ecto1B: The next installment in the amazing "Blend" series is here!
Cast: (all cheer)
Ahsoka: Is this chapter as good as the last one?
Silver: Let's 'ope it 'tis.
B.E.N.: Last chapter? Was I in that one?
Charity: (grumbles about B.E.N.'s annoying-ness)
B.E.N.: Jimmy! I overheard Atlas and ecto1B chatting about something funny happening to you in this chapter! What do you think it is?
Jim: (turns white) o.O
Atlas: (slaps B.E.N.) NO! You're not supposed to tell him! Now he's scared!
Silver: Aye, lassie.
Atlas: Eye? What eye?
Rex: Hey ecto1B! This is the THIRD story you've shoved me in this week! When can I get a break? (pouts)
ecto1B: Well, you and Arra went out for McDonalds after "Viewpoint of a Turncoat." I think that's enough.
Anakin: Aww, you went to McDonalds? And you didn't get me anything?!?!
Charity: What'd you get, Rex?
Rex: (smiles) A Big Mac. It was very good. (rubs stomach) I can see how people in "America" get so large.
Amelia: Then I'm avoiding all that food. I don't want to get porky.
Atlas: (whispering) Silver has nothing to worry about…
Silver: WHA' YOU SAY, LASSIE?!?!
Charity: (laughing) ecto1B doesn't own Star Wars, Treasure Planet, or any of the song titles she mentions in this chapter. She owns Charity, and her friend "Atlas Hawkins" owns Atlas. Go check her stories out!
ecto1B: We set?
Cody: We're as set as we'll ever be. Get the party started!
Chapter 3
Epic Flying Glomp
Charity had entered a minor state of shock before she could rip the words from the bottom of her constricting trachea.
"You're in my b-basement," she stammered, involuntarily beginning to knead her fingers against the inside Rex's helmet, which was sultry and sweaty on the pad of her thumb. "All of you are."
Obi Wan made an unsuccessful attempt to push Delbert off of him. His large blue eyes became windows into his struggle. "Do you know why, exactly?" he grunted, digging his palms into the concrete floor beneath him. Delbert, stunned, saw Obi Wan and jumped to the side to let the Jedi Master breathe.
Atlas let out another random cry, but this time Charity slapped her shoulder.
"No idea why," she replied sadly after Atlas screeched in pain. "Obviously all of you don't, either." She paused. "Do you?"
"No, we don't know why we be 'ere." Silver massaged his back and sat against the wall, watching the two girls suspiciously with his one normal eye, one robotic eye. "A'tall."
"I would think you'd know…" Charity replied honestly. "I mean, fictional characters don't just fall out of nowhere into people's basements on a regular basis." She drew her eyes back and forth to each and every character there, from Commander Cody to Delbert to B.E.N. and to Anakin. The SW characters had managed themselves from underneath the TP characters and now all of them were standing—cramped—in the workshop. "What were you all doing before you came here?"
Each one thought for a moment.
"Well, we were all aboard the Resolute," Obi Wan told her.
"We were leaving Coruscant when it happened," Ahsoka added. "It was out of the blue."
Charity turned her gaze to the TP characters. "And you guys?"
Jim answered quickly. "I was repairing my solar surfer with Silver." He jabbed his thumb to the side at the other three. "They were inside the Inn, eating dinner. Well, B.E.N. was the one serving the dinner—"
As he was speaking, Atlas completely lost it. You could see it in her large hazel eyes that her heart couldn't take it anymore, and then she did the only thing appropriate for the situation.
A super epic flying glomp.
(If you are not familiar with what a glomp is and have been simply skipping over the word in the chapters before, let me explain. A glomp is a term all fangirls use in everyday language to describe the action of "charging at someone, ramming into them only for a hug and practically knocking them over in the process." They're most frequently issued when a fangirl is meeting the voice actor of their fictional crush—I'm speaking mostly about anime fangirls here, but you can consider actors for other animated/non-animated shows if you'd like. There are mainly three types of glomps, but we'll get to that deeper into the story. In this case, Atlas is so overly excited when seeing her fictional crush in the flesh that she's dubbed this a glomp-worthy moment. Go figure. Any more questions: ask the nearest fangirl to demonstrate. Thank you, and enjoy the story. –ecto1B)
Charity watched in horror as her best friend—as if in slow motion—began running at poor, innocently-cowering-in-the-massive-shadow-of-what-is-named-Silver Jim Hawkins, who's eyes widened with panic at the sight of a deranged fangirl rushing towards him. (If you'd like, other fangirls, put yourself in Atlas's position: running straight at Jimmy with your arms spread wide. See how happy you just became? I'm magic! –ecto1B)
The rest of the characters sprung to the edges of the room, leaving Jim isolated and unprotected. He managed to yell out some tangled words of alarm, but his lips would not form the words correctly and it came out like "kjdfajfkhdjdsjjsdhjsd!!!!!" Atlas didn't care; she was running at full speed now and about to hit the target head-on.
Then Jim got up the courage and took a small step to the side, away from Atlas's path. He breathed a sigh of relief and wiped his brow, but it wasn't over yet.
"Atlas, stop!" Charity lunged for her friend, but she tripped over a box of nails and sailed headfirst straight at the opposite concrete wall, unintentionally tossing Rex's helmet back at him. Thankfully, Commander Cody and Delbert caught her before she hit the wall, but they all tumbled to the ground from the catch. And by then it was way too late for Charity to do anything.
In midair, Atlas changed direction and pounced on Jim. Her wild blonde hair whipped around, and Jim let out a terrifying scream. The force of Atlas ramming into him was enough to send them both flying backwards; Atlas landing straight on top. Charity winced at the sight.
"OH MY GOODNESS!" Atlas screeched. "YOU'RE JIM PLEIADES HAWKINS!!!!"
"How does she know his middle name?" Delbert inquired, getting back on his feet and helping Cody and Charity up as well.
"Well…" Charity tuned out Atlas's shouting, Jim's cries of pain and the rest of the characters who were desperately doing their best to yank the adrenalized fangirl off Jim's forearm. Commander Cody and Delbert were the only ones not joining the tug-of-war, and they waited intently for Charity's response. "You guys—all of you—are sorta famous on this planet."
"Famous?" Cody's brow furrowed above his intense hazel-brown eyes, exemplifying just one of the reasons Charity was head-over-heels for him and Rex. She scrutinized the long scar cut deep around his left eye and on his tanned forehead, wondering just what had caused it. Though it stung her heart to see, it truthfully made him more attractive and gave him that edginess all girls prized. That was just her opinion.
"Yes, famous. You Star Wars characters are from an incredible TV show called Star Wars The Clone Wars." She looked at Delbert. "And you, Jim, Amelia, Silver, B.E.N. and Morph—" she took notice of the blubbering pinkish blob floating around Jim's head, whooping as the battle commenced—"are originally from a sadly unsuccessful but amazing Disney movie called Treasure Planet."
Cody tilted his head. "Star Wars?"
Delbert itched his scalp. "Unsuccessful? Our movie?"
Charity shrugged. "Don't ask me why. I was only nine when the movie came out back in 2002. I quite enjoyed it." Then she gestured to Cody. "Andlucky for you, the TV show you're in is super popular and loved by many. So you don't have anything to worry about, really. Well, except for George Lucas killing you off or something…"
Another confused, startled look appeared that sent fangirl shivers running down her spine. "What?!?!"
"Never mind." Charity noticed that Silver, Rex, Ahsoka and Amelia had finally wrangled the fangirl lunatic off of the struggling teenager and were now restraining her by locking her arms into theirs. Charity suppressed a giggle and took notice that Rex was wearing his helmet again. An orange Nerf bullet was stuck to the top portion of the visor… evidently undetected. She smothered another giggle using the palm of her hand, having to look away to not see the utter ridiculousness of the sight. "We have… some other issues to… um… deal with," she gasped. Her cheeks flashed crimson when everyone stared at her. Then Atlas followed her gaze and, still being held back against her whim, burst out into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. As more of them spotted what the two were laughing about, they, too, began to snicker. And soon, everyone was chortling about Rex's helmet—everyone, that is, except for Rex. He glanced around at everyone staring at him, totally dumbfounded.
"What's so funny?" he demanded aggressively, tossing his hands in the air. He turned to Anakin, who had begun holding his sides and sniggering. "Sir, what are you chuckling about?"
It took a few seconds for his general to catch his breath. "Rex, y-your helmet."
Instinctively the clone Captain clutched his head and felt around the sides. "What about it?" he asked frantically.
More explosions of laughter. Even Amelia had broken from her simple smirk. Her shoulders started shaking up and down. Silver cackled merrily, and Morph bubbled out some amused sounds.
Charity suddenly felt obligated to stop the harsh teasing on her fictional crush. She couldn't take it any longer; the guilt was nagging her conscience. She carefully approached the humiliated clone trooper and bit her lip to silence her laughter. He still scoured over the surface of his smudged white helmet with his hands, and when she drew closer, he froze.
"What? This isn't funny." He sounded truly hurt by all the snickering, which made Charity want to go total-maniac-fangirl right then and there. He's got the most gorgeous voice. But she possessed the art of self-control, which many fangirls lacked.
Charity reached up to the front of his helmet; her hands sweating insanely. Her fingers gradually curled around the orange Nerf bullet, then pulled it down off of the Mandalorian Jaig eyes etched on the front of his head. He remained still the entire time, and she had no idea why. Was he studying her from behind the tinted visor?
From behind her, someone began to hum "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion, the love theme from Titanic, and Charity pivoted around to glare at Atlas.
"Ahem…" Captain Amelia strolled over to the brunette-haired teenager and peered down with her cattish blue eyes, interrupting Charity before she could complain about her friend. "I have a question…" Amelia trailed off, not knowing the girl's name.
"I'm Charity," she said.
"Right. Well, Charity, can you elucidate on our current location?"
"Earth. Planet earth."
"In what quadrant of the galaxy?"
Charity gave her a bewildered look. "Uh… the Milky Way galaxy, and I'm pretty sure none of you have ever heard of the Milky Way."
Amelia tried again. "In what quadrant?"
This time, Atlas answered, still struggling to escape capture. "Near the sun. Between Venus and Mars. Far from Pluto. A few away from Saturn and Jupiter. Quite far from Uranus and Neptune. A bit separated from Mercury." She huffed. "Does that tell you 'what quadrant'?"
Amelia snorted. "Very well." She stepped over to the other TP characters, disregarding the Star Wars ones. "It appears to me, gentlemen, that these women have managed to transport us to another dimension." Her heels clicked against the concrete floor. "I suggest we figure out a way to return home as soon as possible. Otherwise, we might be stuck on this planet forever."
"Now hang on." Charity pushed her way past Amelia and addressed all of the characters at once. Something wasn't right. "First, Atlas and I didn't kidnap you or transport you to another dimension. Someone or something else did. Second, don't you think that maybe you're here for a reason?" They began murmuring amongst themselves. "I mean—like I said before—people don't just materialize into my basement on a daily basis. There's a reason for it. I know it."
After a few seconds, Ahsoka raised her hand. "I believe Charity."
Anakin looked disgusted. "Ahsoka, stop that!"
"C'mon Master! You said it yourself! Why have all our enemies disappeared?" She crossed her arms and shook her headtails side to side. "We haven't had a sighting of Dooku or Grievous in a week! Or Ventress! Droid armies all over the Outer Rim were pulling back and retreating! What if…" she hesitated, then went on, "what if our enemies are on this planet and we were brought here to stop them!"
Silence.
Suddenly, Cody rubbed his chin.
"It sounds logical…" he mused.
"Maybe…" Rex considered. "It could be possible."
"You know, we haven't had many reports on any pirate raids in over a week or so," Jim divulged. "Maybe they're here too!"
"So all our enemies are hiding here?" Anakin still didn't sound like he agreed with the explanation. He tapped his foot. "That doesn't sound good."
"It may be the case, Anakin." His old Master let his eyes drift into the distance. "We could be on the verge of encountering all our foes at once."
"We be dead, t'en," Silver concluded sadly. "No 'ope for us now."
All heads dipped in consensus.
Charity held up her hands and shook her head. "Wait a second. You all are agreeing that you'd fail at defeating them? All of you?" They all nodded, ashamed. She put her hands on her hips and shifted her weight to her left foot. "Oh gimme a break, all of you! You guys are the heroes! The good guys! The lionhearted warriors! The superstars that thousands of fans swoon over and look up to! And you're telling me that a bunch of low-life, wrong-doing creeps scare you?"
"Well…"
"Not necessarily scare us," Delbert put in. "More like—"
"We realize we stand no chance against a combination of our enemies," Amelia said insistently. "There should be no argument. We must leave at once."
The entire group began fervently deliberating, leaving Atlas and Charity totally detached from the conversation. Atlas took the time to pat herself down in a frenzy, then drag her finger below her eyelid to confer there was nothing smearing. Charity's hands ran through her hair, creating a long loose braid at the side of her head. They waited anxiously for the character's responses, which was taking a while. Then Atlas had an idea. She rummaged around inside her pants pocket and extracted her pink iPod Shuffle, placing the tiny ear buds into her ears and turning up the volume. Soon, "I'm Still Here" by John Rzeznik blasted out of Atlas's headphones. The other girl breathed out calmly and found her iPod Touch inside her own pocket. Charity made a quick glance up at the SW and TP characters, not aware that Commander Cody persisted to look briefly in her direction, and then turned her iPod on. She adjusted the headphones and the song she'd been listening to earlier, "Beat of My Heart" by Hilary Duff, filled her ears.
Atlas grinned a loopy smile. She began swaying back and forth, but Charity slapped her, embarrassed.
"Seriously, Attie. This is important. We've already made a bad first impression, and we're on the verge of them hating our guts. Can you at least stay still for half a second while they talk?"
Atlas shrugged. She began to lip-sync along with the music, exaggerating the vowels and straining her lips to form perfect circles. Her hands played a euphoric air-guitar. When Charity groaned and hit her forehead, Atlas paused the song.
"Lighten up, Persephone," she teased. "Or do you want me to reveal to Smexy-Rexy and Cody-Kinz that you were named after the lord of the Underworld's wife? How embarrassing would that be?"
Charity's jaw dropped. "You wouldn't," she countered, appalled.
"I just might." The girl removed her ear buds and stuffed the Shuffle into her pocket. Then she began walking towards the huddled group, motioning for Rex and Cody to see her for a minute. Charity blushed madly. The only defense she had from humiliation was to blare her music even louder. Now the song was "21 Guns" by Green Day. She shut her eyes and pretended to be distracted by something on her iPod's screen. Mortification was on its way.
Charity: (turns red) Hey, that's not very nice!
Atlas: I think it's hilarious! Persephone!!!
(Rex and Cody stand in front of Charity)
Rex: Leave her alone, Atlas.
Delbert: O.o
ecto1B: Please review!!!! Thanks!