Three of a Kind (Side Story to The Adventures of NiGHTS And

Yep, that's right! Amazing as it may seem, I once again found myself drawn back to the wonderful fan fic forums of psow http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/im...icon_smile.gif. After a long vacation, I've gotten back into writing fan fics again.

This story covers the characters Skett, Brian, and Droidan, three WORKS members in my other stories. This story will explain certain instances in that story, (for example, the marble) and should generally give you a better feeling for those characters.

Well, enough of my blabbering! Here's the story!

NOTE: This is the whole story in one clump. This isn't near as long as my other stories, but is much longer than a single chapter. Basically, this story is kinda long, but please bear with me! I hope it doesn't bore you too much..

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Three of a kind

"You know skett, If we don't find something to shoot I'm gonna go nuts!!"

"Calm down droidan."

Three WORKS members sat quietly on the beach, waiting for their next breifing. There was droidan, the large white RAcast that was a bit trigger happy, Skett, a Mysterious Force searching for someone from his past, and Brian, a RAmar who had joined the team last.

The calm waves rocked up the beach, the beautiful sunlight shimmering on them.

"You know..." Brian said. "I could really get used to this."

BEEP! BEEP!

"Great....." muttered Skett sarcastically as he took out the small WORKS communicator from his belt.

"Skett and Co. What's up?"

"Ok skett.." said a deep voice. "We have your next mission location...."

"Ok. Where at?"

"We need you to head deep into the jungle, and find the southeast corner of the cliffs nearby. There's some sort of odd series of chambers there. You three need to investigate."

"I see..., well we--"

BLAM! This was followed by droidan shouting, "YES!! I GOT ONE! I GOT ONE!!" And a bird suddenly landing with a thunk into the sand nearby.

"Um, anyway..." Skett resumed, "We'll get on it."

"Good luck."

"Yeah..."

Click. Skett folded up the small communicator and sat down in the shade. Brian was sitting nearby.

"So skett, what do we do now?"

"We have a mission to find some cliffs or something...explore some chambers...who knows what it is.."

"I see.. how much we getting payed for this?"

"Didn't ask..."

Droidan walked up to the three, beaming, if an android can do so, and proudly showed them his kill. "It's a seagull! I shot it right in the wing!"

Brian shook his head sadly. "Hm...uh....ok..."

Skett pushed himself up. "Well guys, we have another mission to do. Let's get rolling."

-----------------------------------

Their hovercar shot through the sky, only a little bit above the treetops. It wasn't in the best of condition, but it still worked. Skett drove, Brian reclined in the passenger seat and Droidan sat in the back, pressing his face against the window to look for more birds to shoot at.

"So, skett.." began brian, trying to start a conversation. "How did you wind up joining WORKS?"

"I joined the military as soon as I could. The first day I was of age, I walked in the recruiting room and signed up."

"What did you parents say?"

".....They..." He lowered his head a little bit, and his voice softened. "..They didn't say anything. They were already..." He clenched his eyes shut. "..dead.."

Brian sat up slowly. "Oh.....I'm...I'm sorry..."

There was a gasp from droidan in the back. "BIRDIES! BIRDIES! DEAD AHEAD!"

Skett immediately realized he had taken his gaze off of where they were going, and by the time he looked back up a massive cloud of small black birds was headed straight for them.

"Crap!", yelled skett, realizing there was no way they would have enough time to get out of the way of the cloud of brids. They stretched left to right as far as the eye could see, and were thick up higher than the clouds. Reducing elevation would crash them into the trees, so they were left with no good choices.

There was a thunk, and Skett looked up on the glass roof of the hovercar to see two large metal feet standing there.

"What!? Droidan!?"

Droidan pulled out a pair of yasminkov9000's, and slowly took aim at the cloud in front. Well, actually, he didnt aim at all, he just fired the guns in front of him endlessly like a madman, but hey, it doesn't matter, right?

"DIEEE BIRDIES DIE!!" He screamed, laughing in between as well. Skett gripped the controls of the hovercar tightly as brian made a quick, silent prayer before pulling out his own yasminkov7000, the rifle type.

He rolled down a bit of his window, squeezed the yasminkov out and began firing.

Everywhere, birds were dropping from the cloud, but even with hundreds falling, it still retained the thick blackness.

They were about to hit the wave now, with only about 50 feet left.

Droidan continued firing, amidst screams from skett for him to get back in the hovercar, and brian kept on capping clumps of birds with his rifle.

40 feet left. Birds were falling left and right, but the mass didn't seem to change.

30 feet left.

20 feet left. Again skett called out for droidan to get back in, but Droidan seemed to mute it out and continued firing. The bullets whizzed into the cloud of black, and birds crashed down into the trees in masses.

10 feet left. Brian pulled his rifle back into the hovercar and rolled up his window. Droidan continued to fire, and beads of sweat appeared on Skett's forehead as he braced for the impact.

Then the wave hit.

Black birds crashed against the hovercar's dome, hundreds, bird upon bird smashed violently with a loud SMACK as it impacted.

Cracks formed as more and more birds smashed into it, and the hovercar shook violently in the turbulance, zipping through speeds and altitudes. Skett had one hand covering his mouth and the other controlling the hovercar.

More birds crashed into the dome, and one of the cracks suddenly grew larger. Skett's eyes widened and Brian tensed as he noticed it too.

"Shoot!!"

The dome shattered, and the hovercar shook violently. Skett covered his face with his hands, shards of the dome stabbing into them, and Brian could not be made out through the cloud of black. There was another loud thunk, and then a crash.

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When skett awoke, the first thing he saw was the puddle of blood his face had been resting in.

"!!!" He sat up suddenly, and rubbed his hand across his mouth. It smeared a deep red.

He moaned in pain, and then looked around him.

He was up, high in the treetops, still inside the hovercar as it was suspended among the branches. He looked into the passenger seat.

There was nobody there.

"! Brian!" He felt a sharp pain in his leg, and cast his resta spell a couple times to heal some of the wounds on his arms. Most of the bleeding stopped, and he stood up in the hovercar.

Creeeeak...

He froze. The hovercar was moving. The sudden shift in weight was causing it to roll, and if it moved much more it would fall...fall the hundred feet down to the ground.

He sat slowly back into the seat, and the hovercar shifted back into its original position.

He had to find a way out, and he had to find brian.....and....droidan! Droidan had been on the top of the hovercar when they hit....and if those birds had shattered the dome of the hovercar, then.... No. He wasn't going to think about it.

Now he had to figure out how to get down. And he had to think fast. If brian was injured, he wouldn't last long without help.

"Oh come on now, you aren't going to just sit there, are you?"

What? Who said that?

"Come on Skett, don't be a baby! You always were a coward! Now what are you going to do? Sit here and cry, and then run to mommy like you always did?"
"You."

There was nobody else in view, but he could hear a familiar voice.

"That's right, Skett. Don't tell me you're going to give up again?"
"No! I will never cry again! And I'm not giving up!"

"Well then, little brother, let's see it."
Skett peered over the edge of the hovercar, and his spine shivered as he saw the ground, hundreds of feet below. And then, near a tree, he saw brian.

"!!"

"What are you going to do, Skett?" The voice taunted.

Skett's muscles tightened. "I....can....do...this..."

"You could never do anything! You were always the whiny little brother of the family! Why don't you go crying to mommy again?"

"I...will...never.......DO THAT AGAIN!" With those words he threw himself over the edge of the hovercar, and the next few seconds flew by in a blur. The ground flew closer instantly, and then he felt an extreme pain in his legs, and blacked out.

---------------------------------

"Left Arm severely damaged. Left leg severely damaged. Right arm moderately damaged. Overall chassis structure: Poor."

Two monomates later, Droidan's vision was back online. He was lying on his back, looking up to the stars. Evidently the rest of the day had already passed. He checked his internal clock. It was scrambled from the fall, and evidently he was lucky to have survived at all.

He used his three remaining Dimates on his legs, and was able to stand after a bit of system repairing.

His bearings were all out of whack, and he staggered like a drunk for a few steps before leaning onto a pine tree nearby. The brown needles at his feet crunched as he walked over them.

"Mission: Investigate cliffs near south side of island....New Mission: Find team members..."

And so it was that he set off through the trees, the moonlight from Ragol's two moons shining down on him.

-----------------------------

Brian's eyes opened slowly, and his vision was blurry for a good ten seconds before he moaned and put his hand against his forehead. What happened? The last he remembered was the hovercar..and then....The birds !

His head rolled to the right, and he noticed Skett lying with his back to a large tree. Brian was also lying with his back to a tree, but evidently he couldn't have fallen and landed like this.

He examined his arms and legs for wounds. Amazed, he checked again. There were none.

"What the--!?"

The morning sunlight was warm and cheery, and it filled the pine forest with a nice, bright mood. He stood up slowly, and walked over to skett.

"Hey...Skett...you ok?" He shook his shoulder slowly.

Skett mumbled something and slowly opened his eyes.

"Mm........B...Brian!?"

"Woah now, take it easy. What happened?"

Skett slouched back into the tree. Realizing it was somewhat uncomfortable, he grimaced and leaned forward.

"I awoke in the...the..hovercar. I looked for you, and saw you down here. So...I jumped... I guess you found me and got me healed eh?"

Brian shook his head. "I'm a ranger, not a healer. I just woke up, and you were in that position."

"What!?"

If brian hadn't healed skett, then who had?

"Listen.." said brian. "don't worry about it for now. We gotta get going, if you're well enough to get up."

"Yeah.." Skett slowly pushed himself up, stretched, and the two set off slowly through the trees. Neither mentioned droidan, for both knew in their minds the bleak end that had had awaited him.

There was a creak in the trees behind them, and a sudden crash. The two spun around, just in time to see their car as it smashed into the ground.

"That reminds me..", said Skett. "We can't just leave it like that. Confidentiality purposes, you know."

Brian nodded.

Skett tensed his body and held his hand, palm forward, at the smashed hovercar.

The explosion of Rafoie deafened the area, and the hovercar immediatly dissapeared, replaced by a crater in its spot.

"There are times I'm glad I'm a Force..", muttered skett as he the two began their hike again.

-------------------

"Analyzing crater...

Analyzing...

Analyzing...

Synopsis complete. Crater seems to have been caused by impact, causing heat and explosion. All those nearby would have been vaporized immediately."

Droidan looked again at the crater. It was noon now, and he had stumbled upon the old team hovercar. Skett and Brian were nowhere to be seen....but if the summary was correct, as he knew it was, then they would have been killed instantly when the hovercar crashed into the ground.

"Ending current mission.....

re-booting previous mission.... Explore cliffs near...."

The message replayed itself as he walked slowly over the pine needles towards the cliffs.

--------------------

"This is it, I guess." muttered Brian as the two looked into a cave behind a waterfall on the island. It was hidden behind the waterfall, but there was a walkway that went behind it, so both of them had gotten around without getting wet.

Inside it was dark, and they could hear faint drips as water fell slowly from the roof to the cold stony ground, where it accumulated in deep, dark puddles.

Skett looked nervous. "Do we really need to go in there?"

"The mission told us to."

"Yeah but...."

"Listen skett, droidan gave his life for this mission. The least we can do is go through with it."

"...You're right.."

The two walked forward slowly through the cave. Soon they could not see a thing, and had to feel their way along the slippery walls of the cave. One hand on the wall, the other on the shoulder of the other person.

Finally, after moving forward like this for some time, Brian, who was in front, suddenly lost his footing and the next thing skett knew he was gone. Skett was too scared to move forward; what if it was a 500 foot drop just inches in front of him?

"Brian!? Brian!?" He yelled, his hand in mid-air, as if waiting for brian to come back miraculously.

No answer.

Slowly, ever so slowly, he edged his foot forward, and then felt something smooth.

He inched forward, and suddenly lost balance, falling onto his rear. He was sliding; that was all he knew. Sliding at blazing speeds, his rear end burning against the stony surface, but it was slick with moss, or something of the sort, and didn't hurt too bad.

And then finally, he was thrown into the air, and fell for a few feet before he splashed down into a pool of water.

The initial impact, sent him under, and he held his breath as he struggled to get back up to the top. He reached it seconds later, and gasped, treading water as best he could in the force attire he was wearing.

He could faintly make out the shimmer of lights on the water now, but still couldn't see well enough to make out any details. He gasped again, and cast gifoie. It worked for only a second before it was extinguished by the water, but in that split second he was able to see everything clearly: There were walls all around him, save for a small hole in the roof, not big enough for any human to fit through, and what seemed to be a hallway down about 30 feet from him. He was going to have to swim.

"Of all the things I hate..." he began as he began swimming forward. "..one of the biggest are deep, dark caves with black, murky water..."

He began to get the feeling that he was not alone. Where brian was he didn't know, but the feeling he was getting was not portraying a friendly presence with him.

He swam faster, kicking hard, his heartbeat increasing, and finally reached the small ledge that led to the hallway. He pulled himself up, and then pulled his legs out of the water.

As he pulled his left leg out, something cold wrapped around it.

"!!! What The--!?"

SPLOOSH!

Something had pulled him back into the water. He was being thrown around underwater, and he had barely any oxygen in his lungs. He struggled back up to the surface, gasped, and was pulled back under again.

Something else wrapped around his other leg, and two more grabbed his arms.

They were tentacles!

It lifted him out of the water, and then, perhaps it was the adrenaline, but something allowed him to see it perfectly.

A massive creature, with hundreds of tentacles, and a mouth bearing sharp, glistening teeth. They were stained red with blood, and he quickly hoped that handn't been brian. He wriggled, trying to escape it's grip, but he couldn't move. The mouth moved above the water, and it let out a piercing scream, a victory scream, perhaps, as it prepared to eat its catch. It threw him around a bit more, and he cut his leg on a sharp rock. The blood spilled into the water, and the creature seemed to get more and more excited as it happened. He grimaced.

Then it began pulling his head towards it mouth. The mouth expanded, revealing a hole large enough to fit an entire person into, quite convienent, he thought sarcastically as he was being pulled down. He was inches away now, and he could see that the creature had many gleaming black eyes, all staring intently at him. All waiting to see him die.

Then he was pulled closer, and his face was only centimeters away from the creature's mouth.

It opened wide.

And let out a scream.

The grips loosened, and he fell back into the water. He shot up to the surface, stunned, and swam quickly, his face looking back at the creature, to the small ledge. He knew he was there when his back hit it, but his gaze was intently fixed on the creature. It was wriggling, screaming in some sort of pain, and then suddenly it grew limp.

He blinked. What had happened?!

He turned around, and began to pull himself up again.

When something grabbed the back of his clothing, and picked him up with ease into the air.

"Teammate skett....Found."

It was droidan!

"Droidan! What are you doing here!?"

"Looking for you. I take it that it's a good thing I found you."

"Yeah! So you killed that thing?"

"Correct."

"But how? It's nearly pitch black in here! You could have easily shot me instead!"

"Hah! I'm an Android Ranger. My accuracy is extreme, plus, I can see in the dark. Well....kinda...that system got a bit jumbled when I fell off the hovercar.."

He set Skett down, and skett tried to calm his breathing while asking questions.

"So what happened? We though you were a goner when you didn't get back in!"

"I don't know. The last thing my databanks recorded was a picture of the stars. I take it I was on my back. That's it. I searched for you and brian, and found the hovercar. I presumed you were dead."

"We thought the same of you. I was forced to blow up the hovercar for confidentiality reasons, though."

"I see..that thought didn't occur to me. Where is Brian?"

"I don't know.."

Droidan cocked his gun. "Then we should be looking. Danger lurks everywhere in this place."

"You got it. Let's go."

The two took off through the darkness.

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"Woah..." The yellow-orange glow of the orb illuminated the room, and Brian moved forward slowly, amazed by the awe of it.

"It's...beautiful..."

He had slid down some sort of slide, fallen off, and landed on another. It had led him here.

It was a small, square room, and there were odd markings all over it, with a table looking thing on the far end, and an orb, about the size of a basketball, floating in mid-air above it. It seemed to be liquid inside, yet crystal on the oustide, and created more of a floating lava lamp effect than anything else. He moved forward cautiously, awestruck by its beauty, and when he was near it, stood and gazed.

Take it.

What? Who said that?

Take the orb.

"Hello?" His voice was weak and afraid.

"You can achieve great things with this. Take it."

"Why?"

"Take the orb...." The voice seemed like it was urging him to take it, for some reason.

Brian wasn't too trusting. He decided to test whatever it was.

"No. I won't take it."

"You can have limitless power...infinite life...take the orb.."

"No."

"Take...the...orb..." the voice seemed to be getting angry.

"I will not take it."

"TAKE THE ORB!" The voice screamed, and a gust of wind blew threw the room. The orb seemed to be magnetic, to brian at least, and he had a hard time keeping it away from his hands.

"N-no...."

"THEN YOU SHALL PAY THE PRICE!"

There was a roar, and he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He stepped back immediately, and a green sword flew right in front of his face, stabbing into the rock wall. Blood ran down the wall and onto the ground, but it was not his blood.

Looking quickly to his right, he gazed down the black hallway from where the sword had come. A figure was running down it, he could hear the footsteps, and suddenly he saw the figure. It shot past him and grabbed the sword, then grabbed the orb, and stopped for only a moment.

"That makes twice. Keep yourself out of trouble from now on, ok?"

Then, with a flash, the figure was gone in a streak of green, and so was the light.

What in the world?

Heavy footsteps came from the same hallway, and he hid against the wall near the doorway, ready to attack the next person that came in.

The footsteps grew nearer, and finally, they came within a few feet.

A white figure stepped forward, and he pointed his rifle at the face quickly.

"Freeze!" he yelled, but suddenly felt something against his forehead. It was the palm of a hand. "Hold it right there, buddy." Said a voice from behind.

He had been caught. Yet somehow, the voice sounded somewhat familiar.

"State your name!" said the voice from behind.

"Brian..."

"!!! Brian!!" The hand immediately left his forehead. "It's us! Skett and droidan!"

"Skett! And Droidan!? He's here?"

"Correct." said droidan. "Damage done to systems was repaired after some time. Basically, I'm ok."

Brian laughed. "Wow...I never thought I'd see you guys again! This place gives me the creeps.."

Skett was silent for a moment, and then beams of light shot up from the ground. "Ryuker still works down here.." he said. "Let's get out. I think we did enough exploring for one day."

Brian stepped in and warped up, and droidan did the same.

Skett glanced around quickly. It would be better to make sure nobody else found this place. To ensure that, he would have to disable the return through the pipe. And that would require a blockage.

He cast a large spell of grants, and warped up through the pipe.

The walls crashed, collapsing quickly after the spell destroyed the base. Withing seconds, the room was a pile of rubble, with dust hanging in the air.

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"Hey, Brian." Droidan grabbed Brian's shoulder as the three began walking back to Works H.Q.

"Hm?"

"Take this." Droidan held out his hand, and brian cupped his. Droidan dropped a small, marble looking thing into Brian's hand, and Brian held it up to his face.

"What is it?"

"It was given to me by my creator. It was a defect part of my system, that nearly caused a collapse and would have killed me."

"Woah. And you keep it?"

"I have. But I want you to have it now. You and Skett are my new family. You keep it."

"Well, uh...I guess...if you're sure..."

"I'm posititive. I just hope that one day I can do a life-changing thing for people. And then, when that day comes, I want that marble to be cast away, for I will no longer have need of it. It represents that which is wrong with me, and once I can do something that truly is good for mankind, It will serve no purpose."

"So you wan't me to get rid of it, then?"

"Not till something like that happens. Or...if something should happen to me, then do the same."

"Come on droidan, nothing's gonna happen to you. We'll protect you."

"There is always a possibility. But I trust you, and it is for that reason that I gave you that."

"Thanks.." The two caught up with skett and entered the doors of WORKS H.Q.

------------------------

The three walked out of WORKS H.Q. and got into their shiny new hovercar.

"You know..." murmered brian. "I'm sure glad we had insurance on that thing."

Skett laughed. "Me too..plus, I like this one even more!"

Droidan grumbled in the back seat. "50,000 meseta is all we get!? I can't even get a all nighter for that much!"

Skett and Brian turned around slowly and eyed him suspicously. "What?", they said in unison.

"An all nighter! You know!!"

Brian fainted and Skett began to crack a smile.

"Uh..."

"Like an all nighter at the movies! You following?"

"Explain?"

"Like I go to the movies and watch movies all night! An all nighter!"

Skett laughed the hardest he had laughed in a long time.

Brian chuckled from his seat, and Skett turned around and grabbed the controls of the new hovercar.

"Well....we could go and watch ONE movie.." he said. "I hear that "Revenge of the Pal Rappies" came out yesterday. It got two wings up by fukki and flat."

The three drove off into the busy streets of pioneer 2.

--END---

So, what did you think? Comments, complaints? I'm interested to hear your feedback! Thanks!

--Ruby Eclipse

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: RubyEclipse on 2003-11-21 20:16 ]</font>