M.U.R.D.E.R.

[Inzema]

In a corner of the universe, hypothetically outside of the standard mesh of wibbly wobbly timey wimey...stuff, there was a room. The walls of the room were made of relatively featureless and rough grey rock with veins of blue that ran horizontally from one end of the room to the other, pulsing to a beat of unkowable source. Lining the walls and filling most of the floor were black wooden tables with all manner of alchemical and mechanical devices strewn about them with no apparent order to the mayhem. In the rear of the room was a pile of coins and various other trinkets, baubles, and whatnot. The values of the items ranged from entirely worthless to completely unique and priceless, though the difference between the two were often rather subtle. A door made of dull black metal covered in rivets rested in the wall near the pile of shinys. In the wall on the opposite side of the room from the door was a small metal circle of the same metal with many many wires running from the plate into the stone, mostly into the pulsing blue veins, linked through an electro-transmogrifier and a hypertransmitter pushing through a wormhole to an identical pad hidden in the peaks of Icecrown. A teleportation pad, the only way in or out of Inzema's lab.
At one of the tables sat a mechagnome, Cehsneog, its metal face forged into a permanent maniacal grin. It sat on a stool twice as tall as it, metal feet dangling off the side and kicking back and forth as a child might while it worked on the innards of a rocket about three times the size of it. The mechagnome glanced towards the metal plate, its mechanical eyes detecting an energy buildup at the device. Half a dozen rockets on mounts sprouted from an equal number of places on the tiny automaton's body and oriented on the device, matches held by small mechanical hands lit and ready to light the fuses and send half a dozed missiles of certain death roaring across the small space at whoever was unlucky enough to step onto the teleportation circle.
A flash of light manifested over the teleportation pad, quickly compensated for by the mechanical eyes. The energy signified someone entering, but no target presented itself. Cehsneog computed a ninety percent certainty that it was not a malfunction, and following that conclusion, that Inzema was in the room. It tracked several probable paths based on Inzema's habits and determined that he would stop behind it and attempt to disable it again. The rocket mounts swiviled, orienting their deadly payload behind the mechagnome and touched matches to fuses.
"Unauthorized launch detected," chimed a mechanical feminine voice from nowhere and everywhere at once. "Disabling ordnance." The fuses detached themselves from the rockets and burned away on the floor, safely far away from the ignition powder. Cehsneog let out a squeal of irritation and began reloading fuses into the rockets for a second attempt. Inzema appeared beside the small robot with a grin and pressed three buttons in a certain sequence, sending the mechagnome into standby mode. He blew imaginary smoke from his gloved finger, holstered an imaginary pistol, and tapped his hooded forehead in a salute to the ceiling.
"Thanks, honey, for the assist," the undead called out to nowhere in particular. "Any time, dear," responded the disembodied voice, pleasure evident in her tone. "We got company coming today, willingly, too." "Any special requests, dear?" "Ah, not sure. Dossier on her is still in the works...Wine, pull out the Lordaeron old vintage." "Of course, dear. Shall I prepare the bedroom as well?" Inzema scratched his chin and shook his head. "Nah, cancel the wine, too. Chill a Rotgut Special and a random selection of others." "Of course, dear. Music selection?" "No music. Protocol Sixteen while she's here. Don't want people knowing about you, honey." "We wouldn't want that, dear." "I also got a schem we should take a look at. Wanna make it bigger, better, boomier, ya know?" "We will blot out the sky with the devastation." "That's my girl, Ikai." "I am pleased because you are."
Inzema pulled a scroll from one of the many pockets on his black leather breastplate and spread it on an open patch of table near where Cehsneog had been working. A green three dimensional holographical image appeared above it, displaying what the bomb would hypothetically look like upon completion, with cutaways to show the innards along with floating notes and the signature of the gnome that created the plans. Inzema grinned and drew a few notes in the air, scrawled in a red light. Some yellow notes appeared as well in an ordered hand, the letters too perfect to have been made by anything but a machine. After a few minutes of making notes, Inzema nodded and sauntered across the room and through the door on the other side of the room, whistling the tune to a baudy pub song.
The other room was as chaotic as the first, despite its relative emptiness. A bed and a wardrobe marked the only real pieces of furniture, the stone walls lined with weapons of all shapes and sizes, mostly knives. The stench of dried blood permeated the air like a living thing. Inzema took a deep breath and grinned. He opened the wardrobe and began coming through the contents for something suitable to wear, eventually deciding on an identical match to the leather armor he was currently wearing, minus the hood. By the time he was finished changing, Ikai chimed into the room.
"Energy build up in the distant end." "Prolly my guest. Let it through." He strapped a belt full of daggers around his waist and walked back out into the lab to greet Hokuto.
------
The blue veins near the teleportation pad pulsed with increasing frequency until a flash of light appeared in the air, almost blindingly bright and difficult to look directly at. Inzema's goggles compensated for the flash immediately, allowing him to see when the light faded, leaving behind a slightly disoriented Hokuto, a Jeeves model mechagnome in tow. [Description of Hokuto here.] He grinned, watching her expression from the shadows before stepping from them and gesturing about him. "Hey hot ssstuff. Glad you could make it. Welcome to my lab."
Hokuto took in the sights, and if she was impressed, she hid it well. "It's nice. One moment. Plate is hell on healing wounds." She tilted her head to her Jeeves, who rocketed up from the floor to her head level. She took off her tabard and tucked it into her belt before proceeding to remove her gauntlets, helm, and breastplate and passed them each in turn to the mechagnome, who made them vanish each in turn to wherever her stash was hidden, leaving the blood elf in her undershirt and some fresh bandages stained slightly with blood. Inzema watched with a lewd grin on his face. "Ya know, you shhhould wear lesss more often. It'sss good on you." Hokuto rolled her eyes and put her tabard back on over her undershirt. "Not likely," she said with a bit of irritation. "Now then, down to work."
Inzema shrugged and nodded, still mostly taking note of the way the cloth hung on Hokuto's frame and imagining having it his way. He suppressed the thoughts and gestured behind him to the hovering display of the schematics. "Yeah, sssure." He walked to the table where he had been working on the device, which rested on the floor and was about the size of a small dog and roughly spherical, continuing to talk as he did. "Basssically, what we got is a mashhhine that makesss a frequensssy and transssmitsss it and givesss usss a ridiculousss amount of control of the element in quessstion. Basssically a sssleeper freq." Inzema expanded a section of the schematic, pointing to a piece marked "tuning fork." "It callsss for a mithril tuning fork here, and I figure that if we change the sssize jussst a little bit, add sssome obsssidium to increassse the denssity, we could get the freq jussst right to control fire elementalsss."
Hokuto nodded and gestured, shrinking the schematic and zooming in in another place. "These frosteel tubes are a weak point. We should consider changing the metal or at least reinforcing it with elemntium." Inzema grinned. She was quick, though she had had a copy of the schematics for herself for a bit as well. He zoomed out the schematic and pointed at one of his notes. "The whole ssstructure isss a bit shhhoddy. By my bet, if we get the proper resssonating frequensssy, it'll vibrate to piesssesss. Dissse can't have that." He tapped the frame of the device with one knuckle. "Changed the alloy to a sssaronite obsssidium alloy. Actually increasssed the radiusss of generated frequensssiesss." Hokuto nodded thoughtfully, expanding the schematic at one of Inzema's notes. She looked at the corresponding part on the device and frowned.
"Is that really a volatile blasting trigger? Did you put that there as some kind of joke? That gnome can't have been crazy enough to think someone would be standing right next to the thing to set it off." Inzema chuckled and shook his head. "Nah, if you look clossser, it'sss modified to be an emergensssy killssswitch, in cassse you need to shhhut the mashhhine off in a hurry. Persssonally, I don't think we need it." Hokuto took a closer look at the switch and nodded. "I see it now. For once, I agree with you. Hand me a spanner would you?" She held out her hand for the requested tool. "Oh, and a micro-adjustor." Inzema flipped a pair of multitools from his belt into hand, pulling out the proper tools, and handed them to the death knight. She knelt down and began tinkering with the killswitch, tracing wires to sources and finding where it could be separated from the rest of the device. Inzema took a step back, admiring Hokuto's ass as she worked. He tapped a button on his goggles, taking a few pictures for his collection.
Hokuto finished removing the killswitch and handed it to Inzema. Inzema tossed it onto the table, where it joined a haphazard assortment of parts, tools, and devices. One it impacted with sparked and disappeared. "Do you have any felsteel stabilizers?" Hokuto asked. "I need to add a break here to compensate for the killswitch and I don't want it to change the frequency." Inzema cackled and pulled open a drawer in the table, rummaging through parts. ""Felsssteel shhhe sssaysss." Hah! I got better." He let out an exclamation as he found the parts he was looking for and tossed them to Hokuto. Hokuto caught them with barely a glance as she worked at stripping wires and removing fuses, and when that was done, she started to install the stabilizers. "Enhansssed adamantite. Ekssspensssive asss fuck, but the Grim hasss deep pocketsss and lotsss of contactsss, and thessse are way more effective than felsssteel."
Hokuto tightened the last bolt securing the new stabilizers in place and stood. She handed Inzema his tools and smiled. "There, see that? No need to shut it off if things go...awry." Inzema knelt down to inspect the work and nodded appreciativly. "I wouldn't've thought about that. I wasss jussst gonna leave the killssswitch." He stood back up and began writing in the air in the schematic, light appearing in the trail of his finger. Hokuto watched over his shoulder as numbers appeared. "Comparable results?" she asked. Inzema stopped writing and the equation he had written melded into new numbers labeled with "Destrutive potential when combined with Grim Device: Equivalent to 15 Megacraps." Inzema whistled appreciatively.
"Is that good?" Hokuto asked, obviously not familiar with the scale, which was usually used to indicate a thousand Holicraps, give or take a few. Inzema nodded and pulled a Global Thermal Sapper charge from a pocket in his armor. "Thessse are worth a half Megacrap." Hokuto nodded appreciatively. "Radiusss isss gonna be a lot bigger, too. We're gonna tune thisss to the fire elementa'sss rage frequensssy and ussse them to burn Ssstormwind to the fuckin ground."
An evil grin crossed Hokuto's face. She gestured to her Jeeves, which handed her a toolbox from nowhere. "I have an idea to increase the intensity." She started opening and closing compartments until she found the proper one and pulled out a pair of glass tubes. "Volatile water and electrified ether." Inzema snapped his fingers and pointed at the vials, followed by a look of confusion. "I don't get it." "We can use the ether to boil the volatile water and give the elemental source a steam bath, enough to piss it off but not weaken it..." Inzema snapped his fingers again, his expression brightened. "Gimmie the water, I'mma make it better. More oomph. Alssso, we can run the ether through sssome microweave talasssite wiring." Hokuto nossed and knelt again, starting to adjust wiring to make room for the amplifier.
Inzema walked across the room to a table filled with alchemical devices and uncerimoniously dumped the contents of the vial into the device. The volatile water bubbled furiously as it went through vial and beaker and tubing until it was deposited in another vial at the other end of the probably needlessly convoluted apparatus. Inzema took the vial and walked back to Hokuto and the device. Hokuto was nearly finished adding in the amplifier, the electrified ether connected through wiring to a pair of capacitors and a new chamber. He handed her the vial and grinned lewdly down at her.
"Oh, hey, while you're down there..." he said with a chuckle which died slowly when Hokuto pointed what looked to be a high-powered bolt gun at him. Inzema hadn't noticed it on her belt and was relatively certain she hadn't been holding it beforehand. He shrugged and busied himself with adjusting the tuning fork until ikai pinged his goggles to let him know that it generated the right frequency. Hokuto finished with the assembly nodded, pleased with her work. She paused for a moment, halfway back to standing before kneeling back down.
"Where is the power core?" She asked, looking at the schematics, then at the device. "Ah, that wasss my own persssonal touch." Inzema knelt down beside Hokuto and pointed at a metal cube deep in the device with a yellow smiley face painted on it. Hokuto stared at the cube for a moment before asking "What is it." "T.H.A.T." "That, yes. What is it?" "Temporal Hyperssstatic Amplification Terminal. Basssically, there's an electric charge generated, and usssing a loophole in ssspasssetime, it'sss amplified a hundred fold. Pretty nifty, yeah?"
Hokuto raised an eyebrow. "Very clever...what do the numbers say now?" Inzema glanced up at the projected destruction numbers again, which with the addition of the amplification chamber, had increased to 20 Megacraps. Hokuto smiled, obviously pleased with her work. "What about the stability of the device?" she asked. More writing appeared beneath the first, forming the phrase "Probability of catastrophic failure: 0.45%." Hokuto frowned. "What is "catastrophic failure"?" "No boom." "That would be a catastrophic failure." "Yup. Thossse numbersss are way better than most of my gadgetsss." Hokuto smirked at Inzema and stood.
"Aren't you glad I am here to help?" she said as she dusted her hands off. Inzema smirked right back at her as he stood. "Well yeah, you've got way better titsss than mossst of my engineering partnersss." Hokuto smiled slightly, both pleased and annoyed. "That's probably because mine are real. Back to the matter at hand, I have something that should work for the triggering device." The death knight pulled a small remote with a large red button encompassing nearly all the mass of the faceplate. "Long range, difficult to jam. I use it on most of my explosives. We wil need someone to control it. I don't want to be on the rebound if the frequency backfires." Inzema chuckled and palmed the device, making it disappear with a flourish of movement. "Leave that to me. I love big red buttonsss." Hokuto nodded and smiled wickedly, looking at the M.U.R.D.E.R., the expression almost alien on her face. "I'll leave that to you then. Stormwind will look like the Blasted lands when the smoke clears." Inzema nodded vehemently. "It'll be shhhiny."
Inzema stretched upwards, popping his back and a few ligaments. "So...we 'bout done then?" Hokuto nodded. "I think so. Will you be informing Leyu'jin?" Inzema tapped his goggles and nodded. "Already got the report started up here." Inzema manifested a black bottle with fog dripping from it. "Rotgut Ssspesssial for a toassst?" Hokuto smiled and nodded. "I s'pose one drink won't hurt." "That'sss the ssspirit!" Inzema recovered a pair of metal mugs from a nearby table and poured a bit of the viscous green liquid into each and passed one to Hokuto. He raised his glass towards the ceiling and said "To the inevitable death to a whole fuckin' lotta Food." hokuto raised her mug as well. "To annihilation." Together, they touched mugs and downed their contents in one gulp. Inzema let out a sigh of appreciation and licked his lips.
"That'sss the good ssstuff right there, I'm tellin' ya." Hokuto nodded and eyed the bottle. "It has a good burn to it." Inzema eyed the bottle and shrugged. He took Hokuto's mug and set both down by the bottle. "I reccommend againssst having more than one a week. It may...ah...eat your intessstinesss." Hokuto smirked. "It's not like I have to worry about dying." "True, true. Wanna go hit up the gamesss?" Inzema tossed a dagger skyward and caught it by the blade despite the posion slicked across it. Hokuto nodded and began putting her armor back on with the help of her Jeeves. "Let's."

[Inzema]

Inzema grinned, his thumb flipping the safety latch that covered the big red button, to which he had drawn on a skull and crossbones, that would set off the M.U.R.D.E.R. back and forth. Tick tock. He chuckled at the possibilities. Tick tock. He was going to wait for the right time of day, which was about one second after he decided not to wait anymore, watching the fire elementals gathered around the device. Tick tock. "Whoopsss, time'sss up!" He flipped the safety off and hit the big red button.

And nothing happened.

He pressed the button again to make sure.

And still nothing.

"Well that'sss a bummer," Inzema muttered, pocketing the button. He worked his way down the cliff to where he had hidden the device, ghosting between elementals, and zapped it back to his lab with a small device. This might be a problem. He'd need more people!

[Bloodscream]

It was poorly lit in the room.
The air was stale but that hardly seemed to bother the forsaken. The Blood Elves however were looking a little green under the gills. The Orc and the goblin were also green but that is generally considered a good thing.
They filed in, most of them unsure precisely why they had been summoned.
Inzema spoke first, taking a moment to fiddle with his jaw.

"You're probably wondering why you're here?" he hissed, grinning at the group.

Inzema cackled uncontrollably. Anaie joined in with a sharp guffaw that sent the eye she kept in her mouth sailing out to bounce on the table and roll towards the blood elf Deminthus who backhanded the eye in a lazy arc back towards the rogue.
Sizzlespark, the goblin, youngest of the assembled Grims tried not to giggle as Anaie caught the eye in her mouth, grinned, drooled and said “fank you” to the elven blood knight.

Hokuto was a blood elf also but she was a death knight and giggling simply wasn't in the cards for her. She sighed softly and waited a few more seconds before speaking.

"I suspect it would be safer for everyone’s sanity if I take this meeting over."
She was by no means senior among them nor did she bear title or responsibility but she spoke with certainty and drive and that was good enough for the others.
Anaie shot a sideways glance at Bloodscream. The orc had a look on his face like he'd rather be stepping on alliance heads, which was a fair assessment.
Hokuto nodded to Inzema who produced a rolled up scroll from his bags. He gingerly unrolled it and suddenly he had everyone’s attention.

Everyone at this table was bound by two very important things. First, they were all Grim, second, they were all students of the lost art of engineering. The scroll was rather obviously schematics and they all glanced at it intently as Inzema tried to keep the scroll flat on the table while the scroll desperately tried to roll up again. Inzema wrestled with the paper a few moments before securing it to the table with several daggers.

The gathered engineers silently studied the plans, they were incomplete and several sections had writing scrawled and calculations scribbled on the margins.
Sizzlespark, being the youngest was also expected to be the impatient one and so, she moved first. She hopped up onto the table and pointed at the schematics.
"Wazzat?" she asked haltingly. Spoken language was new to her. She understood it fine she just didn't speak much. Her command of the Orcish language was measured in dozens of words.

Hokuto answered.
"This is what was recovered of the schematics of the gnome engineer Creedy. This device can apparently "deactivate" life.

Anaie cackled. Bloosdcream snorted. Sizzlespark looked at the two slightly confused.

Hokuto nodded.

"Indeed but the device it is claimed does this by emitting anti-life, or in technical terms, it supposedly can broadcast a narrow band, negatively charged field of bio energy. Essentially acting as "anti-life" and turning what living thing it strikes into an inanimate object... a process that according to Inzema’s math, which I support, is malleable."

Bloodscream snorted again, this time louder.
Hokuto did not let him interrupt her.

"Agreed Orc but that's not what we're interested in." she answered.
"Suspended animation, while certainly useful can be achieved by far easier means than this diagram displays."
Bloodscream nodded, that had actually been his point.
Inzema joined in, pointing to a sub-section of the schematics.
"Looksssy here Blood, what'sss that look like to you?" the rogue asked, knowing what the answer would be.
Bloodscream craned his neck to the left, then to the right. He reached up and activated something on his goggles, a beam of light shot out and slowly ran over the schematic while the goggles whirred and beeped.
A few seconds later, the beam of light faded and Bloodscream looked like he was chewing on his tongue for a few seconds.

"Why the hell would anyone incorporate a cerebral induction array into such a device?"

Hokuto said nothing. She stared at the orc waiting to see if he would come to same conclusion she and Inzema had.
Deminthus, who looked as though he were about to say something, suddenly changed his mind as if a thought had come in and told his tongue to step the hell back.

"Could it be trying to override autonomic functions by overriding the subject consciousness?" the elven paladin asked after a moment’s pause.
Bloodscream craned his head the other way.
"Seems like a complicated way to achieve suspended animation. Why not simply collapse an etherion field directly around the subject essentially creating a pocket of null-time?"

Deminthus nodded.
Sizzlespark, still on the table pointed down at something with her foot.
"Wazzat?" she asked.
"Bio-synaptic accelerators I reckon." Bloodscream answered.
Sizzlespark frowned.
"Why..." she began and halted searching for the words.
After a few seconds she gave up and dropped down to her knees on the table pointing at a particular piece of the schematics.
"Why?" she repeated.
Deminthus peered closely at the schematics.
"Why indeed...Why would you need a synaptic accelerator in a device that deactivates life?" the blood knight asked, Sizzlespark smiling as he did.
"...and what is that accelerator chamber filled with? I don't recognize that formula" he added.
"That's the formula for enhanced bio-energized ether." Hokuto supplied.
Bloosdcream nodded.

Anaie shrieked suddenly and rather loudly. Weapons were drawn.
Anaie jumped up and down rather excitedly.
"We know why! We know why!" she seemed to be sharing her excitement with the slimy eye she carried.
" It ain't suspended animation...it just LOOKS like suspended animation... it's in fact de-animated chronotronic suspension!"
There was a collective sigh of disapproval from the others.
Deminthus stated their collective problem with that theory.
"So Creedy actually discovered a common frequency for all life?"
Anaie nodded savagely.
"Must 'ave! Nuttin' else makes any kind o'sense!"
Bloodscream stared at the schematics, his goggles dissecting components and reverse engineering their construction.
"Hang on a sec... I think the crazy rogue might be right..."
there was a few stares of disbelief as Bloodscream seemed to have lost his mind and joined Anaie.
"Stay with me a sec..." the Orc offered in defense of his faculties.
He started pointing to various parts of the schematics.
"Most of these components are heavily modified... along a common paradigm... they know something we don't... we're just gunna have to build this thing and run an extensive battery of tests."
Inzema cackled, there was a popping sound and suddenly there was a rather large device on the table.
Sizzlespark dove out of the way. There was the sound of wood groaning as if suddenly feeling rather ill.

“Can the table hold…” Deminthus began.
There was a long keening cracking sound and the table collapsed.
Everyone took a step back, Bloodscream stepped forward. Inzema cackled, Anaie giggled furiously and whispered to the eye.
The device hung in the air over the floor.
Inzema dropped down to his hands and knees and looked under the device, it wasn’t touching the floor. It was hovering a foot from the ground.

“Fassscinating…It wasssn't doing that yesssterday!” Inzema exclaimed from the floor.
Anaie’s giggle was punctuated by a snort.
“Inzema?” Hokuto’s voice asked in an irritated tone.
“Hmmm?” came the rogue’s response as he looked up at Hokuto.
That’s when he realized that Bloodscream was standing there having caught the device before it hit the floor. He was standing with one arm outstretched, holding the device in the air.
Anaie and Sizzlespark both giggled.
“Ahhhhh yesss.” Inzema said as he stood back up and dusted himself off.
He walked around and looked at Bloodscreams arm.
“You’re very ssstrong.” He observed.
“You’re a looney.” The orc responded.
Inzema nodded in agreement, grinning.
Bloodscream snorted and put the device down on the floor.
“We’re going to need some light” Deminthus noted, his eyes suddenly flaring with an intensity that filled the room.
“Dat must be 'andy fer readin' in bed..." Anaie commented as she slipped a goblin gentleman's magazine into Deminthus' bag.
Inzema swore it was called "Wenches with Wrenches." It stayed in the paladin’s bag for precisely one second. Inzema would study it later.

Questions were asked, details on the construction. Inzema had built the device with the aid of Hokuto but the device had failed to produce any results, which Bloosdcream felt was pretty standard for anything a gnome designed.
“Some of these modifications are quite ingenious Inzema, you did this?” Deminthus asked trying to cloak his surprise.
Inzema nodded and smiled. “I had help.”
Bloodscream, unaware of the construct Inzema was referring to assumed the rogue meant him.
“Ya I noticed you got a T.H.A.T. in there… did my tweaks to the microfracture calculations fix your power leak issues?”
Inzema nodded.
“It did, actually. Thanksss for that, Blood. Sssometimesss, when you're workin' on sssomethin' for too long...” He shrugged and trailed off, knowing everyone in the room would understand.
Deminthus nodded. “We’ve all been there.”

Hokuto made their objective plain.
“No one is getting out of here until we figure out why this thing won’t work.”

Bloodscream understood precisely what she had meant but couldn’t leave the bait alone.
“Oh zat so? And who’s gunna stop me from leavin?” He asked standing up straight and resting a hand on his axe.
He didn’t think Hokuto was afraid of him so much as she didn’t want to start a fight with an Inquisitor. He only let her suffer through whatever could have been going through her head for a few seconds before breaking out into a deep throated chuckle.
She smiled and relaxed visibly. “They warned me about you…” she said playfully punching him the gut maybe a little harder than she would another.

It was settled then, engineering iron man, one device, no surrender.
They were in for a long night…