Harmonic InVersion - Musical Mecha RP

The Arena

The sound of metal against metal! The roar of the crowd! The bright lights, the spectacle! The money!

The Harmonic InVersion championship is underway! The newest recruits get front row seats for the opening fight, the first one of the season! Enrique Armando Perez, piloting Rebelution, a 5th Octave fighter, against Thomas Cristo, piloting Electroma, another 5th Octave fighter. The Marketing guys had been pushing these guys during the pre-season, so showing them off was expected. Looks like they did their job right too; money was coming in in the millions!

Now, for the rookies, this would be their first taste of what high-level CANON Combat was like! Music blared out of the large speakers set into each machine, which would be deafening if not for the auditory shielding in place. Granted, it was still ridiculously loud, it was just that too many people had sued due to new-found deafness so they had to tone it down a little.

The grinding of metal against metal filled the stadium, sparks sprayed up everywhere, and the crowd went wild. Perez’s Rebelution had just activated its Barrio Fino Fugue, releasing a huge torrent of barbed metal buzz saws at Electroma. It had no time to react, and was swamped in the storm of whirling metal. Buzz saws slammed into the holographic shielding around the arena, causing some to faint and others to scream in terror, but that all just added to the excitement! Those holograms stood firm, but they definitely looked flimsy.

Money exchanged hands again, bets were made, fans stood and cheered.

But then Electroma let the stadium know it could still fight. It released something more powerful than a simple Fugue, firing shards of glowing holograms from its core, piercing through the razor-sharp cocoon of metal Rebelution had made for it. The terrain of the stadium was forcibly remade by the array of blades that pervaded the atmosphere.

And the tide of battle continued raging, and changing with the rhythm of the music.

edited 31st Dec '14 1:31:56 PM by amporiusrex

Amber smiled, so this was it, the HI Championships! She smiled as she watched through the optics of her CANON Zav and checked out to see if her weapons were there. Yep, the SR was there, so was the PR, and finally the shield. Zav's weapons were there, now to check on the drive systems.

The DJ flexed and stretched, her mech copying her moves as various systems, clicked, whined and whirred, the two sets of leg thrusters and the balancing thrusters on the backpack were stable and functional. Zav was ready to dash into battle.

Amber satisfied with the status of her CANON, deactivated him and opened the front hatch. The 15 foot tall robot ready and raring, but for now, she would wait and watch. After all those guys were champions.

"Wonder what kind of matches they are gonna put us in?" She wondered aloud.

edited 31st Dec '14 4:23:44 PM by EchoingSilence

Arthur scurried up and down his own CANON, with the assistance of a cherry picker, checking it over and finding everything satisfactory. He descended, jumping off the lift a little higher than he really should have but landing fine regardless, and walked closer to get a better look.

"Some epic battle between two really badly clashing genres of music probably. It'll look cool."

Arthur spoke, responding to the other pilot's thoughts.

"A mashup, then. Sounds fun." An older black dude sidled up next to the two other competitors. His own CANON, an old brown model more garage than robot, sat slumped down a few dozen feet behind him. "I'm Darius. You guys ever hear Jedi Mind Tricks? They used classical music in their raps all the time, I'd like to disagree that there's any sort of 'clash' in musical styles."

"Well, sure, if you're actually trying you come up with cool stuff."

As Arthur spoke his arms flailed about, the gestures he made only related to his words if you thought about it in a very vague and surreal manner.

"But if you just slam two things together - as we do - then while it is appreciable in its own way, it doesn't really work as either track would on its own. You might happen upon greatness accidentally, sure, but you can't really rely on that happening."

He then paused for a moment, his face contorting comically as he thought it over.

"Won't fault you for your opinion though. Nice to see people appreciate things."

"Fights are a conversation." Darius retorted. "You can't really fight someone if you just go your own way, without respecting that they're offering input on your attacks." He meshed his fingers together. "I think if we get in a tussle you'll understand better."

Amber stepped over, "It is possible to mix music. A common request I got during my DJ days was for a remix of some song. Hell a lot of martial arts even apply that as a rule, your strength is to use the opponents strength against them," she shrugged.

"Amber Barton pleased to meet you all," She said sticking out her hand.

"Arthur Oscines"

He reached out and shook her hand, his grip firm and his shaking rather too fast, although he seemed oblivious to the fact.

"We may well be fighting, but I'm sure you'll be a worthy foe."

"Why thank you. Same to you man," Amber smiled back, "Also are you on some new energy drink or something? Lot of speed and energy in that shake," the DJ noted.

Erik was just finishing engraving an extensive line of Runes into Rhapsody's crossguard when he took notice of his fellow Conductors meeting below him. After a few more moments spent hammering the ancient text into the hilt of the massive blade, Erik took a moment to admire his work before heading over to introduce himself to those he might be facing in the foreseeable future.

Grinning, Erik joined the group and said "My name is Erik Magnusson, I look forward to facing any and all of you in glorious battle soon."

Darius went for a fist bump when the two white folks went for a shake. The universe slowed to a crawl. Death seemed imminent. He'd done this before, though, and smoothly transitioned his fist into an open hand, shaking with both of them. He smiled and nodded at Magnusson's introduction. Again, white people.

Amber looked over at Darius and the look on his face. "Not used to this?" She asked, "Peut-être que je devrais parler une autre langue pour aider à ce que," the DJ smiled.

“Huòzhě, yěxǔ lìng yīgè xiāngfǎn,” Amber continued in Chinese. "Is that bothering you?"

( Translations. For the French: "Maybe I should speak another language to help ensure that." And for the Chinese: "Or maybe another one instead," All translations were made with Google Translate and are a one time thing. Also sorry if Amber is being a bit of a jerk.)

edited 1st Jan '15 3:14:08 PM by EchoingSilence

The garage doors, not the main ones but the ones for people to go through, raised up with a loud mechanical whirring. They raised up into the "door frame" and out of sight to reveal a fat stocky man in a grey pinstripe suit. In his hand, a vintage and very expensive cigar.

Francesco Sordini had chosen to grace the newest pilots with his presence. Without any sort of pleasentries, he walked up to the small group that had accumulated.

He threw his glance around the room, scanning the pilots and their CANONs with his greedy eyes. Eventually, he chose to speak.

"So. Youse the pilots I hired just the otha day, huh? Don't seem like much right now. Lessee how ya do in the arena, maybe you'll be worth my money."

He took a long drag from his cigar, then waved it around. "As soon as dis fights ova, I'll have... You..." He pointed a finger at Amber. 'And you first." His finger moved, pointing towards Darius.

As soon as he finished talking, the head of Rebelution came crashing through the heavy steel garage doors leading to the outside. The head bounced, and sent sparks flying everywhere as it slid with a cacophonous screech. It continued sliding up to the group, where Francesco stopped it with a single foot. His face seemed almost bored.

The cheering of the crowd could be clearly heard from the outside. The music from Electroma blared louder, and the CANON could be seen raising its arms through the gap the head had made. Francesco sighed.

"Imma have ta get Ossia ta fix that. Well then, you're up. Try not ta destroy each other too hard."

Amber blinked incredulously at him, still in shock from how bored he seemed at giant musical robots tearing each other apart. She sighed and reminded herself he would be signing her paychecks, "Yes sir!" the DJ answered in a energetic attitude, better make a good first impression.

Amber ran over to Zav and climbed in, the hatch closing behind her instantly, she put on the optic set and discarded her jacket. She could feel the tingle from the suit as the machine hummed to life, the EM pulsing through her CANON, a smile appeared on her face as soon as she could see out the optics. No need to start blaring any of her songs yet.

"As you command sir," She joked and marched Zav right into the arena.

The garage door to the outside opened and a peculiar mecha walked in. It was stout with it's head really close to it's chest giving it a hunched over look and it had a heated katana strapped to it's left arm. The most peculiar thing though was that it appeared to have stepped right out of a 16-bit with it's pixelated appearance. Every time it took a step a pixelated *sqeak* could be heard. The mecha saddled itself up next to two other mechs and powered down.

Darius nodded to their manager and headed to his machine. "Try to go easy on me, Brass isn't what she used to be." He popped open a hatch on his CANON's lower half and climbed up and into an antiquated, first-generation control space. He snapped the hatch behind him, and Brass's tail pipes burped out a small jet of fire as it shook itself into action. The eye cams on its body flicked around, and the whole beast just sort of shook itself off. Brass clanked into the arena behind Amber's machine, sound levels equalizing and ready to fire.

Once in the arena, Amber turned to Darius, and bowed, "Que le meilleur conducteur de gagner!"

Zav got into a fighting position, it's left hand holding on tightly to the large metal shield, a single view-port out the front of it. A large block like rifle in Zav's right hand, Amber braced herself in the control console and queued up her selection. Now she just needed to wait for the match to begin.

"Jun!" Sordini yelled out, walking over to the recent arrival. "I told you people ta be here 30 minutes ago. Everybody else got that, so why didn't you, eh?"

He took a long drag from his cigar, and shook his head. "Amateurs. These people ain't getting any smarter, no matter how many years go by."

Electroma walked out of the arena looking pretty destroyed, but not as obliterated as Rebelution was; It wasn't more than just scrap metal by that point. The arena itself looked like an industrial wasteland, complete with broken buildings and metal shrapnel.

Two glowing circles pulsed on the ground showing Amber and Darius where they ought to be standing. They were marked with their names, and a small symbol representing their genre: Amber had a thunderbolt with a small waveform behind it, Darius had a single elegant-looking record.

Once the two reached their destinations, their environment went completely black. They could see nothing but each other, lit up by their respective circles. Then, a bright green grid spread out from the circles, covering the now-flat ground.

The words "Stage Selected" appeared in holographic form between them, along with a cube showing a small three dimensional diagram of a city block. The words then blinked out along with the diagram.

From their circles spread out the environment they had been shown before. Terrain procedurally generated around them, and the crowd became visible once more from above. What was before a wasteland was now a city devoid of citizens. The only thing that would tell them they were still in the arena was the crowd visible to them about 20 feet above the horizon. This was the nature and the potential of holograms: the instantaneous creation of 3D space.

"In our first corneeeeeeeeeeeeer, we have Darius Harrison, conducting Brass! In the other, Amber Barton, conducting Zav! The Stage is D Metal City! Fists will fly at this location!" cried out the announcer over the speaker systems. "This is the first round of our rookie combat! 1st Octave fighters only!"

With the sound of the bell, battle officially began.

edited 2nd Jan '15 3:59:57 PM by amporiusrex

"Now ain't that a neat trick." Tim Malmsteen said from the inside of The Amanunesis' cockpit, "Imagine if you could stick that on a CANON."

Of course, the DJ was talking about the sudden change of area for the match they were seeing. However, his eyes couldn't help but wander off the match and onto the other CANO Ns sitting right next to him. It seems that due to how familiar they were, he had just missed out on introductions. But hell, there was just so much badassery going on in front of him...

Sadly due to his manners, he turned to the CANON's and the waved at the pilots... and then they started to walk away. Most likely because they were the next fight.

Gosh darnit. Tim said with a sarcastic slap to the knee, in which he turned to the 16-bit looking mecha that had just marched from its garage. Shortly afterwards Sordini came up to him and said his spill.

"Yeah, like he said. Tsk tsk." he said without really turning his CANON to him, but rather giving the DJ a brief wave, "Ya know, I think its better that you're late. I wanna see how hard they're going to get thier ass beat."

edited 2nd Jan '15 3:37:21 PM by GrimSabatoni

The cockpit opens up and a Japanese man walks out. He quickly hauls a black hoodie on and pulls the hood up.

"Sorry boss. I'm not on first, am I?"

"Don't take anything I say too seriously. Just how I roll, ja feel?" Darius said, more to himself than the other pilot. He took a deep breath and deployed the BOOM box, the shoulder pack reconfiguring into a Beat Platform to give Darius backbeats external of Brass. A stuttering drum-beat began and he lumbered towards Zav, throwing his shoulders into every step as he ran to give Brass a twisting, active gait. He kept the beats on an intro loop for now, waiting until Zav was closer. Right as he got in range, Brass spun a full 360 degrees and swung a vicious left hook at Zav. "I reckon that you're checkin me out now, like a funk soul brother it's going down about now!"

"A course not! Ya think I'd give one late people like youse the first spot? Fuggeddaboudit." Sordini replied with another wave of his cigar.

From his pocket he pulled out a small rounded rectangle of polished metal. From it burst a holographic screen. "That takes care a the first match, now about da rest..."

A tournament listing could be seen on the screen. There were names surrounding it, and he used the pinky finger on his cigar-holding hand to move Darius and Amber's names into the first pairing.

Zav took the hit in force, it staggered a bit, inside the cockpit Amber smiled, so THAT's what it felt like to pilot a CANON. A twisted grin spread across her face, "Monsieur. Je vais prendre chaque coup dans la foulée si je peux remporter la victoire!" She cried out as Zav regained balance.

She started up the Queue and music started to blast out of Zav's speakers, the CANON's eyes flashing on the first few words "Fighting. For. Freedom."

Amber forced Zav to dash back and raised the rifle, opening fire on Darius, before dashing to the right. "Now let's see how this baby flies!" she cried out before forcing Zav forward again, her music still blaring as the CANON just barely touched the ground, a cloud of dust being kicked up behind it, the rifle still firing on full auto.

edited 2nd Jan '15 6:08:53 PM by EchoingSilence

Darius followed through on the punch, still spinning his whole top half. As Zav fired on him, Brass took the hits to his right side, using the bullets for even more force on the torso. A couple bullets struck home, clenching up the servos on Brass's legs and causing him to stagger and lose some forward momentum. "Bitch you kite me, you fight me, you INCITE ME!" He made a swing to the left, then this time mashed a fist into the ground. Brass struck the ground and went horizontal, flipping into the air after Zav in a barrel roll. Its bottom half wound up over his head, and fell towards Zav's clavicle in a dropping kick.

Zav raised the shield and blocked, to say though that the shield didn't get dented at least was a lie. There was a large imprint in the shield, it made it slightly awkward to hold.

Amber flipped Brass over Zav and turned back around, a new song blasted out. Amber sensing opportunity took to firing at the ground in where Brass was going to land. Hoping to cripple the machine.