See, the Higher Ups just Ordered them to make the offer of Championship to the newest inhabitants within the Red Pyramid. This will be the last time such will be allowed in this manner. After this, the future and previous offspring of the Champions will...upon their 18th birthday, be given the choice of living out their lives as mortals.....or forevermore becoming Champions themselves. That was how things were going to changes.... Yep, things had changed and now the Rule speaks.....
Rule 1 looks over at the Champions and addresses them.
"Greetings," he says solemnly, "As you have already guessed, something.....odd has happened here. Some have even guessed that it has something to do with something Atlantian, as what they feel from emissions and/or from recognition of certain styles of decor. However,....."
Rule 1 sighs before continuing.
"Something strange has happened...." the Rule begins.
The Rule and Agent then explain (to the Champions and the rest) what was going on with their abductions and who (or more like what) was directly responsible for their abduction....and who set the Book off on it's course of action. Some express surprise that a dragon (Minestus) would intelligent enough to be able to master the needed magic and concoct this elaborate plan of revenge, but others assure that such was possible. The surprise seemed to stem from the fact that in some of the worlds that these people were drawn was the fact that their dragons were indeed little more than beasts..However, no one of the abductees argue that the Celestrials before them are liars. Something about them just.....made you believe them. Nothing coercive, just that there was an aura of truth about what they said. In fact, there was an aura of power to these Celestrials that made even the most cynical of the abductees realize that if these Celestrials could will them into believing and doing anything. The fact that they were here speaking instead of ordering (and that the abductees found the ability to raise these questions in their mind) seemed to speak for the Celestrials instead of against them.
The Rule and Agent pauses to answer any questions that the others have. Some of the subject topics of the questions revolved around what was just reveals. Others.....were a bit off the subject, but still fascinating all the same.
One of the first Astras who'd been abducted by the Book had, along with her companion (Fred) stumbled across the various books telling about the happenings of their analogs who became demifoxes....or manimals. While some of the things that were in the book were a bit inflammatory (at the time Astra had been rather shocked to see what those other Fred had thought when they first laid eyes on her analogous duplicate....and after prodding "her" Fred found that he'd had similar thoughts as well) their relationship had....actually warmed up a bit afterwards by....er....quiet a bit (details not needing to be gone into at this time). She well understood the problem that those other Freds thought they'd faced if they'd refused. She well understood why Minestus had changed those other Astras into a demifox in season (to punish her and humiliate her). However, there were several questions that kept coming up during their readings.....
And those questions revolved around several things about the nature of demifoxs. The Rules were happy to oblige......
One question concerned the exact nature of the curse that prevented Demifox Fred and Astra from speaking the human tongue. It was just a variant of the same curse that made the manimals not being able to read. As long as they remained lycanthropes that extra "feature" remained in effect. However, when the Book transformed the lycanthropic demifoxs into actual demifoxes of the Terra Prime type....that "feature" went away. They need their translator gem still for their hybrid and full fox form because of lack of human vocal chords and such, but now in their human form.....they could speak normally without the translator stone. Anyway, that aside, Terra Prime demifoxes still had, despite no longer being lycanthropes, the regenerative powers like a lycanthrope.
"You must understand that unlike on Terra Prime," Agent 1 put in, "the original species of demifox hadn't been hunted to extinction, secretly, by the dragon Minestus in his deluded quest for godhood."
Minestus had discovered certain features he liked in the demifoxes that he'd eventually incorporate into the new species he'd wanted to create, the Manimals. Through a modified form of lycanthropy (after a fatal process of extracting certain things out of his "test subject" demifoxs) he'd been able to change various human victims into demifoxes (who were lycanthropes, of sorts, just that the "neo-lycanthropes" weren't subject to shifting to fox form during the full moon). Finally able to create, in one form, a form of lycanthropy which didn't create a creature that eventually became a psychotic killing machine, he then moved onto the next phase of his quest, but had kept the spell that induced "neo-lycanthropy" in humans that especially annoyed him.
As for the bit about Minestus trying to become a god it extended out of the dragon's deluded belief that if he could create a new species.....that would make him one step closer to obtaining godhood. After all, there were those who believed that those who held in their hands the power of Creation, the power of creating new Races, were gods....... But if that was the case, then a lot of scientists in various high tech worlds were gods because they could bend life into new and different shapes. If one went by that definition then these scientists were gods and THAT was definite untruth.
Well, anyway, the conversation went onto other issues like the differences between demifoxes and manimals. Manimals had two general forms to a demifoxes three definate forms. Take a manimal manfox like Fred, for example. The forms were more....elastic than demifoxes. Fred's "default" humanoid form's face had been described sometimes as "teddy-bear" like, but it could also be made to look like that of a snarling, man-eating beast with an effort of will. Also, Fred's default animal form was that of a man sized fox, but could also shift their size to that of a normal sized fox (re: 2134). The same was true for the other manimals as well. In contrast the three forms of a demifox were rigid. No alterations to them were possible for them. In other words, how they looked was how they looked and the size they were was the size they were.
The other things of note are this. Things like the hybrid form of a demifox looked similar to the humanoid form of a manfox (except that a demifox's hand had four fingers instead of five). Things like the eyes of a demifox (in it's most human form) remained human seeming during the night of a full moon while a manimals shift to those of it's animal type. And that of their natural ability to, no matter how complex the item, were able to "dissolve" things like clothing, jewelry (magical and mundane), even PDAs into their bodies when they assumed their various other shapes. That ability was shared with other races like dragons. Oh, it was limited to only up to the weight limit of what they normally could carry, but this ability put things "dissolved" in a state which returned to normal (fully restored) when they resumed that original shape. Various other things.
That it was possible to "dissolve" and reform such a complex thing as a PDA wasn't really suprising. After all, with the changing of forms also entailed the changing of the size of other things on their person.....such as the size of a manimal's brain. Being that a manimal's brain is just as complex as a human's brain (a massively complex organ....infinately more complex than a mere PDA).....
Well, anyway, back to the conversation.
"At least in that form your mother would recognize you by sight," Fred the Manfox smiled down at Demifox Fred, "Despite your boyish looks, ruddy complexion, and the ears and tail of a fox you still are recognizable as Frederigo D'Honaire to your peers. Me, my old associate....they'd recognize my voice, but not the face. The face will always be that of a fox.... and I actually think it's rather a handsome face.....lots of character and charm, really."
Fred the Manfox smiles as he brushes the furry cheek ruffs of one of his wives before continuing.
"But even the voice is has only a magical trick of this translator," Fred the Manfox finishes, pointing at the green gem on his armband.
The manfox frowns and then turns to the last item of business.
"But I sense that there is one last thing that you needed to tell us?" he prodded, gently.
"I suggest that Jarlath and gang sit for this one," Rule 1 sighs, forming a scene in the middle of the air. Knowing what he knew of the others, this was the best way to present the news, shocking though it'll be for them.
Fred 5b recognizes the place immediately. He should, since it was his ancestral home!
"The....next part is going to be hard to take, Champions." Rule 179 warns, "Believe me, all is not as it appears....not as permanent. Still, it was a shocking situation....especially to US, as you shall find out."
The Champions didn't like the sound of that one.. Considering what Rules and Agents actually were....what could shock them? The images flicker again, starting to tell more stories...and it shocks them to their core!!
(Author's note: this is taken in part from episode 14962 by Y)
A slight drizzle had begun to fall since before dawn and the entourage of Captain Flynt Locke was just about to set off down the Longspeer. The Duke and Duchess Halifax of the Duchy Hindsight had already made their farewells and so the gates of the Iris Estate were the scene of horses, carts, soldiers and guardsmen, a chanticleer and a merchant from the south, the Lady Rowena of Suffex, the man Denom who claimed to be Lord Frederigo of Suffex, and the Captain of the Guard D'Honaire. Then, even as this troupe began to pull away from the guarded walls of the duchy manor, there appeared six forms, and not all were human. Time seemed to contract as a multitude of actions and reactions occurred simultaneously. Fred, who had taken the alias Denom, stared in shock at the tall red-head next to the man; she appeared to be Astra of Aqualaria, fully healed from both death and the effects of the crystallic! "But you're dead..." he whispered. The Guard Halifax raised their swords while the bowmen on the parapets cocked their arrows. Captain Locke drew his sword yelling, "Be gone you foul creatures!" while the remainder of the Guard D'Honaire likewise unsheathed their weapons. The man, three of the women and the fox-creature stared in disbelief as the sight about them. The nude woman who had materialized also, too grew large eyes and exclaimed, "Would somebody mind telling me where on—" she didn't have a chance to finish her thought. Imagine, if you will, being presented with a most shocking sight. Imagine seeing the land about you empty one moment and then full of people the next. Imagine that the only time you had ever heard of such a thing was in the nursery where bedtime tales were full of such things, and also in basic training camp where captains and masters-at-arms told of the working of evil mages. Imagine seeing a woman fully nude and knowing that no proper woman would dally about so, and being just materialized from the wisps of the sky, the most prudent conclusion is that she was a she-thing, a demoness, a succubus. Imagine seeing a monster the size of a man but wearing the form of a she-fox. Imagine all these things and it is not difficult to understand what happened next. Many of the horses reared, the merchant and the Lady Rowena screamed, the soldiers advanced with metal poised to kill, the archers let go a volley to those farthest from the guardsmen; the man raised his hands in an act of magic as did the she-fox, while the red-head pulled out a handy staff and the dark-skinned woman a battle-axe. Within fateful moments there exploded a smattering of blood and gut, of astral energy and raw power, of pain and fear and awe and surprise. And then it was over. The battle anyway. The gates of the Iris Estate were a smoldering shambles. Three guardsmen of the House Halifax were dead, joined by five from the House D'Honaire. The Chanticleer knelt on the ground pouring drink from mouth to mouth into the wounded soldiers. The merchant Pall sat in a corner within the walls murmuring unheard things. The Lady Rowena lay flat upon the ground, dead, trampled by horses. Lord Fred lay by her side weeping, and next to him lay the unconscious form of the woman who bore the image of Princess Astra of Aqualaria. Captain Ridge stood in the courtyard detailing the bizarre event to Duke Harold Halifax of Hindsight. Less than a league away, hidden within a copse, the man who moved magic sat weeping tears of blood. His name was Jarlath D'Honaire, but this world knew him not. This world saw him as an enemy and as such, worthy of death. He sat weeping for loss; the loss of a wife, the loss of a sister, the loss of an eye (for an arrow had pierced it before he could get his family out). His other wife, the woman Annafrid, held a bloodied cloth to his face. "Oh god, oh god, how could this have happened? Vincent never warned us about this." There was a growl behind them both, the she-fox called Andrea Two; "You got that right! I swear, when we get back home, I'll rip his throat out! But first I wanna kill these bastard barbarians! If you hadn't taken us out I would've continued to throw fire from the ether at them!" "And at what cost?" responded Jarlath. "Joan is dead, I saw her fall. And Astra was grabbed by that soldier in red armour. How he pentrated my magic I do not know, but something let him in." The three sat and wondered at this world in which they found themselves. They wondered and cried and howled their pain to the skies. And as for the nude woman whom no one had known, well, she too was deceased. The bolt of a crossbow had pierced her throat; at least her death was swift. ....while a mystery woman lies unconscious in the Iris Estate, our threesome begins to reconnoitre this brave new world in which they have found themsleves "How in Gods name?!" Jarlath whispered hoarsely, shaken at seeing his twin and the other twins plight, "Those analogs were from another Terra Prime? Where those particular analogs weren't Champions? Can we help them, somehow?!" The images (inside the image being shown the others) freezes. The others burst into questions as well, only to be waved to silence by the Agent. "Something, bizarre happened," the Agent sighed, "Up to awhile ago, those people.....were you." "Huh?" Annafrid blinks, "I thought that due to....the speacial nature of Champions that unlike other people.....we don't 'fission off' on a quantum level...... That While we are in ANY universe....reality, the creation of a new universe doesn't happen whenever a focal point of any type (due to taking one chose over another, chance, or what not)......" "You are correct," Rule 179 said, "But the fact of the matter is that when an Altantian artifact, a nameless but powerful book that's grown more powerful (and impatient) over eons and eons since it's creation. Centuries ago, the Minestus of this world had found it and the book, never fully awakened by it's creator, imprinted on the vile drago. Minestus, in the book's view, is it's creator...and is slavishly loyal to him. The dragon is dead, but had set up a means that upon it's death as a means of revenge upon it's slayer and the multiverse at large to transform several hundred of it's loyal servants into Foresaken manimal lycanthropes as a warmup. Those made beastmen burst forth and are wrecking havoc amongst the countryside. Bad enough, that. But this world Doctor Vincent had to go and collect samples of the fowl beast (as well as this world's Malachi). Malachi did not leave a ghost, for her spirit found release after death...despite her body being desecrated. Minestus still wants vengeance, so came back as a ghost....and also terrorizes the countryside through his now limited spell ability with green flame...as well as a few other dire spells. But the worst news of all is that soon this book will complete it's task and start a dark magical ceremony where the bravest (as it's creator defined it) warriors it can find (namely Freds and Astras seem to be blessed with fitting the bill) will be consumed....and a curse will be cast on almost ALL of humanity on this world....turning them ALL into Foresaken." The Champions blink, waiting for the next part. "As for your other selves, when the book saw you all traveling to this realm.....it's magical readings confused Joan hear as the final piece of the puzzle due to your Vincent's magic/science teleporter," Agent 179 said, "Before, Joan's being it's potential final piece had been overlooked because.....it was looking for a Fred and Astra combination. The transformation done to her by RF through her Matrix hid it until now. The book tried to divert the teleport to it's location in the red pyramid, but caused havoc. Yes, the teleport would have worked correctly otherwise, but instead it caused you to land where you landed instead the first time....as well as...." The Agent then goes into a rather involved explanation at what happened. Suffice to say, the House of Hindsight and a large area (several hundred miles) were temporarily created (a reality shard instead of the normal....healthy method of quantum fissioning). The shard was unstable and began to break down immediately, but while the others who'd been duplicated faded (to be given their Reward in the hereafter and such), your duplicates....ALSO being Champions were able to cling on and not 'evaporate.' So, instead, they were dragged by residual effects of the books magical effort to the pyramid (naked and stripped of all arms and armor....but healed of all hurts)." At least there was something in the last positive about this whole business that was positive for these "others." "Uh, I don't like the sound of this," Jarlath mutters, suddenly seeing something. "Won't the book have a problem if it tried to consume that other Joan in the ceremony of it's? Will the ceremony or whatever it is.....work? "No....it'll cause the magic to go berserk......" Jarlath blinks, suddenly remembering the likely magical results in a similar (if much MUCH less powerful) magic. "Would it spill over onto other realities as well....." "Yes," Agent 179 says softly, "I know it would. We'd eventually be Allowed to step in to stop the runaway effect....since it's magical energies would start consuming universes eventually if left unchecked." "Gotta just love those Atlantians," Andrea mutters, stomach sinking. "Even after death, they still cause problems." "Agreed," Rule 179 nodded, having no love for Atlantians either. "Okay, one last thing before you are off," the Rule ends, "As the magical flux swept up your new friend, Thelma (who....in a separate Interview by Us agreed to become a Champion when given the chance.......like her sisters) here, it also swept three of your House members to the pyramid as well. That is, Fred D'Honaire the Manfox and his two wives (Alicia 1 and 3)." They had been on a needed romantic vacation AWAY from it all, out in the jungle (enjoying the feel of the wind through their fur as they ran in fox form) when the got swallowed up. Rule 1 had personally told Manbear Synizn and Loam the problem. So, at least, Loam was in charge of the Manimal Kingdom, keeping things calm (and praying for Fred and the Alicias return). "We have a lot to do," Astra 9 said with a humorless chuckle, "And Lord knows what'll be facing us along the way. But just HOW do we get into the pyramid?" "The other Jarlath has a Key that's somewhat damaged (can't signal for a return) but....." the Rule then sighs. "Well, what you do next in this Task is now in your hands, Champions." Agent 179 says, "We hope you succeed so it won't get to the point were We can step in....else things will have become dim for MANY. You have a week....Good luck" The Rule echoes that last wish and they fade from view as they, in parting, reveal to the Champions the existence of the new Champions (Malachi's bunch) outside the pyramid..... That said (or transmitted as it were at the last).... Rules and Agents might be able to stop the final 'meltdown' but do nothing directly for it's victims in this situation......
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2/16/2001 10:16:09 AM
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