Dimensional

By Talmid, beginning 09-02-2013

Dimensional

~Chapter 1~

"Behind you!" a minifigure wailed.

Starkey Gullible Souffle spun around and delivered a smashing punch into the expressionless face of the Stromling that had been stalking him. The Stromling remained expressionless, even after it took the blow, and then proceeded to smash.

Starkey grunted, and put both of his hands on his sword again. He hated the sword. Most minifigures, or at least the ones around him, saw the sword as an extension, or an upgrade, to their melee capabilities. Starkey saw it as an impediment. If he wanted to bring the armageddon down on his Maelstrom enemies, he was more than confident he could do it with his fists.

And do it he could. All he needed to do was gain access to the Nuke Room in Nexus Tower and bring his fist down on the big red button marked "FIRE." But that's out of context.

Starkey was stocky for a minifigure. His shoulders were broad, the muscles in his arms and his wrists hardened from intense combat. He had short, brown hair in a crew cut, and piercing brown eyes. It was said that if he wanted to, he could lift a bus right off its axles if he wanted to. But then again, anyone coud lift up a rocket if they wanted to, and then somehow fit it into a tiny backpack too.

The universe is crazy.

In summary, if you needed some raw firepower, Starkey Gullible Souffle is your man. Which was why he was chosen to join this squad of annoying, whiny minifigures who just happened to have Rank 3 gear on their backs. Their mission: Defend Sentinal Point Zeta from a charge of Stromlings.

Again.

Grumbling, Starkey took a swing at two Stromlings who were standing close enough to each other that he technically could smash them in one action.

The Stromlings simply stepped aside, and a now enraged Starkey dropped his sword and brought his knuckles to bear. Smash! Smash, go the Stromlings.

Starkey flexed his wrists and was about to go after another group of Stromlings when a commander ran over to him.

~Chapter 2~

"Starkey!" the commander called, pulling him away from the battle.

"What??" Starkey groaned, annoyed at the interruption.

"There's a message from Nexus Tower," the commander said, half dragging Starkey towards the base. "It's for you."

That caught Starkey's attention. "For me?" he gawked. He was just a soldier, a fighter..... a very good fighter, but aside from that, there was nothing interesting about him. Definitely nothing interesting enough to warrant a message from Nexus Tower just for him.

The commander lead Starkey into the base and sat him down in front of the communications array. The screen was dark, turned off. Instead, a living pigeon sat on the desk, carelessly relieving itself on a set of code books.

At the sight of Starkey, the pigeon ceased its activity and held out a foot. A strip of parchment was wound around the foot, and Starkey took it. He unfolded it and read it.

The parchment read, "Personnel Unit 3292 "Starkey;" Report to Nexus Tower immediately."

"Well, that's very descriptive." Starkey grumbled. He let go of the parchment and it fluttered down in front of the pigeon. The pigeon jumped out and ate it.

"Proceed to Nexus Tower." the commander commanded.

Starkey did an irritated salute, packed up his bags, and proceeded to catch the next flight to Nexus Tower.

~Chapter 3~

Starkey proceeded to report to Nexus Tower, more specifically at the highest floor, where the four faction leaders' offices were. Sadly, the elevators were taken down for maintenance, so Starkey had to climb all the stairs. No normal minifigure would have been able to accomplish the tedious task, but for sooth, Starkey was no normal minifigure.

Also on the top floor was the meeting room that the faction leaders used when they met with people, and it was this room that Starkey entered.

As expected, the four faction leaders and some high ranking Avant Gardens officers were in the meeting room. Some familiar faces were Epsilon Starcracker, and Beck Strongheart.

"Greetings," Duke Exeter greeted Starkey. "Please take a seat."

"And salute!" Beck Strongheart demanded.

Starkey did a salute, satisfying Beck Strongheart, and proceeded to sit down on a random chair.

"Let the meeting begin!" Duke said.

Albert Einstein- err, Overbuild turned on a holographic display screen in the center of the table everyone was seated around and selected a file called "Transdimensional_Manipulator.lxf." A large, bulky backpack-like object was displayed.

"This is the Transdimensional Manipulation Device." Albert Overbuild explained. "It allows the wearer to traverse the interdimensional plane parallel to our physical world. It is built using various parts supplied by Assembly."

"And Venture." Hael Storm added. "To build one of these requires intense mining of special minerals native to Gnarled Forest which are required to run one of these."

"And Paradox." Vanda Darkflame also added. "Without our Maelstrom enhancements, you'd be getting half the mileage."

"And of course Sentinel helped too." Duke Exeter said, not wanting to be left out. "We supplied escorts to the mining crews to keep you protected. Otherwise-"

"What does this have to do with me?" Starkey demanded, interrupting the faction leader mid-sentence.

Everyone gaped at him.

~Chapter 4~

"Oh, uh," Duke Exeter stuttered.

"You have been chosen to lead this mission." Overbuild said.

Starkey gawked at him. "What mission?" he asked.

"The Transdimensional Mission." Vanda said. "Involving the Transdimensional Manipulation Device."

"Okay." Starkey said, not really buying it. "I'm leading? Who?"

"Your squad." Vanda said.

"What squad?"

Vanda threw her arms up into the air and scowled, exasperated. "Someone give this guy a briefing pad." she ordered.

Epsilon Strongcracker handed Starkey a briefing pad. "Smash 10 Stromlings!" he cheered.

Everyone glared at him, and Epsilon Starcracker cleared his throat and said with a shrug, "It's instinctive."

"If you go telling everyone out there to smash 10 Stromlings when we could be capturing them and conducting experiments-" Vanda threatened.

"Shut up Vanda." Duke sighed.

"Yeah." Hael agreed.

"STOP IT ALL OF YOU!!!!!" Beck Strongheart screamed. "Am I the only sane person here??? Everyone salute each other and get back to business! SALUTE!"

"Evidently not." Starkey grumbled.

* * * * * *

In the end, Albert Overbuild gave Starkey a Transdimensional Manipulation Device, the latter of whom proceeded to equip it. He then received a real briefing pad and headed off to some room where he would meet his squad.

What greeted him when he entered the room was a motly bunch of three minifigures from various factions equipped with various ranks of various equipment. Lots of variety. A few years before, the Nexus Force had begun preaching about the importance of teams with a variety of minifigures within. Its influence showed right here.

Starkey was a Sentinel, as it fit his attitude. Facing the three minfigures, he could only hope that the members of his team also chose their respective factions to fit their attitudes as well.

This was immediately proven wrong.

"Let's smash some maelstrom!" a Paradox girl said.

"No! We have to learn about them!" a Venture guy said.

~Chapter 5~

"Uhhh...." Starkey stuttered, taken aback by the boldness of the three minifigures. They weren't wearing their gear, but he could tell by their overstuffed backpacks - and the stuff that was overflowing out - what faction they were.

He checked his datapad. First was Valiant Haughty Spaceship, also known as Hailey, a Paradox Space Marauder. She had long, flowing, dark red hair all over the place, and as her Nexus Force name suggested, plenty of valiants. She had what looked like two Wormholers poking out of her backpack. Two.

Next was Bashful Baloney Baboon, also known as Bob, who was a Venture Adventurer. He had short brown hair in a crew cut, upon which he wore a small fedora. His bacpack was mostly full of various nicknacks and stuff that looked like it belonged on a camping trip, rather than on a battlefield. Stuff like a camera, a fishing rod, and a whip. Maybe the whip could be useful. And an actual, living, green snake sat coiled up inside one of his pockets.

Lastly was Victorian Rambunctious Ambassador, also known as Victoria, an Assembly Summoner. She seemed a lot more 'normal' than the other two, or at least neater, as her backpack actually wasn't overflowing. She had straight brown hair in a neat pony tail. Judging by the way how their names seemed to reflect their personalities, Starkey hoped that she would make a good negotiator, though he still wasn't really sure what type of mission they were going on, and even why.

In the meantime....

Starkey cleared his throat loudly to gain everyones' attention. Hailey and Bob ceased their bickering and everyone looked up at the newcomer.

"Salute, soldiers," Starkey said. Victoria gave a formal salute, Bob more or less punched himself in the face, and Hailey made no move.

"I am your commanding officer." Starkey introduced himself. Now what?

~Chapter 6~

 Before anyone else could give any introduction, Sky Lane burst into the room.

"Change of plans," she said tersely, while beckoning with her hand. "And hand over the Transmat Manhole Thingymabobs."

Confused, reluctant, but always cooperable, Starkey handed Sky the Transdimensional Manipulation Devices.

"Now come with me." Sky ordered, and she went out the door.

Starkey, Hailey, Bob, and Victoria followed.

* * * * *

Sky lead them to another room. This room was very much different from any other room in Nexus Tower, except for the elevator. Like the elevator, this room was cylindrical, albeit with much larger proportions. Somewhere at the top of the room was a window. Flood lights illuminated the white-washed walls of the room, while smaller lamps on sticks were aimed at some weird metal strip on the ground. It was long and stretched quite a distance across the room. It was also being wired up to two power generators, each activated by a lever.

Hael Storm was there too, overseeing a bunch of pirates who were wiring up the strip. "Good job, boys!" he cheered after everything was finished. He turned to face Sky. "Thanks Sky, dismissed."

Sky left, and Hael put his attention on Starkey. "Yes, we've had a change of plans." Hael reaffirmed. "Overbuild just decided that it was too risky to leave someone alone with a portable Transdimensional Manipulation Device. He's worried that they might trigger themselves. Anyway, this here is the BIG Transdimensional Manipulation Strip. Just stand on it and we'll send you whipping into another Dimension. You can use your portable ones to get back, after completing your mission of course."

Starkey's datapad beeped, and a bunch of objectives filled the screen.

"All ready?" Hael asked.

"Yes, sir." Starkey said. The other three nodded.

"Let's do this!" Hael cheered again, and a bunch of pirates threw themselves onto the two levers.

There was a blinding flash of white.