"Whatever it will be, I won't do it!", Zoda says, putting his hands up.
Phoenix chuckles a little, and reassures him. "Don't worry, Zoda, you're not in that kind of trouble", he says as he grabs a nearby chair and sits at the end of the table, with his robotic partner Q-3 sitting next to Jody. As he's getting set up, the smoothies and salads start coming to the pilots on the conveyor belt next to the table, and James grabs them one by one, handing them out to their respective person.
"So you're after Black Shadow too?", Jody asks Phoenix while taking a sip of her smoothie.
Upon seeing Jody, Phoenix looks a little surprised, almost starstruck by her, but he collects himself before he gives away anything about the future that he isn't authorized to. "Well, not necessarily, I'm going after his boss. Are any of you familiar with a man called Deathborn?" The entire table shakes their heads, except for one.
"Deathborn… I know him well", Zoda says in a sinister tone. "Absolutely unhinged. The champion of the Underworld, guy's died four times, and keeps managing to resurrect himself by replacing his failed body parts with robotic counterparts, a la Tin Man over here. He wants to take over the universe and rule it as its supreme tyrannical overlord."
"Sounds like the kind of guy you'd aspire to be", James says with a little chuckle.
Zoda can't even deny that, "I just can't believe he keeps employing a buffoon like Shadow. That guy is so far out of Deathborn's league, it actually makes me mad."
"Well, you're pretty much right, except you're leaving out one crucial thing: Deathborn has control over space and time, and can appear anytime, anywhere. We've been trying to put out the fires he's started for literal decades, and we're getting close to stopping him for good, but we need your help to stop a crucial event in his rise from occurring. In the current timeline…, you guys are going to fail in your pursuit of Black Shadow." Everyone at the table is either crushed or infuriated by this statement.
"There's no way he gets one over on us, absolutely ridiculous, this guy's full of it", Zoda exclaims.
"No… Katie…", Jack says on the verge of tears.
"Sugarbear…", Mrs. Arrow says, also distraught from this.
"Will I… at least get paid for my contract?", James asks, to which Phoenix shrugs his shoulders, causing him to slump back in his booth.
"But, we're here to make sure that doesn't happen!", Q-3 says, hoping to cheer up the racers. "See, in our timeline, it takes you all a long time to find your first lead, and by the time you track one of them down, the racers just appear again."
"Just… appear?", Gazelle asks confusedly.
"Yea, for next year's Grand Prix, they all just show up again, still under Shadow's influence though", Q-3 replies, with Phoenix jumping in afterwards.
"See, Black Shadow figured out something when he entered Blood Falcon into the Grand Prix a few years back: two racers equals two payouts. Even if they don't win, that's still substantial money. So, if you were somehow able to enter an entire field's worth of racers…"
Zoda interrupts, making the realization first. "You can get the entire prize money pool of the Grand Prix! That's like seven billion space credits! Oh my Dark Lord, that is genius. 100% a Deathborn plan, give it up for him."
Phoenix continues, "And he keeps doing it, year after year. You guys manage to rescue some of the other racers, but you don't figure out how to unhypnotize them, and they just keep giving Deathborn the prize money, until eventually Deathborn will accrue enough money to ramp up his criminal enterprises, and successfully overthrow the galactic government to make himself its conqueror for life. Which for him, means eternity.
"Now, I know I've brought the mood down just a little bit", Phoenix says as Monique is nearly crying into her steak. "But, we can at least give you guys the information that you eventually get in our timeline, essentially giving you a headstart on where you were in our future", he says as he presses a button on Q-3, causing him to eject a datachip containing info about some of Shadow's secret bases.
Q-3 takes the data and hands it to Jody. "You guys managed to find three of his bases, and their locations are all on here. But remember, this is information exclusively from our future. Once Shadow and Deathborn find out that you've recaptured some of the racers, they might change their locations, so this is only a surefire map for the first location you go to."
"Soooo… I'm a bit fuzzy on how time travel works", Clash says, trying to wrap his big brain around all of this. "But if you can always come back to this point and give us the information of our failures, doesn't that mean that even if we fail again, you'll still just come back again and give us more of future us's information that we uncover until we eventually succeed?"
Phoenix nods and points to Clash. "This is actually the fourth time I've had to come back. Provided that you don't run into a complete brick wall and stop uncovering information, then yes. And that is basically the plan in order to make sure you succeed."
"Unrelated question, feel free to not answer if you're not allowed", Mrs. Arrow says, "but, if there's such a thing as the Time Police, why haven't you arrested this clown yet?", she asks, pointing at Zoda.
"Because I am too good to be captured by these fakers", Zoda replies with a smug grin.
"Actually…", Q-3 refutes, "there's a timeline where you are arrested, and it basically makes zero difference to the timeline. You're worth more with this operation than behind bars."
"WHAT?!", he says, standing up from the table and trying to get in their faces, even with Jody in between them. "First you tell me Shadow outsmarts me, now you're saying I'm not even WORTH ARRESTING! Liars! Both of you! I'm done listening to your drivel!", he says as he sits back down and enjoys his salad.
Mrs. Arrow can't help but get a little chuckle out of Zoda's criminal emasculation, but Zoda is not in the mood to hear her enjoyment at his expense. "Hey, if I'm criminally useless, so is your husband for trying to stop…" He's interrupted by her grabbing him by the neck and choking him out. James and Gazelle reach across the table to try and separate them with Q-3 going into the vacant booth behind them to do the same, while Jody takes a picture with her hologram and laughs.
"Good lord, how have I not come back already to fix this mess again?", Phoenix asks himself.
They get separated as Zoda stands up, gets Jody out of the way, and storms off back to the bus. Monique sits back down in her seat, and dusts herself off. "I've wanted to do that for years", she says with a smile as she goes back to her kangaroo steak.
Nobody says anything to her in response, but there's a bit of an uncomfortable silence after that. "Aaaaaanyway, I won't take up anymore of your time, you all know your mission, so best of luck to you. If you need anything, here's my card, just press the button on it to get in contact with us. Please try not to kill each other again", Phoenix says as he walks out of the diner, annoyed and convinced these guys are just going to get into trouble together. Q-3 hangs back for a second just to wave goodbye to everyone, which everyone waves back to.
Everyone finishes up their dinner in relative silence, hoping to not have to confront the fact that they probably won't make a great team together. They pay for their bills with Monique having to pay for Zoda's meal, since she was the reason he left. On the bus, Zoda is sitting in the backseat, doing his best to ignore everyone, almost pouting. Gazelle sets his leftovers beside him, which Zoda snatches up and mutters a "thanks". The bus takes off and leaves the diner, and the mood hardly changes. Everyone's still either alone or making meaningless small talk with one another. Finally, after about a half-hour of flying, Jack stands up and heads to the back to try and cheer Zoda up.
"I honestly didn't think you'd still be here. You're still wanting to help us?", Jack asks, curiously.
"My goal is to take down Black Shadow. You people are leading me to him, and I'd be a fool to throw away such a prime opportunity. I'll help where I can, but don't expect me to be friends with Mrs. Arrow", Zoda replies, saying her name in a condescending tone without even looking away from his window.
"Hey man, no one's expecting you to be all buddy-buddy with Monique after everything you and Super Arrow's been through. Look, I know you've done some not-so-great stuff before, and there's gonna be some tension for a while. But I feel like if you can just keep your head above water, try not to rock the boat too much, *whispers* and try not to mention Monique's husband, hopefully things will get better. They probably won't make you their kid's godfather, but… ya know, better."
Zoda scoffs and finally looks over at Jack. "This isn't the kind of thing that can be fixed with a couple of apologies and a fruit basket. I've literally destroyed planets and ruined lives for my own ends. I really don't want to be on her side for this whole thing. I just want to get Black Shadow, is that so wrong?"
"No, not at all, that's what we all want, just for different reasons. Look, you don't have to apologize to her, you don't need to act like you don't have a history with her, just don't antagonize her. We got all the way out here with you just being slightly sassy with her, so just try to keep doing that."
There's a long pause with Zoda taking a deep breath. "I'll try…", he says after a few seconds. Jack nods and starts to walk away. "Hey Jack… this is gonna sound weird, but… can you stay here for a little bit…"
"Oh ummmm, I would but um…", he says before pointing out the front of the window, showing him a massive spaceship. James is piloting them into an access gate near the bottom of it, which lets everyone get a full view of this massive craft.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Big Wyvern."
