FleetCaptainT: Created page with "Ah, I just began posting it yesterday.Â Don't worry Strider! '''Chapter 12''' Cyclone, Mara, and Luke agreed that coordination was needed.Â After meeting back at Alex's ..."

2016-07-08T22:42:11Z

Created page with "Ah, I just began posting it yesterday.Â Don't worry Strider! '''Chapter 12''' Cyclone, Mara, and Luke agreed that coordination was needed.Â After meeting back at Alex's ..."

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Ah, I just began posting it yesterday.Â Don't worry Strider!

'''Chapter 12'''

Cyclone, Mara, and Luke agreed that coordination was needed.Â After meeting back at Alex's house with Edgar and Evelyne, they determined the best course of action was to leave.Â The farther from Tiberius, the better they would be, at least in terms of comfort.Â Tiberius had a teleporting minion, who knew how far he could reach to get them?

None of them wanted to think about that.

Grand Masterly Shadow also had somber news.Â At the launchpad that would take them back to the Nimbus Station, he told them gravely, "I logged into our Leek Works server, and Intrepid's tracker doesn't show up as reporting."

"When did it stop?" Elite asked.

"It stopped transmitting during the five minutes we were jammed by the Maelstrom, and it continued after that, but we only got one upload.Â Then, nothing..." his voice trailed off.

Elite looked stonefaced.Â "We can try increasing the range."

"Yeah..." Grand said robotically, unfocused, as if he was lost in worrisome thoughts.

"You guys think about that on the way back," Cyclone encouraged.Â "We'll go to Nimbus Station and work there."

"Mmhm..." Grand mumbled.Â Elite got into the cargo rocket silently.Â Cyclone felt bad for them, and he didn't feel much better himself.Â He realized that if they lost their friend, then Evelyne was losing a brother, too.Â He turned to her and Edgar, not too sure what to say, but wanting to do something.

"How are you holding up?" he asked Evelyne.

"Could use some good news." she said curtly.Â Cyclone could relate.Â In between Alex's capture, Intrepid and Kate's disappearance, the existence of another Maelstrom mine, and their inability to combat Tiberius's hit man, or hit woman... it wasn't selfish to want to hear something better for once.

Edgar piped up, "It'll be nice to see Nimbus Station again."

"I've never been there." Evelyne said.

"It's an amazing place..."

Perhaps that was something to look forwards to.

They boarded the NSS Point Hope.

****

There was a twelve hour difference between Elistra's and the Nimbus System's local times.Â With the faster speed of their Botany Bay type transport, they landed in Nimbus Station just after its sixth hour past noon, after a fifteen minute flight.

"So we're going to this Leek Works?" Cyclone asked as they headed for the newly created Nimbus Train Station.Â Cyclone had been down these walks many times before, but Evelyne was tilting her head and looking around, taking it all in like a grandious palace.Â The city had transformed a bit since two years ago, Cyclone did note.Â There were more rockets in the sky, civilian and official.Â More roads and bridges had been built.Â High speed train lines above and below ground traversed the entire world.Â The train that would take them to Nimbus City wasn't there yet, but the one to Brick Annex was waiting.

Elite answered his question.Â "No point." she pouted.Â "Intrepid's dead."

"Don't say that.Â We don't know until we've looked." Cyclone told her.Â "You suggested boosting the range?"

Grand cut in, "Intrepid was working on upgrading the hardware last week for that exact purpose, but as far as we know, he didn't finish it."

"We can finish it, then." Cyclone said.

The blond shook his head.Â "No idea.Â He is, as you know, very secretive, this thing included.Â I suspect his 'upgrade' had to do with transdimensional technology, the same stuff our phone system now sort of uses.Â We were playing with that before he had the bright idea to travel to Elistra."Â Grand sighed.Â "Look where that got him."

The Brick Annex train blew its retro electronic whistle, signifying it was ready to go.

"I bet all the stuff is there, waiting to be plugged in." Cyclone said hurriedly, even though he didn't know where 'there' was.Â "It's worth a shot, come on guys."

"I'm with you." Edgar said.Â Evelyne nodded.

"Fine." Grand conceded, and they joined the commuters heading back to Brick Annex.

"So what's Leek Works anyway?" Cyclone asked.

Elite began to explain.Â "It's kind of a secret base..."

Indeed, to the outside world, Leek Works was nothing more than an alleyway entrance advertising dry cleaning, as that was the profession of the previous resident and no one had changed the sign.Â It was a mile from the Train Station's Brick Annex stop, a distance which they walked.Â Once the five entered through the boring gray door, it became apparent that Leek Works was something else entirely.

While a gray cement structure as well, the inside housed many tables, atop of which were multiple laptop computers, like what their Nimbus City bedroom had been transformed to.

"It's a server room." Edgar stated.

"Not just," Grand corrected.Â "In the back is a lab, for experiments, and there's another room where we keep all the junk.Â Intrepid's meticulous about keeping this room and the lab clean.Â If you like how this looks, don't go to the basement."

"This already looks like a basement." Evelyne said.Â "So my brother worked here?"

"Ha, he didn't do anything.Â Elite and I are the real programmers, he just feeds us.Â And replaces the computers when they break."Â Grand shrugged.Â "A lot of what we do are his ideas, though."

"We serve the betterment of minifigurekind." Elite said.

"Really?" Evelyne asked.

"No.Â I have no idea what we're doing.Â But it's fun."

Cyclone looked around.Â In his head, he'd pictured some exotic piece of technology sitting next to a computer, ready to be used, just not plugged in.Â They could plug it in and fix everything, he'd thought.Â He admitted he'd gotten ahead of himself.

"So where's the magic?" he asked.

Grand presses a button on one laptop, and it prompted for a password, which he put in.Â "Here's the magic," he said, and brought up a program's graphical user interface and a terminal.Â "It's all code, telling one hardware how to use another hardware, through software and firmware."

Cyclone, Evelyne, and Edgar shared confused glances.

"I'm sure you're lost." Elite said.Â "Translation: Intrepid brought something in, it's in the Junk Room, it's already wired up to the system, but we need to tell the system how to use it."

"Oh." Cyclone said.Â So he'd guessed something correctly, just it was already done.Â And now there was nothing he could do.

"So take a seat, go get lunch, go home, just do something interesting." Grand said, while he and Elite sat down in front of their computers.Â "We may be here for a few minutes.Â That's computer talk, by the way.Â Whenever a computer tells you, 'This may take a few minutes', they mean forever."

Cyclone nodded, and he and the others headed for the door.Â On the way out, Cyclone heard Elite say, "You got 'em good."

"They didn't understand a word I said." Grand agreed.

Cyclone shut the door and shook his head.Â They began walking, basically aimlessly, down the sidewalk.Â "Those two." he sighed.

"How well do you know them?" Edgar asked.

"They're Intrepid's friends," Cyclone said.Â "Not mine."

"Did you see how their entire demeanors changed once they got to the computers?Â They like programming.Â You've given them something to do.Â It's good if they're happy."

"Yeah."

"How old are they?" Evelyne asked.

Cyclone shook his head.Â "I don't know.Â I'd guess Elite's fourteen, and that Shadow's older?Â Apparently they're cousins."

Evelyne asked modestly, "Not to sound rude, but what's with the names around here?Â My brother was called Intrepid?"

"They're assigned names," Edgar explained.Â "Do they help to keep track of us?Â For anonymity?Â Who knows.Â So what's the plan, Cyclone?"

"Glad someone can get my name right." Cyclone muttered to himself, then spoke up.Â "We should do what they said, order some food for here, and Nimbus City." he decided.Â "We should check up on Calm Thoughtful Tornado, too.Â See if he's incarcerated himself."

"I'm starving," Evelyne agreed on the food, as they passed a restaurant.Â "We should go to a buffet."

"You guys can go," Cyclone said, pausing in his walk.Â "I'll go to Nimbus City first, I want to call some friends and investigate that mine on Crux Prime."

"I'd come with you," Edgar volunteered, "but..."

Evelyne rolled her eyes.Â "I can take care of myself.Â If I was thirteen two years ago, I'm fifteen now."

Edgar shrugged.Â "It helps to have a guide.Â I'll go with whoever."

"We can meet up later," Cyclone said.Â "I won't go off-world for awhile."

"We'll meet at Nimbus City?"

"Yep."

"See you there, then."

"Good luck." Evelyne said with a wave, and she and Edgar entered the straunt.

Cyclone kept walking, and dialed on his I-Brick another diner that did takeouts.Â He ordered a delivery for Leek Works, "The old dry cleaning place," he'd described, and the guy on the phone knew what he was talking about.Â So much for a 'secret' base.Â Then he ordered pizza for the Nimbus City apartment, hoping Tornado was there to receive it.Â On the same page, he wondered if Luke or Mara would answer the door for their food.

On the way back to the Train Station, he passed by the gardens outside an apartment complex.Â He'd lived here once, Cyclone recalled.Â He'd been shot at here once, he also recalled with a shiver.Â It seemed like so long ago.Â He could probably hire Krill Matthias to come to Crux Prime with him, but he was thinking of Cheerful Power Rover.Â The Buccaneer knew plenty of Venture friends who would gladly run into danger, and be capable of running out of it, if Cyclone couldn't go himself.

Cyclone was relieved when Tornado answered the door to let him in.Â He'd received the food delivery as well, since he was holding a slice of pizza.

"Is Intrepid here?" Cycone asked hopefully.

"Havntseenim." Tornado said with his mouth full.

Cyclone took the couch and collapsed.Â The apartment was a little messier, he noted, with the mail strewn on the floor, but otherwise looked alright.Â "So how'd your day with the Nexus Force social services go?"

"Justfine!" Tornado said.Â "Icantelyoumor-"

"Later." Cyclone said quickly.Â He waited for him to finish the pizza, before saying, "Now is fine."

"Right, so," Tornado related, "they wanted to see you and your girlfriend."

Cyclone frowned.Â "Kate's not-"

"It was a man and a woman, and they said so I repeat," Tornado continued, and proceeded to speak in a falsetto, "'This isn't too confidential, so you can tell Cyclone and Kate there's a special mission we'd like their help with.'Â And now I'm telling you, don't do it."

"Why?" Cyclone asked.

Tornado turned grave.Â "I was in the Epsilon Experiment," he whispered.Â "And they left me to die."

"When you leave the universe, the universe forgets about you." Cyclone said.

"What?"

"It's something Intrepid told me and Kate," Cyclone explained.Â "Maybe it was an accident."

"You're too trusting!"

"I came to the idea myself."

Tornado sighed, as Cyclone got up and helped himself to some pizza as well.Â With his clean hand, he began dialing Rover.Â As if to spite him, Tornado turned on the TV.

"I'll be in the bedroom, then." Cyclone grumbled, and went into the next room, closing the door behind him.

He got Rover's voicemail, and Cyclone was about to try someone else, when there was a flash of light behind him.Â He swung around, finding himself facing a portal.Â It had to be a portal, for through a ring of glowing white light, that pulsed and contorted as if unstable, he saw another scene, that looked to be a bright daytime skyline?

Cyclone heard voices, and then a boy and a girl stepped into the frame.Â They were both the same height and had brown hair, looking to be brother and sister?Â Twins?Â "Whoa." the girl said.

Then, out of nowhere, Intrepid appeared in the scene.Â The portal had to be two way, because he shouted in recognition, "Cyclone!"

Before Cyclone could respond, another voice from the other side answered, "What?"

"What?" Cyclone repeated.

Intrepid looked about to step through, before someone else shouted, "Wait!" and the portal imploded.Â Cyclone flinched.Â Questioning thoughts began to run through his brain.

First and foremost, what in the universe had just happened?

Then, where was Intrepid?

Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27324808-20160708020658/@comment-27324808-20160708224211 - Revision history

FleetCaptainT: Created page with "Ah, I just began posting it yesterday.Â Don't worry Strider! '''Chapter 12''' Cyclone, Mara, and Luke agreed that coordination was needed.Â After meeting back at Alex's ..."