Episode 60

Pardon me

"Booring excuses... Get your act together and start working! I will not tolerate more vapor-laziness! Put those humans back to work!"

A squeaky voice in the room replied:

"But your Nastiness, they are all very tired, I don't know how much I can squeeze from them. That last renegade unit was a big effort."

"More boring excuses... It must take a lot of practice to be that boring... Pick up the pace, idiots! I don't care about your lame explanations. Get some of the losers that got shot by the Star Sheriffs and put them in the human compound."

"But sir, they used to be our own kind, we can't mix them with humans..."

"Silence! You question my judgement one more time and you end up where you came from! In a vapor chamber! Now move your slacking ship to planet Grunge and start working!"

The squeaky voiced Outrider gulped. It was Grimace, one of Nemisis's adjutants. He left the room in a hurry and headed towards his ship.

"Move, move!" a few soldiers were pushing some humans towards Grimace's ship. They were former outrider soldiers, that were had been recently shot by the Star Sheriffs and turned into humans. They had run away from the Star Sheriffs because they got scared in the panic of the moment, so they had gotten separated from the rest of their pals. Grimace got all of them boarded into the big aircraft.

Grimace took off in a rush. His ship passed through a cloud of space dust among some planets and ventured deeper into the abyss. After a while, a dark planet appeared in front of him. He landed his ship on a small runway and got out.

He pushed all the prisoners out and one of his soldiers directed them into an underground bunker. Grimace went to a different entrance.

"Ugh, no more lights here. I guess Nemisis is saving power now again? This old planet is so much worse than our own."

The Star Sheriffs didn't know about the existence of this planet in the vapor zone. The Outriders were concealing their satellite offices well. Well, chums, I guess Outriders were indeed holding a lot of aces in their sleeves.

He pushed a red button that was glowing in the darkness. An elevator door opened. He went in. The elevator went down a few levels. Then the doors opened again. In front of him was a small chamber, with just a chair and a desk. He lifted the chair and moved the desk, then leaned over and pressed on the floor with his palm. A fingerprint scanner activated.

Suddenly, the wall behind him moved. A dark corridor behind the wall.

"Hm... no lights here either. Are we scarce on energy again? I thought Nemisis just processed another therrium boulder. We were supposed to have plenty of energy... I guess I'll have to use my flashlight."

He arrived at the end of the corridor and pushed another red button. More doors opened. He passed through a maze of hallways and rooms, then finally arrived at a control room, overlooking a huge underground manufacturing plant. A massive renegade unit was being worked on. Behind it, an ugly looking cyborg unit was in process of being activated. It was Nemisis's cyborg body, being repaired. They were putting the final touches on the brain part, that had been destroyed by Saber Rider.

Grimace pulled a microphone and started barking into it: "Attention, fleshlings! Speed up the pace! If you don't start pulling your weight, we will have to execute you, one by one! We have fresh new recruits coming in, so we can replace you at any time!"

A few Outriders in brown suits hustled some of the workers and pushed them with their guns.

"And... if you try to revolt again, we'll snap you as toothpicks!" Grimace finished his speech.

Indeed, there were lots of humans inside this big factory. But where did they come from? How where they brought here?

This was the central production center, where Nemisis was building his ugliest renegade units. The last one that the Star Sheriffs encountered, on Alamo moon, had been built here.

"New recruits? Oh my...!" a lady worker whispered, while she was wiping her forehead.

"I wonder where they are coming from..." another man wondered, while he was soldering some metal parts.

"I just hope they don't come from my planet, I don't want more Outrider attacks there. Every time they attacked us, they took more people..."

"Shut up and work, fleshling!" and Outrider interrupted them.

Grimace was content. His new renegade unit was growing under his eyes. He left the room and headed upstairs. On his way back, he met commander Patch. He was directing the new group of humans to another area underground.

G: "Patch, what brings you here?"

P: "I have orders from Nemisis to start working on more therrium."

G: "So we'll have more lights on the hallways after that?"

P: "Is that the dumbest worry your tiny brain can come up with today, Grimace? I have bigger problems, nut-head! Nemisis wants to invade the fleshlings again. We lost Caspar and we can't let them interrogate him, or he will tell them all our secrets. We have to eliminate Caspar as soon as possible, which means I have to produce a lot of fuel to move the renegade unit by tomorrow. Move, filthy humans! It's so disgusting, it makes me puke just thinking that they were playing on our team yesterday and now they're these annoying humans."

G: "Yeah, well, it can happen to us, too, Patch! Better watch out, those Star Sheriffs are nasty."

P: "I know what I'm doing, Grimace, but you'd better watch your butt, coz' I'm not lookin' after you! Oh, and look out for those rebels, we had to put a few under sedation, they were really starting a revolt, we almost lost control over them."


In the Yuma hospital, April was inside Jesse's room, leaning against the door, looking at him, across the room. She wanted to start saying something, but she didn't know where to begin.

He turned around and looked at her.

J: "So it's all true... I'm a traitor and a rattlesnake..."

A: "You are not, Jesse. It's not your fault..."

J: "Who's fault is it, then? Your friends want my head very badly."

A: "I'll talk to them, I'll explain what happened to you and how you came back."

J: "How DID I come back?"

A: "Oh, I thought you remember..."

J: "It's all like a dream, although I remember I was getting some painful serotonin shots from an old guy... How did I get treated in the end?"

A: "What's the most recent thing you remember from your... "dream"?"

J: "I remember we were running away from some spider robots, and then we got out in the open and I took you in my arms and flew away with you."

A: "And then...?"

J: "Then I remember vaguely how we headed towards the wormhole to jump dimensions and then... pffff..." he sighed "I... don't remember anything after that..."

Moment of silence. He was looking down, trying to remember. He raised his eyes and looked at her. His eyebrows were asking for an answer.

April looked at him for a few seconds, then looked away in shyness. She was somehow happy that he didn't remember.

She moved away from the door and took a pen from a table. She started playing with the pen in a nervous gesture. He slowly touched her hand and took her pen away.

J: "What did you do to me, April?"

April started to giggle. "I put a spell on you, hee-hee!"

"Hey, seriously, April, what happened to me there?"

"It's a mystery, Jesse," she laughed.

J: "I'd like to solve this mystery..." and he took her hand and slowly drew a heart on her palm, with the pen.

Butterflies again in her stomach... She raised her eyes up to him: "If you promise you won't tell anyone..."

J: "I won't, I promise!"

A: "Close your eyes."

He closed his eyes. But quickly opened them, in curiosity.

A: "Not playing anymore, I can't trust you."

J: "C'mon, I want to play. I promise I won't open them."

She took her blue scarf that she had around her waist and tied his eyes. She chuckled.

The rest... chums..., we can only imagine ;)


The same evening, at Robin's place.

A big long table, with lots of food and drinks on it. People started coming in.

"Please have a seat!" Robin was inviting everyone. Soon enough, the room was animated. Colt was thrilled to have all his friends around him. Fireball came with his father, mother, Claudia and her father... Saber Rider had Sincia next to him... April was there too, with her father.

After a few bites and a few sips from the glasses of wine, everyone was comfortable and started talking.

"Dad, how did you find us?"

"Fireball, I mapped out a good portion of the underground area on the Outrider planet. There are still parts that I didn't have access to, but I think I got most of it. We traced you by the marks you left all around. I knew where the spider units were being held and we avoided their path."

"Do you think Caspar will help us?" Fireball was wondering.

Hikari nodded in affirmation.

"Yes, I'm convinced he will," Saber Rider added.

Commander Eagle had a question also. It had been bothering his mind for a while, and now he had to ask it:

"Captain Hikari, you were held captive on the outrider planet... But it seems miraculous to me that you survived the planet explosion during our grand battle; How... did you get transferred to the vapor zone? You couldn't have vaporized. Does the suspended animation chamber have some sort of properties that help humans jump dimensions?"

"What do you mean survive the explosion? I wasn't even brought to our dimension during the outrider invasion. When Erkanos freed me from the suspended animation chamber, the planet was still in the vapor zone. The first thing I did was to take a ship and try to run away from the planet. I took a tour of the planetary system, trying to find a way to escape their dimension. I didn't know the coordinates to the vapor trail though, so I figured I might need to come back to the planet and get a hold of the coordinates somehow. But by the time I got there, the planet was gone! It was simply not there anymore!"

"Yeah, that's when Nemisis moved the entire planet here and invaded our dimension!" Fireball exclaimed.

"Exactly," Hikari continued. "So I went in circles for a while, thinking it was my own mistake and that somehow it was just at different coordinates. I ended up landing on a deserted planet somewhere close by. I stayed there for a few days and survived on some food Erkanos gave me. I was really thinking I was going to die. Then suddenly, a big explosion popped in the sky and... the outrider planet was back in the old place. I couldn't believe it, but it did happen. So I went back... and I found a totally different world... Luckily, Erkanos was still there and I actually helped him. His entire house was a mess, upside down... His wife was pretty shaken up... Then I went on my pursuit to find a way out. I spent a few weeks wondering around, mapping the area and trying to figure out the Outriders headquarters. I found all their underground bunkers and that's when I discovered Jesse. He was tied to a metal bed, they were almost to the point of drilling into his skull..."

"Ah!" April gasped.

"Yes," Hikari continued. "That's when I learned about Jesse's story and the virus."

Eagle: "Very, very interesting! So not only you survived all those years in a chamber, but you avoided a major planet explosion, here, in our dimension."

Hikari: "There were several events that helped me survive: Jesse took me out from Nemisis's secret room; then Erkanos pulled me out of the suspended animation chamber; then I left the planet to try to escape... I came back, I found Jesse, he turned against me and brought me to the human dimension and traded me for April..., which, by the way, April... it was the bravest act! I am grateful and ... I owe you big time!"

"Absolutely no worries! I am happy it all ended very well for all of us!" April replied.

"Dad, how did you survive 16 years ago when you fought Nemisis? Do you remember anything?" Fireball asked.

"I... actually don't remember anything, son... I only remember attacking Nemisis and then it all goes dark..."

"I wonder why Nemisis kept you alive there..." Fireball thought out loud.

"Probably as a war trophy. It must have been Nemisis's only pleasure, in such a boring world." Colt commented.

Everyone in the room was pensive. A lot of new and interesting information...

"Fireball, I wanted to ask you for a long time... How do you guys survive, I mean, psychologically, to all this stress and tension?", Claudia's father, Mario Firenza asked.

"We enjoy it, just like I enjoy racing, you understand what I mean..."

"You have to admit the last trip was not a pleasurable one... I honestly thought I was going to cash in." Colt intervened.

"We have to give credit to Jesse here. He arrived there just in time to save me from falling into the lava." Saber Rider said.

"Did he really save you there? I thought you were joking, Top Sword." Fireball replied.

SR: "No, no, it is a fact, Jesse did save me, literally. No joke here," and he sipped a little bit of his wine.

Fireball scratched his head...

April was gazing somewhere in the room.

"What's up with you, April? You've been kinda' quiet this evening." Colt waved his hand in front of her eyes. "Yoo-hoo, day-dreamin'?"

She took a deep breath and looked back at Colt. "Life is complicated, Colt. I guess you treat everything in black and white, but you gotta' admit that Jesse saved us all today. We could have all been history at this hour..."

"I agree," Saber Rider took her side.

"It's true," Commander Eagle admitted too. "Although he did prick me pretty badly" and he lifted his finger, covered in some gauze.

April covered a smile with her hand.

"I still think this drifter has some nasty surprises for us," replied Colt in anger.

"Colt, I thought you were a man of peace! Stop talking like that." Robin cut him off.

"Excuse me, please," April got up and left the room.

"Is she upset on us?" Colt mumbled as she left the room.

She went to the kitchen. She found a chair and sat down holding her head in her palms. This was the weirdest night for her. She had just come from the hospital, where Jesse was still being kept for more investigations. She was already missing him. But now her new friendship was interfering with her old pals. Colt and Fireball were not willing to believe her or anyone else about Jesse being virus-free. And she had a duty to the New Frontier, they had to work together on this.

"Knock-knock! Am I interrupting?" Claudia stuck her head through the door crack.

"Come in," replied April.

Claudia took another chair and sat next to April.

C: "I... just wanted to talk to you, April... I just wanted to make sure there are no hard feelings between us..."

A: "I was mad at you for a while, I have to admit it. But things happen for a reason, sometimes. I really hope that you guys will make a good pair. He deserves a warm caring friend."

C: "Thanks, April. I'm happy that I spoke with you about this. I don't want us to stay mad at each other..."

A: "Talking about that..., can you talk with Fireball about Jesse a little bit? He is really mad at him... and I tried to make him understand... but to no avail..."

C: "I will try..."


After the party was over, Robin was picking up the dishes from the table. Colt was putting them in the dishwasher.

"Colt, please tell me that now the fights will be over. You are all going to be friends now, right?"

"Yeah, I don't know, Robin, me friends with that sidewinder Jesse, I don't think so. I owe him some punches, after all he's done to us."

"But Colt, this is not what you are supposed to do if you wanna' make peace! He saved you, guys! You two should shake hands now and..."

"Yoo-hoo, Robin, you are talking science-fiction to me here! Me shaking hands with that pesky varmint? Never!"

"Ohhh, Colt, stop talking like that. It's not nice."

"He's not nice, Robin, believe me."

"But he WILL be from now on!"

"Alright, he will be, whatever you say Robin!"

She giggled.

("a bit of a black eye won't hurt, though..." Colt thought to himself)


The next morning, April opened her eyes and yawned. Suddenly, she remembered about Jesse. She jumped out of bed and rushed to go to the hospital. Her father was already awake.

Eagle: "Where are you going, April?"

April: "Uh-oh, I wanted to..."

E: "Visit Jesse? He's not at Yuma hospital anymore."

A: "What? Where is he now?"

E: "A top-secret location."

A: "And... I am not allowed to know that location?"

E: "I don't know it either, April. Only the New Frontier generals know where he is. Same goes for Dr Caspar, Glower, Annabelle and all the other former outriders. They were all taken to a top secret place. It is a move that will protect planet Yuma from being attacked."

A: "I see... So we should be ready for some bushwackers?"

E: "Anytime now, April..."


An empty white room with a table and a couple of chairs...

"Please sit down, Mr Blue."

General White Hawk sat in front of Jesse.

W: "Jesse, we reviewed your case. We need to go through an interview with you. Are you ready for that?"

J, smiling: "Ready or not, I guess I don't have a choice, right?"

W: "Let's begin..."

Jesse was still confused. It all seemed unreal. He felt like he was being interrogated for some sins that he only dreamed about. Some of the things he did seemed so far away, in a distant and blurry nightmare. But the questions were all real, and words were falling like cutting swords:

General Wite Hawk: "After capturing Fireball, did you plan to kill him? "

J: "Well, I don't know if I really wanted to... In my dream, I somehow wanted to keep him captive."

WH: "Your dream? It was not a dream, Jesse. Stop saying the word dream."

J: "Sorry, I said that again. It's all unreal for me, believe me..."

WH: "I'm trying to. Go ahead, Jesse. You wanted to keep him captive and..."

J: "...and I even told him: "Now that I got you, I kinda' hate to get rid of you." I wanted to just prove to him that I'm better than he is. If I killed him, what point was I making? He would not be there anymore to understand my point."

WH: "Hm, in your twisted logic, this seemed to make sense." the General replied, thoughtfully. "Alright, thank you for your honest answer. Next question: What would you do now, if Fireball attacked you and tried to kill you?"

J: "He already did try to punch me, heh. I was taken by surprise, but I guess... he has the right to be angry on me."

WH, repeating the question: "I asked what would you do...?"

J: "I'd try to defend myself, of course."

WH: "Would you attack back?"

J: "No, I don't think so... I don't want to cause any more trouble..." then Jesse thought to himself: "What an odd question, are they doing a psychology test on me now?"

A little earbud headphone started speaking into the General's ear: "So far no false answers, sir. The lie detection scanners are not picking up any suspicious neural activity. He is 100% honest.

WH: "Alright Jesse, let's move on to the next topic... What do you know about Nemisis?"

And so it went for hours and hours... Behind the white walls there were lots of people listening, interpreting, reading scanners... An entire battalion of trained professionals, analyzing Jesse from all the angles: blood pressure, heart rate, neural activity, behavior...

After an exhausting session of questions, White Hawk stood up...:

"Alright, Jesse. This was all we wanted to know. Thank you." He turned around and invited Jesse out.

"Wait, General... So..., what happens now?"

"We will let you know soon." General White Hawk replied drily. He didn't want to give Jesse any friendly vibes.

Jesse was escorted out. The General remained inside. After a short break, another team brought in Doctor Caspar. Same procedures... but different questions.

After another long session, doctor Caspar concluded his interview:

"So, as you can see, General..., Nemisis has a lot of secret weapons, hideouts, auxiliary plans and a ton of intelligence. And I know just about everything that he knows. We can defeat him, but I need your protection."

White Hawk, in a very pensive expression: "Rest assured, you are in safe hands with us."

C: "I gave you a lot of information to digest, sir. I see you are very meditative."

WH: "We will take into consideration everything you gave us. Thank you!" and he stood up and shook Caspar's hand in a cold dry attitude.

After many more hours and lots of interviews with all the other newcomers (Glower, Annabelle, etc), General White Hawk scheduled another meeting with all his high rank peers. A room filled with lots of uniforms.

General White Hawk started speaking:

"Gentlemen, we have a tremendous amount of information in our hands now. Something we never had and never dreamed of even existing."

Another person in the room stood up and spoke:

"So, Caspar knows much more than we even imagined. Jesse Blue was kept in the dark about many of Nemisis's locations and plans."

WH: "Yes, that is why Jesse was always assigned at locations in our dimension. They were trying to use him as a leverage to penetrate our dimension, since he is human, and in the same time they were keeping him away from knowing too much about their dimension, in case he would betray them. Smart tactics."

Someone else replied:

"Yes, now the question is, how much can we trust Jesse? Or Doctor Caspar...?"

WH: "Our tests and lie detectors never failed. We found absolutely no evidence of lying in any of our subjects. My proposal to you, gentlemen, is to focus on saving those innocent human lives trapped in the Outrider dimension and reconsider the court martial for later. We have overwhelming scientific evidence that none of them is against us now. What do you say, folks?"

Uproar in the room...

"But sir, the procedure is to go through court-martial first..."

WH: "Procedures are meant to help us. But right now they are delaying us. We have other priorities. Our decisions now will influence our next moves. This is like a chess game. Nemisis knows that we know about him and we have to be a step ahead of him now!"


On Yuma.

April's phone started ringing.

"Yes, sir! We're on our way!"

She dialed back to the other Star Sheriffs:

"Guys, we are being paged by General White Hawk! Let's hit the trail!"

The Star Sheriffs took off in Ramrod with full speed. Another day of adventures was coming.


"You Highness King Jarray, Prince Roland, Commander Eagle, Star Sheriffs, honorable members of the Seventh Cavalry..." began his speech General White Hawk. "Today... we had a major breakthrough in uncovering the dark world of Nemisis. "Our new friends here," and he pointed out to the group of former outriders, along with Caspar, "helped us discover the deep secrets behind the vapor trails. My team of scientists can attest that all their statements are honest." Then he turned around and pointed in a different direction. "Same goes for Jesse." The blue-haired former cadet looked around with a calm look.

Great uproar in the room. Colt was rolling his eyes.

"As hard as it is to believe for some of you... yes... Jesse is back with us. Welcome back, Mr. Blue." A pause... then people started applauding. Colt folded his arms on his chest.

"And a warm welcome to the new members of the human race!" More applause.

He continued: "In the light of our news and scientific evidence, I am officially pardoning Jesse Blue."

The room was in tumult. Some people were applauding, but some looked in dismay. Colt wanted to leave the room. Fireball was stunned; he looked at April. She looked back at Fireball and tried to smile. Instead, she closed her eyes and sighed.

White Hawk continued:

"We now understand that his behavior was due to this virus. Jesse, I am putting you in charge of division 10, which is comprised of the 30 new people we just welcomed: Glower will be your second in command. Thank you. I will let Commander Eagle speak now."

"I am flabbergasted! Flabbergasted!" Colt mumbled and wanted to leave the room. Saber Rider pulled his arm and whispered to him: "Everyone is watching us, Colt. Don't be the bad example." Colt looked at him in anger, but then he gave up and stayed. He was fidgeting.

Eagle turned towards Erkanos and his wife, who were also invited at the conference.

"Dear friends, I would like to take a moment and remind every one of us that these two people right here are a true proof that our two worlds can come together in harmony! They are the ones who unlocked the secret to treating Jesse's virus, and, to my pride, I can officially announce that they invented the vaccine that can protect all of us, healthy humans and outriders, against the evil virus. Doctor Guerino will work closely with them to help starting a mass production of the vaccine."

Everyone was cheering. Eagle continued:

"I have learned, speaking with my friend Erkanos, that we humans, and the outriders, have a common ancestry, from a group of space travelers that were split apart by an unfortunate space storm. We don't know where our ancestors came from, but we know our two civilizations can truly be friends again."

Suddenly, his speech was interrupted. One of the screens in the room lit up. The ugly face of Nemisis popped on it.

"Well well, old friends... I see captain Hikari is there too... I hope you liked your stay on my planet, for 16 years..." the deep voice resonated in the room. "Well well, Jesse, you seem to be comfortable around your old friends! Where's that smirk on your face now, you lost it?"

"What do you want, Nemisis?" asked Eagle, drily.

"You see, commander..., you have something that I want... and by now you probably already know I have something, or I should rather say... someone... you want."

Eagle gasped. He knew what Nemisis was going to utter...

"Yes, commander, you know exactly what I am talking about. I want back my soldiers and my doctor. In return, I can give you some humans... They might be someone's parents in your crowd there... who knows..."

Colt jumped out of his skin. People captive in the outrider dimension? Parents?

Nemisis continued: "Think about it... Otherwise the poor humans will have to die. And... don't sit on it for too long, because my renegade units are knocking at Yuma's doors already!"

The screen went off. The people in the room were in great distress. King Jarray threw a fist on his table and mumbled: "When is this going to be over?..."

Tough decisions for the big leaders.

General White Hawk stood up and started talking:

"We have to reconsider our plans. In my office, in 5 minutes, all commanders and generals."


As the big meeting was taking place, all the other people waited in the conference room. Jesse looked at Glower:

"Are you ready to fight Nemisis, amigo?"

"Yes, sir, at your orders."

"Good. Let the fun begin."

Then Jesse walked out of the room to get some fresh air. The pressure and emotions had been tremendous for him that day. He kept thinking about what Eagle said: "humans and outriders have a common ancestor, from a distant unknown planet". His parents used to tell him that, when he was little. They had been space archaeologists, and they had discovered some artifacts leading to some thrilling evidence. Behind him, on the hallway, he heard some footsteps. He stopped and turned around. Colt was following him.

"Hey, Colt, what's up?"

"This is what's up!" and Colt threw a fist at him.

Jesse fell on the floor. Colt lifted him by his collar and pushed him against the wall.

"You make a wrong move and you're finished. Understand? I'm watching you. If you use Glower and his team for your fancy tricks, you're done."

Then Colt pulled him around and threw him in the opposite direction. Someone else was standing there: Fireball.

Jesse landed right into his fist...

"Yeah, bud! Take this from me, too! You deserve it!"

J: "Fireball, Colt, we can talk about this, guys! Why... Argh!" Colt just kicked him in his stomach.

F: "Talk about what? You charmed April away and you want me to talk to you?"

J: "I... ugh! Stop it, Colt!" Jesse couldn't take their hits anymore, he had to do something. So he started using his karate defense moves.

C: "Aaah, now we're talking! Here's the REAL Jesse! Let's see how nasty you can get!"

Both Fireball and Colt were throwing punches at him, while Jesse was dodging their moves.

J: "Stop it, dudes, I mean it! I said STOP!" and he suddenly used his karate throwing technique to put his opponents down in the same time. Colt and Fireball landed on their backs a few feet away from him.

Fireball lifted himself up sighing... "I'll stop when you'll admit all your miserable wrongdoings and apologize to me."

To Fireball's total surprise, Jesse started saying:

"I'm sorry guys! I REALLY AM SORRY! I didn't want to cause all the trouble. I was not myself! I apologize to you and to Colt and to everyone else! I want to fix things, give me a chance to prove it!"

Fireball was looking at him with a stunned face. Colt mumbled:

"Turncoat! You were glowing like a neon when April brought you back. Humans don't do that! You're still one of them!"

J: "I'm not an outrider, Colt!"

"I only believe it when I see it! I wasn't there to see what happened and April won't tell us anything, so I don't believe it!" Colt yelled.

Suddenly, footsteps approaching... April walked slowly towards them: "I kissed him... Colt, that's what happened. A kiss made his virus go away, and if you don't believe it, ask doctor Guerino for a more scientific explanation of that glow."

All three of them turned around in astonishment.

Colt was scratching his head: "Like a Princess kissing..."

"A frog, yes..." she giggled. Then she continued: "I... have been in love with him since we first met... But then he scared me away with his evil ways. I'm sorry, Fireball, I didn't want to hurt your feelings, that's why I kept avoiding to tell you..."

F: "I knew it! You used to whisper his name in your sleep, we never told you that."

J: "What? Wait a minute, you did love me all this time?"

She blushed.

Colt, laughing: "Yeah, I heard you too, April, one night when we were stationed on planet Durango."

J: "Can I hear that some time, too?"

She stood there, abashed at the situation. She didn't know where to put herself.

J, laughing: "Don't worry, April, I'm here, no more sighs in your sleep!" and he hugged her. "So, guys, what do you say if we shake hands?" and he turned towards Colt and Fireball.

Colt pushed his hat on his face, in his typical cowboy move: "Well, what the heck... You couldn't have convinced me with a better explanation, April! You know I have a weak spot for romance stories... Welcome back, hot shot!" and he shook Jesse's hand.

Fireball was still a little jealous. Jesse sensed it.

"We can talk about this, Fireball..."

"Oh man, I hate syrupy discussions!" Fireball replied with a decided tone. "Let's shake on it and move on with our lives!" and he shook Jesse's hand. But then he suddenly rushed a fist towards Jesse's stomach. Jesse jumped back.

"Ha, ha! Tricked ya'! Just kidding!"

"Ahem.. chums..." Saber Rider was leaning against a wall, looking at them. Behind him, the crowd from the conference room was staring at them with large smiles.

"What is going on here?" the voice of General White Hawk came through.

Everyone rushed back into the conference room, like school children caught by their teacher.

The General started talking: "While Commander Eagle will explain the tactics to all of you, I would like to have the Star Sheriffs from all the sectors come with me. And you, Jesse, please."

There were four teams of Star Sheriffs, covering all cardinal points of the New Frontier. They all followed General White Hawk. Jesse was walking in line with them. They arrived at a big hangar for space ships. The doors slowly opened in front of them.

"Whaaat?" a big gasp from everyone's mouths.

"But we just dismantled Ramrod 1! I thought we only played at Ramrod 2 now!" Colt exclaimed.

"There is more than that, Colt", the General pushed some buttons on a panel. Some doors started retracting. More mechas were exposed.

"Wooow!" everyone exclaimed.

"These are our new toys, and each team has one assigned. April re-designed Ramrod 1 and we rebuilt the turbo engines. We simplified it's flight dynamics, so only one person can pilot and handle it in case of emergency. Well, Jesse, after you turned it to scrap, it's time for you to turn back the dial and fix things to the better. What do you say?"

J: "Ready, sir!"

WH: "Good. Your team of 30 fighters will assist you in our turbo-jets. Treat your subordinates gently, they only have one life now. All Star Sheriffs, ready?"

Everyone, saluting: "Ready, sir!"


Will Nemisis manage to succeed in his evil plan? Follow us in our grand adventure of the next episode of Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs!