Slintronius stabbed a finger at his control belt, where it hung from a drawer. " El Skeletor come to me ." he hissed in anger . A few seconds later, he heard echoing down the hall, the telltale hissing of hydraulics that indicated to the presence of a droid . Slintronius listened as the footsteps paused at his door, and then the door swung open ." You summoned me , Master ? " the skeletal droid asked, his voice crackling with power and from the circuits that conveyed it . " Yes El Skeletor . Get Gronard . Bring his head to me ! " Slintronius shouted, causing the heart-rate monitors to go crazy ." As you wish, my Lord ." El Skeletor said grimly, as he clanked out the door .
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Far away, aboard the Sith Star Destroyer " Minotaur ", Ric Gronard writhed in pain . His body had been genetically programmed by Yuzzhan Vong shapers to undergo transformations at certain points in his life . This was the second, and the most painful of the two . Along his jaw-line. his two horns that protruded from his chin now were elongated, barbed blades of bone, that reached from his chin to nearly his ear . His claws on his knucles were now twice as long and barbed . The horn/claws on knees and elbows were both longer and sharper . His muscles were mutating at a furious rate, growing stronger, faster, while his brain's reflexes became honed to the point of shattering humanoid brain-waves . The doctors stood by helplessly, not knowing what was happening and powerless to stop it . Underneath Ric's flesh, his bone structure was also changing, becoming almost the exact counter part of steel hardened cortosis ore . No lightsaber could cut through his bones now .
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Senator Leia Organa Solo strode briskly down the hall toward the science labs . A distuingished scientist by the name of G'Fratin Josinel had invented something he claimed would turn this war around . As she walked in, her attention was drawn toward the twisted remains of what looked like some sort of Tie fighter . Curiously enough , even though there was obviously extensive damage to the interior of the fighter, the armor still shone and sparkled, not a scratch on it ." Senator Solo, I am pleased that you made it ." she turned as the voice cut through the air . A Balding man in his mid-fifties, stood beside a heavily modified laser cannon, salvaged from a X-wing from the looks of it . " Yes, Dr. Josinel, I am here . Now what is it you wanted to show me . I'm missing very important meetings ." She snapped. though secretly relieved to have an excuse to get away from the other senators . " I have solved the problem of Quantum armor, Senator . My new ... "" You mean you re-created the formula ?" Leia interupted ." No, I have created a weapon that will destroy it . " Josinel said, indicating the long barreled laser cannon beside him ." This new disruptor weapon rips through matter at the sub-atomic level . Observe. " he said, flicking a control on the key-board beside the weapon . The weapon lit up along the sides, glowing with an erie blue light ." This Tie fighter has Quantum armor, it was destroyed by itself when a concussion missile exploded still in the Tie's missile bay .Now watch what the disrutor does to it after this other laser cannon fires at it . He worked a switch and transparent shields came up around them, while a heavy laser cannon aimed at the wrecked Tie . A long burst of red light out-poured from the cannon, bouncing off of the Tie and into the shields .AS the smoke cleared away, Josinel pointed at the un-marred surface of the Tie's armor ." Now watch this ." he cried gleefully . Leia sighed, thinking This guy spends to much time down here . A blue stream of energy shot out at the Tie, causing the armor to glow red and . . . dis-appear . Leai leaned closer to the shields, as the disruptor ray demolished the Tie's armor ." Thats my answer to Quantum Armor ." Josinel shouted, laughing in exultation .
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El Skeletor walked quietly toward the sleeping Ric Gronard . It had been so easy to sneak aboard this ship after tracking it down in the Force . His lightsaber slid out and activated , its red glow lighting up the med-bay .All of a sudden, the sleeping Gronard dis-appeared . " If you want to play, all you have to do is ask ." A mocking voice said from behind El Skeletor . He whirled to see a tall grey, horned demonic alien . He recognized Ric Gronard from the mental images Slintronius had given him .But this Gronard was different, changed .
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Ric glared at the droid, his new multi-weapon slithering into his hand and its red blade sliding out to full length . He had constructed it in his bladecraft on the way here . He leaped forward lashing out at the skeleton based droid . He was slightly surprised when it dodged with incredible ( for a droid ) agility . After that, it became a contest of strength and speed, each trying to remove the others head from his shoulders . El Skeletor was un-tiring, and Ric was newly replenished by his transformation .Ric scraped a layer of armor off the droids thigh with his lightsaberand hopped over the mis-aimed slash at his own legs . He was fighting fine until an un-expected burst of lightning threw him against the wall .
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El Skeletor limped over to the fallen Sith . He would need repairs . He would enjoy this kill, he decided and swung his lightsaber at Ric's neck .
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Ric's vision cleared from the pain and he saw a crimson blade arcing toward his neck . He tried to close his eyes, not wanting to witness his own end but couldn't . Ric winced as the blade touched his skin and with shock, saw it flicker and de-activate just as it touched his neck-bone . With a flash his multi-weapon flew to his hand and its crimson blade shot upwards into the depths of El Skeletors armor . Ric stood slowly, feeling overcome with pain from his neck wound, and then with just as great a shock as before he looked in the mirror accross the room and watched the gaping hole in his throat, heal,shrink and dis-appear . He rubbed his throat gingerly, feeling for the wound but felt nothing but smooth skin . Something had drastically changed this time , he thought .
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While it had been severed from its mechanical body, El Skeletor's head remained functional and sending holo-images via inter-hyper-link to the watching Slintronius . Slintronius watched as Ric stepped toward the dis-embodied head and said ." You pathetic old man . I have always been more powerful than you, and now I have twice the power I had before . I will come for you, that's a promise ." and his foot came down, crushing the metallic head , rendering it in-operable . Slintronius shook with anger as he sat back in his chair . Gronard would be a hard one to destroy , but he must do it, before Ric destroyed him .
Posted by Nate at July 19, 2004 05:46 PM