Chapter 14

Battle Under the Midnight Moon

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

SOUND EFFECTS

Disclaimer: I don't own Jimmy Neutron.

"It's easy to declare war. Now winning one, that's a little harder. But winning one without losing any soldiers? That's just impossible." -- Grand General Shaojia Wang of W-12

Jimmy looked around the tent as his watch's alarm began to go off. Midnight had come. Cindy was still asleep. Getting up, he crawled over to where she slept and shook her gently. After a few soft complaints, the blonde genius finally began to stir. Opening her eyes to reveal her blue eyes, she muttered, "What time is it?"

"Time to get up," Jimmy muttered softly. "Hurry, the Yolkians might be here any time now." Upon hearing the name of their enemy, Cindy immediately sat upright and jumped to her feet. After waiting for her to redo her hair into a neat bun, he asked her, "Ready?"

Cindy nodded. "As ready as I'll ever be."

Jimmy nodded and led her outside. The fire had been put out, making it look like everyone was asleep. Soon, he saw a dark shadow figure move about near Shaojia's tent. "Shaojia," he whispered. "Is that you?"

"No," the figure whispered back, "this is General Tian, sir."

"Wait," Cindy then said in a louder tone of voice than the two generals. "Why are we whispering?"

The two immediately shushed her, Jimmy even going as far as covering her mouth. "Quiet!" Jimmy hissed as quietly as possible. "We have to make it look like the entire camp's asleep. Apparently, Shaojia's trying an Empty Fort straregy, you know, make the camp look umprepared for attack, but it's really an ambush."

Cindy nodded in understanding, embarrassed that she almost gave away their gameplan to the enemy that could be anywhere at any time. "Sorry," she muttered.

"It's alright," Jimmy whispered back before turning his attention back to General Tian. "So where does General Wang want us to take position?"

"Your men are still asleep I think," General Tian replied. "They're in one of the tents. You should probably find them and rendezvous with General Wang at the front. Stick to the shadows. Just in case the Yolkians have some type of spy probe we're not aware of."

Jimmy nodded and after seeing that the other general had gotten the message, General Tian melted back into the shadows. The barely audible sound of feet on soil was the only indication that General Tian had left. Jimmy then said to Cindy, "Okay, let's go."

"Where?" Cindy asked as they began to comb the camp for their only soldiers, Nick, Butch, and Sheen. "We don't even know where to look?"

Jimmy then pointed to a particular tent not too far away from the one they had just shared. "While you were asleep, I went looking for them. With all luck, they're probably still asleep." He then creeped towards the tent. Rapping as loudly as he could on the cloth tent door, he asked, "Sheen? Nick? Butch? Any of you awake?"

A few seconds passed before the front of the tent zipped open and Nick's head peaked out of it. Sleep heavily affecting him, he asked with a yawn, "What is it?"

"This is General Neutron, soldier," Jimmy said, trying to add a bit of authority to his voice. "All of you, wake up and get ready. The Yolkians will be here any minute now. Keep quiet and meet me outside as soon as possible."

Hearing the authority and urgency in Jimmy's voice, Nick quickly shook off the after-effects of sleep and slipped back into the tent. Soon after, all three of the tent's occupants slid out of the tent commando-style. Taking his role as technical squad leader, Sheen reported a bit too loudly, "We're ready, General!"

"Shh!" Jimmy and Cindy both hissed. "Keep it down!" Jimmy yelled as quietly as possible. "For all we know, the Yolkians might have spy probes buzzing around here. So just keep quiet and follow me. We don't have any time to lose." And with that, Jimmy waved all of them into a tight formation, with him at the lead, and the others on either side of him forming a type of square.

Jimmy motioned for them to follow him as he took General Tian's advice, keeping close to the rows and rows of tents which provided a bit of cover from the bright Yolkian moons' light, the others following closely behind. His eyes beginning to grow adjusted to the dark night, he could make out the shapes of thousands of men lying down on the ground, spears to their sides. He crouched down as low as he could and looked for where Shaojia could be. He had obviously reached the front, so they had to be somewhere around there...

Jimmy then saw an obscure glint off of a Chinese helmet far in front of the main force. That had to be either Shaojia or General Tian. Either way, Jimmy made a gesture where the hand was palm down and pushed it downwards. Assuming that he meant for them to go prone, they did, and so did he as he began to crawl on his belly towards his rendezvous point.

After a couple of minutes of crawling, he positioned himself next to Shaojia with Cindy to his side and the others bunched up behind him. Instead of General Tian being on the other side of Shaojia, there was another general, this one of much lower rank than either Jimmy, Shaojia, or Tian, looking at a datapad that showed the relative distance between their forces and the Yolkian task force.

The other general looked to Shaojia and reported quietly, "Sir, Probes Alpha, Beta, Charlie, and Delta have just reported in. ETA for the Yolkian task force is less than 5 minutes."

Shaojia nodded. "Affirmative, General Yao. Contact General Tian. Have him hold his position. Do not show any sign of movemeny until that first mine goes off. Then, order for the archers and artillery to open up, and report to me immediately if something goes wrong."

"Yes sir," Yao replied before grabbing a nearby walkie-talkie to do just that.

Then, Jimmy took the oppurtunity to ask for a briefing. "So, what's our plan?"

Shaojia leaned over to look at the datapad in Yao's hand. "Well, we're waiting for the Yolkians to get here. This ploy has to work perfectly if we want to drive the Yolkians back enough for us to charge and take them by surprise. We'll be fighting until we hit the 60th Ring. Recon probes have told us that there is a massive city that is surrounded by a wall right in the middle of the Ring. It's an agricultural haven, and if we take that out, not only do we take out a major food line for the enemy, we get ourselves shelter until dawn if it isn't already by the time we get there. If it isn't, we defend the city until then using the archers. That should give the men enough of a breather and maybe a chance to have breakfast before heading back out to battle."

Jimmy nodded as he began to absorb and process each bit of information, looking for a way that it might go wrong. "And if it is dawn by the time we get there?"

Shaojia sighed. "Then we'll have to stall as long as we can for the troops to get a little rest before heading back out. I don't want to waste any more time. Jimmy, what do you know about circles that are inside circles?"

"That they..." Jimmy then realized what Shaojia meant. "They get smaller. We would have less room to fight in."

Shaojia nodded. "We'd be a little cramped, and it'd take longer to get to the capitol once we start to hit those Inner Rings, Hell, maybe even in the Middle Rings. Since we'll be trying to push them back while we're bumping into each other. I have a feeling that the more time we let those maniacs have, the more time they'll have to think up of something that could do some serious damage to us. I mean, we're going up against an alien race, a billionaire, and a mad scientist. Money, Knowledge, and Power, the 3 Keys to Conquest."

Jimmy continued to look out towards where the archer and artillery personnel camp was as he digested the information. "Well, we won't exactly need that many soldiers if we get that far, and by then, I'm sure that the Yolkian Rebels would have taken out the breeding chambers so we'll only need enough soldiers to just form a perimeter around the capital. And I'm sure that by then, a lot of your soldiers would like to go back home too, so I think that it might work."

Shaojia cracked a rare, proud smile. "You've really come along since we first met. You might not do so bad in the military world."

Jimmy smiled back as he continued to look at the other camp. "Well, there's a science to everything, and I'm a master at science."

Shaojia was about to respond when the faint but very distinct sound of an explosion reached their ears. "Ah Hell..."

"It's a trap!" General Tian heard one of the Yolkian officers cry as another tried to control the hordes of Yolktars.

Taking that as the time to strike, General Tian leaped up from his position and shouted, "All right! Everyone, hit 'em full force! Get those SAWs in position, do it now! Archers, Artillery, pound 'em!" There was an almost simultaneous roar like that bellowed from a terrible beast as the soldiers he was in command of tore out from under their tents and proceeded to give the Yolkian strike force Hell. Meanwhile, General Tian had climbed on top of a empty beer crate and reported to General Wang via his walkie-talkie. "Sir, the enemy force has arrived. Estimated size..." He looked over the sea of Yolktars in an attempt count how many there were in the midnight moonlight. "Possibly 400,000. I repeat, possible size of enemy task force is 400,000, 4-quintuple-zero."

"Affirmative, general," General Wang confirmed as the battle raged on. "Continue as planned." Then the communications went out which left General Tian nothing else to do but pitch in by firing a SAW he had acquired as the units placed under his command began to take their positions as the Yolkian task force struggled to get past their mine field.

First came the Support Automatic Weapons or SAWs. Upon his orders, 1 out of every 4 soldiers that lined up along the front began to set up the light machine guns and immediately began to pour lead all across the enemy lines.

Next were the archers, the new MK-X 542 Enforcer Crossbows in hand of half of the archers. After aiming the arrows wher ethey thought they would have a good arc of trajectory, they pulled the lever in back of the crossbow to load and fire the first arrow before pulling the lever again to load and fire the second. Meanwhile, the normal archers simply aimed their bows, loaded their arrows, and released to fire. Both types of archers achieved deadly results.

After the other two units got into position, the artillery finally set up. First were the houchong, long bamboo tubes reinforced with bronze that had gun powder stuffed in one end and a projectile stuffed in after it. It was basically a Chinese cannon and was fired like its European counterpart.

Then came the firelances which were simple qiang with a single tube of gunpowder strapped to them and buried slightly into the dirt at an angle to keep them steady. Upon launch, they would shoot in a primarily straight line until it hit a target and would sometimes explode, like a modern artillery shell.

Then were the fire arrows which was a misleading name for the weapon itself. It was more like an ancient anti-air weapon that failed in its purpose and was then converted into an anti-infantry weapon. Basically, the main base of the weapon held all of the arrows in place, all of which have a single tube of gunpowder attatched to the butt with a string leading out of the butt. Then, an artilleryman would light the strings which were all woven and knotted into one big string. Upon reaching its destination, the fire would then ignite the gunpowder and send the arrows flying into combat where they will usually find a target. Then came the long and arduous loading process...

The last weapon to be set up was a big contrast compared to its ancient Chinese counterparts. It was an American M777 Howitzer cannon, manned by a 5-man artillery crew. In all, there were 10 of the aforementioned weapons spread across the line within even distance of each other. Soon after it was moved into position and loaded, all 10 cannons fired simultaneously as the Yolkian task force continued to basically run around in circles, sometimes setting off the proximity mines they had placed earlier.

As General Tian surveyed the carnage from over the heads of the ranged weaponry soldiers while he stood on top of an empty beer crate, explosions continued to dot the Yolkian turf as enemy units exploded on impact with the weapons or swent the wrong way and were killed by the mines.

Then came something they hadn't planned on. About 30 minutes into the slaughter, the Yolkian officers then waved their Yolktarian soldiers forward, and at once, the Yolktarian troops charged the Enforcer line, many dying on the mine field in the process. Immediately, his own line responded by shifting their attention from firing in an arc to firing in straight lines in hopes of holding back the Yolkians.

Seeing this new development, he immediately grabbed his walkie-talkie and said to the person on the other line, "This is General Tian. The enemy is charging, I repeat, the enemy is charging. Requesting reinforcements! I'll have the artillery and archers hold them back as long as I could, but I'm pulling out when they get within 50 meters of us."

"Negative! Negative!" Shaojia yelled at the walkie-talkie as Jimmy looked on in horror. Apparently, death was not a concern for the Yolkians as they were charging directly through the mine field and at the archers and artillery which were practically defenseless against anything under its range of fire, especially the arilltery. "Pull back immediately! We cannot risk losing those ranged units. Pull back immediately and lead them towards our position! That is an order!"

"Affirmative, sir!" General Tian crackled through the radio. "Pulling back immediately. Prepare for some heavy company!" With that, the transmission cut off into eerie silence as the artillery fire stopped. The only thing that could be heard were explosions and machine gun fire, presumably from the SAWs that were trying to cover their comrades' rear flank as they retreated.

"So what now?" Jimmy asked as the sound of gunfire and thousands of men retreating their way became louder.

Shaojia said nothing as he tensed himself and yelled. "All men, prepare to charge on my mark!" Maybe 10 minutes later, they all saw the retreating force carefully skimming through the lines betweent the formations of Shaojia's forces. As soon as all of the retreating ranged units passed the first line, they soon saw the Yolkian line, Shaojia shouted, "Mark!"

The Yolkians, or more accurately Yolktars, were caught by surprise as Shaojia and his men all jumped up to their feet from a prone position and charged the enemy. Jimmy followed them a milisecond later as Shaojia's first line connected with the Yolkian's forcing many of them back like a football player tackling a ballet dancer. As he began to catch up and realign himself with his original line, the first one, he immediately began to stab at a Yolktar with his qiang

Killing that nuisance, he began to move onto another opponent. Finding a Yolktar neaby, he brought his qiang down on it like a club. The leaf-shaped blade of the qiang sliced easily through the artificial alien's glass dome and through its body, successfully cleaving it in two. After the explosion triggered by his attack, he continued to push onwards with the rest of his comrades.

After about 5 minutes of whacking aimlessly at the Yolkian lines, he soon found himself completely surrounded by Yolktars. Thankfully, half of them didn't even notice him due to the poor lighting, but it was still a dangerous situation to be in. Jimmy spun his staff like the people he had seen in Kung Fu flicks do, albeit a little bit slower and occasionally whacking himself in the shin with the wax wood weapon. Forunately, when he did whack himself, it wasn't with the spear tip. He began to try and make his way back to his comrades. Well, at least where he thought they were anyways.

His attempt at retreating back was cut short, though, by a sharp pain in the area between his shoulder blades. He fell forwards, throwing his qiang with a bit of a twist as he fell so that it would fly like a buzzsaw before hitting the Yolkian turf. His plan was met by several explosions as he rolled over, his right extended to catch the qiang he had calculated to land there. He then came face to face with the Yolktar that had ambushed him with a broken electrostaff, its electric tip gone. Nonetheless, the artificial alien tried to use its staff as a spear and would have impaled Jimmy's head had he not moved it out of the way.

In retaliation, Jimmy brought his qiang up from his position and knocked the Yolktar off balance as well as causing it to lose its grip on the staff that had become embedded in the ground. Jimmy then proceeded to get up before stabbing the defenseless Yolktar with his qiang. He kicked the dead alien into a pack of its comrades before taking down a Yolktar next to him that was trying to attack him.

The alien shifted from offense to defense, bringing its electrostaff up to block the horizontal thrust attack. Then it came about and slammed its electrostaff hard into Jimmy's side, sending Jimmy sprawling to the ground. He yelped in pain as he landed on the injured side. Rolling over quickly, he not only took weight off of his possibly fractured ribs but also avoided getting his head put on a staff. With its electrostaff stuck into the ground, the alien struggled to pull it out of the ground before being shot in the head by Jimmy's captured laser pistol.

Holstering the pistol, Jimmy managed to get back on one knee before the pain in his side became too much. As he began to recover from the painful aftershock of the attack, he began to assess the damage. Obviously, the attack had done some decent damage, perhaps fracturing a rib or two. If he was lucky, it would only be a few bruises that would clear up in about a week. Resolving that it wouldn't kill him, Jimmy struggled to stand up again before falling back to his knee. Finally, he thought that enough was enough and inspected the wound for himself.

The electrostaff had pretty much burned a hole through his military jacket so he didn't have to worry about taking it off. Putting his hand to his side, when he drew it away and held it to his face, he was astonished to see blood. Maybe it was bad. Just to make sure, he went ahead and had his watch perform a full CAT scan and MRI test on him. In just a few seconds, the results were displayed on the watch's LCD screen. Jimmy sighed with relief. 'Only minor blunt trauma and 2 fractured ribs. It's nothing.' Well not as bad as he originally thought it was. With that, he reached for the remains of a tent tarp, tore a length of it off, took off his jacket, and applied the improvised bandage before standing up again, this time with relative ease than compare to his previous two attempts.

Drawing his dao from its sheath, he began to slice away at the Yolktar's while the allied line began to push up. He had succeeded in returning back to friendly lines, or rather the friendly lines had adavanced to him. Then, as the adrenaline in his system helped him to ignore the incessant pain in his side, he couldn't help but think, 'If this happened to me, what could have happened to...' His eyes widened as he looked around frantically, the adrenaline now so strong that he didn't even feel the pain. 'What could have happened to Cindy?'

Cindy blocked another one of the Yolkian officer's attacks as she had done for the last 10 minutes. Her current opponent was a worthy advesary indeed. He had been maybe her 1st one-on-one opponent of the day, and she was tired of fighting him. Her ruminations of her opponent were cut short when it pulled a surprise attack from above which she blocked with her dao, her qiang long gone after impaling about 4 Yolktars that refused to explode, thus causing the weapon to be stuck. Again, their blades connected, sending sparks flying as they danced a deadly tango, illuminating the dark night.

Seeing an opening as she knocked away her opponent's attack, she lunged forward to try and stab him. The Yolkian countered by hovering backwards before fixing his sword horizontally and charging at her, intent to take her head off of her shoudlers. Cindy bent over backwards as the blade went past her head like the people she saw in that movie The Algorithm. Then, she used her backwards going momentum to flip herself over the blade completely in a back flip before coming down in front of the Yolkian with her blade. At last, her annoying foe was defeated by a downward strike.

Her little victory was cut short, however, by an electrostaff that was intent on finishing what the officer had started. Again, she bent over, her athleticism never ceasing to amaze her. After seeing the staff go over her head, she righted herself and snapped off a sidekick in the direction of her attacker. She looked just in time to see her attacker fly into several of its comrades, killing them all.

She smiled proudly in her victory until she heard someone call her name. "Cindy, look out!" She turned around quickly to see who was calling her before a green laser bolt flew past her ear followed by a loud explosion behind her. She then turned back around, nearly giving herself whiplash, to see what was left of a Yolktar that had tried to ambush her from behind.

She smiled her gratitude to her savior as he arrived next to her, laser pistol in one hand, dao in the other. "Thanks," she said as Jimmy began to shoot randomly at the Yolktars around them.

Jimmy smiled back at her as he finally holstered the pistol and used his dao to cut down a Yolktar that had wandered to close to them. "No problem. Now come on. According to my calculations, we haven't even made it past the ranged infantry's camp site yet."

Cindy nodded as they began to advance along with their Enforcer comrades, knowing that they had to conquer 4 Rings before dawn along with a city that had a wall around it. "Alright, let's go." They then double-timed it over to the front where they knew the major fighting was. Unfortunately, with all the time they had wasted, the front had advanced pretty far, leaving them at the very back up the pack.

Shaojia shrugged off yet another electrostaff attack as he continued to push his way through the sea of Yolktars. His qiang had been lost roughly 15 minutes ago when he through it at a Yolktar that was about to get one of his soldiers 20 meters away from where he was. He had decided against fighting all the way there to get it back, so he was now using his dao to massacre any alien in his path.

That brought him to where he was now, locked in fierce combat with a Yolktar. The Yolktar swung at him with his electrstaff which he blocked with the edge of his blade. Then, Shaojia grabbed the middle of the staff, twisted so that he would yank it out of his opponents hands, and finished it off with a dao slice through the brain. Shaojia then sheathed his dao and got in a stance with his newly captured electrostaff. After all, it's not every day that you get to use captured alien technology.

Shaojia began to spin his captured staff like the old Shaolin hermit he met years ago taught him to do, the soldiers on either side of him automatically knowing to keep their distance. While he was advancing rapidly through the Yolkian's subjugation force, racking up scores of kills on the way, he began to assess the current situation. So far, his men had pushed the Yolkian subjugation force as far back as the ranged infantry's camp, as indicated by the destroyed tent he was stepping over as he continued to advance. At this rate, they just might barely get to their objective on time.

This soon changed, however, as he began to hear explosions erupting from behind the Yolkian lines. An idea suddenly popped into Shaojia's head as he brought the electrostaff over his head while it spun before releasing it at the Yolktars in front of him so that it flew away like a giant buzzsaw. Eventually the ensuing explosions stopped. This, however, was enough of a scare so that one of the Yolkian officers cried, "Alright, let's try something else! Retreat!"

At this, the Yolkian subjugation force turned tail and ran away from the advancing Enforcer line. Shaojia then held up his hand, signaling for the Enforcers to stop their advance. "Halt! Archers and artillery, to the front! Until they do, everyone else, open fire on them with anything you have!"

All around him the air crackled to life with gunfire, the loud BANG BANG BANG of M9s, the electrifying ZZT ZZT ZZT of the WarBots' laser pistols, now extinct from their battlefield, and the constant RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT of the SAW carrying units that had stayed to fight with their counterparts in the main force. Speaking of which, Shaojia decided against drawing his own M9 or his capture laser pistol but decided to exact revenge for one of the ranged infantry units that had, telling from his body's death position, tripped over his own two feet while trying to provide covering fire for his brothers-in-arms and was mercilessly finished off by a Yolktar as he lay on the cold ground defenseless. Shaojia picked up the fallen soldier's dog tags and shoved them into a satchel strapped to his waist before grabbing his SAW.

Holding the weapon close to his hip, he pulled the trigger. A stream of lead poured from out of the barrel as he fired at the retreating subjugation force. After his little inspection of the gun's firing power, he began to wave the automatic weapon from side to side to create a lethal arc of lead. Along with his fellow soldiers, the Yolktars practically fell by the hundreds as lead was pumped into their rear flank while some remaining land mines took out a few in their front. Soon, his weapon went dry and he disposed of it before drawing his M9 pistol.

Soon, the archers came into the front at which point Shaojia ordered for his men to fall back behind them to help make room for the artillery units that were soon to follow. Without even waiting for his order, the archers opened fire immediately with their counterparts in the artillery following shortly afterwards. Now, the night was filled with explosions erupting everywhere. However, looking past the Yolktars, he had noticed that there were no longer explosions from the ground as Yolktars crossed everywhere. That had to mean that all land mines have been activated.

20 minutes passed before Shaojia determined that the Yolkian subjugation force had retreated past their range of fire. Once a force of perhaps 100,000 Yolktars, now something more like 90,000, all thanks to the surprise attacks and ambushes. Drawing his dao, he pointed towards the direction of their objective. They had, more or less, 4 or 5 hours until dawn came, and time was of the essence. "All units, gather in your formations! Forward! On to the 60th Ring!"

All that could be heard was the sound of victorious cheering followed by the loud stomps of the Enforcer forces marching towards their objective, the walled Yolkian city.

The Yolkian general in charge of the apparently botched subjugation of the Enforcer forces was enraged as he was forced to retreat with the Yolktarian troops under his command. Oog'lak Yopovonich was at the head of his entire task force, once 100,000 units strong, now reduced to 90,000. Once at the front, he was now at the rear of the task force sent to destroy the Enforcers.

He looked back behind them as they desperately tried to reach a safe haven in the 61st Ring, 3 Rings away from their current position in what was once the agricultural lands of the 64th-62nd Rings. The enemy force was far behind them, no where close of being in range to open fire on them with their projetile weapons.

A sudden burst of the said projectiles cut down the Yolktar nearest to him. 'Or so I thought.' General Yopovonich then ordered to all of his troops. "Men! Continue to retreat! We must get to the 61st Ring as soon as possible!" At his order, all of his units began to hover as fast as their repulsorlifts would transport them across the alien turf. The enemy forces were getting closer as more Yolktars began to get cut down by the projectile weapons. Then, a ballistic projectile whizzed past him and struck somewhere in the middle of the force, destroying even more of his soldiers, although almost all of them were artifiially crafted, and thus did not have souls.

Nevertheless, his radio module had been struck by a stray piece of shrapnel during the charge so he was unable to contact for reinforcements. He would have to do without them he supposed as more explosions around him pushed him to try and go faster.

'They will pay,' the general thought to himself as yet another projectile caused one of his soldiers to fall to the ground as a ball of flames as the projectile pierced a vital reactor core. 'When we get to a fortifiable position, they will pay.'

With the adrenaline gone, Jimmy soon began to feel the pain in his side once more. It was starting him to affect him so much now that every step he took began to cause the ache to increase. Cindy soon noticed this and asked, "Jimmy, are you alright?"

Jimmy nodded through gritted teeth as the pain continued to worsen. Was it really that bad? Nethertheless, Jimmy replied painfully, "Yeah, I just got into a little scrap with a Yolktar. It's no big deal."

Cindy eyes continued to stare at him in worry as they continued to march, the 61st Ring getting closer and closer with each step. "You're sure you're alright? There should be a medic somewhere around here, we can ask him to patch you up."

'That did sound like a good idea,' Jimmy's more intelligent side thought. However, his macho side, which had grown out of proportion since he had started the war, was the more prevalent. His pride would be far too damaged to admit to serious injury to Cindy of all people. Stupid pride... "Yeah, I'm alright." Jimmy had the sinking feeling that he might regret his decision later.

Unknowing of his internal conflict, Cindy simply smiled in relief. "Good, I knew nothing could take out my big, bad, genius," she said to him before taking a semi-playful cheap shot to his ribs. The ribs that an electrostaff had probably jarred out of place.

Through gritted teeth, Jimmy resisted the urge to cry out as a burst of extreme pain exploded in his side before slowly receeding. And through gritted teeth, Jimmy smiled back to her and said, "You bet."

Cindy simply rolled her eyes. "Fine, but if you die, I'm not carrying you back to camp. Stupid boys and their pride," she muttered. Jimmy couldn't tell if she was joking or if she was serious. Nethertheless, he had the feeling that he was seriously going to regret his decision. The almost timed bursts of pain made him lean on that theory more and more.

Shaojia began to grow impatient as the 61st Ring refused to get any closer as his internal counting had resulted in telling him that they had marched for maybe half an hour. Off in the distance, he could see a fluttering flag flapping at a high position. That had to be the administrative building of the city in the 61st Ring, but their objective was the walled city in the 60th Ring. Obviously for it to be walled in the middle of an agricultural region, it had to be very important.

He could always order the men to run all the way over there, but that would tire them out, and the enemy might try to ambush them in their weary state. The only way to get to the 60th Ring would be to march the entire distance.

Shaojia sighed as he checked his internal clock. '2:05 AM,' it told him as he tried to figure out how far they had actually traveled in the 30 minutes that they had marched. Better yet, get the genius to do it. 'Where is Jimmy ayways?' Shaojia thought as he looked around. He immediately spotted the young genius with his girlfriend a few meters ahead of the whole force, and he appeared to be... 'Limping?' Shaojia thought incredulously as he began to walk over towards their position.

Jimmy noticed coming over and told him, "According ot my calculations, we're just approaching the 61st Ring. We'll be in living lands soon."

Shaojia nodded then pointed to Jimmy's right side. "A Yolktar get ya' in the side?"

Jimmy nodded, caught. "Yeah, but it's no big deal."

Shaojia shook his head. "Get to the back and have a medic take a look at you. I know that we're probably heading into a trap. Big farms, big mills, probably a trap just waiting to be sprung. I probably have to tell the men anyways. Just head back and get checked, and by the time I'm through briefing the men, you should be done."

With nothing to argue back with other than a weak, 'I'm fine,' Jimmy nodded and began to head back to the back of the line, Cindy following in tow to help him walk. Meanwhile, Shaojia's soldiers had stopped their advance as they noticed that 3 officers had stopped, and two of them were heading to the back, one of them obviously wounded.

Shaojia addressed his men and shouted. "Alright, men, listen up! Chances are, the 61st Ring has some agricultural mills, some big farms, and a lot of hiding places. It's midnight and the Yolktars are pretty hard to see in the dark night. Sounds like the perfect ingredients for an ambush. Well here's the plan. I want all archery and artillery units on all flanks, archers on the sides, artillery and SAW carrying units in the front and rear. We're going to let them try and ambush us, and then we're going to attack. We are going to set fire to their farms. We must cripple their economy to force them into surrender." His war plan was met with great praise as his soldiers began to cheer and shout. "But for now, rest. Those who think they need medical attention report to the rear to recieve it. Everyone else, clean your blades, load your weapons, and get ready to repel an ambush."

Even though he was all the way in the back, he was still able to hear Shaojia's speech as well as Cindy. It sounded like a good plan too, trick the enemy into thinking that they were unaware and vulnerable before attacking them full force. As he made his way to where 10 medics were setting up a medical station, he noticed artillery units and soldiers holding SAWs start to move to the front, per their orders.

The pain in his side continued to increase when he finally reached a medic. "General Neutron, where are you hurt, sir?" the medic, who looked no older than 15, asked him as Cindy helped Jimmy lie down on a small blanket set up for wounded men.

Through the pain that continued to grow, Jimmy answered, "Right side. I already did a diagnosis: Minor Blunt Trauma and 2 fractured ribs."

The medic nodded as he reached into his medical kit and pulled out a hypothermic needle. After filling the needle with an odd liquid, the medic inserted the needle into Jimmy's arm before explaining. "Sir, I'm giving you 75 miligrams of Vitanucleatic Acid Type B. It's stronger than a shot of Type A, but considering the fact that you may have internal bleeding, it should be just enough." Jimmy nodded as the doctor took out a small lamp, set it, and undid Jimmy's shirt so that he could take a look at the wound before administering the drug.

When the medic finished unravelling Jimmy's improvised gauze, all three people looked at the wound with a gasp. There was blood everywhere on the inside part of the gauze and there was even more blood on Jimmy's side and rib cage. All in all, it looked worse than it really did. The medic instantly grabbed Jimmy's wrist, found the vein, and injected Jimmy with the drug. Like with Cindy, Jimmy's side began to glow with a bright, white light, and when it dissipated, his wounds were gone.

Using the medic's hand to help himself up, Jimmy thanked the medic after flexing out his repaired body. "'Thanks doc."

The paramedic nodded before wrapping up his kit. "No problem, sir. Now, the drug is going to cause light-headedness and a sense of well... Some people call it a 'fake drunk spell.' Basically, your mind will become cloudy for a bit, kind of like when you're drunk. You'll feel a bit woozy, and then you'll eventually pass out a little while later. But don't worry, there's only a 30 percent chance of that happening. Worse that should happen is that you'd miss your period if you were a girl." At that, the medic laughed a loud and awkward laugh before going back to a more serious tone. "Well, I hope I'll never have to see you in my hospital again, general." Then, the medic waved over some imaginary nurses to bring over an invisible but deathly ill soldier... or as they could tell from the one-sided conversation he was having with himself.

Jimmy and Cindy exchanged looks as Jimmy began to fix his uniform. "I think I was just treated by a paramedic that really needs a vacation."

Cindy nodded as she looked at where the medic had inserted the needle. "Well, at least he found the vein on the first try."

Jimmy nodded in agreement as he began to notice that the main force was moving away from them. "Come on, we're advancing. We should get back to the front." Cindy nodded as they began to half-jog/half-run to the front of the army.

Yopovonich yelled at one of the few Yolkian subordinates he had under his disposal as he began to carry out his plan. They had reached the first town in the 61st Ring, Gooton. Right now, he was in the large administrative and trade building that was also the biggest trade checkpoint in the 61st Ring. "Major Yoo'look, prepare the trenches!"

"With what, sir?" the major next to him asked. "All that's in this deserted town are abandoned farms."

"Well," Yopovonich began to growl, "since this town is deserted, I'm sure the farmers that aren't even here won't mind us tearing down their farms to defend the city."

Catching his superior officer's drift, the major ran off to have the Yolktars under his command tear down the farms, melt the materials, and fill the trenches with the melted materials. Hovering outside of the administrative building, Yopovonich began to inspect the trenches he had the Yolktars dig. They were about 7 Earth feet wide, 10 Earth feet deep, and ran as long as from one part of the city to the other. Thanks to the simultaneous and non-existent fatigue of the Yolktarian forces, the trenches were nearing complete. Soon, the first cauldron holding the melted concoction, the dangerous semi-liquid looking very much like lava, had arrived, and was poured into the trench as the Yolktars working in it began to climb out.

Thanks to the human force's fatigue, he was able to operate without interference while the Enforcers took a break. Very soon, even more cauldrons appeared, and the trench began to fill with the volatile liquid. Soon the trench was filled. "Find some weak wood! Cover the trenches! I don't want any part of the trenches showing! Then, cover the wood with soil!" The Yolktars ran off as ordered.

Yopovonich smiled from behind his protective dome. Soon, the Enforcers will meet their end. He could just smell that promotion.

By the time Jimmy and Cindy had reached the front of the force, the Enforcers had reached the 61st Ring. The only reason they weren't storming the Ring that very moment, however, was because of the Yolktars lined up against the town they would have to conquer, creating a type of sentient barrier.

Next to them stood Shaojia and General Tian, both sizing up the Yolkian general. Unlike his subordinates, the Yolkian general stood out in the crowd due to the 5-foot long, axe-like halberd with an electric head in his hands and the electroblade by his side. "Enforcers!" the Yolkian general yelled across the space between the two forces. "Lay down your weapons and surrender the Devil, Jimmy Neutron, to the Yolkian Court! You claim to be warriors of the gods yet you are assisting a demon! Surrender!"

Shaojia looked at General Tian as if not believing the sheer stupidity of the situation. He then looked over to Jimmy. "Well, it seems you have yourself quite a fan club," he joked wryly as he turned his attention to his men. "Men! Fire at will! Artillery, aim for the building behind them!" An approving roar followed by a different kind of roar, the roar of 108 mm shells leaving at incredible speeds and colliding into the weak infrastructure of the Yolkian administrative building while the SAW units and archers tore up the Yolkian line.

At that offense, the Yolkian general ordered his men, "Charge! Bring me the Devil's head!" All at once, the Yolktars hovered at full speed towards the Enforcer force, many of them succumbing to the might of the SAWs.

Automatically, the Enforcer light infantry stepped in front of their ranged counterparts and charged back at the Yolktars. "Artillery, fall back and concentrate on bombarding the town!"" Shaojia ordered as his men passed him up to meet the charging Yolktars. "Archers, go with them and defend the artillery units." Turning to General Tian, he said to him, "General, get to the rear and conduct the bombardment. I want hail storms of death raining on the rear enemy flank. Try to take out their commander if you get the chance."

"Yes sir!" General Tian confirmed as he ran to the back of the force.

Shaojia then turned to Jimmy. "Neutron, stay alert! The Yolkians really want your head, but I'm sure that you need it more than they do right now."

Jimmy nodded as he and Cindy began their own advance towards the Yolktars that were effectively being pushed back by the Enforcers. Taking his dao, Jimmy sliced at a Yolktar that was about to take off his head. "Jimmy, look out!" was all Jimmy heard before he was forced to the ground by an electrostaff blow to the back. Cringing as he rolled over onto his back, he shot at his attacker with his laser pistol, a Yolktar that had somehow snuck around him. Helping him up, Cindy said to him, "You've got to be more careful, Big Brain!"

Jimmy smiled bemusedly as he heard the old nickname. Just as he was about to reply, he had to block an incoming electroblade attack coming right at his head. Holding his blade up in a vertical position to block the horizontal swipe, Jimmy then forced away his attacker's weapon before slicing the Yolkian officer down with his dao.

He then took down 3 nearby Yolktars ganging up on an Enforcer before kicking another Yolktar into a pack of its comrades, racking up 5 kills instantly. In his killing spree, he failed to notice the Yolktars that began to encircle him. When he finally did, however, he went to work instantly on the one closest to him. Slicing the main control panel of the Yolktar's torso armor, Jimmy reached into the suit of armor, pulled out a miniature reactor core, and tossed the object into a dense group of enemy units. When it exploded, Jimmy estimated that a good 20 units were annihilated thanks to him.

Finally, the Yolkians began to give up. "Retreat!" Jimmy heard one of the Yolkian officers cry as the Yolkian force began to pull back towards the castle. At that instant, the Enforcers followed in pursuit of their defeated foes to finish them off, killing any that didn't go fast enough. Jimmy, eager to join the action, turned around to help rally the Enforcers to go faster.

Then he heard the terrible screams.

Looking towards the direction of the screams, he began to see Enforcers falling into a deep trench filled with what appeared to be lava at the far front of the advancing line from his position somewhere in the middle. He was horrified to see Enforcers that couldn't stop in time fall into the hellish trenches, bursting to flames on contact with the lava-like substance.

Cindy fell against him, seeming to have fainted from both the sights of the skeletons of young boys burning in the river of lava and the smell of burning human flesh. Jimmy passed her along to two Enforcers that were standing nearby, scared stiff from the sight as well and ordered them to take her to the rear for medical assistance. They were too eager to comply.

Taking a deep breath, Jimmy stepped forward as Enforcers began to back away from the deep trench of lava, knowing that their was no way to help their comrades. With a shaky step, he walked up next to Shaojia who seemed to be just shaking with rage. Jimmy was also enraged by the possibility that his friends could have perished. They were, after all, in the front lines and most of those in the front perished. From the other side of the lava trench, Jimmy heard the Yolkian general laugh evilly. "Yes, burn like the demons you are! Burn in the fiery depths of the Netherworld!"

"Shut up!" Jimmy yelled at the enemy general as he fired a laser pistol round at a subordinate next to him. He began to do what he did best, think. He was well aware of duels in medieval times, and since the Yolkians fought like a medieval army... "General, I challenge you to a duel!"

The general only increased his laughing as he heard Jimmy's challenge. "I accept, Devil. I will defeat you and become a hero to my people." The general hovered over the lava, almost taunting the Enforcers. The Enforcers then began to back off and form a small semi-circle which would be used as the dueling ring.

Jimmy felt someone lay a hand on his shoulder. "What are you doing?" he heard Shaojia ask from behind him.

In reality, Jimmy didn't know what he was doing, but he had no choice but to go through with his own challenge. "I'm going to get revenge for the Enforcers," was all Jimmy said before stepping into the dueling ring.

As soon as he stepped into the improvised ring, the soldiers around him and his opponent, Enforcer and Yolkian both, began to cheer for their respective fighters. The Yolkian general began to circle Jimmy like a tiger circles its prey. Jimmy stepped out into a fighting stance he once saw Shaojia use with his dao.

The Yolkian general spun his halberd over his head and slammed it on the ground, sending sparks everywhere. "You will meet your end soon, Devil!"

Jimmy rolled his eyes as he gripped his dao tighter. "I don't think so." Then, Jimmy fell to one knee, feeling very weak all of a sudden and for some reason, very tipsy.

Seeing this, the Yolkian general laughed again. "Feeling tired already?"

Jimmy finally stood back up, his knees wobbling slightly. 'This must be the aftereffects of the drug,' Jimmy thought as he remembered what the medic had told him. Then he remembered something else. During his minor studies of Chinese culture and history, he came across a style called Drunken Fist. Interested in it, he taught himself a few movements, thinking it was pretty fun. Jimmy smiled slightly, feeling more than a little tipsy now. In a slurred voice, Jimmy replied. "Nope, I'm just getting started."

(A/N: Go to e s n i p s . c o m /d o c/ 2 5 0 8 b d f d - a 9 8 e - 4 9 0 9 - 9 7 5 9 - 3 e 0 c b 5 e 3 9 a 7 6 / O n c e - U p o n - A - T i m e - i n - C h i n a -(I n s t r u m e n t a l). Just wait for the song to fully load and play it. Trust me, this sounds really good along with a visual image of a drunken Jimmy fighting)

The two began to circle each other again, the Yolkian general with his electroaxe ready to swing, Jimmy with his dao gripped a tad loosely in his, stumbling all over the place. The general then charged Jimmy, heaving his electroaxe into the air to slice him in two. In Jimmy's delirious state, his mind urged his body to roll to the side. His body complied, rolling to the side, and landed in a giant heap. Struggling to get up, he took an involuntary side-step that allowed him to dodge another downward strike.

Sparks flew off the ground when the Yolkian's halberd met it. Jimmy came in for a powerful swing with his dao, making it look more like a right boxing hook. Unfortunately, Jimmy's grip wasn't all that good so he just ended up dropping the sword mid-swing and bashing through the alien general's glass helmet. Nevertheless, his attack did do some damage as his fist clubbed at one of the general's eyes, causing him to scream and howl in pain. As for the dao, well, it just landed harmlessly on the ground.

Jimmy threw himself to the ground to avoid a horizontal swing of the electroaxe. He then rolled over so that he was under his opponent. He then kicked in an upward swing, knocking the general off balance and away from Jimmy as he performed a head-spring... and landed back on his back. Undeterred, Drunk Jimmy executed another head-spring, this time sticking his landing, though he did stumble forward a bit, coming dangerously close to the lava trench.

Quickly turning himself around to face his opponent, Jimmy stumbled over slightly to his left before just rolling. Getting back up, he did a nearly 90 degree back bend to avoid being cleaved in half sideways by another attack. His attacker's momentum causing him to overshoot severely, Jimmy took the chance to land a 5 quick punches on his opponent's backside before kicking him in the back. Even though the alien's armor was stronger than its subordinates', it was still pretty weak and crumpled under Jimmy's barage. The general, however, wasn't done yet.

The two began to circle each other again, imitating similar moves from before with the exception of Jimmy, that is, who was stublmig around more frequently, at one point falling to one knee. Taking that moment as his chance, the general used his repulsorlifts to launch him up in the air where he came down on Jimmy. Rolling to the side again, there was nothing the general could do when Jimmy met him 2 feet from the ground and kicked the Yolkian in the side, knocking both of them to the ground, the alien because of the kick, Jimmy because of his lack of balance.

The alien righted himself again before charging at Jimmy with his electroaxe spinning over his head. Using the momentum of the spin, the alien broughthis electricly charged halberd into a fast horizontal swing. With no time to dodge, Jimmy prepared himself for what would be olbivion until he lost his balance again and fell over, narrowly dodging the attack.

At that, the now enraged Yolkian general swung his axe in a downward swing, coming up from his horizontal one and coming down with gravity. Rolling to the side to get back up, Jimmy again dodged the attack which landed a couple of inches from his head on the left and the lava trench a foot away from him on his right. Head-springing back up into a standing position, Jimmy managed to squeeze off 2 punches to the Yolkian's eye stocks before falling back down from yet another lack of balance. Jimmy repeated this motion again, now aiming for the dark green mass in between the eye stocks and forced his fist through the Yolkian's cranial area.

The general stepped back slightly as his goo began to turn grey, his eyes begin to expand and shrivel, and the general himself backing himself dangerously close to the lava trench while gargling incoherently, his halberd long forgotten in the Yolkian turf. Finally, the damage dealt to the general was deemed unrepairable by whatever life-support system the alien armor had, and it shut down, sending the general to an appropriately fiery death.

Jimmy smiled slightly in triumph before falling backwards again, this time to pass out.

Shaojia began to fire his M9 at the Yolktars on the other side of the lava trench the moment Jimmy hit the ground. "Men, get revenge for your comrades! Take vengeance!" At this, all of his soldiers complied eagerly, firing on the Yolktars that ran around now utterly leaderless. The few Yolkian officers that were still alive were quickly cut down, leaving the entire subjugation force in complete distress.

With that out of the way, Shaojia then ordered to neaby soldiers to follow him. Walking over to where Jimmy lay unconscious due to whatever strange substace caused him to fight like a drunken monkey, he ordered the soldiers to take Jimmy to the back to recieve medical care and tell General Tian that he wanted him to send any units carrying SAWs up to the front immediately as well as have a huochong artillery unit come to the front as well.

As soon as the two soldiers left with Jimmy carried in between them, Shaojia ordered to his men, "Show no mercy! Find a way to cross the trench!" At that, his soldiers scrambled from place to place to find a stable pathway that could be used to cross the trench that had killed so many of their brethren, maybe close to 50, the biggest amount they have ever lost in a single battle in the particular war. While they foraged, many continued to rain lead and laser bolts upon the disorganized Yolktars. Soon, the artillery unit and the SAW units arrived at the front, Shaojia ordered the SAW units to just fire blindly until their guns ran dry, and he ordered the huochong unit to do the same, to shoot at any large mass of Yolktars the two soldiers, one firing, the other loading, manning the ancient cannon could locate and destroy.

Shaojia then spotted a small plank of wood that lay across the gap made by the trench still partially covered by dirt. 'So that's how they disguised it,' Shaojia thought as he ran over to the plank. 'However, I have other plans.' Picking up the piece of wood that was maybe 7 feet long and 2 inches wide, he dipped it into the lava, setting it ablaze. Then he backed up, the fire getting stronger as it ate up the weak wood. Spinning in a circle, he finally released it, sending it flying like a flaming buzzsaw towards a corner of the base of the Yolkian administrative castle building which stood a good 5-stories tall. The flaming stick easily cut through the base of the large building, the flame on one end of it eventually setting the whole building a flame.

Soon, both forces on each side of the trench began to look at the giant, burning building as it began to crumple to one side, towards the lava trench and several Yolktars. The aliens began to run every which way, some running into each other, other's running into buildings, destroying them. The majority, though began to run in circles as the building collapsed from the fire eating away at its base, destroying many Yolktars, possibly leading to a head count of maybe 60 or 70 as debris began to collide with the weak Yolktars' armor, detonating them like miniature mines which in turn caused more detonations from Yolktars too close to them, thus making them even more like mines, proximity mines to be precise.

However, the destruction the destruction of the building dealt to the enemy force wasn't what Shaojia had in mind. It was actually the fact that the building's fallen structure was plugging up some of the trenches, a particularily large piece landing near Shaojia, spanning from one side of the trench to the other. Stepping onto the fallen piece of building, Shaojia thrust his dao into the air as he said, "My soldiers! Sons of the Middle Kingdom! Sons of W-12! Take vengeance on these aliens! Show no mercy! Burn the town! Leave nothing standing!" After his speech, Shaojia emphasized his words by striking down 3 Yolktars in one wide swing.

Shaojia's Enforcers readily charged across the trench, now made passable due to the debirs of the administrative building. Once on the other side, the Enforcers then became a part of either 1 of 2 unofficially formed groups. 1 group would hunt down and destroy and Yolktars they could find while the other would set fire to the town.

As his troops began to ravage the Yolkian force and town, Shaojia stayed behind to give orders to the archers and artillery units. "Sir!" General Tian saluted when he and the ranged units arrived at his position. "What are our orders?"

Shaojia pointed towards the now burning Yolkian town. "General, take these ranged units and have them surround the town." He then pointed to a very large part of the administrative building that fell across the trench. "Have that pathway reserved only for the heavy field artillery units." He then pointed to the one he had stood on a moment ago, possibly wide enough to drive a car across. "That is for the fire arrow units." He then waved his entire hand over a section of the trench where several smaller pathways were formed by fallen debris. "Have the archers and the light artillery units use those. I don't want to lose anymore men today, general. Have these units surroung the city and fire only when they have a clear shot at the enemy."

"Yes sir!" General Tian saluted. Soon after, the ranged units made their way across the trench, General Tian personally leading the advance.

Meanwhile, Shaojia was lagging behind, watching the scene as it unfolded. Immediately, his eyes found the rather amusing (to him at least) scene of his soldiers chasing down a pack of Yolktars that were running away from them, utterly defenseless due to the fact that their staffs had been confiscated of them by their pursuers. At last, his soldiers grew bored and ended the pursuit by javeling their captured alien weapons through the chest armor of their prey.

Shaojia then stepped onto a nearby piece of broken wall that served as a bridge. Looking back to where the medics were tending to the injured, Shaojia shook his head before charging head first into battle. It was a shame that Jimmy and Cindy were going to miss all of the fun.

Cindy groaned slightly as she began to come to. She half-expected to see Jimmy towering over her, watching her wake up from... whatever that had happened. Instead, she woke up to the olive green tarp of a military medical tent, the tent illuminated by an old oil lamp. "Ah good, you're awake," she heard a voice nearby say. She turned around quickly to see one of the Enforcer medics, this one with an insignia of a Red Cross and a red Master Sergeant insignia underneath it. She slowly began to get up from the soft blanket that served as a cot before he stopped her quickly. "Whoa, take it easy there, Colonel. From what the two guys who brought you two here told me, you had quite a faint."

Cindy nodded as what she had seen began to resurface in her mind. 'Those poor, poor boys...' She asked the medic, "Do you know what the status at the front is?"

The medic shook his head slowly. "I'm sorry, ma'am. I only know whatever the wounded tell me. But, I'm assuming we're doing pretty good since I haven't had anyone come in for 40 minutes since you got here, a new record, I think."

Cindy then proceeded to stand up despite the medic's insitance that she stay down and rest. "So I was only out for over half an hour, right?" The medic nodded. "Then I probably still have time to help Jimmy."

The medic quickly grabbed her arm before she ran back off to battle. "Jimmy? If you're referring to General James Neutron, he's over in Tent 3." The medic pointed to a tent across from the tent she was currently in. "According to the guys who brought him in, he passed out after having a bit of scuffel with a Yolkian general. He hasn't woken up yet I think."

Cindy nodded, slightly worried, and thanked the medic for taking care of her. "Thank you, um, I'm sorry, I don't know your name."

The medic simply brushed the matter aside. "No problem, ma'am. I am Medical Master Sergeant Lu, and I am the head of Grand General Wang's ship's combat medical unit. Now, I'm sure that General Neutron would like your company right about now." Cindy smiled slightly as she left the tent. Just as she did, 2 soldiers barged in carrying another soldier inbetween them, blood pouring from his head while he moaned in agony. As she left made way for Jimmy's tent, she vaguely heard the medic swear in a whiny fashion, "Ah, son-of-a-bitch, can't I have just one day without one of you guys coming in here?"

Upon reaching Jimmy's tent, Cindy took a deep breath before entering. When she entered the tent, she was relieved to find him slowly sitting up, rubbing his temples as if he had a headache. Cindy felt tears accumulate in her eyes as she tackled Jimmy back onto his resting blanket. Overjoyed, she said to him, "I'm glad you're alive." Lifting her head from his chest, she asked, "What happened?"

Jimmy began to groan as he sat back up, gently rubbing his lower back. "Well, I distinctly remember you fainting, me challenging that Yolkian general to a duel, and then... I don't think I can remeber anything past that except for the fact that I began to feel... drunk I guess, just like the medic said the drug he injected into me will cause." Cracking her an arrogant smile, he added, "Looks like I won."

Cindy's relieved expression quickly turned into one of irritation as she punched him in the arm. "It looked like you could've gotten yourself killed!" Then, as if a switch had been flipped, she returned to a state of worry, wrapping herself tightly around Jimmy's mid-section. "Don't ever do anything that stupid ever again..."

Jimmy sighed as he wrapped his arms around Cindy. A long, comfortable silence (well mostly silence if you excluded the sound of constant fighting going on not too far away) past before Jimmy heard footsteps from outside the tent and someone whisper, "If they're doing what I think they're doing in there, I really hope that the war's over before 9 months."

Jimmy and Cindy looked to each other before looking back at the two sillahuetes that stood outside of Jimmy's tent. After a very audbile slapping sound was heard followed by an 'Ow!', another voice answered the other one. "Just go in there and get General Neutron. Grand General Wang will not be pleased if we do not fulfill our orders. Now go on, I'll wait for you at the dropship. Better make sure that the Fly Boys don't take off without us."

"But Brother! What if they're... you know..."

"Don't be stupid! I'll meet you back at the dropship."

Deciding that enough was enough, Jimmy quickly stood and exited his tent, startling the two Enforcers that were talking outside of his tent, one standing close to the tent entrance, the other appearing to be walking away. "What's going on here?" Jimmy demanded as Cindy followed him out of his tent.

The soldiers immediately saluted to him before the one closest to him answered, "Sir, Grand General Wang wishes for you to follow us. He wishes for you to capture the walled Yolkian city in the 60th Ring and prepare it for the main force to arrive. He has ordered the entire 10th Shandong Platoon to be under your command for this assignment. He wishes for us to leave ASAP."

Jimmy nodded as he looked around and spotted the Enforcer Infiltrator-class dropship along with 2 other dropships of the same class waiting nearby, filled to the maximum crew capacity of 16. The remaining 6 soldiers were in the other dropship, waiting for their 2 comrades to come with the 2 officers that would lead the mission. They were gathered in a small landing zone encircled by several torch lamps, like the rest of the medical camp was.

"Where are the soldiers from my universe?" Jimmy asked the soldier closest to him and Cindy while the other soldier went ahead and left for the dropship.

"I think Grand General Wang has sent for them, sir, but I have orders to have you board the dropship and leave for our objective immediately if they aren't here in the next 10 minutes ago," the soldier answered as Jimmy and Cindy both looked towards the direction of the fighting, indicated so well by the plumes of smoke and fire that illuminated the night sky. They were worried about their friends' safety.

Jimmy nodded as he told Cindy and the soldier, "Go on ahead, I want to wait for my soldiers."

The soldier just shook his head underneath his helmet. "I'm sorry sir, but I was given those orders precisely 10 minutes ago. We have to leave now."

Jimmy sadly shook his head as he adjusted the dao on his hip before he and Cindy followed the soldier to the dropships. "Finally!" Jimmy heard someone from the cockpit cry out in a bit of a Southern accent as he stepped onto the deck of the crew compartment. "Hey, Dirt Treader, everyone's here right? Where's this 'General Neutron?'"

The soldier next to Jimmy growled back in contempt. "He's on your flying bucket of bolts, Fly Boy. Just get us off the air so we can leave."

The pilot, which was who Jimmy assumed the voice from the cockpit belonged, snarled back. "Hold onto your swords, I need to get the engines calibrated before we burst into flames."

"Couldn't you have done that while we were waiting?" another soldier yelled back.

"Enough!" Jimmy shouted in aggravation as a dull pain began to form in his head, standing up to prove his point. Everyone flinched at his outburst. "We're all fighting on the same side. Pilot, get that engine calibrated. Everyone else, make sure your swords are sharp and your pistols are loaded." The entire ship grew silent as everyone began to do as Jimmy ordered, fearing another verbal lashing from someone who was usually quiet.

Jimmy closed his eyes as the dull ache in his head began to increase. Next to him, Cindy was sitting quietly as well, confused and scared as to how Jimmy was able to muster the anger needed for such an outburst. Suddenly, all of them heard a peculiar shouting, as if a kid on a suger-high was calling for his friend. 'Wait a minute... Sheen?!' Jimmy and Cindy both thought as they jumped from out of the dropship.

Jimmy and Cindy's guesses were right. Sheen, followed by Nick and Butch, was running towards the dropship with a giant axe-like halberd in hand which Jimmy immediately recognized as the one that his dueling opponent once wielded before meeting an abrupt but well deserved demise. As he ran, Sheen screamed, "Wait! Hold that ship!"

Finally, the trio arrived at the dropship. While Nick and Butch climbed into the dropship, Sheen presented the halberd to Jimmy. "General... Wang... said... give... you... big... axe-y... thingy... Jim..." Sheen said inbetween giant gasps of air.

Jimmy smiled at his friend as he accepted the halberd from him. Surprisingly, it wasn't as heavy as he really expected it to be, maybe weighing a total of 15 pounds from top to bottom, the electric blade at the top being the sole reason for its weight no doubt. "Thanks, Major. Get onto the ship and take a deep breath."

Sheen nodded gratefully before climbing into the dropship, Nick and Butch having to help him up into the crew compartment. Meanwhile, Jimmy was playing with his new spoil of war, an enemy halberd earned from a duel. Jimmy took a few experimental swings with the new weapon before spinning it like he had seen the Yolkian that had previously owned it do. Satisfied at this little test run, Jimmy joined Cindy back on the dropship. As soon as he set foot onto the deck, the engines roared like ferocious tigers as the dust around scattered. The 3 dropships hovered over the ground slightly before quickly gaining altitude. At 20 kilometers above the ground, the aircraft began to make their way towards their objective.

Jimmy peered from over the pilot's shoulder out of the cockpit viewport as the dropship flew ahead of the others, a night vision function making flight at night possible without needing to turn on the headlights. They were coming closer towards the city. Jimmy was astonished as to how much damage was done to it. The administrative building that once towered over the town was in shambles, whatever was left of it burning like the rest of the town.

As the dropships continued to accelerate, Jimmy saw that the main Enforcer force was preparing to leave the destroyed town. Up ahead, however, he noticed that a still very large group of Yolktars were attempting to retreat while under fire from the artillery units.

"Pilot," Jimmy asked, "does this dropship have any missiles of some kind?"

From his chair, the pilot nodded. "It's got a load of Hellfire missiles, about 50 rounds, and there's a .50 caliber machine gun bolted on this baby's chin. Want me to have the Ol' Girl unleash Hell on the egg-faced bastards down there, sir?"

Jimmy nodded. "Yes, and go ahead and have the other pilots do the same thing. Contact the other dropships and have the pilots tell the passengers to open fire on the Yolkian force with the machine guns on the side, too."

"Affirmative, sir," the pilot replied before contacting his fellow pilots. "Echo 5-9, Echo 5-7, this is Echo 5-11, how do you read?"

Meanwhile, Jimmy had Sheen and Nick man the 2 machine gun turrets sticking frm either side of the crew compartment and immediately opened up on the Yolkian force as soon as they came into range while the pilot did the same with the dropship's own deadly arsenal, Hellfire missiles raining down on the unsuspecting alien force.

Jimmy walked up to the cockpit and sat down in the co-pilot's seat to get a better view of the situation. Once he stepped foot onto the cockpit deck, he was amazed to see that the Enforcer Hellfire missiles, which were 25 megatons more powerful than their American counterparts, were really taking its toll on the retreating force. Soon, however, they began to go out of range before leaving the Yolkian force behind completely. However, that wasn't before their 10-minute hailstorm of lead had taken out maybe a quarter of the remaining force, estimating to be around only 60,000 units now, made possible due to the volatile nature of Yolkian armor when met with any destruction.

Then, the pilot piped up from his place next to Jimmy, "Sir, do you want me to swing this bird around and get us some breakfast before we get to that city? I hear that eggs are good for the system."

Jimmy couldn't help but crack a tiny grin at the simplicity and calmness of the pilot's jargon. That's probably why the soldiers use them in the first place, other than the fact that some of the real words are really, really lengthy. But then, he went back to business and replied in the negative. "No, just stay the course. We have to capture the city before the Yolkians can reach it. After you drop us off," Jimmy then cracked a small smile, "then you can just retribution for your comrades."

The pilot cracked a small grin as well as he turned up the engine to even higher speeds. Then, in a more serious tone than his behavior indicated, he told Jimmy, "General, enemy city is coming up fast. Where do you want us to drop y'all?"

Jimmy looked along the city wall. "Find us a place to drop near what you think looks like a capitol building. It would have to be the biggest building I would think. Once you find it, radio in the coordinates to your fellow pilots and have them land there with us." With that, Jimmy left the cockpit to address the troops he had under his disposal which included 40 of Shaojia's soldiers and 4 of his own. Addressing the 8 W-12 soldiers with him at the moment, he asked, "Do any of you have a radio in hand?"

One of the soldiers, who appeared to be about 10, raised his hand before reaching into a large sack that he carried. "Right here, sir!" He then pulled out a small portable radio, but not exactly the kind of radio Jimmy was looking for. "I don't really think that this'll get that good reception out of the Solar System, but if you want to give it a go, sir, I tend to lean towards American bluegrass myself."

The soldier next to the one with the stupid answer, this one about 12, smacked the other in the back of the head, knocking the helmet clean off. "Not THAT kind of radio, smart-ass! He meant the one that links together connections for our platoon." The soldier that had just spoken up then proceeded to scrounge around in his comrade's sack before pulling out a large, box-like device that appeared to be about as high as Jimmy's knee and as long as the length between his wrist and his elbow. Handing the large device to Jimmy, the soldier said, "There you go, sir, one platoon-level radio. I apologize for my brother here being a complete dumbass."

Jimmy simply shook his head before trying to see how to work the device. He easily established all of the commands and pressed the appropriate commands to have his message broadcast throughout the platoon. Picking up the little microphone attatched to the device, he said into it, "This is General Neutron, does anyone read me?"

There were 2 replies. One was, "I read you 5-by-5, General. This is First Luitenant Zhang."

The other was, "I hear you 5-by-5, sir. Master Sergeant Qiao reporting in."

"Can everyone in your ship hear you?" Jimmy asked both commanders.

"Affirmative on my end, sir," Zhang reported first after a momentary pause.

"They can now, sir," Qiao chimed in a little while later.

Jimmy nodded in satisfaction as he now tried to send his attention to all of the units unde rhis command meaning the units on all 3 dropships. "Alright. Now, I haven't been thoroughly briefed, but I do know what our prime objectives have to be. We have to infiltrate the walled Yolkian city, capture the capitol building, and hold it until the main force gets there. What I want all of you to do when we touch down is to get out of the ships as quietly as possible. There's no telling what dirty tricks Goobot might have up his robotic hands. When eveyone's out, we'll advance towards the capitol building as carefully as possible. Stay alert and try to look out for anymore traps."

"30 seconds until we reach the city!" the pilot cried from the cockpit.

Jimmy nodded in acceptance of this new information. "Right. Luitenant, Sergeant, get your men ready. Expect to meet resistance." Afterwards, Jimmy cut off the communications and handed the radio back to the soldier with the sack. Taking a deep breath, Jimmy said to everyone in the crew compartment. "We have to do this as quickly as possible. If there are any civillians in the city, that either means that any agents the Rebel Yolkians have sent to evacuate the place have been killed or there never were any in the city to begin with. In either case, we have to be very careful when we get out of the ship. I know that the ships making their approach would probably wake up the entire city, but that's why we have to be careful."

A silence fell over the crew compartment as the ships rocked this way and that from the engines blasting out jet fuel burned at super-high temperatures. "General," the pilot said from the cockpit, "I think I found a suitable LZ. Do you want to confirm?"

Jimmy nodded as he went back to the cockpit. The pilot pointed over to a large building that looked kind of like a mansion one would find in the American Deep South somewhere in Alabama or maybe even in the rural parts of Georgia. Nevertheless, it looked like where an important person would want to work or live, considering the surrounding buildings, mostly farms and mills. Jimmy nodded in satisfaction as the pilot caught the gesture and radioed in the LZ coordinates to his wingmen.

The dropships circled around the capitol a little bit before gathering in a circular formation nearby the building's supposed entrance. Once the dropships touched the ground, Jimmy hurried back to the crew compartment where he found that the boarding ramp was down and the soldiers that were in the compartment were slowly making their way outside, the only sounds made being the unavoidable CLANK-CLANK of steel-toed army boots on the metal ramps.

Eventually, Jimmy too found himself at the bottom of the ramp as his soldiers proceeded to look around for any possible signs for an ambush. Looking around, Jimmy saw that he was the last one off of the ships. Whispering, he said, "Everyone, form up on me. Make it tight." He wouldn't have to worry about silence, however, since the sound of the engines of the dropships as they ascended more than covered their approach as the 3 aircraft sped back to attack the retreating Yolkian force several miles away.

At his order, all 44 units under Jimmy's command, including the ones from Retroville, formed a tight box behind him. Cindy stepped out of the box to stand next to Jimmy as he began to creep towards the steps leading up to the front porch of the administrative estate. As soon as he reached the stairs, he quickly motioned for everyone to follow him as he ran up as the stairs as quickly and as quietly as possible.

After about 20 seconds of stair climbing, Jimmy had reached the top of the stairs and looked around cautiously as his group began to reform on the patio of the Yolkian who owned the property, most likely the mayor of the large farming community. He then creeped under a window and pressed his ear against the wooden window shutters.

"Father," he heard someone say inside in a feminine, Southern accent. "I beg of you, please reconsider! If we are truly at war with warriors of the gods, then we must leave Yolkus. We must make amends with these warriors so that we may have peace."

"Nonsense, daughter!" Jimmy heard another voice yell. Cindy followed Jimmy's lead and pressed her ear against the window shutters as well. "These 'Enforcers' are heretics, infidels, blasphemis propehts that dare to dishonor the name of Our Divine Lord Poultra. We need not fear them."

"Father!" the daughter cried again, sounding close to tears. "Please, for the sake of our family, we must leave. Brother and Mother have already started to pack. The entre town has evacuated as well. I shall leave too, with or without your approval, but I know that our family cannot stand without you. Father, please. Come with us. I'm sure there is a safe haven somewhere in the universe."

"I shall do no such thing! I was born on Yolkus, and if need be I shall die on Yolkus!" The father declared in defiance.

As the two inside the building continued to argue, Jimmy asked quietly, "Does anyone have a battery, a pair of glasses, and a laser pointer?"

There was a moment of pause before someone some ways away from Jimmy replied, "I think I've got some batteries in my pocket. Always keep 'em handy in case I want to use my iPod." The soldier who spoke up walked up and gave a battery to Jimmy.

Next, a rather skinny soldier who looked no older than 9 with a Recruit's insignia took off his glasses and gave them to Jimmy. "I don't need them to fight."

"Eh, I always use this to annoy Miss Fowl when she squawks more than 5 times a day," said Butch as he drew a cylindrical laser pointer. "It nearly blinded her one time."

Jimmy nodded as he took all 3 items and used his scientific intellect to find the power control on the electroaxe he now owned and powered it down so that it only produced as much energy as a small welding tool. The first step in is little experiment was to weld together the top of the battery to the bottom of the laser pointer. He then reached into his pocket and drew a power transfer and amplification unit, or PTAU, an invention of his from a month ago.

"By transfering power from this normal Triple A Battery to the laser pointer's main power source and then amplifying it further," Jimmy narrated as he welded, "in theory, I can increase the wave frequencies of the projected visible light into X-ray waves." He then took his X-ray pointer and shone it through the lense of the glasses. "However, due to the point at which the light is directed by the laser's optics, it can only produce a single beam of X-rays. I can compensate this, however, by shining it through a piece of glass, such as the lense on these glasses, and thus refract the X-ray waves and throw a much larger field of projection." He then turned on his device. "Observe."

True to his word, when the modified laser pointer shone its beam through the lense of the soldier's glasses, it projected not a small red dot on the side of the house but rather a large circle that gave a very clear view of the house's interior, for the most part. They could all now see what awaited them.

There were only 2 Yolkians in the house's supposed living room, as indicated by the Victorian-esque fireplace and possibly 60" plasma screen TV, one wearing something that looked like a American Southern colonial dress while the other wore a brown leather vest with a brown suit over it and a brown cowboy hat on his domed head. Standing at attention on either side of the front door was a pair of Yolkian soldiers with electrostaffs clad in yellow armor as opposed to the usual green armor of the standard Yolkian soldier. Jimmy could only assume that the 2 were special political bodyguards.

"Please, Father, leave with us, I beg of you," the daughter cried as she clasped her hands to plead with her father.

"I will not leave my home because of a few ruffians," the father stated plainly.

Jimmy continued to analyze the first floor of the 4-story estate. Next to the living room was the staircase which would provide reasonble cover for anyone who wanted to sneak around, a dark shadow being cast by the staircase's figure upon contact with the light thrown towards it by the Yolkian chandelier dangling over the dining room which was perhaps across the room from the stairs and the living room. Jimmy could also see a glimpse of what would have to be the kitchen.

"So what now?" Cindy asked from his right.

Jimmy looked around the room some more before giving Butch back his modified laser pointer and the soldier his glasses. "I saw a kitchen in the back of the floor." He then waved his hand to gesture towards 10 of the soldiers. "Go around back and see if there's a door. If there is, infiltrate the uilding from their as quickly as possible, but don't show yourself until you hear us go in. Trust us you will."

The 10 nodded and made their way around the house as stealthily as possible on the wooden surface of the porch.

"Everyone else, find a door, a window, anything that can provide access into the building," Jimmy ordered. "We bust our way in. Don't kill the civillians, that politician could give us some useful information. Wait for my mark." At his command, the 30 remaining units from Shandong's 10th Platoon gathered around the front door with Cindy and Jimmy poised to lead the attack. Meanwhile, Nick, Butch, and Sheen had placed themselves in front of the 3 windows on the front side of the house. "Mark!" Jimmy yelled, loud enough so that probably anyone could have heard him.

Regardless, Jimmy brought the front door crashing down with his new electroaxe, taking down the two Yolkian guards in the process. At that very moment, the 2 civillian Yolkians backed themselves against the wall, frightened of the sudden intrusion. Behind him, Jimmy heard the 34 units that had come in with him file into the room, taking positions. "What are you doing here?!" the Yolkian politician yelled as more of Jimmy's troops began to file into the house.

Ignoring the mayor for the moment, Jimmy ordered his units as he saw that the 10 he had sent through the kitchen file in after taking out 2 Yokian guards posted there file in, "Men, secure this house. Take out any guards you find, but do not harm the civillians."

"What do you want here, Human?" the mayor spat, leaving his frightened place against the wall to appear more hostile and confrontational. He began to approach Jimmy before he was cut off by 2 Enforcers that crossed their qiang in an 'X' shape, effectively startling the Yolkian and blocking his path. In realization, he backed away to the wall again. "You... You're one of them, aren't you? You're an Enforcer. " He then looked at each and everyone of the 44 soldiers that were practically ransacking his home. "You all are."

Jimmy nodded as Cindy reported to him. "Major Estevez just reported in from upstairs. The 2nd and 3rd floors are empty except for a whole bunch of boxes. There are 2 Yolkians in the 4th floor along with a baby. We've decided to leave them alone for now."

Jimmy nodded. "Alright, just post some guards there, just in case. As for everyone else, have them take defensive positions outside." Cindy nodded as she walked off, a little startled at Jimmy's sudden coldness in voice.

"What do you want, Devil?" the mayor spat again as he now regained his resolve.

Jimmy held up his hands to tell the 2 Enforcers that blocked the mayor before to permit him to pass. "I just want to negotiate. I don't want any problems here."

"Well you've got a problem now, Propeht of Heresy," the alien yelled as he charged Jimmy with a nearby fire poker.

Seeing this, the 2 Enforcers that became Jimmy's unofficial bodyguards siezed the Yolkian mayor, one grabbing the fire poker out of his hands while the other simply grabbed both arms and twisted them around the Yolkian's back like a police officer would to an unruly suspect, minus the pepper spray or taser application.

Jimmy shook his head as he walked towards the mayor's daughter, who appeared to have a much smaller structural armor frame compared to her father. "Alright, since your father won't cooperate, I'll ask you," he said to the daughter who closed her eyes and shrunk away from Jimmy who became genuinely confused. 'Why?' Jimmy thought until he remembered the very large axe he wielded. rolling his eyes, he laid down the axe on top of a coffee table and approached the Yolkian female with as much of a friendly air as he could possibly convey to ease the poor alien lass. "It's alright, I'm not going to hurt you."

"Get away from my daughter!" the mayor yelled while attempting to get away from his captor.

Jimmy ignored the Yolkian mayor as he continued to coax the Yolkian female out of her frightened state. "I just want to negotiate. Do this, and I'll have your entire family evacuated to a safe place."

At this, the daughter slowly opened her eyes to look at Jimmy's face. Making a gulping sound, she asked him, "Are you... going to kill me?"

Jimmy shook his head as Cindy walked up to him. "I'm not going to hurt you. I only want to neogtiate so that all of the soldiers with me can get some rest before they put an end to your crazy dictator's regime."

"King Goobot is a great leader!" shouted the apprehended Yolkian mayor. "How dare you defile his name?!"

Again, they ignored the mayor. "Maybe I should deal with her," Cindy whispered into Jimmy's ear as she looked at the frightened Yolkian girl. "I think thi smight need a more delicate... woman's touch."

Jimmy nodded his head in agreement. "Alright," he said to the Yolkian girl as if he was talking to a small child. "I'm going to leave you with my dear friend Colonel Vortex." He then moved aside to let Cindy begin talking to the Yolkian girl. But before he left, he whispered into Cindy's ear, "Try to get anything you can." Cindy nodded before he left.

Walking up towards the Yolkian mayor, Jimmy tried his best to put on a mencaing, interrogative face using his knowledge on hostile facial exressions and body language. "Alright, so what do you have for me?" Jimmy said in am overly exaggereated Bad Cop voice, full with raspy throat and purposely thrown saliva that smeared the Yolkian's domed face. "This can either go the easy way or the hard way. I want to get some rest and so does everyone else here, so how about it? What can you tell me?"

The Yolkian mayor fixed his angry gaze on Jimmy as he snarled back, "You want to know what I can tell you, Human? Go to the deepest sectors of the Netherworld, Fiend!"

Jimmy brushed off the advanced form of the common 'Go to Hell' as he went over to pick up his electroaxe and sat down in a nearby chair. "I can wait all night. I'm sure that you don't want that. Come on, make this easy. Any minute now, the rest of the Enforcer force that I came with is going to take over this city. We can provide you and your family transport off of this planet, to Earth, to our Moon, to anywhere in the galaxy where you can live peaceful lives. But I can only promise that if you tell me something that can help end this war."

Again, the Yolkian mayor came back with a witty comeback. "Fine, you can kill yourself. that should end this, shouldn't it, Devil?"

Jimmy became all the more agitated as he began to sick into a state of thought, attempting to use his knowledge of Human psychology and twisting it to apply to Yolkian psychology. "Your god, Poultra. Your King Goobot failed to protect her, didn't he? Why should you serve a king that doesn't even have the power to save your god? Come on, talk to me."

At his words, the Yolkian snarled and lurched against his restrainer. "How dare you?! How dare you talk about Our Lord Poultra in such a way?! Blashemy! Pure blaspehmy!"

'Alright, not the best idea to talk about their god,' Jimmy mentally berated, beginning to run out of ideas. He couldn't resort himself to torture, that wasn't his style. Threatening him wasn't working and neither was bribery. Perhaps a little bit of patronization should work, after all, Sigmund Freud never failed him before. "Well, what do you want?"

"I want you to get out of my home and out of my city, Devil!" the mayor shouted.

Jimmy rubbed his temples. Alright, that was definitely a dead end. He then had an idea. Laying down his electroaxe once more, he ordered the soldier restraining the mayor to let him go. "There, you're free. Now, I've let you go. I'm going to be as civil to you as possible. What can I do for you? I am a fully capable inventor," Jimmy heard Cindy's instinctive scoff of disapproval, "and I'm sure that I can invent something that might make you want to tell me about any underground passageways, any laws or acts from King Goobot, anything that might make your stay in exile as short as possible so that you can come back to Yolkus and become mayor of a better town. I'm not a devil, although I did technically kill your god, but I only did it to save my parents. By all logic, you must be a smart Yolkian. Come on, what do you want that can help the both of us? I want to save my parents from your insane dictator, and I know that you want what's best for your family and your people."

After a long pause, the mayor finally broke. "Promise me that you will provide passage for my family off of this planet. I... I realize that our gracious king has not been so fair and gallant as he once was since his first defeat by you, Devil, and I cannot go on living under such a tyrant who demands so high taxes. He... he has drafted one of my sons into the military. I recieved a message yesterday that they have disappeared while on assignment in a far away star system. I wish to look for my sons. Allow us transit to safety, and I will... I will betray my crown."

Jimmy shook his head as he put the icing on the psychological cake. "No, you won't betray your king. He has already betrayed you." 'Sigmund Freud, you are a genius," Jimmy thought as the mayor began to lower himself into a neaby chair to match his new assosciate's position. "So what can you tell me?" He asked as he grabbed what would seem to be a pen and a nearby sheet of scrap paper.

The mayor lowered his eyes as he begrudgingly told Jimmy of things he thought to be useful. "There are rumors of a Yolktar breeding facility currently under construction in the next Ring over. I overheard it over a week ago at the local goo'lak cafe near here. I brushed it off as Rebel propoganda used to scare the young and the foolish into thinking that the government was going to enforce martial law opun us and had the conspirarator's arrested."

Jimmy nodded as he digested that information and wrote it down on his sheet of paper. "Okay, what else?"

The mayor looked at the ceiling as if trying to recall something. "A letter... I remember that a letter came here yesterday afternoon."

"What was it about?" Jimmy asked as he tried to press on. "Can you remember?"

The mayor again tilted upwards to stare at the ceiling of his home. "Well, I remember that it was from King Goobot himself. He wanted me to evacuate my city and become a general for his army. My daughter and I were arguing over it earlier. I was about to accept his offer and join the Grand Yolkian Military."

Jimmy nodded as he wrote down the data. 'Looks like Goobot's running our of options,' he analyzed as he assessed the practicallity of enrolling civillians in the middle of 2 wars, one a civil war and another an invasion defense. "Where is this letter now?"

"Upstairs, in my office," the mayor answered.

Jimmy nodded as he reviewed his notes. "What about civillians? Are there any in this town or the next town over?"

The mayor shrugged. "As for my town, no one is left. They've all evacuated the city. I think that they've gone farther inside the Rings. At the rate this war of yours is going, they'll have nowhere else to go."

Jimmy nodded as he drifted off into deep thought before snapping back to reality a few seconds later. "Alright, I think that's all I'll need," he said before standing back up.

"Wait," the mayor stopped him, "you promised that you would provide passage off of Yolkus."

"And I will," Jimmy said in an attempt to reassure his informant. "But we don't have any aircraft right now. If you could wait for a little bit longer, we can have you and your family off of Yolkus."

Relieved, yet still unsure, the mayor simply sighed and resigned upstairs to his room. Just then, Cindy walked up to Jimmy. "Hey, I've finished talking with Yoola, that Yolkian girl," she said to him as said Yolkian retired to her quarters as well. "She says that one of her brothers had joined the Yolkian military and had dissappeared while on assignment over a week ago. You don't think that..."

"What?" Jimmy asked her as he walked over to the window where Sheen had busted in, the shutters now mere wood fragments scattered across the floor.

"Well, we captured and turned Ibsol about a week ago, right?" Cindy asked, joining Jimmy by the window to look outside at the Yolkian sky, the heavenly blanket glistening with stars.

Jimmy nodded as he tried to fit the clues in his mind. "Well, I guess that might be a way to get even more information out of them. Reunite the mayor with his son, and then fulfiill my promise to transport him somewhere off of Yolkus. I guess Instillation Alpha will be a refugee camp pretty soon."

"Why's that?" Cindy asked as she continued to watch the stars with Jimmy, leaning on him for the mean time.

"The mayor told me that the civillians haven't left the planet," Jimmy answered. "They've only pushed themselves deeper into the city. Pretty soon, we won't be able to go anywhere since there'd be too many civillians and enemy soldiers to get through."

The two stood in silence for a while mulling over this new information. The silence was broken, however, when a W-12 Enforcer shouted from behind Jimmy, "Grand General Neutron, sir! Grand General Wang requests to know our current situational status. Orders?"

Jimmy and Cindy both turned around quickly at the sudden disruption before relaxing. "Our forces have already defeated theYolkian force?" he asked.

The soldier shook his head. "I don't think so, sir. He's on hold on the radio."

Jimmy looked at Cindy who nodded. With that, Jimmy followed the soldier upstairs to where the radio manager had presumedly set up his station. After scaling the flight of stairs, Jimmy found the radio manager sitting at a wet bar, the radio sitting on the bar's surface. Jimmy then walked around the pool table the Yolkian mayor also had in his luxury room where he was greeted by the radio manager. "Sir, Grand General Wang wants to speak with you immediately."

Jimmy nodded as he took the radio's speaker/microphone and said, "General Wang?"

From the other side of the radio, Shaojia answered, "General Neutron, we hav eto make this quick. The Yolkian force is coming in on your position mighty quick. Prepare to repel attackers."

At the new information, Jimmy felt like his heart had dropped into his stomach, the gastric acid eating away a the muscle fibers and tissues that composed the human heart. "How many of them?"

"Well, those dropships you sent in a round-trip did one Hell of a job on them, that much I can say," Shaojia commented. "They went at them for a good 10-15 minutes maybe before they ran out of ammo. I say that they brought them down to maybe 45,000. I've already sent back reinforcements on those same dropships, a platoon and 8 soldiers with SAWs to help with the defense. We could keep doing that until we get everyone across, but that might take too long, considering that we still have over 11,000 soldiers left, maybe closer to 11,500."

Jimmy smiled in pride that his plan worked. At least he would have less Yolktars to deal with. "Alright, how long do you think it will take until they reach the city?"

"Maybe 10 minutes, probably less," Shaojia said gravely from the other side of the radio. "If you can hold them off for about 20 minutes, my forces can flank them from the rear."

Jimmy nodded as he finished digesting all of the information. "Alright, I'll go set up now."

"Good luck, with only 84 troops, you're gonna' need it," Shaojia said before cutting off the communications.

Jimmy then looked around towards the other 2 soldiers in the room. "Well, you heard him, let's go."

"Yes, sir!" The two soldiers said before following him downstairs.

Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, Cindy approached them and asked, "What was that all about?"

"I'll tell you when we get everyone assembled outside," Jimmy said as he continued to walk outside of the Yolkian estate. Soon, he was in front of all 44 soldiers in his defense force, all of them milling about and checking out the town for any possible threats. "Attention!" Jimmy yelled, so loud that his throat almost went hoarse. At his order, all 44 soldiers gathered in a formation in front of Jimmy. "I have just been contacted by General Wang. He says that the Yolkian force is about to attack us, all 45,000 of them. We must defend this city at all costs. Reinforcements should be here any second-" Just as he was about to say 'now,' the sound of machine gun fire interrupted the him as 3 dropships landed a few meters away from their position.

Out of the dropships exited 48 W-12 Enforcers, 8 of them wielding the Support Automatic Weapons or SAWs. One of the soldiers stepped out of the group saluted. "General Neutron, sir! Luitenant Meng of the 48th Guangdong Platoon. We are ready to help you defend this city."

Then, another soldier stepped from out of the group. "Sir, Staff Sergeant Qiao of the 248th Support Assault Weapons Crew of the W-12 Enforcer Legion. My men and I will help you defend this city as long as we can, sir."

Jimmy nodded as he looked to where the dropships had come from and had now taken of to, somewhere left of his relative position. "Alright, everyone, let's double-time it over there. I'll give you more orders once I assess the situation."

All of the soldiers grunted in acknowledgement as the 93 soldiers that had been given the task of defending the Yolkian city ran in the direction Jimmy had ordered them. In 5 minutes, they had all reached the Yolkian city walled that appeared to be as high as a 5-story house. Spread out at even intervals stood watch towers with transport lifts positioned at the base of the towers. Directly in front of Jimmy was the gate that allowed entrance into the city.

Jimmy quickly went to work on the scenario as he began to see a small glimpse of sunlight on the Yolkian horizon. Thanks to his genius, the revolution of Yolkus now matched that of Earth, giving it Earth hours which would then make it... '4:55,' Jimmy thought as he began to grind his teeth. They were running out of time if they wanted to rest before continuing the advance.

Finally, Jimmy settled on the game plan. Pointing to the the 2 watch towers that framed the city gate, both at an equal 35 feet apart from the gate. "I want 2 SAW units in each of those towers." He then took out his laser pistol and shot 4 holes into the wooden gate at about waist height with 4 additional holes above the previous holes at about eye level. "The remaining 4 SAW units will take up positions where those holes are. You will fire from there and try to keep the Yolktars at bay for as long as you can. Everyone else, make your own firing holes from anywhere in between the 2 watch towers."

The 88 W-12 units took their positions precisely as Jimmy had ordered them to. All along the perimeter, Enforcers lined up against the wall, murder holes punched through the wall's weak infrastructure. Jimmy found himself wedged inbetween Cindy and Sheen by a wall with his electroaxe shoved in the dirt.

He saw them, roughly 60 feet away and closing in. "Fire at will! Keep them back!" he shouted before pulling the trigger to his laser pistol while gunshots rang around him at almost deafening volumes. Looking through his eye hole, he aimed soley for the armor which heknew would take out at least 2 extra Yolktars. So far, his plan was working. The 4 SAW units in the towers were raining lead all over theYolktars that attempted to break through, causing explosions to roar out from the mass that stretched far and wide.

Meanwhile, the SAW units on the ground with everyone else were doing a very good job on keeping the Yolktars back, firing constant streams of lead that would always connect. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a SAW soldier wave his gun left and right to make an arcing parabola of lead, effectively destroying several Yolktars.

The rest of the defense force, a total of 85 soldiers from both W-12 and N-12, was doing a decent job as well. Jimmy continued to fire his laser pistol into the swarms of Yolktars that threatened to advance. Although it wasn't a rapid firing weapon, due to the highly volatile nature of the heated plasma within the gun's chamber and the overall frailty of Yolkian-issued armor, the laser pistol did almost as good as a job as the SAWs, the laser beams piercing multiple Yolktars at once. And since whatever plasma Professor Calamitous had decided to use for the weapon, it disposed of the need to reload, as evident by Jimmy who had counted that he had fired at least 30 rounds in a row.

Despite this, the virtually leaderless Yolktars were still able to advance, Jimmy estimating them to have advanced about 10 feet in the past 5 minutes. Jimmy continued to fire with his laser pistol, rounds piercing the weak Yolkian-issued armor and hitting several more behind it while the ensuing mutliple explosions took out aliens to the side which in turn caused a chain effect of up to 5 Yolktars wide until it finally hit a dead spot.

However, things began to turn sour when Jimmy heard, "Ah, I'm out!" Jimmy turned towards the voice and saw that it was from one of the SAW units by the door. Then it hit him.

-Think Cycle-

...whatever plasma Professor Calamitous had decided to use for the weapon, it disposed of the need to reload...

...he had fired at least 50 rounds in a row...

...firing constant streams of lead...

-End Think Cycle-

"Brain Blast!" Jimmy shouted, startling everyone nearby. Jimmy left his post, grabbing his electroaxe on the way, and ran over to the SAW soldier that had run out of ammo. "Soldier, give me your gun." Reluctantly, the soldier complied and Jimmy took the automatic weapon from him. Talking to himself as he worked, he took out the power cell of the laser pistol which was about the size of a single bullet and inserted it into the firing chamber of the weapon. "If this power cell can eliminate the need for reloading for the laser pistol, maybe..." He then welded the firing chamber shut with his electroaxe. Putting the gun back into the hole, he pulled the trigger, causing a barrage of laser bolts to exit the barrel at such incredible velocity that it almst seemed to be a single lance of plasma energy. "Eureka! It works." Handing the newly modified weapon over to its previous owner, Jimmy checked his laser pistol. Pulling the trigger while pointing the gun barrel towards the ground, he wasn't surprised when nothing came out. Shaking his head in dissappointment of what he hoped to have been a miracle, Jimmy began to run around and ask for laser pistols from the 84 non-SAW wielding units.

Once he had gathered 7 laser pistols, he extracted the power sources from each one and installed it into each of the SAW units. Now, with nothing left to shoot with, Jimmy, his friends, and the 3 W-12 soldiers he had taken laser pistols from all stood back and watched from one of the watch towers as the battle carried on, the new and improved SAWs more than compensating for the loss of 8 firing units.

However, much to Jimmy's dismay, the Yolktars were still able to make progress, now 30 feet away from them. With another 10 minutes gone, Jimmy was eagerly awaiting the arrival of reinforcements as the still advancing Yolktarian force grew closer to them. 'If we can just hold for maybe 5 more minutes,' Jimmy thought as he gripped his electroaxe tighter in his hands.

His gripped on them loosened, however, when he saw a large dust cloud closing in maybe 80 feet behind the impeded Yolktars. 'A dust storm/' Jimmy thought skeptically. He squinted his eyes and looked closer. He was surprised to see thousands of W-12 Enforcers charging towards the rear flank of the retreating Yolktars. It appeared that contact would be deadly.

Again, Jimmy's brain went to work as chapters from Sun Tzu's Art of War and several military concepts he had skimmed over came to mind. Turning to his defending force below as they continued to keep the Yolktars, now 20 feet from them, away, he yelled, "Keep firing! The main force is almost here!"

A cry of victory was heard from below as the soldiers appeared to actually shoot faster. Jimmy's morale booster worked efficiently as the Yolktars were practically slaughtered, though they still managed to advance a little bit. From his position in the watch tower, Jimmy used a complex algorithm to calculate the number of units the Yolktars now had left. An astonished Jimmy murmured the result out loud, barely louder than a whisper. "25,000 soldiers..." That was more than half of what was left when they had first flown over them on their way to the walled city they were now defending.

"What was that?" Cindy asked from next to him, hearing what he had said.

Jimmy merely smiled slightly. "There are only 25,000 enemy soldiers left. If we can hold on for 5 more minutes, Shaojia can flank them in the rear, and we'll just help out a little bit more."

At that, Cindy and the rest of their friends smiled along with the 3 soldiers with them in the tower. Jimmy eagerly looked back to the Enforcer main force, now 40 feet away and closing in faster than ever. Jimmy could now visibly see General Tian and Shaojia at the front of the Enforcer front. A loud explosion from the middle of the Enforcer force made Jimmy involuntarily flinch. Seconds later a rocket connected with the Yolktars' rear flank. A cry of victory erupted from all of the defending units as they continued to fire.

The Yolktars were now taking heavy losses from both their front and their rear flanks, Jimmy's unit obliterating them with super-heated plasma, Shaojia's force slaughtering them with... well everything else. Another rocket made contact with the Yolktars' rear before a Howitzer shell landed on the middle, causing a Ripple Effect that decimated the Yolktarian force, taking them down to an astonishing 20,000.

Despite the double assault from the front and back, the Yolktars were still stubbornly pushing their way towards the outer city walls, now 15 feet away. "Come on," Jimmy yelled to his friends and the 3 Enforcers in the watch tower with him as he stepped onto the lift that took back down to the ground. Yelling up to the 6 others, he said, "We have to prepare to repel of they actually do break through."

Walking off to the main gate, Jimmy ordered the units on the ground to pull back and just fire through the door. Forming a small wall, the 6 SAW units kneeled down on the ground as they tore away at the door, eventually obliterating it while destroying th Yolktars on the other side that were now 5 feet from breaching the city.

3 more Howitzer shells landed on top of the Yolktar force, each killing hundreds of the aliens by way of a Ripple Effect. Meanwhile, Jimmy watched on as the Yolktars began to grow closer until finally they were maybe a foot away from entering the city. "Alright, SAW units, get to those 2 watch towers and try to reduce the amount of Yolktars coming into the city. Let us handle the rest." Another Howitzer explosion erupting very close to the front of the Yolktars' retreating force made Jimmy add, "On second thought, just keep firing and do not move until I say so." There were barely audible grunts as the SAW units continued to fire along with the 77 W-12 soldiers that still had ranged weapons. Jimmy turned to the radio manager for the 10th Shandong and told him to contact Shaojia. Upon accomplishing that, Jimmy picked up the microphone and said, "This is General Neutron. General Wang, I request that you only fire at the rear flank of the enemy force. The Yolktars have reached the city, and I have to push them back now."

"Understood," was Shaojia's sole reply. "My men have already reached the rear flank anyways. We'll sandwich them. General Wang out." With that, the communications went dead. Jimmy returned the radio to the radio manager and stood up with his electroaxe gripped tightly in his hand.

"Alright," Jimmy started, "SAWs, stand up and begin to advance. Don't break off until I tell you to." Following his orders, the SAW units advanced towards the Yolktars, pushing them back just slightly, but more or less just killing them where they stood in the archway where the gate once stood. Once they were about 3 feet away from the Yolktars, still being held back by the SAW units along with the others who continued to fire their pistols. "Break off!" Jimmy ordered the SAWs as the Yolktars began to slowly grow a little closer. "Get to the towers!"

The SAW units instantly fled, firing from the sides as they ran to the towers. The moment the SAWs fled, all 85 soldiers, N-12 and W-12 both, charged the Yolktars, pushing them back slightly so that they were just outside of the city. With his captured electroaxe in hand, he used all muscles he may have had toswing it in a powerful and wide arc, destroying a total of 5 Yolktars in a single swipe. When at least 3 electrostaffs came down on him, he used his Yolkian halberd to block all 3 before shifting his weight, spinning around, and cutting down his would-be assailants.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jimmy checked to see how Cindy was doing. Without her qiang, she sliced away at the hordes of Yolktars with her dao. In Jimmy's opinion, it appeared as if she was doing a very graceful dance, stepping sideways whilst pushing her blade, spinning it and tucking it blade-out under her arm before jumping into the air and doing a spinning roundhouse kick, landing in a low stance before jumping up again to send the Yolktar in front of her flying... A beautiful dance it was and for the Yolktars, a very deadly one too.

Jimmy spun his electroaxe like a Shaolin monk, this time not hitting himself as he spun it, taking out Yolktars like a sideways blender. As he demolished the Yolktars with his spinning blender-axe of doom, he caught sight of Sheen caught in a fight with a Yolktar. The hyper Latino swung his qiang like an oversized bat while the Yolktar dodged all of his swings. Well, almost all. Sheen's last swing sliced the eyestocks off of the Yolktar, leaving hte alien blind and vulnerable to Sheen's thuggish kick that sent the alien into 2 of its comrades, killing them all.

An electroaxe coming his direction caused Jimmy to refocus his attention. Blocking the side attack with his Yolkian halberd, Jimmy used the electroaxe's non-lethal end as a pivot on the ground, as he swung himself around to roundhouse kick the alien. Using the momentum caused by his spin to his advantage, Jimmy then took the electroaxe out of the ground and swung it with his momentum, killing any Yolktars close to him in a 270 degree radius. Jimmy turned back around and used the momentum of his turn to take care of the other 180 degrees.

Swinging with his electroaxe like a man working his way through a jungle with a machete, Jimmy found himself checking up on another of his comrade's, Nick. Like Cindy, he had somehow lost his qiang in the midst of battle and was now slicing away with his dao. However, instead of witnessing another sword ballet, Jimmy was watching a real life re-enactment of a Jason Voorhees movie. Nick was using his dao with much power, every swing leaving him moderately open to an attack from the side or from behind. However, Nick was unconcerned of the danger he unknowingly put himself in very time he attacked as he sliced off the arms of a Yolktar before extracting the alien's brain from out of its domed head. Nick paid no mind to the acid that began to slightly burn his skin as he crushed the brain under his boot and wiped the acidic Yolktar goo on his pant leg.

Another attack from in front of him caused Jimmy to refocus his attention once more, rolling out of the way of his attacker, and countering with an upward slice that split the alien from repulsorlift to domed glass helmet. Getting back up to his feet, Jimmy sliced at another nearby Yolktar before looking around him. It appeared as if the double assault was absolutely devastating for the Yolktars as he was pretty far away from the city, perhaps 40 feet away from it. In his path lay not a single living artificial alien.

However, he was just very far out. Taking care of the aliens diretly in front of him, Jimmy turned back around and ran to rejoin with his line, his electroaxe held out to his right side to take out Yolktars along the way as he ran. After 4 minutes of running, Jimmy had taken out over 200Yolktars just by holding his electroaxe that was as long as 3 Yolktars bound together side-by-side. An impressive feat indeed, one that Jimmy never thought he would ever accomplish. And then he had an even better idea.

Once he reached the line, he amplified the axe's electrical power with his watch, jumped into the air, spun around so that he was facing the enemy, and slammed the weapon down on the ground. Just as Jimmy theorized, the usual specks of iron and nickel found in the ground of any non-gaseous planet reacted with the super-powered axe's electric waves, conducting them until they met other metal objects or electrical fields, such at the Yolktars and their electrostaffs.

In an awesome spiderweb of electrical energy, Jimmy's attack to the ground caused the electrical energy in the axe's head to react with the minerals in the ground. The electricity traveled along several random streams, all leading towards the Yolktarian horde. Upon meeting the first Yolktars, the electricity jumped out from the ground and electrecuted the aliens, frying them inside of their armor like hard-boiled eggs. The electricity streamed even farther and electrecuted even more Yolktars, going farther and farther, expanding in a wide-spread stream of electrical death.

Shaojia and General Tian both watched in amazement as the electricity spread quicker and farther. General Tian glanced at Shaojia before asking, "What do you think that is?"

Shaojia stayed silent for a few seconds as he watched the electricity continue to jump around from Yolkar to Yolktar electrecuting anything in its path. "I don't know, but I have a feeling that this is Neutron's doing."

"Neutron?" Tain asked skeptically. "With all due respect to General Neutron, he doesn't come off to me as a very powerful monk or a demon. Albeit, different universe, slightly different rules, but... He comes off more as a scientist really."

Shaojia nodded as a bolt of electricity actually jumped upwards from out of one of the Yolktars, exploding in the air like a battle rocket. "He is a scientist. I happen to remember hearing about a 'Benjamin Franklin' fellow durin ghte American's colonial period. He somehow captured the power of lightning and made electricity. He was a scientist, too. Maybe that's what General Neutron's doing."

"Using that new electroaxe of his as a conduit of some sort?" General Tian asked. Shaojia nodded. Tian looked back towards teh swarms of Yolktars in front of them as the electricity began to work its way towards the rear, anything that was unfortunate enough to be in the arc of electricity's path electrocuted indefinitely, leaving only charred remains. "I suppose, but..."

Shaojia understood what Tian's hesitant reply meant. "I know. It's not... His intelligence I mean... it's incredible for someone of his age, but I guess that's what others would say of our physical strength." Shaojia shook his head. "His Holyness, the Jade Emperor gave me this assignment Himself, you know."

"He did?" Tian asked incredulously.

Shaojia nodded. "His Divine Worship told me to keep Neutron alive at all costs. The same went for his friends. I think I know why. Neutron's intellect will be extremely useful to the Enforcers. I have a feeling that His Imperial Divinity has been told that or at least thinks that something is going to cause Armageddon to come around too early for the gods' tastes, and it'll be something scientific that causes it."

Tian nodded in agreement as the waves of electricity continued to spread towards the rear of the Yolktarian formation. "Should we tell him?"

Shaojia shook his head as the electricity finally killed off the last Yolktars. As the last alien fell, Shaojia's entire force could see Jimmy, standing with his electroaxe smashed to the ground looking at what his attack had wrought as well. "No," Shaojia finally said. "Once the entire force is settled in, contact His Holyness the Jade Emperor and secure the meeting area in a secluded and private area."

General Tian bowed humbly and said, "As you wish."

Shaojia looked back across the plain where over 20,000 Yolktars had been slain by Jimmy's attack, thanks to his knowledge of the sciences. Shaojia cracked a wry smile before yelling towards Jimmy, "Well done, General Neutron. I think we've done enough fighting for today."

Afterthought:

Author: I'm pretty proud about this chapter.

Shaojia: Why? The ending sucked.

Jimmy: Shaojia's right. And what about that precursor of Armageddon? Are we all just going to die in the end?

Cindy: If you don't start explaining now, I'm gonna' punch you in the face.

Emily: Well, I have to say that the parts I worked on went pretty well.

Jimmy: Yeah, they were way better than Author's sad attempts at fluff.

Author: Well, enough Me-bashing, let's get on to our reviewer mail.

(A heavy metal band plays in the background.)

Heavy Metal Band: Reviews! Fuck yeah! Reviews comin' to save the day yeah! Reviews!

(Everyone looks around awkwardly)

Author: Okay then...

Jimmy: Our first review comes from regular reviewer, Kitty 32192. She writes: "you gotta luv the afterthoughts! yur sister is really good at writing fluff. keep on updatin!"

Emily: Thanks, Kit. Big Bro already told me that the next chapter will be up maybe a week after this one, so just hang on.

Cindy: And i'm an exister writes: "yay! a new chapter! nice going bebe"

Author: Um, thanks?

Jimmy: Well, it looks like we've actually gotten through an Afterthought without Author somehow maiming himself so-

(Shaojia taps Jimmy in the shoulder and points to Author who is in the General Lee from the Dukes of Hazard TV series)

Author: (Beings driving towards a steep cliff) Yee-haw! (Honks horn)

(Author flies off of steep cliff. Time freezes and an off-screen voice is heard)

Off-screen voice: Them Author boys better start using their brains, if they get out of this alive I mean.

(Normal time. Author crashes into a mountain of steaks.)

Author: (Falling down to his death) Somebody get me the A-1...!

Jimmy: We should have seen that coming.