The satellite echoed the sound of a little bespectacled eight year old. "Laaaarrrryyyyy?" If Tuddrussel wasn't going to apologize, he himself might as well say something to him. Just to make things a wee bit better.

"Apologize." Otto thought. "Yeah right." When he realized the man in question was... Well... Tuddrussel.
Domisphere? No. Kitchen? No. Skating rink? No. Studio 3K? Nope. Prison cells? Definitely not. Control room?

Bingo.

Otto scurried over to Larry who sat perched on a stool, sending in some codes into the main computer. Larry was oblivious to the small boy who had come from behind him,greeting and waving, right up until he noticed him tugging at his arm. Lifting his hands off the keyboard, Larry turned to face the child.
"Oh hello, Otto."

Otto noticed the far off look in Larry's eyes. The far off sound in his speech. Something was amiss. Out of the corner of his eye, Otto caught sight of a box chock-a-block full of spare parts and large briefcase by the side of the door. Otto didn't return the drifting sound of the greeting from the robot.
"Larry? What's that for?" Otto cried, pointing.

Otto hoped the fears swirling in his head weren't true. And he waited uneasily for any response. Larry,very weary indeed, sighed. Otto, still waiting for an answer watched as Larry got off the stool to kneel down in front of him. He felt Larry's hand rest on his left shoulder. For a second, we could tell from the look in Larry's eyes. He had serious doubts on whether to continue what he was set on doing today.

KLANG!

The doors fell to the floor, having taken in a sharp kick from Tuddrussel's humungous boot. Though what was the point? The doors would have slid open anyway...

But Tuddrussel was grinning from ear to ear.

"Ottooooo! Wanna play a little Super-Extreme-Spar-Tag?"
He whipped out a pair of phasers from his belt and shot wildly through the room leaving Larry and Otto to duck for cover.
"Hey, what's Rust-Butt doing here?" Tuddrussel's huge smile turned into a frown the moment he noticed Larry in the room. With a nasty grimace, Tuddrussel pointed both his
phasers in Larry's direction and pulled the trigger again and again, as fast as his fingers let him.

"Aaaaahaaaaaahahaow!" Larry shrieked with sheer terror as he scrambled for cover behind a stool. Miraculously, though the top of the stool had been blown into smithereens,
Larry was virtually unscathed.

Tuddrussel guffawed in amusement.

And all doubt on whether Larry's final decision was the right thing to do had ceased to exist. He yearned to do this now and get it over and done with. Larry left out the frills and
went straight to the point with Tuddrussel. It needed no sugar coating. He went right up to the man and poked at his chest to prove his point.

"I'm leaving, Tuddrussel."
"Well goooooood RIDDANCE," Tuddrussel spat in Larry's face and pushed the scrawny heap of metal out of his view.

Larry turned to face Otto again. He didn't need to be told that Otto was well and truly shocked and that there were a million questions buzzing around in his oversized head.
Larry's voice was calm and steady.

"I've sent a letter of resignation to headquarters to which was promptly accepted," Larry addressed the two others in the room. "I'm going back to my diplomat days. Earth Council has called me back for the use of my diplomatic skills to tame an on-going dispute between the western and eastern Super Nation. The argument doesn't seem to want to be settled… I have packed my things, I will be leaving today. And Tuddrussel, you'd know such events were taking place if you actually bothered to read the papers."
"Hey! I DO read the papers, wise guy! And I don't see nothing about it!"
"OTHER than the sports section."

That surprisingly managed to shut the big guy up.

"You're going back to your old job again?" Otto asked blankly. He hadn't expected things to happen so fast.

Larry spun around to look at the sullen boy who was addressing him.

"In a way. But there aren't such things as ambassadors anymore, Otto. I don't actually hold an official post at the moment, but my work leans very much towards being somewhat of a representative to the Earth," Larry spoke in-a-matter-of-factly.

"C'mon. You ain't that great, weenie boy," Tuddrussel berated, refusing to believe the responsibility Larry had been given to rest on his shoulders. "You're just making that up. Heck, I'd be happy if you were leavin' cause you had to go clean toilets or something!"

Larry held on to his composure and bit his feelings back, deciding rather to respond in a more dignified manner. (Which he often failed at trying when dealing with Tuddrussel)
"Think what you wish to think, Tuddrussel." Larry turned his back away from the man and muttered under his breath. "I'd like to see you clean toilets." The big oaf would just get
thirsty on the job and get his head stuck in one. This, Larry knew.

"Are you leaving forever, Larry?"

Otto had been dying to get that in.

As Otto gazed up at Larry, hoping for a hint of emotion on his face, instead an awfully serious Larry spoke to him.
"As I've mentioned. The conflict is ongoing. It'd be entirely impossible to determine as to how long it will continue. Weeks. Months. Years maybe."
"You don't have any idea?" Otto raised his voice in disbelief.
"No, Otto," came the response. Solemn as ever.

Larry restrained from telling the boy that he had no desires to work with Time Squad any longer. Years and years of living, stuck in a government satellite with only an animal of a
man for company did NOT do wonders. Diplomacy was in his oil. It'd be better if the boy didn't know. It'd be better for himself too, knowing that the boy didn't know.
Larry knew. He knew, he knew, he knew he couldn't let his feelings get in the way of the greater good. For the people of earth, and right now, especially for himself. This was his
moment to finally live and forget the animal that Tuddrussel was ever existed. And Otto new this too. He was well wise beyond his years. So he took it in strides.

Larry gave Otto a little pat on the head. Looking at Otto, Larry wished that he could at least bring the boy back to Earth with him. To see the child grow up cultured, accountable
and well-mannered. He'd have taken it as one of his many responsibilities any day. But the boy had big responsibilities too. Tuddrussel would probably cause the death of
humanity itself trying to fix up history on his own.

"Now don't you worry your little head off, young man." Larry said reassuringly. I know you'll be fine ensuring the past to protect our future without my help. Just make
sure genius here doesn't make a pickle of things," he ended sarcastically. "You'll hear from me."

Ever the diplomat, he turned to Tuddrussel (who surprisingly, had actually payed attention to what Larry was saying) and stuck out his servo of a hand attempting at a civilized
farewell, bidding him one last handshake.

"Get that dirty thing away from me!" Tuddrussel growled slapping Larry's hand away. Tuddrussel was enraged as he continued to edge forward towards Larry, arms stretched out
in front, ready to wring him dry, who responded by cautiously staggering backwards.
"Oh how uncouth! I don't have the slightest as to HOW I could have been such an idiot to have put on hold my one chance back to a fabulous life, back to my GLORY days!" Larry took in a deep breath. "WITHOUT YOU!"

Larry darted to his box and briefcase, hauled them up onto his back in a hurry and ran out the door, through the hallway as fast as his legs could carry him, and finally stopped in
front of the airlock, well aware that Tuddrussel was hot on his heels the whole way, Otto tagging along. Frantically punching in a code to activate the opening mechanism of the
airlock, the huge metal doors slid open and he wasted no time getting in, before a raging Tuddrussel picked him up and flung him to the back of the airlock. Tuddrussel reached for
the big red button beside the doors and brutally smashed his fist into the panel. Through the thick glass of the metal doors steadily closing, he and Otto watched as Larry
scrambled into the automated spacecraft at the far end of the chute.

"Well, this is it," Larry whispered to himself, smile on his face, zero regret in his soul (neatly tucked away in a little metal box in his chest, I presume). He made a final gesture of
goodbye to Otto. With a flick of the switch, he was off, the autopilot guiding him home.

Otto and Tuddrussel continued to watch as the soundless spacecraft hurtled towards Mother Earth.
Otto stared into space. No pun intended."He's... Gone..."

After a long moment's pause, and after the spacecraft had all but disappeared into the deep depths of space... Tuddrussel broke the silence.

"WOOOOOOHOOOOOO! OH YEAH! OH YEAH BABY! I WIN! IT'S GO TIME! WOOOOO!"
So ecstatic was he that he had to run! Liberation! "THIS IS A DREAM COME TRUE, BABY! WOOOO!"

And Otto watched as Tuddrussel ran off down the hallway balling his fists above his head. Not a moment's to soon did Tuddrussel run back beaming at Otto with two cans of spray
cheese in hand.

"SUPER-EXTREME-SPAR-TAG! MINUS THE SISSY ROBOTS!" Tuddrussel shouted as he hurled a can to into Otto's hands.

Well look on the bright side, Otto... This is a plus… Oh! And you don't have to watch them fighting like crazy anymore! Even better!

And they ran off to play (or in other words, wreck the satellite). This time round, zero interference.

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Larry's trip to space was uneventful. Just as he liked it. He finally managed to read his favourite novels in his ultimate solace. Smiling contently;
"Ah. Which shall it be now?"
He fingered through a few novels he had brought with him. Pushing aside the Plasmadiscs of his favourite 1980's soap opera, he pulled out a thick book and opened it to the page
he had previously stopped at. "Ah, Jackie Collins. I return..." Glee in his voice.

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