Patchwork Universe

Dr James Kirby · Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2004 10:45 am Post subject: Rude Awakening

Kirby awoke to the sound of a siren. Half awake, he batted at his alarm clock, until he realised that the sound was the intruder alert system.

Rushing from his room, he headed straight for the armoury. Security in this section of the Kirby Building was formindable: whoever had breached the outer defences must be equally formidable.

Once there, Kirby lay down on what appeared to be a cross between a coffin and a mortuary slab, and pressed a neon illuminated button under his hand. A frame lifted his body, and a suit of brushed steel armour was clamshelled around his form. Placed back on the ground, he approached a bench upon which a range of identical looking rectangular modules lay, each about the size of a packet of cigarettes. Kirby picked up six in turn, and fitted them into various vacant slots on the surface of the armour. Each lit with a blue neon glow as it was inserted. A pair of large and complex-looking goggles completed the ensemble.

This ritual over, Kirby examined a board on the wall. On the board was drawn a schematic of the building. On each room was an indicator light. One blinking light showed the intruder's location. The laboratory...

---

The laboratory was a cavernous place, the top three floors of the building knocked together to form a vast hangar, in which massive pieces of equipment loomed in the half dark.

Inside the laboratory, a tall, gaunt man, dressed in what appeared to be a dark Victorian frock coat, stood, ordering his minions about. His face was handsome, aquiline and cruel, framed by long, pale, almost white hair.

His minions were, in the main, squat metallic figures, too square and regular to be human. Their movements jerky, they were certainly some form of automata. They were working to dismantle a large device that had the appearence of some sort of ray gun, and remove it from it's mountings.

"VON DAMME!" cried an accusatory voice from behind the man.

The pale-haired man turned.

"Kirby." smirked Von Damme "So sorry to have woken you. Please, go back to bed. I can show myself out." The man's aristocratic German accent was most apparent, accentuated by his lofty, superior tone.

"And what kind of host would I be if I did that?" replied Kirby, less assured, but unwilling to be the man who flapped first. "But where are my manners? Why don't you all take a seat?"

At this, he raised an arm, and a yellow strobing fan of light was emitted across the room. Where it touched one of Von Damme's robot's the thing's eyes dimmed and went out, and the machine collapsed to the floor. Without the robots supporting it, the ray gun tore free of it's mountings, and fell to the floor with a crash.

"After the Quiet Zone Projector, eh? I'm afraid I can't let you borrow that today Erik, I've not finished my research on it."

Von Damme became enraged "Ach! My creations! You shall pay for your vandalism!" He pressed a button on a wrist communicator, and a roaring drone filled the air.

"Your toy may have damaged my Nibelung - but see how it fares against my Valkerie!"

At this, three roughly humanoid robots flew into the room through the ragged hole in the wall , jets mounted instead of legs at the hip, and what appeared to be machineguns at the elbow. The three opened fire on Kirby, who dove for cover behind a piece of machinery.

---

With Kirby pinned down, Von Damme continued with his plan. Another press of the wrist communicator summoned two large metal robots, each very similar, but ten times the size of the Nibelung. They marched up to the Quiet Zone projector, lifted it, and began to walk back to the hole in the wall.

"Wait." commanded Von Damme.

He walked over the the projector, and quickly assessed its power needs. Opening a chest compartment in one of the two giant robots, he withdrew a power cable, and quickly connected up the projector with two large clamps. The projector began to glow with a lambent white aura. Von Damme commanded the robots to aim the projector at Kirby's bolthole.

"It would be a shame to get the goods home without testing them first. Perhaps a demonstration is called for?"

A throbbing noise began to emamate from the projector - a noise Kirby recognised only too well.

"You fool!" cried Kirby from behind the bank of machinery where he was pinned "Without proper calibration, who knows what it may do? You may have damaged it! Please! Erik, for the sake of the city - for your own sake, power it down!"

Calling Von Damme a fool, however, was no way to secure his co-operation. With a snarl of fury, he yanked a lever mounted on the base of the prjector.

There was a brief flash of anti-light, rendering the whole laboratory in an eerie negative image. The flash appeared to confuse the Valkerie's sensors, and Kirby took the opportunity to fire a concentrated yellow beam from the module mounted on his left wrist. The beam smacked a valkerie back, crushing it against a supporting beam. It sizzled electrically, then fell to the floor. Without three of them pinning him down, Kirby was able to make short work of the other two in a similar fashion.

---

When he emerged from his hiding place, Kirby saw Von Damme rubbing and clutching at his eyes.

"Ach! I am blind! You have blinded me with your verdammt machine!"

The projector forgotten, Von Damme half ran, half stumbled back through the hole in the wall. Kirby gave pursuit, but was in time only to see Von Damme's zeppelin drifting off silently into the night. He checked his suit's energy levels. Although, what with repelling bullets, and the powerful repulse blasts he had used, the capacitors were somewhat drained, he felt confident that he could pull off a sufficiently large macro-leap to catch it. He sprang through the hole, and sailed though the night.

---
Von Damme felt his vision recovering. Or at least, he was adapting to the problem. Not quite blind, light was dark and dark was light. In the gondala of his zeppelin, with the lights dim, he was able to see well enough to fly. Once he got used to the strange colours, outside the zeppelin was bright as midday. At once, Von Damme realised that the craft was turning, without his intervention. Something was interfering with the rudder - Kirby! Von Damme drew a rapier from a rack of equipment, and opened a hatch in the roof of the gondala. He climbed up through the vacuum bag chamber, and up onto the walkway on top of the balloon.

He strode along the spine of the craft, and soon, sure enough, there was Kirby, clinging to the rudder like some parasitic insect, steering the zeppelin back towards the Kirby building where, no doubt by now, Kirby's verdammt allies would be waiting. He drew back the rapier, and made a thrust in Kirby's direction. A bolt of crackling energy lept along the blade, and struck Kirby.

---

Kirby reeled from the force of the blast. The suit had insulated him from the worst, but still, his spasming muscles barely held him onto the tail. Recovering quickly, he made a small macro-leap, and finished standing in front of Von Damme. Without further ado, the two men set upon each other. Kirby's armour protected him from the blade, but for his face, which was somewhat exposed. Von Damme took advantage of this, slashing high, keeping Kirby at blade's length.

---

As the two fought, the zeppelin continued at speed towards the western fog bank. In the distance to the north, a pair of autogyros were approaching.

---
Kirby didn't like this game, so decided to change the rules. With the last of the capacitor's energy, he performed one last Macro-Leap - low and horizontal, catching Von Damme around the midriff, and wrestling him to the floor. With Von Damme's rapier out of play, and his suit depleted, it was now more a brutal slugfest. Kirby seemingly had the advantage, what with the protection his suit offered, but Von Damme was the faster, and well schooled in the art of close combat. On their feet now, the two were locked together, each grappling for a commanding hold. It was at this point that the zeppelin passed through the fog bank...

---
The two autogyros stopped, and hovered in place. Inside the lead craft, Steve Stacy, The Sentinel, narrowed his eyes in puzzlement. Von Damme's zeppelin had simply disappeared, right before his eyes. Had the devil created some kind of cloaking device? If so, this was a chilling development. Without much hope, he ordered a sweep of the area. Wherever the zeppelin had got to, Kirby would have to deal with Von Damme on his own...

[ooc]The zeppelin, and this thread, continue on into Aldersley Manor