Ch. 3 Froginator: Judgment Day from Marnet
"My mission is to protect you." T-800
"'I know you're angry-' 'Oh, no, we're way past that. I could choke the life out of you and never change a shade.'"-Scarlet Witch and Bruce Banner (after she made him go wild and wreck Johannesburg)
*Rise of the Marchines*
The city of West Frogshire near the Fiefdom of Kaeru in the East was a center of Amphibian commerce even before the reemergence of the corrupt government. A sizable habitation with a large mixture of frogs and newts, and a decent number of toads, it was controlled by an elite aristocracy with ties to Newtopia who kept the system in place. It was not as grand or magnificent as Newtopia itself, but it was a bit more spread out. And now, it still maintained a peaceful aura even with Frobots patrolling the air and a new factory at the edge of town plus a new "database" of files in the record section near the shopping district.
The police force wore a top-of-the-line outfit not unlike those of Earth, with black-blue suits and shining silver star badges. While newts tended to be the ranking officers and toads the muscle, it was not at all uncommon for the frogs of the town to be included, especially smart and taller ones. So, no one batted an eyelid at the 181 cm tall, lean specimen with pale skin and icy blue eyes and neatly trimmed brown hair walking around, even though no one knew him.
This mysterious officer of the law stepped up to the information kiosk in the center of the city and calmy asked the lady at the desk in a charming, affable voice, "Excuse me ma'am, could you tell me where I can find Mr. Newtman?"
The red-skinned newt coughed nervously and replied," The local tycoon guy who just had a big break with all the new machine orders? Why would you want to know that, Officer …?
The officer replied calmly, "Static, Officer Frobert Static. I just need to ask him a few questions about a case involving rebels near one of his factories down south."
Sighing in relief, the lady told him he was down by the shopping district down that way, but to be careful since the newt in question had a rude temper.
Frobert smiled and replied," I wouldn't worry about that."
Elsewhere, a hulking specimen of an orange frog (or toad?) with extremely thick arms and legs and a muscled torso walked in the records area. He wore a rough, biker style outfit with a black leather jacket, black pants, fingerless gloves,boots. This gigantic guy (6'1") wore a pair of dark shades over his eyes. This edgy fashion sense enhanced the aura of menace he conveyed with the constant lack of emotion on his face.
This intimidating behemoth stopped a fair distance from the Frobot guarded entrance of the new database that took up the center of one side of the street. None of the residents really understood what that meant but didn't dare ask.
Tapping a local shopkeeper with a mustache on the shoulder, he asked in a Germanic (Austrian) type accent with a deep pitch," Tell me, is that place open for access?"
Trembling at the thug-like brute asking him such a thing, the poor fellow replied," Oh Frog NO! Nobody gets in there except the guys with business there and their assistants. Doesn't matter if you wanna rob the place or try and get a job or money, trust me pal, it's just not worth it with those things guarding it!"
Praying desperately that this giant would listen, he instead watched as he just glanced over the place from every angle, up and down. Like he was analyzing it. The titanic frog leaned his thick jaw toward the shopkeeper and uttered tree simple but chilling words that were famous in another world:" I'll be back."
He went off. The smaller frog felt a chill go down his spine.
In the shopping district for W.F., there was a general food gallery for the citizens. A certain enigmatic cop asked around about his quarry and was directed to the backroom of a nearby clothing store. Heading over there, he passed by a tall and threatening looking guy who you'd think would be his enemy.
They didn't glance at each other as the slim officer of the law went into the store and the muscular biker-type when somewhere unknown holding a large bag in his right arm singlehandedly.
In the back rooms, a burly security guard of a toad, Slash, was sitting down and sharpening his knife when he saw the lankly police officer he didn't know come up to him and ask," A moment of your time. Could you tell me where Mr. Peter Newtman is?"
"Who's asking? You need more rival names of his to bring in?" the green skinned toad with a scarred lip asked. This sort of thing happened a lot, since the local cops only went to his boss for names and knew better than to challenge him on any "suspicious activities" or they could lose their jobs or worse.
Shaking his head, the tall frog replied with a calm smile," He has information I need on a case regarding some rebel activity. I must speak with him as soon as possible."
Snorting at this "rookie's" stupidity, Slash replied, "Don't really work that way, beanpole, you have to wait for him to approve a meeting, not the other way around! A new guy like you didn't get the memo apparently!"
The unknown frog's face started to look more threatening.
"I must insist, I'm afraid. Take me to Mr. Newtman. NOW." The tone in his voice was icy cold instead of the rough or boisterous tone any Amphibian was used to hearing from a cop, soldier or thug, but Slash didn't take it seriously enough. Instead, he got angry and decided that the "occasional disciplinary actions" with certain idiots who sought to challenge the system was in order. Mr. Newtman could sort it all out later anyway.
"Hehehehe, yeah NO!" He swung at him, only for the officer to block all 5 successive punches without budging an inch or even flinching in pain, and then Slash swung his knife at him. The pale frog caught it and snapped it in half with his fingers.
Before the toad could do more than look on in disbelief, he was picked up and thrown straight through the wall behind him. After picking himself up, he saw this string bean cop walking towards him with the look of a killer.
Slash got up and started running towards the Plaza, feeling that this was no mere police officer. His boss needed to be warned!
Outside a nearby café, five inconspicuous figures were huddled around a table, keeping their heads down. They consisted of two young female frogs, one old but tough frog, a buff green axolotl, and a hooded girl from another world. Everyone was ignoring them, which served their purposes just fine. Ivy Sundew turned her head towards their leader.
"Sash, why are we waiting here again?"
The blonde human sighed as she took a cautious sip of tea, and replied," Because while Wally gets our contact Niles, we're making sure his dirtbag of a boss doesn't encounter him by mistake."
The dirtbag in question was an average sized newt with green skin in a sharp business suit and a look of indifference as he stood nearby with his slightly shorter red frog assistant and a female newt of blue skin who had a large jacket concealing poisoned blades and a ready list of information. Mr. Peter Newtman ran a tight business, and he did it dirty.
Maddie rolled her yellow eyes," Wouldn't just grabbing him make it easier? I could get stuff out of him easily enough."
Mrs. Croaker, Sasha's head of assassinations and intelligence gathering, stirred her tea and replied, "So could I. But his assistant there could make it harder. I don't want to risk tangling with someone with poison in a public place if I can help it. The whole point of this inside man is to keep a heads up on the Frobot armies coming out from these parts is to avoid drawing too much attention while we plan our own strikes."
Maddie quietly conceded the point.
Ivy grumbled,"I still hate it. There's a bad lack of action, which is what I like doing on these things!"
Suddenly, the side entrance to a nearby shop banged open, and the whole plaza turned as Mr. Newtman's security guard in the area tumbled out and ran towards his boss with an uncharacteristic look of fear on his face and clutching a broken arm.
"MR. NEWTMAN MR. NEWTMAN IT'S BAD! There's this crazy cop looking for you! We need to bounce NOW!" The entire local population blinked at words they never expected to hear.
The Wartwood Rebels exchanged confused looks.
Mr. Newtman shook his head to clear the confusion and stepped and in a deep baritone voice replied," Now, Slash, I thought we were clear on how to deal with any problematic situations like this. Just call up chief Swampberg and have him – "
Slash interrupted,"No no NO that's not it! He's not a normal cop! He wouldn't take no for an answer, shrugged off every punch of mine, snapped my knife in half like a twig, and then threw me through a WALL! I don't want to mess with a guy like that!"
Mr. Newtman frowned at the words and the look of terror on his tough guard's face. His assistants began to shift nervously.
Natalie fingered the knives under her coat while the crowd muttered.
Sasha muttered a quiet "What the crap?" as the tension in the plaza built up. Then it burst.
Literally burst. An even bigger toad was thrown through the door several feet in the air and lay on the ground moaning in severe pain.
The startled observers watched as a tall, lean and pale-skinned frog police officer walked out and turned his head towards his target. His expression was chilling. He wore an intense frown on his face and his icy blue eyes had lethal fury in them.
Mr. Newtman felt a chill. He'd never been on the receiving end of such a look. None of the locals or Wartwood residents (except Croaker) were familiar with that kind of glare. Sasha, for her part, had never met a cop in her life who looked at anyone like that. It was like something out of a movie.
Without pause, the cop began striding towards his prey at a fast pace. Mr. Newtman backpedaled furiously as he pushed one large kiosk stand in his path to the ground with ease, followed by a very large axolotl nearly twice his size who tried to grab his arm who got shoved into a table several feet away. Even Natalie, his assassin/clerk, did not want to get near this terrifying enigma.
"Get to my top-of-the-line speed beetle NOW!" he hissed desperately. They scrambled to get to the nearby black and white bug, with a sleek metallic carriage and sufficient speed. They got on and the red skinned assistant Chauncey quickly started it up with a revving sound and they went down the street.
But this unknown officer didn't give up. Instead, he started running after them as soon as their ride got moving.
Everybody watched in disbelief and terror as this lean frog kept pace, running at impossibly fast speeds after Mr. Newtman, his arms swinging in a perfect rhythm. The look on his face never changed. He never opened his mouth, blinked or even appeared to be exerting himself. He chased them all the way down the lengthy street nonstop and further, leaping right over a stone wall in the way and kept at it.
No matter which street they took or who or what was in the street or the shouts or stares directed at him, he did not stop. He kept after Newtman, his death glare pinned on him. Nothing could turn him from his objective, his mission.
Mr. Newtman in desperation abruptly directed them to drive through a nearby back alley which would lead to outside the walls and had some hurdles which would slow him down. Sure enough, it seemed to work, and Frobert lost sight of his pursuer. But he had not lost him for long
Just near the starting point of that alley was one of the new terrain altering vehicles, with a heavy shovel and tough tires and engines (on Earth it could be compared to a bulldozer). While the driver was preparing his route for the next "industrialization project on the nearby terrain", two nearby Frobot sentries turned at the sight of a local cop jumping over the fence and heading towards them. They tried to get him to cease and identify himself, but he didn't.
The lead one said "Officer failed to identify. Cease and desist or else- "
It was abruptly cut off as the heads of both machines were abruptly impaled by something metallic and sharp. The Frobots tumbled to the ground, twitching furiously in their death throes.
The poor bearded frog driver of the vehicle was panicking as he heard those sounds and scrambled to the opposite side of his vehicle, hoping not to be noticed and sealing the lock on the driver's side completely. But then the roof began to buckle with repeated blows and then a large blade sliced through it and a thin opening was pulled open. A vague, puddle-like mass of some silvery metal just …shifted through this hole and coalesced into the shape of a frog police officer wearing round sunglasses over his eyes.
As the poor terrified frog stared at this impossible sight, the entity turned towards him and with a flat voice and flatter expression told him, "Get out."
He couldn't get out fast enough as he fiddled with the door handle. The liquid terror then started it up and homed in on some radio communications on the console coming through.
Back at the Plaza, the Resistance members hurried off as the locals buzzed loudly with gossip about this.
Sasha hissed angrily," Let's move it! We need to make sure Wally got Niles outside the city and to avoid any more weird complications like whatever that was!"
Mrs. Croaker mumbled,"Forget weird. That's pure insanity we just witnessed."
They went into another street, hugging the wall as they noticed that the Frobot guarded office on the other side of the street. Slowly, they inched their way down.
Business had still not caught on to the hullabaloo a few streets down yet, so everything was still going smoothly. One local mustached frog was on edge, however, and turned at the sound of heavy boots and gasped loudly as he dropped his glass wares he had in hand, which shattered. Naturally everyone turned to look.
A very tall frog in a thug/biker leather look, walked up with a huge duffel bag roughly half his size. In a perfect and swift movement, he opened it up and pulled out a HUGE gun with a long round barrel and base.
Sasha realized it resembled a minigun from Earth, a hug automatic gun with few rivals in firepower among Earth firearms. This one had glowing lights on it and no visible ammunition. The shade-wearing gunman cocked a switch on the side and got it into a firing position in both of his titanic hands.
The Frobots got into a firing position, but he stopped at a lengthy distance from them and started firing first. His weapon unleashed a rapid hail of laser blasts at them, tearing them to shreds in seconds. He then turned it onto the building itself and tour through the walls and doors, and every Frobot that came up to retaliate. When no more came and the living employees (who had not been hit on purpose) fled out screaming, he walked calmly into the now burning office with his weapon held with just one hand.
Every resident of the street ran away screaming or hid inside a building.
Maddie shook her head to snap out of it and hissed,"Ok that was freaky as anything else, but let's just keep going!"
The rest of the group agreed and ran quickly and quietly out of sight.
Minutes later, the back door burst open, and the mysterious monster came out with his weapon and a retrieved piece of hardware. He headed over to a crude but very advanced version of an Earth motorcycle waiting there, very bulky and efficient. With his cargo sliding into some adequately sized side bags, from behind his shades a glowing and entirely artificial set of eyes scanned the area to determine his next route. In mere seconds it was clear, and he zoomed off.
Roughly ten minutes later, the Resistance members were outside the city, having ensured that Wally would get Niles out quietly and carefully. Sasha's growing irritation skyrocketed internally when she noticed Newtman and his posse screech outside and pause. The frantic newt and the rest got out.
Newtman let out a hysterical giggle.
"Alright, I don't know what any of that was about, but we lost him! We'll take a breath, head back, and then sort this mess out with the city officials about that maniac in a couple hours."
He sighed in relief at his luck, only to turn his head at the growing noise of an engine approaching. Everyone followed his gaze to the nearby top of the large city wall.
The massive metal frame of one of their terrain-pushing machines slammed through the wall, right in his direction. His eyes shrank to pinpricks as he, for once, lost his decorum entirely,"Oh #$%!" The dump-truck knock off landed on the ground and kept going towards him.
Newtman's ride scrambled off in terror and he could barely get himself to scramble away. By all logic it should have been over when a low sharp rock snagged the underside of the vehicle and flames erupted.
The newt grumbled about this awful day he was having.
Slash kept his eyes on the wreck and screamed in terror. Everyone swiveled to see what scared him, and their blood turned to ice.
The killer frog copper walked out of the flames, perfectly unharmed and wearing a pair of mirrored aviator sunglasses that reflected the inferno around him. He strolled towards them as if he did this every day.
Newtman lost his nerve entirely and scrambled backwards as he fell over until he backed up against a rock. Natalie, in a desperate attempt, came at him with a toxin-laced blade, which he barely even reacted to in his torso. Instead, he pulled it out, crushed it in his fingers and threw her next to her boss. Then he stopped in front of them.
Peter Newtman trembled like a child at this frog who could not possibly be a normal frog looked down at him with no emotion on his face whatsoever. Like he was a bug to squash. "W-w-w-why …w-what are you …?"
His pursuer gave no answer but lunged forward and hit him and Natalie on the heads, knocking them out. He effortlessly started dragging them off.
His two remaining employees and their hidden observers watched as he continued to walk with Natalie over his shoulder and Newtman on the ground.
When he was got 40 yards away, a loud growl of an engine sounded.
The biker frog from before drove in front of him on a huge motorcycle-like vehicle, roughly twice the size of an average Harley from Earth with all-terrain style wheels.
The enigmatic cop barely reacted and tossed Newtman at the much larger frog, who caught him effortlessly. They pulled out ropes from the bike's side bags and tied up the two newts thoroughly and secured them to the extensive back seat. The cop sat down on the edge of the rear seat in a secure position.
The frightening pair drove off into the distance without a word.
Chauncey and Slash couldn't take it anymore and ran screaming to the city in terror. Ivy stepped out from their hiding spot and exclaimed," What the frog was that all about?!"
Sasha just muttered, "I don't know. I just don't know!"
Wally and the short black-haired frog Niles finally showed up moments later." Alright we're here, don't know why you lot were so anxious, so we're all good! … What?" They all glared at him. He slowly took in the wreckage of the truck and the walls, and it was a good while before he or Niles made sense of what they told him they'd witnessed. Niles and his family relocated to a secure location rather than stay here after that.
Because they avoided this spot for the increased security that followed, it was a while before Sasha's group learned what happened next.
Hours later, Newtman and Natalie were unceremoniously woken up with water to the head and tied to a chair. Sputtering indignantly, the newt saw his stalker of a monster cop standing next to a giant-sized frog with orange skin, shades and a wild thug outfit. In front of them was a mysterious figure covered almost entirely with a brown robe now dyed greenish-black and metallic gloves and its face covered by a mask with glowing green eyes and a hood over the rest. It leaned forward and a distorted female voice spoke up.
"Well well well, looks like my TF-800 and TF-1000 units did their first big missions PERFECTLY! Now I've got the big fat catch of the DAY! This will go a LONG way in doing some DAMAGE to Andrias's robot armies!"
She pumped her fist in excitement.
Mr. Newtman realized that this weird girl was behind his horrible day. He got angry.
"YOU think that running my business and my LIFE is going to stop anything?! You're insane! We are in a new era of …." He trailed off abruptly when he noticed several Frobots of unorthodox design come up behind his captor, watching him with glowing eyes of different colors. Then he shut up entirely when the cop's form took on a liquid metal texture and his compatriot took off his shades and his eyes flared a deep crimson red. Their apparent leader in the hood leaned forward and her voice went ominous.
"New ERA? Oh please, these FROBOTS are cool and all, but Andrias and the Core have no idea just how much potential there is to be HAD WITH MACHINES! But I DO, and we've already retrieved the drives from your city's database, and YOU are going to tell me what I want to know, and I'll spare you any further nightmares for now!" The cop, clearly some machine of a sort he'd never imagined, emphasized her point by morphing his arm into a wickedly sharp blade.
Natalie spoke up in a desperate attempt to downplay their importance. "Getting the information from there won't stop production at our new facility, and there's countless factories all over Amphibia already anyway, what good will it do? Why am I important?"
The enigmatic figure chuckled and loomed closer," DON'T deny it, you have more knowledge of your boss's private files than ANYONE else, not to mention the occasional assassination and different identities in your history, SO, yeah, I count you as a factor to be dealt with. And as far as your factory is concerned, well … its continuing hours of operation are numbered. Now then, back to BUSINESS …" Both newts shivered as Marcy and her army of machines got closer to them.
Over an hour after the Rebels had vanished and the mysterious kidnapping of Mr. Newtman, the whole city was in an uproar about it. People talked about this unheard-of terror of a madman shooting up a place and a rogue cop with impossible speed. None of the actual cops or the Frobots on hand could find any leads whatsoever. They were so distracted that few people noticed what was going on at the factory at the time.
An alarm had been triggered and the staff evacuated, leaving only the Frobot guards to maintiant the place. Much later, the head of operations, a short but brilliant frog named Dr. Rosanna Kogan, came in and ran a systems check. Nobody, Amphibian or machine, could tell what went wrong, but she finally came upon an alert from the main control room. She went in, followed by some Frobots and a couple flunkies. There were several torn up and burned Frobot shells on the ground and the main screen was flashing a countdown of some sort. She looked closer and then went cold at the last screen message she would ever see.
-10 seconds to factory SELF DESTRUCT -
"Oh no …"
The entire factory blew up in an epic explosion that lit up the sky for miles and the locals would never forget. Over four miles away, a pink newt of a height of 5'11" and a long thick tail in a factory uniform watched dispassionately at the sight then turned around and walked away. Her outer body 'skin' peeled off, revealing a shiny black chrome endoskeleton of titanium-levels of durability laced with nano-fibers of carbon and titanium and some exotic new mixes of metals and nanotech.
The machine kept walking before the 'skin' reformed into the appearance of a red and brown-spotted newt with muscular lean arms, a smooth face with vivid green eyes with slit pupils, sharp eyelashes and messy long blond hair that went down her back. Her uniform was a fancy patterned robe with buttons down the middle that doubled as a cloak with a crimson torso and hood, a black robe lower half that went down to cover her feet to the ankles. She wore brown boots and fancy embroidered tan gloves with flowers on them. The look produced a combo of a classic Newtopian elite and a wondering mage perfectly. Tapping her wrist, a message was sent out.
"TN-X MISSION UPDATE: TARGET WAS TERMINATED. KRISTANNA IS RETURNING TO BASE OF MARNET OPERATIONS."
The attractive newt gave a wide smile of sharp teeth. Her green eyes glowed a brilliant, artificial cyan blue.
It had been so easy to do that job, and she barely had to use the 37 weapons/tools she had inside her to do it.
*Nightmare firewall*
Andrias spent hours cleaning up the mess left by Marcy's escape. Olivia and Yunan were imprisoned and held in Rejuvenation tanks, the rubble cleared away, and any trace of the accident destroyed.
He couldn't find Marcy at all. No trace of her existed in range of the City. Her stuff was all gone and two newts were found unconscious in a closet, tied up and missing their robes and weapons.
When the Core came back online five days later, it asked,"What happened? Where's Marcy?"
"I don't know, my lord, she vanished … do you not know what happened?"
The Core was too scared to give a full response,"She … something from the Box touched her … her powers … she must be found at once!"
They found evidence of several destroyed factories, a few bases, and several thousand missing Frobot units. After her mysterious capture of Newtman, they pinpointed the signal of her systems within six hours.
The Core would've smiled if it had a physical face,"Interesting … Wit has awoken. But now she has her own network of robots and computers to serve her. She seeks to undo our control over our own devices … that leaves her vulnerable once again!"
"What now? Shall I try and connect to her systems?"Andrias asked, his fingers on the controls connected to the Music Box on the pedestal in the Basement with them.
"Do it now, we mustn't let her use our own machines and networks against us! If we can infect the entire system, we may be able to retrieve and subdue her completely. Controlling the Box and her might allow us to control the Stars completely with her power active!"The Core said.
He nodded and pressed the button.
Marcy was all too prepared, with unique magical and sci-fi level firewalls on their Wi-Fi and new Marnet mainframes.
Flipwart was like chess, only more complex. She'd become a champion and beaten Andrias himself at it. This was like the game now. The pieces were all on the board and she knew who the players and pieces were.
Since her escape, she'd taken to avoiding flipwart for awhile and focusing on some simple chess tactics with her personal chessboard. She could play this game and do the Amphibian equivalent of 'check'.
When the alert to this attempt on her systems came, she had a plan ready.
Her Wit powers being active alone were enough to keep her body free of being infected by it on a mind-control or even technical level now. She'd added several precautions since to keep it that way.
Every advanced firewall level of Earth and Amphibia combined with Calamity power and some magic allowed for a unique viral infection that doubled as a curse for events like this.
She wanted so badly to end the Core right away for good, but it was too embedded in the Castle Systems and had over half a dozen safeguards and had added some new ones. The healing substances and Shadowfish essence that were part of it and several new backup drives alone offered no quick solution. She could settle for a weak spot to knock it down hard for a while, render it terrified, and take advantage to weaken their planned invasion further instead.
Seeing the alert wasn't a crisis, but an opportunity. She wasn't plugged into her network like the Core was, and she focused her Wit powers to keep alert.
"Nice try but no dice! I'M NOT yours to use! Time to MAKE THAT CLEAR!"Marcy said. She nodded at Smarcy.
Smarcy activated their special firewall defense mechanism. It redirected some of the Music Box's own controls and power to infect the Core.
Champion Robby Fischer's advice came to mind: "Chess is a war over the board. The object is to crush the opponent's mind."
Her opponents had just left themselves open to do that perfectly.
"WARNING, THIS SYSTEM IS NOT TO BE OPENED BY UNAUTHORIZED PERSONEL AND DEFECTIVE CORES."
"Oh Marcy, please … we're not just going to let you play with our toys and walk away!"
"YOU WILL REGRET IT! SERIOUSLY, DO YOU WANT TO BE HURT AND TRAUMATIZED FOR THE REST OF YOUR UNNATURAL LIFE?" (That just made the Core madder).
"OUR DEBUGGERS AND GUARD BYTES HAVE ADDED THIS TO YOUR CYBER CRIMINAL CHARGES LIST AND WILL PUNISH YOU ACCORDINGLY."
"YOU'LL NEVER LIVE THIS DOWN … EVEN IF YOU'RE NOT ALIVE AT ALL!" (The Core wasn't impressed).
"TO DEAL WITH THIS MALIGNANT INFECTION, A CORILECTOMY IS RECOMMENDED."
"YOUR MALWARE WILL BE PURGED!"
"IF YOU WANT TO BE KEEP BEING A KNOCK-OFF OCTOPUS, YOU'LL BECOME SANNAKAJI!" (That one didn't make any sense to them at all).
"ANYONE IN THERE EVER TAKE SHOP CLASS?" (Neither did that one).
"SYSTEM ADMIN DOES NOT RECOGNIZE THIS USER. DEFENSES ARE INITITIATED."
"WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM? DON'T YOU HAVE ENOUGH STUFF OF YOUR OWN?"
"DO NOT TOUCH OR USE ANY CORE OR ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT NEAR THIS SYSTEM!"
"IN CASE OF EMERGENCY, DO NOT BREAK THE MARNET FIREWALL OR GLASS!"
"THIS SYSTEM IS FOR AUTHORIZED PERSONEL ONLY! TRESPASSERS WILL BE DEALT WITH AND TERRIFIED ACCORDINGLY."
These played out over and over again for the next 30 seconds as the Core kept going for it. It didn't care. The firewall was weakening, and they could feel it.
The Core was already infected but was making it easier to increase the effect the longer it did this.
Andrias did not say anything, but his fear grew reading the warning messages. He had a Guard Bot take the Box out to a secure location just in case.
His heart skipped a beat when a brief beep sounded after the Core finally breached the firewall.
In the Core's mind, Aldrich, the current key face in their preferred three-story library Inner Sanctum setting, turned to the main hallway entrance across from the fireplace to see a limp Marcy Wu lying on the same table they'd restrained her on in the same outfit to be possessed by them. She was cuffed to it with their helmet on. The lights went out and outside the walls, the sun went away, and lightning and thunder boomed outside the windows.
"What is this?"
The other Core personalities, the greatest minds of Amphibia and his fellow monarchs, materialized on the main floor and around the second and third story balconies and sections near the fireplace.
The greatest minds included scholars, legislators, scientists, mathematicians, mages and professors. Besides them, some great military leaders, knights and aristocrats had distinguished themselves enough to earn a spot in the Hivemind. Most of the academics wore orange and brown hooded robes of scholars and had light blue or white skin. A few stood out visibly. The Eight, the first ones to create and join it for King Tritones, had special robes in rainbow colors (like the Portal) with golden patterns, gem necklaces, and the highest places of honor among the greatest minds outside of the royal family.
The 'genius' leader of the Eight, Flamel Taricha who'd invented and constructed the first Core shell, had bright orange robes that matched the Core's eyes and a lengthy white beard. Prospero was an alchemist/magician who'd perfected the memory spells and designs with the hardware. He wore yellow robes and had a brown goatee. Banstan was the member of the Eight who'd been the most trusted advisor of King Tritones. He wore red robes with his hood up. Lady Agate Peatbog was the researcher for using the Mossmen's healing essence. She had aquamarine hair and green robes. Callicles was the pragmatic and amoral Chief Court philosopher. He had a bald head and blue robes with a large hood and leather belt that made him resemble a fancy monk. Julianna, the Analyst of the Eight, was a lovely blue newt with a crested tail and red hair hair in violet spangled robes. Zomok was the first court sorcerer for the Leviathans and keeper of 'repurposed' (stolen) magical secrets. He wore indigo robes and had a lilac beard that went to his feet.
Newtricula stuck out among them visibly for two reasons. He wore white robes and looked very unnatural. It was he who studied the Shadowfish for years and used them to succeed in rendering the Core immortal. His groundbreaking researching left him with some side effects of looking pale, transluscent and glowing like the ghostly creatures.
The kings and queens and a few of their consorts and princes/princesses wore their preferred royal garbs.
Some of the scholars and monarchs in the Core mind went to look closer.
Mechanical whirring sounds echoed in the air.
Two human voices started talking. The first was an older, sophisticated man's voice. The second a young man's voice.
"Intelligence is not a privilege, it's a gift, and you use if for the good of mankind."
"These things have turned you into something you're not … don't listen to them."
Andrias was speechless hearing this. But he had his own problems.
In the real world, the cables and tech from the wall moved after those words. The Frobots on the bottom levels with them were destroyed in seconds. Andrias was yanked by the neck and slammed headfirst and in the wall three times before being held in place on every limb and his neck.
He was forced to watch the drama unfold in the Core's mind with a large video screen above him. They hadn't even noticed what had happened. He couldn't move his head and they couldn't hear him even if he said anything.
"I couldn't have miscalculated … it was working, wasn't it?"The first human voice asked.
"Is this some cheap trick to try and …"Aldrich stopped when he heard footsteps.
"You're all getting on my nerves!"The voice continued.
Shadows of strange mechanical arms flashed around the room on the ceiling with the lightning.
"That's right … the only real crime would be to not finish what we started!"
"Where is this coming from?"A scholar asked.
The voice mocked the question,"Well, shouldn't you know? Who would know?"
"It's coming from her. Very cute!"A knight said disdainfully.
"Nothing will stand in our way … NOTHING!"
The yell made them jump. A dark chuckle echoed around the room.
Brecca the Bold, a large king with a long beard in a single braid and a sharp but small Eastern crown around his skull, said sharply,"She's just playing one of her games with us, calm down!"
Andrias noticed the shadow of a man with the four large mechanical arms flash on the ceiling behind them with the next lightning flash.
The voice spoke again from another area,"The power of the sun within the palm of my hand!"
A book being slammed shut drew all their attention to the right.
A human with a trench coat and shades passed by briefly near an open doorway that wasn't there before with a closed book in his hands and shook his head with disgust before going through it. The Core's personalities all looked back at Marcy as orange sparks surged from behind her table briefly. The door was gone when they glanced back.
Ock kept talking from out of sight,"There's something …in my head … … voices talking …"
"Is this a joke Marcy, because if you think that-"Aldrich began, but he was cut off.
"You will listen to me now!"Ock's voice yelled. More sparks surged from Marcy's arms and helmet, her 'body' twitching. Ominous mechanical noises started to emit from behind the table.
Flashes of Marcy screaming as they put the helmet on her head and tried to possess her went through their minds.
The Core personalities began to feel afraid. Some backed away.
"Just one more little chore … isn't that right, Core?"They looked up to a balcony above her on the third floor.
Doctor Gunther Octavius, aka Doc Ock, stood there. His mechanical arms, at full 13-foot length with skeletal ridges and triple claws, were visible and extended from under his coat. Their red camera-lens eyes looked at the Core with predatory intent. The lightning and orange light from the sparks reflected in his shades ominously.
They looked between him and at Marcy on the table. Gunther smiled calmly and said with mocking courtesy, "Relax, Miss Wu will be just fine …"he raised his left hand and beckoned them to come closer," let's talk!"
The nightmare inside the Core's head started as the 'talk' began. The infection to the Core deliberately kept all their many minds unfocused and separated the whole time.
Six lengthy black armored tentacles with bumps near the back (two larger and thicker than the other four) just like they'd once used on her (but even longer), with sharp triple claws and red orbs on the tips were waiting to strike from behind Marcy's table.
One of the two largest arms came out first, whacked Brecca right in the face and sent him flying into the walls.
The rest of the arms rose, and the other greatest minds began to scream or otherwise panic as they were targeted next.
An alchemist howled as he was grabbed around the back by a smaller arm and flung spinning to the other side of the room.
A pair of scholars were snatched by the two middle ones and thrown into the roof.
Three more were grabbed in seconds and held aloft. One tried to bite the claws and was thrown like a bullet across the room and into a second story wall. He made a large crater.
Queen Jocasta was a very regal-looking green queen with beautiful white hair that shone like the stars and a dress with a star-like crown. Some called her the 'fairest queen of them all'. She screamed as a tentacle looked at her and ran for cover. She was grabbed by the ankle and whirled around in the air screaming along with the two smaller scholars.
Prospero tried to run but was grabbed on the back of the head by the other big arm and pulled out of sight to be buried in the hallway wall behind Marcy.
The first big arm went at Prince Eadgills next. It slid under the second story railing he was under and grabbed his face. He was lifted into the air with muffled screams and slammed onto the center table in the room with several metric tons of force.
"No no noooo!" Flamel screamed as he backed away in fear from another arm. It grabbed his right arm and hoisted him to the top of the room, embedded his arm in a crystal panel in the ceiling and electrocuted him painfully. He spasmed and screamed.
A tentacle grabbed one of their ladders and flung it onto General Agleaca (Newtopia's first female general), Crown Princess Freyja (who'd died before her father, Brecca), and Lord Gillert, crushing them at once.
Some of the Core's own wall 'cable arms' materialized to add to this.
Thirteen greatest minds on the upper floors were shocked in their arms and head by these cables.
Tacitus, the inventor of modern flipwart, was grabbed by seven of them on his limbs and head and pulled and swung around in many directions in a whirlwind of motions before they dragged him behind a pillar screeching.
The cables swung around, keeping the monarchs on their toes and snaring the occasional greatest mind newt while Marcy and her 'accomplice' directed the bulk of their fury on the Leviathans and other prime targets.
The phantom movie villain jumped down into the library and started attacking them methodically.
The smartest Headmaster of Newtopia University in history, a robed newt with glasses named Albus, turned around just in time to be slammed into a corner of the room by an attack from Ock and be imbedded in the brick walls.
A great king named Hrothgill had green skin, scars on his forehead, and a gold mural crown resembling Newtopia's walls. He wielded a laser axe against the cables. Ock hit him along his spine in critical spots by a four-pronged attack after the rogue doctor looked his way and saw him standing there swinging.
Andrias grimaced hearing the crunch of bone and armor.
One scholar of chemistry threw a potion at his back with no effect. Ock slammed two bookcases into him from his left and right.
Ock hefted three locked chests at three more scholars running around. They lay there motionless under the mixed contents of treasure and texts.
His upper right arm flew at a scholar looking down at him from the second story, grabbed his face, and threw him into a pillar.
One young-looking green queen named Tamora had long yellow hair, a golden crown on her head, and a pinstriped robe.
She came at Ock with a fierce glare and a flail in hand after that scholar's back cracked three yards away from her. She was yanked by her tail to be thrown through a table and into a bookshelf by Ock's lower right arm while he wasn't even looking. She hit it and two scholars in between her and the wall with a loud bang and cloud of splintered wood.
He casually smacked another scholar in the right side of his head and sent him flying. Four scholars were sent flying by each arm at once into the rails and fell down to the ground with a thud.
Grendel, a famed professor of their ancient languages, was yanked from under a table where he was hiding by Ock's upper left arm and embedded in the ceiling.
Queen Gruoch, an elderly purple giant newt with wrinkled skin and puffy fancy white hair who wore armor over a frilled dress, drew a sword and came cautiously towards Ock to attack him.
Ock yanked a hunk of pink coral pillar stone out of place and turned around at fast speed to throw it at her. She barely had time to scream before it hit her right in the face.
A professor of biology named Herpeton jumped on his shoulders and punched him. His arms were grabbed on the wrists by Ock's two upper arms. Herpeton screamed as they were snapped. Ock threw him over his shoulder onto the second floor.
Lord Nyrath, a large black newt of 9 ft with obsidian armor, was the only one who got a good blow on him. He punched Ock into the nearby first floor shelves. His upper left arm responded with rage and grabbed him around the neck. Two nearby scholars were grabbed around their faces.
With a dark scowl, Ock advanced on the group of six greatest minds nearby. They watched in fear as he squeezed slowly on the two whimpering scholar's heads and snapped Nyrath's neck with one quick jerk of his arm's pincers. The weakening scholars and the dead Nyrath were thrown at them. Ock toppled a shelf on them just to make sure they stayed down.
Praetor Zargos, the fastest newt ( a Kaiser newt) in their ranks from 3,000 years ago, tried to ambush him while he did that with a fast leap. Ock's top right arm caught him and held him in the air with the top left arm. His lower arms grabbed two scholars and shoved them into the wall.
Then he raised his flailing captive and did a very unorthodox backbreaker move by slamming Zargo's back on a lower arm extended below him.
Andrias had to fight back some bile in his throat hearing the scream of agony from Zargos.
Triple B, Headmaster Albert of the Nightguards, a few generals and their top officers visiting to discuss strategy, and everyone else on the upper floors throughout the Castle (including repair workers and robots) heard the screams echo all over the place. They were either too scared by the sounds and the doors to the bottom floor were locked until this was done.
General Nolan, a tall black newt (almost 7 ft) with white belly patterns and gold/ green armor with sea patterns, grabbed a sword and headed down,"What is that racket?! Is someone being tortured!?"
Nolan's best quality as a general was he took his work very seriously. That was one reason he was commander in chief right now. He sprinted for the lower levels with the rest.
Miles away, Marcy sighed. The program was meant to be vicious and she had it on an autopilot mode of sorts while she monitored the curse virus's progress. This wasn't something to relish in.
"They're already dead and want to wipe out everyone on Earth and all your friends here … remember that."
Legislator Regin and Princess Skuld were the only two to successfully get out of reach of the attacking tentacles and got in between two bookshelves and held on tightly to the rear parts. However, the roaming arm of Marcy's that eyed them had a solution. It embedded itself in the wall behind them and pulled, leaving them and the bookcases sprawled on the ground. With rapid speed, the closest one was slammed on them.
A renowned mage named Gorlois had it worse by being grabbed by being hurled at high speed by that same arm next and getting hurled into the still burning fireplace. It exploded like a bomb when he hit it. Chunks of burning rock, wood and coal lay scattered in front of it.
The smartest mathematician in Amphibian history tried counting the number of limbs and attackers or places she could go to from behind a stepladder where she was hiding.
Nine cables came at her from above. The resulting debris made it impossible to see what happened after she screamed.
Banstan was grabbed by Marcy's free arm and slammed face first into three different stained glassed windows on the wall, breaking them and making him scream in pain each time, before being hit against a pillar even harder to crush his skull.
A sorceress in red robes in red robes named Igraine was flung by the cables with two professors (one of alchemy and one of history) into some plants and potions sitting around the walls. The plants and potions 'mixed' and the plants morphed into flytraps and vines that ate them.
Aldrich backed up and ran towards one door with his father Teutonic. His father was a bald fat-faced purple newt his size who wore a frilled collar and fancy arch crown.
Lady Agate was grabbed by the throat as they passed her and thrown into the fireplace.
Teutonic was yanked from behind by one of Marcy's arms and was thrown screaming into the metal statue above the fireplace with a loud bang. He slid down slowly and lay dead above the fireplace mantle.
The various doors were all locked. Alrich could not open the one he was near.
Aldrich looked back to Marcy's restrained body just lying there while this was going on. Her face and helmet were blank and motionless.
King Leir was a wise-looking green newt with a regal white beard and mustache in orange and yellow robesa and a circlet crown of coral on his head. He yelled,"This will not end well for you, hum-"
One of the free arms grabbed him around the throat and pulled him in the air to join the screaming Jocasta and three scholars being swung in the air at the moment.
Sir Birtelak the Green giant ( a green knight of 13 ft in green armor, green hair, etc) with a gigantic axe, got grabbed on the torso by one of the larger pair of arms. He held tightly onto the pillars nearby as it pulled him towards it.
Newtricula was grabbed on his head in a death grip by one of her arms after it flung a scholar into the fireplace. The claws squeezed over his head so tightly he couldn't breathe at all. The arm dangled him in the air. All he could do was whimper unheard and beat the metal with his fists.
King Tritones had red reptilian-looking eyes, wore bright red and silver-threaded robes and adorned his head with a golden corollaria crown with three gems emulating the Calamity stones. He had the extreme dishonor to be the first king who'd approved the Core idea and joined it as the first monarch after his death.
Tritones was grabbed on his face by one of Marcy's larger two arms as a key target as he dodged three lazily swooping cables and beat them back. He howled as he was swung in the air and slammed onto his back on the floor.
The sight of his first ancestor suffering this way, Marcy's 'body' just lying there like she was sleeping, and two of his other family members and the rest trapped in the air screaming while her arms swung them around, was too much for Aldrich.
His rage grew and overrode his fear. This was all her fault!
He snarled and ran at Marcy with two other purple-skinned kings, Findláech and Sigurd.
Sigurd had balding white hair, gold bracelets, a fancy red tunic and wore a large standard-looking celestial crown. Findláech had long white hair, bangs covering his forehead, fur lined purple robes and wore a very small crown with a red jewel on his head.
The arm pulling Bertilak pulled a bit tighter and dislodged him. It wasted no more time but buried the knight in the doorway above Marcy's head. It turned around to look at the trio as they came charging.
The two arms holding Jocasta and Leir coordinated with their larger 'sibling' and flung their current victims into a bronze statue on the stairs and the ceiling (respectively) and swiveled to follow its gaze on the three kings.
The three Leviathans barely had time to look afraid before the arms went for their heads.
The two older kings were struck into the floor with heavy force and buried in the tiles.
Aldrich was grabbed around the face by the big arm, screaming and beating the claws holding his face in vain as he was whirled around the air and dragged along the wall for twenty seconds. The row of second-floor pillars to the left of the fireplace his body broke after being swiped through them collapsed on a dozen greatest minds and four consorts.
Newtricula was dropped on the ground after he stopped moving.
The pair of scholars still held by the other two arms were electrocuted painfully in midair and dropped. The four free arms went at other targets with a frenzy. Three more scholars were snatched off the upper levels in less than five seconds and dispatched almost as fast.
A famous clever knight of old called Godric tried to slice through the arm holding Tritones with a shiny blade, only to get electrocuted for his troubles.
Another one called Modron briefly hit another arm down to the floor with an insulated axe. A different arm grabbed him as he dared to smile cockily and grabbed him on the back and threw him into the fireplace.
A smarter knight named Fafnewt got within inches of her table. Right before one of Marcy's arms grabbed him by the head from behind and slammed his head on the back of the table five times and then slammed his head so hard on the ground it left a crater.
King Xiansi was a very large purple and black newt with a rudder-like tail and white eyes. He stood taller and heavier than Andrias and wore a Newtopian symbol-adorned circlet on his large head. He'd enjoyed captive gladiator sports and the screams of torture victims in life. Xiansi was ripping several arm cables off near the foot of the stairs in a savage fury and set his eyes on Marcy. He promised silently to make her suffer greatly for this.
Rather than bother grabbing him, one of Marcy's arms tossed the scholar it was holding into the corner and then pierced his back, going right into his spine, and sent high voltage through every pain pathway in his body.
He screamed very loudly for over ten seconds ( a record for this) , his ghastly howls coming close to the iconic 'Sound of Ultimate suffering' death scream as the whole Sanctum lit up with the light of his body being shocked.
Everyone in the Castle felt a chill go down to the end of their tails hearing that. Andrias looked down until Xiansi stopped screaming.
Marcy grimaced miles away and remembered that the virus was set to target based on the level of evil or vicious intent in the Core minds. That didn't make her feel any better about this.
The sight drew the attention of many of the still free Core minds. Several cables took the opportunity to grab half of the remaining greatest minds and dragged them inside the walls with them. Crunching,shocks and screams were heard.
Lady Sabina, another knight, decided to get drastic. She lit a stack of books on fire with the embers lying around the fireplace and was ready to throw them at the spot near Marcy, but the arm that killed Newtricula grabbed her on the back from behind and sent several hundred volts through her frame, killing her instantly.
One desperate professor named Molch leaped at Marcy from the top of shelf. He was caught by an arm of hers midair and spun around at rapid speed and thrown into a coral pillar.
A crafty knight called Dagonet and one minor greatest mind called Nigel (a generic blue skinned newt in the typical orange robes like many of the rest) dove to the floor to dodge the cables. Dagonet stood up, feeling proud he'd thought to do that. Then a cable from the floor opened a literal trap door nearby and dragged him by the tail into it.
Nigel heard a snapping sound and looked up. One tentacle had just cracked another scholar's spine by slamming him against a column on the third floor. That tentacle looked at him after dropping the body. The red orb in the center formed a white slit pupil with veins of some kind pulsing around it while the claws flexed and sparked.
Andrias and more than a few of Nigel's fellow greatest minds shivered at the sight.
Nigel screamed for seven seconds before the tentacle got him. Andrias got to watch from his perspective on screen as the nightmarish appendage sped at his face.
Three scholars tried climbing ladders to hide above the shelves on the second floor in desperation. They were plucked one at a time as they reached the tops. The scholars were wrapped up by cables and embedded in the highest shelves of the library.
Julianna was almost at the top of the stairs when she was yanked by her colorful crested tail and pulled in Marcy's direction screaming for her life and her mother (both long dead).
Tritones was left with his head embedded in the stone corner to the right of the fireplace.
The greatest robotics inventor of their ranks, a newt named Dumeril, was responsible for much of the Core's current downloading capabilities. He got a particularly karmic punishment.
One of her arms grabbed a suit of armor's helmet and slammed it forcefully onto his head and sent hundreds of volts into his skull.
A purple queen named Urodela in a lily-patterned dress and bronze Polos crown had a massive chandelier dropped on her after one of Marcy's limbs swiped through the ropes holding it up. That same arm grabbed Princess Melusine by her waist as she ran and flung her into the ceiling.
Morgana, a feared queen with purple skin, glowing yellow eyes, a regal black dress and stunning diadem with gems that matched the Stones in appearance, threw a spear at Marcy and ducked behind cover just in case it didn't work.
A tentacle grabbed the spear, snapped it in half, and went after her at once. She was grabbed by the tail and thrown onto the middle of the nearest stone stairs. The stairs and two scholars cracked under her weight as she hit them. Melusine's body and several bits of rubble collapsed on her seconds later.
Aldrich was still grappling with the painful death grip on his face after he was pinned against the wall. The claws let go briefly and grabbed his neck instead. He fought with it the rest of the time.
King Aeneas, the most aggressive king there, threw a collapsed shelf at her body. A tentacle smashed through it in midair and grabbed his face. His body was still twitching with sparks when it let go six seconds later.
King Alcibiades, one of their best public speakers and schemers of old, tried to sneak along the walls to go behind Marcy while the arms on the right dealt with Tritones and Aeneas.
The arm that killed Tritones turned to face his skulking descendant.
He froze, hoping it didn't see him. No such luck.
The arm lunged at him. Alcibiades shrieked as he was hit right in the chest (where his heart was) and half of his body was embedded in the wall.
Andrias wondered if that was deliberately meant to scare him as punishment for stabbing her.
Andronicus, a large bald green newt with a crown that doubled as a helmet resembling a spiked coral reef, was targeted by that same arm next. It struck him in the back in the same place Andrias had stabbed her and sent him flying into the star on the fireplace mantle face first. He fell down onto the burning cinders below him.
"Yeah, that was deliberate."He thought.
Julianna was dragged off screaming into the shadows of the hallway by the tentacle holding her tail, her fingers clawing the ground in vain.
A newt king in diamond-studded armor named Hyegelac stood on the second floor and saw the form of one of Ock's arms to his left with a spike coming out of it from a nearby section. He drew his sword, only to get grabbed by his tail by another arm and dragged in front of Ock and impaled.
Ock flung his corpse onto the ground, swung over to the fireplace, tore the golden Newtopian symbol above it off and hurled it like a discus at a mass of greatest minds (nine of them), Prince Faustus and Princess Una banded together at one corner of the room.
Andrias flinched as it made a loud bang like a gong when hitting them.
His fierce ancestor, a famed gigantic albino newt king called Pericles, carried his feared giant stone hammer and ran at Ock when he jumped down into the center of the room. The doctor caught the hammer with an arm, yanked it out his hands, and used it to hit him in the chest, head and his back in rapid succession.
"Ohhhhh …"Andrias said, shaking his head minutely,"no one would just get back up from that …"
His son King Medraut came at him from behind. He had the hammer swung down on him with massive force, burying him in the floor with a loud crack.
Ock disposed of the large hammer by hurling it at four more targets. Crown Prince Polus (a green newt with a red mustache, vibrant robes and circlet crown), Callicles, Princess Tayne, and Medraut's second son Prince Tybalt were hit together and crushed against the wall by the 15 ft weapon.
Two brilliant generals, Selene Nightcrawler and Kavaka the Undefeated, never even got the chance to plan an attack on him. Ock grabbed them both by the head while his two lower arms had their attention and threw them into the fireplace.
The last king still standing was Uther, a purple newt with a radiate crown made of blue coral and red jewels on tip of his long brown hair and a beard that reached to his waist.
He signaled two knights (Viscardus and Lysander) in full armor to come with him to attack Ock while he went after the nearby Lord Caelum and Princess Acrasia.
Ock wasn't even fazed after he threw Caelum and Acrasia across the room and turned to see the three newts (two as tall as him and the third over four times his size) come at him with flaming laser poleaxes and a mace.
His lower pair of arms dealt with the knights. The left arm grabbed Viscardus on his right shoulder and the right grabbed Lysander on his helmet. His upper arms 'punched' Uther in his chest and face four times, leaving him dazed.
Ock twisted Viscardus's arm in one quick move, dislocating it entirely and crushing his bones there. The knight howled in pain and fell to his knees weeping.
The other arm squeezed Lysander's helmet on top. Lysander screamed as his skull and helmet were crushed. Ock threw him to the side into a shelf. Viscardus looked up in time to get hit in the face and fall dead.
Uther didn't get off easier than them. All four of Ock's mechanical arms 'punched' him in rapid sequence. His gut, ribs, shoulders and face were hit with the force of three tons.
Andrias flinched and grimaced for each blow. Uther sank to his knees and fell dead on his bloody and bruised face.
Ock spotted Prince Guyon and Domina Duessa going up the stairs still intact. He grabbed them by the waist and flung them into Prince Scyld and three greatest minds on the second floor.
Zomok was the last of the Eight to fall. He tried doing some spells from the shadows, but after Andronicus died, the arm that killed him grabbed him by the face and slammed him side to side against two coral pillars until they broke and the balcony above him collapsed and buried him.
Queen Titania was a green newt with long braided brunette hair, fancy robes of lilac covering elaborate plate armor, and wore a spiked fringe tiara made of blue coral. She'd beaten off several cables in the far corner that had snatched over seven greatest minds in front of her and tossed into the walls or dragged into the walls. They said she'd never lost a fight.
She looked up just in time to see one of Marcy's arms come at her. She screamed as she was grabbed on her back and yanked to be hurled into an alcove on the third floor.
Aldrich was still beating at the death grip around his neck. It stopped moving and just held him there against the wall. His face was bruised and cut up from the ordeal.
He paused when he realized the screams had died down. He panted and looked around the mental carnage of the Core's dead 'bodies' lying all over their trashed mental sanctuary in anger and fear. It was almost over.
The last one still moving was the first queen to join the Core, Queen Hecate. She wore a red dress and a gold kokoshnik tiara laid with eight large rubies that matched her dress. She had green skin and flowing blue hair. She was thrown to the ground by Ock while she tried to run to the third story floor after making her way up carefully. He dropped the giant bronze statue down on her in the next two seconds. She screamed as it came falling down to bury her underneath it.
"What is this trickery!? Who are you!?"Aldrich yelled at the man standing on the fireplace.
His voice sounded enough like his son's to make everyone else in the Castle think it was Andrias.
Ock smiled menacingly, shook his head and pointed at Marcy.
Aldrich saw the final intended punishment when he turned to look. Marcy was standing up.
In the middle of their Inner Sanctum the image of their intended Darcy form for Marcy (but with green eyes on the helmet again) looked at Aldrich with a blank look.
The tentacle holding him from Ock Marcy was coming from her back with the rest of them.
"She saved me for last on purpose,"He realized. He was the last mind to join the Core and she was killing him off all alone with no one left who could save him.
"No …"Aldrich whimpered.
Andrias gulped.
Aldrich's eyes, yellow eyes with amber irises and black pupils, were visible. His father only opened both eyes that way when things were serious. But he'd usually just been angry, alarmed or surprised. Aldrich's wide-open eyes were filled with fear.
Andrias couldn't bring himself to look away or even close his eyes.
One by one, Marcy's other five tentacle arms rose into the air by her head to look at him. The red orbs on the tips shifted to a green color with a single white pupil visible.
"No … no …no!"
Ock jumped down to stand behind her. The last Core mind panicked and got desperate.
"No … stop it, please! Just let me go! You win!"Aldrich begged his virtual tormentors, tears in his eyes as he started to cry like a scared kid.
Andrias gasped. He had never seen his father cry.
Ock Marcy's eyes (all of them, including the tentacles) narrowed in anger. Doc Ock frowned and shook his head.
The Core hadn't cared for Marcy's terror, her injured state or demands to be let go. They had tried not once but twice now to try and harm her and take control of her. Given the chance, they would do so again or much worse.
Aldrich wasn't going to get off any easier than the rest of them.
In unison, the tentacles crackled with sparks, went red eye mode and lunged at Aldrich's face.
Aldrich let out a bloodcurdling scream as certain death came at him. Andrias got to see a six-way split-screen closeup view of his face (especially his eyes and mouth) from the tentacle's perspective as they came at him.
The Core's eye lights in the room and elsewhere all shut off with a bang after that attack hit him. Andrias's heart briefly stopped.
He'd never heard his father in life or after death scream so loudly.
Andrias wouldn't forget this night, and neither would anyone else in the Castle at the time.
Blair swallowed and asked Bradford nervously,"Is it over?"
"Must be …"He replied.
Andrias was released by the cables and fell hard to the ground.
He stood up slowly.
The screens in the room flashed a brief message in Marcy's handwriting. "The Core is dead for a week or two … give or take. It was a victim of a horror movie worthy scene and a taste of its own medicine. That's what it gets for messing with MY firewalls and ignoring warning signs like an idiot! I am not its willing accomplice or a piece of property to use. One of these days I'll make sure your ancestor's WORST creation stops existing for good. As for you, Drias … I'm not going to punish you today. Not even tomorrow. You see, I need to think a long, long time about just what I'm going to do with you. I don't know, it might come to me in the middle of the night, or maybe next week, or a few months or even years from now. Who knows? In the meantime, why don't YOU worry about it? You merit a special punishment! Be afraid, Andrias. BE VERY AFRAID. You deserve to live in fear of what's coming to you for lying to me, breaking my heart and then stabbing it in front of my friends and saying any lie you needed to for MONTHS just to get us to do what you want, trying to 'remove my friends from the equation' or even considering using me for this abomination and your sick plans! We are way past talking this out after what you and this monstrosity did. Come near me and you'll be eating your own sword this time! If you try this again or harm Olivia and Yunan, I'll come up with an idea to punish you very fast and your end will be very painful! Either way, you won't be ruling anything by the time I'm done with you! Time for a bit of a Core-dump to set you back on those evil plans!"
His laser sword hilt was picked up by two of the cables and broken in half. A robotic male voice said, "FOOTAGE OF THIS EVENT, THE DAY OF THE CALAMITY BOX'S RESTORATION, THE ATTEMPTED POSSESSION OF MARCY WU;PERSONAL INFORMATION ON MARCY WU OR HER FRIENDS, CONVERSATIONS WITH MARCY, ANNE BOONCHUY AND THE PLANTARS;CORE'S PLANS AND SCHEMATICS TO DOWNLOAD THEMSELVES INTO MARCY OR ANOTHER HOST; FILES ON EARTH INFORMATION, THE WARTWOOD RESISTANCE AND OTHER REBELS; EARTH INVASION PLANS, AND 45% OF CORE MEMORIES FROM THIS PAST YEAR-ALL PERMANENTLY DELETED!"
The screens, power and lights to the whole floor shut off.
.
"I am never going to try to get into her systems again!"Andrias said shakily. For the first time, he began to wonder if they couldn't win. He'd lost to Marcy at flipwart before and he couldn't hope to beat her at it now. He wasn't going to be stupid enough to kill or harm her two attempted rescuers in the dungeons. That would fall to the Core alone.
Andrias wanted to leave right there, once again, like he had a long time ago. But …
He rubbed his neck where a special device had already been fitted.
Andrias was trapped here in this place and role as a villain. At least, he mused to himself as he walked to the door, he could have some more peace and quiet for a while.
"King Andrias … what in olm's name was that … horrible noise going on down here?"General Nolan asked him when he staggered out to the main floor to see the crowd gathered there.
"It was a spell of some kind … forcing me to listen to the screams of … several dying newts… or the screams of ghosts perhaps. I'll be fine … but I need some time alone for now to get that off my mind …carry on without me for now!"He said.
They nodded and let him walk by. They could believe that … Andrias looked scared. He never looked that scared to them.
"That was something else …"He said in his room, laying down to sleep. He didn't sleep the whole night, eyeing the walls around him in fear.
When the Core rebooted over two weeks later, it shivered. The Inner Sanctum was still in shambles.
"This … this must not stand! We need to make sure that never happens again!"Aldrich said. They all still had scars from their 'attacks' they had to focus to remove.
There was a note on the ground that said in Marcy's handwriting: "You will die for good someday soon. Don't touch my stuff or come anywhere near my body ever again unless you want to die even faster or get hit worse! Those are off limits. You've had one taste of what's coming as punishment. Not nice, is it, being yanked around by tentacles or getting shocked? You just screamed in agony for the entire Castle to hear! Are you that desperate for a repeat or just that stupid? Odds are high that you will dig your own grave many times over! \_(ツ)/"
The Core glowered and burned it. "You will pay for that! Forget assimilation … you will be erased!"
Just to make it easier, they suppressed most of that memory in storage. It frightened them what she'd done in their own head and the data and five months of memories she'd erased without leaving a trace in their systems. The invasion of Earth was effectively crippled for the foreseeable future.
Marcy went from a threat to eliminate or a useful Host to someone they were afraid of. She'd done the impossible and made them experience a temporary form of final death. No one had ever done that before.
To make matters worse, they couldn't retrieve that lost data and had to start from scratch. They avoided trying to hack into her systems unless they had to.
Tamora was more angry than scared. Marcy had used a phantom creation to take her out while his back was turned. She thought on how to deal with this, stroked her blonde hair back and started to smile.
"So …"The rest turned to her,"Wit is becoming a true queen in her own right … we'll need to show her how a queen needs to take a good handle on her conquests,"She fiddled a flipwart board on the table in front of her,"what pieces are the most important on the playing field to take out or take for your own to flip the odds in your favor! What to keep and sacrifice! She wants to play a game on our level and be taken seriously, she'll get that!"
They all smiled evil, ghastly smiles. Tamora would know that. She'd done nearly two dozen conquests of her own. She'd been one of the most effective queens of their line and earned her spot among the great 13 monarchs who had the most influence in the Core nowl. She was beautiful and adored by her soldiers with a voice as sweet as honey that could charm them all and inspire them to greatness. She'd gotten many riches and shared the spoils in one of the great peaks of their golden age. Even her untimely death at the height of her regime didn't deter the rest from following her lead.
That night, Marcy sat down on her bed and rubbed a couple good luck charms she'd made to keep herself lucky.
"What about the dreamcatcher necklace?"Smarcy asked.
"Yeah … I still can't sleep without nightmares … hold down the fort for me! Wake me if you need me!"Marcy put the beaded necklace on and went to sleep.
It was part tech and part magic. However that night, she would learn, it made her mind get very lucid as a tradeoff.
When she dozed off, she was awake in her own mind.
She wore a dark green cloak, a light green tunic, and her hair had grown to shoulder length. It was an ideal fantasy look.
It was nice. However, that wasn't enough to make her smile. She stirred a cauldron in front of her. A movie scene with her 'accomplice' played out.
"Doctor Gunther Octavius!"Spider Guy said to the poor doctor before taking his mask off.
Ock smiled,"Peter Parker … brilliant but lazy."
"Look at what's happening … please, we must destroy it!"His experiment was going worse than last time.
Gunther's madness from the evil arms warping his mind was greatly reduced but he wasn't himself just yet,"I can't destroy it …I WON'T!"
His arm grabbed Spider Guy's neck.
"Doctor, you once spoke to me about intelligence …that it was a gift to be used for the good of mankind."
Gunther's anger faded and he nodded,"A privilege."
"These things have turned you into something you're not … don't listen to them!"Parker pleaded.
Ock was already considering that. But he had one last protest,"It … this was my dream."
A good dream to benefit all mankind with a new energy source that could help untold millions. A dream that had cost him everything good already.
Parker knew how he felt on that. He was a guy who sacrificed everything all the time to help others at great expense to himself,"Sometimes … to do what's right, we have to be steady and give up the thing we want the most … even our dreams."
Ock, to his eternal cinametic credit, didn't argue at all. "You're right …"his arms protested out loud and in his head,"He's right!"
He got angry with them,"No, listen to me now …"
When they wouldn't let Pete go, he snarled,"You will all listen to me noowww!"
He forced them to do what he wanted and let go of his friend and hero.
"I will not die a monster!"He said moments later when destroying his experiment.
"Poor doc … he deserved his redemption …"She glanced up at the phantom villain in her head as he appeared. He smiled warmly at her.
She smiled back and said,"I'm glad that new film that came out this summer gave you freedom quicker and a chance to live in a new timeline!"
He shook her hand,"Yeah yeah … classic superhero and sci-fi stuff … don't you go messing with time warps though!"
She shook her hands in protest,"Good heavens, no! Time travel raises all sorts of questions, problems, paradoxes and can give such headaches in any story! I'll stick with my new powers and lab to use."
Ock said,"Good luck … you have the power of the sun in the palm of your hands, or rather … the power of the sun in the center of your mind! I'd say the Heart and Core of your mind, but … that would be both incorrect and insensitive!"
They both laughed. Ock faded from existence in her mind to go back to his role of sympathetic tragic villain and redeemed hero in another story.
"I just hope I don't abuse my gifts and privilege anymore, and can be willing to-"
"Mars, do NOT say you'll have to do another deadly sacrifice or give up your dreams or whatever else you want most! That is so cliché!"Sasha's voice said. She looked behind her.
Two smiling versions of Marcy and Anne stood there in cool quest outfits. The same kind of fantasy the Core would offer her in other life. Anne had longer hair in a ponytail, a sleeveless blue shirt over a grey one, light brown pants and dark boots, and a sword in a blue sheath on her back.
Sasha looked like her toad army self in armor, but fancier. Her shoulder pauldrons were rounded and had diamond symbols on them. Her armor was now a red and pink dress with two swords at her side. She wore a fancy bronze circlet under her hair that extended into two curled rams horns on the side. It made her look fierce but very cute, something she knew Sasha liked.
She sighed and ignored them at first and stirred a pot in front of her. "Yeah … I know. Practically everything I ever wanted … It's a dream come true, but fake … maybe this charm isn't working."
Thankfully, these apparitions were from herself and reflecting something else.
"Oh Mar-Mar,"Dream Anne said, rubbing her shoulder,"we're desires, not a dream! We're not real, but we won't hurt you! We're part of your mind on a different level!"
"Yeah, chin up! You had to do a dark thing while facing your biggest enemy and are still feeling alone and afraid, right?"Dream Sasha asked.
"Yeah …"Marcy said sadly.
The other Anne hugged her along with Sasha,"We're just filling in for the real us now! That way you don't have to keep thinking about how mad they looked! You can see us smiling at you like you all did before! You want that and you know it! You don't have to give up on your dreams, just adjust them a bit!"
"Oh, that's something … I like that!"Marcy said. She smiled and said,"I'll call you ImaginAnne and Sashillusion!"
"Good, now relax focus and do your nerd thing while you … what do you call this?"Sashillusion said.
Marcy knew instantly,"Lucid dreaming … except I'm awake in a dream without dreaming, which means … I am in complete control …"
Inadvertently she tapped into some precognitive potential the stones had. Inside the cauldron, a vision appeared.
She stood with Anne and Sasha in space, all three of them sparkling with gem powers, fancy armor and glowing hair. Marcy's hair was even longer and her face was scar free. Sasha's Calamity form, one she'd never seen, had flaming pink locks and spiked armor.
They were hugging and laughing and happy.
"What the-?"She stared in shock …"Is this some future vision?"
"Maybe! If it is, you might get something even better with real us someday!"ImaginAnne said.
Sashillusion smirked,"Dang, I look good! So do you! That long hair looks awesome! Real anime space goddess mode! It would be a shame for all of us not enjoy that cool look! Make sure the real me gets in on this!"
Marcy said smugly,"Oh, girls, please, the real Anne and Sasha would enjoy being anime space goddesses with anime powers with me! I won't have to persuade the real Ane and Sasha that it's cool! They know it's cool!"
The girl and her imaginary friends laughed.
The next day Marcy decided to start growing her hair out.