Into the Dark (Fox Storm and ab103 only)

ab103 wrote:

"What? Really?" XL's cheerful tone made Alfred smile. "Oh, thank goodness. You had NO idea how worried I was about that. If the others found out, I'd be ruined... Thanks SO much XL. I owe you one."

Fox Storm wrote:
XL replied in the same cheerful tone, "No problem, big brother! I'll be sure NO one knows, not even dad I was going to tell them, but after hearing you didn't build NOS-4-A2 made me change my mind! And I'm glad it did, too!"

Fox Storm wrote:
Alfred was greatly happy that XL was going to keep quiet about this problem. He then asked XL to make a fax for him, to which XL happily obliged.

Too bad there was someone near the door where Alfred and XL were, listening into the conversation....

ab103 wrote:

Alfred felt better after that short conversation with his little brother than in he had in the past two weeks. At least XL didn't lose trust or respect for him after finding out he worked for Zurg. AND XL was going to keep it a secret for him! Not to mention, Ty was out on a mission at the moment and shouldn't be back for another hour or two, so that was another upwards of an hour that he had to NOT have to associate with Ty! Everything was going great at the moment!

What could possibly go wrong after that? He stopped mid-step, freezing for a moment. Something seemed off, and he couldn't quite place his finger on it just yet...

Fox Storm wrote:
The person who was snooping by the door gaped in shock as to what Alfred and XL just discussed...Alfred...BUILT THAT ENERGY VAMPIRE?! "I've got to tell the others what I just found out!" He wanted to confront XL about it, but something as important as this couldn't be put off...

And so...XR went to go spread the word about what he had just learned.

ab103 wrote:

After Alfred finished his conversation with XL, he went to the science bay to work on this and that, nothing in particular. After about an hour of this, he left to the cafeteria to get lunch, wondering if Ty and his team were back yet. Of course, he probably wouldn't eat lunch with them if they were back, but it would be nice to see Simone and Pixel at least while he was still in a good mood.

Fox Storm wrote:
Ty and his friends returned from their mission, laughing and enjoying themselves about their mission. They had been asked to escort the senator of Gargantia from Capital Planet to Roswell, where the senator would meet up with the Sheriff and leader of the Roswellians to negotiate a deal to let Gargantia and Roswell negotiate a trade with each other; Roswell would gain some ownership of Gargantia properties while Gargantia gained some Roswellian technologies...adapting to their sizes, of course!

They all decided they were hungry and so, they all went to the cafeteria to get something to eat. While Ty was commenting amusingly about how Pixel let the ambassador of Gargantia ride her between her ears, they bumped into a few Rangers, who seemed a bit excited about something....

ab103 wrote:

Meanwhile, Alfred had made it into the cafeteria and to a table with his food while the place was still mostly empty. There were a few rangers there already, most of whom he didn't recognize and who left him alone. But, as more people entered the cafeteria, he noticed that there seemed to be something abuzz going on. He wasn't too concerned with it. After all, the buzz was probably just that. About Buzz Lightyear. After all, when was it not?

Fox Storm wrote:
But it wasn't...not this time. Simone managed to stop one of the Rangers and ask, "What's going on? Where are you going?"

The Ranger answered, "Didn't you hear? We found out who built NOS-4-A2."

Ty and Pixel stiffened. How did the Ranger know? But Simone said, "But Zurg built him. He asked him to attack Star Command after all.""And he let him destroy Ty's life, too." She thought bitterly.

The Ranger shook his head. "No, it wasn't Zurg. It was Nebula's son!" The Ranger left before Simone could ask anymore. Simone blinked...his son? What did the Ranger mean by that?

She turned to Ty and asked, "Son? But XR and XL aren't technically-inclined, at least when it comes to robots...who could they mean?"

ab103 wrote:

Alfred started to pay more attention when he noticed a few stray glances in his general direction. He frowned and listened closely, hearing fragments of the conversation. Something about somebody's son... a robot or something like that... It would be easier if someone would talk about it when near him, but they all seem to get extremely quiet as soon as they made it close to his table. He frowned then, wondering if they were talking about him...

Fox Storm wrote:
Ty and Pixel glanced at each other with dread. How were they going to tell Simone that Alfred was the one who built NOS-4-A2?...and that Nebula's son was Alfred?

Simone noticed their looks of dread. She frowned. She said in a rather rough voice, "Friends...do you know who Nebula's son is?" Ty and Pixel cringed; Simone was going to get mad if they told her, but she had to know...

Pixel decided to spare Ty the embarrassment of telling Simone and quickly and bluntly told Simone, "AlfredisNebula'ssonandhebuilttheenergyvampire!" Ty reacted to Pixel's blunt statement and slightly glared at her. But she looked back apologetically.

Ty and Pixel braced themselves...Simone was about to lose her head....

------

"WHHHHAAAAATTTT?!!"

Every Ranger, even Alfred from the cafeteria heard that scream. Alfred knew that was Simone...oh boy.

ab103 wrote:

Alfred could only be worried about what THAT yell was about... After seeing how angrily Simone acted towards Star Command after finding out about Ty's Wirewolf problem, Alfred had been wary about ever wanting to see her mad again. He sincerely hoped it was nothing that bad...

He was considering going to check it out, just to make sure everything was alright, but the next thing he knew, Simone was storming into the cafeteria. He could only stare.

Fox Storm wrote:
Ty and Pixel were doing their best to keep Simone from finding Alfred and killing him, but she was dead-set into finding Alfred and confronting him. She followed the Rangers and found Alfred sitting there at one of the tables.

Alfred stared, like a deer caught in headlights. She looked like she was out for blood. She stormed over to Alfred, and he started to slowly back away out of fear....she was strong enough to grip Darkmatter by the neck...he hoped she wouldn't grip HIS neck.

Instead, she threw her hands onto the table, making every Ranger and Alfred cringe.

"YOU BUILT NOS-4-A2?!" She looked VERY angry, her eyes full of fire, and her expression, seething and towering over him. Ty and Pixel feared for Alfred's life. This was not going to bode well.

ab103 wrote:

"What?" Alfred's eyes widened and he leaned far back, away from Simone. "Where did you hear that...?" He wasn't denying it, but he wasn't confirming it either. He really hoped that Simone was beyond reason at this point. He couldn't let anyone else find out.

...Wait. He glanced around at the other rangers around them. Chyst be... They already knew... THAT must had been what they were talking about. How did they know? XL said he wouldn't tell anyone!

Fox Storm wrote:
Simone snorted. "Are you kidding? Everyone has been talking about it since some people, who SHALL not be named-" She turned to briefly look at Ty and Pixel, who nervously looked away; they already got a good yell from her. She turned back to Alfred. "And I, have returned from our mission! Now I'll ask you one more time: YOU BUILT THAT ENERGY VAMPIRE?!" She looked beyond mad at some point; the Rangers slowly started to back away.

Ty and Pixel started to back away, too. They bumped into someone who was behind them...that person went around them and wheeled in front of them. "Yeah, he built that energy vampire! Good thing I told everyone, huh?" Alfred and Simone turned to see who it was. It was XR, looking miffed at Alfred.

ab103 wrote:

Alfred was cowering with each additional yell from Simone. But, as soon as XR spoke up, Alfred found himself giving his little brother the darkest glare he could. Oh, XR was SO lucky that he was his little brother... Else, Alfred would feel tempted to follow through in offlining him for good. "No, XR, that is NOT a good thing."

Fox Storm wrote:
Ty and Pixel glared at him, too. Ty gave him the darkest glare he ever could to the point of wanting to yell at him, and Pixel also started growling, even snarling! "YOU. ARE. THE. BIGGEST LOUDMOUTH IN HISTORY! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU TOLD THEM, YOU LOUSY TIN CAN!" She started to make her way to XR when Ty put a hand on her collar. She looked up at him and he silently shook his head. "Don't make this worse than it already is." That was what his expression tried to say to her. She backed off.

XR came up to her and poked her in between the eyes. "And I can't believe you, and presumably Ty here, knew about Alfred's connection to NOS-4-A2! I think you two should have a talk with Dad!"

Simone suddenly snapped, and she stormed to XR, and picked him up by the helmet, with him yelping, and yelled, "DON'T YOU DARE BLAME THIS ON THEM! THEY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS, YOU.FILTHY.HYPOCRITE! IF YOU EVER DO THAT TO THEM AGAIN, I'LL MAKE SURE YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH NEBULA IS THE LAST THING YOU'LL EVER HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT! Do you understand me?!" She dropped him, and he fearfully backed away into the crowd, nodding. He'll be quiet now. Every Ranger in the cafeteria was now quite frightened of this woman's anger; she was beyond anger...there was RAGE underneath that soft-spoken exterior.

ab103 wrote:

Meanwhile, Alfred cringed, eyes shut tight in hopes that he could just pretend that there was nobody else there, and trying his best to avoid whimpering. Okay, so this was actually one of the worst days during his stay at Star Command... Why was he getting so much grief for this...? He quit working for Zurg, at least! It was understandable for them to be so upset if he worked for Zurg still, but the whole reason he was at Star Command was because he chose to quit!

What, did they think he was a spy or something...? Or did they just not want to listen to reason? Regardless, he didn't think he heard the end of it. Ugh, he just wanted to hide under the table- no, better, in his room where no one could get him. This was painful.

Fox Storm wrote:
But what happened next was more than painful...it was BEYOND painful!

"COSMIC!" Everyone turned to see Commander Nebula standing in the doorway of the cafeteria, fists on hips. XL stood next to him, looking fearful and worried.

XR was going to tell Nebula what happened, but a dark glare and a 'I'll kill you' glance from Simone quickly made him hide far into the crowd.

"Meet me in my office. NOW! And that's an order!" He stormed away, leaving XL to look at Alfred in concern.

ab103 wrote:

Alfred merely stood up, without a word, a pained yet accepting expression on his face, and did his walk of shame past everyone and out through the doorway. He paused right next to XL. "Beat up XR for me," he whispered. He then hurried to his father's office.

ab103 wrote:
Once there, he gripped the sides of the chair he was sitting in tightly, hoping it would provide some purchase against what he was about to endure.

Fox Storm wrote:
XL nodded back, briefly glaring at XR. Ty stared back after Alfred. Although he was still paranoid of him, he couldn't help but wonder what was going to happen to him...he felt a little concern rise in him. Simone then walked over to Ty and took his hand, grasping it before turning to all the Rangers and snarled, "Not ONE word from any of you." She led Ty out of the room, glaring at anyone who looked at her or her friends funny. Pixel followed them out of the room, her ears downcast and her head low.

Nebula just stared at him, not saying anything...just looking at Alfred's face. Almost casually, the Commander asked, "So let me see if I understand this right..." His voice suddenly turned to anger. "YOU BUILT NOS-4-A2?!" He slammed his fists onto the desk, the desk shuddering a bit.

ab103 wrote:

"Is it really so surprising...?" Alfred asked in turn, though his voice was much more timid in comparison. "I mean... An advanced robot like that...? Zurg couldn't have built that on his own, considering his Hornets... Those are all as dumb as shovels, after all..."

Fox Storm wrote:
Nebula saw how timid Alfred had become, and he snorted at Alfred's comment about the Hornets. He couldn't disagree with him there.

But he said, his voice less angry but still upset, "I just don't understand why you agreed to build him NOS-4-A2; he was one of the most notorious criminals Star Command ever had to face! I know you worked for Zurg, and he was paying you to build him, but you still built him?!"

ab103 wrote:

Alfred frowned, upset with the accusation. "Oh, like I was supposed to be able to tell the future and know how many problems NOS-4-A2 would cause you guys. To answer your question, I built a few specific things, but a majority of the project was built in Zurg's lab. I designed him, and I made the programing, and let me tell you I was NOT happy about the programming Zurg made me make. I know that you wouldn't understand how robotic programming works, but I know it well enough that I knew NOS-4-A2 would eventually turn on Zurg and try to become the ruler of the galaxy on his own. But it wasn't like I could argue with Zurg about it..."

He shifted in his seat for a moment and then added, "Besides, it was a robotics endeavor that hadn't been done before... Of course I wanted to be a main player in NOS-4-A2's development. I mean... I regret it, sure, but if you knew me at all you would know that I could NOT pass up that kind of opportunity. I think Zurg knew that too, honestly."

Fox Storm wrote:
Nebula started to rub his temples, trying to ease an oncoming headache. It was bad enough to know that his own son had worked for Zurg, but it was worse to know that he built the energy vampire. He should have known that Alfred took part in it. The way the energy vampire acted, the way he nearly took over Star Command, the way he attacked people and left scars on them....that was no ordinary Zurg creation...it DID have to come from somewhere else...too bad it was from Nebula's own family.

In a weary voice, Nebula said,"So THAT's why NOS-4-A2 was different than Zurg's other robots."

ab103 wrote:

"Yeah... Sorry 'bout that, Commander..." Alfred rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Buuut, at least he's gone now!" It was an attempt at optimism, but he still sounded unsure of whether or not he should offer it. "I don't think Zurg's stupid enough to build him again unless he gets new programming for it, and since I'm not working there anymore, he'd have to outsource someone else to do it."

ab103 wrote:
He paused for a moment before adding to that. "And... Before you worry... I'm pretty sure- half sure at least- that NOS-4-A2 was the worst thing I did in terms of working for Zurg. Off the top of my head at least; there may have been something else that I can't remember right now... But, I'm pretty sure it was NOS-4-A2."