ic Zip Zap

[Supercape]

GM

 

""Well, its their dimension, its their problem" said Zip, dismissively, waving a hand whilst he peered through a copper tube with whistles on it. 

 

"...I'm not sure thats a responsible attitude" interjected Lulu. 

 

"Mpfh....wheee! Responsible Pfh! whee!!!!" muttered Zip, blowing the whistle into her face with a shrill and loud sound. 

 

Things in the forest started to move. Birds called. Grumbles and rustles could be heard. 

 

"Could you keep the noise down!" hissed Lulu at Zip. 

 

Zip looked around. "Hmmm, you might be right!"

 

It actually took very little time. Even Zip was begrudingly impressed with Delta's expertise. The D-Hopper on his wrist was now a steampunk Franken-tech horror, but it did have a bell on it (and a splendid shiny brass bell at that), and was fully operational. 

 

"Now! Where to?" he asked Delta, Lulu, and the hapless ASTRO tech. 

 

"That may be a rhetorical question" he added quickly. "As in...ill press this button and we shall see where we land....but! with a bit of luck, we might get roughly to where we want to go! Just as long as it is not that silly animal dimension!"

 

On this, everyone agreed. It was a very silly dimension indeed. 

Edited January 17, 2019 by Supercape

[Tarrakhash]

Delta looked pleased, or at least as pleased as a man with half a human face could look.

 

Shaking his head he looked down at Zip,"Is there any chance we can build something to guide it? Otherwise we'll keep skipping through dimensions in the vain hope that we randomly land in the right place?"

 

He paused for a moment, contemplating what he was going to say next carefully,"I could even channel some Terminus Energy into it if it would help get us where we need to go."

 

[Supercape]

GM

 

Zip pondered the offer and gave a wiggle of his eyes, a sly smile on his lips. "Terminus Energy, eh? Well, that will certainly give it some oomph..."

 

He fiddled with the D-Hopper on his wrist. "You could certainly give it a go! My expertise is more in power than in finesse, if you catch my drift..."

 

"Great..." sighed Lulu, not pleased with the prospect. 

 

Zip ignored her. "Its fairly accurate!" he insisted. 

 

"Fairly?" shrieked the ASTRO scientist. 

 

"Yes! Fairly! Which is better than kind of" snapped back Zip. "More power, more accurate. I think" he said, looking unsure. "In any case, I'll  take what we got. Now...where do you want to go?"

[Tarrakhash]

Delta shook his head,"No, that's not what I said. I'm not giving any of my energy till we have more accuracy. I want to go home, of course, but I'm not just letting you feed off my energy to shunt us around randomly to further out places...."

 

He gestured to Lulu and the ASTRO scientist to come closer,"So, if we're going to be shunting randomly, might as well get started, right? I just thought you could do better."

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Oh it isn't? I'm sure that's what I heard you say" replied a dissapointed Zip. 

 

"Hmph. Well of course I can do better" he said. "I am completely certain that my dimensional hopper may be accurate!" he said proudly. "And the more juice, the better, hmm? More power never hurt anyone. Unless its more power to a hyperdimensional tyrant called collapse!" he declared. 

 

He started playing with the dials on his D-Hopper. 

 

"Come on then, my friend. Don't just stand there. Give me the juice and Ill sunder the dimensional barriers! Home it is! Sooner or Later!"

 

 

 

[Tarrakhash]

Delta rolled his eyes, Zip was a snake oil salesman, he was sure in another life that was exactly what the little man did.

 

He couldn't wait any longer, reaching out he fed some Terminus Energy into the device, careful to make sure that it was going directly into the D-Hopper and not being funneled into some dimension splitting bomb.

[Supercape]

GM

 

As it happened, no bomb exploded. No dimensions were sundered. Time was not splintered. 

 

vvvvvzzzzzzipp!

 

"Not here again!" groaned Zip, as they hit the most silly animal universe. 

 

"Why guess what we got a-here?" said a bear in a cape, whilst an aardvark in a mask sniffed the air.

 

"Why don't you go to the woods and take a..." started the very angry ASTRO scientist, before he was rudely cut of from his rudeness by...

 

vvvvvzzzzzzipp!

 

"Where the hell is this?" cried Lulu. 

 

A clown on a unicycle cycled past, juggling brightly coloured bats. 

 

"Clown-verse! It really is hell!" sighed Zip. 

 

vvvvvzzzzzzipp!

 

And they were back at the ASTRO labs. The poor ASTRO tech cried in relief, but not for long. For the place was a mess. Unconscious scientists - possibly worse than unconscious - lay littered around, and the machinery was dust. 

 

".....this is your home. I am sure of it! Except...uh....oh oh...." mumbled Zip. He stopped speaking and showed Delta his readout on the D-Hopper. 

 

It was Nihilus energy. A particular type of Nihilius energy. A particular type of dimensional signature. 

 

Professor Ether had arrived back on Earth Prime before them. 

[Tarrakhash]

Delta was getting very tired of the dimension hopping, only to finally find himself suddenly at the plane he called home.....but something was wrong.

 

Looking down at the D-Hopper he frowned,"Of course....that's typical."

 

He didn't expect the ASTRO tech to do anything but cower in his lab so he started with him,"Get your friends together make sure they are all okay and call an ambulance."

 

Next was Lulu,"It's time....either fight with us or stay here and help clear up this mess"

 

Gesturing to Zip he headed out, looking down at the D-Hopper's screen, his voice grim and his face set,"Lead me to him, it's time to exterminate that intruder. I've learned a little about him already, and have a few tricks up my sleeve to take him down this time."

 

His total lack of sleeves didn't seem to other him as his one hand transformed into a cannon, he wasn't going to mess around this time.

[Supercape]

GM

 

In such turmoil the voice of leadership was welcome, and its directions doubly so. The laboratory technician scurried. 

 

"I'm a lover, not a fighter" said Lulu, more defiantly. "By which I mean I love my job, I love science, and I am quite partial to being alive" she said. "WEST agents aren't soliders. I'll help how I can, but I don't even have a WEST blaster to hand" she explained. And truthfully; WEST agents were trained to detect threats and not combat them. They only had basic combat experience. 

 

Zip shook his D-hopper. It was fizzing slightly, full of power but looking rather charred. "I'm not sure how much help this will be..."

 

Lulu handed him her WEST scanner, which was the size of a tablet. "Try this..."

 

Zip zipped through the screen, fast. There was no denying his crazy intelligence. 

 

"Looks like he is...absorbing...no....transforming....ASTRO labs power plant into Nihilus based energy. That's dangerous...and interesting!" he added. 

 

"Its located in the basement" explained Lulu, who has part of her job was well breifed on ASTRO labs. "Under heavy security..."

 

 

 

 

[Tarrakhash]

"Get yourself to the power plant, Zip, I'm going in.",growled Delta, with barely a thought he shimmered and vanished, appearing a moment later in the power plant his head swiveling around in search of Ether. In case he couldn't see the guy he pulled his cloaking device over him, he was going to need to be ready to deliver a powerful strike if he was going to defeat Ether he had already realized that.

 

Skulking around the Power plant he looked for his foe and enough time to line up a really strong shot, he didn't have time to mess around before this idiot did something that would devastate the building, if not the city.

[Supercape]

GM

 

Zip zipped off. He moved like a blur again, somehow able to distort time around him. It was fast, but of course Delta was faster, for he moved right to the power plant direct. 

 

It was glowing with a pale blue-purple energy, and it took only one breif moment to realise that Ether had converted it to produe Nihilus energy. It was hard to say whether he was feeding the power plant, or the otherway around. Probably both. Whatever the case, an almost ethereal band of fluctuating energy connected the two. 

 

He caught the teleport out of the corner of his eye, and spun around - but by then, Delta had activated his stealth field. 

 

"Plenty to feast for you here...." he called out, trying to spot (without success) the invisible Delta. "Come now....no need to be shy....I am happy to share this bounty with you!"

 

[Tarrakhash]

Giving himself more room, cover and a better shot were first priorities as he moved to position himself behind some of the pillars supporting the building in the basement, waiting for a clear shot he leaned out seeing that Ether couldn't see through his cloaking and then he waited till the targeting matrix told him it was aligned and then....

 

BAM, a red blast of Nihilus Energy slammed out in the direction of Ether, trying to knock the floating Professor back to his own dimension.

[Supercape]

GM

 

The bam! of energy hit Ether square on, and hard. He had not a clue where Delta was, and had little hope of defending himself. All he could do was float around, trying to present a moving target. 

 

Not good enough. 

 

The energy shrivelled around him, melting in with the pale purple flames around him. He arched his back and there was the smell of ozone. His eyes blazed, and his veins turned a nasty orange colour. 

 

"My flesh is more than mortal!" he cried defiantly to the universe, before crunching his body into a ball...the energy building...

 

And then he starfished his body, errupting his purple-blue fire, full of Nihilus entropy, from his body. Around him, the walls crumbled, the wires spluttered, and the glass disintegrated. All that was left was the reactor and that line of blue fluctuating energy that kept feeding Ether. 

[Tarrakhash]

Years of combat experience had left Delta with reflexes that many superheros would be jealous of, and the starfishing Ether left no doubt in Delta's mind what was about to happen. Leaping to one side he landed in a slide that got him behind one of the walls that crumbled no sooner was he behind it, but he was unharmed.

 

Still cloaked he lowered the barrel of his arm cannon, the lenses still set to one of the higher damage settings and another blast of Nihilus Energy speared the air, cutting through the air towards Professor Ether as Delta kept his silence, he was not going to reveal his position if he could snipe from hiding and keep chipping away at the powerful foe!

[Supercape]

GM

 

This time, whilst the blast hit true, it faded instantly. A random fluctuation of that pulsating link between the reactor and Ether had flared, and absorbed the full might of the blast. 

 

"Am I feeding it? or it feeding me? or both?" called out a supremely confident Ether. 

 

"It does give me a great sense of satisfaction. Of...joy...even....ah!" he sighed, caressing the energy around him. "And you are cunning, and powerful, but not as cunning or powerful as me"

 

He raised his hand and a fine spray of nihilus energy hit the ceiling. A moment later, the entire room was coated in the particulated dust from the evaporated ceiling. Enough to cause quite a sneeze. 

 

And enough to coat Delta in it. Making him quite visible!

[Tarrakhash]

Delta shimmered, his cloaking device turning off as he looked up at the blue glowing Ether,"I don't care who is feeding who, I'm going to stop you before you do something stupid. You are not made to handle this kind of power!"

 

The dust was pretty smart, he knew that, so he had to be very, very careful here if he was to prevail!

 

A flash of light and he was almost on top of Ether, blasting away with his cannon, splashing the Nihlius energy enhanced foe with red beams before another flash took him away and put the reactor between them for at least the time being.

 

The diodes on his skull flashed red and green as the processor started whirring, digesting the information from the battlefield and looking for someway to turn this generator against Ether. Perhaps he could set it to either drain Ether's power or wrest control away from it...ether way should make him easier to defeat!

 

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Indeed I was not" agreed Professor Ether, still burning blue with ethereal flame. "I have transformed myself! I am remade!"

 

The cannon blasts ripped through the dusty air, igniting every particle with a red glow. It even looked rather pretty. But that was not really on Ether's mind when he took a blast to the chest. This time, he crumpled, still keeping afloat in the air, but with those wisps of blue energy spluttering and fizzing. He looked some how deflated, for a moment. 

 

"Villain!" he grumbled at Delta, most displeased!

[Tarrakhash]

His yellow field flickered around him, but as of yet his defenses hadn't been tested by the blue flickering evil doer! That said Delta still had a very clear image of Zip looking almost ready to disassemble due to Ether's blast. As such he was determined to take this dastardly foe down rapidly, lenses of his cannon focused again and sent another blast at the sputtering Professor intent on ending this. Even as he did so the diodes on his head flickered red and green as his processor dissected the reactor.

 

Information flooded his HUD as he tried to make sense of the information in his data base regarding the reactor and his Nihilus powered enemy! It was hard to take in this much information and stay focused on not getting hit by the blasts of Terminus Energy being thrown around by the two of them....not to mention setting the reactor off.

[Supercape]

GM

 

This time, the blast of the cannon through Ether across the reactor room. He hit one of the half disintegrated walls which exploded in a cloud of dust. For a moment one could not see anything. The blue ethereal fire had spluttered out. 

 

And then, as the dust settled, the unconscious form of Ether was there, still and unmoving. Small puffs of dust by his mouth indicated the professor was still breathing. 

 

As for the reactor, it may well have been moot now. But Delta could see it had been extensively modified. It seemed to be now converting regular matter to nihilus energy. Unstable, dangerous, and quite possibly out of control...

[Tarrakhash]

Dust settled and Delta's hand formed back to normal as he let out a slow breath relieved, he moved over to Ether, securing him and making sure he's not going to wake up any time soon first. Then he headed to the reactor, he head to see if he could draw the Nihilus Energy out of it in a controlled fashion and then shut it down.

 

More importantly he had to make sure he removed anything that would allow the ASTRO scientests to improve their knowledge and control of Nihilus Energy. It was clear to him they were not going to be responsible with it, and more importantly he had to make sure that Ether hadn't left anything behind that would allow them to advance their technology in the directions he had.

[Supercape]

GM

 

Delta could study the reactor with a little bit less expediency now. It had been locked in a feedback loop with Ether, and both where feeding eachother, it seemed. It would be a relatively simple (merely difficult, but doable) task to bleed the remaining nihilus energy (and there was a lot of remaining energy!) into his own systems. 

 

As he started to do so, Zip arrived. 

 

"No! What are you doing!" he wailed, holding his two fingered hands to his puffy cheeks, holding his mouth open in an "o". 

 

"Thats precious stuff! I can use it to build my dimensional time bomb!" he gasped. 

[Tarrakhash]

Delta turned slowly, his cybernetic eyes scanning Zip-Zap and he shook his head before gesturing with one mechanical hand,"Learn from his mistakes, Zip, no one makes good things from Nihilus energy. I did not have a choice in whether or not I use it but you do...it is made for destruction and the end of all things. It doesn't create stuff! You time bomb would simply cause more problems, it wouldn't help defeat the Collapser. I am happy to fight by your side against him, since you have shown a general willingness to be at least somewhat decent."

 

Zip's comments about it just being someone else dimension, and their problem, earlier had struck a chord with Delta and he had decided that Zip was not to be trusted with Nihilus Energy...no one was,"Accept my help, Zip, and forget about your time bomb. There must be another way that doesn't involve the most destructive force in the Universe!"

[Supercape]

GM

 

"HIs...mistakes? Ah...yes....his mistakes!" replied Zip. 

 

"Ah...I'm not sure they were mistakes? The man was reprehensible, cruel and villanous, of course!" he added. "Very worth of stopping and congratulations on being heroic and so on and so forth etcetera etcetera" he babbled. "But look at what he achieved! Almost stable Nihilus energy reaction! Can you imagine the possibilities? Why, the applications are endless and probably safe too!"

 

He drummed his tow fingered hands together. 

 

"This will allow me to build the mother of all time bombs! Victory shall be ours! The tyrant wont see this coming!"

 

He turned to Delta. 

 

"Let me take this to the future! We can save it!"

[Tarrakhash]

Delta shook his head, sadly,"It's like you're not listening, Zip, you can't see what he did wrong and you cannot see that all that will happen is you will end up becoming the new tyrant, worse than what you are fighting against."

 

"I'm going to drain the Nihilus Energy off. If you need me to help you in other ways I will, but you will not get any of the Nihilus energy Zip, not now, not ever. "

 

The cyborg soldier stood ready, he suspected that Zip wasn't about to let this go and that meant likely yet another battle, or at least an attempt by Zip to trick or deceive him.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"No no no" protested Zip. "You can't see whats going to happen. You don't know what its like in the future. You will. And then you will be sorry"

 

He pulled out his rifle. 

 

"I'm not going to become a tyrant. And even if I did, I wont be collapse. I could drain all the Nihilus energy in the multiverse but I won't be able to do what he does" he explained. "I'm sorry, I really am. But I need this energy. The multiverse needs this energy. Trust me. I know its dangerous, but its desperate times ahead"

 

He grew more determined. 

 

"I need that energy. I've been searching for ages to find some. Subtle alterations here, subtle alterations there. All to probe the realities and the times before for a good source. Like you, for instance. You would have done fine. But now I have something even better...."

 

"Please, can't you trust me on this?"