[from here]Unfortunately, the adventurous door seemed to lead to a very unadventurous hallway that was exactly identical to the last hallway
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As Forte managed to get through another door, his steps more steady, he was following this strange cloth, or threads or whatever was draped over his head down to what was definitely a cloth shirt draped over his body. That partly explained his strange feelings - he never wore clothes, his armour was his skin. That was when it hit him - it would never have fit over his armour. He started feeling around his torso and body, and even with through the soft, 'mushy' feeling of his sensors, most of the telling spikes and ridges were gone. He grabbed at his head now - his glorious head-fins were gone!
This confirmed it - someone had been working on him, and after removing his helmet and armour had simply covered his exposed parts with cloth and... and thread. Now he was furious - even Wily couldn't be that sloppy, someone must have kidnapped him to reprogram or study him. That was why his wiring was messed up, why everything felt strange and he had extremely fuzzy access to recent memories
( ... )
The only response the patient got was the clattering of a scorpion as it bolted its way down the hall. Unlike some of the other monsters, it wasn't looking for food so much as hoping to defend itself, or at least get rid of the humans that seemed to have invaded its living space. It wanted to get rid of the threats, and seeing how this one was on his own, he was an easy target.
The scorpion made no efforts to hide its approach, instead bolting right for the confused patient with the hopes of getting its stinger into his leg before he had a chance to react.
Its exoskeleton a milky white and its size close to that of a possum's, the arachnid drew closer.
Despite Forte's exasperation, he could hear people coming and going behind him, or before him in the dark as stumbled into the middle of the hallway. In fact, they were probably skirting out of his way. However, it was the distinct clickity-clack that immediately caught his attention. That meant tiny metal feet - probably a robot bug or scorpion - at any rate, it was either going to attack him directly or stop and shoot at him, and it didn't sound like it was stopping (no-one built anything with that many legs to be friendly). Even in the dark, it was like shooting fish in a barrel.
There was only a fraction of a second to react, but Forte instantly held up his right arm, palm forward and.... nothing. No gun appeared, let alone fired, and his hand remained just a hand. He didn't even get any feedback - no weapons systems error, simply nothing - and now it was too late to even muster a kick.
Whatever the human had been trying to do, it hadn't worked. The scorpion didn't seem to give any reaction to it, however - it was set on its attack, and nothing was going to stop it now. Once it got close enough, it leaped at the patient's leg and landed on top of one foot.
Getting so close to something so much larger than it was a risk, but there was no other way for it to hunt.
It reared its stinger back and prepared to strike...
Forte could do nothing but stumble backwards, and fall on his rear as the small assailant gripped his foot. He was still off-guard from his weapons systems apparently being... entirely gone, and was practically tripping over his own clothes. He did manage to catch a glimpse of what was attacking him as he fell, through the (apparently purple) mess on his head, and by the light of a distant flashlight.
Even with the hard exoskeleton, it was obvious that this was no robot. Momentarily surprised by how easily its prey had fallen, the scorpion wasted no more time. Its stinger shot forward, and the sharp, venom-filled end dug into the human's ankle.
For a brief moment, Forte was relieved - he didn't know how big these organic things were supposed to be, but if it wasn't a robot of some kind it wasn't really a threat.
The relief was quickly washed away by... something horrible. He could feel it in his leg, like fire but so much more real, more terrible than he'd ever felt anything in his life! He could feel it spreading into his leg, burning inside, where he shouldn't be able to feel anything, and he couldn't shut it off or ignore it.
He was in pain! This must be what pain feels like!
He screamed again, but this time much louder than his angry ranting. His scream echoed through the halls.
Sheena burst through the door, the volume of the screams increasing telling ehr she'd made it to the right location. Now that she didn't have any walls blocking some of the sound, the agony in the scream was very unsettling to her. She'd only heard grown men scream like that a couple times... usually because they've been either stung by one of those giant bees in the forests near Mizuho or they'd been stung by...
...a scorpion, Sheena confirmed as she saw the creature by the man's foot. In fact, it looked like it might actually be on his foot
( ... )
So focused had the scorpion been on its first target that it had not even registered another human coming to this one's rescue.
The kick therefore took it by surprise, and while the flashlight hadn't done anything to blind it, taking such a hard hit was more than enough to do so. The arachnid hit the wall and then slid to the floor, landing on its back. Its legs started to squirm and its stinger flung around wildly as it tried to get back onto its feet.
But it couldn't see, it couldn't hurt unless it could find what to sting, and it was now very vulnerable. Still, even in this state, that stinger was no less dangerous.
Forte was too caught up in his pain to even notice the scorpion being knocked off his leg, let alone the woman that had done so. In fact, he barely managed to look down and see, to his horror, a human foot on his right leg - albeit one now bleeding and starting to swell. It was neither the metal boot that was his foot or, the other possibility, its inner workings exposed. Normally he would have assumed someone replaced his leg with one resembling a human's but the way it had been wounded and the excruciating agony it was sending him - like his own leg was screaming at him - suggested... but it was impossible!
Thankfully the scorpion was smaller than the type she was used to dealing with as kicking it would have hurt otherwise since she no longer had the protective greaves she normally wore. Sheena was pleased to see the monster fly off the man's foot and smack into the wall where it lay on its back struggling to right itself
( ... )
Blinded and vulnerable, the scorpion couldn't tell what was going on, really. It could register vague noises, but they meant nothing to it.
Slowly, it started to work on getting back to its feet, unsure of when it would recover from the hit and its vision would return. At least it knew that it had gotten its stinger into the first human, which meant that it didn't have to worry about that one trying to get any sort of revenge.
The other one was more of a concern, though hopefully she would think that it was out of commission now. The scorpion did consider running, but it would have to see how this all turned out. Perhaps the humans were already gone.
His mind was either unable to comprehend - or perhaps accept - the state he was in until he heard a voice saying, "remember to breath." Suddenly, it caught up with him as he realized he'd been doing just that all along. Like a spell had been broken, he had to remember what he'd done and force his muscles to move - not signaling motivators, but lungs, opening and closing. His eyes had teared up from the pain, but he looked around again - the woman who had spoken, standing next to him, had been the one to knock the scorpion away, and she was still talking to him. He nodded dumbly, sputting, "I- I'm not- it hurts..."
Duh. Of course it hurts, Sheena wanted to say but didn't. "It'll be okay," she said, instead, her voice soft as she tried to be comforting. "I have a friend that can heal you
( ... )
Just as it had gotten its footing again, the scorpion found itself victim of yet another attack. Seeing how its vision hadn't returned yet (or was bad enough that all it could catch were vague movements), the attack hit it straight-on, forcing it back and blinding it all over again.
The scorpion flew down the hall and landed on its side, stunned for a good while. It was obviously not much of a match for this new threat, and it had already done enough damage that it wasn't worth any more effort.
Once it righted itself again, the scorpion turned tail and headed further down the hall toward the field. Hopefully it could find a place to hide there and nurse its wounds.
[It's okay, it happens to lots of spell cards. I'm sure it's not you, it's the spell card!]
As the woman turned away, Forte was coming back to his senses. He remembered, years ago, when he'd first met Rock Man, and had pretended to be injured to gain his confidence.
What if Rock were here now - what if he saw me like this? Breaking down in front of a human woman. He'd probably be rescuing her.
With that thought, he started taking deep breaths, trying to force himself to ignore the pain and compose himself.
As Forte managed to get through another door, his steps more steady, he was following this strange cloth, or threads or whatever was draped over his head down to what was definitely a cloth shirt draped over his body. That partly explained his strange feelings - he never wore clothes, his armour was his skin. That was when it hit him - it would never have fit over his armour. He started feeling around his torso and body, and even with through the soft, 'mushy' feeling of his sensors, most of the telling spikes and ridges were gone. He grabbed at his head now - his glorious head-fins were gone!
This confirmed it - someone had been working on him, and after removing his helmet and armour had simply covered his exposed parts with cloth and... and thread. Now he was furious - even Wily couldn't be that sloppy, someone must have kidnapped him to reprogram or study him. That was why his wiring was messed up, why everything felt strange and he had extremely fuzzy access to recent memories ( ... )
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The scorpion made no efforts to hide its approach, instead bolting right for the confused patient with the hopes of getting its stinger into his leg before he had a chance to react.
Its exoskeleton a milky white and its size close to that of a possum's, the arachnid drew closer.
[ Court ]
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There was only a fraction of a second to react, but Forte instantly held up his right arm, palm forward and.... nothing. No gun appeared, let alone fired, and his hand remained just a hand. He didn't even get any feedback - no weapons systems error, simply nothing - and now it was too late to even muster a kick.
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Getting so close to something so much larger than it was a risk, but there was no other way for it to hunt.
It reared its stinger back and prepared to strike...
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That's... not a robot?
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The relief was quickly washed away by... something horrible. He could feel it in his leg, like fire but so much more real, more terrible than he'd ever felt anything in his life! He could feel it spreading into his leg, burning inside, where he shouldn't be able to feel anything, and he couldn't shut it off or ignore it.
He was in pain! This must be what pain feels like!
He screamed again, but this time much louder than his angry ranting. His scream echoed through the halls.
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Sheena burst through the door, the volume of the screams increasing telling ehr she'd made it to the right location. Now that she didn't have any walls blocking some of the sound, the agony in the scream was very unsettling to her. She'd only heard grown men scream like that a couple times... usually because they've been either stung by one of those giant bees in the forests near Mizuho or they'd been stung by...
...a scorpion, Sheena confirmed as she saw the creature by the man's foot. In fact, it looked like it might actually be on his foot ( ... )
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The kick therefore took it by surprise, and while the flashlight hadn't done anything to blind it, taking such a hard hit was more than enough to do so. The arachnid hit the wall and then slid to the floor, landing on its back. Its legs started to squirm and its stinger flung around wildly as it tried to get back onto its feet.
But it couldn't see, it couldn't hurt unless it could find what to sting, and it was now very vulnerable. Still, even in this state, that stinger was no less dangerous.
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Slowly, it started to work on getting back to its feet, unsure of when it would recover from the hit and its vision would return. At least it knew that it had gotten its stinger into the first human, which meant that it didn't have to worry about that one trying to get any sort of revenge.
The other one was more of a concern, though hopefully she would think that it was out of commission now. The scorpion did consider running, but it would have to see how this all turned out. Perhaps the humans were already gone.
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The scorpion flew down the hall and landed on its side, stunned for a good while. It was obviously not much of a match for this new threat, and it had already done enough damage that it wasn't worth any more effort.
Once it righted itself again, the scorpion turned tail and headed further down the hall toward the field. Hopefully it could find a place to hide there and nurse its wounds.
[Annnd it's officially gone!]
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As the woman turned away, Forte was coming back to his senses. He remembered, years ago, when he'd first met Rock Man, and had pretended to be injured to gain his confidence.
What if Rock were here now - what if he saw me like this? Breaking down in front of a human woman. He'd probably be rescuing her.
With that thought, he started taking deep breaths, trying to force himself to ignore the pain and compose himself.
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