Chapter 4

A Rubbery Future

Meta-Ikki slowly returned to reality, opening his sore optics to the size of slits. Everything seemed to be blurry as if he were caught in a blizzard for a while, but after a minute or two, Meta-Ikki could see almost perfectly. He looked around, and saw that he was lying down on a dirt floor, inside of an unkempt room. It had everything a farmer would need in it, including a kitchen sink.

'Ikki! Ikki, are you there?' asked Metabee.

'Ya…where are we?' Ikki answered groggily.

'Beats me, I just woke up!'

'Same here.'

Meta-Ikki blinked once. "Where am I?" he said slowly with a small slur.

"Meta-Ikki!"

Meta-Ikki tried to turn his head to the familiar voice, but was still far too weak to do so. Instead, he averted his optics to the left, and saw SumiliKoji, NeutraKarin, Rokusho, and Sailor Erika resting on the other side of the room. Sailor Erika's optics brightened with happiness when she saw Meta-Ikki was awake. "You're ok!" she exclaimed, relief lacing the voices of Erika and Brass. Getting up so quick it looked as if she had always been standing, she dashed towards Meta-Ikki, and tackled him with an enormous hug; Meta-Ikki yelled out in pain.

Sailor Erika stepped backwards, a nervous smile on her pale face. "Oops, sorry, guess you're still aching, huh?"

"Gee, you think?" Meta-Ikki said sarcastically.

Sailor Erika frowned. "Come on, Meta-Ikki, don't act like that! I was really worried about you, you used up all your energy using the Meda-force, and you were out cold for a day!"

Meta-Ikki grew confused. "I...did?" he puzzled.

"You mean, you don't remember?"

"Well, I remember someone screaming, and golden light, but that's pretty much it," Meta-Ikki sighed.

Sailor Erika sighed, closing her optics. She opened them up again, and said with confidence, "Well, I remember, and you saved our lives back there! Who knows what that lady would have done to us?"

"Ya..." Meta-Ikki said slowly. "But where are we right now?"

Sailor Erika half smiled. "When you went unconscious, Rokusho went ahead to find shelter until you became better, and, well, he found it! Right now, we're
in another...heh heh, farmer's shed..."

"You'd figure, eh?" Meta-Ikki groaned, rolling his optics.

"You didn't,"

"Hey!"

"Ah, your awake, Meta-Ikki," smiled Rokusho, getting up from where he sat, apparently deaf to what the two were just discussing. He strode over to the Meda-Morphs, and knelt down by the injured one. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I was just hit by a truck," complained Meta-Ikki.

Rokusho sighed. "But at least your conscious...we'll stay here for another day, while you recover. Though I still can't understand how your Meda-force worked, and mine didn't..."

Meanwhile...

"IDIOTS! DUFUSES! COWARDS, EVEN!" raged Exodia, as he struck Verra, Valentina, and Robert on the head numerous times with his balled fists. Each time they let out little yelps of pain. "You were about to actually do a mission properly, and you failed, because of one Meda-morph! How could you have failed?! I warned you…!"

"What if we were to say that the Meda-morph that trashed Skyraidar swindled the Meda-force...?" squeaked Robert.

Exodia growled, and narrowed his eyes. "You still could have beaten him, Robert! Skyraidar has a dark medal, which cancels out the Meda-force, fool!"

"But, Mr. Exodia," Valentina pleaded, "It wasn't any regular Meda-force...it was like, a mega Meda-force, or something!"

Exodia growled, resembling a dangerous lion. He invisioned smacking Valentina on the head with a mallet, then pushed the thought aside and thought to himself. He recalled what had happened when the MedaMorphs had escaped them before, and noticed something...it was his...emotions... Grr, that MedaMorph! He can control the Meda-force by his emotions! That brat! But…if he can do that, then it must be true…when the children and Medabots united, they became far stronger than anyone could imagine.. . Exodia sighed, then said to them, "Fine. You know what, I'm feeling rather generous. I'll give you one. Last. Chance. Fail me again, though, and you'll wish you'd born! Savvy?"

"Yes, sir!" Valentina, Verra, and Robert all said, saluting their leader, then dashed out the door as if to escape a demonic fire's wrath.

If I don't get ahold of the MedaMorphs soon I'll have no chance of making my plans succeed…I refuse to let that happen, Exodia thought to himself gravely, as he sank back in his licorice black chair.

The next day, Meta-Ikki had fully recovered from the battle. He would have recovered quicker, if they were able to repair his parts, but they couldn't for two reasons-- Because they had nothing to fix them with, and they wouldn't be able to take off his parts to do the job anyway. They were just about to leave, when someone spotted them...

"Walloping web-snappers!" shouted a short man in black rubber suit, pointing a trembling finger at the group, "Look here, Gillgirl! This is totally creepy!"

"Oh, no..." groaned SumiliKoji.

"It's the..." Sailor Erika said.

"Rubber-Robo gang." NeutraKarin finished.

"The Rubber-Robo gang," Rokusho growled venomously, more of a statement than a question. They were the ones who had killed his master and best friend, Professor Hushi! Rokusho felt white hot rage build inside of him, but a cold metal hand rested on his shoulder, cooling him off slightly.

"Take it easy, man," comforted Meta-Ikki, "We all have something against them, but right now, we have more important things to worry about," said Meta-Ikki with seriousness rarely heard coming from his voices.

Rokusho simply nodded at Meta-Ikki in understanding, calming down.

"Honestly, Shrimplips, stop quoting Spider-man!" remarked Gillgirl, as she jogged up from behind. She took a glance at the MedaMorphs and Rokusho. She did a double take and shrieked. "What the hell are they?! They look like someone threw people and Medabots into a blender!"

"Hey!" Meta-Ikki snarled, shaking his fist at them. "What breed of garbage did you come from?!"

Gillgirl sneered at him in annoyance. "You...brat! I'll have you know that we're the Rubber-Robo gang!"

"Well, We already know that!" scoffed Sailor Erika.

Shrimplips raised a blonde eyebrow. "You do?" He looked over all the Meda-morphs, and thought back...why did those four look familiar? He looked at their parts, their clothes, and hair. He put two and two together, then gasped in realization. "I know who you all are!" Shrimplips shouted breathlessly.

"Figured it out?" Rokusho snarled.

"Who are they, Shrimplips?" Gillgirl puzzled, scratching her mop of red hair on her head.

"Those four, the ones who are on all of the milk cartons, just to be found! The ones who we've robattled numerous times! Ikki, Metabee, and his friends!" explained Shrimplips.

"Them?" Gillgirl said, dumfounded.

"(Metabee)Wow, we're on milk cartons?" said Meta-Ikki, amazed. "(Ikki) Don't be surprised, Koji has a rich family, they probably paid for it."

"(Koji)Hey!" SumiliKoji yelled defensively.

"Ack!" shouted out both Shrimplips and Gillgirl, falling down in shock. "What the hell happened to them?!" Shrimplips sputtered.

"We don't know ourselves," NeutraKarin sighed.

"...Wait a sec," stated Shrimplips slowly, pointing his fingers in different directions for emphasis, "If that other one is part Metabee, and the real medabot is Rokusho..."

"…Then they have rare medals!" concluded Gillgirl, as Shrimplips and Gillgirl both stood up with a jolt.

"Aw, crap," whispered SumiliKoji, taking a step back.

"Why are you afraid of them?" scoffed Meta-Ikki. "I can just Meda-bop them up and down the road! Besides, you're never afraid!"

"Don't you get it? Last time we fought them, they had that Robo-emperor medabot!" SumiliKoji whispered with urgency.

"Good point..." agreed NeutraKarin.

"Well, I'm not afraid of them!" hissed Meta-Ikki, pushing up his sleeves of his red shirt as much as he could, "We can take 'em!"

"Meta-Ikki's right," pointed out Rokusho, "He's beat them many times before, so there's no way they will beat us!"

"Try us," growled Shrimplips. He lunged at the Meda-morphs, ready to strike at any moment.

"Oh, for crying out loud!" said Sailor Erika, as she rolled her optics. She flung her left arm in front of her, and shot out a bullet from her shooter, just in front of Shrimplips's feet. Shrimplips screamed like a little schoolgirl, and promptly passed out right on the spot.

Meta-Ikki raised his eyebrows. "Now why didn't I think of that...?"

"Because you're you, I'm me, and the world's the world," smirked Sailor Erika, walking by him. She then declared, "We better get out of here, before Gillgirl goes after us, and Shrimplips wakes up!" Sailor Erika began to whistle as she walked away.

Meta-Ikki blinked a few times, stunned, as SumiliKoji, NeutraKarin, and Rokusho all ran after the female MedaMorph. Meta-Ikki blinked once more, looking around to see that everyone had left him alone! "Hey! Wait for me!" he shouted, dashing after them.

Half an hour later, Gillgirl was trying to wake Shrimplips up, to no avail. Gillgirl growled out in frustration like a lion that accidentally let her antelope escape. "WAKE UP!!!!" she bellowed, slapping Shrimplips on his cheeks several times.

Shrimplips' eyes snapped open under his sunglasses, as he shouted out, "Ow!" he sat up, and screamed in Gillgirl's face, "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR?!"

"Those freaks scared you half to death, and you fainted! And...You sprung a leak," Gillgirl snickered.

"Huh?" Shrimplips looked down, and saw a wet patch on his crotch. He blushed furiously, and muttered to himself, "But I was wearing a diaper...!"

Gillgirl heard, and smirked, "Well, you must have been holding it all in for weeks, because it soaked right through it!"

Shrimplips growled, and vowed, "I'll get those twits for this!" Shrimplips got up to run after where ever the MedaMorphs and Rokusho had gone, fire in his eyes, when Gillgirl placed a hand on his suited shoulder and stopped him short, no pun intended.

"Wait," she said calculatingly, "I have a better idea...let's help them,"

"What kind stupid idea is that?" Shrimplips snarled.

"A good one," Gillgirl smirked, "First off, we help them return to their 'normal' selves, and when their guard is down, since they'll trust us, we'll sneak attack them, and steal Rokusho and Metabees' rare medals!"

Shirmplips smirked. "Brilliant!" he declared happily, "We better go tell Seaslug and Squidguts about our plan!"

"But first…" Gillgirl said, disgust in her tone, "Change your suit, please,"

Shrimplips went even redder, resembling a cherry. "'Right, sorry,"

Meta-Ikki, Rokusho, and the rest of the MedaMorphs continued their journey towards where the energy wave was radiating from, which happened to be the place where their new enemies, Robert, Valentina and Verra, worked at, little did they know. Meta-Ikki was humming a Christmas carol as they trudged along, must to the annoyance of his companions. He was cheerful, now knowing that since he still had the Medaforce and could defend his friends from anything instantly. Meanwhile, Sailor Erika was silently wishing that she had her camera with her, beside NeutraKarin, who was busy looking up at the sky. SumiliKoji was trying to think of ways to strangle Meta-Ikki without actually killing him. Rokusho, meanwhile, was deep in thought.

Why would that woman be after Meta-Ikki and the others..? he wondered, Could she be the key to giving back their humanity..? he thoughts continued to resemble similar questions.

Soon, they reached one of their key clues to their mystery--an old building that reminded NeutraKarin of something. But, sadly, she couldn't remember. Not knowing this site was important, they continued to walk along the gravel road, paying little to no mind to that tall white building...

"Have you gone completely mental, Shrimplips?!" yelled out Seaslug, who looked to be on the verge of having a coronary.

Shrimplips frowned in aggravation. "No, I haven't!" he snarled.

"Yes, you have!" Seaslug shot back.

"If you think about it, Seaslug, you'll see it my way," Shrimplips said as calmly as possible.

"Sorry, but I'm not seeing 'the light'," Seaslug sneered.

"Fine," Shrimplips huffed, "I'll explain it once more. If we help those four return back to normal, then while their guard is down, we can swipe Metabee and Rokusho's rare medals!"

"No, no," said Seaslug, waving his hands around the dimmed room of the Rubber-Robo gang's hideout, "I understand the plan, in fact, I'm ok with it,"

"Then what the problem?"

"The idea that those four and their medabots have morphed together in the first place is completely insane!" Seaslug exclaimed.

Shrimplips let out an exasperated groan, slapping his chubby hand on his forehead. "But it's true!" he whined.

"He's right, I saw them, too," commented Gillgirl, stepping out of the shadows.

"You've also gone mental!" Seaslug gawked.

"We haven't!" Shrimplips and Gillgirl shouted at the same time.

"Prove it then!"

"Fine," Gillgirl huffed, "I have proof right here!" Gillgirl ran out from the room, and a few minutes later, she returned, garbed with black rubber gloves, and carrying Shrimplips' rubber-Robo uniform that he was wearing before, wet spot and all.

Shrimplips went bright red. "Hey! Don't show him that, it's embarrassing!"

"Sorry," Gillgirl apologized, "It's the only proof I can think. Anyway, this, Seaslug, is Shrimplips' suit that he was wearing at the time, when he had an 'accident' due to fear of the girl Erika mixed with the SLR-type medabot, when she shot at him."

"That's not good enough, Gillgirl," Seaslug sneered, "He could have gotten scared simply because a wasp flew by him!"

Shrimplips blush went deep scarlet. "But it's true! What more proof do you need?!"

"Well..." Seaslug started, rubbing his chin, "You could always bring me a picture of them. Only then will I believe your tall tale,"

"But--!" Shrimplips stuttered, "They scare me! And besides, if they catch us, it's more likely that they won't trust us!"

"That's a risk I'm willing to take," Seaslug sneered, "And besides, if you're afraid of them, how will your plan work if your around them almost all the time?"

Shrimplips simply bowed his head in defeat.

"Fear not, Seaslug!" Gillgirl smirked, "We'll get those pictures, that's a promise!" And with that Gillgirl grabbed onto Shrimplips' uniform, and ran out of the room, dragging a yelling Shrimplips behind her.

They better not be lying, Seaslug thought to himself, leaning back in his ripped up chair, Or they'll be sorry...!

To Be Continued....