"But it was an EEEEEEEEEVIL monkey!" Matt protested, twiddling his fingers. "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!" he wailed, like some sort of mocking ghost.

Ristar ran foward and looked up at Riho. "Riho! Could we use your spaceship? We need to find Greedy and put an end to this!"

Riho folded his arms. "You wish to defeat Kaiser Greedy?" His moustache pouted. "Ristar, I know you mean well, but Greedy has a whole army at his disposal. You can't possibly do it alone."

"He's not alone!" Matt declared, flashing a thumbs up. "We're with him!"

"...and who are you?"

"We're here to make sure Greedy gets what's comin' to him!" Hugo said, waving his pickaxe. "I promise you that we'll take him DOWN!"

Riho nodded. "Very well...I will lend you my spaceship."

"This spaceship isn't going to kill us, is it?" R.D. asked.

===Elsewhere===

Re-Tuul sensed the demon as it appeared and cursed. "We've been spotted," he informed Namonai, "How well can you fight a Za-Fuzen?"

Meta raised her brow. Her curiosity towards the nature of this one being 'Namonai' and his companions grew, as well as that towards the 'Unknown' bitchy person, and also her eagerness for conquest and blood.

However, she needed one practical question answered.

"Why don't you just teleport us to this one palace right away?" She asked her ally. It seemed obvious to her that it would be much less trouble.

Re-Tuul also grinned, his smile being only slightly less disturbing than Namonai's. "So, Namonai, who exactly evicted you from your kingdom?" he asked, momentarily changing the subject.

Matt's eyes narrowed. "That's just a stupid question, R.D.." He looked back to Riho. "Don't worry...we'll take Greedy down."

Riho nodded. "Follow me. I'll take you to the spaceship." He floated off in another direction.

R.D. nodded, then walked off a little ways and picked up the Orbot he had frozen with the Entangler shot. "So, who wants to figure out just what these things are?" he asked as he caught back up with the group.

===Elsewhere===

Re-Tuul's grin deepened. "Well now, Kuro is to blame?" the Khaglessi said. "Perhaps you'll be interested in my offer."

Meta indeed picked up pace, having Sleipner dash at a speed most racing fans would have their eyes pop out of their skulls through sheer awe. Within very short time they arrived at the palace. Meta did not slow Sleipner down, having him dash straight through the gates, tearing the wood apart.

"YAH! Hoooooo, Sleipner!" Meta cried out, having her steed slow down. The horse kicked it's front legs into the air and let out some horse-ish noise.

Meta grinned broadly. "Well, is any man here gonna step up and help a woman off her horse?"

"No one knows where the Orbots came from," Riho explained, hands behind his back as he floated foward. "But what I do know is that they were an experimental weapon, created by an ancient civilization."

"But they were too powerful," Helena concluded. "So they were locked up."

"Smart girl. Indeed, it was said that the greatest precautions were made to seal the Orbots where no creature could find them, but somehow, the Kaiser discovered where the Orbots lay, and released them."

Matt humphed, pretending to crack his knuckles. "And now we've got to clean up his mess in the most awesome way."

They stopped before a small, wooden shed. The sunlight peering through the thick trees was enough to dispel the darkness within the shed, revealing the small, but usuable, spaceship, curved and streamlined with an overall violet color scheme.

R.D. looked at Riho briefly, then dropped the frozen Orbot to the ground and crushed it underfoot with his enhanced strength. The creature shattered in a burst of dark matter.

"What is it with superweapons these days?" he asked no one in particular as he approached the vessel.

"You're not an official supervillian until you have a superweapon," Matt explained. "It's like a rule."

Ristar ran over to the spaceship. "Come on! Let's go!"

Hugo broke into a run, trying to keep up with the eager star-child. "Hold on, kid!"

R.D. snorted as he followed Ristar aside Matt. "So what's our excuse, seeing how we're not supervillians?" he asked, referring to their own artifacts.

"You can have a superweapon and be a good guy," Matt explained. "But if you're a supervillian, you're not considered a threat until you've got a god-fearing gun that can nuke the moon or something."

"Can we go now?" Hugo snapped, tapping his foot.

Upon entering the spaceship, Riho took his position at the captain's chair, pressing buttons and powering up the ship. "I can only take you within the fortress. Once you have defeated the Kaiser, you must find your own way out."

"No problem," Matt said.

Helena glanced up. "We should destroy the fortress."

R.D. and Alasea got, with Alasea sitting on the floor while R.D. settled with leaning against the wall with his arms folded. "You're right," he said to Helena, "If there's a large enough power source in there, Matt and I should be able to destroy it. The only problem is escaping before the whole fortress can be destroyed."

Matt raised a finger and proclaimed, "I will make us a ride!"

"We might as well go down with the fortress!" Hugo promptly shouted.

The egines of the ship now fired up, and Riho slowly pulled it out of the shed. "I recommend that you all sit down and buckle up."

R.D. and Alasea sat down and buckled in. "So, Ristar, what do you know of Greedy?" R.D. asked the child, hoping to know more of their enemy.

"Not much," Ristar said, managing to boost himself up next to Helena and fastening his seatbelt. "But if he's as bad as everyone says he is, we've got to stop him."

"Everyone ready?" Riho asked, tapping a few buttons and looking back the others.

Matt nodded. "Let's rock."

The ship rose, slowly but noticably, then faster and faster. As they rose, the forests of the world below descended and shrank until only the sky, then the black wonder of space, met them.

R.D. looked out the viewport.

"Well... this is interesting," he murmured.

Helena was practically glued to the viewport, her eyes taking in all of the splendid cosmic wonder.

"Matt..." She freed herself of the window with great effort. "You've got to see this!"

Matt's eyes began to wonder. "I dunno...the idea of travelling in a vacuum kinda freaks me out."

"Come on! It's amazing!"

He looked at her, sighed. "All right, fine."

Tenatively Matt peered out, and before him, the galaxy unfolded. Many moments passed before he finally managed to utter, "...that's amazing."

R.D. closed his eyes and leaned back in his seat. He distantly wondered what would happen, if he would regain his memories, and if he'd ever finish what he started and Persior.

===Elsewhere===

Re-Tuul glanced over at Meta and Shojou as they appeared. Shojou's presense annoyed him greatly; the nine Khaglessi were never fans of the Za-Fuzen. Meta's presense plainly baffled him, for he felt the spirit of someone entirely else inside the woman. It seemed to be the exact opposite of the woman herself, and it piqued his interest.

"We're about to go to hyperdrive," Riho announced. "In a few minutes, we'll be at the Kaiser's fortress."

"This'll be easy," Matt reasoned, drawing a look from Helena. "We get in there, stick a few swords in his chest, blow up his Death Star, it's all good."

"What about the Star Goddess?" Helena asked.

Matt's face dawned in rememberance. "Oh, yeah! We gotta get her, too."

"Don't worry, Star Goddess!" Ristar shouted, waving his fists. "We're coming to save you!"

R.D. opened one eye and stared at his companions.

"Hyperdrive?" he asked skeptically.

"Warp speed, Mr. Spock," Matt remarked.

He was met with strange looks. To those, he sighed and leaned back. "I hate hopping dimensions sometimes...to other people, everything is an inside joke."

Suddenly the stars outside sped by, as if the whole universe decided to go quicker than the ship.

Edited by The Helldragon on December 26, 2006 at 13:27:52.

R.D. closed his eyes as the vessel entered warp speed, not really enjoying the sensation the speeding stars made on his eyes. With that, he kept silent during the entire trip.

Meta let Shujou help her off her horse. "Thank you." She spoke to him. She then turned towards the others in the room, Namonai, Virus, and Re-Tuul.
"So... I take it these are our hopefully soon-to-be allies, aren't they, my dear Shujou?" She asked.

A round minion scrambled into the expansive, sweeping throne room. "Kaiser!"

"What is it?"

"A spaceship just jumped into the vicinty, and Ristar's on board!"

"I guess the boy is smarter than I gave him credit for."

He made a curt gesture. "Shoot them down."

***

The minute the stars crawled back to their normal places, the fortress suddenly rose before them, in all of its impending grace.



"Greedy is definitely compensating for something," Hugo remarked.

Suddenly, streaks of light flashed past them, and as one smacked the ship, it quaked.

"We've got company," Riho said as Greedy's spacefighters poured from the fortress, firing on the little ship.

Matt quickly unbuckled his seatbelt. "You get us inside, we'll protect us from the lasers!" He looked to R.D.. "Help me make a shield!"

R.D. nodded and unbuckled. He stood up and grasped the Second Cipher energy. As he did, he started weaving a barrier around the vessel. It wouldn't be very strong, so Matt would have to strengthen it with the Core.

Matt made a large, waving gesture, and spread his fingers. "I summon you, Shield For Which I Have No Name!"

The barrier, now combining on itself to form a protective bubble, became more durable, the laser blasts harmlessly absorbed by the shield.

"That won't hold for long, so we gotta gun it!" Matt said.

"Right!" Riho pressed a large red button, and the ship lurched foward, zooming past the fighters toward Greedy's fortress.