"Varvatos is very sorry" Vex apologised as he knocked away yet another one of the persistent Omens whilst Morando stood on the opposite curb, chuckling to himself. Aja ducked and dodged out of the way of wayward limbs, doing her best to fight back against the Omen army on their front lawn whilst still worrying about the others still inside. She had noted Luug stood protectively over Dan's prone figure in the kitchen where he had lain in a puddle of green goo on her way out, Krel was still frantically trying to recover Mother's hardware whilst also fiddling with the wormhole generator. The Blanks were stationed in front of their parents as their last line of defence and Zadra had been the only one to return home. In retrospect, it felt like they were fighting a losing battle but if there was one thing she was known for, it was her stubbornness.
"Sorry? For—" Aja's brows furrowed in confusion as she exchanged an ionic shield for a hand-held blaster. "—Whoa!" Her question was quickly cut short however, when Vex suddenly grabbed ahold of her forearm, forcefully tossed her back through the front window, passed a large puddle of green goo in the kitchen and all the back into the gaping portal behind them. The queen-in-waiting flew through the labyrinth of Mother's hallways, bouncing & rebounding off of the walls before she eventually slid to a stop at the base of and intersection and collapsed into a boneless heap with a tired groan on her lips.
"Dammit Varvatos!" Aja groaned to herself as she pushed herself up onto her feet and silently cursed the self-sacrificing nature of the commander. She wanted nothing more than to race back out into the yard to backup the wisened warrior & protect her family/friends, but the sound of an infantry's prowling footsteps bounced back at her. Spinning on her heel, Aja raced for the cover of Mother's labyrinth-like hallways and hoped against hope that the Blanks would be able to protect her parents' cores long enough for her to return.
Someone breathed heavily down her neck and hurried footsteps that seemed to echo her own thumping core only made her move faster. Aja ran a little further before she slipped around a final corner & paused to catch her breath. Serator cocked and held in a white-knuckled grip, she readied herself to ambush whomever was following her. For a moment, her pounding core was the only thing she could hear and she felt like she had forgotten how to breathe. One step, two steps, three and then she was determinedly charging around the corner with her shield up in front of her with a war cry on her lips.
"Ugh!" Krel groaned as he was bodily shoved to the floor by his sister's serator.
"Oops! Sorry" Aja apologised sheepishly as the shield-turned-battering-ram was quickly sheathed in favour of helping her brother up from the floor. "Maybe when this is over, I should teach you how to fight"
"I—kleb!" Krel had barely risen to his feet before he and his sister were ducking & dodging out of the way of rapid gunfire. "I'll take those fighting lessons now" He sassed as the two of them threw up hasty shields to protect themselves and they were slowly backed up into a (literal) corner. He was only half-kidding.
And then, once again, as if summoned like magic Dan was there in all his ghoulish glory; only something was different. "Is that…Dan?" Krel cocked his head in question, hands lowered slightly at the reveal of their friend.
"Are you complaining?" Aja retorted, letting out a breath of relief that hiss from between her teeth when she saw that the halfa was up, awake and more or less okay. A frighteningly large amount of ectoplasm was splattered across his form and an icy sheen coated his fingertips & wisps of hair that hid the bruises already forming upon mint skin.
But that's not what made the Akiridion pause. Perhaps it was the deadly accuracy with which he shot and destroyed the forthcoming Omen, or perhaps it might've been how ruthless he was in the kill, going so far as to yank the twinkling core from the android's body and crushing it between sharpened fangs like Luug with his Mr Happy Ball. But it wasn't until his twin gaze of blue met her own and his entire demeanour changed with a flip of a switch.
"Oh, there you are, my royals" The halfa chirped, his voice—whilst familiar—sounded entirely too feminine and robotic to be coming out of those lips. "I was worried"
"Mother?!" Both siblings exclaimed in awe, sheathing their ionic weapons as Dan—no, Mother—stepped over the corpse left behind.
"What—how—what happened to you?" Krel stammered, as neither sibling was able to comprehend what was going on.
"I've had, what the humans call, a makeover" Mother explained as she wiped away some of the excess ectoplasm still clinging to her vessel. "As per standard protocols, when my programming was threatened, I downloaded myself into a safe and nearest receptacle. My options were the microwave, one of those monstrosities or Daniel's clone"
"Daniel can clone himself?" Aja asked, intrigued as she & her brother inspected Mother's newest vessel and forgot about their predicament for a brief moment. "Lively!"
"How is that even possible?" Krel murmured to himself, fingers poking at the globs of stringy ectoplasm that stuck to his fingers when he pulled his hands away.
"Daniel informed me that it is an action known as 'possession" Mother replied, quite content to let her children to as the please at lease in their small respite. "And it is quite common amongst such creatures"
"You are like Daniel-Mother" Krel mused, "Or, er, Halfa-Ship or—ooh!—Ghost-Mom! Ugh! Why isn't Toby here right now? Naming things is really his specialty"
"It is very strange to have legs" Mother admitted as she jumped up & down, kicking her legs this way & that. "But I do enjoy these blaster-hands"
She danced back over to the intersection where the remnants of the Omen lay forgotten and then proceeded to spin around in place like a child in a field of flowers. A gleeful expression laid upon her features as ecto-blasts were continuously fired from her hands and scorched everything that the green bolts touched—including the tips of Krel's hair. "Whoa!" Both siblings chorused as they had to suddenly drop to the floor in order to avoid the sudden fire.
"Oh!—Ha—I—I'm still getting the hang of it" Mother apologised sheepishly as she halted her actions, swaying slightly too far one way before she caught herself on a nearby corner.
"Haha!" Aja trilled, hands coming to slap themselves onto Mother's shoulders (it was odd to be within the same eyeline as her royals).
"Oh-ho-ho-ho!" Krel agreed, grin just as gleeful as the pair of siblings shared a secretive and knowing grin.
"Now" Mother moved to direct the siblings, one hand on each of their shoulders. "Let's show them what a mother can do"
"Danny! It's Toby, you need to suit up, like ASAP! Aja & Krel are in trouble! Zadra's back on Akiridion-5 and Kubritz, plus some evil alien dictator has the royals trapped inside their spaceship! Meet us at the Tarron's place pronto! And be ready for battle! Hurry! P.S. Bring your thermos!"
"What the jeepers!" LU—C cried as both Blanks sprung to their feet as the door to the infirmary slid open.
"Wow! Check you out, slugger!" RK—Y boxed back & forth as Mother brought up the rear behind the Tarron siblings. "You've certainly been through the wringer! C'me on! Sock it to me!"
"It's okay, it's okay!" Said Krel. "This is Mother, or Ghost-Mom, or Phantom Mom?"
"Oh…" LU—C blinked languidly.
"We're still working on the name"
"Put 'er there" RK—Y held out his hand for a handshake which Mother promptly ignored. The Blanks were just about as hyperactive as Tobias on sugar and it was often best to just let them run their course. "Hey, why don't you and LU—C whip up a nice supper?"
"I'm not here to cook" Mother replied, firing a weak warning shot over the Blanks' head and making sure to miss the controls of the healing pods which held the current king & queen's cores. "But I believe I can kill"
"Ehehe~" Krel chuckled nervously over LU—C maniacal cackles. "That will come in hands. We need to protect out parents"
"I believe the human expression is 'come in handy" Mother amended as she inspected her icy fingers in apparent fascination. Fascination that was quickly replaced with guilty innocence when an unwanted blast shot from her fingers to form a small cropping of stalactites that dropped from the ceiling.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
"What's happening?" Aja panicked over the blearing sirens as Krel rushed forward to see if their parents cores were still okay.
"Morando is trying to gain access to the Cognitive Memory Integration Matrix" Mother resignedly sighed.
"Well, that's a mouthful" LU—C chirped.
"It means he's trying to access your parents' memories"
"That's something that he can do?" Krel asked incredulously, spinning on his heel to face her. "Why're we only hearing about this now?"
"Because it is extremely dangerous"
"But why would Morando want to see our parents' memories?" Aja questioned.
"Oh no…" Krel breathed, eyes blowing wide as realisation seemed to hit.
"What?"
"Before the wormhole closed, Loth Saborian told me that Morando is after Gaylen's core. So, what if Morando wants Mama and Papa's memories to find out where Gaylen's core is?"
"Gaylen's core would make him as powerful as a god!" Aja cried, worried and rightfully so. Even the idea that someone like Morando with that kind of power made one balk at the notion of it. "But you said memory integration was dangerous"
"The damage to your parents could be severe and permanent" Mother nodded.
"Not if we beat Morando to it!" Krel exclaimed. "If we went into their memories first—"
"—Without causing harm to yourself or your parents—"
"—Yes, yes, without all of that—We could find out where Gaylen's core is and—"
"—And use its incredible might to send that buckaroo packing!" RK—Y ended.
"We can do that after we get him out of our house, little brother" Said Aja.
"What if he gets to Mama and Papa first?" Krel retorted in kind. "This could be our only chance to stop Morando!"
"…Okay, what do we do?"
"We need to get to the cognitive memory access point" Answered Mother.
"Then who's going to continue the fight?" Aja pursued, still worried about their parents' cores.
"How about we give them the old knuckle sandwich?" RK—Y and LU—C continued to ramble in the background, spilling outdated slang like a high-strung PTA mom.
"Just remember to take off the crusts!"
"They are" Krel grinned.
One transduction later and both the Blanks were transformed to look like the Tarron's human transductions. "Are we having fun yet?" RK—Y chortled as he played with the fake serator in his hands. Mother found extremely odd how her royals could be both crouched in front of her whilst also flitting about through the hallways further afield.
"It's 10pm, do you know where your children are?" LU—C giggled as she spun in place, serator twirling above her head and grin lecherously large upon her face. Even as excitable as Aja tended to be, it appeared almost unnatural at the degree to which her face was split by that grin. "Hey, hey, hey!"
"Blam, blam, blam!" RK—Y cackled as Kubritz suddenly appeared around the corner flanked by two Omens, making both of the Tarrons shrink back against the wall they had crouched behind with Mother standing protectively at their backs. "Take that, daddy-o!"
"Yeah! Put your money where your mouth is!" LU—C agreed as she finally cocked her serator and fired off a wild shot that landed nowhere near the colonel but served to ensnare the soldier's attention.
"Kill them" Kubritz sneered, ordering the two Omens to chase after the Blanks with maniacal glee.
"Hey, chrome domes!" RK—Y wildly dodged out of the way. "This is our pad!"
"Now beat it!" LU—C agreed as the two Blanks led the colonel further into the ship.
"Well, the transduction serators worked like a charm" Krel mused as he and his sister peered around the corner to watch them disappear. "But the Blanks could use a couple of acting pointers"
"And also some fighting lessons" Aja agreed as Luug clambered over and under the siblings'.
"We need to go, follow me" Mother interjected, pulling the Tarron's attention back to the point at hand as she moved to open a hatch on the floor at the end of the hallway. Down the hatch led the Akiridions (in all their various forms) into a further series of networking pipes & wires, all illuminated in that same blue glow that was present throughout the rest of the ship."This is the matrix access point. I can use Daniel's internal energy source to power it, but you won't have long"
"Won't that hurt you—or Daniel?" Aja asked, brows pinched in worry.
"This vessel appears to function separately from its host, so I see no repercussions about that"
"Well, that's good, at least" Krel shrugged, trotting after the possessed halfa who pulled on a lever and two core readers dropped from the ceiling. "Aja"
"Hm?" Aja hummed, coming to stand opposite her brother.
"Let's go see Mama & Papa"
"…Link-up point ahead, 12 o'clock. Blue-three-bravo-two at link-up…" The chatter of hazmats buzzed like gnats in summer as Dan—dressed entirely inappropriately for the occasion—found himself crouched behind a scattering of bushes, crammed in between an armoured trollhunter, two ninja-clad teenagers and a troll.
"Are you seriously in your pyjamas, right now?!" Toby exclaimed, trying his best to keep his voice hushed.
"Like you can talk" Dan retorted in kind, the deadpan heavy on his features despite the truth in the boy's words. Dressed in nothing more than wild bed hair, a loose Casper High t-shirt & a pair of (comical) ghost-printed boxers with the Fenton Thermos clasped tightly in his hands; he was quite the sight to behold. Granted, he had received the frantic call in the middle of the night where he had lain passed out on George's couch and had only grabbed the necessities before he left. Of course, Toby (dressed in his bronze armour) nor the Creepslayerz (dressed in their black costumes plus face paint) looked any better.
"Ugh!" The bronze-clad boy rolled his eyes with a put-upon sigh before he crawled from their 'hiding spot' and began to army crawl across the ground as quietly as possible. Or as quietly as bronze on asphalt could be. Behind him, Eli and Steve had crept over to a nearby truck all stealthy-like but knocked a few trashcans over on the way.
"You've got to be kidding me" Dan muttered to himself, appalled at his juniors lack of care. How could someone be so loud when creeping about? So it was to no one's surprise when they were immediately found out.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Costas demanded, coming to stand in Toby's way just as a pair of hazmats escorted the Creepslayerz from their hiding place and Dan trotted over to meet them. At this point there was no reason to make a fuss when they were so outnumbered and besides, the link between himself & his duplicate still held strong. Although the slight fuzziness between them hinted towards a possession or an overshadowing that had him concerned."What are you—what are you wearing?"
"Uh…would you believe we're going to a Greek restaurant?" Toby grinned sheepishly as he was lifted to his feet. "Opa!"
"No"
"Damn…"
"Sir" A haggle of hazmats corralled the group together, "We found ourselves a couple of spies"
Herded together and ordered to raise their hands in the air, surrendering to them. Thankfully both Morando and Colonel Kubritz appeared to be busy elsewhere—likely already inside the mothership—so they only had to deal with the hordes of hazmats, Omens and a seriously pissed off sergeant. As sheepish as the teenagers appeared however, it wasn't until one of Eli's ninja stars dropped to the ground with a clang that both of the black-laden boys flushed scarlet and stuttered out excuses that had Dan biting his lip to keep from laughing out loud. "Please don't call my mom!" Eli pleaded as he stared down in horror at the weapon he seemingly pooped out.
"Or Coach" Steve added, just as horrified. Dan could only imagine what sort of punishments Coach dolled out at home, particularly if his infamous detentions were anything to go by.
