Transdimensional Maneuvers

Fun Party Place

Elister

Unverse

Elite Distant Tofu

Calm Thoughtful Tornado

Beck Strongheart

Red

Steven Excrux

## Chapter 1

Hiking through Avant Gardens at night was one of Intrepid Fusion Eclipse's favorite things to do in the realm of his work. Independent from any faction, ally and friend to only his team, though helpful to others within reason, Intrepid's current mission was to scout out the Spider Caves for any unusual activity. Scout, meaning to run around and smash a number of the new Spiderlings that hatched everyday, making the next day's battle easier for the less enchanted with the sword.

His watchface read a quarter past ten. The night had already begun for quite some time already. Standing near Klauz Zett's stand in the Sentinel Base Camp, Intrepid adjusted his backpack and made sure the blade of his Elite Longsword wasn't getting dull. He slashed at a random rock, shaving off its top and revealing its rough purple interior. Satisfied, he tightened his backpack straps and exited past the constant guard.

The zone directly outside the Sentinel Base Camp had only a lone Stromling as far as Intrepid could see. Avant Gardens was starting to look like that, getting emptier and emptier of Maelstrom mischief. The Nexus Force had made plenty of breakthroughs in the war over the past four years, but if all went well this one was supposed to last. A clean Avant Gardens by the end of the next decade would be nice. It would be an end to his constant missions, protecting the weak and the brave soldiers who would never admit their weaknesses from whatever tricks the Maelstrom could throw at them.

The entrance to the Spider Caves loomed, a hole in a wall of stone that seemed to lead into another world. Intrepid closed his eyes and breathed deeply. Every soldier had his or her weakness, he believed. They could strive for it, but no mortal could truly be perfect, and certainly not himself. Standing before the most numerous and deadly villains of Avant Gardens, his weakness he knew all to well resurfaced.

"Why does it have to be spiders." Intrepid whined.

## Chapter 2

Lucky for his personal fears, only two Dark Spiderlings were actively crawling around the entrance cave, accompanied by three Stromling Mechs and five of the basic Stromlings operating in a pattern, digging at the ground with their claws, though one was armed with a cruel looking weapon that seemed to be a combination of a chainsaw and a longsword. This Cruel Stromling also wore a helmet like nothing Intrepid had seen beore, silvery gray in color with shiny spikes sticking from it, as well as equally spiky shoulderpads.

Intrepid swapped out his Gem Sceptor for his Lion's Shield of Shielding. Then, holding his Longsword high, he jumped to the floor of the entrance cave, slamming his sword right into the metal heart of a Stromling Mech. Its damaged core exploded, taking out the rest of it and knocking down a Stromling with its shock wave just as Intrepid ducked, and still on his feet removed the clutch power of a Stromling's. He then threw on his energy shield when an energy blast from the second mech soared past his running form, then a Spiderling struck him.

He was knocked over and onto his back as the two Spiderlings advanced. The shield abosrbed most of the hit, though, so he was back on his feet and swinging in front of the Spiders' eyestalks as quickly as he'd fallen, holding them back to a safe distance. Then he reached into his back and lobbed two firecrackers, taking them out and half of the remaining Stromlings in a fiery blast.

He turned and met face to blade with the chainsword of the Cruel Stromling.

His energy shield took off half of the potential damage before disengaging, and his own Mega Helm shattered on impact with the high-revving Maelstrom-powered chainsword. He stumbled backwards, blindly thrusting his sword forwards where it batted some part of the Stromling. Then he turned and ran for the entrance to the back cave, looking over his shoulder to see that the Cruel Stromling was unharmed, following and gaining.

## Chapter 3

"Good," Intrepid said as the Cruel Stromling kept at it, trailing Intrepid as he pushed himself, despite a growing pain in his knee and his already ringing ears, through the torch-lit path connecting the two caves. His pace was slowing, and he focused on a certain purple spiderweb directly ahead. He could easily jump over it, if his legs allowed, but Stromlings never jumped.

He could hear the Stromling's grunts as it closed the gap between them, and he could fear the air rushing from the constant whirl of the deadly chainsword. The web was only a yard away, then two feet, then one, and then he was on it. He lifted a leg and turned his head, and the sight that greeted him made him feel and look as sick as the Cruel Stromling. The gleaming red eyes on his dark, pitch colored face were so close, his chainsword closer. Whether the Stromling had any care in him regarding smashing minifigures, whether he felt any distaste or compassion doing the deeds this Stromling had most likely done plenty of times before, Intrepid would never know. The Stromling wore no visible expression on his face, probably because he had no mouth. He simply raised his chainsword and prepared to strike.

Intrepid jumped, more like fell over the spiderweb, and the Stromling ran straight into it. Just as Intrepid predicted, the Stromling was immediately caught in the sticky snare, harmless to anyone who maintained a distance, and especially Intrepid. He sighed, gave the Stromling one last look to make sure he wasn't breaking out, and then rounded a bend so he wouldn't have to hear the Stromling's constant grunts and snarls.

He healed up, polishing his armor and taking some imagination supplements. Then he examined the gray ring around his neck, the last shard he wore of his prized Mega Helm. He took it off, chucking the shard around the last bend before the back cave. It clicked and clattered lightly, its small echo telling him there was yet more for him to do....

## Chapter 4

Without the extra health benefits of his helmet, Intrepid felt slightly weakened and a little less confident. Crouching along the edge of the stone wall in the passageway, he listened. He heard the clicking of many, too many Spider legs on the stone floor, and how many more were stationary or asleep, waiting to wake up at the arrival of prey. He made a mental note to keep this last leg of his mission a stealth one.

He poked his head around the corner, and gave a short gasp.

Yes, there many spiders. They coated the ground like a living carpet, while others hung from the high ceiling and others hid in the dark, only visible by their glowing eyes. But in the center of the back cave, at the middle point between the passageway and the launch pad to the infected Block Yard near the abandoned mine, was an abomination.

It had ten serrated legs and a three segmented body longer than two rockets and as wide as one, and its head was a grotesque bloated mass of charchoal colored flesh with eight rounded eye bulges, changing hue from navy blue to purple, but staying mostly at blue. The Abomination's full size was around five times larger than a Spiderling, and it was longer but shorter than the Spider Queen. On its back in the middle segment were several crystalline obelisks, around twenty, and it was obvious what was carried within them.

"Baby Camel Spiders."

Intrepid bristled, and he turned to the sound of the voice. In the dark he could barely make out a cloaked person beside him, staring into the cavern's center, like he had been. Then the speaker turned to him, and he was staring at the face of a girl. Loose red strands flanked her diamond-shaped face under her hood. "That thing, in the center, I call it a Camel Spider." she said.

Intrepid found his voice. "I call it an Abomination." he said after a momentary distraction. This girl reminded him of someone he couldn't place...

"You're within reason," the girl continued, and returned her gaze to the spiders. "Those are Baby Camel Spiders in their eggs on its back, and they're not nice. They grow quickly, and they are very, very dangerous."

## Chapter 5

Intrepid shivered. Looking at the abominous Camel Spider already there, he could definitely imagine the danger that came with them. He would have to tell his team about this infestation when he got back. Then he'd have to rally forces to combat the new enemies, which would surely be hatched and fully matured by the time he was ready to face them. Engaging them now wasn't in his mission.

"Which, by the way, is a solo mission." he said aloud.

"What?" the girl asked.

"What are you doing here?" Intrepid hissed. "Who sent you? I thought-"

"this is a one-person mission." they finished.

"I'm going to eliminate that," she pointed a gloved thumb at the Abomination, "and all the little spiders with it."

Intrepid in turn gestured at the sea of Spiderlings around it. "And you're going to take out those, too?"

The girl nodded. "Exactly. I'll clear a path, which should let you get close enough to the Big One and smash those eggs."

Intrepid's eyes widened. He stared again at the Camel Spider, to make sure he wasn't crazy and the girl was. The Spider's eyes flashed purple, and it moved slightly before they returned to a resting blue. "You've gotta be kidding me," he assured himself. "That thing... I can't take it out alone."

"You're not alone anymore." the girl said. "And neither am I.'

He heard a rush of wind, and when he turned back to her, the girl was gone from next to him. He glanced around wildly, before a spider's shriek jarred him from his search. He faced the sound, and there in the dark was his mysterious teammate, running into the sea of spiders.

Certain death.

"You gotta be kidding me," Intrepid repeated. He gripped his sword and abandoned his hiding spot, sliding down a ramp of rocks into the cave and into the fray. There was a bright explosion, and the whole cave lit up with battle screams from awakening spiders and the nauseous stench of Maelstrom.

## Chapter 6

Intrepid caught sight of the girl surrounded by the charred bricks of several smashed Spiders and an infectious purple mist, held back by a powerful green energy shield she had projected. In the momentary light he caught sight of her hair and her double swords, swinging at Spiderlings and smashing the ones between her and the Camel Spider, which was exactly what he should be doing.

A wave of Spiderlings was closing on him and he closed his eyes and detonated a Flash Bang, stunning the ones closest to him while he used the distraction to cut through their lines and join the girl in their rush to the Camel Spider. Its eyes had already changed from its previous purple-blue, active-idle pattern to an orange completely active color, and it stood up on six legs, its forward four raised up in a strike position. Spiders around it were pushed away as it scuttled into motion, headed for them. Its small mouth gaped, revealing jagged teeth as sharp and pointy as the rest of it.

"Get ready to jump," the girl said as the clattering of the big Spider's abominous legs grew louder as it grew closer. He spread his arms and pressed his feet against the ground when a stabbing pain erupted somewhere in his shin.

"Now!" she shouted, and pushed him to the right while diving to the other side just as the Spider ran through where they had been an instant before. He landed hard on the stone floor, his left leg burning like it was on fire, and he limped to a standing position. The Spiderlings had been displaced by the big Spider's rush, and they seemed to wait in the sidelines as the Camel Spider turned for another pass, this time aiming for Intrepid.

He reached for his backpack and pulled out his Pneumatic Drill of Blasting. His leg shuddered and his aim was off, but he fired off three shots before dropping to the ground as the gap between him and the oncoming spider closed. He dove forwards as the spider jumped.

## Chapter 7

The ground shook and rumbled as the Spider made contact with the ground, but it had slowed and turned around immediately behind where Intrepid lay. He wanted to stand, but his leg would not cooperate. He didn't have time to search for health packs and his imagination strength was low from his use of the Blaster, but he had enough for another shot. The Spider stepped closer and opened its mouth, raising three sharp looking legs as Intrepid squeezed the Drill's trigger.

The Spider ate the bullet, before a series of flashes came from the left, and bursts of flame erupted on the Spider's thick hide, quickly dissipating but obviously causing pain. The Spider's eyes flashed an angry red and it turned to face its new attacker, the girl, turning its side on Intrepid. Twin guns were in her hands firing energy blast after energy blast at the Spider, which turned to let its head take all of the hits, protecting the eggs. Now its back was on Intrepid, and he had a clear path to smashing those eggs if it meant saving the Universe from an influx of these abominous beings.

He found strength in his determination, and he got to his feet, pulling a Firecracker from his backpack. He stumbled towards the Spider as it took a step back, unable to advance under his teammate's constant fire. "Go!" she yelled, and he scrambled onto the Spider's back.

Its head reared, and actually twisted around so that he was staring at eight red eyes and a clicking mouth. The spider shook, knocking him to the side where he bumped into a crystal obelisk. It was enough to tip the egg over and disconnect it from the four, stud-like protrusions that held it to the spider's back. It fell to the floor and shattered on impact, sending crystal fragments all over the cave. Upon contact with the stone, they blew up with mini-explosions of red hot fire and mist.

The Camel Spider bellowed a shrill sceam that almost shattered Intrepid's ear drums, and he detonated the Firecracker.

## Chapter 8

Intrepid heard only the signature sound of shattering crystal as he was launched far away by the Firecracker's blast. His fingers and palm burned, as it detonated still in his hand, and he flailed blindly, his eyes unseeing before he too struck the ground with a painful thud. He saw stars, then he hard a shrill shriek very close to him and saw a dark mass. His eyes focused, and he realized he was staring at the bloated head of a Dark Spiderling. He screamed too, when he realized that the Spider was on fire. A clear crystal fragment had impacted with its back and was burning a hole in its armored shell.

He pushed himself away from the unfortunate Spider, which smelled like melting plastic, and stared instead at what he'd done. The big abominous Camel Spider shrieked and writhed, its back empty of crystalline obelisks were now existed in trillions of tiny pieces, soaring through the air and combusing on contact with everything.

Then a piece of crystal hit him too, and he screamed.

"Get up, get up!" a familiar voice demanded, and then he was pulled to his feet. The hands that gripped his bruised shoulder felt warm, but not a soothing warmth. The heat grew to be intense, and when he actually looked at the hands that pulled him up, he saw that they too were burning, a fire that was spreading across to him.

He jerked away, and the fire subsided, as did the pain. "What was that?!" he yelled, but the girl was running now, towards the cave's exit. Away from him.

The crystal had burned. Her hands had burned him. He wanted to give chase, but his legs refused to move him faster than a quick limp. He wanted to know what he had just done here, but more importantly why.

Why was there an Abominous Camel Spider? Why did the girl want to destroy it so much?

Who was she?

He made it to the exit passageway, through the entrance cave, and finally, out into the open. Light filtered in through the morning clouds, and a Stromling approached him. There he collapsed.

## Chapter 9

"Rise and shine."

Intrepid opened his eyes. He was on a bed in a floppy white structure, in which he looked around. He recognized both the tent and the speaker, so when he turned to him he began speaking immediately. "Luke, we've got to get to Nimbus Station, I need to-"

Grand Masterly Shadow, unofficially known as Luke, held up a hand to stop him. "Easy, man, take it slow. You had a minor concussion and a broken leg."

"It feels good to me," Intrepid gave his left leg a test bend, and when nothing out of the ordinary happened, he repeated his request. "I don't see why we can't get going now. Luke-"

Luke sighed. "For starters, yeah, I got you all healed up, but you're safe in the Sentinel Base Camp now, where you are going to rest up. The best strength comes naturally, so eat, drink, and stay in this tent. Doctor's orders."

"You're not a doctor!" Intrepid called after his friend's retreating form as he slipped out of the tent's exit.

"Maybe I am and you went crazy and forgot," Luke replied, and Intrepid laughed. He swung his legs over the bed's side and found his backpack. He was in his streetclothes, Luke probably had to remove his armor to work his magic. Besides, it was never comfortable to sleep wearing armor.

As Luke suggested, Intrepid found breakfast in the tent's small cooler, which consisted of old pastries and some Lemon-Aid energy drink. The only thing missing was his Mega Helm, which he sorely missed. At least it had saved him from getting a major concussion. Finding a replacement would be a definite requirement before he returned to action, though he seemed to do okay without it when he had that strange red-haired girl as his teammate....

He really did feel fine, and after half an hour of looking over his maps and making notes, he suited up into his regular armor and stepped out of the tent.

## Chapter 10

Intrepid glanced around. The tent was one of many fabric structures put up on the grassy plateau over the rocky cliffs around the Sentinel Base Camp. The idea was that non-soldiers or families could live up there, protected behind the Sentinels, and even if the Base Camp got breached, no one had ever seen a Stromling climb, so theoretically the place was safe.

On his head Intrepid wore a replacement for the Mega Helm, his old gray Kettle Helmet. It was in almost mint condition, as he had barely time to use it before he got his Mega Helm. He found it in his backpack, untouched for two years and ready for action.

If he could convince Luke to work with him, he thought.

As if called by a psychic link, the blonde haired boy soon appeared, approaching from around the tent with their last teammate, Elite Distant Tofu. "Hey, Intrepid," Luke called. "You ready to go?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," Intrepid said. Evidently, his friends were already eager to back him up, no questions asked, and they began heading down one of the less steep sides of the hill they were on, towards the monument. It was a longer way towards the Launch Area, rather than just climbing through the mountains, but he wanted time to talk. "Thanks guys, you're the best team. And speaking of which, I'm not going on a solo-mission again."

"Why?" Elite asked. "I hope you're not worried about what happened to your shoulder, bruises and stuff. Everyone gets scuffed up in battle."

"Bruises?!" Intrepid exclaimed. He glanced over his left shoulder and rolled up his sleeve. He breathed in sharply. There his skin was lit up an unnatural splotch of red. He looked closer, and realized it was shaped like a hand.

Like if someone grabbed him.

Which someone did.

Intrepid stared at his worried friends grimly. "Here's what happened last night," he began.

## Chapter 11

"Inside the Spider caves was the biggest spider ever." Intrepid said, adding for good measure, "And the ugliest one ever."

"So there were two spiders." Elite said.

"No."

"But you said-"

"Whatever! There was one big and ugly spider," Intrepid continued, "and it had these eggs, and this girl called it-"

"Oooh, you met a girl." Luke said.

"Stop it, here me out. She called it a Camel Spider, and the thing is, I got burned when not just the eggs touched me, but the girl too. Here." Again, Intrepid rolled up his sleeve. "This must be where she grabbed me to help me up, when... I lost her."

"You lost her? She's dead?" Elite asked.

"No, as in she disappeared. Gone. Poof! She probably has all the answers to my questions," Intrepid said hurriedly. "Like, just what I was fighting there."

Luke stroked his chin. "A Camel Spider." he said. "In all serious though, this girl, whoever she is, evidently she knew what it was. She does know something, so we should find her."

"Exactly," Intrepid agreed, snapping his fingers. "But... where do we find a girl we know nothing about-"

He was cut off by a sudden blast of an amateurly played trumpet, but it was enough to make his blood freeze, and the faces of his friends go pale. The trumpet continued for a morose five seconds before its abrupt stop because its player, Fitz Vanderbuilt, ran out of breath like he ran out of bricks.

And because a familiar looking Stromling dove through the hole in the wall and tackled him. It wore a very spiky helmet and carried a chainsword.

The memory of his encounter with this certain Stromling snapped Intrepid back to reality first. "Aw, bricks." he moaned. "If it had to get worse...." He turned to his friends, "Come on guys!"

A still pale Luke turned to his friend and squeaked, "That trumpet... it's never been played before!"

Then Intrepid remembered what that particular trumpet meant.

It meant something terrible of the worst kind.

It meant evacuate.

Now.

## Chapter 12

"Okay," Intrepid said. "Those guys down there are very, very-"

"Dangerous, we get it." Elite said, as a Camel Spider took out half the trees in front of the base camp. Minifigures dove for cover behind rocks and structures inside the camp, pinned down by the swath of discharged energy from the Maelstrom army.

The team made their way down on a cliffside path, dodging laser fire which dislodged rocks above and behind them. When they were on the ground, Luke spawned his Anvil of Armor, Intrepid his Fountain of Imagination, and Elite her Cauldron of Life. Then Luke jumped into the fray.

"Hey uglies!" he shouted, waving his sword and attracting a crowd of Stromlings otherwise moments away from overwhelming two minifigures behind a rock. "Come and eat this!"

He then tossed a Firecracker into the group's center, detonating the Stromlings in a cloud of smoke which dissipated quickly, revealing three grotesque looking, Spiderling-sized, not-Spiderlings-but-like-Spiderlings, somethings. They were armed with laser shooters and everlasting rocket launchers that seemed to have grown out of their armored heads, all of which fired at Luke.

The skilled Nexus Force soldier was able to dodge most of them, but a laser blast caught him on the chest and got him flat on his back. But before the not-Spiderlings could move in for the smash, Intrepid and Elite jumped out, pulled Luke behind a line of trees, where he gasped for breath.

"What are those things..?" he wheezed as they appeared again, cutting down the trees with razor sharp teeth.

Intrepid recognized the abominous creatures. "Newlybuilt Camel Spiders," he said grimly, and then rushed forwards with Elite, swords swinging and slashing. Together they ducked and whirled under and around flying legs and gnashing jaws, getting in hits wherever they went and ridding the universe of two Camel Spiders. The third, they realized when they heard screams, was trying to eat Luke.

## Chapter 13

From where he lay, Luke lobbed a Flash Bang, and proceeded to smash the blinded Camel Spider before it could do any irreversible harm. "I could do this in my sleep." he said.

Intrepid pulled his friend to his feet. "Six Stromlings and three Super Spiders down, out of a hundred of each." he said, surveying the battleground. Inspired or independent minifigures were starting to put up a fight as well, forming small pockets around themselves where the Maelstrom could not advance, but they were extremely outnumbered. At least they were able to distract the Maelstrom enough for the wimpy minifigures to get away, heading for the Monument. But they would not be able to fight forever, and some Stromlings had already made it to the stone tunnel.

"We can't win this as we are now!" Intrepid cried.

"An airstrike would definitely help now," Luke said, looking at the sky. "So where are they?"

"Forget them, we've got to get to higher ground." Elite led them back up the cliff, where they began lobbing Flash Bangs, Firecrackers, Rocks, Anythings really at the advancing army below. Intrepid respawned his Fountain of Imagination, and used that to keep his Pneumatic Drill of Blasting mostly armed as he took out the most aggressive looking Stromlings, but they kept coming. The Sentinel Base Camp and the entire area outside it were overrun. The grass had already turned purple and a sickly mist began to rise.

The defending minifigs were now piled up in the entrance to the tunnel that led to the Monument. Up on the overlooking cliff, Intrepid, Luke, and Elite hurried to get closer to their allies and to get better cover. A laser attack from a Camel Spider nearly took them out. Blaster ablazing, Intrepid neatly removed the offending laser gun from the Camel Spider, which proceeded to launch a salvo of rockets instead.

They struck the ground he was on, sending him flying one direction and his friends in the opposite. Then he went over the cliff.

## Chapter 14

Intrepid hit the ground not-so-hard, as he fell through Klaus Zett's table first. He rolled on impact and stood up, dizzily, coming face to not-face with the serrated blade of a Chainsword, held by a familiar Stromling.

"Ah, not you again." Intrepid ducked the Stromling's attack, aimed for his head, and then poked the monster in the gut with his Drill of Blasting. He pulled the trigger and the Chainsword Stromling exploded in a small shower of flaming brick fragments. Intrepid shielded his eyes, and when he opened them he saw that the explosion had taken out a small amount of normal Stromlings around them. The grass was burnt and an unusual stench dominated the air.

He quickly threw an energy shield around himself and began hacking and slashing with his sword towards the Monument cave, which was not far away, but there were about a hundred monsters between him and the surviving minifigures' line of defense, which continued to be pushed further and further back. He could not see his friends, and when a Stromling Mech stepped in front of him, he lost sight of all friendly minifigures as well.

Intrepid still held his Drill in his other hand and shot the robot in its armored chest. The Mech staggered, then stepped forwards and whacked Intrepid into the wall, his sword flying from his right hand. He groaned and slumped to the ground, aware of the Mech's thumping approach as he felt around for his sword. His left arm had hit the wall first and he found no strength in his pain, so he could not raise his Drill to fire, which now felt as heavy as a robot... like the robot that was coming to get him....

Somewhat deliriously, his eyes threatening to shut forever, his hand closed around something. and he pulled it towards him.

## Chapter 15

Intrepid heard the loudest of a crackling sound, and it penetrated his consciousness. He opened his eyes, for the first time taking note that the sky was a dark green. Or did it just turn green? He realized that only part of the sky directly above him was green, while the other half was still blue. Then he realized that the green was really the hilly ground like in Nimbus Station, viewed like from above, but through a hole like in a wall.

Except it was a hole in the sky, through which a fleet of yellow and blue colored rockets suddenly exited.

Intrepid gasped, and turned to what he had held in his hand. But it wasn't there anymore. Someone was crouched next to him, not staring at him, but rather staring at a kind of control pad in her hands. It contained a large lever which was pulled all the way to one side, which he'd probably done. Then he saw that the someone had red hair.

"You!" he shouted, then he felt a metallic hand on his head. He writhed around and smashed the Mech, then turned back to the mystery girl from the Spider Caves. "What are you-"

"Just watch." she said.

"I've watched plenty," Intrepid snapped. "The Maelstrom is everywhere, the Sentinel Base Camp is almost destroyed-"

"Just watch." she repeated, staring at the sky.

Intrepid looked back at the strange sight that was the hole in the sky through whicks rockets flew out of, just in time to see the rockets fire their primary engines, blasting straight from the ground of Nimbus Station to the ground of Avant Gardens and exploded on impact.

Gigantic explosions rocked the ground and again Intrepid had to shield his eyes. He heard sparks, shrieks, and screeches of smashing Merchs, Stromlings, and Spiderlings, and he could taste the rapid expulsion of Maelstrom from existence. When he was able to lower his arms and open his eyes, the sky was only blue, the Maelstrom was gone, and the Sentinel Base Camp was completely destroyed.

He turned to the mysterious girl, but she wasn't there.

## Chapter 16

It was an overcast morning in Nimbus Station when Intrepid, Luke, and Elite arrived. The threat of rain had doubled the despair that clouded the thoughts of every minifigure aboard every civilian-filled rocket bus leaving Avant Gardens, and every clean up crew-filled rocket bus aiming for Avant Gardens. The minifigures, protectors and protected alike, were known to be brave, stronghearted fighters regardless of loyalties or lack thereof.

But this.

This was apparently too much.

Or too weird.

The Nexus Force didn't use ICBMs, intercontinental ballistic missile-rockets, yet it was a fleet of those that destroyed the Maelstrom that destroyed the Sentinel Base Camp by blowing a gigantic hole in the middle of Avant Gardens.

So, where did they come from?

Who fired them?

When did the Maelstrom get so powerful?

When did the Nexus Force get so powerful?

When did whoever-fired-the-missiles get so powerful that they could fire the missiles?

Everyone was too cloudy in the head to try and get to the bottom of it, except for Intrepid, Luke, and Mara.

They were in Nimbus Station. They were going to find out what, why, and how such a srange thing could happen. They were going to ask a friend.

"Calm Dejected Fleebnork?" Luke read aloud, looking up from the whitepages book he held.

"Calm, yeah, that's part of his name." Intrepid said. He, too, had something in his hands, but it was a mobile device, displaying a list of people. Old contacts, people of interest, the like that an elite Nexus Force commando wannabe like Intrepid would want to keep a book about, or in this case an e-book, stored on a website with antiquated security protocols and accessed through an unsecure network. Very elite, very Nexus Force, very commando, hardly wannabe, one would think sarcastically.

The three sat in a wheeled bus, driving through a crowded street in a crowded Brick Annex town.

"What about Dejected and Fleebnork?" Elite asked, as the bus picked up from a stop, following a start, followed by a stop, followed by a start as cars crawled along the street.

"Neither of those," Intrepid suggested, "try Thoughtful."

"Calm Thoughtful Hammock?" Luke said.

"Something like that... hold on..."

"We just passed by his house."

"No wait! Calm Thoughtful Tornado!" Intrepid shouted. "That's the guy. I found him in my 'List of Interesting Interesting Things'."

Elite looked around. "Where?"

"Where's his house? Is it on this street?" Intrepid asked.

Luke's eyes were already peeling the whitepages again, and he said quickly, "Calm Thoughtful Tornado lives in Nexus Force Correctional Facility 3, located in Brick Annex." He looked up. "A quarter mile to the east, next intersection."

"Ah, good." Intrepid said. "Let's get off this bus- wait, correctional facility?"

Luke shrugged. "You said he was on your Interesting Things list. You tell us why he's there."

Intrepid flagged the driver, and he opened the doors to let them out, which was done pretty easily since the bus was stopped anyway. Rain had begun by then, but the three couldn't care less, when there were more interesting things than rain to think about. "Apparently he was a Nexus Force commando," Intrepid said. "Like me."

Elite gave him a friendly punch in the shoulder. "Yeah."

"Hey, that's the bruised one. Anyway," he continued, "they gave him the idea that the Nimbus System was gonna blow up, so he went on a mission with the goal of exploring another universe, in which all of the Nimbus System could relocate."

"Cool." Luke said. "What does that have to do with our current situation?"

Intrepid's brows furrowed. He looked ahead, as the towering structure of Nexus Force Correctional Facility 3 loomed ahead, the wrought iron-colored front gates only a hundred steps away, and closing. He thought back to Avant Gardens, specifically the hole in the sky, connector of worlds.

"I think I have an idea."

## Chapter 17

A Sentinel guard guy stood in front of the gate controls, flanked by three other Sentinel guards who looked just like him. All were armed with laser rifles, which were aimed at the ground, for now. The guard guy at the gate controls nodded when Intrepid flashed out his credentials, a piece of paper with a Nexus Force logo printed on it, and proceeded to open up the gates.

"That was easy," Luke said as they proceeded down the path.

"Anyone can make up their own credentials," Intrepid said. "The guards are really there to keep Maelstrom out."

"And keep minifigures in." added Elite. "This is a correctional facility, after all."

Intrepid shivered at the thought, or was it just because of the cold, and it just so happened to occur at the same time that it would have in some dramatic movie, because shivers are dramatic. "Yeah." he said.

Inside the building, the walls and floor were made of shiny, squeaky clean white colored tiles which squeaked as they walked on them. They passed some guards who payed them little mind and Intrepid again flashed his paper at a receptionist minifig, their shoes squeaking with each step. There was a benefit to this, that whenever someone moved, everyone in the building would know where they were. This would only be an issue if someone tried to escape, for the escapee.

Squeaks aside, the ceiling color was a contrasting black, gloomy and dreary like the gray rainclouds outside. It made Intrepid tired to look at it, so he focused on the walls. They passed doors and hallways leading to wings labeled stuff like Cafe, Janitor Cafe, WC, West Wing, East Wing, Light Containment, Heavy Containment, Secret Containment, etc..

"Not very secret," Intrepid commented on that last one.

"It's very secret," a voice said, belonging to a decorated Nexus Force commander who was walking by. "That's where we keep the guys who are threats to the morale of the Nexus Force. This is a secret."

"Yep." Luke agreed when he was gone. "Let's go."

## Chapter 18

A short walk down Secret Containment brought Intrepid, Luke, and Elite to an intersection. A holographic map emitter ran from the ceiling to the floor in the center of the intersection, with arrows pointing in three directions ignoring the direction from which they came: Experiments Ward to the left, Mystery Ward to the right, and Psychiatric Ward straight ahead.

Intrepid glanced around. "Let's split up, guys. Luke, go left; Elite, you take the right. I'll check out the Psychiatric Ward."

"Splitting up is usually when everyone dies in movies," Elite said.

"Just call if you're in trouble," advised Intrepid. He tapped the side of his helmet, activating his secret earpiece, and his teammates did the same. "Good luck, remember we're looking for Calm Thoughtful Tornado. Stay focused, there might be some weird things here...."

The team split up, down the white and black hallways. The rooms Intrepid passed no longer had names of subsections, but rather names like Frightful Void Laser and Alert Flappy Tank. Minifigures, people, prisoners to the Nexus Force, for whatever reason.

He passed underneath a security camera. Wherever he was going, the Nexus Force knew it, and they were letting him, for whatever reason. Or rather, they had no reason not to, not yet.

A familiar name caught his eye. Calm Thoughtful Tornado, engraved in big bold letters on a metallic, heavy looking door. Beisde the door was a DNA scanner, the only way in, and the only way out. Intrepid tapped his helmet and whispered some commands, relaying his position to his teammates. Taking a deep breath, he placed his palm on the scanner. The door slid slowly upwards into the ceiling with several mechanical clicks, and Intrepid stepped in.

## Chapter 19

The room was drearier than the hallway outside, with checkered gray and darker-gray colored walls, a tiring black foor and ceiling, and a small walled enclosure leading from the door into the main part of the room itself. The first thing Intrepid heard when the door came to a hissing stop was a low, organic gurgle, like a mix between a laugh and a cry. As he rounded the corner into the main room, he saw a counter, a sink, a toilet, a protein processor, and a bed, upon which sat a prison-clothed minifigure, a ghoulish leer on his face, aimed straight at Intrepid.

The intrepid newcomer took a step back, and then the minifigure's head fell as he broke into a fit of coughs. "...Tornado?" Intrepid asked tentatively.

The minifigure looked up in mid-cough. "Yes," he said with an unusual clarity, "that is part of my name." His nightmare-inducing smile returned to his face, nightmarish because of his pale, sunlight-lacking complexion. "I haven't seen another face in... how many seconds? I've counted them all... 53913624 seconds, and counting. Your clothes, they are consistent with an Avant Gardens attire. Have you come to release me?"

Ignoring the last question, Intrepid hurriedly inquired, "Then you're part of the Epsilon Experiment? One of the first minifigures to cross into another universe?"

Calm Thoughtful Tornado's eyes widened, and his previous, cold calm seemed to disappear. He cackled. "The star, Epsilon 55c, supposed to go nova on January 30th, 2012, and smash the entire Nimbus System. Yes, the Epsilon Experiment, I was part of it. I scouted out another universe, yes, as the Faction Leaders ordered me. Yes, me, being a good little minifigure and doing whatever the big Faction Leaders ordered of me, oh yes." He said this with a false grin, which turned sour quickly after.

"They lied." Tornado hissed. "I saw Epsilon 55c explode on a TV documentary about it when I got back. Every blissfully ignorant minifigure in the entirety of the Nimbus System survived. Except I wasn't in the Nimbus System on January 30th. I was lost in another universe, where creatures like you and me react poorly to the environment. My limbs became stiff, malleable in only specific ways. My skin became brittle, like plastic- no, I was plastic! Soon I could not move, I could not talk, I could not see or hear or smell... but I was retrieved by the Faction Leaders. They knew what would happen, they knew it all... thay are traitors to minifigurekind!"

The disillusioned prisoner was screaming now, and Intrepid fought the urge to cover his ears, or silence Calm Thoughtful Tornado, who now whimpered dramatically. "So..." Intrepid said, cautiously, so as not to arouse anymore of the contained anger for the... 539something seconds, approximately 600 days, that Tornado had spent in this cell. "You say you were... experimented upon, by the Faction Leaders." Tornado sniffed in affirmation. "That's horrible, that's evil, that's madness... yes," Intrepid realized. "Yeah, I can see how that can result in madness.

"Well," he continued, "I'm just wondering if I can ask you some questions."

"I take orders from no one." said Tornado, quickly. "Not anymore, not ever, never!"

"I know, I know," Intrepid said quietly. "You don't have to, but I could use your help. It's regarding interuniversal travel. Strange things have started happening."

"Started?" Tornado spat. "Or your eyes have opened. Strange things always happen, you just choose to ignore them until they concern you."

"Maybe you're right," Intrepid agreed. "But this involves our entire Universe. You said there were effects it had on you, what if it happens to everyone here?"

The prisoner turned thoughtful. He looked away, focusing on nothing but his own thoughts, before screaming in anguish, "There are too many aspects to think about! Like if the universe I traveled to has some universe-specific properties that plastic-ify minifigures. I'm not dumb, I'm smart, I'm one of the smartest if I say so myself, if not knowledgable. I'm awesome! I once read a book on the idea of other universes. Discussed were stuff like other universes having different laws of physics. Anyway, no, I can't help you, not here, definitely."

Calm Thoughtful Tornado turned to Intrepid. "You're the first anything of color I've seen in over a year. Everything in this room is black, white, or gray. Even the food is gray. It's just reprocessed protein molecules."

Intrepid was tempted to comment on the prisoner's awfully pale skin complexion, including in the "Everything in this room", but he bit his tongue instead. Tornado continued, "I could probably help you out better, if you help me out, literally." He stood up, and Intrepid glanced towards the door. It remained open.

He turned back to the prisoner, dressed in his easily identifiable gray prison garb. "Yeah," Intrepid said. "I think we can arrange that." He took some spare, unlinked clothes out of his backpack, and handed them to Tornado, who equipped them. "Let's go."

They started for the door, but the instant Intrepid got within two feet of it it slammed shut. A robotic voice stated, "Prisoners may not leave. Scanning occupants." A red light suddenly filled the room, and then an alarm blared. The voice began shouting out in its monotonous voice, "Security breach, security breach, security breach," which could probably be heard from speakers throughout the entire Correctional Facility complex.

"How did you get in?!" Tornado yelled to his saviour over the robot.

"Using the scanner!" Intrepid replied, reaching for his blaster.

"That's for prisoners." Tornado said.

## Chapter 20

"Once you use that scanner, your DNA is put into the prisoner's database." Tornado said. "They did it with me. Guards get to open the doors with their mere presence." His eyebrows furrowed as Intrepid aimed his Drill of Blasting at the door. "You're not a guard, are you."

"You catch on quickly, for a psychiatric ward inmate." Intrepid said. He squeezed off three shots at the door, which clanged and didn't even dent. He returned the drill to its holster and pulled out a Firecracker. "Stand back," he warned, and then lobbed it at the door. It bounced off, coming back to its thrower like a boomerang, about to blow up.

The two escapees dove for cover, of which there was none, as Firecracker-parts splattered all over the room. Then the door slid open, and when Intrepid peeked around the corner, he saw Elite Distant Tofu standing there, hand on the DNA scanner.

"Keep that pressed!" he yelled, and grabbing Tornado's shirt collar, they quickly vacated. Out in the hallway, Luke and Elite stood together, weapons drawn and ready for a fight if one was needed.

"Can I take my hand off this now?" Elite asked, referring to the scanner. "It tingles."

"Yeah, we're getting out." Intrepid huffed. "Let's go-"

The robot voice cut him off. "Sensors detect prisoner-breach, Micromanagers dispatched."

A fleet of flying robots appeared at the end of the hallway, claws snapping and weapons charging.

"Get behind the blonde guy!" Tornado shrieked.

"What?" Luke asked, but he dutifully stood in front of his friends, spreading his arms and waving his sword.

"We've all touched the DNA scanner." Tornado explained. "We're marked as prisoners, except for you. The Micromanagers won't attack unless they see you as-"

Luke swung his sword and destroyed a Micromanager.

"-an enemy." Tornado finished.

The Micromanagers' guns whirred as they lunged, claws snapping and robo-brains beeping, towards the group of friends.

"Everybody run!" Intrepid screamed.

## Chapter 21

Lasers sizzled from the Micromanagers' weapons, luckily soaring over the heads of Intrepid, Luke, Elite, and Tornado, who ducked and rolled to avoid the deathly blasts.

"This hallway is too straight," Luke panted, risking a glance backwards as the Micromanagers recalibrated their aims. They would not miss again.

"Janitor's cafe ahead!" Elite yelled.

They barged through the double doors, and while the others kept running, Intrepid turned around to slide a Longsword between the door handles, barricading it. He then turned and came face to face with a janitor.

"Hey, what are you doing?" the woman demanded. Behind her, Luke, Elite, and Tornado were knocking down tables, chairs, and whatever items they could in their search for another way out. “The more you kiddos go ‘round smashing stuff, the more we janitors have to clean this place up.”

"Sorry," Intrepid said. "We're saving the universe."

The double doors expoded then, and Micromanagers swarmed in. Intrepid dove behind a table and blasted a Micromanager in its "face". It fell apart, but its cohorts, three other Micromanagers, began firing towards their targets, blowing up whatever furniture was in the way. The janitor fled in the meantime, probably gathering reinforcements.

The closest target, two Micromanagers hovered towards Intrepid's hiding spot. He lobbed a Firecracker directly at one, detonating on impact and taking half of the second manager with it. He dove out and finished it off with his Longsword, while at the same time Luke and Elite neutralized the third Micromanager.

"Have you found a door yet?" Intrepid called.

Tornado pointed to an array of windows, four feet up from the floor. Aside from their placement, they were more than tall and wide enough for a minifigure to fit through. "We can get out through here."

Intrepid nodded, glancing furtively at the hallway outside the door. He could hear the echoing steps of boots on floor tiles. "Yes," he said, "let's do it quickly."

## Chapter 22

By the time the first of Nexus Force Correctional Facility 3's guards entered the Janitor's Cafeteria, there was only damage and destruction to be seen. The smoking hulks of four Micromanagers stood out among the twisted forms of cafe furniture, but the culprits were nowhere to be seen. The guard adjusted his helmet and looked upwards, at the opened windows.

"Send a level 3 alert out to Nexus Command," the guard said, turning to his squad. "The perpetrators are at large. Give me all CCTV recordings, we need descriptions!"

Meanwhile, the perpetrators were huddled together outside a storefront, sipping root beer. "Bleh," Elite said, putting her cup down. "Who can drink this stuff?"

"Not feeling so good?" Intrepid asked. He put down a cup as well, it was empty.

"We just robbed a jail." Luke said glumly. "Who can feel good after that?"

"He sure can." Intrepid jerked his thumb at Calm Thoughtful Tornado, who was drinking plastic cup after plastic cup of root beer from the "Free Root Beer!" vending machine outside the storefront.

"This is the best stuff EVER!" Tornado screamed, attracting stares from passerbys. Even the metal stairs of a nearby fire escape seemed to be attracted to Tornado, as they creaked and tugged on the bolts holding them to the building their serviced.

The newly freed prisoner, his arms laden with Root Beer-filled plastic cups, approached his liberators with a huge grin on his face. "I haven't had any real food or drink in over a year!" He then noticed their frowns. "What's the matter?"

"We just robbed a jail," Luke repeated.

"To clarify, we're fugitives." Intrepid said.

"Specifically, we just robbed a jail!" Luke clarified.

"So we need someplace to lay low," Intrepid continued. "I'm thinking some random Block Yard property."

"So we're going to be squatters now?" Luke whined.

"Some owners actually like people to hang out at their properties." Intrepid said.

"Oh, you mean it gives them reputation." Elite explained. "But we'll be more noticable that way."

"Then let's try a place that already has reputation," Intrepid suggested. "Come on, let's go."

The four fugitives left then, heading for some random open space outside the city which they found on a hill, where they launched their rockets (Intrepid gave Tornado a spare rocket) and headed back for Avant Gardens. Once there, they had to get Tornado to stop screaming about how nostalgic everything was, how he loved Avant Gardens, and how he hated the Nexus Force, before launching off to the most well known Block Yard party in the universe:

The Fun Party Place.

## Chapter 23

Little is known about the planet Crux before its destruction. Hidden behind a nebula, unseen by nearby planets, it was perchance that four explorers discovered it at all. The strange, cuboid planet, housing the Imagination Temple and a lot more, unknown forever.

When Crux exploded into several smaller fragments, the event could be seen from worlds far and wide. The fragments in turn became smaller worlds of the Nimbus System. The smallest of these, the property worlds, would become privately owned building-spots for Nexus Force recruits, the brave minifigures who volunteered to fight off the Maelstrom.

This is what we know of Crux.

And there is a lot we don't.

\* \* \* \* \*

"The Fun Party Place," Elite said thoughfully. "Have you ever seen it not #1 in the Block Yard listing?"

"No..." Luke said. "I can't remember it ever being less than that."

"It's a constant." Intrepid stated. He whistled. "Even when we're not here, it always is there, like it's waiting for us. That's actually kind of cool."

The four minifigures, Elite, Luke, Intrepid, and Tornado stood at the landing zone of the Block Yard property, the Fun Party Place. It was well into night, and the air was cool and crisp. The impassable mist that surrounded the property on all sides but the top was dark. Yet the Fun Party Place still bustled with activity. Minifigures from all other worlds came here for whatever reason, probably none as discreet as the four newcomers.

Most of the attention on the property was focused on trying to get things to work the way they should, so Intrepid had no issues leading his friends around the property's edge to the large, mountaneous structure at its rear. It was hardly wondered why every Block Yard looked the same, empty at least, and no one cared everytime else, so Intrepid knew where to find a cave, nearly invisible but with a large hollow, which his team could hide in.

"Let's set up base." he said.

## Chapter 24

Intrepid dreamt a dream that night.

Behind him was his entire world, unawake and unable to protect themselves. He was their protector. He scanned the horizon for Stromling starships, gigantic steel pirate ships hijacked from Gnarled Forest and infused with the dark powers of the Maelstrom. He could not see them beyond the mist, only hear them and their dragon escorts through the howl of the cliffside wind, or was he imagining it all?

Then, like a ghostly apparition, a cloaked figure stepped out of the mist and raised her cloak, revealing windswept red hair. "Remember me?" she asked.

He did not rise from his seated position on the rocks. He was perfectly relaxed, calm, and composed. "Who are you?" Intrepid merely inquired.

"Listen, you're not safe here." Red said. "Nobody is safe. I need your help."

"Oh, that's nice." Intrepid said. He tilted his head, and imagined his ears twitching. Was that a roar he just heard? Were the dragons closer?

She stared at him with an attentive gaze, Intrepid thought, before she said, "You've got to meet me in six hours, exactly. After that, we don't have time."

He heard a crackling sound now, like loose stones being kicked and bounced off each other. "Where are they?" he whispered.

"You'll know where." was all the mysterious girl said. She seemed to fade away, as did the mist, revealing a sunny morning in Block Yard. Intrepid blinked. He was, indeed, sitting on a rock, his Elite Longsword on one side and his Kettle Helmet on the other. His Drill of Blasting lay in front of him.

Then a dragon's head popped up in front of him and roared in his face, sending the minifigure sprawling backwards. He barely had the senses to grab his sword and quickly equip his shield as he fell backwards, just as the dragon's blast of fire blew into the cave.

## Chapter 25

Intrepid thrust his shield forwards, blocking the fire and dissipating it from filling up the cave and incinerating everyone inside it, not yet at least. He felt the heat rising rapidly and flames licked over the edge of his shield, threatening to burn him up too. He cringed and glanced backwards, where his teammates were quickly awakening from their slumber.

"What's happening?!" Elite yelled.

"Everything!" Tornado screamed. "What do nothing and nothing have in common? Everything! Hahaha-" he was cut off by a stray flame that set him on fire. "I'M MELTING, MELTING! OH, WHAT A WORLD, MY WORLD!"

The dragon ran out of fuel then, and Intrepid relaxed his shield arm. The shield was badly charred, but he boldly jumped out. Both his helmet and his drill were gone, to his disappointment, but he had his sword, and without a second thought he stabbed it right at the dragon's armored snout.

It bounced off, and the dragon laughed, a terrible sound.

"Measely minifigure," it cackled, spitting bits of flame over its jaw as it spoke. "Prepare to meet your death." It spread its jaws and moved in for the smash, and Intrepid fed it a Flash Bang.

It promptly exploded and the dragon entered a fit of coughs, letting go of the rocks where it hung and falling into the infinite space below.

He watched it fall, and looked up at the clear sky above.

Intrepid did a doubletake, and looked over the edge again, his eyes bulging. There was not just one dragon there, falling down. There were hundreds of dragons, all flying upwards towards the Fun Party Place. There must have been a thousand at least, an infinite amount at most, and they were all unsatiable, sentient, smashing machines, eager to destroy.

Luke, Elite, and a still breathing Tornado, his hair wet from a dousing in an Imagination Fountain, all appeared beside Intrepid, armed with their best gear and peering over the edge at their imminent doom.

"You've gotta be kidding me." Luke finally said.

## Chapter 26

Hero instincts kicking in, Intrepid screamed, "Everyone Level 15 and up, we must defend this property at all costs!"

A gal in street clothes with a basic short sword approached and asked, "Hey, I'm below Level 15, and so are around 75% of the people here. Why can't we help?"

Intrepid gave her a glance, then said, "That 'all costs' I mentioned earlier? That's you, and 75% of the people here. As long as this property is standing, the dragons will attack it and focus only on it. You are all going to escape on rockets, now, while you still can!"

The minifig nodded, and immediately rockets began launching, carrying low-level soldiers back to the relative safety of Avant Gardens. Meanwhile, the rest of the dragons were much closer. Intrepid turned to those who remained, around ten minifigures of various factions and not. "This is a property!" he yelled. "We need to build defenses and keep building defenses for the next five minutes; that's how long it will take for the evacuees to get to safety. Let's go!"

Within thirty seconds, the fourteen minifigures had donned Thinking Hats and had placed several layers of Castle Modules and custom brick walls around the edges of the Fun Party Place, and just in time. Multiple dragons' roars filled the air as Intrepid put his finishing touches on a castle wall, a nasty-looking array of spikes.

The spikes snapped off when an armored dragon scraped over it, its fiery breath burning a hole in one section of the main Fun Party Place building.

Assembly Turrets spawned by two engineers promptly began blasting away at the dragon, the armor-piercing, imagination-powered rounds taking the monster down surprisingly quickly. It was quickly replaced with five more dragons, swooping around and smashing their armored bodies through old structures. Their intent was on total destruction, and at their current rate they would achieve it pretty quickly.

## Chapter 27

"We've got to slow them down!" Luke shouted over the everpresent growls that dragons made.

"Yeah, how?" Elite called back, as she threw a Basic Spear upwards, arcing through the air to bounce right off a dragon's neck. "We can't smash them fast enough!"

"It's been a minute so far," Intrepid said. Most of the Fun Party Place as they knew it was gone, lying in piles of scattered bricks throughout the Block Yard, and the dark presense of the dragons swooping about was starting to infect the property. "We have to hold them off for another four minutes! We can only distract them if we keep building stuff for them to destroy!"

With renewed vigor the team of fourteen began throwing modules all over the place, with some imaginative minifigures using the power of Imagination to hurl gigantic premade pieces of anything upwards to smash into dragons, knocking them off their flight paths and turning their attention away from the destruction of the Fun Party Place, to the destruction of the minifigures protecting it.

"Oh no, no no no!" Intrepid screamed as three dragons broke off from the attack force to start blasting the ground they stood on with blasts of fire. He dove for cover behind a castle wall as the ground erupted in flame, grabbing the closest minifigure, Calm Thoughtful Tornado, with him.

"OMG we're all gonna die!" Tornado screeched.

"Not if I have anything to do about it," Intrepid muttered. He reached for his Drill of Blasting, not remembering that it fell off the cliff only a few minutes prior. His left hand closed around a loaned Plunger Gun instead, and he reflexively launched a slow moving plunger right at a dragon's face, and somehow it made contact and suction-cupped itself to the dragon's forehead. Taken by surprise, the dragon crashed head-on into the Block Yard mountain and crumpled to the ground, dazed and easily smashable, which a brave Venture Daredevil promptly made so.

Intrepid checked his watch. Three minutes to go.

## Chapter 28

By now the dragons' focus had turned completely towards the new modules placed around the Fun Party Place, and the number of Castle Modules, Robot Modules, Tractors, Farm Houses, Hay Bales, Rocket parts, and anything and everything was quickly going down.

At the same time, a squad of dragons was chasing after Intrepid. He slid under a tractor which was promptly demolished in a burst of flame, and he pushed through a set of castle doors which were smashed into a billion splinters by the dragon that flew low and smashed through as well. Temporarily blinded, it did not see Intrepid's sword until... well, it never saw his sword.

He continued running, and nearly bumped into an Assembly Engineer who was balancing priorities between staying alive and working up enough Imagination to build an Assembly turret, to stay alive, as two more dragons swooped down from overhead. Still wielding the plunger gun, Intrepid fired upwards, which accomplished nothing. The dragons touched down and the first one began to speak.

"Ha ha ha, stupid minifigures." it said monotonously. "Time to die!"

Intrepid threw an anvil at it, stunning it as the second dragon sent a burst of flame right at the Engineer, who could have escaped, or could not have, Intrepid didn't see. He dove behind what was once a tractor and lobbed every Firecracker he had at the two dragons, which disappeared inside a magnificent explosion and a shower of Maelstrom infected bricks.

"Hello," said a voice from behind him.

Intrepid turned and faced an ugly dragon.

Then a shortsword connected with its head.

"Come on!" Elite Distant Tofu called. "I can't save you forever!" Intrepid looked over, and saw that she was crouched behind a wooden cart, fending off a lounge of malevolent lizards by throwing every spare weapon out of her backpack at the dragons, their natural fear of sharp things keeping them in the air.

Three minutes down, two to go.

## Chapter 29

With too much time to go and not enough property modules standing, a few of the many flying dragons were beginning to head off towards Avant Gardens, a number of slow moving rockets still en route.

"They might still get away," Intrepid hoped aloud, as he scrambled to stand beside his teammate. He build a brick wall around them, placing spears and spikes at its edges, for when Elite ran out of swords to throw, but he knew it wouldn't last. He kept placing bricks, as Luke came over, supporting a limping Sentinel Knight who was more asleep than awake.

"We can't stay here much longer," Luke said hurriedly.

Intrepid glanced at his friend, and then at the rocket launcher that remained standing at the back of the property. "Stay here," he said. "Keep building!"

He ran, making it to the rocket launcher as fatigue began to kick in. He checked his watch again. It was not even four minutes and he was already losing strength, and as he looked around from his new vantage point, he figured out why. Clouds of Maelstrom were overtaking much of the property, swirling in like a tidal wave, heightened by an armada of several quickly approaching flying boats.

The boats were shaped like a Pirate ship, and the lead one even had a mermaid bow ornament, except it was a skeleton mermaid with a creepy grin. Aboard was a horde of red-eyed Stromling pirates, eager to disembark onto the Block Yard and take it as their own, along with every other Block Yard they could get their infectious hands on.

The lead flying boat was getting closer to land, and quickly Intrepid loaded the first rocket he could get his hands on, his pencil rocket, onto the launcher. He then aimed it low, on a collision course with the Maelstrom boat. He pressed the launch button and jumped out, dodging the searing blast of energy that blew out of the rocket's thrusters as it rocketed through the trees and over the edge of the Block Yard, directly into hull of the flying boat.

## Chapter 30

The Maelstrom flying pirate ship boat blew up and Intrepid missed the best of it because he blacked out.

He woke up in a white room with blue and yellow curtains draped over shut windows. The air was still and silent, except for the scrape of a chair and the sound of Beck Strongheart's voice.

"Salute, soldier." the Sentinel commander ordered.

Weak and disoriented, Intrepid did a half-bad salute after figuring out which way was up. He was on a bed, again, under a blanket which he realized was quite heavy. In fact it was very heavy, and was meant to hold people down so that they couldn't get up. "Am I prisoner?" he asked. "Where am I?"

"I ask the questions," Beck Strongheart said, then he answered, "You are inside a hospital on Avant Gardens. Five hours ago you saved 42 minifigures who arrived at Avant Gardens in time for us to put up a stand for the Maelstrom army."

"Yeah, I guess I did," Intrepid said. "Where are the others? You know, the guys who also saved 42 minifigures?"

"I ask the questions," the commander repeated, but he still answered, "They are being interrogated, as are you."

"Uh huh, I see." Intrepid said. "You're not really Beck Strongheart, are you?"

The mustachioed minifigure faltered, then stated, "I ask the questions. What makes you think I am not Beck Strongheart? You hit your head when you blacked out, maybe you don't recognize me."

"Well, for one thing, Beck Strongheart doesn't interrogate his soldiers," Intrepid pointed out. "And this is hardly an interrogation. I'm trapped in a bed, too tired to get up, I feel..."

He blinked, and suddenly the room was gone, replaced by an endless green plain, occupied only by himself and a familiar young person, with a face framed by messy black hair and wearing an unfitting scowl. "You never came back," the boy whimpered.

His eyes widened. "What?" Intrepid said in surprise, before the scene changed. The ground turned gray and the boy disappeared, replaced by memories. He saw old faces, he saw old houses, and he saw old friends. He saw Stromlings and spaceships and fire and clouds, gray, dark, and forebording. His head hurt, and he wanted to close his eyes and shut them out, but he could not, since his eyes were already closed. He felt trapped, like in a bed under an entrapment blanket in an interrogation room with a Beck Strongheart clone, which he realized was really just a picture his mind created to describe, indeed, being trapped by memories, in his mind, away from reality.

"So this is what it's like to be crazy," Intrepid groaned.

Then he was in a white room with blue and yellow curtains draped over shut windows, except this time Luke sat next to him.

"You're awake," he said. "Tell me you remember what I just told you."

"What did you just tell me?" Intrepid asked. "Wait, let me guess, I just saved 42 minifigures from Block Yard, around, five hours ago, and I'm a hero?"

Luke grinned. "Yeah, that was pretty much it. I've only had to remind you the past fifteen times you've dozed off on me. This is an improvement."

Again, Intrepid's eyes widened. "What?" he demanded.

"You're inside a hospital, on Avant Gardens." Luke said. "Here am I telling you, again. The doctors said you hit your head pretty hard back at Block Yard, but we got you back in time for you to have a fifty-fifty chance of recovering from what the doctors call 'Aneterograde amnesia.'"

"What's that?" Intrepid asked.

"It's where you can't make new memories," Luke explained. "Pretty much you're stuck remembering your life until a certain point. I'd say I'm a pro at knowing these symptoms now since I've had to explain this to you so many times already."

Luke added hurriedly, "but you remembered something I said just a bit ago! I'd say you're recovering, just based on that improvement."

Intrepid nodded earnestly. "I sure hope so." He rubbed his head, and found a pretty large bump under his hair. "I can figure why my thoughts were so jumbled just a bit ago... I had this crazy dream... was I really out for five hours?"

Luke nodded. "More like five and a half hours now, actually."

"How soon can I be discharged?" Intrepid asked.

Luke shrugged. "Not anytime soon, I'm afraid. The doctors will want to survey you for another couple of days, I think, and even then they might not get to you with so much else on their hands. There's wounded fighters coming in by the dozens, trying to fight off the Maelstrom in the Block Yard properties."

"I wish them good luck," Intrepid said, "but there's someone I have to meet." He recalled the "dream" he had at the Fun Party Place, just before the dragon attack, which the more he thought about, he was siding with the idea that it was not a dream at all, and that red haired girls could fly. She said she would see him in exactly six hours, and if it had been five and a half hours since the attack, it could be any moment now. "Really."

Luke shook his head. "I'm sorry Intrepid," he said. "Honestly, I can't break you out of here, I've done enough of that already."

Intrepid slumped in his bed. "Fine," he grumbled. "How's Elite and Tornado?"

"Elite's breathing, Tornado is too, somewhat," Luke told him. "He says he has enough control over his breathing he could stop if he wanted. Elite wants to get back in the fight."

"The sentiment is shared," Intrepid said. He gave Luke his best puppy-dog face.

"Stop it you." Luke said, and he quickly left. Intrepid heard the door lock as it shut, and he dropped the doggy-face to let out a very audible scream. When he was done, another voice spoke up.

"That actually was a pretty convincing face," a familiar red haired person's voice said.

## Chapter 31

Intrepid didn't turn the speaker. He didn't need to. He knew who it was, and that was enough.

No, wait, it was, by far, not enough. He turned. "Who are you?" he demanded. Again.

Red sat in a plastic white chair, one of five furniture items in the hospital room: the chair, a small table, a sink, a toilet, and the bed Intrepid sat up in. Red, as he decided to call her, since 'red haired girl' takes up too many characters to type ever single time she is mentioned, didn't even flinch, and she remained silent until he asked a different question.

"Alright," he said, "how did you get in here? The door's locked."

"No door can stop me," Red said.

"That's pretty vague," Intrepid commented.

"Sorry," she apologized. "Have you ever noticed that you're the only person to ever see me?"

Now Intrepid flinched. "Don't tell me... you're from my imagination. You're 'fake,' and I'm crazy."

"You might be crazy," she said, "but I'm not fake." She leaned forward, and proceeded, "Look, Intrepid Fusion Eclipse, there are a lot of things I can't tell you, but what I can, I will when the time comes. Until then, just do what I say."

Intrepid crossed his arms. "Okay," he challenged, "and what if I don't?"

Red ignored him, and instead pulled a glowing, wristwatch-like device from an invisible pocket. "This is a unlocking device, wear it and it will unlock any door you come into contact with. It will work for the next ten minutes, then it will self destruct. Get out of this building."

"And," Intrepid repeated, his arms remaining crossed, "what if I don't?"

"The fate of the universe depends on it," Red said.

"Ha, I've heard that before." Intrepid said, unimpressed. "Maybe answer some of my questions, and we'll see."

Red nodded. "We'll see," she affirmed. "Ask one."

"What's your name?" Intrepid asked.

A silence reigned, in which neither spoke for a moment; Intrepid, waiting for an answer, and Red, not going to give one.

Intrepid broke the silence with an eyeroll. "Fine," he said. "Be that way. I'll just call you Red."

Red remained passive for a second, before she nodded, a thoughtful look crossing her face. "Red will be fine," she said finally, and outstretched her arm to him, wrist-worn-unlocker-device in hand. "Now, take this. Please."

Intrepid took it, and for the second that their hands met, he felt a familiar tingle. He slid on the device, and it fit snugly. Then its appearance changed to that of an analog-faced wristwatch.

"Adaptive disguise." said Red. "I'll meet you outside."

"Yeah," Intrepid said, inspecting the device. It not only looked like a wristwatch, it felt like one too. "See you...." He looked up, but Red was gone.

"....Outside." he finished, looking towards the door. He swung his legs over the side of the bed, and saw dark, blue cargo jeans. His armor was not on him, and nowhere to be seen, along with his backpack and his gear. He had just the clothes on his back and the strange door-unlocker disguised as a wristwatch, and the time was pretty accurate too. It was early morning six hours prior, around 5:00 AM he guesstimated, aided by the watch's hands which read 11:42. Aside from its obvious utilitarian aspects, such as smaller, digital year, month, and day boxes on its face, it was a nice looking watch.

Also the year was wrong. It read 2034.

"So much for adaptive disguising," Intrepid said. He approached the door, twisted the handle, and pulled. The door opened and he stepped outside.

## Chapter 32

The hallway was empty of minifigures who would pay attention to a casual-clothed guy with a noticable bruise next to his temple, as the only other minifigures besides Intrepid who were in the hallway, an awesome looking janitor and a bored looking nurse, did not pay attention to him. They didn't seem to be paying attention to anything, really, so while the janitor did look awesome, he too was actually quite bored.

It was when Intrepid stepped into the lobby that he was very suddenly inundated with doctors and minifigures and minifigures on stretchers and Sentinel Guards and the like. They moved in a swarm, an organized swarm that was headed in one direction which was not to the doors, so getting out that way was a lost cause for Intrepid. He turned around and made his way down the hallway he came, arriving at a fire exit.

He glanced at his watch, which still read 2034 as its year date. He wondered for a second if the unlocking thingy could disable the alarm on the fire door, since he didn't want to cause extra panic in a hospital already full of people who just got in. The watch's time was 11:49, he had five minutes left before the thingy self destructed. Did he have enough time to find another exit? Or....

"Forget it," Intrepid said, and pushed the fire door open.

Nothing happened when he stepped outside, at first, but then a robotic voice blared at him, "You are a liar, no fire is detected." and that was that.

The fire exit opened up to a grassy plain alongside a parking lot, both of which followed by a downhill descent, which he began to walk down. Judging by his surroundings, he figured he was somewhere in Nimbus Station, which really was quite close to Avant Gardens, and one of the few industrialized, or city-ified, worlds, so it made sense that wounded soldiers would be brought here.

He made it to the bottom of the slope, overlooking the edge of the world, before someone grabbed his arm.

## Chapter 33

"Hey!" Intrepid started, pulling away, but he noticed that it was 'just' Red, and she was holding the unlocky-wristwatch-thingy which was returned to its original look of boringness, along with an old looking backpack.

"No need to have it self destruct anymore," she said, putting it back in her cloak, "especially when supplies are few and far."

Intrepid raised his eyebrows, and she rephrased, "Don't be wasteful."

"Got it," he said. "Now what?"

"Now, you put on your gear and await further instructions."

She tossed him the backpack, which he grabbed in his arms. It was definitely old, its surface was scratched and tattered in a few areas, the worst of them amateurly stitched over with patchwork. Its design, however, was modern, and when he opened it to see what was inside, he held back what would have been a very audible gasp.

First he took out a complete Bat Lord set, then a red Breastplate of Armored Inspiration, a Leather Jacket, a Brown Cape, a Gem Sceptor, a Shield of Shielding, an Elite Cleaver, an Elite Longsword, a Pneumatic Drill of Blasting, and a Mega Helm, along with several cans of armor shine. Inside the modules compartment, he found several familiar custom items, including his Pencil Rocket.

"This is my stuff alright," Intrepid said slowly, "but... half of these shouldn't be here." He picked up the Mega Helm in his hands, feeling its weight and its reality. The Drill of Blasting, too, it fell off Block Yard during the Dragon Attack, and he launched the Pencil Rocket on a collision course with the Maelstrom Flying Boat Ship. As for the Bat Lord set, his prized Bat Lord set....

He looked up. "How did you get these?" he asked Red.

Red's face remained blank, as she said, "Let's just say I got them for you, and they're here now. Just put them on, and let's go."

She began walking away from him, along Nimbus Station's edge. Intrepid knew there was a launch pad ahead, which he figured she was headed to. He equipped the Bat Lord suit and followed.

## Chapter 34

"Are we waiting for something?" Intrepid asked, looking around from where he sat on a bench. The launch pad next to where they were was in an active place with multiple launch pads. This specific launch pad was an independent pad, so rockets launched from it would not be auto-programmed with a course to, say, Gnarled Forest or a property complex. Most minifigures preferred the auto-program launch pads and 73 out of 75 rocket launches Intrepid had seen so far had been on them, since they were lazy. Or, to think more favorably of them, where else was there to go?

"Or someone?" Intrepid turned to Red, who stood idly by the launch pad, not really looking like she was paying attention to anything, but more like she already knew what was happening, and what was going to happen. "Is there a reason we're waiting here?"

"Yes," Red said.

Intrepid nodded. "Good, care to explain?"

"We're going someplace specific, which we can only access at a certain place and time." Red said indistinctively. "It will be awhile, so try and rest."

"I dunno," Intrepid said, leaning back on the bench. "By hanging around with you, it seems like we have all the time in the world."

"You don't," she said.

Ha ha, he thought as he closed his eyes.

When he opened them, it was because Red was shaking him awake, more like shocking him awake with her burning touch. "What's with that anyway?" he asked groggily. "You, the Camel Spider, its eggs... they burn."

"No time," she said. "Let's go."

Intrepid opened his eyes wider, and saw that it was pretty late in the evening. He must have been pretty restless, injury and all. His head felt better, actually. That deep sleep probably helped. Red already had a rocket up on the launch pad, a retro-looking two seater with a full-cockpit length transparent aluminum canopy. They climbed in, Intrepid taking the back seat, and with a surprisingly low whine from its engines, the rocket blasted off quickly, yet not even as fast as it could have.

## Chapter 35

Intrepid thought about saying, "This rocket is seriously cool," at first, because the rocket was seriously cool. But then he took to staring fascinatedly outside the canopy, as the rocket climbed higher and higher away from Nimbus Station on a trajectory that veered towards a place no sane rocket pilot ever dared approach.

Even at a distance, as long as he knew it was there, Intrepid would never, even for a second, aim for the vortex of the Maelstrom in the center of the universe. Ever.

He didn't say a word, instead he let his fingers feel over the side of his Bat Lord helmet - if it truly was his Bat Lord helmet, which, if his memory was intact, should not even exist. But he found the button he was looking for, and he hid any appearance of surprise that he might as well have been sitting in a rocket seat, enjoying the view, and doing nothing more. What could be wrong with enjoying the view?

"Enjoying the view?" asked Red.

"Yeah." Intrepid said, without a hint of distress. He felt goosebumps spreading on his arms, under his Bat Lord shirt, as if it was not just his mind that was bothered by the existence of his Bat Lord items, but his being, as well. Nevertheless he pressed the button and leaned back, trying to look casual.

Red nodded. "I'm sorry," she said. Before Intrepid could respond, she swung around with lightning agility and did something, probably punch him in the face at some super quick speed that he didn't really see her do it, but he sure felt a stinging feeling, then a numbness, and of course he saw nothing.

Intrepid figured this out later, because at that moment he had a flashback.

- - - - - -

"Do you need to keep doing that to me?" the kid next to him grumbled.

"Yes," Intrepid said, gripping the younger boy's shoulders firmly. "I need you to cooperate, which means I need you to stop resisting my every move." He let go slowly, as another salvo of laser fire struck the cargo rocket they were in somewhere to the aft, where it was weak.

## Chapter 36

The floor, walls, and ceiling creaked as they shook and rumbled, spilling Intrepid and probably everyone else out of their seats as the lights dimmed due to interference from the laser fire. Several subsequent explosions rocked the cargo rocket even harder, and in the pitch black darkness of space Intrepid could only hear what went on around him. He began to wonder if this mission was, indeed, a mistake.

"Switching to backup power!" a voice yelled from the front, one of the junior pilots. He didn't want to think about what events would have to transpire for one of the junior pilots to take over, but as a leader Intrepid regained his bearings and stood up as backup power was switched on. He surveyed the damage.

"How close are we to Elista 3?" Intrepid called to the front, as he felt a tugging at his arm. The younger boy stood up, swaying slightly as stray debris bounced off the cargo rocket's hull, mostly debris of itself.

"We're nearing orbit distance," the pilot said, "but the autopilot is offline, and the controls aren't responding fast enough!"

Intrepid pushed forwards to the panic-stricken pilot, and through the creaking viewpanels saw the rapidly approaching planet. The sensor panel flickered, and he thumped it until it came back to life, showing the other starship moving in behind their own crippled cargo rocket, getting ready to finish them off.

He grabbed the flight joystick and pulled it all the way back, as Elistra 3 filled the viewscreen. The ship didn't want to change course, but he pushed it and it budged, angling up slightly so as to soften their descent, since that was the only place this ship would take them anymore.

Eyes on the view ahead, Intrepid called backwards, "Get your rockets ready, we're approaching the landing sight!"

"What about you?" someone called back.

"I'm going to crash this thing." Intrepid said.

A silence reigned as escape procedures slowed to a halt. Intrepid turned around. "Well?" he demanded. "Get to the surface, all of you, that's an order!"

Five ragged looking minifigures in all stood in the mid-section of the cargo rocket, staring back at Intrepid, including the junior pilot, but the younger boy was not among them. Intrepid looked to his side. He stood there, his dark eyes staring with a look so intense it made Intrepid not want to stare back, but he did.

"Tell me you won't die," the boy said. "Swear it."

Intrepid gripped the kid in a hug. "I don't plan to."

"Which one?" the pilot asked. "Swear or die?"

Intrepid pushed the boy back to the others, who resumed escape procedures. The cargo rocket was past the outest layer of Elistra 3's atmosphere now. Impact would follow in only a few moments.

"I don't plan on dying," Intrepid said, "but if I have to, I'd rather die without a lie on my lips, especially one to my own brother. NOW, GET OUT OF MY CARGO ROCKET."

It took less than ten seconds for everyone to launch their rockets and escape, because then shockwaves rippled through the cargo rocket as a mini-explosion occured in the rear, this time as the backup generator failed from the stress of tearing through the atmosphere of a planet at several times the speed of sound. It was ripped apart, separating from the pilot's compartment which spun around, its momentum sending it soaring over and down a hill. It slid and bounced, but never into the air again, tossing Intrepid around either way before he managed to jump out of the still-moving wreckage and into the open air. He rolled for a very long time, crashing through brush which slowed him down enough so that he didn't die when his head struck a rock.

Surprising himself, Intrepid stood up, slightly dazed but mostly disoriented. He looked around. It was around early afternoon, and he was at the base of a grassy hill, when he heard an explosion from its other side, where the rest of the large cargo rocket had crashed. At least he'd seen the survivors escape, so it was only a matter of time before they continued on with the mission. Maybe someone would come pick him up, but he didn't count on it. He couldn't launch his own rocket, because his back felt unusually light....

He found his backpack suspended from a tree branch not far from where he stopped. It probably had slipped off, and he shouldered it. With horror, Intrepid realized that the weight of his backpack was still lighter than it should have been. He looked through its contents grimly. Most of his modules were gone, which explained most of the weight loss, though he still had his Pencil Rocket and some varoius spares. However, some of the items from his Items category were missing too.

Among them, he quickly discovered, was his Bat Lord suit.

With no other choice, Intrepid equipped his alternative set of combat gear. He shrugged into his leather jacket and aviator pants, equipping his breastplate of armored inspiration and topping off with his mega helm. The older clothing and gear fit well and felt well used, and he felt a bit of nostalgia getting back into his old clothes again.

Once upon a time they were the best gear he had, and now they were the best he had once again, and he would use them.

He gave his Elite Longsword a few practice swings, getting used to its familiar weight and slicing ability. Then he spawned his rocket, and taking off into the sky, he angled off towards his destination, a suburb of the capital city, a few miles north. He carried so many memories of this place, and he felt an odd tingling as he was soon viewing the familiar street and house layout from above.

Some buildings were burnt out, and all were in some state of disrepair, but as Intrepid proceeded northwards over the abandoned city, buildings started to look fresher, and he saw some movement from below. There was still life on Elistra 3, he knew that, but he was happier to see it with his own eyes. He set his rocket down outside a checkpoint blockade formed from old buses and cars, behind which he could see trees and feel a distinct buzzing that meant imagination was there.

He approached a lone Sentinel guard armed with a bayonet who stood expressionless, until he noticed Intrepid. The guard dropped his soulless stare in a fit of exhiliration, jumping up and down and laughing giddily. He finally bothered to ask, "It has to be... you're the reinforcements the Nexus Force promised us? Please tell me so!"

"Reinforcements?" Intrepid repeated. He recalled the voyage to Elistra 3, especially why he had done it with a cargo ship, some pilots, a young guy who called himself a pilot, some old friends, and his brother. It was not a happy course of events. "Actually, no... I'm not."

The guard frowned and his face formed a pout. "We were supposed to get reinforcements two years ago," the guard whined. "I've been standing here for two years straight, acheing my poor old legs out. After our first battle with the Maelstrom, two years ago, we rebuilt behind here, but I can hear the Maelstrom reaching out at night, trying to get in. I can only stand here, holding them back with my imagination, like if I leave for even a moment, they will get in...."

Intrepid nodded. "Right. If I recall correctly, the Nexus Force did send reinforcements, two years ago, but I'd suggest you go with the belief that they're never coming. They probably got lost, Elistra is pretty far from the Nimbus System."

He didn't say it, but Intrepid was pretty sure he knew what the fate of the reinforcements was. Back in the cargo rocket, the ship that was chasing them down with lasers carried Nexus Force markings, albeit shrouded and hard to read behind all the purple mist that surrounded the ship. The reinforcements were infected by the Maelstrom, no doubt, but he kept quiet so as not to disillusion the guard too much. Also, his reason for and means of returning to Elistra 3 were far from official....

"Have you seen any other rockets land near here?" Intrepid asked.

The guard shook his head. "No, but proceed through this checkpoint and check out the other guard station, on the east end of town. The guard there, he might have seen other rockets."

"Thanks," Intrepid said, heading for the checkpoint gates. "Sorry to bother you."

"It is of no bother," the guard said politely, "I am just glad to see another living soul after so long."

"What about the other guard?" Intrepid asked.

"I haven't seen him in two years." the guard said.

Intrepid said no more, and stepped through the first part of the checkpoint: a bus with double doors on both of its sides near the driver. He shivered as he stepped in. A fine layer of dust had collected over the bus' rather empty interior - most of the seats were gone, some were tipped over in disrepair, and the windows were covered over. It was actually a fine checkpoint, but it was also the least guarded one ever.

It was when he stepped out the other side that he heard the chirping of birds. Intrepid's heart rate quickened. Here he was, in Elistra 3, home of the Imagination Nexus.... or was it the Nexus Temple, home of the Intrepid Fusion Eclipse........ or wait.

Intrepid bolted upright. He was back in the real world now, awake and alert.

## Chapter 37

"Hey hey, take it easy." Red said as he began to black out again from sitting up too quickly. She stood in front of him, next to her rocket, both before an unfamiliar backdrop that actually looked vaguely familiar to Intrepid, like he'd seen it somewhere before, like, maybe in a documentary about the Imagination Nexus?

His vision cleared, and once again Intrepid was awake and alert. He rose to his feet, and when bringing a hand to his belt where his Elite Longsword- nope, Bat Lord staff was hooked to, he discovered that his hands were bound by a thin cord that was unusually strong for its width. And it burned.

"Why this?!" he demanded angrily. Awake, alert, and angry he was, and as he was angry he grew excited, and as he grew excited, the more the cord seemed to burn, and then with a very loud snap it broke.

His Bat Lord staff was immediately in his hand, and he pointed it at Red when suddenly he realized that the handle burned too... as well as the entire Bat Lord suit that he wore. His skin felt like it was on fire, because it was, only without flames he could see. Invisible flames, for all he cared; flames that came from the gear that was both his, but not his. He very quickly unequipped them, and was left standing and panting in his casual wear, unprotected and weak, but not in his resolve.

"I honestly thought they would work," Red said, something close to an apology. She met Intrepid's glare. "I know you want answers, but I can't give them to you."

"Oh, no," Intrepid said. "Really, I think I don't need your answers anymore, Red."

"Do you think?" she asked.

"I know you're not from around here," Intrepid said, "here being my entire world. My time period. My universe. The same goes for the Camel Spider. I caught what was on your wristwatch, it said 2034. That's twenty years from now. And the backpack you gave me? It's not mine, it can't be, half of the stuff in it shouldn't exist.

"I know about the Epsilon Experiment. You're from another universe, one which is twenty years more advanced than mine, or you're a time traveler, or both." He paused to breathe, which he did deeply, calming slightly. "So, you can tell me everything, if you want. You can start by maybe telling 'Why?' you're here?"

Red sighed, and for several seconds afterwards she was silent. Intrepid took this time to investigate their surroundings. High above and all around, he recognized several Crux fragments and worlds of the Nimbus System, except he seemed to view them from below, which could only mean he was standing on a rock very close to the Maelstrom vortex... except whenever he'd looked down there, when he wasn't afraid to, he'd never seen such a rock... maybe it was invisible, or perhaps the vortex was shielding it? He could hear a distant, whisper-like howling, like wind, but he felt nothing in the chilly, still air.

Red spoke. "You're right about a lot of those things you said," she affirmed. "Yes, I am from another 'universe', as you say, and there are very, very many of them. I call them dimensions; and yes, that Camel Spider is from another dimension too, an infected dimension where the Maelstrom rule. Why I am here, is because of this dimension, and to stop it from infecting others. It started with yours, and we stopped them for now, but the entire universe is still at risk." She pursed her lips. "I can't say more."

"I assume that InterDimensional Ballistic Missile strike in the Sentinel Base Camp was also your doing, then." Intrepid said. Red didn't answer verbally, but she folded her arms and gave something like a nod. "Right, not saying anything more." he continued. "Do you think that's enough to convince me to follow your orders again?"

"Actually, I expect you to trust me fully." Red said.

"Do I seem like the trusting type?" Intrepid asked.

"It's not so much about you, as it is about me." Red said with the smallest hint of a smile, more like a smirk, an arcane, secretive smirk. Vaguely, she said, "I trust you will trust me, because I trust you."

With that, she turned on her heel and began walking, past her rocket, towards the mountaneous horizon of this rocky world beneath the Nimbus System.

Intrepid shivered. She obviously knew where she was going, and he couldn't just hijack her rocket and escape. Knowing her, it would probably self destruct if he did that. No, he didn't even need to do that. He looked down at the pile of Bat Lord clothing at his feet, along with the backpack which didn't belong. If he imagined hard enough, both actually looked a bit charred. But it was the helmet that mattered. Back before he lost his, in the crash on Elistra 3, he'd included a little modification. A distress beacon, which sent information in regards to whereabouts to a network communications sattelite used by his team.

He looked to the sky. Luke and Mara, and possibly Tornado, would be here soon. Maybe Luke would return his backpack, which Intrepid assumed had been taken by the hospital he was in. Then he might stand a fighting chance, against....

Intrepid didn't dare think about it for much. What he'd said earlier was a lie. He had to get as much info as he could out of Red. Whether it had to do with the Epsilon Experiment or not, this was too much of an oppurtunity to pass on, and if the universe was indeed at risk....

He broke into a sprint after her departing form.

## Chapter 38

For Intrepid, it didn't take much figuring to figure out that the rock at the bottom of the Nimbus Station which he and Red were currently traversing carried some relevance to the infamous Nexus Temple, Planet Crux's original location for the Imagination Nexus, currently housed inside Nexus Tower....

In his hands, Intrepid carried the Bat Lord helmet; the helmet that was like his - as in it had the same distress beacon modification - but could not truly be his because his was lost. It did not burn so much, now that he was calm and not trying to pick a fight with Red, but he dared not wear the rest of his suit or even carry the backpack. The helmet would bring Luke and Mara to him, hopefully. That was his plan, and he was starting to get some idea of Red's plan.

"Look," Red pointed, as they neared the peak of one stone gray colored, grassless hill they had climbed.

Intrepid followed her directions and saw, off in the distance, a tower of blue light stretching upwards into the sky, ending in the atmosphere of the rock. The Imagination Nexus.

He stood awestruck for several moments - he wanted to keep moving forwards, but could not, and he blamed it on being awestruck. "That's impossible, the Nexus is in Nexus Tower, it's called that for a reason, you know." Intrepid said at last. He looked at Red, then downwards at his legs which refused to work if he tried to walk forwards. "Why is it also impossible to walk forwards now?"

"There is an invisible force field of some kind that keeps objects away from the Nexus," Red said. "If we crashed into it with a rocket, we just smash from the impact, which is why we're walking."

"But we're not walking." Intrepid said.

Then Red walked through the force field. At Intrepid's now doubly awestruck expression, she instructed him, "Don't think about the Imagination Nexus."

"Okay."

Intrepid tried clearing his thoughts, like book characters always did, but that didn't work since he still was not able to move. Then he tried thinking about the Maelstrom, which was the opposite of the Imagination Nexus, and he was sucessful at stumbling through the force field. "Okay!" he repeated. "Now what? This is the Imagination Nexus we're approaching. Surely that force field is there for a reason, like it doesn't want us to go to it. What else is it going to throw at us?" he surmised.

"Dragon." said Red.

A sound like a bird chirping came from somewhere to the west. Intrepid turned, and there he saw a dragon. It was big and huge and spiky, but its color scheme was infinitely more natural than that of a Maelstrom beast. Its scaly armor had an off-white hue, and an indigo stripe ran its length from snout to tail. And it was headed right at them, squawking like a parrot and snapping its jaws like a hungry parrot.

"Run." Red said.

They took off running down the hill just as the dragon swooped over them, claws scratching at the rocks where they had been standing a moment prior. But this was not a clumsy dragon. It turned on a dime and was heading straight for them again, this time from behind.

Intrepid dove to one side, and Red to the other, separating to let the dragon go after one but not the other. But it went between them and spread its wings out like an airbrake, and like a wall of Reptilian skin. It stopped quickly, and Intrepid managed to duck under. He saw that Red, too, had made it past this living obstacle, which quickly began to give chase on its hard webbed feet, heading for Intrepid.

His heart was pounding hammer blows against the inside of his chest, and the helmet in his hands was getting hotter. Behind him, the dragon let loose a streaming blast of blue flame, which Intrepid ducked under - then something crazy and very imaginative happened.

The dragon's imagination blast impacted with the ground in front of Intrepid, and suddenly a tree appeared in front of his running form. He had no time to dodge it and whammed straight into it. The tree didn't even budge, and Intrepid fell down, stunned for a second.

Tree - 1, Intrepid - 0.

He got up a second later and ran around the tree as the dragon came rushing up to him. It plowed through the tree like a bulldozer.

Dragon - 1, Tree - 0, Intrepid - 0

Then the dragon jumped up and positioned itself over Intrepid's again running form before gravity caught up to it. Intrepid put on the brakes, his momentum almost pulling him into a faceplant as the dragon crashed to the ground in front of him, where he would have been had he not tried to stop. Now, rather than go around the big ugly dragon, he decided to run over it. He made it to the dragon's back before it took to the sky again.

Intrepid wrapped his arms around a spike, still holding onto the Bat Lord helmet, as the dragon executed a number of aerobatic maneuvers that would make a skilled stunt pilot jealous, trying to shake off the minifigure. Then Intrepid started to feel a familiar burning senstation on his arms.

"Oh, not you too." he grumbled. He let go and dropped to the ground, dazed from the impact.

"This seriously happens a lot to me," he said as stars filled his view. He shut his eyes, and the image of the Imagination Dragon up above changed to that of a Maelstrom Dragon far away, part of a flock of many quickly approaching Maelstrom Dragons, which he was surveying through a set of binoculars.

"Well, the guard was right." Intrepid said, looking away from the view to stare at his teammates on Elistra 3. "There was definitely Maelstrom on this planet. It used to be pretty dormant, watching and waiting, but now they're coming. For us."

## Chapter 39

"What do the Maelstrom want with us?" the junior pilot from the cargo rocket.

"It's all strategy, Quinn." Intrepid told him, and the pilot's name was Quinn. "We're the only people here who can actually take the fight to the Maelstrom, so for them, we're better off gone. What better way to get rid of us than to send a flock of dragons to come destroy us?"

His brother tugged his arm.

"What?"

"A group of lizards is actually called a lounge," he said. "A flock refers to-"

"Birds. Yeah, flying stuff; dragons fly." Intrepid snapped. "Alex, you'll be more of a help to me right now if you stay quiet. I'm the leader here."

"I thought you didn't like being a leader." Alex grumbled. "Remember?"

Yes, Intrepid did remember, and as he recalled a certain painful memory from many years past, before the war, before leadership truly mattered, he felt a more present-day-oriented tugging on the bottom of his heart. What if it happened again...?

To the cofusion of his teammates around him, Intrepid shook his head very noticably, letting him refocus as well as he could on surroundings when they were all a blur, but it made the evil thought go away, for now. "Edgar, Haze: get our stuff organized, allot spare gear and consumables. Quinn, you keep a looksie on those dragons and give me an ETA. Everyone meet the front checkpoint in five minutes. Alex, come with me."

The two brothers started down the embankment from their natural lookout perch overlooking Elistra 3 and beyond. When they were beyond the view of his teammates, Intrepid turned and gave Alex a hard look, against which the younger boy turned away. "Alex." he said. "I know that look. What do you want to ask me?"

For a long moment Alex said nothing, and then Intrepid heard a whimper. "You never came back." Alex said. "After all these years, under siege from the Maelstrom, alone from the universe.... do you know where our parents are?"

Intrepid nodded. "The next town."

"It's completely destroyed." Alex said through shuddering sobs. "This little resettlement here, it's the only thing left of our planet. The Nexus Force never tried to save us. They didn't care. You didn't care."

"I didn't even know!" Intrepid said through gritted teeth. He took a deep breath. "I didnt know the Nexus Force didn't get here, I didn't even know you if you were alive... until you came to me."

Alex shook his head. "I needed you."

Intrepid turned away for a second, then he swung back. "Hey, a lot of people need me. It's not like I can disappear from my work - my very important work - really, because I got here as fast as I did, there's a Maelstrom virus that's spreading around Avant Gardens and infecting all the plants. At least they're just plants, but... ugh!" He grumbled something unintelligible, then Haze tapped him on the shoulder. He hadn't heard her presense, but could the same be said for her?

"Quinn has an ETA on the dragons, sir." she said. "It's 'OMG NOW'."

"Then let's get moving." Intrepid said gruffly. Alex already left, headed for the checkpoint with the lonely guard.

"And, sir," Haze added, tentatively. "We all know about you and Alex, sir."

"I'd say it's pretty obvious." Intrepid muttered. "How much do you know? Let me ask you a question..."

He thought for a moment.

"How about: What's my real name?" asked Intrepid.

Haze shook her head. "I don't think you've ever said it, sir."

"Exactly." Intrepid said, smiling for the first time in awhile. At least something was still a secret, if he could count on Alex....

## Chapter 40

A dragon's roar cut through his thoughts, and his sleep. Intrepid sat up somewhere on Mystery Rock - no, somewhere over Mystery Rock. A quick look around and he discovered he was on the back of the Imagination dragon.

He screamed and would have jumped off if Red didn't grab his arm, not tightly but firmly, and say, "Hey, easy. This is our ride."

Intrepidsat up straighter. He was perched rather precariously on a dragon saddle in front of Red, but there were no ropes for guiding the flying reptile. It seemed to be taking them where it wanted, which was the same place Red wanted, probably. He looked ahead. The upwards-stretching beam of light was closer, and he could see now that it was coming out from a hole in the ground which they soon arrived over.

"I think we're going in there," said Intrepid. Red nodded, and the dragon lead the way. They swooped down and were immediately encompassed by blue fog that felt oddly tangible, and cold. Then they were inside a subterranean cave, with a stone floor, which the dragon landed on for them to disembark. The walls were the consistency and appearance of clear sapphire, eroded away by some invisible force, emitted from the center of the cave.

In the center of the cave floor was an elevated platform, upon it an ancient looking control panel. Red began heading for it immediately, Intrepid behind her, walking slower, more carefully. This place felt weird, like it had an otherworldly feel to it, which it probably did, because it probably was: another world, in another universe.

"We're not actually in another dimension," Red said, as if reading his thoughts. "This place is more like in between dimensions, this is where they all came from. They're all connected to this."

"How do you know this?" Intrepid asked.

"I know enough about what this place is and how to get in," Red explained. "I've tried many times, but this is the first time I've actually made it inside."

Intrepid in tow, Red stepped onto the platform. She placed her hand over the console, and a beep sounded in confirmation. Then a holographic picture materialized in front of them, showing a transparent blue minifigure with blank, white eyes and no mouth.

"I represent Steven." the hologram said.

"A Mythran?" Intrepid proposed.

"That is how I represent him." Steven said. "It is only fitting, relative to you. Steven is an indigenous being of Crux."

"Aha." Intrepid said.

"'Steven is'..." Red repeated, "where? Where is he now?"

"Steven's conscious has been fused with this CCS." Steven said. "Crux Computer System."

"And if we may ask, why?" Intrepid asked.

"A foreign footprint was detected, and to protect our beings we enacted CCS-Fission." Steven said. "This computer houses Steven, a Crux being."

Intrepid nodded, though he wasn't all too sure if Steven's computer had optical sensors to detect such a movement. It probably did. "Aha." he said again.

"What about these others?" Red pressed. "What happened to them?"

"It is unknown the current location of the other Crux beings." Steven said. "The only CSS-Fission device detected within a hundred kilometers in every arc is this one. Without the others, we haven't enough power to recreate ourselves into the world. I attempted, however."

"What did you attempt? To get more power?" Intrepid inquired.

"Affirmative. I detonated a dimensional charge."

"What's a dimensional charge?"

Silence reigned, and as Intrepid's question remained in the air, he furrowed his brows and said, "What? Red?"

Red turned to face him. "This proves my theory."

"What theory?"

"As to why everything is centered on the Nimbus System, and Crux." Red went on. "Outside of this system, there are almost no disrepencies in the timelines between dimensions."

"There aren't?"

"All of our different dimensions were created," Red concluded, "with the destruction of Crux. When Steven detonated a dimensional charge."

Intrepid stared at her quizically. "Let me get this straight," he said. "Four explorers touch down on Crux. Wimpy Cruxians integrate fuse into their personal computers. Crux blows up, everyone except Steven blows up, Steven tries to get power by detonating a dimensional charge - and I still haven't the faintest idea of what this is - but it fails and a bunch of parallel dimensions are created?"

"Almost parallel." confirmed Red with a nod. "My dimension is twenty years more advanced than yours, for example."

"You've a fast thinker." Intrepid said. "But I'm afraid I'm faster."

Now it was Red's turn to look confused. "What do you...? Oh."

"If Steven wanted to conserve power," he said slowly, "why would he waste precious power to come online to talk to us?"

"Because I lied!" a voice boomed throughout the saphire cave. Cracks appeared in the walls as the cave shook, and then a fog being stretching out of the central platform. Intrepid and Red took a step back. "That Imagination pillar out there was a ruse," the voice cackled, "to lure power sources like you in. I have distracted you long enough to consume enough of the power which radiates off of you. You are imaginative beings, and I feed on imagination. But there is more... you are not from here. You are incompatible with this place, you are not meant to exist. This, too, gives me energy.

"And I am not simply a computer fused with Steven's conscious," the voice continued, as the fog began taking the shape of minifigure. "I am Steven, and I will now take back what has been stolen from me. The shards of Crux will be merged back into one! Every dimension shall be one! One with me as its ruler! Mwahahahahahaha!"

The rumbling intensified, and an entire section of the sapphire split apart, and the cave began to cave in.

Intrepid turned to Red. "I'd say it's time for us to go."

Then the Imagination Dragon roared and took off, effectively leaving the two of them stranded with a psycopathic Cruxian.

## Chapter 41

"How do you travel between dimensions?!" Intrepid had to yell over the rumbling of the ground and the rambling of the Steven for Red to hear him.

"It's a secret!" Red shouted back.

"Just trust me!" he pressed. "You said you trusted me."

Red thought for a moment, a very short moment as more sections of the wall collapsed. A device appeared in her hand, and she pushed it into his.

"I thought so," Intrepid muttered to himself. It was flat and round, with one dial and a lever. Unsure of how to operate the thing, he placed his hand on the lever, uncertain. Then it all became clear to him as the device opened a psycic link. He shut his eyes, seeing with his mind and not his sight what he had to do, and how.

He twisted the dial and pulled the lever, but nothing seemed to happen on the outside. Then an image appeared in his mind, an image of someone he knew very well. Someone close to him, yet at the same time very far. A person he wasn't sure if he really wanted to see right now, but the device had found what it was looking for.

In a flash, Intrepid and Red were rolling down a familiar hill. Sharp edged stones and bladed grass battered his poor body until he came to a stop at the bottom of the embankment. He stood up a little too quickly, nearly falling over for a second before he caught his bearings. Then Red grabbed his arm and pulled herself up, pulling him down in the process.

"Where are we?" Red asked, looking around. "Who did you see?"

Intrepid stood up again, slower this time and rubbing his head. He had some scratches and cuts, but he was intact, and Red looked okay.

Then a voice said from behind them, "Ai- I- Intrepid?"

"Hi, Alex." Intrepid sighed without turning around. He closed his eyes, the image he had seen still fresh in his mind. "It's been awhile."

"Is that who you saw?" Red asked.

"Yes." Intrepid answered. "Meet my brother. This is Elistra 3, where I deserted him."

## Chapter 42

Alex laughed, and Intrepid turned so the two brothers could hug. "'Deserted' me?" Alex repeated. "Oh no, is that what you've told your girlfriend here?"

Intrepid frowned. "Red? She's nothing like that."

"Absolutely nothing like that." Red affirmed.

"I'm just teasing, bro." Alex said. "I chose to stay here, after that last battle with the dragons, when you were so tramautized, scared of being a leader and all that." He laughed towards the ground, then gave his brother a longful stare. "You could have stayed."

Intrepid gave Red a sidelong glance. "I think Red here would still have found me." He said to her, "We'll talk later.

"In the meantime, you've gotten taller." Intrepid realized he was actually staring up at Alex, and it wasn't because the ground was uneven beneath them, and he actually stood on higher ground. "How long has it been Alex? Two years?"

"Two years." Alex confirmed. "Come, I'll show you the town. We've done a lot of rebuilding. I was out here hunting, all alone with the wind and the monsters, when suddenly, rolling down the hill come you guys." Over his shoulder the grown boy had slung a bow and he wore a quiver, and on his belt hung some smashed Maelstrom infected creatures.

"Maelstrom?" Intrepid asked.

"Not enough to pose a threat," Alex assured him. "Douse them in an Imagination Fountain and they're good for food. Come on, let's go."

In but most importantly around the original town, which no longer had the boring old checkpoint, Intrepid marveled at how... clean everything looked. Houses and cars and trees and minifigures flooded the place, and not a speck remained of the old Elistra 3. The city and its suburbns were reborn. "I love it," Intrepid said, looking at the roadside and not at his friends so they wouldn't see him tear up. "Where do you stay, Alex?"

"Right here." Alex said. "The same place we always lived."

## Chapter 43

Intrepid recognized the familiar black roof and baby blue brick wall that defined his home, which he had lived in, grown up in, and left; reborn in this new town house off Main Street of Elistra 3's new city. "This works," he choked out, before faking a cough. Then he coughed for real, since his throat was clogging up with nostalgia-tinted tears, not of sadness and neither really of happiness.

"Let's go in, shall we?" Alex said. He opened the door, letting Intrepid and Red in.

"You didn't." was the first thing Intrepid said when he sighted the mantelpiece over the house's fireplace. On it was a line of pictures, which Intrepid could not resist walking over to. He brushed an imaginary layer of dust off the one that depicted him, brother, his parents, and two sisters standing in a line in front of the old fireplace. He breathed in and breathed out raggedly, stroking the picture for a moment before setting it down. "How did you save these?" he asked Alex, not hiding his face as he turned to face him, while Red took a look at the pictures.

"I got the entire library, too." Alex said proudly. "It took time scavenging everything from the rubble out here, but we cleaned up the mess. Everything looks new on the outside, but on the inside it's the same city. Thanks to 'Elistra's Heroes', as we call them, this city's soul lives on, like a Phoenix out of the ashes. We'ved named the city Phoenixburg."

"Elistra's Heroes?" Intrepid asked.

"Two are standing in this room," Alex said. "Edgar has a dojo, and Quinn and Haze are at Phoenix Park, in the new Memorial Corner."

"The new Memorial Corner..." Intrepid's voice trailed off, remembering what the new section was based on. "The cemetary."

"Yes."

"Heroes." Intrepid said the word slowly, like it came from another language he did not speak, and would never think of applying it to him. "I... I'm... not.... am I really a hero?" he said, uncertain.

Alex gave him a reassuring smile. "You'll always be my hero." he said.

## Chapter 44

"We need to talk." Red told Intrepid in the minutes after, when Alex had left and the house was empty except for them.

"Yes," Intrepid agreed, "I think we do." She lead the way to a back room, closing the door and shutting the outside world out, and the two of them in.

The room was bare except for an old bench and a closed piano, which Red sat on. Intrepid considered protesting, but he recognized the instrument, and he'd done the same thing enough too. "I suppose you want to figure out how we escaped from Steven?" he asked.

"I've got a few ideas," Red said, "but let's hear you."

"First: the thing you gave me, it's what you use to travel between dimensions?" Red nodded in confirmation, and Intrepid continued, "I figured since Steven's place was between dimensions, we could essentially use it to travel anywhere."

"Then you thought of your brother." Red deduced. "That's how it works, through a psychic link. You've got to have a thought of someone or something with a life force, and it will take you to whoever comes to your mind."

"Aha," Intrepid said. "So you've been thinking of me a lot, haven't you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Back at the hospital on Nimbus Station, you were zinging between dimensions always coming to me." Intrepid pointed out. "Before then even, in Block Yard and Avant Gardens." He sat on the bench and leaned forwards, eyes intent on the strange red haired girl he called Red. "Why am I so special?" he asked.

"I can't tell you." Red said at last.

Intrepid slouched and folded his arms over his chest. "I thought we were beyond secrets," he muttered.

Unfazed, Red continued, "I can tell you this, we've got to get back to that rock, down below, with Steven. I brought us there for a reason. To stop him."

"You knew about him already?"

"I have knowledge of a lot of things," Red told him, "and I intend to act on it. I trust you'll be with me."

"Why should I trust you?" Intrepid said again.

"Because I trust you."

## Chapter 45

"If Steven succeeds," Red said, "Crux will be rebuilt. What that means is, all of the worlds in the Nimbus System would come flying back together, boom, crunch, and the planet Crux is this giant mass of crushed planetoids."

"That sounds pretty catastrophic." Intrepid commented.

"Then, whatever ancient power the Cruxians have over gravity will twist the planet in a cuboid shape, like it used to be." Red told him. "But that's not all. All of the different dimensions, yours, mine, every history, timeline, peoples' lives, and future imaginable would be mushed together as well. Tell me that's also catastrophic."

"That's also catastrophic."

"So we've going to stop him." Red said. "However long his plan takes, it hasn't finished yet. We've got time. Take us to Steven." They stood up and she reached a hand around Intrepid's arm, as he pulled her transdimensional maneuvering device out of his belt. The Bat Lord helmet also hung there, poking against his leg and reminding him of his friends.

Luke and Elite were probably flying all across the universe, receving tracking information from one end Nimbus System to some forgotten planet several stars away. Intrepid just hoped they would find him sooner or later.

Gripping the device, Intrepid thought of Steven. He thought of his gaseous form and lack of phsyicality, which was the last he saw of him before he whisked them away to where they were now, Elistra 3.

In an instant, they were standing on the surface of Steven's Rock again, around the rim of a gigantic cube-shaped indentation in the ground spanning a cubic mile. Looking down into the pit, they saw Steven standing over his computer, fully formed and fully aware of all that around him, because he turned a round head of neatly combed hair up at them and gave them an evil grin.

"At last, you have returned to witness with me the reunion of Crux!" He waved a hand over the console and a big red button popped up, which he pressed with immense gusto.

## Chapter 46

Intrepid instinctively tensed up, but nothing happened after Steven pressed the red button, which seemed to do something other than destroy the universe as he knew it. So, weaponless and defenseless except for his own arms and fists, he began looking around for a way down.

"The walls are smooth." he said, running a finger over the edge and along the inner surface of Steven's cuboid crater. "Can't get down that way."

"Then we jump." Red said, stepping back. She started to take a running leap over the edge when Intrepid stepped in front of her. She continued her run, smashing into Intrepid and grabbing him as they fell over the edge. He felt a mile's worth of air rush past his face as he found himself staring up into her's, the background rotating as they spun head over heels to the ground. They landed in a roll, and Intrepid stood up shortly, surprised that he didn't exist as a lumpy pancake on the smooth floor, when Red handed him an energy blaster.

"You could have just given me one up there," he grumbled, but he took it gratefully. Taking aim at the center of the crater, where Steven stood, he squeezed off a powerful ringed blast of something powerful. The computer console exploded, blowing Steven sky high before gravity pulled him down again.

Then he sprouted wings and flew.

"Ha ha ha ha ha!" Steven screeched, winging his form around to dive straight towards them. "You have not defeated me! Crux will be reborn and you shall not stop me!"

Again, Intrepid raised the blaster and fired. Blue-tinged wings erupted from the weapon's nozzle and surrounded the Cruxian. There was a bright flash and Steven was gone.

"That's it?" Intrepid asked, turning to Red and handing her the blaster. "So we just saved the universe?"

"That was one way to do it." Red said to him, taking it and replacing it wherever she hid her stuff. "I'm worried he might have started a process, which, for the sake of the universe, we'd better be able to stop."

## Chapter 47

"Look at the sky." Red said.

Intrepid turned his head to the view upwards and chewed his tongue. It was horrifying what as happening above. He could see a multitude of worlds, getting larger and bigger, but more importantly closer to where they presently stood. They were hurtling through space at immense speed towards Steven's Rock, preparing to crunch together and reform Crux.

Then he saw that they were multipying as well.

To the left was Avant Gardens surrounded by a cloud of Block Yard and Avant Grove properties.

To the right was another Avant Gardens.

In the space between were several of the same thing.

"The dimensions are combining," he whispered.

"Something needs to still be functioning for this to happen," Red said urgenly, tugging at his arm and pulling towards the center of the cuboid crater. "We've got to find it and destroy it. Come on!"

Intrepid came with her, and they ran to where the Cruxian computer had been, before Intrepid blew it up. In its place was a completely round hole, within it a sphere, shimmering and glistening in some otherworldly light. "Do we blow this up too?" he asked, waving a hand over the hole. He felt an invisible weight on his hand as it passed over the sphere, like a magnet.

"It's some sort of gravitational hotspot," Red said. "It's attracting every world in the Nimbus System, from every dimension. It's pulling them all into one place."

"And how do we stop it?" Intrepid asked again. "By blowing it up?"

"I don't think we can." Red said. "The only way to reverse this is to reverse what Steven did."

"And what did he do?"

"This rock has always been here, but it's been invisible, its power turned off."

"Or like something holding it back," Intrepid thought aloud. "Do you suppose this is powered by imagination?"

"Perhaps."

"Then let's infect it."

"What?"

"With the thing that infects best," Intrepid said. "Maelstrom."

## Chapter 48

"I've got hundreds of Maelstrom Infected Bricks in my backpack," Intrepid said, pacing as he began thinking quickly and urgently. He tried not to look at the sky, from where the weight of an infinite number of Nimbus System worlds was weighing down on him. "I need my backpack... Luke better have it or I'm gonna put him in a hospital."

"I hope you mean that literally." Red commented.

"Oh, no." Intrepid said, realized the double entendre of his words. "Anyways, give me your thing, I'm going to give Luke a surprise."

"I don't think it'll work," Red said. "It's a dimensional maneuverer; right now, there are no dimensions. Everything is one."

"Not yet it isn't!" Intrepid shouted to the sky. "Steven, I hate you."

"There's got to be another way," Red said anxiously, and for the first time Intrepid realized there was an unusual tinge in her voice. It was something between fear and urgency, the latter of which he certainly felt. However she sounded, it was not like her usual cold, composed self that was characteristic to her.

And to him, he thought.

"There's always another way." he said. "Maybe this isn't the only set of dimensions out there. Maybe we can drop this gravity ball into a black hole or something, maybe in an entirely different universe. We've got to at least try and see how far we can go."

Red handed him the transdimensional maneuvering device, and he put it on his belt. It fit nicely, and he reached his hands down into the hole. Immediately he could feel the immense gravitational force that the sphere had, and he almost got stuck, but he managed to pull the thing out and lift it.

"Now go," Red said. "Save the universe."

"This better take me someplace good," Intrepid said, gravity ball in one hand and picking up the transdimensional maneuverer with the other. He closed his eyes and thought of a cool, dark, emptiness. Something like nothing. Something like space.

Something like a space he could not remember, and was making up on the spot.

## Chapter 49

When he opened his eyes, Intrepid heard and saw nothing.

He was not in space. There was nothing around him, and there was nothing with him except the gravitational sphere which he could feel in his hands. Then he heard whispers. Soft, unintelligible hissings and a low droning roar like infinitely crashing waves.

Then he saw faces. He saw Luke and Elite, to one side of his otherworldly view. Behind them, he saw Red and Alex. He also saw Avant Gardens and Block Yard, Crux Prime and Nexus Tower, rockets and castle modules, dragons and Stromlings; everything that made up his universe.

On the other side he saw something alien and unknown. He saw a variety of colors and shapes, and a planet that was blue and green with swirling clouds orbiting a small yellow star. He saw Calm Thoughtful Tornado there, then he disappeared and joined Luke and Elite in the universe he knew. Then he saw the faces of a boy with brown hair and a girl who's hair was dark red. They were frightened faces, lost faces of people he knew, somewhere in an entirely different universe where they did not belong.

Then the scene shifted to that of an empty blackness in another, different universe entirely. There were no stars, no planets, and no life. Reaching out with his mind and his thoughts, Intrepid felt the empty lacking of this universe, and it was into this void that he dropped the gravitational sphere into. It fell a long distance, followed by an explosion. Had he looked longer, he would have seen the formation of a star.

Then he was back in his universe, pulled back into reality. He breathed deeply, sucking in the life force that he could not have in the nothingness between universes. When he could, he looked to the sky, and to his relief the Nimbus System was back to normal. There were only a small number of worlds, the correct number of each one: one. He looked around.

Steven had not returned, and he was nowhere to be found.

But neither was Red.

## Chapter 50

It was only natural that Intrepid did not receive a hero's welcome when he left the Cruxian rock below the Nimbus System and returned to civilization. To get there, he first retraced his steps to where Red had landed her rocket, and he had discarded the backpack with his stuff that wasn't his stuff. However, no trace of either could be found, except for the Bat Lord helmet at his side to remind him of what should not be, and Red's transdimensional maneuverability device which reminded him, surprisinginly, of who he longed to be with.

They had saved the universe together, and the more Intrepid thought about his mysterious teammate, the more he realized she was much like himself: Independent, carefree, but loyal to the universe and everything they knew, they loved, and was good.

He got off the rock when Luke and Elite finally came to pick him up, and Luke had a gift for him.

"It's about time!" Intrepid whooped when he sighed the double imagination contrails from his arriving friends. They were just as eager to hear his story as he was to get back to normalcy, if he ever could after this... multidimensional experience.

Once he had his old backpack and his old gear, Intrepid decided to take it a step further and get his old life back, too. Bidding his best friends farewell, but not for long, he blasted off in a pod rocket, his destination known: Elistra 3.

There he received a hero's welcome, just for being somebody's brother.

Inside Alex's house, Intrepid kicked back and relaxed. He was in the small back room, where an old bed had been brought in for him. It felt good, staring at the ceiling and doing nothing else except for breathing, and thinking. "This is what my life is now." Wistfully, he voiced his thoughts aloud. "This is what it should have been. In a way, it has always been like this: doing what I want."

"Sadly, it's not always like that." a familiar, calm voice said.

## Chapter 51

Intrepid turned to face Red. "Hey." he said to her. She sat on the bench, face hidden by the night's shadows.

"Hi." said Red. "I think you've got something of mine."

"Oh, yes, I do."

Before Intrepid could reach for the transdimenthingy maneuverathingy, Red held up a hand. "No, keep it. It's yours now. You're going to need it."

Intrepid turned away and snuggled up. "I think I'd like to retire for now, thank you."

"This isn't about you," Red said, stepping out of the shadows to him. "It's about me."

Intrepid sat up now and stretched. "Fine," he yawned, shaking his head to come alert, blinking a few times. "Alright. I'm listening."

"You have to use the dimensional device again." Red stated. "Tell me, what do you know about the Epsilon Experiment?"

"Travel between universes," Intrepid said. "Entirely different universes, different from our own like two different countries: different society, different people, different culture. But each one has the potential to have different laws of physics. This guy, Calm Thoughtful Tornado, didn't react to well to transuniversal travel. Why?"

"It happened in my dimension's history too," Red said. "A lot of things that happened for you, they happened for me as well. Even some things that will...."

"...will happen?" Intrepid finished for her. "My future?"

"Yes," Red affirmed with a nod, "like my existence."

"But you're not from here," Intrepid said, confused. "What does your existence have to do with my actions?"

She didn't answer that last question straightly, and instead said, "There's another universe out there, you've seen it and you've been there. Trapped in that universe are two minifigures. You have to use the dimensional device to rescue them."

"Who?" Intrepid asked.

Red closed her eyes. "You know them. Their names are Gallant Strong Cyclone and Kate."

## Chapter 52

Intrepid gave Red a wide-eyed, slack-jacked expression typical to that of an awestruck minifigure. "You've gotta be kidding..." he started, trailing off as recollections formed in his mind. He said softly, "No, there's no way... how could I have forgotten about them? They..."

"It's actually to be expected," Red told him. "When somebody leaves the universe, it is only normal that the universe forgets them...."

"I... but Red," Intrepid said, "what does this have to do with you?"

Red answered with a little smirk, small but vague. "Let's just say, Intrepid Fusion Eclipse, your world would be a very boring place without me." She stepped back and brought a hand to her belt, where Intrepid made out the outline of another transdimensional maneuverability device.

"Wait!" he shouted, standing up and grabbing her arm. "Tell me, what's your name? Your real name?"

She shook her head. "I can't tell you what my name is." Red said.

She continued, "However, I think you already know it."

Intrepid realized he was breathing quickly, and she wrapped her hand around his. He let go of her arm. "How is that supposed to be possible?" he asked her, a hint of anxiety wrapping around his words. This made no sense.

"Just think about it for a bit," Red told him. "You've always known it, you just never knew it was my name. You'll figure it out. Now, do yourself a favor and find your friends. Trust me when I say this: Cyclone, Kate, and you. You're all very important to me, with an amount of emphasis on the latter two."

"What do you mean?" Intrepid asked urgenly.

"I trust you to trust me," Red said again, "because I trust you."

She let go of his hand. Before he could do anything, Red vanished from air. Gone.

But she had mouthed something, just before disappearing from his world. It was a word Intrepid had not heard spoken in a very long time. It was a name, Aiden.

It was not her name.

It was his.

## Chapter 53

Red's last words to Intrepid were to find Cyclone and Kate, so he did.

He did it for his daughter.

The End.