The Superhuman Gambit

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Sooner or later, someone will clean up the dead ants in the street where the Mechanist and the AntAgonizer fought. It's not a big priority right now, though. Not with Dominic and Machete getting ready to go out for the day's hunting, and Joe opening up the diner and counting over his available bottles of water, and Derek looking for something to do or someone to talk to. For the moment, at least, it's pretty placid in Canterbury Commons.

We'll just have to see how long that lasts.

Comments

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The computer, alas, does not give the appearance of being active. As a matter of fact, examination will reveal that while it looks as if it's turned on, it's serving more as a lamp than anything else- it's a hollowed-out terminal with a bulb inside. The bed is, well, pretty much a no-tech item- a mattress on a bunch of old springs, with nothing connected to the wall or any kind of transmitter in any way. The lamp not located in the terminal has a switch attached, but that just turns out the lights.

There really isn't much of anything here.

[basic_powers]

Except for the coffeemaker...which appears to be hooked into the wall, oddly enough. Somehow...Tyle- ...Moonshadow doubts this is a coincidence.

-Click-

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

It's not. At all.

The multiple doors opening might take a bit of a while.

[basic_powers]

...Tyler's trying to think of words that would describe those doors. His vocabulary is not very broad yet, but he thinks that 'redundant' or 'silly' might be a good word for all of those doors. Honestly, the Red Panda's lair might've had more tunnels, but at least they were sleek, efficient and fairly simple!

While they're opening, Tyler is going to be switching back his gauntlet attachment to the triple-use grappler.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

When he steps through, the room beyond is a far better-maintained version of the room outside- a cleaner bed, a pair of working computers, several robot docking stations, a work bench, an irate superhero...

"What are you doing in here?" demands the Mechanist, bucket-helmet still on his head. Apparently 'who are you' is irrelevant. "How did you get past my defenses? Did the AntAgonizer send you? Speak now, citizen, or I'll be forced to detain you until I can ascertain your true motives!"

[basic_powers]

.

.

.

Moon Shadow is making his saving throw against falling down laughing. For now, because who talks like tha- oh right the crazy people.

"Your elevator wasn't that hard to fix," Bluff, "No, I am not with that crazy ant-lady," Truth. ...Pause. "My name is Moon Shadow, and I'm here cause between you and the crazy ant lady, no caravans have been coming into Canterbury Commons."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"A deeply, deeply regrettable situation," the Mechanist answers. "And proof of how deluded, how inhuman the AntAgonizer is. Sadly, sometimes the scaly claw of tyranny must be destroyed by the cold, unfeeling pincers of justice!"

Even with the helmet on, it's evident that he's saying it with a perfectly straight face.

[basic_powers]

...There's a small noise, like that of a strangled fart or burp.

Did we mention that he's fighting really hard not to fall over laughing? Well, five more seconds and he's still stifling giggles.

"Was she chasing off caravans before?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Not yet. But she would have done, if she hadn't been thwarted in her vile ambitions!"

[basic_powers]

"When'd she start doing this stuff?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"A goodly while back," says the Mechanist; the mun can't find a time frame, alas. "It's only recently that her harassment's truly gone too far."

[basic_powers]

"What did she do?" He has a feeling he knows this story already but...let the guy keep talking, it gives him more time to figure out what to do about leaving.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"It was before I donned the mask of the Mechanist for the first time, during one of her raids against the good townspeople of Canterbury Commons," the Mechanist says. "She'd set her ants to undermining a building at the edge of town, and the first tower of bricks to crumble brought down a robot who'd never done any harm, only served the citizenry to the best of its ability..."

[basic_powers]

"Sir, if you'd stop with the speeches, I think I'll have an easier time understanding what happened." Moon Shadow says, in a patient even voice.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Oh, very well," says the Mechanist almost petulantly. "She dropped a ceiling and part of a wall on my favorite robot and killed it when it was standing guard duty."

[basic_powers]

"Thank you, Mr. Mechanist." Tyler replies politely. "Before that was anyone else hurt?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Nothing serious," says the Mechanist. "But it wouldn't have been long before somebody really did get hurt."

[basic_powers]

"Just enough to drive off the trade caravans then."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Maybe," says the Mechanist. "I don't think I ever really noticed..."

[basic_powers]

"Someone mentioned that they hadn't been coming at all for a couple of weeks now," He does feel the need to mention this. "Part of why I'm here."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Really? That's peculiar," says the Mechanist. "I do recall them coming on a fairly regular basis..."

[basic_powers]

"From what I've heard from Mr. Roe and some others, they were driven off by some of the fighting here."

No one likes to try selling goods in a place where explosions are a daily occurance.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"What, all of them?" says the Mechanist. "Even... all of them?"

[basic_powers]

"No merchant has come in for about fifteen days now." And Moon Shadow's kind of figuring that if the caravan riders came every two weeks, it's more likely that each trader would arrive on a different schedule. "And a different one would show up every few days was how I understood it."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"That's... not a good sign at all," says the Mechanist. "That's pretty much what this town depends on- apart from heroic protection, of course."