Chapter 30: P-R-I-S-O-N
"Uuugh…"
I remember this feeling…
Sore head. Nauseated sinuses. Aches and pains all over my side from the steel floor. Wait. Steel floor? How did I fall asleep on my side on such a hard surface? I pushed myself up as fast as I could, sharply inhaling through my nose in shock. I was wearing my normal sailor outfit. Someone must have deactivated my spacesuit. I looked at my surroundings and gasped.
I was in an enclosed steel room with the only light coming from the window-wall to my left. To my right was a bed barely big enough to fit me, and I wasn't sure if I fell off or not. Posted on the wall above the bed were pictures of various aliens in various action poses, although I got a sinking feeling that somehow, they were the alien equivalent of girly pictures. Scattered around the room were shreds of paper that I quickly realized were newspaper shreds. I could see that if I put the scraps together, I'd get the headline, "IDIOT SCIENTIST JAILED". I found it odd how it was written in English. The evidence was overwhelming. There was no question where I was.
"Oh no…no, no, no…" I stood up, ran to the window, and looked outside. It was just as I thought…as I feared.
There were at least 100 stories of similar prison cellblocks in the space across from me. Some were empty, but most held various alien criminals of all shapes and sizes. Some paced back and forth; some pounded on the window walls, and still others did nothing at all. And between columns of prison cells were shafts for lifts where people could get on and ride.
I was in an alien prison exactly like the one from Lilo and Stitch!
Suddenly I heard a knocking sound to my left. I heard a voice I recognized. "Amy?"
"Grovyle?" I ran to the wall, sat down, and knocked back. "Is that you?"
"Yeah. Hey, listen. Try putting your ear against the wall."
"I know. Sound travels a lot better through solids. What I'm not sure is why whoever made this prison didn't put insulation or anything in…"
"It's a gap, I think. I can't hear Chikorita or the others or anyone else anywhere." He paused. "Wait. You know this place?"
"Yeah! It was in a movie I once saw. This is the official prison of the Galactic Federation. But it's not fair! We didn't do anything! This is all Queen X's fault—she should be in here, not us!"
"Calm down, Amy. I'm sure we'll figure something out. This Earth system is interesting, though. So if they place you on a Wanted Poster and catch you, they just lock you up in here? Doesn't seem too bad compared to what I've been through." He was probably shrugging in resignation, judging by the playful tone of his voice.
"It still must seem like a stupid system to you," I commented.
"You mean, stupid systems," he corrected me, referring to where we were now.
I realized, "Hey yeah, you're right! Even in the future, nothing works!" With that, we both fell to the floor in laughter. That line from Spaceballs really had a deeper meaning than you'd suspect.
Finally, we recovered. He then asked me, "So are they going to keep us locked up like this for the rest of our lives?"
"I don't think so. The 6th Amendment says that we have a right to a speedy and public trial. They're probably just going to hold us here until it's our turn."
"Trial? What's a trial?"
"It's where they look at the evidence from the crimes, listen to people who've been there, and find out whether you're innocent or guilty. Only…" I trailed off.
"But we're innocent. We should be fine, right? This is just a minor distraction that Queen X wanted to throw at us to slow us down, right?"
"I really, really, really hope so, Grovyle," I sighed again. "But she knows that this whole thing is one of my worst fears ever. She's also paranoid about our Metroid DNA. We're the only ones who can possibly stand up to and stop her plans. So I'm guessing she wants to kill us before we kill her. Furthermore, since she copied our DNA…she'll be sure to leave some at the scenes of all of those crimes. It'll make us automatically guilty, and the only thing that can possibly prove our innocence will be if they have a brain scanner or something…although knowing Queen X, she's smashed them all already…"
None of us could say anything more after that. Grovyle sat up, and I couldn't hear him anymore as he walked away to another wall of his cell, maybe to hear if any of the others were around. I got up, walked to the bed, and sat down, piecing together the pieces of the rest of that newspaper. After that, I pulled the bed sheets up, turned away from the light coming from the glass wall, and tried to fall asleep again to pass the time.
In the cell to the right, Amy Vee Purima the Jigglypuff finally wakes up too.
Amy: Uugh…Ooow…
She walks around a bit, examining the cell, before finally looking out the window to see everything outside.
Amy (completely shocked): What the heck IS this place?
Chikorita (from the wall on the right): Amy? Is that you?
Amy: Chikorita?
The two of them are in different cells, so they place their ears against the walls through a space where sound can travel through.
Chikorita: *whew*! For a moment there, I was worried you were somewhere else!
Amy: Where are we, Chikorita?
Chikorita: I don't know…but this feels familiar somehow…like in…
Amy: The s—s—stockade?
Chikorita: Exactly like the stockade! Wait. Then that means…we're in jail!
Amy and Chikorita: NOT AGAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIN!
Their shouts can be heard through some of the walls, but mostly restricted to the cells up above. Apparently, Kirby is above Amy's cell, and Samus is above Chikorita's. They're both in bed, too tired to think about their predicament for now.
Kirby: (Me hungwy…Wait. Wuz that Amy…? Nah…) Zzzz…
Samus: (Shut up, girls…I'm not even supposed to be in here. Thanks to those law-enforcement robots that took away my Power Suit, I can't even…) *yawn*… (This is so boring…Goodnight…)
Right then, a circular hole opened up in the ceiling right above me. Through it came a circular TV thingy. Typical. I remembered that Dr. Jacques Von Hamsterviel liked to use it when he was in prison.
Only it wasn't Hamsterviel who appeared on the monitor. It was Queen X. I nearly freaked out.
"Pooooor Amy. Sad, sad, Amy. Trusting, naïve Amy," she purred condescendingly. She kicked back on some sort of black leather couch, leafing through an issue of Cosmopolitan magazine like it was the most fascinating thing in the world.
I stuffed my pillow in my face, turning away from her. "All right, I get it, I get it! What do you want, Queen X?" I shot, extremely annoyed.
"Mmmm…nothing," she replied in a roundabout way. "Except to maybe let you know that I'm putting you through this whole ordeal so that I can finally pound the fact in your thick little skull that I am superior to you in every way! Other than that, nothing at all. Yeah…" She was sarcastic.
"So?" I snapped back.
Her voice grew dark. "You just don't get it, do you, you little goody-two-shoes-Metroid child—? No wait; my bad…You just don't get it, do you, you inferior being? I call the shots now! This is my universe, not yours! If you really wanted to be a good little girl, you would've just died when I wanted you to!"
"Sorry. 'Go kill yourself'? Not likely. Even if my mom and dad told me to. You really didn't think I'd let someone like you kill everyone and everything I've ever worked for, did you?" I shot back, trying to match her sarcastic tone.
"It seems that I still have to teach you your place," she curtly replied. I peeked over my pillow and stole a glance. A smile crept on her face. "Have you noticed how everything in your universe comes from video games you've played, movies you've watched, and anything else that's already copyrighted in your home dimension?"
"Yeah…only all the time! What's your point?"
"No one ever said anything about…characters and stories YOU came up with. Well? Do the words 'Galactic Rainbow' ring a bell?"
My face paled. I sat up, letting the pillow drop to the floor. "You…you don't mean…!"
"Yes…Poor Amy. Poor, poor Amy," she started to purr condescendingly again. "A 10-book sci-fi space opera adventure manga series, every page in glorious color! Each book, averaging about 400 pages! That means that you will work on upwards of 4,000 pages, the pencil drawings, the Adobe Illustrator lines, the Photoshop colors, those beautiful breathtaking backgrounds, the lettering, the book design, the publishing…all by your loathsome little self. How many hours per page? 10? 20? That means you shall spend 80,000 hours of your life on the series, about as long as any normal 21st century human in their own normal job! And if you're going to just do it as a hobby? You're still in the process of rewriting the entire story. Poor you. Poor, poor you."
I couldn't respond that time. She was right. I never calculated it that way before.
She sneered again and stepped back for dramatic effect. "You wish you would have assistants, but that will never happen. That's because there's no one on 21st century Planet Earth who even comes close to sharing your vision, much less your so-called mad artistic skills. You're fated to complete it all on your own, missing out on the best adult years of your life."
"S—so what?" I shot back, although a bit more hesitantly. What if she was right? And where exactly was she going with this?
I soon found out. She activated and spread her dark wings out. Immediately, from the tips of her wings came sixteen X Parasites, two from each wing. They quickly formed into exact copies of me. Myself as I was now, 18 years old, same sailor suit outfit. The camera zoomed even farther back, and I saw that Queen X was standing in front of a classroom of some sort. There were rows and rows of desks with computer monitors and graphics tablets at each and every seat. The sixteen clones then sat at various seats and started working. Queen X then created sixteen more X Parasite clones of me before responding.
"But me? Hah! I can create an infinite amount of perfect assistants to help me personally! I can easily create over 4,000 copies of you in a single day, one for each page of your manga! Within 20 hours, my clone army can accomplish what will take 80,000 hours for you!"
I fell off the bed and staggered against the wall. "No way…no way…!"
"Oh, don't worry. We'll keep your original story intact. Everything will happen the way it's supposed to happen…with just a few edits that will improve the story to the greatness status you've always wanted."
"Like what?" I inquired with trepidation.
"You know your beloved little Amy Lightbloom and Pluffy? After the final battle, in the very, very end…they shall both die, and my Space Pirates shall take over the galaxy, just the way I've always wanted them to! Muahahahahahaha!"
I lost control. My own wings shot out in anger, and I leapt at the video screen, seizing it. "NO! I've been working on them for FIVE YEARS! You can't kill them!"
"Just watch me. In only 20 hours, they will finish and publish all 10 books at once! I shall copyright and trademark them all! And there's nothing you can do to stop me. Heck, even if you could, you've still got…oh, I dunno…a billion of my loyal followers to deal with! Face the facts. You could never rid the galaxy of us now." She sneered as she sped up her cloning speed to 32 clones per second. "That should teach you your place. I'm the alpha girl here!"
"STOOOOOP!" I shouted while shooting the most powerful energy blast at the TV, hoping it would go through.
It didn't, unfortunately. All it did was dent it a little. Then an alarm sounded from the TV itself, and out from the top of the screen popped a laser gun of some sort. It shot a blast of red energy at me, knocking me down.
Queen X laughed heartlessly at the other end. "And that's another 24 hours of jail time for you. By the time your trial even starts, I'll be selling your books like wildfire and become famous. Sweet dreams." She sped up her cloning speed even more to 64 clones per second before shutting off, cackling fiendishly.
The TV retreated into the ceiling, which then closed up. I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe it. Two Amy's (including me) were hard enough to deal with. Three of them (by that I mean Big Amy from the dark future) was starting to get out of hand. Four (actually Queen X copying me) was just absolutely insane.
And now there were going to be thousands—no, billions—of them!
I shouted the most heartbreaking shout I even could, smashing the walls of the cell left and right with my Ylla powers, but it was no use. The walls were made of a special metal that resisted Ylla energy. I must've kept by my rampage for hours before finally calming down, explaining my predicament to Grovyle on the left (and Big Amy, whom I found was in the cell to my right), and falling asleep on the bed, crying into the pillow in anguish and despair.
I heard the window slide up, someone step in, and the window close behind him. Whoever he was, his huge, round body blocked most of the light coming in. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, trying to get a good look.
"Heh. So this is all whom Galactic Federation police raised Code Red alert for? A single human girl?" he commented in a heartfelt, avuncular way. I recognized the Russian accent. I also recognized his massive, round purple body, his four beady eyes, and his white lab coat.
I picked up the scraps of the newspaper and whispered in awe, "Aren't you Jumba Jookiba, the famous scientist who made Experiment 626?"
He walked right up to me and took the scraps of paper, reading the headline. "Aaaah…you know my great-grand-uncle once removed! I see that this was his very cell. Yes, I emulate his work now and again, so my family gave me same name." He then put the pieces of paper down.
"Why are you here, anyway, Mr. Jumba?"
"Please, call me Dr. Jumba. I didn't earn double-PhD in Galaxy Defense Industries for nothing, heh heh heh. So. Tell me, my little carbon-based humanoid part of mosquito food chain. How exactly did you manage to rob National Bank, reverse street signs, and throw Bob-omb in Galactic Federation headquarters within time span of 32 seconds?"
By that time, all my frustration about this whole framing business just made me snap again. How come no one ever understood? I zoomed right in his face and shouted, "You don't understand! I'm sick and tired of being blamed for things I didn't do! I've never, ever, ever, ever, ever robbed anyone, or threw bombs! I've been the best-behaved kid in the class ever since 4th grade! I'm telling you, Queen X is framing me! She—"
"Aaaaah…I see! You have Ylla DNA!" he exclaimed, pointing to my energy wings that suddenly materialized. I cringed. Why couldn't I ever seem to control them anymore? Oh yeah. Because Queen X was deliberately messing with my feelings!
He muttered an awed exclamation in his native alien language and remarked, "I wish I could meet evil genius that performed experiment and keep you still alive."
"Kel-Zich is not an evil genius! He's the nicest Ylla master ever, and he did it for me, not himself!" I screeched at him. "Besides, I'm part Metroid, too. So are my friends. That's why Queen X is after us. She's the queen of the X Parasites. You've probably heard of them."
He scratched his head. "Mmmmm…Can't say I have. Interesting name, though. X Parasites. Tell me more about them."
I took a deep breath and started explaining. "They're these orange gelatinous blobs that can float through the air and infect anyone through their central nervous system. They really should be called X Parasoids since they always kill their hosts, but anyway…that's not all. They also copy the host's DNA and can form themselves into an exact replica. Same form, same abilities…even same memories. It's really scary. Their only known enemies are the Metroids, but since Metroids are extinct now…the X Parasites are multiplying again. What's worse, this evil guy named Zoroark carried their queen off of their home planet, and they're planning to end galactic civilization right now! But because me and my friends are the only ones who have Metroid DNA, Queen X is framing us so that no one can stand in her way!" Throughout my whole explanation, he started thinking really hard, and his eyes grew wider and wider. He didn't respond by the end, which worried me. "Dr. Jumba? Dr. Jumba! You've gotta believe me!" I shouted.
"Huh? What? Oh, yes. Well. I believe you. It's just that…something seems to be tickling back of my mind. Like I'm trying to remember really important tiny detail. What planet did parasites come from?"
"SR-388."
His eyes widened, and he stood up so suddenly he almost hit his head on the ceiling. "Eureka! I remember now! When I was little boy, I remember I made project for Science Academy! I create life form out of gelatin and oobleck, and gave it hovering and sentience capabilities. And then I release it onto Planet SR-388 and observe effects! Hehehehehaahahahahaha!" He literally fell over, laughing like an evil genius.
I fell back against the bed, like a meteor had hit me. "You…made…the X Parasites? You created Queen X?" I gasped, too stunned to move. I should've suspected it all along. That was why the Chozo respected all life in the galaxy except them. That must've been why they nearly wiped out the entire ecosystem. That must've been why they seemed more like creatures from a horror movie than any ordinary creature you'd meet. There was no way they could've been native to SR-388 at all. They were created…by this guy!
Finally, he recovered. "X Parasites, huh? I guess that is name that Galactic Federation gave them. Excellent name. I don't remember what I came up with, but I am sure it was hundred times worse than X Parasites. Mysterious! Deadly! Just perfect! Hehehehehahahaha!"
I couldn't take all that laughing anymore. "How could you, Dr. Jumba? How COULD YOU? If it weren't for Queen X, she never would've dragged me away from home! She never would've copied and nearly killed me—and my friends, too! All I wanna do is go home, but she won't even let me do that anymore! She's not going to stop until she kills us all, and then she'll murder everyone in the whole entire galaxy! And the worst part is, even if we somehow find the real her and beat her, all of those X Parasites will keep on multiplying forever and ever! We'll never be able to make things right again!" With that, I broke down crying.
Luckily, even he calmed down to. "Oh. Actually…that is not entirely true. You are familiar with such Earth species as ants and bees, correct?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Well, Queen X was very first original X Parasite I make. If you put her in position where her life is in danger…every single X Parasite in galaxy should rush to her rescue!"
My jaw dropped. My heart rose in hope. I stood up and jumped up and down in excitement right in front of him. "Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU, Dr. Jumba! That's how you beat her? Then we have a chance! We'll be able to save the galaxy! Wait." I calmed down and stepped back. "What exactly do you mean, 'put her in a position where her life is in danger…?'"
"Mmmm…I don't know. Maybe destroy her outer shell and…bring Metroid to try and absorb her. Just a minute. You said you and your friends have Metroid DNA? Perhaps that may work, too."
I sat down, totally overwhelmed. "Wow. I mean…wow. This is amazing! I have to tell everyone!" An odd detail suddenly occurred to me. "Wait. How come they let you in here anyway, Dr. Jumba?"
"Oh, easy! I requested that I see hardened Most Wanted criminal and obtain answers for trial. Looks like I wasn't prepared for past experiment to bite me in batookey like this! Heheheh! Naughty little girl, that Queen X. Very naughty."
Right then, the window-wall opened, and two more of those security robots floated into the room. They bound my hands behind my back with some mysterious red laser and ordered, "All right, prisoner, now move it! Your trial will begin in 2 mintues and 23 seconds." They pushed me out of the room and onto a moving platform, allowing Jumba to move on with them. But right then, another platform came and connected with ours. The robot on that platform pushed Jumba on with it.
"Wait! Dr. Jumba! Where are you going?" I shouted after him.
"Heh heh! To briefing room! And don't worry, my little carbon-based humanoid part of mosquito food chain. Federation Trial should go very quickly, and I help you!" With that, the platform he was on zoomed away, leaving me to focus on where my platform was taking me.
It carried me up, up, and out through the roof of the prison. I couldn't see Grovyle in the cell next to me or my friends anywhere else, so I hoped that they were already up there somewhere, safe. The whole time, the two security robots (one at my left, the other at my right) stared at me sharply, prepared to take action if I were to even so much as twitch a muscle. Kinda hard to not do on a moving platform, but I stayed as still as I possibly could.
We were swept through corridors, up shafts, down entryways, and more. Finally, with 30 seconds left, my platform rose up through the dark depths of a massive room. Light poured in. I found myself floating in the middle of the void, with stands of alien diplomats to my left and right. The High Council stood about 25 feet in front of me, though the Grand Councilwoman wasn't there at the moment. Just as I thought. This Galactic Federation was a Legislative, Executive, AND a Judicial Branch of government all rolled in one, which at any other time I would've thought to be totally awesome…but I was too freaked out to think so at the time.
"Little Amy! You're okay!" whispered a voice to my immediate left.
"Big Amy! Chikorita! Did anyone visit you guys?" I asked. The two of them were standing on their own platforms with security robots. Big Amy was closer, while Chikorita was farther away.
"No. What, did someone visit you?" whispered Chikorita.
A voice behind me spoke up. "Someone did, Chikorita. I heard voices. Who was it?" I turned around. Grovyle was to my immediate right, and I could see Kirby even farther away.
"Grovyle! I mean, guys! Listen up!" They did. "It was Dr. Jumba Jookiba, and guess what? He made the X Parasites!"
They all gasped in shock and awe. Kirby exclaimed, "No way! Weally?", only to have one of the security robots electrocute him from behind. Yikes. He almost lost those Jigglypuff ears.
"Yeah, really!" I whispered. "And he knows how to beat them! All we have to do is defeat Queen X and try to absorb her, and then every single X Parasite in the galaxy will arrive to try and defend her!"
There was silence from my friends all around. Finally, Samus' voice sounded from behind me. "I see. So a mad scientist created them…and it's still possible to save the galaxy. I knew those little buggers were too powerful to be natural creatures." I turned around. She was also standing on a platform with security robots, and apparently, someone deactivated her Power Suit too, as she was stuck in her Zero Suit now. I felt terrible inside. She was the best bounty hunter in the galaxy in upholding the law. She wasn't supposed to be here. None of us were, actually, but especially not her.
"Samus…I'm sorry…" I whispered.
"Don't be, Amy. I'll figure a better way out of this. I promise," she replied.
Right then, all the alien diplomats in the stands grew quiet. I turned myself back to face the front. The lights dimmed, and a spotlight lit the center of the High Council. We heard footsteps, and I wasn't surprised to see that the Grand Councilwoman emerged into the spotlight. She was a tall, blue alien, taller than me (but not quite as tall as a Wuudite), wearing an authoritative black-and-yellow bodysuit with a cape in the back for added effect. Despite a few wrinkles on her face, her eyes were sharp, radiating with authority and strictness. She emitted a much more intimidating aura than I ever remembered from the movie.
She stared at us one by one, and I shivered. It took me back to the time I first saw the movie when I was only 8 years old. Back then, not only did Experiment 626 a.k.a. Stitch's ferocity scare me to death, but I worried about what would happen if I were to ever be subjected to judgment under the Grand Councilwoman and all of these alien diplomats. And now it was all coming true. Looked like Queen X hit the jackpot this time. I didn't even see any humans around. The Grand Councilwoman then ordered to someone behind her, "Read the charges."
A giant, thick-limbed commander alien way taller than the Grand Councilwoman bent down and picked up the little piece of paper she was holding. Yep, even Captain Gantu was here too. He read aloud, "Kirby the Star Warrior…Grovyle…Amy [you know who]…Amy Vee Purima…Chikorita…and Samus Aran, Bounty Hunter. The six of you stand before this council, accused, of…" He then bent down and typed a few buttons before he continued reading. Several holograms popped up around us, each containing video footage of beings looking just like us performing various criminal activities, then escaping immediately.
"Vandalism on the 41st floor of building 4290…breaking and theft of the National Bank…murder of the 1st degree on…"
I couldn't hear the rest. I was too stunned…and too angry. Of course we'd never do any of these horrible, horrible deeds. Only Queen X and her X Parasite lackeys would ever resort to something this low.
"How do you plead?" asked the Grand Councilwoman.
"Not guilty!" we all shouted, although Big Amy, Chikorita, and Kirby took it upon themselves to repeat it over and over again. We heard laughter, along with a few gasps in the audience, and some even slapped their faces in disbelief. Yeah, it was probably stupid to deny the charges when we were on live TV, but those people weren't us at all. How were we going to convince them of the truth, though?
"Bring forward the evidence," she commanded.
A huge, roundish blue ship emerged from the hangar doors in the back. This was the part in the movie when Stitch was about to be revealed. Surely, this was the ship that held DNA samples found at those crime scenes. Captain Gantu explained, "Here are the samples of DNA we have collected at the scenes of the crimes."
I shivered in dismay. I was right. We were so screwed.
The ship set down pieces of hair, random junk, money, and more on little hover pods. A scanning tube from the undersides of the devices ran a laser scan over all that junk, and all of the little hologram videos turned off to be replaced by a single bigger hologram screen showing exactly five DNA strands. Hey, that's right! Queen X never copied Kirby! So why was he arrested in the first place? Hmm…maybe because he was with us, and they thought he was a new accomplice?
The security robots then scanned all of us, uploading our data to the screen to comparison. I cringed. But I had some hope that at least Kirby would go free.
"DNA mismatch," chirped the machine. I opened my eyes in shock.
"Huh?" gasped my friends. They couldn't believe it either. Several members in the stands started discussing the unbelievable outcome. Here we were on TV, and yet the DNA didn't match at all.
"Silence!" ordered the Grand Councilwoman. Even she appeared to be in shock…and if I wasn't mistaken, anger. She then turned to me and asked, "Amy [you know who], would you care to explain this discrepancy for us?"
"YES!" I jumped into the air in exultation, but then the security robots zapped me. "OW! Okay, okay…Everyone, listen up. All of those people you saw in those videos weren't really us. They were really the X Parasites, copying us and framing us for everything they did!"
I then explained everything about the X Parasites with Samus' help, just as I explained them to Dr. Jumba. Samus even gave her own anecdote about the time she first encountered and was infected by them on Planet SR-388. Finally, I got to the explanation about Zoroark and Queen X.
"…so anyway, as of right now, Queen X is going to attack this place any second now! She wants us out of the way first, because we have Metroid DNA! She and the X Parasites can't copy Metroid DNA, so that's why these results don't add up!" I finished.
We waited as the Grand Councilwoman thought it all over. Several of the alien diplomats aahed in understanding. I was so grateful for the chance to explain our side of the story. Dr. Jumba was right. We could prove our innocence after all!
And then she handed down her judgment. "Very well. Given the evidence and your testimonies, I hereby drop all charges for the six of you."
We all cheered and sighed in relief.
"However…according to your testimony, these 'X Parasites' and this 'Queen X' is still at large. We need them to reveal themselves before we can give them a proper trial and punish them appropriately. Furthermore, they committed these crimes only because of you six specifically. I am therefore—"
"Grand Councilwoman. All available evidence has not yet been presented." The hair rose on the back of my neck. I knew that robotic, digitized voice. A door slid open in the front of the ship, and out slid that same steering-wheel-type robot we all knew as...
"Auto!" we all exclaimed at once.
"What are you doing here?" gasped Big Amy.
"I thought—the Axiatomic Link—I mean, you were just there, and—how did you get here?" stammered Chikorita.
"That is classified information," he replied, not paying any attention to us.
The Grand Councilwoman ordered, "Oh, never mind them. Present to us the rest of the evidence, Auto."
"Very well."
He stretched forward—like, 20 feet forward—and pressed a few more buttons on the panel in front of the High Council. More data files were brought up, and I gasped. It was the files for Amy Vee Purima and me! He zoomed in to the date of births and deaths—or in my case, the day of my disappearance. Dread creeped around my stomach. I forgot. What would happen now?
"As is apparent, Amy Vee Purima's date of death clearly occurred on August 23, 2499. Yet she is still standing here today, and is now a Pokémon!"
We heard several gasps of alarm and disbelief from the stands. Big Amy stammered, "I—I can explain—I mean, it's complicated, but…"
He interrupted her by moving onto my data file. "Amy [you know who]. Born November 13, 1991. Mysteriously disappeared June 23, 2010. Neither of them should exist today, yet on June 23, 2510, only 1.23 months ago, they were issued passports and partook in many activities in this very Gaijin City."
More gasps of shock and alarm. "What about the green people and the blue puffball and Samus?" shouted a random alien from the stands.
The Grand Councilwoman ignored the question. "What does this mean, Auto?"
"It can only mean one thing. Somehow, they have violated Regulation 2035.24, which strictly prohibits any attempt to travel through time. The ultimate penalty is recommended for violators. Furthermore, since these six were working together, it is implied that they were accomplices."
"I see. This is terrible news, indeed." She picked up her gavel and smashed it against another mystery button on the counter. "I have come to a new judgment. I hereby sentence the six of you to Asteroid Prison 3X-018 for immediate execution!"
My heart jumped a mile into the air in dismay. "WHAAAAAT?" I shouted. So did Big Amy, Chikorita, and Kirby. I mean, how could she possibly come to that kind of conclusion? Why the heck did Auto have to come in and totally ruin our chances?
All of the other alien diplomats were just as shocked as I was. They all started arguing back, but the Grand Concilwoman shouted, "My decision is FINAL!"
Right then, glass jars materialized over our heads, trapping us in. Auto retreated back into the spaceship, which then flew overhead to the roof right above us. Our platforms began to rise into the air. I shouted back, "Wait! Grand Councilwoman! You can't kill us! We're the only ones who can stop the X Parasites!"
She just looked up at me and replied coldly, "Oh, I am sure we can perform the necessary extractions of Metroid DNA on you and your friends. It should be enough for our own defense." Then right before we were completely sucked into the ship, she did the most out-of-character thing the Grand Councilwoman could ever do. She winked at me.
And the horrible truth hit me like a 2000-ton weight. I've always thought Queen X was just as annoyingly evil as Saint Dane from the Pendragon series of books by D.J. Machale…but I was wrong. She was ten times worse.
The real Grand Councilwoman was already dead. Queen X had been copying her all along.
To be continued…
Coming up next: This conspiracy went way deeper than I thought. She's copied the Grand Councilwoman! And now she's sending us to be executed right before she makes her move and kills every single alien diplomat in the Galactic Federation! Can we convince the executioners of the truth? Can we escape? Can we make it time? Will we find a shocking truth about Zork, Zark, and Zoroark, that they are…Brothers In Execution?