From - Tue Aug 05 06:56:12 1997 Return-Path: Received: from lists1.best.com by ptialaska.net (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) id VAA12576; Mon, 4 Aug 1997 21:58:51 -0800 Received: (from daemon@localhost) by lists1.best.com (8.8.5/8.7.3) id WAA09766 for herpetophile-errors@lists.best.com; Mon, 4 Aug 1997 22:06:19 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199708050506.WAA09766@lists1.best.com> From: Stormfront Dragon Subject: [S] Story Bored #50 Date: Tue, 05 Aug 1997 00:59:26 -0400 BestServHost: lists.best.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: herpetophile-errors@lists.best.com Errors-To: herpetophile-errors@lists.best.com Reply-To: herpetophile@lists.best.com To: herpetophile@lists.best.com X-UIDL: 93e34316f2b0267bab18d6235efac0e7 X-Mozilla-Status: 2001 Fire Lake Publishing proudly presents....... ____ _____ ____ ____ __ __ / __\ /__ __\ / \ / \ \ \ / / | |__ | | | /\ | | () | \ V / \__ \ | | | || | | _/ | | _ _ ____ _____ ___| | | | | \/ | | | \ | | _| |_| |_ | __| / _ \ \____/ \_/ \____/ |_|\_\ |_| |_ _ _| | |__ | | | | ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ _| |_| |_ |__ \ | | | | / \ / \ / \ / ___\ / \ |_ _ _| __| | | |_| | | () | | /\ | | () | | |__ | |\ | |_| |_| |____/ \_____/ | < | || | | _/ | __| | || | | () | | \/ | | | \ | |___ | |/ | \____/ \____/ |_|\_\ \____/ \____/ ----- Equalization ----- When last we left the Patriarch's court, all hell had been breaking loose. In this case, hell had chosen to assume the form of the Patriarch throwing a French conniption. Which was rather amazing due to the fact that neither he nor his ancestors had ever set foot in France. Nevertheless, his conniption was proceeding quite well, much to the dismay of his lackeys. "YOU GODDAMN LOUSY GOOD FOR NOTHING..." Searching for an appropriately nasty epitaph, he finally settled on, "MAMMALS! HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU TWO TO KEEP THOSE LITTLE IMPS UNDER CONTROL!?" Stomping loudly over to the two hatchlings, he snatched up the scepter, shaking the two velocilophuses off. "My apologies you highness, it won't happen again," tried Sa in an attempt to placate the Patriarch. "THAT'S WHAT YOU KEEP SAYING! BUT THESE KIDS ARE ALWAYS UNDERFOOT. DAMN THEM AND THERE EGG-BRAINED ADDLEPATED FATHER." "Speaking of which," interrupted Jenn, trying to change the subject. "Our sources indicate that he is heading to Mobius." "So?", shouted the Patriarch, finally starting to calm down. "In case it's slipped your mind, that's the place where the scepter jewels came from. Due to the politics of the region, the local dinosorceroress and a nega-Astor have been fighting over those jewels for quite sometime. When they disappeared, each thought the other had them, so it wasn't until just now that they realized they were missing." "And how did they figure that out?" questioned the Patriarch, casting a suspicious glance on Selsun. Selsun made a quick eep and disappeared in a puff of blue smoke. "Next time I see that genie, I'll kill it," muttered the Patriarch. "Anyways," continued Jenn. "The nega-Astor has left the planet in search of the jewels. The dinosorceroress probably called for Dino." "How does either of those facts effect me?" "Well, I think nega-Astor can be ignored, he's harmless right now. As for dino, I'd send someone to take care of him." "Why?" "Well, our information indicates that there's another piece of the device on Mobius, although no one knows where. I wouldn't put it past Dinosorceror's continuing dumb luck to lead him to it. And this segment requires particular attention: it's the powersource for the entire device." "I see," the Patriarch murmured, obviously deep in thought. "A power source of that magnitude would give me quite an advantage." Sa turned and started to head out of the room. "I'll leave for Mobius immediately." "Not so fast, Sa," cautioned the Patriarch. Sa turned around with a suprised look, staring at her leader. "I think this segment requires my personal intervention. Besides, I think staying here while Kell and I take care of that Dinotwit will be good punishment for not keeping those kids of his under control." Sa's shoulders dropped a bit, clearly upset about the decision. "As you wish, my lord," she murmurred as the Patriarch and Kell strolled out of the room. After they had gone, she growled and kicked the throne hard several times, before settling down and fuming. -------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile, on the Apothesis, hell was also breaking loose as alarm clarions blared loudly and red lights flashed, oddly reminiscent of a modern dance club. The highly trained crew remained level headed enough to begin running around in circles, screaming in panic. All that is, except for Orelious and Stormfront. "What's going on?" shouted Stormfront, trying to be heard over the din. "I'm not sure yet," returned Orelious's goathead. "It may be something wrong with those new drive modifications I made. I'll have to run back to engineering to be sure though." The chimera quickly turned and ran out of the main hatch, heading to--you guessed it--engineering. Stormfront turned back to the rest of the bridge just in time to see Dino and Jehevron collide head on into each other. Before sie could chuckle to hirself, sie noticed a buzzing from hir one hip pouch and quietly slipped off the bridge. Stormfront walked quietly down the hallway and into the sleeping area, shutting of the warning siren there so that sie could have some piece. Locking the hatchway sie sat down on a convenient bunk and pulled a small computer unit, the source of the beeping, out of hir pouch. The beeping stopped as soon as sie opened it, looking at the screen and tapping at the keyboard: Incoming secured message request - Priority Alpha-1. Accept(Y/n)? >> y_ Message size: 642 kB. Desired key size (650 kB recommended)? >> 650_ Opening quantum transmission channel for key distribution..Done. Beginning qubit transmission.................................Done. Filtering qubit stream...............Done. Beginning subset analysis...............Done. Closing quantum transmission channel..Done. Key distribution successful. No Eve's were detected. Press any key to begin transmission of coded message. >> _ Receiving VerNam encoded data stream...............................Done. Decoding message...............................Done. Read message now (Y/n)? >> y_ : : Objective/ROE Update : Stormfront watched quietly as the message streamed by on the screen, carefully memorizing it. When the message was done sie quickly deleted it and closed the computer, placing the unit back in hir pouch, sighing slightly. *** Meanwhile, Orelious had made hir way back to engineering and examined the warp drive. *It looks fine to me* noted the lioness. "That's why I do the engineering and not you, look at the power system: it's overloading." *Oh yeah, what do we do about it?* Goat tapped at the control panel. "I forgot to restart the subspace powersink after we redid the engines; the power had no place to go once the batteries were full. I've fixed the problem for the future, but what do we do with the power we've picked up already?" ~We could make a giant vibrator,~ hissed the snake. The goat and lioness gave it an exasperated look and it grinned sheepishly at them. Suddenly, there problem was miraculously solved when the power level dropped back to almost the half empty point. The sirens and lights ceased as well, now that the emergency was past. "Wow, what could have caused a power drain that large?" pondered the goat. *Beats me, but we better get back to the bridge,* answered the lioness. The other two heads nodded and headed back to the front of the ship. By the time they arrived the panic seemed to have passed. "Whew," tooted Dinosorceror. "That's was nuts, it's a good thing you and Stormfront kept your heads about you and fixed that problem." "*~Stormfront? Sie wasn't helping us~*" chorused Orelious's three heads. "Well then where did sie go, I thought sie was with you?" At that point, the computer chirped up, "Stormfront is not currently on this ship. -------------------------------------------------------- Sa grumbled as sie sat on the throne, watching the two hatchlings. "I don't believe this, I should be out bashing in someone's skull, not sitting here baby sitting." She kicked the throne again and sighed, raking her claws repeatedly against the armrest as she thought. "Well, I suppose I could torture one of the guards or something like that." She turned to the main door and yelled, "Guard, come in here." When several momments passed with no response, she repeated herself, more loudly. When there was still no response, she angrily got out of her seat and stormed over to the doorway of the hall, throwing open the door and screaming "GUARD!!!!!!" She stopped suddenly when she saw the guard. The coleosaur was lying face first on the ground with a single bullet hole on the back of it head, right at the base of its brainstem. Red blood slowly seeped from the opening into an expanding pool on the floor. Sa tapped a nearby com panel. "What's going on, there's a dead gaurd here at the throne room." There was no response but the crackle of static. Sa decided something was a foot and ran off to explore. She silently slid from room to room. All she found though, was a single distrubance repeated over and over: every guard she could find was dead, in the same methodical way. They lie quietly in pools of blood, killed by a single bullet to the head. Even in rooms where ten or more of the creatures lay slain, there was no signs of a struggle. Nor was there any signs of the attackers. Sa eventually made a full circuit of the castle, ending up back at the throne room. As she leapt into the room, landing in a defensive crouch, she span around. No one, other than the two hatchlings, was there. "What the hell is going on here?" thought Sa aloud. She was quiet suprised to get a response. "What is going on is not your concern." Sa turned on the voice to find Stormfront standing there with hir sword drawn. Sa gave a primal scream and charged the dragon, her talons flashing in the light. Stormfront stood in the face of the charging raptor, stepping aside at the last momment. Sa skidded to a halt, turning around to face Stormfront again. "I don't know what's going on here, but one thing's for sure, you can't dodge me forever." "That's true," nodded Stormfront, "but I don't intend to waste my time fighting you." "And how do you intend to avoid it?" Sa heard a phaser discharge directly behind her, only a split second before the force of the weapon threw her off her feet and slammed her into a nearby pillar. The room swam breifly before her eyes as she collapsed on the floor, and then all was blackness. -------------------------------------------------------- "What do you mean sie's not on the ship?" asked Jehevron. "Where else could sie be?" Dinosorceror turned to the main display. "Computer, where is Stromfront?" "Unknown." "Well, what was hir last location?" "Stormfront was last detected in the sleeping area." The crew quickly filed off the bridge and ran to the sleeping area. When they got there, the discovered a note taped to the wall of the room: Dino and gang, I am currently at the Patriarch's palace. Please pick me up whenever you find it most convenient. Do not worry about approaching the palace, you won't meet any resistance. -- Stormfront "The Patriarch?! What is sie doing there? And how did sie get there so fast?" pondered Watson. Jehevron jumped in, "I don't know, but I think we better find out. Maybe sie's working for the Patriarch, just like Sa was." "I don't think so," tooted Dinosorceror. "None of the segments are missing, but I agree that we should find out what's going on. Orelious, change course for the Patriarch's home world, maximum speed. We can deal with the Dinosorceress later." -------------------------------------------------------- Sa slowly drifted back into conciousness, adrift in a sea of white. She found herself chained to a wall, her head completely imobilized by some sort of brace. She blinked in pain a few times, her eyes finally coming to a focus. The room was lost in blackness, a single blindingly white light shining directly in her eyes, preventing her from seeing anything in the shadows. From the soft shuffling sounds though, she could tell there were a number of other creatures in the room. She strained at her chains, struggling in a futile attempt to free herself. After several minutes of frustration she slumped in the bonds, panting a bit. "Well, it seems our friend has finally awakened. We can begin now," came Stormfront's voice from the blackness beyond the light. Sa roared and began struggling again. "The Patriarch will skin you for this insolence, you bitch! Release me at once!" Stormfront stepped in to Sa's field of vision, silhouetted against the whiteness of the light. She stepped close to the bound raptor but remained out of the range of her struggles. "Or what? I find your arrogance disappointing considering you're completely helpless. As for your Lord," spat Stormfront, adding a tone of derision to the word Lord, "He'd find my protection rather hard to overcome. I'm as far beyond his reach as I am beyond yours." Stormfront turned to aside and began to manipulate some sort of device that was out of Sa's sight. "Protection? What does that mean?" Stormfront stepped in closer and peeled back Sa's eyelids with hir fingers, shining a small penlight into her irises and examining them closely. "You might say that I'm a bit of a sweeper. My employer doesn't like it when people interfere with my attempts to clean up." Satisfied with what sie saw, the dragon stepped back and fiddled with hir devices again. "Your employer? What's going on here?" "Oh don't act so suprised, you're not the only one with secrets. My employer finds that it creates numerous logistical problems if its agents are bothered by outside entanglements. And as you saw with the guards at the palace, my employer makes sure that such problems are at best temporary. The Patriarch would not last more then a day if my employer decided he was becoming a trouble." "Wait a minute, if you're so powerful, how come you haven't destroyed the Patriarch already and given Dino all the segments." "Dino? My employer doesn't really care if he ends up with all the segments. I'm just in it because I like excitement during my off times. My employer is involved in a much more important game, one beyond the concerns of your Patriarch and Dinosorceror." "Then why are you holding me here now?" Stormfront continued to fiddle with hir unseen equipment. "As you were warned earlier [ed note: see SB #21], the negative universe is around for a reason. Your foolish attack on the nega-Dinosorceror's planet is creating a serious imbalance between the two universes and is majorly messing up my employer's operations. Killing all your guards equalized most of the imbalance, but not all. What I'm doing now is removing the remaining imbalance." "How?" "Well, I have here a chip containing the mental engrams of Jenn, the raptoress you so abruptly wiped out. I've decided to recreate her, restoring the balance between the two universes." Sa snorted. "That chip will be worthless to you, you need a body to put them in." Stormfront picked up something that looked vaguely like a drill with an plug cutter attachment and turned to face Jenn. "Oh, but you're wrong. We have a body. I must apologize to you before hand, though." Sa could only look shocked as she finally realized what Stormfront planned. "It seems that my assistants neglected to bring any form of anesthesia for the implantation operation." For the first time in her life, Sa felt her stomach gripped by the crushing grip of terror, as Stormfront turned on the drill and advanced toward her. Stormfront pinned Sa against the wall, stopping her struggles. As sie pressed the drill against the side of the raptoress's head, Sa began to scream and struggle violently. The intense, white hot pain of the inch wide hole being slowly cut in her skull soon became unbearable. And yet Sa had no choice but to endure the excruciating pain. When death finally came, it was a welcome relief from the final tortured momments of her life. -------------------------------------------------------- The Apothesis used its cloaking device to glide completely unchallenged into the Patriarch's palace, touching down on the landing pad. The party quickly exited the ship, armed to the teeth and ready for trouble. As the group moved skillfully through the empty hallways, they encountered the countless dead guards that Sa had previously witnessed. With growing confusion, they finally stumbled into the throne room, to find Sa and two hatchlings sitting quietly together. "Sa!" cried Dinosorceror, pulling his 4-D lens crossbow. "Don't move a muscle!" "Wait, it's not Sa. It's me, Jenn. I don't know how, but it is," the raptoress slowly touched a bandage on the side of her head, lost in thought. "How do we know you're telling the truth?" Stormfront walked through the main doors at just that momment. "She's telling the truth Dino. Sa will no longer be a concern to us anymore." "What do you mean? And who are those hatchlings?" "Sa, to put it simply, is dead. And those hatchlings are your children." Dinosorceror began to stammer, "Yyyou m..mmean I'm a d... a d... a d..." *Dad?* offered Orelious's lioness head. The excitement proved to be too much for the little parasaur, who fainted immediately. *** Later, once Dino had recovered his senses, the gang all sat in the greenhouse of the palace. They had already listened to Stromfront's explanation of the entire story. While this story was mostly accurate, Stormfront neglected to mention hir employer, prefering to keep that information to hirself. They had also searched the palace, stealing all of the Patriarch's segments, except for the scepter, which the Patriarch had taken with him. Now they were sitting quietly, planning their next move. "So, what's our next move?" asked Jenn. "Well, we have to get going to save the Dinosorceress." suggested Jehevron. "Are you nuts? We wiped out the Patriarch's entire palace guard. We should wait until he comes back and then steal his scepter. It would leave him powerless." Dinosorceror considered the two choices and then sighed, unable to decide between them. "What's wrong?" asked Watson. "I don't know, this quest isn't fun anymore." ~Yeah,~ hissed Orelious's snake. ~There's not enough boogers and farts!~ Stormfront gave quizzical look to the chimera and looked as if sie was about to say something. Sie never got the chance though, because all conversation was cut off by a long Tarzan-like, "ahhiiii-ahhiiii-ahhiiii-ahhiiii....." The entire group turned to see nega-Astor swooping down on them at the end of a long vine. As the various creatures scattered, running for cover. Astor stopped long enough to look back at his double. "Oh my god! WHATCH OUT FOR THAT..." The massive crash interrupted his thought as the nega-Astor flew smack into the trunk of an extremely large tree. -- /\ \\ /\ ____________________________________________ /| \ (''-.\ _| Stormfront Thundra Dragon |_ / | \//""| \/| > | The Over-yiffed Hermaphrodite Storm Dragon | < / | / | | // >_\""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""/_< / |/"(_)) |// \ """\|\\ |\\//""" Furry Code 1.2: /W /O ()) FDDmp5adms/ArB5m/FT3m/CeHmp3m/F(CW/DD)5m A~+>+++ / \ \\ " C->++ D>++ H++ M+++ P++ R+++ T+++ W Z->+ Sh++ __/ // // RLCT>~GP/MA a- cnwud+++$ d+ e+>+++ f>++++ h*>++ "---" "WWW i+++ p>++ sm~+>h++