Author's Note: Not too much longer now. I may come back to this story later if I don't come up with anything first, but it won't be for a while yet. In the mean time though Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!
Chapter 22: The King of Snakes
Manny and Dani were back in their home away from home Eternia, truth be told they didn't expect to have to return here so soon, nor for that matter did they expect that it would be because they were chased here. That said it was Manny's fault, that Dani had anticipated. Manny had gone off to retrieve a new bathing slime, with the additional hope that getting dissolved then healed from the ground up again would cure his injuries. In the mean time Dani was seeing what kind of creatures were loaded onto the Nemetrix, now that she finally had a test subject that is.
"Are you sure this isn't going to hurt him?" Adam asked as he looked worriedly at Cringor, his green with yellow striped tiger who had been affixed with the Nemetrix.
"Yes." On that note Dani was scrolling through the options that had been laid out for them. "But to be on the safe side I'm going to start with something relatively close to him in size." Organizing all of the creatures by size was a wise idea it would seem. "Beginning test now." Going with the smallest sized creature in the Nemetrix Cringor's form was replaced with that of a brown and far harrier lion like creature with big saber tooth fangs.
"Cringor buddy you still in there?" As part of the test Adam had brought along one of Cringor's cat toys and playfully dangled it above his head, getting a response of playful pet who rolled onto his back to bat at the mouse hanging off of the end of a fishing rod.
"Test successful." Dani commented as she checked one box on the clipboard she was holding up. "Now for the dangerous part."
"Wait a second. You mean to say that transforming Cringor into a dangerous alien monster that could potentially try to eat us all wasn't the dangerous part?" Adam asked the look on his face that of someone who looked like he he had been lied to.
"The dangerous part is going through each of the transformations on this thing one by one learning their various powers and abilities so that when we try to use them in combat we don't end up getting ourselves killed because we were relying on a giant pile of unknown and potentially unstable factors." Dani explained prompting a look of sheer horror on Adam's face.
"Luckily we have a expert on pelting random ideas against a wall until something sticks." Thus Daniela cupped her hands over her mouth. "MAN-!" On pure instinct Adam immediately clapped his hands over Dani's face silencing her while Cringor fled in terror, and sadly got no where as one of the Dani clones appeared to hold him back.
"This is serious! Even if we don't end up using Cringor for this thing we still need to make sure that it, and all of it's functions, work in a manner that we understand and what are you two staring at!?" Turning around and noticing the gaping stares of the two people who were supposed to be working on this with her, one of which included another version of herself, the Dani Clone followed their gazes to Cringor. Or rather Cringors. In his blind panic to try and get away the cowardly cat was literally pulling himself apart, with each new part being spawned as a brand new Cringor who was trying to flee for safety prompting a surprised look from Dani, perhaps most impressive of all of this was that Cringor himself was the last to notice trying to get away in his blind panic until he tried to take a hiding spot that was already occupied.
"Well this has potential." Immediately Dani bent over and grabbed hold of the Nemetrix with her black arm having Fix-It change it over to it's next form. However there was delay as the device seemed to refuse to cooperate, as Dani was beginning to wonder if she broke it the other Cringor's started to react. Suddenly the other saber toothed lions were picked up, floated over, before fusing back into the one that Dani had been tampering with before in a flash of red light turning into a giant vaguely spider like creature. "Well that's disappointing. Moving on." Dani got distracted by her clip board, Cringor chose that moment to run away, using it's spider like body to rapidly climb up a nearby wall to escape Dani. "It can climb walls, I mean people have worked with less but I was expecting... more."
"I'll go calm down Cringor." Adam interrupted before Dani tried to do anything else to his life long companion.
"Right then. I should probably check on Manny then." While Dani was debating what she should be doing next several alarms all went off at once indicating a full blown red alert and call of hands to all facilities. Dani could only sigh while she got to work.
The Masters had been gathered inside of Man At Arm's workshop, if the fishing rods and sky balls left by the door were any indication it seems that many of them had interpreted 'Skeletor Defeated' with 'Vacation' and were only now rudely being informed otherwise.
"GreySkull has detected another threat coming in from the Dark Continent. Daniela if you would." Man At Arms stood aside allowing Daniela to walked up front of the group of warriors to address all of them.
"Contrary to my warning's the royal family has opted not to post a regiment inside of Snake Mountain, Skeletor's base of power. Though even I could not foresee this coming." Daniela showed the last orbital image of Snake mountain before it was shot down, credit where it was due it's new tenants were certainly making themselves at home inside of Skeletor's old haunt. Snake Mountain had grown, as terrifying a concept that was when you consider that it's a giant lava spewing mountain in the shape of a massive serpent, to be more accurate it had grown two more heads which were now twisted around each other with each of them drooling out lava in lava falls.
"It will do." The leader of the snake-men was probably the least snake looking individual of the lot, he had a clearly human like figure with a human like face draped in a Egyptian headdress. Still a stalking terror by the way, pale skin flushed with green poison instead of blood and piercing pupiless blood red eyes tend to have that effect on even other snakemen. "Now than my own. What has been happening in the world since my absence?" Kobra Kahn had not stopped kneeling before the rightful king of snake mountain since he was pulled out of his slumber. That said now that it was made clear his liege wanted to talk to him he stood at attention. "Tell me of King GreySkull."
"I know only of Castle GreySkull, a set of ruins in the North." The Modern Snake Man stated touch of legitimate confusion on his features.
"Then the King is no more?" That made King Hiss smile. "What of Hordak?"
"He is worshiped as a god by the people of the dark hemisphere, and like most gods he has been decidedly absent for a long time." Kobra Kahn stated making the implications of what he said clear.
"Very Good. We march on Eternia tonight."
"Daniela do you or the Sorceress know what this means?" Man at Arms asked gesturing to the screen depicting the three headed volcano.
"Snake Mountain has the appearance it had back when it was under the control of the snake men." Daniela stated as she held her chin in her hand.
"Snake Men? We had one of those locked up in the Eternian prison." Ram Man stated prompting a sigh from Daniela.
"Well there's that mystery solved." Face Palming herself Dani set to work. "At the height of their power the Snake Men were one of three major factions vying for control of Eternia, the other two being the King of GreySkull and Hordak of the Self proclaimed Evil Hoard."
"SNK." Everyone's attention was drawn to Manny who to his credit was resisting the urge to laugh. "So in other words Hordak was a Chuni Edge Lord too?"
"To be very clear. GreySkull stayed a top contender by letting the Snake Men and the Evil Horde duke it out while he kept his own boarders secure." To be fair though those boarders were approximately half of the planet. "In the absence of a power uniting the rest of the Dark Continent against the snakes there is nothing stopping them from giving us their full attention."
"Well we have the super weapon you guys found while you were away right?" Mecka Neck asked mostly trying to reassure himself.
"The Nemetrix still has a load of functions we don't understand, and a hoard of transformations we know almost nothing about." Daniela stated holding her chin in her hand. "The ones I do know about however might be able to do something against them provided that Adam can catch Cringor."
"Why'd you attach that thing to that big scardy cat anyway?" Mann-E-Faces asked cocking a suspicious brow.
"Because he's the only one we got who can safely use it. Each transformation in the Nemetrix is a wild animal, geared specifically for savagery. If sapient mind were to try and put themselves in that position they would receive irreparable brain damage, even you or my brother."
"Cringor isn't exactly geared towards savagery either you know." Stratos pointed out drawing to mind the image of when the cat was still a kitten and playing with the young prince.
"No he isn't, but he also doesn't have anything that will hurt himself in his transformations, more than that he is tame and he will listen to orders. Assuming that Adam can coax him out of whatever hiding spot he's found that is." Adam walked into the meeting covered in ash and smoke coming off of burnt hair, a deeply unamused look on his features.
"The spider shoots lightning webs." Adam informed helpfully.
"Good to know, we're gonna need the other guy." Dani explained as she took the liberty of making a note in her notebook.
Adam looked up at the briefing on the back screen and nodded his head before walking out of the work shop.
"By the Power of GreySkull!" Adam stated pulling out his sword, the clouds above circling around them as the guard of the blade 'unlocked.' Then a bolt of electricity came down from the sky, drawn to the blade like a lightning rod as it's power entered and transformed his body. "I HAVE THE POWER!" And thus the second most monstrously ripped barbarian they've ever seen took form in front of them, albeit with a few modifications compared to last time.
"Nice armor." Unlike the last time most of Adam's transformed body was covered in armor plating. Aside from the fur kilt from before metal chain mail armor went up his torso and all the way down his left arm, with both arms ending in a set of sleek looking gauntlets. Forming a fist with his left hand a huge set of pincers came out of it. "Where'd you get it?" Manny asked cocking a smirk at the transformed prince.
"Daniela do you have an explanation for this?" Man at Arms asked indicating the armor.
"Hang on." Dani closed her eyes as she made contact with the Sorceress. "When GreySkull did deign to face the Snake Men he wore specialized armor that protected him from their particular brand of magic. His power remembered that, and the stink of the snakes, and has manifested this armor for the occasion." Daniela clicked her tongue in dissatisfaction. "The situation is more dire than I had initially thought. Wait hang on." Apparently not done yet Daniela received more information from the sorceress. "It seems that she also has a upgrade for Cringor." The big fraidy-cat was a big fraidy-cat once more the Nemetrix having timed out and reverted Cringor to his birthday suit. That said he was still wearing the device itself which made the tiger dread the thought of Daniela coming to find him and feed him to her brother in the name of her deranged experiments.
"Cringor."
"Muu?" Cringor looked up to the transformed Adam. He still recognized his master's head though he was questioning where this monstrously ripped body of his was coming from. "Don't worry this won't hurt a bit!"
Saying that Adam swung his sword down firing a bolt of magical energy at the green and yellow tiger causing him to transform, primarily bulking up, gaining a lion's mane, saber like teeth, and finally brown armor including a face mask and a saddle. Long gone was the cowardly Cringor instead roaring proudly as if celebrating some sort of victory or perhaps a triumphant return.
"Dani..." Adam observed the transformation Cringor had underwent before but it bore repeating, the cat was like a completely different animal once more, confidence being the biggest difference.
"When GreySkull observed the effects of giant's blood on his body he experimentally injected more into the bodies of a pride of lions. It's only survivor would go onto become his companion and mount. His soul was waiting in reserve to aid the inheritor of his master's will." Adam could clearly make out the Nemetrix in between the face mask and the saddle on Cringor's back. "What effect do you think it will have on your weapon?"
"If this is any indication?" Dani replied gesturing to Cringor's newly transformed state.
"I would say bigger, tougher, meaner." Something that's pretty scary when you consider that the vast majority of transformations in the Nemetrix were already pretty damn big, tough and mean to begin with. "Either way we need to march on Snake Mountain. If we're lucky we can ambush The snakes before they cross the Eternian border."
"Too late." Man At Arms stated indicating his console. "Proximity alert." Man At Arms stated prompting the group to look over to the console in question, surveillance footage from one of the border outposts was playing, showing a group of lizard like people ripping the place apart. "If we make a straight line from Snake Mountain to this outpost, then that means that they're making a beeline for GreySkull. But if we can anticipate their path, then we can set up a ambush against them."
"Does any of the transformations on that thing specialize in speed?" Stratos asked looking at the spiked collar around Cringor's Neck suspiciously. "None that I know of. But there is one that specializes in hunting Snake Men." Saying that Daniela slapped the face plate of the Nemetrix.
The Snake men were making use of Serpinitaur's as they traveled through the skies above the Eternian jungles, the blue serpents Beast Man left behind were quite well trained and very vulnerable to King Hiss's ability to communicate with all things long and snake like so they made ideal mounts. The dragons they ran into were a slight problem but they did manage to solve the issue of his men who haven't had anything to eat since their long imprisonment.
"I was wondering how long it was going to take before someone took notice of us." The newcomer was as tall as a mountain, built like a gorilla with the tusks of a mammoth and covered white spines. Of more immediate interest though was the familiar brown armor that the monster was wearing, the saddle and face mask of one King Grey Skull, though far too large to be of use to anything short of a giant.
"King Hiss!" Adam was standing atop the transformed Cringor's head, accusingly pointed his blade down at the head of the man who declared himself king of the Dark World. "I am He-Man of Eternia! And I am here to make you answer for the crimes you have committed on this day!"
"Hmm. GreySkull's armor." But King Hiss quickly concluded the newcomer as nothing more than a boy, although still far larger than he was GreySkull's inheritor had clearly not grown into the King's power as of yet. "Cyltho if you would." One of the Snake Men pulled down his hood to reveal a head of snakes not unlike a Gorgon. However before the snake could demonstrate his power The huge white monster He-Man had been riding barfed a huge mass of ice and snow on top of the Snake's heads burying them in a huge ice berg in the process.
"Was that it?" Ram Man asked looking down at the snakes who seemed to have just been stepped on by the Twin's shape shifting monster.
"Once again it seems that those two are use to a higher standard than the rest of us." Stratos stated recalling how the twins stated the monster originated on the home world of their mother.
Then the ice berg cracked, a red glow originating from deep inside of the ice. Finally like a frozen turkey that had been dropped into a deep fryer the iceberg exploded releasing from within the snake men, who were now huddling around one who was drooling fire from his mouth.
"Impressive." The Serpinitaur's were effectively non-combatants but this point, curled up and shivering from the extreme cold, even if they'll thaw from the Fire Spitter soon that will not stop this creature from simply freezing them again. Similarly that huge monster would not be something felled by mere Serpintaurs. "I offer this one chance heir of GreySkull: Join me and I will elevate you into a vastly superior being."
"You're stalling." Adam stated having immediately come to the correct conclusion.
"So I am. It's taking slightly longer than I expected for my distraction to get here." King Hiss stated as he blocked the glare of the sun with his hand and looked into the air. "Ah there he is now!"
"HHHIIISSSSSS!" Suddenly a lance pierced through the sky and crashed down separating the two armies like a meteorite. The shockwave from the crash was enough to cover the entire area with dust and smoke.
"What the heck!?" Teela so appropriately summarized the reaction of the majority of the Masters.
"Hiss has called in back up! Adam have Cringor..." Suddenly it was the giant ice blowing mammoth that froze, in stone that is as suddenly Cringor was transformed into solid rock, the Nemetrix seemingly disappearing into the stone mass itself.
"Cringor!" Adam shouted panic strewn all over his features, but he did not have time to worry about his mount. Leaping up from the dust and smoke a huge muscle bound snake man made his presence known slamming down a massive rattling tail on Adam's head. But it was not the tail Adam had to fear, even just a few of the beads shaking inside of the rattle was enough to cause cracks to form in the stone beneath his feet, which is to say Cringor. "Hell no!" Adam grabbed his time in a half as large as he was opponent and threw him back into the cloud below. Kobra Kahn saw his comrade falling from above and put two and two together.
"If his monster means so much to him." Opening up his in built hood Kobra Kahn spat out a stream of acid at the feet of Cringor dissolving his ankles and under the pressure of his own weight the statue fell.
But it did not hit the ground. Stone exploded loosing from within what can best be summarized a giant, purple, crystalized humanoid hedgehog wearing the same red with grey studs collar and ancient battle armor that Cringor had been wearing going into battle earlier. Naturally Cyltho acted to turn this creature to stone as he had the last but unfortunately for him it was not working, for in this form Cringor was already made out of minerals. Rather the snake was brushed aside with a almost casual grace as the overly pointy monster went to find Adam. It didn't take him long, as a wall of crystal appeared to separate Adam and his fanged foe, Cringor making his displeasure with the second half of the Snake Man one two combo known.
"Cringor is that you!?" Adam's query was answered with a toothy grin. "I should have known that it would take more than just a block of stone to keep you down! Think you can do something about this mess?" Cringor seemed to think about it for moment before tapping the device on his neck again. "Right! Let's try for something with wings!" Dani had taken the liberty of strapping the controls for the Nemetrix to the underside of Adam's gauntlet allowing him to go through the various playlists. Luckily several entire playlists were helpfully covered under the title of 'Birds.'
"Let's try this one!" Cringor shrunk, his form twisted into something entirely different. The air currents swirled around him before being pushed away revealing the snakes, largely already defeated. "Well done Cringor!" Adam turned around to face the newest form of his life long companion only to be met with confusion as he was no where to be seen. "Cringor?" The transformed tiger bumped Adam in the shoulder, still no where to be found, nor what form he had taken by the way. "I see you've turned invisible old friend. That will certainly come in handy."
Onto more important subjects without the fog and debris to obscure their vision any longer the snake men were now in full view. The Master's had ridden there on the back of Cringor and as soon as Adam had King Hiss's attention they had jumped off and began dealing with his subordinates. Of particular interest was the unfamiliar man who was fighting Hiss. Black, Bald, Seemingly blind if the clouds over his eyes were any indication. None of that stopped him from going toe to toe with Hiss though who only now seemed to take stock of the battlefield and the losses he incurred. "Time to go already." Saying that Hiss tapped his staff on the ground and serpent shaped magic circles appeared below the various snake men and disappeared into them.
"You are not getting away from me!" The Black Man raised his double ended spear into the air to strike down the King of the serpents, but unfortunately for him... "Tell that to them." The Serpinitaur's picked that moment to wake back up and gang pile onto the black man as Hiss escaped through his portal. "DDDAAAMMMNNN IIITTT!"