Yay! Another reader! Thanks for the comments, but feel free to nitpick and criticise this story, I won't mind too much. ;)
Anyway, might as well just get to it, "Yay! Another chapter!" :D


Meanwhile, Ramnes quickly made his way to the gates, he needed to find out where the Chief was, and the gatekeepers could tell him whether he was in the village or not. "Hey, you up there," he called, "have you seen the Chief?" "Hi, we sure did, he left some time ago, he seemed to be in a big hurry, too."

"Well, can you open the gate? I need to go find him." "Sure, right away," the mudokon in the tower answered. No sooner had the walls opened than Ramnes was outside and running up the hill out of the valley. The most likely place that the Chief would have gone to in this time would be the gathering stones, Ramnes thought, so he swiftly made his way towards that place.

Ramnes knew this forest very well, he knew where every clearing was, he knew what every clearing was called, and he knew what each clearing had in it. The particular clearing he was looking for now was somewhere in the center of the forest, which was about twenty minutes from the village as the bird flies and not much longer for him.

He was running steadily towards his destination when suddenly a voice shouted out from behind him, "Halt!" He stopped and slowly turned around to see a mudokon standing there. The first thing he noticed was one vicious looking weapon in the mudokon's hands, the middle of it appeared to be some sort of bow, but on each side of it were some rather large deadly looking blades. Then he noticed that he, or rather, she, was clothed almost all over in some sort of animal skins, which had feathers sewn in patterns all throughout it.

"Who are you?" she asked, not lowering the weapon for an instant, "And what brings you here?" "I'm looking for my Chief," answered Ramnes, "You must be from one of the seven village, are you not?"

"I could be. I asked who you are, now answer me!"

"Whoa, patience friend. My name is Ramnes, I am a mudokon from the village of Haupet, one of the seven villages in alliance. You have nothing to fear."

"I'll be the judge of that, 'friend,' " she answered in the same hostile manner. "You will follow me. Any tricks and you're dead, got it?" "Got it," Ramnes answered, then to himself, "Sheesh, what's her problem?" She walked past him and led the way in the same direction as Ramnes himself had already been heading, but at a much slower pace.

They walked on in silence for a time after that, and Ramnes realized that it was getting dark. "I hope we get there soon," he thought, "it gets pretty hard to find your way around here after dark." He thought about asking how much furthur they were going, but looking at the face in front of him he thought better of it. As the daylight faded, the blades on the mudokon's weapon slowly started to glow, getting brighter as the light diminished. Thus she was able to continue even when night fell, and Ramnes continued to follow, still heading in the direction of the gathering stones. As they walked, Ramnes wondered how she had been able to hide from him like that, he was reasonably good at detection, and he was often considered the most powerful mudokon in his village. Perhaps she had been too far away, or maybe her skills at stealth were better than his of detection, but he hated admitting anything like that.

He was walking along, engrossed in his own thoughts like this, when suddenly he realized that a fog was starting to form around them! He quickened his pace so that he would be closer to his captor, he didn't want to get lost in this! The fog seemed to be getting thicker and thicker as they progressed, then suddenly, it cleared. What was more, they were at the gathering stones, seven stones, arranged in a rough circle around a pool of murky water, the meeting place for the seven chiefs since before Ramnes was even hatched! All around the outside of the clearing was thick fog, but here where they stood, it was completely clear. Seven mudokons already stood there, one on each stone, all in the classic loincloth outfit but for one, who was dressed in a similar manner to the mudokon who had led Ramnes here.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed, he stopped walking and looked around the stones for his own chief; he had never seen the seven chiefs gathered together here before, and he only knew three of them, including his own. It was deathly silent here, and the mudokons on the stones were so still they looked like statues.

"Welcome Ramnes and Hembar," came a whispering voice, seeming to come from the pool itself.

"Greetings, Chiefs and Shamen!" Ramnes' captor, apparently named Hembar, cried out, breaking the stillness, "I have brought someone who is supposedly looking for Chief Haupet." There was a long silence. Ramnes nervously shifted his weight from one foot to the other, not saying a word. Then, with one motion, all seven mudokons jumped down from the rocks and walked slowly towards the two visitors.

"Ah, Ramnes, you feel a little humbled now, don't you?" said the Chief of the village Haupet, putting his hand on Ramnes' shoulder.

End of Chapter 11

So, what'd you think? Next chapter will be moving to another character, that of the up-till-now little known about Scorp.

Odd... keep going!

Cool new update! It's really good, but it does take kinda long for you to update.

Thanks, the reason it takes me a while to update is because it takes me a while to finish a chapter. I'll usually update it as soon as I feel the chapter is ready. The reason it takes so long is because I need to think of how to describe what I want to happen, I need to check the spelling and grammer (don't have many problems with spelling, but quite often when I revise a sentence I miss a word and end up with some garbage), check meanings of words that I don't use very often, and revise the chapter a few times until it's worded just about right.

So, in other words, if it didn't take that long, it would be a lot worse than it is.

To the peoples who have actually been reading this, sorry this has been such a long time coming, but here is chapter 12 at last. It's been a very slow process putting this one together, but I think it's about ready now. But, I do want you commenters to tell me this: do you think this chapter ended a bit too abruptly? Just a thought I had...


Shortly after Sefon arrived at the village of Haupet, Scorp was awakening at the Refinery. He came round to find himself in one of those generic prison rooms that all industrial facilities seem to have, except for one small difference - he was hanging upside down from his feet. "Well, of all the undignified..." Scorp said aloud. He looked around the room for some way to get out, he knew the shackles wouldn't be much trouble, but that wouldn't be a lot of use unless he could get out of the room.

He eventually found what he was looking for; a crack under the door. It wasn't much, but it was enough. He bent upwards towards his shackles and held a glowing hand up towards them. A few seconds passed, then the shackles suddenly opened, dumping Scorp ungracefully on the floor, head first. Jumping to his feet, he made his way, a little unsteady, to the door, and put his hands down to the crack. He tried to put his fingers underneath the door, but they wouldn't fit. He tried kicking at the bottom of the door, "Ow!" Not a good idea. Okay, this was going to need a bit of thought. He stepped back away from the door and put his hand up to his chin.

He remembered hearing the chief saying something along the lines of, "Don't always expect to get what you want through force, try a little persuasion sometimes." Pondering this, he sat down and began concentrating all his energy on that door, trying to work the mechanism and open it normally. Closing his eyes, he could, in essence, see all the cogs, switches and even just bits of random junk all working to hold that door shut until someone pulled the switch. He tried to "lift" the door by the mechanism, but somewhere, somehow, something was locking it all in place. Finally, losing his temper, he jumped up and bashed the door with a red glowing hand. This succeeded in making a rather large dent, so he slashed at it again and again until he had made a hole in it big enough to climb through.

He grinned, "Ah, Chief, maybe so, but sometimes a bit of brute force gets the job done just fine!" His grin faded as his ears picked up the distant mechanical sound of slig's pants and the pattering sound of glukkon's feet. He looked around for a hiding place, but there wasn't much chance of finding one; the prison cell he had been in was at the end of a passage, and the passage itself was pretty plain. Listening again, he was sure the footsteps were heading this way.


Heading down the curving passage towards Scorp's cell was Groll the slig, carrying his newly built custom sniper rifle, the connection from scope to mask allowing him to see through it without even looking at it. Beside him was Rector's Refinery's junior executive, Patrick, second in command of the Refinery. Everyone who knew anything about the Refinery knew that Patrick was a complete wimp and pushover; his only source of respect and power was Rector. The pair had a shock when they reached the end of the hallway, a hole was smashed through the door and Scorp was nowhere to be seen.

"Where is he?" asked Patrick, bewildered.

"How should I know?" answered Groll, irritatedly.

"Well, you had better look for him, or I wouldn't want to be in your pants when Rector finds out!"

"Huh! You'll be in as much trouble as me, Patsy!" Groll ran back along the passage to begin searching.

"What did you call me?" Patrick tried his best to look stern and menacing, but he didn't do a very good job. Not that it mattered, Groll wasn't looking anyway.


Like some sort of four-legged insect, Scorp was slowly but surely climbing his away along the roof of the hallway. He had seen Patrick and Groll coming in and had barely contained a laugh when he saw them walk right underneath him. He had nearly reached the door when he heard a shout, "Hey! What's that up there?" Groll's gun had happened to point up towards him while Groll was running, and he'd been spotted! "The mud's on the roof!" shouted Groll.

Cursing, Scorp quickly let go of the roof and dropped neatly down on top of Groll's head, knocking him to the ground. The shot that had been intended to put an end to Scorp went flying past and richocheted off the walls. Scorp jumped off Groll and turned for the door.

"Hey, stop! I demand you to stop!" Patrick was hopping pathetically after him. Scorp turned and held up his hand, palm towards the glukkon. Patrick fell backwards to the floor as if he had jumped into an invisible wall. Scorp turned to run again, but then he saw that Groll was scrambling to his feet and getting ready to take another shot at him. Holding his hand up in the same manner as he had done to Patrick, he watched in satisfaction as Groll's pants malfunctioned, dumping him headlong on the floor again. Then, as he focused on Groll's rifle, the red light showing in the scope slowly faded to black, effectively blinding Groll's "third eye," for now at least.

Scorp turned quickly, and ran to the end of the corridor. Then, as he saw the lever by the door it controlled, he stopped running and thought for a moment. He grinned, then, using his glowing hand of power trick again, he swiped horizontally at the bottom of the switch and cut most of it off. That slig would find that pretty hard to pull! He walked out of the door and turned to look for another door control. Sure enough, there was another switch on this side of the door as well, so he casually walked over and pulled the switch, shutting the door down. "That ought to hold them long enough for me to get out of here without an alarm," he thought, and leapt up to the roof to start climbing along it again.

He soon found what he was looking for, there on the roof was a ventilation shaft, plenty big enough for him to fit in. As for the cover, he could take care of it easily enough. Moving up close to the vent, he grabbed hold of the cover and started pulling on it. After a few yanks it gave way and came out. He looked around for a moment and then just decided to drop it. As he clambered through the entrance into the shaft, he heard the resounding clang of metal hitting metal. "If anyone's down there, they'll have a hard time working out how that got down there!" he thought. He turned the way that seemed closest to the direction of the nearest exit and started crawling through the shafts.

After some time of crawling through what seemed to be endlessly repetitive tunnels Scorp found himself up against a dead end. He thought for a moment, then decided that it would be better to go through the vent at this end, rather than turning around and going back to the last vent. He was about to smash through the cover when he heard sligs talking below:

"Hey, you, are you coming with me or what?"

"Screw you, Verd, I'm outta here!"

"What? Wait, where are you going? Gah, whatever, man, I can make it on my own!"

Scorp heard the mechanical sound of a slig walking and, looking through the vent, he could just make out where the slig was. By the look of it, he seemed to be heading roughly in the direction of the shaft. Scorp started calculating when he needed to make his move, it would work if he did it right about.... NOW!

He smashed down through the vent and landed directly on top of the unsuspecting slig who had been walking underneath. But before Scorp was able to silence him, the slig let out a loud "Help!" and Scorp soon heard the sound of a slig running back towards this room. He cursed and stomped his foot down firmly on the slig's head. Verd let out a yelp, then spoke no more. But the damage was already done, before long the other slig would be here!

Scorp looked around and, seeing another passage leading the opposite way, he ran through it; he didn't want to kill any more sligs than necessary. By now the other slig had reached the room Scorp had been in before and he could hear the slig talking:

"Verd! Verd? Talk to me, Verd!"

Scorp didn't wait to hear more, he ran to the end of the passage and found himself in front of another door. This one also had a lever next to it, so he walked to and pulled it, then walked back in front of the door to wait for it to open. The door slid slowly downward, and there, standing in the doorway was one rather large looking big bro slig, gun in hand! It responded instantly by swiping upward with it's arm that had the gun in it, catching Scorp smartly on the chin and throwing him backwards to the floor.

Excellent new chapter! It was definately worth the wait! It did end kinda' abruptly, but I like that the most because it's more of a clift-hanger while I wait for the next update! RoK oN!

The ending was alright, I thought. It builds tension for the next chapter, though I think the smack on the chin needs to be bigger. try something like,

It responded instantly by swiping upward with it's arm that had the gun in it, catching Scorp smartly on the chin and throwing him backwards onto the floor.

It's just that bit more exciting.
However, I will say that that chapter, was without a doubt, the best so far. You've built up tension well and kept up an exciting fast pace. It's good. The "Verd, speak to me," was actually a pretty effective sad moment which helped build up the the tension of the rest!

Congratulations!

Thanks for the comments, I was actually intending to have something like what you suggested, Splat, but I couldn't quite get the wording right. I was a bit tired then, so that's probably why that simple way out escaped me.
It might be a while before I post the next chapter, but rest assured, the next chapter will come one day. Though, having said that, you people are probably used to that now. And I'm sure that you, Splat, will understand, as I'm having a similar problem to you, too much studies, etc! ;)

I know. My minds too full of German and Maths and Science and so on. I've finished all but the last paragraph or two of the latest chapter of TQFTO but I just can't get round to finishing it (Now I've said this I probably will).

Keep it up anyway.

Well, after a long time and much writer's block, I'm pleased to announce that the 13th chapter of my story is now completed! If the readers are still there: thank you for you patience! ;) And I have a little "game" for the readers: count how many times Scorp curses throughout the story! :D
By the way, is it just my computer, or has the font for my story in this thread become all big and messed up?
Anyway, enough mucking about, here it is:



The blow from the big bro sent Scorp flying backwards to crash down on the floor, but his reflexes were just as quick as that slig's and in a flash he had rolled aside from the shots that were fired at him and jumped to his feet. He held out his hand as if he was taking something, and indeed he was, as the big bro slig's gun suddenly flew out of it's hand and landed in Scorp's.

"Don't move!" Scorp commanded, "I know how to use this thing."

The slig just stood there looking dumbfoundedly at him. Then Scorp heard the sound of slig pants. He turned his head for a glance and saw that the slig who had been with Verd must have heard his fall and was running up the passage! Without hesitating, he moved his arm in one smooth motion and blasted one shot at the incoming slig, then moved it back to aim at the big bro. The shot hit the slig directly in the head and he fell to the ground dead.

"That's what'll happen to you if make make one wrong move," Scorp said, "Now, where is the way out of here? If you tell me, I might, just might, not kill you before I leave."

The slig looked at him for a moment, then started laughing. After a few moments of this, without warning, it charged at Scorp, holding it's arm in front of it as a shield. Scorp cursed and started firing, but was too late; the big bro had already got close enough to him and was waving it's other arm about like crazy, trying to bash him with it. He quickly ducked down underneath a flying arm and dived between the big bro's legs. Before the slig had a chance to move at all, Scorp had emerged on the other side, and putting his arm around the big bro's body as far as he could, he pulled backward, tipping it over onto it's back.

"I warned you," Scorp scowled. He threw the gun aside and started chanting, slowly turned a blueish colour. The slig struggled to get up, while orbs of mystical energy started floating out around Scorp, slowly growing in size and number. Then they all surged together and shot straight into the slig's body. It shook violently for a moment, then was still.

After a few moments, the big bro slig moved it's arms underneath it and gave a mighty heave off the ground to push itself back onto it's feet. With an odd look about it's eyes, it picked up the gun from the ground, then turned and walked through the door that Scorp had just opened. The room it entered looked almost like some sort of tank for containing something; it was extremely high and from the top would have looked like a regular octagon. Each of the sides had a door, leaving seven other doors for him to choose from. He thought for a moment, then went for the one directly opposite the door he had just come out of. He pulled the switch, then lifted his gun to a ready position, just in case. The door opened to reveal a small room containing two sligs, who had just been laughing and talking, and a mudokon. They stopped instantly when they saw the big bro slig, then one of them said:

"Zade! What are you doing here?"

"Um... I can't remember which door leads the way out of here. Could you show me which one?"

The two sligs looked at each other. Then one of them noticed something about Zade. "Freeze!" he shouted, and lifted his gun to fire, but under Scorp's guidance the big bro was quicker and blasted both sligs before they could harm him. The mudokon looked up, a confused look on his face. Then he hurriedly put his hands up in the air.

"Don't hurt me mister, I'm only doing my job!"

"I'm not gonna hurt you, I just want to know which door leads out of here!"

The mudokon gave him a funny look, then pointed to one of the other doors.

"If you go through that one, it leads to the reception room, which is where the nearest exit is. Why do you ask?" The mudokon was thinking that this slig was pretty stupid, but he didn't dare to voice his opinion.

The big bro didn't answer, but walked away to the other door. He pulled this switch and waited for the door to slowly open. Walking through that door into the reception room was like walking into another factory; this part was full of decoration! The floors were tidily covered with red carpet, the walls actually had some type of dark red wallpaper, and the whole room was well lit. At one side of the room was a desk, which was just as colourful as the rest of the room, and behind the desk was a slig, who was also dressed just as colourful as the room. The slig had been leaning back on his chair, with his feet up on the desk, but when he saw Zade he hurriedly sat up.

"Whad do you want?"

"I'm not sure yet..." answered Zade, walking over to the door opposite the desk. Even the door was decorated, dark red with yellow triangles in patterns throughout it. He looked around it, but saw no way to open it. He turned to the slig at the desk.

"Could you open the door?"

"Whad'da you want the door open for?"

"OPEN THE DOOR!" Zade lifted his gun to aim at the slig.

"Okay, okay, I'm getting there, sheesh, what a grouch," the slig mumbled, reaching around trying to remember which keys to open the main door. He eventually remembered, and as he pushed the last button the main door swiftly and neatly swung open, letting a cold draft into the room.

"Thanks," said Zade, then began to shake violently again. His eyes started to turn blue, then suddenly he just exploded, leaving bits of slig all around the room. The slig in front of the door was so shocked that he was frozen in place.

Not so Scorp, who was now swiftly running along the path he had just been guiding Zade along a few minutes ago. He knew he didn't have long before the slig would realize what was going on, and he wanted to get out of here with as little trouble as possible. He ran straight past the working mudokon, who just looked at him then shook his head in puzzlement. But as he entered the reception room, the slig, recovering from his shock, saw him, and quickly pushed a button on his keypad. In an instant, the doors were shut again! The slig, picking up a shotgun he had lying next to him, looked at him triumphantly.

"Ha, I knew something wasn't quite right around here! You're finished now!"

He aimed the shotgun and fired, but Scorp dodged and the shot went into the room behind, ricocheting off the walls and scaring the mudokon in there even more. The slig, not seeming to care about the condition of the walls, continued firing shot after shot at Scorp, who kept dodging them and trying to get closer to the slig. But this slig seemed to be a quick thinker, and once he realized what Scorp was trying to do, he took one hand off the shotgun and placed it on a panel on the top of the desk. A red light showed above the panel, and the slig started speaking:

"Help, help! A looney mudokon's trying to escape through the reception office! I need backup, I repeat, I need backup!"

Scorp cursed and, ceasing to move, he held up his right hand and curled his fingers as if he was holding a ball. In a few moments he was holding a ball, a fireball, which he immediately threw at the slig, hitting him right in the face and knocking him back into the wall. Seeing this, Scorp ran and leapt over the desk, then spun around and started pushing random buttons on the keypad, trying to open the door. His efforts met with little success, in fact, the buttons seemed to have no effect at all! Then he noticed something out of the corner of his eye; the doors in the sides of the room were beginning to shut as well! He grabbed the shotgun of the dazed (but still alive!) slig, and dashed for the door opposite where he had come from. He didn't want to be trapped in here, even if it was right next to the closest exit.

Luckily, the doors were pretty slow at shutting and he managed to get under without any difficulty. He found himself in a hallway, decorated as the reception room, with stairs at the opposite end leading upward. Without hesitating, he ran forward and up the stairs, entering a large room with a set of stairs on each side, also leading upward. He stopped for moment, but then he heard the sound of a slig, or sligs, walking down the stairs on his right. He swiftly ran for the stairs directly in front of him; the set opposite the sligs would be the obvious choice, so he would take the other.

Halfway up the stairs he noticed the light seemed to be diminishing. He realized he must be approaching the less expensive part of the factory, returning back into the dimly light areas. But there's wasn't much he could do about that right now! By the time he reached the top, the conversion was complete. The room he now stood in was completely bare, except for a few blood stains on the walls and a grill in the floor. He stopped and listened out for the sligs, but it sounded like they had gone the wrong way. He figured he would have a bit more time now, so he stood for a few minutes, getting his breath back and examining the room more thoroughly.

The wall directly opposite him had three small doors in it, of which the two outermost were shut, but there were no controls to be seen anywhere. The wall behind him had the opening for the stairs he had just come up and another open door just to the side of it. The other two walls were completely blank. But, looking up, Scorp suddenly noticed something bad - a security camera was mounted on the roof, and it had been focused on him ever since he entered the room! He cursed and, forming another fireball in his hand, threw the flame at the camera, completely smashing it.

At the same time as the camera exploded, a sharp clang behind Scorp made him jump and spin around, only to see that the middle door in the wall was now also shut. Then he heard the sound of slig pants, big bro's judging from the noise, coming up the stairs behind him. Without thinking, he ran for the door next to the stairs, then realizing it was possibly a trap, he tried to run back out again. But it was too late, the door had closed the instant Scorp ran through it.

"Leaving so soon? But you haven't had a chance to try out my latest contraption!"

Scorp turned around, looking for the owner of that voice. The room he had entered now was completely round and the floor seemed to consist of a large brown circle surrounded by a grey ring, part of which was where Scorp was standing. It was completely bare, except for the four doors evenly spaced around the outside of the room, one being right behind Scorp and all of them shut. There was no sign of anyone there, but a laugh from above soon showed where the voice had come from. A cylindrical room seemed to be hanging from the roof directly in the middle of the room, with windows all around it, and inside was a glukkon, dressed in crimson.

Forming another fireball in his hand, Scorp hurled it at the windows, but the only effect was the fireball bouncing off to hit another wall and drawing another laugh from the glukkon.

"Quit playing games, Rector!" shouted Scorp, "just get on with whatever it is you intend to do."

"Ah, impatient to get started are we?" answered Rector, his voice full of mirth. "Very well, you shall have your wish."

Then, to Scorp's surprise, the inner circle of the room started to open outward in an iris-like manner, while Rector's maniacal laughter filled the room.

End of Chapter 13

Oh dear oh dear. Very tense, now hurry up and write the next bit so I can find out what happens!

Long time no read.
I only readed the first chapter like a month ago.
I saved the whole story on my laptop to enjoy it when im on vacation:)
after my vacation i can tell you how it was;)

Sounds like a plan! ;)
Well, you'll be pleased to find that the next chapter will be moving back to Ramnes at the gathering stones. :p I haven't decided just yet whether it will move back to Scorp during that chapter or the next, so you'll find that one out later.
I have decided on what the end's going to be like, but there's no way I'm going to spoil that right now! :)

I just began reading this story a bit and I must say that it's great! :D It's very discriptive in some areas and I love the character development. Keep up the good work *gives thumbs up* :D

I cant wait till vacation i read them right now:p
THe last chapters are very cool;)
GOod job!

You nicked my idea! I'm the one who's supposed to switch scene at a tense bit!

Ah well, it works! And I probably nicked it off someone else. If you're going to make me wait, then write faster! Otherwise, it's great.

*edit* oops, wrong thread...

Oh, are you? I've either forgotten that bit or haven't read it yet, which one(s) is(are) that in? I probably will actually come back to Scorp in the next chapter, but I haven't got that far in writing it yet.

*pant* I'm writing... as fast... as I can! Well, typing actually. And if I was typing as fast as I could, the next chapter would be up pretty soon, but unfortunately it takes me some time to get the brain part of a chapter up and running. Typing it is the easy bit, especially at around 59 words per minute! ;)

That's rather fast...

Lots of my fics. Well, a little in Splat but mainly in my first fic, The Oddworld Story, which is so badly written that despite what all my old fans said, i would not advise you read it.

"...so, I've asked Sefon to begin the mustering of our force to prepare them to march, which I believe will be necessary in the very near future."

Ramnes was standing in the clearing of the gathering stones with eight other mudokons, explaining the situation and his reason for being there. He couldn't help throwing the occasional curious looks at Hembar and the chief of her tribe, who were known as the Avando, after all, they were the only mudokons here to be clothed as they were. But they didn't seem to notice, like the other six mudokons, they were too busy intently listening to his speech.

"That's it?" asked Chief Haupet softly, as Ramnes stopped speaking.

"Yes. The rest you know, I was on my way here, then I met a very hostile Hembar here," Ramnes nodded towards the now grinning mudokon, then continued, "and we came straight here. So what have you chiefs decided on?"

"You made the right choice," Chief Avando spoke up, "Whether we like it or not, battle is the only option now. They have made the first strike, executing Iagon with their new weapon..."

"Weapon?" Ramnes asked curiously, "What weapon?"

"We aren't sure," one of the other chiefs answered, "but the refinery has started production of a new type of weapon which is capable of severe burning damage to living creatures. This is the fate of Iagon, and of Scorp if we don't act quickly."

"Scorp!" Chief Haupet exclaimed, "I doubt he can wait for the army to get there, I sense he's in danger at this very moment!"

"Well, what can we do? It's not like we can get there any faster to save him," Ramnes said, looking downcast.

"I believe I have an answer," Hembar interrupted, holding out her hand. Blue light shone out of it, then a bird seemed to materialize in her hand. "Birds can fly much faster than we mudokons can march."

________________________

Scorp watched on in horror at the black hole where there had once been a circle of solid floor. It sounded like something was coming up from the hole, closer and closer, and he didn't have to wait long to find out what it was. In a few moments some sort of circular elevator rose up from the hole and took the place of the open area on the floor, but Scorp was more concerned about what was on it. Standing right in the center of the elevator was some sort of robotic slig, it was shaped like a large big bro slig, but it was coloured black all over apart from the bright glowing red eyes. In it's right hand was some sort of gun with a long barrel and a pipe going round behind to attach to a tank on it's back. The left hand wasn't there; it was replaced by what looked like a gun barrel.

Rector spoke up again, "Well, mud, I'd like you to meet my friend. I like to call him Inferno. Cheesy, I know, but you know what they say, if the mask fits..."

Scorp was watching the bot warily, but it hadn't moved an inch so far. Then his sharp eyesight caught just the slightest movement and he quickly sidestepped, just as a spurt of greenish liquid blasted out from its left "hand". The liquid flew through the air and landed a few feet behind the spot Scorp had just been standing a moment ago.

Scorp glanced up at Rector cynically, "That's it?" But what was it doing now? - Scorp cursed, and jumped aside, just in time to avoid the scorching blaze of fire that came surging out of the weapon in the bot's right hand. It continued to sweep it's arm in that direction until the flames ignited with the chemicals on the floor. A split-second later there was an explosion that caused the whole room to shake; highly-flammable was too mild a term to use for those chemicals!

"Not the end I would have wished for," Scorp thought grimly.

________________________

The mudokons at the gathering stones wasted no time in following through with Hembar's suggestion.

"You two can help," Chief Haupet spoke to Hembar and Ramnes, "we chiefs will communicate with the birds to their destination, but the more energy we can have put into it the better."

The seven chiefs leapt back up on the seven stones and began chanting. Ramnes and Hembar moved closer to the pool and joined in, focusing their energy into it, uniting it with the chiefs' power. For a few minutes nothing happened, then suddenly birds started appearing, seeming to come right out of the pool itself. More and more of them came out until there was a large flock there, all fluttering around the stones. Then, with one accord, they all flew upward, quickly fading into the fog.

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Scorp stood, waiting for the bot to make it's move once again, but it stood completely motionless as it had before. Scorp's mind was racing, though, and he was starting to have an idea... This continued for a few minutes, then the bot suddenly swung it's arm to blast another stream of chemicals at Scorp! But he was ready for it. He raised his hand quickly as the stream blasted towards him and it instantly stopped in mid-air and flew back at the robot, splattering itself over the bot's upper body and arms. Scorp smiled and moved his hand slightly, causing some of the chemicals to move into a strategically picked location... The bot prepared to fire...

...and with a deafening explosion, the bot's upper body was literally torn to pieces, throwing scrap and chemicals everywhere. Scorp stepped aside as a piece of shrapnel went flying past his body, then grinned up at Rector.

"Well, I am highly disappointed in your work, Rector. You must be losing your touch; maybe you should resign and let Patrick take over?"

He smothered a laugh at the thought. But Rector was no longer laughing.

"You think this is all a big joke, eh? Let's see how funny this is, then..."

The room suddenly darkened, then at intervals around the perimeter of the room lights started appearing. But there was something odd about those lights - they were flames! Scorp heard a loud mechanical sound coming from the roof and looked up to see, by the light of the flames, the entire roof was sliding open to reveal another layer which appeared to have millions of tiny holes in it. He had a feeling he knew what those holes were for...

"You go to all this trouble just to get rid of one mudokon?" Now Scorp's expression was one of disbelief.

Rector spoke with distaste, "Wrong. You muds aren't worth my time. You were simply convenient for me to test my designs on."

Scorp raised his eyebrows, "Testing them? For what?"

Rector now laughed, "Ah, you muds are so self-centred. You think everything I do is directed at you? On the contrary, you just happened to be in the right place at the right time for me to use you."

Scorp moved to stand more straight, "So... what is it you're 'testing' your 'designs' for?"

"You think I'm foolish enough to tell you?" Rector laughed bitterly. "I don't care whether you're about to die or not, you're not getting anything furthur out of me. Farewell."

He turned and walked to the back of the small room he had been in, presumably to a door to exit. A few seconds later the lighting from the room vanished, leaving only the flames to illuminate the larger room. As Scorp watched, four pipes halfway up the wall suddenly started blasting a huge flame across the room, intersecting in the middle to form an irregular cross. It was too high to do Scorp any damage yet, so he quickly turned and ran to the door, hoping that there would be someway to get out. But when he got there he stopped in surprise. The door was gone! Well, maybe he'd miscalculated, the door must be furthur along. He started running alongside the wall, but there was no sign of any door.

Then an explosion sounded behind him, making him jump and turn around to see that right in the center of the room, green chemicals were spurting from the holes in the roof and colliding with the flames in the center of the fiery cross, exploding on contact.

"Showoff," Scorp snorted. But no matter, every moment Rector spent with his "pre-execution show" was another moment Scorp had to find a way out! And then he saw it; a single bird had somehow made it's way into the room and flew straight to Scorp and landed at his feet. He stopped in surprise and stared at it, then noticed more birds coming to perch at his feet, one by one. He stood staring for a few minutes, then suddenly realized what was happening; some of the mudokons back at the village must have sent them! How they got into this room was beyond him, but that didn't matter. He started chanting and the birds slowly started to form a circle.

This carried on for a few minutes, and Scorp was starting to get a little impatient, they should have been forming a portal by now! He kept chanting, but he could sense the spurts of chemicals falling from the room at intervals around him, and it felt like it was definately started to get warmer in here... And then, one more bird entered the room and flew straight for the circle and, just like that, the birds seemed to merge together in a blast of energy and the light opened outward to form a large glowing circle.

Scorp could have laughed for joy at that moment, but he knew there was no time for that, so, in an instant, he stopped his chanting and ran straight for the portal, doing a flying leap and disappearing into it. The portal degenerated into birds again instantaneously, and they immediately dispersed to find their way out of the room...

End of Chapter 14

So, what'cha think? This chapter has been through HEAPS of revisions, and it possibly should have gone through more, but I thought I'd better post it up before my story was completely forgotten. :p
As always, comments and criticism are welcome.

Yes, an update after 4 months. I may need to re-read some of the fic to pick up on the story again, but I'm glad you havn't quitted on it Gretin. Good chapter, action-filled and it helps continue Scorp's part well. Keep it up man, and don't make us wait 4 months next time, please, it's too good to be waited on like that. :)

I had almost completely forgotten about this. Very good chapter though. When I have some more time I'll read back a bit. Still, well done.