Thank you to WhyTheCagedBirdSings for faving and following.
"Bugs?" Dodgers choked out.
Branden was nearly beyond recognition. His dirty blond hair was longer than it used to be and was slicked backwards, although a few unruly locks of hair fell into his eyes. Speaking of his eyes, his friend's once bright blue eyes now looked red, irritated, and had dark bags under his eyes. Branden's face was practically expressionless, although there was a feint scowl that was barely noticable. And he was dressed in a black and red mechanical space suit.
Brandon saw Dodgers standing in front of the alien princess. His friend gave him the most hate filled glare Dodgers had ever seen. It made Danny sick to his stomach. What had happened to Brandon? There was no way that this was his Brandon. How could it be?
"Move." Brandon ordered in a cold and emotionless voice.
"Brandon?" Dodgers asked, uncertainty still coated his voice. "What are you doing?"
From around Brandon's hand, his gloved moved with mechanical sounds. In the blink of an eye, a tblaster now took the glove's place. Dodgers stared at the weapon. It had to be Martian technology. Dodgers was frozen to his spot.
"Ebidi-ebidi back a way from the ebidi-prin-ebidi-princ-ebidi your highness." The egager cadet demanded as he pointed his blaster at Brandon.
Brandon let out a huff and rolled his eyes. Brandon's arm cannon was directed at Percy. Before Dodgers could even comprehend what was happening, Brandon fired. Percy flew back into the control panel and knocked out cold. With one fluid motion, Brandon held his arm back put at Captain Dodgers and let a blast loose. Dodgers went flying and everything went black for the young captain.
When Dodgers came to, back up had finally arrived, but the princess was no where in sight. Doctor I.Q. was busy patching him up when when Dodgers was able to make sense of everything. Captain Star Johnson was busy questioning Percy, filling out a report and no doubt trying to pin this on Dodgers. Percy's look of relief upon seeing him awake caused Captain Star Johnson to turn in his direction.
"Ah, Captain Dodgers. So glad to see that you've come to. Care to explain how you let the Princess of Galatais Seven get kidnapped right in front of you?" Star Johnson had a look in his face that seemed as though this was exactly what he wanted.
Dodgers decided to ignore Star Johnson and looked over at his Cadet. "How are you feeling Percy?"
Percy smiled waekly and rubbed his head, "Fine Captain. Just a bump from smacking the console."
Dodgers nodded. "Good." He then looked back at Johnson, "Sorry, but a good captain always puts his crew first."
Johnson just gave him a look that said "explain."
"You've seen the footage, haven't you?" Dodgers asked in a bitter tone. "It's probably the first thing you did. We were ambushed in the asteroid field, on a path set by the Protectorate. We were then boarded and attacked by an intruder. Although, everything is a little fuzzy there seeing as i was smacked in the head with a piece of door." Dodgers was doing his best to hide that he remembered Brandon, after all it was probably just a look a like sent to get inside his head; and unfortunately, it worked.
Star Johnson tapped his fingers on his crossed arms. "Care to explain how the intruder 'Brandon' knew your password to your evaporator?"
Dodgers paled and his stomach lurched. No, no way. How could, no, it couldn't be...
"What?" He asked, hoping that he had heard wrong.
"He got in through your evaporator Dodgers. He had to have known your password." Captain Star Johnson repeated.
Danny ran his hands through his hair in disbelief. No, no, no, no. But... how... it... it couldn't be... it just couldn't be.
"Let me guess, your password was 1234?" Johnson sounded smug, like he had won a victory.
Dodgers snapped at him, "No! I'm not that idiotic!"
"Oh, and what is it then, 12345?" Captain Star Johnson prodded.
"W3r3$0h ppy2g3+h3r2009." Dodgers answered, staring at the ground. "Back in the 21st century, it would have taken 5 trilion years to crack, now it would take a billion. It was a secure password."
Johnson raised an eyebrow, "Then how did it get figured out then? How did you allow the mission to get compromised?"
Danny was silent for a moment before confessing, "Because outside of the Federation, only one other person knew my password. And until earlier, I thought that he had died three hundred years ago."
Star glared down at him, arms crossed, "Let me guess, Brandon?"
"Yes." Danny answered, still refusing to make eye contact.
Before any more questions were asked, the communication screen flashed. Dodgers gave Percy a loom, telling him to allow the transmission. He sneered at the person in front of him.
"Greetings again Dodgers." X2 smirked.
"Tell us where the princess is." Dodgers demanded.
X2 mused with a chuckle, "Oh, we do not have her, your friend does. And in case you had any doubts that it was indeed him, go check your evaporator. I will wait. I can't wait to see the look on your face Dodgers."
One look was all it took for Percy to rush down to the evaporator. They didn't have to wait long to see what had been sent. Dodgers' heart stopped when he saw what was in Percy's hand, a small ring box. Dodgers opened it and saw a small flash drive with a simple gold ring around it. Dodgers recognized the ring, but not the flash drive.
"That little piece of obsolete inferior Earth technology and that box were with your friend when we found him." X2 started tapping his fingers together. "But my my, there are some interesting things in that piece of Earth garbage, and one particularly interesting thing on it involves you Captain Dodgers. Why don't we all take a look."