//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 - Death Star Zone // Story: The Stuff of Legends // by Harvs //------------------------------// Chapter 10 Death Star Zone We rejoin our heroes after roughly a month of waiting in a medium sized room of technology and blinking lights. The walls were covered from top to bottom with metal panels and control boards. There was a panel of buttons on the far wall just in front of our heroes, but they only wanted to find out where they were. "I only want to find out where we are." Sephiroth said looking all around the room for any clues. "Well we certainly aren't underwater anymore." Yakko said placing his hands on his hips. "Hmm hmmph hmmmm hmmph hmm hmm!" The Pyro added giving Sephiroth an I-told-you-so look through his mask. "Yes, yes, I know it wasn't a bomb now." The one-winged angel rolled his eyes. "But where are we? That could have just transported us to some kind of prison." "That is true." Vinyl Scratch agreed. "We could have just played into Captain Planet's hooves, er... hands." "Well we should probably just wait here where it's safe." Caroline said from the potato. "You be quiet." GLaDOS said from the same potato. "If I had known where you were in my circuitry earlier, you wouldn't be suggesting such terrible ideas." "I'm only trying to help." Caroline replied. "Who are you anyways?" "I'm GLaDOS. Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System." "That sounds familiar. What is that?" "It's you. Well, you, but better." Sephiroth rubbed his forehead and muttered, "And I thought she was a migraine before she argued with herself." "How are we even supposed to tell them apart?" Vinyl questioned. "They're both just a single potato." "I'm the real GLaDOS." GLaDOS answered. "I was unexpectedly shut down after Tristan used his teleportation spell." "We were teleported deep under the water." Sephiroth added. "Then that must be it." Yakko said. "The water pressure must have tampered with your circuitry." "So then... that mildly explains where Caroline came from... I guess." Vinyl Scratch scratched her head. "But then why is she still here?" "I can explain that," GLaDOS chimed in. "The only explanation is that Caroline was stored in my E.P.C.C.M.D.S.P." "... WHAT?!" Everyone simultaneously said. Except for the Pyro who said, "... HMMPH?!" "My Emergency Personality Core Chamber Matrix Drive System Processor." GLaDOS cleared up. "So when I was shut down, there was no other personality to pull up except for hers. And now that we are above the surface of water, my personality is back." "But that still doesn't explain why Caroline is still here also." Sephiroth said, obviously wanting to just get to the point. "Excuse me," Caroline said, feeling a bit insulted. "I'm right here you know." GLaDOS just ignored her annoying counterpart and said, "Well, I may be a supercomputer but... I'm a potato. I don't have the capability to put her back into the Emergency Personality Core Cham-" "Cut to the chase please." Yakko said, saving his companions from the absurdly long name of the Emergency Personality Core Chamber Matrix Drive System Processor. "Shut your trap and let me talk." GLaDOS said. "Anyways, I can't do it in this current state." "Don't I get a say in this?" Caroline asked. "Not really." Sephiroth answered rather abruptly. "Now that we have that figured out, we need to find out where we are. Is this some kind of trap?" "I don't think it is Sephy." Vinyl said. "I mean... nothing bad has happened yet." "True. But where did that button send us?" "Well I suggest that we stay here and wait for-" Caroline started but was cut off. "Wait for what? For someone to come by and pick us off? We need to leave and-" GLaDOS was interrupted as well. "But we don't know what's out there!" "We don't know what's coming for us either!" "So you expect us to just-" "Go and look for help? Yes that's what-" "That's not a good idea-" "And yours is?" "Yes it-" "No it's not a-" "Yes, yes it-" "is a horrible-" "MAKE IT STOP!" VINYL YELLED! Suddenly, the metal panel on the far wall just beside the buttons slid upward revealing a long rectangular corridor full of more bleeping buttons and lights. "Whoops." Yakko sarcastically said. "Did I do that?" He pulled his gloved hand away from the panel of buttonry. "If you two are done," Sephiroth said, starting toward the pathway. "we are going to find out where we are." "Sephy is right." Vinyl jumped to her hooves and grabbed her amp. "Being cautious didn't get us as far as we are now." "Hmmph hmm hmm mmph." The Pyro mummbled, following behind the others. "Oh fine. Rush to your deaths! I'll just be waiting safely here." Caroline said folding her nonexistent arms. "Tough luck you waste of RAM. You're coming with us." GLaDOS said to her as they both sat on the bass cannon. The group walked down the hallway, all the while listening to the potato argue with itself, only somewhat wanting to shoot themselves. Room after room, they continued down the hallway, turning only when the corridor curved off to the right. But every room they passed looked exactly the same. The walls were obviously designed to look identical, which probably pleased whoever constructed this construction, but only served to confuse the group. Eventually, they passed a room that bared a striking resemblance to the one they had started in. "Wait a second." Vinyl stopped and looked at the room. "Is this... where we started?" The others stopped and walked a bit back to see for themselves. "It does look like it..." Sephiroth said. "Have we been going in circles?" "Actually, it would be squares." Yakko said. They all turned to him with a look of disbelief. "Because... we always turned... 90 degrees... and this joke is over." He abandoned ship. "Well, then how do we get out of the loop?" Vinyl asked. "Hmmph hmm mm mmph mm hmmph." The Pyro suggested. "Hmmph hmm?" "An elevator?" Sephiroth repeated. "Hmm. Hmm hmmph hmm hmmphmm." "What's he saying Sephy?" Vinyl asked. "The Pyro thinks this room may be an elevator." "Hmm! Hmm hmph mm mphmm!" "Er... an ele-Vader." Sephiroth squinted his eyes at the Pyro. "Is it a room that moves up and down?" "Hmmhmm." "An elevator, yes." "And is it?" Yakko asked. "Well, there are a few buttons we didn't try. Let's just see what happens when I push some of those buttons at random and hope for the best." With that, the group entered the room in which they had started off in. As Sephiroth began pressing as many buttons as he could with one hand, the metal panel shut downward and the group felt as though the room was being lifted upward. The six (or seven if you're for equal rights of potatoes) of the mismatched group of heroes... more or less. Vinyl Scratch looked into her envelope of records and sighed. She had lost three of them in the battle with Tristan, and only three remained in her pouch. "Man. This sucks." Vinyl sighed. "I wanted to show Tavi what I'd found in a different world. But at this rate, they'll all be gone before I get back." Sephiroth looked down at the dismayed white pony, almost breaching a state of sympathy. He sort of reached his hand down and kind of touched the back of her neck to attempt to awkwardly comfort her and said, "Let's just focus on getting back for now, ok?" She admired his pathetic effort and gave him a smile. "You're right Sephy. We gotta stick together." Before things got a little too suggestive, the door slid upwards and revealed a ginormous room of electronics and even brighter blinky lights. Rows and rows of consoles and screens sat plastered from every inch of the room except for the back part which appeared to be a giant platform, probably for the guy in charge to dictate commands. Above even the platform were windows which had all been blocked off by red hand-knitted wool curtains. As the group set foot into the control room, they saw that the computers were all processing data of some sort. What they were processing and why, they did not know. But it looked similar to the same data they had seen in Haven City. "So this is the control room," Sephiroth stated, looking around the large spherical chamber. "Looks like it. But there's nopony here. What are these computers doing?" Vinyl asked. "Hmmph hmm mmhphmhpmphmphm." The Pyro said, admiring the decor of the curtains and how well the red blended with the silver and black metal surrounding it. "Hey, why don't we plug GLaDOS into the computer to see what's going on here?" Vinyl suggested, gesturing to the food. "She did it before in Haven City." "Yes. Yes. I want to do this." GLaDOS said almost immediately after Vinyl suggested it. Sephiroth looked a bit confused at his tasty companion, but agreed. "That's a good idea." Picking a random computer on a random row, they plugged GLaDOS in and let her work her magic. "Make sure to see where we are." Vinyl Scratch said from behind the monitor. "And it couldn't hurt to see if there's a way out of here." Yakko added. "Hmmph hmm hmm mmph." The Pyro said with a nod. "Ok." GLaDOS said and executed a few console commands. Shortly after, a monotoned male voice spoke over the intercom system "Caroline deleted." The rest of the group just stared at her. "I'm sorry, could you repeat what you said earlier?" "Where we are? Search it?" Yakko said. "The Death Star." GLaDOS said after a few seconds of file surfing. "That's where we are?" Vinyl asked. "No, that's where I'm ordering our pizza from." GLaDOS said dryly. "Of course it's where we are." "And where exactly is that?" Sephiroth asked. "It's still on Captain Planet's perfect planet." GLaDOS searched on through the computer. "Apparently, this used to be part of a gigantic space station from a galaxy far far away. Captain Planet only extracted a portion of it." "But why would he want this place?" Vinyl questioned. "That information doesn't seem to be here." GLaDOS furiously searched but found nothing. "Admittedly this place doesn't seem very eco-friendly." "And how do we get out of here?" Yakko questioned. Just then, GLaDOS beamed up a blue holographic projection in the center of the room. The projection was of the space station in its prime. "There is some sort of hangar over there." "Well that's not too far." Sephiroth speculated. "Let's get going."