Ignore Nick. Nick is an idiot.

Yay, got Chapter 3 done today. *huggles Palm again* n_n

Chapter 3: Distortion

In the tallest of the Rockius Mountains, Mount Whitespire, there was a long, hollowed-out tunnel. This tunnel led to an underground cavern so large, it may have housed a medium-sized city.
This was Devan Shell’s secret mountain laboratory.
Two sinister eyes examined the enormous machine in front of them. The machine itself looked like a gigantic, white turret, its single cannon barrel almost a foot and a half wide, and at least nine to ten feet long, and the base of the turret was a wide control panel, with a digital viewfinder and a big red button occupying the better part of the center of the control panel. The eyes belonged to the notorious Devan Shell himself. He nodded approvingly to the reptilian operator, standing nearby. “Good job, Tokivi. If this Turbulence Machine of yours works, it will make for a healthy addition to our armada. We will be unstoppable, and that fool Jazz Jackrabbit, and his equally foolish siblings, will finally fall to my forces!”
“You underestimate me, sir. Of course the machine works. I have even set up a test run, to prove to you its true power.”
“Oh?” Devan was immediately intrigued. “Show me.”
Tokivi picked up a handheld radio from the surface of the control panel, and spoke into it. “Bring in the captive for testing.”
Almost immediately, two Tuf Turtles entered, carrying a young, dark-cyan-furred rabbit with them. The rabbit didn’t look too pleased with his escorts, but didn’t struggle, apparently having lost the strength to hope a long time before. He wasn’t emaciated, but he was noticeably less well-built than someone of Jazz’s stature. As they approached, the young rabbit spat at Devan. The projectile fell miserably short of Devan’s feet, but one of the two Tuf Turtle soldiers kicked him in the leg anyway, for good measure. The rabbit winced in pain as the kick landed just above his ankle.
Two rectangular holes opened up in the rock floor about twenty feet in front of the machine. A stone-crafted, semicircular object rose out of each hole, and they joined to become a full circle about ten feet above the ground. The Tuf Turtles tied the rabbit’s wrists and ankles to the stone ring with belt-like straps, so that he was upright, but spread-eagled, inside the ring. He sneered at Devan and the assorted cronies once he was tied in.
“Hah. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what you do to me… I will never serve one as cruel as you!”
Devan snickered at the helpless rabbit. “I wouldn’t be too sure about that if I were you. Don’t you fret yourself, this will be quick and painless.”
He grinned maliciously. “I think.”
The strapped-down rabbit glared with fierce, bright green eyes at the bespectacled turtle, as Devan indicated to Tokivi to start the machine. The lizard pulled a lever on the side of the machine, opening a hatch atop the turret, then saying something to the two Tuf Turtle guards, which the rabbit didn’t catch from the stone circle. The guards left for a moment, then returned, toting an oversized, blood-red missile with the letters “(Dby:Fbr)” along the side of it. They hefted the giant missile into the hatch in the turret, then scattered far out of the way as Tokivi closed the hatch, thereby cocking the enormous weapon. He took aim through the viewfinder, and locked the turret into position directly facing the venomously scowling, imprisoned rabbit. He then stepped away from the control panel, bowing to Devan’s superiority. “The honour is yours, sir.”
Devan giggled like a naughty little child as he stepped up to the controls. He held his closed fist above the big red button marked “Fire”, and looked through the viewfinder, even though the cannon had already been aimed perfectly.
Devan’s fist dropped upon the button.
The red missile ignited with a roar, then flew out of the machine’s barrel. The only thing keeping the turret from flipping over backwards were the claw-like metal spikes, attached to the base of the turret, that dug deeply into the rock floor. The missile easily cut short the distance to the tied-down rabbit, and the prisoner shut his eyes tight, awaiting the inevitable.
However, instead of a massive explosion, the outer shell of the missile disintegrated a few feet from the rabbit. A black essence, previously entombed inside the missile, was revealed as the metal exterior deteriorated, and the dark thing hit the rabbit in the midriff.
Then it went into his body.
The dark essence appeared to fade on contact, but the Tuf Turtles at the side of the stone ring clearly saw it go in through the base of his ribcage. A dark sphere began to come to sight, and since the sphere was mostly transparent, they could all see, but somehow not hear, the rabbit screaming in agony. There was a huge amount of strain on the belt-like straps holding the rabbit to the stone ring, and they eventually snapped in two, allowing him to curl up into a fetal position inside the dark sphere. He only stayed in this position for a few seconds, however, as he quickly snapped backwards in the air. He was now bent backwards, floating in the dark sphere, as if a massive amount of energy was being infused in him. Which was true.
The sphere suddenly shattered like glass, causing the rabbit to fall to the ground. However, instead of landing hard on his back, he flipped over impossibly quickly, and landed easily on one knee. The first thing the turtles and lizard noticed was the immediate colour of the rabbit’s fur: it had turned from a bluish shade to a steel-grey tone. As the last pieces of what used to be the dark sphere landed on the ground, the rabbit stood upright. He still had the same fierce eyes as before; but, instead of being a brilliant green, they had turned a dangerous shade of red. His face was expressionless, but they could all tell that there was a lot of fire in those eyes as they roved around the room, searching for nothing in particular. Then, his fiery eyes went straight to Devan.
Without warning, the rabbit began to advance toward the bespectacled turtle. One of the Tuf Turtles moved forward to try to stop him, but the steely rabbit pushed him backwards again with one hand, and seemingly no effort, as if he was weightless. The Tuf Turtle sailed through the air like a dead leaf, and skidded across the floor on his shell. After sliding across the floor like a puck on an ice rink, he collided with the other wall, which, while knocking him unconscious, flipped him over, so he was not on the back of his shell anymore. Devan was apparently apprehensive as the rabbit approached, as he shrank backwards slightly. He reached for his blaster pistol, hidden in his shell.
However, as he gripped the blaster’s hilt inside his shell, the rabbit stopped advancing. He simply stood there, stock still, not two feet from the increasingly anxious turtle. There were a few seconds of tense silence; then, as Tokivi had done only a few minutes before, he bowed to Devan, with three terse words.
“I stand ready.”
Devan’s apprehension turned to pure malicious joy, and the turtle giggled and rubbed his hands together evilly. Talking to no one in particular, he said quietly, “I am going to have so much fun with you...”
He quickly cleared his throat, and turned his attention back to the silvery-gray rabbit. “Now then... what shall I call you?”
“Vaper.” His expression never changed as he said the word. It was like he was a robot rabbit.
“Vaper.” Devan repeated the name, almost reverently. “Well, Vaper, you are the first of a new breed of soldier in my ranks. You are, as you have just shown us, one of the strongest strains of warriors to ever walk this planet, let alone the strongest to be given a place in my army. You are...”
Here, Devan stopped abruptly, and frantically tried to come up with an intimidating name for this new breed of soldier that he had created. As he pondered a name for Vaper’s rank, he happened to glance at the turret of the gigantic Turbulence Machine. A name immediately popped into his head.
“You are a Turbulent, the first of my ultimate legions. Welcome, Vaper, to my army.”
There was a glint in the new Turbulent’s red eye, his ears flattened back on his head, and his mouth curled into a vicious sneer. “I am pleased to join your forces... Lord Shell.”
Devan turned to Tokivi. “Lord Shell,” he whispered. “Write that down somewhere.” The reptile skittered away to do his master’s bidding.
Devan turned back to Vaper. “So, what shall you do first?”
“Let me destroy something for you, Lord.”
“Hmm, but what to destroy?” Devan inquired knowingly. He snapped his fingers, as if he had just remembered something. Vaper’s long ears snapped to attention, waiting for his first orders.
“Your first mission is to find that family of warrior Jackrabbits. You do know of the Jackrabbits, I presume...?”
“Of course.”
“You forgot the Lord part.”
“Of course... Lord.”
Devan smiled slightly at the sound of his new title. “You will bring the three Jackrabbits here, dead or alive, under your custody. I will see them fall, by my hand or not, or I will die waiting!”
“You will not need to die waiting, Lord. I will carry out your orders.”
“So you will bring them to me?”
“Gladly, milord.” With that, Vaper was gone before Devan could even blink. The other Tuf Turtle, who hadn’t tried to stop Vaper earlier, suddenly fell over as the rabbit flew by.
Devan stood there, expressionless, for a few seconds, then burst out laughing wild laughter, maniacal laughter that echoed and spread through the passageways and tunnels of his secret laboratory deep in the rock bowels of Mount Whitespire.

Have I mentioned that FORESHADOWING RULZ YO!

Chapter 4 will be done between now and when the sun explodes.

"They all know that I won't get started until 3 days before the deadline."
"But you don't even have a deadline!"
"Shows how late it'll be."