New Member

[Mani4c]

In the Underground Network there is a place where all information on the rest of the digital world is collected. A large number of observers and spies, whose sole purpose is the observation and delivery of information, regularly come and go from this place. While it doesn't have an official name, many of the lower ranked rogues in the underground refer to it as 'The Library', and this is where Noxus conducts his experiments in the field of Avatar Evolution. The usual quiet of the Library was shattered by the sound of a portal opening. It is through this portal that Noxus stepped, flanked by his second in command Justicar, who was grievously wounded from his battle against Viral Mani4c((For those of you just joining us, see the " A New Threat Emerges" thread for more info on that battle.)) Justicar stumbled out from the portal, nearly collapsing before righting himself.  "Urgh, I feel like hammered S$%^!" Noxus helped his friend steady himself, "As much as it wounds me to say, I agree with you in that regard my friend." Justicar chuckled, before coughing and gripping his side in pain. "I hate to leave you in charge of our new friend's tour, but I need to get patched up." Noxus just smiled, "No problem, just get yourself fixed up and meet me and Amp in the control center in two hours." Justicar nodded before heading off to the medical bay.

Noxus turned and regarded his newest member, Amp, She'd been invaluable in the battle against Viral Mani4c, and had decided to join them afterwards. "I apologize for the shabbiness of our abode, had I known that a young lady like yourself would be arriving, I'd have had it cleaned up while we were away." 

[Prythian]

Amplify gazed around the area. "The feel of this place... is entirely different." She said, almost to herself. Her sharp eyes turned to Noxus. "That device of yours managed to create a gateway to an entirely different network, didn't it? And since you're a rogue... not just any network. The Underground. Am I correct?" She smirked. Before he even got a chance to answer, she continued. "You don't need to bother confirming it. Just show me around for now... and afterwards, we have much to discuss. There are things that, given your goal, I think you need to know."

[Mani4c]

Noxus nodded, "Of course, now if you'll come this way." Noxus led Amp to an elevator, "The area we're in now acts like a Hub of sorts for this building, it has several elevators and stairways that go to all of the different wings we have." He hit a button marked "Science Lab" and the elevator's doors closed before it started to descend. "Our science labs are divided into several sections, known as rings due to the circular shape of the building. Each ring has a different focus, A-ring acts as our R&D department, where we modify our soldiers if they ever need or want an upgrade." The elevator ground to a halt before opening, the Science Lab was almost pristine compared to the hub they just came from. "We try our hardest to keep our equipment up to date and our labs spotless." Noxus gestured towards the labs, "After you my dear, we have quite a bit of ground to cover" Noxus smiled before continuing. "And don't be shy about asking questions, I haven't given the grand tour in quite a while, and I enjoy educating my new members about our facilities.

[Prythian]

Amplify walked ahead of him, a thoughtful look on her face. This place will require me to be here often... it had better be fun. "Alright, then, if you want me to ask questions... This is the same place you've experimented with viral data being implanted in avatars, isn't it?" She gave him a significant glare, golden eyes practically glowing. "What are you going to do with all of your research now that you've seen the side-effects that such a plan can cause? Or do you plan to continue, since what happened there is possible to avoid provided each avatar has a strong logic data?"

[Mani4c]

Noxus simply smirked, "I don't plan on continuing my program after that disaster my dear, I'm driven, not dense. But I was actually planning on phasing out the viral augmentation program before attempting to recruit Mani4c, hoping that his assistance could provide some kind of workaround or clue that I'd missed, alas this latest debacle has put the final nail in that particular coffin..." Noxus then gestured towards a door, "This door leads to B-ring, which houses our weapons and armor lab, we can outfit you with superior armor and some weapons if you wish. And they'll all be custom made to your specifications, consider it a "Welcome to the team" gift." Noxus led Amp through the door to show her the lab. There were dozens of avatars working at terminals and checking armor and weapons. In one corner there was a large wire-frame showing a newer type of armor that several technicians and scientists were working on. Noxus smiled, "The next lab over is where we develop custom Downloads and add-ons, I have a feeling that those will be of particular interest to you. but before we go, do you want to know anything about this ring? Types of armor, weapons, or perhaps how we develop them?"

[Prythian]

Amplify considered. "Gaining superior armor is perhaps something that could be useful to me. I'm..." She hesitated. "Unsure how standard weapons would react with my unique capabilities. That is a discussion for another time, though. And as it turns out, I do have a few questions about how you make your armor and weapons." She turned to him, eyes flashing. "I require very specific things in order for whatever you make to work for me. It must not only allow me to still gather energy from the network around me, it must also be able to withstand that energy. Can you make an armor that both resists energy and allows it to flow through? I am aware of the contradiction."

[Mani4c]

Noxus' eyes widened at Amp's request, "That's certainly a tall order, but I might have something that could help with construct. Follow me for a moment and I'll show you." Noxus led Amp over to a computer console and tapped a technician on the shoulder, "Bring up Blueprint number 6731-B if you could." The technician turned around and nearly jumped out of his skin, evidently he'd never Met Noxus face-to-face before. "Ye-Yes sir." He turned around and typed in a series of commands, when he hit the Enter key a wire-frame of a strange looking armor appeared on his screen.

It had a relatively slim profile with interlocking plates across the torso, the shoulders were rounded and the arms were covered by light armor plating on the biceps and forearms. The legs had more armor plating, with the ankles and the back of the legs being protected with the same flexible interlocking plates as the torso, allowing more freedom of movement. The helmet was the most unusual, it was angular and pointed near the back. The eye ports on the face were rectangular, and the helmet lacked a mouth. "The armor blueprints that we use were pilfered from PariahTech when I escaped, I then destroyed the rest of their R&D server to spite them. This armor was designed to utilize a rechargeable firewall, instead of passive resistance to certain factors or a physical shield; this armor's shielding would have recharged from a integrated power supply. It could also allow the user to fire out through the shield, while keeping enemy fire from getting in. With some tinkering we could get it to resist excess energy, OR we could have the excess energy be pooled into the armor's capacitors, speeding up the shields recharge rate!"

Noxus looked at Amp, his eyes flashing with enthusiasm, "My dear, you're already assisting us! I've been thinking about how to improve that armor for over three months, and the first day you arrive you've inspired me!" 

[Prythian]

Amplify swept her hand horizontally. "Hold your horses there, virus-boy. You're getting ahead of yourself, and we can work on that later. I merely wanted to know if it was possible, as my current built-in armor is not all that useful." She glanced at the blueprints. "Besides, however you decide to improve it, whatever you give me has to be designed for me specifically, given my abilities, and that would require a couple of changes to that armor's design. So." She glanced at the technician. "I, at least, will be back here later." She turned her intense stare back at Noxus. "Move on and simplify. I just want to know the basics now of each area, rather than delving into specifics into later." Impatience was starting to show on her face.

[Mani4c]

Noxus nodded, "My apologies, we'll get a move on then." Noxus led Amp into C-ring, "This is where we create customized Add-ons and Downloads, it's time consuming, but the results are worth it." The downloads lab was filled to the brim with technicians working on either modifying or creating programs, all of them either studying code or testing an already created program. Noxus led Amp back to the elevator, "The next couple of floors are the Barracks and the maintenance bay. I'd prefer that you avoid the barracks, some of my men are... Excitable, I plan on having you bunk with us in the officers quarters on the top floor, near the CIC, the officers quarters also have a specialized maintenance bay for higher ranked soldiers with more unique functions." Noxus looked at Amp with a slight questioning look, "Do you wish to see the Library? Or do you want to see the CIC on the top floor?"    

[Prythian]

Amplify gave him a look. It said, You and I both know why I'm here. "We have to have a talk about Project AUGMENT. Whichever place you think might be best for this discussion and with whoever you think is necessary is the where we should go. However, it should also be a place where you can obtain and be able to look at an analysis of my data. The results may surprise you." She gave an irritated huff. "Whether you realize it or not, you are trying to charm me into being more invested in your cause. It will not happen. I am here because you and your cause prove to be far more interesting and entertaining than anything else, as I mentioned. Keep that understanding about me in mind. Shall we move on to more interesting things?"

[Mani4c]

Noxus frowned somewhat, her accusation of him trying to charm her had pushed one of his buttons. "My apologies, let's head to the CIC. Justicar will probably be there, he's not one to listen to the medics, and he needs to hear this." Noxus noticed the slight growl in his tone, he took check of his temper, it wouldn't do to make Amp feel threatened, 'Even though I could kill her with little effort.' Noxus pushed the button marked CIC, and started to ponder his recent change in temperament, when he first escaped he was a purely logical being. But in the past few weeks he had started feeling much more emotion, he quessed that his personality program, which was entirely made up of viral data was starting to change spontaneously. 'such is the price of being 90% virus...' Noxus and Amp arrived at the CIC, it had a massive screen that could be tuned to the visual feeds of any of his operatives, it also had a large oval shaped table in the center for meetings with other officers. Justicar was sitting at the table his torso armor completely removed and his chest wrapped in more bandages than King Ramses. "I hope she enjoyed her tour, because I'm not showing her around if she gets lost." His voice was hoarse, and his irritability was obvious, losing to Mani4c had wounded his pride immensely. Noxus gestured to the table, "Sit wherever you wish." He went over and sat next to Justicar, His tone became entirely business-like all signs of his friendly demeanor gone, If she didn't want any flattery, she wouldn't get any. "Please start at the beginning, because if an avatar from project AUGMENT is behind Halberd's sudden rise to power, I want to know his name before I snap him in two." Justicar looked at Noxus, 'He's not pleased, those new emotions of his are starting to go wild again, I'll need to keep him calm.'      

[Prythian]

Amplify sat at one of the chairs, arms folded across her chest. "To start from the beginning, let me quote from a portion of data that was a part of my creation." She inhaled deeply. "'Project AUGMENT, series 2 of experiments. Due to failure to produce any results on turning temporary programs into permanent pieces of equipment, we are now attempting to use temporary programs to produce permanent power boosts of an avatar's natural abilities. Multiple methodology is required; at least four different ways of boosting power are to be tested. Firstly, to increase the flow of energy within the avatar. Secondly, to modify the equipment of the avatar. Thirdly, to alter the form of-'" She had closed her eyes during the recitation, and now they snapped open. "The text cuts off there. But I can assure you, that is all that is important. Project AUGMENT was an attempt at permanently increasing the combat abilities of an avatar via programs that only needed to be used once."

She pressed her lips together. "The avatar aiding the one you called Halberd is the one I call my brother. He, too, is a rogue born of the series 2 experiments of AUGMENT. While my powers are all used by channeling energy into avatars and their attacks, he was corrupted by viral data at his birth. I watched it as it happened. His body is more of an amorphous mass than solid like ours. And his abilities... he merges with other avatars, altering their appearance. I believe he provides access to DPs that modify an avatar's attacks. His name is Integrate." Her eyes flashed. "And he is insane. All he cares about is finding the strongest of avatars... and giving them access to his power to make them invincible. He wrote me off when he realized I have no ability to fight on my own."

[Mani4c]

Justicar looked at Noxus, "I say we focus on finding a way to kill that Integrate bastard, once he's out of the way, Halberd'll be as good as dead." Noxus closed his eyes in thought. "I'm more concerned with keeping tabs on the other AUGMENT avatars, if we can convince them to assist us in making a perfect race of avatars, Halberd will crumble beneath the power of our forces." Noxus' voice was almost murderous, "That slime thinks that murder is the answer to everything, I'm no saint, but I don't kill simply because I can." Noxus slammed his fist on the table, "When he falls I want to make it a message, nobody will stand in the way of my vision." Justicar looked at Amp, "If you decide to join us, I know of a weapons maker in the underground, we only modify weapons. But he can make you a weapon that will be able to channel your abilities, I'd love to see the look on his face." Justicar showed Amp his broken sword, "He's also the one who taught me my ultimate technique, when I first arrived here. I'm going to see him about repairing my sword anyways."

Noxus looked up at Amp, "I need to go attend to something, this newest information has given me something to think about, and I also need to send out a surveillance order on any avatars showing signs of Abilities similar to yours." Noxus walked out of the room, leaving Justicar and Amp behind. He went to the elevator, he pulled out a small chip, he slotted it into a small panel at the bottom of the elevators floor controls. A new button was revealed labeled as "Storage", Noxus hit the button and the elevator descended, even past what was thought of as the bottom floor. When the elevator finally stopped Noxus got off and walked into a darkened room filled with almost 100 stasis tubes. "I'm back my friends, I'm sorry for keeping you." Inside the tubes where nightmarish creatures, their bodies twisted and malformed, these were Noxus' test subjects. All of them volunteered for viral augmentation, and none of them were able to withstand it. Noxus had them put into deep stasis to keep the viral data from consuming their minds, and he's been looking for a cure ever since. "I've found someone who could hold the key to our salvation, your salvation." Noxus walked over to the oldest experiment, his former left-hand, he put his hand on the glass of the tube and sighed. "Soon my friend, I'll have you back to normal soon." 

[Prythian]

Amplify glanced sidelong at Justicar as Noxus left. "I hope he considers that there is no guarantee that there are even any other AUGMENT avatars out there aside from me and Integrate. We rogues are unusual enough occurrences as it goes already." Of course, it occurred to her that it was entirely possible there were others out there... she had no idea how long the experiments had gone on, or for how many series. "And as I told your boss, wolf-boy, I will not believe in your cause... but I will stick with it for as long as it is interesting and fun, and it promises to be that for a while yet. So I suppose we can go see this weapon-maker of yours. However, I doubt I will be able to boost it like I can others. There are..." She paused. "...risks. I was hoping to have an analysis of my data to show you exactly what I meant, but I suppose for now you will have to trust me that there are severe dangers of overloading if I tried to channel the energy into me."

[Mani4c]

Justicar nodded, "Of course, I'm in charge of any combat missions we get sent on, and I can tell you right now that until we get your scans sorted out you're not leaving without me as a guard. After all the trouble I went through when keeping that lunatic virus off of you,I'm damn sure not letting you wander off unprotected while in the underground." He stood up, wincing slightly, "Next time I see that viral freak I'm going to kill him, nobody makes a fool out of me on the battle field." Justicar went to his quarters and grabbed a grey shirt and a snow-white colored trench coat before returning to the CIC. "The weapons smith is in the central part of town, It's a hike, but it'll be worth it." Justicar and Amp rode the elevator down before heading out of the atrium and into the slums at large. "In the meantime, how about you tell me about yourself? I can tell you some of my old war stories if you want."

[Prythian]

Amplify laughed. "There's not much to tell. Born of Project AUGMENT, learned what I could do with my powers, decided pretty quickly that since my creation was completely accidental, I had no purpose but what I chose for myself." A grin spread over her face, white teeth gleaming. "So I decided that my 'purpose' was to have as much fun as I possibly could. Which you should be grateful for, since it's why I'm here in the first place. I'm obviously very intelligent, and I enjoy winding people up because the way you all react is just hilarious. Besides, if I didn't point things out in the best possible way, who would listen?"

[Mani4c]

Justicar chuckled at that, "True, you do have a way with words, to put it mildly." Justicar smirked, "Well, you told me about yourself, so I suppose that I should keep my end of the deal." Justicar became silent for a moment, thinking of a battle that he had fought, he'd been in so many that choosing one was a bit of a hassle. "Ah, how about the time I ended up battling against this huge virus, had to be thirty feet high." Justicar thought back, the memory becoming as clear as if it happened only the day before. "I was defending this little server against a group of hackers, and they had developed a really powerful virus to try and take this server down. I don't know why they did, and I didn't care, my only concern was destroying the virus. It could spew viral data at high pressure, I saw it burn a divot in solid concrete,  so I was focusing on keeping close to it so it couldn't spray me."

    Justicar was gesturing as he walked, fully caught up in the memory. "I slashed at it's legs, dodging swipes from it's massive arms and trying to avoid being stomped into the dirt. It went like that for almost three hours, with me trying to cripple it's legs and avoid getting turned into paste at the same time. Finally I took the damn thing's legs out, it hit the dirt, holding itself up with it's arm and it's one good leg. I ran at it, hoping to take it's head off or hit it between the eyes, but instead the thing grabbed me and slammed me full-force into the ground." Justicar winced at that, that almost hurt as bad as getting beat on by Viral Mani4c. "I slashed at it's fingers, forcing it to drop me, and then it tried to hit me with it's other arm. I dodged the hit and jumped on it's hand, then I went sprinting full-tilt up the things arm, slashing at it while I ran. Then I launched myself off of it's shoulder high up into the air, as I fell I sheathed my sword, focusing all of my energy into one final slash." Justicar smirked, "I swung out just as I was about to land on the thing, the slash released a wave of energy that bisected the thing. After that the hackers just gave up and left. That was probably the most challenging fight I'd ever had up until meeting you and that psycho cop."

[Prythian]

Amplify listened, carefully trying to keep her face a mask of neutrality so that none of her whirling emotions at the story slipped through. But with the final couple of sentences, she just had to say something. "I don't think we can count that last fight as a win for anyone here, so you probably shouldn't be counting it as your most challenging, since that implies you were the victor." She said grimly. "And every time I hear someone say this, I always want to ask something, so I guess I finally get the chance: After a long battle, you focused all of your energy into one attack to win, correct? If you had simply done that from the start, you'd have had access to a lot more energy, so wouldn't it have been more efficient to do it then?"

[Mani4c]

"I didn't say that the fight with the cops was the most challenging that I'd ever won, just that it was the most challenging battle that I fought in." Justicar took a breath before continuing. "I don't separate battles into wins or losses Amp, I simply call them what they are, a fight is a fight. That doesn't mean that if I lose I don't take something away from the experience, being a warrior is all about learning, it doesn't matter how powerful you are. If someone's the most powerful fighter in the world but doesn't learn from his battles, then sooner or later they become a corpse, that's how it's always been. All of the great warriors and generals weren't just strong, they were smart."

Justicar looked at Amp, "Just because I enjoy the feeling of battle doesn't make me a dumb brute, and the same goes for other warriors as well. And as for your second question, I needed to weaken it first, otherwise it wouldn't have died and I'd have used all of my power for nothing. As a matter of fact, I was on my last legs when I did that, if it didn't work I'd be dead right now. I just happened to make a winning gamble, does that help you understand?"

[Prythian]

"You missed the point of my second question." Amplify mused as she strolled onwards. "Weakening it first took energy from you. Thus, my point was that you used your energy to weaken it so that you could use the rest of your energy to finish it off... does that not mean that it is entirely possible you could've used all of your energy at once and finished it off? That the total amount of energy you used was enough to finish it off is proven; I'm merely asking you to consider whether or not that was the most efficient use of your energy." She turned back to him, eyes flashing. "I never called you a dumb brute. But before you respond, consider that I manipulate pure energy all the time. It is, in fact, the one thing I can do."