Ineffable

Igor shifted his attention from Vern for a moment to discuss the topic on hand.

"From what I havth obtherved, that hardly appearth to be an 'athtounding dithcovery in neurothienth. I do not thpethialize in that particular field, but I do, on general printhiple, equip all my creathions with thybernetics, or I at leatht alter their brain chemithtry ifth they are thtill alivth. In a fthew cathes I havth even completely remade a perthon uthing nothing but thtem thells generated fthrom the thubjecth own body. Evthen if this here ith thomething unique in dething, thurely not in effect. Why ith thith thuch a big deal?"

((Vapor, you can't just leave everyone else hanging like that. Respond with Radiator and Ghost already or this isn't going to go anywhere. ))

((Ran extremely fast.))

((This is a joint-post between me and Build.))

"Nobody steals my sparklies." Said a voice that popped and crackled like static.

And like a nightmare only seen in the faintest of dreams, Xabu 'fuzzed' into play in a haze of static energy which arced about. The massive armored figure was a full fifteen feet tall, and he had to hunch over and bend his legs to get down to an appropriate combat height.

With the skill he used those blades with, it was doubtless that was not a disadvantage to him. With a massive roar of thunder, the two blades of pure red electrical energy the giant wielded in both hands descended in a blur nearly impossible to follow.

They cleaved into Jonas' head and there was a discharge of electrical energies. Jonas felt the blades slide into the back of his head and for the milisecond that his body still held life, he noticed Kaega pull his own sword.

Kaega's body acted at the same time as Xabu. With no idea that his body had even moved Kaega's sword had already ripped through Jonas's stomach and nicked Xabu on his left arm. The armor plate for that particular section erupted as runes of unknown origin flared with energy.

"I don't take kindly to the fact that you. . .we just killed one of my friends. Now I'll have to hurt you." Kaega said.

"Just try it. I can kill you ten times before you even start to keel over." Xabu responded.

The armored figure exploded. A giant column of pure energy erupted from his location and expanded. The giant brute had becoming a living [u]lightning rod,[u] and now the energy he channeled roared forth in every direction to destroy everything in its path.

-----

Build and Conlin, of course, hadn't just popped up anywhere in the Dimension of Mists. Husk Corporation carefully monitored all ingoing and outgoing forms of transportation, natural, artificial, intentially, or accidental. Anything that was trying to get in or out without authorization was immediatly redirected.

To, in human terms, could be called a 'Redirect Lounge.' A place where visitors to the Dimension of Mists went through customs to get both in and out, whether they wanted to or not.

Build, Conlin, and their respective armies burst out through the door and into a huge room. It was the size of three football fields in length and width, with every surface being made of the same silvery substance. Everywhere, scattered about, were aliens, extra-terrestrials, planar beings, multi-dimensional entities, et cetera, et cetera. Most of them stood in unorganized lines and groups. They talked in unfamilier languages, hustled and bustled about, and in the case of a certain [u]shadowy manor[u] that appeared to have a life of its own, they complain to certain officials.

The husks.

They didn't appear to be any of the normal husk types. These were just humanoid shapped flesh sacks, with no features whatsoever. Not even faces. There were thousands of them intermingled and scattered about the place, doing what underlings did. They attended to the patrons of the lounge, did generic jobs, et cetera.

Build and Conlin had just caught three specific ones by surprise. One, flanked by two others. The one in the middle carried a small transparent bag filled with small silvery orbs, the other two were carrying pistols made of the same generic silvery material as everything else.

A customs official and two guards. Conlin and Build had just blown past the main customs procedure. Thankfully, it appeared as if the element of surprise was with them. The husks probably hadn't expected them to just barge out of their little room. The one with the bag appeared taken aback, and the two security husks had only begun to riase their pistols.

Build noticed the three husks turn to look at himself and Conlin. He quickly turned to the Necromancer, "The Husklord's name is Poep right?"

He turned back to the three before Conlin had a chance to answer, "We are on special assignment from Husklord Poep. He wishes us to pass through unimpeded and to carry out our mission on Terran Earth. It would do you well to point us in the direction of the transport node."

The security husks appeared to hesitate, even without any facial features. Their pistols lowered, but not by much. The customs official looked flustered.

"..........!^&.......@@..........(*....... uage identified as Terran." One of the two security husks said, (although how was unknown.) "There are three Husk Lords with the begining letters of their known names starting with P and O. There is no Husk Lord by the name of Poep. Is this a joke? We are NOT amused. Furthermore, even if what you said was true, how come you come up negative on the essence modules? You are unregistered in this district and all others."

The security husk on the left raised his silvery pistol. The one on the right reached into his chest with a putty-like hand, and pulled a silvery disc-like object out, pressing a button on it. Immediately, other of the featureless husks turned their heads to the group's location.

"Hands to your sides, and back slowly back into the receive room..." Said the one with the raised pistol.

The ice over the gun shattered into bits as the sonic blast roared forth anyway. It missed, as the targets had been speed-boosted, but the Archon settled for a new target.

Ice formed around the Archon's feet and promptly shattered as he spun around and fired a force bolt from his palm at the man. Salvator, having temporarilly lost interest in the two speed-boosted intruders, decided to go for the sitting duck. The empowered Adjutant rocketed over to Klaus at super speeds, and performed a thunder kick aimed for his head.

((That was a mistake on my part, although it does work in rather nicely with this bit here. Igor is based partially off of Discworld Igors, so you'll get it once you read the part about their lisps. ))

Igor declined the offered tray of drinks.

He was staring at Vern intently. He didn't appear to be mad at the quadruped or anything, just extremely INTERESTED.

Scarab celebrated and planned to soon. Ineffable had spent a grand total of three seconds in orbit. He rematerialized, and he had obviously either seen this coming or just sensed Scarab right before he arrived. The stalker was looking at a fist of disintergrative fury that was rocketing for his face.

"I am a fthully qualifthied all-purpothe general surgeon and field medic, thepthializing in the reanimation of the detheathed." Igor said. "I am altho a cathual inventor and mechanic, with thkills in jutht about any field you'd care to name. I havth over two hundred and seventy two degreeth in Mad Thienthe, both Thuicidal and non-Thuithidal."

As Power Breaker unleashed his own blue power sink, there was a roar and the entire area danced with red sparks, and the lights in the building flickered.

But the attacker was relentless. The localized Power Sink stuck to Khelly like glue.

Briggs perceived plenty of threats. There were red sparks arcing all over the place. They wern't particularly lethal, but they were there.

Horowitz pinned down his target's scent immediately: It smelled strongly of static. As a matter of fact, it smelled exceedingly of static. Which there was plenty of, all throughout the room.

Igor walked out of the corner of the room when nobody was looking.

"For all who care, I am Igor."

-----

A small batallion of glum looking reanimated Arachnos troops now stood right outside the door.

Ineffable lost his patience. He had come to a conclusion.

Either his opponent's armor was completely indestructable, or he was a higher being in physical form. In either case, Ineffable did not have time to sit there and kill Scarab slowly. So he went directly to plan B.

Ineffable with Scarab still wrapped in a Bear-hug, vanished.

-----

And they both promptly reappeared hovering about five miles above the surface of the Jade Moon. The last clear look of Ineffable Scarab got was during the spin of being whirled about and then chucked into space. The sheer velocity he had was staggering, he broke both the planet's gravity and the moon's. Scarab now rocketed into deep space, with no available breaks anywhere in sight.

He could boost his strength as much as he liked. Here in space, with zero traction, he couldn't do anything except travel in the direction he was thrown.

Even if he somehow recovered from the attack, he couldn't rejoin the battle. That far away from the surface at the speed he was going, the Moon was going to be out of his trajectory by a good few thousand kilometers. Attempting to return would just result in his fiery impact on the planet.

And, of course, that was all assuming Scarab could survive the vacuum of space, and the severe cold which was over three hundred degrees below zero.

Ineffable did not appear to be impeded by either of those enviromental problems. After throwing Scarab, he simply blinked out of existence.

Whatever was there responded to Power Breaker's offer by directing a static arc into his eye.

And despite the defensive measures of the shield drones, the power sink continued to sap Khelly of her energy, it was siphoning energy out of an entire area which was focused around Khelly, not just her alone. It couldn't 'miss.'

And the regenerative aura was helping her much either. The power sink was also nullifying her ability to naturally regenerate energy as well as draining it. They could boost her recovery and regeneration all they wanted, it wouldn't help her due to the fact that she wasn't recovering anything right now.

But who was doing this, and how? They wern't using invisibility or intangibility, but they had to be very close to be able to use a power sink. As a matter of fact, they would need to literally be at point-blank range to do so, which meant whoever was doing this was right on top of Khelly. But what method was that person using to avoid direct detection?

"Well I'd better go thet up a thmall perimeter then." Igor declared. "Nothing that'll attract attenthion, jutht a thmall ringlet of gumbo headth. I thaw a group of Arachnoth heading thith way that thould therve nicely."

There was a lightning strike in the distance as Igor and his zombie went right back through the portal.

-----

"Afthernoon." Igor said cheerfully to Jake as he passed by him as the mastermind headed for the open door.

"Blargh." The Longbow corpse said dully as its brief encounter with Jake came and went.

The moment Build's stomache was cut open, there was an explosion of light, and the entire power of a Cosmos being born roared out to engulf every nano-meter of space that could be occupied by a Galaxy one point two times the size of the Milky Way.

-----

The air began to crackle, and tiny red arcs of electricity began to dart about the ground.

Particularly around Khelly...

And suddenly, Khelly got an unexpected taste of an odd medicine. Her own. She felt her power drastically decreasing by the second, almost as if something was draining it all away, like a localized power sink...

But what was causing it? There was nobody around...

Salvatore and the Ascendant wern't fooled for a second.

"Oh no you don't..." The Ascendant growled.

Salvatore, H-Boosted Council Adjutant

Volder, H-Boosted Ascendant Archon

Salvatore charged at a frighteningly fast pace, like he was moving at super-speed, and brought a round-house kick around at Dusan's head. The Ascendant Archon hefted his gigantic sonic gun, and the massive thing began to hum as it charged a massive shot.

"Thorry mathter." Igor said apologetically as he hunched through the portal, followed shortly by the offended reanimated corpse. "How can I make it up to you to forgivth me? Thall I get you another rithe cake? Thomething to drink? Do you require an army of reanimated abominationth? Thall I kill thomething for you? Would you like any new parths or to be beridden of them? Ath a matter of fact, ith there abtholutely anything within a vthery broad thpan of reathoning I can do for you?"

"Blargh." The Longbow zombie said dryly. One of its eyes was drooping out of its socket.

"Greetingth mathter." Igor said, taking a very low bow. "I am Igor."

Lightning flashed in the distance. There were no clouds in the sky and it was still daytime.

"While we are waiting, would you like anything? Food? Drinkth? Thpare parth? Health clone? Death ray of undithernable purpothe?"

The Longbow zombie walked right up to Sheldon, and breathed in his face with foul breath that smelled of formaldahyde and negative energy. "Blargh!" It said.

[ QUOTE ]
The Repliforce Paragon laboratories in Siren's Call were quite difficult to find, even with West's specific directions. The scientist was taking quite a risk revealing its location to the world, but the truth of the matter was that everything important had been moved from it long ago.

The entrance was that of a bombed-out building, the roof half-caved in. A door from the left-hand hall hung slightly open, and the shimmering of a light blue film was visible. As the door was pulled open, a small device slipped out of hiding on the left - a small, glowing lens, inviting the visitors to register their retinal scan in order to be gained entry.

It seemed West was very fastidious about his security...

[/ QUOTE ]

"Thith perthon theems to be vthery fathtidiouth about hith thecurity..." Igor grumbled as he and the longbow zombie tromped through the ruins of Eastern Siren's call, looking for the place.

He reached into his hand for the pocket digital-map he had made of the place, it would have his goal marked with a little star. What he pulled out instead was the old leathery map of the place that had come into being after the dital map had been placed in his kit. His goal was marked with a little red X.

Scowled as much as his scarred face would allow, Igor hunched the remaining distance to the door, which was already slightly open. He pushed the thing all the way in.

*CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAK!*

The retinal scanner lowered, and Igor, after musing over the device a little, reached into his kit and pulled out his eyes from six hundred years ago. He had never gotten them re-registered so he found it handy to keep them lying around. After giving both of them a quick sheen, he pressed them into the retinal scanner and waited.

"Something's wrong here...They should have showed up in the redirection lounge by now." Poe said, tapping the minitor thoughtfully. "Xabu, go and see what they're up to, send out a signal if something is up."

Xabu vanished in a shower of sparks.

-----

Why did it suddenly smell like static...?

-----

As far as the galaxy in Build went, it was fairly standard for a galaxy. It contained sixty million two hundred and forty nine thousand two hundred and five planets, thirty million four hundred and eighty thousand, six hundred and ninety eight stars, twenty four asteroids large enough to sustain life, eight black holes, and one standard super-massive black hole in the center.

The black ooze was still in his stomache as well, and the rune detected that it was a purple shellfish made of glass.

Ineffable, not a twitch moving across his face, continued to hug Scarab. Which was when the stalker noticed his blades were not exactly carving swaths in the brute's skin. The blades jutted into the brute, all too true, but it was almost as if something was reducing the damage. The blades merely left red pucker-like welts on the surface of the brute, which would slowly fade away.

And the whole while, Scarab's armor continued to deteriorate. How long could it hold up? If anything, Ineffable just gripped on even tighter. No part of Scarab's body was spared, the entire thing was wrapped in a killing blanket.

Siren's Call

The Longbow Nullifier squinted up at the sky.

Was that a flea...? No, it was slightly too big...A fly...? No. Flies moved around more, and they didn't keep growing gradually bigger.

What wa-

*KA-FREAKING BOOM*

The carriage impacted the ground, sending rubble, rocks, and dubris everywhere. The carriage's structure split and cracked before splintering into hundreds of fragments.

Igor summersalted through the air with a surprising amount of grace. Lightning cracked in the distance. (There was not a cloud in the sky.) Igor performed a few flips and twirls mid-air before landing gracefully on his feet.

"Capital!" He said.

Then his left arm fell off.

".....I'm not quite thure what I did to dethervth that." He declared. Still, it wasn't much of a problem, that arm had been over three hundred years old anyway. He really should have checked it a bit more often. He could have probably replaced it a few months before he left. All that meant now was that he'd have to find another arm.

Igor raised his cybernetic arm to his eyes and surveye his surroundings. He immediately spotted the unconcious form of a Longbow Nullifer.

"Aha! Thomebody hath dethided to take a nap, I thee...How lucky for me..."

There was another lightning strike.

Igor hunched his way over to the ruins of the rocket carriage, and after rummaging about a bit, brought out his kit. "Where did I leave that turnip...?" He muttered. "Here we are..."

He pulled a turnip out of the bag. "Time to go to work..." He said in a decidedly sinister voice as he turned to the Longbow Nullifier.

-----

Some time later

Igor, with a brand new arm, hunched happilly across the landscape. A rather irked-looking reanimated corpse wearing a tattered and torn Longbow uniform trailed after him. Its arm was missing.

'Where am I?!?!?' Asked a frightened voice.

Igor calmly put down the source of the question-His bag-and pulled out the jar. The jar in question had a turnip floating in it.

"You are now a turnip." Igor declared.

Silence.

'Really?'

"Yeth."

'.....Damn.'

"Worry not, you thall lead a productive lifth as a turnip. I can already think of many utheth for you." Igor said to the turnip jar affectionately. "Thanthes are, thoon you'll havth a new body. If we can't fthind one, well...There's alwayth emergenthy rationth."

'I'm not sure I quite like the sound of that. I mean...It's all so sudden...I'm a turnip!'

"Yeth, I believe I did point that out..." Igor said, placing the jar on a nearby rock and beckoning the reanimated corpse closer. "Tho what? Ith not like you were very important anywayth."

'I object to being treated like this. I am a human being! What makes you think you can treat me like that? You can't just insult me!'

"Thut up, turnip..." Igor grumbled. "Your left arm wath and thtill ith a piece of crap, by the way."

The turnip kept complaining, so Igor tossed it off a nearby crevice.

"Come my vile minion! To the plathe!" Cried Igor. Lightning cracked in the distance again, and soon both Igor and zombie were happilly lurching and hunching their way across Sirens Call.

Castle Castle

A door opened with a creek. It was a brand new door that had been recently oiled and was made of smooth inter-locking materials, but regardless, it creaked anyway. Doors opened by him always creaked.

The lights turned on.

Igor entered, humming a tuneless song. He hunched his way over to the brand new Impossitech 9000 Hyper Quantum Computer, which was covered in cobwebs and layers of dust, despite having been installed only last afternoon.

Igor settled into the chair. It creaked.

"Activath procedure." He said with an audiable lisp.

Outside, lightning crashed. There wern't any clouds in the sky and it was daytime.

Slowly, one by one, a series of statis tubes lit on the opposite sides of the room, each containing a horrible monstrosity.

Igor pulled a switch,m and the entiure room exploded into action.

A giant water-wheel on the west side of the room began to turn, powering a turbine which ran across the top of the room, which in turn powered a series of over-complicated reanimation machinery, which crackled with electricity. Various sinister looking equipment hummed with power and large pointless shinies sparkled.

Lightning flashed again, hit the lightning rod atop Castle Castle, ran down into the laboratory, and an explosion of sparks and electrical power surged through the five corpses.

A few short seconds later, the statis tubes opened and five living dead corpses shambled out.

"ITH ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVTH!" Igor howled. There was a *KRACK-THOOOOOOOOOM!* Of thunder in the distance.

He threw another switch.

A little paddle flipped out from the floor and smacked into the first zombie. It fell over into the next one, which fell onto the next one, creating a domino effect until the last of the five reanimated corpses fell over onto another switch which was conveniently placed within falling distance.

The room erupted into activity again. Igor would have been sweating had he had functional sweat glands. The turbine roared, electricity crackled about, and across the Eastern wall, a series of gears ground and tubes whistled as a heavilly modified steam-train chasis sprung to life and a fire began to roar. A large pillar of stone began to grind its way across a groove in the floor, spinning in place as it did so. What sounded like rain echoed across the stones. (Although it was not actually raining.)

Igor's hands flew about the instrument panel, hitting knobs and switches and pulling as many levers as they could reach, readouts buzzed and glew, and Igor knew that if he didn't do everything PERFECTLY and PRECISELY, everything would blow up and eradicate all life on the continent.

*Ding!*

A little plastic cup slid out of an opening in the huge engine, the coffee beans that had rained down earlier fell into the boiler, and eight seconds later, a stream of coffee poured into Igor's cup.

He picked it up, and put the cup to his lips. Then he put it back down, and put in earplugs, THEN picked it back up and drank it.

He still heard the lightning roar as the stuff slid down his throat.

"Morning Igor." Said Igor, who had just entered the lab and was staring musingly at Igor.

"Hi Igor." Igor said, taking another sip of his coffee. "Howth Igor?"

"Igor ith good. Heth perfthorming another labotomy today. Altho, Igor thopped by and athked me to tell you that the grinderth jammed latht night when he wath making thtring cheeth."

"Thath the sixth time thith month. I'll get Igor to fikth it." Igor said with a small frown that didn't completely form due to his stitching. "Want thome?" He asked, indicating his coffee cup.

"Naw, don't feel like putting the bodieth back into the tubeth." Igor said dismissively. "I jutht take pillth theth dayth."

The Impossitech 9000 Hyper Quantum Computer bipped.

"Ah! I havth an email methage!" Igor said, revolving in his chair, (which creaked) and accessing his Yoodle account.

"Sixthteen trillion dollar computer and we uthe it for email..." Igor muttered behind him.

"Ah, ith a methage for Igor, go and get him pleathe."

"Yeth matht-I mean, yeth." Igor said. "IGOR!" He called.

"Yeth?" Igor asked. He was right behind Igor. This didn't seem to bother her in the least though.

"Igor thayth you havth thome email." Igor explained.

"Ah, thank you Igor." Igor thanked Igor. "Let me thee it."

Igor hopped from the seat, (which creaked) and Igor got on it, (it creaked again) and checked the monitor.

"Hmmm. Interethting...Igor?" Igor said.

"Yeth?" Said Igor.

"I havth to go to thith, fill in for me, will you?"

"Yeth matht-I mean, yeth."

-----

Igor went into the carriage house and got into the driver's seat. There wasn't anybody occupying the actual carriage in itself, but it was TRADITION to ride at the driver's seat. That and he was going alone.

There wern't any horses. As Igor hunched himself into a comfortable position, the reins he held looped forward, down, and under the carriage.

"MUTH!" Igor barked.

The rocket engine ignited, and soon, Igr was a speck in the distance...

((I would be able to treat your hound with the proper respect if you actually TOLD ME how it tracks things-But you've been giving me a taste of my own medicine, which essentially means you arn't telling me. ))

Vern suddenly looked very embarressed.

"Well...It's not that really...It's just that I can't get my equipment to work. Every time I point it in the right direction it goes haywire and I have to start over again." He said sheepishly. "That teleport signal you just read is simply going INTO Boomtown. I can't detect the signal once it is INSIDE Boomtown. I suspect there's some kind of global shielding over the zone that prevents both long and short-range investigations. I'd have to move my stuff INTO Boomtown for it to have any effect."

((I'll edit then.))