The Daily Neopets Community Forums Missing Persons Task Force (TDNCFMPTF)

[antiaircraft]

"All right, read and understood. We'll start with the luring then - and tell Morgan she's welcome back on the team any time!"

 

AA terminated the connection and pulled up Google Maps. "So Jas, shall we get to the bait work?"

[Midtime]

It could have just been AA3's remaining nausea, but he could swear he felt something in the atmosphere changing for the worse. "To be honest," he said, "I don't think we may have a choice."

 

Turning, Illness' manifestation felt the remnants of a bout of serious nausea passing overhead. Having informed his counterparts, it began to move, or at least to be in a different position from the last time you checked.

[FutureTXTurkey]

FTX watched in horror as Morgan was taken away by one seriously creepy fog. What could she do to save her? Nothing... and that was the horrible truth.

 

"Well troops we've lost one of our best out here today, and all we can do now is hope that the fog had nothing to do with the 'real' world. In the mean time I suggest we load into Winnie and head for the agreed upon rift in our dimension. I think the best thing we can do for our fallen comrade is defeat these nodes, start a new RP, and hope that the Morgan will miraculously reappear. Agreed?"

 

((If we change settings and I'm not active, anyone can control my character's transport to the new place.

Just toss me in the back of Winnie or whatever, it makes catching up easier if I'm at least in the same place.))

[Stephé]

The inactivity and neutral status that Stephanie remained in through a long period of time suddenly took action. She was starting to be of no use to this mission and was what was called 'expired'. Soon her body was flickering from the action. And then, she disappeared, forbidden from this journey.

 

"I'm so sorry guys! I couldn't be much help, I guess this just wasn't the time for me...

"So long. I'll limit myself to the forum for now."

[ΩCCΩ]

"Great" sighed CC "Now two of our people are gone, it is saad but true..." She stopped talking for one minute and sat down, "What do we do now?".

[Creeper unidog]

Anna shrugged and sighed "We cant do anything but bear((or BARE IDK SO ERR TELL ME IF THIS IS WRONG xD)) with it CC." she said in a monotone voice.

"All we can do is hope for the better."She said smiling a bit.

[antiaircraft]

((We continue with the mission. :) ))

 

"All right AA3, let's do this chase the old fashioned way!" AA announced confidently, powering up the craft's engines. "Let's hope the others can get their trap set up fast enough!"

 

With that, he opened the throttle and they rocketed into the sky, trailing signal flares to draw the shadow nodes' attention.

[Midtime]

While AA3 was wondering whether the shadow nodes might find something strange about their target deliberately trailing signal flares - he had nothing to worry about, as shadow nodes already found humans utterly incomprehensible -

 

and as a bad-smelling breath of air lifted Illness into the sky, and a sense of trepidation signified Examinations moving in, presumably with some other form of locomotion, a considerably quicker and more immediate threat gave chase to the aircraft like a streak of lightning - which, in effect, it was.

Shadow node N^O 4 was somewhat astonished by the turn of speed that the submarine/plane put on; very few, if any, standard human craft could move faster than Mach 3. Still, electricity is faster than sound. It would catch them, it was sure of it.

[antiaircraft]

An alarm went off on a panel next to AA's left arm, indicating that a hostile construct was coming in from behind and above. A quick glance at a rear-view camera showed a shadow node, in the form of a lightning strike, closing in fast.

 

"Hey, that's impossible! Nothing should be able to move fast enough to do that!" AA exclaimed surprised. Then he spotted the problem.

 

"Whoops, I left the parking brake on. That should- WHOA!"

 

The craft accelerated abruptly, now reaching a speed well in excess of Mach 100.

[ΩCCΩ]

CC got upo and started talking to AA "Do we need a bait, if so...Who Is gonna be our bait?".

[FutureTXTurkey]

"Well with many of our teammates evaporating, and the remaining members caught up in mourning the loss of said teammates, we are in great danger of loosing this war! I think now is the time to act before AA and AA3 get that shadow nod flying through here at Mach speeds and finds us not prepared on the other side. I don't know about the rest of you, but Winnie and I will be heading out for the tear at 9:00 am NST. Anyone who intends to join us in the battle you should gather your gear and start loading up!"

 

FTX gathered her gear and launched toward the Winnie, she hopped into the drivers seat and waited for the rest of TDNCFMPTF to climb aboard. As she began the formulation of a plan she realized that CC was absolutley right, we would definitely need bate. Something worthwhile to make sure that when the shadow nodes came across the break they would want to stick around and fight, not just see the ambush and flee. What commodity did they have, that the nodes would want?

 

"I would volunteer to be bait, I don't mind taking one for the team, but I just don't think I'm temping enough" FTX said, thinking through the options allowed, "I just don't know what we have that they would that badly...LAURA! The shadow nods have set a certain store on Laura, and though we don't know for sure why, I think she would make by far the most appealing bait. Not to mention that she is so crazy it's almost impossible that the shadow nod could actually cast her to the 'real' world. What do you think Laura? Are you up for it?"

[ΩCCΩ]

CC went and sat in Winnie in the passenger seat "buckle up guys, we are gonna go for a nice journey" she patted he meepit befor popping it in her sweater pocket, "Do you think that Laura will except to be a bait?" she asked Tara.

[FutureTXTurkey]

"I don't know, but let's hope so, since that's the only plan we've got. And let's also hope that the rest of the team slipped silently into the back of the van without us noticing ((Wink*Wink)) and are here with us now as we take off!"

 

And with that Tara hit the gas and they flew off at highly illegal speeds toward their destination: The Dimensional Break.

 

"As for the rest of our plan I think when we arrive you (CC) and I should start scouting for the most optimal place to set up the Uber-Ban-Ray. And then perhaps test it on a few unsuspecting noob rule violators, just to make sure it works, and also because it's incredibly fun! Sound like a plan?" FTX said, as she drove like a mad women dodging in and out of traffic...and occasionally even cutting across sidewalks and through parks.

[Captain Awesome Pants]

Laura blinked her eyes , and quickly discovered she was in the back of Winnie, and it was going very, very fast.

 

She rubbed her eyes and thought about all the illogical explanations. Laura ended up settling for the one that had proven true in the past: She had had a mini-black out.

 

Laura did this all the time. People would be talking to her, and it would seem to her that they missed a word or didn't finish their sentence. But other people around her would hear everything fine. To Laura, it seemed as though nothing else had happened but them missing words. It would be as quick as the blink of an eye, so usually everyone was standing in the same spot.

 

Except this one must have just been a bit longer was all. She stretched out her limbs and proceeded to take a seat.

 

((Just letting you guys know I'm still here. ;)))

[ΩCCΩ]

"THAT SOUNDS LIKE FUN!" screamed CC with her hands up in the air, enjoying the ride. "Noobs are annoying" she nodded while continuing screaming.

 

She noticed Laura at the back and asked her: "Are you gonna volunteer to be a bait for the shadow nod?"

 

((Dont ask, I got Ninja-posted, but I updated the second paragraph))

[Captain Awesome Pants]

"Tch, seriously, CC? Can't we like... send out some random noob to be the bait?" Laura said, but then realized the stupidity of her statement. "Shadow nodes want us more. We are more active, thus a bigger challenge. Well, at I'm assuming that's what is happening,"Laura sighed, "Yeah, i guess I'll be the bait. Just tell me what to do."

[Midtime]

((Very brave, Laura. XD

I can't think of much for AA3 to do whilst being sick. :())

 

Illness moves insidiously, and Examinations unstoppably, but both are far, far too slow to catch anything in the long run. In comparison, Network Failures occur in the blink of an eye, though they can last for (seemingly) eons.

The fourth shadow node would have been agape if its manifestation had a mouth. Human technology, especially in the real world, could NOT achieve such speeds. It was definitively, physically impossible, especially with that shape, and especially with only the puny selection of materials available that they had invented or discovered. The craft would have vaporised on the spot. It had to be some trick.

In a few milliseconds, a grey blur trailing signal flares and a small amount of vaporised, half-digested food streaked across the sky from behind the shadow node, too quickly for it to respond, taunting it.

 

The shadow node felt something it had not felt in a long time: despair, and helpless rage.

[Creeper unidog]

Anna was in the winnie for some reason, she was sleepy and yawned .

"Oh, whos the bait..." She said sleepily as she shook her head, trying not to fall asleep.

[Midtime]

There is no such thing as going faster than light, outside people's imaginations, and theoretical physicists' calculations.

This was relevant for Network Failures because fibre optic cables were in active use. Not just theoretically, but practically, the fourth shadow node could move at the speed of light.

However, to perform such a task it would have to dispel and re-manifest, a process that would take several weeks. This was not an option.

In the world of TDN, anything goes. However, as agents of reality rather than agents of insanity, ridiculously omnipotent as the shadow nodes might be, they had to obey certain rules. A mind, however malign, had to exist at all times, and thus the information that defined and, essentially, was it had to be etched somewhere in the manifestation. The particular configuration of a microscopic bundle of electrons defined the mind of Network Failures. This restricted its fluidity. Such was the fallibility of the servants of reality. Their manifestations were restricted by the rules of reality and by the minds of the humans that they endeavored to subjugate.

This shadow node was defeated.

 

But somewhere, perhaps, a cloaked and hooded figure in black, holding a smooth metal scythe and an hourglass, exuding a putrid stench, extended a skeletal finger and vanished.

 

((More trap food... perhaps. :P))

[FutureTXTurkey]

"WHOA!" FTX slammed on the breaks, they were inches away from crashing right through the break to the 'real' world, and she had only stopped just in time.

 

"Okay everyone, we have reached our destination! Laura, since you have so bravely accepted the job of bait, I suggest you put on this giant chicken costume that just happens to be in one of Winnie's storage compartments. It could be left over from a summer job I had one time...or it might have just magically appeared *shrugs* You might be wondering how this is going to help you be bait for the nodes, and simply put, it's not! Moral is at an all time low right now and I think we could all use some cheering up."

[ΩCCΩ]

How will Laura look in a chicken costume? thought CC. she chuckled with herself and started noming on a slice of extra cheesy pizza.

[antiaircraft]

AA checked the rear displays, and was surprised yet again. "Whoops... we seem to have lost a couple of those nodes. Better throttle back a bit!" he said, dialling the engines down from 0.5% power to 0.01%. "At this rate, the team will have another 15 minutes to set up - let's hope they're on the ball!"

[Midtime]

Looking back, AA3 realised that they wouldn't be able to let the slower shadow nodes catch up without being caught by the faster one. Unless they could somehow trap Network Failures...

Thinking quickly, AA3 pulled a container filled with ion-saturated water and constructed of a hard, plastic-like substance that had been one of AA's experimental ultra-strong composites. AA3 hadn't even known he had had it until it had come out instead of the cookie jar one boring day. Now, he popped open the lid.

Another rule that the shadow nodes had to follow. Electrons prefer the path of least resistance.

 

Death is in everything that lives, that thinks. What lives, dies. This was, in the thirteenth shadow node's view, its sole purpose. Wherever life was, death was. Wherever death was, Death could be.

There is only one thing that can take a person from TDN... forever.

Now, a chilling, hooded and scythe-wielding figure projected itself from the manifestations of the three shadow nodes and hovered in front of them.

I SEE YOU HAVE BEEN BESTED, it said to each of them.

The simultaneous reply: No! We are merely -

MOMENTARILY INCONVENIENCED, NO DOUBT, mocked the skeletal apparitions.

One hissed, Your interference is not required.

I WAS NOT GOING TO PROVIDE MY HELP, FOOLS.

Then why -

THIS IS MERELY A WARNING. YOU KNOW I HAVE THE POWER TO HAVE YOU PUNISHED IF YOU FAIL AGAIN.

Mercifully, the figures vanished as abruptly as they had appeared.

It thinks it can boss us around, just because it holds the source of all our power, just because it is the preferred of the master of reality, Illness moaned.

Just because it has a myriad myriad times the skill and experience of all the rest of us put together? put in Examinations.

Stop it, you're making me depressed, whined Illness.

[Anime]

Anime, while she found the thought of Laura in a chicken suit extremely funny, had a slightly more important matter to deal with. She hopped out of Winnie (she had been trying to repair the hole she kicked in the seat) and took a look at the sewed up rift. After studying how it was stitched, she cut the threads with a deft sweep and let the sides of it settle where they wanted. In the end, it was about 6 feet wide at it's widest point and 7 feet tall. Experience said it was rather elastic as well, so the trap should be able to proceed through it.

She then did something a little more dangerous- stepped into the rift, but not all the way through, so she was in the body of the rift itself. She had to make sure the sides of the rift wouldn't break out and release whoever was in there, be it ally or shadow node, into the multitude of other universes out there. She had no particular wish to go across several dozen universes with this lot trying to recover something or someone that ended up out there. It's be disasterous to the other universes, to say the least.

Most never realize this, but rifts aren't flat, going from on universe or dimension to another, but rather tube like, allowing branches to ther places. Also, the sides of a spacial rift are actually transparent. Through them, you can see neghiboring universes and sometimes even those further away, though most who get sucked through them are either too scared or going too fast to notice. Knowing Laura, she'd get distracted if she saw this, so Anime had to regretably fog them over in case she managed to get inside the rift. After that, she checked the strength of the walls, and, finding them plently strong, added an extra Laura-proof measure just in case, as well as an extra layer to compensate for the distortion blast you tend to get when using an IP ray.

She then stepped back out of the rift and waited to see what Chicken Suit Laura looked like.

[Captain Awesome Pants]

Laura sighed and heaved up the giant yellow mountain that was to be her fashionable outfit for the next several minutes. Or hours, depending on how this went.

 

Upon picking up the suit, her arms flew up suddenly over her head, and there was a blinding, flashy light, and a small fanfare coming from somewhere. She looked up and saw words above her head, but she couldn't seem to make it out. All of the sudden, her arms returned to normal and the chicken suit appeared to be in her pocket. Laura sighed.

 

Stupid game references, Laura thought as she hopped into her pocket-inventory and put the chicken suit on. She found that she had some trouble getting out of her pocket-inventory,however, because all the feathers got in the way.