Cherie's mouth fell open, her eyes widened in shock. "You wouldn't dare!"
Bez whooped joyously. "I can tell ya, a lot of people will sleep easier knowing you're well and truly out of the game!"
Cherie looked at her, attempting to look incredulous but only succeeding in distorting the rage already on her face. "You can't prove anything!"
Matrix shook his head.
"I believe we just did." He frowned. "And you're still saying this after so many total empathies?" He looked over at Sin. "Diagnosis?"
Sin shook his head. "Just because she has felt what her victims have felt doesn't mean she accepts it."
Bez sighed exasperatedly. "Oh, let's just end her all ready!" She walked up to Cherie, smiling. "I know who-"
Cherie reached out suddenly, snatching Bez's Burner. "No one move or I'll-I'll-"
Bez snickered. "Betcha don't even know how to fire it. Put the gun down, Empress, " She sneered as she said the word. "before you hurt yourself."
Cherie smiled evilly. "I do know how to use this-I have your memories remember? Yes, your good ones and your bad ones. I know all about the war-ooouurf!"
During Cherie's mini speech, Bez had lunged forward, sweeping her off her feet while shoving her to the ground. She took her gun from Cherie, pinning her.
Misery jumped up and down and hooted. She was joined by Capri, Indy, Pippi etc as they all cheered rockusly.
The crowd of Cherie's now very unwilling subjects also joined in laughing.
"You!" Cherie started crying again, it was always what she eventually fell back on to try disarming people.
"You didn't get my combat training memories, did ya, Cherie?" Bez said icily. She looked up at NT. "She's not going anywhere, now. Drain her dry."
"My pleasure!" NT said, drawling the phrase out in a frightening display of controlled malevolence.
"Holy mackrel," Ameh shuddered, but continued to smile.
"No!" Cherie wailed. "I never did anything to you!"
"Save it, Cherie, you did a lot and not just to me!"
"Please!" Cherie screamed. "What did I ever do to you!?"
"Oh, you moron!"
"I'm not! Please - stop - stop! - STOP!" Cherie screamed. "You're killing...Me! Stop it! Help! HHHHEEEELLLLPPPP!"
"I'm not killing you." NT said in disgust, then said nothing more, and she didn't look around. She kept looking down and maintaining a touch point at one side of Cherie's face.
"I didn't mean it when I asked you to take it away before! Stop!" Cherie continued protesting. "I just wanted to freak you out and panic everybody so they'd forget about taking down Tompkins and Benson! I still want my magic! I can do so much more than any of you know!"
"Not any more, you can't." Ameh sneered at her.
"Want some help, since she's so scared of me." Capri volunteered.
"No! Get away! Get away from me, Capri!" Cherie screamed.
"It's Ms. Monroe to you. Hmmm, looks like I don't have to do anything to you now anyway." She quickly scanned Cherie using her own magic.
"You wicked evil thief, you stupid magic-robbing thug!" Cherie bellowed at NT.
"You torture people - and I'm an evil thug?" NT rolled her eyes. "You're hopeless!" She looked at Capri and Ameh. "Did I manage it okay?" NT asked.
Ameh and Capri came over and probed Cherie for magic power. "It's gone, and hang on, for good measure," Capri started, "There. She'll never get any magic power again from anywhere or from any source. Not even the most basic Hogwarts gismo could work for her.
"Woot!" said Ameh.
NT withdrew, smiling.
"I'll get you for this! I'll kill you!" Cherie railed.
"Oh, that's right, how silly of me!" NT mocked her, clapping her hands together once. "Everything you say is a lie, so I should've realized that when you told me you wanted your magic taken away!"
"You wanna accuse me of lying, how about your friend Capri? She should be jailed for identity theft, pretending to be you so she could betray me!"
"Give it up, Cherie, you're just grasping at straws now!" Madonna called back.
"That's right, do join in and gang up on me too, Madonna! Cherie railed.
"Cut the passive aggressive bulltosh, Cherie!" Ameh yelled back. "You went looking for trouble, well, guess what, trouble has found you!"
"You all hate me!" Cherie wailed. "This is so unfair!"
Bez sighed. "Oh, Cherie, Cherie, Cherie. Can it."
Cherie opened her mouth to shout something derisive and was abruptly cut off by Bez shoving something into it. She attempted to pull it out, only succeeding in getting her fingers stuck to it.
"Oh, hahahaha! Now you're really in a sticky situation aren't ya!?" Capri chortled. "Just look at her! That's a good one!"
There were laughs all around.
Bez smiled dryly, displaying a small grey sphere of clay-like material. "Breathe through your nose and you'll be fine. And the rest of us will be too, now that your intolerable drivel won't grate against our eardrums."
Capri applauded, still laughing.
Bez turned to Cherie's unwilling subjects. "Sorry, but this stuff's non-toxic." There were a few giggles and laughs and even a disapointed sigh or two. "Right, now that she's magicless, silent, and proven guilty..." She walked up to Matrix. "This remind you of anything? Cherie's behavior, some of the stuff she said...some of the stuff other people said...does it remind you of anyone?" Bez's "I know a joke" smile stretched from ear to ear.
Matrix frowned at her for a moment, thinking. His eye's widened. "Oh my gosh...yes!"
The pair broke into a fit of raucous laughter. "It's a perfect fit-"
"-a little unfortunate-"
"-Yeah, but the resemblence is perfect-"
"-and the lines-"
"-flawlessly similar-"
"-exactly! Oh this is too good!" The pair stopped laughing for a moment and looked over at Cherie. They immediately started laughing again, even harder than before.
"Unless we're in-"
"-no, different setting, doesn't count-"
'-right! What would I do without your memory banks, Matrix?" By now they were laughing so hard they had to lean on eachother for support.
"What? There's more than one of these beasts?" NT made a cringing motion.
"Do tell." Ameh said, grinning.
Sigma flushed and looked at everyone else. "Um...sorry about this. They kind of do it a lot. Over the years, they've built an extensive collection of TV shows and DVDs that they relentlessly quote from and refer to. I don't get it either."
"Hah, a Mary Sue!" Indy said, "I knew it!"
"Aahhh, my side is killing me!" Bez finally managed to stop laughing, though she couldn't restrain the odd giggle or two from escaping. "Sorry everybody-inside joke."
Thande shook his head. "I will never understand humans."
Bez smiled. "You don't need to." She looked back at Cherie, barely restraining another fit of laughter. "Stop gawking, will ya? I'd tell you a bug will fly in your mouth, but it seems that's not really an option."
Cherie yelled furiously, trying to pull her fingers out of the clay blob in her mouth.
Bez cupped a hand to her ear. "What was that? You're an insufferable parasite?"
Cherie's yelling intensified. She managed to get a garbled sentence out. "I hade ahwl a doo!"
Sigma scowled.
"We "hade" "doo" too." Bez smiled, folding her arms assertively.
Indy burst out laughing.
"Okay, everyone. Next assignment: sticking her some place where she can't mess anything up. My friends and I know of a few fitting planets-uninhabited but livable, of course, and some moons and asteroids that would work as well. Of course, the asteroid is a little more hard-core living, and I don't think this invertibrate is up to it."
Cherie made an incredulous sound.
"Shut up, already! I'll unstick your mouth when we find your new home. I hate to admit it, but even you shouldn't be left to die on some rock." She narrowed her eyes and smiled wickedly. "Maybe." She turned to the others. "Or if you know some fitting dimensions, etc, where we can dump her...we'll put all our options on the table."
"Hang on, what about the loyalty test?" Indy reminded them.
"Ah. Well, yeah, there is that." She grinned wickedly. "It's gonna be good."
"Oh, yes!" said Pippi, reaching and turning the mic so she could speak into it. "Cherie made you take this Pledge of Loyalty - "
"Unn-iiii-ieee yoyaity!" Cherie yelled back.
The people laughed.
"Yes, I forgot the 'undying part' well..." Pippi continued. "Indy here has found out something that makes this so-called pledge completely invalid, and not even worth a piece of simple paper let alone that golden covered pamphlet. Indy?"
Cherie hollered something incoherent but was ignored except for a few snickers and eye-rolls.
"Yes!" Indy exulted, jumping up. "Can I just get at that computer for a second?"
Capri nodded. "I'll just make sure it displays on the big screen so everyone gets the picture." Capri made some adjustments with the help of Pippi and Ameh.
"All right, Indy, begin." said Pippi.
Indy took her place at the computer, and loaded her site about chain letters.
Pippi began to explain. "You people all know about chain letters, I'm sure,"
The crowd made indications through growns, nods, muffled laughter etc.
"Indy breaks chain letters, and she is very good at it, as well as at sniffing them out. She has an extensive site about chain letters, and they do not just come in the form of 'Send five dollars to the names above yours' or 'Forward this or you'll have bad luck.' Chain letters use all sorts of tricks to get you to pass them along, including these examples."
Indy highlighted the text of her page that explained and gave some short examples of what chain letters say to get passed on. Some of the examples included "Delete This If We Are Not Friends' 'Pass This On And Show You Care' etc.
"Thank you, Indy, now, can we see that chain letter you found the other day, the 'say sorry' one?"
"No way." Capri was starting to get it, and if she was right, the laugh attack she was in for was going to be severe!
"Yes way." Indy grinned and her fingers flew for a few moments. She clicked on a link called "Blogosphere" that shocased people posting chain letters and junking up their blogs. There were lots of them, but Indy just kept paging down until she got to the one she wanted. "Here it is!" she announced, and clicked.
The biggest relationship secret ever, unveiled.
On the screen, sure as day, was Cherie's Undying Pledge of Loyalty! There were things included in the chain letter Cherie had excluded from the pledge, but they were just leading questions meant to make the chain letter look like a man was questioning a woman's pure narcicism. The Loyalty Pledge was all there in the woman's part, and down at the bottom was this:
"Oh by the way, this is a chain letter type of post. If you have read this post, you need to send it to at least five other people, or they may get “accidentally” run over by the love of their (albeit short) life in that harmless looking pink Vespa.
Remember, Hell Hath No Fury Like a Woman Scorned.
Just say sorry!"
Sigma smiled broadly, shaking her head. "What a nutter."
"You see, that pledge is nothing but a bollox chain letter!" Pippi drawled out derisively. Her thanks to Indy was drowned out by all the reactions that followed.
"What!?" Capri doubled over. "Oh, no! Hahahahahaha! This is too funny!" She continued laughing, unable to catch her breath.
Cherie yelled, but a lot of good it did her. No one heard or cared. Everyone was laughing and showing scorn for her now.
Angry, incredulous voices could be heard among the crowd.
"A chain letter!?"
"Can't believe that little twirp!"
"What a fraud!"
"We've been conned!"
"Down with Cherie! Down With cherie!"
It wasn't long before a steady, hostile chant of "Down With Cherie!" started up.
"I think she's finally getting the message," Capri said, "Let's put her somewhere she can't thrive off others' pain again."
Bez grinned. "May I do the honors?"
"She's all yours!" Capri said, still looking as if she was about to burst out laughing.
"Yes, go for it!" NT chimed in.
"Okay! Here we go." She walked up to Cherie carrying a small vile of blue fluid. "I'm granting you one thing before you're shoved off to my favorite marooning planet." She grabbed Cherie's head, tilting her face up. She poured the blue fluid on the gray clay, dissolving it.
Cherie spat violently, infuriated. "Just you wait, I'll get my revenge for this! You'll all be sorry!"
Matrix chuckled. "Do you want me to tell you how often people who say that don't achieve it?"
Cherie tried to think of something to say, but eventually subsided to wrathful blubbering.
Sigma giggled at the sight.
"Oookkkaayy..." Bez said, frowning comically. "Now if I show you the planet, you can send her there, right?"
"Oh, yes, that can be done easily." said Capri. She was really enjoying this.
"Yes, and before we do that," said Ameh, "I'm dying to know which cheesy movie character Cherie reminds you of!"
"Oh yeah, that Mary Sue, or maybe she's a combination of several really asinine characters!" Indy laughed. "And just so you know, Cherie, I know your sister didn't get killed, because you never had one!"
"I'm not a Mary Sue! And I'm gonna - "
"Cram it, Cherie!" Capri shot back.
Bez nodded. "Great. Matrix, project something."
Matrix nodded, smiling. "Now, I propose we send her to Aegrus, in the Cariosus system." Matrix projected the image.
Cariosus was in a tucked off corner of the galaxy. The projection zoomed in on the solar system.
"As you can see, Aegrus is the only planet in the system, and a poor excuse for one at that. It's livable-but only just." Bez turned to Cherie smiling wryly. "You'll have to work hard to survive. Just you, rocks, plants, and a few invertebrates-I think you'll get along with them excellently."
She turned to Cherie's ex-subjects. "She'll be hundreds of parsecs away from anyone she could have taken advantage of. You'll never see her again."
The crowd cheered, several of them throwing hats in the air.
"Yes!" NT, Capri and Pippi all yelled. The rest of them cheered on similarly.
Bez smiled and turned back to Matrix. "Okay, now for a star chart."
Matrix projected a star chart highlighting their current location and the location of Aegrus. Aegrus' sun was a lonely pin-prick of light far away from any other suns. "It's quite a good location. Stumbled upon it on accident. Don't worry about anyone else finding her though-not many go in that sector of space. And we can stick some warning buoys up, just for good measure."
"Yes!" NT exulted.
"Perfect!" said Capri, smiling broadly.
Pippi nodded.
Cherie paled, the reality of her fate finally hitting her. "But-but-forgive me!"She wailed.
"No way!" NT shot back savagely.
Bez looked over at Matrix and the pair burst into laughter again.
"I'm sorry-this is too good!"
"What're the odds, huh?"
"She even sounds like him!"
"Yes, what's this about!?" Ameh squealed, her curiosity was definitely getting the better of her.
"Yes, please let us in on it, and perhaps all of these people as well." Pippi suggested through some subdued laughter.
Cherie looked at the duo, mingled confusion and fury on her face. "What is so funny!?" She roared.
Bez and Matrix quieted, though both darted "inside-joke" looks at each other.
"You just remind us of someone, that's all." Bez clapped her hands once. "Onto business. I'd say pack your bags, but none of the stuff here is yours, so...bon voyage!" She cocked her head. "Oh, I almost forgot. Once you're on Aegrus, we'll need to reinstate the old empress!"
"Please spill the beans for us all, before I send this mewling little social vampire on its way." Capri appealed.
Bez smiled broadly. "Oh, fine. I'm not guaranteeing any of you will find this funny or even know who we're referring to, but Matrix and I got a huge kick out of it."
Matrix grinned. "Dang straight."
Bez brightened suddenly. "I just got an idea. Matrix, would you do the honors of projecting clips as I explain?"
Matrix nodded. "It'd be my pleasure."
Bez nodded.
"Excellent. Here we go. Cherie, the odious parasite now blubbering before you, reminds Matrix and me of a rather unfortunate character from a TV show from the 80's. The show we're referring to is called Transformers. As you can see, it's animated. And I'm talkin' the original here, not that cheap, wierdo excuse-"
NT giggled.
"Bez, keep to the point."
Capri nodded, bursting into giggle fits along with Indy and Pippi.
"Yeah, yeah, Matrix. Anyway. Cherie has a striking resemblance to Starscream, the treacherous right-hand man to Megatron, who's basically one of the most evil guys out there. Let me list some similarities: She's a liar. She's a backstabber. She's arrogant as heck. She's a coward. They even sound similar. The list goes on."
"Oh, yeah, it's been a while!" Indy spluttered. "Dang, I'll have to see about renting some videos!"
NT just continued giggling uncontrolably.
"I am not any of those! I'm-"
"And she's in denial. Shut up." Bez's smile turned crooked. "Perhaps some video evidence will help seal the comparison? We can't show you all the clips, but a few memorable ones should do nicely. Just picture Cherie in his place time you see this bot."
"Oh, this is going to be great!" Skye tittered.
Matrix displayed Cherie's robotic counterpart for everyone to see. Bez said various clip titles to Matrix, and the montage began.
Various images projected, from attempted assassinations, to pathetic begging for forgiveness, to blatant lies and shows of arrogance.
All throughout, there were groans, giggles, guffaws, titters, vigorous nods as everyone was clearly getting the comparison.
"OMG!" Indy wailed through some laughs. Pippi, Capri and Misery were in nearly as bad a state.
"For this last clip, I have a special request. Stick Cherie's image in it, but keep the sound the same." Bez said.
This resulted in a howl of laughter from NT.
Matrix smiled and nodded.
The clip progressed for a few seconds. Bez paused it. "Just a note. You're all going to want to saver this next sound byte."
The clip started again.
-You're either lying, or you're stupid!
-I'm stupid, I'm stupiiiiid!
This coupled with Cherie's image in the clip was enough to make the crowd burst into laughter.
When the laughter died down, Pippi took the microphone again, but she had to wait until she could control her own laughter before trying to speak.
She thought she had herself under control, and took a breath to say something, but then Capri jabbed her in the back, saying "This is so unfair!"
Pippi burst out laughing all over again. "Capri, cut that out!" she spluttered.
"Sorry, couldn't resist, oh, and you just raised your voice to me, say you're sorry!" Capri dissolved into laughter again.
"I'll do better than that," Pippi left the mic for a moment, turned, picked up Capri, tossed her in the air, and caught her again.
Capri squealed with laughter.
"Holy crud!" Skye exclaimed. "We'll have to have you all back for more entertainment!" she laughed.
Pippi returned to the mic, and this time she succeeded in saying what she wanted to say. "It's time. We pronounce Skye as your empress once again, and we'll leave you to take care of the formalities."
"NO!" Cherie shouted.
"Put a sock in it, cherie!" Capri said as she approached Cherie, and attempted to stuff something into her face that could've been a sock for all anyone knew. It was fabric of some kind.
"Yoummmmmm!"
"What?" Capri laughed. "Oh, never mind, you're outa here!" With that, she made a slight gesture, staring hard at Cherie for a moment.
And then, Cherie was gone.
"Hurrah!" Pippi exclaimed, handing Capri the mic. "Do you want to tell them and make it official?"
Capri nodded, and announced, "It is with great relief and joy that I tell you that Cherie has left the building!"
The applause and cheering was almost deafening.
Then, Skye thanked everyone involved in bringing Cherie down, and humbly thanked the people for accepting her back again.
Then it was time for the newcomers and anyone who didn't live there, to return home or wherever else they wanted to be.
At last it was over. Cherie was finally in a place where she couldn't do any harm, and the releif everyone felt at that was obvious. Her old victims were returned home, feeling much more at ease.
Meanwhile, Bez had requested that the group meet up at her ship.
"Now, seeing as it's finally over, I say we have a right to celebrate it. And..." She looked around at her friends. Sigma gestured for her to continue. "Well, Sigma and Matrix've been pestering me about it, and I picked up some hints earlier on, and...well, any of you remember Matrix's suggestion to have a party on the moon? I've done some tinkering, and I think I have enough artificial atmospheres...so anyone that wants to come should say so now."
"Yes!" NT said.
Definitely, neat-o!" that was Misery.
"Woo-hoo!" hooted Madonna, jumping up and down.
"Yes!" said Capri. "So, roll call, who's all going?"
All company present nodded.
"I guess it's all of us, the whole lot." Capri grinned.
"Well then. All aboard!" The on-ramp to the Nautilus slid down. "Come on, come on. Oy, Sin! Meet you on the moon!"
Sin nodded and left for his own ship.
Everyone else filed into the ship. The on-ramp slid closed..
"Okay, everyone, the grand tour. We're in the Cargo Bay currently, as is obvious from the copious amount of crates. Basically we keep food, my aerocycle," She gestured to a vehicle that resembled a wave-runner. "-Matrix's and my dueling blades," A pair of large, wicked looking broad swords stood in a corner of the room. "and other such things in here. Thande also prefers sleeping in here, when he ever does sleep."
She walked across the room. "Step on one of these panels, and you'll be taken to the main hall."
"Wow, neat!" said Indy, looking around, wide-eyed.
"Cool!" said Misery.
Bez continued. "Oh, and on either side of the Cargo Bay are the engine chambers. I wouldn't go in them-they reek."
NT giggled.
Bez made a quick tally of everyone. "Thande can just climb up, so I think we can all fit on the two panels."
Thande silently stepped forward and leaped up, catching the edge of the main floor. He pulled himself up, looking down at the others.
"Show off! Come on everyone, up!" The group stepped onto the two elevator panels, whisking up to the main hall.
"Neat!" said Capri, smiling.
The others agreed, and there were grins and soft exclamations in the positive from everyone.
Bez took a few steps forward. "Okay, to your left are my quarters, and to your right is the Med Center. Straight ahead is the Control Room." Bez walked down the hall into the room. "Not sure it was built to accommodate this many, but we'll manage." She and Matrix stepped forward and took their seats in front of the control consol. "I wish we had more seats, but...if all goes well, it won't be a bumpy ride."
""Well that's especially fun then," said Capri, "Some of us can stand, others can sit on the floor like we used to do in the backs of those old station wagons."
"Yeah!" Indy grinned.
"I'm fine with standing, just as long as I can hang onto something." said NT.
So, everyone made themselves comfortable, some standing, some sitting in what seats were available, and some just sitting on the floor, pretending to be in the back of a station wagon.
Bez and Matrix tapped a few panels on the consol. The ship slowly lifted off and shot into the sky. Bez tapped another panel and turned in her seat to face the others. "We have a few minutes before we get there. How 'bout we bounce some party suggestions around?"
"If there's a beach there, I'm gonna take off my shoes and run for miles." said NT.
"I'm going to get a feel of the place. If gravitation is different from what I'm used to, I heard it's lighter," said Misery, "it'll be fun pretending to be trying out for the Olympics or something."
"I'm up for some dancing, tag, hide and seek, heck, whatever!" said Capri, letting her inner kid show, something she rarely allowed.
"Oh hang on, everyone! You'll want to see this." Bez took hold of the manual controls and turned the ship in a wide arc. "How's that for a sight?"
The group was looking at Earth from space. "I tell ya, the first time I saw that-" She stopped abruptly, mixed emotions on her face.
Matrix frowned.
"It's incredible, isn't it?" Sigma intervened.
"Oh," NT moaned, suddenly looking concerned. "my mom's still there with Bonnie, we agreed she'd keep her safe from Cherie, then thought it would be kinder if we spared Bonnie Cherie's downfall. Now she's missing this."
"Don't worry, NT," Pippi approached her and patted her shoulder. "we'll do this again some time, it's probably for the best that Bonnie isn't alone right now."
"But - " NT started.
"Oh, my, it's beautiful!" Misery breathed.
"Yes!" Madonna agreed.
"To think, I know people living on that thing," Heidi grinned.
"This is just awesome!" said Capri.
"Like wow!" said Indy.
"Satelite pictures just don't come close!" Ameh breathed.
Several cameras were brought out and pictures were taken.
Pippi could be heard quietly trying to console NT. "Listen, I'll give her a quick call, let her know what we're doing, and bring back some video footage."
"It won't be the same," NT said.
"But I promise you, we will do this again when she can come." Pippi hugged NT close to reassure her, and took out a cell phone to make a short call to Ariel.
Then a tearful NT talked for a short time, and gave the phone back to Pippi.
"What did she say?" Pippi asked.
"She said she doesn't mind missing this one to keep Bonnie company and we should enjoy ourselves."
"There, you see?" Pippi patted NT firmly on the back. "Now come on and get a look at this wonderful view before we start moving again."
"Pippi, is something wrong? Ameh asked, putting her camera away.
"No, it's fine now. She'll be fine." indicating NT, who was trying to get herself together.
"What's the matter with her?" Ameh whispered.
"Just a bit over-excited and overwhelmed, I think, it's okay." Pippi whispered back.
"Ah, here we go! Moonbase 1." said Matrix.
Bez smiled. "Matrix, you are aware of how unfortunate a comparison that is."
"Yeah, yeah. Let's party!"
"Yes, let's!" Capri chimed in, barely able to keep from giggling.
Bez shook her head, smiling. "Right. Okay, everyone, don't leave without an AAG." Bez handed out the small devices.
"Coming in for a landing...!"
"Ooooh, hang on. I want to do this manually." Bez took the controls, guiding the ship to the lunar surface.
They touched down gently.
"All right, by the looks of it, we're in the Sinus Iridum. Plenty of space to mess around in. No pun intended. Back to the Cargo Bay, and watch your step. The last thing we need is for someone to fall into the Cargo Bay."
"No kidding," said Madonna. "Going up, no problem, uh..."
"Don't worry, Madonna, there are plenty of people to help steady you," Pippi grinned.
Madonna grinned back.
The group left for the Cargo Bay. Thande jumped deftly down into the room, while the others used the elevator panels.
"Let's see, if we need anything we can just come back for it later...ooooh! Matrix, let's spar! Lunar dueling!"
Matrix laughed eagerly, grabbing the two swords. They were nearly as tall as Bez was.
She took the more intricately designed one from Matrix. "Great! Okay, everyone get as close to the on-ramp as you can. AAG's on!"
There was a quiet hum as the generators simultaneously booted up and as a small force field surrounded the group and a few of them made quiet giggles and exclamations as the ramp. It slid down quickly. Then the party proceeded onto the surface of the moon.
Bez looked back at the ship, smiling. The ramp slid closed. "So everyone...how do you like the moon?"
"Cool!" Capri squealed, grinning and jumping up and down.
This caused several of her friends to laugh, they weren't used to seeing this almost childlike side of Capri Monroe.
Misery whooped, jumped and twirled.
Everyone tried similar things, and wooted, laughed, shouted, they were all having a blast!
Bez laughed. "Excellent! Hey, Matrix?"
"Yeah?"
"Have a taste of my blade!" She took a firm hold of her sword. It glowed a ghoulish blue. She yelled out a war cry, lunging forward at Matrix.
He readied himself, his own sword glowing a sinister red.
"Pathetic!" He cried, slashing out at her.
"And the fight is on, to the finish!" Capri announced, grinning.
They locked blades, intently trying to sweep the other's aside. Sigma shook her head.
"You know the first time I saw them sparring they impaled each other?" She sighed. "I love technology, but sometimes..."
"What? Yikes!" said Heidi.
Bez smiled. "You know it's awesome, Sigma. It's the realism that makes it-fun!" She and Matrix spun out of the blade-lock, simultaneously slashing at each others' torsos.
"But - " Pippi looked concerned.
"There's gotta be a trick in there somewhere, I mean, it couldn't be fun if anyone really got hurt," said Capri.
"No one worry, no permanent life threatening damage can be done!" Matrix stated.
Several concerned expressions turned relieved.
Thande watched the pair and shook his head. "Humans are strange creatures."
"Yes, they are." NT replied.
Bez laughed and lunged forward again. "That we are, my reptilian friend. But there is good strange and bad strange, and thank goodness for that!" She parried a slash from Matrix.
"Yes, lots of good strange here," Pippi said with a grin.
"Yeah! Imagine if there were only nutters out there-no one to balance it out." He stabbed at Bez, nearly succeeding.
Ugh!" said Indy.
Sigma shook her head, turning to the others. "They have a point, but..." She sighed. "Let's just have a good time. We're on the moon and we just beat a major bad guy. Time to celebrate!"
So they celebrated long and har. There were more fun competitions, especially running, jumping and other athletics where the effects of the different gravitation could be felt and seen. There was laughter, singing, chatting and food too.
Pippi quietly disappeared at some point during this, and to NT's surprise, her mom appeared. Pippi had used her magic transporter to go back to earth, give Ariel the AAG, and then stayed to talk with Bonnie for a bit while Ariel could join NT on the moon for a short time. Then when Ariel went back to Earth, Pippi returned to the party. So Bonnie had someone there to help her deal with her emotions concerning Cherie, and NT was no longer distressed about her mom missing out.
The party was, literally, out of this world.
*-*-*
A chain letter post was used in part as a Pledge Of Loyalty to be featured in this story.
The entire thing is mangled here.
Comment options: