BLAST OFF!

Part 3

By Mark J. DeGregorio, a.k.a.- Lucky

It’s been about three weeks at Yarog Three, and I’m ready to get back to Earth, James thought, we spent an excessive amount much time seeing the sights. James was sitting in the newly remodeled recreation lounge. A silver and purple android entered and approached him. He knew who it was, but still could not get used to the idea that this was Terisen’s new body.

“James, is there something wrong?”

James looked at the mechanical Terisen and said, “I really hate changes.”

“I am still the same avatar that you always had, just a new physical body.”

“It’s not just you, its everything.” He confessed.

James got up from the couch he was sitting, and made his way to the door. “Not only did my ship get several upgrades, but now we have more people on this ship, and the Admiral is even coming along to make good with Earth.”

“And that’s bad, because…” Terisen solicited.

“If Earth joins the Amalgamation, Earth will become highly advanced, and our simple life will be gone.”

The two reached the command center. “Dam, even my bridge got changed.” He muttered.

* * * * * * *

Patricia was searching her and Nonie’s quarters for her boots. She couldn’t find them in the closet as they were suppose to be, and began searching around the room. Looking under Nonie’s bunk, Patricia found a box with a lock on it. She smiled, “Say, what do we have here?”

Patricia thought, now why would she have a locked box under her bed; bet she has something she doesn’t want me to see in here.

She shaped her finger into a pick and inserted it into the lock. She felt the tumblers move and opened the lock. Patricia opened the box only to find a diary inside, with the key. Boy, how dumb is she to leave the key, she thought.

She took the key, unlocked the diary, flipped it open, and began to read it.

I was at my class reunion with Alan; he looked cute in his suit. Then Patricia had to come in and cause trouble…

Patricia looked at Alan and said, “I see you still hang out with “Loser” friends. Where did you find this shrimp,” she pointed at Alan, “…in a tuna can?”

Alan glared at Patricia and informed me, “OK, now is the time. Do what you want to her!”

As soon as Alan had let go of me, I stretched an arm, wrapping it around Patricia, and then pulled back and Patricia started to spin. I formed my body into a slingshot and sent Patricia flying into a wall. Everyone was staring at me, amazed at what she did to Patricia.

“I waited ten years to do that.” I exclaimed proudly.

Patricia started to get mad as she flipped ahead and read some more.

Then, things got almost out of hand in the parking lot of the school…

Alan was about to help me off the car, when a bare arm stretched around his body and jerked him away. Plastrica lifted Alan into the air, and said, “Here Nonie, catch him if you can.” Then, she threw him.

I stretched my legs, and ran ahead of Alan, but instead of catching him, I made my body into a trampoline. Alan bounced into me and flew off in the other direction, straight towards Plastrica. Alan smashed into Plastrica, knocking her to the ground. I approached Alan and Plastrica. The two tangled together, and said, “Alright Patricia! How did you know about my origin?”

Plastrica glanced up at me and replied, “Your goofy little brother sold me the information for two hundred dollars.”

Patricia was now starting to get pist as she flipped further ahead and read some more.

Then there was the time I was doing the laundry when Patricia had to start trouble…

Patricia Connling was passing by the laundry mat, saw me and decided to have some fun with me. She snuck up behind me. I had just finished loading the washer when I heard a familiar voice sang from behind me.

“This is the way she does her wash, does her wash, does her wash, so stupidly in the day.”

Without looking I growled, “Patricia.”

Patricia moved along side of me and teased, “Oh now this poor washer is going to have to be fumigated because your clothes touched…”

So, I slammed the washer’s door into Patricia’s face, flattening it.

“Gee Patricia, you sure have a deadpan expression.” I laughed.

Patricia shook her face back to normal, and then gave me an uppercut. She sent my neck stretching three feet. “Haw! I knocked your block off.” Patricia ranted.

Then I gave Patricia an uppercut. This sent her neck stretching three feet. “Haw! I knocked your block off too, ” I laughed.

Patricia started to steam as she flipped to another page.

Then there was the time we were babysitting Melvin Butterfeild…

We were in the cellar, went out through window, and stretched ourselves to the outside. We then, stretched up to the roof and made their way to the chimney. I looked at it and squeaked, “My God! That is a small space.”

Patricia looked at me and said, “With that bony body of yours, you should have absolutely no trouble getting down that chimney!”

“How does Santa manage to go down these things?” I asked.

Patricia sighed, “He just does…and he’s a lot bigger than you!”

“Well if it’s so easy…” I grumbled, “…You go first!”

Patricia climbed onto the chimney and placed her feet in. She then lowered herself down, holding the sides of the chimney. “See…nothing to it!”

Patricia started to stretch her arms and lowered herself down the flue, said, “When I get down, you follow.”

Melvin squirted the logs in the fireplace with kerosene, and tossed a lit match onto of the logs. A fireball shot up the chimney and struck Patricia on the rear. She pulled herself up so fast; she shot out of the smokestack like a bullet. She flew up and over the house, landing in the snow below.

I ran to the edge of the roof to see where Patricia had landed. She was sitting in the snow, cooling her butt off. I grinned and shouted, “Hey, aren’t you suppose to be on the inside of the house!”

Now Patricia was boiling mad as Nonie as she entered the room. She shaped her fist into a huge six-foot iron, and plowed Nonie against the wall. Patricia pressed her as hard as she could and felt great delight at squishing Nonie’s skinny little body between her iron fist and the wall. When she pulled her hand away, Nonie was flattened and looked like a wall decal. “Write this in your diary!” Patricia yelled.

Nonie peeled herself from wall and wobbly moved towards her sister and replied, “You read my diary!”

Patricia took a huge deep breath, expanding like a balloon, and blew a hard gust of wind at Nonie’s two-dimensional form; sending her out the door, then she slammed the door and locked Nonie out.

* * * * * * *

Alan J. Foster, the self-proclaimed super-genius, was rummaging through Captain Krangle’s captured ship looking for anything that might be useful or valuable. He was digging through Krangle’s quarters, this isn’t as big as Steph’s ship; not much cargo space, he thought.

Alan was hoping that he would take this ship for himself. He was beginning to regret letting Stephanie have Solow’s ship and he knew she would never trade hers for this one, let alone, let him use it. Stephanie too stingy with her car, imagine how’d she be with her ship, she’d never let me take her ship out for a run.

Alan continued searching through the room when he found a switch under the desk. The curious tech couldn’t help to see what it did. He flicked it and a panel opened on the other side of the room. A secret compartment, he thought as he got up and moved over to the other side of the cabin to have a closer look at what Krangle was hiding.

Inside, there was a metal disk about two and a haft inches in diameter. It was thicker as it got closer to the middle of the devise. A lens was positioned on the top and a button closer to the edge. After examining it further, something in his head told him what it was; “A holographic projector.”

He knew this because of the download he received from that scoundrel Solow. Krangle must have something on here that’s really good, or he wouldn’t have hid it in there, he thought with a smile. He pressed the button and an image of the galaxy appeared with a route to a star system. At the end, there was an X at a location on a remote planet.

Alan gave the biggest smile he has ever made as he uttered, “A Treasure Map.”

He quickly shut it off, stuffed the map into his pocket, and then continued to ransack the ship.

* * * * * * *

James was in command setting the course for Earth. He just finished lying in the coordinates when power in command suddenly flickered off.

In the forward rec. room, Nonie, Alan, and Mike were playing a video game when the game system shorted out.

Stephanie was in the hanger with her ship, cleaning off something on the front landing gear, when the main hanger door opened. Stephanie scrambled to get into her ship before she was sucked into the void of space.

Penny was in the galley making lunch when all the appliances suddenly turned on into turbo mode splattering the room with food.

In command, James got the reserve power on and received a distress call from Stephanie; He quickly threw on the hanger door override and shut the door. James went to call over the COM system, but they were not working either. James sent a thought, Beaker, Candi, the COMs aren’t working, I need you to round everybody up and get them to command.

The Holographic Terisen appeared and stated, “Captain, we have another life form aboard. It came from the…” and then she was gone.

“Terisen!” he responded, “She disappeared like she was knocked off-line.”

Alan, Mike, and Nonie arrived and James told Alan to get to the machine shop and build something to coerce an alien creature. Mike and Nonie went to get Beaker’s help with the alien. After Mike explained everything to him, Beaker went to work on construction something.

* * * * * * *

James was waiting in command aft. Some creature was loose and needed to be found, and he was waiting for Alan to finish building something to coerce the thing into the trap. It must’ve been on the pirate’s scout ship, and is now on my ship, James thought. Moments later, he heard clanking just outside the command center as Alan entered carrying twelve tube-like devices and said, “Here they are, tested and ready to go.”

James moved to look over the devices Alan brought, and then nodded, “I’ll call the others.”

While he waited for the others to arrive, James again, looked over the things Alan constructed. They were about a meter long with a control button and trigger on a handgrip. It also was about two inches in diameter and had two small prods almost touching one another at the opposite end of the device.

The others began to arrive, with Beaker and Admiral Fuzzet arriving last because they were across the ship and had the farthest to walk. The crew of the Terisen inspected the collection of tubes with doubtfulness.

“We’re going to chase this thing with these metal sticks!” Stephanie pointed at the tube devices on the table, “What moron thought this up!”

“I did,” Alan snapped, “and I’m not a moron!”

“And you ain’t no super genius either.” She teased.

James didn’t feel like listening to their bickering, sighed, “Look you two, we don’t have time for this. As we speak, an alien creature is running around the ship and causing systems to go off-line.”

“Yeah, that little booger keeps knocking systems down faster then I can fix them.” Alan responded.

Beaker added, “This would go faster if Terisen were back on line again.”

James glanced at Beaker, and then at Alan and asked, “Can you get her back on line and keep her from going off line?”

Alan shook his head, “Every time I get her up, something happens to knock her off, probably that little shit.”

Penny grabbed a tube from the table and asked, “So, how do they work?”

As she examined her tube, Alan explained, “These are nothing more that a cattle prod, I put aye-three-oh-two portable chargers in all these prods, the batteries will give a sweet substantial jolt. They won’t require any recharging, unless you hold the discharge button for a very long time, a really long time, so don’t be afraid to use them.”

As each of the crew took a shock stick, Alan continued, “They’re fully insulated here,” pointed at the base of the hand grip, “…here,” pointed at the shaft of the shock stick, “and here,” and then pointed at the smaller tube at the end of the prod.

Alan gave his infamous smirk, lifted the prod towards Stephanie’s rear end, and touched her butt with it and said, “…but not here.”

An electrical discharge on her butt made Stephanie jumped away. She then turned towards her brother, held up her fist, and shouted, “Why You!”

Alan ran to the other side of James in hope to be protected from Stephanie’s wrath. “Hold still so I can kill you!” she demanded.

“Like I said before,” James shouted, “We don’t have time for this nonsense!”

“Okay, that takes care of problem one,” Tyler conceded, “what about problem two: finding it?”

“I’ve taken care of that.” Everyone turned in astonishment to see Beaker holding a small communicator sized piece of equipment. “Since it’s clearly essential that we find this creature, I’ve constructed this tracker.”

Beaker set the device on the table for all to see. “You set it to search for moving objects.” Beaker took his hand and waved it in front of the trackers sensor, “it’s adjustable to a range of up to ten meters, which works to our advantage.”

Penny looked up from the tracker and asked, “How so?”

Beaker explained, “Since it permits two or more parties to search close by one another, it would do so without the tracker picking up the other group.”

James smiled, “You did a great job, how many did you make?”

“Four.”

James glanced around the room, and then said, “Okay, we’ll have four groups of three. Mike, you take Candy and Tyler and search the crew’s quarters and living sections.”

Mike nodded in agreement, and then James looked at Stephanie and ordered, “Steph, you take Alan and Nonie and search the Engineering and maintenance sections.”

“I have to go with Stephanie.” Alan whined.

James turned to Alan, “And, what is wrong with that?”

“She’s going to kill me when we go down there!” Alan glanced at his sister’s psychotic grin.

“Then maybe you shouldn’t have zapped her in the ass with the prod.” James laughed, “you’re in Stephanie’s group and that’s it. Moving on…”

James turned to Beaker and continued, “Patricia and bee-oh-bee are in Beaker’s group, you’ll search all the hangers, and ops sections. I’ll take Penny and Dr. Kelko, and search the command sections.”

Admiral Fuzzet stepped forward and added, “I’ll be controlling the search from command, and all channels are open on all decks. You’ll keep in constant touch. At the first sign of the creature, your priority is to capture it and get it into the trap. Informing the other teams is a secondary concern. Now, move out.”

As each member exited command, Alan stopped and glimpse at the safety of the command center, and then was pulled by his vengeful sister out into the corridor. “We’re going to have us a good time in engineering,” she grinned.

Alan knew she didn’t mean he was going to enjoy this, only her. Stephanie took the lead followed by Alan, who was being dragged by his shirt, with Nonie at the rear. They made their way to the turbo lifts, and discovered they were not operational. This meant they had to use the ladder to go down twelve decks to the maintenance section.

When they finally got to the deck, the tracker began to make a noise, “Oh no! It’s here! The monster is here!” Nonie cried out.

Nonie had the sensor pointed at Stephanie as she glared at her stupidity. Alan added, “Yep, that’s a monster alright.”

Stephanie slapped Nonie on the back of her head, and then turned her attention to her brother and snapped, “Look super lunk-head, you’re already on my shit list, keep it up!”

She then turned her attention back to Nonie, “And don’t point that thing at us; point it away!”

As they moved forward, Stephanie couldn’t help wonder why she always seems to get stuck with these two. Am I their personal babysitter, she thought. Her thoughts were interrupted by the tracker sounding off again. She turned to see Nonie moving her hand back and forth in front of the sensor. The bulge on her forehead appeared and her left eye began to twitch. She rushed to Nonie, jerked the tracker away from her, and shouted, “Give me that you idiot!”

Stephanie then shoved the trap into Nonie’s stomach and yelled, “You take this; there’s nothing here for you to play with!”

Nonie looked at the creature trap and asked, “Couldn’t I get to hold the cattle-prod?”

Alan and Stephanie glanced at one another and then shouted, “Hell NO!”

“You really expect us to trust you with a cattle-prop?” Stephanie added, “You are dumber then you look!”

The trio made their way thirty feet and came to a turn, Stephanie said, “Okay lunk-head, go see what’s around the corner.”

“You mean me.” Alan responded.

“Yes, you!”

Alan turned and saw that the power was out in that section and wined, “But it’s dark down that way.”

Stephanie smiled, quickly threw her hand to the back of his head, grabbed a good chunk of his hair, and forced his face around the corner. “You see anything.”

“Ow,” he whimpered, “I see darkness and pain; let go of my hair!”

The three moved around the corner and viewed the darkness. Stephanie turned to her brother and asked, “So, why is it dark down here?”

“Dah,” Nonie sighed, “the lights are off.”

Stephanie glanced at the rubbery birdbrain in annoyances, and then back at Alan and demanded, “You didn’t fix the circuit, did you!”

“Yes I did!” he insisted, “That thing must’ve knocked the breaker off.”

“Well, fix it,” she ordered, “Nonie and I will continue the search.”

Alan grumbled as he made his way to the circuit board. He reached for a flashlight from his pocket of his cargo pants. He shined the light over the panel, as he began to loosen the clasps, and removed the panel. After a moment of examining the board, he pulled out a screwdriver and began work.

Something behind him seemed to move, as Alan worked to get power restored. He drudgery with tightening a loose wire and thought, come on, work.

In moments, the lights flickered on and Alan was pleased with himself, cheered, “Who’s the man, I’m the man. Who rules, I do; Oh yea!”

As he started to do his victory dance, he turned and saw it standing behind him. It was like nothing he has ever seen before. It was sort of humanism in shape with yellowish-green scaly skin. The thing had long pink hair sprouting from on top of what was considered its head, formed into a ponytail. However, all of this was secondary to the fact that its head was a giant eyeball. The eyeball creature brought its big green-eyed face within inches of Alan’s face. “Get in the groove, hey…hey…Get in the groove!” it sang.

Alan let out an ear-splitting scream; Nonie and Stephanie heard him and ran to see what was wrong. When they saw Alan and the monster, Nonie shouted, “Alan, are you being attacked by the creature?”

“No,” he grumbled, “I’m being annoyed by the creature.”

Stephanie looked over the alien and asked, “So, what the hell is that thing anyway?”

Nonie looked at its silvery suit, noticed a pattern on the front, and said, “Hey, that looks like an H on his chest, we’ll call him H.”

Stephanie glanced at the rubber girl and said, “Before you start to name…err…it, we still don’t know anything about this… thing.”

“H,” responded the creature. His tiny mouth just below the eyeball was almost hidden from sight, “mes like name, H sings with joy.”

“Oh God, not again!” Alan sighed.

“Get in the groove, hey…hey…Get in the groove!” it sang and danced, hitting a control panel with his elbow and knocked out the lights again.

“Did I mention how annoying he was?” Alan snapped.

* * * * * * *

On Earth, Kevin, the firebug villain known as Scorch, was sitting in an alley. He held out his hand and began to create a small ball of fire. Scorch began shaping it into a bust of Nonie. Kevin looked over his stepsister’s image, smiled, and then he smashed it with his other hand.

“You really hate her don’t you!” a voice came from above.

Scorch looked up to see a man descend to the ground at the entrance of the alley. He wore a blue costume with a cape and helmet. “I am Surge, and we have something in common, a dislike for Elasticity and her friends.”

* * * * * * *

Everyone was assembled in the officers lounge. Admiral Fuzzet and James stood before the alien, now named H. Neither of them knew what H was. Alan got Terisen back online and she was scanning her database for anything that would tell them about this life form.

“This is the thing that was disabling my ship’s systems.” James said, “So how did he do it, some sort of alien ability?”

“Yeah,” Alan responded, “Super klutz powers.”

James looked at the tech and asked, “Come again?”

“He’s a bumbling boob! He dances around and knocks into things.”

James let out a sigh and then looked at Beaker and said, “You and Dr. Kelko take err… H, down to the medical bay and check him inside and out. The rest of you, get the all of Terisen’s systems back and running.”

As they all exited the room, James turned his chair to face the android version of Terisen and asked, “Do you think this ah, H, is a threat to us?”

“I believe that he is a nuisance, Foster was right about one thing, H is, as Foster puts it, a bumbling boob.”

James stood up and suggested, “Well, just in case, prepare a cell for him in the brig, we don’t want him to cause any more damage to you.”

“Understood.” Then the android departed to follow his orders.

James walked over to the large view screen and asked, “Terisen, how’s repairs coming along?”

Terisen popped onto the screen and replied, “Slowly, but I should be fully functional in two hours. The automated drones been working on repairs since I got back on line.”

“And our guest?” he inquired.

This time the holographic image of Terisen appeared and announced, “He’s in the medical bay and there seems to be some damage there.”

“See what you can dig-up on our friend, I’m going down to see what H is doing.” James responded and ran out the room.

He dashed down the corridor, took and ladder down four decks, ran forward fourteen meters, to get to the medical bay. He was beginning to think that maybe this ship was too big. When he finally arrived, H was dancing around the room singing that stupid song of his. Dr. Kelko was hiding behind the fluoroscope trying to avoid H’s bizarre dance. Beaker was trying to restrain him, but H kept dodging his efforts. Mike was already there and, trying to blast H with his plasma cannon, which was causing more damage to the medical equipment.

James held up his comlink and yelled, “Penny! Get to the medical and subdue H!”

Within seconds, Penny arrived at super speed and hit H, knocking him to the ground.

“Do you want him gift-wrapped?” Penny joked.

“Just keep him still for a moment,” James sighed, raising his comlink, “Stephanie, Alan, come to the medical bay right now.”

Five minutes later, the Foster siblings arrived. “I want you two and Mike to take this…thing…to the brig, Terisen already has a cell prepared for him; keep him there until we decide what to do with him.” James ordered.

“But what if he starts singing again?” Alan whined.

“Put cotton in your ears!” James scolded, “I don’t care; just lock him up!”

Mike took H by the arm and forced him up. Stephanie drew her blaster and held it at H, and Alan led them to the brig. James looked at his wife and asked, “Since you like things so neat, why don’t you cleaned up the medical bay?”

“You’re a million laughs today, you do know that?” Penny sneered.

James smiled, “I do my best.”

At the brig, Mike, Alan and Stephanie arrived with H. Stephanie opened a cell and Mike threw H in. Stephanie re-activated the cell door and the three turned to leave when they saw H standing in the corridor. “WHAT! How did he… we did lock him in there…How.” Stephanie gasped.

H just stood there smiling as Mike grabbed him and Stephanie opened the door again. Mike threw H back into his cell and Stephanie locked him in. Then turned to leave again, when they saw H standing outside his cell in the corridor. Now Stephanie was pisted; for the third time they threw him in and found him outside his cell. “Mesa having fun.”

Stephanie glared at Alan and snapped, “Keep an eye on him lunk-head; see how he keeps getting out!”

Mike grabbed a hold of H, Stephanie opened the door, and then Mike threw him in. As Stephanie started to close the door, energy formed around H and he disappeared from his cell and reappeared in the corridor. “Ah, Steph, I think he can teleport.”

She looked at the annoying alien, and then tried to grab his so she could tear him apart. While Alan held her off from killing H, Mike called James on his COM link, “Ah, James, I think this H character is a teleporter. He keeps teleporting out of his cell.”

James was sitting in his chair in command, sighed, “Alright, I’m on my way. Just keep him there until I get there.”

Three minutes later, he arrived opening a cabinet and removed something that resemblances a collar. James walked over to H and placed the collar around his neck and clasped it shut. A light came on when it locked into place. “What is that?” Stephanie asked.

“It’s a Nullifier Collar, it prevents the use of abilities which would allow criminals to escape the brig.”

“So, he can’t get out now,” Alan replied, “then let’s get out of here before he starts to sing again.”

The four entered the corridor when James inquired, “How are the repairs coming, how long before we can get back to Earth?”

Alan opened his mouth to speak when the holographic Terisen appeared and responded, “My robot drones have almost all the repairs finished and we should be underway in forty-five minutes.”

“Ah, what she said.” Alan finally spoke.

* * * * * * *

After everything was repaired and H was securely locked-up, the Terisen was finally ready to journey home. James was in his chair in command, when he turned to bee-oh-bee and asked, “Have you finished the coordinates to the Sol system?”

“Why yes,” the golden mechanical droid responded, “but why would you want to go there for? I mean, really; it’s so drab there, and all that green and browns clashes with the blues…”

“Just set the coarse, will you?” the captain snapped. Then turning to Stephanie, who was sitting on the helm, “When you get the coordinates from golden-boy, set coarse for home.”

When she got them, Stephanie entered them into the helm controls and the ship started to move. She steered Terisen to the wormhole and everything started to rock as Terisen made quick turns and rolls and finally exited out just outside the Sol system. “There’s Pluto.” Stephanie announced.

Alan approached her from behind her and asked, “So, where’s Uranus?”

Stephanie scowled, “Standing right behind me!”

James commended, “You did good Stephanie, now let’s go back to Earth.”

As the Terisen past the planets, Nonie was shouting out each planet’s name. When they got to the asteroid field between Jupiter and Mars, James ordered, “Okay Steph, slow down and change coarse to -25.058 degrees descend, and don’t scratch the paint.”

Stephanie smiled, “well, if I do, Alan could always go out and re-touch it.”

James was on edge as she piloted his ship through the asteroid field. She was the only one he would trust to do it, but as good as, she was, this was new even for her.

Nonie walked closer to the view screen and her eyes widen as they moved ever so close to a large one. It reminded her of their encounter with the space pirates.

When the Terisen exited the field of floating rocks, James let out a sigh of relief, and said, “You did better then I thought, good piloting skills.”

Then the Terisen approached Mars.

* * * * * * *

On Earth, in Washington DC, a secret service entered the oval office of the president and said, “Mister President, we just got word that the alien space craft which left Earth a couple of months ago, has returned.”

“Sent for my cabinet, we’ll decide what to do there,” he ordered, “and notify A.G.E.N.T. I want a space shuttle out there to intercept it.”

The man dressed in the plain black suit nodded at the President and exited the office.

* * * * * * *

When the Terisen got close to Earth’s moon, they found three space shuttles waiting for them. “Oh crap!” Alan whined, “there’s one from the US, and another from Russia…”

“That third one is one of ours,” Tyler interrupted, “from A.G.E.N.T.”

The holographic Terisen appeared and asked, “What are your orders Captain?”

James looked at the translucent image and responded, “Stand down, we don’t want to provoke an incident now.”

“But what if they start firing at us?” Alan whined.

Captain Wayland glared at the super-genius and snapped, “If those shuttles had weapons, Terisen would out-gun them forty to one.”

“Not to mention, my weapons are far more advanced then anything Earth has to offer,” added the android version of Terisen, “I would literally, blow them out of space.”

“So, what do we do then?” Penny asked.

“Open communications, invite them in.” James answered.

Penny when to the communications station and proceeded to call the head shuttlecraft. When she opened channels, a voice over the intercom said, “Alien spacecraft, you are approaching Earth, Identify yourself.”

James approached and made contact with the shuttle, “This is the Amalgamation starship Terisen, Captain James Wayland speaking.”

“You came back to invade Earth.” Demand the voice.

“We have been living on Earth for over twenty years, and have no intentions of invading your planet.” He replied, “we’ll open landing-bay two, and you can come aboard.”

“How do we know it’s not a trap?”

Tyler Knight approached and said, “This is Tyler Knight of A.G.E.N.T. I’ve been with these people and I can vouch for them.”

On the AGENT’s shuttle, Dominique Fortune couldn’t believe what she was hearing, asked, “Tyler Knight, 99x? Is that really you?”

“Yes, it’s really me,” she responded, “Do you remember when I helped rescue Carmen from the Diva, You temporarily appointed me 69. Carmen was infused with Ambrosia.”

After a few moments of deliberation, Dominique Fortune said, “It is my agent, I believe we can trust them General.”

The three shuttles proceeded to dock into landing-bay two, and Captain James Wayland, Admiral Fuzzet, Tyler Knight, Beaker, and the android Terisen stood there waiting. As soon as the landing party meet with them, James escorted them into the de-briefing room. They were in there for over an hour when Alan said, “Man, I wish I knew what they were talking about.”

“It’s on a need to know bases,” Stephanie snapped, “and you don’t need to know.”

“Oh, come on!” he pleaded, “Aren’t you the least bit curious about what they’re talking about?”

“I Am.” Nonie squeaked.

Alan turned to Candi and asked, “See if you can use you mind reading powers and see what they’re talking about.”

“Alan!” Stephanie snapped.

Candi just smiled and said, “Sorry Alan, but you can wait like the rest of us, and besides, Beaker is blocking my attempts to hear what is going on in there.”

“Oh man!” he gripped and plopped into his chair.

“There, there, lil bro,” Stephanie teased, “I’m sure you’ll find out in an hour or three.”

Another hour had passed and the android Terisen emerged. Alan jumped out of his seat to find out what was happening in the room, but didn’t get an answer. Terisen picked up some refreshments and returned to the de-briefing room. After mumbling something under his breath, Foster plopped back into his seat.

After another hour had passed, the officials finally exited the room and went to the landing bay. Alan pestered James on what happened inside, but was ignored as James turned to ask Stephanie to prepare her ship to get down to Earth. James, Admiral Fuzzet, Tyler Knight, and the officials boarded the shuttlecrafts and departed for Earth.

Stephanie, Penny, Alan, Candi, and the rubber-twins went to landing-bay one and prepared the Delphis for departure. Mike Decker and Beaker remained on the ship with Dr. Kelko, who didn’t really want to go in the first place. Bee-oh-bee was assigned the task of babysitting H in his cell. Moments later, the Delphis headed out for Earth.

* * * * * * *

Surge was working on his plans for world domination as Joey was watching Sponge Bob Square Pants. Every time Sponge Bob would make that silly laugh of his, Joey would mimic the laugh. And every time he would mimic the laugh, Surges’ right eye would begin to twitch. Then to make things worst, Joey would get up and start dancing to the theme song and sing along.

Joey sang out of tune, “Who lives in a pineapple under the sea…SPONGE BOB SQUARE PANTS!”

Grinning his teeth, Surge yelled, “Will you stop that insidious singing!” and when Joey appeared to not be pay attention to him, Surge powered up an electrical charge and blasted Joey’s ass.

As Joey began to scoot his butt along the floor to put out his butt, Surge continued his plans.

Elizabeth, now known as Hippo, was in the kitchen building herself a sandwich. She already got to the fifth layer when her block-headed husband entered the room sniffing into the air. She knew what he was after, her sandwich. “Back off you block head, this is mine!”

“My name is supposed to be Captain Wonderful.” Franklin whined.

“Well, now its Block-Head…” her large hippo-like mouth grumbled, “get use to it!”

Franklin let out a loud sigh and snapped, “I’m gonna to sock you!”

Now the very large hippo mouth snarled as she got up and approached him in a threatening way and shouted, “You’re going to sock WHO!”

Being the coward he is, Franklin immediately backed down. Hippo continued to make her sandwich.

Scorch was working on some refitting on his costume. He felt that he needed a newer look, and would like to look cool kicking his sister’s butt from here to the other side of town. He took the mask and added eye shields to it. He also knew he would have to take out her water-boy boyfriend. Incase he blasted him with water again, the eye shields would at the very least, enable him to see what he’ll try next.

Surge was still working on his plans when a special bulletin interrupted the cartoon Joey was watching, finally, something sensible on TV. Surge resume his planning when Joey shouted, “Hey Look Johnny, that spaceship looks just like an Amalgamation ship, and look, that little ship landing looks just like your old ship, the Delphis!”

Surges’ eyes popped over to see what was happening on the TV set, moaned, “Oh great, Captain Muscle-head is back.” He then grabbed the remote to turn up the sound.

“…And as you can see, the beings here looks much like us. They will be meeting with the world leaders in talks of our planet joining their federation, err…it’s Amalgamation…anyway, they come in peace and if Earth joins them, we will be getting trades with other planets in the galaxy. I’m Irma Ramsey for channel 6 news, back to you, Tom.”

As soon as Irma was off the air, she went into her trailer and locked the door behind her and said, “They’re back now, time to get re-acquainted with the twins.” Irma started to laugh as her brown hair suddenly turned pink.

Surge wasn’t too happy about the whole heroes coming back to Earth decided to give his new recruits their first run at the heroes.

Surge pressed a button on the intercom and announced, “Everyone, report to my office immediately, It’s time for you to earn your keep.”

* * * * * * *

With all the interviews from the reporters and getting booked for a talk show, they were ready to get things back to a normal status. Stephanie docked the Delphis at an airport hanger. Alan joked, “Why don’t you put it into the garage back home Steph?”

While the rubber-twins thought it was funny, Stephanie didn’t. They were waiting for Penny to rent a car so they could finally go home. It was about a ten-minute wait before Penny drove up in a Dodge Caravan. Everyone got in and Penny pulled out of the rental parking lot.

“I want to swing by the store and see if everything is all right.” Penny said.

“We just got back,” Nonie, complained, “you don’t expect us to starting working now!”

“Yeah,” Patricia agreed, “couldn’t we re-open in a couple of weeks?”

Penny let out a sigh and responded, “We’ll re-open the store tomorrow and you both will be there bright and early.”

Alan started to laugh, until Penny added, “You too, fish-boy.”

“Oh Man! That’s totally messed up!” He griped.

A short time later, they arrived at the comic book shop. Penny unlocked the door and entered the store. Inside, had smell of dry staleness in the air. We must’ve had a heat wave while we were gone, Penny thought, the air condition didn’t come on. She went to turn it on, but it didn’t come on. Stephanie came in to see if everything was all right, and tried to turn on the lights. “Hey, the lights are not working.”

Penny guessed, “I think our power must have got turned off, I’ll have to call the electric company and have them turned on.” She now knew why the air conditioner didn’t work.

Outside, Alan and the girls were standing around moping about having to start working there again. Candi began to hear thoughts near by, said, “Hey do any of you have a brother?”

They were puzzled until they heard a familiar voice, “Hi-ya, sis. Miss me.”

As they turned towards the voice, they saw a fireball coming towards them. They immediately jumped out of its way before they were burnt. “Kevin!” Nonie shouted.

“Yeah, but now you can call me Scorch.” He replied.

“I’ll call you a doctor when we get through with you!” Nonie retorted.

Nonie shifted her clothes into her Elasticity outfit and stretched over to confront her stepbrother. As Elasticity face hit something large, which appeared in front of her. She looked up at the massive thing and said, “Gosh, it’s a big, fat, ugly, Hippopotamus!”

From behind the hippo-hybrid, a fat, bald, middle-aged man stepped out into view. Two things about him was obvious, one, it was their old landlord, Franklin, and the second was that his head was sort of a block in shape.

Franklin shouted to the Hippo, “See, I’m not the only one who thinks you’re a big, fat, ugly, Hippopotamus!”

“That’s Elizabeth!” Alan cried out, “Boy she did become a big, fat, ugly, Hippopotamus!”

Elizabeth snarled, “Can we stop with the big, fat, ugly, Hippopotamus cracks!”

“But honey, you really are a big, fat, ugly, Hippopotamus!” Franklin commented, and was backhanded by Hippo in the stomach.

Hippo grabbed Elasticity by the neck and pulled her closer and said, “Now what was that comment about me being a big, fat, ugly, Hippopotamus!”

Elizabeth slammed Nonie to the ground and used her hippo weight to flatten her to the pavement. They looked at the paper-thin Nonie and Alan suggested to Candi, “Get the others.”

Candi sent a telepathic thought to Penny and Stephanie, telling them about the crisis outside. As they turned to run outside, Alan was thrown through the front window of the store. He shifted into water form to avoid being cut by the glass when he hit the floor. “We could really use some help out there.”

“He’s okay,” Penny said, “let’s get them.” She ran out the door as Hippo through Her husband Blockhead at her.

Her head-on attack wasn’t the best idea she had. Franklin’s titanium hard head made contact with her mid section, sending her reeling backwards. Patricia stretched herself across Penny’s path and kept her from hitting the side of the building.

Stephanie ran from the building as Scorch threw another fireball at her and said, “Ready for a re-match?”

Stephanie created a huge glowing hand and caught the fireball and retorted, “You’ll have to do better then that.”

Scorch smiled as he approach Nonie, peeled her from the ground and said, “Then how do you think paper-girl here will fair against a fiery blast?”

“Like this!” Patricia shouted and stretching her fist, hitting him in the mouth, “No one beats on my sister but me, got it!”

As Patricia rushed him, Hippo belly-flopped on her squishing her flat like Nonie and laughed, “Then you can join her as well and be the poster girls for fallen heroes.”

The flattened redhead glanced at her flattened sister and said, “Gee, you really care.”

Patricia twisted her flatten head to view Nonie and responded, “Don’t flatter yourself, I save tormenting you for myself.”

As the rubber-twins began to re-inflate themselves, Stephanie took her huge energy hand and plowed it into Hippo, sending her through the comic book shop’s wall.

Scorch shouted, “Here’s a message from Surge.” And he sent a colossal fireball at the comic book store, setting it into a blazing inferno.

Hippo walked out with only a minor singe, and the three escaped from the area. Stephanie created a large bubble around Alan and pulled him out of the burning building. Penny dialed nine one-one and got the fire department.

All were conscious when the fire department arrived to put out the fire. Since the power was out, and all the comic books were somewhat dried out, the store was almost burnt to the ground; everything was lost.

The only thing was the floor, a wall, and part of the ceiling. “It’s gone, everything is gone. We wont be opening tomorrow after all.” Penny said.

“Yippee!” the rubber-twins cheered, “we don’t have to work there anymore!”

* * * * * * *

They dropped Candi off at her home, and then they went home. Stephanie went to the post office to get the mail that James had held while their house was being repaired. When James got back from his visit with the President of the United States, Penny told him everything that happened. “Surge?” he asked, “Who is this Surge character?”

“I was hoping you might know.” Penny replied.

“So now that the shop is gone, I’ll have to find something else to do, maybe around here.” Penny sighed.

James rushed over to the phone to get Luke. “I need another business for you to buy for Penny.”

Luke already knew James’s wife and was going to find something to keep Mrs. hectic busy.

After he got off the phone, he knew he really needed to train these people in fighting. Each one has something to offer, but needed to learn how to utilize them.

Alan smiled and said, “Well, we’re home and everything is great now…”

His statement was cut short when a huge, glowing yellow hand stretched into the room and grabbed him. It then pulled him out of the room, through the hall, and right up to Stephanie.

She held up a piece of paper to his face and demanded, “Will you PLEASE explain this credit card bill I got in the mail!”

Oh yeah, uh oh, he thought, and then joked, “I was going to get that before you saw it.”

“Oh Really?” The look on her face told him that she was not buying it.

Stephanie began to read aloud the charges to him. “Forty-five, ninety-eight for a U-Haul?”

“Well, we needed to haul a purple walrus back to the house…”

“Thirty-seven charges for pizza!” She read, “at ten ninety-eight for each one?”

“Well, I can’t work on an empty stomach.”

Stephanie glared at him and responded, “Since when do you do any work around here!”

Stephanie looked at the bill again and read, “Four hundred and eighty-three dollars for the electronics shop, what the hell do you need that cost that munch!”

“Well, I do have to get things to build things and keep my hardware current.”

Stephanie noticed another one and asked, “And what’s this thirty-four dollar charge to the library?”

Alan restlessly replied, “Would you believe it was an over due book?”

Alan felt the luminous hand’s gripping him tighter. He could see the vain on her forehead pulsating as she furiously said, “I don’t care how you do it, but you’re going to get this bill paid off or so help me, the pain you’re feeling will pale in contrast to what I’ll do to you if you DON’T PAY IT!”