Team Snagem HQ (Mt. Silver)

[DeoLux]

seeing the arguments unfolding, Deo decide on going to his room and rest for a little while and catch up on some sleep before he comes back down to meet everyone. "I hope the walls are sound proof" he mutters before he drifts off to sleep.  

[Isaac Hawking]

Reno Vantas

Reno's eyes would snap open to stare at Isaac, huffing as he saw the smart a** engineer. "Ah yes. My boot. So I can ram it square up your backside because you amputated my leg!" Reno shouted, fervently gesturing at his now missing right leg with his sole arm. "I could've gotten that at least.....not completely useless using Channeling! But no. I got drugged before I could say anything and get to completely lose ANOTHER limb!" Taking a deep breath at finally being able to air his particular gripe with how he had been processed, the Co-Leader would settle down before returning his gaze to Isaac.

"Sorry. just....had to let that out. I appreciate all the effort you went through for this. Especially with upgrading the thing. So, wanna talk about all the cool, probably untested things you used and put into these things?" Reno asked, eyes slowly drifting towards the new arm and leg that Isaac had carted in with him. They certainly looked a lot more advanced than his old design. Or at least more white and shiny.

The verbal tirade washed over Isaac's impassive face as he patiently waited for Reno to finish expelling his frustrations over the current scenario. It was understandable that he was upset; after all, he was right about not getting a say about the removal of his crippled leg. The man had heroically endured the pain for the flight over to Hoenn, before finally succumbing to shock as he arrived at Devon headquarters. Apparently, passing out right before getting through the door had caused a panic among the medical team as decisions that were planned to be made only after an extensive discussion with Reno now needed to be made immediately. In the end, it was Joseph Stone who made the decision to remove the leg, but that particular tidbit didn't seem necessary for him to know at the moment.

Instead Isaac merely remained standing next to the recent double amputee until the tirade ceased. Arching an eyebrow at his teammate as the verbal assault was replaced with a deep calming breath. The following words were genuinely appreciated, particularly since Isaac had been frantically building the prosthetic leg. The arm had been a previously commissioned upgrade; three days ago the leg had been nothing more than a handful of half sketched ideas jotted down as ideas for a future project. That future, apparently, was now.

Reaching back to the worktable behind him, Isaac retrieved the arm. "Let's start with the basics," he announced, "Those mounting bases on you are designed to lock into the prosthetic limbs at multiple points. This eliminates any single point of failure, meaning that it shouldn't be possible to tear the limb off of you without taking a large hunk of your flesh off with it." Isaac paused to look Reno directly in the eyes for the next sentence, "Do try prevent that from happening." After a moment, he resumed the process of attaching the arm along with his explanation. "Additionally, the mounting plates allow for modular design system. So, if, or rather when you need to upgrade to a newer model, we can swap out the old arm for a new one easily." Closing the final latch, the shoulder assembly hissed before compressing around Reno's biological shoulder in a firm grip.

Nodding in satisfaction, Isaac stepped over to the workstation and retrieved the leg. Gingerly hefting the prototype, he rounded the operating table and set to work attaching it to Reno's newest in a growing collection of stumps. "Almost all of the components in these are made with a newly developed type of metal called Meltanium. Both lightweight and incredibly strong, it is able to withstand over four thousand pounds per square inch of force being applied. More simply, a Sharpedo could bite your leg and would only succeed in scratching off the paint." With another hiss, the prosthetic clamped down around what remained of Reno's right leg.

Stepping back from the table, Isaac turned to address his team mate directly as he continued. "Now then, you mentioned untested systems. running through each Meltanium piece is a lattice of Psy-crystals. This should allow you to channel your psychic chi through the prosthetic as if it was you natural limb. However, lacking any psychic channelers on staff, particularly those with missing limbs, we have been unable to test this system ourselves. If you wouldn't mind?" Isaac let the question hang as he gave a sweeping gesture of his arms, beckoning Reno to disembark from the operating table as he stepped around the table giving him room to do so. "If you could, please start with the leg. We had more time to develop the arm, and thus integrated some additional systems. As we aren't looking to test their functionality yet, just your ability to channel through the limb. Like I said earlier, it should be similar to channeling through your natural leg."

Or, the prosthetic could shatter catastrophically. Seemed best not to mention that right now.  

[Reno Vantas]

Reno would nod along as he heard Isaac describing the systems in use within the arm and leg, admiring the increased contact points for connection. While he had certainly enjoyed being able to detach the arm easily beforehand, a more durable and well-mounted model seemed like a prudent upgrade. Giving a few waggles of the fingers on the new arm as Isaac moved onto the leg, Reno would pick up on the mentioned material and its durability. "So...could repeat what I did with S-22 and not just destroy the arm. Good to know." He mused, continuing to play around with the much smoother articulation and movement of the new appendage.

Upon hearing about the Psychic Gems used as a lattice within the two limbs, the redhead nodded. "Yeah, ended up modding something similar into my old arm. Wasn't nearly this seamless but it made it work." He mused, doing his best to avoid any excess movement as Isaac moved to mount the leg into position.

Slowly swinging off of the table, Reno would tentatively place weight onto the unfamilair appendage, giving a few testing movements with the leg as he did so. While it did not seem to be as agile as the arm, he could chalk that up to either adjustable limiters still in place or just the fact it was such a rush job. Giving himself a few deep breaths, the Psychic Channeler would soon attempt to lift himself off of the ground. Channeling energy the way he usually had when he had done it before, the leg would begin to lightly glow red along the side. And that glow would continue to grow stronger and stronger as the energy increased until Reno was finally floating a few inches off the ground and his leg was giving off an intense crimson glow. "Well.....it works. Half expected to break this damn thing with my luck."  

[Isaac Hawking]

"So was half the staff here," Isaac replied, despite seemingly all of his attention occupied by the prototype leg, "There was a betting pool going, and now I get to be credited as a source in half a dozen research papers." The stiffness in Reno's leg movements hadn't escaped his notice, although any reaction to his prior comments did, and a battery of notes was now being transcribed upon a small notebook at breakneck pace. "We can calibrate your leg after we finish up the other important test," Isaac continued, stashing the notebook in one of the pockets of his lab coat as he stood up. "We tested Meltanium with a regular Sharpedo, but if you want to try shoving you arm into the mouth of a purpose build killing machine of a hybrid I suppose that I can't stop you."

His warning delivered, Isaac turned strode over to a panel on the laboratory wall. Pressing a button he then spoke into a hidden microphone, "We are ready for the targets now, please." Releasing the intercom button, he turned back to Reno. "As for your arm, we have a number of features built in. The standard suite of gadgets are included: there is a Snag Machine in the palm, there are storage compartments for Pokeballs in the upper arm, and there is a SNAG incorporated in the ventral portion of the forearm. All these systems are linked to the Psychic Gem lattice network, so you will be able to activate and use them with your chi."

"So far, so standard," Isaac remarked as he approached Reno, before tapping on the dorsal side of the forearm, "The real upgrade is in here. Your new arm includes a new projectile launcher, which retracts into the arm when not in use. Like everything else, it is linked into the network and can be controlled by your chi. The projectiles are tiny slivers of Psychic Gems, coated with Meltanium, which should allow you to control each projectile mid-flight. Once the targets are set up, you can go ahead and with a test fire."  

[DeoLux]

As Deo is lying in his warm and comfortable bed, he starts resting and drifts off to sleep. He dreams and wakes up, in a cold, dark, room. Bars over the windows, a camera in the corner with its deep red stare. A piece of glass over one of the walls. His bed, now black, cold, and metal. Nightfall has come and now he hears the scientists that made him what he has become talk of selling him to the highest bidder. The prices ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands. A cold dark voice pierces his ears, it is a voice only a villain would have. He says darkly “2 million, take it or leave it” they stutter and they say finally “3 million…..” just as they finish, there is a shot from a gun. As a flash of light comes from behind the one way mirror of a mewtwo hybrid with the gun. Frightened, Deo runs to the door. Back into reality and runs into a wall, hits it sparking. Then begins to spark violently. When this happened lights flicker all over the base, and then the lights begin going out. He comes to, out of his bed, in the hall. When the lights are back on, he realizes that these dreams are becoming more and more vivid. He has to do something, and prevent this from happening again!  

[DragonFang099]

Amber shot a glare toward the AI, knowing it wouldn't do any good to listen to his sarcasm, then gave Abby and Kero a nod before leading the way out of the HQ and into the cave. It didn't take long to find the river, since the water was loud enough to follow the noise right to it. "Alright, let's see what we can find, and fix the generator problem," Amber said to her two companions. "Hopefully, it'll be something as simple as a couple of Magnemite taking the electricity, and not something more dangerous."  

[Reno Vantas]

Reno would give an appraising glance towards the arm, quickly doing his best to remotely activate the features like Isaac had described. And while it took a moment to get a feel for the precise way to channel energy into the appendage to activate the things, soon Reno would watch as internal compartments in the upper arm and forearm opened up, a small pop of an attempt to launch a Pokeball that wasn't there and a hologram appearing right after. "Ooh, that's even more slick than my specific motion triggers. Guessing only I can activate them due to the fact the lattice is directly connected to me personally?" Reno said, seeing if Isaac could confirm these observations.

Before Isaac could describe what exactly the outside of his arm contained, Reno had already managed to make the launcher flare itself out into the launch position and was busy looking at it with some curiosity. "So.....what you're telling me is I have projectiles that don't require self-abuse or nearby electricity. Rad. Might even have some modification ideas for these, try and add even more flavor to them. But that's for later, once we see if they work." Reno mused, slowly coming back from the racing thoughts of potential alterations he had been envisioning as he turned to see the targets being rolled in.

Reno would chuckle at Aile's griping towards Isaac, already beginning to feel himself lightening up a bit. "But then there wouldn't be a good excuse for me to see you. You're always welcome to say hi to me, Aile." He quipped, his smile slowly getting a slight amount of strain as she brought up what exactly had delivered him into this particular part of the world. Guess he would need to actually discuss that a bit now. well, it was bound to happen at some point.

"I'm....mostly alright. That whole thing definitely brought to light some things I had been trying to keep down since....hell, since before the war. And the end was far from what I was aiming for, but....sometimes you take the victories you can get, not the ones you want. I think you can get that, right Aile?" Reno said, eyes slowly meeting with Aile's from across the room despite his own efforts to avoid eye contact with anyone in the room. The panel for the Pokeball storage slamming shut on his arm would jolt the Co-Leader from his stupor, stumbling a bit on his newly attached leg before steadying himself. "Right. Right. The launcher. Lets....do that thing." He sheepishly stated, slowly bringing his left arm up to aim towards the targets.

A rapid sequence of pops would erupt from the limb, signaling the small flechette storm that had been aimed towards the targets. Quickly making efforts to steer the things, Reno would find himself managing to at least hit all the targets. But he certainly wasn't expecting the projectiles to launch at quite the speed they had been and many of the projectiles were closer to the edges of their targets than the deadshots he had been aiming for. "Well.....I could steer them. Just...really need to get used to how to do that." Reno muttered, slowly getting drawn into his own thoughts again as he began to examine the launcher more closely.  

[Isaac Hawking]

At the sound of Aile's voice from the doorway, Isaac whipped around so fast that he nearly lost his balance, as a storm of emotion welled up within him. At this point, the two of them shared a long an convoluted history with each other, starting when Aile left the guild and culminating when she helped Sub extract Isaac from a Lumiose prison following certain events there. Thus far though, only she and Sub knew of the events surrounding his time in the Lumiose badlands, and Isaac was content to keep it as such. For once, Lysander's squelching of information worked in their benefit. Still, now was not the time to deal with the swirl of emotions that bubbled forth, and Isaac took a deep calming breath as he took a moment to regain his dispersed focus.

In that calming moment, he just barely caught Reno's statement about the launcher. Spinning around almost as furiously as before, just in time for the rapid sequence of pops to echo throughout the mostly empty lab announced the deployment of a dozen chi infused projectiles. The notepad whisked out of the lab coat as once again a blur of scientific shorthand was etched upon its pages in a frenzied tempo. "You are correct regarding your statement about the lattice Reno," Isaac announced as he continued to scrawl notation upon furiously flipping pages, "Without the direct connection to you, all the internal systems will remain inert."

Stowing the notebook in the lab coat once more, Isaac turned back to Aile, although more slowly this time. "The lab assistants are given more important tasks than this, such as running tests on chemical compositions," Isaac calmly riposted Aile's earlier verbal jab as he made his way over to the cart. "The 'menial tasks' as you call them, are given to interns who are still paid well for their efforts. Also, we had to disinfect the lab before Reno's procedure, so all non-essential equipment was removed."

Arriving at the cast, he reached down for the aluminum briefcase on the second shelf. Standing up again, he dropped his voice to a whisper that Reno wouldn't overhear. "Thank you for helping Sub bust me out of prison. If you could please not mention that event, or anything about what happened in the Badlands, to Reno or the rest of the guild. You and Sub are the only ones who know, and for now I'd prefer if things stay that way."

Flashing Aile a look that he hoped was both apologetic and sincere, Isaac turned towards Reno once more, coughing lightly into his hand as a cover while he composed himself again. "The sliver of psychic gem inside each projectile burns out after use, so they unfortunately can't be reused, Isaac announced as he briskly walked over to Reno, placing the briefcase on the operating table he used to be lying on. "In here are six hundred more projectiles," the argent needle like rounds glimmered brilliantly as the lid was opened, "which is enough to fire the full capacity of your launcher fifty times. We are already manufacturing more for you, but this should be enough for a start. I also feel obliged to mention the dangers involved attempting to develop your own 'homemade' projectiles, although I feel any such warning will fall on deaf ears."  

[Reno Vantas]

Reno would do all he could to fake like he didn't notice Aile and Isaac discussing something sensitive to each other and, knowing how things went around here, that involved Sub doing something semi-illegal. And he also made sure to keep the telepathy from accidentally informing him more than general intuition was telling him. No need to unnecessarily intrude on a semi-private matter like this. Instead, he focused himself on attempting to retrieve the projectiles from the targets and finding himself unable to do anything else with the things.

Thankfully, Isaac was able to quickly explain why exactly his efforts were currently failing him so much on the retrieval process. "Huh. Guess making them this small doesn't let them keep enough residual for just making a controllable flechette storm." Reno said, watching intently as the case in front of him was snapped open and the flechette storm he had mentioned was now visible in front of him. And of course it came with a warning to not try and replicate the things. Because both Isaac and Aile would call Reno out on that particular proclivity for making things to work more how he wanted vs what the developer likely intended. "Come on. Once I figure out how to get that....Meltanium stuff to work, this would be a cinch to recreate. Plus, I get the feeling making Ebonite-tipped versions of these things would be invaluable." Reno protested, already reloading a new set of the tiny flechettes into the launcher on his arm absent-mindedly. "......Just as a......totally random example. Could probably imagine more but.....that one seems pretty well stuck in my mind right now."  

[Isaac Hawking]

"Setting aside your notably...cavalier approach to both experimentation and safety," Isaac explained as he pinched the bridge of his nose, "There are other factors involved. While I invented it, Mr. Stone is able to help provide me with a resource that not even Sub is able to provide: lawyers. There are...other properties of Meltanium that make it particularly interesting to other corporations in the tech sector. While I own the patent on it, Devon's lawyers have already been invaluable in keeping it out of the hands of others. We already had representatives from Lysander Labs and Macro Cosmos Tech attempt to claim that I used their intellectual property in the development of Meltanium." Isaac sighed, as he removed his hand from his head and closed the briefcase. "Devon's lawyers sent them packing, but without them I would have likely lost ownership of Meltanium. Hence my deal with Stone: Devon gets the exclusive rights to work with and develop new technologies from Meltanium, and I get the protection of their lawyers as well as a lead position within the development team." Isaac picked up the briefcase and handed it to Reno, "By the way, if all that gave you a headache, then you have some idea of how I felt when the lawyers were explaining all the legal elements to me."  

[Isaac Hawking]

"Tell me about it," Isaac groaned as he once again rubbed his face and forehead. "I got migraines from Devon's lawyers explaining this to me the first, second, and third times." An extended sigh escaped Isaac's lips as tension visibly drained from his visage. "I would have considered it overkill if Macro Cosmos Tech and Lysander Labs hadn't shown up with separate teams, Teams, of lawyers. The sheer barrage of legalese from Macro Cosmos had me so confused that I nearly signed away everything without realizing it. Speaking of which, Macro's lawyers arrived less than a week after I showed Meltanium to Mr. Stone. When you next see Sub, let him know that we should probably start keeping an eye on them. Oh, and give him this." Isaac retrieved an envelope from within his lab coat and handed it to Reno and Aile. "It's the expense report that I will have to file at the end of the week. I felt it appropriate to give Sub a heads up warning."  

[Reno Vantas]

Reno would watch the exchange between Isaac and Aile for a moment before looking down at his leg again. So far, there wasn't anything said that would stop him detaching the thing just poking away with everything he had back at the base to find out the what and why of this thing. Heck, if he was nice enough to GRAY and offered to use whatever it was for things to help GRAY out, he might even have an AI helping with the analysis. Except.....something about this was sticking in the back of his mind. "Why would it only be for exclusive rights to use the thing rather than just take the patent with a good offer? .......Isaac. I'm guessing part of the secret process for this thing involves your particular skills that are less replicable than metallurgical knowledge." Reno said, wheels slowly spinning in his head as he was still staring at the leg and arm. If it was what he thought it was, then there was no way in hell he would be able to modify his own stuff while still using this metal. Disappointing, but oh well.