Military Science Chapter 10: Battle of Earth, a jimmy neutron fanfic

Chapter 10:

Battle of Earth

(Subtitles for Mandarin Chinese) "English" 'Thoughts'

SOUND EFFECTS

Disclaimer: I don't own Jimmy Neutron.

A/N: For simplicity's sake, all dialogue in Chinese is gisted at best from an internet dictionary. I was too lazy to ask my grandpa to proofread my pinyin. I do not highly suggest seriously studying any of the words below as Chinese. Words in pasts chapters however are correct. Also, the idea for the translation of the Chinese dialogue in subtitles in parenthases like in the movies is just a trial idea. If you don't like them, tell me.

Jimmy struggled to stay awake as he drank out of what had to be his fifth cup of coffee, grimacing once more at the strong, bitter taste of the black liquid. After his little 'date' with Cindy, Shaojia had pulled him out of his room and into the meeting room where he was faced with 15 high-ranking military personnel, all under 16. And that's where he was now at 7 in the morning drinking out of a cup of stagnant, lukewarm coffee. Fortunately, they had taken a five minute intermission. He asked Shaojia, who was sitting next to him examining some techincal files of the Yolkian battle armor, "Hey, when is this meeting over?"

Shaojia answered without looking away from the files, "Right after this break. We've already gone over our enemy's weaknesses in armor and weaponry, their ship's weaknesses, and anything else I think we'd need to win a war, so unless you have something to add, I think we're good for now."

Jimmy nodded as he drank the last of his lukewarm coffee. He yawned a bit. "Well, what about our plan of attack on the Yolkian capitol?"

Shaojia closed the file and took a sip of his own coffee. "We can't think of that now since we have no idea what their planet's surface even looks like." He grimaced as he took another sip of the coffee. "I don't know what this is, coffee or cow piss," he muttered.

As he got up from his seat, Admiral Kang, a tiger demon from the Southern Chang Empire Jimmy concluded from conversation, approached Shaojia. He saluted and said urgently," Sir, I believe you may want to take a look at this." Shaojia nodded and motioned for Jimmy to follow. Admiral Kang was leading them to the meeting room's giant monitor. On the way, he was talking to someone using the implant in his throat like Shaojia had done a few days ago. "Ensign, are your sure?" he muttered as they reached the monitor. He punched in a few commands and waited for the system to load.

Through the cochlear implant in Kang's ear, which Jimmy assumed was also a part of the standard Enforcer implant kit, he and Shaojia both heard a muffled and barely audible reply. "Affirmative, Admiral Kang, sir. Sensors are picking up a fleet of 20, I repeat, 2-0, twenty, Unidentified Space Vessels inbound towards our system at an amazing rate of speed, estimated at 500,000 kilometers per second! ETA 20 minutes! Orders?"

Shaojia, Jimmy, and the other officers all crowded around the monitor. Next to him, a general Jimmy heard Shaojia refer to as 'General Tsung' growled at Kang, "Kang, what is the meaning of this!"

Kang, curiously, flinched and turned around to face Tsung. "My men have picked up several USVs heading our way. I'm trying to get satelite feed on what they're seeing."

Shaojia shook his head and turned off the monitor. "Negative, Admiral, you'll be seeing the feed on your own ship." He then turned his attention to the other officers. "Gentlemen, this meeting is over, but we now have a problem on our hands. I have every reason to believe that the USVs are all Yolkian craft. Everyone get back to your ships and initiate Protocol 24." They all nodded solemnly and filed out the doors.

Jimmy turned to Shaojia and asked, "What's 'Protocol 24?'"

"It's a command that means that we are coming under attack," Shaojia replied as he grabbed the PA system for the ship. "All personnel, initiate Enforcer Protocol 24. Rear Admiral Huang, get on to FleetComm and spread the word. I repeat, initiate Protocol 24, we are about to be under attack. All flight wings scramble, I repeat, all flights scramble; Lizhou's 29th, prepare for immediate assault. Privates Dean and Cassidy, meet them in the Lower Hanger Bay, Floor 13 and bring some friends."

Cindy was changing in the bathroom into her military uniform when she heard the message that sounded over the PA system. Now, instead of a voice on the PA system, an annoying alarm sounded every second. She quickly buttoned her shirt and was about to walk out of the room when Jimmy burst into the room. "Neutron. what's going on here?!" she yelled as she saw their friends step out of their room looking for the same answer.

Jimmy shook his head as he turned around to face all of his friends. "Cindy, Shaojia wants you and Sheen to go to the Lower Hangar and grab a weapon." They both nodded, sensing that there was no time to argue, and went to the lift. "Libby, he wants you to go to the bridge and help Rear Admiral Huang." She nodded and left as well. "Carl, Ibsol, he wants the two of you to go to the Communication Room and help there too." The two saluted and headed for the lift as well.

Jimmy turned around towards Shaojia's room where he saw Shaojia and Meiling walking out of the room. Shaojia said to Meiling, "A-Meiling-mei, remember, stay out of the docking bays. Don't even try to tag along on this mission; it's way too dangerous."

Meiling sadly nodded as she embraced Shaojia. "Please be careful, Shaojia-ge."

Shaojia hugged her back slightly before pulling her away. "I will; just be safe and don't get into any trouble." Meiling nodded and ran into the Meeting Room.

Jimmy walked towards Shaojia and asked, "Alright, so what am I supposed to do?"

"Go join Cindy and Sheen in the Lower Hangar Bay. General Tian should be there to brief all of you."

"Wait, aren't you coming, too?"

Shaojia smirked. "I am; just need to grab my helmet."

Cindy grabbed a staff and an M14 carbine from the weapons rack in the Lower Hangar as 'Protocol 24' sirens rang throughout the ship and the roar of fighter engines filled the bay as squadron after squadron left the bay and soldiers ran back and forth. She and Sheen, who had chosen an M4 automatic rifle, ran to where about 40 W-12 soldiers had gathered near four of the Infiltrator-class landing shuttles she had seen in the Enforcer introduction videos two days ago. The shuttles were basically Deity-class starfighters with an elongated fuselage that provided room for soldiers boarding the shuttle. On both sides of the 'passenger bay' were twin machine gun turrets. Then she saw Nick and Butch along with about 10 other kids she knew from school, all wearing their black Recruit uniforms with M4 rifles in their hands as well. She also saw a young man with a similar army insignia as Shaojia on his shoulders examining each of the soldiers from N-12.

She and Sheen walked up to the general. "Hey, what's going on here, uh, sir?" she asked, adding the honorific seeing as she was a lower ranking officer.

The general replied, "Well, if you are Colonel Cindy Vortex and this fellow next to you is Major Sheen Estavez, then you, him, General Neutron, and the others from your universe will all be going with the 29th Lizhou as part of a boardng party that will take over a Yolkian vessel from the inside out for later analysis by Labs 52, 74, and 6 respectively. It is standard W-12 procedure."

Cindy and Sheen then saw Jimmy and Shaojia both approach the group. Jimmy left towards the weapons rack to find himself a weapon while Shaojia continued ahead, his two swords by his side and an M14 carbine slung over one shoulder on its sash while his helmet was held under one of his arms while two M9 pistols could be seen strapped to his ankles. Shaojia approached the group and addressed the general quietly. The two then nodded, shook hands, and the general left to, presumably, try and get everything under control.

Shaojia looked at all of the soldiers before jerking his thumb towards the four landing shuttles and barked, "You've all run this drill before, get moving! Come on, onto the shuttles! Cram if you have to!" At his order, the 32 of the 40 soldiers scrambled onto two of the craft, with 16 soldiers divided evenly on each craft Cindy noticed, while the remaining eight piled onto the third. All that was left was Sheen, Nick, Butch, her, Jimmy, who had returned with an M14 carbine slung on it's sash over his shoulder much like Shaojia had his and his Slice 'n' Dice 3000 in his hand, and the 10 other N-12 'soldiers.' Shaojia addressed all of them. "The reason I've asked you all to come here is because I have noticed how well you have all done in the sims. I think you're all ready for battle." He stepped to the side as to allow them to see the ships filled with soldiers. "But that decision is not entirely up to me."

Jimmy stepped up and stood next to Shaojia. "Guys, this is our first battle. I think it is too early for a real war battle but a close quarters skirmish like on a ship is good for us to build up our strength. I mean, when the other soldiers in our army hear aout it, morale will sky-rocket and we can hopefull take the fight to these Yolk-heads. But like Shaojia said, the choice is yours." He made his way onto one of the boarding craft followed by Shaojia. The others followed onto the shuttle as all three shuttles' engines began to warm-up.

Eustace Strych stood at the bridge of the main Yolkian battle ship as his newly bred battle fleet of 20 Yolkian ships with crews entirely made of of Yolktars sailed through what the Yolkians called Mana Yoki Taka Toliwa, which in English translates to something similar to Turbo-Fast Space travel. Next to him stood his German butler, Hans.

Then, a Yolktar next to him gargled, "Sir, we will be approaching Earth in 2 Earth minutes."

Eustace nodded in acknowledgement. "Very well, proceed as planned.."

The Yolktar spoke up again. "However, sir, there is one subject of concern. Our sensors are detecting multiple large bodies the size of space vessles."

Eustace furrowed his eyebrows. "Acknowledged, Admiral. If there are enemy ships, I want you to do whever it is you Egg-people do when you encounter an enemy." He snorted and turned abruptly. "If there is something very important, inform me immediately. I will be in my quarters. Come, Hans." He then proceeded to march down the staricase leading down to what had previously been the equivalent of a war room though Eustace had turned it into his own private quarters.

Hans the butler snapped to attention and saluted. "Yes, mein führer!" he shouted before following Eustace like a lap dog followed by two Russian mercenaries Eustace had hired prior to leaving Earth.

The Yolktar Eustace had just addressed gargled in anger as he turnedback towards the viewport. "Infuriating human."

Jimmy and the others sat in the crew compartment of the landing shuttle as Shaojia gave orders to the pilot. Suddenly, the entire ship started to rumble as the engines began to warm-up. "Pilot, get on the horn to the bridge and tell them I want them to patch video feed of our situation to my helmet," he heard Shaojia order as he felt the ship begin to move.

Shaojia came into the crew compartment and placed his helmet onto the floor. He pressed a small button on the 'chin' of the helmet and the T-shaped visor began to glow like a movie projector. On the projection on the wall was a blue, grid-like read-out of all of the ship's around Earth. From what he can tell, Jimmy concluded that all of the blue, wedge-shaped ships were the ships of the W-12 armada while the thousands of smaller, fighter jet-shaped objects circling around the armada were Deity-class starfighters. Then, he saw, to the 'right' of the armada, what appears to be a black hole of white light that in turn glowed red as large, chicken-like ships, also marked in red, poured out of it, 20 ships in all, all lined up in a straight line facing the W-12 armada. The 'white hole' disapperead once the last ship exited it. Jimmy instantly recognized the ships as Yolkian battle cruisers. There was a poisonous feel to the air as both sides waited for the other to strike.

Everyone stared at the video feed being projected onto the wall. Sheen was the one to speak up. "What are we waiting for?"

Shaojia looked at Sheen and said, "Sheen, have there been any space battles in that 'Ultralord' show you talk about?"

"A whole bunch!" Sheen answered excitedly. "In fact, just last week, there-"

Shaojia held up a hand to silence him from going on another meaningless rant. "It's a yes or no, question, soldier."

Sheen gulped his speech down and muttered, "Yes, sir."

Shaojia then directed his hand over where his armada floated and then over towards where the Yolkian fleet floated. "Then what's wrong with this picture here?"

Everyone else in the room looked more closely at the read-out. Cindy was the first to notice it. "They haven't sent out any fighters..."

Shaojia sighed then nodded as he yelled at the pilot again. "Pilot, get me the bridge again! Tell them to get one flight to do a fly-by on one of their ships; I want them to unload Hell on it! See if that can get a reaction out of our unwelcome guests."

The pilot nodded from his place in the cockpit. "Yes, sir!" A moment later, Jimmy could see from his position near the cockpit that 4 starfighters were breaking off from the ship to engage something a ways away from his view.

Back on the display, he saw then entire scene. The 4 starfighters flew at amazing speeds towards the Yolkian battle group. At about 500 kilometers by Jimmy's estimate, the Yolkian battle fleet began to manuever away from the fighters and near the white 'black hole' that had yet to dissipate. "Are they... retreating?" Jimmy asked nobody in particular.

"It... looks like it," Shaojia muttered in response. "No, they can't be. This is too easy." They all continued to watch as the fighters came within range of the Yolkian fleet, at 700 meters and closing by Jimmy's estimate. Each fighter then let out two streaming trails of white light each, meaning 8 beams in all. The light beams turned out to be Hiroshima missiles. All of the missiles hit their target at the chicken head-shaped bridge at the top of the gigantic Yolkian warship. The dome exploded with a shockwave that everyone on the ship could feel.

Then, the Yolkian battle cruiser began to implode, flumes of fire bursting from it's bowels. However, Jimmy noticed that along with the flames were several small red dots on the display. He also noticed hundreds of them exiting out of the remaining 19 warships. He pointed at them and said, "Look, what are those?"

Shaojia exhaled. "I... I don't know." He reached down to press another button on the helmet's chin. A reticule appeared on the grid. With the press of a few more buttons, the reticule had moved onto a group of the red dots and zoomed in on them. What the new view uncovered shocked them all. Hundreds, maybe thousands of Yolktars floated in space using their boosters like jetpacks and charging towards the battle group as the Yolkian fleet began to move closer towards the W-12 armada. Shaojia smirked as he turned to the pilot again. "Pilot, one more transmission; to all fighters, hunting season has officially opened."

Jimmy and the others in the crew compartment waited patiently as their shuttle and the other two shuttles flew towards their destination, a Yolkian battle cruiser farthest away from the destroyed cruiser. Luckily, Shaojia and the pilot had managed to tell the entire armada not to fire on the ship that they were heading for. The crew, however, was open season. He looked over at Sheen and Butch who were manning the side machine gun turrets jutting out of the sides of the crew compartment. The sounds of Yolktars exploding riddled the air which is ironic and more than a little odd since sound can't be carried in space.

From the cockpit, they all heard the pilot yell, "Alright, we'll be landing in the Yolkian landing bay in two minutes so get ready to meet some heavy resistance if that bay is still pouring out Egg Shells!" Jimmy walked up to the cockpit as did Shaojia and Cindy and looked out the cockpit window. Aside from the several Yolktars exploding from the laser turrets at the shuttle's wings and nose, they were able to see the Yolkian battle cruiser, very large in their very close proximity. In what was presumably the landing bay, they saw several Yolktars attempting to exit the vessel as a squadron of W-12 starfighters swept past and mowed them down.

To the side, Jimmy saw the other three shuttles, all three of them opening fire on the Yolktars in the hangar. At that moment, they had entered the Yolkian cruiser's hangar, a large room that glowed iridescent greenish-white and was filled with egg-shaped vessels, presumably Yolkian dropships. As the Yolktars scrambled for cover from all four shuttles' fire, they all touched down in a square-shaped perimeter with their rears facing each other as to give some cover to the passengers that were getting off. The moment the shuttle touched down, Shaojia had run up to the boarding ramp controls and punched the keys to lower it. "If it's ugly and it floats, kill it!"

When the boarding ramp fully lowered, Shaojia ran down it to join his soldiers, all of whom were engaged in combat with the Yolktars. From the boarding ramp, even the pilot joined in on the action, firing randomly into the Yolktars with a pistol. Jimmy grinned as he waved his hand forward. "CHARGE!" The kids behind him hooted and hollered as they charged down the boarding ramp like madmen and entered the battle. Jimmy popped up his rifle to his shoulder and squeezed off a wild round into the crowd of surrounding Yolktars that waited for the wave before them to be mowed down by gunfire. It must have hit something vital somewhere because the resulting explosion started a chain reaction that destroyed five adjacent Yolktars.

Nearby, he heard someone yell in a gruff voice, "Men, fire at their armor! They're like floating grenades!" He then noticed several of the soldiers around him follow the other soldier's advice and fired at the armor of the Yolktars instead of at the head-domes. Explosions went off everywhere as single bullets destroyed multipleYolktars.

Not paying much attention to his surroundings as he fired blindly into the sea of enemies, he didn't notice the Yolktar sneaking up behind him as he turned away from one small portion of attackers to assault another portion. Luckily, Nick did as he charged and shoulder charged the Yolktar into the crowd where it exploded on impact with three more Yolktars which in turn killed at least fifteen more. Nick turned around in shock as Nick grinned. "Hey, soldiers need to stick together, right, sir?"

Jimmy nodded as he shot another Yolktar in the eye. It growled in agony as it swung its staff wildly, hitting its own comrades. Eventually, it broke off from the group and exploded into a wall. Jimmy was about to fire of another shot before he noticed that he was standing about ankle-deep in a pile of Yolktarian goop and Yolkian battle armor, or rather, what was left of the armor. He also noticed that there was nothing left to shoot. He looked around as he saw Shaojia address a soldier with a luitenant's insignia on his shoulder. The two shared a few words before nodding and going around to check the perimeter.

Cindy walked up to him followed by Sheen. "Hey, General Neutron, Sheen and I just did a count. Everyone made it through the battle."

Jimmy smiled slightly as he ejected the empty clip in his rifle like a smooth Texas Ranger from the movies and reached for one of the clips he grabbed before dropping the empty clip. Because of the adrenaline rush of the firefight, Jimmy had failed to notice that he had used up all of his ammo. He checked around his person a little more throughly before shouldering his rifle dejectedly. Jimmy then answered Cindy's statement. "That's great to hear. Say, Cindy, do you have an extra ammunition cartridge I can have?"

Cindy checked her person but found none. Apperently, she had done the same as him. "Uh-oh, I think I'm out..."

Sheen checked for ammo too. "Same here, General Jimmy."

All around them, other soldiers had taken the initiative and started to check for any extra ammunition they might possess. The answer was the same; they either had none or only three or less clips. However, it didn't seem to faze any of the W-12 soldiers at all as they then strapped bayonets to their rifles upon finding out their low supply of ammunition while a few others drew M9 pistols from the holsters on their sides. Jimmy then had an idea and turned to his soldiers. "Hey guys! Grab some of those Yolkian electrostaffs. We'll need to use them when we run out of ammo. And don't throw away your rifles; you can use those as clubs."

Shaojia walked up to Jimmy as he passed a few N-12 soldiers heading towards a pile of dead Yolktars. "Nice work, General Neutron," he said through his helmet's external communicator. "You've come a long way for just a few days of training." Jimmy nodded his gratitude as he moved aside a little bit to allow a few soldiers to pass on their way towards another stash of Yolkian electrostaffs underneath shattered Yolkian armor. "But anyways, I hope there are no casualties?"

Jimmy shook his head proudly. "Nope! All of my soldiers made it through; what about you?"

Shaojia nodded. He motioned towards a pair of relatively large doors that seemed to be the only way in or out of the hangar. "I think that's our only way into the main part of the ship."

Jimmy shook his head as he activated a command on his wrist watch. "I downloaded the schematics of the ship's layout onto my watch," he explained as the watch beamed up a holo-projection of what seemed to be the layout of the 10-level cruiser. He gestured at a lift at what appeared to be near the middle of the room. "According to the readings, this lift should take us directly to the bridge, or at least the level the bridge is on."

Shaojia nodded as he pointed back at the large, double-doors. "And what do those lead to?"

"Those lead to the armories of the ship like the ones we raided on Earth," Jimmy replied. "It'll probably be a trap."

Shaojia nodded as he patted Jimmy on the back. "Good work, there, General." He then walked to where he could get the attention of all of the soldiers. "Alright, people, listen up! General Neutron and I have gone over the schematics of this ship, and it reveals that a lift in this hangar bay will lead directly to the bridge. However, we will need some soldiers to stay behind and help protect the ships in case of an ambush. Any volunteers?" No one raised their hands. "Alright then, you, you, you, you, and you, stay behind and watch the shuttles, they're our only way out of this dump," he said as he picked random soldiers from his and Jimmy's parties. The soldiers whined and groaned but complied with their orders.

Jimmy then took the lead and gestured at the lift in the center of the room. "Alright, everyone, move out onto that lift!"

Eustace marched angrily up the staricase leading up to the bridge of the Yolkian followed closely by Hans and his two ex-KGB bodyguards, Nikolay Moskvin and Vladamir Pastukhov, two horrifiyingly muscular individuals who were almost always seen with their favored AK-101s. Eustace reached the final step and stepped onto the bridge of the ship once more. He saw several Yolktarian naval personnel running about trying to keep the ship running as what appeared to be an American aircraft zoomed past the viewport followed by three more of the same craft.

Eustace drew the French court sword he had brought along with him, an heirloom from his late-father whom he had murdered for treachery against him. He took the sword and gracefully impaled one of the Yoltars that was unlucky enough to be close enough to him. As the alien's armor short-circuited and electrocuted its former owner, Eustace recieved the entire attention of the room. "Unless you all would like to end up like this poor bloke, here, I highly suggest that someone tell me what is going on!"

The Yolkian Admiral from before confronted Eustace. "The Devil, your nemesis, has apparently gathered a massive and highly advanced armada. They possess strange vehicles that soar through space and it only took four of them to destroy one of our ships and the shockwave of the weapons they used to destroy it disabled five of the ships near it, and it even damaged the engines to this ship We are now dead in space. I highly suggest retreating to other crafts and then retreating back to Yolkus."

Eustace stomped his feet like a spoiled brat. "No! I will not be defeated by Neutron again! Fight to the last man! He must be eliminated!"

The Yolktar made a sound equivalent to a snort. "It may persuade you otherwise that we suspect the Devil and several highly trained enemy soldiers are aboard this vessel and are apparently headed towards our position."

Eustace paled slightly but regained his composure. "Very well; you all will remain at your posts and keep this ship operational until my quarry and I are safely off of this rust-pile and onto another ship. Then you can leave. Tell the rest of the fleet to expect my arrival." He sheathed his blade and ran out the room followed by his quarry.

The Yolktar snorted once more as he turned back to the viewport. He knew that Eustace and his quarry would have to cross paths with the enemy eventually if they were heading towards the escaped pods which were three levels below, and he doubted that they would survive the encounter. He shouted at a lower officer, "Naval Officer Yoogokal, notify the rest of the fleet. It is time to flee."

Jimmy slung his rifle the moment the lift came to a halt and drew his energy sword. He quickly analyzed the situation; there were four hallways leading away from the lift area. At the end of each hallway was a staircase that presumably lead up to the bridge of the ship. As the W-12 soldiers moved off of the lift and assumed positions around the entrances to each of the four hallways, Jimmy approached Shaojia. He asked him, "So what's the plan, split up?"

Shaojia looked at each of the four hallways and drew his jian (A/N: From now on, I'll be addressing it by its proper name, jian. I don't know why I haven't done so before. Also, broadsword equals dao). "Yeah, but I want some of your soldiers to stay behind with some of mine. We'll just use those guys as back-up if we-"

He was cut off by one of his soldiers shouting, "Hey, you there, halt!" Everyone else in the room turned towards the source of the noise. In the corridor the soldier that had shouted was guarding were two very muscular men, Caucasian both, wearing army slacks and bandoliers of ammunition across their chests. Behind them were two individuals Jimmy instantly recognised, Eustace Strych, one of his arch-nemesises and his butler, Hans. The two men up front opened fire with their automatic rifles. Everyone took cover.

Next to him, he heard Shaojia shout to his men, "Everyone not in the line of fire, get down the other halls and prepare to flank!" Jimmy turned around to see Shaojia running down one of the hallways followed by some of the other soldiers while others went down different halls. Jimmy followed him, along with Cindy, and his own soldiers. When the group reached the end of the hallway, Jimmy noticed another staircase on the level above which had to lead to the bridge. As he was about to continue up the stairs, he heard gunshots ring out along with the sounds of explosions. When he reached the top, he saw that Yolktars were coming down from the level above him which had to be bridge since the level he was on now appeared to be an odd mix of a war room and a bedroom.

He then spotted Eustace peering over from his position by the stairs shooting wildly at Jimmy's group with a World War II-era German Walther P38. He ducked just in time as a bullet flew over his head. From his cover, he saw Shaojia's soldiers charge out of the stairwell and up the stairs ignoring Eustace and his wild shots completely in hopes of capturing a better firing position.

Just as he was about to join them, a Yolktar that had already made its way down one of the stairs cases charged him and struck him with the butt of its electrostaff, the front end probably having been shot off by someone from the looks of it. Jimmy yelped in pain as the staff struck him in his chest, sending him backwards into Cindy and a few other soldiers behind him and his energy sword into a nearby wall where it began to crackle electricity before turning off. As the Yolktar made its way towards Jimmy, Shaojia, who was halfway up the stairs to the bridge when Jimmy was ambushed, impaled the Yolktar on his jian causing the alien's armor to short-circuit and fry the Yolktar.

After tossing the dead Yolktar aside, Shaojia pulled Jimmy to his feet. "Watch it, there; you're lucky that you didn't get hit with the business end of that staff." He gestured where he had seen the Yolktar strike him.

Jimmy nodded as he walked back up to his former position. He peaked over his improvised cover to see that Eustace was looking down, most likely to load his pistol. He ducked again as Eustace finished reloading and fired a round at him. Next to him, Shaojia retaliated with a shot from his own sidearm, an M9. It barely missed Eustace who turned to the side slightly. Eustace fired back at Shaojia who jumped from his cover, dropped his M9 next to Jimmy, and drew another one. Now, Shaojia was taking cover behind a large, chrome, alien-looking table.

Jimmy took Shaojia's message grabbed the M9 off of the floor and fired at Eustace who ducked. While the three boys were firing at each other, Cindy took the initiative and led the remaining soldiers in her hall up the stairs. Now it was just Eustace, Jimmy, and Shaojia in the war room with Eustace's quarry still firing at Shaojia's men on the floor below.

Then came an event that one would only see in a movie. At the same time, all three combatants fired and there was no discharge, no fire; their guns were dry. Eustace was the first to overcome the surprise and charged Jimmy with a European fencing sword. Jimmy tried to block with his own energy sword only to remember that it was knocked out of his hand when the Yolktar attacked him and it was too far to try and dive for.

Jimmy closed his eyes as Eustace went in for the kill.

Shaojia swung his jian in an uppercut motion as he blocked what would have been a fatal thrust. Eustace glared at Shaojia and snarled as the two entered a swordlock, "Who the bloody 'ell are you?"

Shaojia looked at Eustace in confusion, Eustace's accent throwing him off. "What?"

"I said, you arse, who the bloody hell, are you? This isn't your battle!" Eustace repeated. He then shook his head in dismay. "Look, I don't know who you are and I don't care. But how about this deal; you leave along with your party of hooligans, and I forward $5 million to a new Swiss bank account I will open for you. Sounds good, yes?"

Shaojia jerked to the side as he tried to force Eustace off balance. He succeeded and pointed his sword at Eustace while he stood in a calm stance and Eustace assumed a fencing stance. "Look, I can't understand what in the hells you're saying, but if I'm not mistaken, you're that rich prick, Strych. Well, Mr. Strych, I am hereby putting you under Enforcer arrest. If you refuse to comply peacefully, I have the right to kill you."

While the two armed opponents faced off, Jimmy had taken the oppurtunity to rush for his energy sword. Upon reaching it, though, he was astonished to find out that it had short-circuited from being flung into the wall. He muttered angrily as he threw the sword away. Even without his tools he could see that it was broken beyond repair since it's circuitry had been completely fried. He settled on grabbing a dropped electrostaff. As he rose to help Shaojia with Eustace, both of which had started fencing with experienced parries and jukes, he heard a gun being cocked and felt the cold, steel barrel press into the base of his neck.

"Gets up!" said a voice with a heavy German accent. Jimmy hesitated slightly but the voice, who he guessed was Hans, Eustace's German butler, yelled at him again. "I said up!" From his position, he could see Shaojia busy fighting Eustace which meant that he wouldn't being getting any help from there anytime soon. Jimmy calculated the odds in his head. If he got up, Hans will probably kill him. If he doesn't get up, Hans will definitely kill him. That left Plan C.

In one quick move, Jimmy jumped sideways and brought his captured staff around to try and strike Hans while the German servant fired off a round that barely passed Jimmy's head. Jimmy's blow made hard contact, but his poor angle took some of the brunt off of the strike, but the electrical energy coursing around the tip of the staff more than compensated for the loss of power. Hans doubled-over from pain as Jimmy continued to hold the staff at the exact place he hit and got into a better position so that he can apply more pressure to the injured area.

Meanwhile, Shaojia was blocking Eustace's sloppily angry yet precise strikes. He had seen Jimmy's current predicament and was moving over to give some support to his comrade. After getting into close enough proximity where he could disengage Eustace and kick the butler by just jumping back, he jumped up, used his front leg to kick out and away at Eustace's sword hand, causing the Englishman to drop the blade. His momentum giving him a slight turn, Shaojia leaned forward to grab the sword while keeping his kicking foot in motion where it connected at the heel with the butler's temple.

Jimmy jumped back slightly when Shaojia knocked out the poor butler with his kick and watched as the young warrior sheathed his sword. 'What is he doing?' Jimmy thought as Shaojia touched a hand to the side of his helmet as if talking to someone.

Eustace was wondering the same thing as he looked over at his sword which had been kicked near one of the stair cases. "What, are you giving up already, warrior?"

Shaojia scoffed from inside his helmet, making it sound more like a brief growl. "You've lost. Your butler is unconscious, your bodyguards are probably dead by now, and you're outnumbered. Surrender and you will live to see trial and possibly avoid an eternity in Hell."

Jimmy realized that everything Shaojia had said was true; there was no way two bodyguards could withstand the might of roughly ten W-12 soldiers bearing who knows how many extra weapons on their persons, Hans was on the ground unmoving, and by now, Cindy and the rest of the soldiers in her group had to have captured the bridge. He stepped up to Eustace after picking up the pistol Hans had dropped, a Walther P38, and pointed it at Eustace cooly. "He's right, Eustace; it's over! You should just surrender, and we can get you into a nice and cozy mental facility, you big sack of crazy!"

Eustace roared in anger as he retorted. "Now listen, here, Neutron! There is no way that you can defeat me again! I have had it up to here with you, you nuisance!" Before Eustace could do anything else, the ship shook, and the lights went out.

Cindy was watching the space battle through the ship's viewport along with the other soldiers with her after they had secured the bridg after the 10 minute battle that took place that mainly involved hand-to-hand combat. It had seemed that the enemy ships were retreating back into a worm hole similar to the one they had created to enter the system. Just as the last ship, probably the one that was originally the third closest to the one they were on, was about to enter the worm hole, a squadron of W-12 fighters swept in and fired their missiles at the ship's bridge, destroying it completely. The shockwave created by the explosion knocked her as well as everyone else on the bridge to the ground. The lights cut out.

Cindy rubbed her arm which she had landed on when she was flung to the floor. Aside from the small amount of sunlight that entered through the viewport of the ship, it was pitch black. From her left, she heard Sheen ask, "Uh, anyone got a flashlight?"

Then, a strange voice, aquatic in sound, as if it were talking with fish gills, said in an even stranger language, "Yec'neg rem me lika'toa tiva ka'led'o noy'wata." Then, as if by magic, the lights came back on.

Cindy looked over at all of her friends and the W-12 soldiers, who were all looking around in confusion. As she turned back to the viewport to see that the worm hole continued to remain open, perhaps because the ship they were on was the one generating it, she heard someone say, "That was... weird..."

Jimmy brought his gun around to scan the room as the likes came back on. Somehow, both Eustace and Shaojia had disappeared. Then, he heard a voice that sounded like Eustace screaming in pain.

He ran to where the voice came from, one of the staircases. He got there in time to see Shaojia throw his rope dart at Eustace who was running away with his sword back in his hands. Eustace, who had apperently had the misfortune of being struck in the shoulder by the dart already, used his sword to bat the tip of the dart away from him to avoid another injury as he continued to run. Shaojia growled in frustration as he ran after the wounded enemy. Jimmy followed, firing with his captured Walther P38 around Shaojia and at Eustace, but all of the shots missed due to the running that threw off Jimmy's aim. He quickly tucked his captured firearm into his belt and kept running the best he could.

From what Jimmy could surmise, Eustace was headed right to the elevator where at least ten soldiers were. He was heading towards a trap. Up ahead, he could see Shaojia gaining in on Eustace and that the sound of their running caused a couple of the W-12 soldiers still stationed at the elevator to turn from their cover. The two soldiers instantly drew their daos and formed a lethal 'X' to block Eustace's path. Eustace, now very desperate, thrust his sword at the soldier on his left's unshielded chest. There was a sickening sound as Eustace's sword penetrated just below the heart and lungs but above the diaphram of the soldier. The Englishman evaded the other soldier's angry swipe and jumped over the wounded soldier and towards the lift

From his position in the hall, Jimmy could see that the other soldiers in the area lunged after Eustace to try and tackle him to the ground. One such soldier managed to trip him up by Eustace up by his feet, but Eustace managed to stumble onto the lift. Enraged, Jimmy saw Shaojia throw his rope dart once more. This time, the dart penetrated thin air as the elevator teleported Eustace to wherever he intended to go. "Dammit!" Shaojia swore as he punched a very sizable dent in the wall next to him. Then he rushed over to the wounded soldier who was holding his wound with one arm. Meanwhile, another soldier with a Red Cross patch on his right bicep was applying First-Aid on the soldier.

Jimmy followed Shaojia to the wounded soldier and kneeled down next to the soldier. There was blood everywhere on the soldier's uniform as well as on the ground where he lay. Jimmy looked at the soldier closely. On his uniform was the insignia of a Private First Class and on his right breast was a name tag/patch that read 'Li.' But what really caught Jimmy's attention was the soldier's apparent age; he was young, very young, maybe 10 at the most. The medic next to them ordered another soldier to help poition the soldier to a different angle so he could wrap a full body bandage around the soldier's chest cavity.

The medic stood up and clasped his hands in front of him somberly after saluting to Shaojia. "General, Private Li has suffered a critical injury that, had it been a tad bit higher, would have penetrated his lungs. We are very lucky that the sword didn't penetrate anything major. I have all reason to believe that Private Li will live, but I strongly suggest at least three weeks bed rest."

Shaojia nodded and shook the medic's hands and ordered for him and two other soldiers to take their wounded comrade back ot the shuttle. He then turned his attention to the rest of the group. "Where are the two men who opened fire on us earlier?"

A soldier next to them pointed down the hall. "Sir, a few of our men went to detain them. We managed to catch both of them in the arms, and our boys should be back any second now with our newest POWs." At that moment, two W-12 soldiers entered the room followed by the two tall, muscular, and overall frightening prisoners that were both bleeding from the arm and winced everytime they walked, with two more soldiers bringing up the rear. It was a rather comical sight, really. Two, full-grown adults being captured and held at gunpoint by four children is just plain hilarious.

Shaojia walked up to the two men and uppercutted one of them in the stomach. Jimmy looked at Shaojia in surprise at the unprovoked assault. Shaojia lifted the chin of the man he had just attacked and said venemously, "Listen to me, and listen good. The two of you are hereby under Enforcer arrest. If you choose to comply peacefully, you will see trial by this war's end and face judgement by Saint Peter's Court of Celestial Justice. If you do not choose to comply peacefully, you will be executed by tomorrow's twilight." The two men looked at Shaojia incredulously, as did Jimmy. Execution seemed a little harsh coming from warrior's of heavenly deities. Then, the men bowed their heads in resignation. Shaojia directed his attention to the men's escorts. "Men, lead our prisoners to the shuttles. Upon our arrival back to our ship, please lead them to the detention center. Also, tell one of the pilots to contact the Fury of the Gods and have them send in two more platoons. In addition, tell them to have all flights to intercept anything heading off this ship, but if it is too close to the ship, just let it go." The soldiers nodded and led their charges to the lift.

Jimmy walked up to Shaojia and asked, "So, why did you uppercut that one guy?"

Shaojia scoffed as he continued to glare at the two detainees. "They're mercs. One of the things I hate most are mercs, guns for hire taking me away from my universe and a peaceful life because they always have to raise Hell everywhere."

Jimmy nodded as he saw that their were only two more soldiers left in the room. Then he remembered that there was another potential prisoner upstairs. "Hey, Shaojia, what about Eustace's butler, Hans? I think that he might prove useful for information."

Shaojia nodded as he looked at the other two soldiers. "You two, follow me and General Neutron." They nodded and followed Shaojia and Jimmy back to the hallyway to the Yolkian war room.

Cindy made her way down the nearest staircases into the war room where she had last seen Jimmy. Sheen had followed her down and gripped a captured Yolkian electrostaff closely while his rifle was slung over his shoulder. The others were still in the bridge, looking over the result of the battle and trying to see how many of their comrades may have fallen. While they walked down the stairs, Cindy just droned out Sheen's inevitable and incessant Ultralord/reality comparisons as she looked around the room. Aside from an unconscious butler, the room was void of life. Shrugging, she motioned to Sheen as she readied her retractable staff and walked cautiously over to the unconscious servant. Upon closer observation, she could see that the butler was bleeding from the mouth from either internal injuries or getting struck in the face and was huddled up in the fetal position.

She poked the butler in the side a few times and turned her attention to a faint noise eminating from one of the staircases. "-but even if Eustace did escape from the ship, shouldn't one of your fighter squadrons pick him off?" asked a voice that sounded like Jimmy, much ot Cindy's overwhelming relief.

As she made her way over to where the noise was coming from and Sheen started poking the butler with the other end of the electrostaff, another voice that sounded like Shaojia replied, "They could, but if we want to salvage this damn ship so we can melt it down later for that nuke idea, none of my squadrons would risk firing on anything leaving here until it's about 500,000 kilometers away because for some reason unknown to me, when this series of Deity fighters came out, the tech-mice who were in charge of production took out the chain guns and slapped on Hiroshima missiles, meaning that they can't shoot anything down in front of them which makes them utterly useless in a dog fight unless the pilot's experienced enough to use the razor-edge wing blades that the Labs so ingeneously put on a damn fighter! Dumbasses..."

Cindy saw the top of Jimmy's weird hair sticking out from the stairway and rushed over to the stairs. Upon seeing him, she was greatly relieved to see that he was in one piece with the exception of the small piece of charred flesh where he was hit by an electrostaff earlier. Jimmy saw her as well and said, "I'm guessing everything went great on the bridge?"

Cindy smiled softly as she nodded. "Yeah, except for a few minor injuries from those staffs. Do you remember Taylor and Adam from 6th grade? Those two both got a staff to the arm, but it's not real serious and I had one of the W-12 medics patch them up." Jimmy nodded.

During this exchange, Shaojia directed the two soldiers that followed him and Jimmy to pick up the unconscience butler and take him back to the lift. Then, Shaojia ordered Sheen, "Major, I want you to go back up to the bridge and tell everyone to head on back to the lift. We're heading out; I'll send for more soldiers to secure this ship after we get you guys back to the ship. You've all earned the rest." Sheen saluted and marched up the stairs. A minute or two later, he came back down followed by the others in his party.

Jimmy and Cindy both walked up to Shaojia. "So, what now?" Jimmy asked.

Shaojia walked over to Eustace's former desk and moved some papers around. "Not much; the battle's over. All that's left is to secure this ship and we'll be set for now."

"What about Eustace?" asked Cindy.

Jimmy answered for Shaojia. "Shaojia and I just finished talking about it. Even if he does find a way back to the his allies, it won't matter anyways; now that we have his butler and his bodyguards, we're pretty sure that he's out of staff and is now powerless." Cindy nodded in satisfaction of the answer.

Meanwhile, Shaojia opened one of the drawers in Eustace's desk and pulled out a large clip of money (which probably held about $500 worth in bills) and a journal. Shaojia shoved the former into his pocket and picked up the journal. He then started to read the last entry before hastily shoving it at Jimmy. "You better read this."

Jmmy arched one eyebrow in confusion but complied with Shaojia's odd command and read the journal entry while Cindy peered over his shoulder to read it as well. "'March 10, 2002'," Jimmy recited as his eyes scanned the page. "'It has been one hour since my new fleet, produced by that green scoundrel Goobot left the Yolkian home planet. Hopefully, these alien vessels can get me back to Yolkus in time for me to rub it in Calamitous and Goobot's faces after my afternoon tea. Honestly, the nerve of those two; once I destroy Neutron once and for all, I will kill those two like I did my father and maybe make Yolkus my new domain. Yes, all shall know the might of Eustace Strych the Third.'" He slowly put the journal on the desk with wide eyes. "He... killed his own father?" he whispered incredulously.

Cindy took a deep breath as she tried to regain her composure. "We are going up against a psychotathic loon."

Shaojia just shook his head slightly. "Well, at least this'll make his paperwork easier when we finally get him; he's definitely going to spend a long time in Hell."

Suddenly, there was a crackling sound to be heard from Shaojia's helmet. He took it off and laid it on the desk. The crackling sound appeared to be Shaojia's helmet radio. From the other line, a voice said, "General, sir, this is Second Luitenant Huo of the 29th Lizhou. We have recieved word from the Fury of the Gods; an unidentified shuttle, about the size of an escape pod, left this ship and has left the system via that weird worm hole. They are requesting permission to send three flights in pursuit."

"Negative, Luitenant," Shaojia replied. "We don't know where that worm hole leads to. Just tell the fleet to sit tight."

"Affirmative, General."

Jimmy turned to Shaojia. "Looks like Eustace got away after all, huh?"

Shaojia nodded sadly. "Unfortunately. Well, nothing we can do now. Let's just get back to base. There's still a bit of paperwork to fill out."

Shaojia, Jimmy, and Cindy arrived at the Yolkian vessel's docking bay to find that all of the soldiers were already in there ships minus three W-12 soldiers who were gathering Yolkian electrostaffs and piling them all into a nice little pile while anohter soldier oversaw them. That soldier saluted the trio as they approached. "Generals! Colonel!"

Thr three saluted back. Shaojia dropped his salute and walked over to the soldier who still maintained the salute. "At ease, Luitenant." The luitenant lowered his hand and shook hands with Shaojia. "Status?"

As the two officers exchanged pleasantries and status reports, Jimmy and Cindy walked over to the shuttle that all of the N-12 soldiers had boarded. They both leaned on the fuselage of the shuttle and relaxed a bit. "So this is the first battle, huh?" Jimmy muttered.

"Mmhmm," Cindy mumbled tiredly. "At least it's a win for us."

"Yeah." Suddenly the peace was broken as the large doors that Jimmy had earlier told Shaijia led to the armories slid open. "What in Eistein's ghost?!" Out of the doors stepped two menacingly large, juggernauts wielding large halberd axes the tips of which surged electricity. They both wore the distinctive armor material and design normally assosciated with Yolkian battle armor except their armor was human-shaped. The two behemoths' armor even included the glass dome at the top of their suits to reveal the two black eye stockings of a Yolktar. Jimmy could only presume that they were the adult Yolktars Ibsol had warned them about.

The noise the two behemoths made when they walked drew the attention of everyone else in the room. Shaojia and the luitenant from earlier ran up to Jimmy and Cindy's position while other soldiers peered put of their shuttle's crew compartments. "What in the hells are those things!" cried the luitenant as he drew both of his M9s from his ankles

Thinking quickly, Jimmy used the Walther P38 he had captured from the butler and fired a round at the torso of the Yolktar, expecting it to explode like the ones he had shot before did. Instead, the bullet just went straight through the armor and through the body of the Yolktar who screamed but continued to march towards them, lifting its electroaxe over its 'head.' Now, he and the luitenant were both firing at the two advancing monsters while some soldiers that still had ammunition did the same, but their onslaught of lead was no use as their lullets passed through their armor and their yolky boides. The behemoths continued to advance. "Fall back!" shouted Shaojia as he drew his dao instead of his jian. "Luitenant, General Neutron, Colonel Vortex, you're all with me!" Neither Jimmy nor Cindy had any idea what that meant but caught on when the luitenant drew his dao as well.

"Wait, are we going to charge those... things! That's suicide!" cried Jimmy incredulously, speaking for Cindy as well.

"If you have a better idea..." Shaojia muttered as he got in a ready stance.

Jimmy looked around a bit and then remembered the large pile of electrostaffs. "Hey, what if we use those things? Bullets pass right through them, but the spears should at least apply enough electrical damage to either fry them or at least short-circuit their armor."

Shaojia nodded as he pointed at his soldiers. "Men, grab those spears and throw them at those things!" His soldiers did as they were told and seconds letter an entire hail storm of electrostaffs flew through the air at the two juggernauts. Jimmy's plan worked as the staffs that made contact with the two beasts penetrated the armor and stuck there while their electric tips fried the monsters' insides.Then, one of the beasts fell to its 'knees' and lay still as its gooey body turned a sickly gray until smoke started to pour into the dome shaped head. Seconds later, it exploded and Shaojia and Jimmy's soldiers all let out a hoot of victory.

Their celebration was cut short however as the remaining Yolktar just took out each of the spears like so many annoying thorns with one of its mechanical hands and howled in anguish and anger. It lifted its electro axe and swung down on a nearby Yolkian dropship in rage and laughed a horrible, deformed, and menacing laugh as the egg-shaped dropship exploded and showered small bits of shrapnel everywhere.

Out of ideas, Jimmy conceded to Shaojia. "Alright, your turn."

Shaojia grunted as he glared defiantly at the remaining Yolktar that was now filled with holes and was moving at a slighlty slower pace. "We have no other choice but to take that thing down Old School style." He then turned to Jimmy and Cindy. "Are you two in or out?"

"I'm in," Cindy said after a long pause. "You're right; there's no other choice."

Jimmy nodded. "Alright, so on the count of three?"

Shaojia nodded while the luitenant beside him said nothing as the T-shaped visor of the soldier's helmet gleamed menacingly at the enormous monster they were about to charge. "1..." Shaojia started.

"2..." said Cindy nervously as she readied her staff and got in a stance.

"...3!" Jimmy finished as the four bolted from their positions and charged the behemoth. The behemoth was caught off guard not by the four charging soldiers but by the 40+ soldiers charging it. Jimmy looked behind him to see that all of his and Shaojia's soldiers, inspired by their cunning bravado, drew swords and grabbed unthrown electrostaffs and assisted the charge.

Up ahead, Jimmy saw Shaojia, about half the size of the beast that was probably 12 or more feet tall, slice at one of the Yolktar's legs. The blade cut cleanly through the weak Yolkian material and the Yolktar's goo sizzled on Shaojia's blade before sliding off of it. He was shocked to see that the part of the blade that sliced through the leg was glowing a very dull red as if it had just gotten out of an intensely heated area. Shaojia was shocked as well, so shocked that he barely had enough time to dodge out of the way of the Yolktar's electroaxe.

Shaojia backflipped and got into a low stance as his and Jimmy's soldiers began to hack away at the legs of the Yolktar. The pain was so immense to the Yolktar that it couldn't even hold onto its staff and dropped it harmlessly next to the luitenant, another W-12 soldier, Sheen, Butch, Cindy, Jimmy, and Shaojia. They all made eye-contact and nodded. Shaojia changed to his demon self and, with the assisted strength that Shaojia's demon possessed (which Jimmy would question Shaojia about later), the six lifted the axe like a battering ram. "Get out of the way!" Jimmy shouted as he and his party charged madly at the Yolktar, who was now kneeling on its knees from the assault to its legs. As the Yolktar's eyes turned to see the six try their best to chuck the electroaxe at it. With their combined efforts, the axe penetrated the Yolktar's armor and impaled it. The monster fell to the ground dead, its own weapon embedded in its torso.

Now, the battle was truly over. Shaojia checked his internal clock out of habit. 'Operation Time: 1 hour, 25 minutes.'

Meiling sat quietly in Shaojia's meditation chamber. Whenever Shaojia went off on a mission, she would always come down there because the room always emitted Shaojia's protective aura. She smiled bemusedly to herself. "Hey," said a voice from the doorway which she has left open. She looked over quickly to see Libby standing by the doorway. "I heard that Shaojia liked to hang out down here so I knew you had to be here."

Meiling smiled and stood up to greet her. "I thought a little about what you said, Libby, and you're right. I..." she hesitated a bit and blushed. "I do have feelings for Shaojia and I want to fight alongside him so I know he'll be alright, but he never lets me."

Libby nodded in understanding. "Girl, I go through the same thing everytime Sheen goes off on one of Jimmy's crazy adventures which usually end up almost destroying half of Retroville." She chickled slightly and sat down next to Meiling. "I always get worried, but I know that Sheen's craziness is what God gave him to survive. Then again, I always end up having to help the guys fight evil and stuff anyways, but you get my point right?"

Meiling nodded as she went over to Shaojia's weapon racks. "Yeah," she whispered solemnly. "I just wish I can fight side by side with Shaojia for once. I want to show him my worth."

"For what?" Libby asked.

"In China, well my universe's China," Meiling explained, "almost all marriages are arranged by the parents. As orphans, however, Shajia and I actually have definite say in who we may was and I have to prove myself to him that I can be a good wife."

"Whoa, whoa, hold up," Libby said. "Who said anything about marriage? Isn't there a courting period or something?"

Meiling shrugged slightly. "There is, but it usually leads to marriage anyways and some Chinese just skip the courting period entirely."

Libby sighed as she leaned back on her elbows. "Man, that must suck, huh?"

Meiling smiled slightly at her new friend's casual attitude. Before she could say anything else however, the PA system sounded for the second time today and a voice that neither girls truly recognized said, "All personnel, General Wang is now aboard this ship and demands the presence of every soldier here in the assembly hall in one hour, I repeat, one hour. That is all."

Meiling turned to Libby happily. "Well, I guess it's time to greet our boys."

Shaojia, Jimmy, and Cindy all stood in front of the other soldiers, W-12 and N-12 both, that had gone with them on their raid in one of the docking bays of Shaojia's ship, the Fury of the Gods. Shaojia paced back and forth as the soldiers stood at attention and tarfighters landed around them, the flight crews coming to secure their squadrons fighters and pilots. "I have to say that this is probably the absolute best thing that can ever happen to start out the war for us," Shaojia said as he finally stopped pacing. "I can say that I am proud of each and every one of you. Well, that's all; my men, you can all go back to your quarters for a little, but I want you in the assembly hall for a fleet-wide debriefing. For the N-12 soldiers, I believe General Neutron has something he would like to say to you." And with that he left with some of his soldiers to the lift.

Jimmy cleared his throat as he stepped over to where Shaojia previously stood. "Ahem, uh, as General Wang has said, I do have something to say to all of you," Jimmy started as he looked over each and everyone of his soldiers, all young boys and girls, all of his friends, who have now been turned into pretty decent soldiers. "I am proud to see that all of you have made it without a scratch. I... am proud to see that you all have fought just as well as some of Shaojia's soldiers. But some of you may have overheard me and Shaojia speaking on the trip back. This war is probably going to be a very brutal one; the Yolkians obviously aren't as advanced as their mode of transportation is and their armies fight just like the armies of the Middle Ages did, with cold steel and pure brutality. I don't want any of you to get hurt even though that's what being a soldier more or less means. That is why I am going to be sending one last recruitment initiative today to your quarters and if you choose to remain in this army, Shaojia and I have agreed to make you full members of the Enforcers and you will be the ones to help fight this war. This isn't a game. This is the real deal." He lowered his head a little and then looked back up. In a more chipper tone of voice, he said, "Alright, that's a wrap guys; go to the arcade, get some lunch, whatever. I want all of you to meet in the assembly hall like Shaojia told you to."

As his soldiers began to march onto the lifts, talking amongst themselves, Cindy walked over to Jimmy and asked, "So what did you and Shaojia talk about?" She crossed her arms defiantly and looked at him. By now, Sheen had approached and looked as if he wanted to know the same thing.

Jimmy shook his head. "I think you guys should see this." He waved them over to one of the shuttles where three W-12 soldiers, one wearing sergeant's insignia, were gathered around a stretcher that another W-12 soldier lay on while a soldier with a picture of a red cross on a band on his bicep, more than likely a paramedic, peeled away some bandages wrapped around the other young man's mid-section. Sheen and Cindy both gasped as the bandages were peeled away to reveal blood, lots and lots of blood seeping through the soldier's uniform.

"What happened to him?" asked Cindy as she continued to watch the scene. Now, another paramedic had arrived and spoke to the other paramedic in Chinese, presumably assessing the situation.

"Eustace was on the ship we were boarding," Jimmy explained. "We tried to get him but then the lights went out. He tried to get past that soldier and another one who was blocking his way to the lift, but that poor guy got stabbed in the stomach with Eustace's sword."

Sheen looked away slightly from the seen as the two medics changed the soldier's bandages, grabbed the stretcher's ends, lifted it up slowly and gently, and made way for a lift followed by the soldier's squadmates. "Aw man, I haven't seen anything that bad since that awesome 1999 Ultralord movie, "Ultra Band of Brothers 3: The Battlefront of Argulon 9."

Jimmy and Cindy both ignored Sheen as he rambled on about the aforementioned movie, as usual. "So you're worried that something like that might happen to one of us?" asked Cindy.

Jimmy nodded as he started for the lift. "Not 'might,' Cindy; will. It's a proven fact that there is a higher chance of death in a close-quarters battle with swords and spears than in a city with guns and tanks; swords can never run out of ammunition and will almost always neutralize." He stepped onto the lift, followed by Cindy. He pressed the key for the Officer's Quarters so that the two of them could get a little rest.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," she sighed as the lift began to go up. "It's just... it's gonna' be hard to fight a war when even our own people don't want to fight in it."

"But our people are just kids," replied Jimmy as he sat in the corner of the lift as it continued to rise. "Of course they don't want to fight this war. The normal mentality of kids their age is a high sense of self-preservation in both physical and social dimension. In fact, it's probably the best choice that they can make right now."

Cindy sat down beside him. "True, but they'll have to grow up sometime."

Jimmy nodded. Then, the PA speaker sounded and a voice that neither of them recognized said, "All personnel, General Wang is now aboard this ship and demands the presence of every soldier on this ship in the assembly hall in one hour. That is all."

He looked to Cindy and smiled. "By the way, did you enjoy our little date last night?" he asked coyly.

Cindy smiled and scooted over closer to him. "Oh did I ever; Jimmy, I never thought that I would ever say this in my life but you really know how to treat a lady."

Jimmy smiled back as he moved his face closer to her. Then, as usual, the lift stopped and the two got up from the floor. It appeared that because of the current situation, no one was even on the floor of the Officer's Quarters. "I'm gonna' go take a nap; care to join me?"

Cindy stepped back, slightly aghast. "Hey, whoa there, pal, I am not that kind of lady! Get a hold of yourself, you hormone driven hound!"

Jimmy scratched his head slightly in confusion until he blushed crimson from what Cindy must have inferred. "No, no! That's not what I meant! I meant take a nap in our room because we just had to fight a battle on an enemy ship!" he reiterated.

Cindy smiled devilishly and grabbed Jimmy by his military unifrom's collar. "I know; it's just fun to mess with you, ha!" With that, she walked to their room, swaying her hips in a slighlty seductive manner as if daring him to follow.

Jimmy just stared at her incredulously. She just tricked him. "Oh, she's good," he muttered before following after her.

Shaojia sat in a chair on the balcony overseeing the massive assembly hall that stretched almost as far as the eye could see. Instead of either his casual Chinese robes and his Enforcer military uniform, he wore the armor of the Chinese Imperial Army (A/N: GoogleImage search 'chinese armor' and you'll see what I'm talking about) with a few personal tweaks. On his breast plate was the Imperial emblem of the 9 Immortal Guardian Dragons, a crimson red cape flowed silkily down his back, his two swords strapped to his waist with a crimson sash, and his torso, arm, and leg armor was painted black along with his helmet while crimson shoulder pads jutted out from his shoulders with his rank's insignia on them. Honestly, Shaojia thought he looked like his father in some of the old scrolls he kept.

He stood up and looked over the balcony where the Imperial Band was setting up somewhere below the balcony. The speech he was about to make was vitally important as it would tell the entire army how the war will be fought and thus he wanted to make as much an impressionable impact as he did when he spoke to his men two days ago.

Shaojia turned around just in time to see the door open and Meiling rush through the door to embrace him tightly. "A-Shaojia-ge!" (Elder Shaojia!)

Shaojia smiled as the young girl hugged him despite his current choice of appearance. "A-Meiling-mei, ni hao ma?" (Young Meiling, how are you?)

"Hao, dan ni jin xing le zhengdou! Ni shi teng ma?" Meiling asked worriedly. (Good, but you just fought a battle! Are you injured?)

Shaojia chuckled slightly. "Wo shi wei shang hai le.." (I am alright.)

The sound of the door opening once more caught his attention as he turned to see General Tian walk in. He salutes sharply. "Jiangjun Wang! Chen lai le anzhao yaoqiu." (General Wang, I, your official, have come as requested.)

Shaojia nodded as he noticed that General Tian, more familiarly known to him as Quanbei of the Northern Chang Empire. "A-Quanbei-jun, ni hao ma?" (Friend Quanbei, how are you?)

General Tian, or rather Quanbei, relaxed slightly since Shaojia had spoken to him in the informal; that meant business hours were temporarily over and they can speak more casually to each other. "Hao, dan zenme zhengdou shi?" (Good, but how did the battle go?)

Shaojia sighed slightly as he went back over to sit in the chair he sat in about five minutes ago. "Ta hao shi; zhi yi zhan shi shang hai le. Bu tai wei xie sheng ming." (It went well; only one soldier was injured. Nothing life-threatening.)

Quanbei nodded in satisfaction as he went to sit next to his friend while Meiling did the same on the other side of Shaojia. "Hai jun shao jiang Huang jia ru wo men ma?" (Will Rear Admiral Huang be joining us as well?)

Shaojia nodded as he looked over to where a few W-12 soldiers were filing into the room wearing their Enforcer issued uniforms, a great contrast compared to the one he was currently wearing which Quanbei didn't seem to notice yet. "Shi." (Yes.) He sighed sadly. "Wo ren wei zhe chang zhan zheng jiang shi hen ang gui yi ge." (I believe that this war will be a very costly one.)

Jimmy couldn't stop staring at Cindy's resting form. Even though he had stayed up all night last night, just seeing her resting in her bed like that gave him the energy to fight a thousand battles. He looked at his watch and sighed. It was time to get up if they wanted to get to the assembly hall on time for Shaojia's speech as well as his.

He got up from his bed and straightened out his uniform. Until now he had neglected to give himself an insignia, half because he hardly had any free time as it is and half because he didn't neccessarily needed one. He made himself a mental note to make one later and entire sample set for his army along with a custom uniform if he ever had the chance.

Jimmy walked over quietly to Cindy and shook her awake gently. "Cindy, Cindy..."

"Mmm..." she murmered in her sleep. "Five more minutes, Mama..."

Jimmy chuckled slightly and began to shaker her a little less gently. "Come on Cindy, you have to wake up now. We're gonna' be late for the assembly."

Cindy rolled over towards him and smiled slightly as she opened her eyes. "I guess what they say about men in uniforms is true," she said slyly as she got up from her bed. "How long do we have left?"

"Ten minutes," Jimmy answered as he went to the door. "Let's go." Cindy followed Jimmy outside the door to see him standing in front of the wardrobe generator. He punched in a few commands and a white light engulfed him. When it dissipated, Jimmy's hair was shorter instead of his idiotic swirl, looking close to a military flat top except a bit more civillian in appeal, and a red service cap rested on his head with his trademark Neutron seal on the front in yellow.

"Hmm, about time you got rid of that weird ol' haircut," Cindy commented as Jimmy took off his cap to feel his head.

"Yeah," Jimmy said as he ran his hand through his new hairstyle, "I think it would probably get in the way of battle." Besides, it just looked plain goofy in the middle of battle.

Cindy grabbed Jimmy's wrist as he went to put his cap back on. "I like it," she whispered in his ear.

He smiled as he led her over to the lift. As he pressed the button for the assembly hall, the PA system sounded once more, this time to remind everyone to be in the assembly hall. "Man, this is gonna' be a big speech," Jimmy muttered as the lift descended.

"What's this all about, anyways?" Cindy asked as she raised her hands to fix her slight case of bed hair.

"Shaojia didn't go into a lot of depth, but he said that 'There's been a change of plans,' whatever that's supposed to mean." He watched Cindy's slender hands carefully tie her hair in a ponytail that fell down her back.

Cindy shrugged as the lift slowed to a halt. "Maybe he meant the war plan; the Yolkian army is fighting like an old-fashioned army, something his army isn't too used to, I guess, so he wants to tell his troops and our troops about this change."

Jimmy shrugged as well as the two walked down the hall to the balcony overlooking the assembly hall. "I guess we'll find out soon."

Once Jimmy opened the door leading out to the balcony, he and Cindy saw all of their friends (Carl, Libby, Sheen, Ibsol, Meiling, and Shaojia) standing there along with four other W-12 officials, ranging from Captain to General based on the insignias. What caught their eyes the most, however, was Shaojia's choice of apparel, a suit of Imperial Chinese armor.

Shaojia nodded towards Jimmy while the others (minus Meiling) saluted. Jimmy saluted back and lowered his hands, motioning the others to do the same. Shaojia greeted Jimmy, "Nice hair cut." The others noticed this as well but decided against commenting on it.

Jimmy mumbled his acknowledgement of the compliment, walked up to Shaojia and asked, "So, I'm guessing that your new armor has something to do with today's speech?"

Shaojia nodded as he stood up to his full height, his appearance made more imposing and regal by the armor. "The team I sent in over an hour ago just sent in a report, confirming both of our beliefs; the Yolkian army is very primitive in weaponry compared to their other technology."

Jimmy nodded, understanding this while the others gathered around to listen. "So that means that we'll be fighting like them, hand-to-hand?"

Shaojia shook his head. "Yes and no. Jimmy, have you ever heard of Chinese fire-lances?"

Jimmy nodded his head slowly. "Yeah, those are one of the first ballistic weapons ever made, why?"

Shaojia smiled proudly. "I talked to Paosung. He's arranged to have our entire modern armory swapped out with traditional Chinese weapons; we'll be going to war like them, but we'll have a few tricks up our sleeves"

"Wait, wouldn't it be easier to fight this war with modern weapons?" Jimmy asked as his eyes went down to his belt where he had put his captured Walther P98.

Shaojia shook his head. "You would think so, but no; tanks fire too slowly to kill all of the infrantry that charges them so they can easily be overtaken, guns can run out of ammo and aiming them sometimes distracts you from what's coming at you from your flanks, and Chinese armor can probably take quite a beating from those staffs of theirs before they break whereas kevlar might take away some of the brunt of the blow but won't stop the electricity from those staffs."

Jimmy sighed and nodded as he walked over to the railings of the balcony and looked at the sea of soldiers, his own soldier's scattered sparsely like the stars over Downtown Retroville on New Year's Day. "What's... what's the usual mortality rate for a war like this?" he asked solemnly.

Shaojia sighed and motioned for the others to sit down. "It depends on how long the war lasts and there's no way to unbiasedly predict a war's duration. If this war lasts as long as I think it will, 3-9 months, then I think we may have a death toll of at least 35,000."

Jimmy's jaw fell slack. "That many?" he whispered.

Shaojia nodded and left for the podium. "May I have everyone's attention?" All of the soldiers stopped their sparse conversations and turned their attention to the podium. "I have called all of you here today to discuss the war. As you all know, at around oh-7-hundred today, the Yolkians launched an attack against us and failed miserably, but only because we were better equipped in space. On land, however, is a different story. Our enemy fights with unparalleled ferocity and will fight to the last soldier if need be. I know for a fact that the soldiers of W-12 are very familiar with their way of war. If they wish to fight with spears and swords, we shall greet them with spears and swords!" He paused momentarily for the soldiers to finish their cries of approval. Jimmy was amazed when a few soldiers even drew their swords and shook them viciously in the air.

Jimmy turned to Cindy as the soldiers continued to cheer. "I guess they share Shaojia's view about guns, too, huh?"

Cindy shrugged as the noise level gradually lessened. Shaojia continued. "However, the soldiers of N-12 are unfamiliar with war in general. So, to address this problem, General James Neutron has proposed a plan." Shaojia stepped down from the podium and motioned for Jimmy to go up next.

Jimmy nodded and approached the podium. Again, he was shocked at how massive and vast his ally's army was and how his own soldiers fell so naturally into the mix. He swallowed his apprehension and spoke. "Ahem, as General Wang has stated, I have a plan to find out who is truly willing to go to war," he said specifically to his own soldiers. Curiously, the W-12 soldiers continued to watch him, as if observing him, testing him... He shrugged off the feel ing and continued. "Sometime after your afternoon exercises and routines, I will send out a Verification Clause. On it, you will decide your fate: If you choose to stay in the army, you have recognized that you are ready to give up everything, your life, your friends, your family, everything, you know that there is no turning back, and that you know what you're fighting for. You will then be enrolled into the Enforcer ranks under the N-12 District. If you choose not to stay in the army... then you just don't go to war. You will stay on the ship while we are in space and stay in the base if we must bring this ship down to the Yolkian surface. Whatever is neccessary to make sure you don't see any combat and can't possibly get hurt, even if that means shipping you back to Retroville."

An uncomfortable but thoughtful silence set in as Jimmy left the podium and Shaojia stepped back up. "Dismissed. You are all free for the day until oh-12-hundred. Then it's back to work."

As he stepped down from the podium, General Tian walked up to him and saluted. "Sir, please tell me we do not have another L-8 on our hands," he said with much apprehension.

Shaojia nodded slowly while Jimmy and his friends became confused. "What happened at L-15," asked Jimmy.

Shaojia sighed slowly. "About two years ago, my men and I were called in to assist these 'Spartan' warriors combat some power-hungry lunatic who had found some object of power that could destroy the Earth. In most universes, the Spartans were supposed to have died out centuries ago with that object, but they were still around and their univrse was just like mine, relatively primative compared to the others."

Jimmy nodded as he began to understand what had happened. The Spartans had been known to fight to the death, to never retreat, and to take considerable losses while taking down 10,000 of the enemy with them. "So you lost many in the war?"

Shaojia shook his head. "Not that many, maybe 15,000 at the most, but the sights in that kind of war, the smells of sweat and blood, the sounds of men screaming everywhere... Think of it as taking a vacation to Hell. You'll be glad to even make it back at all; a few missing limbs were considered pretty lucky."

Jimmy looked at Shaojia and then over to the sea of soldiers that was gradually shrinking as the soldiers filed out of the room. He could never bear the thought of any of his friends dead. Now he faced the very real possibility of all of them dead.

Jimmy walked down the halls of the detention center followed by Goddard as a W-12 soldier, who was wearing the same type of Chinese armor Shaojia wore along with a Chinese qiang (spear) in his hand, and a dao strapped to his side, led them to where Hans was being held. It was an hour since Shaojia's speech and he had taken it as his duty as the N-12 Chosen Warrior to find out what the new POWs knew. The soldier stopped by the door and stood at attention as he keyed the open button for the cell door. Jimmy nodded his thanks to the soldier and drew his captured pistol, just in case.

When he stepped into the cell, he was surprised to see that it was completely dark with the exception of the swinging light that barely lit up the room One figure was sitting in the corner of the room with his hands apparently bound. Jimmy said to Goddard, "Goddard, lights, please." Goddard barked in compliance and a large light protruded from his back attatched to a mechanical arm. The light lit up the room and allowed Jimmy to see that Hans did indeed have his hands bound by handcuffs and was also bound to the cell itself by shackles attatched to his ankles, the chains attatched to them allowing 3 feet of free motion to the most. There was a single bed in the cell and the walls seemed to be made of solid titanium. "Hello, Hans," Jimmy said as he holstered his captured pistol since there seemed to be no real threat.

Hans glared at Jimmy angrily and tried to lunge at him, but his bound hands and shackled ankles prevented such a task. Instead, the butler settled for cursing Jimmy silently under his breath. He then glared pointedly at Jimmy. "Let me go, you impedant little bastard! Mein führer will surely kill you! Unhand me, and I may be able to persuade mein führer to make your death a quick one!"

Jimmy frowned as he approached Hans. With his inexperience with hands-on psychological torture and interrogation, he didn't know how to start. He just settled for trying the Bad Cop approach. He takes the pistol and uncertainly put it to the butler's head. "What do you know about this new League of Villians?"

Upon the sight of the pistol and the menacing light that reflected off of its cold, steel barrel, Hans' former attitude of arrogance and hate turned into one of apprehensive fear and anger. "I... I'll tell you not-zing!"

Jimmy looked to Goddard and motioned for his companion to shine the light specifclly at the butler's face, causing the servant to squint his eyes and try to turn his head away from the light the best he could. "Oh yeah?"

The butler gritted his teeth as Goddard took it upon his programming to turn up the voltage on his light Now, the light was so bright and so close that it was starting to heat the servant's face to uncomfortably hot proportions. "I'll... I refuse to say any-zing to ze likes of you!"

Just as Jimmy was about to order Goddard to turn up the light even more, the door to the cell opened and in entered Shaojia followed by a slightly taller soldier who's apparel was reminiscent to a Japanese Shogun. Shaojia addressed Jimmy. "I think you softened him up enough, General, so how about letting the professional take over?" Jimmy reluctantly nodded as he motioned for Goddard to follow him as he walked up to Shaojia who motioned to the individual behind him. "This is Major Hiromoto, Company Leader of the 52nd Japanese Platoon, the entire, more or less, Special Forces divison for W-12. He is also an Interrogation Specialist."

The major nodded in recognition as his armored form moved passed Jimmy and Shaojia. He turned to Shaojia and asked in a distinctively Asian accent. "General, is lethal force permitted?"

Shaojia looked to Jimmy who reluctantly shook his head. "Negative; once you milk him dry, turf him to Exports and have them take him to a detention center back to the N-12 Enforcer stronhold. There should be one up by now, but if there isn't, stuff him in one of ours. Then, do the same thing to the other two we brought in. I want the full intel round-up in either my hands or General Neutron's hands before oh-8-hundred hours sharp tomorrow." The major nodded and saluted. Shaojia put a hand on Jimmy's shoulder, leading him out o the room with Goddard following them. "Trust me, you don't want to see this." As soon as the door of the cell closed behind them, the butler's terrified and agonizing screams could be heard, causing Jimmy to cringe visibly.

Jimmy asked Shaojia, "Hey, when I was down in my lab earlier to get Goddard, I made a few adjustments to your ship's engines I think you'll like." Shaojia nodded and followed him. As three walked down the hall back to the lift, Jimmy asked Goddard. "Goddard, how are those flyers I asked for coming along?"

Goddard activated his voice box and anwered, "They are completed, Master." Then, the mechanical canine's back opened up to allow a mechanical arm to hand over a large amount of papers held together by a rubber band. As Jimmy accpeted them and looked over the top one, Goddard asked, "Are they to your specifications, Master?" Meanwhile, Shaojia observed the mechanical hound in curiosity.

Jimmy nodded proudly as the trio arrived at the lift. After pressing the button for the lab/engine room, he bent down to pet Goddard. "Good boy, Goddard! That's a good boy!" Soon enough, the lift stopped and Goddard bound off of it and into the lab.

Shaojia commented to Jimmy. "Interesting... dog you have there, Jimmy."

Jimmy nodded as he followed Goddard into the lab. "He was my first invention; I made him when I was 4." Shaojia's eyes opened slightly in mild shock as he followed Jimmy into the lab. 'Way too smart for his age,' Shaojia thought. 'A damn waste of his talents on the battlefield.'

Shaojia looked around casually as he made his way over to one of Jimmy's inverntions, a remote control-like object with buttons and dials clearly indicating it as a shrink ray of sorts. Not one to meddle with the sciences, he left it alone and went to see what Jimmy wanted to show him. "Alright, so what's this all about, Jimmy?"

Jimmy gestured with a hand proudly at the engines of Shaojia's ship. "I took the liberty of refitting your entire engines system and now," he patted them for emphasis, "they're working at tip-top shape. They can make the trip to Yolkian space in mere days, unless we decide to use that worm hole the Yolkians left behind."

Shaojia nodded as he absorbed all of the information. "So that's why the engine room wasn't purring like it usually does. Nice work there." He walked up to the engines, but couldn't find any trace of modifications. Jimmy must be one good mechanic to do something like that. "Yeah, I don't think we'll be using that worm hole. I'll remember to send a request to have some research done about them down to Lab 9, but knowing those morons, I'll have their full report by next year tomorrow."

"Actually," Jimmy said, "I know quite a bit about worm holes myself. They're safe to use as long all electronics are turned off completely when entering the worm hole or else the entire vessel will implode or get warped to some unkown region of space."

Shaojia sighed. "I think we'll need to have another chat with the other Brass Chiefs." He started walking to the lift. "Get ready for another long chat at lunch. I want to see you, and if possible, Ibsol and Cindy in the meeting room by oh-13-hundred today in the meeting room for lunch."

Jimmy sighed as well as Shaojia stepped onto the lift. He knelt down to pet Goddard who was laying prone by his side, eagerly accepting the attention. "Well, boy, looks like we've still got a long day ahead of us." The canine companion whined in sympathy.

Jimmy found Cindy talking with Libby about only God knows what around the meeting room's central table. "Hey Cindy can I talk to you for a moment?" Jimmy asked as he approached the girls.

Cindy simply nodded in acknowledgement. After all, since it was her break, she didn't have to acknowledge anyone's rank, did she? "What do you want, Neutron?"

Jimmy simply rolled her eyes. 'Same ol' Cindy,' he thought with a small smile. "In light of today's events I want to see you in this room at oh-13-hundred for a discussion with the high-ranking officers of our allied army."

Libby replied instead of Cindy. "Wow, Jimmy, since when you take this whole army thing seriously?"

Jimmy shook his head. "If I don't, someone's going to get hurt. That's why it's important for you to be here."

"Why, what's wrong," Cindy asked, her facade fading.

"I don't know," Jimmy replied as he looked at his watch. '11:05' "Well, I better get going. I have to find Isbol and tell him to come down, too. I have the feeling that something important's about to happen."

Cindy watched as Jimmy walked out the door, attempting to imitate Shaojia's military stride; straight back, eyes straight ahead, and hand and feet alternating in rhythmic succession. She sighed happily as the door shut behind him. Beside her, Libby rolled her eyes. "Girl, you got it bad." Cindy could barely hear her.

It had taken about 30 minutes, but Jimmy had finally found where Ibsol was. The former Yolkian soldier was talking with some of Shaojia's soldiers, all dressed in the traditional Chinese armor, in the gym, showing off some of his Yolkian Grand Army staff training with one of the soldier's spears (A/N: Called a qiang). Upon his arrival, all of the soldiers saluted in unison. "General!" was the uniform cry.

Jimmy nodded in acknowledgement, now starting to realize how Shaojia could be so annoyed about the gesture being barked at him everytime he entered the room. But such is the curse of leadership, he supposed. "At ease," he said, borrowing one of Shaojia's phrases. "Sergeant Nravalok, can I talk to you?" Ibsol tiled forward slightly, trying to imitate a nod. The W-12 soldiers thus took it as their cue to leave.

"What is it that you wish, General?" Ibsol asked with much respect in his alien voice.

"Is it possible for you to go to the meeting room for lunch instead of the mess hall today?" Jimmy asked, dropping his facade of a rough, tough, mean, lean controlling son-of-a-bitch that video games, movies, and television had so comonly characterized his new rank. "There's going to be an important meeting today and I would like for you to be there to help the information swapping that's sure ot go down."

Ibsol nodded as he looked over to where about 16 of Shaojia's soldiers were walking to a miniature football field, probably a quarter of the size of an actual one, that Jimmy had somehow failed to notice in the gigantic gymnasium that could turn Carl into The Invincible Bulk. The soldiers, now dressed in basketball shorts and T-shirts instead of a uniform or a set of armor, were chatting amonst themselves, reminding Jimmy of the peaceful days, so seemingly long ago but in actuality, it was almost a week ago.

Ibsol looked at the group of soldiers with a longing gaze. "If only some of my fellow Yolkians could have defected with me," he muttered.

"What did you say?" Jimmy asked as he followed the Yolkian's eyes.

Ibsol shook his 'head.' "Oh, it's nothing, General," he said in aa sad voice before returning to a more cheerie tone. "I shall see you at lunch!" he promised before running off into towards the soldiers.

"That was strange," Jimmy thought aloud.

General Tian was sitting in a dark room filled with constant chatter, mostly vulgarities, one hand clutching onto an emoty bottle of Chinese whiskey while two more empty bottles sat his right, his mind reliving some of his most horrifying war memories, a suit of Imperial Chinese armor worn proudly on his person as the helmet sat in the Pilot's Bar in the mess hall. He yelled at one of the robotic bartenders, "Hey, bar keep, another Tsingtao, double the alcohol."

"You really got to lay off the drinks there, Quanbei," a voice from behind said as the owner sat in the stool next to him. "It's not good for you."

Quanbei looked over to Shaojia, who had ordered himself a small serving of Chinese rice wine, and commented in a surprisingly sober voice, "One of the perks of being descended from the gods, as all demons are, my friend." It was weird, really. Sometimes, he would speak to his fellow officers in English and sometimes in Mandarin. It must be a side-effect of either too much close-quarters fighting or just Enforcer service in general. "Besides, it helped me keep my sanity over the years. The Mrs. doesn't exactly approve, but she understands. Just hope any kids I have in the future don't pick up my habit."

Shaojia nodded as he took a practiced swig of his own beverage. "Yeah, sometimes Meiling gets on me the same way. How is she, anyways, your wife? Last I heard, she was worried half to death from that incident over in M-2."

Quanbei just scoffed. "She needn't worry. It was barely a scratch anyways." He looked down at his left arm, which, under the layer of armor, still bore the scar inflicted by an ambushing assassin, the mad man he had been sent after in order to restore balance in that particular universe. He got a cut on the arm; his target got a bullet in the face. "Besides, that was a year ago."

"Kids in the future?" Shaojia asked casually.

"Not too immediate, maybe a year or so, but as soon as the community Elders and the High Priests think we're 'old enough' to copulate, we're hoping for a strong boy. I don't see what the fuss is about; she served for a few years and I'm still in the armed forces to this day, downing whiskey with my superior officer in a dark room surrounded by Fly Boys." Quanbei downed the rest of his drink after that confession. He signaled for the bartender robot to make him another. "Sometimes I think those old geezers have long abused that 'Health Care' thing you instated. Pretty good idea, though."

"Hmm," was the thoughtful response. "I've been thinking about Meiling myself lately."

Quanbei looked over at Shaojia in mild surprise. There was no surprise that Shaojia had some sort of affection toward the young girl, whatever it may be, but thinking about it in the middle of a war? "That's dangerous thinking," he commented to his superior officer.

Shaojia shook his head as he motioned for the bartender to get him another cup of rice wine after downing the rest of his drink in one sitting. "I know, but sometimes you can't help it. Especially since I have to see her every day here. Ah, it's probably nothing."

Quanbei just nodded his head as his companion went on. "You think it's just because you're afraid something might happen to her one of these days?"

Shaojia nodded as he downed another cup of premium Chinese rice wine. "Hey bar keep, something a little stronger, uh... get me a vodka and none of that watered down crap, either!"

"I hear that's strong stuff," Quanbei commented. "Ah, what the Hell? Bar keep, get me one, too." The bartender robot slid down a fairly large bottle of vodka and two shot glasses down the bar like any other human bartender. Quanbei used his thumb to pry open the cap of the large bottle and poured Shaojia and then himself some of the Russian drink. Quanbei took a sip of the drink and his eyes widened in surprise. "Our boys over in Lab 7 ought to get together with some of the Ruskies in V-9. This shit is strong!"

Shaojia looked over at his companion before trying some of the drink himself. "Not bad. Nothing like the vodka I snuck out of a captured base in Stalingrad during the Second Cold War in R-7."

"What a mess that was," Quanbei muttered as he raised his shot for a toast. "To Ole Chun, that brave bastard, may the gods rest his soul."

Shaojia's glass met his companions with a satisfying CLINK as the two glasses connected. "To Chun." The two generals then downed the rest of their drink, per tradition. "I have a feeling we're gonna' lose a lot more men this time around."

Quanbei nodded and poured some more vodka into his glass as well as Shaojia's. "Thank the gods for liquor."

Jimmy sat in his usual seat as other high ranking military officials. Instead of saluting each other, however, they just shook hands. To his right as always was Cindy. Meanwhile, Libby was over in the corner speaking with one of Shaojia's officers. The young general in question was not present nor was General Tian. 'He can't be late for his own meeting, can he?' Jimmy thought.

He was answered by the opening of the door as Shaojia and General Tian stepped into the room. Though it was very faint and mostly covered by the scent of Tic-Tacs, Jimmy was close enough to get a wiff of alcohol on Shaojia's breath. 'Has he been drinking?!' Jimmy thought. Now was not the time to question his friend's habit, Jimmy realized, but he promised himself that he would ask about it later.

"Alright, everyone's here, right?" Shaojia asked as he went to sit down at his chair. Surprisingly, there was not a single sign in his voice that would indicate that he had been drinking. 'Maybe it was a beer scented breath mint?' Jimmy mentally joked. In response to Shaojia's question, everyone grunted in response though that didn't actaully anwer the questionl. After doing a quick, mental head count, Shaojia then said, "Good. Now, we are here today to discuss the course of this war. Fortunately, we have our Yolkian informant, Sgt. Nravalok here today to assist us in planning this war. Now, Sergeant, what is the Yolkian arsenal made of?"

All eyes turned towards the Yolkian as he spoke. "Traditionally, the Yolkian Army is only used to enforce peace around Yolkus, but it has been known to win a few wars. Compared to your firearms, I suppose Yolkian weaponry is quite inferior. In fact, the only weapon the Yolkians have at all are electromagnetic staffs and I have heard rumors that an electromagnetic spear is going under research. However, the more senior and experienced of the Yolkian officers almost always carry their Poultratos Blade, a 'sword' as you Earthlings call it. In fact, it's not very different in design from your 'broadswords' minus the fact that electricity circulates around the blades much like the staffs."

"What do these 'Senior Yolkian Officers' look like?" asked a general next to Jimmy who he recognized as being the General Kang from that morning. "What does their armor look like?" he clarified.

"Their main armor is what you Earthlings call 'black' while the arms and shoulder pauldrons are our Imperial Green," Ibsol replied. "They should also have a circular shield that was originally a spoil of war from 8,000 years ago, colored red."

Shaojia nodded as he looked over at General Tian who nodded. A silent message was just sent, Jimmy observed as Shaojia asked the Yolkian defector and informant. "How does the Yolkian army fight? Do they line up in a straight line and charge, do they try to surround and overwhelm, or do they just fight on their own like tribesmen?"

"More or less, they line up in long, linear formations and charge," Ibsol replied.

Shaojia sighed as he looked over at the rest of his colleagues. "Just like L-15," he muttered, though loud enough so they all could hear. Angry grumblings and exasperated arm flinging was the response to his statement. He turned to Ibsol. "Sergeant, you are dismissed." Ibsol nodded in compliance and left. After he left, that's when all Hell broke loose.

"So let me get this straight!" yelled General Tsung. "We're going to fight hand-to-hand when we don't have to?"

General Li jumped out of his chair and was in General Tsung's face so fast it made Jimmy's head hurt. "Don't forget that we tried that tactic in L-15 and it cost the Enforcers 15,000 of the best damn soldiers you will ever lay your eyes on! I just dare you to tell me that we should do the same damn thing again!" Right now, the two generals were glaring at each other so intensely that everyone else thought that the very fabric of existence itself would rip into tiny little pieces.

Tsung strengthened his glare and Li did the same. "Regardless, that was in the past! Right now, we're facing a different enemy! This is a new ball game, Li!"

"I don't give a damn!" Li roared back. "A new enemy doesn't mean a new game! We're still fighting a primitively armed advesary. I knew some of the men you sent to their deaths with that bonehead order of yours!" Jimmy knew Li had struck a nerve when some of Tsung's glare lost some of its malice only to be transferred to his hand which balled up into such a tight fist that the knuckles turned white.

Luckily, Shaojia intervened before things came to blows. "Gentlemen! We are here to discuss the war plan. If you two are serious about coming to blows, I'll schedule a leitai match for this evening but considering the fact that we need all the men we need and that the Yolkians will undoubtedly launch a larger fleet to try and destroy us, I suggest that both of you sit down and shut up!" The two generals looked down in shame and mumbled half-heartedly as they went to sit down. "Now, it may seem smarter to use firearms against this type of advesary, but only at a distance. Don't forget that we have the repeating crossbow, fire-arrow launchers, and not to mention fire-lances. At every battle, we'll have our archers and our artillery open up on those bastards and when they're withing 50 meters, we charge the ever loving Hell out of 'em."

"But sir," General Song asked, "Those repeating crossbows have a very limited range."

Shaojia raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "You haven't heard? Lab 52 has made a new model a few months ago. Basiclly, it works like normal, but the lever that you pull to load the arrow will now load and fire automatically. They installed some type of gunpowder canister at the butt of the arrows, now made of solid metal. Our crossbows pack one hell of a punch, almost as deadly as a bullet, but there's just enough gunpowder to give it an extra zip; we can still use them to shoot into the air as a siege weapon or a type of carpet bomb." Everyone in the room looked around in approval of this strategy.

"So when will we be moving into Yolkian territory?" Cindy asked.

Everyone looked expectantly to Shaojia who made a motion to Jimmy. Jimmy closed his eyes in deep contemplation. The war will be fought hand-to-hand, that was almost certain. In addition, he didn't know if any of he'll even have anything close to an army after tonight. It was settled, then. "I'm ready to go to war. The Yolkians have captured my parents and are holding them hostage. We don't have any time to lose. But, I'm pretty sure that I'll have a lot less soldiers by tonight. A lot less. I think that we should either send an Advance Party to shaken the Yolkians up a bit or just send what's left of my soldiers to a base or something so they can train without harm or rush."

Shaojia grinned in pride and respect for his, more or less, protege. "Well done. But instead of deciding upon two plans, let's just do the whole damn thing."

Jimmy nodded in realization. "So you're thinking that we should send all of the other ships through that worm hole to try and establish a foothold on Yolkian soil while this particular ship stays until all of my soldiers are filtered out and sent to some training area off-ship?"

Shaojia shook his head. "No sense in letting your guys miss all the fun. I think it's safe to assume that Yolkus is a fairly large planet. All large planets have at least one moon; Earth has one, Jupiter has 15 or 16, and I remember that a certain planet in L-5 had an entire asteroid belt of moons around it. We move in, we use one of CelestiCorps magic tricks to put an atmosphere around a moon or asteroid, we drop off your soldiers, and we send all of mine to war." Heads shook in approval of that plan. "And if I recall, you never actually answered Colonel Vortex's question," Shaojia reminded.

Jimmy smirked. "Gentlemen and lady, I say we invade the Yolkian System tonight."

Nick was sitting at a lunch table with his four new squad mates, all of them wearing that funky Chinese armor. Suddenly, he felt movement under his feet, kind of like the feeling you sometimes get when a car starts to move. "What was that?" he asked Mao, his squad leader.

Mao just waved it off. "It's just the engines. Looks like we'll be heading to battle again pretty soon."

Nick nodded his head cooly. "Oh... that's cool."

Eustace mumbled angrily as the two Yolkian Guardsmen, their armor a shiny green color with purple pauldrons, tried to help him walk to the bridge of Goobot's ship, Poultra the Magnificent. The dart attack to the shoulder from that Asian mercenary had since been treated by Professor Calamitous, who walked alongside him, chastising and teasing him all the way.

"So, my boy, Neutron bested you again, eh?" the professor teased as his own robotic escort followed, their robotic foot steps making loud, CLANK CLANK noises while triangular heads swiveling about as their hands gripped tightly onto their laser pistols, capable of melting through everything short of reinforced titanium.

"Oh shut up, you vulgar little man!" Eustace bit back. "Somehow, Neutron has assembled a master army that bested all of the Yolktars on my ship and destroyed many more."

"A master army you say?" Calamitous said more seriously. "Mechanical I assume?"

Eustace shook his head. "No, human. But frm what I can see, they fight as if possessed."

"Hmm," was the thoughtful response. "Troubling indeed."

Eustace nodded. "And worse, I have the sinking feeling that I shall those fiends again very soon."

Afterthought:

(Everyone is gathered around a hospital bed.)

Author: (In hospital bed with cast around arm) Well, that was a bad idea.

Jimmy: And so was the idea to have that Verification Clause Act... thing... My army is small enough as it is.

Shaojia: On the bright side, there are more of your soldiers that will get to wear these post-war T-shirts. (Holds up T-shirt that reads in big, bold, black capital letters, "I survived the war!")

Libby: Hey, they're blunt and stylish. I'll take three. (Gives Shaojia 20 bucks)

(Shaojia gives Libby the T-shirts)

Shaojia: Anyways, it looks like you're really ready to right a big battle scene real soon, huh?

Author: You bet. I'm fixing on having it before Chapter 11.

Jimmy: But... this is Chapter 10...

Author: I SAID BEFORE CHAPTER 11!!! SHUT IT OFF!!!

(Author shakes his fist violently at the others, causing him and his hospital bed to flip over)

Author: Can someone help me up? ... Please?

Cindy: Nah, I think this way's better. There's no way for you to hurt yourself anymore now.

(The camera switches back to Author who is now cured of all injuries and is riding around on a scooter swinging a sword around like a madman)

Author: Tally hos! To Camelot!

Libby: I think that flip flipped his brain off.

Author: Now we go to Ollie Whitman for the weather!

Carl: (In very deep voice) It gonna' rain!

Jimmy: Yep, he's lost it.

(Author comes upon a stairwell. Due to his being on a scooter, he can't stop in time and flies into the stairwell. His cries are heard as he falls down the stairs)

Author: Argh! Oof! Ja! Youch! Ow! Ah! Agh! Ooh! Ouch! Help me God! Help me Jesus! Help me Oprah!

(Oprah Winphrey with a cape comes swooping down but is shot down by Shaojia with a rocket launcher. Everyone stares at him. Author can still be heard crying out in pain in the distance)

Shaojia: What? Blowing things up is fun. Idonthaveaproblem!!!

Cindy: O...kay... Now let's all sit down next to the fire and cozy up with some Reviews.

Jimmy: Cindy... the last review we got was for Chapter 8.

Cindy: Oh... that sucks...

Author: (Pop out of nowhere) SO'S YOUR FACE!!!