The Wall 2: In Space!

[Cloud]

Captain Bluebeard and Princess Buttons crash land onto the scene, their fall broken by one of the guards surrounding Xixitinthix. Princess Buttons had reduced herself to the size of a normal run of the mill horse, or a zebra.

"Well that was lucky, it's a good job these men were here otherwise we'd be dead," Captain Bluebeard exclaimed, "Come Princess Buttons, let us ride out of this scene before we become entangled in the affairs of others"

Princess Buttons gave a neigh of pleasure, then started towards the nearest exit.

[Fort]

Greeves wished most of these problems did not end up on HIS plate, however some events were almost impossible to avoid - and that was including exploding skittle toilets. The scene around him was one of all his men running around screaming on fire - and him holding his head in his hands - for a man that was used to having orders obeyed, this was a stressful day.

"ARREST THEM ALL!" Greeves bellowed, veins popping from his neck, "every bloody extra-terrestrial, captain and criminal!"


And then it all went blue as the laser fire from the Saa-kru finaly hit home - Corporal Greeves covered his eyes as the Syphilis Prime Space Station's main deflector shields kicked into action, destroying several ships that were hovering in the air at the unlucky time the station's defences kicked in.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" he bellowed.

There was a crackle as the obeseband's airways cleared up, and a Peacekeeper replied, "Our deflectors cut out a hostile attack from an alien spaceship," the voice continued in an annoying singsong voice.

"Stop that."

"Sorry Sir, shall we return fire?"

"Yes, and arrest the survivors!" Greeves bellowed - still in an arresting mood, "casualties?"

"None caused by the laser Sir," the voice continued, now singing like Elvis, "But our shields destroyed several different cargo ships; one worryingly tall skyscraper was sheared in half - killing the residents, who were all blind orphans with crippling diseases I might add - and a cat."

"A cat died?" Greeves asked, rather mystified.

"Yes sir, Lance-Corporal Hale's, the cat had a rather poor heart condition, and the excitement was all rather too much for the poor thing."

Greeves bit his lower lip, he'd hate to have to be the one who had to face Lance-Corporal Hale the day his beloved Mr. Snuggles died, Hale could do awful things with an electrified Cattle-prod in the right mood.

Greeves turned round, and his eyes fell upon Norog - that sky pirate, who was now handcuffed and rounghly manhandled into a police Van, followed by the Mafia crime boss - who was an unhealthy colour Greeves remarked - and Captain Bluebeard, whose ship had been pried open with a Lightsaber-canopener, where the Captain had been rugby tackled into the ground and his ship impounded.

Greeves lit up a manly cigar of manliness, his eyes now falling down upon Shiz, whose open drainage was spewing forth damp skittles as the roach guiltily tried to pretend nothing was happening.

Skittles...Greave’s tragic son Timmy tried skittles once, the Colonel blamed skittles for Timmy's fall from social grace, listening to loud music and wearing more that two bright colours on his clothing.... skittles were to blame for his coloured madness, Timmy would be AVENGED!

"You're nicked, Sonny-Jim," Greeves said lamely, he was not very good at one-liners, but on the bright side at least he never said it to his arch-nemesis Norog.

The space-roach was fitted with several pairs of handcuffs and shuffled into the van with the rest of the social misfits. Greeves smoked his cigar and frowned, hell it was a busy day, and where was that Bounty Hunter?

On queue Maurice Steel fell to the ground in a bundle of smouldering flesh, like chicken… Greeves thought worryingly, cannibalistic tendencies he never knew he had welling within him.

“Had a little run in with our deflector shield have you?” Greeves asked, trying to smile but failing miserably at the needed muscle contractions.

Steel’s jetpack’s thrusters spurted lamely as a way of answer, but Greeves wasn’t paying attention, he was distracted by the thought of how Captain Bluebeard’s creamy thighs would taste on a silver platter.
He snapped out of it immediately, he was a Corporal of the Syphilis peacekeepers! Not a brain-sucking single-celled organism from outer space! But still…how very tempting.

“Take them to Lance-Corporal Hale,” he announced, “I’m sure him and his cat-grief and electric cattle prod will have a few choice words with them…and by words I mean torturous pain, and by electric cattle prod I mean analy-inserted electric cattle prod,” Greeves paused in mid-thought, “yeah, and while your at it try to find out who the hell they are, that tends to make things nice and legal.”

“Shouldn’t we frisk them for weapons or something?” asked a confused Peacekeeper.

Greeves looked inside the van at his haul, most looked blissfully unaware of their predicament, and most were the cause of their own undoing. How they got this far in life without being killed Greeves was entirely mystified by, “No,” said the Corporal, “I think we’ll survive, take ‘em away!”

“And you sir?” came the singsong voice on the intercom, now doing a rendition of the Can-can.

“I have a date with destiny,” Hale added, “and by destiny I mean alien invaders who think they can fire lasers at me, and by date I mean analy inserted electric cattle-prod.”

In a flash Greeves was teleported into deep space, upon the head ship in the Syphilis warship fleet. These were large white tadpole-looking ships.
“We have them surrounded Sir!” came the Warship intelligence.
“Wonderful,” Greeves added, “and find out if they have anuses, or creamy leg meat.”
“Sorry Sir?” the intelligence asked, slightly throw-off and panicked.
“I mean- FIRE AT WILL!”

****

Steel looked around at the rest of his 'comrades' within the van, “so,” he said uncomfortably, “they sure have creative ways of using bovine-taming instruments I hear…”


((Synopsis, sorry for long post: If anyone is confused, everyone except 501 should be in the Van, ready to be taken away to Lance-Corporal Hale and his cat grief, Princess Buttons is currently being impounded and Greeves has teleported up into Space to meet the saa-kru head-on.))

[3kul]

"NO! I'm too pretty for jail, you can't take me there! We're not going to jail, are we? Please tell me that we're not going to jail!" Shiz wailed like a slightly insane crybaby. "Well we're sure as hell not going to Disneyland!" Steel yelled back, hoping to shut him up. He was not going to be entering the prison talent show with this space cockroach anytime soon.

"But that doesn't mean that we're going to jail! There are heaps of places other than Disneyland to go to! Like... What about Movieworld? It's on the Gold Coast!" Shiz was clearly desperate, though his hopes were quickly shot down by his fellow prisoners. "Oh please," Captain Bluebeard interjected, giving him the ol' stink eye for such a stupid suggestion. "If we really get to choose where we get to go, I want to go to Hooters! Get me some hot wings!" "That's not what people go to Hooters for at all!" "Do we have Hooters here in space?" "I find the presentation of such scantily clad women to be counter-constructive to the feminist movement, and only further objectifies women in the eyes of men! Though if we are going I want onion rings!"

After many hours of arguing, the prisoners finally came to an agreement. "Okay, so we're all going to Space Tijuana," "After stopping by KFC," Captain Bluebeard interjected, being forced to settle for a cheaper and quicker destination that had more greasy teens and less beautiful women. "Yes, yes, after stopping by KFC." "What about Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory?!" Shiz screamed like an impatient child, wanting to get his point of view across most of all. "For the last time, it doesn't exist! Didn't you ever read the book? It's totally ficitional!" "Though I think we can all agree that it was a delightful tale nonetheless." The rest of the prisoners agreed on this, although a few secretly felt that 'Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator' was a much more interesting tale.

"What!?" This was the first that Shiz had heard of this (as he was too busy screaming his ideas across the van earlier to actually listen to what everybody else was saying), and it meant that his many years of planning the greatest chocolate heist that the multiverse had ever seen were all in vain. "Now what the hell am I supposed to do?" He waited for an answer, though by now everybody already hated him and had chosen to ignore his incessant whining for their new discussion on ancient earth literature. They all seem to have temporarily forgotten that they aren't in charge of where the van goes, but I'm sure that soon enough (ie: the next post, no doubt ) somebody will figure out something.

[addman]

Xixitinthix was sat quietly as the others debated, twiddling his thumbs. He was starting to pick up the controls now, and did this with surprising dexterity (causing an inverse blackhole on a molecular level, and destroying a microscopic race of multi-breasted sex sirens). Taking another slurp from his host's brain, he decided that he'd be the one to concoct a plan to help them escape from the van. He looked around for anything that may help him. On the floor of the van was a pneumatic drill, a lockpick, a handgun, and a car hotwiring kit; all useless! Why couldn't they get locked up with the required items for escape? It was as though the universe was plotting against them.

Suddenly, an idea came to him. It was the greatest escape plan ever devised by anyone in the history of the universe, ever. That includes the race of people who were cloned from Houdini's DNA. This idea was so fiendishly brilliant that not even a fiend who graduated from Brilliance University could have thought of it.

"I've got it-!" He exclaimed, standing up, and banging his head on the low roof of the van, squashing his squishy self between skull and metal roof, and knocking himself unconcious.

*************

Awaking in a cell, Xixitinthix realised he'd been out for a long time and missed the entire journey. Looking around, he noticed that he was confined to a single cell with nothing but a double bed, shower, WC, vending machine, laser shaver, 42" LCD Television, with only the basic Cable package, and a PodgyBand Internet connection. Reduced to the level of such a primitive was surely a violation of his Alien Rights!

As he looked through the bars, he could see all the others were in similar cells, and were all tucking into large buckets of white meat with the words "KFC" printing on them. He wasn't sure what a KFC was, but unless it was "Kentucky Fried Cerebellum" he wasn't all that interested.

"So, you're all awake at last!" A familiar voice boomed through the jail cells, almost rattling the priceless ornaments off of the ivory shelf in Xixitinthix's cell.

"Are you that Greeves fellow who captured us?" Xixitinthix questioned.

"No, I am his brother, General Peeves!" he snapped back, a slight tone of resentment in his voice. Xixitinthix would have been interested to learn as to how two members of the same family joined the military and held the same rank at the same time, but he wasn't actually interested.

"Why are we in this hell hole?! WHY?!" Xixitinthix screamed dramatically as he microwaved a burrito. Not because he liked them, but just to see what would happen if he left it in the tin foil as he did so.

"You are charged with impersonating a mafia crime lord. And the rest of you are charged with consorting with an impersonator of a mafia crime lord. You sick bastards! If you don't confess to your crimes, we have ways of making you talk!"

With that, Peeves pressed a button on a remote, and all the large TVs in each cell flashed up with an old, Blu-Ray movie.

"Good lord!" Cried Xixitinthix in horror "The quality is abysmal! Where...where's the 4D effects? Why can't I smell the air freshener on that wall behind the actor! ARGH!"

"Although E.T looks quite realistic" Remarked Captain Bluebeard, reminded of his first love.

"Confess to your crimes, or we will go back to DVD quality films! And if that fails, we'll insert cattle prods up your rectal orafices, where ever they may be!"

"GIVE ME THE CATTLE PROD! DEATH IS BETTER THAN DVD!" Screamed Shiz, grabbing at the bovine controlling device strapped to the back of a nearby guard.

Peeves rubbed his hands with glee. This was going to be a good day.

[Cloud]

"Is this one of those movie piracy adverts?" Bluebeard asked, "You know, the ones that tell you not to download movies because you'll not have the cool effects or the trans-dimensional party skips"

Bluebeard always loved the party skips. It gave him a sense of authority and super cool lasers would fire out of his eyes for hours, but mostly it was the authority that he liked. Suddenly he started feeling queazy, they had just put on a DVD and it was flickering like a... well a DVD really. The scene was seemingly rocking back and forth, and it looked as if the 42" TV's were getting smaller. Everyone noticed it.

"AIIIEEE! The room's getting bigger!" Shiz exclaimed.
"Anyone ready to talk?" Peeves asked.
"Hang on. If you've been standing there all this time how come you're not affected?" Xixitinthix asked in between gasps and shudders.
"I got that old tech blocker, to me that screen is completely blank"
"Someone remind me to get that fitted," Bluebeard said as the room started spinning.

[Cirrial]

501 stares at the oncoming Syphilis warship. "Y'know, that ship looks... all kinds of messed up. This is still camera one, right? No-one changed the channel to some freaky documentary or anything?"

And then suddenly the Invincible This Time, We Swear is fired upon by an entire warship fleet.

Admist the screams of panic of the otherwise professional crew, 501 decides to stand up on his chair in a dynamic pose, inadvertantly performing a few disco dance moves as he tries to balance.

"People, people! There comes a time in every great captain's life when you have to run like hell. This, my dear crew, is not one of them. CHARGE STRAIGHT AT THEEEMMMM!"

The theoretically invincible Invincible This Time, We Swear flies straight at the warfleet, aiming a kamikaze run at the assumed-to-be leading ship.

Unfortunately, the assumed-to-be leading ship is actually one of the most expendable ships in the entire fleet, with the leading ship a little further behind.

While the ship smoothly runs straight into oblivion a small escape pod launches with 501 and the rest of the surprisingly small amount of crew onboard.

There is a massive explosion as the Invincible This Time, We Swear is destroyed before even scratching its target. However, the explosion takes out an entirely different expendable ship.

The escape pod tumbles helplessly and latches onto an assumed-to-be expendable ship. Predictably at this point, it's actually the lead ship.

A pair of lasers drill a hole through the hull and 501 and eight saa-kru fall into a crumpled heap on the floor. Of the bridge. Directly in front of Greeves.

501 weakly lifts an arm up, shunting aside a couple of stunned saa-kru. "I can explain."

[Fort]

Greeves: Oh you better. Do you know how much those ineffective syphilis ships cost?
501: Lots?
Greeves: Nothing at all! Now let's see if we can you a nice cell.
501: Oh? With 4D Smellovision, Ultra-cable TV and Obeseband!
Greeves: No... I hope you like ACID!
501: Ahh, it's one of those nice cells.

***

Maurice Steel: I GIVE UP! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!

*Steel stuck the KFC bucket on his head, still smelling the stench of Kentucky friend Cerebellum, of course it was more like Kentucky Fried Cortex...KFC didn't have proper brains in their food anymore, just low grade cut brain mass. *

Steel: Ahhh....sweet bliss.
Peeves: Stop that!
Steel: Turn off your abysmal and inhumane torture.
Peeves: There's sauce leaking down your chin you know.
Steel: Hmphh.
Peeves: KFC makes its special sauce from Battery Acid.
Steel: Hmpph.
Peeves: From Batteries designed for tanks.

*There is silence for some time, before Steel keels over.*

Peeves: I don't know how they get away with it in trading standard-AGHHH!
*Shiz, who had taken the cattle prod from a guard, had given one good blow to Peeve's leg.*
Bluebeard: Should have aimed higher.
*Peeve picks himself off the ground - and looks around the room in perplexed fear.*
Peeves: Oh...oh god...the blocker...its stopped working! AIEEE!!
*Peeves writhes on the floor before finally collapsing in pain and whimpering.*

Steel: Good work Shiz! Now find a switch on him that turns off the TVs!
Shiz: Sorry? Me and Bluebeard did that ages ago.
Steel: Eh?
Shiz: Yeah, it's just your TV that's on, we used the "off" switch. We realised that since he had a blocker there's no way in hell he could see if the TVs were on or not.
Steel: Oh....now I feel kinda stupid.
*Steel edges towards his TV and turns it off. Looks of perplexed grimace loosen on the faces of the group.*
*Steel finally takes off the most fetching hat he ever wore.*
Steel: I hope that KFC acid hasn't left any mark....
*Steel touches the tender and puffy skin on the side of his head.*
Steel: I hate fast food.
Xix: Yeah, you know what's worse? Tumours, they go straight to my non-existent thighs.
*Bluebeard's eyes narrow.*
Bluebeard: Who eats Brain TUMORS?
Xix: Ermm...well, you see I-
*Just then the left wall blows up in a furore of rock and priceless Ming china. All the prison cell doors immediately burst open.*
Shiz: That wasn't...very secure.
Steel: Well - what kind of protection do you expect in a Space Station orbiting a planet named after an STI?
Shiz: Ahh.
Bluebeard: What the hell happened?!
*The group run outside to a large blackened, gaping crater. Inside is 501 and Colonel Greeves.*
Greeves: Captain's...log. 543211. As we began to pour acid into *cough* the alien invader's cell, it got into our air ducts and destroyed the ship's reactor core in the most dazzling display of special effects ever seen. I pity and scorn any man in close proximity who missed it.
501: Haha yeah, and my caprice is immune to acid. Go figure.

[addman]

Bluebeard: Out of our way Greeves! We're escaping!
Greeves: Oh, going somewhere? Well, don't mind me! Be on your way. Here, I'll even hold this door open for you.
Steel: Thanks buddy, I owe you- oh god!

*The group walk through the door only to find that they are stood in a mock courtroom, face to face with giant space robot wearing a judges wig and shoulder missles*

Greeves: Welcome to your trial.
Robot: HALT CRIMINAL SCUM! END.
Xix: He seems like a nice fellow, I'm sure he'll give us a fair trial.
Greeves: ARACHNOTRON! I have evidence that these people are criminals.
Steel: ARACHNOTRON? He doesn't even have eight legs!
Greeves: Quiet you fool, he's sensitive about his name.
ARACHNOTRON: THERE WAS A MIX UP ON THE PRODUCTION LINE! END.
Shiz: But I'm totally innocent! I don't even know these people!
ARACHNOTRON: SILENCE INSECTOID VERMIN. MY SENSORS DETECT A LARGE QUANTITY OF GUMDROPS IN YOUR POCKETS. END
Shiz: ...They aren't my pockets. I'm minding them for a friend...
Xix: Gumdrop aren't illegal are they?
ARACHNOTRON: NO BUT I HATE THE TASTE. END
Steel: Before our trial, don't we get lawyers?
Greeves: Yes, where are my manners? Let me get them for you.

*Greeves pulls out a cattle prod and zaps each of them in the back*

Bluebeard: Argh! That doesn't feel like a lawyer at all!
ARACHNOTRON: YOU ARE ALL FOUND GUILTY OF YOUR CRIMES. END
Xix: That was our trial?
Steel: But we haven't even given statements, there's no witnesses, and we haven't seen any evidence yet.
ARACHNOTRON: I AM PROGRAMMED TO GIVE OUT SENTENCES NOT TO LISTEN TO EVIDENCE. END
Greeves: What are their punishments?
ARACHNOTRON: THEY MAY BE WITCHES SO WE SHALL BURN THEM ALIVE. END
Steel: What?
Greeves: Sorry, he's stuck in middle ages mode again *presses a button on a remote control*
ARACHNOTRON: BURN THEM BURN THEM BURN THEM. END
Steel: Still in middle ages mode?
Greeves: No, what gave you that idea?

[Cloud]

Bluebeard: When you say 'burn them' you don't mean me, do you?
Steel: Who else do you think he means?
Bluebeard: I was hoping he meant you and I was to be escorted off the premises and met with a group of bikini-clad women with 6 breasts.
ARACHNOTRON: Bluebeard, you are to be escorted off the premises and met with a group of bikini-clad women with 6 breasts.
Bluebeard: Woo hoo!
Shiz: Hey, wait that's not fair. I want to go too.
ARACHNOTRON: *points to a door* There is your exit gentlemen

*The group run through a door entitled 'Exit to the world of bikini-clad women with 6 breasts' and make their way down a corridor*

Steel: This seems a bit fishy to me.
Bluebeard: What gives you that idea?
Steel: Well, Greeves rubbing his hands with glee behind us for one.
Greeves: MWAHAHAHA...oh erm, I'm just excited to meet these women.

*Greeves hastily pushes the group through another door*

Bluebeard: I know this is a stupid question, but why are there stakes propped upright with a lot of fuel snaking across the ground towards them?
Greeves: These are your showers, you need to get clean before you meet the women.
Steel: What about your shower?
Greeves: I'm already clean
Shiz: Actually you smell the most. I didn't say anything earlier because I thought you'd take that as an act of kindness and release me.

*Suddenly another stake rises from the ground. Greeves gulps and starts becoming nervous and shifty.*

ARACHNOTRON (from an intercom): Mount your stakes...I mean showers

*The group walk up to the stakes, including Greeves*

Steel: Why did we get ourselves into this situation, of course there weren't any women! How was I so stupid.
Bluebeard: What? How could you ruin this moment for me!

[Goron40]

Capt. Norog: Alright, I am totally out of place here, although I must admit it's nice to be with a fellow pirate captain.

Norog motioned to Bluebeard, currently engaged in the prodding of his stake.

Norog: That aside, I'm simply trying to get to Kentucky Fried Contraband to pick up my illegal shipment of skittles! Release me!
Sneakers O' Tool: I refuse to take my sneakers off, and I'm just trying to plant an anti-matter charge in General Greeve's rectum as revenge for cheating on me when I had that gay fling several weeks ago.

Sneakers gathers odd looks from everyone in the "shower" room.

Sneakers: Uhh... I mean, I've still got an anti-matter charge since Greeves forgot to frisk us...

Sneakers reaches into the back of his pants and pulls out an explosive device with obvious lack of comfort. Showing great relief, he plants the bomb on the wall.

Bluebeard: I going to go ahead and hold onto my soap extra tight here...

[Iman al-Rashid ibn Aali]

Iman woke up on the floor of a harsh metallic surface, filled with holes. He had been sleeping so long that the pattern of the floor had been etched into his face. Looking around, he found that he was in the corridor of someplace indoors... and it was all made of the harsh metallic substance. This... wasn't where he fell asleep. Oh, not again!. He was getting kind of tired of this... he was just barely beginning to get used to the Dojo and here he was again, in another completely alien place.

After he had gotten onto his feet, Iman decided to explore. It wasn't long until he came to what looked like a window. But that couldn't be the window... for one thing, the world outside was completely black and there were stars... nothing but stars. There was no ground anywhere in sight. I'd give anything to suddenly appear in a garden of beautiful women and food again, he thought, remembering his... "induction" into the al-da'wa al-jadīda.

[addman]

((Woah, this suddenly went quiet))

Greeves: I don't know why I'm being burned at the stake.
ARACHNOTRON: BECAUSE YOU ARE GUILTY OF PLEASURING YOURSELF WITHOUT A PERMIT. END
Greeves: But I have a permit!
ARACHNOTRON: YOUR PERMIT EXPIRED AN HOUR AGO. END
Xix: But...didn't we meet you an hour and a half ago? That means...
Steel: You had your hands in your pockets as we walked down the corridor!
Greeves: ...I don't have to listen to these wild allegations!
ARACTNOTRON: WAIT. YOUR PERMIT HAS BEEN RENEWED. YOU ARE FREE TO GO. END
Greeves: HAHA! See you later, suckers!

Greeves exits the room whilst removing his trousers and swinging them around his head in triumph. As the door shuts behind him, Sneaker's bomb explodes, shocking the party. Xix falls backwards onto his steak, stabbing the dead mafia boss's body through the stomach. Trying to force himself back to his feet, he wrenches himself up, bringing the steak with him.

Xix: Hmm, that's gonna leave a nasty hole.
Steel: I think I'm going to be sick.
Bluebeard: Aren't you a bounty hunter? You should be used to grisly stuff like that.
Steel: ...I had a nasty burrito for lunch.
Xix: Pardon me gents, but we now have an escape route, we've blown our way through the wall.
Steel: Hot damn! Let's run through, blindly disregarding any danger which may be waiting on the other side!
Shiz: Good idea. That six breasted room may be on the other side. I ddon't know what breasts are, but if they are anything like mandibles, I'm game!

The group pile out of the room whilst ARACHNOTRON states into the microphone that they should stay and burn for their crimes.

((Iman, this would probably be a good time for you to get into the RP. We could run into the room that you are in.))

[Cirrial]

501 wanders aimlessly around, blinded by a show of special effects so fantastic, he didn't want to see anything ever again unless it was as good as the reactor core blowing up.

Then he slaps himself in the face, making loud metallic slapping noises, and looks straight. "My carapace aches. Wait." He looks down. "Aw, crap, I don't even have a carapace! Or an extra pair of legs! Or any kind of cool insecty attennae! What kind of crap is this?"

A voice on a hitherto nonexistant radio crackles into existance. "Uh, captain, that would be because you aren't a saa-kru. You're a vaguely birdlike humanoid robot. You've been a robot for, I dunno, twenty years or something. Remember?"

501 falls to his knees. "CURSE YOU, UNIVERSE! CURSE YOOOOOO-"

FIVE MINUTES LATER

"-OOOOOOOOO-"

ONE HOUR LATER

"-OOOOOOOOU!"

501 gets up, and takes out a remote control. "If I'm going down, I'm taking you all with me!" He then presses a large red button that says "SELF-DESTRUCT", and awaits explosion.

Nothing happens, but on his radio he hears a few screams, a crackle, and then silence. "Huh. Guess I put the bomb in the wrong person again. Oh well. Now I need to go find me a new crew!"

He walks forwards and trips, flying through space.

"Well, this is mildly annoying. WHEEEEEE-"

TWO SECONDS LATER

"-EEE wait what?"

He eventually winds up falling into a temporal anomaly, both swirly and wobbly, and ends up running down a corridor, bursting through several doors, into a room with no obvious exits.

Then, the room opens up, and 501 falls screaming into the room that the others are currently running into, on an inevitable and unavoidable direct collision course with something... or someone.

[Iman al-Rashid ibn Aali]

Iman was still staring out of the window, mesmerised by the view of the stars, when he heard an explosion coming from his left. His heart racing, he rushed to the doorway which led to the next room, only to find it blocked by a group of four people entering from the adjacent room.

"What was that?", Iman asked urgently to no one in the group in particular. He had so many more questions about this place, and these people but right now the most important seemed to be what the explosion was.