========================================================================= Date: Wed, 20 Sep 1995 12:00:00 Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Robotech_Master Subject: Team M.E.C.H.A. TEB #6: It's the Swing -- Introduction [This TEB and its contents are copyright 1994, 1995 by Christopher E. Meadows and Jesse Taylor. All rights reserved; permission granted for archival and to make one printed copy for personal use.] With this Trade Ether-Back, Team M.E.C.H.A. moves into what was a special period of its Superguy career: the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution was a huge story, and a huge committment for the people who were putting it together. It became so hectic that for months afterward it was a running gag for all the Authors to scream in panic whenever someone mentioned its name. IR was born out of the Magic Wars storyline of 1993, in which Radian from CalForce attempted to Ascend by destroying the Earth. An event of such major import could not help but have a huge backlash. At the same time as the events chronicled in this TEB are taking place, that backlash begins in Bob City, culminating in the heart-stopping message broadcast over Radio Free Hero, referred to in Team M.E.C.H.A. #41. Because IR was so all-pervasive, encompassing almost the entire listserv, these TEBs won't attempt to include all of it, and certainly not the 2500-line final battle. There has been talk of collecting all the IR episodes into one volume, but nothing has been done about that at the time of this writing. Currently, the best way to find out more about the entire Revolution and the events surrounding it would be to read the pertinent logs, available through the Superguy FTP site. The Industrial Revolution Prologue can be found in archive 395, and the events slowly begin to unfold from there on. In the 440s through 460s, the Revolution comes up to speed, culminating in the final battle in archives 470 through 477, and a postlude in archive 489. Events of the Revolution have influenced the list greatly in the year and a half since they took place. This is partly due to the far-reaching nature of the events, and partly because Certain Authors Who Shall Not Herein Be Named have not been writing as much as they should have. But enough about the Revolution; Team M.E.C.H.A.'s participation in it won't actually be covered until TEB #7. Now it's time to talk about some of the events that take place in this volume. In order to lead up to the Revolution, it was necessary that a new suit of armor be built for Superuser's girlfriend Liz, formerly known as Ultimate Ginsu (soon to become Ginsu World Class). In order to build the Ginsu World Class armor, Superuser would need access to certain components. As (the real) Bill Paul and I had been talking, we decided this would be the perfect opportunity for a crossover. It was quite fun crossing over with The Man With Two First Names, and gave Team M.E.C.H.A. the chance to make a good connection in the superheroing community. Along with the Scholarman crossover for "Care and Feeding," it made for an interesting opportunity to collaborate separately and independantly with two Senior Authors at the same time. The other major crossover in this volume wasn't really planned, but it has its roots back in the Springfield crossover chronicled in TEB #2. It seems that That Other News Network had a headquarters in Springfield, and Force Ten was given a contract to break into it and rescue a scientist. Of course, when I found that Force Ten was coming through my terrain, I had to do something about it...and so this crossover was born. As an indirect result of this crossover, I was able to meet Drakkor a little later. We had a fun time touring the Battlefield Mall and other sites which this and the Destination Springfield (TEB #2) crossover touched upon. THAT was a lot of fun. Speaking of Jesse, his characters got together to commemorate this sixth TEB and...well...I can't be held responsible for the results. ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 20 Sep 1995 12:00:00 Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Jesse Taylor Subject: Team M.E.C.H.A. TEB #6: It's the Swing -- + Jesse Taylor's Introduction Ahem. In order to commemorate this, the Sixth Team M.E.C.H.A. Trade Ether-Back, here we have the cast of Force Ten and Marie (and Co.) to do a musical number celebrating the many adventures of Team M.E.C.H.A. (musical theme, "Bohemian Polka" by 'Weird Al' Yankovic) [Ray Sterling wanders on-camera and clears his throat.] RAY: Is this Robotech? Is it a parody? So many anime refs, it's like a different reality... MARIE & SHANNON (offstage): Open your eyes! Look up to the list and seeeeee... RAY: They're just a angstful team, they get no sympathy... PRIZM & FRACTALMAN (offstage): 'cos angst is easy come, will not go/too much angst, and you'll blow... WAYNE: Any way the angst goes, doesn't really maaaaatter to me... RAY: Oh my, they built a mech... Just a little bitty mech, that'll blast their foes to heck... Oh my, their team's just begun, and now they've got a city crushing mech... MARIE & SHANNON (offstage): Oh man, oooooh... RAY: I don't mean to sound put out, but sometimes I wish I could help pilot Sigma... ROGER: Carry on, carry on, it doesn't really matter. [Wayne dances out on stage with an accordian, and does a short solo before Marie runs on and drags him offstage] RAY: Magic too, yes they've got a mage. From Terrania she hails, and she got a lot of spells... WAYNE: Hang on, dude, that didn't even rhyme! What're you tryin' t'pull here anywaaay? MARIE & SHANNON (offstage): Sterling, ooooooh... PRIZM & FRACTALMAN (offstage): Anyway the angst goes... MARIE & SHANNON (offstage): You know you cannot sing, how the heck did you ever get picked for this role? [Wayne dances out on stage once more with his accordian, but cuts the solo short when Ray starts waving his Gallant H-90 around.] RAY: I see a little silhoutt-e of a mech... WAYNE: Don't shoot! Don't shoot, we're not to the Revolution yet... MARIE: Thunderbolts and lightning, can't you see that magic's frightning? WAYNE: Galileo! Galileo! EVERYONE ELSE: What's he have to do with this?! WAYNE: Whoa-whoa-whoa! RAY: They're just a poor team, got way too much angst! MARIE & SHANNON: They're just a poor team, with way too much angst, spare them their minds from this monstrosity... RAY: Easy come, never goes. Will you let the angst go? MARIE & WAYNE: They will not, no! They will not let the angst go! PRIZM: Let it go! WAYNE & MARIE: They will not, no! They will not let it go! PRIZM: Let it go! WAYNE & MARIE: They'll not let it go. PRIZM: Let it go! WAYNE & MARIE: They'll not let it go. They'll never, ever, ever, ever EVER let it go. RAY: What's the worry, what's the worry? Never worry 'bout your foes. ROGER: Bah'mode Sigma could blow most enemies to heck... to heck... EVERYONE: To heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeck! [The music abruptly changes to a polka beat, and all the characters run out and begin dancing around on-stage.] RAY: So you think you can shoot at and damage their mechs? RAY: So you think that you'll win with your corny ol' tricks? RAY: Oh, buddy... Don't even think 'bout it, buddy. You'd better get out, you'd better get right out of here... WAYNE: Mecha are, like, way cool... any one can see... Mecha are like, way cool, tooo, tooooo meeeeeeeeee! EVERYONE: Mecha are, like, way cool! Mecha are, like, way coool, toooooo WAYNE: Mecha are, like RAY: Are, like, way cool! WAYNE: Mecha are, like RAY: Are, like, way cool! WAYNE & RAY: Mecha are, like, waaaaay coool, you'll seeeeeeee! MARIE: It's the sixth Team M.E.C.H.A.-- SHANNON: M.E.C.H.A. Trade-Etherback... EVERYONE: And now we're done with the song, hey! Now, without further ado, we proudly present... TEAM M.E.C.H.A. TRADE ETHER-BACK #6 "IT'S THE SWING" A Story of High Technology and the pre-Industrial Revolution (Oooh, angst aplenty!) By Chris Meadows and Jesse Taylor With Help and Guidance from Eric A. Burns and Bill Paul ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 10 Mar 1994 14:49:46 -0600 Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Robotech_Master Subject: SG: Team M.E.C.H.A. #36 TEAM M.E.C.H.A. #36 By Robotech_Master, Writing Without a Bunker A Story of High Technology, and a Revolution in the Making (Shouldn't that be a "revulsion?") Mike got up, pulled his clothes on. His room was in that state of disarray typical of him. He dug around in the floor until he found a pair of mostly-clean socks and pulled on his shoes, reminding himself again that he needed to do the laundry one of these days. It was about 11:00 a.m., and Mike knew that Summer and Link were probably still in the control room trying to find where Sarah Conner had gone. Dr. Odd Science and Ray Sterling would be down in the mecha lab, running checks on the Alpha fighter. Mike had been curious as to how its construction differed from the techniques used to build their mecha, and Ray had been most cooperative in letting them study it. Mike wandered down the corridor to the elevator, and thence to the control room. As he went, he thought back on the events of the last few days, and wondered why Team M.E.C.H.A. seemed to be falling apart all around him. The flight back to the headquarters was an uneventful one. Mike stood watch on the flight deck all the way back, even though he let the autopilot handle the flight systems all the way. He was doing some thinking. At the party, Mike had watched Adam's table, even though he'd never gone over there. Adam had had a little too much to drink, Mike thought, for he was slightly red-faced and was gesturing animatedly. Also at the table had been Spectrum, Benedict, and Bulletproof. He'd heard snatches of conversation. Nothing conclusive by itself, but it seemed to be relating to magic. Mike shivered. He wasn't sure what the attitudes of the others at the table might be regarding magic--Summer might, but he wasn't going to ask her--but he did know that all three of them based their powers primarily on technology, and in most cases, technology and magic tended to oppose each other. This was not a good sign, especially considering that Adam had decided not to come back to headquarters with the rest of the team. "But why?" Mike asked. "I thought we were a team, here." "Relax, it's just for a couple of days. My compadres here and I have stuff to talk about." He jerked his thumb back at the table. "There are some things we've got in common, and I think I really like these guys." "But--" "Hey, Mike, chill out! If I get friendly with these guys, it means they'll be friendly with Team M.E.C.H.A. And that's what we want, right?" Mike hoped that Adam knew what he was doing. But then again, he feared that Adam might know EXACTLY what he was doing. Either possibility was equally frightening. But, he told himself, Spectrum seemed level-headed enough. Surely he would prevent the others from doing something rash. Wouldn't he? They made it back to base without incident, and the team split up to do their individual things. Mike and Dr. Odd Science started patching up the damage that the Bahamode Sigma had taken in the climactic anti-Granger battle from the MegaCrossover; Ray Sterling started giving the Alpha Fighter a tune-up (and Summer hung around and helped); Link got to work on the base's Double-Secret-clearance computer system; Sarah Conner took a shower. So went the day. The next morning, Mike awoke to find Sarah Conner gone. The note she'd left said she'd gone shopping, and Mike hadn't really paid much attention to it. However, when she hadn't returned by that evening, he began to worry some more. Another day had passed, during which the Bahamodes had been repaired and stored against some future contingency. Mike had gone into town, read a couple of books at the local library, and come back expecting to find that Sarah Conner had stayed the night with some friend in Springfield. But she hadn't gotten back. And moreover, they couldn't raise her on the communicator, or even lock onto her homing signal. "It's like she's just disappeared," Link muttered. "Find her," Mike said. "You've got Secret-Secret level computer clearance; use it. And see if you can get in touch with Adam. He might have some ideas as to where his girlfriend went, or at least might like to know that she's disappeared." "I'll get right on it," Link replied. The evening had found Mike sitting alone in a small observation tower connected to the underground base. The tower was cleverly disguised as a large tree that jutted out above all the other trees in the forest, and it had a pretty good view of the surrounding hills. Mike sometimes came up here when he wanted to be alone with his thoughts. And Mike was really disturbed. Two members of his team were gone. One was staying with some "friends;" the other had simply vanished. Mike couldn't help feeling like there was something he should be doing--combing the countryside in his new red Bahamode (the old one had never turned up back in Bob City, though they'd searched the debris for it), or getting in touch with other hero teams for a coordinated search. But more than that, there was a feeling of impending doom that seemed related to, and yet separate from, these events. It was as if something was going to happen, something terrible, something that Mike should be trying to prevent--but he didn't know what it was. Mike was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice the sound of feet on the rungs of the ladder until Summer's voice said, "Hi, big brother. What's up?" Mike sighed. "I don't know...It's just..." He sighed. "I thought we were a TEAM, Summer. We fought so WELL together against the Grangers, just us and Spectrum..." Summer smiled, remembering that battle. Spectrum was so nice...and they'd fit together perfectly, melding into the controlling personality of Bahamode Sigma. Mike still hadn't worked up the courage to ask her exactly what had happened. Summer suspected that he didn't really want to know. "We kicked butt, no question of that." "So why are we falling apart now?" Mike asked. "Adam and Sarah are both gone. Who's going to leave next?" "Really, Mike," Summer said. "I think you're overreacting. Adam will be back...he just wanted to stay overnight with some friends. You know, like a camping trip or pajama party or something." Mike had a sudden incongruous picture of Bulletproof in pajamas, and shook his head. "No, it's something more than that. I can feel it. I'm thinking that I made a big mistake by letting him stay. A mistake that could have grave consequences later on." "You worry too much," Summer said. "And what about Sarah? She's vanished off the face of the earth," Mike said. "She could be in serious trouble...she could even be DEAD." "No, I don't think so," Summer said. "She knows how to take care of herself." "But why hasn't she contacted us?" Mike said. "Where IS she?" "I don't know. Maybe the Author's giving her a miniseries of her own or something," Summer suggested. "Whatever it is, I hope she gets back here soon. We need to be at full strength in case another threat pops up." Summer shook her head. "Mike, you WORRY too much. Look. How many threats have we HAD in 36 episodes? Three? Four? And two of those were the same person. Trust me, nothing's going to happen around HERE before either of them gets back." Mike shook his head. "It's things like this that make me doubt my qualifications as a leader." "And it's those doubts that make you such a GREAT leader," Summer said. "If you didn't have them, we'd have OUR doubts about following you." "I dunno..." Mike said. "I guess I just need more time to think about this." "Feel like a ride in the country?" Summer asked. "I know a certain motorcycle who would be more than happy to oblige..." "All right, I'll take you up on that..." As they exited the base and Summer morphed into a Cyclone, she remarked, "I'm glad to see that you seem less nervous about riding me now." "Oh, make no mistake, I'm still not sure how much I like the idea," Mike said. "But with as many other concerns as I've got to deal with right now, this one has become relatively minor." After they'd gotten back, Mike had spent a lot of the rest of the night on Internet Relay Chat trying to ignore his problems. He'd made several friends on the #Superguy discussion topic, including a girl named San who liked to discuss Ramrod. She happened to be on that night, and they got into a long conversation--San told him she was going to visit Team Cynical at the beginning of April, he told her he was LIVING with Team M.E.C.H.A., they called each other liars, then went on to talk of other things--which broke off at about 4:00 a.m. when Mike fell asleep at the keyboard. Now it was the morning, and Mike was stumbling up to the control room, blinking the sleep from his eyes and wondering if there'd been any clues to Sarah's whereabouts yet. "Hi!" Summer called out as Mike entered. Mike blinked, then rubbed his eyes. Summer was standing there next to a console, with her arm buried into the terminal up to her elbow. Link was at another terminal, alternating keying in commands with sipping from the quart thermos mug of coffee beside him. "Summer? What exactly is that you're doing?" Mike asked. "I'm interfacing with the computer," Summer replied. "It's easy to do, especially after what I learned with Bahamode Sigma. I can read and write data much more easily like this." Mike sat down rather hard in a chair. "But that looks disgusting!" "To YOU, maybe," Summer said. "But I'm receiving and assim--assim--" "Assimilating," Lincoln said, then yawned. "Yeah, that. I'm receiving and as-sim-il-ating data ten times faster than I could read it off a screen. It works." Mike sighed. "What have you found out?" Link yawned again. "Mainly that no one's seen her. Everyone in the government seems to be preoccupied with either watching the Adjusted League Unimpeachable or some brouhaha over in the Soviet Union involving Radian." "And none of the satellites I'm uplinked into has picked up her signal transponder." "Of course, the signal could be blocked by a sufficient obstruction," Link said. "Like, say, a European castle." Mike sighed. "All right. Link, go get some sleep, you look like you could use it." Link nodded. "Right, boss." He shoved his chair back, picked up his thermos mug, and staggered off to get some rest. "Summer, have you had any sleep?" Mike asked. "I'm okay," Summer said. "I just draw energy from hyperspace when I start getting tired. I can keep going for days." "Er..." Mike said. "Are you sure you're okay?" "I'm fine, no problems." Summer withdrew from the computer slowly, allowing the metallic slime to meld back together into her arm. "But the fact remains that we haven't been able to find Sarah yet." Mike sighed. "That's right." He nodded. "I think that if we haven't found any signs by the end of the day, we should contact the other superteams and ask for help. Defense Squad, Awesome Force, CalForce, Adjusted League--" "Team Cynical?" "Yeah, them too...we'll call them, and maybe they can help--" Just then, the vidscreen pinged. There was an incoming call! Mike and Summer looked at each other. As far as they could recall, there had NEVER been an incoming call on the vidscreen of ANY sort for as long as Team M.E.C.H.A. had been in existance. And vidcom facilities weren't exactly commonplace. "Do you want to get that?" Mike asked. "I--er--" What if it's Andy Awesome returning my call at last? It might even be from... She blinked at a small display screen nearby. "Gak! Defense Squad HQ! I--um, think you'd better get it." "You've gotta be kidding me," Mike said. "No, honest! That's what the caller ID thing says right here!" "Whatever." Mike reached out and thumbed the com switch. And Superuser appeared on the screen. Summer couldn't believe it. Bill Paul--Silly Wizzard, Ginsu 2000, !'s sidekick, and now Superuser--was calling THEM! He was coming THERE! She was actually going to get to meet a REAL hero, up close and personal! What would she wear? Mike was a little calmer, but only a little; he felt like he'd suddenly been shoved out onto stage without a script of any sort, and was terrible at ad-libbing. Summer's gushing hero-worship didn't help matters any, either. And when Mike learned what Superuser wanted, he just wasn't sure what to say, ending up with a mumbled, "Oh, Hell (TM), what she said." "Great!" Superuser replied. He asked for coordinates. "And please--if there's anything I can do to repay you, just ask." You bet I will, Mike thought. After the call, Mike and Summer just sort of stood there for a moment, looking at each other. "We've got to get ready!" Summer gasped. "How do you mean?" Mike asked. "Are you kidding?! SUPERUSER is coming over! We've got to stock some Yoo-Hoo, at least a crate of it!" "Eugh! What, are you kidding?! Who DRINKS that stuff?" "He does." "He must be braver than I thought." Mike considered. "Okay, run into town and get whatever you think you need. I'll tell the others." "Right." Summer dashed to the door, morphing into a gleaming hardsuit as she ran. Mike shook his head, watching her go. He then thumbed the intercom button. He would let Link sleep, for now, he decided. "Hey, Ray, Dr. Science, front and center. We're going to have a visitor." A few miles from the base, a lone motorcyclist roared up the dirt roat leading toward M.E.C.H.A. HQ. He paused for just a moment to watch a black hardsuit take off from the forest and rocket through the skies toward Cassville, then nodded to himself. "Okay..." Adam said. "Better get into the base and see what's going on..." WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN SUPERUSER ARRIVES? WILL SUPERUSER AND MIKE HIT IT OFF? WHAT ABOUT SUPERUSER AND LINK? WHAT ABOUT SUPERUSER AND EVERYONE ELSE? WHY HAS ADAM RETURNED SO SOON? WHERE HAS SARAH GONE? (GEE, I WONDER...) DOES THE RAIN IN SPAIN *REALLY* FALL MAINLY ON THE PLAIN? WHAT'S ALL THIS DARK TIDINGS STUFF THAT'S POPPING UP ALL OVER THE LIST? ALL THIS AND MORE, COMING UP SOON, ONLY ON S U P E R G U Y ! ! ! ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 29 Mar 1994 12:18:46 -0600 Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Robotech_Master Subject: SG: Team M.E.C.H.A. #37 TEAM M.E.C.H.A. #37 By Robotech_Master, and his new Transformer, "Gobots" Guest-Starring Superuser A Story of High Technology, and High Time I Tied Up Some Loose Ends (I think your whole SERIES is a loose end.) As Mike turned to leave the control room, his attention was brought back to the control panel by a beep that indicated one of the entry ramps to the Team M.E.C.H.A. vehicle bay was opening. "Who--?" Mike punched up a view on the security monitor, then flipped on the intercom. "Adam! What are you doing back?" Adam pulled off his helmet and tossed it aside. "Did you think I was just going to sit there after hearing that my girl's gone missing? I'm coming up to the control room, wait for me." He dashed out the door. Mike followed him down the corridor to the elevator and up that to the control room level. As Adam walked through the door, he said, "Okay, now what's the latest word on the search?" "We've been looking around the clock for days, and nothing's turned up. No transponder, no trace, no nothing." Adam nodded. "So what's being done about it right now?" "We've got the computer monitoring the entire world through taps on recon satellites. If we start picking up her transponder signal, it will alert us right away." "All right. But what are you ACTIVELY doing about it?" "The search is kind of on hold right now..." Mike said. "What do you mean?" Adam asked. "Are you just going to give up on her?!" "No, no, take it easy!" Mike said. "We've done all we can right now. But we're going to have a visitor very shortly who might be able to help us with it." "Who?" Adam asked suspiciously. "Superuser." "Huh? Superuser who?" "No, no, THE Superuser," Mike clarified. "Bill Paul. Y'know, from Defense Squad?" "Oh, him." Adam shrugged. "So, is there anything I can do?" "If you want to feel useful, yeah. I'd appreciate it if you'd monitor the control room and let us know if Sarah calls in." Adam nodded. "Will do, boss." He took a seat at one of the terminals and logged on. Mike turned once more for the door, then paused just before going through it. "One more thing, Adam. Are you back to stay?" He hoped, he REALLY hoped that Adam was going to say yes... "Well, that depends," Adam said. "We'll talk about it later." Mike sighed inwardly. "Whatever." He walked out the door. Adam was left alone with the computer and his thoughts. Ray Sterling stood behind Dr. Science, looking over Dr. Science's shoulder as he took notes on the internal construction of the Alpha Fighter. The small clipboard computer was rapidly filling up with schematics and technical notes. Ray envied Dr. Science for his calmness. He'd just heard that Superuser was coming to visit. Coming HERE! He was excited, but for a rather different reason than Summer had been. Summer had just been thrilled by the fact that a genuine superhero was coming to visit them. But what had Ray so excited was the fact that not only had Bill Paul been one of the original Awesome Force, which had been first to discover the TV Dimension, he had been the one most directly involved in dimensional engineering. After all, he had originally been Silly Wizzard, a technological genius equipped with dimensionally transcendental hair. Perhaps he could help Ray find a way home! Or, perhaps not, Ray reflected. But still, it was worth a shot... Mike trudged down the corridor to his room. If he had time, he figured, he might as well take a shower and shave before Superuser got there. As the leader of the team, he felt it was his duty to look his best. "Leader of the team," he muttered. "Ha. Some leader I am. Sarah's missing and I don't know WHAT'S going on with Adam." He sighed. "Now is not the time for these doubts," he told himself. "I have to get it together." But as he stepped under the warm water jets, he kept thinking about it. "How did I ever get to be leader anyway?" he wondered. "Nobody appointed me...I guess it just sort of happened." He thought about it for a while as he soaped up and rinsed off. "If I'd known it would be like this, would I have done it?" As he got out the razor and other implements of shaving, he continued to ponder this question. He thought back over Team M.E.C.H.A.'s brief history as he applied the shaving cream. They'd started out with just Mike and Summer, as more of a "stunt-show" type superhero team than a real one. One of them would attempt to commit a crime, and the other would show up and stop it. They'd hoped to get famous that way, and perhaps attract tourism money to their town. It hadn't really worked that well. Then they'd been on their way out to watch the Awesome Force vs. Team Cynical softball game, when an energy cannon shot from out of nowhere had wrecked their plane. But out of this wreck had come their next three members--Adam Douglas, Lincoln Douglas, and Sarah Conner--and together, they made up the core of Team M.E.C.H.A. This had been the first time they'd met the evil Dr. Zwarghoff, and also the first time they'd defeated him. After that had come the Odd Science convention in Springfield, and all the changes it had brought. Summer had been fused with her hardsuit via a combination of nanotechnology and hyperspatial energy, and had been learning to use her new powers ever since. They had met and picked up two more members of their team--Dr. Odd Science, and Ray Sterling--as well as making the acquaintance of Spectrum and Space Moose. They had fought Marie, Wayne, and the Invid, and Anime Freak and the forces of That Other News Network. Then they had returned to their base in the Ozark mountains...and Dr. Zwarghoff had shown up and taken it over. However, thanks to Summer's special abilities and a gizmo Dr. Science had created, they'd been able to defeat Zwarghoff's robots and capture him once more. And right after that, they'd gotten in touch with Spectrum, who had needed their help in Bob City. They'd gone to help him, gotten their butts kicked by the Mighty Muddy Power Grangers, and returned with Bahamode Sigma and the rest was history. Which left Mike back in the present, with a lot on his mind. "So," he asked himself, "was it worth it?" He still didn't know. "Well. Bill Paul was the leader of Defense Squad for a while," Mike reflected as he shaved. "I guess I'll just ask him how he handled the pressures of leadership." With that decided, he put the matter out of his mind for the moment. There was still a lot of preparation to do. As a hardsuit, Summer touched down on the landing pad, grocery bag in hand. She shifted back to human form and ran into the corridor, heading for the lounge where she immediately transferred the Yoo-Hoo to the fridge. "Right. There we go. Now what?" "Summer, there you are!" Mike came dashing into the room. "Radar's just picked up a man-size object flying toward us. It has to be Superuser. Come on, we're going to meet him in the launch bay." "Cool! I'm on my way!" Superuser followed the coordinates he'd been given, and found the headquarters easily. As he touched down in the landing bay, he was met by two humans in CVR armor, one in a labcoat, and one gleaming black hardsuit. Mike stepped forward, extending his hand. "Hello, and welcome to our HQ. What do you think?" Superuser looked around. "If it weren't for the operating system I believe you said your computer runs, I think I'd have to say it's amazing. How did you kids get ahold of something like this, anyway?" "We're not much younger than you are," Mike replied. "But forget that. And we found it. This is our science expert, Dr. Odd Science." Mike gestured to Dr. Science. Superuser sized him up. "You related to Pseudo and Weird?" "To my regret," Dr. Science replied. "Pleased to meet you." They shook hands. "This is Ray Sterling, Veritech Alpha pilot from the TV dimension," Mike continued. "It's great to meet you!" Ray said, shaking Superuser's hand enthusiastically. "Um, I was wondering, would it be possible--" "And this is my sister, Summer," Mike continued. "Hi!" the hardsuit said, extending its own hand. Superuser took it, wondering what the hardsuit's pilot looked like. He also wondered if it would be possible to interface with this mecha's computer. He decided to find out. Summer noticed the attempted interface, and decided to allow it. She opened a data connection, and felt...contact. It was kind of like when she'd been the controlling unit in Bahamode Sigma and had been in mental contact with all the individual pilots, except the contact was stronger. Summer easily deflected his attempts to call for a status readout of the hardsuit and responded with, *Uh uh uh, if you want that kind of information, you're going to have to say "please."* *Huh? What--who are you?* came the slightly confused response. *Like my brother said...you can call me Summer.* Still holding Bill Paul's hand, she shifted back to the human form of a 14-year-old. "It's...er, a thrill to meet you," Superuser said. *Oops. I seem to have made a faux pas.* *A what?* *A mistake.* *Oh.* Summer grinned. *No problem, coulda happened to anyone.* She released Superuser's hand and severed the contact. Regathering his composure, Superuser reshaped his armor suit into blue jeans and a T-shirt with the # logo on it. "Anyway, shall we get down to business?" "Sure! If you'll just come down to the lounge, we can discuss the whole thing," Mike said. "There's plenty of Yoo-Hoo in the cooler, the control room is convenient, and it's plenty comfortable. And the other members of our team who are currently here will be joining us shortly." Bill Paul nodded. "By all means, then, lead the way." Mike nodded, gestured to everyone else, and the whole processional set off down the hall. Summer hung back 'til the last, thinking about what she'd just experienced and seen. "Hey, Dr. Science..." she remarked. "Is that suit's Xolcha--Xolcha-- Xol-chi-pa-li-an technology anything like the nanites I have?" Dr. Science shrugged. "I've never actually had a chance to examine Xolchatech. I don't have any idea, actually." "I wonder what it would be like if I happened to absorb Xolcha--Xolcha--that word technology and pattern it. Oh, I don't mean the Superuser suit--that wouldn't be very nice--but general mechanical technology..." "You're advanced pretty far ahead of standard earth technology as it is," Odd Science remarked. "It's hard to say." "Hmm. I'll have to think about it," Summer decided. "It might provide material for a plotline somewhere down the road." Something she was also thinking about was the transmute-armor-to- clothing trick she'd seen Superuser do. She wondered if she could do that? It would be a neat trick, to be sure. And she also thought about the interface. She'd felt a lot of latent power behind that touch--if the Superuser really wanted to hack into her systems, she realized, she might not be able to stop him. It was kind of a scary thought, actually. No, more than just "kind of," it WAS a scary thought. But she knew that Bill Paul just wasn't the kind of person to do something like that, and it was reassuring. "Now, the reason I'm here," Superuser remarked, starting on his second Yoo-Hoo after having chugged the first one (it had been a LONG flight), "is that I need some special, top-secret components for my next generation of Ginsu armor, the Millenium Ginsu. I've looked all over the place for them, but the nature of these parts is such that only a government base might possibly have them, or be able to fabricate them. You follow me?" Mike nodded. "Yeah, I think I do. So you think you could find the parts or plans or whatever here, at Team M.E.C.H.A. HQ?" Bill Paul nodded. "That's essentially it, yes." He set the half-full Yoo-Hoo bottle down on the table next to the empty one. Mike grinned. "Good. I don't think I have any problems with that, provided you're willing to do us a favor or two." "You have anything specific in mind?" Bill asked. Mike nodded. "Well, yes, as a matter of fact we do. You see, one of our team members is missing. She's been gone for two days, and we haven't been able to find out what's happened to her. We would--" BEEP! Mike broke off and glared at the intercom. Summer punched it. "We're here. What is it?" "This is Adam! I've just gotten a call over the satcom! It's Sarah! She's okay, but she's also in Europe! We gotta go pick her up!" "Europe?" Dr. Science wondered. "How the hell (TM) did she get THERE?" Mike wondered. Ray stood. "I'll go warm up the M.E.C.H.A. jet," he sighed resignedly. "Do that." Mike turned to the intercom pickup mikes. "Relay the coordinates to the M.E.C.H.A. jet's nav computer, grab Link, and get down here. Looks like we're about to take a visit to Europe." He turned to Superuser. "You don't mind tagging along, do you?" he asked. "We can talk more about it on the way." Superuser stood, stretched his legs, and grabbed a couple more Yoo-Hoos from the fridge. "No problem at all!" he replied. "Anything to put off interfacing with DOS," he muttered distastefully. In the launch bay, they were met by a rather sleepy Link and a rather worried Adam. "These are our other two members," Mike explained. "Adam Douglas, our heavy weapons specialist, and Link Douglas, our resident hacker and comm-tech." Superuser nodded, and he and Link talked for a little bit about various operating systems and other technical computer stuff while Ray Sterling prepped the transport jet. A few moments later, the jet finally got in the air. Ray Sterling set course for Terrania, and they would arrive very shortly. Mike wondered what Sarah Conner's explanation would be for being away for so long. Adam hoped it would be a damned good one. WHAT WILL SARAH CONNER'S EXPLANATION BE? WILL IT BE A DAMNED GOOD ONE? HOW WILL ADAM REACT TO THE PRESENCE OF THREE MAGIC-USERS, ONE OF WHOM HAPPENS TO BE HIS GIRLFRIEND? HOW WILL SCHOLARMAN REACT TO ADAM? WILL SUPERUSER GIVE MIKE TIPS ON HOW TO BE A GOOD LEADER? "Does Fuzzface even know HOW to be a good leader?" HEY! WHO LET JAKE IN HERE?! I'M SO TIRED OF THIS LAST BIT ABOUT WHERE YOU CAN FIND OUT THIS STUFF THAT I'M NOT GOING TO BOTHER ADDING IT. THANK YOU. ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 29 Mar 1994 12:19:49 -0600 Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Robotech_Master Subject: SG: Team M.E.C.H.A. #38 TEAM M.E.C.H.A. #38 By Robotech_Master, with Advice and Guidance from Lord Sabre and The Man With Two First Names Guest-Starring Scholarman and Superuser Special Edition: The Return of Sarah Conner! A Story of High Technology, and Not ONE Famous Guest-Star, but TWO!!! (Yeah, and also the longest opening credits that Team M.E.C.H.A. has ever seen, I believe...) The M.E.C.H.A. transport jet winged its way through the air over the Atlantic, toward the eastern seaboard of the United States. Aboard it was the newly-reunited Team M.E.C.H.A., and several of their new friends. With Mike, Summer, Adam, Link, Sarah Conner, Ray Sterling, Dr. Science, Superuser, Scholarman, Ariella, and Robert, Mike thought, this was turning into a regular CONVENTION! But there were bad tidings in the air. Adam had been acting strangely ever since Radian's escape, growing increasingly sullen as time went by, and increasingly paranoic about magic. He had walked out of the room when Scholarman had been introduced as the Sorcerer Superfluous, and Elvis only knew how he would react to learning that his girlfriend, Sarah Conner, was learning the art and science of magic. [Hey, isn't that an oxymoron or a mixed metaphor or something?] Shut up. Now that meeting, in which Sarah had explained what had befallen her in the tiny European nation of Terrania, was over. Mike, Summer, Sarah, Ariella, Robert, and Scholarman remained in the lounge while the others left to get to various tasks they wished to perform. Mike was interested in getting to know Ariella and Robert, but he especially wanted to talk to Scholarman. He wanted to know more about magic and magicians, especially since it seemed that Adam's distaste for magic might lead him to do something rash. Summer was there primarily to listen to Scholarman, one of those superheroes whom she had read about in SUPERGUY DIGEST and all those other hero-type magazines. (It had actually been a tough decision between him and Superuser, but she figured Superuser would be around for a bit while he collected the equipment he needed, but they would be dropping off Scholarman in Ithaca before the end of the flight.) "I'm concerned about Adam," Sarah Conner said, voicing Mike's own internal fears. "I've known him for a long time, and he's always felt a bit...I dunno...less than tolerant of magic. But with that recent Radian thing, he's gotten...well, downright PARANOID about it." "I'm just afraid he might do something rash," Mike said. "And I feel more than a little concerned about my own effectiveness as a leader if something like this starts to split my team up. How can we work as a team if one of our members isn't...?" Mike trailed off, unsure of what he was trying to say. Scholarman inwardly contrasted this young man with another team leader he'd worked with recently who had much the same problem. Their concerns had been similar, yet their way of handling it so different...and there wasn't really anything wrong with either way; both fit the personalities of the individuals concerned. "There's only one thing I can say," Scholarman said. "The measure of a leader is in his ability to cope with crises. If you can face death, catastrophe, total chaos, and still keep control of the situation, then you've got what it takes." Patriotic music began to play in the background as Summer surreptitiously tapped into the the jet's intercom system. "It doesn't matter if you're scared, or even if you're mortally terrified. What does matter is coming through for your friends and teammates, winning the battle, and saving the day." "That's right," Ariella nodded. "As a Princess, I've had that lesson drummed into me more times than I care to remember. This adventure that my sister, Robert, Scholarman, and I have shared over the last few days has served as a stern reminder." "That's EXACTLY what I've been trying to tell him!" Summer said, fading the music down as Scholarman began to look annoyed. "Mike has faced MANY terrifying challenges in the past and won. Why, you only have to read the recent Superguy Digest archives to realize that! There was Dr. Zwarghoff, and the Odd Science Convention battle, and Dr. Zwarghoff again, and the Mighty Muddy Power Grangers--even when the Grangers whipped us, Mike didn't give in. He just brought us all back to the base and had Dr. Science make the Bahamode Sigma." Summer paused for breath. "Yes, but--" Mike protested weakly. Scholarman clapped Mike on the shoulder. "I think you'll do fine," he said reassuringly. "Regarding Adam, just remember this. People tend to be irrational about things they do not understand. You should sit down with him, try to find out what his problem is and see if there's some way you can change his mind. "If that doesn't work--" He turned to Sarah and handed her a slip of paper. "--call me. There's my number. I'll try to talk some sense into him," he finished grimly. Sarah scanned the paper, memorized the number, then pocketed it. "I will." A little while later, the M.E.C.H.A. jet neared Ithaca, New York, where Scholarman's home awaited his return. "I think it's about time we dropped you off," Sarah Conner said. "All right," Scholarman replied. "Let's go, then." Sarah Conner led him through a corridor, down to the heart of the vtol transport jet, and then along a metal catwalk between two rows of chutes and portals, a couple of which had Garland battlemovers or other mecha placed within. "What are we doing here?" Scholarman asked. Instead of answering, Sarah said, "Sit down right there." She pointed to a chair assembly set into one of the chutes. Bemused, Scholarman complied. "Oh, and put this on." She handed him a bulky backpack, and showed him how the straps worked. "Isn't this...a parachute?" Scholarman asked, buckling it on. "Now, you know how to use this, right? Count to ten, then pull the cord? Ah, good." Sarah grinned wickedly, and stepped over to a nearby control panel, her arm on a conspicuous-looking red lever. "Sarah, what are you doing?!" Scholarman asked, sounding a bit nervous. "Why, dropping you off, silly! Goodbye!" She jerked the lever down. Scholarman had just enough time to notice Ariella and Robert stepping out of the door behind Sarah before the portal in front of him irised open and the seat slammed forward, catapulting him out away from the plane. Then all of Ithaca was spread out underneath him. Ariella giggled. "That was fun!" Robert smiled. "We 'translocated' him good, I'd say." Sarah chuckled. "Yes, that was fun, wasn't it? Well, come on, let's head back to the lounge. I'll beat you at gin rummy yet..." Mike went down to an observation bubble, where the computer had informed him that Adam was. "Hello, Adam," Mike said. "Mind if I sit down?" "It's your plane," Adam said, gazing sullenly off into the distance. "You're not helping anything by acting like this, y'know..." Mike said. "It's childish, and it doesn't suit you." Adam turned, and there was anger in his eyes. "How do you know," he said, keeping his voice low but not quite managing to keep it from trembling, "what does or doesn't suit me? Who died and made you my father?" "So far as I know, nobody." (That's an idea! I'll get in touch with Fairbanks Douglas, Adam's father, and see if he has any idea what might be up with Adam!) "But nobody has to. I'm the leader of this team, so--" "So if I don't shape up, I can't play with your toys anymore?" Adam smirked. "--So it's my concern to make sure that everybody on it is all right," Mike finished. "And I'm worried about you." "Worried about little old me? Gosh, how touching." "What's your problem?" Mike asked. "I mean, seriously. What do you have against magic?" Adam looked up, and his eyes frightened Mike. He could see the hatred, the rage which smouldered in those eyes with a startling intensity. "More than you'll ever know," Adam said. "Mages have to be stopped. They must never again gain the power necessary to destroy the world as Radian almost did. If the rest of us are going to live, they have to..." Adam trailed off, perhaps realizing what he was saying. "To what? To die? Is that what you were going to say?" Mike was beginning to move beyond the realm of "concerned" into the area of "frightened." "Are you going to go out and bloody your hands with some insane attempt to kill all the world's mages?" Adam didn't respond, directing his view out the plexiglass toward the green forests and fields below. Mike got up. "Listen to what you're SAYING! What are you going to do next, go out and kill all the people with dark skin? Kill all the people with long hair? Kill all the JEWS? It'll never work, Adam, you know that as well as I do." Mike sighed. This meeting had not gone how he'd wanted it to. "When we get back to HQ, I'm going to confine you to quarters until I can talk some sense into you." He left the observation bubble and sealed it behind him. "But we have to TRY..." Adam murmured, still gazing off into the distance. "We HAVE to try..." Superuser sat in the flight deck, talking to Lincoln about the technical facilities of M.E.C.H.A. HQ. He had learned much of interest to him about what the base could and couldn't do, and was confident that once they returned to it, he could access the computers and have them do what he needed them to do. Except... "You don't suppose Mike would mind if I installed Unix on the base mainframe, do you?" Link shook his head. "I don't think so...just as long as all the applications got ported through, or you could provide new ones to do the same things. He hardly ever uses it anyway. That DOS system, to use the technical term, bites." "I guess I've got your vote, then?" "Affirmative." Link punched some keys. Mike came onto the flight deck. "Link, I need you to lock down all the mecha, the mecha bay entry system, the launch chutes, etc. against Adam. Don't let him out of the ship, and once he enters his stateroom, lock the door and don't let him out. I'm concerned he might do something...undesirable, so I'm confining him to quarters for the time being." Link blinked. "What? You want me to lock up my own brother?" "Considering that the alternative might be for him to do something decidedly unheroic, I think we'd better do it for his own good, until I can talk some sense into him at least." Link sighed. "You're the boss." He punched some keys, actuating the commands Mike had just given. "Right. Adam's not going anywhere now." "Thanks." Mike noticed Superuser was on the deck, apparently for the first time. "Ah, just the man I wanted to see! Follow me; we have some talking to do about mecha parts and favors." Adam Douglas was in his stateroom, packing up the few possessions he had aboard the jet. A few clothes, a couple jackets, uniform, assorted firearms...He was throwing them together in a duffle bag, intending nothing more than to get out while the getting was good. Then Sarah Conner walked into the room. She stood there in silence for a few seconds, watching her boyfriend work with a fevered intensity that she'd never seen before in him. It was...frightening. He threw open the footlocker by his bed and pulled out an Ingram Mac-10. He pulled the clip out, checked the load, slapped it in again, checked the action, then closed the bolt and set the safety before shoving it into a velcro-and-nylon strap system set up in one partition of the duffle bag. He didn't even notice her as he opened his top drawer and pulled out a 10mm Desert Eagle, a .44 AutoMag, a Beretta 93-R, and a Smith & Wesson .357 revolver, and clips and speedloaders, and put them in the bag. He only looked up when Sarah Conner cleared her throat. "So..." Sarah said. "You're leaving?" Adam nodded. "Sorry about walking out of that meeting...but I'm not staying in the same room as...one of THEM." "You talk about it like it was some kind of disease," Sarah remarked, fingering the crystal pendant around her neck. "It is," Adam said, turning back to his work. "It's a dangerous, insidious addiction to power that eats up the people it afflicts." He savagely snicked back the bolt on a Colt M1911A1 .45 automatic before placing it in a holster. "The world would be better off without them." "Oh..." Sarah said. She stood there as if struck, while Adam continued to pack, ignoring her. Then she mumbled under her breath the words to a simple spell Ariella had taught her during the flight. "And you're going to go out and kill them?" she asked. Adam paused, hesitated, then got back to his work. "If I have to," he said. "Then you're going to have to kill ME, TOO!" she yelled, letting the spell go. The room was filled by a blast of intense light, centering on Adam's face. "Gyahhh!" Adam gasped, and went down. Sarah Conner turned on her heel and went out the door. Adam just lay there for a few minutes, then sat up and shook his head. "What the--Sarah!" He got up and ran to the door, but it wouldn't open. "SARAH!!!" he yelled out in anguish, beating his fists futilely against the door. It had to be that mage--that Scholarman! He'd gotten to Sarah and corrupted her! Yes, that had to be it. He had to go and find her, to save her from herself! But then common sense took over. He couldn't do anything now, especially since he was locked in his room. Besides, there were the others, and they undoubtedly wouldn't agree with what he wanted to do. His responsibility now was to escape. Adam finished packing and zipped up the bag. Then he tried the door again. It was locked. For a moment he considered his Gallant H-90, or a grenade, or maybe some thermite. But there were other doors between there and the mecha bay, and none of them would work for him. And the rest of the team could entrap him with their mecha units. He had to try something else. Link sat at one of the auxiliary stations on the flight deck, keying commands into the computer and thinking about his brother. Even Link didn't really know for sure what his brother had against mages, except that it had something to do with an incident when he was very, very young. He'd never pressed, and Adam had never volunteered anything. But it had been there for as long as Link had known him, which is to say, all his life. Then the commscreen pinged, and it was Adam. "Well, speak of the devil..." Link murmured, keying it up. "This is Link." "Link, this is Adam," Adam said. "I'm in my room, and it won't let me out." "Mike's orders," Link said. "He doesn't want you going anywhere before he can talk to you--" "Mike doesn't have any authority!" Adam yelled. "He's not a law enforcement officer, none of us are!" "But he is our leader," Link replied, feeling uneasy. "But I'm your BROTHER! Doesn't that mean anything to you? Mike's just a kid with some wonderful toys, and he thinks that entitles him to run our LIVES! Come on, let me out of here. I just need to get off this plane, to get away...I promise, I won't cause any trouble, I just need time to think!" "I--" "Dammit, Link, don't you have any family loyalty to me at all?!" Almost of their own volition, Link's fingers moved to the keyboard and he typed the commands that would set Adam free. "All right. All right, dammit, get off the plane. But that's the last time I'm going to cover for you, and I'm only doing this because you're my brother." "Thanks, Link. You're a true friend in need." The transmission cut off, leaving Link to wonder whether really WAS a true friend, and what Mike would do to him when he found out. Precisely three minutes and thirty seconds later, a lone Cyclone armor suit launched from the belly of the west-bound plane. Its thrusters fired, slowing its descent, and it touched down near a blacktop county road. Adam walked it over to the road, set down the duffle bag, and reconverted to motorcycle mode. Then, strapping the bag to the back of the bike, he climbed on and roared off up the road, giving one last glance to the M.E.C.H.A. jet before it passed out of sight. WILL SCHOLARMAN LAND OKAY? WILL HE MEET ANY INTERESTING PEOPLE WITHIN THE NEXT FEW DAYS (NOT COUNTING THE KEVIN)? WHAT IS MIKE GOING TO DO TO LINCOLN FOR AIDING AND ABETTING ADAM'S ESCAPE? WHAT IS ADAM GOING TO DO? WHY HAS ADAM SUDDENLY GONE KILL-THE-MAGE CRAZY? WILL THE AUTHOR COME UP WITH A GOOD EXPLANATION FOR SENDING ONE OF HIS CHARACTERS COMPLETELY OVER THE EDGE? OR WILL HE JUST SAY, "WELL, IT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME..." CAN THE AUTHOR POSSIBLY THROW ANY MORE FORESHADOWING INTO ONE POST THAN HE DID INTO THIS ONE? MAYBE. ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 2 Apr 1994 00:27:26 -0600 Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Robotech_Master Subject: SG: Team M.E.C.H.A. #39 TEAM M.E.C.H.A. #39 Adam Douglas: Into the Darkness Part 1 of 2 By Robotech_Master, who has spent WAAAAY too much on Transformers With A Scene Written by the Amigoid, and a couple by the Man With Two First Names Guest-Starring Superuser Cameo Appearance by Spectrum A Story of High Technology, and a Team Torn Asunder (Hey, so Adam left. Don't you think you're overreacting a little?) "You WHAT?!" "I--I just couldn't--Dammit, he's my BROTHER. You're just--" Link sighed, and looked down at his feet. This was just as bad as he'd known it would be. Mike was really pissed, and the rest of the team didn't look too happy either. Especially Sarah Conner, who was fingering her Gallant H-90 and exchanging worried looks with her sister Ariella. "Just the guy who happens to own all the mecha?" Mike asked. Link continued to look down and said nothing. "Do you know exactly what it is that you just did?!" Mike asked. "You've just let a possibly homicidal maniac get away with a fully-functional Cyclone mecha and a duffle bag full of automatic weapons. There's no telling what harm he could do. Innocent people could die!" Link's head snapped up. "He wouldn't--he couldn't!" He protested. "Adam would never harm an innocent person. You know that!" Mike shook his head. "He's gone over the edge, Link. He's started talking seriously about killing anyone who uses magic, innocent or not. Ever since Akane escaped, he's been acting strangely, and I think that those days he spent in Bob City decided him. Unless we can find and stop him, we may have trouble on our hands." "It's too late to do anything about it now," Ray Sterling pointed out. "We'll be touching down at HQ in about ten minutes. In fact, I'd better get back to the cockpit now." He got up and excused himself from the lounge rather hastily. "Right," Mike said. "As soon as we get back to headquarters, we'll see what our options are." He turned to Link. "For now, you're confined to quarters. I'll deal with you later." Link got up. "I--" he began. Then he looked at his feet. He knew he'd made a mistake, and accepted his punishment. He left the room without saying another word. Mike sank down onto the couch. He looked around him, into the worried faces of everyone else. "This is great," he muttered. "Just great." But then Scholarman's words came back to him. "The measure of a leader is in his ability to cope with crises." Mike set his jaw. A crisis was now upon them, and he'd be damned if he was going to let his team down. "Once we get to the base, we're going to start doing everything we can to find Adam and retrieve him before he does something rash. Summer, I want you to get in touch with Spectrum, check if he's seen Adam. Dr. Science, see if you can configure the satellite tracking systems to lock onto his Cyclone's transponder, if he hasn't disabled it already." "You want us to call Scholarman?" Sarah Conner asked. Mike considered this for a moment, then shook his head. "No. Somehow, I'm not sure that it would be politic to bring another mage into this. At least not yet." "If you say so," Ariella replied dubiously. "I do. I'm going to call Adam's father, Fairbanks Douglas, to see if I can find out the reason for what's gotten into Adam." Mike stood. "The important thing is to find and stop Adam before he kills somebody. You have your jobs. Let's go." Superuser met Mike outside the lounge. "Say, Mike," he began, "I couldn't help overhearing what was said in there--you know, electronically enhanced ears and all that... I think I have an idea what you're going through. If there's anything I can do..." "As a matter of fact, there is," Mike said. "I'd like you to put UNIX on our computers. DOS isn't suited for a mainframe anyway, and I understand the system should run a lot faster and a lot better with UNIX under the hood. If the systems run better, the search will go faster, and if the search goes faster..." Superuser nodded. "All right, but are you sure you guys can handle it? UNIX isn't known for its user-friendliness." "We'll manage, I'm sure. On the whole I'd say that's the least of our worries just now." "True enough. Okay: I'll get right on it." "Thanks." ----- A solitary motorcycle streaked up the highway through the desert, headed for Bob City, somewhere beyond the distant horizon. There was no car in sight for miles, no truck, no other vehicle. The motorcycle was a dark greenish color, ceramic, and its rider wore a ceramic suit of armor. Fastened securely behind him was a large duffle bag. On the right front fairing of the bike was a large and wicked-looking multi-barrelled cannon. A .50 caliber rotary-firing Gatling gun, with an ammo belt leading to a drum attached to the left front fairing. This motorcycle was outstripping all the speed limits, and weaving slightly as though its rider had his mind on other things. And he did. The road was blurred slightly by the moisture in Adam Douglas's eyes. If his faceplate had been open, this moisture might have been caused by the wind from the bike's high rate of speed. But the helmet visor was shut. Adam reached down and turned up the radio, and the speakers inside his CVR-3 armor's helmet crackled. An insistent drum beat faded up, and electric guitars began to accompany it. Adam sniffled, blinked to clear his eyes, and tried to concentrate on the road ahead. But the memories kept coming back and getting in the way. His mother...why couldn't he "The Swing" -- INXS remember her? He remembered her "The Swing" Atco Records, 1984 voice, the care in her every touch ------------------------------ or word. But not her face. He It's the swing! had seen pictures of her, many It's the swing like a pendulum pictures. And yet he still could- It marks the moments n't remember what she looked like. As the years go by It had been so long ago... And an innocent face The Garrett Falls yearly fair. The swing into Never-Never Land... The rides--ferris wheels almost higher than he could see--but they looked higher because he wasn't very tall. Roller coasters, merry- go-rounds, cotton candy... It had been on the way home-- daddy was coming back from his duty in the Army today, and-- "NO!!!" Adam howled in an- There was a darkness guish, a fresh wave of hot tears Like an old friend flowing from his eyes. "I don't It scratched and crawled up the wall... want to remember! I DON'T WANT Into my life! TO REMEMBER!!!" He shook his head Into my destiny! violently, and the Cyclone nearly Into my desire... skidded out and crashed, but Adam's reflexes prevented that. But what they couldn't prevent was the return of old memories, block- ed off by childhood trauma and only recently being brought to light... They'd been walking back to the It's the swing! car. Adam had eaten too many hot It's the swing like a pendulum dogs and cotton candy, and couldn't So look behind you wait to get home and see daddy When the race has run again. When had the last time And the winner is meat been? They were almost to the car... The swing into Never-Never Land... And then there was a flash of light, and Adam was pushed down to There was a darkness the ground. He felt his mother's Like an old friend hand shoving him under the car. It scratched and crawled up the wall... Then he saw more flashes and heard Into my life! screams, and saw his mother fall against the car and slide down to [instrumental bridge] the ground. And a strange man on top of her, doing things to her. Adam couldn't see really well what they were, but from the way his mother was screaming, they couldn't have been good. "Mommy!" Adam remembered crying out... Adam looked up over the handle- Well, it's the swing! bars and set his jaw. They would Yeah, a swing like a pendulum pay. They would all pay for what Between the kisses they'd done to her. To them. To And between the lines ALL of them. There is nothing to hide He didn't understand why he had not remembered this before. Had The swing into Never-Never Land... not remembered ANYTHING about his mother until now. It was as if all There was a darkness his memories of her had vanished, Like an old friend replaced by a kind of dull empti- It scratched and crawled up the wall... ness inside him. Into my life! Adam's eyes flashed as he Into my destiny! leaned low over the bike. What Into my desire... had happened to his mother would not go unpunished. He would not It's the swing! let anyone else have to go through It's the swing like a pendulum what he had. Once he reached Bob Left to swing City and his friends there, they'd Left to swing like a pendulum know what to do. It's the swing! Adam accelerated to top speed, and raced across the desert, his own inner desolation far surpassing that of the land around him. ----- Spectrum shook his head. "I'm sorry, Summer. I haven't seen him since the pizza party. Man, he was really wacked that night. Whats wrong? By the way, is Sarah alright?" Sarah stepped up behind Summer and waved to Spectrum's image on the screen. "I'm fine. I'll tell you all about it later. For now, though, we're worried about Adam. If he shows up there, give us a call, all right?" Spectrum's brow knitted. He looked at Summer, "Ok kiddo, give. Whats going on?" "Adam and Mike had a argument, and Adam took off with his armor. We're worried that he might be out on a vendetta against mages." "I wouldn't worry about him, he's a good kid. He probably was just blowing off steam. Besides, he did raise some valid points. Mages are hard to keep under control. Radian proved that point." Spectrum saw Summer's expression as Sarah darted off-camera. "Um... Look. I'll let you know if I hear from Adam, ok? You let me know if Foxy turns up while you're looking around." Off camera a voice behind Spectrum called out, "Spectrum? Come back to bed, its time for page 57!" Spectrum blushed beet red and stammered something about Tornado saying hi, then quickly broke the connection. Link sat in his room, brooding. He had been sitting here for half an hour, thinking about what he had done. He had set his brother free, against the wishes--no, against the ORDERS--of Mike, someone entirely unrelated to either of them. But Mike was the leader of Team M.E.C.H.A. He was the one who had found the base, who had manufactured the mecha, who had led the attack that had freed the Douglases' hometown of Garrett Falls. He had been with the team from the very beginning--from before it could even properly be CALLED a team. But what right did that give him to boss Link and the others around? Link thought about this. He tried to be logical, like the scientist he hoped he could be. Why was Mike the leader of Team M.E.C.H.A.? Did he deserve to be? Were his decisions unwarranted, was his leadership bad? After quite a lot of thinking about it, Lincoln Douglas came to several conclusions. Mike was not team leader because he had chosen to be. He'd never tried to be anything but another member of the team, with duties and responsibilities similar to everyone else. But when the time had come, no one else had wanted to take charge. Not even Adam. And so Mike had become sort of a leader by default. And he'd been a good leader. He'd led the team to victory many times. Even when the Grangers had defeated Team M.E.C.H.A., Mike had simply gotten a new plan together and gotten the team back in the field to win. If Mike wasn't the leader by choice, he was at least by right of competence. And none of the others had challenged him, not even Adam, until now, especially since it was quite plain that Mike was uncomfortable in the job. Not even Dr. Odd Science, arguably the most intelligent person on the team. That had to say something about Mike's qualifications as a leader. The more Link thought about it, the more convinced he became that Adam had gone over the edge. He had played Link's loyalty to his brother off against his loyalty to the team, knowing that without time to consider it, Link would have to decide in favor of family. But now, Lincoln began to see what a terrible mistake he'd made. Link walked over to his desk and punched the "talk" key on the video intercom. "Mike, this is Link. I'm sorry. I've just realized what an ass I've been, and I want to help set things right." "I'm listening," Mike said, glancing worriedly over his shoulder at something else in the control room. "You need my help to find him," Link said. "I know this base's computer systems better than anybody else--" "We've just changed over to Unix," Mike said. "--and I know UNIX, too. Listen, if you'll just give me a chance, I think I can get a line on where he is." Mike grinned. "All right, get down here. You've got your chance. Now help us track him down." An hour later, they all met in the command level lounge. Mike pushed a couple of tables together, and they all had a seat around it. All except Mike, who remained standing. "I think everybody here knows why Adam left, and what he said," Mike began. "For one thing, he seemed to think that I was on some sort of a power trip, that I was leader just because I 'own' the mecha." Mike sighed, looking from face to face at his remaining teammates and friends. They were looking up at him with a combination of confidence and expectation. There was no doubt that he could see in those faces, and Summer flashed him a quick thumbs-up. He almost smiled in spite of himself. "I don't 'own' anything. I'm not your leader because I like to be in command. I'm your leader because...well, just because, and if you don't want to follow me, then just tell me so. I don't want you to think that there's anything keeping you from leaving at any time. I never asked for this responsibility, and I don't want anyone to think I'm abusing it." "Are you kidding?" Sarah Conner asked. "You ARE our leader, and not because of all this." She waved her hand around in a gesture that encompassed much of the room and the base beyond it. "You're our leader because you deserve to be. I wouldn't hear of having anybody else." "That is correct," Dr. Science added. "Whether you believe it or not, you're a born leader." "We've won time and time again!" Summer concluded. "You're doing a great job!" "I get a line here!" Robert said. "Hush, dear," Ariella replied. "Thanks for the vote of confidence," Mike said. He sat down at the table. "Now, down to business. Link, what did you and Superuser turn up?" "Well--" Link looked at Superuser, who nodded for him to continue. "--We were able to interface with some government surveillance satellites. We didn't find Adam, but we did get an infra-red trace on where he landed, and were able to follow the trail for two point seven miles until it merged with a major highway." "Any idea where he's headed?" Mike asked. "It could be any one of hundreds of different places," Link replied. "Including Bob." "Great," Mike muttered. "Summer, what about you?" "Spectrum hadn't seen him," Summer reported. "But he promised to call in if he did." "All right." "What about you?" Ariella asked. "What did you find out?" "I wasn't able to reach Fairbanks Douglas," Mike replied. "The line was constantly busy. Therefore, I'm going to fly out there as soon as this meeting is over. Ray?" "The Alpha's fueled and ready," Ray Sterling replied. "We can leave at any time." "Good. Does anyone have anything to add?" Mike looked around. No one volunteered anything. "Then let's do it." As everyone filed out of the room, Mike took Superuser aside. "Listen," he said. "I'm really sorry we haven't had time to get to those parts..." "It's all right," Superuser said. "Now that your computer systems have a *real* operating system running on them, they're an open book to me. I've already found the information I need, and I plan to get to work on scrounging up the proper equipment as soon as you leave. I'll probably be pretty busy, but I'll be around if anyone needs me." "Oh, okay." Mike glanced over at Ray. "I have to go now. Good luck with finding what you need." "Same to you. Mike, one thing before you go." "Yes?" "If there's one thing my experience in the super hero biz has taught me, it's that there's really only one thing you have to do to be a good leader." "And what's that?" "Care." The Superuser offered nothing more, except for a smile and a quick wink of approval. They shook hands, and Mike dashed off toward the launch bay. Shortly thereafter, he was on his way to Garrett Falls, Nebraska. WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH ADAM? WHAT HAPPENED *TO* ADAM AND HIS MOTHER? *DOES* LINK KNOW HOW TO USE UNIX? WHAT DOES ADAM'S FATHER KNOW? FOR GOODNESS' SAKE, WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT?! SUPERGUY. It's the swing! ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 4 Apr 1994 22:43:30 -0500 Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Robotech_Master Subject: SG: Team M.E.C.H.A. #40 NOTE FOR THE CONTINUITY-IMPAIRED: So, Lord Sabre started out the year lagging way behind in terms of continuity. Now I seem to have caught the bug, since I have to say that these stories are happening a couple days behind events in the current Eric & Bart storyline. Ah, well. We'll catch up in a couple of posts, Elvis-willing. TEAM M.E.C.H.A. #40 Adam Douglas: Into the Darkness Part 2 of 2 By Robotech_Master A Story of High Technology and High Time I Thought Up Another Tagline (That's for sure!) Ray Sterling glanced at the navigation display, then out the window at the ranch house below them. "This looks like the place." "It is," Mike said from the back seat. "Set 'er down." "Roger wilco." Ray vectored thrust downward and gradually eased back on the throttle, bringing the Alpha fighter in for a vertical landing. The canopy slid up, and Ray and Mike climbed out and dropped to the ground. And then the door swung open, and a man stepped out carrying a rifle. It was Fairbanks Douglas, Adam Douglas's father, and as soon as he saw who it was he slung the rifle and ran forward to greet them. "Mike!" the older man said. "Sorry 'bout the gun, didn't know it was you. Why didn't you call first?" "We tried," Mike said, "but the phone was busy." "Oh." Fairbanks thought about this for a moment. "Oh, that's right. My housecleaner likes to talk on the telephone all the time. I'll have to have words with her about that..." Mike looked up at the older man, a perfect specimen of the "aging cowboy" archetype. He wore a faded Stetson, flannel shirt, jeans, vest. His face was weathered, with creases running through it like scars on a saddle. His once-blond hair was now halfway between blond and white, and his eyes squinted against the late-afternoon sun. The only thing that seemed slightly out of place was the .45 ACP M1911A1 automatic pistol in the holster at his belt, rather than the revolver one might have expected. "Well, sir, we've come to have a talk with you," Mike said. "It's about Adam." Fairbanks Douglas nodded. "Come inside, then." He turned and led the way through a wood-framed doorway into the house. On the inside, the place was expansive, the kind of home you'd expect a well-to-do rancher to have. The only thing was that it didn't have much of a lived-in look. It wasn't that it was overly dusty, or had cobwebs, or anything of that sort. It was more of a subtle feeling, like nothing here was ever used anymore. Mike had wondered about it the last time he was here, but hadn't said anything. The room they were in now looked like a lounge, nicely furnished, with a few upholstered chairs scattered around. The elder Douglas went behind a bar at the end. "Can I get you a drink?" he asked. "Just a Mountain Dew, if you have one," Mike said. "Nothing for me, thanks," said Ray. "All right..." Fairbanks got a can out, then reached behind the bar for a bottle of amber-colored liquid. Pouring himself a large shot of it, he brought the drinks around to where three seats were situated roughly facing each other in the center of the room, then gestured for the two to be seated. As soon as they had all sat down, Fairbanks took a long pull at his glass and leaned back in his seat. "You must be Ray Sterling," he said to Ray. Ray looked startled. "Are we that famous already?" he asked. "I hadn't expected to be recognized by name..." Fairbanks Douglas laughed. "No, no, not quite. But I do follow your exploits, as I have a personal interest, so to speak. Actually, I have two of them." He sipped at his drink, then decided to get down to business. "Now, gents, what seems to be the problem? Surely you didn't come out all this way just to chitchat." Mike sipped at the Dew, then put the can down. "You're right, Mr. Douglas. We have a problem, a serious problem, with Adam, and we were hoping you could shed some light on it for us. A problem regarding...magic." Magic, Sarah Conner reflected, was not the way the stories had described it. Hell (TM), it wasn't even the way AD&D had described it. It wasn't just memorization of spells--it was the UNDERSTANDING of spells. Before you could cast it, you had to know HOW to cast it. And to know how, you had to study. Sarah's finger moved across the line as she puzzled out the ponderous hand-written script in the book that Ariella had given her. She was currently studying what this book referred to as "a cantrip of minor divination." When cast on a pool of water, it should enable a glimpse into the future. She wasn't planning on casting it just yet, though. She wanted to be sure she understood it first. "Studying?" Sarah looked up to see Ariella, clad in some of her spare clothing. "Um, yes. Why?" Sarah closed the book, and noticed Ariella's expression. "What's wrong?" Ariella sat down on the bed, eyes downcast. "I've been watching the news," she explained. "And ever since Akane, anti-mage sentiment has been rising. There have been violent incidents, mob scenes. It's only a matter of time before people start dying." Sarah shook her head. "I'm sorry, Ari. I guess this just wasn't the best time for you to visit the states." "It's not myself I'm concerned about," Ariella said. "It's you." "Me?" Sarah asked. "What do you mean?" "Your boyfriend, Adam, has been acting somewhat...less than sympathetic lately. It is entirely possible he could turn against us. Against YOU." Sarah looked down, letting this sink in. After a minute's silence, she said softly, "I know. Even some of our friends are turning against us." She thought about what Spectrum had said. "They seem to think that we need to be 'controlled,' like some kind of a weapon. Dammit, Ariella, what in hell (TM) are we going to do?" "I don't know," Ariella said. "It's imperative that Adam be found and reasoned with. But where would he go...?" "It's no use thinking about it," Sarah said. "We've got some great brains at work on it already. There's nothing more that WE can do." "We could call Scholarman," Ariella suggested. Sarah shook her head. "Nah, he's probably got a date or something. I don't think that we need to bother him with this just yet." "Then what should we do?" Ariella asked. "Why, what I always do when I'm bored or worried," Sarah Conner replied. "Let's go shopping!" "I was hoping this day wouldn't come..." the older man sighed, draining his glass and setting it down beside him. "I'd hoped Adam would never remember what happened that day. I'd guess from your expressions that my hopes were in vain." He closed his eyes, leaned back in his seat. "What do you mean?" Mike asked. "What happened?" "Hold on a minute, son, and I'll tell you." Fairbanks took a deep breath and sighed. "It was way back, long time ago, around 1980. Dunno how old the boy was...couldn't have been over three. Adam must have been barely one year old at the time... "I had just received my honorable discharge from the Army Special Forces, and was on my way home to my family. I was only an hour away from landing at the airport, and Laura was all I could think about." He looked off into the distance. "She still is, sometimes..." "Laura was your wife?" Mike asked gently. Ray looked around and squirmed; he really didn't like having to listen to this kind of thing. "Yes, she was..." the man murmured. "That's her, that picture over there." Mike turned his head and looked. She was beautiful, or she had been. She looked about thirty at the time the picture had been taken, with shoulder-length blonde hair and a bright smile. Her eyes sparkled as if with some secret joke. She looked happy. "She was so...so ALIVE," Fairbanks said. "So full of spirit and happiness. I hadn't seen her in months." His expression darkened. "And when I arrived, she was dead." "I'm sorry," Mike said. "What happened?" he asked, though he was beginning to fear he knew the answer. "It was a mage," Fairbanks Douglas said bitterly. "One of the local ne'erdowells who'd learned his tricks in some brigade of something, then come home again to take what he wanted and show everyone who was boss. He decided he liked the way my Laura looked, and he wanted her. So he started following her around. She called the police, but he was never there when they showed up. "And then the bastard struck. He took her when she was coming back to the car with Adam from a day at the fair. They were going to come to the airport to meet me. He had his way with her, and what was left afterward wasn't very pretty." Through clenched teeth, he added, "Right in front of the child." He looked down at his empty glass for a moment, then continued, "She died on the way to the hospital." The room was nearly silent for a minute after that, broken only by the sound of an antique clock ticking in the corner. No one spoke, for neither Mike nor Ray were quite sure what should be said in a situation like this. Finally, the older man continued. "When I found out what had happened, I went into a rage like I'd never felt before or since. I didn't let it break me, but controlled it, channeled it toward a goal. And that goal was the death of the bastard mage who took my Laura from me. "I tracked him down. It wasn't hard. And he tried all his magical tricks to stop me, but I didn't spend a decade in Special Forces for nothing. By the time I got through with him, there was less left of him than there had been of Laura." Mike shuddered. The man's bitterness, and the cold, emotionless way in which he had described the mage's act and his revenge, frightened him. He made a mental note never to get on this man's bad side. "What about Adam?" Ray asked, speaking up in spite of himself. "It nearly ruined the boy," Fairbanks said, shaking his head sadly. "For a long time he didn't want to talk to anybody, or eat anything, or do anything at all but just sit there. But kids are resilient, and he soon seemed to get over it. Forgot all about it, he did--the psyches called it a 'memory block' or something. He just sort of blocked it off so he wouldn't have to think about it any more. When he asked, I told him his mother died in a car accident." Fairbanks Douglas shook his head. "Damn shame about that." He shook his head. "You know, even though a mage took her from me, I never could bring myself to hate them. The Army trained me too well for that. Logic. Could have been someone with a gun just as easy as a mage. You don't blame the weapon, you blame the person. I always meant to discuss it with him as he was growing up, tell him that there were bad mages and there were good mages, and not to judge the one by the actions of the other. But even so, even though I knew it was right, I never could quite make myself to do it. Every time I tried to start, I just saw Laura...after that--that THING had finished with her. And I--I--" He paused, to wipe away a tear from the corner of one eye. "It's all right," Mike said. "We understand." "Too bad Adam doesn't," Ray said. Mike elbowed him, but it was too late. "What do you mean?" Fairbanks Douglas demanded. "What has he done?" "Well...er...it seems that your son has become rather paranoid about mages," Mike said. "Last thing we know, he took a heavily-armed Cyclone cycle and a duffle bag full of automatic weapons and headed off into the great unknown." Fairbanks sat straight up in his chair. "Oh, no..." "I would guess he's started remembering things he'd previously forgotten," Mike said. "Probably Akane's near destruction of the world is what caused the block to start eroding away." Fairbanks Douglas stood up. "You have to find him and stop him before he does something terrible. Something for which he might never forgive himself. Something for which *I* might never forgive MYSELF." Mike stood, followed by Ray Sterling. "Don't worry. We'll find him." Or I might never forgive MYSELF, either, Mike silently added. Summer lay on her bed, bored. Mike was gone...Superuser was busy...Link was using the computer looking for Adam...Robert was practicing marksmanship with a Gallant rifle down in the targeting range...There was nothing to DO... For the heck of it, she rolled over onto her chest and reached over to the terminal beside her bed. Instead of hitting the keys to log on, she simply reached into the keyboard, dissolving her hand into the nanometallic silver goo and making contact with the terminal itself. She'd only found out how to do this recently--making direct contact with the computer beat using the keyboard by miles and miles. First she checked the newsgroups. Not much was happening, really. Teen Team had popped up a few days ago, with their new member Deckmaster; there were rumors of a bomb on the loose in Bob City...wait a minute, what was this? CalForce was regrouping? This would bear looking into... Then the door signal chimed. "Come in!" Summer called, withdrawing her arm from the terminal and reforming it into its natural shape. As the door slid open, she again marvelled at this strange new ability of hers. It was truly amazing, and more than a little scary. Sarah Conner and Princess Ariella came through the door. They looked so much a like that for a moment it was difficult for Summer to tell them apart. But Ariella's hair was a bit longer than Sarah's, and she wore it a different way. Seeing the two together, the difference was easy to spot. "Hi, you two. What's up?" Summer asked. "We were planning on going shopping," Sarah said. "Wanna join us?" "I wouldn't miss it!" Summer said, all traces of boredom forgotten. She jumped to her feet and stretched. "Let's go!" A few minutes later, they gathered in the garage. Sarah Conner was astride her VR-038-LT Cyclone, with the RL-6 rocket launcher attached to the fairing (now she knew that no matter WHERE she went, there was no telling what might happen, so it was best to be prepared). Ariella and Summer stood beside her. "Have you ever ridden a motorcycle before?" Sarah asked her sister. "Not very much," Ariella replied. "Only when you showed me how back in Terrania." "Well, this one shouldn't be too hard for you," Summer remarked, raising her arms, leaning forward, and reforming into a Battler Cyclone motorcycle. Ariella jumped backward. "How--how did you do that! I detect no magic being used..." "It's technology, pure and simple!" Summer's voice said from the Cyclone. "Climb on and let's get going!" Ariella took a few halting steps toward the Cyclone. "But--how did you do that?" Sarah smiled at her sister's discomfiture, even though she had felt the same way the first time she'd seen Summer morph like that. "We'll explain later, Ari. I figured that since Summer knows how to be ridden, it'll help make up for your not knowing how to ride." "If you say so." Ariella rather dubiously straddled the motorcycle that was Summer, it started up, and they took off up the ramp and out into the sunlight. Adam Douglas rocketed down the ramp into the darkness, flicking on his headlight as he entered the tunnel. Bob City wasn't far...and all the while he was driving, he was thinking about why he was going there. He hadn't done very much, the couple of days he'd stayed in Bob City. Spectrum had been...busy. Adam had stopped by the motel room the morning after the party, heard...things through the door, and decided not to stop. As for Bulletproof...well, Adam had gotten the impression that Bulletproof didn't like him very much. That he didn't like ANYONE very much, for that matter. Not particularly wanting to deal with hostility, he hadn't gone there, either. And Space Moose and the Dalek had left immediately after the party...he couldn't talk to them. So, he'd essentially just wandered the rainsoaked streets of Bob, watched a Kwik-E-Mart or two get held up, and used the time alone to think. All that thinking had finally crystallized when he'd gone back to the headquarters. To wit, he hated sorcerers. And now he knew why. Maybe Spectrum would be free now, and would have some idea of what to do. Right now, all Adam knew was that he was mad, very mad, and he wanted to find a mage and make him pay. WILL ADAM DOUGLAS FIND A MAGE AND MAKE HIM PAY? WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN SARAH, ARIELLA, AND SUMMER GET TO SPRINGFIELD TO DO THEIR SHOPPING? WILL SARAH GET KIDNAPPED AGAIN? WILL TEAM M.E.C.H.A. FIND AND STOP ADAM BEFORE HE CAN DO SOMETHING RASH? WHAT HAVE SPECTRUM AND MARIE BEEN UP TO LATELY? ALL THIS AND MORE, COMING UP EVENTUALLY, ON >> S~U~P~E~R~G~U~Y << It's History in the Making! ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 14 Apr 1994 16:54:57 EDT Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Jesse Taylor Subject: SG: Force Ten #24 FORCE TEN EPISODE TWENTY-FOUR by the Shadowy Writer Escalation, Part Two with portions by Chris Meadows Characters from Team M.E.C.H.A. appear courtesy of Chris Meadows, Robotech*Master. <-----> "Report!", Gerbre barked, as Shana Shannon, FEMSquad Lieutenant and TONN fashion reporter, entered his office. "The delivery went as planned, sir...", she grumbled, tugging at her 'undercover operative uniform'. "Can I change out of this now, sir? I'm getting a major wedge, here..." "*sigh*.", Gerbre grumbled, "When will he be out of there?" Shana blinked, trying to remember her conversation with Bland Investigative-Reporter, one of the Bland, faceless minions who populated TONN's reporting staff. The 'expiration date' that he gave was the date that he and his men would be clear of TONN-Springfield. "Thursday.", she said. "Hrmm. I'll call you-know-who and let them know.", Gerbre said, walking over to his SecurePhone. "*ahem*!", Shana ahem'd. "Oh, right, you're dismissed..", he said, flicking on his twenty- five tap detectors and his seven white-noise generators and picking up the phone. Shana rolled her eyes and wandered out, pausing to slap several members of Gerbre's TONNGuards who were oogling her skimpy outfit. <-----> Meanwhile, in a Springfield McGreasy's (2 billion served! 150 survived!).... "Bleeech!", Fractalman complained, "How can people eat this stuff?!" "I dinnae, I thin' it's a wee bi' better than Burnout's cooking...", Sanka chuckled. "What are we doing here, anyway?", Burnout asked, trying to force- feed a container of SuperSize GreasyFries to Sanka. "We're waiting for Floyd to show up - I had him check a few of his business contacts to see if they knew anything about TONN. He's going to meet us here.", Roger explained. "Like, this stuff is going to make me, like, break out in a rash...", Prizm griped. "Don't eat it, then!", Crossbow growled, toying with his weapons collection. "I wish we could just go on in there - this waiting around is a pain!" "You should always investigate your enemy before you attack.", the Red Bandit admonished. "Otherwise you might walk into a situation you didn't anticipate." "Floyd!", Burnout, Fractalman, and the Red Bandit chorused. Roger turned around to spot the no-longer-depressed, non-powered member of Force Ten. "Guys!", Floyd replied, grinning evilly, "What's up?" "Did you find out anything?", Roger inquired. "No - only somewhat interesting fact I was able to pick up is that TONN owns a large number of transportation companies all over the country, apparently for their own use. Plus there are all these rumors of illegal weapons and such associated with them. Apparently a bunch of people in 'I am a TONN employee' shirts fought Team M.E.C.H.A. in this town. TONN denied any involvement, and apparently it wasn't investigated." "Hrm.", Roger pondered, "Looks like we'll have to do a bit of direct research. Bandit and Crossbow, you're with me. Floyd, recheck everything - we'll need to know any information you can get us. The rest of you guys... uh... find something to do." "Why can't we come along?", Fractalman whined. "Because you suck at sneaking around.", Crossbow said, collecting his gear and stowing it in his long trenchcoat. Floyd shrugged. "Geez, what's buggin' him? And why are we taking this job, anyway? Now that I got over my depression and I've started accessing my family's wealth, we don't need the money..." "I have no idea...", Burnout shrugged back. "It's a bloody real fight agin' some real villains f' a change, y'ken?", Sanka stated, "Not these wee pansies we've been fighting." Floyd shrugged. "Well, I'll see what I can find out - see you guys in a bit." Burnout turned to the other three members of Force Ten who were still hanging around in McGreasy's. "What the heck are we going to do *now*?" Prizm grinned. "Like, I've got some credit cards..." Burnout smiled evilly. "Hooked to the team account?" "Like, yah." The two grinned at each other. "SHOPPING TRIP!!", they chorused, grabbing Fractalman and Sanka and heading for the exit. <-----> It was a boring day in Detroit... or it least it had been a boring day. Now crowds were gathering around a massive green-and-purple Invid Royal Command Battloid that had landed in the middle of the street. The RCB's pilot jumped down nimbly to land at her machine's feet. The crowd blinked. "Hey - that's one of those things that destroyed part of the city last year!", someone shouted. The crowd backed away, gulping. Ultima peered around at the gathered humans, confused. Her information program had assimilated all the data on her implant systems - but there wasn't enough data! More was required before all systems would be on-line. The crowd sensed her hesitation, and began to get a bit nasty. "Go back to Mars, ya damn alien!!" "Gawd, she looks just like a human!" "But that means... *anyone* could be an alien.. even... *you*!?" Ultima blinked, confused. Her vision was now overlaid with a red tactical diagram - several of the mob's louder members were glowing red with a 'Threat Level 2' tag on them. Her assimilation systems singled out several of the hundreds of shouted sentences to analyze. Mars? Mars was the fourth planet out from the Sun... It was not logical for them to suggest that she 'go back' there. One of the largest of the angry mob stomped forward. "Your kind aren't wanted here, alien!!" Ultima stared blankly at him. "What are you waiting for?!", the angry citizen screamed, "Get out of here, alien!!" Ultima blinked, confused. What was he asking? If she left here, where would she go? Why should she listen to him? Another citizen came forward. "You alien *bitch*!! You assholes destroyed my car in your attack!! DIE!" Ultima merely blinked, until the citizen pulled out a knife and made a lunge at her. A small dialog box appeared in the upper left corner of her vision - 'COMBAT MODE ENGAGED'. Blasts of searing energy caught the two angry citizens who had stepped out of the general mob. Information acquisition routines kicked in, and the energy began to form bubbles around the two, immobilizing them and surrounding them. Small tendrils of Protoculture energy poked into them as Ultima attempted to gain more insight into the strange creatures that had been yelling at her. Ultima's eyes widened as she encountered something new - independent minds. Tendrils of energy probed around, accessing consciousness, memories... and...emotions... Ultima mulled over the accumulated data for a moment before releasing the two - the crowd almost looked like it was going to attack, but then the RCB jostled a bit, and they decided that facing off against a Massive Armored Battle Machine(tm) was Not a Good Idea. Overhead, the TONN transport helicopter appeared, just in time to see the mob scattering, fleeing in terror. "Damnit!", Drakkor growled, "Garth, get down there and retrieve her!!" Ultima blinked, as her information assimilation routines examined and stored the data she had gathered, incorporating it into her neural net. She paused, as the data labeled 'human emotions' was accessed. The prevailing emotions in the two humans were what her data banks defined as 'fear' and 'anger'. She shuddered slightly as the emotional data was implemented. Why did she suddenly feel..feel like... "KILLLLLLLL!!!!", Ultima shouted. Blasts of Protoculture energy lanced from her, blowing holes in several buildings. Her RCB activated all its' weapons systems, sending plasma frisbees and missiles spiraling through the air. The barrage lasted for several minutes, until Ultima leaned back on her 'mech, exhausted from her outburst. "Now!", Drakkor said. He, Verne, and Garth had snuck up on Ultima during her outburst, and they now dived for her. Ultima's eyes widened with fear. "Nnooooooooo!", she screamed. A blast of energy deflected the three, and Ultima stepped back, her pulse pounding. They had come out of nowhere!! What if there were more?! They could be all around, hiding everywhere!!! "Eeeeyiiiiii!!" Verne and Drakkor peered up in time to see Ultima disappear in a flash of energy. "This is really getting on my nerves.", Drakkor grumbled, brushing himself off. "How the Hell(tm) are we going to find her, now?!" "She's back at the Hive.", Verne said quietly. "How the Hell(tm) do you know *that*?!", Drakkor growled, "She could be *anywhere*, why would she go there?!" "I just know she's there - she is an Invid. All of us are linked - we are all one with the Hive - and any Invid can instantly locate any other Invid, at any time. I *know* she's there." "Thank you, Exposition Man..", Drakkor grumbled, "I *knew* I should have gotten the extra padded seats on the 'copter.. Well, what are you waiting for?! We've got to catch her!!" <-----> "Wow, like, look at this, like, bikini!", Prizm grinned, holding up a smallish item whose fabric content barely exceeded the yearly fabric exports of, oh, Antarctica. "There's no *way* you'd ever wear that...", Burnout whispered to her. Prizm grinned evilly. "Yah, but it's making John's eyes bug out...", she replied. Burnout looked over at Fractalman, who was apparently imagining what Prizm would look like in it. Annoyed, Burnout bapped him. "Cad..", she muttered. "Ach, I feel stupid, sittin' 'ere in a bloody women's bathing suit store...", Sanka grumbled. "At least they're not making *you* carry the shopping bags!", Fractalman grumbled. "Or hitting you, for that matter." "Ooo!", Burnout grinned, "Look at this one!" "Whoa, like, French-cut! Kewl!" "How can you lasses spend two bloody hours lookin' at things you're na'er goin' tae buy?!", Sanka asked, disgusted. "Must be a girl thing.", Fractalman commented. Burnout and Prizm turned simultaneously and bapped him. "Ow!!" "If we weren't shopping, what would we do?", Burnout asked. Sanka and Fractalman thought for a moment. "We could have Sanka turn the water in that fountain over there to cappuccino...", Fractalman suggested. Prizm bapped him. "What am I, your punching bag?!" "I just thought of something!", Burnout said suddenly. "Didn't Floyd say Team M.E.C.H.A. had been here?" "I think that was just for one battle..", Fractalman replied. "He didn't say if they ever came back - aren't they normally based in Cassville?" "Where?", everyone else chorused. "*sigh*, never mind." "I think I'm going to buy this...", Prizm said, examining one of the French-cut bikinis. Burnout shook her head sadly. "You *know* the rest of Force Ten is going to be oogling you...", she grumbled. Prizm giggled and bounced over to a bored salesperson, who immediately became much, much more interested in his job. (And I...uh..we, uhm, need your phone number... Uhm, right here...) "Let's get something to eat, I'm starved...", Fractalman suggested. "I wonder if there'r any good fish 'n chips stores aroond 'ere...", Sanka wondered. "Fine with me..", Burnout shrugged, "But if I eat any more McGreasy's food, I'm going to die of grease poisoning.. And remember, Roger said we weren't supposed to get into trouble!" "Us?", Fractalman and Sanka chorused, "Get into trouble? Never!" Summer, Team M.E.C.H.A.'s 14-year-old nanotechnological shapeshifter and superhero fangirl, was flipping through a superhero fan mag in the local Waldenbooks. Then something caught her eye and she looked up. "Is that...?" she wondered. "She looks familiar..." A familiar-looking blonde was walking by, loaded down with packages and bags. As Summer watched, a package fell off the top of the pile and landed on the ground. "Oh, crud!" the blonde muttered, stopping and looking down. As she stood there trying to figure out what she ought to do, Summer grabbed another fan magazine and paged through it, stopping at an article on the new members of Force Ten. "Prizm! It IS her!" Summer gasped. She ran over to the counter with the two fan magazines, grabbing a couple of bills out of her pocket. Not taking her eyes off of the blonde, she paid for the magazines and grabbed her change, then ran out to where the blonde was just about to try to squat down enough to grab the wayward package, and scooped it up. "You drop this?" "Er, why, like yes!" "Here." Summer put it on top of the stack. "There you go...Prizm." "Like, thanks! I--like, hey, wait a minute! How'd you know my name?" Summer held up the fan magazine. "I read it in...um, this fan magazine here." NOT the Weekly World Schmooze. Prizm peered at the picture. "Yah, that's me. Who're you?" "The name is Summer. I'm from Team M.E.C.H.A." It only took Prizm about ten seconds to make the connection. "Oh! That superhero team! But say...aren't you a little, like, young to be a superhero?" "No," Summer said. "Oh, okay." "Are you here with the rest of Force Ten?" Summer asked, rolling up the magazines and then poking them into the side of her chest. She pushed them into her body, and they disappeared. "Well, we--hey, like how did you do that?" "I gated it into hyperspace. It's just a little thing I do." "Um, whatever." Prizm looked confused. "Um, you, like, wanna come to S'barro's in the Food Court? That's where everyone else is..." "Sure. Just let me call the others." Sarah Conner was in Cutlery World, looking over the selection of large and wicked-looking knives. "Ooh, this one's a beauty! How much for it?" Ariella stood nearby, looking boredly around. "When can we go to some of the clothing shops?" "Just a minute...let me see. Can I afford this...?" "Hey, is that a Gap?" Ariella pointed up the corridor. "We have one of those in Terrania!" "Wow!" Sarah said. "They really ARE everywhere!" Beep! went Sarah's comlink. She pulled it out, flipped it open. "Sarah here." "Sarah, this is Summer! Come down to the food court, quick! You'll never believe who I just met!" "She sounds excited," Ariella observed. "Probably some more superheroes have shown up in town," Sarah sighed. "You know us superheroes. Trouble magnets." She spoke into the comlink. "Okay, we'll be right there." "Meet us at S'barro's!" "Uh, check." Sarah flipped the comlink shut. "Okay, shall we go?" A suspiciously bland-looking, trenchcoated individual stepped out from behind a potted plant as the two girls left the shop. He ran over to a nearby payphone, trying to keep the girls in sight as he searched through his trenchcoat pockets for a quarter, muttering vile comments about the stinginess of his bosses and why couldn't they have assigned him a cellular phone if he was going to have to be calling in all the time. At last his search proved fruitful, and he dropped a coin in the slot and rather hastily dialed a number. "Hello? Yes, that's what I said. Team M.E.C.H.A. No, I'm not going to SPELL it! No, I have no idea whatsoever what it stands for! I just saw one of them here, and she was with someone else who looked just like her. What?! How the hell (TM) should _I_ know?!" Summer, Prizm, Burnout, Sanka, and Fractalman were sharing a S'barro's supreme pizza when Sarah and Ariella arrived. Sarah grabbed the last remaining piece. "Hello. Summer, um, who are these people?" "We're from Force Ten, mum," Sanka said in his very British accent. "Oi'm Sanka, this 'ere's Prizm, Burnout, and Fractalman. You must be..." "I'm Sarah Conner, this is Ariella Conner, Summer you seem to have met already. We're from Team M.E.C.H.A." "Team M.E.C.H.A.? Oh, yes, you'd be the superteam that lives 'round here. Pleased to make your acquaintance," Sanka said. "Likewise." Sarah grabbed a chair and pulled it up to the table, sat backward on it, leaning forward against the back. "But I'm kind of curious," she remarked. "What is Force Ten doing in this neck of the woods?" "Wellll..." Prizm began, "We, like, got this contra--mmph!" She was cut off as Burnout stuffed a slice of pizza into her mouth. "Don't mind her!" Burnout said, grinning unconvincingly. "We were just here for a shopping trip--our base town is somewhat short on malls..." "Hey, Sanka..." Fractalman whispered. "What?" "What the heck does 'M.E.C.H.A.' stand for?" "Y'think *I* know?!" Summer, meanwhile, had retrieved one of the fan-mags and flipped through to the Force Ten article. "But you guys are based in Kentucky-- why would you come all the way out here?" "mmph!" Prizm commented, chomping on the pizza slice. "Well, we..." Burnout began. "Uh.. Oh, to Hell(tm) with it! I'm no good at this. Look, do you guys know TONN?" Sarah's eyes narrowed slightly. "We remember them, yes.." Ariella looked a bit confused. "We've got a contract to rescue a scientist who's being held in TONN-Springfield against his will. We're just waiting for our employer to give us the go-ahead." Prizm finally finished her pizza, and took a long swig of her Coke. "Like, it's *so* cool actually getting to do something heroic! I've just been, like, sitting around the base practicing and stuff!" "Hey, why don't we tag along and help?" Summer asked. "After all, rescuing scientists from TONN is sort of our specialty. We've done it once already, eh Sarah?" "Er, yeah." Sarah glanced at Ariella, who shrugged. She looked back at Summer. "Summer...I think we should have a little talk." "Just what the hell (TM) are you thinking?!" Sarah asked Summer, after they'd excused themselves to use the restroom. "We can't join in some battle against TONN! We've got Adam to worry about, and Mike isn't even here!" "What, are we just going to let them run around in our town without an escort?" Summer asked. "I've READ about Force Ten. They're even less competent than we are!" "But they've been around a lot longer," Sarah pointed out. "Some of them even since Blorg Trek!" "Mighty Guy has been around longer than that," Summer said. "Your point?" Ariella said, "It seems to me that accompanying them would be the sensible thing to do." Sarah sighed. "All right, all right, I can see I'm outvoted. But let me call TMHQ first and okay this with Mike." "What, are you kidding?" Summer asked. "He'll just say no. Tell him we're staying overnight with a friend and will be back tomorrow. It's almost nightfall anyway." "Right, right." Sarah pulled out the Team M.E.C.H.A. comlink, activated it, and radioed a message back to HQ. Mike wasn't too thrilled, but he okayed it. "Just let me know if you run into any trouble," he said. "We still haven't found Adam yet...leave your comlink on standby so we can signal you if we find out anything." "Will do." Sarah flipped the comlink to standby and put it back in her purse. "Okay, let's get back out there and give them our decision." "All RIGHT!" Prizm said upon hearing that the girls from Team M.E.C.H.A. were going to accompany them. "This is gonna be soooo kewl!" Sarah and Ariella exchanged glances that said, "I hope she's right." IS SHE RIGHT??? IS SHE WRONG??? UM, SPLUNGE? WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT??? WILL SPRINGFIELD EVER BE THE SAME??? JUST HOW COMPETENT *IS* FORCE TEN??? FOR THAT MATTER, HOW COMPETENT IS TEAM M.E.C.H.A.??? ARE THERE GAP OUTLETS *EVERYWHERE*?!? FIND OUT THE ANSWERS TO THESE AND OTHER PRESSED QUESTIONS IN THE NEXT... SUPERGUY! ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 30 Apr 1994 18:25:23 EDT Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Jesse Taylor Subject: SG: Force Ten #25 part 1 FORCE TEN EPISODE TWENTY-FIVE by Jesse Taylor and Chris Meadows the Shadowy_Writer and the Robotech_Master Escalation part Three ["And now it's time to spin the Wheel 'O Continuity!" This stuff occurs soon after Force Ten #24, and before Team M.E.C.H.A. #41] <-----> "Like, here's our, like, mobile command, like, center!" Prizm said, showing Summer, Sarah, and Ariella the inside of the Killer RV. "It's... um... different." Sarah said, peering around at the various fast food item wrappers, spent ammo shells and posters advertising Crushed's latest album. "But still cool!" Summer was quick to add. "In an... um... cool-ish sort of way." Both Summer and Sarah were thinking of the Mecha Jet, Team M.E.C.H.A.'s 747-size combined mecha garage, transport and flying weapons platform. Compared to that, the Killer RV was somewhat... less than impressive. "It's even got a built-in fridge!" Fractalman said, grinning at them and popping open the fridge door. Several half-empty milk cartons fell onto the floor, their contents soaking into the carpeting. "Whups!" "I'll go call Roger on the cellular link - why don't you guys sit down and hang out for a while?" Burnout asked, wandering up front. Fractalman and Sanka immediately began clearing the junk off the Official Force Ten Couch. Ariella and Summer sat down, only to hear something crinkle. They both stood up to see what it was, and fished out a centerfold of Pinto Sally (aka Superchick) that someone had cut out of the February issue of Supervillainesses Illustrated. Fractalman's eyes widened and he blushed a bright crimson. Summer and Prizm giggled while Sarah and Ariella looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Sanka attempted to distract the four girls by running his stock trick. "Oy, take a look a' this, willye?" "What's up?" Summer asked. Sanka grinned and poured a cup of water from the dispenser, then stuck his finger in it. Within seconds, a rich, almost tangible aroma was rising from the cup, along with lots of steam. "Mmm... that smells good!" Sarah sniffed. "What else can you do?" Sanka blinked. "Errr... That's aboot it, nae..." Sarah did a double-take. "That's *it*?! That's your super-power?" "Is it a spell?" Ariella asked. "Nae, it's a Totally Unexplained Phenomenon!" "Coolness!" Summer grinned, "You've got a section in this magazine, look!" Sanka was impressed. "They wrote all tha' aboot me? Ach, even my Author hasn't written *tha'* much aboot me!" "I've got some tapes of SeaQuest we can watch!" Fractalman enthused, setting up the VCR. Sarah looked towards the front of the RV, and hoped Burnout could reach this Roger person quickly. <-----> Ultima snapped out of her paranoia as abruptly as it had come upon her. Diagnostic routines revealed significant disruption of her primary systems... These 'emotions' were dangerous! Luckily danger cutoffs had shut off that section of her neural net before there was critical disruption. Pattern-matching systems fed data to the location subroutines - she was back at the outskirts of the Invid Hive, overlooking the field of the Dead. How could she risk leaving again, when she might encounter data that would again cause such disruption? Better to absorb all available data in one massive dose. But where to find.. Aha! The Invid Brain shifted in the center of the Hive as Ultima tried to access it. The Brain, annoyed at being awoken, and having had a hangover since sometime last year as a result of the massive doses of hallucinogens that were dumped into it (see Ray Sterling #4), told Ultima to kindly piss off. Ultima blinked at the request. Why should she go to the bathroom at this being's orders? She renewed her request, and in a nanosecond, bypassed the Brain's resistance and accessed its Primary Core. She was surprised to find most of the Core offline, but she quickly brought it up, and ordered it to start all the other systems. The Hive began to glow slightly as long-forgotten power leads sparked and crackled to life. The Protoculture furnace roared to life again as Ultima shifted power from her reserves to it. The Brain, now awakened, fought to break her commands. <> the Brain thought/spoke to Ultima through her mind-link. {{The Regis?}} Ultima responded. {{What is this 'Regis'?}} Something in the name was familiar - a memory module coded by... Verne? Who was Verne? <> the Brain growled. <> The Brain threw its psychic assault at Ultima down the linking corridor. Ultima blinked and yawned. Impressed, the Brain activated the external defenses... which just as quickly deactivated. <> {{You will download all data immediately to my I/O processor.}} Ultima ordered, activating her cybernetic interface. She noticed the damage that was present and reconstructed the Protoculture systems to bypass it. The Brain gave the equivalent of a shrug and compressed everything it knew into a thirty-second burst of data. "I... see now..." Ultima pondered. <-----> Roger strolled up to the Killer RV, his features betraying no hint of his extreme annoyance at being called up here. Upon entering the vehicle, he noticed that everyone seemed immensely relieved to see him, except for Fractalman, who was pointing at the TV and laughing. "This is great!!" Fractalman giggled. "Look! Look!! The dolphin... *talks*!! BWAHAHAHA!" "Hey, Roger, we've got guests!" Burnout grinned, "Sarah, Summer, Ariella, this is Roger, our team leader. Roger, this is Summer, Sarah Conner and Ariella Conner." Summer flipped through the pages of her fan-mag. "Hmm.. I know I've seen Roger's last name, but they don't seem to want to say it..." "Um, what's this all about?" Roger asked. "They're, like, from Team M.E.C.H.A.!" Prizm said bouncily, "We, like, ran into them at the mall, and, like, they agreed to help us against TONN!" "Burnout." Roger said evenly. "I'd like to have a talk with you." "Dingledine?! Roger's last name is *Dingledine*?!" Summer snarfed, finally getting to the right spot in the mag, "Oh, uh, I'm sorry..." Sarah fought to keep from chuckling, while Ariella smirked slightly. Roger turned beet red, grabbed Burnout and pulled her around to the other side of the RV. "BACKUP?!" he hissed, "We don't need backup!! We can fight our own fights, dammit!" "Roger, calm down! We haven't finished training yet, and you've got to admit their kind of firepower would be useful! We're not even sure what we're going up against!" Roger glared at her. "Well, I can't just tell them to piss off after you've invited them to hang out in the RV and told them they could help... But if they get in the way...." "They won't - don't you read the Weekly World Schmooze? They've been in more super-powered battles than we have, easy. Did you hear about the Giant Robot Brawl in Bob City?" "That's another thing..." Roger grumbled, "They'd better not make us look bad!" <-----> "Gargle!! Sir Gerbil!!" Shana Shannon shouted, hurrying into Gerbre's office. "We've got a problem!!" "What is it *now*?" Gerbre grumbled, flipping on his bug-jamming suite. "Bland Investigative-Reporter was on his way out of Springfield when he spotted three members of Team M.E.C.H.A.! He phoned to TONN Central Control, and they allocated a Invid Special Combat unit to defend TONN/Springfield!!" "WHAT?!" Gerbre roared, "Force Ten'll be slaughtered! They can't fight Morgan's troops and the Invid mecha!" <-----> Ultima blinked as the sensor logs from all the Invid who had ever lived became accessible to her. All were telepathically connected to the Invid Brain, which served as a Command/Control/Communications Center for all Invid activities. Ultima flicked through the Brain's files, finding the link, which was very weak - it had atrophied during the Brain's long sleep. Ultima concentrated and the link came online - and all the Invid became as one. <-----> "Here's what we've been able to find out so far." Roger lectured to the members of Force Ten and Team M.E.C.H.A. who were present. "Floyd got us the blueprints for the origional building, and I called up a satellite photo - there are some small new hills that have been built since the origional building, but I don't know what they're for. Could be warehouses or hangars, but..." "Invid mecha." Sarah said. Everyone turned to look at her. "Last time we fought TONN, they were allied with the Invid, so they had the use of mecha." Roger considered this. "We'll have to take that into consideration as a major threat... The scientist we are to rescue is one Johann Guy, aka the Science Guy. He's...an old acquaintance of mine, and a brilliant person. We are to rescue him, and deliver him to a government limo outside of Springfield." "The government?" Burnout asked, "Why don't they come get him themselves?" "When they called me last, they said that Garble, the guy who runs TONN, had some, uh, 'incriminating videos' one of his agents took of President Clinton at a, um, Nude Beach. They can't go in directly and get Science Guy out, so they've hired us." "Prizm, the Red Bandit and Crossbow are to infiltrate the complex and rescue Science Guy. The rest of us will lure the defense forces out and crush them. Once we have accomplished this, we will enter the complex and assist as necessary. Questions?" "How do they get inside without the whole defense unit noticing them and attacking them instead?" Sarah asked. "Our employers have infiltrated a device into the complex disguised as a box of pizza, and we can activate it when we need to. It will deactivate the defense net, allowing them to get in." "Then why do we need to attack at all?" "Because TONN will notice when their Defense Net drops, and they'll investigate. So we need another distraction for them." "Fair 'nuff." Sarah nodded. "Let's do it." Roger said. <-----> All over the world, on various missions or hidden in TONN complexes, Invid paused as Ultima reached out through the Invid Brain's telepathic link. Ultima felt herself shift from her physical body, and she floated through the Invid minds. She was with all of the Invid soldiers as they went through their various duties. She was with Verne and Garth as they disembarked their helicopter behind her. She was with Wayne, dangling from the ceiling of a closed Bar and complaining about the view. She was in the clouded mind of Marie as she did all kinds of unmentionable things with Spectrum. The Invid felt each other's presence through the mindlink for the first time in a year. Once again, they were one Hive, one force. Ultima blinked. How odd. The Stage 5 Invid resisted total intigration into the mindnet. Marie, Wayne, Verne, Garth. She could not subvert Verne, that she knew. She could not because it was his program that she was following. PROGRAM?! <-----> "Now..." Roger said, flipping buttons on the RV's dash-mounted radio transmitter. Inside TONN/Springfield, the Pizza box that Shana Shannon had delivered shifted and moved. Bland had stowed it in an old electrical closet, which allowed it to not only avoid detection, but to interface with the computer net. For it was not really a pizza in the box, but in fact a small microcomputer system with a set of manipulator arms concealed in a pizza crust - it was even covered with a synthetic mottzerella 'skin'. It performed its job flawlessly, and, several seconds after receiving Roger's transmission, the Defense Net was down. <-----> Anime Freak wandered into the TONN Command Center, which was, as usual, abuzz with activity. He stopped his wanderings abruptly as he spotted what was on the main monitor. "Who authorized the classified videos of Spectrum and Marie to be viewed?!" he bellowed. Nobody listened. He noticed that all the female staff were waving 'Go Spectrum!' banners, and all the male staff were looking depressed and hanging out near the exit. "They're not videos!" a bouncy young computer tech enthused. "This is... *live* footage!" "Wha?! Wh.. wha?!" Anime Freak spluttered. "Tris!! Maybe you can explain this!" "Shhh!" Tris hissed, "They're about to set a new world record!" "For *what*?!" "Most consecutive times." Tris said, chewing on the end of a pencil. Anime Freak slapped his forehead and hurried out, grumbling about how some people just have no sense of modesty. <-----> TONN Springfield was not constructed like a fortress - it was a beautifully landscaped building that blended with the surrounding terrain in a way that was quite pleasing to the eye. Not that the two guards wandering the grounds cared. "Hey, Bob." one of them asked the other. "Yeah, Jay?" "Do you hear something?" "Nahh - s'just the wind." Bob T. Henchman said. He managed to get his line out just before the Red Bandit and Crossbow whacked him and Jay Random Thug on the back of the head, sending them unconsious. "Bandit to HQ, Bandit to HQ. We're inside the outer perimeter, you can begin your attack." the Red Bandit whispered into a small Ninja Transmitter(tm). "Let's go!" Roger and Sarah shouted, jumping out of concealment simultaneously. Two gun-barrels extended from Roger's forearms and snapped into position while Sarah flipped her Cyclone to Battlearmor mode, grabbing her RL-6 Rocket Cannon. Summer hurried up beside them. She concentrated and seemed to shimmer as she shifted to her hardsuit. Had Roger seen it, he would have been impressed, but his attention was taken up by the guards who leaped out of their posts, unslinging their rifles. His right arm gauss cannon spat forth a cloud of needlelike flechettes moving at mach velocities. "Hmph. Guess this area's clear..." Sarah said, advancing over the bodies with her Cannon at the ready. behind the three armored heroes came Sanka, Fractalman, Burnout and Ariella. Sanka had put on the water pump backpack that allowed him to convert his not readily useful power of Convert Water to Coffee into a somewhat effective attack. Ariella had been convinced to wear a bulletproof vest, since she didn't have a Cyclone like Sarah. "Somethin' *huge* on the magnetoscope..." Roger pondered. "INVID MECHA!" Summer shouted, as the ground split open in four places, and four Shock Troopers rose up. Summer, Roger, and Sarah opened up, their attacks downing three of the mecha right off. "See? Nothing to worry about." Roger said to Burnout. "Toldja we didn't need these gals." <-----> Ultima, linked as she was to all the Invid, felt the death of those three Invid so far away. Shifting her perceptions, she directly entered the mind of the remaining Shock Trooper... <-----> "Die!" Roger growled, firing his laser and gauss cannons at the remaining Trooper. The Invid dodged easily and returned fire, causing everyone to take cover. "Sanka! Over there!" Burnout shouted at the Brit. Lots of TONNguards were running at them from a concealed bunker. Burnout launched blasts of flame to drive them back, and then Sanka melted the door shut with superheated blasts of Expresso. Summer, Roger, and Sarah all blazed away at the Shock Trooper, to no effect. The Trooper danced about, their shots going wide each time. Sarah paused to reload her RL-6, and the Invid charged, twin blasts of plasma frisbees hitting both Sarah and Roger, knocking them down and gouging their armor. "HEY!!" Summer shouted, blasting the Invid with her forearm laser. The blast breached the Invid's armor in several places, and it stumbled back, much less energetic. "Why is this one Invid giving us so much trouble?!" Sarah wondered, struggling to her feet and completing the reload on the RL-6. Nearby, Roger also got up. "We just blew away three other Invids just like this one! What makes it so special?" <-----> Inside the complex, things were not going as planned. "Where are all these guards coming from?!" Crossbow growled, putting a crossbow bolt in one of them. Nearby, the Red Bandit did a jump-spin-kick that sent two guards flying. Prizm used low-power laser beams to melt several other guards' weapons. "If you hadn't tripped over that power cable, we wouldn't be in this mess!" the Bandit yelled at Crossbow. The two simultaneously punched one guard, sending him flying backwards. "Prizm! Can you do anything?!" "My, like, energy reserves aren't high enough!" Prizm protested. "I don't get enough juice from these 'lectric lights!" "Do that super-speed thing!" Crossbow said, slamming two guards' heads together. "But-" "If you don't, they'll beat us by sheer force of numbers!" the Bandit said, tossing a shuriken into the face of a charging guard. "Like, you're the, like, boss..." Prizm said, sounding a bit unsure. She concentrated, and immediately became a blur moving at the speed of light. She had never tried a sustained burst of speed before - she had no idea what the consequences would be. She also couldn't hit the guards directly... The inerta would rip them apart. So, she roared by them, slamming their weapons from their grips. Dozens of guards went down, clutching broken wrists and arms. But Prizm could swear she smelled something burning... "Lemme help!" Fractalman said, running up next to Summer and launching a pair of his Mandelbrot-shaped explosive throwing stars at the Shock Trooper. They missed, badly, almost hitting Sanka, who was trying to sneak behind the mech for a better shot. "Hey! You're in my way!!" Summer said, trying to hit the mech and avoid blasting Fractalman, who was dancing around taunting it. Apparently the mech was not amused by the taunts, because it fired off a burst of plasma frisbees that sent Summer and Fractalman flying. "Summer!!" Sarah and Ariella shouted. "John, you idiot!" Roger shouted. Fractalman smacked into a tree and slumped to the ground. "Dammit!! Burnout, Ariella, get him out of the combat zone!" "We've gotta take this thing out!" Sarah shouted, diving for cover as an annihilation frisbee smacked into the ground near her. "Summer! Sanka! Roger! Let's hit it from all sides... NOW!" Sanka and Summer fired blasts of superheated coffee and energy, respectively, from behind the Invid, taking it by surprise and causing it to stumble forwards. As it was about to leap into the air, Summer blasted it in the back of the knee, dropping it to the ground. From their positions, Sarah and Roger both targetted the Invid mech's sensor eye and fired, blowing apart the hapless enemy. "YES!" they chorused. CONTINUED IN PART TWO... ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 30 Apr 1994 18:26:02 EDT Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Jesse Taylor Subject: SG: Force Ten #25 part 2 CONTINUED FROM PART ONE... "Is he all right?" Summer asked Ariella, concernedly. "He's burned and concussed," Ari replied tersely. "I'm not much good at healing--it's not my discipline--but I'll do what I can." She chanted under her breath, murmuring the words to a spell she'd memorized before the assault, and Fractalman's wounds seemed to get a little better. "But that's all I can do for him. I'm afraid he's going to be out of it for a while." Burnout sighed. "That idiot. We just can't take him anywhere." "All right. We'll have to leave him here and get him on the way out," Roger decided. "Sanka, Ariella, stay with him." "Roight," Sanka replied stolidly. "I'm coming with you," Ariella said. "I've done all I can for him, and if you think that you're going to leave me out of the battle, you'd best think again." "But--" Roger began. "But nothing. I'm just as capable as the rest of you; I just happen to use a different power source. Surely you've worked with mages before." "They have," Summer piped up. "Her name's Shannon." "All right, all right," Roger sighed. "But if you get killed by a plasma blast, don't blame me. Now come on, we've hung around here long enough." They moved in around the perimeter, trying to cause more distractions to keep the actions of the three intruders from being noticed as long as possible. "Look out!" Summer cried. "Three Shock Troopers and two Armored Scouts, three o'clock low!" She jinked left then right to avoid a volley of plasma disks, and fired laser shots from both arms into the sensor eye of the first Shock Trooper. Ker-BLAMMO! Roger opened up on another, and Burnout fired blasts of flame at a third. Sarah Conner took to the air, sighting up on one of the Armored Scouts. The crosshairs zeroed in. KA- THWAM! The missile fired, looped in...and was deflected by the Scout's hand. "He's mine!" Ariella announced, summoning mystic energies and shaping them into a fireball. The fireball hit the middle scout right in the sensor eye, and the burst radius claimed the other two scouts and damaged one of the troopers. "YEAH!!!" Sarah whooped, opening fire with the Gallant pistol in her left hand. It didn't damage anything, but served as a good distraction long enough for her to line up her next missile shot. She fired, and then the launcher registered 'empty'. "Shoot, gotta reload!" The last Invid lined up its cannons and fired an extended volley of disks right into the group. If Summer hadn't tackled Ariella out of the way, she would have been crispy-fried. "Yow!" Ariella gasped. "See?" Roger muttered, as he put a cannon shot through the sensor eye of the Invid. "I told you she'd be a liability..." "I don't know about that," Summer said. "It seems to me that all she needs is the right kind of armor." Summer undid the bulletproof vest and tossed it aside, and before Ariella could protest, quickly stepped forward into her, flowing into place around her in the form of the black hardsuit. "What in the world?!" Burnout gasped, "H-how?!" "It's just one of those things she does.." Sarah tried to explain, snapping another six-shot load into her RL-6. "Incredible..." Roger commented, "Doing that would require structural rearrangement on a molecular level!" "Wha?" Burnout asked, confused. "Howscum we don't have nifty powers like that, Roger?" "I'd just like to know how she got them... Must be based on nanomachines--nothing else could get the necessary speed or accuraccy in transformation." "You guys gonna talk or fight?" Sarah interrupted Roger's thoughts abruptly. "How on earth do you shift like that?!" Roger asked. "Practice!" Summer replied brightly. "Ready, Ari?" "Um...I think so..." Ariella looked around, slightly confused by all the readouts that showed up on the HUD. "But--I don't understand. What am I supposed to do?" "Just act naturally. I'll take care of all the hard stuff. Ready? Then let's do it." The assembled force moved in closer. Summer/Ariella rocketed overhead using the hardsuit's flight systems. <-----> //Sub-sub-basement; Armories, Command Center, Captured Scientists and Lingerie. Going down!// a cheery computerized voice announced from a speaker in the elevator. The three persons who emerged were tired, allthough they didn't show it. The Red Bandit and Crossbow began beating up the inevitable guards who leaped out at them. Prizm had been zipping around the interior of the elevator, overriding its many security systems, which luckily were based on optical computer chips, which she could affect through her manipulation of light. Crossbow and the Bandit had noticed Prizm's kevlar/spandex uniform seemed a bit charred, but figured it was battle damage. "DIE!" a TONNguard shouted, leaping at the Bandit, who turned and punted the hapless guard in the groin. Strangely, many of the guards didn't wear TONN uniforms, instead preferring red-and-black combat armor. "So, Morgan's in on this..." the Bandit growled, unslinging her nunchaku and flailing at the mob of guards. "I knew we'd run into her work again sometime.." "How do you know it's Morgan?" Crossbow asked, trying to clear away some of the mass with his nightstick. "'Cos this is the uniform her henchmen wear--let's just fight, ok?!" There was a roar like a jet turbine as Prizm finished her manipulations of the optical computer system and began to work at the mob. Within seconds, the hallway was cleared of resistance. "Hrmph." the Red Bandit grumbled. "Why couldn't I get flashy powers like that?" "The scientist is in a cell directly across the hall!" Prizm said. "Hmmm... You mean behind the big door that says 'Yes, he's in here'?" "That would be it..." Prizm nodded. "I'm low on power, though..." "No prob'." Crossbow grinned, slotting an explosive bolt into his crossbow. He hit the lock dead center, blowing a sizable hole. The door swung open dramatically. "S'about time y'gots here..." Science Guy slurred, wandering out. "Whoooo, you sure beat up the guardsh!" "Damn, he's drunk!" the Bandit growled. "Crossbow, take out Command Central, Prizm, run interference, I'll get Science Twit outta here!" <-----> It was odd, Summer reflected, how it felt to have someone inside her as power armor. It was like...well, like hugging someone really closely, only more closely than just normal hugging. She didn't know how to explain it, because whenever she tried, even to herself, she ended up getting all tongue-tied and not knowing for sure what she really meant. Maybe when she got older. But it was somehow reassuring, feeling the warmth of a human body. It told her that she wasn't alone. Together, she and Ariella dodged another Invid attack, and then fired the arm-mount lasers repeatedly. These Invid were a lot smarter than they'd been before, and it was stretching Summer's combat skills to the limit to defend against their onslaught. Summer had taken near-misses several times, and if not for her nanotechnological ability to regenerate, she would have been out of the battle several times over by now. As three more Troopers joined the fray, Summer had an idea. "Ariella...do you think you could cast spells right now?" "I don't know," Ari replied. "Casting spells through nonliving substances such as metal armor is difficult, if not impossible..." "What about LIVING metal armor?" Summer asked, instinctively dodging a plasma burst and severing a Scout's claw with a swipe of her arm-mounted vibrosword. "I don't know...it might work. Let me see..." As Summer rocketed back out of range of claw swipes, Ariella gestured and pronounced some words. Lightning crackled down from out of a clear, blue sky. One of the Shock Troopers exploded. Ariella gasped. "It DID work!" "Awesome!" Summer vaulted over an Invid Trooper, dodging between its claws and slapping a semi-circular limpet mine onto it. "We make quite a team!" she remarked. <-----> Deep underneath the TONN outpost was an armored bunker, deep enough and well armored enough to withstand a direct nuclear assault. In it was housed a bank of massive tactical computers that coordinated the base's troops in their defensive operations and played a *damn* good game of pac-man. Now, the Command Center was filled with scurrying techs feeding data to the Invid mecha from the TONN observers who now hid, the data that they sent replacing what would have come from the now-non-functional sensors. Given the strength of their bunker's defenses, the techs were quite surprised when the door blew in, revealing Crossbow, who glared at them in an annoyed fashion. "Where's the big 'puter?" he growled, slotting another explosive bolt into his crossbow. One of the techs pointed at the largest computer in the room, and then dived under his desk and began to whimper. "A DEC6600? Wow, that must be expensive... Let's find out how tough it is!" SHRAK..BKOOOM! <-----> As their source of local tactical input was cut off, the Invid paused--an action that proved deadly for most of them, as Summer, Ariella, Sarah, and Roger did not hesitate to press their advantage. The last Invid Shock Trooper recovered its senses in time to launch an attack on Sarah - and was promptly blown up from behind by Burnout. "Yay!!" Burnout grinned, "I get to do something!! I... aiiyee! Guys!! Behind you!!" Summer and Ariella, acting on instinct, launched up into the air, avoiding a massive missile, which, while it wouldn't have harmed Summer severely, it would have probably killed Ariella instantly. Sarah and Roger whirled to confront a group of TONNguards, who were aiming a second Tank Breaker missile launcher at them. There was a blur of light, and the missile launcher blew apart, scattering the guards. The blur zipped around the landscaped grounds, plucking other guards from their concealed positions and dumping them on the ground. "What the?" Sarah asked. "It... must be Prizm!" Roger said. Moments later, the Red Bandit emerged from a hidden door, carrying Science Guy. "Good thing Prizm called up a map of the secret exits!" the Bandit grinned, "I would've hated to have to wade through all those guards again!" Before anyone could say anything, Crossbow emerged from the front door, a procession of prisoners in front of him. "Gee..." Summer said, "It looks like... WE WON!! YAAAAAAY!!" Nearby, Prizm skidded to a halt. She was breathing and sweating heavily, and her hair was plastered back as if it had lately been experiencing severe G-forces. "Uhm. Er." Roger said. "Prizm, your, uh..." Summer began. "Like, ohmigod, my hair!! It's...it's....*dead*!" Prizm wailed, feeling her head. "Uh, no, that's not it!" Sarah said, "It's your-" "My earrings?! Wuaaaah, they're melted!" "Prizm? Are you listening?" Burnout asked. "Hey, I blew up the Command Center!" Crossbow grinned, waltzing up, "I...BWAHAHAHA!" "What?! What?!" Prizm asked, annoyed. "It's your...snnnnggg...your...*clothes*!" Crossbow managed to get out between giggles. "What about my clothes?!" Prizm growled, "What, don't I have good fashion sense?! I...I... Um. Where. Are. My. Clothes?!" "The friction must have fried them.." Roger theorized. The reality of the situation sank in with Prizm and she blushed one of those neat, full-body blushes, and dived behind Roger. "I'm sure I've got a shirt or something in my Ninja Bag(tm)", said the Bandit, rooting around in her bag. "Hey, scientist-guy!" Summer poked Science Guy. "We just rescued you, aren't you gonna thank us?!" "Whoaaaa..." Science Guy commented. "Coooooooool..." "I think someone must have gotten him drunk.." the Red Bandit said, handing a faded Bubblegum Crisis t-shirt to Prizm, who quickly pulled it on, glaring at Crossbow, who was still giggling occasionally. "Well, we've gotta turn him over to our employers in about an hour, so I guess it doesn't matter.." Roger shrugged. "Hey, guys, I wonder if I can sell framegrabs of the last few minutes of film on my combat recorder to the Weekly World Schmooze?" "You wouldn't!" Prizm growled, finding a heavy object to bap Roger over the head with. Roger chuckled. "I hate to interrupt the party..." Sarah said, "But shouldn't we get out of here before these TONN soldiers get their acts together and try to kill us again?" <-----> Gerbre flicked off the viewscreen, chuckling evilly. Everything had gone as planned - they had drugged Science Guy to prevent the fool from revealing anything during the brief period between when he was rescued and when he was returned to Gerbre's custody. The heroes had destroyed most of TONN/Springfield, and blown away some of Morgan's troops... Excellent - everything was going just like he wanted it to... <-----> With the battle over, Summer stepped forward, out from around Ariella, and her shape resolved back into a red-headed 14-year-old. "Ah. That's better." They all started walking back toward the mobile home, carrying the injured Fractalman and half-dragging the semiconscious Science Guy along with them. "How did you do that weird form shifting?" Roger asked Summer. "Doesn't it feel... strange?" He had suddenly become a lot more impressed by Team M.E.C.H.A. than he had been at first. "A little," Summer said. "But it's kind of natural for me." She shifted to the hardsuit, then to the Cyclone power armor, then back through to her "normal" self. "What else can you do?" They arrived back at the Killer RV, and Sarah and Ariella helped Prizm and Sanka get the stupified scientist and comatose hero on board. "Oh, some really neat stuff..." Summer remarked. "Like--" "Excuse me," Ariella remarked, "but have you noticed the time? It's 2:00 in the morning." She yawned. "Yeah..." Sarah added. "We need a place to crash." Roger stepped up into the Killer RV and looked around, hoping that somehow everything might have miraculously cleaned itself up while they were out. No such luck; there was still random litter all over the place. "Um..." "Like, don't look at me!" Prizm said. "I'm pooped!" "I think we have a couple of spare beds..." "Great," Sarah replied. "...buried under some of this junk," Roger finished. "Oh." Prizm blinked. "I know how we can clean up the RV!" she exclaimed, jumping in and grabbing one of the boxes she had gotten on her shopping trip. She ripped open the packaging to reveal... "AN INVID?!?" everyone exclaimed. "Oh, it's, like, a pet, y'know?" Prizm grinned, picking up the small creature, which looked like a miniaturized Invid Scout mecha. "It's supposed to like, do housework and stuff." "*sigh*" Roger sighed. Prizm set the Invid down and stared at it sternly. It swiveled its sensor eye up to look at her. "Clean this place up!" she ordered it. The Invid pondered a moment, shifting back and forth on its stubby legs, then lit into the garbage on the floor of the RV with a vengeance. Sarah and Crossbow had to jump out of the way as the tiny creature shredded garbage and hurled it out the door. Sarah rolled her eyes. "I suppose anything that will clear out a bed for me to sleep on is cool right now..." The pile of trash outside the RV had almost gotten bigger than the RV itself when a trio of generic gloss black dark-windowed luxury cars pulled up nearby. Two burly bouncer-types in black suits stepped out, followed by a blonde in a dark grey buisness-dress. "Looks like your friend's ride is here." Sarah said to Roger, pointing at Science Guy. Roger sighed and hoisted the drunk scientist onto his armored shoulder, then walked over to the cars. "I trust there were no...problems in fufilling your contractual obligations?" the blonde asked, lifting a slim leather briefcase from her car. "And you are?" Roger asked, reluctant to give up Science Guy so readily. "Secret Agent Shara Sharron." the blonde snapped. "We're running behind schedule, here." Roger sighed. "The money?" "All two hundred fourty-five thousand is in the case, in unmarked bills." Shara said. "Can we get on with the exchange?" "Say..." Summer whispered to Sarah, "Isn't that the TONN reporter from Bob City? Uhm... what was her name?" "What I want to know is if she can see anything with those dark shades on!" Sarah said, then yawned, "It's two in the morning, sheesh!" "I suppose a deal is a deal..." Roger sighed, lowering Science Guy. The two goon archetypes took him and got into the car. Shara nodded and opened the briefcase, showing neat stacks of money bundles. "It'd better all be here." "It is!" Shara grinned. "I'm sure we'll be seeing you again soon!" she chuckled as she got back into her car. The three vehicles tore off in a cloud of dust. "What-EVER.." Roger shrugged. "Are those beds cleaned off yet, Prizm?!" <-----> "Shara Sharron?" Gerbre asked Shana Shannon as their small convoy roared through the dark streets of Springfield. "You didn't give me much time to think up a good story!" Shana grumbled, "It was the best I could do on such short notice!" "You know, I've been thinking..." Gerbre said thoughtfully, "I've been working you awful hard lately... I think you deserve a vacation!" "Rilly?!" Shana gaped, amazed. "Yes..." Gerbre grinned evilly, "As a matter of fact, I was thinking of taking a vacation myself, to my private island in the Pacific... Perhaps you would care to... *join* me..." Shana raised an eyebrow. "I... appreciate your offer, but... I don't think you're my type at all... (sorry!)" Gerbre gaped in amazement. "You would refuse...me? ME?!" He stared at her. "You've got guts, Shannon; I think I like you..." <-----> The sun rose over the sleepy town of Springfield - the town was sleepy because they'd been kept up through the night by all the explosions at the TONN bureau. The Killer RV sat quietly as the warming rays of the rising sun glinted off the massive pile of shredded trash that almost totally obscured the oversized vehicle. Some time later... Roger Dingledine awoke with a start, stretched, and peered around the amazingly clean interior of his team's mobile HQ. Sanka was stretched out on the floor, having given up his bed to Sarah, but the hardy Brit looked none the worse for wear. Burnout was snoozing in a well-puffed chair. Fractalman, Sarah, Ariella, Summer, Roger and Prizm had gotten the six fold-out beds in the back of the RV, and the Bandit had slept up front. Roger yawned and peered at a pizza-encrusted digital clock plastered to one wall. 10:45. Too early. Too *damn* early. Roger sighed and stepped off his bed, being careful not to wake everyone else. He nearly tripped over Prizm's pet Invid, which was sleeping loyally at the foot of her bed - what the Hell(tm) was she doing with a pet, anyway. Roger sighed and wandered through the darkened interior. He was almost to the Official Force Ten Microwave when he noticed the viewscreens in the front of the RV were on. Wondering who the Hell(tm) was playing on the computer at 10 in the morning, he snuck forward, to see the Red Bandit snoozing in front of one of the viewscreens. It looked like it was playing one of those Sci-Fi combat flicks... Roger paused. That wasn't the movie channel! That was the combat footage from his battlesuit, taken during the battle on the Grey October. Specifically, it was playing the segments during Roger's brief encounter with Anime Freak, SuperPoweredGerbre and the clone of Admiral Morgan. What the Hell(tm) would the Bandit want with that? Roger pondered for a moment just how little he knew about his teammate, who was one of the founding members of Force Ten. The Bandit always-- *always* wore full costume. Always ate alone, slept in a seperate room or apart from everyone else. Weird. Roger was tempted for a moment to remove the Bandit's mask and perhaps find out at least what his friend looked like... but that wouldn't be...right? The Bandit would tell them on his own time. Roger sighed and decided it was *way* the Hell(tm) too early for Deep Thoughts, especially after just having fought off an entire Battalion of TONNGuards and Alien Mecha. He tiptoed carefully and quietly down the length of the RV towards his bed, utterly silent until he tripped over Prizm's pet Invid and fell noisily on top of her. "AAAAIIIIIIII!!!" "Wuaah! It's not what you think!!" *SLAP* Some more time later... "*yawn*" yawned Sarah Conner as she, Summer, and Ariella checked their gear and prepared to return to Team M.E.C.H.A. HQ. "I would have liked to have gotten more sleep - but _somebody_ decided to practice screaming... and just when I was getting to a really interesting bit in my dream, too!" "That wasn't my fault!" Prizm said, whapping Roger. "Too bad you guys couldn't have stayed longer..." Burnout said. "Well, since Adam... sort of ran off, I figure we should stay around base and see if there's anything we can do to help find him." Sarah replied. "Besides, Mike wasn't too pleased with us staying overnight here, and he's got enough stuff to worry over without having to keep track of us, too." "Ach, wee lassies, r'member tae call us if'n ye need our help, y'ken?" Sanka said. Sarah blinked as she tried to figure out what he was saying. "We will!" Summer grinned, checking to see that she had a full set of signatures in her autograph book. "That'll be the day..." Sarah thought, after Summer translated Sanka's offer. "Feel free to drop by our not-so-secret-Headquarters anytime you're in the area..." Roger offered. "Is it cleaner than the RV?" Ariella asked. "Err...." "Drop us a line anytime you're in the midwest - you can come over and hang out or somethin'.." Summer said, trying to change the subject. "Sure thing!" Fractalman grinned. He was nursing some wounds from the previous day's fight, but was none the worse for wear. "It's been surreal!" Ariella said. Everyone said goodbye again and Summer shifted to a Cyclone battlesuit, which then transformed into a motorcycle for Ariella to ride on the way back. The members of Force Ten waved as the three Girls of Team M.E.C.H.A. roared off down the road. "Where're Crossbow and the Bandit?" Burnout asked. "Crossbow's in the back, still sleeping.." the Red Bandit said, "I've just been hanging out in the background, here." "I swear, he could sleep through anything.." Prizm grumbled. "Like, guys, I'm, like, rilly hungry..." "S'barro's?" Roger asked. "YAY!" everyone chorused. NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT FOR A S'BARRO'S RUN!!! WILL FORCE TEN AND TEAM M.E.C.H.A. ASSOCIATE IN THE FUTURE??? WHAT THE HELL(TM) **DOES** M.E.C.H.A. STAND FOR, ANYWAY??? WHAT GAINS WILL GERBRE GET FROM BLOWING UP ONE OF HIS OWN BUILDINGS??? WILL PRIZM'S NEW PET INVID BE MORE OF A PAIN THAN A HELP??? "IT SLICES, IT DICES... IT DISINTIGRATES!" AHEM. FIND OUT ALL SORTS OF NEAT-O STUFF IN THE NEXT... SUPERGUY! ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 18 Apr 1994 22:46:54 -0500 Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: It's the swing like a pendulum Subject: SG: Team M.E.C.H.A. #41 TEAM M.E.C.H.A. #41 By Robotech_Master Guest-Starring Absolutely Nobody At All A Story of High Technology, and Stuff Like That (Yeah, yeah, we've heard it all before...) Mike had a lot to think about on the flight back to Team M.E.C.H.A. HQ from the Douglas Ranch. He now knew what had been happening to Adam Douglas over the last few weeks, and why. And it wasn't a pretty picture. Mike had to wonder what Adam was feeling right now. Could he himself have turned out like that if his own life had taken a darker turn at an early age? He'd never had a violent death in his immediate family, and certainly not one related to magic. Would he feel the same way if someone he loved were taken from him? He hoped that was a question to which he would never know the answer. "We'll be landing at TMHQ in about three minutes," Ray Sterling reported from the front seat. Mike nodded, still lost in thought. Where would Adam go now? Bob City? It was so hard to say... A few minutes later, Mike walked into the control room. "Any progress?" "No." Lincoln sighed. "I'm more convinced than ever that he's heading to Bob City--a county sheriff reported sighting a speeding greenish motorcycle that he couldn't catch up to--but I just can't lock in a location." Mike sighed. "I'm beginning to think that there's no way we're going to find Adam until he does something. Your father trained him too well for that." "Well, I'll keep looking. Say, where are the girls, anyway?" "They left to go shopping," Robert remarked, stepping into the room. "They left a note." Mike groaned. "Oh, great. You know what happened LAST time Sarah went shopping..." "Don't worry," Link said. "This time I made sure that their comlinks were on." "I'm going to go to my room. Buzz me if you get anything," Mike sighed. Robert gazed after him as he left the room. "There," he observed, "goes a tired man." The rest of the day was uneventful, except for the call from the girls that they would be staying overnight with a friend. Mike was too depressed to say no, although his response might well have been different had he known what the girls were about to get into. The next day, when three motorcycles pulled up in the Team M.E.C.H.A. Headquarters garage, Mike was there to meet them. "Have fun in Springfield?" Ariella stepped off of her Cyclone, which shifted back into Summer. Mike managed to control his reaction to Summer's shapeshift; he'd seen it enough by now that he no longer needed to be surprised. "You...might say that," Ariella replied. Mike got the sense that there was more to it than Ariella was telling, but neither Summer nor Sarah would say anything more about it so Mike let it drop. "Find out anything more about Adam?" Sarah asked. "As a matter of fact, yes," Mike said. "I'm going to call a meeting in a little bit and we'll discuss it." "Good! We're going to go up to my room and unpack our stuff. Call us when it starts." Sarah and Ariella left the vehicle bay and headed for the elevator. "Summer?" Mike asked. "You have a good time?" Summer nodded and grinned the grin of someone who was hiding something. "Yep! GREAT time, actually. Now, if you don't mind, I've got to go check my email." She dashed off after Ariella and Sarah, leaving Mike standing there shaking his head. "Whatever." Summer sat down at one of the consoles in the control room and turned it on. Link nodded to her, and she reached in to interface with the computer. Hmm. Only a couple of email articles awaited her, and they were just from the Ramrod listserv (the listserv devoted to discussing just how much the music of a certain antihero, Seattle or no, sucked, and whether or not his heroic acts since that time had made up for it). She scanned them, deleted them. "Hey, Link!" Summer said. "How's the search coming?" Lincoln Douglas sighed. "Still nothing quantifiable. There were reports of an incident involving a hijacked bus and heavy firepower, but none of the witnesses was coherent enough to make a positive ID." He looked around, as though to make sure no one else was listening, then half-whispered, "Did you hear about the transmission from Radio Free Hero?" "No, what transmission?" Summer asked. "Oh, uhm...It's kind of gory. I don't know if I should tell you." Summer snorted. "Oh? Let me see, now..." She reached further into the computer, allowing a greater percentage of the nanites in her body to come into contact with the computer's circuitry, giving her more control. "Hmm...almost..." She leaned forward a little more...and then lost her balance. "Oops!" She fell into the console with a silvery splash. "Summer?" Link gasped, jumping up. He ran over to the terminal. "Summer, are you all right?" Summer experienced a moment of extreme disorientation, then looked around. She found herself floating in the middle of a vast nothingness, surrounded by glowing lines stretching off into infinity. She raised her hands to touch one, and her perception was flooded with an amalgam of information that she was somehow able to sort out and perceive separately, and yet at the same time. All the base's security cameras, radio, television, newsgroups--she could even understand rec.arts.anime and alt.comics.lnh! "Scary!" she gasped. "But how--" How could her simple human mind assimilate and understand all of this information? And where was it coming from? Then it occurred to her, and with a mere thought, she opened an interface in front of her, a sort of virtual "screen" on which was displayed the interior of the Team M.E.C.H.A. control room. "I'm inside the main computer!" she gasped, her face appearing on the control room's main screen. Link keyed a status display. "You...certainly are," he remarked. "From what I'm reading, it looks like there's a major artificial intelligence routine running, or something darned like it. Processing speed's up, too." "Artificial intelligence, eh? HEEEeeeey..." Summer got her bearings. "This is neat! I think...yes, I understand now!" Taking control, she reached out, making use of her new ability to access and comprehend information sources at an incredible speed. "So...this must be what it's like for HAL, Jake, and JOEL..." Link glanced at the terminal screens, which were suddenly displaying data, read-write records, and other all-but-incomprehensible readouts that were the hallmark of an AI-inhabited computer. "Are you all right in there?" he asked, hitting some keys. "What's going on?" "I'm reading more data than I ever could from the outside, that's what. Hey, I think I can help with finding Adam! That reminds me...that Radio Free Hero thing you mentioned..." Drive lights flickered as Summer accessed the stored data. "Eyuugh!" she gasped. "Not pretty, is it?" "No kidding!" Summer's face on the screen grimaced. "Is Mike going to bring this up at the meeting?" Link nodded. "Yeah. In fact, it's going to start in a couple of minutes. Would you mind coming out of there?" Summer blipped onto the main screen. "Aw, c'mon, I'm having too much fun here! I'll just pop up on-screen and watch from there." "Summer...do you really want to give Mike something else to worry about right now? You know how he reacts every time you do something strange. For you to show up as the base's new AI would probably not be a good thing." Summer sighed. "I suppose you're right...just a minute, I'll be right there." Summer paused one last time to "look around" electronically, and as an afterthought dashed off some email to Jake, HAL, and JOEL including a profile of Adam Douglas and asking for their help in locating him. Mike hadn't given the order or anything, but she felt that it was justified. They needed all the help they could get. "...and so, that's the situation," Mike finished. He'd told the whole story. The visit to Fairbanks Douglas's ranch, the Radio Free Hero report, everything. "So what are we going to do now?" Robert spoke up. "I get a line--er, no, wait, that was last episode, wasn't it? Er...ahem. I believe that the first thing you should do is get in touch with others of your craft--other superheroes. If anyone would have the resources and skills necessary to help you find your missing man, it would be they." "Already done," Summer said. "I sent email to JOEL, HAL, and Jake about it. If they know anything at all, they'll probably get back to me." "Good," Ariella said. "And what else...hmm. We must try to find him by whatever means we have at our disposal. But what are those?" "Well, our own computer..." Mike said. "But it hasn't done much good so far." "Still, it is better than nothing," Link replied. "Maybe we could have Dr. Science--hey, where IS he, anyway?" "I think he's working on that prototype nano-thingie he was going to make," Ray Sterling suggested. "That auto-repair thing he kept talking about back when he joined up with us. But I haven't seen him for days. He never comes out of his lab." "Yes. Well. We should see if he can come up with some device that would enable us to detect and track Adam's Cyclone." "Hey, that's not a bad idea," Mike said. "Let's get on it, people." The meeting broke up with a tone of optimism. Mike just hoped he could sustain it until Adam Douglas was found. But Mike wondered just what they were going to do with Adam when they caught him. Given what he'd gone through, he probably wouldn't be easy to dissuade. WILL ADAM BE EASY TO DISSUADE? WHAT IF HE ISN'T? WHAT WILL MIKE'S REACTION BE TO SUMMER'S NEW ABILITY? WHAT WILL THE OTHER AIS' REACTIONS BE? WILL THE GIRLS EVER TELL MIKE WHAT WENT ON IN SPRINGFIELD? WILL JESSE EVER FINISH WRITING WHAT WENT ON IN SPRINGFIELD? WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT? FIND OUT ONLY IN OUR NEXT, EXCITING S~U~P~E~R~G~U~Y ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 19 Apr 1994 17:01:38 -0500 Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: It's the swing like a pendulum Subject: SG: Team M.E.C.H.A. #42 TEAM M.E.C.H.A. #42 By Robotech_Master A Story of High Technology, and Life, the Universe, and Everything (Share and enjoy!) Summer stood before the console and took a deep breath. The last time she'd done this had been an accident, but this time it would be on purpose. She still had to psyche herself up to it. Every time she discovered a new ability like this, it scared her. She'd played Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0. and knew about humanity loss from replacing body parts with cybernetics. If this much of her body was metal, shouldn't she be going insane? But she didn't FEEL insane...she felt normal. At least, mentally. And yet she could become a hardsuit or Cyclone, store things in some sort of extradimensional space or absorb and pattern them, interface with computers through physical contact, and now integrate herself into them completely. Shouldn't she at least be feeling SOMETHING? What she was feeling, she decided, was a little scared. But she knew that. "Let's do it." She placed her palms down on the keyboard, interfaced, and then stepped forward. She dissolved into silvery nanotechnological ooze, and vanished. In Summer's awareness, she was floating in infinite space, surrounded by thousands of pulsing datachannels. Yet she knew that this was just her mental icon; in actuality, she was in the heart of the Team M.E.C.H.A. mainframe, the nanites that composed her body in this form adhering to microchips and wires, patching her circuitry into its circuitry, subsuming it to her will and increasing its power. Summer accessed the datachannels and began to assimilate information. "All right...let's reach out and find someone!" The next few days were spent searching and worrying. Summer spent her time inside the main computer, only coming out for mealtimes. She was careful not to be noticeable whenever Mike was around, however. She'd tell him later; now was not the time. Dr. Science agreed to take time off of his project to design a way to track Adam Douglas, but he was a bit irritated at the interruption. Meanwhile, Robert practiced with the new weapons and mecha Mike had issued him, and read the alt.lockpicking FAQ files that Summer printed out for him. Sarah and Ariella turned to the study of magic as a way to escape the worry and boredom. Ariella showed Sarah the ins and outs of several minor spells, including such nifty little tricks as magic missiles, opening locked doors, seeing auras, et cetera. However, there was one ritual in particular that Sarah concentrated on, which was the Cantrip of Minor Divination she'd seen in the book that Ariella had given her. If she could cast it properly, she might be able to see what Adam was up to, where he was, and how to stop him. Finally, Sarah felt ready. She began to make the preparations for the summoning and release of the mystical magical energies necessary to predict the future. The spell was relatively simple. All she needed was a simple aromatic candle, a drop of blood, a pool of water, and the necessary concentration. "Excuse me," Ariella said, as Sarah made her final preparations, "but what are you doing?" "Uh...what do you mean?" Sarah asked nervously. "I mean why are you taking that aromatic candle and that needle into the bathroom?" "Um...the light bulb's burnt out?" Sarah tried. Ariella shook her head and tapped her foot impatiently. "All right, all right. I'm going to cast the divination spell and see if I can find out what's going on with Adam." "That's what I thought," Ariella grinned. "Let me help." Sarah considered. "Umm...all right. I guess two mages are better than one..." A few minutes later... "You plan to cast this divination spell...in the toilet?" Ariella said doubtfully. "It said a pool of water," Sarah defended. "It didn't say what kind it had to be." Ariella shook her head. "Doesn't it have to be pure or something?" "Hey, I flushed. It's very pure!" Ariella sighed, looking from the toilet bowl to Sarah Conner. "Whatever you say..." She shook her head, smiling. "This will probably be the oddest divination spell I've ever cast." And so they dimmed the lights, placed the candle on the back of the toilet, and lifted the lid and ring in preparation for the ritual. Ariella explained a little about it as they got ready. "The reason for the blood, I've always gathered, is to attune the ritual to us, so we can see the images it provides," Ariella said. "I believe it has to do with what I believe you call 'generics.'" "Um, don't you mean 'genetics'?" "Whatever." "And what about the candle?" Sarah asked. "Well, it provides the light for us to see the vision by. And maybe the scent aids meditation." She shrugged. "Even if I'm not entirely sure how or why, it still works. I think that there are some things about magic that no one will ever understand. Especially people in Seattle who suck." "Okay. So, shall we get started?" They dimmed the lights, and took up kneeling positions on the opposite sides of the toilet. The candle was lit, and Sarah pushed the needle into the tip of her finger. It hurt, but Sarah told herself she was doing it for Adam and that somehow helped her to go through with it. She squeezed where she'd pricked, and it wasn't long before a drop of blood welled up and dropped into the toilet. Plop! Ariella grasped the needle and followed suit. "I've cast this spell before, by the way," Ariella whispered. "The images it will provide may be from the future, but they may not necessarily be OUR future. They might even be from the present or past, but again, not necessarily ours." "How will we tell the difference?" Sarah wondered. "We may not be able to. We'll simply have to observe, then interpret as best we can." Sarah grasped the crystal around her neck. "Very well...then let's begin." And so they held hands over the toilet basin and chanted the words, together. As each word left her mouth, Sarah felt lighter and lighter, as if she were about to float away. By the time the last words were said, Sarah felt as if she were no longer there. The only thing that seemed lucid and real was the toilet, and Ariella seemed to be there, vaguely, though she could no longer actually feel Ariella's hands where they were holding hers. The water inside the toilet began to reflect things. Things that weren't there. Visions of things past. Visions of things to come. Sentence fragments. That kind of thing. Sarah and Ariella leaned closely over the toilet, nearly bumping into each other, gazing down into it... The first vision was of a Victorian town, perhaps a city. Smog hung low over the buildings and streets, giving those structures farthest away indistinct shapes, coating everything in a brownish haze. Nearby, smokestacks poured more thick, black smoke into the air, and the grinding and clanking noises the factories produced drowned out everything else. Despite the pungent aroma of the candle, Sarah was almost certain she smelled the soot in the air, tasted it on her tongue. A gust of wind blew a black puff of smoke directly in front of them, and when it cleared, the vision had changed. It was Adam Douglas, riding his Saber Cyclone. The gatling gun gleamed on the front faring, sticking out into the forefront like a 3-D movie effect. Though his visor was down, Sarah could see the tears, and the look of grim resolve in his eyes. The vision shifted, as it was prone to do, to a large, black, metal-clad figure, slamming his fists into a sodden red mass with dull, wet smacks. Again, and again, and again, and again...Sarah tried to look away, but somehow found herself incapable of doing so. She was locked into the vision, for as long as it lasted. At last it changed again, to a series of frightening images. Adam Douglas, a frightening intensity in his eyes, assembling a long rifle--looked like a .50 caliber sniper's weapon, complete with silencer and infra-red scope, the technical side of Sarah's mind told her. She couldn't sense his surroundings, but got the sense of precarious heights. He sighted through the rifle, taking aim at someone outside the vision's point of view. The rifle spoke once, twice...blood splattered across the vision...and then Adam was falling. He hit the ground hard, in an unnatural position, and didn't move. Sarah choked off a gasp as the vision shifted again. It was an image of the world, a beautiful blue, green, tan, and white globe rotating slowly across the vision's scope. It was, by far, the prettiest image that they had seen yet. And then that same black metal figure appeared in the foreground, gazing menacingly out at them. He reached out, with his still-bloody hand, reached right out of the vision! Sarah stifled a shriek, and distantly heard Ariella do the same. The metallic hand reached up, grasped the lever on the side of the toilet, and flushed. The figure, the globe, and the entire vision swirled around and went down the toilet. Suddenly, the spell was broken, the noise of the afterflush echoing throughout the small restroom. Sarah Conner turned to Ariella, heart racing from the shock of the broken spell. "I think we'd better call Scholarman." HAD THEY BETTER CALL SCHOLARMAN? WHAT WILL SCHOLARMAN BE DOING? WILL HE TAKE THE CALL, OR WILL IT BE ANSWERED BY THE KEVIN? DID THE KEVIN'S (ADMITTEDLY WELL-DESERVED) INJURY BY GRUNION CAUSE ANY SERIOUS INTERNAL INJURY? COULD WE POSSIBLY BE SO LUCKY? WILL MIKE ET AL FIND ADAM DOUGLAS? OR WILL IT FALL TO SCHOLARMAN? FIND OUT, IN THE NEXT EXCITING S+U+P+E+R+G+U+Y "It's MAGIC!" ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 26 Apr 1994 21:58:56 -0500 Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: It's the swing like a pendulum Subject: SG: Team M.E.C.H.A. #43 TEAM M.E.C.H.A. #43 By Robotech_Master With Help from The Man With Two First Names Guest-Starring Superuser, Who I Forgot About After Episode 39 A Story of High Technology, and Conversations (Y'know, it's getting hard to come up with sarcastic comments these days...) [CONTINUITY NOTE: This takes place around the same time as episodes 40, 41, and 42 or so. You be the judge.] Man makes machines To man the machines That make the machines That make the machines Make a machine To make a machine And man and machine Will make a machine To break the machines That make the machines! --"Man and Machine," _IRON MAN: The Musical_ In a small laboratory/workshop area in the Team M.E.C.H.A. headquarters, Superuser was hard at work on the componentry he needed for his latest cybertechnological achievement, Ginsu World Class. This suit would be nothing like the previous models in its execution. Where Amazing, 2000, and Ultimate had been designed to fit the human body, to be streamlined, efficient and simple, Ginsu World Class would be almost a heavy combat vehicle with legs and arms, with every piece of artillery Bill Paul could cram into it and then some. It would be a walking tank, as ugly as its forerunners had been attractive. If they could even honestly be CALLED forerunners--Ginsu World Class's design philosophy was completely different. Superuser's suit was currently mimicking blue jeans and a T-shirt; for the physical work he was doing, he didn't really need direct computer interface. It was easy enough to reach out and press "PageDown" whenever he needed to see more of the blueprints he'd drawn up, and he didn't want to bother with adjusting the suit while he was working. Then the door chimed. Bill Paul looked up. "It's open," he called out. The door slid aside, and Summer walked in. "Hi, Superuser," Summer said. "Hi, Summer. Just call me Bill. All my friends do." Bill picked up one of the tools that were arrayed on the workbench and made an adjustment to the piece of machinery he was working on. "No trouble finding the parts or anything?" Summer asked. "Nope...I knew what I needed, and once I put a decent OS into the computer, I had no problems finding it." Superuser made one last adjustment to the strange conglomeration of parts, then put the tool down and turned to Summer. "So..." he said, pulling up a nearby chair, "anything I can do for you?" "I just stopped by to see how you were doing," Summer replied. "With Mike on his way to the Douglas ranch, there isn't all that much going on." "I see. Well..." he waved his hand in a sweeping gesture, "this is it. It's about ninety percent completed. I've got a few more things left to stitch together before I can give it the 'smoke test' and calibrate it." "What does that do?" Summer asked, looking curiously at the device on the table. "Well, if it works, it'll be able to safely shunt matter in and out of the Silly Dimension. See, the Ginsu World Class design specs call for a massive amount of add-on systems: without this, the suit would be huge and impossible to maneuver in. With it, the armor can store unneeded modules in the Silly Dimension until they're needed." "You mean, kind of like I can store stuff in hyperspace." Summer reached into the side of her chest and pulled out a Walkman, then put it back. The sight addled Bill just a little, but his many past experiences with the strange and unusual had taught him how to hide it. "I used to be able to do something like that..." he remarked. "Back when you were Silly Wizzard." "Right. But I don't really miss it. It's what's up here that counts." He tapped his temple meaningfully with his index finger. "Ironic that I have Gorgax to thank for getting it back." Summer nodded. "How did you come by your own abilities, if you don't mind my asking?" Bill queried. "It's not every day that you run into a fourteen-year-old girl who can turn herself into a suit of power armor." "I was just sort of in the right place at the wrong time," Summer said. "One of Qwyntor's hyperspace engines was on display at the Odd Science Convention in Springfield. It was going to overload, so I took it and flew it out of there, with this nanotech goop all over it. I threw it away and tried to get clear, and didn't quite succeed." "And so your abilities are largely nanotechnological?" Bill asked, the technical side of his mind becoming interested. "Yes...I think somehow the nanites used the energy given off in the blast," Summer replied. "They channeled it somehow, making some sort of hyperspatial gateway. At least, that's what Dr. Science seems to think, and I trust him." Superuser chuckled. "What?" "Just that it's kind of funny to hear someone using 'trust' and 'Dr. Science' in the same sentence like that. But go on...you say that your nanites opened some kind of hyperspatial gateway? How smart are they?" Summer shrugged. "I don't really know. It's kind of scary, actually. Altogether, the little buggers may be smarter than I am. I don't really know. We don't talk much, you see." She smiled ironically. "They just do whatever I tell them to." She held up her right arm and changed it into her hardsuit's metal limb. "You actually BECOME your suit? You don't just summon it from somewhere and link to it?" "That's right. It's actually me." She converted all the way, and slid her helmet visor up. "See? Nothing inside." "Wow. That's a quantum leap ahead of my cybernetic systems." "And watch this." She shimmered and morphed into her other primary armor form, a VR-052 Battler Cyclone, then went through a transformation to motorcycle mode, the CVR armor component disappearing as she went through the change. "Care for a ride?" "Um, not now, thanks." He pointed to the contraption on the table. "Um...some other time?" Summer reverted to human form. "Sure! I've got to go now really, anyway. I'm giving Ariella a lift up to Springfield to do some shopping. See ya!" "Uh, right... Bye..." Superuser waved as Summer dashed out the door. He sighed, got back up and returned to work on his project. A couple of hours later, there was another signal at the door. At this point, the Superuser was busy programming his device's support systems and would have preferred being left alone, but as he was a guest in Team M.E.C.H.A's headquarters he felt obligated to keep his tendency to become immersed in his work from manifesting itself in the form of bad manners. "Come in," he said. The door opened, and a scientific-looking individual in a lab coat walked in. "Ah, Dr. Odd Science." "At your service." The scientist approached the bench where Superuser was working. "I see you've been accessing our computer," he remarked. "Yes, Mike was most helpful," Superuser replied guardedly. Odd had said he was on the side of justice, and if there was one thing Andy Awesome had taught him it was to keep an open mind, but again, he WAS a Science... "You seem to be working on dimensional engineering techniques," Odd observed, peering at one of the monitors, hands clasped behind his back. "I'd say you're likely to know a great deal about the subject, too." "I consider it an occupational hazard. Your point?" Dr. Science turned to face Bill Paul. "Superuser, anything that you could tell me about dimensional engineering would be most useful. As you no doubt are aware, Summer has some strange dimensionally-transversal abilities, and also, one of the other members of Team M.E.C.H.A., Ray Sterling, seems to be from another dimension and would like to find his way home. I am interested in learning more about these cases, in the interest of science." Superuser shook his head. "Under other circumstances, I might be happy to oblige you, Doctor. But dimensional engineering...no. It's just too dangerous. I mean, look at me. I got involved in a dimensional experiment and it ended up nearly killing me. Every time something disturbs the TV dimension, it nearly destroys the world. And this device I'm building is one percent dimensional gateway generator and ninety-nine percent safety systems. In the wrong hands this kind of technology can be devastating, so I hope you can understand my reluctance to share it with you. However, you're welcome to contact DefenseCo's scientific research center; I'm sure they'd be more than willing to help." Dr. Science left after that, and Superuser spent the remainder of the day digging up blueprints and theoretical design notes, and adapting them to work in Ginsu World Class. He used the AutoCAD/CAM systems built into the Team M.E.C.H.A. mainframe to engineer components that he couldn't find in stock, and put them together. At about midnight, he found his way to the room Mike had assigned him and went to bed. He got up at about eight, though it felt like nine--he was accustomed to living on Eastern time. There was only a bit left to do before he was finished here, and could take it back to Secret Base, New York and install it in the main unit. He attacked the job with grim determination. As he worked, he thought about Elizabeth. She'd asked him to make her something stronger, more powerful, and so he was. For Elizabeth, he would do just about anything. But this didn't mean he didn't have his doubts. Sometime that afternoon, the girls arrived back, and a team meeting was called. Mike called Superuser and invited him, but Bill graciously declined. "I've interfered with your business enough," he explained. "Having me there would just be a distraction." A couple of hours later, Summer showed up at the lab again. Superuser turned to greet her as she came in. "Hi Summer." "Hi, Bill." She glanced over his shoulder, and Bill Paul was slightly startled to notice her eyes glowing as she zoomed in on the screen behind him, which was showing a rotating wire-frame schematic of Ginsu World Class. "Is that it?" she asked. "That's Ginsu World Class," Superuser replied. "My pride and joy," he added ironically. "Why are you building...that?" Summer asked. "I really liked your other designs, and Ultimate Ginsu is someone I've always looked up to. But that...it's so...so..." She trailed off. "Why this?" "Because she asked me to," Bill answered simply. "I couldn't turn her down. I could never say no to her." "But why would she want something like--like THAT?" Summer asked. Bill shook his head. "She was hurt badly in the fight against Akane. She was scared. She told me didn't want to be hurt like that again." He looked away. "Mm-hmm," Summer said laconically. She walked around the workbench, looking at the array of parts and tools. She picked up a No. 7-G hydrospanner, toyed with it idly. "It's big," she said. "Yep." "And it looks like it has a lot of weapons." "Yep." Bill picked up a wrench and tweaked a bolt slightly. "You don't hunt rabbits with a howitzer," Summer remarked. "What do you mean?" Superuser asked, though he thought he knew exactly what she meant. "I mean that that thing has more guns than a platoon of Sherman tanks," Summer said. "That's fine if you're going to fight the Mighty Muddy Power Grangers, or some other huge menace. But when has Defense Squad ever needed that kind of firepower?" "Liz needs it," Bill said. "She needs to feel safe, and so I'm giving it to her." Summer nodded. "Y'know, Liz isn't the only one who's been hurt by mages," she said darkly. "What do you mean?" Bill asked, looking up at her. "I mean that Adam Douglas lost his mother." She pitched the hydrospanner at the spot on the workbench from where she'd picked it up, and it landed with a loud, metallic CLACK! "When he was about three, she was raped and killed by some minor mage while he watched, and then his father hunted the mage down and killed him. That's why Adam's gone now, and probably why he developed such a massive firepower fetish, too." The Superuser continued working at the bolt though it was already as tight as it was going to get. His thoughts unconsciously stirred his battlesuit into action, and he had to stop himself from using its added strength to shear the head of the bolt clean off. "That won't happen to Liz," Superuser said. "I know it won't." "I'm glad you're sure," Summer said. Late that afternoon, Superuser finally finished his work. All the modular components and the dimensional swap-out system were complete; now all that he had to do was return to DSHQ and plug them in. The suit was now only days away from full functionality. He talked to Mike one last time before departing. They met on the surface, and walked together down a trail alongside a nearby ravine. The setting sun painted everything red, and reflected off of the trickle of water down the gully. "Thanks again for the use of your facilities," Superuser said. "Without your help, it would have taken a lot longer, and I might never have found some of the information I needed." "No problem," Mike said. "What good is having all this stuff if we can't help a friend when we need to?" "True. Anyway, now Defense Squad owes you a favor," Superuser continued. "We may have to call it in soon," Mike said. "Thanks to us, there's now a half-crazy madman running loose with enough firepower to impress Badass and the skill to use it. If there's some sort of incident, we may need all the help we can get." Superuser turned, and put his hand on Mike's shoulder. "We all have crises. The best thing you can do is to have faith in the abilities of yourself and your teammates to get through it. If you can work together as a team, you can pull through some of the hardest times there are. I'm speaking from experience here." Mike looked up and met Superuser's gaze. "I know, and I've been thinking about what you said to me before. About caring. I do care, and I always have. Sometimes more than I've liked to admit." He sighed. "The hardest thing is when there's just nothing you can do." Superuser nodded in agreement. "But in this case, there IS something you can do, and that's find your missing man and get to him as soon as possible. You'll have whatever help Defense Squad can give you, and that's a promise." "Thanks," Mike said. "That means a lot to me." "Hey, in this business we have to look out for each other. Well, it's been nice meeting you, and all that, but now I have to get going." Superuser's T-shirt and jeans morphed into the silvery Superuser suit and cowl, and he shouldered the large duffle bag in which he'd packed the necessary parts for the armor. "Have a safe flight back!" Mike called out, stepping back to give Superuser room to take off. "Bye!" "Take care!" Bill Paul replied, lifting off into the sky. Mike stood there and watched him go until the trees hid him from sight. Then he turned and walked back to the base entrance. He had a lot to think about. WHAT DOES MIKE HAVE TO THINK ABOUT? WHAT WILL ADAM DO? WHAT WILL ELIZABETH DO? WHAT WILL SCOOBY DO? "Hey! Someone get me a new narrator!" SORRY. HOW WILL GINSU WORLD CLASS TURN OUT? WILL BILL PAUL *EVER* GET OVER HIS WRITER'S BLOCK??? FIND OUT, REAL SOON NOW, ONLY ON ~S~U~P~E~R~G~U~Y~ ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 20 Sep 1995 12:00:00 Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Robotech_Master Subject: PREVIEW: Team M.E.C.H.A. Trade Ether-Back #7 * * * Adam Douglas peered through the computer-enhanced, laser-guided scope on the top of his .50 caliber sniper's rifle. All the data he needed was displayed right there--windspeed, direction, angle of elevation, azimuth, bullet drop rate, et cetera. He was in there right now...if Adam could get him as he came out, it would be a perfect shot. The bullet would go right through his head, shattering it like a watermelon, and would continue on down the street in a straight line until it hit the ground. There were not many pedestrians around and few vehicles; it was almost certain that no innocent bystanders would be hurt. Adam congratulated himself on the position he'd chosen. It was a perfect angle for the shot, and the foliage of the tree would hide him from prying eyes. The supressor would muffle the sound so that it wouldn't carry over fifty feet or so, and within thirty seconds of firing the shot, he'd have hit the ground and gone. His Cyclone was parked a couple of hundred feet away, in a nearby parking lot. He thought of all the innocent people he'd be protecting with this hit. All those citizens whom Deckmaster would no longer threaten, the lives he'd save. People who wouldn't end up like those poor bus passengers back in Bob, whom he'd seen die horribly, right before his eyes... Once more, Adam checked to make sure that his Beretta 93-R was safe in its shoulder holster, and the MAC-10 slung securely at his side. "All right, you bastard...just show your face." And then the door began to open... * * * The Industrial Revolution spells big trouble for Team M.E.C.H.A., as they're caught in the midst of one of the largest battles of the century. Can they survive intact? Or will the Revolution mean the end of Team M.E.C.H.A.? Guest appearances by the Teen Team, Ginsu World Class, and many others, coming up in the seventh Team M.E.C.H.A. Trade Ether-Back! Watch for it!