Relics of the Past (Open)

Donût, aka the Unbreakable Mister Steel, was out for what he liked to call a "casual stroll"... which mostly consisted of him leaping around as far and as high as he could in a big old circle around East City. He felt the need to clear his head. His campaign felt like it was stalling out, like he was waiting for something to be decided before he ran in earnest. And he had a few more fights under his belt, a show currently airing, and others being shopped around... But none of it felt quite real or challenging. Not like it had felt when Donût was alone in the wilderness on Konats, or fighting against a powerful alien being with all sorts of special tricks and transformations in a tournament half the galaxy away. He needed adventure.

And boy did he find it, purely by chance and accident. Donût had wound up landing right in front of the open hole that led to a strange bunker... the door, which showed some strange blend of alien architecture and camouflage to blend into the lonely hill it had once been attached to, was thrown to the side. Someone had ripped the door off and just walked right in.

"An abandoned alien outpost? Or maybe tha remnants'f sum ancient civilization with technology outstrippin' our own? Nice! I wonder if whoever went in before me set off sum sorta booby trap...?"

Donût walked in, receiving a strange scan from hidden lasers, before a tube shot strange goo at him. Donût, who was on-guard from the moment he entered, dodged out of the way of the fluid/goo that shot out at him... Just barely avoiding getting any on his jeans.

"Oh schnikes! I wonder if this is stuff is acid 'er meant ta hold ya still..."

Another spurt of fluid came, and Donût dodged again, twirling to see the puddle and the hardened stuff coating a man's feet. The man was still alive, and seemed healthy. He probably hadn't been trapped for long. Donût dodged a third stream of liquid... and then the pipe that had shot fluid out clicked and clicked and clicked again. The tube had spent its tank of fluid, and there didn't appear to be any refills coming any time soon.

"Alright! Classic non-newtonian fluid trap that turns inta brittle, but tough, stuff ta hold ya down! It's just like "The Temple'f Mars"!"

Donût turned to face the stranger on the floor, whose feet were held fast. He walked up and around, so that he could squat down in front of the guy's face and look him in the eyes. Donût had made sure to wear something reasonable for his walk out, so he was wearing a black tank-top, a pair of comfy blue-denim jeans, and some hot-pink sneakers. Along with his classic shades. He folded his hairy arms, and looked over the strand of solidified stuff that was linking Sen to a puddle.

"So... ya think this stuff'll break without hurtin' ya if I get tha leverage, er do ya need a solvent?"

Donût had never heard of "Tudium" or "Katchin", but he nodded anyways when Sen asked him about the materials. Donût figured that Sen would explain everything that he needed to know if Donût just let him keep speaking. And Donût wound up being right. So, the goo was actually the liquid form of some sort of hypermetal, or strange alloy... which made Donût extra glad that he hadn't gotten any on himself. Because either that metal had some weird multi-state properties to its being, or it came out of the tubes molten hot before solidifying when it cooled. If the latter was true, then Sen's legs probably needed to be seen to by one hell of a doctor. Either that, or both needed to be amputated.

Upon being handed the notepad and pen, Donût grinned.

"Retro! I wus gunna just snap a pic with ma phone, but this is more fun. Hope I don't mess up any'f tha symbols!"

And with that, Donût rose and walked over to the panel and began scribbling down the symbols that he saw on the panel. His handwriting was terrible under normal circumstances... and it was even worse when Donût tried to copy an alien script. So it was anyone's guess whether Sen would get anything out of whatever was put on his notepad... But, one could hope. If not, there was always the modern way of doing things.

"So... whatzit say?"

When Sen gave Donût that strange look... Donût just grinned and put his hands on his hips. Donût had no idea why Sen was staring at him that way, but he figured that getting bent out of shape about it wouldn't lead to any good ends. Once Sen had read Donût's chicken-scratch, and gave Donût explicit instructions on what to do... he shrugged and nodded.

"Alright!"

Then, Donût turned around on his heel and walked back to the box. He whistled the tune to one of the many songs he listened to during his workouts, some Tuffle pop music that had made its way to Earth during the war and which had gotten somewhat popular in East City during Donût's childhood. If someone asked Donût to, he would probably have been able to rattle off the lyrics, but he wouldn't have been able to tell anyone what the lyrics actually meant. It was catchy as hell, though. And the tune could get stuck in someone's brain like a worm, burrowing and occasionally surfacing at the most inopportune of times.

Once Donût was actually at the box, he reached a finger down and fumbling his hand along the seam of the box for a latch... he found it, and undid it with a click and a slide of some little plastic bit. The box swung open, revealing a nozzle-shaped gas emitter with a knob to twist and turn. Donût spun the knob to the left, and heard the hiss of gas escaping the nozzle. The gas itself seemed to be mostly transparent, but it had the lightest green tinge to it. And it spread absolutely everywhere in the entry chamber, filling every nook and cranny, flowing over every bit of hardened Tudium.

Thankfully, the gas wasn't too harsh on the lungs, so Donût could still breathe and speak normally as the metal on Sen's legs slowly melted.

"So, whatcha think tha next booby-trap is? Ya think it's sumthin' pointy, 'er sumthin' ta do with lasers and an alarm and crushin' walls?"

Donût had a sneaking suspicion that clarifying the situation with the truth would not dissuade Sen from trying to kill him or torture him for information that Donût did not have. However, he still planned on plugging along with a proper explanation anyways, in the vain hope that Sen might see reason if Donût remained calm. However, while Sen was walking towards him, Donût heard something. The creaking and groaning of the floor beneath him... which clinked and sounded a bit hollow beneath his feet.

"Oh, that's tha second booby traaaaaaaaap!"

Like Sen, Donût was sent tumbling down to the ground. However, Donût was used to falling from tall heights, and was able to land on his feet, bending at the knees before leaping away to help dissipate some of the energy... he rolled... and then the room was silent.



"...Hey fella, y'alright? Fella? Fella?"

Donût pulled out his phone, which was thankfully unbroken from the fall, and put his thumb onto the fingerprint sensor. No reception. That made sense, since Donût was surrounded on all sides by some sort of alien not-concrete that seemed thick enough to withstand a firebombing, but it wasn't great. If this insane, maybe alien, spy guy was injured, Donût wouldn't be able to call for a medical team or assistance with treating his injuries. He also wouldn't be able to look up any info to help with his rudimentary first aid knowledge. I mean, sure, Sen had been about to torture Donût for no reason and had also insulted him as being an unrealistic and stupid example of humanity that didn't belong in Earth's culture (something eerily similar to the words of Mister Steel's worst critics), but that didn't mean Donût wanted him dead or hurt!

Upon hearing Sen groaning and shuffling, Donût activated the flashlight function on his phone and waved it around, trying to get a good look at Sen.

"So, how much ya wanna bet tha floor was made with that 'Tudium' stuff? Y'know, tha floor'f tha room that we filled with tha 'Tudium dissolver gas'?"

Donût's flashlight eventually touched on a light switch, or something that might have been a light switch. It looked more like a flippable button on a wall, than a switch.

"Oh... alright. Temporary truce until we c'n see wut room we're in?"