It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

[Maharg67]

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It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 102.1[153]

A Far More Hidden and Alien Struggle

 

In the background, beyond the knowledge of most, beyond the comprehension of most, another kind of struggle was taking place in many places and at many times.

 

In the growing AraArkplex, now in both the Terran Overworld and Lunar Overworld, the Eternal One and the LittleFatWoman sat quietly, motionless, looking into each others' eyes. To look upon it, from a mortal perspective, would be to look at a rainbow colored little fat woman and a overalls wearing body with his animal companions but this was not the real situation.

 

A silent conflict was taking place, a fierce debate, a challenge from the Eternal One to the LittleFatWoman who was sending forth a challenge herself.

 

It took less than a second but for ever.

 

Then the rainbow wearing LittleFatWoman was gone from the AraArkplex, along with her influences both direct and indirect, almost as if she had never been there.

 

The boy smiled and then he, along with his companions, vanished!

Edited October 20, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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'A Far More Hidden and Alien Struggle' has begun.

 

Subtitles to be used:

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time (same as the Title above)

A Far More Hidden and Alien Struggle

Choosing a Dark Path

Focusing the Hunt

Junglenam Scattered War

Timelords in Conflict

Before Everything Changed: As Things Changed

Edited October 17, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 103.1[154]

Choosing a Dark Path

 

Former Cardinal Barringja, who was increasingly a former human, screamed in agony and rage as he struck out at the misty shadows striking out at him from the glistening stone walls. He managed to grab up a small glistening clay bowl of tepid water and gulp it down but it did not do much for his raging thirst. He struck at another shadowy tentacle as he grabbed up a repulsive insect like thing and swallowed it down but doing so did not sate his raging hunger.

 

Torment had followed torment as he had struggled through the dungeon type chambers and tunnels. Either freezing cold or scolding hot, often flooded with freezing or hot water, sometimes inhabited by monsters of a wide range of kinds; there had been swarms of biting ants, decaying zombies, beautiful alluring vampiresses, claw-armed robots, 'living' clouds of choking gas, nasty schoolgirls who kicked him with amazing brutality and even mimics of school bullies who had once made his life hell.

 

But he fought back, driven by a deep set arrogance and conviction that he was special somehow, was unique.

 

He passed another horribly, unnaturally, decaying dead other 'candidate' who had failed. The thing was halfway up a set of stairs designed to be extremely difficult to walk up, even with slow caution. The dead thing twitched horribly and stared at Barringja but he could 'sense' it was a trick and was not impressed.

 

He kept moving up those steps, almost tripping twice, and avoiding falling into a deep spike filled pit. On spikes were embedded yet other twitching dead things that were really solid illusions.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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The Writer

 

The Writer hunkered down in the slimy, muddy, ditch as the terrible CokaCola PepsiCola War raged around him. Jumpjet fighters, and fighter-bombers, carried out dog fights overhead. The ground shuddered with massive battletanks, mecha and other war-machines storming across the landscape along with swarms of power armored soldiers.

 

All squirting each other with harmless jets of soda. None were being hurt, let alone killed. It was the kind of war that he highly appreciated, at least at that moment.

 

With great care he tapped out some words using the old fashioned mechanical typewriter balanced on knees.

 

Four young attractive women soldier crouched near him wearing helmets, goggles, string-bikinis, boots and webbing of pouch dotted belts plus warm smiles. One oversaw the supply of coffee, club sandwiches and other tasties. Another was ready with more sheets of typewriting paper along with other supplies. The third was ready to scratch his back. The fourth was there to give him great praise for his writing.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 104.1[155]

Focusing the Hunt

 

The necromorph rushed along the concrete hallway, smashing away two power armored Fort Knox Guardsmen. That was the real Fort Knox, not the one that had been built as a diversion though it still held much gold bullion of value. The real Fort Knox was deep beneath the false one, was a great underground complex that held many valuables, including more gold bullion secretly held to keep artificially high the price of gold.

 

The necromorph shuddered as 12.7mm calibre bullets slammed into it from a heavy machingun turret. The figure cried out in alien enraged agony but pelted past the turret and out of its range. It was slowed by damage done to the humanoid entity that had tried to pretend, unsuccessful, to be a Guardsman in power armor.

 

Two doppelgangers had tried to assist the necromorph, as they had been ordered to, but it had killed them instead of accepting their assistance. Most other forms of undead hated, and feared, the crazed necromorphs. Even vampires and lichs were smartly wary of necromorphs.

 

It turned and raced into a chamber where it was attacked, at once, by a very powerful figure in special power armor. IronMan hit the necromorph with a knock back pulsebeam of energy, smashing the thing through the air and into a concrete wall. Even as it tried to recover it self, he hit it with two big powerful destructor pulsebeams.

 

The necromorph shuddered, died, and disintegrated away.

 

IronMan was not foolish enough to assume that the threat was over. The powerful powerhuman had his own special psychic-psionic abilities bolstered by his exotic power armor, especially its exotic power-core. He could only use the power-core, as he did, because of his special other abilities.

 

Alarms continued to sound. Attacks were taking place in other parts of the great complex. Some were decoy actions, for sure, while only a relative minority would be actual infiltration attempts. Doppelgangers were attacking as fake humans in power armor. There were at least two more necromorphs, each attacking alone for they would even turn upon each other.

 

A ghostly figure, a tall hulking humanoid in strange metallic leathery armor, stood there facing IronMan. He was like a hybrid human rhino with a long tail ending in a nimble, able, hand of two thumbs and four other fingers. The two main hands, in armored gloves, were not so nimble but looked better for using bigger, more basic, devices. It held two great, gently curved swords that glittered strangely and the tail-hand held some kind of raygun.

 

It spoke. "I was the necromorph, a thing in ageless agony, but it was a punishment that I earned. I will assist you with dealing with the undead for now I am of a phantomic form that is deadly against them though less so against the living. I am Azronth121aka of the Damned Legions of Azaroto who betrayed the AraAncients during the Great War of Traitors. I can tell you what the undead seek, that the Great Enemy seeks through them."

Edited October 20, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 104.2[156]

Focusing the Hunt

 

IronMan nodded. "There are fifty-four alien artifacts here, in the Jefferson Vault as designed and built by the Stone Brothers back in the 1890s. Graynari items, zetan items, stuff from Junglenam, stuff from the real rulers of Ancient Atlantis, devices of the TwistedOnes, a Sliders' module, an alien 'thumb device' copy of the Hitchikers' Guide to the Galaxy, one of Doctor Time's lost sonic screwdrivers and a small Zaztec pyramid of power generation that is great for sharpening razor blades and recharging rechargeable batteries."

 

Azronth121aka smiled, sort of. "Most amusing!"

 

IronMan shrugged. "Strange but true! Actual magical items that only function when take into special areas of the Known Ordered World, such a flying-carpets, spell-wands, ward-emblems, magical-mechanical golems and steammagic wagons. Something tells me that the invaders do not want any of that."

 

Azronth121aka nodded. "You are correct, Tony Stark! What they want are the three Shardikafates held in an almost forgotten vault built in the 12th Century, that is before the existence of the USA when a secret expedition of Havenlander Triguardians came here and locked them into a status field. The Native Americans who found the artifacts left them alone until one wanted money in exchange for the secret but only gained death for his stupidity. That was when the US Government began to construct the real Fort Knox down below and the other above it.

 

Azronth121aka: "Shardikafates are made from a very exotic, very rare, substance called shardaka; your exotic power-cores could not function with out that metal. There are 13 of the Shardikafates that are GrandArtifacts of one of the Thirteen GrandAncient Peoples but not the AraAncients or OtoAncients or others better known but the NecroAncients. I was one of those amazingly evil NecroAncients until I turned against the Great Enemy, along with thousands of others, when the true antinature of the Great Enemy was discovered; the Great Enemy's highest followers turned us into necromorphs after absorbing most of our substances in a fashion that was most agonizing."

 

The phantom went on speaking. "The Great Enemy needs all 13 of the Grand Shardikafates, three of which are here."

 

IronMan nodded his helmeted head. "Lead on, McDuff and take us to this large forgotten vault."

 

The former necromorph, former NecroAncient, turned and vanished into a wall but then returned with almost an expression of embarrassment. "I suppose that you can't ghost through walls. My name is not McDuff though I do enjoy reading the work of the Great Bard."

 

IronMan nodded. "Lead on Azronth121aka, but not through solid things."

 

Somehow it was no surprise when they ran into FEAR supersoldiers, FTroopers flowing along big hallways like graceful silent death in head to toes black. IronMan 'sensed' the power of the netclones, not just as individuals but as linked clones. He also liked them and Stark Industries had provided FEAR with much of its tech either at cost or for free. In exchange FEAR had helped to safeguard Stark Industries many times especially against such as UmbTek.

 

FEAR FTroopers often did 'casual guard duty' in Tony Stark's penthouse suite, testing such as the super virtual reality network-systems, the olympic swimming pool and the chef's cooking abilities. They were loved by the 'Stark Family' including Tony himself though he was reluctant to state it openly.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 104.3[157]

Focusing the Hunt

 

Pointman appeared, one of the original FEAR supersoldiers but not a clone but born from the twisted, abused, Alma. Pointman was damned tough, dangerous, and could take on IronMan himself easily enough but would not do so. They were not enemies but also Tony's kindness to the FTroopers was well noted by Pointman and appreciated.

 

American elite soldiers were there such as Delta using special assault power armor and more of the Guardsmen in their heavy, or medium, combat power armor. There were also other powerhuman Avengers such as Spiderman, BlackWidow, Wonderwoman and two superhumans along with five metahumans.

 

IronMan was led, by Azronth121aka, through chambers where abandoned top secret prototypes were stored, many of them long known about by the greater public. Some, like the corpse reanimation table and the cyborg suicide dog bombs, had been kept secret for reasons of public relations.

 

They came to a great big concrete chamber with only a 1950s concept of a monstrous atomic powered tracktrain. It had a big locomotive at each end, so it did not have to be turned all of the way around. It had very heavy armor and many weapons. It could have, if it had worked, taken over 1,000 soldiers plus much more in its three massive enclosed carriages and on its two massive flatbed cars.

 

Azronth121aka led IronMan, and the supersoldiers, to a blank area of concrete wall. The phantomic figure pointed at it. "I can not go through there. You must open the secret door for me and then I will take the dreaded artifacts to where the Great Enemy can not touch them."

 

Tony Stark smiled. "So you enjoy reading the works of the Great Bard. Was that when you were a necromorph or was that when you were a NecroAncient?"

 

Azronth121aka shrugged. "Really, I could have studied Shakespeare between being destroyed as a necromorph and returning in this form but I can 'sense' you know I am being deceptive. I would have stolen the artifacts and tried to trade those for the freeing of more of my people; still, I know the Great Enemy would have cheated us. For my falsehood, and stupidity, I will pass some information onto you. Then I will go before the Lord-Ladies of Light and seek justified punishment. Perhaps they will allow me to redeem myself and then to help me free at least some of my people."

 

The phantom entity ended up giving a good deal of important information, though most of it was of secondary importance; tied in with other knowledge, it became very useful.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 105.1[158]

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

 

The focusing of the hunt, for conspiracies, was leading to the attempt to deal with the followers of the 'Great Enemy of Life'. It was discovered that many other 'conspiracies' had been caused by their manipulations or were even counter conspiracies against them. The Cult Conspiracy was going through a kind of 'cult civil war' as a division arose between those who would be followers of the Great Enemy and those who would fight the Great Enemy even if for dark selfish reasons.

 

At this time the UN Peacekeepers, and UN Carekeepers, tripled in size and strength with new sophistication in their organizational structures and capacities. The same took place with Interpol, the new UN Lawkeepers and others including the SIRA (Special Investigations Research Agency).

 

The Forbidden Zones, of the Known Ordered World, were being ringed by fortified walls dotted with forts and with three bigger fortresses. As work went on with all of the 39 of them, mostly being thankfully of smaller size, temporary efforts went into effect. The UN supported the work in many parts of the Known Ordered World where local nations were too poor to do so or where there were no nations as such.

 

It became officially recognized that the Havenlands were a unique part of the Known Ordered World for not much was known about them. Even most Havenlanders did not know about large areas of the Havenlanders but for various reasons did not want to know. The Havenlands stretched down into the Terran Underworld through the Terran Labyrinth but it became increasing known that they had colonies outside of the Known Ordered World and in space. The Havenlander elites, such as the Triguardians, who dealt with such matters for the Havenlander Empire.

 

The Cellnetworks continued peaceful pressure for positive changes, reforms, to be made through out the Known Ordered World. They had strong allies but were also gaining enemies, some of them of great power, wealth and influence. For any action there is a reaction and so rose antiUnity forces through out the Known Ordered World.

 

Aeroships, aeroboats and aerobarges were becoming increasingly common through out the KOW, as were other kinds of the hybrid flying machines. Hubcopters were starting to replace helicopters in a slow, steady, manner.

 

Necrodol continued to be a growing problem but not one that most were concerned about as they assumed that there were plenty of worse challenges to be met by the world.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

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It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 106.1[159]

Before Everything Changed; As Things Changed

 

Kaylee listened to the growing troubles of the AraFolk, and others, who sheltered in the ArkCore of the GrandTARDIS. Timelords had been joining the population, as had Terrans and others from other groups in the GrandTARDIS. AlphaOmega, himself, had helped strengthen the ArkCore defenses and service-support network-systems.

 

Kaylee spoke to a group of ArkCore Elders. "We, the KaySisters, are going to make the ArkCore into our base of operations. We are going to make it our top priority to help discover the true nature of the threats facing the ArkCore and the reasons behind them."

 

Sashzana was a brilliant but arrogant Elder. She frowned coldly at Kaylee and then spoke. "How can a mere set of clones assist against the monsters that have been attacking us?"

 

Kaylee smiled, sort of. "We will see! Firstly we bring with us many resources to the ArkCore. We have been gathering, refining them, for a long time and AlphaOmega supports us in bringing them here where we will have our own enclave. We have also those that we care for, who will dwell in the enclave but also be part of the greater community."

 

The coldly attract Sashzana sneered softly. "More mouths to feed."

 

The other Elders, at the long gently curving table, frowned hard at Sashzana. Sashzana was only an Elder because she represented a rather selfish, hard minded, moderate sized minority of ArkCorefolk. They tended to live away from others in their own enclave, away from the Common Enclaves.

 

The charming, ever helpful, Poctorau frowned at Sashzana. "I am sure we can easily support a few more who are in need. What sort of society would we be if we turned them away, if we could not show any charity?"

 

It was a nice sounding response but Kaylee trusted Poctorau less than she did Sashzana. At least Sashzana was open, and honest, in her foolishness. Poctorau was linked with many troubling whispers and dark events. Other Elders were turning against him, if they had not done so already. He had used to be a very fine leader for his people but something had been changing about him, something far from good.

 

Kaylee smiled. "Thank you, Elder Poctorau, for your much welcome support. The move has already begun, the first convoy setting out. Much of the transdimensional will be carried out using internal teleporters and slipstream tunnels."

Edited October 20, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 107.2[161]

Before Everything Changed; As Things Changed

 

Kaylee could not fail to notice that while much of the ArkCore population was nonhuman, was even nonhumanoid, that all of the Elders were human. Or so it appeared to be.

 

Then she changed subjects. "Why are all of you Elders human or apparently so?"

 

Voypregun, a hulking female figure, spoke. "We are not human but are AraMimers being shapeshifters who once served the AraAncients as security intelligence operatives. We became the Elders of the ArkCore because we are best suited to carry out the task. Certainly such as the clusterbots, dolphets and even the Timefolk, formerly of Gallifrey, who are here."

 

Kaylee shook her head. "You are wrong! I declare a reformation of the ArkCore leadership system. As of now you are all removed from your positions of authority and are under investigation by the new ArkCore Guardian Force."

 

None of the Elders did anything except for one. Some, like Sashzana and Voypregun, looked shocked. Poctorau shimmered, becoming a metallic armored combat creature, but before he could try to attack, or escape, or do anything else he was struck by powerful stun pulses of energy and knocked down.

 

Over half of the Elders there had become rebellious against the foolishness of the council, had begun to have secret talks with factions with out Elders. This was partly due to the growing fanatical madness of Sashzana, the growing militarism of Voypregun and her followers, and the growing suspicions against Poctorau.

 

People had been dying, in strange ways, and turning into zombies or worse. All had been humans so far. It was found that all had been addicts of Necrodol, the terrible undeathly superdrug.

 

Just a couple of hours later, under interrogation, Poctorau died and became a zombie before being destroyed. He had been a intensive, advanced, Necrodol addict and could not be saved.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Maharg67