Well here we are, another update for you all. i'm really sorry about the wait, but my work didn't understand the term "free time". that and i've started driving lessions which cut into my time alot. but anyway enough with the excuses, onto the story!

The Underdogs

Part 8

Gathering the Troops

It was a beautiful, warm morning, one that you would expect to get from the Hawaiian Islands. The birds where happily chirping away in the trees, while the people of the island started to prepare their shops. Getting rid of the dirt and rubbish of their store floors, bringing out fresh produce that smelled so nice that some where tempted to actually eat them right there and then. You would never have expected that just the day before the entire world was told that aliens do indeed exist, and that one of their empires needed the help of the human race.

Over at the house that we all know very well, everyone was just getting up from a good night sleep. This isn't to say that they wanted to get up at this moment in time. Oh no the household was woken up thanks to someone knocking on the door pretty loudly. Being the closest to the front door it was Lilo who went to get it, but it being still too early in the morning, for her anyway, she didn't realise that she looked like an absolute mess. I mean her antennas where wrapped around each other in knots, her purple fur was sticking up in quite a number of places, and her face had small traces of drool around her mouth.

She had just opened the door when she realised exactly what she looked like and that it was also too late to turn on her hologram, she also could not pretend to be a dog because just moments ago she had told the person at the door that she was coming. She did try it though; she went down on all fours just as the person at the door came into view,

"Lilo you know you shouldn't answer the door like that, even if the existence of aliens is now public news" cobra said with a bit of a smile as he saw Lilo on the floor.

"Oh thank god its you cobra. I didn't realise that I looked like an experiment until just after I had opened the door. Its still too early for me."

"I'm sorry about that Lilo, but right now I'm here to see Jumba and someone called Tyrone Johnson" cobra finished looking at a piece of paper.

"oh right, Jumba's designing new space ships for us isn't he. But why do you want to see Tyrone?"

"he contacted me, through Jumba, yesterday saying that he has had vigorous military training and that he could be a very big help. Since he contacted he through Jumba I knew he was not from this planet, so I decided to see him for myself."

"yeah he isn't from this planet. He kind of flew in from another dimension a couple of days ago where he has been constantly fighting an alien race called the covenant. Well that's what he's told me anyway" Lilo was half expecting cobra to be slacked jawed from hearing that, but when she looked back at him she saw that his expression hadn't changed a bit. 'Dugh Lilo! This is cobra where talking about, he doesn't get altered by anything!'

Leading cobra into the kitchen Lilo found that she was not the only person up. Jumba was sitting at the table reading a newspaper with a cup of coffee just within reach. At the coffee machine Nani had just taken a sip out of her cup, and the expression on her face told Lilo that it was a bit too hot. Looking up from her coffee Nani saw Lilo standing there, all fuzzy and purple, and right behind her stood cobra bubbles.

"Lilo! You didn't go and answer the door looking like that did you!" Nani said when she noticed Lilo did not have her hologram on,

"sorry Nani, but its still too early to think straight"

"well, at least it was cobra and not someone that didn't know about you" Nani said just after a sigh of defeat. 'Man David really is making me soft!'

"Good morning Nani. I see Lilo is still not gotten use to the idea of relying on a watch" Cobra said getting the attention of everyone in the room. "now Jumba have you gotten the blueprints of our new space force ready?"

"Yes, have finished them. Nothing has changed from your previous design except the power source, the engines and the shields. I must complement you earthlings, design of your ships is surprisingly effective." Jumba said as he put down his newspaper, quickly drained his cup of coffee, and then walked off to his bedroom to collect some things.

"now, Nani do you know where this Tyrone Johnson is at this time?"

"sure, he sleeps in Jumba's ship with the rest of our new visitors. Do you want to see him?"

"yes. He contacted me yesterday about wanting to join the military"

"ok, why don't you wait here while Lilo goes and gets him." Nani said, acting like a good host should. Cobra just nodded before he slowly walked over to the kitchen table and sat down.

While cobra sat down, Lilo walked out of the house and went off to get Tyrone, knowing that objections where out of the question. Just as she was about to reach the ship, she heard someone come up behind her.

"morning bugee-boo. What are you doing out here"?" stitch asked as he walked up beside her.

"Cobra wants to see Tyrone. Supposidly he contacted cobra yesterday wanting to join our military force. So I'm going to get him"

"Oh" was all that stitch could think of saying. The rest of the trip to Jumba's ship was in silence, but since the ship was less than 50 feet away it wasn't really hard to do. Upon arriving in the ship, Lilo and stitch where bombarded with the sound of snoring,

"man how can three experiments and two men make so much noise" Lilo said to stitch as they went further into the ship,

"make that three experiments and one man" a voice said from behind Lilo and stitch. Turning around quickly they saw Tyrone standing there with a grin on his face. He was wearing a pair of dark green shorts that went down to his knees, and a black t-shirt. He also had a pair of wood brown hiking boots. All these clothes where made by Pleakly, under close examination by Tyrone himself.

"oh Tyrone there you are. Stitch and me came to get you because cobra bubbles is here to see you. He said it was about wanting to join the military" Lilo said, wanting to confirm if its true

"yes that right. Thanks to Jumba I managed to contact him yesterday just after that news report about the galactic federation. I told him about my situation and he wanted to see me. Just to confirm I suppose." Tyrone said as started to make his way to the ship entrance, "so Lilo are you going to show me where he is, or am I going to have to guess where he is?"

"oh sorry, he's in the kitchen, follow me" she said before jogging in front of Tyrone and stitch and then continuing out of the ship.

"umm, Stitch isn't it, you sure you want her to be your girlfriend. I mean she has an endless supply of energy"

"yeah, but so do I. We complement each other perfectly" stitch said as Tyrone and himself followed Lilo out of the ship, at a much more acceptable pace for the time of morning it was.

Arriving back in the kitchen, Lilo saw Jumba was back in the room as well as Pleakly, but Nani had gone. There was also a duffle bag on the table beside Jumba's laptop,

"so Lilo where is Tyrone Johnson?" cobra asked, he was still seated at the table, but he had a cup of coffee beside him.

"oh, I must have left him and stitch behind but they should be here in a minuet" Lilo said without a trace of tiredness. "hey why is there a duffle bag on the table?"

"that is being mine. Am having to go away to help with the construction of new space ships" Jumba said from his position hear the door.

"your going away. Well how long will you be gone for?" Lilo asked, feeling a little bit sad,

"Am not knowing. Could be a month, could be the entire two years it will take to build the fleet" Jumba said with sadness swimming in his voice,

"your going away for two years! You can't go Jumba, I'll miss you too much" Lilo said with tears in her eyes.

"be drying your eyes little girl. I'll, miss you too. But I must be going. Or else Hamsterville will destroy everything that…that I have grown to love." Jumba said after embracing Lilo in a hug.

"Sniff what do you mean Jumba?"

"I have grown very attached to this world. The life you have here, little girl, is filled with wonders that I have never seen before. You see, every planet I have been too, every colony I have visited, is filled with cities and lost customs that where once important. But Earth is different. The people of earth still hold onto their customs, even though they are thousands of years old, and now very impractical.

"Just take our home, Hawaii. Every day hundreds of people arrive and go, but still people sing the 'aloha oie' to them when they leave, and they still give flower necklaces to the people who arrive. Do you know how many dollars your community spends on those necklaces? A lot more than Nani gets a year I'd imagine.

"That is just one reason of many that I have to help this planet. But the most important reason I have to save it is you, my Ohanna"

"you really mean that, Jumba?" Lilo said looking up into the eyes of her uncle

"of course I do, Lilo" Jumba said with a smile. But his soft smile could have also been an attempt to suppress an even greater smile, because Lilo was quite surprised at hearing her name come out of the evil genius's mouth. But she simply smiled, closed her eyes and shook her head, tears evident on the pink fur around her eyes.

Meanwhile, across the galaxy on the planet Turo Hamsterville decided to have some fun with his newfound power, and the best way to do that, he thought anyway, was to go primitive and do what the earthlings did in, what was known to them as, the time of the Romans. He created the first ever 'Hamsterville games'.

"now then you simpletons you, the idea of these games is to survive. As you can see you are divided into two teams of 5 and to make things simple, for your all so simple brains, the teams are called 'red team' and 'blue team'. Now the only weapons available to you are your own bodies and those swords on the wall behind your team.

Now get to the fighting, so that you may entertain your emperor." Hamsterville said before sitting down of a gold throne with red cushions. He was wearing big gold crown that was the exact same as the one that he wore when Lilo went into the future thanks to skip, but of course he doesn't know that. His throne over looked an arena that was very similar to the arenas in the roman days, except it was created with modern conveniences like cinema and theatre seats. In the centre stood the two teams, one was wearing blue clothing while the other wore red. Behind them on the wall where swords and shields just where Hamsterville said they would be.

Hearing that their emperor was board, the two teams ran to the walls behind them and collected the swords and shields. Then they ran back into the centre of the ring, screaming and weapons waving in the air. To Hamsterville the sounds they where making where like nothing he had ever heard before. Sure he heard people yell and scream in prison, even as they went into a fight, but this was different. They where screaming and shouting, charging into battle, getting ready to sacrifice for battle just for his own amusement, and no one else.

Time seemed to slow down as he watched his people charge into combat. Every single step, every single breath they took, it was like poetry in motion, well to Hamsterville anyway. They where just a meter apart when their sword lowered to attack their opponent. It was all in perfect motion by everyone fighting, until the swords came to within an inch of their selected target, when they stopped. It was the same with every combatant, they would strike at their target with what appeared to be all their might when they stopped mere inches from who they where attacking.

"What is going on? I said attack each other! So why are you not attacking?" Hamsterville partially screamed at his people. Hearing that their emperor was unhappy, they raised their weapons and tried to attach each other once again. But once again the swords stopped before they got close enough to actually damage their opponent.

Seeing that his people where trying to please him, Hamsterville realised that they where still under his command. But this only brought questions and answers that annoyed his brain,

"My mind altering EMP must not have altered their natural goodness, which means they will do anything I say, except attack another person, and I'd bet that includes themselves as well. I'd imagine the only person who can override this is that annoying prison guard, since he was the closest person to the EMP. Its such a shame that all the prisoners in wing I was in are now brain dead thanks to being so close to the EMP" Hamsterville said to himself before dismissing everyone in the arena, before leaving himself.

Back on planet earth Tyrone had just convinced cobra to allow him to fight in the upcoming battle. They where just about to follow Jumba, who had left moments ago to go to cobra's car outside, when cobra looked at stitch and said to him that he would be of great help if he came as well. Stitch didn't have time to say anything before cobra left the house with Tyrone close behind him. Nani had left minuets before so that she could get to work, and it was a good thing too. Because the look on stitch face said that he was actually considering it. But what was even more worrying was that Lilo had a face saying the same thing. This worried Pleakly because he knew that it would be hard for stitch to resist something like this being a monster and all, and he also knew that if stitch went, Lilo would be right beside him. Leaving the room Pleakly prayed that this wouldn't happen, because he knew that if stitch went, Lilo would go. And if Lilo went, that meant that Nani would probably kill Jumba as well as himself because of it. Arriving in his bedroom that he shared with Jumba, Pleakly found that the room was an absolute tip.

"Jumba, why did you go and make this room into a pigsty! I had it clean just ten minuets ago. Ten minuets ago! Honestly you'd think evil geniuses don't like having things clean." Pleakly complained to no one before he started to tidy up his bedroom…again.

Across on the other side of town, in the Birds of Paradise Hotel, Mr. Jameson was doing his usual rounds of his hotel, making sure things where going smoothly, hearing both the good and the bad comments about the staff and the hotel. You know basic stuff someone like him would be doing. He had just completed his rounds when one of the more recent guests, a miss Goslyn Waddlemeyer, came over to him. Even though she had been with them for a couple of days, he has heard many strange things from his staff concerning this young woman. One of his room cleaners told him that she had found oil stains on the sheets of her bed. Of course he told her that it was ridicules and dismissed it right away.

"Excuse me, but do you know where I could find, Nani Pleakly?"

"I'm afraid she's out giving one of her water skiing tours at the moment. Why, is there something wrong?"

"Oh no, I just wanted to ask about her sister. You see I'm just fascinated by her dog"

"Ah, that would be Lilo. She has many strange pets all over the island, but I think you mean the blue one. Oh what did Nani say his name was? Sam? No that's not it, umm st, st, stitch! Ah yes that's it. his name is stitch. Strange thing that stitch. I sear its not a dog, but it seems friendly enough especially when Lilo's about. Do you know that Lilo had a crush on my son, and that she dressed up her dog so that he wouldn't find out. Oh that was a strange day that was, but it really moved me. It was one of the main reasons why I hired Nani." Mr. Jameson said to Goslyn Waddlemeyer. After hearing that story, Goslyn was a little surprised to hear that Lilo had a crush on a boy, since she thought she was a lesbian, but she just dismissed it, thanked Mr. Jameson and went off to search for Nani.

Deep in the heart of nowhere there stood a building. This building looked very out of place since its surroundings where completely empty and the building looked incredibly advanced. But the strangest thing about this building was that some of it was on stilts. But it was explainable when you noticed the surroundings. White. White was all that you could see wherever you looked, except for the sky of course which was blue. The building in question was a matching white all over it. Even the roof was white as well as everything on it, which included several satellite dishes, several antennas and a telescope dome. You would be forgiving if you thought this building was small thanks to its colour, but truth be told this place was huge. I mean it took up acres of apace, and that was just above ground. Going under ground we find that it goes under ground for quite some distance before coming to a very large room. This is where we find the grand councilwoman, Virgil Grey or white wolf, and several members of the UN, the British member and the American member; there were also quite a number of scientists and other military people.

"I would like to thank you for coming out here to see our latest weapon." One of the scientists said to the group. He had a deep Scottish scent, but was understood by all who was there. "Truth be told, if we had more time to prepare we would have gotten chairs for you to sit down on. But anyway, welcome to Britain's most secret weapons research facility. I am Thomas McDonald, the leading scientist here and I have been told to show you our lovely little girl. Right reveal the tank!"

Thomas was standing in front of something that was concealed by a giant white sheet that was connected to a crane that on the of the room they where in, which was 12 metes high. Hearing the command to reveal the tank, the man at the crane controls lifted the white sheet to reveal one hell of a tank. This thing was huge, over 6 meters in height and over 8 meters wide. They where facing it from the front and all they could see were guns, guns, and more guns. Some of them looked really quite advance while others where easy to tell what they where.

"this is our pride and joy, the Baneblade. On her turret she is fitted with a special battle cannon that dose 50 percent more damage than even the best battle cannon out in public knowledge, while still maintaining their range and accuracy. It also has another class of battle cannon on its hull that dose extraordinary damage, even when its compared by its other battle cannon, but its range is reduced by about three quarters. It's fitted with 6 heavy machine guns, and its main battle cannon, the one on mounted on the turret, has a co-axial light cannon beside it, basically making sure that turrets target gets destroyed. Finally, it has two advanced beam weapons that run of its generator, giving them unlimited amounts of shots that can pierce through armour like it was butter. Speaking of armour, the Baneblade is surrounded 220mm of thermal resistant armour. Basically this girl is the ultimate tank in both long and short range, she can give out more damage than an entire platoon, and can receive just as much as she takes . The only real problem is that she weighs in at 316 tones and has a top speed of only 25 kph on roads, it's reduced to about 18kph off roads." Thomas finished as he looked back at his creation once more. "So are there any questions?"

"Yeah, how many people dose it take to crew it, and how long would it take to train them to use it?" the American member of the UN asked.

"it takes 10 people to crew: One commander, one driver, one communications-operator, three gunners, three loaders, and one engineer. Each person shouldn't take more than three weeks to be able to operate her, less if they are already familiar with the challenger 2"

"how much dose it cost to make, and how long will it take to make?" the grand councilwoman asked.

"the estimated build time, with all the parts, is about 6 months. The build cost is estimated at about 15 million pounds. Now that includes training of troops to operate it and it being fully loaded when it comes out of production. Now are there any more questions?"

"how soon can you start production?" was all that Virgil said, not even bothering to raise his hand.

"umm, we could start immediately"

"then stop asking for questions and start making them. We have 2 years in which to build as many as we can, and I want to see at least 10" Virgil finished.

"now just wait one minuet Virgil" the British UN member started before Virgil put up his hand stopping.

"Sir it was voted that I would lead our men on the field, and I say that this war machine is our best chance of actually winning this war"

"yes but the cost of building suck a…"

"I was there when the grand councilwoman said that the galactic federation would compensate in exchange for our help. I trust money was in that compensation"

"yes, it was" said the grand councilwoman.

"well then I can't see any reason why you would object. Besides can you really put a price on our survival?"

Hearing this the UN member just stayed quiet knowing that he was defeated.

"now about starting on those new tanks" Virgil said directing his attention back to the scientist. The scientist quickly replied with "right away" before he ran off to the other scientist to begin work.

"Those tanks will be fine symbols for the 'Terra Federation'" the grand councilwoman said to the remaining people. The 'terra federation' was decided as the human races empire name, just after the presentation to the world about aliens being real.

"I can't agree more, but we, of the united states of America, have a black project of our own that I think will come quite in handy. If you all would like to follow me I will take you to see it" the American member of the UN said. Everyone there just nodded their heads before leaving the scientists to work on the 'symbols'.

Surprisingly the trip to the next research facility was not all that long. In fact it was barley half an hour, this was done by helicopter of course. They flew to a small island right in the middle of the artic sea. The American UN member told everyone there that the island was called shadow mosses, and that it was a nuclear storage facility. The structure they saw was nothing like the British research facility. Where the British facility was only one or two stories, this building was about 4 stories. It was built just like a factory, but then again it was suppose to be a nuclear storage facility. Landing on a helipad just outside a hanger, they where greeted by several guards.

"Greeting, we where told of your arrival. If you would like to follow us we will take you to see rex."

After taking a small transport truck across the island, and them going down two cargo lifts, they finally arrived in a giant hanger bay. Now this bay was huge, over twenty meters high easily, but that was not the thing that mist concerned them. The thing that drew their attention the most was a giant bipedal tank sitting in the middle of the room. It must have been at least 12 meters high and its face had a sort of resemblance to a tyrannosaurs rex. Facing it, it had a shield like thing on its right, and on its left was a very powerful looking gun. The American UN member had a smile on his face from the expressions of his colleges.

"this beauty is called Metal Gear Rex0023B, though we just call it metal gear rex. Its main weapon, as you can see, is the large rail gun on its right shoulder, which is to our left. The shield like thing on its other shoulder is actually a ray dome. You see you only need one pilot to operate it, and he sits in the beak just above us. The pilot is completely sealed in the cockpit so it uses the ray dome to see."

"Very interesting. But what would happen if the ray dome was destroyed?" Virgil said still in a little bit of awe.

"good question. You see if the ray dome was destroyed, which is pretty unlikely, the beak opens up and allows the pilot to operate manually. Unlike the Baneblade, Metal Gear Rex can move at over 140kph. Admittedly it doesn't have the close quarter firepower of the baneblade, but it dose have the same armour and the same thickness. It also can use its feet as close combat weapons if it needed to, as well as a powerful laser that, as far as we know, can cut through anything. But its main ability is launching missiles form great distances from the rail gun itself. This means that it is a stealth weapon, since it doesn't use any propellants. Basically you got yourself one hell of a long range weapon" the American UN member finished proudly.

"well, can you make any more right now?" was all that was asked and surprisingly it was by the British UN member.

"I'm afraid that we can't make any more at the moment. But this one is fully operational and just waiting for a field test"

"somehow I think we might just win this war" Virgil said very confidently before turning and leaving the hanger.

...
well there you are, another chapter for you to enjoy, please tell me what you think of it. now for something that i need to do to prevent being suied. the Baneblade is property of "games workshop" and was only used in this story because it is really cool and i've waited a long time to use it in a story! metal gear rex is property of hideo kojima (i thinks thats how you spell his name) and again was used for the same reason. and finally, the marathon still dosen't have an official release date, but i have just finished writing it all...on paper. now all i've got to do it copy it into the computer. but that might take some time knowing my luck!