CHAPTER 24: THE ONLY WAY
The Vandread pilots looked in awe at their companion. He stood there, a giant figure of blue and gold, standing against a red demon from the deepest hell. Even the Harvester drones stopped fighting, the second mothership having been blown to smithereens by a final push by the fleet survivors. Various units surged to join the Vandread pilots, but found themselves stopped by an invisible shield. But only the Pegasus affected people saw what actually transpired. Everyone else simply saw a kaleidoscope of clashing colors and lights.
I shouldn't have called you my twin. You are ugly in heart as well as body!
"So, you have allied yourself with these creatures. You were always partial to lesser beings. Now this is your chance to be one!"
We are the last of our kind. Now I will assume that position!
Bart surged forward, lunging at the red Pegasus. The demon responded with red lightning that simply hindered Bart's surge, still finding himself being punched in the face. A series of blows followed, leaving the demon reeling. He regrouped and formed a sword and shield from his black energy. Bart snapped his fingers, making every Lunarian reactor glow yellow. A golden pair of wings emerged from his back, morphing into a helm, shield and sword.
"I didn't know he was that powerful!" Pyoro wailed, holding onto Jura.
The red demon surged forth, its full anger directed at Bart's angelic form. Bart stopped its thrust with his shield. He found his opponent too powerful this time, sidestepping his next thrust. Bart swung his own sword, powerfully slamming into the demon's shield. Great blasts of golden light flew out from the shield, breaking it apart. The melee lasted for what seemed like ages, until both were bereft of weaponry and were wrestling hand to hand. Bart found that the red Pegasus was growing in power, building up for some sort of other struggle. The two titans broke off and smashed into each other again, lightning and fire lighting up the sky in a light show of life and death.
"Boss!" Parfait appeared onscreen. "Look at our reactor! It's the same reaction we got when we were blown off to the middle of nowhere earlier!"
"Bart!" BC worryingly looked at the screen. Magno looked at ther vice-captain and saw that there was genuine concern in her eyes. "Bart! What are you doing?"
"That gramps-kid is making a wormhole! He's not trying to run…he's trying to blow us all up!"
"They turned the Pegasus into some sort of monster…!" Magno cursed.
No! What are you doing? Bart grunted as the red demon grew in power.
"Eliminating every last speck of dust on my window! Goodbye!"
The red one flew away from Bart, making for the electromagnetic storm. Bart gave chase, not thinking of the wormhole.
If he escapes, all this will happen all over again! The two lights disappeared from all sight, leaving the wormhole to slowly open up.
"We have to stop it!" Hibiki was the first to surge forward, blocking the wormhole with his Vanguard. The red shield reappeared, blocking the others from joining him.
"Hibiki!" Meia yelled out his name as she fired endless shots at the shield, to no avail.
"Damn it…I guess my life was half assed… I guess I understand now, Gramps….I might die, but they'll all let me live…in their hearts!" Hibiki muttered to himself. His left arm was numb, leaving him to push with his right arm. The Vanguard vainly tried to close the gap with its mass, spreading out to attempt to close the hole with its limbs. Hibiki continued pushing, knowing that with enough force the hole could be collapsed. But he knew that the Vanguard alone had no such power. But he had to try.
"No way!" Dita could be heard, "I'm not too smart, and probably not one to think too much…but I know you, Mr. Alien…you're trying to save everyone! So…I'm going to protect you, Hibiki! Because…because I love you!
"Dita! Don't try to burst through!"
The Blue Dread lurched into the red field, struggling to defeat the energy inside of it. Meia and the others hung their heads at the resulting explosion. But Pyoro' s robot eyes spotted something that lifted their hearts when they themselves saw it. The Blue Victory now propped up the hole, vainly trying to squeeze the time-space rift with its energy weapons.
"You idiot…why did you come?" Hibiki groaned.
"Oh, come on…we're inseparable! Besides...we're stronger together than alone!" Dita laughed, tying Hibiki' s injured arm to her own with a scarf." Right?"
"You're a moron…"
"It's not 'you'…my name is 'Dita' ..come on, say it."
"It's not Mr. Alien either, you know."
"D-I-T-A…come on, you can say it."
"H-I-B-I-K-I….touché !" he smiled back.
"Oh please…you call this flirting?" Ed's voice came over the net. Behind the Blue Victory flew the Red Guardian and the Double Dread.
"Give 'em time, they're still kids," Meia grinned.
"Super Vandread has entered the gate! Wormhole intensifying!" Celtic reported.
Ships big and small began to be pulled into the growing hole, which was already gorging itself on the mothership wreckage nearby. The fleet pulled away in droves, seeking safety, though every ship found itself being dragged back no matter how hard they pulled back. Carlos cursed as his golden remote controlled ship exploded and broke up, following dozens of other craft. Ozeki and the surviving Vanguards and ThunderStrikes were vainly adding their thrusters to their ships, pushing with every ounce of thrust they could muster. The Smugglers formed a sort of tether, allowing other ships to tractor each other in a buddy chain, slowing down the inevitable pull into oblivion.
"We used to run away from police…now we're saving them from a big black hole!" Sera commented as the Border Patrol mothership latched itself onto her ship.
Inside, the Super Vandread' s shields intensified as it fed energy into the wormhole, blocking it up with shield power. Ed and Meia gripped the twin throttles together, ensuring the shields didn't give way. Soon, everyone's systems were at overdrive capacity, bursting monitors and gauges. Yet they held on, continuing the vain quest to seal the wormhole. The Super Vandread itself was breaking up, pieces of metal and wire flying into the hole. Its green core could now clearly be seen, shining brightly in the chaos of the wormhole.
"Stop! Don't do anything crazy!" BC called out.
"Crazy? That's exactly what people in trouble do!" Ed laughed maniacally, maintaining shield power at maximum. He nuzzled Meia' s hand , looking at her. The shield pads glowed green under their hands.
"Nobody can seal a wormhole!" Marshall yelled. Get out of there!"
"Nobody's as crazy as Ed," Meia looked back at Ed, smiling.
"I am not going to give up!" Hibiki held tight to Dita.
"To protect our future….." Meia held Ed's hands tightly.
"We will not surrender!" Jura cried out.
"Pyoro-2!" the robot-core called out.
"Please!" Dita begged, as green globes lit under both her hands.
Friends…are people you have to protect, you know.
Two strands of green light emerged from the Nirvana, engulfing the wormhole and the rapidly-disintegrating Super Vandread.. Before they knew it, the wormhole quickly shut down and all matter ceased to move for a few moments. The Super Vandread, reduced to its core was cocooned in a green shell emitted from the Nirvana. The pilots awoke to see the Bart in front of them, standing in front like a ghostly apparition. His hand was outstretched towards the Nirvana.
I defeated him and scattered him around the entire universe. But I heard everyone's pleas for help and came back as fast as I could…nice timing, eh?
"Good work, Bald-uh, Mr. Genius Helmsman." Jura stammered, noticing the presence of his hair.
"You're just a big showoff, Garsuss!" Ed grinned.
"What are you, man?" Hibiki scratched his head.
If you were the missing member of the first generation, I am the latest member of humanity. I can see everything clearly now. I was born like you- from the womb of a woman. To boot, I was born where my mother lived…Mejale, but raised in Talark, with no knowledge of this ... until now that is. Seems gramps never even tried to clone either me or Dad. The Pegasus responded to me because of gramps. I guess I'm some descended from some sort of high priest from a bygone age that migrated to Earth or something. Oh well…are you all alright?
"Thank you, Bart!" Dita beamed.
"Let's all go home…after all this, I need a shower and a looong bath," Meia sighed with relief.
"Me too," winked Ed.
"Oh, can the innuendo already! All this, and I'm still single!" Jura threw a shoe at Ed.
Bart shrugged as a king-sized heel hit Ed in the ear.
"Now that was a show!" Rabat held his arms akimbo as the Alliance fleet flew by the Pegasus globe.
Bart reappeared on the Pegasus bridge to wild cheers, his transformation being a well- timed miracle that saved the world. He was in human form again and spoke with his own voice, though he seemed slightly taller. He still wore the robes, and his hair was still there, glittering gold. The crew surrounded him, showering him with hugs and kisses. Magno sat in her chair and laughed to herself.
"BC, go and take him before someone else does."
The groupies fled with one sound of her whip.
"Look at this…" Bart held out his arm. "At least my arm didn't grow!" BC laughed.
"BC…I've grown in more ways since meeting you. Before I was an energetic coward and a pretty shitty salesman…then you made me into all…well, all this…it wouldn't be possible without…um…"
"Hush, Bart….stop being sentimental. It's very unlike you. Come here…we can talk later."
With that, Bart and BC met in the middle of the bridge and gazed into each others' eyes. BC saw in Bart's eyes the innocence and loyalty that defined him, he saw BC's strength and perseverance in hers. They both saw no more as they closed their eyes and let their lips meet, to the astonishment of the crew. They held each other closely, arms crossing each other at the hip. Bart cupped BC's face in his hands and whispered softly as he pulled out of their kiss .
"Will you live on Talark with me?"
"Silly…I'm from Talark," she grinned. "Mataku…"
"What now, Boss?" Parfait asked from the engine room.
"We'll hang around for a while…the future is so exciting for these kids, why can't I?"
The fleet leaders said their goodbyes and left, bringing news of victory to every corner of the galaxy. Before anyone could arrest them, the Smugglers left as well. That left the pirates almost alone, celebrating victory that they surely could claim recognition for as the chief architect. The Nirvana limped back to the hideout, all its pilots and crew exhausted beyond reckoning. None of them came out of their rooms for days, the sounds of snoring, scratching, dreaming and pillow throwing being all anyone could hear. All but Barnet, that is. All people heard from her room were the soft clicks of a keyboard and the occasional giggle. What that was ,nobody could fathom. Yet no one could doubt the pilots' right to rest. The ship was quiet, as Magno and Rebecca had gone off to Talark to talk with Grandpa and Grandma about rebuilding and changing times. BC and Bart were supposedly at the hideout, working on some project. Gascgone and her snipes were already forming a pool to see how many children they would have. She personally bet on four.
One day Hibiki got up and out of his room for once, picking up a letter outside on the doorstep.
"What..?"
to be continued in the next and last chapter!