Voyagers Saga:
New Threats
Chapter 2: Repercussions
The gang was waiting outside the Bladestorm's medical bay. "Don't worry," said Techo, "I'm sure Wilson will be fine. Besides, I've known Matt a long time. I don't he's as mad as he looks."
There was a thumping on the door. "TECHO, TELL THOSE LITTLE PESTS TO GET THEIR FEATHERY, SCALY, AND METAL BUTTS IN HERE!" came Matt's yell.
Techo looked a bit worried at that, "Though I have been wrong before. Anyone noticed that his temper's got worse over the last month?"
"Probably because Morph hasn't been here to do anything funny lately," said Reuben, "That guy needs constant comedy relief."
"No, it was before that," muttered Techo as the experiments went in.
Matt was seated at a desk and the only thing really missing from the picture was a thundercloud over his head. "Ok, explain yourselves," he said in a deceptively calm voice.
"Well, I guess it started back when Chip got possessed by this AI named XANA," said Draco, "So me and Morph went over to France and met this bunch of kid that protected the supercomputer this AI lived in so they can keep XANA from taking over the world. We stayed there for a bit after Chip was freed and that was also where we first met and beat Virustocron."
Chip continued the story, "Then we left for a long while and during that time, the kids had managed to defeat XANA for good. We came back when we detected weird temporal fluctuations, which was Mantichrome coming back through time and he tried to use the supercomputer to take over the world."
Matt remained silent. He remembered having a weird sense of deja vu when he'd seen Mantichrome on Galva Prime. "Ok, makes sense, how do you know the young werewolves?" he said.
"I suspect the pod containing that werewolf went through both time and space went its jump engine went off," said Chip, "it apparently fell here and it bit Ulrich and the curse eventually spread to the rest of the gang. We only found out when we checked up on them again."
Draco started again, "But they had a friend named Cross who was working on a cure for them so we thought we could leave them alone. Although we did get a little worried when Mantichrome freed Ghoulwyrm to help him and then there were those other guys..."
Matt banged his fist on the table. "SHUT UP!" he shouted and the experiments did just that. "You deliberately kept important information from me and my crew. Why? You thought I'd give them a free pass to one of the Nullspace Viral control center's compounds? Or a free all expenses paid trip to Kryos? WELL?" he said angrily, his eyes glowing white.
"Well, we thought they had the situation under control," said Contrinus, "They've managed to handle themselves well so far and we knew how the NSC handled infections like lycanthropy. Not to mention we thought they'd might overreact to that supercomputer being there."
"No, not why you didn't tell the NSC, why didn't you tell me? One of your friends and someone who could have helped them?" said Matt icily.
Chip looked decidedly down-hearted as he spoke, "Well, we weren't certain if you'd be able to turn a blind eye to this or not. We really felt that they needed as little interference as possible. And we also feared that you'd be forced to tell your superiors about this."
"...and as a result Wilson's barely alive. If you'd told me, I could have been actually prepared for a possible run in with Ghoulwyrm or Manty and his cronies," said Matt, adding spitefully. "Despite your huge I.Q, did that even cross your mind?"
Draco shivered as his horns picked up more dark energy vibes from Matt. "We weren't sure how you'd react," he said, "We really didn't anticipate Mantichrome being in the area at the time."
"You want to know the golden rule?" said Matt coldly
"Something about silence?" asked Contrinus.
"No, it's that you never keep important secrets, cause then someone dies," said Matt.
"Er, is that an actual rule?" asked Draco, "I don't think I've actually heard that before. Has that rule actually been applied anywhere?"
This was apparently the last straw and Matt lunged forward and picked up Draco by his neck. "Yes, damn you...one word...Sy-Yong. Half my squad killed cause the research was on a 'need to know' basis...and a few of them didn't die straight away," he growled before putting Draco back down and sitting back. "Ok, you want to keep secrets? Keep them at Kauai: you're off my crew and off my ship," he said.
As the three of them turned to leave, Contrinus asked, "What will become of the kids?"
"Nothing. I never saw anything," said Matt, not looking at them.
"Are you really sure about this?" asked Draco.
"You might need us later," said Chip, "Maybe you should consider a temporary suspension?"
"No, you abused my trust and I only have people I trust aboard. Now get out before I have some of my men throw you out the airlock," said Matt, nastily.
"I hope you won't live to regret this," said Chip.
"If you do need us, you know where to find us," said Draco.
"I won't, get lost," said Matt.
--
It was later. Matt was sitting in the canteen when Chloe and Kala came in. "We heard about you firing Draco, Chip, and Contrinus," said Chloe.
"You think you may have been acting kind of harshly?" asked Kala, "You could have just shifted them away from the front lines or something."
"What front line? They're not mercs, but cause of them, Wilson's in the med bay," said Matt.
Chloe looked over at him. "Hey, it's not like we've told them about all our past ventures," she said.
"That's different," said Matt, "You don't expect those things to come back to haunt us." Chloe just raised an eyebrow in a 'are you kidding' way.
Chloe added, "You never did tell me about what happened in the Maelstrom star..." but stopped when she saw Matt's expression. He looked miserable and she wasn't about to add to things.
"What's getting to you, Matt?" asked Kala, "I didn't think you'd miss Morph that much. He's not really dead you know. He's just lost somewhere."
"Yeah, he's probably annoying someone right now," said Matt with a faint grin.
--
Meanwhile, Chip was looking through the ship's computer while Draco was watching. "Shouldn't we be leaving?" said Draco, "Matt made it pretty clear he doesn't want us on his ship anymore."
"I'm want to make sure that Mantichrome won't be able to hack into the ship's computer system," said Chip.
WARDEN's hologram appeared. "Mr. 629, what are you doing? Your ship is fueled and waiting to depart."
"I'm just making sure your virtual security's up to date," said Chip, "I'd hate for Mantichrome to worm his way in here and really cause some damage."
WARDEN looked confused for a second. "Do you wish for a shipwide scan?" he said.
"I might as well," said Chip, "Better safe than sorry."
WARDEN flickered and suddenly his confusion seemed to increase. "How peculiar, scanners in medical deck are offline and someone has logged onto the orbital defense grid via the terminals there."
Draco and Chip looked worried. "Uh, do you think you could identify who is at the terminals?" asked Draco.
"Negative, all other feeds are disabled," said WARDEN. "Attempting video feed...displaying..." he said and a holofeed appeared.
An image of Mantichrome hacking into a machine of some type appeared. "Oh dear," said Chip, "We better tell Matt."
"But didn't he want us out of his sight?" asked Draco.
"He also said we shouldn't keep things that are potentially life-threatening to ourselves. I'd say this is potentially life-threatening."
--
Meanwhile, in the medical bay, Leafstripper and Whipsting were looking through one of the apparently empty bays. "What is this?" said Leafstripper holding up a laser scalpel and jumped as it fired, singing Whipsting.
"Watch it, you idiot!" snapped Whipsting, "I don't know why the boss partnered me with you."
"Because we're the two smallest," said Leafstripper, inwardly thinking that the match-up was also a mistake, considering that Whipsting can't keep quiet.
There was a click-clack noise from the corner. "Oh my god, are you two really this dumb?" said Wilson's voice. The two Monstercons had been so busy exploring they'd missed him completely and he was now holding a rather large blaster rifle.
"I suggest you lie back down," said Whipsting, "The boss mangled you up too much to fight and we've got you outnumbered."
"Oh shut up," said Wilson and blew Whipsting's head off quite cleanly. He turned to look at Leafstripper. "What about you, grasshopper boy?"
Leafstripper lifted up his arms and said, "Don't shoot me. I'm just a little spy bot."
"You know what? I don't like spies," said Wilson and shot Leafstripper too before laying back. "Next time, I'm going to the local hospital," he said.
--
Matt was starting to feel better with his conversation with Kala and Chloe when Draco and Chip barged in. He was about to tell those two to get lost when Chip said, "Mantichrome's messing around with the satellites!"
"What? The defense grid? Is he nuts? The NSC'll chase him to the ends of the multiverse," he said, anger forgotten momentarily.
"I don't know, but he's hacking through like the firewall's made of styrofoam," said Draco.
Matt ran past them, yelling into his comm. "Security, get down to the medical level. EMP rifles recommended, we have visitors."
--
Mantichrome paused for a moment when he heard the alarm go off. "It would appear that our covert operation isn't as undercover anymore," he said. He turned to Deathgrip, who was in his monster mode, "Make sure the guards don't reach me until I'm finished." The first group of marines ran round the corner, holding EMP arc rifles. As soon as they spotted Deathgrip, they began firing bolts of EM lightning at him. Deathgrip was surprisingly agile for a monster his size and was able to avoid the worst of the blasts. He was also capable of returning fire.
When Matt and Chloe, with some more marines turned the corner behind him Deathgrip had already killed or taken out of the fight, half the squad. "Hey, tin can!" yelled Matt. As Deathgrip turned around, Matt aimed a well-aimed blast at his neck. It didn't break it, but it caused him to flip over. Unfortunately for Deathgrip, he, like most arthropods, had difficulty getting back up when he was knocked onto his back.
Chloe strolled up to Deathgrip and said, "Never liked shellfish…" as Matt joined her.
"Now, you stay there. Otherwise, we boil you like...well, like a lobster," he said and the two jumped past him, while the marines all aimed at him at close range, no chance of missing should he even twitch in a threatening way.
Deathgrip glared up at them and said, "Aren't you skipping a head?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Matt. Suddenly the wall behind them was blasted apart and Roughshell came through. Matt looked over his shoulder and said, "Oh, that."
Chloe remembered Roughshell too well and was already slashing at him with her blade as the droid yelled "ROUGHSHELL SMASH!" Roughshell's name wasn't apparently chosen for no reason as the blade bounced back off. Then he started firing the temperature-based attacks from the spots on his shells. Chloe dodged most of the blasts till an ice blast caught her leg. Roughshell headed towards her and Chloe had plenty of guesses what would happen when he arrived. Then she saw a similar eye icon as from the Monstructor creature on his belly.
She quickly absorbed electricity from the ship and aimed it all at the eye. "What are you staring at?" she muttered and fired. When the blast hit him, it apparently shorted him out. His legs gave out from under him and several cracks appeared on his chassis.
The marines, who had been too busy holding down Deathgrip with Matt to offer much except encouragement, cheered. Matt suddenly turned towards Deathgrip with the sort of grin an experiment would wear if they had found out the combination to the safe where the coffee was stored. "I wonder what would happen if we sliced off that..." he said apparently to himself before a buzzing noise from the room the two Monstercons had been guarding was heard. Matt and Chloe ran in to see Mantichrome at one of the ship's consoles. "Hey, hands up!" yelled Matt.
"I'd keep your blasters down if I were you," said Mantichrome, "We're close to the hull of the ship and a blast could cause a breach. And unlike you mammals, I don't need to breathe."
"That's why Chloe will electrocute you into submission. I've heard that overloads are really painful to mechanicals," said Matt, evilly.
"Is she fast enough?" said Mantichrome as a razor sharp field of energy appeared between his limbs, "I could slice a hole before you hit me."
"Most likely, she did run rings round your little minions like they were in slo-mo," said Matt.
"Roughshell has always been the slowest," said Mantichrome, "Now Whipsting would have been hard for her to tag."
"Yeah, wasn't he the one I almost nailed?" said Matt smugly before adding, "If you're so fast, how come Chip's still alive n kicking?"
Mantichrome growled and said, "Speaking of speed, you didn't think I wouldn't have a last line of defense, would you?"
"What does that have to do with speed?" asked Matt.
Suddenly Matt and Chloe felt a sting on their necks that spread a numbing sensation throughout their bodies. They tried to turn around, but they could only move at a fraction of their normal speed. Floating beside them was another robot, this one resembling a green jellyfish whose translucent blue head was covered by a snakelike mask. "Meet my assistant, the Schizophrona," said Mantichrome, "You can call him Phrone for short. And Phrone, thank you for delaying them long enough for me to finish."
Deathgrip could be yelling something about not being left behind followed by a 'shut up' and a buzzing noise followed by 'ow!'
Then Mantichrome pulled a datadisk out of the terminal and said, "Ah, our work here is done. These access codes are going to very useful in the near future."
Matt glared, not bothering to speak but the glare said it plainly, 'You are dead meat.' "And what shall we do with the organics?" said the Schizophrona in a snide voice.
"Leave them, let them fend for themselves," said Mantichrome as he plunged his stinger into the outside wall.
Matt managed to look up to see a cluster of red dots and gulped. The spiderbots, he remembered from his last meeting with them on the maelstrom star all that time ago were vicious little smegheads when upset, and judging from the glares they were aiming at the clueless villains, they were extremely upset. He made a note to ask WARDEN why he'd requisitioned such little metal psycho's for repair drones, if he lived.
However, WARDEN was busy saying, "Warning, hull breach, atmosphere dropping."
"Well, it's been fun, but I've got more vertebrates to exterminate," said Mantichrome, "Come, Phrone."
Phrone was about to move when he stopped. "You hear that?" he asked, looking around.
"Probably nothing of importance," said Mantichrome, "Now help me gather the Monstercons' heads."
Phrone was about to do that when about 40 spiderbots dropped on him from above. "What the...get em off," he said annoyed, which quickly became panic as the spiderbots uncoupled his arms and started hitting him with them.
Mantichrome looked at the tiny robots that were busy disassembling his lieutenant. "Odd designs," he said before blasting a couple of them off. "We don't have time to fool around," he said.
Phrone glared. "You think I'm doing this for fu..." he said and was cut off as a spiderbot uncoupled his current voice unit and shoved it in one of the holes in the hull.
Schizophrona switched to another voice unit and said a more brooding tone, "These little parasites are really getting on my nerves!"
"Oh, for glitch's sake," moaned Mantichrome as he went over to help his assistant remove his infestation.
Matt and Chloe suddenly felt the horrible feeling of Phrone's venom fading away and just in time too. The lack of air was causing a burning sensation in their lungs.
"We've got to seal up those leaks," wheezed Matt.
Mantichrome had managed to grab what was left of Phrone, who had just lost an auxiliary voice unit to the spiderbots who had retreated, sniggering into the vents before throwing the stolen parts at Mantichrome. Matt managed to make it to an emergency locker and pulled out a can of sealant foam. Matt quickly sprayed it onto the holes, sealing them up. "Hull breach repaired," said WARDEN, "Repressurizing."
Matt and Chloe turned angrily on Mantichrome, who was trying to deflect as many thrown parts as he could. "Hey, which part you wanna slice off, sis?" said Matt.
"More delays?" said Mantichrome in an exasperated tone. He tied one of the Schizophrona's disconnected tentacles into a lasso and threw it around the Lynch siblings. "I've had enough games for now," said Mantichrome, "perhaps we can finish this another time."
Matt and Chloe advanced angrily and stopped when three heads floated up to Mantichrome. "Ok, that's not something you expect to see," said Matt.
"That human you beat up blew our bodies up," complained Leafstripper.
"Why'd you send us to a useless medical bay anyways?" demanded Whipsting.
Matt started laughing out loud. "Is this your all-powerful minions?" he said forgetting himself in laughing.
Mantichrome glared back at Matt and told the others, "Find Deathgrip's head, we're leaving. Don't worry about those two. There should be enough venom in their bonds to slow them down."
Leafstripper's head looked up to see the eyes of the spiderbots looking around. A few had turned up in the medical bay and had used him for a football, much to Wilson's amusement. He personally had no wish to repeat the experience. His summoning to Mantichrome had only just arrived in time. They'd been trying to put him down the incinerator chute
"Uh, boss," said Whipsting, "Shouldn't we watch for those little critters?"
"Oh for glitch's sake!" said Mantichrome, loosing his patience. He sent out a viral wave that hit the spiderbots in the vicinity. They dropped down from the ceiling, offline. "There, satisfied?"
"Erm..." started Whipsting as the bots all turned on again and started trying to cut Mantichrome's foot off.
"Gah!" yelled Mantichrome in annoyance, "That's it, we're out of here!" He dove for a computer monitor and vanished in a flash of viral electricity, along with his minions. The spiderbots all looked disappointed before turning and swarming towards the corridor. Matt and Chloe, who were only just freed from their bonds, quickly followed them to try and stop them dismantling the prisoner, Deathgrip.
--
It was 5 minutes later, Chip had managed to talk the spiderbots into waiting while Matt and Chloe asked him a few things. "Ok, you've seen what our...drones like to do to prisoners. You sure you're not talking?" said Matt. Deathgrip's arm had been 'confiscated' before they'd stopped the bots.
"Do your worst," said Deathgrip, "My spark program can't be destroyed that easily. As a matter of fact, if you crack my head open, it'd probably escape into the Internet."
"Ok, but would that work in Nullspace? No internet there. It's a void and there's plenty of stuff that would love to snack on you, specially in the Null Void sector," said Matt absently.
Chloe said. "We never cleaned out under Morph's bed, not even the spiderbots go there according to WARDEN."
"What's that matter to me?" said Deathgrip.
"Well, you saw how the spiderbots shrug off small atomic detonations, and THEY won't go under there. So I'm thinking we send someone expendable, un-helpful," said Chloe.
Matt added, "...like you."
"You'd think stuffing me under some smelly cot is going to get me to talk?" said Deathgrip, "I've heard worse threats from playground bullies."
"Well, we did get some footage from the last drone. WARDEN, show him," said Matt. The footage showed some kind of mold thing, busily eating a spiderbot while ignoring the same lasers that had sliced and diced Phrone with ease. The comm ended when the mold creature finished and leapt at the viewer.
"That's...that's not real. That's just CGI," said Deathgrip. He didn't have a real face, but if he did, it would be covered with sweat.
"Nah, but its not the weirdest thing we've seen," said Matt.
Chloe added, "You should see Matt's dirty washing basket. Well, if you have a death wish."
Matt added, "WARDEN, get him ready, seeing as he doesn't want to talk," emphasizing on the last few words slowly.
"Alright, alright, I'll talk!" shouted Deathgrip, "Just keep that organic compost away from me!"
Matt smirked, "Ok, what was Mantichrome after?"
"The access codes for your pest control satellites," said Deathgrip, "The one that targets particular mutant DNA so it can blast them to ashes."
Matt smirked, "And what good will that do him? Thought he'd be all for EXP viruses running amok."
"He's aiming for viruses alright," said Deathgrip, "but not alien viruses."
Chloe, always being quicker on the uptake went pale. "Those werewolves...and us," she said, horrified.
"Bingo," said Deathgrip, "The boss will probably aim for a couple of the non-local lifeforms on this planet as well. And maybe he'll be able to rig those cannons for the local life too."
Matt glared, "Not likely, too many failsafes. If he messes with them, they target where the command came from."
"We'll see about that," said Deathgrip and he ripped off his head. He then tossed it at a computer terminal. Instead of it smashing against it, it vanished into the monitor.
"We better find out where Mantichrome is before he makes a big mess," said Matt.
There's another chapter. It looks like Draco, Chip, and Contrinus are in hot water with Matt, but that may change. Particularly since Mantichrome apparently has something nasty up his metaphorical sleeve for the entire planet. Like I said, the Lyoko Werewolf part is based on the story of my friend, demongirl99, on deviantART. The Schizophrona is an upgraded version of the Scyphozoa and is on my deviantART page. The next chapter will change viewpoints so you will definitely want to see it when it comes. Please review.