Final Chapter for this story. Oh, and I come in this chapter.
Thenso and Extreme ran over to Vanda and Nikolai. Vanda was pale white, and deadly still. Nikolai looked tired and shocked.
"Argh," he said. "My armor." Then he saw Vanda. "Uh oh. That's not good."
"Correct," Thenso said, placing a hand on her forehead. "She's feverish. I can barely feel a pulse."
Extreme roared in frustration. His Wormholer roared and he cut down a steel beam with the blade.
"What happened?" a voice echoed from behind them. Extreme turned around. Behind them, a minifigure stood. He wore a Dragon Gi and Rank 1 Shinobi gear. He walked over to Vanda.
"Who are you?" Thenso asked.
"I am Justin Darkflame." His face crinkled with concern as he saw Vanda's condition. "Brother of Vanda Darkflame."
Extreme began, "Since when did-"
"Vanda have a brother?" Justin finished smartly. "Ninjas must keep their secrets, mustn't they?"
"I suppose." Everyone turned around. Standing right where he should, was a minifigure, in gleaming black armor with red streaks, a black helmet, holding a long staff, with four points at the tip, glowing with Maelstrom energy.
"Meyer!"
Meyer laughed and walked over to them. "I'm here," he said. "What happened?"
"With what?" Extreme asked. "You or Vanda?"
"Vanda?" Meyer looked worried. "What happened to Vanda?"
"It appears," Thenso said, "that she used her life force to destroy the chaos bound the your Imagination Spark. Sadly, it appears more than just her life force has been depleted."
"Who are you?" Justin asked.
"I am Meyer Muckrake," Meyer replied. "Who are you?"
"Justin Darkflame," he replied. "Brother of-"
"Vanda Darkflame?" Meyer finished.
Justin nodded. "I suppose we share the same concerns."
Everyone turned back to Vanda. She looked even worse than before.
"She's in a very bad condition," Justin said. "We'll need Pure Imagination. From the Nexus."
"The Nexus which caused the Darkitect's worst ideas to flow out of the orb?" Meyer said. "The Nexus that created a hound that took Ree and created a python-lion hybrid that bit me, caused a demonic mind-reaper to take over my body, hurt Nikolai and try and kill Vanda? The Nexus that caused Vanda to end up like this in the first place?"
Justin was not offended. "Everything in nature, however evil it may be, must repay its debts to those who it has done wrong to eventually, whether in a second or a thousand years."
"Fine," Meyer said. "Although I'm not sure whether the Nexus is actually safe at the moment."
They picked up Vanda and walked to the portal. They jumped in and appeared in Rutger's vendor area.
"Wait..." Extreme said. "Ree! What about Mr Ree?"
"Oh!" Thenso said. "Where is he?"
"We can't go back now," Justin argued. "We need to get to the Nexus."
"Well, I'm going back for Ree," Thenso said. "Whether you are or not."
And with that he jumped back into the portal.
"So am I," Extreme said, and followed Thenso back. Nikolai stayed with Justin and Meyer.
They walked past Rutger.
"Hello," he said. "Vhat happened in-" Then he saw Vanda. "Vhat happened to her?"
"Long story," Nikolai said. "Has to do with demonic Maelstrom, mind-reapers, Imagination Sparks and stuff."
"Oh," Rutger said. "I'll come vith you. Where are you going?"
"The Nexus," Meyer said, continuing to the portal.
"Right..."
When they emerged from the portal, everything seemed normal. But the closer they got to the Imagination Nexus, the louder the yells of engineers and technicians got.
They turned the corner just in time to see the Imagination Nexus, a blue column of Pure Imagination, transform. There was a horrible smash, and everyone went flying away from it. Doctor Overbuild slammed into the wall next to them. He coughed and said, "Run! I'll be fine. Just run!"
And then the Nexus turned into a figure: a fifty-foot tall figure, with a skeleton face, wearing a tuxedo, holding a tall scepter, and wearing a black top hat.
It was Baron Typhonus. Extreme and Thenso looked around the Paradox area cautiously. They Maelstrom may be gone, but the Shadow Orb was shimmering and rattling dangerously, as if it were about to explode.
"What do you think happened to him? Ree, of course." Extreme asked.
"Well," Thenso said, "he got grabbed by the hound, yes? Then it jumped away. Then all the Maelstrom got sucked back into the Orb... but did you see that Stromling?"
"I saw loads, yeah."
"No, a normal one. Avant Gardens-style."
"Uh, no."
"Well I never saw it get sucked away. I was about to Doomslice it when the Maelstrom got sucked into the Orb. I saw it scuttle away."
"So...?"
"It seems only the unreal Maelstrom, the ones created from the thoughts of the Darkitect, made of Pure Maelstrom, were sucked back."
"So Ree could have been taken away with the hound?"
"Possibly. Or he could have been left..." Thenso's eyes drifted to the Paradox eye circle, and spotted a small wisp of purple smoke behind it. "...right there."
They silently dashed up the stairs, making sure they couldn't be seen by the Stromling. They made it to the top and saw a Stromling facing away from them. In front of it, Mr Ree was lying on the ground, tied up in ropes.
He saw them and began wriggling, trying to escape. Before the Stromling could turn around, Thenso sheared it's head off with his Doomslicer.
"Ree," Extreme said. "We gotta get out of here."
They cut the ropes and Ree stood up. "Thanks," he said. "I thought I was gone, see?"
"Yeah," Thenso said. "Well, we've got to get out of here. I heard something from the Nexus room."
Every minifigure in the room fell to the ground and writhed in pain as the Baron - or what used to be the Imagination Nexus - began laughing. It was a horrible sound, like fingers on a chalkboard, but a thousand times worse.
Meyer adjusted his helmet to soundproof and stood back up.
"What's this?" the Baron said, although Meyer couldn't hear. "A minifigure has resisted my attack?" He laughed again. "You will fall."
He sweeped his scepter in an arc, and a creature formed in front of Meyer - ten-foot tall, with four, long, black legs, and a hideous, purple head:
The Spider Boss. Thenso, Extreme and Ree ran into the room just in time to see Meyer get flung into the wall by the Spider Boss. Everyone sprang into action: pistols blazing, swords slicing, Wormholers shooting, turrets opening fire, and all Crux broke loose.
The Spider Boss was battered from all sides by an uncountable number of minifigures of all Factions. Doctor Overbuild was creating turrets and creations. Justin Darkflame was defending Vanda from the Spider's webs, lasers and leg stabs. Meyer was unleashing Maelstrom creatures. Extreme was non-stop blasting and summoning mechs. Thenso sliced at the Spider, summoning Spiderlings. Rutger was shooting the Spider with an Overcharged Blaster he'd acquired from Ree, who was holding a Double Blaster, calling in explosive pianos, and reparing armor.
And other minifigures were rushing into the room: Achilles Plutarch, Duke Exeter, Honor Accolade, Bullet Mullet, Olivia Nightshade, Hael Storm, Billy Ganges, Torbert Oscillator, Ace Warprider, Trek Furino, and even Yawny Goodknight were charging in.
The Spider Boss looked left and right, trying to smash minifigures with it's feet, shooting webs, blasting with lasers, but nothing worked. It was overwhelmed.
Then, with a horribly screech, the mighty Spider Boss fell, and hit the ground with a clang. It's body smoked and it's eyes were closed, and it exploded into smoke.
For a second, nothing happened. Then a mighty cheer erupted from the minifigures. They had defeated the undefeatable, smashed the unsmashable, reached the unreachable: they had smashed the Spider Boss.
Then they turned as one to the fifty-foot tall Baron. Alone, they were afraid. But together, they were indestructable. They could smash the Baron together, they knew for a fact.
The Baron seemed to realise it too. He backed away, and looked pointedly at Meyer Muckrake and his group. "This- this is not over. I will smash you. I will smash you all!"
And with a mighty bang, the Baron disappeared.
The cleanup took a few weeks. The Imagination Nexus had turned itself into a tiny shard again after the Baron escaped, and Overbuild finally figured out what was wrong: those Infected Bricks! He'd known someone had been donating Infected Bricks to Nexus Tower, and one had been placed right at the Nexus, causing it to glitch out. It was removed and replaced with a genuine brick.
When Overbuild placed the shard back in it's place he used it to heal Vanda, with Justin and Meyer at his side.
The destruction had taken it's toll on the Paradox area. The Shadow Orb was still shaking and clattering, and the ceiling was half-destroyed. The huge Paradox eye had many cracks through it and looked as if it would shatter at any moment.
When Vanda saw it, her heart sank. She looked at the destroyed area and said sadly, "I don't think it's ever going to be the same."
"It will," Justin and Meyer said at the same time.
"Yes, it will," a voice said. Doctor Overbuild walked up to them. "I've ordered my best engineers to repair this room back to exactly the way it was before, right down to the dust particles."
Vanda smiled sadly. "Thanks," she said.
The experience changed everybody. The invasion of the Baron in the safest place, Nexus Tower, had shaken everyone. How could it have happened? All because of one traitor donating Infected Bricks. This just went to show how dangerous they were.
Vanda, Justin and Thenso were overseeing Overbuild's engineers trying to fix the Shadow Orb one day when a minifigure entered the room. He wore Space Marauder Pants and Shoulderpads, but wore a Black Ninja Gi. He held a Water Sprayer.
He walked over to a burning console and sprayed it with water, putting out the fire. He got out some Armor Gleam and began cleaning the console.
Thenso saw him and walked over. "Hello there," he said.
"Hey," the Space Marauder replied. "I'm Yonder."
"Just helping with the cleanup?"
"Yeah. I guess we all have to play our part."
"I suppose." He turned and walked back towards the Shadow Orb, but somehow he doubted he'd seen the last of Yonder.
Mr Ree climbed out of the vent and assumed his new position in the Assembly vendor room.
"Hey Ree," Gwen Tweenbangle called. "Always on the move, aren't you?"
"Hello," Ree replied. "I have to be on the move, see? I can't just stay in the same place like you and offer my whole inventory of gear at the same time, see?"
"Why not?"
"Have you seen what I sell?"
"Well... no."
Ree got out a Double Blaster and scorched a hole right through the floor. Then he equipped a Foreman's Radio, destroyed more flooring, then got out a Skeleton Key and summoned a Bone Daddy. It began walking towards Gwen. Then Ree got out an Oil Can, slipped the Bone Daddy over, then equipped a Mole Whacker, smashed the Bone Daddy to the ground, equipped a Sapphire Scepter and unleashed tracking lasers that smashed the Bone Daddy into bricks. Then he equipped Shard Armor and began repairing all the damage. Then he simply equipped a Gat Gun Sprayer, destroyed the floor again, smashed it more with a Gem Hammer, even more with an Overcharged Blaster, then even more with a Launcher.
Epilogue
After several weeks, the Paradox area was finally restored. The Shadow Orb was destroyed and reconstructed by Paradox trained in dark arts and Maelstrom sorcery. But the destruction had left it's costs: broken panels around the area, and a broken portal near Vanda. A few days before she left to Maelstrom Domain, Overbuild had told her it was almost done and would lead to "a new world of Maelstrom". He hadn't told her much about it, but she knew once it was complete again it would be her next mission - and she knew exactly who she was taking with her.
The end