**Action** WW and Niples "Death"

<<OOC- This is the all important post which will end the hallucination-scenario and hopefully bring us back to normal.>>
**Action Post** By Whitewolf/ Tim Sireno and Seymour Niples/David Ball
Lt. White Wolf
Medical bay
    After Tara administered the sedatives, and another antidote to White Wolf, he sat for moment looking after her and thought to himself, “Wowsa, What fantastic cleavage! But it figures in a weird way, even while I’m a hamster, I still don’t get the girls. Oh, well I better go clean up.” And slide off the bed, and slunk out of the medical in a way only a dejected hamster could to head for his crew quarters carrying his super soaker. 
   Just as he’s about to enter the lift, the huge hamster hears a loud “SSssssnnnnnuuuuggggkkkk” behind him.It sounded like someone with a bad cold trying to breathe through their clogged nostrils. The huge hamster spun around, eyes going very wide as he spots the snot creature coming after him again!   
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Cmdr Niples
Far-side of the Promenade
 Niples' group consisted of most of the crewmembers who had been issued with the weapons filled with ointment to cure the virus. Harris had split off from the group and had gone in search of his own security staff. Hopefully to sort them all out so that they could help in the 'clean up' expedition.
Niples' team had cleaned up most of this end of the promenade. This end was usually the darker of the two, with dark dirty alleyways and groups of people stood in groups talking in whispers. There seemed to be an eerily cold breexe which swept old newspapers flying down the street. A lot of the shops were boarded up and the ones still open were mysterious wicker shops and one that sold some kind of ancient chinese herbs. Not to mention the low-budget travel agents that inhabited each street corner.
Cureing a few people down this end usually came with replied threats like "you startin'?!" Fortunately, Phil managed to scare them off by showing them ythe scar on his hand. Not a nice sight.
The team split to search other sections of the ship. Keto headed team 2 with Ventrite following, smoking something foul-smelling.
Team 1, headed by Niples made their way down to the other side of the promenade, until Niples saw a flicker of light and the sound of an explosion eminate from the MacDonalds. "Bloody Harris!" he yelled.
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Lt. White Wolf
Somewhere amid the Blue Dwarf’s corridors
I’ve got a huge booger chasing me, and you want to know the time?
     The slimy green ball of human snot raced after the huge hamster. White Wolf didn’t mind the thought of getting the virus again, he just didn’t want it to sneeze on him and have any of that green slimy gunk get into his fur. He just knew, if any of that icky stuff got stuck in his fur, it’d be worse than any piece of gum he ever encountered. So he fled for all his paws were worth, while screaming “It’s going to sneeze on me again!”
 
     As he ran through a corridor done all in white, He spotted an open access hatch in the ceiling leading into the ductwork. This was his chance. He quickly spun around, and began backpedaling making a quick attempt to spray the on coming snot beast one more time, and then performed a well timed leap upward and scrabbled through the hatch. The Snot beast fumed uselessly below as it discovered it couldn’t make the leap to the hatch.
 
The six foot one inch hamster turned around in the ductwork and seeing the huge gob of snot couldn’t reach him, quickly pumped his super soaker in it’s direction. It dodged quicker than a blink of an eye and ran off.
 
White Wolf muttered, “I never knew snot could move that fast, I guess that explains why the flu spreads so quickly! Now, where the smeg am I?”  The overgrown hamster glanced around the cramped ductwork and saw dirty, dull metal all around, “Well, at least I know I’m not some cheesy Hollywood movie where they clearly mark what level your on in the ductwork.” He pulls out his polyhedra die, rolls it and glances at it. “Seventeen. Alright, I’ll go to my right.” Stopping to reach down and carefully securing the hatch, the hamster begins to move off down the ductwork.
 
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Cmdr Niples
Team 1
"Have you found Cannon yet?" Niples asked Harris over the radio.
"The bastard is still eduling us!" growled Harris in reply.
"A simple 'no' would have done nicely thank you." said Niples turning the radio off. They searched the engineering sections and mining departments, splattering many people who had become locked in the holds due to some small pink pixxies.
They made thair way up to the crew quarters, doing a methodical room-by-room search of anyone to completely soak. They found Efof who claimed to have important information as to where the virus came from. Phil seemed quite interested to hear what he had to say so stayed with him. They both trundled back to the science lab.
Kayn Bestrom seemed to be in somewhat of a state. At first glance, Niples mistook him for Doom Harbinger but noticed the blue hair. Niples firsd a round of ointment at him but Kayn ducked and ran off down the corridor shouting pessimistic millenium prophesies.  James Johnson, who had been tagging along just in case anyone needed an extra hand ran after Kayn in the attempt to kick him in the back of the knee and drag him to someone with some ointment to cure the Harbinger-wannabe.
There was one place left on Niple's list to search. Hopefully the Captain would be there. The Cargo Bays.
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Lt. White Wolf
Somewhere lost in the Blue Dwarf’s ductwork
Quite some time later
Sitting at a four way junction, the overgrown hamster grabs up his polyhedra die an glares at it angrily “Another twenty?!? Why couldn’t you be rolling like this when I was playing Dungeons and Dragons? Your sending me around in circles! You smeggin worthless die!” his words echoed slightly through the ductwork.
The huge hamster throws the die further down into the ductwork, where it bounces off of something instead of clattering on the metal. “Uh Oh!” Thinks the huge hamster as he quickly turns and sees a faint outline of a shape. He brings up his super soaker to train it on the dark and distant shape, and then calls out to it “Identify yourself!”.
Dead silence ensues for several seconds after the echoes of his words die down. Then a barely audible shuffling noise echoes off the ductwork. And the overgrown hamster couldn’t be sure, but he suspected it to be a little closer. Again the huge hamster calls out “For the last time, I said, Identify yourself!” The shape stopped, and the echoes died down again. And then a muffled and barely audible “mmphf” echoed through the ductwork.
The huge hamster quickly thought “Perhaps it can’t speak, Maybe I should...” He stopped as another more horrible thought came to mind, “What if it’s that cursed snot illusion out to get me!!!” He quickly pumped his super soaker at the dark shape, then quickly drew out and flicked his bic with his left paw to get a better look.
Suddenly behind him, fantastic sneeze explodes and showers him with dribble! “Yuck!” exclaims White Wolf as he quickly super soaks the snot beast behind him while trying to back away. 
And nearly forgetting there’s something else in front of him (the dark shape), he quickly turns to look...
“Are you done playing games now? We’re late for our appointed clients.” Says a rather sodden black robed Thanatos.
“Aw Smeg. I’ve got the virus again!” exclaims the huge hamster, as he soaks Thanatos robe some more.
“You’ve tried that already!”, says death as he pushes aside the hamsters super soaker, “Do you mind? I might as well do this client while I’m here.”
 
And death squeezes on by White Wolf, to move over to the slowly sizzling puddle of ooze where the snot beast was.
“I don’t understand. Did they give me the wrong solution.” Muttered White Wolf, and he experimentally squirted himself with the fluid.
“Don’t be silly. Of course, they gave you the right one. It worked on my client didn’t it?”
“I guess your right. So then, your not an another illusion?”
“When has death ever been an illusion?”
“Hmm, I guess you have me there. Ok, I can accept that. So since you knew where to find, I suppose you can show me the way out of these stupid ducts.”
“Certainly. I always know how to find my clients. Death shall not be denied!”
“I suppose that is rather handy, because I supposed you’d really hate it if all your clients who didn’t want to die had to do to escape you was merely run away and hide somewhere...”
Death quietly nods, and silently moves over to a hatch and gestures downward “Your quarters.”
White Wolf hops down, and quickly heads for his shower. “I hope you don’t mind if I take a moment to clean up. I don’t want to show up to some crewmens’ death all yucky looking.”
“Very well. I shall put my client on hold.” And Thanatos reached over with a skeletal hand and touched a button on his wristwatch.
“Hey, I nearly forgotten about that! That’s pretty handy. A pause button for your work schedule - I wished I had that often enough.” muses the huge hamster as he ducks into the old fashion water shower.
“Count yourself lucky that Chronos seems to allow certain rodents to be exempt from being time stopped, otherwise you would also be time stopped right now.  Must be Chronos great cosmic joke on all the pet owners who, one minute they see their pet rodents safely locked away in the cage, then in next blink of an eye, find them capering about their cereal box. Though I must admit, I’ve exploited that rodent/time relationship somewhat myself, and cultivated several good friendships with your rodent kin in the past.”
The clean, six foot one inch hamster comes out of the shower, rubbing a towel vigorously over himself, and speaking between various shaking “Wait ... a ... minute! Are... you ... telling ... me?”
“Oh, yes. Many rodents were glad to help out during the black plague. Several of the miserable buggers were really fed up with getting stepped on and all that. It just goes to show, you have to be careful who you mistreat, they may be able to even the score at a later time.”
“Oh no! Don’t go into one of your eternity discussions again! I had enough of that when I was subbing for mortis. Just turn your watch thing back on, and let’s get going.”
“Very well.” And death touched a skeletal finger to button on his wristwatch again. “We must hurry, there is not much time left.”
Grabbing up his super soaker, and picking up his machine gun, White Wolf exits his quarters, and replies “You lead the way, Death.”
Noticing that none of the crewmembers were upset by Death walking among them and remembering that usually only Deaths’ clients normally see him. White Wolf cautiously asks “How come rodents and I can see to you Thanatos? I know your not here to collect me...”
“Oh, I suspect it’s the opposite of the reason why non-clients don’t perceive me, because they’re mortally afraid of me, Death. Whereas, you rodents aren’t one bit worried about it. You’ll all blithely leap from great heights. You can look death in the face and not twitch a muscle. Everyone else blanches and immediately tunes me out with a ‘not-my-problem-mental defense memory block’. Non-clients don’t even remember seeing me. Even some clients that I spare, don’t remember seeing or speaking with me shortly there after.”
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Cmdr Niples
Cargo bay 4
 After searching the other cargo bays and only finding a portal to Wonderland, 45 crates of Budweizer, 7 crates of dried pet food addressed to Whitewolf and 2 racks of womens clothes addressed to James Johnson. Dr. Keto's and Major Harris' team strangely had the same idea and they all met up in the same place, outside the door.
The teams exchanged silent looks before they opened the huge door. The bulky sheet of metal gringed upwards to allow them enterance.
The cargobay was pretty empty. One solitary beam of light shone from the celing somewhere very high up. Wher the beam lay on the ground, there was a shadowwy figure.
Niples moved closer. A few others walked forwards with him, their weapons raised, ready. There could be hallucinations anywhere, ready to strike.
The silence was deafening. Niples stood over the figure. It was Cannon alright. He was crouched in a defensive position. Almost like a hedgehog in a ball. He was still wearing the straightjacket which appeared to have come loosened, but Cannon left his hands in the same position. Wrapped around his body.
Then Cannon spoke. Either to himself or someone else who probably wouldn't want to listen anyway.
"The pixxies. They...they ruined my life." Niples didn't hide his confusion. Clearly the captain was mad. "Little green men. Everywhere. They did this to me. They won't pay. They can't pay. Theres nothing I can do. They're torturing me. Killing my closest."
Zack had his soaker levelled at the Captain. "Shall I splat him sir?" he asked.
"No." said Niples. As he started to form some sense out of what the Captain was saying.
"Dead." said Cannon, hanging his head and sobbing gently.
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Not too far away
WW looked down at the Captain from a grating in the wall of the cargobay. "What's he talking about?" he whispered to Death next to him.
"Ahhh, a little job I had last week probably." replied Death.
"A little?.... Good grief!" said the hamster. "His wife and daughter?"
Death slowly nodded his boney head. After a while he said. "Their transport was attacked by a clan of gelfs called the Pikses. They went so quickly that they didn't even know they were dead."
"good grief." replied WW.
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Back in the cargo bay
"Dead" said Cannon.
"Dead" said Cannon.
"Dead." said Cannon. His anger growing.
"DEAD!" shouted Cannon, standing up, spinning around and facing the crowd of crewmembers staring at him.
"Rwaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!" Cannon held his head as he let out a scream. All of his anger expressing itself at once. Niples stepped back, as the reasonably average height Captain Cannon seemed to loom over him.
Suddenly, Niples did have something to step back from, preferable a very long step back. Cannon's anger had solidified itself into an extremely nasty looking creature which grew from the ground behind him. It drew itself up to full height and screached at the crewmembers in the cargo bay watching it.
This was the full nasty works, spines, teeth, claws, retractable fangs, fiery breath. Cannon realised what he had just created and quickly dived behind a crate of dog food. The rest of the crew likewise dived for cover. Unfortunately the cargo bay door found this innapropriate moment to stick shut. Dr. Ventrite stood smoking something very soothing. "Cool man" he said.
The ANGER beast let out a powerful jet of flame at Dr. Ventrite. "Hot man" said Ventrite, immediately burning into a puff of foul-smelling smoke.
Frank Banshee, the usually unmentioned and underestimated security officer decided that this was the moment he was waiting for. His moment to save the crew. He plucked up his courage and waited for the beast's head to turn the opposite way. As is bravery and heroics had been building up in his body all these years, never before being tapped into- now was the time it would be used. The events of the next few seconds will shape his life forever.
He rushed out of hiding, directly towards the monster, ready to plunge his shotgun into the monsters soft underbelly and pull the trigger. He got halfway there when the monster squashed him like a bug with his claw.
Harris however, was in his element. Shooting, ducking. Ducking shooting. Or sometimes shooting and shooting.
Finding a crate of imported weapons from the last Space Core station they visited, Science officer Marlene Cauty finds a good rifle and aims it at the creatures head. Getting a good shot in one of the beast's eyes was enough to get its attention. Suddenly swinging its worm-like body around, the ANGER beast managed to snag a shelf above the floor level. Two steel crates fell from the shelf and Marlene could only watch as the crates flattened her head.
Dr. Keto suddenly remembered the extra few viles of ointment he had brought along with him. Emptying the viles into one glass container, he urged others with the supersoakers full of ointment to do the same. Soon they had a larke glass conical beaker full of ointment. "this should be enough" he said.
With the words "This is for Ventrite!" he flung the ointment right into the creatures mouth."
The ANGER beast looked more confused than anything. Then melted after it swallowed.
There were many whoops of praise as the beast was killed. Death did his job on the deceased crewmen, passing from one to the next, cutting their ties to the real world with his huge scythe.
The crewmembers gathered in the cargo bay managed to prise the bulky door open and everyone rushed off to the nearest pub to celebrate. Everyone except Cannon and Niples. Niples found his troubled Captain cowering behind a large crate.
"i'm sorry to hear about your family sir." he said.
Cannon turned to look up at him, then back down at his feet. The silence that followed seemed louder than the powerful screach of the ANGER beast. Seymour didn't know what to say. He knew that Cannon had been acting strangely lately, and now he knew the reason. But it still didn't excuse Cannon for being a bad Captain.
***20 minutes later***
Niples returned to the Cargo bay, finding Will Cannon in exactly the same place he had left him. "I've set course back towards Jupiter station." said the commander. "Hopefully we can sort this out there. And the crew probably need a bit of shore leave after all that has happened in the last few months."
Niples got no reply so he slowly turned and trudged out of the cargo bay.
<<ok guys things are back to normal! We should get to Jupiter station by next week, wait for my action post first though. In the meantime, finish off these hallucination posts and then you can maybe do some socialising with other crewmembers.>> 
==================================Lt. David "Onion" BallAssistant Helm officer/ Pilot  USS Endeavour-ACommander Seymour Niples  JMC Blue DwarfWWW.Home.JMCBlueDwarf.com==================================