Cave Slickers: The Legend of Holly-Eyes Gold [FINISHED!]

[Cirrial]

Naine is mentally dead, tangled wires jutting out of his body, tubes oozing unpleasant fluids that should probably not be leaving his body so quickly. His mind is blank, his spirit taken, his mortal shell kept just alive by the desperate efforts of those few life support systems in the exobody not completely destroyed.

Goldie is catatonic, on the floor in the chamber, staring at one of its own tendrils, not knowing anything about itself or reality any more. Its inky blackness seems worryingly fluid, as if Goldie is about to melt into the shadows and nothingness.

501, however, is still functional. And very much a threat to himself and others. His arm continues to flail around like a ribbon in a gale, as a concentrated crackling stream of warp energy gushes out of the shattered hole in his arm. "NO! NO! This can't be happening! Five five five five..."

He flails to the edge of the room, tripping over his own feet, scarring the roof of the cave with the essence of holes in the fabric of the universe. Small portals pop open where the energy is excessively focused, ejecting random detritus from other worlds in other universes. On his back, 501 stares helplessly at the carnage.

A suspiciously mundane table lamp falls out of a portal, crashing to the ground. A pulsating, gooey blob is thrown into a wall, splattering green and violet hues across the wall. Gaping bloody maws lunge out of a portal before being severed from whatever owns them as the portal abruptly closes.

Unpredictability is one of the fundamental aspects of warp energy that Maratix has fought with since its adoption as a power source, and all the fail-safes and safety devices in the universe couldn't stop the bizarre consequences of such a leak as 501 now experiences.

Screaming more out of fear than any form of pain, 501 tries to grab his broken arm with his still functional one, and tries to force the direction of the stream of warp energy away from anyone in particular. This is not so much out of a desire to avoid hurting anyone - more a desire not to cause something entirely unexpected and catastrophically bad happening to reality as he knows it.

In a sudden instant of realisation, he knows only one way of stopping the near infinite flow of warp energy from the portal in his central power core. He bends his split-open arm towards his centre and screams in pain. The warp energy courses into and through the forcefield protecting his power core - the same forcefield that, among other things, was intended to prevent exactly these sort of energy leakages.

Against such a focused beam, the forcefield is split, and 501's octahedral energy core splits and cracks.

"I have HAD it with this world!"

The core splits. 501's head jerks forward, accompanied by the sound of something unlocking, and a bright, brief blue flash at the back of his head. His head then falls and thuds into the floor as dead metal, the glow in his eyes fading away.

The core shatters open. The otherwise untouched failsafes within 501's core project a bubble around 501's broken body, containing the flood of warp energy and slowly contracting with a horribly loud grating sound.

It is almost like the universe itself is intervening, healing this shining blue wound in reality.

The process takes mere minutes. The sphere shrinks away into absolute nothingness. No trace of 501's body exists. Even motes of dust have been swallowed by the destructive sphere.

Then, something else happens.

Goldie suddenly climbs up to its equivalent of standing position and stares at the cannon. "No. This isn't happening. Naine's not dead. You're not a cannon. This is a test. This whole thing has been a test. An elaborate charade to prepare me for whatever duty you intend to press upon me. None of this exists. Naine is still alive."

It forms its tendrils into blades and starts to slowly advance towards the cannon. "I'm bored now. This had better be the last part of the test, and you had better have a good reason for this nightmare."

As Goldie moves towards the cannon, it begins to resemble its previous octahedron-with-insectoid-arms shape, as it forms the shape it most strongly remembers. Its red eye does not glow so much as reflect the light, as if its eye has become more metallic.

(( you can tell I have a "keep at least one character active in thread" rule going on for me can't you ))

[Chronos]

((Omg, WHAT? 501 is dead?! Also, I'm terribly sorry about this ridiculously long post. I've been planning lots of things and the time has simply come. In addition, I'm going to just dub what should be latin into english here for a reader's sake.))

Ensichrys closed his eyes and took a deep, shuddering breath. He shook his head slowly from side to side. Dox... the mirror Byule. He had come across this information while raiding Byule's desk underground.

So many possibilities had been created. If Liyao... Dox... Liyox?... succeeded in its mad quest to devour Byule, there was a chance that this whole mess could be remedied. If they were all united into one being, then Ensichrys could simply wait for that to happen and slay the horrible abomination during the transformation. Then the whole multiverse would be rid of these rogue parasitians forever. But Byule was a good SiC. More than that, he seemed to be a fundamentally good person despite walking the darker path. Ensichrys even liked Hollow Eyes. Was there no way to do this and save him? Little Sister had a world of potential as well.

What about the Ruby Dagger? With Byule gone, that would no longer be a problem either. Many thorns could be removed from the side of Ensichrys' world if the parasitians died today. There was, of course, the question of the other parasitian here, but he had not been seen since the suspiciously familiar incident at the training dojo.

But what if the taint of the insane Hollow Eyes created something even more monstrous? Perhaps it was possible that the sanity could be given a surrogate body? Then Byule would still be around in a way, but not nearly as dangerous. That way, perhaps the Evil Council could keep its SiC.

But what about the cannon? There was still that immediate problem. That had to be stopped as soon as possible. What if the maddened parasitian conglomerate failed to find Byule before he fired the cannon? Ensichrys would simply have to be there first. He couldn't track anything at such a depth via the communicators. No, someone else would have to be doing that. Ensichrys would just have to focus on what he did best.

He activated the speakers again. "Tengu, I already know what it is that Byule and Noten are doing. Big cannon, et similia. I have no intentions on working against Noten; if you could assist me in any way, then I implore you to come along with me." Lying through his beak had become a way of life for Ensichrys. "If you are too injured, I can leave you with medical supplies until your god can heal you. I only need to know one thing if I am to complete my task without harming Noten or Byule. Is the cannon a construct, or is it biological in nature?"

Ensichrys flicked off the speakers and dialed channel 88 once again on his communicator. "Find them, but don't act. Dig until you can dig no further without being detected. Understand my english? Te ago."

~~~~~~

Rumbles, explosions, and vocalizations. For one such as she, the underground operation wasn't terribly difficult to find. Furiously, Mortracta tore through the soil...

~~~~~~

After his much needed rest, the Guivre attempted to dig through the rock into the room. He tried, tried, and tried the more, but nothing worked. The rocks were simply too hard. Were he like Mortracta, this would be an easy task, but the Guivre simply wasn't strong enough. He had no choice but to lay in the broken pipe and listen.

~~~~~~

What a blissful feeling.

Hop.

Hop.

Hop.

Out from the Black Forest, the flaming orange eyes of Alloexustio burned from embers to conflagrations. Unbridled Chaos had been created beneath the earth. It wasn't long before the demon of Chaos had infiltrated the cave. There he waited for his "chauffeur." Such was the nature of Chaos. Not everyone will have been assembled yet. One would come and show him the way- voluntarily or otherwise- and Alloexustio would attain what he sought. The child, too, would be rewarded this day...

[Swix]

Fade lays where she's fallen, a pool of red blood beginning to form beneath a body that is more torn than it is broken. She takes shallow breaths, entirely unaware of what's going on around her, the hand holding the Sapphire Dagger locked in a vicelike grip.

_____________________________________________________________

Furnace had been intent on finding one of the spiderpeople to ask about the spear that had annoyingly injured him, perhaps even threatening one of them with the offending instrument just for fun, but the lack of the sight of the nailed down spider king made him stop to look at the place it should have been suspiciously. He'd thought something was off earlier and his previously eased mind was suddenly dropped into a place he was neither used to or liked-a world of doubt. Was this done on purpose, a trick on HollowEyes part, or was it the result of whatever was going on up there? Had it perhaps been unleashed whilst he and Evil Swix were looking through the treasure, or had the spiderfolk found some way to subvert the curse? They must have some form of magic of their own to have come up with the abominable weapon, even though it had clearly done them little good when the Parasitian had come calling. The Dark Fire Dragons nostrils flared as he took a deep breath, the place was obvinusly covered in the strange scent of the strange creaturer, but nothing so fresh as to suggest that they were anywhere close by. Furnace let out a low growl in annoyance. Without the protection of the curse the octopedal creatures could come in whilst they were busy, and he really, really didn't want to stand guard outside.
Furnace turned his narrowed head towards the magical spear, thinking that how or why these creatures had these things no longer mattered. He needed to get rid of them before the arachnid things realised they could get in. The spear had a singular scent, he was confident he could sniff them out if indeed there were more. Before that though he needed to figure out how to destroy it, and so set about snapping the thing. Bracing himself on his back legs once more, Furnace held onto the spear with the foreclaws of his injured leg whilst applying pressure with the good one.

_____________________________________________________________

Evil Swix was only paying minimal attentinn to the massive spider statue as the dark tendrils thrashed wildly around her, sending yet more books and treasure flying before finally calming down, though they pulsed impatiently. "Finally" she muttered, then both strange limbs neared the statue, intending to wrap around it

[3kul]

((Okay, I've got two massive apologies to make:
1) Sorry for taking such a ridiculous time to finally finish this thread off.
2) Sorry for finishing it so abruptly, but I get the feeling that if I don't do it now it'll never be done, and I would like to see this end.))

~Too many... too confusing...~ HollowEyes was no longer able to communicate at all, but his base thoughts were leaking out. They were not so much mindspeak voices as they were familiar sensations, although given that just about everybody close enough to feel these was probably feeling similar emotions themselves they might not necessarily notice it.

A brilliant white light flashes as the cannon fires. There was no stopping it, the universe and all who dwell within it were crushed simultaneously with the full power of one of the most ancient Gods of pure destruction channelled expertly by one of the best spirit mediums in the realm.

----------------------------------------------------

In a place that did not exist, two on the verge of being in a similar state meet. One, a bewildered white beast, confused and enraged that its powers were suddenly useless, the other, a weary grey humanoid, who seemed a little saddened by the state of its companion.

"I had hoped to reach you before this... But I suppose even if I had I wouldn't have been able to help you." The grey one says, his voice heavy with regret. "No matter what you did, no matter what you would do, I could never justify allowing my little sister to die."

The white beast cautiously listens to the words of the grey one, his voice sounding strangely familiar. His tone is soft, comforting, and yet threatening at the same time. There is a subtle strength there, the likes of which the beast could never possess, despite being infinitely stronger than him. ~?~ The beast thinks, trying to convey its desire for the grey one to elaborate.

"Was it selfish of me? To defy the wishes of everybody to allow you to live in a world that could never accept you? In a world that you could never accept? We shut our minds off to each other, under the pretence that we desired to keep our thoughts to ourselves, but I think you may have had far more to hide than I..." The grey one's voice cracks as he says this, suggesting a deep sense of despair, though he has no tears left to shed over the issue. He is not long for this world, and neither is his companion - he must be brief.

"I feel that there is nothing I can do or say to make up for the terrible life I have allowed you to lead, but I know you well enough to know that no matter what I do there is one thing that you will always accept as atonement..." The beast's eyes widen as the grey one shares the contents of his mind to it, re-opening the mental link between the two that had been sealed for so long. There is so much to understand, so many emotions, so many thoughts, but one dominates all others:

~Please kill me, so that we can both die with no regrets.~

The beast hesitates, then, sensing that it's own end is near, makes it's decision.

The pair disappear soon after that, forever erased from existence.

----------------------------------------------------

The universe and all who dwelled within it ceased to exist for but a moment, after which they were promptly all put back into place, with a few exceptions.

There was no sign of HollowEyes, Little Sister or any mirror versions of them at all. Some would speculate that the cannon had self-destructed as a result of HollowEyes making a mistake, others would believe that this was what he'd intended for all along, though his motives were never truly clear to anybody. HollowEyes' sanity that had, right up until the cannon fired, been in Ensichrys' possession, naturally also vanished.

Noten had also disappeared along with the many spirits who'd helped HollowEyes, though what had become of these divine beings was anybody's guess - the rules that applied to immortals were quite different to those that apply to everybody else.

Ensichrys would be the last person to ever see Noten's worshippers in Blackstar. With their God no longer present, they had no reason to linger in this realm, and so they left rather abruptly, and without any warning. Tengu had been fairly quick to dismiss Council Elite after their last encounter, her voice expressing nervousness and her body language suggesting confusion, although he would most likely not fully realize why this was until he found out exactly what had happened back in the Cave.

The spiders that had infested the lower bowels of the Corrupted Cave had also vanished, but this was neither the work of HollowEyes nor Noten. Evil Swix quickly found out that the golden statue that she'd attempted to take for herself was a real spider in disguise, and after a very brief bit of coercion from herself and Furnace they discovered that the spiders had all been working for somebody else. They had snuck into the Cave to plot the assassination of the Council's Parasitian twins, but things went awry when they discovered that one had gone into hiding and the other was protected by a God. The God, sensing danger to his charge, quickly apprehended the leader, and his spider-like underlings had not seen him since.

The only spider left in the Cave was the golden one currently held captive by Evil Swix and Furnace. The supposed 'curse' along with the multitude of corpses had been set up by their leader to fool any Council members who made their way down here into a sense of complacency, giving him and his minions a chance to slay them quickly and quietly. With their leader gone, however, the spiders could not agree on how to act when Evil Swix and Furnace arrived. After the vast majority of the spiders fled the minority left behind were more or less forced to follow suit, as their forces were no longer enough to take on the two formidable opponents. They deliberately left their treasure behind as a diversion, in the hopes that the greed of the Council members would give them time to escape. The golden one had not been so lucky - having been one of the weakest spiders present it was forced into keeping an eye on things in the treasure room by itself.

Unfortunately for the spider, it's master was a cruel, calculating and overly cautious man. He may have had trouble dealing with a God, but he was more than prepared for nosey Council members, and a small device implanted in the creature’s brain was triggered the moment it was asked to reveal more details on him. The result was the instant and rather gruesome death of the spider - as soon as it mentioned the name "Dox" its head and brain matter burst like an overripe melon, splattering all over its interrogators.

----------------------------------------------------

Many other things were changed, some minor and some major, though the only ones who truly know just how much changed as a result of this were those directly involved with it.

The Council was quick to classify the incident, and according to official documentation both HollowEyes and Little Sister had been killed in action during a deep-cover mission. There would be no documentation on what their mission was.

As for those people involved who were not members of the Council, they would be bribed, threatened or blackmailed into keeping their mouths shut, and if they still refused to keep their mouths shut the Council would take steps to silence them them permanently.

((Thanks for playing everybody! I know it's a really abrupt way to end it, especially considering how long this has been dragged out for, but it's finally over, so I hope that you enjoyed it.

I was initially a bit hesitant to let HE and LS go like this, and I'm sure that some of you will probably feel that I've made a stupid decision here. Personally though, it feels like I'm giving them a well-deserved retirement. Yes, I could have let them go off and do something else for a while for a more literal retirement, but I felt like that would be such a cop-out. Besides, when you lead the kinds of lives that HollowEyes and Little Sister have it all catches up to you eventually. I've put them through a lot over the years, and now they can finally have their peace.

(Oh, and just to make sure that nobody's getting the wrong impression here, please note that this doesn't mean the end of me roleplaying or visiting Blackstar.)

As for what this ending means for the rest of you, well, I decided to give you a chance to change what happened to your characters a little if you like. Those of you who had characters die might like to use the cannon's altering of reality to bring yourselves back to life... or not, the choice is entirely up to you.

That said, I would like for some of my characters to leave some of your characters with a parting gift of sorts, so please feel free to make your own 'aftermath' post.))

[Swix]

Fade still remains cut to pieces on the floor, her once blue clothing now stained by the blood seeping out of her.

But of course, the blue haired mutant was an assassin, one who dealt with death often, and she wasn't about to go down like this.
_____________________________________________________________

After the interrogation, Furnace began once more searching for gems, entirely unaffected by the spiders brains that had splattered all over him. However something was nagging at his mind, had been for a while, but the dragons greed and doubts had proved strong enough for him not to notice the gradual slipping of a barrier between his mind and anothers. A gradual slipping that was growing by the minute, of a mind that was so much the polar opposite of his own that he felt as though someone had jammed an icicle in his brain and it was growing. This meant that the other party was no longer able to maintain her barriers, and through the leak Furnace could see that she was dying. If that happened when he could have prevented it, he'd have failed his promise to a group member.

The mythical creature turned around as sharply as he possibly could, lifting the top part of his body completely off the floor so he literally doubled back over his sinewy, serpentine body. His good foreleg hit the floor with a resounding thud, but even that only minimally hindered his momentum. Furnace half limped, half bounded out of the underground spidercity as fast as he possibly could.. Ignoring the surprised shout of Evil Swix behind him, Furnace raced back up to the room where Fade lay. The Dark Fire Dragon burst into the chamber that once held HollowEyes, and nearly skidded to a stop to gape at the sudden absence of the Parasitian.

The beast shut his elongated mouth with a snap however when his flaming red eyes fell on the tattered and torn assassin who was motionless except for the smallest movements. Ignoring everything else Furnace picked Fade up as gently as though he were carrying a newborn hatchling in his jaw. His foreclaws would cause more harm than help, as well as hindering his movements more, whereas this way he only needed to tap into his own little used paternal instincts. Growling at anyone who might have been left around, he started trying to find the path of least resistance back up to the main Corrupted Cave. ((I... can't remember if you detailed another way out of here 3kul, if there is, Furnace will most likely rush through it))
_____________________________________________________________

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" The woman in the black dress called after the retreating dragons back, then shrugged "Stupid lizard. Ugh, now that creature turned out to be alive Ive gotta go find something else to bring back up" She muttered, continuing to look around.

((Can you tell I'm rusty? Yeah, anyway, in my next post I promise I'll be done. Just need for them to get out of here, is all ))

[Cirrial]

(( Well, I'd hate to leave this unwrapped up, and if I get back into this site properly I'll probably be axing some of these characters in favour of new ones... ))

It was over.

Goldie never did recall exactly what happened after that last desperate attempt to wreak vengeance on the thing that had taken his greatest friend and strongest ally away. But it remembered greatly what happened when it returned, with Naine loaded onto the humble vessel that had brought them both to this realm between universes.

Ania. The homeworld where Naine's species had once thrived in the waters, until the dreaded engine of destruction known as the Omegalith had destroyed their civilisation, and made functionally extinct their entire species. The event that lead the mysterious benefactors from above to pluck Naine from his home waters, to merge him with machine that he might be able to combat this nightmarish menace.

For so many years Naine and Goldie had searched for this entity, and never found it. Yet the evidence they found pointed to the existence of more than one of these entities. In retrospect, it seemed a terrible irony of the universe that for all the searching the two had done for the destroyer of Naine's species, neither of them realised how close they were to one of its kind.

An inky black, shape-changing mass, able to form weapons from its own body, with glowing red eyes. That was how Naine described the Omegalith, and how its supposed creators had described it to Goldie. A description that fit Goldie's unshelled appearance all too well.

Naine had been searching for something that had been with him the whole time. His whole life, his dedicated quest, all of it. It suddenly seemed for nothing. As soon as Goldie found out what it truly was, and could realise that not all members of the Omegalith's - and its - species were mindless weapons, it was too late. Naine died never knowing this.

And here, on Ania, Goldie buried Naine on the shore of an island barren of life, leaving the broken wreck of the exobody as a marker for where its fallen comrade now resided, before leaving to search for more answers. Where Naine sought revenge, Goldie would continue the search. But it would not seek revenge blindly. It would try to reason. It would try to learn. It would do everything it could to see no other of its kind repeat what had happened on Ania, so many years ago.

---

501 sits at his desk in his office, mentally checking the subsystems of his new body and generally recovering from the disorientation of reviving in a different universe. Ak-tse sits in a chair the other side of his desk. His eyes a serious blue, he leans on the desk and asks 501 a question.

"So. What's your conclusion?"

501 waves a hand, and a rectangle of light leaps in front of him. He plucks it out of the air and reads the text that fades in on it.

"You were right. It's just too risky. All traces of Station Zero that could indicate our presence have been removed. The power that Blackstar hides, all of it, it's incredible. It could even let us fight the Agents on even ground. Perhaps even destroy them altogether. But there is just too much at risk. I've died three times on Blackstar alone and that's more dying than I've done in the past five years before the Blackstar mission combined!"

Ak-tse nods. "What I had heard about the relics seemed promising, but you're absolutely right. Blackstar is just too unsafe a world to continue wasting time and resources on. Especially given the weak connection we have to that world. We didn't account for losing contact with you quite so abruptly."

501 buries his face into his hands. "I'm finished. As for further Maratix involvement with the world, I'm not going to object. But I'm not going back there unless circumstances drastically change."

"Well, based on the report you filed... I'd say they may very well have already."

"Ak-tse, if you want to go back to that five-damned world of magic and raining toasters and uniquely powerful individuals all over the place, that's your decision, not mine. Well, I guess it's mine, but-"

Ak-tse's eyes fade to amber. "About that. You're an incredibly useful asset to Maratix, 501, and your skill set has lead to interesting outcomes when dealing with the unexpected. But we both know you can't stand the management. You can't stand having to keep things running after the initial pandemonium. You take needless risks constantly and endanger yourself and others on a regular basis. You just aren't suited for a position of actual responsibility. And that's why I'd like you to get out of my chair."

501 stares incredulously. "...what."

"This is my office now. You can have my old one. I made the case to NIDS, and it agreed with me. You would be best as a second in command under my authority. No hard feelings, I hope, but this is in Maratix's best interests."

"No hard feelings?! You went behind my back and got me demoted!"

"Take a night to think it over. I'm sure you'll agree with me in the morning. I don't want there to be any hard feelings. We're friends as well as colleagues, right?"

"Sure, friend. I'll think it over. I'll think over how I managed to get screwed over by someone I thought I could trust."

501 loudly stomps out of the room, seething. Ak-tse adjusts the seat from a humanoid configuration to one more comfortable for the quadruped saa-kru form. Around him, the office reconfigures to settings he had already prepared before even entering the room. On the desk is simply one folder, filled with black sheets of smart-paper.

The folder has a discreet label. It states simply "Blackstar Mission Plan Revision 2".

Ak-tse taps his radial fingers together.

I am not giving up. These relics will be mine. For a universe free from the tyranny of the Agents. For the good of everyone in the universe.

For the good of Maratix.

---

Somewhere in the Dojo, the abandoned shack 501 had taken up residence in explodes.

No-one would ever be able to find any reason why. The explosion destroys everything the shack once contained, revealing what seems to be a tube that goes into the ground, filled with rubble.

Any attempts to excavate the structure below the ground would just reveal an empty shell of what might have been an underground complex, but completely devoid of anything other than slightly melted tiles and concrete and metal debris.

Meanwhile, in the Black Forest, the embryonic Station One exists in a similar state, with an abandoned launchpad bearing mute testimony to what might have been launched. The four satellites launched by Maratix orbit dumbly, filling up data-banks with useless volumes of data, broadcasting nothing, their AI controllers having long since evacuated with the rest of the crew of Station Zero.

All that is left of Maratix on Blackstar are ruins and debris.

For now.