DOWN TO BASICS

[Maharg67]

01-09(0010)

DOWN TO BASICS: BOBBY

FUN WITH THE SHANOGATAO

 

The newcomers had brought some electric motorized vehicles with them, all drawing trailers, but these were all road machines and would not easily move across the great cavern. Still the electric vehicles, all three with solar power panels fused into the roofs, would generate electricity for the people for now. Two were suncars, a common global production four door hatchback though suncars also came as sedans. The third was a campervan complete with a fold down bed, a kitchenette and an environmentally friendly recycler toilet along with other facilities. The newcomers were all rejuvenated, along with their sprinkling of animals being mostly dogs but with a cat and three canaries along with four goldfish in a bowl. They had also brought with some some insects and other creatures including some wild brown mice.

 

The Gang of Five emerged quickly to try to take over, to bully others into doing as they wanted, being three men and two women. From the first I 'sensed' something disturbingly odd about them, as did others, and the two wozfolk were very wary of them. The problem was that these five had twenty-two loyal cronies and followers while the other humans in the group were a scattering of families, other small groups and individuals. There was only me to confront the Gang of Five and I did so!

 

The big man, one Edgar Chance, was standing in some kind of fancy survival gear holding a fancy survival rifle that was more designed for show than for practicality. It had even been decorated. He was speaking out loud in the language called English though many in the bigger group did not understand the language. They all knew Esperanto. "We cut down those plants over there and begin to build some more buildings around here. There are the five in charge now and..."

 

"No!" I stepped into view where Edgar Chance was standing close to the campervan that was his. "You understand Esperanto now, we all do, along with some other languages. With the rejuvenation came other transformations such as basic knowledge and new skills. You will do nothing to this cavern. There is a bigger, better cavern for the group and you will all go there... well most of you will. Back on the Earth I hunted and killed your kind. You have undertaken the Isanta Institute Longevity Process, each of you five, but you are no longer human. No, you have become something quite dangerous, sociopathic, parasitic and even vampiric feeders of life energies."

 

The man scowled. "What stupid fantasies are you spouting? You must be insane!" Yet it was clear in his eyes that I spoke the truth and he knew it. He casually started to raise his fancy survival rifle. "The Council of Five is in charge now with myself being President. We also have the Vice-President, the Treasurer, the Secretary and the Chancellor."

 

I could never quite get over the amazing ego of such transformed humans, who were no longer quite human. They were called false immortals or isantamans after the Isanta Institution that had long been destroyed by an angry, fearful government and corporation alliance. Too bad the process itself had been illegally copied and kept functioning in secret in other places. Too bad also that the processing failed with many subjects, they died and became zombies. Unlike the old zombie movies, these creatures were quite fast, very strong and had other deadly abilities though they also had some odd weaknesses that could be exploited. Any time a stronger isantaman was killed, he or she became a vampire and these made the zombies seem weak in comparison though they also had the same exotic weaknesses. Vampires could control the almost mindless zombies. So I had to kill these five isantamans in such a way as to not allow them to transform into vampires for these were of the 'strong' kind who had survived the deaths and zombie transformations of others.

 

I sighed, noting that the cronies and followers of the Gang of Five were rapidly backing off as if 'sensing' that this fight was beyond them, they being mortal humans, and that there was something extremely dangerous about myself. They were right, of course, my being a rejuvenated supersoldier.

 

The five went for their guns and died almost as once as bullets exploded into their heads, killing them and destroying any chance of vampiric transformation. People jumped and some cried out but, all being experienced in terrible times, nobody over panicked. The five bodies burned away to leave just strange looking ash behind. Even their clothes and body ornaments were not touched by the high heat in any way because of how amazingly fast the five had incinerated as if my spontaneous combustion.

 

I had not fired a single shot. A small group, of very tough looking men and women, came forward being six of them, each in body-armour, tough survival fatigues and holding a variety of weapons that they handled expertly. They were very special kinds of hunters for they were slayers. I smiled at the three men and five women, all rejuvenated to look young or already being so anyway. I 'sensed' and noted by the way that they moved, that all of them had biotech enhancements and cybernetic augmentations. They were wary of me and I was so of them, despite the warm smile that failed to reach my eyes. Relationships between my kind and slayers had often been 'tricky'.

 

I spoke. "Thank you for coming to my rescue."

 

A youthful looking, but not young man, spoke. "Name is Dean Winchester and we did not rescue you. We did stop you revealing your true nature to all of these folk. How do you think they would respond to such as you being amongst them?"

 

He had a good point and I nodded. "I suggest that we form an understanding of some kind. For now I need to carry out a 'miracle' of transduplication."

 

The slayers looked at me in wonder except one young man who looked at me as if I was mad. There was something about him that told me that he would be troublesome in future.

[Maharg67]

01-10(0011)

DOWN TO BASICS: BOBBY

FUN WITH THE SHANOGATAO

 

It was draining but I transduplicated many of the resources that had come through from the Lost Earth, including the electric vehicles and trailers. The newcomers were amazed but this but also by the two wozzles and the auman woman. The transduplicated resources were more than welcome and there was now two extras of everything. In the end a compromise was made and a small outpost settlement was created there, an expansion of the old one, while most people and things went through to the other cavern that was lit and warmed by exotic glowcrystal.

 

Resting, while listening to some music that the newcomers had brought from Earth, I sat with WozuGoo who was tired of being gawked at, prodded and digitally photographed by the humans. I had not revealed by real nature, of course, and had no plans to do so.

 

The other wozzle, and the auman woman, were talking with some four excited human scientists, two biologists and two anthropologists, and even allowing some basic measurements to be taken. Professor Alison Hex was in charge and she was making sure that the two nonhumans were being treated with respect. Back on Earth she was a much respected anthropologist whose knowledge had been much on demand during the crisis.

 

-=What now? Will you try to have some strong influence over these humans?

 

I was not one to lead civilians, not really. I had led military units in the past, consisting of supersoldiers and sometimes also of normies. There had been the destruction of a megabeast nest in the ruins of the city of York, England. That had taken a small, well placed nuke but it had saved many more lives than it had cost. Still the knowledge that over a million humans had died in the blast was something I had not managed to forget. The nest had been destroyed along with two megabeasts and many other invading entities including masses of eggs and larvae.

 

Sam and Dean Winchester came and sat quietly in the alcove cave that I was in. I indicated a thermos full of coffee and they filled a plastic mug, each, of warm strong coffee with a dash of milk. They looked appreciative because coffee had not been readily accessible back on Earth.

 

Dean spoke. "We were getting old and slow before we came here, were in semi-retirement as slayers, but now we are starting over again. Word about these oomans, these ShanogaTao, has gotten around the camp. Some of us assume they should be easy to kill, them being primitive and all, but that is not what we slayers think, at least not most of us."

 

"Wise of you. They move fast, strong, agile and have deadly intrinsic weapons. Their skin is a kind of flexible armour." I staid in a restful position with WozuGoo sleeping curled up on me as I rubbed his small back. "I adopted WozuGoo as my son. Like me he is a hybrid." Then, to my surprise, I told Sam and Dean Winchester the true story behind the four of us being here.

 

When I was done, Sam looked impressed. "Four hybrids of different kinds. Most interesting. Like our original Earth. Somehow I doubt it would surprise you to know we, and a fair few others, came not from the Lost Earth but through a rift from yet another version of the Earth. That Earth was being invaded by demons, by angels, by .... by all sorts of supernatural entities. Yet the last invasion was by something far worse than anything that had come before. Megabeasts invaded our original Earth as they had your Earth but they came in even greater numbers. They began to fight the humans of our world but also the most powerful of the supernatural beings who often took their natural shapeforms. Imagine great huge angels battling great huge megabeasts."

 

"On our world you were in a television series called SUPERNATURAL! At least they were much like you." I gave a mild grin. "Younger though, much more like you look now."

 

Dean gave a mild grin back. "Pretty handsome, just like us. We have watched some DVDs of the show." He lost his grin. "Millions of people escaped through rifts to your Earth to combine forces with the humans of your Earth."

 

I nodded. "I witnessed some of it happening. Thankfully they brought many resources with them and our technologies had a great deal in common from calibers of bullets to types of electronic parts to much else and you had those advanced airships that came so much in handy. Are you, like me, concerned about the threats that might come through from the Lost Earth to this world?"

 

"Yes, and also the innocent nonhumans who might come through and suffer because of their nature." Sam spoke this time. "Slayers we were but in the end we were as much protectors of those who were different when humanity was attacking anything that was 'exotic', even normal psychic mutations amongst humanity. We slew some, we protected others."

 

At that moment there began some shouting and other sounds of excitement and alarm from the edge of the encampment.

Edited January 26, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

01-11(0012)

DOWN TO BASICS: BOBBY

FUN WITH THE SHANOGATAO

 

More peoples had arrived from other parts of the Underworld. Wozfolk came and also aumans along with short stocky dwarns, short nimble gnomes, taller elegant elves, centaurs who did not look just like human horse combinations and also intelligent plantimals, creatures that were part plant and part animal. There were exotic hybrids amongst them but most were not hybrids. There were some Clansfolk but most were Tribals and most had traditional general technologies while only a relatively few had such as guns or quasimagical devices. Some were of 'magic', had intrinsic abilities known as magic. These were magefolk and were subspecies of different species.

 

There were various animals, both familiar and not so familiar. There were horses and ponies along with horn-horses something like unicorns but with short double horns. There were riding antelopes and bigger wagon and caravan pulling antelopes. There were not just riding horses but big draft horses also pulling vehicles. It was odd to note the brass and glass electric lamps and indicators on the animal drawn vehicles. These people had brass and glass telescopes, cameras and other devices of fine manufacture. There were four strange steamtrucks and I was soon to learn that these armoured monsters, that moved fast and quiet for such, were quasimagical devices of a kind known generally as steammagic. These also had electric lamps and indicators.

 

There was one human, a mature man of the Brotish Empire, with grey hair and a neatly trimmed beard also of grey. He wore curious Victorian Era style fatigues and held an ornate elephant rifle of great power. He had a helmet on his head, rounded and elongated, with some colourful feathers sticking out from one side. On his back was a fairly big backpack and a neatly rolled up sleeping bag.

 

This man studied the newcomer humans, from another world, with great curiosity and some astonishment. He looked at me in the same way that he did the others. Then he was noting such items as hand-scanners, laptop computers, a small basic remote-robot, autorifles, xolaserguns and others. When he saw how some of the the women were dressed, he actually blushed softly. I wondered at this until I considered that while he had seen nonhuman women in 'less modest' clothing, out in the open, he might not have done the same with human women.

 

He came over to us even as I introduced myself to leaders of the newcomers from the local realm. They had come here for two reasons: firstly to track down the three who had already arrived, along with some others, and to set up a kind of colony here. The man was named Professor Carvaton and he had come a very long way from the Brotish Empire. I learned little more of him or his reason for coming so far, at least at that time. We shook hands in a way that indicated this was a familiar custom of both our upbringings.

 

I returned to WozuGoo and was soon teaching him some basic maths. I tried to make my lessons interactive and entertaining while remaining effective. He was a fast learner and very intelligent. It did no harm that I bribed him just a little with some treats for him staying focused on lessons. His sister taught him other things like wozfolk traditions, knowledge of the local ecosystems and much else of the kind.

 

Of course it was only a matter of time before I was asked to transduplicate a mound of items to gain rejuvenated multiplied duplicates. Mainly I transduplicated supplies that were running short be they cans of food, arrows, bullets, medical serums, bandages and much else. There were some interesting items such as a telescope, a crank handle driven mechanical machinegun (crankergun) with six barrels that was on wooden wheels to be pulled by a horse, a phonograph, some phonograph records, a geographical almanac, a large compass, a lever-action rifle, a six-shooter revolver-pistol and a hand-lamp.

[Maharg67]

NOTES TO BE ADDED

[Maharg67]

01-12(0013)

DOWN TO BASICS: BOBBY

FUN WITH THE SHANOGATAO

 

The ShanogaTao oomans attacked a party of humans foolish enough to go 'looking around' with out seeking permission or the protection of fighters from either the local peoples or those from the Lost Earths. The four young men died horribly, tortured, and this was not helped by the late arrival of myself and other fighters.

 

I cut down one of the oomans with three rapid shots from a 9mmP semiautomatic pistol and then kicked another in the head who was crouched beside a dead young man.

 

What I did next was most strange and unexpected, even for me. I was drawn to doing so and crouched to touch each dead young man, the flies moving away from me as I did so, so that they sparkle shimmered and...

 

The black man, Albert, was doomed to the Blue Ice Realm as was the white man, Peter. They had done dark karmic acts in the past and were paying for it. They vanished! Then the man named Colin went the same way as did Mark. They had all failed the 'testing' and yet, depending on what they did in the Blue Ice Realm, they had a chance to return, to be resurrected. That had nothing to do with me just as the way they had been tested was not of my doing. Yet the others stared at me in wonder and I was not surprised.

 

As for the oomans, they were a different matter. The ShanogaTao had a primitive group mentality, had probably been drawn to send others to the cavern after I killed the others with my special sniper rifle. Now more would come. Ooman psychic abilities were crude and quite limited but others would soon be on their way and this time they would be in far larger numbers.

 

Yet I was drawn to touch one of the thirteen dead oomans and the adult-female sparkle shimmered, then changed to become blue in colour with gills. She was no longer ShanogaTao ooman but was of the defensive aggressive, more sophisticated and advanced atumans. Of the thirteen, only five did not fail the test, the other seven burning away as if with instantaneous combustion. Of those who passed the first adult-female had become an amphibious atuman, the second adult-female became a solar-glider of yellow colour and strangely graceful wings, the first adult-neuter became a generally mind-body-spirit enhanced atuman with purple skin, the first adult-male became another amphibious atuman and the second adult-neuter became generally enhanced only. All were generally enhanced.

 

From oomans, conditioned from the womb to conquer, kill and devour, the five had been given a second chance, a test, and had succeeded where the seven other oomans had failed.

 

The atumans stood and faced me. They looked confused, which was understandable, youthful and a little fearful.

 

I spoke to them. "I do not know what happened but I suppose I am somehow, intrinsically, linked with the Underworld's true nature though I am not even sure what that means. You are welcome to live amongst us as atumans."

 

The yellow adult-female spoke. "We thank you and will gladly join you but we have warnings for you. We must go and speak of these as quickly as we can. We also need food, drink and other resources."

 

So it was done!

Edited February 1, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

01-13(0014)

DOWN TO BASICS: BOBBY

FUN WITH THE SHANOGATAO

 

Not all welcomed the former oomans, the atumans, but they were in the minority. I went with these strangely transformed ones to my home, now shared with a fair sized group, and the atumans brought with them the ooman equipment, supplies and other gear. We shared a small meal, some water, some coffee that the atumans were not sure they liked. Four of the slayers were there along with the young adult-female wozzle and the young auman woman.

 

The atumans were amazed by a laptop computer with its 3Dscreen and also other technologies from my home world. Yet I was just as amazed by the solar wings of one of them along with the amphibious abilities of others.

 

The solar winged yellow atuman spoke. "A ShadowLord moves amongst the ShanogaTao oomans, seduces their leaders and their elite warriors except a few who either dare not oppose him or who are forced into exile by his dark influences. He is bringing to the oomans lever-action guns, bolt-action guns, crankerguns that fire either .303 bullets or 1-pounder shells, breech loading canons, breech loading howitzers, steammagic armoured machines and much else. We oomans are not used to using such technologies and we are not used to fighting in other than our traditional ways but the ShadowLord is training many of our people to fight as modern armies. Not as modern as your armies, you newcomers from another world, but as advanced as the Brotish Empire."

 

"As my group and I feared would happen is happening." Professor Carvaton briskly entered the chamber. "I am sorry to trespass so rudely but I also have grim information to give. Yet it would be better for the current story to be completed before I speak. Could I have some of that coffee, of yours, please."

 

Carvaton was made welcome and he was given coffee and coffee-biscuits, both of which he enjoyed.

 

SolaTiza, the newly renamed solar atuman woman, went on speaking. "If that was not bad enough, the ShadowLord has transformed some of the oomans into monstrous warriors, workers and other things. Not all survive the process, which is agonizing, and a few a mercy killed because they survive but as deformed cripples. There is a growing number of oomans, amongst the ShanogaTao, who are turning against the ShadowLord and his ways but they are still only a moderate sized minority. Many ShanogaTao are unwillingly being pushed into serving the plans of our corrupted Tribal Elders and the ShadowLord."

 

Then, after a pause, she went on. "To add to the dark, sad tale the ShadowLord has brought with him three ShadowOnes, powerful monsters though not as powerful as himself, and lesser things called shadowlings, shadowbeasts and shadowfolk. Shadowlings are like distorted shadows, shadowbeasts are distorted animal monsters and shadowfolk seem to be distorted humans."

 

Again she paused. "Then there are strange, pale skinned humans who are with out... conscious... terrible in some uncaring.... uninhibited fashion that is very much unlike the berserker hate and rage of the oomans that we were once. They are in strange body-armour and carry something they call super-rifles that fire many bullets fast or jets of flame that can not be put out by water very easily or beams of what look like red pulsing light. They are something called PanAxis Stormtroopers. They have strange, terrible machines like 'battletanks' and 'helicopters' and 'mechwalkers'. The only good thing is that there are only three or so hundred of them and only a few of their terrible machines, most of which are armoured trucks to carry soldiers and other stuff."

 

"Superclones!" Professor Carvaton scowled softly. "Superclones created because of the treachery of three individuals who I once considered to be trusted friends. The evil PanAxis, the PureReich, is attacking the Brotish Empire and its allies. A brutal war has broken out. The trouble is that the FreeAlliance is starting to lose already."

[Maharg67]

01-14(0015)

DOWN TO BASICS: BOBBY

FUN WITH THE SHANOGATAO

 

One hundred and forty-eight more people came from the Lost Earth. I was grateful that fifty-four of them were my own people including other, now rejuvenated, supersoldiers. My people came with special equipment and supplies but mostly more general stuff. The others were a mixture of standard humans, some gen-engineered chimps and some animals of different kinds. There was even a multiple purpose remote-robot, a four legged thing with a central trunk and four double jointed manipulator-limbs along with a turret-head. There were more vehicles including some four wheel drive amphibious trucks, a couple of hoverjeeps and a mixture of electric civilian street machines. There was also an old fashioned Harley Davidson motorbike, a big powerful 'hog'.

 

We supers got together, with our other people, and there was Marshal Proto herself in charge in her own fashion loose but tight at the same time. I met her in private, apart from her bodyguards, and told her what I knew of this new place, of its potentials and the threat of the ShanogaTao. The attractive, sexy Proto, now nicely rejuvenated, sat in her power armour and absorbed all of this data quietly. Then she spoke.

 

"This is our home world now. There is no going back. The Lost Earth's very fabric is starting to shred. There have arrived vastly powerful aliens who are... extremely alien. They seem to be helping all but the undead that they destroy. Many are escaping to other worlds, including to this one. Lots more are going to be arriving here but also at other spots in this Underworld. The World Wide Institute worked it out finally before they were ended. The last of the fortified supercities is dying. Zombies swarm across Eurasia, Africa and South America. Dragons burn them from the skies. Got to admire those dragons; antigravity wings is what they have so they just stay up there burning and burning away those undead. Not even the flying vampire swarms can touch them."

 

It was all about reality, about too many realities crashing together. Yet much was still basic, was still general, in nature.

 

Almost everything we had known as normality, as our world, was gone so we just had to adjust as much as we possibly could.

 

Marshal Proto wanted to send out armed-armoured exploration groups as soon as possible but I convinced her that she, we, needed to cooperate tightly with the others, especially the locals. I told her about the hybrid locals, the other locals, about the Slayers including the one that I did not trust at all.

 

Marshal Proto held WozuGoo in her arms and looked into his eyes. The wozzle infant fell in love with her at once. Such was the influence of Marshal Proto. Then she began to meet the others.

 

The move to the other space, the glowcavern, had begun. It was barer but much larger than that cavern, was linked to it by a big, open and straight tunnel and had some odd alien metallic stone artifacts in it that the locals stated could be of interesting usefulness though they had to be used with care.

 

Marshal Proto was my lover-friend but she was quick to get me to transduplicate a lot of special gear including the robot. This time there were four rejuvenated duplicates of everything along with the rejuvenated originals. The remote-robots would be of much usefulness but so would the other special gear.

[Maharg67]

I APOLOGIZE BUT I AM GOING TO RESTART THIS STORY IN A NEW TOPIC BECAUSE IT HAS FAILED THIS TIME TO BE 'DOWN TO BASICS' AND HAS BECOME TOO COMPLICATED, TOO QUICKLY, WHICH IS A WEAKNESS OF MINE AS A WRITER.

 

IF YOU WANT ME TO CHANGE MY MIND, THEN PLEASE GIVE ME SOME FEEDBACK.

[LadyMilla]

Locked as requested by OP.