Jeez, Dino, I just can't give you anything without you losing it. :) But, ummm....my chapter is #47...then Jerhevron did #49....was there a #48 that I missed, or was it just a numbering typo? Anyways, here's the story again. :) HMLSB #047 == Ying-Yang A lone saurian figure sat in his dark personal quarters, shrouded in shadows in the low light. He sat staring at a display screen through half closed eyes, reading his mission orders, recently recieved over sub-space. A quiet trill sounded behind him from the communications panel. The figure craned his long neck around to face the screen, before touching a button with a claw. On the screen, the face of a bloatedly fat human appeared. Upon seeing his overlord, the figure dipped his neck, bowing his neck slightly in subservience. The fat man grinned, his black and red pupiled eyes twinkling. "Ahh...greetings! I trust you have recieved your mission outline?" He reached up with a gloved hand and tweaked his abnormally long orange moustache. The figure raised his neck upwards again and nodded slightly. "Yes, it details everything precisely." The man nodded. "Good. And if that dragon's information holds true, with the supplies and SWATbots I have given you, you should be able to relieve this...Dinosorceror of the Chaos Emeralds with little problem." The figure nodded. The man cocked a brow. "Just don't do anything brash, I'd hate to lose my best commander." The figure grinned at his leader. "Do not worry, Lord Robotnik...they will perish, and I will retreive the Emeralds for your greater glory!" The figure chuckled evilly, his own red eyes suddenly glowing, bathing the room in a ruddy glow. ********************************* The Patriarch sat on his regal throne, watching Sa look after the Dinosorcer's little female hatchling, a smile on his face. She was quite playful, waiting for Sa to lower a hand near her so she could kick her teeny clawed foot at it, chirring happily. The source of the Patriarch's grin was not the playing, but from him thinking of how much the two hatchlings trusted him, and how later on, how they would do anything for their "father"... The Patriarch leaned back and crossed his legs, chuckling. Suddenly, the throne room was showered in a blue light, and in a crackling cloud of energy, a blue gaseous dragon appeared, a small white and blue shampoo bottle appearing on the floor as well. The Patriarch did not seem at all surprised. "Hello, Selsen. How did it go?" She floated a few feet above the throne room floor, as if in an imaginary hammock. "Oh, I've gotten everything all set up. Do you remember when X delivered those seven segments a while back?" **(Author's note- Check out chapter #35)** The Patriarch glanced over at his coveted septer, the seven segments she was referring to inserted in the staff. "Yes." Selsen grinned. "Well, I had given those to her." The Patriarch leaned forward with interest, uncrossing his legs. He felt something under his foot squeak as he put it down. He jerked up again, looking down to see Dino's little male hatchling laying right where he was going to place his foot. "Kell!", the Patriarch snapped to his bodyguard, "Can you look after this one for just one minute?" Kell retreived the hatchling, the Patriarch muttering. "He's always getting underfoot..." "Are you finished?", Sensen stated, swinging left to right lazily. The Patriarch narrowed his eyes, then all but seethed, "Yes." "Anyways, I took those seven pieces from another wannabe dictator. He was going to conqueor his world using the power of those segments, they are called "Chaos Emeralds" on his planet, then move on to other worlds... but I took them to pass on to you. Well, needless to say he wants them back. So, I dropped in for a visit." The Patriarch cocked a brow. "Go on." "Well, I bent the truth a little...I told him that the Dinosorceror had taken his Chaos Emeralds and yadda yadda yadda, he's sending out a task force to retreive them. Of course, I neglected to tell him that those were just segments of a greater device, but hey, he can't have everything." The Patriarch laughed. "This is too good..." Selsen righted herself and floated around the room in a slow circle. "You know, I'm really too good to you, Patty. I normally don't go to such great lengths for such lesser beings." The Patriarch looked aggravated for a moment. "Then why help me?" Selsun laughed. "Are you kidding? Watching that Dinosorceror get out of all the crap thrown at him is the best entertainment I've had in over a three million years...you think I'm going to give it up?" ******************************** In the galley of the Apotheosis, Jerhevron walked in to find Matt already there, picking at his breakfast. "Morning, Matt." "Don't call me that anymore.", he said, sounding forelorn, detached. "What?" Jerhevon took a seat across from the apatosaur, noticing that he was staring off into his plate as if it was the most interesting thing around. Matt sighed, then dropped his fork, still staring into his plate. "What's the point? Everything that made me what I was...the Patriarch just destroyed. My home, my friends, my family, all gone...he just disintigrated the whole planet. I'm not even human anymore, I've lost my MORPH segment... Matt Walsh has ceased to be. Just call me...Astor." Jerhevon sat silent for a while, then nodded a little. Astor raised his eyes to Jerhevon's. "I'm going to get the Patriarch for this...I swear, if I get the chance, I'll fucking kill him myself." ******************************** Dino stumbled onto the bridge of the ship, looking rather bedraggled. Watson sat in the commander's chair, unmoving. Orelious was seated at a control panel. He turned to Dino. *Hello, Dino.* ~Morning.~ "What the hell is wrong with you?" The other two heads scowled at the snake. "What? He looks lousy!" Dino shook his head. "I got the most horrible feeling last night... as if something terible happened." Watson turned his head slightly to look at Dino. "I detected no imbalances with the other Dinosorcerors." Dino nodded slightly, still distracted. "I don't know what it is... maybe it's nothing. After all..." Dino never got to finish his sentenence, as alarm klaxons suddenly sounded, the ship bucking to the left a moment later. Dino picked himself off of the floor, then helped Orelious up. "Watson, what was that?!" Watson hadn't been thrown from his seat, and seemed undisturbed by the situation around him. "It appears as though another ship has bumped up against ours." With a flick of a swith, an outside view appeared on the main screen, showing a sleek black hulled ship, not much larger than the Apotheosis, right next to them, touching hulls. Dino boggled. "What! You were supposed to keep a watch out!" Watson blinked. "I'm afraid that that ship has a cloaking device... and on this model of Klingon ship the sensor array is not exactally the best." The Apotheosis shuddered for a moment, then Watson stated, "The other ship appears to be trying to cut through our hull into the cargo bay." This was enough to make Dino's walnut brain spring him into action. He charged out of the brige, intent on stopping the intrusion...after a few moments, Dino returned, looking sheepish. "Uhh...where exactally is the cargo bay?" *********************************** Astor and Jerhevon were the closest to the cargo bay and reached it's sealed steel bulkhead first. Astor cocked his earspot towards the door, listening to the silence inside. "Should we wait?" The Apotheosis shuddered again, and Jerhevon frowned. "I don't think they're inside yet." The two looked at each other, and tensed themselves as Jerhevon reached for the button to open the doors. With a whirr the doors quickly slid aside. They had no time to react when two sets of thin wires shot through the dooryway, small probes on the ends of them striking them in their chests. There was an immediate double crack of electricity, and the two 'saurs fell to the floor, spazdically jerking from the high voltage charge. From the cargo bay emerged a tall saurian figure holding two taser pistols in each hand. He holstered them, then dragged Jerhevon and Astor into the cargo bay. *********************************** Dino and Orelious ran down a dark corridor of the ship, Benjamin, Stormfront, WolfWings and Red had joined them on the way. Watson remained on the bridge to control the ship. After a few moments, they cautiously approached the doors of the cargo hold. All the lights were out, and the dark hall gave almost no light into the bay. Orelious reached over for the light control panel next to the door and flipped the lights on... ...and Dino boggled for the second time in three minutes. "Wazza hell?!" Standing before them, striking a classic villain's pose, was an apatosaur that looked very much like Astor...exept that he was burlier, his scales were a darker shade of grey, his eyes were an unnatural jet black with blood red pupils, and his clawhands, from the wrists down, were completely robotic. Behind him stood a half dozen grey armored humanoid SWATbots. Red rolled his eyes. "Oh, yippie. Just what we need, a Dark Astor." Dark Astor cocked his head at Red, then chuckled. "Dark Astor...I like the sound of that. But please, come in...I was wondering how long it would take for you to get here, Dinosorceror. Your friends were getting impatient." Dark Astor motioned off to his side. From behind a stack of boxes Astor and Jerhevon were roughly shoved out by two laser rifle toting SWATbots. They were bound with arms behind backs, gags over snouts, and chains on legs to restict movment. They looked spitting mad, glaring at Dark Astor as they were brought into view. Dark Astor chortled. "Oh, please! It's nothing personal boys, just business!" Dark Astor smiled cheerfully at Dino. "As you can see, I've got you at a disadvantage. Just make it easy on all of yourselves and hand over the Emeralds." Dino cocked a brow. "The what?" Dark Astor's cheerful grin disappeared, and he scowled at Dino, then pulled his pistol out of his holster. He jammed it into Jerhevon's neck, making him grunt. "Don't play games with me! You'll be collecting this stegosaur off the wall with a spatula if you don't give me the Chaos Emeralds!" Red raised his head. "Listen, if there was anything chaotic on this ship I would know about it...and there are no 'Chaos Emeralds' here". Dark Astor narrowed his eyes. "I *know* you have them...Selsen went into detail about your stealing them from lord Robotnik, and I..." Dino interrupted, boggling for the third time. "Bwha...what? Selsen? *Selsen* told you that we had your...emeralds?" Dark Astor nodded. "She told me everything. You stole the seven emeralds for your own conquest..." Dark Astor smirked. "...that is unacceptable. I need them for my own cause's use." Orelious' lion head shook a little. "Hey...think for a minute. Why would a powerful being such as Selsen want to help you out?" "She told us that it was her galactic civil duty to keep you from conquoring the universe." Stormfront huffed. "It's her galactic civil duty to screw with everyone for her amusement...you're just a pawn in her little game." Dark Astor was looking confused, muttering something about being a rook, when something inside Dino's head clicked. "Hey...Chaos Emeralds... seven little gems, each one's a different color?" Dark Astor nodded. Dino hooted with disgust. "The Patriarch has those mounted on his staff." Now Dark Astor looked very confused. He frowned, then pointed his pistol up and fired a shot into the ceiling, making Jerhevon wince from the closeness of the blast. "Alright, SHUT UP! You!" Dark Astor pointed his gun at Dino. "Spill it! I want to hear the whole story!" Dino took a deep breath, then quickly rambled off everything about what had happened, about the Patriarch, about the segments and the device, and about how Selsen conned him into giving her something to watch. Dark Astor looked thoughtful. "So...the Patriarch has my emeralds?" Dino nodded. "And they are just seven segments of a far more powerful device?" Dino nodded. Dark Astor smiled, then holstered his gun. "Well...it seems as though I have erred...the Patriarch is the one I should be after..." Everyone nodded. "...if I still cared about the emeralds...I think that it would be better to collect this..."Device" for myself. And as long as I'm here..." Dark Astor's grin turned predeory. "...I might as well take your segment." Astor couldn't stand being in his postion anymore. He took a chance, and with a broad sweeping motion, he whipped his tail low across the floor, slamming into the legs of the two closest SWATbots, sending them sprawling. Jerhevon took the lead, and knocked Dark Astor's legs out from under him. Dark Astor was flipped tail-over-teakettle, landing on his back with an *oof!* Jerhevon and Astor quickly hopped with their chained legs back toward everyone else. Stormfront carefully hacked their bindings off with hir sword, just as Dark Astor climbed back to his feet with a rumbling growl, red eyes glowing. "GET THEM!", he bellowed, and his small swarm of SWATbots charged the group. Everyone scattered around the bay, the 'bots breaking up to follow. As Dino tried to get the upper hand with one of the persistent robots, he felt something suddenly snake around his right leg. Dark Astor jerked his tail, sending Dino to the floor. He quickly leapt, ready to slam the downed Dinosorceror. Dino rolled at the last second, Dark Astor slamming his fist onto the floor with a metal-on-metal clang. Dino drew back and hit Dark Astor in the jaw with his elbow. He grunted and tipped forward onto his hands and knees. Dino got back up to move off, but several SWATbots had surrounded him to protect their master. Dark Astor got back onto his feet and lunged at Dino with a roar. Dino reflexivly grabbed at his neck for his Lens, and paniced for a split- second before remembering that it was now on his finger as a ring. He activated his Lens just as Dark Astor was grabbing him. There was a blue flash, and both were gone. The SWATbots, not prgrammed for logical thought, turned and moved off to attack other members of Dino's crew. Dark Astor was a little shocked from his sudden change in perspective, looking at the gigantic scalies and robots trampling around near him. Dino was flustered that Dark Astor was still in his wee face. "D'oh!" Dark Astor looked back to Dino and, not wanting to end up a stain on the bottom of someone's foot, made a desperate grab at his Lens, yanking the ring off of Dino's finger. Dino wasn't about to lose his Lens, a piece of the Device of Ultimate Power, his life's mission to safeguard, not to mention his greatest personal source of cheap yiffs. He quickly socked Dark Astor right in the snout. Dark Astor grunted and dropped the Lens ring, sending it skittering away. A huge white dragon's claw came slamming down just a couple feet to the two tiny saurs' sides, the two tossed about on the floor by the air displacement. Red didn't even notice the wee-saur and wee-mechasaur as he continued beating SWATbots to scrap, everyone else doing the same, scattering robot parts all over the bay. Dark Astor groaned as he wobbily got back onto his feet. He spyed the Lens ring not far from him, and made a mad dash at it, nabbing it up as Dino got back up as well. Dino saw Dark Astor fiddling with his Lens, obvious from his stream of cursing that he didn't exactally know how to operate it. Dino got up and sprinted at Dark Astor, then dove at him to tackle him in the midriff. There was a blue flash, and Dino felt himself bonk headfirst into a wall, falling back onto the floor. He groggily pulled himself onto all fours and looked at the big white wall in front of him. He stood, shook some of the cobwebs out of his head, and noticed the wall looked kind of familliar. Like a claw. A big claw. A *massivly* big claw. Dino erked as he looked up to see, from his perspective, a ticked- off mile and half tall apatosaur. Dark Astor cackled through clenched teeth as he drew up his clawfoot to deal with his nemisis. Dino turned to run, but tripped over his own feet and fell on his back. He cringed and put his arms up in a worthless attempt to protect himself. The titanic foot slammed down on top of the Dinosorceror, Dark Astor laughing, holding the Lens ring between two clawfingers. His attention was finally directed to the room around him...and he stopped laughing. All of his SWATbots were totalled, and Dino's crew was closing in around him. He started to edge backwards towards the hole in the wall where his own ship had made it's temporary entryway. Stormfront lunged with sword raised, and Dark Astor twisted to dodge out of the way, dropped the Lens. He moved to pick it up, but quickly abandoned it to save his own hide. He turned and leapt through the hole into his own ship's docking access tube which had connected to the Apotheosis. He slammed a button on the wall, a force shield flickering on across the hole just before anyone could reach them. "ARGH! I'll be back, you hear me?", he yelled, waving a metal claw at them as the airlock door slid slowly closed. "I'm going get your segment, I'm going to get the Patriarch's segments, I'm going to get *all* of the segments! And then *I'll* be supreme ruler of the universe! I'll kill all of you just like I did in your Dinosorceror!" The door closed, and they could no longer hear Dark Astor's ranting. His black ship pulled away, breaking the seal with the cargo bay. The second there was the slightest depressurization, another force field flicked on, sealing the gaping hole in the outer hull. Red bent over to inspect the place were Dino had been. As fate smiled on weesaurs that day, Dino had just happened to be in the crack inbetween two of Dark Astor's toes, so instead of being turned into parasaur jelly he was merely battered and bruised, laying on the floor with a surprizingly peaceful look. Red grinned. "Hey, pipsqueak! Guess you showed him a thing or five!" Orelious picked up the Lens a fiddled with it, bringing Dino back up to his normal size before handing the ring back to him. Dino donned the ring, then shook his head, holding his crest. He staggered for the door, saying over his shoulder wearily, "C'mon, let's get back to the bridge before something else goes wrong." ********************************** On the "Avenger II", Dark Astor brooded in his quarters. He had broken off all communications with planet Mobius and his overlord Dr. Robotnik. It was a dangerous thing he was doing, trying to wrest power from some of the most powerful beings in the omniverse solo, but the rewards were too tempting to pass up. He closed his eyes and hrmmed. He would have to find some information on this "Patriarch"... ********************************** Watson calmly looked at ruffled Dinosorceror. "Our progress to the next nearest Dinosorceror will not be impeded by the hull damage, and repairs can be made en route. Also, during the time Dark Astor's ship was so close to the Apotheosis I got a lock on the frequency of his cloaking device. Now, while this will not allow us to detect him at long range, it will allow us to have some warning when he gets close to us." Dino pursed his lips and nodded. Watson turned back to the controls, everyone else looking at Dino. He stood in thought, then turned to walk out. "I'm going to be in my quarters if anyone needs me...I've got a lot to think about." "Dino's crew" watched him go, then all stared at the main viewscreen, watching the stars glide by as the Apotheosis carried them off through space. Good 'nuf place to stop, I say. Onto whoever's next! ****************************************** Astor Aotmaton, Anthro Apatosaur of Sand-Ida Inland Empire Herp, light-duty artist, & beginner MUCKer. Matthew_Walsh@pcn.sandpoint.net "There is no question that there is an unseen world. The problem is, how far is it from midtown and how late is it open?" -Woody Allen ******************************************