11. Return of the Space Ranger
After some minutes of searching and lurking, Warp spotted an entrance in the end of one corridor. It was empty everywhere, since every single grub and loose brain had gone to the lands of sleep.
"Ah... room A-Z1-l3 as always... the Lab", he grimaced and pulled the heavy door open. In front of him and XR widened quite a mess of science and medicine.
"Now what kinda medicine man finds somethin' in here?" XR leered around, shrugging to all the bottles and liquids that were jutting here and there. The laboratory was not any small alchemist's nook, but moreover a minor factory.
"Quasars... the messes can't be far away, if they're for his precious apprentice... or at least the stuff should be marked somehow. When I see what he's overdamped with, I can try to find a cure."
Indeed, there was a smallish flivver near the main door. It had several injection needles and some half-full test tubes of crimson drug.
"This looks promising..." Warp fingered his goatee, then picking one of the bottles up. From the name label he read, "'For Zenith. Two doses per day, 10 mg diazepam, 1 mg alprazolam, 5 mg antiserotonin...' Twisting toroids! This is it, Zurgapharabolihyberboloidium! Old but efficient medicine... no doubt Zurg's been sticking this a couple of litres into Buzzy's vessels..."
"Usch." was XR's only comment.
"Now, be a useful droid and scan if ya see a bottle of bebobium-lemniscate here somewhere. Some milligrams of that shoul' be enough to wake up that narcomaniac."
XR sensitised his eyes like binoculars and soon spotted a small glass jar of the mentioned medicine across the room. Warp went to grip it, dancing then a couple of circles with sheer joy.
"Now this'll do the trick!"
Back in Buzz's rooms, Darkmatter then stuck a hypodermic syringe full of the healing potion into Zenith's vessel. As it was predicted, there was no knowledge for how long it would take from him to recover and find the true self again. All it was to do was waiting.
"Any idea how long he's like a vegetable?" XR yawned.
"Well..." Darkmatter meditated, "If we count that there's the bunch I gave him, then he has to forget that he's Zurg's hailer, I'd say a couple of hours minimum."
"And we're gonna do what during that time?" Booster asked fatigued.
"You can sleep if you feel so. It's pretty late. We just huddle here and tell ghost stories to each other", XR launched.
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A grey fog enveloped the vision organs of Buzz Lightyear. His head felt like it would explode, a million untuned tubas played a chaotic march in his ears, spiced up with the squawks of distant crows. In front of his eyes, were figures... somehow familiar, but so remote...
"Uh... what the craters..." he left a small groan from his throat.
"He's waking up!" Booster's voice echoed somewhere in the hallways of eternity.
Two blue faces were delineated upon Zenith. Then some small creature with skin as pale as a ghost... then a rotund, red shadow..."
Buzz blinked his mucous eyelids, attempting to get rid of the haze.
"Wha..." he uttered, finally conceiving who were upon him.
"Mira? B-Booster...XR... W-Warp?" he distinguished the persons one by one, staying then to gawp at Darkmatter his finger erect in the air.
"Yay, ol' pal..." Warp sneered back.
"Captain, are you all right?" Booster inquired severe.
Buzz shook his head, still being half in the world of dreams. He noticed himself lying on his back the floor, his team and the two extra members gathered around him.
"Wha... what h-happened...? Where am I?" he tried to get some sense to the whole thing. With difficulty he managed to sit up supported by his elbows.
"Dontcha remember, cap? You were gonna be the next Lord Sidious!" XR pointed out.
In a bolt the memories of three weeks flashed into Buzz's mind. A terrible grimace spread across his face as he cast his regard towards the clothes he was wearing.
"No! NO! What have I done? I was..." he stammered.
"The freshly baked servant of the dark side..." Warp commented.
"H-How are you here...? And, you?" Buzz was left to stare Darkmatter, as he had done previously.
Mira shortly summarised what had happened. Tears in his eyes, Buzz mourned his commissions and what he had let himself do. "I don't understand... how this could... what I have done? Betrayed Star Command by telling Zurg every little security detail of it! Betrayed the Galactic Alliance! And now... Zurg is preparing the Imperial Army to attack the Universe Protection!"
The whole group around him gasped for terror.
"All my fault! How are we going to stop him?" he cried out in emotional pain.
"Hush, Captain, you couldn't have resisted what you did. Not in that narcosis", Mira attempted to soothe the atmosphere.
"I let my mind get weak! I let it wander along the wrong path! I actually believed what Zurg told me! I... was in the fate that I would be never saved from here... t-thank you that you finally came."
"It took us pretty long time since there were obstacles on the road", Zarah explained.
"And maybe we can still stop the Emperor. That's why we're here. Team Lightyear to the rescue!" XR blurted.
"And Captain, don't blame yourself about what has occurred. You're good again!" Booster added.
With both hands, full of anger, Buzz ripped his extra cloak away, letting the Z buckle bounce to the furthest corner of the room.
"I am not a servant of darkness!"
"Well, welcome to the lighter side", Darkmatter chuckled, as if he had always been there.
Buzz' face remained in its severe expression. "Warp... I'm so glad to see you alive and in condition. I'm very ashamed of this whole thing, it was partly my fault. If I hadn't begun to follow your wife, I'd never arrived in such a trap..."
It was not an easy moment for Darkmatter, either. When he had actually discussed with Buzz in a reasonable way, lately? It had been years. What would he answer to such a sentence? Confused he turned his regard away from Lightyear.
Conversely, the Captain extended him his hand. Buzz was just informed that the whole rescue trip was Warp's merit, that without him here now, Buzz would have possibly been left into the abysses of darkness for forever... not to mention the destiny of the Galactic Alliance. Such a close shave it had been... Zurg was there preparing his armies, ready to blast off the whole peace of the Milky Way.
"Warp... I want to thank you... for what you have done this far", Buzz noted.
With an awkward expression, Darkmatter murmured something back and shook lightly the hand that was in front of him. "It ain't over, yet. We gotta get ya outta this bogey lair and save the universe, like in all those corny science fiction movies."
"Still, Warp... I'm glad to see you after all these years as a reformed man. In my heart I hoped that you would change someday and now that has happened", Buzz gave an elegiac smile.
"Nah..." Darkmatter rolled his eyes and gripped Zarah, putting her in front of Buzz' nose. "Thank this li'l thing here. Without her, I'd still be happily swimming in the pool of my moon..."
Buzz knew what was behind this sarcasm and shook warmly once again the blue hand. "No, it's you who did the choice."
"So, Mister Dark Lord, how's the head?" Darkmatter decided to shift the topic.
Just now, Lightyear actually felt the ache that emitted from his occiput. Then there was the fog left by the drugs. "Let me guess, you gave me a jolt?"
"Yeah, for the sake of the old times!" the blue alien chuckled. "D'ya think you can stand up? I mean, you need to crawl out of here. Our ship is a bit in a distant place."
Buzz tried out his suggestion. At first, he was to fall, but gained back the balance and finally stood with two legs. He appeared to be worn out, but with his strong physiques, was able to recover quite fast.
"Ya still look like a sapling in a storm!" Warp gave a laugh.
Thus the atmosphere had in a breeze lightened up. The rest of Team Lightyear were amazed how well Warp and Buzz got along with each other, after all the years of fighting and hate. So fast had the ropes of friendship been fastened, again. Mira, Booster and XR ultimately had to admit that they had been wrong regarding Darkmatter; he was a reliable and reformed man, under that sarcastic bad-boy cover. Maybe it was his trademark to play that minor baddie role, at least Buzz took it like that. In Star Command academy, before Warp had turned to serve Zurg, they had been the best of friends -so why not now, too?
"Righto, what's the plan of getting outta here?" XR blurted, after the conclusion had been made that the captain was able to walk.
"That's one heckuva question..." Warp pressed his forehead with his palm. Two minutes Buzz' chamber was in total silence, since everyone grilled their brains with that jigsaw puzzle.
"Any ideas...?"
"Nah. My head is as empty as the inners of a football."
"In any case, we need to approach so that the minions here won't understand me being myself, again", Buzz noted and for the same moment comprehended that he had a way to get out in his hands. "That's it. You keep pretending your cleaner roles and I keep mine. I guess we can make up something en route along these corridors. Like that I was giving you tasks and leading you somewhere. Where's your ship?"
"It's not very near... hopingly this will work." Booster was quite nervous.
"It'll go to the ditch or to the puddle. Let's give a try, shall we?"
Therefore, after Mira had grumbling set the mop back to her head, the rescue troop left the chamber and headed out. It was quite an early morning, so the traffic in the main halls was rather inactive. It had literally taken the whole night to heal Lightyear. By hook or by crook, all the group members had been able to sleep some moments, so that they were not that tired as expected. Zarah was maybe the liveliest after spending the night snoring under the arm of her master.
In the second floor was the first obstacle. A group of brain-pods met the fugitives. Immediately Buzz took an evil grin on his face and straightened up his pose.
"Evil morning, Lord Zenith! Shouldn't you still be in your chamber?" the lackey signed #113 asked a bit suspiciously. He did not actually know, had the apprentice any permission to be here.
Lightyear angrily talked with chest tone. "I am presenting this group their work functions. They shall be ordered to clean the 2nd refuge chute with toothbrushes so sparkly and shining that one can see his reflection from the walls. Evil purity."
"Oh, I see. Do you want me to guide you there, Sir?" the jar asked back.
"Not necessarily. I know my way, the dark side leads me."
"Very well then, Sir! Have a very malicious day!"
The minions let the relieved refugees through, but behind their backs, they continued their discussion.
"I wonder if I should shout after Lord Zenith that the place where they're going is not that way." #113 noted to his companion.
"But Sir Zenith will find it, didn't you hear what he said?" #9362 added.
"Oh but I will thank the Emperor about this so much, that refuge chute has been such an annoyance to our organs of smell for a long time! It is so good that it will be disinfected." #3363 put up his comment.
Buzz and his crew had arrived to the underground tunnel of the first floor, when Warp opened up his mouth, laughing impishly, "Lord Zenith! Double quasars! Not even I was called with that kind of prefixes here. What the bouncing Eridanus are you, some kind of a prince of Z Empire?" He had taken the hornet head away for to get some air.
Lightyear felt his forehead shimmering quite a lot. "Kr-hm. I don't want to talk about that. Do you think I had some kind of idea that one day Zurg would want me to be his apprentice?"
"Yee-haw... at least ya have adopted your role pretty well since you have even learned to talk like the Purple Hazard. I bet ya never used the word 'shall' before the holiday here", Darkmatter sniggered.
The face of the captain grew gloomy. "This experience will haunt me years after this... I'll maybe never get rid of the disgusting thought that there is an evil side in me, too, and that it can be awakened even that easily..."
Under his sarcastic nature, Warp felt suddenly compassion towards Buzz. He knew perfectly what where the ghosts that would be hollering in his head, years, years after it all had ended. Putting his flesh hand on Buzz' shoulder, he talked with a low tone. "Lisn'... I didn't mean to be mean. I know what it is... an' that it ain't a piece of space dust to swallow..."
A light smile brightened up Lightyear's expression. Patting Warp's back, he nodded, "I guess this is nothing compared to it what you have gone through. But thanks, buddy."
"Nah..." the blue alien cast his eyes towards the floor.
"Still... I have a million question marks spinning in my head. I can't partly understand the way Zurg treated me. I've always thought that he only has wanted to kill me... but this thing was far something else. And beyond that all... there's something eerily familiar in him, like... like that I'd know him somehow..." Buzz fingered his chin with wrinkled brows.
"Ha-ha! Yeah, right!" his conversation companion burst into guffaws. "Sure! Maybe ya were visiting the factory as a kid where that android was manufactured!"
Those words jerked Buzz into his own reality. So Warp did not know that Zurg was not a robot? Under that disguise was hidden some kind of a being, maybe some green slimy slug, who knew. As Lightyear was now in his full sense, he could more rationally deliberate the issue than in his narcotic state. "Zurg... as if I'd met him once in another form... how can he be so dumbfoundingly familiar? But it can't be... I've still been a child when the Emperor began his reign... and how on Mars can I distantly feel that he doesn't want to hurt me, after all... or are these just the shrieks of the dark side, left as remains of these days, forever..." He decided to draw another discussion topic forth, leaving Warp still to believe that the ultimate villain was mechanic.
"Ahh... when I get home, I'll take a hot shower and get rid of this beard!" he sighed.
"Why? I think that black hair on your face passes you quite well", Warp commented.
"Craters... it'll just remind me of this all."
"Think it as a fashion change. Ya might try to keep that for a while. See, Zurgie must've got some kind of fashion chip installed under that horn head, because his li'l tips tend to work. See, he once told me to grow this goatee."
Now it was Lightyear's turn to laugh. "He did? And you've kept that thing for years!"
"Uh-huh."
So the troop continued to walk along the long tunnel.
-----------------
Meanwhile...
Emperor Zurg had just banged the door of his private hall shut. The lord used to wake up early, since in his age, the sleep did not come that well any more, as in the bright years of youth. This day would be a big day to him in the stream of time. To prepare his mighty army to attack that pathetic Alliance. Thus maybe tomorrow, he would have gathered so much power that he would be ready for his big, nasty surprise.
Yet, something in his subconscious kept humming that not everything was right in their grooves in his empire. As if there had been a great loss of evilness during the last 12 hours.
"Mwahahaahaah. Never mind of those buzzes in my magnanimous brains. Things have never been in a greater balance in the dark side! And my empire shall shine its black glory..."
Beaming he entered his throne room and sat boasting down to his seat.
"Now only to wait for Zeniths return. I shall let that boy sleep a bit longer today since it was laborious for him, yesterday."
Suddenly there was a knock in the hall door. Zurg pushed an entrance button and let the lackey in that was behind it.
"What?" the Emperor snorted.
"Oh, Sir Darkness! I sure have to praise you about the great deed you have ordered to do!" It was the brain-pod number 3363 who had come to announce his gratitude about the refuge chute cleaning operation.
Zurg's expression turned smug and he took a relaxed pose in his throne. "Oh, yes, my superior plan to take over the Alliance..."
"Yes, Sir, that is magnificent, too, but I actually came to thank you about the other one."
"Hmh... what other one?" Zurg tried to remember.
"Oh but Your Lowliness! The cleaning task! Lord Zenith was just leading the stewardesses to start the work in refuge chute 2nd. I must say that the smell has been this far..." the visitor in front of Zurg explained lively.
Then the villain awoke. This was something completely new to him. "Zenith was where? He should be sleeping!"
"He was there guiding the cleaners. I was thinking that they went in a bit wrong direction since the refuge chute 2nd is in the north wing, but he was..." the story continued.
Zurg could nothing but stare at the brain-pod flabbergasted. "WHAT?"
"S-s-s-sir...?" the unlucky servant wheezed.
"I have NOT ordered to clean the refuge chute 2nd!"
"S-s-sir, I..." #3363 searched for the best quick entrance with his regard. He did not want to be blasted by Zurg's laser eyes.
"Quasars! What is going on behind my back?" Zurg bellowed. "I have NOT ordered any group of cleaners from any system to come here. Neither should Zenith be with any of those. Immediate alarm!"
Now the minion had a good excuse to whiz away from the fierce lord. He would make a drill. Meanwhile, after the Emperor had gathered his thunderstruck thoughts, he pushed a comm. link button of his throne screen and called for 30 hornets. He could still not believe what had happened, but the things were not in their own positions. Zenith was acting against the orders. Wasn't he supposed to be under the influence of the medicines? Was it possible that he could have awakened from his state? It was obvious that the apprentice attempted to flee. There was no other reason why he would be walking with that kind of an unknown group, in the very wrong floors of the Palace.
"The son of Z. Z. Lightyear will never leave this place!" Zurg yelled and blazed around with his red regard. "He will obey me and take back his position, would it then be with whatever means! He will be punished until he is humble enough to cringe in front of my might!"
When the hornets had been gathered, Zurg switched on his jet boots and leaded the dark battalion to the place he understood his disobedient apprentice travelling.
It did not take even half an hour after the Emperor found the fox that had fled the trap. He caught up Team Lightyear from behind, in the underground tunnel. So silently he had been approaching his booty that no one of the representatives of the good side had been prepared to this.
"Apprentice Zenith!" a loud, metallic holler suddenly echoed in the corridor.
Startled Buzz and his crew turned about, getting their eyes wide because of the menacing view. Zurg himself stood there with a flock of hornets, ready for action.
"Apprentice Zenith, where do think you are going? And who may I ask is your charming company?" the Emperor roared, eyes firing electric fury.
"I am Buzz Lightyear, not your apprentice. I know no else name but the one that was given for me as I was born. I don't serve you!" the Captain shouted back and prepared to defend himself.
Zurg gasped in frenzy, "You were supposed to be in narcosis! And you shall serve me, until the stars fade! Your pathetic cleaner company is not there to opposite my army! Hornets, get them!"
For the same second, Mira threw away her fancy dress and so did the rest. Soon Team Lightyear (excluding Buzz) stood there resolute their wrist lasers tuned. In addition, it was a sheer moment of terror for the Dark Lord, when the robot-looking tall creature in front of him tossed his mask away, revealing the face of a man that was supposed to lie under a tombstone.
"Darkmatter!" Zurg was to lose his balance, when hovering there with his jets. Warp grinned back ironically and shifted the hand part of his right arm to some kind of a tool. "Greetings from the graveyard!"
"Darkmatter!" Zurg spat, "How dare you do this to me, again? You once ruined my empire, and there shall be no other change! This time, I shall make it true that you are and STAY dead!"
"Not so fast, Mister Purple Curtain", Warp smirked and blasted something with his arm towards the two hornets that were right beside the enemy. He got a straight hit and in a picosecond, the droids were covered with something pink and tacky that mainly resembled chewing gum.
"What's that?" Buzz made a quick wonder.
"It's handy to have an engineer at home. That sticky mess is Choi-X-glue , a patented invention. Will stop any moving object, but won't harm it." Warp laughed.
"Talk about non-violence!"
"You will not get away with this!" The Emperor roared from the other part of the corridor, "Hornets, bring Zenith to me! Do not harm him. The others you can finish off."
Those were the words to start a traditional cat-dog race.
After spending some time blasting and evading Zurg's metal servants, the hero team decided to get away from the tunnel. The air was too much filled with sulphurous fumes. Moreover, it definitely was not any joy-ride for them, since the imperial forces were quite magnificent in comparison to the little Star Command gang. The Emperor called more hornets into the battle, also participating himself to the event. His main target seemed to be Darkmatter. It was now an obsession for him to get rid of that blue pest, who had come to destroy once again his dark schemes. The fight shifted to roll its chaos to a large stock room where the underground tunnel leaded. Laser rays whizzed by, destroying robots, burning holes into the walls. The droids were told to shoot dead everyone else, but Buzz. Actually, inside the robes of the Emperor was struggling an emotion that told him not to hurt Zenith too much. But the others, for them the heart remained cold as a snow cone.
Warp's chewing gum gun indicated to be quite efficient in averting dangers. It glued hard the objects into their places. The only slight problem was that the supply would not be enough there for infinity and beyond. In addition, Star Command lasers were necessarily not the best defenders against the plasma riffles of Zurg's hornets. Team Lightyear slowly retreated trying to find a way to get out of the building. Therefore, the situation needed random happenings for to get a conclusion.
In the heated combat-zone, no one paid attention to a particular hornet that had got stuck beside a certain doorway. Warp had recently blasted a glue-missile towards it and made a good hit. However, the droid tried its best to free itself from the arresting material. It flung and fought back, its nano-flip-flops signalling almost in the point of overheating. Suddenly there was a shortcut in its main CPU, causing the robot start to shoot plasma doses out of its riffles, without a detected target. It happened to wrestle beside an electricity control room. A couple of ion doses slid into the open doorway, hitting straight a complex combination of computers, crystallic fusion chamber connectors and other devices. The lost projectiles indicated to be quite deadly for that room and its functions. With a huge bang, the plasma hit the electric gadgets. That was a start for an immeasurable chain reaction. Along the cords, the over-current slipped in light speed to a dozen of control junctions. Not even the laws of Kirchhoff were there to stop it. This leaded to an unexpected mass destruction, beginning a series of detonations.
Team Lightyear, Warp and Zarah woke up to hear the hundreds of smaller and bigger explosions that happened in the miscellaneous parts of the building. A new panic struck, as if there would not have been enough tumults this far. Where to go? How to be safe? Out of the blue, the whole room shook as if an earthquake would have taken it in its hands. Some stands that were attached to the ceiling, fell heavily onto the floor, bringing down some pillars and layers of wall material. Then, a bang so loud that it made tinnitus to take over everyone's ears. After that, silence. All the voices of human life had suddenly faded. The hall was full of smoke and dust, which darkened the air to an artificial night. When the reek gradually faded, it revealed a miserable view. Broken hornets lying here and there, among the large pieces of concrete, pillars and trash metal, were the results.