Chapter Forty-three: Weapon
The room was quiet.
Nothing stirred. Nothing at all.
The computer was off.
The windows kept the room safe from s the vacuum of space.
The steel door wasn't knocked on.
The sand shark that slept in her basket kept recharging via wires that came from the wall.
In the bed next to her, a robot 'slept'.
Like the sand shark, it was connected to the wall by the use of wires.
And its lids slid up revealing glowing yellow eyes.
"……………………………………………………………………………," and Dr. Heinous smiled.
The Bridge.
"It's good that all of you came," Sasha spoke to every Phoenix member who could fight.
"Yeah, at five in the morning!" Qwark cackled, suppressing a yawn.
"This is serious, Qwark," Sasha said calmly. "Heinous has enough power to attack the galaxy. So I need you on your toes."
"Yeah, Qwark," Nefarious said. "Get up and be a hero for once!"
"Excuse me," Qwark closed the distance between him and the robot, "who's the one who kicked you butt several years ago?"
"Only to get conked over the head with a mallet," Nefarious grinned.
Qwark bared his teeth. "Why, you--!"
"Hey!"
They both looked.
Sasha glared at them from her trademark chair. "We don't have time for this! Heinous could attack any second! And with the lack of fuel we have, we've gotta get to Marcadia as soon as possible while we send dropships to Heinous' base."
Nefarious and Qwark remained silent.
"Al is busy trying to find Heinous' location. That madman robot has put inputted a program that prevents his base from being tracked. When that's done, we'll give the coordinates and you'll infiltrate the base and stop Heinous. Here, the Phoenix will go the Marcadia--people already know we're back--and get some fuel and reinforcements."
"Who'll be infiltrating the base?" Clank asked.
"Ratchet, you, Qwark, Skrunch, Nefarious, and Jack," Sasha said without thinking.
"What about me?"
"?.?.?.?.?.?" Everyone looked at the location of Skidd's seat.
Courtney leaned against the computer console. She had her arms folded across her chest. She smirked her robotic pearly whites.
"You can fight?" Sasha asked.
"Mmmmmmmm-hmmm-hmmm-hmmm," a womanly chuckle. "Yes."
"And how," Qwark and Ratchet said in unison.
"Eeeehhheeee," Skrunch mimicked the tone and syllables from Qwark's left shoulder.
Courtney rolled her solid gold eyes.
"Okay then," Sasha said.
"Excuse me," A polite voice uttered.
Everyone looked at Lawrence.
The butler 'cleared his throat'. "If I may……I'd like to accompany the team to the base of Dr. Heinous."
"Are you sure?" Sasha asked.
"It would be the wisest for me to go with Master Nefarious."
"HA! Wisdom," Nefarious smirked. "I thought you well, eh?"
"You put the 'dumb' in 'wisdom', sir."
"I do, don't it?" Nefarious struck a proud pose. He obviously didn't get it.
Everyone decide to keep their opinions to themselves.
"Ahem," Lawrence spoke again. "Is it okay?"
"I guess so," Sasha uttered. "We should check on Al to--"
"No need," Al said as he strolled and stood in front of her.
"What do you mean?" Ratchet inquired.
Al was deadpan. "He's transmitting here."
And at that precise moment, Heinous' image appeared on the giant screen. His room was in the background.
"Hello, organics of the Solana Galaxy," the scientist cackled.
"Jeremy!" Nefarious growled. "Tell us where you are so I can kick your--!"
"The reason I've interrupted all holo-vid signals is to show you the unveiling of my weapon. I'm sure that all of you know that I'm Dr. Heinous……the greatest genius Solana has ever seen."
It was obvious that Heinous was conversing with everyone in Solana.
"I've realised that it's not good to be organic," he went on. "So weak no matter how protective your shell is. I transformed myself--"
"--and my butler into robots two-weeks-ago."
Mr. Krinkle shook at the image that appeared on his uncalled for giant holo-vid. He rubbed his balding head and listened.
"We travelled all across Solana, collecting provisions for the weapon I'll--"
"--be showing you soon."
Several viewers of different planets craned their necks to see the small holo-vid.
"Damn, we got us another loony," the barman said.
"I 'ate robots," another said before drinking the rest of the purple liquid in his cup.
"I'm responsible for all that happened two-weeks-ago. I--"
"--invaded Gadgetron HQ. I stole the Deplanetizer from Planet Koros and killed all those people while doing it."
Two fatherless children sobbed after hearing that one. They buried their faces in their widow-of-a-mother's belly.
The mother held them tight.
"It was none other than I who destroyed the--"
"--base on Planet Daxx."
"Son of a bitch!"
CLAMP!.!.!.!.!
A red scaled fist slammed on a desk, sending several unsigned checks flying all about.
"Does he know how much money that cost ME?.!.?.!.?.!" he growled.
A subordinate who stood a few feet away uttered nervously, "Mr. Ranzarto, w-we can always build a……new one."
"Pipe down, Smeeves! Did I tell you to--?.!.?.!.?.!"
"Shhhhhhhh!" a third one uttered. "Listen."
"I then went to the Bogon Galaxy--"
"--to find a suitable source for my weapon."
"Will he stop saying 'weapon'?" Ed growled annoyingly. He sat on a sofa in the break room.
"I think he's doing it to build up suspense," Will uttered before taking a sip from his coffee.
"Mmhmm," Jane hummed.
"We're wasting our time!" Ed cackled. "Shouldn't we be trying to trace the signal or something?.!"
"The president has ordered a group of experts already," Will was calm.
Ed gave a defeated sigh and watched the puny holo-vid.
"--and successfully managed to acquire enough raritanium! I returned to Solana and--"
"--here I am," an evil grin. "This galaxy will be under my control in a matter of days. First, we'll attack every planet, then every MOON, then EVERY SPACE STATION, AND THEN EVERY BLOODY ESCAPE SHIP!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!"
Al typed madly.
"Have you found the signal, Al?" Sasha leaned over his shoulder.
"Wait………..wait………….YES!" Al held his arms up in victory, barely missing Sasha's head. "But it'll take five minutes to track down," he said quickly then.
Sasha sighed for the umpteenth time. "Very well."
"So…………without further ado," the image from Heinous' room changed to that of space right outside the base. "I present to you……"
A massive door was opening by the lower wall like a garage door.
Something was coming out.
Something big.
Something mechanical.
Something evil.
"……the one. The only………"
The weapon came into full view.
And everyone across the galaxy with a holo-vid watched in a mixture of shock, awe, and fear.
"THE BIOBLITERATOR II!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!"
Drek's Deplanetizer drifted into view. From all four sides, where the green buttons would be, stretched mechanical 'limbs', complete with several joints for flexibility. The other ends of the 'limbs' were connected to one magnifying glass each. Each magnifying glass was above the centre of the laser, where a red button used to be. They were stacked on top of each other. Over them was none other than a pink laser, found at the Obani Draco. It was pointing down towards the magnifying glasses. At the pink laser was connected at the butt to a giant cuboid. Although it wasn't as big at the Deplanetizer flat side, the cuboid was still gargantuan. It had a shiny onyx colour. A flexible pipe was connected to the cuboid. The other end was in the base. The whole thing was being carried by about ten tiny ships and was being guarded by about twenty others.
"Feast your eyes on the galaxy's greatest weapon. Although not as elegant as the Biobliterator used by Dr. Nefarious, the Biobliterator II is still more powerful."
The laser began powering up.
Instead of yellow, an orange bulb lit at the laser's tip.
"My first victim."
The camera focussed on a planet.
"That's Planet Aradia!" Courtney yelled.
The laser shock more and--
ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!
A pure-orange laser shot from the tip towards Planet Aradia.
And Nefarious' rants of how unoriginal the name was were blocked out and/or ignored.
The grassland was peaceful.
An animal came out of the grass and ran towards a nearby tree.
It stopped, stood on its hind legs, and sniffed the air.
Its long ears perked up.
The animal made a run for it.
As it did, hundreds of birds flew.
A traveller noticed.
He blinked.
"Scoo'n fetrn lamf boort-o?" he asked himself in his native tongue.
Suddenly--
ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!
--an orange beam flew down and hit the ground several miles away.
The aradian looked in fright.
Silence.
"…….."
From the distance…
shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
The green-eyed one squinted his eyes, ignoring the wildlife running past him.
SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
The sound got louder.
A wind began blowing.
The man gulped.
He could make out an orange line on the horizon and the pillar of orange that came from above.
"………….."
The line got thinker and closer.
SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
The man sweated.
He grew uneasy.
SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
He saw it.
A giant, tall, translucent wall of orange was coming his way.
He gasped.
"Ai, Solonica!" he turned around and ran.
But it was futile.
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!
The wave caught up him in under ten seconds and passed right through him.
And he stopped.
He stood.
He didn't blink.
He looked at the ground.
He did a double-take.
The ground was titanium. Even the grass. The aradian examined his surroundings. Everything was metal. The few animals behind him were metal. The same for vegetation and everything else.
Robots.
The man suddenly felt that………………………..he couldn't feel.
He looked at his arms…
"……..!"
They were titanium.
The Biobliterator II still had the laser going.
And from space, one could make out something. From the orange line, a circle with an outline that was the same colour grew and grew………………………turning everything grey. The grey circle grew until Planet Aradia was that colour and that colour only.
All in a span of three minutes.
The laser ceased fire and slowly drifted back through the shield and into the base.
And all that could be heard after that was Heinous' laughter.