Oh My God!!! I'm back, believe it or not. I got a much needed self-esteem boost from my English teacher (who'd have thought?) and a really good mark on an essay, so I'm ready to go.
Recap
"If the Rubber-Robos managed to outsmart us like this, we'll have to be careful indeed. Who knows what else they've learned."
"Right. Let's go." Rokusho and the Phantom crept inside the hideout in search of Bunny and Quicksilver.
Chapter Nine Questions answered. Evil Plans in Action.
Bunny crept down the deserted hallways, changing directions when a guard walked nearby. After ten minutes of avoidance, she came to a four-way junction, three of which were occupied. Bunny suddenly had the thought that she was being forced to take a pre-arranged path by her captor, or captors. She also realized that she didn't have any choice right now, and took the fourth, deserted hallway. She walked unchallenged, until she reached the end. She found herself facing a large door, marked Main Control Room.
'Not much for subtlety, are they?' she thought to herself. Bunny briefly entertained the idea of turning around and walking the other way, but then felt she had to enter and face whomever was in there, even if it was her captor.
Bunny screwed up her courage, and walked in, the automatic sensor opening the door for her.
'Here goes nothing.' She thought as the door closed behind her.
The Tenryou Residence 9 pm
Ikki was bored. So was Metabee. The remote control was still broken, and they were both too lazy to get up and change the channel manually, so they were stuck on the news.
Metabee finally decided that enough was enough and got up to change the channel, when a new report caught his eye.
"At seven-thirty this evening, a small explosion was seen near the 24 Hopmart. It is unknown at this time if there was anyone involved, and police are currently attributing the disturbance to rowdy teenagers. More as this story progresses."
"Hey wow." Said Metabee. "Someone tried to blow up the Hopmart, you think Henry saw it?" Ikki looked up from his feet.
"Not likely. Henry gets off work at seven, and even if he did see it, we would have heard about it from him." As Ikki said that, the phone rang. Metabee picked it up and greeted the other person. It was Miss Caviar.
"Just a sec, Miss Caviar, I'll put you on speaker phone." Metabee pushed the appropriate button. "Go ahead."
"Have either of you heard from Elizabeth anytime tonight?"
"No, we haven't. Is something wrong?" Ikki sat up.
"I'm not sure yet. I called her ten minutes ago, and there was no answer. She's always home at this time."
"Maybe she's at Henry's." Ikki supplied. A sigh was heard from Miss Caviar's end.
"I thought of that, so I called Henry. He wasn't home either. Then I just heard about that explosion by the Hopmart, and I got worried. And now Dr. Aki's been mumbling about Elizabeth and the Rubber-Robos and…oh dear, I think she's been kidnapped!!" Miss Caviar started to sob over the phone.
"WHAT!" Metabee couldn't believe it. This was starting to sound like one of his favourite soap operas.
"What would the Rubber-Robos want with Bunny?" Ikki asked. A realization dawned on him. "Wait a minute, what if it's Quicksilver they're after?"
"WHAT!!" Metabee was furious at this. If the Rubber-Robos had indeed kidnapped his beloved Quicksilver, someone was gonna get their asses kicked in.
"That's gotta be it." Ikki cried. "Quicksilver is a completely original design, not to mention the rarest medal ever. The Rubber-Robos would love to get their hands on something like that."
"I'm afraid it's not just Quicksilver they want, Ikki." Dr. Aki's voice broke in. "They want Elizabeth as well. Rokusho and…someone else are already on the case."
"WHAT!" Metabee exclaimed once more. This was getting more bizarre by the minute.
"We're coming over now Dr. Aki." Ikki's tone of voice implied that he wouldn't take no for an answer. Dr. Aki's reply was a sigh from his end.
"Alright Ikki. Get here as fast as you can, and bring everyone. If you're going to help, you'll have to know the whole story about Elizabeth and Quicksilver." Dr. Aki hung up before Ikki could affirm.
Ikki picked up the phone and immediately called Erika, Karin and Koji and told them to get to Medabot Corp. ASAP, and the n the two, after calling out to Ikki's mom that they were going out, headed out the door, wondering what the 'whole story' was.
Rubber-Robo hideout The Miyama Ruins ventilation system 9:07 pm
"Are we there yet?" the Phantom's sarcasm echoed slightly in an otherwise stealthy silence as he and Rokusho crept through a large vent.
"I'm not even sure where 'here' is, let alone where we're going." Was Rokusho's frustrated reply. They were creeping blindly with no idea where they were or where they were going. Everything they did was on the fly, with no objective except to rescue Elizabeth and Quicksilver. So far, it wasn't going as well as they had hoped. The Phantom sighed.
"All right. Let's get out of here and find out where we are." After a few more feet of crawling, a grate could be seen and the two silently approached it, pausing when they heard voices. Peering through the grate, the Phantom could clearly see the insides of the Main Control Room, and right below him, he could see Elizabeth.
"Welcome to my stronghold Miss Monroe. As I told your companion earlier, you are my prisoner and will play a pivotal role in my plans of world domination!"
Elizabeth looked around the room, which was full of computers, and a large screen, currently being occupied by the most unattractive faces she had ever seen, and it was currently addressing her. She remembered the Rubber-Robo flunky telling her this, but she didn't understand what it meant.
"What are you talking about?" she demanded. "How could I possibly be useful to you?"
The giant, ugly head being broadcast over the screen grinned maliciously as one would who knew something more than everyone else.
"You have certain knowledge pertaining to rare medals that is very important to the furthering of my plans."
"What do you mean?" Elizabeth demanded. "I don't know any more about rare medals than anyone else." Strangely enough, as she said that, she felt that that wasn't entirely true, but wasn't sure why…it had something to do with her grandfather. A distant look briefly passed over her face, but it was long enough for Meta-Evil to see it.
"Ahh." He stated. "Excellent. The memories are beginning to surface. This is wonderful." Elizabeth shot him a sharp look.
"What are you talking about? What memories?"
Dr. Meta-Evil sneered at her. "I refer to the memories your grandfather planted subliminally into your mind when you were a child. You see, Dr. Hushi knew more about rare medals than anyone alive at the time. He also knew their secret and how to activate the ultimate power within them.
"Unfortunately, as I was trying to discover this knowledge, I got a little too close for his comfort, and he destroyed all of his research...or so I thought." He paused briefly. "By any chance, did you listen to music as a child before you went to sleep?"
"Yes. I did." She answered slowly, connections slowly forming in her mind.
"I thought so." He laughed satisfactorily. "On a related note, your grandfather was working on another side project, unrelated to medabots, with his daughter, your mother. It was much like self-hypnosis that people used to help themselves quit smoking. It used specially designed music to place the subject into a receptive state not unlike sleep, and then essentially place knowledge into the person's brain without that person's knowledge of it. The subject would have no idea what knowledge was being placed there, but when given a test involving the information, the subject would be able to recall that information as though they had actually learned it in a conscious state and committed it to memory. Rather brilliant actually."
Everything clicked into place.
"Are you saying that my grandfather kept all of his medal research on tape and then stuck it in my brain?"
Medabot HQ same time
"He did what?" Ikki was incredulous. Dr. Aki just sighed and continued.
"When Dr. Hushi learned that Meta-Evil was onto him, he had to do something to protect his research. So he hypnotically planted it into Elizabeth's brain. He then faked his death with the fire, and made sure Elizabeth could be put someplace safe where she could grow up and learn all of this information like she had come up with it herself. You all pretty much know what happened after."
"This is messed up. And Bunny doesn't have a clue about this does she?"
"No Ikki, although if Meta-Evil has her, she probably will soon enough."
An eerie silence filled the room. Ikki, Erica, Karin and Koji sat quietly, absorbing everything. They all knew that if Meta-Evil could get his hands on the information hidden in Elizabeth's mind, they were all screwed. Metabee broke the silence.
"Hey!!" He yelled, startling everyone. "If she's in danger, why the Hell aren't we out there trying to rescue her?"
"But we don't know where she is." Countered Brass.
"I've got Rokusho and Phantom Renegade out looking for her. When they find her, they'll try to rescue her."
"Dr. Aki. Is that smart? I mean Phantom Renegade out there searching." Erica sounded pensive. Everyone looked at her. "I just mean, this is the guy who's been doing his best to steal every rare medal in existence, and Quicksilver's medal is as rare as it gets." Dr. Aki reassured them.
"Don't worry about the Phantom. He's on our side this time." And then, almost too quietly to hear, "He's got a good reason."
"So what can we do?" Karin asked.
"Wait." Dr. Aki replied. "It's about all we can do. And hope that they get to her in time."
All right. I did it. I finished a new chapter…and it only took me what? A year? I am so pathetic. But at least I did it. I'm hoping to wrap this up in no more than three chapters, and then I can move on. Since I'm going on vacation I'll have something to do during the thirteen-hour train ride.
Next chapter: Phantom and Rokusho to the rescue, identities revealed, and Ikki and Metabee play card games.