The Game: Beyond the End IC

Sardonne

As soon as Wolfe saw Saro, he disengaged his conversation with Vanos and shook Saro's hand.

"Ah, bonjour, mon ami. I am ze Wolf of Sardonne. It is I who you have your appointment with. If you would be so kind as to follow me, monsieur, we can attend to business in my private club." Wolf motioned for the group to follow him. He turned on his heel 180 degrees and began to strut down the hallway, ivory cane in hand and corgi at his feet. The crew reached an enormous transparent elevator and took it up four floors. The doors opened into a long granite-and-wood-paneled hallway separated from the soldiers and Saro's group by a laser screen. A round floating silver robot confirmed Wolfe's identity and the laser screen dissipated. The party was led by the robot to a frosted glass door at the end of the hallway which slid open, admitting them into Sardonne's most exclusive club; The Wolf's Den. Wolfe led the group down a long marble staircase to the main floor, which was paneled with alternating stainless steel and wooden planks. Wolfe took a seat at a round floating table made of transparent plastic in the middle of the mostly-empty room, and motioned for Saro to sit across from him.

"Any officers whom you would like to assist you in negotiations may sit in the seat to your right." Wolfe said, gesturing to one of the other floating bar stools. "The rest of your crew are free to enjoy themselves! There is a bar at the back of the room," Wolfe gestured to the massively long marble-topped bar counter at the other end of the room which was in front of a massive wall of liquor "several hot tubs and a sauna that way" he gestured to a frosted glass sliding door on the far side of the room from the bar counter "and our chefs are some of the best in the galaxy, capable of producing almost any dish. The tab, of course, is entirely on me." A waitress, a pretty blonde-haired human girl, walked up to the table and kindly greeted Saro and Wolfe.

"Welcome gentlemen! Would you like to enjoy a selection from our drink menu?" she handed each of them a bar menu. Wolfe browsed it nonchalantly and gestured for Vanos to come and sit next to him.

"I'll have a glass of your finest red wine, mademoiselle." Wolfe said "And you, Mr.Saro?" As they spoke, Wolfe's security team took positions all along the perimeter of the room. Their job was to keep the negotiations from being compromised from any sort of eavesdroppers, from IGIA spies to other Enigma. Two agents were still down in the lobby outside of the hangar waiting for Jackson and the Garthedans to arrive. They were this evening's "guests of honor".

The Enigma assassin across from Flaeron moved to dodge the urumi swords, but moved much too slowly for her own good. The swords wrapped around her midsection and sliced her clean in half. She screamed as black blood splattered across the boutique, and her upper half hit the ground with a sickening "thump!" Her lower half fell to its knees and toppled over to the right, landing at Flaeron's feet. "Not...cool..." were the woman's last words. The Enigma engaging Exo began to mutate when it hit the ground. The Enigma was now in a shape very similar to a rhinoceros, except this rhinoceros was blood red and covered in sharp black studs and its horn was more like an enormous blade. The monster swished its three tails on the ground, and lowered its head to charge Exo. This form, known as a Sharp-horned Strak, had armor that would be resistant to Exo's microwave gun, protecting the Enigma assailant from harm. People fled the nearby stores by the droves, and police soon arrived on the scene riding hover segways. The Sardinian police were in human form and wore white uniforms with gold accents and epaulettes. On their heads were wide-brimmed sheriff hats. They set up a perimeter around the fight, but didn't attack yet, for they hadn't received confirmation on whether or not these attacking Enigma were terrorists of Wolfe's assassins. They simply held position and waited for orders.

The clothing rack soon transformed as well. It turned into a seven-foot-tall humanoid hairless humanoid creature with peach-colored skin. It rippled with muscle and wielded a rifle big enough to respect its size. The Enigma aimed at Flaeron and fired a sigulatiry round. Flaeron gracefully backbended to avoid the blast and rolled out of the way of the barrage of singularities. He rolled behind another clothing rack and swung around it with his tail at the ready. The massive cleaver blade on the end of his tail sunk into the meat of the Enigma's thigh, causing the monster to roar out in pain. He sliced at the monster's chest with his sword, but it swatted the weapon out of his hand before he could strike a killer blow.

---

The 4284-2700 Maverick

With the Enigma restrained, Crism moved to leave the cabin. Jackson turned towards him and shouted "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to check Hunter." he replied "Then maybe I'll go to the armory and get a bigger gun. Something tells me there are more Enigma on this ship. Call it intuition." He slid open the door and found himself face-to face with Agent Hunter. The door slid close behind him and he, realizing that he still had his weapon in hand, holstered it.

"My apologies, Ms.Hunter." Crism said "But I need to speak to you in private for a moment. It seems as if we have encountered a problem on the ship which we need your assistance with. Just follow me please." Crism made his way down the steps and, assuming Hunter was following, exited the bridge and walked down the hall to the medical bay. He grabbed a syringe and turned around.

"Before I say anything, ma'am," Crism said politely "I must take a blood sample from you. My apologies." Crism motioned for Hunter to hold her arm out and moved to draw a bit of her blood. So long as it was red and human, she would be fine.

The Enigma back in the cabin, however, was not fine. The wound had healed, but he now found himself staring into the eyes of Captain Jackson and, even worse, Lieutenant Morgan. The Enigma gulped nervously and looked straight ahead, making no eye contact with either of them. A bright light was being projected onto him from the ceiling.

"Why are you here?" Jackson asked monotonously. The Enigma was silent. Jackson cocked his fist and punched the Enigma across the jaw. It stretched comically like it was in a cartoon, and then molded back. "I asked you a question! Why are you on my ship? Who sent you?" The Enigma was still silent. Jackson punched it across the face again. "I am asking you a question!" The Enigma was not affected at all. Morgan whispered "Allow me" in Jackson's ear and took position in front of the Enigma.

"Why are you here, filth?" Morgan spat "What are you doing on this ship? You know we could kill you at any moment!"

"But you wouldn't because I'm too important." the Enigma replied, still facing ahead "If you kill me then you never know where another Enigma will be besides the one in your collar, Lieutenant. Morgan's collar attacked her all of a sudden and she stumbled back, pretending to suffocate. This was all part of the plan; the Enigma would never attack their leader. She fell across the desk, still wrestling with the "collar" as Jackson rushed over to free her. The moment Jackson tugged at the collar it came flying off and crashed into the wall. He drew his gun and fired at it, blasting the tiny collar into smithereens. Rosea winced and slowly rose again. It still hurt when a detached part was blown up.

"Well sh*t." Exo spat intentionally loud enough that the rhino Enigma could hear, it'd be a pity to completely ditch its earlier tactic when it could be modified and work just as well. Although, as a general rule, in order to modify a bluff and have it continue to work once its been called, you must first make your opponent assume that its initial form is now entirely useless to your purposes and generally for them to swallow the lie, you'd need to break your initial bluff in an act of cowardice to properly sell the lie that you aren't lying anymore. A faint-disengage-coupé if you want it in fencing terminology.

If not then it basically constitutes of jumping to your feet, microwave gun in hand, which, clearly you would not have been able to do if you were really as injured as you had previously been pretending to be, looking from the Blood red microwave proof monstrosity pointing a massive cleaver of a horn at your midsection, to the frankly useless excuse of a police force now encompassing the aria with a look of desperation, as if begging them to intervene, then, seeing as that isn't going to happen, taking off down the hall in the opposite direction as fast as is physically possible.

If the Rhino didn't charge after it, then Exo would be looking into mind reading technology development on the Enigma front.



-----

The minute the second Enigma materialized out of the clothes rack, Agatha had pulled the blue glass sphere on the top of one of her hair pins, revealing that the supposed wooden object was In fact a sheath of sorts for a long metal spike coated in thick black goo, which vanished from her hand into the neck of the attacking Enigma with disturbing speed, suggesting the action was well practiced and used often enough it became automatic. Something that shouldn't really be common place among politically active diplomats if they upheld half of the drivel they spewed at peace conferences.

Yes, it was ridiculous drivel and complete and total bullshit most of the time, and Agatha would attest to it. But only when there was absolutely no chance of her views on the matter being made public. Crowds are fickle things, nations and civilizations even more so. Otherwise scandals and figureheads personal lives wouldn't make a shred of difference, certainly not effect wars and the economy, so long as the said figurehead continued doing their job as before. However, since idiocy was the most common disease and the most easily transmitted in the entire multiverse, a reality where publicly known people could do whatever the f*ck they want in their personal lives and it affect nothing, was comprised of even more bullshit than most peace conferences. And that was saying a lot.

So, it was entirely understandable that if this situation was ever recorded and ever saw the light of day after this, Flaeron had poisoned the blade on his tail, had sliced the first Enigma in half heroically saving Agatha from being assassinated where she had been clothes shopping, not buying a explosive carbyne necklace, any weapons she had used or would use in the future, did not exist and if anyone said otherwise, they could expect a copious amounts of blackmail to convince them of what really happened, followed by death if they were especially stubborn. Although, that usually wasn't necessary. People had a tendency to keep far to many secrets than could ever be considered safe, and the only thing that keeps things running in a world of idiots is unwanted truths and sugar coated lies.



----

Artifex was getting bored. This was playing out like a bad rendition of Snakes on a Plane crossed with the Doctor who episode 'Rose'. Plus, she had nearly been pushed off the table by Morgan's half strangled flailing. So, it was understandable when she decided, enough was enough. She was doing this mission her way.


About 2 seconds after Jackson obliterated the offending 'collar' his presumed coffee mug seemed to inflate and warp like a now vaguely human sized and shaped balloon, until it solidified the details of what appeared to be a 30-something year old oriental woman with mismatched blue and green eyes, long black hair done up in a pony tail, wearing a professional looking blouse and dress pants, holding a notepad containing a single sheet of crystal paper, a touch screen made of a genetically modified sheet of florescent, color changing e-coli held in place by two thin sheets of a paper textured plastic. Onto which, she appeared to be scrawling notes on Jackson's crew's performance, the transferred high ranking Garthedus Agent, how that reflected on the Garthedus's current military state, and lastly the overall performance of the Enigma and their pirate operation. Once she had written what looked like 4 bulletined paragraphs on them, complete with suggestions for improvements on both sides, she looked up at Jackson and the higher-ups in his crew as if just noticing their presence and held out her hand in a casual manner while adding distractedly as she continued to take down notes, "Oh, don't worry, I'm a Mu-va-cha, not an Enigma, you can check if you like. yellow blood. Do a bio scan if that would make you happy, I don't care. I'm just here to help anyone who is interested. No charge."



----


"But I just got back from setting up that fence for the stupid art you had Artifex steal! I'm having a break! I'm calling my leave! You can't make me work on the weekends! OH SHUT UP MARVIN. I DON'T F*CKING CARE. I will murder you in your sleep Kirsty. UNLESS, you get me that photo, WITHOUT making any copies. Plus, Zalphar, Artifex just got back from the store, I was looking at her credit card transactions yesterday and that means she'll have her fridge stuffed full of bon-bons. I always wanted to shoot a laser turret. and she said she'd mail me some this week if I stopped talking and for five -and she said a bad word too- minutes NO! NO! NO! IF YOU MESS UP THIS TRANSACTION AGAIN, I WILL PUSH YOU INTO A SWIMMING POOL FULL OF HCI. Okay fine, but you'd better come through on this. AND I DID! FOR FIVE MINUTES! EXACTLY! AND SHE LIED! SHE NEVER SENT ME ANY!"

"MARK! I don't want to hear running monologs that sound like a garbled half of a cellphone conversation about your missions on Earth, Azulu, Desbin and wherever else you are right now! You sound like you have MPD!"

Mark looked loathsomely at the short green frogman currently hunched over an iPad, absorbed in staring at a screen full of numbers, clicking on one whenever it reached above a 5 and scanning through the webpage that appeared, writing a response and starting the process over. Not paying any attention to Mark, who was standing in the middle of the very posh looking room, plastered head to toe with diodes and sensory equipment.

"I do have MPD. Give me some creative license here. At least I'm not randomly reciting hamlet."

Zalphar looked up from its iPad, appearing for all the world to be a very pissed off snake that had just been trod on. "You did recite hamlet, King Lear, Othello and The Little Mermaid, not 2 hours ago. Creative license denied. Go and investigate Wedge, NOW, or I'll have to decommission some of your copies as painfully as possible."

Mark sneered at Zalphar who had gone back to analyzing the numbers in its iPad again, making the effort to look hateful on Mark's part entirely useless. "Fine, but I get a bag of laser grenades and a taser."

"Whatever." Zalphar waved its hand distractedly in Mark's direction, switching between apps and entering in the specifics for laser grenade and taser construction into the nanobots databases before switching back to his previous app and going back to watching the numbers rise and fall, depending on what it told them.

Mark, seeing as his terms had been met, nodded pointlessly at the completely absorbed Zalphar before generating a copy of himself about two feet to the left of Glycius.

"So. What do we get when we give a beaver a semi functional teleporter, eh? Okay Zalphar, I'm investigating Wedge. Why? LOTS of beavers. Dancing in circles apparently. THAT'S NOT A REASON! THAT'S MISDIRECTION YOU- So, you won't give me the photo then. That's fine. Just don't expect to wake up tomorrow. Sorry, excuse the gibberish, having a bit of a communication error, ya see."

Erebos would've raised an eyebrow if he had one that moved. He probably could've made it happen anyway, but he didn't care. He continued over to where the new Wedge was, looking the 'device' over. He looked over at Mark, who was jabbering into thin air. Deciding that he didn't represent a significant threat, he decided to ignore him.
He continued over to the new Wedge. "So why did you lead us here? What is it you think I need or want from you?" he said getting straight to the point.

"I have patience..." Said Glycius, "However it has begun to wear thin." Looking at the door that had appeared, he blinked as the beast rammed into the into it, and glaring at wedge as the new door appeared. Glycius waited, hoping for another chance to leave. "What's with the chair mr anger management issues? Cigars are easy to buy." After a pause he added: "Or steal." As the cat/human cross appeared a mere 3 feet away from Glycius, he turned to face him and demanded: "WHO ARE YOU!?" Plasma dagger already pointed at the center of his chest.

"I'm Poseidon, lord of the sea, ruler of- THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT MARVIN AND YOU KNOW IT! I really don't care if you have a family and kids to take care of. I'm Mark, I have MPD, and have an extremely creative way of expressing it ZALPHAR. So don't give me any of the bullshit about The Little Mermaid and Hamlet ya hear?!" Mark yelled in Glycius's face, oblivious to the plasma dagger's presence, only noticing it once he finished talking and looked Glycius over in as threatening a way as possible, as if sizing him up for a fight. And, seeing the dagger, decided there probably was going to be one, and pulled a laser grenade out of one of his many pants pockets and started tossing it from one hand to the other while maintaining a pseudo boxing stance, arms held out in front of him, knees bent, bouncing from one foot to the other, tail puffed up and lashing about behind him.

"And I'll be here until someone kills me. OH, SO YOU DON'T THINK I'LL DO IT THEN? WELL WATCH ME-Then, I'll be lots of other places, That'll be 50Million Euros, the weapons will be delivered on Monday. except here. Although I may come back later, YA DON'T LIKE SWIMMING IN THERE DO YA! WELL NO ONE'S GONNA HELP YA BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T BELIVE I'D DO IT. DRINK HCL MOTHERFU- depending on how this assignment pans out."

The conversation between Thray and Kydi was abruptly interrupted by a flash of golden light filling the room. Zal-Tek shook himself lightly and opened his eyes, taking in his surroundings in an instant. He gave the pair of Kyreniens a good look over, which barely took any time at all, and then gave a response perfectly calculated to the situation.

"Uh. This is not where I expected to be." He continued looking around, trying to size up any possible threats. He really hoped that these two would be friendly, because they appeared to be in deep space. He wasn't sure what he would do if they attacked him.

He gave them a big grin, and introduced himself as if nothing strange had happened at all. "Hello," he said with a bow of his head, "I'm Zal-Tek."

Jackson and Rosea

"What the Hell is going on?!" Jackson yelled at the tops of his lungs. Rosea didn't even bother turning around. She already knew that Artifex was there and knew that Artifex knew she was there. Instead she stared into the Enigma in the chair's eyes, allowing her to forge a very weak telepathic link with it.

"You weak...how could you have picked a...hiding spot...you're lucky I'm nicer than...he'd make this much more painful..." The message was extremely broken-up, but the Enigma got a look of pure terror in its eyes. Rosea stared at it for several seconds until the creature began to whimper like a dog. She checked to make sure that no one was watching, and then transformed her right hand into a razor-sharp knife blade two feet long. She slowly brought the knife towards the Enigma, and sank it into its belly. It tried to cry out but she smothered its mouth with her left arm, which became a black gelatinous mass. She twisted the knife in its stomach several times, slowly busting apart its internal organs. The Enigma tried to shapeshift, but trauma set in and it became paralyzed. The Enigma stared Rosea in the eyes longingly, and died.

"It's dead." Morgan said after her arms turned back into arms "It killed itself. It's insides just exploded."

"Lovely." Jackson said, rather abruptly blowing Morgan off "Who the hell are you and why are you on my ship?" Jackson leveled his pistol at Artifex's head though he doubted it would do anything against her. Mu-Va-Cha were galactic urban legends, treated with the same respect and mysticism as Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster. Unlike the Enigma, they never really formed an empire, and so were much more dangerous. Rosea, however, knew exactly who the Mu-Va-Cha were, and of all the things in the universe, they were the only things she feared.

Sardonne

The rhino began to charge but, seeing the police line forming, froze in its tracks and began to melt down. Its skin turned into black sludge and its body began to deform until it was nothing but a pile of black goo on the ground. It crawled across the ground and slunk into a drain. The police line let Exo through and began to converge on the boutique, mass-inversion riot shields held high and energy guns pointed every which way. As Exo ran, one of the ceramic blocks that composed the ceiling of the mall corridor opened up. Behind it was a sniper with a rifle several feet long. He centered the crosshairs on Exo's midsection and fired once. The taser blast was strong enough to knock Exo out for several hours and possibly stop its heart in the process.

The Enigma in the store fell backwards across the marble counter, landing on its head inches from the terrified clerk who had hidden under the counter. The enigma's eyes rolled back in its head, and it dissolved into black goo. The police now surrounded the boutique. They closed off every exit from the boutique. Anything fired at the shields would ricochet back to its spot of origin, killing whoever fired it. The police captain, a tough-looking bald humanoid with Hulk green skin, touched the smooth surface of his earpiece and sent a mind-message to the Wolf.

"Sir, we have apprehended several criminals in league with an anti-Enigma terrorist society. Would you like them captured or killed?" Wolf, who had just received his glass of wine, took a sip slowly, mulling over his options in his mind. He would much rather torture and kill these intruders himself.

"Stun them and bring them to my office." he thought-spoke back, touching the earpiece.

"Yessir!" the captain made a series of hand gestures and the police fired on Flaeron and Agatha. Flaeron dove for cover behind the counter but was caught in the right thigh mid air. There was a loud electric "ZAP!" and he hit the ground like a ton of bricks, his skin steaming.

Teh Black Market



Landing Pod Alpha deployed. The LN Starsmasher, in high orbit around the curious cardboard box-like device floating in space, released a relatively rocket-shaped landing pod with a blinding flash. The pod rocketed towards Teh Black Market at breakneck speed and crashed into the side, tearing a hole in the side of the box. The pod went soaring through the inside of the box where the fighting ensued. It smashed into the floor of the box, destroying several of the rodents and game booths. The pod had a silver door with a single tinted-out window slit on it near where the rider's eyes would be. The pod opened with a loud "HISS" and from out of it stepped Crusader Alpha, Sergeant Azol Amhearst of The Force. He was clad in full Lumien battle armor and in his hands held a bolt rifle. He looked around the room and scratched his head This was the single most random thing he'd ever seen.

"Bishop One, this is Crusader One." Amherst said, spotting Wedge not far away "I've made contact. Repeat, I have made contact. Engaging, over!"

"Crusader One, this is Bishop One." the reply came in his earpiece "Weapons free. Fire away. Recommend you use nonlethal rounds. Whatever that thing is, it can use mass inversion. It destroyed an entire battleship. Over!" Azol rolled his eyes and set his gun to nonlethal three-round burst. The blast would be like getting hit with a very strong taser, and was entirely energy, so mass inversion wouldn't deflect it. Azol made sure that his helmet was streaming the footage of the assault to the ship and ran towards Wedge. This mission was his favorite kind: no espionage and no long distance entrance. It was simply go crashing in like a bat outta hell and kick ass. Of course, it was also the most dangerous kind of mission because he had absolutely no idea what this thing could do, but if Azol could kill twenty Drae'kons in thirty seconds, then he could easily take on one cartoony beaver with a cigar in its mouth.

Erebos turned rapidly to see the pod tearing through the wall and Amherst making his entrance. However, it was not the being itself that held his entrance, it was the gun he was holding. Erebos' sense told him all about the weapon, and he decided that it would be good to add to his collection.
He used his power to move the metal in the gun, pulling it away from Amherst's hands and toward himself with the same force as if he had physically grabbed the gun and was yanking it with his own hand.

Zal-Tek gave a sheepish grin. "Well, I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing on your ship..." he continued looking around, trying to memorize every detail of the room. "And yes, I teleported me. Just... Not very well." He backed away slightly from Thray, more to make himself look harmless than out of fear. "I was hoping I would at least appear on a planet."

Amherst

"Oh no you don't!" Amherst felt the gun being grabbed from his hands and held onto it for dear life. The gun soared through the air towards Erebos. He had never seen the likes of this titanic machine before, but if it was drawing a gun towards itself then it most definitely could not be friendly. Amherst looped his elbow around the gun and, still being pulled towards Erebos, grabbed a Light Grenade from his belt. The grenade was a circular prismatic orb a few inches in diameter. It glowed an eerie blood red color and was slightly warm to the touch. Amherst with both hands (his elbow was still wrapped around the gun) twisted the two halves of the orb opposite directions. It made a futuristic whirring sound and sparked to life. Amherst waited until he got a few feet from Erebos, and tossed the light grenade at its head. The heat of the active light grenade melted the polymer surface enough to expose the gooey adhesive layer below, making the grenade sticky. The blast from the grenade would be like a high-powered omnidirectional laser pulse. When a second later Amherst crashed into Erebos' hand, his suit redirected its shields to cushion the blow.

So now I have to deal with a team of psychotic beavers and a robot trying to steal my gun. Amherst thought This will be one HELLUVA story to tell to the boys back home.

"Crusader Alpha, this is Bishop Alpha. We're receiving your cam feed and it seems like you're in a bit of trouble. Do you need assistance?" The message from the Starsmasher buzzed in Amherst's helmet.

"Nah, I'm fine." Amherst replied "Talos here and I are just gonna have a little talk and sort things out."

"Roger that, Crusader Alpha. We're on standby." The coms went dead and Amherst turned to Erebos.

"Sup?" he said.

---

The Maverick

"Just a moment, miss." Crism said, grabbing her arm "This won't hurt a bit." Crism sunk the needle into Hunter's arm and drew a small amount of blood. It was red; he could trust her. Crism took the needle from her arm and, blood still in it, placed it on a nearby medical cart. While Hunter obviously was not an Enigma, something still seemed off about her.

"Okay. You passed the test." Crism mused. He looked around cautiously, his gun at his hip "Yeah. We're being infiltrated. There's pirates on this ship and they're trying to take over. Two were in Captain's office and I'm sure that's not the last of them. I've had experience with these bastards before and it wasn't pretty. We can't trust anyone else on the ship but me, you, the captain, and Lieutenant Morgan. We're all clean. Until then, we have to be careful. Anything could be an Enigma; they can take almost any form you could think of, like a second identical xray of a Greenstick fracture!" Crism leveled his gun and fired at the xray across the room. There was a bright spark and an electric crackling sound as the light behind the xray exploded, and a sharp feminine scream echoed through the room. The xray floated to the ground burning intensely. For a moment it changed form into a human girl so mutilated by the flames that her details were impossible to work out. The Enigma died almost instantly. The medical crew came running, but Crism held up his hand.

"All of you, line up!" Crism said, holding his gun in one hand and a syringe in the other "Emergency blood test. Hunter, are you armed?" Crism yelled back at Hunter.

The grenade attached itself to Erebos' face. He didn't expect it to do much damage, but he didn't want to take chances, since it was his head after all. Thankfully for him, the grenade was not only a machine, it was touching him. The grenade's inner workings were immediately known to him, and he caused the detonator to reset, as if it had never been activated. All this in the time it took the stranger to say the word " 'Sup?" to him.
"Your weapon is now mine." Erebos stated flatly, as the gun seemed to come apart and the pieces began to move onto Erebos' arm, integrating and being absorbed into it right out from under Amherst's hands. He immediately understood the working of it, and incorporated it into himself for his own use in the future.
To finish, fire poured from his mouth up, incinerating the cover of the grenade, which caused it to fall. Erebos pulled the metal into his mouth and added it to his inner resources.

"Well that's fun." Amherst jumped down from the robot's hand and landed at its feet. This robot was quite interesting, how it simply absorbed weaponry. Amherst still had his pistol, so he wasn't completely unarmed, and with the starsmasher orbiting around Teh Black Market he felt even more confident. Giant weapon-eating robots didn't scare Amherst one bit.

"So, you're what? A war machine? A collector?" Amherst replied to Erebos "Your technology is quite old. At least a million years old from the looks of it, probably older, but you're eating weapons. Ah! You want to keep updated! I see now. You're a supersoldier designed to be able to upgrade itself with all the newest weaponry so you never get out-teched. Clever. Very, very clever. So who made you? I know the Garthedans have been around for a damned long time, and so have the Enigma. The Acirians are a good bet too. I've met them before; absolutely insane. Once back on Holos I fought alongside a rather famous Acirian known as Exo. Perhaps you've heard of him."

Of course at this point Amherst was simply talking circles around Erebos while he tried to think of a plan. Obviously no weapons could work on the robot. He could always simply step aside and let Erebos fight the beavers for it, or he could simply haul ass away and let the Starsmasher turn the robot into a cloud of slightly radioactive dust. Yet again, this robot could be useful, but he could at no costs let it near the Starsmasher. One touch and the most powerful known weapon in the galaxy would be at the mercy of a gigantic robot.

"So what kind of metal are you made of?" Amherst inquired, banging on Erebos' leg "I don't feel like guessing."

Artifex sighed, agitatedly shifting her weight from one side to the other, looking at Jackson as if he couldn't possibly have said something more thick even if he had been a comatose patent.

"Well," She started, her voice practically dripping with sarcasm, "Seeing as I just told you why I'm here, and yet you insist on both asking a completely asinine question which I had just answered not 2 seconds ago, I'm going to have to -and this is just one item out of a very long list- start by giving you and your crew a pop quiz on deductive reasoning, something, which given your surprise an my being here, is something you're clearly deficient in. Then,"

She paused, reaching out with one hand touching the end of Jackson's pistol with two fingers, which then rapidly morphed into two thin tentacles that had, in the blink of an eye, popped the cartridge out of the bottom of the gun, causing it to clatter loudly to the floor before Jackson would have even been aware of what she was doing. She sighed, as if truly disappointed, averting her eyes from the cartridge now lying abandoned on the floor, lest her faith in humanity be completely lost.

"Send an e-mail under one of my many aliases to the The Garthedus Legion telling them how susceptible to panic and misjudgment their battle hardened soldiers, captains, agents, etcetera are after they've been exposed to things they truly did not expect."

---


Agatha watched with some interest as Wolf's cohorts first knocked Exo out cold, if not temporarily killing it, then surrounded her and Flaeron. So far the plan was working perfectly. Then the guards opened fire, and here came the part Agatha had to play just right in order for it to work. Just as the first of the energy rounds was about to hit and incapacitate her, Agatha pulled the case for the now empty hair pins out of the turban like headpiece she was currently wearing, causing the veil like section of her outfit to come free, revealing it to be made of some kind of fine metallic mesh, which would work just as well at deflecting projectiles as the police battalion's shields. She spread the metallic fabric out in front of her body where she anticipated the energy round meant to incapacitate her would hit. She was currently wearing some objects that she really didn't want exploding upon being brought into contact with electromagnetic radiation.

When the electric round hit, the metallic fabric lit up bright blue with sparks and electricity visibly arched from the fabric to the Urumi swords now wrapped around Agatha's arms. Agatha shrieked, throwing the fabric up in the air before collapsing to the ground, a small amount of smoke curling up off her clothing which was now visibly singed in places, mostly her arms and anywhere the metallic swords had contacted.

---


Exo was sitting in a chair across from Zalphar who was insistent upon being exceptionally rude and completely ignoring it, instead concentrating all its attention on an iPad where its currently clicking away at a keyboard entering in data on a military coup on Azulu about to take place sometime next week. Zalphar seemed to notice Exo watching it and looked up, closing out of the app it probably wasn't supposed to see.

"Dead again are we?"

Exo shrugged, disinterested. "Apparently, yes."

All was going to plan, and it had no reason to be concerned about what Zalphar had to say on the matter, as it was not included in this specific problem. Oh, Zalphar was involved but it was unaware of exactly how little importance its involvement currently held in the outcome of things. There was only so much a Criminal mastermind controlling a small ring of drug smugglers, 1 spy and a MPD cat could do about a universally destructive war breaking out. They were to biased and self absorbed to be much more than pawns in the grand scheme of things.

"I see you've downloaded yourself into my computer system again. What did you use this time? A Trojan virus disguised as a 'Your computer is out of date' pop up? Because we both know how true that would be." Zalphar looked pointedly over at Exo for a few seconds, before turning back to its iPad again.

Exo chuckled darkly at this, muttering something to the effect of "You have no idea."

Zalphar pulled up another article on its iPad, reading through it for about a minute, as if expected Exo to vanish into thin air if it ignored it long enough. However, after another minute passed, it just sighed heavily and stated; "Be here for another few hours then? Your body will take at least that long to fully recover from the electric bombardment it just endured, someone knew what you were. That would have killed anyone else on the spot, and that clearly wasn't Wolf's intention. He just wanted you out of the game for awhile."

"Oh, you know full well I'm never 'Out of the game' as you say, especially when I'm dead and the fourth wall becomes even more visible." Exo stated in a matter-of-fact tone, inwardly smirking about just how many ways this could be interpreted and still ring true.

Zalphar rolled its eyes and without looking up from what it was doing stated in perfect monotone "That's incredibly ambitious of you."

Exo smiled in a manic sort of way, and instantly quipped back; "Really, its not."

Erebos looked down at the small being talking to him with its incessant chatter. "I tire of your chatter" he said as he reviewed the workings of Amherst's suit. It seemed to have a shield which would invert mass projectiles. That would be useful for his purposes.
The shield as well as the other capabilities of Amherst's suit suddenly failed, as well as his communication link with his ship. The metal in his pistol began to glow hotter and hotter till it melted, the metal streaming towards the floor down his leg.

"Ok, now this is just unfair." Azol's suit shut down, as well as his feed to the ship. He was now weaponless, powerless, and armorless. He looked up at the titanic robot, trying to think of ways to defeat it. If it could deactivate technology, then it would be extremely hard to fight. If only we had some Greys laying around we'd be able to take this bastard out. Azol thought. He quickly began to look around the room, trying to find another weapon. The only weapon he had left was his plasma axe, and hitting this thing with it would be like hitting the hull of a spaceship with a bebe gun. All he could hope now was that the Starsmasher would catch on and blow this robot to oblivion.

---

"Crusader Alpha, this is Bishop Alpha. We've lost visual contact with you. Are you in need of assistance over?" There was no response but static. "Repeat! Crusader Alpha this is Bishop Alpha! Are you okay over!?" More silence "God dammit Crusader Alpha answer!" There was no response. The communications officer turned around in his swiveling chair and yelled out to the ship's captain, General Forchenz "Sir! We've lost contact with Crusader Alpha!" Forchenz, a middle-aged Lumien in his sixties, sat back in his captain's chair and ran a hand through his greying maroon hair. He looked down at his control panels and tapped a red icon in the shape of an O, for Ordinance. The ship's weapon systems popped up on the screen. Forchenz stared at it a moment, and then quickly scrolled to the left, taking him back to the options field. He hit a purple icon in the shape of a U, for Units. Crusaders Beta through Double Zeta popped up on the screen. Forchenz ran another hand through his hair, and hit Crusader Beta, Gamma, and Delta. Down in the mess hall, all three Crusaders received notice for immediate deployment. The three Force members made their way to the armory and picked their weapons. Forchenz went back to the main screen and hit a blue icon shaped like a C, for Communications. He hit a button or two and made contact with Neutral Station Delta.

"Onscreen." he said. There was a tapping of touchscreen keyboards, and the massive screen in front of Forchenz's chair lit up, awaiting someone at the neutral station to respond.

"Neutral Station Delta," Forchenz said into his microphone "This is General Forchenz of the Lumien Military. We are aware that you are currently investigating the Anomalous Object named 'The Black Market'. We currently are investigating the object as well and have lost contact with our agent Crusader Alpha. We are requesting assistance in retrieving our agent. Reply requested. Over!" Hopefully he'd be able to make contact and get Garthedan assistance in retrieving Amherst. He drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair, waiting for a response.

Zal-Tek may have smirked slightly. These two clearly hadn't seen magic, or at least not much. "It's not as much a question of distance as universes." He shrugged, then turned to Kydi, "I wouldn't have ended up in space. Never have. I was trying to teleport to a planet, but on the off chance that I mess up, which I clearly did, I have a failsafe." He gave Kydi a smug sort of grin, knowing that he hadn't truly explained himself. If this was a world in which there was little to no magic, he was sure he'd have plenty of chances to confuse people. Calmly, he sat down and curled his tail around himself. At this point, he was pretty sure the two in front of hm, who he now knew were Kydi and Thray, wouldn't attack him. If they did, he would probably have little problem disarming them, as they likely had little defense against magic.

Erebos looked at the new beings that had decided to interfere. "You are fools if you think that you're going to stop me" he thundered. With that the water inside Tresi's and Crystalis' bodies heated up rapidly similarly to the metal in Amherst's gun, coming to a boil.
To compliment this, he unleashed a wave of burning flames in a circle around him.

Azol jumped back when the Neutral Station group arrived. So now they finally showed up. If Azol was correct, he was originally supposed to be going with the Neutral Station group, but their orders had been changed last second for a direct assault. Azol had found it suspicious, and now he was seeing that his hypothesis was true. Someone changed their orders. Anyhow, he was grateful for the assistance.

"Well that works!" he called out, his voice muffled by the non-functioning suit. "I'm Sergeant Amherst of Task Force 666. Our orders were changed last minute for a direct assault from the Starsmasher. I thought there was something curious about it, but apparently the change came directly from the Consul of War so I couldn't argue with them. Now if someone would be kind enough to reactivate my suit, I would be eternally grateful. Clank over there turned my suit off and now I can't move; the servos are off."


Three landing pods came careening through the hole in the box that Azol had made. They all crashed to the floor similarly to his and their pods opened. They ran out and surrounded Erebos on three sides. They were informed on the flight down of the danger of this new opponent, and so knew to engage immediately. Two of the soldiers let loose with three-round bursts from their bolt rifles aimed at Erebos' head. Crusader Delta took position on the other side of the room with his heavy bolt rifle, a sniper weapon. Delta, however, didn't fire just yet. He sent a reprogramming algorithm to Azol's suit. Just as the wave of fire hit him, the suit reactivated. The suit's heat shields deflected Erebos' wave of fire, making it ineffective against them.

"You're a lifesaver, Delta!" Azol said through the comms. He ran towards where Crusader Beta was firing at. Beta tossed him a spare bolt rifle, and Azol went to work on full automatic, firing up Erebos.
---

"Yeah sorry about that." Forchenz replied to the station "The damned consul switched our orders as we were traveling to Neutral Station Delta. Said something about he was confident we could take a beaver on by ourselves. Obviously he was wrong, and I will be sending him a very strongly-worded letter when we're done. I'm deploying Crusaders Beta, Gamma, and Delta to the Anomalous Object Delta now. They're your's to command." Forchanz sat back in his chair and groaned. This was not going to go over well with the Garthedans. Nearby, the Starsmasher's first mate smiled eerily. He reached for his coffee cup, his arm stretching to around twice its regular length, and took a sip, cracking his neck as he did so. The Wolf would be pleased with his performance.

Spoiler:

(some music for the following fight)