Chapter 11

"Let's go to the Cargo Bay and see what's in that capsule Keyop!" said Mark. He put a hand on Keyop's shoulder to lead him to the exit. But just as they turned to leave the Bridge Chief Anderson's image came across the viewscreen.

"G-Force! Come in G-Force!" he called.

Mark and Keyop spun around just as the door opened.

"G-1 here!" Mark responded. "What is it Chief?"

"Depart for Earth immediately!" Anderson ordered. "We have a problem!"

"What kind of problem?" asked Mark as he stepped back to the front of the Bridge. But the Chief's image had already faded.

"Tiny, return to Earth as quickly as possible!" instructed Mark. "Keyop and I will be in the Cargo Bay."

"Roger!" replied the Owl.

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"Brrrt… doop… messy!" exclaimed Keyop.

Mark agreed. Maybe it hadn't been such a bright idea to open the garbage container inside the Phoenix. Mounds of foul-smelling trash had splattered across the Cargo Bay (not to mention their bird wings) when the lock had been broken due to the capsule's pressurization process.

"Stand still Commander." came Susan's voice from the communicator wall panel. A fine mist blanketed the room, freshening the air and cleaning the muck from Mark and Keyop's uniforms.

"Susan, can you locate the source of the homing signal?" asked Mark. "It would help if we didn't have to search through this by hand."

It was obvious that neither Princess nor Jason were inside the capsule. Or at least, Mark hoped they weren't, because nothing inside was of the size or consistency of a human body.

"I have located the signal Commander." reported Susan. A small spotlight lit up on the ceiling of the Cargo Bay and shone on one of the many piles of filth.

"Let's start digging Keyop." sighed Mark.

After rummaging around in the muck for about thirty seconds Mark grasped something solid. He pulled it out.

"Aaah!" Keyop's cry of distress echoed what Mark was feeling in his heart.

It was a pair of striped pants. Mark knew them almost as well as his own. Keyop began to frantically search the area and yanked on something. A t-shirt popped out of the mess. Even with the filth covering it Mark could still make out the giant number 2 on its front.

"Brrrt... Princess… Jason… not… in there?" asked Keyop hopefully.

Mark was afraid of the same thing himself. Had Princess and Jason met an untimely end, only to have their bodies thrown out with the trash? Not trusting himself to look at Keyop, he continued to dig through the pile. He ignored the tear that rolled down his cheek and splashed onto his wings.

A few minutes later they had managed to find all the pieces of both the G-2 and G-3 civilian uniforms… including their communicator bracelets. Princess' bracelet was emitting the homing signal.

Keyop was crying openly now. Mark was unable to comfort him as he was struggling to keep his own emotions in check. He gasped for breath as he felt a choking feeling around his throat.

"Commander." Susan's voice came out of the silence and startled the two grieving young men.

"Not now Susan!" barked Mark.

"But Commander," persisted Susan, "I have some information for you."

"What… is… it?" Mark growled through clenched teeth. Keyop's sobs continued to rent the air.

"I have analyzed the materials from the capsule." reported Susan, "Other than minute amounts from their clothing, there are no significant amounts of human DNA, much less that matching Jason and Princess' medical records."

It took Mark a couple of seconds to process what Susan was saying. "You mean… Jason and Princess aren't in there?"

"No, Commander." confirmed Susan. "Just their clothing."

"Brrrt… love you Susan!" cried Keyop. He began to kiss the wall panel from which her voice was emitting. It wasn't easy with his Bird Helmet getting in the way.

"Now Keyop…" protested Susan, "You know I'm already involved with Zark!"

An oblivious Keyop continued to express his affection for the Cargo Bay wall.

Mark's mind was already leaping ahead to the next implication of their discovery. What were Jason and Princess doing somewhere out in the universe without their uniforms?

Just as he was starting to develop this train of thought Tiny's voice came over his bracelet.

"Approaching Earth Commander." he reported.

Mark and Keyop ran back to the Bridge of the Phoenix.

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Less than half an hour later they were participating in a conference with Chief Anderson, President Kane and various military advisors. 7-Zark-7 was monitoring the conference from his post at Center Neptune. And Susan… well who knew where Susan was?

"This problem is rapidly getting out of control." grumbled the President.

"What exactly is this problem?" asked Mark, "We never received a full briefing."

"Bunnies." said Chief Anderson.

"Bunnies?" repeated the three G-Force members.

"Yes." confirmed Anderson. "Killer bunnies."

Mark shook his head. Now he knew he was having a bad dream. The kind that usually occurred after he had eaten one too many Planetary Pudding Cakes.

"Doot… Where?" asked Keyop. "Where did they… brrrt… come from?"

"Shortly after the Spectra vessel departed Earth we detected a small pod entering the lower atmosphere." explained President Kane. "The landing site of the pod matches exactly with the first sightings of bunny activity."

"Uh…. how can bunnies kill?" interrupted Tiny. "I thought they didn't have any natural weapons?"

"Normally they don't." responded the Chief, "But these bunnies have razor sharp fangs. anyone who is so much as scratched by their teeth dies within minutes."

"Brrrt… poison?" asked Keyop.

Anderson nodded. "From what we can tell, an extremely virulent kind. We do not have an antidote or vaccine for it."

"How many people have fallen victim to these… bunnies… so far?" Mark asked.

Zark's voice came out of a viewscreen on the wall. "None, Commander."

"None?! I thought this poison was extremely virulent!" cried Mark.

"No, Commander." replied Zark. "No one has died. No one. Absolutely no deaths."

"Brrrt… what about… doot… bodies?" asked Keyop. The G-Force team had all seen the bodies littering the streets as they had approached the Center City.

"Robots." answered Zark. "All robots."

"You mean the thousands of dead bodies out there on the streets are just robots?" asked Mark incredulously. "What happened to all of the people?"

"Our citizens are all safe in shelters, Commander." Zark explained. "We used Robot Decoys to lure the bunnies away from them."

Mark shook his head. None of this sounded right. He turned to Anderson. Maybe he could get some straight answers out of the Chief.

"So why can't we just shoot them from afar?" asked Mark. "We don't have to get close to them to dispatch them."

"That's what we've been doing!" interrupted a UN general, "But the darn things breed incredibly fast! Like…"

"They're breeding like rabbits?" asked Tiny.

"Yes." replied the general, a sheepish look on his face. "We can't keep up and the killer bunny population is increasing by the hour."

"So we need to find some way to massacre them all at once." mused Mark. "Something that gets them all before they have a chance to breed again."

"Yes, but what could attract them all at once?" wondered Anderson aloud.

"Carrots!" exclaimed Tiny, jumping out of his seat.

Everyone in the room turned to look at the Owl.

"Forget it…" mumbled Tiny. He tried to sink as far into his seat as his bulk would allow.

"Not at all Tiny." replied Anderson. "The bunnies seem to be eating at an incredible rate, likely because of their rapid breeding process."

Tiny was encouraged by the Chief's positive response. Usually his ideas were dismissed out of hand.

"Well, maybe we could play with poisons too. Or explosives. Something to destroy every bunny on the planet!" Tiny exclaimed.

Keyop grinned. Trust Tiny to come up with a solution that involved food.