****2
Chapter one3
Nickless was traveling to Manhattan to buy some new weapons when he heard a distress call over the general comms channel. He almost decided to ignore it and fly on, but the thought of making new friends, which meant new connections which meant better weapons, made him turn and go toward the origin of the call.4
When he arrived he was astounded to find two ships that were attacking another ship! He could not remember off something like that ever happening before in his lifetime, sure people had their differences, but they would never attack each other in space. 5
"Well I'm sure a heck not going to join that fight", he thought, " if Bargib hears about this he will ban us from the systems, no more living in the freelancer community". He could not imagine what it would be like living without being part of the freelancer community.6
He was still getting over the shock of seeing ships fighting when he saw something orange from the corner of his eye. 7
"What the heck is that" was the first thought that entered his mind. Then he saw that is was actually a ship, an extremely strange looking ship. "Who in his right mind paint a ship bright eye-hurting orange?" was his second thought.8
He didn't know what to think or do anymore, he was witnessing the first fight in the history of the Forum systems and now he was seeing a ship/thing/monster, painted bright orange. He thought that he had his dose of astonishment for the day, when the orange ship started shooting like crazy. It seemed like the pilot didn't even care about who or what he hit.9
The two attackers, flying in Titans, must have thought that the orange ship was shooting at them, they suddenly started to flee, leaving the other ship, an eagle to lick its wounds.10
"Oh what the heck", did he think and opened his comms channel. "Eagle this is Nickless, identify yourself"11
"Didn't flush the toilet, didn't flush the toilet" Nickless could not believe his ears, why was this guy going on about a toilet? They were in mid-space. He decided to try again: "Eagle this is Nickless identify yourself!"12
A shaky voice came back to him: "Zlo, I'm Zlo, thanks for the help"13
"Uhm its a pleasure, always willing to help out you know" Nickless decided that it could be a good thing if this guy, Zlo, thought that it was he who helped.14
"Liar!"15
Once more that day Nickless was astounded, although this time the word flabbergasted would be more appropriate. He could not believe it, first of all somebody dared to contradict him something that hadn't happened in a very long time. Second of all, it was the voice of a girl!16
"Liar!" This time she said it with more force. "You didn't do anything and you know it!"17
***** 18
"What was that?"19
"I have no idea; I've never seen anything like it."20
A thunderstruck RILMS and ): Wolf Demon
were flying away from the fight as fast as they could.21"I thought The Evil Thing said it would be a piece of cake" RILMS was livid.22
"Hey calm down RILMS, maybe you should try to do less 007 stuff and fly like a fighter should, this is not Modlywood you know" ): Wolf Demon
was just as angry, but not just at the outcome of the fight. "Why did I get saddled up with this stupid film maker" he thought, "the guy should never have left his stage in Modlywood, he cant even fly properly."23**** 24
"Whoa ok lady no need to get so agitated" Nickless was still trying to recover from the double dose shock he just received. "Who are you btw?"25
"No need to get agitated! You are the one who came here lying!" 26
In his ship Zlo was just as astonished. He was saved by a girl! What would his friends say about this?! This would never be flushed down the toilet!27
"Well you may be the one who saved the day, but they way you were shooting you could have easily killed my buddy Zlo here." Nickless was becoming angry as well now. "And why is your ship painted orange in anyway do you want to be easily seen and shot at?"28
"The colour of my ship has nothing to do with you, you dumb…"29
"Hey you two just calm down okay" Zlo's voice was still a bit shaky when he interrupted the girl's angry flow of words. "Look lady I don't know who you are and but I appreciate you trying help, but it is true what Nickless said, the way you were shooting you could just as well have killed me if those two didn't get scared when they did."30
"Fine be ungrateful, I'll make sure to tell Bargib that as well when I report this incident" with that words she engaged cruise engines and disappeared31
"Women! Common Zlo your ship looks like it needs some repairs I'll escort you to Manhatten"32
**********33
"The meeting will take place Tomorrow at 10:00 on Planet Forum, please try your best to attend it." 34
"Stupid Bargib, doesn't he realise that such a sudden move from planet to planet can fry my circuits?" Electric Brain was annoyed. Now he had to travel from Omricon Alpha al the way to New York to attend a meeting about who-knows-what.35
**********36
"Please take your seats, and SHUT UP!" Bargib was losing his patience, it was 10:30 and the people were still chatting and ignoring him. At last they were silent.37
"It was brought to my attention that recently there was incidents where some ships attacked others" Pandemonium broke lose, everybody wanted to say something at once.38
"I've heard about it as well, I say we have a band of terrorists under us!" The people standing around Gromit silently made space around him, he was known for crushing the ribs of people he didn't like.39
"We have to find out who they are, where they are hiding and erase them at once!" Eraser also made his voice heard.40
"Yes we can call it…uhm …uhm.." for once kimk was searching for words At last he turned to Sir Spectre " Sir Spectre you're the man who knows his words what shall we call it?"41
"What about OffTopic" Sir Spectre saw that the people did not understand the logic behind the name. "Well, something like this has never happened before, it was never even discussed before, therefore it is actually off-topic don't you agree?"42
"Fried circuits, fired circuits, burning circuits…" 43
Oh shut up you useless piece of cyborg"44
Everybody turned to see Freighter Fighter slapping Electric Brain45
"What do you think you are doing?!" Bargib was furious "Leave him alone!" he shouted and then after a few seconds of pondering: "EB if you are experiencing problems with your circuits we should consider taking them out"46
"No no I'm fine really just leave my circuits alone please oh please oh please!"47
"Hmm I thought so" Bargib was satisfied to see that he had everybody's attention again.48
"I think Eraser has a good idea there, we'll form a faction and we'll name it OffTopic, those who want to join, say so now. You have to realise that it will not be fun and games, you will putting your lives on the line here." Bargig waited a few seconds before he asked: "Who want to join?"49
"I will join" Eraser50
"So will I" Sir Spectre51
"Count me in" Zlo52
"And me! And me!" Heads turned when they heard the voice of a female. "What you guys think that I cant do it?"53
Bargib sighed, he knew sycho_warrior and the way she tended to mess up "OK sw you can join just remember if you mess up we will probably not be able to help you."54
"I think I'll just stay out of it all" Nickless decided that he was not trading his business for fighting, this would be too good a chance to make money.55
Nearby Mustang and Eh_Steve were thinking along the same lines.56
"Yes it wouldn't do if we all started fighting all of a sudden" There was no objections, if kimk spoke people listened, he was not known as a highly intelligent person for nothing.57
"I'm not going to join OffTopic, but if I hear a call for help I will go to help" Everybody nodded when they heard Darkstone's words, that would be good.58
Freighter Fighter was standing alone thinking: "hmm I'll have to talk to TET first, but I don't think he will object about having a mole on the good side" Aloud he said "I'll think about it and then let you know what my decision is."59
"Well if there is nothing more I think we can call this meeting to a close" Bargib was happy with the way things went. "Eraser you will be in command of OffTopic,I now leave it in your capable hands. I now declare this meeting officially closed"60
**********61
"You say its called OffTopic?" The Evil Thing was thoughtfull.62
"Yes Spammaster TET, they want to find and exterminate us, that's why I thought maybe I could act as a spy, then we can take advantage of their plans."63
"Freighter Fighter I like men with brains, go through with your plan, just make sure they do not find you. Here is a Quit pill, it works within seconds, if they catch you, just place it under your tongue. Good luck, may the spam be with you"64
**********65
Chapter two66
"Ok you guys lets settle down and do some planning, if we want to make sure that the FS is safe we will have to have a very good plan" Eraser was in his element, he Zlo, SirSpectre and sycho_warrior were sitting in the bar on Planet Manhatten, having their first official OffTopic discussion.67
"Eraser lets just get one thing straight, I am not a guy and I do not like it being generalized under guys. To get to the point of this meeting, I think a good idea would be to set up a general emergency channel, which is manned 24hours a day by us, that way we would know immediately id someone was attacked."sycho_warrior was at her best, or depending who you are on her worst68
"sw I am only going to say this once, we don't have time for pointless arguments, you know what they say, if you want to run with the big dogs, you have to accept it if you are treated like them. You chose to join the guys; we cannot make an exception for you every time, so either you accept it if I only say guys or you can leave. I know it is drastic measures, but as I already said we do not have time to waste." Eraser was never a person who liked being bothered by trival stuff and he clearly showed it69
"Yes, if the rest of us gets flushed down the loo, why shouldn't it happen to you as well, you cant expect to always be treated different than the rest, you will just have to accept being treated the same as the guys." Zlo was still not over the humiliation of being saved/almost killed by a girl, his friends kept making jokes about it, it was almost worse than going somewhere without flushing the toilet!70
sw looked like she could explode at any moment, she just wanted to snap back at Zlo when Sir Spectre started speaking: "If this is how this team is going to be, we can just as well drop it, you cannot go out in combat if you are angry at one of your team members. When you are out there you have to know that you can fully rely on your wingmen and you cannot know that if you and someone else are angry at each other." finished speaking Sir Spectre took off his glasses and started cleaning them (an operation which, if he did it thoroughly, took about 20 minutes)71
"I agree with SirS, sw you and Zlo will have to clear up your differences, otherwise we will loose the fight against evil." Eraser looked sternly at Zlo and sw who were fiddling and not looking him in the eyes. "Lets continue on a civilized manner."72
Just then Freighter Fighter entered the bar and walked toward them. "Hey guys, would you mind if I joined the OffTopic? This new evil faction has to be ruined before the ruin the FS."73
Eraser couldn't hide a happy smile: "Sure thing, I'm Eraser, this is Zlo, Sir Spectre and sycho_warrior, pleased to meet you."74
Freighter Fighter smiled: "What can I do?" 75
"We were just discussing how things will work, sit down, you can help" Eraser was all businesslike again.76
"Are you sure we should be talking here? You never know the evil side could have informers everywhere." Butter could not melt in freighter fighter's mouth.77
"Nah it will be fine, no traitor will ever dare to come near us" Zlo sounded extremely sure of himself.78
Despite that comment, everybody started to look around.79
*********80
"I think it is time that we send those idiots of the FS a message" The Evil Thing was bored, he decided to wait for some information from freighter fighter before he staged another attack, but no he regretted that decision.81
"Sure boss whatever you say" ): Wolf Demon
wasn't in the mood to listen to TET sulk, he was busy playing with his wolfs, with all this evil side stuff, he didn't get much time to do it.82"Just sit still. I'm going to record my speech now and we don't want them to see al our members do we" With that words TET rearranged his hair and sat down in front of the camera.83
***************84
"Do not try to stop the Spammers, you will not succeed" Bargib switched of the screen when the speech had finished; most of the people who were at the previous meeting were there again. "Any comments?" he asked85
"He sure seems certain of himself and the rest of the spammers, but that's usually what makes great people fail." It was one of those rare occasions where Darkstone spoke, his philosophy, was that if you couldn't say something useful you should shut up.86
"That's very true Darkstone, but I think an extremely important question, is how will we know who are spammers and who not, we cannot speak so freely about what we want to do if there is a chance that there is traitors between is." As usual kimk was the one posing the important question.87
"You idiots isn't it a bit late to think off that now. Looks like I should have been here from the beginning in stead of just following the events on the news"88
Everybody turned to stare at the stranger who just spoke, they could not believe his arrogance.89
"An who may you be?" Bargib clearly didn't like being insulted in his own back yard.90
"I am Spacenut, just so you guys know, I am a genius, and I sell ship equipment."91
"Hey genius does this look like a guy to you?" Zlo roughly pulled sw nearer by the arm "If you really were a genius you would have known that you NEVER refer to a lady as a guy, especially not this..err.err.lady"92
The members of OffTopic were stunned and on the verge of bursting out in laughter, this was the last thing they expected from Zlo, he really had to be upset.93
**********94
"Hi, can you guys maybe give me some directions? 95
TET was scared out of his wits when a guy started speaking behind him "What!!! How did you get in here?"96
TET was flabbergasted he had state of the art security systems(or thought he had) how on earth could this guy have gotten in?97
"Ehm I just… it would be too complicated for you to understand" The guy was reluctant to part with the information98
"Would you be able to do that with any system?" TET was getting interested now, a guy like this could be a good asset99
"Yea sure why not"100
"Hmm what line of work are you in?" If he could get this guy on his side, the OffTOpic would never beat them! An evil smile was playing on TET's face.101
"I do any line of work, as long as the pay are good. By the way I'm Arania" Arania had a smug look on his face, he knew nobody who knew about his skills could resist hiring him.102
'OK first of all I am The Evil Thing, creator of the Spammers, if you don't mind being on the bad side you are hired." 103
"I'm in, never say no to a chance to disrupt good order"104
**********105
Chapter three106
Neo_Kaju was sitting in the bar on Pittsburg, when the door was flung open and two shots were fired. Neo swung around to see a man, holding a Heckler and Koch sub-machine gun in his hands. "O oh, this is trouble" he thought, automatically hiding his Colt 45.107
"Everybody sit still and nobody will get hurt, you…" the man pointed at the bartender "get the head of the BP's on the line, I want to talk to him." "You.." he pointed at a beautiful blonde girl at the back of the bar, "come here"108
She walked toward him reluctantly, when she got there, he grabbed her by the hair, plucked out a knife and slit her throat. He pointed at the bartender with the knife "Tell Aod (head of the BP's) what you just saw, and then you tell him that Tawakalna want him to immediately release pSYCHO and fly him here."109
"Don't flush the toilet… don't flush the toilet" Neo heard the guy next to him muttering and was astonished by the words, this guy clearly was not normal. On his other side, he recognized EB the only cyborg in the FS. A plan began forming in his mind.110
"You want to be a hero?" Neo talked softly, he didn't want to upset the terrorist. 111
EB glanced at the stranger and then replied equally soft "I might consider it, as long as my circuits don't get fried."112
"Just play along OK I know what I'm doing" with that words Neo stoop up, glad that he was wearing a jacket hiding his trusted colt.113
Tawakalna saw the man standing "Didn't I tell you to sit still!?" 114
"Sir I've got a bit of a problem, this is my brother, he is a cyborg, he has to be plugged into his computer every four hours, otherwise his implants will go haywire," Neo looked very upset by the idea that his "brother" might go crazy "Sir he needs to be plugged in within the next five minutes please may we go to our room."115
"No sit down and shut up, your brother can die for what I care." Tawakalne waved his H&K around menacingly. 116
"Nice try, I could have told you that he will flush it down the toilet" Zlo was in a very bad mood, and this stranger's attempt at heroism just made it worse117
"Don't mind him, in about 5 mins just start going crazy OK" Neo didn't bother himself by listening the weird guy sitting next to him.118
"Easy for you to say, my reputation will be shot and they will want to remove my implants" EB was not in the mood for this.119
"If I were you I'd do it, otherwise you may just die" Neo said threateningly.120
"You come here," Neo pointed to the girl sitting next to Zlo, his expression menacing.121
"Don't you dare touch her you dirty piece of toilet paper" Zlo jumped up and stood in front of sw.122
Tawakalna sung his H&K in Zlo's direction and pulled the trigger, who was hit in the stomach.123
"Now start doing it now!" Neo's voice was urgent.124
"Fried circuits … fired circuits … burning circuits …agony … I need my computer! Give me my computer my circuits are frying, firing, burning….the nanobots will attack my brain! Stop them! STOP THEM! They're hacking my brain! HELP! HELP!" EB stumbled around screaming.125
Tawakalna swung around toward EB who moved to his side, it was just what Neo needed, he fired two shots, one hitting Tawakalna in his hand holding the H&K the other hitting him in the shoulder. He ran to where Tawakalna lay and grabbed the H&K and the bloodied knife "Game over tonto"126
************127
"I am at the scene where a hostage situation took place this morning, on person was killed and another was wounded. I am now speaking to Neo_Kaju, the guy who saved the day.128
"Neo, how does it feel to be a hero?"129
"I just did what anybody would have done, besides if it wasn't for EB, Tawakalna would still be alive and on the run with his buddy pSYCO."130
"Thank you for your comment Neo. I am Gowerspaul reporting live for FSN (Forum Systems News)131
The image ion the televiewter change to that of jagged, anchorman and owner of FSN132
Thank you Gowerspaul. That is all for this evening, next up is W-bot with the weather. This is FSN bringing you all that is hot and happening.133
***********134
TET switched off the televiewter, his eyes sparkling "RILMS I think we have a jailbreak to organize, don't you?"135
"Yes guy like that will be worth a lot to us, I think we should break his friend out as well, the more people we have, the better. And that cyborg, he gave me an excellent idea." Arania was also in a happy mood, he just had an idea that gave him immense pleasure.136
*********137
Bargib, Kimk and sw also watched the news.138
"This is not good," Bagib is worried, "We can be sure that TET also saw this, I think we should let Aod know to post extra sentries at the prison where Tawakalna is kept.139
Its just sad that Zlo had to get shot, sw did you visit him yet?140
"No, the guy is a creep, I'm not going anywhere near him. sw looked appalled by the thought of going to the hospital.141
He did save your life, he is not as mean as he pretends to be sw, I think he actually likes you." Bargib sounded stern, he could not understand what it was that made sw dislike zlo so much. "anyway kimk you say you have an idea on how to find infiltrators in OffTopic if there are any"142
"Yes Bargib," kimk looked serious, "Actually sw shouldn't hear this, so I think we should put her on the next shuttle to the hospital" 143
"No! I am not going you can forget it, I don't want to see that man not now, not ever!" Bargib and kimk was shocked at the tone of sw's voice, she was angry, no argument at that, but there was something else as well, they just did not know what.144
"Fine you don't have to go, but then I want you to go straight to bed, you had a shock today" Bargib sounded almost fatherly as he escorted sw to the door "goodnight we'll talk to you in the morning ok"145
"Ok lets hear that plan kimk" Bargib's voice was all business again.146
****************147
Chapter four148
Mustang was just returning to the FS after being out to gather some new supplies. He was extremely satisfied; he was just in time for a huge clan war and managed to pick up many interesting stuff that would help him increase his vast fortunes.149
He was almost in his home system, when he heard a call for help on his comms system, "Ah more loot" this was his standard thoughts when he heard the sound of battle. He homed in on the origin of the call and started heading in that direction.150
***********151
Gromit and Darkstone was sitting in the bar on Manhatten, all the blood had been washed away and everything looked normal again.152
"You know Grom, maybe we should consider joining OffTopic as well, I think they need all the help they can get and it's not like we have much to do" Darkstone was in thoughtful mood after the events that transpired in the bar the previous day.153
Gromit was not very excited about Darkstone's idea. He has always been happy to just sit in the bar and join the occasional bar fight; his fighting days were over. "My days of sitting in a Sabre are over Darkie (That he was a good friend of Darkstone was obvious, only his best friends ever dared to call him Darkie), I'm just not up to it anymore. Give me a good bar fight and I'll jump in. Any day, but not fighting in space."154
"Grom you're just paranoid after that accident, anybody can make mistakes, you are an excellent fighter, you will be a major asset to OffTopic" Darkstone was not about to give up getting Gromit into OffTopic, for him this was an excellent chance to restore Gromit's confidence in himself and his abilities. 155
"Hey fat-ass get off my chair!" An arrogant young man just walked in the door and was on his way to where Gromit was sitting.156
"O oh" Darkstone thought, "Here comes big trouble, that young idiot clearly doesn't know the difference between muscle and fat, in this case, it can cost him a few broken ribs-if he is lucky."157
"I said get off my seat" The young man was tall and strong, but when Gromit stood up, he looked like a fighter would like a battleship; Gromit was simply huge.158
"First of all young man, nobody, nobody calls me fat." With that words Gromit picked up the young man. "Second of all, nobody tells me what to do" Gromit started applying pressure on the young man's ribs.159
The young man then did something unthinkable and extremely dumb, he punched Gromit in the face. To be fair, it has to be said, no ordinary man would have survived a punch like that, but this was Gromit. The man could just as well have hit a brick wall.160
"O oh" This time Darkstone said it out loud. "Now you made a mistake Tolo" 161
"Help! Help! Get this guy off me" The man was really panicking now162
"Are going to tell me again what to do?" Gromit asked through his teeth.163
"No. No I wont I promise" The man was so desperate to get out of Gromit's grip that he would have promised never to enter a bar again.164
"Good now go find yourself another place to sit." Gromit dropped the man and sat down again ordering a fresh drink165
The young man stared at Gromit a look of admiration on his face. To everybody's astonishment he struck out a hand and said "Hi I am Indy, you are really very strong, and that is a huge understatement"166
"Grommit stared at the offered hand and then just grumbled "Grommit is the name, now leave me alone"167
Just then one off Indy's buddies walked in and seeing Indy standing next to Gromit asked "Hey Indy what are you doing standing next to that fat guy?"168
For the third time that day it when through Darkstone's thoughts "O oh"169
Gromit was on his way to get up, when Indy said "Allow me" To everybody's surprise, he turned around and punched his buddy in the face, "Never call him a fat guy, he doesn't like it, and if he doesn't like it, I don't like it."170
It was hard to tell who were more surprised, Indy's buddy or Gromit.171
"well I guess I owe you a drink, sit down" Gromit was still not friendly, but he was not angry anymore, "By the way this is Darkstone"172
***********173
As Mustang got near to the origin of the distress call, he got his weapons combat ready, you never know what is waiting for you. The scene he saw before him was something he has never seen before, a Sabre and a Titan were attacking a huge freighter, it didn't look like the freighter had much fight left in it.174
Mustang had a difficult decision to face, either he waited until the guys finished off the freighter and picked up al the loot they wanted and then he picked up some more loot. Or he could do the honorable thing and help the freighter. 175
In the end, he decided that he would choose the midway; he would call for help. About five minutes after he made the call, the BP's arrived and engaged the fighters, when the two culprits saw that they were outnumbered, they simply disappeared.176
Everybody was bowled over, they seemed to have just disappeared into thin air.177
************178
SirSpectre, freighter fighter, sw and Eraser were sitting in the bar on California Minor, waiting for Bargib who asked for this meeting.179
"I wonder what this is about, when I talked to him yesterday, he said nothing about a meeting. I hope he has a mission or something for us." Eraser was clearly excited about the prospect of a mission, until now, there was really nothing they could do.180
"Yes that would be great, then we don't have to sit around the whole day anymore." SirSpectre was also excited, as usual he was busy cleaning his huge glasses "It's just a shame that zlo won't be able to join us, I think he would have enjoyed it as well"181
"As long as it is not a long mission, my freighter need some repairs and updates, and the spares I need is not nearby." freighter fighter was not as excited about the mission they thought was coming, he was thinking about a meeting that he was suppose to attend. The Evil Thing was not very happy about it if people missed his meetings.182
"How come you can't find the parts you need around here?" 183
"Well sw, I have a very old ship, the last of them were built about a thousand years ago, it still uses a nuclear reactor as powerplant, if I don't do repairs regularly, it could be dangerous. Especially if the rods get damaged." freighter fighter was in his element, he loved talking about his freighter.184
"Why is the rods so important?" as usual sw was curious.185
"Well, in the core of the reactor, there are slugs of highly active uranium. Each second millions of neutrons are moving and hitting and splitting, if this is not regulated, they will collide with the U235 atoms and splitting them. This causes a too rapid chain reaction, which creates massive heat, which can create a core meltdown." Freighter fighter stopped to take a breath and then continued: "This is and cannot be allowed, so in the core there is also a system of rods made of hafnium. Hafnium absorbs the neutrons and in doing this stops the system going out of control. These rods also control the amount of power generated by the reactor. If all the rods are down, there are no power, the more of these rods you lift, the more power you will have. That's basically the reasons why I cant afford it to have these rods out of action."186
Just then Bargib walked in, he had a serious expression on his face "SirSpectre I place you under arrest for treason, you have the right to shut up and never speak again until the day of execution."187
The silence following Bargib's words was deafening; everybody was stunned.188
*********189
Chapter five190
"OK guys, take your places, remember speed is of the essence and any mistakes could be fatal" The Evil Thing was on Alaska with the rest of his spammers. They managed to slip past all the guards with their new cloaking device and the expertise of Arania, now they were ready. Thanks to an inside source, they knew exactly where Tawakalna and pSYCHO were kept.191
"You know the plan, RILMS and ): Wolf Demon
disable the guards in the guardroom, Arania you and I go to the two cells, kill every guard you see. RILMS the two of you must make sure that there are no communication with the outside world" TET repeated everybody's orders just to make sure that there are no misunderstandings. "GO! GO! GO!"192RILMS and wolf demon ran toward the guardhouse and wolf demon threw a flashbang through the window, all the guards in the guardhouse stumbled around blinded and blood streaming from their ears. Two guards returning from patrol were cut down by fire from RILMS's MP5.193
In the meantime TET and Arania went their separate ways to Tawakalna's and pSYCHO's cells.194
When TET arrived at pSYCHO's cell, he wrapped a foot-long piece of detcord around the bars at the door. "Get down at the back of your cell" he shouted at Tawakalna and then lit the detcord, which burns at 5 miles per second. There was a huge explosion and the door was gone. "common pSHYCO we came to save you and Tawakalna folow me" TET was in a hurry, he did not know if RILMS and Wolf Demon managed to stop a distress call going out.195
They arrived at the ships at the same time as Arania and Tawakalna. "Get in! You can ask questions later" TET didn't want to waste any more time than necessary on Alaska. He saw Rilms and wolf Demon running in the direction of their ships and took off without any more hesitation.196
RILMS was just on his way to climb into his ship, when a guard grabbed him from behind. Not wanting to waste time, he did something he saw in the movies and always wanted to do, he slmmed his palm upwards into the guys nose, jabbing the nose bone into the brain. Without looking back he climbed into his Titan and launched.197
TET were thinking about the way the mission went, when he suddenly felt the blade of a knife against his throat and then Tawakalna started speaking from behind. "Now would you kindly tell me who you are and where we are going?" 198
"You can put that thing away" TET sounded calm, but his mind was racing, "I am The Evil Thing, head of the Spammers, we want you to join us, that's why we came to break you out."199
"Hmm and what makes you think that I will join you, I like doing things on my own, not many people can reach my…level of excellence in what I do"200
"First of all, we saved you…second of all, the only goal the Spammers have, is to distribute chaos and corruption. We can always use someone like you to help." TET was starting to wonder what he let himself in for.201
Tawakalna thought about it for a few moments, if he joined this lot, he could work for his dream to make the world hell. It could also bring a fair amount of money his way. "Okay I'll join you for now, as long as you remember, I don't like it when people tell me what to do and I come at a large price"202
*********203
"He is one of the most evil men alive, he is has a bounty on his head in every system in the universe." Aod was worried, extremely worried.204
Bargib was not convinced "If he is as bad as you say he is, why haven't we heard about him before?"205
"We didn't want to give him publicity, one of his goals are to put fear in the heart of people, if we broadcast all his evil deeds, we just give him exactly what he want." Aod took a deep breath and continued: "It is said that he cold bloodedly murdered his own parents, I won't go into details of how he did it, I still have nightmares about is sometimes."206
"Hmm we have to find their headquarters fast, otherwise there won't be much peace left in the FS"207
Bargib was also worried now. "Are all the plans in place?" 208
"Yes, what should we do with Sir Spectre? His trial is scheduled for tomorrow?" Aod still could not believe that Sir Spectre was the traitor; he was gobsmacked when Bargib had arrived and told him that SirS should be apprehended and trailed for treason.209
*********210
freighter fighter was in a hurry, he was late for his meeting with TET, everybody just went on and on talking about Sir Spectre being arrested for treason,. "The dumb idiots" he thought "they will never win the Spammers, not if they cant even find the real traitor"211
He heard about the jailbreak of course and he was glad for more help, especially from people like pSYCHO and Tawakalna. He started to ready himself to dock.212
*********213
"Here he comes now", TET was explaining to pSYCHO and Tawakalna how their set-up worked. "He is one of our informers in OffTopic. Are you all ready?"214
They watched as freighter fighter docked and a few moments later all hell broke loose.215
Chapter six216
"I don't understand what happened" to say that Eraser was flabbergasted would be a huge understatement. 217
The members of OffTopic, Gromit, Darkstone, kimk and Bargib were gathered in the bar on Manhatten. 218
"They were expecting us, that is all explanation" Gromit was angry, very angry "Someone betrayed us" 219
"I'm afraid I have to agree with Gromit" as usual kimk was calm "Freighter fighter couldn't have possibly known that he was followed. Somebody, one of us sent a warning to the Spammers and because of that Indy is in their hands." 220
"I'm going back there, there are no way that I'm just going to abandon him" Gromit started to rise. 221
"You will do no such thing." Bargib was adamant "You will just get yourself killed, sit down and we can discuss how to save Indy" 222
"Where's sw?" SirSpectre spoke his first word since the battle. 223
"She went to visit Zlo in hospital" Eraser sounded as astonished as he looked. Everyone was surprised, they thought sw hated Zlo "Ow well it's a good thing, so lets not hassle her about it OK" Bargib sounded glad to hear about sw's visit to the hospital. "Lets start working on that plan for saving Indy" 224
*********** 225
"What? How can it be my fault?! There was no-one following me! I checked every 5 minutes!" freighter fighter was scared, TET was furious at him for allowing the OffTopic guys to follow him. 226
"How else did they get here, there are no way that one of the Spammers has told them." TET was considering to get rid of freighter fighter, he could not have someone on his side who lead the enemy to them. 227
"How should I know? Ask the guy you captured" freighter fighter was really starting to panic now, he didn't like the look on TET's face. 228
"Yes, I know of the perfect way to get somebody talking" Tawakalna smiled evilly, he just loved it to get people to convey their secrets. 229
"OK lets get to it" TET liked the look on Tawakalna's face, this was somebody he could truly work with. 230
*********** 231
"I didn't expect you to visit me" Zlo was surprised. 232
"Well I guess I owe you a thanks, you saved my life after all" if sw was uncomfortable being there she didn't show it. 233
"Aw well, you would have done the same for me, I mean that's what team-mates do for each other isn't it?" Zlo seemed very uncomfortable, he wasn't used to be in this position, usually he was the one flushing the toilet, not somebody else. 234
"Ya I guess, just as long as they don't turn their back on their own people later on" sw had a strange look on her face for a moment, but it disappeared quickly. 235
********* 236
"Let me explain what I'm going to do" Tawakalna was in a happy mood, he and the other Spammers were all gathered in the room where Indy was held. 237
Indy, who was tied to a bed looked terrified, he could not believe that the others had just left him there, but he was sure they would come to get him, he would not say a word. 238
"Effectively what is going to happen, is that we are going to castrate him if he doesn't talk, then he can be an example and warning to people who wants to mess with us. 239
He is not given any narcotics, only a drug which will prevent him from passing out from the pain. 240
Then bandages are wrapped tightly around his lower body to stop haemorrhaging from occurring. Then the part on which will be operated will be washed in pepper-water, the surgeon then cuts off the parts and the patients wounds will be covered with bandages. He is then forced to walk around for three hours. He is allowed to lie down then and for three days he will not get any liquids, he will also not be able to relieve himself. After three days the bandages are removed and if the patient can relieve himself naturally, he will be fine, if he can't he is condemned to a slow excruciating death, because inflammation occurred." 241
Tawakalna started moving in Indy's direction, who by this time was petrified. 242
Chapter Seven243
SirSpectre, kimk, sw, Eraser, Darkstone, Gromit, Neo and zlo, who was recently discharged from hospital, was all gathered in the bar on Manhatten. Darkstone, Gromit and neo had decided to join OffTopic in their fight against the evil guys. Eraser suggested the meeting so they could make a plan to rescue Indy. 244
They were telling zlo what happened while he was in hospital. Since kink was the only one who knew what was going on from the start he was telling the story: "Well, the only think we could think of doing, was to give each of the OffTopic members a different location for a diamond transfer that would supposedly take place. When the Spammers showed up at the location we gave to freighter fighter, we knew that the traitor had to be him. We knew he would have to go to the Spammers sometime, but also that he would be very careful. 245
We decided to pretend that we thought that SirS was guilty and by doing that make him less careful. We followed him everywhere and finally to the base of the Spammers, but somewhere something went wrong, they were expecting us. We did some damage to their base, but they managed to capture Indy." 246
Gromit hit the table with his fist, he was still extremely angry "We should never have left without him, he could be dead by now!" 247
Eraser started to rise, it was time to start planning the rescue: "Gromit you know that was impossible, I'm sure he would have encouraged us to leave if he could have reached us. Lets rather start planning how to set him free." 248
Howdy guys! Everybody turned to see some guy standing a few feet from them. "And hallo as well to the pretty lady" 249
Eraser looked at the stranger as if he was some kind of bug which crawled from a sewer. "Sir if you don't mind we are busy with extremely important business" 250
"What could be more important than saying hi to a lady?" The stranger did a curtsy in front of sw "steel is the name oh wondrous beauty" 251
zlo got up in a hurry and took steel by the shoulder "which part of 'we are busy' don't you understand?" zlo looked like he might hit steel, but sw spoke, her voice as steel: "Drop it zlo" She turned to steel: "What do you want?" 252
"Ooh nasty, I like, I like. Darling what could I want but your wonderful company" honey was dripping from steel's words. 253
sw stared at him with scorn showing clearly her face "I'm not interested in arrogant jerks" 254
steel didn't seems to catch the hint "Oh such preposterous words from a lady! What has the world come to, oh sun of my life, core of my fighter, I think you should stay away from these loutish men, they are really making you less lady-like" 255
sw was infuriated by steel's arrogance "Look you worthless piece of ass-licking junk, I am not interested in you, I happen to like these men in whose company I am. So I suggest you get out of here before I get really, really angry." 256
"Honey how can you possibly be so crude? The words coming from your mouth should be sweeter than sugar, coated with the dew of sophistication not coarse and loutish." 257
Before steel could say another word, sw got up and punched him in the face. He stood there clutching his nose. "What! A lady punching people? Sweetness how could you? I thought you were as docile as a kitten, but you are more like, like one of those iron Amazon woman." 258
This time sw hit him really, really hard, he feel to the ground, clutching his eye with one hand and his nose with the other. The bar was completely silent as sw stood there glaring at steel. 259
"Hey what's going on here?" Everybody turned to the door in bewilderment when the silence was broken by Indy's voice. 260
Chapter Eight261
There was a deathly silence in the bar as everybody stared at Indy, many mouths hanging open. He in turn was staring at steel and sw. Gromit was the first one who found his voice262
"Indy! How did you get here? I thought the Spammers caught you!" 263
"Yes, they caught me, but then someone decided that being evil is not worth it" Indy came into the bar revealing a person standing behind him. "Hey guys"264
The third time that day, there was complete silence in the bar as everybody stared at freighter fighter.265
Indy saw hostile looks on some of the faces and raised his hands "Before any of you do anything, let me tell you the whole story: "They were on their way to interrogate me…" 266
****** 267
Tawakalna started advancing in Indy's direction, all the Spammers were gathered in the room, nobody wanted to miss the fun. Indy started wriggling in a desperate attempt to free himself.268
Taw had a menacing smile on his face, he was going to enjoy this very much. Just as he reached for the scalpel he heard a cold voice: "Don't you dare"269
Everybody in the room was stunned.270
"Move over to that wall slowly, all of you."271
Freighter Fighter started untying Indy with one hand, keeping a small laser pistol trained on the other Spammers with the other hand TET could not believe that one of his own men would turn against him "Freighter I'm sure we can talk this through, why don't you just put the pistol down and then we can talk" 272
"I'm not stupid TET, you would kill me first chance you get if I put this pistol down." Freighter knew that there was no turning back now, he made a decision and now he would have to stick with it. 273
Indy rose and studied Freighters face, he was not sure why this guy had saved him, but he was really, really glad about it. "What do we do with them now? We can't just leave them can we?" Indy would have preferred to shoot all of them, especially Tawakalna, but he was not a cold-blooded murderer. 274
Freighter pondered the question for a few seconds275
Well' it will be a bit difficult to take them all to jail, we don't have a transport that is big enough for all. I do have another idea though." 276
At that moment wolf demon (or wolfy as he was called nowadays) grabbed a long stick that was lying on the ground. Indy saw the movement and spun in wolfy's direction. "You keep these guys under control, I'll handle him" Indy's voice was commanding, he knew that he would need all the concentration he could get for this fight, he hadn't done any fighting recently. 277
There was only one object in the whole room that he could use to defend himself, an old broomstick. Without hesitation he grabbed it and stood in a fighting position. 278
As all the others stood there watching, Indy and Wolfy started to fight, it was a flurry of sticks and once in a while a fist or boot as well. In the end, Wolfy was no match for Indy's far superior strength. 279
Indy was a bit read in the face, as he looked at Freighter "You said you know what we can do with them?"280
Freighter was a bit astonished at the way the fight turned out, he knew how good Wolfy was at fighting. "Yes, but I think we should at least take TET with us, without him, I don't think the Spammers will be worth much." 281
Indy looked at Taw rancorously 282
"Yes, that's a good idea, but I think I want to do something special with my good friend here" he said his voice dripping with sarcasm and antipathy. "So, lets hear that plan of yours" 283
******** 284
Indy looked quite satisfied with the way they handled things "So, now you know, Freighter is truly a friend, he may have been a Spammer, but he surely is not one anymore" 285
Neo was not so sure "One a traitor, always a traitor, how do we know that this is not yet another clever plan by the Spammers to infiltrate OffTopic?' 286
Indy smiled at the question, he was expecting someone to mention something like that "Come outside and check who we have in Freighters cargo bay, I'm sure you'll agree that this was not just a clever plan by the Spammers" 287
Everybody walked outside and saw TET tied up in Freighters cargo bay288
Everybody, including Neo was satisfied now. The presence of TET was enough to put any doubts to rest. 289
Gromit turned to Indy "Have I mentioned how great it is to have you back?" 290
"Now you have" Indy gave Gromit a big smile "but I think we have to get Aod here that he can take TET somewhere safe and get him to send some more men to capture the rest of the Spammers. Freighter and I did our best to make sure they can't move." 291
****** 292
Among the Spammers, the mood was not as happy as on Manhatten. Everybody but Tawakalna was tied up in a long row, across them, there was a glass cage with Tarantulas, big female Tarantulas. The Spammers were sprayed with the odour a male gives off, a smell which makes the females extremely aggressive. The female tarantulas were already lunging at the side of the cage, fangs bared, in an attempt to get out. A rock was tied above the cage, and above the rope, was a pipette dripping a drop of acid on the rope at a rate of a drop a minute. The Spammers stared at the rope, terrified; they knew that the rock would smash the cage as soon as the acid weakened the rope enough. Then they were at the mercy of some very, very angry tarantulas. They were informed by a very smug Freighter that they would die a slow, excruciating death if bitten by a Tarantula. 293
Tawakalna on the other hand was not so lucky, he was hanging in the air tied by the hands and feet, spread-eagled. Above, below and on his sides were razor-sharp spikes. When Freighter and Indy left, the spikes were about a meter away on each side, now they were about 5 cm away. Taw knew he had about 30 minutes left to live, as he thought back on his life, he almost decided that it would have been better not to turn evil. He thought about days long, long ago when he was still a young kid, he was so happy. Until he started going to school, everybody were always teasing him because he was so small built. Somewhere in those years he learnt that he could stop them from teasing him by blackmail. He started gathering as much info about as much people as possible. Soon everybody feared him. He was finally free; nobody would try to hurt him anymore. Later on in high school, he spent hours in the gym, building muscles. Now he ruled not only by blackmail, but also by fear. Everybody knew that you would get hurt if you crossed swords with Taw. His walk off evil paid off, he could do almost anything he want, everybody was afraid off him. 294
Now as he hanged there he wondered what would have happened if he stayed a good boy, he would definitely be far away from this undignified, uncomfortable position. Then he thought again about the life after high school295
"Screw being a good boy"296
He jerks when he hears his own voice; he wasn't planning on speaking out loud.297
He tried to turn his head, only to feel pricks from the spikes. He also felt some blood trickling from his scalp 298
Chapter nine299
Orillion was surprised that no-one tried to stop him as he docked on the planet, in his world nobody would leave their planet so unprotected. He got out off his ship and walked to the nearest building. 300
The door was slightly ajar. Orillion lifted his hand to knock, but stopped short when he heard some voices. He couldn't hear what was being said, but from the tone he could hear that the people inside was angry and afraid. He decided to take a peek around the door before announcing his arrival. 301
What he saw astounded him. Some guys were tied up in a row along the wall, across them a big glass cage full of…wait a minute that can't be! Tarantulas! To think he was actually seeing real life Tarantulas! He could also hear some expletives splitting the air. He wondered where it was coming from since the guys who he could have quietened down. 302
He drew back and stood in front of the door pondering what to do next. His real mission was to find Corsair and get back to the future. But these people had real, live tarantulas; he has been fascinated with those spiders since he was a little boy. And who knows if he help these people, maybe they will help him. 303
With that his decision was made and he walked into the room. 304
******* 305
There was a great commotion on Planet Manhatten. Jagged decided that the imprisonment of TET was huge enough news to come down to do the insert himself. Gowerspaul was not to happy about it, but that didn't matter to Jagged, it was his news station after all. 306
He decided to give Gowerspaul one interview after all and sent him to Aod to find out where TET would be kept. Then he started walking toward Indy and Freighter to interview them. 307
******** 308
Gromit, Darkstone, Eraser, kimk and Bargib was busy talking to Indy and Freighter, listening to their story a second time. Zlo, SirS and sw was readying their ships for the trip to pick up the rest of the Spammers, if they were still alive that is. Freighter was busy describing the fight between Indy and Wolfy again when he was suddenly interrupted by Eraser 309
"Hey you guys check that out!" 310
Everybody looked in the direction he was pointing and saw sw and Zlo walking to her ship hand in hand. Everybody was bowled over, this was the last thing they expected to happen, everybody thought that sw hated Zlo. Freighter was the first one to find his voice again 311
"Why are we just standing here, let's go find out what's going on" 312
With that words he started walking in the direction of sw's fighter, followed by a very quiet and surprised group of people. 313
sw and Zlo didn't seem surprised that they were the centre of attention, they just looked at each other and smiled. 314
This time it was Bargib who spoke first "Do you two have something to tell us?" 315
sw and Zlo looked at each other and answered simultaneously "Uhm, no" 316
The others look at each other and decided that they could play this game as well and all of them simultaneously said "Uhm yes"' 317
Zlo looked a bit annoyed and then said "sw and I are dating, you happy now?" 318
"It's just very unexpected Zlo," Bargib looked a bit uncomfortable and decided to rather not say what he had in mind. "C'mmon you guys, we got to celebrate this, let's go to the bar" 319
Everybody started walking to the bar, completely ignoring Jagged who are trying his best to talk to Indy and Freighter. 320
********** 321
Wolfy was the first to see the stranger walking into the room "Hey who are you?" 322
Orillion ignored him at first, checking out the setup above the spider cage, decided that the best course of action would be to move the cage away from under the rock. To do that though he would need the help of the guys on the floor, he turned to them 323
"Orillion's the name" With that words he plucked out a dagger, but this was not just any dagger. It had a razor-sharp blade made of diamond. It could cut through just about anything. The handle was also made of diamond and decorated with gold, rubies and emeralds. His name were not carved out on the blade. It seemed that his name were in the blade. This knife had a long history which flashed through Orillion's mind while he cuts loose the Spammers. 324
"Quickly, help me move the cage!" 325
Everybody but one guy immediately ran to the cage, the other one ran to a room next door from where a steady stream of expletives was flowing into the room. They managed to move the cage seconds before the rock fell. A guy with eyes that seemed eerily square walked up to him 326
"Hi, thanks for the help, I'm Arania". Just then the guy who ran out earlier came back again, behind him an individual covered with blood. 327
"Couldn't you guys have done something earlier, I almost died back there, I got more holes than a sieve right now!" Tawakalna was grouchy, he hurted everywhere. 328
"Taw this is Orillion, he's the guy who saved us, we barely escaped as well" Arania didn't feel like listening to Tawakalna's groaning, they had work to do. He turned back to Orillion 329
"I would love to hear your story, but we have to save our boss, I'll leave it to my friends to introduce themselves while we are doing the preparations, you are welcome to join us" 330
Orillion would do anything to get those Tarantulas in his possession, he did not hesitate to answer "I'll help you, but in return I want those Tarantulas." 331
If Arania thought that Orillion was crazy, he didn't show it "Sure whatever. Taw go get cleaned up, everybody we leave in 15 minutes, MOVE!" 332
RILMS was relieved to be free again and wanted to help TET, but he didn't know how they could do that. While Arania was good with computers, he wasn't a fortune teller. 333
"Arania, how are we going to find TET, we don't even know where they took him" RILMS was relieved when he heard Wolfy asking the question, he didn't have the courage. 334
Arania had a smug look on his face when he answered, our informant in OT, codename Maniac, sent me the info, now shut up and get going!" 335
The rest of the Spammers were a bit surprised, they didn't know that they had an informant in OT. 336
******** 337
There is a happy atmosphere in the bar on Manhattan, they had the head Spammer in their hands, love was in there air and soon they would be off to catch the rest of the Spammers. They had just ordered their second and last round when alarms started going off. SirS who was busy outside with his ship came storming into the bar, shouting: "We are under attack! We are under attack! Get to you ships" 338
Everybody stormed to their ships, they didn't know who was attacking they only knew they had to defend the Planet at all costs. The first thing they checked when they came outside, was if TET was still secure, he wasn't. Eraser immediately realised what was going on His voice was heard above all the commotion :"It's the Spammers, everybody get into your ships, we have to catch them or at least eliminate some of them!" 339
Zlo started looking for sw and saw her halfway to her ship, he thought about calling after her, but realised that he had to get into his ship as soon as possible. Everywhere around him ships were launching "Good thing we've done away with the docking/launching rings" he thought, just then he heard a loud explosion behind him. When he turned around, there was no sign of the bright orange ship that stood there just moments ago, it was totally destroyed, sw was nowhere to be seen. Zlo's heart was torn in two, he wanted to run to the ship to search for sw, but he knew he had to launch and join the fight, it would be dangerous not to. 340
********** 341
Half an hour later everybody were docked again, two of the Spammer's ships were shot down, but they suspected that it was operated by AI, thus no losses for the Spammers. 342
The landing pad on Manhattan was badly damaged, a couple of ships was destroyed, one casualty, sw. 343
Everybody was in a grave mood, Zlo most of all. He sat alone at a table, staring into his ginger beer. He was beyond grief, he sat there, memories flashing through his mind, the first time he heard sw's voice, the time she came to visit him in hospital, earlier the day when she punched Steel, and then finally the last time he saw her smile. 344
He took a piece of paper from his pocket, a poem he had written earlier the day, he wanted to give it to her that evening. He read the words again 345
The first time I looked into your eyes, 346
I couldn't stop it, I couldn't resist347
Your eyes caught my heart and ran away.348
That very first time I saw your face,349
The image was burned into every memory chip350
My heart was yours to keep351
Every time I look into you blue-grey eyes 352
I feel like I'm drowning in a sea of love353
Just to be saved by the lifejacket of your smile354
No amount of words could ever express355
They beauty of your being, 356
Just like no amount of time 357
Could break down my love for thee358
A teardrop fell to the table just as he felt a hand on his shoulder, he looked up into SirS's face 359
"I'm sorry Zlo, nobody will ever be able to forget her, she was special like no other" SirS choked down a sob, but gave up and started to cry. When the rest of the guys saw SirS crying no-one tried to hide their own tears anymore. 360
Chapter ten361
The Spammers were united again and they had a new member, that was enough for a party. TET took out some of the best Ginger beer he had. They were all listening to Orillion's story. 362
"I'm from 400 years from now, we perfected time travel, or thought we did, it only works partly. You can travel to the past, but not to the future. One of the scientists working with us decided that he wanted to break loose, do his own thing. He stole 200 million credits from the research lab and got into the time machine. I'm here to capture him and take him back." 363
The Spammers were amazed by Orillion's story, they thought he were just from another system. 364
Orillion could see that these people were finding it hard to believe his story, he wondered what their story was, then he remembered something that caught his attention during the fight on Manhatten. 365
"You guys, that orange ship that was destroyed, do you know to whom it belonged?" 366
The Spammers was a bit taken aback at the question, but TET answered in anyway 367
"It belongs to some or another manic, a girl if I remember correctly. Why do you ask?" 368
"One of my best friends had a ship like that." A sad looked flashed across Orillion's face "It just brought back many memories. A question for you guys, who and what are you?" 369
TET swelled with pride "We're the Spammers, our mission in this world is to keep as much disorder as possible." 370
"Well it looked like somebody was ahead of you today" Orillion couldn't help smirking. 371
Tawakalna looked up from inspecting his wounds "The only reason that happened was because of a traitor and he will pay dearly for it. As well as that OT freak who escaped with him. They will pay for every drop of blood that had flown today" his voice was dripping with venom as he said that, antipathy showing clearly on his face. 372
********** 373
Bargib and kimk was standing in Bargib's office discussing a memorial service for sw. Bargib seemed a little upset and perplexed 374
"We have no records off her, that can't be possible, we have to know where she came from and who her parents are" 375
Kimk was equally perplexed "I know, I know, but there are absolutely nothing on her in the database, maybe Zlo knows something." 376
They started walking to the bar, Zlo sat there everyday, staring into a drink. 377
Zlo looked up when he became aware of Kimk and Bargib's presence "Hey guys" as sad smile was on his face. "How's the plans for the memorial coming along?" 378
They took a seat as Kim k started explaining "Well, we couldn't do much yet, we wanted to contact sw's parents, but we can't find anything about her in our database. We were wondering if you knew anything about her past." 379
"Well, she never really liked to talk about her past, she would always avoid the topic" Zlo had a frown on his face, "I think she once said that both her parents were dead, she grew up in an orphanage, she never really told me more than that" 380
Kimk and Bargib were both a bit surprised to hear that, Bargib looked a bit guilty, "You know all this time we only saw her as some crazy girl always messing up everything, we didn't even knew her past, I can't even remember when or how she arrived here." 381
Kimk rose 'I'll start contacting all the orphanages and see what I can find out, I'll talk to you guys a bit later then." 382
Just then a stranger walked into the bar and ordered… a glass of water? The bartender seemed extremely confused, he was not used to big, strong guys drinking water. While the dude was not exactly a head turner, he was not dead ugly either. Bargib approached him to introduce himself.383
"Hey there, I'm Bargib, welcome to Manhatten" 384
The dude didn't look happy at the disturbance 385
"Supersnipa is the name" he growled, "Now leave me alone" 386
Eraser who was also sitting at the bar took him by the shoulder "Hey, you don't talk to Bargib like that, he is the ruler of Forum Systems, now show some re…" 387
Eraser suddenly found himself in a very uncomfortable position, the stranger grabbed him by the collar and was pressing a strange looking gun against his chin . "I said I want to be left alone, is that so hard to understand?" 388
With that words he dropped Eraser and walked out of the bar. 389
Bargib just shook his head and helped Eraser to get up "Strange guy, hopefully he wont be staying too long." 390
*********** 391
TET, Arania and Tawakalna was in TET's office talking about the fight and Orillion 392
"Arania, have you hear anything from Maniac yet?" TET was starting to worry, it was not like Maniac to stay out of touch so long. 393
"No, not a word" Arania was also starting to worry, but he had something else on his mind "TET why don't we use Orillion to check out what is happening on Manhattan, I don't think he'll mind and he would be able to find out a lot of stuff for us. We can tell him that he needs to take one of our ships, his will stand out too much, then we can figure out how his weapons work" 394
TET was impressed "Good idea Arania, you can tell him that then." 395
As Arania left TET turned to Tawakalna "You will have to keep yourself calm, Taw, constant thoughts of revenge will only cloud your judgement While Orillion is gone, help Arania to check out his ship." 396
"Yes sir, immediately sir" Tawakalna's voice was dripping with sarcasm, he threw a mock salute at TET and left. 397
*********** 398
Cold. Fuzzy. A voice came through the haze "Aguia, you're awake!" It was a strangely familiar voice. "It's me Corsair, I came looking for you" 399
"Corsair? But how did you know where to find me?" 400
"I never believed the reports off your suicide, I knew you to well for that. Once I made sure you were not on the planet anymore, I knew you used the Chronométrez and I figured out which sequence was used last and I decided to come looking for you." 401
"But it's illegal to use the Chronométrez, they will kill you for that." 402
"Aguia, do you really think I care? Besides, I already have a guy trying to kill me, a few more wont matter, not as long as I'm with you." 403
"It's been so long since I went by that name, it sounds so weird now" 404
Corsair seemed a bit confused, "What do you use now?" 405
"sycho_warrior or sw" 406
********* 407
Orillion arrived at Manhatten and decided that the best place to get information would be the bar. He suspected that the Spammers would try to get a look at his ship and weapons, but he didn't worry about that too much, he had enough security involved to stop that. 408
The atmosphere in the bar was sombre; he wondered what was going on. He sat down at the counter and ordered a glass of water. The bartender gave him a strange look. He was still wondering about that, when the televiewter caught his eye, some guy was talking about the fight earlier. They showed scenes off a destroyed fighter, he immediately recognized it as the orange fighter he wondered about earlier. He leaned toward the guy sitting next to him, "Whose fighter was that?" 409
The guy gave him a sad stare, "That was sw's fighter" 410
Orillion still was not satisfied, "He must have been a very special guy, it seems like everybody here are mourning" 411
Orillion was shocked when he was suddenly lifted from the ground by the strange." 412
"sw is not a guy!" Zlo spit the words out through clenched teeth, he felt like smashing this stranger's head against the bar counter. Just as he applied more pressure, he felt a hand on his arm, it was SirS 413
"Zlo, put him down, he didn't do anything." 414
Zlo reluctantly put the stranger down and went back to his seat. 415
SirS looked at the stranger apologetically "Sorry about his reaction, he and sw were dating, it's kinda hard on him, I'm SirS" 416
Orillion was shocked, he didn't know that somebody had died! Then he also had this memory nagging at him, but before he could really remember the memory he realised tha SirS was waiting for him to introduce himself. "I'm Orillion" He looked at Zlo "I'm sorry about your girlfriend, I know what it feels like." 417
Zlo looked up at him and just nodded, he couldn't speak. SirS took it on himself to do the introductions "This is Zlo, welcome to Manhatten. Sorry about the sombre atmosphere around here, but we're all kinda shaken." 418
Orillion looked around, obviously he wouldn't get much information around here, it would probably be best for him to return to the Spammers, but then again, he wasn't so sure if he really wanted to be in their company. He was feeling a bit depressed, for a moment when he saw the destroyed ship, he had some hope, but now even that was gone. 419
********* 420
Chapter eleven421
Corsair and sw were still flying through space. Corsair wasn't sure where he was going, but he knew he had to get as far away from Manhattan as possible. He just hoped that sw wouldn't ask too many questions. He was still pondering on a destination when sw started asking the questions he hoped to avoid. 422
"Corsair where are we going?" sw wanted to go back to Manhattan, she wanted to know what happened in the fight, but it didn't look like Corsair was planning on going back. 423
"I'm not sure, just as far away from populated places as possible." 424
"But why? I want to go back to Manhattan" 425
"We cant go back, not now, not ever." 426
"What!?" sw was shocked, she never expected this! She sure cared a lot for Corsair, but she had made many friends in FS and then there was Zlo… 427
"You forget that I used the time-traveller illegally, they sent their best mercenary after me." Corsair heard sw gasp. "Yes I know, now you understand why I can't go back to a populated area, he will find me and kill me." 428
"But my friends will miss me" sw still didn't give up, she had to get back to Manhattan. 429
"No they won't, Aguia you're safe with me, relax." Corsair hoped to calm sw, but it seemed like his words had the opposite effect 430
"Why? What have you done." sw was adamant; Corsair knew there would be no way to not tell her what happened. 431
"After I knocked you out, I threw a grenade into your ship, it looked like a missile had hit it. I then simply launched with all the other ships" Corsair was shocked at sw's reaction, she hit the back of his seat with her fist. 432
"How could you? I can't lose all my friends! Not again." sw couldn't believe that this was happening to her, she was so happy. 433
"But Aguia I did it for you, for us" suddenly Corsair was not so sure about anything anymore, he expected sw to be much happier about their being together. 434
"Stop calling me that! I'm sw" 435
"But why? Aguia is such a lovely name, and you will always be my eagle" 436
"It reminds me of a time I chose to forget, now please take me back to Manhattan, I need to get back to my friends." 437
Corsair took something from a bag by his side in one last attempt to calm sw "Look what I brought with" He gave her a dagger. The handle was made from diamond and decorated with gold, rubies and emeralds. The blade was also made from diamond, in it, the name Aguia could be seen. sw gasped when she saw the dagger, it brought back so many memories, memories she chose to forget. Suddenly she knew she had to get back to Manhattan as soon as she possibly could. 438
"Corsair lets go back to Manhattan, my friends will protect you, they are some of the best fighters in the universe, please lets go back." 439
********** 440
The memorial service was about to begin, they were just waiting for Bargib. All eyes turned to the door as it began to open. When it was fully opened gasps was heard from all over. In the doorframe there was a guy. Not just any guy, this one was absolutely gorgeous. He was about 2m tall with blond hair and striking green eyes. The women present were stunned, they have never seen such a beautiful creature before. The guy stepped inside revealing another person was revealed. There was a tomblike silence for almost a minute and then pandemonium broke loose. 441
About 30 minutes later sw was sitting between Zlo and SirS in the bar on the bar counter, everybody wanted to hear everything. Just before she started talking, sw looked up and saw Corsair standing by himself looking lost. She hopped from the counter and stood next to him. 442
"You guys this is Corsair, he is a big part of my past." She then proceeded to tell them what happened when her ship blew up. 443
Zlo didn't seem to happy when he heard the story, he glared at Corsair and sw standing next to each other and mumbled something indecipherable. 444
sw sensing the tension then proceeded to tell them exactly where she and Corsair came from, it was not really something she wanted everybody to know, but there was no way around it. The guys seemed a bit taken aback by the idea of time travel, but they accepted sw's explanation. 445
sw ended her long story with a request "You guys must please help to protect Corsair, he can't go back to the future, we're his only chance of survival" 446
Zlo jumped to his feet "Why should we protect him? He tried to kidnap you! We should flush him down the toilet" 447
"I did not!" Corsair stood in front of Zlo glaring at him. A hush fell over the bar, everybody realised that it would never work if Zlo and Corsair were on the same planet. Zlo glared up at Corsair unfazed by the latter's height. sw stood there looking from the one to the other; Corsair, the drop dead gorgeous guy who she dated in another lifetime. Zlo the interesting, funny guy she currently dated. She knew she had to choose, but not now, not while she was still so confused. Not while she still had a mission to finish. Suddenly she decided that she didn't have time for this kind of nonsense. 448
"Will you two to stop that! You are worse than two babies!" The two was surprised at the sudden explosion of temper. "Zlo, Corsair is a very dear friend of mine and I expect you to be nice to him! Corsair the same goes for you." sw glared at the two and then spoke to everybody in the room "When I asked Corsair to bring me back, I promised him that he would be safe here. I told him that you guys are some of the best fighters in the universe…" 449
At that moment, a gunshot echoed through the room. In front of everybody's shocked eyes a red dot appeared on Corsairs forehead. He slowly sank to the ground, his eyes glazed. Everybody turned in the direction from where the shot came, the stranger, Supersnipa was standing in the bar entrance, his gun drawn, a smile on his face. 450
He slowly turned his gun to sw "Ah looky who's here, I thought the reports of your suicide sounded a bit fishy. Two down, two to go. One of them standing in front of me, the other will also be in the vicinity. The dumb idiot, he thought he had to come here to catch Corsair, as if they will trust him to do that. Any last words? Without waiting for an answer he continued. 451
"You know, Amando absolutely begged me not to kill her." Supersnipa smirked viciously victoriously, he could see that sw was getting extremely upset. He didn't worry about being killed for one second as he had a protective shield over him. He decided to rub the salt into the recently reopened wounds even more. 452
"She died a slow death, you know what she looked like. She didn't stop begging for one second. The proud Amando was on her knees, for once she was the one crawling. She died a slow painful death. As I ripped pieces of skin from her, her screams ripped through the air, pleading me to stop." Supersnipa had an almost dreamlike expression on his face, he was reliving each moment of the torture. "But you know this all, don't you, you were hiding in a closet." He smirked even more, he could see that sw was also reliving that day, but for her it only caused pain. He went for the ultimate punch line "You couldn't even move, you were too afraid to help your best friend" 453
"You bastard!" in a lightning fast move she whipped out the dagger Corsair gave her earlier and hurled it in Supersnipa's direction. Time seemed to slow while the dagger was in the air. Supersnipa burst into a wild laughter, he felt very safe behind his shields. Seconds later his smile disappeared as the dagger went through his shield and entered his stomach. A dazed expression appeared on his face, he couldn't understand what happened, his shield was impenetrable, it could withstand even a direct nuclear explosion, but now a dagger had penetrated it. 454
sw slowly walked toward Supersnipa laid, a venomous look on her face. "Yes I was there and I heard every scream, just like I'm still hearing them every night. I couldn't do anything back then. Afterward I had to flee lest you kill me, but I swore that I will revenge Amando's death." sw had a look of pure hatred on her face as she spat out the words. "Now it is your turn to die, and you will die slowly and painfully. Your blood will start to turn into a solid, your brain and organs will receive less and less oxygen." sw grinned viciously "You will die an excruciating death, Supersnipa and it's exactly what you deserve."455
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