Enigma

[Astro]

Chapter 1 – Beginnings

Washington D.C. U.S.A

A man in a white lab coat stood in front of an oak desk. Behind that desk sat a middle-aged man wearing a blue jacket. His hair was grayed and neatly combed. He sat with his left hand over his right hand which was balled into a fist. A look of discomfort was the expression on his face. “Mr. President! It's been 20 years and we still can't find a cure! The U.S. Has spent trillions of dollars on finding a cure and we still haven't got one! We need a cure soon! More people are dying of AIDS, Cancer and all out stupidity every year! We NEED to find a cure soon or there won't be anymore U.S. Citizens in America by 2052” the scientist explained to the president.

The president inhaled deeply. “Okay. Okay. Okay Jenkins. You win. I'll listen to your demands.” “We're not negotiating a hostage situation here! We're talking about the fate of the U.S.! We scientists have spent 20 years on this cure and still NOTHING! We've tried rats, lab mice, snakes, elephants and everything else under the sun except a live human!” Jenkins moved his blond hair from his face to back over his ear. “Human test subjects are illegal, Jenkins. You know that.” Jenkins slammed his fist down onto the desk of the president. “Dammit President Sweeney! All I ask for is of some outside assistance!” “I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Jenkins. If the other countries knew what we were trying to do, they would beat us to it. Look at the space race back in the 60's. U.S. vs. Russia.” Jenkins grew red in the face. “Dammit” he yelled as he walked out the door.

Jenkins walked down the street where the Lincoln memorial sat. Thoughts raced through his head. “How will I gain Sweeney's favor in our direction?” A woman in another lab coat met Jenkins on the steps of Lincoln's Memorial. She wore big, round glasses with her brown hair in a ponytail atop her head. “So? What did he say” she said, her high-pitched voice ringing throughout his head. “Old bastard declined me.” “Aw. That's too bad. Maybe next time” He cut her off before she could finish her sentence. “Next time?! Next time!! There will be no other next time of which you speak. We need to take action today! While there's still hope out there!” Doves flew over head as the sun shone brightly in the non cloudy sky. “I don't know what you're asking me to do.” “Rosaline” Jenkins said, “We need to go to the U.N. And present our problem to them. If Sweeney won't do it, theres a fighting chance they might.” Rosaline thought about it. “O-Okay. I'll help you, but only because I want to help you as much as you want to help the world.” Jenkins smiled wide. “That a girl.”

Jenkins sat in his lab that evening contacting the U.N. The line rang several times until someone answered. A booming voice came over the line “U.N. front desk. This is Janice, how may I help you?” It sounded woman but also manly at the same time. Jenkins didn't know how to address it. “Uh.. Yes. I would like to schedule a meeting with the U.N. for the 15th of March.” “Name?” “Jenkins. Timothy A. Jenkins.” “Country?” “U.S.A” “Hold on one minute please. I'll check to see if we have an open slot for that day.” “But..” No answer. He heard voices over the other end and part of the conversation. “Yeah. It's some guy from America wanting to schedule a meeting for March 15th. He might want to talk about the problems they're having over there.” A mans voice came several seconds later after Janice's. “I'll speak with him.” The man sounded Jamaican. “ Wha a gwan?” “Uh.. yes. This is Timothy A. Jenkins calling from America. I would like to schedule a meeting for the 15th of March.” Jenkins heard the sound of papers flipping. “Dat's all irie mon. 3 o' clock a good time for you?” “Is that am or pm?” “Pm mon.” “Okay. I'll see you then.” He hung up.

The sky. Unknown.

March came. Jenkins was in an airplane flying over a desert. A flight attendant walked past Jenkins while Rosaline was sound asleep with her head resting in her palm against the window. “Miss” Jenkins called. The flight attendant turned and walked over by Jenkins. She wore a blank expression. He looked up at her. Her pupils took over half of her light blue irises. “How may I help you sir” she said. There was no emotion to her voice. It was blank and filled with monotone. “How much longer until we arrive at our destination?” “I cannot answer that, sir. Now, would you like another whiskey?” More monotone. “Yes please.”

The pilot's voice came over the speakers, “We will be landing in a few minutes. Please leave all seat belts fastened until the light above you depicting a seat belt fastened together fades away.” The pilot's voice was monotonic and blank too! Jenkins had to get to the bottom of this. Rosaline woke up from her quick sleep. She yawned while looking out the window. “Desert? That's it?” “Yeah. We've been flying over it for about three hours now.” “Gee, will we ever land?” The plane hit the ground and skid across it coming to a complete halt after several minutes. “Talk about timing” Jenkins said wittingly.

U.N. Head Quarters. Unknown.

Jenkins walked off the plane with Rosaline followed behind. They stood in front of a large, complex, shaped building. Jenkins wondered how long it took the constructors to build this building. The grooves in the windows, the large columns that were small at the bottom but gradually got larger as they reached the top. Large blue letters reading “U.N.” sat top of the building.

Jenkins and Rosaline walked up the large steps to the front entrance which was many times larger then Jenkins. Jenkins looked up at them saying, “Wow. These doors. They're uh, pretty big.” “I concur.”

Jenkins walked in through the little door built into the two large doors. A women with orange lensed sunglasses met him there. “Timothy Jenkins” she asked. “Yes?” “Hurry! Follow me. You're late!” “Oh-no!” Jenkins and Rosaline followed the woman down winding corridors. Left, right, left, left, right, elevator. It all seemed the same to Jenkins. He could've sworn he had seen a couple of people being tortured on the way to the elevator.

He saw where they were going. “Basement twenty-six? What?!” The woman looked at him. “Yes. That's where the meeting will be.” Ten minutes passed. They arrived at Basement twenty-six. The trio walked off the elevator into a large room filled with rows of desks that were neatly placed behind one another. There were three rows like this. They all sat in front of a stage with a podium on it. “Wait here. I'll go get the representatives.” Jenkins took his place on the stage with Rosaline beside him

Men and women rushed in from the left and right sides of the room all taking their proper place behind the desks. He saw Cambodia, Russia, France, Japan, China. Every nation he could imagine was here in this room with him. They all looked at him as if waiting for something until the representative from Japan had something to say. Jenkins knew very little Japanese but the translator said “Why have you called us here? What is your purpose?” “Oh. Yes” Jenkins said nervously. He cleared his throat. “Over the past twenty years, one million plus people have all died from AIDS, Cancer and all out stupidity. America's president, Sweeney, shows no affection on finding a cure for this. He doesn't care.” England said, “Yeah? So what? The world would be a lot better without America around.” Jenkins was surprised by the harshness of England. “Iraq is a lot more worse then it was ten years ago when George Bush sent your troops to our country and tried to turn us all into filthy Americans.” “All I ask for is one scientist from every nation to band together and help with this.” “Yah. So you filthy Americans can take all the credit for our work and call it your own” France told him. “We can get funding if we just-” China spoke. The translator told him “I'll send a scientist over to your shores, only if I weren't so caught up in teaching your nation's children martial arts.” The whole room was laughing except for Jenkins and Rosaline.

Jenkins was walking to the elevator when Jamaica caught up with him. “Wha a gwan mon?” Jenkins looked at him. “I'm going back to America and finding a cure myself.” Sweden and Norway were behind Jamaica. “Look. We'll help. We've been trying to find a cure ourselves.” Jenkins smiled some. “Yeah. We'll help. Maybe they'll see us with you and consider joining in” Norway exclaimed. “Okay. Where do we start?” Pakistan followed shortly behind with Japan and Greenland. “We saw you talking so we though we'd see what was going on. “Are you three going to help?” “Help with your cure?” “Yeah.” “Okay. Where do we meet?” “I'm sure we can build a lab out in the sea or something.” Canada had been listening from over by the water fountain, which was located directly behind the group. “We could always make a mobile lab and start there.” “Are you going to help?” “Sure. Canada I suffering from this too. Its mostly Americans spreading AIDS, but don't quote me on it. Just a guess. Even if it is Americans spreading the disease, I don't blame you or America.” “I have a boat I use for study on marine life. We could use that” Rosaline explained.

Three years later.
On the Arbiter. Atlantic Ocean, in between Japan and California.

Screams and yelling were heard from the bottom of the ship. Jenkins and three scientists from France were working on the cure. “Dammit! Dammit it all to hell!” Jenkins was furious. He'd tried everything. The test subject had died. “Compound SC-1733 B mixed with three portions of Quadrennium didn't work! All it did was make his fudgeing head explode! crap!” Jenkins walked off the lower deck up to the top deck, where Rosaline was having a conversation with a German scientist and a Polish scientist. “So you think a mixture of Compound XM-B17 and Serum 187 might do it after the results on an infected mouse?” The Polish scientist nodded his head. “I'll tell him. Great work you too!” Rosaline walked off from the two. Jenkins walked past her. "Wait! Jenkins!” Jenkins walked back off to the back of the ship. He placed his hands on the railing of the ship, looking down at the ocean. He thought about taking a dive into the icy deep. “Jenkins! I was talking with-” “I don't give a damn Rosaline.” Rosaline looked at him. She could tell he was disappointed. “What's wrong Tim? Did the results for this test fail too?” “His fudgeing head exploded when we injected patient 917865 with Quadrennium and Compound SC-1733. I left Ross, Mary and Jim downstairs to clean up the mess.” “Maybe we need to take a break? You've working nonstop for the past three years once we left the dock.” “I might.”

A young man came running up to Jenkins and Rosaline. “Sir Jenkins! Test subject 81245 is showing no activity of AIDS at all!” Jenkins turned to him. “Gustavo... we've already cured AIDS. We did that two years ago in June. Remember?” “No! Cancer is gone as well.” “Six months ago we cured it.” “AND his IQ has been raised by thirty-seven points! As a side effect though, his muscle mass has been increased by six pounds and continues to grow everyday!” Jenkins was speechless. “What did we use on 81245?” “It was a joke compound. We used Gatorade, grape flavored, and Mountain Dew, citrus flavored.” “Son of a bitch” Jenkins said happily.

They rushed down to the sub level two. The subject was solving some problems in Calculus. “Is this him Gustavo?” “Yes.” The patient turned to face Jenkins. “Hello. I am Peter.” “I know this. How do you feel?” “Like normal.” Jenkins handed Peter a clipboard. “Can you write your name?” “Yes. Yes I can.” Peter grabbed the clipboard, but crushed it by accident. “Oops. I'm sorry about your clipboard made of Maple with Titanium paper holders.” “Peter. We're going to have to keep you here for a little while longer before you can go back home to your family. Is this okay with you?” “Yes. Yes it is. I like the sea.”

Tests are run on Peter for several months. “Can you feel this Peter?” “No. I cannot feel that.” “You can't feel this ice cube?” “No.” Rosaline walked out the room. “How is he”, a Japanese scientist asked. “He's lost all feeling in the left side of his body. His muscle growth is very, very noticeable now. Look at him. He looks like Hulk on steroids.” Peter wobbled out of the room. His muscles began to bulge out of his skin like logs. Jenkins sat down with Peter. “How do you feel?” “Numb. Especially on the left side of my body.” Jenkins looked at Peter in his eyes. He could tell he was in pain every waking second. “Trying eating something. Maybe you'll feel better.” Peter tried to reach for the Hamburger Jenkins had placed on a plate in front of him. He couldn't reach it. A tear ran down Peter's face. “What is it Peter?” “I hurt. All the time. It doesn't stop nor does it get any better. Always worse.” Jenkins didn't know how to comfort him. “Look at me, Jenkins! I can't even reach the table.” “Would it feel better if I fed it to you?” Peter sniffed some. “Some but not by much.”

That night, while Gustavo ran tests for Peters strength. “Now. I want you to punch this punching bag. “Gus, I can't even reach the damned bag!” Peter could barely see over his massive pecks. “Well, can you stand on this mat then? We need to weigh you for today.” Peter wobbled over to the mat. The digital number climbed. They stopped at 750 lbs after two short minutes. “That's fifty lighter then yesterday! Great job!” “What's so great about that? I'm just a big hulking mass of muscle and nothing else!” “We're working on a way to fix that, Peter. Just relax for now.” “Relax? RELAX?! How can I relax when my muscles are constantly growing? Hmmm? You answer that for me smart ass!” Gus walked over to Peter. He placed his hand on what he though was Peter's shoulder.

“It'll all fall into place, Peter.” Peter grabbed his hand. “Ow! Let go! That hurts!” Gus inhaled deeply to try to take his mind off of the pain. Peter applied pressure to Gus' hand. He heard the bone break. Gus yelled in pain. Peter squeezed his hand more, crushing the bone. Gus began to scream. Peter closed his hand completely. Gus' hand was severed from his wrist. Jenkins, Ross, and Estevan ran into the room. Blood ran down from Peter's hand to the floor below where an unconscious Gus lay, missing a hand. “Peter! What've you done” Jenkins yelled. “Oh don't worry, Tim. He's fine. He's just fainted from the injury.” Peter threw the hand at Jenkins, stopping short of Jenkins' feet. “You've gone too far Peter!” “I've gone too far?! No! You did this to me! You've gone too far with your damned experiments that go against God's will!” Reaching into his pocket, Jenkins pulled out stun gun. He aimed it at Peter, fired it, and shocked him with 120+ volts. Peter fell to the ground.

Peter woke restrained to an operating table. Everything was orange colored. “What is this?” “Your muscles split your arms open two days ago. They crushed your bones and all. Luckily, we removed your head and placed it on this headless, robotic body. We were building a miniature city for you to attach to the boat so you can have a place to sleep, eat, and just have a good time in. You killed Gustavo by the way. So, we installed a chip in your new body that won't let you become as angry” Jenkins explained to him. “How long was I out?” “Four days. Also don't be alarmed when you look in the mirror.” “Why” Peter asked curiously. “The 'cure' as turned you and your body to a light shade of purple. Rosaline thinks you look good like this . Being purple and all. Now, Peter, there have been some changes since you were out.
One; We WILL use lethal force next time you have an outbreak like that.
Two; your as strong as you were two months ago. You can still punch with a force of three hundred pounds and your arms will adapt to any changes you make on them.” “Like, say, if I were to start benching six hundred pounds. Hey would adapt to it like normal people's arms do?” “Yes, but you can only go so far. We set the safety limit to six hundred pounds.”
“Three; your 'cure' is communicable but it acts as a virus if passed to other people. They will die if it is passed. Several of the people here are already dead from it. So, we've developed an antidote for this, but this antidote is deadly if certain things aren't done to it.”
“And finally, you were talking in your sleep. You wanted someone to be around, someone to pal around with.” “Yeah. It is kind of boring here without someone to be around, other then you guys of course.” “We placed your new friend in the city we made for you attached to the back of the boat.”

Jenkins and Peter walked around to the back of the boat. It wasn't exactly a boat, it was more of a ship. Peter's mouth dropped to the deck. “All this is mine?” “Yep. All of it.” The city was as big as an urban community. Jenkins took Peter inside of it. It had everything. A Burger King to the left of the entrance, A school across from the Burger King, beside the school were some houses, across the street from the houses was a McDonald's with an Arby's beside that, A Wal-Mart down the street from Arby's, A Strip Club down in an alleyway beside McDonald's, An EB Games diagonally across from McDonald's, A Gamestop beside EB Games, several instrument stores here and there, some CD stores around the place. “How big is this place?!” “Five miles by Ten miles. We're trying to put a gym in here.” “How did you build all of this?” “We made the encasement dome bubble then attached material sprinklers at the top of it, programmed it to build these things by raining them down, literally.” “Thanks guys.” “Don't worry about it.” “One more thing, Peter.” “Yeah?” “We've been calling you Nightmare around the labs.” “Why?” “To make a long story short, you look like a character from a video game.”

Jenkins walked into the labs, where Rosaline and Ross were programming the bubble dome to make a Taco Bell. “How is he” Jenkins asked. Rosaline typed in the last line of commands before turning around in her chair to face Jenkins. “He's fine. As for the other, we haven't seen much of him. We've checked all the cameras and he's not appearing anywhere.” “Check one last time.” “Okay. But I'm telling you....” Rosaline cut her sentence short as the three of them looked on camera 921. “He not moving” Ross said. A man lay in the booth of McDonald's, the burger still in his hands. “Check his pulse! Check his damn pulse” Jenkins commanded. Ross pulled up a little window with long red lines moving across it. “We not getting reading.” Jenkins let out a deep sigh. There was silence in the room. “We can flash clone him” Rosaline said. “No. We won't. It's better if we just get him out.” “Do you see Peter anywhere?” Rosaline checked through the cameras. “He's in the school library reading Moby Dick.” Jenkins left the room, heading to the lower decks.

“His protective suit didn't work? What the hell? How did that happen?” Jenkins couldn't come up with an explanation for Halsey, who had just been transported from the shores of Chile. “Yeah. He's uh.. he's dead. Sorry Halsey.” Halsey let her hair out of the bun it was styled in. “crap.”

Kain, Regal and Halsey walked into the bubble dome wearing protective suits to shield themselves of any infectious bacteria that flew about in the air. They entered McDonald's. “There he is” Halsey said. “Let's get him and just get out of here. I'm getting bad vibes about this place.” Jenkins stood in the Camera room with Rosaline and Ross. Jenkins held a walkie-talkie to his lips. He pushed the button and talked into it, saying “Okay. You're good.” Peter walked into McDonald's. “About time you guys came to get him. He's been stinking up the place for the past six hours.” He took a seat to watch them, grinning suspiciously. Regal turned to Peter. “Why are you smiling for, eh? You did this Nightmare. You and that damn virus...” “Oh? So its a virus now? Is that it? I don't see you here in my shoes.” “Yeah yeah.” “Just do your damn job and pay attention to your work, not me. But I forgot, I am your work.” Peter removed his helmet. It had two pointed horns on the top that came down to the forehead of it and wrapped around the green emblem. On the sides were two mouthpieces. The top of the helmet had some scratches on the round part of it that slipped over his head. Long purple flowed out of the helmet. Kain placed his hand on the shoulder of the dead body to pull it out from its resting place. The body rose up from its slumped over position. Regal looked at it. “Jenkins! Jenkins! He's alive!” The body pulled a rod from its back. The end of it had a black blade that glowed with a purple light around it. “Get out of there! Get out of there now, dammit” Jenkins yelled into the walkie-talkie. The body stabbed Halsey in the gut with the sword, twisting it as it sat in the wound. He pulled out another sword, exactly like the one he held. He threw it at Kain before he made it out the door. Kain's head flew in the air. hitting the glass door and splattering it with blood. Peter laughed uncontrollably as the reanimated corpse made short work of the scientists.

Jenkins, Ross and Rosaline ran to the heliport that sat atop the ship. Jenkins pulled a 9mm out of his pocket. “Hurry. You two head to land and tell them what happened. I'll stay here and try to distract them.” Rosaline began to cry even more then she already had been. “No! Tim! Come with us!” Jenkins pushed Rosaline into the backseat of the helicopter that sat on the heliport. “Please! Don't do this!” “I created these monsters, now its up to me to stop them.” The rotors of the helicopter began to start up. Jenkins saw Rosaline mouth the words “I love you”. He waved good-bye to the two. He left the heliport, proceeding down the stairs to the cafeteria. He caught a glimpse of Peter decapitate Akita. Peter held a round-shield like blade on his armlet. "C'mon Xero. Let's go. This isn't any fun anymore. Jenkins stood against a wall that was outside of the cafeteria entrance with his back against the wall. He silenced his heavy breathing. He began to question the cure he had made. Xero walked out the door Jenkins was by. Xero's long, gray hair blew with the wind. Jenkins pointed the gun at Xero. “I wouldn't do that if I were you.” “But.. how?” “Acute sense of hearing, my good friend. Why don't you stand still and make it easier on yourself”

Xero told Jenkins, his back facing Jenkins. Peter dropped from the upper balcony, shaking the whole ship as he landed. “Jenkins. How nice of you to join us.” “Why are you doing this, Peter?! We cured you, gave you a city, gave you a friend.” “My name isn't Peter anymore. It's Nightmare.” Jenkins looked angrily at Nightmare. “And why am I doing this?” “Yes.” Xero turned around with his arms crossed, standing casually. “You took me from my home. A home where I was perfectly fine.” “You were sick! We wanted to cure you!” “Yeah? And after how many lives were lost? “You're a success! Just stop all of this and we'll give you whatever you want.” Xero pulled the gun away from Jenkins. “You were going to use this, were you?” Xero aimed the gun at Jenkins, shooting him in the leg with it. Nightmare walked over to him, kneeling beside him. “Hey. Psst. Jenkins.” Jenkins looked over at Nightmare. “What?” “I'm going to give you a three minute head start to try to run from us. We're going to play hide and seek.” “fudge you Nightmare.” Nightmare rose. “We're not getting through to him.” “It seems that way.” Nightmare pointed at Jenkins. He flipped his palm upwards, snapping at Jenkins in the process. Jenkins' clothes started to smoke, catching flame shortly afterwards then burning to death. Jenkins was vaporized instantly. “Nightmare! Look! A helicopter!” Xero pointed at it. The orange rescue helicopter hovered over them, Nightmare and Xero. “You going to do it?” “Nah. I've used The Fire once already.” Xero ran up the wall, soaring into the air and grappling onto the rail on the helicopter. He smashed the window open, pulled Rosaline through the window. Rosaline fell to the deck below breaking both of her legs. “Now what, Nightmare?” “Oh, I have a couple ideas...” Rosaline looked at the two with tears in her eyes.

Nightmare walked out of the lab covered in blood. “Not even worth it” he said, dropping the hatchet. Nightmare handed Xero the bloody hatchet. “Her head caved in like an egg breaking.” Xero and Nightmare walked up to the deck, walking past the ruins of the destroyed helicopter. “What do we do now? We've killed these guys, destroyed a helicopter and desecrated that woman.” “The world, Nightmare.” Nightmare fastened his codpiece back to himself/ “I like the way you think Xero. I have a feeling we'll get along just fine.” Nightmare placed his hand on Xero's shoulder.

Six months later

“The two culprits are still at large. They're wanted in New Washington, Mainland and The Outskirts. Do not try to apprehend them for they are armed and extremely dangerous. Wait..! This just in, they've been spotted. We're going to Keith Richards who is at the scene. Keith.. over to you.” The woman on the T.V. shuffled her papers. The screen flashed white and on came a sunglass wearing man. “Nightmare! Turn the damn camera over this way!” “Oops sorry.” Xero held up a microphone to his mouth. “Hello channel twelve news crew. Your people that were sent here to cover us are dead.” Xero held up a severed head that had an expression of extreme pain on his face. The screen split in half, showing Xero on the right side and the news lady on the left side. She wiped tears from her eyes. “Why are you doing this?” Xero laughed some. “You just don't get it do you? We rule now, not you.” “You'll pay for this. The military-” “The military” Xero said with a smile “Is no more.” The camera turned to show a base on fire.

A destroyed tank sat in the middle of the road. “Really now. Placing all of your troops in one place? How stupid. Think!” A man in a green uniform came running out of the flaming base. “Xero! Look! A survivor!” Xero turned his head in the direction of the man. “He's got an RPG!” Xero drew one of this swords. The man shot at them. Nightmare dove out of the way with the camera. Xero stood in the same spot. The rocket flew at Xero, missing him only by an inch, hitting the wall behind him. It exploded, flashing their side of the screen yellow. The wind from the explosion blew Xero's hair towards the man. The news crew and all of America couldn't see anything but they heard everything. They heard laughter. Lots of laughter. “You think that hurt? Ha! You missed.” The sounds of something hitting metal was heard. “crap! My hand! You broke it, bastard!” “Its armor, dumb ass!” Screams and yelling were heard. As the smoke faded. Xero appeared on the screen again. His face had a splotch of blood on it. “Xero... Blood. Face.” “Oh.” “Let me get that.” A purple gloved hand with purple armlets came out of nowhere, wiping the blood from Xero's face.” Your country is ours now. You are now our slaves.” The woman looked in disbelief at Xero. “Jenna! Say something!” Jenna shuffled her papers. "This is... Jenna Richards. It seems all of America is being taken over by this... this man and his partner. God help us all.”

Some time later

Xero and Nightmare began broadcasting from The White House in New Washington. “This is your enslavers, Xero” the camera turned over to Nightmare “And Nightmare!” Nightmare smiled and gave the peace sign which then turned into a middle finger. “Today is March 15th, 2013. This month and day four years ago is when Timothy A. Jenkins and his wife, who was also his assistant, met the United Nations to band together to find a cure for stupidity, cancer and AIDS. They did find a cure, but it turned out to be a virus. Which made Nightmare and myself. Now, the tasks for today are-” Xero couldn't finish his sentence. A large explosion interrupted him. Jet planes could be heard flying off. “fudge! Attackers!” Xero ran off from his seat behind the desk of former president Mark Sweeney sat behind the day Timothy Jenkins talked to him about a cure for AIDS, cancer and stupidity. Nightmare walked over, squatting down into the chair. The light from the outside shone through the windows. “This is Nightmare. Today shall be known as; Bacon day. All pigs shall be slaughtered on site.” Nightmare talked to the camera, which was broadcasting to all America and parts of Canada. For thirty minutes he sat there, talking. Xero walked in. His armor had burn marks and bullet holes in it. He held his arm, which was bleeding furiously. He pushed Nightmare out of the chair. “Back to the matters at hand. The tasks for today are to build Nuclear Warheads and to begin to mass produce concrete.” Xero looked into the camera, which zoomed in on his face, showing his red irises. It then cut out to static, but then cut back to The White House.

Xero rose from his chair. “Why warheads?” Xero looked at Nightmare. “Poor Nightmare. Do you not think like I do?” “No.” “We're going to rule the world! We've enslaved all of America now we go for the world!” “The fire?” “We need to destroy these cities as well. The Outskirts are filled with homeless people and bike gangs. They won' be missed. Mainland, however, contains most of the population. They have a chance to escape because that's where most of the docks and airports are. But, here, in New Washington, we save it for last. We need not destroy ourselves. I mean, what would be the point in destroying ourselves?” Xero heard his voice echo. He turned to the camera, furiously staring at it through angry eyes. He ran towards the camera, drew a sword and sliced it in half. “Now they know! God dammit! Nightmare! Take the jet and travel to Mainland. Burnate that motherfudgeer! Then travel to the Outskirts and burnate that too! I'll stay here and launch what warheads we have left over seas to the other countries. Hurry! Before they leave!” Nightmare jumped through the window behind Xero's chair. He was in the airport. Jets and Airplanes sat in perfect rows. He spotted Xero's jet; a Gibson SG with a cherry finish, black pick guard and humbug pick-ups.

Xero sat in his chair. A basketball sized robot flew up to his. A camera lens slid out from inside of it. A light rose from the top of it. It began to shine red. “All of America. There's no use in trying to escape. Nightmare is flying overhead as we speak, annihilating the three cities. I, myself, will launch nuclear bombs over seas to all the countries. You WILL NOT escape! Don't even try it.” He slammed his fist onto a little console with a red button on it. The screen on the console shone green through the cracks in it. “Warheads now launching” is what read across the screen. “Nightmare, warheads launched. You done yet?”

Nightmare flew to The Outskirts first. He set it to auto-pilot before rising out of his seat to grab The Fire. He hadn't used The Fire in several months, now was his chance to destroy something.

Nightmare hovered above The Outskirts. The air above the city smelled of old, heated French fries and wet dog. “Sick people. They deserve to die...” The closer Nightmare lowered the helicopter, the more the smell increased with new fragrances added. He set it to auto-pilot again. He got out of his seat. Walking over to the entrance, he grabbed a walkie-talkie. He placed it on his belt. He walked back to the controls again. Nightmare took auto-pilot off and taped the control stick down so it would nose dive to the ground. He ran to the entrance, kicked the sliding door off the hinges even though the other door was open. “Why the hell did I do that” he asked himself. Kicking off the edge of the helicopter, he fell into the sky.

Hitting the ground hard and leaving a crater in the ground, he had landed. He watched the helicopter crash through the roof of an apartment complex. It exploded into red and yellow flames throwing debris everywhere annihilating the complex. People ran in a panic. Nightmare threw his bladed shield that appeared from his armlet. He tossed it at a line of people running towards him, not knowing who he was. The first person was decapitated, the next was split in half from the waist up while the third person had her legs cut from under her. She fell to the ground splattering blood on the ground below her. Nightmare withdrew his shield then formed it into a lance. It glowed with a black light. He pointed it towards a building. It extended towards the building, pierced through it 's side. The building fell into the street like a tree that was just cut down. Debris rained upon the people, crushing them. Helicopters hovered over his head. “Cease and Desist immediately! “ “You and what army?” More helicopters emerged from behind it. The all had the Japanese flag on it sides of them. “fudgeing Japanese army!” Nightmare grabbed a woman that ran by him. He threw her, one handed, at the helicopter. She flew into the spinning blades of the helicopter. Blood rain down on the city.

“Nightmare... heads launch... yet?” Nightmare grabbed the walkie-talkie on his belt. He inhaled deeply. “No Xero I'm not finished yet trying to destroy a city if you don't mind kay thanks bye” he said in one breath. “Where are you at?” “Outskirts. I'm fixing to Fire this bitch once I become airborne. “Okay. I launched the warheads over seas. You'd better head on over to Mainland before they all escape. But, heh, I mean, where're they gonna go?” Nightmare ran up a building. He reached the top. He thrust his arm forward. The ground began to smoke. The Outskirts exploded in a bright light. Flames engulfed the city, burning everyone and everything except for Nightmare himself. A Seven-Forty-Seven passed by him. He jumped onto it, punched a hole through the bottom and climbed in. The plane soon began to rip open and split in half. He punched another hole in the floor of the plane where the passengers sat. The floor caved in. The whole plane was in a panic. A stewardess was sucked out of the plane. On the way down, shrapnel impaled her in her eyes and gut. Nightmare opened the door to guy thingypit. He threw one of the pilots through the glass. He broke through it with a bone-crunching pop.

Xero waited for a response from Nightmare. All he heard was screaming and yelling. “Dumb ass must have forgot to turn off his walkie.” After about ten minutes of screaming and yelling, there was a large crash followed by an explosion outside of Xero's window. “Holy crap!” Nightmare limped from the hallway to Xero's room. “The fudge was that?” “Plane. Crash. Death. Outskirts. Burned. Tired. You. Finish” Nightmare told him, trying to regain his breath. “Do I always have to do everything for you?”

The plane took off with the high explosives. “Good thing we have auto-pilot” Xero said. “Now, we wait, stare at the screen and wait.” A large screen emerged from the floor of Xero's room. He flipped through the channels until a radar popped up. “Here we go! Look at this Nightmare!” “Eh? What?” An orange dot showed up on the screen, slowly moving to the right of the screen. “Let's go to the camera.” An image appeared on screen. It showed the nose of the plane, flying over a city. “Little longer. About thirty or so minutes longer.” Thirty minutes passed. “Okay! This should be the middle of the city, so now I just push.... this.... button... here aaannndd....” The plane nose dived into the middle of the city. “The second plane should be coming soon.” Xero flipped to another image. It showed the wing of a plane. A giant explosion appeared on the screen. “Wow! crap! Look at that” Nightmare pointed out. “Half of the city. GONE!!” “High five!” Nightmare high fived Xero. The second plane nose dived into the upper part of the city, a couple feet from the first explosion. “Switching to plane three!” An image came on, showing the view from atop the tail of the plane. “I'm going to take out the rest of the city AND docks with this one!” “How?” “It's a two-stager. Except for the whole extra thrust thing. It's going to split in half, drop the front of the plane here and the tail of it on the docks.” “Awesome!”

Nightmare and Xero walked through the ruins of Mainland. “Help! Please!” A dust covered man lay underneath a slab of concrete. Xero walked over to him. “No no!” The man recognized who Xero was. He stomped on the man's skull, caving his face in. Blood oozed from his skull, forming a puddle beneath his head. “Any more of them?” “No. Though, crushing this guy's face in was pretty satisfying.” “So, we've got five-hundred thousand survivors?” “Around in that area.” “Let's take them back. Make 'em our slaves.” “Yeah.” Nightmare and Xero walked back to the ruins of New Washington.

[Professor Fann]

... The only thing that surprised me was the cameos of Nightmare and Xero in this fic.

Other than that, everything perfectly fits in - the plot, the atmosphere, all that. Wonderful.

Sounds like this is the end, though it could be just me. Nighty and Xero making everyone slaves sounds like an end, unless there's a mass rebellion against them.

Would there?

[Nightmare]

NIGHTMARE SMASH! XD

Looks cool. You've taken some pretty interesting twists of events and managed to create Xero and I. And as crazy Super Men bent on world domination! I love it.

Can't wait to see more.

[Astro]

Chapter 2 – Nero

Xero stood out in the desert holding a laser whip. The whip was mustard yellow, glowing with an orange light. People were carrying large, brown squares. “Faster you dogs” Xero could be heard saying. He pulled his arm, then swung it from the side to the front of him. He was whipping slaves. As the whip traveled forward it gave off orange sparks. The sun was setting and it would soon be cold out, below freezing. Nightmare walked out of a large building carrying a whip as well. “Nightmare. What's wrong with these slaves? The more I whip the slower they move.” “Maybe they need a break?” Xero turned to the slaves. “A break? Ha! Over my dead body.” Xero walked off into the building. Nightmare took his place,

The sun slowly set over the horizon. “Enough” Nightmare yelled. The slaves dropped the squares where they stood. The people standing on scaffolds came off of them, people applying cement stopped, people on rope trimming the sharps edges lowered themselves and Nightmare's personal fan girl stopped cooling him with a giant leaf. Nightmare entered the building where Xero lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling. “What's up Xero?” “Ugh. It's boring as hell without anything to do. I mean, whipping slaves is fun and all but it's not all it's cracked up to be. You know? After I bombed everything overseas and you burnt everything, it just lost it's touch. If we let them free now, they'll kill us or we'll wipe this world clean of all life.” “I know how you feel. That's why I took up drawing a couple months ago. See. Here's some of my drawings.” Nightmare held up a paper with a stick figure on fire drawn on it. “The Fire!!” Xero looked over at the paper as Nightmare screamed “The Fire”. “Nice flame effects.”

Several hours passed. Xero still stared at the ceiling while Nightmare drew. Nightmare rose from his slumped position over the paper. “Though of anything yet?” “Well, there is one thing....” Before he could say what he thought of, an explosion sounded off from outside. They both looked out the window and saw some slaves running off into the distance. Xero sighed in disappointment. “Not this again. Won't they ever learn?” Walking to the door, Xero grabbed his gun from the rack that sat beside the door. He opened the door to hear the sounds of slaves yelling. What they were saying was incoherent. “Come on, Nero! We have to go before-” “Before what?” Nero looked to over to Tasha. Her headless body fell over in a pool of blood. He turned back to see Xero standing under the porch light. “crap!” Nero ran, running left and right to dodge the bullets. “Hey! Nightmare!” “Yeah?!” “This one is pretty good. He hasn't been hit yet!” Nightmare looked out the window he sat in front of. “I see him. He's pretty far away!” Nero was several hundred feet away from Xero. Aiming lower, Xero shot, hitting Nero in the kneecap rendering him incapacitated. “I got him, Nightmare!” “Awesome.”

Xero sat in the basement with Nero strapped to an operating table. “What are you doing?! I demand you to tell me!” Xero stood up and backhanded Nero. “Shut the hell up! What did you think was going to happen? You were going to escape? There's nowhere to go! We're the only people left! Here, there and the world! All the world's survivors are here!” Nightmare walked down to the basement where Xero was. “More have tried to escape. But don't worry, I got 'em!” Xero looked down at Nero angrily. “Now look what you did. They think they're going to escape as well. They'll learn as will you.” Xero walked out of the room. Nightmare sat beside Nero. “Honestly, that was a bad move on your part.” Xero walked into the room again holding hammer. He slapped the side of it against his palm, testing its heaviness. “Now, where to begin. Nightmare? What do you think? Quick and painless or slow and painful?” “Eh, whatever you think is best.” “Slow and painful it is.” A table rose from the ground with scalpels, hammers, saws, drills, razors, needles, knives, blowtorches, daggers, shoes, bullets, guns, wrenches, whips, maces, axes, baseballs bats, and other sorts of household items lay on the table. “What- What're you going to do?” “What AREN'T I going to do?”

Nightmare crossed his legs and sat back in his chair to watch the show. Xero stood beside Nero, still testing the heaviness of the hammer. “So.... escapee, tell me. Why? What did you think you were going to do? Escape us? There's nowhere to fudgeing go!” Xero slammed the hammer into Nero's shoulder. It crushed his shoulder, sending the bone upright and piercing through his skin. Nero screamed. “No answer? Only screams? We'll fix that.” Xero threw the hammer into Nero's ribs. Several of the bones could be heard cracking, but not breaking. “Did you think you were going to escape and hide from us? You would have been found eventually and your punishment would've fifty times as worse.” Xero walked back to Nero holding a dagger. It's handle was in the shape of a dragon. The blade came out of the Dragon's mouth. The blade was wide and curved in a circular shape at the top. “Nightmare, hold his legs down....”

Nero screamed as Xero ripped his humorous from his arm. Xero held the bloody bone in his hands. He smacked Nero in the mouth with his own bone. Several teeth fell into the back on Nero's throat. “Honestly, why don't you slaves just learn to stay put? Do you.... do you feel the need to be a hero? Well, my friend, there are no more heroes.” Blood ran filled up the table and ran down the sides of it. Nightmare stuck a needle in Nero's neck. It was attached to a large, circular device hanging from the ceiling. Blood ran down from the device, into the tube, to the needle and into Nero's body. “Get the adrenaline ready Nightmare. He could die anytime.” Xero turned his head to Nero. “You're staying awake for this, bitch.”

As Xero ran the saw into Nero's skull, his skin acquired a white tint to it. “Look at this Xero! He's dying!” “Let him. We'll only bring him back.” Xero removed the portion of skin that was over Nero's skull. Xero cut a small square into his skull then reached for the blowtorch. Nero stared into the face of Nightmare as Nightmare looked down into the eyes of Nero. His vision blurred then slowly faded away. “He's dead, Xero” was the last thing Nero heard. Xero cut open Nero's chest, to get to his heart. “Here it is! Beneath these cracked ribs!” Xero grabbed the bone-cutter and cut through several of Nero's ribs. “Inject him with adrenaline.” Nightmare stuck the tip of a long needle into Nero's heart. Pushing the plunger down, a clear liquid emptied it. Nero's eyes quickly open before he took a deep breath. Xero stood over Nero. “Welcome back! We're glad you could join us!” Xero activated the blowtorch. He held it above Nero's exposed brain. A burning feeling soon ran throughout Nero's body followed by sharp, excruciating pain.

Xero removed the straps that held Nero's body in place. Body parts laid on the floor. Xero kicked part of Nero's femur out of his way. He ascended the stair dragging Nero's body behind him. Nero looked down at his exposed stomach. His small intestine dragged against the ground. Nero let out a low groan. “See, this wouldn't happen if you would've stayed put. You should have known you were screwed when your friend's head was shot clean off of her neck.” Nero chucked. “What's funny?” “fudge..... you..... Xero!” “Yeah. You'll be saying that when you're laying in the hot sand with the sun beating down on you with the vultures pecking at your still squirming body!”

The door slammed behind Xero. Some people walked out of their tents to see what was going on. “Look at this! This is what happens when you try to escape” Xero yelled. Xero walked for what seemed like hours while he dragged Nero. He stopped, leaving Nero in the middle of nowhere, in the desert that sat within reach of his home. “Have a nice day.” Xero walked off. Nero looked up at the sky. It was dark. Stars twinkled in the sky. “I... never wanted.... any of this. This is all..... one big nightmare.” Nero closed his eyes. He hoped this was the last time he had to close them.

Nero woke to the feeling of rain hitting his body. Every droplet of rain stung his exposed innards. He took a deep breath of air. It hurt to breath, but then again, it hurt to be alive. For Nero, lying in the hot desert wasn't bad. He did it in 2006 when he went to Iraq for the greater good of America. He remembered when the twin towers blew up in New York and all the lives that were lost. He thought back to the time when Saddam Hussein was caught then hung for the crime he committed. He pictured Xero and Nightmare in Saddam's place. He wanted to laugh, but that hurt too. He saw something fly over him. “Aw. Poor thing.” “It's a shame they had to do this. They'll pay for the sins they've committed.” “It'll be brutal as hell! Blood and crap flying everywhere!” He looked in the direction of the voices, Was he hallucinating? Was he dreaming? “H-Hey. Over.... over here” Nero said. “Honestly guys. We need to stop spending so much damn time out here. I'm hearing crap. Like, I just heard that damn corpse talk.” A woman rushed over to Nero. She wore white armor with a light-blue tint and hair to match. She placed her hand on his neck. “His pulse. It's faint, but it's there!” She placed her fingers in her mouth and whistled. The same thing he saw fly over him, flew over him again. It hovered above him. “Zeta! Pick him up and fly him to Home-Base!” “Yes Delta.” Nero felt himself being picked up. He certainly had to be dreaming. He closed his eyes.

Nero opened his eyes to see a bright light in his face. He heard voices, but couldn't make out what they were saying. “God? Is... that you?” The talking ceased. The light was turned off. A face entered his line of vision. His sight slowly became clear. It was a woman's face. She was beautiful. “Are you... an Angel?” She chuckled. “No. I'm not. Did you think you were dead?” “For a minute I did.” “We found you and brought you back home. You're safe now and your wounds are patched up. It was hard finding trying to replace your organs.” She smiled at him. He felt himself falling. He was now looking at several people. “What am I on?” “A table. I just raised it, then tilted it down.” He was looking at the blue-haired woman, a man in red armor with green orbs on the chest. He had long blond hair. He saw another man sitting in the corner with his arms crossed. His armor was blue and teal. He wore ruby-red gloves. He slept in a chair. The third man had wings with purple tips. His armor was black, too. He had a purple gem on the forehead of his helmet. The triple pair of fins on his head were purple as well. “I'm Delta” the woman said. She turned around. “That's Theta. Over there is Zeta. And That's Astro” Delta said, pointing at all of them. “Hi.” Theta walked up to Nero. “Who might you be” he asked. “I'm Nero.” “Nice to meet you, Nero.” The door to the room was slammed open then a little boy came running in. “No! Go away!” He grasped onto Delta's leg. Delta reached down to pick him up. His armor was green and blue. He wore black glasses with a white “W” on the forehead of his helmet. Behind him came walking a metal skeleton. “No!” “It's okay, Astral. Its not going to hurt you.” She walked over to Astro, slapping him in the face. His helmet was knocked off and long black hair flowed from underneath it. “What the fudge man?!” “Turn your exoskeleton off! It was after Astral.” “Who gives a damn about him?” “He's your brother!” “And?” “Just turn the damn thing off.” “Oh yes ma'am! Right away ma'am!” “Quit being a smart ass!” Astro pushed a button on the neck of the skeleton. He picked it up and carried it off. “This here is Astral, brother to Astro.” “Hello there.” “Hi” Astral said happily. “He's an asshole” Astro yelled from the other room.

Nero walked behind Theta. They walked down a series of corridors before entering a room. “This place is the Armor room. We have tons of it, so help yourself.” “What's up with that Astro guy?” “He's just going through some changes. I mean, having lost your parents, your home town and going through puberty doesn't really sound like a good time to me.” Nero slipped on a gray helmet with a blue gem on the front. Two antennae angled on the side. Astro walked in as Nero slipped gray boots. “Yo.” Nero and Theta said “Hey.” “I see you're wearing the speed armor I made.” “Yeah. I like gray.” “Well you'll need this...” Astro reached into his pocket and placed a blue gem on Nero's chest. His helmet gem glowed blue, as did the crystal on his gloves and the LEDs on the ankles of his boots. “I named that armor 'Rion armor'. It's pretty fast armor, dude.” “Rion. I like it.” “Good. It's settled! We're calling you Rion from now on. Right Theta?” “I guess.....”

Astro led Rion from the upper level of the armory to the lower level. “Where are we going?” “Just follow me.” Three flights of stairs and an elevator later, they arrived. “Where are we now?” “The lower level, I mean levels.” Kay...” “This is where I stay and work.” Swords and components lie around on the floor. Rion though he saw a light saber mounted to the wall along with wing of a tie fighter. “So, you make swords and robots?” “Hey! Asshole! Androids!” “Sorry. Androids. You make them?” “Hell yeah. It's my passion. I love swords and androids.” “Could you-” was Rion could say before Astro finished his sentence for him. “Make a sword for you? Yeah. Why not? I'm not doing anything today.”

Astro sat at his desk with tools, metal and electrical components on the desk in a disorderly fashion. Rion watched some of the DVDs Astro had lying about his room. “Astro. This is pretty boring. Got anything else?” “A bad ass system. The main unit is under the DVD player.” Rion saw a flashing green button. “This green button?” “Which? There's several of them.” “Under the DVD player.” “Yeah. Push it. Go ahead.” Rion pushed it. Music blasted from all areas of the room. Some lights on the walls began to flash with the beat of the drums Rion heard. He felt the bass in his chest. The whole room was flashing red. Rion didn't know it, but Astro was singing along with the song. “I resist without control! I resist without control! Now!!!” Rion looked over at Astro. He sat at his desk, bobbing his head. “Turn it down some” Rion yelled. Astro didn't respond. “Turn it down!” Astro looked over his should. “What?!” I said Turn it down!!!” Astro paused it as Rion yelled the last bit of his sentence. “It is down. Anyways, here's your sword.” Astro handed Rion a gray handle attached to a piece of black metal with symbols on it. The piece of metal looked like an arrow, but wider and longer. “What the hell is this?” Astro snatched the handle from him. Swinging it downwards, the sides of it started to glow blue. The blade seemed to materialize from the left corner all around the piece of metal. “It's an energy sword.” He swung it into one of the concrete walls. The blade cut through the concrete until it reached the metal holder. He pulled it out then thrust it into a wall. It pierced through it. Astro swung it down again. The blade vanished. He tossed it to Rion. “Don't question my work again.....”

Rion stood in the elevator, exploring the floors. He reached a floor covered in morbid things. He saw an iron maiden, some chains, whips, handcuffs and a sit of armor, just to name a few. “Where am I?” Delta sat behind the armor. She was out of her armor and in underclothing. She approached him. “You're in my room.” He felt a little uncomfortable with her being half naked. “You're comfortable with me being in here with yourself barely dressed?” “Of course. They don't really care what I wear anyway. I could be walking around naked and they still wouldn't notice. Well, maybe Astral, but he's too young to..... Never mind. Sorry.” Delta walked over to her closet and tossed on some clothes. “Anyways. This is my room. What? Were you expecting pink unicorns and fluffy bunnies?” “Uh.... Kinda.” “You thought wrong, friend.”

Rion sat in a chair beside Delta. “So. How old are all of you anyway?” “Well, Astral is six, Astro is seventeen, I'm nineteen and Theta is eighteen.” “What about that other guy? Zeta?” “Oh. Him.” Delta inhaled deeply. “He's twenty-two.” “So, you guys are pretty young.” “Yeah. But we put age aside. We're family here.” “Really?” “Well, technically, no. We're from different families, but we treat each other like we're related.” “Well, I'm twenty-five.” Yeah?” “Yeah.” “What was it like being captured by Xero and Nightmare? We found you barely alive.” “It was horrible. I tried to escape with my wife, but Xero..... He.....” “I understand if you don't want to talk about.” Rion sniffed. “Thank you.”

Delta led Rion to Astrals room. “Delta” Astral yelled. He ran to her. She squatted down and hugged him. “Having fun?” Zeta walked from one of the back rooms. “He's been beating me in every game I tossed at him so far.” “High-five!” Astral high-fived Delta. “Well, I'd better get cooking.” “No! I'll cook tonight” Rion told her. He walked off.

That night, everyone gathered at the large, medieval typed table that sat downstairs. “Where is he” Zeta asked. “Pssh! Screw him! Let's start without him.” “Want me to get him, Delta?” “Go tell him to hurry down here or we'll eat his food for him.” Astral got out of his chair, ran up seven flights of stairs then kicked the door in to Astro's room. “Let's eat!” “fudge you bitch! I'm repairing Zeta's Gatling cannon! Tell 'em to chill the hell out!” Astral ran down the stairs again. “He said-” “We heard. He left the microphone to the intercom on again. Here. Sit. Let's just eat without him.” Astral climbed into his chair. As he did, several explosions were heard from upstairs. “Holy crap!!” “Astral!” “Sorry Delta.” Theta ran to Astro's room. He opened the door. Smoke rushed out of it. “fudge! fudge fudge fudge! Son of a mother fudgeer!” Theta looked at him. “What?! What is it?” “fudgein' cannon went off in my hands! It scratched my armor and blew the hell out of my desk. Damn hairpin trigger!” Zeta caught Astro walking down the stairs, “Are you okay?” “Am I okay? Am I okay!! You're fudgeing cannon went off in my fudgeing hands! Do I look okay to you asshole?!” “Well... no.” “You're damn right I'm not okay. That's the last time I repair your crap for your damned ass. If Garda wrecks your crap again, I'm not-” Enough” Delta yelled. “Can't we just SIT and enjoy this meal?!” “Only if Zeta says he's sorry. I could've been killed, Delta. I'm lucky I decided to wear my blast reducing shield this time. I could've been killed. Then what? No more Astro. That's what! Who would fix your weapons, armor and other stuff? Huh? Certainly not Astral or Zeta or Theta or you.” “I could try.” “Oh? Is that so Rion? Can you fix a hydro-generator that completes five-hundred revolutions a minute while it's attached to a thermo-conditioner with jester attachments that withhold mercury tubes as long as Astral? Huh? Can you do it without breathing? Because that's how fragile those tubes are. The slightest outside disturbance or heat source means you're fudgeed!” “What!?” “Exactly! You need me. End of story.”

Rion lay on a couch in Astro's room. “Hey. Astro.” Astro rose from his slumped position over the Gatling cannon. “What?” “Can you explain to me how to fix the hydro-generator with jester attachments?” “First of all, Rion. The jester attachments fit only grade-B thermo-conditioners. Secondly, I built them all myself. If I didn't make them, I built them.” “I'd still like to know.” Astro inhaled deeply. “Fine.” He exhaled. “See that green tube on the wall beside those black cables?” “Yeah.” “Rip it out the wall.” “What?!” “You wanted to know how to fix the stuff. So, I'm telling you now, by pulling the green tube out of the wall, the hydro-generator loses it's water source. It's connected to the bathroom, if you must know.” “Sick.” “Yeah. Tell me about it. I've had that thing break on me. I was covered in head to toe in crap.” “Gross!” “I know. I had to fix the bitch covered in crap.”

“Can't you tell me without breaking things?” “Fine. Mostly, it's the converter coil that breaks. You need to tap that with a wrench to loosen it then carefully remove it without dropping. If you drop it, you ruin it. Now, what you'll need is a size eight wrench to unscrew the middle screw which holds it together. At this point, you'll need to grab the class two pick. It's the little blue one. You'll need to put it into the north end and twist it to get all the gunk out. Screw it together and place it in slot B in the lower level of it. Twist it in place. Now, you've got that fixed. Walk over to the thermo-conditioner and place the bucket of water in the compartment on top. You've got about thirty minutes to fix it or the water runs out and the thermo-conditioner starts and you'll get a face full of steam.” “What does the water do?” The water is placed in the top, because it uses left over water from the generator to power some of its circuits. The water left over contains usual waste like food or crap or something like that. So, you've got the water and open the left flap to the Jester A. You'll need to hold your breath for this. Grab the mercury tube, clean it off and slowly slide it into place. Close the flap and open the panel on the upper-left side. This is where the water is converted into steam. The steam powers the conditioner. Take your finger and run it against the coil that's in the narrow part of the panel. It's usually blocked by a leaf or something. With that done, close the panel and bolt it shut. Open the top again and pour what's left of the water into the thing. Don't worry, it stay there until needed and won't ruin anything. Take the bucket and smash it into Jester E. It won't break. You're just jump starting it. With all that said, go to floor ten of this place and rewire the box to the left of the picture with a clown on it. All you have to do it place the black wire in the green socket and place the yellow plug on top of the black wire in the green socket. From there, you'll hear a large bang come from outside. That means you've got it. After that, come back here, unplug the green tube and blow into it. "This free any water stopped up at the top.” “Why does it stop up?” “I placed a flap on the top that only opens with heat power. You'll have about ten seconds to fully bolt it down.” “How long does that take?” “If you've never done it before, about a minute or so.” Astro sat back down. “We'd better sleep now. Delta wanted her suit of armor to work tomorrow.”

Xero sat inside his house. A slave was hanging from the wall. He shot him in the gut with his gun. He opened his stomach and ripped out his organs, whipping him with them after he was done. Nightmare ripped the slave's back open. He shoved the barrel of a shotgun inside the wound. He pulled the trigger. Skin and blood flew everywhere. “What the hell? Why did you do that for” Xero asked. “This one was caught sleeping with several men. It was only punishable by death. Plus, he was from Canada. It says so on his driver's license.” Xero and Nightmare laughed. “Dumb ass Canadians!” “Let's go get some bacon” Nightmare told Xero. “Hell yeah!” Nightmare ascended the stairs with Xero behind him. The room they left was covered in blood and stunk of death. Two statues were slowly taking shape outside of the house.

[Nightmare]

Wow. BB must be one hell of a guy to be busted up, dismembered, have his brain tourched, then thrown out into the desert, and still be well enough to cook dinner. XD

Very nice. I especially liked the part where I have a fan girl, kill Canadians, and ear bacon. Can't wait to see more. =D

[Astro]

Chapter 3 – Rivalry

Xero placed a microchip inside the exposed skull of a corpse. Nightmare placed the same chip in the belly of a corpse. “You're ass is going down now, Nightmare!” The corpses rose. In their hands were swords and shields. They rushed at each other, connecting sword blows. The fight was going on for several minutes until the sword of one corpse split the skull of it's enemy. “OBJECTION” Nightmare yelled. “Damn! Best-” “No! I won. Give it here!” Xero handed Nightmare the chip from the brain of the corpse. “Ha ha ha! Ah ha ha ha ha! It's mine now!” “Chill out, damn. It's just a chip. It's like all the others we made.” “Not yours. I made them to all fail.” “Why in the hell would you do that?” “I thought it would be funny.” “You ass.”

Astro sat with Astral. He watched Astro mess with his armor. “Why are you doing that?” “To suppress damage done to my chest.” “What is this called?” “That's a hydro-compressor.” “What does it do?” “It uses high amounts of water pressure to compress things.” “Why?” “Because that's the way I built it.” “Why?” “Why” Astro asked him. Astral replied with “Why?” “Bitch says what” Astro said quickly. “.... What?” Astro laughed at him. “I'll tell Delta you're being mean to me!” “Go ahead. Tell her. She's not going to get the upgrade to her cardiometer.” “Well... I'll tell Zeta!” “He's not getting those oxygen tanks attached to his wings if you do.” “I'll tell Theta!” “He's not getting his blade fixed if you tell him.” “I'll go to Rion!” “No LEDs installed in the handle of his sword if you do.” “You're mean!” “You're annoying!” “No! You are!” “Get the hell out of here before I throw you into the hydro generator!” Astral ran off crying. “Someone's in a good mood today” Delta said to him as she walked over to him from the doorway. “He was pissing me off.” “He's a little boy. What do you expect?” “I expect him to shut the hell up every now-and-then.” “He just wants to know what his brother is doing.” “No. He just wants to piss me off until I throw him into the hydro-generator. It could use the extra fluids.” Delta pushed Astro back on to his bed. She crawled on top of him. “Why do I stay with you” Delta asked. “You know you can't resist me.” She pressed her lips against his.

Rion and Zeta stood outside in the desert. Zeta held his Gatling cannon in one hand, shooting at Rion. Rion dove behind a large boulder. “Damn! He's better then I thought he would be.” Zeta jumped into the air, taking flight. He flew around in the area he last saw Rion. Zeta hovered in the air for a minute. Standing atop a cliff, Rion jumped off, grabbed onto Zeta and punching at his face. Zeta threw Rion off him. The both hit the ground with a loud thud. Zeta rolled over, looking into Rion's buster. “Okay. You win.” Rion lowered his buster and offered to help Zeta up. Zeta tripped Rion, quickly rising to his feet. “You've got skills.” Zeta pulled off his wings, shaping them into twin blades. Rion drew his blade. They ran at each other, yelling loudly.

Theta sat with Astral He taught Astral how to do math. “So, now carry the one.” “What?” “You can't put ten underneath all the numbers, so take the left over one and place it above the eight.” “Kay.” “What's eight plus two?” Uh...... ten?” “Plus one?” “Eleven?” “Great job! Write it under the numbers.” Astral wrote eleven on the board. “What number is it?” “One-hundred ten?” “High five buddy!” Astral high-fived Theta.

Nightmare and Xero stood in the ruins of England. “Xero! Slaves! Over there to the east of Big Ben. Xero looked. He saw a small camp of people. He began to walk, then run which turned into a sprint. He jumped off the edge of the building, landing several feet away from the camp. A man came out holding an AK-47. “Hold it! Don't come any closer!” Xero walked slowly towards him. He wasn't being cautious, he was going to make an example out of the man. “You don't wanna pull that trigger. You know what I can do to you. Why don't you come back with us?” “Never! Die pig!” He pulled the trigger, firing bullets at Xero. He slide left, then right then left again dodging all of the man's bullets. “Oh crap! I'm dry!” He ran up to the man, grabbed his face then slammed him into the side of Big Ben. The clock tower shook. Pieces of the building came off, crushing some of the tents. Xero was surprised no one was woken by the bullets that were fired. “We must've been working them hard.” Nightmare landed beside Xero, leaving a small crater in the ground. “What was that?” “We were working them hard. They didn't wake when that guy fired bullets at me or when debris crushed some of the tents. Nightmare ran up the clock tower, scaling it in record time. Xero shortly joined him. They stood on the tip-top of the tower. Nightmare pointed his hand at the towers, jumped then snapped his fingers. The whole area glowed white then burst into flames. Nightmare landed in some water. Xero, however, was caught in the blast.

Xero rose from the rubble of the tower. His face was bloody. He pushed a piece of the rubble off his arm. He tried moving it, but it only hurt. “fudge! He broke it!” Xero limped back to the ruins of New Washington.

Xero slowly limped into distance. Nightmare was whipping slaves, yelling “Faster! Move faster!” Nightmare caught a glimpse of Xero emerging from the desert. As he got closer, Nightmare could see he was pissed off. He finally reached Nightmare. “You..... Bitch!” “What? I thought you had jumped off with me.” “You knew good and damn fudgeing well I didn't jump! I was still standing on he edge, watching for any jets that might have survived the blasts from the war-heads!” “Well sorry. Jeez.” “Sorry can't fix my broken arm! You get your ass in the study and read some fudgeing medical books on how to fix this crap!” Nightmare dropped the whip. “You can't make me. Your dumb ass didn't jump. You were supposed to jump.” Xero got in his face. “What're you gonna do, huh?” Nightmare drew his sword. The blade glowed with a black aura around the white blade. Xero reached to his side and pulled out a black sword. It's blade was black with a purple aura. “Make your move.” The slaves stopped working to see what was going to happen. A man jumped from the lower level of the scaffolds. “Bets! Taking bets” he yelled running back and forth. Nightmare pushed Xero away from him. He back- flipped to a safe distance. “This isn't over! Not by a long shot!”

That night, Xero and Nightmare met in the courtyard. Xero wore his battle armor while Nightmare stood across from him, not wearing his helmet. His long purple hair blew in the wind. “Xero. Leave while you still have the chance.” “Like hell I am! This is as much mine as it is yours!” “I'm warning you now, Xero. Leave!” Xero reached to his side, pulling out the same blade he held before. Nightmare reached to his back, holding a spear in his hand. He grabbed it by the middle and broke it into dual tonfas. He held one in each hand. Their blades were white with black auras. “I really wish it didn't have to come to this, Xero. You were a good friend” Nightmare said, focusing on Xero. “I made you! You were a simple human until you were exposed to the Zero Virus slash The Cure! In a way, I AM your father!” “That may be true, but I can still kill you. You're not invincible even though we may seem that way.” Xero took his arm out of the sling and grabbed the other blade. They rushed at each other, their screams echoing into the night.

[Astro]

Chapter 4 – Team Enigma

Astro sat on the edge on his bed. His upper armor was off. It exposed his abs and large muscles. The tip of his hair touched his bed. He was lifting weights. The sun was slowly rising above the horizon. His radio cut on. It read “3:55 am.”. His alarm went off. He stopped lifting and slammed his fist into the clock. The alarm stopped, but made the radio work. “This is Red Lightning at 93X, everything rock! It's currently Four am.! You know what that means!” Astro muttered to himself “Early bird special.” “That's right” said the DJ. “Early bird special! Today's exclusive is by Blue Bomber. This one is-” He was cut short by the phone ringing. It was heard in the background. “Uh.. hello. You're on 93X. What can we do for you?” A deep, raspy voice came over the speakers. “Blue Bomber? What the hell?! You've honestly gone low this time, Lightning!” The DJ was speechless. “Oh no!” “Oh yes! What happened to the classics?” “We uh... we had to change to fit this generation's genre.” “fudge this generation! Play some Sabbath or Maiden for Xero's sake!” “We tossed all of our old stuff out.” “I'll come down there, personally, and cave your face in with a thermo-stabilizer!” “Okay! Okay! Give us a minute! We'll find something!” Astro sat with the phone on his shoulder, lifting still. Several minutes later, the DJ came back on. “Is Sigma Six okay with you, sir?” “Yes, it is. Carry on.”

Astral descended the pole that led into Astro's lab. “Whatcha doing' bro?” Astral's voice was high-toned with a lisp. “What the hell does it look like I'm doing? I'm trying to say fit.” “Why?” “Don't be a dumb ass! Take your helmet and scarf off and give me twenty of everything!” Astral took his green helmet off. His short, brown hair lie underneath it. He removed his scarf. It showed a scar on his neck. “Honestly Astral. You've left yourself go over the past couple weeks!” “I went..... on that diet.... like you told me!” “But, yet, you still can't do five push-ups. You gotta lose that pot belly!” “I don't.... have.... one!” “Bullshit! If you don't have abs or a pot belly then what exactly do you have?!” “Nothing... really. It's just..... flat!” “Delta has more muscle then you and she doesn't even work out!” “That's... not true!” Astral grew red in the face. “Push! You don't get those upgrades to your visor until you get three more push-ups out!” “What?! You said.... you'd do it..... today!” Astral rose to his feet. “Yeah, only if you got fifteen push-ups done.” Astral's face was bright pink. “You tired?” “Yeah.” “Tough! Fifteen sit-ups! Now!” Astro dropped the weight and grabbed Astral's ankles.

Delta slowly rose from her bed. She slept naked again. She wiped sweat from her face. “Last night was pretty hot. I wonder if the air-conditioning went out again last night?” She slipped a bra and panties on. She walked to the middle of her room. Standing on a mat, she did some Yoga. It helped her forget she lived in the middle of the desert with five other people.

Theta and Rion stood outside. The sun was high in the sky. It's rays hit their faces. Rion wiped sweat from his face. “He's been up there for a while” Rion said. His voice was deep and clear. “I don't know. He seems to be stuck” Theta told him. Theta had a dark, foreign accent. Zeta fell from the sky. His armor was black, like it was thirteen years ago, but the tips were blood red. He crashed into the septic tank that sat several feet behind Rion and Theta. They ran over to Zetas crash site. He was covered in human waste. “Aw, dude! You suck” Rion told him. Zeta rose, still wearing his flight mask. He took a deep breath as he lifted it from his face. “I think it pierced one of my air tanks” Zeta told them. His voice was shaky from the crash. “How long was I out there for?” “About thirty minutes” Rion said to him. “Well, I gathered the rocks for further study. Delta will be pleased with these samples. Rion, Theta and Zeta walked back inside. Delta wore her white armor with the blue spandex to match her hair. “So? How did it go?” “Well, Zeta crashed landed into the septic tank, pierced one of his air tanks and brought back samples” Theta explained. “I thought he needed those to breathe?” Zeta came inside, dripping wet. “Correction: I use them to breathe in the confines of space and when I have my asthma attacks.” “Well, you'd better meet me in Astro's room for a check-up once I drop these off in the lab.” Delta walked off. “He's not going to be too happy once he finds out several of my wing tips are broken, my thrusters are damaged and two of four of the air tanks are pierced” Zeta told the two. “Forget him. He's always angry.” “Not when he's in a good mood” Theta told Rion. “When has he ever been in a good mood?” “Well, he was when he found out Delta was pregnant” Zeta told Rion. “Yeah, but that was ten years ago.” “Still, he was in a good mood at the time.” The trio headed to the elevator.

Astro watched Astral bench press six twenty-five pound weights on a forty-five pound bar. “That's one ninety-five! Push it!” Astral strained underneath the weight. “Come on.... Astro! This is...... too heavy!” “You were doing one seventy-five one month ago. I don't see the big problem.” Astral threw the weights into the wall. He rolled off the bench, rising to see Astro; eye to chest. “You're gonna fix that, bitch!” “You and what army?!” Astro looked down into Astral's eyes. He could see Astral was furious and scared at the same time. Astro gorilla pressed Astral. Astral his the wall with a loud thud. He started to cough as he rose from the ground. Delta walked in as Astral rose from the ground. She saw the weights stuck in the wall, Astro staring furiously at Astral, and the blood on the floor in front of Astral. “What the HELL is going on here” she demanded. “The bitch threw weights into my wall, so I gorilla pressed his ass.” “He was pushing me too hard, Delta” Astral said, wiping blood from his chin. “Astral's not a strong as you are Astro. You gotta learn that.” “fudge him” Astro said, walking out the door. She sighed and helped Astral over to a chair. “Are you okay, Astral?” “Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine.” “You were coughing up blood!” “Tell me something new.”

Astro passed Zeta, Theta and Rion on the way out. He pushed past them, knocking them to their feet. “What the hell Astro?” “No repairs today” he yelled, walking out the door. “What crawled up his ass and died” Rion asked, Theta and Zeta shrugged. They boarded the elevator, went past Delta's room and arrived at Astro's room. They say Delta tending to Astral. “What happened to him, Delta” Theta asked. “Astro threw him into a wall.” “Gorilla pressed” Astral corrected. “Gorilla pressed him into a wall.” Zeta chuckled. “What's funny, Zeta? Astral could be fatally wounded! He was coughing up blood!” “No, it's funny because I told him about the move. I didn't think he would actually do it.” “How could you?!”

Astro sat on the edge of a cliff, watching the birds pass by him. The sun light barely reflected off of his large, black knee-high metal boots. “She can't tell me what to do! I'm thirty years old! He's only nineteen. He shouldn't break my crap like that! Damn ass hole” he said loudly. He heard footsteps behind him. He jumped quickly to his feet. A squealing, crackling voice greeted him. “Hello Astro! You're pretty built aren't you? Too bad you're not with us or you could have all of this.” The figure ran it's hands up it's body. “Ah. Garda. How nice to see you this pleasant Saturday morning.” Garda had orange armor, like Theta's. “So, where's the rest of the group” she asked. “Oh, you know, just.... hanging around.” An armored figured stepped out from behind Garda. “Astro. Nice to see you.” “Berka.” Berka's armor covered every part of her body excluding her eyes. Her armor was blue and barely padded. Her helmet had a point at the top. Her large, green eyes stared at him. “Oh, Astro. We didn't know you were here.” A large, skinny man rose from the ground. He looked like Xero, but wasn't as armored as Xero was. His armor was pink and the least armored. “Rawl..” Rawl's voice was deep, snooty and slow. Garda shoved a beam sword in Astro's face. It was purple. “Get that out of my face, Garda.” “Or what? You're armorless, weaponless and powerless.” Her lips curled back to reveal sharp, pointed teeth. “Been sharpening your teeth, have you” Astro asked. “My teeth are just flat-edged and squarish.” Her smile soon faded. “Quit being a smart ass. You're coming with us.” “Or what?” Rawl materialized from the ground behind Astro. He grabbed his arms, restraining him. “That's what I hate about you fudgeers; your damned powers.” Garda smashed the butt end into Astro's face.

[Astro]

Chapter 5 – Kings of Ruin

Astro woke in a completely black area. He couldn't see anything around him, nor could he feel any ground. He seemed to float aimlessly. “Where am I?” A figure emerged from the darkness. He saw this figure underneath a large spotlight that seemed to come from nowhere. Long strands of lavender hair flowed from the hood of the cloak it was wearing. It seemed to be looking down. “Who are you?! Where am I” he demanded. “Astro” she spoke softly. Her voice was but a mere whisper. “What?” “You-” “Don't tell me. I'm dead and I'm being judged, right?” “Well, not exactly” she said. Astro scratched his shirtless chest. “You're in purgatory.” He looked at her with a blank expression on his face. She walked closer to him.

Delta flew around the desert on a hover board she had found in Astro's closet. “Astro” she called out. The moon was high in the air. It lit the sky, showing white, twinkling stars. “I'm sorry! Please.... Come home!” The radio on her waist buzzed. “Delta. He's not in this area. I haven't found him. He'll come home. Let's just wait for him at Home Base” Zeta told her. “No!! We have to keep looking! He's in this desert somewhere! I can feel it.” “If you need me, I'll be back home.”

He stretched his hand to her face. She was solid. He pushed her bangs from her face. Large, misty blue eyes looked back to him. “What's going on” he said, calmer. Her eyes had some effect on him. “I said earlier, you're in purgatory. Were you not listening?” I was. It's just...” She looked at him, waiting for him to complete his sentence. “You seem familiar to me. Like we've met before.” “Anything is possible.” “Why am I stuck between life and death?” “There was a special today. Buy one, get the other half off.” “Please, miss. Why am I here?” “I've never heard you say 'please' before, Rex.” His eyes widened. “How did you know my name?! Who the hell are you?!” “I know many things.”

Garda watched Astro talk from behind glass. “Who is he talking to?!?” “I don't know” Berka told her. “I upped his dosage, like you told me then proceeded to the torture.” Astro was in a dark room. A large light beat down on him. His arms were at angles with chains on his wrists that connected to the ceiling of the large room. His head was down. He sat on his knees. His body was covered in gashes, cut and bruises. “Splash him with water. The water stored in the freezer.” “Yes ma'am.”

“Astro. If you were die today, how do you think you would be remembered?” “I guess... I guess Astral, Theta, Zeta and Rion would remember me as a complete ass.” “What of Delta?” “I think she would remember the passionate and sincere side of me.” “What of yourself? How would you remember life?” “Why are you asking me these things?! I want an answer!” “Astro. I'm going to tell you the truth. You're dying. Well, your physical body is anyway. As we speak, you're being tortured. Your only hope is for Delta and the others to find you. Samantha hasn't given up hope. She still wishes to find you. However, because of your actions towards others, they've all given up on the search.” “Why would Delta do that?” “Love does crazy things to people.” “I knew she loved me. Tell me something I don't know.” “She's pregnant again. But this time, you're not the father.” “What the fudge” Astro yelled. “Who is it?” “Sebastian.” “That bastard! I swear, if I ever-” “Ever what? Return? With the way things are now, you'll be long gone when you're found.”

Delta returned to Home Base. Theta looked at her. “What's wrong?” Her lips trembled. “We- We haven't found-” Delta burst into tears. Theta brought her close to him, putting her face into the chest of his armor. “We'll find him. Don't worry.” She looked into his eyes. “But... Sebastian...” “We'll look again tomorrow.” Delta slowly proceeded to Astro's room. She'd been sleeping there for the last forty-eight hours.

“Why? Why are you telling me this?” “I thought it should be the last thing you knew before you departed.” Astro sniffed some. “Who are you, exactly? Please tell me.” “Astro. I'm Death, the Grim Reaper.” She held her arm out to her side. A scythe appeared in her hands. The blade began to give off a chilling steam. “How long do I have left?” “Another twenty-four hours or so.” “How long has Garda and her lackies had me captive. “Forty-Eight hours.”

“It's hard to hear what he's saying!” Rawl walked into the room. He held a yellow laser whip in his hands. “He was mumbling the whole time I was whipping him.” Rawl wiped away large chunks of skin from the tip of the whip. “Garda. I'm going to go in for a closer listening point.” “No Berka. It could be a trap.” “Aaawwww! I wanna know what he's saying!” A figure walked into the room at that point. They all bowed to it. “Lord Xero....” Garda said. “Rise.” Garda rose. “Tell me, apprentice. What's going on here.” “We captured a rival, my lord. We need valuable information as to where his base is. We've been here for two whole days. He's been mumbling to himself and ignoring all of our torture methods.” “A stubborn one we have here.” Xero left the room to go to the larger room where Astro bled.

Delta sat on Astro's bed holding his thermogravimetric rod. She remembered when he explained its uses and how it works. “For a basic explanation, it measures the heat and gravity in the air. I prefer the metric system myself. That's why it reads differently then my other tools. I use it when you need me to work on the satellite.” She lay in his bed, holding the tool. After wiping tears from her face, she closed her eyes and imagined him lying next to her.

Xero approached Astro. He held a yellow laser whip in one hand and a blue laser whip in the other. He threw the blue whip at him. It left a burn mark in his Astro's arm. The threw the yellow whip. The whip attached to his back. Xero pulled it back. A large gash was left in Astro's skin along with all the other whelps, gashes, cuts, burns and bruises. He repeated this. The blue whip caught Astro in the face, while the yellow whip attached to his chest. He threw them aside. He reached to his waist and pulled out a pistol. He shot Astro in the legs. “Damn! My last two bullets” he said before throwing the gun at Astro. It hit him in his eye, blackening it.

Astro looked Death in the face. Her eyes had an unexplainable effect on him. “You know” she said to him. “Why not just say my eyes are beautiful?” “But-” “I can read minds, among other things.” “Can you send me back? So I can see Delta one last time?” “No. I can't.” “Why?!” “You need to either; A, be saved and brought back from near death or B, die and come with me. The way things are now, the second will be happening a lot sooner then the previous.” “You're a bitch Death, you know that?” She chuckled. “I've been told that.” “fudge you Death! I'm leaving!” Astro tried to set foot on ground, but nothing was there. “fudge!!” He began to “lay” on his back. Tears filled his eyes. “I just wanna go home! That's all! Can't you give me that?” “Well.... there is one thing” she said. “What?! What is it?!” “You have to die and come to hell with me.” “You can blow that crap out your ass. I'm not leaving Team Enigma behind without proper goodbyes and an ass kicking!”

The sun rose over the horizon. Delta lay in Astro's bed with his “dog” at her feet. She stretched accidentally kicking it off the bed. The dog hit the floor, yelping. “Astro?!” The “dog” jumped back on the bed, walking up to her. “Oh. It's just you, Sparky.” The “dog” licked her face once it reached her stomach. “Delta” Astral said to her. “Glad you're awake. There's a man here wanting to speak with our leader. Since Astro is dea- err... I mean away I figured you could talk to him.” “I'll see what I can do.”

A man wearing a gray suit and blue shoulder pads set his cup of tea down once Delta descended the stairs. “Hello there” she said to him. “Good day” he told her. He had a slight Irish accent. “Are you the leader of these group of people?” “Uh.... Sure?” “Good. Now, I'm here on important business. Sir Nightmare sent me to this exact location. He would like to speak to you and your” he looked at Theta, then Zeta, then Rion, then to Astral, then back to Delta, “Crew.” She couldn't believe her ears. “THE Nightmare?” “Yes. That Nightmare. The Nightmare who was and still is at war with Lord Xero.” “Do we- Do we need to pack our bags?!” “No. That won't be necessary.”

Delta followed the man into the desert. “Where are we going to?” “Right....” he walked for a couple minutes, leaving his sentence at a pause. “Here!” He put his hand up to his ear. “Okay. We're at location 89437-MIA. Come get us.” His long, brown pony-tail blew in the wind. Delta looked at Theta. She had a confused expression on her face, as if to say “What is he talking about?” Theta shrugged. The ground began to shake. Within minutes, a large, ship came into view. It took up part of the sky. The ship resembled a pig. “Beam us up” the man said.

They appeared in a large room. “Follow me” the man said. They followed him, yet again. He led them down a large corridor, followed by some swimming down a dark, long tunnel, which was soon came before some jumping over fences, which Zeta flew over. He appeared at the front of the room, where they had started. “What?” “You gotta jump” he told Zeta. They walked through a barn that full of only pigs, did battle against some form of alien then arrived into a large room. A light beamed down on one place. It beamed down on a chair that sat on a platform. “Sir Nightmare” the man said, kneeling. “You've done well Trias. You may rise.” Trias rose. “I brought them, like you asked.” “I sense five heartbeats. Where is the sixth?” They didn't speak. The chair turned around. Nightmare rose, his arm was extended with his fingers in a snapping position. “Where is the sixth” he demanded. “Sir Nightmare! Don't do this! You'll kill us all!” “Silence Trias.” Nightmare lowered his arm. “Forgive me. I am... under a lot of stress today. Now, where is the sixth one of you?” “We.... we don't know sir” Delta told him. “It might be too late.” “What?” “Xero....”

[Professor Fann]

I think it's mostly the style of conversations written here that's giving me the headache, rather than the extreme gore and brutal slavery thing. I do think the slavery bit is emphasized a little too much. A decent nice event minus the red gore impression I'm having everywhere would be nice.

[Astro]

My bad. But here's the good part, though; I've lost everything I've written for Enigma becuase some idiot spills water on my laptop! Hurray for stupidity! Pretty messed up because I had finished Chapter 11. There were alot od people in there too, like; Peytal, Tony, Majeh, Toy, Mage, Paragon, Brimstone, and Swim just to name a few. Since there's several things wrong with my ZV Fanfic, I'll have time to redo it and whatever else needs to be done. Pretty sweet, huh?!

[Professor Fann]

... That will take a lot of effort and patience to do. Well, either way, take your time. Don't push yourself.

[Astro]

It's just the conversations, right? I mean, all the gore was intended. It's ZV after all and there's alot of random violence in the chat so......

[Professor Fann]

Yeah, just that. But even so, covering all five chapters can be a real pain.

[Astro]

All five? You mean all eleven! That's a pain!

[Professor Fann]

Jun 22, 2008 13:14:14 GMT -5 Astro said:

It's just the conversations, right? I mean, all the gore was intended. It's ZV after all and there's alot of random violence in the chat so......

Your earlier message gave me the impression you believed this was easy.

So, get to it.