You can sift through the racc list archive https://lists.eyrie.org/pipermail/racc/
or you can try google groups racc for the nineteenth part of Beige Midnight.

Here's the last third of issue #6 -- 'The Ice Caverns of Existence' by me (Arthur
Spitzer). Will our team of time traveling do-gooders be able to take on --
The Legion of Net.Hippies (without inhaling?!) Where will that trail of cigarettes lead Kid Anarky? And will Munchkin Man give us all the answer to the Meaning of Existence?




Find out that and more in...


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|_| OF NET.HEROES

ADVENTURES #183


=====================
Beige Midnight Part Nineteen
=====================

Date: Tue May 25 18:48:57 PDT 2010


Beginning of Part III

**** <<--BM-->> ****


1994 AD --
Retcon Hour --
Net.ropolis --

Irony Man, Dr. Stomper, Contraption Man, the New NTBish version of
Occultism Kid, and Ripping Dancer flashed into what was supposed to be
the lawn of the LNHHQ.

But everything looked completely different. Naked guys and girls with
flowers in their hair playing guitars and smoking joints littered the
lawn of the LNH Headquarters, which looked a lot like a commune.

"And to think, I was afraid this would be totally lame," said Occultism
Kid flicking his cigarette onto the ground. "Tell you what -- why don't
you spandex wankers go and you know -- save the world or something --
and I'll chat up some of these birds for info -- maybe score some drugs.
Sound like a plan?"

"Another Retcon Hour effect?" asked Ripping Dancer.

"Yes," said Dr. Stomper studying the retcon free scanner.thingee. "I
speculate that we've crossed into a continuity bubble where the Legion
of Net.Hippies never ceased activity."

"Hippies," said Irony Man in his best Harrison Ford voice, "Why did it
have to be Hippies?"



**** <<--BM-->> ****


"It's no use! Can't reach Kid Kesey! What ever is keeping Deja Druid
and Continuity Tramp locked on the DoobieSat has gotten him too!!"
shouted Listens-to-Rock-n-Roll Lass trying to divine their whereabouts
from the Grateful Dead bootleg tapes she was listening to.

"This isn't good," said Make Love Not War Lad clenching his love fist.
"We've got to find who's doing this. Is it the Time Toker? wReamicus Fascisitus? Richard Nixon? Who is causing this -- Retcon Hour?"

"Ooh! Ooh! Just got some pics on my Anti-Fascist Cam!" said Calls-Respectable-People-Fascists Lad running into the monitor room.
"It's that warmongering fascist Toony Stork's body guard and assassin!!
The Irony Monger -- he's outside!! And he's with a bunch of weird
looking fascists! Man, what a total fascist!"

Make Love Not War Lad took a drag from his toke. "Well, guess we need
to call the rest in here. Looks like we're going to have a major rap
session! Let's get our Groove On!!"



**** <<--BM-->> ****


Ripping Dancer experienced a strange feeling as she touched one of the
Legion of Net.Hippies Commune walls. The colorful painted flower walls
started to leak across her. The whole space was swallowing her up. The
Beatle song, 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' began to play. In order to
fight this feeling of completely losing it, she began to dance.

"Ripping Dancer!" said Contraption Man grabbing a hold of her hand and
removing it from the wall. "Don't touch the walls! They've got some
type of psychedelic power. Are you okay?"

"I -- uh -- yeah. Whoahhh. That was -- very trippy."

"Try not to touch anything else here. There's no telling what it can do."

"Psychedelic power? Yeah, right," said Occultism Kid licking one of the
walls. "Doing nothing for me."


**** <<--BM-->> ****


Contraption Man studied over the time packs. "I've never seen anything
like this. How does it work?"

"Electric Time Kool-Aid," answered Dr. Stomper. "One of my old
professors from college Dr. TO-TI-DO (Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out) was
the one who developed this means of time transference. It was
unfortunately not a very stable means."

"Well, since we've only got five or so minutes till the rings run out of
power -- looks like this will have to..."

Right about that then a number of Legion of Net.Hippies stormed into the
room.

"It's over, Irony Monger!" cried Calls-Respectable-People-Fascists Lad.
"This time you're going answer for all your crimes against humanity!!
Genocidal Fascist!!"

"Genocidal Fascist, huh. And here I was worried about being a dirty
hippy in this timeline. Guess someone likes me up there." Irony Man
pointed his Irony blasting hand right in the Legion of Net.Hippies
direction.

Contraption Man looked at his watch. There was no time for a fight
scene. Got to try something else. "Everyone. Step back. Or I'll set
this off."

Everyone looked at Contraption Man who was holding a scanner.thingee
over his head.

"Umm, hey man. We've seen a scanner.thingee before," replied McGovern Supporter Lad.

"Not one like this. It's hooked up to the entire Marijuana Supply of
the World. Once I push the button, a virus that kills marijuana plants
will be released. And they all die. Every single one of them. No more
Grass. No more Pot. Nada. The Dream ends here."

"Oh god no!!" shouted both Kid Grass and Pot Lad. "We give!! We give!!"

Calls-Respectable-People-Fascists Lad gestured towards everyone to step
back. "Fine. Looks like you win again, Irony Monger. But it's only a
matter time before you get yours."

"Right. I'm sure that will happen at any time," said Irony Man setting
his time pack for the present.

As the 2008 LNH Members flashed away back to the present, the Legion of Net.Hippies continuity bubble burst.

And their continuity replacements, The Legion of Net.Herrings flopped
around a bit gasping for water before their bubble ruptured too.


**** <<--BM-->> ****

Ancient Qwerty --
1994 BC --

Eld-Ar the Elder scanned over the prophecy scroll. Today was the day.
This was the day that the alignment of Flosk, Mirgor, and Dalaton would
happen. During the time of the UIOP Comet. And according to it the
Most Worthy One would come this day to free King Qwert-El from the Ice
Caverns of Existence. The Real King Qwert-El.

It was amazing to think that for the past million years, the Elders had secretly been running the entire Empire using false King Qwert-El
look-a-likes -- every five years or so replacing them. The entire
Empire was built on a lie.

And Eld-Ar the Elder was a part of this lie. His father, and
grandfather, and many ancestors in his line before that had been part of
the lie. And what was it all for? Where was the meaning of this lie?
The point of it all?

Eld-Ar took the scroll and held it over a candle. The scroll started to
burn. Eld-Ar watched as it burned. He put the scroll in the sacred
stove and poked and prodded the scroll till it was nothing but ash.

When he and the other current Elders were dead, no one would remember
the lie. It would die with them.

Eld-Ar looked at his electric hourglass. He heard a dinging coming from
the bell tower. Was this is? Had the Most Worthy One arrived? Had the
L, and the N, and the H returned?

Eld-Ar put on his red ceremonial robe and made his way towards the
courtyard.

Today the point of existence would finally be answered.

Today he would finally find the meaning for his life.


**** <<--BM-->> ****


Kid Recap and a number of his amnesiac LNH'rs followed the red robed
Elders towards the Ice Caverns of Existence.

He scanned the crowd of on lookers and wondered who the Most Worthy One
was or when he'd get there. And several minutes later they had finally
reached the Caverns. Kid Recap could feel an icy gust blast out from
the Cave's fissure.

For awhile every single person there just stared at the opening and just waited. Waited and waited. And waited some more. And then finally
everyone stared at Kid Recap.

Eld-Ar the Elder tapped Kid Recap on the shoulder. "It is time. Time
for the Most Worthy One to go into the Caverns."

"Umm, yeah. Okay. Feel Free and do that," responded Kid Recap.

Eld-Ar had an uncomfortable look on his face. "We don't know who the
Most Worthy One is. You were supposed to bring him here."

"Me? I don't know who he is either. I figured he'd just show up. So
you don't know who he is?"

"This is very bad." Eld-Ar went over to the group of Elders and started
to consult with them.

"Do you know what you're doing?" said the Ultimate Ninja who had a very
icy look on his face.

Kid Recap shrugged his hands. "Umm -- not really. Look, maybe the Most
Worthy One is an LNH'r? Maybe? I don't know. It doesn't matter.
Someone's going to have to go into that cave and retrieve Bart." Kid
Recap gave a loud whistle in order to get everyone's attention. "Okay,
is anyone here The Most Worthy One? Anyone?" Kid Recap got a bunch of
blank stares.

And then Munchkin Man clicked off his Headphones of Momentary Amusement (+238,749) and piped up. "ooh! ooh! that's me! i'm the most worthy
one!! stand aside folks!! most worthy one coming through!!"

The Ultimate Ninja shook his head. "You've got to be kidding me! This
-- this dwarf...?"

"munchkin," corrected Munchkin Man.

"Whatever you are, all I've seen from the actions of you for the past
few days is the most spineless, worthless excuse for a hero -- I've ever seen!!"

Kid Recap nodded. "I have to agree with UN, Munchkin Man. Honestly,
you are the least worthy member of the LNH ever that I can think of.
Why do you think you can do this?"

"these babies!!" Munchkin Man said pointing to three rings on his hand.
"got them off the black troll market -- a Ring of Most Worthiness
(+89,567), a Ring of Most Worthiness (+67,453), and a Ring of Most
Worthiness (+99,999). i'm totally loaded!! plus i've got this Amulet
of Philosophical Cave Protection (+45,999) and my Mittens of Really,
Really Cold Stuff Protection (23,783; +78,932)!! look honestly the only
reason i took this gig was because i have this quest for the meaning of
all existence that i have to do before i can become a 99,222 level Arch-Ninja-Bard-Ranger-Pastry-Chefancer."

Kid Recap's eyes bugged out. "Wait, how did you know that the Meaning
of All Existence would even be here?"

"got it all here!" Munchkin Man stuck his tiny blue hands into his
Storage Sack of Infinite Space (+Infinity) and pulled out a book. "it's
the 'Big Book of Looniverse Hints and Cheats (2010 edition)'. don't
leave home without it! bought it off this raccelestial for a trillion
gold points. quite a bargain actually."

Kid Recap shook his head in disbelief. "God damn -- Could I take a look
at that?"

"nah," Munchkin Man dumped the book back in his sack. "have to be like
a level 7892 Power Librarian to read it and a level 2348 Demi-God to
touch it without dying, so no -- fraid not."

Kid Recap rolled his eyes a bit. "Well, it looks like you're the Most
Worthy One then, Munchkin Man. Go to it then. Good luck."

Munchkin Man gave a thumbs up and then put on his Mittens of Really,
Really Cold Stuff Protection (23,783; +78,932). And then he walked
straight into the Ice Caverns of Existence.

Kid Recap held his breath.


**** <<--BM-->> ****

A few minutes later, Munchkin Man came out of the caverns tugging a
giant ice block behind him.

Kid Recap gazed at the block. There was something human trapped in
there. Was it Bart? He could see something colorful sparkling away in
the ice. The Gems of Insanity? He wondered if they should just haul
the ice block back to the Loonivearth. But before he could ponder that
he watched Munchkin Man take out his Ice Pick of Ice Pickiness (+7892,
+3457) and start to slice away at the ice.

Kid Recap waved his hands wildly. "Wait! What the hell are you doing!?
Stop that!! Munchkin Man!!!"

"relax, kid recap. bart is totally out of it! And you don't have to
worry about me being corrupted by the Ring of Retconn or Insanity
Gauntlet -- i have some Tongs of Resist Corrupting Cosmic Devices
(+11,999) that i can use to pull them off -- not that i'm really tempted anyways since they're pretty pathetic compared to the stuff i already
have. just saying."

Kid Recap pulled the Ultimate Ninja aside while Munchkin Man continued
to whittle away at ice surrounding Bart's hands. "Look, I know you
don't trust me, but if that person trapped in the ice breaks out --
please, kill him. Kill him quickly. Just kill him. Please." The
Ultimate Ninja whose ninja awareness could sense something incredibly
powerful frozen in the ice gave a nod.

Munchkin Man finished carving the ice around Bart's hands. With the
Tongs of Resist Corrupting Cosmic Devices (+11,999), he carefully
removed the Cosmic Devices and tossed them into a burlap sack. He then
tossed the burlap sack towards Kid Recap. "there you go."

Kid Recap rubbed his eyes a bit. Most of Bart was still frozen away in
the ice block. Was this it? Was beating Bart that simple?

The Qwertian Elders walked up to with reverence and bowed down to
Munchkin Man. "Oh, Most Worthy One! Tell us, please, the meaning of it
all! The Meaning -- The Meaning of All Existence!!!"

Munchkin Man glanced at his Watch of Time Telling (+77,945). "sorry,
gents -- have to keep on truckin'. got to go to my Guild Master and get
my next quest. adios amigos!" With that said Munchkin Man cast a spell
using his Helm of Time Travel & Teleportation [8764, +99,003] and
disappeared from the past.

"Wait! Please! Come back! Most Worthy One!! Please!" The Elders
prayed and prayed, but it was no use. They would never learn the
Meaning of Existence. Eld-Ar the Elder touched the last place Munchkin
Man had stood and then Eld-Ar the Elder wept.


**** <<--BM-->> ****

April, 2008 AD --
LNHHQ, Net.ropolis --

Kid Anarky lying in his bed looked at the old picture of his Net.Patrol buddies. The picture had been taken a week before Lost Cause Boy had
died. Causie. Pliable Lad and Curly were also in the picture. Weird.
There should have been someone else in the picture. Shouldn't there
have been? Kid Anarky put the picture down on his bed. They were all
gone. He was the last one. The last member of the Net.Patrol. Maybe
he could start a new one. Nah. Who would remember? Better to just
leave it dead.

From out of nowhere, his Claymore suddenly popped into his hand. Where
did that come from? He hadn't seen that in a long time. Something must
be up. Christ. What did it matter to him. He felt a chill inside him.
A trenchcoat. He felt strange urge to wear a trenchcoat. Weird.

Kid Anarky dropped the Claymore on his bed and stumbled off of it. He
walked over to his closet. There was nothing in there. No trenchcoats.
They were all at the cleaners. Except -- this one, he thought as he
brushed his hand over the fuzzy pink trenchcoat. He pulled it off the
hanger. Why did he still have this one? Who had given it to him? He
put the fuzzy pink trenchcoat up to his nose and took a whiff. Christ.
The Catgirl. There was a catgirl. He couldn't remember who she was.
No. Sometimes he could. When he was incredibly drunk.

He slipped the fuzzy pink trenchcoat on and closed the closet door. He
looked over to his bed. The Claymore had disappeared. Hah, typical.

He looked at the carpet near the door. Weird. Cigarettes. Where did
those come from? He began to pick them up and opened his door. More cigarettes. They were forming some kind of trail. He followed the
trail picking up more cigarettes. Wow, I must be really bored, he thought.

The last cigarette in the trail was half of one. Split in half. What
happened to the other half? It all led to a wall that was shimmering
some psychedelic colors defying the beigeness of the world around it.
Kid Anarky touched it. Some type of portal.

Okay. Let's see here. The smart thing to do would be to get some of
the LNH experts here so that they could figure what this thing was, he supposed.

But hell -- since when did he ever do the smart thing? I mean come on!

Kid Anarky walked straight through the portal. Pink Fuzzy Trenchcoat
and all.

The portal vanished a little bit afterwards.


**** <<--BM-->> ****

April 2008 AD --
LNHHQ, Net.ropolis --

Contraption Man, Dr. Stomper, Irony Man, Occultism Kid, and Ripping
Dancer flashed into the LNH's Starship Hangar Bay. All five collapsed
on the floor. The euphoria that they had felt when they had gone to
1994 was completed drained by the oppressive beigeness that loomed over everything.

Ripping Dancer clutched her stomach. She felt like throwing up.

"Ripping Dancer? Are you all right?" asked Dr. Stomper.

She shook her head.

Dr. Stomper helped her up. "We need to get her some medical help."

Contraption Man shook his head. "No time for that. Something very bad
is going to happen in the next few minutes. We need to take this
starship and get the hell out of here."

Dr. Stomper eyed Contraption Man. "What's going to happen?"

"Trust me -- something bad. And we can't do anything to fix it.
Ripping Dancer will have a better chance on the ship. Trust me."
Contraption Man opened the hatch to the Starship Snobbie (named after
deceased member Comic Snob Boy)

Irony Man and Dr. Stomper helped Ripping Dancer into the ship.

"Occultism Kid? You coming on board?" Contraption Man watched as
Occultism Kid appeared to be urinating on one of the LNH Space.thingees.
Contraption Man had a bad feeling that the NTB retcon on Occultism Kid
was still taking effect.

"Yeah. What the hell. I assume that thing has a totally stocked up
liquor cabinet?"

Contraption Man gave a sigh. "Just strap yourself in. Everyone strap
yourself in."

A few minutes later, the hangar doors opened up and the LNH Starship
Snobbie blasted off. A few minutes later it was past Earth's orbit.

And just at that moment, Renegade Programmer pushed a button that caused
the Sincerity Satellite to start bathing the Loonivearth with sincerity
rays.



**** <<--BM-->> ****



Ancient Qwerty --
1994 BC --

Kid Recap looked at the frozen ice block that Bart was still trapped in.
Was that it? Was it that simple?

There were still problems though. He had 15 fully powered Dvorakians
with him. Maybe they could stay here for a week or so, so the Glory
virus could finish them off. Then there would also be the Dvorakians in
the present that they'd have to deal with, although since Ultimate Ninja
would hopefully get his memory back that would be his problem. What
else? Oh yes. He was going to have leave 70 or so members here since
they would have to siphon gas from two of the ships to get the three
remaining ships back to the present.

But in the end, at least they didn't have to fight Bart. At least they
had avoided that one pot hole. As Kid Recap watched the Elders praying
for Munchkin Man to return, he heard something.

A cracking sound? Probably the ice. Just the ice cracking because of
the temperature. Just the...

Kid Recap looked back at the ice block, which was now a number of pieces
of ice. And no Bart. No Bart? No Bart!!!!

Kid Recap scanned the horizon and then he saw it. A man flying in the
air. A man in Bart's Dark Receptionist costume.

Oh hell.

Bart floated closer. His skin crackled lightening. His eyes looked
like they had entire galaxies imprisoned in them. And the smile on his
face -- well, the less said about that the better.

Bart waved his hand as he looked at the burlap sack containing the Ring
of Retconn and Insanity Gauntlet. "Oh. You can have those if you want.
I don't need them anymore."

"You can all go on your merry way if you want." A ball of energy began
to crackle in his left palm. His eyes seemed more interested in the
energy ball than the LNH.

And then as if realizing that the LNH was still there, "Oh. You don't
want to leave? You want to stay? Perhaps worship me? Build me a
church or something. No? Oh. You want to fight. Yes. You want to
die. I understand." Bart laughed. "I understand completely." The
energy ball disappeared from his hand.

"Ultimate Ninja! Kill him!" shouted Kid Recap.

The Ultimate Ninja hurled a number of Ninja Bushes and then twirled and
flipped his body towards Bart. The Ultimate Ninja tried a number of
moves, but nothing worked. And then Bart lunged into the Ultimate
Ninja's chest. And he pulled out the Ultimate Ninja's beating heart.
His real beating heart. He dropped the Ultimate Ninja's body on the
ground and looked at the heart for a few seconds. And then he dropped
the heart. "Hmm. The Ultimate Ninja is dead. That was -- hmm -- That
was very -- easy. Funny. For some reason -- thought it would be
harder. I always imagined it being a lot harder than that. Oh well."
He did something that caused all the blood on his hand to vanish.

And then he rubbed his hands.

Bart smiled. "Okay. Who's next?"


**** <<--BM-->> ****
**** <<--BM-->> ****


NEXT: A lot of dead LNH'rs!


**** <<--BM-->> ****
**** <<--BM-->> ****


Credits:

Ideas for Beige Midnight by Saxon Brenton, James Enright, Lalo Martins,
Martin Phipps, Rob Rogers, and Arthur Spitzer...

Dekay and Diskolor, The Bryttle Brothers created by Todd "Scavenger"
Kogutt, used with permission...

Bart the Dark Receptionist - Ken Schmidt

Qwerty and the Dvorakians - Drizzt


LNH'rs

Captain Continuity - Mystic Mongoose
Fearless Leader - Dave Van Domelen
Footnote Girl - Saxon Brenton
Kid Anarky - Stephan Savoie
Kid Recap - Josh Geurick
Munchkin Man - ????
Procrastination Boy - ???
Pulls-Paper-Out-of-Hats Lad - Arthur Spitzer
Renegade Programmer - wReam
Ultimate Ninja - wReam

Secret Retcon Hour Team:

Amnesia - Drizzt
Contraption Man - Drizzt
Dr. Stomper - T. M. Neeck
Hexadecimal Luthor - Chris Hare and Saxon Brenton
Irony Man - Doug Moran
Occultism Kid - Josh Geurick
Ripping Dancer - Arthur Spitzer

Legion of Net.FreedomLovers:

Barrage - Rob Rogers
Head Honcho Master - Arthur Spitzer
Londonbroil - Rob Rogers
Mr. Homage - Drizzt
Mynabird (suit) - Rob Rogers
(mite) - Arthur Spitzer
The Robot with Lawrence Welks Brain - Arthur Spitzer
Rumor Monger - wReam
Vector Sublime - Rob Rogers and Arthur Spitzer

Legion of Net.Hippies - Arthur Spitzer


Writer's Notes:

For those who are confused by this...

http://www.lnhq.info/wiki/Infinite_Leadership_Crisis http://www.lnhq.info/wiki/List_of_Infinite_Leadership_Crisis_Stories http://www.lnhq.info/wiki/Beige_Countdown http://www.lnhq.info/wiki/Beige_Midnight

Probably won't help.

How's that for a heavily researched depiction of Australia? :)

Oh, I do realize that Summer is Winter in Australia...

Wow, did it take like 8 months for me to write this? (Well more like 7
months to procrastinate and one month to write). Uhhggggg. I mostly
blame my hatred of my current writing ability for the lateness of
this... once I stopped caring about any sort of quality I did manage to
get this finished. Since I do have the ability to write at least 4000
words a week, this should have only taken me 4 weeks at the most. I'm
hoping the next one will come out faster. I'm giving myself an ultimate deadline of April 29, 2011 for the whole series.

As for the stuff in this...

Since we're in the 2010's (Teens?)... I guess we're now in the wallowing
on 90s nostalgia decade... so everything from the 90s is cool again.
Usenet, LNH, RACC... you name it... It's all hip.

You know your story is a mess when you have to distinguish 1994 AD from
1994 BC...

Why Retcon Hour? Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Retcon Hour for those of you who haven't been reading the LNH since 1994
was a massive crossover involving time travel and massive retcons.
Contraption Man working for wReamicus Maximus betrayed the LNH and stuff.

Here's some more about it...
http://www.lnhq.info/wiki/Retcon_Hour

Don't think you have to read it though to understand this issue though...

All this happened in the summer between my highschool years and my
college years...

All the stuff about Crocodile Dundee hats and Munchkin Man seemed
funnier in my head.

I did finally realize what Munchkin Man's greatest weakness is: Negative
exp points. Those are killer.

Freezing Bart for a million years was Lalo's idea. Had my doubts about
it at first, but since Lalo was still going to write this arc back then,
I figured he could do whatever he wanted. That being said, I will admit
that it solved a lot of problems so probably just as well that he
thought it up.

Till next time then.

Arthur "Blahhhh!" Spitzer



==========
Next Week: Beige Midnight Part XX!
==========

Arthur "Same Classic Channel. But Same Time? Probably not." Spitzer

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