"A Blast From the Past" Part One AD 1989, that is 2364 Galactic Year [Nomad of Norad] Nomad and Cappy were walking along the edge of Lake Shamrock. The Castle Hex could be seen a ways off. It was early evening. They paused and gazed at the swans on the lake, at the ducks, at the frogs on their lilly pads. "It looks like rain," said Captain R/C. "Yep," said Nomad, "the frogs will love it." He smiled at Cappy. "Well..." started R/C. "What on earth!" exclaimed Nomad, suddenly pointing skyward. There were several small somethings approaching in the distance. He pulled out a compact set of electronic binoculars and raised them to his eyes. "They're some kind of... machines. Small drone craft apparently, they're too small to have people in them..." "What are they coming here for?" asked Cappy. Nomad took his eyes from the binocs and looked at Cappy. "How should I know?" He lowered the binocs, though still looking towards the machines. "They've split up, one's coming this way." One of the other machines flew low over the Hex, it came to hover over a man. A beam shot from it, like a spotlight turned straight down. Suddenly the man disappeared! Nomad lowered again the binocs, he had raised them to his eyes as the machine stopped. Now he yelled "They got Spidey!" He looked frantically upwards as a machine came to hover over them. "RUN!!!!" Too late, the machine took both Cappy and Nomad. [Captain R/C] ...about an hour later... "Ok, is some of you already know, a threat has once again lowerd it's vile head upon my faire kingdom!" started Joe to a group of castle members in The Strategist's Corner. "One hour ago, three of the castle members, R/C, Nomad and Spiderman where mysteriously kidnapped by some strange flying machines. Master of Puppets was the only whitness to this incident..." "Yeah.. I saw the whole thing," said MoP. "These little spaceships beamed them up!" The people in the room mumbled and talked to themselves. "As far as we know," said Joe again. "R/C, Nomad and Spiderman are dead. Not even one person could have fit inside that small of a craft." "But Who!?" said a voice. "Yeah!" said another voice. "And why would they only go after Higher level users?! Dukes and advisors?" "But that's not true!" argued Shammy. "They only took 2 of our dukes and our Advisor! They didn't take Jocko, Flip OR Depraved!" "How do we know they are dead?!" asked Zaphod. "How could they be alive?!" asked Joe. "Asterisk," said THX. "Well," argued Zaphod, "they could have been reduced atomically or even transformed into energy!" "It's possible," said Joe, "but as of now, we have little to go by. We know nothing about these crafts!" Suddenly, a squire burst in the room. "Sire! A small machine type thing as been found crashed in the forest!" "Say again, squire?" said Joe. "Several of our scouts have found a wrecked machine in the forrest. It looks as if it has dropped out of the sky!" "That must be the second craft! It split away from the one that zapped R/C and the rest!" An expression of joy went over Joe's face as he realized he could find out exactly what the machines were. The crowd was relieved. Somewhere else, in a place of darkness, voices were heard... "Where are we?" "Nomad, is that you?" [Daggoth Zedka] ...."oooooohhhh" Nomad moaned.."Cappy, I feel like, well, you get me??" "Yeah," Cappy replied in a wheezing voice, still not recovered from being shrunk to the size of a Ken (from Barbie) doll.... "How the bloody heck are we going to get out of this one??" "I dunno, maybe we can get the martian or whatever it is....." Nomad replied. "Oh man..." Spidy gasped, "think of my sex life." "How can you think of sex at a time like this" Cappy asked. "Well.. I dunno.." Spidy said quite sarcastically. "So, any plans?" "Yeah, anny plans??" asked Daggy "Dag, how the blue blazes did you get in here.." asked the three of them. "Well.. I came running after spidy got zapped on this stupid ship, then I saw it blast you so I had to follow," he explained. "No you didnt," mumbled Cappy under his breath. "Lets just get out of here!" all agreed in unison. "Greetings, strange one, allow me to introduce myself. I am Caldon, and I am your new master." [THX-1138] "Caldon take me away!!" yelled a lowly peasant who was tired of the Feudal life. [Daggoth Zedka] "Caldon hears you, lowly life form," Caldon replied instantly. Then, THX was just a puddle as Caldon's dis-intigrater beam melted him down. [Nomad of Norad] [Title: Nonononono... ] (...let's not be killing the characters! I ignore that last entry altogether, partly because I have spent several hours this morning dreaming up more story premise, and it depends on a slightly different interpretation of the alien's presence.) "You will obey me without question," said Caldon. "I will?" said Cappy. "Forget your past lives," said Caldon. "Like Hersh I will!" said Cappy. "No way!" said Spidey. "Stand by," Caldon was saying, even as the others spoke, "the problem we have had with your ships will soon be corrected." "Guys," said Nomad, "I don't think he hears us. It's a projection." He waved his hand in front of Caldon's face, no response. "I will talk to you again," said the image, "later." It vanished. "The other ships?" said Spidey. "Have they grabbed other Hexians?" "Who knows?" said Cappy. "You were grabbed by another ship," said Nomad to Spidey, "and yet here you are on this ship..." He thought a moment. He pulled out his scanner and probed the systems aboard the ship. "Hmmmmm... teleport systems. There appear to be two teleport senders and... eleven recievers." "Well," said Spidey, "there is a sort of control area that way." He pointed towards the front of the ship, there was low amount of light coming from there. They all went towards it. "There was a big window, I could see bushes towering above the ship." "Yes," said Nomad, "obviously we've shrunk." "Shrunk?" asked Cappy. "How?" "Well," said Nomad, "the atoms of our bodies could have been squeezed closer together. We'd mass the same as at our full size." He scanned himself. "However, my density hasn't changed, which means the extra mass... went someplace else. In storage maybe." They arrived at the control center of the ship. Nomad trained his scanner on the flight systems. "Everything is automated, there are no controls here, just display." He glanced up through the windscreen. "Look, there's another ship coming in above us." The ship came to a hover over theirs and a beam flashed down from it. The three guys felt a teleport grab them, again. They found themselves in the big chamber oboard the other ship, it was lighted and there were three other figures there. "Of course!" said Nomad. There was another Nomad, Cappy, and Spidey! "Two of each of us?" said Cappy. "Yes," said Nomad, "I should have realised. There was a science fiction short story I once read, it was a classic from the golden age of SF. It delt with a man who was split up into several hundred tiny borrower-sized duplicates. His matter was... uh... split between them all." He trained the scanner on the teleport systems of this new ship. "I already scanned them," said the other Nomad. "The duplicate teleport reciever is deactivated." "Well," said the first Nomad, "it seems to be powering up now." He gazed at the scanner a moment, changed a setting, gazed a moment longer. "It is being re-calibrated to another frequency. Looks like it is going to be made to take the place of the one on the other ship, maintain the ratio of duplicates...." He switched off the scanner and headed for the flight section. The others followed. Upon arriving there, they found the display screens coming to life. A map came up on the main screen, then a course was marked out upon it and the ship turned and started to move. "We seem to be heading back towards the Hex again," said Nomad. "Great," said Cappy. "Just great. Looks like we are going to be joined soon by more Hexians!" (Ok guys, who wants to be... uh... abducted? Write yourselves in!) [Gabrielle A-Leen] From the back of the room Gabrielle yelled, "Doesn't abduction, imprisonment, and terrorizing carry a minimum sentence of 20 years?" Then she went back to her nice cup of tea (Irish breakfast, sugar and cream), considering being abducted herself so she could avoid final exams. [Daggoth Zedka] Then, as Nomad pondered of the use of the multi teleporter, Caldon used his mind control device to sway the ships over to where Daggoth was sleeping and where Gabrielle was eating breakfast in the Hex Lounge, and Caldon promptly beamed Daggoth and Gabrielle up to the ship. "Welcome aboard captives. You can thank A-Leen's thoughts of missing exams. You see, I am a telepathist. I can read your thoughts!" Caldon screeches. "Oh brother, whata dork!" Daggoth replied, hoping he'd be home in time for lunch. [Nomad of Norad] [Title: And the story master reached up and... ] ...tore up the previous two posts. :-) The eleven remaining mini-ships swooped down on the Castle Hex, and pandamonium and otherwise general panic broke out. They ships broke formation and spread all over the region. Beams and beams and more beams shot down in rapid succession and many high-level users vanished. A few other lesser users vanished as well. It was several hours before it was known who all was gone and who had simply Headed for the Hills in Dead Panic. Then the mini-ships returned to formation and shot heavenward. (Ok, we now have a big crowd of twins aboard, whoever wants to be in the story, just mention yourself in the story. Something like this: "Well, what do we do now?" said Jim Nasium.) :-) [Captain R/C] Later, that same day, sobs were heard in the halls of the Castle as people discovered their loved-ones missing.. Many rooms, usually bustling with joy and activity, were now quiet and baren. The King and Queen were missing this time, as well as Jocko, Dr.D and several dukes as well as some lower level users. The castle had no order.. it was thrown into a state of total anarchy(which is lack of government or confusion or something..). Flip, being the last remaining noble took charge and declared a state of Martial law. He quickly gathered a crew of brave, strong and smart men, which totalled about two. Then, Flip decided he had better broaden his horizons a tad... Somewhere aboard the crafts: "These people are not all Hexians!"remarked Nomad. "No! Look! Even Ophelia!" "..and there's Silk of Numnei AND Lord AnthraX hmmm...." "Apparently, these crafts are not out for the Hex alone. This may very well be world wide!" [Gabrielle A-Leen] "Well, gee, what do we do now?" asked Gabrielle while sipping yet another cup of tea. (Okay, No-mad? Sheesh, is this a collaborative effort, or do I see a clique taking over? Hehe...) [Daggoth Zedkah] "Hey.. its Darrell Mobley, Corsair, and Perseus. they were all sucked up too.." Daggoth murmured. "Shut up Dag" Nomad said "and post useful parts to the story!" [Doctor Depraved] Dr. Depraved was horrified to discover that his doctors bag hadn't been sucked up with him into the flying hoover vacuum. "Oh No!" he cried, "Now we don't have ANY chance of escape!" Meanwhile, crowded together and sub-atomically shrunk inside a flying ratchet screwdriver... "Whatcha think we should do R/C?" asked Daggoth. "I don't know...." [Daggoth Zedka] "Which way did they go George. Duhh," Daggoth replied dumb-foundedly... not realizing that Dr D was here too. "We have to do something..." Gabrielle muttered between sips.. "Yeah but WHAT!" everyone said in unison. "Buah hahahaha, you will NEVER escape fools!" Caldon screamed. [Captain R/C] Meanwhile, back down on Earth, Flip, who was now in charge, stood in front of his small group of brave adventurers/Shoe-makers. "Friends," he started, "This doesn't look good. These... these things have kidnapped about a quarter of the castle's total inhabitants AND our beloved king and queen. Of course, you realize that we must do SOMETHING!" "But what on earth CAN we do?" asked Leroy. "WE know NOTHING about these crafts! If only that wrecked one had stayed there and not been repaired. At least, then, we'd have a clue!" One of the peasants approached Flip. "Read this documentation, sir! 'Tis of much importance!" Flip took the scrap of paper. It was a delivery from another castle. "Dear King Joe, Yesterday, several strange crafts approached from the south and zapped our queen and a whole bunch of our inhabitants. WE ask you for urgent help. Signed, Castle MacArthur." it read. Flip thought to himself for a moment. "Hey, you! Take this parchment and a group of men and whatever supplies you see necessary. I wish for you to go unto the surrounding castles and see if they have some clue. May you haste your quest! Our king may very well be dead. Remember, take all you need!" Flip said to the peasant. "Leroy, go with this sirrah. I have faith in you.." Flip was worried.. [Daggoth Zedka] Meanwhile.. "Queen Ophelia and King Mchan are gone!!" were cried from inhabitans of Castle Elsinore and the Crystal Palace." "All is lost.. Darrell is gone," reported Rococo to Flip.. who had just checked with Castle*West! "We need to combine our forces and try to preserve peace and keep going what we can.. their may be a re-attack!" Flip said, since he was now head captain of all the Castles from Hex to Cloister. "Maybe we can get some help from GI.. I'm sure Hawk and the others have still kept it intact," Flip said. "Sir," a peasant messanger stated, "we have lost contact with GI, Elsinore, and Temporal Vortex.. and I'm sorry to report, but Smokey, T4D, and Hawk have all been taken... noone remains as a power person but you!" [Captain R/C] Meanwhile, Back in the small space-ship thingies: R/C sat down, bored to death. Silk of Numnei banged his head against the wall in sheer boredom. Apparenly, when you're 1/12th of your original size and stuck inside a spaceship the size of a milk carton, you soon run out of things to do. "Why doesn't someone tell a story?" asked Ophelia. "Sure, go right ahead.." said Hawk. "I don't have one!" said Ophelia. "Who has a story they want to tell?" asked McHan. No one answered. But, from the back of the group, R/C stood up and said, "Ok, I'll tell a story." SO R/C told his story as follows:(think Shakespeare) Raymond and Julia Once upon a time this dude named Raymond. Raymond was madly in love with this girl named Roxanne. But, Roxanne had no idea who this Raymond fella was. Anyway, Raymond discovored taht Roxanne was going to be at the Go-Go on statuday. "Great!" said Raymond,"Now, I can prove to here what a man I am!" So, Raymond got together with two of his friends, Ben and Marty and went to the Go-Go to meet Roxanne. "That's her!" said Raymond. "THAT's Roxanne!" "Yeah, but who's the `stud' she's dacing with?" asked Ben. "Oh great. She's seeing someone else..." said Raymond. A few hours later... "Good grief!"said Ben,"she's STILL dancing!" "Yo! Who's the Fox?!" yelled Raymond. Ben and Marty didn't hear. `This could be my BIG chance!' thought Raymond. He approached this new girl. "Hi, my name is Raymond. And yours is..." "Julia. Julia Kapulet." "Such a quaint and pretty name. Do you come here often?" "Naa... I was kinda bored tonight. Say, do you want to dance? This is my favorite song!" They Danced and later... (close thine eyes, kiddies)..they kissed. "My you kiss divinely.." Somewhere else in the Go-Go.. "Look at her! My very own cousin! Dancing with a.. a.. Montegew! I hate that family!"cried Timmy (Timmy and his family are involved in an age old feud with the Montegews). "Uncle! Look!!" "So?"said Timmy's Uncle. "She's kissing a Montegew!" "Ahh.. leave it alone!" "I must do something!!" "I SAID LEAVE IT ALONE! You don't want to be arrested for disturbing the peace and be kicked out of Einstein's, do you?!" "But uncle.. ahh, Ok.." replied Timmy. After the Go-go closed, Raymond found out where Julia lived. He, Ben and Marty walked towards her house, all the while Ben and Marty making fun of Raymond for the dog he fell in love with. Raymond, being too hyper to take all the criticism, ran off towards Julia's house and jumped the fence, muttering something about jesting at scars that have never felt a wound or something utterly strange like that. But Soft, Julia was on her railing thinking out loud. Apparently, she found out that Raymond was her enemy. "Oh, Raymond! Why do you have to be a [darn] Montegew?! Why can't you be a normal person! Names don't matter! If I called a rose a pear, it'd still smell like a rose... er... pear... hmm...." Julia got confused with the rose/pear analogy. "Raymond, wherever you are, if you love me, just pick up the phone and call!!" "I LOVE YOU!" cried Raymond form the bushes. "Wha.. Who's that!?" "ONly a person that loves you and I'm not a Montegew!" "Raymond! My dear!!! Come here!!!!!!!" Raymond came instantly. "Oh Raymond! Our families hate each other! Our parents would kill us if they ever saw the two of us together! Let's get married!!!" "Ok, Julia! I'll go arrange it with my friend." "Wait! My father wants me to marry this guy named Paul! What should I do!?" "Screw Paul!!" Julia's eyes glowed.. hmm... "YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN, JULIA!" "Just kidding with ya, Ray!" Raymond ended up spending the night at Julia's house (nothing kinky yet) and left in the morning to get his friend, Larry, the drug-dealer. "Yo! Lar!! I got this dame that wants ta marry me! What should I do?!" "..hmm.. toughy! Try marring her!"said Larry sarcastically. "What a great idea! Who will marry us, though! Our parents can't know!" said Raymond, still excited. "Ahh.... pft.. I'll marry ya!"said Larry. "Oh, but isn't that illegal?!"asked Raymond. "Like selling drugs isn't!"said Larry, again,. sarcastically. "Good point. SO marry us already!" The next day, Julia and Raymond met at Larry's alley and got 'married.' Larry started the ceremonies. He hushed the audience(in this case, a cat and a dead fish) and began the wedding: "Like, do you wanna marry him?" "Sure do!"said Julia. "..and you? Ya wanna marry this dame, till death or divorce do you part?" "But of course!"said Raymond. "Good. Youre married. Kiss it!" >SMOOOOoooOOoooOOOOCH< (..to be continued..) [Captain R/C] (..we left off with >SMOOOOooOOooOOOoooCh<) So, it was getting late and Julia had to return home before her parents grounded her and took away her Nintendo-entertainment system with the Nes advantage. "It's getting late and I have to return home before my parents ground me and take away my Nintendo entertainment system with Nes advantage." "Alright, Bye!" said Raymond w/ tears in his eyes. "How tweet! Now, ya wanna buy some crack?"said Larry (always trying to sell his junk). ...Raymond and Julia spent the night again, but this time, they were married. So they decided to... The next day, Raymond was walking down the street. Timmy, infuriated that he danced with his cousin, jumped in his way. "Yo! I ain't wantin' ya to be seein' my cousin!" said Timmy as he twirrled his nun-chucks. "Yeah!? Ya gonna do something about it?!" "I think I will! But I'm warning you! My uncle is the mayor! I can get you fried in the electric chair!" "Sure, whatever BOZO!" Ben jumped in. "Hey! Stop fighting!!" Timmy instantly clobbered Ben with his nunchucks and put him on the ground. He was later taken to Baptist Medical Center were he could argue with the nurses about insurance. Raymond saw this, looked Timmy straight up the eye and said: "You're dead meat!" Timmy jumped at Raymond with his nun-chucks. Raymond pulled a Super-Ninja-Chow-Nazi backaround front kick and broke Timmy's neck, thus killing him. "Gee, I'm sorry!"said Raymond sarcastically (Larry's sarcasm rubbed off). Soon, the mayer of the town heard that his nephew was killed by Raymond. "That does it!" Raymond was charged with murder and went to court. But, Raymond had this killer lawyer and so Raymond only got kicked out of the city. Gee, too bad Raymond! And you just got married and everything! Now, the news got to Julia and she sobbed, cried, weeped, sniffled and all the mushy stuff because her husband/lover got the boot and her cousin had died. Her parents tried to console her. "It's Ok! We'll get another cousin!" Obviously, her parents thought she was crying over Timmy's death and not because of Raymond's banishment. The grief was too much! Julia had to do something. So, she went to see Larry, the drug dealer. "Larry! Larry! Raymond got kicked out of the city!! What am I to do!?" "Fear not! I have a plan. Take this drug tomorrow night." Larry handed Julia a sugar cube. "What will it do?" "Well, it will either grow hair on your chest, kill you or make you appear dead for two days. Meanwhile, I'll get Raymond back here so you can be together again." "Great!" 'Hair on my chest?' thought Julia. 'this might be interesting!' Two days later in the Florida Times Union... "Mayors Daughter Found Dead!"..etc... Larry's plan was working. He had sent word to Raymond, in Gainsville to meet him at Julia's Funeral. Too late! Larry forgot that the Florida Times Union was also delivered to Gainesville. Raymond had found out that his true love, Julia was dead. "My true love, Julia, is dead!" he screamed! "I can't go on living!!! Somebody call Charter!" Raymond proceeded to the nearest Walmart and bought 14 bottles of Extra Strength Tylonal. Believe me, he didn't have a headache! "I must go see Julia for the last time. Then, I'll kill myself! Yeah! That's the ticket!" A few hours of hitchhiking later, Raymond arrived at Julia's open coffin. "Dearest Julia! Why did ya go and die on me! I can't live without you!! Thanks a lot!" said Raymond as he consulted the tablet/weight chart on the side of one of the bottles. He, then, proceeded to take 413 Extra Strength Chewable Tylonal. "I'm killing myself! Hasta Luego, Julia! Was great while it lasted!" Raymond died of Tylonal Overdose right there, Julia awoke from her daze. "Whoa.. what a trip..." she shook her head violently. Larry walked in. "Julia! How goes it?!"he said. "Fine.. I guess. where's Raymond?!"she asked. "Oh, he's over there.. dead as a doornail too...My best customer, too!" he said. "Raymond?! Dead?! Aaarrrggg!!! This is YOUR FAULT LARRY!" She pulled out her Compact Thomson Sub-Machine Gun and blew the guts out of Larry. "Bye Raymond! Dearest.." Julia shot herself with the machine gun, and, obviously, she was dead, too. (...still more...) [Captain R/C] R/C finished his great story. "Ok, I finished my great story! How'd everyone like it?" Zzzzzzzz was the reply. "I'M DONE NOW!!!!"he yelled. Everyone awoke. Things such as "(SNORT)..huh.. Oh, uh, sure.. great story.." and "whatever" were heard. "Anyone ELSE have a story?"asked R/C Unfortunatly, he was ignored by 101% of the group. (The usual missing 1% that is usually in Jamaica sipping a Pina Colada got beamed up and cloned mistakenly) [Nomad of Norad] Meanwhile both Nomads, who had gone forward to the flight section, were looking out the big window. They had gone there to get away from Cappy's... uh... story. Sitting there they exchanged glances and then one of them got up and went back to the main chamber. "Hey guys!" he said. "We seem to be reaching our destination, there's a vast spaceship out there and we are going towards what looks like a docking bay." The ship lurched slightly as they landed, then hatches opened to the port and starboard sides of the ship. Everyone piled out of the ship, as the other duplicates piled out of the other ten ships. Caldon, in all his full-size-but-looking-like-a-giant-from-everyone's-point-of-view glory, stood at the door leading out of the docking bay. "Well," said the alien, "welcome my new subjects. You will now--" Suddenly the entire docking bay shook, alarms rang and alien voices babbled frantically in an alien tongue. Caldon, looking shocked, stood a moment, motionless. He then turned and ran from the docking bay, the door closed tight behind him as the bay shook more violently. "We're under attack!" yelled several lusers in the group. "Obviously!" yelled several Nomads, Cappys, and others. [The Flip] [Title: R/C... ] ...nice, ummm, modern-day adaptation there... [Daggoth Zedka] "Oww! I've been hit!" one Daggy yelled as it turned into a grey pool of mush. "Grose," was the only reply. [Doctor Depraved] ...and with that...Daggoth drained away and was never recovered from the ships sewers where aliens throw their dirty underwear. [Daggoth Zedka] And yet that was only a Daggoth duplicate.. there's now only the original Daggoth... "Hmm... we're in deep sh*t now guys," Cappy replied. "No kidding," was all Leroy could say," wish their wuz a way outta hear!" [Nomad of Norad] (Guys, there are TWELVE duplicates now, remember? There WERE 12 ships, one duplicate per ship, then one was wrecked so they consolidated one extra set of duplicates, from the wrecked ship, into ONE other ship. Remember?) (BTW, kill off the duplicates and you may have some trouble returning the various people to their normal full-size one-person selves... At least lets not LOSE the bodies! Hang onto them, sorta, so they can be gone back to.) (Also, remember, Caldon is an enemy of our heroes, right? And his ship is under attack, right? By an enemy of his, right? Isn't an enemy of one's enemy effectively a friend of one? Hint, hint!) "I would suggest we get his body before we lose it," said one of the Nomads. "How?" said a Koala Bear. "He's gone down the drain!" "Why would someone have a drain in a docking bay?" asked one of the Captain R/Cs. "I dunno," said a different Nomad, "someone just wrote it into the story. Some writers do the oddest things..." "And how are we going to get AT the body?" asked a different Cappy. "We ARE after all locked up here in this docking bay." "In the very least, let's ALL get to cover!" said one of the Steve Walstras. "Let's not ALL get ourselves zapped!" "And why must we retreive his body?" asked a luser. "Well," said a Nomad, "if we are going to be returned to normalcy, have the duplicates made one person again, we need all the duplicates together in one place. I assume that even a dead duplicate can be reentegrated into the one person again..." The ship shook again. [Daggoth Zedka] As the blast from the enemy ship rocked Caldon's main ship, a warning light flashed and a message was heard "Frdk hju fjfd fhfd fdyr rteh FHFH!" "Say what??!" said several Spidey's "Warning: Ship fuel tank hit. Self-destruction in 5 minutes." "Oh great.." muttered a Joe, who happened to be by the other Joes.. "What now, we've got less than 5 minutes to get off this bucket before we're atomized... and I'll miss dinner " said a Dag.. just as another blast struck the ship... Meanwhile, back on Earth "Oh woe is me.... What am I to do?" blubbered Flip. "I've always wanted power, but Joe, Cappy, Sevy, Zaphod, Nomad, Shammy, A-leen, all are gone.. this ain't fun." "Sir," blabbed a peasant, "but you are now the highest ranking leader on the planet... The Hot Resort, Castle Channel One, and even the Neighborhood have been pulled into the fray, and Rob Rodgers, John Johnson, Brian E., and Dave have all been taken.. to... wherever.. "Just great.. hmm.. peasant, get word out to the far reaches, contact the domains of those crazy people the Commodore users, and get me word out to those big guys, the PC users... we must mobilize and warn them..." "Ok sir, but even Excalibur Prem. and all the BCS board are overwhelmed with losses.." "Aw heck!" was all a despondent King-for-now could say..