PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY
An AU Battle of the Planets/Star Blazers crossover
By Frederick P. Kopetz
Inspired by “Yuki Wildstar” and Gail (Fluffy) Kopetz.
Well, here we go with Chapter Two. Thanks to you, GoldAngel and Summer39, dear friends, for the encouraging review as we go on and delve more into the weird, weird, WEIRD mind of Zoltar and his/her latest attack. I hope you like this chapter, and thanks again for the reviews!
CHAPTER TWO: OPERATION ROACH MOTEL CONTINUES
NOTE: A note of clarification is that in my head (an odd but interesting idea), BOTH Gatchaman and BOTP have taken place in this odd AU. Gatchaman, in my head, anyway, took place around 2069-78, all on Earth, for the most part, in the chaos after World War III/The Wars of Unification. Berg Katze, naturally, went down into that lava pit at Cross Karakoram, and very few know what happened to him/her; save for Generalissimo X/Z. At the same time, attacks from another world were beginning as Earth’s nascent solar system bases were getting hit by a second new, more mysterious race around the 2060’s. Around 2180 or so, that race made its first formal demand on Earth and revealed itself to be the Gamilon Empire. After the Years of Fire (the late 2100’s and early 2200’s), Earth and its interstellar allies began to colonize other worlds…bringing us up to the current day in 2221….
I. DO ROBOTS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SUSANS?
Earth: ISO Center Neptune Base
SOMEWHERE IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC OCEAN
September 6, 2221
2345 Hours: Local Time
“That poor couple in
the park,” said a slightly pompous yet anxious robotic voice. “Have you ever
seen Zoltar doing anything so horrible? The automatic censor circuit didn’t
catch that one, so I saw the whole thing,” said the little grey and gold hunk
of robot known as 7-Zark-7. “Zoltar is becoming more insane every day. These
terroristic attacks from Spectra make me wish I could go out there myself with
G-Force and smash in Zoltar’s head; or they would if I wasn’t so scared of
him…”
The viewer came up in Zark’s control room a moment later as demented laughter came over the speakers. “Good evening! Is anyone there from your rotten G-Force awake?”
“Oh, no! ZOLTAR!” cried 7-Zark-7 as he saw the dreaded face on the screen and tried to hide. Still, the ten-year old collection of nuts, bolts, and circuits had enough presence of mind to hit a switch on one of his perpetually smeared screens to begin recording Zoltar. “What do you want this time, you madman?”
“I am busy wrecking New Golden Gate Park, in case you have not noticed,” sneered Zoltar. “The body count is five so far.”
“They’ll evacuate Uto City soon; you won’t get anyone else, Zoltar!”
“Oh, what sort of rose-colored glasses are you wearing?” Zoltar sneered. “I delight in murder. Tell G-Force I am chasing several Galaxy Security agents and meddling Earth Defense agents around this park and I have sucked up two of them already. My ship is like a Roach Motel; for people! People get sucked in, and they NEVER come out! Let those teenagers know that if they do not surrender to me in one hour, I will take these Earthlings back to Spectra, where they will be tortured, mind-probed, and have Fates worse than Death visited upon them before I vaporize them if I am really in a bad mood! Then, I’ll find a way to make you all surrender to me! Thrilled yet? And, oh, yes, robot. Spectra has NO employee retirement plan! HA HA HA HA HA HA!”
“You’re horrible, Zoltar,” said Zark.
Zoltar faded out with demented laughter.
In the cockpit of the roach, Brock told Zoltar, “We’ve vacuumed up three agents so far. I think one is a pilot. Corporal Milaz will let us know the kid’s identity within the hour!”
“EXCELLENT!” laughed
Zoltar as he played about with the necklace he had been wearing in his/her
shape as “Kathi” or “Mala” in the club earlier that night. The gender-bending
maniac was tempted to flip on an 8-track of Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild
Side” but he/she
instead contented himself with using the Roach’s mandibles to shoot liquid fire
into a wooden picnic pavilion, turning the place into a burning torch in a
moment.
He then turned the mecha onto Federation Avenue, smashed two police aircars called to the scene with the mecha’s legs, and fired two particle beams into an EDF Space Marine Armored Personnel Vehicle already dispatched to the scene. Marines ran out for their lives. Two of them had enough wits to fire some “Bopper Gun” RPG’s at the Thing’s belly, causing some minor damage. Zoltar ignored them as he fired at an apartment building, just for the fun of seeing a few families dying.
“Lord Zoltar!” said Brock.
“Yes? I am having too much fun!” said Zoltar.
“Scanners spotted two EDF agents five hundred meters to the south. They are trying to make cover in the park. And the cerebonics sensors are spotting people with implants mucking about. Which ones do you want to see?”
“The closest ones first,” said Zoltar. “So I can suck them up or squash them! Maybe both!” Zoltar turned callously away from the burning apartment as he looked at his scanners. “Hello, Dawn,” he sneered. “Or should that be Mrs. Nova Wildstar?”
“You’ve been tracking the Rear Admiral and Captain Wildstar MD themselves?” said Brock in awe.
“I have been tracking Nova Wildstar and her husband Derek for about a year between other little projects,” sneered Zoltar. “Waiting for the perfect opportunity to capture or kill her or her cursed husband. G-Force is one thing, but I loathe Earth Defense even more. Those two are among the few officers that they have who are not hemmed in by tons of bureaucratic thinking and the military curse of completing every form in triplicate! Part of me wants them as badly as G-1! Part of me knows if they ever dispatch their insane, accursed blue and red space battleship Argo or Yamato or whatever they call that hunk of junk and its band of trained killers and space pirates to Spectra from its place in mothballs, my Empire is doomed!”
“One beat-up twenty-two year old ship. What can they do with it?” sneered Brock. “My Naval Forces flattened the EDF Space Battleships Kirishima and Texas and their cruiser and destroyer escorts in encounters out near Sirius and the edge of the Crab Nebula in the past four months alone. We would have gotten the Spacecraft Carrier Ranger, too, save for the fact that the Rigans helped defend it.”
“Yes, and due to the fact that G-Force brought down your new Centipede Carrier Mecha,” yelled Zoltar. “You told me that was going to work!”
“While we are arguing, the Wildstars are getting into the trees,” said Brock. “And, sir, what about the cerebonicially enhanced agents we are picking up?”
“Ignore them for the nonce! Time to hit the gas,” laughed Zoltar. “Get the regular Earthlings! They can’t outrun me! They don’t even have any rotten cerebonics like G-Force! Then we’ll see if there are nasty little G-Force pigeons around for me to play with!”
In the woods of New Golden Gate Park, “Dawn” had long-ago ditched her sunglasses and her pumps; both of
which were stuffed in the pockets of her trenchcoat. She ran barefoot in the
grass with her coat flying open as the warm night air blew around her
skirt-clad legs and sweater.
“You tell me what this reminds you of, Nova…shoot!” said the 43-year old man who ran along beside her. He had gotten rid of his watch cap and sunglasses, but the longish, now slightly grey-streaked chestnut hair of Rear Admiral Derek Wildstar looked awfully young and reassuring to Nova Wildstar MD in the night.
Nova’s commanding officer, her pet psychological project, her lover, her soulmate, and her best friend smiled at her as she said, “The Gamilon Space Tanks on Titan, 2199, Derek. I’ve gotten a better wind since then, but I can’t go on running forever! Our kids must be getting awfully worried back at the Hotel Orion Embassy with Mom and Dad!”
“Who the hell says we’re running?” grinned Derek. “Didn’t you have a mission to slip Zoltar a mickey?”
“Had the needle in my purse the last month, love. Yes.”
“I think you might get to use it tonight,” he grinned.
“You always have this gift of making me smile,” Nova said. “When I do not want to kill you, Admiral, sir.”
“Yeah,” said Wildstar as he grabbed Nova’s hand. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, WHOA, Mrs. Nervous Norvus! About-face, THIS way!”
“Derek, we’re running FOR that thing?”
“Yup,” said
Wildstar with an evil grin as he whipped out his Astro-Automatic with the other
hand. “Window dressing. Got other toys in my pockets.”
“Toys,” huffed Nova. “I hope they’re not Starventura dolls.”
“Steve’s newest brainstorm,” smiled Derek, referring to Captain Stephen Sandor, the genius scientist and engineer who was their old comrade. “They dragged him and the North Carolina in and pulled him off that command as Skipper because they smelled trouble.”
Nova nodded as Derek shot at the Spectran mecha with his sidearm.
“Lord,” said Brock up in the cockpit, which was above and behind the Roach’s head. “That middle-aged fart is shooting at us!”
“Waawwhahahahahahha, okay, Wildstar, who do you think you are….Captain Kirk!?!?” sneered Zoltar. “Overaged and fat but dangerous. You should be selling margarine next! Ready the vacuum proboscis!”
Brock pulled a few switches, and a huge clear pipe emerged from the mecha’s head like some ugly proboscis from some nightmare fly. Zoltar grinned, hit a switch, and started up a titanic vacuum cleaner located in the belly of the beast.
Nova screamed and grabbed onto a tree as her skirt and coat were pulled towards the vacuum unit. She got out her own sidearm and got off two shots before the thing’s vacuum ripped it out of her hand.
Then, she fell and tried to hold on as she realized that the Mecha was getting closer.
Damned thing, she thought.
Then, Derek came up behind her, scooped her up like a doll, and ran about twenty meters to the Roach’s underbelly, between the thing’s legs.
Two firing ports opened, and two green-clad Spectran goons appeared up in the Roach’s underbelly and started shooting at them. Machine gun bullets, thought Derek. These guys are pathetic, and they can’t shoot!
In the meantime,
Mark was getting a Scramble signal from 7-Zark-7. He yelled into his wristband
communicator, “Okay, what’s up?”
“I just got a message from Zoltar! He wants you and G-Force to surrender, or he says he’ll wreck the city!”
“Yeah, like he thinks I’m gonna surrender,” snapped Mark. “TRANSMUTE!” he yelled after hitting his wristband.
A pattern of colored lights swirled around Mark as he transmuted into G-1, the Eagle. Princess became G-3 a moment later as her pink Birdstyle appeared, and Jason ran up as the Condor in his dark brown Birdstyle.
“Where’s Tiny and Keyop?” demanded Mark.
“Tiny took Keyop off to the rendezvous point with the Phoenix at the airfield,” said Jason. “They’re bringing her here to the park when they can find a landing spot! I’ll get my damn missiles back in twelve minutes!”
“Shouldn’t we be going to the airfield, too?” asked Princess as she followed Mark and Jason into the park.
“Tiny will be here soon. In the meantime, we know where Zoltar is. He’s in that bug leading the attack personally,” said Mark. “Let’s get in there somehow and get him!”
“Stupidest thing he ever will have done once we get our claws into that psychotic son-of-a-bitch,” snapped Jason.
“Now what is the Commander doing?” pouted Zark back in Center Neptune.
“He’s awfully mad,” said a breathy voice from across the room as Zark’s antennae came up.
“Oh, Susan. How are things on Pluto?”
“I wish they were better, Zark,” said the voice of the Pluto Sector perimeter defense system computer. “I’m wondering if this is….creature-feature night, Zark. I’m really scared!”
“Susan, what’s going on out there by Pluto?”
“The 21st Earth Defense Forces Patrol Fleet is in a battle with…R’Khell cruisers!”
“I hate to say this, but even a robot like me can forget things because I’m always on duty,” said Zark. “Refresh me on who the R’Khells are…”
“The R’Khells are a rebel faction of part of what used to be the…Rikashan Empire. They broke away from Rikasha back in 2202 around the time that Lord Ekogaru tried to invade Earth. The the two Empires have been in a deadly war ever since. The R’Khells were allies of the Comet Empire when it tried to strike Earth again in 2205 to 2207 in Space War IV. The R’Khells do periodic terror attacks every few months or so…just like Spectra. Some people think they might have an alliance of some kind.”
“Zoltar dealing with the R’Khells and their mad leader Doctor Sandberg, that traitor from Earth?” said Zark with a shiver. “That makes my circuits want to melt.”
“You make parts of me want to melt, too,” cooed Susan. “And I don’t mean my circuits!”
“I don’t get that one,” said Zark.
“You need to be a few years older, Zark,” purred Susan. “And you are cute…”
Zark’s antenna popped up and his cape waved.
Then, he went back to polishing his video screens….
In the meantime, back in New Golden Gate Park, Derek and Nova were still under the roach’s belly when Derek pulled up his shirt slightly. He had a harness on under his jacket and shirt. He thumbed a switch, and a small explosive charge went off, shooting a rapelling cable and its magnetic head up into the roach’s metal belly. Derek then grabbed Nova and flicked another switch, and a small motor in the rig auto-rapelled both of them up to the underbelly of the roach. Derek spotted a hatch and shot at the lock. He and Nova then kicked together and banged the hatch open and went up into the mecha.
Spectra troopers were all around them at once, firing away as Nova screamed. For a minute, the goons thought she was frightened, until her feet connected with a trooper’s neck and knocked him off-balance. Nova stole his carbine out of his shocked hands and pumped a few rounds into his chest. Armed, she tumbled next to her husband as both of them got behind a hatch for cover and fired away.
“Feels like old times, doesn’t it?” grinned Derek. “We’ve still got it!”
“Good thing I never let myself get fat and eat bon-bons after having the kids,” Nova teased back, smiling at her husband. The next Spectran goon who shot at her was not met with a smile, but with a furious kiai from her suddenly gritted teeth as she fired and got him in the head.
Derek fired away and got two more, and then he yelled, “Come back, you cowards!” as three Spectran guards decided that these two weren’t worth risking their lives or pay over. “We’re asking Zoltar for a raise!” yelled one of them as he ran off.
“No, make it hazard pay!” said the other goon.
Then, the goon opened up a hatch at the other end of the corridor and screamed.
The reason why was
because he was staring Mark of G-Force right in the face! “AAAAAAGH!” he
yelled. “G-FORCE!”
“Now they all know we’re here,” snorted Jason. “You wanna take him or should I?”
“Wanna flip for it?” quipped Mark.
“You take him,” said Jason as he leaned against the bulkhead. Then, a hatch opened near him, and two more goons ran out.
Jason flipped about and whipped two feather shuriken into their necks while Mark kicked another goon against the bulkhead. “You’re going that way,” he said. “Lead us to the cockpit!”
“Not that way, not that way, please, please, please, please, please!” gibbered the Spectran trooper under his fanged mask/helmet.
“Oh?” grinned Mark. “Something at the other end of that corridor you’re scared of?”
Another goon ran out and screamed as he was caught in a blue streak of laser energy coming out from the shadows at the other end of the corridor.
“Hmmm,” said Jason. “Either Spectra is having a really bad family quarrel, or we’ve got help.”
Another goon ran out from another hatch, firing at the shadows, and screaming as a laser bolt caught him in the leg. He fell, yelling, “HAVE MERCY!”
Mark’s eyebrows went up, until he heard a low growl of “…..kuso” from the other end of the corridor and he saw two figures advancing.
Jason was shocked as he spotted “Dawn” first-with her sunglasses off, and he blurted out, “You’re on our side?”
“Exactly. Besides, Spectra’s not hiring this week, sorry,” said “Dawn’s” partner as he emerged from the shadows with a slight grin. Only then did Mark and Jason finally figure out that this couple happened to be the famous Wildstars, right out of the history tapes and into their battle.
“You two are still active?” said Jason.
Derek nodded and said, “We don’t hit retirement age for another twenty-four years yet. Besides, being behind a desk all the time is booooooriiiing.”
Then, Princess ran in. “Mark! I figured out from hacking their computers where the prison deck of this thing is…I…oh!?” she said as she saw Derek and Nova Wildstar. She looked at “Dawn”. “…You’re…”
Nova walked forward and extended a hand. “Captain Nova Dawn Wildstar MD,” she said as she shook hands with a startled Princess. “I haven’t met you since you were very, very small, back at a wedding reception. But I’ve been looking into the project now and then. Even though Anderson and I have some differences about it.”
“Differences?” asked Derek.
“Oh, you were off on the Nagato with Second Fleet on that one cruise when Anderson and I had that big argument not long after Teresa was born,” Nova said. “That was right after I finished my internship. I told him he didn’t really have informed consent to experiment on these kids because they were minors.”
“Actually, he was our legal guardian, even though he never adopted us,” said Jason. “He signed on the dotted line to make us what were are now.”
“Conflict of interest,” snorted Nova as she paused to put on a pair of boots she was carrying.
“Where’d you get those from?” said Mark.
“A Spectran trooper who didn’t need them anymore,” Nova said. “The decks of this mecha thing are kind of dirty.I like to go barefoot on tatami or a rug, not greasy decks.”
“Where’s that prison?” snapped Derek. “We’re going there.”
“I’m sorry, sir,” said Mark pointedly. “You’re Earth Defense and you don’t command this team.”
“Professional courtesy?” said Derek. “I hear you people sometimes defer to Colonel Cronus of Riga. Besides, those guys have a pilot I want back very badly after we stop this thing. Where’s the reactor level?”
“Same deck as the prison,” said Princess.
“Good…we want our prisoner back,” said Nova.
“Who?” said Jason.
“Jonathan,” hissed Admiral Wildstar.
“What’s a Jonathan?” said Mark.
“Lieutenant Jonathan Hartnell-Wildstar, who is now twenty-eight and my second Black Tiger squadron leader,” said Derek. “He means something else to Nova and I, too.”
“What?” asked Princess.
“Just our adopted eldest son,” Nova said.
“Yeah, I’d have to be crazy to abandon my oldest son,” said Derek with a deep, angry conviction. “Or any of my kids. Any man who would just totally abandon his children…I’d have nothing but contempt for a man like that!”
Behind his visor, Mark’s eyebrows went up at that. So this is personal for them, he thought. Then, it hit him. He’s not like my father, who abandoned me. I know he’s alive somewhere. But where is he and how come he never tries to find me?
“How many kids do you two have?” quipped Jason.
“Less talking, more looking for those prisoners,” said Mark as he and Admiral Wildstar exchanged nods. “Our pickup will be here soon, so we’re gonna have to boogie!”
“Good; besides, I have my job,” said Nova.
“Which is?” said Princess.
“We’re looking for him next,” Nova said.
“Who?” said Princess.
“Zoltar. And be guaranteed I will not be prescribing him an aspirin or offering him my Spring Water,” Nova said.
“Where’s the nearest access ladder to that deck?” snapped Derek.
“This way,” replied Princess.
II. A TEMPORARY PARTNERSHIP
Earth
UTO CITY: UTO PENINSULA
New Golden Gate Park
September 7, 2221
0008 Hours: Local Time
Down they went, an unusual set of five, acting as one, for the moment. Two sets of heroes from different times, against one set of madmen at long last.
“Who’s got the firepower to blow a reactor?” asked Jason.
Derek patted his coat. “I have two charges. When we find that reactor, we’re planting them, giving it a hundred and eighty seconds and running the other way,” he said.
“How’d you get into this line of work, sir?” asked Jason.
“Ever read your history in school?” said Derek. “I decided to get some revenge the day the Gamilons got my parents.”
“Hmmm…sounds familiar,” said Jason with a twisted grin. “You and I might be two of a kind.”
“Then I was there to pick up the pieces; especially since he thought his brother Alex was dead,” Nova added. “I did need to housebreak him a little first,” she said as she nodded at Princess. “When you fight and work with someone for a couple of years first, settling down and having a family after the wars ended was the easy part. Although he still leaves the toilet seat down at times.”
“I do not,” said Derek.
“What about last week?” Nova said. “Before we left for North America?”
“Hey! I was rushing around then,” said Derek as he got out a small charge which said “H” on its barrel while holding his sidearm. “I…”
“Halt!” yelled a Spectran Sergeant in yellow. “Who goes there?”
“You don’t need to see our identification,” winked Jason as he made a hand gesture.
“I don’t need to see…wait!” yelled the Sergeant. “Three members of G-Force, a scruffy guy, and a girl in a trenchcoat!”
“Scruffy guy may be your worst nightmare,” snapped Derek as he trained his weapon on the Spectran while Nova held a weapon on the other enemy troops. “Show us to the reactor or get your damned head blown off!”
“Not much of a choice, bud. This way,” said the Spectran, who grinned as he sidled over to a hatch and then hit a red emergency button.
He fell down a moment later after Princess tore his neck open with her yo-yo.
“Sorry about the mess,” Princess said.
“A bigger mess may be coming in about thirty seconds,” said Mark.
“I think I can sneak us out of this,” said Derek as he grabbed a microphone from off the bulkhead and thumbed a button. Then, he said, “Command bridge?”
It turned out he got Brock himself. “What is it?” Brock hissed.
“This is Captain Needleman on the Reactor Deck!” Derek snapped, thinking back to his last cruise on board the Argo. “I don’t know what kind of techs you have down here, but this guy was just so clumsy!”
“Why was that?” said Brock as he belatedly began to scan the ship while Zoltar slapped his wrist.
“Sergeant Palvitz, Operating Number 33451-Alpha has really screwed up,” said Derek as Nova fished in the dead Spectran’s back pocket and then handed him the dead Spectran’s ID smartcard, helpfully written in Standard as well as in Spectran ideographs. “Wouldn’t you know, the jerk tripped on the deck plate and set off a false alarm!” laughed Derek. “You can stand down, sir. I’m gonna have this guy running the ship in his underwear for the next week!”
“What an incompetent!” yelled Zoltar as Mark, Jason, and Princess looked on and nodded with approval at Wildstar’s act. “When did you join this ship, Captain?”
“Just last week; I came from the new underground base on Myr,” quipped Derek. “Lordship, we need more discipline on this vessel.” Derek looked at a screen Princess flicked on. “I suggest we stop running around this park in an aimless fashion and try to find military targets in this Earthling town instead…sir. The Luminous One would love it if you returned home with military targets crushed.”
“Captain, you may have a point!” snapped Zoltar. “Brock, take this young man’s advice and let’s scan for military targets!”
“Yessir,” said Brock as the mecha stopped.
“Oh, one last thing,” said Derek. “Sir, I have three members of G-Force captured! Could you download the lock code for the prison level so I can put these birds into their little cage?”
“Good idea,” said Brock. “Lord?”
Zoltar nodded. “He’s one of ours….can’t hurt!”
Brock downloaded the code.
“Sometimes, he’s so easy to fool that it’s pathetic,” said Jason a moment later as Princess and Nova worked together on the fly to write down the lock code.
“Don’t count Zoltar out yet,” said Mark as he fingered his deadly boomerang.
“Got it,” said Princess as Nova handed her a piece of paper. “Now, which one of us is going down there?”
“I think you should,” said Derek as he looked at Nova, who then responded with, “Yes, Derek. No offense, but I’ve got a date with Zoltar and I don’t want to stand him up.” Then, she looked at Derek and said, “I’m sorry, couldn’t resist that one. Remember what you said that time about Queen Starsha?”
“Yeah. That was before you were interested in me.”
“Wrong. I was interested, but you hadn’t caught on yet, Combat Group Leader.”
“It’s getting thick in here, lovebirds,” said Jason. “Princess, which way to that prison level?”
“Two decks down,” she said after looking at a screen.
“Get the prisoners and meet us forward,” said Derek. Then, he and Nova took off. A moment later, Mark’s bracelet communicator went off. “Hey, Commander?” said Tiny.
“Where have you been? Eating spaceburgers?” snapped Mark.
“Naw, tryin’ to land with Keyop,” responded Tiny. “I found a clearing near this reservoir. I’m takin’ her down there and I’ll meetcha in a few.”
“Big Ten,” said Mark.
A moment later, Wildstar’s charges went off, blowing the small reactor and stopping the mecha dead in its tracks.
Princess, Mark and Jason attacked a few more troopers, and then they opened the lock for the prison level.
“G-Force!” yelled one of the trapped pilots, who was in an EDF uniform. Another one, in a Rigan uniform in red and white, clapped his fellow prisoner on the shoulder.
“Hold on, Lieutenant Ramsey!” snapped the voice of a taller pilot in black and gold; a Star Force Black Tiger uniform; he had unruly sandy blonde hair and a handsome but angry-looking face. He looked at Mark and said, “How do we know this is not some Spectran trick? They are masters of disguise, after all.”
“Your parents are here,” said Mark. “They helped us sabotage this bug.”
“What color is my mother’s hair?” asked the young man.
“Honey-blond; it’s very pretty,” said Princess. “And your mother has two funny little spitcurls by her cheekbones.”
“Okay. They know my parents, Lieutenant Ramsey…Ensign Rikus,” said the commanding young man. “Lieutenant Commander Jonathan Hartnell-Wildstar…at your service. This man is Lieutenant Ramsey from the California, and the Rigan here is Ensign Rikus of the Red Rangers unit. They took us all on different missions; mostly by subterfuge.”
“Doesn’t sound cool,” said Jason. “Hey. Do you have bracelets on?”
“I need some help with this,” said Rikus as he held out a wrist-it was decorated with a white bracelet with the Spectran Devil Head Crest on it in red. “Torture bracelets. If we discuss something they do not like, they zap us. And they might have other functions, too.”
“If they do, I don’t wanna find out,” snapped Hartnell-Wildstar.
“We’ll find some way to get them off,” said Mark as Princess opened the cell door.
“Now, out we go, and…AAAARRRRGGGH!” screamed Jonathan as he grabbed his bracelet and fell to the deck.
“What’s wrong?” said Mark.
“They’re torturing me with this!” said Jonathan. “I don’t know how to get rid of it!”
“Damn them!” roared Jason.
In the meantime, up forward, Nova and Derek Wildstar shot down two Spectran guards and kicked open a hatchway as they got into the head of the Roach.
“G-FORCE!” yelled Zoltar at the noise.
“Boy, are you guys wrong!” mocked Derek while Nova pulled something from out of her purse. “A guy dressed like a bug and a big purple weirdo?”
“Listen, Earthling boy, I am Lord Zoltar of Spectra!” snapped Zoltar as he stood up and held a gun on Derek. “Why did you stop my mecha?”
“We don’t take kindly to giant vermin on Earth, you scum! And we've met before, although I think you may be too stoned to remember,” Derek said as Nova coughed a little and fanned in front of her face to get rid of the smell of...whatever these two had been smoking. ”You evidentltly don’t remember that little game on Gamilon years and years ago. Sorry. Surrender now! It’s long past time for you to face justice,” Derek snapped.
“Lord, G-Force is running all over the place on this ship, too, according to my sensors” said Brock. “We’re sunk.”
“Hello, Zoltar,” said Nova as she extended her right hand towards Zoltar in a handshake while keeping her left behind her back. “May I have your autograph?”
“Well, this is a new one,” Zoltar said as he looked at Brock. “Of course, my dear lady,” he said as he slipped something out of his uniform pocket.
It looked like a spray can. In fact, it read “BUG SPRAY” on it. “May I spray your hair, first?”
Nova looked at Derek and raised her eyebrows. He looked at her, and shrugged, as if to say, Yes, dear, he’s nuts.
“Hey! I don’t let people spray my hair with insecticide inside a giant roach!” yelled Nova. “If you think this is funny, it’s not!”
“And I do not give autographs! So Sorry! You will have to come by after a performance of mine someday,” snapped Zoltar as he sprayed the “BUG SPRAY” at Nova.
Derek pulled Nova away from the deadly little cloud of poison gas, but she was still able to lash out with a hypodermic needle at Zoltar.
The needle almost got him, but he laughed insanely, pushed a button on his bracelet, and vanished in a shimmer of light.
“What?” said Nova.
“I’m afraid he was getting rather bored with this conservation,” said Brock. “And so am I,” he said as he pulled a few switches.
Before Derek and Nova could react, the door irised shut in their faces, trapping them on the flight deck with Brock. Derek fired at Brock, but he laughed like mad and disappeared, as well.
A moment later, the mecha’s bug head fired up and off the body of the Roach on its own. Small wings extended from it as the head, one of Zoltar’s typical weird escape ships, launched automatically as programmed by Brock and instead took its two unwilling passengers up into space in about thirty seconds.
By the time Derek and Nova threw themselves into the mecha’s seats and began to get control of the weird ship, they were in high Earth orbit.
“Do you think he’s dragging us somewhere?” Nova cried.
“I have control. It’s just a diversion to get us out of his way while he does something else,” Derek replied. “Did you get him, Nova?”
“I missed him by a centimeter!” Nova cried in frustration. “He has the reflexes of some kind of cockroach!”
“Sorry. Stinks…I know,” said Derek.
“I don’t like roaches in my kitchen or on my planet,” said Nova. “Derek, did you figure out the weapons on this thing?”
“Not yet, but…”
“Attention! Spectran ship!” barked a voice over their speakers. “Waggle your wings and surrender to us at once! Or we will blow you into space trash!”
“Three objects on radar,” Nova said as she looked at her sensors. “Range, one megameter. They’re ours! A flight of three Cosmo Tiger II Astrofighters!”
“Yeah. Except that now, we’re on the wrong side of those guns and missiles,” Derek said.
On the prison deck, Mark tried to get control of the situation while Jonathan writhed and screamed.
Finally, a moment later, before the shocked eyes of his fellow prisoners and the three G-Force members, Jonathan shimmered away and vanished.
Then, a familiar, hated voice was heard over the ship’s speakers.
“Good evening, G-Force!” laughed Zoltar. “Your Wildstars did a nice job in trying to subdue me, but I got rid of them by sending them onto a little trip into space in my mecha so they can be shot down! I’m sorry, but Brock, Jonathan and I must be going…namely, back to Spectra! I hope you get a bang out of my self-destruct circuits as they blow you into your next reincarnation, hopefully as sacred insects!” Zoltar laughed. “I like insects much better than nasty bird science ninja any day! Have a nice day! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!”
“Zoltar, you jackass!” yelled Jason.
They watched on a screen as another escape mecha roared out a tube in the roach’s butt. Zoltar and company roared up into space, executed a warp, and vanished before anyone could take notice of him or pursue him.
A moment later, the roach mecha began to blow…with Mark, Jason, Princess, Ramsey, and Rikus still inside.
Mark began to react, but he fell against the bulkhead, stunned even through his helmet as the mecha began to blow apart….
TO BE CONTINUED…