Invasion of the Vorticons

[Lord Zedd]

A dimly lit one bedroom apartment on Coruscant’s third tier was hardly fitting accommodations for the beacon of darkness that had enslaved the known universe for several millennia. Then again, it was better than the empty desert he’d called home for the last years leading up to his inopportune abduction to this realm. He could see the blinding fury that others might experience upon their arrival here. Truly, he felt the anger, as well, but he also recognized the opportunity to gain previously untold power, despite the fact that  he had to take more than a few steps backwards to get it.

Regardless, Lord Zedd stood on his puny balcony, gazing out at the city before him. He remained unimpressed. He had seen cities before, of all levels of technology. He’d burned many of them to the ground. If all went according to plan this would be one of the ones he spared, only because he needed it, along with the rest of Coruscant, if he were to truly conquer this world.

While he gazed out at presumably artificial sunrise, there was a sudden ringing from the small patio table beside him. Slowly, he turned his head to look down at the small phone Grace and Laci had coached him through summoning. It served as a more appropriate means to communicate with not only fellow Imperials, but also the Dataverse, than the interior of his visor had. Even if it was bright pink for some reason.

Zedd reached down and recovered his phone, looking at the name displayed. His caller was Sull, the sergeant that had helped introduce him to this strange realm. What could he possibly want at this hour? Zedd growled as he accepted the call and raised the device so he could hear it. “What?”

“Morning, Zedd,” the imperial sergeant greeted him through the phone.

“Lord Zedd,” the dethroned warlord corrected the Stormtrooper.

“Right,” Sull dismissively agreed. “Get your four troopers and meet us back in the briefing room from yesterday. Have them show up in armor but have a change of civilian clothes, just in case. Everything else needed should be there. We have a job for you and your squad.”

“Are you summoning me?” Zedd asked, failing to sense the seriousness in Sull’s tone. “I will have you know…”

“Zedd, just get up here, alright?” Sull interrupted him. “Make sure you have all four of them, because I’m sticking you with another team. We’ll need everyone.”

“Lord Ze-” Click.

Zedd stared at the phone in burning frustration. This man would dare treat him like a disposable minion? Not only that, he had to work with more than just these insufferable four Stormtroopers? He was less than twenty-four hours into this and it was already a nightmare. He scrolled down through the phone and dialed the name of the first of his stormtroppers he came upon.

The phone rang and rang. Zedd counted six total rings before the voice of Cade came through it. “Hu-wha?”

“Rouse yourself,” Zedd demanded of his subordinate. “We are to rally at the Imperial outpost where I first had the displeasure of meeting all of you.”

“Uggh…alright,” Cade responded, clearly in a great deal of pain from something.

“What is the matter with you?” Zedd scowled as he walked back into the apartment.

“Just, just a long night,” Cade mumbled. “Bit of a hangover.”

Zedd instinctively tightened his grip on his phone. “Listen to me, maggot. Get your horrendous armor on, but bring something less obnoxious as well, just in case I must use one of you as bait again. Call the other three and all of you had better be there in short order.”

“Alright, alright,” Cade said, clearly in pain from the previous night’s events. Zedd’s booming voice didn’t help. “I’ll get them moving. We’ll see you there.”

“You have already disappointed me. Do not compound it,” Zedd ordered as he hung up the phone. Or tried to. He actually hit the ‘Speaker’ button, so his ominous threat was offset by several seconds of him cursing as he searched for a way to disconnect the call. Such a moment never came, as Cade was the one who finally hung up.

Zedd attached the phone to one of the metal pieces on his hip for fast access, then grabbed his staff from where it leaned against the couch. Now pulsing with the appropriate amount of rage, he exited the apartment and locked the door behind him, not that he cared about anything he’d left behind.

And so he began the trek to Tier One, so he could discover what level of madness the Imperial hierarchy intended to throw him into.

[The Future Warrior]

Sleep wasn't really something that came too often to someone like Graowr. She wasn't even really entirely sure she was capable of sleeping. Or if she was she just never really seemed to remember it. And so it was, that she'd spent the majority of her night — after the tedious, if necessary, bits of getting everything properly filed and set up for a short-term housing solution for her, right in the middle of lovely Tier 3 — messing around with the new functionality of her scouter, after some instruction by Private Hunt. He had all but insisted that she have some means to access the 'dataverse', whatever that was, and another means of communication available in the event a call was, for whatever reason, non-viable. She wasn't one to argue, but the few hours it had taken to explain and get it all set up likely brokered more than a few silent complaints from the still-recovering stormtrooper.

But now, she was just lazing about, flopped over her bed with the stick of a mostly-consumed lollipop sticking out of the side of her mouth as she looked over anything and everything that caught her interest on the dataverse. And that was quite a lot, all things considered. She wasn't really learning much from it all, as it was a lot of reading for her to manage on her own (all at once, anyway), but she did remember to...'bookmark', as Hunt had said the word was, a couple things here and there to come back to and try to read more in-depth later. She was actually trying to learn some about this place, after all. But excitement, compounded with her natural inclination to focus on the current most interesting thing at hand, made that just a bit...complicated, at best.

She was interrupted in the midst of her all but random browsing by the distinct ringing as a call was registered on her communicator. She hauled herself upright, dismissing the dataverse screen as she brought up the call to see who it was. Oh, Sergeant Sull? She briefly glanced at the window, seeing that the sun was just rising, and tilted her head slightly in confusion. She didn't really do the whole 'sleep' thing herself, but she got the general idea that this was a little early for most people. What was he up to this early in the day? Answering the call, she opened with a brief "Mrello?"

There was a brief pause on the other end of the line before the sergeant responded. "...Morning, Gr...Grow..." His voice was muffled as he presumably turned away from his end of the line. "How do you pronounce her name?" Even more muffled conversation, before his voice came back clearly. "Right, sorry. Graowr. Morning. Listen, no time for pleasantries this morning, unfortunately. Do whatever it is you need to do and get in touch with your partner, and then get up here to the briefing room. The same place where we told you about your first assignment."

"Mmmr?" she made a quizzical noise around the by now candy-less stick still clenched in her teeth before spitting it out, where it landed neatly in the trash. "Something up?"

"I'll explain when you get here. Just tell Hunt to bring his armor this time, on top of his regular clothes, just in case. We're sticking you with another group today, too, so make sure you're ready for some real teamwork exercises."

She just sat there silently for a moment, before she just shrugged. "Okay. I'll get going, then!"

"Just what I wanted to hear." And the call went rather abruptly dead as the sergeant presumably hung up.

The little blue majin hopped up, grabbing another lollipop off of a nearby table, and dropping another half dozen or so in her pocket — once she'd figured out how to summon them, she might have gone a little overboard — before she rolled over her bed and made for the door, pulling up a call to Hunt as she stepped outside into the still relatively dim sunlight. It took almost until she had finished locking up and started off before he answered.

"Better...better be important, at this hour, blue..." came Hunt's groggy voice.

"Sergeant Sull said we need to get back to the...uh...the briefing room from yesterday. And he said to bring your armor this time, and be ready to work with another group!"

"You being so cheery this early makes my head hurt..." he groaned, but the shuffling in the background made it apparent he was at least getting up. "But I'm up..." He didn't sound enthused, so muhc as resigned to the prospect. "I'll...I'll get packed and set out...meet you there."

"Okay!" And after a moment of blindly playing with the buttons on her scouter, she ended the call. And then the lollipop in her hand, freshly unwrapped, went right in her mouth, the wrapper quickly stuffed in her empty pocket (not like she was going to litter, or anything!), and she let out a satisfied hum as she took off at a brisk pace for the elevator toward Tier 1.

Mmm. Strawberry.

[Lord Zedd]

“Elliot Hunt!”

Elliot looked to the side at the sound of a feminine voice calling his name. His confusion turned to a wide grin as he saw his old friend from the academy, Laci, approaching him alongside his other friends Knox, Cade, and Grace. Just like him, they were armored up in mostly full Stormtrooper gear; all five of them were holding their helmets in their hands at the moment, seeing no reason to wear them while they stood around the EPD station awaiting instructions.

“Hey, no way!” Elliot responded with a grin as they stopped by him. “How the hell have you all been? I haven’t seen any of you since training.”

“Making it, somehow,” Knox shrugged as he and Cade exchanged brief handshakes with the man, while the girls took turns giving him a quick hug.

“I can’t believe they’re bringing all of us for this. Do you each have a Prime you’re assigned to?” Hunt asked as he looked between them. “That’s going to be chaos.”

“What? Hell no,” Cade laughed. “They’ve got all us grouped with one.”

“It’s just you and a Prime, Elliot?” Grace asked, not sounding very envious. “How are they?”

“She’s alright,” Hunt shrugged. “A little spacey, and I kind of have to look out for myself, but she means well. I think. Why, how’s yours?”

“Man, it’s like a shit tsunami in the Pale Moors,” Knox drearily answered, while shaking his head. “Doesn’t make a bit of sense, but it still fucking sucks.”

Hunt looked a bit shocked, while the other three laughed, yet nodded in agreement. “That bad, huh? Maybe blue can reel him in a bit, then. Or not. I don’t know, like I said, she’s a wild card in her own right.”

Before much more could be said, Lord Zedd abruptly brushed through the loitering crowd of Stormtroopers. He said nothing, but could have sworn he’d heard one whisper “that’s him.” Whatever they were talking about was so far beneath him he didn’t need to pay it any mind.

Instead, the dark lord pushed open the door to the main briefing room, where he saw Sergeant Sull, Captain Desh, and a strange, blue being all standing around. They all directed their attention to him upon his arrival, though without the awestruck terror he had come to expect over the past several millennia.

“What is so urgent?” Lord Zedd demanded, skipping past any pleasantries, as usual.

“Zedd, this is Graowr,” Captain Desh introduced the two primes, having just met the blue one, himself. “Graowr, Zedd.”

“Nice to meet ya!” Graowr chipperly said as she turned to face the skinless being that was her partner for this mission. She held her hand out to offer a handshake.

Zedd, however, didn’t even acknowledge her. “I asked you a question, Desh.”

“We have another mission,” Captain Desh explained, rolling his eyes at Zedd’s behavior. “This one will require teamwork, and as two primes, you’ll be essential.”

“Great! We’re in!” Graowr immediately interjected.

Zedd let a growl escape his facemask as he finally turned his head towards the Majin. “Why do you speak for me, blue abomination? You are nothing but a crude and lazy sculpture.”

“You think I look weird? Wait until we’re fighting together!” Graowr giggled, failing to see Zedd’s contempt.

“We will do no such thing,” Zedd responded, then looked to Desh. “I’m leaving.”

“Wait, Zedd,” the stormtrooper captain quickly said, before Zedd could take the first step towards the door. “It’s important.”

Zedd hesitated in thought, but then decided to at least hear him out. “It had better be.”

“Alright,” Desh nodded to the sergeant, who nodded back.

“Right,” Sull began, looking to the primes who were expressing opposite levels of interest. “We’ve been getting reports of strange xenos around Tier 6, with some moderately credible intel that they’re coming from down on Tier 7.”

Sull paused and watched as Graowr actually raised her hand, and waited to be called on. He was a bit shocked, but slowly pointed at her, as if they were in class.

Graowr lowered her hand and looked around a bit apologetically. “I feel like I should know what that word means, for some reason, but…”

“I’m leaving,” Zedd repeated, this time abruptly turning.

“Zedd!” Desh shouted to get his attention back. “Just…” He paused, trying to think what would maintain the clearly evil prime’s interest in this. He came up short. “…okay?”

Zedd growled as he slowly faced the sergeant again.

“It means alien. Foreign,” Desh explained briefly to Graowr. “Definitely not from here.”

“Right, so these xenos are strange, blue monsters that have been attacking the lower tiers,” Sull continued, not noticing Zedd’s head slowly turning towards the blue occupant of the room. “They’ve been giving the Community Center on Tier 6 a hard time, but we haven’t actually killed one yet so we don’t know much about them.”

Graowr’s hand once again popped up. Sull started to point at her again, but Desh was quick to interject, this time.

“It’s not Graowr,” the captain said, causing Zedd to finally look away from her.

“So Shark wasn’t at the Community Center?” Graowr asked. “Because I was pretty lost and this might be a big misunderstanding.”

“He wasn’t and it’s not,” the captain said, clearly at the end of his patience.

Graowr shrugged and looked to Zedd, who simply stood totally still. She then looked back to Sull.

“Anyway, that’s the extent of what we know. Private Hibernius, at the Community Center, knows a little bit more,” Sull continued. “He’s stationed there and has dealt with them first hand. Your job is to go speak with him. Find out what is really happening and what’s just rumors, and get rid of them before they bring their brand of trouble to the upper levels. Any questions?”

“This is so important that you have a lowly private running the operation?” Zedd snarled in contempt.

“And we’re done,” Desh once more spoke up before Sull could let himself get dragged into a fruitless discussion. “Good luck to you and your troops. Dismissed.”

“Unbelievable,” Zedd grumbled as he sulked out of the room, and Graowr practically skipped after him.

Captain Desh and Sergeant Sull sat in quiet contemplation for a minute, both processing what had just happened.

“Are you sure that was the best idea?” Sull finally asked, unable to come up with a reason to pair the two newest Imperials together.

“It’ll work out,” Desh spoke, with little confidence. “Probably.”

There was a beat of silence. Sull’s lack of a response spoke volumes.

Desh shrugged, and continued to try and convince himself. “It’s just the lower tiers."

[The Future Warrior]

Heading back out of the room to rejoin the stormtroopers waiting for them, Graowr was in an even better mood than usual. The surliness of her unexpected prime ally was lost on her, and her focus was entirely on the task at hand. Getting another assignment, already, so soon after her first one was exciting. And given what had just been said about it? It was even more exciting. She was ever so slightly worried about descending so low down into the city, especially considering what little she'd been able to piece together about just how bad it could get down in the lowest tiers. That they were apparently headed all the way down to the bottom tier was a cause for some concern.

"...I don't know if she's just really that clueless, or if it's all one hell of an act. But man, it's something else." Hunt concluded what had apparently been some kind of impromptu spiel about his new prime Prime partner. And catching sight of said partner, he rose his voice slightly. "So what's the job today, boss?" he queried, turning to look at the very, very mismatched set of primes as he got set to head out, tossing his helmet from one hand to the other.

"Right, so, we're going down to...to find the things on tier 6," she spoke aloud, as much to remind herself of what had just literally transpired as to try and provide some measure of information for the ones who had not been privy to the discussion.

"We are to head down to Tier 6 and locate one Private Hibernius at the Community Center to acquire more information on our true objective. The strange, blue xenos creatures, and then track down their source and put a stop to them," the increasingly-nettled Zedd cut in. "Now let us be on our way."

"Oh, yeah, that's it!" The cheery tone of the majin drowned out the creaking groan as the former warlord's grip tightened worryingly on his staff.

"Just another day at the office, then, huh?" Cade sighed. "Well, at least it isn't like we're heading into anything dangerous. Just the natural beauty of the lower tiers."

"It'll be great!" Graowr said enthusiastically, nodding eagerly. "I mean, it can't be all that bad down there. And besides, we'll get to do something good while we're there!"

"We're going. Now," Zedd growled, and the deep rumble of non-articulated rage boiling behind his words got the message across. Time to go.

[Lord Zedd]

Knox tightened his grip on the steering wheel. Beads of sweat rolled down his temples. He could feel his heart beating faster than normal. He was in a delicate situation. One of the most important achievements in the Empire’s short history was within reach. All he had to do was keep his cool. The Jeep he was driving continued to cruise down the empty streets of Tier 6. Behind them, Cade drove the vehicle containing Graowr, Grace, and Laci. Their friends, as close as they were, couldn’t help with this one, though.

He glanced over to Zedd, in the passenger seat. The warlord was staring straight ahead at the road before them. Another quick look in the rear-view mirror showed him Elliot Hunt, alone in the backseat with the two Stormtrooper helmets on the empty seat beside him. This had just happened. There was no planning or prearrangement. They both had simply seized an opportunity that had arisen, and silently fell into skilled coordination. He could see the sweat on Hunt’s brow, too. He understood the stakes, and how much they had to gain. If they could pull this off, it would be a legendary feat within the Empire.

“…I’m just saying that ‘What?’ isn’t the best way to answer the phone,” Elliot Hunt continued to explain to the fallen warlord. He momentarily looked to the rearview mirror, and exchanged brief eye contact with Knox. They were in this one as deep as they could get.

“The message gets across,” Lord Zedd countered in pained frustration, tired of being nagged by these two. “They are aware that they are communicating with me.”

“They’re not aware, though. Not fully,” Knox said, keeping his eyes on the road and using all his willpower not to look back at Hunt. “Technology is fickle, and confusing. Dropped calls, messed up communications, it’s all common. And normal words can sound different even with clear connections. It’s how things like ‘no’ and ‘go’ get confused with one another over com-lines.”

“It’s not my fault your technology is so hilariously inept,” Lord Zedd retorted with a distinct scoff, as he imagined just another minor change he could make to this realm once he had gained ultimate power.

“Sure, but you have to adapt,” Hunt remarked, taking his turn to talk. He and Knox had instinctively worked out a good system where neither of them talked to much at once. It prevented either from totally losing it. “You need to answer with a distinct phrase that you don’t use at any other point. That way people know that secure communication has been definitively established.”

“Then I will answer with ‘You are speaking with Lord Zedd, the almighty and future ruler of this pitiful land of weak mortals,’” Lord Zedd suggested, almost casually. Knox and Elliot almost lost it right there, but they kept straight faces and persevered.

“That’s good, but a little long,” Knox said, barely containing the laughter that threatened to erupt.

“Also, you would normally say that,” Elliot chipped in. His demeanor remained serious as well, as a result of all of his self-control in action. He didn’t know Zedd as well as the other Stormtroopers, but he’d figured enough out about him during the short elevator and vehicle rides.

“A good point,” Lord Zedd mused aloud, finally taking this conversation to heart. “What would you suggest then?”

Knox paused for just a moment, to make it seem like he was taking this very seriously. “Like we said, it needs to be totally unique. The best code phrases are odd combinations of words that can’t be accidentally uttered. It’s deliberate. If you’re saying this, it can only mean one thing, and in this case it’s that a phone call has connected.”

“I have given you my best idea,” Lord Zedd’s voice was deriding, though he kept his eyes anywhere but the Stormtroopers as he remained alert for the blue aliens, but also engaged in this conversation. “What would you suggest, then, as a code phrase upon answering these primitive means of communication?”

“Banana phone,” Elliot answered. He barely got the words out of his mouth.

Knox tightened his grip on the steering wheel in one hand, and balled a fist with his other. He flinched ever so slightly as he struggled to maintain his composure. Elliot had not just gone there. He was beginning to question his ability to pull this off. He looked to his left so he wouldn’t have to risk eye contact with his fellow secondary. A fleeting second of it would send them both into fits of laughter and blow this whole thing.

“What?” Lord Zedd responded abruptly, unintentionally taking this conversation full circle.

“It’s like we said,” Knox quickly said, giving Elliot his own moment to collect himself. “You would never say that phrase under any circumstance. That makes it effective for communicating one single thing.”

“In this case, that the phone call has reached you, specifically,” Elliot chimed in.

Lord Zedd pondered their point in silence. Surely, it was a two-fold accomplishment. The Empire’s frugal and disappointing technology was sure to be easily compromised, and as he rose to power everyone would want to siphon off some of his success. A code phrase was a tactical way to keep communications with those he needed secure. It pained him to admit it, but these two secondaries had a good point.

“Very well,” Lord Zedd finally responded after his contemplation. “You make strong arguments. You have value hidden in your pitiful work ethic, clearly. It is for this reason I continue to tolerate you all.”

Knox nodded as they pulled up to the Community Center, just in time. He wasn’t sure he could handle another second of this car ride. Elliot appeared much the same. There was a large, heavily armored Space Marine standing nearby, and his shielded head turned to the two vehicles upon arrival. Clearly, he was expecting them.

Zedd, Knox, and Hunt exited the jeep. Zedd abruptly made his way towards the large individual in the ornate armor, followed at a distance by Groawr and Grace, the latter who carried her helmet with her in her hands. Knox and Hunt were quick to retreat to a safe distance, and were quickly joined by the also helmetless Cade and Laci, who sensed something was amiss.

“What’s wrong with you two?” Laci hissed at them, trying to keep her voice to a reasonable level.

With flawless timing, the phone strapped to Zedd’s hip began to ring. Knox and Hunt both began to uncontrollably chuckle at the mere sound of his ring tone.

“The hell?” Cade asked as he looked at the two of them.

“Wait for it, wait for it!” Knox quickly said, giddy with excitement as he firmly grasped Hunt by the shoulder. Oh, God, it was about to happen.

Zedd snatched the phone and looked in distaste at Desh’s name on the screen while he approached the Space Marine. Still, he pressed the button to accept the call and raised it to where his ear presumably was. Knox and Hunt held their breath.

“Banana phone.”

And they lost it. Knox and Hunt exploded into a fit of well-deserved laughter. Cade’s jaw dropped for only a moment before he couldn’t contain his laughter. Laci looked at the two in awe before she also succumbed to a fit of giggling. They couldn't believe the two had somehow done that. Poor Grace, walking just to the left of the two primes, sounded like she was hyperventilating as she struggled to contain herself, which wasn’t helped by hearing Desh trail off in the middle of his first word. Even Graowr looked to Zedd in total confusion.

“We are here,” Zedd snapped to the Stormtrooper captain, oblivious to the shenanigans he was inadvertently a part of. “What could you possibly need, already?”

“Just checking in,” Desh remarked through the phone, silently impressed more than anything else. He knew the reputation all five of these Stormtroopers had, so it wasn’t hard to put it together. "The lower tiers are dangerous."

“We are working. Stop bothering us,” Lord Zedd snapped as he hung up the phone.

Laci was the first of the distant group of four to stop laughing. She looked to Knox and Hunt and took the tone of a scolding hiss once more, though it wasn't very convincing. “You two are going to get us in so much trouble!”

Cade disregarded that advice, as he couldn’t resist getting involved at this point. “That’s appealing, Grace!”

The red-haired woman walking with the primes silently put on her helmet that she was thankfully carrying, to properly hide her facial expression. Her chest heaved as she struggled to contain her own mirth.

“A-PEEL-ING!” Knox shouted over to her, showing no mercy.

Grace’s middle finger extending in their direction caused all four of them to give way to another fit of laughter. Graowr wondered what the four of them were so amused by, but Zedd didn’t care. As they finally stopped by the large Space Marine, the dark lord directed his full attention to the secondaries he despised so greatly.

“Be irrelevant elsewhere, vermin!” Zedd shouted to them, and the four quickly departed. He looked to the secondary that had stuck with them, oddly standing at attention with her helmet on. It didn’t impress him. “You as well!”

Grace scurried away all too quickly, leaving Zedd and Graowr alone with the large, armored individual. Zedd paid them no mind, though Graowr watched them leave while wondering what exactly had just happened.

“We seek a Private Hibernius,” Lord Zedd demanded of the armored individual. “Tell us where he is so that we might begin to solve your pitiful alien invasion problem.”

“I am Private Hibernius,” the armored man answered. “You are the primes the Stormtroopers sent to assist me?”

Lord Zedd paused. He looked the man up and down, taking note of his his ornate and sturdy armor. At the same time, he seemed to be quite well armed. The question that begged to be asked was how was this thoroughly equipped monstrosity a mere Private?

“I am going to need to know the exact depths of your incompetence, Private, “Lord Zedd snarled, seeing no other reason that the man would hold that rank.

Hibernius clenched his fists as he looked down at Zedd. “We Space Marines have our own rank structure, independent from the Stormtroopers and their Omnilium wielding lackeys like yourselves. We do not need to be burdened by weak secondaries and primes.”

“And yet, here are the primes, responding to your pleas for help,” Zedd quickly countered, with just the right amount of arrogance in his tone.

Hibernius dismissed that statement. Following it would only take them down a bad path. “You are all that’s been sent to me?”

“Yep!” Graowr cheerfully said as she pointed from herself to Zedd. “I’m the sugar, he’s the spice!” She then gestured behind her, where the Stormtroopers had put some distance between the groups. “And they’re everything nice!”

Hibernius stared hard at the blue one, now. He wasn’t sure which prime he liked less, but he couldn’t be selective with his help, at this point. The truth was he needed someone, anyone, to assist with the menace the Community Center faced. If these fools managed to hurt or even kill themselves in the process, that would be fine, too.

“Come inside, then,” Hibernius ordered as he made a step towards the door. “I’ll explain everything about the Vorticons where it’s safer. Tier Six is not to be taken lightly, and they have made this place even more dangerous.”

“Don’t worry, Hibby! We got your six!” Graowr said with a wink. She was so excited to get to use the cool military lingo that Cade and Grace had taught her on the way over.

Hibernius hesitated before deciding to let that go, too.

“Minions!” Lord Zedd shouted to the five Stormtroopers lollygagging in the distance. “Get inside with us, now!”

The five secondaries, still struggling to contain their hysterics, quickly grabbed their weapons and helmets and made their way to the door. Hibernius walked inside, followed by the skipping Time Patroller. Zedd thought longingly of his now lost ability to obliterate planets with a single wave of his staff, and instead wandered into the Community Center, flanked on all sides by the five would-be jesters.

[The Future Warrior]

It was about all she could do to keep track of what was being said, with the sheer no-nonsense attitude on display by Private Hibernius managing to put a damper on ever her ever-cheerful attitude after a while. His information was succinct and quite to the point, and he wasn't the type to entertain her questions or antics. He wasn't outright rude and didn't say as much out loud, but she could almost feel the glare even from under the helmet the towering individual wore. The fact that he was big enough to easily dwarf every other person in the room didn't help matters much. It was a known fact that people who were very large were very strong, and often had very large tempers to match. She was really trying not to aggravate the mighty space marine, as he had identified himself, too much, but it was a losing battle, and after one particular bit of information she couldn't help herself.

"...they look like dogs!" she said, brightly, after an image — admittedly a rather poor quality one, as if whoever had taken it hadn't been overly concerned with the act of taking it for whatever reason — had been shown of one of the vorticons. "Or, dog-people. Little...blue....dog-people. I think I met a dog-person once." She looked back up to find everyone staring at her, and she swore a danger warning flickered on her scouter, pointing out both Zedd and, more worryingly, Hibernius. "...it...it was just something I noticed..." she offered, quietly.

"...yes. They look like dogs," the space marine growled, slowly, trying to force his temper down and maintain the track of his information. "It makes them stand out, along with their ridiculous coloration and absurd 'uniforms'." He practically spit the last word, apparently finding the idea either venomously stupid, or just plain silly, it was honestly hard to tell. "But their absurdity does nothing to limit the danger they pose. They have managed to be a consistent thorn in the side of what few decent individuals remain this far down in Coruscant, and have proven themselves to be up to anything but what might be called 'good for the Empire'."

"And you have been unable to confirm their location and exterminate them, I take it?" Zedd inquired, his tone level for once.

"Beyond that they seem to originate from Tier 7, no. We have not," the space marine admitted. "But I am not permitted to leave my post to actively track them, and so my personal information is limited. If I were permitted to handle this situation as I saw fit..." He trailed off, and adjusted his grip on the absurdly oversized gun in his hands. "The Emperor's justice would be swift and merciless."

Zedd scoffed, clearly finding that idea absurd. Different rank structure or not, a private was merely a private, whether he was a marine of space or one confined to a single planet. "Yes, I'm quite certain. Then what is it we are to do? Track them down and exterminate them ourselves?"

The space marine's answer was short and immediate: "Precisely."

At this point, the little blue majin actually interjected again, after remaining oddly quiet for so long. "Uh, question! How do we...how do we do that?" At the quizzical look, or what she assumed to be one, from Hibernius, she continued. "I mean, they aren't always around. And we can't just...wait around until they pop up somewhere, or go wandering around and hope to come across them while they're getting up to some kind of trouble. And even just one tier of the city is pretty huge, so we couldn't really just go down to Tier 7 and poke around until we found them. It'd take forever!"

"Even assuming they didn't see us coming, and assassinate us while we were searching or just pack up and move to somewhere we already searched," the cheerful voice of Hunt cut in. "It'd be less of a 'search and destroy' and more of a 'pointless search and get destroyed' mission."

"Yeah, also that" Graowr nodded. "It just seems like it'd be really tough to track down something we don't really know much about, or even have any clue where to begin looking."

"That is..." Zedd began, looking from the insufferable little blue creature back to the space marine. "...a reasonably good point," he reluctantly admitted. "We cannot very well be expected to search the possible entirety of two tiers. Not with our current numbers."

Hibernius held up a hand, forestalling anything further. "Yes. I'm aware. You're not getting any additional troops, unfortunately. That would just complicate matters." The angry growl of the former galactic warlord was ignored entirely, the vox-modulated voice of the private rising louder to overpower it. "However, I do have further information. I've had a few sightings reported here, from people that come and go from the community center, indicating possible vorticon hideouts here on Tier 6. I can also point you toward some..." he paused for a moment, clearly searching for the right word. "...citizens here who have contacts and further information from Tier 7, who could possibly point you toward anything out of the ordinary there."

"Oh, super." This time, it was one of Zedd's squad that spoke up. Graowr was still having trouble trying to identify them just by hearing them talk, but it was...it was probably Cade. "So rather than no plan and no leads at all, we get to go look around and chat up people to find out just how many leads we have. Or don't, possibly." The withering gaze of the space marine earned a rapid change of track from the stormtrooper. "But still, information is information! I'm sure we'll find something!"

"Well, only way to find out is to go and look, right?" Just like that, the former time patroller was back to her usual chipper attitude.

[Lord Zedd]

Cade slid out of the vehicle he’d just parked to see the other four secondaries loitering around. He couldn’t help but notice the wide grins on their faces. He was surprised it had taken this long. Great, here we go.

“I know what Cade wants to be when he grows up, now,” Grace pondered out loud as the dark-skinned Stormtrooper joined them.

“That Space Marine had you a bit rattled, huh?” Hunt commented as he chuckled.

“Man, those guys are bad to the bone, huh?” Cade retorted with his own question, just embracing the fallout. “Can you imagine what they have to do to get to that point, if they’re not just all specially summoned for that role? No thanks.”

“They are far from impressive,” Zedd announced as he looked at the dilapidated building they’d arrived at. It wasn’t much to see, simply a crumbling shack in the midst of an already desolate area. He shifted the subject of their conversation to something more relevant. “This is where Hibernius’s information is housed?”

“Yep!” Graowr chimed in as she skipped over to Zedd.

“Says the guy in here got spooked and tried to go into hiding over what he saw the Vorticons up to,” Hunt relayed what he could remember.


“We’ll need a bit of a delicate touch to get him to talk to us,” Laci reasoned. “If he’s just scared…”

“…Then he is weak!” Lord Zedd interrupted the blonde Stormtrooper as he marched towards the door.

Graowr opened her mouth to protest, but couldn’t get a word out before Zedd had violently kicked the door in. Zedd stomped into the crumbling house and scanned the area, noticing a trembling man in the corner.

“I am Lord Zedd, the almighty and future...”

The sound of gunfire caused him to stop, and he noticed that the scared individual was pointing a gun at him. And had shot him. How frustrating. Zedd looked to the impact point on his shoulder, having never flinched from shot. He simply turned back to the even more horrified man, and tightened his grip on his staff as he contained his indignation.

“Let’s brush past that,” Zedd said as he took another step inwards.

As he did, the five Stormtroopers burst into the room, their rifles leveled and their helmets finally on. Clearly, they didn’t have a clue what was going on and their response time had been delayed by actually getting their gear ready, but Zedd was satisfied enough with the fact that they had responded at all.

“Imperials!” Knox announced as they spotted the man.

“I’m sorry!” the raggedy looking individual shouted as he dropped the gun and raised his arms in surrender. “I thought you were one of them.”

“The Vorticons?” Grace asked, glad to know he was willing to speak of them so freely.

“Yes! Yes, they’ve been hunting me. Please, you have to get me away from them,” the man begged. “They want to kill me for what I know.”

Laci pulled her helmet off and kneeled beside him, placing a comforting hand on his knee. “We will, we just need to know who they are and what they’re doing. Can you help us?”

The man finally stopped trembling, reassured by Laci’s warm smile. He truly believed her. Cade and Hunt exchanged glances, even through their helmets able to tell what the other was thinking. They guy wasn’t entirely stable. Still, he was willing to help. At least, he was until Graowr entered the building.

The blue skinned girl looked around, her face painted with confusion. “Who shot a gun?”

Unfortunately, her blue skin was all the terrified would-be informant needed to see. Upon laying eyes on the Time Patroller, he broke into a fit of terrified screaming that Laci couldn’t snap him out of even as she shook his shoulders. This had a chain reaction, causing Graowr to elicit a matching scream for several seconds.

“Hey, hey! It’s alright!” Laci tried to snap the man out of his terror. “She’s not a Vorticon, she's with us!”

Zedd decided to take a different approach, and swung his staff upwards, catching the man under the chin and bashing his head against the wall. Laci gasped in horror at the attack transpiring before her, but Zedd merely grabbed her shoulder and threw her backwards.

“Enough of your cowardice, mongrel!” Zedd roared as he grabbed the man and hoisted him to his feet. “I want to know everything about the Vorticons, and I want to know it now.”

Knox helped Laci up, and they watched as Zedd shoved the informant against the wall and held him there with his free hand. Hunt once against looked to Cade, and the Stormtrooper that knew Zedd just shook his head. Zedd’s squad had expected this reaction.

“I told Tiberius, I don’t want anything to do with this!” the man stuttered. “As soon as I can get out of Coruscant, I’m gone.”

“That didn’t sound like information about the Vorticons,” Zedd snarled. “Was I not clear?”

The man gulped, shaking in primal fear in the deposed warlord’s grasp.

“Please, these things are horrible,” the man said. “You don’t know what you’re getting into.”

“Then why don’t you explain it to me?” Zedd retorted. “I’ll give you five seconds.”

“They’re on the seventh tier!” the man finally broke. “There’s a whole collective down there, it’s like a hidden civilization. No one ventures into that tier without very good reason so they’ve risen in secret.”

Graowr started to walk towards Zedd, but then stopped and listened. Was there something else here?

“What are they doing there?” Zedd slowly and deliberately asked, almost in a mocking tone.

“They’re building…they’re building a weapon. The Vortilaser,” the man replied, pausing for emphasis.

Zedd groaned. Had his schemes sounded so ridiculous from the outside, too?

“It’s a weapon that can drill through the tiers, straight into Palpatine’s palace,” the man said. “They’ll throw all of Coruscant into utter anarchy.”

“If someone were capable of shoving a spear up the Emperor’s sphincter from his basement, it would have been done a long time ago,” Zedd replied, wildly unimpressed. “Is this ill-fated Vortilaser the extent of their plans?”

“I don’t know, they’re…” the man began, but then caught a flash of blue from one of his windows. He paused in fear. “Oh my God, they’re here! They found us!”

Zedd removed his hand from the man’s chest and let him slide to the floor, while Laci quickly replaced her helmet. He scoffed as he marched towards the door. They had simply brought the information directly to him.

“I want one alive,” Zedd announced as he marched out the door, thinking nothing of the potential dangers these shadowy figures presented.

The Stormtroopers were shocked to see Graowr skip out after him, still a beacon of exuberance. The five of them hesitated for a moment before following the two primes.

[The Future Warrior]

And just like that, things were looking up again! There was at least one of these Vorticon things outside, probably more than one. And given what they were here for, that meant a fight! Graowr's mood was at an all time high, as she skipped outside, and as soon as she cleared the doorway she started moving much more quickly. Around and past Zedd, much to his indignation, and with a blur of momentum she all but vanished, dashing off purposefully. She'd seen another quick flash of blue — it wasn't her, and that meant vorticons, going by the reaction of their hysterically terrified informant — and her mind had locked on and zeroed in on it like a hound on a scent. She was gonna catch it.

A bad feeling settled in the gut of Elliot Hunt as he rushed to follow the two primes outside. "Hey, don't just..." he started as he emerged, but by the time the words had left his mouth, his prime partner had vanished from the immediate vicinity. And his sight. "...run off..." he finished, heaving a heavy sigh. Damn girl was going to be the death of him.

The time patroller moved with surprising grace for her otherwise flighty and clueless attitude. She cut a wide, circling path around the little shack of a building they'd come to, following the sign of one of the bizarre dog-alien-things she'd seen. Over bits of rubble, hopping up onto the wall of a building to kick off and leap around a sharp turn, and occasionally just a full-on leap up onto the roof of a low building. Where the silly thing she was tracking was going, she didn't know. But it wasn't gonna get away that easily! In a straight race, over even ground, it would probably have had an edge; these things were fast, and in terms of sheer jumping power, could probably cover a lot more distance and height than she could. But they were clumsy, and had to awkwardly hop and leap over things, or go completely around them, stumbling and staggering with every launch and landing. Years of fighting, running, training, and unnecessary acrobatics had trained such clumsiness out of the majin, and she could outmaneuver these aliens in a contest like that with ease.

She didn't quite smile about this fact, but she was pleased about it.

Finally, she cornered one of them in a dead-end alley, It just looked around wildly for some form of further retreat, some other way to continue leading her on this ridiculous chase. Its only option was a straight leap up, onto buildings at either side of the alley, or onto an even higher one dead ahead. Trying to make a jump like that would leave it wide open, and it seemed to know that, instead finally turning to face its pursuer. Staring at her with large, glassy eyes, it squared off, adopting a posture that heralded its readiness to fight, studying her intently as it did so. A strange firearm hung at the belt of its jumpsuit, and its hands and feet both sported claws — short, blunt things, but looking quite powerful and sturdy. Add to that it looked to be exceptionally strong from all that running and jumping, and it wasn't something to take lightly. Especially with it was cornered. The large ears lifted slightly, twitching slightly, as it hunkered down slightly, readying to pounce.

Graowr responded in kind, her hands spread wide, arms hanging loose at either side. She squared off, boots sliding slowly over the dirty ground. It was familiar. Sizing up an unfamiliar opponent, gauging whether you should strike first or let them rush you and react accordingly... It was her element. This was where she thrived; she could do thi...

Her thoughts hit a proverbial brick wall, as, with a loud, angry SSZZZZT! she felt something hit her square in the back, and her world went completely white. She staggered crazily, her limbs not wanting to work properly, and almost sending her toppling face-first to the ground. Everything hurt, the world was spinning, and colors seemed to be bleeding into everything they weren't supposed to be part of. At least she was fairly certain those bricks hadn't been green just a second ago.

The vorticon in front of her took this chance to attack, drawing its gun in a blur of movement and snapping off a shot at the stunned time patroller, and breaking into a quick, lumbering charge.

She was ready for that though. Still woozy from whatever had hit her, she tried to dodge, lurching wildly to one side and spinning on one heel, stumbling out of the way of the shocking blast, but her still off-balance nature left her wide open to the rushing canine alien. It closed the distance with a handful of long, powerful strides, and leapt into a fierce kick, its large foot hitting with a solid whumpf. If Graowr had been the type of creature to have lungs, a hit like that would have emptied them of air as it sent her rocketing back down the alley. She hit the ground, bounced once, and then collided with a wall, producing a solid thunk of impact, and a worrying crack from the old brickwork. She slumped down at the base of the wall, her head spinning. Okay, that had hurt. A lot. These vorticons were no joke!

She staggered back to her feet, shaking her head to try and clear her vision. And as she blinked the stars away, things finally righted themselves to let not one, not even two, but three vorticons arrayed there. Two of them with their guns drawn, leveled at her, the third squared off and looking ready to strike, hands curled into fists. Well, this wasn't good. Time for a little strategy! Her eyes flicked first one way, then another. With the way they were fanned out, one of the gun-wielders would definitely have a clear shot whichever way she went. The third one was probably going to be on her if she got hit, too. Time to get tactical here.

In a flash, one gloved hand came up, the glow of ki flaring to life in her palm. She threw it down, right at the feet of the gun-less vorticon, throwing up a cloud of dust and a vague smokescreen. A quick follow up of several more, hurled this way and that, covered the remaining two, taking out their line of sight. And then she struck, kicking forward and barging through the dust cloud, crashing full-on into the center alien with a shoulder charge. It sent him staggering back half a step, but the recovery was remarkable, and a huge hand came streaking around at head-height. A quick hop up, and curl into a flip let her avoid the blow — but only just; she still felt it clip her scarf! — and with a loud, sickening crack! her heel came down on the dog-alien's head, driving it down to hit the ground, chin first, with a satisfying finality to the impact. He was out for at least a few seconds.

Unfortunately, the brief smokescreen she'd kicked up had faded, and now she was caught right in the middle of two gunners, both with sights trained on her. From bad to worse! She hurled another ki blast at one, and dove for the other, dropping low and rolling comically along the ground. A pair of blasts rang out, an all too close SSZZZZT! hitting the ground and making her 'skin' crawl from the nearness of the thing, but thankfully missing her. She sprang up from her roll, launching into a flip that landed her on the shoulders of the last one. She rather quickly hopped back down, giving a parting kick to the side of the canine alien's head before landing lightly and taking off with as much quickness as she could manage. Tactical retreat time! Back to where she had backup!

Just to keep a tally of word count thus far:

Previous posts: 7601 words total
This Post: 1374 words
Total Word Count: 8975 (so far)

[Lord Zedd]

Zedd was displeased.

All of these ridiculous creatures had run off, taking the other blue being with them. The Stormtroopers shifted uncomfortably, and a bit awkwardly. After all, behind them was a still screaming man inside a run-down hut, Graowr was missing, and Zedd was staring blankly at the open streets before them. If was difficult to get a read on the dark lord with his lack of facial expressions and stiff body posture, but they could sense his dissatisfaction easily enough.

“So, are we going to…” Knox hesitantly asked, pausing as he thought about what to say. Nothing articulate came to mind. “…go after them?”

“That blue glob of play-doh has mere minutes to bring them back to me,” Lord Zedd said, though admittedly with no contingency plan for if his demands weren’t met. “The white, smiling one that rules this realm won’t be able to save her if she kills them all.”

“Actually, ‘Smiling One’ is sort of out as an insult for Omni, lately,” Hunt chipped in.

Zedd turned and looked hard at the Stormtrooper who was not under his command, and Hunt was thankful to have his helmet still on to mask his face. Damn, that guy could be creepy when they weren’t picking on him. Luckily, the dark lord redirected his attention as Graowr dropped to the ground before him. She stood up straight, brushing a little dust off herself and once again seemed oblivious to Zedd’s contempt.

“Where are the Vorticons?” Zedd demanded the instant he saw her. He felt no concern for her well-being.

“They are, like, right behind me,” Graowr answered as she turned and stood beside Zedd. “That was a lot of fun! They’re good at fighting!”

“Stop acting like we are friends,” Zedd ordered as he shifted his stance to be slightly more combat ready. “How many were left?”

“A few,” Graowr answered with a shrug. Her indifference towards Zedd’s anger only served to further infuriate the one-time warlord.

“Listen to me, malcontents,” Zedd barked to the Stormtroopers, without turning to actually face them. “When they arrive, you will use your weapons to kill all but the one that appears to be the leader.”

There was a beat of silence. Even Knox or Hunt couldn’t muster up a joke in response.

“I will identify him for you, so there is no doubt,” Zedd continued, then looked to Graowr. “You will stand aside for this portion.”

“Okie-dokie!” Graowr chipperly responded. “I’ve had my fun. Only fair you get yours.”

Fun. Finally, some common ground.

“Ready your weapons,” Zedd ordered the Stormtroopers.

They didn’t respond, though they could be heard adjusting their weapons. Zedd let out an audible snarl as he sensed their hesitance. He didn’t need this, now of all times. Gunning down these interlopers was the ideal strategy, but he needed troops with the guts to actually pull the trigger. He cursed Desh and Sull once more for assigning him inexperienced weaklings. As infuriating as she was, at least Graowr would act when needed.

“Listen to me, peons!” Zedd shouted, all of a sudden. “Know that if I had arrived in this realm at my full power, you would be fleeing in terror from me, assuming you hadn’t found the courage to take up arms.”

Grace and Laci looked at each other in bewilderment, even through their helmets. What was Zedd rambling about now?

“Know this, though,” Zedd continued. “That regardless of circumstance, this is a moment where we would always find unity. These blue beasts mean to do us harm, and that is a fact regardless of your feelings. If you do not kill them, they will kill you.”

Knox gulped. Graowr tapped her foot. The pursuing Vorticons dropped from the sky and landed near the squad. The primes didn’t budge, though the secondaries recoiled just a little bit. Zedd already identified the leader of this bunch. It was predictably the one who stood at the center.

“Hello, Vorticon,” Zedd addressed the creature, deliberately selecting a non-plural word. It was meant to be intimidating, though it unfortunately relied on the Stormtroopers to punctuate the taunt.

They came through for him, opening fire into the supporting creatures. As the support Vorticons dropped dead, Zedd approached the sole survivor. Before the beast could react, the prime delivered a powerful, downward strike with his staff to knock the anthromorphic dog to the ground.

“Your base,” Zedd skipped the pleasantries like usual. “Tell me where it is.”

“Go to hell!” the Vorticon spat out. Its voice was twisted, corrupted, and difficult to understand. There was certainly something to be studied there, but Zedd didn’t much care for the nuances of a species facing an impending extinction.

“I had been hoping we could skip the ‘loyal minion’ and ensuing torture portions of this,” Zedd remarked in disappointment. “Will you at least tell me the organ you cherish most, so that we might speed this along?”

The Vorticon rolled to its back and looked up at Zedd defiantly. Proud to the end. Zedd sighed at the delay, and nothing more. Kidneys were usually a reliable pressure point, after all. He drove the bladed end of his staff into the creature’s lower gut, eliciting an appropriate scream of agony.

The Stormtroopers recoiled at the sound, and even Graowr looked on with disapproval. This being was a noncombatant by now, the second of which she’d witnessed Zedd assault. He didn’t notice any of these reactions as he ripped the staff back out.

“Tier Seven!” the Vorticon howled with the breath it could gather.

“Yes, I know that much,” Zedd replied in pure annoyance. “Atop the ridiculous super weapon. Where do I find such a thing?”

“A factory compound!” the Vorticon cried in pain. “Towards the south end, abandoned by the gang that used it.”

“The abandoned, tier seven factory,” Zedd mocked the desperate creature. “How specific. Would your pancreas help with the finer details?”

“Zedd, I think I can get it from there,” Grace interrupted.

“What’s that?” Lord Zedd replied, looking back to the Stormtrooper for a moment.

“The portion of tier seven is all we need. I can find it from there,” Grace explained. Though it was true, she’d do anything to get out of witnessing this horror.

“Excellent,” Lord Zedd replied, looking down at the wounded Vorticon. “You get to live, but only because I don’t trust these minions,” he explained, before looking to the Stormtroopers again. “Remove any weapons and communication devices from him.”

Knox and Laci silently got to work frisking the Vorticon and disposing of his armaments. The blue monster barely noticed. It kept firm eye contact with Zedd the whole time.

“I think I have it,” Grace quickly said as she looked up from her datapad. “Factory cluster with no ownership in the matching portion of town. Has to be them.”

Zedd nodded firmly, content with that knowledge. These fools finding success was a pleasant surprise, and he was happy to capitalize on it and demand that much more.

“Then let’s go.”

[The Future Warrior]

The trip down to Tier 7 was not really one that a certain glob of blue play-doh really enjoyed. It was becoming a rapid realization for her -- and anyone else that paid even a few seconds' worth of attention -- she didn't really like elevators much. Or at all, really. They were just too slow. Especially this one down to the bottom-most tier of the city, which seemed pointedly as if it were reluctant to go down there.

...she really couldn't blame it. Even as they just headed slowly downward, she could almost feel the unpleasant air about the place. To say nothing of the smell. She was pretty glad she didn't have anything approaching an actual nose, as that would've probably made it waaaaay worse. But...she still kinda wished she couldn't smell it. Blasted weird magic alien anatomy.

"Thank the emperor for these helmets, eh?" Hunt piped up, as if reading his prime partner's mind. "Filters out just about all of the stink of this place. Kinda wish it got all of it, though." There was a dim sense of sarcasm radiating throughout the elevator, and all eyes, both helmet-shrouded and otherwise, slowly turned to stare at the stormtrooper. He just looked around, from one face to the next. "...what?"

"....don't have a helmet," Graowr mumbled, turning away again. She was crouched down in a corner, away from the others, arms wrapped around her knees. Much, much quieter than her usual demeanor, but she just seemed more impatient than anything else. ...and maybe, maybe a little down. When she'd heard what these vorticons were up to, and that they knew where they were headed to find and put a stop to it, she'd been pretty damn excited. A chance to really get to some smashing, and probably a lot more of those vorticons to fight. And now she knew what she was up against, she wasn't gonna be caught off-guard again; it'd be even more fun the second time around! But her good mood was just ever so slightly tempered by something else. Both the location of their new destination, as well as the aggressive horror show of how Zedd had gotten the information out of the vorticon. And the other two being shot dead had definitely put a downer on her mood.

But despite her quiet demeanor and apparent downer state of mind, she was apparently quite busy thinking about something. Every now and then she'd messed with her scouter, pressing a few buttons and earning a series of beeps and what sounded distinctly like error noises. And there were the few times that she had mumbled to herself, just loud enough to be heard during the trek back across Tier 6 and down to Tier 7. Something along the lines of "...yeah, just gotta...hold the charge. Make it do the beam-y thing..." It was bizarre to hear, especially with how often her train of thought seemed to derail, and drift in and out of speaking and internal monologue.

Eventually, they were down on Tier 7. And predictably, more than ready to be on their way to finishing this as quickly as could be done. Graowr bounded out of the elevator, into the (relatively speaking) open air. A decision which she immediately regretted, and waved a hand in front of her non-existent nose in an attempt to ward off the air from it. She didn't really need to breathe, as such, but...kind of a reflexive thing. Still needed air to talk and whatnot, even if she didn't really do that....respiration thing. "So, uh...where are we headed to, again?"

"Abandoned factory, to the south. Part of the reason we took so long up on Tier 6 before coming down here." It was...Grace, or so the little blue majin thought. She was still trying to catch names and match them just to voices. The helmets didn't help. "This was the elevator that would put us out closest to where we're headed."

"Which..." Zedd suddenly cut in, his tone making it quite clear he was the exact opposite of in the mood for wasting more time. "...is where, exactly?"

"Just...should just be a little ways to the south, from here."

"South we go, then!" Graowr interjected, and was all too eager to be off.

"....hey. Blue. That way's to the north."

She stopped in her tracks, in a comical freeze-frame.

"Turn on your compass, Blue."

She slowly lifted one hand to the scouter over her eye, and after a few fumbling button presses, she sighed. "Man...directions were never my big thing..." she mumbled.

She was all but dragged off by her stormtrooper companion after the rest of their not-so-merry bunch. "C'mon, now. Don't get too hung up over it. Directions can get a little muddled around here. South in one verse might be west in another, if you keep going the same way. Heck, wouldn't surprise me if you were headed east, went through a gate and ended up heading west." He laughed. "Place can get pretty weird like that, sometimes."

Graowr just folded her arms over her torso, looking even more confused. Her expression adopted a highly contemplative cast as she was dragged along. "Hmm...." She blinked once, tilting her head back to look up at Hunt. "Directions are confusing," she finally stated, as if it was her great revelation on the matter. She did plant her feet and get back up to walk for herself.

"Yeah. They sure are."

They went on in silence for a time, with only the occasional input from various members of the group.


"We almost there?" Graowr whined.

"Almost."

"Smells down here..." She went on.

"Yes. It does."

"What's this whole....vortilaser thing about?" she kept right on.

"Some kind of laser, by the name. Dunno much more."

"....that's kind of silly," she mused.

"Coming from you, that's saying something."

"...I guess so."

The amount of frustration Zedd was radiating just slowly continued to build during the entirety of the inane exchange.

"There are a lot of factories down here. Which one are we going after?"

"It's...the one with vorticons in it. I'll let you know when we get there."

"Wonder if it'll be locked or something...if they're building a laser thing there, it probably will. Or probably have some guards. Spies or scouts or something." Graowr nodded, and lightly smacked one fist into an open palm. "I bet we're not gonna be able to get too close without being spotted. Which means they'll probably be ready for us."

"Which means nothing. They will merely be ready for being eradicated." Zedd's confidence -- looking to be reasonably well-placed by now, at least -- was just as strong as ever. As was the dark tone of his voice. Probably going to be a lot more death down here.

"Well...yeah, I guess. Maybe we can smash the laser apart and just bring the factory down on it. Or just blow it all up, that'd work too!" She tilted her head lightly. "If I was a little stronger or had a little bit to get ready, I could probably do that...just blow the whole place up. If they don't have some kind of...energy barrier thing." She shook her head, making a sour expression. "I don't like energy barriers."

Word count totals:

Previously: 7601
Previous Post: 1197
This Post: 1272
Current Total: 10070

[Lord Zedd]

The sound of Zedd’s metal coated fingers rapping against his staff lightly echoed around them. He impatiently listened to the exchange before him, only tolerating Graowr’s banter because the subject was destruction. But even that wondrous topic was losing appeal.

“I think this is it,” Grace announced as they stopped. She kept her eyes on the datapad in her hands, but the others gazed at the facility before them.

The factory appeared to be a small fortress, with a thick stone wall that was at least ten feet high surrounding it on all sides. The building itself towered multiple stories upwards, with thick smoke bellowing from the stacks. Even from the ground, they could all see a large, strange contraption being assembled on the roof. The only break in the wall appeared to be at the front door, and the lack of any apparent personnel made it more of a benefit for the Imperial squadron than the Vorticons.

“I’m picking up some odd chatter on this thing,” Grace continued. “A language I haven’t seen. But then, that’s probably more likely than not, in this place.”

“I don’t see anything, though,” Cade said as they all scanned the building from their standing point.

A thunderous boom echoed through the area, and a red laser blast pierced Zedd’s right shoulder. The five Stormtroopers jumped in surprise, but the dark lord didn’t so much as budge at the assault.

“This is it,” Zedd deduced aloud for any that might doubt that fact.

“…Fuck!” Knox yelled as he raised his rifle. That shot hadn’t come from the factory, so where was the source? This was not a good place to be surrounded.

“Multiple life forms coming our way!” Grace yelled as she lowered the beeping datapad.

“To the entrance!” Zedd ordered. “We will hold at the chokepoint they have so generously provided us!”

Graowr took off running first, approaching the two guards that were running out of the facility. With a flying jumpkick she disabled the first Vorticon in short order, then turned around and blasted the gun from the second creature’s hands with a swift Ki blast. As the being stumbled from the explosion, she closed the gap and sent it to the floor with a powerful punch.

Just as she finished with that, the Stormtroopers arrived, followed by Zedd.

“Fortify this position!” Zedd instructed them. “You will hold here and let no more Vorticons in.”

“Is this a good idea?” Laci mumbled as she looked to Hunt, while Knox and Cade quickly began moving whatever loose debris they could find to use for barricades. At least this entrance was defensible, but there was no telling how many people would be coming for them in short order.

“I don’t know, but I think we’re kind of in it, now, you know?” Hunt shrugged as he ran off to assist. Laci sighed and joined in the effort to fortify the chokepoint.

Zedd turned his attention to Graowr before he continued. “Come, Cerulean Obscenity! We will march into the heart of this crumbling, low budget facility and strike true terror into the hearts of these canine pests. We will only rest after each and every one of them has been slaughtered, and when all of their work is but mere scraps in the ruins of this tower. When we are finished, the only place that will contain the name ‘Vorticon’ will be the extinct species registrar!”

“’Kay,” Graowr shrugged.

Zedd visibly recoiled from the lackluster response, but didn’t let it get to him. She was a necessary inconvenience. He instead looked to the troopers. “Defend this position. Leave them unable to aid their screaming compatriots.”

The Stormtroopers didn’t directly respond, as all five had bunkered down in some way to combat to imminent horde. This was a satisfactory response to Zedd, as he knew that the one time he could count on these fools was when their own safety was in jeopardy. He marched forward, with Graowr skipping alongside him. A lightning bolt from his staff blew the door off the hinges, and they entered the factory.

The first floor appeared to be an R&D facility, with various projects all over the place. Graowr was quick to counterattack a Vorticon that approached her from the side, while Zedd unleashed another bolt into one near him. Graowr continued her battle against the nearby Vorticons, while Zedd pursued two more over near a small lab table.

With a downward swing of his staff, Zedd removed one of the blue beings from the equation, but was suddenly distracted by the contents on the table before him. Before him lay a small, ornate dagger that appeared to have the components of a musical instrument. At the center of the blade was an unmistakable, golden coin. He was looking at the Dragon Dagger.

But how? The Dragon Dagger was a weapon from the Green Ranger powers, which had been destroyed in his own realm and shouldn’t even exist here. In his time murdering his way across the known universe he had never once encountered a creature remotely resembling these ridiculous Vorticons. The only explanation, then, was that someone else from his world had brought it here. And that someone would have to know what the Green Ranger powers were in the first place. Lord Zedd did not like that.

“Where did you get this weapon!?” Zedd demanded of the remaining Vorticon, striking him to the floor as he spoke.

“The dagger!?” The Vorticon answered in confusion.

“Yes, the dagger,” Zedd snarled. “Where did it come from?”

“…A woman gave it to one of our scouts in Darkshire,” the wounded Vorticon spat out, completely perplexed by Zedd’s attention to this weapon.

“I hope for your sake you can be more specific than ‘the shire that is dark,’” Zedd growled.

“It’s a settlement in the Pale Moors!” the Vorticon continued as Zedd brought the pointed end of his staff towards his neck. “The…the only one, really! Anyone knows about it!”

“Fine,” Zedd accepted this answer. “What was this woman’s name!?”

“I think…I think she called herself Dulcea,” the Vortion responded.

Zedd felt a momentary surge of fear and panic. That was one of many names he certainly didn’t want to hear. If she was here before him, there was no telling what sort of groundwork she had laid to thwart someone like him. The shock turned to anger as he drove his staff into the fallen xeno.

He turned and looked at the Dragon Dagger. Why had she given away such a valuable weapon? If she was here, who else could be? Alone she was nothing, but together with her allies there was a true threat.

“Zedd!” Graowr shouted as more Vorticons flooded in from a staircase nearby.

Zedd gave a slow nod of acknowledgement. The priority, for now, was obliterating this facility and all of its occupants. He snatched the Dragon Dagger, as it was rightfully his, and marched back into the action.

[The Future Warrior]

Here it was! Finally, back into her element!

Zedd has somehow managed to almost take all the fun out of even this, with his ever-present stuffiness and strange sense of...arrogance? Pride? Rage? Something like that. Some long-winded speech about what they were going to do to this place, which all boiled down to 'beat them all until there's none left' in her head. And she was quite happy to do precisely that!

The door to the building was blown off its hinges by Zedd, in a display that was admittedly kind of cool. The whole lightning bolt thing was pretty awesome. But no time to appreciate that, there was a lot more to worry about. Like the Vorticons! They were EVERYWHERE all of a sudden! Probably because they were literally in their base or whatever it was, but still. She was quick to greet one of them with a leaping kick right to its face, having learned her lesson from before just how tough they could be if you didn't hit them hard right from the start. And as much fun as a good fight with some tough enemies was, there were too many to really have the time to properly enjoy that. She flipped off the first one she kicked, somersaulting forward to come down with a second kick, planting both feet right in another of the blue dog-alien's eyes.

Needless to say, it went down like a ton of bricks.

She looked away for a moment as she landed, searching for where Zedd had gotten off to. She spotted him off on the other side, near what looked like a table covered in...things. Things she couldn't really make out, but which seemed to have rather forcefully taken most of the attention of the semi metal-clad bad dude. Well, he would probably be fine. He was pretty tough. Just kind of shrugged off that shot earlier and all.

Her brief moment of distraction cost her, though. From behind, a pair of very large arms wrapped around her, bodily lifting her from the floor — not a terribly difficult feat, given her rather very small size but no less alarming for her — and applying rather a great deal of pressure. She wheezed slightly, the breath she didn't really need to draw escaping her as she struggled. "Wow..." she managed, trying to at least free her arms so she could maybe see about some leverage to break free. "...talk about rude! Just...just grabbing somebody from behind!" Her efforts were mostly futile, and she ended up just kicking and flailing her legs childishly. "Lemme go!" The Vorticon's response was just to squeeze even more tightly.

Graowr's head whipped around, a full one hundred eighty degrees, to stare at the Vorticon. The look of alarm on the canid alien's face was rather stark. "No, seriously. Lemme go." And she headbutted the creature, directly in the snout. A howl of pain went up, the arms which were just trying to crush the smaller blue monstrosity to death reflexively flying up to clutch at a shattered nose. Touching down with a light tap, Graowr immediately leaped up and forward, the rest of her body spinning around to realign with the facing of her head, and both hands lighting up with the glow of ki. A series of several blasts, throwing up smoke and dust as they impacted the injured vorticon brute sounded next, before she landed. And as she did, there was the distinct sound of the grappler falling over with a thud. "Three down.." she noted, keeping track of her count thus far.

A single glance toward the rest of the room brought to her attention several more of the blue fiends rushing down a staircase. "...and a lot more to go!" Okay, that was just too many to deal with alone. "Zedd!" she shouted, pointing in the general direction of the sudden onslaught of crazy dog aliens. The former tyrant seemed to be pulled out of whatever thoughts and inner world he'd been lost in, and snatched something from the lab table before marching back into the fray. And no sooner had he done so than Graowr was off and running to leap into the fray herself. "Sooo....we just gonna keep taking 'em out until there's no more?"

"That, and dismantle this absurd 'Vortilaser' they are constructing," Zedd reminded the apparently infuriatingly forgetful prime, delivering a solid blow from his staff to one of the far too numerous vorticons.

"Ooooh, yeah, that thing!" She gave a nod, as if she remembered it perfectly. She really didn't. "It sounds silly. And trying to drill up through the tiers is even sillier. Especially with a laser!" She delivered a swift punch to one of their blue adversaries, doubling it over, before a leaping knee to its lowered chin knocked it out for the count.

The rolling eyes of the tyrant were almost audible as he delivered a sharp jab of his staff, dropping another vorticon where it stood. "And why, pray tell, is that?"

"Because of the energy expenditure!" she said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "They could probably get it to blast through Tier 6 up above easily enough. Maybe even Tier 5, without too much trouble. But think about it..." An explosion punctuated her sentence, a fierce energy shot hitting one of their foes at point-blank range. "...the more range they have to cover with the laser, the more energy it takes to blast through even the same things!"

For the briefest of moments, Zedd was actually left speechless by this statement. It made sense, and he had long since dismissed the entire idea of this Vortilaser as absurd, for similar reasons. But to hear it come from...this incomprehensible little blue creature? That was not something he had ever expected. Her brief moments of insight were startling. "You are not incorrect," he admitted dryly. "But I doubt power costs are going to stop them from trying."

"No, but it should," Graowr mumbled, ducking under another attempt to take her head off. "By the time they got through to even Tier 4 they'd need so much power it wouldn't even be worth it. And that's all assuming the laser could even stay together over that much range! And y'know, as you go higher up the city, things are built better. Newer, shinier, probably tougher, too. It wouldn't be just like drilling through six layers of the same stuff, it'd get way more than twice as hard as the last tier with every new tier, from how much more energy you need to even scratch it, and how much you need to keep a laser coherent." She nodded, as if affirming to herself that it was so. "They'd be better off with an actual drill, for drilling through things. Or, like, a mobile platform or something to mount the laser on. Let it fly up, as it punched through each tier, maybe..." She trailed off, returning most of her focus to the matter at hand: punching aliens.

"I prefer it when you do not talk," Zedd grumbled.

Word count totals:

Previously: 10070
Previous Post: 1184
This Post: 1231
Current Total: 12485

[Lord Zedd]

Knox ducked low as a volley of blaster fire pelted their entrenched position. Beside him, Laci and Hunt simultaneously avoided the incoming energy bolts. This focus on the three of them allowed Cade and Grace, on the other side of the archway, to return fire at the swarm of Vorticons. The waves of these creatures were relentless, and had forced all of them to come to terms with any qualms they had about using their issued weapons. It was as Zedd had explained: kill or be killed.

“Where the hell did all of these assholes come from!?” Knox demanded as he popped back up and unleashed a few more shots from his blaster rifle.

“Damn things are all over this tier,” Hunt agreed, taking careful aim and picking off a few that were trying to advance.

“Backup’s not coming!” Cade suddenly reported, tapping the side of his helmet with the built in commlink.

“What!?” Laci screamed in disbelief. “You’ve got to be kidding me!”

“They gave up on this tier a long time ago!” Knox shouted over the sounds of battle. “It would be really nice if we…”

He didn’t get to finish that sentence, instead letting out a cry of pain as he was struck in the shoulder by an errant blaster bolt. The smell of seared flesh immediately filled the area as the unlucky Stormtrooper was thrown to his back, clutching his wounded shoulder with his opposite hand. His blaster rifle dropped to the ground beside him, yet went unnoticed in the aftermath.

“Knox!!!” Laci screamed louder than she knew she was capable of as she rushed to his side. Hunt was right beside her, but unfortunately none of this squad had proper first aid training. Or, at least none of them had paid attention during their proper first aid training. Laci found her hands levitating over Knox’s would, unsure of what to do. Did she apply pressure, or leave it as is? She was overwhelmed by concern for the man as well as her uncertainty. “Oh my God! Um... oh my God!?”

“Are you alright!?” Hunt yelled at his friend, not quite knowing what to do, either. “Blink twice if you’re alright!”

“They didn’t shoot my mouth, you fucking idiot!” Knox hollered over the immense pain. Hunt shrugged. Good point.

“Is he okay!?” Grace shouted to them with concern evident in her voice, but she was stuck putting suppressive fire on the Vorticons alongside Cade.

“I, uh…” Laci looked from Grace back down to Knox.

“Look at it and tell me,” Knox ordered through clenched teeth, but secretly he didn’t want to know the answer to that question. He was content to extend his ignorance of his situation as long as he could.

“It’s…” Hunt grimaced as he looked at the scorched wound. “Black. Oh, God, it’s jet black. I don’t even know what I’m supposed to be seeing, but I know it’s not this.”

“Call Zedd!” Cade commanded as he fired a few shots. “This is not working! We need a new plan!”

Hunt gave a quick nod to Laci, who instantly tapped the side of her helmet a few times. Her heads-up display listed several instant contacts, and she tapped the appropriate button to attempt a connection with Zedd’s cell phone. It only took a few rings before Zedd’s sharp voice roared through her helmet’s speakers and over the sounds of battle on his end as well as hers’. The echo through her helmet made Zedd sound like his voice was booming from all around her.

“Banana phone!”

Laci jerked her head back in surprise, having completely forgotten about the earlier shenanigans Knox and Hunt gotten into. They clearly saw her shock, even if they couldn’t hear Zedd.

“Did he say it!?” Knox forced a laugh through the agonizing pain.

“You are going to survive this, just so I can kill you,” Laci told Knox as sternly as she could muster.

“What do you need, you worthless maggot!?” Zedd bellowed into Laci’s helmet again, with so much volume it began to echo and disorient her.

“We can’t hold them!” Laci shouted as soon as she was reminded that she was on the line with him. “They’re starting to overwhelm us!”

“Then kill more of them!” Zedd responded, as if it was the most obvious solution in the world. “Do not bother me again! We are nearly done!”

“Zedd!” Laci shouted in a desperate attempt to maintain his attention, but heard the distinctive noise of the line breaking.

“What did he say!?” Grace asked as she continued to pour shots from her blaster.

“Nothing helpful,” Laci admitted in terrified exasperation. What the hell were they supposed to do, now?

“Fuck Zedd, and fuck this!” Cade decided as he placed two shots into the chest of two separate Vorticons, for good measure. “We’re falling back into the building. Drag him back, we’ll cover you!”

Laci nodded to Hunt, who was already grabbing Knox’s fallen blaster in one hand and his good arm with another. They were both all too happy to change their situation. Yet, there didn’t seem to be an easy exit from this situation. As they pulled their wounded compatriot into the building they could only pray for a quick return of their prime companions. They were certainly going to need them to get out of this alive.

[Lord Zedd]

Zedd returned his phone to its stylish hip holster (or so he was told it was) as Graowr kicked open the final door that lay in their path. The two wildly different primes stepped onto the rooftop of the building they’d just battled their way through, where only two more objects remained: the ridiculously elaborate Vortilaser, and the Vorticon that fancied himself worthy enough to serve as the final line of defense.

For now, Zedd ignored the towering contraption that would hypothetically channel raw energy between tiers. He felt comforted in knowing that it simply couldn’t, however. For all his balking at the suggestion, it was Graowr that had logistically proven to him that it wasn’t possible. Loathe as he was to admit it, he was growing somewhat fond of the azure atrocity. She was capable and unique, unlike the groveling Goldar or the perpetually absent Scorpina. He could use a minion like her, if she would allow herself such a status. If she didn’t? Well, then she would suffer the same fate as this ridiculous blue creature before the two of them.

“What even are you, you stupid dog…thing!?” Zedd roared at their final adversary, having reached the limits of his patience.

Graowr slid into a combat stance beside the one-time warlord, but Zedd remained in the same posture as always. The Vorticon Commander stepped towards them without so much as a single word, twirling a long chain with a sharp spike on the end of it all around himself. It was supposed to be intimidating, and it probably would have served such a purpose against the common riffraff like the peons at the ground level, but Zedd remained unimpressed. Bored, even. In a millennia of conquering worlds and slaughtering their greatest warriors, he’d seen this trick more than a few times. Likewise, Graowr merely relished the opportunity to combat a unique foe. Zedd was able to recognize that much from her. He would have expressed his contempt for her attitude, had it not aided in his amusement at the plight of the Vorticon. The damn fool wouldn’t get away with any mental games. It would have to win this one the old-fashioned way.

To its credit, the beast attempted exactly that without hesitation. In one swift movement, it lashed the spiked chain forward, which Zedd was all too happy to hold up an arm to block. He cackled manically as the metal links wrapped around his left forearm, never breaking his rigid posture. The Vorticon abruptly pulled backwards once it had ensnared Zedd’s arm, and the gloating dark lord was ripped from his feet and thrown violently to the ground. His staff landed just a few feet before him, and he could only stare at his weapon as he seethed at the injustice. How dare this beast?

Graowr didn’t waste a second of the Vorticon’s focus on Zedd. Unfortunately, that was about all the tactical thinking she put forward, as she charged directly at the alien of the matching shade of blue. While it was distracted with Zedd, she leaped forward with the mightiest jump kick she could muster. She connected with the beast’s chest and sent him reeling backwards, but clearly didn’t come close to knocking it from its feet. The commander simply stood up straight and delivered a powerful backhand to the Majin’s face, which was enough to hurl Graowr across the rooftop.

From his grounded position, Zedd yanked the chain that was wrapped around his arm as hard as he could. To his shock, it wasn’t enough to rip the Vorticon from its feet, but it still managed to cause the monster to stumble forward without any sort of balance. Zedd used this moment to retrieve his staff and scramble to his feet, while Graowr delivered a powerful jump kick to the Vorticon’s back at the same time. Remarkably, the beast remained standing, and even regained its footing. Graowr nodded, impressed, but Zedd could only feel his anger rising.

The Vorticon spun around and punched Graowr hard enough to throw her backwards, before turning its attention to Zedd. The dark lord let out a maniacal cackle as he thrust his staff forward, enveloping the Vorticon in his lightning energy. Yet, to his surprise, the Vorticon barely seemed phased by the elemental assault. Zedd recoiled in surprise, but the blue beast merely began a slow approach. This didn’t intimidate Zedd, who only unleashed a second bolt of energy in defiance of the Vorticon’s power.

Graowr, meanwhile, landed at the end of a slide from the impact that had hurled her backwards. She shook her head briefly to clear her mind, as she realized that this monstrosity was so not going to be overpowered by brute force. There had to be another way to stop it. She glanced upwards, and nearly giggled with excitement at what she saw. While the Vorticon was defiantly resisting the repeated blows from Lord Zedd, it was unaware that it stood directly beneath a large, loose section of the Vortilaser. Graowr raised her right hand and began to materialize a Ki Blast, as she aimed upwards at what appeared to be a single chain holding the slab of metal aloft. If pieces were still hanging loose, then perhaps this thing wasn’t completed after all.

She fired the blast and severed the chain, with a noise that caught the attention of both Zedd and the Vorticon. They looked up, but it was the Vorticon that saw imminent death rapidly approaching him. There was nothing it could but futilely hold its hands up as the slab of metal rapidly descended upon it, then crushed it with absolute certainty. Zedd, to his own credit, did not so much as flinch at this development. He merely lowered his staff as Graowr hopped upon the large metallic object that had crushed the Vorticon, excited at her accomplishment.

“Did ya see that, Zedd!?” Graowr gleefully shouted. “We got him!”

“Yes, of course,” Zedd scowled as he marched past the crushed xeno, paying no mind to the blood he was tracking in the wake of his footsteps. “We did it.”

Graowr turned to follow Zedd’s movements, relaxing a bit as the deposed warlord looked upon the defenseless superweapon. All that had to be done now was the dismantling of the Vortilaser. That meant the hard part was over, because unbridled destruction was something they both specialized at. The only question was where to begin.

[Lord Zedd]

Zedd and Graowr surveyed the Vortilaser briefly. It was supported by six legs, and was comprised of various parts and pieces of technology that all funneled power towards a single laser pointing straight upwards. Graowr’s head tilted, unaware that Zedd was raising his staff in the direction of the Vorticon contraption.

Finally, Graowr voiced her confusion. “So, do we like…?”

Before she could finish speaking, Zedd preemptively answered her question by unleashing a bolt of lightning from his own weapon and into the machine. Circuits flared and currents of electricity visibly jumped between the various parts of the machine. Completely overwhelmed, the machine burst into flames and collapsed into a useless heap. Zedd lowered his staff and gave an arrogant nod, while Groawr merely shrugged. That worked. All that was left was to deal with the sounds of battle below.

Suddenly, however, the entire building began to shake. It started with small tremors but soon increased in magnitude. As the two primes braced themselves, they realized that it wasn’t going to stop. It wouldn’t be long before the entire structure collapsed, and the roof was a bad place to be when that happened.

“Is this superweapon load-bearing!?” Zedd roared in his never-ending frustration.

Groawr took off running towards the staircase, followed at once by the angrier member of their duo. They quickly descended through the factory, with the trip down the various flights of stairs being much quicker without the Vorticon resistance. Instead, they merely had to step over the bodies of the ones they’d slain on the way up.

They charged through the lab, where they saw the five Stormtroopers near the doorway. Knox was down, wounded from a laser impact, while Grace and Laci appeared to be attempting first aid. That could only mean that the two still wearing their helmets and firing out the door were Cade and Hunt. Zedd growled in frustration at the sight.

“I told you to hold the outdoor position,” the warlord barked at the group.

“That wasn’t working out!” Cade shouted over the blaster fire.

“You incompetent…” Zedd mumbled to himself, but was interrupted by Graowr.

“Is he okay?” Groawr asked as she knelt by Knox.

“I think so, but we need to get him to a hospital,” Laci answered, then looked around. “Why’s everything shaking?”

“Oh, yea!” Graowr cheerfully pipped up as she remembered. “The building is collapsing.”

“The…WHAT?!” Hunt shouted back to his assigned Prime. “We can’t go out there!”

Zedd rolled his head slightly, in annoyance, then marched out the door the two secondaries stood on either side of. Graowr looked up from Knox to see the skinless prime heading towards more combat, and her eyes lit up.

“Ooh! Gotta go!” Graowr excitedly squealed as she slapped Grace on the arm in her glee.

The blue prime got to her feet and rushed outside along with Zedd, itching to get just a little more action out of this mission. The Stormtroopers took the same opportunity to help Knox to his feet and retreat from the crumbling building, as well. It wasn’t much better to be entering a firefight with limited cover, but at least the Vorticons were more likely to shoot at Zedd, if they had even a little bit of the same instinctive reaction that anyone who spent time near the prime did.

Zedd cast his staff to the side as he blasted a Vorticon with a bolt of lightning, then immediately struck at another one with the weapon directly. In the meantime, Graowr was already firing Ki blasts as quickly as she could, supported by Cade and Hunt as they advanced outwards. This forward push sent many of the Vortions in retreat, and with the other three thinning the front lines, Zedd cast futher confusion on the proceedings by firing into the back of the crowd.

The xenos fled in every direction, until it was only Zedd picking off the stragglers that still dared to attack. As the building finally crumbled, the Stormtroopers ducked behind the reinforced wall that served as the exterior fortifications, shielding themselves from the debris that was hurled from the collapse.

As the dust settled, Groawr joined Zedd, still standing tall amdist the destruction. She happily joined his side and gave a warm smile as they looked over the remains of the Vorticon hideaway.

“You know, Zedd, we make a pretty good team!” she proudly remarked. Despite some wild incompatibility issues, they had done a job she was proud of.

Zedd did not share these sentiments. But, he’d learned there was no winning outright with this frustrating glob of putty, so he simply held his ground on a single point out of sheer principle, even if the defeat was apparent in his voice.

“Lord Zedd.”

[Lord Zedd]

Captain Desh swiftly marched through the halls of a Tier 1 hospital. Word had reached him that a secondary had been wounded in the assault on the Vorticons, and he was not pleased. Zedd had been warned about letting harm befall his group. Granted, combat was filled with unexpected variables, but Zedd’s open admission that he cared little for their well-being didn’t give him much credit.

The dark lord of unspeakable terror stood before a vending machine near the nurse’s station, studying the various bags of chips with his arms crossed and a contemplative head tilt. Zedd wasn’t difficult to spot, being a sharp contrast to the overall cleanliness and normalness of this facility. Otherworldly beings were a less common sight in this particular hospital, as the primes could take care of themselves and the secondaries were just less common. Regardless, Desh marched right up to Zedd, removing his white helmet as he did, to reveal an expression of anger. Zedd didn’t even turn to greet him.

“What’s the deal?” Desh demanded, skipping past the usual passive-aggressive runaround he normally had to go through with Zedd.

Zedd did not answer immediately, as he pondered his words for a moment while surveying the contents of the machine. Finally, he spoke his dilemma. “I am told ‘Sour Cream and Onion’ is a desirable flavor, however I am also intrigued by this ‘Nacho Cheese’ option in the top right corner.”

“Dammit Zedd,” Desh snapped in a commanding enough tone to get Zedd’s attention. It wasn’t respect that made the dark lord turn to his officer, but disbelief at the audacity that he would be spoken to in such a way. Desh knew it, but didn’t care. Zedd was focused on him. “What happened to Knox?”

“He was left to fend for himself, as any good soldier should be able to,” Zedd calmly explained, though the contempt for everything about his current life was clear in his voice. “Your training was inadequate, so now he is here. They are preparing to use something called Bacta to fix his wounds.”

Desh let out a sigh of relief. He’d assigned the Stormtroopers to this maniac, so he felt responsibility for whatever happened to them, since it was clear Zedd didn’t.

“What is Bacta?” Zedd quested the commander, as he was still unsure of the various tools this realm used.

“It’s a powerful healing substance,” Desh explained. “Apply it to a wound or submerge a person in it, and it will quickly fix any damage. It’ll have Knox back on his feet in no time at all.”

“Then I desire it for myself, as well,” Zedd demanded, raising his tone just slightly. Surely, he had much use for something like that.

Desh could only roll his eyes. “Yea, whatever, Zedd. We’ll get you some fucking Bacta. Where’s Cade and the rest of them?”

“The other peons are with him in his room,” Zedd continued, turning back to the vending machine to study his choices some more. “Well, my issued peons. The blue one and her jester went to headquarters.”

“I know. Sull got the debriefing,” Desh confirmed, keeping his eyes on the warlord.

“I only asked of him what I would ask of anyone under my command,” Zedd announced, preempting the next topic of conversation he could foresee. “I do not wish to hear a lecture on how I was supposed to babysit them.”

Desh scoffed. “I’m just surprised you came to the hospital with the rest of them.”

“I remembered your words about protecting them, so I only suggested we abandon him three times,” Zedd replied. “However, I would like a new one to replace him.”

“They stay together, but I’m taking them out of your command for a little bit,” Desh decided. “They need some additional training, and I have a few tasks that I need them for, but not you. You’re going to be on your own for just a little bit.”

“I weep,” Zedd’s tone was dry, with just the right amount of sarcasm mixed in.

“Yea, I know,” Desh rolled his eyes. “We don’t have anything for you to do, and it’s probably just as well. Lay low for a little bit. Let this whole ‘wrecked Tier 7’ thing blow over. Try using this time to learn a bit more about the Omniverse, so I don’t have to keep answering your questions.”

“Now I am to go on a pilgrimage?” Zedd asked the Stormtrooper. “Where would I even go to start learning?”

“I don’t really give a damn, Zedd,” Desh barked, taking a few steps back. “Just don’t do anything that ends up on my desk. I’ll call you when we need you.”

“Lord Zedd,” the dark lord’s correction was the only parting words he offered as Desh disappeared down the hall, towards the wounded trooper’s room.

Zedd was left to contemplate that. Desh was right, as much as he hated to admit it. The layout and politics of the Omniverse were a mystery to him, still, and it would be wise to know more about the land he wished to conquer. He would take any opportunity to seek an advantage, no matter how slight. He could use this time to understand the Empire, too. He could find their flaws, now that he knew a little bit more about what they were like. And it was all on company time. It left him with a feeling that resembled joy to know the Imperials wanted him to go find ways to undermine them.

The quiet grind of the hospital was interrupted briefly by Zedd’s maniacal laughter, though as the nurses and doctors weren’t privy to the inner-workings of his head. They only saw him uncrossing his arms, while intently studying the bags of chips. He finally mashed a button. Zedd was beginning to grasp this realm, and he felt bold and daring for it.

Barbeque.