Atomic Galaxy
Planet 103: Home
This plan was perfect, it just had to work. It was quite simple and rather logical, but it has never been done before. As effective as it might sound, it was also not very elaborate, therefore Maximus IQ, the self proclaimed greatest super villain genius in the universe, thought it wasn't worthy of him. But lately, after Atomic Betty had time and again stopped him from taking over the universe, he had come to appreciate the simplicity of this plan. To place a tracking device on the Starcruiser and see what planet the ship makes a stop at after a mission.
Placing the tracking devise was no problem. Betty and her crew were too distracted stopping Maximus from placing bomb in a random defenseless planet. All they had to do was take away the control that Maximus was going to use to detonate the bomb and he gave up and ran away. Experts in explosives arrived at the scene to assist the Galactic Guardians and assured them they could handle things from there.
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Today Betty was in a school fieldtrip. They were visiting an old town for historical purposes and there was also a museum there. It was a little far from Moose Jaw Height, but the trip was fun so far. The students were given some time to look around as long as they didn't go too far and stayed in groups. As she walked around along with Noah, Betty spotted an old mansion in the distance and in a clearing next to it she saw Maximus' space ship. Betty stared at it with her eyes open wide, unable to move as a million thoughts raced in her head. "What are you looking at?" Noah's voice brought her back to reality.
Betty quickly made up an excuse. "Look, a gift shop!"
"That's a grocery store," Noah wondered why Betty had started acting so strange all of a sodden after staring at the space ship next the old mansion. Of course he never thought the ship was real, it was probably there for little kids to play in.
"Well it's just as fun, let's go inside!" Betty practically dragged him by the arm into the grocery store.
"Betty, is something wrong?" Noah was a little worried by his best friend's strange behavior.
"Nothing," Betty searched for a way out of there without Noah seeing her. She spotted a mountain of apples neatly piled up like a pyramid. "I want an apple but I'm afraid I'll knock over the pile, could you get one for me, please?" She gave him her sweetest smile, which he couldn't resist.
"Sure, I'll get it." It was true that her sense of balance was better than his and he knew it, but he just couldn't say no. Feeling the guilt already building up, Betty whispered an inaudible apology and pushed the mountain of apples from the other side, then ran away before Noah saw her. The one in charge of the grocery store came running and started yelling at the boy who caused the mess. Noah believed it really was his fault and offered to pick them up. He started making a pile of apples again, only to have them fall every now and then and he had to start over.
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Betty ran towards Maximus' ship. She activated her bracelet to change into her Galactic Guardian uniform just in case it was a coincidence he was here. Just in case this was just another random planet he was attacking. If that was so, then she didn't want to give him any hints by wearing anything different on this planet. There didn't appear to be anyone on the ship so she decided to look around the surrounding area. She entered the old mansion to find a mummy standing behind a counter. From the inside, the mansion looked like an inn. Sure she would receive strange stares if anyone saw her dressed like that, but she would rather have people staring and pointing than the Earth blowing up. Other than the mummy, this place looked pretty normal.
"I told you I'm not going to help," that voice was Maximus, but where was he? Suddenly the door of a large grandfather clock was opened and Maximus came out of a secret passage.
"Wait, the future of this planet depends on you!" Said a man dressed with a white lab coat, black boots, black gloves and goggles on his head. His black and blond hair was spiky and messy. It looked as if lightning hit his head. It was the classic look of a mad scientist.
"Atomic Betty!" Maximus saw her.
"Maximus IQ, you are under arrest!" Betty tried to make it look as if the only reason she was on that planet was to arrest him and not because she lived there.
"Atomic Betty, Maximus IQ, nice to meet you I'm Dr. Cientifico. As I was telling this very interesting feline specimen, I am in need of assistance saving our beloved planet Earth." He sounded like a random crazy guy, the Earth wasn't in any danger other than Maximus and he couldn't be referring to him if he was asking for his help.
"Save the Earth from what?" Betty asked, just to make sure. There was a small probability there might actually be another danger besides Maximus right now.
"You see I have created some planet take over robots and your feline friend over there let them loose when he broke into my lab asking if I knew anything about Atomic Betty. Dear girl, you need to keep a better eye on your pet, the poor cat must have been lost and scared searching for his owner." Dr. Cientifico continued ranting, ignoring Maximus' deadly glare.
"I'm not a specimen, I'm not Atomic Betty's friend and I am definitely not her pet! I am Maximus IQ, the most evil super villain genius in the universe!"
"Well that's really nice and all, but I'm afraid that if you compare the planet take over potential of the planet take over robots and a mutant cat, the robots would take over the planet faster," Dr. Cientifico explained.
Maximus shook his head, wondering if all creatures from pre-contact planets were like this, insane. "I don't care about taking over this planet. It can blow up for all I care, in fact I'll blow it up as soon as I'm off it." He wasn't really going to blow it up, he kind of liked this planet except for the many insane inhabitants, but he had to sound evil. He tried to reason with the scientist; that is scare him, one last time before turning his attention to Atomic Betty. "Clearly this isn't your home planet, you might have tricked me into coming here so that I would fall into your trap and you could arrest me, but it will not work!"
Betty was relived that he didn't know that Earth was in fact her home planet. She quickly played along. "Even if you discovered my plans I'll still arrest you!"
"Aw, a girl and her cat how sweet! But in case you haven't noticed, the future of this planet is in danger! Now miss Atomic Betty since your pet started this mess, I believe it is your responsibility to fix it and you should bring him along to make sure everything's alright. I don't want him accidentally activating the doom's day devise," Dr. Cientifico rambled.
Maximus ignored him, but Betty had a question. "If you really have planet take over robots and a doom's day devise, why would you build them if you don't want to use them?"
"I'm a mad scientist, inventing such things is what I do, but that doesn't mean I have to go all evil and use them. Now shall we save the Earth?" Dr. Cientifico took a small controller with many buttons from his coat pocket and pressed a few buttons. From a door behind the counter where the mummy was, came two large robots. "R51Y and R52Y, take our guests to the lab." The scientist entered the grandfather clock, followed by the two robots; each of them picked up Betty and Maximus and carried them to the lab. "Now listen carefully," Dr. Cientifico continued while his roots pushed Betty and Maximus into a time machine. For a random mad scientist he made pretty strong robots. "The first prototype of my time machine was a little slow. It took the same amount of time to travel to the past as the amount of time back you wanted to travel and it only worked backwards. For example if it is 2:00pm and I wish to time travel to 1:00pm it would take an hour to get to the past, so by the time I get there, it would already be 2:00pm in the past; but I have modified my time machine to make it faster! It will take only a few seconds to travel to one hour in the past, once there, you must tell my past self to lock the door so random cats can't get in, that will undo the danger that was set loose today. When your mission is accomplished, you must return here and never speak of this to anyone again. Bye, bye!" Before Betty and Maximus could protest, there a bright light as the mad scientist activated the so called time machine.
Betty looked out a window of the fish shaped container that Dr. Cientifico called a time machine. It looked more like a strange old submarine with large glass windows where the fish's eyes would be. There was nothing out there, nothing but many strange colors light and randomness. The colors changed, mixing with each other, light, shadows, nothing could be identified. A few minutes passed, instead of a few seconds.
Maximus was also looking outside by the other window and saw the same thing. The fish shaped time machine shook around until the mouth opened and they were able to exit, but they were no longer in the lab. Instead they were in a strange planet. "What just happened?" Maximus was confused. He wished he had brought Minimus along to hit and blame for anything and everything, but his little sidekick was unconscious at the lair. 'I knew it was a bad idea to hit him with that hammer,' Maximus thought. 'Minimus better be awake by the time I get back or else.'
"I'm not sure," Betty admitted. That old thing couldn't have been a working time machine. Maybe it was some kind of strange space ship.
"Hello? Are you two still alive?" They heard a voice from inside the fish ship. They quickly rushed inside and saw Dr. Cientifico on the screen. "Sorry, but it appears that there was a minor short circuit that sent you two a lot further into the past then I expected. See that little thing next to the control panel, the little metal box. Pick it up and take it with you, it will display a hologram so I can call you when I repair things over here. You see the, vessel you traveled in is controlled remotely from here. Go on and look around now, but be careful not to mess up history or anything." The transmission was ended.
"I don't believe we actually time traveled," Maximus headed outside again.
"Neither do I," Atomic Betty followed. She would have to investigate about that mad scientist later. It appears that they were brought to another planet and even if this wasn't time travel, planetary travel was something not common on Earth. It was something that should be brought to the attention of the Galactic Guardians, just in case. Betty activated her bracelet to call the Starcruiser, but it didn't work. Great, trapped in strange planet with Maximus, no way of communication other than with a mad scientist, while that same a mad scientist is on the loose on Earth and Noah's probably stuck under a pile of apples.
Maximus had gone off to look around to try to determine what planet he was on and find a way of communication so someone could come pick him up. "Welcome visitors," a red haired woman identical to Betty's mother except for the hair color came to greet them. "We don't get many visitors from other planets here, who might you be?"
"I am Maximus IQ, the greatest super villain genius in the universe!" Maximus expected the woman to be scared or at least recognize him.
"No you're not," the woman sounded sure of what she was saying. "I would know Maximus if I saw him, he's pretty famous. I know you can't be him because he never goes anywhere without his sidekick Minimus and this young lady doesn't look like Minimus to me. Are you a fan of Maximus? That would explain why you kind of look like him."
"I am Maximus!"
"If you wish to be called that then Maximus it shall be and who do we have here?"
Betty was trying to get over her surprise to find someone that looked so much like her mother. "I'm Atomic Betty."
"My name is Okasan, nice to meet you both."
Maximus had noticed Betty was a little surprised by that woman and they looked so much alike. Could they be related? "What planet is this?"
"This is planet Palma," Okasan replied.
"Palma?" Maximus and Betty were taken by surprise.
"Yes, Palma, in the Algo solar system," Okasan explained. "Are you two lost? I know, why don't you stay and have lunch with me and my daughter. It will be nice to have some company over and my daughter will be happy to meet Galactic Guardians. Her name is Betty too and she looks a lot like you." Okasan started walking towards the house, indicating for Betty and Maximus to follow. Both of them very confused, followed her. How could this be planet Palma if they knew Palma was destroyed a long time ago? As they entered the house, they saw a little girl. "This is my daughter Betty. Betty they are Atomic Betty and Maximus. Why don't you go show our guests your space ship collection while I serve lunch?"
"Okay, mom," the little girl looked so much like Atomic Betty it was almost scary. "This way," she led them to another room where there were many toy space ships. She explained what each of them was called. "This is my favorite," she picked up a toy ship. "It's the latest in technology," both Atomic Betty and Maximus recognized that ship model and it wasn't the latest.
A hologram suddenly popped up from the small metallic box Betty was holding. "Good news, I've fixed everything here and I'll bring you back. After that, we can refuel and send you to the past that I should have sent you to. So jump on the time machine and get over here," the hologram disappeared as soon as Dr. Cientifico's message was over.
The little girl looked at the metal box curiously. "Do you have to go now?"
"Yes, we better go," Atomic Betty voiced. "Sorry we couldn't stay for lunch."
"It's okay, it's nice that you visited just for a little while. My mommy and I are alone here because daddy is in a business trip, but he will come back the day after tomorrow but I won't see him for another week. Tomorrow I get to visit the Galactic Guardians Headquarters and stay there in a training program for a week. I'm going to be a Galactic Guardian someday!" The little girl was clearly looking forward to it.
Before Maximus could say anything to criticize the Galactic Guardians, Betty spoke first. "Sounds great, have fun at headquarters. I'm sure you'll be a great Galactic Guardian someday. We have to go now."
Suddenly Maximus looked as if he just realized something. He silently followed Betty back to the fish shaped ship, lost in thought.
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The journey back to the lab was the same as when they got there and soon they had returned to Earth. "So good to have you back alive!" Dr. Cientifico greeted. "Guess what? I totally forgot I had a remote control that stops the robots from taking over the Earth. They returned to the lab as programmed and are now deactivated. He pointed to several small robots in a corner of the lab. "Yes, I know they look like toys, but they're dangerous. Well I guess I won't be needing your help after all, you can go now." Once again the robots R51Y and R52Y picked them up and placed them outside, then closed the door to the odd mansion.
"I know what's going on," Maximus announced and for a second Betty feared that her home planet was discovered. "We did time travel we were taken to planet Palma in the past before it was destroyed. Okasan looks like you because she's your mother and that little girl she must have been you. Yes, it all makes sense. You were spending your week with the Galactic Guardians when planet Palma was destroyed and your parents were still on the planet. The Galactic Guardians adopted you and you became Atomic Betty. I have it all figured out, I'm such a genius!" Maximus laughed victoriously.
"I guess you know the truth now," Betty sounded sad, after all her planet and family were destroyed, and she intended to take advantage of having that excuse to keep the Earth safe.
"I guess I won't be able to destroy your home planet after all because you don't have one! Too bad I wasn't the one who blew it up." The planet depended on a climate control to be inhabitable and it was the lack of maintenance that cause a short circuit so big it cause a chain reaction that destroyed the planet without a warning. "I almost feel sorry for you, almost." Maximus walked off to his ship and left.
"Just in case you're wondering," Dr. Cientifico came out of the mansion. "That fish shaped time machine was actually a suspended animation device and everything you saw was a dream." He reached into his coat pocket and took out a deactivated tracking chip. "Gotta be careful with these little things, but I don't think Maximus will be bothering to stalk you anymore."
Atomic Betty came to a realization. "You were with the Galactic Guardians all along!"
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With the Earth safe, Betty headed off to the grocery store where she left Noah, after she used her bracelet to change into her normal clothes.
"Hurry up kid before, I call your teacher and get you suspended." The store owner complained, while Noah tried his best to build the apple pyramid as it was before, but he kept knocking them over.
Betty snuck into the store and stood behind the pile. The next time Noah knocked them over, she pretended to fall. "Ow! My ankle!"
"Where did you come from?" The store owner looked at Betty. "You didn't hurt yourself, did you?"
"Oh my ankle hurts so much. Maybe Noah could help," Betty faked pain.
Noah immediately forgot about how angry he was because she disappeared. He thought it was entirely his fault that the apple pyramid came down in the first place, but she could have stayed to help, she was the one who wanted the apple after all. He quickly took her hand and helped her get up. The store owner looked worried. "Why don't you kids run along and don't worry about the apples."
"Afraid to be sued?" Noah had a hard time because of the store owner yelling at him every time the pile of apples came down when he was almost done. The owner laughed nervously and held the door open for them.
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When they were far enough from the store, Betty started walking normally again. "You were faking it," Noah concluded.
"It was the only way to get you out of there or the bus will leave without us," Betty explained. "Sorry I ran off."
"It's okay; at least you came back for me."
End of Planet 103
Disclaimer, I don't own Atomic Betty. The scene in the inn mansion and the grandfather clock is from Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle. The robot names are from Chrono Trigger based on R66Y's (Robo) name. Planet Palma is from the original Phantasy Star game series. Why does Betty's fake mom have red hair? Because they didn't want to make her look exactly like the real one, they also gave her a different name for security and they wanted to make Betty's secret story easy to guess for Maximus. Okasan means mother in Japanese and Cientifico means scientist in Spanish.
