h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

*NYC sees Kalia's eyes glow bright red as she digs the sword out of the wall. Now, he thinks to himself, is a good time to run. NYC grabs a brand spankin' new SMG that was still hung neatly on the wall as it was in the shop, and takes off as fast as his legs can carry him - Even a multiarmed death-o-matic robot is the lesser evil at this point*

*Kalia chases NYC around what remains of the room, both reaching speeds that make them blurs against the wall. Meanwhile, Corrupt seems to be under the wall, unconcious, a fate undoubtedly shared by other characters.*

-kaSPRING-

*Kudos arrives, about as angry as Kalia, and looks around for NYC. Seeing him occupied, Kudos puts a hand on the wall with the intent to bring it back to the shop. He reaches for his own key, but notices NYC's stolen key sitting on the wall, and with an evil smile Kudos grabs it and the whole thing disappears.*

*NYC suddenly finds himself without a convenient barrier to place between himself and Kalia, who's making a running charge towards him with shish kebab on her mind. NYC fires the submachine gun wildly in her direction*

*Nearly every member of B.E.T.T.E. is staring in shock at NYC and Kalia's fighting. Even Stephanie, who has reappeared in the Crib*

*Kalia dodges the stream of bullets and slams right into Stephanie...*

*NYC's jaw drops. Man, he did ever do good by lending Chaos those 50 bucks last month. Hell, he might even make Chaos' Christmas party this year...*

And since Stephanie hasn't left the ATC just yet, this means....


*Stephanie and Kalia fall further into the Crib's transparent Cube. Snarling, Stephanie jumps around Kalia, hops out of the Crib and closes the Crib's door behind her*

*As if on cue, Dr. Harvey, The Arithmancer and Stupid Little Robot walk into the room*

Harvey-Somehow....don't ask me how....but somehow I KNOW that NYC started this....

Arithmancer-We have arrived with your spaceship, members of B.E.T.T.E.

Dangit! I misread your earlier post!



*Corrupt wakes up, startled at the entire state of the room. But her anger at being knocked out, an anger that knows no bounds, is telepathically projected to the point that other telepathic broadcasts in the room are interfered with or even overridden. Kalia takes the opportunity to escape--and although the crib walls are still too strong for her to pass through them, the key she has to the shop works. She flickers out of existence. Almost immediately, a rather disarrayed-looking Kudos flickers into existence (not in the crib, mind you), suddenly seeming to remember that the quest is in fact still going on.*

*NYC is shocked. The violence is in temporary reprieve and he's still in one piece. This should wear off soon... oh, look; Corrupt's got up. Finally, a live ally-- wait, spoke too soon. Maybe a diplomatic solution isn't a bad idea at this moment. NYC takes the initiative*

Don't look at ME! Kudos stole my key!

*Kudos reacts in dim comprehension, and looks at NYC's key in his hand. NYC ducks*

*Corrupt's anger dies down a little and she rubs her head in confusion*

[Corrupt] I don't know what happened, but if you say Kudos did it...

[Kudos] What?! No, no, it's all *his* fault! He's the one who stole your wall! He's the one who knocked you out with it!

[Corrupt] But he couldn't have done it, he was... *eyes narrow* ...say, NYC, just HOW did you get back here? I thought you were in the Cube Zone...

Well, it's a complicated story involving high tech matter/anti-matter fields, rifts in space-time, the lord Chaos and the architectural redundancy of your sho-- *NYC notices Kudos is currently not being attacked* --where's Tusk?

*NYC hears a snarl from behind him*


Corrupt, mind-powers have no effect on Althian Telekinetic Cribs! That's why they're given that name!

First people traipseport in and out of them like they were a public park, NOW the whole concept is being shot....I swear, what's the point of even having a backstory?

Yeah, but Kalia landed in the crib that Stephanie was in, which was also the crib that NYC was in, which you said was defective! Thus, I'm being continuous with that somewhat fractured continuity...


*Corrupt raises an eyebrow at NYC, who still seems to be blissfully unaware of the presence of Tusk behind him. Kudos, seemingly by reflex, starts blasting at Tusk, but his malfunctioning Blaster is creating entirely different sorts of changes to the fabric of reality. Sighing, Corrupt turns to the characters in the room and sees the Althian Bounty Hunter ominously bouncing a Crib in one of his tentacles. She starts whirling her staff around and around, faster and faster, until she creates an enormous fireball that she releases in his direction...*

*NYC gets a shiver down his spine. The shadow forming around him does not bode will for his personal safety... but he still has the SMG. NYC spins around and empties the clip into Tusk. After doing that he throws the gun at Tusk's head and starts running in the opposite direction*

Yeeeeee--!

*The Althian Bounty Hunter simply wasn't expecting a fireball. Used to dodging bullets and concentrated ray blasts, something that large and unexpected is enough to cause some definite damage to his tentacles*

*Tusk howls in pain from the SMG bullets, and the SMG lands in his mouth. Acting on the instincts of an angry, wounded animal, Tusk barrels after NYC. The only thing he does that seems to be backed by much rational thought is spitting the SMG at NYC with a surprising amount of force*

*the spit-covered SMG hurtles itself and ricochets off of the back of NYC's head. NYC stumbles to a crash on the floor, dazed. He brings a hand to his hair and finds it sticky. Ow. and Eeew.*

*Tusk reaches NYC and resumes his attempt to tear NYC to pieces*

*The broken Binary Blaster's blast, which must have some sort of delayed effect or something, hits Tusk just as he's diving for NYC. It turns Tusk into a very frazzled-looking sheep, which angrily takes a chunk out of NYC. Another blast, and the sheep-Tusk turns into clone-o'-Corrupt-Tusk, which glares angrily at NYC. Somehow the word 'fireball' seems to linger on the air...*

*flash*

[Tusk] Ba-a-a!

[NYC] Huh?

*CHOMP*

[NYC] OW!

*flash*

[Tusk] You!

[NYC] You?

[Tusk] Fireball!

[NYC] Aaugh!

*NYC tackles Tusk, wrestling for the carbon copy of the magic staff, putting himself in harms way with Kudos' random firings*

*Kudos's next blast hits NYC, as Corrupt (the real one) looks very surprised to see a carbon copy of herself fling a fireball recklessly through the room. Fire doesn't affect her much, but it seems to have a degrading effect on some of the members of B.E.T.T.E.*