CHAPTER FOUR: Let the Show Begin…
Bonnie lay on her back in the midst of a mossy forest surrounded by enormous pines. The sky was a light gray as a gentle rain softly trickled onto her body. She smiled and shut her eyes as her body was enveloped in her very own paradise. She could stay there forever.
No longer would any hardships weigh on her mind. No war, no Venomoids. Not even the fate of her planet.
She rolled over onto her side; her deep ruby red eyes opened to gaze lovingly over at a pale purple iris that stuck up out of the ground beside her head. Just as she reached out to touch it, a deafening roar of thunder shattered her picture-perfect haven. The skies grew as black as night, and her gentle rain transformed into a ferocious downpour. Thunder roared again, and the earth shook beneath her.
Bonnie stood up, enveloped in a sea of despair.
She could hear a faint cry in the distance:
Someone was calling out to her—calling for help.
Another crash of thunder sent her skittering across the forest.
"Where are you?" She cried back.
I'm here! I'm here! Please!
Bonnie dashed through the trees, following the voice.
Don't leave me! The voice cried again. You're my only hope.
Bonnie whirled around, her eyes darting about frantically. "Who are you? Where are you?"
You already know the answer to that. The voice grew weaker by the second. Please…before it's too late…
She ducked as a bolt of lightning split a nearby tree in half. "Where! I can't see you!"You're my only hope… The voice repeated again.
Then it was gone.
The earth opened, devouring her into its dark and mysterious depths……………
Bonnie's eyes shot open and looked around. Her room was shaking; the glass to her window was gone.
"Wh-what's going on?!" She asked, falling out of bed as another rumble shook the Command Center. The adrenaline brought her to her feet; she barreled out of the room and stumbled down the halls clumsily.
Another rumble.
She swore she smelled smoke looming in the air.
"There you are, Lass! Come on, it's not safe here!" Mac exclaimed, breathless.
In one quick motion he scooped her up into his arms and ran her down to the underground Intensive Care Unit, where Maggie, Tina, and Aki all stood. Blade was sitting on the floor in one corner, his face a blank slate.
"What's going on?!" Bonnie exclaimed as she looked about the room, bewildered.
"Somehow Saber and his crew found our location! And now he's attacking us like there's no tomorrow. He wants Blade to come out and fight him…" Tina answered.
Bonnie's eyes fell out of her head. "They'll kill him!"
Mac put her down and went back upstairs to accompany Jamison in the Command Room.
"We know." Maggie sighed sadly.
Blade said nothing; he hadn't the heart to fight. A hundred people could keep track of his time limit, it seemed, and he'd still lose it.
…He had been so careful…
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Vitani's eyes opened slowly at the sound of her door swinging open.
"?" She asked, narrowing her eyes from the sudden light.
"Vitani, get up!"
She grunted as she was pulled to her feet. "Marlow? What…what's going on…?"
Marlow yanked her towards the door. "Come on, you have to get out of here…"
She pulled away and rubbed her eyes. "So, the sentence has finally been decided, huh. So…what is it? Lethal injection? The chair? Or a firing squad?"
Marlow kept pulling. "It's not funny, 'Tani. General Gault's going to launch the Ultron Bomb…somebody has to stop him… Everything is going haywire right now—perfect time to escape."
She frowned, as now her eyes had adjusted to the light. "It is the death penalty, isn't it."
"…" He squeezed her wrist.
"Let me guess. He's going to hit the Space Ring—I was wondering when he was going to do that—and that somebody that's going to stop him is you, right?"
He nodded, his eyes fixed on the path ahead. "That's why you have to get out of here."
Vitani pulled out of his death hold and folded her arms across her chest. "No way. You're not going to send me away to someplace safe while you go and get yourself killed."
He glared at her. "I'm not going to sit around and watch you get slaughtered."
She threw her hands in the air. "What, you want to take my place? If you go and argue with the General, he'll shoot you down on the spot—you know that."
"Do you have any idea what would happen if the Space Ring was hit with a weapon of that magnitude?" He asked.
She scratched her head. "It would vaporize?"
He threw his hands in the air. "No, stupid. It would break apart—"
Vitani stared down his hazel eyes coldly. "—and then the pieces would fall to earth and cause mass destruction. Okay. But so what?"
"Come on, you're wasting time!" He reached out to grab her, but she maneuvered out of the way.
"No Marlow! You can't die and leave me here; I won't let you. Tell you what—I'm already sentenced to death, so I'll go stop the General. Get out of here and save yourself."
"And how are you going to do that?" He countered.
She thought about it for a moment. "I'd…well? How were YOU going to stop him?"
He shrugged. "I haven't figured it all out yet."
She nodded again. "That's what I thought. You're just going out on a suicide mission. When did he start the sequence?"
"Ten minutes ago."
She sighed. "Well…we have twenty minutes left, so…" A light bulb suddenly clicked on in her head. "I'd bet I could hack into the system and stop the launch."
He thought about it.
She snatched his arm and dashed down the hallway. "I might as well go down doing something right for once. If you just went off by yourself to stop him, you'd just get killed, the Space Ring would go, and I'd just be left to face the aftermath…and what kind of life to live is that? Think about it."
His head sunk into his shoulders as they ran. She had a point. "I won't let you go it alone, then."
She popped her head around a corner, and looked around. "We'll go out together."
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"Heads up. That mad man Gault's brought the Ultron Bomb online." Mac said as he poked his head into the Space Knights' makeshift shelter.
Aki and Bonnie whirled around.
"You can't be serious!" Bonnie breathed.
Mac shook his head. "Wait twenty minutes and then you'll see how serious I am."
Tina clenched her fists. "There has to be a way to stop him!"
Commander Jamison came into the room then. "I believe Tekkaman Blade can be able to do it."
A low hiss escaped Blade's lungs as his head sunk into his chest. "Why bother?" He wondered to himself. "Why bother going out there to save them, when I'm just gonna make the situation worse?"
"But Sir," Aki began as she looked at Jamison with pleading eyes. "If we send Blade out there, Saber and the others will be waiting for him!"
"We must move quickly and quietly." He answered.
"They'll be watching every possible way out!"
"Every ventilation shaft, you think?" Commander Jamison asked.
She blinked in reply. "I completely forgot about those."
"There's one two kilometers to the East." He added.
"But will he be able to get away without being seen…" She wondered.
"With a little luck, maybe so." The Commander answered.
"What we need is a diversion. If I can distract those clowns long enough with the Blue Earth, that might do it." Ringo spoke up suddenly from the corner of the room. He'd been against the wall the whole time, silent. It appeared as though he was concentrating on something.
"But Ringo…" Bonnie started, turning her head to look at him.
"Hey, I'd be happier than a clam if we could come up with some other way to do it, but frankly I can't think of any. Any ideas?" He snapped back in a growl.
Bonnie reared her head back slightly in amazement. Lowering her chin to her chest, she said nothing. For the passed week he'd been anything but pleasant to her; that is, if he couldn't avoid her first. And she still couldn't figure out why.
"Maggie, would it be possible to augment the Teknobot's speed with an auxiliary booster?" CJ (Commander Jamison) asked.
"Mm-hmm. I don't see why not." She said with a reassuring nod.
"Sure thing. We can give Pegas enough horsepower to reach the Ultron Bomb launching site with time to spare!" Mac added enthusiastically.
"Well then, it's up to you, Blade." CJ turned to look at the melancholy man on the floor.
"You're our only hope." Aki breathed.
"I can't." Blade replied.
"You have no choice!" she argued.
"I almost killed you. Again…"
"If you don't go, we're all going to die! Can you really just sit on your hands and watch?"
How many times has he had this talk with Aki? Every time she made him feel better, he just screwed everything back up in the end…
"You have to try," Maggie insisted softly. "Try, and that'll be all that matters."
"No one can blame you after that." Aki pressed on.
With some reluctance, he left the room to get ready.
Bonnie lifted her eyes and glanced meekly at the man still leaned against the wall with his arms crossed against his chest. "You'd…best get ready yourself…"
His cold eyes opened and he glared at her frigidly in return.
She cast her gaze back to the floor.
Soon the only ones left in the room were Aki and Bonnie. They sat together in silence, waiting on the impending doom.
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"Did you get all that?"
Tekkaman Saber chuckled at the voice in his head. "Well done. So, the little Space Knights think they can outsmart me, eh? Well, we'll just see about that." He answered. He snickered and readied his lance.
"You can't escape me, Brother…your time has come…"
Ringo entered the cockpit of the Blue Earth and plopped down into the pilot's seat. He looked around and sighed. This was probably the last time he'd ever fly the thing. Flying a ship was below him now.
He didn't need it. Besides—there was too much sentimental attachment to the Blue Earth. He was a different person now… As soon as Blade was out of the way, he would blow this Popsicle stand.
A vicious grin worked its way onto his face. And then his former comrades would face violent deaths at his hands. Especially the short one. Hers was to be the most creative of all. A shudder traveled down his spine as he contemplated just how she should die.
"Ringo? Ringo. HEY! RINGO!" Tina's voice jolted him out of his bloodthirsty thoughts.
"It's about time. Listen. The Teknobot's coming out in thirty seconds, so it's time to make a commotion."
He nodded slightly in jest. "Right. One big commotion coming right up." With that he closed the communications channel and fired up the engines.
Commander Jamison, Tina, Mac and Maggie watched with hope as the Blue Earth ran along the launch ramp.
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The four Tekkamen turned their heads and flashed their eyes at the ship.
"The coward! He's getting away!" Tekkaman Axe growled.
Saber held his arm out. "You're being fooled."
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Tina knit her brows together in confusion as the Tekkamen let the Blue Earth fly over their heads. "Commander…what are they doing…?"
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Saber tightened his grip on his lance, and flashed his eyes as he caught sight of his brother soaring off in the opposite direction. "THERE YOU ARE, BROTHER!" He growled happily as he followed in pursuit.
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Maggie brought her hands to her head. "They didn't buy it!"
Tina pointed a finger. "Look! One of them's just taken down the Blue Earth!" She opened up another channel to the Blue Earth. "This is Space Knights Command Center to Blue Earth…Ringo, are you okay?"
Ringo shook his head briskly as he tried to get the kink out of his neck. "Oh sure. I'm fine."
They all sighed relief.
"How's Blade doing?" He asked with a ferocious spark in his eyes. Somehow, no one seemed to notice.
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"Hello, Brother. Thought you could escape, could you?" Saber asked. He pounced Blade, knocking him off Pegas. "I'm afraid we still have some unfinished business to take care of."
Blade flashed his eyes once. "I don't have time for you, Saber." He turned to get back on Pegas.
Saber hurled his weapon straight through it. "What's the rush?" He asked in an angry voice.
Blade ducked an axe swing to his head, and maneuvered passed another lance.
Pegas sparked a few times and shut off.
Now there was no way to get to the launch site in time. At least he had to try.
Blade flew off, only to be intercepted by his persistent brother.
"You're not going anywhere!"
And so the battle began.
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Tina began to type furiously as she tried to contact Blade. Did he make it? Or did the enemy Tekkamen find him? Her monitor flickered and a pair of tired, stonewashed blue eyes faded into screen.
"Did…did I get it?" A woman's voice asked.
Tina stared in amazement—she knew that voice. "Vitani!"
The eyes blinked once.
Vitani pulled away from the screen to reveal her face. "Huh? Tina? Oh no, that's not right…"
"What are you doing?"
Vitani looked at the Commander. "Commander Jamison! I didn't mean to contact you…but now that I'm here I must warn you…"
"General Gault is launching the Ultron Bomb! Tell us something we don't know!" Maggie exclaimed.
Vitani's eyes widened. "You knew? Well, then. That's good, I think. I don't have much time left, so I'd better go…"
"What do you mean?" Maggie insisted.
Vitani smiled. "Why, what else? To do my job, of course. Godspeed, people. Wish me luck." And then she disappeared.
"Commander? What was that all about?" Tina asked as she turned around in her chair.
"Wait a minute…she's a hacker, right?" Maggie began.
"Of course! The lass is trying to hack into the computers to stop the launching sequence!" Mac exclaimed.
CJ shut his eyes. "Let's hope she can do it."
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"How are we doing time-wise?" Vitani asked as her fingers flew across the keyboard at lightning speed.
"You've only got ten more minutes…" Marlow replied.
They'd found a simple computer built into the wall down the hall, and Vitani was giving it her best to try and get into the system.
"Dammit, man! This is hard…so far everything I've thrown at it has been ignored."
Marlow kept watch. "Keep trying." He answered. "I know you can do it."
Vitani wiped away the perspiration from her brow and kept working. "I've never seen so many levels of security on this thing…hell, getting into the Space Knights' computers is a piece of cake compared to this…" She sighed.
She wiped her forehead again and tried to calm her heart pounding in her chest. "You can do this, 'Tani. You can do this…it's just like any other day. You have to do it…" Her heart skipped as she got through the first level of the firewall. Typing faster, she managed to get through the second. And then the third.
"How we doin'?" She asked, swallowing hard.
"Seven minutes…"
A wrong command sent her right back to the start. "SHIT!" She cursed.
Marlow glanced over his shoulder. Never in his life had he ever seen someone type so fast.
She entered commands vehemently. The words, "LEVEL ONE SECURITY BREACH//OK!" came onto the screen.
She typed some more. "LEVEL TWO SECURITY BREACH//OK!"
Third level.
And then she got through the fourth.
Then the fifth.
And the sixth.
"Time!" She called, her voice shaken with anxiety.
"Five minutes."
"Okay…one more level to go…" She gasped. Her fingers ached but she couldn't afford the luxury to give into pain at the moment.
"LEVEL SEVEN SECURITY BREACH… … … …
OK! PLEASE ENTER COMMAND FOR LAUNCH SEQUENCE 579"
Vitani threw her fist into the air. "YES!" Cracking her wrists, she began again. The code to end, and then scramble the launch sequence was a long and tricky one—every computer that handled such things was different. She'd only done a few of these scrambles in her life—and they were all just simulations…
"Come on, Tani. Three minutes."
"I've got it, I've got it…" She hit the enter key.
"… … …PLEASE ENTER AUTHORIZATION NAME AND NUMBER." The screen said.
"Fucking piece of shit…" She entered the code to bypass it.
"INVALID NAME AND NUMBER…THIS PROGRAM WILL NOW TERMINATE."
"Two minutes."
Vitani swore through clenched teeth as she repeated the entire process.
"PLEASE ENTER AUTHORIZATION NAME AND NUMBER…"
"In the final sixty seconds the sequence can't be stopped—any attempts to do so will result in the self-destruction of the base…hurry…" Marlow breathed.
Vitani hit her temples with the heels of her hands. "It's all or nothing, baby. Here goes…" She put in her derogatory name from the general and her ID number. It was a little silly and conceited, but who knew? It could happen—she was out of ideas at this point.
"…STREET RAT…#675343666890001"
The screen went blank for a second, and then the green letters reappeared. "NAME AND NUMBER VERIFIED. OK TO CONTINUE? Y/N"
"I did it! I did it!"
Just as she lowered her finger to hit the Y key, the click of a gun halted her. She felt cold steel pressed against her temple.
"Touch that keyboard again, an I'll blow your brains out of your head and paint the walls with 'em." A voice growled.
Shakily, she looked up and saw one of Marlow's former lackeys standing beside her. He had wild red hair and greenish yellow eyes. He was still in his lab coat.
He glanced over at Marlow. "That goes the same to you, bitch. One step closer and I'll pull the trigger."
"Why are you doing this?" Vitani asked.
"Because I want to see the Venomoids all destroyed just as much as everyone else!"
"You're a moron. Darkon's base is located on the far side of the moon. The Space Ring is just a Venomoid outpost."
The lower ranking scientist scoffed. "Of course you'd say that—you're in league with those crazy Space Knights!" He gestured towards the ceiling with his weapon. "Get up!"
Vitani did as she was instructed. It was too late now, anyway. That slight delay was all it took for her to fail.
Vitani grunted as she was literally thrown back into her jail cell; at least she had company this time.
"After this is all over, I'm going to laugh my ass off as you two are fried for insubordination. See ya." With that the door slammed shut and the two were shrouded in darkness.
"Well, we tried." She sighed.
Marlow sat up and dusted himself off. "We were so close…"
She sat up as well, and leaned her back against the wall with her knees tucked against her chest. "Do you think trying to do what was right counts for anything?" She asked.
"I don't know. I'd like to think so anyway."
The earth shook violently as the launch began.
Vitani shut her eyes. "I can't believe this is happening…" She said over the loud, rumbling caused by the engines firing up. The bomb was so massive—it would take a few minutes just to get up off the ground.
"Do you think a piece of the ring will hit the base?" She asked, turning her head towards the place where she heard him last.
"That's a good question." He answered.
Vitani swallowed hard. For the first time in a long time, she was scared for her own life. Now that death was certain, she cowered before its presence. She thought she could laugh in the face of death…
Her ears split as the intense bass rumbling shook throughout her entire being. It was almost like standing next to an enormous subwoofer. Falling to her knees, she felt around for her friend in the pitch dark. If she was going to die, at least she didn't want to feel as if she were alone.
The rumbling slowly grew softer and softer as it rose higher into the sky. Soon, it was gone. Vitani and Marlow butted heads somewhere in the middle.
"Ouch." She muttered, sitting up once more. She rubbed her head, and asked, "It will take at least ten minutes, won't it? You know, before it….hits…?"
"At least." He replied.
With her back against the wall once again, she leaned to her left and rested her head on his shoulder.
"I'm kinda scared…" He heard her murmur over the horrible ringing in his ears.
He let his head fall against hers and hooked a comforting arm around her shoulders. "So am I."
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Blade fought furiously with his brother. A brightly shining star in the distance caught his eye. Coming to the realization that it was bright fire burning from the bomb, he paused in shock.
He was too late…
That mere second of Blade's loss of concentration was all Saber needed to plunge his lance deep into his brother's chest.
Blade's ribcage split with a loud crack; he howled in agony as the sharp weapon grazed passed his spinal column and erupted from his shoulder.
"The game's over, Brother…you lose."
Blade shallowly gasped for air, trying to fight the imminent collapse of his lungs.
Swinging his arm out to the side, Blade flew off Saber's weapon, and was flattened against a canyon wall.
Once on the ground, each of the four Tekkamen took turns stabbing their items of attack into his tattered and bloody body.
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A shockwave shot throughout the telepathic links all Tekkamen shared.
Andrea's eyes widened as she sat in the underground shelter with the rest of the remaining Space Knights.
Bonnie clenched her head and fell to her knees, wondering what had brought on this sudden headache.
Ringo was in another corner, bandaged and alone. He squeezed his eyes shut from the sudden pain as well.
"Something's happened!" Andrea exclaimed. Quickly she opened a channel to the Commander, who was still in the Command room upstairs. "Commander—"
CJ shook his head sadly.
She gasped. "Blade is…"
He nodded, and silently relayed to her the images one of the security cameras had caught. "Don't say anything about it yet." CJ commanded.
Andrea solemnly nodded, and left to crouch in a corner so she could cry unnoticed.
Saber didn't buy into that diversion—she knew that. And she could have helped fend the Tekkamen off while Blade went to stop the launch…but because of her current health condition, she was forbidden to leave the base. She wept softly into her knees, and prayed that her intuition was wrong, that Blade had somehow survived…
"Blade is no more…he's finished. Victory is ours!" Saber sneered into her mind. "And now your pathetic planet will be cleansed of you silly humans."
"No…" Andrea murmured. "No, no, no…"
Bonnie ambled over to her best friend and collapsed to her knees beside her. "Andy! What's wrong!?"
Andrea sat up, with tears streaming down her face. She collapsed into Bonnie's arms, and cried into her shoulder, trying to drown the evil laughter in her head.
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The sky was streaked with a band of horrific light,
It widened until it all was an intense pure white.
The Earth trembled in fear
Whilst the destiny of mankind was made clear.
All anyone could do was watch and wait
As enormous meteors struck down
Down from Heaven's Gate…
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A/N: I got rid of Shara in this version, because I didn't feel like explaining her presence—she's such a minor character here, I didn't think it was worth it. So, instead, Blade sings his emo song about transforming. He seems to do that a lot, ne?