DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
ONM World
HTML https://onmworld.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: General Discussion
*****************************************************
#Post#: 52--------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:34 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 47
The tinted glass of the cockpit on the front of the mech
suddenly cleared, revealing a familiar face: Darkmann.
"Hey look!" he said, his voice ringing from an unseen megaphone.
The minigun on the base of the mech began to spin, creating a
thunderous whirring sound.
"Target practice!"
An unrelenting torrent of bullets cascaded across the cavern.
DJ, Swixer and D-Mash all dove towards the spires on either side
of their positions.
PsychoPikmin grabbed the back of Sparkle's coat and disappeared
in a firey flash.
DJ peered out from behind the spire he was hiding behind.
The mech stomped round, and opened fire in his direction.
DJ quickly hid behind the spire again as the bullets plowed into
it.
He pulled the desert eagle handgun from the holster on his belt,
holding it in his left hand, the katana in his right.
D-Mash had the thundrafang, but with the mech here he couldn't
just activate it.
There was a crashing sound above DJ.
The mech had stomped straight up to the spire he hid behind and
had clamped its huge metal jaws around it, breaking it clean
away from the ground.
DJ dove away again as the minigun blasted away at where he had
just been.
The mech turned to face him, just as a green blast hit its side,
inches from the cockpit where Darkmann piloted the thing.
D-Mash was dashing across the cavern, firing the green blasts at
the mech.
There was firey blaze above the mech as PsychoPikmin reappaered,
crossbow-sword raised.
He dropped towards the cockpit, with intent of smashing through
the Darkmann.
But the mech suddenly darted sideways with surprising speed and
agility.
PsychoPikmin rolled in middair, landing awakwardly but unharmed.
DJ then noticed that another figure had appeared on top of the
mech. It was KrikenKing, an AUG machine gun in his hands. He
skillfully leapt down from the mech by jumping onto its metal
knees.
He oppened fire on PsychoPikmin, who leapt forwards, disappeared
into flames and reappaered before KrikenKing, crossbow raised.
But something suddenly strafed through the air and battered
PsychoPikmin away from KrikenKing, he fell and rolled.
It was SamuriFerret, who had also revealed himself from the
mech's topside.
DJ tightened his grip on his katana, anger filling his blood as
he looked on at SamuriFerret.
He dashed forwards, firing several loud shots from his desert
eagle at SamuriFerret, who deflected the shots.
"Kill him," he said to KrikenKing, who nodded and grabbed
several of the familiar metal spheres on his belt and threw them
into the air.
The andymcks took full form and whipped towards DJ, their tiny
machine guns peppering the cavern floors and walls with bullets.
KrikenKing also opened fire, before being distracted and
occupied by fighting D-Mash.
DJ leapt away from the andymcks, firing a few more shots,
missing on every one.
One of the andymcks suddenly charged forwards, knocking the
desert eagle out of DJ's hand and cutting at his writs with its
tiny propellor.
DJ yelled in pain, diving awkwardly away, managing to only just
avoid the andymck's shots.
He was able to risk a look at his hand.
The wound was luckily not very deep: it wouldn't hinder him.
He looked up.
PsychoPikmin was locked in a fight with SamuriFerret, swords
clashing violently; D-Mash was engaging in a fist fight with
KrikenKing - and losing, the shorter, crazyhaired assassin being
more agile than the raggidy pirate.
Darkmann's mech meanwhile was blundering around on the far side
of the cavern, firing the minigun in the air.
DJ looked up to Swixer strafing in the air with his jetpack,
firing at the mech with his submachine gun.
He then felt a sudden pain as more of the andymcks' bullets
sliced through his coat.
Streaks of blood appeared on his now revealed arms.
He stood up, but was knocked back as five andymcks whipped
through the air towards him, slicing through his shirt and
knocking him over.
He grimaced in pain as the andymcks surrounded him in the air.
DJ tried swiping round, knocking one away, but it returned.
DJ was about to close his eyes in knowing that this was the end.
But he didn't.
In a split second he decided that he wasn't going to give up
again. He'd been beaten so many times on this so-called
adventure. Not now.
He mustered some strength, clutched his katana and leapt up.
As he did so, the andymcks were suddenly launched away from DJ,
who had his blade raised but looked on confusedly.
He noticed the andymcks had glassy needles purtruding from them.
Then they exploded.
Sparkle landed next to DJ, the shadowy moderator wings sprouted
from her back.
DJ noticed that her clothes were damaged up, covered in X-shaped
slashes.
There was a small red cut on one side of her face and she was
panting heavily.
"What happened?" DJ asked her.
"SamuriFerret...he showed up when me and dad flamewarped...got
me pretty bad".
There was another deep, metallic roar from across the cavern as
Swixer continued to fight the mech.
"We can't use the thundrafang while that mech's still here," DJ
said. "D-Mash has it".
"What about the wish?" asked Sparkle. "We're surrounded by
feathers! We should do it before any of those guys noticed us".
DJ looked around. Indeed, they were surrounded by feathers from
Ho-Oh and Helmaroc.
He looked at Sparkle, who smiled and nodded.
DJ quickly grabbed a dark, purple feather from Helmaroc and a
bright, red feather from Ho-Oh, holding one in each hand.
He stared at each of them.
"Here goes nothing," he said.
#Post#: 53--------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:35 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 48
DJ held up the two feathers before him.
He paused, the sound of the fighting still going on in the
background.
"...what now?" he asked, still looking at the feathers.
"I dunno...remember the stories," Sparkle said.
"Oh yeah," said DJ.
He tried to think back to the old bedtime stories he'd listened
to.
But his train of thought was interupted by a yell, from Swixer
on the other side of the cavern.
"SPARKLE! DJ! MOVE!!"
DJ looked up.
Darkmann's mech was thundering across the cavern towards them.
"SamuriFerret!" he yelled over the mech's megaphone.
"The boy has feathers!"
DJ and Sparkle dove in opposite directions as the mech charged
past. It swerved round and opened fire with the minigun in DJ's
direction, who managed to dive behind another spire.
He dashed forwards again and heard bullets whizz past him.
Then there was another presence nearby.
He had no time to look round as SamuriFerret appeared out of
nowhere.
DJ felt the assassin's hand on his chest, and then incredible
pain as SamuriFerret, still in middair slammed him into the
ground.
DJ dropped his katana, which skittered across the stone-hard
floor.
He still held both feathers in his hands.
SamuriFerret landed nearby and stepped towards him.
"Hello again," he said, grinning.
He held up his ranger shotgun at DJ's head.
"And goodbye," he snarled.
But before he could fire, a glassy needle ploughed into his
shoulder.
SamuriFerret yelled in pain as his arm swerved away, two shotgun
blasts firing to his left as apposed to towards DJ.
He drew his sword and put away his shotgun as Sparkle rammed
into his side, shoulder first.
SamuriFerret almost fell, but his ominous tail pushed him
upwards, stopping his fall. He pulled the needle from his
shoulder and crushed it in his fist.
Sparkle threw a punch, which smacked the side of his face.
SamuriFerret tried to retalitate, but Sparkle trapiezed over his
shoulder and kicked him in the back.
However, to this, SamuriFerret did retaliate.
He reached round and grabbed Sparkle's leg.
Then he spun round and tossed her with incredible strength
towards the far wall.
Then he himself disappeared and reappeared at where Sparkle was
in middair, sword raised, prepared to knock her down.
But Sparkle was suddenly enveloped by flames, denying
SamuriFerret of his kill.
PsychoPikmin grabbed his daughter's coat, and lobbed her in the
opposite direction, using her own and his conserved momentum to
launch her away from SamuriFerret.
His sword clashed his SamuriFerret's, who growled.
"STOP GETTING IN THE WAY!!" he yelled.
Meanwhile, DJ was back on his feet.
Something crashed to the ground nearby him.
Then he realized it was a someone, not a something.
It was D-Mash.
He was bleeding out of both nostrils and had a black eye.
His coat was torn and his robotic arm was sparking green.
DJ looked round.
Swixer had flown to catch Sparkle before she hit the ground, but
now that they were undistracted, Darkmann and KrikenKing were
making a move on DJ.
KrikenKing fired at DJ, relentlessly unloading the AUG's entire
magazine.
DJ dove to once side and threw a shuriken - his last shuriken,
at KrikenKing.
His aim held true: KrikenKing dropped the AUG and yelled in
pain, clutching his bloodied face.
DJ looked round at D-Mash.
He ran over to the pirate.
"D-Mash?!" he said, shaking his shoulder.
D-Mash's unpummeled eye opened slightly.
"Use...the thundra...thundrafang," he stammered.
"I can't...can't move".
DJ shook his head.
"No," he said.
"No...you can't die too!"
D-Mash smiled faintly.
"Shut up," he said.
"And stop them".
His eye closed and his head went limp.
DJ's eye darted across D-Mash's body.
He felt a hand on his shoulder.
It was Sparkle.
"Don't worry about him," she said.
"We have to get rid of that mech".
DJ looked up.
Swixer had gone back to harrassing it, flying round it and
taking random shots at it with his M9s.
"Get the thundrafang when we're done," said Sparkle.
"How do we take it down?" asked DJ, picking up his katana.
"...I have no idea," said Sparkle unreassuringly.
"What about your dad?" DJ asked, looking round.
PsychoPikmin and SamuriFerret were stilling dueling on the other
side of the cavern, neither of them beating the other.
"Falnaxus could kncok the mech down," Sparkle said.
"But he's fighting SamuriFerret," DJ said.
Sparkle's eyes suddenly brightened up.
"The feathers!" she exclaimed.
"Think DJ! How do you make the wish?"
DJ looked at the two feathers in his hands.
"Gah...I CAN'T BLOODY REMEMBER!" he yelled.
He felt a hand on his back.
He turned round.
SamuriFerret stood over him.
"No you don't," he snarled.
He kicked DJ in the chest with such strength that DJ flew
several metres through the air.
He crashed painfully into the floor.
The feathers fluttered in the air above him.
DJ reached up to try and grab them, but he impulsively retracted
his hand.
The feathers had been sliched in two, both of them in one swipe.
DJ swore and tried to get up.
SamuriFerret was standing over him, blade held to DJ's throat.
"Why don't you give up?" he asked, face screwed up in annoyance.
"Because this...this is just annoying me now".
DJ didn't reply. He feared that one small movement would result
in him being decapitated.
But to his relief, he heard Sparkle call to PsychoPikmin.
"Dad!" she yelled, "Use Falnaxus to stop the mech!"
There was a sudden wave of intense heat.
Behind SamuriFerret, Falnaxus' serpant form rose up and roared.
DJ grinned.
SamuriFerret grimaced.
"For God's sake!" he yelled.
The towering fire spirit roared, Sparkle quickly moving over to
beside where D-Mash lay.
SamuriFerret tried to confront it, but Falnaxus unleashed a
firey shockwave, knocking everyone over- bar the mech, which
slid back several metres.
As DJ felt the incredible yet not burning heat pass over him, he
watched on in awe as tiny fires started to appear all across the
cavern.
Every single feather that lay on the floor was burning up,
turning to ash in mere seconds, the fires not last long.
"Son of a bitch..." mumbled Darkmann from his mech.
The minigun opened fire on Falnaxus.The bullets plowed into the
serpant's firey armour, but it didn't recoil.
It lunged forwards towards the mech, which leapt to one side.
Darkmann's face from the cockpit had an expression of fear and
frustration.
Try as he might, the mech's minigun did nothing to stop
Falnaxus.
"p**s off!" he yelled.
A small salvo of missiles retracted from the mech's hull.
A volley of small rockets twisted through the air towards
Falnaxus, leaving smoke trails as they went.
But these also missed as Falnaxus curved and clambered up the
dark cavern wall, the missiles exploding away from the serpant.
The mingun peppered the wall around it, still doing nothing to
hinder Falnaxus.
DJ grinned.
PsychoPikmin was toying with the mech.
Until now.
Falnaxus leapt from the wall, landing before the mech and
shoving it with its head.
The mech pushed against it, sliding back a little, the minigun
still firing a barrage against the fire spirit.
Falnaxus roared, flames bursting from between its armour-like
scales.
One of its claws whipped round, clutching the minigun, which
stopped spinning against the serpant's grip, creating an awful
metallic groan.
The minigun was ripped clean off of the mech's underside, yet
still attached to the ammo supply.
It whirred around Falnaxus' claw, spewing bullets in all
directions.
The serpant roared again and jammed the minigin straight through
one of the mech's legs.
The leg exploded. The minigun stopped spinning.
"Dammit!" yelled Darkmann.
The cockpit opened as Falnaxus heaved the mech upwards. Darkmann
leapt away from it as the fire spirit ripped the mech's main
hull away from its legs, lobbing both pieces into the air.
Falnaxus roared again and vanishing into flames.
DJ watched as PsychoPikmin landed on the ground, followed by the
two halves of the mech, which landed several metres behind him.
The halves exploded, sending shrapnel everywhere.
PsychoPikmin's beanie cap was blown off, shrapnel slicing
through his coat and his brown hair billowing forwards.
He looked up, his owlish eyes glaring forwards. He clutched his
left arm. Looks like there had been some damage from the fight.
But now the mech was destroyed.
DJ grinned.
But before he could even think, a felt something whip past him.
SamuriFerret dashed straight towards the injured PsychoPikmin
and kicked him in the chest.
The observer flew upwards, a pained growl on his face.
SamuriFerret leapt up at him before he'd even hit the ground,
beating PsychoPikmin down with his foot again.
PsychoPikmin hit the ground, sliding along as SamuriFerret
surfed on top of him.
When he'd stopped moving, SamuriFerret reached down and picked
him up by the throat with one hand.
"I've had enough of you, Observer," he said, grinning
maniacally.
PsychoPikmin said nothing, defeated.
SamuriFerret raised his blade in the move of execution.
DJ stepped forwards to aid PsychoPikmin, but he noticed more
movement.
Sparkle had leapt out of nowhere.
She held her glassy needles in between her fingers like
knuckledusters.
Her fist plowed staright into the small of SamuriFerret's back.
The assassin cried out in pain, dropping PsychoPikmin, who fill
limply to his knees.
Sparkle's hair covered most of here face, her mouth still
revealed, held in an angry snarl.
She uttered one word.
"Leave...".
She pulled her bloodied fist away, placing her other hand on the
stunned SamuriFerret's shoulder.
Two more words.
"...my dad...".
She spun SamuriFerret around and kicked him in the wound where
she'd thrust the needles into him.
He fell forwards onto his knees, his tail falling limp.
He glared round at Sparkle.
Her arms were raised.
In the air around her, thousands of glassy needles appeared, all
pointing towards SamuriFerret.
Her eyes were firey.
"...ALONE!!" she yelled, throwing her arms to her sides.
All the needles shot forwards, streaking through the air towards
the downed assassin.
DJ grimaced as the needles rained down.
Then he looked back again.
SamuriFerret lay on his back, his eyes barely open, blood coming
from his mouth.
Dozens of glassy needles purtruded from his body, his tail
pinned to the ground, many more laying around him.
He coughed.
DJ heard him utter a single syllable.
"Ouch," he stuttered.
Sparkle stood before him, panting.
She looked up.
The attack had obviously taken a lot out of her.
Then she turned to PsychoPikmin and helped him to his feet.
DJ walked over to join them.
"Well done," he said to Sparkle, resting a hand on her shoulder
and glancing round at SamuriFerret.
She thanked him and smiled weakly.
"You actually mastered the Thousand Needle Storm," PsychoPikmin
said quietly.
Sparkle nodded.
"Hurts though," she said.
"I imagine so," PsychoPikmin said.
"What hurts?" said another voice.
The three of them looked round.
Swixer was walking towards them, two bodies in his wake.
One was KrikenKing, unconscious and hauled over his shoulder.
The other was Darkmann, also unconscious, his arm bent into a
weird position.
He set the two down and joined the others, looking equally
beaten up.
PsychoPikmin managed to stand up on his own and Sparkle fell
into Swixer's arms.
DJ smiled.
"Where's the thundrafang?" asked PsychoPikmin.
DJ pointed to D-Mash's body.
He walked over and bent down, pulling the pointed piece of
equipment away from the pirate.
Then he paused.
He knelt down and placed his middle and index fingers on
D-Mash's neck.
He could feel slight beatings.
DJ grinned.
D-Mash was still alive.
He stood back up with the thundrafang and turned to face the
others.
His grin vanished.
Above the others was a slowly growing black-purple sphere.
He pointed to it and everyone else looked up at it.
SamuriFerret let out a forced chuckle.
"You're all screwed now," he said.
Then the dark sphere exapanded outwards.
There was an incredible, freezing shockwave that blew everything
backwards.
Sparkle, Swixer and PsychoPikmin where all tossed across the
cavern, as where the bodies of SamuriFerret, KrikenKing and
Darkmann.
D-Mash's body also rolled away from next to DJ.
DJ himself was not blown away, but was still partially crippled
by the freezing wave of air.
The dark sphere did exactly as DJ expected it to do: change into
the shape of a person, then take shape with very pale skin, an
expensive looking black suit and a face with demonic eyes,
spiked up dark hair with red tips and a goatee beard; all this
with a large pair of draconian wings from which liquid shadows
dripped.
The Emperor of Ghosts slowly landed on the ground, several
metres away from DJ.
He looked round him at the cavern, at the mech and then at the
unconscious bodies strewn across the ground.
Then he noticed DJ.
"Sorry I'm late," he said cooly, glancing from side-to-side.
"Looks like you're the only one left...the brother of the
defiant one".
DJ said nothing.
"Funny," said the Emperor.
"Considering that this is obviously the Sacred Chickens'
roosting area...there is a distinct lack of feathers..."
DJ shouldered the thundrafang and drew his katana.
"You won't get any," he said.
"You won't wish away mankind!"
The Emperor just chuckled.
"Oh, the naivity of youth," he said darkly.
"You come to forget it when you've been living for thousands of
years".
The shadows the dripped from his wings crawled up to his arms,
enthralling them in darkness.
"Looks like you aren't going down without a fight," he muttered.
"You're resilience won't help you now".
There was a loud boom above them.
Both DJ and the Emperor looked up.
The dark clouds above the Arc flashed slightly with lightning.
Gradually, raindrops began to fall into the cavern.
Soon it was raining fairly heavily.
The Emperor laughed.
"Well I suppose your species' time has come," he said.
"You'd better make this a good fight. It might be the last one
any human will ever make".
They faced each other from across the cavern, the rain hitting
the floor like wardrums.
DJ spread his blade to one side.
Hold on Sask, he thought.
#Post#: 54--------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:35 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 49
DJ raised his sword as the Emperor suddenly leapt forward, his
shadow-covered arm - morphed into the shape of a lance, clashing
with his katana.
Time seemed to stop for a second as a huge boom of thunder
echoed across the sky and the cavern was filled with white
light.
In that split second, the Emperor grinned maniacally at DJ from
middair and DJ looked up at the Emperor's stolen face, one eye
closed as he flinched from the Emperor's crushing strike.
Then the lightning passed.
The Emperor kicked out at DJ's chest.
DJ literally fell over and rolled backwards.
He managed to stop on his feet, bent down.
The Emperor laughed, arms as lances held at his sides.
"This'll be fun," he chortled.
DJ stood up slowly, the rain beating back down on him, his hair
sticking to his face.
His arm hurt from the slashes the andymcks had made at him.
His movement was also quite sluggish after the Emperor's cold
shockwave upon entry.
"I'll give you one chance to give up now," the Emperor said.
DJ said nothing, raising his sword in both hands.
The Emperor shook his head.
"Stupid, stupid human..." he said.
"If we're so stupid, then why are you scared enough of us to
have to wish us away?" DJ asked him.
The Emperor said nothing to this.
"Why?" asked DJ.
"Why do you have to kill us all off?"
"...because I want to help," the Emperor said.
"You humans die. Don't you not want to die?"
DJ raised an eyebrow.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"I'm a ghost," the Emperor said, raising his arms, the shadow
lances literally dripping away.
"I don't die. What's more, I can take the lost souls of those
who have passed and make them ghosts, ghosts who obey my every
command! There is no fighting, no quarreling. Only eternal
life".
DJ began to slowly step sideways. The Emperor did the same in
the opposite direction.
"Don't you see?" the Emperor chortled.
"This is the afterlife! I am what exists after death!"
DJ shook his head.
"That's not life," he said, "it's just...not death".
"Which is a good thing!" gloated the Emperor.
"It's not," said DJ.
"It's twisted dictatorship, ruled by you".
The Emperor's face became the canvas of a callous frown.
"How can you say that death is a good thing?" he asked,
shoulders drooping forward like an annoyed child.
DJ had no answer for this.
The Emperor stood up straight again and then grinned.
"Are you saying your sister's death was a good thing".
DJ snapped.
He didn't care about the pain in his arms.
He dashed forwards, katana raised.
The blade swung down at The Emperor, who raised his arm which
had once more taken the form of a shadowy lance.
"Deary me, you really don't care that she's dead, do you?"
remarked the Emperor.
"SHUT UP!!" DJ yelled, swiftly ducking down and rolling right
between the Emperor's legs.
Then he tried to swipe upwards.
But his blade met no target.
Just as he done during their encounter on board KD King, the
Emperor had moved out of the sword's wake with blink-fast speed.
Now he stood behind DJ.
"Too slow," he snarled.
DJ spun round to attack again, but the Emperor raised a hand,
releasing a loud shockwave.
DJ's felt it like a brick and flew backwards, hitting the
ground heavily.
There was another boom of lightning and the cavern was once
again enthralled in white for a second.
The rain poored down on DJ's face like an unforgiving shower.
He blinked.
When his eyes opened, the Emperor was standing over him at his
head end.
He knelt down and tilted his head, upside down to DJ.
"So anyway," he said jokingly, "your sister, eh?"
DJ sat up suddenly and swiped round.
The Emperor was gone again.
"If you just gave up, you could see her again," said his cool
voice.
DJ looked round.
The Emperor stood with his back to him, wings dripping shadows.
DJ leapt forwards to stab him, but was knocked back as the
shadowy wings spread out, launching liquid shadows to either
side of the Emperor, who turned round to face him.
"Perhaps we should...clear your perspective a little," he said.
Slowly, the liquid shadows dripping from his wings began to
drift across the ground, sliding towards DJ.
He swiped at them with his katana, but the mearly multiplied as
he sliced them in half.
One of them suddenly jumped through the air like an ominous
frog and stuck to his leg.
It was freezing.
DJ tried to shake it off, but it was heavy...and spreading over
his leg.
More of the shadows leapt at him and clung to him.
Soon, DJ was covered in the shadows and fell to his knees,
shivering.
He looked up.
The last thing he saw before everything faded to black was the
Emperor stepping forwards towards him.
Then the heavy freezing feeling of the shadows was gone. DJ was
suspended in something...something that slowed his movements.
It was liquid.
That's when he realized his eyes were closed.
He opened them.
Everything around him was blue.
Water.
He was underwater.
He instinctively didn't breathe inwards.
Looking all around him, he could see that he was surrounded by
deep blue on all sides.
What was going on?
Was he dead?
Was he dreaming or something?
"Confused?" said a disembodied voice, the Emperor's voice.
DJ spun round in the water, looking for the voice's source.
He saw nothing, other than more blueness.
"I imagine so," chuckled the Emperor's voice again.
Then, before DJ, two large, shining spheres appeared.
DJ looked up at them in confusion.
Then the water above the spheres began to change, steangely
morphing into the shape of the spiked hair of the Emperor's
stolen body.
That's when he realized what the spheres were: eyes.
His own eyes widened as a large, dark, gaping jaw opened up in
the blue.
All the water around DJ began to drag towards the fanged mouth.
DJ tried to swim against it, but the currents became stronger
as the jaw opened wider.
He was sucked backwards into the black mouth.
Then he was falling, the silouhette of the mouth getting
farther and farther away.
"Feel the fear," said the Emperor's voice again.
DJ hit the ground.
What ground?
He sat up and looked around him.
He was sitting in a charred, rocky landscape, no trees, no
plants.
The sky above him was dark, the sky literally red.
There was a hissing noise.
DJ jumped up as a ghost skulked towars him, it's fanged mouth
gawping at him, it's faceless head showing no emotion.
DJ tried to draw his sword, but there was no sword.
It had literally vanished from its sheeth on his back.
He looked back at the ghost.
But now there were more of them.
In the split second that he'd went to grab his vanished blade,
more ghosts had shown from nowhere.
One leapt forwards, attempting to stab at DJ with its long,
freezing claw.
He dodged it, but felt a white hot pain from his back.
He looked down.
A long, white claw purtruded from his chest. All feeling began
to fade away.
He looked round to see the ghost that had impaled.
He saw no ghost, only a face, a face, to his horror, which he
recognised.
It was Sask, only that her eyes had no pupils.
DJ shook his head.
"No," he said.
"No..."
He blacked out...and then came back.
DJ was surrounded by whiteness.
He wasn't wet from the strange underwater place and there was
no wound in his chest from where he'd been impaled.
Where Sask had impaled him.
Sask.
He looked up.
There she was, his sister, wearing the same black coat that
stopped at the front at her waist, the USP.45 at her belt.
But she looked sad.
She was staring downwards dispondantly.
DJ stepped forwards.
"Sask?" he said.
She didn't respond in any way.
He stepped forwards again.
But then he appeared, Chandra, the Emperor, grinning maniacally
and standing next to Sask.
"No...don't touch her!" DJ yelled.
"Not you're choice," replied the Emperor cooly.
"She's mine now...she's a ghost".
He placed a pale hand on Sask's shoulder.
He exploded into purple fire, gone.
DJ ran forwards, but he seemed to be getting no closer to the
Emperor, who just stood there, grinning and arms folded.
DJ had to stop.
He was out of breath.
Really out of breath.
He fell to his knees, looking forwards at the Emperor.
"What is this?" he asked.
"What is left for you," the Emperor replied.
DJ now found it hard to keep his eyes open.
He was powerless as the Emperor walked towards him.
In his hand, liquid shadows collected into the form of a
handgun.
He stopped and aimed it to DJ's forehead.
DJ closed his eyes.
This was it.
Defeat.
This time, he really had lost.
And then he heard something.
A screech.
The cry of a bird...
#Post#: 55--------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER FIFTY
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:36 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 50
Rain still fell.
DJ suddenly bolted up into a seating position at the sound of
the bird's cry.
What was that? He looked forwards.
The Emperor stood before him, looking confused.
"What the..." he muttered.
There was another cry of a bird.
Both DJ and the Emperor looked up into the deep grey sky, the
rain falling into their faces.
Something big and dark flew past the opening in the ceiling of
the cavern, a large, winged shadow.
It was the bird that made the cry.
Then another, similarly shaped shadow flew past the hole in the
ceiling.
DJ was still quite disillusioned by whatever the Emperor had
just put him through, so he peered up into the rainy sky with an
exhausted, gormless expression.
The two birds circled the Arc, and then descended towards the
cavern.
It was them.
The Sacred Chickens, Ho-Oh and Helmaroc.
DJ stared up at them in silent awe, although said awe was not
readable on his rain-soaked face.
He recognised Helmaroc from when he'd seen it in Music City,
when Gostalt had captured it; with it's deep purple feathers on
its body and white feathers on the edge of its wings and several
chains of flowing yellow tail feathers.
Ho-Oh had bright, orange feathers, widespread, golden tail
feathers and a long golden beak.
The Emperor was also looking up at the Chickens, a grin
replacing his recent confusion.
"Way to make things easy," he muttered.
He looked down at DJ, raising his arm so that they reformed into
shadowy lances.
But before he could strike, Helmaroc swooped very low over his
head, screeching, causing the Emperor to leap back several feet
to avoid it.
He chuckled at the bird's attack.
Ho-Oh also swooped down at the Emperor, wings spread wide.
The Emperor was pushed back to the far end of the cavern, one of
his arms a shadowy lance.
"Well, well," he said.
"Looks like I've just cut back on a lot of effort of finding the
Chickens myself".
DJ watched the birds as they circled above him in the cavern.
He had no words to describe what he felt.
He'd always dreamed of this moment, the time he would see both
Sacred Chickens before him.
The Chickens cawed and then swooped towards DJ, landing on the
ground nearby him.
He looked up at both birds.
They were both screeching across the cavern towards the Emperor,
obviously capable of sensing the evil energy emnating from his
stolen body.
He merely laughed.
"Looks like you've made some friends!" he called from the other
end of the cavern.
With that, both Chickens suddenly spread their wings.
The whole cavern was filled with silvery light. It slowly became
more intense, blinding.
DJ's eyes widened.
The Emperor raised his arm to defend his eyes.
DJ could see nothing more than bright light that would usually
hurt his eyes.
But it didn't.
He felt better. The injuries on his arms and body started to
tingle pleasently, the sore pain suddenly relieved.
The fog of confused tiredness was wiped away; he felt
revitalised.
Then the blinding light cleared away.
DJ could see across the cavern again, the rain still falling.
He looked from side to side.
The Chickens were gone.
DJ looked up and around. They were nowhere to be seen.
The Emperor was still on the other side of the cavern. His
confused expression had reappeared.
DJ felt just as confused as he did.
What had just happened?
DJ realized that his katana was on the ground beside him.
He knelt down, picked it up and faced the Emperor.
"What did you do to me?" he yelled, "With the water and the
ghosts...and Sask?"
The Emperor raised his shadow-lance.
"What happened with the Chickens?" he said.
"What is this? Where did they go?".
DJ narrowed his eyes.
"I don't know," he replied.
Then he was right in front of DJ, once again using his
lightning-like speed.
The shadow-lance was at DJ's neck.
"Where are they?" he exclaimed.
"What did you do to me?" DJ asked again.
They both said nothing.
"...it was an illusion," said DJ.
"Wasn't it? You're a freakish evil thing with crazy dark powers.
It was an illusion!".
He hoped he was making a decent point. It was makng hims feel
very slightly better.
The Emperor's expression became angry.
"What did you do?!" he yelled, moving the lance slightly closer
to DJ's neck. He could feel freezing aura emnating from it.
The Emperor was ticked.
Whatever had happened within the blinding light had obviously
messed with his intentions: that the Chickens had arrived and
that he would take feathers from them.
In a quick moment of thought, DJ wondered if the Emperor's
annoyance and anger would make his movements flawed, make his
attacks less effective.
He took his chance.
DJ dived sideways, rolled and raised his sword to deffend the
Emperor's inevitable strike.
It was very powerful - DJ almost collapsed.
The Emperor swiped again, this time sideways.
DJ managed to block it again, this time sliding along a little
as the lance clashed into the blade.
The Emperor's second arm then became a shadow-lance.
He swung round. DJ managed to roll backwards.
The Emperor leapt forwards and swung down, his lance slashing
through DJ's coat.
DJ himself leapt backwards as the Emperor stabbed forwards with
his left lance, then jumped up and over the Emperor as the right
lance came rond.
They both turned, faced each other and clashed blades.
Chandra's face was a mask of anger and annoyance at how DJ had
managed to bring himself back to the fight.
DJ leapt back before the Emperor's powerful swipe hit the
ground.
They froze in the rain, glaring at one another.
The Emperor stood back up and held his shadow-lances at his
sides.
"You have some skills," he said, "But this ends now. I'm getting
wet".
DJ didn't reply to this. He felt fully revitalised, like he
hadn't fought at all today.
Sparkle groaned. Her head hurt...and then it didn't.
She clenched a gloved fist on the ground.
It was wet.
She opened an eye and brushed her hair aside, which was also
wet.
It was raining from the hole in the top of the cavern.
And there was DJ, dripping wet in the centre of the cavern...and
the Emperor, his shadowy wings spread wide.
"D...J...?" she whispered.
Slowly, she sat up, staring at the two figures in the rain.
Why was DJ fighting the Emperor?
What was going on?
Why did she feel so...alive?
And wheere was everyone else?
She looked around the cavern.
Against the walls, she made out slumped figures, one of them
moving.
As they got up, she recognised itPsychoPikmin, slowly standing
up.
"Hey!" she yelled to them.
DJ looked round. Sparkle?
The Emperor dashed forwards, lance raised.
DJ didn't have time to block...but something did.
Something reached the Emperor before he did.
Sparkle ran over to the closest person, being PscyhoPikmin, who
was peering confusedly at the seemingly healed wounds across his
body.
He noticed her and she hugged him.
"Are you okay?" Sparkle asked her father.
"Yeah...strangely," he replied.
He looked round at DJ and the Emperor, realising what was
happening.
"...DJ's fighting the Emperor?" he said, narrowing his eyes.
Sparkle nodded as she came away, also looking round.
Her eyes widened.
"Is that a..." she began.
"Yeah..." said PsychoPikmin.
"That's a...kirbilot?"
DJ wasn't sure which direction to look in: at the suddenly
revived Sparkle and PsychoPikmin or at the kirbilot that had
suddenly appeared out of nowhere and had attacked the Emperor.
But it wasn't like the kiribilots that he'd seen in Rules
Country.
This one didn't have raggedy blue fur. It was white, seemingly
glowing, as though it was made of light.
But it still sounded and looked like a kirbilot.
It still had the same snarls and wooping barks.
It leapt and snarled at the Emperor continuously, who swiped at
it with his shadowy lance, knocking it back again and again.
Then there was a new wooping bark.
DJ turned round.
Another light-kirbilot had appeared and also leapt at the
Emperor, who - startled, knocked it back before reengaging the
original one.
"What is this?" he growled.
DJ backed away as two more light-kirbilots appeared and attacked
the Emperor.
He turned to PsychoPikmin and Sparkle.
"What is this?" he called, "And when did you guys wake up?"
"That doesn't matter!" replied Sparkle, running forward.
"No!" said PsychoPikmin, grabbing her shoulder.
"Don't get in the way".
Sparkle turned to him frustratedly.
"But he's fighting the Emperor, Dad! He needs help!"
PsychoPikmin shook his head.
"I don't think he needs it," he said, smiling slightly.
More light-kirbilots had appared and were continuously
onslaughting the Emperor, who was blocking their slashes and
bites with great frustration.
"DJ! What's going on with them?" PsychoPikmin called to DJ.
DJ shrugged.
"I don't know!" he replied, "the Chickens appeared and-"
"The Chickens?!" exclaimed Sparkle
"Yeah!" DJ replied.
Suddenly, Sparkle pointed forwards.
"Look out!" she yelled.
DJ turned.
The Emperor had broken free of the light-kirbilots' attack and
had leapt at him, lances raised.
DJ almost collapsed as the sheer strength of both of the
Emperor's lance arms clashed down on top of his katana.
"What is this?!" he growled.
DJ jumped away and the Emperor followed him. Their blades
clashed more fiercly than before, DJ parrying and diving around
the more brutal but by no means slower Emperor.
And DJ had the advantage.
Every time he and the Emperor moved away from each other, one of
the light-kirbilots attacked the his opponent, meaning the
Emperor had more blocking and attacking to do.
But he didn't let up.
They continued to magnificently swipe at one another, skillfully
darting past each other and between the light-kirbilots, which
sometimes even protected DJ.
DJ still had no idea what they actually were or why they were
here.
But he was relieved that they allowed him to relax a bit.
He watched as another pair appeared out of nowhere.
One of them leapt at the Emperor like the others.
The second one stood beside DJ and looked up at him with its
faceless, furry head.
"...search...er..." it growled in the same voice that one of the
kirbilots had spoken in back in Rules.
DJ raised an eyebrow.
"Searcher...?" he said.
Then he remembered it.
Back when how the kirbilots had identified him as the
"Searcher", the one who was meant to stop a great evil by
'activating' the Arc.
DJ hadn't believed that he was part of some ancient prophecy,
that it was too coincidential.
He looked back down at the light-kirbilot standing next to him.
"But I...can't be," he said it it, feeling slightly stupid.
There was a deep, bass boom.
DJ looked up.
Every light-kirbilot that had been clawing at the Emperor was
knocked through the air by another freezing shockwave, all
hitting the ground, rolling and getting back to their feet,
barking.
The Emperor stood hunched over, shadow-lances at his sides.
He glared up at DJ and the light-kirbilots.
"Enough..." he muttered darkly.
Suddenly, the familiar coldness of the Emperor's presence became
even colder.
DJ felt small stabbing sensations across his body, as though he
was being poked with thousand of tiny knives.
The sensations were coming from the air around him.
He looked up, recoiling as the stabbing feelings pained his
face.
Then he realised what it was.
The pouring rain had frozen as it entered the cavern, forming
millions of tiny, falling icicles.
DJ looked back at the Emperor.
His face was locked in the most maniacal grin DJ had ever seen.
His wings suddenly spread further outwards.
"If you won't do as I say and just die, I suppose I'll just have
to slaughter you all unconditionally.
The liquid shadows dripping from his wings began to crawl across
the floor of the cavern and climb up his legs.
"Searcher!" the kirbilot barked.
It swiftly opened its jaws and clamped onto DJ's leg.
DJ yelled as searing pain shot up through his leg.
And the pain wasn't just searing.
It was genuinely burning.
DJ could feel immense amounts of heat running through his body.
His insides were felt as though they were blazing.
He yelled in pain again, clutching his chest and falling to his
knees, dropping his katana.
"What the hell?!" exclaimed Sparkle from the other side of the
cavern.
She ran forwards before PsychoPikmin could hold her back.
"Wait, Sparkle! No!" he yelled, following her.
#Post#: 56--------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:46 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 51
Sparkle knealt down next to DJ, putting a hand on his back.
The kirbilot stepped away.
"Searcher!" it barked.
"What the hell did it do to you?" Sparkle asked DJ, who yelled
in pain in reply.
The searing heat was suddenly unbearable, even more so anyway.
He looked up, clutching his chest.
All the light-kirbilots had turned away from snarling at the
Emperor and were all barking the same thing at him in their
primitive, snarling voices.
One word in a loud, wooping chorus.
"Searcher!" they all cried.
The Emperor, still slowly being enthralled by liquid shadows,
looked amused.
"What is this?" he sniggered.
Sparkle tried to help DJ back onto his feet.
There was an incredible blazing sensation of pain that rocketed
down through DJ's back.
He cried out in pure pain.
"SASK!!" he cried out. "WHERE ARE YOU?!!"
Tears were slowly beginning to appear in Sparkle's eyes at DJ's
obvious agony.
"What did you do to him?!" she yelled at the Emperor, needles
appearing in the air around her.
The Emperor merely shook his head.
"This isn't my work," he chuckled.
The wooping barks of the kirbilots around them became loud.
"Searcher! Searcher!" they all howled continuously.
In some kind of twisted synchronization, DJ's yells of pain
became only louder with them.
The pain was entirely in his back now, like what felt like the
burning of a thousand suns.
It was a part of him. It felt solid and physical and
burning...and then it began to die away.
The pain literally felt as though it was leaking away out of
his back.
It became more bearable.
DJ heard a voice.
Sparkle.
"What the hell...?" he heard her say.
DJ looked up at the Emperor, his body now almost completely
covered in liquid shadow.
The stolen face of Chandra was staring back at him in awe.
"Of course," he said.
"They're inside of you".
DJ didn't understand.
He didn't understand the Emperor's sudden fascination or
Sparkle's unknown confusion.
What was inside of him.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, DJ saw something slowly
fall down beside him.
He looked round at it.
It was a wing.
A bright, orange wing with white edges.
He knew the wing, and he did not understand what is doing
there.
DJ looked round at the rest of the wing. It was coming from his
back.
The wing of Ho-Oh was coming from his back. He touched the
feathers. It was no apparition or illusion. It was part of him,
part of his body.
He felt something touch his other arm.
He looked round and suddenly jumped in shock.
There was another wing, a purple wing. Helmaroc's wing.
It was also real.
The light-kirbilots died down, some of them occasionally
barking at him.
The Emperor laughed loudly.
"Of course!" he said ecstastically.
"The Chickens want me out, so they picked someone to remove me
as they know I'll try and take their feathers, namely, you!"
DJ didn't understand.
He didn't understand what was going on, the wings, what the
Emperor was saying.
"What do you mean they're inside of me?" he asked, voice deep
and slightly pained by the burning sensations he'd felt before.
"They've empowered you," said PsychoPikmin.
DJ turned to face him and Sparkle, both still looking at DJ's
impressive wings in awe.
"You have the power of the Chickens to use as you wish," he
said.
"Might I suggest you use them to kick his ass?"
DJ turned back to the Emperor.
As he did so, so did every light-kirbilot, the cavern filled
with their deep snarls.
The Emperor laughed, the liquid shadows covering the rest of
his body.
"I suppose I'll just have to tear the Chickens from your body
with my bear hands," he said.
As the inky blackness covered him, he raised his arms to his
sides.
Two bright circles of light appeared where his eyes had been.
A fanged maw opened up and roared.
The strange creature that had once been the Emperor began to
change from humanoid figure to something else.
It's arms got longer and thicker and it got taller, the top of
its head resembling Chandra's spiked hair.
Another longer pair of arms sprouted forth, clawed hands
becoming fists.
A long, spiked tail with a razor-sharp point on the end.
The new monster vaguely resembled the Emperor, but was now
bulkier and seemed far more dangerous.
DJ reckoned it probably was.
"Crap," he said, tightening his grip on his katana.
Looking at the menacing creature before him, it felt light and
unthreatening.
"What do I do?" he said to PsychoPikmin, not taking his eyes
away from the thing that the Emperor had become.
"Fight it," the Observer replied simply.
DJ turned and faced him, a concerned look on his face.
PsychoPikmin shrugged.
"I'm no teacher!" he said, "You've go the powers of the Sacred
Chickens! Use them!"
DJ turned back to the transformed monster.
It roared, then leapt forwards.
"Move!" PsychoPikmin yelled, grabbing Sparkle's shoulder and
disappearing into flames.
DJ instinctively dived to one side.
This is when he noticed how he felt considerably lighter. He
could move faster.
The Emperor crashed down were he'd been. With incredible speed,
it charged at him, massive claws brandished.
It swiped, missing him.
A light-kirbilot leapt at the Emperor, but the monster swung
round and cleaved straight through it with one of its claws.
The two halves of the kirbilot were knocked away into the air
and vanished into nothing, like a candle being snuffed out.
Then every other light-kirbilot began to move on the Emperor,
snarling and barking.
Not one of them reached him before being swiped into two clean
halves and disappearing into nothing.
It was obvious that in this form, the Emperor was far faster
and ten times as powerful.
Every light-kirbilot was gone.
Presumably, they were some form of spearhead, a first attack.
DJ hoped they'd return: it would helpful for something to
distract the Emperor so that he could come up with some kind of
plan.
The monster then turned on DJ himself.
It roared and charged at him like lightning.
DJ dodged backwards.
There was no openings for attack. He had no way of hindering
the monster.
If he really had just been endowed with some kind of special
power, it would be helpful if it could show itself.
And he had no idea if his katana would be capable of holding
back the Emperor's claws.
He continued to dive away from the monster's attacks.
It roared and dashed forward, thrusting claws forward.
DJ ducked away, managing to avoid them, but then the tail came
round.
It slammed into DJ's chest and sent him soaring across the
cavern.
DJ was winded, becoming disillusioned.
Then he returned to normality, realising that he was in
middair.
He expected to hit the ground painfully, but didn't.
He practically floated backwards.
It was the wings that kept him balanced, spread wide to his
sides.
DJ looked round at them, smiling slightly.
He wasn't sure if he could move them at his own will.
He tried, focusing motion into where he felt them.
Both wings suddenly flapped forwards powerfully.
"Dammit!" DJ yelled as the force of the wings sent him
backwards through the air even faster than before.
He landed on his back, but managed to clumsily roll over as the
wings folded inwards.
He blinked, then looked up.
The Emperor was right above him in the air, his own, shadowy
wings spread wide.
DJ leapt forwards, using his still uncertain abilities with the
wings to move him away from where the Emperor crashed down.
Even though he had realised his new speed, he was still on the
defensive here.
Something flashed in the corner of his eye.
A green flash.
A familiar energy blast.
It soared across the cavern and hit the Emperor, exploding with
green light and sending the monster cascading towards a wall.
DJ looked round.
D-Mash was on his feet, standing next to Sparkle and
PsychoPikmin on the far side of the cavern - alongside Swixer,
who was clutching a bloodied shoulder.
D-Mash's arm cannon was raised from where he'd fired the energy
blast, serving as the distraction DJ needed.
"What are ya doing?" the pirate yelled.
"Attack!"
DJ nodded.
He looked round for where the Emperor had been hit to.
The creature had managed to cling to the far wall, and still
looked knocked out by the shot.
It hadn't seen DJ yet.
He leapt forwards and used the wings to fly forwards.
The speed at which he was suddenly moving was stunning.
DJ reached the Emperor and swiped down.
But he was blocked.
The monster's tail had swiftly risen to protect its body.
Then the Emperor looked round at DJ with its strange, white
spheres of eyes, fanged maw open slightly.
The tail pushed forwards, knocking DJ away.
Then the Emperor lept from the wall and slammed into DJ while
he was still airbourne.
The creature was heavily and cold as DJ felt it.
And then one of the Emperor's clawed hands swung round,
bludgeoning DJ hard in the chest.
He was blown back, this time unable to use the wings to support
his flight.
He hit the hard floor painfully, rolling until he stopped.
All that had happened in the space of about five seconds.
But he wasn't dead yet.
He sat up.
The Emperor was till on the other sid eof the room.
It roared.
Within the fanged maw, liquid shadows began to gather into a
sphere.
DJ knew that this could only be bad.
He quickly stood up.
But it was too late to dodge.
The sphere doubled in size and blasted across the cavern at the
speed of a single bullet.
DJ instinctively raised his katana in some kind of attempt at a
feeble defence.
He didn't know what to expect next.
This felt like it would be more than just death.
He thought the slightest back to when the piece of shrapnel had
impaled him back when the ghosts had first invaded.
The dark sphere passed straight through him.
DJ was blasted by freezing air, his hair billowing backwards.
His eyes were slammed shut.
But he felt no pain, no creeping feelings of numbness or the
need to give up.
He opened his eyes.
There were spatterings of liquid shadow on the floor around
him.
What the hell just happened?
Then DJ noticed his sword.
It was glowing as he held it up in front of him.
The soft light emnating from the blade was like that of the
light-kirbilots.
This was obviously the power of the Sacred Chickens.
This was the empowerment that PsychoPikmin had mentioned.
He looked at the Emperor.
The creature on the other side of the cavern had an ominous
face that could not effectively convey emotion, but the way its
body was positioned told DJ that it was obviously confused.
It's last attack should have killed DJ.
DJ grinned.
He'd found a way to fight.
On the far side of the cavern, Sparkle tilted her head in
wonderment.
"What is that?" she asked PsychoPikmin, who shook his head and
frowned in reply.
"No idea," he said.
"But I bet it's the Chickens".
"He literally sliced straight through that last attack," said
Swixer, still clutching his bloodied shoulder.
"What kind of power is that?"
"I think we're about to see," murmered D-Mash.
DJ had dashed forwards towards the Emperor.
The monster also moved towards him, claws raised on both of its
right hands, tail trailing behind it.
Both of them lept into the air, blades at their sides.
At first glance, DJ seemed just as big as the Emperor's new
body with the added size of the wings.
Their blades swung round at the same time, meeting each other
in middair.
There was a pause, both DJ and the Emperor seemingly suspended
in space.
A loud boom suddenly echoed across the cavern.
Beneath DJ and the Emperor, a crater had appeared in the
ground, literally curving into the floor in a single second.
It wasn't a deep crater, but it was wide, forming a sort of
dish in the floor of the cavern.
"No way," said D-Mash.
"But the floor's partly made from awesomotanium! It can't just
collapse like that!"
Sparkle turned to PsychoPikmin.
"What is it?" she asked.
"What was that".
The Observer grinned.
"DJ's sword," he said cooly, "can destroy matter".
Everyone looked round at him.
"You can't be serious," exclaimed D-Mash.
"Wait...break matter?" said Swixer, looking confused.
"The power of the Chickens has given DJ's sword the power to
literally destroy atoms," explained PsychoPikmin.
"That sword can now literally cut through and destroy anything,
even awesomotanium. It's power exploded outwards when he
collided with the Emperor".
D-Mash shook his head slowly.
"That's impossible surely, even for the Chickens".
"The Chickens do have the power to grant wishes," said Sparkle,
looking back to DJ and the Emperor.
"With them, anything is possible".
DJ and the Emperor had fallen back to the ground, in the centre
of the crater.
The Emperor roared again, all four clawed hands raised.
"Shut up," DJ mumbled.
He swiped forwards.
His blade went straight through one of the Emperor's hands.
All five claws suddenly fell away from the hand, falling to the
floor and turning to liquid shadow.
The Emperor looked up at it, distracted.
DJ swiped at another hand, not noticing how he'd dismembered
several of the Emperor's claws.
Five more claws fell away, also hitting the ground and turning
to liquid shadow.
Then DJ swiped upwards in an uppercut motion.
The blade pierced the Emperor's body at the front, straight up
to the neck.
Knocked upwards by the attack, the Emperor roared in pain, a
white, glowing gash cutting through its body vertically.
DJ looked at his glowing sword with disbelief.
The Emperor fell down and hit the floor, exploding into liquid
shadows.
Black-purple substance was spattered across the cavern floor.
The cavern fell silent.
The rain of tiny icicles had stopped a while ago now, but
nobody had noticed.
DJ stared at the dark liquid, then looked at the sword again,
then to the others.
They all stared back in silence.
"Did he win?" muttered Swixer.
DJ's mind came back reality.
He began running towards them.
"D-Mash!" he called.
"The thundrafang! Give it here!"
D-Mash nodded and pulled round the large, grey needle.
He held it forwards.
DJ continued to run for it.
Then Sparkle's eyes widened.
"DJ!" she yelled, pointing forwards.
DJ had almost reached them, and he turned round.
The Emperor's monstrous form had reformed from the spatterings
of liquid shadow and was leaping towards DJ, two hands of claws
raised.
It was like a shark leaping from water.
DJ grimaced and raised his glowing katana.
The Emperor's claws clashed with it, then fell straight through
it as the claws were dismembered by the blade.
DJ jumped back, blade held with two hands.
The Emperor also leapt backwards, bringing round itd tail and
keeping it poised to thrust forward.
The tail's movement was far swifter than that of the Emperor's
claws. Therefore, DJ would not have time to dodge it if it was
stabbed at him. He would be impaled, killed.
Likewise, if DJ moved, his sword's matter-destroying
capabilities would cut the Emperor wide open, likely killing the
monster.
Either way, if one of them moved first, the other would lose
this fight.
They circled each other, searching for a chance to strike.
DJ was panting, while the Emperor made grumbling snarling
sounds.
Sparkle, PsychoPikmin, Swixer and D-Mash watched on silently.
The two combatants continued to slowly circle each other, until
DJ spoke.
"If this were any other fight," he said, "then I'd ask to stop.
I'd ask for peace".
The Emperor snarled, tail craning overhead like a snake.
"But this isn't any other fight," continued DJ.
"I'm not fighting a thief or in some tournemant. I'm fighting
the leader of an otherworldly empire that reckons he's bringing
mankind eternal life".
The others were now fixated on DJ with curious content.
The Emperor just kept on snarling quietly.
"You say you want to kill off mankind because you can give us
eternal life, but we all know that you want to kill us off
because you know human intuition will just come back to bite you
if you take over this world".
The Emperor's snarls became gutteral growls.
DJ went on.
"I've come close to dying several times while fighting," he
said.
"And I've realised that it's the very intuition that you're
trying to destroy that's kept me alive. It's the very will to
live that's kept us all alive".
Behind him, Sparkle smiled.
"You can't just delete that from existence," DJ said.
"You just can't".
The Emperor's growls became louder.
"You're not offering eternal life!" DJ shouted.
"You're just an ancient monster driven mad by your own power!"
The Emperor roared.
They stopped circling one another.
They stood facing each other, about 10 metres apart.
"...but," said DJ.
"I'm still going to offer you peace. I've been in so much
fighting lately. It's stupid".
He lowered his katana slightly.
"From us, mankind, to you, the ghosts," he said solomnly, "I
ask for an end to this fighting".
The air in the cavern became deathly still.
The others on the far side looked from DJ to the Emperor. In
his current form, it was hard to tell if the Emperor could
understand what DJ was even saying, that he wasn't now just a
beast of shadows.
DJ still had his katana lowered slightly.
The Emperor continued to growl, head tilted slightly, obviously
contemplating what DJ had just said, tail still hung overhead.
Everyone wasn't sure what to believe here.
If the Emperor wasn't thinking of DJ's proposal in a serious
manner, he would have attacked.
Or was that due to how the Emperor was still just waiting for a
chance to strike.
But everyone wanted to think otherwise. Everyone was for some
reason expectantly waiting for the monster before them to stand
down.
Even the wiser, PsychoPikmin and D-Mash, seemed slightly
hopeful that the Emperor would accept peace.
Was it possible?
Would the Emperor stop?
No, it wasn't.
The Emperor lept forwards at lightning speed, tail poised to
strike.
"Thought as much," muttered DJ, dashing at the Emperor at the
exact same time as the Emperor leapt at him.
DJ's empowered blade cut straight through the Emperor's tail,
removing the razor-sharp end.
Then he swiped diagonally at the Emperor's torso, creating
another glowing, white gash as the blade slashed across the
first.
The immense speed and power of the strike sent the disarmed
Emperor back through the air and into the crater, not landing as
a liquid this time.
DJ sheethed his sword and moved quickly towards the others,
only near them for a second.
He grabbed the thundrafang from the unsuspecting D-Mash and
moved with incredible swiftness - thanks to the wings, towards
the Emperor.
The bright, ominous eyes looked up at him as he was suspended
in the above the Emperor for a couple of seconds, wings spread
wide.
Raised above his head, held in both hands, was the the
thundrafang.
"I asked nicely," muttered DJ.
He smashed downwards.
The thundrafang plowed straight through the two glowing gashes
on the Emperor's torso.
The monster cried out in pain as the metal spike ran through
its body to the ground beneath it.
Three support stands retracted from the main needle, allowing
it stand.
There was a small whirring noise.
A tiny, red light lit up on the top of the thundrafang.
Blue sparks of electricity pulsated down from the spike.
Blue sparks danced across every surface in the cavern,
traversing thd floors and up the spires and walls.
It was happening.
The Arc had been activated, just as the kirbilots had said it
would...
#Post#: 57--------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:49 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 52
A huge swirl of grey cloud had covered much of the land visible
from the huge viewing window of the Jeptu ship.
Since the humans had spent a brief time on the vessel, it had
moved round in orbit to over ONM's northern hemisphere, so the
wartorn planet was beneath the ship.
There was less charred, ashened land that had been ravaged by
the ghosts.
There was a lot of deep green of forest and greys from
mountains.
The landscape was coated entirely white with snow as you moved
further north.
Lost Cause stared down at the planet, small black eyes blinking
at the end of his long, jelly-like head and neck.
"Contemplating stealing more of their suatainance?" asked Super
Luigi, floating up beside Lost Cause.
Lost Cause quickly looked at the ship's captain and then back to
the planet.
"We've almost reached the time limit we agreed with the humans,"
he chirped.
"If we destroy the planet, there will be none of the food
left...the delicious food".
Super Luigi chuckled.
"Would you rather eat or live?" asked another, gruffer voice.
Nitengo drifted over to them, blobby head tilted sarcastically
at the retorical question.
Lost Cause glanced to him and then back to the planet.
"Captain," Nitengo said to Super Luigi, "have all forms of
sentient been collected?"
Super Luigi nodded.
"The objective was completed a few hours ago," he chirped.
"Good timing," Nitengo replied.
"There is almost no time left for the humans..."
He made a noise that resembled breathing out deeply.
Lost Cause and Super Luigi peered round at this.
"Something wrong, Administrator?" Super Luigi asked.
Nitengo blinked at him and then did as Lost Cause had done and
stared down at the planet.
"I just find it annoying how we seemed to overestimate the
humans," he said gruffly.
"They seemed like such a capable species...they have technology
more advanced than a lot of civillizations other than ourselves
and have emotional capabilities more impressive and complexed
than any other species I've ever seen".
"Yet they're being wiped away before our very eyes," said Super
Luigi.
"Indeed," Nitengo replied.
"I thought the ones who came aboard would do it...but two weeks
since they left us it seems that these "ghosts" have only
thrived further..."
The three of them floated in silence, staring sadly down at the
scarred world beneath them.
"Captain?" chirped the voice of another Jeptu behind them, who
floated nearby one of the neon-bright consoles.
Super Luigi, Lost Cause and Nitengo looked round at him.
"I've started picking up some strange energy signals," the Jeptu
said, pointing a blobby, orange tentacle at the console.
Super Luigi drifted to the console and peered at the flashing
neon indicators.
"...hmm..." he said.
"How odd".
"What is it, Captain?" asked Nitengo, drifted up next to him.
"This console is picking up signals of a parallel flux,"
explained Super Luigi.*
"It's only a small one...but why are we picking it up?"
"Captain, I'm picking something up here," said a green Jeptu at
another console.
"It looks like...a paralell flux".
Super Luigi and Nitengo looked round at the green Jeptu in
unison.
"Hey, me too!" chirped a third Jeptu.
"Captain," called another Jeptu from one of the raised consoles
on the far wall of the large chamber.
"I've picked some energy signals you might be interested in".
"Same here," said another one.
Super Luigi shook his head slightly.
"...is every console in this room picking up energy signals for
a parallel flux?" he asked every Jeptu in the chamber.
Every single, multicoloured, blobby head nodded.
"What the..." Nitengo snarled.
"Captain!" yelled Lost Cause suddenly.
"Look! Look at the planet!"
Super Luigi and Nitengo swiftly darted back through the air to
the viewing window.
Far below, a huge area of cloud had been forcably blown away by
a huge, blue-coloured shockwave, the heart of which glowed
brightly in the centre of a large, grey space, symbolising
mountains.
The wave continued to expand outwards, swerping away all the
cloud, eventually revealing the scorched sections of the planet.
"What is that?" Lost Cause muttered.
"I...have no idea," answered Nitengo.
"Captain!" called a nearby Jeptu.
"The planet's threat level! It's dropping rapidly!"
Saltybob stooped behind the ruins of the gun emplacement that
the fleeing Dragonfly helicoptor and crashed inside of.
In his hands, he clutched his MA2000, only one ammo magazine
left.
He'd abandoned his helmet after the visor had been smashed some
time ago now.
The Dragonfly had crashed here after Sheikah had flown in to
pick them up.
Autumn Unit had been on the very frontline of this battle since
that start.
But the onslaught of ghosts was relentless.
Their walking Mantis tanks were surprisingly resiliant for a
machine with six legs: they had stomped and blown their way
through every last defence that had been in their way.
Twi had sent out an order for all troops to form a tighter
defence around Stoccatae, which had now been partially ruined by
the ghosts' long range artillery.
On the way back, the Dragonfly had been shot down and had landed
badly near the abandoned and ruined gun emplacement.
Unfortunately, the guns there had been removed.
The position was dug-in, and provided a lot of cover, but the
ghosts were getting closer and closer.
This was a lighter area of battle, with the massive bulk of the
ghost forces proceeding on making an attack on Stoccatae, but
there was still a lot of ghosts here.
And worser still, Sheikah, Yinga and Toonix were all out of the
fight.
Sheikah had fallen unconscious after the Dragonfly had landed,
and lay limp, head bowed forwards in the cockpit, the glass
smashed.
Toonix and Yinga had been shot after putting in a brave effort,
both of them with bullet holes in their skulls.
Now, only Saltybob and HelloSkitty remained, who was skillfully
moving from behind cover and firing off loud bangs with her
sniper rifle.
There was a Tyranno bipedal mech moving closer to them from
nearby, its miniguns unleashing a loud storm of bullets onto the
ghosts.
Then a stream of missiles hurtled through the air and exploded
on the Tyranno.
It keeled over and erupted into flame.
*[Note: A parallel flux is Jeptu terms for an opening hole in
reality, usually leading to another dimension.]
Carnifex jets roared overhead, narrowly avoiding projectiles
that hurtled off into the clouded sky.
The clouds were coloured a dull yellow-brown, trails of dark
smoke wheeling into it from the battles elsewhere.
There were two other soldiers with them who had also been on the
Dragonfly, who were stooped down, firing at the ghosts.
Saltybob looked down at the magazine in his hand.
Being top of the line in terms of militaey technology, the
MA2000 was able to fire 96 rounds as apposed to the usual 30 or
32 of any other firearm.
He had already used up the spare magazines from Yinga and
Toonix.
He had 96 shots left.
Saltybob grimaced and looked round at HelloSkitty.
"You alright?" he called to her over the gunfire.
She took cover and looked to him with her large, dark eyes,
nodding.
"I don't much ammo left," she said worriedly.
"Me neither," Saltybob replied.
"What about the radio?" he asked her.
HelloSkitty shrugged and shook her head.
"It's dead," she said.
Saltybob sighed sadly.
He loaded the magazine into the MA2000.
There was a loud explosion as a ghost mortar hit the ground
behind the emplacement.
Saltybob leant out from behind the wreckage and fired off short
bursts of fire at the oncoming ghosts, which hissed, raising
their submachine guns and fired back.
The gap between the ghosts and their position was rapidly
shrinking, as was the soldiers' hope.
About a hundred metres away, a Mantis walking tank stomped
forwards, firing volley-after-volley of missiles in another
direction.
Saltybob was praying that it wouldn't turn around and start
attacking them instead.
As he thought this, two Carnifex jets streaked past, both firing
two rockets each at the Mantis.
All four hit, and the Mantis exploded, keeling over sideways.
Spontaneously, its entire salvo of missiles fired off, most of
them cascading into the far off ground.
One of the missiles however, wheeled up into the sky, then came
back down.
It exploded nearby the emplacement, sending gravel twenty feet
into the air.
The two other soldiers were blown away and Saltybob was knocked
to one side.
He got up slowly and checked his ammo.
16 shots.
He swore to himself.
Leaning round the wreckage, he fired off single rounds, many of
them striking ghosts and making them vanish.
His heart was beating incredibly quickly with anxiety.
Then there was a clicking sound.
A horrible, horrible click.
It meant that his MA2000 was out of ammo.
"Goddammit!!" he yelled, throwing the assault rifle to one side.
He grabbed his G5 handgun and fired three shots at the ghosts,
then ducked back down again.
There was a sudden scream.
Saltybob looked round.
HelloSkitty had dropped her rifle on the wrong side of cover
after falling to the ground and clutching her shoulder and upper
chest on the right-hand side.
She'd been shot.
"Crap," murmered Saltybob as he quickly moved towards her.
She was moaning in pain, blood seeping out through her armour.
"Hold on," Saltybob said as he crouched beside her.
He removed the armour covering where she had been wounded, two
ugly bullet holes having ripped straight through it.
"Oh God," she said breathlessly.
"Calm down," Saltybob muttered, managing to find the two wounds
on her upper chest and shoulder as he ripped through her black
combat thermal top.
The bleeding was bad.
"I'm going to have to press down to try and stop the bleeding,"
Saltybob said.
"This is going to hurt".
He handed HelloSkitty the G5.
"Shoot anything that moves," he said.
She nodded to him, tears of pain swelling in her eyes.
Saltybob put a reassuring hand on the side of her face.
"Don't worry," he said, "we'll make it through this".
He repositioned himself so that he wasn't in her line of fire.
"Okay," he muttered.
He pushed down on HelloSkitty's wounds with both hands.
She yelled out in pain.
A ghost appeared from the other side of the emplacement,
hissing.
Despite her screams, HelloSkitty managed to fire off a shot from
the G5.
It went straight through the ghost's head and it vanished.
"Well done," Saltybob said, trying to feebly make a pro out of
this con.
The bleeding wasn't stopping.
He pushed down harder.
In turn, HelloSkitty screamed louder, tears streaming down her
cheeks.
"Son of a bitch...!" she cried, trailing off into sobs.
"Come on, Skitty," Saltybob murmered to her.
"Focus on whatever shows up to shoot us".
Another ghost appeared, and HelloSkitty managed to fire another
shot through its head.
Another ghost appeared, but retreated as HelloSkitty's next two
shots missed it.
"You're going to have to reload soon..." Saltybob said.
"I can't," HelloSkitty sobbed.
"It hurts...too much...my aim isn't holding up".
The ghost that had retreated suddenly reappeared.
Saltybob grabbed the second G5 on HelloSkitty's belt and fired
six of the handgun's 10 shots at the ghost.
Another one appeared and Saltybob fired the remaining four at
it.
HelloSkitty fired her remaining shots at a third ghost, then
dropped the G5.
"I can't...can't keep my eyes open," she muttered distantly.
She had lost a lot of blood here.
Saltybob looked round her belt for another G5 magazine.
He found one and reloaded the gun.
"Come on, Skitty," he said desperately.
"Don't die on me!"
Her chest was rising and falling quite quickly now.
Saltybob felt one of her hands clasp round his arm.
"Don't leave me..." she breathed.
"I won't," Saltybob replied, shaking his head.
He sat in front of her in a protective position.
A ghost appeared and fired at him.
The shots were fortunately inaccurate, and Saltybob fired two
shots through the ghost's head
It vanished.
This continued until Saltybob had gone through three other
magazines.
Now he was on his last, with three shots left.
He looked back round at HelloSkitty, who was clutching her
wounds, eyes barely open.
He swore and fired angrily at the next ghost, which vanished as
a single shot plowed through its head.
Two shots.
Another ghost appeared, then disappeared as the bullet mowed it
into nothingness.
One shot.
Another ghost swiftly moved from behind cover.
Saltybob fired his final round.
Much to his dismay, the ghost skillfully dove away from the
shot.
It hissed and looked down at him.
"Son of a bitch!" Saltybob yelled, lobbing the handgun at the
ghost.
The ghost avoided the projectile and quickly moved towards
Saltybob.
Its sword-like claws were raised above his head in a move to
execute him.
Saltybob didn't bother to brace himself.
He just looked up disdainfully at the pale, faceless creature
before him.
If he died, he would knowing how he tried, that he had put full
effort into this fight to protect everything he believed in from
these wretched monsters.
He suddenly felt HelloSkitty's hand grasp his behind him.
He frowned.
Then there was a huge boom in the distance.
Not an explosion, more like a drum.
It was a massive, bass pound.
Saltybob looked to one side, as did the ghost.
A wave of deep blue was streaking across the sky, sweeping aside
all the dull clouds overhead, revealing the clear, darkening
dusk sky.
As the blue wave passed overhead, the ghost standing over
Saltybob suddenly vanished, its very essence seemingly being
blown away by some unfeelable wind.
Saltybob blinked, stunned and relieved at this incredible luck.
He scrambled up.
"Hold on," he said to the barely-conscious HelloSkitty.
Saltybob peered over the cover of the emplacement.
As the blue wave continued to pulse across the sky, every ghost
dominating the scenery was being seemingly blown away, their
bodies vanishing into light blue particles that flew away with
the wave in the sky.
It was eerily beautiful to watch.
Saltybob grinned.
DJ, he thought.
This was obviously the power of the Arc at work.
He threw up both arms and cheered to himself.
"Yeah!!" he yelled.
Then he fell back down, grinning and utterly relieved.
HelloSkitty limply looked up him.
"What...what is it?" she whispered.
Saltybob just shook his head and grinned.
He helped sit her up against the emplacement wall, and she
rested against him, breathing deeply.
That was it.
They'd won.
#Post#: 58--------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:51 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 53
KrikenKing slowly opened one eye.
He was slumped against one of the walls of the cavern, blown
back by the freezing of air that had signified the Emperor's
arrival.
Darkmann lay next to him, seemingly unconscious.
He watched as a mangled, shadowy form in the centre of the
cavern struggled and snarled, a large, grey needle stabbed
straight through a glowing white scar on its torso.
He watched as DJ stood over the dying monster, glowing sword in
hand and wings no longer spread wide.
Swixer had thought that he'd knocked both him and Darkmann out
in their secluded fight before the Emperor had shown up.
He hadn't.
KrikenKing and Darkmann had faked being beaten up, allowed
Swixer to win.
It was too bad that Darkmann's mech had been destroyed by
Falnaxus: it had been their primary method of escape.
But the remaining members of Gostalt weren't defeated just yet.
Ever since PsychoPikmin had appeared on board the Emperor's
airship after the ghost invasion had begun and told the Emperor
how his end would soon be arriving, SamuriFerret had doubted the
Emperor.
While an Observer's forsight was suspectable to change, it was
often accurate.
What KrikenKing saw before him now was proof of that.
If any of the other members of Gostalt had begun to doubt the
Emperor - who was capable of reading minds and emotions, they
would have had their soul ripped from their body and left to die
in agony.
Fortunately, the Emperor knew SamuriFerret far less than he
believed.
None of Gostalt knew how SamuriFerret came to being in the
Emperor's employment, only that the Emperor put full trust into
the tailed man.
In truth, no one really knew who SamuriFerret was. Mariofan
might have, but KrikenKing didn't completely understand what was
going on with her; whether she was dead or alive or in limbo or
whatever.
All KrikenKing did know was that SamuriFerret was capable of
hiding his true intentions from the Emperor without being read
like a book.u
Only he ever saw the Emperor, who was in truth rarely seen by
anyone else, which masked the intentions of the rest of Gostalt;
the intention to abandon the Empire, which would imminently
fail.
They all knew what was happening once they left, or rather
KrikenKing and Darkmann did.
Neither of them knew of Mariofan and Swixer had never been
informed, as SamuriFerret had presumed that he would defect from
Gostalt, as he had.
The only snag here had been how Sparkle had managed to turn
SamuriFerret into the equivilent of a human pin cushion by
attacking his entire body with needles.
Fortunately, when the power of the Sacred Chickens had entered
DJ's body, they had healed his body and everyone else's bodies
in the cavern.
Hopefully that would have healed him slightly.
KrikenKing glanced round slowly.
SamuriFerret himself lay about five metres away, eyes closed,
clothes bloodied from where glassy needles had pierced his skin.
Suddenly, one of his eyes opened, looking directly at
KrikenKing.
SamuriFerret nodded once.
KrikenKing nudged Darkmann, who also slowly opened one eye.
Time to move.
DJ looked down at the Emperor.
His transformation was slowly changing from an ominous and
impressive monster to a strange, shrivelling, black-purple
creature.
It had a smaller head resembling that of what the Emperor had
just looked like, but it was tethered to the pointed base of the
thundrafang by a lingering shadowy body, almost like a strange,
demonic balloon.
It reared up and tried snapping at DJ, but didn't reach him and
feebily went back down to the thundrafang.
It seeped away into the ground, forming a puddle of liquid
shadow around the base of the needle, snarling as it seeped
away.
DJ felt pity as he watched the once powerful thing slowly lose
its might.
He had just cleaved some crazy glowing hole in the front of an
ancient ruler of a world-consuming Empire.
That can't have felt nice.
The Emperor had told him before that ghosts couldn't die.
Was this ghost dying?
He didn't know. All he knew was that he had won.
It was over.
All across ONM, every ghost on the planet was being forcably
shoved out of this dimension, back to Old ONM or wherever the
hell else.
That was the first half done.
Now for the second half.
He looked round at the wings of the Sacred Chickens purtruding
from his back.
Quickly, he grabbed two feathers from both wings - two from
Ho-Oh and two from Helmaroc.
He felt a slight sting as the feathers came away from the wings.
Then he turned to the others who stood behind him, uncertain
looks on their faces.
When they saw his smile and the feathers in his hands, those
looks disappeared into relief and joy.
Sparkle laughed and ran forwards. She hugged him.
"You did it!" she said gleefully.
DJ chuckled.
"We did it," he said.
"We all did it".
"Ah, don't be sucha' little bitch," D-Mash said, laughing.
"Yeah," said Swixer.
"I mean, you just kicked the Ghost Emperor's ass. Give yourself
some credit".
DJ grinned, then turned to Sparkle.
"Here," he said, handing her a pair of feathers.
She looked at them confusedly and then to DJ.
"What do I do with these?" she asked.
"Your dad said that it would be too hard to get two sets of
feathers because the Chickens were very wary," DJ explained.
"But now I have their wings, so we can make another wish".
"Like what?" Sparkle asked.
"I don't want anything".
She turned to the others, holding them forwards.
Nobody took them.
"Why don't you want a wish?" Sparkle asked.
"Don't need one," D-Mash said gruffly.
"I'd probably waste it," said Swixer.
PsychoPikmin just shrugged.
DJ paused.
"Surely you're not all that selfless," he said, raising an
eyebrow.
"I think," said PsychoPikmin, "that if any of us were going to
make a wish, it would end up looking selfish next to what you're
about to wish for, DJ".
DJ looked down at the other two feathers in his hand.
"Yeah...but how do I actually make the wish?" he asked.
Nobody answered.
"...just...say it out loud?" said Swixer.
DJ looked at the two feathers again.
"...okay," he muttered.
"...bring back everyone who was killed by the ghosts!"
The feathers started to feel very warm.
Then hot.
Then burning.
DJ yelped and dropped them.
The feathers fluttered down through the air and suddenly
disintergrated into white light before hitting the ground.
Everyone stood in silence.
"Did it work?" DJ said.
He couldn't remember what his granddad had told about what
happened after you wished.
Had the wish been granted?
Or was this some kind of rejection?
Then he thought of something.
He grabbed another pair of feathers from the wings.
"What're ya doing?" D-Mash asked.
"A person can only make one wish from the feathers in a
lifetime," DJ explained.
"If I wish again, it shouldn't come true".
He held up the feathers.
"I wish...I wish D-Mash would catch fire!" he said.
Everyone except D-Mash laughed.
Fortunately for him, nothing happened.
The feathers didn't suddenly become very warm or disintegrate.
DJ grinned.
That meant the wish had worked.
Which meant that Sask was...
"I know," said Sparkle, still holding tge feathers DJ had given
her.
"Restore everything the ghosts destroyed!"
She snatched her hand away as the sudden heat of the feathers
bit her fingers.
Like the ones DJ had used, the feathers disintergrated into
white light.
"Good idea," said PsychoPikmin.
"Now, perhaps we should leave?"
Everyone agreed and approached PsychoPikmin so that he could
flamewarp them away.
But Swixer suddenly stopped, raising both of his M9s towards a
wall.
Everyone turned to where he aimed.
DJ grimaced.
SamuriFerret stood there, battered and grinning, many glassy
needles still stuck in his body.
KrikenKing and Darkmann stood either side of him, holding him
up, both equally looking beaten up.
"Nice fight," SamuriFerret yelled.
"Why are you still alive?" DJ called to him.
"Those helpful Chickens of yours healed everyone in the room,"
SamuriFerret yelled back.
He coughed.
Blood spattered across the cavern floor.
"Well...not completely..."
DJ had had enough.
He raised his blade and dashed across the cavern towards what
remained of Gostalt.
"DJ! Wait!" PsychoPikmin yelled.
"What is it, Dad?" Sparkle asked him.
"He'll have used up all the Chickens' energy fighting the
Emperor! He'll collapse!" PsychoPikmin replied.
Sure enough, DJ felt his movement slow down drastically.
But he was still travelling at the same, very fast speed with no
way of slowing down.
His foot hit the ground and he fell forwards.
He landed painfully on his side, rolling uncontrollably and
stopping about a metre away from SamuriFerret's feet.
The wings were gone from his back.
They'd literally vanished.
SamuriFerret laughed.
"All out eh?" he chuckled.
"I would stay to kill you in the most painful way possible, but
that would take too long, and I'm in more pain than I care to
mention".
DJ's arm hurt.
He winced as he looked up at his three foes.
"Why don't I just but a bullet in his head?" asked Darkmann.
"Don't bother," SamuriFerret mumbled.
"I feel this one still has a part to play yet...besides, I want
to be the one carve him to shreds, and I'm in no condition to do
that".
DJ glowered.
"I suggest you get your ass moving," SamuriFerret chortled.
"I imagine that whatever's left of the Emperor over there is
about to become unstable as his body collapses, causing an
immediate discharge of all that power he was harnessing".
DJ tried to get to his feet but KrikenKing, the closest to him,
kicked him over.
"Simply put," SamuriFerret continued.
"This whole place is going to come down on your ass".
DJ glared up at him.
"Until next time, unless you get pancaked here" SamuriFerret
said.
"Get some R&R or something".
Just as he had done on the night of the invasion, SamuriFerret
vanished into the air without a sound.
KrikenKing and Darkmann disappeared alongside him.
DJ managed to stand up, clutching his shoulder, sword in other
hand.
He looked at the dark puddle.
It was rippling faintly.
"Move away from the puddle!!" he yelled to the others.
They all looked down at it.
There wasn't enough time.
The puddle suddenly exploded, sending liquid shadow and strange,
black energy everywhere.
Another freezing shockwave pulsed outwards.
The face of the Emperor's monstrous form was embodied in the
black energy that filled the air.
It roared thunderously and was ripped apart by unseen forces.
Another shockwave erupted, even stronger than the last.
DJ was knocked back.
He felt like he had been hit like a tank.
The others were also knocked back.
The distance between DJ and the other was now almost the entire
extent of the cavern.
He slowly stood up and began to move towards them.
The entire Arc suddenly shook, causing him to almost fall over
again.
There was a thunderous rumble from somewhere else deep inside
the Arc's structure.
On the other side of the cavern, Sparkle had stood up and was
looking unnervedly at the floor.
"Dad...what was that?" she asked.
"The Arc used to be one giant chemical compound," he said,
slowly getting up.
"The thundrafang removed the other substances so that the Arc is
now just awesomotanium, which has weakened its structure".
"Son of a biscuit..." D-Mash muttered.
"And because of whatever that shockwave was just now and its
weakened structure, it's started collapsing..."
Sparkle and Swixer looked round at him, clearly startled by what
he just said, their faces masks of fear.
"DJ!!" Sparkle yelled as everything rumbled again.
"The Arc's collapsing!! We have to go!!"
DJ started to run towards them, ignoring the pain in his
shoulder.
Then the floor below him suddenly reared upwards, so that he was
running vertically.
He managed to avoid being flipped up and lept down the small
drop it had created.
As he kept moving, the floor began to shift, parts of it rising,
parts sinking.
He tried to to keep to rising cubes so that he wouldn't have to
climb.
But the rising sections of the floor were rising pretty fast, so
he had take awkward routes that felt lije they were taking too
long.
Suddenly, the floor before him fell away, cascading down into
darkness below.
He managed to stop himself falling in, but opened his hand as he
did so.
The second pair of feathers he had pulled from the wings when
he'd had them fluttered down through the hole.
DJ didn't care: he'd made his wish.
He ran round the hole, noticing other sections falling away now.
He leapt across section after section of floor as they slowly
fell away.
"Hurry up!" he heard D-Mash yell.
He looked up to find them.
Sparkle, D-Mash, PsychoPikmin and Swixer were all on a larger,
slowly tipping section of the floor.
He dashed as fast as he could.
Entire parts of the cavern walls were falling now.
A segment of the floor several metres away from the others'
section was tipping upwards towards them.
He ran up it and jumped.
The tipped part of the floor collapsed inwards behind him.
He just landed on the section with the others.
"Go!" yelled Swixer.
PsychoPikmin breathed sharply inwards.
Flames surrounded them as the ground left their feet.
Then the flames dissapitated and they were back in the cavern
where they had started off in.
KD King sat on the far side in front of the huge gap with
maginficent view with the dark mountains.
The sun had set and an orange-yellow light shone across the
skyline.
Outside of KD stood PixelF, Hammer Bro and Mr. N, while Rai13
stood on the ramp at KD's base.
"Captain!" Hammer Bro yelled to D-Mash.
"Start the damn engines!" D-Mash yelled back as everyone ran
frantically towards the metal chicken.
The Arc shook again.
The floor in this cavern started to collapse as well.
Then pieces of the ceiling began to fall.
"Crap!" Swixer yelled, dodging a small bomb of awesomotanium
ceiling.
"Look at the floor!"
KD King and the others were disappearing from view as huge
segments of the floor began to tip upwards.
"Dad!" yelled Sparkle as the cavern rapturously fell apart
around them.
"Can't you flamewarp us to safety?!"
"Not straight after simultaneously moving five people at once,"
PsychoPikmin replied.
"We aren't gonna make it!" D-Mash yelled as the floor began to
sink down in front of them.
he tipping part of the floor was slowly becoming more and more
vertical.
Eventually, it was going to collapse downwards and create a gap
too big to jump.
Being the fastest runner, Swixer reached it first.
He was able scramble up it and balanced himself at halfway.
"Come on!" he shouted.
D-Mash reached it next, helped up by Swixer.
DJ was behind everyone else.
Sparkle had reached the tipping section, using her
black-feathered wings to leap up to Swixer.
"Go!" PsychoPikmin yelled from the bottom.
"It's too steep now!"
Sparkle turned back to her father, a look of horror on her face.
"But Dad!" she yelled over the crashing.
"We'll find another way around," PsychoPikmin replied.
He looked up at Swixer.
"You'd better take damn good care of her if I don't come back,"
he yelled.
Swixer nodded once.
He grabbed the defiant Sparkle's arm and disappeared from view
as they managed to make it over the top.
DJ was almost at PsychoPikmin, who had turned round to look for
him.
"Go round!" the Observer yelled, running to the left.
DJ's heart was really pounding now.
It seemed more and more like he wasn't going to get out.
He dashed across the collapsing floor after PsychoPikmin, who
was still looking for some way round.
On the far wall, DJ watched as gargantuan cracks darted across
it.
"This way!" PsychoPikmin called.
He'd found a section of the floor the was slowly turning
sideways, but it lead around the now completely vertical tipping
slab that covered most of the width of the cavern.
Both of them jumped off of it and around onto the other side.
They could see KD again.
Sparkle and D-Mash were on the ramp, waiting for them.
There was suddenly a thunderous boom like nothing they'd heard
yet.
One of the giant cracks on the far wall had given way and now
the entire structure was about to collapse downwards.
Thousands of large chunks of awesomotanium from the ceiling
rained down like a waterfall behind them, slowly getting closer.
DJ ran for his life.
KD wasn't far away now.
The floor was also collapsing on this side, literally splitting
open in most places.
"Come on!" he heard Sparkle yell faintly, her voice like the
squeak of a mouse compared to the immense crashing of the
falling of the ceiling behind them.
PsychoPikmin had now reached KD and was on board.
Now it was just DJ.
He dared not look behind him to see how far away the rain of
crushing debris was.
KD was in the air now, slowly moving away from the cavern
opening.
Then the ground beneath DJ's feet gave way.
The section of floor cascaded downwards.
KD disappeared from view as DJ fell again.
He managed to grab onto the edge, narrowly saving himself.
Quickly pulling himself up, he could hear the deafening crashes
of the collapsing ceiling behind him getting louder and louder,
closer and closer.
Climbing from the hole, he sprinted for the ramp.
"Come on!" Sparkle yelled again.
DJ reached the edge.
He jumped, just as the floor gave way.
He felt the wind on his face.
Due to the collapsing floor, he'd had less of a good takeoff.
He saw everyone faces as time stood still.
Sparkle, D-Mash, Swixer, Mr. N, PsychoPikmin, Hammer Bro,
PixelF, Rai13 within KD King.
Then he fell.
They were all perished from his view as he went down.
There was nothing.
No sadness, no dispondancy, no sense of failure; just the wind
that swept against DJ...
Then there was a hand.
A hand grabbed DJ's wrist, stopping his fall.
He was suspended in middair, the dark forests below unmoving,
while behind him, the Arc slowly fell to pieces.
DJ looked up to see whose hand it was.
D-Mash looked down at him, grasping his wrist.
"You're a heavy bastard," he said.
"Someone help me here!"
Sparkle appeared, grinning.
She helped D-Mash haul DJ into KD.
DJ knelt on the ramp, breathing heavily.
D-Mash patted his back.
"Looks like we've made quite a mess," he chuckled.
DJ looked round.
The ramp was still open and gave a view of the Arc as KD sped
away from it.
The top half had crashed down onto the lower half as a lot of
the middle had disintegrated.
The top half slowly keeled over, falling for miles before
smashing cataclysmically onto the ground below.
Everything was unsettled.
Snow at the top of the high mountains came crashing down in
avalaunches.
The Arc of the Ancients was no more.
DJ looked down at the enourmous wreckage below as KD's ramp
closed.
Then he turned to everyone else.
There was a pause.
DJ grinned as joy and a sense of achievement filled him.
Then he laughed.
He just laughed on the spot from where he sat on the floor.
It was contagious.
Pretty soon, everyone on board of KD was laughing, even the
synthesized voice of KD himself.
DJ hadn't laughed in ages.
He stood up and threw his fists into the air, alongside the
pirates, Mr. N and PsychoPikmin.
Nearby, Sparkle and Swixer cheered and then dove straight into
wild kissing.
They'd done it.
It was over.
#Post#: 59--------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:52 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 54
"Pass the salt," mumbled Sask, her mouth full of chips.
DJ replied with something unpronouncable - his mouth also full
of chips, and handed her the salt shaker.
They were sitting at the bar of The Pubthread, way back on the
Off Topic Island where they had met D-Mash and where DJ had
bought the chicken chart.
Behind them, people were still celebrating about the victory
over the ghosts, raising glasses of beer and cheering.
Half of them probably didn't really know what had happened, but
were gladly taking this excuse to get drunk with friends.
The bartender, Fireemblmsprk, was cleaning a beer mug behind the
counter.
"So you two really did save ONM," he said, grinning and shaking
his head.
Sask swallowed her mouthful.
"Well he did," she said.
"I was dead".
"You were what?!" exclaimed Lewthema, who sat on a bar stool
next to DJ.
The last time they had seen Lewthema, he had been sneezing
awesome faces onto any surface around him; his last "product"
still pasted to the floor near the front door.
"Yeah..." Sask said dreerily, "but I still got a medal".
She took the blue ribbon with a golden medal from her coat
pocket and held it up.
DJ did the same.
Then he explained everything.
A couple of days ago when KD King had set down back at
Stoccatae, DJ, Sparkle, PsychoPikmin, Swixer, Mr. N and the
pirates had been greeted with rapturous applause. Twi, Saltybob
and Autumn Unit and Sask had been at the front to greet him.
Sask had been quite cold after her body had been held in
cryostasis while she had been dead, but she was still overjoyed
to see her brother, as was her brother to see her.
She had had no real recollection of what had happened for
several hours, but had eventually come to.
Twi had confirmed to them that Sparkle's wish had worked and
that all across ONM, cities, towns, forests, roads and machinery
were all being miraculously repaired before everyone's eyes.
There were also no ghosts to be seen anywhere across the world.
They had all been asked to stay until the next day, when they
had all been presented with ONM Swifty Medals of Honour.
The pirates had never been awarded anything like this before,
and gladly accepted the valuable objects that they would no
doubt sell at the first oppotunity they got.
Twi had covered up much of the big picture behind what had
happened, but they had made the headlines, and were no doubt
being accepted as heroes across the world.
Then everyone had gone their seperate ways after heavy farewells
and exchanging of phone numbers.
Mr. N had decided not to return to Rules after Twi had given him
assurance that the kirbilots would be protected and that anyone
going through the small nation stayed away. Instead, Mr. N's
work and research was being integrated into the Book Country
Matchi-Chan University of Field Science, and he was to become a
professor there.
Sparkle and Swixer were getting married. Swixer had proposed to
her amidst the victory celebrations while being flown to Music
Country on board KD King. The wedding was set for the autumn,
seeing as they had agreed to pick up where they had left off.
Sparkle had also received notification from the other Moderators
that she was to gain a promotion for her efforts in the war,
while Swixer had been excused of any association with Gostalt
and his past crimes. However, his jetpack had been seized by the
military, but Swixer had been hired as a technical advisor for
one-manned flight projects and as a test pilot.
PsychoPikmin had said he'd stick around for a while, especially
for his daughter's wedding. But he also had "other business"
that he wasn't disclosing.
Saltybob and Autumn Unit were in the process of being debriefed
by the government about why they vanished from service and then
reappeared two months after Christmas. Whether they would talk
about the Jeptu or not was unknown.
The Jeptu themselves had not made their presence known. It was
probable that they had left ONM's orbit.
D-Mash and his crew had really just set about doing what they
had done before: be pirates. They were thankful to be alive as
apposed to being praised as heroes of ONM. However, they had
dropped DJ and Sask off not hours ago on this island before
setting off to Locked Sticky Island, where it was possible that
they would find a stranded Guwuh if DJ's wish's power might have
been genourously extended.
On the flight south, every city was covered in celebrations.
They had seen colourful festivals that had lit up the night
skies and immense block parties on the flight from south
Stoccatae.
And now DJ and Sask were back on the Off Topic Isles, on route
to their restored home island and where their parents lived.
But they had decided to stop here first and had stuffed their
faces with chips.
Lewthema and Fireemblmsprk listened intently to what they said,
before they paid for their food and left The Pubthread.
They also politely asked Fireemblmsprk not to make a point that
DJ was the one who had saved ONM.
As much as he enjoyed being praised and hailed as a hero, DJ
didn't like the idea of being constantly bogged down by any
newspaper reporters or news crews who had picked up on him being
ONM's saviour.
They had purposely avoided all the big, celebrating groups of
people by flying back down on board KD King, despite Sask's
slight need to get drunk and disappear for a night with another
woman.
Outside, it was late evening. The stars were twinkling overhead
and people were standing outside with drinks and watching
celebratory fireworks explode radiently from not far away.
The siblings wandered down the path that went through the dark
fields to the piers at the near south of the island, where they
would catch a night ferry home.
The path was illuminated by tall lights that guided their way.
"...so what was it like being dead?" DJ asked Sask, who was
walking ahead of him.
"That's like the ninth time you've asked me that," Sask replied.
"And for the the ninth time, I don't know or remember...but I
don't think it was pleasent".
"...so you remember nothing?" DJ asked.
Sask stopped and turned to him, eyebrow raised.
"...no," she said, "Why? Planning ahead for your fateful day or
something?"
DJ glanced away for a slight second and then back to Sask.
She frowned and folded her arms.
"What?" she asked.
DJ thought back to his fight with the Emperor, to when he had
been within what he had later described as an illusion.
He was still uncertain of that thought.
Had it been an illusion used by the Emperor to toy with him?
To wittle away at his mind in some act to bring around his
selfdestruction?
Or had he been seeing reality, with Sask as part of the ghosts?
They stood together in the soft illumination of one of the
pathside light as he explained this to her.
He had already avoided telling her about the strange spell the
Emperor had brought upon him when he had told her the details of
his fight.
When he had finished, she paused before giving a blissfully
simple answer.
"Who knows?" she said, shrugging and holding up her hands.
DJ smilled and held his head in his ends.
"Should have known you'd say something like that..." he
muttered.
Sask folded her arms again.
"I am serious though," she said.
"There really is no way of knowing...the Ghost Empire had
obviously advanced in technology since they were last known of
in Old ONM...who says they hadn't advanced in magical and
illusionary techniques too? Perhaps the Emperor really could
take lost souls and make them his playthings".
"They hadn't advanced in diplomacy," said DJ.
"All the ghosts wanted was power...and we all know where that
leads".
"There will always be people who want power," Sask replied
solomnly.
She turned away and faced into the darkness of the night, beyond
the shell of orange from the pathside light.
"Judging from what you told me, the Emperor's power went to his
head and he wanted more...he wanted everything, so much so to
want to wish away mankind to get what we had..."
She turned back to DJ.
"But you kicked his ass, so it doesn't matter".
They both laughed.
"Perhaps you could see a shaman or something..." DJ said.
"Or maybe I just don't die again," said Sask.
DJ thought back to her death.
She had saved his life...
"...I never thanked you for taking that blow for me," he said.
Sask shrugged again.
"It wasn't the first time I saved your ass," she said.
DJ grinned and rubbed the back of his head.
"Oh yeah..." he mumbled.
"But!" exclaimed Sask, raising a finger.
"You brought me back, alongside everyone else who died, so I
guess that counts as payback".
She held out a fist.
DJ touched it with his own fist.
"What about SamuriFerret?" DJ asked.
"We haven't seen the last of him. He said that himself".
Sask retracted her fist.
"I think for now we can stay safe knowing that Gostalt are now
internationally wanted criminals and that everyone's after
them," she said.
"I suppose..." said DJ.
"I just have this feeling that we'll be dragged into another big
conspiracy or something...and that Gostalt will be at the centre
of it".
He looked forlornly up at Sask.
"You know SamuriFerret's not done with us yet," he said.
"He's not. We've kicked the hornets' nest here".
"Well we'll be ready for him," said Sask.
She touched her stomach where SamuriFerret's cursed blade had
impaled her.
The wound had miraculously vanished after DJ's wish.
"I wonder he would feel about being a kebab..." she said.
"What do you think happened to the Sacred Chickens?" DJ asked.
He hadn't seen them after his fight with the Emperor.
They couldn't still be in his body: he had no wings or glowing
sword.
Sask shrugged again.
"I think that journey's behind us now," she said.
"Oh, how Granddad would've been proud of you".
DJ grinned.
"Now if you don't mind, I want to go home, see Mum and Dad and
then go get laid," Sask said, walking off into the night.
"You're such a whore sometimes," DJ replied, following her.
"Bite me," taunted Sask's voice from the darkness.
The siblings laughed, as the set off for the pier.
For home.
#Post#: 60--------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:53 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 55
Summer was very much around the corner.
It had warmed up considerably in the months after the end of the
war with the ghosts.
But it was as though that war had never happened.
In the canyons between skyscrapers in Music Country, people went
about their daily business.
Some were smartly dressed, carrying briefcases or talking on
phones; some held bags full of new clothes; some just sat on
benches and enjoyed the warmth at the end of spring.
Over the river that ran through the city, a woman stood on one
side of the bridge, leaning against the side.
She had well-kept hair of a smooth, pleasent lavender colour,
which came down over one shoulder, with a black hairpin shaped
like a butterfly on the right side of her hair; she wore
sunglasses that hid much of her pretty face; she wore an
expensive-looking coat that complemented her slender figure,
while she also a wore a tasteful 12 inch skirt while dark blue
socks went down from her knees to her feet.
On her feet, she wore lace-up high-heeled shoes that looked as
expensive as her coat.
Behind the sunglasses, her eyes followed the river up to the
point when it curved round and out of view behind the buildings.
She smiled, then stood up straight.
"It's steak weather," she said suddenly.
"I feel like steak for dinner...with potatoes...maybe a
salad...yeah, salad's cool, with dressing...improves the
taste...do you still have taste or was that removed in the
cyberfication process?"
She looked round to her left.
Zero stood before her, an unreadable expression on her face.
She still wore the same long, black coat and her hair was still
a rich brown, kept smooth and untainted by dirt by the
self-preservation systems built into her body.
But now she wore a scarf of black and purple stripes around her
neck.
"...I can eat," she said in reply to the woman's question.
"Foodstuffs can be used to power me".
The woman chuckled.
"Still practically human," she said.
She leant against the side of the bridge, still facing Zero,
who's only intentional movement was her eyes, which followed
every one of the woman's movement.
"Relax," said the woman cooly, removing her sunglasses.
Her eyes were purple.
Zero raised an eyebrow.
"Looks like your curiousity remains," the woman said, standing
up straight again.
"Which is peculiar...a cyborg will be persistant based on
protocols resembling curiousity, but that there is actual, human
curiousity".
She jumped up at lightning-like speed and snaked round behind
Zero, who turned at equal speed and raised an arm at chest
height, stopping the woman.
She raised her own hands, grinning.
"Hold up," she said, "I'm not planning on attacking. That'd be
stupid and would attract attention".
A man in a suit glanced at them as he strode past.
"See?" the woman said, lowering her hands.
Zero lowered her's.
"Who are you?" she asked. She was very different to the
maliscious robot that PsychoPikmin several months ago.
"I'll tell you if you let me see the back of your neck," said
the woman.
Zero paused.
"...fair enough," she said.
The woman skipped round behind her and peered at the small scar
on the back of Zero's neck.
Then she stepped back, smiling and biting her lower lip.
Zero turned to her, expression unreadable again.
"The emotional inhibitor chip's been removed," she said.
"And you're...still here. You're not dead or insane or-"
"Who are you?" Zero asked her again.
The woman moved her hand to her chin while resting her elbow on
her other folded arm.
"...Midna," she replied.
"What do you want with me?" Zero asked.
"I thought I made that clear in the transmission?" Midna said.
Zero paused again.
"...how do you know...what I am?" she asked.
"That's a very long story," Midna replied.
"Simply put, it took months of avoiding battlefields and
following Gostalt around".
Zero tilted her sharply.
"So you don't work for Gostalt?"
"No," sniggered Midna, looking out over the river again.
"...because your eyes-".
"Look like SamuriFerret's?" Midna asked, finishing Zero's
sentence.
At that point, a tail with smooth, black fur peaked round from
beneath the skirt.
"Follow me, I think we should discuss this elsewhere".
Midna strode off up the bridge.
Zero watched her walk away then reluctantly followed her.
She walked behind this abstruse yet alluring woman through the
city streets, around corners and through crowds of people.
Eventually, Midna went into a cafe on the corner of two streets,
and Zero entered behind her.
The cafe was reasonably full of people and was filled with an
air of conversation, with waiters and waitresses weaving in and
out of the varnished wooden tables, taking orders or carrying
trays.
Zero followed Midna to a table and sat down opposite her.
Midna rested her head on her linked hands and grinned.
"I'm going to assume that to make you more efficient, you will
have had data banks containing almost every piece of information
about ONM put into that tricked out brain of your's, right?"
Zero nodded once.
"Then by seeing my eyes and tail, you'll know what I am?" Midna
asked.
"Indeed," said Zero.
"You're a member of the Xenengari".
Midna glanced downwards slightly and then back up at Zero.
"And you know what my clan did in the past and why there are so
few of us?" she asked.
Zero nodded.
A small smile suddenly appeared on her face.
She had something against this woman now.
"Well," said Midna, "I can tell you now that I am in no way
associated with any of that and I won't be asking you to do
anything along those lines, if you accept my offer I mean".
A waiter came to their table.
Midna asked for a glass of lemonade.
Zero shook her head when he asked for her order.
"So, you knew SamuriFerret?" she asked once the waiter had left.
"That's not important," Midna said simply.
Zero frowned.
"...then who do you work for?"
"Also not important," Midna said again.
"Everything you're required to know about the job was in the
transmission".
"That too," said Zero, raising a hand and pointing at Midna.
"You sent that transmission on the exact frequency that I would
pick it up. How did you know to do that?"
"Not important" was her answer.
Zero was frustrated now.
"Then what the hell is important?" she asked.
"None of your questions matter if you don't take the offer,"
Midna replied, smiling nonchalently.
Zero sat back in her seat and folded her arms.
"You're not giving me much assurance that this is a good idea,"
she said.
"I mean, you know who I am and that my body is the product of
cyberfication, you send me an offer for some crazy job, you seem
to know everything about cyberfication, you're not answering any
of my questions and even then, you're an Xenengari; how am I
supposed to trust you?"
Midna just kept smiling sweetly.
The waiter returned with her lemonade, a straw floating in the
clear, bubbily liquid.
Midna near-silently thanked him and quietly sipped from the
straw, purple eyes staring intently back at Zero.
She continued this until half of the lemonade was gone from the
glass, then moved the straw away from her lips.
Zero leant forwards, shifting her head as if to say "And?".
"Why do you wear that scarf?" asked Midna.
Zero blinked, then looked down at the black and purple scarf
around her neck.
"It's because you're cold aren't you?" said Midna, totally in
control of the situation.
"Because the emotional inhibitor chip has been removed, your
humanity is returning and now your augmented nervous system is
reacting to how it's now in an environment not suited for human
nerves, but nothing bad is happening because your on board
self-preservation systems are keeping you alive...and as a
result, you feel cold".
Zero grasped the scarf with one hand, looking away from Midna.
It felt uncomfortable to be so mechanically defined and
described.
"The scarf might make you feel better," Midna continued, "but
you're always going to be feeling that cold".
She leant forwards.
"I can help you," she whispered.
Zero's eyes darted up to her's.
"But only if you take the job," Midna finished.
Her expression had changed from a confident smile to an
unfamiliar look of assurance.
Zero was still uncertain. She felt like she still needed to know
more.
"...how do mean?" she asked.
"Not important," replied Midna, grinning.
Saw that one coming.
Zero's thoughts went back to PsychoPikmin and the visions of
Sparkle as a child.
Those came from her last days of humanity.
Some kind of supressed instinct told her that she needed those
days.
That she needed to live as a person again.
"...okay," she said.
"I'm in".
"Perfect," said Midna before finishing the rest of her lemonade.
"Now there's one more thing. This work requires a certain amount
of combat skills".
Zero raised an eyebrow.
"What do you mean?" she asked curiously.
"I need to see how you fight," Midna said, pushing back her
chair as if to get up.
She glanced at her wrist, at a watch that she slid from beneath
her coat sleeve.
"In about...sixty seconds an armed SWAT team is going to appear
right outside this cafe with orders to find you and shoot on
site, probably backed up by Metal Knights too".
Zero's eyebrows swiftly dropped.
"Why?" she asked anxiously.
"Because I called them when you weren't looking," Midna replied.
Zero was confused by that answer, and Midna continued before she
could protest.
"You're a wanted fugitive. The security footage from you broke
into Stoccatae with Gostalt was analysed you know".
Zero had to double-take on that.
"When I...how did you-".
"Not important," Midna said again, raising a hand.
She stood up and put her sunglasses back on.
"Just fend them off and escape, but don't kill anyone; we don't
need that. I'll send you another transmission soon".
"But how will you be able to see how I fight if you aren't
here?" Zero asked.
Midna smiled.
"I have my ways," she chuckled.
Just as SamuriFerret had been able to, she vanished into thin
air.
Zero felt absolutely dumbfounded.
But before she could try to figure anything out, blaring sirens
could be heard outside.
From the cafe's large windows, Zero watched as two large, black
armoured trucks with "SWAT" written on their sides ground to a
halt on the road, alongside two other police cars.
People scrambled away from the trucks as armed police trooped
out, wearing black helmets and full, bulky body armour, all
holding SCAR-L assault rifles.
"Everyone on the floor! Hands on heads!" one yelled as they
forcably entered the cafe.
Several women yelped in surprise at their sudden entry and the
sight of the guns as everyone in the cafe stopped what they were
doing and lay down on the floor, placing their hands on their
heads.
Zero did not comply to this.
If she had taken the job, she might as well do what had been
asked.
One of the SWAT troopers saw her.
"Target acquired!" he yelled, raising his SCAR-L.
They had her face memorized then.
Zero grabbed the table in front of her and lobbed it in the
direction of the trooper who had identified her.
The table hit him and knocked him back, alongside two others
before the table shattered against the wall.
Several people screamed.
Another SWAT trooper opened fire.
Zero dove to one side, moving low and swift between tables as
the bullets pinged off surfaces around her.
She reached the far wall and ran straight up and across it, the
bullets hitting various objects on the wall and causing them to
fall and smash.
She jumped down from the wall and dashed across the cafe, still
keeping low.
The trooper stopped firing and stepped back while reloading.
Zero swung an arm up, sending another table flying at the
trooper.
It hit him and knocked him down.
SWAT troopers outside where taking notice now and opened fire,
shattering the windows.
Zero grinned as she avoided every shot and rolled out of their
sight.
This was going to be easy.
Her new life started now.
#Post#: 61--------------------------------------------------
Re: ONM World
DIR By: PsychoPikmin
Date: October 23, 2014, 6:56 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Okay dudes.
It's been a good run. Thank you to everyone who read this and
commented.
Thanks to DJ, Sask, Sparkle, SamuriFerret and everyone else who
signed up. You guys were my invaluble resource throughout this
little escapade.
Thanks to Splinter, Lui_gui, PrincessMidna and everyone else who
followed this. You proved that this wasn't a failed attempt with
your constant support.
And even though they'll never read this, I also feel it
necessary to thank my friends Connie and Elie for proof reading
this. They were reliable third-parties.
So long Grasshoppers. :wink:
*walks away into sunset*
*****************************************************
Page 6 of 6
DIR Previous Page