Voyagers Saga:

New Threats

Chapter 3: The Terrible Escapes

There is a particular region of the Venezuelan rainforest that the locals believe should not be disturbed. It isn't just because of the delicateness of the rainforest's ecosystem (which extends to all rainforests), but because this part was supernatural. They believed that this place was held sacred by the gods who would not allow trespassers to desecrate it. Those who were foolhardy enough to try never came back. It was said that their ghosts haunted the place, moaning their foolishness in challenging the power of the gods.

That's what the local people believe. In actuality, all of it's a complete myth. Not the part that the ecosystem was as delicate like other rainforests, but the part about it being sacred/haunted. None of that supernatural mumbo-jumbo was true, but that didn't mean those superstitions weren't taken advantage of. While the NSC routinely captured criminals of different types, not all of them were sent to Kryos. The ones that were considered not as great a threat or as greatly powerful were sent to a prison base in the heart of said rainforest. Detouring was a simple matter. There were a few Splitters paid to pose as guardians of the forests and throw a couple of lightning bolts to keep anyone from nosing around. And it was child's play to have a couple of holograms to stand in for the 'lost spirits'.

However, today there was one actual ghost in that rainforest. Or at least someone who was part ghost. Ghoulwyrm had become uneasy of Mantichrome's new henchman. He had a feeling the revenge droid would try to rise up and dominate him. Therefore, it was prudent to collect a group of organic henchmen to even out the power levels. After the fight at Paris, Ghoulwyrm was able to use a Ghost Zone portal to cut across the globe to get to Venezuela. He had heard of the NSC keeping lower-level criminals in the jail they had in there; criminals that were considered above local authority's abilities to contain, but beneath that of Kryos. Criminals who would be willing to join up with anyone to bust out and strong enough to keep Mantichrome from doing anything maverick-like, but not too strong to think that they deserved the title of leadership.

"Let's see what we've got here," muttered Ghoulwyrm as he sniffed the air, "Hmm… laser cannons disguised as tree branches, laser-guided grenade launchers behind the logs, and a force field that will cause anything to pass through it to be both electrocuted and trigger the alarm." Ghoulwyrm rubbed his chin and said, "Tricky, but not impassible. As always, the defenses stop at ground level." With that, he turned intangible and drifted down under the ground.

A few seconds later, Ghoulwyrm resurfaced, inside the prison. "Typical," he said to himself, "Doesn't anyone ever consider that someone could go under a force field?" However, he remained invisible on the chance there would be guards. From what he heard, there would be plenty of them, and they'll be highly trained. Nevertheless, he noticed that asides from the electrified bars and the non-thermal security cameras, there wasn't much other security. "Pretty pathetic," Ghoulwyrm muttered to himself, "I know these are lower class criminals, but this is incredibly lax security. These people really need to update."

Ghoulwyrm drifted along the corridors. He saw plenty of scum in different holding cells, but none looked like the type he'd want on his team. He eventually paused at a place where two corridors met at a corner. This place didn't have cells or cameras near it, so Ghoulwyrm dropped his invisibility. "This may be trickier than I thought," said Ghoulwyrm, "I should have researched this place better so I know where I could fine more ideal henchmen."

Suddenly Ghoulwyrm sensed something. His Ectonurite DNA not only granted him the specie's ability to become invisible and intangible, but their psychic senses as well. And currently, he was sensing another Ectonurite, or something similar to one, not too far from him. He wondered if that meant there was an Ectonurite being held prisoner there. But then he felt the presence getting closer. In fact, it felt like it was just floating through the wall besides him. It's a little-known fact that Ectonurites can force each other to become visible or tangible. The same applies to those with Ectonurite DNA.

Ghoulwyrm struck out with his right hand towards the anomaly. When he felt the consciousness inside, he sent a psychic jolt. This caused the anomaly to wince and loose its invisibility. Ghoulwyrm started in surprise at what was revealed. The being looked like it was built from the limbs of different creatures connected to a dragon's torso. Moreover, the limbs themselves didn't look natural either. Rather, they looked more like they were taken from a hybrid of two aliens. Ghoulwyrm quickly studied the different body parts: the upper right arm was crystalline with a lava-like color scheme, the upper left arm looked like it was made from grey plant matter with organic metal attachments and a glowing green eye on the shoulder, the lower arms were made of furry orange bandages with claws at the tips of the fingers, the legs were somewhat wolf-like with balls attached to the feet, the tail looked it belonged to a large rotten fish carcass, the back and shoulders were covered with yellow armor plates that each had three green eyes on them, and the black insectoid wings had green circuit lines. But what really got his attention was that the torso looked exactly like the dragon form of Lynch's sister, albeit with green eyes with minus-shaped pupils and six small, round, green ears.

Not taking any chances with coincidences, Ghoulwyrm grabbed the chimera by the neck and slammed her against the wall. "And what have we here?" he said.

"Hey, hands off, pal!" yelled the chimera, "I got here first, I get to bail out a sidekick."
"Is that so?" said Ghoulwyrm, "Forgive me if I don't believe you, what was it again, Chloe?"

She narrowed her eyes and said, "I am not Chloe. I'm not anything like her or her stupid brother, Matt, or like the rest of those half-pints he pals around with."

"Hold on," said Ghoulwyrm, loosing his grip slightly, "You know Matthew Lynch?"

"Know him? I've kicked his butt several times," said the draconic chimera, "His friends could barely lay a blow on me."

"Perhaps I acted a little rashly just then," said Ghoulwyrm as he released her neck, "I have had dealing with Lynch and his alien sidekicks myself. My name is Ghoulwyrm."

"You can call me Omnirus," she said.

Ghoulwyrm raised a bony eyebrow, "Omnirus? I think I've heard of you. Weren't you supposed to be… a guy?"

Omnirus's face flushed with anger and embarrassment. "The last time I met up with Matt, I assimilated the AI of his sister. It gave me a big power boost, but it left me with these," he said as he squeezed his chest.

"Wait, you're saying you had a sex change?" said Ghoulwyrm, his voice thick with amusement.

Omnirus glared at him, "Don't laugh at me. Unless you want your skull facing the other direction."

"That wouldn't kill me," said Ghoulwyrm, "But it would seem we share several common enemies. Therefore, it would be prudent to join forces to eliminate them." He extended one hand and said, "Does that sound reasonable to you?"

Omnirus considered it for a moment and said, "I normally go solo."

"Did you not say you were here for a sidekick?" said Ghoulwyrm.

"True, I guess teaming up wouldn't be that bad," said Omnirus and she shook Ghoulwyrm's hand.

"Excellent," said Ghoulwyrm, "Now we need to find where they keep the better quality criminals."

"What type of schemes do you normally come up with?" asked Omnirus.

"Typically, I try to use magic."

"Well, I've looked at the blueprints for this place," said Omnirus, "And I know the magical criminals are in that direction." She pointed down the corridor and said, "You head down there, take the next two rights and then go up three floors. Plenty of crooks for you to pick from there. I'll be heading over to the alien criminals. We'll meet up as soon as we get what we want."

Ghoulwyrm grinned and said, "Omnirus, I having a feeling this is the beginning of a profitable partnership." He and Omnirus then went their respective directions.

--

Meanwhile, there was a certain pair of prisoners who were eagerly anticipating their release. "Man, this place is totally square," said Bananas B, "Can't wait for ol' DD to break us out of this birdhouse."

"He won't be coming," said Chang.

"What's that?" asked Bananas B.

"The Dark Dragon we know will not be coming back. The stars have indicated that his time as the Dragon of Darkness has ended."

Bananas looked her with confusion, "Uh, how'd ya know that? There ain't a window in this room, let alone an observatory."

"There are other means of divining the stars' messages besides gazing at them," said Chang, "And last night, I received a specifically clear message."

"What's that?" asked Bananas, "Don't leave me here in the dark. Figuratively speaking, of course."

"My divinations have revealed that the next Dragon of Darkness will be here to liberate those who would follow him. Hopefully, we are worthy enough to serve him."

"Well, I don't care if this guy's as loony as a duck with an inner tube," said Bananas, "If he gets me outta here, I'd do whatever he says. How will we know him?"

"I have been able to get an image of what he may look like," said Chang as she pulled a piece of paper out of her cloak and showed it, "Behold!"

Bananas studied it and said, "You messed up a little. You forgot his arms."

"I did not!" said Chang, "The new Dragon of Darkness will be a wyvern."

"A what?"

"Surely you know we dragons come in different shapes. Have you not noticed how much Lao Shi's form differs from his grandchildren. The wyvern is another variant of dragon whose upper limbs form their wings. They're more common to Britain and Wales. We shall recognize him when we see him."

Just then the outside corridor's temperature dropped by several degrees. Then a smoky shape came out of the floor before forming into Ghoulwyrm. "This should be the place," said Ghoulwyrm, "Now to find some compotent, but trustworthy, servants."

"At last, our new master is here!" Ghoulwyrm turned around in confusion and looked at the cell next to him. It held a senior woman of Asian decent was dressed in maroon robes. Also in the cell was a monkey wearing a gold-colored tracksuit. The woman, who had spoken before, kneeled down on the floor and said, "Oh, great Dragon of Darkness, I am Chang, a humble servant who dedicates herself to the forces of magic who would claim this world as it its birthright. Release me and my companion so we may serve your great crusade."

Ghoulwyrm didn't quite understand what Chang was talking about, but he liked the tone in her voice, not to mention the fancy title she gave him. "Uh, very well then, I have been looking for worthy warriors to fight for me."

"I assure you, we are quite capable of serving any of your needs," said Chang.

"Of course, we won't be able to do anything until you peel open this sardine can," said Bananas B.

"Quiet, fool!" hissed Chang.

"True point," said Ghoulwyrm, "I guess you two would do as well as anyone. Stand back." Chang and Bananas quickly moved to the wall opposite that of the bars. Ghoulwyrm then started clawing at the surrounding stone and metal around the bars. Once that area had been suitably weakened, his muzzle split into four. A strong sonic howl came out in the form of purple rings of energy. The sonic blast hit the bars and caused cracks to appear all over them. Not wanting to take any chance whether the bars were still active or not, Ghoulwyrm unwound several bandage tendrils. He charged up the lightning rods on his back so that his hands and bandages were glowing with purple electricity. Then he grabbed the bars in as many place as possible. If the bars had been able to produce any shock, it was dampened by Ghoulwyrm's charged appendages. Then with a tremendous surge of strength from his limbs, Ghoulwyrm tore off all of the bars, including some pieces of the wall, and tossed it down the corridor.

Immediately, alarms began to sound. Chang and Bananas quickly got out of their cell. "We should leave now," said Chang, "They will be sending guards soon."

"Actually, I have a comrade that I need to meet up with first," said Ghoulwyrm.

"Then we shall reunite with your ally and we shall strike down the pathetic humans who would stand in our way with the poor conception that they are our superiors," said Chang as she started down the corridor.

Ghoulwyrm glanced at Bananas and said, "I like what she says, but I'll need to get used to the way she says it."

"You'll get used to it, mate," said Bananas as he clambered up on Ghoulwyrm's back.

The dracolich growled and said, "Don't expect to get a free ride every time. And I don't need to reach around to get you off." Then he started gliding off after Chang.

Coincidentally, at the same time Ghoulwyrm tore away the bars, Omnirus was doing the same for her new minion. But let's go back in time a little bit to see how that happened.

Omnirus had gone to the alien criminal section. She was a bit more selective than Ghoulwyrm. What she wanted was a minion who intelligent and be able to back her up with muscles. And most importantly, someone who would take her fully-powered form seriously.

As she was looking at the various crooks, one in particular caught her eye. This looked a lot like a red version of Stitch, only with bent antenna, ruffled ears, and yellow teeth. "What have we here?" she said, "Let me guess; evil Stitch from a mirror universe?"

The alien growled at her and said, "Leroy not evil Stitch. Leroy evil twin."

"Leroy? Oh yes, I've heard something about another Hamsterviel forcing Jumba to make an evil twin of Stitch and then creating a clone army of him. You must be one of those clones."

Leroy nodded and said, "Clone # 4389."

"So how did end up here?" asked Omnirus.

"Leroy managed to escape prison and stole a police cruiser. Would have gotten away if blasters didn't damage hyperdrive. Sent Leroy to other universe where Leroy was captured and imprisoned."

"Hmm… I like you, Leroy," said Omnirus, "How about I bust you out and come work for me?"

"Leroy can cause trouble?" asked the clone eagerly.

"As much as you can handle."

"Deal."

"Excellent," said Omnirus, As soon as Leroy was on the other side of the cell, Omnirus pointed her Diamondblast arm at the bars and started torching them with flames. Eventually, the bars became orange-hot. Then the three eyes on the Eye Bolt plates on her shoulders combined and shot freezing beams at the bars. This caused the metal to cool down rapidly and weaken. Cracks appeared all over it and the internal wiring was shot. Then it was simply a matter of grabbing the bars with her four arms, ripping it off, and tossing it aside. That caused the alarm to go off. "C'mon," said Omnirus as she and Leroy ran off.

Omnirus and Leroy quickly headed through the corridors. Omnirus was trying to find Ghoulwyrm so they could get out of there. It wasn't that hard to find him, judging by the sound of gunfire and general noises of battle. They got into a larger room, sort of like a courtyard. Ghoulwyrm, Chang, and Bananas B were fighting off several guards. Well, at least Ghoulwyrm and Chang were. Bananas was trying to hide behind the two and out of harm's way. Ghoulwyrm in particular showed no signs of holding back. He used his various powers to fry, electrocute, stun, or simply slam guards that were trying to shoot him. He even reeled in a couple and took large bites out of them.

"Ghoulwyrm! Wait! You shouldn't kill so many!" called Omnirus.

Ghoulwyrm turned to Omnirus and said, "So glad you managed to make it. Care to join us in a bit of slaughtering?"

"We can't kill them all," said Omnirus, "This place is rigged so that every 10% of the guards you kill, one of the 10 coolant tanks blows. When all of them blow, the main reactor will overheat and blow this place sky high."

Ghoulwyrm gave Omnirus an odd look and said, "C'mon, you don't really believe that, do you? It's just a bluff to make sure no one tries to break or-" He was interrupted as the floor beneath him exploded because of the coolant tank beneath. Ghoulwyrm was through up so fast he didn't have time to turn intangible before his head hit the ceiling.

"Tried to warn you," said Omnirus. Suddenly several guards fired blasts on her, which knocked her into a wall. She groaned a bit and her body shrank down. Her limbs remained the same, but her main body and head now resembled that of a brown experiment, like Stitch. Most noticeably, Omnirus was male now.

"Boss?" inquired Leroy.

"I'm fine," said Omnirus, "Just got knocked down from X0 to X."

Ghoulwyrm had fallen back to the floor, a little dazed from the blast and the blow to his head. He soon shook it away and said, "Very well. You've made your point. Chang, you know teleporting spells, right?"

"Indeed, my lord," said Chang.

Omnirus raised an eyebrown, "Didn't know you had such a fancy title."

"Her idea," said Ghoulwyrm, "Anyways, now would be an opportune moment to use one to get us out of here."

"As you wish," said Chang and she held up her staff, which started glowing at the tip. Ghoulwyrm, Omnirus, Bananas B, and Leroy quickly got close to her. Before the guards could stop them, there was a brilliant flash of light, into which the escapees disappeared.


There's another chapter. Sorry it took so long for me to update. I've been having a slight bit of trouble thinking up the dialouge and such. Anyways, now things are going to be trickier. Chang and Bananas B are now working for Ghoulwyrm and Omnirus now had a Leroy clone for a minion. In case you're wondering if Leroy's clone number means anything, it's the numbers 624-30 added together. The next chapters will be coming a lot sooner and will be switching back to the others. Keep an eye out for it and please review.