The Tentacle Problem by Bronze Tempest | World Anvil

Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
October 1, 2009

The Tentacle Problem

by Bronze Tempest

I see Moon Knight being carried away and yell for Sahara as we both run down the corridor and then up the hallway to the guards carrying him. I reach for the two guards in order to knock their heads together while Sahara flies (slithers/cascades/whatever!) over their head and forms a wall in front of them to block their progress. I smack the two guards together bodily and Moon Knight collapses to the floor as the guards fall down unconscious, but it isn't Moon Knight. It is another orange glowing eyes person who has been dressed up in a Moon Knight costume. (Note: This is a pretty good replica. I wonder if they sell these too?) Then suddenly there are tentacles coming up from the floor where the guards fell! Sahara turns into a sand tornado and grabs up all of the guards and tosses them against the wall. Suddenly the tentacles slither away from the guards and start heading in different directions. I grab the closest one and begin to twist it into a pretzel. I notice as I am stretching and turning it that it is composed of those small nanite robots just like the giant robots we were fighting earlier. Another one manages to get onto my left arm and starts twirling around my arm and heading for my neck - the same place that the tentacles were apparently stored on the guards.
 
I drop the first one that I had successfully turned into a pretzel and jumped on top of it in order to keep it from doing anything else. It is almost incapacitated so I reach for the one that is crawling up my arm, but it dodges my quick grab and transfers over to my other arm, and starts crawling up towards my neck again. This time, it seems to be purposely doing a disjointed crawl and I can feel each individual bot as it moves slowly up my arm. Sahara yells, "Watch Out!!" I drop to the ground just as a ray of cold air goes where my body had been. Which was a great escape, but now I am laying on top of the pretzel. Then those pieces swirl around and join with the tentacle on my arm and now my arm is C O V E R E D with these little nanites. Now I have to ponder. Is there a chance I can figure out a way to use these for my own purpose? Imagine how powerful I could be with armor comprised of nanites that would be able to attack and defend.
 
Sahara asks if I trust him and I ask if I should? He slides over me and suddenly I am encased in sand that is hard and fits me like a glove. Maybe this is a better alternative than the nanites!??! I use the opportunity to smash the wall beside an outlet and grab the wires. There is a bit of feedback, but I turn and attach them to the nanites who burn, sizzle, and cook. They appear to be dead finally. At least something works on those! Then the final guard - who apparently has meta powers of cold or something similar - fires another energy beam. I am going to just jump to the side of the wall and dodge the blast and then attack the guy, but Sahara suggests (the downside of this armor is that it talks - or maybe this is an upside?!?!) that we use the wires and put them into the stream. I can't see an issue with that so I do what he suggests. The electrical power arcs back and the guard is tossed around like a rag doll - upside! The downside is we are encased in a block of ice. Still can't find fault with the plan. Then we hear chatter from the other team members and apparently we took down at least part of the power grid. OOOPPPPSSS!!!!! Sorry, not sorry.
 
We flex together and the ice block shatters and the ice covers the floor. Looking toward the attacker, we can see him at the end of the hallway - way down the hallway. Sahara thinks we should call the paramedics - or just the police to take care of these guys. I suggest we check them to make sure that they have had the orange glow knocked out of them first. The first two that I took down are starting to come around and we check them to make sure they are mostly harmless. I remember that those tentacle things come out from the back of their neck so we check there and all we can see are the remnants of sucker marks. We trundle down the hallway and check the last guy and he is a bit burned, but not in too bad of shape. He has the same remnant on the back of his neck. As we are about to call the police, we hear a voice behind us saying not to bother as the police are already here. It is Detective Kato Machale and he tells us he has it under control and we head out to see what we can do to help the rest of the team.
 
As I jump into the street I see a lot of different things happening, but the truck about to jackknife seems to be the biggest hazard and the most imminent that I can also do something about. I land behind the truck and grab the bumper and pull it back steady. I can hear the water inside the truck sloshing around and then I notice some sort of misty dragon shape that has teeth in the bumper as well. Once the vehicle is stable, I check with the team to see who needs help. Moon Knight and Sahara both respond. Moon Knight is hurtling through the air while wrapped in a net. A glowing orange ooze is floating towards the helpless members of our fair city. I think and make a quick (and hopefully correct!) decision to intersect and grab Moon Knight out of the air before he hits anything. Then I rip the net off him and we rush towards the orange ooze. Moon Knight pulls out a package with a snowflake on it and throws it so that it mixes with the mist and turns it into a dreamsicle sludge - that is sliding towards the sewer system. Some guy lands beside us and the team seems to know him and he grabs a sample of the ooze and suggests that Kara - whoever that is - call Apothocary Fu.
 
Suddenly, all the other people around me grab their phones and look at something and then stare at each other.
 

Continue reading...

  1. Me? A Hero?
    Wednesday, September 23, 2009
  2. A minor incident
    Monday, September 28, 2009
  3. Crossword puzzles for fun and relaxation
    Thursday the 1st of October, 2009
  4. Museum Hi-jinks
    October 1, 2009
  5. The Tentacle Problem
    October 1, 2009
  6. Tunnels and Green Houses
    October 1, 2009
  7. The Swan Flail
    October 1, 2009
  8. Taking one for the team
    October 1, 2009
  9. The People's Elbow
    October 1, 2009
  10. Puny god smash
    October 1, 2009
  11. Flying Squirrels
    October 1, 2009
  12. Plans are for weaklings
    October 1, 2009