towerofanimus | [Event] Critical Error

Characters: The Spine and anyone unfortunate enough to stumble upon him.
Setting: Floor Fourteen: Media Room
Format: Starting in prose, will match!
Summary: Rumor has it anyone wearing an orange collar might go berserk at any moment. The Spine has just had a critical systems failure, turning rumor into reality.
WARNINGS: Spine will do his damndest to electrocute, blast a hole in, crush, strangle, or otherwise murder any character that tags into this thread.

The last few days could be summed up in a single sentence: everything is weird and nothing makes sense. People were believing all kinds of crazy things, the food in the cafeteria was poisoned (not a concern for the automaton, but he couldn't help but worry for his human friends here in the tower), and he'd heard via the network that there were bizarre things attacking the tower itself. Not that he'd seen any of them. It seemed to just be rumors.

With all of this craziness, it was no wonder he found his way to the media room. Maybe he could find something to take his mind off of things.

He stepped into the room and found a television that wasn't in use, selecting a program at random.

It was a nature documentary. The film cut from shots of lion cubs rough-housing to zebras enjoying a watering hole (with bonus crocodiles) to a very much alive and not at all mechanical elephant trumpeting--

Error^oror.

The Spine suddenly went rigid, photo-receptors glowing too brightly.

Catastrophic Systems Fail_ure. Going offliⁱine.

As suddenly as they'd gone bright, they snapped off. His knees bent with a hiss of hydraulics and he slumped forward, head hanging and arms stiff at his sides.

Rebooting.

A burst of steam from between his lips and the vents in his cheeks. Hands twitched. He straightened up in a series of mechanically twitching movements.

Loading File ^{Zero Zero} _One Dash _One Eight Nine Seven.

Photo-receptors came back online an angry red. His right sleeve stretched and ripped as segmented metal plates lifted and moved aside, allowing the wicked looking spikes of his tesla coil discharger to extend. Electricity crackled and arced along it, throwing purple light, and a high-pitched whine emitted from somewhere in the back of his throat. Was something... charging up?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

If only it were that easy. The Spine's expression twisted, pained, as the corrupted code cascaded through his system. Safety protocols were either trapped in endless loops or dying mid-activation. His personality, the one that had developed over years of experience and exposure to blue matter, was buried under old programming.

His head jerked violently and a burst of static emitted from his vocalizer. There might have been words there, another plea for Rabbit to run, but it was lost in white noise.

Photo-receptors shuttered and his mouth dropped open. The shrill whine of the blue matter array projector rose sharply, the only warning before blue light erupted from between his melted lips.

Rabbit wasn't going to run and leave his younger brother, and currently his only brother, alone here in the midst of a terrifying malfunction. There was still Spine in there, he was in there somewhere, trapped inside his own body in a horrible nightmare ride and someone had to be here to help him. Snap him out of it or warn people away, something.

He shook him, frantically trying to break though the coding in the most basic way possible, but even Rabbit knew that wasn't going to work. He wasn't going to get through. He didn't want to give up on The Spine like this, not now, not ever.

But he did have good reflexes, despite being so old. He knew what was going. The second his mouth dropped open, Rabbit fell like a lead weight, dropping to the floor and grabbing one of The Spine's legs. With that, he gave an almighty yank, trying to use his brothers poor sense of equilibrium against him.

It worked. The Spine toppled, crashed to the ground with a whirr of overcompensating servos and a cloud of superheated steam. Error messages scrolled across his vision, not that he was aware of it. His consciousness had been overridden by old war protocols, the light that spilled from half-shuttered optics once again a threatening red.

Hos_{tile tech loca-a-a-ated.}

One of his heavy legs drew back and kicked out at Rabbit, trying to dislodge what his system was insisting was an attacker. Dislodge, and once dislodged, destroy by any means at his disposal.

Rabbit clung on as tight as he could, refusing to be removed from The Spine's leg. Letting go meant death, so long as he was attached, he was safe from the beam. So he supposed of course, though being crushed by those powerful hands might possibly happen to. He really wasn't thinking about that.

The first kick had his sensors reeling. He dug in his fingers and clamped down harder in response. A second hit would have his jaw go flying.

A third? Caved in the cheek of the copper bot, and sent him back on his rump, hissing steam and trying to grab back at The Spine again.

As soon as his external sensors registered that the pressure had disappeared from around his leg, The Spine was sitting up, on his knees, launching himself at Rabbit. At what jumbled memories and broken code were insisting was Becile tech.

He threw his whole weight at the other automaton, fingers grasping, aiming for his neck.

If he managed to grab him, he would bear him to the ground while his fingers squeezed and crushed.

If not, well... there's always the laser.

Rabbit wasn't quick enough to dart away from The Spine, hitting the ground sharply and scrambling to try and get away. Shoving, kicking and squirming as much as he could, before frantically pawing at the hands around his skinny neck.

There wasn't much in there, it wasn't as if he had to breathe, but that voice box couldn't stand up to too much damage. With a crackle and a pop, the voice box was destroyed. Static hissed out instead, and he took a wild swing at The Spine's face.

He could feel vital wires in his neck being pinched and crushed together. Circuits were going to be destroyed. If he didn't get out he'd be paralyzed, or Spine would tear his head straight off.

The shoves were met with solid resistance, the blows from knees and feet had no effect save the muffled clanging of metal meeting metal. Corrupted code and conflicting commands caused The Spine's chassis to twitch and jerk sporadically, boiler rumbling and steam clouding the air around the two automatons. His system was overcompensating, expending energy for a fight that simply wasn't there.

A sharp sound accompanied that wild swing connecting. The silver 'bot's head snapped to the side again, his external sensors registering the fresh dent and the fact that his jaw had been knocked out of alignment.

Black oil leaked from emotionless photo-receptors to drip on patina'd copper as his hands twisted and pulled.

Rabbit threw everything he had into trying to escape. Every last bit of energy in him was expended in his wild attempt to break free of his over powered sibling. Nothing was working, from the kicks to the punches to his turning and shaking. Nothing. He refused to use his weapons on his brother. Not on him, never on him. Even if it meant death, death was better than the knowledge of killing family.

And so, it seemed, this was his downfall. A static rush betrayed a cry of pain as metal finally buckled and broke, wires tearing free and black oil spilling out onto the ground. Oil welled at his eyes as well, even as he knew he was no longer attached to the rest of him.

For a few, horrific moments, he was still completely aware of what was happening, broken and sparking and leaking everywhere. Then, the mismatched eyes went black, and all hints of movement halted.

It was at the point of absolutely no return, when the last few wires and oil lines ripped apart, that The Spine's optics flickered, went dark, snapped back on bright green. He stared, horrified and sickened, at the head in his hands.

^Becile Tech N-n-n-n-neutralize-ize-ized.

He wanted to scream and shout and beg for it not to have been happening. It couldn't have been happening. He recalled the crunch of metal and snap of circuitry and curled in on himself, holding Rabbit's disembodied head close to his chest as the light left those mismatched eyes.

The malfunction had been corralled too late.

When the red collared retrieval units came for him, The Spine resisted until one of them finally managed to yank his brother from his grasp.

[Event] Critical Error

DUCK

SPINE WHY

cause his player his horrible that's why

8C

C8

/sobs

/turns up the drama dial

/up to 11

/ugly sobbing