Post by Lord Zasham on Mar 27, 2015 0:50:12 GMT -5
“Thirty two… Thirty three… Thirty four…” the boy groaned as his body heaved up and down, the red tinge the gravity machine brought to the otherwise whitewashed room changing the beads of sweat to blood as they puddle beneath him. Being as strong as he was this was normally no particular challenge, a stark contrast from when he was human. Back then his battle with gravity was a losing one. Sure he was powerful now but multiply Earth gravity by a factor of thirty-five and slap on Vespasian’s heavily weighted apparel and he was right back to the struggle. “Fifty seven… Fifty eight… Fifty nine…” he continued, wondering what was taking Gunny so long.
“Ready boy?” the old bear’s gravelly voice echoed through the training chamber’s speakers, finally. Normally it was bearable but amplified it was nerve shattering, threatening to dash the boy’s courage. Being surrounded by reinforced white walls lit red, with matching ceiling and floor, did not help either. “Sixty three… Yeah…! Sixty four…,” Willie responded with hesitance; he had no idea what Gunny had planned. He was simply ordered to do pushups until grizzled veteran said otherwise.
No sooner had the boy stepped free from Zex’s gaze upon returning to the Omega Collective was he upon him. In classic anonymous fashion, the message was delivered via arrow shot into Willie’s back. Upon arriving at the same house he had visited the night before departing on Prometheus’s mission he entered, this time though he was not gassed and restrained. “Hey Gunny,” Willie had greeted with a smile upon finding him in his workshop. The grisly old man welcomed in his usual fashion, “What the fuck took you so long?” The boy only guessed it was a question, as he did most times; the only inflection with which the old man ever spoke was anger.
He had explained it all leaving nothing to spare as he did with the rest, some more than others. Watson felt it easy to tell him; he was the only one who knew Willie was a majin, or rather technarcana, and next to that everything else seemed trivial. Gunny took it all in stride, unmoving as he stood before him in normal attire; black short sleeve shirt which displayed his impressive shape, something which amazed the boy given how old he appeared to be, neatly tucked into a dark urban camouflage pants held up by a black leather belt with a buckle bearing an insignia William did not recognize, and ending with dark heavy boots. He always seemed a soldier awaiting deployment, a point helped by the persistent sterling crew cut.
A curious note he made though; throughout it all Gunny did not blink once. Or he blinked when I did, opening his eyes before me, the boy thought with a shudder. He could not decide which was more impressive. After William had said his piece the old soldier grunted. A few moments later he added, “We don’t have much time then,” referring to Willie’s return to Belegost. Before the boy knew it he was swimming in a sea of white, which quickly reddened as the gravity increased, with only the control room distinguishing one wall from another. On the other side of the special “glass” sat the old man, manning the computers. His hands moved with a rapid precision surpassing that of Watson, the supposed half machine.
He understood the technarcana better than perhaps anyone alive, able to access the creature’s data in a way like no other. By pulling up the assimilation profiles he could access memories and abilities of those absorbed by Zasham. To others he was menace and madness, to Gunny just folders and files. Using William’s wireless interface, and his intimate knowledge of the system, he hacked into the boy’s mind and searched, confirming every word Willie said to be true. However what mattered now were the primary objectives, a full analysis would have to wait.
The boy needed to be stronger if was going to be prepared for what was to come. The wise old man was holding all the cards, only a few which William now knew. It was strange for him though, as the technarcana was never anything more than a project to him. It was a wild untamable beast devoid of empathy made by scientists and sorcerers alike. However now before him was a good natured young man, who did not even demand to know all Gunny knew. Willie seemed to accept that the old warrior would reveal what he knew on his time. The veteran meant to tell him all, but wanted him to be prepared before the last few cards fell. They would be ones to change everything.
“One hundred twenty seven… One hundred twenty eight… Anytime now!” Willie called with exasperation to the control room. With a twitch of his eye he held the intercom with one hand while his other sped across the keys, finishing establishing the connection between simulator and memories. “Fuck up, kid!” he rasped, too angry to include the words ‘shut’ and ‘the.’ Suddenly the room began to swim around the boy, a dazzling swirl of colors and formations. Even more confusing was watching the ground reform beneath him as his body rose and fell. Then again he was used to being the one in control of the simulation.
Once its form became clear and the landscape solidified all William saw was dry cracked dirt and sand. In all directions rock formations jutted out of the ground, shooting haphazardly into the sky as they decorated the horizon; the control room nowhere to be seen. “One forty three… One forty four… Aaand one thousand,” the boy muttered under his breath as he popped to his feet to get a better look of his surroundings. An ache sit in he could not ignore as his muscles burned. He also had to smack the sand from his clothing which had taken all of a minute to burrow into every crevice. By the time he finished he got a sense of déjà vu and realized this was Belegost.
“Kaisus Kraist, I’ll never get away!” he was able to exclaim a moment before an amorphous blue orb which crackled with electricity struck him on his right side, causing him to jerk uncontrollably as it passed through him. It also exploded, so his electro induced seizure took place mid flight, before skittering into the parched earth like a rag doll. “Pay attention Tycho, or you shall never earn your mask,” Arpatiko warned, a thin trickle of smoke curling up from the shoulder cannon on his right shoulder.
The mask… he thought, and then Tycho’s own thoughts from this memory enlightened him. The War Mask was a warrior’s sacred sigil; in ancient days they wore similar looking crude face shields to battle. Carved to invoke the old gods they wished to champion, they were as unique as their owner said to be as many designs as there are kingos on Belegost. As such they were also a sign of a young kinigo becoming an adult. With their technological advances it now meant even more; it meant gaining their battle suit and advanced weaponry.
“Apologies Great Hunter,” he felt himself say though the words felt foreign. Getting to his feet, the boy loosened up his body, the muscles tightly contracted due to the electricity. A moment later Arpatiko was upon him again, an afterimage standing where he had been a moment ago; a wisp of smoke still dissipating into the air. As he struck the twin glaives on his left arm sprang forth from their retracted position, a laser edge immediately coating the already dangerous melee weapons. His slash tore right through his student; however all it did was disrupt William’s own afterimage. Meanwhile the apparent human appeared behind the Hunter, his body weaponization mimicking the wrist gauntlet blades, though without the laser edge, as he thrust.
“Better,” the kinigo seemed to say in earnest, as he turned his body with the swing of his own missed blow, turning perpendicular to the attacking Willie in time to use the blades mounted to his other arm to catch Willie’s, twist them, and toss aside the boy’s arm before his whole body, save one leg, went parallel to the ground as he brought up the other foot and thrust it square into Watson’s chest. The impact kicked a wave of dust as he skidded back, his heels digging in the further he went until he stopped. He was buried past his ankles some thirty feet away but at least he still stood. Strolling forth at a leisurely pace the Great Hunter brought a clenched fist level with the boy from afar; the blades’ edges teeming with energy before they ejected from the gauntlet.
No sooner had he done so then he brought forth the other arm to release another volley. Arpatiko continued this process; as an arm fell another rose while another pair of blades automatically loaded up and began collecting energy in preparation for release. Pulling a foot free from the ground, Willie was able to turn from the first pair so that only one went clean through his lifted leg. The other just left a gash. “URGH,” the boy bit back on the cry of anguish; kinigo warriors did not show weakness. He had to prove himself worthy of the mask.
Stomping down with the injured leg Willie clenched his teeth and seethed through the pain as he pulled his other leg free just in time to juke to the right and avoid the second volley. With a forward roll he dodged two more pairs and as he stood once more he took aim with both palms at shot down another two with Vanishing Beams. The explosion they caused was what Arpatiko had been waiting for through, unleashing a volley of stun blasts through the smoke before using zanzoken once more. As the sparking blue blobs emerged William leapt to avoid, clearing them just in time for the Hunter to appear beside him. This time Watson had been waiting though, gathering energy in his vocal cords.
When the kingo appeared, which was immediately followed by a precise strike, Willie turned his head to him and let loose a most terrible scream. Enhanced with ki and beyond deafening the Vice Shout overloaded the Great Hunter’s mask temporarily, causing his whole suit to glitch. Taking advantage the boy grappled the Hunter, brought his feet up into his chest then kicked off of him with all his might; sending Arpatiko speeding to the ground as William flew higher. “I am kinigo, the hunters, the warriors; we are the apex predators and may a glorious death await our prey!” Tycho’s voice erupted from him as William loosed a volley of crimson waves at the falling kinigo. As the former Lieutenant’s emotions boiled to the surface he felt a surge of pride and a kinship to these people he had met only days ago.
Reposition downwards he closed his limbs against himself and dove like a bullet straight for where Arpatiko had been falling a moment before. He could sense the wary warrior, waiting. Extending a fist the debris cloud as whisked away as it met with the kinigo’s own; a blue shielding powered by his armor lining his body. Quickly a chakram appeared in his other hand in time to deflect the blades intended for his underbelly. The crimson ki ring then bounced off the Hunter’s mask as his feet touched the ground and he formed a matching weapon in his other palm which made its way into the kinigo’s gut, between the heavier sections of plating. As he staggered back half a step he emitted the closest thing he had to a laugh, “Yes, that is it Tycho, are you ready? It is time to see if you can master the War Mask.”
William imagined the centuries old warrior smiling behind his honored mask as he reached behind his back, producing a unique mask bearing the insignia of the Lieutenant; second in command and loyal hand to the Great Hunter. “You honor me beyond words Lord Apratiko,” he said kneeling without any control and offering up his hands to accept the gracious gift. It was the same mask Tycho had worn the day Willie had met him. The same mask Zasham assimilated along with the rest of the kinigo. “An honor you must earn, as your father had before you,” the Hunter said sternly, with what he discerned as a certain hint of pride.
Placing the mask over his face slowly, and with great reverence, he felt as if the world was being enveloped by darkness. Really William’s body was reconstituting his body to reform the mask he had absorbed days ago, the scouter Zex had gifted him for his good work on the mission, which he also assimilated, helping him now unlock the mysterious his body was unable to when it first encountered the mask. Then the darkness came alive, as information was projected into the void before his very eyes. Not only did his vision return in the ‘background’, thanks to the shielded ocular lenses, but along with it came a full heads up display in the ‘foreground.’
Being linked to his brainwaves allowed him to easily control the displays, showing anything from the time, location, weather, and much more to allowing him to zoom in on anything; he could accurately see far away rock structures as easily as he could see his hand as if through a microscope. It was quite nifty, as was what else came with it; the rest of the battle suit and especially the shoulder cannon which William watched in awe as a growth bubbled up from his right shoulder before morphing into the high tech weapon. Along with it a crosshairs appeared in his background, designating where it was currently aimed. Lost in it all, Tycho had not utilized the most useful features for the warrior race. But Arpatiko was committed to making him understand.
As the proud warrior looked to his mentor he found nothing but air. Turning quickly he awaited a strike, as usually followed a disappearing trick. After a few moments it was clear that it was not zanzoken the Hunter had used, but his suit’s cloaking ability. To the naked eye he was invisible; twisting his head around the war mask caught bits and pieces of his cloaked movement, but not enough to prepare him for a strike straight to the face. Too busy and what was around him, he failed to see what was before him. After the punch the Great Hunter twisted and dropped low and swept out the boy’s feet, then popped up just in time for a dropkick to Willie’s midsection, who at that moment was parallel to the ground.
Flying back he rolled several yards before his momentum was such that he could catch himself and grind to a kneeling stop. Shooting back up he was once more lost as he found Arpatiko to be nowhere; having once again initiated his cloaking. “Think Tycho, you have learned much of this technology; apply what you know,” came his mentor’s disembodied voice. Letting out a breath slowly the boy thoughts played out on the HUD as he sped through the mask’s capabilities at the speed of the thought. Then it came to him; alternate vision modes. Thinking of the ki which comprised most beings he saw the world change in the background of void within the mask.
Now all he saw was light, darkness and lifeless grey. Ki vision, as it were, and with it he spun his head around trying to spot the coy Hunter. It was difficult, his field of vision was only so big and Arpatiko and impeccable timing. He barely saw the Lord of Belegost as he came at him from his left side, driving a hard kick into his midsection, enough to throw spittle from his lips. Not one to kick and dash he follow up with a knee to the same spot followed by a double axe handle to the boy’s back as Willie keeled over from the dual strikes to his gut. “A Lieutenant is a master of all the kinigo abilities, no different than the Great Hunter he serves. You seem to lack the drive to master said skills,” he prodded before dissipating into thin air once more.
Ki vision would not work, as kinigos, unlike most of the universe, did not utilize their ki to fight. Thus they ki was faint and easily overlooked in his haste. Wizening up, William went for infrared, or thermal, vision. Once more he looked around, and once more the world around had changed drastically. Yellows, oranges and reds were everywhere; perhaps it was not best in desert wasteland environment. Switching again, this time to ultraviolet, which was unique as everything become enveloped in a dark purple hue. However the approaching Arpatiko was slightly visible in this mode, thanks to being able to see the ultraviolet section of spectrum now, which the cloaking did not perfectly reflect.
With a mere thought the shoulder cannon atop his shoulder adjusted, aligning with the approaching Great Hunter and unleashed a salvo of Vanishing Beams, one after another until he could no longer see anything through the explosions. A moment later Arpatiko was beside him, his armor slightly damaged, though his body remained protected by the thin barrier. “Very good, Tycho, you’ve done well. Tomorrow we will finish our final lesson, so go, rest now… Your father would be proud,” the Hunter said, obviously not the most comfortable in such situations but regal and honest nonetheless. With a stiff slap on the shoulder he took off, leaping into the air to use the misshapen formations as skipping stones.
Looking down at his arms through the mask was so strange; the heads up display making his world seem like a video game. Closing his eyes, and a thought later, it was gone, absorbed back into his body, along with the shoulder cannon. It was sort of a relief to see things normally once more. Then, finally, it hit him. All the adrenaline had hidden it from him, yet Arpatiko had seen it clearly. He was beaten and exhausted, his muscles burning and aching all at once. Though he may have forgotten about the increased gravity and weights, his body certainly did not.
However as the landscape fell like sand to the white washed chamber’s floor, before evaporating into nothing, and the gravity machine’s red tinge lifted, he felt oddly better; more prepared for his return to Belegost, having stepped into the mindset of a kinigo. Perhaps he had not been right not to question Gunny’s methods… Look at all had learned in a day.
[PL; x35 gravity, heavy weights, Sim 2.0]
Techniques learned;
War Mask – Arguably the most advanced piece of Kinigo technology it can lock on and accurately determine a target’s current power. An internal heads up display designates nearby power levels and objectives. Identifies targets using internal memory files or any other databases it can currently access. Crosshairs also appear on the HUD for the user’s integrated weaponry; a zoom capability even allows the user to see and aim over great distances. It can seamlessly switch to alternate vision modes including infrared, ki, night and ultraviolet, has video/audio record and playback. [Lt. Tycho, 5k]
Prerequisite: Scouter
Shoulder Cannon – Another key component of the Kingo’s arsenal, this weapon allows the user to engage multiple enemies more fluidly, with being able to fire ranged attacks while leaving his hands are free. When linked with the War Mask it’s targeting indicator shows up on the HUD when active, allowing for better precision aiming. Zasham is able to fire known (standard level) beam/blast/ball attacks through the cannon by channeling his ki into it. By using his technaracana abilities, because he absorbed the device, it forms atop his right shoulder from his body when needed. [Lt. Tycho, 5k]
“Ready boy?” the old bear’s gravelly voice echoed through the training chamber’s speakers, finally. Normally it was bearable but amplified it was nerve shattering, threatening to dash the boy’s courage. Being surrounded by reinforced white walls lit red, with matching ceiling and floor, did not help either. “Sixty three… Yeah…! Sixty four…,” Willie responded with hesitance; he had no idea what Gunny had planned. He was simply ordered to do pushups until grizzled veteran said otherwise.
No sooner had the boy stepped free from Zex’s gaze upon returning to the Omega Collective was he upon him. In classic anonymous fashion, the message was delivered via arrow shot into Willie’s back. Upon arriving at the same house he had visited the night before departing on Prometheus’s mission he entered, this time though he was not gassed and restrained. “Hey Gunny,” Willie had greeted with a smile upon finding him in his workshop. The grisly old man welcomed in his usual fashion, “What the fuck took you so long?” The boy only guessed it was a question, as he did most times; the only inflection with which the old man ever spoke was anger.
He had explained it all leaving nothing to spare as he did with the rest, some more than others. Watson felt it easy to tell him; he was the only one who knew Willie was a majin, or rather technarcana, and next to that everything else seemed trivial. Gunny took it all in stride, unmoving as he stood before him in normal attire; black short sleeve shirt which displayed his impressive shape, something which amazed the boy given how old he appeared to be, neatly tucked into a dark urban camouflage pants held up by a black leather belt with a buckle bearing an insignia William did not recognize, and ending with dark heavy boots. He always seemed a soldier awaiting deployment, a point helped by the persistent sterling crew cut.
A curious note he made though; throughout it all Gunny did not blink once. Or he blinked when I did, opening his eyes before me, the boy thought with a shudder. He could not decide which was more impressive. After William had said his piece the old soldier grunted. A few moments later he added, “We don’t have much time then,” referring to Willie’s return to Belegost. Before the boy knew it he was swimming in a sea of white, which quickly reddened as the gravity increased, with only the control room distinguishing one wall from another. On the other side of the special “glass” sat the old man, manning the computers. His hands moved with a rapid precision surpassing that of Watson, the supposed half machine.
He understood the technarcana better than perhaps anyone alive, able to access the creature’s data in a way like no other. By pulling up the assimilation profiles he could access memories and abilities of those absorbed by Zasham. To others he was menace and madness, to Gunny just folders and files. Using William’s wireless interface, and his intimate knowledge of the system, he hacked into the boy’s mind and searched, confirming every word Willie said to be true. However what mattered now were the primary objectives, a full analysis would have to wait.
The boy needed to be stronger if was going to be prepared for what was to come. The wise old man was holding all the cards, only a few which William now knew. It was strange for him though, as the technarcana was never anything more than a project to him. It was a wild untamable beast devoid of empathy made by scientists and sorcerers alike. However now before him was a good natured young man, who did not even demand to know all Gunny knew. Willie seemed to accept that the old warrior would reveal what he knew on his time. The veteran meant to tell him all, but wanted him to be prepared before the last few cards fell. They would be ones to change everything.
“One hundred twenty seven… One hundred twenty eight… Anytime now!” Willie called with exasperation to the control room. With a twitch of his eye he held the intercom with one hand while his other sped across the keys, finishing establishing the connection between simulator and memories. “Fuck up, kid!” he rasped, too angry to include the words ‘shut’ and ‘the.’ Suddenly the room began to swim around the boy, a dazzling swirl of colors and formations. Even more confusing was watching the ground reform beneath him as his body rose and fell. Then again he was used to being the one in control of the simulation.
Once its form became clear and the landscape solidified all William saw was dry cracked dirt and sand. In all directions rock formations jutted out of the ground, shooting haphazardly into the sky as they decorated the horizon; the control room nowhere to be seen. “One forty three… One forty four… Aaand one thousand,” the boy muttered under his breath as he popped to his feet to get a better look of his surroundings. An ache sit in he could not ignore as his muscles burned. He also had to smack the sand from his clothing which had taken all of a minute to burrow into every crevice. By the time he finished he got a sense of déjà vu and realized this was Belegost.
“Kaisus Kraist, I’ll never get away!” he was able to exclaim a moment before an amorphous blue orb which crackled with electricity struck him on his right side, causing him to jerk uncontrollably as it passed through him. It also exploded, so his electro induced seizure took place mid flight, before skittering into the parched earth like a rag doll. “Pay attention Tycho, or you shall never earn your mask,” Arpatiko warned, a thin trickle of smoke curling up from the shoulder cannon on his right shoulder.
The mask… he thought, and then Tycho’s own thoughts from this memory enlightened him. The War Mask was a warrior’s sacred sigil; in ancient days they wore similar looking crude face shields to battle. Carved to invoke the old gods they wished to champion, they were as unique as their owner said to be as many designs as there are kingos on Belegost. As such they were also a sign of a young kinigo becoming an adult. With their technological advances it now meant even more; it meant gaining their battle suit and advanced weaponry.
“Apologies Great Hunter,” he felt himself say though the words felt foreign. Getting to his feet, the boy loosened up his body, the muscles tightly contracted due to the electricity. A moment later Arpatiko was upon him again, an afterimage standing where he had been a moment ago; a wisp of smoke still dissipating into the air. As he struck the twin glaives on his left arm sprang forth from their retracted position, a laser edge immediately coating the already dangerous melee weapons. His slash tore right through his student; however all it did was disrupt William’s own afterimage. Meanwhile the apparent human appeared behind the Hunter, his body weaponization mimicking the wrist gauntlet blades, though without the laser edge, as he thrust.
“Better,” the kinigo seemed to say in earnest, as he turned his body with the swing of his own missed blow, turning perpendicular to the attacking Willie in time to use the blades mounted to his other arm to catch Willie’s, twist them, and toss aside the boy’s arm before his whole body, save one leg, went parallel to the ground as he brought up the other foot and thrust it square into Watson’s chest. The impact kicked a wave of dust as he skidded back, his heels digging in the further he went until he stopped. He was buried past his ankles some thirty feet away but at least he still stood. Strolling forth at a leisurely pace the Great Hunter brought a clenched fist level with the boy from afar; the blades’ edges teeming with energy before they ejected from the gauntlet.
No sooner had he done so then he brought forth the other arm to release another volley. Arpatiko continued this process; as an arm fell another rose while another pair of blades automatically loaded up and began collecting energy in preparation for release. Pulling a foot free from the ground, Willie was able to turn from the first pair so that only one went clean through his lifted leg. The other just left a gash. “URGH,” the boy bit back on the cry of anguish; kinigo warriors did not show weakness. He had to prove himself worthy of the mask.
Stomping down with the injured leg Willie clenched his teeth and seethed through the pain as he pulled his other leg free just in time to juke to the right and avoid the second volley. With a forward roll he dodged two more pairs and as he stood once more he took aim with both palms at shot down another two with Vanishing Beams. The explosion they caused was what Arpatiko had been waiting for through, unleashing a volley of stun blasts through the smoke before using zanzoken once more. As the sparking blue blobs emerged William leapt to avoid, clearing them just in time for the Hunter to appear beside him. This time Watson had been waiting though, gathering energy in his vocal cords.
When the kingo appeared, which was immediately followed by a precise strike, Willie turned his head to him and let loose a most terrible scream. Enhanced with ki and beyond deafening the Vice Shout overloaded the Great Hunter’s mask temporarily, causing his whole suit to glitch. Taking advantage the boy grappled the Hunter, brought his feet up into his chest then kicked off of him with all his might; sending Arpatiko speeding to the ground as William flew higher. “I am kinigo, the hunters, the warriors; we are the apex predators and may a glorious death await our prey!” Tycho’s voice erupted from him as William loosed a volley of crimson waves at the falling kinigo. As the former Lieutenant’s emotions boiled to the surface he felt a surge of pride and a kinship to these people he had met only days ago.
Reposition downwards he closed his limbs against himself and dove like a bullet straight for where Arpatiko had been falling a moment before. He could sense the wary warrior, waiting. Extending a fist the debris cloud as whisked away as it met with the kinigo’s own; a blue shielding powered by his armor lining his body. Quickly a chakram appeared in his other hand in time to deflect the blades intended for his underbelly. The crimson ki ring then bounced off the Hunter’s mask as his feet touched the ground and he formed a matching weapon in his other palm which made its way into the kinigo’s gut, between the heavier sections of plating. As he staggered back half a step he emitted the closest thing he had to a laugh, “Yes, that is it Tycho, are you ready? It is time to see if you can master the War Mask.”
William imagined the centuries old warrior smiling behind his honored mask as he reached behind his back, producing a unique mask bearing the insignia of the Lieutenant; second in command and loyal hand to the Great Hunter. “You honor me beyond words Lord Apratiko,” he said kneeling without any control and offering up his hands to accept the gracious gift. It was the same mask Tycho had worn the day Willie had met him. The same mask Zasham assimilated along with the rest of the kinigo. “An honor you must earn, as your father had before you,” the Hunter said sternly, with what he discerned as a certain hint of pride.
Placing the mask over his face slowly, and with great reverence, he felt as if the world was being enveloped by darkness. Really William’s body was reconstituting his body to reform the mask he had absorbed days ago, the scouter Zex had gifted him for his good work on the mission, which he also assimilated, helping him now unlock the mysterious his body was unable to when it first encountered the mask. Then the darkness came alive, as information was projected into the void before his very eyes. Not only did his vision return in the ‘background’, thanks to the shielded ocular lenses, but along with it came a full heads up display in the ‘foreground.’
Being linked to his brainwaves allowed him to easily control the displays, showing anything from the time, location, weather, and much more to allowing him to zoom in on anything; he could accurately see far away rock structures as easily as he could see his hand as if through a microscope. It was quite nifty, as was what else came with it; the rest of the battle suit and especially the shoulder cannon which William watched in awe as a growth bubbled up from his right shoulder before morphing into the high tech weapon. Along with it a crosshairs appeared in his background, designating where it was currently aimed. Lost in it all, Tycho had not utilized the most useful features for the warrior race. But Arpatiko was committed to making him understand.
As the proud warrior looked to his mentor he found nothing but air. Turning quickly he awaited a strike, as usually followed a disappearing trick. After a few moments it was clear that it was not zanzoken the Hunter had used, but his suit’s cloaking ability. To the naked eye he was invisible; twisting his head around the war mask caught bits and pieces of his cloaked movement, but not enough to prepare him for a strike straight to the face. Too busy and what was around him, he failed to see what was before him. After the punch the Great Hunter twisted and dropped low and swept out the boy’s feet, then popped up just in time for a dropkick to Willie’s midsection, who at that moment was parallel to the ground.
Flying back he rolled several yards before his momentum was such that he could catch himself and grind to a kneeling stop. Shooting back up he was once more lost as he found Arpatiko to be nowhere; having once again initiated his cloaking. “Think Tycho, you have learned much of this technology; apply what you know,” came his mentor’s disembodied voice. Letting out a breath slowly the boy thoughts played out on the HUD as he sped through the mask’s capabilities at the speed of the thought. Then it came to him; alternate vision modes. Thinking of the ki which comprised most beings he saw the world change in the background of void within the mask.
Now all he saw was light, darkness and lifeless grey. Ki vision, as it were, and with it he spun his head around trying to spot the coy Hunter. It was difficult, his field of vision was only so big and Arpatiko and impeccable timing. He barely saw the Lord of Belegost as he came at him from his left side, driving a hard kick into his midsection, enough to throw spittle from his lips. Not one to kick and dash he follow up with a knee to the same spot followed by a double axe handle to the boy’s back as Willie keeled over from the dual strikes to his gut. “A Lieutenant is a master of all the kinigo abilities, no different than the Great Hunter he serves. You seem to lack the drive to master said skills,” he prodded before dissipating into thin air once more.
Ki vision would not work, as kinigos, unlike most of the universe, did not utilize their ki to fight. Thus they ki was faint and easily overlooked in his haste. Wizening up, William went for infrared, or thermal, vision. Once more he looked around, and once more the world around had changed drastically. Yellows, oranges and reds were everywhere; perhaps it was not best in desert wasteland environment. Switching again, this time to ultraviolet, which was unique as everything become enveloped in a dark purple hue. However the approaching Arpatiko was slightly visible in this mode, thanks to being able to see the ultraviolet section of spectrum now, which the cloaking did not perfectly reflect.
With a mere thought the shoulder cannon atop his shoulder adjusted, aligning with the approaching Great Hunter and unleashed a salvo of Vanishing Beams, one after another until he could no longer see anything through the explosions. A moment later Arpatiko was beside him, his armor slightly damaged, though his body remained protected by the thin barrier. “Very good, Tycho, you’ve done well. Tomorrow we will finish our final lesson, so go, rest now… Your father would be proud,” the Hunter said, obviously not the most comfortable in such situations but regal and honest nonetheless. With a stiff slap on the shoulder he took off, leaping into the air to use the misshapen formations as skipping stones.
Looking down at his arms through the mask was so strange; the heads up display making his world seem like a video game. Closing his eyes, and a thought later, it was gone, absorbed back into his body, along with the shoulder cannon. It was sort of a relief to see things normally once more. Then, finally, it hit him. All the adrenaline had hidden it from him, yet Arpatiko had seen it clearly. He was beaten and exhausted, his muscles burning and aching all at once. Though he may have forgotten about the increased gravity and weights, his body certainly did not.
However as the landscape fell like sand to the white washed chamber’s floor, before evaporating into nothing, and the gravity machine’s red tinge lifted, he felt oddly better; more prepared for his return to Belegost, having stepped into the mindset of a kinigo. Perhaps he had not been right not to question Gunny’s methods… Look at all had learned in a day.
[PL; x35 gravity, heavy weights, Sim 2.0]
Techniques learned;
War Mask – Arguably the most advanced piece of Kinigo technology it can lock on and accurately determine a target’s current power. An internal heads up display designates nearby power levels and objectives. Identifies targets using internal memory files or any other databases it can currently access. Crosshairs also appear on the HUD for the user’s integrated weaponry; a zoom capability even allows the user to see and aim over great distances. It can seamlessly switch to alternate vision modes including infrared, ki, night and ultraviolet, has video/audio record and playback. [Lt. Tycho, 5k]
Prerequisite: Scouter
Shoulder Cannon – Another key component of the Kingo’s arsenal, this weapon allows the user to engage multiple enemies more fluidly, with being able to fire ranged attacks while leaving his hands are free. When linked with the War Mask it’s targeting indicator shows up on the HUD when active, allowing for better precision aiming. Zasham is able to fire known (standard level) beam/blast/ball attacks through the cannon by channeling his ki into it. By using his technaracana abilities, because he absorbed the device, it forms atop his right shoulder from his body when needed. [Lt. Tycho, 5k]