| abstract | - A View to a Smell is a story by Diane Castle (with assistance from J.G. and Letomo). Published on November 28, 2010, it is set on 2006-12-14 and records Nate's Fall 2006 Combat Final, competing against Peeper. Peeper steals Greasy’s satchel with stuff in it, while Miasma stokes up on gas-producing food. Jericho and Razorback mug Greasy and take over the supposedly secret WARS broadcast booth. (They'd already done it once for Fey's combat final.) This final is one of the ones with crowds. Miasma uses a gas mask as his costume, and has to get by a little old lady who accuses him of being a terrorist. He shows a very creative turn with laying down a line of bafflegab. Peeper discovers someone has replaced his mask with a couple of rather inappropriate bits, and then decides to use the paper bag, without bothering to punch eye holes in it, thus advertising he’s got some kind of esp sense. He manages to get past the first challenge. They meet by the spindle. Peeper tries to use one of Greasy’s weapons on Miasma, while Miasma uses a gas attack on Peeper. Peeper misses, and blocks the spindle door with Greasy’s skin-repair system. Miasma lays down a gas barrier around the spindle. Peeper hurls one of Greasy’s grenades. It turns out to be a super EMP bomb, that takes out everything in the vicinity including several hundred civilians (ANTS drones). The cops arrive with the little old lady at the same time a mob armed with pitchforks, baseball bats and other quick to grab arms arrives. They escape, and run into a house when Peeper uses his supposedly secret ESP vision to find a key hidden under a rock. Peeper tries to waylay Miasma with a branch for a club. Miasma retaliates by lighting off one of his farts, blowing Peeper five yards into a pond. The judges rake Miasma over the coals for not having a plan or holdouts, and give him a C-. They give Peeper an instant F for using things he doesn’t always carry with him, and then rake him over the coals for using unknown weapons, commenting that they’d rather give him a lower grade, but aren’t allowed to.
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