Let's face it. Nothing is crueler than sticking one of those horribly catchy tunes in a person's head. :) I was gonna use "Surfin' Bird", but that would've been too easy...


"I don't know, Lord Katse. Are you sure this will work? All your other plans have failed miserably as of late."

Berg Katse grinned, tossing hir cape over hir shoulders and patting the black box.

"Trust me. This is guaranteed to stop the Science Ninja Team in their tracks and ruin their day." The Galactor agent's eyes widened and he gasped at the sight of the secret weapon.

"My lord! That's the most vicious thing anyone's ever thought of...it's perfect!"

"Of course." And Katse pressed the button.

*

"Aaaaaaah!" The five members of the Science Ninja Team held their heads in pain, trying and failing to block out the sound blaring in their ears, racking their brains. Helmets did nothing to protect them from this menace.

"Louie Louie...whoa nooooo, I said now we gotta go...yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah..."

"Make it stop, make it stop!" Jinpei wailed. "Big brother, why won't it stop?!"

"Especially after we threw out every radio in the base! How're we supposed to fight the enemy if we can't even concentrate?!" Ryu grumbled. Joe offered no response as he was beating his head repeatedly into the back of his chair. Jun was frantically trying to locate the direction the sound was coming from with no success.

"What was Nambu thinking?" Ken sighed. "Unless there's something he wasn't telling us."

"Ken!" Jun gasped. "I traced the sound waves. It's coming from a Galactor base."

"I knew it!" Joe roared. "Those bastards! This is all their doing, isn't it?!"

"Jun, what direction's the base in?" Ken asked.

"Just east of here. We have to hurry, who knows how much longer we can take this?!"

"Ryu, start moving east," Ken commanded. "We gotta go!"

"Yeah yeah yeah yeah oh God someone shoot me," Jinpei wailed. Jun patted his helmet comfortingly.

"Roger!" Ryu bit his lip, hoping the pain would block out the noise somehow.

*

They caught up with the source of the ear worm-a literal black worm-shaped mecha blasting the infernal racket.

"Joe, if you ever wanted a chance to fire Bird Missiles without me stopping you, this is it," Ken said. "I don't care if Nambu doesn't like it, I want that thing dead."

"All right." Joe grinned, and made a mad dash for the big red button. The mecha-worm was dead in a matter of seconds, and the song stopped. They cheered.

"Let's go home and listen to opera for the rest of the night," Ryu said.