Chapter 32 Through the Never

AN: First I wanna thank the Beta Team of CajumBear and Sentinel. They put up with my sending bit and pieces of these chapters over and over while I try to put this disjointed story together. You Dudes Rock!

Song located at Youtube, this link /watch?v=dJ0ajjs0lMo

Title: Through the Never

Artist: Metallica

Go ahead and get the page ready, trust me. Because when it's time for the music to start you're not gonna wanna pause to find it.

Also, I know I have pointed this out before. Still. Unlike some authors who just drop the songs lyrics into a story, I try to time the song to the story flow. The way I try to use the music is to set the tone. It's not intended that you read the lyrics, they're just there to help with the timing.

Inside the lab, Shunya and Ayame logged onto separate computers to take their minds off of the worry about a family member who was heading into a conflict situation, much like a law enforcement officer, which she basically was, as well as the boredom of being locked inside what was for all intents and purposes a bank vault. Unnoticed by either of them, as soon as they tried to log on, lights on several towers started flashing.

In the back seat of the car, his palmtop pinged him letting him know that two of the servers inside the lab showed someone accessing them locally. Pulling up the labs cameras and remote desktops, he saw Shunya and Ayame Chidori trying to log on. He tapped in the codes to let them have limited access and start the 'Nanny' software on Ayame's tower.

Once he finished, he remotely accessed a variety of sensors, satellites and data inputs. One of the many programs he had running noted two high speed ground targets in the area. Pulling the traffic cameras, he saw that one of the targets was the Galaxie he was riding in.

The other was a dark blur moving through the middle of town. It could only be Kaname in Eleanor. Pulling back, he jumped ahead of the probable route she was taking. He kept jumping ahead until he saw a way to slow or stop her for a while. With a grin, he hacked the databases he needed to put the road block in place. Before that though.

"Hey, guys. Pass me your Kimmunicators."

Kim looked over her shoulder into the backseat to see Wade punching away at the customized keyboard for his Kimmunicator with one hand holding his other hand out waiting for the pair in the front to pass them back. Kim slipped hers back to the genius, but Ron had to have Kim reach into his cargo pocket to retrieve his because he didn't dare take his hands from the wheel. He was going too fast and needed every bit of control to avoid the light traffic on the road.

Once Wade had the devices he opened the back of each and using a small pointed tool from his vest, he moved a few micro-switches, muttering "Lets see em track us now." Once he had the GPS locators switched off he turned his attention back to the servers based back in the lab and started entering commands the net.

The sirens were starting to give her a headache, but she didn't dare turn them off. She blasted through the south end of town past the suburban areas towards Lowerton. Eleanor had her driving along a road paralleling one of the railway terminals on the edge of town.

"Kaname, the signal for Ronald's Kimmunicator has just cut off."

"Can you tap any overheads?"

"Working…… There are two satellites overhead, but neither is responding to command interfaces. Probable reason is they have been locked out by Dr. Load."

"Damn it. Were they still heading to that warehouse?"

"Affirmative."

Unknown to her and hidden from Eleanor's electronic scanning, a set of locomotives on the far end of the terminal received instructions to start to assemble a freight train for departure. Eleanor noted the train moving and informed Kaname.

"Kaname, you must come to a stop before the rail crossing."

"What? Why?"

"Because there is not enough time for you to pass the crossing before the train blocks the crossing."

"Like Hell!" Kaname had been going as fast as she dared until then. Hearing Eleanor's pronouncement, she floored the accelerator pushing the 500 CID engine harder.

An instant later the car started slowing down and Eleanor said "Kaname, even if we were already at top speed it is too late. Between acceleration and travel time the fastest we could pass the crossing would be 21 seconds. The train will cross in 17 seconds. I am armored against attacks up to and including .50 caliber and RPG strikes. But a 750 meter train is something else entirely. We must either wait out the train or find an alternate route."

"Grrr, find it."

Searching……alternate route on HUD. We must backtrack to a road that leads to the same bypass Team Possible is using. This rail terminal was one of the reasons the bypass was built."

The track Eleanor laid out was miles behind them. "How long?"

"STD calculations complete. At best speed alternate route adds twenty minutes to travel time. We would arrive twenty to thirty minutes behind Team Possible."

"What about the train? How long till it's out of the way?"

"Searching….Estimate 25 to 30 minutes before the train clears the crossing. Kaname, according to the railway database, this freight train was not supposed to start assembly for another forty-four minutes. I suspect Dr. Load is tampering to prevent our intercept"

"Great, just great! Fine!" Kaname spun the wheel around and powered through a spin, reversing her direction, heading back the way she came. "At this rate we'll be too late!"

"Kaname, I have established communications with the Arbalest AI. Data shows he is on a return course to our area. Sergeant Sagara is onboard. Crossfeeding data. Do you wish to open voice communications with Sergeant Sagara?"

"YES!"

There was a pause as the AI contacted her counterpart in the mecha. "Go ahead, Kaname."

As an Arm Slave pilot, Staff Sergeant Sousuke Sagara had always relied heavily on the mecha's AI to keep him alive. More so now than before, because he was flying a LOT lower then he normally did. He had to stay well below normal civilian, commercial and military traffic, but either fly above or avoid any ground obstacles that were in his flight path. It wasn't an easy balance to strike. The only reason he hadn't crashed yet was the terrain following programs built into the AI. It took a lot of concentration not to paste him across the landscape.

"Sergeant Sagara, there is an incoming transmission from Miss Chidori. Do you with to accept communication link?" Sagara barely pulled up in time to avoid clipping one of the cellular towers that dotted the semi-urban landscape.

"Affirmative. Go ahead Kaname-chan."

"Since you're on your way back early, I guess you heard what happened at G.J.?"

"Affirmative, I received a text based message from Commander Director reporting events and her assessment of the probable actions of Stoppable-san."

Kaname drifted through a turn. "Well it's worse then she thought. Kim and Wade are with him. It looks like Wade's trying to stop us. He tapped into the net and stuck a train in our way." She chuckled, "You have to admire his ingenuity."

Sousuke juked under a high tension power line. "Have you tried contacting them?"

"No response from their Kimmunicators. We were tracking Ron's for a while but the signal cut off."

Sousuke addressed the two AI's "Al, Eleanor, analysis."

There were the sounds of high speed data transfer as the two AI's conferred. Al responded, "We believe that Dr. Load has disabled the GPS trackers in the Kimmunicators."

Kaname roared past another car as she asked, "What about the rig in the car? Wade set it up, so I bet it has coms."

Both AI's said, "Accessing." Eleanor responded for the both of them. "According to the schematics, it does. Also, we can force the set in the car to open a channel. Should we do so?"

Kaname said, "Give us a minute, guys. Sousuke?"

Inside the piece of Detroit Steel fast approaching its destination, the occupants were startled by the stereo in the dash ejecting part of itself and flipping to reveal LCD screen. With a burst of static, the small LCD monitor split screened revealing Kaname on one side and Sagara on the other. Neither were looking at the camera, concentrating instead on the vehicles they were in. "Stoppable-san, this is Sergeant Sagara, come in." While Kaname had vastly better interpersonal skills, she knew that Sousuke was in a much better position to understand and hopefully reach Ron

Ron concentrated on the road. He had no wish to listen to anyone that was going to try and talk him out of what was coming.

"Stoppable-san, come in, please."

Kim looked over at her best friend, boyfriend, Partner and soulmate. "Ron."

Ron just looked at the road in front of him, hands white-knuckled on the wheel, while Kim pleaded with him. She wanted to touch him, but she knew he had to stay focused on the road. "Ronnie, I'll follow you anywhere." She glanced into the back seat to see the smoldering eyes of her youngest teammate. She could tell he was almost as furious as Ron at Du's treachery. "So would Wade. But talk to him. Please?" Kim knew she had little to no chance of talking Ron out of the state of mind he was in.

Ron savagely tapped the connect. "What do you want, Sagara? I'm little busy."

"Stoppable-san, you must not terminate the target. You need him alive."

Ron screamed at the connection, "He killed ROGER. He nearly killed the rest of my family. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THAT FEELS LIKE?"

"Yes I do. ALL my family was killed when I was six." Ron nearly lost control gaping at the screen. He had completely forgotten about that. "And I was there in your family's home, remember? This man nearly killed Kaname and her family as well." Sousuke's image was visibly trembling with rage. "Believe me, better than anyone, I understand the desire, the NEED for vengeance."

"Damn it, Sagara, he nearly killed you, too."

"Compared to the threats against Kaname-chan and the rest of you, that is meaningless to me. Just as I'm sure it is to you in the same situation. Threats to Possible-san carry infinitely more weight than threats to you, do they not? Stoppable-san, the target is a traitor and a mole. But a mole for WHO? Like when a lizard loses its tail. What get's left behind becomes a distraction to a predator while the lizard escapes. Your target is merely the tail."

"The question you have to ask yourself is do you want the hand that pulled the trigger, or would you rather have the mind behind the hands actions? I know how you feel, the hurt, the anger, the Rage. But, if you give in to your rage, then you will be no better then those you are trying to kill. And worse, you will leave the mind behind the actions of the hand untouched. And like the lizard regrows its tail, that mind can strike at us again in the future."

Ron growled, "You sound a lot like Sensei."

"I spent years learning to not give in the rage. His teachings were a large part of the education process."

Ron looked in the mirror at his young friend in the back seat. Wade just nodded. Ron then looked at the young woman buckled in beside him. She didn't even have to nod. They just looked at each other for a split second.

For years, he had gone places and done things, at both their suggestions and commands. Freak-fighting beside Kim, trying his best to do what he had to, to watch her back. Or his solo missions, doing whatever Wade said he needed to do to get the job done. This time was different, this was HIS mission and both would follow his lead.

"Alright Sagara, I'm not just gonna flat out kill him. We'll try to bring his sorry ass in. But so help me God…." Ron just trailed off, watching the road, flint-eyed, tight lipped and breathing hard through his nose.

"I understand completely Stoppable-san. Do you wish to wait for us as reinforcements?"

"Wade thinks he's getting ready to bug out of the lair he's in. We better hit it as soon as we can. Can you guys keep coming as a backup?"

"Load-sensei, can you confirm your destination?"

"Just a sec." Using the palmtop, Wade sent the data the AI's

When he saw it flash up on the screen, the Sergeant asked, "Al, Eleanor?"

Eleanor quipped, "Well if we don't have to avoid another train, we should be on target in 25 to 30 minutes. Arbalest?" Wade had a rueful grin, muttering "Sorry."

The basso voice of the combat mecha replied, "Thirty-five minutes to intercept."

Wade tapped again and said, "That means that Kaname will be about fifteen minutes behind us and Sagara about twenty."

Kim looked at the screen and said, "You two should wait and come in together."

"Kaname-chan, are you carrying my weapons bag?"

She grinned, "Yours and mine both. Both were loaded and checked a few days ago by Wade."

"Team Possible, we will assault upon our arrival unless we receive the word to stand down. Agreed?"

"Sounds good. We'll see you there."

As Team Possible reached their destination, Wade sent a message to both Al and Eleanor, informing them about some of the additions and changes to the weapons bags for Kaname and Sagara. One device in particular.

After they parked the car, Wade pulled a duffel from the rear floorboard and called out, "Hey, hold up a sec." He started pulling things from some of the side pouches and passed them a couple of headsets. "Use these for commo. They use a 256 bit encryption, would take 'em weeks to figure out what were saying and by then we'll have changed the encryption." The headsets had a bud for the ear and a small boom for the mic. They also had a band that wrapped around the head of the wearer to keep them in place.

As they settled the headsets in place, Wade continued pulling items from the main compartment, "Here, take a few of these with you. They'll come in handy!" He pulled several baseball sized objects that looked like twenty sided polyhedrons with a grenade type igniter, spoon and pin in the top. There were also several of long, heavy, thin springs attached to the bottom of the device with the ends that came up and secured the top near the igniter.

Ron asks "Grenades? Wade we already have plenty of grenades."

"Not like these, Ron. These are 'Goonades'"

Ron was confused. Not that unusual, but even Kim was slightly puzzled by what Wade was saying. Ron said, "Wade, ole buddy, why would we wanna give the goons any aid? The point is to stop them, right?"

"No Ron, you're missing the reference. These are 'Goo Grenades'. Goonades! Get it? You pull the pin, HARD, and toss it at the bad guys. Pulling the pin spins up a small internal gyroscope. After you throw it, the spoon flies off. It hits the ground, three seconds later, the spring legs cause it to flip upright and a pin called a 'pogo' comes out of the bottom bouncing it up to about a meter and a half. The gyro inside keeps it stable in the air. When it gets to the apex a stream of goo erupts from each face to a radius of five meters, sticking to anything like a cobweb. Each strand has a tensile breaking point of about five hundred pounds and they'll last for about an hour before breaking down."

The couple looked at their smaller partner with falling jaws.

"And since the best place for them to go off is about 5 to 7 feet above the ground the pogo inside automatically gets it there. Just be careful, don't try to 'cook' them off. They'll stick you just as fast as the bad guys."

Wade was grinning like a fool, "Bad guys got you pinned from behind a barrier or around a corner? Bounce one of these babies off the wall behind them and suddenly they're stuck like flies in a web. Wanna secure your 'six'; toss one in the hallway or corridor behind you. And the more they struggle the worse their stuck. Best of all, about the only danger to the bad guys is strangulation."

Kim could see more then just the two tactical situations Wade mentioned where the new device would be just the thing. She was ecstatic, "Spankin'! Wade, you're a genius."

Wade looked sheepish and said, "Wish I could take the credit for this, but the truth is, Drakken gave me these with the understanding I send him any field data. He said he got the idea from an old improvised mine called a 'Bouncing Betty'. G.J., the U.S. Army, the Marines and a whole buncha police agencies offered him contracts worth a coupla hundred million dollars to produce and improve the designs."

"From what I hear Jack Hench is frothing at the mouth trying to get his hands on the goo formula so he can design a counter to 'em, but Drakken's already working on Mark's II and III. Mark II gets fired from a shotgun like the beanbag rounds. With the Mark III, you'll be able to fire them from the standard M203 and Mk19 40mm grenade launchers. He's making money faster then he can spend it."

Ron observed. "Who knew? Drakken seems to be making a LOT more money going straight than he ever did being a villain. I guess if you can't rule the world you might as well be rich."

Kim and Ron both loaded several of the 'Goonades' into pockets and any open spaces on their armor.

Using the grapplers, Kim and Ron, with Kim pulling Wade, reached the top of the warehouse. Wade consulted his palmtop and pointed to a HVAC duct. They reached the duct and pried an opening. Wade ran a scan noting the positions of several human sized life forms. Some appeared to be moving material to trucks. Others were sitting in the ground floor office sections. All told there seemed to be about twenty people inside the building. A little much for a weekend at a building that was supposed to be empty in the first place. He cross loaded the data to the other Kimmunicators and set the feeds to update every few minutes.

When they entered the ducts Wade, since he had the least field time, was placed trailing Kim and ahead of Ron. Listening at each of the vents, eventually they heard the sounds of someone berating others. "Schnell! We must be loaded within the next thirty minutes! We must be gone before the Amateurs arrive!"

At the word 'Amateurs', Ron looked like he was about to tear through the wall of the duct. Will Du was below. Kim just looked over her shoulder and 'Looked' at Ron, shaking her head. She could see the blue haze starting to rise in his eyes before he mastered himself and let it fade away. He nodded to her to continue.

They tried to keep as quiet as possible, but Wade just didn't have the experience of the other two. Luckily inside the warehouse, the men had a couple forklifts running, masking the noise. Not knowing any better, Wade put his weight on top of a vent and crashed through into the warehouse below.

Ron saw his friend disappear. "Wade! KP?" Ron shuffled forward to see the only reason Wade didn't die from the fall was his landing in a crate of 'packing peanuts'. That was the good news. The bad news was his landing alerted the men moving material to the waiting trucks of their presence.

Instantly they brought the Styer SPP's they were carrying to the ready position and opened fire. "WADE!" Ron grabbed the lip of the vent Wade had fallen through, flipped into the open and dropped beside his friend. As Ron started dragging him backwards, a burst of 9mm fire stitched it's way across Ron's back, but the armor held. Ron screamed from the bruises and nearly fell, but he regained his feet and continued to pull his friend out of the line of fire.

Kim backed up to the opening Wade had fallen through in time to see Ron nearly fall. "RON!" She flipped to the ground near the other members of the Team and helped pull Wade as they all ducked behind a stack of crates with automatic gunfire going off in front of them, knocking off pieces of the crates, sending wooden splinters flying around them. The only problem now was they were pinned behind a stack of crates while 9mm fire tore chunks out of the crates, whittling away at their cover.

Through the Never START

After shaking off the unexpected fall, his training kicked in. Wade drew his Glock and fastened a strange device to the side of it, then pulled a pair of glasses from his vest. Putting on the glasses, he flipped a switch on the side of the device, raised the pistol, exposing only his hand and started firing almost as fast as he could pull the trigger. The goons stated scattering from the aimed fire from an enemy they couldn't see, let alone hit.

He kept firing until the slide locked to the rear. Pulling another clip, he ejected the first, reloaded the Glock and resumed sending rounds downrange. This time with a much more measured rate of fire. Looking at his shocked teammates he said, "We can't stay here long!"

All that is, was and will be
Universe much too big to see
Time and space never ending
Disturbing thoughts, questions pending
Limitations of human understanding

Shaking off the surprise of Wade's techno-gun, Ron hollered, "KP, Hammer and Anvil?"

"Left, Right, Full Shock! Wade, you keep their attention here for a few seconds. We'll handle the rest."

Wade gave the other two a savage grin. "I'll do more than keep their attention."

"Wade?"

"You do what you gotta do, don't worry about me. Wait for my signal." As the couple drifted to the sides, Wade fired a couple of rounds over the top of the barrier in the general direction of the enemy.

Too quick to criticize
Obligation to survive
We hunger to be alive
Yeeeaaaahh

He dropped his assault pack and pulled enough magazines to reload his pouches, occasionally firing over the top to keep their attention. Then he pulled a strange yellow and red belt out of the assault pack and fastened it around his waist. He replaced the pack and used the headset to tell Kim and Ron he was set and to wait for his signal.

(Twisting, turning, through the never)
All that is, ever
Ever was, will be, ever
Twisting, turning, through the never

Wade reholstered the Glock, then taking a page from Ron's book of distraction, got their full and undivided attention by going over the top of the crate he was using for cover and driving straight up the middle. Halfway to the line of goons, Wade hollered, "GO!", and all hell broke loose.

Seeing the teen charging straight into the teeth of the fire they were laying down shocked the men enough to slacken their fire for a second before they resumed pouring it into the oncoming teenager.

In the dark, see past our eyes
Pursuit of truth no matter where it lies
Gazing up to the breeze of the heavens
On a quest, meaning, reason
Come to be, how it begun

To absolutely no effect. Just before he charged, Wade tapped a button on the belt and a shimmering cylinder appeared around him. Wade had dug out Zorpox's shield belt from somewhere and was putting it to good use. While he couldn't fire through the shield, he could use it as a weapon itself by running into the enemy.

The power usage was enormous, but the results were worth it. While the shield was up, he was untouchable! Within seconds, Wade was in the middle of the enemy and every one of them was looking in at him and not out to the sides.

All alone in the family of the sun
Curiosity teasing everyone
On our home, third stone from the sun
Yeeeaaaah!

That was when Kim and Ron hit the flanks of squad sized group like a tsunami. Kim bolted from concealment running in an arc until she reached a stack of crates. Using the stack to change direction, she vaulted into the right flank of the goons with a double flip and a twist that made her petite form even smaller. She landed with a flurry of sticks and black clad, purple striped legs and feet.

(Twisting, turning, through the never)
All that is, ever
Ever was, will be, ever
Twisting, turning, through the never

Ron moved at the same time running full tilt at the wall on the left side and didn't stop. Reaching the wall he ran up and across, appearing from the left as a blue glowing, whirling dervish. Bodies went flying.

Wade didn't have to do anything else but stand there as the anvil to the two hammers coming in from opposite directions. He didn't have to, but he did. Keeping the shield up, he shifted from side to side throwing the enemy off balance and into the cyclones to the sides.

Guitar Riff…

One of the henchmen tried to get a bead on Kim with his pistol, but he overextended a fraction too far. Kim parried the gun bearing arm to the left with her right Escrima and without thinking brought the left across in a scissor action dislocating the mans elbow. Pivoting on her left foot, she brought the right Escrima around in a spinning backblow that caught the man on the side of his helmet, literally knocking him end over end. Turning her attention to the next henchmen in line, planting her right foot and lifting her left, she continued her clockwise spin, catching the man with her left boot. Teeth went flying.

On the other side, Ron had the Lotus Blade in the form of a Bo and was using more then a few low blows, breaking Femur's, Patella's, Tibia's and Fibula's left and right to reduce the pressure of the enemy on Kim and Wade. Not that they needed it. While Ron's anger hadn't reached murderous heights, he was through fucking around with these guys. They were the ones that brought firearms into the fight and he was gonna make 'em pay for that mistake. They would live through his retribution, but they would 'By God' feel it for the rest of their lives.

On through the never we must go
On through the never, out to the
Edge of forever we must go
On through the never, the never comes

When the center realized that Wade was untouchable and was merely bouncing back and forth, they turned their attention to the rapidly failing flanks. Mistake. When the goons looked away to concentrate on the 'Real Threat' to the sides, they quit firing at Wade and aimed their weapons to the left and right, trying to get a shot in that wouldn't hit one of their own.

Once their attention was off of him, Wade pressed the button to deactivate the shield. Just the few seconds he had it up had used forty percent of the power and he wanted to conserve it for later. Not that he needed it now anyway. He was too close to the enemy for them to shoot him without hitting a friendly. But they had looked away and Wade was taking full advantage of the mistake.

(Twisting, turning, through the never)
All that is, ever
Ever was, will be, ever
Twisting, turning,
Who we are, ask forever
Twisting, turning, through the never

Never!

Once the shield was down, he pulled a bar about eleven inches long from a holster on his left thigh. Activating the mechanism, it expanded to over three feet long. His first strike took one of the enemies right in the left kidney, dropping the man in his tracks. Then he swung the Bo in a tight arc to the right, blindsiding the goon with a blow to the thigh that caused the leg to fail.

Between the Furies to the sides and the Rock of Gibraltar in the center, it wasn't long before all the enemy was down while the Team was only breathing a little harder then normal.

Wade shucked his pack, shrunk the Bo, replaced it in its holster and drew his sidearm and started covering the downed bad guys. "Kim, Ron, top pouch in my pack. Zip-cuffs!" He knew they had better hand-to-hand skill so they would be the ones to secure the enemy while he covered them. The goons were quickly secured using the cuffs to tie them to each other, with a hurt man secured to someone hurt not so much.

The Team glanced at each other, just enough for silent confirmation that none of them were hurt. Once the assurances were aside, Wade replaced the pack and pulled the palmtop to start scanning again while Kim took over covering duties.

Waiting for the data, Kim reflected. This was the first real mission/fight she and Ron had been on since Sagara and Kaname arrived a few months ago and she knew there was a difference between Team Possible now and six months ago. In less then 3 minutes, the Team had handled a bunch of goons that would have had them on the ropes, and maybe captured, half a year ago.

Although it had started because of the rift that had grown between her and Ron, she was thankful for the appearance of the Japanese couple into their lives. Like the iron in a blacksmith's forge, they had been heated, beaten, hammered, quenched and tempered to be re-forged into carbon steel, stronger and tougher then before. Thanks to Sagara's brutal, sometimes merciless training, they had been turned into a unit that almost operated as a single mind with three bodies.

In the meantime, Ron started questioning the conscious men. He only asked one question. "Where's Du?" He got a variety of responses, from "I don't know." to surly insults in German. He thought about pulling the Lotus Blade and start hacking until he got real answers. But then the thought of cold blooded murdering these men chilled him. Sagara was right. If he did that, he would be no better then they were. And if he did, it would cost him his soul.

"Got em!" Wade pointed, "There's several in the offices in that direction. They seem to be trying to gather files for destruction." He pointed in another direction, "The rest are over there with the mainframe. I'd bet they're working on destroying the hard drives." He growled, "Not sure where Du is. All the life signs are normal."

"Ron, can you handle the guys in the offices while I go with Wade to the computers?" Ron looked at the display. It showed there were more men in the offices then there was near the mainframes. In his mind's eye, almost like the cyborg from Ahnolds Devastator movies, he saw a readout.

Mission Main Target: Will Du

Location Possibilities:

1. Mainframe: Higher Tactical/Strategic Value, Fewer Possible Threats/Targets.

2. Office: Lower Tactical/Strategic Value, More Possible Threats/Targets.

Probability Assessment: 50/50.

The decision came down to the fact that Kim trusted him to handle the larger threat. It was a decision he would regret for years.

Omake (pr Oh-ma-key) An Omake is a short side story, usually satirical or farcical, to the main storyline of Japanese Manga.

Drakken's Money

Edward Lipsky had gone to pay a visit to Jersey to see his mother. A fact that Drew Theodore P. 'Dr. Drakken' Lipsky was grateful for. He was currently pushing a wheelbarrow filled to overflowing with that green and black printed linen script known as 'Money'. He pushed the wheelbarrow into one of the rooms and came out a moment later with an empty wheelbarrow. He headed back to the dock area to get another load from the armored truck that was waiting there.

Strangely enough, if the grumbling was any indication, he didn't seem to be happy. "Oh Doodles, we're running out of room in the lair. I'm going to have to hire temporary 'Henchmen' to help cart this off to the bank tomorrow."

His pregnant paramour sat on one of the couches in the living area, legs resting on a stack of pillows as she channel surfed on the humongous hi-def that dominated the room. She had sat there as her lover had carted load after load into the building. After hearing his gripe, she couldn't take it any more. "Drew? Sweetheart, you do know there's this thing called direct deposit, right?"

Drakken just stopped and looked at his lady. "Of course I do, Dear. But that's not the point. You see, even with all of our villainous plots and take-over-world schemes over the years, we never did one thing I've wanted to do all my life."

Shego was a bit pensive and slightly confused by now. She almost dreaded asking the next question. "And what was that?"

He looked at her with a maniacal toothy grin and said, "Once, just once before I leave this earth, I want to have so much money I can actually 'Wallow' in it! This is the last truck and I only have a few loads left."

His expression changed from maniacal to a leer and he said, "And Shego, the first thing I did was fill the Jacuzzi! Care to join me?"