Episode Three: Elephant Logic
Solomon set up a spy network focused on the Lunises. His spies needed to be as close to them as possible, but not too close to be noticed. G3 excelled at staying in the shadows, and Solomon found ways to use the situation to his advantage and gather information from sources outside G3.
For one, any news about Sherman High was brought to him. It was a public school; so much of its information was public. He knew the sports teams and school events and everyone who was anywhere near Lance and Ilana. After some minor hacking by G3 agents, he managed to get his hands on their grades. Both of them excelled and were perfect students. Though it didn't appear they had any close friends, other than each other.
…This was nothing. There was no use to any of this information. These were alien creatures with advanced technology, and he was stuck with their high school test grades? They had destructive weaponry and all he knew about their strength was their participation grade in physical education. All this was normal information.
Solomon was seething on the inside. He had an army, an elite spy network, advanced technology, so much at his disposal. And this was what it was all meant for—interaction with aliens. Whether they were threats or friends. And yet he wasn't allowed to do anything besides stand aside and watch.
Monsters were crashing onto earth and destroy cities. The next time that happened—Solomon was sure there would be a next time—they had to be ready.
A week blandly passed.
Solomon was responsible, however, and tried to make the most of the limits his superior had forced upon him. It was obvious that the aliens were trying to blend in. They were hiding among the common citizens. It was strange that they had chosen a high school, of all places. Other than perhaps the history of earth (which they could figure out through the internet), they had nothing to learn from Sherman High. How old were they? They appeared to be teenagers, but why would such young aliens come to earth?
Solomon frustratingly tried to puzzle all this out on his limited info. However, he was distracted when a side project of his perked up; his spies on Steel had some more interesting information.
Since Steel had continuously tried to meddle in alien and G3 affairs, Solomon had decided to keep an eye on him and set up a spy network for him, too. G3 agents could get their hands on any information on earth, and had uncovered a secret military operation orchestrated by Steel.
Steel had sent a submarine to the waters outside Sherman, where Titan and the fire monster had battled. And there, Steel had retrieved one of the fire monster's rocks that G3 had left behind.
Solomon reclined as he read the report, considering. It was understandable that Steel wouldn't trust G3; he knew little of it. The general didn't understand their training, their technology, their preparation and planning for the eventual discovery of alien life. These aliens were an important matter, and posed a huge threat to earth. Of course Steel would want some information, too. He wouldn't want to stand by, as Solomon was being forced to.
Fine. Steel could have the rock. Solomon was confident that, with his limited American military technology, Steel could figure out anything G3 hadn't already. But that didn't mean Solomon wouldn't be keeping an eye on the situation.
OOO
A day or two later, reports of Titan sightings came spilling in. Solomon drank them up—there had been no alien monster attacking, and yet Titan had shown up. It was a few miles from Sherman City, in farmlands. So there were no cameras, no news reporters. Only a handful of nervous farmers and a few children had been there. G3 agents confiscated two blurry cell-phone pictures taken from very far away, one of which the thumb was partly on the lens.
Titan had been there for a very short time. According to reports, it had jogged around the fields for a bit, fired some missiles that had blown up an unfortunate silo, abruptly flew off, and later crashed to the ground and finally disappeared.
…No one had any idea as to why. Lance and Ilana had coincidentally been away from their house the entire day, and hadn't returned until nightfall. Solomon was under orders, and could not capture them for any information they might have on what happened to Titan. Solomon learned nothing from this appearance of the giant robot—except that it could fly, which, considering its advanced technology, wasn't much of a surprise.
Solomon had very little time to look into this, however, as his spies on Steel suddenly demanded his attention.
"Sir, Steel is about to use an X-18 nuclear laser on the alien matter," one of his agents alerted him.
Solomon gritted his teeth, what a stupid thing for Steel to do. Using nuclear technology on unknown matter was practically inviting disaster. Such a force would doubtlessly release the energy that was dormant within the rock. His scientists had warned him of how dangerous that was.
"Patch me through to him," Solomon said.
He stepped forward before his monitors of the G3 control room as his agents got to work. They tapped rapidly, and in a few moments they had hacked into the military base and Steel's back was on screen.
"Steel," Solomon said, drawing the general's attention. Steel whirled to look at him, as did many other military operatives; both scientists and soldiers. How unfortunate, they now knew about Solomon. G3 preferred to remain as hidden as possible.
Solomon quickly spotted the alien rock at the edge of the screen, with an X-18 positioned above it. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
"Solomon!" Steel practically flinched away from the screen, like a child caught red-handed, but he quickly recomposed himself, putting his fists on his hips.
"We've been tracking your rather mysterious maritime geological adventures," Solomon said coldly. Steel wasn't supposed to do anything involving the aliens and he knew it. Solomon remained formal as always, but slipped in his displeasure in his tone.
Steel had been caught off-guard, but his shock quickly turned into rage. "This is a top-secret military exercise!" He turned to a technician behind him. "Get him off that monitor!"
Solomon knew Steel's men were capable of cutting him off, so he got to the point. "I'm warning you, general, you're messing with things beyond your—" The screen went blank.
There was a pause as Solomon considered his options very carefully. He knew Steel would press forward and use the X-18. The energy that burst forth from the alien remains would cause much destruction.
"Sir?" an agent asked tentatively. "Should we…try to get the signal back? Or move out?"
"No," Solomon said immediately. There was no way for G3 to get there in time to stop Steel. Solomon wouldn't risk his agents cleaning up Steel's mess.
Solomon had been lenient; he had allowed Steel to do this. Now Steel had to face the consequences. If Steel got away with this, he would merely continue to meddle with the aliens. As the exercise was secret, there was no superior above Steel who could punish him. Thus the consequences had to be natural. Steel would have to see the destruction of his base himself to know not to do this again.
It was a dangerous game. Steel's actions could lead to others being harmed. Who knew what energy would be released from the stone.
There was nothing he could do, however. Steel was likely using the X-18 this moment. G3 was to protect earth from aliens—not clean up military messes.
"Start having our scientists research the remains we have," Solomon ordered. "And ways to counter the energy. Hack into that base's security feed—I want to know every inch of the place."
He turned away and stalked off—he would be staying up all night to see how this played out.
OOO
Steel, apparently, did not do the same. The general had returned to his personal quarters to sleep. Which solidified Solomon's statement that Steel had no idea what he was messing with.
Very early in the morning, the lab where the stone was being kept abruptly burst into a miniature hurricane. Cameras inside went dead and cameras watching the lab from outside showed a black and red unnatural storm. And the storm was slowly expanding.
That was unpredicted—Solomon had assumed the stone would explode or perhaps turn into a fire-monster. He whirled around to his nearest agent.
"Assemble Team Gamma," Solomon ordered, "And patch me through to Steel."
Team Gamma was the second emergency team of G3. It wasn't primary like Team Delta, and the Motherbird wasn't a part of it.
Solomon wasn't flying off to fight the monster this time—this time he was going to watch the creature—storm—whatever it was. He believed Titan would appear, and he wanted to be there to see the fight, unlike the last two times. Though how could the giant robot fight a storm?
When Solomon boarded the Gamma hovercraft he brought up a G3 video feed on the storm. It was gigantic, a tower of black clouds into the sky. It swirled and rumbled as if angry.
Solomon glanced up as he was given a communicator to Steel's personal landline phone. He switched it on as they took off.
Steel picked up quickly and growled through the phone; "This better be good!"
"Look outside," Solomon said dryly. The storm was right outside the base's quarters. Steel merely had to look out his window to see it.
"What?!"
Solomon did not respond. It was time for Steel to see what his actions had led to. He turned off the communicator as the hovercraft sped towards Sherman.
OOO
Solomon leapt off the Gamma craft once they reached the military base. He paused on the ground, adjusting to being on solid earth rather than a plane, and straightened. Steel was before him, firing missiles at a storm. How did he expect that to have any effect?
The missiles exploded against it—fascinating, Solomon thought. The storm was some kind of mix of solid and gas. It bulged, rumbling red and black and occasionally flashing white lightning.
Solomon approached Steel. "You're wasting your time," Solomon said to him.
"You got any better ideas?" Steel's petulant voice made Solomon less inclined to help him.
"Well I was thinking," Solomon said smoothly, "Since you caused this, you would have a clue as to how to stop it." Solomon wanted to see if Steel had done any research on the remains before exposing them to nuclear technology. He doubted it.
"What!" Steel whirled on Solomon in fury, but a guilty look briefly passed over his face. Ah, so he hadn't.
Steel turned his back to Solomon and addressed his men. "We need more firepower!"
Solomon held back a sigh as Steel gathered more useless weapons. He certainly wasn't going to offer G3 weapons to join in the useless endeavor.
What mattered was the threat this storm posed. G3's scientists had yet to find a solution. Until they did, G3 was as useless against the storm as Steel was. Solomon wasn't sure they'd find a solution in time; the storm was expanding and would eventually reach the city.
He was counting on Titan to show up. It had twice before, why not now? And he was eager to see how it would handle the situation.
For now, though, he had to wait and watch Steel use bigger and bigger and more useless guns.
While watching, Solomon got an alert from his spy network on the Lunises. Something odd had happened—Lance and Ilana hadn't aced a project. Normally they passed every test and every scrap of homework with flying colors. There was some history project, however, that they had apparently done horribly on. So horribly the teacher was making them do it over again.
Why the sudden change, Solomon wondered. Ignoring the latest of Steel's explosions, he looked deeper into the report. G3 stayed away from Sherman High so that they wouldn't be detected, but apparently an agent had gotten close enough to hear rumors from the students; Lance and Ilana were having some kind of sibling fight.
…It was interesting that this would happen at the same time as Titan's strange behavior in the fields yesterday. Titan had crashed, and Lance and Ilana were arguing.
A theory bloomed in Solomon's head; the two robots that Lance and Ilana turned into showed up before Titan did, yet disappeared whenever Titan entered the scene. They were somehow behind Titan; Solomon knew it, but how?
Was their argument messing up Titan? Would Titan be unable to appear to save the day this time?
Solomon looked up from his report to see that Steel had finally realized his guns had no effect. So instead, the general was going to use an EMP.
Solomon slowly exhaled, wondering how someone so stupid could achieve such a high rank. Perhaps it had been some political favor—it was good that G3 was above such things.
Solomon remained silent as Steel directed the EMP to aim at the storm. An unfortunate scientist nervously stuttered beside Steel.
"Prepare to fire the EMP!" Steel cried.
"Sir," objected the scientist, "We don't know what the electromagnetic pulse will do to it—"
"FIRE!"
The tank-like blaster hummed and glowed, before firing a ray of lime-green light at the storm.
The rumbling black clouds did nothing—they didn't flinch back or dissipate or dramatically explode like Steel was probably hoping. Solomon folded his hands behind his back, unsurprised.
The storm growled, oddly animal-like, and all of a sudden a jet of lightning shot out. Solomon was far enough that he didn't have to bother to dodge it, but Steel sprinted out of the way as the lightning hit the roads. Pavement was unearthed and the lightning within the storm seemed to grow fiercer.
"Uh-oh," Steel muttered.
Slightly worried now, Solomon checked his reports again—still no progress. His scientists hadn't found a weakness in the creature yet (nor his superior, if he was looking at all), and the storm was nearing Sherman. Perhaps it was time to order an evacuation and bring in more G3 troops—
A shadow passed overhead and Solomon looked up at a golden gleam in the sky. The gold robot—the one he had seen Ilana turn into—was flying towards the storm.
Solomon blinked at her before hastily checking his reports again. His G3 spies had sent him a message—Ilana had been absent for her last class.
"Target that alien!" Steel cried, trying to mobilize his troops that had scattered after the lightning attack.
Solomon calmly watched in fascination as the gold robot—or Ilana—stopped to hover before the storm. Her metal body went rigid, arms outstretched, and the bands of metal that formed her hair-like design opened up. Six of them upturned resembled a crown of sunlight above her head, and sparked with electricity. What was she doing, Solomon wondered?
He didn't have time to observe further, as Steel began to fire. Solomon grimaced in annoyance; couldn't Steel leave her alone so Solomon could find out what she was trying to do? All she had done was hover before the storm. Had she been watching it? Scanning it, perhaps?
She turned and her hair folded back. Smoke from the missiles' explosions covered her from view, but Solomon saw her turn and start to fly away.
He watched, tense, alert for any sign of her. He cursed inwardly; he'd lost sight of her. He started to lift his wrist to his com device to call in G3 to search, but the storm growled again. Solomon froze, recognizing the sound from when it had blasted lightning before. It was about to attack again—
Sure enough, a powerful bolt of lightning struck out the storm. It blasted through a news van and shot across the fields before blowing a bridge into pieces.
Solomon stared at the bridge. Now things were dangerous, and G3 should step in. But as Solomon turned back to the storm, he was taken by surprise by the sight of Titan standing in the open, against the blackness of the alien hurricane.
Where had the robot come from?
The gold robot was nowhere to be seen, nor the purple one. It was only Titan, now.
The storm growled a third time, and another bolt of lightning struck out, heading for the city. Titan whirled and leapt over the fields, jumping into the lighting's path just before it hit a hospital.
The impact on Titan caused a huge explosion. The ground shook and Solomon felt the heat from it and the wild wind it caused. He gripped onto his fedora before the wind snatched it off. He was nearly blown back from the blast but held his ground.
When it had passed, Solomon looked up. Titan still stood, sparks flying off its body. A sword was in one of its hands, a shield was in its other. It looked up at the storm but didn't move. Solomon narrowed his eyes, wondering what it was doing. Why wouldn't it attack the storm?
And then, abruptly, music started playing.
"When fighting and not sharing, and nothing seems to work!/it's time to put your heads to togetheeeeeeer…and think of something good!"
There were many, many, confused looks on Steel's soldiers. Even Solomon was taken off-guard for a moment. He didn't know what this music was, but it sounded like a children's show. Two high-pitched voices sang the song from Titan's body. The robot was still unmoving, sword and shield held in both its hands.
The words repeated, along with a playful flute. Steel growled as if the children's song offended him. "Gah, what is that?"
Solomon, however, found a smile creeping on his face. The ridiculousness of the situation was not lost on him—an alien robotic weapon was playing an earth children's song on teamwork.
It was an interesting subject—teamwork. Lance and Ilana had been fighting. Perhaps they controlled Titan together. Was this song somehow supposed to help them?
Either way, Solomon would certainly be looking into this music later today. Why had such a thing attracted alien attention?
The storm gave its roar of warning before shooting more lightning at Titan. Titan locked together its sword and shield as guard before the lightning impacted. Yet again Solomon had to shield himself with his arms as the impact blew out everywhere, shaking the ground.
When the smoke cleared, Titan was kneeing on the ground. It got up, and the music stopped playing. Solomon tilted his head, wondering if Titan was finally going to attack.
Titan's sword and shield vanished from its hands and then its core glowed. Like a rocket taking off, blue fire came from its feet and began to lift the robot. But Titan leaned to the side, unbalanced. It blew aside a few tanks with its jets before spinning around and flying into the air.
Solomon watched it fly up, awed. It was truly remarkable. The alien technology was so advanced, to build something as huge and detailed as this.
Titan flew into the storm, and Solomon lost sight of it.
The storm rumbled, cracking lighting and flashing white. A few moments passed where nothing happened. Steel was trying to recover his forces while Solomon's eyes were locked on the storm. There was a battle going on in there, one he couldn't see. Who would be victorious?
Seconds ticked by. The storm glowed white, building up its power. Occasionally Solomon thought he could see Titan's silhouette through the black clouds.
Light suddenly pierced through the hurricane, bright and blinding. It came from all angles, and, with a mighty crash, the storm exploded. The black clouds faded into normal air. Titan remained in the sky, too high and far away for Solomon to get a good look at it.
It began to rain over the city. The water droplets were warm but harmless; Steel's soldier outstretched their hands to feel the raindrops. Sunlight came through the overcast sky.
"He did it," Solomon heard Steel murmur.
Titan had proven itself yet again. It had jumped in the path of two lightning bolts to protect the hospital, and defeated a monster that humans had created.
Titan began to plummet, falling to the ground. It landed in fields with a crash, and Solomon felt a flicker of concern. He didn't want earth to lose its best chance of defense, no matter how little he knew about it.
"MOVE!" Steel ordered, pointing to where Titan had crashed.
Solomon tensed—it would be disastrous of Steel got his hands on Titan. Steel's experiments on the remains of the fire monster had led to this mess.
As Steel hurried onto one of his tanks, Solomon discreetly hitched a ride. If Steel did find something where Titan had crashed, Solomon had to be there to stop him from getting it. G3 took everything alien—Steel couldn't have a moonrock if Solomon could help it.
The crater was empty when they got there; Titan had disappeared as usual. There was no trace of the gold and purple robots, nor Lance and Ilana. Solomon wasn't supposed to capture them anyway, but having to catch them to save them from Steel would have been a fair excuse to do so.
"My base is destroyed!" Steel pounded his fist on his tank. True; the storm had reduced Steel's base to ruins. It would be difficult to rebuild it. "That Titan! He did this!"
Solomon didn't even bother to point out the huge flaw in that logic. Steel had created the storm; Titan was the one who had stopped it.
Solomon could press charges against Steel. He had proof—recordings and the evidence of Steel's operation that had otherwise been destroyed along with the base. G3 had the power to ruin Steel for illegal involvement with alien material. Steel had broken code.
But that would require G3 involvement in such laws. They would have to come out of anonymity and approach officials with the evidence. There would be examinations and testimonies, hearings and juries. It would be a media circus.
G3 didn't do such things. They stayed in the shadows, hid in secret. Perhaps Steel losing his base would make him finally understand he had to leave the aliens to G3, as it should be.
Solomon would do nothing; he wouldn't present the evidence. Steel would get away with this, and G3 would stay hidden.
"I hope you learned your lesson, General," Solomon said flatly, and then he leapt to his hovercraft flying above. He boarded and the craft turned, heading back to base.
He truly did hope Steel would understand, and that this particular problem was all over.
Episode Four: The Phantom Ninja
Solomon was interested when he heard Ilana was throwing a 'food party.' According to his spies' reports, Ilana was trying to push a petition to Sherman High for better lunch meals. To gather support, she organized an event in the school's cafeteria to try new meal options.
Solomon was suspicious—what would be in the food? He barely knew anything about why these aliens were here, the meals could be poisoned. Why aliens would want to poison high school teenagers, though, was beyond him. His instincts told him that wasn't the case.
Solomon was presented with a colorful poster an agent had swiped from the school. Ilana had made this for her party; bright, big letters described the event along with the time and date on it. It seemed perfectly innocent.
He was distracted from the party, however, when something peculiar happened to G3 readings. According to his scanners, something had entered earth's atmosphere and then abruptly disappeared. There were no readings besides that first entrance. There was no giant monster that landed on earth and began attacking. Everything seemed normal.
He had his agents check the scanners' mechanics and they found nothing. The scanners were in perfect condition and working fine.
Solomon asked his superior about it, who simply instructed "Be alert." Which Solomon supposed meant that he had no idea either.
Solomon was alert, though, and kept a careful eye on the events in Sherman City. If the scanners had been right and there had been a ship, that would be where the alien vessel would land. He was reported to about every event in the city.
And he wasn't disappointed; there was a "Phantom Ninja," as witnesses called him. A mysterious character who was fighting small crime. He always arrived before the authorities and left before anyone could really see him. There were only a few eyewitness accounts.
Of course, this could be a regular human. There was no proof this had anything to do with aliens. Until a dramatic event at a bank robbery.
It was a chaotic public event—a bank robbery, which normally G3 wouldn't bat an eye at, blew up before the appearance of the purple robot. Someone had captured the robot on their cell phone video. This video was given to new reporters before G3 could confiscate it, and now everyone had seen the footage. The bank was in flames as the purple robot emerged and then flew off, disappearing behind a building.
Solomon paced in the privacy of his quarters, yet again filled with questions. Why? The purple robot was Lance in armor, so why had he gotten involved in a bank robbery? He was the 'Phantom Ninja'? Solomon took another look at a short security footage that had briefly caught the Ninja's shadowy form, and Solomon had to admit it was likely Lance under that blue hoodie. Why were the aliens concerned with small crimes? They fought monsters, not humans.
Unfortunately there was no footage of what had happened inside the bank. The cameras were all blown up by Lance, and had been deactivated by the bank robbers anyway. None of the robbers had survived the explosion, so there were no other witnesses.
When Solomon proposed to his superior that this was reason enough to capture the aliens, he had been turned down yet again. Lance's explosion had killed people—yet his superior waved it off, saying G3 still had to wait. It could have been self-defense for all they knew; the victims had been gangsters, after all.
Solomon had to frustratingly table it for now—tonight was Ilana's party. It was time to test her food and see what she was up to.
The party did not go well. Many people turned up, but left very quickly. Solomon couldn't figure out why. His agents couldn't ask the students without being obvious, but one spy overheard that it had something to do with Lance. Solomon didn't understand; Lance hadn't even been there. Solomon had no idea where the male alien had suddenly disappeared to. Another 'Phantom Ninja' run?
Still, it seemed the reason for the party's failure had to do with high school drama rather than strange alien events. People seemed to like the food. Two agents had snuck into the party in disguise for only a few minutes, and gotten out before all the students had abruptly decided to leave. One of them retrieved a few samples and Solomon had his scientists examine it.
But only a few minutes after the party had failed, his agents reported that a strange figure had breached the perimeter of the school and was heading for the lunch room. One of his men managed to get an image; it was an alien.
It was an odd creature; the color of dried blood. It had long tentacles rather than legs and the upper half of its body resembled an insect. Its eyes were bright acid green, with two pupils in each eyeball. Solomon only had one picture of it as it snuck in through the back door. He was monitoring the situation from the G3 base, he couldn't do anything.
His agents confirmed that all the humans had left the building; the only one left was Ilana. Lance was still nowhere.
Fighting broke out. No agent was in the school to see what was happening, but lasers strayed from the building and shot into the sky.
Solomon was about to order his agents to get in closer when the purple robot arrived. Lance busted through the walls, and moments later the red alien was seen fleeing.
For a moment everything was silent. His agents had nothing to report as they waited. But then they sent him images of a ship, a huge ship that resembled a cockroach. It could apparently camouflage; it had appeared out of nowhere. Lance and Ilana, in their armored suits, flew out of the school and were attacked by the ship, before they vanished yet again.
…and Titan appeared. Solomon's theory came back into his mind, and this further confirmed it. Lance and Ilana were somehow making Titan. They were Titan….somehow.
The cockroach ship turned its nose up to look at Titan. It was very small in comparison to the giant robot.
It tried to shoot—three red streams of light blasted out of its nose and fired at Titan's leg—but there was no effect. That was interesting; even alien weapons struggled against Titan.
Titan, unharmed by the attack, lifted a foot and tried to stomp on the ship. It was an amusing sight; a colossal game of trying to crush the insect. But the ship hastily scurried back on its long legs.
Titan stomped again and again, and the ship ran from the robot's massive feet. Solomon wondered what this new creature was, precisely; it wasn't a giant monster. It was smart enough to pilot a ship. Why was it here? Titan was attacking it; was that enough reason to assume it was an enemy?
The ship launched something right as Titan finally crushed it flat. Titan's head looked up at the projectile, heading up into space.
Solomon swiftly turned on his com to his spies as Titan lifted its hand, shifting its fingers into a blaster and taking aim at the object. "Get that pod—!"
But both G3 and Titan were too late. In a streak of light, the pod zoomed across the sky. G3 scanners lit up, and showed the pod leaving the atmosphere. It didn't go far into space, however; it vanished into the mysterious portal that all these aliens came through.
Solomon froze, staring at the readings. This was the first time something went back through the portal. Everything that came either stayed on earth or died here.
…What did this mean?
OOO
Later that night, Solomon's scientists came back with the testing results from Ilana's food; it was all normal. All the ingredients were regular earth food; there were no chemicals or poisons. Everything it was made of was found at the local grocery store.
Though all of her food looked like mash, whether baked or boiled or cooked some other way, all of it was healthy, the scientists reported. One G3 nutritionist (Solomon kept a handful of those around to be sure his soldiers were in the best shape) was ecstatic about the food. Each meal, she said, was well-balanced in the five food groups. You could eat what you wanted and be perfectly healthy.
The scientists took the liberty to replicate the food on their own, and many tried it and reported it was good. The food was harmless—beneficial, even.
That meant Ilana's wishes had been true. She had wanted to give her school a delicious and healthy lunch menu. There were no ulterior motives.
Solomon was a little pleased, therefore, when all her kind hard work paid off. The next day, she and Lance served their food, and the petition was signed.