Turn 71: Dungeons and Minions

--- Maya ---

“Okay, and just steady that lens.” She told 1A and 1B as she adjusted several wires. “And hit it M2!”

Her newest minion leapt onto her keyboard and pressed a button causing the piece held by the other LCMs to slowly glow before firing a blast of light and leaving a scorch mark in the wall.

“Ha, yes!” She laughed, having finally managed to dial the amount of light those bulbs generated to a level they could actually damage something.

(Now we can smite our enemies with our divine light!) Her inner megalomaniac cackled.

(Actually, what is the difference between fire and light here?) Her inner logic asked (like the wet blanket she is.)

(Quite.)

“Uh, I think it’s got to do with this thing involving photons and molecular stability?” She guessed, having not actually worked with her [Heat(+)] energy beyond using it as a blowtorch.

(Ugh, light carries energy directly by applying it to an object. In most cases this results in an accelerated application of heat in comparison to our standard heat due to the energy colliding with matter. Additionally, due to the photons themselves knocking electrons out of the matter, it causes the matter to develop a positive charge similar to static electricity. Which means on a basic level that light damage is technically a hybrid of both heat and electricity. What’s more, when you take the photon charge and hit enough electrons at the right point you can destabilize a molecule causing it to split into its base elements, giving it a sort of atomic damage too.) Her inner madness explained in a put upon voice.

(...)

(...)

(Oh, come on! The answer was so obvious and neither of you got it?!)

“You know sometimes I forget you’re more than just my id.”

---

Putting the finishing touches on her Hand Cannon upgrades, she found her attention being drawn to her minions where M2 was interacting with the other LCMs, neither of whom quite knew what to do about the third of their kind just yet.

1B was attempting to be nice, trying to show off every little bit and bauble the little critter had collected from the spare parts of her various projects. All while 1A stood on the sidelines watching M2 with -what she assumed was- a calculating expression, as the female LCM looked at everything 1B presented with an expression of curiosity and wonderment.

Eventually 1A walked closer to the pair before swiping one of the baubles from 1B and inspecting it while the other LCM pouted for a moment before shrugging and going back to his pile of things.

M2 seemed to glare at 1A who in turn gave her an unimpressed look.

Suddenly M2’s tail swept across the ground knocking 1A off of his feet and sending the bauble flying into the air where M2 snatched it before making her way to 1B and offering him back his trinket.

1A dusted himself off and sent a glare towards -M2 who gave him a smug little wave- before turning and marching off to (likely plot vengeance if he’s anything like us.)

(Well at least her and 1B are getting along…)

(I can already tell this is going to be fun.)

---

(Are we sure this is a wise idea?) Her inner reason asked.

“Not really but we need somewhere to test out our gear before we get into a real fight.” She reminded herself. “And given how this whole thing is supposed to work this is probably as close as we’re going to get to combat experience against those Bloodhounds.”

(Still this seems like a bad idea given what we know.)

“Well, the website said people don’t have to take their power ups.” She assured herself as she made her way to the entrance of the Gamer Guild’s Dungeon, her eyes idly drifting to the various carnival style stands that were littered around the park clearing.

(On the flipside this is something we’ve wanted to do for years so… yay?) Her inner madness offered unsurely.

“Right.” She sighed, standing at the entrance tent to the dungeon as she once more considered how bad of an idea this was, as she had every few minutes on her entire trip here.

(Who are we kidding? This can only end in disaster…) Her inner pessimist groaned as she stepped into the tent to find what she assumed was the attendant arguing with someone.

“-step up our game if we want to help cover everything up. Especially with things being worse this year than the last few.” A familiar shade wearing man with headphones around his neck explained.

(Actually why does this guy look familiar?)

“Look boss, I get where you’re coming from but I also know the GM told me not to let you do this after those teens trashed the dungeon with that weird Madness interaction. She wants things to stay nice and stable.”

(Uh, Maya this suddenly became a much worse idea…)

“Gah, where’s the fun in that?”

(Why?)

“It’s in the exact same place it was when Edge and Pike tried this.”

(Oh, I’ve been waiting for this for so long.)

“Wait those fuckers tried to take over the dungeon?”

(Waiting on what?!) She frowned.

“Yes. Just like you, Decker.”

“Ah, shit.” She cursed, eyes going wide.

Both of the Gamer’s Guild Gangsters turned towards her and she froze on the spot as Decker frowned, clearly realizing she looked familiar but not sure where.

“As you can see I’ve got someone to deal with Decker so do you mind?”

Decker snapped his fingers with a smile. “Ah, ah, actually I’ve got this one.”

“I already told you that’s not going to-”

“No, no, I know this one.” Decker told the attendant. “She and I’ve got this, uh, rapport.”

“Really?” The attendant asked, clearly not believing the gang lieutenant.

“Yeah, come on gamer girl, back me up here.” Decker implored her.

(We should just turn around and walk away.) Her inner logic told her.

(Ah, but I wanted to run the dungeon!) Her inner child whined.

(We have a gang lieutenant that we fought trying to drag us into something unknown.)

(Hey, he seemed like a fun pendejo, and besides we kicked his ass once we could do it again.)

(He was likely taking it easy on us.)

(Maybe, but if he isn’t doing anything wrong we might be able to wrangle a favor out of him.)

(That’s not worth risking our safety over-)

“Well kid, do you know this guy?” The attendant asked her in resignation.