Power Check - Captain Knievel

[quotemyname]

A second robot appeared a little ways off as Captain Knievel was flexing his muscles for the crowd. (The "points" counter was counting steadily upward.)

Captain Knievel thought of something quick. A rare occurrence indeed, but he seemed to work well under the pressure of a studio audience.

He took a running start, and jumped onto the inactive body of the last robot just as it began to disappear. He used his momentum to turn the robot's torso into something of a skateboard and went rocketing towards the new robot.

The entire time the first robot was grinding against the "POINTS" counter kept ticking (+10 +10 +10 COMBO +100 +100 +100 COMBO...)

The crowd was cheering like mad, The Captain hadn't felt this good in ages.

"YEEEEEAAAA BOOOIIII!"

Finally his makeshift skateboard reached the second robot. The thing tried to take a swing at him as he went past. Captain Knievel simply ducked the blow and snatched the robot by the scruff of the neck as he passed by. Holding the robot in his left hand while still balancing on the sliding robot, (+1000 +1000 +1000) Captain Knievel slammed his hand into the robot's midsection. He then depressed the button on one of his fingers to activate the Adrenaline Cannon's flame jets. His hand still in the robot's torso, he cooked it's circuits. He then dropped the charred robot behind him.

It was only now that he noticed that the 'studio audience' had been following along side of him. The contraptions they were sitting in - the ones that had looked like roller coaster cars - were now moving along rails.

The other thing he noticed was the large cliff that he was accelerating towards!

[quotemyname]

Captain Knievel leaped off of the sliding robot just before it plummeted over the edge. However, Captain Knievel as well soared over the edge. ("Let's see that studio audience follow me NOW!")

The rails the studio audience were riding on continued straight over the edge of the cliff... and began to corkscrew downwards, following his decent.

"Okay...REALLY?!" Captain Knievel shrugged midair. "Okay I give up." Captain Knievel pulled his arms and legs inward and began to plummet like a rocket.

Hundreds of yards below him he managed to glimpse a panel open up in the cliff side. (Right behind the waterfall that poured over the rocky cliff side. Both of which Captain Knievel had noticed JUST gained actual definitive features)

"If you think you are going to get me to say it again, you are crazy." But Captain Knievel had bigger things to worry about. The "COMBO" Counter had stopped counting, and was now flashing. Also, Two other things appeared. A timer appeared (counting down) above the POINTS meeter, and a miniature helicopter jettisoned out of the panel in the cliff side.

Captain Knievel, knowing something had been coming, was ready for it. He tucked forward and pulled a front-flip. From his curled up flipping position, he uncurled with all of his manly strength at just the right time, Slamming his boots into the exact location where the helicopter's blades met the rotor. At that same instant he activated the electricity charges stored in the Adrenaline Cannon and directed them towards his feet.

The helicopter shuddered for a second before it went rocketing downwards, charged with electricity. There was a sound of shattering glass as the word "COMBO" broke into a million pieces. The timer stopped.

"OH YEA! SPIIIIKED!!!"

C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER! (+100,000)

The crowd cheered and Captain Knievel smiled. "Ooh. I like that."

Shortly afterwards, Captain Knievel hit the ground hard with a thunderous impact. He was never the less unharmed, and had managed to stick ANOTHER perfect three point landing amidst his own crater. The crowd went wild. (STYLE BONUS! +100,000)

[quotemyname]

A small platform rose out of the ground in front of Captain Knievel, as the roller-coaster-studio-audience rolled to a stop surrounding him.

The platform reached its full height, and a set of stairs appeared leading up to it. Captain Knievel obliged as he knew he should.

Atop the platform was circular hole in the base. It was covered by a set of hatch doors. There was also a pedestal with a large red button on top of it. A second pedestal had words written on it.

"Huh," Captain Knievel remarked, approaching the pedestal to read the words.

"Instructions: Press the button as fast as possible to charge air blasts within Adrenaline Cannon. After the timer is up, break bricks that will appear beneath platform through the hole."

"Oh, I've played this game before, any second now it should..."

BONUS ROUND!

"Yea I thought so." Captain Knievel remarked approaching the button. Wiping the sweat from his brow he readied himself for the challenge. As soon as the buzzer sounded, he began to mash the button as fast as he possibly could. Amidst the cheers of the crowd, and a little red bar labeled "power" filling up, he mashed as fast as he could. Soon the timer went "ding!"

Captain Knievel rushed over to the opening hole in the platform. Through it he could see a group of cement bricks layered on top of one another. "Here goes nothing..." He raised his right arm, pressed the button for the pressurized air blasts, and sent a punch down through the hole.

*SCHOOMP* *crack* *SHATTER*

All of the cement bricks shattered, above his head appeared "LIGHTNING ROUND BONUS (+1,000,000)"

As the crowd (cheering like mad), the platform and the scenery began to fad away, Captain Knievel heard the creepy game show announcer voice yell,

"HYPER COMBO FINISH! NEW HIGH SCORE!"

"Aww yea." Captain Knievel said as he walked towards the door that was just appearing...

[Dr Archeville]

After Knievel is finished with his fourth meal, he approaches another door. As he approaches it, a small brass plaque appears

Fifth and Final Test

Eerily, if he backs off and goes to another door, the plaque appears on the new door and is gone from the door it had been on.

Once he actually opens a door, he sees something quite unlike the other rooms. Rather than being met with a plain dark room, this room is well-lit and filled with an assortment of gymnastics equipment: balance beams of varying widths, bars (some parallel, some uneven), pommel horses, rings, and so on. Some of the equipment has an oily sheen to it.

"You haff shown yourself to be qvite de showboater, Herr Rogers," Legion's weird voice announced, "but can you be as impressive mitout an audience?"

[quotemyname]

After being thoroughly weirded out by the moving plaque on the door to this room, Captain Knievel's confidence returned once he saw the gymnastic equipment.

"Oh this is going to be no sweat! It's just like PT all over again."

With that, Captain Knievel dipped his hands into a nearby bin full of powder and stepped up onto the runway towards a vault board and a horse.

"Yea, seen this one on the Olympics half-a-million times." The Captain said, raising his arm in the air to show readiness just like they do on TV. He sprinted towards the Vault board and in the last few moments before vaulting, he raised his arms in the air, twisted sideways, cartwheeled, turned again, began a half-back-flip. In one fluid motion he planted his hands on the ground in front of the Vaulting board, continued flipping, struck the board with his feet, launched, pushed off on the horse (with both hands!) and began his stunt.

It was a perfectly executed triple corkscrew back-flip. All told, a nice safe maneuver for The Captain. He stuck the landing just as he knew he would. When he raised his arms, turned to the side to face where the judges usually sat, and began to bow he noticed the eerie quiet throughout the room (and the absence of a judging panel!). The unnerving quiet was broken only by the repetitive sound of the vault board shaking up and down, and eventually even that faded to silence.

"You know...I'm bound to have nightmares from this lack of cheering."

[quotemyname]

Captain Knievel moved onto the next event, The Pommel Horse. He once again dipped his hands into the powder next to the horse. Clapping his hands together, he approached the horse. "Alright, this one I can do in my sleep."

Captain Knievel shut his eyes, centered himself, ignored the non-existent crowd's cheering. He raised his hand to show he was ready, then leaned forward, grabbed the handles, and raised himself into a handstand on top of horse. Lowering himself downwards so that both of his legs were outstretched, his arms were bent, and his head face inward towards the side of the horse he began his routine.

It was another solid, safe run. The Captain performed a 30 second routine consisting of a few Single Leg Swings, some Circles and Spindles, and one or two Kehrswings. He finished off with a handstand dismount, swinging one leg up straight above his body, using the momentum to hoist the other leg, pausing, and then back-flipping off to face the horse. Another perfect dismount. Another triumphant stance with arms raised, and another respectful bow to the judges that Captain Knievel kept forgetting were not present.

Another dead silence.

"I am liking this challenge less and less as time goes on." He grumbled, moving to the next station.

[quotemyname]

When Captain Knievel stepped up to the rings, he noticed that they seemed to be coated in grease. "Okay, now things are getting interesting," he commented to himself, "Maybe now I will get a few cheers."

Captain Knievel powdered his hands up again, and stepped up onto the box which allowed the gymnast to reach the rings with little effort. As soon as he gave the ready signal, grasped the rings, and hoisted himself into place, the box simply disappeared into thin air. Captain Knievel did not let it bother him, he had a routine to perform, and the grease was making his hands slip.

Captain Knievel started off with the most basic swings he knew. He didn't want to risk anything crazy on these greased rings. But otherwise, this was his chance to display his ridiculously powerful arm strength.

After a routine full of Seats, Crosses, and Levers, Captain Knievel felt confident enough in his grip to go for a Planche. He threw together a few more combinations, before performing another flipping dismount. He stuck the landing once again, but didn't even bother to raise his arms. He knew there were no cheers coming his way.

"When I get outta here, I swear I'm gonna..." Captain Knievel grumbled a few things under his breath as he worked his way to the next station.

[quotemyname]

Parallel Bars... Captain Knievel walked up to the obviously greased setup, (which he noted was adjusted for his height at the very least), and reached out to powder his hands up. Right at the moment when his left hand would have dipped into the powder bin, the bin went *POP* and simply disappeared.

"Oh... Perfect!" Captain Knievel looked down at his hands which were still somewhat greasy from the Rings. "You know... I don't even care anymore!" He walked right up to the parallel bars and mounted them like a pro. He threw together a surprisingly risky routine given the conditions.

He combined a good amount of flips and transfers from all of the support positions he knew. (handstands, upper arm holds, single bar support, etc.) Captain Knievel was in such an incredibly foul mood about this last portion of the test that he didn't even notice that he had been working the Parallel Bars for over a minute. Suddenly waking up from his reverie, he decided to throw in a dismount before he risked his hands slipping for any longer.

Captain Knievel flipped himself down towards the end of the Parallel Bars, and then immediately after landing that flip, he combo-ed into another flipping himself off of the bars. He stuck the last landing of his test once more.

"There! Happy now? Now where's that %@ing door?!"

[Dr Archeville]

When Knievel exited the room, he found the table of refreshments in place along with Legend standing before him. The armored figure gave a curt bow to the man.

"Congratulations, Herr Kapitan. I believe your time has been vell spent. You vere shown aspects of yourself dat should improve your ability to bring your... unique brand of intensity to de city of Freedom. In time, you may return to further test your abilities, but now you must get back out dere und do vhat you do so vell."

The door to the outside world opened, letting light filter into the corridor. Legend stood waiting to see if Knievel had anything to say to him.

[quotemyname]

"Hey man," Captain Knievel began, striding right up to Legend and sticking a finger into the man's armored breastplate."You've got some pretty weird-ass ideas for testing people, you know that?"

"Granted some of them were kind of fun," He turned around a circled the table gazing at the delicious looking food. "Like that second to last one was a hoot!" Captain Knievel cracked a smile as he remembered how much fun that particular test was.

"But that first test was just plain creepy! Oh, and don't even get me started on that last test. 'Final Test' my ass. Gymnastics without an audience? That should be considered a sin!"

Captain Knievel took another look down at the food on the table. Too disgusted to even consider eating, he turned around and made for the door. "You know what? Forget it! Unless you've got something else to say, I'm outta here!"