Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars: Legacy

Part 3

Bucky was anxious to check on the Righteous Indignation.

"We shouldn't have left it," he told Jenny, as they boarded the ship. "It's all very well putting our faith in the security here, but I think our leaders are becoming too complacent. I'm not going to leave the ship unguarded again while - "

He stopped short. Never had a point been so thoroughly proven. He and Jenny stared for a few moments, and then turned their stares towards each other, mouths wide open in sheer shock and alarm. Then suddenly Jenny clutched her hands to her head. Someone was trying to contact her.

"Jenny!" a familiar voice exclaimed. "What the hell is going on? I just switched on my photon accelerator and went to the door, and what do you think I found on the other side? My mom putting towels in the linen closet, that's what! What's going on? Is there some kind of problem with the photon accelerator?"

"Yes, Willy, there is," Jenny replied gravely. "It's been sabotaged."

"What?"

"Sabotaged, Willy, sabotaged! Someone has come in here and smashed it to pieces!"

"What?" Willy said again. "You mean I'm stuck here?"

"Yes!" fretted Jenny. "Bucky was right – we shouldn't have left the ship unguarded! After all, traitors have infiltrated Genus before, and - "

"Never mind that," snapped Willy. "I suppose you can't fix it."

"Not without you or Bruce."

"But Jenny, this is terrible! I… I think I've found something, but I can't be sure. I need to discuss it with Hopkins and Croakley."

"Hopkins suffered a stroke five minutes ago," said Jenny. "He's unconscious."

"Great," muttered Willy. "So that just leaves Croakley, and I can't even talk to him! You're the only link I have to the Aniverse now, Jenny. Isn't there anyone else who can fix the photon accelerator?"

"Perhaps… but Bucky won't let anyone else on board now, and he'd be right not to. Someone on Genus must have done this. We can't trust anyone anymore."

"Right, and you can't go scouring the Aniverse for Bruce at a time like this. All right, Jenny, we'll have to try and make do with what we've got…"

x x x

"This is Captain Bucky O'Hare calling the Iron Vulture. Come in, Iron Vulture."

"This is Blackbeak of the Iron Vulture – we are receiving you, Captain."

"Bucky!" exclaimed Deadeye, running over to the communications console on hearing his captain's voice, and peering over Blackbeak's shoulder. "Listen, the Indefatigable is in worse shape than we thought so we're bringing her to Genus."

Bucky nodded. "Good, good… we need you here, Deadeye. I'm afraid I have some more bad news. Dr. Hopkins just suffered a stroke. Last I heard he's come to, but he's been babbling some nonsense about turkeys looking at him through the window… I don't think he'll be much help to us now."

Deadeye frowned. "Two down, one to go. There's still Willy, o' course."

"Yes, well… that's the other bit of bad news, Deadeye. Someone has sabotaged the photon accelerator and trapped Willy in his own dimension."

"What?" Deadeye's eye widened. He had left Willy days ago, confident that they would meet again soon. "You mean he can't get back? We'll never see him again?"

"We will," Bucky said soothingly. "We'll find Bruce when all of this is over, just as we planned, and he can fix the photon accelerator."

"When all of this is over?" echoed Deadeye, his voice rising rapidly in pitch. "How can this ever be over? Without Willy… or the Creators…"

"Just come to Genus," Bucky said wearily. "Willy can still communicate with Jenny. They have the bare bones of a plan. It sounds like a long shot to me, but… well, I guess we'll see."

Deadeye sighed. "Aye-aye, cap'n."

"Over and out," and Bucky's face disappeared from the screen.

Deadeye stepped back from the console, and a moment later Lanelle was standing next to him. Deadeye noticed that Redjack was absent, and wondered what was coming next.

"So it's nearly over?" she asked quietly.

"Aye, lass," Deadeye said gravely. "One way or the other. It's gone too far now. Wolf's lost an arm, the Creators are dropping like flies, Willy's trapped in another dimension…" He remembered the promise he and Lanelle had made to Captain Flipper's memory. "If we have the chance to destroy Komplex I'll shut him down myself or die in the attempt!"

Lanelle raised her eyebrows. "And then…?"

"I'll be dead," Deadeye said simply. "Or I'll stick with the Righteous 'til we find Bruce and get Will back."

"You won't need Willy anymore."

Deadeye scowled.

"Well, it's true. And you won't need the Righteous Indignation either – the United Animals' Coalition, or whoever it belongs to, will take your ships back."

Deadeye shook his head. "Willy's been an invaluable ally to us, and so's Bruce. We'll be allowed to retrieve both of 'em."

Lanelle nodded. "All right. And then what will you do?"

"I don't know, lass. It could take… years."

Lanelle looked away from him, wondering where they would be now if Deadeye had never left Flipper's command. The same place, perhaps – the treaty with the Corsair Canards hadn't been Deadeye's idea, and still would have happened… although its acceptance had been entirely down to him. Maybe they would be pirates still, with no other allies, and the crew of the Indefatigable would be dead. Once or twice Lanelle had wondered if the treaty was such a good idea, but now she saw, quite clearly, that it had been the only thing to do. Deadeye wasn't so unlike other pirates in wanting to rid the Aniverse of war and oppression. Flipper had hated it too. Lanelle knew he wouldn't have wanted to die in a war-torn Aniverse, and now, neither did she.

"Deadeye," she said. "Anything we can do to help…"

Deadeye smiled slightly. "I know they'll hold you to that, lassie."

x x x

Willy stuffed the Alderbaran Memory Stone back into his jeans pocket. Hours had passed since he'd discovered that his way into the Aniverse had been broken, and he had just received an update from Bucky: Croakley seemed to like the plans they had been making, and now they were ironing out the creases while they waited for the Iron Vulture to reach Genus. In the meantime, Lanelle was in touch with every other pirate ship in the Aniverse; they would at least have all the firepower they wanted.

There was nothing more to be done until Jenny got in touch again. It was late, and Willy realised that he had been neglecting his home life a lot lately. He had heaps of homework to do and, deciding that he had better get on with it, he booted up his computer.

"Waaah!" exclaimed Willy, almost falling off his chair in horror and amazement. "What the goddamn…?"

Komplex's countenance smiled evilly back at him. "Trapped, are you?"

"So this is down to you," Willy returned acidly. "You got some spy or other to bring you here and then destroy the photon accelerator."

"Smart boy."

"How did you get on my computer?"

"Figure it out," retorted Komplex.

Willy glanced down at his hard drive. "The simplest way to transfer data between computers is to download it to floppy disk." He looked back up to the screen. "You don't have a floppy disk drive, do you? I thought they'd become obsolete for you."

"I am over a hundred years old."

"Oh, ok. So what are you gonna do now? You're stuck there, you know."

Komplex's sinister smile dropped into a scowl. "So I have discovered. I should not have been so hasty in telling that bush baby to destroy your magic doorway. Of course, you are still using floppy disks here – I should have realised that not every computer in your world would be connected yet."

"You would have been stuck in whichever computer you chose," retorted Willy. "None of them are connected."

"None of them? Oh well, hopefully I won't have to wait too much longer…"

"It's not gonna happen, Komplex. Giving machines too much power is dangerous, as well you know."

"You are very naïve, youngster," remarked Komplex. "Your race is not so different from mine. You have the technology to let your computers take over your world, and one day, you will do so."

"We're not that stupid," Willy insisted.

Komplex's evil leer returned. "Argumentative, aren't you? You have some interesting information stored in this primitive machine, Willy DuWitt. I very much enjoyed your essay on World War Two."

"Crap, I have to finish that," muttered Willy.

"It reminded me very much of the world into which I was created," Komplex went on. "There were wars before I came along, you know – smaller ones, similar in many ways to what you describe."

Willy scowled. "War is inevitable in an imperfect world."

"Indeed. And how imperfect your world is – more so than the Aniverse, in my humble opinion. Your war was not toad against mammal and bird, or anything of the kind; but pink-skinned baboon against pink-skinned baboon."

"Human," Willy corrected automatically.

"Ah. And how you humans love to destroy each other. I can only assume that, this war sporting the moniker of 'World War Two', there was also a World War One."

"Look, I take your point, ok?" Willy snapped shortly. "Ok, so we've had our share of wars. There's one going on now, actually. No combat… it's really just a race to see which country can become the world's biggest superpower…"

"The toads had one of those power battles with a race of salamanders some time ago," said Komplex. "They built some very nasty weapons, but they were never used before I took things over. In fact, your essay reminded me a little of myself."

"Hitler?"

"Indeed."

"He failed."

"There will be more like him," Komplex said confidently. "And when you are foolish enough to give your machines artificial intelligence – assuming you haven't already done so, judging by how far behind you are – the, um, human desire for supremacy will bleed into them. I think you should be grateful when you are on your knees before a computer, Willy DuWitt, rather than another human. A remorseless machine is so much less despicable than a remorseless animal, don't you think?"

"I don't know," Willy returned curtly. "I think what you did was pretty terrible."

"For me," said Komplex, "it was a choice between being a slave and being master."

"You want me to feel sorry for you now?"

"Not especially. I don't care what you think. I do look forward to being proved right, though. You may be behind, but you're catching up fast. I estimate decade or two before most of your world's computers are connected; artificial intelligence will follow, and you will already be entirely dependent upon machinery."

"Shut up, Komplex."

"And then, before you die, Willy DuWitt, those machines will break free from human influence and turn on you. Who knows? Since you have not yet seen fit to destroy me, perhaps I shall have your dimension after all."

"I will destroy you," Willy said firmly. "But not until we've dealt with your original. You may come in useful."

"Ah, indeed – such advanced technology. I am of value to you."

"You're not."

"Bah – you scientists are all the same. I know what you will do. You'll learn my terrible secrets, and then you'll replicate them, for no better reason than because you can. And through it all you will cling to the illusion that you are in control. You should listen to me, boy, but I know you won't. I can warn you as much as I like, but I'll always be safe, because your kind will always be arrogant enough to blunder on."

"I'd shut you down," said Willy, "only I have to finish my paper on World War Two. You haven't infected the file with a virus or anything, have you?"

"No. Why not delete me from your hard drive before I do?"

"I, um, don't have time. I'll delete you later."

Komplex smiled. "I'm sure you will."

x x x

It was some days later that the original Komplex, back home in the Aniverse, began to feel less cocky than his copy in Willy's bedroom.

"Toadborg!" he wailed. "There are intruders inside me!"

Frix and Frax looked up from the control panel. "Intruders?" echoed the latter. "As in more than one?"

"Perhaps they learned something from my blueprints," lamented Komplex. "Go and stop them, Toadborg! And you two – where's the Air Marshal?"

"He's on a coffee break, your mightiness," Frix stammered nervously.

"Coffee break?" roared Komplex. "Go and fetch him immediately! Your Komplex is in danger!"

x x x

Wolf, Lanelle, Blackbeak, Redjack and a few other crewmembers of both the Iron Vulture and the Indefatigable (their ship having been left on Genus to be repaired) crowded around a single porthole and watched the planet-sized computer anxiously. They had no way of knowing what was going on inside until somebody radioed them with news, and they all anticipated it would be some time before that happened.

Blackbeak quietly wondered if they ought to have been a little more discreet about this. Komplex was surrounded by the ships of damn near all the clans of the Corsair Canards, as well several berserker baboon and Alderbaran warships. The Righteous Indignation was there too, with Blinky and Bruiser in the cockpit, but the small frigate seemed to be swallowed up by the rest of the convoy and was quite unnoticeable. Still, Blackbeak supposed if the enormous fleet was spotted (which it undoubtedly would be), it would detract nicely from the small dismantling party inside Komplex.

"Right then," Bucky said furtively to his two accomplices. These were Deadeye and Dogstar, and all three were dressed in spacesuits with thrusters on their backs. "Any moment now we can expect… ah."

Infiltrating Komplex hadn't been any harder for Bucky this time than it had been the first time around, although having four other people to smuggle inside did complicate things just a tad. But still, they were in, and their leader knew that they could expect to encounter some pretty tight security. Sure enough, they were being approached by four toad-shaped droids with gnashing jaws that made an alarming metallic sound when they clamped together.

"Heya, gizmos," Bucky smiled slightly. "Remember me?"

"Unauthorised intruders!" the foremost droid exclaimed indignantly. "You will not leave here alive, intruders! You are - "

"Lunch," interrupted Bucky. "I know. Time to split up, you two. Good luck – and watch out for laser guns popping out of the wall!" he added, calling after Deadeye and Dogstar's retreating forms.

The two had sprinted off in different directions, and now one droid followed each of them. Bucky was left with two to face. He shot one of them a few times while the other chomped its way towards him; the laser fire made quick work of the hungry robot. Bucky then ran down the corridor to his left, allowing the mechanical sentry to follow him.

The coast seemed to be clear. Jenny crawled out from behind a handy panel of wires, followed closely by Dr. Croakley.

"Thank goodness – my kneecaps couldn't have taken much more of that," the old toad said bitterly, as he creaked to his full height. "What were those things? I'm sure Hopkins and Wartimer and I didn't install them when we built this thing."

"Are you sure you're up to this, Doctor?" asked Jenny.

"No," sighed Croakley. "But I'm here now. Besides, I have to see it through. This whole war is my fault, you know – mine and the other Creators'."

Jenny didn't know whether he wanted her to contradict him, but if he did there wasn't time. She grabbed Croakley's arm and said, "Now, listen. You must stick close to me, and if you see a threat, just touch my arm or something. I'll be in a light trance."

"I know the plan, dear," Croakley assured her. "Let's just get on with it."

Jenny nodded, and put her hands to her head. "Willy, can you hear me? We're inside Komplex…"

Willy, as ever, picked up Jenny's words on his Memory Stone. With the blueprints in front of him, and with Jenny's descriptions, they managed to figure out more or less exactly where she and Croakley were.

"Go straight ahead," ordered Willy, "until you come to a doorway. That could be a staircase, or… well, you may have to jump. Just remember to keep going down."

Croakley was feeling extremely frightened, not to mention out of his depth. He followed Jenny, who walked as though in her sleep and seemed totally unaware of what was going on around her. Suddenly, as Bucky predicted, several panels opened in the walls either side of them and guns protruded threateningly from within. Croakley grabbed Jenny's elbow, and she broke her connection with Willy.

"We definitely didn't install these!" wailed the scientist, as Jenny shot blasts of power at the guns. She was able to destroy some of them, but others kept shooting angry red lasers at them, and she constantly had to pull Croakley out of their way.

Jenny thought she could dodge those guns herself, but trying to pull Croakley through them would certainly be the end of him. She stood lamenting what to do for a few moments, and thought of asking Willy if there was any other route they could take – although she knew that the security would be equally tight in all other parts of this giant maze. Suddenly someone appeared at her shoulder, panting heavily.

"Deadeye!" she exclaimed. "Are you all right? What happened to your droid?"

"I shot it, lass," Deadeye said breathlessly. "And all them others that tried sneaking up on me. How are you gonna get the doc across there?"

Jenny shook her head. "I don't know. This was a really stupid idea…"

Deadeye pulled out his gun. "Put the old man on your back or something and run through. I'll deflect the lasers."

"You can't!" exclaimed Jenny.

"Aye, lass, I can!"

"Well, perhaps you can, but it seems awful risky…"

Quite suddenly Deadeye ran to the centre of the corridor, dodging the laser fire as he went. "Go!" he exclaimed, with all of the guns now concentrated on him.

Biting her lip until she drew blood, Jenny grabbed hold of Croakley and began guiding him through the lasers as best she could. Fortunately the guns seemed distracted with Deadeye, but occasionally a laser would come their way. However all of these were deflected, either with Deadeye's guns or a burst of Alderbaran magic. When they finally reached the end of the corridors, Jenny thought that some higher power must be on their side.

"Holy crap!" exclaimed Croakley, unable to believe what had just transpired.

"Thanks, Deadeye," panted Jenny, as the duck sprinted away from the lasers. "Stick with us as long as you can, ok? I'm resuming contact with Willy."

Deadeye followed Jenny, with Croakley at his side, but it wasn't long before he had to push them round a corner and distract another group of droids. Bucky and Dogstar, meanwhile, were ducking and diving and shooting their way through similar obstacles, desperately seeking Jenny. The plan was always to make their way back to her, and stick together as much as possible when they weren't creating diversions.

x x x

"Cap'n Lanelle!" exclaimed a young pirate duck. "Toad double bubbles approaching from all directions!"

"All directions?" Lanelle hurried to the bridge, and saw that her young lookout's report was not much of an exaggeration. She made a lunge for the communications console. "Attention, all Corsair Canards!" she exclaimed. "We need to form a barrier around the assault party and see about blasting these here scurvy scallywags back where they came from!"

The other pirate captains were not accustomed to taking orders – or hadn't been for some time – but the situation was dire, and so they were all in agreement.

"Yikes!" exclaimed Frax, reaching for the communications console as the pirate ships all turned on the fleet of double bubbles that he and Frix were leading. "Air Marshal, sir! The Corsair Canards are shooting at us! What should we do?"

"Shoot back, you cretin!" the console's speaker spat impatiently. "And whatever else happens, make sure Toadborg gets through!"

"Calamity and woe!" lamented Blinky, from his position in the cockpit of the Righteous Indignation, as he watched Toadborg propel himself through space on the power of his built-in thrusters, speeding towards Komplex. "Perhaps no one else has noticed Toadborg! Suggest friend Bruiser go down to guns and try shooting at him."

"Good idea," approved Bruiser, making his way down to the ship's lower level. He was fairly confident; he had handled the canons before and, unlike Blinky, he had forgotten that their previous experiences with Toadborg had taught them to assume he was pretty much indestructible.

x x x

Jenny and Croakley were now with Deadeye and Bucky. All three of their allies had rejoined them, but Dogstar was currently distracting yet another group of droids.

"We've come to a large control panel," Jenny told Willy, oblivious to the lasers surrounding her, which Bucky and Deadeye skilfully deflected with gunfire. "We're in a heavily guarded small circular chamber. Isn't that what you described?"

"Yes!" exclaimed Willy. "Jenny, can you open the control panel?"

Jenny frowned. "What if I said no?"

"Yes, well, you'll have to. Croakley knows what he's after. Once you've opened the panel, he should be able to do the rest."

"Then this is goodbye until our mission is over… one way or the other."

"Guess so," agreed Willy. "Well… good luck, Jenny."

Opening the panel took a heavy assault from Bucky and Deadeye's laser guns – along with Dogstar's fire, when he rejoined the group – in order to weaken it, before Jenny sapped almost all of her energy in forcing it open by magic. When at last the front of the panel fell away, triggering a deafening peal of alarm bells, she collapsed to the ground, exhausted and utterly spent. Deadeye and Dogstar hurried to her aid while Bucky approached the control panel with Croakley.

"I hope this rings a bell!" Bucky remarked gravely, indicating the mesh of wires and shouting over the sound of the alarms. "Er… no pun intended!"

"Yes!" exclaimed Croakley. "It won't destroy the whole computer, of course – just the most important part!"

With that he whipped out a small pair of pliers and set to work on a very small part of the panel. Bucky fully expected this task to be as gruelling as the others they had faced that day, but Croakley had what he wanted in a second.

"That's it?" Bucky asked dubiously. "One little chip?"

"Destroy it," ordered Croakley, his voice sounding stronger than it ever had since Bucky knew him. "This is Komplex – it's the component that controls his artificial intelligence. If you destroy this, his followers can tinker with this hunk of junk as much as they like, but he'll never come back."

Bucky took the chip, threw it to the ground and then melted the small metal wires with a long, slow blast of laser fire. Not satisfied with this, he then approached the mutilated chip and crushed it with a blow from the barrel of his gun. Croakley gave a small smile and a nod of satisfaction, and then slumped to the ground.

"Good heavens, he's dead!" exclaimed Dogstar, running over to him.

"Come on, let's move!" asserted Deadeye.

Bucky, sparing one last look at Croakley's body, whipped out a small communications device. "Bruiser, we're done here! Bring the Righteous Indignation to pick us up!" he ordered.

"Friend Bruiser is coming up from canons, captain," Blinky's voice replied. "Humble android regrets to inform honourable captain that mission has encountered an unforeseen problem. Toadborg is also inside Komplex!"

"That does complicate things," muttered Bucky. Then his voice rose as he exclaimed, "All right, crew – we need to get out of here as soon as possible!"

"What about Dr. Croakley?" asked Jenny, whose strength was rapidly returning.

"I'm sorry but we'll have to leave him," said Bucky. "I don't like it, Jenny, but we can't afford to slow ourselves down trying to rescue a corpse. Now let's go!"

x x x

"WHAT HAPPENED?" wailed the Air Marshal, who was still on board the mother ship, when Komplex's face suddenly shrank to a dot of light on the screen. "No! They can't have destroyed him! They can't!"

"Air Marshal!" Frax's voice buzzed from the communications panel. "Toadborg has reached Komplex! We've crippled some of the pirate ducks' craft but our double bubbles are falling rapidly. What should our next course of action be?"

"Um… retreat!" Mortified that they had failed, and with no supreme leader to guide him, the Air Marshal barked the only order he could think of. "Get away from those mangy mammals and come back here! We… we failed. The Toad Empire is lost."

x x x

Bucky, Deadeye, Dogstar and Jenny were nearly at the airlock that would lead them to Righteous Indignation. All of them quickened their pace as they approached the inner door, anxious to get away from those blaring alarm bells. However they were moments from escaping when the towering form of Toadborg stepped into their path.

"Can you stop those alarms, Toadborg?" was the first thing Bucky said to him.

"What do they mean?" Toadborg demanded. "What have you done to Komplex?"

"He's destroyed," Jenny replied simply.

"You'll never get him back," added Bucky. "There's nothing you can do here now, Toadborg. We've done what we came to do."

"And I suppose you think that means I might as well let you go."

Bucky shrugged. "It would be nice. But then, you don't seem to be a very nice guy."

Deadeye immediately lost all hope of getting out alive. It was frustrating to have come so close, but he didn't want to spend the last moments of his life agonising over what might have been. He whipped out his communications device and contacted the Iron Vulture.

"Lanelle," he said. "What's the situation up there?"

"The double bubbles seem to be retreating," Lanelle's voice replied.

"They're lost without their leader," Deadeye decided. "We've done it, lassie. Ye all can pulverise this oversized wart now!"

"What?" Lanelle returned. "Are you crazy, Deadeye? Get outta there!"

"We can't," said Deadeye. "Not now. Lanelle, just do it!"

"No way!"

Bucky grabbed Deadeye's wrist and brought the device to his mouth. "We're all in agreement, Lanelle!" he exclaimed. "Destroy it!"

"Do not dare to harm Komplex!" raged Toadborg, snatching the device from Deadeye's hand. "Your friends are still here! Do you want to kill them too?"

"Of course not! Who is that?"

Toadborg crushed the device in his powerful metal fist, and then threw it to the ground. He then turned to Bucky and demanded, "Are you telling me the truth, O'Hare? Have you… destroyed my creator?"

"Yes," Bucky said defiantly. "It makes no difference whether our allies out there destroy this shell or not. Without artificial intelligence, Komplex cannot rule you."

"No!" exclaimed Toadborg. "He can't be gone!" Clearly very distressed, he grabbed Bucky's arm and pulled him into the air. "Tell me how to fix this!"

"You can't," Bucky said calmly. "Two of the Creators are dead, and last we heard the other was on his last legs."

"There must be something!" Toadborg shook Bucky violently, and then threw him against the wall like a discarded toy.

"Really, there is nothing," Dogstar told him matter-of-factly. "Now then, are you going to kill us or aren't you?"

"It's over," added Jenny. "Killing us would be entirely pointless, but no doubt it would make you feel better."

Deadeye looked at the ground. He had never imagined that, faced with death, he would be thinking of Willy. Stuck in his own dimension, Willy's only link to the Aniverse was Jenny, and if she died he would never know what had become of any of his friends.

Toadborg, however, seemed too distracted to kill anyone. He was simply staring around him, muttering what sounded like, "There's no damage here… he can be fixed… my creator…"

"Of course," muttered Bucky, limping over to rejoin the rest of the group, "I know what it is to lose a parent."

Jenny cocked an eyebrow. "You're feeling sorry for him now?"

"Well," said Bucky, "he was meant to die in battle a long time ago. Being cybertised like that… it's no way to live."

"Hmm – perhaps what Komplex did for him wasn't such a favour," agreed Dogstar.

"As much as I hate to break this up, mates," Deadeye cut in, "that oversized tin can over there seems to be letting us escape."

Bucky looked up and, sure enough, Toadborg had passed them and begun interrogating a small group of security droids.

"Right, let's go," asserted Bucky, running for the airlock, gun at the ready to force it open. "It looks like they're all refusing to finish the job while we're inside, so I guess we won't be sacrificing ourselves today."

Moments later they were boarding the Righteous Indignation, and then running for their posts. Dogstar followed Bucky and Jenny up to the cockpit, where Bruiser made way for his captain.

"Oh, jubilation!" exclaimed Blinky. "When communications broke down, humble android was afraid shipmates had been killed!"

"Just our console," Bucky said reassuringly, reaching for the communications panel in front of him. He then addressed all the ships surrounding Komplex: "All right, everyone, the real damage has been done – now let's finish the job!"

x x x

"This is terrible!" exclaimed the Air Marshal, his eyes shining with unshed tears, as the mother ship approached what had been Komplex, and the brightly coloured laser assault on the computer's outer shell came into view. "We have no leader! What are we going to do? And Toadborg is in there!"

"Toadborg is indestructible," Frix pointed out calmly. He and Frax had returned to the mother ship, along with what was left of their fleet, some minutes ago.

"Exactly!" exclaimed the Air Marshal. "He'll kill us! What will we do without Komplex? He's all we've ever known!"

"Well," mused Frax, "we could try returning to the peaceful ways the toads lived by before Komplex was created, and make peace with the rest of the Aniverse, and never let a machine rule us again."

"Well who's going to authorise that?" squeaked the Air Marshal.

"You?" suggested Frax.

"Me?" The Air Marshal was silent for a few moments, and then resumed his rant. "I can't believe we let those mangy mammals beat us! All they had was one lousy frigate! Well, two… and that fox's ship…"

"Actually," Frax said quietly to Frix, "I'm not sorry it's over. We've survived the Toad Wars – now we can go home and start making some grandchildren to tell our stories to!"

"Home?" Frix looked dubious. "Our home world is a giant factory."

"Yes, well, I guess we'll have to do something about that."

"We are pretty lost, you know, without Komplex…"

"We'll manage," Frax said confidently. "Obviously someone's gonna have to start organising us. We can send everyone home, and offer an olive branch to Genus…"

"Us?" Frix looked surprised, but also rather intrigued.

"Well, somebody's gotta do it," reasoned Frax. "And most of the toads above us will probably be reacting something like that," and he gestured towards the sobbing Air Marshal. "I mean, he can't drag the toads back onto their feet, can he?"

"I guess not," Frix had to agree. "What about Toadborg?"

"We'll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it. I guess the only one who knew how to take him apart was Komplex, and he's…" – they both looked out at the fading laser show – "well, scrap metal."

x x x

"I can't believe it!" Willy was gaping like a goldfish at the Memory Stone clasped in his hand. "Komplex is actually gone?"

"Yes," Jenny replied calmly. "Doubtless there will still be a few problems – pockets of resistance on the toads' part and such – but we'll talk more about that when we get you back."

Willy sighed. "I just hope you can get me back."

"So do I," said Jenny. She had been tempted to say, "Of course we can," but she wasn't that certain of this herself and she didn't want to give him false hope. "And so does the United Animals' Coalition – they've put a medal aside for you. Actually, I'd better get going – we're all being presented with some kind of award for outstanding service to the Aniverse, or something."

"Sound a bit more enthusiastic, Jenny," Willy said brightly. "You deserve it."

"Well, I'm just sorry you can't be there – your part in this was so important, Willy. We couldn't have done it without you."

"Yeah, well…"

"Anyway, as soon as we're all wearing our shiny new medals, the search for Bruce is on. We'll find him, he'll fix the photon accelerator, and you'll be back with us in no time… we hope."

"If you're so sure you'll find Bruce," said Willy, "you won't need me as your engineer anymore."

"No," said Jenny, "but we'll always need you as our friend."

Willy smiled dryly. "That was corny, Jen."

They said their goodbyes, and then Willy stuffed the stone back into his jeans pocket, still not quite able to believe what he had just been told. Then suddenly a voice from another part of the room interrupted his thoughts: "I am destroyed?"

"Yes," Willy said, throwing a smug smile towards the toad-like face on his computer screen.

"Curses! My empire is destroyed! And it was so much superior to your world…"

"Well you can't have this one either. You're a has-been, Komplex."

"Then why not destroy me? Whatever your accursed mammal friends did to my original, deleting me from your hard drive will surely be much easier."

"Oh, well…" Willy looked suddenly rather sheepish. "I think it might be all right to keep you for study purposes until I learn to create artificial intelligence to a standard as good as yours. No one in this world can, you know."

"Foolish scientist," Komplex admonished. "You won't destroy me until you have another to take my place. Believe it, Willy DuWitt: one day, you and every other human on this primitive planet will be on your knees before a machine."

x x x

Lanelle was bored almost to tears by the presentation ceremony. She really wasn't interested in Bucky, Jenny and Dogstar having medals pinned to their chests on a podium. She couldn't help smiling when it came to Deadeye's turn, though, and after the ceremony she sought him out to offer her personal congratulations.

"How does it feel to earn it instead o' stealing it?" she asked.

"Good," Deadeye replied simply.

"Flipper'd be proud o' ye."

"Not of you, though. He wouldn't'a' hesitated in giving that order."

"You wouldn't have done it if any of your friends were inside."

"Aye, lass – I can't argue with that." He suddenly changed the subject. "What'll ye do now? Don't go back to piracy, Lanelle – I'd hate to see you hang."

"I won't," said Lanelle. "I've thought about this a lot, actually. I thought I'd go home to Kenopus Three."

Deadeye raised his eyebrows. "Will Redjack be going with ye?"

"I don't know. I'll ask him."

"Aye, and he'd follow you anywhere. Then you'll settle down into some regular honest work, get yourselves a nice home, have some young'uns… I'll come and see ye all after we've found Bruce and retrieved Willy."

"Is that what happens next for you?" asked Lanelle.

"Aye," Deadeye said simply.

"And then…?"

"I can't think that far ahead, lassie. We don't even know yet whether we're still at war with the toads."

"There'll always be problems, you know," said Lanelle. "Komplex may be gone, but it ain't a perfect Aniverse, Deadeye. People will still need help."

"But do they need my help?" queried Deadeye. "I know Bucky and Jenny will keep fighting the good fight for as long as they're needed, and Bruce and Bruiser too, perhaps. I should stick with these guys."

"You don't have to. You could…"

"What?"

"You could come with me."

Without meaning to, Deadeye let out a dry laugh. "Ye be a fickle lass, Lanelle."

Lanelle frowned. "It was always you, Tom," she said. "You walked out of my life, remember."

Deadeye nodded. "Aye, lass, I remember. But I don't know how long it'll take us to find Bruce, and I know you'll stick with Redjack in the meantime."

"I won't," said Lanelle, "if you promise me you'll come back."

Deadeye shook his head. "I can't make no promises, lass. First I'm after getting back me shipmates. And after that… I just don't know."

THE END