( *looks around for the lion, scarecrow, and clockwork man* ) * Carter walks purposefully. Not flying, 'cause he doesn't want to be rude or anything. * It's a fun walk. Can't shake the buzz of the tournament at all. * Carter is not suprised, just largely uninterested. He's sure his companions...dare he call them friends?...will tell him all about the high points. * Carter heads straight for the Tower entrance...and then hesitates, as he tries to decide how best to make his request. * And you're getting closer to Da Tower. Which is made of alternating bricks of grey and bright silver, giving the apperance of a spiral pattern to it. Interesting... *scan* * It appears to be a perfectly normal building. But there's lots of fun fun interesting reading coming from up top! * Carter smiles, takes a deep breath, and enters! ( * Carter then stands around, waiting for the universe to unfreeze. ) * A few people look up at Carters entrance. None of them look particularly happy to see him, and they all have a hardened quality about them. Uh... excuse me? *scans around the room, not so much for info as much as it's how he "looks around"* Who do I talk to about some lab space? * And ... they watch him. One of them, an ... erm. humanoid thing, with one arm replaced with cyber-whips, speaks up. "Me." * Carter nods, and walks over to... er... him? "Alright. I would like to make use of the lab, or at least a small diagnostic chamber therein. What sort of proceedure must I follow to secure access?" Basically, all you have to do is get on our good side. Why do you want to use it? Actually, currently, it's a project in adapting an A.I.. However, if the facilities are still open to me later, I would like to try some experiments in gravitics and spacial warping. * NPC's eyes unnarrow, a bit. "Interesting, at least." * NPC dosen't continue. Probably a cue for you to say something else. * Carter nods enthusiastically. "Yeah. And if I can get this A.I. to cooperate, and imprint it to assist, I might be able to accellerate the calculations, as well as give me a needed boost to sheer spacial gradient disturbance." I guess it's okay, then. Thanks you kindly. Oh, my name's Carter Delger, by the way. May I have the honor of knowing yours, sir? *he bows* Not yet. * Carter pauses, seeming taken aback. "Oh. Okay. Um... so, do I just go up, or do I have to sign in or something?" * NPC motions to one of the doors. Thank you, sir. *walks in the indicated direction, container in hand* * Indicated is a spiraling yellow brick road that leads UP! * Carter sings "Follow The Yellow Brick Road", in the original voices and with the backup music...quietly, however. * And you make it up! There's a not-so-fancy lab. Not that great, but it has most of the basics. * Carter idly scans for the interesting signatures he felt earlier. Merely passive scans, so as not to disturb anyones' experiments. And looking for a higher-powered scanner/computer to assist in his work. * Interesting signatures coming from various pieces of equipment. And there's a particularly interesting one coming from an anylitical scanner bay. Hm... *wanders that way, curious and seeing if it's useable to him. Or to see what it's being used for if it's taken* * There's a spot to put an orb in there. Readings are still on the screen, dated 3 days ago. There's wavelength comparisons and stuff that looks familiar. You're not sure what the first reading is, but the second ismost definitely the particular frequency of the Lords of Shadow. It seems that the first reading has an ... odd effect on it. * There's also 'Unable to duplicate' labelled on both readings. Hm... *spoken, and transmitted:* Elonith, are you there? Drat. Well... Let's see if this thing is locked, or if it's available for use. *looks over the apparatus, and also begins making backup copies of the readings* * It's got a lot better sensor resolution than you do. And an onscreen prompt goes 'Insert object you wish to scan.' ( Is there a way to save the data that's already there on the machine itself? Carter doesn't want to mess up someone else's experiment. If not, he'll just keep a backup on his own harddrives to reinsert when he's done. ) ( It autosaves. And the current data is 3 days old. ) ( Alrighty.) * Carter puts his ... sample ... into the device. And redirects the autosave into his own memory, if possible, for this particular scan. * It identifies it pretty quick. "Lord of Shadow. RB3." And shows a higher resolution scan of the same thing you did. Accurate little bugger. Didn't know Lord RB3's signature was so common knowledge. Well, let's get cracking! ( Gonna go for it again? -2 repeated attempt bonus, another -1 from using nifty machine. ) * Carter flexes his fingers together, and then begins communicating with his nanites in the concoction. And tries again! ( Dicey may hate me, but I managed to succeed by 1! Muhaha! Oh, and did the machine detect my nanites in the mix before I began the attempt? ) ( Yup. ) ( Okay, just making sure. ) * Carter examines the readout now, as he begins imprinting his own personality and programming into the thingie. ( Servant lvl3 get? ) ( <_< 4, actually... Well, I'm going to design the servant and then see how many levels I need, but that's the general idea. Muhahahaha! ) * Hey! That NPC from before enters! Ah. The scanner array. Any luck? * Carter collects his sample, which is now a briefcase. "Yes, actually. This is a nice machine. I've got another test I want to run with it... The data it had on here earlier was...interesting, and inspired another experiment. ... Oh. That. *looks away momentariily* Unfortunate, we no longer have the sample we used to collect those readings. * NPC goes to take a look himself at what Carter was doing. Oh, lemme guess. The sample is now a prize in the tourney out there? * NPC's non-whip arm curls up in a fist. "The Cleaver decieved us. We let him use our lab, and he stole it. Now we lack the key we need to destroy the Lords...." Destroy? Interesting... But, it was the orb? I'd love to take my own readings. Oh, wait the Cleaver? Isn't he a Shadow Lord? Is he still in the city? No, he's not. And yes. He's hosting this tournament. Why would he give away the item? Hm... Can I help you with anything, or am I in your way? Actually... yes. Do you know of anyone who is strong enough to win that tournament? I would dearly like to get that orb back. Heh. I know at least two strong fighters. But, not knowing the strength of the other contestants, I cannot calculate odds of victory. At least one of my friends has already entered. Then... can I get you to agree to return the orb to our group if you win it? Our group can make it worth your while if you do so. *glances around the lab.* I cannot speak for them...but I'll at least help you if I can. How do you plan to destroy them? And is it to work on both sets of Lords? The only readout I saw was for the Shadow Lords. * NPC relaxes a little. "You recognized it, then? No. Only the Lords of Shadow." Well, if you can keep it under your hat... I've got some similar analyses I want to do. ( Has the NPC seen what Carter was doing yet? Carter hasn't removed it, for fear of being rude, or seeming secretive. ) ( Yep! ) ( Any reaction? Carter's a bit nervous, since it ID'd it as RB3... ) In fact... would you like to join us? You seem to have no fear of the Lords... * Carter shudders. "Right. No fear." His voice is very hard...almost mechanical as he says that. "Well, if you are done looking at the readings there, I need to reset the autosave function to it's own readings. I've one more thing to analyze." Certainly. * NPC watches expectantly. * Carter pulls out the orb he's got, and places it in the machine, resetting the autosave to function as it's supposed to. * NPC does react at that. "Where... where did you get that?" Um... *looks guilty* In Lifa, actually. *pays very close attention to the machine so he doesn't have to meet the NPC's eyes. (And, if Lifa's the wrong city, insert the correct one there. Carter's not lying. ) * Whee! The machine spits out a very similar reading, and compares it aginst the first reading left there. Infitisemly similar. But then it compares Carters orb to the Lords of Shadow, and the Lords of Light. It seems it can mess up the Lords of Light. ... It's a set. Blast. Not what I thought it was. Hm... *inputs a wavefunction, without actually giveing it anything to scan. His own wavefunction.* * It resonates with Carters. And the nifty machine does more stuff, comparing the resonation against the Lords of Light. ... The odd effect is greatly amplified. Interesting... But what does it mean...? *to NPC* Is this the destruction waveform you were talking about? ... Who are you? Get out! Get out now! * NPC cracks the whip-arm, and it arcs little bits of electricity. I won't say it again. Leave Hvvrt and never come back. Why? What'd I do? ( This is why he didn't give it something to scan, but inputted the waveform manually; so he'd have no reason to suspect it's his own. ) * Carter looks like a very confused 17-year-old right now. Explain yourself. *narrows its eyes* Huh? Explain? If you tell me what I did to raise your ire, sir, I'd be happy to! *backs away a bit, hands up defensively* That new pattern. It's similar to that of the Lords of Shadow, and Lords of Light. Too similar. Where did you get it? From earlier scans I made of someone else. But why would it _amplify_ the waveforms? Odd... it's not Light nor Shadow, I don't think. Hang on, lemme see what that waveform does with the destruction form of the Shadow Lords. Please? .... * Assuming Carter does that, it has the same amplification effect on the odd effects vs the Lords of Shadow. Hm... Now... if... *combines the shadow, light, and his own waveforms with that of the orb he's got* * Carters waveform nullifies the other two. Odd... *removes his own waveform, to see what the light and shadow do to each other* * Nothing. ( They just add constructively? ) * Err... They don't mix. ( Now _that_'s wierd. Okay. Sci-fi is sci-fi, after all. ^^; *physics brane hurt* ) Holy....... A catylizing reaction... but what does the orb have to do with it...? * NPC is silent. It counteracts _both_ of them. Combined. What the blazes is going on here...? *turns to the NPC* What do you know about the waveforms here? What, exactly, should they represent? These are scans of the Lords that our group has obtained. We've been studying them, and the monoliths, trying to find some way to break their power. Monoliths? What connection do they have? Can I look at those scans? Please? *very interested scientist boy almost bubbling with excitement* It's directly tied into the monoliths. But we've had no luck until we found the orb. Oh? We cannot scan the monoliths directly. We've tried. We've tried every material we've came across. All we can say for sure is that the Lords draw their power from them. They destroy that which touches them. I suspect they represent a closed terminus of wormholes. Er, event horizons, effectively. But why they have the shape they do is beyond me... But the Lords draw power from them? How do the orbs help? I do not know. The orbs... are part of a key, it seems. Well, how did they help you get the data you wanted? That. It's the only thing that has had any effect on their waves. Somehow. But just bringing them into contact with them is not enough... And...what do you make of this? *shows him the combined tripple waves...the ones that cancel out completely* ) * All of those waveforms have 'Impossible to duplicate' attached to them, too. ( Of course they do. What's NPC boy got to say about it? ) I fear this. Why? What do you think it means? ... the end of the Lords. ... only to be replaced by a new set. And you fear it...why? Is that not... oh. Why do you think they'd be replaced? ( "He who can destroy, controls that which he can destroy." ) Where did you get that data from? From...tell me, first, why you think they'd be replaced. I- I want to know. You're going to react badly to the answer to your question, given your current agitation, and I want to know your reasoned answer before you react. Please, sir. I swear, it's not something that will harm you or your friends. That new wavelength. It's too similar to that of the other Lords. And...? And if whatever that is .... ends the current Lords, there would be noone to stop them. Would it not also be destroyed in the process? * The scanner dosen't seem to think so. ( Oh. ) I- I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. What... you're trying to destroy the Lords of Shadow, aren't you? Both. But you fear this particular method...because you fear what it would generate? I fear the source of this. Oh. * Carter looks nervous, and pensive. I'm...kinda new here in the Realm... So I'm still learning my way around. I want to find a way out of here, and have reason to believe I'll succeed. And I'm sure you've heard that before. ^^; * NPC chuckles. "Many times." So... I don't want to make enemies. I would like to be able to use this lab in the future, if I may. May I? Please? If you wish. Thanks. ^^; Um... anything else you need? * Carter hopes that he's forgotten to ask about that waveform again... * NPC points at Carters orb. "It's twin." "And yours. To borrow, at least." I'll...see what I can do. Thanks. ^^; Well, I'll...see you later? Oh! Can I have your name, sir? And...what do you intend to do with it? I can give you a complete wavefunction of it, if that's all. To study them, to see what secrets can be gleaned. I may just help you with that...as long as we can share the information gathered. What should I call you? Call me Dune. And, my group, if you haven't guessed already, is the Anti-Lord Collaboration. Everyone thinks of us as jokes, taking on such an impossible task... but it seems to not be so impossible anymore. I'll be honest... I don't like the idea of jumping right into a rebellion... but, I will help with the pursuit of knowledge. I warn you, though, that you're unlikely to be able to use that particular waveform. Sorry. Watch out for the Cleaver. He's got something planned for this tournament besides entertainment. Understood... Thanks for the warning. I must go see my companions, now. I will speak with you again, later. Um.. do you have a radio here? If so, what channel is it on, so I can get back in touch with you guys? No radio, here. Drat. Oh, well. Thanks for your help. See you around. *walks out of the lab, down the stairs, and out of the Tower, unless something stops him* ( So, does he wander off? If he goes back to the party, I'm gonna play with my new toy a bit. ^^ ) * Carter randomly has a lightning-elemental meteor swam critsucc and hit him dead on. But asides from that, sure. ^_^ ( @_@ ) * Mainchan for you, boyo!