDIAL AND LELAND

Suddenly the Alakazam from earlier teleports in in front of the two.

"Are you two trying to get killed or just incredibly stupid - you just murdered a psychic in the middle of a psychic base - they'll be here in moments - I'll take you to your friend".

With that, the three of themselves feel a sudden blur leavign them feeling sick to the stomach, and find themselves in the room containing the vast tank of the Sucker, and Cleo and the Brain of Kull.

[GF93]

Once my character's approved, I'll be ready to start anytime.

[kodster]

Eudial went bug-eyed. "ExCUSE me?!" she snarled at the Pokemon, not paying attention to what else he was saying. "Murder, you say? I don't remember murder being part of their itinerary. This guy - " She jerked her thumb at Gaunt, " - wouldn't even be here if I didn't - "

And with that, she was cut off, because they had suddenly been teleported into a vast room, dimly lit, with a pool of sorts. She choked; teleporting wasn't fun...

"Okay, that's starting to annoy me..."

With another dirty look at Vortigon, Eudial scanned the room, and found... "You." It was Cleo, the psycat. "Glad to have finally found you again, I guess." Eudial looked back at Vortigon coldly. "I see... you helped us find our other member. I suppose I should be grateful, but you could do with being less arrog..."

Eudial trailed off. Her eyes had found something... something that she couldn't believe she was seeing.

There is a vast fish-like creature in there, it must be ancient, and a full 150 meters long. Even more disconcerting is that it appears riddled with some kind of parasite - resembling giant human sized leaches, if you somehow managed to cut a giant man-sized leach out of reality leaving nothing but utter blackness behind.

Damn, this world just keeps getting WEIRDER and WEIRDER... !!! Eudial whined.

[NWOWWE]

Gaunt was quite ready to give the Alakazam a real telling off. He was getting a bit tired of taking flak from the likes of him. Before he could start in on him, they were being teleported and Gaunt wobbled a bit with nausea.

"All right, I've had just about enough of this! Someone had better start giving us answers as to what's going on here without locking us up! I want to know what the f... what the..."

Gaunt trailed off as he finally took notice of the space they were in now. He put a hand out trying to find something to stabilize himself with, but failed and sank to the floor. He put a hand to his head and tried to will the bizarre sights away. But of course this was to no avail. He turned to look at the cat.

"Well, what do you know about this?"

[alex_holt]

CLEO, LELAND and EUDIAL

The Alakazam rolls its eyes and then with a sudden burst of psychic power dumps all the information the Brain of Kull had told to Cleo directly into the minds of the Pyromancer and the Demon.

"This is no time for the inevitable Chinese Whispers you simpletons will likely engage in. What is important is that those leach creatures are doing something to the Sucker, they are made of Rift energy, and for some reason, the members of your party are resistant to it. Therefore, we would greatly appreciate it if you could work a way to get rid of the vile things"

The Brain of Kull gives him a cold look.

"Fine... as you may want some sort of exchange for this - how about we will give you some useful artifacts, and the vague possibility that all of reality won't end?"

VENGEANCE

As the Fortress slowly reaches a stop above the Old World Society, suddenly an area behind the Professor is suddenly filled with the holographic projections of the members of the Society.

"We were wondering who would have managed to fidn the Fortress. We should have known it would be you Vengeance" says the metamorphing cloaked figure of the Catalyst.

"Why are you here?" Spodra interjects abruptly "And how did you manage to wrest control of the Fortress, I'm surprised that anyone could find it, let alone hotwire it".

[NFX]

"...what?!" Twitch asked himself in bewilderment. A flying mountain had appeared. With a castle at the peak. And a bunch of vines trailing after it. Even with everything else that had happened, the kangaroo cucumber man, the telepathic tree, his metamorphic helmet, this really took the biscuit. Although it did seem to have caught the attention of the second penguin, who had left his post to deal with this levitating geological threat, and the tower was now attended by only the paper creature. sure, he could shred it up in some way, but that would only draw attention to himself. He would DEFINITELY get shot if he did that.

However, the origamian seemed more interested in the computer in front of him than what was going on outside, so the macaw could easily sneak behind it if he were quiet. All he needed was a method of getting inside, such as the open window he had just flown past...wow, he was bad at this. Backpedalling for a moment, Twitch swooped his way into the control room, making as little noise as possible, and set about finding a way to open the hangar where the spaceship was kept. It was probably a button, and if it were, he would be pecking at that as soon as he saw it. He was quite good at pressing buttons for someone with no hands.

[majinb]

Aurelia, never ever dropping her singing performance, looked overhead at the massive Forretress flying over. As if the annoying Alakazam wasn't enough.

[GF93]

Just going to post my character's profile.

Name- Epsilon (ε)
Gender- None (Thought referred to as Male)
Species- Android/Robot (Whichever term you prefer)
Dice Roll- 15

Stats
STRENGTH- 2
AGILITY- 3
WILL- 2
INTELLIGENCE-3

Appearance-
Designed and built in a secret laboratory located somewhere in the Dzhugdzhur Mountains of Siberia, Epsilon was a prototype combat robot. As part of its design, it utilised a unique AI system that would effectively allow it to learn and adapt to its surroundings very quickly much like a living being; albiet minus what were considered to be the negatives of human consciousness, such as emotions and frailty, which would in theory, allow it to become the perfect soldier.
However- although the robot's AI system appeared to work well, an error in applying it to Epsilon itself caused it to develop an artificial thinking 'brain' from its system, giving it self-awareness. After breaking out, eluding its creators and destroying their laboratory, it went on the run- until now.

Epsilon is humanoid in shape- its chassis is based around a super-flexible armoured skeleton that reduces damage by about 91%, and is clad predominantly in a very dark grey endoskeleton made of a specially-designed, flexible alloy that is lightweight yet extremely strong, and bends on severe impacts and retains its shape rather than breaking or shattering.

It has smooth, white panelling layered on top of this armour, predominantly on its forearms/hands, lower legs/feet, upper torso/shoulders, and pelvic region, and has a stylised ε symbol etched into one side of its torso armour, which glows blue.

Its head is covered by a white helmet with a visor in the front, concealing broad-range camera "eyes" that have a higher framerate than the normal human eye, and can adapt to see in different situations (Such as in the dark), an ultra-sensitive sound recognition system that can hear a far broader spectrum of sounds than the normal human ear, its compact supercomputer 'brain', and a built-in scanning system that allows it to temporarily copy the abilities of others. Its visor typically glows blue when powered on.

Its main weapons are concealed in its forearms- compact but powerful "Wrist Cannons" that accumulate and convert energy into powerful beams that can be fired in a variety of ways, along with being able to channel the abilities of its opponents through both its cannons and its hands as necessary.

Its body contains its primary power supply- an experimental Power Core that generates both the necessary energy to fuel all of Epsilon’s systems, and enough for a secondary supply that can be used when producing energy via normal means becomes impossible. It also contains an ultra-compact tank of Micro-Fusion fuel (In order for Epsilon to be active if his main Power Core is damaged or otherwise inactive, and his secondary supply runs out.), and a specialised Central Control System and Internal CPU capable of high mathematical logic enactment.
At the slightest sign of danger, the neuron connections simultaneously inform each section of the body to correspond. In short, this allows Epsilon to react extremely quickly to certain situations.

Its legs contain three main features- a Gyroscopic Stabiliser that enables Epsilon to land cleanly in any area, from almost any kind of state, an Acceleration System that allows it to quickly accelerate over short distances along the ground, and a powerful Thruster and Anti-Gravity device in each foot that allows it to hover and fly at high speed over short-to-medium distances.


Personality-
Due to being a robot, Epsilon appears to lack personality initially- quiet and emotionless. However, with its thinking 'brain', it does actually have one, albeit quite in-line with its initial purpose- very intelligent, but rather cold-hearted and ruthless in its approach, doing whatever is necessary to attain its goals.
Since going on the run from the laboratory that created it, Epsilon has taken up a profession as a very skilled freelance bounty hunter and assassin. Although it prefers to utilise strategy and cunning use of its internal weaponry to defeat its opponents, it can also fight with deadly force.


Weaponry/Abilities-

• Specially-designed Wrist Cannons with a variety of different firing modes. These include Rapid armour-piercing shots that can fire at a maximum rate of approximately 7,000rpm, explosive grenade-like pockets of energy that can detonate with varying force (From about a Hand Grenade to a similar level as a Bunker Buster) constant light-like Beams for burning through multiple targets, and the ability to accumulate energy and release it in the form of bigger and more powerful Shots.
• Using a powerful Copy System, Epsilon has the ability to temporarily replicate the powers and abilities of others. By staring at them and scanning and copying their life data, Epsilon is capable of immediately and flawlessly copying other people's combat techniques, fighting moves and even superhuman abilities unique to specific individuals.
• Combination of an internal Anti-Gravity Device and thrusters in its feet allow it to hover and fly at high speed over short-to-medium distances.

Weaknesses

• Whilst in theory its Copy Ability does make his abilities potentially limitless, he has to deactivate his Wrist Cannons and scan his opponent before he can use their abilities due to limits with his power core, and he can only use one saved ability at a time.
• Its Wrist Cannons are powerful, but since they tap power directly from his core, he cannot use them too much in one go, and must take brief periods to cool down and recharge between firing. If he doesn't, he could potentially overload his core and destroy himself.
• Cannot fly as fast as it wants to within the atmosphere, since this will cause it to overheat from atmospheric friction.

[alex_holt]

EPSILON

There had been a period of about where Epsilon's diagnostic systems had been giving nonsensical readings, it would seem it's power core had interacted strangely with something causing some sort of weird suspension in an energy field, moving at a fraction of the rate he should have been moving. Early on he had detected ten other beings pass by him in this strange place, however they were swiftly gone. But now eventually the energy has ebbed away, and suddenly Epsilon finds itself spat out into the normal world again.

Strangely he appears to have knocked a Giant Penguin out on impact, causing it to drop both the knife and leash of the chimera it was holding. Nearby, there are a bunch of very varied beings singing.

TWITCH

As Twitch flies through the control tower, he manages to do it successfully without being spotted. However, this on closer observation isn't as impressive a feat as it may seem - the intricate writing that covers the golem is apparently its magical "programming", but the fact it doesn't seem interested in anything beyond its work station gives the pretty clear impression that it is literally programmed to work there, it doesn't react to anything that isn't on that screen.

He also spots a large red button labelled "Emergency Hangar Door".

[GF93]

EPSILON

There had been a period of about where Epsilon's diagnostic systems had been giving nonsensical readings, it would seem it's power core had interacted strangely with something causing some sort of weird suspension in an energy field, moving at a fraction of the rate he should have been moving. Early on he had detected ten other beings pass by him in this strange place, however they were swiftly gone. But now eventually the energy has ebbed away, and suddenly Epsilon finds itself spat out into the normal world again.

Strangely he appears to have knocked a Giant Penguin out on impact, causing it to drop both the knife and leash of the chimera it was holding. Nearby, there are a bunch of very varied beings singing.

After its diagnostic systems had reset to normal, Epsilon glanced around, almost in bewilderment, at what had just happened. Not quite sure what to make of the situation, it glanced down at the unconscious Penguin at its feet, and then towards the very varied singing beings.

[kodster]

Rift creatures... Eudial's brain, tired from the previous situations, had to go back to the grindstone here. Why was she resistant to the rift? Did she possess some quality that made her immune to it, perhaps? And what EXACTLY were these creatures? What was "The Sucker"? Why is this world so damned weird...

But the many questions that were boiling in her mind, she knew had no current answers, and it was useless to dwell on them. She glared at Vortigon again, glanced at Gaunt, then Cleo, and then came to rest on the recent acquiantance, the Brain of Krull or whatever she was called.

An idea came to her... a truly foolish idea, but an idea nonetheless. "Does the thing respond to sounds?" Eudial questioned, hopeful for at least one answer.

[NFX]

'Emergency Hangar Door'. Well, damn if it wasn't straightforward. Twitch dutifully flapped his way towards it...and hesitated. This was far too simple. A giant button telling you exactly what it did? It had to be a trap. He would press it, and then there would be nets and guns and lasers and minions and he would be captured and shot and then he would be cooked at 240 degrees for 90 minutes and served with fries and guacamole dip. Or maybe it wasn't a trap, maybe it was just easier for the guys who worked here. There certainly were a lot of buttons around. Opening and closing the hangar doors by accident would definitely be problematic. But then why would a giant spaceship be protected just with a button? Surely they would give it more security than that. How would the spaceship even work? How could he get into it? How did it fly? What just fell out of the sky and took out that penguin? What was that gun the penguin had? Why is there a man made out of paper here, what is written on his back, why has he not noticed me yet...

His mind was overloading with uncertainty and panic, and Twitch very nearly bottled the whole thing, aiming to escape through the open window. In his anxiety-addled state, though, and failing to look where he was going, the parrot instead flew at full speed into the closed window alongside it. His helmet protected him for the most part, but he was knocked for quite a literal loop from the impact, soaring and diving through the air with no clear direction, before plummeting headfirst into the giant red button with 'Emergency Hangar Door' written on it, and promptly flopping to the ground.