Exit Morpher (Full Story): Written by Exodus, Original Story by Planeswalker In the past, empire troopers had always prioritised their lives above their missions, so when the Resistors came about, and constantly put their lives in danger, the troopers always fled, and Emperor Iyaxxl was tired of that. He’d kept a close eye on the troopers that prioritised their worthless lives over his carefully thought out plans: They were the ones that would give themselves to the Overrun Project. After a lot of work and research (plus one failed test in the form of Angus’ transformation), a specific battle program was in order, one that would force the new robotic troopers to fight until the very end, without fear, or cowardice. Each robot came out practically the same, for the specific battle they were made for. Strange box-shaped heads with smaller sections where their mouths should have been (almost like cuboid skulls), and plenty of thick wires at the opposite end that fed power and instructions to the brains. They had spiked shoulder pads, and relatively normal sized limbs (compared to the Mecha Knights), and sharp feet like Lucia’s. These robots had hands with sharp claws instead of fingers, and blaster cannons (or two of the same weapons depending on the ability of their previous self). Most troopers were silver, blue and yellow, while officers leading the teams were coloured gold, bronze and silver, and had better energy cannons. The armour used wasn’t as good as the Mecha Knights’, because the best resources were rare, and apparently not worth using on lowly troopers. With this being talked about so often at the empire, it was no wonder that Ruwin, the Resistance’s top spy was onto the plan, and the Resistors had plenty of time to plan for the upcoming battle. The targets were the two small villages of Grautz and Rolem, the southern landmarks of Haprin, the kingdom that the empire had set their sights on having conquered two kingdoms already. Resistance soldiers were restricted for this battle and only the best ones in the Resistance were authorised to take part in this battle, as the power of these new troopers were uncertain. Of course, all the Resistors would take part, their abilities and strategy was beyond that of their soldiers, the Resistors would remain close to the villages, while the soldiers (as usual) fought closer to the island’s coast away from the Resistors’ fight to lower the number of attackers. “... So its about time that the Mecha Morpher was destroyed, after the business with Angus, Morn will stop at nothing to build the perfect robotic warrior, we just have to make sure its not a person inside from now on.” explained Gear, “And that way, we won’t have to hold back against future robotic empire warriors.” “But... Morn would just build another one, wouldn’t he?...” questioned Kirie. “No, actually.” said Lucia with cheery eyes, “According to his records, it took Morn years of research and rare materials to build the Mecha Morpher, if we destroy it, he won’t be able to change people into robots for a long time.” “Perfect.” smiled Gear, “The plan is to split into three groups, one will protect Grautz, one protects Rolem, and one team will wait at Hilltop Valley, to thin out the enemy numbers before they reach the two villages. Once we’re sure that the remaining Resistors can handle the new troopers, then members from each team shall head towards the empire, to hit the Mecha Morpher before anyone else can be changed into robots. In the meantime, you’re permitted to kill these robots. They’ll stop at nothing to carry out Iyaxxl’s mission now. Kirie, Turok and Lucia were exceptions because they didn’t believe in Iyaxxl’s ways. I know it sounds cruel but the troopers are dead inside now, and by destroying them, we might overcome the lies that the empire has got the world believing about us.” “You can’t just walk in and out of the empire though, can you?” asked a concerned Turok. “Not usually, but we have an exception in the form of less troopers being there, and the empire’s attention being on other matters, as far as I can tell, the Elite Warriors should be guarding the kingdom of Grandulen, and the towns they’ve conquered in Scion, in case anyone tries to take it back. Ever since the Fawra incident, they’ve been preparing the three main cities of Scion for total security of the empire, we’ll be able to slip in and out of Morn’s lab this way for today only, after that, it’ll be impossible...” “Are you sure Gear?” questioned Kirie. “Very, I am a strategist you know, once they secure the towns, they’ll probably set up lookout towers, and entry to the empire will be too difficult to accomplish, but it’ll probably take a few days. We Must destroy the Mecha Morpher before then, cos we’ll never have this opportunity again.” “Definitely.” agreed Ross. “Naga, Dagger and Ruwin shall protect Rolem, while Grautz is to be protected by Turok, Lucia and Samia. Edwina, Kirie, Ross and I will stand at Hilltop. Once we’re sure that the remaining Resistors can handle the troopers, Turok, Kirie, Ruwin and I will head towards the capital. Is everyone prepared?” The group nodded and conferred in agreement... The battle didn’t begin too long after that, a mass of robotic troopers marched towards the villages, some parted to the sides upon seeing the first party of Resistors, others walked right towards them, while the remaining ones were kept busy by the soldiers some distance away. In Rolem, Naga used a metal whip to knock troopers over and into each other, and in some cases, set off their blasters to destroy their own. Naga cut the wires of a trooper, making it bleed the strange black fluid, Naga then threw the knife into a trooper and wrapped up a trooper with two gun arms, and smiled slyly. “You’re about to go for a spin...” With that she retracted her whip by raising and pulling it back, and the trooper was sent whirling around, sending shots into many other troopers. The Solid Light program had improved the Resistors’ skills a lot. Naga was whacked in the face by a gold trooper, obviously on officer, tougher than the other troopers and her whip was sent away. “Uh oh, Agh!” screamed Naga, as the officer tackled her and climbed on top of her. “Hey, um, could you give me a sec?” panicked Naga, reaching for her dagger embedded in a robot close by, but the officer was aiming its blaster at her face. Dagger leapt up, and tapped into his demonic powers to float high above the ground, he touched down on the wall of one of the village towers by wedging his daggers into the tower and balancing himself, so that he sat up there like a spider. “I could use some help down here!” shouted Naga. Dagger sighed, “Help: Coming.” He picked up a third dagger, one that had a special insignia on it, the one of the Great Elder, and threw it fast in a quick motion. The blade fell and penetrated the officer’s metal head and killed it. Dagger kept an eye on the body, so that he could retrieve his dagger later, and leapt off the tower to come down on the troopers by stabbing and simply landing on them, breaking into their armour with his speed. Meanwhile, Ruwin saw Naga as she retrieved her weapons, and winked, before showing off his abilities, flipping over a trooper as it tried to run and grab him. He landed on its shoulders, and it aimed a large cannon arm at him. “Hallo.” grinned Ruwin, before flipping his body upwards, the blast blackened and melted the troopers head, and it did not look human nor robotic afterwards. Ruwin landed on the remains of the still standing robot, and gave it a good kick, even though it was destroyed, he flipped once more and raised his hands upon landing, as if wanting an applause, “Tahdaaah!” Naga snorted, “Showoff.” “Heh, can’t blame a guy fer tryin’.” grinned Ruwin... And in Grautz, three troopers charged towards Samia, who wasn’t fazed at all, she spun her sword, and then swooped it across the three, then down at little, and one more slice, that cut across the troopers, the resulting cut looked like a backward ‘Z’, Samia had marked the soldiers with what she considered to be her symbol. The troopers were damaged and started to sparkle with electricity, so Samia put them out of their misery, and swept her sword upwards and took them apart. To her, and many of the Resistors, they were just machines, empty shells, the troopers were dead inside, only the four Mecha Knights were any different, they had their souls and their individuality. An officer with a big cannon prepared to fire on Turok, and two troopers stood at his sides. Turok glared slyly, and shot two small blasts at the lower troopers, and sent them falling into the commanding officer, he fell as the energy ball was fired, and because of the change in position, the blast flew directly upwards. It took to the skies, before gravity kicked in and sent it right back down. With the chip in their heads, the troopers didn’t react to the giant bomb at all, and were totally wiped out by it. Lucia turned her rocket jets around and blasted backwards while keeping an eye on a charging trooper, it started firing everywhere, and Lucia took to the skies so that no one was hit by the stray shots, and dived down, so fast, the trooper didn’t touch her, not until she burst through its chest and left a Lucia-shaped hole in its body. And finally in Hilltop Valley, there were more troopers, but no more troublesome, with four of the Resistors here. Ross thrust his sword into one of the troopers, as a trooper charged up from behind him. Ross sighed and aimed his metal arm behind him without looking, and shot the hand outwards with the stretching arm ability. It caught onto the robot’s head and the claws clenched on hard, Ross leapt off the ground and retracted, making him swing over the trooper so that he could get behind it and cut its neck with his knife, he finished off by kicking it so that the head flew off. “Did you think this metal arm was just for decoration?!” shouted Ross, caught up in the battle. Edwina shot three troopers with the last of her crossbow bolts, one trooper was left so she performed something new, and raised her foot and kicked the trooper into an upward spin. Three more were on the way, but a simple frying plasma wave spell dealt with them easily. Kirie concentrated, and sent herself and four fakes of her floating in a spinning circle around one of the tough officers, it couldn’t cope with the decision-making and its head sparkled before Kirie stopped and sent the four fakes to converge on it, changing them into damaging psychic spheres. Gear tossed his boomerang, and climbed onto a trooper’s back, before pouring a special mix into the back of its head. Gear flipped off as the bot exploded, and sent its head crashing down. Gear examined the pieces that had fallen out, and used his P.A.D.D to scan it. “Hang about... This must be the chip that makes the troopers follow orders, and the design... Its linked to something big, if we could beat that, then the troopers would either collapse or regain their human emotions, and cowardice.” Gear saw that many more troopers were on the way. “Its time.” Ruwin, Turok and Kirie were quickly alerted. “Naga, Ah have ta go, hope ya can handle things wit’out me.” grinned Ruwin. “I can take care of myself, thank you!” shouted Naga, ducking to avoid a pathetic lunging trooper. “Lucia, please keep the villagers safe...” said Turok to Lucia. “I will, for you.” A short time later, the Resistors got to Morn’s lab from the back, though around here, was a knee-high pool of waste. “Gear, aren’t you done yet? This place is filthy!” complained Kirie. “Not as filthy as the guy who’s inside.” commented Turok. “And its done.” stated Gear. A new teleport had been created, and was hidden in an alcove behind several piles of rubbish, it probably wouldn’t be used apart from the absolutely necessary times, or else, the empire would get suspicious, and look for the Resistors’ entry point. “Sorry about the wait, but this might effect tons of lives someday. Now let’s go cause some trouble.” “Hey, you’re those Resistors!” shouted Joe and Moe, moments after the Resistors entered the lab... “... That was easy.” commented Turok, walking away from the dazed and charred guards. The Resistors wandered around the large building, but even with Kirie and Lucia’s experience of the place, it wasn’t giving them anything definite to work with, a lot of places were restricted for lowly workers like them that (until recently) didn’t know of Morn’s true experiments, but they didn’t stay restricted for long, thanks to Kirie’s new powers. “Guys, wait up.” said Gear, noticing a console in a small office, which he quickly connected to the P.A.D.D to. “Heh, perfect...” he smiled, “Check it out guys...” A map was uploaded, which Gear pointed out the relevant places on, and who to go there with simple nods. Turok left while Kirie stopped and questioned Gear, “And you?” “I can’t, this is too big an opportunity to pass up, I’ll download everything I can, while you see to that central computer, Turok can handle himself.” briefed Gear. Kirie nodded and went on her way. “Oh, this is good, this is too good...” muttered Gear. Meanwhile at central control, Morn was fiddling with switches, “No, no, no, we obviously need more strategy than brawn, they can’t win like this!” Kirie and Ruwin and ran in, and tried to stop themselves but skidded loudly. “Uh, oh...” said Kirie nervously. “YOU!” screamed Morn, “How did you get in here?!” “Wouldn’t you like ta know?” taunted Ruwin. “Grrrr, prepare to meet your doom!” screamed Morn, pressing a switch, a steel door panel rose from the far wall and two machines rolled out with treadmill feet. They had silver dome-shaped heads, with evil yellow eyes, the red empire logo on their foreheads, and strange frowns built into the bottom of their heads but no chin, the frowns looked like clenched teeth. They had round blue bodies and wirey arms with a blaster cannon and ray gun connected to them instead of hands. “Destroy these intruders now!” shouted Morn, before grinning, “Kirie, you and your friend will meet certain death by my new pure robots!” They each veered to the sides and chose an opponent to kill. Ruwin flipped back many times as the robot chasing him ploughed a small but dangerous ray across the floor, leaving a small dip line in the now hot metal. “You’re the one responsible fer buildin’ the robot that decimated mah dad’s body an’ killed mah neighbours.” thought Ruwin while flipping, “Killin’ ya would be too quick, y’all soon learn ta hate me... Dad... Ah’ll continue the good fight...” With that, he ended up in a handstand stance and lunged up at the robot, feet first, and sent it rolling back, and into Morn, crushing him between it and the huge console. “Ugh! Get out there!” shouted Morn, pushing it forward, “That’s the problem with these robots, total loyalty but no common sense.” Common sense they didn’t have, but good insides they did, Kirie’s opponent proved it as she tried to confuse it with four fakes like before, but it scanned the area and the fakes were seen for what they really were, glowing energy spheres. Kirie’s eyes widened as the robot aimed its blaster at her, she quickly teleported, and ended up next to Ruwin, and the main console, Morn scurried away to a safer place though. Both robots raised their cannons and charged up a big shot to deal with the intruders, but Ruwin and Kirie were obviously confident about the situation, but the robots having no emotion at all didn’t see that and continued to charge to maximum power. Kirie and Ruwin nodded to each other, while Morn was close to ripping his hair out, “No! Its a trick! You’ll destroy the central computer you morons!” It was too late, the shots were fired, Kirie teleported, and Ruwin leaped out of the way, and the console went up in flames, and a booming explosion. And at the villages, sparks ran through the troopers, most of them collapsed and shut down, while others regained their minds, and saw the inevitable loss waiting to happen, and ran. “How did that happen?” questioned Naga. “Over already?...” sighed Dagger. “They’re... collapsing...” spluttered Samia. “Oh Turok...” sighed Lucia happily, thinking that Turok was responsible for succeeding in that particular task. “They did it!” cheered Edwina. “It was a team effort.” corrected Ross, “Including ours of course.” But at the empire, it wasn’t all celebrations for Kirie and Ruwin, they’d ended up in the corner, and the robots were charging another shot. “Grrrr... DESTROY THEM NOW!!!” screamed Morn, totally losing his temper. A huge blue blast flew into the large room and slammed into the two robots, they both spiralled into the console, and Morn had to take a dive to avoid being hit by the debris, and the electricity from within that took the pure robots to pieces. “How’s it going Morn, you might like to know that the robot project, is officially over!” said Turok firmly. “No... You destroyed my Mecha Morpher!... Turok, I swear that when you die, it’ll be at the hands, or gun of my most powerful robot!” screamed Morn. “Good luck without your toy.” smiled Turok confidently. “You have no idea of my intellect...” growled Morn. “You wanna come along guys?” offered Turok, before approaching Morn and picking him up by the collar. “Thanks so much for the transformation, its a part of who I am now, and its why you’ll never win!” With that, he dropped Morn to the floor and left, while Morn glared at him, “You’ll never escape...” With a tap of his own personal device, doors started shutting, and more soulless machines started swarming into the labs, they might have proven to be thoughtless, but surely some would get the job done, the lab no longer mattered without its top machines. Gear wasn’t done with his data copying, and the power went out, lights, computer and all, and the download was cancelled. “Damn!” shouted Gear, as the steel door had shut and blocked out the light. He ran towards it blindly and knocked over a few things on the shelves, books, devices, and something made of glass because of the loud shattering sound, before he pounded against the door. “No! Where are the others? The empire could bring all their soldiers here to capture us.” “Gear! Are you still in there?!” shouted Turok, “Stand back!” Gear barely moved out of the way as the steel door was dented a few times, before flying into the room. “Turok, that nearly hit-” “I’d love to hear you bicker but we just don’t have the time.” shouted Turok, grabbing Gear’s arm and yanking him out. All the Resistors were tired that evening, they’d performed well and prevented all villager casualties, it would be easier if the villagers simply moved away, then the Resistors wouldn’t have to be on edge so often, with the villages in Haprin being so close to the kingdom of Scion, the empire had the upper hand in that department. But this was indeed a time for celebration, and the Resistors had a party for their valiant efforts, except Gear, who was astounded by the results of the download, even though they weren’t complete, if he could pick up the relevant data, he would be able to help his friends greatly... In the lab, Morn growled, the pure robots were pathetic, he had to work on building more pure robots but with individual personalities, so that they’d remain loyal but have conscious thought. His personal lab was a mess of books, metal, and... his long term experiment: “What the- No!” The coloured ooze from the test tubes lay in a bobbing puddle, from which, grew into a black slime, that formed into a humanoid shape. “Where is he?!...” it screamed, before approaching Morn menacingly, “My creator!!!...” Next: “Enter Morph” Back to “Put into Practice”: Part 2 Click to read the next story: "Enter Morph” Back to “The Complete Set” Back to the Library