A few sweat drops trickled down Buzz' temporal. Were Mira, XR, and Booster here because of him? Had his father sent these snoop troopers here hugger-mugger? Lightyear had nervously asked them to come in, but had not expected this. No-one was supposed to know! For the cost of her, and everything...
For the first time in ages, the invisible enemy had appeared. Something had awaited Buzz inside this very house as he had returned home from his little study trip. He had spent a good bundle of hours in an SC study laboratory a few miles away from Kaon. The hut had been empty, he had had his full peace to analyze the parchment pieces there with molecule scanners and try to find possible information about their origins. With roughly no results. Disappointed, he had driven back home. The door had whooshed close behind his back... rendering the nowadays insipid house to a stage of psychological horrors. The plain nothingness had began mocking, accusing him with his own voice. That derisive hollow laughter had circulated him from every side, sucking its sick amusement from his dolor. The worst, it had told nothing about where Yoka was or how to get her back. Instead, the screech had blamed him for tale-bearing and kept on shooting him with threats.
"We told dad, did we? We slipped something to dad, did we? Well let's see how your dear chick takes the consequences... I warned you. And remember, you pathetic loser, that nothing will miss my eye. I am watching you..." So the sneer had drawled, then flown away. Buzz was left alone in the shady living-room, his shirt back wet with cold sweat. He could not understand the allegation as having no idea about Zurg's visit. But half an hour later, his former team had tumbled in, asking direct questions about his state. But how had the voice known that he was to be in the crossfire of snappy questions? It was all too confusing, why did nothing have any logic? Why was someone throwing bricks against Buzz' forehead this way?
Lightyear could do nothing but lie. It hurt tremendously his conscience; lies were for the pawns of darkness. But she would suffer, everyone would suffer if he did not hold his tongue.
"Your father is really worried about you, Buzz", Mira began concerned, "has something serious happened here?"
"Uhh... nothing, really. It's just... heh, it's nothing." He forced a hasty smile on his face. The Morphean had retreated to stand in front of the bureau, where the parchment pieces had been thrown in.
"But Buzz, you can tell us. We're your friends!" Booster noted sadly.
"We heard... you weren't at home when Zora was here in the morning. He was looking for you."
"Uhh... h-he w-was?" the son stuttered. Well, then it was not the ghost who had demolished the front door. Concerning Zurg's temper, he had apparently handled it like it had been a kettledrum. "Uhh I was d-doing some work business..."
"But he said you weren't at work."
"...o-outside the town."
"Oh." A crawling, wickedly silent pause followed.
"So, umm... where's your wife?" Nova ceased the stillness.
"Ahh umheheh yeah. She's on a walk", he fibbed with twitching jugulars. Would they swallow that?
"But your father said there was no-one at home."
"Ehh ssss-she likes long walks. Really long. I mean she's a hunter and everything, likes to see places and ehh..."
"Buzz, you can tell us what has happened. We're here to help you. Is... someone extorting you for something? You had said to your father that Yoka was gone the night before you should have come to Capital Planet. He believes she hasn't come back since." Nova's gaze was steady.
His heart bounded up to his scull. Were his explanations that soggy that the rangers pierced them that easily? Or was it Zurg that had baked all this up? He had his strange sides; the scion could not perceive how he always knew when Buzz had taken a false step back to the dark side. Or relevant. He had to get those sniffers out of here and fast, before his too-quick tongue might lisp out something revealing. Hence he poured out more lies.
"Ahh now look everything is fine over here. She's not gone, she's just... on a walk. Who'd be extorting me? That's ridiculous! I'm just fine and everything..." Buzz endeavored in vain looking casual. Far, far much else versified his outer appearance. The male was leaning against the dresser and squeezing the cover's edge hard with both hands, phenomenally not shattering it.
"Group huddle", Nova gave a whisper to Booster and XR who were sitting nearby. They enclosed a circle and lowered their tones so that the host could not reach a pip.
"We're really getting nowhere with this. Buzz is as talkative as a bashed newt."
"But... are you sure there really is a problem? I mean... Buzz won't say anything", Munchapper hesitated.
"Can't you see he's not telling the truth at all? There's something, beyond, things he doesn't want to admit. I think Zurg was more than right", Nova prompted back.
"But who's to trust him? The bucket has been replaced with a wrinkly face but has it still really changed? Do the shades of purple vary that easily? Are you sure, Mira, that you're not brainwashed to trust the dark side? What if that shadowy menace shot you with some kind of hypno-jinx and you've transformed to his mindless puppet-slave and you don't even notice it?" XR had his doubts.
"Stop that! I'm not brainwashed! Or... at least I think I'm not. I don't know why but I trust Zurg, nowadays. I trust him perhaps even more than Buzz, who has become so flighty. Don't you guys remember how he helped Buzz with that tha-grydda thing? He helped us to fight the slime blobs that came from the remote galaxy. And he seems sometimes knowing things beyond our understanding although he's a bit... potty. You know... cuckoo." Mira rolled a finger over her ear to make the looney sign.
"Well, although you'd be a new minion of izzards, it still won't much determine what we're doing here. That jolly ol' fellow who's perspiring in the corner won't carol."
Nova put a finger on her chin and crumpled. Mighty fishy the atmosphere appeared to be... Buzz hid lorryloads of things from her and the team. Lied. She sensed it, and sensed it too well. Something had happened to Yoka, and the Captain was afraid to dead to talk about it. So it had to be. Then, was something threatening him? Most possibly.
"...she wasn't here and then someone had left me this odd messag..." she repeated in her mind the rigmarole that was supposed to be Buzz' last 'reasonable' syllables the night he hung up on Zoxedaszeĉ. Message...? Messages were not left in vain...
An abrupt idea lamp was switched on above her head. What if she would leave the boys alone for a second and just look around a bit? There had to be some tip-offs left on the crime scene...
"Ok troops, I got a little plan. Let's try it out", she pointed a thumb upwards. Booster and XR looked baffled. What plan? There had not been any talk about a 'plan'.
"Uhh whatever. I still think the Big Zee deflated your brains a bit", the mecha muttered and received a cutthroat frown from his captain. "Ok, ok, I said just a bit. One atom. Or an electron, which makes it even less."
"Buzz, could I look around a bit? The guys can keep you company. Looks like you haven't talked to anyone for a while", she asked.
Lightyear dilly-dallied. What was that Tangean up to? She wanted to ferret out the facts? On the other hand... if he would retort a deny, she would start suspecting even more. Besides, there was no real testimony lying around. If there were, the galactic hero would have immediately found a track and knocked down the diabolic fiend. Nonetheless, what if she would ghost inside the bureau where the only evidence was? But, he still decided to yield.
"Don't worry I won't be breaking anything", she raised a brow as mincing towards the kitchen.
It unquestionably seemed that the house had lacked a woman's hand a while. The pile of unwashed plates on the kitchen table was gathering flies. There was an old sock reeking on top of the fridge. Vainamoinen's daughter was such an over-hygienic; how could a single room appear this way if she had been blustering around? Back at Kaleva, she had made her husband furious with constant venting and laundry... and also knowing Buzz, he had the custom to soil fast shiny-clean places either with explosion debris or then with banana peels and hamburger wrappers.
"Hmh", she typed some notes on the wristcom pad. The discussion in the background had transformed lighter. The Jo-Adian was explaining Buzz something about the forthcoming Football Galaxy Cup. Mira popped upstairs, soared around, found nothing. Back downstairs. The males were quarreling about who was the best goalkeeper in the Gamma Quadrant Hover Hockey leagues. Meanwhile, she tripped along the living-room towards the backdoor.
"Men, always the chat turns to sport at some place. Thought they could've talked about Buzz' problem but no. Well I got better stuff to do than squabble about some Quidditch. I have detective work!" Mira clumped out of the French horn that leaded to the back yard, nodding to herself. "Definitely, definitely. Craters, Buzz won't fool me. I'll find out what's going on here!" In the yard, she strolled round and round the same plum tree sapling a while -in her steadfast ponders- as if riding an imaginary merry-go-round. "Hmm... hurdles, mysteries, schemes... but I'm not a rookie any more and should be able to solve felonies even on my own. Yes, I should get on with this." With a smirk, the plant-circulating was stopped. Hands on hips, she took a good survey of the yard. "Hmm... great detectives always find clues in places no-one would expect..." she closed her left eye, looking extremely important now. "This yard could bring out many possibilities..."
The men were furthermore inside the house, tiffing heatedly. Through the round window, Mira could see Buzz flinging his arms. But she was left in her private tranquility. Not a single shoebill, salamander, or space ranger seemed interested in what she was up to. Well, then again maybe one pair or external angry eyes, invisible for the mortals...
Thus the Princess was free to scowl at the lowest grass roots, dig odd-looking mud piles (that were obviously left from the local moles), and put a nano-electrical multi-analyzer to snuff around some more. This high-tech widget that was a basic gear for any ranger nowadays, could sense faint smells like a dog, find occurrences of foreign DNA if needed, inspect fingerprints, and so on. It examined the findings, and brought usually rather comprehensive scientific explications up. A very useful tiny thingamajig for a beginner Sherlock Holmes.
So far, there had been much nothing to be analyzed. Only footprints of Buzz and Yoka, added to a miscellaneous amount of rabbit trails and pigeon poo. She was to snort to the futility of the whole operation and quit, until she saw something flapping on her right side. She initially crouched in the high grass, the hedgerow being upon her. A small piece of silky gray canvas appeared on her palm, as Nova loosened the fluttering object from the spiky branches. There should have been nothing very amazing in a sheet of fabric... until she turned it over. A gasp. It had... disappeared. Or had it? She still felt its light weight in her hand, as well as the flimsy touch of the fine textile. Bemused eyes wide as weather balloons, she repeated the last action. There it was again... as gray as it ever had been.
"Whoo... it's... invisible from the other side!" she gasped, as if this had been the most remarkable discovery of the millennium. But... what was it, why was it here? From where could this thing have origined from? Who had ever heard about a canvas like this? Perhaps the LGM's were able to design something alike, but... in that case, she would know about it, being now a captain and all. Tilting her head, she let the scanner gadget nose the rag. Though... the results were not that fancy. The little holoscreen of the analyzer showed no DNA traces, no olfactory molecules, not even a Midi-Chlorians. The only things that blazed on the holo were its age, some material matrix, and the time of tracking.
She inhaled again. "W-w-waitwaitwait... now you're going to tell me that this cloth's two-hundred seventy-one years, three months, and twenty-one days old?" she questioned befogged the doohickey. "This doesn't make any sense! No one's using that old clothes. The least is Buzz. So this can't be left from him. Hmm... in the light of evidence, it would seem that some at least three-hundred-year-old walking mummy has been in Buzz's garden... Ahh, Natron!" Then she banged her head with a fist. "No, no, no. He was sealed away. And besides not likely for him to trot around here... Something else's behind this..."
The Princess did not hear the small hiss coming from behind the house's corner. Closely it sounded as if someone had fiercely exhaled from between clenched teeth.
The Shadow bathed in fumes.
"Mira Nova... You nasty little twit. So you've taken the lead to rout around? That will not direct you far... it'll be your end. Always wanted to get rid of you anyways. You'll make a neat addition to my list... Hmh. Luckily I had sense not to go back to my fortress but to stay and watch. The little pathetic Buzz is being obedient and not squeaking out things, but this chick's doings start looking dangerous. I must get that shred back she found! And it will be ensured that she will not coo her gobbledygook onwards. Only if I could find a chance to strike..."
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As there was no evidence enough almost in terms of anything, Team Nova grumbling retreated from Lightyear's kingdom. Moreover, due to her not being taken fully seriously since counting on the grunts of a zany ex-emperor, Mira was scaling whether or not to tell about her findings to the bot and the fatboy. It did not take all that many minutes, nevertheless, and there was another idea-bee buzzing around her.
"Now it's on to hoo-oo-meey! Yay!" the mecha stretched his arms. "I love these new Star Command policies! Even robots get free nights unless they're on a nightshift. Which is then another case, since you get a free day after that! Whee! Now let's get 42 loaded and leave this rock behind!"
"Uummh..." Nova vacillated a nanosecond but steeled her determination. "I think I stay awhile still."
The men stood blankly. Then Booster wondered,
"You... don't want to come with us?"
"Well... you guys can go if you want. I just... umm... walk around a bit..." she murmured, trying to take a relaxed attitude. It was a Friday afternoon, the weekend's sleepdays were ahead. Their drudgery for today was practically over, so they were liberated to go home and stare at intergalactic holo-telly soap operas zombishly the next forty-eight hours if willing. Or anything. However, Mira had no plans to graduate into a vassal of brain-draining TV-shows. And that further purpose to linger on this planet she did not want to reveal to her comrades. Buzz' case intrigued her more than she could understand. That odd discovery, his evident lying... Odd, but true, how Nova beheld the situation similarly to Zurg. Perhaps she was not all that much worrying about Lightyear, but seeing the whole puzzle of little clues forming a tapestry of adventure. This could be perhaps her own, ever-first greater private mission. Working as a member of a stick-tight-together team, there was no space for ad-libbing or lone-wolf attitudes. On the other hand... it was true that everyone of Team Lightyear had always performed own roles, but still... this one time, why not this one time? She knew that no 'private investigations' should be done, everything should be handled as a team. But what if just this one time... what bad would one time do? Buzz had always broken rules. Although, if someone had written half of the regulations, was he allowed to break them more than by-standers? There was no answer to that.
"I'll catch a late interplanetary cruiser or stay the night here. I haven't just much visited Morph, kinda boring to go back home and..." Mira casually spread her arms, but almost shooing the guys away with her ambiguous gestures.
"But that sounds so cool! Can I stay too, Mira? I'd like to get to know the town a bit too!" Booster got a sudden enthusiasm-attack. Perhaps there would be some local delicacies he could order in some restaurant. Food was of course foregoing boring ol' buildings which the usual sightseers so keenly holo-photographed.
"If you're gonna stay and grow your waist measures, what's keeping me from leaving Her Worshipfulness alone?" XR joined in.
Nova's face fell. Now that was foiling her whole brilliant plan! She would be not dragging those two comic relieves around this time. Where was the getaway? Abruptly, she recalled something.
"But boys... are you sure?" she faked a sad expression with mournful tone, "I thought you wanted to stay home and watch the Gamma Quadrant semifinals of the Miss Cosmos contest. Too bad, I remembered that Booster's favorite super model Vikki Vortex is on to aim at the victory... But too bad, if you wanna stay on this boring planet and miss it all..."
The both males went through several jawdrops, sweatdrops, and moans.
"Hot rockets! The semifinal is today?" Booster held his temples and balanced from one foot to another, "S-sorry, Mira, but can I...?" Meanwhile XR was nearly fainting in the background due to the sheer terror of not seeing Vikki Vortex live.
"Sure, sure, you can go, she is your very, very favorite after all, eh?" the Princess teased. This was enough. Before being able to finish her sentence, the Jo-Adian and the robot were already rushing towards Forty-Two, a giant dust cloud on their heels.
"That was rather easy. No plan B's needed this time." She tossed her hair over her shoulder, starting to figure out what to do next.
The Kalevan woman was gone, that was obvious. One of the most ancient tricks was the door-to-door querying. There were a few houses clustered around with miscellaneous weirdoes living in them. Perhaps someone had occurred to see a dark-skinned tall girl roaming around...
The following knock-knocks needed patience. Some huts were empty, whereas the most door openers were rather answerless. There were grannies with malfunctioning hearing aids, fat kids picking their noses, and at least one bloodthirsty werewolf-looking dog guarding a yard. Nova voluntarily left the latter house unchecked; she was not on the mood of becoming a manic hound's teether.
Then, one faint hit. A random house at the roots of the Xi Muon forest gave some replies. However, their nature was somewhat fuzzy. Or at least being told from the old widow's point of view who lodged there. The grayhead plump lady inspected over and over again the holo-pic of Yoka. Her narration style was irritatingly drawling and spluttering, but gradually dripped something out. "Thishh girl... ssshe is... is she not... thhat... mmm, thhat..."
"Yoka-hanen Lightyear, lives a few blocks..." Mira helped, but got interrupted.
"Mmmm... yesssh... thhat phretty girl I remember now... mmmssshhhh..." the grandma looked at the sky and clonked her dentures as if that measure would have helped with the thinking process. "Hhmmmss... yesshh... shhee was walking so sadly... poor girl cried, I ashked her to chome in and... ssvvvfff... have chhoffhhee, but I don't think thhe poor ghirl undershthood me..."
After tens of minutes of lisping, Mira finally found out that the aged woman had seen the Indian two times recently, about a week ago. Although she seemed rather doating and slow, her memory worked clearlier than expected. The first time of sight, relating to the crying, had been the desperate hours when the shiftless girl had been kicked out of her house by the fear of unknown. The day when her feet had roved around the cheerless streets, the day when Buzz had picked her up from the land of tears into his safe, warm hold. The second time had been a day after that. The both cases put the Tangean to scratch her hair, but especially the latter. After five minutes of important explanation how the widow had fed her pet cat that early afternoon, she rasped that the same lass had walked past her house with some man. The snail-slow description of the male was a perfect copy of Buzz. Yoka had looked slightly nervous, and they both had speeded towards the forest like a typhoon.
"This doesn't really make sense... but she's telling the truth, no doubt of that", the blueblood bethought in her mind. Thanking the widow for her cooperation, she left the yard. In her thoughts, her legs brought her to the direction of the woods. The sun was setting, more and more clouds were summoned to cover the sky. The air obviously would turn drizzly in half an hour or so.
Mira glanced around at the slowly shading suburb panorama. It was getting too late to continue the poll. Friday night... the normal weekend's nightlife would start its jubilee around the city center, whereas these quarters would doze off. Wearing her standard captain uniform, Nova was not quite dressed up to go and sit the night in any local bar. Besides... this eve had not been set aside for a ball, but for solving this mystery. It grew more and more intriguing every second, when the bony pinions in her head ticked and grinded down the charades. The odd canvas piece deserved far much more studying than just a quick analysis... and how to fit that grandma's tale in?
"Come to think of it... didn't she say..." she picked up her notes to check out one detail, "Right. This happened the same day Buzz' father had been 'rudely and absolutely pathetically with creeping dark lies' interrupted in the phone. Then... Buzz had obviously been at work quite late. How does it make sense that this madam saw him and Yoka on a walk...? Hmmhuuh..."
What the Princess hardly could perceive, was that a vile stare was gunned down at her from the nearby tangle of willows. The Shadow had followed her every gait since the depart from Buzz' house, her every gesture and inquiry. He was literally boiling, imaginary smoke came out of his nostrils. Was that little irritating snooper finding out the truth? Lightyear had told them nil facts; so how in the name of putrid positrons were his pathetic pals figuring out so much on their own? Either they were smarter than he had assumed, or then it was because of that muscle hill he had seen nearly atomizing his foe's door this morning. That faker who was supposed to be killed by Zurg, had gone and cooed to those space ramblers all his assumptions...?
"Blast. Oh well, either way, she's gonna be the next guest of my villa... She will not tittle-tattle onwards. Only if I could hit now... but darn this place is too open!" he grated his teeth so that enamel cracked. Yes, there were eyes everywhere, scrutinizing. He would need to get her inside some secluded shaw of trees. In addition, she would need to go there voluntarily and not be prepared to defend herself. She had her laser, jetpack, everything. What was more, did she not begin to walk to the opposite direction when the malevolent one here so brilliantly balanced the apples and bananas? It was too late to lure her, the distance to the outlying parts and bushes was growing meter by meter. Nova had set her course towards the city, in the hope of finding a cheap place to stay the night.
Now what? She was not definitely going to slip away that easily! With a waft, the Shadow emerged from the osiers and decided to follow her. It was risky to move around in the busiest town center, even with the ghostly means the enemy used. But he took the challenge. Far, far more treacherous was that his half-built intentions were in danger to be exposed...