Buzz Lightyear of Star Command
Psyche
(Disclaimer: Still own nothing from or related to BLoSC. Reviews are appreciated. NOTE: At one point, I had to spell out a program name since FF dot net took the initial spelling of the intended joke too seriously.)
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A pounding headache and a bare room that definitely did not match up to her quarters on Star Command: the perfect combination for a Tangean princess to awaken to before anything else. Mira's temples and the backs of her eyes pounded, and, while closing her eyes in order to gain some relief and better feel the surface beneath her resting body, she registered a sheet-less mattress. Fortunately, the room around her felt neither too warm nor too cold, but when she tried moving the mattress around, she failed budging it an inch.
Once she absorbed the absence of any other furnishings, Mira noticed a door which had no knob, switch, or interface panel on her side.
"Okay. Standard questions of, 'Where am I?' and, 'How did I get here?' are asked as of…now," Mira groaned, matching her focus against her headache. "Seriously, who bolts a mattress to the floor? Think, Mira. Space Rangers and memory lapses never mix well. Think! Where could you be?"
She remembered, through no small amount of pain, walking. Lots of walking. Through a city born from a literal jungle, two moons glowing overhead.
Rhizome. She'd been on Rhizome. Why…?
Buzz.
Remembering hurt even more.
/
"The big-rig's trailer hit him broadside, full speed," said Commander Nebula. "He took the brunt of the explosion from the damaged cargo, a nasty fusion crystal catalyst, and ended up partially buried under the building it demolished. His Ranger suit kept him from being killed outright, and EMTs arrived on the scene quick, but… He's in bad shape. There's no telling how long it'll take for him to heal or regain consciousness."
"No thanks to me, filming my stupid movie. So much for 'no Rangers were harmed in the making of this picture'," XR added, looking heart-wrenchingly guilty.
"No thanks to Warp either!" Booster cried. "If Buzz hadn't shoved him out of the way, he'd be hospitalized just the same!"
"And only so the traitor can spend the rest of his days rotting in prison!" Nebula bellowed. Reining his temper back under control so the medical staff wouldn't evict him, he sent a tired glance Mira's way. "Ranger Nova, I'm sending you and the rest of Team Lightyear to Rhizome for R&R."
"But, sir―"
"No 'buts'! Look, I understand you three want to be here for Buzz; he'd want the same if the situation was reversed, and the sentiment is appreciated." Nebula sighed, massaging his right temple. "The problem is the details of his condition hit too close to home, particularly for you Mira – and don't bother denying it.
"Before anything else happens, swear to me on your honor as a Space Ranger, the Princess of Tangea, and a good, trusted friend of Buzz Lightyear that you will not, under any circumstances, hunt Darkmatter on your own or with backup. He can't outrun the long arm of the law forever, and vigilantism on your part isn't gonna help. Take my word for it, and give me your honest word here and now, Ranger Nova, that you will keep your promise to the letter, come wormholes or wirewolves."
Mira promised and, her spirit strained paper thin, she broke down weeping. Knees buckling, she ended up on the floor before Commander Nebula, Booster, or XR could catch her.
"I didn't… I-I never t-told him I…" Mira's raw self-hatred constricted her chest and throat. "That...I'm sorry. For what I said. I was being so stupid — a-and self-centered — and now Buzz is...is..."
Nebula knelt and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "He'll fight through this, Mira; he hasn't let any of us down yet. When Buzz's awake and on the mend, Team Lightyear will be the first ones I call, I promise." When Mira leaned into her commander, crying even harder, he brought her into a complete, warm hug. "It's going to be okay, Mira. Take my honest word for it. Somehow, this'll all be okay."
/
Mira wiped away her tears. She could do nothing for Buzz except hope, and no Mood Garden or other "calming gifts of nature's bounty" improved her state of mind – though Booster and XR got something out of Rhizome's abundance, the two Rangers introducing XR's camera and its entire film reel to some very cathartic fireweed.
It took hours for Mira to relax enough to sleep that night, but a nightmare disturbed her slumber. Buzz, bloodstained, broken, and staring through her rather than at her, died in her arms, his final words one horrid question:
"Who are you?"
―she ran, tripping over her dress, the fabric ripping when she jerked upright, her child-sized circlet slipping from her hair and skittering across the floor. Her father and bedridden mother cried out, pleading―
Mira jack-knifed awake to the sound of her own screams, several Rhizomian attendants rushing inside her suite. Fortunately, a cup of hot, face-puckering herbal tea later and she could no longer sit up straight, let alone retain the energy for nightmares.
Yet…she remembered…dreaming...of...of Buzz. No, not dreaming; Mira heard him outside somewhere, calling for her. Then… Then, her telepathy and other Tangean senses stirred, growing stronger and urging her from bed the more she tried suppressing them. Siding with said powers, Mira's Ranger instinct solidified her decision to investigate.
No Rhizomian attendants appeared at any point, a strange coincidence in retrospect, and Booster and XR slept/recharged inside suites of their own, so no one stopped her from leaving the resort. How long, how far, or unto what region of Rhizome she wandered, Mira knew not; she paid her path no attention, focusing only on Buzz. However, his summons transformed from words into pure feeling, a psychic trail guiding her rather than sound, while her captain himself always stayed beyond sight.
Mira's journey ended where the trail became a roiling cloud enclosed inside some unknown space, Buzz's psychic imprint mixing with someone else's. It felt like two opposing storm fronts hitting each other, bursting with lightning and thunder where the thunderheads impacted. Except conversation formed this "storm", snippets of voices crackling and sometimes booming around Mira, the sentences too loud, too unintelligible, or, on occasion, too soft for her to understand.
She recalled nothing but darkness beyond the telepathic cloud engulfing her.
"Three guesses where the headache's come from, but none of that tells me where I am or why," Mira grumbled, examining the room again. Nothing changed while she recapped the previous night - if her little jaunt took place the previous night and not days ago. She held no idea of how long she lied senseless on account of whatever new Tangean ability bothered her now, or maybe on account of the mysterious "tea" that put her under in the first place.
Or on account of someone who found a way to take advantage of her telepathy and lure her to this room.
Wasting no more time, Mira — still wearing her Rhizomian toga; how nice — stood and trotted to the door, her body prepared for ghosting through, and hit it face-first.
"Yow!"
She stumbled backward and nearly fell, steadying herself at the last possible second. Nose and forehead throbbing, Mira took the more cautious route the second time around and tried phasing her hands, but the door felt no less solid than before.
"The element the Chlorm used? Tefloid 14?" The entryway negated a third ghosting attempt. "Craters. Now how do I get out of here?"
"Say 'pretty please Warp, you handsome devil, you'?"
Oh…no.
"Yeah, I figured that was askin' too much, too. Ah, well. Worth a shot."
No. No, no, no. His voice did not come from the other side of that stupid door. It did not!
"You still there, princess?"
Her mind flailing, Mira channeled XR.
"The party you are attempting to reach is not available. Please leave a short message after the tone, and your call will be returned as soon as possible. Beep."
One second, two seconds, three...
"I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that 'beep'," Warp said.
Mira_Nova dot e.x.e. came back online, and she shook her head hard.
"Let me out of here, Darkmatter!" she demanded. "I'm not your conquest, and I'm not your prisoner either!"
"Yeah, you're not going anywhere, princess. Things get complicated when you wake up in the middle of night and see a Tangean ghost standing in your bedroom."
Mira heard Warp jump at her mortified shriek.
"I was in your bedroom? Five years of therapy right there!"
"Craters, woman, I thought I was being haunted and you're the one screaming?"
"Can you blame me? If this situation isn't your doing, then I ended up in the lair of my worst enemies thanks to the combination of a possibly narcotic drink and...something that messed with my telepathy! How would you react in my place?"
"Uh... Got lots of contextual questions, but basic point taken."
"No kidding. Gah, Commander Nebula is going to have Dr. Animus institutionalize me for this…" Mira regained her composure. "But I'll worry about that later. 'Ghost', Darkmatter? Of all the insulting slang for Tangeans, that has to be the most unoriginal―"
"I'm not joking! It was, what, three-thirty in the morning? My room is supposed to be pitch black until noon―"
"Hm. Can't keep your true form as a Creature of the Night longer than that, huh?"
"Ha, ha. You come up with that one yourself, or does Your Highness's royal repartee-writer have you covered?"
"I'm my own repartee-writer. Get to the point, Darkmatter."
"Like I need your permission. But, seriously, I woke up to a blue-and-white glow and saw a very transparent image of you standing right next to my bed, and this entire place is supposed to be impenetrable for anything or anyone except me!"
"Got that memo."
"Not nearly enough. You almost made me shoot my one-of-a-kind Bathyosian mother-of-pearl vase. I had to talk the bubble-heads down from taking my good arm instead of my money for the thing."
"The poor vase; so close to finally being put out of its misery…"
Mira heard the unmistakable sound of a charging cannon.
"I could put you out of my misery right now, smart mouth."
A salvo of snarky retorts loaded on Mira's tongue, but they fizzled away.
"I was asleep and tangible for I don't know how long," she replied. "You've had more than enough time to kill me, or maim me, or restrain me for whatever dark ideas slither inside your head. So, the million-unibuck question: Why have you stood back and done nothing?"
After another pause, Mira heard the cannon switch off. However, she didn't drop her guard; any of Warp's weapons could target her with fair precision given her entrapment within close-quarters.
"You're not worth the effort for anything, princess, not until I figure out how in the world you bypassed my security – huh, irony. I'd guess 'revenge' as the 'why' answer, considering you kept asking for your oh-so-precious Lightyear."
"Awww. Your ego take a hit, Darkmatter? Second-best to Buzz again?"
"Dream on, princess." Warp made a disgusted noise. "Don't tell me you and Lightyear are a thing."
"W-What? No! Not even a-as an experiment! Besides, he's already got someone."
"Would 'her' name be 'Star Command' by any chance? Or 'Ozma Furbanna'?"
"How ever did you guess?"
"Razor-sharp reasoning prowess – kind of like Tangean mind powers, only much more reliable and waaaaaaaay less creepy."
"Debatable arguments at best. Well, Mister Sharp-As-A-Tack, care to tell me why Buzz's psychic imprint, or a really good imitation of it, led me here?"
"'Psychic imprint'?"
"The unique wavelength signature every sentient, non-robotic being's mind possesses? Part of what makes an individual who he or she is? Catch up with the rest of the class, Darkmatter; this'll be on the test."
"Sorry, Professor Nova, but I'm cutting class that day. Got better things on my agenda."
"Letting Space Rangers take falls that should've been yours, for example?"
Another silence, and then, "See, there's the problem with you Space Rangers. You let all that 'serve and protect' nobility junk go straight to your heads and turn you into sentimental idiots when the chips are down."
"Sentimental-Idiot-Buzz-Lightyear almost got himself killed saving you, ingrate! Would you rather have had him just let that explosive trailer hit you? I know I would have. It would've made for one less of Zurg's boot-licking flunkies to worry about."
The cannon charged again, and, if Mira's directional hearing worked correctly, its barrel pointed right at her face.
"Remember my advice about not pushing your luck with me?" Warp's very ticked-off voice rumbled, not too unlike some of the thunder in the telepathic cloud. "Keep digging, princess, and the one less thing you'll have to worry about will be your head."
Huh. Despite his smack-talk, Warp Darkmatter turned testy when on the receiving end of tough love. Pity, but Mira refused to let him treat her like a doormat. However, though rejoinders, insults, and questions packed her mouth to the point of pain, but she buttoned her lips tight; her strain of fortune saved her twice now, but the Rule of Threes existed for good reason.
Wait. Does he actually ca…? Mira stopped the thought and shook her head. No; I haven't seen any real proof of that. Buzz's accident might've been one of Agent Z's setups, and then Darkmatter getting angry with me here might be his attempt at tricking me into making leaps of logic based on false pretenses.
Stars, how much more twisted can this man get?
"I don't know what your Tangean voodoo schtick is doing to your brain, but Buzz has never been here. No one else has been here except you and me – and the people who helped me design and build this place, though they won't talk. Ever. And Star Command can run themselves ragged searching my other properties; there's nothing for them to find.
"Make yourself comfortable, princess. You're not leaving my little off-the-radar abode for what I call the foreseeable future."
"You can't keep me here, Darkmatter! I'll find a way out; you just watch me! Hey! Are you listening? HEY!"