"How's it going?" Asked Jack, as Spawn sat in the in the middle of the town. "Is your energy coming back to you?"
"It's coming back all right." Said Spawn, with a triumphant smile. "This place seems to be practically made of the stuff…"
"Jack! Thank goodness you're here!" Cried a voice. A short, portly man in a tall top hat ran up to the two. His skin appeared to be greenish in hue, and his teeth appeared to be pointed. "Two men just broke into the town and they seem to be attacking the residents! Especially the vampires!"
"Where are they now mayor?" Asked Jack.
"We last saw them around the graveyard." Said the mayor.
"I'll be right there." Jack said, with a sudden seriousness.
"Need any help with that?" Asked Spawn.
"No, no, I'll be fine." Jack assured him, his eyes fixed on the town. "You stay here and recharge."
"Who is this, Jack?" Asked the Mayor.
"This is Spawn." Jack explained, bursting into a wide smile. "He's going to help us with next Halloween!"
"What!? I never…" Began Spawn.
The Mayor's head spun round, revealing a smiling face on the other side. One eye was pure black, while the other was like a spiral drawn onto his face. "It's always good to have more help for Halloween!" He said, jovially shaking his hand. "But is he scary?"
"Why, he's positively terrifying!" said Jack. "You'll see it later. For now though, if you'll excuse me…"
As Jack rushed on, the Mayor began planning how he was going to fit Spawn into the Halloween preparations.
"Is this actually going anywhere?" Asked Snake after another failed attempt at magic by Woody. "Wouldn't we be better off trying to contact Spawn and the skeleton or something? They seem to have gotten out alrea…"
He stopped as he heard clanging sounds drawing closer, as if something was walking along the wall outside. A sealed door hissed as it opened into what seemed a very small room with another sealed metal door at the other side. Inside it were three Rahkshi escorting another prisoner suspended in a bubble of some kind. A very familiar prisoner…
"Peter?!" said Woody in surprise as the bubble burst and dropped its occupant on the floor with a gesture from an orange and black Rahkshi.
"Hey guys!" Grinned he familiar redhead.
"I thought you died." Snake said.
"I got better."
The Rahkshi hissed at them before the door closed again, the clanging sound faded away into the distance. Do the Rahkshi walk on the walls outside the cells?
"Turns out, my curse is kind of awesome in the right circumstances." Peter went on. "After I died, my body went on changing. I de-aged back past when Shao Kahn killed me and… I came back to life".
"Interesting." Said Mickey. "Your age shifting can bring about healing, even after death".
"Trouble is, -" Peter collapsed on the ground.
Woody went to check his pulse. "Guys… he's dead." He said, with shock.
"Oh, again?" Mickey smirked.
"- it works both ways." Peter continued, turning back into a boy. Woody jumped back, unused to the living dead even with Jack Skellington hanging about. "I woke up in some kind of grave and dug my way out… strange, finding a shovel in my coffin… but when I got out, after a while, I aged back past the age I died, and…"
"The injuries reappeared." Said Mickey. "So in addition to growing too old, or too young, you occaissionally grow too dead…"
"Yeah, it's so weird." Said Peter, as casually as if he were complaining about a bug in his soup. "Oh! And the last time I died again, I thought I saw someone in a weird mask and a long cape come by and slip something into my clothes. When I came back around, I was being brought to this cell in some kind of air bubble by those three monsters."
"What was it like outside?" Asked Woody, mentally shuddering. "When the Rahkshi were bringing you here, did you see what this prison looked like?"
"Oh, it's so cool! Peter said with a childish laugh. "This place is like a huge metal cube, floating somewhere in space! The Rahkshi can survive out there, but most prisoners can't, so they bring one Rahkshi who can create air bubbles, the orange and black ones. I saw another group escorting another prisoner. Both groups in threes, both the same colours. Orange and black, black and gold, and tan and red."
"I've noticed that the different colours seem to correspond to their abilities." Said Mickey. "But I don't know what those colors are. How did you know?"
"Hang on a sec!" Said Peter, taking out a pair of sunglasses. "This… this is so cool!"
"When did you get those?" Asked Woody.
"I had them when I woke up." explained Peter. "They have some kind of in-built computer, hang on a sec…"
"AirborneImmortal (AI) has logged in"
"EaterOfTime (TE) has logged in".
TG: just after I kill you, you log on to talk to me?
TG: also, could you not have thought up a more creative screenname?
TG: you haven't even reversed the letters in the abbreviated version.
TE: FIRST OF ALL, YOU HAVE NOT ACTUALLY KILLED ME
AI: Um
TG: dude, I sliced you from head to tail
TE: YOU ONLY DELAYED ME. NOW GIVE ME YOUR COMPUTING EYE SHIELDS
TG: wait what
TE: YOUR EYE LENS DEVICE. THE ONE YOU ARE USING TO TALK TO ME NOW
TG: hell no
AI: Am I here at a bad time?
AI: I was told this was a good place to gather information and advice.
TG: kind of looking for advice here myself but hit me.
TG: what advice are you looking for?
TG: I be passin out info like cheap cigars
AI: Um ok
AI: my party has been imprisoned in a large cube-shaped prison on some planet I know not where. Two of my friends have recently vanished from their cells.
AI: Also another friend has been corrupted somehow and seems to be being controlled and using weird powers
AI: Do you know anything about this
TG: Sorry, I got nothing
AI: well, maybe I can help with your problem
TG: I just killed a huge eldritch time monster who's now telling me he's not dead and to give him my shades - which there's no way in hell he's getting
TE: I NEED THEM IN THE FUTURE
TE: TO SAVE YOU
TG: nice try, but no
TG: anyway, now I lost the others. Do you know the way to the main audience chamber in rabanastre castle?
AI: sorry, no idea
ChroniclerIlluminated (CI) has logged in
CI: TG, here's the map to the castle
RegeneratingAwesomeness (RA) has logged in
RegeneratingAwesomeness (+5 min) (RA1) has logged in
RegeneratingAwesomeness (+9 min) (RA2) has logged in
RegeneratingAwesomeness (+17 min) (RA3) has logged in
RegeneratingAwesomeness (+1 hour) (RA4) has logged in
RA1: hey cool! It's me from a few minutes ago!
RA2: I could say the same about you, me from a few minutes ago
RA: damn you time travel! Now I know I'm going to be on here for at least 17 more minutes, and a new episode of a tv series I was really into is on in 6!
CI: um...
RA1: never mind that, from what I remember when I was you, us from an hour later is about to say something really cool and important!
TE: COULD ALL OF YOU BE QUIET FOR A MOMENT? I'M TRYING TO GET THE HUMAN CHILD TO GIVE ME HIS COMMUNICATION EYEPIECE LENSES AND YOU ARE VERY DISTRACTING
RA2: Hey Dave, you can give the glasses to big-ol' cloudface's semi-dead body and be part of team LAAAAAME, or you could keep hold of them, listen to these instructions I have for you, and join Team SUPER MEGA AWESOME EXTREME BONANZA!
TE: DON'T LISTEN TO HIM STRIDER. HE'S LEADING YOU TO YOUR UNAVOIDABLE DEATH
TE: WHERE HE KILLS YOU.
RA: That's ridiculous! I wouldn't kill you!
*AI just died*
RA: At least, not in such a long-winded way
RA: Wait, what happened to AI?
R4: Wait for it.
*AI returned from the dead*
AI: Ow.
RA3: Oh man, I still have no idea what's happened to AI.
RA5: I do. *Evil Laugh*!
RA: You see, if I kill someone I do it in as convoluted a manner as possible!
RA2: Yes! Me number 1 has the right idea! Listen to me!
RA3: No, Time Eater is actually right. Give him the sunglasses. Isn't that right, me number 5?
RA5: I didn't kill AI! Why does everybody think I killed AI! Including myself!?
AI: Alright, that's far enough...
RA4: Here it comes...
*AI booted RA2 from the conversation*
AI: Hey neat! I just booted someone from the conversation!
RA: Hey, you can't just boot future me number 2!
AI: That's what I thought! I have no idea how I just did that. I wonder if I can do it again?
*AI booted RA from the conversation"
*RA4 booted AI from the conversation*
"No luck?" asked Mickey as Peter threw down the shades. "Here, let me see. Maybe I'll have some more luck".
"Knock yourself out." Said Peter.
As Mickey put on the shades, a message came up in a separate conversation to the argument.
CI: Hello? AI, are you still there?
AI: I'm here
CI: CI: Thank the great spirit! Last time we met, you said we needed to talk, but there wasn't time. Something about a prison?
AI: Yup. We were wondering what powers certain colours mean
CI: Which colours?
AI: Orange and black, black and gold, and tan and red
CI: Orange with black limbs or black with orange limbs?
AI: Does it matter?
CI: Quite a bit actually
CI: Orange with black is vacuum, black with gold is magnetism, and tan with red is plasma
AI: Vacuum, magnetism and plasma?
AI: How do they use these powers?
CI: Magnetism Rahkshi can attach themselves to rock or metal surfaces, create tough spiked armour from surrounding rock or metal, and have magnetic powers strong enough to tear through solid protodermis.
CI: Plasma Rahkshi coat their bodies in superheated plasma and can shoot it in beams or blobs. Don't let them touch you or hit you with their attacks. Their plasma can instantly melt nearly any object into vapour.
CI: And vacuum Rahkshi can use their powers to fire long-range concussive blasts of air and tear things apart with gale-force winds or instantly reverse their flow. I only found out recently that they can also create sustained bubbles of air for trapping and transport.
AI: Thanks, I'll go tell the others
Mickey took off the shades. "Teridax has Vacuum, Magnetism and Plasma Rahkshi to transport prisoners to the cells", he explained. "Judging by the evidence, I'd say he has the magnetic ones attach themselves and the others to the outer walls, the vacuum Rahkshi create the bubbles to transport the captives in, and the plasma ones are heavy-hitting backup in case anything attacks while the other two are busy."
"How heavy-hitting?" Asked Samus.
"If what CI says is true, they could vaporize us instantly with a touch. Or shoot beams that would have the same effect, if we kept our distance. And the others are almost as dangerous."
"How many of these things are there?" asked Woody.
"Hold on, I'll ask." said Mickey, putting the shades back on
AI: As a matter of interest, how many Rahkshi are there? Do they tend to stick in groups?
CI: That depends. Are the ones you're dealing with organized?
AI: It would seem so
CI: A Makuta can create any number of kraata, and all they need is a source of protodermis to turn them into Rahkshi. If they're in any way organized, there's a Makuta behind this, guiding them
AI: Our current chief enemy called himself a Makuta. He said his name was Teridax
CI: Teridax? Are you sure?
AI: I'm sure
CI: Then your situation is far direr than I thought. I shall enquire about pinpointing your location with our leader. Until then, stay alive
AI: These Makuta, do they have any weaknesses?
CI: If you have access to light-based powers, they might be able to harm a Makuta. They work just as well on Rahkshi actually.
CI: But even then, it would be too risky. Fight him only as a last resort
AI: Out of curiosity, if I killed Teridax, would the other Rahkshi die, or fall into disorganized chaos which would inable their deaths?
CI: WHAT DID I JUST SAY!?
AI: Okay! Sorry!
CI: DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT FIGHTING TERIDAX! The powers of any Makuta are immense, and Teridax is the most dangerous of them all
AI: I'll try to get the Orb and Stitch back without fighting him then, any ideas?
CI: HE HAS AN INSTRUMENT OF TIME?!
AI: Yes, and he's taken control of one of my party somehow
CI: Then there is not much time
CI: I am so sorry, but I'm going to have to go. I will try to be back on soon
CI: Until then, try to get the orb back, but please don't try anything too foolish
AI: I'll try
ChroniclerIlluminated (CI) has logged out
"What did you find out?" asked Woody.
"Just more reasons we need out of this cell." He said.
"Good." Said Woody. "Because I think I have a plan…"
"Hey, Blade." Said one man, noticing his companion looking around. "You sense something?"
"I sense something alright." Said the Blade. "But this one's either a whole lot bigger or a whole lot more powerful…"
"You think that's him?" The first man asked, drawing a pistol and gesturing to what looked like a tall skeleton in a suit.
"Greetings gentlemen!" Jack said jovially, walking toward the two men. One of them wore a black bodysuit with a white skull on the chest, as well as a long black coat and various firearms. The other wore a black jacket and sunglasses as well as a katana on his back and many firearms, though not as many as the other man. "What brings you to Halloween town?"
Blade shot Jack through the eye.
"Jack!" The mayor cried.
"That one gave me the creeps." Blade muttered. "Man, how did he do that?"
"I think it's the way he walks." The other guy shivered. "And his power… yeah, that was like looking death in the face."
Blade frowned. "Kind of suspicious… taking Death out in one shot…"
"I say, what good aim you have!" Jack said, coming up behind them, clapping his boney hands together.
Both men spun around. Blade immediately spun back to keep his eye on the skeleton that was still laying on the ground, reloading his gun with special weaponry as the man with the skull fired a warning shot at his bow tie. "Don't come any closer, skeleton." Said the man with the skull. "I don't know what kind of hellhole this is, but we're going to shut it down!"
"Hellhole?" Jack asked in shock. "I assure you, this place is no hellhole. You must have taken a wrong turn at albequerque, because this is one of the most beautiful places in the land! Why, I could live here a dozen times over!"
And with chilling smiles, twelve Jack Skellingtons emerged from the shadows of the buildings. The Master of Fright was in his natural environment.
"There's no mistake." Blade said, back to back with his comrade. "This place has access to the mortal world, and the monsters that live here been using it quite regularly. Werewolves, vampires, witches, zombies and all kinds of other monsters meeting here. I don't even know what the freak in the top hat is. All of them using this as a base to prey on humanity, without repercussions. That changes today. Oh there's no mistake… we're shutting this place down."