Because it could never be that easy...

[ww_arcadia]

A little over a month had passed. Occasionally, there'd be word from inside Arcadia. Occasionally, there'd be more deliveries of food. But the uneasy peace was doomed from the start, and at least some people knew that.

Eventually the message comes. Something has been found. Something that Copy X wants to speak to them in person about, but he can't leave the city at the time. He thinks Weil is suspicious and would take advantage of any absence. But he can give them access codes to an area of Arcadia away from the human residential sections, where they can meet...

Comments

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

Peace for Forte is anything but peaceful. And when that peace could end at any time and throw them into a chaotic mess, it's even less so. Going into Arcadia is not a good sign as far as Forte's concerned. Knowledge on how the timeline could go has him making guesses to their place in it and what might happen next as a result. Nothing good ever came from being inside Arcadia.

"Why does he want to meet in person? Wouldn't it be better to send a message?"

[vengeancechild]

"He's worried it will be intercepted," says X, re-reading the message. "Weil can't read their minds now, but he could still intercept a communication."

Zero's trying to place where this puts them, too, and doesn't like it at all. Arcadia tended to be the last stage, and someone ended up dead. He's guessing it's going to be Copy, whether they go or not. -Bad news is, I worked out one reason Weil would make a copy-me. In case we don't go in and he needs someone to kill X's little look-alike.-

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

Forte snarls a torrent of curses, damning Weil along with many other nasty things he wishes would happen to the man.

He doesn't bother wondering about X's comment. There's only one choice of action now. "Get him out of here!"

They'll have better chances saving Phantom with more equipment back home. There's no time to think about how these actions may affect their plans, and Forte doesn't believe he'd change his choice of them even there was.

[ekkusu_light]

X just grabs and activates his teleporter. Strangely enough, that isn't jammed, and he and Phantom are both gone.

Zero's muttering swears as well. Now what... -Copy's next. Weil still plans to blame us, somehow. He might be recording the room.- Zero can't spot a camera, but he can't spot what disrupted his weapon copy either.

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

He fires again through the hole. He's not sure why. The building is coming down and there's nothing he can do, but having a door stop him is insulting. Sure he could get through the door given enough time and then be able to work his way beyond it, but there wouldn't be anything there by then. And that isn't taking into account his own chances of survival. He's not afraid to take his chances with the building, but not if it means 'fighting' with a door for the last moments the building stays up. And that's the deciding factor, knowing there's no gain in sticking around, no matter how hard he tries.

He teleports out. He's going back empty handed and hating it.

[vengeancechild]

The immediate area of the warehouse is busy when he returns, mostly due to commotion around the repair building. And Zero's over there without Copy, so he must have managed to turn him over to the medics.

The good news is that there's no sign of anyone having exploded in the immediate area.

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

"Is there really nothing that could hold that much energy, or is it too much all at once?"

"What about letting it fry? It takes the brunt of the explosion and something else takes its place for the rest. That's another thing an armor upgrade could help with." He nods to himself at the idea. "Depending on how many we could carry, we could have different levels of protection for different times. Let a few shields take the hardest hits and heat resistant armor hold out between swapping the shields out."

That Forte doesn't know. It hadn't really occurred to him, busy as he was trying to get around surviving it. "I don't know," he frowns. "Shouldn't it be noticeable when he's taken enough damage to blow?"

[vengeancechild]

"I don't know. I don't even know how big of a blast it will be. The best guess I can get from the game is that Ragnarok is smaller than Final Weapon was, but bigger than a single room. From that, I've been looking at the output of some of the dirty nukes used in the second and third world wars, and I'm surprised there was that much of game-me's helmet left."

"From what Gate said, the space shields work by absorbing energy instead of deflecting it like normal shields. Some of it was based off Enker's Mirror Buster. You can't just layer them on top of each other, because it still doesn't fix the problem of what to do with all the energy..." He then frowns for a moment, thinking of something... what if that energy could be redirected to a more conventional shield and the two cycled back and forth somehow to make sure one was up at all times...

But the last comment distracts him and he snerks. "You trust him not to fake it somehow?"

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

Oh, Zero's save isn't enough to fool Forte. He knows what they're going into and the possible outcome. He'll let Zero get away with it for now, if only because he's been reminded of who's not here, namely those he could not get to.

[xtravariable]

Most people show at least a little surprise at their first good view of the Nexus, but Copy X doesn't seem to pay it any attention. The only reason he isn't storming towards the command center in a severely bad mood is because he doesn't know where it is. A serious-faced Phantom guides him in the right direction, while a worried X keeps watch over them both. X will give a brief trace of a smile to Forte and Zero before the trio disappear into the warehouse.

Lumine is curious. Reverting first to his default form and then shifting into the dark-haired female one that Forte might remember from their first meeting, she'll start to follow. "This might be interesting." She doesn't want them up to something where she can't work it into her plans, after all.

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

-With how quickly this is happening, it might be best to leave most of the preemptive measures to others to make sure we have enough time to get ready if those measures don't work.-

[vengeancechild]

-So, call Heat and drag him to Gate, or track down Gate and drag him to visit Heat?-

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

"That's because Gospel isn't suppose to get any bigger. And if he did, I wouldn't be turning off my comm for it." He'd be yelling over it and searching for the person who messed with his wolf.

[atomic_zippo]

Heat just rolls his eyes and looks to Cuddles. "I don't know if he doesn't get it because he's not trying, Cuddles, or if he just doesn't get it."

"Cargo..," says Cuddles, in a way that somehow manages to sound like 'don't know'.

"Well, let's go," says Heat. The sooner they got that over with, the sooner he could show Bubble what had happened to Cuddles.

"Gate's got a lab in the Nexus. I'll call ahead and see if he'll meet us there," says Zero. He'll relay coordinates for Forte.

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

"In a way... funny how?"

[atomic_zippo]

"Funny in 'why would anyone be asking about that?'. Wily's been dead for years. I thought it was weird, someone asking about the upper limit of my weapons system, so I just gave them the numbers but didn't explain stuff. It's a charging weapon, and, well... I can't really charge it to the max limit. Well, maybe I could, if I wanted it to be the last thing I did."

Noticing that Gate is done with the scans and that Cuddles is looking a bit darker red than he'd like, Heat says, "Excuse me." Making sure he's not standing too close to anything flammable, he then sets the Magcargo, and his head, on fire.

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

Forte nods, that's much better. He doesn't want cut out a layer of protection. "It would distract them from what they need to focus on," he answers, putting it simply.

Forte same reason Zero mentions, he had slowly modified his own wings to make them smaller and easier to fold up. He couldn't keep them from being a target, but he could make them a harder one. The same thing isn't possible for wings big enough to act a shied that can cover two people.

"And they could get hooked on something when everything comes apart." Even if they're strong enough to not get ripped off, there's some issues with the design.

[complex_design]

"Hmm. Well, what would you suggest?" Gate asks. He's pretty open to hearing things. After all, they had a better idea what they'd be facing.

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

Neither does Forte; orbit is decidedly one of his least favorite places to be.

"That it'll work for what we need and can be made by the time we'll need it is all I need to know."

[complex_design]

"Do you have any idea when that might be?" Gate asks.

"Not really," says Zero. "Just soon."

Gate nods. "Luckily, doing it this way should also cut down on the time involved... but I should get to work."

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

"And they're only fueling the fire letting her think she can take down opponents so much stronger than herself. Put her up against someone not afraid to knock her around and she wouldn't be so adamant to go back."

[vengeancechild]

Forte's probably right about at least half of that, given that she's now trying to pick a fight with a 'bot twice her size. "Oh, you don't like me calling you that? Why don't you come over here and stop me... what, afraid I'll kick your ass?"

Zero nods. "She pulls that with some of my brothers, and she's dead." He's wondering if they ought to interfere just to knock her down without it ending in a very messy fatality.

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

The attack doesn't give away whether Forte's knees could be counted as a weak point since it doesn't do any more than have Forte shift his weight to the other leg and bring up the first to kick.

"You heard the lady, Rockhead. Unless you want to take a shot at stopping her from fighting."

[rox4brains]

Rock will just try to grab Forte's leg then. Though not quite in time to keep Atlanta from getting kicked. She's knocked down, but is actually trying to get right back up... while Rock's trying to get between her and Forte.

"Do you get it yet?" Zero asks. "The Lights were afraid to fight back because they won't hurt a human. But if you go up against a 'bot that doesn't care what you are, then you'll find out why humans get called 'squishy'."

"If they won't fight humans, they won't fight Weil either," Atlanta manages, wiping blood from her mouth and getting to her feet. She glares at Forte. "Everything has a weakness..."

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

"I think I finally get why my alt chose to collect a few humans for himself." Not that Forte is thinking of doing the same or anything.

Figuring it's a waste of effort when he already knows about the end battle, Forte has nothing to add to their battle planning. He also knows anything he suggests will be shot down; he doesn't care near enough about the humans to pull punches.

He does give X a look for interrupting it with gifts though. Surely he can't think this is a good time for that.

[vengeancechild]

-Like you said, Lightbot weak point,- Zero replies, using the comm since they're close enough for two, three if you count Copy, Lights to overhear. He almost facepalms at the presents. "I think X needs a nap," he teases, stifling snickers.

Phantom almost looks amused, and nods slightly in agreement with that before he turns his attention back to the battle plans. He hasn't opened any of the presents yet. Duty comes first.

Copy blinks at this, about to say he isn't tired, but realizes which X they mean. He'll glance again at the present with the nametag that says 'Xavier Light', before he'll put it next to the presents for Phantom and get back to trying to recreate the undercity layout of Arcadia with a stylus on digital whiteboard.

Zero just frowns for a moment, thinking about it. Then he goes to Enker. "When you get some time, I have something to show you. I don't know if it will help or not." He's not sure if he'll regret showing Enker the games, but he knows he would if he didn't and they had something else in them that ended up being important later.

With that out of the way, he'll head for his room. The VR equipment is still there.