//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: A Rift in Space // Story: Creeper World: Game of Dimensions // by Atomiqal //------------------------------// Stripped through dimensions and void at an alarming rate, with little real space left to maintain his molecular integrity, Petrus' felt that he was done for. The violet menace that had been absorbed into the Rift Space entry point followed him, already trying to eat up his very being. It was like having your skin burned, yet it was numbing - as if his skin never existed in the first place. Cold, inhuman, single-minded malice echoed through his tiny shell of a reality bubble. All from the purple blob that followed him... He would die. Either from the Rift Space malfunction or the Creeper, but he would die. No one would or could save him. Not here... between nowhere and everywhere. He thought of his family. His brothers and sister. He would leave them... this saddened him. Understandably so, as he had grown close with them. He would miss his aging mother and was very angry that he would breach a promise he made to his deceased father - that he would make him a grandpa. He was still a child when he made it and he knew his father would understand the circumstances, but it aggravated him. Though, things could be worse... He could be stuck alone. Instead, he was stuck with humanity's worst enemy. Its millennia old foe... he had a punching bag. Granted, it would likely win, but he did not have to give it the satisfaction - if it could feel such emotions - of winning without a struggle. So, Petrus gave the word - technically, the thought - and swerved his right arm to make way for the nano-machines. In mere microseconds, they formed a light, particle lasergun. Was quite easy, considering the influx of space-time energy and potential for manufacturing materiel from the energy reservoir. He took aim and fired at the Creeper. Its purple blob disintegrated at the touch of the beam - quite literally having its abominable atomic structure ripped to shreds before making peace with the quantum vacuum. Though, there were many blobs, and the Creeper was already drawing off the Rift Space breach to multiply itself. "Sick, virulent, plague!" Petrus thought. He would shout, but he doubted there would be any potential for sound to travel through the real space pocket... It was a vacuum (albeit, a false one), and he was obscured by a his environmental suit's faceplate. ----- It was quiet. Early mornings were generally accepted to be quiet moments for a school. Only the nerds, teacher's pets, insomniacs and morning teachers would be present. Thus, there was no surprise when the portal by the statue rippled for a second and a strange orb of (literally) otherworldly energies popped out of it. No one was there to be surprised at the moment. The orb breached, broke and a 30-year-old man and a destructive purple blob were revealed to be at the center of the orb. Petrus and the Creeper. Neither relented in their lifelong mission to kill one another. For some reason, the universe did not give them a chance. As if this children's cartoon just realized the degree of violence and alien nature of the two characters, the two were quickly separated by an unseen force and sent to opposite sides of Canterlot High's frontal wall. Petrus banged his head and the Creeper did not seem active at that moment... Thus, neither were particularly conscious of what transpired right after. A swirl of electricity and pixelated reality appeared from out of nowhere before them. It processed them, in a manner of speaking. The transformation of Petrus had been strange, but nowhere as insane and illogical as the Creeper's metamorphosis. Petrus was no longer a man. Nor was he human... in a traditional sense. His entire being became pixelated and reality conspired to obscure his less cartoony features. He came out looking like a reddish-brown humanoid, with a body structure reminiscent of a teenager. Crazy, right? Wait until you see what the Creeper became. Somehow, in all its collective wisdom, this universal transformation process saw fit to convert the Creeper into a similar humanoid structure. Its once simple and fluidic form gave way to complex musculature and vasculature, bones became prevalent (though, obscured behind skin)… Though, one trait had not changed. Something universal to the Creeper. Its dangerous, malicious, purple. An all-encompassing... creeping presence of violet evil. A reminder of its corrupt form. A color Petrus would never forget. It would seem reasonable to assume that both were put out of commission, but not so. The Creeper had been a blob when it got smashed against the wall. Its simple form processed the damage easily, and it was given a fresh new form to use at its convenience. Petrus might have had his left arm eaten off, his legs crushed and his head broken, but his nano-machines were quick to work. The damage was extensive - even though the transformation process had helped fix his limbs -, so they drew off the remainder of his backup power supply. Drawing energy from Petrus' personal Rift Space storage dimension, the nano-machines quickly made false, empty body cells and programmed their genetic function based off the bodily information they knew about him. It seemed that the change did not affect his DNA structure... it was only an external change, thankfully. The Creeper, for the first time in eternity, took notice of itself at the moment and of its enemy. He tried to liquidate his arms, legs, anything, so that he could creep toward Petrus and destroy his molecular biology... No luck. He was... a complex, thinking being now. No longer a part of a greater collective intelligence. An independent piece, with free will. This frightened the Creeper to no end. His freedom from... well freedom, meant that his bodily form needed nothing beyond simple blobby appearance and fluid, as all the complex thinking and action was externalized to the main hub of hive intelligence. Nothing about this was natural to him. In confusion and fear, he crawled into the school complex for shelter, desperate to assess the damage done to his form... Petrus woke up after all that. It took minutes and reality warping technology, but his body was fully reconstituted and fixed... mostly. He still was a man in a child's body. The ordeal had been extreme, and he was in physical shock... So, he slept. His nano-machines took charge and disintegrated his protective space suit - for future use -, tucking it safely away in a pocket dimension of their own control.