ic Zip Zap

[Tarrakhash]

Delta sighed, leaning down and tapping the side of the machine,"You are using Nihilus energy! Does it react normally in this dimension?"

 

Looking up at Ms Wells and Professor Ether he frowned again,"And it's capable of shunting matter to another dimension already...you don't have to do anything to it. How reliable is it?"

 

Scratching his head he sighed,"What are you planning on sending where? There is nothing wrong with the machine....other than the energy it is drawing on."

[Supercape]

GM

 

Ms. Wells went red. "Ah...well...."

 

The agent from the ministry of extraordinary affairs stepped. "Nihilus energy? What do you mean?" he demanded. 

 

"I am afraid that this gentleman is somewhat lacking in the refined skills of science" interjected Professor Ether. "Hired, methinks, more for his knuckles than his head!" he laughed alone at his poor excuse for a joke. 

 

"I'm blocking the pipes* on this!" seethed the agent, lurching forward. 

 

In a moment, Professor Ether was up, and gave the agent a mighty shove, forcing him to the floor. 

 

"No SIR, you will not!" he screamed...and reached towards the Brit Machine!....

 

 

*An Earth Victoriana Expression akin to "Pulling the plug"

 

 

[Tarrakhash]

Delta's curiosity was raised several levels by Ms. Wells reaction, and then things devolved rapidly.

 

He didn't move, he watched as Ether pushed the minder out of the way and made his way towards the Brit Machine and the tell tale red glow of the disc on his back was the only sign he was drawing on his telekinetic powers.

 

With a thought he grabbed Ether and attempted to lift him into the air away from the Brit Machine.

 

"You don't understand what you are playing with little man....this knuckle head will use his knuckles on you if you don't desist immediately."

 

Looking at Ms Wells his voice sounding more than a little angry,"What are you doing and what can it do? I just want to get home but I don't want to endanger this entire dimension to do it."

[Supercape]

GM

 

Professor Ether was surprisingly light, and was easily hoisted away. He didn't seem to resist, in fact. 

 

Ms. Wells backed off. "It's the Professors experiment, not mine!" she said, both frightened and defiant at the same time. "He's one of the smartest men I know, even if he is a little..."

 

"A little what?" replied Ether, clinging to Delta's arm. "A little odd?"

 

"A little cruel!" said Wells, boldlly. 

 

"Ill show you just how clever, odd, and cruel I can be then!" laughed Ether, and from his body started to burn with vapourous blue flame. 

 

"Uh oh..." mumbled Zip, who stood his ground. "This isn't so good..."

 

The Brit Machine responded by a big fizz...and sparks flew....

 

In response, Ether's burning blue flames exploded around the room, and...

 

Zoooom!

 

It happened again. Now, they were in a primordial hot steaming jungle, with wooden huts and speared primitives all around them. Ether, Zip, Lulu, Delta and the man from ASTO labs who had been laboriously dragged through the dimensions with them. 

 

And in the middle, the smoking, damaged Brit Machine. 

 

"I knew it would work on Nihilus Energy!" said Ether, most pleased with himself. 

[Tarrakhash]

Of course the one person who had the chance of likely being reasonable and fixing it got left behind.

 

Looking at the motley crew, the speared primitives he sighed and shook his head,"Lulu, any idea where we are now?"

 

His bulbous mechanical eyes swiveled on Ether,"Yes, yes it did work....now how do you plan on going back? You seem to have made some enhancements to yourself but the Brit Machine is smashed and there is a good chance the physics of this world is different from your one....we are likely stranded."

 

"Zip, is your hopper working again?"

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Earth....probably" mumbled Lulu. 

 

"I want to go home!" screamed Norbert Body, the ASTRO scientist (whose red shirt stuck out rather glaringly in the green jungle). 

 

"We just need some more Nihilus energy, and I am sure we can effect another jump!" replied Professor Ether, looking greedily at Delta. 

 

"Just give me a good laboratory and I am sure I can fix my hopper!" said Zip, proudly. "Except we appear to be an alternative reality where mankind has not evolved past the stone age"

 

Screams and whoops came from the trees. And spears were pointed in their direction. 

 

"...which makes a laboratory unlikely. Give the word and Ill try another jump. No idea where will end up though. The dimensional mapper has burnt out" explained Zip. "However bad shape we are in, imagine hopping into a reality with only two dimensions, or one where everything is one million degrees centigrade...."

[Tarrakhash]

Delta's sigh was likely heard in the Terminus dimension the amount of exasperation he currently felt. Between Ether and Zip he was just about ready to revert to his basic programming and rip heads off, fortunately there seemed to be no end of heads that needed ripping.

 

Looking at the people who were currently threatening them with spears he growled between clenched teeth,"Raise your hands and look non-threatening. I will be having a look at the Brit Machine to see if I can do something with it...I don't trust you as far as I can throw you, Ether, after all why do you emit blue fire?"

 

Glancing at Zip he shook his head,"Seems there is a better chance for me to survive out here. The physics at least seem normal...."

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Terminus energy!" smiled Ether, most pleased with himself. "My experiments have...transformed....me", he grinned with his pointed chin and pointed nose. And yes, his thin cruel pointed lips.

 

"Insane! Even by my standards!" grunted Zip. He almost pulled the gun off his back ready to fire, but decided to put his hands up instead. 

 

"Never mind these fools" replied Ether, pointing and the stone age men around them. "Stone tipped spears and furs! What threat are they?" he demaned, and once again started burning with blue vaporous flame that caressed his body. Then, to add to the effect, he started floating upwards. 

 

The spearmen gasped, and backed off, yabbering to themselves. Some fell to their knees and started praying to the demon, god, or something else entirely. 

 

"Idiot!" mumbled Zip. 

[Tarrakhash]

The HUD in Delta's field of view lite up, scanning Ether as he gloated and sighed,"The question is into what? And how much control do you have?"

 

Delta watched in dismay as Ether backed off the spearmen and frowned,"Let's hope they don't have a Shaman who wants to banish the 'Demon'. You may not be the only one with powers in this realm."

 

It was becoming clear that Ether was a problem, a large rapidly growing problem, but for now Delta needed to study him and figure out what the solution to that problem was....

 

Looking at Zip he shrugged and then back at Ether,"Can you contain your 'energy' we need to get answers out of these people, and I'm not sure if you are very good at languages, or are you?"

 

 

[Supercape]

GM

 

"These people are primitives. We do not need them. They are ants beneath our boots..." replied Ether, coldly, floating. "You may think me vain enough to take pleasure from their worship. I am not, and I do not" he said, bluntly. 

 

"BEHOLD!" he said to the spearmen, circling slowly. 

 

Then, he flung out his arms. A disc of blue anti-energy errupted from his body, expanding outwards in all directions. 

 

"Oh Sweet God!" mumbled the ASTRO Scientist. Lulu froze in cold fury, and Zip seemed to be a mess of all sorts of emotions from fear to excitement to rage to admiration. 

 

For the blue vapours disintegrated trees, ripped branches, spears crumbled, wooden huts splintered. 

 

And the spearmen turned to dust. Gone. 

 

"Gone!" proclaimed Ether truimphantly. "Nihilus energy! It sunders flesh, bone, wood and steel! And I have partaken of it!"

 

"And it could power the Brit Machine...." mumrured Zip to Delta. 

[Tarrakhash]

There was a blink and death and destruction visited this plane courtesy of Nihilus energy, the Terminus left nothing untouched.

 

There was no time for philosophy, no time for thought about whether his Nihilus energy would lead him to a similar fall?

 

No it was time for action, he gave Lulu and the scientest a shove to get them out of the way then flickered, right next to Ether and his flickering blue flame and struck out his massive fist smashing into the temple of the Professor intent on subduing the man driven crazy by Terminus energy.

 

Pulling back his fist he prepared to continue to pummel the professor, expecting this to be a tough, tough fight.

 

Nothing powered by Terminus Energy would go down easy.

[Supercape]

GM

 

Delta's fist slammed into the temple of Ether with a satisfying clunk - not a lethal blow, by anymeans, but pressure on that area would knock a man out clean. 

 

Ether's flesh dented, but he seemed not perturbed one bit. 

 

"Fast!" he commented as he floated gently away. 

 

"You are fast. Faster than a man should be, lumbered with steel and iron. I never saw any ironling move so fast. Surely it is the Nihilus energy in your veins! Yes, that must be it! You are a glorious specimin, Sir! Quite remarkable...although I am beyond remarkable and transcendant!" he laughed. 

 

"I am no longer flesh. I do not age, nor succumb to hunger, thirst, disease or any other ravages. Oh, it is true, I still have bone and sinew, to some extent. But they are alive with pure energy, not the fetid and putrid organic processes of this and that. Pfah. I never muched cared for the faculty of organicistry. Professor Twinings was such a pompous fool!"

 

"He's kind of right there" agreed Zip. 

 

"Now, Sir!" he said to Delta. "I wish to exercise my transcendance. To flex my muscles that are no longer flesh. I have a fancy to grow, consume, and strengthen my spirit and energy. The multiverse, I think, would be most sterling a place to find good base, and then, like a spider extending his web, encroach on surrounding terrain. What say you?"

 

"I say you are using up precious terminus energy floating like that and flaming!" interjected Zip. "I could be using that for my time bomb!"

[Tarrakhash]

Delta shuddered, he had felt the power in his fist and Ether just shrugged it off, he watched as the Professor flew off stuck in a monologue.

 

A thought occurred and he felt almost sick to his stomach, not just from the evil that oozed from Ether's words but the very thought of what he planned to do to stop the evil that was Professor Ether.

 

"There is no place in the Universe for one as evil as you...you have to be stopped.", he dropped his hands to his side and focused his mind, his diodes stopped flickering as he drew power from the computer and there in the weak, flesh part of his body was the psychic power that scared him and gave him powers that concerned him.

 

None more than the one he was using at this moment, his mind reached out to Ether's and tried to steal control of it.

 

There was no option, he had to stop Ether, and he had to stop him now.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"The multiverse! not the universe!" corrected Professor Ether, who clearly enjoyed correcting students and omegadrones alike. 

 

"Gnnnngh!" came his next words, his face contorted with effort as Delta's psychic energy crept into his mind. "Gnnnaghhh! You invade my mind! Like a parasite! Unnatural! Abominable! An Englishman's Mind is.....RAAAAGH!"

 

Delta's psychic power was enough to crumble any lesser man's mind, like a knife carving through butter, but Professor Ether's brain was made of Iron. Delta could feel glimpses of the man as they tussled in his psyche; how he had inflicted agonising experiments on his flesh. He truly was dedicated, obsessed, proud. 

 

"....is....is....his CASTLE!" he roared defiantly, as, with extreme effort, he pushed Delta out, triumphantly. 

 

"No! No! No! ALL THAT ENERGY!" wailed Zip. 

 

Now, his name made sense, for it was not merely his mind that moved fast, but his body. With blistering speed, he pulled out the small rifle strapped to his back, holding it with his two-fingered hands, and dashed - like a blur - towards a nearby tree, taking cover. 

 

"I NEED IT!" he explained. 

[Tarrakhash]

The psychic power he was using was a last resort, something he used hesitantly, carefully and there was a reason for it. His damaged brain was sensitive, all the metal parts stuck into it did not mesh as well with psychic power as they could and when he was forced out of Ether's mind the backlash slammed into Delta like being hit in the head by a heavy weight boxer.

 

Delta reeled, staggering back a step and swaying slightly as he tried to reorient himself, memories and thoughts that were not his swarming his mind as it tried to get everything seperated between what was Delta and what he had seen in Ether.

 

His force field flickered around him, and he tried to throw himself into cover but he was clearly not able to do much else at this juncture as the experiments that Ether had performed on himself flashed repeatedly through his mind, over and over and over again.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Good going, good going..." called out Zip sarcastically. "Gee, I'm glad you are on my side....you are on my side, right?"

 

He pointed his carbine at Ether. "Well, Sir..." he started in a mock English accent. "...I do declare you are a veritable feast of Nihilus energy. And, Sir, I have a bomb to build!"

 

Zap!

 

A bolt of electricity flew through the air and exploded on a tree near Ether. Apart from a few splinters on his shoulders, he was quite unharmed. 

 

"You little vagabond!" he retorted, and gently floated through the air until he was above Zip. He then let loose, from both hands, a torrent of blue nihilus energy. 

 

"uh...oh...." said Zip, as he absorbed the entropy full blast. He started leaking dust from his skin. "...that's not good. Molecular disintegration...."

 

[Tarrakhash]

Delta shook his head, shaking free the last of the images of what Ether had done to himself, without the mental distraction it simply allowed him to figure out what Ether could do to others!

 

His fingers folded away, and his arm opened up into the massive cannon, he refocused it again the same way he had when he fought Zip's robot, with a shimmer he teleported behind some cover reaching around to fire at Ether, a focused blast of red Nihilus energy slashing through the sky towards Ether.

 

"Fight fire with fire, I believe the humans say...let's see how that works out for us."

[Supercape]

GM

 

Nihilus energy  met nihilus energy. 

 

Things where mighty screwed up with time and space and other dimensions right now. Effects where unpredictable. They might be catastrophic. They could even destroy the multiverse forever. Or even worse!

 

But no. 

 

Instead, Professor Ether briefly glowed a pretty shade of pink and dissapeared completely. 

 

"Well I never saw that before!" declared Zip, who looked like he might fall apart into his constituent atoms if one even looked at him too hard. 

[Tarrakhash]

Delta growled, frustrated, kept his position in cover, looked over at Zip and frowned. That did not look healthy, if only he could heal him!

 

The telekinetic powers of Delta were just starting to grow, and his instincts pulled inside of him, focusing his mind he reached out a golden beam - the utter reverse of Nihilus Energy flowed from his hand towards Zip intent on healing him and setting things back to the way they should be...but they were still new powers and he wasn't used to them!

 

The tree next to Zip was caressed by the beam and sprung several new leaves, looking healthier than ever!

[Supercape]

GM

 

Lulu seemed impressed with the restorative properties of Delta, and gave a little applause. Zip was less impressed, but considerably more grateful!

 

He even looked a bit more solid. 

 

"See!" he said, enthusiastically. "Nihilius energy can be helpful, if it is just harnessed and controlled!" he proclaimed, patting himself down. "Look! Back to new! A few seconds ago I was ready to collapse. And not collapse unconscious. I mean collapse into my constutient atoms...!"

 

He frowned. 

 

"Hmmm. Don't remind me of Collapse. If Collapse gets his way, we will have a considerably worse problem than utter disintergration" he added. 

 

He looked around the jungle. 

 

"Not that we have an easy time of it now. Unknown dimension. Cave men. One fried Brit Machine. One fried Dimensional Hopper..."

[Tarrakhash]

Delta shook his head,"That's not terminus energy...I'm not sure what it is."

 

Looking around he frowned again, there was not a lot of good that had happened so far,"And we have a crazed, Terminus energy fueled villain on the loose."

 

He moved over to the Brit machine, dropping to one knee and started sorting through the parts,"Let's see if we can salvage some parts from the Brit Machine to fix the Dimensional Hopper....otherwise we have to hope that the Cavemen are not the only society, or their Shaman's are a lot more powerful than the typical caveman."

[Supercape]

GM

 

"I want to go home!" said the Astro tech. 

 

"I want their to be a home to back to!" said Lulu, more firmly, looking at the Brit Machine. 

 

"I want to get out of this jungle. I'm a celebrity!" said Zip, already rummaging around the fizzing, smoking remains of the Brit Machine. 

 

"I think if we cannabilise this ridiculous machine to repair my dimension hopper, we could create something. Whether that something works, and how it works, thats more a roll of the dice!" he said, both enthusiastic and frightened. "All I wanted to do was create a multiverse sundering bomb, and look where that's got me?" he moaned. 

 

He paused and looked back at Delta. "Ah...for good reasons, of course...Ahem....you will understand in time!"

 

He looked around the Jungle forest. 

 

"Do we have time? We could be eaten by a dinosaur or bitten by a radioactive spider or anything out here....whose keeping watch?"

[Tarrakhash]

Delta frowned at the humans comments,"We are working on it, but we can only work with the hand we are being dealt so far."

 

"Zip, you build, I'll send out some drones to keep watch...", reaching to his belt he hit the button and six black and red drones shot out, flying up to his face they sent a beam of light out into the iris of Delta's complex cyber eyes, linking to the computer and then shimmered out of view before flying off to search the jungle around them to make sure nothing crept up them.

 

Slipping through the foilage the drones provided him with an all around view, Delta slid to his knees on the ground, looking like he was meditating as Zip worked on the repairs,"I'm going to search the area around us for a mile, should take me a couple of minutes. By then I want you to have a plan, Zip!"

[Supercape]

GM

 

The drones whipped through forest and stone, scanning the geology and biosphere of this primitive dimension. Much of it was pretty, all of it was wild and untamed. It seemed the huts and ladders that Ether had destroyed were the very pinnacle of civilisation in these parts. Possibly on the whole planet. 

 

The primitive men were running. But some stopped. Some grunted to each other. Some turned back, cautiously, regrouping. They were mightily afraid. But some were bold enough to consider stopping and killing the foul demons. 

 

And more than that, there was dangeous fauna. Dinosaurs, snakes, lizards, giant spiders, and a few creatures with simply far too many legs and far too few eyes that crawled in the mud and much of the earth. 

 

"Give us a hand!" yelled Zip, far too loudly, to Delta, as he started ripping out wires, tubes, and a shiny silver bell from the Brit Machine...

 

 

[Tarrakhash]

Zip's voice drew Delta back from his study of the surrounds, shaking his head he moved forward, leaning down to look at the remains of the Brit Machine,"The natives are starting to consider coming back, but of bigger concerns are the natural denizens of this world."

 

He lifted his hand and it flattened and morphed into a set of cutting tools, a screw driver and a few other implements he would need before he set to removing parts that would be useful in getting them out of there,"The sooner we can get out of here the better...also, might be worth noting this will likely provide a catalyst to improve the Cave Men's knowledge, depending on how much they study the remains of the Brit Machine...we may have irrevocably altered a dimension."