Tales of the Fantastic!

[Asmodeus]

EPISODE ONE

​

The explosion shook the city, toppling walls and loosing power cables. They rained around Captain Clarke as he ran. The spaceport was on fire and made the horizon an orange curtain to light his way. In chorus with his footfalls were shouts of Alphatronian citizens, cut now and then by great zaps of energy. He pushed through a line of firefighters tackling a blaze at the city bank. His wrist comm bleeped.

"How the hell did they get inside the dome, Clarke?!" yelled the President, whose tiny face appeared on the wrist comm. The colony leader was framed by his window, where the second flying saucer was attacking the spaceport.

"The Magravores must have developed cloaking technology since we last fought them. Slipped inside when we opened up for the Torradian Ambassador." The captain's voice was deep and booming, the voice of an American hero.

Reaching Hubbard Street, one of the main thoroughfares through the heart of the city, he saw citizens fleeing in all directions from the first saucer. The only ones who didn't seem to be panicking were the Martian immigrants, who continued taking pictures and pointing at the deadly spaceship overhead. Martians never took anything seriously. Yelling at them to take cover, Captain Clarke pulled his gun and sprinted between overturned cars and ruptured hydrants.

Then he fired his Herc-Ray. It punched through the outer rim of the flying saucer, leaving a smoking hole. Immediately there was whirring and the blinking of lights. Then the spaceship's death-lazer returned fire. Clarke rolled as a great hole was torn in the middle of the street, concrete and bedrock vapourizing under the assault. He flattened himself in a shop doorway, then fired again, hitting the cockpit of the UFO. There was a crackle as its forcefield protected the glass and the ugly pilots behind it.

"These two ships are abducting our women and livestock!" the President complained from the wrist-comm, fists drumming his desk. "We can't allow it!"

"StarGun Squad is on the case, Mr President," Clarke assured him with a square-jawed smile.

Then there was another crackle, higher-pitched and closer. A Magravore Kill Team materialised in front of him, sent down by the saucer above. They were unclothed - clearly drones. When they saw the pesky human they hissed and outstretched their hands, lightning crackling at their fingertips.

"Oh heck!" Clarke used his left hand to reach down, his enhanced palm snagging a trash can lid. He lifted it just in time as twin bolts of Magravore psychic energy struck. The force threw him back through the shop window and he landed in a flutter of comics, plastic toys and replica merchandise.

"Clarke! Captain Clarke? Are you alright?!"

"Just window-shopping, Sir." The captain started crawling between the bookshelves and behind the counter. "I'll call you back." He keyed his wrist comm and cut the President off mid-sentence, then opened a line to StarGun Command. "This is Captain Clarke to StarGun Squad. Any of you not at the spaceport, I'm battling the leader saucer over Hubbard Street. I could use some help."

He ducked down and began charging his ray gun, just as the faces of the two Magravores appeared at the shattered window, peering in.

 

[Six Million Dollar Man]

Billy couldn't help but find himself rather disgusted. Not at the fact someone had just destroyed countless dollars in merchandise (which, he intended to have him pay back in full eventually) at the immediate moment, but what came prior to this had bothered him much more. Some cheesy company wanted to peddle its 'next great romance pulp novel' here. But much to his shock, they did not stop there at writing a dozen more books about why 'Brad cheated on Roxanne' or, maybe that one about some jock that loved his best friend's sister who was actually his mother, or some nonsense like that. If only mature adults could enjoy the four color world, or exciting yarns spun about mystery, crime, champions in colorful costumes, and other such things. But alas, it seemed the twenty-two page funny books never had any attention. If serious writers could have contributed their ideas into a combination of visual and written form, it could have been just as great as a regular book, or radio, or the television.

Of course, his thoughts about the more leisurely forms of written entertainment would have to wait: Mister Clarke had just came in through the front door! The young lad was about to say hello and offer him the latest news rags, or some magazine detailing weapons parts, potentially for his Herc-Ray, or something of the sort. Of course, instead, he would have to accept that the man simply tore through his freaking stock of comics and other assorted things relating to men in tights. The one he had painfully spent rearranging on the boss's orders, and had drained him of his usual cheerful demeanor.

At least, until he realized the good captain was under fire by some off-world fiends! a grin came onto the face of young Terrason, as he hopped the counter to dive over in front of Clarke, and take the battle into his own hands.

That is, once he uttered the word.

"KRAKATOA!!"

And then, as if thunder and lighting had boomed, the cosmic forces of his mysterious and intriguingly confusing belt, which held the 'device,' if you could call it that, and accept that it was not magic that fueled it, but rather some kind of cosmic energy, making it a kind of science-magic hybrid of sorts, had sparked a change. Regardless, all that really mattered now was the fact that the airsuit was on in under a minute, and he was ready to take his place as a member of the Air Division. Wasn't it called the High Corps?

"Holy Mercury, Captain Clarke!" Exclaimed the younger voice of Billy, filled with absolute awe and amazement at yet another bizarre event, the curiosity in his tone only common for his greener age, as opposed to the likely more seasoned Clarke. "Allow me to draw their attention, Sir!"

And like that, the spry young man hovered slowly into the air as spectacular flames began to erupt under his feet, propelling him upwards while he was taunting the Magravores into attacking him, climbing up just high enough to maintain range for him to generate a beam of focused light on one of them.

"Eat Vitamin D, You Psionic Fiends!" went Billy as he exclaimed his preferred battle cry when using the light beam, despite the fact these beings probably may not gain vitamin D from sunlight.

​

 

[Phi Chisym]

Various hover vehicles outlined the sales lot, and families, singles, young couples were walking around window shopping for their next Skycar or Landspeeder. Salesmen escorted their prey…um, their customers, pointing out the highs and lows of the latest StarStriker 21, or the VertiPod, or the new HoverWing that her father just flew into the building to feature it on the showroom floor.

The phone rang for the umpteenth time. "Hello, Alpha Motors – where travel takes on a whole new meaning. This is Holly, how my I direct your call?"

Popping her gum loud enough to bust the eardrum on the other half of the line, she listened while the customer complained about another vehicle malfunction and demanded to see the owner. She'd about had it up to her long eyelashes with their complaints. They must have gotten another botched batch of VeriPods again from the manufacturers.

She's told the President that he should do something about Veridon Industries' continued use of Martian within the manufacturing department. They're not too shabby with designing space crafts, mathematically constructing the formulas for AeroErog Repulsion or Croton Audio waves used to hover small crafts like the Hoverboards and chairs. But, their amazingly complex minds are just incapable of simple, continuous, manual labor. To stand in one place and screw in a nut with a washer and bolt five times to install a vital piece of a equipment, only to slid is by and do the same to the next ten thousand standing behind it, is just not…their thing. Besides, Martians don't take anything seriously, including quality and safety.

Why don't Veridon purchase more robots, or better yet, just hire more people… No, those cheepscapes rather do it the hard way, and she's the one stuck listening to all the complains when that one piece of vital equipment works itself loose and causes a family of three to crash into a tree.

At least, it was entertainment…

"Sir, there's no need to take that tone with me. I'm not the one who crashed your craft into a tree."

The customer began to wail again about her attitude, when he was the one who was spurting off profanity like it was a natural Salintavian dialect heard all the time on Alphatron. Her father stepped out of the Hover Wing, setting his helmet down in the seat and began to step towards her desk just when she'd about had it with the customer.

"Look Mister, I'll have you know that Alpha Motors did not sideswiped you. We're the ones with the wool over our eyes. If you want a refund, then call Cedric Veridon, CEO of Veridon Industries. Here, I have his private business number…takes you right to his desk. And if he gives you troubles about it, just tell him to come see me, Holly Mason. Yes, he knows my name quite well…"

Holly looked up to find her father, James Mason, standing with his arms crossed in that militant manner, and the toe of his loafer tapping at the rate her heartbeat had taken during the disgruntled conversation. Holly stiffens her lips before rolling her eyes and giving her gum another loud smack.

"Here, the number is 585-45-122, ya got that? Fine…good day to you then, and make sure you wash that mouth out before you talk…" The customer hung up before she could mark him even further.

"Holly, how many times do I have to tell you…"

"And how many times do I have to say it? If you don't do something about those VeriPods, we'll be out of business for having a bad rep for selling lemons, Dad!"

He knew his high-strung daughter was right, but he didn't need another complaint from Cedric. "I'll handle it, Pumpkin. You just…take care of the complaints – without giving them Mr. Veridon's private num…"

Just then, a loud explosion cut James' words short and shook the ground underneath their feet. "What in the blazes was that?"

Holly spared no time to help him answer that question. She was already on her feet running towards the back of the building where she sense the blast was coming from. The sky from her backyard was charcoaled in large smoke clouds several miles from the dealership. Above the destruction were two space ships. Instantly she knew who it was.

"Magravores! How in the world did they…?"

James grabbed her shoulders and started to move her back towards the building, "We've got to get inside the bunkers… It's another raid."

"Yea, you go do that dad. Make sure everyone's inside." Before he had a chance to question what she was doing, Holly ran back inside and made her way through the screaming crowd forming a mad bee-line to the furthest back room where the trap door to the large underground bunker is located. She could hear James calling out to her, but she continued towards her desk, grabbing her keys and her driving gloves and goggles before zooming out the door.



The parking lot was clear now; all the customers were inside. Holly found her Landspeeder and hopped on. She grabbed her ray gun and holster out of the side compartment and buckled the belt around her waist, tying the thigh string quickly just when her wrist comm called.

"This is Captain Clarke to StarGun Squad. Any of you not at the spaceport, I'm battling the leader saucer over Hubbard Street. I could use some help."

"This is horrible, but it sure beats the complaints department." She tapped the comm, "Holly reporting, Captain. I'm heading from Commerce Street. Will be there – two minutes tops." She tightened her goggles over her eyes and ripped her landspeeder out of the lot.

 

[Ochalla]

At a café, under a large umbrella, sat Jillian and her companion. She had elected they eat outside so they could enjoy each others company without the interruption of other people's conversations. Jillian was well known as she had many informal first dates here. It was well lit, public, and the owner was an ex-Himya Wrestling Champion. Not a small feat for a human.

Grinning at the man across the table, Jillian listened to how impressed he'd been when she had saved him from during the HoverPrix Disaster. It seemed his recollection was different then hers, since she didn't recall being singularly responsible for saving his life, but in any case he wanted to treat her to dinner and she excepted. Though she had him take her to lunch instead.

"But enough about me. Let's talk about you Jillian. I can call you Jillian, can't I?"

The blonde blinked, she hadn't really learned a thing about him yet. In fact this was turning into a very boring lunch. "That's fine," she said with a smile that was only skin deep.

"Wonderful, maybe after this we can go to my...." His words were cut off by a loud boom sound in the distance. The building the café was in hid the scene where the sound had come from and after a moment he shrugged it off. "Anyways, as I was saying..."

This time he was cut off by a chime from the broach Jillian wore on her left shoulder. "This is Captain Clarke to StarGun Squad. Any of you not at the spaceport, I'm battling the leader saucer over Hubbard Street. I could use some help."

"Saucer? Oh dear me. It seems I must be going!" Jillian was civil enough to not smile at this chance to escape her date as she jumped out of her chair.

"But!"

"Don't worry about me, I'm a StarGun Defender after all," she then moved over and gave him a kiss on the top of his head before running off, thus preventing the chance of him asking for another date.


A few blocks from the idealistic "old" neighborhood, which wasn't any older then any other part of the central city, Jillian saw what looked like Billy attacking a pair of, was it Magravore with his Light Beam, good! That meant she had time still to get closer to the action and see what assistance she could be. The only thing that worried the young woman was what did Clarke mean by "lead" saucer!

No more then a few breaths later she saw the saucer shoot at Billy with it's death laser! Or rather tried to. It seemed whoever was in the saucer was a lousy shot and hit a building instead, to rain debris on both Billy and the alien drones.

"Look out!" Jillian called out even as she tried to target the larger of the debris pieces with her anti-grav bracelets. She was able to slow down the decent, and then once she had it in control she had the debris veer left, right into the chest of one of the Magravore drones.

 

[DaughterOfAres68]

Normally, Lottie would spend such a trouble free day manufacturing armor or weapons in the back of Galaxy's Everyday Arsenal. It had been weeks sense she had a day when no threat had reared its head with dawn's early rise, or her brother Janus, didn't have some repair work that needed her attention. Yet, today was starting out well.

No trouble and Janus was completing the finer touches on some repairs on Hubbard Street. She was free to do the one thing she loved most, create and improve weapons and armor. The thought alone brought a large thin smile, slightly baring her fanged like teeth, to her face as she made her way to her workshop.

When it came into view, she knew her plans had already been canceled because she saw the owner of GEA waiting outside. From the sidewalk across the road, she could see that only tiny bits of diamond shape sunlight, shining through the large caged window, lit the store with the large closed sign facing up.

"Roxy…"Lottie mumbled her name knowing that she was already wearing her victory smile.

Roxy, the cyborg owner of GEA, was direct and always got her way for some reason or another. Today, she wanted to make it clear that she wanted to do something other than man the store. So she closed early. As a result, Lottie was do whatever random plan she came up with because she had no other things to do because her workshop that lied in the back of the store was closed.

Then the faint screams and sweet hums of weapons whispered into her ear as she was crossing the street demanding her attention causing her to pause. She lowered herself down to feel light vibrations in the street as the faint sound of screams and weapons became clear. Still, in the street the citizens in their vehicles began baring their horns drowning out the sound of the panic. She darted out of the road and knew that any moment that Captain Clarke voice would come screeching across her communicator.

"This is Captain Clarke to StarGun Squad. Any of you not at the spaceport, I'm battling the leader saucer over Hubbard Street. I could use some help."

Roxy was at her side when the message came. Lottie was also very certain that Roxy was preparing to curse at her for stopping like a Martian in the middle of the road, but she never had a chance for she knew his voice. The voice of the one thing that she simply could push or force out of her way when things weren't going as planned, the StarGun Defenders. Yet, she didn't let her anger seethe into her mannerism and simply found that silver lining that could still make her day a joyful.

"Janus is going to be pissed if he has to start over…" Roxy said satisfaction.

"Yup, but you can annoy him about it later." She replied, rolling her eyes. "We'll pick things up when I get back." Lottie gave her a playful shove before starting to run towards the action.

Luckily, Hubbard Street was not far from Madison Ave because every moment counted when fighting to protect your home and Lottie always on foot. When arrived she saw that Jillian was already on scene with Billy and Captain Clarke. She was on the other side of the street and what stood between them was the one thing she hated most, flying sauces. Her mind was already cussing and hissing profanities about her limitations. Lottie had no concern about how they got in. Right now, she was just pissed that they were here, Billy could fly, and that she hated heights.

She chimed in on her communicator to voice to the team,"Haven't I mentioned how much I hate those damn ships! How many got through?" She voice forgetting to sound professional.

Then she switched her gears of thought and began to think what was the best way to attack was. All of her "talents" were limited to direct contact.
"Billy, you think you can get me on that damn thing and distract them long enough to keep them from throwing me off? Maybe I can cut it open." She asked knowing that unless they brought those damn things down… none of them would do very well in an air fight, besides Billy.

 

[Six Million Dollar Man]

Billy was pouring down hot fury onto the dermal layers of the magravores, watching them writhe in pain a bit as Billy simply grinned, feeling immediately superior to the invaders, when he was suddenly in view of the heat ray coming right at him! He dashed out of the way, pointlessly however, as the magravore ship struck another monolith building and brought down some debris. His golden glove wearing fists began to clench, the hand-wear tightening as he felt the invisible shielding wrap around his knuckles as they had usually, making his hands like something unto iron, and allowing him to take on the falling debris!

He zipped up into the air, noticing most of it was being taken care of by Jillian and her bracelets, thankfully. There was only so much junk one young lad could punch out! But, a StarGun boy had to be a very tough boy. And it showed. He swung his arms in wide hooks, laughing triumphantly before being struck in the face, throwing him off as he fell back to the ground, descending clumsily as his form spun around a bit mid-air in wide arcs, flailing his arms helplessly and bobbing his aching head around, before landing him back on the ground with a hard 'SMASH!' that would have crippled any other fellow without a protective force aura. A few seconds later (which felt like an eternity to Billy), Billy was slowly finding himself levitating back into a low hover, his boots activating immediately as he made sure his protective aura had prevented broken bones this time around, before giving a thumbs up, and mumbling a weak 'I'm Okay.'

"Terrason here. Looks like Miss Jillian's arrived. Thank Grud for anti-grav bracelets!…" He chuckled. Then, for a moment, he picked up the chaotic chatter of some static, wildly flailing around from the confines of his communicator before he saw another familiar feminine face, leading him to cast a smile.

"Miss Lottie! Good to see you! Almost forgot to send the message earlier, but we just had a copy of that one rag y'ordered! I'll have it in just as soon as I handle that nasty ole' cruiser with some flashy moves!"

Billy turned to take a look over at the good captain, and Jillian, scanning them for any injuries, as he flew back into his store for a second, and back behind the counter, digging around underneath it past some exclusive first print materials, adult-mags, and other such things, to find the first-aid kit they kept, and more importantly, some medi-paste. It appeared to be a simple tube, like that of any average toothpaste brand, this one however, possessing the red cross, along with several special markings all on the white container, as he rushed back over to leave them by Clarke.

"If Jillian isn't done catching some fastballs with that crazy mitt of hers," He began jokingly "Help yourself to the whole pack, chief. Miss Lottie just gave the order to distract the ships with a light show. Can you believe it? Their death rays still work! We should really nab some for the science-patrols to look over!"

And with that quick burst of words, Billy was already sprinting back out to start flying again, soaring upwards as he exclaimed 'WOOOOHOOO-!!' at the thrill-power of flying past the already cooled-down death ray, already up to the cockpit windshield and tapping the glass jokingly. A Magravore began to screech incoherently, Billy snickering as he Turned around, and bent over, reaching over to his jumpsuit and adjusting a few things, before showing off his twin moons, their round shape as almost perfect-spheres blinding the magravore pilot, Billy unable to hold back laughter, as at the same time he mooned the magravore, he had activated his power over bright light, emitting from his body a shining explosion of harmless, yet blinding fury, in more ways than one.

The saucer pilot was thrown off as the saucer spun wildly, the ray moving around a bit, and nearly disintegrating Billy, before it stopped, and the ship careened towards various buildings, not quite striking the structures just yet.

"Hahahahaaaah! Billy Here! Hehe~ Always wanted to Moon a Magravore! HAAAAH! Haaa. You're clear to do whatever it is you need to do Lottie. Give me the word and I'll 'flash' again."

With that, Billy zipped off just a short distance nearby where other saucers were coming in. He began to perform various aerial maneuvers, from complex twists and turns, to loop de loops just for fun, yawning in the process to taunt the magravores into attacking him. Of course, there were still plenty of innocent civilians scrambling to get away, save for the herd of oblivious Martians heading for his store when it was clearly nearly demolished-

Oh no.

They weren't.

The little green bastards were about to ransack him! The nerve they had! Billy floated down to redirect the Martians before engaging the next set of saucers.

"Hey! You fellas better duck and cover!" Barked Billy. "You could have your number done if you stay here! Doesn't that mean anything to you?!"

"…but Martians don't take anything seriously." Pointed out an innocent passerby, a male in his thirties in some torn up business attire, a suit with all sorts of rips in the fabric, and slight splotches of blood on his chest, all of it mostly orange.

"Shudup! I want you cheese-ball dwellers to get outta dodge, and pronto!"

 

[Asmodeus]

Oh right... this was Billy's shop. What a stroke of luck.

Captain Clarke watched the boy wonder vault from behind the counter, dazzle the Magravores, then fly up to harass the saucer - all with that young whipper-snapper speed he was famed for. The boy was good for distraction, if nothing else. Reloading his Herc Ray, the captain got up and crept towards the shattered window to assess the scene.

"FLARGHARAL!"

The hideous face of a Magravore drone rose in front of him, half-blinded and furious. It reached out crackling hands to fry the captain, then stumbled as the Saucer overhead fired its death ray at Billy. The clothing store opposite was hit, and as it crashed down a piece of masonry came flying at Clarke. He shielded his face, but at the last moment the rubble shifted gravity and squished the Magravore in front of him.

The dust cleared, and Clarke wiped alien brain matter from his face to see Jillian coming down the street in her heels and cocktail dress. "Another date, Jill? Really?" Clarke vaulted over the window ledge and into the street.

"FLARGHARAL-AGAR!"

The second Magravore drone stumbled from the rubble with hands flailing at Jillian, but a swift zap from Clarke's raygun blasted it to atoms. Then he dashed across to her, taking her wrist and spinning her clear just as more rubble crashed down.... along with Billy.

The rocket boy was soon up again and fetching a medical kit from his shop. Clarke took the medi-paste and rubbed some into the back of his neck while he and Jillian took cover behind a car, watching Billy and Lottie coordinate a new attack. A glance was given to Jillian's red dress. "Well, I hope he picked up the bill, whoever he was."

As Jill answered the captain peered over the car hood and watched Lottie moving into position. The saucer had corrected itself from a near-crash and was doing its best to ignore Billy. It had other plans. There was a low-pitched thrumming sound as it activated its abduction-suction. A pet shop at the end of the street was cracked open by sonic waves and, in a whirl of yowling, feathers and hisses, the animals inside were kidnapped. Three-headed Gargon cats, a Snuffler Dog, two Brin-Monkeys and a whole cage of parakeets. They were drawn up into the bowels of the spacecraft, right through its forcefield.

"Hmm..." The captain rubbed his strong, square jaw. "Jillian... reckon if they took you onboard you could work your charms? If you and Lottie get control of that ship, we can use it to take down the other one."

 

[Phi Chisym]

Holly made her way towards the damaged block, shuffling the innocent too and fro as she announced in an amplified voice instructions and common sense more people tend to forget when they're running for their lives. Their frantic sprints away from danger only made Holly's journey against the flow of traffic more difficult than she cared for. Everyone knew the city's underground bunkers were easily accessible through any ground-floor store. Why aren't they heading into the shops and hopping in? The Magravores weren't the scariest aliens around. Really, if they only knew just how much of a coward those Mags were, everyone would probably get a good knee-slapper over it. Still, Holly had to do something about the crowd control.

"Attention citizens of Alphatron, all will be well real soon. The StarGun Defenders are handling matters quickly. Please, head to the nearest bunker and stay there until you hear the safe alarm. Again, please head to the nearest bunker and stay down!"

After spending a few minutes to lead citizens to their senses and cleared the streets, Holly parked her land speeder off to the side, and pulled her laser gun, listening for certain sounds to alert her of on coming enemies. She located Captain Clarke and the others, finding him and Jillian under safe cover, Lottie making her moves, and Billy stealing the show, as always… Oh, if his mama saw that!

Just then, a loud pitched scream ringed her ears from behind. Wait, I'd just secured the street! Holly thought as she turned around in alarm. Three Magravours were dragging several women and girls, all of them kicking and screaming as they were being abducted from their hiding places. Obviously, they were the few citizens who didn't care to obey her earlier instructions, or considered common sense a thing for the birds.

Holly, turned on her heels, she called out to the Captain, letting him know her position, before heading towards the issue before her. Hiding behind the large blue mailbox, Holly peaked over it to catch one of the abductor's attention.

"HEY! YOU, ACUKAT!" ?

Insult a Magravour and what do you get? One angry Magravour. Well, she had three now…

That's exactly what she wanted.

"Next time, except taking our women and animals, why don't you tubul' ckat yec jah'dal ba!"

They dropped their hostages and began to raise their hands, charging up while moving toward her. She snickered, already holding them in her sights.

"So, take this, Puni'ku, and mahtog lacit-carp mia'lcca!"

With a loud zap, her first target was down and the other two threw their energies towards the mailbox, tossing her pitiful shield high into the air. Holly didn't waste any time to watch it fly, like those stupid Mags. She was up on her feet, running backwards while pelting the other two with a shower of laser rain - keeping her finger on the trigger and watching the sparks fly. Sliding over the hood of a partially barbequed vehicle, Holly waited a few minutes before checking the street again. She'd found two Magravour bodies lying where she dropped them. But, one was missing…

"Where in the blazes did that…"

Suddenly, the top of the vehicle caved in with a boom and Holly was showered in shattered glass. She heard the electric charge before she could feel the heat of it singe her hair. She rolled out of the way just in the nick of time, raising her gun to fry the Acukat right where he stood. After checking her hair in the side mirror of the car, Holly poked her finger in the burnt rip in her Alpha Motor's uniform top crossing her shoulder from that close call.

"Oooo, there goes another one! Dad's going to kill me..."

Holly picked herself up and made her way to her to the Captain and Jillian, keeping her eyes out to cover their backs as they remained sheltered.
She gave her never-ending beaming smile at them both, a contradiction to what she was really felt.

"Yea, see, I'm here - two minutes tops."

 

[XC]

"So, Tyler. They say you mix the best cocktails on Planet Alphatron. In fact, they say you can mix anything. Every single drink in our galaxy, and even beyond. Can you shed some light on this rumour for us?" The reporter smiled at Tyler as he sat on the bar stool, a robot with a camera for a face and screen on his chest standing behind him.

The handsome public face of the StarGun defenders chuckled easily as he made a show of shaking up the mixer he was holding on to, before shrugging casually and pouring the cocktail into a glass before pushing it forward towards the reporter. "Name your poison!" The both of them laughed together, as the reporter picked up the glass of Bloody Venus and took an experimental sip from it, before exclaiming, "This is the best I have ever had!"

They exchanged friendly banter for a few more minutes. The reporter was here for an exclusive scoop on the scene here at the Supernova, one of the most exclusive clubs in Planet Alphatron and entirely run by the Nova family. The club was currently closed and so it was mostly empty, safe for a few VIPs that liked to use this place as their hang out spots and paid top dollar to use it during the day. The Nova family were anything, if not enterprising and they didn't see a problem in letting them use it as they wished, as long as they kept up regular payments and recommended their friends. However, their conversation was cut short when the first explosion was heard, and shortly after the commlink that doubled as a watch and other convenient little gadgets beeped on his wrist and out came Clarke's voice, telling him of the threat at the spaceport and in the streets.

"I'm afraid this interview has to end here, duty calls!" And for the camera, Tyler flashed his trademark smile that was said to be able to blind an enemy while he mimicked the shape of a gun with his hand and fired it at the camera, winking.

Reaching underneath the bar, Tyler grabbed the old-fashioned slugthrower that had been replaced by energy weapons more a century ago. It was an antique, a fossil, even, but Tyler did keep it around because force fields these days were mainly made to defend against energy blasts instead of these physical rounds that usually just went through them without any disruption in their motion at all. On his way out to the back where his hovercar awaited, Tyler took off his bartender's jacket and shirt and revealed underneath the combat suit he wore, along with his famous plasma sword, now only a hilt hanging at his utility belt. He swung the strap of the gun over his back and he threw himself into the speeder and a few seconds later ...

He shot out of the docking bay with the reporter and his robot-camera in the backseat. He didn't worry too much about them. Reporters on Alphatron that chased the StarGun Defenders always had ways to defend themselves, and they were good at staying out of the action.

Tyler headed out to the spaceport immediately, weaving in and out of the frenzied traffic and back alleys that he knew very well due to the map system loaded into the docking station of his hovercar. He saw the saucer even before he reached the spaceport, with it whizzing about and women being sucked up through its suction abductor and death rays shooting out from its multiple emplacements.

Getting out of the car a distance away from the spaceport, Tyler drew his plasma sword and held it at the ready in one hand, while he hefted the shotgun of sorts in the other. He could see the spaceport security trying to put up a fight against the flying saucer but a few dead bodies littered the ground, some with ragged holes burnt through their bodies. Tyler was more concerned with the pools of grease on the ground though.

"Magravores? More like Magrawhores," Tyler cursed, mainly for the sake of the reporter and the robot-camera still filming him as he went to help those fighting against the flying saucer.

"I'm at the spaceport now. It seems like I'm the only one here. I'll try to slow down the saucer or maybe even take it down," Tyler spoke into his wristcomm, as he ignited the plasma blade and deflected a few beams of energy sent in his direction by the drone squad that had spotted him. The reporter and the robot-camera had already taken up cover safely behind an overturned hovercar.

He batted away more and more beams of energy, dodging when he couldn't block them in time. He managed to turn one beam back on its shooter, vapourising him in a wisp of smoke. He dashed at the remaining four drones, scattering them with a charge when their rayguns ran out of power and he methodically cut each one down. He hadn't had the time to reach for his gun, since he had dropped the grip on it to focus on deflecting the deadly rays.

The saucer finally took notice on him, ignoring the pitiful attempts of the remaining spaceport security to take it down as its forcefield took on most of the damage. It swept its death ray towards him, and Tyler barely managed to dodge it as he felt the tips of his eyebrows and hair singe from the heat. He dashed towards a small group of spaceport security huddled behind a fallen locker that had been vapourised by the death ray from the saucer, stopping before them and receiving the brunt of the next ray on the blade of his plasma sword and sending it careening off in another direction. He could feel the heat of the ray begin to burn the tips of his fingers and blisters forming but he held on, until it had to be recharged once again.

"Requesting backup at the spaceport. I've got nothing that can take down the saucer! Unless ..."

Tyler spotted a speederbike conveniently on its side right in front of a section of fallen roofing that was leaning against a wall, forming an effective ramp.

"Billy? Mind coming over and drawing the saucer to the area just in front of the makeshift ramp? You'll know it when you see it."

 

[Six Million Dollar Man]

"This is Terrason, sir!" Exclaimed Billy, already maneuvering his jets so he'd head for where Tyler was. "This is gonna be-"

But then it hit him like a proton torpedo: Not an actual one, but on his way, Billy spotted a group of several children being menaced by a saucer! They were each within individual buildings whose walls had been torn apart, showing off their scared little faces to the StarGun youth, and really tugging on his thin heartstrings, as he rocketed off to the top of the saucer, attempting to keep the magravore away.

"This is Billy!" Exclaimed the boy. "Got a different saucer attacking poor defenseless youngsters! I think it's distracted for a moment now, but should I go back for the kids? I know your orders are important and all, but…these little fellas! They need us! The building might keel over or something!"

Billy was never so torn apart in his life! He'd never leave a little kid in harm's way. No StarGun would have. Granted, if the situation wasn't as major. But damn it, they were children! Billy prayed to the almighty Grud, hoping the others would think of the children in this crisis. After all, children were the future. For his youth, Billy could have been an older brother to any susie, or ricky, and it showed.

The Magravore within the saucer proceeded to have a small container sent out to 'attack' Billy blinked at the sight of the device, thinking it was a bomb, and moving closer to get rid of it, when he realized it was a trap.

Suddenly, as if a king had been dethroned by his loving people for no good reason, Billy's suit began to fail him, the force shield now gone, and his rocket boots jammed. His wristcomm was scrambled, and now he was forced to balance himself to stay upright on the saucer.

"Ohhhh Shhhh-" He began to curse, as the ship began to spin, and swerve left and right. A couple children giggled, these being the more oblivious of the kids, not realizing the danger before them in that their potential savior was now disarmed, and capable of falling to his death.

"AUUUUGGGH!!!"

 

[Professor Crane]

John was at the most recent construction site, a residential area almost completely restored from the last attack. He hoisted a support beam over his head and fit it into place while the other workers moved quickly to secure it into place. It had been a long week of work, but the supports were about to be finished and the walls could start going back up.

Once the beam was secured the foreman called for a break. John sat down, only to get a call from his sons. Tapping the communicator on his wrist he answered the Call.

"Hey Dad," It was Joseph, the younger one, the older one was getting a bit rebellious and wouldn't call him 'dad' right now, "Are you going to be home on time today?"

John smiled at the question "Yeah, everything's looking good at the sight right now. We might even be able to finish a little early."

"That's great" came the reply.

Before John could continue a saucer appeared, quickly damaging several buildings. John bit back a string of curses. "Joseph, get your brother and get into the bunker."

"Yes sir." came the reply, sounding a bit dejected, but obedient. The call clicked off.

"damn aliens," John muttered, running towards the site's storage room. Once he got there he started casually pushing aside piles of metal beams until he got the the heavy weave satchel he was looking for. He hoisted the satchel housing his trust gravity mortar over his shoulder. On his way out he grabbed a metal support beam.

On his way outside he got another call.

"What the hell do you want me to go to the bunker for? I'm hanging out with my friends, and they aren't worried." It was the older son, Charles.

"But Martians never take anything seriously," came John's reply, "Bad stuff is happening, so get to the bunker or you're really going to find out what I can legally get away with."

"Fine." Charles replied hanging up.

"Punk" John grunted as he kicked the door open and got outside. He got there just in time to see Billy start falling from the sky.

John quickly lobbed the support beam at the nearby saucer. The beam caused the saucer to pitch violently, but the shield stopped it from doing any real damage. He then leaped into the air, catching Billy and smashing into the third floor of one of the nearby buildings.

"This is Carpenter, I'm with Billy at the saucer in the residential area." John said as he rose to his feat, grabbing the satchel with the mortar in it he dumped out the contents and began assembling the mortar. "Things are going to be getting heavy," John said with a grin.

 

[Six Million Dollar Man]

The screaming would soon cease when Billy realized he had been saved by his good friend, John. Now, whenever Billy seemed to be airborne and his equipment out of commission, it seemed he could always count on the man without a hardhat to leap into the air and catch him, especially when you considered the sheer power his muscles had from the man's astonishing physical 'training' method to which his body had been transmuted.

"Jumping Jaguars! Thanks for the save, Mister Carpenter!" Replied Billy, as he got to his feet as well to survey what was going on. "We'd better hurry back over. There were some innocent children stuck in their rooms. I just hope that support beam was enough to put that Magravore in his place- Oh No! Tyler needed me earlier! I'll be right back as soon as I help him clean his plate of psionic psychopaths!"

Billy lunged out the hole that John had made, his equipment coming back to life once he was away from whatever it was aboard the Magravore saucer that jammed his things.

"This is Terrason to all available StarGuns: The magravore saucers possess a terrible tech-piece that allows them to scramble our gear sunny-side up! If you approach a saucer, downed or in the air, proceed with caution."

And, coming into view was the saucer that Tyler himself had been occupied with, Billy flashing his light-waves towards the saucer to catch the pilot's attention, as he struggled to remember where Tyler wanted him to maneuver the craft.

"This is Billy: Tyler, I got the saucer, but my suit being disabled for a moment made me forget where to go. You said something about a ramp, right?"

 

[Phi Chisym]

Holly hunkered down with the Captain and Miss. Jillian and watched Lottie and Billy work, all the while popping her gum and keeping her eyes out for any more Margravores attempting to materialize right before their eyes when they least expect it. Every now and then one of those ugly buggers popped up, only to gain a blast or two from her gun. Or, a group of citizens would attempt to rush down the street in the middle of the chaos, which caused for her to follow them in a mad rush, guiding them to a bunker location and out of sight of the remaining flying saucers still hovering about, searching for more strays…

The whole 'duck and cover' game was not Holly's cup of tea, if you get the drift. But, her skills were better spent in other dangerous situations – preferably near a nice sized body of water…or even a small glass of water; it didn't matter to her. A battle in the air was not on her 'happy list', but she knew that even the smaller actions were just as heroic as the most extravagant and death-defining. At this moment though, she wished she'd paid more attention during battle training. There was more than one way to take down a flying saucer, and most didn't require a weapon.

She'd been listening to Billy's accounts on the comm… It was something about him heading to the spaceport to help out Tyler, but he was distracted by a group of children in danger… Now, after receiving some assistance from Mr. Carpenter, he was heading back to help Tyler…but the children were still in danger.

"Ah, I might be able to help there," thinking out loud, Holly told the Captain she was heading to Billy's last location – where he'd indicated where the children were. Running back to her landspeeder, she put the pedal to the metal and zoomed to the residential area as quickly as she could.

Calling out with a motherly voice, she was able to locate the children by sending a low frequency sonar pulse through the rubble of buildings down the street. When the children heard her, a few who felt comfortable enough, or were able to, step out of the rubble waved her down. She found herself a large nettle of children of various ages, all of them dressed in the carnage surrounding them, which made it difficult to determine if any of them were injured in any way. Holly scanned the building quickly. It was an new creation of an old style brownstone – the entire front portion of the four story building was blown away, portions of it had torn down the back half of the building where she'd found the kids. They were obviously playing in the alleyway (aka, backyard) when the blast occurred. The remaining back wall of the apartment was still waving in the wind over them, threatening to topple over the bunch just as soon as a loud boom radiates close enough, or a large tremor shakes the earth. Good thing she didn't use a higher frequency of sound earlier in her search…

The children were brave, she noted, but growing up on Alphatron tends to force a kid to grow up real fast. There were a few Martians among the them, laughing and chattering as they followed along with the other kids, moving bricks and such for their friends; oblivious to the danger around them all. They just don't seem to take anything seriously, even at a young age.

"Hey guys, I'm Holly, a StarGun Defender. I'm going to get you to safety, okay. Is anyone here unable to walk?"

The oldest fella in the group, looked around 10 or 12 years old, pointed to one girl who was grimy from head to toe. "Melody's ankle is twisted up really bad. We were all playing here when the building fell. We had to dig out. We can't find our parents…"

Holly walked over to the kid and ruffled the top of his sooty blond head, "That's okay. I'll help you find them," she hoped, but gave an air of encouragement for the Raggedy-Andy leader. She asked the boys to help the girls from the back, and she piggy-backed Melody, who was about seven years old and light as a feather. Holly began to make her way through the rubble with her line of little ducklings following carefully behind her. Making sure her right hand was free for shooting, she tapped the wrist-comm with the tip of her nose, causing the children to softly snicker.

"Captain Clarke, this is Holly. I'm in the residential area - at the Brownstone habitats. I've found the children; only one injured. The building is still unstable, but I believe we will be just…."

Suddenly, a large explosion shattered the light oohs and ahhs of the children who were watching in awe as she use her communicator. Automatically looking up, Holly could not see where the blast came from; only saw the billowing flames and smoke resulting from it engulfing the apartments beside theirs. The blast was enough… one of the gas lines going off. That meant more explosions were coming…just what she needed.

"Oh no!" her voice alarmed through her wrist comm. Quickly, she began to herd the children through the brick and mortar, moving them away from the wavering brick wall as fast as she could. Their screams and cries only made matters worse, and she tried to calm them the best she could, but in all honestly, Holly wasn't too good around young kids. She grew up with two younger siblings… In the back of her mind, a feeling of déjà vu seem to creep up her spine and her fears started to resurface.

"Come on, RUN!"

Holly reached the front of the building and ran to her landspeeder, sitting Melody upon it and turning back to encourage the others to move faster. Rushing back into the danger zone, she spotted one of the younger Martians shell-shocked, watching the large wall shake and protest over him, dropping more bricks and brittle down upon him. He pointed at the wall, and babbling in his bubbling dialect on how neat it moved, like the waves of water in the Sumate Sea.

Martians just don't get it!

"Crapizoid kid, you've got to get out of here!" Holly scooped the kid up just when another blast from the gas vein erupted, throwing her and the Martian kid off their feet – and the four-story wall began to fall.

Holly screamed and threw up the only thing she could - a force shield, a simple Aquilian skill; great for protecting oneself under water for various things. But, Holly has never attempted to use the shield without water...on the surface… She had no clue what it could offer here, but it was all she had... A shimmering blue light swirled around them, playing with the bright orange hues of the nearby fire.

The Martian child, however, pointed and laughed in amusement.

 

[Ochalla]

Jillian didn't look the least bit apologetic as Captain Clark took note of her prior engagement before the Magravores showed up to ruin the splendid afternoon. Though she did smile at him as he took out the drone that had thought to choose her as a target. The known drones taken out was a good thing, though not all the debris falling everywhere.

Thanks to Captain Clark, she was no longer under the shower of building pieces, and Billy and was scanning the scene from behind a car. "Of course he bought lunch. Worth it to him too, now he thinks he has bragging rights to his friends." It was obvious by her tone she didn't think much of her date. That hopefully meant between missions she would focus on more meaningful things for a while.

In the meantime though there were chirping lizard creatures and squawking mammals being sucked up by the flying saucer. Jillian turned her head and looked at Captain Clark in surprise. "You want me to be captured?"

Of course he did, but for some reason any time Clark suggested her to be a decoy of some sort she was taken aback. It was a good a plan as any though and It would be easier to attack from their own ship.

"Good to see you Holly," not that there was much time to be sitting around, no sooner did the bubble gum popping woman catch her breath then they heard of children in need of help. As Holly ran off to take care of that situation, Jillian stood up and sauntered out into the street.

"Yo-hoo! Hello up in the space craft," Jillian stretched out a hand and waved her fingers up at the flying saucer. Smiling she batted her eyelashes up at the aliens vapidly. "I'm all defenseless here."

That seemed to be more then enough encouragement as the abduction-sucker swung in her direction. There was a moment of still air, then the switch was turned on and a moment after it started humming did it pull Jillian in, her barely able to hold her dress down as she tumbled like an acrobat midair until there was a satisfying, for the Margravores, thunk sound as she was pulled into the ship.

 

[Asmodeus]

Post NSFW

LEAD SAUCER, COMMERCIAL DISTRICT

The abduction suction deposited Jillian in the Female Sorting Chamber, so-called because the prisoners were being sorted (with the aid of psychic finger-blasts) into separate cages according to age, hair colour and health - a task made all the easier by the fact that everyone's clothes, weapons and jewellery had been teleported to a separate storage locker on the other side of the ship.

As Jillian got to her (bare) feet, she was jostled by all manner of women cowering and covering up. The chamber echoed with screams and whimpers, cut now and then by the squawks of the Magravore Drones. The aliens were growing more desperate - Jillian could see it. For eighty years the Magravores had been afflicted with a psychic plague, and for eighty years they had sought to cure it by harvesting genetic data from whatever species they could find. It had begun with stray cats, farm cattle and hobos, but had now escalated to the good people of Alphatron. These were the cruel convulsions of a dying race.

And, lucky for Jillian, she had some particular assets that the Magravores would intrigue the researchers. As the femme fatale straightened up there was a curious snarl and the crowd of naked girls parted as two Drones pushed their way through. They seized Jillian by each arm and pulled her away, into a tunnel that dripped with alien goo. Her breath misted, her skin was goose-pimpled, and each touch of the aliens sent static ripples through her body. They pulled her left then right, taking labyrinthine turns through the darkness, till finally they pushed her into a green-lit operating room.

From there she was forced into a chair and strapped down. The two drones stepped back, jabbering their appreciation, and then from the ceiling a great array of spinning blades, probing devices and mechanical arms began to descend.

Now was as good a time as any to make her move...


HUBBARD STREET

Jillian was onboard as planned. If there was one thing guaranteed to distract a race of murderous aliens from their plans, it was a nubile blonde. The law was a universal one. Perhaps one day it would be studied by scholars greater than Captain Clarke. But for now he was happy to exploit the mechanic.

Hurdling the car by which he had taken cover, the intrepid Captain dashed across the street with his comm-watch to his mouth. "Lottie! Where the blasted fudge are you? I need help here!"

"FLARGHARAL!" A Drone came running from a side alley, waving its arms and shrieking.

"Aaagh!" Clarke swung his pistol and pulled the trigger, but received only a crackling fizz from the Herc Ray. "Aaaagh!" He brought up his other and pressed it against the alien's face. His enhanced palm latched on in an instant, blinding the creature. The Magravore growled, swiped at the hand, realised he couldn't budge it, so instead started clawing at Clarke.

"Dag nab it!" The captain tried to fire again, but the pistol spluttered. Obviously whatever technology Billy had been rambling about on the airwaves was now affecting his Herc Ray. Backing away with the alien's face still attached to his outstretched hand, Clarke resorted to pistol-whipping the fiend as they stumbled through the rubble.

"Take this! And this!"



RESIDENTIAL DISTRICT

"FLARGHARAL-AGAR!"

As Billy departed through the office window, leaving John behind, there was a crackle of teleportation energy.

Two Drones materialised on the other side of the office, sneering and jabbering. The first Drone simply stared down at John's satchel and the pieces of the mortar he was assembling, clearly perplexed.

But the other was more on the ball.

With a devilish squawk it lifted its hand and sent a psychic shockwave across the office, demolishing booth walls, desks and potted plants.

And through the window behind them, the second flying saucer had just stabilized itself after having the support beam thrown at it. The death ray opened up again, the column of red lazer energy tearing through the streets towards Holly and the children she had rescued. Brownstones, parks and cars were torn apart, and the beam came hurtling down the roadway towards her.



<img src=http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l81/Asmodeus1845/Stories/colo.jpg width="30%" align="right" style="padding:5px">SPACEPORT

The third saucer had been ready to vapourize Tyler when suddenly Billy arrived with a whole array of distractions.

And distracted the saucer was.

Moving to pursue the boy wonder, the edge of the flying saucer cleaved through one of the spires of the spaceport. In the promenade below, Tyler looked up to see the shadow growing large around him. He could see clearly the sky cafe inside the spire, where patrons and waitresses were falling against the windows and screaming as the tower toppled.

It was about to fall, and only a great force would keep it upright.

Meanwhile, Magravore Drones began appearing on the rooftops, antenna towers and hangars of the spaceport, trying to encircle Billy. Their fingers sent psychic blasts into the sky, lighting up the air around Billy like fireworks. They were determined to swat this particular fly.

 

[Phi Chisym]

The smoke cleared and the Martian child was still laughing.

Holly opened her eyes to find her, the kid, and her shield still in tack. The wall fell upon them, only to crumble against it. Thrilled that it worked like a pearl without water, Holly released the barrier so her and the young Martian could quickly make their way back to the others. That wall sure gave her a wallop of a headache though, impacting her shield such as it did, but the flames and carnage still booming around her soon cleared her fogginess.

[SPACER]
"Hey kid, you know where the nearest bunkers are, right?" She shouted towards Raggedy Andy, the older kid in the group.

"Sure do, Ma'am! It's right around the corner, at the Hank's Barber Shop."

Holly cringed when the kid aged her by calling her Ma'am, but paid it no never mind as she glanced down the street. She saw that the majority of the Brownstones in that direction were still standing – somewhat, and the neighborhood park standing perpendicular to the street, was still as pristine as it normally was.

Holly nodded her head to see the Barber Shop, "You guys follow him. I'll carry Melody and the other…"

The kids began to scream and point towards something over her shoulder. Holly was about to yell at them for being rather rude little twerps, but the fear in their faces told her it was best to turn around.

Right above the Brownstones, moving in at an almost dream-like pace, a large Magravore space ship was firing their death ray directly at them, planting a rather long, red trail of destruction as it drove directly towards the huddled group of frantic kids around her. There was no way they could out-run that beam, but the older boy was already commanding the kids to follow him to the barber shop, grabbing little Melody as he did.
[/SPACER]
Holly watched them leave for a split second before she too ran – only she headed towards the ship. Planting her heels into the asphalt, knowing she'd just ruined another nice pair of pumps, Holly concentrated on the ship as she removed the gum from her mouth and took a deep breath.

"You Acukats have some nerve! TAKE THIS!"

With all she could muster, Holly let out a high frequency sonar scream directly at the lazar guns of the space craft. The impact tore through the hull on that side of the ship, cutting the death ray's actions and forcing the ship to take an unexpected detour from its previous path. As the ship wobbled and tilted away from the street, Holly followed, throwing sharp shots that arched like spiked boomerangs of sound waves. They pummeled the hull of the ship, pounding it like a large fist until it couldn't take it anymore. The craft shook and jerked as the Mags tired to regain altitude and momentum, but Holly continued her attack sending a few lower pitches of distorted tones to disorientate the ship's crew – giving them a taste of vertigo and nausea.

The space ship seems to wobble in the air as it was pushed back and away from the area. Holly feared that it would land in another populated area, so she ran back to her landspeeder and followed the malfunctioning craft, throwing hypersonic screams to move the machine away from the residential area – guiding it towards the unoccupied park. Once there, she released it and watched the confused ship crash land in the park's pond.

Explosions took over the atmosphere again, indicating that it was no longer in service. Holly took a heavy breath, rubbing her temple after all that yelling. Her father always warned her about over using her skills, especially with that picky little pet of hers. No matter, as always she will manage. Tapping her comlink, Holly made her report.

"This is Holly reporting: The ship threatening the Brownstone area is down. I'm checking the area to make sure all is secure."

Holly drove around the ship, using her sonar to seek any living beings on board. Just for added measure, she threw an ultrasonic scream to crumble the saucer even more. When she felt all was safe, she headed to the barber shop to check on the children. They did make it to the underground bunker safely, and found their parents.

"Holly again; the Residential area is clear. I'm heading back."

 

[Six Million Dollar Man]

"Oooohhh!!" Exclaimed Billy. "They've got their dinky little popguns! I'd better sock 'em in the heads! That ought to scramble their omelets!"

The crimson crusader would swoop down, and rise up as he proceeded to 'clean the gutters,' picking up and dropping magravores down onto the streets below after flashing some light into their eyes, and socking them in the head with a force aura infused punch, and putting his thrusters on full throttle, as he sent out left and right hooks, as well as the occasional...

…flying kick.

-

THWIP!

"And POW!" Laughed Billy, watching the flames reach out and help to really deal some damage to the magravore, his left leg extended outwards as he flew in several directions to avoid the shots of the partner of the magravore he had just felled, before moving towards the atmosphere to scan the area for more rooftop snipers, or maybe a saucer to take down.

"Billy here!" Went the boy, speaking into his wristcomm, a surge of excitement roaring within his veins as he dusted off his scarlet flight-suit for a brief moment, a wild and toothy grin having come onto his face as he began to speak ecstatically to the others. "Psychic Snipers neutralized. Searching for more. I'm a bit high in the sky, so I could go for a meteor drop."

The meteor drop was one of Billy's favorite moves. It could down any small ship, and puncture a major opening into larger ones. With a vantage point like this, he could probably take down one of the saucers if he could just aim himself properly, no simple task, even for a jet boot user as skilled as Billy Terrason.

"We've got ourselves a shaky shot up here… Ah! I see some trouble by a cafe. Just give me the confirmation and I can fracture these freaks!"

 

[Ochalla]

"A little tacky for my taste," she said under her breath as she saw the instruments of pain and intrusion slowly desend. Any one of those things would be uncomfortable to say the least. "Excuse me," she called out still watching the whirling and twirling. "One of these look wobbly. You won't get a clean cut that way." One of the aliens made an exasperated comment. "Well if you don't believe me, come over here."


With a shrug the drone walked over and looked at her. Jillian quickly turned and locked eyes with the Magravore drone. Jillian's Hypno-eyes were a natural born gift, or at least a pre-birth modification. It was really ashame that her teachers were never immune. "You might want to turn that off and then release me," she suggest. All the while her eyes focused on its. It squawked its agreement and turned off the torture sample extraction device. The simple command was set into place in the drone's mind and the blonde breathed a sigh of relief. When it started to undo the cuffs over her arms the other drone started coming over, yelling at its comrade. Jillian waited until it was on her other side then turned her head.


"Hello," she said. The drone stopped in mid rant and glared down at her, good. "Do you know where my cloths went to?" The drone made an affirmative sound. "Good, good. Go fetch them for me and then come right back. No detours." She shook her finger, now that her arm was free, at the drone. The drone nodded. It wasn't surprising how easily she was getting them to do her bidding really. They were genetically designed to take orders after all.


With the second drone off to fetch her things, Jillian stood and looked at the first. "You look tired. Tell you what, why don't you sit down in the comfy chair." She kept her eyes on it as it suddenly slumped as if tired. She grinned as it willingly got into the chair.

By the time the second drone returned with most her things, her underware and shoes suspiciously missing, she had the first securely in the chair, asleep. Though once it skin was pierced by the first of the tools she was sure it would be screaming in pain. She quickly dressed, not wanting to listen to that and then commanded the drone to take her to the flight control room.

Walking around on the ship barefooted was less then ideal, but she made it to the door with no problem. Putting the drone to sleep in the corner she waltzed in. Seeing a human woman, fully clothed, was not what any of the Magravores were expecting, and that few seconds was all the advantage she needed as used her required bracelets to hurl loose items at the aliens with deadly accuracy. Thank goodness for all the chaos before.

There was only one conscious in the room and before it could reach for its weapon she pinned it to the chair it had been sitting in. "You're going to pilot this ship for me. You're not going to fire on me. You are not going to fire on any of the citizens. In fact you are going to show me where the firing controls are and I'll be doing all the shooting on this ship. Do you understand?" Her eyes bore down on the alien. "Do You Understand!"

The Magravore relented and Jillian was now under control of the mothership. "Captain Clarke, ship secured. Destination?"

 

[Asmodeus]

HUBBARD STREET

"Splendid work, Jillian!"

Captain Clarke had knocked out the Drone that attacked him and was currently putting his boot against its unconscious face. With a great push he got his enhanced hand free of the alien's flesh. "Use that Abductor Ray to bring me aboard. Then we'll go deal with the rest of those rascals."

"Roger that, Captain." Overhead, the great flying saucer turned slightly, its belly opening as the abductor ray extended.

Clarke straightened his jacket, holstered his gun, stood to attention.... then had a thought occur to him. "Oh, and Jillian, remember to turn off the---"

There was a fizzle and a flash. Captain Clarke appeared on the bridge in front of Jillian, butt naked. "----matter separator."

Jillian smiled.

Clarke side-stepped quickly behind the navigation console.



<img src=http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l81/Asmodeus1845/Stories/colo.jpg width="30%" align="right" style="padding:5px">SPACEPORT

"FLARGHARAL!" A Drone appeared in the sky next to Billy, materialising in mid-air and grabbing his legs.

"FLARGHARAL!" A second Drone materialised above him and dropped onto his head, wrapping limbs around his shoulders and pressing its scaly body to his face.

It was quite a move. Blinded and shocked, Billy's flightpath skewed off to one side and he collided with the buttress of the spaceport. He dropped in a daze, the Drones still clinging to him, then struck a balcony, then another buttress, then the roof of a parking lot, before rolling off and hitting a tree in the promenade. Finally the two aliens let go and dropped unconscious to the concrete, giving Billy a soft landing if nothing else.

Tyler had run over to him in seconds, reaching out one hand, even as he looked up at the shadow of the falling tower cafe.

"My technology's fried!" Tyler shouted helplessly, and a few checks from the half-dazed Billy revealed the same. He was unable to fly. The cafe came crashing down towards them, blotting out the sun. "Looks like we're done for, kid...."

They both closed their eyes, waiting for the end.


Then there was a loud thunk, echoing through the colony.


Billy and Tyler both unscrewed one eye and looked up.

"You're alright, boys. We've got this." Captain Clarke's voice came through their wrist-comms, and overhead the captured flying saucer lifted upwards, carrying the tower cafe on its back.

It rose to the chorus of screaming restaurant diners and waiters who were still rolling around inside the windows. And as it came level with the other flying saucer you could almost hear the shrieks of the Magravores.

"Nighty night." Jillian's voice sounded briefly on the airwaves, before a great beam of crimson light shot from the captured ship and slammed into the other one. Explosions tore through the sky. The city shook. And the last flying saucer dropped, smoking, into the lake beyond the spaceport.

"Take that, you swine!"

"Captain, put some clothes on."

"Victory is ours!"

"Captain, please..."

The voices on the comms were drowned out as cheers and applause began ringing through the streets of Alphatron Prime.

END OF EPISODE ONE​

 

[Asmodeus]

EPISODE TWO

​

After the failed raid, the remaining Magravore Drones had proven quite docile. Under the watchful eye of colony police they were now helping the repair efforts: shifting rubble, dismantling the flying saucers, posing for pictures with the Martians; and so forth. The three Brain Alphas who had led the attack were safely locked up in Alphatron Prison, where they passed the days rattling the bars and screaming over-dramatic vows of revenge.

Life returned to normal. The effort to reunite the abducted citizens with their clothes and personal items had proven a logistical nightmare. A notable politician was arrested for making off with several women's dresses, and it was rumoured that 90% of the socks had been stolen by Mole People. Many thought this a conspiracy, however, perpetrated by the clothing manufacturers in an effort to sell Shockasock, the latest footwear and personal defence aid to hit the shops.

There was also a noticeable upswing in business for animal psychiatrists, who were now in great demand at post-traumatised petshops.

As always, Alphatron prevailed and the economy recovered.

Only one fatality was noted from the Magravore attack. Ernest Brightflaw - respected CEO of Omni Corps - who had been dining in the Sky Cafe when it was knocked over by the lead saucer. Mr Brightflaw had choked on a mouthful of spaghetti whilst falling against the ceiling, and his heart had given out. His funeral would be at 2pm today. It was a sad morning for Omni Corps, the leading name in Robot construction.


It was also a sad morning for the StarGun Defenders. Due to an idle threat screamed by one of the Brain Magravores, the team had been put under quarantine pending an infection screen. The government feared the StarGuns might have been exposed to alien bacteria during their adventure, and so, to be sure, they were keeping the heroes confined to StarGun Command, the team's headquarters.

The bloodwork results would be back by noon.

Captain Clarke, however, was not one to be idle. Literally. He never slept. One of the neural enhancements given to him by Alphatronian scientists. The cup of coffee he made for himself that morning carried neither caffeine nor sugar, but instead a solution of key nutrients that would keep his brain in shape. Of course, he still added cream and served it in a coffee mug, but this was more for sentimentality's sake. And, because he never slept, he always got the best mug before anyone else could wake up.

Being the captain was swell.

"What you reading there, Spanners?" he asked, crossing the mess room as he saw his helper robot enter with a newspaper. The little guy seemed sad.

"Father... dead..." crackled the robot's voice.

Clarke sipped his coffee. "Nonsense. I saw my father two hours ago. He's at the power station."

Spanners held up the newspaper, his big eyes shrinking in a show of grief. "Not your father... MY father!"

The front page carried the leading story. Ernest Brightflaw, beloved patron of Omni Corps, dead by spaghetti.

Clarke sighed and placed a comforting hand on Spanners' shoulder, where the Omni Corps logo was printed. "I'm sorry, my little friend. We all did our best to save those people. But sometimes... sometimes God has other plans."

The robot looked up at him, then back at the paper. He released a little whining sound.