I can't believe the nerveof that girl! Elillia seethed as she stormed down the stony corridor, not knowing or caring where she was headed as long as it was away from giant robots, incompetent pilots, and anything else that prevented her from boarding the nearest transport and high-tailing it back to her planet as fast as possible. Who does she think she is, kidnapping me and forcing me to work with these peasants! I am a princess! I do not belong here! I don't belong on the battlefield!
I want to go home!
Continuing on this rambling train of thought, she let her feet carry her further and further away from the main hall. The corridor quickly branched off into several smaller passages. She recognized one as the way they had entered and hesitated for a moment upon reaching it before turning and choosing another heading off in another direction.
She didn't know why she didn't select the first option and go right back to the surface immediately. It would be the simplest solution. Surely there would be someone on Gilliak who would help her get back to Galgria. But what would she tell her family? Surely they would have noticed her absence by now. How could she explain all that had transpired in the past day?
And what if what Analexa was saying was true? Would there be any Galgria left if she ran away? Besides, did her father not always say that it was better to face up to one's fears than leave them for another to regret later? Ugh, I've always hated his riddles. But no matter how hard she tried to convince herself that she should leave, she couldn't find it in herself to turn back. Whether she liked it or not, they needed her. Even if they didn't know just how much yet.
Footsteps echoed throughout the hall behind her. Growling something unpleasant underneath her breath, Elillia turned and hurried away to a side passage, not wanting to be spotted sulking by whichever rogue had unwisely decided to follow her.
She paused, hovering near the edge of the hall to listen as the footsteps paused. Clearly whoever was there knew they had been caught. A hesitant movement. And then another. And then whoever was there turned away and started back the way they had come, almost as if they'd wanted to say something but had lost their nerve somewhere along the way.
Wouldn't be too hardwith this group, she thought moodily. A bunch of spineless wimps, these outsiders. They would never have lasted a day on Galgria. No self-respecting warrior would ever have acted in such a brutish manner. Especially not in her presence! It was very clear the other selected pilots had had no proper training or they too would have realized it.
Cursing her misfortunes, she continued on her aimless trek, finding her brain attempting to process all of the winding halls and corridors. It would be easy for someone to get lost here, she realized, which, at that moment, didn't sound like half a bad idea to her. At least it would get her away from those pathetic imitations of the surrounding planets. Because, seriously, there was no way she was supposed to be convinced that they had been chosen to protect anything.
"Where you're from, is it typical for princesses to linger in dark hallways alone?"
"Qurick!" Elillia swore loudly, whipping around toward the source of the scathing remark, finding the blue-haired man leaning easily on an opposing wall, arms crossed and a knowing glint in his crystal eyes. "What do you think you're doing?" she demanded indignantly, ignoring how high her voice rose at her exclamation.
Dash Coolstar sighed, straightening up now and adjusting his dark blue jacket uncomfortably. "I'll take that as a 'no'."
"I asked you a question!" the princess snapped. "Why are you following me?"
"Is it considered following if two people happen to be traveling the same direction?"
"It is when you make it a point to stop me in a dimly lit hall," Elillia seethed. "What do you want? Analexa sent you, didn't she? What does she want?" Probably to talk about the absolute disaster that was their first flight. Okay, so maybe she'd been a little hard on the earthling and all, but come on, he deserved it for being an insufferable know-it-all, planet identity aside.
"What happened up there today?" Coolstar demanded, not even bothering to deny her accusations. Of course Analexa had sent him. He seemed to do whatever the girl asked of him. Honestly, it was more than a little demeaning.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"You know exactly what I am talking about."
"I don't want to talk about it. Especially with someone I don't know."
She expected him to flinch, to protest, to do something other than stare at her with his cold calculating eyes. Does he have any emotion at all? she wondered. She still didn't understand what he was supposed to be. The others were obvious. The warrior was clearly Gillian; strong, powerful, but yet with just a twinge of uncertainty. The human, Blake or whatever his name was, was, by all means, the definition of a coward. Analexa was still a bit confusing, but Elillia had her suspicions on her as well. But Dash, Dash fascinated her. Here was a man with no apparent lineage, who clearly knew more about the robot than the rest of them combined, and obviously did not appreciate having the so-called pilots tagging along behind him.
Elillia could respect that and her interest in him only grew.
What kinds of secrets lay hidden behind his unphased expression? What knowledge did he possess so well suited to a mission such as this, that he would be selected amongst a group of space cadets? Though she was not one herself-not officially-she had seen her fair share of ISA agents in her time, mostly through peace treaties and useless talks like that, and she felt fairly confident with her knowledge. Dashiell Coolstar was not an ISA agent.
"Tell you what," she went on firmly. "I'll tell you my secrets if you tell me yours."
"I don't have any secrets."
"Wow, the way you managed to say that without any facial alterations is incredible. You're lying, also, by the way. I can tell."
"Galgrians have incredible personality sense," Dash answered, at least having the dignity to pretend to be surprised. "Right."
"Mmhmm," Elillia responded, folding her arms to mimic his posture. "I knew you were lying the moment you set foot in this hallway. But why? What are you hiding, Coolstar?"
"I don't see how that is any of your concern," he answered shortly, glaring down at her. "And I didn't take you for someone who cared about anyone else's business anyway, princess."
"I do when it might endanger my life," she countered. "Which is exactly what might happen if we get stuck up there," She gestured vaguely toward the sky, "and I can't trust the person sitting next to me."
He raised an eyebrow. "So, you really aren't leaving then?"
"No," she huffed. "You need me. You can't pilot that--thing--without me, right?"
Dash scoffed, unfolding his arms. "Very well."
She eyed him suspiciously. He didn't deny that they needed her, but then again, he didn't readily agree either. "You still haven't explained what you're doing here."
"I came to let you know, Analexa wants to gather everyone in the main debrief center to further explain our mission."
It's about time. I really don't like not knowing what I'm up against.
"Fine," she said. "Let's go." She turned pointed away from him and started off down the hall.
"Princess, the debrief center is this way."
"Oh, right. I knew that."
Dash didn't seem convinced but didn't say anything as Elillia quickly corrected her path and came hurrying back, keeping her eyes averted from him as she passed to scurry back the way she'd come. He did that a lot, she noticed. It was very unsettling.
"Down the hall, to your left," Dash directed as he slowly followed. "Third corridor, second door on your right."
"I can find it by myself, thank you."
He shrugged, unconcerned.
No argument. No protesting why he would be much better at leading. Nothing. Elillia seriously did not know what to make of this man.
Still silently puzzling, she reached the door in question and carelessly threw it open, revealing a long dark room with an elongated table and a ginormous plasma screen on the far end. Well, this isn't at all cliche, she thought sarcastically, even as the door slapped against the wall and Blip about leaped out of his chair. Next to him, Lunk startled slightly and grabbed Squeakums before the monkey could topple from his shoulders.
"Oh! Good! You found her!" Analexa breathed a sigh of relief from her position near the front of the room. "Sorry, Princess, but I figured you might want to hear what I have to say."
"So he mentioned," Elillia huffed, jerking a thumb toward Dash and carefully dropping into a seat especially far away from everyone else. "Repeatedly."
"Well, it's important," Analexa went on unflinchingly. "And after I used some...not-so-favorable methods to bring you all here." Elillia noticed how she uncomfortably refused to look at her or Blip as she said that. Interesting. So perhaps the earthling and I do have something in common after all. "And you all made a valiant-though unsuccessful-first test run the mecha, I decided that you all have the right to know what is going on and why I have summoned you here under slightly false pretenses."
"Slightly?" Elilla snorted.
Analexa ignored her, turning toward the screen and pressing a button. Immediately, the machine powered on, momentarily blinding everyone there before fading out to a moderate tone. Displayed on the screen were what the princess could only guess where the schematics and blueprints to the gigantic robot of doom "As you are already aware, this is the Super Robo Mecha, a highly advanced technological weapon designed nearly two millennia ago by some of the most brilliant minds in the cosmos. Once believed to be lost during the first Universal War, we recently were able to locate its remains and piece it back together to nearly its former glory. Now, this weapon was not designed like other weapons of its day-or really, any weapon that has ever been forged. Legends tell of a design created so that it can only be controlled by five willing participants working together to run it. Five pilots. Of course, that was not all. In order for the machine to work correctly, at least one of the pilots had to be from Galgria and another from Gilliak. Without those bloodlines, the robot would never function. This is believed to be the case because the founders wished to make it impossible for one world to control too much power. They wanted it to be divided evenly among the galaxy. It was their greatest mission."
"Okay," Blip said slowly, thoughtfully. "I get that. Makes sense. The creators were trying to prevent another war from breaking out. And they created a failsafe, just in case, so that no one would be able to use the robot to wipe out another's culture. At least not alone."
Analexa nodded. "Exactly. Which brings us to our next point." She flicked the screen and a new image quickly overshadowed the robot. This one was of a man-well, not really a man, Elillia decided, looking at his blue complexion and glowing cyborg eye. He was the epitome of evil, and that was without the murderous grin he was giving the photographer. "Say hello to Cyberoid-X, the most notorious space soldier in the universe."
"Oh, he looks like he's in a bad mood," Lunk commented.
"'Bad mood' does not begin to explain this man, Lunk," Analexa went on. "A known arms-dealer, highly trained in the art of space combat, and rejected army commander, this pirate is nothing to scoff at. And recently, he's becoming more and more dangerous. Take a look." She clicked another button and a video replaced the image. From where Elilla was situationed, she could clearly see the gentle rotation of a darkened moon. Out of nowhere, war vessels appeared and in an instant, the planet was obliterated by some kind of superpowered missile. Nothing remained of the word except shards and shattered fragments.
A collective silence befell the group as they all stared, wide-eyed, at the screen and Analexa paused it, the grimness of the situation finally hitting the team like a mountain of bricks.
"Is that...is that real?" Blip whispered, turning even paler than he already was.
Analexa nodded solemnly. "Unfortunately, it is. Cyberoid is a terrorist, one of the strongest we have ever seen. He threatens not only the balance of space and time, but everything and everyone in existence. He must be stopped before he is given the opportunity to destroy any more worlds. Which is why I have gathered the five of you." She gestured to the group and Elillia followed her movements, finding each teen responding in very different ways. Dash was sitting rigid and still emotionless, Lunk was glancing from the screen to Squeakums, to Analexa, and back again, and Blip was trying to look virtually anywhere but at the screen. "I've read your records and I agree with the ISA. The lot of you show the best signs for understanding and adapting to the needs of the Mecha. This is why the five of you were brought here. This is the mission you have been tasked to complete."
This is what my father was trying to tell me! Elillia realized with a jolt. He knew that the ISA had selected me for this! He tried to warn me! And then something hit her. "Five?" She couldn't help but blurt. "But there are only four of us!"
Analexa smirked. "Are you sure about that? Why don't you count again?"
"I don't need to!" she protested. "You've got me, Captain Emotionless, Muscles, and Chicken. I think that about sums it up, don't you?"
"Aren't you forgetting someone?"
"No...?"
There was an indignant squawk from Lunk's shoulder and he jumped slightly as Squeakums grinned excitedly.
"No."
"Why not?" Analexa inquired. "Squeaks is very smart! One of the most intelligent monkeys I have ever come across, actually! And besides, who figured out how to activate the robot?"
I'm sorry, Squeaks? First off, ew. Second, that doesn't mean anything! He's a monkey! A MONKEY. Monkeys cannot fly spaceships!
"I...don't see the scientific value of him coming with us," Blip admitted softly, adjusting his glasses nervously. "No offense, or anything, but I don't think bringing a primate will be at all effective to our mission."
"I think you'll be surprised at just what he can do," Analexa argued. "But I digress. The point is, all of you were brought here for one purpose only-to find and defeat Cyberoid-X and to act as the last line of defense for the universe's safety."
"Oh, great," Princess snapped, unable to stop herself. "We're all going to die, aren't we?"
"Don't be like that! Think positive!" Lunk suggested.
"Okay! I'm POSITIVE we are all going to die. Better?"
"That's...kinda not what I had in mind..."
"Enough," Dash spoke up for the first time, rising to his feet and effectively silencing the mini-squabble that was beginning to form. "We don't have time for this! The universe is at stake and we are the ones who have been chosen to save it! So, are you in or are you out?"
Silence.
Blip and Lunk glanced at one another and then up at Squeakums and over to Analexa.
"Well, I'm pretty sure I'm already invested," Lunk answered first. "Besides, this sounds like a good chance to hone my target practice skills, blow some stuff up and all that. I'm still in."
"And I already said I would help," Blip added, timidly playing with something tucked into the zipper-line of his jacket. Elillia noticed this, but before she could try and guess what it might be, she felt the gaze of the entire group swivel to her.
"Hmmmph, fine," she gave in, rolling her eyes pointedly. "It doesn't seem like I have much choice in the matter anyway."
Dash nodded and then turned back to face Analexa. "It looks like you've got yourself a team, then, Analexa."
The blond smiled jubiously. "Yes! Great! Awesome! Wow, okay, well, I guess I'll...leave you guys to get acquainted then! Yes! That's what I'll do! Just...just come and find me when you're finished, all right? Squeakums, hang out with them for a bit. And I'll just..yeah, see you!" And with that, she turned and all but fled from the room, leaving the four teens and one monkey sitting awkwardly at the table.
"Uh...so...what do we do now?" Lunk asked, glancing around at the others who all looked as confused as him.
"I guess...we should start with introductions," Blip said quietly, still not looking up from the table. "But...I'm not sure how to begin."
"Oh, well that part's easy!" Lunk chuckled. "Let me show you! So! Hi, I'm Lunk and I am the representation for my homeworld of Gilliak. Uh, I love animals, particularly bigger ones that I hope I can use to discover my bond creature like my sister. As Analexa said, I am the weapons specialist, along with some other side hobbies I dabble in. I also like the color orange. There, see?" he added, nudging Blip gently in the side. "Not too bad, right?"
Dash said nothing while Elillia groaned and smashed her forehead on the table. This was going to be a long night.