Ineffable

OOC

Sorry. I've been stressed lately.

And btw...The going back in time thing wouldn't work for two reasons: A, H'taed doesn't have any actual parents. He's a bit of a science experiment made by Lord Diov. Hell would have to freeze over and then some to get the drop on him in his tower. Even with time travel. B: H'taed would find a way to travel into the past and stop you anyway.

You know, traveling to the past to kill crap isn't actually a half bad idea, considering we are using Praetorian Earth and the Shadow SHard, after all.

Erm. Anyways...On with the show?

“Most of the ship’s defense and security systems are offline, a side effect of the entire place being coated in…meat…” Noitpeced started. “The communication systems are still up…Your message to us proves that. But what the hell was up with that? That wasn’t even correct usage of inter-“

“Shut up…” Poe grunted. “Just find us a way out of this mess. You’re the A.I. That is a console. This is the bridge of a ship. DO SOMETHING.”

“I would except that most of these systems, while advanced, are old, obsolete, and outdated. And the fact that there is gore and goo covering every square centimeter of the place doesn’t exactly help!” Noitpeced growled. “I can get something going, but for now, all we have is a simple communicator…which I have discovered has now partially short-circuited. I swear, electricity is so inconvenient and USELESS!”

Poe raised an eyebrow. “Why don’t you go and say that to Lord H’taed, see what he thinks about that.”

“Yes…well…He doesn’t use NORMAL electricity. Anyways...I think I can get a few systems running again if given some time…But I’ll need some help. This ship has a primary emergency backup system, but it can only be activated by a console three levels down…Seeing as thumpy the nightmare might still be outside the door, I have found an alternative route.” Noitpeced’s hologram floated over to the rightmost wall, and pointed at the lower section.

“Dig here, there should be a pressure shaft that leads to the ship’s circulation system. Navigate it, and find the oversight room. There, you should find a console with an emergency backup system. If I can access and reprogram it, I might be able to reactivate the defense and security systems.”

Poe knelt at the wall, and after digging for a few minutes, managed to clear the gore away to reveal a sealed hatch. Poe kicked it in, and started to lower himself down.

“So Noitpeced…Need to navigate the circulation system, find the oversight room, activate console, and you’ll handle the rest?” He asked.

“Yes. Good luck.” Noitpeced said, nodding.

“You’re not coming with me?” Poe asked.

“Can’t. I’m pretty much confined to this room until you get the systems reconnected. However, I’ll stay in contact with you via your communicator.”

Poe let go of the ledge, and fell towards the bottom of the shaft.

He landed in pitch dark.

“Noitpeced…Why isn’t there any light down here?” He asked.

“Ah…The organics all over the ship give off special sensory signals, generating a kind of ‘black light.’ However, since there is little to no meat down there…”

“Understood.” Poe said, glad for his night-vision sun glasses. He flipped them on.

No yellow illuminating light burst forth.

“Oh look at this…some purple blood appears to have gunked up your goggles. Smooth, Lord Poe.” Noitpeced’s sarcastic voice echoing in Poe’s ear.

"Shadup..." Poe muttered. As the leader of the aronist Husks, he had other means of producing light. He drew his lighter, and clicked it. A small flame illuminating the shaft. It was roughly oval shaped, with some chunks of meat hanging off the walls, but otherwise the place looked almost brand new. The entire thing was made of a smooth blue metal.

The shaft split off in five seperate directions. "Take the right-most one." Noitpeced said. Poe walked down it cautiously.

"Hey Noitpeced. Long as I'm walking down this never-ending shaft, care to explain what the hell is up with all the meat and gore and crap?" Poe asked.

"Negative. This...infestation...is not in Husk Corperation databanks." Noitpeced responded. "Remember that even though Husk Corp. has been around for aeons, even Lord Diov can't have explored the entirety of existance. Plus, he's already confirmed that it goes on for eternity anyway."

Poe raised an eyebrow at this. "Isn't there a point where time suddenly just STOPS? Runs out?"

"Well, yes. However, things started back up on thier own after that." Noitpeced responded.

"WHAT? Nothing can do anything without time! How did things just 'start up' again?" Poe said.

Noitpeced just chuckled at this. "What, you think something as insignificant as time is going to make a differance in all of existance? You're begining to sound a lot like a certain liz-"

"GROOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAGGGG!!!!!" Bellowed through the shafts.

"[censored]..." Poe muttered. He heard the resounding clangs of something heavy hitting metal. The noises were getting closer. "Noitpeced, guide me the hell out of here." He hissed, and started running. He came to another intersection.

"Second to the left, move!" Hissed Noitpeced in Poe's ear.

After three more intersections, the clangs were still audiable, and getting louder every second.

"Noitpeced, if you don't get me out of this damn place soon, that thing is going to catch up and rip me to pieces! WHERE IS THE EXIT?"

"Hush hush, there's a tad of interferance...Ah, here we are, turn-" Suddenly Noitpeced's voice was cut off. Silence.

"Well [censored]..." Poe muttered. He headed straight at the next intersection.

His lighter finally ran out of fuel. "Shitcrapdamnit this can't get any worse..." He said...Just before he fell into a hole in the floor.

He thankfully hit a soft surface. Something wet got in Poe's eyes, and he had to wipe it away before he could look around.

He was in another section of the ship that was coated in meat and gore. Only something here was differant.

The meat covering the floor wern't just slabs of gore anymore. They now looked a lot like...muscle?

And the walls. They were MOVING. Wriggling and writhing like a worm.

Poe noticed several meat corridors leading upwards from the room, and headed for one.

Only to discover he couldn't move his legs. Poe looked down to see the meat on the ground was circling around his legs.

"Ok, NOT cool. BAD meat crap! OFF!" Poe kicked and quirmed, trying to free his legs, but only managed in making the muscle meat tighten. Also, more and more of the muscle floor seemed to be moving and clumping around his legs. They slid up and started covering the entire lower section of his body.

"Ah [censored] you're kidding me!" He said just as several muscle slabs wrapped around his arms. The floor of meat slowly pulled him down to the ground.

"Let go of me you stinking pile of crap!" Poe roared, hopelessly trapped in the muscles. Then, they started to drag him across the room towards one of the walls.

This wall had several large clumps of muscle meat converged over a single point. They all pulled back to reveal a giant mouth in the wall, complete with sharp teeth and tentacles where its tongue should have been.

The muscle slabs started lifting Poe towards the mouth. It bit and snapped at the air expectantly.

"[censored] [censored] [censored] [censored] [censored] [censored] [censored] [censored] [censored] [censored]" Poe screamed, trying to wrench himself free uselessly.

Then, suddenly, a black little rectangle flew through the air and right into the mouth.

The next second, the entire wall exploded, and the muscle slabs covering Poe receded back into the floor.

Poe swore so much he could have made a member of the Freakshow blush. He rubbed the gore out of his eyes, and saw a black gloved hand extended down towards him.

He looked up to see Lord Kuro.

"And here I am to save the day! Now get off your [censored], we have work to do and things to kill."

Poe gawked. "I thought you were...umm...you know...dead?"

Kuro shrugged. "I'll tell you about it later. Can we LEAVE now before these muscles start moving again?"

Poe got up. Kuro turned and went through a nearby corridor. Poe followed.

-----

Kuro had led him to a wall in the meat corridor, revealing another vent.

"Ah, so you've figured it out to." Poe observed.

"Most of it. I actually caught up brief transmissions of you talking with Noitpeced, but there was too much interferance to talk. I bet you know a tad more then me. Now get in, it's more or less safe in there."

-----

A little while later, after slotting the grate back into the hole, Kuro had led Poe to a dead end in the vent.

"That's why this place is safe. No alternative passagways in here aside from that vent. That creature can't get in. So care to explain what the [censored] is going on here Poe?" Kuro asked.

-----

The story.

-----

"Well. Our immediate goal should be to find the others then. However, there is a tiny problem." Kuro said.

"And what makes you think this problem is worth mentioning if its tiny? We both know it's horrible and the size of a sun." Poe said sarcastically. "Out with it."

"Well...as you know, this ship appears to be intergrated with the creature we blew apart. However, here's my thought. The creature swallowed the ship, and the technomancy in the systems mutated it, and enlargening time and space inside it. Meaning that if the ship is now technically inside the creature's body...And from the looks of that last room...We are in the stomache of the creature. Meaning there is no way UP. Only down. And I don't care to think about how we are going to get out of here." Kuro explained.

"No problem, I'll just blow a hole in a wall or some-" Poe suddenly fell silent. He was looking at the grate.

"Kuro...what did you say the creature looked like again?"

"I actually just shot blindly and threw some grenades then ran before it even got fully through the barricade. I only got a look at its hands. Had claws around the size of your body." Kuro said casually. "Why?"

"Oh, no reason...it could have something to do with said claws wrapping around the grate, but it could just be me." Poe said. There wasn't a hint of humor in his voice.



To be continued.

OOC

Rant coming on.

Well if you freeze time ENTIRELY that's simply unfair. You can SLOW time but you can't stop it entirely. That falls under god power section. You HAVE to give your enemy time to react, no matter what attack or power you use. H'taed can get out of almost any situation, but that does not mean he is all powerful. He could IN THEORY overload your electrical synapses and cause a blood viegn in your brain to pop. SPAZ your dead. But he doesn't do that simply because that would be...

A: An autohit attack that doesn't give you a chance to dodge

and

B: An attack which kills you in one hit.

Slowing time is perfectly fair. However, STOPPING IT ENTIRELY isn't. If you can STOP time, what's going to prevent you from simply cutting someone's head off with a toothpick?

Everyone has limitations. I don't care if you can slow time. Hell, you can launch an atom bomb and sic the entire freedom phalanx on H'taed, and I would be fine with that. You CANNOT do something which automatically renders another person helpless or powerless. They have to have a chance to retaliate.

End rant.

As for the copy, it thinks with a mind of its own. Meaning it is an NPC that can be controled by ANYONE. So you could, for example, spin the copy around, (how you would spin an electrical mass around, that's up to you.) it would see H'taed and probably attack him. That's just an example though.

OOC

Your copies are just ripples in time? Editing...

And the spark is designed to magnetize to any electrical source passing by. Meaning it would have latched onto you regardless of touching it or not. Just getting too close to it would do.

As for the time thing, it's all about speed. H'taed is moving at a normal pace with you slowing down time because he is moving so fast. The electricity is moving at the speed of light, because technically, that's what it is. So the same principle applies to it as well. *Light is made up of heat and electromagnetic waves*

However the time ripple bit is fair. Editing...

Ok, something tells me we do NOT want to stick around and find out what our friend is exactly. But if we stick together and get lost, we're ALL screwed. SPLIT UP."

Nomed ran straight ahead, vanishing into the depths of the gore cavern.

Walker zipped to the left, heading down a nearby tunnel.

Tribal sprinted to the right, going down another tunnel.

White also charged towards the vast cavern, but he ducked into a passageway that was in the base of a stalagtite.

Only Poe and Kuro we're left.

"Poe. Run. I'll hold it off." Kuro said. He pulled out his uzis.

"But why? Poe asked.

"Because you have a stealth generator. Now go."

The barricade bent inward slightly and another *thump* was heard.

Poe activated his stealth generator and ran towards the cavern, in the general direction Nomed had run in.

A few minutes later, he heard loud booms. His landmines had gone off. They were followed by the sounds of gunfire and a freocious roar.

"GROOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGG!!!!! "

Poe kept running.

The cavern truely was vast. Poe started to muse to himself. "How can a space this big exist in a creature smaller then it? And this is only a chunk of the creature...Only Diov can pull off stunts like that, and he..."

He paused

"Wait. Only Diov can pull off stunts like that because of the technomancy he has. And the dimension of mists used to be a gathering grounds for ancient beings not entirely unlike Lord Diov..."

Poe bent down to the meaty floor. He started to dig.

His gloves were coated in gore and the purple gooey blood, but he kept digging through the ground. The stuff started to stain his vest. He kept digging.

Then his hands hit a hard solid surface. It made a solid "CLUNK" noise as his hands hit it.

He dug at the meat around the area, widening it. Soon, an entire patch of the flesh floor had been cleared away to reveal...

A floor made of metal. Complete with notches that you usually find on catwalks.

Poe stood up, frowning. "This is not good..." He wandered over to one of the gory stalagtites. He started to dig into that as well.

A few minutes later, his hand hit a solid surface. Widening the hole, he saw a piller. It was ripped and jagged in several areas, revealing circuits and wires. Most intriguing however, was a little chip made of stone. A rune pulsed faintly on it, and several wires were linked and fused with the stone chip.

Poe reached into the piller and yanked the chip out.

"Technomancy." He hissed. This explained everything. The reason that this place was so much bigger on the inside then the outside was because the technomancy was bending space and time within it. However, another thought, more disturbing, had crept into his mind.

"No self respecting technological mastermind would allow thier ship to be this...organic...There are some designs, but nothing to this extreme. The ship wasn't built like this. This meat and goo isn't natural. Which means the ship was probably..."

"GROOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAG!!!!!" Echoed throughout the cavern of meat and gore.

".....Taken over." Finished Poe.

Then he ran like hell. He ran towards another stalagtite, this one with a corrider in it, twisting and curving upward. He charged up through the corrider, often slipping on the slimy and bloody slope. Finally however, he reached the top.

He ran into a small room. There were the usual meat/gore/blood/bone ribs all over the place, covering every inch of the room, but also...There was a rectangular shaped growth in the meat-work in the center of the room.

Poe heard loud thumps coming from the bottom of the stalagtite slope.

"So much for the stealth generator..." He muttered. However, he noticed something. At the top of the doorway he had come in through, barely perceived through the layer of meat and blood, was something silvery and shiny.

He quickly started burrowing through the meat surrounding the entrance to the room.

*thump. thump. thump.* They were louder now. Whatever was making those noises was probably halfway up the stalagtite now.

He had cleared the gore off of the entire side of one wall. It was made of a deep blue metal, but most noticable was a single green switch sticking out of the wall labeled "<>"

Poe pushed it, only to be stopped by a thin layer of white material coating the switch.

*thump. thump. thump.* Poe looked down the spiraling corridor. He saw a shadow appear against the far wall.

He tried to press the switch. He couldn't break through the thin yet hard white crap spread over it.

*thump. thump. thump.* Poe could have sworn the noise was just a few feet away from the door, but he didn't dare look now. With a burst of stength, he smashed the switch with his elbow. The thin material cracked, and the switch lit up as it was pressed.

The meat encasing the doorway exploded and cracked apart as a solid metal frame came from the side and hit the other side with a clang.

Poe had been right. The button had been to close a door into the room.

He heard several loud *thumps* as if something was throwing itself against the door, but it held firmly. Eventually the thumps died down, and everything was silent again.

"Whew...Now to see what I've found." Poe said.

He wandered over to the rectangular mound in the meat. After several minutes of clawing and digging through the gore...

It was a console. Complete with screens, buttons, speakers, intercom, and switches.

After some experimentation, Poe hit a red switch, and the entire console activated.

The data that started to flow across the screen was not written in English, or in any Terran Language for that matter, but being a Husk Lord, Poe had been to so many differant dimensions and universes, that there were very few languages in the entirety of existance he couldn't speak. He instantly recognized the language as Y'olnrow, and after a few commands entered into the console, sent a message to Husk Corperation. The signal was very weak, considering how outdated the tech was, but now Poe could signal for help.

-----

Noitpeced's hologram was at a control station along with a Mr. Walker Husk, reading a message on a screen.

C647u13 13 3h1p, 1nf3373d w17h un8n0wn 3p33c133, 33nd h31p 70 7h333 c06d1n4733!

Noitpeced frowned.

"Well REALLY! What the hell is up with that!?!? There's a thing called MORSE CODE you idiot!"

Noitpeced entered the cordinates into a nearby rift pad, and the hologram vanished.

-----

Back in the room, Noitpeced's hologram flowed out of the console.

"DAMNIT this stuff is old! I had to convert myself to electrical signatures to flow through it! ELECTRICAL! Outdated crap!"

Then Noitpeced glanced around at the surrounds.

"Tell me everything Poe." He said.

-----

One lengthy story later...

-----

"...I see...Well Poe, you are probably the luckiest [censored] in this particular dimension. I was running a basic system scan on this section of the ship, and guess what room we are in?" Noitpeced said happily.

Poe shrugged.

"The bridge." Noitpeced said, his smile widening.

Suddenly Lord Poe was grinning to, and he started to descend upon the controls like a ravenous dog who had just been thrown a bone.

Noitpeced's image flowed in front of Poe, trying to block him. He was a hologram, so he was doomed to failoure, but the action still stopped him.

"Not so fast idiot. Don't you remember? The tower's defense systems ripped the creature into itsy-bitsy pieces. INCLUDING THIS SECTION OF THE SHIP. So we are stuck on the bridge of a ship which is only a quarter of its original size. Not bad, considering, but still. I would attempt to contact the others first before you do anything too hasty. For all we know you could blow us to hell if you press the wrong button. Now follow my instructions carefully...



To be continued.

H'taed was smashed by all four of Syne's ripple images, denting his armor and fracturing several of his ribs, he stubled, and a dark black goo started to seep from the darkness of his hood.

However, the real Syne's attack was blocked by...herself?

As she had passed over the spark, it had sought out her electrical signature and zipped into her. It then copied her electrical patterns and shot back at, the electricity moving at the speed of light to form a perfect carbon copy of Syne. Only she was made of electricity.

The carbon Syne charged the original.

OOC

I DID warn you. Prodiguy in Final Fight had one of his characters subjected to the carbon spark as well...Earthbound Angel I believe. Created an electrical angel that could shoot light and electrical beams. It's still around, actually...

And for future referance...

INFO* The Carbon Spark!

This nasty little bugger sinks into the targets body, and copies the exact electrical patterns within thier body. After leaving thier body, it then creates an exact duplicate of thier electrical body signatures, creating perfect "carbon" copies of them. These carbon copies can absorb most energy attacks, usually wield the same powers as the copied person, and had electrical attacks to boot. However, H'taed has no control over these copies. They are rogue, wild, so on and so forth. Anyone can control them. He usually uses this as a last resort, because it drains a HUGE amount of energy out of him, and he can become a target for these copies himself. And since they absorb energy, he is effectively useless against them.

H'taed calmly stood still as Syne rushed towards him.

"You might be able to control time. But guess what? I can run so damn fast that even if you do slow time down again, that will lower me down to AVERAGE speed. You can't beat me. And now for my next trick..."

H'taed brought his hands together in a clap.

A single tiny spark flicked from between his hands.

It fell to the ground and simply stayed there. The little spark didn't fade away, it just sat there on the ground.

However, it was unlikely Syne had noticed the little spark. To hide the mysterious move of unknown potential, H'taed had conjured twin electrical maces in both hands. Both of which were capable of attatching mud bombs to any target they hit. He held them out in front of himself in a defensive stance. He kept his lightning reflexes activate. If Syne tried to slow down time again, she would find that he would no longer be able to superspeed, but he would still be able to move normally at least.

And of course, there was always that little spark. But what was it?

OOC

And no, the spark is not a mud bomb or mud mine. You'll have to attack H'taed to see what it does.

Although admitedly, Prodiguy from Final Fight knows what it does...But that's besides the point.

OOC

Just the one. H'taed has a special plan B in case you-SHITI'VESAIDTOOMUCH. >.> <.<

H'taed suddenly felt a tap on the back of his head.

Being grounded by the electrical forces in his body, he wasn't allowed the pleasure of being thrown back. The kick cleanly snapped his spine in half. Lord H'taed collapsed to the ground.

However, the fight was far from over. H'taed was made more of energy then flesh, and the electrical charge in his body began to stimulate the muscles and nerves in his body, forcing an accelerated healing process.

H'taed climbed back onto his feet. He didn't look it, but that kick had really jarred him. He glared at Syne.

"You're going to pay for that." He spat. He thought quickly.

'So she can freeze time and such eh? Well what if I attacked so fast that she didn't have the time to freeze time? I don't care how fast she is, not even I can out-speed a lightning bolt. She doesn't have the reaction time needed to do that. I hope.'

So H'taed raised his fist in the air.

"Dodge this." He said.

Only the lightning bolt didn't come down towards him. It was streaking right towards Syne at the speed of light. 165,000 miles per second.

OOC

Whatever floats your boat is good with me, but where and what the hell is Upsilion Beat 9-6?

The door wrenched open with a sqeulch. What looked like muscle sacks hanging from the inside of the door parted and ripped as the door opened.

Beyond was a corridor made of...meat? Yes, it was meat. Strips of it, layers of it. Gore coated the walls, and purple blood visibly dripped from the ceiling. A giant set of ribbed bones ran across the top of the corridor, supposedly supporting it.

The collective flowed through the doorway.

'We will scout ahead. Wait here.' They thought.

A few minutes later, the collective flowed back through and rematerialized as the Psycho Fear.

'The way is clear. However...Wait, you had best see for yourselves.' The collective thought.

Everyone regrouped and headed through the door.

"This place is truely disgusting..." Walker said, wincing as one of his boots sank a few inches into the meat floor.

"I've seen worse, but this does get into my top twenty." Lord H'taed said. "[censored]! Do you have any idea how long it takes to clean this armor?" He said as the purple blood dripped onto him and stuck.

"What about you two?" Tribal asked Charles and Emily.

"Hmm?" Emily turned away from one of the gory walls, a chunk of the meat in her hands. "Sorry did you say something?"

When Tribal looked at Charles, he was chiseling a bit of the bone off from the ribs above using his telekinesis.

"...I really don't want know what you're going to do with that do I?" Tribal said.

"You all go ahead, we'll stay here and umm...gaurd the ship..." Emily said as she pulled a scapel out from her coat pocket, and started tearing huge lumps of meat off the corridor wall.

"Nothing will get past us." Charles said almost as an afterthought. He had managed to rip one rib off the ceiling, and was working on another.

"Riiiiiiiight...Let's leave them here then..." H'taed said, quickly turning and heading down the corridor, his armored feet leaving deep footprints in the meaty floor.

The Psycho Fear tilted its head. 'Is this what you humans consider unusual behavior?' It asked Kuro.

He just muttered something about hiring a therapist, and headed after the others.

-----

After what seemed like an eternity of slugging and slogging thier way down the organic hall, the group came to another door.

"I swear, if one more drop of that crap lands on me..." H'taed started as another drop off the purple slime glued its self to his armor.

"My boots. Are ruined." Walker said in disgust.

As H'taed tried to pry the door open, he realized it was sealed with a strange transparent and hardened material.

"Peachy. We walk all this way just to-"

"Move." Grunted Lord Nomed, speaking for the first time is weeks.

He charged right past Lord H'taed and body slamed the door. Not only did the material shatter, but the door literally exploded, showing H'taed's armor with more blood and gore.

"For the hate of [censored]!" He shouted. "I don't care if they next room has the power source in it or not, I am blowing the place straight to hell!"

Activating his lightning reflexes, he sped through the door, and into the darkness.

"Hey wait!" Poe protested.

"He'll be fine Poe. He's Lord H'taed." Kuro said. The group walked through the door.

Another organic corridor. After going down this one for a while, they came to a fork in the tunnel, the bone ribs splitting off along two differant roofs and the meat wall meeting in a single curve ahead of them.

Interestingly enough, H'taed's footprints could still be seen in the meat floor. They split into BOTH corridors.

"Ok, I know he's fast, but that's just ridiculous. He would leave more then one set of footprints through both corridors if he used his after-image trick." Poe said.

"Something's strange here. I'll contact him." Kuro said. He pressed the transmitter in his ear. "Lord H'taed, this is Lord Kuro. Where are you?"

Silence.

"Lord H'taed, this is Lord Kuro, say anything to confirm that you are there."

Silence.

"Ok, we have a problem." Kuro said.

"No [censored] sherlock. What do we do now?" Snorted Tribal.

'We should split up. I'll take the left corridor. You seven take the right.' The Psycho Fear thought.

"Good by me." Kuro said.

The Psycho Fear trudged down the left corridor. The seven husk lords went down the right.

-----

"Ok, how long does this place go on for? The creature is only about a mile long...And this is just a small chunk of it." White commented as they walked down the hall of blood.

"It could be like the human intestines...The fold on over themselves several times. The lower intestine is about what, 33 feet long?" Poe answered.

"Yes, but this corridor has been running STRAIGHT for the past hour or so." Walker said. "And DAMNIT this vest is made of leather! It'll take forever to wash!" He said this as a spurt of purple goo splurted from the corridor wall.

Suddenly, out of the blue, or red, considering the tunnel was made of meat...

"GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAG!!!!!" A huge gust of wind blew by the husk lords as the loud bellow reverberated in thier ear drums.

"What the [censored] was that?" Tribal asked.

Suddenly, the corridor floor behind them started to buldge...A mound of meat started to rise and fall slowly, getting higher every time. Almost as if something was trying to tear itself out of the floor.

"I hope you all have so far enjoyed your stay in the meat-hallway of madness, because I am out of here!" Poe shouted as he ran in the opposite direction.

"Hey wait for us! The room service sucks and there's no cable!" Tribal shouted after him, and also ran.

Then all of them were running down the corridor, thier feet making sqeulching and bubbling noises as they hit the bloody and slimy floor.

Finally, they came to another organic door. It was sealed with the same white material they had seen before. Behind them all, the husk lords heard heavy *thumps* and echoing roars in the distance.

"Nomed. I wanted that door open ten minutes ago." Kuro said.

Nomed shrugged, and body slamed the door, making it explode just like the last one. The seven charged through.

"Wait, stop, we are NOT going to be followed by that thing...whatever it may be. Barricade the opening. And Poe, you have my permission to plant mines." Kuro said.

"YAY!" Poe squeeled in delight, and happily began slipping his little mines under folds of meat and gore in the walls and floor while Nomed ripped off ribs from the ceiling and built them into a wall over the opening, sealing it off.

"Ok. Now that THAT'S taken care of..." Kuro said. He turned around.

"You were saying Kuro? Hmmm? Kuro?" Walker said. He turned around.

"Umm. Hey guys. Might wanna see this." All the husks looked behind them.

It was a giant cavern. Made entirely of meat, gore, and blood. Complete with stalagmites and stalagtites. It was easily over a mile wide in every direction.

"Ok. Are we still inside the corpse of this creature ship thingie, or am I going insane?" Poe said quietly.

"Something's screwy here..." Tribal quiped.

Then the barricade of bones behind them thumped.



To be continued.

As H'taed fell, he hyper-accelerated his fall using the ground-seeking electrical energies in his body. He hit the ground so fast that he burrowed through it. Syne's axe kick passed right through air above a hole in the ground.

In his foxhole, H'taed started throwing up mud bombs. From a distance it looked like a water-spout. Only it was spouting electrical death. (I like electrical death. ^.^)

A Mr. Poe Husk was busy fusing a plate to a metal rod when a shadow loomed over him.

He glanced up from inside his enviroment suit.

Hovering above the ring was a giant, mile long whale-shaped creature with insectoid-like armor. It had six eyes the size of school buses, and a really big mouth filled with big teeth. To make everything even more peachy, it had eight arms, four sticking out of each of its sides. It was rearing over the link ring, and it looked pissed. The trashed remains of a Slyph ship were spread across its left fin like so much bird poop on the roof of a car.

"Ah [censored], not AGAIN..." The Poe Husk muttered.

The large creature bellowed-which was strange, considering there was no air in this dimension-and breathed a wave of carbonized energy over the entire ring, which shattered and melted into nothingness.

-----

The Mr. Walker Husk watched the whole thing at his station.

"Ah [censored], not AGAIN." He muttered as the ring vanished.

He pressed a big red button on the console in front of him.

-----

Throughout the entire Husk Corperation Tower, sirens started to ring and lights flashed. Husks were running from here to there, and a loud voice boomed from unseen speakers.

"BATTLE STATIONS! SECURE ALL DOORS, MAN YOUR STATIONS, AND BEAT THE LIVING [censored] OUT OF THAT THING!"

Husks at various control centers started entering commands into systems, manipulating complicated controls, and randomly pressing seemingly useless buttons. Husks gathered around pits, crystals, and flux points and started performing arcane rituals. Throughout the tower, loud clanks, bangs, and clicks could be heard.

-----

The creature spotted the tower. It belowed again and breathed a wave of carbonized energy over it.

Nothing happened.

The creature, perplexed, tried to bite the tower. It only succeeded in shattering a few of its own teeth. Frustrated, the creature body slammed the tower.

Nothing.

The tower was composed of a special material which exerted an aura around it. Nothing was allowed to exist or pass through the area in which the material was located, aside from the material itself. The entire tower was made of the stuff, making it effectively indestructable. The only reason people could walk inside it without slipping up on the floor was because the air compressed around the material, forming a solid enough atmosphere to walk on without entering the non-existance zone.

Lord Diov had discovered this material in a now obliterated universe. He had come in, taken some samples, then blown the entire place up, ensuring nobody else would ever be able to use it. After studying the material for a while, he learned to build machines and artifacts with it, managing to reproduce and manipulate it.

Using the same means to manipulate, the tower's defensesive systems activated.

Auto-turrets grew from the surface of the tower. Hundreds, thousands now covered the previous unbroken and smooth surface of the tower.

They let loose with flux beams, rift rays, and dimensional ruptures.

The creature was torn into several differant large chunks by the assault. They body pieces drifted through the mist. The auto-turrets sank back into the tower, restoring its normally smooth surface.

-----

Everyone had gathered inside one of the many meeting rooms in the tower.

Noitpeced's hologram flickered into existance and began to explain.

"Greetings everyone. As you all probably know by now, the link ring has been utterly destroyed, and the probability generators claim we only have three days maximum before something goes horribly wrong and the gem is activated. So we must find an alternative means to get into the new dimension."

"Could we just use an extra large scrying spell and convert it into a portal?" Lord H'taed asked.

"No." Said Noitpeced. "The only reason we got that last scrying was because of that idiot godling. We don't have anywhere near enough power currently to pull something like that off."

"What about just drilling a hole through the dimensional hub of space and attempting to find the dimension by just running into it?" Suggested Lord White.

"That wouldn't work, if it is brand new, the hub for it would be so small that we could spend years looking for it." Noitpeced said.

"If Diov could provide us with an essence link to the thief, w could pinpoint the dimension using his brainwaves..." Charles said.

"He doesn't have that kind of power without the gem. He's tapped."

"What about contacting another god?" Asked Lord Tribal.

"No, just because they can scry the dimension doesn't mean they can get us there. There needs to be a firm link for them to grab onto."

"What about..."

'We know a way.' The Psycho Fear thought.

Everyone turned to look at it.

'That is not a creature. It is a sentient ship. It cannot hide its nature from us, for we are more attuned to nature than anything else in this place. This dimension is well-known for being an old gathering spot for the ancient travelers...Beings like Lord Diov. This thing is probably the remnant of some great technological being. I have sensed...something in it. Something not natural. Something like THIS place...'

The Psycho Fear gestured in the general direction of the floor with its clawed and jagged hand.

"AHA!" Noitpeced said suddenly. "I see it now! You're suggesting we could siphon power from the remains of that thing to power a portal?"

The Psycho Fear nodded its horned head.

'yes.'

"Right then, let's go! Time's ticking." H'taed said.

Everybody charged out of the meeting room.

-----

A few minutes later, a silver bullet shaped craft drifted towards the remains of the creature/ship. Finding a nice ledge with various opening into the carcass, the ship settled down, and projected an atmosphere bubble around the area.

Charles and Emily Dark Aura scanned the vicinity with thier minds.

"All clear." They said in unison.

Everybody shuffled out of the ship.

A few meters ahead, in one of the walls, was what looked like a door made entirely of organic matter.

"What do you know...The Psycho Freak was right." Lord Poe said happily. "I say we blow it open."

'That is Psycho FEAR puny life form. And blowing the entrance up is not exactly a wise idea. You could damage the energy source if it happened to be right behind it. We need to take this slowly.' The Psycho Fear thought.

After a quick debate on what to do, they all settled on an idea.

Lords Kuro and White stood on either side of the door, Uzis at the ready. Tribal and walker stood in front of it, modified pistols firmly centered on the door. Poe had activated his stealth generator, and was skulking around. Emily and Charles were back at the ship, ready to blast any hostiles at extreme range with thier telekinetic and Psionic abilities. The Psycho Fear had dispearsed, and planned on flowing through the door to explore the interior once it opened. Lord H'taed and Nomed approached the door carefully.

H'taed grabbed onto a bone-like jut on one side, Nomed grabbing onto one on the other.

They yanked the door open.



To be continued.

"Well that's just peachy." Lord Tribal said, rolling his eyes behind his sunglasses.

"Why can't we just use Husk Corp. systems to find it?" Asked Lord White.

"Ah...None of them were able to locate them gem. It appears that an outside force is preventing us from trying to locate it. Other means will be needed." Noitpeced explained.

"If the systems couldn't find it, I seriously doubt we'll be able to do anything either." H'taed said.

"Ah, but they were able to determine the envelope of power blocking them. Apparently, only the systems have been effected. All we need is a process about as powerful as the Husk Corp. tracking systems and we should be able to find it." Noitpeced said. "Does anyone here know how to scry"

"We do." Said Emily. "But for a scry powerful enough to peer through time, space, past, present, future, and dimensions all at the same time...It will be VERY complicated. We'll need at least ten others skilled in magics to help us, plus a list of ingrediants and materials."

Noitpeced conjured a little clipboard. "Fire away."

Emily nodded, and said...

"Five bowls of silver filled with the blood of-"

"Oh PLEASE don't tell me that crap is actually used? Eye of newt, tail of dog?" Lord Walker glared at Emily.

"Our Husk clones do magical rituals every day, and while we do need some material components, nothing as cliche as what you're saying!"

"Whoever said that the components were for scrying? This is to attract entities of power here to scry the gem for us. We're just listing the proper way to treat them and butter them up." Emily said, matching Walker's glare.

"Screw tradition. If they say no we'll just obliterate them. I don't care how damn powerful they are, a single focused flux beam and BAM! DEAD! Just go ahead and SUMMON whoever the hell you need WITHOUT the components!" Lord White said.

Emily shrugged.

She and Charles wove a few quick patterns in the air.

With a loud and massive BOOM! the entire room was filled with red light. A tall figure wearing red and purple robes, with purple skin and black tatoos, clutching onto a huge ornate spear with no less then 6 clawed hands, with fire and brimstone surrounding him.

"I AM THE GOD OF THE DIMENSION OF POWER WITH CONTROL OVER SPACE, TIME, FEAR AND TERROR! I HAVE CONSUMED ENTIRE PLANETS AND BANISHED UNCOUNTABLE SOULS TO THE-"

"Shut the [censored] up." Lord H'taed said.

The entity blinked.

"What?" He asked, his voice tembling.

"This." H'taed said, and walked up to the entity and spat in his right eye.

There was a long silence.

Then the entity burst into tears, and his form morphed and changed until he had become an eight foot tall pixie, bawling and whinning like a little kid.

Everybody in the room, and surprisingly enough, the Psycho Fear, raised an eyebrow.

"Umm...right then...Do what I say or I'll spit at you again." Said H'taed.

"Ok ok! No need for the gooey wads of painful DEATH! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

The shriek echoed around the room.

"SHUT UP. And oh, Scry Lord Diov's gem for us while you're at it."

The entity immediatly stopped crying and sniffled.

"Meanie...I already know where it is. I've already sent that A.I. over there the details." Big fat tears welled up in the pixie's eyes. "Can I go home now? Please?"

H'taed backed away a few steps. As an electrical being, he couldn't be too careful around large amounts of water.

"Um. Yea. Sure." He said carefully.

"YAY!" The pixie vanished.

Silence descended upon the room again.

"What the hell was that?" Asked Lord Kuro distantly.

H'taed shrugged. "Sometimes entities and gods get so used to being instantly obeyed and praised that they break down at the slightest signs of superiority from anyone else. Guess we got lucky and got one of those. Anyways...Noitpeced, you have the cordinates?"

"Yes. However, signs indicate that this dimension is almost brand new. Created just a few days ago. Since there arn't going to be any naturally occuring dimensional links to it, we'll need to build our own link manually. Since we need to be able to squeeze the entire tower through, it'll need to be big. Very big. So it may take a while to build. Especially in a dimensional made up entirely of mist with no planets or any form of land. I suggest we get busy. Go and make yourselves useful."

With that, everybody left the room.

-----

Ten days later.

-----

Floating in the mist like a blatant Halo ripoff, was a giant ring. Well parts of a ring anyway. Various crafts and platforms floated about it. Sections of the ring were missing entirely, and others only had metalic skeletons laid out for plating to be applied. Husks equipped with special enviroment suits moved about, using lasers, smelt rays, and miniature ley taps to build it. The Husk Corp. Tower floated like a monster in the mist, just under half a mile away from the ring. Construction was coming along smoothly, and soon everything would be ready.

-----

A very bored Mr. Walker Husk was sitting in one of the X number of control rooms in the tower, monitoring screens and readouts, and watching the construction of the ring.

Suddenly, he got a com signal.

"This is Slyph ship 23,972, requesting permission to board and stock up on supples for construction." A voice said from a nearby intercom.

The Mr. Walker pulled up a screen, and looked into it. Spotting the ship, and not seeing anything wrong, he gave them clearance. He moved the screen away again, and returned to his game of solitare when...

"Control, we have a seriously big [censored] prob-" The voice was suddenly cut off.

The husk rolled his eyes and pulled up the screen again. The ship wasn't there anymore. He shrugged. It must have already moved. He moved the screen away again.

What he hadn't seen was the huge black shape moving out of the corner of the screen.



To be continued.

H'taed landed on the ground, his mudbombs around them. They denoted, leaving him unharmed, but a smoldering crater extended for a few feet in every direction.

"Well. It looks like someone knows how to actually fight. I also doubt my blade here can pierce your armor...But can it hold up against something more...brutish?"

The electrical sword morphed and changed.

A solid rod of electrical energy formed. At the tip, a large crackling orb appeared.

It was a mace.

H'taed charged Syne.

He wasn't sure even the mace could get through the armor. But the mud bombs that it automaticly generated upon contact with an opponent probably could in combination with the blow.

H'taed suddenly despelled his sword, and twisted midair, dodging the strike for his chin and knees. Then he reached up and grabbed Syne's foot as it came down in an axe kick. He used the momentum from the kick to flip back and behind the Syne, and throw himself into the air, even higher then before now.

Then he started rapidly conjuring and throwing mud bombs down at all the Synes. So many were flung, it seemed like there was hail made of electrical death descending.

H'taed had seen the kick coming from a mile away. Nifty thing about being an afterimage, means that you move so fast you can go somewhere and yet not be there at the same time. H'taed had noticed the kick heading for the wall after about 200 passes by it, and promptly moved out of the way. The sonic boom got to him, but the electrical energies grounding him let him shake most of it off.

Long Story short. H'taed had jumped high into the air and was now above the original Syne, Electrical Sword descending.

H'taed would have been grinning if he had a mouth.

'Just like the machine said...Is it possible? Maybe it can happen.' He thought.

Bringing up the memory of his superspeed afterimage attack he had used on Alex...

H'taed saw four Syne's in total, including her flickering distortions. He ran around all of them.

They formed seemingly soild walls around them. H'taed's after-images slowly turning towards the Syne's they surrounded.

They all swung thier electrical swords.

H'taed suddenly caught sight of Syne through the portal.

"............Noitpeced. Get Lord Diov on the link NOW."

A few moments later.

Lord Diov didn't bother speaking to H'taed through the link. He showed up in person. Materializing by the portal.

Lord H'taed glared at him.

"Diov. You have some explaining to do."

"Indeed." Said Lord Diov.

"DON'T GIVE ME THAT [censored]." H'taed yelled. "YOU KNEW THIS WAS GOING TO HAPPEN!"

"Yes. I did." Diov said calmly.

H'taed glared at Diov.

"That box...You don't even care about what's in it do you?" He said slowly.

Lord Diov continued to look through the portal.

"Correct. This is all about you. Remember the temple? It is your time, H'taed."

"You mean...What the machine says is true?" He asked.

Diov nodded.

"Yes, H'taed. What is in that box is meant for you. Not me. No more hiding. Go. Take what the Xiltru were supposed to grant you as your inheritance."

H'taed nodded.

He stepped through the portal.

-----

H'taed suddenly faded into view in front of Syne.

"Hello Syne. I've been waiting for you my entire life. I am here to take back what you stole from me. Let us fight!"

H'taed conjured a blade of electricity in one hand, and a mud bomb in the other.

His red inhuman eyes latched onto Synes.

Or you know...Had actual substance to them?

Maybe if he applied some common sense.

Or if he learned to speak the human language the right way.

(shrugs)

I need a drink...

(walks out of the forum.)

OOC

*Bows*

To those who see the truth...

I salute you!

. . . . .

You stole the token thing from me didn't you? H'taed's after-image superspeeding. Whatever goes around comes around I guess.

Good work. I can't wait.

Present time, Dimension of Mists, Husk Corperation Tower.

-----

H'taed entered the room. It was large, and made entirely of silvery metal. The only distinguishing feature being a podium in front of the door. Lord H'taed mounted this, and surveyed the gathered.

Charles and Emily Dark Aura both stood in a corner. They were as pale and unmoving as statues.

The seven Husk Lords stood in the center of the room. They had been huddling and talking quietly until H'taed had come into the room. Now they all glared at him from beneath thier sunglasses.

The collective had infected everyone in the room. The Psycho Fear had manifested. A ten foot tall behemoth covered in chintonous armor, crystals and jagged bones and spines running along its body. A crystal crown adorned with horns and a mouth filled with serrated teeth were the most distinguishing features of its face. The Psycho Fear's eyes glowed purple as it clenched its clawed and cruel hands. The air around it seemed wax-like, and out of proportion.


Lord H'taed, normally an amazing fighter, felt suddenly small and insignificant before the arrayed threats. However, he had a duty. He spoke.

"...Old aqaintances...Friends...and...um...uncurable diseases..........Of [censored] it I never was good at speeches. Here's the setup. Someone managed to steal Lord Diov's gem. We don't know who, what, when, where, or why. Lord Diov has assembled all of us, and given us unlimited access to the resources of Husk Corperation. He charges you to find the gem and blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah. And guess what? There is even a punchline! He says if we don't find it within a week, we all die, get brought back to life, and killed again just to make sure. Then whatever remains of our bodies gets tossed into a dimensional furnace along with a flux bomb. Any questions?"

"Yes..." Said a rather irrated looking Lord Kuro.

"We can't do anything about it unless we have SOME info."

"I'll be providing that." Said a voice from nowhere.

Lord Diov materialized out of thin air.

Charles Dark Aura frowned slightly. His eyes narrowed behind his glasses.

Emily Dark Aura raised an eyebrow.

The Psycho Fear growled and purred at the same time, creating a sound which most of everybody ignored to prevent getting headaches.

The seven lords all snapped to attention.

Lord H'taed just rolled his eyes beneath his hood.

"This will require a good deal of explanation. Pay VERY close attention, I am not repeating this. Most of this is rather personal information, and the only reason I'm telling you is because it's the only information I have to give."

He paused, making sure everyone understood.

"Good. It all began in an alternate dimension, forgotten by time. There, everything was under the control of an entity know only as the Divine. There were two races which served it. The Archnows, and the Xiltru. The Archnows...They were composed entirely of energy and heat. The Xiltru were composed of negativity. Hate, depression, shadows, the whole deal. The Divine had enslaved the Xiltru, and for aeons, they labored for the Archnows. Then, something happened. A so called 'god' appeared. He called himself Demon Void. He inspired the Xiltru to rise up in rebellion, and they managed to overthrow the Archnows and the Divine. Demon Void became the Xiltru's patron."

Lord Diov stopped here, making sure everyone had understood everything so far.

"Demon Void, however, was not content to merely be a god. He was not satisfied with his all-mighty power. He wanted more. So he went and started meddling with things he understood, but could not entirely control. He created a gem. This gem was able to siphon power from a force known only as the Void."

"What's up with that? Did he name the force after himself?" Asked Emily.

"No. He claimed he had been created using raw energy siphoned off from this force. So HE was named after it. And it was known as the Void. Anyway. By siphoning power from the Void using the gem, he was going to attempt to unite all the dimensions, and place them under a single rule. His. Unfortunatly...He siphoned too much power. The Void overcame and consumed him. Then it spread. It devoured most of the dimensional. Everything. Everyone. Every Time. Every Place. Gone." Diov spoke more and more quietly as he went on.

"Until there was only a single Xiltru left. He was about to be consumed. When Demon Void came to him. Gods are nothing without those who believe in them. If that Xiltru had died, Demon Void would have ceased to exist. So he saved the Xiltru by sending him to another dimension."

"Terra." Lord H'taed said. Everybody turned to stare at him. He shrugged. Lord Diov simply nodded and continued to speak.

"However, Demon Void's plan backfired. The Xiltru stole the very same gem that Demon Void had used, and after he went through the portal, he ceased to believe in his god. Demon Void was eradicated from existance. However, the Xiltru now had an artifact that allowed him to gather potentially unlimited power. So he tested, and experimented. He found out that he could only draw incomprehenhibly small bits of energy from the gem. Anything larger would attract the Void to his new dimensional, starting the whole fiasco over again. So he decided, to be extra cautious. He used the gem to create an automated 0 risk way to get whatever he wanted."

Lord Diov paused at this.

"Husk Corperation."

The silence in the room was deafening.

"Diov...I mean, Lord Diov...I had no idea..." H'taed began to say.

Lord Diov rounded on him.

"I do not care for what you think." He said angrily. He turned back to the others.

"Long ago, a world was obliterated by a cataclysm that was later called the VOID ECLIPSE. Find that gem. Or risk the Void Eclipse happening again."

And like that, Lord Diov vanished from the room, as if he had never been there.



To be continued.

Earlier, Rogue Islands, Sharkhead Island, Black Heart Hospital...

-----

Jim opened his eyes. He had been working in the pit when a bunch of wierd rock monsters had attacked. After getting beaten over the head Jim had blacked up.

He noticed he was on an operating table. Several nurses were running about with tools and equipment, and a large shadow loomed over him.

"Ah you are awake. Please remain calm sir. We are doing everything in our power to make sure you leave the building in optimal condition. You had a ruptured appendix, and a few broken ribs. We managed to remove the appendix successfully, and we have bandaged you're chest. We're just checking a few more documents and you should be free to go."

Jim blinked.

"Who are you...And how did I get here? Usually we are left to die in the pit..." He said weakly.

The shadows around the figure in front of him cleared up as she backed away.

A tall woman wearing a white lab coat, a non-descript grey shirt, and white khaks stood before him. She had long flowing black hair that almost fell past her knees.

Her eyes were black. But you saw stuff like that in the rogue islands every day, so Jim pretty much ignored it.

"My name is Dr. Emily. Please wait one moment." She turned to a nurse nearby and starting looking through some papers.

He leapt off the operating table, and just stood there sheepishly.

Finally, Dr. Emily turned back to him. The nurse left the room.

"We have declared you fit to leave. There is just the small matter of your bill and then..."

"Umm...sorry doc but I'm broke. No money." Jim interupted.

Dr. Emily blinked.

"Oh that's no problem. All you need to do is fill out a few forms and we can forget the bill. One moment." She closed the door into the room. Jim could have sworn he heard a soft 'click.' She then went over to her desk, and started sifting through the contents of a drawer.

Jim decided he should just leave and screw proceedings. He quietly made his way to the door.

Then he froze.

He tried to move forward, but he couldn't.

He tried again. Nothing. His legs simply wern't obeying his brain.

"Before you leave sir...There is a slight problem. You see, when we bandaged your ribs, we were forced to use an experimental bio-foam. It cost the hospital a few million dollars for just five cans of it. I'm afraid that if you can't pay with money, you're going to have to pay us in a way that will aid us. To put it in layman's terms...Just consider this a 'donation.'"

Dr. Emily walked in front of him. He tried to get away but he couldn't move.

She glared directly into his eyes.

Although he didn't notice it, he was lifted slightly off the ground. He was levitating.

Then an invisible force tore a gash down his chest.

He would have screamed, but some force had clamped his mouth shut.

All the while, Dr. Emily just glared at Jim.

Slowly, his ribs cracked, the experimental foam flaking off of them. They shattered, and disintergrated into powder. Jim's organs were fully exposed and visible.

An invisible force ripped out his insides, one organ at a time.

First his liver.

Then his kidneys.

His lungs were next.

All of his organs slowly tore themselves out of his body, and started to revolve like planets around Dr. Emily.

Finally, his heart was torn out. The world went black.

-----

After carefully dismantling the rest of Jim's body, and storing the body parts in a cryo fridge, Emily Dark Aura finally walked out of the room.

One of the nurses rushed up to her.

"Dr. Emily. Your husband, Charles, is downstairs. He says its important."

Emily nodded, and headed for the elevators.

-----

Charles Dark Aura, and his wife, Emily Dark Aura, met in the lobby. Emily pecked Charles on the cheek, and they walked out of the hospital together, hand in hand.

-----

They walked down the road.

"So what is it?" Emily asked.

"Lord H'taed called." Charles said simply.

"Ah...That bad is it? Well we had best get going."

"I think not." Said a voice behind the two.

Charles and Emily turned.

Sister Psych and Aura Borealis stood behind them.

Charles raised an eyebrow.

"Heroes actually come here? Nerva Archipelago I understand, but Sharkhead island? This is ridiculous." He smirked slightly as he said this.

"We're here for that cell phone. We are going to take your place on that rift portal, and launch a surprise attack on Lord Diov. Do not resist." Said Borealis.

Emily Dark Aura laughed at this.

"Lord Diov doesn't even care about Paragon city. In the overall scheme of things, he has almost no influence here on Earth. The only reasoning I can see behind your utterly stupid plan is that you have become tired of living. And the gall of you two! You would think that at least Positron or Synapse or somebody actually COMPETENT would show up. Is Statesman TRYING to insult Diov?"

"You two are psychics. Diov's rift tech is alligned to transport you only if you match thier database. We're the only heroes powerful enough and that are Psychic to qualify for this mission. Now hand it over, and we won't be forced to arrest you." Sister Psych said, her eyes alight.

At this, husband and wife both burst out in laughter.

Charles chuckled as he said...

"Fools. You think that Lord Diov ONLY scans for powers? He is more powerful then you think. Even if you DID miraculously subdue us, Diov would never be fooled by your plan."

"So I take it we have to force you to give us that phone?" Said Aura.

"Yes. You do." Said Emily, smirking.

And with that, the four Psychics let loose with all thier might.

The very air seemed to waver as the power of thier minds clashed and collided in the streets. Street lamps started to bend, cars started to float, and windows shattered as mental might was fired and redirected.

In thier minds, Sister Psych and Aura Borealis were probing thier opponents minds for weaknesses, and cracks in thier mental armor.

They were so focused, in fact, that they didn't notice Charles and Emily stroll right up to them. Charles had ripped a street lamp out of the ground with telekineses, and raised it, grinning in triumph. Emily had several panes of broken glass and jagged metal orbiting around her.


The next thing Sister Psych and Aura Borealis knew...

Psych was wacked upside the skull with the street lamp. This broke her concentration, and Charles broke into her mind, ravaging it and wrecking havoc.

Aura was impaled and gashed all over her body. She slumped to the ground. Her mediport beacon activated, whisking her to safety.

Charles levitated Sister Psych into the air and held her there.

"Dearest Emily. Please lift that sewer cap quickly. She's begining to re-establish her defenses..."

Emily Dark Aura lifted the sewer access cap up. Swirling water could be heard from below.

"Do enjoy, sister Psych." Charles Dark Aura sent her spinning through the hole in the ground with a telekinetic command. The cap slammed back down, covering the sewer once again.

The street was silent and still once again.

"Well. That was entertaining. But now it is time to leave." Said Charles cheerfully.

He levitated the cell phone into the air. Emily took his arm in hers.

The cell phone flipped open. The screen flashed.

Charles and Emily Dark Aura vanished into thin air.

The collective slept.

Long ago, they had drifted amonsgt the sky of the Rogue Islands. Then one day they had the misfortune to float by a certain television screen and sucked in. Next thing the collective knew, they had been trapped within a dark and cold air-tight prison.

Over the years, they had been let loose a few times. However, the collective had been enslaved. Its captors had an unknown means of inflicting massive amounts of pain to every member of the collective, so they dared not defy their new master.

The monsterous and vile being they knew as Lord Diov.

Whenever they were released, it was usually to kill something. That suited the collective just fine. They only wished they got out a bit more.

-----

A Mr. Walker Husk, fresh off the Husk Corp. production lines, stood in the containment room with several other thugs, enforcers, and bruisers.

"So how does this work?" He asked nervously as he glanced at the silver capsul in the center of the room.

"Simple." Said the Mr. White Husk.

"We push a button. The capsule opens. We push another button. End of story."

"Then why does this job have a risk factor of 9/10?" Asked the Mr. Walker.

"It's a long story. But we have some time. Listen carefully. I am NOT repeating any of this."

The Mr. White Husk took a deep breath, then told the tale.

"The disease within that capsule is sentient. The collection of cells call themselves 'The Collective.' After infecting a person, it heads straight for the brain, infesting the visual, logic, and motor function areas of the mind. It then causes the infected victem to hallucinate. Now I don't know what they see exactly...Nobody knows, and if they did know, that means they were about to die. However, it is something especially terrifying, I can assure you. The hallucinations cause an avatar of fear or some such thing to appear, and kill the individual infected. The hallucinations are so strong, that the person's mind makes the experience real. Kinda like in the Matrix Movies. 'The Mind Makes it Real.' I've seen men levitated and ripped apart by this disease, and all it is doing is making them hallucinate. The real beauty of the disease is that even if the person infected KNOWS it is just an illusion, he will still be killed by it. THAT'S how powerful the hallucinations are."

Mr. White stopped speaking.

Mr. Walker suddenly looked at the capesul with fear in his eyes.

"But wait. If this thing is suposedly under our control...Why is the threat rating 9/10?" He asked, his voice trembling slightly.

"Because for the first ten seconds after the capsule opens, Lord Diov has to reconnect his links to every single cell in the collective. And that takes time. Hence, he needs distractions to keep the disease busy while he works." Said Mr. White wearily.

Mr. Walker's eyes buldged behind his sunglasses.

"So wait...we're gonna DIE?" He said in disbelief.

"Fraid so. Welcome to the life of a Husk newbie." Said Mr. White.

Suddenly the capsule opened.

-----

The collective sensed the capsule opening up. It rushed out, and saw many humans.

After being confined in a tiny silver capsule for over five decades, the collective was more then a little mad, and decided to vent thier frustration on the Husks.

-----

Exactly ten seconds later, every thug, enforcer, and bruiser in the room had either been ripped in half, impaled and beheaded, crushed into a flat smooth pulp on the ceiling by an invisible force that had levitated them into the air, or had thier arms and legs torn off.

-----

The collective paused.

Thier master was in all thier heads.

"Get here. Right. Now. And BEHAVE."

And like that, the collective was rifted away from the room.

-----

Lord H'taed stood before a doorway. The hologram of Noitpeced stood beside him.

"Lord H'taed. Charles Dark Aura, and his wife, Emily Dark Aura, have arrived. The Psycho Fear is also present, and the seven lords showed up quite some time before. Why arn't you entering?"

H'taed glanced at Noitpeced.

"Because I am currently Lord Diov's right hand man. Everyone in that room wants to kill me merely because they might feel like it, or because they want to replace me." He said.

"I assure you that can't happen. No violence can occur within the room, Lord H'taed." Noitpeced's smiling hologram explained in a slightly condescending voice, which H'taed ignored.

H'taed sighed heavily.

"Very well..."

He opened the door, and entered the room.



To be continued.

This is a good guide, and I got a few extra tactics from this.

My only argument is this.

Taking away Upgrade Equipment is begging to be mauled, ripped, shredded, tortured, then killed. Not neccessarily in that order.

Not giving the bruiser his first upgrade. Hand Clap is a good deal more useful then you make it out to be. I always set my tar patches up ahead of enemies and just let bruiser boy knock them into it. And the disorient portion is just too powerful to ingore when slotted.

But otherwise this is an excelent guide. Good work.