Biker Mice from Mars
Hard Luck Trilogy
Pt3
What's His frequency Karbunkle?
Chapter 12
"…can't believe how pear-shaped this is all going!" Limburger growled while still rubbing his sore fish snout. "You of all beings should be used to it by now Lard-Butt!" Throttle chuckled from behind him, pointing his blaster at both the mask-less Limburger and Karbunkle standing by the smoking TV/Comm Screen.
Limburger glared malevolently at the Tan Mouse kneeling on the floor by the still unconscious and moaning Hard Luck. Limburger was standing next to Karbunkle. The Demented Doctor was nervously looking at the office door, and at the crushed ruins of both his computer console and Robo-Rodent-Remote.
Throttle was keeping the blaster in his right paw held rock solid on his two enemies, while he gently tried to wake up Hard Luck. The Blue Mouse muttered and painfully twisted while lying on his metal spine. Throttle lifted Him up to a sitting position as tenderly as he could.
"Come on Hard Luck, I really need you to wake up." He said softly. "and still not be under mind control and try to kill me." This he whispered to himself. "Uh, muh, whuh?" Hard Luck moaned as his head wobbled weakly on his neck.
Hard Luck's head slowly lifted, and his eyes opened to reveal a set of foggy green and yellow eyes. Throttle kept a firm hold on Hard Luck's shoulder, both to keep him from falling over and ready if he lashed out at him.
Frankly, Hard Luck didn't look like he could fight a wet noodle right now and win. Throttle wasn't sure he could beat the noodle right now either.
Throttle shot a glance at Limburger, and Karbunkle to be sure they were behaving themselves when suddenly Hard Luck's arms flashed out, and wrapped around him and pulled him in, right into a hard Kiss!?
"Mmmmm Oh, Taarna, I missed you so much, I don't wanna go back to the Psychic Wars!" Hard Luck mumbled while keeping Throttle in a tight hug! Snout to Snout, Throttle, his eyes nearly popping his glasses off, weakly struggled and tried to disconnect from Hard Luck!
"Mmm-HardLuck-mmm-HardLuck-mmm-MUSKET, Wake Up!" Throttle managed to blurt out while trying to get some air! "Huh, wha?' Hard Luck gasped as He blinked rapidly and let go of Throttle and shook his confused head, "Oh, uh, where am, who are, oh, oh, I don't feel good! "He moaned.
"Do you two wish to be alone, Karbunkle and Myself will gladly step out into the hallway?" Limburger said with a mean snarl while glaring at the two mice. The Foul Fish started to push the scrawny scientist in that direction.
"Park it Lard-ball!" Throttle ordered while wiping his mouth with his arm, and quickly gestured with his blaster at them. They parked it. "Oh, my head hurts, where am I, what did you call me?" Hard Luck groaned as he held his head in his paws and tried to make the room stop spinning.
"I called you Musket, Musket, your real name, remember?" Throttle said with a sigh of relief, glad that the Blue Martian seemed to be free of the mind control. "Oh, yeah, right, oh, I aint been called that in, I haven't heard that name in a really long time." Hard Luck looked like he was about to drift off into his memories, but Throttle shook his shoulder and brought him back to the here and now.
Unfortunately, Hard Luck's Memories started flooding in, they were just the current ones. "Oh, Oh, Oh Cheese, I, uh, I did all, oh, I'm so, so sorry Throttle, I didn't mean, I didn't want…Oh, I'm gonna throw up!" Hard Luck stammered. His blue face started to turn a sick shade of sickly green.
"Not on my carpet you're not!" Limburger snapped! The look that Throttle glared at him with convinced him to keep his comments to himself. That and the blaster being aimed dead center in between his eyes. He did indeed get the message. The message to SHUT UP!
"It's Ok, Musket, I mean Hard Luck, none of us blame you for any of it." Throttle said trying to both reassure and keep Hard Luck calm. It didn't work.
"No, No, I hurt you, and Davidson, and, uh, Doug, so much, and Modo, what I did to Modo, Oh, Modo, I, I, Wheeeeze!" Hard Luck inhaled, on the verge of starting to Hyperventilate!
Throttle quickly grabbed him by the shoulders and softly shook him! "Modo's fine, so is Charley, and uh, Vinnie!" He said to calm Hard Luck down. That and he couldn't believe he almost forgot Vinnie's name too.
"No, No I did it, I hurt Him, oh just leave me here to Die!" He moaned and tried to fall over, but Throttle didn't let go, but he did let a sad smile pop upon his face. "No can-do buddy, not counting the Big Lug downstairs, but there are two Mice back on Mars who would Never forgive me if I didn't do my best to bring you back home."
This seemed to do the trick. Hard Luck got his breathing and himself under some modicum of control. He looked up into Throttle's green lensed sunglasses, which reflected his own green eyes. His shoulders slumped and he let himself tip over, his head falling against Throttle's chest. "Oh, I hate my life." He sighed. Throttle just couldn't hold his laughter in, so he just put his arm around the Blue Mouses' shoulders and let it out.
Not being one to waste an opportunity, Limburger took advantage of this small distraction. "My dear Doctor now would be a precipitous point with which we could make a departure from our current predicament, so let us depart forthwith!" He whispered.
Karbunkle glared back at him from behind his goggled eyes. "That would NOT be a Wise Move." He said making No attempt at trying to be quiet. "What!?" Limburger growled at him! "What do you mean by that you Deranged Dimwit!?" The loud click of a Blaster being re-aimed notified him that their chance to sneak off had just ended.
"Yeah, I think I would like to hear the answer to that one myself." Throttle added to the conversation. "It would be UNWISE because the Rodent is the only one of us that is currently Armed and thus able to DEFEND himself, and by proxy US as well!" Karbunkle snarled.
"Why is that?" Both Throttle and Limburger chorused. "If you will recall, You ordered me to change the offensive setting of the Tower's Robots to Full Lethality, correct?" Karbunkle said. Limburger just impatiently nodded His fish head at him.
"To do that, I had to deprogram them first, and insert the new program, to which I was INTERRUPTED when that Bumbling Blue Idiot Destroyed my Console before I could finish, so to say it plainly, I did not get the chance to re-establish the part of the program where the Robots would distinguish between Us, and the Mice!"
Limburger's inhuman eyes opened wide before closing, and his gloved fin hand came up to massage his forehead. He felt a headache coming on. "So, in other words, you mean…" He started to say when Karbunkle finished the sentence for him.
"Yes, you Flatulent Fool, it means that the Robots will just as gladly tear us into bloody chunks, as you put it, just as eagerly they will the Mice!" Throttle had to laugh again at this. "Oh, that's rich, that is just rich!"
"This, this is my fault, isn't it?" Hard Luck mumbled guiltily. Throttle just smiled and patted him on the shoulder. "Kind of but just look at it this way, you didn't make things any worse for US!" Throttle chuckled again, and Hard Luck weakly joined him. Limburger, and Karbunkle just glared at them.
"…UDGERS!" Vinnie cheered as the three of them fell down the vast shaft, filled with exploding laser turrets extending from hidden ports in the walls, and the smaller flying tentacled robots!
Vinnie was blasting away faster than Charley could follow, that is if she could actually see, but she still had her eyes tightly closed and her face buried in Modo's chest! She really hated heights, especially when FALLING!
"I hope you aint forgot about the part of your plan on a landing!" Modo yelled up at the Mouse on his shoulders! "I'm working on it don't worry!" Vinnie yelled back. You could literally hear the adrenaline-fueled smile on his face!
Vinnie continued to shoot the robots and cannons in the shaft, shifting his weight to maneuver (mouse-euver?) the Modo missile they were riding on out of the way of flaming debris and explosion!
"Get ready Big Guy, Shock Absorber #7!" Vinnie shouted out a battle play to Modo. "Oh, Mama!' Modo moaned, and tightened his grip on Charley, and slackened the tension in his large muscular legs, getting ready for impact, with what He had no idea! He hoped Vinnie did!
A squad of six flying robots was coming up the shaft directly beneath them, their weapon-filled tentacles extended and taking aim at them! With the expert aim, Vinnie shot the tentacles off one of the robots, disarming it, and then moved them towards it! "Impact now Modo!" He hollered!
A Loud Bone Jarring Clang rang out! They landed right on top of one of the robots! Modo's big-booted feet crushing its top-mounted cameras! The now de-tentacled and blinded robot's upward movement came almost to a complete stop under their combined extra weight!
Charley dared to open her eyes and look around. The small robot's jets fired for all they were worth, but it wasn't designed to carry any actual heavy cargo! It and its three passengers slowly started to drift downwards.
"Oh My God We're not Dead!" She gasped! "I am with you, Charley!
Modo added in almost as shocked a tone as they all three wobbled as Modo tried to get some kind of balance on the mouse munched robot!
"Oh, ye of little faith!" Vinnie mockingly chimed in! "It was all under control sweethearts, remember The Duke of Descent is in the pilot's seat, have no fear, for Vincent Van Wham is here!" and with that, he blasted a couple more flying robots into shrapnel.
"Oh brother." Charley moaned. "Now I am glad I left my stomach at the top of the tower." She said and looked up at the Extra Ego on top of Modo's shoulders. Vinnie just looked back at her and winked. "I just love it when girls FALL for ME!" Charley just rolled her eyes.
"I hate to interrupt you two Love Birds, but we got trouble on the rise and the fall!" Modo barked out! Charley could see his big gray ears twitching!
She looked down and saw almost a dozen flying robots coming up at them! Then she looked up. High above them but descending rapidly were two of the Larger Tank Robots! They had apparently rolled or, fell over the ledge in pursuit of them, and were now almost directly on top of them, and falling fast!
"Uh Oh!" Vinnie gulped! He only had time to shoot at either set of robots before one or the other was on them! The Shaft filled with the electronic screams of *Destroy, Destroy, Destroy! * as the Mechanical Monsters closed in on them with weapons ready to crush, slash, and blast!
Charley's face paled, almost as white as Vinnie's fur. Vinnie ground his teeth and fought hard to figure out which bots he should attack, Modo tightened his grip on Charley, bracing himself for whatever happened next!
What happened was the Flying Robots beneath them either exploded or burst into flames and went crashing into the Shaft Walls! The Descending Trio flinched as flames and debris flew around them, followed by two missiles that shot up and did the same to the two falling larger robots!
"What the…" All three of them uttered! A blast of rockets echoed off the walls and a rusty green-colored blur shot past them, flying up into the Tower above!
"I repeat, what the cheese was that!?" Vinnie huffed out, trying to look in all directions! Charley smiled. "That was a guardian angel!" She yelled up to him. Modo smiled too. "Just not our guardian angel!" He raised his blind head and followed the sound of the rockets above him.
"Yeah well, put your trays in the upright position, and fasten your seatbelts, were coming in for a landing." Vinnie called out as they slowly descended the shaft, and into the lobby of Limburger's Tower. Vinnie rechecked the dwindling charge on his blaster and got ready.
*Destroy, Destroy, Destroy! * Chorused a dozen or so of the Heavily Armored Robots, and just as many of their Flying Counterparts as they moved down a hallway. A few seconds later, a supply closet door opened, and Throttle's head popped out and looked around!
"Ok, the coast is clear, move out, you first Big Cheese." He said indicating for Limburger to take the point, followed by Karbunkle. Throttle shoved the Plutarkian and Scientist out of the door and into the now empty hallway.
"Oh, I protest at this treatment, why do I have to go first!?" Limburger whined. "Because you make a nice big Fat Shield, now move it Wide-load!" Throttle snapped at him. "You next skinny!" He said as he pushed Karbunkle after his boss.
"Come on Hard Luck time to go, how are you doing?" Throttle asked as he stiffly bent over to pull Hard Luck up off the floor, and once more holding him up. "Ugh, everything hurts, so pretty much normal." The Blue Martian weakly joked. Throttle smiled and nodded his head.
"At least we lucked out on the robots being courteous enough to make so much noise we can hear them coming a mile off." He said. "Yeah, Lucky us." Hard Luck sighed.
"Not that I am complaining about that, mind you, but why did you Program them to do that?" Limburger snarled at Karbunkle. "They are not my robots; you stole them remember!" Karbunkle replied. Limburger exhaled a cloud of his horrible halibut breath. "Oh, yes, now I remember."
"So, do we have a plan here or, are we just winging it?" Hard Luck asked while doing what he could to keep an eye and ear out for any sneaky robots. "Right now, my plan is to hold out hope that Charley and the guys can get to our bikes, and come to our rescue." Throttle told him a matter of fact.
"Then we are Fried Fish and Mice!" Limburger snapped. "There are Hundreds of Robots just in the Tower alone, there are at least 5 times that down in the Storage Bin, and they are all Activated!" Throttle made a sour face. "Well, that's just peachy."
"Our only chance is to get to my lab, where I can use my main computer console to deactivate them!" Karbunkle told them. Throttle and Hard Luck exchanged an Uh Oh Look between them. "Uh, would that be the one with the big screen next to your…examination table?" Throttle asked. Hard Luck wished he was the size of an earth mouse so he could go hide in a hole in the wall right now.
"Yes, That Computer, why?" Karbunkle asked, his voice dripping with suspicion. "Heh, heh, kind of funny story, but um, yeah it got blasted." Throttle said guiltily. Hard Luck groaned, sounding just as guilty.
Limburger let out an ugly belly laugh. "Oh, I am so glad I lived to see this moment, You Destructive Dormice's reckless rampaging has finally bit you in your own tails!" He laughed again, wiping a slimy tear from his eye. The look on Karbunkle's face imparted that he didn't share his boss's humor on this subject. Not at All!
"I'm glad you're enjoying this, but I would prefer to remain physically in one piece because I know that the robots will do a very proficient performance of rendering us into gory gibbets!" He moaned dejectedly. "You must learn to enjoy what little moments of happiness you can get My dear Psychotic Physicist." Limburger replied dryly.
"Uhh, ouch." Hard Luck groaned as his metal antenna sparked next to Throttle's shoulder. A look crossed his own strained face, followed by a slowly growing smile. "As much as I would love to see that, I think I may have a way to keep that from happening, so double-time to the lab, pronto!"
Moving as sneakily as they could they make their way thru the dark hallways of the Tower towards the Lab several floors beneath them.
"Fudgers, really Vinnie, Fudgers?" Charley said with a smirk to Vinnie. "Hey, I told you before, I was raised right OK!" He blurted down to her from his perch, blushing sightly, recalling his little outburst from before.
"Woof, I can't see nothing, but from the smell, Dently must have messed up a ton of Limburger's bots really good!" Modo gasped. "You got that right big guy, that wheeled tin can made a real mess of the Lobby, I am all most impressed!" Vinnie called down.
The lobby was literally filled with the still smoking and burning remains of both kinds of robots. Their parts were piled and scattered all around them. Even a good few of the support pillars were reduced to rubble too.
"Were lucky the glass doors didn't get blown out, or we would be sucking vacuum." Vinnie pointed out that the Tower's Glass Doors were still intact, which in fact weren't glass but the effect was the same.
Charley walked over to them and looked out. She could see the Earth below them. "Dently may not be the prettiest of bikes, but my boy does good!" She said sounding like a proud parent. She had really warmed up to that silly bike, she wasn't sure why, but she had, and didn't mind at all.
"That is just you Charley Ma'am, for some, there aint much difference between Mother and Mechanic!" Modo smiled at her. "Don't take this the wrong way Modo, but I am glad you can't see me blushing!" She smiled back. "Oh, I can see that just fine!" Modo replied with a big grin. Vinnie rolled his eyes at this. "Can the Mush Modo, you don't want me getting queasy up here do ya?"
Modo jerked his big head back. "OOF!" Vinnie grunted, his eyes bulging. "Did you say something Lil Bro?" Modo grunted with a big brotherly grumble. "Ooohhh, nuh, nope, not a word, ooooh!" Vinnie replied in a slightly high-pitched and squeaky tone.
Charley somehow kept from laughing out loud at the looks on both Mice's faces. She walked over to a motorcycle-sized hole blown up in the floor, and she looked down it. She quickly stepped back and rushed over to the Mice. "I don't think we are going to pull your ride the robot rodeo tricks this time, Vinnie!" She said excitedly!
"I'm pretty sure I can guess the answer, but I will ask anyway, why not?" Modo growled. "Because there are at least 100 of those flying garbage disposals in the shaft is why!" She told him. "Yep, guessed it." He sighed.
The Lobby started shaking, and a loud rumbling could be heard approaching from below and above them. Electronic Roars of "Destroy, Destroy, Destroy!" could plainly be heard and getting louder.
"No guess needed to know who that is." Charley called out, looking at a large ramp that curled up into and below the Tower off in a dark corner of the lobby. "What do we do now?
Vinnie coughed to clear his throat and to get his voice back to a more normal level. "We do what you should always do in an emergency, take the stairs!" He said with a wild smile and pointed to a small person-shaped door, clearly marked Stairs.
"My dear gray furred Mama couldn't have put it better, lead the way, Charley!" Modo said and held out his tail for her to take and steer him with. She grabbed it and did just that, with the sounds of both groups of robots getting nearer, and louder!
Vinnie looked behind them, and once again checked to be sure his borrowed blaster was ready for use. "Low Bridge Vinnie!" Modo called out! "Huh, what?" Vinnie replied right before a loud BONK filled the air. "OW, Modo!" They entered the stairway door and made their way down to the Storage Bin!
To be continued…
