Biker Mice from Mars
The Hard Luck Trilogy
What's His Frequency Karbunkle?
Chapter 14
"Hey, guys I got some good news!" Vinnie shouted out over the near-deafening roar of blaster fire and explosions! "We could really do with some good news, what is it?" Modo shouted back at the White Martian. "I'm starting to get some feeling back in my butt!' Vinnie cheered out giving a little wiggle! "Good, you'll feel it when I kick some sense into it" Charley all but screamed, she kept the "if we survive" to herself though!
How they were still alive right now was looking more and more like a miracle She was thinking! Right now, The three of them were huddled behind a hastily slapped-together barricade, a barricade that was under an unrelenting barrage being fired at them from a whole swarm of flying robots!
Of course, the predicament they were in now, was a certain Someone's fault! SOMEONE let their impatience get the better of them while She and Modo were looking for anything that could help them. They had two little bits of good luck. They'd practically stumbled over the control port for Karbunkle's Floating Control Panel, (Charley had tripped over it while telling Modo to be careful of where he was going) and the second small bit was they had also found a spare blaster pistol, that Modo was using to shoot at the robots with. He was doing pretty good for a blind mouse.
Vinnie was sitting next to their restrained bikes, while half looking out for any robots that may have sneaked upon them. He'd found a discarded chunk of metal within tail's reach. He picked it up and started fiddling with it, and Vinnie being Vinnie, he let his irritation at not being able to free his bike and his legs still being numb get to him, and well, He chucked the piece of metal at the magnetic clamp around the bikes and set off a cacophony of alarms and sirens!
Within seconds, nearly a dozen flying tin cans came down the tunnel, blasting away at them with more behind! Modo and Vinnie reacted like pros, Vinnie yelling out to Modo to grab pieces of the Metal Storage Containers and Modo managed to build a small fort around them, with Vinnie shooting the bots down as fast as he could! "Would it help if I said I was sorry?" Vinnie shouted out over the chaos!
"NO!" Modo and Charley hollered back! Their makeshift fort rattled under the ceaseless attack of the robots! It probably wouldn't last much longer! Right now, it was a big gamble if the fort would fall apart before their blasters ran out of charge!
Vinnie's Big Borrowed Blaster's shots were noticeably diminishing, and Modo's blaster was a cheap one Limburger gave his Goons to use. At its best it couldn't destroy the Flying Bots unless he managed to hit a vital spot, at worst he was doing good to knock one back albeit temporarily!
"Things are getting bad guys!" Vinnie called out. "I'm starting to get bored!' He blasted another flying bot sending it to crash and explode destroying 3 more! Charley did her best not to throw an insult about immaturity, so she instead kept her mind on what she was doing, which was keeping her attention fully tuned into the terminal port.
"How's it going Charley Ma'am!?" Modo asked her, while still pulling off some impressive shots while blind, something that Vinnie was secretly jealous of. "About as good as my trying to free the bikes Modo, it would be easier with some tools!" She grunted at him from her awkward position on the floor, her head and shoulder crammed in the opening, only her back, legs, and feet sticking out.
Charley was trying like mad to access any of the functions of the platform. Mainly to free the motorcycles! So far, the only luck she was having was bad! "If you need any of my technical expertise, just feel free to ask sweetheart!" Vinnie joked.
Charley's head popped up; her face covered in grease smudges. If her eyes could fire lasers, Vinnie, and possibly half the space bin would have been vaporized. Vinnie's smile grew as he looked at her. "You are the cutest little wrench-jockey Charley babe!'
"Oh, when your butt gets all its feeling back, I am so going to kick some sense into it!" Charley repeated menacingly and put her head back into the opening. Vinnie just laughed and went back to shooting robots. Modo just shook his big head, amazed that he could somehow still be surprised at Vinnie being well, Vinnie.
Modo's Antenna and ears twitched, and he aimed his head down the large corridor. "Oh, Mama!" He gulped. "What, what is…" Vinnie started to ask but was cut off when he almost fell over when he was almost knocked over by a deep rumble! The whole space bin shook violently! "What was that!?" He yelled!
A sound of muffled yipes came from the computer port. Charley had fallen in, with only her lower half sticking straight up, legs kicking! Vinnie whipped his tail around her waist and gently lifted her out.
"I dunno what that was, but there's more coming!" Modo shouted out and braced himself! Charley and Vinnie did the same, just as another tremor hit! No sooner had it ended than another could be heard, but this one was from the tunnel!
This time the shaking didn't stop, but continued to grow, and grow! At the end of the cavernous passageway, was a large spiraling ramp, and down it came a literal horde of the large tank treaded robots!
"Not Good!" Both Modo and Vinnie shouted, and took aim! Charley let out a gasp as the terminal port suddenly lit up in front of her! "Hey, I think I activated it!" She yelled but was drowned out by the Robots battle cry of "Destroy, Destroy!" and the new sound of a multitude of missiles being fired at them!
Charley turned almost as white as Vinnie's fur! She barely got her arms in front of her pale face before the last thing she knew was being blinded and deafened by an explosion of Light and Sound!
Throttle turned his face with a painful grimace as hot debris and shrapnel rained down on him, and the unmoving Hard Luck still splayed out across him! The Verminator pulled its dual-arm cannons into an upright position and mockingly blew across both smoking barrels, in the same way, Modo likes to.
A nasty smile spread across the Verminator's metal face, as it stepped away from the smoking ruin of the Transporter that it had just blasted into smithereens. "Wouldn't want you to have any hope thinking you could use it to escape, now, would we?" It chuckled.
It stomped heavily over to the two mice. It reached down and grabbed Hard Luck by the scruff of his neck and yanked him up off Throttle none too gently. "Not on file, so you aint important." It said and casually tossed Hard Luck across the room, to crash into the Main Computer Terminal.
Attempting to get to his feet as fast as he could, Throttle tried to jump up off the floor, but his battered bruised, and burned body just wasn't capable of it. It didn't matter anyway because the Verminator's long metal tail coiled around him like greased lightning!
The tail painfully pinned his arm to his sides, all but cutting into his fur and flesh! It lifted him up off the floor effortlessly. The Verminator leaned in and gave him another cruel smirk. "You're my Prime Directive, wanna know what that means?"
"I…could…skip…it!" Throttle grunted thru gritted teeth. "Eh, I'll tell ya anyway!" It laughed in a perfect copy of Vinnie's. It was obvious that much like the mouse it was based on, it loved the sound of its own electronically synthesized voice.
"My Prime Directive is to make sure you don't escape, and to make most definitely sure you …ENJOY the Ride of the Space Bin's fall to Earth, as much as I can!" Another tremor ripped thru the Space Bin. "I may not have that much time, oh well." It sighed.
"Guess I'll just have to make the best of the time we do have together, huh buddy?" The Verminator then grabbed Throttle's throat with a petal paw and started to squeeze with its metal fingers! Throttle started making choking, gurgling noises as the pressure increased more and more.
The Verminator coolly walked over to the wall and reached up with its free metal paw and bent a hook into the surface, it then spun him around, and grabbed his paws, and cruelly pulled them behind his back. It then took the last two segments of its metal tail, and twisted them around Throttle's wrists, cruelly tying them together. It then hung Throttle on the hook by his durable leather vest.
The Martian Leader struggled fruitlessly in the awkward position while glaring hatefully at the robot duplicate of one of his closest bro's! The Vile Android stepped back and took a nonchalant pose, it then started rubbing its chin in a classic thinking stance.
"Now, what will be the most efficient way to torture you in these our final moments together?" It jokingly questioned. "You could just keep talking!" Throttle snarled. "Funny." It replied with a sinister smirk.
With blinding mechanical speed, the Verminator's right fist shot towards Throttle's face! It stopped just short of impact! Throttle's head jerked back instinctively flinching! A steel index finger flicked up, hitting Throttle's nose with a sickening snap. A trickle of blood began to drip from his snout! "Ugh!' Throttle groaned painfully.
The Verminator's finger hooked Throttle's glasses and yanked them off. Throttle blinked as his eyes tried to adjust to the brightness, His red and yellow eyes trying to regain the ability to focus without his corrective sunglasses. The Robot glared back at him menacingly then casually tossed the shades across the lab.
The Verminator waved its metal paw in front of Throttle's eyes, in a mocking "Can you see me" motion. It smiled at him while Throttle just glared back at it with open disgust. The Mechanized Mouse's metal mirth grew. "May as well get started." It chuckled, reached up and took Throttle's chin in one motorized paw, and pulled back the other to deliver a powerful punch!
Throttle braced himself as best he could, not wanting to give this Junk Heap any satisfaction at all! He simply kept his eyes fixed on it, letting it know exactly what he was thinking. A hint of anger touched the Verminator's metal face.
"Uh, oh, ouch." Hard Luck groaned as he noisily twisted on the computer with crunching noises. Throttle quickly glanced at the Blue Martian, concern flashing across his face! Not fast enough for the Verminator to have not noticed it.
The Menacing Machine quickly glanced back and froth from Throttle and Hard Luck rapidly a few times. It looked at Throttle again. "Accessing Files." It murmured.
A Callous Smile pulled tight on its Hard Metal Face. "Hey, I just got an Idea!" Throttle guessed its new plan and kicked out clumsily at it. "Don't you dare you twisted tinplated…" He yelled out, his boots pointlessly clunking against the Verminator's titanium alloy chest plate.
The Verminator almost tenderly reached up and patted Throttle on a furry cheek. "You're the Leader, definition: A person or thing that leads, a guiding or directing head. A Person who rules, guides, or inspires others." It said with its smile getting even worse. "You care about your friends." It slowly turned and looked at Hard Luck. "You don't wanna see them get hurt!"
"NO!" Throttle almost screamed, his anger nearly overriding his self-control, and he kicked at the Robot again. Desperate to keep Its attention on him! The Verminator turned to walk away, stopped, and turned back and once again smiled at Throttle. It then pantsed him. Pulling his tattered trousers down to entangle around his ankles with his tail caught as well. His almost as threadbare red shorts on display now!
"Hey!" He gasped! A slight blush on his face at being suddenly in an embarrassing situation like this. Leave it to an Evil Vinnie to pull an immature stunt like something a High School Bully would do! The Verminator did a perfect imitation of Vinnie's laugh as it walked away. Acting like this was something clever. That Vinnie Personality Program was a pretty accurate one.
The Droid theatrically stomped its way over to the prone Hard Luck, menacingly cracking its steel knuckles. "This is gonna hurt him way more than it does me." It laughed while looking at Throttle. He struggled from his hanging position both to get down and think up an insult to throw at the metal monster but failed at both.
"Hey, Fun Boy wake up!" It Yelled and pinched Hard Luck's nose between two metal fingers and pulled him up to a sitting position! 'Eeeyeeow!" Hard Luck yelled out painfully! "Wakey, wakey, bones to brakey!" It joked.
"Ow, ow, ow, wha…?" Hard Luck stammered as the pressure on his nose increased. "Hi, Fun Boy, allow me to introduce myself. "It said with a smile. "I'm the Verminator, I'm sure you already know the stud muffin over there on the wall just hanging out." It said while pointing at Throttle.
"Guh?" Hard Luck gasped confusedly. "I have been programmed to torture said Stud Muffin as the Space Bin gets ready to slam into the City of Chicago, from what my memory tells me, is actually your fault, good job on that Fun Boy!" It giggled as the Space Bin shook violently again.
"Guh?" Hard Luck gasped again. "My Program is to make sure The Hanging Hero there really doesn't enjoy the trip down, and I figured the best way to do that is to hurt someone he cares about, and that would be You, Fun Boy!" It squeezed Hard Luck's nose again. He bit back a squeak. "So, in other words. I am gonna Mess You Up Bad!" It smiled evilly!
Hard Luck let out a little whimper. The Verminator's evil smile grew worse. It grabbed Hard Luck by his neck and lifted him up but was stopped suddenly with a jerk! The Verminator looked at Hard Luck, who smiled back at it with a nervous grin. The Bot then noticed Hard Luck's Spinal Tap cord running from Hard Luck's neck to the computer, slightly glowing.
The Spinal Tap disconnected with a spark and zipped back into its socket on the back of Hard Luck's head. "Uh, Heh, heh…gurk!?" Hard Luck weakly laughed then choked when the Verminator tightened its grip on his throat.
"Tsk, tsk Fun Boy, that was naughty, now I really gotta punish you!" The Verminator scolded Hard Luck while mockingly waving a metal finger in front of his face. Hard Luck barely got out a whimper before He was thrown across the lab!
Hard Luck crashed into some cabinets and worktables, smashing them into rubble! "Hard Luck!" Throttle cried out, letting his concern come to the surface! A painful groan could be heard from under the debris. The Verminator calmy walked that way. "Hang in there Big Guy, the show's just starting!"
Hard Luck emerged from the wreckage, and wobbly stood up. "Oh, duh, did I forget to put on my seatbelt again Dently?" He mumbled as little stars circled his head. "Musket, Look Out!" Throttle yelled out! "Huh, what, EEE!" Hard Luck gasped, as hearing his real name cleared his head, just in time to duck the metal fist aimed at where his head had just been a split-second ago!
Hard Luck dodged another blow from the Verminator and dashed forward, but the Robot anticipated this, and spun on its heel, and cracked its metal tail whip-like across Hard Luck's backside! It let out a vicious Snap followed by a loud Rip! This was also followed by a loud YEEEOOWWW from Hard Luck who was once more sent flying across the lab to crash painfully into the torture table! Throttle couldn't help but flinch!
The Android laughed as it walked over to Hard Luck who was once more standing up, this time rubbing his butt. "Cheese that stings!" He gasped. "Hard Luck, Round House Whip #3!" Throttle yelled out! "Huh, what!?" Hard Luck gasped?
"He means to do this!" The Verminator answered and reached out and grabbed Hard Luck behind his head and tugged him forward, while putting out a leg, tripping the Blue Martian! As Hard Luck fell forward, The Robot grabbed his tail and went into a spin, going around a few times! "AAAAAAAHHH!" Hard Luck cried out!
Moving in a blue blur, they spun like a twister! The Verminator suddenly let go! Hard Luck went flying, tail first into the cracked computer screen with a glass-shattering impact!
He sat there, arms and legs dangling. He moaned pitifully. Electricity and sparks erupted from the screen around the mouse! "YEEEEAAAHH!" Hard Luck cried before he popped out and fell to the floor, smoking from all over! "Ouch." He sighed.
"Thanks for the Battle-play, it worked out great!" The Verminator laughed while giving Throttle a wink! The Tan Martian groaned. He'd forgotten that the Verminator had all their battle and fight plays already stored in its memory. This was really turning out to not be his day. At All! Hard Luck's wasn't going any better.
Another violent tremor gripped the Space Bin, causing the floor to tilt and twist around! Throttle bounced around on the hook but didn't fall off! Hard Luck rolled around like a marble! The Verminator's internal gyros kept it on its feet.
"Not much time left, I better get a move on!" it joked. "Come here Fun Boy, this next part is gonna be a Real Scream!" Menace dripped from the Machines' voice as it stalked towards Hard Luck!
The Blue Martian rolled over, and blearily looked up at the Monster approaching him! He threw his arms up in front of him! "Ah, Please, uh, Mr. Mecha-mouse don't hurt me!" He cried! The Verminator froze mid-step! "What did you call me!?" It rasped!
"Un, your name?" Hard Luck mumbled, still cowering on the floor. The Verminator slammed a metal foot onto the floor with such force that Hard Luck literally bounced! "That isn't my name, how do you NOT know my name, you know my name, say it, SAY IT!" It Yelled! A tone of Immature insecurity crept into its synthesized voice.
Throttle spotted this and almost called out, but at the last second shut his mouth! He decided to let this play out be for He tried to do anything! The Verminator leaned in over Hard Luck and thrust a steel finger into his face! "How can you NOT know Who I am?" IT all but whined!
Hard Luck's green eyes darting around. "Uh?" He mumbled. "You know my name, everybody knows my name, say it, Say My Name!" It bellowed at Hard Luck. "Um, uh, er, you, you're the, um The Mouse-a-tron!" He blurted out in a blind guess!
The Verminator was visibly starting to heat up! Hard Luck's eyes darted like crazy as his antenna sparked as he fought to give the correct name to the Mean Machine! "Uh, uh, Robo-Rodent, no wait, that aint it, er, Mice-droid, Squeak-Tronic, no, gimmie a minute, I know it, Its Varmin-Atrix!" He shouted out, hoping he got it right!
The fact that steam was shooting from the Verminator's ears told him he hadn't. It grabbed Hard Luck by the shoulder and weapon straps across his chest and pulled him up nose to metal nose!
"WRONG!" It bellowed! "You didn't even get close you Stupid Blue Boob!" Sparks flew from its metal teeth as it ground them together, its pride severely dented!
Electricity arced from Hard Luck's Antenna to the Verminator's own Metal Antenna! "Guh, uh, muh, guhh!" Hard Luck gurgled! "Zzzzt, zzzzt!" The Verminator gasped as the energy flowed between them! Both their bodies went stiff! A battle of digital wills raging between them!
The Verminator struggled to raise its left arm and extend its cannon, to blast Hard Luck, fighting against the spasms shaking its Robotic Body! Its left arm jerked and let go of Hard Luck, the arm jerked inch, by inch, slowly rising, its cannon almost fully extended, and getting ready to aim directly at Hard Luck's head!
Hard Luck's green eyes darting back and forth from the arm cannon and the Verminator's camera eyes! Hard Luck grabbed the arm with both his paws and tried to push the cannon away from his head, but the Verminator was too strong, the cannon slowly getting closer and closer!
Hard Luck pulled his cyborg leg up and jammed the foot against the Verminator's chest and he Fired His Foot-Jet! The shooting flame scorched its chest, a red glow beginning to spread across it! Smoke, sparks, and fire shoot out from its joints!
KA-BOOM! A Huge Explosion went off in between the Verminator and Hard Luck, sending both flying in different directions! Both go crashing into the already ruined equipment of the lab!
"Hard Luck, are you alright, Hard Luck!?" Throttle yelled out from his hook, still unable to get down! "Oh, I really hate getting blowed up!" Hard Luck moaned as he painfully set up. His chest and face were covered in singed, and smoking fur. His face blackened with soot. "Cough, hack, cough!" He coughs out a black cloud of soot while holding the left severed robot arm of the Verminator.
Hard Luck nearly fainted when he glanced down and noticed that the arm cannon was still pointed at his head. The Space Bin shook again, the tremors louder and more violent than before! "Quick, get over here and help me down!" Throttle shouted out, mostly to make sure Hard Luck didn't pass out on him now!
Hard Luck, still coughing up soot, weakly nodded his head, agonizingly stood up, and made his way over. "I have to hand to you, that was a Brilliant Play, using the Verminator's Ego against it like that!" Throttle said with a surprised smile.
"What?" Hard Luck gasped. "Oh, uh Yeah, thu, that's exactly whu, what I did." He stammered, an unsure look skipping across his dirty face. Thinking as quick as he could, Hard Luck held up the still sparking and smoking severed robot arm. "Looks like I also got Modo a spare arm if he ever needs one too!" He said with a lopsided smile.
Throttle blinked blearily at the arm, and then at Hard Luck then back and forth. A smirk grew on his face that quickly grew into a smile. His head dropped to his chest.
It started slowly, his body slowly starting to shake until he just couldn't hold it in any longer. "Ha, ha, ha, oh Hard Luck, you are one in a million!" Throttle gasped between breaths and laughed almost out of control again.
Hard Luck wiped some of the grime off himself and gave Throttle a questioning look. "What, What's so funny!?" He asked, feeling like he was missing something obvious. Throttle looked up at him, a tear running down his face. "A Spare, really?" He smiled.
Hard Luck looked at him, and around the lab. He still didn't get it, until he looked at the robot arm in his hand. That was when he noticed that it was the Left Arm. His face, previously black, now took on a deep red. "Uh, heh, heh, I, uh I knew that." He mumbled embarrassedly. He almost reluctantly tossed the useless arm off to the side.
The Space Bin shook again, each time it got stronger and lasted longer! "Help me down, quick, we gotta go help Charley and the Bros!" Throttle called out! "Huh?" Hard Luck wheezed as he stiffly made his way over to Throttle. "Oh, don't worry bout them, they're fine." He made it over and started looking to figure out how best to lower Throttle down to the floor.
"What?" Throttle asked bewilderedly. "Oh, I uh, kinda took care of that." Hard Luck said as he awkwardly tried to lift Throttle off the hook. "Ouch, Hey watch it!" Throttle blurt out! "Sorry, sorry!" Hard Luck Mumbled, as he accidentally poked Throttle in a tender area as he attempted to lift Throttle by hugging him around his knees and lifting.
Before He could get an answer, there were a few more failed attempts of dehooking Throttle, with similarly painful results. Mostly measuring up to Hard Luck getting his head stuck in between Throttle's knees and a few stinging zaps to both from his antenna. "Ouch, be careful, I'm sorry, move it, not there, ouch!
"Hard Luck, back off, take a break will you!" Throttle growled. "Just catch your breath and tell me how you know Charley, and the Guys are ok!" He suggested. Mainly to stave off the frustration and embarrassment building up within him whenever he got entangled with the Blue Martian, and to stop himself from saying anything he would regret later. If he lived that long that is. With Hard Luck around, He didn't want to know his chances.
At this point, Hard Luck had managed to dislodge his head and had taken a couple of steps back. His leather aviator-style helmet had slipped down over his eyes, so he had to shove it back into place, while at the same time untangling his just as battered and worn green bandana from around his head.
He did both with such care and attention Throttle was tempted to ask what made them both so special but decided now was not the time for it. Best to stick to the disasters on paw, or hand. "How do you know that Charley and the Guys are ok?" He asked, both to find out and to bring Hard Luck's obviously distracted attention back to the here and now. His mind had drifted away as he handled his green bandana and little metal medallion.
"How do I, oh, that I, uh it was when, um, er…" He stammered as he gestured with his thumb over his shoulder. "The Verminator?" Throttle said, guessing that Hard Luck had already forgotten the Androids name.
"Uh, yeah uh, that guy…" Hard Luck mumbled. "Anyway, when it threw me against the computer, I kinda faked being knocked out, and jacked back into it to get another recharge and hack the systems to see what I could do, if anything."
"You were Faking It?" Throttle said while giving Hard Luck a stern look. Hard Luck gulped guiltily. "Hey, the only reason I can move now, and do what I did is because of the juice I got off that thing!"
Throttle almost made a jab at Hard Luck, but he did remember that the blue mouse had all but been paralyzed when they first crashed into the lab. He had taken a few severe beatings in the last few hours. So had he for that matter, and he felt he could barely move, so he decided to let the issue drop for now.
"Like I said, I jacked into the systems and found out somebody was messing around on that big Transporter Pad at the bottom of the station, and no need to guess who that could be." Throttle nodded and even gave a little laugh. Yeah, no need to guess there. He himself had told the Guys to get down there and get their bikes.
"I also learned that an alarm got set off and all the bots in the lower half of the bin were heading straight there to blast them, so I just turned on the transporter and sent them back down to Chicago, so they are safe at least. "Hard Luck said.
Throttle visibly relaxed, as best he could in his awkward position, he was still hanging in. At least until he remembered on small detail. "Safe until the Space Bin Crashes into Shy town!" He cried out! All relaxed feeling gone!
"Oh no, no I took care of that too, kinda!" Hard Luck blurted out quickly. "What do you mean, Kinda?" Throttle asked but was not sure he really wanted to hear this. "I aint really that good at this hacking thing, and well that first time I jacked the computer, and I tried to shut off the bots, and I sort of turned off the Bin's orbital systems, well I managed to turn them back on this time, well, at least long enough to change its trajectory, so it aint gonna destroy Chicago no more!" Hard Luck babbled at a rocket speed.
Throttle relaxed again. Knowing his friend and adopted hometown wasn't going to get turned into a smoking crater took a weight off his mind. "But it is gonna slam into the atmosphere at an odd angle and still burn up." Hard Luck mumbled.
Yeah, that relaxed feeling didn't last long. "How long do we got?" Throttle asked, once again not sure he wanted to know. Almost as if on cue, the Bin shuddered again. Hard Luck just gulped and made an I don't know gesture. "Well get me down from here before we get fried like one of Vinnie's Surprise Dinners!" Throttle gasped!
Hard Luck nodded quickly and hopped over! "My feet, lift my Feet!" Throttle instructed and stuck out his boots with his pants and tail still entangled around them! Hard Luck knelt slightly and put both his paws under the boots, and Throttle straightened as best he could. After a few clumsy attempts, Hard Luck pushed up and Throttle's Vest slipped off the Hook holding him against the wall!
"Watch it, watch it!" Throttle cried out as he tried to keep his balance as Hard Luck stumbled about, trying to not drop him! An energy bolt slammed into the wall where He had just been hanging a split second ago! The Explosion sent both mice crashing into the floor! "Ahh!" they both cried out!
"Oh, ow, what the?" Throttle moaned. "Guh." Hard Luck gasped. Throttle was lying on top of Hard Luck, whose head was under Throttle's chest, and once more both mice with fur smoking and with wall chunks all over them. "Yu, yu, you luh, lucky fur, furrballllszzz are duh, dead muh, me, me, meat!" The Verminator's electronic voice screeched!
The Verminator, having freed itself from under a pile of rubble, now badly damaged, had just missed hitting the mice! Missing its left arm, its metal body was covered in dents, cracks, and holes. Dripping fluids, and wires hanging out, twitching and sparking. It was missing its left ear, its entire tail, and half its metal face was gone. Its Ego Program was Not Happy with this! Vanity bruised and abused!
The Verminator staggered over, dragging a barely functioning left leg behind it. It raised its trembling right arm, with cannon raised, and fired erratically at the floor at them! Explosions raked the floor around the mice, once more covering them in chunks of floor and wall! Throttle threw his arms over his head, and Hard Luck wrapped his arms around Throttle's chest, both trying to cover the other!
The Verminator came to an unsteady stop right over the Mice. It managed to mostly get its remaining arm under control. Its cannon slowly centered on them! Its soulless eyes glared at them with mechanical hate as its mangled metal face pulled itself into a sinister sneer!
"It, it it's been, been fuh, ,fuh, fuunnnnn Boyzzzzz but, but, buuuut it'zzzz time to, to, too say good, good goood, buh, buy byeeeee!" Its scrambled voice box stuttered. Power could be heard building in it's weapon! The Verminator's body shook and sparked as it grew! Its Smile grew even nastier!
Throttle and Hard Luck, peeking up from under him stared up at the Mechanical Menace towering above them. "Oh, Fromage!" They both Moaned!
To Be Continued!
