The corridors of the Infernal machine were cluttered... messy... to say the least. They reminded him of the dungeon he, Vasna, and Max had cleared on the Hagh T'anak, but without The Rotten besieging the Strike Team.
"Does it seem a little bit too quiet to you?" Tony asked the group at large.
"I feel like the entrance should have had to punch," Jak admitted.
"The lack of resistance is a little too convenient," Esava said.
"Very much convenient. Feels like a trap," Vixie responded.
"It's familiar," Vasna started. "We didn't hit much resistance early on in the Flagship Dungeon, but once the entrance was out of sight we were mobbed, and then we got zipped into the boss room after the miniboss."
Tony tapped his booted foot on the ground. "I don't think it's the same... something about this is different. I think the lack of resistance is a lure, a way to pull us further in before hitting us with the heavy hitters."
"Why do you think that?" Jak piped up.
"Well, if Orbis read it right, Mendacius is the core of this thing. To me, that means he's got to be choosing where energy goes or doesn't go and needs to direct it. In the dungeon, he was the guy in the chair pulling the strings and setting up encounters. I think he's too busy to be directly influencing things," Tony explained.
"Orbis?" Esava asked.
"A mini soccer ball with wings, rings, and too many eyes that helped me out on Arach... he's like a mini-Archon. Long story for another time. Fact is that he's given me solid defensive analysis before and I think I'm right about this," Tony doubled down.
There was a chorus of acceptance throughout the Strike Team before they pressed into The Infernal Machine. Like the dungeon on the Haght'anak, conduits, tubing, and wires hung about the corridors like the guts of a disemboweled space hulk, puddles of irradiated liquid essence and debris littered the floors, and wall panels were shorn away to reveal even more of the station's internal workings.
The first encounter they had with the denizens of the weapon station were similar to the Rotten, but bigger, better equipped, and more resilient. Regardless, Tony held himself back; he wanted to see what Jak, Esava, and Vixie were capable of. Vasna quirked a brow at him and he shrugged.
"I want to see what we're working with. I'll jump in if I need to," he explained.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Jak was the first to spring into motion, eager to get to punching. Tony studied the large man as he worked; he weaved in and out of engagement range of the Rotten, lashing out with magma and stone laden fists and kicks that snapped with electricity and thunderclaps. He had been an impressive fighter and one of the most dangerous people Tony had fought to date his Ascension; now... it was like his elemental control had been tempered and refined without losing any of its raw, primal potency.
A notification flashed in Tony's vision for a moment; distracting him from the action for a moment so he flicked it away. In the split second he had looked away, Esava had winked out of existence and reappeared among the enemy number. She seemed to phase in and out like a mirage and left lazily drifting stars in her wake. When the hovering motes of light made contact with the enemy, they detonated in white flashes and collapsed into perfect and endless dark circles, drawing in the mass of the Rotten they exploded near. The last shambling and awkward corpse that Esava appeared near, she leaped on and drove her twinned daggers into the thing's mostly empty eye sockets with a sickening crunch.
Again, a notification flashed in his vision. He swiped at it and it shook in his vision at the first attempt; the second time he swiped it went without resistance.
"What are you doing?" Vasna asked.
"Trying to watch the fight, but I keep getting these notifications--"
"Did you read it?"
"No--"
"You should probably pay attention to those, they might be important if they're popping up during Combat," Vasna said.
"Ah, shit. Good point," Tony admitted.
Vixie stepped forward and primed two potions. One of them, Tony was familiar with, the volatile explosive potions that she'd used on Arach. The mixture looked to be more concentrated, brimming with potential. The other concoction was a swirling green and purple; that one, she pressed the stopper into and it started to fizz for a second before she lobbed it at Jak's back. Tony watched as the bottle dissolved in midair and the contents misted into the large man. Tony's eyes bugged out as Jak's striking speed doubled and the large man laughed and whooped with a sort of euphoria at the increase.
With a liberal application of explosive potions and Vasna stepping in to cast a chain lightning, the encounter was resolved without Tony's participation. Thankfully, the notification he'd disregarded twice reappeared in his vision. This time, it was a red, angry-looking window.
Your I.A.A.M. has pending Updates
You are currently on I.A.A.M. v 0.88
Current version of I.A.A.M. is 1.12.05
You may elect to update within the next [24 hours]
If you do not, updates will be automatically applied
Do you want to update now?
Yes No
"I have Windows updates?!" Tony balked, indignation heavy in his voice.
"Have you not been doing that?" Vasna demanded.
"I didn't even know it was a thing," Tony said.
"There have been little updates since I joined the Program, but there was a big one that was pushed out after we cleared the Cube. I bet you silenced those or that whole Anomaly thing kept you outside of those updates. What does the notification say?" Esava interjected.
"It said that I was on version .88 and that I would be put onto the current version automatically if I didn't decide to do it myself in 24 hours. It's still there..." Tony recounted.
"Version 0.88?!" Esava shouted.
"Y-yeah?" Tony answered.
Vasna's open palm smacked into her forehead. "Sometimes, I hate you," she muttered.
"Update, right now. I'll watch you," Esava said.
"Watch me?" Tony asked.
"Oh yeah. That's a big update. You're one percent going to black out."
