"Resurrection"--Part IV
Wednesday, 29-Mar-2000 09:41:27
**Summary**
Resurrection - Part 3, Episode 2
Team Strider manages to grab the Ball of Urban, but in the process, they *really*
tick off a mother dragon. Team J.A.M., on the other hand, manage to grab their
Dragon Ball, but while warping down the mountain, J.A.M. loses control and begins
to accelerate at speeds *he* didn't think he could reach. The sonic boom he causes
distracts the dragon long enough to allow Team Strider to escape, and on their way
back to the Coffeehouse, they find the Ball of Cheese that Monty lost. With everyone
back at the Coffeehouse (and Foxy, after catapulting off the Jaguar), Kuwani appears
with Chipper and the group starts to formulate a plan--Kuwani will spin enough
Spiderwebs to slow J.A.M. down enough to allow Chipper to psychically tell the
Jaguar to drop what's causing him to speed up so incredibly--the Dragon Balls
that he's found (J.A.M. also manages to find the Ball of Ice on his trip around the
Dragon Planet). Will the plan work?
Find out...in Part IV of...
"Resurrection"!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
{Just bringing the thread up, guys! If anybody needs the full thread, let me know!}
"Quote the Strider, forevermore."
Triple-S
---
The plot slickens:
While the rest of the group watched Kuwani skillfully anchor a series of
spiderweb spells along a narrow gully which the jaguar would strike soon
(assisted in that direction by the Jedi Chipmunk, who was able to use the
Force to nudge the warp-speed wanderer slightly.) Attic Rat and Wiseguy were
plotting and whispering.
"OK, when Speedy Gonzales hits the nets, his legs are still gonna be
pumping 'cause he can't stop 'em, right?" Wiseguy concluded, "I say we need
to keep those legs from doing him any good."
Shadow walked up, "Well, you can't hit him with a tranquilizer dart
or anything, he's going so fast anything hitting him would probably make a hole."
Attic Rat looked at the smooth packed clay floor of the gully, then back
at the Coffeehouse. He remembered the back kitchen area and the time he'd
slipped on a spill near the waste grease barrels.
"I've got an idea." He said, smiling.
Kuwani wondered at the three, hauling barrels and brooms along her
worksite after her, but she was busy and too tired to bother with them as
long as they didn't interfere with her webs.
"Let's see 'im get a foothold in here!" They chuckled evilly as they
busily slathered thick, smelly stale cooking grease all over the walls and
floor of the gully. "With nothing but inertia going for him, Miss Magic
might just bring him to a complete stop!" Added Wiseguy.
Attic Rat and Shadow shook their heads.
In the far distance, a faint vortex of dust, laced with static-induced
lightning, veered slightly - toward the mouth of the trap...
In a few minutes, they would know.
The three greasy rodents scrambled out of the way, and waited and watched.
Kuwani, trembling from the strain, spun one last web. Crying out, she
infused it with a last mighty surge of power, and walked unsteadily back to
the group, where refreshments waited and she could rest a few moments.
Karl
---
Meanwhile. . .
Thursday, 30-Mar-2000 23:02:39
[...unWARP!!!]
Good evening.
*************
Gadget was looking at one of TPL's tracking devices. The screen showed a 3D pic of the planet, and The J.A.M.'s
erratic trajectory over it.
Beside it was a speed indicator:
MACH 31
KM/H: 36,979
MPH: 22,979
and the last two were continuing to increase.
She told Chip,
"If he keeps accelerating at that rate, he'll reach MACH 33.8 in
20 minutes or less!"
"What's wrong with that?" he asked.
"MACH 33.8 is this planet's escape velocity. But if he runs up a
mountain before that, he'll go into orbit, taking Dale and Pikachu with him!"
Chip felt his blood pool to his footpaws,
"He's coming over the North Pole now. How long until he gets to the trap?"
"Fifteen minutes, if he doesn't steer away from the mountains north of here.
I hope Chipper can guide him correctly."
Gadget looked back at the monitor. The orange dot had now come over
the top of the planet. She gasped.
MACH 32
KM/H: 38,172
MPH: 23,720
"Darn. Something's STILL causing him to accelerate!! But what?"
*******
The Panther ran over ice again. The static caused by the ice dust and salt
made Pikachu's cheeks spark with greater intensity.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!"
"PIKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
*************
Until next time, remember:
I AM THE J.A.M.
Good evening.
[WARP!!!]
The J.A.M.
---
"Speedy Gonzales?"
[...unWARP!!!]
Good evening.
*************
Chip, Gadget, Monty, Zipper, and Foxglove had left the Coffeehouse
and padded over to the gully, where Kuwani, Attic Rat, Shadow, and
Wiseguy had just completed their trap. At the mouth of the gully stood
Chipper, squinting his eyes toward the dust vortex that was approaching.
Gadget, meanwhile, had brought along one of TPL's portable trackers
(slightly resembling a tricoder), with which she continued to monitor
the Jaguar's speed.
Holding steady at MACH 32.5. Good.
The Rangers were filled with anxiety, wondering if this plan would work,
worrying for their teammate/husband/pally, their feline friend, and the Pokémon.
The Dragon Balls were now the least of their worries, even if they were the cause
of this whole mess.
"Wait. At his speed, won't The J.A.M. try to steer away from the gully
once he sees the cliffs at the opening?" asked Chip. Kuwani looked at the
chipmunk for a moment, and stood. With her last bits of magic remaining, she conjured
three giant blinking neon-green arrows that pointed to the mouth of the gully.
"Sorry I can't put a message that says, 'J.A.M., go through here,
and drop the Dragon Balls'. I'm too exhausted now."
Gadget sighed in relief, but then she sniffed a trifle.
"What's that awful smell?"
"Grease," replied Attic Rat. "Once he enters the gully, he'll lose traction,
and Kuwani's webs will slow him down and maybe even bring him to a complete stop!"
He smiled smugly to himself.
It was Gadget's turn for all her blood to pool at her footpaws.
Noticing her turning pale, Chip asked,
"What?"
Suddenly Gadget grabbed Attic Rat by his [neck fur? Shirt collar?] and squeaked,
"WHAT-HAVE-YOU-**DONE**?????!!!!!"
"Hey, ease off!" he replied. "Don't you want to stop that Panther?"
Gadget fixed her irate gaze on the rat's eyes, and calmly explained through
clenched incisors,
"Attic, The J.A.M. has ran over water and ice, *twice*, and both of them have
*very* little traction."
"Your point being?"
"When he was on the ice caps, he *accelerated*. I like to see *you* run on
ice and try to accelerate."
"Why, I can't. Unless I try to run on my c-"
Attic Rat gasped.
Wiseguy gasped.
Shadow gasped.
Kuwani gasped.
Zipper gasped.
Monty gasped.
Foxglove gasped.
Chip gasped.
And even Chipper gasped as well.
Gadget continued,
"Yes. He has CLAWS on his toes. He must have instinctively extended them
when he ran over the ice caps, allowing him to accelerate when he grabbed the
second Dragon Ball. As for water, when you exceed 50 kilometers per hour, it
gets the consistency of *concrete*. So guess what his instincts will do when
he begins to lose traction here."
"He'll extend them again!!" cried Foxglove.
"IF he hasn't retracted them yet," continued the mousemaid. "And one more
thing: Water and ice are not flammable, but the grease in the gully *is*."
"And?" asked Wiseguy.
"He's currently moving his footpaws back and forth several hundred times
per second. When he hits the webs and slows down, his arms and legs will
continue to move at MACH 32. His pawpads and claws are going to generate a
LOT of friction. And guess what friction generates."
"Heat," answered Kuwani.
"And guess what happens when a flammable substance is suddenly heated
several hundred degrees."
"…"
BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP-
Gadget turned her gaze to the tracker. Its alarm was sounding.
MACH 33-
MACH 33.1-
MACH 33.2-
MACH 33.3-
MACH 33.4-
MACH 33.5-
All turned to look at the incoming dust vortex. The lightning around it
had an odd beauty about it…
Kuwani could do nothing now…
******
The Onça felt himself slowly accelerating. The ground underneath him was
becoming less and less distinct.
Suddenly, in the center of his narrow field of vision, he saw three
neon-green arrows pointing at one spot.
*I must be coming to the Coffeehouse again-*
The arrows pointed to what he could only make out as a cliff face.
*Either they want me to smash into a cliff, or they're going to use the
cliff as a ramp to shoot me off into space-*
No. Something seemed to be nudging him toward it, something was
*pushing* him from the sides, guiding him toward the cliff…
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"PIKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
*************
Until next time, remember:
I AM THE J.A.M.
Good evening.
[WARP!!!]
The J.A.M.
---
Yikes!
As the Jaguar drew closer to the mouth of the gully the team could
only watch with grim resolve. The seconds ticked by before the swirling
vortex would reach the cliff. . .
5...
4...
3...
2...
"Everyone take cover!" someone shouted.
Chip dove into a dried-up riverbed an instant before the shock wave hit.
Suddenly his entire body was wracked with the power of not only sound, but heat.
The entire world sounded like an explosion. He gritted his teeth and grabbed the
rim of his hat to keep it from flying off. It was probably only seconds, but it
seemed like hours until the heat and the explosion died down enough for Chip
to open his eyes and peek out of the riverbed.
That's when the sonic boom hit.
Chip was immediately knocked off his feet. Then there was a loud CRACK!
Then blackness. . .
---
The next thing he remembered was the large spectre of someone hovering
over him. Chip couldn't quite make out who it was. Then it hit him "Am I. . .dead?"
he thought. No, it couldn't be. But there was Death, looming over him. Death
was talking to him.
"Chip. . .Chip. . .Crikey, Chip, wake up!"
Chip frowned. He didn't expect Death to say, "Crikey!" Then his eyes
focused more and he realized he was not dead after all, but looking into
the brawny face of Monterey Jack as he was being awakened by the Australian
mouse. He noticed Chip's eyes opening and shouted to someone in the distance,
"Hey everybody! Chip's awake!" He then turned back toward Chip. "How ya feelin', pallie?"
Chip checked himself over. Although he had plenty of bumps and bruises
from the ordeal, amazingly nothing had been broken. "I've been better," he
grunted as he levered himself into a sitting position. "Nothing serious, though.
How about everyone else? How long were we out?"
"More than a few hours, I'd wager. You're the first one to awaken.
I'm afraid everyone else is sufferin' a bit o' the ravages of that blast o' sound.
Everyone is still alive, though I couldn't find Chipper."
"You couldn't find Chipper?" Chip's fuzzy memory recalled something.
"I think. . .I think Chipper was supposed to communicate with the J.A.M.
to tell him to drop the Dragon Balls. He might have been at the other end of the gully."
As if on cue, Chipper's voice rang out. "Hello? Is everyone OK?"
"Down here, Chipper!" Chip called. Then he said to Monty, "You go wake
everyone else up. I have a few questions to ask Chipper." Monty nodded and
moved to the nearest prostrate person, Kuwani.
Chipper jumped down into the riverbed gully. "Wow! That sonic shock wave
sure was powerful!" he observed, albeit unecessarily.
Chip asked, "Did it work? Did we stop the J.A.M.'s acceleration and save
the Dragon Balls?"
Chipper's face took on a grim tone. "Yes and no," he replied. "When he roared
out of the far end of the gully I was able to communicate with Pikachu to tell
the J.A.M. to drop the Dragon Balls. I later found the two Dragon Balls lying
in the dust, and I brought them here." He dropped two balls into the gully,
where they landed in the mud with a soft *thud*.
Chip let out a great sigh of relief. "So Dale, Pikachu, and the J.A.M.
are OK, then."
"Well, that's the problem. After they had dropped the Dragon Balls they
roared out of sight. For all we know they could have reached escape velocity
and-" Chip did not hear the end of the sentence as he fainted again.
---
When he came to again the sun had set. Everyone was up and milling about.
Some were groaning and shaking their heads, but most were concentrated around
a figure he couldn't make out from his vantage point. He slowly raised
himself off the ground and out of the shallow gully and limped over to the group.
The scene was eerily silent. The only sounds that could be heard were a faint
breeze blowing, and muffled sobs. The group was standing silent and forlorn over
the figure. Foxglove was holding a hand and sobbing uncontrollably. Some
tried to comfort her, but most could only look upon the charred and blackened body of-
Chip's heart lept into his throat. His stomach dropped out, and his legs
turned into Jell-o. "No. This can't be right," he thought. "It can't be." But it was.
It was Dale, and he wasn't moving.
---
Chip seemed far away during the walk back to the Coffeehouse. People explaining,
people talking, people walking in silence. Chipper had explained that when the J.A.M.
had exited the canyon he couldn't connect with Dale because Dale wasn't there anymore.
Someone said that he probably fell off the Jaguar during the explosion created by the
grease. TPL's device had been broken in the blast, and there was no way of contacting
the J.A.M. and Pikachu or knowing if they were even on the planet anymore. Then came
the medical diagnosis: Dale's heart was beating, but very faintly. He would probably
not survive to see the morning. They had scrounged up a home-made stretcher and were
now carrying Dale back to the Coffeehouse. Chip, however, could barely keep from
stumbling. His thoughts turned far away from the entire situation, to when he met Dale,
how they became fast friends, and so on until the last words he had heard his friend
mutter rang through his mind: "We had a blast last time."
"Well, Dale," Chip thought. "You sure had a blast this time too." Even the bad
pun was not enough to cheer him up. He had nearly resigned himself to never speaking
to his friend again when suddenly an idea came to him-
"The Dragon Balls!"
Everyone jumped. After most of the walk in silence and whisperings,
the sudden outburst had startled everyone and now they all were looking at Chip.
"If we gather the rest of the Dragon Balls, then we can wish Dale back to health!
He won't have to die!"
"But what about Leviathan?" Kuwani protested. "If we use the wish on Dale
then we'll never see him again!"
"If we don't then Dale is going to die!"
The entire party stopped to ponder the gravity of the situation. It was not
an easy choice by any means.
---
Will the rest of the Dragon Balls be found? If so, what will the wish be used for?
And what about the J.A.M. and Pikachu? That's up to the next author in this story to
decide. As for me, I'm going to bed.
Mister Kerr
---
Two to the Med-Lab
Kat slapped her head.
"Have you guys forgotten about the Med-Lab?" she asked. The looks
they gave her in response told Kat they -had- forgotten.
"Uh, it may not be a good idea to move him..." Chip began.
"I can -teleport- him there, Chip." declared the cat-earred human.
Kat touched Dale and they both disappeared.
Chip just stared blankly. The Jedi chipmunk came over to him and put
a paw on his shoulder. "He'll be fine, Chip. TPL's equipment can heal
virtually any wound."
Chip nodded slowly. "But what happened to J.A.M. and Pikachu?"
"We're still working on that." said Kuwani. "Chipper, love, can you
reach out with the Force and find them?"
"Ill try." replied the Jedi, who then closed his eyes and concentrated.
Kat
---
Meanwhile:
The blast when the J.A.M entered the gully had not been entirely due
to his speed. Not directly. The compression wave moving in front of him
had been funneled into the trap before him, heating the air to the flashpoint
of stale cooking grease at about the same moment he smashed through the first
of Kuwani's webs, with a predictable result.
The gully suddenly, momentarily, filled with a swirling grey cloud of
grease vapor. Then it ignited with the thunderous blast which had so stunned
the group and injured Dale.
The pressure of the blast was distributed evenly across the J.A.M's body,
and within his natural protective field he felt none of the heat, as he had
felt no heat or pressure from the air friction during his run. However,
he was now running against a wall of expanding gasses moving at supersonic
speeds, like a piston in a diesel engine.
He slowed.
Chipper's message came to him, and he dropped the dragon balls.
Instantly, his speed dropped further. He hit Kuwani's last, strongest, web...
And it stretched. Sparks arcing around him, he felt the web beginning to fray.
But he was still slowing down. The last strand snapped with a rifle-crack of
released power, and his speed did not begin to increase again, in fact he
could tell he now had control of his legs and could stop any time he liked...
Karl
---
Any time he liked? Actually. . . .
[...unWARP!!!]
Good evening.
*************
[Rembember, he had the Dragon Balls in his black leather kangaroo pouch]
So it took one tenth of a second for Pikachu and Dale to receive
Chipper's message.
And it took yet another second for Pikachu to blast through his shirt
and leather pouch, at which point he energized the Dragon Balls to their
maximum power.
It took one half second for them to grab them.
It took one thousandth of a second for the Dragon Balls to further
energise the warp.
It took one ten-thousandth of a second for the Panther's limbs to
reach MACH 40, even though he was already at the end of the gully,
and his actual speed was less than MACH 1.
It took one half of a second for Dale to loose his footing.
It took one tenth of a second for them to drop the Dragon Balls, and at
the same time Pikachu unintentionally cut through Kuwani's web, due to all
the static electricity around him.
In one hundredth of a second, the Jaguar broke through Kuwani's last web,
suddenly regaining contorl of his limbs, but still shooting off at MACH 33.7999.
Dale fell.
The J.A.M. suddenly felt himself stumbling, but out of nowhere,
water appeared below him.
At this speed, he might as well have scraped himself with gravel.
He grabbed Pikachu tight to his chest, but wondered where Dale
suddenly went to.
His legs gave way.
He fell over, trying to land with his back on the water.
From a distance, one would think that a meteor skimmed and bounced
along the surface of the lake, leaving a sheet of water 30 m high behind him,
before finally tumbling to a complete stop. . .
* * * * * * * * * *
The waves lapped along the shore of the lake.
On the sand, two figures lay still, one of which had his limbs steaming
as the water touched them.
Only the smaller one was breathing. . . . .
*************
Until next time, remember:
I AM THE J.A.M.
Good evening.
[WARP!!!]
The J.A.M.
---
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