Zippy Zip-A-Long

[Maharg67]

Herculine, you are in COSMIC OPERA: EPIC OF THE DRAGON, in some of the later chapters.

 

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-6-

THE ADVENTURES OF HELENE

IN THE STARTOWER OF PRINCIPLES

 

Helene was not really sure what she wanted to do next but now she found herself with the responsibility for a group. So she got everybody into as much order as possible, tended to the neobaby's needs and then organised people with equipment and supplies so they could move on. The glasses wearing teens went to give her some trouble but she simply stared them down and they never did it again. There was something truly impressive about Helene's stare that did not go altogether smoothly with her cuteness. The silver woman followed them but, in all fairness, she carried a big backpack full of heavy useful stuff with ease.

 

The Startower of Principles turned out to be bigger inside than outside but in a special fashion; there were thirteen transdimensional towers fitting the same 'space' in a seemingly impossible manner and some were bigger, wider, taller inside than they seemingly could have been. They were in the most basic of the zones, being the anchor that linked more directly with the real world. The levels and other features in that 'tower' were more basic and normal than in other 'towers'. But AndroDixa assured the others that the ways to those other transdimensional zones were firmly sealed off and she did not know how to get through them. As they went on the silvery woman was getting more nervous.

 

Seerisha: AndroDixa is a criminal even if she became one for good reason. You must be wary of her. You tend to try to see the nice side of everybody, sometimes to a dangerous extent.

 

Helene knew it was true but it still annoyed her to have it pointed out by even Seerisha. They went down a spiral rampway that was found inside the great outer wall which turned out to be surprisingly wide and high with out being too steep. It was a special trick of the Startower, she could sense it and had reasoned it out, but how it was done was beyond her.

 

They were seeking a way out of the tower and yet Helene wished to investigate every level. The next one down from the one they had first appeared in, in which they had found AndroDixa, was full of neatly stacked sivlery metallic cylinders each a metre long and fifty centimetres wide exactly. The cylinders were not only too heavy to lift but AndroDixa assured Helene that they were of no immediate use for they were specialised fuel-gas cylinders used in some kinds of magical machines.

 

In the next level down they found a half filled chamber with fragmented and broken cubeboxes of varied sizes, odd metallic cylinders and big metallic tubs full of various forms of biocrystals, phasegems and mineral sands. Something stopped them going into the chamber, an invisible safety barrier, and AndroDixa assurred them that something very nasty and very toxic was loose in that level.

 

They were still going downwards when the ginger haired monkeycat rushed up to Helene and leapt into her arms. The creature was bleeding from a light wound and was shaking with fear. Helene pulled out her silvery pistol and aimed down the rampway as did the other teens. The neobaby gurbled at the monkeycat and got licked for his troubles, which pleased him.

 

Which was when the things came rushing to the attack.

 

-CONTINUED-

 

Edited August 25, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

IT IS WITH A SAD HEART AND A GIDDY KIDNEY THAT I ANNOUNCE THE ENDING OF THE COSMIC OPERA. IT HAS BECOME TOO COMPLICATED.I WISH TO FOCUS ON THE TWO NEW STORIES PLUS BOB AND BAB AND OTHER WORKS. ONE DAY I WILL DO COSMIC OPERA FROM SCRATCH BUT PUT INTO PRACTISE THE LESSONS THAT I HAVE LEARNED FROM DOING THE FIRST ONE.

Edited July 13, 2010 by Maharg67

[Herculine]

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

IT IS WITH A SAD HEART AND A GIDDY KIDNEY THAT I ANNOUNCE THE ENDING OF THE COSMIC OPERA. IT HAS BECOME TOO COMPLICATED. I WISH TO FOCUS ON THE TWO NEW STORIES PLUS BOB AND BAB AND OTHER WORKS. ONE DAY I WILL DO COSMIC OPERA FROM SCRATCH BUT PUT INTO PRACTISE THE LESSONS THAT I HAVE LEARNED FROM DOING THE FIRST ONE.

 

:yes: :yes: :yes: :yes: :yes:

 

It's okay. Quality is almost always better than quantity IMHO.

[Maharg67]

Thank you, Herculine!!!

 

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-7-

THE ADVENTURES OF HELENE

IN THE STARTOWER OF PRINCIPLES

 

They were monstrous looking grey-brown creatures of boneskin and stark muscular bodies, big grey smooth eyes, long fangs and sharp retractable claws along with long tails tapering down to hard sharp spikes. Some were more grey than brown, some an even mix and some more brown than grey. These creatures were not truly alive in their wide variations of forms for some had four limbs, others had six and some even had wings though not all of the wings seemed to be useful. Yet she wondered if these quasiliving entities would be so aggressive if the headcaps were not there.Yet each had a dull grey metallic cap inserted on its head, fused there somehow, and Helene sensed that the creatures were being controlled.

 

She and the others aimed their silvery pistols and began firing stun bolts of energy. The energy sizzled out and struck creature after creature so that they collapsed, stunned, to the floor. The sheer number and crowding of the creatures meant they were easy targets and often a pulse of energy would effect more than one attacker. Seven of the pistols were fired and were starting to run out of charge, to need recharging, when the last creature lay stunned upon the metallic stone floor.

 

The others hung back, and AndroDixa seemed wary, when Helene went to the bodies and carefully examined them.

 

The silvery woman spoke with a clear note of scepticism. "Those are experimental by-products most likely produced from an organovat primary. An alchemist, a sorcerer-scientist, a organo-engineer and some other specializations would be needed to make such things but it could have been a long time ago. Such crfeatures can go into a kind of life extending form of status and they often do. I doubt that you can remove the puppetcaps."

 

Helene touched a puppetcap, not liking the feel of it, and with a soft shimmering it fell off the creature. The silver woman stared at Helene in open shock. So it was that Helene freed the small monsters from their slavery. She put the puppetcaps to one side and the others studied them gingerly. The triplets soon got bored with doing so. The neobaby burbled at the monkeycat who was now sleeping inside Helene's shirt. After freeing the creatures, Helene rested with her back against a wall.

 

The creatures, they were called vatlorns, awoke with out hostility but with some confusion. They looked around, sniffed at people, rubbed themselves against legs in a cattish fashion while making strange throoming noises of pleasure and sniffed at each other and everybody else. Helene counted twenty-three of them and noted they focused their attentions mainly on her. She scratched boneskin heads and behind pointy, rounded or even squared off ears.

 

AndroDixa spoke to Helene. "That was a neat trick."

 

Helene frowned softly. "Is that how you see what happened, just a trick? I chanelled the Light. The Light came through me. The enslaved vatlorns were freed. During the freeing I gained information from them in the form of remembered impressions of many kinds. They were created fairly recently by a tall, dark robed man who looked, smelt and sounded like a sorcerer-scientist of the Forbadena, one of the worst of all the exiled groups of those seeking power, knowledge and other prizes through the use of forbidden knowledge. Trouble is that vatlorns do not perceive or measure time as we do and I am not sure just how long ago all of this happened."

 

They kept going. They looked through windows, sometimes, that turned out to look like normal windows but which were not for one could actually change views through each of them. They noted that the fighting seemed to have ended in the port town and that Mageadom banners of victory hung over the harbour. The daedric invaders had been driven of or destroyed but at what cost to the harbour? Much work would have to be done fixing it up. Helene hoped that not too many people had been killed or otherwise hurt.

 

-CONTINUED-

Edited August 25, 2010 by Maharg67

[SilverDNA]

Tales of the Twisted -The Twisted Revenge

(Part 1)

(Original Title:Chronicles of the Twisted part 3 )

Written for an adventurousband who played together AD&D in the Forgotten Realms

Re-written for the Nexus July 2010

He was standing on there of of the temple of peace having the best look at the nightly marketplace. It was early spring and still very cold as a gust of wind blew between his robes. His prey should come out of the house of the mayor soon. The hated dwarf would emerge from the Mayors house having rescued the teenage girl of the mayor and probably will went to the inn at the other side of the marketplace. About 400 feet to strike with his most potent spell. He clenched his fist and teeth hard remembering what the dwarf had done today.

 

He was a half-elven Mage and a Priest of the god of destruction. Now he was only a priest due to the fact that the dwarf had burned his spell books. How he had found the hidden spell book behind in the magical protected wall was a mystery to him. Every Mage spell now cast would be gone forever until he would buy a spell book and write them down from his memory to the book. This would be expensive. How stupid he was not to take his travel spell book with him today. He clenched his fists even harder and recalled the recent events that brought him here.

 

Before winter he had seen the teenage girl of the mayor of the nearby village play with some friends in the woods near the cave where he and his band of hobgoblins and thugs lived. The plan that he developed in the winter had come of yesterday and his hobgoblins had driven of the friends of the girl and taken her as hostage back to the cave. Today he went very early to the village to see that all went as anticipated. The mayor had already placed a notice at the town hall, that whoever brought his girl back from the hobgoblins would receive 200 gold pieces. So he went back to his cave to tell the the thugs and hobgoblins that had in the last two years gathered with him in the cave to have their last fun with the girl. He would then bring the corpse back to the mayor and receive the gold as planed.

 

But as he returned around midday to the cave, he seen the girl with the bloodstained dwarf emerge from the cave and had barely the time to hide behind some bushes. The dwarf had a bag nearly as large as he was behind his back. They went back to the nearby street to the village. How asingle dwarf had overcome a dozen hobgoblins and a dozen thugs alone and rescued the girl was making him curious. He don't had to follow them to know where they went. So he went to the cave.

 

The first corpse near the entry was the sentry who watched the nearby street for victims to be robbed. It seamed that the hobgoblin had left his lookout spot to return to the cave only to have a nasty deep cut in his back from an axe. Somehow the dwarf must have spotted him and chased him to the entry of the cave. A dwarf on foot faster than a hobgoblin? How was this possible? As he didn't find an answer to this question he entered the cave. In the narrow tunnel he found the two guards of the entry dead on the floor in their pools of blood. It seamed they had time to draw their weapons and alerted the others, only to die in a very short battle with two cuts of that axe of the dwarf. He then entered the main cave. The the thugs and hobgoblins tended to separate themselves in the two corners on the left and right of the main cave entrance. The whole left side had collapsed and out of the-rubble there and there poked out a hand and feet of some of thugs.The dwarf had charged in and not held the entrance as he had thought a single attacker would, caused a cave in hacking at the natural columns and turned to the hobgoblins on the right side. The dwarf had butchered the hobgoblins in the most brutal way. He had chopped the hobgoblins to pieces. The splatter of blond and gore was unbearable to his stomach. As he was relived of his breakfast he wondered if the dwarf had bested his traps and magical minions as well? He had to check what was left of is belongings. At the end of the main cave a tunnel separated to his private cave and to where he held the girl.After the what he had seen in the main cave he could imagine what had happened to the guards of the girl, so he went to his private cave.

 

The spiked trap at the entrance of his cave had done no damage to the dwarf, because there was no blood on the spikes. Right behind the entrance of his cave he had positioned the pair of gargoyles he had charmed last year. He found only two piles of rubble of what remained of the two gargoyles.Only magic was capable to harm the creatures and since only dwarfish priests do magic and they are seldom traveling, he assumed that the blasted Axe of the dwarf must be magical. His private cave was parted by a large curtain and behind this his belongings where hidden in a trapped chest behind another curtain which blended perfectly with the cave walls. The cave was a mess a fire still glowed in the middle of the room, everything was turned upside down. The little statue of his god was smashed, the hidden curtain torn to the ground, The the top of the trapped chest in which he stored his most valuable belongings and spell books was smashed as well. In hacking the chest open the poisoned trap had never a chance to kill someone.

 

He was in a state of shock and panic now. His spell books where gone. He hadn't taken even the travel spell book with him for the little trip to the village. In this stated he searched the cave of everything that was left.Nothing, not the wine, the beer, the potions, the gold, the jewelery and the magical amulet of protection was left. He hoped that the dwarf had taken the spell books with him so there might be a chance to steal them back, until he poked in the glowing fire to see what the dwarf had burned. Only the metal ornaments of the books had survived the fire. Now anger and furious rage made their way out of him and he shouted and smashed and kicked at everything that was there until he sweated and went silent. He would take revenge on the dwarf if it was the last thing he'd done. And now he was standing on the roof of highest building in the village, a small temple of the goddess of peace, and waiting for the dwarf to emerge form the mayors house.

 

- End of Part 1 -

[Maharg67]

THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION, SILVER DNA

GREAT STORY. I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO READING PART 2 AND MORE.

[AltreU]

I'm glad that I decided to check out this most wondrous portion of the Nexus!

[Maharg67]

Thank you, Altreu, for you feedback. I hope you get a lot from coming here.

 

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-8-

THE ADVENTURES OF HELENE

IN THE STARTOWER OF PRINCIPLES

 

They came to a chamber converted into a great organovat laboratory-workshop with strange, twisted machines and other apparatusi. Helene was again surprised that she actually knew what the devices and other items were for, the knowledge coming from somewhere deep in her mind. She did not at all like what was there. It was dark sorcery-science. She very firmly ordered the others to not touch anything at all and AndroDixa seemed anxious not to do so. Poor vatlorn creatures, deformed and crippled, were trapped in small, bare armoured glass cells. She would touch the cells and the creatures would vanish with a sparkling shimmer.

 

Where was she sending them?

 

Seerisha: "To a safer, better place as you sometimes do. That place is yours by right of inheritance but you do not always remember it just as you have trouble remembering other things."

 

The place had not been used for a long time and items were missing by the signs of empty containers and spaces where things should have been. There was a very fine layer of dust over some places but not over others, which was due to the odd environmental conditions of a Startower. A couple of small yellow mice darted around the place. A big purple spider was high up in a beautifully elaborate silken spider-web in one 'corner' of the ceiling. Still she had the impulse to make certain items vanish with a sparkling shimmer and she did so, being just smaller ones. Other items she loaded into her backpack that she had picked up earlier.

 

A small notebook of silky paper had spidery writing in it, jottings down of ideas. A sorcerer-scientist with the initials of 'JKJ' had been working at that place trying to carry out a project that seemed to be part of a far bigger project carried out by many specialists. The experiments had been on the extreme side, had been semiforbidden verging on the forbidden and, sometimes, of forbidden nature. If the authorities of the old regime had discovered what JKJ was doing, his punishment would have been truly terrible but there was no indication of the fate of this 'JKJ' or even of the true nature of 'JKJ'.

 

Helene began to sense danger and the vatlorns became restless. It was then that AndroDixa took her to a small chamber inside the central column and opened a sliding door to inside a fair sized chamber. "It functions and it has many safety features but this escape-teleporter will most likely send us to a random destination."

 

At that very moment there came a hideous roaring noise and then a strange dragging, scuffling sound of something big moving down the spiral rampway towards the chamber they were in. Now sensing great danger, Helene ushered all of the group into the escape-teleporter, including all of the agitated vatlorns, and also went in. Now it was fairly crowded and the two bigger triplets, the other two and the silvery woman were holding vatlorns in their arms. The door slid closed even as Helene glimpsed a great heaving monstrocity that radiated malignant hatred and then, with a strange shimmering and vibratory flicker, they all vanished.

 

-CONTINUED-

Edited August 25, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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-17-

THE ADVENTURES OF TIMESAGE COSMOS AND COMPANY

THREE WAY WAR OF LONDON #2

 

The TimeLords did nothing dramtic, or at least nothing obviously dramatic. A pulsating light went through the great chamber along with a soft thrumming noise. Then the CosmosTARDIS appeared not far away from where he stood and just seconds later, Bessy also materialized out of mid-air with one of his grand-daughters inside. Soon all three grand-daughters of Ninacos, Tinacos and Ginacos were out in the great chamber.

 

The enslaved human minds were now awake and the brutal StarLordites were all in a trance like state. The Brigadier and Mr Hyde were obviously impressed but unlike the TimeLords there, they had no real idea of what the TimeLords were capable of doing.

 

Ginacos spoke then in a TimeLord language, clearly not wanting the non-TimeLords to understand. "These chambers are now normal physical ones now and are located beneath London. I suggest we focus on getting the freed humans back to where they belong before they fully awake enough to panic. Where can we send them now that the Timelord High Council failed to act as you assumed they would. At least I think you assumed.?"

 

The TimeSage smiled at Ginacos. "I rarely assume anything at my age. Perhaps the Brigadier can call upon some soldiers to come and escort them to safety." He turned and spoke English to the British Officer. "We will explore these great chambers that are now normal physical ones deep beneath London but with some additions. Look over there; large elevator doors, three sets of them, indicating three big elevators to take people to the surface."

 

The Brigadier was looking at the warmachines, the strange other devices, the other weapons, and he was starting to look pleased. "We could use these to destroy the enemies of the Empire."

 

Professor Cosmos examined the big warmachines and other items even as the former enslaved humans began to move towards the elevator doors as if carried by an impulse. Then he saw it, floating in the air, a silvery sphere, a TimeLord super-robot of a kind known simply as a TimeOrb. It was exactly a metre wide, was smoothly metallic and lightly shiny. It was directing the humans to leave that chamber and the TimeSage had no doubt that other TimeOrbs were in other of the big chambers doing the same.

 

Cosmos spoke. "I am sure that some of the technologies here will be passed over, Brigadier, but not until we have had a chance to find out just what is here. We are dealing with the StarLords and they are most dangerous, most cunning. There is a Multiversal saying that goes, 'beware of StarLords bearing gifts' and another like it, 'beware of StarLords selling you anything'. Yet another saying... as you can see the StarLords do not have a great reputation and there may easily be nasty surprises hidden in these devices. We have all of these StarLordites to deal with before they can wake up and wreak death and destruction. Those StarLord robots are now under the control of myself and my wondrous grand-daughters."

 

The former slaves filled up elevators and then waited. Cosmos wondered just where they were going which was when the voice spoke in his mind.

 

TimeAssistor: "They will appear in a large new underground chamber beneath Trafalgar Park Square. Rampways will take them up to the park itself. Trafalgar Park Square is controlled by the humans."

 

Having his mind and brain shared by a TimeAssistor was a blessing and a curse but TimeSage Cosmos knew very well there was nothing he could do about it, at least for time being. What he could do was to gain its assistance in a positive manner. "TimeAssistor, will you do a control sweep over the StarLordite power armour?"

 

TimeAssistor: "It is done but the hold is not a strong one. If the StarLordites come ouf ot their trance, the control will end. The StarLord technologies in this chamber are more advanced than they should be and show some TimeLord influence. Such TimeLord assistance must be considered treacherous to Gallefrey."

 

Had the TimeMaster been so stupid as to give even outdated TimeLord technological secrets to the StarLords? They had to examine these chambers soon.

 

-CONTINUED-

Edited August 15, 2010 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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-18-

THE ADVENTURES OF TIMESAGE COSMOS AND COMPANY

THREE WAY WAR OF LONDON #3

 

The StarLordites were marched, using the controlled power armour, into holding cells and then stripped of both armour and weapons. This included hidden devices. Cybernetic implants were nullified by nullifier devices. When the StarLordites awoke they found themselves helpless and naked. That there were men and women in the same cells mattered nothing to them for they had no sense of modety but the Brigadier was shocked by the idea and Mr Hyde was highly amused.

 

Except that Mr Hyde turned back to Doctor Jeckle. The doctor was as tall as Mr Hyde but slim as to be almost skinny and quite angular. He looked unhappily around himself in clothes created in the TARDIS for him, clothes that were very much of the stuff of an upper middle class medical doctor though Doctor Jeckle was known also for his past researches. Mr Hyde's gear was so filthy that it was destroyed and replaced except for the boots and a few other items.

 

The StarBots, the StarLord robots, were all in their holding recharging bays and the only people in that great chamber were the three TimeLadies, the TimeLord, the Brigadier and Doctor Jeckle.

 

The Brigadier watched the distant triplets in tight silvery jumpsuits as they examined areas in the great chamber with instruments and their own senses. Sometimes one would pause to absorb the contents of a book or a StarLordite datacrystal in a way that astonished the humans with its speed and efficiency. The officer spoke. "As soon as the government people question the former slaves, they will come charging down here using the elevators."

 

Cosmos shook his head. "The elevator doors will have vanished as soon as the last former slave left the elevator chambers and the former slaves will not remember what happened to them. If you are concerned to communicate with your people, please come with me, Brigadier."

 

Professor Cosmos opened the external telephone box to the TARDIS and soon the Brigadier, to his surprise, was talking through the London Telephone Network to his military HQ. The tired officer at the other end reassurred the Brigadier that the former slaves were all being treated well, that they were all quite fit and healthy and many were healthier and fitter than they had been before they vanished. Many of the adults were now serving the cause of the defence of London be it as soldiers, medics, some other specialisation or even just as basic needed workers. There were many thousands of the former slaves and their return had made quite an impact. It was good to have the people back but the government very much wanted to know what had happened. Some very odd specialists had been called in.

 

The Brigadier put the telephone hand-piece down and closed the small box up. He turned to Professor Cosmos. "That was an old comrade and close friend of mine or he would not have told me what he did. Military Intelligence chappies have discovered you were pretending to be some kind of spy, Professor, and they have people out looking for you and both the police and army have handbills of you. A very hush hush organisation known as Torchwood as been called to invetigate the strangeness of what has been happening. That is the way that London people somehow failed to realise that so many of our own had vanished or the sudden way they reappeared with no memories at all of the period of vanishment. Oh, yes, that the people were in better health and fitness than when they vanished, well that was the fresh cream on the buttered scone, as my Uncle Albert would say."

 

The TimeSage nodded. "We will have to take care with this 'Torchwood' and the British Imperial Military Intelligence. Seems that the warmachines are fine and very usable by the British Imperial Army as is some of the other equipment. Yes, I think we can start making plans of how to deliver the stuff to your people with out giving away our current location."

 

Doctor Jeckle nervously rubbed his face. "The soldier boys and their guns are not going to solve this problem. No, Mister Hyde could sense that much and I am smart enough to work it out."

 

The Brigadier frowned at the doctor but Professor Cosmos just smiled good naturely because, in truth, he agreed.

 

-CONTINUED-

Edited August 15, 2010 by Maharg67