Chapter 75: Homeward Bound

It wasn't the worst of jobs, being the commanding officer of the Liberator…but it wasn't the most rewarding, either: the admiral knew that he had to act quickly; otherwise the Linonians would come up with another, similar warship and destroy the Rendilian Bloc. The Liberator was already well within enemy territory, and they had yet to encounter any opposition…

"Sir, ferra-tor-khminh and riidae-tor-ortsa approaching!"

The spiderspheres and lamprongs were in some kind of formation, with the spiderspheres tucked inside the lamprongs' fangs. This gave the spiderspheres some engine power, which they didn't have at all before.

"Activate the Sun Cannon. It's time to field test it." Out of the front of their rotating ship, a cannon was deployed. It aimed at the death stors and fired. The yellow shot hit a single one, and the explosion was huge. It destroyed all the rest of the mega-level machines, and it rocked the Liberator to one side, although it didn't damage the Liberator.

"Apparently, sir, it's best used at long-range."

"Indeed."

The next few hours were uneventful, until…

"Sir, there's an atrio-tor-ritap coming in at lyceron velocity."

"What's its destination?"

"…The Kamnala system, sir!"

"You don't suppose…this can only mean that they are implementing Protocol Omega. Use the Sun Cannon and destroy it, now!"

"Understood, sir." The ballistack exploded before it got far.

"Amazing…those cruise missiles have armor shielding that could withstand a praze-tor-aliirtu's attack, and we destroyed it in one shot…"

"The Sun Cannon is a piece of work, sir."

"Good…we may need it…"

******

Tina knew that there was something going on from the moment she opened her eyes. It obviously wasn't an attack; people weren't worried at all. Nonetheless, Tina felt wary as she changed out of her pajamas and into her turtleneck and overalls.

She caught Yolei just as she passed by her room. "Say, Mom…what's going on?"

"We have visitors who want to meet Joey," Yolei answered, showing Tina a pair of creatures who looked almost exactly like Joey, only bigger. They were both wearing something that looked a lot like space suits.

"…Joey?" Tina asked.

Joey's head popped out of her pocket. Joey looked at the other two, and began excitedly whistling and jumping around.

"…Mom…what do they want?"

"The same thing Joey wants: to help us out of this."

"They're from Joey's planet, aren't they?"

Yolei nodded and smiled. "Joey can finally go home, now. And so can we."

"…Huh??"

"These guys are called Rendilians. They're the leaders of this huge bloc that has been fighting the Linonians for centuries. About twenty years ago by our time, the war got out-of-hand, and both sides decided to sign a peace treaty, but they both knew that the treaty wouldn't hold."

"Uh…how does Earth factor into this story?" Tina asked.

"It doesn't…yet. Earth was far from both their spaces, and both sides were so preoccupied with fighting each other that they didn't have time to explore the galaxy. But during the peacetime, they both realized that Earth had silicon and iron, and both tried to secure Earth. The Linonians broke the treaty when they tried to take over Earth, since Earth was defined as neutral territory, and that's when war broke out again. The war wasn't going very well for the Rendilians…they knew it was because the Linonians had our solar system. But by then, there wasn't anything they could do about it."

"So Joey had to do something about it."

"And he got them a landslide victory, so far," Yolei answered. "That's how they were able to get here."

"…Why were the Linonians trying to destroy Earth?"

"Thanks to our resistance, they thought it was too much trouble to conquer, so they were going to destroy it instead, so that the Rendilians couldn't get any iron or silicon from Earth, either. If you can't win, make sure your enemies lose…the Linonians call it Protocol Omega."

"…But that doesn't answer my first question: why can we suddenly go home, now?"

"Because the Rendilians know about the Linonians' time scrambled technology. They have the antidote to it!"

"What?!"

"They have something like a bomb that they can drop, and that will have the same effect as the time scrambler did in the first place, except it will completely un-scramble time."

Tina's jaw dropped: their prayers were answered. It was over…but wait a second… "Mom…would it wipe our memories clean, too?"

"It might, or it might not…we don't know, sometimes these time anomalies can be unpredictable."

Tina gulped: she didn't have much time to make up with June about this…

******

June was roused from her sleep by a knock at her door. "Who is it?"

"It's me!" Tina whispered.

June groaned and sat up in bed. After a moment's consideration, she got out of bed, tiptoed to the door, and stepped into the hallway. "Tina…what's this about?"

Tina was so ashamed of what had happened that she didn't even look June in the eyes. "June…I set up the blind-date-survey thing. I set up the dates with Matt, and with Brock…I'm sorry."

June let out a disgusted sigh. "Tina…you don't know what you're messing with when it comes to love. Have you ever been in love, before?"

Tina shook her head.

"Then don't pretend like it's something you know everything about. Look…I know that you want to make everything up to me, but that date with Brock didn't go so well. He just babbled like his brain wasn't working, or something. But…" June hesitated. Tina wasn't going to break the silence, though. "…I'm the same way around Matt, aren't I?"

Tina slowly nodded.

"Then…" June sighed. "You don't know anything about love…but you still taught me a lot. If I'm going to keep dating, I'll have to get my act together first…"

Tina didn't know whether June had said this to get it off her mind, or whether this was leading up to something… "…I'm sorry, June."

June patted Tina on the shoulder. "It's okay…I know you had good intentions…but next time, don't lie through your teeth."

"The next time, I'll have Ash use Bulbasaur to tie you down with Vine Whip. Thanks…for forgiving me…"

June nodded and yawned. "I'm going back to bed. See you in the morning."

"No…you won't," Tina answered.

"Huh? Tina, what're you talking about? …Something's going on; what is it?"

"The Linonians' enemies just landed on Earth…they have a device that will un-scramble time for us."

"…Wow…!"

"That's why I wanted to make up with you now…since we might not remember anything afterwards…"

June slapped her forehead and covered her eyes. "That means I won't remember what I just learned!"

Tina left June with her fatigue and bewilderment, and ran to the orphanage. She scooped up Ingrid and took Natasha by the hand.

"What's going on, Tina?" Natasha asked.

"It's…I wanted to say goodbye."

"…Why? You're talking like we'll never see each other again…are you going on a suicide mission? Is the base going to get attacked?"

Tina shook her head. "Better than that: Joey's an alien from another planet, and his race has a way to unscramble time, the same way that it was scrambled in the first place. But that means that our memories might get wiped…and we might never see each other, again…"

Natasha sighed. "Good news, bad news…"

"No kidding…"

"When are they going to drop it?" Natasha asked.

"I don't know…I'll run and find out." And run she did: she had no idea how much time she had left to ask. She came running back with her rain jacket in her hand and Youngdramon trailing behind her. "It's going to happen in about five minutes! C'mon outside, let's see it!"

"Is it raining out there?"

"Yes, but we've got shelter, it's okay."

"What shelter?" Natasha asked.

"My wings!" Youngdramon answered. "Come on!"

Ingrid felt privileged: she got to ride on Youngdramon's back on the way out. There was already a crowd, waiting to see the final explosion. "Where's it going to come from?" Tina asked Hare.

"Over there," he answered, pointing toward the east, out over the Pacific Ocean.

Tina spread her jacket out on the ground, and Youngdramon spread her wing over Tina. Natasha and Ingrid sat under her other wing, and they looked towards the east…

Knowing her time was very short now, Tina asked, "Can I talk to Ingrid?"

Ingrid walked out of Natasha's lap and sat in Tina's. "Tina?" she asked happily.

Tina sighed. A tear trickled down her cheek.

"…How come Tina sad?"

"Tina sad because Tina hafta go away…"

"Why Tina hafta go away? I don't want Tina go away!"

"Tina doesn't wanna hafta go away…but, sometimes…Tina has to do things she doesn't wanna do…"

Ingrid wrapped her arms around Tina's neck. "I go with you!"

Tina shook her head. "You could hold on for all you're worth, but it won't make any difference…Ingrid can't come with Tina. Tina wishes she could…" Tina wrapped her arms around her adopted daughter, knowing this could be the last chance she ever would have to love her.

Ingrid started to cry, too. There was no dialogue after that point…they knew what was coming, and Tina had already said goodbye to Youngdramon…

There was a flash of blinding flash of light in the east…

THE END

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right?

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Once again, if you've skipped to the last chapter to see how it ends, you're disappointed: I resolve issues that you never knew about before you read this chapter. And you still don't know much about them. SO DON'T SKIP TO THE LAST CHAPTER WHEN YOU READ MY STUFF!!!!

Anyhow, I hope you've had fun reading this volume. So as to whether or not there's going to be anything more…I won't make any announcements until I start getting emails begging me to tell the world.

I know what you're thinking: "Why would he write an ending like this and then not have anything more? What other reason does he have to make such a cliffhanger-ending?" I'll give you a hint what my reasons might be: sheer random malice. If you haven't noticed, I stink at things like foreshadowing and symbolism. In fact, when I read my own stuff, I sometimes feel like I'm foreshadowing events that never happen. Oh, well...I guess that adds to the suspense.

…Anyhow, I'm thinking of working on something a bit simpler for a while, not to mention SHORTER!!! It's called, "If You're Offended By This, You ASKED For It" and it's a satire on all the subjectivity stuff that they put into Digimon. It's pretty much a parody on season one. It has wackier humor than Protocol Omega, of course, and I also spoof a lot of commercials. I hope you guys like it.

If you're wondering about all this talk I'm giving out about being guided by a supernatural entity, it's 100% true: I was told to do this by the God of all the Universe, made human in Jesus Christ (He was no avatar, He was no demi-god: He was both 100% God and 100% Human), and He even guided me in writing this so I wouldn't get writer's block. If He can and will do something like this, imagine what he can do with your life? This is a sweet production, and it only took a year and a half: imagine what He can do with…say, sixty years? Or eighty-nine, for that matter (lifespans are getting bigger)?

So…I hope you get a chance to read "If You're Offended By This, You ASKED For It", and I hope that this was fun.

In the meantime…

What could the Little Teenaged Geek be doing with all the Time On His Hands while he's Squirrelled Away In His Secret Nerd Lab?

(He's obviously not learning how to spell "squirreled"!)