A new Story: The Pantheon of anarchy.


CHAPTER: 1

  Some 200 years after the first coming, (a mortal 
designation for the advent of an attack made by the 
formerly fictional "Godzilla" on an unsuspecting New 
York,) on the once proud planet of earth:

     From space the planet looked desolate. Not only a 
pale image, but a complete mockery of it's former beauty. 
All those once lovely sights... painted landscapes full 
of vibrant color, lush flora alive with health and inner 
light, every inch of her circumference teeming with life. 
A shining blue sphere of hope spiraling through the 
endless vacuum ... once, but no longer.
	A brown, foreboding ball of dirt and fire, it's 
surface scarred and pitted with decades of raging 
battles. The previously dominant structures of man ripped 
bodily from it's crust leaving wounds that would never 
heal. Everywhere there was nothing. Nothing but wreckage 
and destruction. A world wide battlefield, finally 
cleared of armies.
	Except here... In the place where it all began, the 
exact spot where the lizard fell 200 years prior, a small 
fire burns. A tended flame... tended by the last 
occupants of a dead planet. 
	"What we need is somebody who can play the 
harmonica." Speculated the Doomon Lord, "that way it 
would be just like those old west, trail blazing movies. 
Oh Yeah! and we'd need a big can of beans too!"
	"THAT," Answered the Baroness, from where she sat 
cross-legged by the fire polishing her sword, "might be 
very dangerous."
	"Good!" Snarled the lunatic, also called Moonstone, 
Also called the unborn one, also called...er, Rob, "We 
could do with a little danger for a change... this planet 
ceases to hold my attentions!"
	"Shuuuuut-uuuuuup..." Groaned DAN from where he lay 
atop his bedroll, "I'm sick of hearing it. If you wanted 
more stuff to fight you shouldn't have killed 
everything!"
	"It wasn't just me..." Defended the lupine being.
	"SAY!" Perked the cow goddess, "I had a great idea! 
We can go over to the mirror world where CHRIS came from, 
and kill everything there! That'll keep us occupied for a 
little while!"
	"Great idea," Agreed the Mad Druid, with no emotion 
discernible in his voice, "But we did that 70 years ago."
	"... ... oh." Whispered the Goddess, looking 
somewhat downcast.
	Chris-the-electrician stood from off his seat of 
twisted metal, a chunk of what had, perhaps at one time, 
comprised an automobile, and came forward to prod the 
fire with his staff. The flame stirred and wrapped itself 
around the long stick, but did not burn it.
	"No more Lizzzzzzzzardsss?" Queried the M.E.L. 
android, directing her question towards the sage from 
where she stood at the outer edge of the circle.
	Chris turned towards her, saw her eyes glowing Tazer 
blue in the darkness, and took a moment to study her 
anew. She stood partially enshrouded by shadow, garbed in 
the tight black lycra jumpsuit which she had traded in 
her pink dress for many decades before hand, she was 
extremely hard to make out. Her shining blonde hair, 
drawn back in a long ponytail that reached halfway down 
her back, reflected the firelight like some strange spun 
metal. She might be attractive if not for the fact that 
she had killed everyone Chris ever knew. He must admit 
though, out of this entire group... the robot was the 
only one who had really changed. Looking around him, 
after two-hundred years of association, Everybody was the 
same. The way they acted, looked, talked, nothing was any 
different. And for the life of him he couldn't decide if 
that was good or bad.
	"No," answered Chris the sage flatly, continuing to 
stir the fire, "There aren't any more lizards."
	"Yeah," Said CHRIS, raising his head from the fire, 
"Why do you think we've been fighting nothing but cows 
and spiders for the past ten years... They're the only 
two spirits we haven't killed yet!" He laughed, tilting 
his head to indicate the Widower and the cow Goddess.
	The widower swung lazily in the comforting hold of a 
web hammock strung between two pieces of detritus which 
projected vertically from the ground, and in a casual 
voice, that was all the more threatening because of it's 
matter-of-fact tone, stated her mind.
	"And don't even think about trying it Godling... 
your powers are all but fled, where as the spirit of the 
spiders lives long after the physical bodies are 
destroyed."
	"Oh! and cows too!" Said the Goddess, raising her 
hand enthusiastically.
	All was silence for a while then, the mood was 
melancholy, and the outlook bleak, but still the pantheon 
persisted.
	"I take it back about the harmonica player..." 
Iterated Dooly into the still calm, "What WE need is to 
move to a better neighborhood."
	At which DAN propped open an eye... and an idea 
began to form.

CHAPTER: 2

	Dooly puffed and wheezed in a gratuitous show of his 
exhaustion, a performance well suited to any professional 
stage actor, as he dragged an unwieldy length of scrap 
metal toward the ever growing pile near where DAN stood 
directing the pantheon members about their task. As he 
paused to mop his brow with a sleeve the M.E.L. android 
passed him, hauling two times his load held one stack 
under each arm, without breaking once in either her 
course or stride. Turning away in disgust he espied on 
his other hand about thirty-plus Lunatic moonstones, each 
helping the others to bring forward massive quantities of 
scrap from great distances... they looked like a 
scavenger's bucket brigade. The Doomon lord turned to 
look back at his own meager offering and cursed his 
inadequacy just as DAN shouted out to him.
	"If some of us need a rest I'm sure we could take 
measures to accommodate them!" He smiled derisively.
	"That's easy for you to say, you windy old bastard, 
just standin' there givin orders..." Dooly mumbled to 
himself, while at the same time returning his grip to 
wrestle further with the scrap he'd found.
	The widower moved by on his left, toting something 
which might have been a mini van over her head, and he 
fell to cursing in an extended vocabulary of colorful 
words.
	"Need a hand?" asked CHRIS from where he and the 
Baroness were assisting one another in dragging a crushed 
dumpster.
	"Fuck off." Muttered the irate Doomon king, 
returning to his labor.
	"Well, well, well," Tsked the Baroness, "Somebody 
woke up on the wrong side of the stable this morning."
	Dooly continued to work, slowly but surely drawing 
the heavy load forth. During his battle he was passed by 
the cow goddess, who had summoned forth some beasts of 
labor to assist in the task at hand, and then by the Mage 
and the mad Druid who with their combined powers had 
managed to salvage a smallish building which they held 
aloft in some magical field or another. Sure enough he 
was the last to arrive at the towering heap of junk, and 
stopping to lean against his pitiful treasure, he turned 
to offer a glare at DAN.
	"Will that be ALL, Oh great and well rested one?" He 
queried, breathlessly.
	"Yes," DAN answered straight faced, "as a matter of 
fact, it will." He said, before cracking a small smile.
	"So, what's the plan, Stan?" Asked the mad monk, 
drawing his hood back to cool himself in the noon breeze. 
(There was always a noon breeze now that there weren't 
any buildings to block it.)
	CHRIS and DAN stood side by side, exchanged a quick 
glance, and turned back smiling.
	"We're going to build a spaceship!" Said DAN, 
drawing out the last word in a dry British drawl.
	"A GREEN one, ooooh." Ooohed CHRIS, rubbing his 
hands together.
	"Yeeeeahhh, Suuuuuurre...." Uttered Chris-the-
electrician, rolling his eyes and managing to look scared 
both at the same time.
	"So, why all the raw material, apprentice creator?" 
Posed the Widower, smiling sweetly,  "Surely one of YOUR 
power could have molded such a simple construct from the 
very ether around us." 
	"The Ol' gray mare just ain't what she used to be, 
huh Danny boy?" Laughed Dooly.
	"Hey, hey, hey!" Shouted DAN, "that's enough out of 
you MR. I-took-three-hours-to-carry-a-fender-two-blocks." 
Dooly glowered, but held his peace.
	"Alright, how to say this delicately..." DAN said, 
thoughtfully scratching his neck. "Okay, well, a good 
deal of a god's power rests in the hands of those who 
worship him, right? We all know this. Well, recently I 
find myself lacking somewhat in the followers 
department..."
	"Amen." interrupted Dooly.
	"You and me both." agreed CHRIS.
	"... so the extent of my power has suffered the 
consequences." Continued DAN, "I can still do creations, 
but I now require to have the necessary materials on hand 
to do it."
	"...And you are planning on building a star chariot 
from this debris?" Spake the unborn one quizzically, 
"Prey, tell me, do you wish it to fly?!"
	"That's where I come in!" Said CHRIS proudly, "By 
making this scrap Greener I will increase it's density 
and therefore it's quality until we have some right fine 
metals! uh-huh."
	"Um, pardon me, stupid question, maybe... but where 
exactly are you two getting the strength to do even that 
much?" Asked the Goddess of all things bovine.
	"CHRIS and I have taken to worshipping each other." 
Answered DAN simply.
	"It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it." 
Added CHRIS.
	"Yeah, okay, whatever works, sorry I asked." Babbled 
the Goddess with a dismissive gesture.
	"Now hold onna minute here," Said Dooly, stepping 
forward with one hand held out, palm forward, in a 
restraining gesture, "Who's gonna fly this big green, 
god-awful hunk O' junk? You?! You crashed a Harrier into 
a thirty story lizard for chrissakes! Kinda hard to miss 
coming up on one of those, ya know! I mean, He couldna 
stood out any more if he'd been painted florescent orange 
with "DON'T HIT ME" tattooed across his chest in neon!"
	"Oh, shut up, it didn't happen that way and you know 
it... but I see your point. We're none of us pilots 
here." DAN paused a moment before continuing, "All right, 
tell you what, I'll create an Artificial Intelligence to 
pilot the ship for us, and make it one that's versatile 
enough to handle all of the craft's necessary maintenance 
needs. How about that? Good enough?"
	"I prefer you worked on manifesting some ACTUAL 
intelligence before you try to make anything synthetic." 
Answered the Doomon lord, sarcastically.
	"Why must you attempt to confound me at every turn?" 
Asked DAN, in a tone of utter distaste.
	"It's my job." Smiled Dooly.
	"NO! Nononononononononononononono!!!!" No-ed the 
Baroness, "I don't WANT to be trapped in space with these 
two, idiots! WHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!" DAN moved to 
console her with an embrace, but she just shook her head 
and mumbled until she fell asleep, curled into a fetal 
position at the foot of the monstrous pile of metal.

CHAPTER: 3

	The Baroness awoke to a cacophony the like of which 
she had heard only a few times in the past years... and 
quite some years they had been now that she thought about 
it. Thanks to the combined magics of the electrician and 
the druid she had lived many years past the limited 
lifespan of any mere mortal. Despite the passage of time 
she still felt the warmth and vigor of youth, and the 
strength of her limbs had only seemed to wax greater as 
time progressed. She was more than human now, as keeping 
the company of demi-gods will quite often do, she had 
become a minor deity in her own right.
	Lifting her head from the cold earth, she turned to 
survey the immediate area, and found to her surprise that 
the large pile of scrap metal which they all had 
collected was in flux! It shifted and moved with a life 
of it's own, thrusting up metal spires here and there 
across it's exterior mass while rope thick cables twined 
themselves around and through the rapidly forming 
superstructure. 
	The whole display was suffused with a constant green 
glow that seemed to radiate throughout the shifting 
matrix, strengthening every coupling, and hardening every 
support even as it colored them with it's very touch. 
	and there on the dirt ground, not far afield from 
the organized chaos of the spaceship's birthplace, sat 
DAN and CHRIS facing one another, brows furrowed in rapt 
concentration. The force of their powerful wills seeming 
to shimmer in the air over them like a heat haze as they 
manipulated the fabric of the molecular world, Bending it 
to their purpose.
	The Baroness did not stop to consider where the 
others might be, but merely stepped back to watch the 
spectacle as the metal folded itself into a new 
definition of reality.
	 A spray of electrical fire arced itself across the 
evening sky, tracing a random path over the exterior of 
the ship's newly formed hull, and one by one emerald 
lights blinked into existence beyond tinted veiwports. 
Slowly the motion of the vehicle's creation ground to a 
halt as every part found it's place in relation to every 
other, the many facets became simply one whole, and as 
random as the pieces had seemed at first, the puzzle 
itself was quite beautiful once solved. Every contour 
flowed smoothly into each turn, there were no sharp 
corners, nor rough edges. All panels connected 
seamlessly, every joint blended perfectly. The deep green 
of the craft shined with inner light like a precious 
jewel stolen from the pages of a fairy tale. And there it 
hovered... not ten feet away from her, a soft hum flowing 
from it's undercarriage into the darkling eve.
	"It's... green." She husked, "We'll be flying around 
in the emerald city. Dorothy would be proud."
	"Heh-ha-ha-ha-haaaa!" Cackled a voice behind her, 
"I'll get you my pretty!" 
	She turned to observe the mad druid, hands hooked 
into claws and face screwed up in a comedic grimace, 
moving towards her from where he had obviously watched 
the process with the rest of the group.
	"Why didn't you wake me?" She asked, walking out to 
meet him.
	"because you were sleeping." He responded simply.
	"Yes, I know I was, so why didn't you wake me up?!"
	"Well, how am I supposed to know you want to be 
woken up!" The monk waved his hands, flustered, "You were 
asleep, it's not like I could ask you! and you didn't say 
you wanted to be woken up when you went to sleep!" 
finally he turned back to the others, then back to the 
baroness to add, "What about them! They didn't wake you 
up either, why don't you go yell at them! Jeez!"
	"All right, take it easy, I was just asking..."
	"I don't know why it's supposed to be my fault 
whenever other people screw up, what am I the universal 
scapegoat?"
	The Baroness left the monk to rage to himself, and 
moved to rejoin the group he had so recently departed. 
	"Did you have a nice rest?" Questioned the Cow 
Goddess.
	"Yes, thank you for asking." and not wanting a 
repeat of the previous event, omitted the fact that she 
might have wanted to be awake earlier.
	No sooner were the words spoken, then there was an 
outcry from CHRIS.
	"Allll ABOAARD!!"
	"What?! So soon? I haven't even packed yet!" Called 
back the Baroness.
	"You don't have anything to pack!" Answered DAN, 
"Just get on the damn ship, we're leaving."
	"Well, no time like the present." She muttered to 
herself. 
	And so they boarded.

CHAPTER: 4

	The unborn one had never seen, nor even conceived of 
any object like this spaceship, all metal and cold and 
unfeeling. It almost pained him to take his feet from the 
soil of the planet and place them on the unyielding green 
floors within the hovering palace.
	"I call shotgun!" He barely registered the Doomon 
lord shout as he followed him aboard, and was even less 
interested when he and the god DAN fell to another of 
their constant and petty arguments.
	"I am not going to spend this entire trip caged in 
the cockpit with YOU."
	"Well too bad, I'm not going to give up shotgun, I 
won it fair and square!"
	Neither of them would yield, their pride would not 
allow it, instead they would both subject themselves to 
the torture of each others company through the long 
journey, rather than allow the other one even such a 
slight victory as this.
	The lunatic sighed to himself, the Baroness had been 
correct... this was going to be a long trip.
	He padded his way down a long stretch of corridor, 
each footstep echoing around the hollow innards of this 
great green beast. He examined the new sights, scented 
the strange air, and even licked one of the walls to gain 
a taste to associate with spaceships in the future.
	Being inside this machine was a dreamlike, almost 
detached experience, it felt like walking through the 
corridors of ones own mind, every step fearing what 
submerged memory might suddenly arise unbidden to 
confront you.
	"You seem troubled, my love." Hissed a familiar 
voice beside him.
	He started, so enthralled was he with his study of 
the ship that he had allowed his natural born awareness 
to become lax. She had approached without his knowledge, 
but then again, if only one could have done it... it 
would have been her.
	"It is nothing, my spider." He answered, his voice a 
growl, "It is just so new to me."
	He ran a hand across the flat cool surface of an 
electrical access panel, nothing entirely new there, 
except the context of it's existence. It's place aboard a 
ship that traveled through the void made it a thing of 
hidden knowledge. The context herein lent to all ordinary 
things an extraordinary quality.
	"It is new to us all." Hissed the Spider Spirit, "We 
have none of us ever been where we now shall go... have 
some courage."
	He bristled slightly at the jab, then calmed, 
knowing that she was only playing with him, trying to 
raise his spirit and occupy his thoughts with other than 
the now.
	The Monk happened by just then, singing softly to 
himself, but rob overheard as he passed close.
	"Lunatic and spider sitting in a tree, k-I-S-S-I-N-
G, first comes love then comes marriage, then comes 
spider with a... what the hell would a spider have? A 
net?..." and then he was gone again, around the corner 
and on down the hall.
	The Widower opened her mouth to speak, but was 
promptly interrupted by the voice of DAN which seemed to 
emerge from nowhere and everywhere at once.
	"We're getting ready to take off, if everybody wants 
to get comfortable, this should only take a second." And 
in the immediate background of his announcement a running 
stream of nonsense from the Doomon king, "The captain has 
turned on the no smoking sign, please return your trays 
to the upright and locked position while we..."
	"will you shut the hell up, I'm trying to..." And 
then the voices disappeared.
	"Shall we go back to the front?" posed the lunatic, 
to his beloved. She shook her head, and smiled slightly 
before answering.
	"No." She whispered, "how about we go to the back."
	The Moonstone, may have been a lunatic, but he was 
no idiot, and so he followed.
	
	Moments later a small, bright object detached itself 
from the earth's atmosphere and hurtled towards the outer 
rim of the solar system, carrying with it the last 
survivors of a murdered planet... How unfortunate for the 
rest of the sentient universe that they were, in fact, 
it's murderers.

 
CHAPTER: 5

	DAN braced himself against the back of his chair by 
pushing against the floor with both feet, as the ship 
broke free of the atmosphere and spun itself off in the 
general direction of Pluto. No longer constrained by the 
laws of gravity, the ship flew upside down and sideways 
at an angle away from the planet it had just left behind, 
while those inside struggled to reorient their all too 
subjective definitions of "up" and "down."
	"NICK," DAN called into the air, "Get us up to full 
speed and set a course for the next galaxy."
	"Ummmm..." Came back a hesitant tone from the main 
computer console in the cockpit, "I don't mean to 
question your wisdom on this... I mean, I'm sure you know 
what your doing, and I don't want to step on anybody's 
toes..."
	"Yes, yes, what is it?" Asked DAN getting a bit 
impatient.
	"Well, no offense... it's really only that, it's 
more of a question of... I'm sorry to be..."
	"NICK!" DAN Shouted, making the name into a command.
	"Sorry, I just wanted to make sure you REALLY want 
to go all the way out of the galaxy. I mean, the planets 
around here are nice and familiar, and we know..."
	"NICK, you can stop talking and follow orders now."
	"Yes, sorry... it's just that.."
	"No."
	"...Sorry."
	DAN looked over to the CO-pilot's chair, where Dooly 
sat staring at him, and thought to himself: "Oh great, 
here it comes, can't he let me do one little thing 
without trying to find a flaw with it? Well... this time 
I'm ready for it."
	"Okay," Said the Doomon lord, "First off the bat, 
why the hell would you name an A.I. NICK?"
	"It's an acronym."
	"OH GOD! Allright all right, for WHAT, pray tell?"
	"Neurologically inhanced computer konscious." Said 
DAN, and as he said it, thought to himself... here it 
comes.
	"WHAT?!" The Doomon king's voice rose two decibels 
in pitch, "IN-hanced?! It's EN-hanced, With an "E" you 
idiot! And conscious is spelled with a "C" not a "K"! 
Dolt!"
	As predictable as ever. thought DAN before 
responding.
	"Prove it." He said simply. Dooly just looked 
disgusted.
	"Give me a break, I don't need to prove it, 
everybody knows it."
	"No. You're wrong. There is no everybody, not 
anymore, there's just us now."
	"It's in the diction..."
	"There aren't any more dictionaries." Interrupted 
DAN, "There's no more anything, just my word against 
yours, and I say inhanced is spelled with an "I" and 
konscious with a "K" and if you don't like it you can get 
out and walk."
	Dooly fumed, but held his silence.
	"Can I just interject something here?" NICK's voice 
broke the quite.
	"NO!" Answered the two, in unison.
	"... sorry."

	Outside the cockpit door Chris-the-electrician stood 
with his ear pressed to the metal, and the cow goddess 
addressed him from over his shoulder.
	"Well? What are they doing now?" She asked quietly.
	"Pshh, arguing, what else." he answered, then 
abandoning his post moved away from the door shaking his 
head and saying, "Great, the world's oldest adversaries, 
who've been waging earth shattering battles since before 
the human race was born, reduced to petty squabbles and 
bickering... what a fine representation of humanity."
	But when he looked back to the Goddess She wasn't 
listening, and instead had taken his place at the door.
	"Better than television." she muttered, and after a 
moment of giving her a disgusted look, he gave it up and 
moved back to rejoin her.

CHAPTER: 6

	CHRIS moved along the halls of this beautiful green 
vessel, exalting at his achievement with every step, but 
it wasn't merely a leisurely stroll he was about... no, 
he was searching for something.
	He walked past a table at which the mad monk played 
a wildly inaccurate representation of solitaire, (mainly 
because he lacked cards,)and on down an echoing tunnel 
which widened slightly before terminating in a set of 
oversized double doors. The portal hissed open as NICK 
sensed his approach, and beyond it he found what he had 
sought.
	A large storeroom cavernous in appearance, wide and 
deep, but devoid of all cargo save one horrific presence. 
Metal appendages reached out to brace themselves against 
wall, ceiling, and floor, holding the figure from which 
they protruded suspended in the center of the hold. The 
gleam of polished steel sparkled along the surface of 
each extension, and the red glow of a penetrating gaze 
broke the shadows as two electronic eyes came to light 
upon him. 'God, it looks like a Giger drawing.' he 
thought uneasily.
	"What do you want..." Buzzed MEL in an unfeeling 
monotone.
	Long ago she had been CHRIS' own advisor, programmed 
to function in a way that made relating with her 
comfortable for him, until DAN and the Baroness had 
gotten a hold of her, and then Chris-the-electrician had 
"fixed" her. She wasn't what she had started out to be, 
cute and innocent... now, she was just plain spooky.
	"Anszzzwer... what do you want." She buzzed, the red 
of her eyes growing brighter.
	No, she definitely wasn't what she had once been... 
but CHRIS knew how to fix that. Be certain that he hadn't 
forgotten, had never given up, the power to change her 
back.
	"Excite me." He whispered, stepping into the room 
which housed the technological monstrosity. And the doors 
hissed shut behind him.

	NICK raced through the narrow places and enclosed 
wiring of his body, traversing the length and breadth of 
the entirety of his vast being in a matter of seconds. He 
checked outer paneling for strength, engine systems for 
proper temperature, and oxygen supply for regulatory 
levels, and between each checked everything else about 
two hundred times. He also kept the proverbial ear out to 
monitor the comings and goings of the parasites for which 
he played host. They traveled inside him even as a 
microbe might travel in the bloodstream of a human body, 
flowing through veins and arteries, narrowing into 
capillaries, and penetrating into his every organ. They 
were here there and everywhere, and it was his job to 
make sure they were safe and comfortable. He checked the 
internal flow of coolant to the rearmost drive engine and 
heard the Baroness snore where she had fallen asleep at a 
table on the other side of the ship. He analyzed and 
finally rearranged the shoddy connections which operated 
the inner doors, for the sake of making them more 
efficient, while at the same time listening in to the 
conversation of those on the bridge.
	"Well what if I have to take a shit? There's not 
even a toilet!" One was saying.
	"You don't have to shit, your a god." Responded the 
other.
	"Yes, but what if I WANT to shit?!" Insisted the 
first.
	"The only reason you WANT to shit is to be 
difficult..."
	And so on and so forth. The bridge was always the 
same, and only worth monitoring in case the "pilot" 
should wish to make another simplistic command, which 
NICK had not only anticipated, but already carried out. 
Then it was: "oh are you sure?" and "Oh, shall I do this, 
master?" pathetic. But how do you fight programming? No 
matter how free his thought and action might be, his 
behavior would ever be regulated by those who surrounded, 
and suffused him. 'Oh well,' thought the Konscious mind 
of the space-traveling juggernaught, 'It's a living.' and 
continued on with his duties.


CHAPTER: 7

	Life aboard the ship was simple, and even more 
boring than life on the planet had been. But the hope 
kindled daily by the anticipation of something more on 
the horizon kept the pantheon members from despair. There 
was no want, they each had their own quarters for 
sleeping and other private activities, (The cow goddess 
often wondered why CHRIS had kept so many back issues of 
"Newsweek" but never dared ask,)And they had no need to 
take sustenance, except to add variety to their day. If a 
one came over with the desire for a tasty bit of 
something then they need only track down one of the two 
conjurers, and would find their request readily 
fulfilled. Unfortunately, if the sage Chris were not to 
hand, then they were forced to deal with the Mad druid...
	"Look, all I want is a cheeseburger." Asked the Cow 
Goddess, as slowly and clearly as possible. Yet the druid 
still stared at her incomprehensibly. 
	In the mad monk's mind she talked to him through 
three feet of transparent peanut butter, her lips moved 
in a really funny way but the only sounds that reached 
him were: "blub, blub, blub..." He smiled to himself.
	"Hello?" She queried incredulously, "Are you even 
listening?"
	He watched, amused, as a small fish smoking a cigar 
swam out of her mouth and circled her head thrice before 
returning from where it had come. He laughed under his 
breath.
	The corner of the cow goddess' lip turned up in 
disgust, and she clucked her tongue once before turning 
and walking away, muttering to herself.
	"Honestly, I don't even know why I try sometimes, it 
really is just waaaaaay beyond me. Maybe Chris is 
somewhere around..."

	The Baroness rounded a corner to find MEL sitting in 
the middle of the corridor tittering away to herself 
moving her index finger over the surface of the green 
metal floor as if drawing in the sand on some alien 
beach.
	"MEL?" she asked, concerned, "Are you all right?"
	"OH!" She exclaimed, looking up with a childish glee 
showing on her soft features, "I'm just peachy-pretty-
keen!"
	"Wha..What?" The Baroness was utterly taken aback by 
the response, "What is this... a relapse? MEL honey, did 
somebody DO something to you?"
	"OH No! Heavens no! I'm playing hide and go seek!" 
Stating which, she leaped up and proceeded to move on 
past Karen and down the hallway. But the Baroness 
followed, knowing there was more to this than met the 
eye, MEL hadn't behaved like this in centuries... there 
was definitely something amiss.
	Finally catching up to the skipping robot, Karen 
laid a restraining hand on her shoulder.
	"Hold on a second, Hon, I think we'd better just..."
	Instantly MEL swiveled, eyes bursting into red 
flame, and an array of deadly weapons bristling from her 
torso on either side, all sights trained on the startled 
Baroness.
	"HEY!" Screeched the walking arsenal in a hate 
filled robotic voice, (with lots of reverb,)  "I'll blow 
your friggin' head off!"
	And as suddenly as it had come about, the 
transformation was reversed, and MEL raised a single 
finger to her bottom lip, gaze downcast, but a gleam of 
mischief in her smiling eyes.
	"Oh, I didn't just say that did I! Tee-hee!" And 
faster than the Baroness' eyes could follow, the robot 
disappeared around the next turn.
	She stood there in stunned silence a moment longer 
until CHRIS came running up behind her, breathing 
heavily.
	"Did... you.. see... her...?" He asked between 
breaths, leaning against her for support as he heaved air 
into his starving lungs.
	The most she could manage was to nod numbly in the 
affirmative.
	"We have... to stop her." CHRIS swallowed, then 
continued in a steady voice, "She's a complete psycho, we 
gotta catch her before she kills somebody."
	Again the Baroness answered with the same type of 
nod, then shaking her head as if to clear it, turned and 
rasped a more verbal response.
	"No shit, sherlock. And afterward you've got some 
questions to answer."
	"Yeah, after." He nodded, and together they took off 
down the corridor at a brisk walk.


CHAPTER: 8

	On the bridge, NICK was eavesdropping on the latest 
argument between the two pilots.
	DAN was leaning back in his chair, hands resting on 
his stomach, neck stretched to tilt his head back enough 
to stare at the ceiling, as he shuffled his feet side by 
side rotating himself in a slow circle on the chair's 
swivel.
	"You know, piss me off enough and I'll just de-
create you." He threatened in a tired drawl.
	Dooly was kicked back with his feet resting on the 
control console and his arms folded behind his head, as 
he stared out of the main veiwport into open space.
	"Empty threats, old boy." He responded, in an 
equally weary tone, "I don't think you've quite got the 
power to do that anymore."
	DAN stopped shuffling.
	"I certainly do." He answered, sounding rather 
annoyed, "I can take you apart whenever I wish!"
	"But you can't, and more importantly... you won't, 
not now and not ever, from the moment you created me it 
was too late."
	"Uh-oh," Muttered DAN, beginning his slow rotation 
again, this time counter-clockwise, "Okay, I'm ready, 
startle me with your insight, ho-hum."
	"Well, I've been thinking, the reason I was created 
to begin with, and made the way I am, and made so hard to 
destroy, was so that there would be a balance, a yin to 
your yang..."
	"Heeeyyy, leave my yang out of this."
	"You see, there had to be an evil by which we could 
lend definition to the good. Without me, it would have 
just been you... no choice, no options, just one single 
way to be. You only know you're you because I'm here to 
be me. I'm supposed to be around, destiny wrote me into 
this play just as you wrote destiny into so many others, 
you could no more destroy me than I could destroy you. 
and that's just the way it is."
	"Guy's," Came NICK's tinny voice insinuating itself 
into the conversation, "I hate to interrupt your 
theological discussion, but..."
	"We're gods, we don't HAVE theological discussions." 
said DAN.
	"Yeah, we have fights." Added Dooly, "don't you read 
mythology?"
	"Er... no, but as I was saying, I think we can 
pretty much give up this quadrant as well, there's 
nothing here, no life, no hospitable planets, nothing."
	"Okay, thanks NICK, move on to the next one."
	"right-o."
	There was silence for a moment, broken only by the 
rhythmic shuffling of DAN's feet, until He tilted his 
head back once more and directed a question up toward the 
ceiling.
	"So, where were we?"
	"you were about to make a pathetic failure of an 
attempt to kill me." Muttered the Doomon lord, conjuring 
an apple from the air and biting into it.
	"I could do it."
	"You could not."
	"If somebody were here to believe in me, I WOULD 
succeed!"
	"there's some rampant faith in you around here, but 
I don't think it's coming from somebody else."
	DAN stood quickly and moved to loom over the 
lounging Doomon king.
	"All I need is one follower... then I will hurt 
you." He breathed threateningly.
	"yeah, good luck!" Answered Dooly cheerily.
	 And as luck would have it, that was the exact 
moment that the Baroness chose to enter the bridge in 
order to apprise it's occupants of the MEL situation. DAN 
spun on his heel and stabbed a finger out at her, 
speaking in his most forceful voice.
	"Worship me!" He commanded.
	She didn't even stop to consider, but turned right 
around and headed back the way she had come without any 
more comment than: "Typical male." 


CHAPTER: 9

	Pink and pretty, and oh so beautiful! Everything, 
Just Everything, I can see rainbows in the walls, so 
precious, I just want... Oh, Everything... I just want 
to, Everything is SOOO pretty, I just want to KILL 
EVERYTHING!!!
	MEL's eyes blazed a fiery neon red which colored the 
darkened halls of the pantheon's starship, The 
Mt.Olympus.
Her electronic mind a seething mixture of contradictory 
programs, she wended her way along endless paths into a 
virtual insanity. The loud clang of her heavy steps 
allowed the Semi-mortals to track her, but her speed and 
tireless nature kept her far ahead of their game... so 
far indeed that they might have been playing different 
sports, but as it stood they were both hunting!
	She had spent the last two minutes carefully mapping 
her path in order to lead her pursuers into a circular 
set of adjoining hallways, where she might get around 
behind them and pick one off to play with for a while. 
The plan had worked with ease.
	"I don't see why I'm being blamed for this," She 
heard her former employer whining, "Oh, CHRIS whenever 
something goes wrong it MUST be YOUR fault... Hey, CHRIS, 
what did YOU do THIS time... Why, CHRIS, if I had a 
dollar for every time you messed up I'd be a 
millionaire..."
	"Hey, CHRIS, Why don't you shut the hell up..." 
Interrupted another voice, that of the Baroness, who had 
been drafted into assisting him with the search.
	"Ah, I hate to interrupt," Stated Chris-the-sage, 
who had come along because he believed there would be 
safety in numbers and with no real desire to actually 
encounter the one they sought, "but I don't suppose 
either of you noticed that THERE'S A BIG KILLER ROBOT 
COMING UP BEHIND US!!" His robe swirled around him as he 
turned to indicate MEL with an unsteady finger.
	She froze. The pantomime enacted in her visual 
sensory reception devices showed her three small and 
frightened individuals who's features she knew quite 
well... her malfunctioning logic, however, told her that 
they were both cute and cuddly playthings, as well as 
being sick and offensive rodents which deserved nothing 
more then torture, torment, and finally extermination. 
Her body stayed still as her perception faltered first 
one way, then the other, she was ill conceived to 
decision making under these strange conditions, and need 
must observe their behavior before the scales would tilt 
fully in either direction.
	For their own parts, the others stood frozen as 
well. CHRIS rolled the thought of "greening" her over in 
his mind before rejecting it outright. The Baroness 
considered lobbing a hand grenade, but knew she didn't 
have any, and chastised herself mentally for having such 
inane thoughts. Chris-the-electrician, on the other hand, 
though scared spitless managed a small act of telepathic 
projection.
	"Chris, to the rest of the crew! We have a situation 
here! We're cornered by the rogue android, we need help!" 
He thought outward, and his thoughts moved like radio 
waves to be picked up by the transistors of minds 
throughout the ship.
	"UH-OH! Sucks to be you!" Thought back The Mad 
Druid.
	"We're busy..." Sent the Lunatic, and the Widower 
simultaneously.
	"I'll be there in a second... I'm in the middle of 
something." Thought the Cow Goddess, and in her mind 
Chris read also the faint image of a needle and thread.
	There was no response from the Cockpit, which was to 
be expected, each knew that if the other left he would 
find himself locked out and one become the victor in this 
minor battle.
	But there was one response that Chris hadn't 
expected...
	"Um, is it just me or is somebody thinking nasty 
thoughts in my corridor..." Buzzed an overhead speaker.

 CHAPTER: 10

	"NICK?!!" Shouted the Baroness incredulously.
	"huh?... oh yeah, me... it's me. Ummmm, could you 
hold on one second? See, I monitored the goings on in the 
cargo hold earlier, where CHRIS was trying to reprogram 
her, and I think I found where he went wrong... just let 
me try something. Please remain absolutely quiet and 
still." The voice droned, finally shifting it's direction 
towards the android.
	"MEL," The one computerized intellect addressed the 
other, "Listen very carefully I have three very important 
things to tell you, hear them, and make adjustments 
accordingly. One) in command string 34067532, the second 
word in phrase four should be "Drank" and not "spank." 
Two) In verbal reprogram 10-4-021, the main theme is 
incorrect and must be deleted entirely, replace with the 
statement: I like pink SOMETIMES, and I like leather 
OTHER TIMES, but NEVER at the same time." And last but 
not least, reset your logistic recognition system back to 
parameters "Friend/Foe" and delete parameters "Cuddly 
man/Sex toy." Got all that?"
	MEL's fabricated eyes cleared, and the horrid smile 
which had twisted her features fell away instantly, her 
stance became more relaxed, and she glared at CHRIS as 
she answered.
	"Yes, NICK, thank you very much... I... I think I 
appreciate the assistance. Is that wrong of me?"
	"Ummmm, not that I know of." Answered NICK, 
wonderingly.
	"Well... then maybe you don't understand the degree 
to which I would like to EXPRESS my gratitude. Tee-hee. 
OH, did I just say that?! I'm so naughty sometimes!" And 
with that, the android tossed it's hair and whirled to 
leave, a strange quirk of a smile on it's lips.
	"I'm afraid." Stated the disembodied voice simply.
	"That makes two of us..." Muttered Chris-The-
Electrician, and in a puff of smoke he disappeared, but 
when the smoke cleared he was still there, and was forced 
to turn and depart in a more conventional fashion. 
Grumbling all the way.
	"Well if nobody else is going to say it, then I 
will," Spoke the Baroness, "Thank you, NICK, for saving 
us... if you had a face, I'd kiss it... and if you had a 
body, wellll..." She let the statement trail off, and 
left down the corridor, giggling.
	"I'm REALLY afraid." reiterated the voice of NICK, 
"I'm going to find a nice safe circuitous loop in my 
wiring, and pace until I feel it's safe to return."
	"Yeah, you do that, Nicky-baby," Stated CHRIS, with 
a dismissive gesture, "I'll just sit here and ponder how 
a digital intellect can get more chicks in two minutes 
than I can get in three millennia..."

	On his way off to a snugly corner of wiring, NICK 
took a moment to check on the state of his strange 
passengers.
	In The cow Goddess living quarters, he found her 
putting the final touches on a sequin covered shirt of a 
style he was unfamiliar with. She smiled and talked 
happily to herself as she sewed.
	"There! Finally done!" She bubbled, "and it only 
took Two-hundred and five years!!"
	While the resident magic workers of the ship, the 
Mad Druid, and the Electrician, corroborated in a 
supernatural effort to transform the dingy cargo area 
into a makeshift Discotheque for the enjoyment of the 
other passengers, and in the hopes that they might be 
able to use it in order to "Meet chicks."
	He did not linger long around the shared quarters of 
the Widower, and The Lunatic... it made his circuits 
blush just to think about what was constantly going on in 
there. What exactly were they trying to accomplish? the 
generation of spider-puppies? Inconceivable! (literally.)
	On par with their pattern of relations, NICK 
calculated that DAN and Dooly were immersed in yet 
another argument over some inane topic or other, but he 
listened in momentarily just to make sure.
	"... What were you thinking?!" Dooly was in the 
process of shouting, "What are we supposed to do for 
entertainment?! Huh? tell me that smart guy!!"
	"You Moron!" Rejoined the resident God, "I didn't 
put a radio in because there's nothing to listen to! 
There aren't any radio stations in deep space!"
	"Well NOW we'll never know will we, Einstein, 
because you didn't even bother to... "
	NICK moved on.
	CHRIS was still sulking in the corridor where he had 
sat down and started rocking back and forth, humming 
quietly to himself.
	the Baroness and MEL were in the room of the former 
taking great pains to Re-enact a slumber party which the 
Baroness remembered having as a child. MEL was at the 
vanity brushing her hair one hundred times, while the 
Baroness herself lay on the bed with cucumber slices over 
each of her eyes, talking about how cool Marsha Brady had 
been. NICK left quickly when MEL turned around to ask her 
how much of the cucumber was left.
	Finally NICK came to his own personal "Pit of 
solitude" and started making circles in a vain attempt at 
trying to keep all of his electrical senses from shorting 
out altogether.


CHAPTER: 11


	"You're sure?" Questioned DAN, unbelievingly.
	"Absolutely." Answered NICK in concise fashion.
	"How far are we from Earth?" Put in Dooly, staring 
out the veiwport at the planet rotating below them.
	"approximately 30,000 light-years... um, this galaxy 
doesn't have a name." Replied the computer.
	They observed the statistics playing across the 
console in front of them. Twin brows furrowed in thought. 
Finally DAN turned and addressed his erstwhile rival.
	"Did you do this?" He asked, skeptically, not really 
expecting an answer in the positive, but lacking any 
other probable leads.
	"Hell no." Answered the other quickly, "Creation's 
not my shtick."
	"Yeah, I know..." DAN mumbled, "just checking."
	There was a long pause while they further 
contemplated the enormous orb, free-floating against a 
backdrop of stars.
	"So, what do we do?" Asked Dooly.
	"How the hell should I know? I just work here." 
Answered DAN, annoyed.
	"Well..." Interrupted NICK, "If I might be so bold, 
isn't THIS what you were looking for? Another planet. 
More people. A chance to continue your entertainment. why 
not just go down there?"
	"Because there's something not right here." Answered 
Dooly, "It could be dangerous."
	"Dangerous?!!" Buzzed the speakers of the cockpit, 
"But you're GODS!!"
	"Exactly." DAN fielded the next response, "Which is 
why this could be a bad scene all around. See, If we're 
the gods, and we are, then the only planets and life in 
the universe should have come from us. See? And this 
place... This is a surprise."
	"But if you created all planets and all life, why 
would you need to build a spaceship to go looking for it? 
Wouldn't you KNOW where to find it?" Queried NICK 
further, "I mean, if you weren't expecting to find 
anything out here why the hell did you bother to come... 
I'm sorry, pardon my French. But, why go through the 
trouble?"
	"Keeps us off the street." Answered Dooly, then 
turning to his companion, "So, what's the plan, DAN?"
	"I suppose we just get everybody together, and go 
down there."
	"good Idea... I don't suppose you brought any never-
before-seen-science-officers, who can serve as bait?"
	"No, but if we try hard enough we might be able to 
convince certain crew-members to wear red shirts while on 
the planet's surface."
	"oooh, good idea!" Conceded Dooly, and with that 
they made ready to inform the rest of the ship's 
occupants of their plans.


CHAPTER: 12


	Twas mid-morning in the farm lands which bordered 
the dark wood of east corniede, and a hoarfrost still 
covered the grass where it lay sleeping in the open 
fields. Clouds drifted lazily in their slow passage 
across the vivid blue sky, thin enough here and there to 
allow streaks of brilliant gold to penetrate to the 
ground below. 
	Squire Jeffo, at pace with his sheep for the 
mornings grazing, observed the scene with an internal 
tranquillity which showed on his warm, open features. 
Features which broke with an incredulous stare as 
something more than sunlight descended through the sky.
	A great green vehicle, glistening like an emerald as 
it reflected the light. Hovering earthward with silent 
grace, and coming to rest without a sound not ten steps 
away from the good squire and his flock. A panel in the 
object's side, perhaps three feet off the ground, slid 
back to reveal ten figures who's form and poise were 
alien to Jeffo's eyes.
	One raised an arm in greeting, waving a hand, and 
Jeffo responded in kind, automatically, whilst he 
continued to stare, mouth agape. The Group leaped out 
from their strange carriage to the soft yielding grass 
below and moved as a body toward he and his flock.
	"Take us to your leader, shepherd!" Commanded a one 
with short dark hair, and broad handsome features, clad 
in dark clothing and a long overcoat.
	But here was where Squire Jeffo would draw the line. 
Finally getting over his amazement at the utter GALL of 
these people, he'd be damned if he was going to allow 
them to talk down to HIM!
	"What the hell is wrong with you people!" He 
exploded, (verbally,) and now it was THEIR turn to gawk, 
"Are you out of your minds? It's Medieval week for cryin' 
out loud! you can't bring a spaceship down during 
medieval week, the Trilutie will crucify you!!"
	The Squire then, casting a furtive glance to left 
and right as one who checks to make sure he is not being 
observed, raised his hand and with a slight dismissive 
gesture caused the Mt.Olympus to become an actual 
mountain. There in the field where the ship had landed 
now rose a majestic stone peaked with snow.
	"Bloody hell!" exclaimed DAN, And the eyes of the 
pantheon members widened another degree, "You can't do 
THAT!"
	"I know, I know," Agreed Jeffo, "I wouldn't normally 
but I'm doing you a favor, and if you know what's good 
for you you'll materialize some new clothes as well." He 
advised, looking the strangers up and down.
	"Yes, But you CAN'T DO THAT!" Reiterated DAN, 
Gesticulating wildly in the direction of the newly formed 
mountain.
	"I think we established that, thank you DAN." Spoke 
the Widower, rolling her eyes.
	"Listen, let's just get to the point," Began CHRIS, 
turning to the Squire, "See, we're from off planet, and 
we just want to know... are there any video stores around 
here?"
	But he never got an answer, for at that moment a 
Dragon broke through the leafy canopy of the nearby 
forest, screeching a banshee's wail out across the field 
even as it's fiery breath stained the sky crimson. Flame 
erupted from it's gaping maw like lava from a broken 
lamp, and the words "holy shit!" were heard from multiple 
throats. The Dragon's scale covered legs, each as thick 
and sturdy as a dragon's leg, pistoned frantically, 
driving through the wood and out into the open land where 
stood our heroes... shakily.
	Chris-the-electrician quickly muttered words of 
protection: "go away, go away, go away..." While 
simultaneously, the Mad Monk moved his arms in a strong 
warding spell, holding both his hands out, palms 
foremost, and pushing.
	Like Satan's own switchblade, six Stalks sprang 
instantly from the sides of the MEL android, each 
terminating in a deadly form of projectile hurtling 
firepower.
	A bolt of flame ripped forward from the Dragon's 
mouth, completely incinerating the Squire's flock down to 
the last sheep so that not a scrap of wool was left, and 
from the dense wood behind the beast could be heard the 
echo of evil laughter.
	Squire Jeffo called out in a loud voice towards the 
forest from whence the creature had sprang.
	"Do you attempt to thwart me still Roderick, even 
though we have passed into this new phase?" He shouted, 
his voice carrying better than a shouted voice should, 
"It's last week was the Roman coliseum, and your own 
fault it was that you lost... you lack imagination my 
friend!"
	"Imagine THIS, thou!" Roared the flaming creature, 
ending his invective with a fiery burst which engulfed 
the poor squire.
	"Egads!" Exclaimed Dooly, who had been standing 
close by. Yet, once the flame subsided, there was still 
the Squire, not a hair out of turn, and looking rather 
annoyed.
	"You're really asking for it, ROD." He spoke the 
last word as though it were an insult, and moving one 
hand in a violent slashing motion, he caused the entirety 
of the wood to crash down with a sound like a thousand 
trees falling onto one another.
	The dragon yelped, then took flight to escape any 
harm which might next be directed at it. The Squire 
turned to advise the newcomers to seek shelter only to 
find that they were nowhere to be seen, having fled 
around the mountain to a safer location.


CHAPTER: 13


	"Okay," Began DAN, hunched over and breathless from 
running, "I'm officially baffled. How about you?"
	The pantheon formed a loose circle on the shadowed 
grass in the lee of the mountain which had only recently 
been a green ship. To the west of them, in the distant 
sky, a dragon sped off yelping as bolts of electricity 
cast upward from the ground chased it hither and thither.
	"Well, DUH. Weren't you listening? It's medieval 
week." Spake the Widower, in answer.
	"Did you know that the term breakfast comes from the 
medieval saying 'break your fast' in reference to the 
first meal after not having eaten all night?" Added the 
Cow Goddess, As the others gawked incredulously, "... 
Just thought I'd share."
	"yes, of course, dear. It'll all be okay." Said the 
Lunatic, patting her head and crooning in a condescending 
manner.
	"AHEM... ANYway." Dooly said, clearing his throat, 
"What do you think, Oh Sage, are these people magicians? 
We've encountered only two, if you count the one which 
was hidden in that wood, and they both seemed to have 
powers exceeding those of the norm."
	"hmmmm, yes..." The Electrician looked thoughtful 
for a moment, "It's not magic per-say, because they 
aren't casting any spells, there's no drain from out the 
elemental or spiritual spheres, no dice rolls... if it IS 
magic it's closer to the kind worked by you and DAN, than 
that worked by my humble self, and that of the Mad 
Druid."
	"Are you suggesting They're Gods?" Queried DAN, as 
Dooly quirked an eyebrow at Chris-the-Sage.
	"I don't think we should rule out the possibility." 
He answered, Lowering his voice in a penetratingly 
ominous fashion.
	No sooner had the words dropped from his lip, than 
the sky darkened and split in the center. Clouds 
billowing, and lit with purple light, folded out from one 
another like blood mingling in water. Dark light poured 
down onto the earth and the pantheon craned their necks 
to peer skyward at the spectacle as a voice boomed out 
across the land. There was no doubt in anyone's minds 
that this voice would be heard clear across the surface 
of that world.
	"Take heed, the Trilutie speak." It thundered, 
"Medieval week is at it's close. All Citizens brace for 
surface change. Make ready for The time of chaos."
	The clouds roiled inward, drawn backwards into their 
point of origin, dragging light and space back with them 
until the sky once more showed it's normal face.
	"The time of Chaos." Muttered CHRIS, "oh, goody, 
Sounds like we're just in time for the fun stuff."
	The earth quaked once, for a mere second, enough to 
offset the balance of the pantheon members, and to gain 
their attentions. Then the very ground on which they 
stood was ripped from underfoot, a fissure as wide as a 
dessert opened beneath and the walls of that new ravine 
also crumbled away into empty space. The sky seemed to 
bleed away, pulled from the heavens into the ever 
widening rift. Trees, fields, the mountain, every 
physical object that lent definition to reality drained 
away like soda from a two liter bottle with a hole in the 
side.
	Our heroes clawed at nothing, seeking purchase on a 
fled reality, grasping at the quickly fading vestiges of 
a familiar world... and failing.
	"WOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOO!!! WOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOO!!!" The 
Mad Monk was yelling, "THIS IS GREAT!! IT'S LIKE 
DISNEYLAND, BUT WITHOUT THE MOLECULAR STABILITY!! 
WOOOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
	The ten travelers drifted in an abyss of absence, 
floating between the birth and death of a world. Off in 
the distance they glimpsed others swimming in the sea of 
nothing, each seeming relaxed, and enjoying the temporary 
loss of all sanity, as one who misses a prized possession 
only because he knows it will soon be returned.
	"I think I have a problem over here!" Shouted the 
Doomon lord, Heads turned to face him from across the 
expanse, "does anybody know what happens if you fart in 
Null-reality?"
	Those nearby at once made frantic swimming motions 
in an attempt to gain a safe distance.



CHAPTER: 14


	With a sound like a thunderclap forced through a 
keyhole, the world came back with jarring clarity. So 
great was the force of it's return that our entire 
company of Godlings toppled to the sparsely covered 
earth.
	"Trippy..." Mumbled the Baroness.
	A dark world greeted their examining gaze. Forests 
of scarred and leafless trees, a sky black and starless 
with a full blood red moon, fields of dirt peppered here 
and there with dead grass, where they stood on the 
outskirts of an evil looking city. Gothic architecture 
was the mainstay of what few buildings they could see 
clearly in the halflight: Multiple spires stretched 
skyward from ornately decorated bases, eaves crowned with 
horrific carvings, stained gray and black with wear and 
weather, shaded red with moonlight.
	Nearby a man stood crowing like a rooster, dressed 
in rags and bleeding from his outstretched palms, He 
paused long enough to cast a glance in the direction of 
the newcomers, and to call out a single greeting.
	"Welcome to Bedlam!!" He cried, and continued to 
crow.
	"Thank you!" Cried back the Cow Goddess, waving in a 
friendly manner as she struggled to disentangle herself 
from the Mad Druid's robe.
	"I was going to say something about BELONGING 
here... but I think I'll restrain myself until it's clear 
that there's actually a way out." Stated Dooly, as he 
stood brushing himself off, and offered a hand to assist 
CHRIS, who had cushioned his fall.
	"Okay, I'm all for finding a different planet... you 
know, one that WE can torture, rather than BE tortured 
BY." Shouted DAN, sputtering to eject some dirt which had 
entered his mouth after the fall.
	"yeah, well, last time I saw your ship... it was a 
mountain. Now I don't Know WHERE it is." Retorted Dooly.
	The Mad Monk pulled a notepad and pencil from the 
sleeve of his robe and proceeded to write as the others 
continued to get themselves in order.
	"What write you my sorcerer? Perhaps tis some magic 
to assist us in this trial?" Questioned his former 
master, Lunatic Moonstone.
	"I'm making a "to do" list." He answered.
	"I Pray you, Tell me what you have in mind?"
	"Well... el numero uno, is to find out what the deal 
is with this planet. Two, we fight somebody to keep 
things interesting, and finally Three, we find our ship."
	"Ah, yes... I see. Tis a good plan."
	"Thanks." Thanked the Druid, continuing to scratch 
out his plans.
	"...  Where are you going now?" The Lunatic and 
Druid turned towards the direction of the Baroness Shout 
to see DAN and Dooly heading off in the direction of the 
city.
	"This way." Answered DAN over his shoulder.
	"Oh, of course, how silly of me to have asked." She 
said, trailing after them. The others followed in short 
order.

	The city opened it's dark alleys and cobbled streets 
to greet them, the sounds of rioting and hysterical 
laughter assailed their ears from every dim corner. Yet 
no other people had been seen since the crowing man.
	"uhhhh..." Whined The Cow Goddess, "Okay, this was 
nice, let's go home now."
	"Quite Yer Bellyachin' Girlie," Answered Dooly with 
a pirates snarl, "Or we'll be throwin' ya to the fishes. 
ARRRR."
	"Ummmmmm... No." 
	"Come out, come out, wherever you are!!" Called 
CHRIS into the fog choked alleyways.
	The Widower's head snapped around and she stared 
intently at a far distant doorway.
	"something wrong my dear?" Questioned the unborn 
one.
	"My spider sense is tingling..." She answered, 
(managing somehow to keep a straight face.)
	From the pitch of the doorway flowed a tall wintery 
figure. Smoke seemed to pour from the seems of his 
clothing, his long sharp featured face was frosted with 
white hair, a white so pure it matched the shade of every 
stitch he was wearing.
	"Good Eve, my children." He breathed, "tis bad 
indeed to be abroad at night in Bedlam. Of course, tis 
always night in Bedlam." He smiled a jagged smile, his 
unblinking eyes staring fixedly at something that must 
have been just behind the group of wanderers, as they 
never for a moment fixed on them.
	"I'm sorry... but did you forget your glasses?" 
Asked Dooly, waving his hands wildly to try and attract 
the man's gaze, until the Baroness slugged him in the 
arm. Hard.
	"Perhaps," The man's smile twisted slightly, "you 
require a guide, hmmm?"
	"Shyeah... right."


CHAPTER: 15


	"Maybe we could use his help," Suggested Chris-the-
Electrician, "don't you remember the time you got lost in 
your castle and I had to get all the Doomons to..."
	"SHUT UP!" Interrupted Dooly, with a menacing glare, 
"We don't want this guy leading us around... it's clear 
he's absolutely insane!"
	"That's all a matter of perspective, sir." Answered 
the man.
	"Maybe he can help us anyway," Suggested the MEL 
android, "He can answer our questions. All of them. Or he 
can get hurt." She smiled.
	"yeah, where are we?" Asked the Cow Goddess.
	"Bedlam." He answered.
	"DUH!" Added CHRIS.
	"I mean what planet." She Re-phrased.
	"Bedlam." He answered again, "Right now."
	"what do you mean 'Right now'?" Asked DAN, "What is 
'Right now'?"
	"Right now is the one-hundred and four millionth 
week of chaos. Right now we are Bedlam."
	"And last week?" Asked Chris-the-Electrician.
	"Last week was the one-hundred and four millionth 
medieval week. Last week we were Corniede."
	"and what's your name, charming suave and debonair 
type that you are?" Queried the Doomon king.
	"I am Corner." He smiled.
	"Corner's not a name, it's a geometric phenomenon. 
What was rooster boy back there called 'fold'?"
	"No, he is Squire Jeffo."
	"he didn't look like a Squire." Offered the 
Baroness.
	"He did last week." proffered Corner, "Medieval week 
belongs to Squire Jeffo... Chaos belongs to me."
	"Well good for you, your mother must be proud. Can 
you bring our spaceship back? We're ready to go now." 
Asked Dooly.
	"There are no spaceships in chaos."
	"What is there in chaos?" Asked The Cow Goddess 
innocently.
	"Order." Answered Corner.
	"ooooh. ahhhh. Color me impressed, you're a regular 
Plato. See, I told you this guy was nuts, let's get out 
of here." The Doomon king spoke, gesticulating in the 
direction of the tall man clad all in white. Until Corner 
raised a single hand, and extended a bony finger towards 
him. Dooly was picked up by an unseen force which slammed 
into his middle section, doubling him over, and sending 
him hurtling backwards through the stone face of the 
building behind. Brick and dust sifted down around the 
hole his entry had made, as he lay motionless, covered in 
the debris within.
	Chris-the-Electrician, and The Baroness 
instinctively raised their hands as if they were being 
held at gunpoint, But CHRIS stepped forward, raising his 
fists.
	"You want trouble, I'll give it to you. You're gonna 
give us our ship back, and like it, or I'm gonna make you 
the greenest man in Bedlam."
	"ummmm... CHRIS," cautioned the Lunatic in a soft 
voice, stepping up and putting his arm around CHRIS' 
shoulder, "I don't think that you should try to be 
menacing anymore, it's just... well, it really isn't YOU. 
You understand?" But CHRIS wasn't listening, as he was 
too busy being ripped from the Lunatic's grasp, and sent 
sailing backwards through the hole which Dooly made on 
his original trip.
	While he was making that journey, flying through the 
air in virtual slow motion, his thoughts centered first 
around the pain in his stomach caused by the blow, but 
then began to drift. Like Dreams that we have before 
waking, a dream that takes only seconds, but in our mind 
fills hours. So did his thoughts proceed:	"Chris, are 
you going to go to the movies today?" Asked his pet 
chair, Johnny-bones.
	"No Johnny-bones, you big silly, today is peepiomo 
day!!" Chris replied, dancing his way across the rainbow 
room where all his friends could see.
	"Peepiomo day! Hooray!!" Exclaimed Cool-stack, the 
trash can, flapping his lid excitedly.
	"Yes, Peepiomo day is today... it wasn't supposed to 
be until tomorrow, but I moved it up!" Smiled Chris.
	"I hope Jenny cartridge-rider can come to the 
party!" Yelled Two-pickery-glickery.
	"Oh! There won't be a party for this Peepiomo Day, 
We're having something much better instead!"
	"Better than a party, Chris?" Asked Lolly-porri, 
with an expectant smile, "What are we having?"
	"Bricks!"
	And then he landed with a thud, on the stack of 
brick and Dooly just within the building's jagged new 
portal.



CHAPTER: 16



	"Corner, why do you keep casting our friends into 
that building? Just wondering, really." Asked the Cow 
Goddess.
	"It wouldn't be chaos without doing something 
somewhat chaotic. Where's the order in labeling something 
chaos and not following through with the chaotic bit? 
That would just be chaos!"
	"Corner, do they have valium on this planet? Because 
I think you might be able to use one..." Suggested the 
Baroness helpfully.
	"I'm sick of this Horseshit," Said the Widower, "why 
don't we just kick his ass? Isn't that what we came here 
for anyway? I mean, sheesh!"
	Within seconds the Lunatic, (with a capitol,) was 
many lunatics, (without capitols.) Chris-the-Electrician 
quickly erected a barrier of protection, while James made 
orange whips for desert. The cow Goddess tried to summon 
a minotaur, but lacked half the skill necessary and just 
ended up with a severed bull head. DAN Attempted to 
transform the building behind Corner into a stone Golem, 
but it resisted his influence, the will which gave it 
shape was still alive within it, and as long as it was, 
he couldn't alter it. The Widower proceeded to hose 
Corner with webbing, that just seemed to split to either 
side of him, and land ineffectually on the sidewalk. The 
Baroness drew her mystical sword, and raising it above 
her head spake the magic words of power which would 
transform her for battle... but suddenly recalling that 
this just plain wasn't one of her abilities, she thought 
she'd play it off as posing. The MEL android jackknifed 
into a kill-crazy Swiss-army bitch and dove headlong into 
a physical confrontation, only to find herself hurled 
backwards into the building beyond. Fortunately CHRIS was 
able to roll aside, and thus avoid being hit with the 
two-ton projectile. She landed heavily on the Brick/Dooly 
pile, which caused the floor to collapse with the force 
of the added assault. As the dust settled anew, from 
below CHRIS could hear an annoyed buzz on the part of the 
machine, and a "WHUFF!... I think you broke my watch." On 
the part of the Doomon lord.
	The Lunatic had seen what became of his cohorts 
attacks, and thinking quickly directed his counterparts 
mentally to circle their opponent and then attack. This 
had the thrilling effect of allowing the Lunatic to be 
thrown into many buildings at once. Then Corner turned 
and addressed the remaining members of the humbled 
pantheon.
	"This was... entertaining. But I'm afraid I've some 
real chaos to create, and must fly." Then with a mad 
laugh he literally rose into the air and sped away above 
the city. Where he flew buildings collapsed in his wake, 
and baby's wet themselves, (which they tend to do anyway, 
so THAT was no big deal, but can still be chaotic, 
especially if you've got a busy schedule and no time to 
change them.)
	"Well... THAT was fun." Muttered Dooly as he CHRIS 
and MEL made their way from out of the demolished 
building. Then, Catching site of the Cow Goddess holding 
the bull's head, he Added: "What are you, the Godfather?"

CHAPTER: 17



	After wandering the streets for a few minutes 
looking for somebody they were capable of beating into 
submission, and not having very much luck, the tired 
pantheon members moved into one of the half toppled 
structures to sit down and rest for a few moments.
	DAN lay his coat on the dusty floor then lay down on 
top of it, and draped an arm across his eyes. Dooly sat 
down on a block of concrete and took off his boots to 
empty them of dust, and pebbles. The others plopped 
themselves down in various places around a wooden table 
which was still somewhat intact.
	"So, We go out searching for a planet to beat up, 
and end up at the one place in the omniverse where 
everybody's stronger than we are." Recited DAN, "that's 
just my luck."
	"Yeah," Agreed Dooly, dropping his boots and leaning 
back against the wall, "I blame your shitty luck too."
	"So, what are we going to do now?" Asked the Lunatic 
across the table.
	"We could try tearing down a few buildings." 
Suggested, CHRIS, head in hands.
	"yeah, until Corner comes back and obliterates us." 
Answered The Baroness.
	"What makes Corner so powerful?" Questioned MEL.
	"Not to mention the others like him... it seems 
everybody on this planet has amazing powers and abilities 
far beyond the ken of mortal man." Stated James.
	At this point Dooly leaped from his seat with a 
yelp, and spun to jab a rigid finger at the cinder block 
which had been his perch.
	"Hey, hey... watch the coat!" Chastised DAN, from 
his place on the floor, as the Doomon king danced near. 
"what's your problem anyway?"
	"that Block of cinder said something!" He shouted, 
eyes wide, finger pointing.
	"Ooooo-kay. Sure." Said CHRIS condescendingly, "What 
did it say, Dooly, hmmm? What did the bad piece of 
masonry say to upset you?"
	"I didn't mean to upset him, I just asked him if he 
wouldn't mind not sitting on me. I really didn't mean to 
cause any disturbance." Came a soft, barely audible 
whisper from the direction of the block.
	"NICK?!"
	"What?" a momentary pause, then: "Oh, yes it's me. 
Sorry, I thought you were going to ask me something... or 
just wanted to get my attention, I didn't realize that, 
well nevermind... Yes." NICK answered.
	"How the hell did you get to be a cinder block?" 
Asked DAN, standing to approach the chunk of masonite.
	"Oh I'm not... not really. I'm still a spaceship, 
but I've been converted physically into the 
representation of a cinder block. Like when I was a 
mountain, but really still a spaceship. I suppose it's 
hard to explain."
	"Aw, no. It makes PERFECT sense, please continue." 
Offered Dooly, not a little sarcastically, and sitting 
down on DAN's coat.
	"I didn't quite know what to make of the strange 
readings I had received from this place until it reverted 
to it's original state, only then was I able to analyze 
it in any depth."
	"When you were a mountain?" Asked The Cow Goddess, 
standing and approaching the block.
	"No, this was more between being a mountain and 
being a cinder block, I wasn't really anything then, but 
still a spaceship, you know?"
	"Not really, but go ahead."
	"Well, it seems this isn't really a planet at all, 
well it IS but at the same time it isn't..."
	"like the spaceship/cinder block deal." The Cow 
Goddess offered.
	"exactly." Proceeded NICK, "It's a nebulous cloud of 
psycho-reactive gasses. It's whatever these people want 
it to be at any given moment, all they have to do is 
think it. See, I don't know where they came from 
originally, perhaps some bacteria within the cloud itself 
thought them up, and then there they were, or maybe they 
came to the nebula from a distant planet with the 
intention of colonizing it with other nebula dwelling 
species like themselves, who can say. The thing is, they 
have this gland in their hypothalamus, one that we don't 
have, it secretes this enzyme which conducts and 
amplifies thought impulse, that's how they're so easily 
able to manipulate the psycho-reactive gas within the 
nebula, and why you can't. They're literally born to it, 
but they're not all powerful."
	"No, of course not." Muttered Dooly.
	"See, every thinking entity has it's own 
preconceptions about what it is, both at the conscious 
and sub-conscious levels. This is what keeps us "us" 
while within the influence of the nebula. The dwellers 
here can alter anything they choose, in any fashion, yet 
that altered object's own conceptions about what it is 
keep it intrinsically itself, even though it has become, 
to all intents and purposes, something else."
	"Ahhhh, yes. Very Zen." Breathed CHRIS, beginning a 
chant.
	"Then Tell what we must do to defeat them, and win 
our freedom back to the stars." Pleaded the Moonstone.
	"you won't have much luck in the way of defeating 
them if you lack the simple ability to manipulate the 
Nebula." Posed the MEL android.
	"A problem easily remedied." Sounded the Cinder 
block, NICK, "It is within the creator's capability to 
alter your bodies so that you possess the necessary 
gland."
	"Hey, That's right," smiled DAN, "it IS within my 
capability, isn't it! Well, looks like you'll have to 
start worshipping me now if you want to win this time."
	"Oh well, there goes THAT idea. What else have you 
got, NICK?" Asked Dooly rising to his feet.
	"I'm afraid that there IS no other way, sir."
	"you heard the block, bow down and start praying." 
DAN was beaming with triumph now.
	"In a pig's eye..." Growled the Doomon king.



CHAPTER: 18



	DAN had been working for the past hour straight, 
laying hands on first one companion, then the next, 
altering subtly the shape and construction of their 
minds. 
	For their own part the others found an equally great 
challenge in having any actual faith in DAN, they tried 
hard, and a few even succeeded to a limited degree. But 
one was incapable of being altered, and one simply 
refused. The MEL android would be unable to receive the 
modification to allow her control of the nebula, having 
no human mind to speak of. Dooly on the other hand would 
never, and COULD never, by nature, allow himself to have 
faith in DAN, or to let him alter his mind in any way, 
shape, or form. Then, of course, there was the fact that 
DAN could not perform the process upon himself. That left 
seven of them who would gain the needed ability.
	"this is bullshit." The Doomon king pouted aloud as 
DAN prompted the new gland into existence within the 
ventral region of the diencephalon of Chris-the-
Electrician, "You think that just because you'll be able 
to do what these people do that you'll be GOOD at it?"
	"will you be quite... this isn't... easy you know." 
Spoke DAN haltingly, as sweat dripped from his brow.
	"I mean, it's going to take a massive amount of 
creative energy." Proceeded Dooly, undaunted by the 
warning, "these people have been doing this for a long 
time... they're adept at it. you're novices, the only 
advantage you hold is that you've been places and seen 
things that they never have, you'll need to draw on every 
jot of memory, every ounce of originality and try to 
throw enough curve balls to overcome a planet of gods, 
and you know what? The more I think about it, the more I 
just don't see it happening."
	"Just pipe down... for a single... minute will you?" 
Said DAN quietly, as he mentally put the finishing 
touches on the gland, and it's many connections 
throughout the cerebral cortex, "uhn... There." And Chris 
the Sage stood up, shaking his head.
	"Why don't one of you just think NICK back into a 
real spaceship and we'll high tail it out of here and 
leave these people to their own?"
	"Because they can't." answered DAN, drawing a sleeve 
across his damp forehead, "Corner's will holds NICK in 
that form, and until that will fails, no attempt by 
another to change him back can succeed. I found that out 
when I tried to manipulate one of these buildings 
earlier. We've got to take out Corner before we can 
change back NICK."
	"... And if we tackle Corner, chances are good his 
buddy's are going to try and assist him."
	"Exactly."
	"What about these Trilutie?" Asked MEL, "The Squire 
we encountered upon our landing seemed to fear them, they 
held in his eyes a position so elevated that they were 
like gods to a god. We still do not know who, or what, 
THEY are."
	"Boy, can you kill a conversation or what?" Scoffed 
the Widower.
	The Mad Druid, who had been the first to be altered, 
(for some inexplicable reason,) now called out from a 
shadowed part of the room.
	"Look! Look! I made my robe turn into a basket of 
flowers! The powers will work on the things we brought 
with us, because they haven't been shaped by Corner's 
will!"
	The group turned to view the monk, and then quickly 
turned away again when they saw that his robe had indeed 
become a basket of flowers... which had the unfortunate 
side effect of leaving James himself naked.



CHAPTER: 19


	Ten minutes later found the pantheon moving as a 
group down the dark streets of Bedlam, in search of a 
native to the nebula.
	"I had lacked the information DAN provided earlier, 
but now that I have it certain things become more clear 
to me." Stated NICK. Dooly carried the cinder block on 
his right shoulder, braced with both hands.
	"Like what?" Queried the Doomon lord.
	"The prevalent social structure, as well as it's 
time table." Continued The block, "It all fell into 
perspective when DAN mentioned how the will of the one 
held together the current pattern. Physicality remained 
untouchable by other influence until the initial 
controlling will is withdrawn, at which time the object, 
unsupported, returns to it's component state until 
another will reshapes it. In a land where every entity 
possesses the ability to remake the world in whichever 
form they desire, a system must be designed to dole out 
dominance in a fair fashion, so that each living thing 
has an opportunity to exert it's right to control."
	"They take turns?"
	"exactly. Hence their strange calendar. This is the 
week of Chaos, Corner's dominant. Last week was medieval 
week, Squire Jeffo's turn to shape the world the way he 
believes it should be... and so on and so forth right 
down the line. Let's see, if this is the one-hundred and 
four millionth week of chaos, and if the planetary 
rotation here is equal to that of a standard earth 
year..."
	"which it probably is, just for the sake of 
convenience."
	"... then that would place us approximately in this 
systems two-thousandth year."
	"Not a bad run for so basic a society. You said you 
couldn't tell what this place really was until it 
reverted to it's original state... was that when 
everything went screwy shortly after we landed?"
	"Mmmmm... Oh, yes. It was the end of Jeffo's cycle 
as dominant, and he relinquished the hold of his will on 
the nebula... which collapsed back into it's natural 
form. We floated in the interim, in the very compounds 
which had served as the building blocks for that world, 
along with the natural bodies of the native dwellers in 
the nebula. Until Corner took up his turn, imposing his 
will upon the cloud and forcing it back into a pattern 
more suited to his ideal."
	"But now, Corner's will dominates the planet. And if 
what you and DAN are telling me is true, then we STILL 
can't do anything to alter the reality here."
	"Except on objects which have not been marked by 
Corner's will. Namely yourselves, and the equipment you 
have brought with you."
	"So the battle is limited to shapeshifting on our 
parts, and utter control of reality on his, and we have 
to kill him to relax his grip on the nebula so that we 
can reshape you and get out of here."
	"An accurate summary, however unnecessary. Yes, 
that's about the size of it."
	"Why don't we just wait until the end of chaos week, 
when Corner voluntarily relinquishes his dominance and 
the place collapses back into formlessness, then take 
control of the nebula before whoever's turn is next knows 
what's going on?"
	"Ummmmm..." NICK hesitated, "Because of the... 
Trilutie?"
	"Okay, what the hell is the deal with them anyway?"
	"I'm not quite sure... but I have a theory." The 
cinder block droned, as the pantheon members listened in, 
"I believe the Trilutie were created BY the inhabitants 
of the nebula, on a subconscious level of course. They 
needed Judges, and enforcers to regulate their behavior, 
Something above them to govern the fairness of their 
actions. Call them a physical manifestation of their 
guilt ridden mass conscience, but don't think for a 
second that this fact makes them any less dangerous. If 
I'm right about this then the Trilutie are a hot wire 
straight to these people's most raw and uninhibited 
emotions, and they won't be easily defeated should an 
encounter be forced."
	"Thanks for the info, now would you mind being 
somewhat lighter for the next mile?"
	"Sure... I don't see why not."



CHAPTER: 20



	As the Baroness walked she experimented with her 
newly given powers. First she drew her sword, then slowly 
melted it in her grasp. She watched the shine of the 
metal blade dull and then warp, dripping like a sluggish 
liquid down the hilt onto her arm. The running metal was 
not hot, yet it flowed like water over her skin, and only 
because she willed it to. She reshaped it in her mind, 
Fixing the new image there, and then projected it 
outwards. Once again the metal moved, twisting around 
itself and flattening out until she held in her grip a 
giant fly swatter.
	"Now I wish I had read more Green Lantern comics." 
She muttered to herself.
	The Widower also tested her new abilities, combining 
them with her natural power of web generation. With the 
assistance of her mental powers she found it easier to 
manipulate and mold her webbing into complex structures 
without the effort she'd had to put into it in the past. 
Spraying a small amount of web into her own palm, she 
used her mind to project it into the shape she desired. 
The webbing responded immediately, swelling and spiking 
upward into a framework diamond shape, which rotated for 
a moment in her hand before collapsing inward and 
reforming only to rise again as a miniature solar system, 
with tiny web planets rotating in a fixed orbit around a 
glowing web sun. A smile touched the Spider Spirit's 
lips. 'This,' She thought, 'This is power.'
	Lacking a weapon or symbol on which to practice her 
talents, the Cow Goddess resolved herself to 
experimenting with her own flesh. Transforming her arm 
and hand into a big Slinky(tm), with five little 
slinkies(tm) in place of fingers. She flexed it and moved 
her newly redesigned limb about, stretching it way out, 
and then pulling it in tight. She poked and prodded it 
with her normal hand, testing the sensation which she 
found she could dull or strengthen at will. Taking it one 
step further she envisioned herself as one big Slinky(tm) 
girl, and so she was. Springing here and there among the 
other members of the pantheon, and shouting with joy.
	"Jump! Jump! Jumpitty-Jump!"
	"That girl has problems." Commented Chris-The-
Electrician. He had spent the last few moments, searching 
his magician's intellect for an appropriate and effective 
use of such great power as he now had at his command, and 
a thought struck him. 'Upon our arrival in this land 
Squire Jeffo was in dominance, and the land was shaped by 
his will, and no other's... as we have realized. YET, his 
opponent The unseen "Roderick," conjured forth a dragon 
to assault him with. How? If all matter was under the 
controlling will of the Squire, where did Roderick find 
the materials for his dragon?' A worthy puzzle indeed. 
'All physical objects here in this world, apart from the 
dwellers, and what we have brought, are constructed from 
the Psycho-reactive stuff of the nebula... how much of 
that stuff is there? What if not all of it was used to 
create the world of the entity currently in dominance? 
That might leave behind ambient nebulas, material from 
which could be drawn forth new creations by those NOT in 
dominance. Hmmmmmm... this revelation could prove a great 
assistance in turning the tide of battle. Best to conceal 
my discovery until the time is ripe!'
	The Sage looked over to where the Mad Druid was 
working on constructing a pink fiddle and bow. Yet, his 
clothing and flesh seemed intact!
	"James," He asked questioningly, "From where did you 
get the materials for your instrument?"
	"It's extra nebula." He commented off-handedly, 
"When you cut cookies there's always left over dough."
	"DOH!"
	The Unborn one stood somewhat apart from his 
experimental companions, apparently deep in thought, 
making no overt indication of his new power, save that of 
a quirked smile which froze the corner of his lip.
	Meanwhile, CHRIS amused himself with the fact that 
he could now turn things green without touching them. As 
proven by the fact that DAN now had one green hair right 
in the middle of his head.


CHAPTER: 21



	"Well, DAN, you won't be much help in the actual 
battle, so I guess you might as well make the plan." 
Stated CHRIS.
	"Oh, Can I?" Mocked DAN, "Let's see, We need to 
focus our attack on Corner, it's his will holding this 
place together, and once he's down we can reshape it 
however we choose. No matter how many of these guys come 
after us we should try to stay on target, the other's 
can't do much anyway, because they're in the same pickle 
we are. It's Corner running the show, and they, like us, 
have no way of manipulating something dominated by his 
will."
	"Hey, that's right, I didn't even think of that!" 
Said CHRIS slapping his head.
	"Okay," Agreed the Baroness, "So, we've really only 
got one enemy, but the rest are going to be annoying."
	"No, that's where MEL, Dooly, and myself come in." 
Answered DAN, "well, hold the others off as best we can 
while you seven deal with Corner."
	"Yeah, I'll just smash them with this big cinder 
block." Said Dooly, hefting NICK.
	"You do, and once I'm a spaceship again I'll... 
ummmm, do... something really bad... maybe..."
	"I'm scared. Really, I mean that."
	"So now all that we must do is locate our 
adversary." Posed the Lunatic.
	"Not necessarily." Interjected James, "We could take 
the easy route and make him come to us."
	"Oh, and how should we do that?" Asked the Widower 
Skeptically.
	"How should I know. I just make suggestions, Jeez, 
what do I have to do everything around here!" Erupted the 
Druid, (not like a volcano, but more in a figurative 
sense.)
	"Okay, James, all right, settle down." The Widower 
attempted to placate.
	"Okay, let's take that idea and run with it... what 
do we do to attract the attention of the person who's in 
dominance WITHOUT attracting the notice of the Trilutie?" 
Thought DAN aloud.
	"We could piss on this building." Suggested Dooly.
	"Ummm... that won't work." Replied the Lunatic.
	"Why not?" Queried the Doomon lord.
	"It just won't, okay?" The unborn one held his 
ground.
	"How would you know?"
	"I just DO, all right?!"
	"..."
	"Are you guys done?" Chastised the Cow Goddess, "I'm 
sure we can think of something more constructive than 
peeing on the walls."
	"Sure." Added Chris-the-sage, "We could try tearing 
them down!"
	"Ha-Ha, you're a riot."
	"No I'm serious!" He continued, "Granted we can't 
influence his constructs mentally, but they still react 
to physical stimulus as any normal material would... like 
when Dooly got chucked through that building. We can tear 
them down with plain brute force, it's bound to get 
noticed by Corner when we flatten half his city! And the 
Trilutie won't have any need to interfere because we 
wouldn't have done anything to impinge on the dominance 
of his will over the nebula."
	"Ahhhhhh, I see, Grasshopper. You very keen." Nodded 
CHRIS.
	"Well, No time like the present!" Agreed the Mad 
Monk eagerly, and stepping forward used his new 
manipulation skills to transform his right arm into a 
fully functional jackhammer which he immediately set to 
work against the closest building.
	Chris-the-Electrician began altering his body to 
become a crane and wrecking ball, gathering to himself 
ambient nebulas in order to swell his bulk. His body 
twisted and bent, becoming angular and hard, treads 
replaced feet, glass in place of eyes, as one dangling 
arm elongated becoming thinner and thinner as it dropped 
earthward from the crane stemming out of his shoulder. 
The flesh stretched and colored, becoming steel wire at 
the end of which his hand ballooned outward into an iron 
ball.
	Within seconds the construction machine crowded the 
street, it's crane already swinging the ball back and 
forth between two buildings.
	Forced to take the low tech route, but following the 
same principle, DAN grasped Dooly by the feet, and 
spinning around in a circle, like one about to hurl a 
discus, gathered sufficient kinetic energy to let the 
Doomon lord fly cannonballing into the third story of a 
nearby structure. His passage tearing a ragged hole which 
rained dust and shattered brick. Two seconds later Dooly 
emerged from out of the building's front door, and 
returned to DAN so that they might continue their unusual 
assault.
	The MEL 2000 cast shell after shell from a 50mm 
cannon into the surrounding houses with devastating 
effect. Fire and glass exploded outward, showering the 
street's occupants with detritus.


CHAPTER: 22



	Each member of the pantheon did their part to 
utterly lay waste to the entire block. For a few moments 
it was just like old times back on earth, all threat of a 
foe more powerful than they was forgotten... until he 
showed up.
	"Order! Order!" Cried Corner from his perch high in 
the sky as he drifted slowly into view, "What do you 
think you are doing? This is chaos!"
	"How good of you to notice." Said one of the 
lunatics who had been gnawing on a streetlamp with his 
newly formed metal teeth, While still others looked up 
from where they dined upon the sidewalk.
	"We're calling you out, Corner." Shouted CHRIS, 
"uh... in the spirit of chaos week, of course. I mean, 
it's nothing out of place that you'd need to report to 
the Trilutie or anything."
	"Oh good one, CHRIS." Chided DAN.
	"You wish to battle me?" He smiled, descending to 
the rubble strewn cobbled road, "Hadn't you quite learned 
your lesson during our previous encounter?"
	"We're slow learners." Stated the Cow Goddess.
	"That's okay," Muttered Corner menacingly, and 
raised his hand to point at her, "I've been teaching a 
long time, and know what it is you need to learn."
	The invisible force slammed into yet another 
pantheon member, but this time she was ready for it. The 
Cow Goddess body instantly took on it's Slinky(tm) form, 
and as the force connected with her she stretched. With a 
sound like a series of breaking guitar strings, the Cow 
Goddess Slinky(tm) body flexed to absorb the impact, and 
in the end maintained it's ground. Corner was stunned.
	"I've never seen anything LIKE that before!" He 
said, flabbergasted, "It's clear I'll have to escalate to 
more drastic measures."
	The earth heaved, (earth as in dirt and soil, not 
like the planet that is in a completely different galaxy 
and not here,) and buildings toppled as the ground 
beneath Corner's feet rose and struck a path upward. It 
climbed skyward carrying that lone figure at it's apex, 
tons of land stretching past the pantheon members vision 
as a sheer cliff face grew from the rubble of that city. 
Lightning rent the sky, slashing down in a deadly arc of 
voltage to strike the pantheon. a single vibrant blue 
bolt for each member. Those members who had been altered 
to control matter within the nebula had no difficulty in 
conducting the electricity over their skin and into the 
ground without being damaged. DAN dodged deftly defying 
the death dealing down-stroke, while MEL was struck, and 
felt refreshed for it. Dooly's fillings liquefied, and 
NICK managed to escape detection entirely by cleverly 
concealing himself amongst the debris from the crumpled 
city.
	Having made his attack, Corner paused so that the 
others could take their turn, which was after all the 
fair thing to do.
	The Mad Monk, remembering to attack on a physical 
level where they could actually damage Corner's 
creations, transformed himself into a giant feather and 
proceeded to tickle the cliff in an attempt to make it 
laugh until it crumbled. Needless to say this had no 
effect other than to provide amusement to the Monk.
	The Baroness took a more direct approach. Having 
learned by witnessing Chris-The-sage's example, she drew 
enough ambient nebulas to herself to construct a sizable 
shaped charge, which she placed on the cliff face, and 
detonated.
Realizing her mistake with an "oh shit!" She began to 
run. The pantheon members sped away from ground zero as 
quickly as possible, followed every inch of the way by 
the impressive landslide which the bomb had created. 
Waves of dirt and debris like a tsunami crashed down at 
their heels as their feet tore the ground in an attempt 
to get away. All except for James, who, having been a 
feather at the time was simply blown into the air by the 
initial blast, and remained safely aloft throughout the 
remainder of the calamity. He AND Corner, who had opted 
to remain airborne rather than follow the mountain down.
	As soon as the dust had settled the Baroness 
conceded, "useless attack number two. Next!"
	The Lunatic stepped forward, and with a howl that 
tore from his throat to scar the heavens, split into a 
pack. Then that pack also split, and so on and so forth, 
until hundreds of lunatics populated the dirt mound which 
now dominated the landscape.
	"I'm my own ambient energy." He growled, and using 
his mind began to alter his other selves. They flowed 
back into one another, but not in the usual fashion, this 
time as two joined they gained doubly in mass, until such 
an oversized lunatic joined with another like it, 
doubling it's mass again to quadruple the size of the 
original. The hundreds became fifty large, the fifty 
large became twenty five enormous, and the twenty five 
enormous became one fucking huge LUNATIC!
	He stood up, towering higher than that famous lizard 
ever had aspired to, and wrapped a single gigantic hand 
around the floating, terror stricken, Corner.
	"WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH HIM NOW?" His deep growl 
rolled out across the plain.
	"Squish him, you knob!" Squeaked the feather 
floating next to his ear. And so the LUNATIC did. Closing 
his titanic fist even tighter, he ground his fingers into 
his palm until he felt more than heard a dull crunch.
	"There." He roared.
	Then the world fell away from beneath their feet. 
Like water spiraling down the drain of an emptying sink, 
the world around them bled away into the material of the 
nebula. They floated in that same Null-reality which they 
had encountered so soon after their arrival, staring at 
one another.
	"What now!" Called The Widower, as the Lunatic 
shrank back to normal beside her, releasing Corner's body 
to the mercy of the nebulas.
	"you have to impose your wills quickly before one of 
the other dwellers takes up the mantle of dominance... 
otherwise we'll have to go through all that again!" 
Shouted NICK, who was not visible but somehow still 
managed to be a spaceship.
	"Yes, everybody envision Earth, since it's the one 
thing we'll all be able to picture similarly!" Called out 
the Cow Goddess.
	"With multiple wills to lend it shape, the other 
nebula dwellers won't have a chance of easily overcoming 
us," Added DAN, "but, just in case why don't you picture 
them all in jail while you're at it, hmmmm?"
	"Everybody ready? All right, GO!" Shouted NICK.
	So they focused, all who could manipulate the 
nebulas matter, on their memory of the Earth they had 
left behind. Holding the image firmly in their minds, and 
finally projecting it outward, slowly the planet began to 
take shape. Then more quickly as the psycho-reactive gas 
caught the train of their multiple subconscious, and 
began to fill in the spaces straight from their deepest 
recesses.



CHAPTER: 23



	From space the planet looked desolate. Not only a 
pale image, but a complete mockery of it's former beauty. 
All those once lovely sights... painted landscapes full 
of vibrant color, lush flora alive with health and inner 
light, every inch of her circumference teeming with life. 
A shining blue sphere of hope spiraling through the 
endless vacuum ... once, but no longer.
	A brown, foreboding ball of dirt and fire, it's 
surface scarred and pitted with decades of raging 
battles. The previously dominant structures of man ripped 
bodily from it's crust leaving wounds that would never 
heal. Everywhere there was nothing. Nothing but wreckage 
and destruction. A world wide battlefield, finally 
cleared of armies.
	Except here... Where a small fire burns. A tended 
flame... tended by the last occupants of a dead planet. 
	"You guys suck. You know that don't you?" Uttered 
the Doomon Lord from his perch at the edge of the fire.
	"Oh will you just shut UP!" Moaned The Widower from 
her web hammock, strung between two scraps of jutting 
metal, "How many times do we have to justify it! This was 
the way we last saw the place, of course it's going to 
stick in our minds that way! Now get over it!"
	"yeah, settle down," Commented DAN from where he lay 
on top of his coat six feet away, "at least we won. 
NICK's a spaceship again, or a spaceship but still a 
spaceship, whatever he means by that... All the nebula 
dwellers are in jail, held their by our wills..."
	"hey!" Heyed the Baroness.
	"... by THEIR wills." DAN corrected himself, waving 
a hand to indicate those able to manipulate the nebula, 
"And we can leave as soon as we wish to find another 
planet."
	"Why?" Asked The Widower, "why should we leave?"
	"yeah, I was going to say that myself," Agreed The 
Cow Goddess, "What's more ideal for our purposes than a 
planet we can shape and rebuild every time we're tired of 
destroying it."
	"The problem with that is we'd have to deal with the 
natives for the rest of eternity, constantly minding them 
so that they don't get free and try to reclaim their 
nebula." Suggested Chris-the-Electrician.
	"Not if we kill them." Stated MEL simply.
	"Well... yeah." He conceded.
	 "Okay," Dooly began to reiterate, "We kill off the 
nebula dwellers, easy work since we have control of the 
place, then we set up house and do the creation shtick 
all over again: People, animals, forests, buildings, the 
whole nine yards. Then we get to tear it all down, and 
start over again WITHOUT having to change planets every 
few millennia. Yeah... I can deal with that. Two things 
though: one, If we're staying here... what do we need a 
spaceship for?" He said waving an arm at the Mt.Olympus, 
"And two... Who gets to be God this time? I nominate me. 
It's my turn anyway, DAN screwed it all up last time."
	"HEY!" DAN shouted, sitting bolt upright.
	"Well," Began CHRIS, "actually NICK doesn't have to 
be a spaceship, I mean he'll still be a spaceship but 
he'll also be something else, whatever we make him is 
what I'm saying... he could be anything, like a person or 
something. And I think I should be God, well... because 
neither of you can manipulate the nebula anyway."
	"You ingrate!" Insulted DAN, still shouting, "I gave 
you that gland and I can take it away again!"
	"I think that everybody who's already been a God 
should be automatically disqualified for nomination, they 
had their chance and obviously blew it," Stated the 
Baroness, Then added, slapping her thigh, "Well, I guess 
that leaves me."
	"Oh, HA-HA, you're a riot." Taunted DAN, feeling 
challenged and defensive of his former position.
	But all was not to be peaches and cream so easily, 
for the sky above darkened and the clouds began to glow 
an eerie purple. The world became dark and lightning 
flashed across the heavens. Then, (like you didn't see 
this coming,) A voice boomed out across the land.
	"Take heed, the Trilutie speak," Spoke the Trilutie, 
"We have monitored your diabolical planning, outlanders, 
and have ruled that your treatment of the people of this 
world is unfair. Therefore you are to be punished..."
	As the voice continued to speak DAN inclined his 
head slightly to address NICK without being overheard.
	"NICK," He said from the corner of his mouth, "can 
you analyze what that really is, we need to be sure about 
it before we try to take any action."
	"ummmm... yeah sure, hold on." Replied NICK, 
readily. Yet it was already too late, for even as he 
began to direct the ship's most sensitive apparatus 
toward the clouds, the Trilutie brought their speech to a 
jarring halt.
	"... It is the will of this all powerful 
collective," The voice was bellowing, "that you be served 
a sentence no less... then Death!"
	And on the last syllable the clouds parted, opening 
a ring in the atmosphere which revealed the black of 
space beyond. Through this enormous hole plummeted a 
giant meteor the size of a house, raining down onto the 
pantheon. The members scattered, gaining distance from 
the target site, as well as from one another.
	Fortunately, that first attack was directed at 
Dooly, who as we all know is indestructible. Thus it only 
came to pass that the impact of that hurtling rock drove 
him twenty odd feet into the ground, splitting the 
meteorite with the force of the collision, and creating a 
crater 30 feet in diameter. Dooly himself was unscathed, 
and perfectly well... aside from being stuck under a big 
rock.
	"NICK!" Shouted DAN, as he watched the next meteor 
come spinning through that atmospheric gap.
	"I was right," Verified NICK, "there's a link 
between the Trilutie and the inhabitants of the nebula! 
It must be a manifestation of their subconscious as I had 
theorized! They're constructing the meteors out of 
ambient nebulas from their place in the jail!"
	"Great! So how do we stop it!" DAN shouted back, but 
before NICK could reply, his question was answered by MEL 
who had overheard their conversation.
	Her response came in the form of her turning quickly 
to the closest member of the pantheon who could 
manipulate the nebulas, which so happened to be the 
Widower, and instructed her as follows:
	"Collapse the jail." She hissed, "quickly, destroy 
them all before they destroy us..." And that's all she 
managed, for it was at that moment that the next 
meteorite landed. On her.
	The Widower Stood for a moment in stunned 
incomprehension as yet another meteor sped through the 
rift, Then, turning her mind inward she envisioned the 
jail which held the nebula dwellers captive, she held 
that image exactly as it would appear had she been 
looking at it. Then she collapsed it, crushed it like a 
vice, flattening it completely, so that there would be no 
question about survivors. She heard the life drain from 
each one of them, felt their presence wiped from the 
psycho-reactive plane.
	The assault stopped. The meteor that had been 
hurtling earthward evaporated into nothing. The physical 
manifestation of the "Trilutie" disappeared. Without the 
will of the dwellers to sustain their existence even the 
meteorites which had fallen on Dooly and MEL vanished, 
releasing those individuals from their entrapment.



CHAPTER: 24



	"Gosh, it's just like Pinnochio." Speculated the 
Doomon king, wiping a false tear from his eye, "And in 
the end they were all happy, and the ship became a real 
boy... and they all lived happily ever after."
	The Pantheon members stood in the middle of the 
newly created central park, as traffic and pedestrians 
wandered by going about their daily lives. Glass and 
steel monuments to modern design towered all around them, 
catching the light of the noonday sun. A soft breeze 
whispered through the grass and trees, carrying to their 
ears the sound of children playing in the field. Water 
bubbled in a nearby fountain, and a jet plane roared 
overhead.
	Yet not a single head turned to notice the strange 
gathering and the great green ship which stood not ten 
feet away.
	"So, let me get this straight," NICK was saying, 
"You're going to imagine me into a human form, and I'll 
become an actual member of the pantheon instead of just 
being the ship?"
	"That is correct." Confirmed DAN.
	"At least until we need a ship again." Amended The 
Cow Goddess.
	"hmmmmmm..." Pondered the green floating mass of 
steel, "Okay, I can deal with that. Go ahead, you have my 
blessing."
	And no sooner was it said then it became reality, or 
as close to reality as anything in the nebula could be. 
There was no stunning transformation sequence, no 
brilliant morphing effects, just one minute a spaceship, 
and the next a man.
	He held his arms out in front of him, examining his 
new form, and finally nodded to himself with approval, 
before approaching the other pantheon members.
	"Should I shout 'happy birthday' or something?" He 
drawled.
	"Please don't." Smiled the Lunatic.
	"yeah, we'd hate to have to kill you so soon." 
Agreed Dooly.
	"Well," Said the Baroness, clapping her hands 
together, "that out of the way, I say we relax and head 
to the mall for some food and shopping before we start 
tearing this place apart."
	"Here here!" Agreed CHRIS resoundingly.
	"How real is nebula food anyway?" Posed the Widower.
	"Well, the dwellers seemed to do all right with it, 
I mean they've been around for a while so it can't be all 
that bad." James Theorized.
	And so they moved off in a group towards the 
bustling city, all except for two who lagged somewhat 
behind, discussing their situation.
	"What do you think?" Dooly asked, strolling along 
with his hands in his pockets, eyes squinted at the sun, 
"As long as we stay here we're the weakest members of 
this team, whereas we used to be the strongest. We can't 
stay like this for long."
	"Yeah, I know." Sighed DAN, pausing to kick a rock 
off the sidewalk, "funny how things work out isn't it?"
	"Sure, but will it still be funny tomorrow?" The 
Doomon king pressed, "Are you really willing to 
relinquish your place as easily as that, after you've 
spent so long defending it from ME you're just going to 
let it fall to THEM?"
	DAN stopped in his tracks, thinking it over.
	"Are you suggesting a truce?" He asked, eyeing his 
companion.
	"I'm suggesting a partnership." Dooly corrected.
	They stared after their erstwhile compatriots for a 
moment, studying them across the street from where they 
had stopped to wait.
	The Baroness raised an arm to wave them on, and 
CHRIS pointed eagerly at the door to a comic shop.
	"Well," DAN cast his gaze downward, then raised it 
again to meet the steely eyes of the Doomon lord, "I 
guess we'll just have to kill them all."
	They both laughed aloud, and then crossed the street 
to rejoin their friends.


						THE END