Of Cowardly Traitors and Smoking Craters

Police Plaza docking area

The entire Police Plaza was in an uproar. Officers were running every which way, armed with guns and wings, trying to get out of the building. In the city outside, everyone was calm. All of the Haven civilians had no idea of the turmoil that was boiling beneath their beloved home.

Holly Short secured her helmet on her head. "Foaly, can you hear me?" she asked into the ComLink.

"I can hear you just fine, Hol'." Holly snapped around to see her friend behind her, a helmet in his hand. The brainiac centaur had lost the tinfoil and had come out of his computer sanctuary.

"Foaly, you're coming with us? Isn't that a little out of character for you?" teased Holly as she snapped the rest of her equipment into place.

Foaly snorted as he put his helmet on. "Yeah right. Stay here and get blown up into oblivion when the core explodes the entire city? No thanks."

"So you'd rather get blown up in the actual core?"

"Yes. Saves me the drama."

Holly and Foaly hurried to the loading dock, where Commander Trouble and Commander Root were waiting.

"Good, is everyone here?" asked Trouble. "We have orders from Council to try and cool the core before taking any further actions or warning the city. Vinyáya and company are following shortly behind us."

"A stupid move on Council's part if you ask me," grumbled Root. "They don't want to cause an uproar unless they absolutely have to. Leave it to Council to put everyone's lives at sake." He pointed to the tall Police Plaza tower above him. "A group of officers are waiting in that tower. If we are completely unable to cool the core, we are ordered to contact them to start evacuating the city."

Foaly's jaw dropped. "Does that mean what I think it means?"

"This could turn into a one way mission," noted Holly softly. "How could Council be so foolish?"

"No matter what they say, we have to follow it," spat Trouble bitterly. He opened the door to the speeder pod they were using. "Let's not waste any more time. We need to take action."

The quartet entered the speeder pod and they took off into the earth's core.

An undisclosed place

"They'll be here soon, sir."

"Is everything set up the way it should be, Jook?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good."

The earth's core

The foursome continued into the earth's core.

Trouble wiped the sweat from his brow. "Do we have the air conditioner turn up all the way?" he whined.

"For the last time, Trouble, yes we do. We're in the earth's core. It's going to be hot." Root exhaustedly replied. He stole a quick glance over to Holly, who was fanning herself with an instruction manual.

"Holly! Julius! Come see this!"

Holly jumped out of her seat and ran to the window. Trouble and Foaly both had their faces pressed against it. Ahead of them was a bright glowing blue light in a crevasse in the core walls. The temperature seemed to be getting cooler.

Holly felt someone behind her. "Trouble, pull into that crack. That doesn't look normal." Commander Root put his arm above Holly's head to support himself against the window.

"Commander, do you think it's safe to go in there?" asked Holly. "We don't know who or what could be waiting for us. What if it's a trap?"

Julius smiled. "You're started to sound like me, Holly." Holly raised an eyebrow playfully at him.

"Okay, can you two lovebirds get your groove on another time? I think we should contact Vinyáya and the others about this." Trouble teased. He tapped his ComLink.

"Vin? It's Trouble."

No answer.

"Commander Vinyáya? This is Commander Kelp, with Commander Root, Major Short, and Foaly. Do you read me?"

Still no answer.

"That's weird," commented Foaly, tapping on Trouble's ComLink. "These babies always work when we're in the core. Even in temperatures like this. I don't like th-"

BAM.

Something hit the side of the speeder pod.

"D'Arvit! What the hell is going on?!" Trouble grasped the steering, trying to get the pod under control again. They barrel rolled into the glowing blue gap, crashing inside of it. The power went out.

"Is everyone alright?" hollered Commander Root. "Roll call. This is Commander Root. Major Short?"

"I'm here!" called Holly from the darkness.

"Commander Kelp?"

A crash was heard. "D'Arvit! I'm good!"

"Foaly?"

"Augh, centaurs aren't suppose to bend that way." Foaly groaned from under a smashed seat. "I'm okay!"

Root got to his feet and took out an emergency light. He scanned the crashed speeder pod. It was a complete disaster. All of the seats were smashed, the controls were in millions of pieces, and the roof had caved in. "All of you," he barked. "If you can, take out your emergency light and wave it so I can find you."

At that command, three tiny lights shot out of the rubble. With some effort, the quartet was able to get out of the destroyed speeder pod. Much to their dismay, they had a surprise greeting when they finally stepped into the glowing blue core.

"You are to come with us, sirs!" chirped the hundreds of gremlins that surround them in unison. Each was harmed with a stun gun and miniature reflectors.

"What in Frond's name is going on?!" demanded Root as two gremlins snapped cuffs onto his arms.

"I thought you little pricks were on our side! What the hell?!" Trouble attempted to kick the gremlin that put cuffs on him, only to get shocked by his stun gun.

"You will all find out soon enough, sirs."

They cuffed the remaining two and led them down the passageway that they had crashed in. As they progressed further and further into the core, the blue glow got stronger and stronger, and the temperature got colder and colder.

"What gives?" asked Holly. "I thought the core was overheating! Why is it so cold in here now?"

"We were dying from the heat on our way here! What the hell is going on?!" added Root.

"Those damn gremlins! I knew there was something weird about them!" piped in Trouble.

"My gadgets won't work..." sniffled Foaly sadly.

"How could you all turn against us like this?!" spat Root angrily.

"Ah, but how can someone turn against you, Julius," The gremlins brought their four prisoners to a stop in front of a shadowed figure at the end of the passageway. "When they were never on your side to begin with?" Ex-Commander Ark Sool stepped into sight. "It's been some time, hasn't it, Julius?

"Sool?!" Root exclaimed. He turned to Trouble. "I thought you said he resigned!" He pointed an accusing finger at the ex-commander. "So are you the one behind this mishap with the core overheating?!"

"And what's the deal with those things?!" Holly motioned towards the gremlins surrounding them.

Sool crossed his arms at Holly's outburst. "Always here to save the day, aren't you Miss Short? You and your little crew of crime fighting idiots." He laughed. "Well not this time."

"Just what are you planning, Sool?" demanded Root.

"I don't understand you, Root." replied Sool. "Everyone loved you. Despite how nasty you were, despite how many times you yelled, despite how awful those cigars of yours smelt, everyone still respected you. And when you were gone, I thought they were going to do the same for me. But they didn't. Was it my fault that you were gone? Of course not! They had no right to hold your absence against me! And then that Short made me look even worse. How on earth can the entire Lower Elements chose a Mud Boy loving girl over an intellectual and experienced leader? After that entire fiasco, they hated me! Everyone! So what did I do? I wanted to annihilate the source of my problems. To my dismay, the source of my problems had already been taken care of. You were dead, or so I thought."

Root growled angrily at the ex-commander.

"The Sool family has strong connections with the gremlin race, dating back before Haven City was even established. Was it a coincidence that the gremlins found you, Julius? No. There are no coincidences. There is only fate. My gremlin friends informed me of a mangle police officer they found, and I immediately knew who it was and how I could get my revenge."

"That still doesn't explain how they were able to bypass my sensors," cut in Foaly. "Root was officially dead according to my computers!"

"Well centaur," continued Sool. "There was one flaw with your equipment. You had it programmed so that as soon as the wearer's brain and organs stopped sending signals to the helmet and suit, it would commence its self-destruct mode, which would take about five minutes to complete. You never calculated, however, a return to life."

Foaly's eyes widened. "Of course. When a body goes into immense physical and physiological shock, it completely shuts down, like a computer rebooting. For that period of time, the person essentially 'dies.'"

"Exactly. Root was, in a sense, dead, but only for a few seconds. Your helmet immediately went into self-destruct mode, but when his body vitals kicked back in, the computer didn't know what to do, and it short-circuited. To all your computers, it would seem that the helmet had indeed self-destructed. When the gremlins found him, they reprogrammed the helmet, blocking all incoming and outcoming sensors. When the time came, they would send out his vitals so you would pick them up, centaur."

"D'Arvit!" cursed Foaly. "I knew something was wrong with all of this!"

"It was then that I began to formulate my plan. I resigned from my position, much to the happiness of the Police Plaza. Kelp took my place, just as I wanted. I knew he would bring Holly back. With the two closest people to yourself in such high power, things were running perfectly. Once you were on your way to recovery, the gremlins sent out the radar wave to Foaly's computer. That idiot centaur picked up the connection, and as planned," He pointed to Holly and Trouble. "They set out to find you. I bet the Plaza seem perfect after that, right? The great Julius Root was back, with Trouble Kelp and Holly Short at his side." Sool let out a laugh. "It's not going to last much longer. You see, I was the one who 'heated up' the core. Or so you idiots thought. It's a wonder why that old hag Vinyáya has such a high rank. That dumbass was oblivious to our manmade heat waves. Seemed like it went over your donkey's head too."

"Hey! In my defense, I was preoccupied with something and didn't even see the computers that detected them!" spat Foaly bitterly.

"So you sent out fake heat waves to trick us?" asked Trouble angrily.

"Exactly." Sool motioned for the gremlins to take the four prisoners and follow him into the next room. The room was so incredibly bright with blue light that the foursome had to shield their eyes. Sool took out a pair of reflective goggles, while the gremlins seemed unaffected.

"Impressive, isn't it?" He patted the source of the blue glow, a large rotating blue sphere set in a circular groove. "This is a BluBomb. It's the nitroglycerine of the Lower Elements."

"There's no way!" cried out Foaly, resulting in a shock from a stun gun. "Those things are banned underground. Their explosive reaction to heat is astronomical. It could blow up the entire city!"

"That's correct, centaur," replied Sool. "You see, Julius, the BluBomb is extremely sensitive to high temperatures. That is why this area is so extremely cold. The main chemicals in it are triggered by heat." He smiled sickeningly. "The result is devastating."

"So you're planning on blowing up Haven City, Sool? Is that your way of getting back at me?" growled Root.

"Oh, of course not, Julius. I wouldn't give you that pleasure," said Sool. "In a few moments, I shall restore the power to the rest of the speeder pods that are in the core. Once I've taken care of the four of you, I'll fly out there to tell them that everything is safe. They'll learn of Root's cowardly escape and fear of death, and how he and his three companions, in desperation, fled from the core, only to be crushed by the falling rocks. I'll explain how I found out about the situation from my old Police Plaza connections, and rushed to help. I stopped the core from overheating, but was too late to save the spineless commander and his cronies. The Police Plaza will welcome me back with open arms. They'll completely forget about Beetroot and the Mud Boy lover."

"You're sick in the head, Sool." Root gazed up at him in disgust. "We won't let you get away with this." He was shocked in the back by a stun gun.

"Take them away, Jook."

The gremlins let the foursome into a metal plated room. Each of the prisoners was chained to a separate wall by their cuffs.

"You will remain in here until a further time, sirs." Jook slammed the door.

"Stupid little blue pricks. 'Sirs' my ass!" grumbled Trouble. "What the hell are we supposed to do? We have no way of contacting the other officers! We're done for! D'ARVIT!"

"Trouble, calm down!" Holly twisted out of her cuffs with a sly grin. "We're going to be alright." She rubbed her sore wrists.

"Holly, how in Frond's name did you do that?!" questioned Foaly.

"I could have done that from the start," said Holly. "It's always good to wait for the opportune moment. Now I just have to get the rest of you out."

"Holly, we shouldn't waste any more time." Root replied. "The rest of us will find a way to get out of here. You need to stall Sool as long as you can."

"But Commander, I-"

"Holly, go."

The young elf approached the door and pried open the lock. She took one last look inside the metal room. On an impulse, she ran across the room and kissed her commander hard on the lips.

"See you later, Julius."

Stay tuned for the next installment, Of Tag Teams and Blue Beams.

Reviews and suggestions are always welcomed!

Suggestion Topic: Should Vinyáya and company arrive to help?