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Adventures in Parodyverse - Training Session Part 5


    Ã¢â‚¬Å“What do you think, Hatty?”  Yuki snuck up behind him while he was looking outside from the window in his office.  She moved to his right side and gently stretched her left arm over his opposite shoulder, since she was shorter than he was.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“About what?”  he asked.  He actually had a pretty good idea, but wanted to test her in case he was wrong.

    Yuki gently shoved him with her hip, registering both amusement and annoyance at the question.  “About our little adventure with Anna.  About these Destruct-O-Bots and the trouble they could give us--”

    Hatman interrupted her before she continued further.  “Al B Harper is working on jamming the Destruct-O-Bots’ communication network or something.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“So I’ve heard.”  Yuki acknowledged.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“And Anna--”  Hatman shook his head slowly.  “I like her, I really do.  But it’s still a little weird interacting with her.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Oh?”  That part surprised Yuki.

    Hatman shrugged.  “She’s a smart, vibrant, attractive girl.  Until she does something inhuman like shoot lasers from her eyes or smash through concrete.  It’s kind of jarring when she does that, like a magic trick gone wrong.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Attractive, you say?”  Yuki latched on to that one word.

    Hatman gave her a sour look.  Yuki gave him a knowing smile, and didn’t push the subject further.  She knew he already got enough of that from the rest of the Lair Legion.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I’m curious.  What do you think about when you stare out this window?”  Yuki tried to change the subject quickly.  “Because every time you stand here you look distantly worried.”

    He flashed a faint smile that faded almost immediately.  “I’m a little worried about all the problems Anna might bring us.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Hatty, don’t even think--”  Yuki started to warn him.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“No, no.”  he reassured her.  “I think she’s still worth it.  I just worry about how we’ll handle it.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Oh.  I guess that’s why you’re leader, eh?”  Yuki smiled at him again.  “Don’t worry so much.  You have lots of help.”

    He nodded to acknowledge her.  “I also sometimes worry about Liu Xi.  I mean...she’s adjusting well now, but she got off to a rough start.  And she still doesn’t seem to be very social yet.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“She has a lot of hurt to work through, Jay.”  Yuki reminded him.  “Every man in her life left her or tortured her.  She’s making friends with Vinnie De Soth...she’s being very cautious with him.”  She frowned and added, “But you’re still worried about her history, aren’t you?  That she has blood on her hands.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“A little, yeah.”  Hatman admitted sheepishly.  “Because it’s going to haunt her.  And it’s going to haunt all of us by association.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“And you think she doesn’t worry about that too?”  Yuki sounded like she was lecturing him now.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I know she does.”  Hatman sighed.  “I wouldn’t blame her if she ultimately decided to turn her back on this life and try to live like a normal person.  Like a civilian.  Get a nice, boring job, and try to forget about all of this and all of us.”

    Yuki’s voice softened, and she began to worry too.  “Has she been talking about that?”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“No.”  he admitted.  “But she has been thinking about going to Paradopolis University.  I wonder if she’ll see, when she gets out and about, how people are supposed to live and...you know.”

    The purple-haired legionnaire tightened her arm around Hatman, shoulders.  “I don’t think she’ll leave you behind, Jay.  She’s got a really strong loyalty streak.”  She smiled when he gave her a lightly surprised look.  “Don’t give me that look.  I know you two are pretty close friends.”

    Hatman smiled too, but he didn’t reply to that.  He didn’t really need to - Yuki actually understood, she wasn’t trying to imply anything or make fun.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I think about what it must be like to be Lara sometimes.”  Yuki admitted quietly.  “I mean, that girl is hot.  And powerful and smart enough that if she had a lot more ambition she could probably take over the Parodyverse.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Don’t even joke about that, Yuki.”  he said.  “Sometimes I wonder if we might all end up fighting her someday.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Lara?  Fight us?”  Yuki wrinkled her nose and shook her head.  “No...not gonna happen.”

    There was a pause while Hatman composed his next thought into a coherent sentence.  “Why do you think that?” he asked, implying he agreed, but wanted to hear Yuki’s reason.

    Yuki smiled, seeming amused at how nobody really expected Lara to turn on them.  “Because she’s like...the most sensitive superhero I’ve ever met.  Sometimes I wonder how she survived in this business all this time.  All you have to do is insult her really well and she folds like a deck chair.”

    Hatman tried not to laugh, but it was too obvious that he was doing so.  Especially because he was nodding in agreement.  “Okay, yeah, that’s what I was thinking too.  But as you said she’s really smart...maybe smart enough to hide a lot from us.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“So is Liu Xi.  And Anna.”  Yuki pointed out.  She smiled at Hatman.  “We’ve always trusted before, Jay.  Why the sudden doubt?”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Danny Lyle.”  Hatman replied.  “We trusted him too.  And you told me that he was the Moderator.”

    Yuki shrugged, not missing a beat, showing no doubt in her own beliefs.  “We can’t be perfect.  Personally though, I’d rather be trusting and wrong than suspicious and right.  I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night otherwise, and neither would you, Jay.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Yeah, you’re right.”  he relented, as his shoulders sagged.  He sighed, and then it was his turn to change the subject.  “Let’s see what Al and Anna are up to.”


---


    Ã¢â‚¬Å“This is only going to work for a short burst.”  Al B Harper admitted as he handed Lara Night a thick electrical cable.  “I need maximum output, but the transmitter is frankly not rated for your kind of wattage.  Besides, we don’t have a permit to broadcast, and we wouldn’t get one for such a powerful signal.”

    Lara stood on a concrete pad in Al B Harper’s lab, meant to insulate everything around her from electrical surges and possible burns.  Anna sat in a chair along one wall, close to the door.  Al was pacing the lab, frantically adjusting things.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“We’re not going to blow up every television, radio, and cell phone for miles, are we?”  Lara asked.

    Al B Harper stopped pacing and began tapping his own chin, looking toward the ceiling.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Al?”  Lara asked.  “We’re not going to, are we?”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Maybe a two or three mile radius.”  Al finally admitted.

    Lara shook her head and let the cable dangle in her hands.  “I’m not going to do that!”  she protested.

    Anna spoke up suddenly.  “Perhaps you can use frequency modulation.  It would limit the range of the signal but still maintain high power.”

    Al opened his mouth to explain why it wouldn’t work, but then he froze that way when he realized it was actually a good idea.  “That’s...how did you know that, Anna?”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“It’s in SPUD’s radio interference generator manual.”  Anna replied calmly.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Oh.”  Al responded.  He began adjusting things again.

    That’s when Yuki and Hatman entered the lab.  “How are things going?”  Hatman asked.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Making some final adjustments.”  Al said.  “In about five minutes, we’ll have Destruct-O-Bots--”

    He stopped mid-sentence when the outside wall of the lab suddenly caved in.  There were three Destruct-O-Bots standing in the middle of the rubble of what used to be the wall.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Dammit, Al, did you leave the transmitter running this whole time?”  Lara asked angrily.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Uh...”  Al looked over the control panel behind him, and his face fell.  “Oops.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“We’re in trouble.”  Yuki pointed out under her breath.

    There was a sudden rush of air through the lab as Lara raised both hands and violently forced a bubble of energy through the huge hole in the wall, propelling all three of the Destruct-O-Bots out of the lab and onto the yard outside, along with quite a bit of lab debris.  There was a deafening ‘crack’ sound and a brilliant flash of light as she followed that with a high-powered bolt of lightning, forming a chain with the three, scorching the trio all at once.  

    Anna followed by firing a burst of powerful blue laser light at one of the three, the resulting explosion of superheated air tossing it end over end, to land smoking face first in the grass.  And then another at the second as it was trying to get up after Lara’s assault.

    The wind kicked up again as Hatman stepped through the hole in the wall wearing a Hurricanes cap.  He raised his arms at his sides, and the wind became so intense that everyone still inside the lab crouched down to the floor, and eventually Lara was forced to raise a shield to protect everyone there.

    Hatman noticed that, and was happy he didn’t have to worry about injuring anyone.  He let loose the full power the cap gave him, and relentless waves of rain began to pelt the three Destruct-O-Bots.  They began to sink into soaked ground from their weight, and the pounding from the sheets of rain began to force some of it through the seals on their bodies.  Their motor control was failing.

    He looked behind him, and the lab was suddenly empty.  Lara was standing right next to him, soaked from head to toe from the driving rain.  She tightly wrapped her arm around his waist, more like clinging for life, to avoid being blown away by the wind, than from affection.  She pulled his shirt aside to make sure her fingers were touching his skin.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I have to keep you grounded to me.”  Lara explained in what sounded like a whisper, but was more like yelling over the din of the howling storm.

    Hatman nodded silently, he understood immediately.  The hurricane grew in power until the three Destruct-O-Bots could barely stand.  And just as they tried, Lara released another powerful bolt of lightning, chaining the three robots together.  This one followed the path of the wind-driven water eating its way past the seals on those three robots, overloading and shorting out their electronics instantly.  They slumped over all at once like toys with dead batteries.

    Jay was still catching his breath when the storm died down.  He had felt the electricity enter through every damp hair on his body, to the spot where Lara’s fingers touched his skin.  She was quite clever in its placement, in a spot that would keep the voltage from his vital organs, heart, and spinal cord.  Nevertheless, he was still shaking from the sensation of it.  He wondered if Lara felt that too every time she used lightning attacks.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Sorry, it was difficult to control that.”  Lara apologized quickly as she let go of him.  “Everything was so soaked.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Did everyone go into the mansion?”  Hatman asked, panting with exhaustion.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Yuki took them inside.”  Lara turned her head quickly toward the lab, and then back.  Her wet hair splattered him a little, so she became self-conscious and wiped her hair back to squeeze out some of the water.  She then realized just how drained Jay was, and without asking she pulled his left arm across her shoulder.  “Come, let’s get you somewhere you can rest.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Thanks.”  he answered weakly.  He looked at Yuki, who had just re-entered the lab and was surveying the damage.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I’ll take him from you.”  Yuki said, taking Jay’s other arm over her shoulder.  She noticed that Lara was soaked, chilled, and tired herself, and probably shouldn’t be trying to help Hatman walk.  “Go get some dry clothing before you get chilled.”

    Lara nodded and headed inside.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“You two did great.”  Yuki pointed out.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Yeah.”  Hatman answered briefly and breathlessly.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“And I bet seeing her soaking wet was fun for you.”  Yuki added with a smirk as she led him back to his quarters.

    Jay sighed and shook his head.


TO BE CONTINUED?


-- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2008 by Jason Froikin, and may not be 
--    reprinted without permission.  
-- Yuki Shiro designed by Jason Froikin, based on designs by Masamune Shirow
--  Liu Xi Xian and the Psychic Samurai are original design by Jason Froikin
--  Lara Night is an original creation by Jason Froikin