Episode #11: The Day Moadville Stood Still
It slid through the inky blackness of space like a fish swims through water, quickly, purposefully, and silently. Which was unusual for something this large, which spawned erratic weather patterns on any planets it passed. Essentially a small planetoid, it was a layer of rock with a large transparent aluminum bubble on the “top”. Inside the bubble was what appeared to be a small near-futuristic city, complete with little droid citizens scurrying around performing the basic day to day functions of whatever this thing required. What was unusual about this, aside from the fact that it was a small city flying through space, was that there was no sentient life on this vessel, save for one man, shrouded in a slate gray cloak, gazing at a screen.
“Soon,” he said. “Soon I shall have my revenge against him, for stealing that which was rightfully mine long before my parents were ever born!”
The city continued floating through space, and its course was soon made apparent.
The Sol system… Earth.
* * *
“My liege, the most recent attempt to stop the Argonauts in the haunted warehouse that used to belong to Double-A Cybertechnologies… Well, sir… it failed.”
The man sitting behind the desk in a darkened room started emitting a red battle-aura. Between clenched teeth, “It failed?” he asked, barely containing his anger.
“Yes s..s..s..sir. The Black Dogs were run off, and the spirit that was sent against them, your second Minion, was released,” the tiny, near-useless functionary stammered, then returned to his clipboard, and began ticking off points. “There were seven crates stolen from the warehouse. Of these seven, six are in the hands of the Black dogs, who are working on the special project that you ordered.”
“Good,” the Boss answered. “And the seventh?” he queried.
“Well, sir, you see, the contents of the seventh crate really aren’t that important, since your battlemover will function quite all right without it,” the functionary hedged.
The battle aura flared. “WHAT HAPPENED TO IT?”
“As close as I can find out, Seeker of the Argonauts has the Zero System.”
“Damn him. Damn all of them. That was supposed to be my secret weapon. I don’t need to tell you that a copy of the plans and how to install the Zero System into a battlemover was inside that crate as well.” Turning to his office window and continuing under his breath, “Not that he even needs the plans if he’s as smart as I think he is.”
“Sir? Sir, what should we do?”
Turning back to the orderly, he snapped, “We? We? I never said anything about us. I am going to contact an old…friend, someone whom I know will be able deal with the Argonauts.”
“And what can I do?”
“You can die,” the Boss said, pulling a thin, leather-bound rod from beneath his sport coat and pressing it to the exact center of the functionary’s chest. Pain shot through the functionary then he collapsed to the office floor, his heart stopped. The Boss put the rod away, then stuffed the body into a chute that led directly into the college’s incinerator.
“Damn. I had hoped that I wouldn’t have to contact him, but now I don’t have a choice.”
And with that, he sat back down at his desk and punched some numbers into the phone.
“Fortunately, I have the original data used to create the control system, so I don’t have to rely on my incompetent underlings to procure it again.”
* * *
“What’s that, Josh?” Jen asked the mecha pilot as he was working at the Argonauts HQ crime computer, trying to analyze the chips that he got out of the warehouse. The rest of the Argonauts were crowded around him, trying to get a look at what appeared to be nothing more than thin grey cards.
“Some kind of Mecha control system.” Josh replied, though I can’t tell her exactly what I think it is. “I need to run some simulations in order to figure out how it works; this will take a while. Charlie, could you give me a hand with this?”
Shrugging, he answered, “Sure, but why?”
“Because I’m going to need someone to load up the program while I set these up. The program should be under 'diagnostics' on the main computer menu.” And with that, he rolled in the Soyokaze and pulled out some screwdrivers, opening up an interior panel.
“Uh, Josh, Why are you using your mecha?” Brian asked, a pint of Chunky Monkey in his hand.
“Brian, you’re a CS major too, right?” Josh asked, continuing to set up the cards.
“Yeah.” He took another bite of ice cream.
“Can you test a computer program without a computer?” Turning to Jen, he continued, “or write a book without the paper to write it on?” Turning to Keibert, “or…nevermind.”
“Well, when you put it that way.”
“Ready, Josh; this thing's loading now.” Charlie piped up.
“Thanks. Let’s see what this thing can do.” Turning to the group, he said, “You guys can take off, This is going to take a while.”
Everyone except for Keibert cleared out, since all but Keibert had classes.
“I noticed you weren’t telling us everything.”
Turning away from his gaze, Josh answered “I couldn’t. Because if this is what I think it is, we’re all dead.”
* * *
Meanwhile, back on the city-ship, the viewscreen which usually showed just stars flickered to life, bringing up the black image of a man with unquestionable authority, but highly questionable motives; aka, the Boss.
The robed man turned to the viewscreen. “What do you want?” he snapped.
“I have come to offer you a proposal.”
“I have absolutely no interest in any of your proposals.” He turned to shut the viewscreen down, but was stopped by a raised hand.
“I am considering returning full control of Tsunami Heavy industries to your family, if you complete this final task for me. But before I tell you any more, remove your hood. I don’t deal with people whose faces are in shadow.”
Just then, a chibified Brian comes walking through the control room, much to the surprise of the droids, the boss, and the cloaked man. Standing right in the center, he exclaims, “OK! Why do all the bad guys in this series have to be in disguises or in shadows? Can’t, for once, we have a villain appear as he is?!? This is getting ridiculus. And while I’m at it, who are you? Where’s Author-sama?”
A deep voice begins to emanate from nowhere. “Author-sama is taking a vacation. You can call me Co-Author-sama.”
Chibi-Brian pushes the robed man off of his throne-like chair, and sits down, the chair dwarfing him. “I don’t care if Author-sama is on vacation. I like her better, and I’m not moving from this spot until she gets back. So there!” And with that, Chibi-Brian crosses his arms, and begins to pout. The grey-robed man just looks at him quizzically while the shadowed figure of the Boss blinks audibly.
“Author-sama will be back next episode.”
“I don’t care.”
But what chibi-Brian didn’t know, is that an author is omniscient, and he knew exactly what would get chibi-Brian moving; one of his greatest fears. “Suit yourself.” And with that, a giant paintbrush appeared out of nowhere and painted… a simple wooden door with a handle. The brush then disappeared and the door opened. An infinite amount of Monkeys came charging through the door, each one holding a copy of Hamlet in their grubby little paws. All of them were asking chibi-Brian for advice on staging. Chibi-Brian ran screaming from the control room. “AAAUUUGGGHHH. No fair, you cheat!” The door disappeared once chibi-Brian left the room.
“And now back to our regularly scheduled episode.” The boss and the robed man both face-faulted.
Settling back down in his chair, the man in the gray robes pulled back his hood, revealing short black hair, steel rimmed glasses, and a five o’clock shadow on his angular face. Turning back to the screen, “Ok, you have my attention. Talk.”
“I require you to deal with some annoying vermin which have been a cause of considerable annoyance to me recently.”
The man let out a loud guffaw. “What, the mighty dictator of Algainy can’t deal with a few minor insects?”
“These are different. They’ve already defeated the twins, Eric von Carver, and my third-in-command, Darfeld. Nothing I’ve sent against them has succeeded.”
“Interesting; sounds like it might be a challenge for my technology.” He leaned back into his chair.
“I’m sending you all the information that we have on them right now. I’ll leave you to deal with them as you see fit.” The screen flickered blank
A droid came in carrying five dossiers. The man took them and begin browsing through them, whistling slightly at Brian, Super Jen, Flip, and Pouch. “These, while their abilities are formidable, would not be able to get close enough to matter.” He then opened Seeker’s Dossier. After he was finished reading it, his face went chalk white. “But how could he have gotten here? I thought my Master was dead in the Ragnarok accident.”
He tapped some keys on one arm of his chair. "Full speed to Earth." He bowed his head. "I’m sorry, Master, but this time, I must kill you."
* * *
As the screen went dark in the office, the Boss turned back to his desk.
"Sucker."
* * *
It was ten minutes to midnight in the Campus Center, and the Student government finance meeting was about to begin. All the members of the financial committee, often rued for lining their own pockets, were ready to begin the annual review of proposed budgets, often with the people not even there to defend them. As a matter of procedure, to lend weight to the “honesty” of the committee, the president of the student government sat in attendance. Though he did not actually participate in these meetings, he was able to bow most people to his will.
“Hmmm, the Algainy Social Dance ensemble is requesting twice as much money as they did last year…. Let’s give them half of what they have now.”
“The football team played a shutout game last season; let’s give them what we took away from the Dance team."
Someone from the desk looked up, seeing that it was now midnight. “Is Joshua from the gaming organization here? No? Well, then…” he began with a gleeful expression, which faded as soon as the doors to the conference hall burst open with a crash. A terrified student security officer came walking through, with Josh right behind him.
In what could only be a vicious smile, he said, “I do hope that I’m not late; I had a most unfortunate misunderstanding with the two men at the door. It seems that you left orders for them to keep me out, when I arrived to defend my budget.” He turned to the security guard. “You can go now.” The security guard ran off. And the smile on the bean-counter’s face dropped like a rock thrown into a deep lake. Josh took his seat at the far end of the counter, ignoring the sharp looks that were directed his way.
* * *
An hour later, which had both sides almost at each other’s throats, they finally hammered out a concensus which both the student government and Josh, as a representative of the gaming club, agreed on. This was unusual for two reasons. One – it usually took much less time than this, but both sides wanted the best deal and weren’t about to settle for second best. And Two – The president himself took personal interest in this session, offering concessions from the college if the gaming club allowed certain activities to be run.
“Mr. Park, I’d like to congratulate you on your fine negotiating. Have you ever considered a position in student government? I could get you a chair on a powerful committee,” the president asked.
“Thank you, Mr. Palmer, but no, I have absolutely no desire to enter student government.” Josh replied.
“Are you sure? I could make it well worth your while if you accept a position on our curriculum committee. The students could well and truly benefit from a man of your persuasive talents. And you would be richly rewarded for doing so.”
“Mr. Palmer, while I find your offer incredibly attractive, and while most would be considered mad to turn it down, I see only that you are trying to bribe me into a position of servitude to you. I respectfully decline your offer. I’m an independent and I choose to remain that way.” Josh turned to leave.
“I can make political life extremely difficult on that little gaming club that you cherish so much,” the president threatened.
Josh turned around and reached into the pocket of his trench coat. “And I can always threaten you with political scandal,” he said, letting the president get a brief--but important--glimpse at what it was. “If these gets out, you’ll be ruined.” Little sparks began to fly between the two.
“That’s blackmail.” The president hissed, and the sparks increased.
“No; as many in this room would say, yourself included, that’s politics.” The sparks were flying full blast.
“Good night.” The president spat, and whirled around and went to sit down.
“Good night,” Josh answered, leaving the office, the other two guards only starting to wake up.
* * *
It was early the next morning when the crime computer down in ARGO HQ finished its analysis of the mecha control program. It downloaded the full data into the archives and printed out a summary of the capabilities and drawbacks inherent in using the system. It also sent a hardcopy to Josh’s dorm printer, but he was in class by the time it got there.
* * *
“Prepare for atmospheric entry, jettison deep space shell, Storming level four, ready particle lasers, prime ion drive,” the gray-cloaked man ordered to his droids at the conn, which quickly followed his orders.
The city-ship seemed to float away from its asteroid-like conveyance, the clear shield sliding back, allowing the city to float towards the planet. Once a safe distance away, the asteroid floated off into space, its purpose served. The city reached the earth’s atmosphere, then slowed dramatically, and stoically made it’s way towards Moadville, pausing briefly to take potshots at NYC, and throw a few droids down Niagara Falls in barrels. But nothing could deter it from its course.
* * *
It was late Friday night, and the college’s coffeehouse was in its usual state…completely empty. Well, almost completely empty, save for Jen, Brian, Charlie, Keibert, and Josh (who was volunteering.) The five were sitting around a table, passing the time. All completely unaware of the giant city floating their way. Josh and Kebert were busily trying to best each other in a game of L5R. So far, neither side had the advantage.
Then Linnea burst in, and slammed her hands down on the table. “Alright: who, and where, are the Argonauts? I know that some of you know what their civilian identities are, and you’re not leaving this room until I get some answers.”
“Haven’t you already asked us?” Brian asked, taking a sip of his coffee. Jen looked up from her book. Charlie stopped trying to figure out his logic problem--not that people were aware he had one, but that’s beside the point. Josh and Keibert didn’t pay attention at all.
“Dammit, I’m trying to get answers.”
Josh spoke up absently. “I have all the answers.”
“R-really?" Linnea asked, thrown off-guard by that answer. "So tell me already.” Linnea breathed exasperatedly, regaining her composure.
“Forty-two.”
“Forty-two?!? I’ve spent the better part of the year trying to uncover the true identity of the Argonauts and the only answer that you can give me is FORTY-TWO?!?” Linnea started to scream.
“I said that I have all the answers. I didn’t say that I had all the right answers. Oh, hi Linnea,” Josh said, after losing to Keibert’s army by a mere two force.
“I’ve always told ya, keep your mind on the game.” Kebert said by way of advice. “If ya lose sight of your true goal, you cannae win.” He added, slipping into a scottish brogue.
"Will you stop changing your accents, already?" Jen asked.
"I tol' ye, eet's a temporal--" Then he looked up and noticed Linnea for the first time.
"Kebert," Jen said, "stop drooling on my homework."
“Hi, Josh.” Linnea said. “Any ideas as to how to find out the Argonauts' true identities?” Every other head in the room turned towards him with that statement.
Josh was too aware of the stares of his comrades. “Honestly, no. In fact, I’d suggest taking a break for a while.” The other four Argonauts all breathed collective sighs of relief.
“But the Argonauts cause extensive property destruction, violate the law by dealing with things without informing the police, and even take my contracts,” Linnea said, slumping onto a couch.
Josh went behind the counter and fixed her a cup of herbal tea. She accepted it with gratitude. He sat next to her. “Linnea, who are the Argonauts trying to stop?”
“I don’t know. But I know there's someone whose willing to offer a lot of money to get rid of them, since they’ve upped the bounty to $100,000.”
“Don’t you think that whoever’s willing to shell out that much money would be willing to shell out just a little more to someone else to take care of the bounty hunter who brought them in?”
There was a long pause. Then, “I see your point.” Linnea rose. “Well, I’ve got to go. I have to pack.”
Josh looked perplexed. “Pack?”
She shrugged. “Yeah, I can’t afford it here anymore. That’s why I was trying to get the bounty before anyone else. I needed the money. Oh well, another day, another dollar lost. Story of my life.” She started to move towards the door.
“Linnea…take care.” Josh said. Linnea walked over, hugged him quickly, then left.
“Well, that was smooth.” Charlie said.
“Josh, how long have you known her?” Jen asked.
“About two years. She used to date someone who left last year.”
“Who?”
“You wouldn’t know him, he…” Josh trailed off as his watch beeped…
...at the same time Jen’s everpresent umbrella, and Brian’s monkey keychain, Kebert’s necklace, and Charlie’s calculator beeped.
“Good thing I get off shift in a few minutes.” He muttered.
* * *
The five Argonauts, all still in their civilian identities, made their way to the other end of campus, through Schwarz hall, and the eternal mess that was Brian and Charlie’s dorm room, and to the closet, which opened up to reveal a pad with five circles. Each one of them stood in a circle, and blue goo oozed up from under the pad and completely covered them. Then the pad split in half, and they fell the distance to another pad, where the goo dissolved, leaving four of them shivering with cold, and Josh drinking his cup of coffee. The main screen flickered to life, producing a shadowed image of a big man in a cowboy hat. Josh wasn’t paying attention as he disconnected the now-tested Zero system, and stuffed it in a box marked “do not touch”. He flipped through the summaries with a low whistle, then put them in the box with the rest of it.
“Howdy all,” the commissioner said.
“Hey Bill.” Brian said cheerfully
“Look, y’all. We have a slight problem. A giant starship the size of downtown Moadville just floated in, and has started randomly vaporizing old buildings. Still have no idea what they want yet…”
Just then, a giant voice started booming. “ATTENTION CITIZENS OF MOADVILLE. THIS IS COMMISSAR KEL VASHKAR OF THE NEW ALLIANCE EXPEDITIONARY FORCE. MY DEMANDS ARE SIMPLE. HAND OVER THE ARGONAUTS OR YOUR ENTIRE CIVILIZATION WILL BE DESTROYED. YOU HAVE ONE OF YOUR HOURS TO RESPOND.”
Josh just muttered, “Stupid pupil.”
Unfortunately, Keibert heard him. “You know him?”
“Unfortunately, yes. He used to be my student. But there was an … accident with one of our experimental mecha which I was testing and we never saw each other again,” Josh answered. “Excuse me, I have to prepare the Kamikaze.” He left the main control room towards the storage hangar.
“You get the feeling that there’s something he’s not telling us?” Charlie asked.
“Nah, He’s always been the quiet one. Probably just something that happened with the accident he told us about. Perhaps he just doesn’t want to remember what happened,” Keibert offered.
“Bill, Any idea where this thing could have been made?” Jen asked.
“The only place that is close to the technology required to make this thing is the new space station that Tsunami Heavy Industries put together, but it’s not finished yet.”
“So this is someone who has access to technology that isn’t supposed to be available yet. Bill, while we’re dealing with this…thing, can you run a check on who has access to space-age tech?” Brian asked.
“Sure thing.”
“Now to plan out how we’re going to take this thing out…without destroying the city at the same time,” Charlie said. “Brian, Pouch and Super Jen will scout the starship. Once you’ve found this Vashkar guy, you give me a call and I’ll deal with him, and Seeker can…”
He was cut off by the roar of the Kamikaze’s thrusters. They all ran to the Hangar. Just in time to see the jet-mode of the Kamikaze scream out of the hangar and take to the skies.
“He’s out of his mind. Seeker can’t take that thing on by himself."
“We’ve got to go after him.” Charlie exclaimed.
“But how? I cannae fly.” Keibert asked.
“No, but I can," Jen piped up, and transformed into Super Jen. "I think that I have an idea on how to get you all up there,” she said thoughtfully. Putting one finger on her lip in an expression of thoughtfulness, she reached over, grabbed a backpack, and pulled out a plush Ryo-Ohki doll and showed it to Flip.
“KAWAII!” Flip cried, superdeforming. Once Flip superdeformed, Super Jen grabbed him, and stuffed him in the backpack with the doll. Putting on the backpack, she opened her umbrella. “Pouch, you come with me. Brian, you’ll have to find your own way there." And with that, Super Jen floated off towards the flying city.
“I think that there’s a bit more between Seeker an’ this guy than just him being a student,” Pouch commented while in the air.
“I’m afraid you’re right.” Super Jen said. “I’m going to land on the edge there. We’ll have to find Seeker the hard way.”
Pouch nodded.
* * *
The screen next to the control throne of the starship flickered to life, bringing up an image of Seeker.
“Hello, Kel.”
“Joshua,” Kel said with a brief nod. “It’s been a long time.”
“Not long enough; you still haven’t learned that some things are better left unfinished. Your city-ship, for example.”
“This ship is the supreme example of technological might. You designed it, I built it. It is invincible.”
“Nothing is invincible. Not even this.”
“I’ve learned a few tricks in the years since you disappeared with the Ragnarok gundam. I am no longer your student, Master,” Kel said with a note of spite in his voice. “I’ve risen to position of leader of the New Alliance Expeditionary force, a position which you never had.”
“And never wanted. Directorship of the science academy was enough for me, since I preferred to devote my work towards universal peace, as opposed to the New Alliance’s war machine. And you’re right. No student of mine would create anything made solely for war. Prepare yourself.” The screen went dark.
“Ready my Battlemover.” Kel ordered a passing droid. “I’m going to deal with my master in person.”
* * *
Flip, Super Jen, and Pouch all landed on the edge of the starship and started looking around.
“There’s nothing but droids.” Pouch said. “And they don’t even have weapons.”
“Spread out and search for some sort of control room,” Flip said.
“Righty-o.”
“You got it."
The three went their separate ways.
* * *
Brian was sitting on the control throne eating a pint of Chunky Monkey when Kel returned from taking his battlemover out of storage.
“Who are you?” Kel demanded.
“Brian of the Argonauts.”
“And?”
“Well, you demanded the Argonauts' presence, so I’m here.”
Kel blinked, then smiled. “Good. Now I don’t have to hunt you down.”
Brian put the pint of chunky monkey down and shook Kel’s hand. “I’ll do anything except surrender.” Reaching into his coat with his other hand, he grasped the handle of a frying pan. “SPECIAL ATTACK FRYING PAN TO THE BACK OF THE HEAD!” Brian cried, and swung the pan around so it would hit the back of Kel’s head.
But the pan went right through Vashkar’s head, and hit Brian instead, knocking him out.
Kel Vashkar just stood over the unconscious Brian. “Idiot,” he spat, then ordered the droids to take him to the prepared cell.
* * *
Seeker made a couple of passes of the city-sized starship. It was just like he remembered it. If memory served, Kel would be in the command tower, in the center of the ship. But he detected no life readings from the command tower; instead, they were coming from the storage bays near the aft.
This would require some more study.
* * *
“Your evil tyranny of the citizens of Moadville is at an end, for the power of Justice will triumph,” Flip intoned dramatically.
“You would be the Argonaut known as Flip. I’ve been expecting you.” Kel Vashkar told him.
That took Flip aback a bit. “You have?”
“Of course. In fact, for your boldness, because I like people who understand the need for bold actions, I have a gift for you.”
“A gift?”
Kel tapped a few keys on the keyboard he was sitting near. A small fuzzy white creature with long ears came hopping out. “Pu pu pu pu puuu,” it puu’ed happily, jumping into Flip’s arms. Kel, however, smoothly took the anvil that was heading his way.
Flip, of course, was too busy hugging the fluffy creature and bouncing around the room. So he didn’t notice the anvil. Nor did he notice that Kel had just pressed a button, which opened up a trap door right under Flip.
Flip fell into the pit, landing in a cell right next to Brian, who had regained his consciousness and his pint of Chunky Monkey. Brian lept to the other side of the cell at the sight of the fluffy white thing. “It’s cute! Kill it, kill it!!”
Much screaming could be heard from the pit as Kel returned to his work. “Two down, two to go.”
* * *
Pouch and Super Jen rejoined each other at the control tower. Neither of them had found anything of importance.
“This must be it. Shall we?” Pouch asked, bowing to let Super Jen go first.
“Yes. Let’s,” Super Jen said as she proceeded through the open gateway of the control tower.
Once Pouch had crossed the threshold into the control tower, alarms went off, gates slammed shut, and sentry lasers snapped into position. An image of Kel Vashkar appeared on the viewscreen in front of them.
“Ah, you two would be known as Pouch and Super Jen, right? I’m sorry that I can’t be there in person, but I have an appointment to keep with my master, who you know as Seeker. I’ll deal with you shortly; until then, I’ve taken the liberty of providing accommodations for you two.” The screen went dark once more.
“I dinnae like the sound of that.” Pouch’s eyed narrowed ominously as droids came into the tower. "I guess we have nae choice but tae follow them and see where they have to lead us."
"And we'll think of something then, right?" Super Jen asked hopefully, as the droids escorted them through the bowels of the starship.
“Brian, Flip!” Super Jen cried. Then she saw Flip still hugging the fluffy pink thing, and Brian eating his ice cream, trying desperately to ignore the creature in Flip’s arms. The droids forced the two of them into the cell with Brian and Flip, and locked the doors behind them.
Super Jen looked at Pouch. "Um, this was your great plan? I can't believe we let ourselves just get pushed into a cell like this! Where was the dramatic 'let's just wing it' escape?!"
One of the droids leveled its laser rifle at the cell and fired off a blast, which barely skimmed Super Jen's sleeve.
She blinked. "Never mind." She took a deep breath and examined the contents of the cell again. “Mokona?” she asked, receiving an anvil for her question.
“Pu Puuu!” the fluffy white thing answered.
They didn’t get any more questions, though, as the cell was lowered by a cable and dangled below the belly of the starship, which was ascending, now that it had all five Argonauts on board.
“God, I hope that Seeker can take care of this” Super Jen asked softly.
* * *
“Time to end this.” Kel Vashkar said as he powered up the Ragnarok Gundam. A grey monstrosity, it had no visible weapons, unless you count that instead of hands, it had a pair of force-bolt projectors. It stood up inside the huge storage bay that it was kept in.
Then it made itself a new door.
* * *
Seeker was worried. Not only had he just discovered that the other four Argonauts were being held captive in a cage hanging below the starship, but an energy signature that was all too familiar just appeared.
“He’s mad. The Ragnarok could never be used, due to instability in the fusion matrix. That’s why it sent me here during the accident.”
The Kamikaze landed and transformed to combat mode. Using a remote link, Seeker ordered the Soyokaze to rescue the four Argonauts kept in the cage. It would divert some of his attention, but he judged that he could probably last long enough to get them to the ground while he dodged the deadly force bolts from the Ragnarok.
* * *
“Come out and fight me, Master. It's no fun if you keep on running away,” Kel Vashkar taunted from the cockpit of the Ragnarok.
Inside the Kamikaze, Seeker was having a tough time. Apparently Kel had improved the Gundam’s power and destructive ability, by removing the gravitic manipulation system. Granted, that limited its mobility, but allowed for a far greater range of weapons to be used. Damn, he swore. Kel always was better at arms design.
“Just give me two more minutes,” he asked. The Soyokaze was almost there.
* * *
Super Jen, Flip, Pouch, and Brian were all sitting in the cage, miles above the surface of the earth. All of them were somber, thinking that they were going to die.
“Well, I guess this is goodbye,” Pouch said.
“Yeah, sounds like Seeker’s having a tough time up there,” Flip said.
“Guys, it’s been fun,” Super Jen added.
Brian just continued to eat his Ben and Jerry’s.
. . .
"Gee, it sure is taking a long time for us to meet our dramatic end. Does anyone have a deck of cards?"
“Waitaminute. What the hell is that?” Flip asked as a Red, white, and Gold mecha rocketed towards the cage.
“It’s the Soyokaze, but how’s that possible?” Super Jen asked.
Seeker’s voice came from the speakers. “Get on! I can’t spare much time to get you out,” he ordered as the Soyokaze bent apart the bars to allow them to climb through. Not one of them spared any time escaping.
“Pu puu,” the fluffy white thing puu’ed in goodbye.
“Hang on,” Seeker said via the remote. “This is probably going to get bumpy.”
* * *
The four Argonauts landed in the Storage Hangar, and immediately made their way to the command center. Flip activated the viewscreen which showed them a series of images. One was the cockpit view, showing Seeker. Another was showing what Seeker saw. A few more gave readouts on the various systems of the Kamikaze.
“Seeker, we’re safe,” Brian spoke into the microphone.
“Show the student what the teacher is capable of,” Pouch encouraged.
“Just come back alive.” Both Flip and Super Jen said.
* * *
“Good. Now I can stop this,” Seeker said. He aimed and launched an EMP missile at Kel’s Gundam. It hit, but was unaffected. Furthermore, it returned fire with a homing laser, hitting the Kamikaze square in the chest.
“Didn’t you think that I’d have shielded this weapon of war, Master? You’re so foolish. And now you’re going to die.” Kel taunted, as the Ragnarok aimed both force bolt cannons at the prone Kamikaze.
“NOT…WHILE…I…STILL…BREATHE!” Seeker cried, opening a new panel in the Kamikaze “FULL SYNCHRONIZATION!” he screamed. Computer interfaces clamped onto his arms, legs, chest, and neck, linking his mind to the computer of the Kamikaze.
Seeker’s mind exploded into a white haze as he screamed in pain.
* * *
“What is happening here?” Kel asked in bewilderment as the Kamikaze dodged both point-blank force bolts. He desperately began to fire every single weapon that the Ragnarok had, to no avail. “Shield!” He screamed as the beserk Kamikaze dove straight at him, firing its buster cannon. The shot from the cannon bounced harmlessly of the shield, vaporizing parts of the starship, which was now beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
* * *
The Kamikaze landed on top of the shield, forcing the Ragnarok down to it’s knees. It might have been Kel Vashkar’s imagination, but he could swear that the Kamikaze was growling at him like an enraged animal. This was not good, he thought. From the scans that he had gotten of his Master’s mecha, Kel’s upgraded gundam should have had no problem. But now it was the other way around. The beserk Kamikaze was easily defeating everything that he sent at it.
In other words, Kel was in deep trouble.
* * *
The four Argonauts just watched in horror at the scene unfolding before them. Once Seeker synchronized with the Kamikaze, it was almost as if gasoline had been added to an already burning fire, creating an out-of-control blaze. To make matters worse, Seeker’s eyes, normally a calm blue, were now completely red. In the beserk haze of the synchronization, he looked like he was enjoying this.
“Sweet Jesus,” Flip asked. “What have you done to your children?”
He received no answer as the carnage continued.
* * *
Kel winced in pain as the Kamikaze ripped both arms off of his Gundam. The battle was over. Without the Force cannons to regulate the power of the fusion matrix, the reactor would redline, creating an explosion which would destroy the starship. His only consolation was that the Kamikaze would be caught in the blast.
His world disappeared in a flare of white light. But in that moment, he could see a figure smiling down at him. It looked like an older version of Josh, extending a hand. Kel gladly took it, smiling in death with the satisfaction that his master still cared for him.
* * *
“Seeker!” the four Argonauts all cried when they saw the starship explode, engulfing the Kamikaze with it.
“Wait! Look at that!” Brian exclaimed as a small point fell towards the earth, landing right…on Seeker’s car.
It was the Kamikaze, scorched and armor plating missing in most places, but otherwise undamaged. It stood up, the monitor screens showing no sign of the synchronization interface anymore.
“He’s alive!” They all cried with joy as they ran out to the Kamikaze.
* * *
“Goodbye, Kel,” Seeker said with a tear. He then opened the hatch and fell out to the ground, and became violently sick. He was still heaving when the other four Argonauts arrived and helped him back. The Kamikaze, activated once again, returned to the hangar.
“Good job, Seeker,” they all said. Giving them all a wan smile, he groaned, “I’d rather not have to go through that again.”
Brian stood dramatically.
“Brian, get down from there. Episode’s over,” Keibert said, now in his civilian ID “Ouch” he said, now with an anvil on his head.
“Well, that just goes to show you that good will always triumph, because Evil guys don’t have style!” Brian exclaimed. The other four Argonauts, even Seeker, all face faulted.
* * *
“Damn them, damn them all to hell!” the Boss cried. He’d just received the stolen crate which contained the Zero system, with the parts all still inside. Also inside was a note, from Seeker of the Argonauts, which read, “I don’t need this. You can have it back”. He burned the note with the rest of the crate, destroying that copy of the system.
“Looks like I’m going to have to deal with them myself.”
Turning to his desk, he dialed a phone number “Number one? I have a little job for you…”
Author’s notes
Well, it’s finally done. Hopefully it’s not too bad. This is the first episode that I’ve actually written, since most of them are written by Super Jen in RL. C&C are appreciated. Just no death threats, kay?
A Personal challenge of mine in writing this is the sheer number of outside references that were made. I’ve lost track of the number of intended references that I’ve made. I’m sure that there are a fair number of unintended references that I don’t know about.
Lastly, I’m sorry that this isn’t as comic as the other episodes. I’ve tried to include some humor, the Chibified Brian being a bit of it, but I couldn’t remember any good jokes to include. Send some over to me, and the next ep I write will hopefully have some of them included.