The Dalek Project (Open)

[Monochrome]

((Oops, sorry, fixed that. ))

"Excellent, excellent." Mech remarked, taking the envelope and setting it on a nearby table. "Just climb in, since I already opened the window." he called over his shoulder. "Then I can give you a proper explanation."

He stood admiring his creation while his guest entered. Once the pegasus had entered, Mech began.

"Welcome. I am Mechanical Madness, but to save time I suppose you may call me Mech. So, I'm sure you're curious about all this mysterious business, hm? Well... A being of some sort, from space it seems, crash-landed in this forest. Naturally, as a scientist, upon finding its mangled body and shell I took it home to investigate, eh heh heh. Well, one experiment led to another, and another, until I finally reach this final product- a replica of the creature, a 'clone', if you will." he explained, gesturing towards the angry greenish-pink blob in the intimidating metal shell behind him. "You're going to assist me in learning about its kind. I've already gotten a few useful bits of information out of it... Megalomaniacs, these things are, and killers as well. They're called 'Daleks', according to this spiteful little blob." he added.

The Dalek waved its long tentacles a bit, casting its cold, monocular green stare from Mech to the newcomer.

"I do wonder if he has any clue what we are..." Mech remarked playfully, as if teasing the hateful creature by poking fun at its intelligence.

"EQ-UINE LIFE-FORMS. EQ-UINE LIFE-FORMS OF AN AVIAN VA-RI-E-TY." the Dalek retorted in its chilling mechanical growl of a voice.

"Ah, good, so it has got a brain in that squishy little head." Mech remarked with a smug smirk.

[Velocicorn]

Breeze gave a confused stare to both Mech and then to the Dalek. Being an adventurer/treasue hunter, he had seen weird and straight up impossible things. He had never seen such an unheard of being before. He also was surprised it came from space, of all places!!!

" I don't know if intimidating it's such a good idea doc." breeze said eyeing the gun like objects poking off of the Dalek's armor. Breeze walked around the creature for alittle longer. He took in as many details as possible. He could only presume Mech was either watching him as he did so, or that he was making fun of the Dalek.

[Monochrome]

Mech chuckled a bit.

"They don't seem to have been given emotions other than hate by their creator. It's near impossible to actually intimidate it, I'm sure." he remarked, examining the Dalek's true body before its armor.

He took the occasional glance over at his guest, who was carefully taking in each detail of the creature. However, Mech became alarmed as the "head" of the armor began to swivel, the eye stalk's icy blue gaze following his guest.

"No, no, I disabled the armor!" Mech exclaimed, furiously working at tampering with the armor's wiring.

"HA HA HA." the Dalek proclaimed in a sort of cruel robotic laugh.

A small twitch, a flutter of motion, caught Mech's horrified attention; the Dalek was regaining the ability to move its appendages! In no time at all it was sure to regenerate its attack abilities...

[Velocicorn]

Breeze heard a frustrated shout from Mech. He quickly turned around and saw the Dalek moving! It wasn't much movement, just some jiggles here and there, but it was still quite alarming. Mech worked furiously with the armors wiring while the Dalek laughed. It began to try to roll of the table. Breeze ran over to the metalic being and held it down.

" Doc, What's happening!" Breeze said shoving another one of the robots appendages back down to the table. He grunted as the Dalek faught furiously to free itself. He was really wishing he had brought some kind of weapon with him. He was an idiot to leave his home without protection.

" Hold still you peice of junk!" Breeze shouted.

[Monochrome]

"They're geniuses, perhaps I should have used a more sophisticated technique in crippling it... Oh, what a mess! Gah!" Mech chattered at a fast pace, scrambling to find something in the lab he could use against the Dalek.

The Dalek now tucked its tentacles inside the armor and closed it up, protecting its soft body. Simply attacking that weakness was now out of the question. Mech kept taking quick glances at the Dalek and inwardly scrutinizing each detail of it for possible weakness. He was snapped out of his thinking process by the memory of a certain detail he had discovered in his examination of the original crashed Dalek... The Dalek's personal force field! It would be back online soon! Mech looked over at his guest, who was grappling with the raging creature.

"Let go of it!" Mech shouted urgently. "It'll burn you to a crisp!"

He took one more look at the Dalek, when one detail suddenly made its fault clear to him. He grabbed a nearby cloth tarp, throwing over the Dalek and briskly tying it over the eye stalk with some spare wire he had lying around the lab.

"MY VISION IS IMPAIRED! I CAN NOT SEE! I CAN NOT SEE!" the Dalek relayed like a frantic alarm, beginning to swivel is gun arm and fire at random.

Mech grabbed his guest and dove through the lab door, beginning to sprint down the hallway once he got up.

[Velocicorn]

" Doc! I thought you had that thing under control!" Breeze screamed as they sprinted down the hall. He could here the Dalek randomly shooting and bumping into things. He heard it's macanical voice scream.

" I am blind, but still superior to you!" It screamed. It fired off a random blast hoping to hit them, instead it slammed into a large painting, setting it ablaze. Breeze was relieved the creature was blinded, but when it found out how to remove the blind fold, what then?

" I think we lost it." Breeze said panting and looking down the hall. He let out a breath when he realized he was right. They had lost the creature, he then got an odd thought.

" Hey doc, there wasn't any other pony in the house besides us, right?"

" The invitation did mention others."

[Monochrome]

Mech took a moment to catch his breath, then looked back in the direction of the lab, where the Dalek's mechanical screeching and ranting still sounded loudly, now mingling with the crackling sounds of flames.

Mech paused at his guest's question.

"Oh my, where did he end up? There was somepony else here... Eh heh, perhaps he fled while we weren't looking." he pondered. "By the way, I never did get your name... Just who are you, again?"

Mech gave a slight nod at his guest's reply. Then, suddenly, he seemed to remember something important. He suddenly bolted down a hallway, one dangerously near to the lab, all the while babbling to himself about something, although most of whatever he was saying couldn't be made out over the ear-splitting screaming of the Dalek's robotic voice growing louder and louder. Mech seemed to be on a course to go back into the lab, then suddenly made a sharp turn into a room near the lab entrance. The smoke was beginning to become quite thick here as things burned around the frantic Dalek. Mech coughed as he called out for someone or something in the room.

"Physical Dementia! Where are you? Come here, we need to get away!"

At first, nothing happened. One may have questioned the yellow stallion's sanity in that moment; but, then, something crawled from the shadows of the room. Mech scooped it up before his guest could get a good look at it, then darted out of the room again. As he and his guest fled, the Dalek said something truly alarming.

"A-LERT! A-LERT! CAL-LING ALL DA-LEKS! MY VIS-ION IS IM-PAIRED! REINFORCEMENTS REQUIRED! SENDING PLANET COORDINATES! A-LERT!"

[Velocicorn]

Breeze saw Mech rum out of the smokey room. He was holding something and was cradling it in a way, like it was important to him. He also looked back at the Dalek, it was still blind, but definetly not quite. It began to scream and rant on about how it was blind and needed assistant. It said it was sending the planet cordinates!

" You are kidding me!" Breeze shouted as the Dalek sent the message. How many more of them could there be, what exactly would they all do? Breeze was pondering all of this at once. He was also keeping back from the flames as Mech barely made it out before the top floor collapsed into the hall! The lab was now completely crushed or blocked off, either way there was now a pile of burning wood, and a Dalek, between them and whatever weapons he had in there.

" Mech, we gotta move, the biuldings comin down!" Breeze shouted over the flames.

[Monochrome]

Mech skidded to a halt as on of the beams that supported the ceiling came down in front of him with a thunderous crash and the crackling of flames, nearly landing on him. He seemed more concerned with the well-being of the small creature he clutched close to his body than his own safety, for some reason, as he constantly glanced at it and occasionally said something to it. He looked at his guest for a moment, seeming to be deep in thought (as far as anypony could tell, at least... It was harder to define his expressions since nopony could see his eyes through his cracked goggles). Suddenly, the spark of an idea seed t have ignited in him.

"Stairs!" he exclaimed. "They have no legs, perhaps stairs could deter them! let's see, the upper floors won't do at all, to much smoke... Ah, the auxiliary lab storage! In the basement! Weapons, food, stairs, let's go!"

He took off down another hallway, this one letting out in the spacious living room, hazy with smoke but still untouched by the fire. Mech continued through it, opening a metal door on the other side. A dimly lit staircase was behind it, which Mech proceeded to dart down as loud noises began to build outside. The noises kept growing, then stopped for a moment. That split-second of silence was followed by a sound something like air-tight doors being opened, and then finally a terrible symphony of banging on the house accompanied by loud mechanical shouts.

"INFILTRATE! EXTERMINATE, EXTERMINATE!"

[Velocicorn]

" Ok, that was too quick!" Breeze said as he heard the other voices. They were randomly shooting and ripping the biulding apart. He didn't know if they even bothered to help the first Dalek. Their voices and sounds of destruction were getting closer to the room Mech and Breeze were in! They would be on them in a few seconds. Breeze turned and trotted down the stairs, but he took one quick look back.

He saw the shadow of one of the beings in the smoke. It got larger as it approached. He saw its glowing eye and a light burst from its canon. He ducked as the shot slammed into the wall behind him, showering the stairs with chunks of cement.

" Go Go Go!" Breeze said galloping down the stairs. The Dalek could be heard screaming behind as the room finally collasped in an inferno of flames.

[Monochrome]

When Breeze arrived at the bottom of the staircase, he found Mech rummaging through some boxes. Mech first pulled out a blanket; he formed it into a sort of nest in a corner of the room, and placed the creature he had been carrying on it. Then he began to sort through the boxes again, this time producing a few strange devices and some tools. But, finally being able to get a better look at it, Breeze was far more intrigued by Mech's little creature than his inventions. It looked something like the front halves of two small brown-maned foals with cream-colored coats stitched together at the stomach. The little creature's two heads both looked up at him; one with an outwardly friendly expression, one with a more unsure and curious gaze, and both with a hint of fear and confusion.

Mech seemed to be growing uneasy and even a bit melancholy as his pace erratically slowed and quickened at different points, and he occasionally gave a sigh.

[Velocicorn]

Breeze starred at the small creature, blown away by its appearance, and its size. What was that thing? Was it some kind of Frankienpony, or another creature Mech found. He hoped it was peacful, not like the Daleks. Breeze wondered if they would get through the door, or if they had exited the mansion, mabey even moving into Ponyville! This alarmed Breeze and he went to Mech.

" Ok Doc, you're the geniouse, what's the plan...shoot em up, blow em up...what?" Breeze said this quickly, mainly out of shock and his heart was still racing from the fight before. He had a feeling more fights would follow, and they weren't done with the Daleks. The had to do something, atleast contain them or something.

[Monochrome]

Mech's thoughts raced as he spouted information and ideas.

"They're impervious to bullets, the personal force field melts them away before they can even leave the tiniest scratch on the shell. Explosives could do something, but then we'd also run the risk of harming ponies... With all this commotion, ponies are bound to get curious and wander over here. Now, they only have two weak points, as far as I learned. The eyestalk, for one- they only have one eye, so taking out the eyestalk blinds them. Second, their true body- soft and squishy, that is, a vulnerable spot, but it's completely encased in armor. They have no concept of mercy or compassion, so even if we managed to snag a few of their young somehow it wouldn't be a very useful tactic to stop them. Ah, how rubbish is this?!"

He continued to dig furiously through the containers scattered around the dim room, tossing a few parts and odd objects to the side. His mechanical body parts, amazingly enough, seemed to be in perfectly in sync with his body, puffing and groaning mechanically as his breathing grew quicker and he searched more frantically.

[Velocicorn]

Breeze watched as Mech paced and frantically searched for something to use against the Daleks. Breeze thought of this aswell. The daleks did have force feilds, so his gun idea was no use. The Daleks also had armor, so explosives would be useless. He wondered and pondered for a solution other than the tiny eyesocket. They were dangerous even when blinded!!!

" Come on, there's got to be a way, force feild, electric..." Breeze stopped mid sentence. Their force feilds surrounded them. They had a sheet of electricity covering their entire body. If Breeze had learned anything in science class, it was that water and electricity could fry, even kill.

" That's it!" Breeze exclaimed with joy. He turned to Mech.

" Water Doc, we use water!!!"

[Monochrome]

Mech paused in thought, a grin slowly curling up at the corners of his mouth as he did.

"Yes... Yes! Electricity! And even if it's not electric- they are an advanced alien race, after all, eh heh- say, if it were produced by a chemical reaction or plasma generator, adding water would unbalance the system's source of function! It just may work, hopefully their creator didn't scratch out that little flaw with some secret layer or some such thing..." he exclaimed gleefully.

He began pulling out equipment with more precision, now knowing what to look for. He set aside a series of strange and complex mechanical parts in a neat row on a nearby table. He then glanced over the assortment of objects, and, satisfied that he'd collected all he needed, set to work on something. He was incredibly quick in his work, and had soon made a few devices; two water-packs equipped with high-pressure nozzles for firing water out of, and another larger machine that Breeze couldn't quite decipher the purpose of.

[Velocicorn]

" That's pretty fancy Doc, um what is it?" asked Breeze pointing to the mysteriouse device. He looked it over trying to take in all of its features, trying to atleast make a geuss about what it could be.

" Is it a refill tank?" Breeze asked. He was interested in what it did, not what its purpose was, it was obviouse the machine was biult to defeat the Daleks. Breeze was thankfully it didn't take long for Mech to make all of this, they needed to reach town fast, if they hoped on saving it. Breeze watched as Mech put the final touches on his materpeices.

[Monochrome]

"Eh heh heh, close, but no." Mech said, examining the final products to weed out any unseen defects before using the devices. "We may as well have another more interesting backup if something goes wrong with the power hoses."

He fiddled with the strange device's controls, and it whirred to life. Mech took a jar of water and poured it into an open area of the machine. It floated in there as if there were no gravity, forming glimmering spheres for a moment. Then, Mech pressed another button, and the water contorted into a new shape- it looked almost like a few Breezies, except made entirely of pure water.

[Velocicorn]

Breeze scooted closer to the machine and peared into it.

" Coooool." He said with wide eyes. he watched the little water creatures flap around and glide like buterflies. They were so real, as if the water hd actually come to life!

" What exactly are these little guys for? You said they were a back up." Breeze was alittle confused why the machine made small animals to fight Daleks. They needed weapons and stuff that would blow the socks off of aliens, not adorable Breezies. Breeze thought about this for a second, he then shook the thought away.

" You know what, nevermind, let's get to Ponyville!" Breeze said with a triumphant tone.

[Monochrome]

"Well, they have to be small, so they can squeeze through the smallest little opening in that fancy armor..." Mech began, but didn't get to finish as Breeze brushed the matter off and seemed prepared and even a bit eager to fight off the noisy menaces outside.

As Breeze opened the door, something suddenly tumbled down the stairs, hitting the floor with a metallic CLANK. The ponies had a moment of horror, as it appeared to be a Dalek; but, it was much smaller than the others, and had more brightly colored armor in shades of teal and blue. Mech stared at it a moment... It laid still, on its side and seemingly unable to get up, and Mech wondered if, because this one was so tiny, the impact of the fall down the stairs had killed it. But, this idea was quickly extinguished as the little creature ever-so-slightly waved its appendages. Mech had his nozzle aimed at it, just in case, but did not yet fire because something seemed different about this one, although he couldn't quite place what. It turned its dome to face Breeze, and then Mech. It had an orange lens in its eyestalk, unlike the blue lens most of the others had. Then it spoke, its dome lights flashing a soft lavender color in time with its words- but this was not the malevolent, hateful shout of a voice the other Daleks had. It was slightly less growly and mechanical, and a bit higher pitched, but retained a robotic likeness in its voice; and somehow, even though, as with the others, its voice conveyed no emotion, it seemed... Innocent, like a little foal.

"He-llo..." it said, wiggling its appendages again. "A-ssist-ance?"

Mech looked the creature over, scrutinizing it.

"Well..." he said to Breeze. "If it were like the others it would've shot by now, or alerted the others of our location, don't you think? Perhaps it's a defective one that slipped out of the ship. And, I know, certain defects can be very... Talkative. It could tell us all we need to know."

[Velocicorn]

Breeze bent down and heaved the Dalek up. Once it was upright it turned to him.

" Thank-You Equine Being." It said in its metalic voice. Breeze stepped back alittle as it also turned its gun to him, but it had no intentions to fire, it was just an accident.

" Hey hey hey, point that somewhere else!" Breeze said pushing it around. The robot said nothing and then turned to Mech.

" You are the enemy of the Daleks, Corr-ect?" The robot asked. Breeze made a motion to Mech to say no. They had no idea if this was a spy or not, he had af feeling Mech trusted the being though. He was still cautiouse about his arrival though. After being shot at he wasn't going to be so quick to befreind a Dalek.

[Monochrome]

Mech looked at the small Dalek for a moment.

"Well, isn't every other species considered an enemy of the Daleks? In that respect, yes." Mech answered, specifically avoiding the fact that he was the reason the Daleks had shown up here, and that he was in fact their target at the moment.

The Dalek looked at Mech with that unblinking monocular stare for a long moment before saying something.

"Why?"

Mech looked down at the little creature again, his expression softening.

"Well, that's just it. We don't know, only the one who created them does." he replied.

The little teal and blue Dalek raised its plunger arm towards Mech and stood still for a moment. Mech bent down a little, assuming it wanted him to come a bit closer. It gently placed its suction cup on his head as he did so. Mech stood, seeming to have no fear in him of the miniscule being, although inwardly he was tensed to press his nozzle trigger if things took a bad turn. After a few seconds of silence, the tiny Dalek removed his suction cup from Mech's head and stared up at him.

"You would make a good Dalek scientist." it said slowly. "But you are hiding things."

Mech gave a confused expression.

"Now why do you say that, Dalek?" he replied.

"You are like the Daleks." it replied blankly. "You hide beneath metal casings, you are feared, you are clever. But a Dalek is honest... And you are holding secrets."

Mech gave a slight shrug, still baffled but having more important business than arguing with the alien being.

"I'll take most of that as a compliment... Thank you, then." Mech said lightly, but quickly grew serious before speaking again. "Now, you know what's going on out there. Now, this place is my home, and I'd appreciate it if your kind wasn't rolling around destroying it all. How, might I ask, would one stop this little invasion?"

The Dalek stood still, saying nothing. Mech wondered if some traces of emotions were what made this one defective, and if said bits of emotions were inwardly grappling with his more Dalek-like thoughts.

[Velocicorn]

Breeze watched the events unfold before him. He almost freaked when the Dalek touched Mech, but he calmed down when nothing happened. Mech had asked the Dalek how to stop the invasion, Breeze watched as the Dalek seemed to fight with itself. Half of it wanted to be helpful the other half seemed menacing and evil like the others.

" Doc, I think it's multiple personalities or something." Breeze wispered to Mech. He looked at the robot again. It was now mumbling to itself and shaking its head.

" Yah...I think it definetly had Multiple Personality Disorder." Breeze finished. It was a little funny to watch the robot do this, but it was also frightening. What if his evil side one over him, and the next thing Mech and Breeze would feel with be lazers cutting through them? Breeze shivered at the thought.

[Monochrome]

"Hm, poor thing. Perhaps if I could examine it..." Mech remarked, looking at the poor little alien as it gave little mechanical mutterings and moved about.

Mech stepped closer to it.

"Excuse me, Dalek, but could you open up your armor for a moment?" he said, stooping down to look the Dalek in the eye.

It stood still for a moment once again, then gave a slight little nod with its eyestalk. The compartment opened with a hiss of air, revealing the being's true body. It was a much paler greenish-pink than the first one Mech had examined, almost white, and of course was much smaller and had shorter tentacles, but had a similar green eye color. It gazed softly out at them, blinking in the light and curling its stubby tentacles outward. Despite the raging inferno above, the basement room they were in was fairly cold... This made something a bit odd even more noticeable to Mech. As he bent to have a look at the gelatinous creature, his hoof brushed against its metal siding; it seemed considerably warmer than the cold shell of the first Dalek, but, then again, it had just come out of a blazing room. It suddenly trembled a bit, its eye narrowing a bit and its gaze turning darker. Mech observed this strange behavior intently. The little creature seemed to be growing angrier, and Mech already had a bit of a theory as to why. The Dalek began to wave its tentacles more, its wide-eyed gaze slowly morphing into an icy glare like the other Daleks had. It began to stutter, as if having trouble functioning.

"E-e-e-exxxx... Exxxx-Ex...Ter..."

Mech reached out a hoof into the armor opening, gently touching the little being's slimy skin. Its tentacles grabbed at the hoof, curling around it; in a few seconds the Dalek seemed to be calming down, comforted by Mech's warmth.

"Mm-hm, thought so." Mech mumbled with a nod. He didn't retract his hoof from the Dalek as he spoke again. "Now, Dalek, do tell me... What makes you different from all these other Daleks?"

It looked at him for a moment; Mech could see the slightest flutter of emotion come across the little creature's gaze for a moment, but it was too brief to tell what emotion... But one could tell it was not a happy feeling, perhaps rather one of sadness or anger.

"I am not per-fect." it said slowly.

[Velocicorn]

Breeze nelt down infront of the Dalek. He looked inside the armor and noticed the difference in skin color, just as Mech had.

" You ok little guy?" He asked as Mech placed his hoof on the Daleks skin. The Dalek calmed down and Mech asked him to explain what made him so different. Breeze caught onto the Daleks emotion fast. He could tell he was a sad. He reached out and put his hoof on him too.

" Not perfect, well your a heck of alot better than you pals." Breeze said trying to chear him up. The dalek didn't show emotion, but Breeze felt he had done something. His small eye turned to Mech.

" I am not a perfect being, I was decomisioned for my mistake." Breeze couldn't believe the little guy thought being different was a mistake. It was a blessing from Celestia that's what it was!

" Hey, that's not a mistake!" Breeze said sternly.

[Monochrome]

"Ah, not to ponies it isn't, but to a Dalek..." Mech said, his voice trailing off towards the end. "Since they hate diversity so much, we can assume each Dalek is meant to be a perfect copy, a clone, exactly like all the others. This little Dalek... He was different from the beginning, with his unusually small size, and thus was seen unfit as a Dalek. However, Daleks are not stupid, no, nobody in their right mind would waste one that is only too small. So, they must have done something with him; special training, experimentation, something to benefit those without defects, and it changed him somehow. He must've done fine among his kind at first, but eventually discovered his flaw- he acts like all the others in cold temperatures, having enhanced hatred and those killer's instincts, but once you warm him up, he goes soft." he added. "Am I correct, Dalek?"

The Dalek looked down a bit.

"Co-rrect. The F.R.O.S.T. experiments failed. I was one of the al-tered." it said in that voice, empty of emotions.

Mech nodded a bit. His little foal-creature friend had now stood up and wandered over to them, eyeing the Dalek with dubious expressions. Mech smiled at it, then at the Dalek.

"Well, if you're with us now, you'll need a proper name. We can't just call you 'Dalek' forever, now can we?" Mech said, still smiling softly. "Eh heh... Let's see... How about... Slushy? Yes, Slushy, because your heart is not of unbreakable ice like the other Daleks, but is in a middle state between cold and warm. What do you think?"

The little Dalek seemed to brighten at this.

"A-ffirm-a-tive! Yes, mas-ter, I am Slu-shy." it said approvingly.

"Ah, no need to call me 'master', makes you sound like a slave. The name 'Mech' will do, if you please." Mech replied lightly.