Dino Attack: At War's End

that guy from that show · May 19, 2012

iCOnce they were in the privacy of the fire Hammer Rockford turned to Hertz. "Is there any evidence that what Trigger is saying is true?"Hertz shrugged. "I'm not a theoretical physicist commander. If the Mealstrom does reside on multiple plains of existence I would not be the one to ask. It would certainly explain why it is so difficult to destroy however.""is there anyway to find out?" asked Rockford. "I don't know whether Trigger is the most reliable source for this kind of intell.""I agree." said Hertz. "He's a fighter and a soldier but I see no reason why he would no something about the mealstrom that many of our scientists don't.""I'll have some of our people do a background check." said Rockford. "i really don't know where these people come from. It seems like our team is filled with a lot of shady characters.""There are some test that we could do to check on the nature of the Mealstrom." considered Hertz. "If i can get inside i think I've watched enough episodes of LOST to do some simple tests."Rockford chucked. "I don't know if you sould go in there. The place is going ballistic in roughly twenty seconds. I doubt that's enough time to run conclusive tests.""I sould tell you that bringing the ceiling down may not be the best choice." said Hertz. "The chance of not hurting the mealstrom aside. We're likely to suffer causality from falling debris. This thing could turn into the battle of the XERRD HQ all over again.""I trust Semick to make the right call far more then I trust Rotor." responded Rockford. "Besides we have less then a dozen agents inside. I imagine they will want air support as soon as possible.""The problem is a lack of communication." said Hertz. "communication happens to be my aria of expertise. If I go inside I will provide a clearer picture and maybe even map the aria out.""That's futile." said Rockford, crossing his arms. "The mealstrom effects the perception of our surroundings.""Our perception perhaps." smiled Hertz. "but not technology. I have sonar equipment that uses waves to provide clear data of it's surroundings. If I got inside I can map the base and provide a safe way in and out.""You don't know what's in there Hertz." said Rockford. "You're not a field agent and there are more Stromling there then we have ever seen.""I have some field experence. And I can probably provide better intell then anyone on this team." argued HertzRockford seemed to consider. He put a hand on Hertz's sholder. "I would never ask anyone to do something I would not do my self. If you think you can be a help to our men inside I'm not going to stop you."Hertz nodded his head "Thank you commander." He picked up a rifle and backpack containing his equipment before heading to the bridge. Before he could set foot on the rotten planks Rockford called out to him."Hertz, your be wanting this."Rockford tossed Hertz a helmet which he expertly caught one handed. He smiled before flipping down the visor and stepping over the edge.OoC:Anyone is welcome to join Hertz.Also Andrew. Don't think of Dust as bold, think of him as having a badman shaved head. He also would have a full mouth of teeth if not for Lutksy.Just think Faran Tahir ;)BTW I fixed Mur's link

Edited May 19, 2012 by that guy from that show

Atton Rand · May 19, 2012

IC: Trigger watched for a moment as Hertz began to cross the old rickety bridge. He sighed, reached for his gun, and cocked it. "Alright," Trigger said. "I'm going in. If anyone can get through this it's me. Anyone coming?"Reluctantly, Cabin and Snake approached, and followed Trigger as he walked toward the bridge.

Brikman McStudz · May 20, 2012

OOC: Yes, but the weird toothy grin on Dust's face ruins that "badman" look. It's not like he has to have his mouth open. When you're an inanimate LEGO minifig, appearance is all you've got.Also, while I am not Andrewnuva199, I believe Mur's prosthetic is not a complete robot arm, but rather a small device in place of his arm. Quote:

Mur simply glared at the creature, turned back to his crew and pulled down on his uniform at the neck to show his arm stump. In its place was a small circular device, buzzing from a small antenna attached to it.

So I'd say the robot shoulder is appropriate, the hand is not. But then again, it is Andrewnuva's call.IC:Zach sliced away at another Stromling. I'm getting better at this, he remarked. His swings were slowly becoming less sloppy and more precise. As if he was using his right hand.Beside him, the woman he had saved fired her laser pistol at any Stromling she had saw. She wore a light-blue jumpsuit with multiple tears. Her face had numerous bruises, but Zach doubted they had came from the Stromlings they were fighting presently. She had long blond hair that touched her shoulders that was mangy and had bits of dirt in it. I imagine she's seen quite a bit in the last couple of hours. He watched in awe as the woman suddenly smacked a Stromling with her pistol, knocking it to the ground. Before it could get up, the woman broke its neck.Impressive. He turned to say something to her when he heard a voice call out his name. He turned and found himself trapped in Minerva's embrace. The blond-haired woman watched with interest and surprise."I lost you and-" Minerva started say as she pulled away."I am capable of taking care of myself, you know," Zach said, rolling his eyes."Zach, you've barely been a Minifig for an hour. I'm just-""-worried?" Zach finished, smiling at her. "I am aware that I am not in my peak strength, but I am holding up rather fine. But I suppose if you’re going to be worried, you might as well be worried while fighting next to me.” Minerva revealed a small smile.“Excuse me,” the blond-haired woman suddenly interjected. “Did I hear that right? Your name is Zach?” He nodded. “As in Zachary Virchaus?” Zach could see this was going down a bad path. He tapped his fingers against the hilt of his knife as he nodded again. The woman expression changed from surprise to anger and she raised the pistol, pointing it at Zach’s chest.“I saw this coming,” Zach muttered as he heard Minerva “Shut up!” the woman yelled. “Drop your weapon, now!” Zach scowled, but dropped the knife. “Commander,” Minerva said slowly. “He’s not a Stromling anymore. He’s on our side.”The commander ignored Minerva. “Remember me, Virchaus?”“No, I don’t. Care to remind me?”“The Space Police officer you fought at camp.”“Oh, I see. Hard to recognize without the armor. Vinyaya right?” He knew his bored tone was not helping him get in good spirits with this woman. However, he couldn’t help himself. He didn’t really want to deal with this now.“Yes,” the commander growled. “It sounds like you tricked Fabello into believing you are a minifig.”“Oh, yes, that’s definitely it,” Zach responded sarcastically. “She and Andrew didn’t go into the Forbidden Ruins and save my life. Yep, that’s why I clearly still have a Cosmotronic Ray attached to my right arm.” Vinyaya’s scowl deepened as Zach continued to talk. “But of course, what do I know? Clearly you know who I am, Vinyaya.”“Zach!” Minerva hissed. “Shut up! You are not helping yourself right now.” She turned to Commander Vinyaya. “He is a Minifig. Andrew and me did save him.” Vinyaya raised an eyebrow. Zach believed that if Minerva hadn’t been with Andrew, Vinyaya would’ve blown up over Minerva abandoning the mission to save him. “Besides, he’s clearly fighting Stromlings in this fight.”“I saved your life from a Stromling,” Zach said coldly. Vinyaya squinted at him for a moment, as if to try and evaluate him. Finally, she sighed and lowered her weapon.“I’m still not happy,” Vinyaya said. Zach’s face expressed similar sentiments. “I’m just sick of these Stromlings. You, Zelda, Colonel...”“What did Colonel do?” Zach asked, remembering the Stromling who had once been his loyal servant.“He beat me too a pulp until I shot him. He is where these injuries came from,” Vinyaya gestured to the bruises that covered her face.“I’m sorry,” Zach said. He was sincere, but how he said it suggested otherwise. “It’s a long story that I can explain later, but now, you’re going to have to trust me. I want to stop the Maelstrom and XERRD just as much as you.” He extended his right hand. Vinyaya looked at Zach with a face of slight disgust, but nodded in resignation and shook his hand once. As she turned away from them to keep fighting, Minerva turned Zach toward her.“What was that?” Minerva asked, unamused.“What?”“That sarcastic cynical stuff,” Minerva said, crossing her arms. “Are you trying to get killed? If you had done that to someone much more stern than Vinyaya, you would be dead.”“I know.” He sighed and wiped sweat away from his forehead. “I don’t know what came over me. I’ll make sure to cut down on the sarcasm toward my superiors. I’m going to have a bad time with someone like Lutsky.”“He isn’t a commander anymore,” Minerva said. “The Elite Agents got tired of him and his extremism and demoted him.”“Good. He was a terrible commander anyway. Now I don’t have to feel bad about being a jerk to him as much.” They both laughed at this. Zach looked up and saw the T-1 Typhoons and Aerial Defense Units suddenly change positions. They moved away from the battle at the temple entrance to around the Maelstrom Temple itself. The weapons on the helicopters were all aimed at the temple.“Looks like they are about to blow a hole in the place,” Zach noted, pointing to the fleet. Minerva looked up and nodded.“Perhaps that will distract these Stromlings long enough,” Zach said as he bent down to pick up his knife. “for us to enter the temple.” Minerva shrugged, and then held out the Injection Saw.“You know, I really hate this thing. I was barely able to hold up against you and even though these guys clearly are not as intelligent as you, it feels sloppy and wrong.”“Then take this,” Zach handed her the gun and the magazines he had picked up from Sherlock and Stranger’s Fire Hammer. “I can’t shoot at all with my left hand.” Minerva smiled as she accepted the weapon and ammo. Once she was set, the two turned back to battle, determined to defeat these Stromlings.

Andrewnuva199 · May 20, 2012

OOC: I'll be honest for a second before I write about Semick pulling the trigger. Atton, I'm just a bit hesitant to believe the facts you've been establishing about the enviroment of the Malestrom temple. It's not that I don't respect you or anything, or that I'm letting my personal views interfere about my judgement in roleplay. Rather, I'm a bit uncertain whether or not you have the ability to claim such important details of there being Malestrom armies waiting to onslaught the team, or that the temple's interior is in such a spacy-wacey state that it's effectively like a portal into some other realm.I'm not necessarily saying that inserting an idea like that would be against the rules. I know that after that guy was consistent with bringing up the Hotep III temple, that was inserted into the main plot by even PeabodySam himself. But I'm just having a bit of hard time accepting that we can just add a big detail in like that and then we all have to accept it. Perhaps its because I've been having the idea of Semick blowing the roof in developing for a while, and I'm just not happy with you suddenly declaring his effort will be futile. And since we have established a great deal about the Malestrom's strength, and that we're now at the belly of the beast, so to speak, we can expect things to get very strange and challenging. But just throwing the idea out there rubs me the wrong way, I suppose.This may not be the best idea to express, as it has slowed down our progress before, but I'm also just wanting to see PeabodySam's input on the idea of the temple's dimmensional properties. I think his last IC might've suggested that you were letting Palmer have a bit too much power, and perhaps it was also an implied message to you. And looking through PeabodySam's characters' own approach, they didn't have much in the way of anything like that when entering the temple. Heck, he's written that some teams are already getting through the temple with ease to reach the humungromus chamber with the statue. I'm guessing the Malestrom is being curiously selective about who it wants to play around with. OK, yes it's logically reasonable to assume that a chamber that's appearnetly " larger than the Aztec Village itself, with a ceiling that seemed to reach higher than Dino Attack Headquarters" would be something that would seem more plausible for a building that's bigger on the inside, but it's still a notable leap to get "Malestrom spacial illusions" out of that.If there's one thing I'm just wondering about, its if PeabodySam actually gave you this info, and you're just getting the situational opprotunity to reveal it. If we can confirm that, I'll just shut up and play along. Or if we just agree its a better for the story, I'll continue along with it as well. But as it is right this moment, I'm still a little hesitant about it.

avmatoran · May 20, 2012

OOC:Hmm. I'll try to cut down on the inter-dimensional stuff this originally had.IC:Dr. Cyborg's team ran into the chamber, and everybody else but them disappeared. They were the only ones in the chamber."Maelstrom, reveal yourself!" Dr. Cyborg commanded. "No, he won't," a Stromling in the corner said. "I will speak for him." "Let us into the main chamber!" Katarina said. "Why? What's in it for the Maelstrom?" the Stromling replied. Dr. Cyborg cast around for a reason appealing to the Maelstrom. "Well, you could corrupt us easier at the vortex," Cyborg replied."Be honest. You really want to help your friends. But fine. The Maelstrom accedes to your request. It should be amusing." The Stromling disappeared, and a door opened in the side wall, through which the real main chamber could be seen. The team entered.

Atton Rand · May 20, 2012

OOC: I'm just trying to make sense of all this. I know that originally the Maelstrom was supposed to be supernatural but we've already been going into detail about the science in how it takes over Stromlings. Personally, I actually find the idea of the Maelstrom being an inter-dimensional being kinda interesting. This also explains a few other things, since it's been established that the Maelstrom is capable of warping reality, which makes sense now because we know it is an alternate reality created by the Maelstrom, hence the reason why it is able to mess around with people more easily (i.e. projections, shifting the layout of the halls).In terms of the people already entering the temple I thought I somewhat addressed that. We actually saw earlier even Garry had little difficulty entering, entering is easy. It's just once you're inside that things get rough. I'm not sure exactly who's entered now or where they're at, or how they got past Palmer's army, though I suppose its possible that the Maelstrom's being more of a Chess master, subtly manipulating them and putting them into a false sense of security so that it can start throwing things at them at the right moment.

Jacks · May 20, 2012

OOC: If I might weigh in: I also agree that the temple is larger on the inside, probably due to reality warping, but Atton, you're making it sound almost like it's the Torn World all over again -- i.e., the inside of the temple is completely cut off from the outside world. I think that even if the inside is spacey-wacey, blowing a hole in the roof will still allow access to a significant part of the inside.And I have to confess, you are throwing a lot of stuff out here very fast. If you've cleared it with PeaSam, that's all well and good, but if not..well, like Andrewnuva, I am also finding some of this a bit extreme, even for the climax of a plot arc.

Edited May 20, 2012 by Jackson Lake

Atton Rand · May 20, 2012

OOC: Well, like I said, I'm just trying to make this make some degree of sense. After all, even for an entity like the Maelstrom warping reality isn't an easy thing... unless of course that reality was created by the Maelstrom and intended to be altered so that it could do all the things it does. After all, I honestly find it hard to believe that if this were just a temple, the Maelstrom could physically shift around hallways and such, at least not a subtly as has been shown. In fact, come to think of it, how exactly could the temple be physically bigger on the inside without some form of dimensional shifting, since it would be physically impossible for it to be present in the same plane of existence as the outside.Also, for the record, even discounting my concepts, blowing a hole in the roof wouldn't allow you to observe what's going on inside. Depending on the size of the hole, maybe you could see something, but not really enough to get the full picture, especially since you're in the air, and destroying the entire ceiling wouldn't allow you to see inside, all it would do is reduce the temple to ruins and probably crush to death any and all people inside.

Jacks · May 20, 2012

OOC: I'm not arguing against dimensional shifting, I'm only arguing against the proposition that said dimensional shifting cuts off the dimension inside the temple from the rest of the world. It's like the TARDIS -- the inside is another dimension, but when the Titanic-in-space collided with it, it still smashed a hole into the control room.There's also the fact that this was not always a Maelstrom temple. From the descriptions PeaSam has given of the process, it sounds like the Maelstrom just infests and inhabits a preexisting structure, and under those conditions I'm not sure it would alter the interior quite so drastically.

PeabodySam · May 20, 2012

OOC: Apologies for leaving with such short notice, but this past week I had a little... business trip up to Niagara Falls. Now that I'm back, let's see what......Oh dear.Okay, so maybe I should have made this a little clearer. That's my fault, because I was deliberately trying to avoid the issue. But, when I wrote about the Maelstrom basically telling Palmer to stop acting so over-powered... that was intended as commentary on the fact that Atton Rand is really playing up how powerful Palmer seems to be. Yes, Palmer is in the same chamber as a Maelstrom vortex, but how could a mere Stromling summon an army of thousands of invincible Stromlings? I basically wanted to call off the attack, but I realize now that I did not make that clear enough. The explanation as to why even the Maelstrom cannot summon an army of invincible Stromlings at this point will be made clear in this IC.As for the Maelstrom Temple's location, I imagined it a distance away from the mainland so that it could not be so easily accessed by boat (i.e. the boat would dissolve in the Maelstrom sea long before it could reach the island), and the island in question is only large enough to host the temple itself; nothing else.The Maelstrom Temple's interior, I had never confirmed to be an alternate dimension. I consider it part of the main dimension; we don't need another Torn World in here. That being said, it's not impossible for the Maelstrom to reshape its interior to confuse and disorient travelers, but not to such a great extent (think of the Dark Hunters fortress in BIONICLE: Legacy of Evil, in which the tunnels and passageways can change to trap intruders, but you can still eventually find your way). The arrival of Adventure and other Dino Attack agents, such as the one killed by Provencal, shows that it's not impossible to find your way through into the temple.One last thing... I'm going to add Trigger to the Dino Attack database, but seeing as he's a mercenary who was hired by Dino Attack Team, it seems unlikely that he would have achieved Elite Agent status. Do you just want to Handwave it and say that he's an Elite Agent (basically, carry over your elite membership from Zenna, as TC01 did with Reptile)? Or would you prefer something else?Also, a bit of Fridge Logic: why would Trigger, who seems like the kind of mercenary who is hired to go in, shoot and kill, and get it over with as quickly as possible, have been hired against Paradox? While Paradox is not exactly 100% trusted by its fellow Nexus Force factions, it is still a heroic organization whose sole enemy is the Maelstrom itself, and I don't see the Maelstrom hiring Trigger... Essentially, while Paradox is a "dark is not evil" organization, XERRD is the rogue group that dares to cross the "even evil has standards" standards of Paradox. And since he's not currently hired by XERRD, I don't think it would have been XERRD that hired Trigger to do jobs against Paradox...And now, for the first part of a post I've been waiting a while to post...IC: The battle continued to rage in the Maelstrom Temple chamber as the Dino Attack Team reinforcements arrived. The sounds of guns and lasers firing, rockets exploding, magic whizzing by, and the occasional corny one-liner that did not sound as awesome as Rick "Adventure" Spherus had hoped filled the chamber.Rex watched from his wheelchair as Frank Einstein confronted Michelle Glados. With the latter teleporting all over the chamber in flashes of orange and blue light, they fired rockets at each other whenever they could. Rex could see that Einstein actually was not interested in killing Glados; he was just buying time so that he could figure out how to use the temple's Imagination to destroy the Maelstrom for once and for all."You are weak, Einstein," taunted Glados in a monotone voice. "You always have been. Your emotions and inexplicable attachment to the girl make you a weak fool.""Take off your petty facade," mused Einstein. "You may try acting all emotionless, but I know who you really are. You believe that you are invincible, but that's just a designation that you have placed upon yourself. Deep down, you harbor the bitter, anger, and sad feelings of a poor little girl who was lonely.""Oh," retorted Glados in a way that would have sounded sarcastic if it were not so monotone. "The only thing you've managed to break so far is my heart. Maybe you could settle for that and call it a day? I guess we both know that isn't going to happen.""Come now," continued Einstein. "Emotions are what make us Minifig, what makes us who we are. You could have had friends if you wanted to. But you chose to become bitter and unlikeable, justifying it through your misconception that emotions make you weak. It's all one big mistake, Chell.""Shut up," snapped Glados, who teleported right next to Einstein. Her face appeared as bored as ever, except for that slight twitch that suggested that she was holding back a scowl. "Your life is a mistake. A mathematical error I am about to-"Rex saw Dr. Einstein’s eyes widen. “No!” the scientist cried out. “Get out of here!”Rex strained his neck to look over his shoulder. He was surprised to see Lord Sam Sinister von Barron stumble into the chamber, followed by Greybeard and Frozeen. In Sinister’s hand was what appeared to be a Brickonium Energy Crystal, but it glowed with a purple aura. The Lord von Barron opened his mouth to speak, but then the crystal glowed even brighter than before.Suddenly, the miniature Maelstrom vortex in the chamber seemed to increase tenfold in size. A wave of dark purple energy knocked everyone back like a howling wind, so powerful it nearly tore them apart. Bolts of lightning shot out from the Maelstrom vortex as a form began to take shape in the center of the black hole.At first, there was only a pair of eyes, glowing bright violet in the darkness. Then, the rest of the figure appeared, taking on the form of a Minifig in a top hat. He wore a long, black suit jacket and carried a jeweled scepter in one hand. The Minifig’s face bore sideburns, a goatee, and crow’s feet, and for a moment Rex thought it was Dr. Rex. But when Rex studied his features, he saw that the Minifig was much older, with a look of chaos and madness in his eyes that made Dr. Rex look like a sane man in comparison.“In sleep,” the figure in the Maelstrom spoke in a hypnotic sing-song tone, “I spoke to you. In dreams, I came. That voice which calls to you and speaks your name.”“And do I dream again?” froze Lord Sam Sinister. “For now I find… the Darkitect is here, not in my mind.”The figure in the Maelstrom smiled and laughed coldly. “Yes. The Darkitect. That is what they call me now.”“I… I recognize you now!” shouted Dr. Einstein. “You’re Baron Typhonus! You’re one of the four explorers who discovered Planet Crux – you’re the one who created the Spider Boss – the Maelstrom!”“Indeed,” nodded Baron Typhonus. “You always knew I was there, although you were always too afraid to admit it. You clung your beliefs to the old legends, that I had perished that fateful day on Crux. Yes, my… pet did not see me as its master, but when it dragged me into the Imagination Nexus, I became far more powerful than I could have ever possibly imagine! I control the limitless potential of chaos, and even now I show the universe just how much greater Imagination is when it exists free of rules.”“Though destruction?” spat Frank Einstein.A bolt of lightning flew out of the Maelstrom vortex, striking Dr. Einstein. The scientist flew across the chamber, hit the far wall, and crumpled to the floor.“You Assembly builders think you’re so elitist,” chuckled Baron Typhonus. “You think you know everything there is to know about imagination in its purest form. But you cling onto the pathetic code of honor established by the First Builders, and so you have no idea of its true potential.”“That’s…” wheezed Einstein, “where you’re wrong…!”“Oh, yes, I am forgetting something,” smirked Baron Typhonus. “You’re Paradox too. Tapping into the Maelstrom in a futile effort to understand it. But you are simply an observer… it’s one thing to study the Maelstrom, it’s another to be the Maelstrom!”Kate Bishop rushed to Dr. Einstein, helping him to his feet. “And you, Kate Bishop,” continued Baron Typhonus, “such an innocent and pretty little thing. Lied to and deceived by everyone you know… your mother Sarah, who never told you what happened to your uncle Wallace; this man Einstein, who stole your uncle’s identity and has proven himself to be a traitor that no one can trust… and you, deceiving yourself this entire time, thinking that you’ll survive your mistake of joining the Dino Attack Team, a rash error made on poor judgment and an inability to realize the true horrors of war. Of course, things always are significantly worse when your commanding officer spends his free time abusing children.”Rotor flinched at that last comment.“And you, Peter Abody,” Baron Typhonus turned his attention to Frozeen. “How does it feel knowing that your past is so heavily linked to the Brickster? Did your time as The Phantom teach you that you cannot hide from your past? Are you still trying to forget about what you did to your old friend, Rebel Drone?”Frozeen’s face paled. “That wasn’t me!” he insisted. "I wasn't-"Baron Typhonus laughed. "I see you are still trying to blame it on the so-called 'Baron von Brickthief'. I guess your time as The Phantom taught you nothing after all."“What do you want?” snapped Rex.The Baron turned his attention towards Rex. “Ah, if it isn’t Elite Agent Rex. Once, you had power and respect. And now, what are you? A cripple. And worse. Tick, tock, tick, tock. Time really is a MegaBlok, isn’t it?”Rex was confused, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dr. Einstein’s eyes widen. “Oh?” mused the Baron. “You haven’t told him? And here, I thought that friendship was based upon honesty. But then again, Einstein, your reputation for honesty is far from clean, isn’t it? No matter, I can show him… myself!”Behind him, Rex heard Amanda Claw gasp and jump back. Rex looked down and was startled by what he saw: purple tendrils of Maelstrom energy wrapping around his legs. They moved like tentacles, but brushed against his body like a gentle breeze. Before he could do anything, his lower half was completely enveloped in Maelstrom energy.“Now, rise,” commanded Baron Typhonus.A surge of energy rushed through Rex’s legs. Instantly, Rex felt life in his once-lifeless limbs. Slowly and hesitantly, he wiggled his left foot. Gripping his handlebars for support, Rex slowly rose from his wheelchair and felt the temple floor meet his feet. Looking down upon himself, Rex realized he was standing. Standing! A thrill of joy, life, and energy rushed through his entire being. “How did you…?” murmured Rex, amazed.“Rex, no,” whispered Amanda. “It’s a trick, don’t trust him.”Rex turned back to face Amanda, and he saw that her expression was full of concern. This snapped him back to LEGO Planet. He knew he could trust her; they had learned during the LEGO Island mission the importance of complete honesty. Baron Typhonus, this shady being who created the Maelstrom, could not be trusted. Slowly, Rex turned to face the Baron once more. “You still haven’t answered my question,” he muttered grimly. “What do you want?”“To speak,” replied Baron Typhonus, turning his attention back towards Lord Sam Sinister, “with you, as one former baron to another. You remind me much of myself when I was your age… ambitious, proud, unafraid to do what must be done. So full of potential for greatness. In fact, this is a most rare occasion… I see you have brought me the Maelstrom Crystal, just as I asked of you.”Lord Sam Sinister nodded grimly, glancing down at the purple crystal in his hand.“No,” whispered Dr. Einstein.“Do you know what is so special about this crystal?” explained Baron Typhonus. “It was created by XERRD, while they still worked for Paradox, from crystallized samples of Maelstrom discovered at the ruins of the Mythran Temple on Crux Prime… the site where I had created both the Spider Boss and the Maelstrom so many years ago, now the one place in the whole universe where the Maelstrom is at its absolute full power. Since it was created from these immensely powerful energies, the Maelstrom Crystal contains an incredibly high concentration of Maelstrom. All the Maelstrom you see here, in this temple, is a mere fraction of the power contained in this crystal. It was created so that XERRD could have an ample amount of Maelstrom to study while on LEGO Planet, where my influence is not so great. However, it proved far too powerful and volatile, and when XERRD foolishly brought it to this Temple of Creation so that they may study its power, it reacted violently with the Imagination and corrupted this temple. To keep the corruption from spreading too quickly, XERRD locked away the Maelstrom Crystal in a pyramid on the other side of the island, but then, by no coincidence, it fell into your hands, Lord von Barron.”“You have told me that you wanted this crystal,” frowned Sam Sinister, “but why?”“Don’t you see?” grimaced Baron Typhonus. “My powers, even here, are far too weak. Although the Maelstrom Crystal corrupted most of the Imagination in this temple, just enough remains trapped in that orb, just enough to keep me at bay, just enough to contain my powers. If I am to extend my influence beyond this temple, I must overcome this barrier. Of course, since I grow more powerful with every passing day, I could wait it out until my presence here is strong enough to overcome this obstacle myself, but that would take far too long. The Maelstrom Crystal… it still contains such a high concentration of Maelstrom from Crux Prime that it can easily blotch out the Imagination and let me have my way. Of course, my energies would grow so powerful it could destroy everyone in this temple, but I’d hate to see such potential in you wasted. So, I shall spare you, Lord von Barron, but only if you pass this loyalty test. Give me the Maelstrom Crystal, and your destiny shall be sealed. You shall become my ally, and I shall grant you more power than you could ever possibly imagine. We were both once merely barons… and you, like me, can become something so much greater. Give me the Maelstrom Crystal.”“Don’t listen to him!” cried Dr. Einstein.“Silence, you old fool!” snapped Baron Typhonus. A bolt of lightning shot out of the Maelstrom vortex and struck the scientist once again.Rex opened his mouth to speak, but Baron Typhonus glared at him. “This is Lord Sinister’s test,” the Baron hissed. “None of you may interfere, or share the doctor’s fate.”Lord Sam Sinister stared down at the purple crystal, glowing in his hand. For several terrible minutes, he was silent in thought. At last, he raised his head and locked eyes with Baron Typhonus with such grim determination that no one had ever before seen on the face of the Lord von Barron.“For many years,” declared Lord Sinister, “I have hunted treasure across the globe in my quest to become rich and wealthy, driven by my greed. For years, my rivals have always managed to be one step ahead of me, and for the brief intervals in which I was ahead, I would fall behind… or rather, fall into a trap. What would I give to have the unlimited power that I so desire?”Baron Typhonus smiled darkly, and Rex paled. Maelstrom energy poured out of the vortex, inching towards Lord Sinister like two, smoky claws. Rex tried to take a step towards Sinister to warn him, but his legs would not comply. The Baron opened his mouth to speak, but Lord Sinister abruptly cut him off.“But now, after all these years, I see. I see as I have never before. In the past, I’ve always been blind, and that is how my rivals have always bested me. I’d blindly miss a crucial detail that would lead to my downfall. I’d blindly believe that I would win in the end. I’d blindly stumble into a… trap. And I am tired of being blind. I am tired of losing. I am tired of traps. And, for all my years of experience with traps, only now do I see clearly. This is a trap. Your promises of power and greatness, they are worth no more to me than that random yellow gem in the Temple of Mount Everest, or the treasure chest guarded by the scorpion’s claws in the Scorpion Palace. I am not a fool, Baron Typhonus! You are right about one thing, that I have a potential for greatness… but history shall not remember Lord Sam Sinister von Barron as the coward who always falls into traps. History shall remember me as the world’s greatest man who resisted your temptations and saved the world from destruction, and I do not even need Cleoptatra’s lousy time machine to accomplish this! Baron Typhonus, as the Lord von Barron, I reject your trap! I… SHALL NOT… FALL INTO ANY… MORE… TRAPS!”Everyone stared at the Lord von Barron with shock and awe. With that, Lord Sinister flung the Maelstrom Crystal onto the cold, stone floor and raised his foot, as though he intended to crush it under his boot.Baron Typhonus’s face contained barely-controlled fury. “Then you have sealed your doom,” he hissed. With that, his face underwent a most horrid transformation. His skin melted away, unveiling a skull blacker than night. His empty eye sockets were illuminated by bright red orbs that burned like fire. His suit turned pitch-black and featureless, and his cape became torn and frayed at the edges. Baron Typhonus, or rather the Darkitect, laughed, the horrible sound echoing through the chamber and resonating through the temple’s hallways.Frozeen was the first to act. He dived towards Lord Sinster and knocked out of the way before the claw-like tendrils of Maelstrom slammed into the spot where he stood moments before. The Maelstrom Crystal could not be picked up, but instead rolled away. In response, a pair of Stromling Explorers rose from the ground and lumbered towards the crystal.“Don’t let them get it!” shouted Rex, running alongside Amanda towards the Maelstrom Crystal. Greybeard fired at one Stromling Explorer with his flintlock pistol while Rotor gunned the other down with his weapon. As soon as the Stromlings were down, though, two more rose to take their place. Rotor continued to fire upon the Stromlings, while Greybeard was close enough to pick up the Maelstrom Crystal. With some hesitation, the pirate did so, knowing that it would alert every Maelstrom being in the area to his presence.Stromling Explorers rose by the dozen. Ignoring everyone else in the temple, they now limped towards Greybeard. A screech from high above gave away revealed that Mutant Pterosaurs now circled around the temple. Lord Sinister, the only one who could hold the crystal without attracting their attention, was still trying to recover, but Greybeard was already running. OOC: And now, the grand chessmaster of the Maelstrom and the Dino Attack is revealed: Baron Typhonus, also known as "The Darkitect". Our goal now? Keep the Maelstrom Crystal away from the Maelstrom until we can figure out how to stop it! And if you aren't already in the Maelstrom Temple, sounds like you've got some Mutant Pterosaurs (as well as other Mutant Dinos, presumably) to deal with...By the way, everything that I was writing for Lord Sam Sinister von Barron during this story arc has been building up to that moment. I hope it payed off well.

Atton Rand · May 21, 2012

OOC: Apologies for leaving with such short notice, but this past week I had a little... business trip up to Niagara Falls. Now that I'm back, let's see what......Oh dear.Okay, so maybe I should have made this a little clearer. That's my fault, because I was deliberately trying to avoid the issue. But, when I wrote about the Maelstrom basically telling Palmer to stop acting so over-powered... that was intended as commentary on the fact that Atton Rand is really playing up how powerful Palmer seems to be. Yes, Palmer is in the same chamber as a Maelstrom vortex, but how could a mere Stromling summon an army of thousands of invincible Stromlings? I basically wanted to call off the attack, but I realize now that I did not make that clear enough. The explanation as to why even the Maelstrom cannot summon an army of invincible Stromlings at this point will be made clear in this IC.As for the Maelstrom Temple's location, I imagined it a distance away from the mainland so that it could not be so easily accessed by boat (i.e. the boat would dissolve in the Maelstrom sea long before it could reach the island), and the island in question is only large enough to host the temple itself; nothing else.The Maelstrom Temple's interior, I had never confirmed to be an alternate dimension. I consider it part of the main dimension; we don't need another Torn World in here. That being said, it's not impossible for the Maelstrom to reshape its interior to confuse and disorient travelers, but not to such a great extent (think of the Dark Hunters fortress in BIONICLE: Legacy of Evil, in which the tunnels and passageways can change to trap intruders, but you can still eventually find your way). The arrival of Adventure and other Dino Attack agents, such as the one killed by Provencal, shows that it's not impossible to find your way through into the temple.One last thing... I'm going to add Trigger to the Dino Attack database, but seeing as he's a mercenary who was hired by Dino Attack Team, it seems unlikely that he would have achieved Elite Agent status. Do you just want to Handwave it and say that he's an Elite Agent (basically, carry over your elite membership from Zenna, as TC01 did with Reptile)? Or would you prefer something else?Also, a bit of Fridge Logic: why would Trigger, who seems like the kind of mercenary who is hired to go in, shoot and kill, and get it over with as quickly as possible, have been hired against Paradox? While Paradox is not exactly 100% trusted by its fellow Nexus Force factions, it is still a heroic organization whose sole enemy is the Maelstrom itself, and I don't see the Maelstrom hiring Trigger... Essentially, while Paradox is a "dark is not evil" organization, XERRD is the rogue group that dares to cross the "even evil has standards" standards of Paradox. And since he's not currently hired by XERRD, I don't think it would have been XERRD that hired Trigger to do jobs against Paradox...And now, for the first part of a post I've been waiting a while to post...

OOC: A lot of that was a series of unfortunate misunderstandings on my part. Let me try to address these issues one at a time.The whole thing with Palmer was the result of the way I saw the Maelstrom working (or at least this is how he thought it worked, and for intents and purposes since most of those posts were from his point of view and I had no real evidence to the contrary I wrote it as though it were fact). I know the Maelstrom is supposed to be alive, but I had no idea it was a conscious, corporeal being. I always assumed it was just kinda an impossible to understand non-corporeal life form that subtly corrupts others but leaves how it is used in the hands of others, and with characters like Ahua and Zachary seemed to support the idea that it was controlled by specific Stromlings (at least that was how I interpreted them). The theory was that by getting to the temple while there was a power vaccuum, Palmer would be able to harness that power and take control. Also you never really made it clear that you intended to recall the Stromling army. From you post, I was a bit confused and I just sort of got the impression that the Maelstrom was telling Palmer to keep doing what he was doing, just not to take credit for it.The theory is basically that at the source of the Maelstrom, Stromlings are more powerful than normal because... well, they're so close to the source of their power. We've seen before how the Maelstrom provides for a Stromling, including the ability to quickly heal wounds. Now the theory is that the ammount of time it takes for the damage to heal on a Stromling is much shorter when in closer proximity to the source of the Maelstrom's power (if only because it doesn't have to reach as far), hence rather than taking a few seconds, their wounds heal almost instantaneously unless you can perform a very swift decapitation. One of those would put up a good fight, but when you got large numbers of these, it's made all the worse. That's the basic principle behind the "invincible Stromlings" idea. Granted I can on some level see why summoning the whole army was a bit extreme, but I think on some level the basic principle makes some form of sense.For Trigger, I never really intended him to be an elite agent, he's just very arrogant, so putting him as a standard agent would make a certain degree of sense, unless of course you want to make a whole new list of "guns for hire". Again, I haven't played LEGO Universe, so any and all other references are based on descriptions from other players. I always took Paradox to be some kind of... not necessarily evil, but really shady, very top secret reclusive organization that did some questionable experiments with the Maelstrom (hence the reason he actually knows what he's doing, as he may have read through notes recorded by scientists and possibly had to fight Stromlings in the process). Of course, Trigger isn't really the kind of guy who thinks in black-and-white. How many times to I have to say this? He's a mercenary, he doesn't care who he's working for what their plans are, he just works for whoever offers him the most hard cash.

Jacks · May 21, 2012

OOC: The Lego Universe Wiki is a fantastic resource for those of us who never got the chance to play the MMO. I only just discovered it a few days ago, but I think it could be indispensable for preventing future misunderstandings such as this one.

How many times to I have to say this? He's a mercenary, he doesn't care who he's working for what their plans are, he just works for whoever offers him the most hard cash.

We all get that, but it doesn't stop our characters from being very irritated with him.

I think what PeaSam and the rest of us are really wondering about is not the fact the Trigger was hired, but who would have hired him. And if you come up with/already have an answer to that enigma, that leaves you with a fantastic opportunity for making dramatic stuff happen. X) Edited May 21, 2012 by Jackson Lake

Brikman McStudz · May 21, 2012

OOC: And so Baron Typhonus makes his first official appearance and his first reference as the Darkitect.Atton, I agree with Jackson Lake that, for future reference, go to the LEGO Universe Wiki for anything related to LEGO Universe (Maelstrom, Paradox, etc.). I have only played the F2P of LEGO Universe, but that wiki provided a lot of information and gave me an idea of how to write Stromling!Zach. I'd also like to say that Ahua and Zach were more of using the Maelstrom's power with the Darkitect's assistance rather than actually controlling it themselves. Sorry about that confusion.IC:Zach swung the knife down violently. It clashed with a metallic bang on a Stromling's gun arm. It looked at him with a brain-dead grin, as if it had the upper-hand. Zach smirked at it and punched it square in the face with his cybernetic hand. The Stromling flinched and stumbled, allowing Zach to slide the knife into the Stromling's chest.As it fell backward, he heard a gunshot from behind followed by a freakish squeal from a Stromling. He knew that Minerva was right behind him, shooting any Stromling that got to close to the duo."This is a waste of time!" he yelled to Minerva, trying to communicate of the loud sound of the battle. "They are just going to keep coming!" As soon as he finished the sentence, another Stromlings materialized ahead of him and started firing at him. He ducked and moved out of the line fire. Minerva quickly turned and fired her own weapon, placing a bullet into the head of the Stromling."So what are suggesting?" she asked, helping him back to his feet. "Head into the Maelstrom Temple?""Exactly," he said. Suddenly, many loud screeches filled the air. Zach glanced up and saw Mutant Pterosaurs swarming around the temple, clawing at its roof viciously. Some split off from the main group and headed toward temple entrance. "Go! Now!" he roared. Zach and Minerva quickly ran to the entrance of the temple as Mutant Pterosaurs dived into the midst of the battle, snapping and clawing at anything within reach.They pushed past the arch and were met with a long hallway filled with dark fog and mist. Minerva turned and shot two Stromlings that had tried to pursue them. "Alright, so do you have any idea where to go?""I have a rough idea. There should be a-" Zach was cut off as sharp, stabbing pain suddenly appeared in his head. He clutched his head, filling extremely dizzy. A variety of images suddenly flashed through his head. An old man being tossed aside by purple lightening, a purple Brickonium crystal, a swirling vortex, what seemed like hundreds of Space Marauders and Sorcerers. Then he found himself on his knees on the floor of the chamber where he had fought his last battle as a Stromling. His heart was racing, threatening to burst from his chest. A migraine so powerful threatened his sanity. Get...away... was all he managed to think. He closed his eyes, concentrating on see Minerva again, and forced himself to back-away.His heart-rate returned to normal and the migraine subsided to a minor headache. He rested his back against the chamber wall, breathing heavy. He looked on in horror as he watched Ahua scream. His scream was suddenly silenced and he fell over, clutching his heart. Ahua's body suddenly faded away into dust. Then entire scene then faded away, replaced with a solid black scenery. Two red eyes suddenly flashed open, and a dark chuckle echoed throughout Zach's mind.You're next, the voice said monotonously. Without a chance to respond, Zach suddenly returned to reality."-chary! Wake up!" Minerva's voice suddenly came into focus. It was shaking and full of fear. He opened his eyes and was aware he was on his knees, clutching the ground tightly. His head pounded softly."Zach!" Minerva cried, her voice becoming more frantic as she shook his shoulder. He nodded to her, touching her hand with his own. She helped him up and looked at him, her face full of fear."What happened?""I don't know," he said, still trying to make sense of the images the Maelstrom flashed through his head. "I...think Ahua is dead. The Maelstrom killed him.""What? Why would-?""I don't know, but it says I'm next." He crouched and picked up the knife he had dropped. "I think something bad is happening. Really bad. The Maelstrom is making its final moves. It's is so close to its victory. We need to get to the main chamber quickly." He would have to rely on fuzzy memories of this temple's layout and traps that the Maelstrom gave him when he was Stromling. He regretted never actually stepping foot in this temple while a Stromling."Do you know where to go?""I think so, but I wouldn't put it past the Maelstrom to try and stir us wrong." As he said that, he knew the Maelstrom would lead him right the main chamber. It desperately wanted to kill him, and it knew the best way was bringing him into the main chamber. "When we get to the main chamber, stay close to me. Just in case I have another attack like this.""Like I had any intention of leaving you," Minerva replied. She holstered her weapon and pulled out a small cigarette lighter from her vest. She flipped it on, providing a small light that would hopefully them traverse the dark fog. He nodded to her, and they started to walk into the mist.

Andrewnuva199 · May 21, 2012

OOC: Glad we got some things cleared up. I'll hold back Semick's attack for a smidge longer, but I can get some bits of progress done.Also, nice job with Sam Sinister's story arc semi-resolution there.IC: Rockford observed with resignation as Trigger and two other agents began heading over on the bridge. He supposed that now, more than ever, the battle must've been in progress now. At this point, he figured he would have to get over there soon, but not quite yet.He had asked for a coulple dozen agents and the ADU to stay behind and prepare for watching over the area in front of the bridge and zip lines. That, and he was hoping that he could lessen the use of the bridge. He didn't know how much more it could take, and to be frank, he was getting more and more nervous to see agents cross it.I hope those hose guys by the entrance finish fighting the ambush and get inside soon, Rockford though. If they haven't cleared up already, that area isn't going to hold all-HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!Rockford's blood ran cold, and his eyes widened. He felt the vibrations in the ground, and heard an ever-growing small rumble of large limbs pounding into the ground, sounding closer and closer."Trigger!" he shouted towards the bridge, stopping the agent and his companions in their steps. "Forget the temple, we have company!"Without waiting for a response, Rockford ran towards the Fire Hammer he and Hertz had just sat in. Clamoring in, he reached the driver's seat and did his best to reconize and use the driving and weapon controls.Those sounds...., he thought, dear Ole, that sounded like one heck of a horde. One of emenies or another must've wanted to continue the fight. But poor them, the only way to the main fight was-Horror washed over Rockford a second time. The Mutant Dinos may not all be able to reach the temple, but he knew that they were going to try however they could. And after taking who knows how many years of wear and a platoon of DIno Attack agents crossing it, when that bridge started recieving the horde...Outside, he started to see Mutant Lizards running past the vehicles and towards the cliffside and its rickity contstruct. The Raptors and T-Rexes wouldn't be far behind. Grabbing the Xenon Launcher controls in one hand and the radio in the other, he blared out a warning to the All Agents Bulliten signal."Dino Attack agents on the bridge! Dino Attack agents on the bridge! Get off immediately! I repeat, get off imediately! We have an incoming Mutant Dino horde, and they are headed for the temple bridge! And when they try to cross, I'm sure as Megablokland they're bound to snap it! I repeat, get off immediately before it leaves you under your feet!"---------------The mutant lizard at Stranger's side was making a split-second choice of its own - one that would perhaps resonate with what was to come.It's somewhat hard to describe the mindset of a Mutant Lizard. Surely, they're mostly driven by the instinct of an animal, but for one reason or another, be it the processes of its mutation, the influence of the Malestrom, or simply the workings of the LEGO Universe, they were smarter than the average beast, to an extent. Sometimes this doesn't show up beyond remembering what bits of the Minifig were the most tasty, but in others, like Stranger's little ally, something happens to drive them to think of something other than what they needed to attack.For this lizard, these aspects showed up minimally during its short timespan thus far on this world. It had taken to quite enjoying killing its prey. It thrilled at the feeling of besting and outsmarting emenies who might try ot oursmart or best it. And through growing with its brethern and their masters, it had been made to hate the Minifigs that were part of the opposing force Dino Attack. The large group of minifigs dedicated to try and stomp out their species for no real good reason.But a signifigant moment came when it first fought Stranger, back during a battle between regular and mutated dinosaurs that Stranger's group managed to walk into. It had tried to ambush him, having found a certain thrill to find a prey that was so preoccupied with one task as to not notice when another was approaching. But even with its attack, it had been bested, and he now had the scar on its eye to show it.It had retreated, scared for its life, and was suprised, when it had returned to the small alcolve in the rocks where it had made a dwelling, found that Stranger had not followed. Why would he not take the chance to kill it, espically when he seemed so gleeful at the prospect of killing the lizard's people? What was making him selective like that? Did that mean that Dino Attack Minifigs were more complicated that it had thought? It had to understand.So it went back and watched him. Watched as the extra groups of Minifigs came in in their vehicles and set up camp. Watched as they communicated, and did its best to try and understand what they were getting across. Watched as they eventually went out to the big place where its masters had set up home. It had watched as Stranger went with a group that broke into the massive place, and snuck around for nearly two rises of the sun.The lizard knew that though the place was a home to Mutant Dinosaurs, it would mean he would be left in a box with the bars until they had felt they were needed to fend off another attack. And with the masters' reliances on Minifigs in white wrappings and thick plating and big threathening guns, this meant it wouldn't get a chance to get to Stranger that way. The only option was to follow him and wait for the right moment.So it followed and waited for that long period of time, pusing away at starvation and tiredness and the odd feeling of boredom. It fueled itself on that curiosity, that disbelief, that revulsion that there was something more to these Dino Attack creatures. Then, as it heard comotion through the hallways under the vents, and as it heard Stranger release its brethern in an attempt to distract the masters, it had struck.It had disarmed him and, through some help from barely understanding plated servants of the masters, convinced the Dino Attack Minifig to fight him. Plain and dirty without any of their guns, like lizard younglings would in the few moments of inactivity. They had fought, and while the lizard had gotten thrill and adrenlaine from it, and began to see more and more similarities between him and it, it didn't really help satisfy its curiousity at all. It had begun to wonder if it had made a mistake.Then the place had rumbled. Dino Attack was destroying it. As the place fell apart, Stranger was taken out and left for dead. Instinctivelyy, the Mutant LIzard's choice was to drag him away out of the destruction to eat him. But when it had dragged itself out of the ruins and back to its alcove, it found he couldn't will himself to take the bite.It wanted to, it so wanted to so it could satisfy its hunger and instinct. But recalling how the Minifig had acted, realizing how he fought so similarily to it, it began to question its perspective on everything. Why would the emeny have such creatures that would act, somehow, almost like its brethern, and still want to kill them? Why were they being driven to kill all Minifig kind, and was it thus not a suprise that they would be doing the exact same thing to the Dinos? And the big one: Why were its masters mastering them, and why did they betray their own kind to help the Mutant Dinosaurs?So it simply fed on the local wildlife and already-dead brethern, bringing food back for Stranger when he awoke. And when he did awoke, he was suprised at his condtions, and talked in his language wondering what was going on. Applying all that he learned from how the Minifigs spoke, the Mutant Lizard did his best to communicate back, and after much, much trial and error, a connection was made.Soon they were talking to each other in terms they both could understand: their records in kills, their strengh in combat, their mutual opposition, insults directed at each other's mother. And through this, the lizard began to understood why Dino Attack fought, how they treated each other with the same levels of compassion and respect with brethern as well as dinos did, and Minifigs who did want to not kill the Mutant Dinosaurs even as much as they fought them.And through this, the Mutant Lizard heard about two signifigant things. One was Rex, the "Dino-Man" as it had described him to Stranger, the most amazing creature it had ever heard of. Appearently born as the first Mutant T-Rex ever, it had been given the job of becoming an ally of Dino Attack so it could destroy them from the inside, but by chance, it had instead befriended them and fought for them. Now, through circumstance and accidence, he was a full Minifig, having taken the original body of the master of the masters, who was now one of its own brethern.The lizard could recall some amount of celebration from its elders and brethern about the event that made their biggest master one of their own. It had been enjoyed with them at the time, but now, given what he had learned about why its masters did what they did, he felt more uncertain about being his leader. It now wanted to serve Rex, obey him like they many Dinosaurs that he had mastered to live with the Minifigs as well as the Dinos, and perhaps get across that it had, though indirectly, made an impact in the lives of the Mutant Dinos that had heard of him.The other was the Malestrom, the mysterious energy/entity that somehow existed in all Mutant Dinosaurs, and were responsible for their birth and many of their abilities. The lizard was distrubed to learn that it simply wished to destroy everything, and didn't even seem to hold much attention to its own kind, the kind it infected and made allies. Learning that, the lizard had made a mental vow to ignore those strange distructive instincts, those that had helped fuel its anger against Dino Attack Minifigs, and try to help in its destruction.And now, the Mutant Lizard was at the critical moment. The place far within the purple mist, the mist that, as it understood, represented what the Malestrom was doing to this world, was calling him, quite strongly. Something was in there beckoning to the instincts it knew the Malestrom was fueling, and from what it was hearing from afar, all its brethern could feel it and not resist.Something told the lizard that this could possibly spell death - or worse - from the beings that were within that place. But something else told it that if the Malestrom was to be stopped, all beings, be them Minifig or Mutant Dino, could do something now to help prevent something unimaginably horrible from happening, perhaps even to save its own brethern on some level or another from more wasteful death.And so, without warning to Stranger, as it began to hear shouting coming from the other Dino Attack Minifigs as the Mutant DInosaurs came closer, the Mutant Lizard bolted towards the bridge, past the MInifigs upon it, and raced towards the place across the mist with one main purpose: To stop the Malestrom, to save Dinosaur and Minifigkind. To save itself.

Atton Rand · May 21, 2012

OOC: The Lego Universe Wiki is a fantastic resource for those of us who never got the chance to play the MMO. I only just discovered it a few days ago, but I think it could be indispensable for preventing future misunderstandings such as this one.
How many times to I have to say this? He's a mercenary, he doesn't care who he's working for what their plans are, he just works for whoever offers him the most hard cash.
We all get that, but it doesn't stop our characters from being very irritated with him. I think what PeaSam and the rest of us are really wondering about is not the fact the Trigger was hired, but who would have hired him. And if you come up with/already have an answer to that enigma, that leaves you with a fantastic opportunity for making dramatic stuff happen. X)

OOC: Really? I was just looking at their page on Stromlings, and the most I got was a basic rundown of their role in LEGO Universe. I don't think it would help much with my depiction of Palmer.Personally, I initially assumed Trigger was just hired by some Elite Agent in Antarctica due to a shortage of volunteers. Still, the idea of their being another slightly more shady guy involved is quite fascinating.IC: "Oh, znap," muttered Trigger as he started to turn back. Cabin and Snake were quick to follow. Quickly, Trigger ran up to the fire hammer."What the znap is going on here?" Trigger asked, angrily. "You too scared? Is that it?""No," replied Trigger. "It's just that the mutant dinos-""Mutant dinosaurs," replied Trigger. "I finally agree to do your stupid suicide mission, and you pull me out for mutant dinosaurs. What's the matter, you never seen a mutant dinosaur before? You're supposed to be the Dino znapping attack team, and you panic over a couple o' genetically altered reptiles."

***

"Hello Zach," came a rather menacing voice from behind. Zachary and Minerva turned around, but in the thick mist all they could see was a shadowy figure, with glowing eyes.

"So this is Zachary," the figure muttered intimidatingly. "This is the oh-so-dangerous Stromling I've heard so much about. I'm going to have to say I'm rather disappointed."

"Who are you?"

"My name is Palmer. Like you I used to be a member of that wretched Dino Attack Team, until the Maelstrom showed me better.'

Andrewnuva199 · May 21, 2012

OOC: I'll just assume that when Rockford talked to himself, he was trying to talk to Rockford.IC: "I'm NOT panicing!" said Rockford sternly. "But when you hear a giant roar from what sounds like an extremely massive hoard of dinosaurs, I'd expect that you'd be aware that a long rickity old bridge that you've barely started crossing isn't the best place to be! Now take these cannon controls and keep us secure! I need to ensure we can secure this location from the horde, and all we have are a few dozen agents and several heavy abandoned vehicles littering the path!""What, you haven't even got a proper command post?!" Trigger asked incrediously. "How'd a man like you even become a ground commander?!" Rockford's mind flashed back for an instant to Mur's final moments. It was a sickly reminder that he hadn't exactly earned this level of command. But he was still needed, and he didn't like this overly cynical agent criticizing him right now. THe Mutant Raptors were starting to push in, and there were barely any vehicles manned. And the Lizards were already starting to cross the bridge. He could practically hear the loud creaking and bending of the fatigued planks."THis is not the time for discussing such matters," Rockford said with clenched teeth. "Now man that cannon while I do my job."

Benton Kabrinsky · May 21, 2012

OOC:Sorry I haven't posted for a while. My school gets really busy around this time of year.IC:"Wake up, B," an incessant voice came from the distance."C'mon, Dad... Just five more minutes," B said."Snap out of it, man! We need everyone awake!"B woke up and woozily sat up. As his vision adjusted to being awake, he took note of the figure kneeling by him."Sam! How the megablo...""Before I explain anything B," Sam said, "I want you to take note of anything out of the ordinary around here.""OK...."B scanned the immediate vicinity with as critical an eye as he could."Wrecked Fire Hammer, check. Crashed Agent's Jet, check. Flaming wreck of an Alpha Team chop... I see. And Rob's over there. Everything makes sense now. How are you, Sam?""I'm fine. Now, B, how are you doing? You survived some serious wrecks there.""I feel fine. That's odd. Considering the head wound, possible burns... I should be in a lot of pain. But I'm not. Did you give me anything?""I was just about to check to see if you needed any. This is strange. In my studies I didn't come across anything like this.""Your studies... Wait, don't tell me. You finished med school!""Focus, B. You aren't in any pain?""None."Sam stood up, paced for a few seconds as if in deep thought, and then stooped down again."How do you feel emotionally? Happy? Sad? Angry?""I can't really feel anything, but just... happy...ish.""Endorphin rush. Stronger, and yet different from the textbook cases. You're ready to go.""I knew that. What's our situation?""Somehow, we're doing fine. Yena might have had some brain damage, because of what he went through, but he'll pull through. He has an incredible force of will. Kev and Chris are as good as when they were awake, and Rob and I are fresh from Antarctica. I'd say we're ready to move.""Where? Last thing I remember, the rest of the team was headed somewhere, because this battle was a red herring.""We follow, then," said Chris."Alright then. Everyone, give me a status report.""Oh, a status report," said Kev. "Going all official on us, are you, B?""Can it. We finally have a chance to catch our breath and gear up, and I am not going to waste it. Got it?""Good point. We're all reloaded, and Chris and I scrounged all the ammo we could find.""Move out."OOC:So, where is the Maelstrom temple in relation to the... where everyone is now? How far is it, and is it feasible for my characters to walk there before the next bit of action? And will there be cookies?

avmatoran · May 21, 2012

OOC:At least they connected Andrewnuva, but don't you know insults to each other's mother crosses Tue line? :)I will IC later today.

that guy from that show · May 21, 2012

OoC:Sorry, I have not been posting very much. It's not that I'm busy, I've just been procrastinating. I'll probably do a Herz/Lutsky post latter today.Also, are there any objections to making any of my minifigures canon? If not I will go about adding them all to the wiki.Finally, crazylegoman, the mealstrom temple is about three and a half miles West by Southwest of the temple of Hotep III where B currently resides.

avmatoran · May 21, 2012

OOC:Yes, the Infiltrator is not canon. Or, at least, not for the X series..... http://www.bzpower.com/board/public/style_emoticons/default/sarcastic.gifIC:The team Dr. Cyborg led by default entered the main chamber just as Rex shouted, "Don't let them get it!"The team spread out. The Stromling Explorers charged at Greybeard. A Mutant Pterosaur shot lightning at him, and he dropped the crystal on accident. Dr. Cyborg ran to the crystal. He extracted the Maelstrom from the one in the lead, and put up his shield to keep the rest away. He stuck his gun arm through the shield and shot more. "Take the crystal!" he yelled. Amanda came up behind him and grabbed the crystal. She ran away from Dr. Cyborg.A Stromling did something so simple, no one expected it. An Explorer stuck its foot in front of her, and she tripped. The Crystal flew through the air, but just as a Stromling was about to get its sticky little fingers on it, Rex ran into him from behind with his weapon. The Stromling disentegrated, and Rex caught the Crystal.OOC:PeabodySam, have you checked your PMs since May 12?

Edited May 22, 2012 by avmatoran

Atton Rand · May 21, 2012

Also, are there any objections to making any of my minifigures canon? If not I will go about adding them all to the wiki.

OOC: Well let's see. I'm just going to go over them one by one and just re-evaluate them each. Here we go:The problem with Kate is that with both minifigs you make her look far too much like an action girl. The whole point of her character is that she's stuck in the middle of some place she doesn't belong and she just isn't cut out for that kind of thing.Fuchs is a lot better, far closer to my own vision. That one I think can be posted.Barry Jackson actually isn't too far off. I've had a few ideas of my own but I could never quite decide on what head to use, but I think the Han Solo head should work fine, the torso does look like military camouflage, so that's definitely a plus. Palmer I'd say is also relatively close to my own vision.I'm not quite so sure about Trigger. You more or less got the description, but I hadn't imagined him being quite so heavily armed. The crossbow and helmet are a bit of a stretch, as is the buzz cut (just short dark hair would be far closer). The torso is good, though I probably would have used that of Indiana Jones. The head on the other hand, has roughly the right expression, and the sunglasses are good, but I would have imagined him being a bit more clean-shaven, although I don't know, maybe it's just me being too close to the person who inspired it.Lance Williams looks about right. The over sized gun is a bit much but you more or less nailed the face.I'm also still not so sure about Windows. Honestly I'd imagine him being dressed a bit more casually (he is after all, not in the actual field).

Brikman McStudz · May 21, 2012

OOC: avmatoran, just an FYI: Greybeard had the crystal as of the end of PeabodySam's post. Might want to add that in somewhere.IC:Zach scowled as he looked into the mist. The shadowy figure called Palmer made no movements. He only continue to stare at him and Minerva."I was really hoping we wouldn't see these guys until we got to the main chamber," Minerva muttered. Zach nodded. His earlier idea of the Maelstrom wanting him to get to the main chamber seemed to be incorrect. However, this Stromling, Palmer, seemed to be of the organic Stromling kind, not one of the mindless slaves generated by the Maelstrom that lacked personality or individuality."I don't want to deal with this," Zach hissed to her. "Shoot him." Minerva raised her weapon and opened fire in the fog. The red eyes disappeared as bullets shot through the hallway. She kept firing until she heard an angry screech."Get back!" Minerva yelled. Suddenly, a Mutant Lizard shot out from the shadows. It rammed into Zach, tossing him to the side like a toy. He slammed into the wall, groaning, expecting the lizard to attack again. The Mutant Lizard walked toward Zach cautiously and sniffed him. Once satisfied, the lizard turned and continued its sprint down the hallway."What was that?" Minerva asked as she pulled Zach up again."I think," he said, pushing his hair away from the front of his face, "that was Stranger's Mutant Lizard friend." It seemed rather MegaBlok-bent on getting through the hallway. He wasn't sure, but he assumed the lizard had only returned to make sure Zach was a friendly and that he wasn't hurt before moving on."I wonder if Stranger is nearby," Minerva said, glancing down the hallway. However, the minifig didn't appear. They both winced as they heard screeches coming from the entrance followed by Minifig screams. The screeches were easily identifiable as Mutant Lizard screeches."They are trying to get into the temple," Minerva realized. Zach thought back to the purple Brickonium crystal that had appeared in his head. A horrible realization suddenly dawned on him. No. They couldn't be stupid enough to actually bring the crystal into the temple. Could they?"Keep an eye out for Palmer," Zach said to her. "He's still here somewhere. I need to concentrate for a moment." Minerva nodded and raised the weapon as she glanced down the hallway in search for the shadowy figure. Zach closed his eyes and tried to clear his mind, which ended up being a lot harder than he assumed it would be. However, eventually felt it.It was a small, almost faint feeling. Something was beckoning to him. Asking him to quickly find it. Even with its weak signal to his presumably Maelstrom-free brain, it told him where he needed to go. And go to the Maelstrom Crystal he would go. If that crystal was not taken out of the temple, the planet was doomed.He turned to Minerva, who was scanning the hallways. "Let's go," he said to her. "Now."A dark chuckle echoed through the hallways. "Who says you are going anywhere, Virchaus? Because I'm not.""You are, Palmer," Zach snapped. "If you knew what was good for you."Palmer's laugh rang throughout the hallway. "I suppose you know what's 'good' for me, right?""Oh, yeah. If you are as smart as I think you are, you'd be heading toward the main chamber. The crystal is in there, and your master wants it. He doesn't care about me. He wants the crystal, Palmer. And if finds out your dealing with petty Dino Attack Agents in the hallways instead of securing the crystal, well, think of what happened to Ahua." No counter-remark from Palmer, so Zach figured he had made his point."What are you talking about?" Minerva asked, a confused look on her face. "Crystal?""I explain once we are there. Just know that things are significantly more worse than I thought.""Is it your 'Maelstrom power' thing you mentioned earlier telling you this?""Yes." After discovering he could still pick up the Maelstrom Crystal's trace, its signal had grown and he could now detect it reasonably well. He could almost visually see the crystal changing hands rapidly, but it hasn't landed on the chosen one's hands yet. "Trust me. Follow me." With that, Zach took of in a sprint down the hallway, Minerva closely behind, both following the trace of the Maelstrom Crystal.

Atton Rand · May 21, 2012

The Stromling disentegrated, and Rex caught the Crystal.

OOC: Um... weren't you listening to any of the science I've been explaining repeatedly. Stromlings aren't that easy to kill, especially when they're right in front of the Maelstrom's source of power and can heal almost instantaneously.IC: Trigger quickly climbed into the back of the Fire Hammer and started trying to operate the cannon. It only took him a moment to start figuring out the basic controls. "Alright," he muttered. "We gotta act fast. Snake, Cabin, you two take a look around, see if you can find any weapons lying around or perhaps someone else who can use a gun. We're going to need everything we can get."

Andrewnuva199 · May 21, 2012

OOC: Um... weren't you listening to any of the science I've been explaining repeatedly. Stromlings aren't that easy to kill, especially when they're right in front of the Maelstrom's source of power

OOC: And Mutant Lizards are supposed to be able to adapt and not fall for the same tricks twice. And yet they keep ending up as the Redshirts for the Mutant Dino armies.We're in heat of battle mode, Atton, and I think most of us aren't really going to remember that each Stroming is more of an Elite Mook rather than just a Mook. You're just going to have to expect this here and there.Also, I'm suprised that Stranger's Lizard friend can run that fast to reach the temple interior in such a brief amount of time.IC later, I'm not quite in the writing mood right now, have to think my ideas out more.

that guy from that show · May 22, 2012

Hertz was halfway across the bridge when Rockford called out. Barely visible threw the fog he could glimpse the trees shake as the hoard burst threw the foliage and into the assembled agents.He was happy he could not see what was happening. The fog obscured any gore that was taking place, but Hertz could still hear it. All the screams of agents where apparent beyond the sounds of roars and gunfire, he recognized Rockford’s voice but he could not comprehend what it said.He looked around. All agents except him had vacated the bridge. He stood alone in the middle not knowing what way to run.Something made the hair on neck stand up. The air suddenly felt heavy and metallic with static electricity. He had experienced this feeling before at the battle of the forbidden ruins and he new exactly what it was.Hertz dived to the rotten planks as a thunderbolt shot threw the air. A mutant Pterosaur soured above his head and snapped at the agent. He rolled precariously close to the edge of the bridge and dangle over the presuppose. All that supported his weight was the ancient vines the held the structure together.Hertz looked over his shoulder at the maelstrom lake below. Again the fog covered most of the details but knowing all that separated him from a grisly death was a group of vines made it no less unsettling.OoC: It is a lake right? There are conflicting view points that the island is on the ocean.IC:The Mutant swooped down again and reached out to grab Hertz with its claws. Instead it hit the rope supports and caused the bridge to swing violently. The planks twisted and snapped and Hertz jumped to his feet and dived aside as the section he was just on fell to the maelstrom below.Everything was moving and the vines started to unwind. With the swaying it was impossible to bet a clear shot at the Mutant Pterosaur but he was able to lose a shot before he was knocked aside once again.His rifle skidded down the bridge far out of reach. It slid to the edge and almost tumbled over the side. Hertz jumped to his feet and ran but the Mutant Pterosaur swooped in behind him and knocked him to the planks owns again.The cast on his left arm did nothing to protect his already broken arm. The bones twisted and he screamed in pain.Above him the pterosaur hovered. It was ready to reach out and take its pray at its weakest.The talons reached out and clutched at Hertz. He rolled to the side of the bridge and was again saved by the vine supports. The Mutant attempted to grab him but its claws hit the rope instead.It shrieked in annoyance and pulled away but that only tangled the creature further. The more it struggled the more the bridge shacked. Hertz held on for dear life as it fell apart around him.The Mutant Pterosaur snapped at its feet in an attempt to free itself but instead severed the last of the ropes. Hertz rapped his leg around the vines as the structure finally gave way and tumbled down to the lake below.

* * *

Lutsky’s face was pressed to the window of the Reclaimer as chaos erupted outside. The chaos did not disturb him. His heart rate remained at a controlled and nonchalant level. He watched agents get torn apart but remained stoic. As if violence was normal and not something to be concerned by.He still watched. Certainly the situation outside was interesting and the observation of death and destruction would be an optimal way to pass the hours in till his impending trial.Certainly he would be proved innocent. Lutsky understood they had to work threw the procedure but at this stage it was only a technicality. Once they determined that Dust was a monster that disserved to die he would regain his respected position.A nearby explosion rocked the Reclaimer. X2 disappeared to one of the gun wells leaving Lutsky alone in the cold passenger compartment.He turned to look once more out the window and was knocked out of his seat by what he saw.Dust’s face was in the window. The Egyptian pressed his hand to the porthole and looked eyes with the former commander who stared into the icy eyes with terror.“Leave me!” bellowed Lutsky.Dust remained framed in the window and pointed his finger at Lutsky. He yelled and punched the window shattering the glass and slashing his hand.The face of Dust disappeared.OoC:Atton, is your problem with Kate looking like an action girl rooted in her pose or her appearance? Also Windows is an elite agent. He did not get that position from sitting at a desk. Being an elite agent means that he would need to be a relatively well rounded agent with skills in combat, leadership, and strategy. Therefore he must have experience in field work.Andrewnuva199 and avmatoran, do you have any objection to making your characters canon? You did not give me a solid answer on the infiltrator in particular.

avmatoran · May 22, 2012

OOC:Post it, but don't label it as an X series. I'll find a use for it.

Atton Rand · May 22, 2012

Atton, is your problem with Kate looking like an action girl rooted in her pose or her appearance? Also Windows is an elite agent. He did not get that position from sitting at a desk. Being an elite agent means that he would need to be a relatively well rounded agent with skills in combat, leadership, and strategy. Therefore he must have experience in field work.

OOC: With the first minifig her pose certainly didn't help, but it was largely in her appearance. The way you designed her she seems way to enthusiastic about what she's doing (which goes entirely against her character).As for Windows, I actually never intended him to be an elite agent, his getting put on that list was just a mistake on my part and I never got around to fixing it, but even if he does have experience in the field, I hardly think that would mean he'd be wearing commando gear while working in an Outpost. Since he's in a relatively non-combat position, he probably wouldn't be bothering with all the battle gear and ammo belts and such and probably would be dressed more casually. Edited May 22, 2012 by Atton Rand

Andrewnuva199 · May 22, 2012

Andrewnuva199 and avmatoran, do you have any objection to making your characters canon? You did not give me a solid answer on the infiltrator in particular.

OOC: Go right ahead, I'm fine with them as it is (though I prefer Mur with both arms, just a small tip).By the way, Brikman, I saw your design for Post-Stroming Zach on the Wiki. Looks swell. Exactly how I pictured him, minus the beard looking more thick than I thought.IC: Stranger did his best to keep hidden in some nearby foilage as the Mutant Dinos began to pour through the area of the team's parked vehicles. His lizard ally had run off across the bridge for some reasons or another (he figured it was a good one and let it slide), and from what it looked, he wasn't alone.The incoming hordes were, for some reason that escaped him, were apparently not too focused on the Dino Attack remnants on the cliffside. Sure, they were responding fiercely to enemy fire, but for the most part they seemed more focused on pushing past them towards the cliff and the bridge. It was very odd. Most of the lizards were headed for the bridge, but for the few that appeared to just be running blind, they didn't even notice as they ran right over the edge. It was like watching big scaly lemmings.Something must really be making them want to get in that temple, Stranger thought. Too bad there's no way in Megablokland they're all gonna make it across. Especially with that bridge.Stranger was doing his best to lend a hand where he could, picking off the lizards and raptors as they went, but the sheer amount of them meant this was more fit for the vehicles, if they could even maneuver right. The amount of unmanned craft was greater than the amount of manned craft, so there wasn't much room to maneuver, only hold their ground.As Stranger took another few shots at some Mutant Lizards harassing an Urban Avenger, he saw another Mutant Raptor charging for the cliffside, and this one seemed to be heading right for the bridge. He quickly took some shots at it, but his pistols were doing barely anything thanks to the range and the Raptor's force field ability.As the Raptor reached the bridge and slammed its big foot on the first few planks, Stranger heard a large snap! as the old bits of wood gave way. The raptor tripped and its upper body fell upon the next dozen planks, breaking them as well. As it fell through, Stranger could see one of its foot talons snag on the right vine. When the beast finally tumbled into the purple mist below, the vine gave way.The bridge swung on its side, the left vine now having to support the entire connection to the cliffside from the temple. Stranger guessed it may not last on its own for a long period of time.Well, guess the temple guys aren't going to easily get back now, Stranger thought grimly as he focused back on the battle at hand.-----------------OOC: Let's pretend for simplicity's sake that the Raptor tore through the bridge just as Hertz and the Pterosaur had their breakthrough with it.-----------------"I guess we should've expected these guys sooner!" Andrew remarked as he tried to shoot some of the dive-biting Mutant Pterosaurs. He and Laxus were barely near the end of the bridge, but the task of defending themselves from the oncoming attacks from the Pterosaurs were slowing them down, not to mention the crowd that was steadily lessening that blocked them from reaching the solid ground of the island. There really wasn't much room for fighting at the entrance of the place."Well, once we're in there, Dinos will be the least of our worries!" Laxus responded, trying to walk backwards towards the temple as he fired."Yeah", Andrew muttered as he glanced back at the Stromlings still coming at the team. They were still respawning at a constant rate, and many agents were simply just trying to push through and get into the temple. "Let's just hope it's-"Suddenly, something felt very wrong about the bridge. Andrew felt himself jerked suddenly to his left, falling down on the planks of the bridge. There, he realized immediately what was wrong: The bridge was slanting. Something had broke, just like Rockford had warned them of several seconds ago."We need to get off the bridge!" He shouted out both to Laxus and anyone else who would hear him. "Everyone off and into the temple, now!"Pushing himself up, Andrew grabbed Laxus's arm and the two made the last few steps towards (very) relative safety. Just as they were a yard from the edge, the bridge lurched from beneath them and began to fall down. At the last moment, they both jumped.Laxus managed to clear the gap and reach the edge, but Andrew barely missed and found himself clinging to the edge. He felt almost as tense as he had when confronting Zach, and tried his best to keep his waist on the ground and his feet standing on the cliffside. Laxus, quickly noticing his friend's peril, was grabbing onto his arms and about to pull him up, but was interrupted by a shadow looming over them.Andrew looked up to see a Stromling grinning right back at him. It pulled back its leg, readying to kick the two of them off, when a laser suddenly came out of nowhere and hit it in the back. It fell backwards, and Vinyaya ran up forward, smoking laser pistol in hand. She leaned down and got Andrew's other arm, and she and Laxus managed to pull Andrew back onto solid ground."Thanks, that was a close-" Andrew began, but the Space Police officer simply handed him back his rifle and gestured towards the temple entrance. He and Laxus quickly understood, and the three of them ran inside."You're Andrew, aren't you?" Vinyaya asked as the three of them stopped in a foyer chamber surrounded by purple mist."The one and only Elite Agent with that codename," Andrew said with a slight grin. Vinyaya didn't smile back."Good to meet you, but I just have to say something to you regarding Virchaus.""What, you mean Zach?""Yes. What in the name of 4+ Figures were you thinking trying to save him? You realize what levels of deception these Stromlings are capable of?"Andrew was a little taken aback by this. "Well, yes, but, I mean, Zach was a special case. Minerva and I had special connections to him that allowed us to reach him and inject the cure for his Stromingness. I saw him change back himself, and I wouldn't say his body's benefited from it. Did you see how he looked?""Yes," Vinyaya said with a bit of bitterness. "We helped each other a bit out there. I guess I can assume he's truly not a Stromling anymore, but I'm not convinced he came back right. He wasn't exactly friendly when I confronted him.""Well, maybe he's a bit stressed out from still being seen as hostile," Laxus interjected. "I mean, I think he was rather worried about that earlier, but he seems to be getting over it and trying to fit back in with us. You have to give him some credit.""I suppose so," Vinyaya muttered, "but I still don't like how he talked to me. Reminds me too much of some of the crooks I've caught around the asteroid colonies. Anyways, this isn't the best place for talk. You have any clues how to navigate this place?"Andrew looked around. From what he could see, the place had some rather grand architecture, though the darkness and mist made it hard to see. It certainly looked like it was easy to get lost in. "Eh... no, not really. I think we could try going forwards, that might be where the big main chamber where everyone's fighting it out is. Want to come with us? It's probably best if we stay in groups around here." Edited May 22, 2012 by Andrewnuva199

avmatoran · May 22, 2012

OOC:Sorry about Greybeard. I forgot about that. I changed it.Thank you, Andrewnuva. I really did forget about that "Elite Mook" thing, Atton. If it helps you sleep at night, imagine he disentegrated and reformed elsewhere, like a transport mode.Also, I imagine the Reclaimer like a Pelican from Halo.IC:X2 was firing the side gun, when he heard glass break. He rushed into the passenger compartment, and he saw Lutsky standing in front of a broken porthole with his hand sliced up. He decided to lift the Reclaimer above the battle. It would be safer for this madman, and he could provide air support.

Jacks · May 22, 2012

IC: A stromling suddenly struck Rex in the back and he fumbled, dropping the crystal. Katerina dived forward, snatching it as it bounced toward another waiting stromling. She tossed it to one of her only two remaining synthfigs. "Drain it!" she cried.The synthfig glanced at the crystal in his hands, looked back to Katerina, and shook his head, all three eyes filled with fear. "Too much."Katerina heard he Darkitect chuckle. Didn't you hear what happened to Loop?--------------------Everything shook. That was the first thing he noticed. Then there was the vibration of the surface he was lying on. A T-1? Hotwire opened his eyes. No, not a T-1. Smaller, and more heavily armored by the look of the bulkheads. And there was a minifig in an ADO uniform sitting nearby."Ah, you're awake again," he said. "You'll want to brace yourself. Those pteranadons outside are coming in thick.""Sorry, where am I?" Hotwire replied, sitting up and wincing as his stump leg cried out in protest."Aerial Defense Unit. I'm Captain Osprey.""Wonderful to meet you. Thanks for the Stromlings."--------------------Helm had spent a bit too long weighing the pros and cons of both the bridge and the ziplines. The bridge had initially seemed the lesser of two evils, as he would at least be standing on something, On the other hand, the zipline would get him across the gorge much faster. Better to get it over with, he'd decided. So he'd clenched his teeth, slung his Sonic Screamer over his shoulder, and stepped into the open air.Unfortunately, the initial stab of terror that went through his gut turned out not to be initial at all, but constant. He fought the urge to shut his eyes as he whizzed along the zipline. When he was about halfway across, the bridge snapped.Well, thank goodness I came this way, he thought. It only took a few more seconds before he hit the ground on the other side. Immediately, a stromling charged at him and he whipped the Sonic Screamer around and shot it in the chest. Now this isn't nearly so frightening. The mariner grinned and ran towards the entrance.

Edited May 22, 2012 by Jackson Lake

PeabodySam · May 22, 2012

OOC: In avmatoran's defense, the Stromling Explorers are one of the weakest breeds of Stromling that we have seen so far, essentially the Dino Attack RPG's equivalent to the standard Stromling of LEGO Universe. And regardless of how close they are to the Maelstrom, I've never really treated the Stromling Explorers as anything other than easily-killed.As for the LEGO Universe Wiki, it's something I've been contributing to. You can see my handiwork on the pages for Baron Typhonus, the Maelstrom, Hael Storm, and Stromling, to name a few examples. Still, there is much work that needs to be done, since too many pages are short and barely contain any information. Regardless, it is still currently the best resource on the internet for LEGO Universe information.Just to let you guys know, since it's already the end of May, I'll be moving this along rather quickly. I'm not so certain that I can make the deadline for finishing the Dino Attack RPG on its 7th anniversary (July 1), but I'll do my best to get this story arc wrapped up as quickly as possible so we can move on to the real final battle.IC: As soon as he regained his bearings, Rex saw that there were newcomers. He was surprised to see that one of them looked strikingly similar to Kat, but despite appearing the same age she seemed to be much more experienced and hardened in her facial features. Remembering that Kat was only a synthfig, Rex wondered if this was truly Katerina Schattenberg, the sister of Dr. Rex.“Over here!” shouted Rotor. The synthfig knew what the veteran pilot was thinking and tossed the Maelstrom Crystal to him. The Stromling Explorers now lumbered towards Rotor, who saw the mysterious samurai waving at him. After leading the Stromlings away from the samurai, Rotor threw the Maelstrom Crystal to the samurai. The samurai then tossed the crystal to Garry, who passed it to Adventure, who threw it to Dr. Cyborg.Rex caught on to what they were trying to do. “Pass the crystal over here!” shouted Rex, waving his arms. “Everyone, cover-“A low and hideous chuckle came from the Maelstrom vortex. The Maelstrom energy that blanketed Rex’s legs suddenly erupted into life, taking on the form of dark tentacle-like tendrils of shadows. Stripped of mobility and caught off-guard, Rex collapsed to the floor even as the tendrils began to constrict him. Intense pain ripped through his body like a hot iron, and it hurt to even breathe. His heart pounded like a blacksmith's hammer hitting an anvil. Amanda also skidded to a halt, seeing Rex in danger, and rushed back to help him.With Amanda helping Rex, Kate helping Einstein, and Frozeen helping Sinister, it seemed that the only players left were Greybeard, Rotor, Garry, Adventure, Katerina, the synthfigs, the mysterious samurai, the Dino Attack reinforcements, and the remainder of XERRD. Now Greybeard held the crystal, so the others provided cover for him as he ran from the Maelstrom vortex. However, for every Stromling they struck down, two more rose to take its place.“Go!” Rex shouted to them, even with the Maelstrom choking the life out of him. “Get out of here! Warn the others!”“Grisbarba!”Greybeard skidded to a halt, despite the Stromlings that drew closer and closer. Rex strained his neck to see what happened. To his shock, he saw an elderly yet beautiful woman in pirate garb approaching Greybeard.Amanda saw her too. “Greybeard!” she called. “Don’t-““Grisbarba,” spoke the woman in a frail voice, “is it really you?”“Beatrice,” whispered Greybeard. “How could this be?”“I’ve been searching for you for a long time!” explained the female pirate as she drew closer to Greybeard. “I returned home, only to find it swarming with imperial scum, and no sign of my dear Grisbarba. All these years, I’ve searched for you and I’ve nearly given up.”“Oh, Beatrice!” Greybeard choked back tears. “I… I be so sorry… can ye forgive me?”“Yes,” Beatrice spoke softly and sweetly, “and now, we can be united and together… forever…!” Greybeard and Beatrice rushed towards each other, about to lock each other in embrace.“Greybeard, no!” shouted Rotor. “It’s a trap! Don’t listen to her!”Greybeard faltered as Rotor’s words reached his ears. He instantly recalled his recent dreams and the memories they had invoked of his tragic past.“What’s wrong, dear?” inquired Beatrice, who appeared looked confused. But now, Greybeard realized that she was barely even looking at him; her gaze was focused on the Maelstrom Crystal in his hand.“Ye be not Beatrice,” Greybeard gritted his teeth. “Me lady died many years ago.”“Don’t be silly,” Beatrice shook her head, laughing. She drew closer to Greybeard, who now took a step back. “You just have been having bad dreams, that’s all.”“Belay that!” snapped Greybeard. “Beatrice danced a fine dance, and as much as I wish it be true, I know ye cannot be her. I know what ye really be!”Beatrice’s smile suddenly vanished, and her face twisted into a horrible scowl as she snarled like an animal. She leaped towards Greybeard, but the old pirate was faster. He fired his flintlock pistol, and she collapsed to the floor, inches from where he stood. Instantly, the illusion faded away, revealing the corpse of a Stromling with a horrible blade in place of its left hand. A few seconds later, the Stromling carcass disappeared in a puff of purple smoke.From the Maelstrom vortex, the Darkitect sighed pitifully. “I tried to be nice and civil,” he shook his head. “I really did. I wanted to give you a happy ending.”“I’ve lived all these years without a peg leg,” muttered Greybeard, “an’ I’d rather not lose a leg now, says I. An’ what sort o’ happy endin’ be that? I fall fer yer trap an’ lose a leg, ye get th’ Maelstrom Crystal, an’ th’ world ends on December 21, 2010.”“It’s a shame,” sighed the Darkitect. “I thought a pleasant illusion would make your demise easier for you to handle. Instead, I must resort to… less merciful methods.” He let out a long, evil laugh.At last, the Maelstrom tendrils wrapped around Rex loosened their grip. Rex breathed heavily, letting oxygen flow through his system again. His heart was still pounding, though. He tried to stand, but once again he was paralyzed from the waist down. “Amanda,” he whispered, “my wheelchair.”Amanda shook her head. “I’ve got a better idea,” she responded, “but I’ll be right back.” She got up and ran towards the far end of the chamber.Now that he was motionless and lying on the floor, Rex was once again in a position where he could barely see what was going on. He heard footsteps, but was too weak to twist himself to see where they were coming from. He expected it to be a Stromling ready to tear him apart, but the footsteps stopped just where he lay.“Get up.”Rex blinked in surprise. That voice… he heard it before… it was so horribly familiar…“I said, get up! Or are you just too weak?”Rex struggled to remember. Whose voice was it? Why did it send shivers down his spine?The footsteps began again as the speaker circled around Rex. “Of course you’re weak. All you idealists are. You don’t have the strength to do what must be done, instead fighting for a pitiful lost cause. Trying to save dinosaurs that must be exterminated? Almost sounds like you’re mind-controlled by Evil Ogel himself!”Rex saw a pair of black boots in front of him. Straining his neck, he looked up. With a mixture of absolute fury and cold fear, Rex’s jaw dropped. “K-K… Kotua?”The elite Alpha Team agent crossed his arms over his chest and glared down upon Rex’s fallen form. “Did you miss me?” sneered Kotua.OOC: Keep on keeping the Maelstrom Crystal out of Baron Typhonus's hands. However, since you guys have a lot on your plate already, with Stromlings and Mutant Dinos, while you might notice that Rex is talking to Kotua, you'd probably be too busy to interact with them, so please refrain from doing so.As for Beatrice, those of you who read the TV Tropes on the Dino Attack RPG Wiki would have noticed that I had the idea of using disguised Stromlings trying to mess psychologically with the Dino Attack Team in the Maelstrom Temple for a while. While I scrapped the idea of Bricassius and Roger Remous, I held onto the idea for Beatrice. Of course, the problem is that Atton Rand got a similar idea when I made "Kate Bishop" one of these illusions, and when he started using them to the extreme on Garry, I didn't want him to spoil your appetites for these disguised Stromlings before I had a chance to introduce "Beatrice".And we finally learn what trap Rotor had warned Greybeard about in December 21, 2010. In that alternate ending, Greybeard did not heed Rotor's warning and most likely embraced Beatrice. She revealed her true form, sliced off his leg, and brought the Maelstrom Crystal to Baron Typhonus, allowing him to become powerful enough to destroy the world.... and as I was touching up some of the details in this post, I realized that we still have a ton of XERRD scientists in the chamber. We should probably do something about that. Even if they are sided with us against the Maelstrom, that's a loose end we probably want to tie up.

avmatoran · May 22, 2012

OOC:I'll try to take care of the XERRD scientists, as soon as I can think of a way to not kill them, but get them out of the chamber where they can't get in again.

Brikman McStudz · May 22, 2012

OOC: Thank you kindly, Andrewnuva. Yes, the beard is too bushy. But the head was the best option to me. It had a beard of a reasonably orange hue and had a tired expression on its face, which describes how Zach felt/feels after waking up from the Maelstrom nightmare.Oh, and Andrewnuva, I think you mistyped a bit.

"Yes," Minerva said with a bit of bitterness. "We helped each other a bit out there. I guess I can assume he's truly not a Stromling anymore, but I'm not convinced he came back right. He wasn't exactly friendly when I confronted him."

Just a fair warning. I'm going to busy for the next week. I've got projects to finish, semester tests to take, and I'm going to be camping over the weekend. So activity will be spotty until next Wednesday. However, since we are speeding right along (and rightly so) I try to post whenever I have the chance. Luckily most of my semester test periods don't actually involve me taking a test.IC:Vinyaya nodded. "I've been enough fixes as an officer that have taught me some lives could be saved if you stay to a team. And in a place like this, I'm sure that lesson stands true." Andrew nodded once and he, Laxus, and Vinyaya headed into the mist.**************************Zach was tiring, but he would not stop until he reached the chamber. The Maelstrom Crystal’s attraction was growing stronger and stronger as they moved closer and closer. Behind him, he heard Minerva panting as she ran, but kept up with him.As they approached, sounds of fighting began to echo off the hallways. Finally, they stepped through a towering, grand archway and into a massive chamber. Zach watched Dino Attack Agents struggled against Stromling Explorers for control of the Maelstrom Crystal. He swore he also saw some people in Space Marauder and Sorcerer garbs also trying to secure the crystal.As he allowed his eyes to travel across the chamber, he saw a large, swirling vortex of Maelstrom at the farthest end of the chamber. Inside the vortex was a Minifig dressed in plain black clothing with a cape worn at edges billowing behind him. He carried a dark scepter with the silhouette of a jewel resting on its summit. His head was a pitch-black skull. His eyes were bright red. His face was twisted in frustration as he shot lightning from the vortex at group battling for the Maelstrom Crystal.“Who is that?” Minerva asked, staring in horror at the Minifig. Zach felt the color drain from his face. His headache quickly accelerated to a migraine. He recognized the figure. In a dream where he had tried to fight the Maelstrom away during the fight in the camp. He was the source of the voice that had spoken to him frequently.“He is Baron Typhonus,” Zach muttered. “He is the creator and master of the Maelstrom.” Typhonus suddenly turned his head and looked directly at Zach, his eyes brightening ten fold as a dark grin appeared on his face. Zach clutched his head, his brain pounding against his skull fiercely. He forced himself to look away from Typhonus. The migraine died only a small bit, but Zach didn’t expect the headache to fade away in the presence of the Maelstrom’s master.He looked back at Typhonus briefly. He nodded at Zach once, his grin still wide and crooked. Without saying anything, Typhonus looked away and began to focus on the battle for the crystal again.“He’s waiting,” he muttered. “For the right moment. Then he will strike.” As Typhonus’s stare had burned into him, he could feel Typhonus’ strong desire to kill him. Zach thought he was hallucinating, because he thought he felt fear in the mixture of burning hate. What would Typhonus - as he thought the Baron's name, a new name suddenly appeared in its place. - The Darkitect. What would the Darkitect be afraid of concerning me. I am at just about the lowest physical conditoiMinerva showed a look of concern, but Zach quickly waved her expression away. She glanced over the skirmish, where her eyes rested upon the Maelstrom Crystal.“So is that the crystal you were talking about?” she inquired. Zach nodded. “And why is it so important?” So Zach explained everything he knew about the Maelstrom Crystal, from the information that the crystal contained an obscenely amount of Maelstrom power in it and if the Baron got his hands on it, things would turn south very quickly for everyone inside the temple to how the crystal would attract Mutant Dinosaurs and Stromlings within a certain range if the holder of the crystal was not the chosen one.“Chosen one?” Minerva repeated, an eyebrow raised.“Yeah. It is somebody working with the Dino Attack Team that the Baron considers very similar to himself. I wouldn’t be surprised if he or she is in here now. They managed to slip in without attracting any hostiles. Though they’ve lost control of it now.” He gestured to the fight, in which the every Stromling was limping toward the holder of the Maelstrom Crystal. “The Mutant Dinos sudden interest in getting into the temple could also probably be attributed to the crystal’s constant changing of hands.”“So we get the crystal and-”“Presumably you’d get it as far away from here as possible. Which is going to be hard if Typhonus intervenes, which he will.”“So if I happen to get the crystal, give it the ‘chosen one’?”“Yep. Hopefully, the other agents will direct in their direction so you don’t get overwhelmed by Stromlings and Mutant Dinos.”Minerva rolled her eyes and sighed. He couldn't really blame her. They seemed to have entered fight where everything was stacked against them. “Just a regular day, isn’t it?” she muttered sarcastically. Zach snorted.“This day has been better than the last couple of days for me,” he said as he pulled out the knife from his vest. Minerva smirked and chuckled quietly as she pulled out her gun. Zach nodded to her once and charged into the fray.

Atton Rand · May 22, 2012

IC: Trigger's attention was momentarily drawn to the collapsing bridge. "Znap it," he muttered as he stepped off the back of the fire hammer."What are you doing?" Cabin asked. "You're deserting your post-""Look," replied Trigger. 'If anyone's going to be able to have any impact over there they're going to need my help. The Stromlings aren't invincible, but in greater numbers with faster healing makes them one megablockland of a fight."Trigger sighed. "The key to defeating a Stromling at this proximity, is to take it by surprise, then it will take longer to heal itself. Besides, if everybody dies out here I can't exactly get paid now, can I?"With that, Trigger turned toward one of the ziplines over the crevasse.OOC: I just realized something. I don't mean to be nitpicking but PeabodySam, aren't you technically going against your own rules? I mean in the past you've specifically made a point of avoiding any kind of explanation regarding what happened to the primary characters of other players, so I will have to admit I was rather shocked to see you do just that.

Edited May 23, 2012 by Atton Rand

avmatoran · May 23, 2012

OOC:I have an idea to remove the XERRD scientists from our midst, and will post it tomorrow.

Brikman McStudz · May 23, 2012

OOC: I think Kotua is an illusion created by the Maelstrom, Atton.Also avmatoran, I'm going to kindly request that whatever you do to get rid of the scientists, you leave Provencal and Glados in the chamber (unless PeabodySam wants Glados out of the chamber, then I suppose you could kick her out).IC:Zach lowered his shoulder and slammed into a Stromling Explorer that was limping slowly toward the holder of the Maelstrom Crystal, Greybeard. The Stromling stumbled backward, allowing Zach to quickly bring his knife up and cut the Stromling’s torso vertically. The Stromling let out a strange, distorted groan before firing its pistol-arm at Zach. He stepped to the side and swung at Stromling’s neck, separating head from body before the body seeming disintegrated.Zach sharply turned on heel of his foot, looking out for sign of Greybeard and the Crystal. Stromlings were beginning to surround him, cutting off any path of escape. Before really thinking about it, Zach raised his right hand up. Greybeard saw the hand and threw the crystal in its direction. As the crystal collided with his hand, he felt his robotic fingers flex anxiously and furiously. Despite this, he managed to keep his grip on the crystal.The Stromlings turned their attention to him as he started running toward the exit. He didn’t make it very far as Stromlings began to crowd around him. Zach raised the crystal above his head to keep it out of their reach and began to scan the area for someone to throw the crystal to. Suddenly, a bolt a a purple electricity struck the crystal, throwing it from his hand. It flew across the chamber and landed into the waiting arms of a XERRD Space Marauder.“Get him!” Adventure yelled. As the other combatants turned toward the Space Marauder, Zach glanced in the direction where the purple electricity had come from. He forced to hit the ground as another blast shoot toward him, lighting up the entire room. He heard a pained scream from behind him followed by the thud of a body hitting the floor.Zach turned and gasped as he watched a Dino Attack Agent twist and shriek on the floor as purple electricity traveled through his body. His back arched as his screams intensified before he finally collapsed. Zach stared in shock at the body. What in Ole’s name could do that? He cautiously moved to the side and looked back at the mysterious attacker.It was a female Sorcerer. She wore dark robes with small chains wrapped around her waist and legs. On her shoulders rested dark colored shoulder pads with a long, dark red cape billowing behind her. On top of her head rested a pointed wizard head with a long, dark red ponytail spilling out from underneath. The Sorcerer turned her head slightly, allowing Zach to catch her facial features. She had a young, beautiful face with a small, sadistic smile. It only took a few seconds for Zach realize who he was staring at.Anger began to boil inside of him as he watched Carolyne Provencal fire another blast from her Sorcerer staff. It shot across the chamber and hit a Dino Attack Agent. He fell to the ground and began to thrash and scream like the previous agent. Zach saw Provencal’s smile widened as she listened to the sounds of the agent dying.His anger was uncontrollable. This woman - this monster - was the primary reason he became a Stromling. The reason many Dino Attack Agents were killed by his hand. He easily determined from their single meeting that Provencal was a sadistic individual who enjoyed watching other suffer. Now watching her making the deaths of Dino Attack Agents as painful as possible while she smiled...he had it with her.Raising the knife, he began to run at the scientist, his intentions clear. He was three-fourths of the way there when a sudden flash of orange light blinded him, followed by something heavy and metallic hitting him in the face. Zach dropped the knife as he fell backwards onto the ground, his cheek swollen.He managed to sit up painfully. Before him stood a Space Marauder, who was soon joined by Provencal. The Space Marauder carried a rocket launcher and a strange looking device that looked like a gun. Underneath the Marauder’s helmet Zach could see a bored, almost uninterested face looking at him.“Thank you, Chell,” Provencal said to the Space Marauder. It nodded to her and pointed the rocket launcher at Zach’s head.“Wait, Chell?” Zach muttered. He had heard that name before. “Chell Glados? XERRD’s third-in-command?”“Second-in-command now,” Dr. Glados responded in a bored, monotonous voice. Zach assumed that Wallace Bishop, whom he had been told was second-in-command, had died. “Though it doesn’t really matter to you, considering you are about to die.” Provencal smirked, and Zach quickly turned his glare to the Sorcerer.“Remember me, Provencal?” Zach hissed. Provencal raised an eyebrow and leaned in close as if to get a better look at his face. She examined him for ten seconds before a smile began to form on her face.“Who is this, Dr. Provencal?” Glados asked.“A test subject of mine,” Provencal said, standing up. “I thought he would have died or would be incomprehensible by now, but here he is, in the flesh with the only visible changes being that your hair is longer and you now have beard. The Maelstrom has failed to take away your mind.”“It came close,” Zach spat as he forced to himself back to his feet. “Too close for my comfort, you’d probably sleep well at night knowing what I had to go through because of you.”“I assume you injected him with a Maelstrom formula?” Glados asked, her might containing curiousness if it weren’t for the monotone. Provencal nodded.“He tried to infiltrate our ranks as a guard, so I taught him a lesson.” Provencal smiled at Zach, whose anger only grew. “So tell me. Did you become a Stromling? Did you become an evil little monster who took pleasure in killing his former friends?” Zach was fuming as Provencal’s smile continued to grow. Zach thought he even saw a sadistic smile appear on Glados’ face.“It doesn’t matter,” growled Zach. “What matters is that you two are killed.”“Oh, please,” Glados scoffed. “I doubt very much you will get some much as a passing blow on us.” Zach snarled and threw a punch at her. Glados disappeared in flash of blue, and Provencal quickly grabbed Zach’s wrist and twisted it sharply. He fell to his knees, groaning in pain.“That temper of yours will get you nowhere,” Provencal remarked thoughtfully. With another flash of orange light, Glados reappeared behind Provencal. The Sorcerer shoved Zach to the ground as she rejoined the Space Marauder. Zach scrambled back to his feet. He knew he was in over his head, but it was far too late to run. Glados and Provencal would simply kill him. He knew he had to fight.So fight he did.

avmatoran · May 23, 2012

OOC:Right.IC:Dr. Cyborg noticed the XERRD scientists, aside from two who were tormenting Zach, just standing to the side, shooting at the Maelstrom vortex. He walked over to them."Hey, you look familiar," one of them said. "I know! Cyrista!""Yeah, yeah. In case you haven't noticed, we have a bigger problem than these petty squabbles," Dr. Cyborg said. "Oh, and what might those be," replied the first scientist, a Space Marauder, who seemed to command that group."1: XERRD versus Dino Attack Team. 2: XERRD versus Traitor, AKA me. Now, I scanned this room, and there is a door behind the Maelstrom vortex. You may not be able to see it, but it's there. If you go out that door," he indicated the door his team came through, "there is a corridor to your left that will take you to that door. Follow it and start attacking the vortex. We may be able to distract the Darkitect.""Oh, yeah? Why should we follow your advice?" a Sorcerer near the back of the group sneered. Dr. Cyborg raised his gun arm, and shot the pointy hat off of the Sorcerer's big head. "Now, any other questions?" he asked in a dangerously cool voice. "No!" the hatless Sorcerer quickly responded.The scientists trooped out of the door. After they left, Dr. Cyborg shot the archway so it collapsed. "That's one loose end tied up," he said.OOC:Note, there are two doors to this chamber. The door Rex came in, and the door Dr. Cyborg came in.

Jacks · May 23, 2012

OOC: avmatoran, I'm not entirely sure what just happened. Were Provencal and Glados unaware that Dr. Cyborg had defected?IC: Katerina motioned to the synthfigs and they charged at the Space Marauder who currently had the Maelstrom Crystal clenched in his fist, dodging around Stromlings as they tried to grab it from him. Two Stromling Explorers tried to block Katerina's path, but the two Loops took them down. She charged forward--And stopped short. Two minifigs stood in her path. One was a broad-shouldered man dressed in an old-fashioned brown suit. His cravat was immaculate, his short hair was a stately gray, and his face was stern and stony. The other was a statuesque woman with dark hair save for flecks of gray at her temples. She wore a long, high-necked dark blue dress and had a cold, haughty look in her iron eyes."No..." breathed Katerina. "Impossible." But it was unmistakable. Standing before her were Hendrik and Ariane Schattenberg.Her parents."Quite disappointed," her father said gruffly. "How could you do this to us? Squander the fortune we made on trivial, unprofitable pursuits?""The profit is the benefits I will bring to the minifig species!" Katerina protested.Her mother tilted her head back and looked down imperiously at Katerina. "After all we did for you, too. Taking you in when your biological parents could not support a second child, providing you with shelter and a proper upbringing...Hendrik is right. You are a disappointment. You could never measure up to Rainer, my only true child."Katerina tensed suddenly. Rainer Wolfgang Schattenberg. Her brother. How many years had it been since she had spared him so much as a thought?Her father was speaking again. "You may as well have killed him yourself," he accused. "He at least had the decency to keep the mines in the family. But you? As soon as Rainer succumbed to tuberculosis, you sell them?""It was necessary!" Katerina insisted. "The funds for my research had to come from somewhere!""THOSE MINES WERE THE MOST PROSPEROUS IN ALL OF BARRON!" Hendrik Schattenberg roared. "And they have been part of this family since my great-grandfather first broke that ground with no more than a shovel and only three pence to his name!" He shook his head. "And now you have brought that name to disgrace. We should have known that one who did not share our blood would lack our honor.""You are no daughter of ours, Catherine Alexander," Ariane spat.Katerina sank to the ground, almost giving in to the despair that was suddenly flooding her being. Then a thought crept unbidden into her mind. My parents have been dead for nearly half a century. And immediately she realised the truth. She looked up, matching her mother's glare with her own. "You are correct," she said, "because you are not my parents. And you have failed, because I will never stop fighting as long as one breath remains in my body." She gestured her synthfigs forward. They raised their Cosmotronic Rays and fired. 'Hendrik' and 'Ariane' fell, and the Maelstrom's illusions dissipated, revealing two dead Stromlings.Katerina placed her hands on the shoulders of the three-eyed minifigs she had created. "Rainer, Wolfgang," she said, "thank you both." And with that, they charged back into the fray.

Edited May 23, 2012 by Jackson Lake

Atton Rand · May 23, 2012

IC: As Trigger stepped onto the other side of the crevasse, he took a moment to stare into the thick mist. There was a moment when he was startled, and turned to see Snake stepping onto the ledge as well. Cabin came soon after."What the znap you two doing here?" Trigger asked."We figured you could use all the help you can get," replied Cabin. "What about you, Snake?""Well, the sooner we're done here the sooner we can leave.""Alright," replied Trigger. "You can tag along, but you got to do precisely what I tell you. Remember, never let your guard down. Surprise attacks are a mutual weakness. Taking a Stromling by surprise is the one way you'll have an advantage. If any of us or anyone inside are infected, never, ever EVER let them live. You see a pair of glowing red eyes I don't care if its your own megablockn' mother you put a bullet right throw their znapping head. If you see anyone you know don't bother trying to talk to them. Forget whatever you've seen in text-based role-playing games. They have no free will of their own since their thoughts are corrupted, so talking to them ain't going to get them to switch sides. Love, you see your megablocking lover and try to use the power of love one of these megablockn' 4+ figures will megablocking grab you and snap your neck like a megablocking twig, alright. Everyone clear on that?" Cabin sort of nodded. She could see what Trigger was talking about, but had some skepticism. Snake seemed perfectly fine with it."Alright," replied Trigger. "Let's go kill some Stromlings."

avmatoran · May 24, 2012

OOC:No, everyone in XERRD was aware of Dr. Cyborg's defection. That was not, "good to see you" Cyrista, but "I want to kill you" Cyrista. Also, Provencal and Glados are fighting Zach. That was just a general Space Marauder and Sorcerer. If it was P&G, I would have stated it.

Dino Attack: At War's End

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