New Beginning 23: One for the Record Books

[The Narrator]

As Narrator awaits whatever big bad to arrive, the battle in Run O'Mill and Gude continues to occur.

Thousands of robots continue to terrorize both teams as they strive to lessen the numbers.

"Uncle! Why aren't you using your powers to affect these mechanical minions?" The Nerd screams  at Average-Man.  

"Uh....wasn't the plan for me to hide in this corner while you guys do the work?" 

"We're wasting time trying to protect you!"

The robots continued to destroy the city and pile up on the heroes. 

Songstress used a series of harmonic attacks when one of the robots were kicked out of the sky.

"Babe you gotta keep your guard up."

"Thanks bae."  

"JJ, we gotta find where these gins are coming from and close the portal.  Take Sheldon to Lite and Shade and see if they do something."

"Gotcha!" He ran at Sheldon, jumping and rebounding off a couple of robots until he reached The Nerd and threw him over his shoulder. 

In Gude, Lite and Shade used their magicks to dismantle and oxidize as many robots as they could, but more robots were coming than that destoryed. 

"Kitty, you have to find Scooter, he's been gone since the robots attacked" Lite ordered.

"Yes sir," she said running into the forest hoping to see him. 

"That Narrator needs to do something quickly or our kingdom will fall!"

--

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Idly glancing down at his shiny new carapace as he waited to see if the command had any effect at all, Vaultboy noticed something about the hue of his skin. He had done the Hornet transformation, right? Weren't they black and yellow? Was there any species of bee that was...

Already dreading what he would find the carapace warped and softened until he was standing there in breeze in his regular form.

It was unmistakable. He was green now, for some reason. Not even a dark, respectable shade of green like an orc. This was a  light, very pastel sort of green. The sort of green you'd use to paint the walls of a baby's room. A lock of his hair fell into his vision and he was relived to find that that, at least, had remained brown.

He then hastily covered up when he realized he was naked, that the pants he had paid gold for had been left behind in the hallway when he'd flown up here. In his haste he had forgotten to hold on them up when he had transformed. He thought about turning back into a bee, but that was only a temporary measure until he could find something new that fit his increasingly bizarre physique. In fact, with his newly svelte and healthy body, he wasn't even sure what his size was anymore. Why hadn't he gotten a power that made cloths fit no matter what you did in them?

As he searched for a solution, a flash of insight suddenly hit him. A familiar flash, like what had told him how to save the fox back in that topaz cave when lava came raining down on it, and a realized for the first time what it was. Stratego, the very first power he'd ever developed, was telling him what abilities he had to use to solve problems even when he didn't know he had them.

Then again, what it was suggesting now was so embarrassing he wasn't sure shouldn't just turn back into a bee and sulk. But he could feel it insisting in the back of his mind, that this  was how the clothing problem could be solved and it wasn't shutting up. He sighed, closed his eyes, a linked himself to the internet with his brain. He just had to find the right site...

Some time later he sat cross legged on the stone, dressed and praying that no one had ever seen Dragonball Z on this planet. As he sat there in the Saiyan armor that could expand to up to any size he prayed that he could find a tailor that would work with the material it was made of.

Jesus, he even had tails. At least the green skin would keep anyone from making any weird assumptions until he could find something better. So thank god for small miracles.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Ravaging combat raged across the lands, but something also rumbled much deeper within the lands of Gude and Run O'Mill. The Narrator and his allies wouldn't be able to perceive it at first, but it wasn't long before the threat would make itself known loud and clear throughout the land.

What started out as a small tremor built up to a dull rumble, to a menacing bellow, to a hateful and snarling upheaval of the land. Rocks were kicked up left and right; trees were uprooted; fissures spiderwebbed across the lands, and from the nasty cracks arose an otherworldly miasma.

Silvery, shimmering green, the gas stayed low to the ground, but was still more than capable of rearing quite an ugly effect. Anyone and everyone who came into contact with it, would begin almost straightaway to suffer from terrifying hallucinations. Worse yet, the land itself seemed to suffer the very same affliction. The ground tossed and turned as though disturbed by a grievous nightmare. Spires of rock shot up left and right, plots of land cracked and quivered and quake.

What would normally be sturdy high grounds on which to stand turned, with a will all their own, into hateful quicksands, and sinkholes, and landslides. No citizen, nor any person or place or thing they held dear, would be spared from the land's wrath. Strange as it was, though, the attacking robots seemed always to know just when the lands would heave, and when and where to dodge its frightened retaliation...

[Celadon's Penultimate]

In the meantime, the Technari had far less to be thankful for, in Marv's realm. In that short span since the Vaultboy had spoken to Motherboard Prime's forces, the tables had turned quite a bit. In fact, aside from the army's generals and lieutenants and other high ranking masters, the whole lot of the lesser units had begun to turn tail and trudge, clunk, skitter, scurry and scamper away, like so many cockroaches from a deathly mist of bug spray.

The sight was hard to believe at first.

A stocky, sturdy Technari general, QW3R7Y (Qwerty), barked amid the chaos of retreat, "What in the name of Prime's USB port is going on here?"

"Hey! Language!" An adjacent lieutenant, R38007 (Reboot) gasped, before turning back to face the sight which had elicited Qwerty's outrage, "But you've got something of a point; that command was a weird one! Didn't sound like Prime at all!"

"It could have been 5C4NN3R [Scanner]. His voice sounds sort of like that." Qwerty grumbled, in some tone reminiscent of loading dial-up internet, "Okay, okay, look. We can resolve this, pretty quick and simple. You'll call Prime. And while you do that, I can go see about the ones sent to lead the attack on the Miscreant."

The two nodded at one another, and Qwerty was off to the Miscreant's mansion.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

He leaped up and laughed as he saw the first of the robots filing out of the city. He didn't think it would actually work. He filled with the ecstatic knowledge that he might just be able to pull this off. He quickly got back on the horn.

"Alright, perfect, perfect. Now, I don't want you all standing in one big clump, just in case someone takes you all out with an orbital meteor strike. I want you all to disperse in..." He looked around the area around the city and school from his perch, and wondered if he could get his intentions across somehow. He waved his hands to the right. "Over there, in that general, southeastern direction Just spread yourselves out, sit down, don't do anything threatening. If you have chainsaws for hands or some other, similarly obvious weapon, please sit facing away from the city. The no attacking rule is still effect, so if someone comes and attacks you I want you to, if you can, scream and run away. But if that doesn't happen, just sit there and contemplate some non heinous uses for your skill set."

He cast his eyes upward, at the ships still hanging over the city. "And now I want the ships to come down here, get yourself out of the city's airspace. If you still have weapons, power them down. Just come down to this other area where all the robots are gathered and, you don't have to land, but just sort of hover there, again with all weapons pointed away instead of toward the city. If you have guns all over you, just point your biggest ones away."

"And if you guys have a white flag anywhere, now would be a good time to display it. Because from this point on, we are Jackie Chan. We don't want no trouble. But, obviously, we will not bust out rad kung-fu on anyone who makes trouble with us. We run away. Screaming if possible."

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Phi: Haven instead of Aeon. Gotcha.

Utter silence hummed an irritating dissonance in Titannus' ear.

"Where in the sterile, freakishly-clean depths of the seventh circle of Hospital Hell am I?" came his angry reply, into the immaculate, spotless emptiness of the gigantic space of Haven, "Computer, give me a read, pronto!"

Scanning...

Scanning...

Welcome to Haven.

"Haven?" the cyborg scratched the organic side of his scalp, "Never heard of it. Maybe we oughtta get you checked, Computer. What happened to our designation for the Correnian's homeworld?"

Destination still in progress.

A familiar sort of frustration crossed Titannus' mug, and he turned back to the computer's direction, "You sure about that? Does this look like frackin' Aeon to you--?" he stopped, mid-tirade; his expression brightened from a thing of annoyed dismay, to perhaps intrigue, with a hint of hope, "Wait. We're not on Aeon."

Affirmative.

"But you say destination still in progress."

Affirmative.

"So, what does that mean?" the cyborg crossed his arms, a smirk growing on his face, "This, uh...this place. You mean this place is on the way to Aeon?"

Affirmative. Was that conclusion not obvious from prior response? Note to self: modify linguistic protocol, ASAP, to accommodate lower diction, for weak intellects of lower life forms.

"Oi!" Titannus snapped, "Don't get snarky with me, you glitch-ridden bucket of bolts. While you sit over there cracking wise about me being half-man, you're wasting precious time you could be using to serve Motherboard Prime."

The computer crackled and fizzed in response, as though clearing its throat in nervousness.

Initiating Philotic Web Disruptor protocols. Loading...loading...loading...

"Just tell me when they're fully loaded, damn you!"

The remark made the computer fizzle again, before going totally silent. If Titannus was content not to hear about the seven-hour wait time he would have ahead of him--before the Philotic Web Disruptor would again have enough energy for a second jaunt--then the computer was just fine with its master's suggestion to wait in silence.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

As his soldiers marched past, vacant and blind in their obedience, Reboot knew better than to panic. He pressed his hand to the side of his head, and a telephone ring trilled through the air.

Two rings and the familiar voice replied, "Ah, so you noticed the retreat, as well. That's good to know, seeing as how I received word of it from two generals MILES AWAY, before getting word from Qwerty and yourself, who were situated right next to the Miscreant. Clearly this is his doing, no?"

"He doesn't do bots, last I checked, mistress." Reboot volunteered, "But, yes, one of his comrades perhaps."

"Not the Penultimate." Prime retorted.

"He's busy with an assault based on Celadon."

"Not the Zaleramancer."

"He's busy fending off an attack based in his dimension."

"Not Philote."

"Titannus was sent to distract him. Seems to be doing a fair job."

And the list seemed to go on and on. Not the Dryad, since her world was under siege, too. Not the Narrator, because his world was being ravaged as they spoke. Not the Bug. Not the Jester. Not that odd boy who insisted on being a cat all the time. Even as she went back and forth with Reboot, Prime's mind scanned the databases for known allies of The Forum.

She slammed a cold, metal fist on the console as her mind landed on a name whose data file had always tripped her up. The Vault. The shameless pirate, the mercenary, that ruffian who wanted her hide for scrap metal. Oh, he/she/it/whatever...what a vile creature. And if the List was any accurate indicator--as it had been, to flawless effect, up to this point--he might have just such an ability, as that which was necessary to pull off such a rotten, dirty trick as this. If Prime had blood, it would have been boiling. She snapped around, to face Darkess Faye.

"Witch! I require a favor of you..."

Of course, the sorceress had no alt against the Vault, but then, neither had she against the Zaleramancer, the Narrator or the Dryad. Not that it mattered; she was still there, alongside the Technari Queen. So, she was more than obliged to assist as she could. An odd request, sure enough, but if a toy soldier was what Prime wanted, that was what she would get.

Darkess held the handsome figure up to her lips, and whispered, soft and sultry, into its ear, "Gentleman...Vaultboy."

With that, it vanished from her hand, traceless through sympathetic psychic space, and landed beside where the living vault had sequestered himself off to. When the plastic man clattered to the floor, it sprung to life, and with all of its might, hit the Vault with the most sad and pitiful spark of baby pixie magic that had ever been mustered in the history of baby pixie magic. And as that bit of magic spark fizzled in the Vault's direction, all life was used up in the toy soldier's body, leaving it to clatter lifeless again on the floor.

From Prime's console, the witch and the robot queen shared a laugh--see how he'd like his precious Enemy Skill move, when it meant taking on the almighty power of baby pixie magic!

In the meantime, Prime turned to a keyboard on her left with a smirk, typing the code for a reverse objective at lightning-speed. And when it was done, in five minutes' time, she would boot it into the projectors, to bring back her robot forces, redoubled in fierceness and fury.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Meanwhile, lightyears away...

"What was that about?" The Vault said, cautiously looking over the obsidian claw it sported in the form of the rampaging ape god. Seriously, something pops out of thin air, does a little magic, then dies? What was the point of that?

"Think we should check that out?" says Cervantes, sitting up out of the water to look at the toy.

"Nah." Says the Vault after some contemplation. "I don't care enough to leave this cool planet." As if to punctuate this point it leans back, submerging itself even deeper into the water.

The great ship Road To Dawn was currently floating in a sea of warm, bubbly water. A fine steam covered everything that could be seen, as members of the collection bathed and splashed one another. Cervantes just sighs and leans back with his master, pulling the hat he refused to take off even while swimming down over his eyes. "Still don't see the point in a planet sized hot tub."

"I'd say it's more of a hot tub planet." The Vault replied.

"Seems excessive, is all."

Sherman popped up between them, gasping for air and startling the pair. "4 minutes! New record!" The boy proclaimed excitedly.

"Congratulations kiddo. Here's your prize." The Vault said, picking up the toy and handing it to him.

"Cool! Thanks Mr. Vault!" He replied, diving back under the water with his new friend.

"Was that wise?" Cervantes says, not even looking up.

"We're on vacation, man. Relax a little."

[Philote]

One of the doors floating through Haven's space opens. Floating from the simple room that marked the dimensional boundary that it watched over into the dimensional hub that was Haven comes what appears to be a living marble statue of a man in greek garb.

"Diminutive one" it challenges out into the empty space of Haven. "I have been designated by Haven's leader to impede your progress. Stand down or return whence you came immediately."

[The Narrator]

As the Narrator continued to await whatever big bad was responsible for the assault of Gude and Run O'Mill, he got a mental ping.

*Narrator, this is Shade, there's something here that's turning us and the environment against us; you've got to.....*

It stopped.

He quickly teleported to the scene and immediately saw the chaos.

The heroes of both lands were in discord, some fighting each other, others fighting seemingly nothing.  

*This gas must be affecting them mentally, but it's doesn't seem the designer knows that I'm nearly immune to this type of attack.*

He attempted to restore their mental states, but it was to no avail.  They all then turned on him.  As they began to attack, he tried to return them to their normal state of mind.

*Someone, or something is blocking me from undoing this mess the easy way; I'll guess I'll have to do it the ole fashion way.*

He spoke aloud, "When I find whoever is doing this, you're gonna wish you were in Fremont's Cornfield!"

He rolled up his sleeves, and began to walk towards the attacking heroes.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Echo and after echo rang through the empty-clean space, but all Titannus could muster in return was a vacant stare, punctuated by the occasional blink.

"Eh, I gotta be honest with you." he said at last, "I don't think I'm gonna stand down. And I SURE as heck ain't gonna go back where I came from. Really, the Microverse? It's a tad small for me."

Brace for impact? volunteered the computer.

"What? Whaddya mean, brace?" snapped Titannus, "Don't brace for crap! Fire the Philotic Web Disruptor! Set course for Aeon! Get me the frick-frack out of this place! To grandmother's house we go! Yip-yip, mother-lover!"

Negative. Only 5% of the total seven-hour wait time has passed. Approximately 6 hours still remaining.

"S-seven hour wait time?"

Approximately six now. And counting.

"But-but-but...when the hell were you gonna tell me???"

Click, and the sound of rewinding audio could be heard. Another click, and his voice was played back to him, "Just tell me when they're fully loaded, damn you!"

A weak huff escaped Titannus' throat, and he whipped around to face the Greek-clad marble man, muttering to himself, "Well, damn it all. This isn't gonna be fun, is it?"

Fun, sir? Negative. Brace for impact?

The cyborg blinked, and thought hard. The Philotic Web Disruptor was out of the question. And worse yet, a great deal of his other biggest toys were out of commission, too--ironically, to divert building power to the Philotic Web Disruptor. He felt the sudden urge to laugh, and then to cry. His pride too stubborn to let him to either, he let out a loud, angry groan, gripped both arms of his chair, and let his head thud down onto the console.

Brace for impact?

Mumbling, his voice ragged and dejected, Titannus replied, "Ugghhh...brace for impact."

[Celadon's Penultimate]

As one of the maids drew nearer to Treble, she snapped the hilts of her two swords together, fusing blades to either end. A tad closer, and Treble took the weapon in one hand like some hateful baton; the rotator in her wrist turned on, and spun the double-blade around in her hand like a whirling fan of death. Treble swiped the fierce weapon to either side, her expression now alight with wild and malicious glee.

Smirking at Treble's surprise reveal, Bass decided it was perhaps time for her to do the same. Her eyes narrowed, and as she gripped the battlepole yet tighter, the great orb at the pole's end fell to the ground, tethered by a long, thick and heavy chain. One of the maids drew nearer, but the robot had just enough time to rear the fearsome wreckingpole above her head, brandished about with all the finesse of a bullwhip.

As the two gynoids engaged Suzue's maids with the utmost pleasure, only Suzue herself would notice that just in the distance, what looked like a great dark storm cloud was drawing ever nearer.

[Tsubasa & Wen Tien]

As the two reveal their weapons, Artemisia and Kiku stop in their tracks before Artemisia suddenly jumps up and then steps on the air to somersault over the two robots, their weapons and bodies glowing silver and white light respectively as they begin singing wordless songs.

Simultaneously, Edelweiss and Suzue begin singing their own songs as on some unseen cue, Edelweiss switches from targeting the two robots to aiming at the storm-like cloud.

Wulf: The wordless songs are actually a language and their natural one at that. Usually used on the battlefield with one to three notes, it can be much longer in leisure.

Also, the weapons were forged under the guidance of their goddess and are now giving off divine energy for your robots to pick up. As well, the maids are covering their bodies with a visible armor of ki and have an invisible spherical barrier of ki that glows blue when struck. Suzue and Edelweiss have their own barriers, but theirs glow red, seem to be hexagonal and are at least ten times more effective.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Dryad: Sort of confused about that last sentence: "Simultaneously, Edelweiss and Bass begin singing their own songs as on some unseen cue, Edelweiss switches from targeting the two robots to aiming at the storm-like cloud. " Did you mean to say Artemisia and Kiku? Or Edelweiss and Kiku? Or Treble and Bass? I'm just a bit confused about whether or not you intended to narrate for my characters. No harm, no foul, either way, I was just curious.

Also, I was wondering as to your current username (Tsubasa and Wen Tien), and your previous username (Dryad). And currently, you're using a character, Suzue. Do you have a central character, like me, Myself, Phi, Marv and Gats? Or do you just switch characters, like Zale and GV, with no regard for a central protagonist?

Strange though it was to the pair of gynoids, the maids had started singing. The two were grateful, to some extent; despite the two being perfectly on-key, lesser minds might have found their sudden musical outburst distracting or even annoying. Not them. Now was, by no means, the time to concern themselves with intentions. Prime had issued the directive, and that was that.

They would just have to adapt to the new circumstance, before the maids' musical intentions (whatever they were) could be realized. Neither missing a step in combat, dodging and attacking as normal, the two com-linked back to Motherboard Prime. Neither one spoke out, in the course of combat, but their speech rang loud and clear on Prime's console.

"The mages are evoking an odd song" Treble declared, wordless over the airwaves.

Bass added, "It seems to be more powerful than ordinary magic."

It went without saying that something 'more powerful than ordinary magic' was likely divine in nature. Prime turned and exchanged glances with Sister Siren. Rolling her eyes at the sight of the Robot Queen's crossed arms and impatient look, the Songstress tossed her hair back and at last offered up her end of the bargain.

"I've got some tricks up my sleeve, that could be of some help on that end, if you want." she raised her hands above her head, wriggling her fingers as though working an unseen marionette, "MythPower: Eumolpus' Melody!"

In the midst of the robots' counterattack against the maids, the two began to glow an aura of eerie pinkish-purple. In little more than an instant, the divine power took hold. Without missing a beat, the two of them continued with renewed and ten-times multiplied ferocity. Prime turned back to the console, a smirk growing at the promising sight. Now that that had been settled, though, she had more pressing matters to attend to. She stood from her seat, and strode to the doorway. If anyone needed her, she would be off in one of her chambers, handling business of the highest importance.

[Tsubasa & Wen Tien]

Wulf: Sorry, meant Suzue. Edited my post to reflect that. One of the members of the Shigemoto Household is named Bass and well... Mea culpa. At least both sides don't have someone named Bass fighting right now, that would be somewhat confusing.

My username reflects the progenitors of the Shigemoto Household and I have multiple characters that I'm switching around from different worlds. Dryad (the character) does not know that the Shigemoto Household or the world they come from exist and vice versa

As the robots begin glowing pinkish-purple, both of the maids dodge and weave, Kiku moving to disarm Treble using her bident, charging it with ki to attach itself to her opponent's weapon as Artemisia swings her mace at Bass, its head glowing with increased destructive power.

Meanwhile, Edelweiss finishes gathering energy and fires one bolt of ki at the approaching stormcloud. Suzue stands still, her blade humming with power as she gets ready to strike at the enemies.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Meanwhile, on the roof of the Kethencian College of Magic...

Gentle Vaultboy felt his hold on the robotic army buck as his orders were pushed aside in favor of something new, and the retreating robots began making there was back to the city. If that could happen there'd be no way to keep them safe, just stuck between two conflicting orders. There had to be a way around tha-

Another Stratego flash gave him something that might work, but that he wasn't to eager to try. He was beginning to notice a pattern in the plans that power gave him, and wondered slightly if it had it enjoyed embarrassing him.

Behind him his shadow stretched out in the mid morning sun. It ripples once, twice, wavering as though in bowing in the breeze. Then it detached from his Vaultboys heels, keeping it's shape but gaining a whole dimension. As it lifted itself up off the ground detail started to flood the blackness like a paint spill, coloring the body until it was indistinguishable from the original. Vaultboy took a deep breath, turned around, and faced himself.

"I am a shadow, the true se-" the shadow started to intone dramatically, before getting a look at what it looked liked. "Good god, I knew I looked stupid but Christ sake."

Vaultboy was also taken aback. It was like looking in a mirror. It was like talking to a mirror in fact, because the only reason the shadow had been the one to say that was he'd already been speaking. Instead, he settle for a weak "My eyes are green."

"Except where they're blue." Shadow Vaultboy replied. "Didn't you wake up this morning, you know, relatively normal? You couldn't have done this then, spared me the bad DBZ fanfiction look?"

"What can I say, misery loves company." Replied Vaultboy Prime. "You have everything I have, right?

"Yeah. Yeah, I think so. It fact, I'm feeling pretty good. There's something about the air out here or something." Said the Shadow, who felt a tingling sensation like static build up as the Technari Technopathy that was trying to reach into both their minds was actually being absorbed by him and converted into energy.

"Ok. Lets do this." Said Vaultboy Prime. Maybe it was just having someone else around, but he did feel better about this whole affair. Stronger. More Confident. The pair of them reached out to the robots, both broadcasting orders now.

One said "What did I tell you guys about the city. No robots in the city. The city is off limits."

The other said "Your are to dig holes. Dig many holes. If you're already out of the city, stop what you're doing and dig a hole. If you can't dig holes, give moral support to someone who can dig a hole. Strike the earth."

(Lord Of Shadow: Shadow Double, Duplicator's Physical Boost  on Vaultboy Prime, Ability Resistance Adaptation on Vaultboy Shadow got pushed up to level three for Technopathy since this is technically his third time)

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Qwerty turned back from his trudge up to the Miscreant's manor, and Reboot had a double-take at the sight that lay before Prime's commanders. What in the Robot Devil's hot, oily, gear-grinding depths--?

The robots had turned back toward the city, but yet again found themselves, and now crouched to the ground like the bolt-brained imbeciles they were, and were now digging holes into the ground for no reason other than reasonless folly. If either Qwerty had blood, this would have been enough to make it boil.

Rushing up to Reboot, he grabbed his compatriot by the shoulders, shaking him with angry violence, "I thought you called Prime and reversed the order, damn you!"

"I--did--So stop shaking--me now!" Reboot yelped in his comrade's grip; Qwerty released him, and he spoke again, "It must be the Vaultboy again. I'll just make another call to Prime. She'll know what to do."

The call was sent.

"What do you mean, 'they've been distracted from their directive'?" shouted the Technari Queen, "Since when are my efforts not good enough to sustain compulsions, in robotic minds so feeble?"

This was getting ridiculous. When she was done conquering the universe, and had finished her business with the Witch, the Songstress and the Ice Dweller, she'd have to remember to junk Qwerty and Reboot for scrap. At this rate, though, it seemed like slow going before such a joyous day would arrive. At times like this, incompetence was not a luxury the lot of them could easily afford.

Yet, Motherboard Prime managed to regain her composure. Her mind could likely come up with a decent fix, given a bit of time to mull it over. The robots' digging didn't seem of any immediate significance; they could be left to it, for the time being. Prime was just about to give the order to leave the other bots to their digging for the time being, when Darkess Faye returned from her meditation break. Fluffing her raven locks, the Witch offered her help from back by the doorway.

If Prime wanted, she could cook up something quick and dirty to make technopathic tampering impossible. The Technari Queen stopped clacking away on her keyboard, at the suggestion; she was listening.

A feline smirk grew across her face, as she had gotten the robot queen's attention. She took it as her cue to step up to the console, and work her magic. Wringing her hands together, she cracked her knuckles, wiggled her fingers, and slammed her hands down onto the console with all her might. The sorceress's eyes went pitch black, and she was surrounded by an aura the color of midnight. Her words were hoarse and raspy, filled with hatred and mischief:

L͟҉͡i̸͞҉҉f̷͠ȩ̛̀l͜͟͝e̵̵s̵̨̀͟ś̛͢͢ ̡̕҉t̵̢͘͘ḩ̸͘i͏̢n̛͏͏́͘g̀̀͠ś ̡̀͠͝g̶̛̀̕ì̛̀͜͝v̶̶͞e̴̢n͡҉̡̢ ̷̨͠s҉̢́͡h̴́͢͞o҉͞r̴̡͘͠͝t̶͘͜ ̨͜͞l̴͟͞͡i͘҉̢́́f̶͜͡e̕͞l̸̀i͘n̵̶̢͏҉é͠ş̶͢͏//
 ̸̡͜͏T̢̢h̛͘͟e̷̛ǹ̢̢͟ ͡͠c̷̵̴͝h̶̀̕a̶̴̡̕҉n҉͝ǵ̸̶̕͡e͘ḑ́̕͏̀ ̛t̸̢̀҉̕ó̷̕͡ ̸̕m̛͏o͘͏n̵͞s̸̢͏̷t̨̢͟ę̛͏̸͠r̷͞҉̵s̵̢͜͞ ̶̢̕ư̵̴͠n̡̛d̴̴̶i̢̡͝͏v̶͜į̛͜͞n҉̡͝͝e̸̢̕//

[Lifeless things given short lifelines//
Then changed to monsters undivine//]

The strange bruise-colored energy surrounding her surged forth through the console, crackling like unruly electricity, and soon vanished within the system, as though being absorbed in. The console began to pulsate, to hum, to quiver with the power of eldritch influence. Reboot was about to ask over the com what Mistress Faye had in mind, but no sooner than the impulse crossed his electronic mind, than the answer soon made itself manifest.

The skies grew dark, and it seemed that a storm was on its way, heralded by clouds as black as pitch.

The sorceress's smile grew wider, and she looked on with malevolent delight.

As the robots toiled, the clouds grew nearer and nearer, before stopping, at last, just out of range of the Miscreant's manor. The darkness of her magic, faded from Darkess Faye's countenance, but the skies' hue grew yet darker. Just as it seemed that night was nearly upon the Miscreant's lands...the storm was upon them. Left and right, the skies poured forth bolts of energy that could easily have been mistaken for lightning. And yet, wherever it landed, coursing into a robot's circuitry, something very unexpected took hold.

Eldritch power surged through the bots, and new life burst forth. Every essential part on the robots' bodies changed into flesh and blood. Every nut, every bolt, every screw, every gear; oil changed to blood, metal turned to skin, wires changed to arteries and veins, framework changed into bone. Mechanical facsimiles began to look, with alarming quickness, like the male and female genders they'd assigned themselves. Qwerty and Reboot found themselves unable to articulate much more than slack-jawed wonder at the development.

Though, their astonishment at new, humanized condition would be short-lived, just as promised by the witch's eerie rhyme. For no less than a minute after every robot had ceased digging, than a new change began to take hold. Where, for a brief minute flesh and blood were healthy and new, it began now to rot and fall as though clinging to a body long dead. Healthy hues of skin blackened, bodies bloated, muscle contracted, nerves frayed. Screams of new and fresh terror arose from the just-humanized bots. Pain and suffering was so thick in the air that their screams of tormented agony struck Sister Siren's clairaudient senses, as she rested down the hall in the next room.

She burst in, panicked and dismayed, "What's happening? Is everybody okay?"

The Songstress got a look at the console, and realized that the answer to her question was a definite no. Where myriads of robots once stood, positioned to lay siege to the Miscreant's stronghold, there now stood hordes of zombies, beyond the distance the eye could see, their hideously frail forms being beefed up to make them far more effective mutants. Any extra metal accessories unnecessary to their functioning was weaponized into all manner of conduits through which to blast the vile death-force energy that now surged through them.

Worse still, Faye knew better than to leave traditional mutant zombies running amok, about the Miscreant's manor. No, these would not shuffle about like mindless fools, nor would they be attracted to the slightest source of loud sound or loud noise. Their thinking would work as it did when they were robots, their bodies would work at optimum in their current hyper-mutant state, and best of all, a magic barrier was interwoven within the new technopathic link. The Gentleman Vaultboy was most certainly NOT invited to Prime and Faye's robot-zombie-mutant alien-hive-mind party.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Down in the depths of the basement, Billy Bishop looked up.

--------

Vault stood atop the castle, mouth hanging slightly agape. The shadow clone looked over, and put his hand on his quivering shoulder. "Hey man, you win some you lose some."

"She mind controlled them." He says, voice blank. "She mind controlled them, then she killed them." The shadow looked at him and could see that his eye weren't looking at the mess of monsters in front of him. His gaze was fixed far, far away into the past. Though it hadn't happened to him personally the clone knew what Vault was remembering, a hazy waking nightmare made worse with the passage of time and the adjustments of imagination. The clone thought to himself how he would react, given the situation, then grabbed Vaults shoulder and shook hard.

"Look, I know what you're thinking." He said to Vault, and watched with horror as his eyes flicked upwards to the ships above, hanging low over the new zombie army as per his orders. "Look, just give me a minute. Give me just, like, a minute. A minute!"

He let go of himself and looked frantically to the wall of the city itself. He had to get to it, he had to teleport. He felt himself turn to goo slightly as he began to transform into something that could when he suddenly found himself transported to the wall. He looked at himself, wondering if that Pokemon power had somehow evolved before spinning around and concentrating. With a sound of static a purple/blue haze began to spread out before him. He spread his arms, and the Psychomagnetic Shield expanded with them just as his perfect eyes spotted Vault taking off from the roof of the magic school.

--------

If he wasn't so angry he'd make a comment about the form that Stratego had lead him into this time. If he weren't so mad, he contemplate that this armor really was fit for any shape and size. If he wasn't so absolute furious he would have thought of a lot of things.

But there was nothing on his mind. Nothing except that plan that Stratego had given him, a plan that would wipe these things from he face of the Eart- from this planet, whatever it was. If she wasn't going to let him help them, fine. They could burn! It would be better for them in the long run!

So he soared, in a form like if a giant hummingbird mated furiously with a succession of squid then stitched the resulting offspring together, and looked down at each and every fresh dead corpse. It made him think of Knight (or Billy, whatever) and his stupid fish. That's how the monsters moved, not shambling horrors but with purpose, like that fish. Why was he even thinking about that detour in the cave, it had been useless. Just one more thing he wasn't able to see through. Nothing of importance had happened in that ca-

Something had happened in the cave. The realization figuratively floored him even as he tilted upward and began ascending toward. He could still try something. He could still do something.

"It doesn't matter what you do." said a part of him. "They'll find a way to ruin it. They'll always find a way. You can't do anything."

"But what if I can?" Said another voice, from a long time ago.

"You'll just bring yourself to their attention. Keep your head low. Stay safe. None of this is your problem."

"Would be selfish though, wouldn't it?"

"Don't play at heroics!"

"Who's Playing?"

He felt the tentacles recede, his nose grow softer, the feathers of his wings thin down to fingers again. He could see above him the underside of one of the large ships he'd commanded down. He reached out and lightning  jumped from his hand to one ship, surging and dancing across it until reaching the top. Then it leaped to the next ship, and the next one, and the next, as already the metal of the ships began to warp. It was as though the ships were drawn magnetically towards one another, connecting bow to stern and merging together in a circle as parts danced through the sky. Great pillars extended down from the connections, like landing gear, striking down and gripping the earth around the horde of zombies. Between the pillars electricity sparked, before a wall of transparent green light sprung up between them. This happened with every wall, and the middle space left open at the top.

The new army was trapped by

"Transmechanzation: Great Big Barrier!" Shouted Vaultboy.

--------

"Barrier?" Asked the shadow aloud, dropping the Psychomagnetic Barrier he was about to try and put up. "Not great big bomb?"

--------

As Vaultboy fell, he extended both hands. "Lockdown!" He shouted, as something invisible sprang from his palm and fused itself with the light walls and spread across the whole of he construction. Stratego was telling him he'd have to renew that in five minutes time, but nothing would be getting in or out. He decided to make sure. "Airi, reminder: sound a bell chime every five minutes from this point forward."

Yes Sir. came the computerized voice in his head as he warped himself changing back into the freakish hummingbird abomination with just enough time to arrest his descent with a furious beating of wings. Then his changed back, and let himself drop.

What landed in front of the zombies was freakish, an abomination even compared to themselves. It had green skin (not even a manly green, a pastel sort of green) and long brown honestly made it resemble a tree. It had two sets of ears, one a pair of cat ears sitting atop its head, the other floppy cow ears where you'd expect to find ears on a normal person. Its eyes looked frostbitten, but its irises were a deep green. Far deeper than the green of its skin, a right proper green. One arm was encased in a metal gauntlet, and the other had claws. A pair of cat tails flitted out from behind its back. On top of everything it appeared to be cosplaying. And yet it radiated as aura of calm and bringing good fortune, signaling it as something supremely holy. As though an angel had descended from on high to face them.

It looked out over the Horde and said "Right. I'm.... well, you don't need to know my name. I can't get myself off world. I'm hardly any good in a fight. I am definitely not a people person. Buuuuut, I've got nothing better to do until they finish scraping the robot off the sidewalk back home."

Gentleman Vaultboy faced down the entire army and spread his arms before them. "So, let's see about saving all of you."

(Mon Moves, Angelic Presance, <a href="http://Complete Lockdown ">Complete Lockdown, Psychomagnetic Manipulation , Greater Kystian Morph #5 , )

[Celadon's Penultimate]

At the sight of Kiku's advance, Treble rotated her weapon yet faster. Now, it moved so fast that it acted as effective as any forcefield. It wouldn't hold up very long--she would eventually have to attack--but for now, razor-sharp defense was good enough.

Bass, on the other hand, wouldn't be afforded the chance to get steady footing at first; Artemisia had managed to get too close, and Bass wasn't exactly the one who prided herself on quickness. To her fortune, though, she had ways of making up for that deficit. The mace collided with her frame with speed and power that sent her back a few yards, but her makers had given Bass quite a nifty feature to make up where she lacked with speed.

It even seemed that perhaps the strike was to her advantage. Pulling herself from the rut her landing had left, she reached forth her hand, and her battlepole glowed the same color that surrounded her. As Mjolnir to the hand of Thor, the powerful weapon raised up and flew to Bass's hand. She stood, and reared the battlepole's attached ball-and-chain overhead once with a mighty yell, before bringing it down with a hypercharged psychomagnetic pulse.

In the midst of the ensuing combat, the strange storm cloud drew yet nearer. Edelweiss's ki blast struck into it, and at first it stopped. After a brief pause, though, a noticeable change can be seen. Not only does it resume its slow, steady pace...it's grown to twice the size it was before.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"Come on, don't be scared. I don't want to hurt any of you. I just need one of you, actually, to see if this works. Come on then. Come at me, zombies! Oh I don't have time for this."

Gentle Vaultboy rushed up to the nearest zombie mutant, his normal hand swirling in a warm light. He was fast, he was so much faster than he had been even earlier that day. Before it had any time to reacted he'd rested his palm against its chest.

"RETURN TO LIFE!" he shouted, and there was a sudden brief discharge of energy like a defibrillator going off.

(Revive the Dead, literally realized I could do this when I was writing up a post about dropping a bomb on them.)