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#Post#: 22--------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:00 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 18
DJ watched the drone rocket into the stadium.
He noticed that the roaring crowd had turned from yells of
support for their flag teams had changed to cries of fear as the
spectators noticed the drone.
The drone hit the large pedestal where the trophy sat, close to
the bottom of the stands.
They was a loud explosion.
DJ felt the floor vibrate slightly as the entire structure of
the stadium was rocked slightly by the explosion.
Down in the stands, something had appeared.
A vortex.
It was an ominous shade of purple, swirling around in the ground
before the trophy.
A temporal shift.
A literal hole to another dimension.
And just as Darkman had promised, the trophy tumbled off the
pedestal and fell in, vanishing into the purple.
In reaction to the awesomotanium the trophy was constructed of,
the vortex instantly closed.
That was it.
It was all over.
And then, after a strange silence that emnated throughout the
stadium for a few seconds, the panic sank in.
The crowds of people in the stands were suddenly rushing for the
nearest exits, like mice that a giant cat had suddenly ambushed.
Sask was shaking her head, one hand on her hip, the other
covering her eyes.
Sparkle was looking down at the crowds of people, also shaking
her head.
DJ slowly walked towards his sister.
"So...what now?" he asked.
Sask looked at him, her expression a grim mixture of annoyance
and dissapointment.
"I don't know," she said.
"The invasion will happen, I suppose".
"When?" asked DJ.
Sask looked away, shaking her head again.
"There's no way of knowing how long it takes to cross an army
between dimensions," she said.
"It could take a few hours. Maybe a day. Maybe a week."
Suddenly, a massive sound echoed across the snow-covered city.
A sound that came from the sky.
DJ and Sask looked up.
Shapes began to appear from the dark clouds above them.
Many, many shapes.
Firey shapes.
Missiles.
"Or now..." DJ said, his eyes wide with fear.
The missiles blasted downwards towards the city, like a rain of
darts flying towards an enourmous target board.
They smashed into the towering skyscrapers, which erupted with
fire as massive chunks of their upper sections broke away and
cascaded towards the streets below.
For miles all around the stadium, huge plumes of fire rocketed
skyward.
The blare or an air raid alarm echoed across the city, coupled
with that of the thunderous explosions.
"Crap..." whispered Sask.
"They're levelling the entire city and there aren't even any
troops yet".
DJ heard a soft sobbing sound.
He looked past Sask and saw Sparkle.
She was crying, tears streaming down her cheeks.
DJ walked over to her.
"I did this," she said.
"I couldn't stop him...I could've stopped him and didn't," she
said.
"I couldn't do it".
DJ put his hand on her shoulder.
"There isn't time for this now," he said.
"We have to get out of here".
One of the missiles suddenly hit the far side of the stadium,
causing the entire structure to shake.
DJ fell to his knees
Then, another, much louder sound thundered over his head.
He looked up to see I-52 Phantom fighter jets soaring across the
sky.
He suddenly felt very slightly reassured,
At least the military was fast to act.
And then, helicoptors began follow in the jets' wake.
Sask raised her arms, yelling.
"HEY!" she yelled.
"DOWN HERE!"
None of the helicoptors stopped.
"Dammit..." mumbled Sask.
She pulled out her USP and aimed at one of the passing choppers.
Several shots pinged off of its hull.
The chopper, swerved around, so that its side was facing them.
There were several soldiers inside, all wearing ONM marine body
armour, helmets and visors.
DJ, Sask and Sparkle waved their arms furiously.
And then, thankfully, the helicoptor began to hover towards
them.
When it was close enough, two of the marines helped them onto
the chopper.
"You alright?" one asked, having to yell over the whir of the
helicoptor's propellors.
Sask nodded quickly.
They sat down and the helicoptor continued on its course.
All around them, building were set alight with explosions and
crumbled to pieces.
"It's like the frickin' apocalypse!" one of the marines yelled.
"Shut up, Toonix," said one of the other marines.
"Screw you, Sheikah," Toonix yelled back.
One of the other marines opened up his helmet's visor so that
they could see his face, which battle-hardened and scarred.
"I'm Captain Saltybob," he yelled.
"Mind telling me what you're doing on the roof?"
"We were..." began Sask.
She breathed out heavily.
"We were trying to stop this?"
Saltyboob raised an eyebrow.
"Trying to stop this?" said the marine next to DJ.
"What do mean trying to stop this?".
Suddenly, the helicoptor's pilot piped up.
"Captain Saltybob," he said.
"I'm getting reports of heavy enemy attack coming up ahead of
us".
"Enemy attack?" said the marine known as Sheikah.
"What enemy? All I see are missiles".
"Ghosts," said DJ.
Toonix looked round at him.
"Ghosts?" he asked.
DJ nodded.
"The Ghost Empire".
The fifth marine, who had remained silent until now looked up.
"The Empire?"
She was a woman.
DJ nodded.
The other marine next to DJ shook his head.
"That's isn't possible," he said.
Saltybob looked round at the pilot.
"Set us down where you can," he said.
"We'll get to the pick-up point on foot".
He reset his visor so that his face was hidden again.
"Are you civvies?" he asked DJ, Sask and Sparkle.
"Mercenaries," said Sask.
"So you have weapons experience?" Saltybob asked.
"Good...at least we don't have to worry about protecting you,"
he said.
"I have magic," said Sparkle, in a smallish voice that could
only just be heard.
Saltybob nodded.
"Yinga, set these two up".
The marine next to DJ reached behind him and pulled two UMP45
sub-machine guns from the rack on the wall.
He handed one each to DJ and Sask.
DJ took it and held it how he'd expect a gun to be held.
Sask pulled out the magazine and checked how much ammo she had.
DJ shook his head.
"I prefer using swords," he said.
"I'm not very good at using guns".
"JUst point and shoot," said the female marine, who picked up a
sniper rifle.
All the other marines loaded assault rifles.
All the weapons these marines had weren't standard issue: they
were new.
The female marine, who's name turned out to HelloSkitty, was
carrying am M84Z, an updated version of the M21EBR.
The other marines held MA2000 assault rifles with grenade
launchers, the most up-to-date automatic weapon of the times.
Toonix also had a familiar Stinger missile launcher strapped to
his back.
As the helicoptor set down in the centre of a square, the
marines jumped out, weapons raised.
People where running and screaming in every direction.
DJ and Sask also climbed out of the chopper.
Sparkle mutely followed them, needles swirling around her head.
The chopper swirled off into the missile-strewn sky.
The snow had stopped, and the clouds had parted, revealing a
bright, starry sky.
"Home 1, this is Python 1, we are moving on foot from Rawk
Boulevard to the extraction point. We are oscar mike, over".
The marines moved forward, DJ, Sask and Sparkle in tow.
DJ ran forward next to Saltybob.
"So where are we going?" he asked.
"We've been ordered to help get civillians out of the city," the
Captain replied.
"There's an extraction point to the south in Altrock Plaza. We
have to get there ASAP".
They walked through a series of side streets, occasionally
firing their weapons in the air in order to get the screaming
crowds to part.
Then they reached a main road, with people dashing down the
snowy streets.
"What's everyone running from?" asked Sheikah.
In answer to his question, there was a loud roaring sound.
Up the street, on a tight corner, a car suddenly soared through
the air, smashed into the buildings opposite and crashed to the
ground, crushing people beneath it.
"What the hell?" yelled Toonix.
There was another loud roaring noise.
The marines raised their guns.
Something huge stomped around the corner.
#Post#: 23--------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER NINETEEN
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:01 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 19
It was massive, at least 15 feet tall.
It was literally an assimilation of walking armour plates, with
faint ripplings in the air moving around within them.
Spiring crystals purtruded from its armoured back and a large,
lizardous metal face came through at the front.
It roared again, stomping round the corner and slowly moving up
the street.
It flipped another car into the air, which flew down the street
and crashed down at the far end.
"Toonix!" yelled Saltybob.
"Use the stinger on that thing!"
Toonix pulled the large rocket launcher from his back and held
it up, looking down the scope and aiming at the monstrosity.
The launcher made a bleeping noise and Toonix pulled the
trigger.
A rocket soared out of the stinger and flew over the crowds of
screaming people.
It exploded on the monster's arm.
The monster didn't so much as flinch.
But it noticed, look up and snarled as it noticed the soldiers.
"Crap," said Sheikah.
The monster stepped forwards again.
The soldiers, DJ and Sask raised their guns and fired.
The shots hit, but pinged off of the monster's armour.
"Use your grenades!" Saltybob yelled.
The soldiers switched to the grenade launchers built into their
MA2000s and launched small grenades at the monster.
Smaller explosions appeared on the armour, but the monster still
stood its ground.
"We got a problem," said Toonix.
The monster started stomping up the street towards them.
"Get in the building!" yelled Saltybob.
Sask ran up to a locked door and kicked it in.
Everyone ran inside as the monster approached.
DJ looked around.
They were inside a video store. Rows of DVDs and videogames
lined the stores.
"What is that thing?" Yinga asked.
"A ghost?" said Sask, shrugging.
"Big ghost," said Sheikah.
"Why's it got all that armour?" asked DJ.
"The ghost's probably inside the armour," said Sask.
The front of the shop suddenly exploded with shards of wood and
glass as the giant ghost smashed a huge metal fist through the
shop.
"CRAP!" yelled Toonix, firing at the fist.
The ghost bent over and peered into the shop, roaring.
"Out the back!" yelled Saltybob.
Everyone ran through the shop and through a staff-only door.
They found themselves in an alleyway.
"Okay," said Yinga, pulling up his combat visor.
"Did we get away from it?"
"Hopefully," said Saltybob.
"Skitty, where's the extraction point from here?".
The female marine, HelloSkitty, who'd barely said anything
pulled up her visor.
She had a pretty, pale face with large eyes.
She looked slightly forlorn though.
"The extraction point is in Altrock Plaza and we just left 45th
street," she said, looking at a map on the mini computer on her
wrist guard.
"So it's several streets overe to the south".
"Got it," said Saltybob.
"Let's move people".
DJ, Sask, Sparkle and the soldiers moved up the alley.
As they came out onto the street, more people were running away
all in the same direction.
More soldiers stood up the street, firing round a corner.
Several creatures suddenly appeared round the corner.
They was tall and spindly, as though they were extremely
anorexic.
They had eyeless, pale faces and razor-sharp fangs.
DJ could see that their left hands had long, sharp claws for
fingers and that they had small machine guns in their right
hands.
One of the creatures leapt forwards and stabbed its claws
through the closest soldier.
The soldier dropped his gun and screamed in pain.
But as he fell to the ground, DJ noticed that the soldier's
clothes were suddenly covered in frost, as though the creature's
very touch had frozen his body from within.
The creatures, which were obviously some kind of ghosts, noticed
them and snarled.
"Open fire!" Saltybob yelled.
The soldiers fired at the ghosts as they advanced.
One of them was hit straight through the head and vanished into
thin air, its gun dropping to the ground.
DJ fired at them with his UMP45, but the bullets whipped through
the ghosts' bodies as though they were made of gas.
Anything that hit them below the head seemed to do nothing to
them.
The closest ghost leapt forwards and swiped with its claws,
knockin the UMP45 out of DJ's hand.
DJ drew his sword and stabbed straight through the ghost's thin
torso.
It ripped through it like paper.
But the ghost did nothing still.
DJ backed up as the ghost raised its gun at his head.
Suddenly, a needle flew through the ghost's head, and it
vanished.
Sparkle gave DJ a small smile and went back to impaling the
other ghosts.
DJ picked up his dropped UMP45.
More ghosts leapt down onto the street from the rooftops,
raising their guns.
"Retreat!" yelled Saltybob, who was taking cover behind a car.
But before anyone did anything, a Metal Knight helicoptor
whirred over the street, a spotlight scanning the area below.
It made out the ghosts and the gunner opened fire with the
onboard minigun.
The ghosts all vanished as the bullets pounded through them.
Saltybob gave a thumbs-up to the chopper as it flew away.
"We have to move!" he yelled, running up the street.
"Skitty! Where do we go from here?"
"Take a left!" HelloSkitty yelled back, putting her sniper rifle
on her back and pulling out a G5 handgun.
They ran up the street, running around clusters of screaming
civillians as they went.
They ran through a few more streets, encountering more of the
spindly ghosts, opening fire and dashing through as the enemy
numbers got more numerous.
And then they arrived in Altrock Plaza.
It was a large area with many cafes around the edge, all with
their windows smashed.
A large helicoptor sat in the middle, surrounded by soldiers
taking cover behind the raised flowerbeds.
People were being guided onto the helicoptor.
Ghosts were trying to storm the plaza from an entrance down a
series of steps.
DJ, Sask and the soldiers ran across the plaza towards the
soldiers.
Saltybob ran up to one of the soldiers holding an ACR assault
rifle.
"Who's in charge here?" he asked.
"I am," said the soldier.
"Captain Stan, 229nd regiment".
"Captain Saltybob, Python Recon 1st Regiment," Saltybob replied.
"We've been sent to help".
He pointed to DJ, Sask and Sparkle.
"We have some civvies who need evac too".
"Well this one's full," said Captain Stan.
"They'll have to wait for the next".
True to his word, the large helicoptor behind them lifted off
the ground and over the buildings".
"We need to protect this area until the next one comes," said
Saltybob.
The soldier's disbanded, taking cover and opening fire at the
ghosts in the lower plaza.
DJ, Sask and Sparkle stayed near the chopper landing area.
Captain Stan approached DJ.
"You run fast?" he asked.
DJ shifted his eyes.
"Yeah...why?"
Stan pointed to a deactivated sentry gun behind him.
"Think you'd be able to get this thing down there without
getting hit?"
"I'm not going down there!" said DJ.
"Come on, kid!" said the Captain. "You've got a gun, you'll
live".
Sask stood up and fired a few rounds at the ghosts.
"We'll do it." she said.
Sparkle looked round at them.
"Don't leave me here!" she said.
"We'll be back," Sask said.
"Come DJ".
DJ rolled his eyes and followed his sister.
They hoisted up the sentry gun and started down the steps,
taking cover every now and again.
DJ was scared. His heart was beating in his throat.
Sask tapped him on the shoulder.
She's been saying something.
"I said put it down over there!" she yelled over the gunfire.
DJ nodded quickly.
They dashed between cover points towards the far end of the
plaza and put the sentry down.
Instantly, it began to bleep and automatically started shooting
at the incoming ghosts.
DJ noticed another large helicoptor moving towards the pick-up
point.
"Get back up!" yelled Sask.
They dashed back up the steps to the top, where more civillains
cowered behind benches and overturned cafe tables.
But then something leapt off of the rooftops and onto the
helicoptor: a ghost.
It clutched onto the side of the helicoptor and drove its long
claws deep into the hull.
The ghost tore a hole and crawled inside.
Almost instantly, the chopper began to swerve in the air.
And then it started to spin over the air above the plaza as it
caught fire for some reason.
"It's going down!" yelled Sheikah.
The chopper smashed into one of the buildings, exploding.
DJ zoned out for a second as the explosion deafened him.
His chest felt numb for some reason.
Then he realised that he was on the floor.
The cold, cold floor.
His chest.
So numb.
He was confused.
He touched his chest.
His glove came away red.
He looked at his chest.
A piece of helicoptor shrapnel was plowed deep into his chest.
DJ suddenly realised how it was an effort to keep his head held
up.
He tried moving, but found that hard too.
Then he realised that he couldn't really hear anything.
And then Sparkle appeared in his line of vision, yelling his
name.
But no sound came.
The numbness spread throughout his body.
So numb...
#Post#: 24--------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER TWENTY
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:02 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 20
A small, grey cat ran over the muddy dirt path as the rain
poured down on the Off Topic Island of Playstation Thread.
The cat dove under the floorboards of a raised wooden house as
several ghosts stalked down the path, snarling.
The held up their small machine guns and fired through the walls
of the wooden houses.
Dull thumps could be heard as people hiding from the invaders
fell to the floor within, bullets plowed through their bodies.
The ghosts looked up as a huge, ominous airship hovered over the
island in the grey, rainy dawn.
On board, sitting behind a well crafted wooden desk, Chandra
looked down at a map of ONM.
"Reports say that military resistance in Music Country is hardly
anything to worry about," said SamuraiFerret, sitting opposite
the Ghost Emperor.
Swixer-Swaxer sat next to him, arms folded.
"Every Off Topic island has been subdued," continued
SamuraiFerret.
Chandra grinned and nodded.
"What of the birds?" he asked.
"We have a feather from Helmaroc," said SamuraiFerret, pulling a
purple feather from his coat and placing it on the desk before
Chandra.
"The bird got away though".
Chandra raised an eyebrow.
"How so?" he asked.
"The other one came," said Swixer.
"Ho-Oh".
Chandra paused.
"...why is it that you didn't get one of Ho-Oh's feathers?"
SamuraiFerret blinked.
"It seems," he said.
"That the birds are much more powerful than we expected".
Chandra sat back in his chair.
"How come?" he asked.
"Whenever one is in trouble, the other comes to its aid,"
SamuraiFerret replied.
"And that's when they release the full power of their feathers".
Chandra grinned again.
"These birds are certainly worth what you humans make them out
to be," he chortled.
"I'm beginning to worry, SamuraiFerret".
"About the birds' power, sir?" SamuraiFerret asked.
"About how you plan to catch Ho-Oh," finished the Emperor.
SamuraiFerret smiled.
"We have that covered, sir," he said.
"Darkman!"
Gostalt's technical genius stepped into the room.
"Yeah?" he asked.
"Show the Emperor the hunters," SamuraiFerret said.
Darkman stepped out of the room nad then came back in.
But this time, he was flanked by two other people, a man and a
woman.
The man was tall, wearing a leather coat and a black jumper,
with jeans and heavy-looking boots.
The woman was slender and with long brown hair and was similar
height to Darkman, also wearing a leather coat and a black
jumper and jeans.
They both had calm, farely blank expressions on their faces.
"Who are these?" asked Chandra.
"Our way of finding Ho-Oh," SamuraiFerret said.
Chandra shook his head in confusion.
"Are they mercenaries? Beastmasters?"
"Cyborgs, sir," said Darkman.
Chnadra blinked.
"Beg your pardon?" the Emperor said, sitting up slowly.
"Cyborgs," repeated Darkman, grinning.
"Robotic limbs and a cybernetic brain surrounded by organic
flesh and skin".
Chandra stared at the two cyborgs, awestruck.
Darkman grinned, continuing with the explanation of his prized
machines.
"The male one is GDMK2, or Metaknight2," he said.
"The female is GDZS2, ZeroSuitSamus2".
Chandra nodded.
"Impressive," he said.
"What can they do?"
"Well, Zero here is made for hand-to-hand combat".
He turned to the female cyborg.
"She has built-in blades and shotguns, as well as night-vision,
and can do this".
He pulled a small remote control from his pocket and pressed a
button.
Zero's shape suddenly changed.
He entire body shifted from woman to that of a panther, apart
from the fact that the panther's body was spiny and made of
shiny metal.
Chandra looked very pleased.
"And the other?" he asked.
"Meta here has a built-in machine gun, grenade launchers and a
flamethrower".
"Can he transform, too?" Chandra asked.
"No," said Darkman. "But he does have a powerful EMP pulse
releaser, which'll knock out all electronics in a 100 metre
radius.
"But I can't show you that now: it'll down the airship".
Chandra nodded with approval.
"Very good," he said.
"And they'll hunt down Ho-Oh?"
"They'll do anything and everything we tell them to," Darkman
said.
"They're in prone mode now, but..."
He pressed a button on the remote.
The blank expressions on the Cyborgs' face suddenly disappeared.
They seemed to properly come to life now.
They were groaning in annoyance.
"Dammit," said Zero. "Can't we just stay out of prone mode?"
Meta twisted his neck.
"Agreed," he said.
Darkman grinned, nodding.
"...press a button and they get personalities".
"Dad, who's this chump?" Zero asked Darkman, pointing at the
Emperor.
Darkman winced.
"Er, sorry, my lord," he said.
"She's kind of...edgy".
Chandra grinned.
"Dad?" asked SamuraiFerret.
Darkman looked down.
"That's what they see me as," he said.
Meta looked down at Darkman, eyebrow raised.
But suddenly, he turned round, a machine gun suddenly appearing
on his shoulder.
Zero did the same, a shotgun in her hand.
"Show yourself," he said.
Everyone else in the room turned to face the far corner of the
large office, which was enthralled in shadow.
There was a silence, before a voice cut through the shadows.
"Nice robots," the voice said.
"How much did they set you back?"
"Show yourself," repeated Meta calmly.
A man stepped out of the darkness of the far end of the room.
He wore a black beanie and a black coat, black jeans and a red
shirt.
He had shoulder-length brown her the flicked up out of his hat.
His eyes held the strange wisdom of an owl.
As the man walked out of the darkness, Chandra suddenly jumped
to his feet.
He obviously recognised the man.
The man stopped on the edge of the visible area of the room.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Chandra growled.
SamuraiFerret looked round from the Emperor to the newcomer.
"Who's he?" he asked.
Chandra's cold eyes were suddenly filled with fury.
"Get off my ship!" he yelled at the newcomer.
He turned to SamuraiFerret.
"Kill him!"
Obediantly, SamuraiFerret drew the ranger shotgun from his coat
and aimed at the newcomer.
But the newcomer drew his own weapon, a crossbow, and fired a
single bolt at SamuraiFerret's shotgun.
The gun whipped out of SamuraiFerret's hand and landed on the
floor.
Meta and Zero stepped forward, about the attack, but the
newcomer raised the crossbow.
"Shoot and you'll never shoot again," he said solomnly.
The cyborgs and the newcomer held their weapons at each other.
Deadly silence filled the room.
"Lower...your weapons," Chandra said to the cyborgs.
The cyborgs reluctantly but surely retracted their built-in guns
into their bodies.
Chandra looked at the newcomer.
"Get out," he said.
"You've plagued more for all these years now and I will not have
you ruining my conquest!"
The newcomer said nor did anything.
"Who is he, sir?" SamuraiFerret asked.
"He's an Observer," said Chandra.
"PsychoPikmin".
SamuraiFerret turned to PsychoPikmin.
"An...Observer?" he said.
"But...that's not possible".
"I'm here aren't I?" said PsychoPikmin.
"And I'm not here to ruin your fun, Emperor. I'm here to give
you a message".
"What message?" Chandra snapped.
"That it's all changed," replied PsychoPikmin.
"What do you mean?" asked Chandra.
"The fog has descended," continued PsychoPikmin.
"The future has changed".
"What do you mean the future has changed?" Chandra yelled.
"I mean that I can't tell what's going to happen. That's why I
have come to this world. To know why."
Nobody replied.
PsychoPikmin continued.
"Before, I saw everything that was to happen here. I saw the
invasion, I saw the destruction of Music COuntry...I've seen the
end.
"But now the end is uncertain. The end is foggy. Something has
changed and I need to know what".
Chandra spread his wings and leapt over the desk.
"There will be NO end!" he yelled.
"Yes, there will," PsychoPikmin said. "There is ALWAYS an
end...and I will bring it myself if I must".
"What are you saying?" Chandra said.
"I'm saying that your end, Emperor, is approaching, no matter
how unceratin it may be. You've killed thousands of people in
the space of a few hours and you will pay for it".
A vein was building up on Chandra's pale forhead.
PsychoPikmin sniggered.
"Now if you don't mind, I have a daughter out there in your
ruin's wake..."
He shot an ominous look at Swixer.
"And I have to find her, because believe it or not, I actually
have a chance to fight you, and it lies with her and her
friends".
He grinned, stepping back into the shadows.
"The end is coming, Emperor...the end is coming".
He disappeared into the darkness.
"SHOOT!" yelled Chandra.
The weaponry suddenly reappeared in Meta and Zero's hands, and
they opened fire.
But the bullets merely plowed into the wood of the wall, hitting
no targets.
The Observer was gone.
#Post#: 25--------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:03 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 21
DJ's eyes opened suddenly.
He breathed out for a long time, until he coughed and felt
slightly light-headed.
He blinked, realizing that his face was on a warm, metal floor.
Was he dead?
The last thing he remembered was a piece of shrapnel sticking
out of his chest.
A slowly sat up.
The room around him was...strange.
A soft humming sound vibrated through the room.
The entire room was bathed in neon pink and blue light, with
long tubes of coloured light running up the ceiling and into a
centre light in the ceiling.
There was nothing that looked like a door.
Unconscious on the floor around him were Sask, Sparkle, Saltybob
and his team: everyone except one of the other marines.
Their weapons were nearby them, DJ's UMP45 sitting at his feet.
His sword was also still in its sheeth on his back.
DJ couldn't tell who: they all had their visors down.
He stood up and look around the room again.
As he stepped around the room, he realised that the floor
beneath him changed colour as his boots clomped across the
metal.
Where was he?
There was a murmur behind him.
He turned round to see Sparkle was waking up.
He stooped down next to her.
She opened an eye and saw him.
She sat bolt upright instantly.
"You're alive?!" she yelped, flinging her arms around him.
But then she moved back.
"I'm not dead, am I?" she asked.
"I don't think so," said DJ. "I wouldn't think the afterlife
looked like this".
Sparkle stood up.
"Where are we?" she asked.
"We were in Altrock Plaza...and the helicoptor went down...and
then one of those big things came..."
There was a sudden whooshing noise behind them.
They both turned around.
A hatch had opened in the ceiling, and a ray of soft, red light
was shining down.
Something slowly floated down the beam of light.
DJ and Sparkle's eyes widened as the something came into proper
view.
It wasn't human, whatever it was.
It had a metal shell, which was encased around a blobby red body
that was near transparent.
Out of what DJ assumed was the front of the shell stretched a
long neck which ended in a small, round head, with two shiny
black eyes.
DJ could see veins moving faintly through the creature's neck.
He stepped back as the creature floated through the air towards
him and Sparkle.
It stopped a couple of metres away.
It tilted its mouthless, liquid head and blinked.
This sudden display of adorable curiousity eased DJ's nerves
slightly.
But that quickly disappered.
Two more tentacles of red swiped out of the creature's metal
shell, both hands holding a s trange, alien handgun.
"Are you here for my coo-kees?!" it blarted out in a
high-pitched, angry voice, which was fairly tinny, as though a
computer with a personality had said its words.
"Because you can't have 'em! I found 'em on you planet and
they're mine!"
DJ and Sparkle said nothing.
"You...speak?" Sparkle stuttered.
"Yeah, I speak your language," the creature said, it's shiny
eyes blazing with strange anger.
"Funny little tongue, but I ain't negotiating! Why are you on
this ship?"
"Ship?" DJ asked.
"Shut it, mudcrawler!" the creature yelped.
"You shut it," said Sask, who had gotten up silently and out of
view from everyone else.
She had her USP raised at the creature's head.
The creature's neck swerved round and noticed her.
The look of anger disappeared from its eyes.
It dropped the guns and swooped through the air to the far side
of the room, head and tentacles retracting into the metal shell.
But they still heard its high-pitched voice buzzing from inside.
"Please don't hurt me!" it yelped. "If the coo-kees were sacred
or something, I didn't know! I just tasted one and they were so
delicious!"
DJ and Sparkle glanced at each other and looked at the creature.
"I'll give 'em back! I promise! I'm sorry, just please don't
hurt me!"
Sask lowered her USP.
"It's, er...okay," she said.
"I won't shoot".
The creature's head poked out of the shell and peered at DJ,
Sask and Sparkle.
"Do you...do you want the coo-kees?" he asked.
Sask raised an eyebrow.
"You mean...cookies?" she said, putting the USP back in its
holster.
"Yeah, yeah!" the creature said, it's mouthless head bobbing up
and down in a nodding motion.
"I'll go get 'em!"
The creature drifted quickly across the room towards the hatch
in the ceiling, but stopped, as another blooby floating creature
floated down the beam of soft light.
But this one was blue instead of red.
"Lost Cause! What are you doing here?"
This one's voice was notable deeper, but still quite
high-pitched.
The first creature, Lost Cause, slowly floated away.
"I...I...I didn't know what they were doing here, Super Luigi,"
he stuttered.
"I thought they were here to steal my coo-kees..."
The newcomer, Super Luigi, shook his blobby blue head.
"Again with the human-food," he said.
He turned to DJ, Sask and Sparkle.
"I apoligise for my colleague's hot-headidness. He is quite
excitable..."
"Nah, it's fine," said DJ slowly, realizing that whatever these
things were that they obviously weren't hostile.
"Can I just ask...where are we?"
The creature named Super Luigi moved one of its tentacles
towards DJ.
"Allow me to introduce myself proper," it said.
"I believe your species shakes, er, hands as a sign of greeting,
do you not?"
DJ extended a gloved hand and slowly shook the creature's
tentacle.
"Captain Super Luigi, commanding officer of this vessel and
chief researcher onboard".
"DJ," said DJ.
The creature nodded.
"You are the one whom we saved from death," he said.
"Yeah, thanks for that," DJ said.
"Can I ask...how did you do that?"
"The complexity of the process would cause your mind to simply
incinerate," Super Luigi said.
DJ raised an eyebrow.
"...what are you?" Sask suddenly asked.
"Ah yes," said Super Luigi cheerfully.
"Myself and Lost Cause here are Jeptu. Although to you, we may
be described as alien, or ectra-terrestrial".
DJ blinked.
"...extra...terrestrial?" he stuttered.
"Yes," said Super Luigi.
DJ realized that he was still shaking the alien's tentacle.
He smiled slightly and started breathing quickly.
"Hey, Sask, Sparkle," he said.
"I'm shaking hands with an alien".
Sorry that certain people weren't included like I said.
They will be though...
#Post#: 26--------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:05 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 22
"Er, if you'd mind letting go," said Super Luigi.
DJ nodded quickly and retracted his hand.
"Wow," he said. "Wow...you're a...a..."
"Jeptu," said Super Luigi.
"Yeah," said DJ. "That".
His stomach was a fly with sudden excitement.
He was standing in the same room as a creature from another
world...a creature that would supposedly only be the figment of
imagination.
But he'd just shaken hands with one.
However, Sask was slightly less excited.
"So, if you're aliens," she began, before Lost Cause butted in.
"Just call us Jeptu," he said. "Not aliens".
"Jeptu," corrected Sask.
"Then why are you here...and why are we...on your vessel?"
Super Luigi's mouthless head turned to face Lost Cause and back
at Sask.
"I think our administrator could explain that better than I," he
said.
"You may also want to see your comrade again".
Sask raised an eyebrow.
"Comrade?"
"One of the soldiers with you was gravely injured, as was your
friend here," Super Luigi said, one of his tentacles gesturing
to DJ.
DJ realised what Super Luigi meant: indeed, one of the marines
wasn't there.
DJ then put a hand on his own chest.
"How did you heal me?" he asked.
"I had a piece of shrapnel in my chest. I was dying".
"You'll find out from the administrator," Super Luigi said.
"Leave your comrades here...they shall awaken soon, no doubt".
The alien drifted back into the soft light that came down
through the neon ceiling.
He gently rose up through the hatch.
Lost Cause approached them.
"Just step into the light," he said.
DJ stepped forwards and stood in the beam.
Immediatly, he began to rise upwards towards the hole in the
ceiling.
His head rose onto another floor of the alien ship.
He was in a long, octagonal corridor, which was bathed in soft,
neon light.
Super Luigi floated nearby.
Just as in the room that he'd just floated up from, the metal
floor lit up pink as DJ's boots landed on it.
Sask, Sparkle and Lost Cause floated up after them.
"Follow," said Super Luigi, drifting away down a corridor.
As they did what he said and followed the alien down the neon
corridor, DJ looked around the walls in awe.
It was as though every big-budget sci-fi movie he'd ever watched
was coming to life right before his very eyes.
And then they approached the end of the corridor and entered a
massive chamber.
Many different coloured Jeptu floated around on different levels
of the towering room, a central, twisting spire that pulsed with
blue, pink and yellow light running straight up through the
centre.
Several Jeptu noticed the newcomers and looked away from their
unknown jobs to stare curiously at them.
"Hey!" yelled a human voice.
DJ turned to see the missing marine - Yinga, ran over to them,
his arm in some kind of cast.
"You're alive?" he said when he saw DJ.
"Last I saw of you, you had a chunk of metal sticking out of
your chest".
DJ shrugged.
"These guys removed it somehow," he said.
But before he could once again ask how, a grey Jeptu with an
angry and strangely deep voice floated over to them.
"Captain," he snarled.
"Are these the ones that were unconscious?"
"Yes, administrator," Super Luigi said.
"This is Nitengo, the administrator of our mission," he said.
Nitengo sized up the newcomers, his eyes a lot colder than Lost
Cause's or Super Luigi's.
"Your report filed five males and three females," Nitengo said
gruffly.
"We need to even that out for maximum breeding oppotunities,
Captain".
DJ, Sask, Sparkle and Yinga had to double-take on the older
Jeptu.
"Say again?" said Sask.
"We require two more females," repeated Nitengo.
"For maximum breeding oppotunities".
The humans merely stared at the alien, astonished.
"...no," said Sparkle simply. "No".
"But of course," said Nitengo.
"If we are to save your species it is blatantly obvious that we
must have equal numbers of all organisms we recover".
Sask shook her head.
"Wait...save our species?" she asked.
"What do you mean by 'save our species'?"
"Perhaps you should inform them of our operations here,
administrator?" Super Luigi piped up.
Nitengo looked to him and then to DJ.
"Very well," he said.
"If their planet is dying they should know why..."
"Dying?" Yinga asked.
"Indeed," said Nitengo.
"That is why we are here: to preserve all organisms on this
planet before it is destroyed".
The humans looked around at each other.
"...by what?" asked Sask.
"Us," said Super Luigi.
DJ looked at the alien, speechless.
"Wha...but...why?" he asked, thinking of suddenlty drawing his
sword and attacking the squishy creature.
Nitengo grunted.
"You see," he snarled.
"This ship and its crew have been given the duty of monitoring
the intergalactic threat level in this galaxy. The threat level
determines the chances of a planet-born circumstance being a
threat to the planet' spatial surroundings and beyond.
"I am the administrator for such a duty, and it just so turns
out that the intergalactic threat level on this planet has risen
sharply within the past two weeks of us being here".
"The Empire..." mumbled Sask.
Sparkle stepped forward.
"Wait...two months?"
"Oh yes," said Super Luigi. "We recovered you all within the
past 15 hours of your time, but the time you have been here is a
fortnight".
"We've...been on this ship for two weeks?" Yinga said.
"Techinically," piped Lost Cause. "You've been on this ship for
two weeks for the past 15 hours".
Yinga blinked.
"Okay then..." he said, looking away from the Jeptu.
"Anyway," continued Nitengo, annoyed at his interuption.
"The threat level has increased so much that there is now no
conceivable way of containing or neautralising said threat, so
there is only one way to protect the surrounding spatial
area..."
"Destroy the planet," Sask finished morbidly.
"Destroy ONM".
"Indeed," said Nitengo. "But we can't just destroy the planet
while there is life that is non-threatening to the galaxy around
its planet, so the current stage of our operation is to gather
groups of each sentient life form on the planet and keep them in
storage, so a new home may be found for them later".
DJ shook his head.
"You can't," he said.
"You can't. There must be a way to stop the ghosts".
"Ghosts?" asked Nitengo. "What are these ghosts you speak of? I
think they've been mentioned before...my memory's not what it
used to be..."
"The reason that the threat level's gone up," replied Sask.
"And considering two weeks have passed and they destroyed a
country-sized city in one night...there's no telling what
they've done by now".
"We know what they've done," said Super Luigi.
DJ turned to the alien captain.
"What do you mean?" he asked darkly.
Super Luigi turned to a green Jeptu nearby.
"Opening the viewing screen," he said.
The green Jeptu nodded and pushed a button with its tentacle.
A large window began to open up out of the neon walls.
Beyond the window, black, starry space stretched out like a
cosmic wallpaper.
And there, above th orbiting ship, was the blue and green planet
of ONM.
At first, DJ felt a sudden pulse of excitement.
Just like every small boy that had ever been, DJ had always
wanted to go into space at some point.
The closest he'd ever gotten though was playing a lot of Halo.
But then, the childish excitement evaporated.
As he looked up at the planet, DJ realized that it wasn't blue
and green.
Well, a lot of it was blue, in signification to the ocean.
But most of the land that DJ could see...was scarred a deathly
grey, with massive glowing red pockets dotted around.
"What the..." whispered DJ.
Sask walked up next to him.
"This is the southern hemisphere," she said.
She pointed up at several small, charred landmasses that sat in
the ocean relatively close by to each other.
"Those are the Off Topic Islands," she said.
DJ was stunned.
He looked for Videothread Island, his home.
Where his parents were.
It was there.
But it also...wasn't.
Videothread usually looked like a small pineapple. That's how DJ
had been able to pick it out on an atlas when he was younger.
But now, Videothread had a massive, blue gash of ocean running
straight through the grey island's centre.
"...they...never had a chance..." whispered DJ.
"No chance..."
He looked to Sask.
Something very strange was happening in her face.
She was crying.
DJ had never seen Sask cry since she'd stubbed her toe on a
stone step when she was eight-years-old.
He looked up at the other parts of the planet.
The massive nation of Music was tarnished charred black, as were
the sister nations of TV, Books and Film.
Sparkle had her hands over her mouth, tears suddenly streaming
down her face.
Yinga looked simply horrified.
"Our planetside scans show," said Nitengo.
"That almost one quarter of the population as been
exterminated".
DJ turned round, a horrified and utterly astonished look on his
face.
"One...quarter?" he whispered.
"Hey, Captain," said Yinga, speaking to Super Luigi but unable
to tear his eyes away from the scarred planet.
"What are the radiowaves like down there?"
Super Luigi drifted to a nearby console and pressed several neon
buttons.
Static voices began to emnate around the room.
Yelling voices, yelling at whoever would listen.
They overlapped and entwined in one, long, terrified shout.
"This is Nova 4! We need air support now! Our position is
overrun we can't-"
"Seraph is gone! Repeat! Seraph is gone! It's been destroyed-"
"They're crossing the East Border! They're crossing the damn
border!"
"Seraph 1! Seraph 1! Do you copy Seraph 1?"
"This is Epitaph 1! Satellite support is down, repeat, we have
no satellite support. DGP has been compromised-"
"Any and all availabe units, Seraph 1 has been compromised, we
need cover on-"
"THIS IS FIREBREAK 1!! WE NEED HELP!! NOW!! WE-"
"All units! Omega Contingency has be declared, repeat, Omega
Contingency has been declared-"
"Hello? Is there anyone out there who can help us?"
They all stood in silence, listening to screams and orders
coming from the outmatched soldiers pn the planet, which they
watched helplessly.
A huge red glow suddenly flashed up on one of the charred
continents below.
The radios were suddenly massed with static, before the voices
returned.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?! DID THEY JUST SET OFF A NUKE?! HOW
THE-"
"All units, this is Razorbreak 3, hostiles have attacks on a
nuclear scale, over, on a nuclear scale-"
"EPITAPH IS GONE!! SERAPH AND EPITAPH ARE DOWN!"
"We need air support, now, dammit now!"
"Any all commands, we need support now! The enemy has nukes,
over!"
There was a sudden break in the yelling, and a slight static
buzz, before another, single voice came onto the radio.
"All units, this Major Twi at Stoccatae Base GNC. We still
control the borders to the south and enemy attack is minimal.
"We are mobilized and ready for support...Valkyria Units are
Oscar Mike and proceeding with Omega Contingency...we are ready
and waiting, over".
Then the screaming started again.
#Post#: 27--------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:06 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 23
"Turn it off," sobbed Sparkle.
"Turn it off!"
Super Luigi pressed a button and the screaming stopped.
The room was silent, apart from the humming that came from deep
within the ship.
On all the levels of the towering room, the multicoloured Jeptu
glanced at one another and down at the humans.
"Now you see," said Nitengo.
"Why our operation must proceed".
"...what was that thing at the end?" Sask asked, light tears
running down her cheeks.
She looked at Yinga.
"What is Omega Contingency?"
Even in the wake of unbearable sadness, she was still as
observant and calculating as she always was.
Yinga blinked.
"Oh, it's...it's the upmost defence plan," he said.
"Basically...every soldier has to obey a single offensive
command from their commanders and proceed with it...say if they
were told to assault a position, every soldier under Omega
Contingency would have to attack the target".
"Ovverrun the enemy," summerised Super Luigi.
"Yeah, pretty much," Yinga replied.
"And every soldier down there is now under Omega Contingency,"
Sask said, looking back to the charred world outside the window.
"Something big must be going down if every soldier in ONM has
been given Omega Contingency..." Yinga said.
"It won't work," said Sask.
"It won't bloody work! Nothing will work on them!"
"I think I know what will," DJ suddenly said.
Everyone looked at him.
DJ was still staring up at the grey streaks of ruined land.
"There is a way to stop them," he said.
He turned to face everyone else.
"The Sacred Chickens," he said.
"Chickens?" Lost Cause said.
"I saw something down there about eating chickens...they looked
tasty..."
Nitengo shook his head.
"What are these...chickens?" he asked.
"Birds," said DJ.
"They're legendary. Most people think they're just part of
fairytales, but they aren't. They're real. And collecting a
feather from each of them grants you one wish".
The Jeptu looked at each other and back at DJ in confusion.
Sparkle got the idea.
"You could wish away the ghosts," she said, her breath slightly
short from her crying.
"Exactly," said DJ, nodding.
"But that'd mean we'd have to search for them," Sask said.
"For all we know, they've been killed in the invasion".
DJ shook his head.
"Don't you remember the stories, Sask?" he said. "They can't
die".
"But still," said Yinga.
"If these birds are real like you say they are...then you'd
still have to find them".
"But you could know where they were before you searched for
them," said Lost Cause all of a sudden.
Everyone looked round at the red Jeptu, who shied away slightly.
"What do you mean?" asked Sask.
"Well, you could track them," said Lost Cause.
"...how?" asked Sparkle.
"Ah yes," said Super Luigi.
"I see what you're getting at".
The blue Jeptu floated to one of the consoles and pressed
several buttons.
"Do any of you have some kind of portable electronic device?
Preferably one that can pick up digital signals?"
Sask put her hand in her coat pocket and produced her mobile.
Super Luigi's tentacle suddenly sprung forward and grabbed the
phone from Sask's hand.
"Many thanks," he said, placing the phone on the console.
Then he started pulling it apart, disassembling it.
The console began to flash neon around the pieces of phone.
"Do these Sacred Chickens have actually names?" he asked.
"Helmaroc and Ho-Oh," said DJ.
"I see..." said Super Luigi, tapping the console switches.
"Ah yes...you are correct: there are indeed Sacred Chickens on
this planet".
Everyone except from Yinga looked indifferent.
"What is that?" Sparkle asked.
"Organism tracking technology," Lost Cause said.
"It's how we locate the organisms we plan on saving apon the
planet's destruction".
All the humans fired a subtle but dark look in Lost Cause's
direction, which he didn't notice.
"And now we make some modifications..." Super Luigi mumbled.
The console flashed yellow around the pieces of Sask's mobile.
Then Super Luigi began reassembling the phone, and handed it
back to Sask.
"There you go," he said.
Sask looked at the phone's screen.
It was black, with the words NO DATA showing up on the screen.
Sask looked back at Super Luigi dumbfoundedly.
"What does this do, exactly?" she asked the alien.
"It won't work here," Super Luig said.
"But when you're planetside, the device will be able to track
the position of both of these Sacred Chickens. I believe humans
call it a Global Positioning Device...or GPS".
Sask turned the phone around in her hand and put it back in her
coat.
Nintengo floated forwards.
"Now wait just one second, Captain," he grunted.
"You aren't seriously thinking of letting them go back down
there are you?"
"I'm afraid so, administrator," Super Luigi said.
"But that's absurd!" Nitengo snarled.
"We can't allow the possible - and in this case, certain harm of
our subjects! I will not allow it."
"With respect, administrator," Super Luigi said calmly.
"You may wish to consult the terms of this form of operation. Is
it not true that when an opportunity to lower the threat level
arises that we must take it without question?"
Nitengo blinked.
"...yes," he said.
"But how do we know that these humans can succeed in lowering
the threat level? If we stop our operation now, these invaders
could raise the threat level even further. They could destroy us
before we destroy them".
"Nevertheless, administrator," argued Super Luigi.
"We must take this opportunity. I would much rather save a
planet than destroy one".
There was a harsh silence.
Again, every Jeptu in the room was spectating the argument
between their captain and administrator.
"...very well," said Nitengo.
"The humans may return to their planet in order to find these
birds and reverse what has happened".
DJ smiled slightly.
"But!" continued Nitengo.
"This does not mean that we can stop the gathering of sentients.
There is the chance that these ghosts could become a far too
great a threat before you can stop them.
"You have two weeks of your planet's time to find the feathers
of these birds. Before then, we will have gathered all the
organisms we require. At the end of those two weeks, if the
threat of these ghosts has not been neutralised, we will attack.
"Do you find these terms acceptable?"
Sask shook her head.
"That's not enough time," she protested.
"We don't even know where to start looking".
"Well actually," said Super Luigi, looking at the console
screen.
"Initial scans show that the creatures you are searching for are
both in the exact same place, coordinates bearing...25, 25, 32".
"Where's that?" DJ asked.
"Within the country you know as GNC," Super Luigi said.
"Unable to tell where, but they're definatly there".
"Well the send us there," said DJ.
A few hours later, when the other marines had awoken astonished
at the sight and explanation of their alien hosts, they were
ready to go.
Yinga's arm had was completely healed thanks to the unknown
techinques used by the Jeptu, and all their ammo had been
completely restocked thanks to how the Jeptu had made multiple
copies of the marione's weapon magazines.
And now the humans stood in the centre of the room they had
awoken in.
Super Luigi, Lost Cause and Nitengo floated nearby them.
"Remember," Nitengo growled.
"Two weeks, no more, no less".
DJ nodded in reply.
Saltybob hoisted up his MA2000.
"Thank you for your hospitalty," he said to Super Luigi.
"It is much appreciated".
Super Luigi bobbed his head up and down in a nod of reply.
The three Jeptu drifted across the room and into the column of
soft light leading to the corridor above.
"Two weeks!" Nitengo piped again.
And then the hatch closed.
"So what happens now?" asked Sheikah.
"From what I know about aliens," Toonix said.
"I bet they're going to teleport us or something".
As the marine said so, soft neone light started to surround them
all.
"Ha," Toonix said.
"Said so".
The neon light built up around DJ.
He felt a cold, tingling sensation.
And then everything around him turned white.
He felt as though he was falling very quickly.
And then he hit a solid surface.
He was lying on grass. Short grass.
He sat up.
It was night time. The sky was very clear and full of stars.
There was a cold wind rushing through the clear air.
He was sitting in a single patch of short grass, surrounded by
very tall grass that was very tall, nearly six feet tall.
Around him, Sask, Sparkle and the marines were also getting up.
"I think I'll walk next time..." said Sheikah, rubbing his neck.
"Same here," said HelloSkitty.
"Is this GNC?" asked Sparkle.
"Well we're out of the battlezone," said Saltybob.
"Hold on," said Sask, pulling the modified phone from her
pocket.
"Let's see if this thing works".
She powered up the phone, and it instantly zoomed in to the
point on a map.
"Well we're in GNC I think," she said.
"But we aren't at 25,25,32".
"How can you tell?" asked Yinga.
Sask showed him the screen and pointed to a small green dot on
the edge of the screen.
"I'm betting that's where the Chickens are," she said.
"And we're in the centre of the screen...we miles off".
"Dammit," mumbled DJ.
Saltybob was looking up at the stars in the clear sky.
"Stoccatae Base is here in GNC," he said.
"To the north...we can go there to rest up. I reckon we could
get there on foot".
"I hate treks..." said Toonix.
"Shut up, Toonix," Saltybob said.
"Yeah," said Sask. "The Chickens are to the north as well...we
might as well head that way".
"Alright then," said Saltybob.
"Let's move, ladies. Toonix, you take point".
They all moved off into the tall grass, which was fairly easy to
move through in reality.
"So where are we, exactly?" Sheikah asked.
"I can't tell," said HelloSkitty, looking down at the device on
her wrist.
"The satellite's been knocked out...my map's not working".
"Hey, Captain," said Yinga.
"Are we going after these birds too? Or are we stopping at
Stoccatae?"
"No idea, Corperal," Saltybob said.
"To be honest I'd much rather kick some ghost ass...depends what
the coomanders say at Stoccatae".
"I'm sure we'll be fine without you meatheads," said Sparkle.
"Hey!" said Toonix.
"I take offence to that!"
"You take offence to everything, douchebag," said Sheikah.
"Look into my eye," said Toonix, turning to Sheikah, his middle
finger pulling down the bottom of his right eye.
Everyone laughed at Toonix and Sheikah's battle of wits...except
DJ.
This situation didn't bode well with him.
It was dark, and he was walking through a thick area of fauna.
It reminded him of only one thing: the night on Locked Sticky
Island with the piartes, where the trolls had attacked.
Fear was lingering in the back of his mind, like a bad memory.
And as the others laughed and joked, he was instinctively
picking out every sound made in the tall grass around him.
Every prickle as the wind blew across it.
Was it just his imagination, or could he hear rustles in the
grass that were out of place to that of the ones made by the
wind?
This was a seemingly untouched environment.
Something had to live here.
What if that something was a predator...and nocturnal?
Eventually, the group came out into a large clearing of short
grass, that was raised up, so that the grass seemed shorter.
"I need a sit down," said Sheikah.
"Aye says I," said Yinga, dropping to the ground and looking up
at the starry sky.
"Pretty cool place, this," he said.
"I'd have wanted to play hide-and-seek here if I were small,"
Sparkle said.
"It'd be fun".
"I played hide-and-seek with my brothers," said Toonix, sitting
down with the others.
"My younger brother always had to count first and he'd never
find me and my older brother for ages. I'd always hide in a tree
every single time".
"I played it when I was young," said Yinga.
"I'd always go into the attic and fall asleep".
"Aw, ain't that cute," chortled Toonix.
"Go hide in your tree, Toonix," Yinga said.
"Hey, Skitty," Sheikah said to HelloSkitty.
"Did you play hide-and-seek?"
"Yeah," the near-silent marine said.
"But then I'd get bored and tell my brother that he was meant to
be hiding and yell at him for not playing the game right".
The marines laughed.
"What about you?" Saltybob asked Sask.
"Oh, yeah, we played it," Sask said.
"Right, DJ?".
DJ didn't reply. He wasn't even sitting down.
He was standing next to them, stiff as a bord.
He was staring out into the grassland.
A jagged rock jutted out of the tall grass several dozen metres
away, lit up by the bright stars.
A silouhette was on the rock.
An animal.
It was four-legged and covered in thick, blue fur. It had a
large jaw with razor-sharp fangs jutting upwards.
It had a long tail and now visible eyes on its head.
The creature was facing them.
Sask noticed it and stood straight up.
"What is that?" she said.
The marines also stood up.
DJ felt every hair in his body stand up.
The creature threw back its head and let loose a wailing yelp.
More wailing yelps were heard in the distance.
The creature leapt of the rock and into the sea of starlit
grassland.
DJ wcould see the grass shake as the creature approached them.
And in the distance, the grass did the same, rippling like water
as the creatures rushed towards the raised clearing.
"Crap," whispered Sask, pulling out her USP.
"Not again".
#Post#: 28--------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:08 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 24
The marines hoisted their weapons and aimed at the surging
grass.
"What are they?" Toonix said nervously, shifting his aim at the
grass.
"Ghosts?" said Sheikah.
"I thought we controlled GNC?"
"They don't seem like ghosts," said Yinga.
DJ watched as the grass continued to surge as more of the
creatures rushed towards them.
"Crap, dude," Toonix said, panicking.
"There's no way we can stop 'em!".
The grass continued to surge to the point that DJ could hear the
snarls of the creatures.
"Dammit..." mumbled Sask as the surges of grass became just
metres away.
And then they stopped.
The grass stopped wavering.
"What the hell?" whispered Sparkle.
"Where'd they go?"
"Switch to thermal," said Saltybob.
The marines pressed a button on the side of their helmets.
"...I got nothing," said HelloSkitty.
"There's nothing there".
Saltybob turned off his visor. "Then where'd they go".
They all stood atop the raised clearing, pointing weapons in
every direction.
DJ could hear Toonix muttering something. The marine was
shaking.
"Calm down," HelloSkitty said to him.
"Where the hell did they go?!" hissed Sheikah.
Somewhere close by, there was a slight swishing sound as a piece
of grass twitched.
Toonix couldn't take it.
He pulled the trigger on his MA2000, firing one long burst of
gunfire into the grass, yelling and aiming in every direction.
"Dammit Toonix!" Sheikah yelled.
Toonix continued to fire until the magazine was empty.
All was quiet once again, the night wind being the only sound in
the cool, moonlit air.
"I'm...I'm sorry..." Toonix whispered.
"I'm just...scared".
"We don't blame you, dude," said Yinga.
Saltybob turned to DJ.
"Hold this a second," he said, handing his MA2000 to him.
DJ took the heavy assault rifle.
Saltybob pulled a MK7 Shotgun from his back and cocked it.
"This should be more effective," he said.
DJ nodded, handing him back the MA2000.
But suddenly, DJ felt something clasp as quick as lightning
around his shoulder.
He dropped the MA2000 and whipped backwards into the tall grass.
"DJ!" yelled Sparkle as she disappeared from his view.
He hit the ground, surrounded by grass.
He tried to get up and run back to the raised clearing, but
something else whipped round his right leg.
DJ fell forwards painfully.
Saltybob was suddenly in front of him.
The marine dived forwards to try and grab him, but missed as DJ
suddenly began to fly through the grass, dragged along by
whatever was on his leg.
The ground bumped him painfully and the grass whipped against
his face.
DJ tried to swing round and grab his katana, but the continuous
bumping against the ground had caused the sheeth to move into an
awkward angle so that DJ couldn't grab it.
He tried swinging right round, but ended up on his back.
He looked up to see what was dragging him.
One of the furry blue creatures was dragging him powerfully
through the tall grass. Its tail was latched onto DJ's leg.
They continued to rush painfully through the grass, before the
creature came out into a large clearing.
It's tail whipped forwards, its running momentum sending DJ
flying forwards and landing painfully on the short grass.
He looked up at the creature before him, its blue fur wavering
in the night wind.
It opened its mouth and snarled.
Indeed, DJ couldn't see any eyes on its head.
He slowly got up as the beast approached him.
Two more of them emerged from the grass, both snarling.
DJ drew his katana, but the first creature lashed out quickly
with its blue, furry paw and knocked the sword out of DJ's hand.
The creature advanced on him, its snarls turning slightly into
small wooping yelps.
DJ thought of running straight behind him and through into the
tall grass at the other end of the clearing.
But the clearing was too big: the creatures would take him down
before he got there.
And then another one of the creatures leapt from the grass and
approached DJ.
But then it stopped.
It barked a yelp at the first creature, which was on the verge
of leaping at DJ.
The first blue beast turned to the newcomer and barked back.
The newcomer walked forward and DJ slowly moved back.
The newcomer continued towards him and suddenly tripped over a
small rock that jutted out of the ground.
He fell back.
The newcomer came closer and put a furry blue paw on his chest.
The hairs on DJ's neck stood on end as he noticed the sharp,
black claws on the creature's paw.
The beast snarled and appeared to be observing him.
DJ closed his eyes and waited for the beast to strike him.
But then he felt the weight of the creature's paw lift off his
chest.
The newcomer had run across the clearing and was picking DJ's
sword up in its mouth.
DJ stood up as the beast dropped the sword at his feet.
He picked it up and rubbed the creature's slobber on the grass.
The creature grunted.
"You...you...searcher...you?"
DJ blinked.
#Post#: 29--------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:08 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 25
DJ had a puzzled look on his face.
Did the creature before him just speak?
"...hello" he said, waving slightly.
"Hello...you...searcher?" the creature replied.
Searcher?
"I'm DJ," he said.
"My name is DJ".
"Dee...jay," the creature grunted.
"Deejay is searcher?"
DJ raised an eyebrow.
Clearly these beasts, whatever they were, were far more
intelligent than any other creature DJ had ever heard of.
"Er...I don't know," DJ replied.
At that point, he heard someone yell his name, followed by
gunfire.
The marines were coming.
They wouldn't stop to think: they'd just open fire on the
creatures that had spared him.
"Crap," he said.
"Kerr...ap," the creature repeated.
There was more gunfire, followed by the wooping roars of the
beasts.
And then Toonix fell out of the grass and into the clearing.
The sudden docility of the creatures disappeared as they turned
to Toonix and snarled.
Toonix pulled the trigger on his MA2000, but he was out of ammo.
"Aw jeez..." he mumbled, panicking.
The creatures advanced on him.
Toonix dropped the MA2000 and pulled a G5 handgun from his belt
and shakily aimed at the creatures.
There was a loud bang.
A gunshot.
Toonix's gun spun out of his hand and across the clearing, a
large gunshot plowed through it.
The loudness of the massive gunshot spooked the creatures and
they ran into the grass.
On the far side of he clearing, a man walked out of the grass.
He wore a scruffy, long brown coat and a fedora hat, with a grey
shirt and brown trousers with heavy boots.
He had a pair of tinted goggles over his eyes.
But it wasn't his appearance that scared DJ: the bolt-action
sniper rifle in his hands did a pretty good job of that.
He yelled something at them in another language.
DJ back up slowly, as did Toonix.
Suddenly, Sheikah ran out of the grass.
The newcomer fired off a shot from his rifle.
Sheikah yelled in pain and fell to the grassy floor.
The shot had gone straight through his thigh.
The man yelled at them in another language again, pointing his
rifle at DJ.
DJ braced himself for a powerful gunshot to go straight through
hs chest.
But there was a sudden flash.
The night was lit up by fire, which swirled upwards and into a
the shape of a giant, serpentine dragon. DJ could feel an
intense heat spreading over the clearing.
The great, flaming dragon roared at the man with the rifle, who
fired a futile shot at it.
The shot went straight through the dragon's body as it swooped
down and blazed straight towards the newcomer.
The newcomer dove out of the way.
The dragon arched upwards and disappeared.
Suddenly, there was a flash of movement from where the
fire-dragon had emerged.
A figure dashed across the clearing towards the man with the
rifle.
The man was knocked to the ground and his rifle flew upwards and
landed several metres away.
But the man leapt back up and pulled a revolver from his coat.
The figure who had dashed out of the grass stood in the centre
of the clearing and held up a crossbow at the rifleman.
Now that he was standing still, DJ could see that he was tall,
and wore a black beanie cap and black coat, black trousers,
black shoes and a black shirt.
His neck-length hair flicked from under the beanie and his eyes
held the wisdom of an owl.
There was sudden stillness as the two newcomers aimed their
weapons at each other.
DJ, Toonix and Sheikah looked at them in confusion.
Then Saltybob, Sask and Yinga ran into the clearing.
"What the hell-" Yinga began.
He noticed the newcomers.
"Hey, who are-"
And then Sparkle appeared on the far side of the clearing.
She looked confused.
And then she noticed the man holding the crossbow.
Her bright eyes widened.
"...Dad?" she said, stepping forwards.
The man with the crossbow lowered his weapon and smiled.
"Hey, Sparkle," he said.
Sparkle's face changed to a smile.
She ran forwards and hugged the man.
"What the hell are you doing here?" she asked.
"Dad?" said Sask, raisning an eyebrow.
#Post#: 30--------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:09 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 26
The man with the rifle lowered his weapon.
He pulled down his goggles so that they hung round his neck.
"You're a mod," he said, pointing at the patch on Sparkle's coat
arm.
His voice had a Graphics Country accent. (It's like a Russian
accent)
"I apologise for my hastiness".
"Well it's a bit late for that," said Saltybob, not lowering his
MA2000.
"You've shot one of my men in the leg. I could class that as a
threat against the ONM military".
The rifleman sniggered.
"Please..." he began, glancing at the rank badge on Saltybob's
armour.
"...Captain. I doubt that in the situation that our world is
currently in that you have the time to make any kind of arrest
against me".
"Who are you?" HelloSkitty said.
"N," the rifleman said.
"Mr. N".
HelloSkitty turned to Sparkle's dad.
"And you?"
"PsychoPikmin," he said.
"Why are you both here?" HelloSkitty asked again.
"To stop you all getting killed," Mr. N said.
"So why the hell are you shooting me?" Sheikah moaned as Yinga
tended to his wound.
"You had guns," Mr. N said.
"I thought you were hunting the Kirbilot".
"The what?" said DJ.
"The blue things," Mr. N said.
Sask rolled her eyes.
"They were hunting us..." she mumbled.
"And why are you here?" HelloSkitty said, turning to
PsychoPikmin.
"It concerns my daughter," PsychoPikmin said.
"And them".
He looked at DJ and Sask.
DJ shifted his head a little.
What did he want with them?
There was a another wooping yelp.
"They're coming back," Mr. N said.
"Come on. There'll be more of them. I can take you to my house".
"Which is were?" Sask asked.
"Just follow me," Mr. N said, turning into the grass.
"Oh and you, medic-guy".
Yinga looked up from tending to Sheikah's wound.
"Swab up some of his blood on a tissue and leave it in the
clearing. It'll stop them from following us".
Yinga did as he said and helped Sheikah onto his feet.
They all followed Mr. N into the grass.
Just as Mr. N had said, no kirbilots followed them - they'd
smelt the blood and were all heading for the clearing.
As they all moved through the grass, DJ looked at PsychoPikmin.
Who was he? What did he want with them?
And what was that fire-dragon he'd summoned?
Soon, they all came out into an even larger clearing.
There was a large, wooden house in the middle of this one.
There was also a tarmac road running by it, straight through the
grass.
Mr. N unlocked the door and walked into the large hallway with
varnished wooden floors inside the house.
"Put him on the sofa through there," he said to Yinga, pointing
to the next room".
The marines filed into the large living room, pulling off their
helmets.
"I shall prepare some coffee," he said.
DJ as about to follow the marines into the room, when Sask put a
hand on his shoulder and stopped him.
"What did you want us for?" she asked PsychoPikmin.
PsychoPikmin turned to Mr. N.
"Is there a room where I may talk to these three in private," he
said.
"I suggest you step outside," Mr. N said.
"You can hear everything in this house".
PsychoPikmin nodded and opened the front door again.
DJ, Sask and Sparkle stepped out and he followed them.
They stepped several metres out into the clearing.
The midnight winds were blowing slightly stronger now.
"Alright," said Sask.
"Who are you exactly?"
"I'm an Observer," said PsychoPikmin.
"A what?" asked Sask again.
"An Observer," repeated PsychoPikmin.
"I watch".
"Watch what?" asked DJ.
"Everything".
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sask asked.
"Dad resides inbetween dimensions," Sparkle said.
"Outside of everything around us".
Sask shook her head.
"How is that possible?"
"Trust me," PsychoPikmin said.
"It's true. It's my job to observe everything that goes on in
this dimension - to make sure that every key event happens. I
can tell everything that will happen...until now".
Sask raised and eyebrow and folded her arms.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Basically," began PsychoPikmin. "I saw everything that was
going to happen concerning this whole invasion. I saw the first
waves..."
He looked at his feet.
"The deaths...and it all revolved around you three and your
search for the Sacred Chickens".
Zero sat, arms crossed and mascared eyes closed, on the edge of
a ridge.
She was in the mountainous region on the borders of Online
Country and Retro Country.
Below her were stretches of thick, grey cloud.
The night sky above her was bright and full of stars.
He well-kept brown hair blew in the wind around her.
She was digitally connected to the numerous radiowaves running
across ONM, listening into the conversations between radios,
phones and whatever else was emitting a signal.
Most of what she could hear was soldiers yelling down their
radios for back-up or air support against the oncoming armies of
ghosts.
But Zero was listening for a specific piece of dialogue.
Two words: Sacred Chickens.
Darkman had set the hunting down of the Sacred Chickens as her
and Meta's current default objective.
And they were to find the birds by any means necessary - they
were of great importance to the Emperor.
And then Zero heard the words she was looking for.
She tilted her head slightly as he software pinpointed the
voice's position.
GNC...no. Not GNC. Further east...just away from GNC.
There were other voices there too.
Voices that brought up and alert in Zero's software.
The voices of DJ, Sask and Sparkle.
That was her secondary objective: kill them.
She opened her bright eyes, smiling.
Two birds with one stone.
"Got it," she said.
"Good," said Darkman's voice inside her head.
"Get moving".
Zero stood up.
She disliked the cold.
That was one part of her old self that Darkman had kept: her
humanity.
Well, part of it anyway.
There was enough of her old, human self still existing so that
her objectives weren't emotionally compromised.
The idea of keeping parts of her humanity were that humans were
violent, which added to Zero's combat capabilities.
She walked forwards and stepped straight off of the ridge.
Zero plummeted down the side of the mountain through th cold
night air, straight towards the clouds.
As she passed through them, her body shifted and changed into
the metallic jaguar form that allowed her to travel faster.
She was on the move.
#Post#: 31--------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:10 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 27
"The Sacred Chickens?" asked DJ.
"What have they got to do with this?".
"Gostalt want more to do with the Chickens than to start wars,"
PsychoPikmin replied darkly.
"As does the Emperor".
"Like what?" asked Sparkle.
"The Empeor might have a massive army," said PsychoPikmin.
"But he knows that human intuition is his greatest enemy. He
knows that if he takes over ONM that he can't completely kill
off mankind. There will be survivors. Surviors leads to
resistance movements".
That's when DJ got the idea.
"He wants the Chickens so that he can make a wish," he said in
realization.
"He's going to wish away mankind".
Sask and Sparkle looked from DJ to PsychoPikmin, who nodded.
"Indeed," he said.
"And he'll already have a feather rom Helmaroc after what
happened in Music Country...he'll be looking for Ho-Oh".
"But what if they don't know where Ho-Oh is?" said Sparkle.
"While that's most likely true," said PsychoPikmin.
"The Emperor will be using every available resource in his
entire empire to find it...probably Gostalt".
"Yeah," said Sask. "They caught one bird; they could catch the
other".
"So we get to the coordinates first!" said DJ.
"We know where the Chickens are: 25, 25, 32".
DJ and Sparkle didn't notice it, but as DJ read out the
coordinates, PsychoPikmin fired a dark, unreadable look at Sask,
who definately noticed, but said nothing.
"We wish that the ghosts back to Old ONM and that everyone they
killed came back to life".
PsychoPikmin shook his head.
"That won't work," he said.
DJ was suddenly scared that the only hope he could think of to
save ONM had a flaw.
"Why not?" he asked.
"You can wish for anything, can't you?"
"Yeah," began PsychoPikmin.
"But a person can only ever make one wish in their lifetime. You
could only wish to send the ghosts back or wish everyone back to
life".
DJ blinked.
"Crap," he said.
"But what if one of us wished for each of them?" piped Sparkle.
"That would work," PsychoPikmin said.
"But would be extremely tough. Sacred Chickens are easy to
spook. You get close enough to get two feathers and there's no
way you'd ever be able to get anothet two: they'd fly off too
quickly".
DJ shivered, partially because he was annoyed and partially
because it was cold.
"We'll have to see what happens," said PsychoPikmin.
The four of them turned to go back to the house.
DJ and Sparkle had their hands in pockets, glumly thinking of
ways to get around the difficulties of undoing what the ghosts
had done.
But Sask lingered back.
Once the other two where out of earshot and walking through the
door, she spoke.
"PsychoPikmin," she said.
The Observer, who was already halfway across the grass to the
door stopped.
"You know something," she said.
"Something about me. Something to do with those coordinates".
PsychoPikmin said nothing.
"You said you saw everything that has happened and will happen,"
Sask continued.
"Not anymore," said PsychoPikmin.
"Something has changed in the flow of time...I don't know what's
going to happen anymore. Everything's still practically the
same, but something's changed".
"Well what did you see before you couldn't tell?" Sask asked
again.
PsychoPikmin said nothing again.
"TELL ME!" Sask yelled.
Yelling was very unlike her.
PsychoPikmin turned to face her.
His owl-like eyes were filled with guilty grief.
"You died," he said.
Sask said nothing.
They faced each across the wide clearing.
"At those coordinates," PsychoPikmin said.
"You died...I don't know how. That part was vague...but like I
said, everything's changed. There's a good chance you won't die
now".
Sask's espression remained unchanged.
PsychoPikmin looked away from her and walked towards the house.
Sask stood for a few more seconds.
Then she followed PsychoPikmin.
The marines were sitting around the large living room in front
of an ornate fireplace when DJ entered.
Sheikah and HelloSkitty had fallen asleep and Toonix was playing
cards with Yinga. Saltybob sat near the window, hand on his
fist.
The room was very well-kept, with a varnished wooden floor and a
dusted rug.
There were no photos on any of the shelves, but there was a very
full bookcase.
Mr. N entered the room with a tray of tea and coffee.
As he set it down on the glass table, he stood back up and
looked over at Saltybob.
"So why are you round these parts, Captain?" he asked, folding
his arms.
"I haven't seen any ghosts round here".
"We were...airdropped," Saltybob said, choosing not to convey
any information about the Jeptu.
"We're trying to get to Stoccatae Base GNC".
"Well then how come you're here?" Mr. N asked.
"This isn't GNC".
Saltybob raised an eyebrow.
"Then where are we?"
"Rules," said Mr. N.
"You're east of GNC".
"Crap," said Toonix.
"We aren't even in GNC..."
"It's an honest mistake I suppose," said Mr. N.
"Rules is the smallest and least populated area of ONM. There
are no settlements of any kind...mainly because of the brutal
wildlife".
"Not surprisng," said Yinga.
"So why are you here?"
"I stop people walking into this part of ONM and getting eaten
by a kirbilot".
"How do you manage that?" asked Saltybob.
"It might be small, but how can you stop people from wandering
into an entire country".
"There are fences," said Mr. N.
"But occasionally, you get the idiots who decide it's a good
idea to jump the fence, or people in cars who drive along the
road and get out to pee or something.
"Besides, I have my resources".
"Like what?" asked DJ.
PsychoPikmin and Sask walked into the room behind him.
"I have a UAV," said Mr. N.
Saltybob tilted his head slightly.
"A UAV?" he asked.
"Like a recon plane?"
"Yeah," said Mr. N.
"Come. I shall show you".
*****************************************************
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