--Alan -- Only six months later... #################################### ElfQuiz: Rebirth (The Last Movie) Installment 1: The Fools, I'll Destroy Them All By Alan #################################### They met at the Blue Mountain fountain. She entered the spacious room quietly. Her footsteps made small impacts on the rough, rocky floor. Her eyes remained fixed on the ground. Suddenly, the young elf's wolf-like instincts detected the presence of a stranger. She caught the plodding of other footsteps: heavy, uncertain ones. Wary, she looked up. She drew back as she caught sight of the stranger. He was of the elven race, but years removed from any wolf-contact. His wiry, birdlike frame filled her vision. He was the picture of an outsider: the sort of thing she had learned to hate, and later learned to understand. As she examined him, her body froze up. His eyes-- He had her in his gaze. Though one stood above the other, their eyes met on a level plane. "No," she whispered, "this can not be." **Believe it,** he sent to her, talking to the unfamiliar wolf-elf for the first time, **It is the meeting of eyes and souls: recognition.** His icy eyes probed the depths of her face. (Fate,) she thought, (I despise fate. Yet I must submit. I should know, for I have seen the dehabilitating effects of recognition sickness. I do not wish to suffer, or for any of my family to carry my pain.) All time stopped as the two strangers approached each other. The dimly glowing room turned to an embracing darkness. The newly recognized met in the middle. Their arms and bodies crossed. In each other's reach, they fell to the floor. And so Nightfall and Kureel met. (By the way, Dewshine and Tyldak met in the same way. More about them later.) ### Meanwhile, somewhere else in our story... Two shadowy figures stood on a high limb of a tree. Their upright bodies were immaculately dressed, in order to impress the fans with their inherent, timeless coolness. The duo looked down at Blue Mountain. Their sober, disdainful expressions reflected their sober, disdainful attitudes. The shorter, leaner one, Stormie (known as Stormbringer in another, unrelated story) said to her shadowy companion, "It seems the Wolfriders and friends have completed a task. They have defeated Winnowill." The more muscular, dark-faced one, Vegeta (for it is he) replied, "So it seems. Now that we have uncovered this information, what shall we do about this, Stormie?" He paused to consider the options. "I propose that we KILL EVERY ONE OF THE BASTARDS!" A hand on her chin, Stormie thought about this tantalizing idea. "Maybe," she said quietly, "but not now. I have other things to do before lunch." Vegeta groaned. "Well, I'm not happy today. I want to destroy something," he told her. "If you want to, go ahead and try," she said. She smiled wryly. "Great!" Vegeta then flew in the direction of Blue Mountain. However, a half-second later, he collided with the cloudless evening sky. "The hell?!" he exclaimed. Though his head hurt, he still could not see anything in his flight path. "That was the edge of the screen, Vegeta." He contemplated the meaning of the phrase "edge of the screen" for a second. "Damn!" "And you can't leave the screen we're on. Sorry about that." She turned toward him and stopped smiling wryly. "Why can't I leave?" "Because we're an inseparable pair tied by destiny." Though Vegeta glared at her, Stormie continued to explain this: "Basically, it's a genre thing. If you don't understand the genre, I'll just have to give you the basic ideas. You see, we are two ambiguously villainous characters. We are not sure whether we want to kill or to help the good guys. So we just stick to our own devices until we decide to help, or until they beg and plead for our aid." Quietly, Vegeta groaned. "That makes no sense." Stormie patted him on the back and said, "Don't worry. You'll get it eventually." "That's what I'm afraid of." ### "Recognition?!" Voll exclaimed. "Yes," replied four voices. Running out of patience, Cutter pushed the newly- recognized elves to the front of the group, where Voll could see them. "Couple one: Tyldak and Dewshine. Couple two: Nightfall and Kureel. Does that help?" Voll looked over the elves two, three times. "Recognition?!" With tremendous restraint, Cutter groaned. He said, "Like it or not, it happened. And it's now a done deal. The work is over. They came through. The ink is on the contract. There's no turning back. The product is on the shelves. The warranty has expired. The public has--" "Enough!" Cutter stopped talking. "So..." a soft voice from the back of the crowd of Wolfriders said, "What'll happen to me?" Everyone looked. Redlance, the oft-forgotten hunter, had said the words. Everyone understood his plight immediately. In terms of love and recognition, he had the short end of the stick. As the room became silent, Redlance glanced at Nightfall. With a pitiful look in his eyes, he asked, "What'll happen, Nightfall?" She looked back. Suddenly, she smiled. "I'll tell you later," she whispered. Instantly, Redlance lost the pitiful appearance. Kureel, however, looked worried. ### The palace of the High Ones. The ancestral home of all elves. The place where all the troubles started. The only hope for a secure future. "Sounds like a good date spot!" Cutter said. He looked at Leetah, who stood beside him on the cold, windy exterior landing. She didn't look back. "Be serious, boy," Treestump told him, "We haven't walked all this way for nothing." "We haven't?" Treestump just stared. "Of course not. We're most of the way there. We might as well go into the ice region." Cutter got an idea. "Hey, old man," he asked, "Will you let me date Leetah there?" "Don't see why not," his uncle replied, "as long as you can keep your other love interests under control. Wouldn't want to create wanton chaos and destruction now." The chief had to think about this for a few moments. "Other love interests?" he wondered. Ember ran up to him. "I love my daddy!!" she yelled. Skywise looked at him sideways. "Does the word 'ambiguous' mean anything to you?" For a moment, all was calm. "That's only two," Cutter said, counting on his fingers. "Don't push your luck," Treestump muttered. "Yeah," Ember and Skywise simultaneously said. Cutter turned towards the mountainous horizon, brightened by the morning sun. "Let's just go before any more bad things happen," he said. ### "It seems you're back," Stormie said. "So it seems," Vegeta absentmindedly replied. He said to Stormie, "Well, I've learned something. I know that the Wolfriders are going to the palace of the High Ones. But I know they don't know where it is. So, do you know?" She thought about it. She continued to think for several minutes. "No idea!" she exclaimed. "I GOTTA KILL SOMETHING! SO I'LL KILL EVERY ONE OF THE BASTARDS!" "Before you do that," Stormie told him, "there's just one thing. It's lunch time. And I'm in the mood for some frogurt." He couldn't speak for a moment. "Frogurt?" Vegeta asked. "Don't worry if you don't know what it is. You can't exactly kill it." Giggling, she jumped off the branch and ran off. -- To be continued... in a *few* weeks. -- Postscript: Reader's question #1: Why Vegeta? Answer: I wanted an ambiguously evil, over-powered character. He fit the bill. Reader's question #2: Why Vegeta and Stormie? Answer: Well, Stormie is my favorite author- created-character. She's just evil enough to fit her role. And she's just manipulative enough to push Vegeta around. So despite their lack of connections, they work well together. By the way, I'll reveal their origin stories later. According to genre rules, you'll have to wait at least a few episodes. -- Written by Alan. July 14, 2000. email: gekiganwing@mailcity.com Elfquest spoofs: eq_addiction.tripod.com (about to be updated) Nega-Hell MSTings: fanficoutlet.tripod.com/negahell "Elfquest" and everything associated with it is copyright 1978-2000 Warp Graphics. My story might not be good, but it's not bad enough to infringe copyrights! Thanks for reading. "Why, it's not unlike an oyster or grape, ha ha!!"