"-ck." Finished Lord H'taed.
He stared in shock a bit longer.
"Have you tried rifting it back...?" He asked.
"Yes." Siad Lord Diov.
"Dimensional Acceleration?"
"Yes."
"Fluxing?"
"Yes."
"Timelin-"
"You already know I've tried everything." Diov said calmy.
"So shut up."
Lord H'taed and Diov fell silent. The screams of the Husks still loud, and crashes and breaking noises were heard in the distance.
"...So what do we do?" Asked H'taed.
"Well. Obviously I need to bring in a few old friends. I'll need help in locating it and getting it back. As much as I hate it, I'm going to release the Psycho Fear from suspended animation. Oh, and I'll need to call Charles...Then the seven lords, of course."
H'taed nodded.
"Sounds good."
-----
Meanwhile, a few dimensions back, Earth, in some random bar in the rogue islands...
Bill the scrapyarder walked into the bar, welcoming a few soothing drinks after a hard day's work in the pit.
He opened the door, half asleep, and wandered over to one of the barstools. He couldn't see very well, everything was fuzzy.
"Gimme my usual Alex." He muttered.
"Alex is...a little stretched out right now...I'm filling in for him." Said a abnormally cold voice.
Bill really didn't care. He just wanted his damn drink. He heard a mug being filled at the tap.
"...So are you usually this tired after working?" Said the cold voice.
"Yea. Cage works us to death and then some. I hate it to, cause I have this meeting I need to go to soon, and I'll most likely sleep through it." Bill said gloomily.
"Here, I'll add something to spice it up a little. Should wake you right up." Said the voice.
"Hey thanks...umm...What's your name there buddy?" Bill asked as he heard the mug hitting the counter.
"Call me Charles." Said the cold voice.
"Eh. Thanks Charles." Bill downed the drink.
Surprising, his vision cleared up almost immediatly.
In front of him was a very tall pale faced man with slick black hair. He was wearing a tenchcoat with torn sleeves and tail, but it was a rough place, after all. Underneath the coat, he wore a non-descript dark grey shirt, and wore white khaks. Strangely, he was wearing reflective and red tinted glasses, but you saw odd things like that in the Rogue Islands every day, so Bill dismissed it.
"Wow Charles, that really worked, I feel really...um...really.....really..."
He suddenly noticed something.
The stuff he had drunk had most definatly not tasted like his usual drink.
He looked down at his mug.
It was brimming with blood.
He looked up in horror, and finally realized the entire surface of the counter was coated in blood, and bits of flesh. Ominous Gray goo was splattered over the walls.
"Feeling horrified, Bill?" Said Charles.
Bill suddenly leapt off the bar stool, and turned around to head for the door.
He saw Alex the barkeeper.
Or bits of him, anyway.
His skin had apparently been flayed off his body, and it was hanging from the cieling like a one long streamer. His organs had been stuffed into pepper shakers and bottles.
His head was floating. FLOATING in midair, gazing lifelessly at Bill. Its scalp had been cut off, and brain matter and gore was still dribbling down the floating head.
"I always did like abstract art..." Said Charle's cold voice from behind Bill.
Bill turned for the side exit.
Then he found out why he hadn't seen any of the other regulars at the bar.
Thier bodies had been roped together. Legs twiststed around arms, arms twisted around legs, and they all interlocked to form a gate of flesh blocking the door out. The heads of all the corpses had either been twisted a full 180 degrees, or been blown off entirely.
And everywhere there was blood.
"Want some pretsels?" Said the cold voice.
Bill turned around very slowly.
Charles indeed had a big pretsel in his hand.
"I personally find these tasteless unless you put sauce on them. Let me do the honors..."
Charles raised his free hand. Alex's head floated from the center of the room. The head tipped forward, and gore and brain slithered out of the opening and onto the Pretsel.
"Enjoy."
Charles threw the thing at Bill.
It went right into Bill's open mouth. The gore clogged his throat, strangling him. He gasped for air, and fell to the floor, writhing in agony.
He heard footsteps.
Charle's form was above him.
"So you don't like the pretsel? Shame. Looks like you are having a bit of indegestion there Bill. Let me help you."
Suddenly Bill was levitated into the air, hovering a few inches in the air.
Suddenly, an invisible force tore a rip down his chest. His heart, lungs, stomach, and liver all clearly visible, beating and shifting slightly.
Bill would have screamed but the gore stained Pretsel was still clogging his throat.
"Well! I've never seen a case this bad before! I'll have to go to extremes!"
Charles walked casually forward, and thrust his hands into Bill's open chest cavity. He ripped out the small and large intestines, and the stomach, casually ripping out body parts, and snapping ribs as he worked his way upwards. All the while, Bill floated helplessly, unable to scream.
"And here we are..."
Charles thrust his arm up Bill's throat from below the neckline. He ripped the prestsel out.
"All better. Now I think you should go to sleep, its good for the body..."
The world suddenly went black for Bill.
-----
After cleaning off the blood on his trenchcoat, Charles Dark Aura left the bar, and headed back for his apartment.
Then his cell phone rang.
He used his telekinetic power to lift it out of his pocket, and bring it to his ear.
"Who is it?" He asked.
"It's H'taed."
Charles Dark Aura paused.
"Fine. Rift away H'taed. As long as I get to have a little fun with all those Husks, I'm good with whatever Lord Diov wants." He said.
"Also, Lord Diov wants you to bring your wife as well." H'taed said from the other side of the line.
"Ok then. It'll take me a while to get to her though, She's out tonight working at the Black Heart Hospital. We should be ready in about an hour." Charles said into the phone.
"Good." H'taed said, sounding relieved.
"And H'taed...Not that I don't think this isn't important...but how bad is the situation?" Charles asked.
There was a pause.
"It's god bad Charles. God bad."
The line went dead.
"Hmph." Charles muttered.
He started to walk towards the hospital. A pedestrian accidentally tripped and spilled his drink on Charle's coat.
Charles glared at the man. His head exploded in a shower of gore as the Psychic Pressure overloaded the man's brain.
He continued to walk towards the hospital.
To be Continued
Earth, Rogue Islands, Grandville, TV monitor...
High above Spider City, at the top of the Arachnos tower, there was a large monitor that had falled from its cable and was sitting, partially cracked and the last image it had shown, (of Lord Recluse, no less) was flickering on the screen.
Nobody ever tried to fix it. Whenever someone considered doing it, they would get a form telling them to leave it where it was.
Nearby, one of the elevator doors opened, and a thug stepped out. A Mr. Walker Husk thug, to be exact. He rushed over to the monitor.
Checking to make sure nobody was around, he then walked straight into the screen, passed right through it, and vanished.
-----
Lord Diov had long ago had a contact known simply as the television. It was an entity in control of all sight and sound that existed on Earth. At one point, Nemesis had found a way into the television, and had planned on making a trans-dimensional base within a movie.
Lord Diov was pissed that he hadn't come up with this idea first, so he promptly entered the television himself, and beat the Nemesis out. As a reward for helping the television, he was allowed to use the movie of his choice, and use that world as a staging ground for Husk Corp.
Not caring much for movies, and therefore not knowing much about how to tell the good ones from the bad ones, he had picked out "They Devour the Earth!" because it had a large Graveyard complete with cliffside and underground crypt.
He had torn out the tombs within the cliff, and filled everything in with a state of the art technomancy base, all concealed within a moderately malevolent crypt. There were Devouring Earth there as well, hence the name, all of them recieved special implants that allowed direct control.
The only trouble had been with these two atctors running around and screaming after they had figured out the plot wasn't going along as planned, so Diov had them cut into tiny bits and served as breakfast to his Husks.
-----
Mr. Tribal appeared before a towering crypt that had been built into a cliff wall. Ascending it to the highest door, he went up to one of the angel statues.
"Shadows and Dust." He said.
The angel almost seemed to nod slightly. The door into the crypt opened.
Within it seemed like an entirely differant world. Long hallways of silver metal, barraks and meeting rooms, storage and processing rooms. This base was under the control of the seven lords. The seven original thugs that Lord Diov had made all his Husk clones from.
After a good deal of running, and after waiting five minutes on an elevator, he reached the meeting room.
It had a blue tiled floor with tanned leather adorning the walls, various paintings and works of art from from it. A large black sleek conferance table was in the center, and seven thugs sat at it.
They all looked just like normal street thugs, except that these had special emblems of Black and Red stripes embroided on thier coats and pants.
Lord Tribal and Lord Walker sat closest to the door. They lead the "Cannon Fodder" division, as they fondly called it.
Lord Poe was the leader of the arsonists, he sat next to Lord Tribal.
Sitting beyond him was Lord White, and across from him, Lord Nomed. White led the enforcers, and Nomed led the bruisers.
At the head of the table sat Lord Kuro, an enforcer like White. He led them all.
The Mr. Walker Husk saluted smartly as he entered the room. He gently placed a little black orb with a ruby embedded in it on the table, then left.
All the lords stared at it intently.
The gem flashed, and Noitpeced, Lord Diov's A.I. was projected onto the table.
"This is an automated message. Yes, I am saying this to waste time and annoy you." Said Noitpeced's hologram.
"Lord Diov has a message for you, his trusted companions. His gem is gone. He wants you back at Husk Corp. tower five hours ago. This essence sphere will implode in three seconds."
And indeed it did, collapsing upon itself and crushed into an infinitely small point.
'Drama Queen...' They all thought simultaniously. Still, they knew the situaton had already gone from bad to worse the moment it had started, and if Lord Diov wanted ALL seven of them, that meant the party was only getting started.
Lord Kuro suddenly stood.
"Let's go." He said simply. He pressed a button on the desk, and the seven lords promptly vanished.
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.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
Most of the ships 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 wasnt even correct usage of inter-
Shut up
Poe grunted. Just find us a way out of this mess. Youre 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 doesnt 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 dont you go and say that to Lord Htaed, see what he thinks about that.
Yes
well
He doesnt use NORMAL electricity. Anyways...I think I can get a few systems running again if given some time
But Ill 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. Noitpeceds 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 ships 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 youll handle the rest? He asked.
Yes. Good luck. Noitpeced said, nodding.
Youre not coming with me? Poe asked.
Cant. Im pretty much confined to this room until you get the systems reconnected. However, Ill 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 isnt 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. Noitpeceds sarcastic voice echoing in Poes 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.
Kuro looked at the claws slowly wrenching the grating off the wall.
"Well. [censored]." He said, stunned.
"Hey Kuro." Poe said in a calm voice. He lit a cigerette and blew out a ring of smoke. "I have something to tell ya."
"I know. You've always loved me havn't you?" Kuro asked. "Well I love ya to man."
There was a slight pause, only interupted by the wrenching noises of the grate.
"Actually...I've always hated your guts Kuro." Poe said, voice still calm. He blew another smoke ring.
The grating came off the wall.
"Well. Guess it's time. See you in hell Kuro." Lord Poe said, and clossed his eyes.
'Actually, considering how many differant places you've travelled, probably somewhere alot worse.' Said a sarcastic voice in both thier minds.
The Psycho Fear ducked through the hole and waved a crystalized and jagged hand at the two astonished Husk Lords.
Kuro reacted first. "Ok...can we keep this moment between us three? Nobody ever needs to know."
"Whatever." Poe said dismissively. "Psycho, do you know what's going on here?"
The giant monster nodded. 'Yes. I aborbed the knowledge from your minds.'
"Good." Poe said, now smiling. "Do you know anything about the others?"
The Psycho Fear nodded its monsterous head. 'Oh yes. Except for Charles and Emily Dark Aura. I backtracked and couldn't find them.'
Poe thought for a moment. "We're not going to like what you have to say, are we?" He asked.
'No. Definatly not.'
"Well out with it. I can handle another heart attack." Poe blew another smoke ring.
The Psycho Fear thought slowly, making sure the two husk lords understood everything. 'All of the other husk lords are trapped one section down, in the bowls of what you call the stomache. They are in the middle of the process of being digested. That creature you ran into earlier is still running around. I can see it even now using my spore sight. It's still hunting you.'
Poe and Kuro nodded. "We're with you so far." Kuro said.
'Now for the bad part. This may come as a shock...but Lord H'taed IS the creature.'
Poe choked on his cig. After a moment of spluttering and coughing, and a few firm smacks on the back from Kuro, he recoverd.
"Ok. Say that again. Slowly. And EXPLAIN this time." Poe said.
'Lord H'taed was running through this infested ship at great speed, and I assume he lost track of how fast he was going. He ran directly into the other mind. It is now controling him.'
"The other mind?" Kuro asked. The Psycho Fear nodded.
'The other mind. It is the controler of this infestation.'
"Ah..." Poe said. "That explains the second set of his footprints we saw!"
'Yes. You know as well as I do that we don't stand a chance against Lord H'taed. We'll need the others to help defeat the other mind and save H'taed. Follow me.'
The Psycho Fear turned and exited the vent. Kuro and Poe followed him. Eventually they reached a meat corridor sloping downwards, blood and drippy gore running in a waterfall down it.
'This is it. Jump down.' The Psycho Fear thought.
They all jumped at once.
-----
A few moments later, Poe, Kuro, and the Psycho Fear hit the meaty ground.
Kuro and Poe didn't even bother trying to wipe the stains off thier clothes this time, they just stood up and looked around.
The other four husk lords were there. Or rather, in the walls. They were all trapped in sacks of translucent white liquid, and they were all frozen with looks of fear on thier faces.
'Watch out. Pause for too long, and the same happens to you.' The Psycho Fear thought. It was then that Kuro and Poe noticed the white slime slithering up thier legs. They shook it off before it got too high.
They rushed over to the wall, and cut the sacks open. The husk lords were freed.
After several minutes of intense swearing, explanation, more swearing, formulating a plan, and more swearing later, everyone was normal again.
"So all we need to do is find the other mind, kill it, and we win." Poe explained.
"Easy." Said Lord White. "Just get Charles and Emily to locate it. If it is psychic, they can find and obliterate it in a heartbeat."
"Except that we have no damn idea of where they are." Kuro explained.
"Damnit..." White muttered.
"Well...I guess we cou-"
"GROOOOOOOOORRRRRAAAAAAAAGGGGGGG!"
"[censored]!" They all swore simultaniously.
Lord H'taed charged into the room through a nearby corridor.
His armor was coated in meat. Purple viegns ran down all of it. There were meat gobs at each of his joints, his hands, and his feet, each connected by several viegns of purple blood. A large mass of meat which was glowing and pulsing slightly covered his head. Long bone claws grew out of the meat covered H'taed's hands.
"Ok. [censored] dat. RUN YOUR [censored] OFF!" Screamed Poe. The husk lords and the Psycho Fear did not have to be told twice. They ran.
To be continued.
The group ran down the hall like drunk olympians, dodging and twisting away from lightning bolts, balls of static, and H'taed's signature mud bombs.
"Ok, [censored] THIS, how are we supposed to find the other mind while running from him?" Tribal shouted.
"Well you COULD just listen to me..." Said a condescending voice in all thier ears.
"Noitpeced! What happened back there when we lost contact?" Poe asked.
"The crappy communicator short-circuited. It still had audio so I could hear you, but I needed to make a new communicator using nanites. I know about everything that's happened, and listen to me." Noitpeced said, still using his condescending speech.
"NOITPECED, GET TO THE POINT!" Walker shouted, barely dodging another thrown mud bomb. He winced as it exploded, obliterating everything behind him.
"FINE. You don't need to beat the other mind, just get to the damned primary backup system! Activate that, and we can clear this infestation in one fell swoop!"
"Well that's just great. Where is it?" White asked, wincing as a ball of static caught the tail of his trenchcoat.
"Ok, there should be another corridor leading down, take that as you get to it." Noitpeced said quickly. The said corridor appeared to the right a few meters ahead, and everyone jumped down it.
They hit the bottom with a splurt of gore as they hit the meat floor.
"Ok, move forward until you come to an intersection with five different paths. Head straight."
They came to the large hub of corridors, and headed straight.
Unfortunatly, the slight pause they had all taken after the fall had given Lord H'taed sufficient time to catch up with them. He hadn't bothered pausing after falling down the shaft.
"GRRROOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAG!!!"
'Keep going. We will hold him off.' The Psycho Fear thought. He threw a punch of jagged bones and crystals at the meat-possessed Lord H'taed, who raised a meaty hand to block. His other clawed hand raised in preperation to rip forward.
The husk lords ran around a corner, and all they had to determine how the fight was going was the sound of static, cracks, and compressed air.
"Ok, turn right. There should be a door, that's it." Noitpeced said.
The husks ran down the corridor, and came to the door. It was covered with more of the white material they had seen earlier. This didn't daunt them, however. Lord Nomed simply body slamed the door.
A few cracks appeared, but nothing else happened.
Nomed frowned, and body slamed it again. Nothing. Five more body slams later, the material was still holding.
"Ok, move Nomed." Poe said, drawing a few land mines from his coat. Planting no less then five of them on the door, he ordered the others to move back.
Poe pulled out a detonator.
"To those who are about to blow, I salute you!"
"Poe, that sounds so wro-"
BOOM!
The door exploded in a shower of meat, gore, and blood. All of the husk lords didn't really care at this point though, so they just ran through.
They eventually came to a large chamber.
"Ok." Noitpeced's voice said in thier ears. "This room should be it. Just find the main panel and activate it, I'll handle the rest."
The husk lords just stared. Poe said, "Hey Noitpeced. About that. Teensy little problem."
Writhing in the center of the room was what could have been described as a giant brain. Twenty feet tall and wide, it had several viegns twisting away from it and into the floors, walls, and cieling. A single eye with a red pupil, embedded in the wall of the brain, blinked as it saw them.
"Since when were we paid to star in 'A Wrinkle in Time?'"
To be continued.
The eye in the brain blinked again.
Suddenly the walls, floors, and ceiling began to move. Slabs of meat and muscle started to slither towards the Husk Lords.
"GRRROOOOOOOOOOORRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAG!!!" Said the possessed Lord H'taed as he charged into the room behind them.
The eye blinked again, and started to glow, energy forming around it.
The situation could have been described as peachy. Death-seeking muscles, a pissed off H'taed monster, and a telekinetic explosion all heading straight for them.
Suddenly the wall behind the brain exploded in a shower of meat and gore. Beyond it was the meat cavern, and in it was...
The dropship. Emily adn Charles waved from behind the cockpit.
Then the auto-turrets activated and shredded the brain thing into millions of pieces. The possessed Lord H'taed suddenly slumped to the ground, and the muscle slabs ceased moving.
"About damn time something good happens to us!" Lord Tribal spat. "I've had enough of meat and goo and [censored] slither-style DEATH! This whole adventure has put a huge dent in my [censored] ego! Usually WE'RE the ones kicking [censored]! I HATE this [censored] place! Emily, Charles, GET THAT [censored] DROPSHIP OVER HERE RIGHT [censored] NOW!"
The couple both raised an eyebrow behind the view screen.
The Psycho Fear came limping into the room. Both its arms had been torn off, and a hole had been punched straight through its stomache, but otherwise it looked fine.
"How about you activate the stupid backup systems first hmmm? We still have that energy source to harvest." Noitpeced's annoyed voice said in all thier ears.
It was then that everyone noticed the gore splattered control panel in the center of the room. A small purple crystal hovered above it, crackling with potent energy.
"Hmm...That must be the energy source. I bet that the brain creature was siphoning off of it." Lord Kuro said.
"Right. Now first thing's first, remove the crystal and put it on the dropship. Activate the security systems and then we'll get out of here." Noitpeced's voice cut in again, sounding thouroughly irratated.
"No objections here." Walker said, and swiped the crystal from its containment field.
"BLLLLEEEUUUUGA! WARNING! ENERGY SYSTEMS OFFLINE! SELF DESTRUCT IN THIRTY SECONDS!"
"[censored]!" They all swore silmultaniously.
-----
"SELF DESTRUCT IN THIRTY SECONDS!"
Charles frowned at this. "Noitpeced, we're rifting them all in here, then we want you to rift us directly to Husk Corperation. I am not in the mood today for all this drama."
A few secondsa later, all the husk lords, the gimped Psycho Fear, and the still meat-enwrapped Lord H'taed fell into the dropship from thin air.
"Rifting now..." Noitpeced's voice echoed throughout the dropship.
-----
A few seconds later, the dropship reappeared right outside the Husk Corperation tower.
20 seconds later, Charles and Emily watched the remains of the creature/ship explode in the distance.
-----
Ten HOURS later...
-----
After everything had been sorted out, the first thing everyone had done was take a very long shower, except for the Psycho Fear. Everyone had then met in a meeting room with plushy arm-chairs and swapped information and drunk heavy amounts of alchohol until everyone was nice and tipsy.
"This terran stuff...Is REALLY good..." Poe said absently.
"Yea...Normally it all tastes like crap..." Walker said distantly, and took another swig of brandy from his glass.
"It certainly is a good painkiller as well as sedative." Noitpeced's hologram quiped.
"Say...Where are Charles and Emily?" Asked White.
"Back at the dropship, scouring it for any last traces of meat." Noitpeced said. "Now you all take a nice long break. Get VERY drunk and try not to think for a while."
-----
Back at the dropship...
Emily and Charles were using thier telekinesis to move several boxes to a nearby rift pad.
"Think about all the interesting things we'll be able to do with these organics!" Emily laughed softly as she said this.
"I say we build a giant zombie and have it terrorize Cap Au Diable for a while." Charles said, smirking slightly.
"Or make an army of zombies."
"Or an army of giant zombies."
"Or an army of giant zombies that will make more armies of giant zombies."
"Or an army of giant zombies that make more armies of giant zombies that make more armies of giant zombies."
"Or make..." Then Emily paused. A smile slowly crept across her face.
"Or make another brain thing and try to replicate that infestation into a building."
Charle's smirk also grew into a smile. "What a wonderful idea darling."
Finally, no less then three hundred containers of harvested meat, gore, goo, and bones that Emily and Charles had surgically removed from the creature were rifted back to thier residence in the Rogue Islands.
The couple laughed maniacally.
-----
Lord H'taed had thrown a giant fit the second he had regained control over his body. He then skulked around for a while, vaporizing anyone who bothered him. He was now supposedly confined to his room, but nobody wanted to check.
-----
Noitpeced had quickly put the crystal to good use, siphoning its energy and directing it into space. A giant portal appeared, slightly larger then the tower was wide.
The giant tower drifted through the portal slowly. It closed behind it.
To be continued.
Ok, I'm officially taking a small break from writing this. Feel free to post feedback/suggestions/comments or whatever. I'm still thinking over the next section.
New Dimension of Rebirth
-----
The Husk Corporation Tower appeared out of thin air in the new dimension.
The world was infinitely large, and everything was white. It was an endless expanse of white nothingness, much like one of Lord Diov's expanse rooms.
Floating in the middle of the endless white was a small platform made of grey stone. Staircases made of the same wound and twisted upwards in a chaotic fashion, leading to a strange structure. It appeared to be a temple. Made of Black and Purple stones that glowed faintly. Runes and twisted designs and symbols glowed brightly in different colors. The temple was shaped like a brick, with a large dome on one end. It was a mile high, and half a mile wide. The entrance into it was a large archway towering at the top of the stairs.
The seven husk lords, Charles and Emily Dark Aura, the Psycho Fear, and a rather ticked off Lord H'taed materialized on the platform below.
~You have arrived.~ Something said, from everywhere and nowhere. The air seemed to waver as the presence spoke.
Lord H'taed spoke first. "We have arrived. And we are PISSED. This is your first and final warning. Hand over that gem NOW before we kick your [censored] clean through the dimensional fabric of this dimension."
There was a pause.
~I do not give up what is rightfully mine.~ The presence said.
"That gem ISN'T rightfully yours, whoever you are!" Lord Kuro shouted into the air. "You STOLE it from Lord Diov!"
~But only after he stole it from me.~
There was a deafening silence as the group remembered something Lord Diov had said.
"...However, Demon Void's plan backfired. The Xiltru stole the very same gem Demon Void had used, and after he went through the portal, he ceased to believe in his god..."
"You...You're Demon Void arent you?" Emily asked.
~I was once...I used to be...Or I will be? I no longer have any recollection of what I once was or what I will be. The day my last follower ceased to believe in me, I was eradicated from existence, I became less then nothing...Yet somehow...Here I am...Now.~
"So...Are you...A god?" Mr. Tribal asked carefully.
~What a question to ask. There are some who say I am. However, after all the planning and preparation I have put into this plan of mine...No god can be compared to me. I am much, much greater then that.~
"Okie dokie, I think it's time to leave..." Mr. Walker started to say, before Nomed smacked him. Nomed glared at Walker through his sunglasses.
"No. Run." He snarled.
"Well Demon Void...Or whatever the hell you call yourself now...We're here for that gem, and we are not leaving without it. I don't care if you are more powerful then a god, we will destroy you again, if that's what it takes." Lord H'taed said to the air.
~I am afraid that is impossible for you. You see, my servant has been using the gem for a while now. The Void is gathering at the other end, growing more with each second that passes. Once he does finish his job, the Void will be so overwhelming that it won't just consume this dimension, but ALL THE OTHERS AS WELL.~ Demon Void's voice reverberated throughout the air.
~Once everything has been consumed, I shall recreate all of existence with my power, and forge it under a single rule...Mine!~
"Ok, I've heard enough. We have a gem to retrieve." Mr. Kuro said. Everyone nodded in agreement, and started heading up the stairs.
~I think not.~ Demon Void said.
The next second, thousands of pops could be heard in the air.
Fire started to float. They were beings with energy at their cores, surrounded by flames and fire.
~The Archnow seek revenge for what the Xiltru have done. You will burn before their might before you reach my temple.~
There were thousands of Archnow floating in the air. They just kept coming. There were millions. Billions. An uncountable multitude of them blazed in the air, all around the dimension.
"Well [censored]..." Mr. Tribal said.
"Do not worry. The Xiltru look after their own." Another voice rang throughout the air.
"Lord Diov!" H'taed exclaimed.
The next second, there were more pops in the air.
For every Archnow in the air, there appeared a Husk.
"Let the battle begin." Lord Diov said.
In the first few seconds, the husks had the advantage. The sucker punched the Archnow, and aimed for their energetic cores with their weapons. Millions of Archnow's died in that second. Then, the fight really began.
~Fool. I can replicate these beings endlessly.~ Thought Demon Void.
"And my production lines can generate an unlimited supply of Husks." Lord Diov shot back. "We are evenly matched."
As the huge fight between the Husks and the Archnows broke out, the group charged up the temple steps. Some of the Archnow tried to stop them, but were usually shot down by Husks before they could get close, their red cores of energy fizzing and vanishing.
The group reached the top of the stairs, and stood before the towering archway into the temple.
Lord H'taed was ahead of everyone else, charging forward with his lightning reflexes.
Then he stopped dead in his tracks and was knocked back. Everyone stopped.
"What the hell was that?" H'taed said as he got back up.
"Some kind of force...Seems to be blocking the entrance." Charles said, frowning as he tried to move his hand through the archway unsuccessfully, as it kept hitting an invisible wall.
"MY FORCE!" Cried a voice behind them. They turned.
A giant figure wearing golden armor with white runes etched down it appeared. Flames and light rolled off him in a blinding pattern, and his face was obscured by an aura of light. He was thirty feet tall, and carried a battle axe with rubies embedded in the blade.
"I AM THE DIVINE, RESSURECTED BY DEMON VOID! I, THE PATRON OF THE ARCHNOW, SHALL DESTROY YOU!"
And with that, the blazing being descended upon them.
"Everybody. Get back." Lord H'taed said suddenly. There was this tone to his voice, and everybody moved back from him.
"FOOL! I AM A GOD! I CANNOT BE DEFEATED BY AN INDIVIDUAL!" Cried the Divine.
Lord H'taed just glared at the Divine through his blinding aura.
"I have been saving this trick. For the longest time. My most powerful and deadliest attack. My masterpiece. And I'm going to use it on you."
Lord H'taed suddenly shot over five miles into the air in a burst of static, high above the Divine. The god of energy followed him into the sky.
"By the power of the great machine..." H'taed muttered.
The Divine was getting closer. He was just under four miles below H'taed.
"I command the power of the inheritance..." He muttered again, sweeping his arms to the sides.
The Divine was three miles below him.
"To grant me your power, and envoke the great Cataclysm." He finished.
Suddenly, Lord H'taed exploded in a perfect and pure force of 100% electrical might, with no other force or matter to intervene. Reality its self was replaced by electricity for over a mile around Lord H'taed, creating a sun in the sky. Several arcs of pure energy shot out from every inch of the orb, covering every inch of the dimension.
These arcs distilled the air, and charged it with hyper-accelerative properties. In short, it basically super accelerated the movement of people in time, slowing them down.
In idiot-speak, he froze time.
The sun faded, time still frozen. H'taed slashed his arms around him.
Thousands of lightning bolts converged and struck him from every direction, and continued to conduct, creating permanenet streams of red might in the air.
Lord H'taed started to spin and phase through reality, moving so fast in one location that he created a tornado.
Then he conjured an ordinary mud bomb in both hands. He made two more, and fused them with the first two. Then another two, and fused them with the new larger mud bombs...
He repeated this over and over again until both his swirling hands were gripping car sized mud bombs.
As a last touch, he tapped into the essence links of Husk Corperation, and created a Lightning Avatar, who he fused with.
A giant toranado made entire of electrical force, surrounded by thousands of arcs and bolts of energy, containing a massive monster made of nothing but more of the same, gripping two giant mud bombs capable of shattering Paragon city.
Then the huge storm descended, time still frozen. Moving faster, but at the same time, slower then the speed of light, Lord H'taed transcended time, space, and reality to unleash his attack.
Finally, the tip of the storm reached the Divine in his frozen ascent. Lord H'taed suddenly yelled out...
"AVARTAR OF CATACLYSM!"
the storm then smashed into the Divine, and time returned to normal. A gigantic explosion and implosion of energy eclipsed The Divine, Lord H'taed, and the mighty storm he had conjured, blinding everything and everyone for a moment.
When the light cleared...
The Divine was gone. Nothing of him remained. Lord H'taed was slowly drifting to the ground, smoke trailing his slumped form.
He hit the ground in front of the group.
All of them were staring at him with open mouths and popped eyes.
Lord H'taed just waved a wobbly fist in their direction.
"Go figure..." He muttered, then collapsed to the ground and started to snore.
The Archnow army had pretty much been destroyed along with their master, but the Husks had also been heavily reduced by their short-lived fight with the energy beings.
It was down to The Husk Lords, the Psycho Fear, Emily, and Charles, to stop Demon Void and his mysterious servant.
To be continued.
"Holy [censored]!" Lord Tribal said in pure disbelief. "Since when was he able to do THAT?"
'Most likely for a long time. He did say he had been saving it.' Thought the Psycho Fear.
"That was a rhetorical question Psycho Freak." Tribal snapped. "Can we get this over with now? I still need to be attacked by pigs, and then my day is complete."
The group walked through the archway. The Divine being dead, the force that had blocked them earlier was now gone.
The inside of the temple was simply a circular ten foot tall and wide room made of grey stone. Very anti-climatic considering the actual size of the temple.
In the center of the room stood Twisted Essence, his right fist held out, clenching something. His gaze was glazed and blank.
"He must have the gem. Let's..." Kuro began.
~I think not.~ Demon Void's voice reverberated through the air. ~The Void, while it has not gathered enough to consume all of reality, has gathered enough to consume this dimension and several trillion more. You dare not touch him for fear of unleshing it.~
That froze all of them in their tracks.
"So that's it? Game over?" Lord Walker asked.
"It appears so..." Responded Lord White.
"No. It is just begining." Said a mysterious voice from behind them. Everybody turned.
Lord Diov stood in the archway.
"Lord Diov!" All the lords shouted, and saluted smartly. Charles and Emily both nodded, and the Psycho Fear's face seem to darken in a mixture of rage and respect.
~You.~ Demon Void said.
"Yes. Me." Lord Diov spoke.
~How DARE you come here. You are powerless. Are you trying to mock me? You are nothing without my gem, which I believe is in the hands of my puppet here.~
"Ah. You may have created that gem, Demon Void, but you used it when you didn't fully understand it. I have possessed that gem for uncounted Aeons, and I know more about it and how to control it then you do." Lord Diov said. "And now, it is over. I know just what to do."
Lord Diov slowly started walking towards Twisted Essence.
~Do you really think I am going to let you pass?~ Demon Void's mocking voice said. The air around Twisted Essence bent and curved, starting to close in and crush Lord Diov...
When suddenly, all the husk lords jumped into the curve and held it back. Lord Diov continued to advance.
~It is hopeless.~ Demon Void said, but there was a touch of aprehension in his voice now. The stone in the floor rose up as a clawed hand to grab Lord Diov...
But the Psycho Fear leapt in front of that, and started to grapple with it.
~You cannot even touch the gem. His mind and body are mine. He will not open his hand.~
"We think he will be opening it." Charles Dark Aura said. Both he and Emily projected their Psionic power and forced the palm of Twisted Essence's hand to open. Lord Diov's blood red diamond shaped gem glinted in it.
~STOP! NO!~ Demon Void's voice suddenly screamed throughout the temple.
Lord Diov placed his hand over the gem. "You see, I have a backup plan in case I ever draw too much energy from the gem. Just shunt it back through, along with a little more then I took out. Since this energy hasn't gone through yet, it's even easier then that..."
He picked the gem up from the palm of Twisted Essence's hand, and placed it back on his right collar.
"There. Everything's better now. I will start my vengence on you, Demon Void, by ripping this dimension apart."
He flicked his wrist, and the group vanished from the room, leaving twisted essence and the strange entity behind.
~.....~
~...Die...~
Twisted Essence Exploded in a fountain of blood.
~Rip my dimension apart? Not if I have anything to say about it...~
-----
The temple suddenly vanished from the endless white expanse.
A single black dot appeared in its place, barely a cenimeter in diameter. However, it grew.
And grew.
And grew.
It started to grow legs and arms. A tiny lump of a head started to form, wings sprouted from its back, and a giant tail started to grow as well.
Several minutes later...
A giant dragon had appeared. The entire beast was made of pure darkness. It was easily the same size as the Husk Corporation tower, and just as wide.
The gigantic dragon of darkness roared, and the entire dimension shook.
-----
Within the tower, everyone was gathered in Lord Diov's office, watching the dragon take form.
"What IS that thing?" Asked White.
"That is Demon Void's ultimate manifestation." Replied Lord Diov. "Do not fear, however. This tower is much more then just a tower."
He pressed a button on his desk.
"Activate Project Catastrophe." He said.
-----
The entire tower began to change.
For each one hundred and fifty floors, a little seam appeared in between each floor, causing them to pop apart, held together by a more flexible and malable version of the uneffectable material the tower was made of.
The tower also grew four "legs" for each floor section, two on opposite sides. Hundreds of negation turrets sprouted along these legs, and giant flux cannons materialized above these. A gigantic fifty story Parallel cannon grew from one side of the tower. At the top of the tower though, was where the most noticable changes were.
The roof opened, revealing a dimensional furnace. Eight legs grew out of it, four on opposite sides, each bigger and larger then the ordinary legs further down. More and bigger versions of the negation and flux cannons also grew.
The Husk Corporation Tower had initiated Project Catastrophe, and transformed into the H.C.D.C.
The Husk Corporation Dimensional Catastrophe.
It was modeled after a giant milipede, and it had enough firepower to arguably obliterate multiple dimensions at once, although this had never been confirmed.
-----
The giant milipede-like H.C.D.C. writhed in space, the furnace which simulated its mouth turned to the dark dragon. A long hiss escaped from it. The dragon returned this with a fearsome roar which shook the entire dimension.
Again.
Then the two mighty engines of destruction lurched for each other.
To be continued.
The Dark Dragon pulled back its right fist, and let it loose like a cannonball, hitting the H.C.D.C. on its side.
However, it seemed that the entire super weapon was still made of the same non-effectible material, even after its transformation. The attack had about the same amount of effect as attacking a wall with a toothpick.
~You've been busy.~ Demon Void's voice reverberated throughout the dimension.
"I try." Lord Diov's voice rang in response.
The H.C.D.C suddenly curled into a circular roll, much like a snake, then lashed out with its eight foremost joints. Eight sharpened tips of the special material, surrounded by dimensional flux pierced the skin of the Dark Dragon.
The beast roared again, and as it opened its mouth, intense energy, greater then that of a million suns rolled out.
It didn't even heat the material.
The H.C.D.C. was programmed to ignore most attacks, considering its special armor. So it took the time to aim its various turrets and cannons at the dragon.
Negation pellets, Flux beams, and Essence rays rushed towards the dark dragon. Most of the hits scored, and literally ripped the dragon to shreds. One of its arms even broke free of the body and drifted through space...
Only to float back and reconnect seamlessly to the dragon.
~I have been busy as well, however...~
The Dark Dragon raised both of its massive fists above its head, and brought them down on the H.C.D.C.
The material could not be affected by reality. However, the space around the material could. If enough force was applied, the air pressure could overpower the no-existence aura and shove the material back, although the material its self would still not interacts with reality.
Needless to say, this blow was powerful enough to send the H.C.D.C. spiraling through the dimension. It eventually stopped.
"If that is the best you can do, you stand no chance. A tiny shove?" Lord Diov's mocking voice rang throughout the dimension.
Then the H.C.D.C. started to curl up, until it resembled a tire. It then started to spin...
Like a shurikan, it shot forward, and ripped straight through the Dark Dragon's torso, cutting the beast in half. The H.C.D.C. continued to spin for a few hundred miles before stopping and turning to see what it ha done.
The dragon had reconnected its body, no signs of the injury remained.
"I don't think we can actually hurt it..." Charles said thoughtfully in Lord Diov's office. "But it doesn't seem to be able to hurt us either. Why not just leave him be?"
"Because he would cause us so much trouble in the future it isn't worth it. He either dies now, or he slowly kills us off one by one." Lord Diov responded.
The Dark Dragon lowered its head and shoulders...
And suddenly millions of black spines grew from its body, and shot out towards the H.C.D.C.
They bounced harmlessly off.
The H.C.D.C. ignoring the attack as it had been launched had begun to prepare its own attack.
The giant parallel cannon on its back at the 100th story mark suddenly rotated and took aim at the dragon.
The next second, a miniature Black Hole formed, followed by a miniature sun. They revolved around each other while rapidly spinning towards the Dragon.
The two mini-orbs of cosmic doom hit the dragon dead center. The sun's monstrous gravity tore huge chunks of flesh away from the dragon and incinerated it. The black hole also tore away chunks of the dragon's skin, but absorbed them and converted them into massive energy streams which it then shot it every direction, tearing up even more of the massive avatar.
As a final touch, the two orbs of light and darkness swirled and mashed into each other, creating a massive implosion and explosion at the same time.
Nothing of the dragon was left once everything had cleared.
Then a tiny black dot appeared. It grew, and grew, and grew...
Until the Dark Dragon floated in the dimension again.
"Ok. That's just not right." Lord Kuro said.
"Project Catastrophe still has a few tricks left..." Muttered Lord Diov.
The dragon roared again.
This time, it rushed forward at a huge speed, and bit the H.C.D.C.
Surprisingly enough, the giant tower/millipede quickly crawled down the Dark Dragon's throat...
A few minutes later, the dragon exploded as the immense firepower of the tower's systems ripped it apart again. The H.C.D.C. writhed out of the dragon's stomach, and floated free once again.
The dragon reformed again.
And was immediately blasted away into nothingness again. The H.C.D.C.'s dimensional mouth furnace had breathed out its own attack, bathing a good deal of the area with unstable dimensional anomalies.
The dragon, impossibly, reformed again.
"How long is this going to go on exactly?" Lord Tribal asked.
Lord Diov shrugged.
"Let me try a few more things..."
-----
A "few things" consisted of over thirty more various hidden systems and weapons. No matter how many times the H.C.D.C. struck Demon Void's avatar down, it kept reforming from nothing.
"Diov, either kill that thing already or form a new plan." Lord H'taed said in an irritated voice.
"I already have a plan. The problem is that he reforms too fast...If he was a tiny bit slower, I could probably pull it off..." Diov said.
"Try a monologue..." Suggested Lord Walker.
"Oh shut up." Lord White said.
"Actually, that's not a half bad idea...There's only one slight change I want to make to it..." Diov muttered.
-----
As the Dark Dragon was obliterated for the thirty seventh time...
"So what are we going to do, Demon Void? Battle it out until this young dimension becomes old and eventually collapses?"
~.....~ Demon Void remained silent as he reformed yet again.
"Let's face it. You can't leave this dimension, you can only influence things that happen outside it, and not much else. If you continue this fight, it will go on forever, and you will lose when your own dimension collapses and kills you. I don't care how powerful you are, you can't reform when there is nothing to reform in."
~.....You'll drive yourself insane in there waiting for that to happen. This tower of yours will rot and fa-~
The dragon was obliterated again. It reformed.
~...il long before my dimension collapses.~
The dragon grabbed the millipede/tower in its hands, and tried to break it over one of its knees, to no avail.
"Technically speaking, I already am insane." Said Lord Diov cheerfully. "I am ready to sit back and relax while this tower of mine does all the work."
~...Feh...~
"Oh, and by the way, why are we fighting again?"
~The gem.~
"Well, yes, obviously that, but WHY?"
~The gem has a link to the vo-" The dragon dispersed into billions of tiny pieces before reforming. ~-id. It grants potentially unlimited power.~
"That's still not really a reason we are fighting."
~Don't be ridiculous. Of course it is.~ The Dragon delivered another haymaker to the H.C.D.C. sending it spiraling away again, but doing no damage.
"I don't know...I mean you're a god, probably more then that...Do you really need any more power?"
~Well...If I want to unite every single dimension...~
"Oh, tish tosh. Your empire will slowly rot and fall apart. Most nations fall from within,"
~You have a poi...~
The dragon was blasted into oblivion again. It reformed again.
~...nt. Should we really be fighting? This does seem like a useless fi-~
The dragon dispersed again as another super-weapon blew it away. However, the little black dot was growing at a smaller rate this time.
Just enough time for Lord Diov to pull a dirty little trick.
-----
Lord Diov rifted by the little black orb.
"Gotcha."
He lifted his hand. The gem was in it.
"You want the power of the Void so much? You can have it."
Lord Diov activated the gem, and drew more then the usual amount he usually took.
Then he rifted away.
-----
"Get us out of here. Now." Lord Diov said.
The next second, the H.C.D.C. vanished from the dimension.
-----
Demon Void reformed again to see the tower was gone.
~...Diov? Where have you gone?~
Then the Dark Dragon glanced downwards.
Then screamed. The very space around it seemed to shouter at the noise.
A tiny hole had appeared to have been poked in space. And an inky blackness was seeping through...
-----
And so Demon Void was consumed by that which he was originally created from. The Void.
It was ironic, really. When the group had started their quest, it had been to stop another Void Eclipse from happening. In the end, they made it repeat again.
And so...
The Void Eclipse rose, and it consumed all.
-----
Epilogue:
The Psycho Fear was given the choice of being freed or working for Husk Corporation for services rendered. The collective declined, and now roams the skies of the Rogue Islands, killing and terrorizing whoever it pleases in peace.
*****
Charles and Emily Dark Aura moved back to their apartment in Sharkhead Island. They immediately used the reward money they had gotten from Lord Diov to move to Grandville, and now own their own lab, independent of Arachnos, where they started work on a secret project.
*****
The seven husk lords returned to the television dimension. They got nothing. This didn't seem to bother any of them one bit.
*****
Lord H'taed remained as Lord Diov's right hand man. They never speak of the tale again, and life goes on as normal for him.
*****
Lord Diov didn't seem to change one bit, although he now seems a bit more ponderous. He continues his search for, "The other two, who have one of the three."
*****
Demon Void was never heard or seen or thought of again. The Void had done its work.
*****
And as for the Void its self?
Let's just say that the Void Eclipse had fallen for now.
But it would rise again someday, to remind everyone just how little and insignificant they really were.
The Void Eclipse would rise again.
Hello all.
This is a bit of a Q and A section. A lot of people have been sending me emails about various detailsm and so I wrote this to answer a few of the most common questions.
Q: How come the inside of the creature was over a mile wide and tall when the creature is only a mile long, and in my viewpoint, not even a mile high?
A: The ship that has been infested has traces of minor technomancies within it, warping space and time, expanding the inside area of the creature without effecting the outside.
Q: Wouldn't that brain thingie been obliterated by a super speeding Lord H'taed smashing into it?
A: Erm...Well...Umm...You see...
...
Alas, Alackaday, Therefore.
THAT'S WHY.
Q: How did that crystal provide the energy needed to create that portal? If that's all that ws needed, they should have already had a crystal like that on hand somehwere in that tower.
A: Lord Diov provided most of the power that fueled EVERYTHING in Husk Corp. using his gem. Seeing as it was stolen, they needed to find a new power source.
Q: The Archnow and the Divine work for Demon Void? But wait, he originally killed them!
A: He ressurected them as well. Think undeadish slaves.
Q: Buhwha? Twisted Essence doesn't actually do anything!
A: Go figure. I never liked him anyway.
Q: The weapons and systems that the H.C.D.C. used seemed confusing and complicated. Could you descirbe them for me?
A: The Negation pellets drain gravity from a specified area, which creates a miniature implosion in the area as gravity rushes back to fill the space.
The Flux beams fire "beamish" shapped tears in space.
The Essence Rays project a field of sapping energy which drains the essence out of all potential matter, thus destroying it.
The parallel cannon fires a miniature black hole, and a miniature sun. These orbit around each other while heading for the target. Upon hitting said target, the sun burns, the black hole obliterates. Then they collide and fuse, creating a super nova and a energy implosion at the same time. This is not a good thing.
The dimensional furnace just fires huge "waves" of space which are twisted and unstable, effectively destroying anything caught in these waves.
Finally, the legs are tipped with dimensional portals which "cut" and sever things off as it connects.
Q: ZOMGZBBQ what is that material again?
A: The material is a material hich cannot be affected by reality. Nothing aside from other samples of the same material can interact with the material. The only reason you can walk on it is because the air compresses into a solid surface against it.
Q: Where did Noitpeced go during that final fight of doom?
A: He was busy piloting the H.C.D.C.
Q: That bit about Charles and Emily harvesting all that meat is kinda ominous...You have something planned using that dn't you?
A: yes. I do. Let's leave it at that.
You are walking along __________ when you find a strange black book on the ground. It appears to be a diary, but has no dates, and no name listed anywhere. You decide to read it to pass the time. Sometimes you put the thing down, but theres always something there that you feel you know about
But that you cant put your finger on. Something that makes you want to finish reading the diary. You also notice something particularly odd. The language the journal is written in seems to change every time you open or close it. Whenever this happens, you keep opening and closing it until it hits a language you can read. Some of the others you dont recognize dont even look human in origin.
-----
349,261,659 years ago
Or 683,247,092,774 years in the future, if you prefer.
Or wait, is that
But no
DAMNIT.
Ok, if you are me
It is 349,261,659 years in the past.
If you are somebody else who does not travel through time and space on a regular basis, it is 683,247,092,774 years in the future.
There we go, that sorts everything else out.
Ever since I betrayed my god, and was sent here to this planet
I discovered that some of the local life forms here keep something they call a dairy. It is a very interesting concept, apparently formed as a way to keep track of interesting moments in ones life, or to list things to remember later. I have decided to write one myself over the course of my next venture.
-----
Dear Diary.
Today I have set out to the future of this planet, by approximately 298,324,576,194,348,294,280,886,264 years. Upon my arrival, I discovered that the sun had blown up, and consumed the entire galaxy. What dreary business. Time had also apparently run out, or stopped, as Ive heard it put, but something kept existence going, somehow. I expect it is to prevent that which lies beneath from getting free, but I have not ventured far into that area of research yet. I dont intend to for quiet a long while. I was eventually able to return back to present times, but it was difficult considering I was not used to manipulating reality without time. It made things so very frustrating.
-----
Dear Diary.
Today I decided to try and find out what things were like before time even started. Interestingly enough, I found that the same force that had replaced time in the future was there as well. I considered trying to travel to the extreme past of this past, or perhaps the extreme future of the future I had visited, but decided that I would discover more of the same. Maybe I shall look into it later.
-----
Dear Diary.
Today I left this strange planet
I believe it is called Earth, but I have lost interest in it. Maybe Ill come back for a vacation or something if time allows. I have discovered an entity in another dimension, and he has offered to teach me more about existence. I took up its offer, and have already learned several interesting things, and how to further manipulate the powers of my gem.
-----
Dear Diary.
The entity died. It was quiet unexpected, he just flickered out. I guess even higher beings like it can die. It was a real pity to, it said it was going to teach me about essence today. I found another prospective teacher, however. His name is Nemesis, and he appears to be a dimensional traveler like me, so we have often been able to travel together into the past and future, through separate areas of existence. His means of transportation, however, are rather limited. He uses devices he calls portals, and he remarks on how amazing my ability to manipulate dimensional potential to travel through time and space is in comparison to his portals. He knows much more, however, about how reality actually works, and I am content to learn. All he asks in return is that I power some sort of machine using my gem, and I agreed, considering the potential of this gem is unlimited, and using a few extra drops of power wont do any harm.
-----
Dear Diary.
One day Nemesis left. He said he had found a source of unlimited radiation, some being called Hallucinogen. We parted ways there, and we sometimes meet in random points of space, where we usually talk for a while before either him or I need to leave. I shall miss him.
-----
Dear Diary.
I decided to go back to Earth, however, I selected a random alternate reality. I was pleasantly surprised to find that humans had been extinct for several thousands of years now, and that the Rikti were now the primary race on the planet. I spent a few decades there, learning more about reality. I also took an interest in the technology and machinery they have, so I began to study that as well. Eventually I could build a mother ship, in under an hour using my powers. My Rikti mentors were very pleased that day. Finally, the Rikti could teach me no more, so I bid farewell and departed.
-----
Dear Diary.
After visiting an alternate reality where the Rikti ruled, I decided to branch into the world of magic. I went to an alternate reality where the Circle of Thorns had taken over the world, however I was easily able to outdo even the strongest of mages, and I found their various magics and artifacts crude and simple. I decided I would have to travel to a different dimension all-together.
-----
Dear Diary.
I have not made an entry in over a century
And for someone like me who shifts along the currents of time like a fish in a river, a hundred years is a very short span of time
However, several other beings have mentioned it to be a long amount of time, which I find odd. I have spent this time studying and learning.
And no matter where I go.
No matter what technology there is.
No matter what magics and artifacts there are.
I find all of it
Old
I already know all of it
And I am usually already familiar with how everything works. I am not revisiting the same realities or dimensions, so it is quiet unusual.
-----
Dear Diary.
I have finally discovered something I dont know through and through.
Sadly, I know enough to be 50% efficient in it. Technomancy. However, most of it was very simple. Nothing dramatic. Ill have to look into this.
-----
Dear Diary.
I have been studying and branching into Technomancy for well over a millennia now
The years just blew by like they didnt even exist.
I have one conclusion after my research.
I have advanced it more then any other being or entity currently known of in all of existence. I am even coming up with new formulas and experiments in my mind every passing second, developing new theories and laws. Is it possible I am the most technologically and magically advanced creature in all of known reality?
It is a possibility. I am uncertain, however.
-----
Dear Diary.
Today I discovered an interesting dimension.
It has only a single planet in it. It is approximately 291,053,774 KM. in diameter.
On this planet there is a naturally occurring substance with
Unusual
Properties. It seems as though nothing can affect the material aside from separate samples of the material itself. A material disconnected from reality? I wondered for a while how I could even grip the stuff
When I realized the air was compressed around it, always trying to break through its anti-reality aura. It creates something not unlike an atmosphere, which allows me to grip it.
I can only dream of what I could do with this material. However, until a proper application to even use it has been found
But wait.
I have the most powerful source of energy in existence. Ill just use some power and FORCE the material to bend to my will. Genius.
Ill set up an expedition to the planet soon. I plan on making a weapon out of the stuff. I have a particular fondness of Scythes, that is only impeded by the lack of a material strong enough for my needs or tastes. Perhaps this new discovery will solve that.
Maybe Ill even make
Yes, I can see it now
A huge tower out of the stuff? HA! How I dream
Sadly, once I get enough samples, Ill have to destroy the universe. I must make sure nobody else has this material. It will be MY discovery, MY prize. MY reward for my mastery over dimension potential and probability!
-----
Dear Diary.
I am about to leave on my expedition. I just realized something.
Having a diary to write in is a very silly and stupid thing. Good bye.
-----
You finally close the diary, having finished the last entry. Who WROTE this thing? You ask yourself.
Youll probably never know.
Welcome to Husk Corporation Mainframe.
Enter User Classification and Password.
********
***********
Processing
Done.
Accessing Probability Generator.
Initiating setup. Material ?, Unknown Planet, Destroyed Dimension, Lord Diov.
Running Configuration.
This probability has restricted access. Please enter User Classification, Password, and Guild.
********
***********
*********************
Apologies. Access granted.
Configuration Finished. Probability Drive found matches to recreate your requested configuration to the 100th percent tile.
Data:
Un-Discovered Dimension. One planet, approximately 291,053,774 km. In diameter. Terran climate. No sentient life forms.
Time: 932,677,293,106,594,213,385 years ago.
Coordinates: Unable to locate. Dimension has either been destroyed or restricted to your security clearance.
Possible Time tracks: None located. Either ALL possible time tracks of the Dimension in question has been destroyed, or the Dimension is restricted to your security clearance.
Alternate Realities: None located. Either ALL possible Alternate Realities have been destroyed, or the Dimension is restricted to your security clearance.
Current Status:
The Probability Generator has determined that there is a 100% chance this dimension was destroyed, along with all possible time tracks, alternate realities, and so forth. Seeing as your security clearance is of the very highest level, this narrows down the list of possible available statuses for this dimension.
We will now simulate the ENTIRE history of this planet that has been observed by individual beings, of course, you may choose to switch your vantage point from being to being at any time, as well as pausing time, rewinding it, and fast forwarding.
Enjoy your simulation.
-----
Initiating Simulation. Please wait.
-----
Sin-Ninraks Vantage
-----
In a single moment there was blazing light and energy, and the uncounted specks and flakes of energy stormed in a giant maelstrom of untold power
And then, everything dispersed, and reality slowly faded back in.
Inside a plain grey room with no discernable features save for two silver doors on opposite sides of the room, and a single podium in front of one door, an entire Rikti assault team materialized.
Sin-Ninrak was a Rikti War master. However, he used to be human, so it was very strange to see an evolved human-rikti hybrid rise to such a high position. He had been ordered by his unknown superiors to come to this dimension. An old ally, whos name was only known by the oldest of the Rikti, needed assistance in an expedition in an unexplored dimension. The few friends this being had left among the Rikti immediately sent Sin-Ninrak and no less then an entire garrison of Rikti troops and drones.
The Rikti horde waited in the room.
Suddenly, in a flash of light, a large mechanical being, and a complete mob of robotic drones materialized into the room.
The robotic being was six feet tall, clad head to toe in dark red battle armor. Its left hand held a machete, and its entire right arm was an enormous arm cannon. A third arm detached from the right arm, with a normal and empty cyber hand protruding from it. The robots head was roughly oval shaped, with a beak-shaped protrusion jutting from the front, and two glass eyes leering with purple light.
Greetings Rikti meat-sacks. I am Flawless Freak, mercenary extraordinaire. I was aware that this expedition would attract countless possible military and rogue forces, but I was not aware it would attract such forces as low-caliber as you. Said the condescending and smug metallic voice of Freak Force.
I managed to narrow his eyes, even though they had already been narrowed to begin with.
I wasnt aware that malfunctioning junk heaps such as yourself would even know about this expedition, let alone even have the stupidity to join it. I thought. Strangely enough, he was not speaking in Rikti mind-speak. He had originally spoken it, but decided that using normal speech was less time-consuming. He still had some independence from the influence of the pure Rikti, it seemed.
Taunting and fighting each other will not get you anywhere. Said a cold voice. Everyone in the room turned to see Nemesis, fully clad in his signature battle armor, standing tall in the shadows of a corner. A platoon of soldiers surrounding him. It only allows enemies to get closer to you
Like me, for example.
I am currently identifying a cowardly show-off. Calculations predict that there is a 0.0000000001% chance you are the real Nemesis. Typical. Flawless Freak stated in the same condescending and smug voice.
No more typical then a lesser pile of junk not recognizing a SLIGHTLY more advanced pile of junk, and making the mistake of thinking that that more advanced trash heap is inferior to you. I thought.
If this place no longer registers as neutral ground, please inform me of such so that my compatriots and I can commence firing. Said Flawless Freak coolly as the drones behind him raised their weapons.
You would be reduced to a pile of slag before you could get off your first shot. Said Nemesiss cold voice, as several of his troops tensed and reached for their brass weapons.
Fighting will only allow enemies to get closer. Like us. I thought smugly as my troops aimed their plasma rifles as Nemesiss troops.
That line sucks, and it is made even worse by the fact that it was already used. Flawless Freak stated.
I think all of you are missing the point. Said a crackling voice from nowhere.
In a storm of electricity, a giant ten foot tall figure blazed out of nowhere into the center of the room. He was decked head to toe in medieval style armor, with blood red mystic tribal runes running over it. Clawed hands crackled with energy, and a soft glow emanated from a gem on the giants belt. A hood completely obscured his face, hiding everything in shadows, save for his two red glowing eyes. Spines grew out of his shoulders, static haze running up and down them.
None of you should be fighting. Because I can kill you all before you can blink.
Unable to identify hostile entity. Flawless Freak said.
And what are you supposed to be? A mere human? Another pitiful mech? I thought.
Something beyond you, most likely. Nemesis said in his cold voice, seemingly not surprised at all.
Silence.
Everyone turned.
A figure, shrouded head to foot in a black cloak, was atop the podium.
I did not bring you here to fight.
Every slowly lowered their weapons.
Good. All of you know me, and at the same time, you do not know me. Youre masters probably know who I am, but they dare not utter my name. I have summoned you all here for an
expedition
of sorts. We are in a bunker on an unexplored planet in a previously unknown dimension. I want you to explore it, and secure it. You do not need to know why this one planet is important yet. So dont ask for any details. I will send each group of you to a separate section of the planet to occupy. I expect the entire planet to be secure within a month, Terran time. As you all know, I have paid all of you and your masters a considerable amount of
valuables
in advance, with a garuntee for more if you all succeed in this expedition. Any questions?
There was a slight pause.
Are we allowed to even ask qu- The giant armored figure began.
No. Said the cloaked figure.
Then what was the point of even saying th- Flawless Freak started to ask.
Im not answering that. Are you all ready to go?
Flawless Freak nodded. Nemesis gave a short bow. The giant shrugged.
I simply glared at the dark space beneath the figures hood, but I quickly looked away. I had seen something, and I didnt care to see anymore of it.
Then go. The figure said.
And with a series of pops, flashes of light, and small hazes of static, everyone departed from the room.
-----
My troops and I were transported to an icy region of this planet, atop a tall mountain. I sent out the drones, and had them patrol the area around the mountain. The mentalists began to use their minor telekinetic abilities to start assembling a base. The ordinary soldiers started looking for caves, making sure they were clear, and began mining for more space. The mountain was large, easily a few miles tall. Everything was going well for a while. Until
-----
I stood before a solid black wall of a gleaming substance in a cave. I watched as my soldiers fired plasma bolts, telekinetic waves of force, and try to carve the stuff with their swords. Nothing. All the attacks simply seemed to slide off the wall of the strange material.
Ignore it for now. I thought. All the others gave off feelings of confusion. They still werent used to me, and how I didnt talk in mind-speak. Too bad for them.
I returned to my hastily assembled control room. A screen on the wall monitoring the progress of my troops. Most of the mountain had been carved out, save for instances where the kept running into walls of the same strange black material.
Still, the strange stuff only composed 10% of the mountain. Soon, the entire place would be turned into a fortress, and I would be able to start manufacturing more drones to spread over the wilderness and secure this section of the planet.
I thought occurred to me. This planet was huge. Easily bigger then some suns. Yet its gravity was roughly equal to Earths. And why would their mysterious employer only hire four different groups? Three if you didnt count the lone giant. There were a lot of them, but surely they couldnt hope to cover the entire planet.
I grimly reviewed the reports as the days wore on. We would eventually run out of the needed resources to manufacture drones, and we were still nowhere near securing our section of the planet.
Then I finally realized something.
The other groups would probably run into the same problem. None of them could possibly hope to secure their sections either without running out of resources as well. However, why couldnt they just steal the needed resources from someone elses territory? Nemesis needed brass to make his automatons, and my mountain stronghold was abundant in brass. At the same time, I needed a special rare alloy to manufacture my drones, and while I was running out of it, scouts reported that Nemesis had vast holdings of lands filled with nothing but the alloy I would need.
Then again, why bother even just stealing? Nemesis wouldnt like that one bit.
No, I would have to wipe him out entirely, and claim his own territory for myself.
I had just found out the answer to a huge riddle.
Our mysterious employer had brought us all here to fight each other.
But why
?
-----
End of Simulation. Shifting vantage point. Please wait
-----
Flawless Freaks Vantage
-----
In a brilliant flash of light, my army of Drones and I appeared in a dense forest region. I immediately sent several lesser drones out to scout the area. I set several of the bigger mechs to logging the forest, and beginning the construction of my fortress.
I stopped them when they started to use the lumber to build the base.
No, no, no you stupid flawed junk heaps. We wont need that
I relied on resources shipped to me via my home planet, where I was built. Of course, I blanked the coordinates out before hand, so the shippers had no idea where the planet was. Using the resources, I built my base and expanded my territory.
I had not been sitting idly in the brief meeting I had attending. I had planted microscopic cameras on all of the rival groups. They were still collecting information by the second. Then, a few days later, while watching one clip of Nemesis receiving a report from one of his sergeants
----
Lord Nemesis. We are beginning to run out of the required materials to manufacture more automatons. And as you already know, outside assistance has been forbidden by personal request of our mysterious employer, who says it would not be fair for you to bring in your never-ending hordes from separate dimensions. Said the Lancer Sergeant.
I still wonder why he said that
What does he mean by unfair? But anyway. What do our spies at the Riktis mountain say?
Well sir
they are also running into much of the same problem we are. They require a special alloy to manufacture their drones, and they are rapidly running out of it. However
Heres something interesting sir
According to scans of their base, Brass veins occur naturally in it and the surrounding area for over 43% of the entire majority of minerals. Perhaps we could start a mining operation in their territory?
You mean steal? I like where you are heading with this soldier
But for one thing. The Rikti will not appreciate us stealing from them, oh no. They will have the advantage of being able to strike first if we do that. I say that we simply catch them by surprise, and wipe them all out in one fell swoop, seizing their territory in the process. Commence operation 4A2B. Prepare all the troops, and get the automatons ready. We are going to war.
Yes sir.
-----
Flawless Freak stopped listening then.
Yes
This can all work out into my advantage
Once they have weakened each other, I will swoop in upon the weakened survivor and take BOTH their territories for myself. Lets see how those inferior Rikti and that smug metallic show-off react to that
This world is mine. Our mysterious employer probably wont be pleased one bit, but hey, Im securing the planet way before schedule. Hell find the losses acceptable I believe
-----
End of Simulation. Shifting Vantage point. Please wait
-----
At this point, the Nemesis and the Rikti launch their attacks
At the same time. While the systems could show you the individual vantage points of everyone involved, it would make your head explode, so here is a simple overview of what happened.
As I mentioned before, Nemesis and Sin-Ninrak attacked at the same time. They meet at a large bog in between the mountain and ravine strongholds. The Rikti had the advantage of being more maneuverable, and had control of the skies, due to their perfected teleportation tech and drones. Nemesis however, had superior weaponry and tactics. The entire battle was the same case over and over again. Small pockets of Rikti would hide in mud-holes and ambush Nemesis troops, accompanied by occasional air raids by the drones. Nemesis eventually got irritated by this, and reconfigured his automatons to use flamethrowers. They burned every inch of the bog away, followed by long range volleys by snipers, using ammunition that expelled the famed Nemesis Gas. This wiped out a good deal of the Rikti, but the drones naturally survived.
This pattern repeated almost endlessly until only Nemesis and Sin-Ninrak were left. Apparently they met and fought in a duel, which went unresolved, because Flawless Freak chose that moment to attack. He had taken over both of the fortresses while their defenders where away, and took his time surrounding the entire bog with his army. The rest is fairly obvious.
Flawless Freak spent the remaining time in the months allotted time to build several strongholds and bases in a wide spread around the planet. At the end of the month, he had still not been able to secure the planet, with over half of it still unexplored. However
The mysterious employer who had started the expedition in the first place came to the planet personally, and told Flawless Freak
You have actually done everything according as to how I have planned it. I thank you. Your next order is to build an empire upon this planet. Ill leave all the details to you. I want you to officially consider this planet to be your empire, and all its life forms to be your subjects. As far as that goes, make the surviving Nemesis troops and Rikti you captured into your new people. Make a civilization upon this planet. When the time is right, I will come back, and announce my next command. Until then, do what you will.
And so Flawless Freak did just that.
To be continued
Lord Poe wanders into a random room.
"RANDOM COMMENT."
Lord White: "What?"
LP: "RANDOM COMMENT!"
LW: "?"
LP: "RANDOM COMMENT!"
Lord Kuro: "What's this?"
LP: "RANDOM COMMENT!"
LW: "Shut up Poe."
(Lord Poe glances around the room. Spots Lord Tribal walking around a corner. Poe goes right up to Tribal, and shouts full in his face...)
LP: RANDOM COMMENT!"
Lord Tribal: WHAA!
(Lord Tribal trips, and falls onto a nearby control panel. His shoulder blade hits a button.)
-----
The entire building moved a few inches to the right as a result of the button push, narrowly dodging the incoming Nuclear Missile.
((I'm still working on the next bit. Just put this in to make sure Lighthouse doesn't obliterate it.))
It was another peaceful day in the Dimension of Mists. For once all the shifting creatures and monsters beyond the scope or comprehension of mortals were at rest, and the infinite mist swirled lazily about.
The only thing out of place was the huge 150 story tall and 30 story wide tower made of a strange smooth black material that floated in the mists. The Husk Corperation Tower drifted like a missile of darkness in the mist.
-----
Lord Diov was thinking.
Some may have called it sleeping, but after uncounted Aeons of untold Dimensional Energy Exposure, it was unlikely Diov would ever be able to blink again, let alone sleep.
However, when he had nothing better to do, he could sink into a vegetative state to ponder and think.
Little did he know his most valued possession was about to be stolen from right under his nose.
-----
The being known as Twisted Essence woke up. He was definatly not human in any way. His entire body was formed of a strange chintonous armor, and he had spines and thorns growing from his shoulders. A crown of honrs was on his insectoid head.
He couldn't remember falling asleep, one second he had been robbing a bank, next he had blacked out for no apparentreason and awoken here. He was floating in a vast expanse of mist. There was a large bubble of force surrounding him.
Before Twisted Essence floated a presence.
"Being known as Twisted Essence...I have summoned you before me to offer you the chance to gain unlimited power."
Essence blinked.
"Who are you?" He asked.
"The question is not who I am, but what am I? And I am afraid not even I know the answer to that question anymore. Am I a god? An entity of infinite power? I have existed for so long, that even my seemingly infinite memory has consigned my nature to nothing." The presence said.
Essence considered this.
"You said something about ultimate power?" He asked.
"Yes." Said the presence. "A being known as Lord Diov has an artifact of potentially unlimited power. You shall steal this artifact for yourself. If you attempted this without my help...I assure you, you wouldn't get anywhere within a trillion lightyears of him. However, to one such as me, I can combat his defenses like they arn't even there. Once you reach him, you shall find him occupied. Steal the Red Gem from him. That is all."
Essence nodded.
"I understand."
Suddenly the presence vanished, and the bubble of force popped. Twisted Essence vanished.
-----
Twisted Essence suddenly appeared in a darkened room.
Lord Diov was standing in the center, glaring straight at Essence.
Essence froze.
"[censored], caught..."
Several seconds passed.
"...The calm before a storm..." Essence thought.
Several minutes passed.
An hour passed before Essence decided that either the guy was brain dead, or sleeping. He couldn't tell with those reflective red tinted monocles on his completely covered face anyway.
Essence walked over to Diov and waved his hand in front of his face a few times.
Nothing.
".....Sweet."
Noticing the Blood Red Gem on Lord Diov's right collar, he snatched it with his greedy hands.
The next second, he was gone.
-----
Twsited Essence reappeared.
He was shocked at his new location.
"What IS this place?" He muttered.
"This is where it all began." Said a heavy voice.
The presence was there.
"It will take time to activate the gem. Simply activate it, and keep drawing power until I say stop. It may be several days, weeks even, before I tell you to cease. Be warned. Are you ready?" The presence said.
Essence nodded.
"Then begin. Simply attempting to crush the gem will activate it. Remember...Do NOT let go until I say so."
Twisted Essence held the gem in the air.
He squeezed.
-----
Lord Diov suddenly awoke from his stupor.
He immediatly noticed the gem was gone.
-----
In Barraks number ~, Husk thugs were running around, screaming and yelling in blind panic. Some were sobbing on the floor. Others jumped into Acid pits or the nearby convienient hole into devouring oblivion. Some enforcers were rushing around in random directions with supply crates and random objects. Bruisers pounded on and smashed thier heads against the walls.
Lord H'taed raised an eyebrow as he walked into the room.
He pulled aside a thug about to leap into a Dimensional Furnace and asked him...
"What the hell is going on Tribal?"
"Lord H'taed! Lord Diov! He...It...Gone...Glared...GAAAAAAAAAAAH!" With that, the Mr. Tribal Husk ripped himself from H'taed's grip and flung himself into the furnace.
H'taed rolled his red eyes beneath his hood.
He walked through the Chaos into the center of the room. Lord Diov stood there, sitting at a table, staring at a cup of tea.
"Lord Diov...What is it?" H'taed asked in a respectful tone.
Lord Diov turned and glanced at H'taed through his red tinted monocles.
"The gem is gone."
H'taed was stunned.
He stood speechless for a full ten minutes while Husks ran around screaming incoherently.
Finally, he managed to gather enough wits to say...
"Oh for the hate of fu-"
To be continued.