Virtues Of The Unclaimed Peace [AT, Conquest]

Yatapi let out a single partially crazed bark of a laugh. “HA! If a monster is what you want to see, look no further than a mirror.” The nanomachines that comprised his suit reacted accordingly as with his emotions, the face plate opened up into a jagged monstrous mouth. The rest of his suit shifted and settled on a slightly more wild form as well. “But, if you insist, I shall play along. I’ll be your monster.” Yatapi hissed, creating a small drone with a spinning disc of energy, setting it loose upon Satsuma to torment him.

This left Yatapi to focus more on Iyokan, which would, as far as he could guess, cause Satsuma more stress. Her response to his attack was tactically sound— she made a good call in protecting herself. The vacuum suction play was interesting as well, and Yatapi held control over the nanites that Iyokan had sucked up to scan and examine. Were there weaknesses? Yes, but the few that she could find, she was not strong enough to exploit right now. “I should mention this to you, Iyokan. Doing that... Was not as smart as you may have thought.” Yatapi forewarned, additionally allowing Iyokan in on some secret capabilities of the nanomachines— or more accurately, Yatapi himself. The power of the Rebuild Network. If he so chose, he could attempt to reconstruct Iyokan from within herself as long as she held any number of his nanomachines in her system. “I would return those willingly, if I were in your position.”

Yatapi raised his arms, conjuring thin bracer shield constructs to counter Iyokan’s deadly razor blade. Noting the motion Iyokan had made, Yatapi found himself even more curious. It was a deadly strike, yet it was also lacking in something, it was half-hearted. Was she only acting within the confines of the command as minimally as her programming would allow?

“Interesting...” Yatapi mused to himself as he created shoulder mounted blasters, firing off a faux-kiai to try and get Iyokan to back off for a bit. “Very interesting...”

Yatapi laughed uproariously seeing the contorted and fearful expression and actions of Satsuma. “That’s it, that’s what we want to see!” Yatapi barked triumphantly. He didn’t even seem to mind that Iyokan had intercepted the drone. “Now, how many times can we get that out of you before becoming bored...” Yatapi tapped the side of his face, idly in thought. Yatapi conjured three more drones after recalling and assimilating the destroyed one. Iyokan could get in the way of one, but could she get in the way of three? Yatapi raised his hand up... “I guess we’ll find out.” and pointed at Satsuma once again, sending the three drones to harass the old man, giving the drones the clear and explicit order to not kill Satsuma, no, their flight paths suggested something far different.

Torture.

Regarding Iyokan, Yatapi sighed. He did give her a warning, he did his best, didn’t he? At some point he would have to take her down, and he knew that. “Very well.” Yatapi held an arm to his side as another construct began to form , several rings aligned, creating a propulsion device with a high powered spike loaded into it. As Iyokan’s internal engine began to overclock, Yatapi held his arm back, exuding an energized level of pressure. In a burst of speed, Yatapi made a hard step forward as he swung the construct on his arm, puncturing the destron burst like a pin to a balloon, with still enough power for Yatapi to take aim at Iyokan’s body. “I’ll take them back by force.” Yatapi then exerted further control over his nanomachines, retrieving what was stolen, making sure to purge them of anything not of his own making from them before repurposing them into more destron cleaner drones that began to hoover up the excess created by Iyokan.

“Hmph, was that it?” Yatapi took a step back, deconstructing his arm mounted weapon. “I guess I could applaud the effort, somewhat. That faulty construction holds you back, unfortunately.”

Soon, there were explosions coming from Hatchi city, the duplicate city above it was gone or crumbling by now, and it sounded as though a fair bit of underground structure had been ruptured in the true city at this point. The battle over there really was ramping up!

The drones sent to torture Satsuma weaved around randomly, ducking and diving at him before simply backing off, all sorts of uncertain un-methodical maneuvers designed simply to try and get Satsuma on edge. Wild, unscientific, uncontrolled behaviour, outside of his control, everything Yatapi thought Satsuma would hate with every fibre of his being. Of course, Yatapi found that greatly amusing, as to be expected.

Yatapi watched and examined Iyokan’s behaviour as the bout had progressed. His genius wasn’t required to understand what had just happened, it was even something that he had considered possible not even a few moments earlier.

Iyokan had just evolved beyond core programming.

“Well now...” Yatapi smiled, his suit still in that ‘monstrous’ mode, and as such the expression could be seen somewhat. It was a smile, one of immense satisfaction too, one of pride— and unlike Satsuma it would not be something he shied away from. “At least it happens to be the only thing holding you back.” Yatapi stated, noticing the information that Iyokan had freely given him— blueprints, what little information she could glean of her own blueprints!

With this information given to him outright, Yatapi could very easily do for Iyokan what he had managed for Curie— allow them individuality, a true concept of self. Doing so would be the ultimate retribution against Satsuma, Yatapi just knew it!

Yatapi’s gaze locked onto Iyokan, emboldened by further purpose. Iyokan as she is now may die, but if Yatapi was able to manage, she would be reborn. Looking over to Satsuma, Yatapi ordered the drones once more, this time their purpose was to disarm Satsuma and make sure he would be able to see what was coming next. So, Yatapi began calculating just how he could ensure Iyokan was remade, and how to do it right this time.

With the little camera feeds installed on the drones, Yatapi had some visual on Satsuma come up on his suit’s HUD. It was sad, almost, watching the old man strain himself this hard. If it was for any other cause, Yatapi might admire such tenacity, such drive to survive, but alas. Satsuma was unworthy of such respect, so instead, Yatapi revelled in the misery of this fossil of a man. The drones were relentless and even fired off blasts to rupture the walls Satsuma wished to hide around.

Wait, was the old man running? Oh no, Yatapi wasn’t going to let this chance to humiliate Satsuma slide.

With his calculations nearing completion, Yatapi swiftly and simply raised a hand against Iyokan’s next assault, conjuring only a medium sized glowing rotating ring around his wrists out of some nanomachines; which projected a net of energy that fluttered out like an ominous sheet, a depiction of a nondescript spirit that enveloped the energy Iyokan’s attack held, snuffing it out, before fading away, the ring clicking back onto Yatapi’s suit. He then launched a jet powered punch toward Iyokan’s face before kicking off of the ground in search of Satsuma, and through the advanced feed his drones provided, he could largely tell where the old man was going.

Cutting Satsuma off, Yatapi snarled at him, the vibrant aggressive buzz of his nanomachines revving up once more as his drones returned to his side, their own weapons boosted by this emotional effect. “No.” He demanded, moving to try and grab Satsuma by the neck. “You squandered your chance. You are not leaving... Not on your terms.” Yatapi added, threateningly.

Yatapi commanded his drones and a large portion of his spare nanomachines to begin creating something over one of his arms, a large imposing cannon. The front barrel looked like a jagged and fearsome beast-like jaw, yellow energy began to be sucked into it as well as projected from it.

In the distance, out in Hatchi, a pillar of yellow light breached the sky, and even from this distance Yatapi’s advanced scouter registered it without his input. It was followed by another burst of light and power shortly afterward, another golden warrior born. There were two of them. It was amazing, a duo of battle powers nearing two million units, well over a thousand RDZ each!

Yatapi had heard tell of this kind of strength, a fighter bathed in blazing yellow flame— an ancient story among Saiyan culture— the Super Saiyan. But who were they? Yatapi had no way of knowing for sure but if he had to guess, there were three options. Three Saiyans he knew that had will beyond most others. Lottus, Nasu, or even Vocado.

“Do you have any idea what that is out there, Satsuma?” Yatapi paused, his cold stare piercing through the decrepit old man. “The sins of the war you left unfinished have guided you here, and bathed Hatchi in a legendary yellow light... Super Saiyan. You won’t need to worry about it for long, though.”

Yatapi began cackling, very genuinely like a madman, a sadistic hunter that had cornered his prized prey, his most hated enemy. He tried to clamp the jaw of his draconic cannon violently over Satsuma’s head so that the old man would be face to face with energy that represented years of pent up rage, sorrow and karmic retribution. This was for all of the helpless creatures, once beautiful natural biomes, and innocent people that had suffered due to Satsuma’s actions. “Rot in peril, monster.” The energy within the cannon heated up even further beyond natural expectation, it had truly become infused with Yatapi’s emotions. He fired, screaming at the top of his lungs, with all of his voice.

“Let the dragon consume you!”

There was no point in responding to Satsuma anymore as far as Yatapi was concerned, the old man had exhausted whatever amusement his presence had. Whether or not Yatapi’s theory was believed, the powers within Hatchi were a blazing golden yellow. Even if by some absolute cosmic miracle there were two near identical (hilariously oppositely coloured) anti-destron weapons— Super Saiyans were far more believable.

Satsuma made one last selfish decision, forcing Iyokan to intercede. Predictable, in so many ways; and since it wasn’t much of a surprise, Yatapi fired fractal disks of his own creation into the furious beam and did what he could to guide the cannon fire in a way that would at best, given the circumstances, critically damage Iyokan.

Moments afterward, in the blink of an eye, the treacherous old doctor Satsuma was obliterated. The sound of Satsuma’s death... To Yatapi, it was satisfying, deserved. Excised from the mortal plane at his lowest point, just as Yatapi had envisioned it. “No body to mourn, and nobody to mourn it. A fitting end.”

Yatapi immediately turned his attention to Iyokan. She was in absolutely horrid condition now, but without Satsuma to interfere, this was probably Yatapi’s best opportunity to free Iyokan from the residual grip of that sick freak. Yatapi quickly constructed a pop-up laboratory within the remains of a nearby building, outfitting it with all that he believed he would need to help. He also attempted to check Satsuma’s old laboratory for anything that could make things easier, but if Yatapi worked quick enough he theorized he could save Iyokan’s primary processor which would be the most important part as it essentially held her within it; what little personality she was allowed, and whatever personality she had grown.

In any case, he brought Iyokan’s malfunctioning remains into his new pop-up lab and got to work directly, choosing to oversee this operation in its entirety, it was more time sensitive than the removal of Destron— he had his automated drones reactivated and continue that instead, he could always double check afterward.

Using the power of his Rebuild Network, Yatapi attempted to upgrade her, ensure that she could be herself, a new self all her own. Reborn from the ashes of a tainted legacy, her core lit with a new flame... Yes, a flame, Yatapi thought. Risen like a phoenix. Once he had done all that he could, Yatapi set Iyokan into an autonomous stasis pod that would complete the rest of the work that he had programmed, alongside a short audio message for when she hopefully woke up. With one last once over, Yatapi labelled the stasis pod with a holo-pad projector.

PHN-X: Iyokan MK.II

Yatapi stayed a while longer before deciding that he had done his best, returning to his primary task of ridding this land of Destron, certain that nobody else would be getting in the way...