User blog:Wiz Ardon, the Peculiar Enchanter/The Story of a Minifigure: Strange Odd Shadow Rewrite Chapter 2

Chapter 2: New acquaintances

Reaching Epsilon was easier said than done. Well, it was so, if you had no weapon. Strange Odd Shadow had to avoid the Stromlings with which the place seemed to be infested. If the Stromlings noticed him, Shadow had to run as fast as he could until he lost them and every time this happened, Shadow found himself in a different place, which he did not know. Thankfully, there were other minifigures, too, fighting the Stromlings, who drew the attention of most of them, so Shadow did not have to run too much. Eventually, he found a man who seemed important enough to be that Epsilon guy. And indeed he seemed to have some crates with supplies around him. The man was wearing blue and white clothes and his most characteristic trait was the jetpack on his back. Once in a while, he fired at a Stromling or another with his futuristic gun. Shadow climbed on the higher ground he was standing on and stopped before the man. “Are you Epsilon?” he asked. “Actually, it’s Epsilon Starcracker, but yes. Tell me, since when do complete strangers address one by their first name?”. “Well, I was sent here by Wisp Lee, but he did not mention your last name, sir”. “Aha!” Starcracker understood “So, what does Wisp want with me?”. “Nothing that I know of. He just noticed my state of lack of any weaponry and thought I should have something to defend myself, before I try to reach Nimbus Station. He said you’d have something to give me”. “Ah! Indeed. I don’t have anything special, but my weapons will still serve you well in Avant Gardens. Just stay away from any Spiderlings before you get anything more sophisticated and you will do just fine. Let me see what I have”, Starcracker looked at the crates by him “Well, what do you prefer? A sword, a pike or a hammer?”. Shadow looked at the weapons and thought. To use a sword or a pike adequately, one would need skill that he did not possess, especially the sword. The hammer, on the other hand, relied mostly on the force of its hit. He might be a bit clumsy with it, but it would still do its job. “Is the hammer heavy?” he asked; he was not particularly strong, so weight could cause some problems. “Not too much. They’re designed for general use, so they’re light enough for most people to wield”. “Well, then I shall take a hammer”. “Are you quite certain?”. “Yes”. “Very well, then. Why don’t you go see if it suits you well? Smashing fifteen Stromlings should be a challenge enough. Come back to me, if there’s any problem”, Epsilon said while he handed a hammer to the young man. Shadow set off to fight some Stromlings. As he joined the mixed group of Nexus-Forcers and Stromlings, he moved the hammer around to test how it felt in his hands. It didn’t seem too bad. He approached a nearby Stromling. Upon noticing him, the Maelstrom Being charged at him. Shadow swung his hammer at it and the combined force of the hammer and the Stromling’s momentum brought about its demise. Shadow felt some satisfaction at his success. In the past, when he was fighting Half-Infected Minifigures he had avoided smashing them, because he believed they could be saved. But, he knew fully infected Stromlings were usually a lost case. Still, his satisfaction was mixed with other feelings. He was not used to smashing and he wasn’t certain he liked it; at the same time he wasn’t certain he liked the fact that there was part of him that had enjoyed it. In spite of that, he knew when he decided to join the Nexus Force what that meant, so he continued on to find his new opponent. He knew he was more experienced than the average new recruit, but he was surprised that he did not progress too slowly; he had never been the fighter of his group. However, after smashing his fifth or sixth Stromling, his arm started to feel the dull pain caused by lactic acid filling your muscles, indicating your muscles would appreciate it if you would stop straining them. In other words, it got tired. Though not too heavy, Shadow still had to apply force in his attacks, which on the long run was tiring for his unexercised muscles. As he stood in the side to rest, another minifigure approached him. He was wearing a futuristic orange outfit. “Hey there!” the man greeted him. “I am Quantum Solar Asteroid, but you can just call me Quantum”. “I’m Strange Odd Shadow!”. “I don’t imagine people call you Strange for short?”. “Yeah, my friends call me Shadow”. “You don’t seem like that much of a shadowy guy”. “That’s why I’m Strange”. Quantum laughed. “Indeed. So, you look like you’re new to all of this, but I saw you from afar and you seem to be fighting well enough for a recent recruit”. “Well, I had experience fighting Half-Infected Minifigures in my home world”. “Half-Infected? I don’t think we have those around? Where are you from?”. “From a really faraway world called Yorkanton City. It’s at the edge of the Crux System”. “Really? That far away? And how come you’re here and not Nimbus Station? Recruiting ships usually deliver people there”. “There were some complications in the journey and we had to leave before we reached it”, Shadow would rather not discuss the attack with every single person he met. “Well, don’t worry. Nimbus Station is really close to Avant Gardens. It’s quite a short rocket ride. You just need to get to the Launch Pads at the other side of our Avant Gardens base”. “Will keep that in mind”. “So, you need some help with those Stromlings? I was actually headed for the Maelstrom Mine, since the Stromlings aren’t much of a challenge for me, considering I’m Rank 3, but I don’t mind helping a new guy for a while”. “If you like”. With that, the two of them returned to the main battlefield and started smashing some Stromlings. It really came easy to Quantum, so he tried to avoid kill steals, when Shadow struggled to defeat his enemies. Furthermore, Shadow had the suspicion that Quantum’s futuristic outfit had more features, which he just didn’t use in order not to make him feel useless. After that, they began walking towards where Epsilon Starcracker was. Upon arriving there, Shadow saw that Wisp Lee was with Epsilon and they were talking about something. He could guess what it was. His suspicions seemed to be confirmed as upon approaching them, the two men looked at him in a way that showed they were talking about him. “So, how did it go? Does the hammer fit you?”. “Well enough”. “I see you’ve made friends already. That’s good. You’re gonna need them”, Starcracker told him. “Anyway, Wisp has been filling me in on recent events. So, Venture Explorer was attacked. How’s Sky, do you know?”. “No. I did not see. I barely made it out of there, without looking at what everyone was doing”. “What did you say?! The Explorer was attacked?” Quantum was surprised. “I thought it was one of our best ships. How did this happen?” he looked at Shadow, searching for answers to more question than those. Shadow looked back apologetically, as if saying, “This counts as a complication”. “From what I gathered, it was a surprise attack. Maelstrom Lightning from the Vortex hit the ship just before a whole lot of Maelstrom Beings started to appear from all around us. I do not know how they reached us”. “What troubles me is how the ship was found”, Epsilon said “It was considered a quite stealthy ship”. “I don’t know”, Shadow said. “Anyway, we shouldn’t trouble you anymore. I understand you mean to reach Nimbus Station to get recruited. Just go to the Sentinel Encampment and you’ll find your way from there. It’s that way. You can’t miss it”. “Farewell, then”, Strange Odd Shadow told him and Wisp. Quantum and he made their way towards the Sentinel Encampment, Quantum smashing the occasional Stromling that decided to attack them. “You didn’t tell me about that?” Quantum complained. “Well, you can’t possibly expect me to say everything again and again every time I meet someone new!” the other countered. “Very well!” Quantum sighed. “By the way, when we get to the Encampment, Beck Strongheart might wanna talk to you. He usually has a whole lot of requests for new recruits. Keep in mind, though, that he’s got a thing for salutes. He always wants people to salute him first, before they start talking. The man is obsessed!” “Will do”, Shadow replied. As they approached what must have been the Encampment, Shadow was surprised to see that instead of a gate, it had a bus! When they were near enough, the bus was raised from the ground high enough to allow them to enter. Shadow was a bit reluctant to walk under a lifted bus, but Quantum prompted him to enter and he did. The bus quickly fell behind them in order not to let any Stromlings get in. The Sentinel Encampment was a busy enough place. There were the guards keeping the Stromlings at bay, a stall, where a bunch of minifigures were making their purchases and several people that were leaving through a cave in the back or coming from it. And in the centre of everything there was a man wearing a breastplate and blue clothes, who seemed to consider it his job to make himself look important. Aside from the fact that he was in the centre, he had laid a map of Avant Gardens on the grass and was studying it. From time to time, he would raise his head to shout some order to someone. And then, there was the look on his face; he seemed to be emitting self-importance. “That’s Strongheart, isn’t it?” Strange Odd Shadow asked. “Indeed”, Quantum confirmed as they approached the man. “Don’t forget your salute”. Beck Strongheart looked at the two of them. His eyes rested on Shadow. “Hey you! Come here for a moment!” he shouted at him. Shadow saluted the man and the man saluted back at him. “There’s a man who knows when to make a salute!” Beck seemed satisfied. “Are you one of the evacuated recruits of the Venture Explorer?” Shadow thought he seemed like a straightforward type. “Indeed I am. So, you’ve heard then, sir?”. “I’ve met with some other former passengers already. Yes, I know what happened. Now, I know you were heading to Nimbus Station, but they would have sent you here anyway and I am always in need of people –those of a higher rank always forget that even though it’s too easy for them, we still need people to keep the Stromlings at bay–, so you mind if you go do some missions for me first? As a reward, I’ll give you the Sentinel badge. I have the authority to do so”. “The Sentinel badge?”. “Of course! You don’t know! Before someone can officially join the Nexus Force, they need the approval of all four factions. These badges signify the factions’ approval”. “Well, I don’t think there would be a problem with that, then”, Shadow gave his answer. “Good. Before we start the serious stuff, though, can you bring me some fresh supplies of Armour Polish from Klaus over there? I’ve run out”. “Sure thing”, Shadow decided not to argue, but he thought Strongheart was also the kind of person that enjoys their authority by avoiding even having to walk five metres. Strongheart gave him some coins to spend and Shadow headed to the stall. He had to wait for a while until customers who had arrived before him made their purchases, but eventually he left the stall with three cans of Armour Polish. Strongheart thanked him and then: “Here! Have this!”. Strongheart shoved a blue helmet on his head. “I hate to see new recruits having so little armour to protect themselves!” Strongheart justified his action. “Thank you!” Shadow said while he rearranged the helmet. “Now, you must have seen the Stromling Mechs in the battlefield. The Maelstrom infected our Defense Robots long ago and now they won’t stop coming! Why don’t you go smash six of them and use your Imagination to rebuild them into turrets?”. “Sure”, Shadow said, saluted once more and turned around to leave. Quantum, who had been talking with a ninja until then, approached him. “So, how did it go?”. “He said that if I do some missions for him, he’ll give me the Sentinel Badge. He sent me to smash some Stromling Mechs”. “Oh! That’s good. And what did you think of him?”. “Weeell, he has… an interesting personality!” Shadow said searching for the correct way to describe Strongheart. “Yeah, Commander Strongheart’s like that”, Quantum laughed. “Quantum?!” someone suddenly exclaimed in an angry tone. “Oh no!” Quantum face-palmed turning to face the person who had spoken. “I completely forgot”. A minifigure clad in blue samurai armour was approaching them and he seemed to be angry. “What happened?! Where were you?! Lemon and I were almost smashed waiting for you! The Spiderlings discovered our hideout and we barely survived!”. “I am really sorry. I was just helping this new recruit and I forgot…”. “You FORGOT?!” the Samurai shouted. “Are you kidding me?!” “Shadow, you don’t need to listen to our quarrels. Go smash the Mechs and I’ll catch up with you”, Quantum whispered to him before replying. Shadow listened to Quantum’s advice and headed for the Battlefield. He had noticed there were occasional infected robots among the Stromlings before, but he had steered clear of them, thinking it’d be too dangerous for him. Considering that Strongheart had assigned him to fight them with only a basic hammer and a helmet, he decided that they probably looked harder than they were. He located one such Mech and approached it. As he was coming, the Mech noticed him, too, and aimed its blaster at him. It shot a blast, which Shadow dodged with some ease, though less than the average person. The blast hit the ground leaving a scorch mark on the grass. Before the Stromling Mech could fire again, Shadow reached it and hit his hammer upon its blaster-arm. The arm was damaged, but not destroyed. The Mech pushed him away with its other arm and fired again. This time, Shadow barely dodged, having been thrown on the ground. He felt heat emerging from the spot beside him where the blast had hit. Shadow got up and charged again, this time hitting the head, as the Mech protected its arm. Then, the Mech grabbed his arm and fired the blaster. The blast hit his helmet and was reflected back to it, destroying the Mech. Shadow was relieved. Strongheart’s helmet had done its job after all. The young man, then looked at the leftover bricks of the Mech. They were mainly untouched by Maelstrom allowing the Nexus Force to use them again. He smiled. This was a job for him. He pointed his hands towards the bricks and there was a light blue glow between his fingers. At the same time, several bricks started flying gathering to form a turret. This was the power of Imagination, allowing one to build effectively and really fast. It was the creative force of each minifigure, but of the whole Universe, too. The Maelstrom, on the other hand, was the chaotic force. It only brought destruction and all it could ‘create’ –by infecting them– were the Maelstromlings, mockery of the creatures made by Imagination. A great war had begun years ago, when the Maelstrom was unleashed and the Imagination Nexus was corrupted. The Nexus Force was the only thing that protected the Universe from utter obliteration. Choosing to try to sneak up on the other five Stromling Mechs, Shadow got to defeat them easily enough. Usually, three hits from his hammer were all they needed to be smashed. After smashing and converting all six Stromling Mechs, Shadow headed back for the Encampment. Strongheart was satisfied to hear of his success. Then, he sent him to the vendor again, this time to purchase a Sentinel Shield. Upon returning, Beck showed him how to activate the force field of the shield. “Now for the real test. If you can last for one minute in our Survival challenge, I’ll approve your entry into the Nexus Force”, Strongheart told him after giving him five green imaginites, pointing to the entrance of a tunnel near them. The green imaginite crystals were so that he could safely enter the Survival, as there was a special Maelstrom Field in that area, turning Imagination to Maelstrom, while the crystals, when activated protected your Imagination from that. Shadow entered the tunnel, read a panel that was there explaining what there was to explain about the Survival and then he continued on. “Surviving for a minute couldn’t be too hard”, he said and continued walking into the tunnel until he walked out in an open area, after activating a green imaginite. There was a purple mist encircling the place. Almost as soon as he was in there, Shadow saw a Stromling emerging out of the mist. It was faster than the Stromlings he had fought before. It approached him with an aggressive mania in its eyes, but Shadow swung his hammer at it and it smashed. He was not given much time before he heard more steps behind him. Another Stromling was charging against him. He smashed it, too, but a third one arrived not long after the second one. Shadow swung his hammer again, but two more came. More and more Stromlings appeared, increasingly fast, as he smashed them. Now, he realised that he wasn’t sure he could even make one minute. If the Stromlings kept coming like that, he wouldn’t be able to fight them for long. He already started taking hits. He smashed another Stromling and then saw three more coming at him from in front of him, while a fourth one was charging from behind. Shadow only had one choice. He started running. He was not the best runner and the Stromlings seemed to be a lot faster than him, but that could be used as their disadvantage. Shadow would keep changing direction and the Stromlings’ momentum wouldn’t allow them to follow easily. Meanwhile, about ten or eleven of them had gathered now, but they had no mind to try and surround him. Shadow was thankful that at least he was smarter than his enemies. At least one minute must have passed, now. Shadow was glad he had made it. He wondered whether he should back out now before things got too bad or if he should try to see how long he could go on. Before he could decide he felt a maelstrom blast hit him on the back and he fell on the ground. As he tried to get up, he saw a Stromling Mech that had appeared from the mist, this one having shot him. The Mech fired again, while the Stromlings caught up with him.

Shadow woke up inside the tunnel leading to the Survival. He had a terrible headache; actually, he had a terrible body-ache. So, that’s how it feels to rebuild. Well, I’m not planning on doing that again, he thought. I don’t know how anyone could like this Survival if they have to go through this. Shadow had read that minifigures using a green imaginite came to their senses after they rebuilt a lot quicker than usual, but that was no comfort to him. Smashing was a terrifying experience, while rebuilding was a painful process. No one had warned him about that. Then again, he’d figured the Sentinels might be more like the no-fear type of people, so why would Beck warn him? Eventually, he started to get up in order to go back to Strongheart and report to him. Once he was up, he noticed a device on the wall of the tunnel. A little piece of paper was protruding from a slit of its. He grabbed the paper and pulled it out of the slit. There were letters on it: “AGS, Strange Odd Shadow: 1:23 min”. “That’s how long I lasted, then. It seemed longer to me!” Shadow remarked to himself. He kept the paper, as he thought it was proof of his achieving the mission he was given. He started his way towards the other side of the tunnel. Strongheart was most happy to find Shadow had lasted his minute; Shadow tried to share his joy, but he wasn’t exactly in the mood. “The Sentinels approve of you to join the Nexus Force”, Beck said as he gave Shadow a badge of a blue falcon on yellow background. “However, you’re going to need the other factions’ approval, too. You can earn the Paradox badge in Avant Gardens. Go to Epsilon and he can send you to the right Paradox guy!”. The minifigures saluted each other and then Shadow started to walk away. Instead of going to Starcracker immediately, he thought he might find some place to rest for a while; he had had a long day. The odd thing, though, was while Shadow was certain many hours had passed, the sun seemed to be in the exactly same place, not nearing sunset at all. A hand suddenly touched Shadow’s shoulder and the minifigure jolted in surprise. At the same time, a voice spoke, “So, you’ve tried the Survival. How was your first rebuild like?” and then, “Easy now, it’s just me”, as Shadow turned around and saw Quantum, with his friend alongside him. “It was… painful. Is it always like that?”. “I’m afraid so”. “So, are you and your friend okay now?” Shadow looked at the blue Samurai. “Oh yes. Platinum’s anger never lasts too long!” Quantum said. The minifigure whose name seemed to be Platinum looked at Quantum menacingly and replied, “Be careful, because I may choose to forget forgiving you at any moment!”. “I will”, Quantum assured him. “By the way, Strange Odd Shadow, this is Platinum Diamond Tiger; Platinum, this is Strange Odd Shadow” “Pleased to meet you”, Shadow shook hands. “Well, now that we’ve made the introductions, I’d like to ask you, what’s with the sun?”. “What about it?” Platinum asked. “Why is it stationary? When will it be night?”. “Oh, don’t you know? There are many worlds that barely spin in any way, resulting in eternal –or almost eternal– days, nights, sunsets and sunrises. You’ll see that a lot in the Nimbus System. I’m not sure how to explain it, since it doesn’t seem logical to me, but it’s the reality!” Quantum explained. “Good to know. I grew up in a world that had the normal day and night procession, so I had never experienced this before. On another note, Strongheart kept talking about factions and he particularly mentioned the Sentinels and the Paradox. I figured the former are some sort of fighter people, but what about the Paradox? And what about the other factions?”. “You don’t know the factions! Where have you been living?” Platinum found that information odd. “There are four factions in the Nexus Force. The Assembly faction, which consists of construction specialists and critical thinkers who drive back the power of the Maelstrom through problem solving and creative building. The Sentinels, who are in their element in the thick of a fight; armed with inventive weaponry, they are renowned for using their wits, creative fighting moves and team skills to battle those who wish to destroy imagination. The Paradox, whose members closely study the Maelstrom power in an effort to find the evil within it; they believe that the battlefield is no place for honour and use whatever means are necessary to achieve victory. And the Venture League whose members are a composition of adventurers, daredevils and explorers who want to get to the bottom of all of the mysteries filling up the Universe”, Quantum explained. The sound of the name ‘Venture League’ brought a memory from when he was sixteen years old back to Shadow’s mind. It was summer and he was running to his house. He had just learnt that his mother had returned from her journey. About a year ago she had left to join an organisation named the Nexus Force. He reached his house. His parents were at the garden discussing about something. He heard his mother saying “...xus Force is awesome. There are four factions. I'm in Venture League, Nexus Force's explorers...”. “Shadow, are you okay?” Quantum asked. “What?” Shadow asked as he resurfaced from his thoughts; he found his hand was touching the coin in his pocket again. “You were looking at nowhere for some time” Platinum explained. “Oh. It’s okay, I’m fine. I was just... thinking of something”, his eyes looked at the sky with a sad expression for a moment and then, “So, is there a place where one can get some proper sleep here?”. “Yeah, there are some tents on the other side of the encampment people use to sleep on this side of Avant Gardens, though I wouldn’t advise them for a long period. You should probably just get a property or rent an apartment in Nimbus Station or Nexus Tower”, Platinum said and he led Shadow to the tents. After they talked with the minifigure in charge of the place, Shadow entered a tent to which he was shown and promptly lay on a mattress that was there, leaving his gear aside. So, that was a full day, he thought. I just hope joining the Nexus Force turns out to be more uneventful some times. Tomorrow, I’ll have to deal with Paradox. We’ll see how that goes. And with such thoughts, Shadow fell asleep. ..

Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.