(Btw, I'm using a scene from episode 5 "Buggin' the System" as a flashback scene.)
Chapter Three
It was simply a clear, sunny day at New Jersey.
Since it was nice, though hot day, Jaime put on a T-shirt and a pair of beige shorts instead of his usual blue hat, green sweater, black sport coat, and jeans.
After somehow upsetting Kiva yesterday night, Jaime decided to go clear his thoughts by strolling in the park for a bit. He kept asking himself over and over again mentally, what he had done to make Kiva have that look on her face. Maybe he shouldn't be so worried he tried to think as a little comfort. After all, she was well, very career-orientated and well, very committed to duty, and well, she...
'Oh, why do I have to get so worked up about this?'
He was just about to go through the park's main entrance when Kiva all of a sudden appeared. She was dressed in exercise clothes.
"Oh, hey Jaime. What are you doing here?"
"Oh, Kiva…nothing. Just chilling. Are you going jogging?"
"Yeah, sure" Kiva answered.
"Would you like to join me?"
The invitation made Jaime soon forget about last night's incident.
"Uh well, sure! Why not? I uh, could use a little exercise right about now."
Just as he expected, Kiva was a very good runner. Jaime did his best to keep up with her, but he only ran slowly by comparison. She managed to notice this and decrease her speed so he could run more comfortably. He pushed himself, but eventually both grew tired and decided to rest by sitting on a bench in front of water fountain and flowing river.
"Here, I thought you'd appreciate a small-sized megaslush. Hope you like the new Galactic Kiwi Blast flavor they got" Jaime said handing her a drink. He was just over at the snack stand to get slushies to enjoy after their jog.
"Thanks" Kiva accepted.
He took a seat beside her and began sipping from his own drink and leaned on the bench. Jaime was also going to put his arm over it too, but then soon realized it would be right behind Kiva. He put his arm on the other side.
"Jaime? Can I ask you something?"
"Yeah, sure. What is it?"
"Why… are you always so…you know…timid and lacking in the courage department?" Kiva asked.
Jaime looked at her and turned to face up at the sky.
Kiva had only joined Coop and Jaime recently as a fellow buddy after accidently traveling to the wrong place in time. Kiva however was often more interested in training and drilling Coop in using Megas. She seemed to find her place among them sitting in the back of Megas' cockpit (which was a car) as support for Coop providing tactical analysis and info via the holo interface.
It was the time when during yet another of the misadventures in space they were habitually getting themselves into. They had found a mysterious ring world floating in the middle of nowhere after badly traversing a deadly minefield with Megas. They landed on it and saw many strange towers standing tall like skyscrapers. It was a fairly dark world where nothing seemed to be happening. They also discovered the ring world was home to a species of robotic serpent maggots.
"I wonder if there's any information on the Glorft or a race that has time travel" Kiva said after looking up info on the interface. She was very curious in finding out more about the towers.
"Even if there is, there's like a gazillion of those towers.It'd take forever to find the right one" Coop said as he saw through the windshield.
Then Jaime saw several of the giant, robotic maggots coming up in sight and crawling toward Megas
"Uh… I don't think we have forever…" he said.
"Okay bugs, time to get it on!" Coop said now battle alert and stepping on the brake.
"Hold on! Look at them." Kiva pointed out. Although the maggots were coming toward Megas, their paths seemed… crooked or unsure. Like they didn't know for sure where they were going precisely.
"I think they're blind" she added.
"Blind? Heck, this'll be easy! Let me just jump on 'em!" Coop said, again stepping on the brake. He quickly prepared Megas' jet booster on the back and was about to take off until Kiva insisted he did not.
"Wait, I think they're attracted to energy signatures…" she said making another quick observation.
It seemed upon sensing the fuel from the jet booster, the maggots began to move faster and with a much better sense of direction. They were now just near Megas' feet when Coop decided to step off the brake. In response, they then turned away and went about their business.
"They see energy?" Jaime asked.
"So why don't they see us?" Coop said.
"The tower's output must be hiding MegasHopefully, they'll just ignore us" Kiva suggested while typing on the interface.
But soon, the holo interface faded for a second and everything that Megas had powered on just turned off within a matter of seconds.
"Oh no…the core" Kiva realized. She continued to type hurriedly trying to find the cause of the shut down.
"Something got on board… it must be an infant stage of one of those things" Kiva explained as the image of a young larva version of those maggots appeared on the interface's monitor with some biological info.
"You mean it's in here? In Megas One of those things is in my robot?!" Coop protested uncomfortably unhappy.
"It may be the reason why Megas is malfunctioning. I'm gonna go down and check out the core" Kiva said.
"I'm gonna need back up."
Jaime saw as both Kiva and Coop look at each other for a second that in conjunction turned to face him. He looked back, his expression nonchalantly blank.
They didn't stop looking at him.
"Not me" he protested, finally understanding the reason behind their stare.
"I got to pilot Megas, plus I'm kind of big-bone" Coop explained as he patted his chest at ease.
"I said not me!" Jaime insisted defensively.
"Listen Jaime, I have to go in and fix the core. And I can't do it alone"Kiva pleaded with him as she looked straight at him in the eyes. Herserious eyes were piercing him and she knew it when Jaime grudgingly gave in to her without verbally acknowledging. Now she turned to Coop.
"Alright, Coop Megas doesn't have enough power for a prolonged fight. Use your head and stay concealed."
"And don't damage any of those towers" she warned knowing very well what his behavior was naturally like. She told Jaime to come down with her as she descended down the ladder from the floor. He grabbed a baseball bat from nearby in case it might come in handy as he echoed her order mockingly.
"I suggested a nice, quiet day playing video games, but nooo…" he complained as he started to climb down.
"Ughhh It smells like sweaty socks down here!" Jaime said before the hatch to the opening down closed.
"Good question. I don't know really… I guess... it's because I'm not as big and tough as Coop is or know martial arts like you. It's lame, I know, especially since I got Coop as a friend who could be like a role model and all" he explained after a moment of thought, remembering that time on the ring world.
"Don't say that" Kiva said back.
"All you need is a little encouragement."
"Like how?"
"You know, you'll just have to find some kind of reason why you'll want be brave and fight."
"Yeah, I guess. But Kiva, tell me, why do you fight? What's your reason?" Jaime asked. Maybe her reason might be a good one to model after.
"Well, Jaime… I come from the future where Earth and humanity has to fight for the right to live. I think that's reason enough."
Looking back at the sky, Jaime had a small feeling that he's have to change for better eventually. It was like that kind of feeling someone had that was either auspicious or ominous. But how would it work out? What would he do? What would happen?
(To be continued…)
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