========================================================================= Date: Tue, 19 July 1994 20:36:30 CST Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Robotech_Master Organization: Team M.E.C.H.A. Secret Headquarters Subject: Team M.E.C.H.A. Trade Ether-Back #2 Introduction Hello, and welcome to my second Team M.E.C.H.A. trade ether-back, "Destination: Springfield." I realize that this may be a bit large for your text editor of choice, so rather than you having to waste paper printing it out, I'd advise acquiring a program called READMAIL. It's available from the SimTel sites--an Archie or Veronica search should be able to find it. It can be easily set up to read both this TEB and the prior one. Simply copy the Unix mail format, rename the copy "CMSMAIL", alter the beginning message format to "===\*" (without the "s, of course), and load this file. You'll get a list of all the different Superguy posts that make up this file, and will be able to move down it to read individual posts quite easily. Alternatively, if your computer runs CMS, you can use the mail program to access this as just another mail notebook. Now that we've got this technical stuff out of the way, on to real notes about the story. Team M.E.C.H.A. was originally going to be just a mini-series--or at least, I was going to call it that, just to see how it turned out. If it didn't work out, I could just end the plotline and leave it at that. I'd thought about focusing just on one character in my next series, or maybe doing something else entirely. And then I finished the 2...and found that I felt like doing another. Hell (TM), I thought. Why don't I start writing and see how far I can go--maybe I can even get to #100? And thus was born my next Team M.E.C.H.A. plotline. During the first 11 episodes, I had hoped to do a crossover with some other Author, and had put feelers out to see if anyone was willing. Well, I didn't get any offers until I was almost finished, but then I discovered that there were several other Authors willing to work with me. These were new Authors Lawrence Brown (Amigoid) and Daniel Pawtowski (Gadge), and veteran Jesse Taylor (ShadowyWriter). Their characters came to Springfield, and...well, the town is lucky it survived. :) As a result, this TEB contains installments of not only Team M.E.C.H.A. but entries from several other series by other Authors as well. Since this Crossover, our characters have united a couple of more times, for the Bob City MegaCrossover and, to a lesser degree, the Industrial Revolution. Also since then, I've managed to do crossover appearances with Eric Burns (Lord Sabre), Bill Paul (The Man With Two First Names), and a bit with Gary Olson (and then there was the Industrial Revolution, where almost EVERYBODY collaborated...). One of my ideas for this storyline involved taking one member of the team in a different direction. I think it's worked out well so far. I hope you enjoy reading this half as much as I enjoyed writing it. Anyway, here's a brief synopsis of events in the other storylines to date--this is all you need to know to understand this story. ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 19 July 1994 20:36:30 CST Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Robotech_Master Organization: Team M.E.C.H.A. Secret Headquarters Subject: Synopsis of Other Storylines Spectrum (by Lawrence Brown): Spectrum (Lawrence Brown) was somehow sucked into an interdimensional vortex from his computer lab, meeting and touching his Authorself, another Lawrence Brown, in transit. From this touch, he gained a rather unpredictable power--the ability to produce all sorts of strange things by saying the word "Edit" (and the Author Lawrence Brown was temporarily sapped of some of his Editing power). Spectrum next appeared in a warehouse in Bob City, where scientist Hans K. Cheef was working on a suit of power armor. After fighting off Zoomer androids under the command of the Brothers Science by using his power to generate any kind of energy, Spectrum inadvertently summoned a cartoon fox and rabbit (among other things) by saying "Edit." Dr. Cheef was working on power armor, hoping to sell it to the government, but he had a problem: any power source he could design would be much too bulky for the armor. However, Spectrum was a natural power source, so Cheef could build the armor without a generator, thus defrauding the government by making it appear to work without all that bulk and buying him time to come up with a power source that would work. The Dr.s Science wanted the design. Space Moose (by Daniel Pawtowski): His background largely unexplained, Space Moose and his Dalek companion Benedict Arnold fight crime from their hidden base in Canada. Space Moose's methods of fighting crime are somewhat unorthodox and tend to result in a great deal of collateral damage. His voice, by the way, is not that of Bullwinkle, but rather the voice of Space Ghost and Dynamutt's Blue Falcon. Force Ten (By Jesse Taylor): The history of Force Ten is long and involved enough to be a story by itself. Force Ten itself actually doesn't come into the main crossover storyline, but its villains do. Suffice it to say that Admiral Morgan was a runner up for Most Evil Woman in the Galaxy, and she has designs upon first the world and then the universe. She, Sir Gerbre of Llermere (a maxed-out AD&D character), and Anime Freak (one of Jesse Taylor's character personifications) run TONN (That Other News Network) and have a variety of evil schemes in the works. Though not technically a part of Force Ten, Alpha Veritech Pilot Ray Sterling and an Invid Hive were somehow shifted from altiverse 711ROBOTECH to altiverse 000SUPERGUY during a TV dimension series a long time ago. It was believed for a long time that they came from the TV dimension, but this has since been discovered to be untrue. The Invid Hive, run by Stage 5 Invid Garth and his subordinates, Stage 5 Invid Wayne and Marie, struck out in search of Protoculture and found it in the local 7-11. In the Slurpee machine, to be precise. Ray Sterling, with the aid of his mechanic Jake, managed to sneak into the Hive and dump the Invids' supply of mind-altering psychedelic drugs into the Hive Brain (it hasn't been the same since). In the aftermath, TONN was able to buy out the Invid Hive and has begun using it for its own evil schemes. Beyond that, it gets too complicated, and isn't all that relevant anyway. Force Ten has a long and snarled-up history behind it. Team M.E.C.H.A. (by Chris Meadows): If you don't know, go back and reread Team M.E.C.H.A. Trade Ether-Back #1. With that out of the way, all I have left to say is enjoy what you're about to read, and if you like it, please let us know! :) ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1993 16:04:59 CST Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Robotech_Master Organization: Team M.E.C.H.A. Secret Headquarters Subject: Team M.E.C.H.A. No. 12 (surprise!) TEAM M.E.C.H.A. SERIES: Part 12 of More than 11 By Robotech_Master, alias Chris Meadows A Story of High Technology, and High [insert tagline here] (How about 'High Stupidity'?) The Ozarks is a beautiful place. It's filled with gently rolling hills, covered with deep green forests, with crystal-clear streams and rivers running through them (except where Springfield dumps raw sewage into the James River). There are caves, and open fields, and trout hatcheries--all the stuff of a sportsman's dreams. There are even Tourist Attractions. Boy oh boy, are there tourist attractions. With the coming of Branson (aka Country Music Hell (TM)), southwest Missouri has become the Tourist Center of the Universe. Places like Silver Dollar City, affectionately referred to by Ozarks natives as "Steal-yer-Dollar City," or White Water, or Shepherd of the Hills, or any of the myriad music shows that run up and down that stretch of road variously referred to as Highway 76, or 76 Country Music Boulevard, or the 76 Strip. Music shows including such a variety of acts as Andy Williams, Ray Stevens, Jim Stafford, Roy Clark, Tony Orlando... But by far the most beautiful thing about the Ozarks region is that the price of gasoline usually stays below $1.00 per gallon. Over a clearing on one of the aforementioned gently rolling hills covered with deep green forest and crystal-clear streams and rivers hovered a large, battered transport jet. Its wings were angled 90 degrees back and its rearward thrusters vectored downward for a VTOL descent. On the flight deck, its five occupants were desperately trying to look as though they knew what they were doing. "We're losing power from thruster 7!" Adam called out from the copilot's seat. "Right. Boosting power to 2 and 5 to compensate!" In the pilot's seat, Mike punched some keys and shoved up a throttle lever. The jet lurched, and listed forty degrees to the right. "Or should that have been 1 and 4?" Mike wondered. "If this keeps up, I'm ejecting!" Sarah Conner announced from the auxiliary console where she was strapped in. Her finger hovered over the red safety cover on the emergency punchout switch. Summer was standing in one of the chairs, leaning against a flight deck window. "We're off course!" she announced. "We're about sixty feet too far to the right!" "Say 'about twenty meters too far to starboard,'" Lincoln corrected her. "It sounds more scientific." Summer turned her head from the window for a moment to give him a raspberry. "Correcting descent to port!" Mike announced, gripping the joystick with his right hand and pushing it over. "No problem. This is just like the flight simul--URK!!!" Mike pushed the stick a little too far, and the plane lurched once more to the left. Mike got it straightened back up again, barely. "Uh...altitude 200 feet...We're right on course...I think..." "Oh, for crying out loud." Lincoln got up, stomped up to Mike's control panel, reached over his shoulder, and punched the key marked "Automatic Pilot Computer". "Engage landing sequence," he said. The computer took over, landing the plane smoothly. "You didn't have to do that!" Mike complained. "If I'm ever going to learn how to fly this thing--" "Mike," Lincoln stated calmly, "Now Is Not The Time." "Uh, right." They all filed out of the landing bay as the automatic repair machines moved in to do their work. The estimate of how long it would take to complete repairs was in the neighborhood of one week. Great, Summer thought. A week. Not like they were likely to be going anywhere with it in the mean time anyway. They were all still a bit depressed from what they'd heard on the news. Several members of the Awesome Force either dead or out of action. Akane from CalForce gone crazy or something and planning to destroy the world. Some aliens causing fear and panic in New York (nothing new in THAT). Not the most auspicious time to become a superhero team. "So, what do we do now?" Mike wondered, taking a seat in the computerized control center of the secret headquarters. Adam shrugged. "A tour might be nice." "I think that what we should do first of all is contact the other superteams and offer to help them," Summer suggested. "I have a lot of top-secret videophone numbers in this issue of THE HEROES' HEADQUARTERS COMPANION." "Say, I thought that was THE HEROES' HOME COMPANION in episode 3," Mike remarked. "The author changed it because this makes more sense," Summer explained. "Anyway, are you with me?" Mike shrugged. "What the heck. It's better than sitting around depressed." He stood up and keyed the transceiver circuits. "All right, Summer. Punch in the first number." They decided to try the Awesome Force, CalForce, Team Cynical, the Adjusted League Unimpeachable, and the Defense Squad, for starters. However, none of them seemed to be home. They each received a message on their computer or answering machine that looked something like this: [Five people--Mike, Summer, Adam, Lincoln, Sarah--standing in a high-tech-looking control room.] MIKE: Hello, my name is Mike, and this is my sister Summer, and teammates Adam Douglas, Lincoln Douglas, and Sarah Conner [pointing]. SARAH: Not Sarah Conner [pointing], just Sarah Conner. MIKE: No, no, that [pointing] was just the author's stage direction, specifying that I was pointing to indicate who I was talking about. Now can we get on with this? SARAH: Sorry. MIKE: ...and Sarah Conner [pointing]. Together, we comprise Team M.E.C.H.A. SUMMER: We've heard about the problems everyone is having, and we just wanted to say that if there's any way we can help you, just give us a call. ADAM: Yeah. If we can help, we'll do it. MIKE: Guess that's about it. Talk to you later. [Waves, and cuts link.] "So, now what?" Adam asked after the one-sided vidphone conversations were finished. "I might as well show you to your rooms, I guess," Mike decided. "Come on, they're right down this corridor." Summer stayed behind in the control room as the others left, just sitting there staring at the blank screen. She sighed, yawned. "I think I'll go listen to Linda Rondstadt," she decided. WILL SUMMER GO LISTEN TO LINDA RONDSTAT? DOES IT MATTER? WHAT WILL BE THE OTHER HEROES' REACTIONS TO THE MESSAGES LEFT BY TEAM M.E.C.H.A. ON THEIR MACHINES? IS ANYBODY ELSE GOING TO WRITE SOMETHING? WHAT WILL HAPPEN AT THE ODD SCIENCE CONVENTION THAT WILL BE MENTIONED IN ISSUE #13? IS THE AUTHOR'S STYLE BEING UNDULY INFLUENCED BY THE CLASSIC SUPERGUY BITNIC ARCHIVES HE'S BEEN READING LATELY? ALL THIS, AND MORE TEAM M.E.C.H.A., COMING SOON, *ONLY* ON S U P E R G U Y Chris Meadows | "To expand, to grow, to colonize--this is simply CHM173S@SMSVMA | the DECEPTICON way! What would they have us DO? CHM173S@VMA.SMSU.EDU | Stand still? STAGNATE?" CMEADOWS@NYX.CS.DU.EDU | --Jhiaxus, Transformers Gen 2, #1 CMEADOWS@NOX.CS.DU.EDU | (I can't wait for #2! :) ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 23 Nov 1993 23:18:40 CST Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Robotech_Master Organization: Team M.E.C.H.A. Secret Headquarters Subject: Team M.E.C.H.A. No. 13 TEAM M.E.C.H.A. SERIES: Part 13 of More than 12 By Robotech_Master, alias Chris Meadows A Story of High Technology, and High Technology (Ain't recursiveness wonderful?) It was arguably the biggest thing to hit Springfield since John Goodman had given the Homecoming speech at Southwest Missouri State University, his alma mater. It was the "First Annual Odd Science Convention." There would be new inventions and technological innovations on display from many of the world's premiere inventors and innovators. Scientists would be on hand to explain new discoveries, and other scientists would be on hand to translate the first scientists' explanations into something that laymen could understand. Some of the scheduled displays included a full-sized replica of the original Awesome Ginsu power armor, a Qwyntor hyperspace drive replica, and even a display on the known properties of the Damn Thing (those known properties that were deemed safe to reveal to the general public, that is). It had been rumored that Andy Awesome had originally been supposed to attend, but with the recent disastrous events that had befallen the Awesome Force, this was now understood to be quite impossible. Besides, it had probably never been true to begin with. But nonetheless, this was to be a very auspicious event for Springfield. And there were many people who had it in mind to attend. Including a small-time punk named Harry DiLaren. Harry actually had some brains, and scientific knowhow, from reading some of the books that Andy Awesome had written about elementary physics and genetic mutations. He didn't know very much, but a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. And he had recently acquired one piece of knowledge that pleased him greatly: the Qwyntor hyperdrive replica on display would not BE a replica; it would be the real thing. And DiLaren had read about this drive. That the exposure to raw hyperspace could have some...interesting effects. It had created Silicon of Solutions? Incorporated, and had perhaps played a role in a recent empowerization of an individual who had happened to be near Qwyntor's shuttlecraft's landing site. DiLaren made his plans. He WOULD have that hyperdrive, he knew he would. A black windowless van moved up the Hammons Parkway in Springfield, Missouri. At the wheel was Mike, of Team M.E.C.H.A., and Adam Douglas was in the shotgun seat. On the bench-styled seats placed along the sides in the back, Lincoln and Sarah Conner were competing at Tetris on a couple of handcomps they'd had the base computer whip up for them. Summer was reading some files on a similar handcomp, avoiding getting carsick through force of habit. "I still don't see why we're going to this," Adam complained. "Because for one thing, it's cheap," Mike replied. "And for another, there's a lot of superhero stuff around. We could learn from all this. Besides, we haven't gotten any responses to our messages yet." "I'd rather be back at the base, using the mecha simulators," Adam grumbled. "Relax, we're almost there." Mike turned the corner into the University Plaza Holiday Inn parking lot. "You guys ready?" "Sure," and "Right," were the responses from Lincoln and Sarah, respectively. Summer nodded, "Mm-hmm," without taking her eyes off of the monitor. They climbed out of the van, and Mike locked it up and put the keys in his pocket. "All right, let's go." They walked across the parking lot, with Summer trailing behind, glancing up infrequently from her handcomp. She was really engrossed in the story, and nearly walked into a wall. "Hey, wait! Guys, wait for me..." Summer turned the computer off and dropped it into the big shoulder bag that served as her purse, running after the rest of her teammates. Summer thought that the convention was interesting. She was mainly drawn to the various superhero-related equipment, such as the Awesome Ginsu armor model, the Damn Thing photo display, and other items like that. But one display she also found quite interesting was the nanotech display just next to the Qwyntor hyperspace engine replica. The display consisted of a large glass jar or vat set into the center of a high-tech computerized console. Inside the jar was a sort of a silvery mercurial substance that fluctuated in response to commands from the console's keyboard. "What is it doing?" she asked the scientist-type guy operating it (who looked just a bit like Steven King). "Well, the electromagnetic impulses transmitted from the--" the scientist began. Then he noticed that it was a 14-year-old who was asking, and started over, trying to simplify the explanation so that she could understand it. "What I'm doing is entering mathematical equations into the keyboard here." He tapped the qwerty keyboard set into the device. "These equations are translated into electronic information and sent to the nanites' processing units, where they are interpreted as instructions." "What does that do?" Summer asked, genuinely interested. "Well, the way I've got it set up, it does 3-dimensional graphs. You know what those are?" "I've had some algebra," Summer replied. "Ah, good. Well, you see, when the nanites receive their instructions, they will form together into that shape." Summer pulled out her handcomp and called up one of her old 3-D graphing homework files on it. "I never could get this problem right. Can it do that?" The scientist took the computer, glanced at it. "Absolutely. Watch!" His fingers clattered over the console's keyboard as he fed the instructions into the machine. The silvery substance within the jar shimmered and formed into a statuesque mathematical structure. "Ooooh," Summer said. "So THAT'S how you do that one...That's neat! I want one!" The scientist chuckled. "Isn't it amazing?" His voice carried the excitement of a man who retained a child-like fascination about this new miracle science had brought forth, even when he had been integrally involved in the miracle's creation. "And they have many more uses than just 3-D modeling." "Oh?" asked Summer, thoroughly engrossed now. "Like what?" "Well, maybe ten or twenty years down the line, we'll have advanced them to the point where they can be used in factories, to build things from their molecular components. Or maybe in surgery. Oh, there are a billion uses, believe you me. They're just out there, waiting to be discovered." "What exactly are these...nanites?" Summer asked, pointing to the silvery substance. "Microscopic machines, essentially. They're each about the size of a single cell, and each has its own processing unit built in." "These nanites--are they--alive?" The scientist shook his head. "No, I don't THINK so. But then, there's no way really to be sure, is there? I helped create them, and even I'm not sure entirely what they're capable of. It's kind of scary, actually." Summer shivered. "Then...do you think they could be dangerous, if they fell into the wrong hands?" The scientist chuckled. "Young lady, that's one of the most tired cliches that ever there was. Any writer using that one these days ought to be laughed right out of print. ANYTHING can be dangerous in the 'wrong hands.' But just whose hands are those, anyway?" "You could be right," Summer grinned. But she had a funny feeling about these nanites. Little did she know how they were soon to alter her life... Chris Meadows | "It wasn't your fault; it was the will of the CHM173S@SMSVMA | Authors. Like private parts to them are we; they CHM173S@VMA.SMSU.EDU | play with us for their pleasure." CMEADOWS@NYX.CS.DU.EDU | --high-jinx, Original AWESOME FORCE #102 CMEADOWS@NOX.CS.DU.EDU | by Bill Paul, The Man With Two First Names ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 28 Nov 1993 17:13:03 CST Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Robotech_Master Organization: Team M.E.C.H.A. Secret Headquarters Subject: Team M.E.C.H.A. No. 14 (Double Length Special!) TEAM M.E.C.H.A. SERIES: Part 14 of More than 13 *Second Double Length Special* By Robotech_Master, alias Chris Meadows A Story of High Technology, and a High Special-Effects Budget (What, have you finally given the narrator a raise?) Mike was looking over the Awesome Ginsu power armor replica at about the same time that Summer was questioning the nanotechnician. He was rather disappointed that the armor suit was obviously made out of cheap plastic, but at least it was a perfect replica, or so the display placard proudly proclaimed. And it would be possible to tell quite a bit about this armor's construction from just the external views. It seemed to have a somewhat higher level of technology than his Bahamode or Cyclones, but then, that was to be expected from a technological genius like Silly Wizzard. Or Superuser, as he apparently called himself now. Mike examined the armor mockup closely, taking detail notes on a handcomp similar to Summer's. Lincoln Douglas had given the nanotechnological display a once-over, but was much more interested in a microchip exhibit nearby. These new chips would allegedly increase the power of a mainframe computer by 50 to 60%. Be a nice thing to have for the base...if they could only afford it. But none of them really had much money at the moment--what could they do? Sheesh, they didn't even have JOBS. This led Lincoln to wonder exactly how it was that superheroes supported themselves. It was probably going to take quite a bit of money to keep up the base alone. He resolved to speak with Mike about this later on. Adam Douglas was over at the high-tech firearms panels, drooling, and feeling glad that he'd come after all. There was this new mini plasma rifle that Militech had come up with that he would just have LOVED to get his hands on. Never mind that the M.E.C.H.A. team's weapons were much more powerful for the most part; he just wanted to feel that gun in his hands. He pantomimed holding the gun and sighting down its barrel as he imagined what it would be like, and then squeezed off an imaginary blast. "Yeah!" Sarah Conner wasn't really very interested in any of the stuff at the tables. She looked around for a bit, then decided to go back out to the van and take a look around town. Mike wouldn't mind, especially since she'd brought her own transportation with them. She was just moving toward the door, when... KER-BLAM! The door exploded inward, and eight Uzi-toting thugs burst in. They fired full-auto bursts into the ceiling, and several light bulbs shattered. Most of the people in the convention center got rather friendly with the floor tiles, with the exception of the armed security guards, who grabbed for their revolvers or auto pistols. Most of them were too late; the thugs saw them and aced them with the Uzis. "Gah!" Mike muttered, dropping behind the Awesome Ginsu display. His handcomp went skittering off along the floor. "Why didn't I bring my gun?!" He glanced around. The thugs were covering all the exits, and the only armament Mike could hope to get to was in the van. Which was in the parking lot. Summer and the scientist were crouching next to the nanotech display. The scientist looked extremely nervous. "If one of those shots were to hit the containment jar..." "That would be bad, right?" Summer asked, unzipping a compartment on her purse. "I don't know," the slightly-nerdy scientist responded. "At best, it would mean the loss of a great deal of my work...at worst, I can't say what the effects might be." "Why did you bring such a risk to the convention, then?" Summer asked. "Hey, a guy's gotta pay the bills somehow, especially when this stuff cost as much as it did to develop. Hey, what're you doing?" Summer produced a small laser pistol, about half the size of the Gallant H-90, sized to fit perfectly into her hand. "My job," Summer replied, taking aim around the corner of the console display. The thugs had spread out to cover all the exits, and now another person had entered through the shattered door. He was of medium height, with brown hair and a rather preoccupied expression on his face, and also carried an Uzi. "At last. The Qwyntor engine is now mine." "But that's just a mockup," the exhibit attendant protested. "It's not real, and certainly isn't worth all this--" BRRRRAAAAP! "--urk!" Gun smoking, the man stepped up to the engine. "Ah, baby, come to papa..." Summer squinted down the gun barrel at one of the Uzi-toting thugs. She hesitated. This was another HUMAN BEING she was shooting, not just some faceless soldier like it had been back in Garrett Falls. She didn't know if she could bring herself to do this. But then she saw Mike out of the corner of her eye. He looked at her, and nodded. She could see that he was ready to run for an exit if she would just take out the guy guarding it. Summer nodded back and aimed the gun once more, with a new resolve. ZARK! ZARK! The first thug fell, and then another. Summer started looking around. If she could get out to the parking lot somehow, to her hardsuit...ZARK! Harry DiLaren, the guy with the brown hair, had picked up the engine now, and was being covered by two of his thugs. And then the laser fire started, as he backed toward the nanotech display. Summer would have shot him, but the large console was in her way. "Hey! Who's shooting!" "She's behind that thing!" one of the thugs yelled. "Get her!" And they opened up on it. Summer fired a few more shots, then made a mad dash for the door, 9mm bullets ricocheting off the floor and walls all around her. "Hey!" DiLaren yelled as streams of bullets passed within inches. "What the hell (TM) are you doing!" A nearby bullet caused him to drop the hyperspace engine, narrowly missing his foot. "Shit!" Other bullets shattered the nanite containment jar, but Summer didn't notice--she was out the door. Meanwhile, Adam Douglas had dived behind the heavy weapons display the instant the shooting had started. The rather frightened attendant was curled up in a fetal position gibbering; it was rather easy to lift the keys to the display cases from his belt. Still crouched down behind the display cases, he unlocked them and slid the door aside. He reached in, grasped that plasma rifle he'd wanted to get his hands on. And there were a couple of energy clips there, too, and they were reading full charges...all RIGHT! Mike had considered making a run for it, but he'd missed his chance. The thugs were now more vigilant than ever, and one of them had been sent out to deal with Summer before she could get any help. Mike chuckled, noticing that Sarah Conner had also managed to slip out, unnoticed. By some odd coincidence, it just happened that those two had absolutely INSISTED on bringing their mecha along. Summer had tried to explain something about Max Vax and a poetry reading, but he hadn't understood. But now he was beginning to. If those two could just get to their mecha, they could probably salvage the situation. Meanwhile, as DiLaren bent to pick up the hyperdrive engine, he noticed that indicator lights had suddenly started flashing rather ominous shades of yellow and red. "Shit! The fall must have activated it! It's going to overload!" He also noticed the silvery goop from the containment jar getting all over it, but that paled in comparison to what this other problem meant. "What do we do, boss?" one of his thugs asked him. "Run like hell (TM)," Harry DiLaren decided. "I'll go first; you boys cover me." "Right, boss." Meanwhile, Summer was running for the van at all possible speed. An Uzi-toting thug was running after her. "Hey, you! Stop! Oof!" The last comment was prompted by being tripped by the long female leg that extended out of a doorway. Sarah Conner stepped out, grabbed the Uzi from the unconscious thug's hand, and tossed it as far away as she could. Summer opened the door to the van without delay and climbed inside. She opened a small metallic locker in the back and started pulling on her hardsuit. There was no time to waste, none at all! And then she felt a hand on her shoulder, spun around, bringing up her gun. Then she sighed in relief, noticing the hand only belonged to Sarah Conner. "You scared me." "Yeah, well, it's a scary situation all around, isn't it? Out of the way, I've got to get my Cyclone." The scared civilians began to get to their feet as the last of the thugs dashed out the destroyed door. There was a lot of muttering, as well as several people going over to examine the injured. "Someone call an ambulance!" Mike ran over to the nanotech display, where the engine had fallen. "This thing's no mockup, it's REAL!" he said. "And it's going to detonate in, oh, I'd say two minutes or so..." Lincoln remarked. "I think we should get everyone out of here." "What's that silvery stuff all over it?" Adam asked. He was still carrying the plasma rifle; apparently no one had noticed thus far that it was missing from the display case. "I don't know, but I don't think you should touch it," Mike suggested. Then Summer and Sarah burst in. "What, are they all gone now?" Summer asked, filtered voice carrying disappointment. "Yeah, they're gone, but this isn't." Mike pointed to the engine. "And it's going to explode! We've got to get everyone out of here!" Summer walked up to it, hardsuit gleaming. "How long we got?" she asked. "About a minute thirty," Lincoln replied. "You'll never get all these people out of here in that time," Summer said. In that one instant, Summer was faced with a dilemma that shook her to the very core. If she didn't do anything, all these innocent people could die. But the only thing she could think of TO do might very well kill her. It all came down to what being a hero meant to her. Being a hero meant putting others first, never yourself, even if it meant giving your life. That was what she believed. So there was only one thing she could do. "Out of the way." Summer lifted up the engine. It was surprisingly lightweight, but she could carry it. She'd noticed the silver slime on it, which now oozed out over her arms, but she paid it no heed. "What are you--" Mike began. "Goodbye, Mike." Summer fired her jets and blasted out through the destroyed doors. She headed for the sky. "Sarah, go after her!" Mike yelled. Sarah Conner nodded, shifted the RL-6 cannon to her shoulder, and rocketed out after her. "Well, I guess I might as well put this back." Adam Douglas turned to walk over to the arms display--and then several of the walls burst inward as silvery-skinned humanoids rocketed in, firing from weapons located at various places on their bodies. The civilians exchanged, "Oh, hell (TM), not AGAIN!" looks and hit the deck once more. "What the hell (TM)--Bumas?" Mike sputtered. "No," Lincoln responded, ducking. "I saw these in a technology magazine the other day. They're called Zoomers!" "Oh, bloody wonderful," Mike muttered, joining Lincoln on the floor. "We're being shot at by misnamed anime 'bots." Summer rocketed upward into the sky, carrying the overloading hyperdrive engine cradled in her arms. The silvery goop was trailing off of it in streamers, and oozing all over her hardsuit, but she couldn't be concerned with that. What she planned to do was carry it high up, then release it and get clear just before it exploded. She wasn't sure what kind of a blast radius it would have, or what the effects would be. She just had to hope that no one would be hurt by it. Including herself. Sarah Conner hovered two hundred feet off the ground, at the limit of her suit's flight capabilities. Unlike Summer's augmented rocket pack, her thrusters were not built for extended flights. All she could do was gaze worriedly after Sarah as she flew ever higher. Unbeknownst to Summer or Sarah (or anyone, in fact), the nanites inside the hyperspace engine and all over Summer's hardsuit had plans of their own. They could sense the impending release of hyperspatial energies, and were making their plans to tap, to harness these energies. They would direct it, modify it, and transmute it to their own purposes, when it came... While everyone else crouched on the floor, Adam Douglas was standing up. The plasma rifle was cradled in his arms, the charge was full, the safety was off, and he was ready to ROCK AND ROLL!!! Since everyone except the Zoomers was on the ground, he had a largely-unobstructed field of fire. So, he opened up, holding down the trigger and turning slowly, creating a deadly arc of fire. Zoomer after Zoomer exploded, but others began firing at HIM! Also, massive holes started showing up in the walls from all this massive energy weapon fire, and the structural integrity of the building was beginning to become rather questionable. Adam dived to the side to avoid a particle beam blast, reflecting that the life of a hero wasn't always as easy as it should have been. Mike made up his mind as the two nearer Zoomers exploded. He was out the door! Half-crouching, he took off at a sprint, avoiding the various bits of debris and civilians on the floor. Before any of the few remaining Zoomers could notice, he was gone. At the van, he reached into the glove compartment and grabbed his Gallant pistol. It wasn't a heck of a great weapon in this situation, but it was better than nothing. Mike found himself wishing he'd been able to bring the M.E.C.H.A. jet, or at least his Bahamode. "I guess I'll learn, eventually, that once you become a hero, heroic situations will pop up around every corner, whether you're ready or not," he sighed. "That must be what Summer meant." As Lincoln joined him, Mike grabbed the radio mike from the dashboard. "Mike to Summer or Sarah Conner. What's going on up there?" "Sarah here. I can't really tell. She's flying higher and higher...wait, she's let it go and is rocketing back--oh, shit, it's glowing--cover your eyes!" There was a brilliant white flash as part of hyperspace temporarily occupied a position in realspace. Over a period of nanoseconds, the globe expanded to encompass Summer's hardsuit. When it faded, she was gone. WHERE DID SUMMER GO? WILL SPRING, FALL, AND WINTER SOON FOLLOW? (SORRY...) WILL THE ESCAPE OF THE NANITES HAVE ANY SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES? CAN _ANYTHING_ BE CONSIDERED TO HAVE "SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES" WHEN THE ENTIRE WORLD IS ABOUT TO BE DESTROYED BY RADIAN ANYWAY? IS THE AUTHOR GOING TO CALL ANYTHING THAT GOES OVER 200 LINES A "DOUBLE-LENGTH SPECIAL?" ISN'T THIS KIND OF SILLY CONSIDERING THAT OTHER SERIES' ENTRIES TEND TO GET THAT LONG ANYWAY? WHEN IS THE AUTHOR GOING TO GET HIS MIND OFF OF SUPERGUY AND ONTO THE TERM PAPER HE SHOULD BE WRITING? MAYBE SOME OF THIS, AND VARIOUS OTHER WEIRD STUFF, COMING UP SOMETIME SOON ON S U P E R G U Y (Comments Welcome) Chris Meadows | "It wasn't your fault; it was the will of the CHM173S@SMSVMA | Authors. Like private parts to them are we; they CHM173S@VMA.SMSU.EDU | play with us for their pleasure." CMEADOWS@NYX.CS.DU.EDU | --high-jinx, Original AWESOME FORCE #102 CMEADOWS@NOX.CS.DU.EDU | by Bill Paul, The Man With Two First Names ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1993 12:31:32 PST Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Lawrence Brown Subject: SG: SPECTRUM #3 (1/2) SPECTRUM Episode #3 by the Amigoid Spectrum trudged along the sidewalk towards the darker side of Bob City. The rain was a slow mist, dampening the air and deepening his moody spirits. This wasn't normal for Lawrence. He liked Bob City, and he liked the rain; it reminded him of the thundershowers back in Oklahoma, where he lived and worked, where his wife was. Wife. He stopped and leaned against a lamp post and listened to the cool moan of a saxophone, somewhere up ahead on the sidewalk wringing out a blues riff. Wife. What wife? He tried to picture her in his head, and couldn't. He couldn't even remember her name. He looked at his hand and examined the wedding ring. That was there. So the rest must be true. He was about resolved to talk about this when he got home, when he realized he couldn't remember where it was or even what city it was in for certain. Sure, he could remember the place he was staying at NOW, with Doctor Cheef, but he felt more like he was visiting a friend, or staying at a roommate's place. Cheef's place wasn't home. Spectrum walked on, towards the sound of the sax. It was the same song every night. He didn't care. It still sounded right. He pulled out his wallet and crumpled a couple bills, pitching them into the man's case as the dredlocked musician fingered and rocked the sax like a intimate lover. The man paused, smiled "thanks brother...how goes it tonight?" The music continued... then stopped in mid-note as the man pointed the remote towards his boom box. "Fine Milli, just out for some pizza and some fresh air." "Hang in there man, tomorrow is going to better, I guar-ron-tee it." Spectrum grinned and nodded. Same song. Same promise every evening, but sometimes thats just what a person needs to keep going. _________________________________________ Dr. Weird Science looked across at his brother, Dr. Pseudo Science, as they mulled over the data recovered from the zoomer skull. "Incredible. He must have designed a zoomer of his own to protect him from attack. His armor must be better than he claims if he can afford that kind of technology." Pseudo looked back. He was bent over a table, applying another layer of pseudoskin on a zoomer robot. He gestured towards a stack of papers marked *DOD Classified Materials - ManCo. PoWerArmor Proposal* He shook his head. "Some of his descriptions are impressive, but there are too many holes in the report, not enough details to be of any use to us. Too bad we lost track of him." Weird smiled. He picked up a flyer and said, "Thats ok. We can get what we want from him when he puts it on display at the ODD SCIENCE Convention. We'll just take the armor, the plans, and anything else we want. Nobody will expect us to strike then. But then, how can any normal human compete with two of the most brilliant criminal minds in the country, two geniuses that have Doctorates..." "Masters Degrees..." "...MASTERS degrees, in SCIENCE!" "You know bro, there will probably be supers there. Maybe some kid will get bitten by a radioactive gerbil or something, and then we'll need a diversion." "Don't worry. We have these three Zoomers left to deal with any budding Gerbil-Boys or whatever. Plus I've called in some local talent. We'll meet them at the show, five teenage farm kids looking for trouble, and more than willing to mess up a geek-fest like this Convention. "Heh. Yes, you know, it was a shame we had to escape from the Really- Really-Hard-to-Get-Out-Of-Place like we did. I was looking forward to our other escape plan we had. By the way... did you ever recall that Zoomer Rat that you programmed to sneak in and help break us out?" Weird Science swallowed. "Um. No, I forgot about him. Oh well, maybe whoever ends up in our cell when the Rat gets there will find a use for it." ----------------------------------------------------- Spectrum looked ahead towards the friendly glow of Louie-Louie's Pizza and Karaoke Bar, one of the only all night Karaoke bars that didn't have a Japanese theme. As a result most of the time the place was busy with Asian businessmen, and college students hungry for a late night snack. It was a interesting mix, but somehow it worked. A cold breeze blew down the street and Spectrum jammed his pockets deeper into the trenchcoat. In his left pocket he felt his fur mittens. A second later he remembered he didn't have mittens, just as he felt tiny teeth nip at the offending hand. "YEEAOUCH!" Spectrum jerked his hand out, and a small cartoon fox poked her head out of the pocket and jumped down to the sidewalk. The two foot tall fox looked at him in mock anger. Putting on her best Mae West voice, she said, "Watch where you poke that thing, big boy, we've hardly met!" "Uh, um I uh" "Linguistic I see..." "Foxy, how did you sneak in my coat?" "Hey its pretty easy, you left in a bit of a funk. What's wrong?" "Its this new power of mine. Every time I say...um, every time I say a certain word, strange things happen. Inflatable Penguins, Fudge, Cartoon Animals.. I don't know what is happening. Its really odd. ...I think its somehow linked to when I jumped across altiverses, and came over from the real world to here. When I met my author. I think I siphoned off some of his powers but I have no control over it." Foxy reached into a pocket somewhere within her furry body and pulled out a large umbrella. She looked up at Spectrum and smiled. "So, where are we going, big guy?" Spectrum grinned at her. "You like pizza?" "You buyin'?" "Only if you tell me how you do that." "Do what?" She asked innocently. "Pull out an umbrella out of a pocket." "Hey, I'm a toon. I'm not from around these parts you know. Normal laws of physics don't apply. Remember that old Coyote guy? Master of Toon Physics, but a bit of a jerk. Cheapskate too, never picked up the tab. Go figure." "Thats pretty weird." Foxy turned, scrambled up a lamp post and parachuted down onto his shoulder. "This coming from a guy who shoots flames out of his hands and stuff? You get real. Obviously *normal* physics aren't your bag too. What's the Doc told you? I assume he's examined you from head to toe, not that I wouldn't mind doing it myself, know what I mean?" "You really surprise me with that kind of talk, a little girl like you..." "LITTLE? Yes. But hey, I'm 30. Remember, we don't really age, we just go into reruns. Unless people forget about us. As for the rest, hey I'm a vixen, sue me." She licked his ear. "Mmmm. Old Spice." The pair found a booth upstairs in the front and shared a 'Gooey Louie' Meat-lovers Special with extra cheese. Foxy amused and entertained the pair trying to get the cheese out of her fur afterwards. She sighed a contented sigh as she downed a cold beer. "Ahhh. We don't get many chances to swig a good beer, bad influence for the kiddies, doncha know. So Mr. SuperHeroPerson, what kind of energy CAN you project?" Spectrum shrugged, "We've run some tests, I can project, heat and light and cold and sound and such." He ignited a finger with a small flame and held his hand over it. "Apparently I'm not affected by my own powers in any destructive way. I can warm myself or cool myself, but I can't hurt myself." "What about kinetic energy? Inertial energy? Nervous energy?" "Huh. I hadn't tried those. Here, slide that salt shaker towards me." Foxy complied and Spectrum concentrated on reversing the kinetic energy. The salt shaker wobbled, and started sliding the other way. "Wow." Foxy looked out the window and whispered, "How about anti-thief energy?" "Wha? There's no such thing." "Too bad, the guy at the Quickie Mart store could use some!" She pointed a small furry paw out the window at the store across the street. "Looks like its Super-Dude time. Lets go!" "OK, but you stay back. Last thing I need is for you to get shot full of holes." Foxy looked at the readers with a mischievous grin, "He's kidding, right?" --------------------------------- Later back at the lab, everyone was bustling about storing things in boxes and loading them into the back of a rental van. Everyone except Fuzzy, who was reading the Wall Street Journal and watching the news. Doctor Hans K. Cheef was checking each item off on his clipboard as things were loaded aboard. He glanced at Spectrum, who was wearing his new armor. "How is the armor functioning, Spectrum?" "Its working fine Doc. I have to keep reminding myself to keep firing power into the suit receptors to keep everything on line. Aside from that, its great, man." "Very good. That is about the last of the equipment from my original prototype and all the data sheets and videotapes is loaded, we need to get on the road. We have a long drive ahead of us, and I want to be at the Odd Science Convention early to set up." Foxy piped up, "I'll go get the Rabbit, then we can get out of here." Foxy walked into the living room. There was Fuzzy, writing some notes to himself. He looked up. "Hey, why don't you guys go without me. I've got some ideas I'd like to check out downtown at the local TV station. I have a feeling I could really make it big in this town, my own show, residuals, more control over story line, and of course the whole toy market angle..." Foxy twitched her tail impatiently, "You know Fuzzy, you have been no help at all since we got here. Now Spectrum is going to get to show off his armor for the first time to the world and you don't care?" "EH, tell it to someone who cares. I'm calling the shots for myself now; I'm not just the product of some wacked cartoonist who works too late and never gets home in time for dinner and whose sole purpose in life is to try to figure out how to drop an anvil on my head in a new and funny way!" "Watch it Buns. Spectrum brought you here, he might just send you back!" Fuzzy turned off the TV, which was replaying footage of the Quickie Mart thieves being hauled to jail. One was badly scorched, another was barely moving, and the third was babbling incoherently about shooting a dog that kept on coming. "No I mean it, Foxy, tell them I really don't feel like going. You can have fun with your boy toy all to yourself." Foxy glared at him, and the fur on her neck bristled. "FINE! Have it your way. And he's not my boy toy, I don't think he realizes I've got a crush on him. He's so cute, and I think he really likes me to as a friend but..." She stretched her arms out "...we are just not built for each other." Outside, Spectrum ran a system check, scanning up and down the visual spectrum, flipping through radio frequencies and checking out the readouts on the hydraulic boosters of the ManCo. PoWerArmor. The armor was a work of art. It was much more true to human form than the original suit had been, but since there was no need to install power supplies, it could be much more sleek. [Imagine one of the more modern versions of Iron Man, crossed with the smooth styling of a Knight Saber powersuit. There you go.] The armor was pure white, with a rainbow colored stripe tracing diagonally from his left shoulder to his right hip. The mask covered the upper half of his face with in black [Imagine Wolverine's Mask] with two white trailing points. The entire face could be covered with a mouthpiece that sealed shut retracting in from the sides, making an airtight seal. Under each arm from shoulder to forearm was a gauzy material 'Glide Enhancers' the good doctor called them. Spectrum walked over to Hans and Foxy. "Doc, if its ok with you I'm going to fly overhead along the way, ok? Foxy, where is Fuzzy?" Foxy shrugged and climbed up into the cab of the truck. "He's not going." Hans looked at Spectrum, "I am sick of that freeloader. Foxy I can tolerate, but not that Bunny. I wanted him to pass out flyers." Sighing he climbed into the drivers side of the truck. "No matter. Watch the indicators, and give me some traffic reports from above." Spectrum concentrated, and with the roar of energy, rocketed up into the air. His suit radio crackled and the sound of Foxy's voice was in his ear. "Breaker Breaker Spectrum, you've got the Foxy Lady, come on..." "Good grief Foxy, thats pretty corny. What's up?" "You mean besides you? Nothing, I was just calling for Hans to see if you had anything to report, suit or traffic or otherwise..." "Tell him everything is functioning fine. Flying like this is a kick! I love it! Sometimes I never want to come down. Comm systems check out fine, and I've scanned the highway and its clear for miles." "Spectrum, this is Hans. Have you checked out all the military bands?" In the background, Spectrum heard Foxy playing a march on a kazoo. "Ach! Not that kind of band, you nut! Spectrum, did you hear me?" "Sure Hans. Some of them are scrambled, but the descrambler system picks it up after a few seconds, then its clear. Looks like they are picking me up on Radar, but they don't seem to be paying much attention to me. Hey, some of the news radio stations are reporting all kinds of major disturbances all over the big cities, maybe after the convention I could go check them out?" "We'll see. We must make a good impression at the Convention, I must get someone to fund my work, or else we are out on the street soon. I hope the Defense Department will be there, I sent some mail to them, with some photos and documentation from the original armor." Foxy turned to the Doctor, "But Hans, that suit doesn't work. The only reason Spectrum's suit works is because *he's* the power supply." "You know that and I know that, but the DOD won't know that", Hans chuckled, and by the time they do, I'll already have a big fat contract and then I can work the bugs out later...." Much Later, he thought to himself, perhaps when I'm in Switzerland, drawing interest on the bank account. He caught the puzzled look from Foxy and sighed. "Now now, this is how things work in this world. Trust me. Spectrum has his costume, you have a job, and I will get the money I need to perfect my PoWerArmor. Everyone will be happy and the Army will have their new weapon." Foxy leaned back in her child's seat and went to sleep, a little bit worried, a little bit tired, and a little bit uncertain what to expect next. ------------------------------------- CONTINUED IN PART 2, coming up next! -- ************************************************************************* * All programmers are playwrights and all computers are lousy actors. * ************************************************************************* Lawrence H. Brown HW Release Lab Admin. lbrown@cisco.com (415)688-4487 Homephone: (408)984-6036 If its urgent: Digital Pager: (415)599-8663 Keywords: VideoToaster!, Champs, Dolphins, Mechforce, Networks, Omaha, Probe ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1993 12:34:57 PST Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Lawrence Brown Subject: SG: SPECTRUM #3 (2/2) Continued from Part ONE: Dr. Weird Science stood stoically while his brother raved at him, standing outside the ODD Science Convention's loading dock. "I can't believe this! What kind of bozos are these kids? Its a damn good thing I was able to come up with some more spare parts and get another half dozen Zoomers online." The larger of the kids pulled the piece of straw from between his teeth and grabbed the Doctor by the lapels. Glaring into his eyes, he said, "Whut?" Weird gestured, and another of the five kids came over and grabbed the big teenager's hand. "LET GO BILLY-JOE-JIM-BOB! He is yer boss!" The big teen let go, and thought slowly about that. He looked at the other one and said, "Whut? Uh, okiedoke.." Dr. Pseudo Science glared at the hulking idiot and straightened his lab coat. "Who are these kids again?" Weird pointed to them, lining them up in a row: "This one is big, BILLY-JOE-JIM-BOB. Hates smarter people." "That must mean he hates everyone." Weird continued, BILLY-JOE-JIM-BOB grinned like a proud idiot. "This one is a scrapper, JOE-BOB-JIMBO, he drives a tractor." "This one is fast with a gun, BOBBY-JOE-JIMBO." "This one is a expert with crops, JIMMY-JIM-BO-JOE" "That's totally useless for our needs..." JIMMY-JIM-BO-JOE leapt up, and swung an nasty looking scythe. "...however he does show promise..." Weird continued, turning to a pretty girl in pigtails and cutoffs. "And this is Pinto Sally, she's good with animals and men." Dr. Pseudo grinned, "No comment. Well, can we count on them to create a diversion outside and keep the police busy?" JOE-BOB-JIMBO spoke up, "Yep, and ah'm gonna hitch my tractor to yer rig and tow it outta here pronto, when y'all have loaded up all that Sci-fi wimpy boy junk." "Ok then, we'll pay you after we're done here and you 5 can keep the local police out of our way. OK?" "Whut?" Weird sighed. "Fight Cops. Stomp people. Have fun." Slowly the message reached BILLY-JOE-JIM-BOB's brain and he nodded. BOBBY-JOE-JIMBO grinned, "Huh-uh-huh-huh, yeah, that'll be cool." JIMMY-JIM-BO-JOE grinned, "Yeah, hu-huh-huh, maybe we can start a fire." Psuedo whispered to Weird, "*Don't tell me _where_ you got these kids, I _don't_ want to know!*" He began leading the Zoomers towards the rear entrance. "But..." "I DON'T WANT TO KNOW!" --------------------------------------- "Now Ladies and Gentlemen as you can see, the ManCo. PoWerArmor represents the state of the art in defensive armor and offensive weapon systems. My assistant here will demonstrate with another prototype of the PoWerArmor some of the system's capabilities." Spectrum walked over to a Yugo and picked it up with one hand. Then using the other he proceeded to crush the car into a small bale of metal. Then he melted it in half with a blast of plasma energy, froze the molten steel and peeled it off the floor. Hans continued his narration, "As you just saw, my PoWerArmor gives the wearer increased strength, and there is an incredible number of weapons available online for the wearer to choose from. How much would you pay for this kind of fire power? But wait, before you answer that question, there is more. The ManCo. PoWerArmor allows you to soar above the battlefield and deal with multiple threats from a strategic position!" Spectrum launched himself into the air, firing beams of light at different balloons placed around the meeting hall. This should attract some attention, Spectrum thought, as he popped each balloon with low intensity lasers, one by one. Landing back on the podium, Spectrum bowed to the applauding onlookers, and began to shake hands with people in the group, pausing to sign autographs or answer a question or two from the crowd. To Hans delight, some men in military uniforms came upto speak softly with him and he happily nodded and spoke eagerly to them. Someone tapped Spectrum on the shoulder and as Spectrum turned around, he found himself facing a young man holding what looked like a gameboy, but upon closer inspection was a handcomp. "Hi, I'm Link, what's your name?" "You can call me Spectrum. I work for Doctor Cheef over there, the designer of the ManCo. PoWerArmor." "What's with the Name? And why does he spell it that way?" "Eh? Well, um actually I am planning to start working as a superhero, its ManCo. since there is only one man working on the suit, and he capitalized the W as a typo, but then people kept using it that way, so it stuck. I guess he thought it looked cool, like when you have a cool acronym that doesn't mean anything." Link shuffled his feet back and forth, looking at his hand computer. "I was wondering what the Armor was made of. Or is it a secret." Spectrum grinned at the teen. He liked the guy, even though they'd just met. "Well, the good doctor could give you all the specs but I'll give you some info. Ever seen Bulletproof's armor? It has an outer layer of Starlite plastic, there's a plastic sealant, a layer of Kevlar, and then some armor plate, I forget what the stuff is made of, but its really tough." He reached over and tapped Hans on the shoulder, "Hans what was the interior of the armor built with?" Hans glanced at who Spectrum was talking to and hissed "Not now, I'm busy, the children wouldn't understand the technical descriptions, just tell them its 'really neato'." Spectrum turned to speak to Link, but the boy had already overheard and walked off in a huff. Spectrum darted towards Link. "Hey wait up! Look, don't let the doctor piss you off. He's all fired up about showing the stuff off to the military and he's not real patient with kids." Link glared back at the grey haired scientist and shrugged. "S'ok. He kind of reminds me of another scientist I met recently. You know, I ought to introduce you to Mike and Summer, they might be interested in talking to you." Spectrum shook the boy's hand and scribbled a note to him, exchanging phone numbers. "Here, I've gotta go back and watch the Doctor. But getting together later sounds cool." Spectrum turned back towards the podium, and wondered idly where Foxy was. --------------------------------------------------------- Foxy was outside taking a breather. She'd passed out all the flyers and ignored repeated attempts by attendees and scientists to try and figure out what toy company had built her. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted some men armed with Uzi's, walking towards the entrance. Uh-oh...she thought, I better call the police. About that time, the men shot open the doors and opened fire. That settled it. She darted off for the nearest pay phone. In her haste, she slammed into the back of the leg of a very big teenager in bib overalls. "Whut?" Another teenager in farmers clothes picked up Foxy by the scruff of her neck. "Welllll, lookie here, BILLY-JOE-JIM-BOB, looks like you got yerself a varmit." BOBBY-JOE-JIMBO, grinned and unholstered his gun. "Ah jes love shooting varmint! What do you think JIMMY-JIM-BO-JOE?" Foxy twisted around and bit the hayseed on the hand. BOBBY-JOE-JIMBO yelped and dropped the cartoon fox. Foxy snarled, "I'm calling the police, then I'll be back for you jerks." ----------------------------------------------------- Inside the building was chaos. [Ed. Note: For more on the fight inside, read SG: Team M.E.C.H.A. No. 14] The uzi-toting goons had given up firing on Spectrum after dump a full clip into him to no effect. Spectrum was leaping around the room, grabbing guns and punching their wielders. Spectrum leaped in front of a young girl with a laser pistol, narrowly avoiding getting singed. "Hey watch it", she yelled, "I'm a good guy, er gal." "Oh, sorry about that," Spectrum replied, and leaped off for the far side of the room. Spectrum noticed a portacomp laying on the floor. It looked a lot like the one that boy Link had been carrying, so just to be safe he grabbed it and clipped it to his belt. He punched out one more thug when he noticed the gunfire had died down and two other people with battle armor on were clustered around something at the other end of the room. Before he could so much as step their direction, the wall next to him caved in on him and buried him in a pile of rubble. Through a crack in the debris, he spotted more Zoomers, those dreaded battle droids, marching into the room, with two men in lab coats following close behind. "See!" One of the men gestured to the other, "I told you that we should have got here sooner! Now someone else is stealing all the equipment!" "Fine. We'll kill them, and take it back. Those farm kids are busy raising a ruckus outside, and the Zoomers and deal with any threat inside here." "I'M GLAD YOU HAVE SO MUCH CONFIDENCE IN YOUR TOYS!" Spectrum shouted as he erupted out of the debris and rocketed into the back of one of the Zoomers. "MY PoWerArmor IS READY FOR ROUND TWO!" Grabbing a Zoomer, he punched his hand into its chest and ripped it in two, roaring and flinging pieces at the two scientists. Dr. Weird Science pulled out his pocket protector, and it instantly grew to shield the pair from the Zoomer junk. "Great! This is just great" Psuedo Science growled, "Its a bloody superhero convention here." He pointed at the other end of the room at a pair of armored hero's, one who was picking up some sort of glowing device. "Nevermind that," Replied Weird, "Look at the PoWerArmor! Its beautiful! We have got to get over to Doctor Cheef and get the plans and the gear!" "Zoomer Ten, get over here!" The Zoomer complied and carried the Doctors Science to the ManCo. podium in a matter of seconds. Spectrum was occupied, blasting a pair of Zoomers. He took aim at a third, just as it exploded from behind. Another youth, holding a plasma rifle, gave Spectrum the thumbs up, then continued blasting enemies. Suddenly his radio link crackled. "*SPECTRUM* HELP! I'm trapped out here in the rental truck and some kids are trying to kill me! They've set fire to a bunch of cars, ran over the phones with a tractor, and now they're coming towards me! Get out here quick!" "I'm on my way!" Shouted Spectrum as he grabbed a Zoomer and used it as a battering ram to slam through the wall towards the truck. *CRUNCH!* The door to the cab was ripped off, and BILLY-JOE-JIM-BOB, reached in and grabbed the frightened toon, who clung to the seat to no avail. "HA! Ah got it! Ah got it! Whut is it?" Foxy tried to bite the farmboy, but he was too dense. "Ah'm gonna squish it anna you kin burn it!" Faced with no other choice, Foxy did what any trapped terrified animal would do. She soiled herself. "Whut? ....EEEWWWWWWWWW! SHEEEE-IT!" BILLY-JOE-JIM-BOB bellowed, and flung the small soiled cartoon fox into the air as high as he could. "You bastards!" Spectrum yelled a he flew towards the four boys. Pinto Sally looked up from the adjacent Squad car, where she was 'convincing' a local officer to lie back and relax. At the sound of her cousin's bellow, she jumped out of the car to stand next to her four friends. It was at that moment that the Qwyntor engine that Summer had thrown clear into the air exploded. Streamers of energy shot out in all directions. One bolt struck the five farm punks and blew them off their feet, into the mud. Spectrum's optics compensated for the blast as he searched the skies for Foxy. Suddenly he spotted her, tumbling and smoking, down towards the ground. He knew that he couldn't get to her before she hit. "NOOOOOOO!!!!" Spectrum cried, as he tried to close the distance in time. In desperation, he began shouting, "EDIT! EDIT! EDIT! EDIT! EDIT!" Bon Jovi appeared with his guitar and a very confused look on his face. A cooler full of Winter Ale. A Shriner from Boston. A pizza. Suddenly a enormous inflatable Saint Bernard appeared under the plunging toon. She imbedded in the back of the dog, bounced off its head and its 5 foot tongue, and into the arms of a very relieved Spectrum. Her fur was burned in places and she coughed weakly. "I don't feel good..." WHERE DID SUMMER FALL? WHERE DID THE WINTER SPRING FROM? WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER MULTIPLE THREATS THAT FACE OUR HEROS IN THEIR AUTHORS' FIRST SUPER-CROSSOVER! WILL GADGE AND SHADOWY WRITER REVEAL WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? WHAT WILL BECOME OF THE FARM PUNKS? WILL THE RADIATION AFFECT THEM? WILL THE SENIOR AUTHORS EVEN NOTICE? ALL THIS AND A TRIP TO THE VET, NEXT TIME, SOON, ON S U P E R G U Y (Your mileage may vary, contest rules available. Feedback Welcome) -- ************************************************************************* * All programmers are playwrights and all computers are lousy actors. * ************************************************************************* Lawrence H. Brown HW Release Lab Admin. lbrown@cisco.com (415)688-4487 Homephone: (408)984-6036 If its urgent: Digital Pager: (415)599-8663 Keywords: VideoToaster!, Champs, Dolphins, Mechforce, Networks, Omaha, Probe ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1993 17:33:52 CST Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Robotech_Master Organization: Team M.E.C.H.A. Secret Headquarters Subject: Team M.E.C.H.A. No. 15 TEAM M.E.C.H.A. SERIES: Part 15 By Robotech_Master, alias Chris Meadows A Story of High Technology, and High Anxiety (Did Mel Brooks say you could mention his movie?) "Sarah, where is she?!" Mike scanned the sky with binoculars. "I can't see her anywhere!" "Neither can I! I think--I think she's--No, wait! There she is! But she wasn't there before...it's like she just APPEARED or something..." "She's falling!" Mike gasped, barely noticing that others had been struck by the blast as well. "Don't worry, I've got her..." Sarah Conner rocketed over toward where Summer was falling from the sky, tumbling out of control, steam rising off of her naked body. Sarah got under her, matched speeds, and caught her in her arms. Below, Mike and Lincoln waited anxiously for the word, and nearby, Bon Jovi, a pizza, and a huge inflatable Saint Bernard, among other strange things, appeared. A small 'toon fox who had apparently also been struck by a part of the blast landed on the inflated St. Bernard and bounced into the arms of a power-armor-suited person Mike didn't recognize. "Her hardsuit's been...evaporated," Sarah reported. "I'm talking gone completely, here. And her clothes." "Shit. But she doesn't seem injured?" "Not that I can see. She's not conscious, though." "Okay. Go ahead and bring her down here. We'll put her in the van, and I can drive her to a hospital or something." Sarah's voice over the radio carried some hesitation. "Um...she IS completely nude..." "I'm her BROTHER, for crying out loud. I used to help change her diapers! Trust me, it's no big deal." "Uh, all right...coming in." "Lincoln...why don't you, um..." Mike began. Lincoln nodded. "Of course. Just let me get my Gallant rifle..." "What, did everybody bring a heavy weapon but me? Go on, grab it and get out of here." Lincoln ran back toward the hotel, from which random laser blasts were still issuing every so often, Gallant rifle in hand. Seconds later, a cherry-red VR-038-LT Cyclone touched down, a naked body in its arms. Mike took her from Sarah's arms, looked at her. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with her, except for the odd steam that kept rising off of her body. "What could have happened?" Mike wondered. "Must have something to do with the hyperspatial nature of the explosion," Sarah suggested. "Yeah." Mike looked around nervously. Fortunately, no one around was exhibiting voyeuristic tendencies. Still, it would be best to get her out of sight as soon as possible. Mike opened the van door and placed her on one of the bench seats, and covered her up with a blanket. "I'm going to get her to a hospital or something. You'd probably better go in there." He pointed. "There seem to be some more people or things in there intent on blasting up the convention." Sarah nodded, and unshouldered her RL-6. "Your problems are over." She stalked off toward the hotel entrance, and Mike got into the driver's seat of the van. Actually, he had the feeling that his troubles had only just begun. "Hey, you! What are you doing?!" Having retreated to a moderately-safe corner of the room, away from most of the fighting, the two Dr.s Science turned in time to notice a lab-coated-but-not-quite-nerdy figure running angrily up to them. "Oh, it's YOU! Just who the Hell (TM) told you you could ruin my convention!" Dr. Pseudo Science was about to call to one of the Zoomers to take care of this annoyance, but Weird stopped him. "No, wait. This is Dr. Odd Science, our second cousin." "Oh. Well, then." Pseudo muttered angrily, peering over toward the ManCo display and trying to figure out just how to get over there and get those plans. Someone clad in a cherry-red power armor suit had just entered the fray, and it looked like the Zoomers were getting the short end of the stick. "What brings you to this neck of the woods, Odd?" Weird asked. "I ORGANIZED this convention. And I don't appreciate YOU TWO coming in here and blowing everything to smithereens!" "Sorry, cousin," Weird replied. "But we HAVE to have that ManCo PoWerArmor suit for our Latest Evil Scheme (TM). You understand." "No, actually I DON'T, since I chose to devote my intellect to something other than a life of crime. Just let me tell you that I hold you two responsible for this fiasco, and you WILL pay for it at some later date." He stalked off angrily. "He gets it from his mother's side," Weird told Pseudo. "Now, have you figured out how to get those armor designs?" Sarah Conner fired minimissiles from her RL-6 cannon at the Zoomers, easily blasting them apart. By the time she ran out of rockets, there was only one Zoomer left. This one got caught in a crossfire between Adam and Link, and was soon destroyed. Then there was silence, as those three who remained standing took a look around the room, at all the devastation that had occurred. The ceiling lights were mostly shot out, and large chunks of walls, floor, and ceiling were missing. Most of the exhibits were trashed. "I think it might be a good idea if we were very suddenly Not Here," Sarah Conner remarked. "I hear that!" Adam agreed. "C'mon, babe, let's blow this joint." "I believe we just DID," Lincoln responded, shouldering his rifle. "Let's move." They ran outside, to find that the van wasn't in the parking lot. "Hey!" said Adam. "Where the hell (TM) did it go?" "Oh, I forgot to tell you guys," Sarah said. "The explosion apparently injured Summer, or at least it knocked her out. Dissolved her armor suit, too. Mike's taking her to a hospital." "Then let's go!" Adam said. "Sarah, see if you can raise him on the commlink and find out which one he went to. Then you can hotbike there at max speed, and we'll catch a taxi and follow." "Wait!" It was the Stephen King-like scientist from the nanotech display. "Take me with you! If what I believe happened did happen, I might be of some assistance." Sarah shrugged, converting the Cyclone to motorcycle mode. "Sure, climb on. Hold on a sec, let me make the call." She touched a key on the Cyc-bike's dashboard and spoke into the helmet mike. "Right. Saint John's. Climb on." She gestured to the scientist. "We have to get moving." "Hold on!" It was an armored figure, carrying a slightly scorched and scuffed anthropomorphic 'toon fox in his arms. Lincoln thought his voice sounded familiar. "I'm coming too. I'll fly along behind you." He looked down at the fox. "I have to get her to a doctor." "Sure," Summer said. "Just keep up with us." The scientist settled himself on the Cyclone's seat, behind Sarah, and then the bike took off at high speed down the city street. The armored figure took to the air, following her. "Well. I guess I'd better call a taxi..." Adam walked over to a pay phone and made the call. As he finished, a few things lying on the ground caught his eye. "Hey...are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Link shrugged. "Why not?" And so, as they waited for the taxi to arrive, Adam and Lincoln feasted upon a Supreme Pizza and cans of Winter Ale, with a still rather-confused John Bon Jovi providing dinner music. IS THIS A GOOD USE FOR THE WINTER ALE WHICH SPRANG FORTH AS SUMMER WAS FALLING? IS THIS A GOOD USE FOR BON JOVI? WHAT ABOUT THE PIZZA? WAS IT A FLATPHOOT PIZZA? WILL SUMMER AND FOXY BE ALL RIGHT? WILL SOMETHING MYSTERIOUS HAPPEN TO ALL THOSE WHO WERE STRUCK BY THE HYPERSPATIAL BLAST? WILL THE AUTHOR FORGET ABOUT SUPERGUY FOR A WHILE AND JUST WRITE HIS DAMNED PAPER? SOME OF THIS AND LESS, COMING UP SOMETIME SOON, ON S U P E R G U Y Chris Meadows | "It wasn't your fault; it was the will of the CHM173S@SMSVMA | Authors. Like private parts to them are we; they CHM173S@VMA.SMSU.EDU | play with us for their pleasure." CMEADOWS@NYX.CS.DU.EDU | --high-jinx, Original AWESOME FORCE #102 CMEADOWS@NOX.CS.DU.EDU | by Bill Paul, The Man With Two First Names ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1993 20:10:57 -0500 Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Jesse Taylor Subject: SG: Force Ten #5 FORCE TEN EPISODE FIVE by the Shadowy Writer <-----> Ray Sterling yawned dramatically as he continued to look through the information he had gotten from TONN on Team M.E.C.H.A. However, not only had he failed to figure out what M.E.C.H.A. stood for, the TONN employee that had been helping him had left on 'company business'. All he had found out was that their base was apparently near some place called 'Cassville'. "Where the hell is Cassville?" Ray muttered, wandering over to one of the many TVs strategically placed in the TONN archives. Ray flipped it on, noticing that the channel-select knob was frozen at TONN. "...this is Bland Tv-Reporter coming to you live from the Odd Science Convention here in Springfield, Missouri." Bland continued on for a while, and Ray finally dozed off, awakening moments later to the sound of gunfire. "Whaa?!" he commented, staring at the TV set. Bland was diving for cover as about six or seven guys with submachineguns opened up on the techie-types at the convention. Reporters from the other networks were hiding behind their cameramen or cowering behind displays. The Radio Free Hero reporter, however, stood blissfully still, bullets whizzing by him, as he continued to describe the Awesome Ginsu display to his audience, who by now had left their radios and flipped on their tv's to try and figure out what was going on. "The Qwyntor hyperdrive!" Ray heard, as the camera zoomed in on one of the thugs, standing by the hyperdrive replica. "It's mine at last!" Ray just sat back, knowing it wasn't likely that he would arrive in time to do any good, anyway, and hoping some local superheroes would do something. "'ey!" on of the thugs said, "You wit' da cameras!! Watchoo doin'?!" There was a burst of fire, and suddenly the view on the screen got a lot closer to the floor. Ray could hear the Radio Free Hero reporter droning on in the background. ZARK! ZARK! ZARK! Laser fire!, Ray thought, someone's doing something at last! He paused as there were lots of sounds of gunfire, then lots of people yelling and running away. "Bloody hell!" Bland said, standing back up, and bringing in the backup cameraman. "Well, it looks like that's over with!" "RUN!" somebody yelled, "The hyperdrive!! It's gonna explooooooooode!!" "#$*%&!!!" Bland commented, beating a hasty retreat. "Hey!" the voice of the cameraman said, "HEY! You want I should keep filmin' or what?" Ray peered at the screen. The camera was still focused on the hyperdrive. Suddenly an armored form ran over, grabbing the hyperdrive. The thing - person, rather, Ray thought, exchanged a few quick words and left in a hurry with the 'drive. The camera view, for lack of anything better to do, followed...her? A second armor suit, a VR-038-LT Cyclone, followed the first. "The hyperdrive!" Ray heard someone say, "It's going t- FFFzzzzzzzzz >click "Geez," Roger said, peering at the newspaper, "I can't believe Andy Awesome could be hurt! Close to death, even!" "Hey", the Red Bandit said, "Everyone's mortal - just some less so than others. He's still alive, ain't he?" "Well - yeah." "There ya go. You'd figure he'd live through darn near anything, by now. S'just he walked off with a bit more than a 'flesh wound' this time!" "Bloody hell!" Sanka said, wandering in, "It's bloody impossible to make a decent cup 'o tea in America! Must be something in the air.." "What a depressing thought," muttered Floyd, the other member of Force Ten, wandering in and slouching on The Couch. "In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if there were something in the air right now, slowly eating away at our lungs, turning them into piles of limp Jell-O." "Please!" the Red Bandit said, "I just ate!" "Hey - if you're gonna hurl, do it that way, ok?" Roger said, pointing at Floyd. "How depressing. That you would direct one of our teammates to hurl in my general direction. I think this is going to be a depressing day, don't you?" "Bloody hell!" Sanka yelled from the kitchen, "These cups melt if they get hotter'n twenty bloody degrees!!" <-----> Admiral Morgan dismissed Anime Freak to his mission, and pondered briefly. Were her forces ready? Would she fail yet again? Who knew? "Gerbre, Tris, Garth - get in here!" she growled. "What's up?" Gerbre asked. "Admiral!" Tris said, saluting. "*grumble*", Garth grumbled. "I have decided it is time to activate stage one of my Glorious Plan for World Domination (tm). Gerbre!" "Yo!" "Have you gotten in touch with the South Carolina branch of the Neo-Anarchy NOw organization?" "Yes - they're ready to move when you are." "Good. Garth! Dispatch as many Invid as you can spare to TONN's Charleston bureau. Gerbre, you will see to the deployment of our armor units and the NaNO forces! Tris, what is the status on the MS project?" "Proceeding excellently!" Tris beamed, "FA$A's 'mech technician, Blaine Pardoe, and Anime Freak's henchman, Carl Macek, have provided invaluable assistance to the design concept. The real break came when we got access to the salvaged Invid mecha Garth gave us! As well as the Beigian technology Grounder and Metalhead were able to salvage from the Ghost Fleet. Once we have the Protoculture control systems finished, the prototype can begin testing immediately!" "Excellent," Morgan said. "You have your assignments, people, so MOVE!" <-----> Ray Sterling cursed inwardly as he fumbled through the start-up procedure of his Alpha. Team M.E.C.H.A. were in Springfield! And one of their number had apparently sacrificed herself in an attempt to save the attendees of the Odd Science Convention! Ray hoped there was something he could do, as he switched to Fighter mode and roared northwards. He hoped there were other REF personnel there, too, otherwise how would he ever make contact? How would he ever get home? <-----> Far, far above Earth's orbit, a ship sat, quietly waiting. "Damn it, Check Off!" a voice growled, "I want some data on those ships in orbit!" "Comink through now, kiptain!" came Check Off's voice from the computer room of the small starship. [>> Tactical Analysis: Ships in orbit. Identification: all 23 ships are registered to the Magistrix. Class: Unknown. Hazard Level: >>FIVE<< Ships are probably heavily armed, and carry mages of proven skill. Confrontation is NOT recommended.<<] "Damn!" Ha'Veluri growled. "I must complete my mission! And the person I seek is on that thrice-damned dirtball down there! Rrrrrg. Check Off!" "Vat?" "Engage cloaking device and choose us a landing spot." "Yessir." "I have never failed to complete a mission," Ha'Veluri growled, "And so help me, I'll finish this one or die trying!" "What about Near Space Three?" Check Off commented. "That wasn't my fault! The Author got writer's block before he could finish it. The whole premise sucked majorly, too." "SIR! I'm picking up major hyper-wave emissions from one of the Terran cities on the North American continent." "Well, steer clear of it!" Ha'Veluri growled, "And keep away from those ships in orbit, too!" WILL HA'VELURI EVADE THE MAGESTRIX SHIPS??? WHAT WILL RAY FIND IN SPRINGFIELD??? WILL HE BE PISSED THAT TEAM M.E.C.H.A. AREN'T ROBOTECH TROOPS??? WHAT ARE ADMIRAL MORGAN'S PLANS FOR SOUTH CAROLINA??? WHY IS THE ABBREVIATION FOR NEO-ANARCHY NOW NaNO??? ISN'T AN ORGANIZATION WHOSE ABBREVIATION, WITH A '3' ADDED ONTO THE END, THE FORMULA FOR SODIUM NITRATE, BOUND TO BE A BIT...ODD??? ISN'T THAT AN ATROCIOUS RUN-ON SENTENCE??? YOU DO KNOW WHAT SODIUM NITRATE IS USED FOR, DON'T YOU??? ALL THIS, AND MORE TEASER QUESTIONS, AND MAYBE WE'LL ACTUALLY START THE CROSS- OVER... ON THE NEXT... SUPERGUY! ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1993 21:39:25 EST Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Jesse Taylor Subject: SG: Force Ten #6 FORCE TEN EPISODE SIX by the Shadowy Writer <-----> "That was fun," Anime Freak said, walking into Admiral Morgan's office. Admiral Morgan looked up. "Excellent," she grinned, "This will allow me to enter Stage Two of my Evil Plan... Oh, I thought you might like to take a look at this." Morgan flicked a button on her desk, and the massive TV behind her desk began to play the scenes Ray Sterling had watched earlier. "Good god!" Anime Freak gasped, "Cyclones!! Team M.E.C.H.A. is in Springfield!!" "I assume you have your plans in place?" Morgan queried. "No - NO!! I'm not ready!!" Anime Freak panicked, "Where's Sterling?!" "He left in a big hurry," Morgan said innocently, "Why?" "Nooooo!!" Anime Freak wailed, "My plans are ruined!! It's all your fault!!!" "Stuff it," Morgan growled, "Do what you can to salvage the situation - all my resources that aren't allocated to one of my other Evil Schemes are yours to use." <-----> "Wow!" Ray Sterling said, flying over Springfield, "Somebody really messed up this place!" He peered around at the destruction caused by the detonation of the hyperdrive. "I'd better take a look down there, see what happened to those Cyclones." Ray flipped to Guardian mode and slid in to land behind a small building. An outlet of the Gap. "Man, those things are *everywhere*!" Ray commented, hopping out of the cockpit. And remembering it was a long way down. "Wuaaaaaaah!" he yelled. Luckily, a passing congressman broke his fall. Ray brushed himself off and retrieved the 052 Battler Cyclone packed into the storage compartment of his Veritech. Keying all the surveillance and scanning systems, he flipped it into motorcycle mode and shot off towards the remains of the Odd Science Convention. <-----> "Damn!!!" Anime Freak yelled, running back and forth through the TONN headquarters. Where *was* everybody?! "GARTH!!!" he screamed, spotting the Invid overlord. "Huh?" Garth replied. "I need some of your troops!!!" Anime Freak wailed, "I've got to get up to Springfield before that idiot Sterling finds Team M.E.C.H.A.!!!" "But Morgan told me to send all my available troops to South Carolina! This'll really tick her off!" Garth said. "Well, yeah," Anime Freak said, dejected. "You can take my best pilot, Marie, and my best condition two Pincer Command Units," Garth grinned. <-----> "Where the hell are we?" Ha'Veluri growled. "Errrrr," Check Off said, "Well, I, uh, I haven't a clue." "Los Angeles, 50 miles," Ha'Veluri muttered, peering at a road sign. "Rustle us up some transportation - I'll conceal the ship." <-----> "You've all been briefed on your opponents," Anime Freak said to Marie, Grounder, Metalhead, and Zapper, who nodded. "Marie - you and your two Invid friends will deal with any serious opposition we run into. Grounder - you'll use your energy-draining powers to disable, or at least slow down those bozos so Metalhead can get a decent shot at them. Zapper - you are to locate their leader and knock him out with a mind blast. Bland Investigative-Reporter will be trying to infiltrate the hospital and find out more about the member of Team M.E.C.H.A. who was admitted there earlier. We'll be traveling in an Invid Clam Transport which will deposit us near Springfield, where we will wait for Bland to find us some targets. Any questions?" "Yeah," Grounder said, "While we're waitin', we aren't gwintae ha'f to eat those bloody MRE's Gargle's been stockin' up, are we?" "No, we'll fly by a S'barro's and pick up some chow before we go over there." "Roight, jus' checkin'." "Ok, let's rock 'n roll!" Zapper grinned. "We shall triumph over all our foes!" Marie said dramatically. "Right," Anime Freak said, "We leave in ten minutes." <-----> "This is Benson to Johnson. Benson to Johnson," muttered a black-clothed person into a portable radio. The person in question was perched over a main highway, which was strangely devoid of traffic. "I've got the 1st Armored Cav movin' up towards Charleston." Benson made a hand gesture, and twenty people in similar clothing appeared out of the forest around him. "They're coming up without infantry support. Just tanks and LAV's. Hit fast and hard, we want to delay them, not fight them." The Neo-Anarchists deployed along the side of the road, readying their weapons. The first tank rolled into view. It was an M1A1 Abrams, and it was scanning the area with infrared sensors. Which were totally useless against Benson's troops, who were all wearing coolant vests specifically designed to counter such scans. The first tank passed the ambush zone. A pair of LAV's - Light Armored Vehicles - passed next. Benson lowered his hand. Fwwooosh! WH-KOOOM! Fwoooosh! WH-KOOM!! "Yaaaahooooo!" Benson yelled, as his troops tossed Molotov cocktails and various improvised munitions at the other vehicles in the column. The tank in the lead was coated in flame from a gasoline-lye gel bomb, and the crew bailed. The column ground to a halt, and began spraying the forest along the highway with heavy weapons. "Fall back!" Benson yelled, as he spotted the telltale green-and-burnt-umber of an Invid 'mech closing with the conventional tanks. "The big boys'll take over for us from here!" <-----> "How's it going?" Admiral Morgan asked Gerbre, who was leaning over a computer panel. "Well - TONN shock units, reinforced with Invid mecha, have captured or destroyed all known military bases in South Carolina. Two incursions by US Army units have been driven back at heavy cost. And there is a total news blackout in effect over the entire area. Nobody's going to find out unless the government tells them - and they're not likely to reveal something that's this much of an embarrassment." "Good," Morgan chuckled evilly. "Very good. See to it that nothing goes wrong!" <-----> Ray, his Cyclone now in Battloid mode, scanned the inside of the now- destroyed Odd Science Convention. "Wow," he said, truly in awe, "Whoever did this really knew their stuff! Why, this entire side of the building looks like it could collapse at any moment!" CRUMBLECRUMBLEBAMWHAPCRUNCHTHUD "Ow," Ray said, staggering away from the rubble of one wing of the Convention center. In typical anime style, he was unhurt, although the paint job on his mechabike was scratched slightly. "Geez," Ray muttered, "I'm not going to find anything this way... And what the *heck* is a giant inflatable St. Bernard doing in the parking lot?!" WELL, NOT A LOT... WILL RAY JOIN UP WITH TEAM M.E.C.H.A.??? OR SPECTRUM??? WILL HE EVEN *FIND* THEM??? I AM *NOT* GOING TO PAY A LOT FOR THIS MUFFLER!!! ALL THIS AND SOMETHING ELSE WHEN Z'KO STOPS POURING INSPIRATION DUST ON MY HEAD ON THE NEXT...SUPERGUY! ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1993 10:13:46 CST Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Robotech_Master Organization: Team M.E.C.H.A. Secret Headquarters Subject: Team M.E.C.H.A. No. 16, Guest-Starring Anime Freak TEAM M.E.C.H.A. SERIES: Part 16 By Robotech_Master, alias Chris Meadows Guest-Starring Anime Freak & co. from Jesse Taylor's Force Ten A Story of High Technology, and High Praise from Lord Sabre (If you've got it, flaunt it, eh Robo?) Mike paced the floor worriedly in the waiting room. Summer had been taken into the examination room fifteen minutes ago, and there was still no word from the doctors. And Mike was beginning to wonder just how he was going to pay the bill. Did his insurance cover costs arising from superheroism? Somehow, he didn't think so... "Mike!" Mike nearly jumped out of his running shoes. He turned, noticed Sarah Conner, still clad in CVR-3, with a slightly-frazzled, nerdy-looking scientist in tow. "Where's Summer? Is she all right?" "I don't know," Mike began. "I--" And then a doctor stepped through the door from the examining room. "We've examined your sister," he said to Mike. "There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with her, but our EEG scans have been picking up some unusual neuroelectric patterns. We'd like to keep her here overnight for observation." "That won't be necessary," Summer called out from behind him. "I'm okay." She stepped out into the hall, dressed in a disposable hospital robe. "I think that's for US to decide, young lady," a nurse admonished, leading her back into the room. STOMP. "Ouch!" "I said, I'm okay!" Summer repeated, stepping out again. Mike and Sarah exchanged glances. "Yeah, I'd say she's okay," Mike remarked. "Thanks for your help, but I think she'll be coming along with us. We have to get back to the hotel and try to figure out what happened there." The doctor shrugged. "I would advise against it, but if you insist..." "We do," Mike said. "Summer, you ready?" "Just a moment," the scientist suggested. "I would like to examine those EEG readings." "All right. They're right in here." As the M.E.C.H.A. members got ready to leave, none of them noticed a rather bland figure putting a quarter in a nearby pay phone. Why should they have? In the meantime, Anime Freak's forces had arrived at the site of the devastated hotel, having stopped briefly at the S'barro's in Springfield's Battlefield Mall for munchies. "It looks like we're too late," Anime Freak sighed, kicking a piece of the rubble. BRRRR. BRRRR. Something in the open cockpit of Marie's Invid Royal Command Battloid was emitting a loud buzz. "What's that? Radar warning? Battle alert?" Anime Freak wondered. "No...just the mech-phone." Marie picked up the curved handset and spoke into it. "Yes?" Then she vaulted from the cockpit to the ground beside Anime Freak and handed him the cordless cellphone. "It's for you." With a single leap she was once more in the cockpit, her Stage 5 Invid form having been specially biogenetically engineered for impressive jumps. "Anime Freak here. Oh, it's you, Bland Investigative-Reporter. What? Where?! St. John's Hospital. Right. We're on our way." He punched the "hook" button, then tossed the phone back up to Marie. "What is it?" Marie asked. "They've located three members of Team M.E.C.H.A. At St. John's Hospital," Anime Freak replied. "Can you find that on your navigational systems?" "One moment." Marie unfolded a Springfield map, ran her finger down one of the streets. "There it is. We shall go!" "Excellent." Anime Freak rubbed his hands together. "Soon...those mecha will be mine." As Anime Freak and henchmen headed off, Ray Sterling emerged from behind the piece of rubble where he had crouched, Cyclone deactivated, listening to the conversation. They were going to attack Team M.E.C.H.A.? Not if HE could help it... In the hospital parking lot, Summer was climbing into the van, along with the scientist from the nanotech display. Mike wasn't sure why he was coming along except that he had insisted that he might be able to figure out exactly what the hyperspatial explosion had done to Summer. After all, why not? Sarah Conner kick-started her Cyclone and powered it up. She didn't know why, but she had a feeling that they weren't out of danger yet. "All right. Get ready to roll," she advised Mike. Just then, an Invid Royal Command Battloid, two Pincer Command Units, and several people came rocketing into the parking lot. "Stop right there!" the leader announced. The Invid powered up their cannons. "Ha! Not bloody likely!" Sarah yelled, going to power armor mode and shooting skyward. "Take this!" BA-THOOM! One of the rockets fired from her cannon and streaked for the RCB, which blocked it with a claw. "You'll have to do better than that!" Marie remarked, firing a stream of annihilation discs from her mecha's arm cannon that tore up the parking lot. "Oh, trust me, I intend to." WILL SARAH BE ABLE TO STOP THE INVID? WILL SOMEONE SHOW UP TO SAVE THE DAY? WHERE ARE ADAM AND LINK? STILL IN TRANSIT VIA TAXICAB? DOES IT GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS? COMING UP, ON S U P E R G U Y Chris Meadows | "It wasn't your fault; it was the will of the CHM173S@SMSVMA | Authors. Like private parts to them are we; they CHM173S@VMA.SMSU.EDU | play with us for their pleasure." CMEADOWS@NYX.CS.DU.EDU | --high-jinx, Original AWESOME FORCE #102 CMEADOWS@NOX.CS.DU.EDU | by Bill Paul, The Man With Two First Names ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1993 22:08:45 PST Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Lawrence Brown Subject: SG: SPECTRUM CROSSOVER, EPISODE #4 SPECTRUM CROSSOVER SPECIAL #4 by the Amigoid, aka Lawrence Brown Guest Starring: Team M.E.C.H.A., Ray Sterling, and More! --------------------------------------- First there was nothing. Then came a roaring sound, a bright light, and an incredible lightness of being. Then came awareness. The sound of laughing children. He was at peace. He was making someone happy. He floated, content. ----------------------------------------- "I'm telling you, Ethel, I'm not lying! One minute I'm at a Convention, and then next moment I'm in the middle of a warzone in..." Where am I? He whispered to the man with a guitar. "Springfield, mate. Look, you gonna be on the phone much longer? I've gotta call my manager, man." ----------------------------------------- "WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT DOESN'T WORK?" "I told you, its all a scam, a way to fleece the Feds." "I'M GONNA KILL HIM, WEIRD!" "No you're not. He's obviously lying. You saw what the armor could do." "But.." "SHUT UP! Zoomer 10, SHUT HIM UP!" "mnpfgh!" "Now, now, dear brother, we have what we want, lets grab those muddy glowing farm kids and get out of here while we can." ----------------------------------------- Spectrum was at his wits end. He'd already faced many horrible foes, and it was just his first day as a full-fledged hero. Nothing so far could have prepared him for the creature he now had to face. A hospital E-R receptionist. The woman peered at him over her bifocals. "Patient Name?" "Um. Foxy" "Foxy. Last Name?" "She doesn't have one....uh, I guess 'Lady'?" "Social Security Number? "She doesn't have one, she's a 'toon'." "Sir, we'll get to the nationality and religion sections later" "*Sigh*...Look just use mine, ok, here." "Is she a dependent?" Spectrum looked around for a brick wall. Or a bat. He was saved further pain when a older man came running up, trailing a pair of younger doctors. Eyeing the armored hero, he said, "Are you the one who brought in the fox?" As the senior doctor led the hero to the room, he explained, "You understand, we don't often get to treat paranormals like your friend. We aren't entirely sure what to do, or how she'll react to the treatment. She is undergoing some metabolic transformation, she's awake, but still groggy. We have her sedated and in an oxygen tent since we couldn't fit a respirator on her." As they reached the door, the doctor stopped Spectrum. "She doesn't need to be excited, but you can see her for a few minutes." Spectrum paused, "Doctor I don't know how we, I mean, right now I'm broke. I..." The doctor cut him off. "We can discuss that with the receptionist later. Go on in." Inside under a plastic tent lay Foxy. But it wasn't the Foxy he remembered. Lying on her back, she was almost 6 foot tall. Her cartoony appearance was replaced with a slender and graceful furry body and tail. Her front paws were more human-like, with claws. her body had the curves of a model. Her head retained all the fox characteristics, but was somehow softer and even more feminine. Spectrum removed a gauntlet, and was about to remove his helmet when he turned towards the doctor. With a knowing nod, he ushered the staff out. Unmasked, Lawrence leaned over the anthromorphised fox and slid his hand under the tent to gently stroke her arm. Her eyes opened and she whispered to him, "Hey Sailor. Fuzzy's never gonna believe this one..." -------------------------------------------------- Outside a fight was brewing. The members of team M.E.C.H.A., sans armor, were climbing into their van, along with a research scientist from the now-canceled-due-to-explosions ODD Science Convention. The scientist was asking Summer questions rapidly about the liquid jar of nanotechnology that had accidentally spilt over the now atomized hyperspace drive. Anime Freak watched from the Invid Transport and dove the craft to the parking lot. As he and his evil cohorts emerged from the ship, two Invid Pincer Command Units and a Invid Royal Command Battloid landed heavily alongside him. "Stop right there!" He shouted, "We want your armor and if you know what's best for you you'll give us what we want!" "Ha! Not bloody likely!" Sarah yelled, going to power armor mode and shooting skyward. "Take this!" BA-THOOM! One of the rockets fired from her cannon and streaked for the RCB, which blocked it with a claw. "You'll have to do better than that!" Marie remarked, firing a stream of annihilation discs from her mecha's arm cannon that tore up the parking lot. "Oh, trust me, I intend to." ---------------------------------------------------- BOOM! The sound rocked the emergency room. The doctor rushed in, out of breath, averting his eyes when he noticed Spectrum was unmasked. "SPECTRUM! We need your help! Some giant robots have landed in the parking lot and have started blasting at things. Can you stop them?" "We'll know in a minute... what about Foxy?" "She'll be fine. Look, keep those maniacs out of the hospital and you can write your own ticket. Just keep them away from the building!" Gauntlet and mask in place, Spectrum growled. "Call the firemen, and the police. We may need them if there's anything left afterwards." ----------------------------------------------------- "Yiiii!" Sarah hollered, as she zigzagged her Cyclone through the air, ducking behind cars, unable to do much more than keep on the defensive. "This battle is a waste of our talent," Marie radioed to Anime Freak. "There is no honor in this, your men could have dealt with this without us!" "Just forget the noble battle nonsense & capture that Cyclone!" Anime Freak said as he ducked under cover. Summer, Mike, and the Scientist, had taken up positions behind the van and were firing at the villains with their hand weapons. "Hey! You want a challenge! Take your best shot!" Spectrum shouted dramatically as he flew out of the hospital, between the advancing Invid and Sarah's Cyclone. "Ha! You will die human, like all the rest." Marie trained her cannon on Spectrum and fired a volley of energy. Spectrum braced and took the impact without falling. *OW...OW-OW-OW..* This stuff may be as tough as Bulletproof, but I'm not. "OK, now its my turn." Spectrum concentrated and released a thunderbolt of electrical energy, missing the RCB and striking one of the Pincer Units. The Invid craft jumped and bucked like a crab on acid, its weapons firing wildly in every direction. A stream of disk fire traced its way straight for the hospital. A off duty nurse, trying to get out of the parking lot screamed, "Look out! Thats the maternity ward!" OH NO! WHO WILL SAVE THE INNOCENT BABIES! WHO WILL POP UP NEXT IN THIS CROSSOVER? FIND OUT IN THE NEXT THRILLING EPISODE!!! -- ************************************************************************* * All programmers are playwrights and all computers are lousy actors. * ************************************************************************* Lawrence H. Brown HW Release Lab Admin. lbrown@cisco.com (415)688-4487 Homephone: (408)984-6036 If its urgent: Digital Pager: (415)599-8663 Keywords: VideoToaster!, Champs, Dolphins, Mechforce, Networks, Omaha, Probe ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1993 22:12:01 PST Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Lawrence Brown Subject: SG: SPECTRUM CROSSOVER, EPISODE #5 [In our last episode....] "Hey! You want a challenge! Take your best shot!" Spectrum shouted dramatically as he flew out of the hospital, between the advancing Invid and Sarah's Cyclone. "Ha! You will die human, like all the rest." Marie trained her cannon on Spectrum and fired a volley of energy. Spectrum braced and took the impact without falling. *OW...OW-OW-OW..* This stuff may be as tough as Bulletproof, but I'm not. "OK, now its my turn." Spectrum concentrated and released a thunderbolt of electrical energy, missing the RCB and striking one of the Pincer Units. The Invid craft jumped and bucked like a crab on acid, its weapons firing wildly in every direction. A stream of disk fire traced its way straight for the hospital. A off duty nurse, trying to get out of the parking lot screamed, "Look out! Thats the maternity ward!" But before anyone could do more than turn & look in horror, the disks impacted and exploded, throwing up a cloud of dust. The dust settled and everyone stared in amazement. The building was unharmed. Floating in front of the building was something....something with antlers.... FASTER THAN AN ALPHA FIGHTER! MORE POWERFUL THAN A VERITECH HOVER TANK! ABLE TO LEAP AN SBF-1 IN A SINGLE BOUND! SBF-1? [sssh! Don't interupt!] LOOK! THERE IN THE PARKING LOT! ITS A CYCLONE WITH EXTRA RADAR! ITS A DEFORMED INVID! NO! IT'S S P A C E M O O S E!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SPACEMOOSE #5, SPECTRUM#5, TEAM M.E.C.H.A.#17... Whatever it is, its Crossover Time! written by the Amigoid, with muse-less support and inspiration, by GADGE, SHADOWY WRITER, and ROBOTECH_MASTER Yes, the plight of the children in the hospital had set off his Moose Sense all the way from Missouri to his Canadian secret base, MooseLodge. Having blocked the Invid blast with his Moosely Chest(tm), Space Moose shouts at the villains, "How dare you threaten the peaceful citizens of.." Quickly turning away, "....pssst, where is this?" From the MooseCom on his chest, a high, grainy, mechanical voice replied, "Springfield. You idiot." Turning back to the aliens, he bellowed, "How dare you threaten the peaceful citizens of Springfield You Idiot!! No, wait, that's not right..." The Invid Pincer regained control of his mech and along with his partner opened fire on the momentarily muddled moose, blowing the confused hero back into a dumpster. Behind the van, Mike sat hitting his head against the bumper, muttering, "I wanted to start working with other supers. I wanted to join forces with someone. But why HIM?!?!?!" Marie sat still, staring out of her INVID RCB mech at the hero in white armor standing boldly before her. "At last, a worthy opponent. A man I could respect and honor. Too bad I must destroy him." "MARIE! GET MOVING! GRAB THAT CYCLONE!" Marie was shaken from her reverie as one of her claws was blown off her mech by Sarah, who had taken careful aim with her bazooka. "See! I told you I would do better! Let's dance, bitch..." "Grounder! Metalhead! Zapper! Get them!" Suddenly the scientist stood, and slowly turned and pointed his weapon at Mike. Summer screamed "Mike! Duck!" and she shot the scientists Uzi out of his hand. Dazed, the scientist mumbled, "Must...destroy...heros..." Mike turned and punched the scientist in the jaw as hard as he could. The scientist rolled back his eyes in a confused expression and collapsed. Zapper staggered for a moment then stared at Summer. "Ok little girl, your turn..." Spectrum grabbed the leg of one of the Pincer Invid and heaved. Hydraulics straining, Spectrum channeled more energy into his suit. Holding the struggling Invid aloft, he slammed it into the other one, ruining its shot at the emerging Antlers of Steel. Space Moose leapt towards the Invid, calling out to Spectrum, "Do not fear! I shall jam their plasma cannon with my Moose-O-Rang!(tm)" Reaching into his belt, the Heroic Hooved Herbivore pulled out a M-shaped boomerang made out of Moose antlers. *throw* *thunk* The Invid pilot, not realizing his peril, fired his weapon. The resulting explosion blew apart the Invid Mecha, and blasted Space Moose back into the garbage. Emerging from the dumpster, his antlers festooned with trash like a medical supply lab Christmas tree, Space Moose shook himself, muttering "Maybe next time, I should just rip the gun off it's shoulder"... Mike ran and dove for cover as a Volkswagen tumbled past. Metalhead silently picked up another car and threw it. Mike dove, firing as he rolled. Nothing happened. He saw Grounder looking at him and laughing and waggling a finger. "Uh uh uh! Mustn't shoot at MetalHead. It'll only make him mad..." Spectrum called out to Space Moose as he charged for the Invid again. "Space Moose! We've got to find a way to shield the hospital before someone gets hurt! Can you do something?" The Muscular Moose of Might looked around with his Moosevision. Spotting something, he leapt off into the sky, streaking towards the University Plaza Holiday Inn Parking Lot. Landing next to the Saint Bernard Float, he grabbed the tow lines, vaulted over the SBF in a single bound, grabbed the remaining lines, and flew back to the hospital, balloon in tow. Spectrum goggled at the sight of the huge flying dog. "Its alive..." He gasped, just before getting hit in the face with a red 89 Honda Accord. Ray Sterling checked his radar again. There was something big descending towards the hospital. His Alpha's systems could not identify the blip as friend or foe. He gunned his engines to the max, racing to to scene. Space Moose placed the bulk of the Balloon against the hospital protecting it like a giant airbag. Sarah gasped as the remaining claw from Marie's Invid swatted the Cyclone from the sky. Tumbling, she fired off her last round point blank at the Invid, shearing off half the cockpit. Marie fought to maintain control of her damaged Mech, and managed to land next to the transport, just before the servos in her right leg gave way. Sarah caromed off a truck and bounced into the soft mass of the giant Saint Bernard Balloon. As she sprang clear the cannon fire from the RCB tore off her jump jets and punctured the balloon in several places. The Saint Bernard blinked twice in surprise, and started deflating. Spectrum fought to stay alert, blinking back the pain and struggling to stand with a Honda on his back. Metalhead tore off a lamp post, swinging it like a bat, walking to the downed hero. Suddenly there was a Mighty Bellow as the Moose from Beyond lowered his antlers and charged the silent villain, knocking him into the air like a rocket. Ray fired his weapons at the unidentified projectile bearing straight for him, deflecting the badly stunned MetalHead away, and into another storyline. "quick!" Anime Freak squeaked. "lets get out of here!" "but we haven't lost yet!" Marie squeaked back in a odd pitch. "trust me, i know when to retreat! we can't win talking like this!" Zapper laughed in a odd high pitched voice. "Heehee hee ---*YEOW*----" His eyes rolled back and he fell over twitching and drooling. Summer looked at him in surprise. Grounder walked to Spectrum. Suddenly Spectrum froze. "What's wrong with my armor?" He squeaked in surprise. "its shut down hero. my powers have drained your suit of power!" Grounder squeaked menacingly (which is hard to do). Spectrum started laughing, even as Grounder walked right into his face. "what's so funny hero? never heard anyone on helium before?" Spectrum laughed. His faceplate shut, and pumped fresh air. "No, whoever you are..." "grounder" squeaked the villain. "Grounder, I'll let you in on a secret." Spectrum spoke, as his arm slowly began to raise. Grounder bleated, confused. "but, thats not supposed to happen! i drained your suit of power!" He redoubled his efforts. "stop!" "Heres the deal, sparky. THE POWER IS IN ME!" Spectrum fired a rainbow burst of every form of energy he could think of, in a kalidoscopic explosion of power. Grounder screamed like a cheap 12 volt radio plugged into 220Volt AC. He exploded backwards and slammed against the transport, unconcious. Marie grabbed the smouldering villian and slammed the hatch shut, casting one more admiring glance towards Spectrum as the transport blasted away from the parking lot. The remaining Invid fighter turned to flee, only to be cut in half by a hail of depleted uranium shells, spewing from Ray Sterlings Alpha, now in guardian mode. Space Moose turned to leap after the transport. Just as his Mighty Moose Muscles meshed to fling the Furry Fearless Friend of Moose-Fans aloft, he herd the squeaking of several people. Turning back he instantly saw that they were all pointing towards the glowing shuddering wreck that had been Marie's Royal Command Battler. In a moose-moment he had grabbed the wreck and leapt straight up into space. Hurling the mecha away at the last moment, the mecha self-destructed harmlessly in orbit. Space Moose glided back down, to the cheers of the crowd. Ray spotted the damaged Cyclone, and decided to let the transport escape. He had to know who these people were...and if they could get him home. Adam and Link arrived moments later, just as the police hauled away the brain-fried Zapper. "Yo! Link!" Spectrum waved. "Looks like you missed all the fireworks." Eyeing the heavy weapons they were carrying, he glanced at Mike. "Let me guess...you must be Mike." Spectrum winced in pain. "Ow. I'm one big bruise. Good thing the hospital's picking up the tab..." A almost plaintive whine was heard from behind them, as the balloon leaked out the remainder of its gas. The head wobbled and heaved down, laying its head at the hospital's doorstep. "Poor thing," Summer sighed. "You'd almost think it was alive." IS IT ALIVE? IF IT IS, WILL IT GET ITS OWN SERIES? WHAT WILL THEY CALL IT? OVERDOG? OLD FART? WHO'S GOT THE BATON NEXT? All this, and a break for the Amigoid, next time on: SUPERGUY!!! (Comments really really appreciated...) -- ************************************************************************* * All programmers are playwrights and all computers are lousy actors. * ************************************************************************* Lawrence H. Brown HW Release Lab Admin. lbrown@cisco.com (415)688-4487 Homephone: (408)984-6036 If its urgent: Digital Pager: (415)599-8663 Keywords: VideoToaster!, Champs, Dolphins, Mechforce, Networks, Omaha, Probe ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1993 12:54:13 EST Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Jesse Taylor Subject: SG: Force Ten #7 Force Ten Episode Seven by the Shadowy Writer... With Spectrum by Lawrence Brown... Team M.E.C.H.A. by Chris Meadows... and Space Moose by David Pawtowski... <-----> "#$%&!!" Anime Freak commented, pacing around the inside of the Invid Clam Tranport. "I had everything planned beautifully!! If that blasted Moose and those others hadn't shown up, we would have had that Cyclone for sure!!" "Give me another shot at them!" Marie said, "I know I can beat them!!" "Hnnnnng. Ach, I hurt, boss. Let's get the Hell (tm) out of here!" Grounder said, off in one corner. Anime Freak glared. "I will *not* return in failure! Where's the phone?!" Marie tossed him the cellular phone and he typed in a quick sequence of numbers. /Like, yo, Invid Hive here, like, totally most excellent Invid Leutinate Wayne in command, y'know!/ Anime Freak rolled his eyes. "Wayne, how many Invid do you have there?" /Like, I have no idea, dude./ 'Freak changed his approach. "Wayne, didn't you hear?" /Like, what?/ "Garth ordered you to take all the Invid you could up to Springfield to help me out!" /No *way*, dude!/ "Yes way!" /*Excellent*! Do I get to shoot people?/ "Yes, yes. Just load up the other Clam Transport and bring it up ASAP. And bring in another Royal Command Battloid." /Like, why didn't Garth tell me this himself, dude?" "Uhh... He's...uh... busy in South Carolina with Admiral Morgan's Evil Scheme to Take Over the World (tm). He, uh, couldn't talk to you himself, he was, uh, in the middle of a battle." /F'sure! I'll be, like, right up!/ >click< beep-boop-beep-bip-bip-beep-boop. "Hello, TONN HQ? Connect me with the R&D section. Authorization code Akira-Gunbuster-Theta-Omicron. Yes, Tris? Is the prototype Mobile Suit ready? Uhm, yes, Morgan asked me to test it out in battle. Yes, yes, I know all the bugs aren't worked out yet, but bring it up anyway... Oh, yeah, and a battalion of shock troops. And pick up some Chinese take-out on the way, will you? I'm hungry as Hell (tm) up here!" <-----> Far be it from me to say Californians are stupid. I'd kind of be maligning myself, to say that, since I was born there. But still, it takes a special kind of stupid to be hanging around a city when a battle is going on. "Geez," Ha'Veluri said, peering around the streets of Los Angeles, "These people are *shopping*, fer Vela's sake!" He and Check Off paused, to listen to the ongoing Magestrix/Dark Mage battle several blocks over. Around them surged the typical inhabitants of LA, (if Californians in any city can be called 'typical'), who appeared blissfully unaware of their impending destruction. "Gimme yer dough," said a voice from behind them. If takes a special kind of stupid to be in a city where a battle is going on, but it takes a really unique kind of stupid to go up to a heavily armed, anthropomorphic tiger wearing space combat body armor and carrying a gun as long as an average human arm and ask for money. "Rrrrrrr!" Ha'Veluri said. "Rrrrrr!" the punk replied. Ha'Veluri pointed the gun at him. "Buzz off," he growled, "No, as a matter of fact, you gimme *your* dough." <----> "Roger?" the Red Bandit asked, wandering into the TV room of the Force Ten would-be-a-headquarters-if-it-was-cooler-but-it-isn't-so-it's- just-a-house. "What's up?" "TONN news report," Roger deadpanned, "Here, I taped it." "ffzz....analysis of a tape of the incident identified the bomber as one 'Drakkor', member of the hero group Force Ten. He is currently being sought for charges of first-degree murder, possession of assault-class weapons, and a variety of other charges..." "Good god," the Red Bandit gasped. "H-how?" "I don't know," Roger sighed, "They'll probably be checking up on us, too, so I think we should get the heck out of here. I doubt they'll catch him if he had any sort of advance warning - he was allways paranoid about this situation, and he bragged a couple times about his 'contingency plans'." "You think it was him?" "There just *no* *way* he would have done that!" Roger said, "But on the other hand, that was his M.O. all the way. Trying to make a statement by destroying property. I.. I don't know. We should try to find him." "I'll get the others." <-----> "What are you talking about?!" Admiral Morgan roared, "GERBRE!!!" "What?! What?!" "Garth tells me that he called the Invid hive a moment ago, and it had been cleared out!! That's 50 Invid mecha, GONE! And I checked the R&D division, and the ENTIRE 'mech lab had packed up and left! And the Home Guard - our best troops, the ones we keep on hand to defend the headquarters..." "Them too?" Gerbre gasped. "Bingo. I want *answers*, and I want them *NOW*, or HEADS are going to ROLL, do I make myself *CLEAR*?! We are totally *#$&'ing defenseless right now, and I *want* *to* *know* *WHY*!!" <-----> "You guys ok?" Ray asked, hopping out of his parked Veritech. "Ow," Spectrum said, "Yeah - a little banged up, but ok." "Those Evil Scum will not bother this Town Again!" Space Moose proclaimed, "Or they will meet the Wrath of...SPAAAAAAACE MOOOOOOOSE!" "Who *is* that guy?" Adam asked Link, who shrugged. "Errrr, excuse me," Ray asked Sarah, who was checking her Cyclone for damage, "How old are you?! You don't look like an REF Cyclone Rider to me!" "Big surprise there," Sarah said, "'cos I'm not." Ray blinked, then began to be a bit suspicious. "Where'd you get that Cyclone?" Sarah pointed at Mike. "He made them for us." Ray's eyes narrowed. No *way* could someone just *make* Cyclones! "What did you do to that guy?" Mike asked Summer, pointing at Zapper, who was babbling aimlessly. Summer shrugged. "'scuse me," Ray asked, "I'd like to know just *where* you're getting Robotech gear." Mike looked at Ray, who did *not* look happy. Ray had his thumbs hooked in his belt, but within easy reach of his Gallant pistol... On the fourth floor of the hospital, a rather bland figure held a boom microphone out of an open window, recording the conversations below. Veeerrry interesting..., he thought. <-----> Anime Freak sat in the Transport, planning out his new strategy. "Obviously, brute force won't work - we'll distract the heroes and seperate them, then concentrate force on them one at a time..." <-----> Nearby, Marie paced in a small circle. Defeated - by mere humans! Especially that armored one... Hm. Marie's stage 5 Invid mind churned, working on a strategy. That armor had withstood practically point-blank fire from her plasma cannon, so it was doubtful even if she had a brand-new RCB that she'd be able to even dent it... BUT, while the armor was tough, it was just a human inside... Marie thought for a moment, then wandered over to the weapons bay, snagging an automatic grenade launcher and a clip of concussion grenades, as well as a massive short-sword. The concussion would knock that armored human out, then she'd avenge her defeat... WILL MARIE BE ABLE TO DEFEAT SPECTRUM??? WHAT WILL MIKE TELL THE RATHER PEEVED RAY??? WHAT'S UP WITH THAT GIANT ST. BERNARD??? WHAT THE HELL IS HA'VELURI DOING IN LOS ANGELES??? WILL MORGAN STRANGLE ANIME FREAK, OR JUST CUT OFF HIS...EXTREMITIES??? ALL THIS...MAYBE...ON THE NEXT....SUPERGUY! ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1993 09:27:27 CST Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Robotech_Master Organization: Team M.E.C.H.A. Secret Headquarters Subject: Team M.E.C.H.A. No. 17 TEAM M.E.C.H.A. SERIES: Part 17 By Robotech_Master, alias Chris Meadows Guest-Starring Spectrum, Space Moose, Ray Sterling, and Various Other People A Story of High Technology, and High Over the Ozark Hills... (Story's taking off, eh Robo?) Everyone just sort of stood there, kind of stunned. It had been that kind of five minutes. They'd just been attacked by the Invid, and their henchmen...hey, wait a minute, since when did Invid have henchmen? Mike wondered. Have to investigate that later. Then everyone sort of remembered the question hanging in the air: Ray Sterling had demanded to know where Team M.E.C.H.A. had gotten its Robotech mecha, and Mike had yet to answer him. "Er, it's a rather long and involved story..." Mike began. "And those Invid could probably be back at any moment with reinforcements." Ray nodded. "I suppose I can wait until everyone is out of danger. What would you recommend?" "If you could kind of give me a lift, I could pick up the spare mecha back at our headquarters, and explain about us on the way," Mike suggested. "Spectrum and Space Moose could stay here to protect everyone until we get back." Ray glanced over at the two superheroes. He was still a little wary of those with super powers, because they were something he didn't entirely understand. But they seemed to be a pretty good bunch, overall...the heroes, that is. "If they don't have any problems with it, why not?" Adam, who had just arrived in a taxicab with Lincoln, said, "Be sure and bring spare ammo." Sarah kicked her damaged Cyclone, and several pieces fell off of it. "Bloody Invid," she muttered. She removed the RL-6 and the spare minimissiles, and then gave the Cyclone up for useless. "You'd better bring me another Cyc-bike, too." "You bet. Come on, Ray, let's get going. I'll give you directions once we're in the air." They climbed into the Alpha fighter cockpit and whooshed into the sky. In one of the hospital windows, a bland figure swore. "I was so close! Damn!" After they left, things pretty much stayed normal in the hospital parking lot for a while. Adam took command of the team in Mike's absence (which seemed kind of unfair to Summer, since SHE was his sister, but she really didn't mind), and posted guards. Spectrum remembered something he'd forgotten earlier, and walked over to Lincoln. "Here. This looks like the model you were using earlier; I thought you might have dropped it." "No, I didn't drop mi--Oh, wait, this is Mike's. I'll be sure and give it to him when he gets back." "Great." Spectrum looked over at Summer, who now seemed perfectly normal (except for being clad in a slightly-tattered hospital robe), and thought about the blast that had struck her and Foxy. Foxy was now changing, losing her toonish nature and becoming REAL. What could that blast have done to Summer, who'd been so much closer to the center of it? "What do you suppose that huge explosion could have done to her?" Spectrum wondered out loud. "It's hard to say," the scientist from the nanotech display remarked from behind him, causing him to jump. "I do have some theories, but there's no way to test them. She seems entirely unaffected." Spectrum shook his head. "Foxy has been affected in a major way." "What? How?" the scientist asked. Spectrum explained. "It's going to be hard on her, isn't it?" he said. "Everything she ever knew is gone...changed. I hope she'll be able to get by." Summer and Space Moose had gone over to the hospital building and were standing in front of the deflated Saint Bernard. "I think it's alive," Summer was saying. "If it is, then I must try to help it if I can," Space Moose declared. "It is my fault that it is in this situation, and I have made a vow not to harm any living creature." Summer wisely decided to keep to herself the fact that Invid Pincer Command Units have a living Invid trooper inside. "I think it can be fixed. We'll need some major tire patches, and a helium truck..." "I shall return immediately!" There was a loud sonic boom that shattered what nearby windows remained intact after the battle, and a few seconds later, Space Moose returned with dozens of large rubber patches, a huge bucket of rubber cement, and a 10-wheel helium tanker truck. "Now to patch you up!" the Mighty Moose commented, setting the truck down neatly in a parking space. In a flurry of lightning-fast moves, he sought out and repaired all the blast holes faster than the human eye could follow. Finally, the Saint Bernard was whole once more, albeit still deflated. "Now what?" Summer asked. "I shall connect the helium truck to the dog and...and...oops." The truck did not have a hose attached that would have allowed the connection to be made. Space Moose's moosey brow furrowed as he thought, something slightly out of the ordinary for him. "I know! I shall have to use my Mighty Moose Breath to transfer the helium from the truck to the balloon!" "Uh...are you sure that's such a good idea...?" Summer began, but Space Moose paid her no heed. He placed his moosey mouth over the truck's nozzle and gave the valve a spin. With a hiss, much of the pressurized gas transferred itself to Space Moose's lungs. His chest expanded, and he started to rise, but managed to hold himself down by reversing his powers of flight. He placed his mouth over the St. Bernard float's nozzle and exhaled, reinflating it to its fullest capacity. Space Moose untangled the SBF's guy wires and let it float free once more. "Another job well done by SPACE MOOSE!!!" he proclaimed. Or, rather, TRIED to proclaim. Due to the aftereffects of all that helium, it came out as a rather loud, high-pitched squeak, which shattered MORE glass, and caused everyone within one half of a mile to turn around and look for the source. Space Moose looked rather embarrassed. An Invid clam-shell transport hovered above the clouds, its occupants getting ready for the battle soon to come. All they would have to do is split those puny humans up, and attack them once they had separated. "We're almost ready for the attack!" Anime Freak decided. "Whoa, excellent!" Wayne announced. "Party on, dudes!" The Alpha fighter streaked through Ozark skies, homing in on Team M.E.C.H.A.'s secret HQ. "Are you sure it's this way?" Ray Sterling asked. "Yeah," Mike answered. "Just keep going." As they flew along, in silence, Mike pondered what he was going to tell Ray Sterling. Ray seemed like a nice enough guy, and he was a mecha pilot, after all...maybe he could be convinced to join Team M.E.C.H.A.? "There it is," Mike announced. "Hang on." He keyed a sequence into the Alpha's comm system, and the hidden landing bay doors opened. "Okay, just land in there." "Roger." Ray adjusted the throttle, set the vectored thrust downward, and lowered the plane gently into the landing bay. As the Alpha Veritech's canopy slid open, Ray looked around and said, "This doesn't look like any REF landing bay I've ever seen." "It's not," Mike said. "This is a Team M.E.C.H.A. landing bay. The REF has very little to do with it." Ray looked around. The landing bay was huge, with a few jets or helicoptors sitting around, and a really enormous transport jet at the far end. "Hey, where IS everybody? You can't run a bay this size without people..." "You can't, but we can," Mike replied. "Come on, let's get to Master Control. I have to get the M.E.C.H.A. jet ready for takeoff." "Excuse me," Ray remarked, "but would you please tell me exactly what's going on?" WILL MIKE TELL RAY WHAT'S GOING ON? WILL RAY BE VERY PLEASED WITH THIS REPORT? HOW DISAPPOINTED WILL HE BE THAT HE CAN'T GO HOME (AT LEAST, NOT YET)? IS THE AUTHOR GETTING WAYNE MIXED UP WITH BILL AND TED? HOW WILL ROBOTECH_MASTER RESPOND TO THE SILLINESS THAT IS CURRENTLY TAKING PLACE IN THE AUTHORS' ALTIVERSE? HOW LONG WILL R_M BE ABLE TO AVOID TAKING SIDES IN ONE OF THE AUTHOR WARS THAT CONTINUALLY SWEEP ACROSS THE PLANET? DOES THE "EVERYTHING-PROOF" DESCRIPTION OF R_M'S BUNKER INCLUDE KEY LIME PIES? WILL THERE BE ANOTHER MIME-MAN? HOW ABOUT A MUSAE SHIRTS-SKINS VOLLEYBALL GAME? SOME OF THIS AND MUCH, MUCH LESS, APPEARING SOON ON... YOUR COMPUTER TERMINAL! -- Chris Meadows | "It wasn't your fault; it was the will of the CHM173S@SMSVMA | Authors. Like private parts to them are we; they CHM173S@VMA.SMSU.EDU | play with us for their pleasure." CMEADOWS@NYX.CS.DU.EDU | --high-jinx, Original AWESOME FORCE #102 CMEADOWS@NOX.CS.DU.EDU | by Bill Paul, The Man With Two First Names ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1993 19:56:39 CST Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Robotech_Master Organization: Team M.E.C.H.A. Secret Headquarters Subject: Team M.E.C.H.A. No. 18 TEAM M.E.C.H.A. SERIES: Part 18 By Robotech_Master, alias Chris Meadows Guest-Starring Spectrum, Space Moose, Ray Sterling, and Various Other People A Story of High Technology, and High Insurance Rates (After what's been happening to Springfield lately, I'm not surprised!) "What are you doing?" Ray Sterling asked, as Mike seated himself at one of the computer consoles. "Just hang on a minute." Mike logged in and checked the automated repair program. The repairs to the M.E.C.H.A. jet were going well; the computer estimated completion in three days, seven hours, and twenty-six minutes. "That's not good enough," Mike remarked to the screen. "We need it now." He thought for a moment. "Right. I'll just have the automatic repair systems swap out the damaged modules with spare units from storage. That should take...what...fifteen minutes? Right. Let's do it. And I'd better check and make sure the spare mecha are loaded aboard, too. Ah, that's better. Good." "What is this place?" Ray Sterling asked. "Team M.E.C.H.A.'s secret headquarters. You like?" Mike tabbed the keys to start the module swapout sequence and turned his chair to face Ray. "You still haven't told me where you got the Cyclones," Ray replied. "Ah, yes. Well, unlike you, we don't have anything to do with the REF, or the television dimension." "What do you mean?" Ray asked. "These are probably not what you would consider Robotech mecha, because they aren't powered by Protoculture." "How can they operate on some other power source? Protoculture is essential for the finesse of control necessary to pilot mecha. It--" "My friend, Protoculture is a twink power source invented by a fool," Mike said. "The original MOSPEADA bikes were powered by hydrogen turbine engines." "What?!" Ray was totally confused now. Mike sighed. "Never mind, it's not important. Just take my word for it, mecha will operate just as well on cold fusion as on Protoculture. Anyway, listen." Mike explained the origins of M.E.C.H.A.'s mecha to Ray, who was very disappointed by the news. "Still no way to get home," he sighed. "I'm stuck here, in the 20th century." "Look on the bright side," Mike suggested, flipping through camera views of the landing bay to watch the new modular units being installed into the M.E.C.H.A. jet. "If you go by the books, the Robotech saga had a pretty lousy ending anyway." "That's not much of a consolation," Ray muttered. Summer smiled up at the huge, friendly-looking, inflated Saint Bernard that hovered over the hospital. "I think I'll call you Overdog!" she announced. "Any particular reason?" Sarah wondered, grinning. "No. Just for the heck of it," Summer replied. "If Mike can do it, so can I." Overdog certainly looked happy up there, floating over the hospital. Summer briefly wondered if he would present a hazard to air traffic. Probably not, she reasoned, as long as he remembered to stay out of the way of the helipad. Spectrum had just gone back into the hospital, presumably to check on Foxy's condition. Now he was emerging, with a red, fuzzy anthropomorphic fox wearing a hospital gown in tow. "Hey, everyone, this is Foxy. Foxy, say hi to Team M.E.C.H.A." "Hi to Team M.E.C.H.A.," the fox said, waving. "What's that stand for, anyway?" "Nothing, actually. Mike just thought it looked and sounded neat," Summer replied. Glancing at Foxy's hospital gown, she added, "Nice outfit." Glancing at the similar gown Summer was still wearing, Foxy remarked, "Yes, isn't it? I think we may have the same designer." "Now that Foxy's better, we can head back to the convention center," Spectrum suggested. "I need to make sure that Dr. Cheef's all right." "Sounds good to me," Adam declared. "We can remove the threat to the innocent hospital patients by removing ourselves from the area. Okay, people, let's move out. Sarah, Summer, Lincoln, unnamed scientist, you're with me in the van. Oh, and there's room here for Foxy, too..." Foxy shrugged, climbing in. "When in Rome..." "But we're not in Rome, we're in Springfield," Summer said. Foxy growled and muttered something unintelligible. In the clam-shell transport hovering above the clouds, Wayne blew a cloud of blue smoke toward one of the blinking panel gauges. He then dropped the joint as he realized what the panel gauge was saying. "Dude!" he called to Anime Freak. "Looka this!" AF stepped into the blue haze that hung all around the transport's small bridge. "What is >KOFF, KOFF< it? And dammit, didn't I tell you not to smoke those things in the control room?" "Hey, man, it's my transport. I can take a toke or two if I feel like it. And don't call me dammit." [Rimshot!] "But never mind that, dude, look!" He pointed to the screen. "They're on the move!" Anime Freak pumped his fist in the air. "YES! Wayne, track them. I'm going to go suit up. Oh, and tell Marie to get ready for battle, and stand by to launch the Shock Troopers." "Like, sure thing, dude. Do I, like, get to shoot people?" "You bet." "Excellent! Party on, dude!" "Uh, right. Party on, Wayne." Feeling light-headed from all the smoke in the air, Anime Freak stumbled out of the room, heading for the section of the transport where the Mobile Suit prototype was being prepped for battle. Before long, he would have taken them all prisoner. And then, all the secrets of their mecha would be HIS! WILL ALL THE SECRETS OF THEIR M.E.C.H.A. BE HIS? WHAT WOULD HE DO WITH THEM IF HE GOT THEM? WOULD HE REALLY WANT THEM IF HE KNEW WHERE THEY'D BEEN? WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN MARIE MEETS UP WITH SPECTRUM AGAIN? WILL MARIE AND FOXY FIGHT OVER WHO GETS HIM? *DID* THE SHIRTS-SKINS MUSAE GAME HAPPEN, OR *DIDN'T* IT? ALL THIS, AND MAYBE EVEN SOME STUFF FROM THE OTHER AUTHORS, COMING UP IN THE MULTI-CROSSOVER OF THE YEAR, ONLY ON S U P E R G U Y -- Chris Meadows | "It wasn't your fault; it was the will of the CHM173S@SMSVMA | Authors. Like private parts to them are we; they CHM173S@VMA.SMSU.EDU | play with us for their pleasure." CMEADOWS@NYX.CS.DU.EDU | --high-jinx, Original AWESOME FORCE #102 CMEADOWS@NOX.CS.DU.EDU | by Bill Paul, The Man With Two First Names ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1993 19:57:51 CST Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Robotech_Master Organization: Team M.E.C.H.A. Secret Headquarters Subject: Team M.E.C.H.A. No. 19 TEAM M.E.C.H.A. SERIES: Part 19 By Robotech_Master, alias Chris Meadows Guest-Starring Spectrum, Space Moose, Ray Sterling, and Various Other People A Story of High Technology, and Low Weapons Accuracy (That means the Invid are in it, right?) "Adam," the voice came over the van's radio. "We've got trouble." Adam grabbed the mike. "What is it, Spectrum?" "Check the rearview!" Adam glanced over at the mirror. There, just above the "OBJECTS ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR" notice, was the ugly purple shape of an Invid Shock Trooper lining up a shot. "Shit!" Adam swore. "Do something!" As the Shock Trooper was about to fire, the back doors of the van swung open. There was one of the humans kneeling in the center, the pilot realized. And it was holding a--FWOOSH! KA-THWAM!!! The minimissile from Sarah's RL-6 hit the Invid in the eye, terminating it most effectively. "YES!!!" Sarah yelled. "Bring the bastards on!" "Never fear!" Space Moose proclaimed triumphantly, as a dozen more of the ugly alien fighter mecha swept in. "Space Moose shall save the day once again!" However, due to the residual effects of the helium exposure, it came out as something approximating, "EEeeeEEE! EEEEeeeeEEEEEEeeeeEEEEEEEE!" Space Moose looked mortally embarrassed for a moment, but then realized that this could be turned to his advantage! So, cupping his hands to his muzzle, Space Moose let out the highest-pitched squeal he was capable of, directed right at the enemy Shock Troopers. Six of the oncoming Invid dropped, their eye plates shattered by the high-frequency sound. "Good work, Space Moose!" Spectrum yelled, firing a blast of energy at the approaching Invid. Space Moose nodded and waved. "Aim for the eyes!" Adam called out over the radio. "It's their most vunerable point!" Then the plasma blasts started coming in. The Invid were, of course, unremarkable shots (to say the least), and their aim had not been improved any by the bad trip the Hive Mind had taken a couple of months back. So, they were managing to hit pretty much everything except what they were aiming at. "This is easy!" Sarah remarked, launching another minimissile. FWOOSH! KA-THWAM!!! Beside her, Lincoln didn't say anything but kept plinking away with his Gallant rifle. Sooner or later, he was bound to hit that sensor eye one way or another... "Hey, don't be depressed," Mike was saying. "It's a great world here. I'd rather be here than in Robotech any day. I mean, look at all the great stuff we have that's missing in New Generation. Civilization, for instance..." "I suppose you're right," Ray began. "But--" The radio interrupted him. "Adam calling Mike. Adam calling Mike. Do you read me?" Mike jumped to the control panel and keyed the mike. "What? Mike here." "We're under attack! At least three dozen Invid shock troopers! Spectrum and Space Moose are holding them off, but I don't know how much longer we can last!" "I copy, Adam. Keep fighting. Help is on the way." He snapped off the radio and turned to Ray. "I'm sorry, but there's no more time to talk. My friends are in danger, and I have to go help. Are you with me?" Ray slapped his left fist into the palm of his right hand. "Definitely. Those Invid...they're MY responsibility," he said. "No time for talking, then. Let's go!" They took the elevator down to the launch bay. Ray vaulted into the cockpit of the Alpha and started doing a preflight, but Mike said, "Wait. Move the Alpha over there and position it under the M.E.C.H.A. jet." "Why?" "I'll explain later, just do it." Mike ran for the plane, pulling on his headset as he went. Ray taxied the Alpha over to where Mike had indicated. He was slightly startled when huge panels in the bottom of the plane swung open, rather like a bomb bay, and mechanical arms and interconnectors dropped out, gripped the Alpha, and pulled it up inside, into a small launch bay kind of place. The doors swung shut again underneath it. As Ray Sterling pushed the canopy up, Mike came running along the metal catwalk that was level with the top of the Alpha's fuselage. "I designed the M.E.C.H.A. jet to berth small fighter planes," Mike explained. "Never thought that one of them would be this particular model." "Great, neat. Now what?" "Come with me to the flight deck. You do know how to fly something other than your Veritech, right?" "I can fly anything," Ray bragged. Not necessarily very WELL, but I can fly it, he added mentally. "Great. You can fly this bird and I'll handle the weapon systems. Come on." Moments later, the mighty transport jet rose out of the secret forest launch pad on pillars of fire. As soon as it reached tree level, the thrust was vectored rearward once more, and the jet launched northward, accelerating at a rate of several Gs. Ray Sterling moved the stick slightly, and the huge airplane responded with all the sensitivity of the fastest fly-by-wire jet. "Nice handling," he remarked. "Thanks," Mike said, keying up sensory displays. "I think I'm getting radar lock on those Invid. Feeding coordinates into nav computer. Oh, and there's something bigger, too. I think it's a transport." "Do you have any weapon systems that could strike it?" Ray asked, vectoring over onto the new course. "Yeah...yeah, that can be done. Hang on." Mike punched some keys, and grabbed the joystick in front of him. The stick now did not feed directions to the flight systems, but to the targeting systems. "Locking long-range missiles...firing." Four long-range air-to-air missiles streaked from launch tubes recessed along the forward fuselage of the M.E.C.H.A. jet. Mike kept his hand on the joystick in case he needed to make manual course-corrections, but doubted any would be necessary. "I'd better warm up the laser turrets and short-range weapons for when we hit town. There's quite a furball going on up there." "All RIGHT!" Ray whooped as the weapons came on line. "Some REAL firepower!" WILL THOSE MISSILES HIT THE INVID TRANSPORT? WILL RAY AND MIKE SAVE THE DAY? DOES RAY REALLY KNOW HOW TO PILOT THE M.E.C.H.A. JET, OR IS HE JUST FAKING IT? WILL THE INVID TROOPERS EVER MANAGE TO HIT ANYTHING? SUCH AS THE BROAD SIDE OF A BARN, PERHAPS? WILL THE OTHER CROSSOVER AUTHORS BE MADE AT ME FOR WRITING THREE POSTS IN A ROW? CAN ROBOTECH_MASTER GET A COPY OF THAT TAPE OF THE SHIRTS-SKINS MUSAE GAME FROM AMIGOID? FIND OUT, ONLY ON... S U P E R G U Y Your comments are appreciated. The author's ego is standing by. -- Chris Meadows | "It wasn't your fault; it was the will of the CHM173S@SMSVMA | Authors. Like private parts to them are we; they CHM173S@VMA.SMSU.EDU | play with us for their pleasure." CMEADOWS@NYX.CS.DU.EDU | --high-jinx, Original AWESOME FORCE #102 CMEADOWS@NOX.CS.DU.EDU | by Bill Paul, The Man With Two First Names ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1993 15:56:52 CST Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: tabloid footprints in your hair Organization: Team M.E.C.H.A. transport jet flight deck Subject: Team M.E.C.H.A. No. 20 (back, despite popular demand!) TEAM M.E.C.H.A. SERIES: Part 20 By Robotech_Master, alias Chris Meadows Another Very Long One Guest-Starring Spectrum, Space Moose, Ray Sterling, and Various Other People A Story of High Technology, and an Overly-Prolific Author (Don't worry, folks, he can't keep this pace up for much longer...) The Stage 4 Invid Enforcer left in command in the cockpit of the clam shell transport was just a bit woozy from all the smoke left over in the wake of Wayne's departure. Thus he can, perhaps, be excused for failing to notice the four missiles streaking head-on toward the ship until the last second. KER-BLAMMO! The four rockets exploded, knocking major gouges in the sides of the transport. The poor Invid lurched from side to side as the transport wobbled in the air, but then he managed to get it under control once more. "Is it dead?" Ray asked. "Negative. Took hits, but it's still there." Mike punched some keys. "Uh-oh. Coming into range of those Invid Shock Troopers. Incoming cannon fire." As the plasma blasts shot to the left and right of the M.E.C.H.A. jet, Ray Sterling chuckled. "Nothing to worry about," he said. "They're missing us by miles." Mike slid a cassette into a slot on the dash and music filled the cockpit, also blasting out of external speakers to be heard by those fighting below. Those who were in the know could recognize the song: Heavy Metal (Takin' a Ride) by Don Felder, from the soundtrack of the animated movie, HEAVY METAL. "Steer for that group of Invid at ten o'clock low. Let's take these guys." Shrugging off cannon shots as though they were little more than poorly aimed frisbees, the transport jet rocketed through the sky. Mike punched the keys, and dozens of laser beams pulsed out from different points on the ship's hull, giving it the momentary appearance of a flying rock concert (the loud blaring music also helped in this respect). These beams searched for and found Invid, holing eye plates, cutting off arms and legs, and generally doing lots of megadamage. "Yeah! That's maybe about fifteen down!" Mike called out. "But they're not going to be so complacent now, are they?" Ray answered. "Look, they're spreading farther apart so that trick won't work again." "Yeah. They're still missing us, though." From the cockpit of his Mobile Suit, Anime Freak watched unbelievingly. The Invid were completely missing Team M.E.C.H.A.! Even with a target larger than a 747, they were wrecking everything EXCEPT what they were firing at but not doing ANY damage to their intended targets. As a possible last resort, Anime Freak called out, "Attention all Invid! New firing orders--you are now to shoot at everything EXCEPT Team M.E.C.H.A. Repeat, fire at everything EXCEPT Team M.E.C.H.A." If THAT didn't get some on-target hits, NOTHING would. As plasma frisbees tore up the road in front of the van, Adam wrenched the wheel to the right and screeched to a halt to avoid running into the huge pothole that had just been created. Unfortunately, he jerked the wheel a little too sharply and the van overturned. "Excellent! The mek dudes are down! Finish them!" Wayne yelled, firing a few random blasts from his cannon that didn't really have much of a chance of hitting at his range, and in fact accidentally hit a couple of his soldiers. But Wayne didn't care, he felt too good to care about much of anything at the moment. "Is everybody okay?" Adam asked. "We're all right back here," Summer announced. "Speak for yourself, kid," muttered Foxy, whom she had landed on top of. "Come on, we have to get out of here before they blow us to bits!" Sarah Conner said, stepping out the back. She fired again with her RL-6, knocking down another Invid and allowing the others time to climb out the back of the van. "Now run for it!" Sarah yelled, firing once more, then throwing away the now-empty bazooka. They ran, just as a poorly-aimed plasma disk hit the van and blew it away. Spectrum had just made sure that Foxy and the nameless scientist were safely ensconced behind a nearby metal dumpster when a plasma blast hit the ground very close to his armor. He turned to see a Royal Command Battloid hovering before him. "Die, human worm!" a female voice called out from within it. "'Die, human worm'?" Spectrum muttered. "Who writes her dialogue, anyway?" He jumped back and began feeding more power to the suit's weapons. "If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you're going to get!" The M.E.C.H.A. jet rattled under the force of several nearby plasma blasts. "Yow! Their aim has improved!" Ray remarked, bringing the plane around in a sweeping turn. "Bring us in over the road...I'm going to try to airdrop Cyclones to some of my team members down there." Mike punched some keys, and one of his computer screens rezzed into a bombsight. As the jet swept in low over the road, Mike moved the crosshairs with the joystick and chose his target. "There!" He thumbed the firing key, and something shot out from the underside of the jet with a WHOOSH! It was a Saber Cyclone, in storage mode. Jet thrusters on the underside fired, easing it down to hit the street in front of Adam Douglas. "All right! My Cyclone!" Adam grabbed the boxy compact mecha and ducked into a nearby side street with it. Other Cyc-bikes landed near the other running M.E.C.H.A. troops, except for Summer, who Mike couldn't see. "I hope she'll be all right...Yow, what was THAT?!" A rather powerful energy beam streaked past the M.E.C.H.A. jet, just narrowly passing over the right wing. "What the heck...?!" "That clam shell transport!" Ray realized. "I didn't know they mounted cannons!" "You and me both," Mike responded. As it fired again, Ray jinked right to avoid the blast. "We'd better take it out." "All right, how? I don't think your laser barrage will be very effective against it..." Mike nodded. "You're probably right." He flipped open a red toggle switch cover and pressed the switch beneath it. There was a loud beep, and a red targeting reticle appeared on the jet's HUD. "Arming main gun. Just point the nose at that ship and get me close...we'll see what we can do." Adam finished suiting up in his CVR-3 body armor and revved the dark green VR-041 Saber Cyclone up. "All right!!! Let's show these Invid wimps what a real mecha team can do!" "I'm with you!" Sarah Conner said, touching down beside him in her brand-spanking-new, cherry red, power armor-mode VR-038-LT Cyclone. "Same here!" Lincoln straddled his light blue Battler and converted it to its power armor form. This one was armed with the EP-40 proton cannon attachment, rather than the forearm plasma missile packs. Sarah Conner had the RL-6, as usual, and Adam was carrying an EP-37 beam cannon in addition to the Saber's standard armaments. The Invid were in for some major hassles. "This is strange," Lincoln remarked. "My sensors are showing that almost all of those Invid mecha are malfunctioning." "Makes it all the easier to blow 'em out of the sky!" Adam whooped, revved his bike, and the three Cyclones moved out. The Stage 4 Invid Enforcer in the clam shell carrier keyed more firing commands. It was his duty to try to knock that accursed jet out of the sky, before it could destroy any more of the Invid. However, as he aimed and fired the main cannons, he didn't notice that their target was coming closer and closer... However, outside the clam shell carrier ship, something else HAD noticed. It was a Pincer Command Unit, the most powerful Invid mecha next to the Royal Command Battloid. It warmed up its heat cannons to fire... Mike's hand centered the joystick as the crosshairs came onto target. "Now!" His thumb pressed the key on the back of the stick. In the lower part of the nose of the mighty Team M.E.C.H.A. transport jet, a panel slid open, revealing a large cannon barrel, perhaps six feet across, recessed into the lower fuselage. A blast of brilliantly-glowing energy, somewhat resembling the SDF-1's main gun but on a much smaller scale, lanced forth. However, at the same time that this happened, the Invid Enforcer stumbled against the clam shell transport's flight controls, causing it to lurch to one side. The beam missed, narrowly but cleanly. The Pincer Command Unit barely avoided collision with its mother ship and went spinning off toward the ground below, barely righting itself in time to avoid a crash. "Damn!" Mike growled. "Don't just sit there, fire again!" Ray yelled. "We're within a thousand feet, we've gotta hit him sooner or later!" "I can't!" Mike replied. "This thing has a thirty-second charge cycle!" Ray Sterling dodged more cannon blasts. "Shoot SOMETHING at him! Or he's going to shoot US!" "Right. Arming short range missile batteries. Firing." Rockets streaked forth from panels all over the the giant jet aircraft, homing in on the clam shell transport. As Ray veered off to avoid a collision, the Invid ship was enveloped by globular anime-style explosions. "Did we knock it down?" Mike asked. "Negative. He's still there." "Right. Five seconds to full charge." An Invid Scout swooped down in on Adam Douglas, claw swinging in for an attack. Adam converted his Cyclone to armor mode and leaped out of the way. "You want a piece of me? Well, here, here's a piece of me!" He fired the EP-37 right down through the mecha, not bothering with the sensor eye. The cannon blast transfixed the Invid from top to bottom, then it blew up. "Yeah, bring it on!" Adam extended the monomolecular CADS blades from his Cyclone armor's gauntlets and slashed the next Invid across the eyeplate. Its fluids leaked out, and it collapsed to the street. "Anyone else?" Space Moose bashed an Armored Scout into a conveniently empty nearby building, then froze. His Moose Sense was telling him that there was danger...extreme danger...somewhere to the north! He took a look around. Almost all the Invid had been defeated. The three Cyclone riders were pummeling those few still-functional mecha who remained on the ground; Spectrum and another one of the Invid were duelling; the huge jet plane was faring well against the clam shell transport...they didn't really need him here any more. But there was trouble in his Canadian homeland. He had to go! "Farewell, my friends!" Space Moose announced (his voice, thankfully, having returned to normal). "I must away! To Canada, to save the day!" He flew off, bashing two more Invid on his way out. Adam looked up for just a moment, saluted, then continued with his work. Anime Freak checked the battle readouts. "No! This isn't possible!" he said. "The Invid are being defeated much too fast, even for them!" He hit the commo key in his Mobile Suit's cockpit, calling the OTHER clam shell transport, which had stayed behind in the clouds, well back from the melee that was currently taking place. "Send in the second wave!" The Invid clam shell transport was battered, but still there. Several holes had been blown in it. One of those holes led into the flight deck, causing all of Wayne's blue smoke to be sucked out into the atmosphere. The Invid Enforcer pilot began to regain some measure of his senses, just in time to notice the huge transport jet bearing down on the clam shell carrier again. And then the Pincer Command mech rocketed up in front of the clam shell ship, charging its heat cannons to fire at the oncoming jet. It fired, then leaped for the plane! Thanks to some inspired dodging by Ray Sterling, the heat cannons' only effect was to mar the paint job slightly, but Ray and Mike both felt it when the PCU landed on top of the fuselage, just as Mike fired the main gun again. The impact of the landing jarred the entire transport jet, so that the cannon blast struck the clam shell transport not dead center as intended, but lower and to the left. It was still a crippling wound, and the ship started heading downward, trailing smoke. But the Pincer Command Unit was still on the back of the M.E.C.H.A. jet, and pounding away at the armor with its claws. "We got it!" Mike yelled. "YES!" "But there's an Invid on our back." Mike swore, and got up. "I'm going out there." "What about me?" Ray asked. "Set the plane to autopilot, set a course out of the city and circling back around. Then get to your Alpha. We've got a battle to fight!" "You bet!" The Pincer was continuing to pound away at the M.E.C.H.A. jet, when a panel further back opened, and Mike's Bahamode mecha rose out the top of the plane. It stepped off the mecha elevator platform, raising its gun. "Hey! Hands off, pal!" The Pincer straightened up, turned. The sensor eye focussed on the human's mecha, scanning, targeting. In an instant, the decision was made. It sprang for him, firing its nose-mounted plasma cannons. Mike jumped before the PCU could hit him, excuting a perfect somersault in mid-air to come down behind it. "Too slow!" Mike called out, firing his 25mm machine cannon on full-auto. The Pincer's left arm separated, bounced once on the top of the plane, then slid off and fell earthward. The Pincer spun, enraged. It fired the big heat guns at him now, but he jumped, avoided the beam, and moved in closer to jump-kick at the Invid's face. Ker-WHAM! The Pincer was staggered, knocked back a little, but still intact. It swung at him with its right arm, connecting with the Bahamode battloid's midsection. "Oof!" Mike said, stumbling back. "Oh, yeah? Take this!" The outward panel on the Bahamode's left forearm flipped open, and two mini-missiles launched from it. Taken by surprise, the Pincer went up in a giant fireball. Mike ran his mecha to the side of the plane and jumped off, the Bahamode's thruster pack sending him back toward all the main fighting. He was joined shortly by a Robotech Alpha Fighter, with Ray Sterling at the controls. "Hey, Mike, let's kick some Invid butt!" "If there's any left when we get there..." Mike responded. Summer watched the fighting from a side street which she'd ducked into after the van had been blown away. She was glad to be safe, but she also wished she could be a part of the battle. Watching Adam, Lincoln, and Sarah blow away the Invid was fun, but to be doing it herself would be something else entirely. Then Summer heard footsteps. Giant, metallic footsteps. She was wondering what this could mean, and hoping it didn't mean what she thought it meant, when the huge Invid Trooper walked around the corner. Summer screamed, and retreated. The Invid walked forward. CLANK. CLANK. CLANK. CLANK. Summer turned to run, but found that the street dead-ended in a wall. She turned, back against the wall, to face the oncoming Invid. Was this it? Was this the end? IS THIS IT? IS THIS THE END? WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO SUMMER? IS IT SOMETHING FANTASTIC? OR JUST STUPID? IS THE AUTHOR EVER GOING TO SLOW DOWN? WHAT ABOUT SPECTRUM AND MARIE? WILL THEY FALL IN LOVE, FORM A MUSICAL ACT, AND HAVE A TV SHOW? AND WHAT DOES ANIME FREAK'S "SECOND WAVE" CONSIST OF? FIND OUT...IF YOU CAN STAND TO READ THAT MUCH...ONLY ON... S U P E R G U Y -- Chris Meadows | "It wasn't your fault; it was the will of the CHM173S@SMSVMA | Authors. Like private parts to them are we; they CHM173S@VMA.SMSU.EDU | play with us for their pleasure." CMEADOWS@NYX.CS.DU.EDU | --high-jinx, Original AWESOME FORCE #102 CMEADOWS@NOX.CS.DU.EDU | by Bill Paul, The Man With Two First Names ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1993 19:29:03 CST Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: tabloid footprints in your hair Organization: Team M.E.C.H.A. transport jet flight deck Subject: AA: 3.14159265359... In the bunker, Robotech_Master looked up from the terminal where he was MUCKing, waiting for the other Crossover authors to write their bits, and said, "I'm confused." "What do you mean?" Gadge asked, punching the key to send his latest Space Moose creation. "Well, up until a few minutes ago, I thought that the slice of pie that hit Amigoid's space station was key lime. But then, in Mason Kramer's first, MIME-infected AA post, it had mysteriously mutated into lemon merangue (did I spell that right? Probably not, but...). And now, in Mason's most re- cent post, the flavor isn't mentioned at all. So just what kind of pie IS it?" Gadge shrugged. "Why worry about it? You guys still have to finish your crossover." "Yeah, I suppose you're right," Chris remarked, turning back to his console. "Besides, either way, it's only pie in the sky..." [RIMSHOT!] -- Chris Meadows | "It wasn't your fault; it was the will of the CHM173S@SMSVMA | Authors. Like private parts to them are we; they CHM173S@VMA.SMSU.EDU | play with us for their pleasure." CMEADOWS@NYX.CS.DU.EDU | --high-jinx, Original AWESOME FORCE #102 CMEADOWS@NOX.CS.DU.EDU | by Bill Paul, The Man With Two First Names ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1993 19:57:58 PST Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Lawrence Brown Subject: SG: Spectrum #6 SPECTRUM #6 "Things get nasty." by the Amigoid Guest Starring: Ray Sterling, Team M.E.C.H.A. (Sorry, no Overdog this episode...) A story of mortal combat to the sound of some great music. The cassette tape onboard the transport tape continued on playing. Space Moose had just said his goodbyes and reluctantly flown to save his homeland as fast as he could from impending doom. Anime Freak commanded, "Send in the second wave!" And at that moment the tape began playing "The Mob Rules" as dozens of TONN SHOCK TROOPS parachuted out of the second clamshell, some also leaped with jumpjets, all of them armed to the teeth, all of them with one thing on their mind. Well, two things, if you count constantly remembering what the punishment for failure was for them. Wayne was stoned, but he wasn't stupid. Well, he knew to stay at long range. "Whoah, like, most excellent and far out!", grooved Wayne as he watched. Aiming his weapon he fired off another spray of blasts, this time blowing the chute lines of some of the troopers. "Bummer man," he mumbled, watching the screaming troopers tumble to the ground. SPLUT! CRUNCH! SLAM! Half a dozen troopers impacted messily around the dumpster, their guns and weapons clattering to the ground. "Argh! Yuck!" The nameless scientist stared at the pulped bodies, then got up and grabbed some of the equipment they'd been carrying. "What are you doing?" Foxy asked. "Figure it out, lady. I'm not going to sit in a warzone with no weapons. Here. Try these on." Spectrum glared at the Royal Command Battloid, and shouted, "Sorry lady, I don't have time to play now, so bye-bye...." *Now is time for something different...* Spectrum thought to himself. He fired a blast of anti-gravity at the RCB. Marie's mecha was suddenly shooting straight up like a missile, the G-forces nearly knocking her unconcious. Adam, Link, and Sarah were cutting a swath of destruction through the Invid, when the TONN Shock Troopers began landing and attacking the Cyclone pilots. Before they realized it they were being shot at on all sides by troops with submachine guns, recoilless rifles, plasma launchers and gyrojet rifles. They shrugged off the smaller caliber weapons, but started showing the signs of strain from dodging the more threatening weapons. Link shifted his proton cannon to its widest dispersion and started mauling the ground forces. "Hey Team, we are in some serious action, get over here fast!" Ray and Mike were also occupied. A dozen of the Invid spotted the pair decending and began firing on them as they came down. Anime Freak spotted the Veritech Alpha. "You are mine, Ray Sterling. If you will not destroy Team M.E.C.H.A. then I shall destroy you! A pair of Invid Scouts lifted the dumpster, to reveal the scientist loading himself down with all the weapons he could carry. He yelped in surprise and tried to get away. Suddenly there was a flash of brown and red from inside the dumpster, and one of the Invid staggered back, its eye burned out by the heavy laser pistol, wielded by Foxy. Wearing only a weapons belt and a bandolier of grenades, she flipped gracefully out and to the ground as the Invid collapsed to the pavement. The pistol was connected to the belt pack, and the slightly tinted lens of a heads-up rangefinder/commlink adorned her head. Frantically the scientist fired the rifles/pistols/etc at the other Invid. But his shots were wild, unfocused. In desparation, he pulled the pin on a nasty looking grenade. The Invid hesitated. Then the Invid stomped on the scientist. Scientist's screams were drowned out by the sudden explosion of the thermal grenade, which incinerated him and the leg of the Invid. Foxy screamed in terror as the flames scorched her side, and she rolled, and fired directly into the eye of the hobbling Invid. Spectrum was flash-freezing a pair of plasma firing troopers when his eardrums were rattled by Foxy's scream over the radio. He saw the fireball and Foxy dashing to avoid the shots of the troopers. He where the now-forever nameless scientist had been only moments ago. He'd seen enough! His armor's jets flared with incredible energy. "Agh!!" Link yelled as a grenade blew his weapon from his grasp. "I'm in deep trouble! I just lost my gun!" He grabbed a large rock and caved in the skull of a TONN Trooper. "LINK! HIT THE DIRT!" "Wha?" Link fell forward as shattered pieces of an Invid Trooper rained all around him. The sonic boom from the missile tumbled his battloid like a leaf in a malstrom. The missle arched around and Link saw that it was no missile. It was Spectrum, pouring energy into the flight systems of his suit, using the armor like a giant ram. Spectrum swung around and skimmed the ground, arms extended out to each side, slamming through TONN troopers like a rocket powered thresher. All the while Spectrum bellowed like an angry bear, ignoring the pounding he was giving himself. "My God, Sarah, he's really lost it." "Get moving Link!" Sarah retrieved his rifle and tossed it to Link. "He bought us an opening out of this crossfire. Lets roll!" Marie finally regained control of her RCB, adjusting her thrusters, she flew straight for the second Invid transport. "Grounder, are you ready?" She shouted as she sped into the bay of the Clam. "Roight, Milady Marie, oi am as I shall iver be!" Grounder waddled to the door in his makeshift suit, wrapped all over with thick insulation, so much so that he looked like the Michellin Tire Guy. Stumbling he fell out the door, and tumbled screaming towards the ground. "ELLLLLLP!" The RCB dove after him and snatched him from his plummeting doom. "Die on your own time, human, I still have need of you!" Spectrum landed next to Foxy. She looked at his armor, now bloodstained and glowing from the heat. She looked at him, "Remind me never to make you mad at me. Hey sailor, lets finish this thing and take a vacation." "Step away from my warrior, dog!" Marie's RCB landed and set Grounder down. "He shall face me in single combat!" "Dog!? Why you..." Foxy aimed her pistol and pulled the trigger. Unfortunately Grounder drained its power and it had no effect. "Get clear Foxy. I'm going to settle this." Foxy looked at Spectrum, and then darted for Team M.E.C.H.A., pitching grenades and fluidly avoiding shots. "Grounder, I didn't think you be dumb enough to try that stunt again." "Roight, well, things ave changed mate!" Grounder concentrated and again, Spectrum's armor froze to a halt. Spectrum poured more and more power into the suit... but the heavily insulated Grounder leeched it all. Marie's RCB grabbed Spectrum and slammed him to the ground repeatedly. Again and again and again. Spectrum came to. He was out of his armor. Parked to one side was the RCB, and Grounder. The sounds of battle could be heard a few blocks away. Marie stood in front of Spectrum, holding a short sword. She couldn't help but admire this human. He was even better looking out of his armor. She could not kill a man such as this when he was defenseless. She tossed him a second sword, and it stuck in the ground a few feet to his side. "Now we end this, human." "But! but.. he's still..." Interjected Grounder "Its not the suit..." "Silence human! Spectrum and I shall finish this here! You keep him away from his suit! Keep the others at bay!" She licked her lips. "Prepare yourself warrior..." STILL MORE ACTION! STILL MORE THRILLS! STAY TUNED, AS SW TAKES HIS TURN AT THE HELM OF THE CROSSOVER SPECIAL! ONLY ON... SUPERGUY!!!!!!! -- ************************************************************************* * All programmers are playwrights and all computers are lousy actors. * ************************************************************************* Lawrence H. Brown HW Release Lab Admin. lbrown@cisco.com (415)688-4487 Homephone: (408)984-6036 If its urgent: Digital Pager: (415)599-8663 Keywords: VideoToaster!, Champs, Dolphins, Mechforce, Networks, Omaha, Probe ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1993 09:51:22 EST Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Jesse Taylor Subject: SG: Force Ten #8 (crossover special! Yay!) FORCE TEN #8 - CROSSOVER SPECIAL by the Inebriated Shadowy Writer [Which shouldn't actually be called Force Ten 'cos Force Ten isn't actually in it, but hey...] with parts by Robotech_Master and... with assistance by the Amigoid Guest starring Spectrum, Team M.E.C.H.A., and the Springfield P.D. <-----> "Pick up the sword, human!!" Marie yelled at Spectrum. "Wait a wee minute, 'ere!" Grounder protested, "Ye din't un'erstand!" "Shut up!" Marie yelled at him. Meanwhile, Spectrum picked up the sword and held it dextrouslessly. "Can't we talk this out?" he asked. "DIE!!" Marie yelled, slashing at his head. Spectrum parried desperately, managing to block the blow. He let loose a blast of energy, but unfortunately Grounder drained most of its power before it hit Marie, but it still took her by surprise and knocked her over. "Hey!" she protested, "How can you do that without your armor?!" "I tried ta tell ye, but yoo wouldnae listen ta me, ooh nooooo!" Grounder whined. "You won't take me by surprise again!!" Marie growled, launching herself at Spectrum. <-----> Summer leaned back against the wall as the Invid Trooper came closer and closer. She grabbed her laser pistol and desperately fired shot after shot at the Invid, trying to hit it in the eye...but the gun clicked empty before any significant damage was done. "No!" Summer yelled. "If only I had my hardsuit on, I could shoot this guy right through the eye," she thought aloud. And then a bolt of light shot out from her right arm, penetrating the Invid Trooper's sensor eye. The Invid went down, spewing green liquid. "Huh?" Summer looked down at her arm, and gasped. There was the laser cannon that was built into the arm of her hardsuit--but it seemed to be built into her flesh-and-blood arm. "What in the world?" As she watched, her right hand and arm all the way up to the elbow shimmered, and was replaced by the forearm from her gleaming black hardsuit. Summer grasped the metal arm with her left hand. It felt REAL. And, even as she thought about it, it shimmered back into a normal arm again. "This is too weird!" Summer breathed. "What's happening to me?" <-----> In the streets of Springfield, Adam, Link, and Sarah continued to fight the TONN troops. "Eat this!" Adam shouted, blasting away. "Bwahahaha!" "Be careful!" Sarah yelled back, popping a concentration of troopers with a shot from her RL-6. "Link!! Watch out!" Link never got a chance to reply, as one of the troopers fired what looked like a massive caliber rifle at him. What it actually shot was a miniature capacitor with an engine on the back - a 'Stingray' gyrojet rocket. It hit in the middle of Link's breastplate and discharged with a massive 'ZZZZOTTTT!'. "LINK!!!" Adam yelled as Link stumbled and fell. "NOW YOU DIE, YOU #$*%S!!!" "Geez," Sarah said, helping the stunned Link to his feet, "Try decaf tomorrow, Adam!" <-----> The battle raged in the streets of Springfield. Mike and Ray swooped in in their mecha. "Divide and conquer!" Mike radioed. "You got it!" Components on Ray's Alpha fighter retracted, flipped over, and extended as the fighter went to guardian mode and raised its GU-XX cannon. Mike centered the crosshairs of his own targeting system on a nearby Invid Armored Scout. Then Anime Freak spotted the Alpha. It was him, it was Ray Sterling who was responsible for this setback in his plans for conquest! "You are mine, Ray Sterling! If you will not destroy Team M.E.C.H.A., then I shall destroy YOU!" "I hope you have better luck than your Invid!" Ray retorted, putting a single GU-XX blast through two Armored Scouts and a Trooper that just happened to be lined up perfectly. Anime Freak just snarled and rocketed forward in his Mobile Suit. Catching a glimpse out of the corner of his eye, Mike just sort of froze for a moment and gawked. The design was similar in some ways to a Gundam, but it seemed to be equipped with different weapon systems. There was an Invid plasma cannon on its right shoulder, and a huge laser rifle--probably a pulse laser--in its right hand. Its left hand was a huge claw. And worst of all, there was a giant Streamline logo in the center of the MS's chest. Ray Sterling went to Battloid mode and dived in. The similarly-sized Mobile Suit rose up to meet him. Wasting no time with opening remarks, Ray released a barrage of short-range missiles from the Alpha's shoulder launchers, then slammed on his retrorockets. The missiles streaked in...but were vaporized by laser beams emanating from the Mobile Suit's left shoulder. "You'll have to do better than that!" Anime Freak smirked. "Oh, believe me, I intend to!" Ray feinted left, fired a burst from his cannon, then lunged. The Alpha's left fist connected with the Streamline logo, knocking the Mobile Suit back several yards in the air. But stabilizing thrusters on the Suit's backpack unit fired, and it came to a stop in midair. "Now it's my turn!" Anime Freak opened up with his mecha's laser rifle, striking Ray's Alpha in the left arm and leg and knocking it back. Then he let go with a plasma frisbee from the shoulder-mounted cannon, and it struck Ray's fighter in the lower left chest. KER-BLAM! The Alpha fell back, landing right on top of a building, half-crushing it. The Mobile Suit touched down on the ground, plasma cannon swivelling to bear on the hapless Robotech warrior. "Now you die!" Ray Sterling struggled to get his Alpha back on his feet, a thin line of blood running out of the corner of his mouth. "'Now you die?' Gimme a break, every bad science fiction cartoon or story has someone saying 'now you die' in it. It's old, it's corny, it's cliche!" "So is most anime, after my sidekick Carl Macek gets through with it!" Ray had to concede the point. But not the battle! "Hurrgh!" he grunted as the Alpha came up from its half-prone position. "Take this!" The GU-XX came up and fired a burst. It wasn't a particularly well-aimed burst, but it did the job, slamming into Anime Freak's Mobile Suit's left shoulder and head, sending it over backward. "No! I will not be defeated!" Anime Freak got his Mobile Suit back up, and swung with his mecha's left claw. Two long, supple tendrils lashed out, wrapping around Ray's Alpha fighter. Thousands of volts of electricity crackled along the wires. Ray's instrument panels began to short out. "Dammit!" Ray swore, electricity crackling all around him. "If I can just..." He punched keys frantically, but it was no use. He was firmly in Anime Freak's grasp. "Yes! Now I can...what?" Gauges all over Anime Freak's control panel were flashing red. "Power loss?! NOOOOOOOO!!!" Anime Freak slammed his fist down on the dashboard. "OW!" Ray felt the cables loosen. "What in the--hey! He's losing power!" And it was true. The rapid discharge of electricity along the tendrils had put too much of a strain on the Mobile Suit's untested fusion reactors, and they were now threatening to shut down. "Damn! I'll be back!" Anime Freak retracted the tendrils and the armor suit shot up and away. Oddly enough, there didn't seem to be any jet exhausts on it. "And I'll be waiting." <-----> "Rrrrrraaaaaa!" Marie yelled, deflecting another weakened energy blast with her sword. 'This human is better than I thought!', she pondered, 'A pity he was not Invid, otherwise...' "Marie!" Anime Freak's voice came over the comm-link, "We need you at the battle!! Things aren't going as planned! You must take care of Ray Ster-" "NO!" Marie yelled, tearing off her commlink and stomping on it. "I will have my revenge!!" She attacked Spectrum with renewed fury, driving him back, and finally, with a swift move, disarming the hero. "A pity I must kill you..," she said, "You would have made a great warrior..." "Look, you don't *have* to kill me..," Spectrum said. "No!! I must avenge my defeat!" Marie yelled, launching herself into the air and bringing her sword up over her head. "Now we end this!!" <-----> Meanwhile, Mike was wading into the thick of battle with his teammates. Most of the Invid were gone, and the Cyclone riders could handle what was left; the threat now was the human soldiers who were parachuting in, carrying everything from knives to bazookas. They threatened to overwhelm them by force of numbers alone. And Mike didn't really feel comfortable using mecha weapons against them. It was...overkill. As more of the soldiers poured in, firing all sorts of weapons, Mike noticed the big Invid battloid hanging back, out of the way of the battle. "He's MINE," Mike decided. He fired the net canister attached to the side of the 25mm cannon, ensnaring twenty or more soldiers in the steel cable mesh, then blasted skyward. <-----> "Damn it all!" Anime Freak growled, as the prototype Mobile Suit came in for a landing on the flight deck of the second Invid transport. A sizable portion of the massive ship was taken up by the portable science labs of Admiral Morgan's R&D staff. Anime Freak dismounted the cockpit just as the fusion generators finally gave out. The Mobile Suit collapsed forward onto its knees, then all the actuators locked into position, freezing it in place. "Fix it!" Anime Freak roared at the techies. "Sure thing, boss," Carl Macek said, grabbing his 'Mecha Technology For Beginners' handbook and rushing over. "We'll have to replace the primary fusion generators with backups, and reroute through the damaged circuits..." With a loud crash, the entire front armor section of the 'mech fell free, almost crushing Carl. "Yipe!" he said, stepping back and tripping over the still-extended tendrils of the energy whip. He grabbed for support - and his hand touched one of the still-smouldering tendrils. "Ack! Ack! Ack!!" he screamed, as several thousand volts roared through him. Stumbling backwards, he fell out of the open bay doors. Anime Freak raised an eyebrow as Carl's screams faded. "Oh well, he wasn't much of a sidekick anyway." "Sir!" Tris, Admiral Morgan's head technician, said, running up. "You should take a look at this!" As a horde of slightly-more-cautious techs swarmed over the Mobile Suit, Tris lead Anime Freak over to one of the scanning centers. "As you ordered, we put in extra sensor arrays to help gather information on our forces' performance in battle. But, one of the energy sensor arrays has been reading something really...ah, 'weird', sir. Specifically, it's from that hero, Spectrum. He seems to be a focus for all sorts of energy - we don't know where it's coming from, but the wavelengths of energy have a definite extradimensional tone to them." "Wow," Anime Freak said, "So...what does that mean?" "He apparently draws power from another dimension," Tris continued, "If we could duplicate this 'Spectrum Effect'... It could open the doorway to limitless power..." "Neato..," Anime Freak pondered, "Now at least we'll have *something* to bring back to Admiral Morgan..." <-----> Wayne looked up, saw the Bahamode battloid coming at him. "Whoa!" He raised the cannon on the Royal Command Battloid's arm and fired. Mike jinked to the right to avoid the shot and kept coming, firing the 25mm cannon as he came. He didn't hit, but the near misses shook Wayne up a great deal. "Okay, dude--yer history!" The twin pods on the back of the Battloid opened and dozens of missiles blasted outward, reversed themselves, and headed Mike's way. "You don't scare me," Mike replied. Well, actually he DID scare him, but Mike couldn't let him KNOW that. He launched his remaining two minimissiles to fratricide the oncoming rockets, flying through the dissipating fireball and right up into Wayne's face. Mike glanced at the dark-haired, slightly-stoned Stage 5 Invid through the RCB's translucent canopy. "Shall we dance?" "Excellent!" Wayne brought the RCB's knee up, but Mike dodged, firing back with the 25mm gun pod. Then, with a series of swift, smooth motions, the Bahamode stowed the 25mm cannon and produced a beam saber. "Mind if I cut in?" He slashed the blade at the RCB's canopy, but Wayne parried with one of the RCB's giant claw-arms. "Like, no way!" Mike slashed, and the offending arm fell off. "Way!" The RCB lurched, rocketed backward, firing from the plasma cannon as it went. "No way!" Mike lunged in, avoiding the cannon blasts and raising the sword over his mechabike's head with both hands. "WAY!!!" he yelled, bringing it down and plunging it into the RCB's head. The Battloid's head crackled with electricity and blew out; the RCB itself plummeted to earth. As it landed on and crushed another nearby building, a muffled, "All right, way!" could be heard from within. Mike's Bahamode pumped its fist in perfect imitation of its pilot. "YES!!!" <-----> "No!" Spectrum shouted, as Marie swung the sword at his head. He had a sudden burst of inspiration, and reversed her kinetic and inertial energies. Instead of splitting Spectrum open, Marie spun backwards and landed on her head. Recovering quickly, she reached for her blaster. "Enough of this foolishness!" she growled, "It appears I have greatly underestimated you. Let us see how you deal with this!" Spectrum had another burst of inspiration, and decided to try something he had never tried to do before. He zapped Marie with a different kind of energy, in a long, continuous beam. Marie dropped her blaster in surprise, then her eyes rolled back and she collapsed, curling up into a fetal position and moaning softly. "Oy!!" Grounder protested, "Wot th' 'ell?!" BAP! Grounder collapsed forward, a massive lump appearing on the back of his head. Foxy tossed away a lead pipe, humming innocently. "Quick, I've got to get my armor back on and get back to the battle!" Spectrum said. "I don't think you need to worry, sailor," Foxy said, "Looks like those Team M.E.C.H.A. boys've got everything under control." <-----> And, elsewhere, they did, indeed, have everything under control... Well, almost. "Give up!" Sarah growled at the two remaining TONN troopers. One was armed with a high-powered Gatling laser, the other with a slingshot and some ball bearings. "Never!" they chorused, raising their weapons. A scream was heard, slowly growing louder. "Huh?" the TONN troopers chorused, peering up. Carl Macek landed smack on top of them, crushing them both instantly with the weight of his ego. "Ow..," Carl groaned, "Good thing they broke my fall... Ha! I'm aliiiive!! I'm aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive!!!" "Should we shoot him, or what?" Link asked. A couple posts ago, Space Moose sent Metalhead off into orbit... Now, by this time, Metalhead had completed twenty-seven Earth orbits, and was on his way back down towards the unsuspecting town of Springfield... <-----> Mike strode confidantly through the streets of Springfield, knowing quite well there was nothing left that could harm him. An Invid Armored Scout came screaming out of a side-street, then skidded to a halt, focusing on the Bahamode. It turned desperately in an attempt to flee back the way it came, but a burst from Mike's 25mm cannon blew it apart. "Nice shootin'," Ray Sterling said, as his Alpha came limping from the direction the Armored Scout had been headed. The Alpha's delicate electronics and controls systems had been toasted by Anime Freak's attack, leaving it stuck in Battloid mode and moving stiffly instead of in the smooth way it was supposed to. "I'm not picking up any more radar contacts aside from that transport," Mike said, "And it seems to be heading off. Looks like we've seen the last of those guys." The Bahamode and the Veritech paused for a moment, then simultaneously came to the same conclusion. "High five!" Mike yelled. "Yeee-haaaaaaaa!!" Ray seconded. The two mecha high-fived, the shockwaves from the metallic clang this produced shattering windows in the surrounding blocks. <-----> "I'm aliiiiive!" Carl yelled for the thirteenth time. The three members of Team M.E.C.H.A. guarding him considered, for the twelfth time, killing him. "Hey, look at that!" Adam said, pointing at a reddish fireball descending towards them. "HIT THE DIRT!!" Sarah yelled, as she, Adam, and Link dived away from Carl. "Huh?" the Anime Antichrist said, peering upwards. WHA-KOOOOOOOOOOOOM!! "Ow," Link muttered, getting up from where the explosion had tossed him. There was now a crater where Macek had been. A metallic hand, glowing red-hot, grabbed the rim of the crater. "No..," Adam gasped, "*Nothing* could have lived through *that*!" Metalhead pulled himself out of the crater, and looked around for a couple seconds before deciding to imbed his face in the pavement. Sarah looked at the finally-unconsious villan. "Looks like that's that," she said, "Let's find Mike and Summer!" <-----> Spectrum got his mask in place as the sirens of the Springfield P.D.'s two police cars that hadn't been destroyed by the Invid attack were heard off in the distance. "I called in this location on my comm-system," he said to Foxy, "They'll take care of these two." "Hey, that reminds me. What did you *do* to her?" Foxy asked, pointing at Marie, who was still moaning quietly and breathing quickly. "I hit her with a blast of sexual energy," Spectrum chuckled. "Sounds fun," Foxy grinned, as Spectrum picked her up and launched into the air to find the other heroes. <-----> Marie awoke, confused. What had that human done to her?! She tried to stand, but her knees were too weak to support her. She paused to catch her breath, then pulled herself to a standing position on one of the trash-cans in the alley. Strange feelings rushed through her, and she moaned softly again with the memory. She would have to explore these...feelings...further. The approaching sirens snapped her attention back to the present. She vaulted into the cockpit of her still-idling Royal Command Battloid, bringing it up to power. "We will meet again, Spectrum.," she said quietly, "I guaruntee it..." <-----> "We're screwed," Anime Freak said simply. "All the Invid gone... all the troops gone... Wayne, Grounder, Metalhead and Zapper captured. Morgan will *kill* me... if I'm lucky." "And *you*!" he growled, whirling at Marie, "*YOU* disobeyed my orders to return to the battle - you could have turned it around if you had simply killed that hero when you had the chance... Say, what did happen when you fought him hand to hand?" Marie blushed. "Ah... Oh, he, ah... escaped... Yeah, that's right." Anime Freak raised an eyebrow. "I expect a *full* report when we get back." Marie sighed, pondering how she would explain all this to Garth... "At least we got that scientist..," Tris said. Anime Freak perked up. "Maybe Morgan won't kill us after all..." WHAT'S UP WITH THE SCIENTIST??? SHOULDN'T THIS POST HAVE BEEN BROKEN INTO TWO HALVES AND MAILED SEPERATELY??? IT'S *HUGE*!! WHAT WILL ADMIRAL MORGAN DO TO ANIME FREAK??? WHAT WILL MARIE DO TO SPECTRUM IF SHE MEETS HIM AGAIN??? WILL IT BE APPROPRIATE FOR A FAMILY-ORIENTED LIST LIKE THIS ONE??? WILL IT BE POLITICALLY CORRECT??? IS CHRIS ON SOMETHING??? HE WROTE FOUR POSTS IN A ROW, THEN PART OF THIS ONE... WILL FOXY PERSUADE SPECTRUM TO DO THE 'SEXUAL ENERGY' TRICK ON HER??? WHO THE HECK KNOWS... MAYBE CHRIS OR LAWRENCE WILL FIGURE IT OUT...ON THE NEXT... SUPERGUY!!! ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1993 17:08:05 CST Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: tabloid footprints in your hair Organization: REF Bunker, island, Superguy Authors' Planet Subject: Team M.E.C.H.A. No. 21 TEAM M.E.C.H.A. SERIES: Part 21 By Robotech_Master, alias Chris Meadows Guest-Starring Spectrum, Ray Sterling, Marie, and Various Other People A Story of High Technology, and You're Not (Oh yeah? Well, you aren't either...) As the battle was over, and the mecha and pilots of Team M.E.C.H.A. and Spectrum gathered in the empty (except for tons'o'carnage) street, Summer came timidly out of the side street she'd been hiding in. "Hi, guys..." Summer said, looking around somewhat disgustedly at the wide variety of liquids and solids that littered the street. "Ewwww." "Hi, Summer," Lincoln said, pulling off his soot-streaked CVR helmet. "There's one battle I'm glad to see over." "I hear you there, brother," Adam said, wiping sweat off his brow. "What a TERMINAL battle." "Hey, Mike," Summer asked. "Where's that scientist guy? I really need to ask him something." Mike looked up from where he and Ray Sterling were tinkering with the internal electronics of the Alpha fighter, which had gotten pretty badly thrashed in the battle. "Uh...he's over there," Mike said. "But I don't think he's going to be able to tell you much of anything." "What do you--OHHHH." Summer stopped, looking where Mike was pointing. She saw a very badly mangled humanoid body, wearing the same clothes as the scientist had been, or so she thought (given his condition, it was rather difficult to tell). An Invid Scout was partially on top of it, and it was in several pieces. Then Summer noticed something unusual. "Uh, Mike...did this guy always have green blood?" Summer wondered aloud. "What?!" Ray Sterling dropped the hydrospanner he was tweaking a recalcitrant component with. It hit Mike on the head. "Ow! Watch it!" Mike said, rubbing his noggin. Then what Summer had said hit him at least as hard as the wrench had. "What? Green blood?" Leaving what they were presently doing, all of them ran over to cluster around the body, forming a sort of a circle around it. "Are you sure that it isn't just goop that got splashed on the body?" Mike asked. "No, look." Summer swallowed, trying to keep down the vomit that was threatening to surge upward in her throat. "All of the...tissue...is green as well." Link looked down at the body, then back over at Mike and Ray. "This can only mean..." Ray and Mike exchanged glances. "An Invid simulagent," they said in unison. "But was he ALWAYS an Invid?" Mike wondered, peering down at the body. "I don't think so. For one thing, he knew too much about those nanotechnological thingies. Invid don't USE mechanical technology, they use bio-energy. No, he was replaced, and probably very recently." "Hey, that would explain why he was acting so out-of-character just before he got killed," Foxy suggested. "So what do we do?" Spectrum asked. "We go after them," Mike said. "I'm not going to let it be said that Team M.E.C.H.A. let someone be captured right out from under their noses. Or at least that they didn't go back and get him after he was taken." "But where do we find them?" Lincoln asked. Adam snorted. "Haven't you been keeping up with the news? Their hive is in Detroit." "Yes, but there's no guarantee they'll have taken him there," Ray Sterling interrupted. "They might have taken him somewhere else." "Like where?" Mike asked. "Like...TONN headquarters!" Ray said. "Huh?" "Look." Ray pointed to one of the dead human soldiers. "He's wearing a TONN jacket. And, come to think of it, I met that guy in the Mobile Suit at TONN HQ, when I was there searching for information on you guys." "Then it's to TONN headquarters we go," Mike decided. "Then on to the Hive, if he isn't there. One way or the other, we have to rescue him." "I'll have to take a rain-check on this one, I'm afraid," Spectrum said. "I have to go and see if Dr. Cheef is all right. I don't know...I just have this feeling that something's wrong." "It's no problem," Mike said. "We have to rescue our scientist, you have to attend to yours. Makes sense." Spectrum nodded. "So long, guys. It's been fun working together." "That goes likewise for me," Foxy added. Mike nodded. "If you're ever in the area again, or there's anything we can do you for, just give us a call." "You got it." Spectrum picked up Foxy, then took off into the air. "Uh, Mike, I think we should probably be going." Summer pointed up the street, where about ten police cars were pulling up. "Oh, right, NOW they get here," Mike muttered. "Hold on a minute, I'll link with the M.E.C.H.A. jet's controls and bring it over here." He ran to his Bahamode motorcycle and keyed the remote control system. "We'll be out of here in a couple of minutes. Ray, do you think you can get that thing to go to jet mode?" Ray paused, about to climb inside. "It should work. Won't be smooth by any means, but it ought to be good enough to dock with the transport." "Do it. I'm bringing the M.E.C.H.A. jet in." And, true to Mike's word, the Team M.E.C.H.A. transport jet arrived and hovered over the area, allowing all those mecha-clad individuals to fly up and rendezvous with it before the police arrived. Ray went first, the Alpha barely making it through the launch hatches and into the waiting servo-arms of the docking system before sputtering out and locking up. "Damn," Ray muttered. "I'll deal with you later." Afterward came Mike in the Bahamode, and then all the Cyclones. As Sarah Conner touched down, Mike said into the intercom, "Okay, that's the last one. Ray, get us out of here." Ray, now on the flight deck, tabbed the intercom button and replied, "You got it. Any particular destination in mind?" "Yeah. TONN headquarters." "Okay, right. How fast you want to go?" "Keep it under Mach 1. We need time to recuperate after that last battle." Mike turned off the intercom. "But what about the scientist--?" Summer asked. "I don't think they're going to kill him. Not just yet." Marie walked through a corridor in the TONN headquarters building, fuming from her defeat at the hands of Spectrum. That the insignificant human worm could pack enough power to defeat her so was indignation enough. But that the manner in which he had done it was still having some strange effect on her which she found impossible to shake off was almost too much to bear. And yet...part of her wanted to be with Spectrum again. The Invid pilot stopped at one of the doors in the hall and slammed it open. Walking into a small anteroom, she asked, "Where is the human prisoner? I would question him." One of the two Invid Enforcer guards pointed to the next door. "Thank you." Marie stormed through it, into a small cell where two TONN troopers were already interrogating the nameless scientist whom they had captured from the human party back in Springfield. Upon Marie's entrance, they turned, stood at full attention, and saluted. Not returning the salute, Marie asked, "Has the prisoner said anything?" "We had not begun the interrogation yet, sir," one of the troopers said. "Excellent. What about the simulagent we replaced him with? Have you received any reports from him yet?" The other TONN trooper blanched and said, "Regrettably, sir, he was accidentally destroyed immediately after insertion." "Damn!" Marie swore. "Stage 5 simulagents are expensive! Those fools. If they weren't already dead, I would have them devolved." "We do have this one, though," the first trooper hastened to add. "Surely some useful information can be obtained from him." "Indeed. Very well, let us commence the interrogation." A couple of hours after leaving Springfield, Mike and Summer were sitting in the lounge, sipping hot drinks and discussing the recent operation in Springfield. "I never thought that all this would happen," Mike said. "I guess I should have known. Once you become superheroes, trouble comes to you wherever you go. It's almost a law of nature. I'm just glad that nothing serious happened to you." "Mike," Summer said nervously, not meeting his eyes. "I--I didn't tell you this earlier, but I think that something maybe DID happen to me. In that explosion." Mike leaned forward. "What do you mean?" "I found this when an Invid cornered me in an alley while everyone else was fighting. I've been experimenting with it a little since then..." Mike was on the verge of getting to his feet now. "What, Summer, what?" "This." Summer held up both her arms, and concentrated. Her arms shimmered, and then from the elbows down became black and metallic. They gleamed in the illumination from the overhead fluorescent lights. Mike dropped his cafe mocha latte. His mouth opened and he tried to speak, but was unable to manage anything more eloquent than, "Bwah?" "I think somehow I got fused with my hardsuit or something," Summer said. "I've had a little time to think about it. I think that maybe those nano-things that scientist guy made might have had something to do with it. That's why we HAVE to get him back. I think he's the only one who can tell me what really happened." She let her arms relapse into normal human appendages. Mike collapsed back into his seat with an OOF. "I--" he said, then stopped. "What have I done?" he asked himself after that. "I've turned my own baby sister into some kind of a--a--" "A freak?" Summer asked. Mike looked at his feet, and she continued. "Don't give me that. I'm the one who took that hyperspace engine out of there and ran with it, and if I hadn't, who knows what might have happened? We saved hundreds of people today. If this is a side-effect of that, so be it. I'd rather be like this than be normal and know I let all those people die." "But--" "Oh, give it a rest. Look at this." She shifted her arms again. "I think it's kind of neat. And it did save my life. If I hadn't had this, that Invid would have squashed me." She grinned. "Hey, if I can get this to work right, I'll never be without my hardsuit. That'll be neat! Maybe I could even have a secret identity, and change in a phone booth or something." Mike sighed. "Well, we'll have to find that scientist and see what he has to say," he decided. "Meanwhile, Summer, just be careful, okay?" He got up and walked to the door. "All right, Mike," she said, gazing down at her gleaming black arms. This was so exciting! "What's your name, human?" Marie sneered at the scientist. "Doctor Anthony McLaren," the scientist replied. Then he realized, "Hey! I have a name! Now the author doesn't have to go around calling me the 'nameless scientist' anymore!" "Very well, Doctor McLaren," Marie decided. "Tell me about Team M.E.C.H.A." "Well, that would be rather difficult..." the scientist prevaricated. "Seeing as I was only with them for about twenty or thirty minutes..." "Talk!!!" WILL DR. MCLAREN TALK? WHAT WILL HE SAY IF HE DOES? WILL IT BE ANYTHING MARIE WANTS TO HEAR? WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH SUMMER, ANYWAY? WILL SHE BE ABLE TO DEAL WITH IT? WILL MIKE BE SURPRISED TO FIND OUT THE SCIENTIST HAS A NAME, AFTER ALL? WILL HE GET KILLED AGAIN? WILL SPECTRUM FIND DR. CHEEF? WILL MARIE GO AFTER SPECTRUM AGAIN? WILL GADGE BE BETTER SOON? MAYBE SOME OF THIS STUFF, AND MAYBE NOT, IF YOU'LL JUST SIT RIGHT THERE AND READ S U P E R G U Y -- Chris Meadows | If you are a Transformer, the worst possible CHM173S@SMSVMA | fate you could ever hope for would be to be CHM173S@VMA.SMSU.EDU | drawn by Manny Galan. Or to be eaten CMEADOWS@NYX.CS.DU.EDU | by Unicron. Either way, you're mangled CMEADOWS@NOX.CS.DU.EDU | beyond all recognition. ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 11 Dec 1993 23:00:47 EST Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Jesse Taylor Subject: SG: Force Ten #9 (CROSSOVER SPECIAL) FORCE TEN EPISODE NINE A .. CROSSOVER SPECIAL by the Shadowy Writer [Contains no additives or preservatives, and only 1% SPAM] "But I don't want *any* SPAM!" <-----> The M.E.C.H.A. Jet roared onwards towards the headquarters of That Other News Network, while the Narrator, the Author, and the Readers remained completely confused as to what the *hell* (tm) M.E.C.H.A. stood for. High overhead, beyond the orbiting debris that circled the Earth, beyond the Magestrix starships intent on destroying the small, unassuming planet, beyond the Trader starships setting up an Orbital Fly-Thru S'barro's, floated a space station. It was a space station composed of massive amounts of high technology, and the best minds of the (now defunct) Soviet Union spent years working in secrecy, waiting for the factories in Eastern Ukraine to produce enough 2.5" PVC pipe for them to finish the waste ducts with. It was destined to be the pride of the Soviet military, until it and its crew were unexpectedly lost due to beurocratic error. Anyway, the station had long since been abandoned, but had recently enjoyed new activity as Admiral Morgan's henchpersons began to refit it to suit their needs. An automatic camera zoomed in on the area it was supposed to monitor. Sensors detected nothing out of the ordinary, but...hm. A huge shadow. Other sensors were brought on-line, yet detected nothing. Then visuals picked up a massive, 747-sized object. This information was relayed to the main computer. The main computer gave the electronic equivalent of an 'Eep!', and transferred responsibility to the down-linking computers. The downlink computers put in a priority request for the direct-beam microwave dish antennae. And was brought up short by the tactical computers, which analyzed the data to be of importance to the Glorious Soviet Regime, and demanded clearance. The downlink computers had been installed by Morgan's troops, and told the tactical computers exactly where they could put their demand for clearance. The tactical computers replied with a multitude of uncomplimentary remarks about the downlink computers' ancestry... And meanwhile, the intel photos of the M.E.C.H.A. Jet sat in RAM. <-----> "Do you know *anything* about Team M.E.C.H.A. besides their names?!" Marie growled, grabbing Dr. McLaren's collar and dragging him up into the air. "N-no! Look, I just met them..." Marie looked at the TONN trooper manning the lie-detectors built into the room's walls. He nodded. Marie sighed. "Allright... What about that girl, the one who is reported to have flown the Qwyntor Hyperdrive out of the Convention Hall when it was overloading?" "Er... Ah, I dunno..," Dr. McLaren said. Marie didn't even need to look at the trooper this time. "Talk, human." "I have a theory about what happened to her, but I don't know for sure..." "Tell us anyway..," Marie growled, "Or we'll *hurt* you..." "Ehhhh..," McLaren said, "Look, it's just a theory, I need more data before I can..." "Enforcer!" Marie shouted at one of the Invid guards. "Go get.... the Genital Clamp!" "Wuaah!" McLaren said, "Ok, look, I think it happened like this..." <-----> Mike yawned and stretched, walking into the cockpit of the M.E.C.H.A. Jet. "What's up?" Ray turned slightly in the pilot's seat. Mike noticed the Robotech warrior had more displays, calculations, maps, and projections on the ship's screens than Mike had ever been able to keep track of. Every monitor in the cockpit showed something. Mike pondered what Ray was doing, until he realized most of the monitors were running a screen-saver routine. "We're approaching TONN HQ," Ray said, turning back to the controls, "ETA 34 minutes." "Does the radar detect any Invid?" "Nope - everything's clear. We should get ready, though. We could have company any minute..." <-----> Marie massaged her forehead, wandering out of the interrogation room. She had decided that the scientist had told all he was going to, but the TONN troopers insisted on continuing. Probably a reaction to several hundred of their comerades getting hosed in Springfield. 'TONN MedCenter', read the door that Marie entered. Tris, Admiral Morgan's head technical personage, had set up numerous biological and energy scanners in there, at Marie's request. Something in that energy blast Spectrum had zapped her with in Springfield was having...odd... lingering effects, and Marie wanted to find out what was causing them. <-----> "What a mess," Ha'Veluri growled, peering around Los Angeles. The sounds of the battle nearby grew more heated, as the mages on both sides hurled ever more potent spells around. "Wuaaaaaaaaaah!" yelled one of the mages, getting hurled in Ha'Veluri's direction. The black-robed, pale mage hit the side of the building with a thud, and slumped down. "Pretty dramatic entrance," he grinned, peering at the mage. "You ok?" The mage peered at him blurrily. "Begone, you pizza-induced nightmare!" he yelled, standing up unsteadily and wandering back into the battle. Ha'Veluri shrugged. "Hmph. Some people." <-----> "Ok," Mike said, bringing up an aerial photo of the area on the table holo-screen. "These guys were pretty tough in Springfield, they're going to be twice as tough on their own turf. We'll go in with our Cyclones, hit hard and fast, and get out again." "Right," Adam grinned, checking the energy charge on the plasma rifle he had purloined from the Odd Science Convention. "Let's do some damage!" <-----> Five cyclones in Battloid mode and a jet-black hardsuit dropped from the M.E.C.H.A. Jet as it flew overhead. Weapons were deployed, but no enemies appeared. "Huh?" Ray said, "I would've thought their defenses would be a bit tougher, right on their doorstep." "Hit the front door!" Mike said. The six pounded up the stairs, expecting to have to blast through the front doors. "This place is really pitiful," Sarah said, pushing open one of the massive swinging doors. The six stomped inside. "Like, hello!" the blonde secretary at the front desk grinned. Ray slammed an armored gauntlet on the desk. "Where is the scientist?!" he growled. "Like, wha?" "Um.. Take us to your leader?" Adam tried. "Huh?" "Let me handle this," Link muttered, "Hey, how about a tour?" "Like, yah!" the secretary said, "Like, here, take this, like, map, and like, follow the, like, arrows!" "Did you understand that?" Sarah asked Summer, who shrugged. Mike tried to make sense of the tour map. "Where would the military stuff be?" he wondered, scanning the area. "Hm," Adam said, finding a door. "Authorized Personnel Only - Intruders will be blasted into tiny pieces.'" "That sounds...ah...promising," Mike shrugged. "Let's move." <-----> "What do the instruments say?" Marie asked Tris, who was pondering some displays. "Apparently, you were hit by some sort of energy - it has the same resonance pattern as the 'Spectrum Effect' we noted in Springfield... Apparently, when you were first hit, you apparently experienced...a... uh..." "What?" "The computer says you, ah, had a 'massive orgasm'. Your senses overloaded and shut down immediately." Marie raised an eyebrow, absorbing this new data. "Is it possible to duplicate that?" she finally asked. Tris did a double-take. "What? Oooooh, I see. As an alien, you must not get much." "Much what?" Marie asked, confused. "You really don't have any idea..," Tris mused. "No..," Marie said, embarrassed, although she wasn't sure why. "Hm. Lemme explain.." <-----> "I don't understand..," Link said, "Not a security guard to be seen anywhere!" "There's a split in the hallway ahead," Mike said. To the left, a stairway led up, while corridors split straight and to the right. "Let's split up - Ray, Sarah, you go up. Summer and me will go straight. Adam, Link, go right." The other five nodded, and then split into three groups, headed off down the corridors. <-----> "'Personal quarters - Admiral Morgan'," Sarah said, "Let's take a look." "Right," Ray said, checking the charge on his H90. "Now!" Sarah turned the doorknob, but then it shot inwards, revealing total darkness. Two massive red eyes gleamed there. "Oh..." "...crap." <-----> "And that's the latest on the situation in Los Angeles," Sir Gerbre said, smiling charismatically at the camera. "Up next, we've got an on-site report of what *really* happened in Springfield..." The door burst open as Mike and Summer stormed into the room. "Whups!" Mike said. "Ah, wrong room..." "%*$&!" Gerbre said. Gerbre pressed a small red button under the table... TONN security guards poured into the room. <-----> "Are you serious?" Marie giggled, as she and Tris walked out of the medlab. "Yeah..," Tris chuckled. "Mmm," Marie grinned, "I really must find that Spectrum sometime... so we can... talk... We should check if those two trooper morons were able to get any more information out of that scientist..." "Hey.," Adam whispered to Mike as they watched the two walking away. "Isn't that the babe who bailed outta that 'mech in Springfield?" "Looks like it," Link growled. "Let's follow them... They might lead us to the scientist." <-----> "AAAAAAAA!" Ray and Sarah chorused. [>*WHO ARE YOU*<], a voice roared at them. The two glowing eyes focused on Sarah. [>*YOU ARE NOT MORGAN! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!?*<]. Next, they spotted Ray.[>*YOU ARE NOT SUITABLE FOR A HOST...*<] [>*BEGONE!!!!*<], the voice screamed, furious. The door opened again, and the two were launched out. "WUAAH!" Ray yelled, thudding into the wall. Sarah followed a moment later, crunching Ray into the plaster. "Nng," she said, shaking her head to clear it. "What the hell was that?" The door slammed with a resounding boom, and then they heard the lock click. "I guess we got the wrong room..," she sighed. "could you peel me out of the wall?" Ray groaned. "we'd better find the others..." WILL MARIE SEEK OUT SPECTRUM??? WHAT WILL MIKE AND SUMMER DO TO GERBRE??? WILL THEY GET HIS AUTOGRAPH??? WILL LINK AND ADAM FIND THE SCIENTIST??? WHAT THE HELL (TM) DID RAY AND SARAH RUN INTO??? THE ANSWERS TO MOST OF THOSE QUESTIONS, AND MUCH, MUCH MORE, ON THE NEXT... SUPERGUY!!! ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1993 15:24:47 PST Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: Lawrence Brown Subject: SG: SPECTRUM #6 (Insert Bad Guitar Riff Here) SPECTRUM #6 -- A New Threat to the World or "How you gonna keep 'em on the farm?" by the Amigoid Spectrum sat back at the apartment he and Dr. Hans K. Cheef shared in Bob City. A note was all that awaited Spectrum and Foxy when they returned; Fuzzy Bunny had moved out, promising to stop in and visit when there was more food. Foxy was in the shower humming to herself, and our hero sat, flipping through the TV channels, hoping for some hint as to Han's wherabouts. All the news was on the disturbances in the big cities. His new friends were all out in the thick of battle, while Spectrum had spent the last couple days flying over Bob City, day and night searching for the Scientist. "I'm doing this all wrong." Spectrum grumbled. "I ought to be fighting alongside the rest of the heroes, trying to fight these mages. I don't understand magic. I don't understand my special power, and what if anything it has to do with my 'Author'. I wonder what Andy Awesome would do." "He'd order takeout Chinese Food" Foxy chirped in, toweling off her smooth furry body. "Sorry hon, that last stunt you pulled just about cleaned us out. You have to stop taking things so personal..." "Personal? How you you like to see a woman walk down the street with a coat made of YOUR relatives?" She snapped back at him, "Served her right. I couldn't stand looking at it." "Well, I paid her for her fur coat, and she agreed to let it pass, since I told her you were a super heroine having a bad day. But you'll have to cool it ok?" Foxy plopped down on the sofa and nibbled on Spectrum's ear. "Ok, so one of us is going to have to get a job. Right after we find Hans." Spectrum looked out into the rainy skies above Bob City. ------------------------------------------------------- The farm punks sat, fidgiting, as Dr. Hans Cheef worked on a gigantic piece of armor. He muttered to himself in irritation. "I told them, but nobody believes me. The suit doesn't work. Now, here I am, the prisoner of two demented doctors of science and a bunch of radioactive delinquent farm punks." He put down the wrench and gestured to JOE-BOB-JIMBO, who was welding a piece of armor into place. "Thats enough for now, go suit up and fetch your cousins." Hans thought to himself, *I can tap into their radiation to provide power for the systems, but I don't know how well the 'bots will work when they link up. Its their problem, I guess...* The scientist turned to face the 5 teens, who sat expectantly in their new jumpsuits and helmets. Each was dressed the same, except for the colors of their suits and the logo's on their helmets. "The time has come for you to test your battlesuits..." Hans began. "Whut?" "Would someone please help BILLY-JOE-JIM-BOB turn his helmet around?" Hans growled, "As I was saying, my captors (er, um) 'employers' have tasked be with building more PoWerArmor. I have designed giant vehicles that tap into your unique powers and make you a dangerous fighting force for crime, evil and destruction." Hans gestured to the giant robotic animals behind him. Zoomer 10 watched and made certain that the good Doctor did not attempt to escape. Hans knew that unless the armored systems worked, he would soon be dead. JIMMY-JIMBO-JOE spit and idly twirled his scythe. "So what we gonna do with them? How do they work?" Hans pointed to the large western-style beltbuckles on the lab bench. "Those are your commlinks and retrievers. Activating the unit will summon your respective robots. Now each of you step forward, one at a time please." The largest member of the group, in a pink costume, stepped forward. "BILLY-JOE-JIM-BOB, the explosion gave you incredible strength and invunerabilty. You can withstand any attack that you are not aware of. Your robot is the giant mule. Your codename is MULE." "Whut?" "Sigh." The next teen stepped forward, clad in blue. "JOE-BOB-JIMBO, you gained instinctive skills in repair and design, and fast reflexes that make you an expert driver. Your robot is the giant bull. Your codename is BULL." Each teen stepped forward, in turn, waiting to be named. To the next one in Green he said, "You are even more deadly with your scythe. Your robot is the giant thresher. Your codename is REAPER." JIMMY-JIMBO-JOE grinned, "Aw right... thats dandy." The last boy, clad in black, stepped forward. Hans said, "You are the weapons master, and can start fires at will. Your robot is the giant dog, and your codename is HELLHOUND." BOBBY-JOE-JIMBO sat wordlessly. Finally the girl called Pinto Sally sauntered forward in her Red Costume, the front unbuttoned to her navel, the curves of her breasts barely contained. Hans dabbed his forehead and swallowed. "Um, Sally, you were given special powers from the blast. You have the power to disrupt men's minds. You also will be piloting the lead robot, a uh...giant chicken. Your codename is SUPERCHICK." The boys snickered, and stopped suddenly when Pinto Sally turned to glare at them. She turned back to Hans, and with a voice that oozed honey, she purred, "My oh my, whut ah sweet thang for y'all to do, makin' me the team leadah. Its jest uh complete saprize, y'know." Dr. Hans K. Cheef shook his head to clear it, and stepped back, trying to get clear of her area. He gestured to the robots. "These will be placed out of sight in strategic locations so that nobody will notice them repeatedly popping out of the same area when you summon them. Now go and rob a bank or something, test your powers, and then bring the Doctors Science back the loot." "OK! LETS GO!" The teens shouted in unison, their helmets making their voices sound clipped and asian. The Doctors of Science, Weird and Pseudo, watched from the observation window, above the hangar of their secret base, as the team eagerly jogged out the door and into a doublecab pickup truck. Pseudo smiled at his brother. "Now we are are ready for the big time. We should start making calls to the other villian groups to hire out our team of warriors. Imagine us, criminal masterminds; no longer do we have to go do the hard work, we can just sit back and have our team do all the dirty work." Weird Science sipped his beer. "But we are going to need a name bro, something that will strike fear in the hearts of heros and get good press with the other big-name villians. Something thats catchy." "Well, they are farmers, the explosion of the hyperdrive blew them into the mud and gave them superpowers, maybe...'FARM PUNKS?' 'LITTLE RASCALS?'" "We'll call them: THE MIGHTY MUDDY POWER GRANGERS!" (rimshot) TUNE IN, TURN ON, AND GET MUDDY! WILL OUR HEROS BE ABLE TO WITHSTAND THIS NEW THREAT TO GOOD TASTE? HOW MANY FARM PUNS WILL THE AMIGOID MILK OUT OF THIS HERD? AND WHAT ABOUT LITTLE NELL? ALL THIS AND MORE COUNTRY JOKES, NEXT TIME ON: SUPERGUY!!!! -- ************************************************************************* * All programmers are playwrights and all computers are lousy actors. * ************************************************************************* Lawrence H. Brown HW Release Lab Admin. lbrown@cisco.com (415)688-4487 Homephone: (408)984-6036 If its urgent: Digital Pager: (415)599-8663 Keywords: VideoToaster!, Champs, Dolphins, Mechforce, Networks, Omaha, Probe ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1993 13:16:04 CST Reply-To: UCF SUPERGUY List Sender: UCF SUPERGUY List From: tabloid footprints in your hair Organization: REF Bunker, island, Superguy Authors' Planet Subject: Team M.E.C.H.A. No. 22 TEAM M.E.C.H.A. SERIES: Part 22 By Robotech_Master, alias Chris Meadows Guest-Starring Ray Sterling, Marie, and Various Other People A Story of High Technology, and Highly Frustrating Month-Long Absenses (Gee, it's gonna be hard to get along without you for a month...are you SURE you have to come back?) Mike and Summer sat, without mecha, in a small holding cell, not too far from where the scientist Anthony McLaren was being kept. Basically, it was a small room with an airtight-sealed bulkhead door and a small camera in one corner of the ceiling. "This is great," Mike remarked. "Not only did we get captured and our mecha confiscated, I didn't even get Sir Girder's autograph." "That's GERBRE!" a voice squawked from a hidden wall speaker. Followed by, "Oops. Disregard that. You didn't hear this." Summer growled. "They're listening to everything we say! If I only they hadn't taken my spare hardsuit..." Mike turned. "But Summer, you--MMPH!" "Shut UP, dear brother," Summer whispered, removing her hand from Mike's mouth. "No need to let them know about that." "What did you say?" the voice from the wall asked. "Nothing, nothing," Summer replied. "Oh. Carry on, then." "If we could just get rid of that camera and mike," Mike whispered. "Hold that thought," Summer said, turning. She raised her arm, and a laser beam lanced forth from it, smashing the camera. "Now, what are you thinking?" "If you could summon your hardsuit, like you just did, only completely, and smash through that door, we could find and free that scientist and get out of here." Summer looked pensive. "I can try. But so far, the most success I've had is with changing my arms and legs. It's too much of a stretch to make anything else go at once." "Well, it's a start," Mike said. "Go on, Summer, give it a shot. Maybe you can get us out of here!" "I thought you didn't want me doing this," Summer said curiously. "What changed your mind?" Mike shrugged. "Well, there are all sorts of super abilities out there that you COULD have gotten." He sighed. "If you HAD to have a super power, I'm at least glad it's something USEFUL, instead of something like controlling sewage or firing Corinthian leather from your fingertips." He sighed. "And as long as YOU seem to be enjoying it...well...how can I object?" "Finished expositing?" Summer asked. "Oh, yeah, that's all from me." "Then let's see if I can't do this and get us out of here before those guards arrive." Summer stepped to the center of the room and stretched. Legs spread apart, arms forward, she closed her eyes and concentrated. The tension was a palpable thing as Summer's arms and legs shimmered like heat waves, morphing into black mechanical arms and legs as from her hardsuit. Summer clenched and unclenched her metallic mechanical fists. "Come on..." she hissed. "You can do this, you know you can..." Many things passed through her mind. Foremost was Mike, her older brother. He'd always tried to protect her from everything...he couldn't protect her now. Adam, Lincoln, Sarah--the other members of Team M.E.C.H.A. Even though she hardly knew them, she knew that they were depending on her and on Mike. Ray Sterling, the Veritech pilot from another dimension. He'd helped them fight the Invid and the minions of TONN, and could be in trouble even now. The nameless scientist who had been captured by the Invid, perhaps the only one who could explain to her what had happened in that explosion. She had to do this. She thought of other superheroines, especially those closest to her age--Particle Girl and Rainy Day Woman. When something was hard, you didn't see THEM just giving up, did you? No...and Summer wasn't going to be a quitter either! She concentrated, drawing on her deepest reserves of inner strength. She KNEW she could do this. All that she had to do was try. Mike watched as the shimmering transformation slowly crept inward from Summer's limbs. It was amazing, and a little bit frightening, watching his younger sister's body transmute into something completely different. It made his skin crawl, and he wondered how it felt to Summer. The exertion was an almost physical thing, to Summer--she was straining her entire body, focussing on the goal, as if she were lifting a two-hundred-pound weight. Except that every fiber in her being felt this strain. It was greater than any stress she'd ever been under, except maybe Miss Claybrook's pre-algebra final. Just as she felt she was about to reach the ends of her endurance, to pass out from all the strain, something snapped and the pain was gone. "Summer, you did it! You're inside your hardsuit!" Mike congratulated her. Summer opened her eyes, noticed the electronic HUD overlays in her field of vision, looked down at herself. "Hey, you're right! I am! Only...it feels funny somehow..." Her voice was oddly filtered, as it usually was from her hardsuit. Only this time, to Summer it sounded...strange. How odd. "Quickly, Summer, take out that door!" Mike yelled. "Right." Summer strode over to the door, drew back her arm, and slammed it into the metal door. While it didn't exactly go flying, it was knocked out of the frame. "Let's go! I think I can sense where they're keeping our mecha." "Hey, then lead the way!" Adam and Lincoln crept stealthily up the corridor behind Marie and Tris. They were approaching the prison cell block, Lincoln knew. He knew this mainly because of the signs along the corridor saying, "Prison Cell Block, 500 feet," "Prison Cell Block, Next 3 Exits," and "Welcome to Prison Cell Block, Land of Interrogation." "We shall find out exactly what this scientist knows about Spectrum and his energy-projecting powers," Marie was saying. "If this energy projection can be duplicated, harnessed, just think of what we could do with it!" "I could think of a few things..." Tris remarked drily. Adam and Lincoln looked at each other. This pair would lead them right to the scientist, Link realized! They continued to follow, silently, waiting for the chance to go into action. Sarah Conner and Ray Sterling staggered down the corridor, still a little shaken by their encounter with the...whatever it was...in Admiral Morgan's quarters. "Come on, let's try this way," Sarah decided. "We haven't gone this way yet." Ray shrugged. "Sounds good to me." They crept stealthily (or as stealthily as is possible for two individuals wearing powered armor) up a corridor, past some couches and potted ferns and other miscellaneous stuff that one would expect to find in a TV network building, and up to a door marked "ENGINEERING". "What do you think?" Sarah asked. "Let's check it out," Ray decided. He pushed open the door, plasma minimissiles at the ready. "Well, will you look at this...?" "What is it?" Sarah Conner asked. "It's the TONN broadcast operations control room," Ray half-whispered. "Just LOOK at it. Looks like the battle bridge of an Ikazuchi carrier." "Or like NORAD," Sarah remarked, glancing over his shoulder. "That's more than just an ordinary control room." Just then, two armored security guards charged around the corner, zipping up their pants. "Hey, you! Hold it right there!" They grabbed for the rifles slung over their shoulders. Sarah turned and brought up her RL-6 heavy rocket cannon. "Just try it." The guards backpedalled and halted. If they hadn't just gone, they would probably have wet their pants. "Uh, we didn't mean nothing. Honest!" They turned and started to run. "Hey, you, stop or I shoot!" Sarah called after them. They didn't listen, and were around the corner before Sarah could pull the trigger. "Damn!" "Let 'em go," Ray said. "We have more important things to do." "But they'll call for backup!" Sarah pointed out. "We can't afford to wait around." "Exactly. So let's get in there and tear that place up." Ray pointed at the door. "It's what Mike would want us to do." "I can't argue with that," Sarah replied. "Let's do it!" Several explosions and laser blasts later, the TONN control room was a smoking wreck, and technicians were running everywhere. "Let's hope they have a secondary control facility," Ray said, grinning. "I've got a better idea. Let's not," Sarah replied. "Now come on, we'd best get out of here before those guards arrive. We still have to find that scientist and break him out." Mike and Summer crept down one of the cell block corridors, toward the area where they were keeping the scientist. Mike was now in the Battler Cyclone he'd chosen to use for this operation, but Summer hadn't bothered to change into her spare hardsuit, saying she was already in one just as good so why bother? As they came to a fork, they heard voices and footsteps, and flattened themselves against the opposite walls as the figures walked past. It was Marie, one of the simulagents they'd fought in Springfield, and someone else! "I hope that Dr. McLaren will have more to tell us about that mysterious explosion over Springfield," Marie was saying. "Perhaps we might find a way to duplicate it, too, and harness its powers to help our cause." "Dr. McLaren!" Mike whispered to Summer. "That must be the nameless scientist's name!" "And he told it to them first?" Summer said. "That's not fair!" "Let's follow them and make sure that his name is ALL they find out," Mike suggested. "Right." Summer and Mike peered cautiously around the corners, looked around, stepped out--and ran right into Link and Adam. "Oof!" Mike remarked. There was a clattering sound as four mecha suits weapons systems were brought to bear on each other, then all four relaxed. "Hey, it's you guys." "Where have you two been?" Link asked. "It's a long story. For now, let's get after those guys and rescue our scientist friend, eh?" Mike replied. "All right," Link answered. "Count on it!" Adam added. Marie and Tris passed between the two guards outside the interrogation cell and took their seats. Two more guards marched the scientist into the room. He looked somewhat disheveled, and was still protesting his inhumane treatment. "Now, Dr. Anthony McLaren, you will tell us--" Marie began, and then several things happened. There was an explosion as the door blew inward off the hinges. There were several laser shots, and the guards went down. McLaren made a motion, and the entire room filled with smoke! Marie grabbed for her blaster. "What is--?" Then she was hit from behind, and fell to the floor unconscious. After a few seconds, Tris joined her there. Mike felt something tugging at his arm. He pulled his arm free, and was about to strike out in response, when a voice said, "Wait, it's me, the scientist!" "Oh. What's all the smoke?" Mike asked. "There's no time to explain. We must assay a hasty departure in order to avoid being recaptured." "Eh?" Adam asked. "He said we have to scoot, or they'll get us," Link translated. "Oh." On the way out, they encountered Ray Sterling and Sarah Conner, and also some more guards whom they had to fight. It wasn't long before they were all aboard the M.E.C.H.A. jet and headed out of the area. At about the same time, to add insult to injury, the computers in the Soviet space station finally stopped arguing, and the warning was transmitted to TONN. Just in time to be completely too late. "What was all that smoke?" Mike asked Dr. McLaren, as they sat in the lounge with the jet on autopilot. "Just a small gadget I was able to put together," McClaren replied. "I am not as helpless as I might seem. But we must change course immediately." "What?" Mike asked, slightly put off by this nonsequitur. "Spectrum may need our help. I believe that my cousins may be after him and his friend Dr. Cheef. They may be in serious danger." "Hold on a sec. What? Your cousins?" Adam asked. "Yes, the Brothers Science," McLaren replied. He snorted. "They call themselves scientists. THEY don't even have a doctorate!" Summer, back to a normal human now, said, "Wait a minute. Weird and Pseudo Science are your cousins?" McLaren nodded. "Yes, I'm what you might call the 'white sheep' of the family. Oh, wait, you must be confused." "That's putting it mildly," Lincoln remarked drily. "I told the Invid I was named Anthony McLaren because I didn't want to reveal my true name. You see, I attended the convention as Anthony McLaren because I had thought that the Brothers Science might show up, and I wanted to be in a position to stop them if they did. In actuality, I also organized the convention, and ran it from behind the scenes." Link's jaw dropped. "You mean, YOU'RE..." McLaren nodded. "That's right. My TRUE name is...Dr. Odd Science!" WHOA! WILL DR. ODD SCIENCE AND TEAM M.E.C.H.A. SUCCEED IN HELPING SPECTRUM? WILL TEAM M.E.C.H.A. EVENTUALLY FACE OFF AGAINST THE MIGHTY MUDDY POWER GRANGERS? WAS THAT LAST ONE A QUESTION THAT *TRULY* NEEDED EVEN TO BE *ASKED*? IS IT FAIR TO BEGIN A MONTH-LONG HIATUS WITH SUCH A CLIFFHANGER? ALL THIS AND MORE CROSSOVER SCHTICK JUST AS SOON AS I GET BACK FROM BREAK ON JANUARY 9TH, ONLY ON... S U P E R G U Y ! ! ! (He's alive again! Wheeeeeee!) -- Chris Meadows | If you are a Transformer, the worst possible CHM173S@SMSVMA | fate you could ever hope for would be to be CHM173S@VMA.SMSU.EDU | drawn by Manny Galan. Or to be eaten CMEADOWS@NYX.CS.DU.EDU | by Unicron. Either way, you're mangled CMEADOWS@NOX.CS.DU.EDU | beyond all recognition.