The Gnome Chronicles-Book Two Chapter One: Uncontested Victory? A long, code ago, In a server far, far away. Halifax awoke with a pounding headache, his first attempt to move sent a wave of pain through his body. He tried again, this time the pain had dulled a little, standing up he fell to his knees in agony. He looked around and saw nothing but bodies, all of which, he thought, were dead. Looking down, he noticed he was kneeling in a puddle of his own blood, he quickly checked himself. Halifax had a deep gash on his left arm, cuts covered his head, face, and chest. Struggling, he got up and checked the bodies around him for survivors. Finding none, he searched the room for an exit. Halifax crawled out of the room, he looked up and down the hallway, it all seemed strangely familiar to him. Walking down the hall he noticed that parts the code had a hint of red to it, his memory slowly flooded back into his head. The 7th army, Goweb’s death, The Soul....Gnome, it all came back to him. With the eerily silence that filled the hall, along side the uncountable number of dead bodies, Halifax knew The Triple alliance had fallen in the face of pure evil. Out of the corner of his eye, Halifax saw something move down the hall from him. He quickly spun around to see nothing, curiously he continued down that way. He took five steps before something bolted out from one thread across the hallway and into another. Surprised he almost fell backwards, but caught himself. Quickly and as quietly as he could, Halifax ran to the thread and put his ear to the door. He could hear something quickly moving around, he put his hand on the handle and threw the door open. The small thread had four bodies laying in corner, a fifth was being checked out by a man. “Who are you!” Halifax screamed out in his scratchy voice. The man became still for a second then turned with a look of shock on his face, the man was Great Pretender. The Great Pretender looked different then the last time Halifax remembers seeing him. “Halifax?” TGP asked in astonishment. “Pretender? You look different, what happened here?” “Not here, Halifax, follow me” TGP led Halifax back out of the thread. Quickly looking if the hallway was clear, Pretender ran down the hallway with Halifax not far behind. He led Halifax deep in the void of The Underground before stopping at a dead end. Great Pretender scanned the hallway and pressed his palm against the wall, the code stopped and disappeared unveiling a secret entrance. Pretender ran into the darkness and Halifax slowly followed, he looked back in time to see the code reappear and speed up. Halifax slowly made his way in the completely dark hallway, it felt like the floor sloped downward. It wasn’t long before he lost the sound of Great Pretenders feet against the floor. He continued down the dark hallway until he saw a glimpse of light. Halifax hurried in that direction as he ran, his pain grew. He entered a room filled with injured people laying on the ground, he looked around and saw only a few member who were up and helping the others, six exactly. Before Halifax could take another step, he passed out and fell to the ground. Halifax awoke several hours later in a daze. He looked around the poorly built room, ‘Made in a hurry maybe?’ he thought, he counted the people in the room, there were 32 injured and only six who were fit, they were: dmbfan, Anton P Nym, Great Pretender, Impurity, VII Toast, and GameJunkieJim. Halifax remembered them all, but somehow they looked different. Halifax tried to get up, Impurity walked over and stopped him, he put a blanket over Halifax and gave him a pill and a cup of water. “Its for the pain.” He told Halifax, who took the pill and laid back down. “What’s happened around here?” he asked hoping he’d finally get an answer. “Well, what’s the last thing you remember?” Impurity asked “Jumping on Gnome’s back, pulling him to the ground in a dog pile.” “Hmm..” Impurity got comfortable, “Not much is known about how the Great Battle played out, Gnome had power the likes of which you couldn’t imagine, in the end he had killed The Overlord, took his thrown and poisoned the very code on which this site was made of. That was over a week ago, The survivors had settled here, and we have been searching for more survivors ever since. With every moderator killed, us six were promoted.” “If Achronos was killed along with the Mods, who had the power to promote you?” “The Soul had survived. He was the first to find us and brought us here, to his makeshift hideout. The problem is, from here were cut off from the rest of the forums. The majority of Gnome’s army is stationed right above us, we have our backs in a corner. The Soul has been the only one to travel elsewhere.” Impurity replied. The pills kicked in and Halifax was able to stand up with ease. “How far in The Underground void are we?” he asked “Just before the Halo CE days, why?” Halifax stood there thinking for a moment, “I know a back passage way into The Flood from here.” To be Continued. . . -Gnome- [Edited on 9/14/2005]