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Description
"DO SOMETHING!"

After four or six years in development, "The Madness of Agent Zero" has been released to the internet at large. Hopefully it will have been worth the wait for those who wanted it.

The story behind this is that at the beginning of the Dino Attack RPG, a member by the name of BZP Noob #30000 (formally Norik the Silver Toa), who joined the original RPG as Zero , an agent who proved himself very active and quite helpful in the early adventures of Elite Agent Rex, and added a few elements to the ongoing Dino Attack saga, most notably in the form of the building that became Dino Attack Headquarters following a rampage by Kotua that decimated the old one, as well as the role of the "Future Villains" (versions of classic LEGO Villains who were involved in the RPG who came from the future, naturally).

His adventures were synonymous with the quirky early days of the RPG, particularly when he made a trip to Metru Nui (yes, THAT Metru Nui) and found not only the secret to time travel (something we later nailed down that the Time Cruisers had beaten him to), but a couple of Toa Disks that gave those who grabbed them the forms of the good old Toa Metru from BIONICLE. If another guy hadn't gone and put BIONICLEs in Exo-Force suits, that would've been the high point of the quirkly olden days.

Of course, in the modern age when PeabodySam and friends tried to make the RPG somewhat more grounded in reality and dramatic (yeah, we know how well that went, heh), these elements of the past had to be edited and retconned. Did BZP Noob #30000 have any thoughts on this? Heck if we know, at some point during the original RPG run, the guy got himself banned for Megablokposting stupid statements, and Zero was left to be quietly shelved away with an in-universe justification of dismissal from the team (referencing his ban).

In retrospect on his fate, I longed even back in my time roleplaying to discover his fate. Whereas the likes of Kotua and Databoard had the slim chance of them coming back, Zero had no such luck from being written by a banned guy. Eventually, PeabodySam approved of the idea, and I got to work writing the story of Zero's fall on a fateful mission to LEGO Studios...

And many years later, here we are.

This was a fun project that allowed me not only to leave my stamp on Zero, but expand on my corner of the Dino Attack RPG universe, going into some of my characters' backstories, expand on a few other people's characters and have some fun meetings, and slip in more references to my favorite stories in books, TV and the internet (Adding in references to The LEGO Movie was only natural, and I've got one more in the bag for another project, too. Stay tuned). The likes of Ata and Redshirt were particular highlights, particularly with the latter and expanding a joke character into a slightly more deep, capable leader figure (though his "joke" is lost to the LEGO Island arc, sadly, so here I actually preserve his character in a form of prose! Nice!) And of course, paying tribute to the LEGO Studios Backlot online game was a real treat of crafting the setting of this story.

So let's talk about what I did with Zero, shall we? Him going insane was an idea at the very beginning, based on the nature of BZP Noob #30000's banning (spam comments, but if I remember correctly his very final post made reference to PeabodySam and/or the RPG, quite touchingly), but how I would approach his insanity takes a page from PeabodySam's book in writing insanity. And a more obscure one at that. Not Frozeen's history of going insane on demand, or Wallace Bishop's self-inflicted case, but of Aster Oid.

Around the period of the Goo Caverns arc (either in the middle of or after it ended), Aster Oid had a brief delirious moment where he up and broke the fourth wall and berated "him" for transferring him from one of PeabodySam's racing characters in the original LEGO Racers to being part of the RPG cast, a moment that quickly came to end by dusting off his memory card. An amusing moment, no doubt, but the fact of the matter is this showed a potential outlet to a "greater understanding" of one's existence for the character's in the RPG. So if Aster Oid could see the truth when his mind went on the fritz, why not a normal Minifig?

But this had a greater potential than just poking fun at his author. As the subject of such significant retcons, Zero being exposed to the fabric of his reality had the unique potential of letting him being able to see what had happened to his story after the RPG's retcon, and it was that where I found my hook for writing Zero's downfall. Through implied forces, he finds himself divergent from the universe by way of still living in his original reality as it becomes changed by the retconning force of an author coming back to revise events to be plausible and less silly, as well as newcomers wanting to expand their own character histories by entangling them with the likes of forgotten Zero. It happens slowly for him, without him realizing, until it all comes crashing down in a nasty incident where he tries to use an ability linked to an old age that isn't compatible anymore. Ultimately, it spells his doom and his untimely departure from the Dino Attack Team.

I found a great similar case to Zero's when I finally watched The Truman Show this summer (hence the music I linked to at the start of this description). Though not quite the same circumstances, and not found out the same way, Zero finds that everything isn't as it seems, or as it should be, just like Truman does, and his life hasn't been as real as he thought. Unfortunately, his life doesn't get to be as happy as Truman's following the fact, in part due to the fact his delusion was provoked by a much more malicious cause than simply being the start of an "authentic" TV show.

There's a chance this story might not align with the RPG's universe quite well, and perhaps PeabodySam might want me to change elements here for going a bridge too far. But after all this time, I'm proud to call "The Madness of Agent Zero" complete, making the release of my grandest work with our old favorite LEGO universe outside of my original posts. Hope you all enjoy it, and who knows, maybe it'll give you something nice to think about.

------

Arc thumbnail made by me with the imagery of BZPower member Nura's LEGO photography, old LEGO online games and BIONICLE design work. No copyright infringement intended.

Read the Dino Attack: At Wars' End saga on Deviantart through here! In addition, the entire RPG can also be read in collected MS Word documents through this link here, if you want to read all this now in one go!

Come check out our Wiki for in-depth details about the world of this adventure! Or our TV Tropes page if you want to kill a lot of time!

Description
"DO SOMETHING!"

After four or six years in development, "The Madness of Agent Zero" has been released to the internet at large. Hopefully it will have been worth the wait for those who wanted it.

The story behind this is that at the beginning of the Dino Attack RPG, a member by the name of BZP Noob #30000 (formally Norik the Silver Toa), who joined the original RPG as Zero , an agent who proved himself very active and quite helpful in the early adventures of Elite Agent Rex, and added a few elements to the ongoing Dino Attack saga, most notably in the form of the building that became Dino Attack Headquarters following a rampage by Kotua that decimated the old one, as well as the role of the "Future Villains" (versions of classic LEGO Villains who were involved in the RPG who came from the future, naturally).

His adventures were synonymous with the quirky early days of the RPG, particularly when he made a trip to Metru Nui (yes, THAT Metru Nui) and found not only the secret to time travel (something we later nailed down that the Time Cruisers had beaten him to), but a couple of Toa Disks that gave those who grabbed them the forms of the good old Toa Metru from BIONICLE. If another guy hadn't gone and put BIONICLEs in Exo-Force suits, that would've been the high point of the quirkly olden days.

Of course, in the modern age when PeabodySam and friends tried to make the RPG somewhat more grounded in reality and dramatic (yeah, we know how well that went, heh), these elements of the past had to be edited and retconned. Did BZP Noob #30000 have any thoughts on this? Heck if we know, at some point during the original RPG run, the guy got himself banned for Megablokposting stupid statements, and Zero was left to be quietly shelved away with an in-universe justification of dismissal from the team (referencing his ban).

In retrospect on his fate, I longed even back in my time roleplaying to discover his fate. Whereas the likes of Kotua and Databoard had the slim chance of them coming back, Zero had no such luck from being written by a banned guy. Eventually, PeabodySam approved of the idea, and I got to work writing the story of Zero's fall on a fateful mission to LEGO Studios...

And many years later, here we are.

This was a fun project that allowed me not only to leave my stamp on Zero, but expand on my corner of the Dino Attack RPG universe, going into some of my characters' backstories, expand on a few other people's characters and have some fun meetings, and slip in more references to my favorite stories in books, TV and the internet (Adding in references to The LEGO Movie was only natural, and I've got one more in the bag for another project, too. Stay tuned). The likes of Ata and Redshirt were particular highlights, particularly with the latter and expanding a joke character into a slightly more deep, capable leader figure (though his "joke" is lost to the LEGO Island arc, sadly, so here I actually preserve his character in a form of prose! Nice!) And of course, paying tribute to the LEGO Studios Backlot online game was a real treat of crafting the setting of this story.

So let's talk about what I did with Zero, shall we? Him going insane was an idea at the very beginning, based on the nature of BZP Noob #30000's banning (spam comments, but if I remember correctly his very final post made reference to PeabodySam and/or the RPG, quite touchingly), but how I would approach his insanity takes a page from PeabodySam's book in writing insanity. And a more obscure one at that. Not Frozeen's history of going insane on demand, or Wallace Bishop's self-inflicted case, but of Aster Oid.

Around the period of the Goo Caverns arc (either in the middle of or after it ended), Aster Oid had a brief delirious moment where he up and broke the fourth wall and berated "him" for transferring him from one of PeabodySam's racing characters in the original LEGO Racers to being part of the RPG cast, a moment that quickly came to end by dusting off his memory card. An amusing moment, no doubt, but the fact of the matter is this showed a potential outlet to a "greater understanding" of one's existence for the character's in the RPG. So if Aster Oid could see the truth when his mind went on the fritz, why not a normal Minifig?

But this had a greater potential than just poking fun at his author. As the subject of such significant retcons, Zero being exposed to the fabric of his reality had the unique potential of letting him being able to see what had happened to his story after the RPG's retcon, and it was that where I found my hook for writing Zero's downfall. Through implied forces, he finds himself divergent from the universe by way of still living in his original reality as it becomes changed by the retconning force of an author coming back to revise events to be plausible and less silly, as well as newcomers wanting to expand their own character histories by entangling them with the likes of forgotten Zero. It happens slowly for him, without him realizing, until it all comes crashing down in a nasty incident where he tries to use an ability linked to an old age that isn't compatible anymore. Ultimately, it spells his doom and his untimely departure from the Dino Attack Team.

I found a great similar case to Zero's when I finally watched The Truman Show this summer (hence the music I linked to at the start of this description). Though not quite the same circumstances, and not found out the same way, Zero finds that everything isn't as it seems, or as it should be, just like Truman does, and his life hasn't been as real as he thought. Unfortunately, his life doesn't get to be as happy as Truman's following the fact, in part due to the fact his delusion was provoked by a much more malicious cause than simply being the start of an "authentic" TV show.

There's a chance this story might not align with the RPG's universe quite well, and perhaps PeabodySam might want me to change elements here for going a bridge too far. But after all this time, I'm proud to call "The Madness of Agent Zero" complete, making the release of my grandest work with our old favorite LEGO universe outside of my original posts. Hope you all enjoy it, and who knows, maybe it'll give you something nice to think about.

------

Arc thumbnail made by me with the imagery of BZPower member Nura's LEGO photography, old LEGO online games and BIONICLE design work. No copyright infringement intended.

Read the Dino Attack: At Wars' End saga on Deviantart through here! In addition, the entire RPG can also be read in collected MS Word documents through this link here, if you want to read all this now in one go!

Come check out our Wiki for in-depth details about the world of this adventure! Or our TV Tropes page if you want to kill a lot of time!