Tale of Diep:Dr. Lacus

''Dr. Lacus is the head scientist of the Cult of Panzer, hired by the Archprophet to perform nefarious tests and subject captured opponents of the Cult to inhumane experiments. The father of many of the Cult's most terrifying inventions, Dr. Lacus is among the most feared affiliates of the Cult, as his main mechanical terrors lead the storm that will eventually result in the land's takeover. Many want this perceptive mercenary dead...''

Backstory
Dr. Lacus' origins come from as far back as The Old Era, right before the sealing of Panzer. Under the alias Dr. Tanker, he put into construction Laboratory Mode, and trapped Tanks in the alternate reality there for his own cynical purposes. But by the time the refuge tanks had discovered his plans, he was already gone.

In good time, Dr. Lacus had established a mountain lab in the Desolate Plains, the same region of the realm where the Tower of Gladii sits. There, he enacted the plan to get around the destruction of the realm when Panzer was sealed away. So for the rest of the Era, he sat waiting in the depths of the mountain, completing his next invention to conquer the realm. Little did he know the Cult of Panzer would establish firmly, and throw a wrench in his plans. After constant ambush and assassination attempts, to which he would survive, the Archprophet himself would approach Dr. Lacus with a deal. In return for his services to the Cult, he would be free of their attack, and given blessing by Panzer himself.

As such, Dr. Lacus gained the power of precognition, perfecting his art of never dying. With this ability, he could sense and avoid danger minutes before it happened. He ranks as a mastermind up there with the likes of the Archprophet himself. Should Dr. Lacus be fought, expect to lose. He can dodge every bullet before it's even fired. Trap him and he can use his wits to escape easily. It is safe to assume Dr. Lacus will be one of the, if not the, longest standing member of Tank-kind's future.

The Fight
Dr. Lacus is fought at the end of Mad Science. He resides in the heart of the laboratory, a large circular arena behind a locked door, only opened when the four Circle Cores in corridors outside his chamber have been broken. Dr. Lacus doesn't fight alone. His many machines and death traps waiting in his room are at his disposal as well...

Beepbox Rendition of Official BGM:



The Arena
The arena where Dr. Lacus is fought is officially called 'The Heart' (kind of in the same manner the Sanctum is the official name for the arena where the Archprophet is fought). It is a very large circular room full of dastardly traps and machines.

At the center of the room is an elevated platform where Dr. Lacus stands when the fight begins, a holographic circular shield surrounding him and the platform. Spaced in a square closer to the edges of the rooms are white circles crackling with electricity called Pylons, that shoot beams back into the shield, keeping it up. More about that will be detailed in the battle itself.

At the four 'diagonals' in the room (since its circular there aren't corners), four large inactive gray circles on what look like real tank bodies sit. The tiles of the floor itself are large (about 8x8 in-game tiles each), shiny white, and near the rounded edges of the circular room, they stop and the floor is just solid gray.

Phase 1
Dr. Lacus begins surrounded in the force field, taunting the player from atop his platform. He will tell then move over to what looks like a module on the platform, and begin messing with the tiles on the floor. Players will need to break all four Pylons to proceed to the next phase. Each Pylon has 4000 health and will send electrical bullet shockwaves out as it begins summoning Lab Guards by making certain tiles around it glow green. Lab Guards will then spawn in packs of 3-6 from these tiles before they deactivate. Trap-type guards will not spawn, and this will only occur every 10-20 seconds. Electrical shockwaves are thick rings of crackling bullets that inflict Stunned and Paralyzed for 3 seconds and do light damage. Shockwaves pass through multiple players and will only travel about 20 tiles.

Meanwhile, at the module, Dr. Lacus will keep shouting things as he uses the module to have certain tiles all around the arena become electrified and damaging. Every 12 seconds, the sound of gears will play as many tiles will begin flashing red for 5 seconds before becoming light blue and shocking all players, dealing damage and Stunning them for 2 seconds. This will repeat using different random tiles each time until all four Pylons have been destroyed.

Once a Pylon is destroyed, a silent four-minute timer will begin counting down behind the scenes. Players must destroy the other three Pylons in this time. If the timer hits zero, all Pylons will reactivate with a whirring electric sound, and Dr. Lacus will mock the players.

When the phase ends, the tiles the Pylons are on will flip over and become regular white large ones like the rest of the arena.

Phase 2
Dr. Lacus collects his composure, and demands everyone come to the center and battle him, with the elevated platform descending into the ground and the module exploding. He will hold his arms out as if asking to be shot, but will teleport out of the way of the first shot fired and laugh as he reappears to the left of the platform, releasing various rings of bullets from his center and causing all tiles in the arena to flash red before all electrifying every player and teleporting back to the middle of the arena. Then Phase 2 will truly begin, and he will start to select from attacks below. Dr. Lacus sort of levitates off the floor, seen by the hanging of his lab robe and a circular shadow cast a bit below his position.


 * Time Bombs: Will open the left side of his labcoat and reveal various pockets with colored bottles inside of them. He will whip is other arm in and then out, as five large randomly colored Traps will land somewhere around him up to 30 tiles in a given direction away from him. About two seconds later, all the Traps will flash and then explode into various patterns of bullets depending on their color. Red ones create a ring of Destroyer bullets, blue ones will fire out a double spiral of shots over the course of a second, green ones will fire out lasers in the four cardinal directions, and purple ones will fire out lasers in the four diagonal directions. The five traps can be any assortment of these colors above, and not all will be the same color.
 * Precognition: Will occasionally teleport every time a shot is being fired. When he reappears in the next area, various rings of bullets will be fired out like when Phase 2 first began.
 * Electric Floor: His robo monocle will flash light blue, followed by all large tiles in a 5x5 area around him to flash red thrice before going light blue to signify they're electrical. Tiles will return to normal after the ability ends.
 * Lab Rats: His robo monocle will flash green, and various tiles selected around him will also turn green, and summon a pack of 4-7 Troop-type Lab Guards. Dr. Lacus is invincible until they're all killed.
 * Tile Flip: Will put his hand to his scouter-looking thing, and smile, as from the walls, all tiles in each cardinal direction of him will flash red and then flip over in order (the ones closest to the wall will flip first followed by the next) over the course of a second or two, revealing random Defensive Turrets. All the tiles will then flip over back to their regular side, but the Defensive Turrets will stay, and be annoying. They are not necessary to destroy in order to continue the fight, and will explode after about 15 seconds anyway. Dr. Lacus cannot use this ability if any Defensive Turrets from previous Tile Flips are still on the map.
 * Light Show: Dr. Lacus will teleport to the last line of white tiles before the rounded edges of the room, and then both his scouter and robo eye will turn yellow, and straight in front of him, two lasers will be fired. Following this, he will begin gliding back and forth along the back line continuing to fire lasers from his eyes anywhere from 3 to 5 times following the initial burst. After it ends, he will teleport to a random place closer to the center, accompanied by the usual multiple rings of bullets being fired outward.
 * Hubris: Will punch himself in the face angrily as his robo eye and scouter will begin crackling with electricity. Random patterns of shots and various chain lightning strikes will be fired out as the doctor goes Armored for about 8 seconds. Is also accompanied by all tiles around him turning red and electrifying a second later, before all the tiles in each cardinal direction begin going electric one at a time.
 * Warp Smash: Will teleport three times in rapid succession near the top of the arena, slamming his fists downward into the tiles he lands on, making all tiles in the downward paths go electric one at a time. As usual, all tiles return to normal after the ability ends.
 * Activation: Every 30,000 health Dr. Lacus loses, he will pull out a remote and press the button, activating one of the four Tank Crushers in the corners described in the Arena area above. Tank Crushers look like Destroyer Dominator bodies mounted on what would look like an actual real world gray tank body from the top-down, with treads and all. They move slowly, and fire at players, also attempting to run them down, as Tank Crusher's speeds double when a player moves in front or directly behind the body. They have 10,000 health and are destroyed for the rest of the fight. Tank Crushers will be disabled for 5 seconds if they get hit by an electric tile. Tank Crushers phase in and out of having Armored.
 * Energy Sap: Will reactivate one of the Pylons from Phase 1 with a press of his remote and stand near it (This is done by flipping the tile back over, revealing the Pylon). The Pylon will then begin charging a laser into him. The Pylon will act exactly like it did in Phase 1, putting a shield around Dr. Lacus, sending out shockwaves, etc. While being protected by it, Dr. Lacus will stand nearby immobile, recovering 100 health a second. After a Pylon has been re-destroyed, it will permanently be used, and therefore, this ability cannot be used more than four times. Since Dr. Lacus is sapping the energy and using it to heal, the Pylon will automatically explode after a minute due to its energy being used up. This means he can only recover a max of 6000 HP from each Pylon.
 * Reflection: His robo eye will flash purple, and in front of him a holographic shield will appear. This shield is a thin blue line about the length of his body that appears a bit in front of him. It will move with him, meaning if he moves forward so will it, if he moves left, it will rotate to defend his left side, etc. All bullets that hit this shield will be made the opposite color, and reflected back. Lasts about 10 seconds or after 100 projectiles have been returned. If the latter occurs, the shield will flash red and deactivate, followed by a mini-explosion that does 1000 damage to Dr. Lacus.
 * Downfall: Used at 5% health. Dr. Lacus will say something about his defeat being impossible, followed by him putting up a force field and warping to the center of the room. He will then release an indescribable bullet hell made of various attacks and pattern switches that lasts a pretty long time. Following this attack, he will collapse and his force field will deactivate.

"Death" Animation
Once Downfall ends, Dr. Lacus will collapse to the ground and look downward while his scouter and robo eye crackle with electricity. He will appear dazed as nuts and bolts spin around his head. The next shot fired at him will have him warp out of the way, laugh, and then disappear out of the arena, ending the battle, with all tiles turning electric a final time, doing a last bit of damage to everyone. Following this, the tiles will all begin going to different random colors like a disco floor, as the game mode ends with a fade to black.

Battle Lines
''Only editable by Diepmon and ZathusTheMageV. Lines that Dr. Lacus will say during battle, either randomly or when something happens.'' THIS AREA IS STILL A WIP
 * Bwa hee hee ha! Silly tanks!
 * Oh, did I mention the pylons have a reset time? Try again! On second thought, don't try at all! Bwa hee hee ha! (When tanks fail to destroy all 4 pylons in Stage 1)
 * Ever heard of an Error 404? Well, here's Error Z0Z-Z for Zap! (When using Electric Floor)

Inventions
''Note: This part can be edited freely by people who made conceptions in which the page states Dr. Lacus invented the subject of the page. Please note that's what you did inside the Edit Summary when editing. If any other part is changed, you will receive a Level 1 Warning. Please include your name in parenthesis at the end of your entries. Any without a name are assumed to be mine.''


 * War Machine - Powerful device of untold destruction that when sent, claims many lives before its destruction and eventual reconstruction. Was put into creation soon after his deal with the Cult.
 * War Machine II - Don't touch this one...
 * War Machine III - A last resort, in case everything went wrong. Somebody activated it early, though. Also known as "Multitool X".
 * The Automaton - Under the name 'Project Earth and Fire', The Automaton is a moving stronghold of weaponry and a masterful warmongering machine.
 * The Saw - Being a basic war tank, this artificial Son of Panzer can reliably take down many opponents at once with its huge arsenal of attacks. Best be wary fighting this one.
 * The Strategist - Everyone considers this one an artificial Son of Panzer created by him, but he refuses to confirm or denounce their suspicions, with a laugh.
 * The Cyborg - One of the latest projects by Dr. Lacus, The Cyborg is an experiment that enhanced a tank by removing half of its body and replacing them with cybernetic parts. Little did they know Dr. Lacus would warp their mind and make them a Son of Panzer... The first line of defense should anyone attack his lab.
 * The Frigate - A collaboration between Lacus and the numerous Crashers that defend the Pentagon Nest. This artifical Son of Panzer spawns Crashers like a Guardian times four. It also has an unusual affinity to bells and water.
 * The Octagon's armor - The Octagon wasn't made by Lacus himself, his armor was. Various switches between different types of weapons make him a veritable fighter.
 * Leaping Warmind - This one was entirely an accident. The Leaping Warmind was originally a Battleship at one point. Now it's a stronger Battleship... with some flaws.
 * X-Bow - This one is believed to be created by Dr. Lacus, but not many are too sure.
 * Minion Horde - Study of unity between Minions spawned by Factories gone horribly wrong. They duplicated rapidly and were hard to handle. He just released them into the wild due to their uncontrollability and rapid spawn rate.
 * Polygon Playground - An enormous project created by the doctor, where he pits tanks against each other in the midst of many different kinds of weaponized polygons.
 * The Mechagon Bosses - A group of mechanized polygon bosses, Guardian L, Summoner Mk. II, Defender Prime, and Penta-Powergon. They were created along with Polygon Playground. Much more sophisticated than their inferior predecessors.
 * Laboratory Mode - A scheme pulled by the mad doctor during The Old Era, where he trapped tanks stupid enough to enter, into a world where he could forever use them as test subjects. Needless to say, it was successful. Was created under the official name 'Blindeye'.
 * Multitool VII - The seventh in the line of War Machine prototypes. He's quite fond of it, going as far to create a companion named after it. Apart from that, it's only got 3 weapons instead of 5. Oh, and as for Multitools I through VI, each had something happen to them or had a glaring problem. (Graviatar and Diepmon)
 * Laboratory TD - A gamemode based around waves of enemies, similar to Endless Defense, but following the lines of a tower defense game in Diep.io. (Diepmon)
 * The Shifter - One of the first of a new wave of Sons of Panzer, this tank's complexity is like none other, even greater than that of The Saw. Artificially created under the name 'Project Pseudo', its ability to rapidly transform into almost every tank and its enormous arsenal of attacks keeps opponents on their toes. Dr. Lacus unfortunately lost the control codes for it, and it gained a mind of its own. Those who have fought it and lived to tell the tale say that it has a second unique form altogether, but this is unconfirmed... (Diepmon)
 * The Nightmare of All Polygons - Originally meant to be a War Machine 2.0, something went wrong when Dr. Lacus was installing the code for this thing, and the command "do not harm polygons" became "destroy all polygons". While he tried to fix it, he accidentally gave it AI, and it went rogue. It nearly killed the Polygon Mother when the Archprophet himself decided to interfere, and brought it back to Dr. Lacus. He was about to smelt it to scraps, when his crane slipped and accidentally threw the War Machine 2.0 into a time machine he had, and sent it to ancient times, when the Polygon Mother was just created. Dr. Lacus considers it to be his greatest failure. (Tidal Wave)
 * The Sentry - Probably the only mass-produced creation of this mad doctor. He created it from unused parts of The Automaton as a guard for Fortresses. It can draw its turrets to move at fast speeds to chase tanks who dare come too near to a Fortress. It can't move however when its auto turrets are used. (Kacperlupa.polska)
 * Laboratory guard - A robot that was meant to protect the laboratory from indesiderate guests, it's a pity that his code was badly programmed, making him useless at protecting the laboratory. (FredLeon)
 * Titanititan - A project he made on his week off. His newest idea involved something that most tanks in the Realm could not comprehend or understand... legs. (Tidal Wave)

Trivia

 * Still not sure if I want it to be pronounced 'Lack-us' or 'Lay-cus'. Both sound cool.
 * Dr. Lacus was first unofficially mentioned on the War Machine page, where his name was not given. Now in modern renditions of the page, since his identity has been revealed, it now has a link to here.
 * Dr. Lacus has both a robo-monocle cyber eye thing, and a scouter. Don't know where I was going with that but his smug grin and lab coat are cool.
 * Signature laugh is 'Bwa hee hee HA!', as established by Diepmon.
 * Like the Archprophet, has his own account on the wiki!
 * His official BGM in the final game will be entitled 'Stand Against the Machine' for obvious reasons. The Soundcloud link above is the Beepbox rendition, and it will probably be electronic in the final game.