Cosmo was in his office, waiting for the conference call from the network. He always hated these things. It was nothing more than a bunch of special interests and corporate shills sticking their noses where they didn't belong and they weren't needed. Cosmo alone understood the artistic and financial masterpiece of entertainment he had created from the ground up with Galaxy Warriors, and there was little if anything that anyone could teach him about how to gain and keep an audience considering the fact he had been consistently the most popular show in the universe by a significant margin.
Still, even Cosmo had people he needed to lend an ear to. He was only broadcast as long as networks were willing to broadcast. A sizeable chunk of his revenue came from advertising and sponsors, and so he had to appease them by working their messages into his shows in a way that showed them in a good light, or just as good, their competitors in a BAD light. A Kudabot came into the room, carrying a bottle of brandy and a glass, pouring one for him.
"Leave the bottle." He muttered as the phone started ringing. "I have a feeling I'm going to need it."
The Kudabot did as it was told, leaving Cosmo alone as he activated the conference phone in his desk, crossing his feet up on the desk as he leant back in his chair, taking a sip of his brandy.
"You're go for Cosmo Royale, entertainer, entrepreneur, and showman extraordinaire!" He announced, lighting up a cigar.
"You've been ducking our calls Cosmo!" Someone greeted him gruffly. "We've been trying to schedule this for..."
"I'm sorry, who is this?" He asked.
"Karo, CEO of Karo..."
"Karo Military Supplies Enterprises." Cosmo said, pulling up his name on a computer. He scrolled through some files to find out more about him.
"Yes, one of your sponsors..."
"Who contributes precisely 0.000003 percent of our revenue which means I really don't care who you are." Cosmo stated.
"I've never been so insulted...!"
"Then you clearly haven't gotten out much." Cosmo interrupted him. "Your contribution rated against the value of our show works out as approximately 3 second of my time which has already expired, so...new rule, you don't talk anymore! Begone!"
"Mr Royale." Another voice said. This one was a voice he did want to listen to; this was Reinhardt, one of the network CEOs that carried his show. "We are thoroughly delighted with your show as usual. It is bringing in a tremendous amount of viewers as usual..."
"Yes, of course, and believe me I never tire of hearing it." Cosmo said, taking a long drag of his cigar.
"Yes, but...we've gotten some letters of concerns from some special interest groups that have us a little concerned." He continued.
"Oh, do tell." Cosmo replied, feigning interest.
"Well, not to put too fine a point on it...some are a little concerned about the graphic nature of the violence on your show." Reinhardt stated.
"Violence?" Cosmo asked.
"Well...some examples that have been cited...the ruler of the Lion Galaxy was seen being torn in half, a Mercurian was frozen with liquid nitrogen and shattered, and as recently as this week, the champion Galvanax had a sword rammed through his shoulder." Reinhardt read out. Cosmo just looked to the conference phone, imagining the man on the other end wearing a bright red clown nose and rainbow wig.
"They ARE aware it's LITERALLY a show about monsters fighting right?" He asked.
In the Shop Class, Mick had been careful to ensure all of the students had left before inviting Redbot out to look at something with him. The robot was always keen to get out of the base and do some exploring. While there were enough secret entrances through Mick's eccentric ways and obsession for over-engineering everything he touched that they had no worries about Redbot getting in and out without being seen, but since he couldn't be seen, he could only really explore the woods around the city. It was just as well he liked nature, but it did mean he had so much still to see that he knew he couldn't because of the dangers it presented.
"Sizzling circuits, I see why you like this place so much!" Redbot commented as he looked around. "This really does look like one of your young's toy boxes."
"Mhmm..." Mick said, only half listening to Redbot as he considered something. Redbot came over.
"What is it Mick?" He asked.
"Tell me what you think of this bike." Mick said, pointing to a bike in the corner. Redbot took a quick look at it, giving it a cursory glance.
"It's quite a remarkable project...inspired even." Redbot concluded.
"One kid took three junker motor cycles and managed to throw this together." Mick told him. Redbot started to perform a closer scan of the bike.
"I'd almost swear this was a brand new bike." Redbot declared. "Some of the parts are almost completely constructed from scratch."
"Calvin made this." Mick told him. Redbot just looked up to him.
"Well I certainly hope you're giving him an A for this." He answered.
"Redbot, I've seen Calvin's work first hand on Nitro. It's good, certainly far better than I'd expect for...you know...and Earthling of his age." Mick told him. "Even with access to better parts and tools I'd expect a bump in performance, but this...This is the kind of thing I'd expect from a university student."
"He's really that good?" Redbot asked. "I might just have him look at this creaking ankle joint I've had..."
"Redbot, his skills in mechanics have jumped a significant way in a very short period of time." Mick told him. "Like...about a decade of ability in around a fortnight?"
"You mean...?"
"It looks like it." Mick stated. "I think we can safely say Calvin's been affected by the Ninja Steel."
"That could be a huge asset to the team." Redbot said as he thought about it. "Who knows, he may end up as good as you."
"Please, no one's as good as me." Mick replied, waving him off as Redbot headed back towards the Paint Room.
Back in his office, Cosmo was pacing the room, his ire beginning to grow with the increasingly ridiculous and inane thoughts and suggestions from his backers. Right now, he was listening to some comments from a broadcaster based on customer surveys he had done.
"So, the thing is...we were wondering about the educational value of your show..."
"I'd say it's very educational." Cosmo interrupted him. "Galvanax once tore off both of his opponent's arms and beat him to death with them. I'm perfectly certain I've never heard of anyone else allowing that to happen to them."
"Well...it's more the KIND of things you're teaching people. In particular, we're a little worried about diversity in your show." Another of the faceless talking heads he really couldn't be fussed to learn the names of chimed in.
"Diversity?" He asked. "I have monsters from literally every system in the universe on my show, what could be more diverse than that?"
"It's just that you had a Yukari on your show once who was dressed in purple." He responded. "The Yukari are purple."
"And?" Cosmo asked.
"You also had a Drecai on the show, who was dressed in red." He continued. "And the Drecai are..."
"Yes, the Drecai are red." Cosmo stated. "Is this really what people are offended by? Tell me...is it an entry requirement that all the people you poll morons?"
Elsewhere on the Warrior Dome, Wrench found Madame Odious wandering the corridor. He could see she was once again heading for her secret room, only this time she was on her own. Since he couldn't find the Kudabots that she had with her before, he presumed that she would just take a couple as needed and then erase their immediate memory in order to ensure secrecy. It was one of the drawbacks to mechanical cohorts; at least the viviks couldn't really have their memories erased...even if it was a little difficult to understand them sometimes.
He approached her as she stopped by the poster, tapping her on the shoulder before she was able to take her cursory look for pursuers. Seeing him, she grabbed him and shoved him against the wall, pulling out something that looked a lot like a hammer and raised it high.
"YOU!" She barked, glaring at him. "What are you doing here?"
"I was sent to find you!" Wrench told her. "I was talking to Cosmo and he was considering using someone from your stable in the next show."
"WHAT?" She snapped.
"He wants to use one of your fighters." Wrench explained again. Odious had to think for a minute to process this. She was so wrapped up in her latest project that she had almost forgotten all about her managerial duties. A number of fighters left the negotiations for their contracts to her, in exchange for a twenty percent cut. It was a distraction right now, she wanted to concentrate on her secret project, but even she knew that she needed to pay the bills. She put the hammer away and released Wrench.
"What did he say exactly?" She asked him.
"He said he wants something creepy." Wrench told her. "He said creepy is in right now."
"Creepy hmm..." She said, stroking her chin thoughtfully for a moment. "I think I know just the creepy crawly he might be looking for. Leave it with me; I just need to find where he's stuffing his face."
As she left, Wrench waited a few minutes to ensure that she was gone, before attaching his device and typing in a few keys. The door opened and Wrench stepped inside.
Back in his office, Cosmo was steadily draining his bottle of brandy, all while listening to the conference phone, imagining all sorts of delightfully painful murder scenarios he could inflict on his tormentors.
"So, did you get my report on the suggestions I made?" One of the talking heads asked him.
"Oh yes, I certainly did." Cosmo stated, tearing off a sheet of it, making a paper aeroplane with it. "You can rest assured; I am giving it nothing but the utmost of my attention."
With that, he tossed the plane through a candle, where it caught light and glided to the floor. Cosmo pumped a fist into the air.
"I was just wondering if you'd like to comment on the complaints I heard from the Ninninjer Galaxy about the last Galvanax episode." He started.
"Yes...yes...that one was most...um...interesting." Cosmo said, trying to find a way to coax the details out without letting on he hadn't read the report beyond the first few lines when he had determined it was far too stupid to concern him with.
"In particular they were concerned about Lord Galvanax's kiai." He commented. "They said that it sounds a lot like curse words in their language and they were concerned that people would think he was swearing. Could you have a word with him about that?"
"Tell you what, Galvanax loves meeting fans, I'll happily arrange a meeting and you can discuss the matter with him yourself." Cosmo suggested. "Let me know how that works out will you?"
"Mr Royale, I'm not sure you're taking this entirely seriously." Another of the talking heads said.
"Oh, when it comes to matters relating to my business, I always take things seriously." Cosmo said as he took the report and started to mime wiping his ass with it. "You can rest assured I'm considering each and every one of your comments with an open mind."
"Well, I thought it was interesting that a few of your viewers were concerned that Galvanax seems to scowl a lot when he's fighting." The talking head continued.
"Well, strictly speaking it's a helmet, but do go on." Cosmo told him.
"Well...they say it makes him look a little mean, kind of aggressive." He carried on. "They were wondering if he could perhaps smile a little more."
"But you were concerned with the violence in the show." Cosmo remembered.
"Yes."
"And so you want him now to smile while he's fighting."
"Yes."
"So he'll look like he's ENJOYING the violence." Cosmo concluded. "And you don't at all see how that's completely contradictory to your previous message."
"Mr Royale..."
"Sir, you are a moron, kindly stop talking." Cosmo told him.
"Mr Royale..."
"In fact, I think I've had my fill of stupid for the day. If you'll excuse me gentlemen, I have a show to run!" With that, he cut off the line, literally severing the cable with a sword, before sweeping the phone off the table, where it smashed against the wall. A Kudabot came into the room.
"Clean that up would you?" Cosmo asked, making his way out of the room. "I need to see what Odious has in mind for my next show."
Down on Earth, Hayley pulled up into Calvin's driveway and pulled on the parking brake before killing the engine. She took the keys from the ignition and smiled.
"Just think, not too long from now you might be able to do this yourself." She commended him. "Then I won't have to drive from school to your house and still have to walk to mine."
"Hayley, you live just down the street." Calvin reminded her. "I can see your house from here."
"Yeah, well...just think, you'll be able to take Nitro out all by yourself." She told him. "You could even come and pick me up for school."
"Yeah, maybe if I ever end up driving faster than three miles an hour." Calvin grumbled.
"We all start somewhere Cal." She giggled. "When I took my first lesson my dad wouldn't speak to me for a week because of how much I'd scared him."
"Really? Your dad's so chill though." Calvin responded.
"Yeah...he wasn't that day." She admitted. She reached across, cradling his face. "I love you Calvin. You can do this, I know you can."
With that, she leaned across, kissing him softly.
"Aw man, why do you have to do that in front of me all the time?" She heard a voice say.
"Will you just shut UP!" Hayley called out, looking around. She couldn't see anyone, just like before...only now she could see that Calvin was looking at her.
"Hayley, who are you talking to?" He asked her. She looked decidedly worried.
"I thought I heard..." She gulped as she realised what she was about to say, seeing her boyfriend looking at her out of concern. She was about to tell her boyfriend she was hearing voices that no one else did. She just shook her head. "It's...it's nothing."
"Hayley..."
"Come on Kody." She said, opening the back and letting Kody get out.
"Hayley, what is it?" Calvin asked her.
"Cal, I'm fine!" She called back.
Calvin watched her go, running his hands through his hair. He didn't know what was going on with Hayley, but the one thing he was confident about was that she was not as 'fine' as she was trying and failing spectacularly to make him believe she was.
Up on the Warrior Dome, Wrench went through a corridor, finding himself in a section of the ship he didn't even know existed. It opened out into a lab that was in many ways impressive, though he felt a chill to witness it. While his science did include biology, his main areas were chemistry and physics, but looking at Odious' lab, it seemed that her experiments were more in the wheelhouse of dissection, vivisection and other things too unspeakable even for him to contemplate.
He looked around at some of the machines, and could tell they were for performing experiments on living creatures. Though seeing some of the specimens she had in various stages of her experiments and in preservatives, he had to wonder if what they had could even be called a life. Most of them, he imagined, would thank him for pulling the plug.
He stopped as he heard a grunt, and turned to see where it came from, but when he saw that it was one of her experiments, and it was restrained, he satisfied himself he was in no danger.
He approached slowly, this specimen was decidedly different. For one thing, it appeared this specimen was being kept pretty much intact, and for another, it was a human. He couldn't see who, he had some kind of strange helmet over his head, concealing his face, and the wires coming from it gave him the impression it wasn't just a fancy blindfold. He approached the stranger, who was jerking around. At first he thought he might be experiencing electric shocks, but the movements weren't erratic enough. It was more like he was seeing and hearing things that deeply traumatised him.
"Now who are you?" Wrench asked, though he doubted even if the stranger could hear him he'd be able to form much of an answer. He noticed another human in the corner, though this one appeared to either be dead or unconscious. He approached this one, and noticed he was unrestrained, though he was connected to the same machine.
"What are you up to Odious?" Wrench asked. He got to the point he was face-to-face with the other stranger, when suddenly his eyes jerked open, startling Wrench. He let out a yelp and ran from the room as fast as his legs would carry him. The unrestrained human just smirked, and closed his eyes, returning to his inert state.