Here we are, an update for you all. I hope this is what you were expecting, if not then just wait for the next update for this story, the action starts then.
The Underdogs
Part 12
The Calm before the Storm
As with all things, the time on the planet belonging to the Tedagorians was over. They had been there a week while they constructed a simple forward command; where the leaders of the army would stay and plot the next move for their respective forces. With ten strike forces fighting on three different planets, and each strike force being divided into 100 regiments, the commanding staff would have quite a time making sure that their respective forces don't actually fire upon each other. So with the base built, every single soldier packed up their tents and climbed back onto their designated ship.
Nani was just about to put on her backpack when she remembered what happened the day she got it. Virgil had assigned her the bag of equipment as soon as they touched down onto the planet and at first appearance it looked like any hiking bag in camouflage colours. Until Virgil told her that it weighed fifty five pounds. At first she honestly thought it was a joke, I mean who carries around that much weight for pleasure? But that thought was soon put out of the window; because the following day he accompanied her on a 10 mile hike across this alien planet, complete with the standard rifle of the Terra Federation; the M-41 Pulse Rifle. It took her half of the day, but the sense of pride she felt when she returned to the camp site was second to none, and Virgil praised her on how well she did.
That went on every day they were on the planet. And every day Virgil changed the course they went on, and lengthened it by two miles. Time wasn't an issue during all this, which Nani thanked every single godly being out there for. Sometimes she managed to get back to camp before her initial time, but more often than not she was ether the same time or later.
During these walks, Nani and Virgil got to know one another better. Nani learnt that Virgil's sister would be about the same age as herself, which was probably one of the main reasons Virgil wanted to help her. Virgil didn't learn much from her, but he did give her a sympathetic ear, as she talked about how much she was missing her family, and how much she was missing David. David was the second most thing she talked about, next to her sister and though Virgil never showed it, he was a little jealous. Not by the fact that Nani was married. Oh no, she reminded him far too much of his sister to even begin thinking that. No, he was jealous with the fact that he hadn't found someone to love him as much as David loved Nani.
But those days where gone, and the future only held war; though how much war was still undecided. If they could get Hamsterville early, then the main source of leadership would be gone and the people would hopefully return to normal. However if he managed to escape, then there could be rebellion for decades. With that thought in mind, the grand councilwoman decided to get Hamsterville ether dead or alive. Like all people, she would much rather have the villain alive than dead, but seeing the greater picture she decided to change her original plan.
Palua was wondering the ship alone as she tried to feel better. Leaving that planet made her relive the day she left her ohanna back on earth, and that made her feel sad. She wanted to speak to them, to let them know that she was ok; but the thought of what Nani would say to her was too scary to allow her to do so. That, and if she did do it, she would reveal to the ship that she was in fact a little girl and not really a genetic experiment.
As she walked, her mind replayed all the times she was bad to Nani. All the times she disobeyed an order that her sister had placed; and each time they replayed in her head, she realised more and more just how much Nani meant to her. She was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn't notice someone walk next to her carrying a big hiking bag. Because if she did, she would have noticed that her wish to be back with Nani was closer at hand that she realised.
Nani was just on her way to another fun filled training session with Virgil when of out the corner of her eye, she noticed a purple experiment come from one of the adjacent corridors and headed down the one she came from. She stopped, turned around and noticed the slumped shoulders and the slow walk that it was doing; Nani could tell that the experiment was very depressed. It only took her a split second to see that the purple experiment was her sister, Lilo. She wanted so badly to go and give her a hug; to make her feel happy again. Or to just say that everything was going to be ok, but she knew she couldn't. She knew that if she did, all her work and effort will be for nothing.
'Still, saying a simple hello won't do any harm' she was about to go after the experiment, when a big hand rested on her shoulder. She knew who it was before she turned around, and sure enough she found Virgil standing there. He slowly shook his head, and she knew he was right. Sighing in defeat Nani accompanied him to her training session.
For the briefest of moments Palua was sure she caught the scent of her sister. However, turning around all she saw was white wolf waking down the opposite way she was beside someone with a heavy looking backpack on. She was tempted to ask White Wolf if she could accompany him and his friend and join them in whatever they where doing. But by the time she decided to join them, they had turned a corner and where out of sight. Loosing the drive to follow them, Palua continued on her path.
Stitch was getting a little worried. Palua was not acting like her usual self. She seemed to be getting more depressed; thanks to being away from her sister, he guessed. At this moment he was walking around the ship with Rouge trying to find Palua. This was the second time that she had wondered off, and though they where allowed, more or less, everywhere in the ship he was still worried that she might get hurt.
"Don't worry Stitch. I'm sure Palua just needs time to think."
"Yeah, but I just want to do something to help her; something to take her mind off of just how far away her sister is."
"Its a shame she can't contact her sister. I'm lucky. I've been able to keep in contact with my parents. Sure there a little disappointed that I have done this. But they're proud of me. They're proud that I can change history. But as you can imagine they're worried sick that something will happen to me."
"Lucky you. Hey have they mentioned anything about Nani, David or Pleakly?"
"Actually yeah, they did. It was pretty strange; they said that David was really nervous and mentioned something about Nani not being around. Pleakly was happier than David but still quite worried about Palua, Jumba and surprisingly Nani. Apparently Nani has just vanished. According to my parents, the same day that we left, Nani went missing. David called the police, and Pleakly got a hold of Finder and they spent three whole days searching before Finder finally found her jeep and the last trace of her scent at the same beach that we climbed aboard the transport.
"They were about to gather a dive team when they got a message from the government saying that they were to stop the search. Though they were all confused and still very worried about Nani, the police had no choice but to stop, and without the police all the other search groups slowly started to give up. By now even David has stopped looking, but surprising he's actually smiling and said that he knows she's ok and doing something that she really needs to do"
"Wow, That is really strange. I know David can be a bit easy going but I didn't think that he was that much of an air head." Stitch said, glad to finally get something to distract his mind from all the worry that he was doing about Palua.
"I wonder why he's changed his attitude towards Nani's disappearance, and come to think of it why did Nani disappear?" Hearing this Stitch actually stopped in the middle of the corridor, thankfully no one was around to bump into him, "Huh, Stitch what's wrong?"
"Your parents told you that Nani vanished on the same day that we left to get onto the transport. Well do you remember when we left the dome, and we heard the skylight close behind us?"
"Yeah I remember that. At the time I didn't think much of it, but thinking about now the skylight doesn't normally close by itself unless it starts to rain."
"Well, what if it wasn't the skylight, but in actually fact the elevator…"
"Huh, you don't think that Nani came up to check on you two that early do you?"
"I honestly don't know. But whatever the reason it sounds like Nani may have followed us"
"But that's impossible. You saw the amount of security they had at the landing zone. And even if she did get onto this ship we would have seen her, or at the very least, caught a bit of her scent. But we haven't, and besides do you think that our superiors would allow a civilian like Nani to stay on the ship this long?"
"No, I guess not, unless someone high up in the chain of command is allowing her to stay. And since we aren't allowed in the officer's area that might explain why we haven't caught her sent or seen her. Or maybe she's on one of the other ships, but trusting Nani she would have followed us onto this ship no matter how hard it would have be. Come on Rouge we've got to find Palua and tell her about this." Stitch said before he ran off down the corridor in search of Palua. Rouge had to take flight to keep up with him as he raced along.
Times flies when you're having fun, or just when you're distracted of time. Nani felt sore all over. The training with Virgil was really getting tough; and the heavy back pack he made her carry didn't help much ether. She was just glad that the day was over. At this moment in time she was scalding herself in the on sweet bathroom that she and Sarah got with their room. She longed for a bath but unfortunately for her, the room only had a shower. Still it was better than nothing and it did make her feel much better.
She had just come out of the shower and covered herself in a towel, when Sarah knocked on the bathroom door,
"Nani; I'm afraid Virgil wants to talk to you. I don't know what it'll be about, but you better get changed quickly" sighing in acceptance, Nani quickly finished drying herself off before heading in the direction of Virgil's quarters.
Virgil was walking towards an area of the ship where people went to relax after a hard days work. He was just sitting down with a stiff drink, when Goslyn sat down beside him.
"Hello, Goslyn was it; what can I do for you?"
"You clam to be the best warrior in the world…"
"Actually, I don't think I'm the best in the world; everyone else dose. I just have to live with what they say"
"Well, you still have the title; and I would like to see just how good you are" hearing this Virgil's interest was caught.
"Oh. And how do you suggest you do that?"
"By taking you on in three challenges; one using guns, one using blades and the final using our hands. Best two out of three wins."
Virgil pondered over this. He looked up into her eyes and saw the determination dripping out of them. Then his thoughts turned to Nani and how it might help her. 'She would learn a lot by watching an expedition match. Maybe it would be worth my time after all.'
"Very well then, I accept your challenge. Meet me at 'training room 7' tomorrow morning at 1100 hours"
"Ok! Wait; there isn't a training room 7. It only goes up to 6."
"Training room 7 is restricted to me and a special soldier that I'm personally training. You will find it within the command quarters. This little exhibition will be a demonstration for her."
"But I'm not allowed in the command quarters. How am I supposed to get there?"
"I'll get someone to give you a security pass, ok? Now if you'll excuse me" Virgil said before downing his drink in one, then getting up to leave the room. Had he looked back, he would have noticed a smile form on Goslyn face.
The metallic door slid open and White Wolf walked onto the bridge of the ship. It was circular in shape; minus the back wall where the door was. There was a giant window that stretched from the roof to the floor that covered about a third of the room; the rest of the wall had different controls or navigation equipment. There was a ramp that went down the middle and on ether side their where four stations for some one to sit at. Just to the left of the door was the place where the Capitan sat, which over looked the entire room. Every station was filled with someone doing their respected duty of piloting the craft to the planet Turo.
He spotted EVA at the bottom of the ramp just staring out of the window, so walking down it he stood beside her.
"Its beautiful isn't it." Eva said without looking away from the window.
"Yes it is. But don't fall in love with it; the endless blackness could make you insane. I need you to do something for me. I need you to give Miss Goslyn Waddlemeyer a security pass so she can get to training room 7. Then I need you to tell Nani that I would like to discuss something with her in my quarters"
"I'll get on that right away, sir" and before giving White Wolf a salute she left the bridge. White Wolf just stood there transfixed on the endless blackness.
'Wow, this is the first time I've truly felt at peace; ever since Megan's death. Is it because space is just like my soul, empty; or is it because I'm going off to save an entire federation? Or is it something else entirely?' unable to answer himself, he simply sighed before turning around and left the bridge.
Nani had just gotten permission to enter Virgil's quarters. She saw him sitting at his desk; so walking up to it, she gave him a salute before asking why he wanted to see her.
"Why are you saluting me?"
"Well you are the commanding officer. So I better start treating you like one." Hearing this Virgil just smiled,
"What ever you want Nani. Anyway, the reason I asked you to come is because tomorrow I'll be giving you a demonstration match with a Miss Goslyn Waddlemeyer" hearing the name Nani looked a little worried "is there something wrong Nani?"
"Yes, I know her. And she knows my sister is an experiment." Hearing this produced a concerned look on Virgil's face,
"Is she trust worthy?"
"I don't know. I've only known her for a little bit of time. However she seems to know me very well. Or at least another me"
"Please explain Nani"
"Well she's from another dimension. She knows the me from that dimension through Lilo."
"I see. And I'll also guess that the two versions of you have big family secrets involving aliens?"
"I'd imagine so"
"Then I can assume she managed to keep that secret. And if she could keep that secret, then I'm sure she can keep the secret of you being here"
"But what if you're wrong?"
"I feel we can trust her. She was very determined to challenge me. But if you're right, then I'll have made quite the mistake."
"Sigh, so when is this exhibition match?"
"Tomorrow morning at 11"
"Will we still be training before that?"
"Yes we will. Times is running out very quickly and you need every second available. Now it's getting late and I've already taken up too much of your free time; so I'll see you in the morning." Nani saluted again before saying goodnight and leaving his quarters.
The next morning was training for Nani as usual. After their breakfast, Virgil was doing less than he normally would, but that didn't bother Nani. She knew that he was getting ready for his little match with Goslyn. When there was only tem minuets left, Virgil stopped doing everything and sat crossed legged watching Nani do the endurance routine that he showed her.
However the time of reckoning was upon him and before anything else could happen Goslyn walked through the door. As Goslyn walked through the door she was shocked at how big the place was. It just seemed to go on for miles. What Goslyn was looking at had to be a location somewhere in the highlands of Scotland. There was no end, only a horizon, and in between all that was just rugged terrain. Looking to the right she saw White Wolf sitting, crossed legged, on the grass and beside him; the special recruit that was going to watch herself and White Wolf fight.
At first Goslyn didn't really care who the recruit was, though she was happy to see that it was a woman. There was just something about her that caused her to keep looking at her. There was something that nagged at her about this trainee; she was hunched over, trying to make herself look as small as possible; so that she wouldn't be noticed, Goslyn guessed. But that made her all the more interesting; what did she have to hide? Goslyn smiled to herself and allowed a mental giggle, 'hey, if it wasn't for the short hair and that firm physique she'd be a spitting image of…'
"Nani?! Nani, is that really you?"
"Umm, hi" was all that Nani could say as she sheepishly waved to the new arrival.
"But you're supposed to be back on Earth. How did you get here?"
"She infiltrated both the transport ship and this very ship; as she tried to get her sister out of the trouble she got herself in, just like any older sibling would try to do. However, before she got to her sister we had already left. I decided to train her, so that she may once again feel like the older sibling" Virgil said as he got up from his sitting position and moved to stand beside Nani "now I hope I can trust you to keep this little secret away from Lilo and her friends."
"But why? She's missing Nani terribly! I bet she'd love to see her again; why are you pushing the two of them away?!"
"I am doing no such thing. If Lilo knew Nani was here then yes I would be. But Lilo decided to go on this journey without her; she chose to leave her sister behind. By keeping Nani away from her, she is learning that, though she is an experiment, she is still a little girl that requires her guardian. Seeing this I believe that the bond between the two will be even greater than it already is." Goslyn said nothing; she was still trying to take everything that White Wolf had just said to do anything else.
Virgil just walked to the door that Goslyn had just come from; beside it was a control panel. Pressing several buttons the highlands disappeared and in its place was a firing range,
"Now then, you wanted to challenge me to a showdown. Well here we are at the first event; the firing range. Let's see if you can use those guns of yours"
That got her attention,
"But you only use one. It wouldn't be fair for me to use two"
"No. I will only be using one. You will be using two. However, their will be forty two targets for us to fire at. You're going to have to reload your revolvers quite often; whether you use two revolvers or not. Now I may be only using one gun. But I only have to reload once. With your revolvers I'm expecting you to re-load at least 3 times, and it won't be as simple as putting in a new cartridge. Now without further ado, let us begin." And with that two booths appeared and a wall of red light appeared in-between the two. Then, about 100ft away from the booths some manikin like targets appeared.
White Wolf stepped into one of the booths while Goslyn went into the adjacent. Then, before anyone could say anything a computerised voice started a countdown and as soon as it hit zero, the manikins started to move. At first they just moved back and forth, easy pickings for two trained soldiers, but with each destroyed target the manikins started to speed up and make more randomised movements.
Both competitors where incredibly skilled with their weapons; both competitors where so closely matched; Virgil seemed to be the more accurate, but even the computer would have had trouble telling that. However Goslyn was clearly the faster at firing, whether that was due to her twin magnums or not, Nani could not tell. But just liked White Wolf predicted, Goslyn ran out of rounds a lot faster than he did, and it took her longer to re-load her guns than it did for Virgil.
Within minuets the competition was over and both parties were proud of what they had done. They walked over to Nani, who was standing beside a computer screen, to see how well they did. The numbers jumped about like a kangaroo on energy drinks, before landing on their final set of numbers. Virgil managed to get 416 out of a possible 420 while Goslyn managed to get 418, meaning she was only 2 points away from a perfect round.
Goslyn was very proud of her score, but was a little annoyed at White Wolf's sportsman ship. She was expecting him to be in denial or something; that he believed he was the best in the world and no one was better. But he patted her on the shoulder and thanked her for the challenge before going off to a console and typed some commands into it.
Before Goslyn realised it, the room changed once again. It now looked like something from an old Japanese training ground. They where standing in a courtyard that was surrounded by buildings on 3 sides and a large gate on the fourth.
The sound of birds chirping and a light breeze through the branches of the trees that surrounded the complex reached the ears of everyone standing in the courtyard. The scent of pure air filled their noises. The tips of the trees could be seen climbing over the walls and behind them, the tips of mountains.
"Ah I'm glad the hologram system can duplicate this place so well." White wolf said as he joined Nani and Goslyn, who where standing in the centre of there playground.
"Where are we?" Nani said as she stared in wonder around her.
"We are in the first place that I felt at peace after what happened in Iraq. This place is a small temple in the middle of Japan. I figured this would be a good place to stage our remaining events."
"What happened in Iraq?" Goslyn asked out of curiosity. The smile quickly faded from the face of Virgil and a sober expression took its place. Goslyn was confused at first, but a quick glance at Nani told her. Nani was shaking her head back and forth in a motion that screamed "don't go there!" Quickly realising that she stepped into territory that was best left alone, she quickly apologised.
"Don't worry about it; you couldn't have known. Now back what we where doing; we where about to start our second little competition; a duel of blades. The first one to disarm their opponent wins. I trust you'll not go overboard and make me too bloody" White Wolf said with a chuckle.
It may have been a joke to White Wolf, but it was a true struggle within the mind of Goslyn. The two combatants moved the face each other, while Nani moved to the steps in front a sliding door.
"I trust this time you'll want me to use only one sword instead of two, or more?" Goslyn said as she drew out several swords.
"If you would be so kind; this event is quite a bit more dangerous than all the rest" Virgil replied as he withdrew his knife from his belt. It was here that Nani noticed something strange about his knife. The sun was right above them, and yet the edges of his blade remained dark, almost black. Another strange thing was that she could just make out a green tinge in the centre. She couldn't tell if anyone else could see this faint glow, or if it was really there. All she did know was that she was going to ask Virgil about it later to confirm that she wasn't insane, or to just pretend that it was something else if it turns she was.
Slowly the wind blew around the two combatants as they stared at each other; each in their own personal stance. Each stance was very different, and yet each was perfect. Not one could see a flaw in the others. Time seemed to stand still as they watched the movements of the other. Then, as one, they both charged.
What Nani saw could not be described as anything else but ballet. A perfect ballet that was preformed by the greatest and most experienced, of stars. Each combatant struck and it was perfectly blocked, parried, or dodged before a quick counter attack and even that was parried or dodged. Not one gaining the advantage. It was like both of them could clearly see what the other was going to do with enough time left to read a book from cover to cover before it happened.
They where at this for at least 10 minuets, and not once did the other give out. But it was obvious that even these two great fighters where beginning to tire. At first, you could see their moves becoming sloppier, and then there were some failed blocks and so small cuts where found on the opponent. This made the battle for one of them much harder and yet at the same time, easier. Seeing the blood slowly seep from her opponent, Goslyn's mind began to argue within itself. A part of her wanted to let the blood flow even more, and this part gave her more stamina to keep going. But another part of her remembered a promise she made to her grandfather, that she wasn't suppose to kill; and that this was only a friendly match. This argument inside her made her moves sloppy.
Virgil was having a blast. Never has he faced someone with as much skill with knives as she. But he noticed that she was beginning to make some sloppy moves. Sure her moves where coming faster, but her defence was nearly wide open.
"huff what's the matter? Getting tired? Pant your defence is wide open, and your moves are getting sloppier."
"Pant, Pant, Well your not doing much better yourself!" Goslyn said out loud, though secretly she was thinking of something quite the opposite.
Clanging knives together, they both pushed each other several meters apart. Both fighters where panting loudly. Both combatants were bleeding, and one was squirting a little bit of oil from her arm.
"Well, I didn't expect you to last this long. Especially one of your size. I have to admit it has been fun" Goslyn said as she looked over White Wolf and saw the amount of cuts over his body. Her eyes wonder down to the blade he was wielding. 'Not a scratch on it? Now that's unusual for something that's fought with me. And what is with that darkened area at the edge, I mean the sun's right over us, it should be gleaming silver. And how on earth did he damage my arm; that's never happened due to a simple knife before.'
"The same could be said for you. I've never had this much of a workout with just one opponent before" White Wolf said as he looked over Goslyn. He then noticed the slight trickle of oil coming out of her arm. 'hmm, oil. Now there's something you don't see every day; her arms robotic. I wonder where she got that from. No publicly known artificial arm is that good, and I haven't heard anything about the military developing bionics. Just another mystery to add to the mix'
'Well I think its time I wrapped this up. He's very good, I'll give him that. But I think its time I showed him just how easily I could have beaten him. After all, no one can win a sword fight if their sword is cut in half!' and with that Goslyn launched herself into the air and moved into a striking position.
Virgil waited patiently in his defensive stance, wondering what Goslyn was going to do next. He didn't have to wait long. She ran at him before leaping into the air, with her sword over her head, before quickly bringing it down in a jackhammer like fashion. He raised a single eyebrow in confusion over this as he placed his knife in-between the sword of Goslyn and himself.
With a loud clang the two objects met with so much force that it produced a flash of light; or maybe it was their angle reflecting the light. Never the less, Nani had to shield her eyes from the flash, but when the flash was over; so too was the match. Goslyn was lying on the ground with nothing but utter shock written all over her face. White Wolf was standing over her with his knife only centimetres above her throat; her sword plunged into the ground several feet away.
"chuckle looks like a win this round" Virgil said before putting his knife away and offering his hand to help her up.
Still in a little daze, Goslyn took his hand and got pulled to her feet. But still she said nothing.
"hey Goslyn. You ok?" White Wolf said as he waved his hand in front of her face several times. This caused her to blink several times before shaking her head and looked around at her surroundings. Her eyes fixed on her sword that was lodged in the ground.
"How" Goslyn whispered to herself
"Excuse me"
"How; how didn't your knife break? Nothing has ever been able to survive that attack."
"Well, maybe you where off or something"
"No. I've done that move hundreds, no thousands, of times. That was it perfectly. Tell me, what's your knife made out of?"
"Well, to tell you the truth; I don't know myself. This thing has been passed down my family for generations. Supposedly one of my granddads led a team to explore the African rainforest for the first time in recorded history. Well what was supposed to be a mission of three weeks turned out to be two months. My grandfather was the only one to emerge; his team of fifteen was dead.
"According to the reports I found; he had two giant gashes over his left eye, totally destroying it. The skin on his right hand appeared to have been burned by some sort of acid. He had a broken rib, and a dislocated shoulder. He also had a weird marking on his right cheek. Supposedly it was made up of three lines and a dash. The longer of the three lines was vertical with a slight curve in the middle and the other two started at the curve and ran parallel to each other, finally the dash was placed at the lower right part of the longest line. Apart from his clothes, this knife was the only thing he carried.
"They fixed him up as best they could, but he died a few days after they found him. The reports say that all the time he was conscious he ranted and raved about giant lizard like creatures with acid for blood and had a set of teeth that could launch themselves about a foot out of their mouths. He also talked about creatures that where almost twice his height, had helmets that covered all their face, and weapons that shot balls of fire. The reports say that he was given the knife as a gift for saving the life of one of the tall creatures.
"That was all that the report said about the knife, so I gave it to a friend of mine, who can make a knife faster than an alcoholic can find a drink. All he could tell me was stuff he didn't know. Like the fact it was created by a process he'd never even conceived, let alone heard of, and it wasn't made out of a single metal found anywhere on Earth." White Wolf said as he handed her his knife.
Nani walked over to the two competitors just as Virgil offered a hand to Goslyn. When she heard the story about his knife she was, at first, shocked to hear it. But she was also glad. Because now she knew she wasn't insane; or at the very least less insane. As Virgil pulled out his knife once again, Nani got a good look at it. Sure enough the glowing mark was still there, but this time she could actually make it out. It was a symbol, or rather the symbol that Virgil had just described. She was tempted to mention the glowing mark, but since nether White Wolf or Goslyn said anything about it she decided to keep quiet, though she couldn't take her eyes of it.
Goslyn pulled out one of her hairs and tested the sharpness of the blade. Sure enough, she didn't even need to apply any force on it before the hair was sliced in half.
"This is indeed a very sharp knife and what an interesting edge. Why is it black?"
"I guess its just how its been made. Or maybe the type of metal it's made out of. But enough about that, we still have one more challenge to go. We can do it inside the building." Virgil said as he took his knife from Goslyn and put it away.
The inside of the building was just like you'd expect a Japanese dojo to look like. White panels with wooden frames all over the place. The floor had blue mats over it, so if someone did fall down it wouldn't be quite as sore. Out of respect, or habit, or it might have been thanks to the strange aura of calm that seemed to cover the place, everyone took off their shoes before entering the dojo.
Back in reality, Jumba was down in the engine room making sure that everything was running as it should be. Everything was running as it should and he was about to take a break, when he heard the sound of horse shoes clopping towards him.
"I trust everything is running as it should, Dr Jukeeba" the Grand Councilwoman asked when she got close enough to speak over the noise.
"Yes maim, everything is running as it should be."
"Good, so I can talk to you about the sudden technological breakthroughs that happened on Earth." Hearing this Jumba stiffened and began to sweat a little, "Calm yourself Dr. Thanks to everything that has happened; you will not get into trouble. But I need to know, what exactly did you give them?" Jumba gave a heavy sigh before he brought his eyes to meet hers.
"I gave them the ability to terraform effectively; I gave them the formula to efficiently hold plasma within a magnetic field thus giving them Fusion Power and an effective ion drive."
"And…"
"That is being it. Everything else they figured out for themselves" The Grand council woman just sighed, clearly not believing him.
"Jumba, you know you're not going to get in trouble because of it, but still you want to hide most of the technologies you gave them. What about their virtual reality and computers? Or their laser weapons? Or even their armour? The armour plating on the Baneblade and Rex, though not as effective as what we can produce, is still more than enough to deflect very heavy plasma fire; and when you take in how thick the armour is, it matches our best land vehicles; and that's only on paper. Non of them have actually had any battle testing"
"I admit the things you mentioned are very advanced but I can be assuring you, I have not given them anything other than what I have told you. All those technologies you said came from a company called Warfare Industries. They have released a massive amount of technological breakthroughs, and those are some of the most recent ones they've released."
"Warfare Industries, why haven't I heard of this company before?"
"Their front is manly a civilian company, surprising with such a name. They've actually created a lot of technologies for the medical world; like artificial limbs, and cloned organs. They're also the ones who supplied all the hardware for the fusion technology and I bet they were about to make the final breakthrough before I showed the government it. Also they're the ones responsible for most of the space stations around Earth as well as the Colony on the planet Mars, and the gravity generator for the ships."
"Very interesting, but what I want to know is why I wasn't told about it?"
"I'm just as surprised as you are. I thought all of your contacts would have told you about them.
"Well, the company is not all that old, only been around for about 10 Earth years; but what it has achieved is incredible. It started out in Scotland but quickly spread thought the world. It has achieved more in its short time than all other technology companies put together. It quickly bought out other companies but strangely allowed them to run completely independent, causing the world to become much closer. There were talks of a global world peace, but I guess that is now changed to a complete world peace thanks to this war.
"Umm, I know it was wrong of me but I was very interested in learning more about this company; so I had a little look in their servers. It was all normal until I tried to look into some of their secret projects; I found that I couldn't."
"Wait, are you saying that you couldn't break into an Earthlings computer network? Even with one of our greatest supercomputers available to you?" the grand councilwoman asked, shock covering the majority of her face.
"Is exactly what I'm saying. Every time I tried, I came across a completely new obstacle. I couldn't breach a single firewall; everything I tried ended up not working. Or this one time when I thought I was actually getting somewhere, I find I'm actually breaking into my own files. The system through me full circle like it was toying with me! It was like the computer was aware of what I was doing, like it could think. Like it was self aware" Jumba said with a hint of aww at such a thought.
"A completely self aware AI?! But even our best scientists haven't been able to achieve that. It's clear that the owner of this company isn't an Earthling"
"I am agreeing completely, but the strange thing is that the owner regularly appears on the news, in pictures and I've even seen him in real life. There is not a single fault that I can see about his appearance, which means no hologram or image masking; that is genially his appearance. In fact the only odd thing about his appearance is that his sclera is blood red in colour and his canines are longer than regular humans. Is quite amusing, little girl, I mean Lilo, thinks that he might be a vampire, though she is perplexed as to how he goes out in the sun"
"Incredible, a new alien civilisation right under our nose; I wonder if there are any more on Earth, or if they have infiltrated any other races? What was the name of the owner?" the grand councilwoman asked, ignoring the comment about Lilo and vampires.
"His name is Hamish Crawford"
Virgil and Goslyn started their third round of hand to hand combat. Each round was around 5 minuets long before they gave themselves a 2 minuet break to recuperate. Nani thought that by now they would have gotten to know each others moves, or that she would be able to guess what move they would do; but in actual fact each time they fought every move was completely different, like they had an endless supply of moves, counterattacks, or blocks. But her biggest surprise was just how quick Virgil could be. Sure every time they trained he surprised her with something new, but thanks to his size she always thought that he would be slow in hand to hand combat. And from the way Goslyn looked after the first round, she felt the same way.
Even though they got a rests every 5 minuets it wasn't enough and by now the combatants were running purely on adrenalin; but from the smiles on their faces, nothing else mattered to them.
'This is unreal! How long do you have to dedicate yourself to absolutely nothing but the mastery of your body to have this sort of skill? Is Virgil expecting me to be able to do this by the time we get to Turo? I certainly hope not, I dought I could learn to do anything near their lever if I had ten years to train in.
'If he can get me anywhere near their level, then I certainly would be able to look after Lilo again.' Nani thought as the two masters continued their strange, but alluring dance.
After all of her wanderings, the bluish purple experiment with a pair of antennas as long as her hair was, finally came across a quiet room that also had a window to look out of. She had no clue where she was in the ship, and she didn't care; she knew that she would be able to back track her scent until she found a part of ship that she recognised.
"Well, look at what you've gotten yourself into Palua. No, not Palua; Lilo. Look at what you've gotten yourself into, Lilo. You thought the hardest thing about this trip would be not getting killed; but to be honest I'd rather be fighting an army right now, than being allowed to think about my sister for another second. Maybe you should go talk to Jumba, I mean there's nothing he can do about you being here and at least you could get to send a message home through him…or get yelled at for doing something so stupid. I don't think I could cope with being yelled at; so should I risk it? sigh I just don't know…" Palua said aloud as she stared out of the window.
She was just about to get up and wander off again when two people came into the room. One was fire red in colour and had the same figure as her. It didn't have any antennas but a pair of bat wings instead, with bat ears to match. And finally it had a long bushy tail that reminded people of the tip of a paint brush that's covered in red paint and was in a similar position to a horse's tail; if it defied gravity and went up from the base of back before going down. And the other was blue in colour, had a pair of short antennas, and rabbit like ears, just like Palua's.
"There you are Palua. We've been looking for you." The red one said as the two of them walked up to her.
"Sorry about that Rouge, why where you guys looking for me?"
"We think we have something to make you smile again. We believe that Nani's not on Earth. We believe Nani's actually on one of the fleet ships, the most likely one being this ship." Stitch said with a huge smile on his face. Palua was dumbstruck, and got even more so as Stitch and Rouge told her the reasons why they believed this. By the time they finished Palua was smiling again,
"Ok Guys. If what you say is true, then we're going to track her down. Who knows how much trouble she could get into when we reach the surface, or if an officer finds her. So let's go talk to Jumba."
"Jumba? Why him?"
"Because, if anyone is hiding Nani; it'll be him. And if he's not hiding her, then we'll probably be able to get him to show us the security camera footage from the other ships to see if she's there."
"But should we show ourselves to him? I mean what'll he do to us?"
"That's just something we're going to find out. Come on lets go" and with that Palua ran out of the room, closely followed by Rouge and Stitch.
The fight was over and Goslyn had won using quite a unique submission hold. She had managed to use her own body to incapacitate both of white wolf's arms and at the same time prevent him from getting a good footing to counter it. Virgil was baffled as to how she managed to connect such a move on him; but however she did it, Virgil was glad to be shown something new.
"So Nani, did you learn anything thanks to that demonstration?" Virgil asked once Goslyn and himself got their breath back.
"I certainly learnt a lot but the biggest thing I learnt was that I'll never be as good as you two"
"Certainly not with the time limit we have, but if you keep it up after all of this is over; of course you can become as good as us, maybe even better. But right now I recon you should spa with the both of us, so you can get a taste of different fighting styles; Goslyn would you be so kind as to go first, since Nani has never trained with you."
"It would be an honour. Nani if you're ready." Goslyn asked with a cheeky smile. Nani just put on a game face before she stood up and positioned her self onto the mat.
The screen becomes black while my avatar walks onto the screen from the right. "Hope you all enjoyed the chapter; Hamish was a little bit late finishing the chapter because he got fallout 3 for his playstation. he's finished it now, so it shouldn't distract him as much. now I think the next story to get an update will be The Curse of the Harvest Moon. So until then I hope you'll all be well" she bows to you all before skips off the screen once again.