On a planet, strikingly similar to Earth, there existed a colony of, what Earth's humans would call, intelligent life forms. They looked very similar to the Earth's reptites, in colors of green and purple (most of them being green). In some ways, they were almost as intelligent as the humans of Earth in 2300 A.D.
The planet they lived on was named (in the best English translation) Tipalia. The reptite-like creatures on this planet named their species, and their language, after the planet. The planet was not quite as watery as Earth, but still, the amount of water exceeded the amount of land. From the night sky, two moons were usually visible. The air of this planet was also very similar to that of Earth. Maybe life could only be sustained on an Earth-like planet, or maybe it is a weird coincidence, but that is besides the point.
And it is on this planet that we see Lavos' beginning...
"This meeting shall now come to order!" shouted the Tipalian at the front of the table. (For reading purposes, the quotes in this story will be translated as best as possible from the planetary Tipalian language to English.)
The talking among the Tipalians stopped. The leader Tipalian spoke again, "You all know why you have been called here."
One of them stood up and yelled, "I believe that the Animal Energy Plan would be the best way to --"
"Sit down Zalaa!" interrupted the leader Tipalian, "We'll get to all of your plans you may have in due time.
"Now, we must discuss the energy problem. As you all know, our available energy has been rapidly diminishing. We will hear and vote on the plans for the new energy."
One by one, the Tipalians who had ideas for new energy announced their plans. One announced the idea of obtaining it from the flowing water. That plan was easily turned down on the fact that hydroelectricity would take more energy to make than would be produced. "Energy from the light star," suggested another. That too, was turned down, since the nights here were longer than the days. Each plan suggested was turned down, one by one, until they got to Zalaa.
Zalaa announced his plan, "Now I know many of you may disagree with my plan, but I shall attempt to show you my plan is the best. In the Animal Energy Plan, we genetically engineer an animal so that it uses energy from the planet. Then, we can simply extract the energy from the animal using a machine."
The leader Tipalian asked, "How will we keep the planet energized? You must remember that the reason the last energy source ran out was because the planet ran out of --"
"I have taken that into account and the answer is simple," Zalaa interrupted, "The animal will be able to give powers to us I like to call 'magic.' Magic is something that is beyond the comprehension of science. Using only a small amount of energy, magic can produce larger amounts of useful energy. If we can send some energy back to the planet, the cycle would keep going."
"OK then... if we were to execute your plan, who would genetically engineer the animal and make the extraction machine?"
"I, being the expert scientist that I am, shall do so," Zalaa agreed.
"OK, all in favor of the Animal Energy Plan, say 'Scre!'"
"Scre!" shouted the majority of the high-positioned Tipalians around the table.
"Motion passed, we will begin work immediately." The meeting ended, and everyone scattered. Zalaa went to his lab to begin work.
Two guards were posted outside Zalaa's small lab. These two were of a species fairly rare to Tipalia called "humans." Tipalians found that humans were very useful as guards, with their abilities to become very strong. Humans also seemed to be very obedient, with the exception of the Human Resistance.
"What do you suppose Zalaa is doing in there, exactly?" asked guard #1 (still in the Tipalian language).
"I don't know, but those two porcups he brought in there are probably involved," replied #2. Porcups are animals that resemble the Earth's porcupines, except with larger quills.
"Two porcups, eh? Sounds like he'll take a sperm and an egg, and manipulate them to produce the creature that would execute the plan."
"Hmm... I guess you would know what the scientist would be most likely to do, since you've been working for Zalaa longer."
"It's only a guess, but now that you mention it, it does sound like something he would do."
At that point the conversation ended, and they spoke no more for the day. They stood there for several short hours, uninterrupted. However, at one point they could vacantly hear, or thought they could hear, an almost menacing laugh come from the lab...
The days on Tipalia are equal to about two and a half of Earth's days. The scientist, Zalaa, was inside his lab for weeks. He came out only for food. Of course, the guards changed shifts during these weeks. When Zalaa finally came out, he was holding a baby porcup in front of him.
Another meeting was held, with the same Tipalians that were at the first. This time, the meeting took place in a wide, open field. The Tipalians were encircled a few meters around Zalaa, waiting for the meeting to begin.
The leader Tipalian said, "I believe everyone is here. OK Zalaa, you may begin."
"Thank you Agalag," Zalaa said, "A few weeks ago we agreed on a new energy source from the Animal Energy Plan. Now, here is the animal that will be used to gather the energy."
He raised his hands and shouted "Call Energy Porcup!!"
The encircled Tipalians were confused momentarily. They mumbled questions to each other. Was he demanding them to get the animal? Were the human guards supposed to fetch it? It definitely wasn't the latter, for the humans guarding the meeting were confused also.
Overhead, dark clouds approached the group. Agalag saw this and suggested to Zalaa, "Maybe we should postpone the meeting. It looks like water will fall from the skies. We can't become too moist."
"NO!" Zalaa demanded, which surprised everyone.
Lightning struck near the group a few times. Then a brilliant flash of light, not lightning this time, appeared over Zalaa. From it, a baby porcup slowly fell toward the ground. It stopped falling and started floating right above Zalaa's head. The clouds moved away without a drop of rain.
The Tipalians stood, staring at the floating porcup in awe. Zalaa reached up his arms and removed the porcup from it's suspension.
Zalaa was the only one to speak, "What you have just seen was a demonstration of 'magic,' which I told you about at our first meeting. This baby porcup, which I hold, was from where I extracted these powers. All I have to do is attach this porcup to the ground, set up my Extraction Machine to it, and we will gain both energy and magic from it. Then, we can just use the magic on the planet to keep its energy from running out."
There was a pause before Agalag started wiggling his head. Others, seeing his approval, slowly started wiggling their heads in turn. This head wiggling, which is the equivalent of Earth's human applause, made Zalaa feel that he would go down in history because of his plan.
But the plan he was thinking of was not the Animal Energy Plan...
Within a week the Extraction Machine was set up where Zalaa had set up the porcup, in the field they had met in. The Extraction Machine was held up by a wide pole. A circle, wider than the pole, touched the top of the pole on its edge, so that it hung out over the ground. A hollow, glass pole from the circle went down back to the ground. Inside this glass pole on the ground was the energy porcup. The energy would be sucked out from the porcup, into the circle, processed through the first pole, where it would be stored.
Energy had begun being extracted with Agalag hitting the "on" switch. Of course, Agalag, being the Tipalian leader, was the second one only to Zalaa to obtain magical powers. Unlike the human magic elements of Earth, the Tipalians had only three elements: Wind, Gravity, and Tipalia (which would be our Earth element). The element was determined by a gene, but unlike Earth humans, the Tipalians have had the element-determining gene ever since their species began. Not all the spells were destructive. In fact, several of the Wind spells were curative. Zalaa tested the humans, and they did not seem to be effected by the energy porcup.
Zalaa told Agalag about the three elements, the spell types, and the null effect of the energy porcup on humans. After seeing one of Agalag's spells, Zalaa recognized it as the element of Gravity. Zalaa then said that he himself had the Tipalia element, but the spell he cast at the previous meeting (he apologized about the clouds and his yelling) was a non-elemental spell. Non-elemental spells could only be earned, not given. That particular spell, though, was a spell that could only be used once.
Agalag responded to this, "No need to apologize. After all, you did come up with this ingenious plan. I trust that you will get some, uh, skilled magic users-"
"Wizards, sir," Zalaa interrupted, "that's what skilled magic users are called, wizards."
"Yes, well, I trust that you will hire some 'wizards' to protect the temple alongside the humans guards from any revolting Tipalians or the Human Resistance."
"Yes, sir. I have already arranged training among the Protection Army to master the art of magic. The other six of the Great Soldiers are to learn magic as soon as possible also."
"And speaking of guards... We must make sure that the humans do not learn magic. After all, we do not want any people in the Human Resistance fighting against us."
"Don't worry," Zalaa soothed, "my tests have shown that the humans do not possess the gene to learn magic."
"All right then," Agalag said, "I will announce to the Tipalians that magic is ready to be received."
And so, Agalag held a conference at his temple, and announced about magic, and that it could be received.
Zalaa was not at the conference, though. He was in his lab, listening, and partially watching, Agalag's speech on a screen that acts like an Earth television. There was a penguin-like creature living on this "TV," whose placement there was enforced by Tipalian law.
Zalaa ignored the talking voice on the "TV" for the most part, though. He kept his attention on one of his cages. He opened the cage, and took out another energy porcup, one that nobody knew about. This energy porcup was male - the gender opposite of the known energy porcup.
Two days had past after Agalag's announcement about magic. Tipalians had already flocked to the energy porcup to receive magic. Some wanted their human slaves to learn magic, but the ones in charge of the Extraction Machine didn't let them do so because of Agalag's order and the fact that human's couldn't learn magic anyway.
Agalag tested out his new magic powers on pesky little bugs. He discovered that his Gravity magic could injure greatly, but could not kill. This was because that the amount of damage done depended on the amount of health of the target.
While he was training himself in his magic, a Tipalian guard broke in and interrupted him.
"Sir! Come quickly! We have a problem!"
"What is it?!" asked Agalag, "Is it the Human Resistance again?"
"No! The Tipalia Protection Centre detects something in space!"
"Well then, bring me to the Centre!"
At the Tipalia Protection Centre (TPC), Agalag was lead to the space viewing room. The main room had a giant screen and a control panel in front of it. The picture on the screen shown the area just above Tipalia's atmosphere. To Agalag, this room had always seemed like a giant version of the inside of a Ship of Space (SS).
On the screen, there was something shadowed, hanging over Tipalia. The thing on the screen was the largest thing Agalag had ever seen, besides Tipalia itself. It was obviously not an SS.
"Can we find out what that is?" Agalag asked, making it sound more like a demand.
"Our detectors say it is an animal, although the size of the creature says otherwise," a minor scientist replied.
"Do we have any other scientists to identify it?"
"I am afraid not. Zalaa is neither in his lab nor in his housing."
"How about the President of the TPC? Where is he?"
"He is on his way over here right now."
There was a pause for thought for Agalag. Then he said, "There may not be enough time... All right, prepare a war SS for me and I will examine it close up."
"Sir!" interrupted the scientist, "A thousand pardons, but shouldn't we fetch the other Great Soldiers?"
"We don't know what that thing can do. Even if we get them, that thing may wipe all seven of us out, and then how would the world survive? No, I fear that it may indicate danger. I must do this myself."
An SS was setup for Agalag and he went to the Port as quickly as he could. Unfortunately, he was delayed by protesting humans. They were saying something about how that humans are also life-forms and that the Tipalians felt so superior they named themselves after the planet. Of course, these people were members of the Human Resistance organization. They were quickly captured by the Tipalian controllers, though, and Agalag continued on his way to the SS.
He boarded his war SS, which was shaped like a "C," to allow for better speed and stealth. The front of the "C" was covered by a window, to allow the pilot to look outwards. In the inside there was a control panel right below the window, with a seat at the panel. Hitting a few of the controls, he hovered it in the air, and then with a burst of speed, blasted upwards, through the atmosphere.
Agalag could still not be able to identify the shadowed beast through the SS's visor. War SS's had few identifying devices, and the identifiers it did have told Agalag no more than what he already knew. As he flew the ship closer, he could start to feel familiar energy radiating from it. There was a slight buzz as the SS got close enough so Agalag could identify the beast, but he didn't believe what was in front of his eyes...
"A... porcup?"
An unwelcome voice came from the control board of Agalag's SS. For these models of SSs, the entire control board was the speaker. "Yes, Agalag. As a matter of fact, it is an energy porcup."
"AN energy porcup? You mean there are more?"
"But of course," said the voice, "I can't believe you actually trusted ME."
Agalag's SS came closer to the giant energy porcup, which was at least 50 times as tall as the wingspan of Agalag's SS. Hovering beside the giant was another war SS, where the unwelcome voice must have been originating. Agalag fired detection lasers at the opponent. He, she, or it, noticed the detection, but remained there, as if that, whatever it was, wanted to be noticed.
What was on the screen of the control panel of Agalag's SS was a human, or that's whom Agalag pictured would be there in his mind. Instead, a picture of a Tipalian shown up. A message appeared on the screen, asking Agalag if he wanted it to do an identity scan, but Agalag denied, for he already knew who it was.
"Zalaa!!" he shouted.
"Agalag, so you enter the force field shadowing me and my friend's identities," emitted the voice from the panel.
"What are you doing Zalaa?! Tell me!" Agalag demanded.
"Haha! You have no idea, do you? Of course, you are so stupid you actually believed that magic could energize the planet."
"Stop the laughing and get on with it!"
"Well, maybe I should give your feeble mind knowledge of my plan. You see, this was not a plan to 'energize the planet,' but to take over Tipalia. The plan was to drain Tipalia from its energy, and thus everyone would be begging me for power, and would be forced to follow me. Of course, my source of energy would be the energy porcup itself, since none of you simpletons would be able to retake control of it once I took it. However, the original one you saw would take a great amount of time, in fact many a year after my death, for it to drain enough energy for world domination. So, during the time you thought I was making an energy porcup, I was indeed making two."
"And you had them breed to produce yet another offspring."
"Very good, Agalag. For you see, their baby would be a natural energy absorber, requiring no manipulation of the gametes. Natural energy absorbers, like this energy porcup here, could drain a planet incredibly faster than one made by manipulating the sperm and egg. So I launched the new baby onto the planet of Ersam. You know Ersam? The nearby planet occupied only by bacteria? Being as small as he was, the TPC couldn't detect him leaving the atmosphere. Well anyway, the baby quickly sucked the energy from Ersam, and grew to the size you see him as now. By using a device I attached to him, I commanded him to put up a stealth shield and hover over Tipalia's atmosphere. When I noticed him through my telescope, I got my own personal war SS and sat beside him, waiting..."
"Waiting?" asked Agalag, "For what? Why didn't you just have -- him -- drain Tipalia and have it be over with?"
"But of course, I was waiting for you. Even if I did use him to monopolize the energy, I knew that you, having the history as probably the best Great Soldier, would find a way to rid of me. I knew you were the only one brave enough, besides the other six Great Soldiers, to come out here and see what the shadow was. I also knew that you were too proud to bother informing the other Great Soldiers. And now... you are on my turf."
"You are mad, Zalaa. Madder than even a member of the Human Resistance can be."
Zalaa continued talking, as if Agalag never interrupted, "And this has turned out better than I thought. If I should happen to fail, then my pet here will crash into Tipalia. This will release dust into the atmosphere, blocking the light star's rays, ushering a long, cruel ice age. Tipalians do not have the ability to live through that."
"You forgot something, Zalaa," said Agalag, "someone at the TPC probably picked up on our sound frequency and listened to our conversation. The Great Soldiers, or at least the Protection Army, should be here soon."
"No, I did not forget anything. You see, not only does the field created by my pet block images, but it also does sound waves. We were the only ones listening to our conversation." (The Tipalians had figured out a way of how sound could exist in space.)
"Well, then," Agalag proudly said, "you were still foolish enough to tell me your plan. Also, since I am a Great Soldier, I should be able to best you, and I could get the other Great Soldiers and the Protection Army to defeat your beast."
Agalag fired a laser missile at Zalaa's SS. Zalaa steered his SS around the porcup so that the shot missed him. Now the energy porcup stood between Zalaa and Agalag.
"It was not foolishness, for it was another part of my plan. You see, during the time we were talking, my 'beast' powered up. Now he is ready to destroy you. Hahaha!"
Suddenly, Agalag stopped feeling the familiar energy that the energy porcup was radiating. Agalag felt uneasy about this rest and took the opportunity to fire laser missiles at the energy porcup. All of the shots connected, but none of them seemed to do much damage.
Then Agalag felt energy radiating from the beast again. A blast of blue energy fired from the porcup's head. That energy then expanded to the size of his body, and was aimed at Agalag. Agalag's heart was rapidly pulsing. He just stayed there, knowing that even the Great Soldier best at flying, Poccu, could not avoid this blast. A split second before the blast reached him, he opened the front window and, while pointing at the energy porcup, yelled, "DEMI 3!!!" in a last ditch effort.
A portal opened near the porcup and electricity came out, hitting the energy porcup and draining him of three-forths of his energy. But still, the spell did not destroy the giant, nor the blast. The energy hit the SS of Agalag, and the SS instantaneously exploded. Right before Agalag died, he could have sworn that he heard Zalaa's hysterical laugh...
"Sir!" said the lesser scientist to President Reios of the TPC, "Finally you have arrived! We have detected a mass energy beam come from the animal you were told about! Agalag left to try to discover that thing's identity right after we called for you!"
President Reios, who unlike most of them was purple instead of green, asked, "Did it come directly from the beast?"
"Actually," replied the scientist, "no, it seemed to start some distance away from it."
"Just as I suspected," President Reios said, "A stealth field must be disguising everything inside of it, including that beast's identity. Agalag should have escaped from it by now to tell us what it is. I am afraid he is gone... But anyway, fetch the Great Soldiers, or at least the Protection Army. We're going in to find out what that is."
"My porcup!!" yelled Zalaa, "What did that fool, Agalag, do to you? Well, there is no need to worry, Gravity magic can't destroy, and you can heal yourself with Tipalia's energy. Let's go."
Zalaa took a remote control off the control panel of his SS. He hit a few buttons, and a small device on the porcup reacted. The energy porcup slowly started approaching Tipalia.
"Now we shall see who is the true leader of the world. They will all bow down to me!"
"I don't think so..." said a deep voice, which Zalaa heard from his control panel.
"What?"
Six war SSs rose from the lower part of the force field, around Zalaa and the porcup.
And so the 46th verse of the Universe Book goes...
"Zalaa, so it was you!" said one of the females of the six.
That on each world with life there shall be seven,
"Agalag shouldn't have given you that much power," said a deep, yet feminine voice, "I feared that his pride would get him in the end, which it did."
That will either save the world when it is in peril,
"But it doesn't matter now, he must be dead." said a scratchy, male voice, "but we, WE shall avenge him."
Or die trying...
"And we shall destroy your beast here to stop it from world domination," said another male with a deep voice, who was a twin of the first deep voiced Tipalian.
"Poing, babaloo," said the last of the six, who was not a Tipalian, but a mutated version of the penguin-like creatures. Despite his inability to communicate with them in the Tipalian language, he was the famous expert pilot, Poccu. (Hey! Penguins can't fly! :) His special SS allowed him to pilot it with thought power. "Kwaako, zaling, gabida!"
These seven shall be known as,
"Ah!" said Zalaa, "you must be the rest of -"
The Great Soldiers
"The Great Soldiers! I should have expected you to avenge your seventh friend. Anyway, you cannot stop me, for my pet will protect me!" Zalaa hit a few of the remote control buttons and the porcup fired a relatively weak shot at one of the six. Whoever was in the SS being shot at easily maneuvered their SS out of the shot's way.
"Agalag weakened your attack power too! We must hurry!"
"Lock on and fire at the beast!" yelled the first deep voice.
"Yes, Terces!" said the four of the Great Soldiers who could speak the language. Poccu's translator machine allowed him to understand the instruction.
Five of them, circling around the porcup, fired with all their laser shots. Terces chased Zalaa.
Minutes passed and the energy porcup was still approaching Tipalia. "It's no use!" shouted the one with the deep, feminine voice, "The attack Zalaa said Agalag used didn't seem to help us much! The beast is still too strong!"
"I have an idea," said the one with the scratchy voice.
That Tipalian opened his front window, like Agalag had done, and yelled, "Violent Winds!" Then the porcup stopped moving toward Tipalia, but not by its own will nor Zalaa's. The wind was blowing the porcup back. The giant tried to resist, but the magic power was too strong. Another one of the Great Soldiers possessing the Wind element cast the same spell, and with that, the giant energy porcup was swiftly and forcefully ejected from the galaxy.
Zalaa was captured by the six Great Soldiers and taken to Tipalia for decision on what is fate would be. It was decided by the new leader, Terces, that death would be too good for Zalaa. Instead, Zalaa was to be ejected into space, like what happened to many of the Human Resistance and some Tipalian rebels. As for the two energy porcups on the planet (the unknown one was currently discovered in Zalaa's lab by a human guard), they had already been launched into space by a small, yet powerful rocket.
"Please! Don't sent me into space! Please!" begged Zalaa.
But with a shove from a Tipalian guard, Zalaa was forced into a small pod. The door was quickly closed and locked. With great rapidness, Zalaa was launched into space with one of the small, powerful rockets.
The pod contained food that would last humans only days, but Tipalians for years. The need for water was satisfied by the Tipalians ability to naturally take in some water from food. Like Terces said, death would be too good for Zalaa, and the food was there to let Zalaa survive, for awhile at least. Most of the Tipalians could really care less if Zalaa died, though.
When Zalaa had left Tipalia's atmosphere, he started laughing, hysterically. He reached in the pile of food and pulled out his remote control.
"Humans are so easy to bribe."
He hit a few buttons, and then rested uncomfortably, yet happily. Only he and the late Agalag would know what would happen next. The giant energy porcup re-entered the galaxy and passed by him while he was sleeping.
"... then my pet here will crash into Tipalia... ushering a long, cruel ice age. Tipalians do not have the ability to live through that."
The giant energy porcup charged into Tipalia, gradually resulting in the long, cruel ice age. And slowly... the Tipalians became extinct while humans still roamed the planet. The crashing of the porcup also caused an element-determining gene in the unborn humans, but the humans never knew that they could learn magic. But, when the giant energy porcup emerged from the planet, the humans were also gradually led to extinction.
Or die trying...
After several years, Zalaa crashed onto a planet much like Tipalia. This planet was inhabited by descendants of humans ejected from Tipalia. Of course, only a few humans would originally have been lucky enough to land on this planet.
Zalaa found other ejected Tipalians as well, but not nearly as many compared to humans. These Tipalians taught Zalaa an improved version of the human language, which in the language, was called "English." Zalaa learned that they called this planet "Earth," and that stories among the humans about Tipalia were passed off as mere tales. Humans ruled here, but did not enslave the Tipalians.
It is then said that Zalaa, still with his remote, commanded the original energy porcup to meet him on Earth. Zalaa worked his way to become the leader of the Tipalians. Once he had heard his name and the Tipalian name in English, he decided to change both names. He changed the Tipalian name to "reptite," and rearranged the letters in Zalaa to form his new name, "Azala."
However, Azala was bested by six of the Earth's Great Soldiers right before the energy porcup fell. It had obviously consumed a few planets before it reached Earth, because its size was much bigger now than it was on Tipalia. The porcup was later to be named by one of the Great Soldiers as "Lavos" ...