The Last Hour of Spindizzy.

Tarka:

Argon had cornnered a newbie against the roses and was giving him the sweet 
speach about how centaure are not hourses. The newbie was just staring at the 
big scary creature with wide terrified eyes. 
 
Mouser slithered into the garden and took up his normal spot... an S shapred 
bare place on the ground when it happend... the ground started to shiver 
underneath everythings feet or belly. "Wot is that!"
 
Then, shutting and shattering, the ground opens up and splits right through 
the middle of the garden and a terrible wind picked up... blowing to the 
center of the garden. One look into the openning told the story. Mouser... 
holding on to a bush with his tail was the first to see. Stars... far below 
his belly there were stars. Spindizzy was split in two!
 
Terry:
 
But that was only the beginning of their problems. As the fursnake frantically-
 slithered away from the gaping chasm, a bell-adorned otter ran up from the 
south. "The spindizzy is failing!" Tarka shouted, "Run for your lives! We're 
all doomed! The spindizzy is failing!"
 
And the sky flickered, and went out, along with the gravity. Loose objects 
and people floated up off the ground as the atmosphere started to slowly 
disperse... most of them managed to grab onto trees or benches or something, 
but Argon's hooves found no purchase, and he went flying up into the 
darkening skies.
 
The noobie clung to the tree, screaming at the top of his lungs, but only 
Mouser and Tarka were close enough to hear him, as the air pressure continued 
to drop. "DOOOOM!" shouted Tarka, as more cracks started opening in the 
earth... and Mouser noticed that the otter was *smiling*.
 
Vassily:
 
Light began to trickle up through the cracks annd sickly yellow vapor, which 
flashed into burst of flame which rose and burned out. The sloth sat idly on 
a picnic blanket, munching an apple and watching the creatures begin to claw 
their way up through the ground.
"Oh Bother." Vassily said, "Zombies again."
 
Tarka:
 
Skyler dashed into the secret wizard control room. "Sir Austin! The spindizzy 
field is gone... the land is busting up... and Tarka was seen near astroid 
defence last night. What should we do?
 
Austin turned from his control screen... trying to keep an eye on the 
terrible suffering happening above on the land above. "Report what happened 
Skyler and stop blathering."
 
Skyler shoved a report before Austin... a large astroid had inpacted with 
Spindizzy's underside and cracked the world. The full force of it had 
distroyed many bits of equipment that run the world in secunds.
 
Up in the garden, mouse looked at the otter, suspision crossing his features 
in the thinning air.
 
Terry:
 
But there were more important things than placing blame, like survival. 
Mouser reached into the ancient oak, and pulled out a rebreather set with a 
four hour air supply. By the time he'd gotten it on (it was hard to fasten 
straps with a bubble over his head), Tarka was nowhere to be seen.
 
The noobie tried to follow his example, but only got a fortune cookie. The 
fortune inside said, "Today will leave you breathless!"
 
Vassily:
 
Vassily watched the leaves whip up into the swirling maelstrom above, 
striking the hapless newbie in their passage. The leaves turned from green to 
wilted and curled brown as they flew upwards.
"All going to die, I see." He scratched his chin. "One might say doomed."
 
He pushed an ambititious zombie away and floated towards the fountain. The 
zombie picked itself up and crept as stealthily as it is possible for the 
walking dead to do, towards the ancient oak. The limbs of the oak bent and 
thrashed and wound around the unwary or any unable to resist.
 
"Where will I get several thousand cans of Fix-A-Flat at this hour? And more 
importantly, how can I blame Morticon?" The sloth whipped his claws across 
the neck of a poor zombie who only wanted love and to devour his brain, 
decapitating it.
 
The head drifted up into the roiling sky, trailing droplets of blood 
beginning to boil in the approaching vacuum.
 
Tarka:
 
Down dark passages... pass hissing doorways that were having their air sucked 
out of them, the otter floated through the air. Pounce off wall cealing and 
floor... headed to the old abandoed spindizzy escape pods. A few others were 
also in the tunnal, mostly SED personal that had been let in on teh secret of 
where the escape pots were located. He waved to Morticon on his way by. 
Morticon was trying to pack up the SED Blimp and the SED ninjas were asking 
for a raise. Zero G made stelthy ninja movies hard.
 
Back in the control room all the non ballon coatis were gasping for breeth as 
more and more monitors went dark forever. "Give me spindizzy wide com. 
Attention SpinDizzy. Make your way calmly and peacfully to the escape pods. 
There has been a small error in the main spindizzy structure... but nothing 
that can't be fixed in time."
 
Skyler stared at Austin... "Toons."
 
Terry:
 
But as the first SED lifepods started launching, loaded with SED members and 
the lucky few who'd had enough warning to sell their immortal souls in return 
for a place on the boats, a giant star destroyer type starship decloaked and 
started firing.
 
"GAAAH, what's happening?" Morticon yelled, "Are they insane?!" None of the 
ninjas or otters nearby answered, though, as they were all hypnotized 
watching the fireworks.
 
On board the starship, Adara watched the drifting fragments of lifepods and 
bodies, then set the comm unit to broadcast magically to the lifeboat bay. 
"You are all under arrest! Stay where you are so that I can take you into 
custody!"
 
Vassily:
 
The sloth drifted towards the rim and the escape pods. Flaming debris, 
zombies and denizens falling in his path. "Rum tiddley pom." He hummed as he 
drifted. The crack were beginning to run up the walls of the lifeboat bay as 
he entered.  
 
Furs and others panicked, running in tight circles. Some hyperventilated and 
passed out, others were attacked by lingering zombies. Calmer, more rational 
furs loaded newly acquired valuables into the life rafts.
 
The announcement crackled over the speakers again. "Police, is it? Where's 
that otter?"  The sloth scanned the ranks of the escaping and quickly 
identified a lithe brown form stowing the shiniest of shinies into a raft. 
"Tarka, where do you think you're going?" The sloth drifted over killing 
indiscriminately in his wake.  "You'll need something to get past the 
blockade."
 
Tarka:
 
The wee innocent little otter looked up with big glistening cute little eyes 
as he pushed the last box overstuffed with gold and rubies into the lifepod. 
"Why... hello there Vassily... Now what blocade are you talking about?"
 
The massive battleship got just a bit closer to the dying planitoid. Ready to 
start picking up the feeling criminals like the rats that they were. 
Meanwhile austin watched the devistation of his planet ont he few monitors 
still left in the control room. The Command staff already heading to their 
own lifepods. Just then something flared to life in the far corner. The 
Spindizzy defense system popped into life for one last time. The astroide 
smashers... the laser cutters... everything. Allt he mounts still left adn 
under power swivled around and opened fire on the battleship with the hated 
murderer of helpless lifepods Adara abourd. Not expecting an attack... the 
ship was distroyed in momments. Killing all abourd.
 
There was a gasp from the gathered furs in the lifepod hanger... then a mad 
rush for the remaining pods. SED ninjis and thugs had already clamed some and 
the furs getting into them were far more organized as Morticon got his people 
off the sinking plainitod.
 
Vassily just stared at the innocent as driven white snow otter.
 
Terry:
 
"I don't see how you can be so blase about this," Skyler said, as Austin 
continued to calmly watch the devastation. "It's like you expected this. Was 
this a scheduled event?"
 
"No, but it's nice to see people showing some initiative," Austin replied.
 
"But people are *dying*!"
 
"Yes, I'm surprised! Usually these things don't manage to rack up any 
casualties. It'll probably takes hours before everyone's been brought back to 
life, once things are fixed."
 
"So you know how to fix the spindizzy?"
 
"No, but I'm sure someone'll manage it," Austin said, flicking the display to 
show the hidden control center. "See? Someeone's there already."
 
Vassily:
 
Vassily watched the fireworks from the exploding cruiser, watched the 
superheated chunks of debris break through the field and crash into the deck. 
 He watched the newly risen dead squabble with each other over their own 
spilled entrails and counted the remaining lifepods.  Since it doesn't take 
very long to count to zero, he counted them a few more times for the feeling 
of certainty it gives.
 
Vassily removed his fez, removed a cigarette holder and a thin silver case. 
He fitted a cigarette into the holder and lit it.  "I suppose I should go 
jettison the warp core or something."  The newly crowned lord of the dead 
drifted back towards the center of the park.  "And then, I can finish off the 
survivors."
 
Tarka:
 
The SED lifepods left all at once in a star formation... the pods bristled 
with weapons... as the SED members were all paranoid wee creatures... but 
none of them were zombies.
 
Meanwhile in the spindizzy power room mouser was looking over the damage to 
the systems... being a resorceful fursnake he set out to fix it... all the 
while staying in contact with Morticon in the pods. "Boss. I know that 
stinking wizard is watching me. If I play the hero do you think I can get a W 
bit as well?
 
Spindizzy started to drift apart in three distict parts... the power finally 
failed and spindizzy went dark.
 
Terry:
 
"Yeah yeah," Morticon said, distracted by the zombie staring at him through 
the windshield. The bristling guns wiggled, but none of them could track 
close enough to aim at the zombie, and he didn't trust any of the other ships 
enough to ask them to fire on his own lifeboat. "You'll get everything you 
deserve..." The zombie started banging on the windshield. WHAM WHAM WHAM.
 
Mouser sniffed at the controls, and caught the telltale scent of fish. It 
*had* been Tarka who'd been messing with things! Maybe if he just reversed 
all the levers that had been touched... he grabbed one in his tee -- WHACK. 
He grabbed one with his tail, and hung from it like a soap-on-a-rope until it 
clicked back into its other position.
 
"WARNING. WARNING. MEDDLING KIDS ARE IN THE POWER ROOM," came tarka's 
prerecorded voice imitating an automated system. "ACTIVATE EMERGENCY BOMBS."
 
Vassily:
 
A claxon sounded, throbbing in time with the old school 8 segment LED 
counters, working their way backwards from ten.  The fursnake frantically 
flipped levers and hit buttons. He was surprised moments later when the 
countdown stopped at three. There was just enough time for him to breathe a 
sigh of relief as the bombs detonated all at once, vaporising the emergency 
control room.
 
The planetoid slowly broke up, the three parts separating along suspiciously 
regular fault lines.  The atmosphere rushed out, converting most of the 
remaining living to the ranks of the dead and causing Vassily's cigarette to 
go out.  He sat in the darkness and the cold and the silence, puffing 
futilely on the holder.
 
His lips moved silently, forming words like 'revenge' and others less 
suitable for publication in formats availiable to the young. Finally he 
smiled and began to count down himself.
 
If his calculations were correct, the engines of the liferafts should begin 
to feed back right about now and consume themselves in a runaway fusion 
reaction.  With luck, all the base metals would be transmuted to gold
 
Tarka:
 
Zombies, well known from some things but not for their brains, had managed to 
successfully install systems to make gold. Only, instead of lifepods they had 
installed in in all the microwaves on spindizzy.
 
Austin... sitting alone in the now quiet control room contemplated teh 
picture before him... the quiet planatoid drifting in space. Infested with 
zombies dragging aroudn gold microwaves looking for brains to eat on a dead 
world. "Note to self. Next time I promice to give Tarka a Wiz bit... I should 
follow through."
 
Terry:
 
A week later, Terry teleported to the rose garden, looking depressed. "Hi -- 
grrrk! Ack! Choke!" She thrashed around a bit in the vacuum, then stopped 
moving. A helpful zombie wandered by a little later to eat her brains.