Fan:LEGO Universe: The Return

LEGO Universe: The Return

Author:	Worldracer99
Completion Status:	Complete

Template:Alert

Prologue

A boy walked through his house, hoping to finally see if his forum had gotten up. The boy's online alias was Legodave99. He logged on to the LMBs, and was about to click the My Posts button when he saw something amazing: The Lego Universe forums were back up! It had been a little over 2 months since the popular game had closed down, and he didn't think there would be any word from the Lego people. He joyously clicked the link, hoping the MMOG would be back. When he opened the page, there was only one topic, labeled "Click Me!" It was from someone named Noboundaries. Legodave99 clicked it, and something amazing happened. A blue light came from the computer screen and enveloped Legodave99. "Recognized: Legodave99, LU codename- YahoodaGuy." The boy had no idea what was going on. He hoped it was just a prank. Suddenly, there was a flash-was the clock on the wall slowly grinding to a halt?-and Legodave99 was gone.

At roughly the same time, somewhere else in the country, another kid logged on to the Lego Messageboards. His username was Superspider1111. He had written a few stories for Lego Universe, but he was sad that it had ended 2 months ago. But then he noticed something strange: the Lego Universe forums were back up! He rubbed his eyes, thinking it was a result of not getting enough sleep. They were still there! He clicked, but there was only one forum, called "Click Me!" He clicked it, and a large blue light came from the computer. A voice emanated from it: "Recognized: Superspider1111, LU codename: RareSpiffyAgent." Everything around Superspider seemed to stop- the plants, the clock, even a bird flying through the sky- and he was gone.

At roughly the same time of these strange occurrences, a girl walked to her computer. Hoping that her new roleplay got up, she logged in. Her online name was Dancer103. She was about to go to My Posts when she noticed something odd: the Lego Universe messageboards were back up! Dancer103 clicked on them, but (you guessed it), only one post was there: "Click Me!" She did what the title said, when a huge wave blue light blasted out of the computer. Everything around her slowed to a halt, almost as if time had gone to sleep. A mechanical voice came from the computer. "Recognised: Dancer103, LU codename: FunkyCrazySpy," it droned. Dancer103 gasped, and she was slowly pulled into the computer.

About the time of the strange occurrences happening to other people all over the country, a boy walked to his computer. He logged on to the Lego Messageboards when he noticed something weird. The Lego Universe forums were back up! They had disappeared when Lego Universe had been closed down, but he was joyous they were back up. He logged in to his account- JetMan567. He clicked them, but was rather disappointed when he saw that there was only one post, labeled "Click Me!" He did, and a huge torrent of blue light rushed out of the computer. A voice said "Recognized: JetMan567, Lego Universe Codename: Dragon-" The voice was cut off by a shout that came from JetMan. Everything slowed to a halt, and JetMan567 disappeared.

In another part of the country, a kid walked to his computer. He logged on to the LMBs, under the name EthanWS, and was surprised to see that the Lego Universe forum were back! He opened them, and realized that (big surprise) there was only one forum, called "Click Me!" He clicked on the link, and blue light rushed from the computer, completely engulfing him. A mechanical voice droned from the computer, "Recognized: EthanWS, LU codename: Sharpie." Time slowly ground to a halt, and EthanWS was gone.

In a completely different part of the country, another person logged on to the LMBs. He was extremely well-known on the Messageboards, and he had been there for a long time. His name was Guacamole1998. As he scrolled down the page, looking at the forums - Lego Dino (fun to build), Lego Superheroes (awesome redesign of Lego Batman!), Lego Friends (lovely. They brought Belville back, only now with added stupidity! And 50% more cheese!) - when he noticed something was weird - the Lego Universe forums were back up! He swiftly scrolled back up the page and clicked on the link. Unfortunately, there was only one topic: "Click Me!" He clicked it, and a cascade of blue light glided from the computer, completely engulfing him. A voice came from the computer, and droned "Recognized: Guacamole1998, LU codename: Mardor." Time and space seemed to slow down, Guacamole1998 was slowly pulled toward the computer, and the blue light disappeared. And so did Guacamole1998.

Somewhere else in the country, another person logged on to the LMBs. His name was Gameking99. As he typed in his username and password, he got the feeling that something weird was going on with the Lego Messageboards. He soon found out what it was: the Lego Universe forums were back up! This was especially strange, since the game had closed down a little over 2 months ago. What was today, the beginning of April 2012? Ah, well, the date would have to wait. He clicked on the forums, but there was only one topic, under the suspicious name "Click Me!" He did what the title said, and a cataclysm of blue light blasted out the screen, effectively slowing everything to a halt. A mechanical voice uttered, "Recognized: Gameking99, LU codename: Gameking72." The funnel of blue light was pulled back into the computer, and so was Gameking99.

In another part of the country, a boy logged on to the Messageboards. His name online was Soodvood. As he signed in, he noticed something was weird: The LU forums were back up! He clicked on them, only to find that there was a single, lone topic: "Click Me!" Soodvood clicked on it hurriedly, but a wave of blue light surged out of the computer. He gasped, and a voice buzzed, "Recognized: Soodvood, LU codename: SaberCrazyShadow." The blue light was sucked back into the computer, and so was Soodvood.

At roughly the same time as the mysterious disappearances, yet another person logged on to the LMBs. His name was Ninja3200. He typed in his Username and Password, and noticed that the LU forums were back up! As he clicked them, he saw that there was only one topic, called "Click Me!" He paused, and thought about it for a little while. It could be some newbie trying to get attention. He had seen a few forums like that, saying "Click Me!" or "Urgent!" or "All [insert faction name here] members click here!", just for there to be a story so outlandish, it was obviously fake, or some stupid message, like "Hi.", or "Ha! You fell for it!" He shrugged, thinking that it might be an important announcement. He clicked on it, but as soon as he did, a typhoon of blue light blew out of his computer screen. A mechanical voice thrummed, "Recognized: Ninja3200, LU codename: GoldenGracefulLegend." The blue light seemed to grab Ninja3200, and disappeared back into the computer. Along with him.

Somewhere else in the country, a boy logged on to the LMBs, hoping that his Lego Dino RPG had gotten up. His online moniker was Darkshadow164. Suddenly, he noticed that the LU forums had miraculously reappeared! He clicked on them, but there was only one topic, called "Click Me!", by someone named Noboundaries. Darkshadow complied with the title, but the second he pressed the button on the mouse, a cyclone of blue light gushed out of his computer screen. A mechanical voice intoned "Recognized: Darkshadow164, LU codename: AceFearsomeFang." The blue light shifted into the likeness of a large hand, everything around him became frozen in time, the large blue light cyclone/hand grabbed him, and Darkshadow164 was pulled into the computer.

In another part of the country, a boy logged on to the LMBs. His online epithet was Maniel6. Almost immediately, he noticed that the LU forums were back up! He happily clicked the link, but noticed that there was only one forum: "Click Me!", by Noboundaries. Maniel6 complied with the title, only for something strange to happen. A hurricane of blue light tore out of his computer screen, effectively slowing time to a halt. A mechanical voice thrummed, "Recognized: Maniel6, LU codename: DogWizard." The cerulean light deviated into the likeness of a giant hand, which grabbed Maniel6 and pulled him into the computer, and whichever regions lied beyond.

Chapter 1

My writing teacher always told me to start with a dramatic opener, so I guess I'll take her advice: The biggest adventure of my life started when I got sucked in to Lego Universe. Yeah, I know. Weird. It gets weirder still when the fact that the game closed about 2 months before said adventure comes into play. But I'm getting ahead of myself. My name is- wait. Nice try, but I'm not giving you that information. How about this: I'll go by my online name. My name is Worldracer99, and this is the story of how me, my little brothers, a few (thousand) friends, about 257 NPCs, and a mysterious force called the Chaotic Imagination saved the Lego Universe...

Chapter 2

Well, this whole adventure started in April 2012. I was in what my family calls the "Playroom." It's the room where the computer I use is, and it's also where I post on the LEGO Messageboards. I had just logged on, but then I noticed something REALLY weird: The LU forums were back up! I had to restrain myself from yelling with happiness. "Peanut4645, Thorstone14!" I called. Peanut and Thorstone were my little brothers in real life, and most of the time, we played as brothers in the RPGs on the LMBs. Since it was 2012, Thorstone was 7 years old, and Peanut was 10. I was 13. They ran over, wondering what happened. "The new Minifigs are out?" Thorstone yelled. "They're making LEGO Star Wars 4?" Peanut questioned. "No, and no," I said. "Even better! They might be bringing LU back!" I clicked on the forums, but was a bit disappointed when I saw there was only one forum, called "Click Me!" "I've never heard of this guy before," Peanut said. "Noboundaries." "Who cares?" I said. "LU is coming back!" I clicked on the link, and something extremely weird happened. A glowing blue light tore out of the computer screen, engulfing the three of us. "What in the world?" Peanut questioned. Everything around us had frozen. Then, a voice came from the computer, sounding eerily mechanical. "Recognized: Peanut4645, LU codename: ItchyIdeaThing," it droned. "Recognized: Thorstone14, LU codename: TurboGammaFormula. Recognized: Worldracer99, LU codename: DynamoMasterlyCobra." The blue light changed into what looked like like a giant hand, which grabbed us, and pulled all of us into the computer.

Chapter 3

I can tell you for a fact, getting sucked into the computer was weird. It felt like I was being pulled through a wall of Jell-O. Then, it felt like I was in free-fall, only sideways. And there were weird symbols and noises, and I was spinning, but not spinning at the same time. You know what, I'm doing a lousy job describing it, so I'll cut to the chase. Peanut, Thorstone and I appeared in what looked remarkably like the inside of the Venture Explorer from Lego Universe. The weird thing was, this whole place was exactly like LU! We were surrounded by thousands of minifigs, most of whom were panicking. And when I looked down, I noticed something very freaky: I was a minifig! And so were Peanut and Thorstone! Only, our names from back when we played LU jumped into my head. I was Dynamo, Peanut was Itchy, and Thorstone was Turbo. I was wearing what looked like Sorcerer gear, all Rank 1 except for the helmet, and I was wearing the Rank 2 shoulderpads. Itchy was wearing Rank 1 Engineer gear, except for the helmet and the wrench. Turbo was wearing Rank 1 Samurai gear. "Where are we?" Turbo asked. "I don't know, buddy," I said, "But I think we're in...Lego Universe." "Awesome!" Itchy yelled. "I'm gonna go smash something!" "Wait! We need to figure out what's going on," I said. I walked over to a random minifig, and Turbo and Itchy followed. It was a girl, wearing Rank 1 Engineer gear, but with Rank 2 shoulderpads, and a rank 2 Controller. "Do you know where we are?" I asked. "From the looks of it, Lego Universe," she said. "Look out the window." I did, and I saw the scariest thing I had ever seen. It was a huge vortex of purple energy with glowing white eyes. It seemed to stare right into me. Suddenly, a bolt of purple lightning shot out and struck the ship. The whole mass shuddered. "That's been happening for a few hours now," the girl said. "This ship's coming apart at the bolts. Hopefully, we'll all get out of here alive. The name's Funky, by the way." "I'm Dynamo, and these are my brothers, Turbo and Itchy." "Nice to meet the three of you. I think I saw some people head towards launch pads to Nimbus Station. Now let's get our bricks out of here..."

Chapter 4

As Funky, Itchy, Turbo and I ran towards the launch pads, I stopped for a second. "What are you doing?" Funky asked. "We need to make sure everyone gets off this thing. The Maelstrom's tearing this hunk of junk to bits." I turned around and yelled, "There are launch pads to Nimbus Station over here! If you want to save your lives, follow us!" A wave of minifigs charged for the launch pads. The four of us barely put our rockets on them before hundreds of other minifigs ran towards them. "It's a good thing these launch pads hold more than one rockets!" Itchy yelled. Our engines warmed up, and we blasted out of the rockets' launch doors, along with the thousands of minifigs on our tails.

Chapter 5

After a scenic ride (I was nearly sick over the side of my rocket. Who knew rocket rides could be so fast? And twisty?), we arrived in Nimbus Station. As we landed, Funky noticed my condition. "Are you OK, Dynamo? You look a little green." "Urk...I'm fine," I said. "Just fine." "Here! I found this in my backpack," Funky said, handing me a Notion Potion. I downed it, feeling my mind clear up, sort of like I had just taken a refreshing shower. This, I assumed, was my Imagination being refilled. "Tastes sort of like grape juice." I then noticed something. "Wait. We have our backpacks?" "Yeah!" Funky said. "Just imagine you're looking through a backpack in real life." I did, and I saw a black void, filled with the items, bricks, and models I had on LEGO Universe before it closed. Then, I got an idea. I looked through my backpack until I found what I wanted. I closed the backpack, and as soon as I did, a blue pawprint flashed in the air, and a bunch of bricks came together. It was my faithful pet cat, Josh. "Josh! Good to see you again, buddy!" I said as Josh rubbed up against my leg. Turbo also found one of his many pets (he was the kind of player who had to tame every pet he saw), a Robot Dog named Zoid. Zoid gave a bark that sounded more like a beep. "I know, Zoid, I missed you too," Turbo said. Suddenly, we all heard a loud crack. "Look!" Itchy yelled, pointing at the sky. We did, and we saw the remains of the ship we were on get blown to pieces in an explosion of purple fire. A large piece fell at my feet. It had the ship's name on it: the Venture Mako.

Chapter 6

"Wow," said Itchy. "The Venture Mako." "Maybe it's the sister ship to the Venture Explorer and the Venture Koi," I suggested. Suddenly, another swarm of minifigs nearly ran Funky, Itchy, Turbo and I over. "As if one frenzied mob coming within an inch of trampling us wasn't enough!" Funky yelled, barely avoiding a girl wearing Venture League gear. "I hear ya, Funky, I hear ya," I muttered. Just then, I saw a familiar face. Well, the familiar helmet covering a face I had never seen before. "Cog Blammo?" I asked, recognizing the girl who worked as the Paradox Vendor in Nimbus Station. (A/N: Yes, Cog Blammo is a girl. Look it up if you don't believe me.) "Dynamo? Good to see you again!" Cog said. "First of all, you're a girl?" Funky inquired. "Second of all, where's everyone going?" "First of all, that's what they all say, and yes I am," Cog said, with an irked look on her face. "Second of all, the Faction Leaders issued an emergency meeting. We all need to get to Nexus Tower. NOW."

Chapter 7

As our little group of four ran past Vertigo Loop and to the launch pad for Nexus Tower, Funky stopped running and reached into the void that functioned as her backpack. "What are you doing?" I asked. "I nearly forgot to let Terry out!" Funky replied. A blue pawprint flashed and a Terrier was built. Terry and Josh began eying each other suspiciously. Josh yowled at Terry at the precise moment Terry gave a loud bark. This caused them both to startle each other, so Terry jumped into Funky's arms, while Josh leaped onto my shoulders. Zoid watched the whole thing, amused. "Umm, guys? Nexus Tower? Emergency meeting? As in, now?" Turbo said. We started to race off again. After a mostly uneventful rocket ride, in which I managed to control my nausea, we arrived at Nexus Tower. We all walked in. Simply put, we were all awestruck. I never thought I would actually be in this place! Itchy, Funky, Turbo and I walked towards a large courtyard, surrounded by many other minifigs wearing all sorts of armor. Suddenly, a large silver dish flared a bright blue, and a hologram was constructed above it. It was Nexus Naomi, the helpful AI that guided people around the tower. "Hello, minifigs. Can I help you with anything? A path to a section of the tower? A guided tour? Some snacks, perhaps?" Naomi said. "Could you show us where the emergency meeting is?" Itchy asked. "Certainly." A row of holograms in the shape of the Nexus Force insignia appeared down the hall. We thanked Naomi and went to the conference room where the emergency meeting was being held...

Chapter 8

We all wandered into the conference room. It was like being in an arena, with jumbotrons all over the place, and a HUGE hologram generator in the middle of the whole thing, with four chairs around it. Four minifigs walked into the middle of the council room. They were Vanda Darkflame, Dr. Albert Overbuild, Hael Storm, and Duke "I don't know his first name" Exeter. Vanda took the microphone, and began speaking. "Minifigs of the Lego Universe, I know you are all wondering why we are back in LU, as it was closed a few months ago. All of the NPCs were wondering why we were back as well. But our leading scientist, Dr. Albert Overbuild has been working nonstop with the Sentinel leader, Duke Ellbrig Exeter to find the answers. He should be almost done." Vanda motioned to the Doc, who was rapidly typing on about 4 computers at the same time. A minifig in Space Marauder armor raised his hand. "Wait, all the NPCs knew they were just part of a game?" "Yes. We assumed that we'd all be put in a few zip files, never to be seen again," Vanda answered. Just then, Dr. O stood up. "I have reached a conclusion," He said, and activated the hologram generator...

Chapter 9

Dr. Overbuild activated the hologram generator, and a large map of the Universe appeared. "As you all know, Lego Universe was just a computer game to you. When it was closed, all the programming was inserted into a zip file. All the NPCs would be put into a state of hibernation, and all the players would do the same." The map of the Universe was squished to about an inch long, and transformed to look like a USB plug, which was inserted into a safe. "Thankfully, this would also mean we would be rid of the Maelstrom, which due to recent events, was shown to be untrue." Footage of the Venture Mako being blown to smithereens was shown. I cringed, thinking of what would happen if I had still been on it. "But something freed the Universe's coding from the zip file. That same something hacked into each of your computers on Earth somehow, linked them to the Universe, and used itself to act as a portal to here. What is this something?" Dr. Overbuild typed a few more commands on his computers, and the hologram generator began to assemble a new image. "Ladies and gentlefigs, may I introduce you to the Chaotic Imagination..."

Chapter 10

The hologram generator assembled an image of an Imagination Orb, with diagrams around it pointing to the orange thing at the center. You know, that orange pulsing core thingy? Anyhoo, Dr. Overbuild started to talk. "This orange center is Chaotic Imagination in one of its purest forms. Tell me something, all of you. Have you ever just felt like building something completely random, for no reason at all? You just felt like building it for the sake of building it?" Almost every hand in the room went up. "It is at these times that you feel the influence of the Chaotic Imagination. This is because, that at the heart of all creativity, there is a bit of randomness." A minifig wearing Rank 3 Engineer gear (that gear does seem to be popular) and holding a Serratorizer that appeared to be heavily modified, who was sitting next to me raised his hand, and Dr. Overbuild pointed to him. "How did this Chaotic Imagination come into existence, anyways?" he queried. The Doc got a faraway look in his eyes. "Mmm...well, that goes back to the story of how the Maelstrom was formed. You all know this story, as I'm sure." Dr. Overbuild sat down. "After Ellbrig, - er, Duke Exeter, as you all know him - Baron Typhonus, Hael and I found the Nexus, and the Baron corrupted it, we fled the planet before I could notice something: there was one bit of Imagination left untouched. The Maelstrom was trying to corrupt it, but it couldn't. All it could do was slightly alter its state and turn this bit of Imagination completely erratic. This became the Chaotic Imagination." The Doc typed on another computer, and an image of a minifig's silhouette, dripping with glowing orange energy, appeared as a hologram. "Today, the Chaotic Imagination emanates from an individual known only as the Chaos Soul. We have no idea who they are, or where they are, but they brought the Universe back. But now, we have to take arms against the Maelstrom. Who's ready for the battle?" The Doctor yelled. Every minifig in the audience roared their approval, with battle cries like "For the Universe!" or "Maelstrom no more!" or "Let's go smash us some Stromlings!" Actually, that last one came from Funky. "All right, then." Dr. Overbuild said, and he pressed a button labeled "For Desperate Situations Only"...

Chapter 11

A blue, opaque capsule closed around each minifig in the room. I heard a few screams, probably from claustrophobic minifigs, and I felt sorry for them. I mean, it was roomy, but still, if you were closed up in a random blue capsule, wouldn't you be freaked out? Anyways, various scanners and computer screens emerged on the walls and started to measure me, it looked like. Dr. Overbuild's voice came over a hidden speaker. "To make sure you are all prepared for the coming battle against the Maelstrom, and the hunt for the Chaos Soul, we are going to make sure you are properly equipped. I am giving you all an instant upgrade to Rank 3 gear. Unless you are already Rank 3, that is." A drawer came out of the side of the capsule. I looked in, and there it was: my Rank 3 Sorcerer gear, folded neatly around a Wand and an Orb. I slipped into the gear and put on the hat, which was a bit hard to get on because of the built in mask. "Also, we are giving you each a Valiant Weapon, which will be transferred to your vault for you to take out at your leisure," Dr. Overbuild continued. I picked up my wand and orb, and the capsule retracted. "Now that you are properly equipped, I'd like to ask that all minifigs go to their Faction HQ to get a briefing from your leader. After that, feel free to wander around the Tower. Dinner is at 6:45, and lights-out is at 9:15," Doc Overbuild continued. "You are dismissed." I told Funky, Itchy and Turbo to meet me at the Nexus after our meetings with the Faction Leaders, and I walked off to the Paradox Laboratory...

Chapter 12

Let me tell you for a fact, walking down the hallway to the Paradox Laboratory was not easy. There were hundreds of other minifigs in front of and behind me, and not all of them were in a good mood. Suddenly, I tripped over someone's foot, and that someone went down next to me. "Are you all right?" I asked as I stood up. I offered a hand to the minifig, but then I noticed who it was. It was Vanda Darkflame. Great, I thought. Of all the minifigs I could have accidentally tripped, I tripped the one who's a ninja and can probably smash me in a variety of extremely painful ways. Vanda knocked my hand aside. "I'm fine. Just be more careful next time." I've mentioned before that Vanda had a big secret, and here it is. I'm typing this where she won't be able to find me, so I'm safe. Here it comes...Vanda was only about my age. 13, maybe 14 at the most. It's hard to tell someone's age when they're a minifig, but I could tell from her voice, her manner, etc. Anyways, Vanda walked off, and I was glad I still had all my limbs attached. I eventually made my way to the teleporter. Traveling through it was NOT a pleasant experience. It was like I had been slowly, yet painlessly torn into pieces, had those pieces shot out of a cannon, and then reassembled in midair. Anyways, the meeting had just started when I walked in. Vanda had started talking. "Minifigs, Dr. Overbuild has requested I tell you about missions. Each day, a few minifigs will be selected for missions. There will be more than one mission each day, and if you aren't selected, you can just hang out around the tower or go to a different world to spend the day. That is all. Feel free to roam around the tower. Dismissed." I had to be amazed that someone only my age was commanding probably a few hundred minifigs. I know I couldn't do that. I walked out of the room, dreading the teleporters I'd have to travel through, and slowly made my way to the Nexus, where I was meeting my friends...

Chapter 13

I walked out of the Paradox Lab, still feeling a bit queasy from the teleporters, and headed toward the Nexus. As I stepped into the room, my mind was instantly refreshed by the aura coming from the Nexus. I never felt so creative, so clear-minded. I was standing next to something as old as the Universe itself. I slowly reached for it when I heard a voice behind me. "I wouldn' do that if I were yeh," Hael Storm said. I turned around and saw Hael standing there with his parrot on his shoulder, eying me suspiciously. "If yeh touched that, it'd probably dissolve your hand, what with the Nexus bein' so pure, lad," he said. "But on account of yeh workin' with ninjas, I don' think too many Venture Leaguers would mind. And that's if yeh're lucky. I shoved my hand into my pocket and made a fist. "And if I'm unlucky?" Hael smirked. "It would probably create a whole new Maelstrom. And the Paradox would be to blame." Hael walked off in the direction of the Venture League Map Room. "Maybe I'll see yeh again soon, lad. Until then." His parrot stared directly at me and flew back around. I'm pretty sure the thing whispered "Paradox!" in my ear. I leaned against the fence surrounding the Nexus, fuming about my encounter with Hael. "Stuck-up, arrogant jerk," I muttered. Just then, I heard another voice behind me. "I felt the same way the first time I met him, too." I turned around and saw that it was Vanda. "What are you doing by the Nexus, anyways?" "I'm just waiting for Funky, Itchy, and Turbo," I said. "There they are now!" "We just got out of our meetings," Turbo said. "How 'bout exploring the Tower?" "I'll come with you," Vanda said. Nobody objected and the four of us set out to wander Nexus Tower...

Chapter 14

After Turbo, Vanda, Funky, Itchy and I walked out of the Nexus chamber, we decided to head towards the Assembly area. We walked in, and Itchy told me to try out the Brick Warps. You know, those big tornado-type things with the bricks flying around in them? I was having some second thoughts about it. "Are you sure this is entirely safe?" "Perfectly! Now get in there!" Itchy said, and shoved me into one. I started spinning around insanely fast, hoping I wouldn't get my head taken off by a stray brick. Eventually, I was slammed onto the floor in front of a few vending stations. Funky and Itchy stepped out nimbly, but Turbo and Vanda fell on the floor about as ungracefully as I did. "I will never get used to those things," Vanda muttered. "I think my Creative Spark is about to fizzle out," I groaned. Just then, a minifig appeared and helped us out. "Are you guys OK?" he asked. "Urk...we're fine. Just fine," Vanda said. The other minifig tossed us a few Notion Potions. By this time, I was starting to get Deja Vu. "Alright then. By the way, my name's Mardor." It turned out to be the minifig from the emergency meeting with the modified Serratorizers. "Hey, you know what those things are, right?" he asked, pointing to a watch on my wrist. Turbo had one, too. "Umm...no." Turbo replied. Just then, a blue light flared, and a hologram of Nexus Naomi popped out of the watch. The same thing happened to other minifigs around the room. "It is now time for dinner, minifigs. Please proceed to the cafeteria now." A line of holograms in the shape of chicken legs appeared, and everyone started following them. "Consider it your PDA for the Universe. By the way, you might want to hit the 'Hide Battle Gear' button." We both did, and my Sorcerer gear was folded up into a necklace with a purple crystal on it. I was now wearing my normal clothes: a black polo shirt with blue jeans. "Now let's go get some dinner," Mardor said...

Chapter 15

Like so many other things in the Tower, the cafeteria was amazing. It was set up like a school cafeteria, was the size of the Great Hall in Hogwarts, and was probably designed by the guy who did the interior decorating for the Starship Enterprise. The six of us went in line and picked our food. I took a Chilly Freezesteak and a Paradox Power Potion. I took a bite of the sandwich and instantly found my new favorite food. I was finishing another huge bite when I noticed Vanda was making a disgusted face at something over my shoulder. "Vanda?" Funky nudged her. "What is it?" "Huh? Oh, nothing. You'll think I'm weird." Vanda took a nibble at her Bento Blocks. Funky gave her a weird look. "Fine," Vanda said. "It's that guy over at the other table. He's eating-" Vanda shuddered. "Yucki-Yaki! I've tried it once, and that stuff is nasty!" "It's not that bad once you get used to it," Mardor said, taking a bite of his BBQ Blast Hotdog. "Everyone's tastes are different."

A few hours later, and after exploring the tower some more, it was lights-out. I walked into the Paradox Boy's Dorm, and found that one of the beds had something folded up on it with a name tag that read "DynamoMasterlyCobra" on it. I unwrapped it, and it was some sleepwear: a sleeveless black shirt with the Paradox symbol on it, and gray pants. I changed into them, pondered about the mission tomorrow for a little bit, and went to sleep.

Chapter 16

I woke up the next morning, feeling extremely tired. I walked to the bathroom, showered, changed into my regular clothes, and shuffled out the door for breakfast. Not even the teleporters even woke me up. I walked into the cafeteria, grabbed a Frost Fruit, some Hot Chocolate, and Hardtack Biscuit toast. I slowly shambled over to the table where my friends were sitting, plunked down, and took a sip of my Hot Chocolate. "How was your sleep?" Mardor asked. "Trgnb. Myrr Mfrgl snrbl lfg Wrotfghlt ermm sgrted." I mumbled. Turbo gave me a weird stare. "What the bricks did you just say?" Funky started fiddling with her watch. "I'm pretty sure there's a translator in here," she said. "Got it!" Nexus Naomi appeared. "I think he said, 'Terrible. Meyer Muckrake snored like a Wormholer on steroids." Funky snapped her fingers. "I've got it!" She rushed off somewhere, and came back holding a Shock Fruit, which she placed in my hands instead of the Frost Fruit. I didn't even notice when I took a bite. I guess to most people, it would insanely sour, but to me, it was just tart enough to wake me up. "Thanks, Funky! I needed that," I said. Funky's eye twitched. "But how-" "Did I survive that?" I shrugged. "Back on Earth, I was always resistant to sour foods. I guess it carried over to the Universe." Just then, everyone's watch flared, and Nexus Naomi appeared. "Minifigs, report to the Conference Room. Missions are now being assigned..."

Chapter 17

We filed into the conference room and sat down. Dr. Overbuild fired up the hologram machine and started assigning missions. These people to Forbidden Valley, those to go to Gnarled Forest, you get the idea. Just then, the Doc said something that got my attention. "How many of you remember The Great Minifig Mission?" Almost every hand in the conference room went up. "Then you should all remember the Bradford Rant Institute of Cosmic Kinesis? The organization that studied the pods we sent to Earth?" Most people nodded. "Most people dismissed B.R.I.C.K. as fictional, but a select few knew that they were completely real, and created many inventions for the world. Most people thought that they were slightly crazy." "Sounds sort of like Aperture Science," I muttered to Funky. "Nerd," Funky replied. "Anyways, we have reason to believe that the Chaotic Imagination also transported the Main Office of B.R.I.C.K. from Earth, into the Universe. It is now believed to be somewhere under Avant Gardens." The images of several minifigs appeared on the screen. Mine was one of them. "We are sending FunkyCrazySpy, DynamoMasterlyCobra, YahoodaGuy, and Vanda Darkflame to search for the Main Office. Good luck to you all." I looked around, and found YahoodaGuy. He was a minifig wearing Rank 3 white Space Marauder armor. He nodded to me, and our team raced off for the launch pads...

Chapter 18

After we flew to Avant Gardens and brought out our battle gear, we had a small discussion between us. "So, what's the plan?" Funky questioned. "Look for anything out of the ordinary. A metal plate in the ground, some sort of symbol, anything." Vanda said. "And hope we don't get smashed in the process," Yahooda said. The four of us rushed out onto the battlefield. It was then that I had my first encounter with a Stromling. I sent out a pulse from my orb, but one jumped on me and tackled me to the ground. It was horrible. It had a blade for one hand, and it had a metal claw in place of a leg. Its eyes glowed red, and some of its bones were exposed. It looked like it was about to smash me, when a sword slammed through its chest, and it fell apart. Turned out that Vanda had just saved my bricks. I hollered a word of thanks to her, and rushed off to smash some other enemies. "Crucio!" I yelled, and shot a blast of energy from my wand at another Stromling. Funky gave me a weird look. "You know, the spell from Harry Potter?" "Seriously, dude," Funky said to me. "You are a huge nerd." "Yeah? What was your first clue?" I shot back. Just then, I noticed that Yahooda was in trouble. He was fighting a Stromling Mech, and he was seriously low on health. The Mech charged up a Plasma Shot, and I jumped in the way. The Plasma Shot hit me instead, and I discovered what it was like to be Smashed. It felt like I was actually hit like a laser bolt that blasted me to pieces. I would not recommend being hit by one. But then, a blast of Imagination brought my pieces swirling back together. I had been rebuilt in the Sentinel Base Camp, and I ran out to the battle field. Yahooda was standing in the wreckage of a Stromling Mech, and the moment he saw me, he ran over and punched me in the arm. "DUDE! I could have taken that thing myself!" I was about to yell back at him, when I heard Vanda yell. "Guys! I think I found the entrance!" We all ran over, and saw that she was brushing off a metal plate on the ground. The plate was emblazoned with the B.R.I.C.K. insignia, and on the side, there was a touch screen with numbers glowing on it. "Nice one, Vanda!" Funky said. "But...what's the code?" Vanda started punching in something on her watch. "Naomi, hack this thing," Vanda said, and held the watch up to the screen. The screen lit up, and the plate slid open...

Chapter 19

We all climbed down into the B.R.I.C.K. labs. It was creepy and completely deserted. Actually, I was having Deja Vu. This place reminded me of somewhere...somewhere I had been before...in a video game. "Hello and, again, welcome to the Aperture Science computer-aided enrichment center," I mumbled to myself. Funky gave me another weird look. "What was that?" "Nothing." We continued through the abandoned lab, and eventually walked into a huge main chamber. It had a post with signs on it, saying "Kitchens this way," "Infirmary that way," you get the idea. "Hang on a second!" Funky said and ran off in the direction of the kitchens. She came back holding a bowl. "Shock Fruit salad!" she proclaimed, and handed it to me. "Found it in one of the cryogenic freezers." I took a bite. "This is great, Funky! Thanks!" Funky clenched her fist, and was probably about to threaten me, when a bunch of Stromlings blasted through the wall. We started to smash them, when a Stromling Admiral Elite ran in. "What the brick is an Elite Admiral doing in Avant?" Yahooda guy questioned, and shot at the enemy. He missed. "No clue. Smash now, talk later!" Vanda yelled. She drew her sword, sliced its anchor/arm thing off, and hit it over the head with it, effectively smashing it. We all stood there, prepared for anymore enemies that came, when suddenly a large, robotic shape descended from the ceiling. "GAHHH! It's GLaDOS!" I yelled. Funky smacked me upside the head. "Jeez, Dynamo! Stop being such a nerd!" Just then, a minifig wearing Rank 3 Inventor armor fell from the large robotic shape. We rushed over to find out who it was. Vanda pointed a katana at him. "Who are you?" "Take it easy! My name is KindUsefulStew." "Yeah, and how did you get here?" Kind relayed his incidents to us. It turned out that he had been sucked into LU like the rest of us, only he was a little late. He had ended up being warped to here instead of to the Venture Mako, which was probably a good thing. "I overheard some Stromlings talking about the plan in Avant Gardens," Kind said. "Trust me, it's not good..."

Chapter 20

"I think they're planning something in The Monument," Kind said. "I'm not exactly sure what it is, but I heard something about using B.R.I.C.K. technology. Some sort of doohickey called Atom Manipulation Reactors," Kind said. "Atom whats?" Funky said. Vanda started typing on her watch. "I'll try to get in contact with the Doc. Hopefully he'll have some idea of what that tech is." While Vanda was trying to text, or e-mail, or whatever the brick she was doing, we found out the rest of Kind's story, and we told him how LU came back. After LU had closed, he had completely forgotten about it. Until he found the LU forums back up. He was a day later than everyone else, though. The Chaos Soul transported him, and he ended up in the B.R.I.C.K. labs, inside the giant robotic thing, which was supposed to be an emergency capsule in case anything got out of control. "Got it!" Vanda said. "Doc Overbuild says that the Atom Manipulation Reactors were an invention that B.R.I.C.K. sold. They would link up to the atoms of whatever they were placed on, allowing the user to move, shrink, destroy, even control the object. Eventually, they were recalled, on account of people using them for the wrong purposes. Plus, they could be extremely dangerous if not properly maintained." "Sort of like Repulsion Gel! Like in Portal!" I said brightly. This time, Funky and Vanda smacked me upside the head, Yahooda punched me in the arm, and Kind stood by with a weird look on his face. "STOP BEING SUCH A NERD!" Funky and Yahooda roared. "Half the time I don't even know what you're talking about, Dynamo, and it's quite irritating!" Vanda said. "OK, OK," I muttered, feeling a bit dejected. I rubbed my head, hoping that people would stop injuring me. "Umm...did I miss something?" Kind said.

Chapter 21

"So, the Stromlings are planning something near the Monument with the Atom Manipulation Reactors? That can't be good," Kind said. "But what exactly are they planning?" Yahooda murmured. Just then, there was a huge rumble from above. "What the brick was that?" I questioned. "Sounds like it came from the monument!" Vanda said. "I guess we know what the Stromlings are doing now." She dashed over to a computer console and started typing. "I've got a view of the Monument." She gasped. "This is not good." We ran over, and saw something terrible. The Monument slowly broke out of place and started WALKING in the general direction of the Sentinel Base Camp. "If that thing gets to the Base Camp, the Nexus Force will be run out of Avant Gardens!" Funky said. "We can't take that thing down with our normal weapons," I said. "There are a lot of old gizmos around here," Kind said. "Most of them need to be repaired, though." "Alright then!" Funky said. "Let's reconstruct some science!" "HA! You just quoted a video game!" I triumphantly said. Funky smacked herself in the forehead.

After a little while, we had some patched up, highly experimental (plus extremely likely to blow up) weapons. Vanda had some sort of sword that charged with plasma energy, Kind had a mace that looked like it had been cobbled together with pieces of GLaDOS (Funky's watching me type this. Now she's yelling at me that I'm a complete nerd. Yeah Funky, what tipped you off?), and Yahooda had a boomerang that triggered explosions. Funky was holding a large spiked hammer that was humming with electricity, and I had what looked like an AK-47 with multiple scopes, about 7 barrels, and a chainsaw blade duct-taped to the bottom. "Science is fun!" Funky said. "HA! You quoted a video game again!" I yelled. Funky gave me a venomous glare. "Let's go take this thing down!" Kind said. "I saw an elevator somewhere, so let's go..."

Chapter 22

As we took the 3-minute ride in the elevator, we had time to discuss our plans. "So, once we get up there, what are we supposed to do?" I asked. "Take out the Stromlings that are swarming all over the monument, find the one with the Atom Manipulation Reactors, take him out, and avoid getting Smashed or Infected," Vanda said. The elevator dinged, and the doors slid open. "Let's go!" We rushed out the door, and it turned out we were next to Rusty Steele. He pointed us in the direction of the now-sentient Monument. "You guys aren't gonna get up there just by climbing," Rusty said. "Ya need grappling hooks!" He handed us what looked like pistols with small grappling hooks sticking out the front, and we rushed off in the direction of the Monument.

Once we got there, we saw that many other minifigs were jumping all over the monument with their grappling hooks. We all climbed up, and prepared to do battle with the Stromlings. I climbed up towards its shoulder, and used Maelstrom Breath on a Stromling, setting him on fire. Just then, I heard a beeping noise behind me, and I turned around to see a Stromling Mech charging at me! It was going to knock me off the Monument...

Chapter 23

As the Mech charged at me, I pulled out the laser-gun-whatchamadoodad that I had picked up in the B.R.I.C.K. labs, randomly spun a wheel labeled "Functions," and fired at the Mech. A bolt of green light shot out at it, and the Mech was turned into a stud, which was sucked up into the gun. "Whoa, snap," I mumbled to myself. Just then, I noticed a Stromling who had shot a grappling hook across, and was tightrope walking towards me. I shot the gun at him...and instead of turning him into a stud, the Mech-stud fired out at him. It hit him in the face and sent him plummeting to his doom. Just then, I saw Yahooda fighting a Chainsaw Stromling (who knows how the thing got out of AG Survival). The Chainsaw Stromling took a swipe at Yahooda, who dodged it. Unfortunately, dodging it sent him off the Monument. I cycled through the wheel, looking for something that could save him. Just then, I found what I thought was a tractor beam. Either that, or it was going to shoot an actual tractor at him. I fired it, and a red light grabbed Yahooda, pulling him back up. "Thanks, pal. I owe you one." Yahooda shook my hand, smiled (at least I think he did. Hard to tell with his Space Marauder helmet.), and dashed off to fight some more enemies. Just then, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around, and saw a Stromling Invader (no clue how it got off Crux Prime). It gave what could only be described as an evil grin, and sliced at my arm with its sword. A purple scratch appeared, and the Maelstrom energy started spreading throughout my body. I doubled over in horrible pain. Weird as it sounds, I felt my hair turning into the swirly-hairdo-thing that most Stromlings have. Soon, I would be completely infected...

Chapter 24

Just then, as I thought I was going to become the newest addition to the Maelstrom's endless hoards, I felt something ram through my chest. I looked down, and it was a glowing orange sword blade. All the Maelstrom energy in my body was instantly vaporized, and the sword was pulled out. Turned out that it was Vanda, holding a glowing orange katana. "I had the Doc forge one for me made of pure Chaotic Imagination. The stuff pretty much obliterates Maelstrom Energy." "Then why don't we use it to disinfect all the Stromlings? Brick, why don't we just drop a bomb full of the stuff into the Maelstrom?" I questioned. "There are plenty of reasons why not. I'll tell you when we get back to the Tower. Hold on a second." She casually sliced at a Stromling Pirate. "The team will talk after the mission." Vanda jumped down to smash some more enemies. I started to look around for the Stromling with the Atom Manipulation Reactors, while at the same time fiddling with my weapon from B.R.I.C.K. It was fiddling with the laser-gun-multitool thing that led me to one of the greatest moments of my life. I had found another setting on it. I shot it at the monument, and a glowing blue patch of light appeared. No way, I thought. It couldn't be... I shot it again, right next to the blue patch of light. This time, an orange one appeared, and they both opened up. I stuck my arm through one, and it came out the other. "I have a portal gun," I whispered to myself. "I HAVE A PORTAL GUN!" I shot one on the ground, then another one next to it, and jumped down. Once I traveled through one, I shot out the other like a rocket. Just then, I landed on the Monument's head, when I noticed something strange...

Chapter 25

"Guys! I think there's something up here!" I yelled down to my team members. They all grappled to the top. "These grapple guns are pretty epic," Kind mused, flipping it over in his hand. "That's not the point," Yahooda said. "What is it, Dynamo?" "Look. This panel right here is loose." I tapped on it with the tip of my gun. "And from the sounds of it, hollow." "Stand aside." Vanda stabbed through the metal plate, then kicked it. We all jumped in and saw the enemy controlling the Monument...the one who was causing all the damage to Avant Gardens...it was...a regular old Stromling. And not too brave from the fact that he hid behind the chair. "So...what should we do with this guy?" Funky asked. Vanda gave an evil grin.

Back on the ground, a random minifig in Bat Lord armor was running to a vendor to get a few Notion Potions for later in battle. Suddenly, he saw a shadow on the ground. A random Stromling fell from the sky, and smashed upon impact with the ground. Man, this place just keeps getting weirder and weirder, the Bat Lord thought.

Back up in the Monument, Funky was inspecting the Atom Manipulation Reactors. They were pretty much gloves, sandals, and a headpiece with goggles, all of which had various wires protruding into the metal that the monument was made up of. "I think I can get the hang of this!" she said. Funky slipped into the various pieces of the AMRs. She then slowly guided the Monument back to where it once stood.

A few hours (and many smashed Stromlings, courtesy of the hidden missile systems that had been built into the Monument. Rusty Steele is a genius!) later, we all walked away from the Monument. It was about 12:30, and we were going to head back to Nexus Tower. "So, why exactly won't Chaotic Imagination work on Stromlings and other infected things, anyways? And why can't we just drop a Chaotic Imagination Bomb in the Maelstrom, anyways?" I asked Vanda. "The Chaotic Imagination is...well, chaotic. For some reason, it only works on living things, so it would be ineffective against Mechs, Ronin, and the like. Plus, it only affects living things that aren't fully infected yet. Also, a bomb wouldn't work because it would have to be INCREDIBLY precise. If we were off by even just one micrometer, it wouldn't work. There would still be traces of Maelstrom energy left, and that would be enough to regenerate itself." Vanda replied. "Now, let's get back to the tower." We all walked back towards the launch pads, ready to head back to the tower and relax.

Chapter 26

We all landed back at the Tower, when Vanda stopped us. "Just so you guys know, standard procedure is for all the people on the mission to give a debriefing in front of the Faction Leaders once they're done," she said. "It'll take place in the conference room." She looked at Kind. "I think Kind should go too. He was found on the mission, and helped us out."

A few minutes later we sat in the conference room in front of Duke Exeter, Dr. Overbuild, and Hael Storm. "So, what the five of yeh are sayin' is that the Stromlings got some sort o' Atomic Manipulator doodads, started to control the Monument, and yeh stopped it with doohickeys you built yourselves?" Hael said. It was obvious he wasn't the brightest bulb in the box when it came to technology. "Strange as it seems, yes." Vanda said. It was obvious that she was going to blow a fuse if Hael kept being a jerk. "Well, the important part is, you saved our bricks in Avant Gardens," the Doc said. "This debriefing is over." --- As I walked down the hallway to the Tower Library, Funky stopped me. "I had Mardor cook this up for me. There's a chemical in Shock Fruit that makes it so sour. Pure extract of that chemical is known to be one of the sourest things in the Universe." She held up a thirst quencher. "He put it in this." I took it from her and took a sip. "Pretty good, Funky! Thanks!" I started walking away. "You could probably make a fortune selling this stuff." I could tell that Funky was not amused. Why, you ask? Among many other reasons, I could tell by the Massive Firecracker that she threw at my feet.

Chapter 27

After reading for a bit in the library, I decided to go down for some lunch. I got myself a Big Fountain Soda and what I thought was a Chilly Freezesteak. Little did I know that what it would do was set off a cataclysmic war that would shake the tower for years to come...OK, maybe not years, but at least a few weeks. Anyhoo, I sat down at a table with Kind, Mardor, Vanda, Funky, Turbo, and Itchy (they were big tables). Funky and Vanda both had oddly smug looks on their faces. I took a bite of my Chilly Freezesteak, and nearly spat it out! It was horribly putrid, and it was all I could do to gulp down my Big Fountain Soda. "What the brick was that?!" I sputtered. Vanda and Funky high-fived each other and laughed. "Funky told me about her whole quest to find something too sour for you. We decided that we'd never find anything that would beat you, so we settled on swapping your Chilly Freezesteak with a Stinky Fish Sandwich." I took another huge gulp of my soda and glared. Little did they know that this would begin a turn of events that I call the Epic Prank War of Nexus Tower...

Chapter 28

Later that day, I had set up a prank for Funky to fall into. It was rather simple: a bucket full of Yucki-Yaki, linked up to a pressure plate in front of the Assembly Storeroom, set to drop when someone stepped on it. After I set it up, I hid somewhere in the shadows, watching the door. Just then, I saw someone about to step on the pressure plate: Vanda Darkflame. Oh, brick no!! I thought. Vanda stepped on it...and the bucket dumped on her. She saw me in the shadows, and drew her Katana. "You had better run. Fast." she said. I did exactly that.

After a long and extremely one-sided chase around the Tower, I was cornered in front of a Paradox Teleporter. It looked a bit messed up, and it was sparking. I had no choice but to jump in, and when I did, I ended up in the worst possible place in the entire Universe to be...the Venture League Girl's Dorm. Everyone was staring at me, and one pointed a Slitherstriker at my face. "What the brick are you doing in here?!" She yelled. I gulped. "It's kind of a long story. I'm going to start running now. As fast as I can." I did just that, thinking Why does everything happen to me????

After another long and extremely one-sided chase around the Tower, I had no choice: I had to go to the Ninjago Monastery. I threw a couple Flash Bangs to shake them off, hopped in my rocket, and went to the Ninjago Monastery...

Chapter 29

A few minutes later, I had landed at the Ninjago Monastery. I ran over the bridge, into the little side door, and up to Sensei Wu. "Sensei...angry Venture League girls...in danger...need to camp out at the Monastery for a day or two." I panted, out of breath. "Umm...alright. Do your friends at the tower know where you are?" Sensei asked. Just then, my watch chimed. "That'll be them now," I replied. I opened up the video message feature, and Itchy appeared. "Dude, where are you?" he asked. "Is Vanda there?" I replied warily. "No, I think she's in the library," Itchy said. "Great. I'm at the Ninjago Monastery." Just then, I saw someone in the background. It was Vanda. "Itchy, who are you talking to?" I guess she noticed me on Itchy's watch. How can I tell, you ask? "Is that Dynamo? WHAT THE BRICK WERE YOU THINKING?!?! I'M GOING TO SMASH YOU, YOU LITTLE-" I turned the watch off before the threats could get any more painful-sounding. Sensei watched me with a slightly amused expression on his face. "So, can I stay here for a day or two?" I asked. "It's fine with me. I think there's an empty bedroom in the Dojo of Ice. Plus, I think Zane could use a little extra help." I raced off for the Ice Dojo, ready to help out.

I met Zane in the Dojo. The poor guy was being mobbed by minifigs who wanted to start their training for Ice Spinjitzu. Just then, I remembered the first mission that Zane sent you on to start Ice training. "HEY, EVERYONE! ZANE WANTS YOU TO FIND A DRAGON MASK IN THE CAVE OF BLACK ECHOES!" For the third time in my stay in the Lego Universe, I was nearly trampled by a large mob. "Thank you, friend. They will be back soon." Zane gave me a funny look. "I haven't seen you before. Have I trained you in the way of Ice yet?" "Nope. My game time ran out before you could. Sensei sent me to help you out. The name's Dynamo, by the way." Zane smiled. "I'm Zane. Thank you for your help. In return, I guess I could teach you Ice Spinjitzu..."

Chapter 30

"I think I have some spare Ice Ninja clothes," Zane said. He slid open a panel in the floor and took out the Hood, Gi, and Pants of Frost. "The changing room's back there." I ran in, switched into my new Ice Spinjitzu gear, and came back out. "Great! Now all you need are the Shurikens of Ice." Zane slid open another panel in the floor...and took out the Shurikens of Ice and handed them to me. "Wait a second," I said. I looked to the Shurikens Zane was holding, then at the ones he gave to me, and then back at Zane. "How...?" "You thought we gave the Golden Weapons away to normal minifigs?" Zane questioned. I nodded. "Nope. Kai, Cole, Jay and I have the original four weapons, but Sensei owns a huge factory underground that mass-produces replicas with their exact powers." "Ohh..." I said, feeling a bit surprised. Just then, Kai ran in. "Zane, the Monastery is under attack!" he yelled. "Umm...yes. Yes it is. It has been since September 20th. You know, the day it was released?" Zane said. Kai smacked himself in the forehead. "No! The Skulkin managed to get out of the Battlefield, and now they're working their way into the Monastery! Kodo and Podo can hold them off, but I'm not sure for how long. Sensei already sent out a distress signal," Kai said. Just then, a wall blasted open in a Maelstrom explosion, and various bones went flying around. "You fools! Didn't I tell you NOT to hold the Maelstrom Bombs after they were lit?" a Skeleton Overseer yelled. Just then, he noticed me, Kai, and Zane. "It's just one Overseer," I said. "We can take him." "The Ninja! Get them!" the random Overseer (who I will now call Ricky for convenience) screamed. A huge group of Skulkin marched into the room...

Chapter 31

I can tell you for a fact, Zane and Kai didn't waste any time jumping into battle. Kai lit his sword up with fire, and Zane started flinging Shuriken at the Skulkin. "Time to test these things out," I muttered, looking at my Shuriken. I focused my energy into them, and they started glowing with energy. "Ninjago!!!" I yelled, spinning around and turning into a swirling ice vortex. It was pretty weird. You know those videos that they take from inside a tornado that you see on TV? It was like that, only the tornado was made of ice. Anyways, I darted around the room, destroying skeletons. At one point, my tornado sucked up Ricky the Skeleton Overseer. Let me tell you, being inside a tornado of ice with a skeleton named Ricky is not a pleasant experience. I kept worrying that his axe was going to come around and hit me in the face, but the speed of the twister eventually dismantled him and spat his pieces out the top. I stopped my Spinjitzu attack to recharge on Imagination, when I realized that the three of us had smashed all of the skeletons. Just then, Jay ran in. "Guys! The reinforcements from the Nexus Force are here!" We all ran outside, smashing a few stray Skulkin along the way. Crossing the bridge were our reinforcements. It was Funky, Mardor, two minifigs who I didn't recognize, and-oh, great. Vanda. And she was probably still ticked off at me. Vanda saw me, and started running at me. It was all the others could do to keep up. I gulped, hoping the pain wouldn't last too long. "Umm...t-take it easy, Vanda. We're all friends here, right? Right?" Evidently, I was wrong. I found myself tied up, hanging off the bridge that led to the Monastery. A few skeletons were taking swipes at my feet. "Hey! Pull me up!" I yelled. "Promise never to pull a stunt like that again! And count me out of this prank war!" Vanda shouted back. "Alright! I'm sorry!" I pleaded. Vanda pulled me back up. "These are Sharpie and Jetman567," Mardor said. They were both wearing Rank 3 gear, probably from when the Doc upgraded everyone, and the only way to tell them apart was their armor color. Sharpie was wearing the green armor, and Jetman was wearing the blue version. I introduced myself to them, when suddenly, an army of Skulkin started climbing up the bridge...

Chapter 32

We wasted no time obliterating the Skulkin. Sharpie and Jetman both used Fire Extinguisher, and Vanda and Mardor both came in to slice the frozen Skeletons. I held a few stragglers back by throwing Shuriken at them. "How are these guys getting up here?" Sharpie yelled. "They're probably using ladders, or maybe bouncers or jetpacks," Vanda replied. A Skeleton Commando put her in a headlock, but she did some sort of ninja death-jutsu flip and chucked him off the bridge.

Meanwhile, down in the Battlefield, a Bat Lord (remember him? From the AG mission?) was valiantly holding off a bunch of Skulkin. Suddenly, a random Skeleton Commando flew out of the sky and shattered right next to him. "What the brick is going on?!" he yelled.

We had taken out the Skeletons on the bridge, when Mardor noticed something wasn't right. "Something's not right." Yes, Mardor. Thank you for repeating what I just said. "What do you mean?" I asked. "That beeping noise. It was never there in the game." We started looking around the bridge, when we saw about 5 Maelstrom time bombs! "Brace yourselves!" Vanda yelled. We all curled up into defensive positions, and the world around us exploded. Purple blasts of fire flew everywhere. The shockwave sent us all flying, and drained a lot of our Imagination.

When I groggily sat up in the middle of the Battlefield, I was surrounded by a group of Skeletons. I started running for it, hoping I could shake them off. Just then, I ran into something: a Skeleton Shield. Just then, I remembered something. It was a defense mechanism I had used often when the game was still online. I threw a few Shuriken at the shield, smashed it, and rebuilt it into an Archery Target. The skeletons ran at me...and were instantly turned into living pincushions by a barrage of Imagination Arrows. The Arrows, on the other hand, refreshed me quite well. Just then, Zane ran up to me. "Dynamo! Gather your friends! Sensei's been kidnapped..."

Chapter 33

After I found Funky, Mardor, Sharpie, Vanda, and Jetman, we had Zane give us the details. "He was holding off a group of Skulkin when a Mad Scientist came in. He had some sort of upgraded version of a normal Maelstrom Laser. He blasted Sensei with it, knocked him unconscious, and they all hid him somewhere. Trouble is, we don't know where." "Weird...anyone have any ideas?" Funky said. "How about getting Cole, Kai, and Jay to help us out," I suggested. Just then, Cole popped out of a nearby Earth Lantern, and Kai and Jay jumped down from the bridge. "We saw Sensei get taken into some sort of underground tunnel next to the Monastery," Jay said. "We'll take you there."

A few minutes later, we were standing by a stone plate with a picture of a skull on it. "How did we miss that?" Kai muttered. "More importantly, how are we going to get in?" Cole added. Vanda stood over it, and placed something on the stone. "We should run now." "Why? What did you put on it?" I asked. "A Big One." "A big one what?" "No, an actual Big One! Run!" We all did, and a huge explosion pretty much vaporized the stone plate. If my misunderstandings had continued any longer, we would all be piles of spare bricks right now. We looked in the tunnel to get an idea of what we would have to face. The tunnel was dark, damp, and cold. Strange noises came from it. None of us were exactly eager to go in. "Umm...ladies first." Kai said. "Wimp," Vanda replied before descending into the tunnel, soon followed by the rest of us...

Chapter 34

Trust me, the tunnel was freaky. It was pitch dark, except for the glow coming from our various weapons, and even that wasn't too bright. The walls were slimy. Freezing cold water dripped from the ceiling. And occasionally, we heard weird scuttling noises. Anyways, after a few minutes of trekking through the tunnel (ooh, alliteration!), we emerged into a large cavern, lit by Maelstrom torches. Sensei was in a bone cage suspended from the ceiling. "Don't come any closer! It's a..." We ran forwards, and a bunch of Skulkin descended from the ceiling on grappling hooks. Sensei facepalmed himself. "...trap."

A few minutes later, we were all sitting in the cage. The golden weapons (and my replica) had been confiscated, and we were pretty much just sitting around. "I tried to warn you, didn't I?" Sensei Wu said. "We apologize Sensei," Zane said. "We just wanted to help you out." Just then, a skeleton Pit Boss came in (no clue how he got off Crux) and a Skeleton Trooper came in. "Now that we have the Four Weapons, Lord Garmadon can finally rule Lego Universe," the Pit Boss gloated. "Garmadon's never gonna take over!" Kai yelled. "Only the truly worthy can wield the weapons!" "Oh? Then, perhaps a small demonstration might suffice," the Pit Boss (You know what? I'm going to call him Rupert to make it easier for everyone. And the Trooper is going to be called Marty.) Anyways, Rupert arranged the weapons so that they were all pointing at each other. They started to glow...and nothing happened. "What?! Why aren't they working?!" Rupert yelled. He looked up at us. "Tell me how to use the Golden Weapons!" he shouted. We stayed silent. "Hmmm...I think I know how to make you talk," Rupert said. He walked over to a control panel on the wall and pulled a lever. The floor opened up, and it revealed clusters of spinning blades. With a lurch, the cage started descending. "But...won't their Creative Sparks just rebuild them?" Marty questioned. "We'll just put their Sparks in Maelstrom-laced Bottles," Rupert replied. Vanda gave a small gasp and clenched her fist. "Enjoy your stay," Rupert laughed, and walked out. The cage descended a bit more...

Chapter 35

The cage was slowly descending into the blade pit. "If anyone has any ideas, now's the time to share them!" Cole yelled. "I have one!" Vanda replied. By now, the bottom of the cage was starting to get sliced up by the spinning blades. "Mardor! Funky! You have your Engineer Controllers on you, right?" Vanda shouted. They both nodded in reply. "Use it to magnetize the control panel! With any luck, it'll stop the cage from lowering and shut down the blades." Mardor and Funky pressed a button on their Controllers, and the control panel sparked and gave a noise like a dying possum. The cage stopped moving, and the blades slowly ground to a halt. The good news was, we were safe. The bad news was...well, we weren't entirely safe. The magnetic field that Mardor and Funky created was so strong that it started pulling the blades up with it. They sliced the rest of the cage to smithereens, but they nearly also sliced us! We barely avoided them while jumping to the ground. "Guys! TURN OFF THE MAGNETISM!!!" Jay yelled, ducking a blade. "We can't! It has to wear off by itself!" Funky replied, jumping over another blade. Just then, all the other blades clattered to the ground. "Let's get out of this dump," I said. Just then, Rupert came back in. "What? Escaped?!?! Guards! Prisoners on the loose! GUUUAAAAAAA-" "Can it," Sharpie said, and (...) smashed Rupert to bits. But, it was too late. The guards started chasing after us. We made it out onto the Ninjago Battlefield, but the guards started climbing up after us. Cole stopped them by using the Scythe to drop a big huge boulder onto the entrance to the Skulkin Stronghold. "Well...that was an adventure," Sensei said. We all agreed. "Thank you all for saving me. I guess you can all go back to the Tower now," Sensei continued. We thanked him, and started to walk off when Kai realized something. "Wait! where are the Weapons?" "I grabbed them on the way out," Jetman said, pulling them out of his inventory. "And here are your Shuriken, Dynamo." He handed them to me. "Thanks, dude," I said. We all walked out of the Monastery and over the bridge. I had forgotten about one crucial thing, though...

After we got back to the Tower, I saw the crucial thing I had forgotten: the hoard of ticked-off Venture League girls. And they weren't happy. "Umm...guys? Little help here?" I said to my friends. "Trust me, dude. The one unstoppable force in the Universe is a hoard of ticked-off Venture League girls. I would totally help you, but I'd probably lose at least one of my limbs in the process," Sharpie explained. "Plus, I sort of want to see what happens." "Great. Good to know you have support from your friends," I muttered. I started running, but I guess they caught up, eventually. The details are fuzzy, but I woke up with a black eye...duct-taped to a computer in the Sentinel War Room.

Chapter 36

And now it's time for another edition of Worldracer's Whacked Out Dreams! I have some weird dreams, so I decided to post the ones about LU in the author's notes. If you don't like it, just let me know. Anyways, a few nights ago, I had this seriously weird one. Vanda wanted me to move her living room furniture so she could drive her motorcycle through the room. Afterwards, I was trampled by a random crowd of minifigs. After that, I was trampled by a random crowd of dragons. After that, Hael launched into a tangent about how he and Dwayne Johnson saved a movie theater from a giant iguana. Yeah. I know. Whacked out. Anyhoo, back to the story!

So, we had finished breakfast and we were all in the conference room. The Doc was handing out missions, when he came to me and some others. "Lately, there has been a strange surge of Maelstrom activity at Dragonmaw Chasm and other parts of Forbidden Valley. This is strange, as the Maelstrom levels have spiked in a most unusual manner. We need DynamoMasterlyCobra, RareSpiffyAgent, ItchyIdeaThing, Mardor, and Vanda," Dr. O. said. I saw Vanda look down when her name was called. "You may leave the conference room," the Doc said. I started to leave, but then Vanda started to head back to the Doc. I gave her a weird look. "You can go on," she said. "I'll catch up." I shrugged, and started to walk off. Vanda was in a nearby corridor, talking to Dr. Overbuild. I didn't hear much of their whispered conversation, but I thought I heard "hard for you," and "your parents." Not wanting to cause any problems, I started walking for the launch pad.

Chapter 37

So, we all landed at Forbidden Valley. I can tell you for a fact, the place was HUGE! You know that feeling of awe you get when you first go to the Grand Canyon and look over the edge? Actually, I've never been to the Grand Canyon, but I think the feeling I'm describing is akin to the feeling I got at Forbidden Valley. "Let's check out Dragonmaw Chasm," Rare said. He was a Space Marauder, wearing Rank 3 Gear, probably from the upgrade that the Doc gave us. "I haven't raced there in a while, and I could use a challenge." We all started hopping over the precarious floating rock structures. I noticed Itchy rooting around in his backpack for something. Trust me, you should not root around in your backpack for something while jumping across giant rocks that are floating above a bottomless pit of death. We found that out for ourselves. Itchy jumped (while still looking for whatever he wanted), but when he landed, he tripped on a rock. He nearly fell over the edge, and something spilled out of the portal to the void that stored all our items. He managed to close it before much else spilled out. We all jumped over to make sure he was OK. "Umm...what fell over the edge?" Vanda asked. Itchy mumbled something. "What was that?" Mardor asked. "My entire supply of Flash Bangs, Boom Trap Kits and Firecrackers," he said. We all gave him mortified looks. Knowing Itchy, that was going to be a huge amount of explosives. "Did I mention that some of those Firecrackers were Massive?" he said. Just then, a huge explosion rocked the bottom of the boulders (no pun intended), and the floating stones started to collapse...

Chapter 38

We noticed a flash of light from where the firecrackers fell over the side. Just then, the rocks started to collapse, and we went into free-fall. "Guys! I have an idea!" I shouted. "Great! We needed one! BECAUSE WE'RE ALL GOING TO SMASH ON THE LASER NETWORK SOON!" Vanda yelled. "Laser network?!" Rare screamed. "Hello? MY IDEA?!?!?!" I bellowed. "Right! What is it?" Mardor said. I tossed everyone Quicksicles, and kept one for myself. "I saw them do this in a Ninja movie once!" I said. I ate the Quicksicle and started running up the falling pieces of rock. Vanda, Mardor, Rare, Turbo, and Itchy soon followed. We climbed up and eventually appeared at the end of the pathway. "Laser network?" Rare asked once again. "Yup. We couldn't just let poor minifigs who fell over the edge spend the rest of their life in free-fall. We installed the laser network so that their Creative Sparks could bring them back," Vanda explained. "Seriously, dude? How many explosives did you have in there?" I asked Itchy. "A lot." I glared at him. "What? I can't resist my pyromaniacal nature," he replied. "Let's get to the raceway," Mardor said, and we set off...

Chapter 39

After we got to Mantis Rock, we took a Bouncer and headed for Dragonmaw Chasm. As we walked in, Zip Lash was standing there, being his usual hyperactive self. "Guys, you might want to be careful in there. Maelstrom energy levels are off the charts!" he warned us. "We'll be fine," Vanda said, and pulled out her car: a custom Blindsider. I pulled out mine: a sleek blue Hyperstarter. Itchy and Turbo's cars were the same, only red and yellow, respectively. Mardor and Rare pulled out their cars and placed them on the race track, and we all took off...

Chapter 40

So, we had just jumped onto the racetrack, and we took off down a rickety wooden boardwalk that twisted and turned throughout Forbidden Valley. I had a lead at first, but then Vanda rushed ahead, Imagination Boosters roaring. I was about to catch up, but then the boardwalk dropped out, and we all fell into a huge dragon nest. Itchy nearly landed on me, but I swerved out of the way. Just then, the mama dragon jumped down from a ledge and smashed onto Vanda's car, crushing it to spare bricks! Luckily, she rebuilt a little ways behind me. "That's not supposed to happen!" she yelled. "We put a radio collar on her so that she could be restrained. All that the dragon would do is look menacing!" We came to the exit of the Maelstrom Dragon nest and started heading for the next leg of the race: under the Paradox Refinery. Just then, a rock pillar began to fall! It was going to smash my car...

Chapter 41

The good news was that the rock pillar didn't crush me, since I put on an extra burst of speed. The bad news was that it decimated the back of my car. I tried to gain control, but I ran into the wall and was blasted to pieces. I soon caught up with the rest of the group. "OK, is anyone else noticing how wacked out this place is getting?" I asked. "Yup. Hopefully, we'll find where all the Maelstrom Energy is coming from," Mardor replied. We rushed into the tunnel that lead under the Paradox Refinery. I slammed through an Imagination Ghost and quickly darted around to avoid the jets of Maelstrom Gas, but my car made a dying noise and ground to a halt. Everyone else did the same. "What in the name of the Nexus just happened?!" Vanda yelled. "How am I supposed to know?" Itchy replied. Just then, a Stromling Ape in the audience gave a grunt that sounded suspiciously like "Destroy the minifigs". Dozens of enemies started vaulting over the guardrails into the racetrack...

Chapter 42

We all hopped out of our cars and drew our various weapons. I tapped Turbo on the shoulder, and he looked up at me. "The emergency plan," I whispered. "You got it," he muttered back. The emergency plan was something we had been working on for weeks. It was simple, but effective. I pulled out a mug of something, and he chugged it down. His eyes widened, and he ravaged through the hoard of enemies. "Umm...what did you give him?" Vanda asked. "Ouch! That's got to hurt." Turbo, meanwhile was shooting flaming arrows up a Stromling Ape's nose. "An Xpresso. Back on Earth, Turbo went crazy if he got into caffeine. I was hoping the same principles worked out here in LU." Vanda winced as Turbo did something extremely painful to a Stromling. I won't go into detail on it, suffice it to say that I will never get that popping noise out of my head. "Well, I guess it's working. Any idea what stopped our cars?" she asked. "Nope." I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. It was a Stromling Ape, trying to make off with a small remote. "Possibly that remote! GET THAT APE!!!"

Chapter 43

The Stromling Ape started to run, but we all chased after it. "If it gets into the Great Tree, we'll never catch him!" Itchy yelled. Thankfully, Turbo still had a speed boost from his Xpresso, and he managed to catch up with the Ape. He jumped on its back and tried to bring it to the ground. "He can't take that thing by himself!" I cried. I ran forward and smacked the Ape in the face with my Orb. That was enough to knock it unconscious. Rare pried the remote out of its hand. "It looks like it's hooked up to an MEMP generator. Maelstrom Electromagnetic Pulses can take out the power for miles around." Mardor said. Rare smashed it with his Wormholer. "Any idea what we should do to this guy?" Turbo asked. Vanda gave an evil grin.

Meanwhile, a random Bat Lord and his friend, a Mosaic Jester were rock climbing below the Great Tree. Suddenly, a Stromling Ape fell from the sky! "WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME?!?!?!" the Bat Lord yelled. "Umm...Harry? Are you feeling OK?" the Mosaic Jester asked.

"Well, now that's taken care of," I said. Just then, I noticed that Vanda was trying to slip off. Where's she going? I wondered, and then started to follow her...

Chapter 44

So, Vanda had just snuck (Sneaked? Snuck? Meh. Who knows?) off to who knows where. And I had started to follow her. She darted up to a rock face and pressed a small rock. The whole thing opened up, and she slipped inside. I darted in too, which was good, since the whole thing closed up behind me. I walked down the dark tunnel, and emerged into a huge room. Vanda was looking around with a sad expression on her face. It was a nice place, with old furniture, tables, huge bookshelves, and the other things you might find in a living room. "Umm...Vanda?" I said. Vanda whirled around and pointed her katana at me. Once she realized that it was me, she put it back into its sheath. "Oh. Dynamo. What are you doing here?" she asked. "I saw you trying to get away from the rest of the team, so I decided to follow. What is this place, anyway?" Vanda sighed and sat down on a nearby chair. "It's a long story. You better sit down..."

Chapter 45

"Well, as you know, the whole creation of the Maelstrom took place around three years ago, right?" Vanda asked. "Right," I said. Then I realized something. If Vanda was the Baron's assistant at that time...I found it a bit hard to imagine a little ten year old Vanda walking around a lab carrying vials of chemicals. "Well, before I became the Paradox Leader, I lived here in Forbidden Valley. I was apprenticed to Jonathan...sorry, I mean the Baron, and he was one of my best friends. My parents liked him, too. Vincent and Victoria Darkflame." Vanda sniffed here, but continued. "Well, I was sad that I couldn't find the Pure Imagination with him, the Duke, Dr. Overbuild, and Hael. The Baron made me promise to keep an eye on the lab while he was away." She swallowed, looked sad for a moment, and then went on. "One day, something horrible happened. I guess the Baron had been dragged into the Nexus, because the statues that the ninja built to honor their fallen warriors started shattering and coming to life. The Dark Ronin had been born." Vanda was starting to cry by now, and I felt a bit uncomfortable. "The destroyed my village. The ninja were able to fight off only so many, and many people were smashed. Including my parents." Vanda was sobbing now. "They smashed them. The Ronin smashed them in the remains of our old house, and captured my parents' Creative Sparks in Maelstrom-laced bottles." I patted her shoulder. "Vanda, we'll find your parents. We'll find them, and beat the Maelstrom while we're at it," I said. Vanda smiled tearfully. "Thanks, Dynamo." Just then, a huge rumbling noise came from outside. "What the brick was that?" I yelled...

Chapter 46

Vanda and I rushed out of her old house. The rest of the team was fighting off hordes of Stromlings...using surprisingly traditional weapons. "Why aren't any of you using anything electronic?" I asked as I raced into battle. "Nothing's working!" Rare yelled, hitting a Dark Spiderling in the face with an Elite Basher. I shot a blast of Maelstrom Fire and ignited a Maelstrom Horseman. Eventually, we got rid of all of them. "OK, start from the beginning," I said. "We were looking for you guys, when suddenly our weapons gave out, and that horde of Stromlings attacked," Turbo said. "Wait, your weapons gave out?" I asked. "We just saw you holding weapons." "He means all our electronic weapons," Mardor said. Just then, a dark look came across his face. "Oh, no. This is very bad..."

Chapter 47

"What is it?" Itchy asked. "Hopefully, it's not permanent. I just got the hang of my Personal Fortress." "If we can make this right, it's not permanent," Mardor said. "Do you remember the Stromling Ape we smashed earlier?" "Yeah, the one with the remote control," Rare said. "Well, we thought that in destroying the remote, we had taken down the Maelstrom Electromagnetic Pulse generator, but someone must be operating it from wherever it's hidden. If they're frying all the tech in Forbidden Valley, that means our rockets won't work. Therefore, we're trapped here until we take out the generator," Mardor said. "But how are we going to have any clue where the generator is?" Vanda questioned. "Our watches don't work, so we have nothing." "Hang on! I have an idea," I said. I pulled out the Doomslicer that I carried in my backpack and summoned a Paradox Spiderling. "Find the generator, boy. Go find it!" I encouraged it. The little guy (who for convenience I shall call Nemo) "How do you know it's a boy?" Vanda asked. "No idea." We set off after Nemo, hoping to find the generator...

Chapter 48

So, after a little while of hiking, we found where Nemo was leading us. Well, Nemo did, anyways. Nemo had reached a clearing, and we all walked in behind him. "So, where's the generator?" Vanda asked. Nemo made a chirping noise (who knew spiders chirped?) and flicked an incredibly concealed lever built into the floor. A hole opened up beneath Vanda, and she disappeared into it. We all rushed over, hoping she was OK. "I'm alright, you guys!" came a faint voice. "There's some sort of slide that you can ride right down!" We all jumped down the pit, including Nemo, hoping she was right.

I can tell you right now, the slide was not what I imagined. You know those crazy networks of slides through the secret base you see in the movies? It was nothing like that. The thing was pretty much just straight down, with a big fluffy landing pad at the end. "Well, that was anticlimactic," I said, patting Nemo on the head. "Now, where's the generator?" "The most likely candidate is that large door over there that says 'TOP SECRET' on it," Mardor suggested. We all walked over, when we noticed the biometric retina scanner next to the door. "How are we supposed to get in now?" asked Turbo. Vanda stabbed through the scanner, and I lit the tip of my wand up with burning hot fire. It was so hot that I melted straight through the door. "Well, that's one way to do it," Turbo said. "Let's go, guys," Rare said, and we all walked in...

Chapter 49

We all walked into the room and instantly noticed three things about it. The first was that the room was huge. The second was that the room was suspiciously unguarded. The third was that the room was quite empty, except for a few computer consoles and the large Maelstrom Electromagnetic Pulse generator in the center of the room. It was a small generator at the bottom, suspending a large orb in a shocking shade of violet above the ground. Actually, it looked like a Maelstrom Generator, only a different color. You know, like the kind you find on properties? "I guess the Stromlings tampered with a Maelstrom Generator to make this thing," Mardor said. "Well, no matter what they did, we need to take this thing down!" I rushed toward the Generator, brandishing my wand. "WAIT!!!" Vanda and Mardor yelled. It turned out that there was an invisible electric field protecting the MEMP generator, and I ran straight into it. I gave a scream of pain, and I was hurled about fifty feet across the room.

A few minutes later, I sat back up. Everyone was giving me worried looks. "Wow," said Itchy. "For one of the smartest people I know, that was pretty stupid." "Thanks," I mumbled. "Umm, not to alarm you, Dynamo, but you're smoking," Vanda said. I looked at my arm, and saw that she was right. "Guys, I think I have an idea of how to take this thing down," Mardor said. "It's gonna be tough, though..."

Chapter 50

"Alright, the Generator is probably extremely unstable since it had to be altered to create EMPs instead of generating Stromlings," Mardor said. "So any sort of contact with Imagination would make it explode, destroying the bunker along with it." "So, all we need to do is shove some Imagination in it?" Itchy asked. "Sounds easy enough." "That's where you're wrong," Mardor continued. "You see, since it's unstable, too much Imagination would cause too big of an explosion, and it would blow this entire Crux Shard up." "Whoa. And if there's too little Imagination?" "There is no 'too little'," Mardor said ominously. "It's either too much or it's the right amount." "So what the brick are we gonna use? And how are we going to get past that electric field?" Vanda questioned. "I should be able to shut the field down by hacking one of those computers, and-" Mardor squinted and looked at the Generator. "-a single Cloud Burst ought to do the trick." Mardor walked over to the computer panel. "Get ready, you guys. The electric field's only gonna be down for ten seconds..."

Chapter 51

As soon as the energy fields were down, Vanda, Rare and I all dashed towards the Generator. A second after we were in, the electric field reactivated behind us. "I thought I was going to shut it down!" Vanda yelled. "I was supposed to," Rare said. "What about me?" I asked. We all glared at Mardor. "Okay, honestly, that could have been more thought-out," Mardor said. "Anyone have a Cloud Burst in there?" Vanda pulled one out of her pocket. "Alright, now be careful when you slip it in," Mardor cautioned. Vanda did, but a small tendril of Maelstrom Energy zapped her hand. "Ow!" she yelped. Noticing our worried looks, she reassured us, "It's OK, guys. Not enough to infect me." She then quickly stuffed the Cloud Burst into the Generator. Small thunderclouds appeared around it, and they each shot a bolt of Imagination straight into the heart of the Generator. The Generator started to glow, and the entire bunker began to rumble. "Now what?!" I yelled. Mardor was typing away furiously on the computers. "I can't override the electric field!" he yelled...

Chapter 52

"WHAT?!" Vanda yelled. "I'm trying to shut it down, but all I'm getting is the Blue Screen of Death!" Mardor shouted back. "The what?" Vanda asked. "It wants him to terminate all the programming." I explained. "Yeah, and I can't do that without activating the other self destruct programs in the bunker! We could blow up the entire Forbidden Valley!" A rock fell from the ceiling and smashed into the keyboard. "ARGH! NO!" Mardor yelled. A metal girder wrenched out of place, sending bolts flying straight at us. We all ducked and the bolts flew at the electric field. If the field had still been on, they would have been zapped, and we would have had the electric bolts of death and destruction flying at our faces. Thankfully, the rock must have deactivated the electric field, and the bolts just passed right through. "GO GO GO!!!" Rare yelled. We all ran out the generator room, searching for a way out. "Escape pods!" Itchy yelled, pointing to a door with 'Escape Pods' on it. We all ran towards it...

Chapter 53

We all ran to the escape pod bay. The bad news was that almost all the escape pods were already launched. Almost all the rest were blocked off with falling debris. The good news is that one of the escape pods was still intact. "There's still one left!" I yelled to everyone. "We're gonna have to cram in there!"

After a little while, we all managed to fit in the escape pod, although not very comfortably. Have you ever been stuffed in an escape pod with five other people? Not very comfortable. Itchy was sitting on my leg, Rare was pressed against the wall, and Vanda's foot was in my face. And Vanda's foot doesn't exactly smell like roses. (Ow! Note to self: Make sure Vanda is not reading over shoulder.) Anyways, it was uncomfortable. "Hold on!" Mardor yelled, and pushed the launch button. The pod tilted back into a 90-degree angle and blasted out of the bunker. We were shot about 500 feet into the air. The G-forces pressed back on all of us, but eventually it stopped, and we started falling at a slightly disturbing speed. "SOMEONE ACTIVATE THE PARACHUTE!" Rare yelled. I looked out the front window. The bunker exploded into a fiery inferno below us. Then I looked over at the control panel next to me. It had three buttons: the green launch button that Mardor had hit earlier, a red button, and a purple button. "In case nobody noticed, WE ARE HURTLING TOWARDS THE GROUND! HIT THE BUTTON!" Rare screamed. "WHICH ONE?" I shouted back. "ANYTHING!" Rare yelled. I stared at the control panel and did a quick eeny-meeny-miny-mo. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and pressed the purple button...

Chapter 54

The moment I slammed the button, a mechanical voice emanated through the pod. "Ejecting pod," the voice said. "Please hold on to all your loose belongings, and keep your hands away from the door." For a moment, fear shot through me, and then the front window blew off. Since the air was suddenly depressurized, we were all sucked out of the pod. Thankfully, Mardor had grabbed onto the edge of the door, and we made a human chain, with me grabbing onto his ankles, Rare grabbing onto my ankles, and so on and so forth. "HIT THE BUTTON!" Vanda yelled at Mardor, hardly heard over the shrieking wind. "WHICH ONE?" Mardor screamed back. "I DIDN'T SEE WHICH ONE DYNAMO PRESSED!" "THE RED ONE!" I shouted. "HURRY!" I glanced down, noticing that Forbidden Passage was looking extremely close. "WHICH ONE?!" Mardor asked. "THE RED ONE!!!" I guess Mardor pressed it, because a parachute suddenly exploded out the top of the pod. Just in time, too. We were only about a hundred feet above the ground. A bunch of bewildered minifigs stared at us as we landed. "Well, that's over," Itchy said. Just then, I noticed an all-too-familiar face. Actually, a large group of all-too-familiar faces. It was the hoard of angry Venture League girls. "Umm...I'll meet you back at the rocket pad!" I said, and ran for my life...

Chapter 55

After a long and complicated chase involving an angry herd of goats (How to beat the Maelstrom in two easy steps: Step 1: Drop an angry herd of goats into Crux Prime. Step 2: Watch the carnage), an internet meme trivia showdown with Master Fong Shader (if you're ever in FV, ask him to show you his rage comic impressions), and hiding out in Numb Chuck's closet (he has the biggest collection of Star Wars related clothes I've ever seen), we had made it to the launch pad and headed home. After the debriefing and dinner, I was hanging out in the Paradox Lab, watching Brick Fury ravage Stromling troops. Just then, I remembered something. It was a strange wall, with a smashable barrier in front of it. I smashed the small barrier, and noticed something strange about the wall...

Chapter 56

There was a control panel built into the wall, almost hidden completely. I activated the hacking function on my NNW (the watches had to have a name. Nexus Naomi Watch, get it?) and pressed it against the panel. The watch flashed, the control panel flashed, and the wall slid away. Inside was a spiral staircase that looked like it went up for a long way. Better start climbing, I thought.

About five minutes later, I arrived at the top of the staircase. It turned out that the staircase led to the very top of Nexus Tower. The view was amazing. Seeing all the minifigs running around, hanging out, the faint glows of their weapons, the Crux Shards floating through space, glittering like tiny gems, everything. It was beautiful. Just then, I heard a sigh next to me. I whirled around and saw Vanda sitting next to me. "I found this place when I first came to the tower," she said. "I didn't think anyone would ever find it." "Oh, I didn't mean to intrude," I said hastily. "If you want, I'll leave." "No, it's OK," Vanda replied. "What you said about getting my parents back in Forbidden Valley...did you mean it?" "Of course I did." I said back. "We'll find them and beat the Maelstrom too." Vanda smiled. "Thanks, Dynamo." Vanda smiled. Just then, both our NNWs glowed, and the small hologram of Naomi popped out. "Ten minutes until lights out," Naomi said, and the hologram retracted back into the watch. "Let's go," I said. We both walked down the staircase, ready for a good night's sleep.

Chapter 57

A few days later, after breakfast, we were all in the conference room, waiting for our missions. After a little while, Doctor Overbuild came to us. "Recently, I have created a special substance called Notion Alloy," the Doc began. "It is made from various substances fused with Pure Imagination." He held up a couple of test tubes filled with what looked like-well, for lack of a better way to put it...you know that slime that you might have made in your first grade science class? It looked like that. Only transparent. Anyways, the Doc got back to talking. "Starbase 3001 would greatly benefit from a case of it," Doc O. continued. "We'll need Bubsey The Brick, Vanda Darkflame, KindUsefulStew, Dancer103, DynamoMasterlyCobra, and..." Doctor Overbuild adjusted his glasses and looked a bit closer at the screen he was reading from. "...Hael Storm to deliver the case." When he mentioned Hael, Vanda and I both facepalmed ourselves. "I'll need all of you to meet me in the Assembly Storeroom after the mission handouts," Overbuild said. We all left the room for the Storeroom. Hael was having a bit of trouble picking his way through everyone, so he was far behind. "Here's hoping Hael doesn't mess up the whole mission," Vanda said. "Amen to that. He's not exactly the smartest Basic Shortsword in the armory when it comes to technology, is he?" I replied. "What do you guys have against Hael, anyways?" Bubsey asked. He was a friendly-looking minifig, wearing Summoner gear "He's a big jerk to us," Vanda said, rather bluntly. "Then again, he's a jerk to all Paradox members," I added. "Oh, we're at the Storeroom..."

Chapter 58

As we walked in, Doctor Overbuild was sitting at a table, with a quivering mass of Notion Alloy in the center. "Good, you're all here. Now, I'd like to demonstrate some of the things that Notion Alloy can be used for. It is one of the most advanced substances in the Universe, so be careful with it. It can be molded into almost anything on the planet, for one thing," Overbuild said. With that, he picked up a blob of Notion Alloy and molded it into the shape of a sword. "It is also extremely durable, so you could use it as glue or something, even to hold a space station together. But it also has digital purposes." The good Doctor molded the Alloy into the shape of a USB drive and plugged it into a nearby computer. "You see, because of microscopic nanobots in the Alloy, it can accomplish any number of digital tasks. It can act as a CD-ROM or USB drive, function as a fully-working computer, hack into almost anything, even leech the data right out of a system." "Ye lost me at 'digital purposes,' Overbuild," Hael said. "Wot was all the gobbledegook after that?" "The Alloy can do tons of stuff with computers," Bubsey explained helpfully. "Ah. Why didn't ye jest say so, Overbuild?" Hael said. "I did. Anyways, we need you all to do is deliver it to Starbase 3001 and demonstrate it to them. Simple enough," Overbuild said. "You'd best be on your way..."

Chapter 59

We took the teleporter to Starbase, and upon arrival, we were greeted by Hess LaCoil. "Do you guys have the Notion Alloy?" she asked. "We've been waiting for it." "Right here, lass," Hael said. "We're supposed to demonstrate how it works to you," Funky said. "Let's take this to the main room." Once we walked in there, I saw that one of the Starbase Workers was playing Portal on one of the computers. "Dude, you play Portal?" I asked happily. "Brick yeah! Although, I'm having a bit of trouble on this test chamber," he replied. I set about trying to show him how to solve it. "I ne'er did like them video amusement thingamabobs," Hael said crankily. "Too complicated." Just then, another worker was walking by, carrying a crate full of Maelstrom-Infected Bricks. Unfortunately, Otto Matic (the girl with the jetpack), who was still trying to figure out how to work the flying device, went flying around the room and smashed into both the worker with the Maelstrom Bricks and Kind, who was holding the test tubes of Notion Alloy. The test tubes fell to the floor and shattered, and the Maelstrom-Infected Bricks fell into the Alloy. "That's not good," Kind said as the Alloy slowly started to turn a bright shade of heliotrope (That's a fancy-pants way of saying purple)...

Chapter 60

As the Alloy turned a bright shade of purple, we all looked on, horrified. Just then, the Alloy evidently became sentient. It made a motion like it was looking around the room, then walked around the main bridge of Starbase. Someone tried to stop it by stabbing it with a Slitherstriker, but the Alloy then split into two parts. The first part grew to a surprisingly large size and swallowed the person. The girl in the Adventurer gear looked shocked, but she could still breathe, apparently. The second part crawled over to the computers where we were standing. Bubsey and Funky pointed their Staff and Wrench at it, but the Alloy dodged, opened the disk drive on the computer, pulled Portal out of it, ate it, and then formed back together with the other one. As dozens of people tried to stop it, it smashed through one of the windows. The sudden depressurization sucked us all towards the window. I could feel the air getting sucked out of my lungs, and I noticed that the blob jumped out the window, Portal disc, random Adventurer girl and all. Thankfully, the blob created an air pocket for the Adventurer, otherwise, the capillaries in her face would have burst, and she would have gotten a crazy sunburn from the UV Radiation (then again, do minifigs have capillaries? Can they even get sunburned? Is there even UV Radiation in LU?). I barely managed to mash a red button, closing a metal door over the opening where the window was. Everyone fell to the floor, gasping and coughing. "Alright, not only do we have a hostage now, the thing absorbed Portal," I said, partly worried, partly excited. "I can understand the hostage thing being bad, but Portal? Why is that bad?" Vanda asked. "On the contrary, the Portal thing is very, very good," I said. "You remember how the Alloy can absorb data?" "Wait a second," Kind said. "Are you saying..." "Yep. As we speak, the Alloy is turning itself into one giant game of Portal," I said with a grin. "Wot the brick are we talkin' about here?" Hael said...

Chapter 61

"So, we need a way to get out there to take out the Alloy," Funky said. "Do you guys have any ideas?" There was a collective chorus of negatives from the rest of the group. "Um, excuse me," someone said behind us. It turned out that it was Forge Honcho, the commander of Starbase. "I think I might have a way to get you all out to the Alloy." "What is it?" Bubsey asked excitedly. "Well, as you're probably aware, Starbase has a complex missile system in case of an emergency," Forge said. "Wait, when did y'get a missile system?" Hael asked. "I heard naught about it." "For once, I agree with Hael," Vanda added. "When did you get a missile system?" "A while back," Forge continued. "Anyways, we fill the missiles with Pure Imagination taken from the Nexus to defeat the Maelstrom, then fire the missiles off." "Continue," Kind said. "Well, I thought that we could drain the Imagination out of the missiles and fit you all in them." "Alright, two questions," I said. "First, why do we have to drain the Imagination out, and second, how big are the missiles anyway?" "To answer your first question, we have to drain the missiles out because of what might happen if you were exposed to that much Pure Imagination. Best case scenario, you'd get turned into a Mythran. Worst case, your brain would implode from all the ideas rushing into your head at the same time." "Oh," I said. "Brain implosion bad. Brain implosion very bad." "Anyways, the missiles are pretty roomy," she continued. "Two of you could probably fit in one." "Let's go," Hael said. "There's a Venture Leaguer in trouble out thar, an' I don't want t'see her get hurt. Let's go..."

Chapter 62

We all walked into the missile bay, where a bunch of Starbase Workers were hard at work draining the Pure Imagination out of the missiles. They were wearing Hazmat suits to avoid touching the Imagination and corrupting it, and putting it in metal containers, to keep it safe until we came back. Even in the containers, the Imagination's energy radiated through the containers and replenished our minds, refreshing us for the journey ahead. "Alright then," one of them said, draining out the last missile. "You can hop in. Two to a missile, remember." We each crammed ourselves into a missile. I was with Bubsey. They closed the top of the missile (which was thankfully transparent, so I had a pretty good view) on us. "Let's hope we don't get blasted out of the air on our way over to the Alloy," Bubsey said. "Thanks, Bubsey. You really know how to calm a fig down," I said sarcastically (and rather nervously). Just ten, I saw a large claw coming down from the ceiling. It grabbed each of the missiles and put them in a small hole, probably to launch them. The door closed behind us, and we were blasted out into space...

Chapter 63

After a relaxing ride through space (miraculously, the Alloy didn't blow us out of the sky. Guess it had better things to do), we arrived at the Alloy. The missiles broke holes in the side of the Alloy, but the holes sealed back up almost instantly. We popped the lid on our missiles and climbed out to take a look around the room. It was large and empty. The only thing in the room was what looked like a small elevator going up a long glass tube. "I guess we get in the elevator," Kind said. "Looks small, don't it?" Hael asked. "It's our only choice," Bubsey said. "Let's go." We all crammed into the elevator. It was a REALLY tight squeeze. Hael was on the bottom of the pile, I was kneeling on his back, and Kind was doing a hand-stand on my shoulders. Vanda and Funky were smashed against the walls, and poor Bubsey was balancing on their arms. Needless to say, we were uncomfortable.

A few minutes later, the elevator stopped in a small chamber. It was empty, except for a circular door on the end. We walked towards it, and the door opened, leading us into a huge room, filled with various objects from Portal, courtesy of the disc being absorbed. I knew that the place was going to be like a test chamber, but it was better than I imagined. "Oh...my...Nexus," I said, awestruck. "Wot th' brick be all these gizmos?" Hael said...

Chapter 64

It was a giant test chamber. Not only that, but a giant familiar looking test chamber. I nearly fainted. "Excursion funnel," I said joyfully. "Repulsion gel, turrets," Everyone was giving me a strange look by now. Or maybe they were eying the turrets. "I AM NEVER LEAVING THE ALLOY!!!" "Wot th' brick was all that techno gobbledegook?" Hael asked. "Hang on a second," Vanda said. She walked over and kicked me in the shin. Hard. "OW! Sorry, what were we talking about?" "He's fine, now," Vanda said. "Dynamo, since you're our resident Portal nerd, you're going to have to explain how this thing works." "My pleasure," I said. "OK, see that blue swirling energy tunnel up there?" I said. Everyone looked at it. "That's an excursion funnel. If you get in it, it will transport you in whatever direction it's facing. If you step on that big red button right there, though," I said, and put my feet on it, "The excursion funnel turns orange, and reverses the direction in which it flows." Everyone nodded. "That large pipe over there, when you activate the button next to it, will drop repulsion gel," I continued. "If you jump on repulsion gel, you will bounce. The greater the height you drop onto it from, the higher you'll bounce." "So, what are those little white robots over there?" Bubsey said. "The ones guarding that button." "Those, my friend, are turrets," I replied. "And they do...what, exactly?" Vanda questioned. "If you get too close, or get in the way of that laser beam that's coming out of their eye, they'll start shooting at you if there's nothing blocking you. Watch," I said. "No time fer demonstrations, lad!" Hael said. "We need t' take those buggers out!" We were being protected from the turrets by a glass wall, and Hael ran past it, brandishing his pistols. The turrets woke up, unfolding gatling guns from their sides. "Hello, friend." "There you are." "Gotcha." "Hael, look out! They're going to fire!" I yelled. The turrets focused their lasers and gat guns at Hael...

Chapter 65

The turrets started firing, but Hael managed to jump back just in time. Nothing really happened, except one bullet had grazed his arm. "Are you alright?" Kind asked. "I be fine, laddie. I've had worse wounds from a dragon. Like that one the hour I was battlin' Butterscorch. Th' ol' lass had sliced me right across th' chest, an'-" "Thank you, Hael, I think that's all we need to hear," Vanda interrupted. "Trust me," she whispered, "If you hear that story, you'll wish there was a toilet to throw up in, it's so gory." "So, how do we get past those turrets?" Bubsey asked. "It's simple. You guys stay here while I solve it," I said. The test chamber was comprised of four sections, separated by bottomless pits of death. We were standing in an area with glass walls protecting us from the turrets, and it had the button that reversed the flow of the funnel. In front of the glass walls, in direct range of the turrets, there was a button that activated Nexus-knows-what (Well, it was more like Nexus-and-Dynamo-knows-what, since I knew too). The section to our left had a pipe in the ceiling that released repulsion gel, and a button to activate the gel on a timer. In front of us a ways, there was a long, skinny section with the turrets, and back even farther from that was the door out. (A/N: For a better idea of it, google "Portal 2 Chapter 8 Chamber 16." It should help.) I pulled out my portal gun, fired one in the section with the repulsion gel, and one in the section we were in, and went through. I then used the portals to position the excursion funnel so that it was flowing from over where I was, back to the section we entered. I pressed the button, which activated a three-second timer releasing the gel. The gel fell into the funnel, and I hopped in right before it did. It carried me back over to the area where we started out, where I jumped out and stood on the button. The flow reversed, carrying the gel back through the portal and out the other side. I fired another portal in a wall above the turrets, and hopped off the button. "Now, my timing's gonna have to be just right," I mumbled, and prepared to fire...

Chapter 66

I fired another portal on a random wall, shutting off the flow of the excursion funnel. The repulsion gel came crashing down onto the turrets' heads. Now, as you may or may not know, repulsion gel makes things bounce. So, if repulsion gel falls on a turret, it makes them bounce all over the place. That's exactly what happened to all three turrets. They began to bounce all over the room, firing willy-nilly. "I'm scared!" "I'm afraid of heights!" "Wheeeeee!" Then, the turrets fell into the bottomless pit of death. "You know, I almost feel sorry for the little guys," Bubsey said. "I did too, at first. But then they killed me. That's when my regret for the turrets I deactivated was destroyed." I replied. I then walked over and pressed the button on the other side of the glass wall. A panel came out of the wall and tilted so that it was at a 45-degree angle. I then walked back to the main area. "This next part is gonna be tricky," I said. "Does anyone have long-fall boots?" "Long-fall whats?" Funky said. "Long-fall boots. To quote Cave Johnson, think of it as a foot-based suit of armor. You can jump off a fall from any height and still not break your legs as long as you're wearing them. We're gonna need them if we want to make it through this next part with our legs intact." "Sorry, fresh out 'o them long-fall whatchamacallits," Hael said sarcastically. "Maybe ye could pull some out 'o that beloved portal gun 'o yours." "That's not how it works," I mumbled resentfully. "Hang on, I just thought of the next best thing. Does anyone have Spring Shoes?"

Chapter 67

A few minutes later, we were each wearing a pair of spring shoes, ready to go. "So, how is this going to work?" Bubsey said. "Instead of telling you, I can show you," I replied. "Who wants to go first?" Everyone pointed to Hael, who began to look worried. "Don't look at me. I'm not doin' any 'o Dynamo's gobbledegook," he said. "Oh, come on, Hael, don't be such a wuss," Vanda said, grinning. I caught her eye and grinned back. "Yeah, Hael, after all of the adventures you've been on, you wouldn't back down from a simple video game, would you?" I asked. Hael sighed. "All right, then. Let's get this over with. What do I have to do?" "It's simple. Just stand there," I said, pointing where Hael needed to stand. He walked over to the point I indicated. "Now what?" he asked. "Just stand there." I fired a couple of portals so that an excursion funnel came out under Hael's feet, taking him upward. "Avast, thar! What be ye doin'?" Hael yelled. I ignored him, and fired another portal on the angled panel. Hael went flying through the air, screaming like a little girl, hit the repulsion gel-covered platform on his back, flew even further, and ended up at the door. He was yelling at me, but he was so far away I couldn't hear him. "Okay, Vanda next!" I said cheerfully. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! I am not doing that," Vanda said. "Aw, c'mon," Kind said. "You'll be fine," I fired the portals for the excursion funnel, and Vanda went floating straight up. "I hate you so much right noooooooowwwwww!!!" The strange way she said "now" came from me firing the portal and sending her whizzing through the air. She did a perfect belly flop onto the repulsion gel and did a couple of flips before landing on her behind at the door. We all laughed...until she gave us her Universe-famous death glare.

After we had all made it (my landing was perfect, due to all the time I've played Portal), and after a couple more test chambers, we reached a large room, guarded by all sorts of traps, with something in a giant cage in the middle of the snares...

Chapter 68

The thing in the middle of the cage was the Venture League girl that the Alloy had carried off. "As much as I hate to admit it, we need to get her out of there," I said. "Yeah, but how are we going to get past all those traps?" Bubsey pointed out. The traps weren't actually active, but they looked pretty dangerous either way. "'Tis no problem," Hael said. "Watch." He strode right towards the cage...and a large spiked metal section of the wall rushed out and smashed him to pieces. "Wow. Hael Storm vs Mashy Spike Plate," I said. "Umm, hello? Still trapped in a cage here?" the Adventurer said. For some reason, her voice sounded familiar. "Hold on a minute, lass," Hael said, having rebuilt next to us. "Now, this cage looks like 'tis protected by some 'o those laser thingies," "You mean laser tripwires?" Kind asked. "Right. An' ye can't see them unless thar's smoke or somethin' in th' air. Back when I was sailin' th' galaxy, I learned a quick 'n easy recipe fer a do it yerself smoke bomb," Hael continued. "I'll need a Notion Potion, some Hiccup Tablets, an Energy Bar, a wee bit 'o Armor Gleam, 'n some Yucki-Yaki." I gave him the Notion Potion, Funky and Kind supplied Hael with the Hiccup Tablets and the Energy Bar, Vanda gave him the Armor Gleam, and Bubsey handed him the Yucki-Yaki. "Bubsey! You actually eat that stuff?" Vanda said in disgust. "Nah. I throw it in the Stromlings' faces. It's pretty funny, actually." Hael swigged down the Notion Potion and began to grind up the Tablets, the Energy Bar, and the Armor Gleam in a mortar and pestle he took from his belt. "What's the Yucki-Yaki for?" Kind questioned. Hael took a bite of it. "I was famished," Hael said. Vanda looked like she was going to puke. Anyways, Hael poured the Tablet-Gleam-Bar mixture into the Notion Potion bottle, shook it up a bit, and tossed it into the middle of the area where the cage was. The bottle broke, spraying smoke everywhere and revealing the thin red laser beams. "That smoke's goin' to stay thar fer months," Hael said. "Vanda here be th' most agile, what with her bein' a ninja 'n all, so she be off 'n get th' lass," Hael said...

Chapter 69

Vanda grinned. "Let's do this," she said, and began running towards the network of traps. She began to flip, duck, and twist, avoiding the lasers. About a minute into it, she accidentally tripped one of the...er...tripwires. A panel slid aside in a wall next to her, revealing a Spinny-Blade-Wall! Well, a Shredder if you want to get technical. The Shredder began moving towards her, but Vanda jumped out of the way at the last second. And by the last second, I mean that the Shredder snipped a lock of her hair off. She muttered something about being off guard, and continued. Eventually, she made it to the cage and sliced it open with her katana. "Don't think that just because I saved you means I like the Venture League," Vanda snapped. "Same here, ninja," the Venture League girl growled back. "Now, how are we going to get out of the traps?" "DON'T RUSH ME! I'M THINKING!" Vanda yelled. I grabbed a Chilly Freezesteak from my inventory. This will be interesting, I thought. "I have it!" Vanda yelled. "Dynamo, do you think you could spring one of the traps?" "Dynamo...why is that name so familiar?" the Adventurer muttered. "Umm...sure," I said. I pulled out a random brick from my inventory and chucked it towards one of the tripwires. The Mashy-Spike-Plate that smashed Hael earlier slammed out, and Vanda threw a Massive Firecracker into the area where it slid out. As the Mashy-Spike-Plate retracted, the Massive Firecracker detonated, shutting down all the traps. "Wow. That was pretty creative for a Paradox," the Venture girl said. "Those were me thoughts exactly," Hael said. As they walked back, the Adventurer girl and I got a good look at each other's faces, and we finally recognized each other. "YOU!" we both yelled. It turned out that the girl was the ringleader of the horde of angry Venture League girls. Don't remember her? Go back to the bottom of page 10. She was the one who pointed the Slitherstriker at my face. "I see ye two know each other," Hael said, hardly suppressing his laughter. The girl drew her Slitherstriker. "Yeah, we know each other. And Dynamo here is about to get to know serious pain," she said menacingly. I gulped and considered what to put in my last will and testament...

Chapter 70

As the Adventurer was about to do something extremely painful to me, Vanda stepped in the way. "Alright, that's enough. As much as I agree that what you're going to do to Dynamo would be hilarious-" "HEY!" "Dude, I'm kidding!" Vanda continued. "I just can't let anything happen to him, since he's the one with the best chance of getting our bricks out of here. So, Dynamo, um...I never caught your name," Vanda said to the Venture League girl. "I'm Jen," the Adventurer said. "Right. So, Dynamo, Jen, shake hands and apologize," Vanda said. "APOLOGIZE?!" Jen and I both yelled at the same time. Vanda pulled out a Nightlasher and pointed it at our faces. "Sorry.." Jen and I both mumbled. "Where did she get a Nightlasher?" Bubsey mumbled. "Dude, she's the Faction Leader. She probably has every weapon ever released for the Paradox," Kind said. "Since you're such the expert, according to ninja-girl here, how long until we get out of this dump?" Jen asked. "Well, since we haven't been punched down a bottomless pit, awoken from suspended animation, or been forced to sabotage the turret production line or the neurotoxin generator, I'm going to assume that we're in the first Portal game, with certain test chambers from Portal 2 in it." "So, how long until we're out?" Funky asked. "Soon. We'll have to fight GLaDOS then," I said. Part of me was excited, but the other part...not so much. "That's GLaAOS to you," a mechanical, slightly autotune-y voice said. "Who said that?" Jen yelled. "Me. GLaAOS. I'm the AI in charge of this entire facility. And I know you're trying to destroy me. So that's not going to happen." The platform that we were on began to slide towards an opening that suddenly appeared in the wall. "I'm going to take you right to me and dispose of you there. You've caused all sorts of problems for me, and that problem is easily rectified..."

Chapter 71

As the platform slid through the hole in the wall, a strange heat engulfed us all. "OK, confession time," GLaAOS said. "I'm not taking you to my chamber. I'm taking you to the incinerator. I hope you can remain functional...at up to four thousand degrees Kelvin." As she uttered those words, I suddenly froze up. Confession time for me, too: I'm a bit of a pyrophobe (that means I'm a bit scared of fire). I mean, a nice campfire or one in the fireplace is OK, and I like seeing explosions on TV as much as the next guy. But put me in a situation with real fire and I'm hopeless. It takes me like 10 minutes just to light a candle unless I have one of those big long lighters. Now don't go making fun of me. Anyhoo, as we moved into the furnace room, I totally froze up. "Dynamo! Any idea how to get out of here?!" Vanda yelled over the roaring flames. I didn't move. "DYNAMO!!" "Forget it," Jen shouted. "I know someone who's scared of fire when I see one." "Ugh, do I have to do everythin' meself?" Hael muttered, and pried the portal gun out of my hands. He fired one portal in a ledge outside the furnace, and the other one in the wall. "Everyone jump!" he yelled. Everyone except me jumped. Bubsey and Kind had to shove me through the portal. "Thanks guys," I said, now out of my pyrophobic trance. Jen walked up to me and smacked me. "That's for freezing up in there," she yelled, "and that-" she judo-flipped me to the floor- "is for landing in the Venture dorm!" I got up, slightly dizzy. "Well, now we need to get to GLaAOS," I said. "Let's go..."

Chapter 72

As we approached the Central AI Chamber, I briefed everyone on what was going to happen. "Alright, this is gonna be kind of tough," I said. "GLaDOS, or in this case, GLaAOS' intelligence comes from four Personality Cores. We need to get rid of each of those somehow. In the room, there is an incinerator. We'll need to destroy the core with it." "Sounds easy enough," Bubsey said. "Then, there's the catch," I said. "Oh, great. What is it?" Jen asked. "The first core is going to fall out of her, and once we incinerate it, she'll start filling the room up with neurotoxin. We'll have five minutes before we all smash." I gave everyone a moment to let that sink in. "Well, what be we waitin' fer?" Hael asked. "Let's be off."

A few minutes later we had all made it to the door outside the AI Chamber. We walked into a huge glass walkway that led to another room, where GLaAOS was dangling from the ceiling, and there were screens around the room displaying random images. "Oh good. You're finally here. Now I'm going to smash you all," she said in that weird autotune-y voice of hers. "Whoa whoa whoa," I said to her. "No 'Well you found me, congratulations'? No core dropping out of you? No hilarious monologue about what we should do with the core?" "I decided to make some major revisions. The core doesn't drop out of me anymore. And I removed the Emergency Intelligence Incinerator." "WHAT?!" we all yelled. "Lucky for you, that disabled my ability to keep the cores floating in place with magnetic fields," GLaAOS said. "So that's how you did it," I muttered to myself. "Look, enough small talk. Let's get to it," the giant AI said, and the screens around the room turned all blue with a five-minute countdown. Circular vents opened around the room, leaking a noxious purple gas. Small robots came out of the floor, also, beaming sky-blue lasers out of their eyes. "What are those things?" Funky asked. "They're Rocket Turrets," I replied. "Don't let the blue laser touch you!" "Why not?" Vanda asked. "It will burn you?" "No, the laser's just its sight. If the laser touches you, it'll fire a missile. I'll focus on getting the cores out, you guys smash them!" I got to work, firing a portal on one wall and a portal up near GLaAOS. I waited for the Rocket Turret to lock on to me, and dodged right before the missile hit me. It traveled through the portal and slammed into GLaAOS. A purple-eyed core fell out of her, and Bubsey walked up to it. "Is this a core?" he asked. "YEAH!" I yelled. "Destroy it!" A blue light glowed on Bubsey's hat, and a Bulper appeared and ate the core. GLaAOS sparked. "You really think that's doing anything?" she asked. "Um, yes," I said. "Seriously, I've played Portal before."

We destroyed two more cores, a yellow-eyed one that wouldn't stop asking questions ("MAKE IT END!" Jen yelled) and a blue-eyed one that wouldn't stop rattling off the ingredients for The Cake ("I'm never eating cake again," Vanda said, looking a bit green). Finally, we were down to the last core, and there were only thirty seconds left on the clock. It was a red-eyed one that growled like a feral dog. Hael grabbed it and smashed it with his sword, and the countdown stopped. "NO!" GLaAOS yelled. "You...monsters..." she said, and with that, she exploded into millions of pieces. We all cheered...but then we heard a strange rumbling noise. "What's that?" Kind asked. Then he looked at a small computer screen. "This is bad!" he said. "The whole Alloy is falling apart at the seams..."

Chapter 73

"How are we supposed to get out of here?" Vanda asked. "No idea!" Kind said. Just then, a hologram of Dr. Overbuild flared to life on everyone's watch. "Oh, good, you're all still there. I just wanted to let you know that the Alloy could download creations from the Creation Lab and morph into it. That's all." Overbuild's hologram disappeared. "Great!" Jen yelled, and started pressing buttons on her watch. Two metal wires flew out and embedded themselves in the Alloy. The shape of a spaceship began to form. "Just out of curiosity, which spaceship did you pick?" I asked Jen. "I dunno, I think it was called the ESS Parasite. First one I saw." (A/N: All credit for the ESS Parasite goes to Thingguy2. Thanks for making such an awesome ship, Thingguy!) "WHAT?!?!" I yelled. "What's the big deal?" Funky asked. "Thingguy2 built it. It's one brick of a ship, but he built it to satirize Thedude, and he made it so that Thedude piloted it." "WHAT?!?!" Funky yelled. Just then, the cockpit of the ship opened, and Thedude climbed out. He was a skeleton wearing a pilot's suit, and he was wielding a sword made of the grammatical errors he had made. He saw me and ran over. "For the love of the almighty Nexus, someone hold me back," Funky said. "Saty awayy fmor Funkeiy!" he yelled, and sliced his sword across my chest. Normally, it would have hurt me, but it passed harmlessly across me, as if he had attempted to smash me with a feather. If skeletons could look confused, he would have. "Wyh didtnt it wrok?" he asked. "That's a grammar-sword, right?" I asked. "Yah." "I have such good grammar that an infernal weapon such as that has no effect on me," I said. If skeletons could look angry, Thedude would have. "No mtaater," he said, and dropped to his knees in front of Funky. "Funkeiy! Meh truu luv! Jion meh and-" "THAT'S IT!!!" Funky screamed, and did something so disturbing to Thedude that I'm not going to post it here at risk of being banned. Let's just say that people's faces are not supposed to make that noise. Anyways, we all got in the ship and blew out the wall of the Alloy right before it imploded in on itself.

After a rather confusing debriefing back at the Tower, and dinner, we all went to bed for a relaxing sleep. Little did any of us know, it would be anything but relaxing...

Chapter 74

Our final mission in the Lego Universe began a couple nights after the Starbase mission. It was about 1:30 AM, and we were all carefully examining the insides of our eyelids. We were all relaxed (or as relaxed as we could be when we were asleep), when the nightmare came to me. I was falling. Falling inside a dark vortex. Falling in eternal darkness. My only thoughts were Oh my Nexus, this is horrible, and The brick? I'm going through the Something in the Maelstrom cutscene. Just then, I hit a dark, shattered stone path, leading deeper inside the vortex. Lightning flashed a few times, and a dark figure was revealed to be at the end of the trail. His face appeared in the next few bolts of lightning. It was a horrible face, skeletal and glowing red. Just seeing it gave me thoughts that our battle was hopeless, the Maelstrom would always win. It was then that I realized who the figure was: The Darkitect. Lightning flashed a few more times, each one revealing that he was walking closer. And closer. And closer, until he was right in front of me. He was as tall as one of the buildings in Nimbus Station, and he would have no problem defeating me. "Hello, Dynamo," the monstrous figure said in a horrible, rasping, abyssal voice. "I have become annoyed with your precious Nexus Force," the Darkitect continued. "So annoyed, in fact, that I have decided to crush you once and for all." He held an orb in his hand, and a vision appeared of hundreds of Maelstrom ships, all surrounding Nexus Tower. "I present to you a challenge," he said. "Send all of the Nexus Force to Crux Prime. All of them. Don't leave out one little recruit. Try to defeat me. If you win, I'll surrender. If you lose, Nexus Tower and the Nexus Force will all be destroyed." He shot two bolts of Maelstrom energy out from his hands, flying right at me... and I woke up, screamed, noticed that my Imagination and almost all my life was gone, and downed the Paradox Power Potion that was on my nightstand. Everyone else in the room was waking up and freaking out, too. Just then a message came over the intercom. It was Dr. Overbuild. "All minifigs report to the conference room, NOW. Nexus Tower is under attack..."

Chapter 75

As hundreds of minifigs ran to the conference room, I caught up with Itchy, who was walking next to a frazzled-looking Vanda. "You would not believe the nightmare I just had," Itchy said. "Please, PLEASE tell me that it was the Mexican smoothie dream," I said with a sinking feeling (The Mexican smoothie dream was a real one he had once. I'm not going to give you the details, as it would scar you for life). Itchy looked horrified. "DUDE! I thought we agreed never to speak of it again!" he yelled. "You're right. Sorry," I said. "At any rate, that wasn't the dream he had, if it was anything like mine," Vanda said. "Let me guess," I said. "The Darkitect said he was gonna destroy Nexus Tower and the entire Nexus Force, and we need to get our bricks down to Crux right now." "Actually, yes!" Vanda said. "How did you know?" I explained that I had had exactly the same dream, and probably so did everyone in the tower. "I guess Overbuild's gonna explain more once we get to the conference room," Itchy said. -Sharpie Thunderflare: daredevil of lightning Itchy was right. "Not to alarm you all, but Nexus Tower is under attack," Overbuild said, and pulled up a giant hologram of thousands of Maelstrom warships surrounding the tower. Everyone panicked. I think I even heard a couple of minifigs yelling "I AM VERY ALARMED!!!" "Gimme that," Hael growled, and took the microphone from the Doc. "ALL O' YE CALM DOWN!" Everyone did. "Now, technically, we're not under an attack," Hael continued, "but under siege. Th' ships aren't attackin' us." "Er, yes, Overbuild," taking the microphone back. "Now, as all of you know, we all received an alarming dream." Everyone nodded. "A few minutes after the dream, we got this transmission. From the Chaos Soul itself." A fuzzy hologram came up. The Chaos Soul...actually looked a bit like a Mythran. Only orange. "Greetings, minifigs," he said in a calm voice. "I don't have long, so I'll have to make this quick. If you want to have any hope of defeating the Maelstrom, come find me in-" the transmission grew fuzzier, until the Chaos Soul disappeared. "Anyways, we think we have an idea of where he is," Overbuild said...

Chapter 76

"We have reason to believe that the Chaos Soul resides on the other side of Rivendark Canyon," Overbuild said. "Everyone knows how there was a large concentration of what may have been Mythran energy there, right?" Everyone nodded or affirmed it in some other way. "Well, we have studied it a bit further, and we have realized that it is not normal Imagination, but Chaotic Imagination. Now, here's where it gets risky," the Doc continued. "In order to stop the Maelstrom, we'll need to find the Chaos Soul and enlist his help. This may or may not work. We also need to get down to Crux and hold off the Maelstrom Armies while another group tries to get to the Chaos Soul. All of us must go there." A random minifig raised his hand. "But if we're all on Crux, who's going to defend the Tower?" Duke Exeter took the mic. "As our resident strategy expert, I can assure you that the Baron won't attack the Tower intact for his moment of glory when he destroys it. Besides, Naomi can take care of it. This place is loaded to the brim with defense systems." "Thank you, Duke," Overbuild said. "Now, everyone to the teleporter. Naomi, if you could show everyone where to go." A hologram of Naomi appeared. "Certainly," she said, and illuminated a path in the floor. "Good luck to you all," she said, as we all started filing out of the building...

Chapter 77

We all started to go to the teleporter in the Sentinel War Room, but then Overbuild stopped us. "The teleporter in the War Room would take an excessively long time," he said. "I've built a teleporter in the Assembly Storeroom which everyone can use at once. Everyone needs to make their way to it now."

After a harrowing ride through a Brick Warp, we arrived on Crux Prime...where we were met by a giant horde of Skulkin and Stromlings...

Chapter 78

Every minifig walked out of the conference room and headed towards the War Room. Vanda caught up to me, carrying a book. "Dynamo, I think I found a little more out about the Chaotic Imagination and Chaos Soul," she said. "I was up in the library before last night, trying to study about Chaotic Imagination. But get this," she continued, opening the book. The page she flipped to had a strange picture of a minifig who seemed to be absorbing a huge blast of orange energy. "Ever since the Chaotic Imagination was created all those years ago, it has needed a minifig to inhabit to stabilize itself and make sure it doesn't wink out of existence. That would be bad, because every piece of Imagination in the Universe would instantly be destroyed." "Let me guess," I said. "The minifig it's inhabiting is the Chaos Soul." "Exactly," Vanda said. "And as long as something doesn't suck the Chaotic Imagination right out of the Soul, that minifig is immortal. And evidently, even though the Soul can control the Chaotic Imagination, he...can't." "What the brick's that supposed to mean?" I asked. "I mean, he has almost limitless powers, but he can't control any of them. The Chaotic Imagination controls him. And, he lives in a giant castle on the other side of Rivendark Canyon." Vanda looked up from her book. "We're here."

As we walked into the Sentinel War Room, we saw something unusual. The Crux Prime Teleporter, which was normally only about the size of a laptop computer, was hooked up to various giant metal columns scattered around the room. Plugged into the side of the teleporter was a small canister of Imagination. The whole thing looked like a giant Tesla Coil. "I built this a couple of years back in case the Tower needed to have a mass evacuation. With this device, we can teleport huge numbers of people at once," Overbuild said. "Bubsey, can you please activate the device?" Bubsey, who still looked a bit tired from the unexpected wake-up call, walked up to the machine and pressed a glowing yellow button. The canister of Imagination started glowing, and bolts of blue lightning arced out of the metal columns. Each time one struck a minifig, they disappeared in a flash of cerulean light. Eventually, one went shooting right at my face. When it struck me, I was honestly surprised it didn't hurt, or was in any way uncomfortable. Instead, I could feel it refilling my Imagination, and then I disappeared. About three seconds later, I reappeared on Sentinel Point Zeta, on Crux Prime...where we were all surrounded by huge amounts of Stromlings and Skulkin...

Chapter 79

As the last few minifigs teleported in behind us, we all prepared for battle against the giant horde. Thousands of enemies were there. I'm pretty sure I saw tons of Invaders, and maybe even a few Named Enemies. As we drew our weapons, a thought suddenly went through my head: I just realized that this is going to decide the fate of the Universe. Possibly Earth, also. I drew my Staff and rushed into battle as Duke Exeter yelled "CHARGE!

The battle was extremely intense. The whole of Sentinel Point Zeta was an onslaught of nearly endless enemies. I occasionally caught a glimpse of someone I knew- Itchy slashing at a Mech, Vanda throwing Exploding Kunai at an Ape, Mardor mowing down Stromling Pirates from the safety of an Assembly Personal Fortress- but other than that, I rarely ever saw my friends. Just then, someone smacked me in the back with the flat of their sword. A sharp pain shot through me, and I crumpled to the ground. After the flashing lights cleared from my vision, I noticed a pair of cruel, glowing orange eyes staring at me. It was Grim Daisho. He gave the Dark Ronin equivalent of a sneer and pointed his sword at my chest. "It ends here, minifig," he said in a rasping voice...

Chapter 80

I closed my eyes, waiting for the pain to come, but all I heard was a loud KA-KRACK! I opened my eyes, and I saw Grim fall to the ground. In his back was a bullet hole, glowing blue with Imagination. I looked over Grim's shoulder, and saw Sharpie standing there, his Flareguns smoking. I yelled a word of thanks, and he smiled in return. Just then, a Hammer Stromling ran by, and accidentally stepped on the handle (or "Tsuka," if you want to go into technical Japanese katana terms), sending it spinning into the air. As it came down, it nicked my arm, spreading the Maelstrom Energy into my veins...

Chapter 81

As the Maelstrom energy spread through me, I knew that this was the end. In about thirty seconds, the foul energy would reach my Creative Spark, corrupting me forever, or until some n00b smashed me with a cry of "Diey, stormlin! Teh univrse wil nevr falll!" I closed my eyes as the last wave of pain came over me...and then I felt a sharp pain in my chest, just like the first time I was nearly infected. Also just like the first time, when I looked down, there was a glowing orange blade of Chaotic Imagination If this is anything like the last time, I thought to myself, the one holding that blade is Vanda. I looked up, and it definitely wasn't Vanda. It was the one person I least expected to save my bricks... it was... JEN! She looked down at the Chaotic Imagination blade in disgust. "Vanda made this thing for me right before we got to Crux," she said. "Why couldn't she have made a Chaotic Slitherstriker or something?" "But... why did you save me?" I asked. "I thought you hated me." "Well, not really hate, but I'm not exactly a big fan of anyone in the Paradox. The Sorcerers and Space Marauders are OK sometimes, but it's the Shinobi who really tick me off. If you had Shinobi gear on right then, you'd be a Stromling right now," Jen explained. "Besides, without you, who would I have to blackmail?" I gulped. "Blackmail?" I asked. Jen grinned menacingly. "Brick yeah! If the other Venture League girls knew who you really are..." she left the sentence hanging, but I got what she meant: lights out for Dynamo. "Anyways, I gotta go. I saw a couple of Buccaneers who needed help. See you later," she said, and disappeared into the crowd. As she left, I began to fight my way through to Rivendark Canyon...

Chapter 82

As I eventually fought my way through the droves of Stromlings, I made my way through Caldera Mar and Studburst pass, until I got to Rivendark Canyon. As I stared across the vast expanse, I saw what we needed to get to: a small orange glimmer on the horizon. This is it, I thought. I pulled open the message menu on my NNW and quickly started writing one: Guys, I found where the Chaos Soul is. Everyone needs to get here immediately! I'm broadcasting my coordinates now. ~Dynamo~ I decided that it was fine, and sent it out to everyone. Vanda, Funky, Kind, Itchy, Turbo, Jen, Mardor, Bubsey, Rare, Sharpie, Jetman, everyone. Eventually, they all came here in one way or another. "So, how are we going to get across?" Rare muttered. "I dunno about you, but I have a plan," Turbo said, and quickly downed an Xpresso spiked with a ground-up Energy Bar. His eyes widened until his pupils were about the size of specks of dust, and he shot flaming arrows across the canyon, riding ON TOP of each one for a few seconds, before jumping to the next. Eventually, he made it across. "What are ya waitin' for?" Turbo yelled. "Come on!" "Unlike you, our metabolism's relatively normal with caffeine, and our adrenaline doesn't spike when consuming large amounts of it," Mardor explained. "HUH?" he asked. "We don't get hyper when we eat stuff like that," I explained. Just then, Bubsey snapped his fingers. "I just thought of an idea, but it won't be very pleasant," he explained. He closed his eyes and focused, and his hat began to glow. Soon, a Bulper was sitting on the ground next to us. "And this thing is going to help us out how?" Jen asked in disgust. Evidently, she wasn't exactly a big fan of Bulpers. "His name's Kenneth. Don't hurt his feelings," Bubsey said defensively, patting Kenneth's side. "Anyways, I'll demonstrate my plan now. Jen, if you could press the space between his two horns," Bubsey continued. Jen reached out tentatively and patted Kenneth's head. Kenneth opened his mouth and swallowed Jen whole! We all freaked out, and I could hear Jen's muffled yells coming from inside the Bulper. "GET ME OUT OF HERE! HOW DO I EVEN FIT INSIDE THIS THING?!" "Bulper stomachs are a lot larger than they look," Bubsey continued. "Now, Kenneth, launch." Kenneth walked up to the edge of the canyon, and with a loud burp, Jen flailed through the air in a shower of Bulper dribble. Once she landed on the other side, she began to call Bubsey and Kenneth some rather rude names. Bubsey looked back to us. "So, who's next?"

Chapter 83

I was the second-to-last to cross Rivendark Canyon via Air Kenneth. I walked up to him, gave a disgusted look, and patted his head. He quickly swallowed me whole. Let me tell you, I have first-hand experience now to tell you this: being inside a Bulper is an extremely unpleasant experience and you should under no circumstances let your Bulper swallow you. Not even if it asks nicely. Anyways, inside Kenneth, it was warm and slimy. I was keeping my mouth closed tight because...well, you know. Although, I have to hand it to Bubsey: It was roomy in there. After about ten seconds, Kenneth burped me out, sending me flailing through the air in a mass of minifig, Bulper drool, and foul-smelling Bulper breath. "Never...again," I said after landing in a heap on the other side. Bubsey put on a jetpack and flew over. As he landed, he was met with angry glares from everyone. "What?" he asked innocently. "I hate you so much right now," Jen said, punching him in the arm. "Hey, I just realized something," Sharpie said. "We're the first minifigs to ever cross Rivendark." He let that sink in for a moment. "Come on, you guys!" Itchy said. "We need to find the Chaos Soul!" We started are long trek through the plains on the other side of the canyon. After about fifteen minutes of walking, Kind asked "What are we looking for, anyways?" "Probably something like that," Funky said, pointing to the most amazing sight any of us had ever seen...

Chapter 84

It was a huge mansion, with giant fountains and hedges around it. Well, mansion isn't really the term for it. It looked like someone took a bunch of buildings from different styles of architecture and time periods, chopped them up, and then glued the pieces back together. Some of the ones I could name were Art Nouveau, Post-Modernism, Futurism, and Japanese Muromachi styles. "Under any other circumstances, I'd say fusing all those different types of architecture would be impossible," Kind said, "but now that I'm seeing it, it's amazing." "Yeah, it's a bunch of weird-looking buildings," Jen said. "Big whoop." Exasperated, Kind facepalmed himself. "So, where in there do you think the Chaos Soul is?" Vanda asked. "Probably in that big glowing room at the top of that tower right there," Jetman said. "Now let's go!"

As we walked through the massive doors, we emerged in a giant lobby. Across the floor was a huge mosaic of the Universe, and statues of ancient warriors, scientists, and Mythrans were in alcoves lining the entire room. And everywhere we looked, there were doors of various styles, leading to who knows what. "Great," Bubsey said. "How are we going to find the door to the Chaos Soul?" "That has a simple solution," Funky said. "I was messing around with my watch before we got here, and I found a tracking device feature. Wherever you go, you can see where anyone else is, and it reveals more of the place you're in as you go along." She showed us how to turn it on, and we all did. "We should split up," I said. "We'll have six groups, two people to a group." Eventually, the groups were Vanda and Funky, Kind and Itchy, Turbo and Jen, Mardor and Rare, Sharpie and Jetman, and Bubsey and I. "Let's go find the Chaos Soul," Turbo said determinedly...

Chapter 85

We all set off in our separate directions, exploring the different parts of what I began to call Kaosu Manor ( Kaosu is Japanese for Chaos. Thank you Google Translate.). Anyways, Bubsey put in a suggestion of which door we should go to. "How about that one?" Bubsey asked, pointing to a door that looked like it was from a castle. "Do you have any logic to that guess?" I questioned Bubsey. "Nope! I just picked one randomly!" Bubsey said upbeatly. "Well, why the brick not?" I shrugged. We walked up to it, opened it, and saw... a couple of suits of armor. "OK, so maybe not that one," I said. "Let's keep going." We opened a bunch more, which will be presented to you in the form of a montage.

"OK, that's kind of weird," Bubsey said, opening a giant metal blast door and finding floating globules of water with fish swimming around in them.

"No way," I said, staring at a door that looked like the doors in Portal 2. "Dude, I'm going in there." "Are you sure that's a good idea?" Bubsey asked. "Positive," I said, pressing the button. The door opened, and I walked in. I then saw something that was not what I expected. At all. I ran out, screamed, and then pressed the button to shut the door. "Stupid Black Mesa and their stupid Combine invasion," I muttered.

After I explained to Bubsey about Black Mesa, Half Life, the Combine, and how all that tied in to Portal, we came to another door. This one had the Black Mesa symbol on it. "Are you sure opening this one is a good idea?" Bubsey asked me. "It's simple logic. The Portal door led to a Half Life room, so this Black Mesa door should lead to a Portal room." I opened it, and saw something so horrible, I'm not going to mention it, at risk of giving people nightmares. Let's just say it wasn't pretty. I screamed and ran out of the room again, slamming the door behind me. "What was in there?" Bubsey asked. "Stupid Poison Headcrabs and their Stupid Poison Headcrab Zombies."

A few doors later (Who knew the Chaos Soul liked Valve games? Bubsey even made friends with a Pyro.), we reached a giant door that looked like something from a fantasy movie. It was huge, with intricately carved markings all over it, and the knobs looked like Dragon heads. I booted up the message feature on my watch, told them that we found the Chaos Soul's room at the top of the tower, and teleported them all to us...

Chapter 86

"So now how are we going to open this door?" Jen muttered. "I don't see any key, and-" she tried both of the Dragon-head doorknobs- "these things are stuck." "Hang on, I have an idea," Sharpie said. He opened his inventory, fished around a bit, and pulled out two glowing purple discs, each about the size of a playing card. "Dragon scales! I'll bet these'll work." Sharpie inserted one into each Dragon's mouth. The small doorknobs' mouths snapped shut, and the door began to open. "Where the brick did you get Dragon scales?" Itchy asked. "Farming Dragons on Crux. I have about five hundred from the last time I smashed Butterscortch." The door now opened fully, and as we walked in, we saw a giant orange glow coming from the center of the room. I was suddenly overcome with the urge to do something random. "Meow. Meow meow meow meow meow," I said. "I'm gonna eat your teeny feet!" Vanda yelled. Evidently, everyone else had the urge, too. I took a closer look at the center of the orange glow, and I saw what looked like an orange Mythran. The person who had sent the transmission to Nexus Tower. "I apologize for my appearance- and the Chaos energy," it said. "I'll change my form for you all." He glowed a bit more, and he suddenly changed. He was now a tall minifig, with brown hair, and a glowing orange stripe through it. He had a kind face, with freckles, and he was wearing an orange t-shirt and khakis. "It's nice to meet you all," he said. "I'm the Chaos Soul, but you can call me Ithamar..."

Chapter 87

The Chaos Soul, Ithamar, slowly walked down from the pedestal where he was standing. "It's nice to meet you all," he said. His voice was quiet and calm, and he had a faint British accent. "I trust you're from the Nexus Force?" I broke out singing the Hamster-Dance Song. "Oh. Pardon me for the Chaos Energy. Thanks to the Chaotic Imagination living in me, I...have a penchant for the unexpected." Ithamar closed his eyes, and the waves of orange energy radiating from him disappeared. "Much better," he said. "Although you won't be affected by the Chaos Energy, I still will." At that, Ithamar blasted a column to smithereens, and then started singing Gibberish, by Relient K. "This guy's a few studs short of a 2 by 4," Itchy muttered. "Anyways, I assume a few explanations are in order," Ithamar said. "Allow me to explain. My history, and how to defeat the Darkitect..."

Chapter 88

"I'm guessing you all know my history, and the history of the Chaotic Imagination?" "We know the history of the Chaotic Imagination, but not so much yours," Jen said. "Well, I was just an average apprentice space-merchant four years ago, when the Pure Imagination was first corrupted by the Baron. I'm guessing you all know how the Chaotic Imagination was formed?" We all nodded. "Well, because the Chaotic Imagination was extremely unstable, it needed a host. It projected a small bit of it throughout the Universe, trying to find a suitable minifig to embody itself in. That would be me. The Chaotic Imagination brought me here, and I've been here ever since. And, I'm invincible, thanks to the Chaotic Imagination enhancing my body functions." "Well, now that we know all that, how are we going to beat the Maelstrom?" I said. "That is a very good question, Dynamo," Ithamar said. He noticed the looks of shock on all our faces. "I can observe anything in the Universe from my Seeing Orb. Picks up cable, too. Anyways, destroying the Maelstrom. Right. Doomsday Chaotic Imagination weapon, where did I put it?" Ithamar began to look through a couple of cabinets. "Here we go!" he said, pulling something out of a cabinet the size of a refrigerator...

Chapter 89

Ithamar pulled out a HUGE, glowing, bright orange sword. When I say huge, I mean this thing was bigger than a Smart Car. Yet somehow, Ithamar hefted it easily above his head. "The Chaotic Imagination had me forge this sword about right after I became the Chaos Soul. I knew someday that a final stand would have to be taken against the Maelstrom. To finally destroy the Darkitect, you need to plunge this into the Maelstrom-infected core of this planet." "Wait, isn't that like, fifty miles underground?" Bubsey asked. "Something along those lines. And the Darkitect's foul castle is built around the core." "Just great," Bubsey muttered. "Now, any more questions?" Ithamar said. I raised my hand, looking at the sword. In fact, it looked almost like a certain giant sword used in a certain anime that I won't mention here because of copyright infringement. "Do you watch (To avoid copyright infringement, I have scrambled the anime's name) Elahbc?" I said. Ithamar smiled. "I always did like the anime that the humans created back on Earth. Now you all need to go. I'll see you soon." As everyone began to walk out the door, Ithamar stopped me. "There's three things I need to tell you, Dynamo. First, I need to give you this." He handed me a necklace. It was simple, just a piece of rope with a glowing orange crystal on it. "If you ever need to contact me on earth, just shatter the crystal on the necklace. It's a one-time-only thing, though, so use it wisely. Second, the room with the Darkitect's Creative Spark collection is on the fourth floor, down the corridor with the mosaic of the Spider Queen on the floor. Third, the entrance to the castle is in Caldera Mar. Oh, and you nearly forgot the sword," Ithamar said, handing it to me. "Thanks, Ithamar," I smiled. "Thanks for everything." With that, I walked out the door, ready to defeat the Maelstrom once and for all...

Chapter 90

We all walked out of Kaosu Manor and into the courtyard of the building. "So, how are we going to get across?" Vanda asked. Bubsey closed his eyes tightly, and his hood began to glow. The spare bricks to create a Bulper appeared in the air. "NO!!!" we all yelled. "Just kidding! A couple of spare bricks fell out of a wall back in the castle, and... well, I couldn't fit them back into the wall..." Mardor eyed him suspiciously. "OK, I just couldn't let them go to waste," Bubsey said. "Anyways, it's a good thing, too. I can build an Imagination Accelerator Cannon. It'll shoot us right across Rivendark Canyon." "OK, I'm not getting in that thing until I know exactly what it does. This isn't going to be anything painful, dangerous, or anything generally uncomfortable?" I asked. "Actually, it's a relatively simple process. Special isotopes in the cannon convert you into a bolt of Pure Imagination, fire you out, and you turn back into a minifig a few seconds later. Worst case scenario, you'll phase through the rock wall right there, turn back into a minifig halfway through, and we'll have to chip you out. Now, who's first?"

Chapter 91

"Bubsey, I'm holding you responsible for any injuries I end up with after this whole ordeal," I said. "What's the problem?" Bubsey said. "You'll just rebuild afterwards." I honestly had no answer for that. "Fine," I said, and climbed into the large chamber where the Imagination converters were held. It honestly felt a bit like a coffin. "Guys, can you fire the thing up already before I freak out from the claustrophobia?" I said. The inside of the chamber started glowing bright blue, and the machine started humming. There was a blinding flash of light, and I suddenly was flying out of the front of the cannon. I closed my eyes, partly amazed by the feeling of being a bolt of Imagination, partly freaked out by the fact that I was about to slam into the rock wall. Thankfully, I turned back into a normal minifig... right before I did a faceplant into the sheer granite face.

"Ouch," winced Itchy. "That's gotta hurt." "I've been sucked out into space and held captive by a giant blob. Don't tell me what hurts," Jen said. "She has a point there," Sharpie said.

I pulled myself up from the ground, pulled out a Paradox Power Potion, and downed it instantly. "Hey, Bubsey! You think you could tone down the power for the next shot?" "That's a little bit risky, Dynamo..." Bubsey said. Everyone gave him a pleading look. "We really don't want to be blasted into the rock wall," Funky said. "Please?" Bubsey knelt down and started typing on a control panel. "OK, next person," he said, and Kind climbed in. "My apologies if you don't get enough speed and you fall into the canyon," Bubsey said, and fired Kind through the air.

A few minutes later, everyone was safely on the other side. More or less safely anyhow. "So, does anyone have any idea where the Maelstrom Castle is?" Mardor said. "We could try Caldera Mar," I suggested. "The castle's at the center of the planet, and Caldera Mar is about as close as you can get without drilling through the surface." "That's actually a pretty good idea," Vanda said. "Let's go..."

Chapter 92

After a few minutes, we reached the giant rock platforms that were floating above Caldera Mar. It still baffled me how nothing but pure heat was able to keep tons of granite from crashing to the ground. "OK, I've honestly never been to Caldera Mar before, so can someone tell me what to expect?" I said. "Just a bunch of volcanic craters and Stromlings. Nothing too out of the ordinary," Mardor explained. "Now let's go!" He jumped into the giant volcanic fissure, and we all followed.

As soon as I jumped in, the heat hit me like a cannonball. I could literally feel my sweat evaporating. I dug a Super Notion Potion out of my pack and chugged it down. "What are we looking for?" Sharpie gasped. "Preferably a portal to Frostburgh!" I yelled. "Something that looks like it could open a door to the hub of all evil in the Universe," Jen said sarcastically. "Take your time, though!"

After about fifteen minutes of searing heat, something happened. "Guys, I think I found it!" Itchy yelled. We all ran over to him. He was kneeling over a hole in the side of a wall. "Anyone have a Maelstrom-Infected Brick?"

Chapter 93

We all rushed over to where Itchy was kneeling. It was a large rock with a hole in it, just the size for a 2x4, infected with Maelstrom. "You know, I never could understand why we can pick these things up without getting infected," I said, pulling a Maelstrom-Infected Brick out of my inventory. "I have no clue," Vanda said. "Meh. Well, let's just put this thing in," Kind said. "Itchy, you wanna do the honors?" "Why not?" he said, and placed the brick into the small hole. The ground started rumbling, and a robotic sounding voice came from the rock we just put the brick in. "Security Clearance needed. Initiating Cannon Defense Protocol. Failure to provide security clearance in fifteen seconds will result in immediate assumption of Nexus Force attack, followed by immediate smashing," the voice said. "Fifteen, fourteen, thirteen," it droned. "Security clearance?! WHERE THE BRICK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO GET SECURITY CLEARANCE?!" Bubsey yelled. "HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW?!" Jen shouted. "Security clearance not provided," the mechanical voice said. "Initiating cannons." The ground rumbled even more, and a huge cannon shattered through the ground. Shards of red-hot granite flew everywhere, some smashing a few minifigs, who quickly rebuilt on top of the floating rocks. The cannon looked like the bomber turrets on tanks, only it had two cannons, and it was glowing bright purple. "Holy Nexus," I muttered...

Chapter 94

"Well, how are we supposed to beat this thing?" Funky muttered. "Like this!" Itchy yelled, and charged at the giant cannon. He swung his Serratorizer at one of the barrels, and it simply bounced off in a shower of sparks. The cannon trained itself on Itchy, and a small red bead appeared on his forehead. A loud clicking noise that could only be Maelstrom Energy shells getting loaded came from the inside of the cannon. "SCATTER!" I yelled. Everyone was willing to comply. The cannon started spraying huge laser bolts around Caldera Mar. I ducked behind a large rock, nearly ramming into Mardor, who was trying to take shelter from the cannon. "Mardor, you're our tech expert. Any ideas on how to take this thing out?" I asked, and then winced as a laser flew over our heads. "Actually, yes. You see that part on its back?" Mardor pointed to an area of the cannon where pulses of purple light were appearing. "That's most likely its main energy chamber. If we can get in there and smash some stuff, the whole thing's gonna blow. Only problem is, we're going to need one brick of a weapon to get in there. We'll need ridiculous amounts of power." "Hang on a second," I mumbled, and dug into my inventory. I pulled out the sword that Ithamar had given us. "I thought that we could only use it once?" Mardor said. "Hang on, there's something on the hilt," I stated. It was a small piece of paper. I looked closer, and saw that it was a message The sword can be used in normal battle. It will only be destroyed once you destroy the core of the planet. -Ithamar "Well, that's handy," I said. I poked my head out of our shelter. "EVERYONE! GO FOR THE WEAK POINT! IT'S ON THE CANNON'S BACK!" Minifigs all jumped out from their hiding places and began attacking the machine. I charged for the cannon, wielding the sword...

Chapter 95

As I brandished the giant blade, the cannons fired a laser blast in my direction. Thankfully, my adrenaline was pumping by now, and right before it hit me, I slid under it, effectively dodging it. I kept running at the cannons, pulled bricks out of the ground to create a set of stairs leading up to the cannon, and I leaped onto its back. I guess the thing was confused by my sudden disappearance (I know I would be. "Where the brick did that Stromling go?!"), because it started spinning and bucking around. It was all I could do to hold on and not get thrown off or smashed into by one of the other minifigs who were on it. I tried to stand up, and eventually got my balance. I began to run down the length of the cannon, sword pressed into the top, slicing the cannon open, revealing the machinery inside it. It ripped through the metal like butter, and where I ran, other minifigs jumped inside and began wreaking havoc on the cannon. "MY FRIEND WOULD BE SO JEALOUS RIGHT NOW! I FEEL LIKE ICHIGO!!!" I whooped happily. (A/N: There's another clue as to what anime the sword is from. Also, the friend I mentioned here is a big fan of that anime.) Eventually, after a few minutes, the cannon's barrels limped towards the ground. A loud rumbling noise was heard, and the cannon began to shake violently. "SHE'S GONNA BLOW!" Bubsey yelled...

Chapter 96

Minifigs everywhere dove for cover, trying to get out of the blast range. Those who couldn't get cover chugged down Potions of Shielding. I barely managed to get behind a large rock before the cannons blew to smithereens, flinging red-hot shrapnel everywhere. I peeked out from behind my boulder, and noticed a giant gaping hole in the ground where the cannon once was. "It's clear!" I yelled. Various minifigs came out from their hiding places to look at the hole. Kind dropped a stud into it. It fell for what must have been thirty seconds, and we couldn't even hear it hit the ground. "Wow," Itchy said. "I guess that leads to the Maelstrom castle," Mardor calmly stated. "We're going to need to get down there somehow." "Hey, we wanna come too!" some random minifig from the crowd yelled. A bunch of others started voicing their thoughts too. "We can't let them come! Who knows what they'll do! And besides, we're the only ones who know what we need to accomplish down there," Vanda whispered. "Vanda's right," I said. "I know for a fact that some people can't obey orders here in the Universe. They could smash random stuff, start Faction Wars, they might even end up getting infected." I also thought about the room with the Darkitect's Creative Spark collection. If they destroyed the bottles with Vanda's parents... I just couldn't let that happen. "Don't worry. I have a plan," Jen grinned. She turned around and yelled, "Venture League Girls, assemble!" A bunch of random Venture League girls lined up in front of Jen. None of them looked too happy to see me. "Can we injure this Sorcerer freak?" one of them said, brandishing her Flareguns rather menacingly. "Sorry, but no," Jen said. "Nobody is to injure Dynamo." I gave a sigh of relief. The Venture League girls gave sighs of sadness. "EVERYONE!" Jen yelled to the crowd of minifigs. "If you don't want to face a hoard of angry Venture League girls, don't follow us down that pit!" Everyone got extremely scared expressions on their faces and backed away. "How did you do that?" I asked. "Word about your encounters with us got around the Tower pretty fast. Now everyone knows that a group of Venture League girls is a force to be reckoned with," Jen said. "I'm not sure how I feel about that," I muttered. "Now, does anyone have any ideas on how to get down there?"

Chapter 97

"I know! We can eat our way down!" Bubsey said upbeatly. Everyone gave him looks that plainly said "Dude, what the brick." "I was just kidding!" he said. "I sincerely hope you were," Rare muttered. "Wait, I've got an idea!" I said. "You guys remember what we used for Long-Fall boots at Starbase, right?" Looks of recognition dawned on the faces of the minifigs who went to that mission. "Spring Shoes might just work!" Vanda exclaimed. "You guys'll have to go first," Jen said. "I need to give final orders to the girls." "Orders?" Mardor questioned. "We run ourselves like an army," Jen explained. A random Bat Lord (Does anyone even care about this guy anymore?) tried to break through the wall of Venture League girls, but one of them did some sort of Judo Flip and sent him flying into a wall. "I'm scared," Turbo said. "Don't worry, buddy. I won't let the HEARTLESS SMASHING MACHINES hurt you," I reassured him, eying Jen. Jen punched me in the arm. Really hard.

A few minutes later, we all had our Spring Shoes on, and we were debating who should go first. "I have an idea!" I said. I did a quick eeny-meeny-miney-mo, and ended up landing on Sharpie. "THIS! IS! SPARTAAA!!!" He yelled, and jumped down the pit. I could hear his yells of joy echoing all the way down the pit. "I've gotta try that!" Jen said. "THIS! IS! SPARTAAA!!!" She kicked me in the chest, and I fell down the hole in the ground, yelling...

Chapter 98

After about thirty seconds of pitch darkness, cold air rushing past me, and flailing and screaming, I hit the bottom feet first, and bounced a little bit upwards. Sharpie was waiting for me, looking too happy. He walked over and whaled me in the arm... right in the same spot Jen had just punched me. A bit later, the rest of the team all jumped down. "Well, this is it," Funky said. "The final battle," Vanda replied. "It could all end here," Mardor affirmed. "Guys, it will end here," I said, "whether for the Nexus Force or the Maelstrom. This is what we've been fighting for this whole time. We may or may not make it out of this in one piece." I swallowed. "In case we don't... it was great to meet you all." Everyone said what they wanted to say before the battle, and I hugged Itchy and Turbo. "I hope we do make it out of this," Turbo said. "Dude, we're minifigs. Even if we don't make it, we'll just rebuild. We'll set up a rebel force against the Maelstrom, or end up back on Earth or something," I reassured him. "You know, it just occurred to me that the castle's nowhere in sight," Jetman said. Bubsey leaned back against the wall, and we all heard a small clicking noise. The wall behind him slid open, and he fell through. "I'm OK!" he yelled. We all raced up to him. He was standing in front of the most horrible sight any of us had ever seen...

Chapter 99

It was a huge castle, dark and menacing. Not like Kaosu Manor, which, although offbeat and quirky, was rather nice. This was huge, made out of some pitch black rock. Parts of it were crumbling, and there was an air of menace about it, probably from the Maelstrom Energy radiating from the center of it. "Well, here we are," I said. "Let's go." "For the Universe!" Itchy said. We all echoed his battle cry. "FOR THE UNIVERSE!" We all walked up the door, expecting it to be locked and having to blow it up, but surprisingly enough, it swung open once we touched it. We all looked at each other. "It's a trap," we all said in unison, making Admiral Ackbar envious...

Chapter 100

"Well, what other choice do we have?" Mardor said. "I can't see any windows, or other entrances." "It's our only shot," Vanda replied. "Wait! Why can't we break through the rock?" Itchy said. He charged at the castle and swung his Serratorizer, only to have it bounce back in a shower of sparks. "...and, that's why." I said. "Shut your face," Itchy muttered. "Now, any plans on how to find the door to the Darkitect's throne room?" "How about what we did last time?" Bubsey said. "Split up into the same groups, then try to find the throne room." Everyone nodded, and we all walked in the menacing door.

After we had all split up, Bubsey and I were on our way up to the fourth floor. "Why are we looking on the fourth floor?" Bubsey asked. I hesitated. After a few seconds, I tentatively said, "Promise not to tell anyone?" "Sure." "I promised Vanda I would find her parents' Creative Sparks after they were smashed and the Baron captured them... I'm not about to go back on that promise. Plus, there's tons more in the room where they're kept. Ithamar told me." "Ah," Bubsey said quietly. "Now, keep an eye out for a room with a giant mosaic of the Spider Queen on the floor."

A few minutes later, we had found the room. I opened the door, and was shocked by the horrible sight. Thousands of glass bottles, all over the room, each with a Creative Spark inside, flitting about like a lightning bug. I opened my Inventory, and began knocking them off the walls into the void where I kept all my items. "Let me know if you see anything labeled Vincent Darkflame or Victoria Darkflame," I said, catching a small bottle that nearly fell off a shelf." A few minutes later, Bubsey had found them. In a thin, spidery cursive that I assumed was the Darkitect's handwriting was the names of the minifigs who were imprisoned there. I stored them separately in my Inventory, and then began to walk out of the room. Just then, both of our NNWs chimed. Funky's face appeared on it. "Guys, Vanda and I found the entrance. I'm sending you our coordinates..."

Chapter 101

After about ten minutes, we had all reached the door to the Maelstrom throne room. It was a giant door, hewed from the same black stone that most of Crux was made of. Intricately carved in it were scenes of the different victories of the Maelstrom: the invasion of Avant Gardens, the infected treasure chests at Gnarled Forest, the creation of the Spider Boss, etc. They were horrible, yet somehow amazing. Sharpie rushed forward and tried to open it, but it was locked. Either that or it was too heavy. "Any ideas on how to get this open?" he said. Itchy grinned, and pulled out a Big One. "Think you could spare some Maelstrom Fire?" he asked me. I closed my eyes, and let a small tendril of it flow out of my mouth. It lit the big one's fuse, and sparks began shooting out of it. Bubsey built a shelter to absorb the blast of the explosion. After about three seconds, there was a loud "BA-ROOM!" followed by a blast of heat that nearly destroyed the shelter. We all cautiously peeked out, and there we saw that the doors had been blown clean off the hinges. We all rushed into the cavernous room, brandishing our weapons. Inside was a glowing purple orb, sunk halfway into the floor, about the size of a minivan. Emanating from it were waves of Maelstrom Energy, buffeting against us. It was all we could do to try to hold our ground. Above it, in a throne suspended on giant metal leg-like structures, sat the Baron. His back was to us, but as if he knew we were there (he probably did, what with the explosion), he began to speak. "Hello, children," he said in the horrible voice from the dream we had. "Haven't you learned it's not polite to just barge in without knocking?" He began to stand up, and turned towards us, revealing his horrible, glowing, skeletal face. "And naughty children must be... punished." He turned around and threw his hands forward. We all began floating, surrounded by waves of Maelstrom. A few seconds after, the pain began. We all began writhing in pain, screaming. It was so powerful, it brought tears to my eyes. Eventually, the pain stopped, and we all dropped to the ground. A few of us began to moan. "As you can see, I haven't smashed you... yet. I posed a challenge, and I fully intend to carry it out," the Darkitect said. "Honestly, the minifigs the Nexus Force sends out are pitiful. Well, have at you, and all that..."

Chapter 102

We all struggled to get back on our feet, groaning from the pain. A couple of us actually stood up, but then fell back down. The Darkitect smirked. "Pathetic. Look, I'll even give you an advantage," he said. He stood up, held completely still, and raised his arms above his head. "I'm completely defenseless. Going Obi-Wan Kenobi, as I believe you young people put it?" It was then that I got an idea. It didn't have anything to do with Star Wars, but it was a relatively obvious idea. I hated myself for not thinking of it before. I focused my energy to my Staff, charging it up. A purple ring appeared around all of us, and our Imagination was replenished instantly. Itchy jumped up, quickly changed into what he called his "Big Destructo Armor," and charged at the Darkitect, brandishing his Elite Javelin. ( The Big Destructo Armor consists of an Elite Javelin, a Super Dirk, a Rounded Helm, and Obsidian Armor over the No Robots shirt and Metal Legs.) He stabbed at the Darkitect... and it bounced off him. "Why didn't it work?" he yelled. "Maybe it's because he's the one controlling the source of all evil in the Universe, and he's enhancing himself with Maelstrom?!" Turbo yelled back. "Guys, I have an idea," I said, and pulled out the sword that Ithamar had given us. The Darkitect's eyes widened. "So, I've seen you've been to see the Chaos Soul," he said, with the faintest quaver in his voice. "You sound scared," Bubsey said. "Is that because this is the only weapon that will work on you?" "N-no! That's preposterous-" "It's the only weapon that'll work on him," Bubsey said. "No! It's not! I am the Darkitect! I am invincible-" "Can it," Vanda said. Suddenly, the sword started glowing, and a bolt of Chaotic Imagination blasted out, slamming the Darkitect into the wall. He slid to the ground, unconscious. "Guys! We need to take out the Core!" Sharpie yelled. I eyed the sword, noticing something: the orange glow was fading from it. "NO!" I yelled. Everyone rushed over. "This can't happen! We worked so hard..." "It's too late for your precious Nexus Force now," the Darkitect said gleefully. By now he had woken back up, but he was definitely injured. "Jonathan," Vanda said. "You didn't have to choose this path. You could have been the greatest protector of the Nexus. You've made mistakes, but now you can join us. Please..." She gave a pleading look to the Darkitect. For a moment, I thought I saw a flicker of recognition in his eyes, but it soon disappeared. "You thought you could get me to join your sniveling Nexus force?" he spat. "That's just lamentable. And your oversized pocketknife is deprived of its energy. Face it. You're doomed!" He broke out laughing, but then winced. "As soon as I can recover my powers, that is. I think I might have cracked a rib." "I'm sorry, then," Vanda said. "Guys, look at the gem!" Rare said. The gem in the hilt of the sword, which had once glowed a brilliant orange, was now a feeble shade of sky blue. "Anyone else thinking what I'm thinking?" Jetman said. "We can restore its Chaotic Imagination using OUR Imagination!" Each of us grasped the hilt of the sword. We focused all our Imagination into it, and soon the glow returned to the blade, and the gem turned back to a healthy orange. "Ready, guys?" Jen asked. We took aim at the Core, and began running at it. "NO!" screamed the Darkitect. "FOR THE UNIVERSE!" we all yelled, plunging the sword into the hub of energy...

Chapter 103

The sword entered the core of the planet, causing a bright flash of light. The core began to shake violently, and strands of purple and orange light started shooting out of it. One of them grabbed the Darkitect around the middle and began drawing him towards the mass of energy. "NOOO!!!" the Darkitect yelled. The core absorbed him, and he was suddenly gone. Then the core exploded. In a blinding jolt of light, a deafening "BOOM!", and a wave of heat, the core was annihilated, and we were all thrown to different corners of the room.

Meanwhile at Starbase, the cleaner robot K-733N was staring out the window at Crux Prime. He had been told about the battle that the minifigs had to fight on Crux, and also about the potentially catastrophic consequence of losing. He gave a robotic sigh. He hoped they wouldn't lose. That would mean he couldn't clean anymore, and he loved cleaning. It was his entire existence. Just then, he saw a huge blue explosion on the planet. We must have won, the droid thought. And if I can see it from up here, that must mean the minifigs on the planet can too. And he happily went back to cleaning the floors. -Sharpie Thunderflare: daredevil of lightning A few minutes later, we all slowly stood up. Where the infected core once was, there was now a core that was glowing a beautiful shade of cobalt blue. "We did it!" Itchy yelled. We all cheered at the top of our lungs. We shook hands, hugged (a couple people anyways), and a few of us even did victory dances. After a while, our festivities died down, and Jen asked, "Now what?" "We emerge victorious!" Rare said cheerfully.

After leaving the ancient castle, and bouncing up through the pit with our Spring Shoes, we came up to cheering crowds of minifigs. We tried to make our way through, and we happily (more or less) welcomed our praise. Once we got to a less-crowded area, I broke the news about what I had found to the rest of the team. "Um, guys? I need to show you something," I said. "I found the Darkitect's Creative Spark collection." Recognition dawned on Vanda's face. "You mean... you found my parents?" she said excitedly. I dumped the entire stock of Creative Spark bottles out on the floor, and then took out the bottles with Vincent and Victoria out. "Thank you so much!" Vanda said. "You know, it would take forever to uncork them individually," Bubsey said. "And since Creative Sparks are invincible..." He pulled out a Spike Hammer and set to work on the bottles. A few minutes later, all except Vanda's parents were rebuilt. "Where the brick are we?" shouted a random guy in Exploriens Bot gear. As Sharpie and Turbo tried to explain the whole adventure, I handed Vanda the bottles. "You wanna do the honors?" I asked. She smiled and uncorked the bottles. Two minifigs built around the Creative Sparks, a man and a woman. The man was wearing a black shirt and gray pants, and he had Vanda's eyes. His black hair was shoulder-length, and he had a kind face and a small goatee. The lady was obviously Vanda's mother. She looked just like an older version of Vanda, only she was wearing a simple red dress, and she didn't have the purple stripe through her hair. "Mom! Dad!" Vanda yelled happily, and rushed over to hug/flying tackle them both. "Vanda!" they both yelled, and hugged her back. "Um, why are we on Crux?" Vincent asked. Vanda began to tell the whole story, right up until when I freed them. "Well, I guess we owe you our lives," Victoria said. "It's nice to meet you, Dynamo." "You too, Mr. and Mrs. Darkflame," I replied, shaking both their hands. "Umm, Dynamo?" Rare yelled. "You might want to look on the horizon." A huge orange beacon of light came from across Rivendark Canyon. It engulfed the entire planet, and suddenly, every minifig disappeared from Crux Prime.

Even the robots had disappeared in the Chaotic Imagination pulse. Naomi was gone from Nexus Tower, 2by3 was gone from MoonBase, and Clipperbot-8000 and K-733N were gone from Starbase. The only worlds left untouched were Portabello, DeepFreeze, and Robot City. But, if anyone was still on board Starbase, they would have seen a small crystal float by, glowing purple. If they had looked even closer, they would have seen a hideous, skeletal face inside it. But that's another story.

We all disappeared from Crux Prime, and now we were in a strange, cylinder-shaped vortex. On one side of it, we could see the Universe, but on the other, we could see Earth. Suddenly, we heard Ithamar's voice. "I apologize, but once again, the Chaotic Imagination is interfering again. For those of you who don't know me, I am the Chaos Soul. Now, the Chaotic Imagination is going to send you to Earth. I'm holding it back best I can, but I need to set something straight. Once you get to Earth, I can manipulate the human's minds to give you basic means of making a living: a house, a vehicle, a job, et cetera. Once you land on Earth, and you have all your assets set up, you're on your own. Also, if you're not an NPC, you'll be warped back to your home town." All the NPCs seemed fine with this idea, but then Ithamar started talking again. "Also, you'll be turned into humans once you get to Earth, and because humans only use 10% of their entire brain, your powers of Imagination will be locked." Everyone started yelling and protesting. "I'm not finished yet!" Ithamar shouted. "I've also provided the means for Dr. Overbuild to create a device to open portals to the Universe, where you can do everything you would normally do while playing LU. You can stay in this vortex until you've decided where to move to on Earth. I've provided you with a map for each of you." A map appeared in each NPC's hand. "Players, to go back to your hometown, just walk to the end of the vortex." I turned to my friends (and Jen) and said my goodbyes, agreeing to keep in touch using the LMBs. Then I turned to the Darkflames. "I might be able to help you out with a place to move to," I said. "There's a house down the street that's empty. Nobody's moved into it yet, so you guys could, maybe. Could I see the map?" Vincent passed it to me, and I pulled a pen out of my pocket. I wrote down the name of the town I lived in, and drew a circle around it. "I'll see you guys soon," I said, and began walking towards the end of the vortex with Itchy and Turbo. I thought about the adventures I had while in the Universe, and about how good it would be to get back home. Up until now, I hadn't had any real adventures, and now I had been on my first one. "You think anyone's gonna believe us if we tell them about this whole thing?" Turbo asked me. "Probably not," I said. "But we'll believe each other." And with that, we stepped through the end of the vortex, happy to be returning home. THE END