"Excel?" Il Palazzo froze as when he entered his throne room, the said girl was kneeling on the ground. "What is the meaning of this?"
"I would like to apologize deeply for yesterday's mission." Excel started, not daring to look her master in the eyes.
"Yes, I heard about it on the news." Il Palazzo said calmly while going to sit in his throne. "We suffered great losses and we still don't know who is trying to sabotage us. Do you mind telling me what happened?"
"No, not at all!" Excel exclaimed and looked up. "I was doing my job but I didn't see that big 2-ton truck coming and then something strange happened… I heard you say some things…and then I jumped and people gathered and I couldn't believe I was alive and then the explosion…and…"
"What was this truck doing at the construction site?" Il Palazzo interrupted her seemingly endless tirade.
"No, the truck wasn't at the construction site, it was on the street." Excel explained, a feeling that there was still hope for her rising inside her.
"And why were you on the street?" her master asked.
"I was doing my job – regulating the traffic." she replied.
"You were supposed to be a supervisor." Il Palazzo said and sighed. "The world is full of incompetent people." Excel kept nodding while he was saying that, almost not believing her ears and luck. "I guess it wasn't your fault then."
"Thank God…" Excel sighed.
"Excuse me?" her master asked.
"No, nothing!" she squeaked and stood up. "What is my next mission, sir?"
"Take a day off." Il Palazzo said, waving a hand dismissively.
"Thank you, sir! I will do my best!" Excel shouted and ran out.
The moment she was out, Il Palazzo gritted his teeth and put a hand over his face, the other hand gripping tightly the arm pad of his throne. After a few moments he sat back and relaxed. His eyes closed and he breathed a few shallow breaths until his breathing evened. Then, sighing deeply, he stood up and excited the hall.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"Where am I?" Excel wondered, feeling somehow light and free. She opened her eyes and almost screamed when she found herself floating in the open space. A large triangular space ship flew above her and she screamed.
Inside the space ship, there was a strange capsule with a girl inside it. Small yellow creatures were dancing around the capsule, waving their little staffs and singing something in their weird language. On a big screen at the front of the big room was a blue planet and the ship was closing in toward it.
"Puu-chuu!" one of the creatures said, raising its staff in the air. But somehow Excel understood what it had said – "It's Earth!"
"You're right!" another creature said.
"War!" the first one screamed.
"Conquer!" all the others followed its example.
Before Excel could yell out that only her Il Palazzo-sama was allowed to conquer the Earth, another yellow creature raised its staff. It was standing in front of a small red throne, most likely meaning that it was the boss. All the other aliens grew quiet and waited to hear what their master was going to say. Out of pure curiosity, Excel shut her mouth too and waited.
"Dance!" the master shouted and all the creatures started dancing around the capsule with the girl.
'This is terrible!' Excel thought. 'I have to warn Il Palazzo-sama! He has to know that someone is trying to take the Earth from him!' she started looking around for a way out, not carrying that Earth wasn't her master's yet, so right now there was no difference who had it. 'Wait a minute! How come those freaks can't see me! Am I a ghost or something!'
Suddenly, she found herself back in space. "What the…!" she screamed when she saw the big ship coming right at her.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Excel opened her eyes and didn't move. She wasn't in space anymore – she was in her room, in bed… She had been sleeping? That's right… She had come home after reporting to Il Palazzo and had gone to bed since she hadn't slept at all the last night. So, this had all been a dream? Thank God…
"That was a terrible dream." she mumbled while getting up and fixing her bed. She went to the window and looked out. "It's raining. The streets are flooding." she noted, watching how cars and other things floated down the street. But something nagged in the back of her head and suddenly her eyes widened. "Flooding! The base! Il Palazzo-sama!" she screamed in panic and ran out.
Once at the base, she saw that her fears were true. Since it was underground the base was all flooded and there was no way of getting inside, except for diving and swimming all the way to the throne room. And on top of that there was no telling whether her master was still alive or not. But she had to make sure. She owed it to him. She didn't know why and actually, she didn't care in the least.
Gasping for air, Excel surfaced in the throne room. She froze and almost sank again – her supposed to be in grave danger master was calmly sitting in his throne. A red signal lamp was placed next to the throne, indicating the rise of the water, and every time the water level rose, so did the throne. Fortunately, Excel overcame her initial shock and managed to stay above the water.
"What is it, Excel?" Il Palazzo asked calmly as if his throne room wasn't currently being transformed into a swimming pool.
"The base is flooding!" she exclaimed, raising her hands in the air and sinking under water for a moment.
"I didn't know that an underground base would have this kind of problem." Il Palazzo said, sounding almost uncaring. "It was an oversight. How do you see this situation, Excel?"
"Well…" a little startled from her master's unexpected wish to hear her opinion, Excel stuttered before she could answer. "…I think we should evacuate."
"Very well." Il Palazzo nodded and the rope fell down from the ceiling.
"I-Il P-Palazzo-sama, what are you…" Excel froze in fear.
Suddenly, there was a sound of a phone ringing. Il Palazzo released the rope and took out a small mobile phone. Excel sighed in relief but knew that she was still doomed. She could already imagine how her lifeless body was being pulled out from the city sewers. Her only salvation was if she got out before her master finished his talk. But she was also curious, so she stayed.
"Yes?" Il Palazzo asked. "Oh? Conquer the Earth?" he sounded a little surprised. "Well, well…" then a little skeptic. "That's something only few can accomplish. Oh well, I guess it can't be helped if it's a Martian." hearing that, Excel got a strange feeling of familiarity. Where had she heard of someone other than her master conquering the… Remembering her dream, she quickly dived and was gone in a second. Il Palazzo continued his conversation. "I understand. I'll return to my original plan."
"Hey, wait! That's not the problem!" the man on the other side yelled but it was already too late, as Il Palazzo hung up.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, Excel…" he looked up but the said girl was already gone. "Impatient girl."
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"Oh, God! Oh, God!" Excel repeated over and over again, waddling through the water and starring at the enormous triangular space ship above her. Bang! She hit a telegraph post. "Ow… What am I going to do now?" she mumbled while rubbing her aching nose.
Bang! Something hit her in the head, bounced off and fell in the water. 'Someone must really hate me today…' Excel thought miserably and took the strange object. It looked like a gun but had a hole in the back.
"What could it be?" she mumbled while looking it from each side. "It looks like some sort of a weapon. I'll show it to Il Palazzo-sama and… No…" she shook her head, not really in the mood of being thrown into that hole along with all that water in the base.
A sudden flash of light and then the following thunder startled her and she almost dropped the weapon. A small label caught her attention and she looked closer. It had some strange characters and a yellow creature drawn next to the writings. Excel's eyes widened in shock and she froze.
"I-It really wasn't a dream!" she finally convinced herself. "B-But h-how!"
Suddenly, the ship fired a pink beam of light that hit and blew up a nearby building. Excel jumped in surprise and stared in horror while the big structure crumbled. Only one thing came to her mind – do something! But she didn't know what! Looking down at the weapon, she put her right hand into the hole.
"Wassup?" a voice from within the thing spoke.
"AAA!" Excel screamed and tried to throw the gun away, but it just wouldn't go off.
"Wassup? My name is Nanami! My translators are broken, man!" the voice continued.
Excel continued trying to get rid of it, thinking that it would eat her hand or something.
"I can advance and improve you, man!" the voice said in a very strange dialect. "You gotta shoot me with yo damn soul! I'm countin' on ya! Wassup!"
"Well, I guess it won't eat my hand…" Excel calmed down and looked at the gun closely. "That must be some really high-tech device! Wonder if I can use it…" she said and raised her hands up. "Well then, here we go!"
A pink beam of light shot from the weapon and pierced the space ship right through the center. A huge explosion followed, indicating that she must've hit something really important. Too bad that she wasn't that lucky with her missions too. Something fell from the ship, but Excel was too busy running after a small ship that was floating down the street. About ten of those yellow aliens were boarding it, screaming in panic.
Not wasting another minute, Excel made her way to the ship and jumped inside. The aliens stopped screaming and stared at her. Not knowing what to do, she just stood there and waited for them to make the first move. One of the creatures raised its staff and pointed it toward her. To her big surprise, Excel realized that she could understand everything it said, just like in her dream.
"Who are you?" it asked.
"Are you a warrior of this Earth?" another one asked.
Excel blinked stupidly at them. "I'm Il Palazzo-sama's warrior." she stated after a second.
"Il Palazzo!" the aliens screamed, their eyes going impossibly wide and before Excel could grasp the situation, they were all attacking her.
"What the…!" she yelled and defended herself, kicking and punching everything that came her way.
While the fight occurred, the ship started rising from the water. Apparently it was on autopilot. By the time the aliens have been all taken care off, the ship was already inside the mother ship. In her panic Excel started pressing every possible button on the control panel, causing the ship to crash in the docking hangar.
"Man, that was one hell of a landing…" Excel rubbed her head, emerging from under the ship's debris. "What the…!" an army of yellow creatures was advancing toward her. "Stay back!" she yelled, pointing her gun at them, but they didn't listen. "Well, you had that coming!"
In a few minutes all the aliens were killed. Excel hung her head and arms down, breathing heavy. Who would've thought that firing with that gun was so tiring? A huge explosion shook the whole ship and sent Excel flying backwards. She hit a wall and the gun fell down on the ground. Before she could grab it though, the ship leaned to the other side and she slid away from the gun.
At the main bridge, the aliens were panicking. The whole ship was collapsing over their heads. They screamed and ran around, trying to find a way out. But then, Excel came running inside and everyone stopped. She stopped too and looked them one after another. All at once the aliens screamed and jumped in a desperate attack to take revenge for their failed mission.
"Capture her!" the head alien yelled.
"Don't let her get away!" another one screamed.
"No!" Excel ran and ran and the corridors seemed to be endless. "I want home! Il Palazzo-samaaa!"
And there it was – her way out. She saw a small escape pod that still hadn't been used. With a wide grin, Excel jumped inside and watched how the aliens screamed after her. Finally away from danger, she looked up at the exploding space ship. Something nagged in the back of her head and when she finally realized that she had actually saved the Earth for her Il Palazzo-sama, she screamed in happiness. But…
"I am flying away from the city!" she panicked and started pressing different buttons on the control panel. "It worked last time…" but you can't be lucky all the way.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Il Palazzo stood in front of his throne. The room was still flooding and he had already reached the ceiling. That meant that he'd have to do something if he didn't want to drown. But then, a yellow stasis capsule floated in front of him. He raised an eyebrow in suspicion and waited. The capsule's hatch opened and a girl, wearing a strange helmet sat up.
"Those clothes, that costume…" Il Palazzo observed. "You've been sent in from headquarters, correct?" the girl didn't respond, but he continued. "Welcome! This is our secret ideal organization Across."
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"Where are you from?" a man in military uniform asked in English.
"I-I can only tell you my code name…" sitting behind a table in a dark interrogation room, Excel answered shakily in Japanese.
"How old?" the man asked, slamming his hand on the table, startling her.
"…" was Excel's reply, pretending she didn't understand him.
"What is your purpose?" the man was getting angry.
"…" she stayed stubbornly silent.
"It's no use." another one entered the room. "Tie her up."
Excel's eyes widened.
"Yes, sir!"
TBC