./magic and technology ~ [euphoria]

A beam of light fell from the heavens, a controlled rift in the space-time continuum. The beam expanded, and inside of it materialized a glossy black human shaped machine. The light disappeared, and the rift closed, leaving the android in the past. For a moment it stood still, doing nothing as it powered up. After that moment of lag, however, its optical visor lit up and it came to action.

ISAAC had jumped back pretty far, before the time of computer technology even. Without such technology, he was somewhat out of his element; but on the other hand, he was also the most technologically advanced thing to exist in this time period now, which gave him a great advantage over the humans here. He was mainly in this time period for research, to better know history through his own eyes. He somewhat enjoyed to explore the past and see it for himself.

He looked all around him, finding himself standing in the middle of a 19th century city, behind a relatively tall brick building. He had been careful to drop himself somewhere where there wouldn't be very many people, and in fact, there were none here at all. However, the time travel device invariably caused a pretty distinct light effect which was bound to be seen and investigated by curious eyes.

In order to keep from being seen (he wasn't quite sure how the people would react to seeing him, and although would probably take the time to find out, he didn't want to do so just yet) ISAAC climbed up the face of the nearest building. He gripped the bricks with the small claws on his hands, and pulled himself up. He avoided climbing in front of any windows, and quickly made his way to the roof, where he could see the rest of the city. The cobblestone streets were crowded with people, moving from one place to the next. Indeed, several of them were now walking behind the building that ISAAC was standing on, attempting to identify the source of the beam of light. ISAAC didn't see any automobiles, as he'd expected, but there were a few horse-drawn carriages.

ISAAC leaped over to the next building, and then over to another building. He looked down into the alley between the two buildings, saw that it was empty, and dropped down into it.

OoC: Plum :3

IC:

Winona dropped Cassidy suddenly, ignoring the peeved hiss exuding from the feline. “Did you see that, Cassidy?” she ogled. “It looked supernatural!” The beam of light flashed onto the ground a few buildings away, expanding and changing colour. The colour shifted to a constant hue, and then suddenly dissolved.

The cat rolled his eyes, not bothering to dignify the question with a response.

Winona stamped her foot, whining a little. “You don’t believe me, do you?”

“We have no idea how the human world operates. Wouldn’t it be slightly foolish to just assume a magical phenomenon is taking place?” He was still aggravated from the sudden drop.

“I suppose you’re right,” the girl yammered as she swung her foot idly. “Plus, this dirty metropolis is too busy to waste energy pushing through crowds.”

“Wow, you’re seeing sense for once.”

The girl chuckled, and bent down to pick up Cassidy. “Yeah, we’ll just pass through surreptitiously and go back to-“ they were already soaring through the air. “Isn’t this much more fun?” Winona screamed. She released a little more magic and fluttered gently onto a building. It was a few roofs away from the scene of the spectacle. The girl gripped Cassidy even tighter and began rushing over to the rapidly gathering crowd. When she got there, she stood in awe. A perfect circle of ashen earth was being gingerly examined by scores of people. Winona jumped off the roof – not caring about drawing attention to herself – and inspected the damage close-up. She ushered for Cassidy to come closer.

“Something powerful did this, and I’m going to find it.”

The girl flew off, leaving the crowd in a greater state of disarray than before. She smirked in her cynical way as she caught some bemused faces out of the corner of her eye. Now all that remained was to locate the source of the blast. Surely something so powerful couldn’t be that hard to find? She began with the alleys: something supernatural (which she now completely assumed) would undoubtedly be keeping a low profile. Unfortunately, the alleys were a labyrinth of twists, turns, and dead ends. When she came to one such blockade, the girl sat down and sighed.

“We’re never going to find this thing, Cassidy! It’s impossible in a place like this.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure. If this thing is as powerful as you believe, we’ll just have to wait for an uproar.”

The girl nodded and cupped her face in her hands. “I wish it would hurry up.”

Keeping track of the alleyways so that he wouldn't get lost, ISAAC wound around the many different twists and turns that comprised the maze of back-alleys. There was nothing particularly interesting here, of course, but eventually these would lead to somewhere a bit busier perhaps. ISAAC used his visor to search for infrared radiation, and found a source a bit closer than he'd expected. It appeared to be a small human, and a small animal such as a cat, and they were in the alleys as well. I wonder what a child and their pet would be doing in a place like this... ISAAC thought.

He also detected a much larger source of infrared nearby, obviously part of the busy city streets. I wonder how a group of technologically illiterate people would react to seeing me...it's probably a good thing to know, for future explorations. ISAAC quickly leaped through the alleys, jumping from one wall to the next, and then climbed up onto a small, one storey building. It didn't take long for the pedestrians to notice him, and they raised quite a commotion. Just to try to scare them a bit, ISAAC decided to speak. He amplified his voice a bit so that the whole crowd could hear him.

"Greetings, humans," he said. At this, quite a large amount of the crowd started to flee. Whether it be science or witchery, the being that stood before them and spoke was clearly unnatural. ISAAC leaped down into the crowd, causing everyone to run away from him, and climbed up onto the building on the other side of the street. From there, he dropped down behind the back of the building. To prevent people from following him, he ran a few yards down the alley right behind the buildings, and then crossed the street again, going back into the labyrinth of alleys he'd been in before.

Reaction noted: they raise a loud commotion, and flee in fear. Now...what next?

The screams were deafening, fuelled by terror. Winona hopped up suddenly and perched on one foot to stretch closer to the source. The sounds were muffled, so she guessed there were several alleyways between her and the commotion. It would take precious minutes for a human to find their way, but it was simple for Winona. She hoisted Cassidy onto her shoulder, pointed her fingertips towards the ground and let loose a focused stream of air. The gust carried her to the top ridge of the nearest building, before being blown away by the natural winds. She set down the cat and squinted beneath the midday sun.

“See anything, Cassidy?” she asked with exasperation. The Strael placed her hands above her eyes and exaggerated her scan for signs of the unnatural. Cassidy did the same with less flamboyancy.

“I can’t see anything, but I can tell you where the cries are coming from.”

A huge smile breached Winona’s lips. “Do tell.”

The instructions were concise, easy to follow; the duo reached their destination in minutes. She quickly asked around to see if people knew where the thing had gone, but the sight of the girl was met with nearly as great a commotion as that of her prey. A couple of the more squeamish women fainted. One man however managed to point shakily in the right direction. She bid the man her thanks with a spiral of flame and a devilish grin.

The girl flew excitedly up the building the man had pointed toward, looking even more closely for anything out of place. She found it: a broad reflection of sunlight coming from something she couldn’t determine. A helmet? Some odd human umbrella? She was intrigued. Cassidy on her shoulder, the girl bounced from roof to roof, waiting for the creature to react. She was starting to get a better look. It was a helmet, or at least a protective covering of the thing’s head. The material extended all the way down its entire humanoid frame; it obviously wasn’t human though. It was armed with several demonic, new-age weapons, but she couldn’t see its face. The face was key; she could use it to gauge the being’s morality, strength, and even its weaknesses. She conjured a stone from the roof and threw it at the beast. It caught it.

The breath was knocked out of Winona as she saw its arm extend too far backward. It dropped the stone suddenly, and turned around. It was evil, she could tell. It wasn’t the being’s face that told her, but its lack of one.

Detecting it with sonar, ISAAC reached behind him and caught a stone that had been thrown at him. He dropped it on the ground, and turned around to face in the direction it had been thrown from. A few buildings away he saw a small girl and a cat, standing on the rooftops. A quick scan and comparison confirmed that these were the same two lifeforms he'd detected in the alleyways earlier. How they had managed to climb up onto the roof of a building, ISAAC was unsure. Apparently the girl was not as frightened as the other people by ISAAC, likely due to youthful ignorance.

ISAAC powered up a short burst from his plasma propulsor, and with two jets of white heat flew up into the air. He landed on the same building as the girl and the cat. She looked to be about 8 years old, and was around four and a half feet tall. She had pale gray eyes and chestnut colored hair. ISAAC stood up straight, his six and a half foot form towering over the small girl. She looked quite out of place, up on top of a building like this.

"Greetings, human-" ISAAC began to say. He was cut off by a sudden burst of flame that filled his vision. He didn't move, instead letting the plume of fire wash over him, deflected by his energy reflectors. When the fireball had all dissipated, ISAAC looked around, finding no obvious source from which the fire could have originated. Could it be...pyrokinesis? ISAAC thought to himself. He looked again at the girl, who was now standing in a fighting stance (which seemed altogether ridiculous for her young age, and with her cat standing next to her also looking battle ready.)

"Well then, what have we here?" ISAAC asked; but instead of a straightforward answer, all he received was a blast of wind, strong and unexpected enough to actually knock ISAAC over onto his back. Aerokinesis too...?

"Well, if it's a fight you want..." ISAAC jumped up to his two feet and extended his blades. He couldn't actually fight a small girl though, could he? Anything in self-defense...besides, morals are for humans.

She had been careful with the fire, making sure the robot didn't know where it came from. Still though, something in his demeanour made her think he had figured it out. She fired the gust of air surreptitiously as well, but it was too late. The android was on to her. She threw on an obstinate grimace and got into a fighting stance, ready to throw all her might into a skirmish with the thing. The robot obviously had a similar idea, as it was perched on its two feet again, its wicked swords ready for battle.

“He willingly engages in combat with a young girl,” Cassidy advised. “Definitely something other-worldly; even the most brutish people on this planet would allow a time of judgment, but not this thing. It’s throwing itself into battle straight away.

Winona nodded at Cassidy’s inaudible whispers. The robot was mispleased, as his gaze confusedly darted from Cassidy from Winona, trying to catch a trace of the invisible conversation. "I thought you wanted a fight?” he seethed, dismayed.

Winona smiled. “I do, but it’s much more fun to annoy scary things. Plus, I get to learn a little something about you!” she finished sweetly.

The robot didn’t have a face, but Winona imagined it would be scowling. She beckoned for Cassidy to jump into her arms and imbued him with a weak fire spell. “Distract him from behind,” she commanded with telekinesis.

The cat immediately jumped out of her arms and over the robots massive head. It hissed menacingly and waved a fiery paw near the robot’s armour. It turned around swiftly, sensing the heat before it touched it. Winona dashed away to ready a spell: Strike. She stopped when she had reached a rooftop quite far away from the action, but she wanted to make sure Cassidy wouldn’t get hurt. Eyeing Cassidy all the time, she pulled on the magic inside her, feeling the raw energy of strike. She grasped the spell with one hand and cupped the other around her mouth. “Hey, robot-brain!”

The creature turned around in a flash.

“Try this!” The girl threw the spell into both hands before it darted away from her, flying towards the robot’s visor. She had guessed that it was a weak spot. Transfixed, she counted down the milli-seconds before impact, then a few seconds after. The spell had disintegrated, but there wasn’t the slightest hint of weakness. Winona flew over to the robot furiously. “Why didn’t you get hurt?” she cried, punching the thing’s great obsidian armour. “It was supposed to hurt you!”

The robot retracted its fierce swords and picked up Winona by the collar. “A pain spell, foolish witch? You are indeed infantile. I have no life-force to damage.” The robot laughed a throaty, distorted laugh and threw Winona off the rooftop.

The fall hurt like hell, and that was with her purple circlet cushioning the blow. Winona opened her eyes hazily to see Cassidy fretting over her. She looked up; the robot was still there, staring down at her. She stood up shakily and grimaced as Cassidy jumped into her hands. “Okay, that thing is a serious threat, and a possible power-source if we can deactivate him. You ready for a little tussle, Cassidy? The girl didn’t wait for a reply. She glided back onto the rooftop, carrying a cubic metre of solid earth with her.

Such a long fall to survive... ISAAC noted, having already calculated the exact distance of the fall, how fast the girl had fallen, and how hard she hit the ground. She should have at least broken some bones but...she didn't hit as hard as she should have. Interesting. The girl seemed to possess magical capability, something ISAAC knew next to nothing about, save for the typical fictional portrayal of magic. I suppose it's about time I learned what real magic was like...

The girl flew back up to the roof and threw a large chunk of earth at ISAAC. It hit him and knocked him to the ground, temporarily breaking his protective energy field. He flipped back up to his feet, dodging a few stones that were flying much faster than a girl her size could throw. He caught one of them in midair and spun around, throwing it back at her just as fast. She saw it at the last minute and stopped it with a cyclone of air.

"Well, well well... I don't mean to kill you, but let's just see what all your magic can do. Maybe I'll learn something new..." ISAAC primed his plasma weapons, charging and heating up the pressurized compressed plasma cells in a matter of seconds. In the plasma cannon on his left arm he had a blue plasma cell charged up, and in the plasma cannon on his right arm he had a violet plasma cell loaded and ready.

Assuming that simply shooting the girl in the head would be too easy and end the fight so soon, ISAAC shot a burst of violet plasma at the ground in front of her feet. The resulting explosion sent up chips of superheated concrete and send the magic caster flying into the air. ISAAC jumped up and aimed his left arm, ready to fire again, when suddenly a piece of the roof broke off from the rest and came up to meet him.

The large shard of cement smashed ISAAC and pushed him over the edge of the building. He fell the entire way, the heavy block of stone dragging him down, and crashed into the ground. The concrete shattered on impact, covering ISAAC in gray gravel. He quickly ran a scan of his systems, making sure everything was in check and nothing was broken or harmed. He then somersaulted back to his feet and ducked into an ally to charge up his protective energy shield. Another impact like that could breach his armor...

Can’t stop attacking. Keep up the onslaught.

Winona fluttered onto a rooftop and spared a second to recuperate from her magic-usage. Cassidy jumped up beside her from an unknown location. “You have to keep on going, ” he wheezed. “Things like robots and androids repair too quickly for you to sit there daydreaming.”

Winona flashed the cat an irritated look and glided off the rooftop. She landed softly on another, using air magic to propel her to the edge. “Do you see the robot anywhere?” she enquired commandingly. The cat shook its head. Winona sighed and jumped off the building, once again into the maze of alleyways. They were no sounds, but she hadn’t expected there to be; the robot was much too clever for that. The girl floated angrily around the thousand alleyways, keeping her eyes and ears open for any signs of her foe. Cassidy wasn’t following – she presumed the Star Child had gone to search elsewhere.

“Come quick. I’ve found him.”

A sudden high-pitched squeal erupted nearby. Her cat's cry extremely muffled, so Winona guessed there were two or three buildings between she and Cassidy. She jumped into the air and fluttered lightly above the rooftops. A swirl of flame soared into the sky, an obvious signal from Cassidy. The girl manipulated part of the rooftop so it fit into boots around her feet, then staggered down to face her enemy. With centimetres between herself and the robot, it turned to face her and forgot the cowering cat beside it. Winona’s eyes opened wide in horror; she was too shocked to stop the descent now. She cringed as the shell of her left leg crumpled to dust under the android’s enormous hand. But there was an opening. Before the robot had time to react, Winona slammed her other foot on the back of the robot’s head. She dropped to the ground with a start, forgetting to end with a spell.

The robot was clutching its slightly cracked visor madly. Winona smiled and readied a simple but powerful fire spell to finish the job. Suddenly the robot let go of its face and turned towards Winona. “I’m not going to kill you, girl, but by all means I should. Only the need to further my research prevents me from doing so. I will continue to combat you, but no lasting harm will come to you untl I'm done with my research.” Without another word the robot unsheathed its two gold swords and advanced towards Winona. The girl stayed put; her fire spell was only seconds away. Finally, she could feel the immense power bubbling inside her. She took a step back as the android slashed at her, and grasped the magic within. The robot’s visor flicked to the Strael’s shimmering hands as she readied the spell. She imagined the creature’s eyes boggling widely, then all was engulfed in flame.

The spires of heat licked at the walls of the buildings beside Winona, claiming loose stones and blowing a fierce cloud of soot into the already polluted sky. The fire ceased by disappearing into the enormous cloud, taking with it any sign of the blaze. Winona smiled malevolently with her eyes closed, savouring the taste of victory. She opened her eyes slowly, ready to take in the mangled skeleton of the eviscerated robot, but there wasn’t a trace of it. The robot was gone.

ISAAC soared into the sky, carried by a jet of white hot plasma. His vision was slightly impaired by a thin crack running along his visor, but he could still see fairly clearly; especially when he included his extra-visionary senses; such as sonar. The girl had now technically breached his armor, if only slightly. This meant she was possibly more harmful, more of a threat, than his initial examination had expected. Maybe he should change his protocol slightly; and allow for some lethal force...

He landed as softly as he could on another rooftop, his shields now fully powered up again. The crack in his visor couldn't be repaired here at all; he'd have to replace the entire thing, when he got back home later. It stood out now as an obvious weakpoint though, so he'd have to be sure to guard his face well from further attacks. Speaking of which...

ISAAC jumped down from the building, landing behind the girl, who was still searching for him. She quickly turned around when he landed, and he firmly kicked her into a wall. She got up and threw more fire at him, but the hot flames couldn't touch him in the slightest through his energy field, and simply passed harmlessly by. He fired a few blasts of electric blue plasma at her, shocking her and momentarily stunning her. Maybe I should capture her, and do some more regulated research... ISAAC considered.

As ISAAC approached the girl, his arm blades extended, the girl's cat jumped in front of him and hissed. "Oh, how cute," ISAAC said aloud. Had he a mouth, he would have smirked at the thought of the small mammal attempting to protect its master. "Nice try..." he said, aiming his plasma weapon at the cat...