To Fulfill A Wish

[Azure_Ghidorah]

Onyste blinked, trying to picture just how an anthropomorphic bug would like like and failing miserably.

"Never heard of anything like that, haven't even caught Solranous musing about anybody called Neresa, and he is definitely one to talk to himself a lot." the false dragon replied.

"And Lora... nobody is without fear, you should know that. Its only a matter of how well someone can hide it or deal with it. O'Malley will handle it somehow... I wouldn't be worried if I were you."

[Talon]

Lora sighed, rubbing the side of her head.

"I... guess that's true. Still... it takes A LOT to even unnerve him... and I wanna know what this is all about."

She held her arms above her head and popped her spine, asking,

"But, in the meantime... have you checked out the ship yet? This level's designed to accustom all kinds of needs for 'visitors' like yourself, or even me. Hell, this floor's got a heated pool, a greenhouse, a movie theater, a workout room, an arcade, a spa, a cafeteria... surely at least ONE of those interests you?"

She paused, then furrowed her brows, shoulders sagging.

"... Although.... I'm betting O'Malley never told you in the first place... gah. I keep telling him he should let more people up here, or they'll never be put to good use... I'm the only one who gets to use them, heh." She replied, tongue poking out at the end.

[Azure_Ghidorah]

Onyste's features contorted into a scowl as she replied,

"He didn't say anything about those..."

The false dragon then placed a paw to her shin again, pondering.

"Mrph... Pool's not my thing, I sink like lead... Not one for movie's either, I can't bring myself to focus on something and stay still for so long... I don't know why talking and relaxing seem to be exceptions, before you ask... Not one for the arcade, no thumbs, after all... No on the spa for the same reason as the pool, the fear of drowning freaks me out that much...

The cafeteria and work room do catch my interest though. Shameless glutton here... however, seeing as the nanobots strengthen me as I exert my muscles, I wanna make use of that trait as much as possible."

Another thought crossed her mind. Lora could feel the hope building in Onyste's mind as the false dragon gave voice to her thought.

"Is there... by any chance, some place that could be used as a race track?" Onyste inquired.

[Talon]

Lora tilted her mouth, pondering Onyste's question.

"A race track? I don't doubt it... this place is pretty big. There's at least several areas I can think of that are big enough- we could clear out a hangar, I think there's two shooting ranges that're big enough... so yeah, there are places that could be used as racetracks. Let's see what O'Malley says, shall we?"

She leaned over and put her face next to a speaker with a button (obviously an intercom system), pressed said button, and asked,

"Hey, 'Mal! Onyste here wants to do a little running, is that okay with you?"

There was a pause before the droid's metallic voice replied,

"Well, as long as she doesn't overdo it. I'll clear out Docking Bay #7. I'll send an escort to take her there when they're done, alright?"

"Alright! Thanks Kilroy!" Lora replied in a playful tone.

"... don't call me that. I told several times." Was the only response before the speakers turned off.

Lora gave a triumphant giggle before turning back to Onyste, tilting her head slightly with a smirk.

"Well, mission accomplished! I say it'll probably take about ten minutes for them to finish." She stated, matter-of-factly.

[Azure_Ghidorah]

Onyste smirked gleefully.

"Sweet! You have no idea how much some one like me would just love to be able to run around at full speed. After all, when someone can move as fast as I can, its hard to want to stay still after feeling the wind rushing by at those speeds... Ah, its hard to explain, you'll see it when I take off."

The false dragon couldn't help but get anxious. Being able to just run because she wanted too, and on a mostly clear conscious was a thought that was practically intoxicating to her, so much so that she couldn't keep some of her excitement fully contained.

(OOC: Blah post, but I said I would get something up and damnit I'll keep my word as best as I can!)

[Talon]

Lora gave a laugh, waving away Onyste's thanks.

"Bah! T'is nothing. I have that robot carrying out my every whim now, and it's not hard to get him to do little things like this. So it's no trouble! Let's just get you down there and make you run that excitement out, hmm?"

Just then, the intercom crackled into life, and a droid barked,

"Bay's clear! Come on down."

"Oh! Perfect timing! C'mon gal, let's go." Lora quipped.

With that, they exited the room, and were led down through the elevator about a dozen floors, exiting into a docking bay much like the one Onyste had entered Tenkyanon in, but... empty. All shuttle doors were closed, and air had been filtered into the area roughly 15 minutes ago. The entire area had to have been a good 4000 feet across, roughly 500 feet wide from the entrance elevators to the bay doors.

"Our largest docking bay... and we had it cleaned out in 10 minutes. New recored!" One of the droids barked to itself, a slight hysteria apparent in it's voice.

Lora patted Onyste on the shoulder, smirking as she asked,

"So... you gonna run, or what?"

[Azure_Ghidorah]

Onyste was already hunkering down, all muscles tensed up as she gauged the amount room she had to work with.

'9000 feet if I hug the walls, rectangular in shape nothing to worry about in the form of obstacles... Lets go.' the false dragon thought to herself, leaning forward as her expression contorted to one of determination an excitement.

After about three seconds, Lora was soon left with nobody at her side and a heavy gust ruffling her clothes. When the lycan glanced in the direction Onyste was facing, she had already cleared half the distance to the next wall of the room, at the speed she was at it looked like she'd crash into said wall.

Such did not happen though, for Onyste jumped against the wall she was near and literally started running on it for the next two hundred or so feet, smoothly transferring to the wall on one of the 500 foot stretches, running on it the entire time until she got to the second 4000 foot stretch, making another transition back to the ground. It only took the false dragon seconds to traverse the entire stretch and the wall run again over the next 500 foot stretch back to the side she started on, Lora having gotten away from the wall before Onyste figuratively tore through the area she was just standing in.

All the while, the lycan could hear several loud and likely echoing thumps as Onyste's feet hit the floor, making it tremble ever so slightly, the false dragon herself managing to con tain said trembling to the bay they were in as too not disturb the droids in other rooms.

Onyste kept racing about the room for about an hour, capping out her run with a little under 60 complete laps. Finally slowing down to a walking speed, Onyste lumbered over to Lora.

"damn, you have no idea how good it felt to be able to do that... It's been too long since I've been able to just run because I want too..." the False Dragon sighed to Lora, looking nowhere near even slightly tired from her exertion.

[Talon]

Lora was undoubtedly surprised by Onyste's speed, and seeing such speed had left her momentarily speechless when Onyste finally staggered back to her. The droids had been floored by Onyste's initial sonic boom, but had long since gotten back up, though one had trouble re-attaching his head during their free time. When Lora finally snapped back to, she smirked, then replied,

"Heh, I feel I know, believe me. I like to run for the hell of it at times too... probably my animalistic side getting out a bit, y'know? Ah well, looks like you're done. What are you up for now, hmm?"

The two droids and the lycan both patiently awaited the False Dragon's response.

[Azure_Ghidorah]

The false dragon shrugged.

"Meh, not much, I'd go to the gym area, but I really dun feel like it right now. Probably tomorrow." she replied, swapping from telepathy to the translator so that all in the room could understand.

"So... probably gonna head back to my room. Running's nice and all, but it only really gets me fired up when I've got an opponent to race against." Onyste finished, shrugging again.

[Talon]

Lora nodded, then went back up to Onyste's room with the False Dragon and their droid escort at their side. After the grueling 15-minute venture, the droids left, leaving Lora standing at Onyste's door to explain tomorrow's plan.

"Well, hopefully O'Malley will have the basis of the armor finished, but he may not want to show you until it's completely done, so... I assume you'll want to head to the gym, then? I'll probably head down there myself, I'm staying here for the weekend, so you may as well have compnay while you do so. Sound good?"

Lora smiled and nodded, flipping Onyste a casual, two-fingered salute as she walked down the hall, then entered her own room roughly three doors down. She flopped onto the bed, groaning as she muttered,

"Grah... just watching her run made me feel comprable to a snail..."

* * * * * * * * * *

The next morning, Lora was found to be knocking on Onyste's door, barking,

"Rise and shine, sleepyhead! It's as I suspected- O'Malley's got the armor itself done, he's just touching-up the teleporation systems and the different modes for it, so it won't be fully complete until tomorrow, where he'll want you to give it a trial run for final touch-ups. In the meantime, he does want you to go down to the gym to see how you're doing with the nano-systems. Sound good? Meet you down there in twenty."

Without ever opening the door, Lora left, having ascended the elevator to go meet up with O'Malley. Twenty minutes later, the droids showed up, and escorted Onyste down a level to a large, brightly-lit white room with a massive variet of large training equipment, ranging from weight benches, to a sort of punching bag resembling a square cushion, a 30-foot lap pool, to several kinds of treadmills- one with a completely vertical angle, one with a slight 45-degree incline, and another completely composed of inter-linking pedals designed to go up and down only. Lora was already doing sit-ups on one of the blue mats, wearing but gray shorts, a white tank-top, and her hair up in a ponytail. She stopped about halfway through one, sitting up, then smirked, gesturing to a large computer-like console near the door.

"Just put your claw on the flat green grid panel for about five seconds, and the room will monitor your vital signs and physical output. Then, feel free to go onto whatever machine you like- trust me, they can all take a lot of punishment."

With that, she went back to her sit-ups, grunting the count to herself under her breath as the droids waited outside, closing the door behind them.

[Azure_Ghidorah]

Onyste nodded to Lora, walking over to the indicated panel and setting a paw on it, counting the seconds until the monitors were ready.

'Well, lets make the best of it...' Onyste thought to herself, moving over to one of the weight benches and setting on weights as she felt was appropriate for her.

"Alright..."

To be perfectly honest, she hadn't paid too much attention to how much she had put on, but she knew the general range, and she knew she wouldn't have to worry about it breaking or slipping off, pinning her, and slowly constriciting her, the weight wasn't great enough that she would get caught. Most others, however, would've been killed instantly if they were caught underneath that weight.

Onyste scowled lightly, grunting as she started to lift the bar with her forelegs, having rolled on her back. Every ten reps, the false dragon set the bar down and flipped around, working the back legs as well to keep the work out even for herself. After all, running at high speeds with an uneven distribution of weight for any reason is a recipe for disaster...

[Talon]

Lora watched Onyste lift as she did her own weight repititions, then glanced at the False Dragon's vital charts. While almost unnoticeable, it was apparent that the numbers were indeed climbing steadily with every one of Onyste's motions. Lora blinked, then had to do a double-take when she noticed the full numbers, and muttered,

"damn... she's gonna need more weight soon if THAT's her starting range..."

Lora sighed, then glanced down at her own weights. She shrugged, then put them down, and approached one of the square punching-bag machines. She slowly reeled her fist back, standing before the machine, then slammed her fist into the center of it, an LED number appearing on a screen at the top of the screen. She cocked an eyebrow, then shrugged before delivering another set of punches and kicks to the device, the number differing slightly with each. She paused for a moment, then shifted into her Gauru form and repeated the process, the numbers at the top being much more than what they were originally. She grinned at this, thinking,

Maybe I'll be strong enough to win a friggin arm-wrestling match with O'Malley soon...! Oh, the look on his eye would be great!

[Azure_Ghidorah]

Lora's observations did not go unnoticed by Onyste, who rumbled lightly over they fact that doing the repititions was steadily getting easier, setting the bar down and using mag streams to set more weights on.

"Grr... Must've underestimated myself..." the false dragon muttered to herself as she began again, noticably exerting more effort with each rep.

"There we go..."

Satisfied with the new weight, her pattern resumed, and pretty much stayed that way for the rest of her time there, steadily adding more weight as she felt was necessary.

[Talon]

Lora watched as Onyste’s numbers climbed even higher, their count seeing a 50% total increase at the end of the day when Lora stated,

“Alright, I think that’s good for today. Let’s head back to our rooms, shall we? O’Malley should have the rest of the project finished tomorrow.”

With that, they allowed themselves to be escorted back to their rooms, where another night of tired slumber passed by…

* * * * * * * * * * *

Late the next morning, Onyste’s intercom system went off, O’Malley himself stating,

“Hey! You up yet? Well get up, because I have good news! Your armor’s now finished, and we just completed a few tests on it. Come on down to the lab, and we’ll run the ‘tutorial’ for you., and we can send you on your way, hmm?”

The two droids escorted Onyste up a few dozen floors on the elevator, stopping at another hallway similar to the one leading to the first lab Onyste entered. The procedure was relatively the same, if not a bit more thorough, before Onyste was finally allowed to enter the room designated as Lab 4-2. It was a rather large, circular room, the ceiling bearing a grid-like pattern of white fluorescent lights, with a similar light array running along the floor, and another single, wide bar-light running around the perimeter of the room.

An array of arms were strewn about the ceiling, all of them holding an individual piece of blue, futuristic-looking armor- or, more precisely, barding- with purple highlights. Pieces built for a quadruped wearer’s forelegs, hindlegs, thighs/biceps, most of their upper torso and part of the lower/back torso, part of the neck and segments of the tail, and an elongated helm designed to cover roughly 60% of the head. A slight circular depression with a round, neon-green light in its center adorned each bicep/thigh plate, the front of each foreleg-plate, the back of each hindleg-plate, and three on the back (two touching at the ‘sides’, and one directly behind them). They were hanging around a hologram of Onyste herself, ‘adhering’ to their appropriate places.

O’Malley was standing next to the arms and armor, looking up a series of numbers scrolling across a free-floating holographic screen. He paused, then his eye swiveled over to Onyste, and he clapped his hands, the screen disappearing as he did so.

“Ahh! Glad you arrived so soon, I’m eager to show this equipment off. Quite proud of the entire project, if I do say so myself. Behold, this is the Powered Multi-Purpose Combat Armor, or PMPCA for short. The armor itself is roughly as strong as reinforced steel, and is composed of ‘cortosis’, a metal designed to halt energy flow, therefore making it rather resilient against heat and energy-based weaponry. However, that’s not the main attribute of the armor, for you see, we’ve designed a series of interchangeable equipment for the armor as well, each varying in use, inside or outside of combat.”

He produced a holographic ‘stick’, then jabbed it at the green-lit, depressed areas on the armor.

“Each of these is not only a hard point for mounting each of the equipment set’s parts, but thanks to technology we’ve recently mastered, will automatically teleport the parts onto and off of the armor to-and-from one of our storage rooms! Therefore, there is no need for you to worry about taking the pieces off... Simply wave them off with a thought, as will be capable with your neural interface. Now, as for the sets themselves…”

His eye seemed to flash, and in a series of flashes, more pieces of machinery had attached themselves onto the armor. A variety of blades now protruded from the armor as O’Malley barked,

“The Blitz Pack. The melee-combat equipment features a pair of retractable vibro-blades on the forelegs, a pivoting chainsaw-blade, a shield/pincer cross, four retractable grappling hooks, and multi-directional ‘burst’ jets to ensure an increase in turning speed. Next-”

His eye ‘flashed’ again, and the Blitz Pack was replaced by a much bulkier set of equipment, holding a variety of blasters and cannons.

“The Artillery Pack. The ranged offensive pack, this one features repeating blasters, four missile pods, kickback brakes, and my favorite- the dual-mode cannon on top. A rapid-fire short range function and a heavy-hitting, one-shot long-range function both come with it… the second -will- require those kickback brakes, by the way. The third unit is-”

Once more his eye flashed, and the Artillery pack disappeared. In its place were pieces of very streamlined equipment, most notable being the arrowhead-shaped backpack unit with several ‘fins’.

“The Turbo Pack, and the one I feel you’ll like the most. Obviously, it’s a pack designed to increase running speed, mostly due to the boosters in the backpack, which, judging from my calculations, will boost your speed by another 100%. The back unit also features two pulse blaster, the hindlegs have a set of magnetic brakes, and the forelegs have three-payload flechette launchers. Each bicep has a field generator that, when all four are active, will create a barrier around your front-half, capable of withstanding a couple thousand pounds of force, but mostly it’s to use when you’re running… and need to go through something. Finally-!”

The Turbo pack dissipated, and was replaced by the last pack- an angular series of wings and smaller fins, with an obvious use…

“The Aerial Pack, designed for flight through the air up to 2500 feet above ground. Each bicep has directional fins, the forelegs have tesla coils, of which are capable of launching off controlled bolts of electricity; the hindlegs have mine launchers, of which are capable of dropping golf ball-sized proximity mines that can either latch onto targets or free-float and explode on nearby targets. Finally, the main wings themselves allow you to reach overland speeds of almost 500 miles per hour, and each wing has a series of micro-homing missiles.”

He flashed his eye one last time, and the pack disappeared. The hologram of Onyste itself then disappeared, and the arms pulled away from eachother slightly. O’Malley gestured to the armor, stating,

“And that’s a wrap. Obviously, you’ll automatically know how to use the systems because of your neural interface, and no matter where in Nightshade you are, you can summon any pack to your location, so long as there is nothing between you and the sky. Got it? Now, if you can just put the armor on, we can get you out of here, back to Earth, so you can test it in the field! Because I, for one, am not appreciative of controlled experiments when testing my equipment. Dangerous? Yes. But it’s also much more efficient. Now, enjoy the bloody tech!”

The arms all firmly connected the armor to Onyste, several heads-up displays scrolling across her vision as her neural interface linked up with the armor itself. O’Malley waved her off as the droids escorted her back down to one of the launch bays, whereupon she was shipped back to Nightshade.

((End thread))