The Final Battle

by Anna Wu

  Chapter 45: Victory and Defeat

  Cindy adjusted her footing so that she stood in a battle stance. Her spear was gripped in both hands and held diagonally from her right shoulder to her left knee. She was squeezing her only weapon tight enough to leave marks in the metal and cause her knuckles to turn a ghastly shade of white.

  As Cindy prepared herself for the inevitable melee fighting, Jimmy aimed his gun at one of the advancing Yolkians. He pushed aside his fear as he locked eyes with one of the ruthless guards. He fired a bullet and saw it impact with the Yolkian's control panel and throw out a few sparks, but the Yolkian kept charging. He fired another shot, and this one immobilized the alien. It must have better armor. Either that or it's incredibly lucky.

  Jimmy was able to take out only two more aliens, which fell only inches from where he stood. Once his gun was depleted, he looked on helplessly as Cindy used every ounce of strength she had to ward off her attackers.

  I knew what this was when I volunteered. I knew I would die. But I'm so close, she sadly thought as the three Yolkians circled around her like sharks, discussing their next move in their alien tongue.

  Without warning, the monsters attacked. They swung their spears in perfect precision. One was leveled at Cindy's legs, the other at her waist, and the final one at her neck. It would be impossible for her to duck or jump her way out of the attack.

  Cindy's lightning fast reflexes were put to the test as she threw herself backwards and fell onto the floor, three sizzling spears electrifying the air inches from her face. She rolled to her left as the Yolkians hovered above her and slammed three spears into the ground where she had just been.

  The Yolkians immediately plucked their weapons out of the floor and circled around Cindy once again. They began a mad series of slashes towards their target. Cindy found herself jumping, ducking, and flailing backwards with only milliseconds to spare. She knew she was only putting off the inevitable.

  Jimmy desperately looked around for anything to use as a weapon. He saw nothing useful. The spears that the three fallen Yolkians had carried had already retracted themselves. He could only clench his fists in anger and continue watching the fight.

  Cindy ducked another blow and rolled to the left. She was getting tired, and she knew she couldn't do this forever. She needed to get on the offensive. Come on, search for an opening and attack. She readied her spear as one of the Yolkians charged at her.

  Cindy thrust her spear straight towards the Yolkian's faceplate. The Yolkian simply dodged several inches to the left and gripped the spear with one of his hands. He yanked it forward, and Cindy was sent flying with it. Another Yolkian held out his spear horizontally, and Cindy's head slammed into it. She fell onto the floor, the world spinning around her.

  "Hey, over here! Come get me, you yellow-bellied bastards!" Jimmy shouted as loud as he could while flipping the Yolkians off. It was a desperate attempt to draw the aliens away from Cindy.

  The three Yolkians ignored him and circled the girl. One of the Yolkians slammed its spear into Cindy's leg, and she let out a howl of pain as electricity coursed through her body.

  Jimmy had had enough. He ran as fast as he could towards the trio of aliens, screaming all the while. Two of the Yolkians stared at him quizzically as the third laughed at the howling Cindy.

  "GET OFF MY GIRLFRIEND!" he screamed while running straight at the two Yolkians. They easily strafed away from Jimmy, and he ran straight past them. Unfortunately for the Yolkians, the third alien had been standing right behind them.

  Jimmy slammed into the creature and sent it into the nearby wall. It let go of its spear, still trapped in Cindy's leg. Jimmy ripped it out of her scorched limb, spun around, and thrust it into the Yolkian that he had just run into. It pierced through the Yolkian's visor, through its body, and ultimately sliced through its brain. Jimmy noticed the Yolkian graying and pulled out the spear, satisfied that he had killed it.

  The two remaining Yolkians had immediately evaluated Jimmy as the new threat. They rushed towards him, spears held menacingly in their hands. Jimmy managed to dive to his right and avoid their first attack, but knew that was all the good luck he was going to have. The two creatures turned around to face him, brandished their spears, and swung them at Jimmy.

  Jimmy jumped backwards and blocked one of their blows. He tried to thrust his spear into another of the Yolkians, but it ducked below the blow. Jimmy continued to walk backwards as he wildly swung his spear about in an effort to ward off his attackers. He knew that he could never hope to beat them in this type of fight, not when Cindy had failed.

  As Jimmy was valiantly fighting, Cindy struggled to get to her feet. Her right leg buckled, but she simply placed her weight on her left foot. She limped as fast as she could towards the two Yolkians.

  Thoughts of all his past adventures swam through Jimmy's brain as he started running backwards as fast as he could. His first encounter with the Yolkians, being stranded on an island with Cindy, fighting on Intergalactic Showdown, and dozens more. Suddenly one of the Yolkians slammed its spear across Jimmy's face. Jimmy was thrown onto the ground by the force, and felt warm blood rush from his nose as he landed.

  As the Yolkians raised their spears for the death blow, Cindy weakly punched the Yolkians in the back with two clenched fists. She looked down at Jimmy. He appeared to be on the verge of collapsing and crying, but he still clutched the spear in his hands. She quickly winked at him, and he looked down at his spear.

  The two aliens spun around in opposite directions, slamming their spears into both of Cindy's ribcages. The wind was knocked out of her and she stumbled backwards. She tried to shout out, "Now!" but there was no air in her lungs.

  Jimmy knew what he had to do. As the Yolkians turned their backs on him, Jimmy fought off the swirling blackness around him. He used all of his remaining strength to jump up and thrust his spear into one of the Yolkian's control panel. The alien began to shake wildly as smoke bellowed from the sizzling shell.

  Jimmy withdrew his spear as the other alien spun around from Cindy and faced him. As soon as he Jimmy took his spear out of the Yolkian's shell, it fell to the ground and dropped its spear. Cindy quickly lifted her left foot as hard as she could, kicking the weapon into the air. She knew that if the spear hit the floor it would retract back into a useless metal rod. Some sort of failsafe or something. The spear arced towards her, and she managed to catch it. Getting her breath back, able to ignore the pain in her sides thanks to the adrenaline rushing through her, she stood up and prepped her spear.

  Jimmy smiled as the one remaining Yolkian thrust its spear towards Jimmy's abdomen. Jimmy immediately dropped down to the floor and narrowly missed the blow. Thank god I paid attention in Cindy's training class. As the Yolkian attacked Jimmy, Cindy slammed her new spear into the Yolkian's back. The alien's eyes doubled in size as electricity coursed through its body.

  Cindy let go of the spear, and Jimmy stared at the helpless Yolkian spinning around in circles in between him and Cindy. He grabbed the spear, thrust it deeper into the Yolkian, and slammed the creature into the wall on his left. The shell shattered, and the electric shock finally killed the alien.

  Jimmy spat on the corpse as he walked over to the bloody Cindy. "Cindy, are you alright?" He asked while looking her up and down. Her nose had started to bleed again, her sides and head were heavily bruised, her leg was bleeding and scarred, and god only knew what else.

  Yet through it all, she gave a weak smile and nodded. "Been worse," she lied. "You?"

  Jimmy's nose was bleeding, he had countless minor bruises and cuts, and the right side of his jaw looked pretty beat up. But other than that, he was fine. "Fine, all things considered."

  Jimmy suddenly realized that he and Cindy had single-handedly managed to take out all of the hostile forces, or at least the majority, that were on the ship. He felt a surge of pride. His joyous celebration was short-lived, however, as he remembered Goobot.

  "We have to find Goobot!" Jimm
y shouted while running up to the area where the floor had disappeared.

  "Shouldn't we look for stairs in the main hallways?" Cindy asked as Jimmy stared down at the solid ground, looking for a way down.

  Jimmy shook his head. "He's probably locked in a room only accessible via this elevator … or whatever you want to call it. Look for something that can help me break through this."

  Cindy hesitated, but then nodded and started looking around the room. She didn't know what he expected her to find, she knew that nothing short of a bundle of TNT was getting them through that floor. But as she slowly looked around the room, she thought she understood what Jimmy was getting at.

  "Jimmy, could you use that?" she asked while pointing to a row of computers attached to the wall on their right.

  "We're about to find out," he excitedly told her while running up to them. Cindy limped after him. "The computer's equivalent of a keyboard is in an alien language I'm not familiar with," he explained while rapidly scanning the computer. He pressed several buttons and stared at the response on the screen. "I think I can figure out how this thing works, but it will take time."

  Jimmy suddenly remembered that Nick and his army were waiting on Ergo 22, and had most likely heard every sound of his and Cindy's fights, all the while keeping silent as commanded. "Nick! General Dean, this is Neutron. We are giving you permission to speak, and please do so!"

  There was a moment of silence, a hiss of static, and then Nick's voice replied, "Jimmy, what the hell is going on in there?"

  "Long story short," Jimmy muttered while tapping several more keys, "we managed to defeat the brunt of the opposing forces. We have Goobot pinned down and need you to bring your entire army here on the double. Swarm, swarm!"

  Jimmy had barely shouted the last two words when Nick could be heard talking to his troops of Ergo. "You heard the man! Betty, Ike, Brittany, take us to that ship! Move! Move!" The sound of the three rocket's engines firing up was clearly audible, and the rockets soon disengaged from their temporary base.

  "Jimmy, how do we get in and where are you?" Nick asked.

  Jimmy silently cursed as he had to backtrack his progress several keystrokes and press several more buttons. "Nick, listen carefully, I don't have time to repeat this. There is an entry hatch on the top of the vessel on the far starboard side, or south of where Ike dropped us off. It's a six foot drop to the top level of the ship. The top level is level five. Cindy and I are on the second level from the bottom of the ship. Follow the trail of dead or immobilized Yolkians. We're in some sort of ceremonial chamber or Goobot's living area. I believe that the majority of the hostiles have been eliminated, but it is likely several have survived and will use guerrilla tactics to overwhelm your army. Move quickly and destroy any opposing forces that you come across. Keep your guns ready and eyes open. Do you have all that?"

  Nick looked over to Jacob, who was listening on his own headset and had rapidly scribbled Jimmy's main points down. He finished scribbling some notes and gave Nick a thumbs up. "We've got all that, Jimmy. We'll be with you as soon as we can."

  "I'm coming up to the ship," Ike told Jimmy. "ETA is two minutes. Hold out a little longer, suicide team. Reinforcements are moments away."

  "Second that," Betty quickly said.

  "Third that," Brittany spoke.

  Libby, who had been literally on the edge of her seat monitoring the sounds of the battle and these current conversations, finally spoke. "Sounds like you two did a hell of a job. Anything I can do to help?"

  Jimmy wiped a few beads of sweat from his brow and shook his head while pressing several more buttons. "Negative, Libby. I'm turning off my headset for the moment, I need concentration. I'll turn it back on in five minutes, when Nick's team is in the ship. I'll give them directions to this room. Neutron out."

  Jimmy flicked his headset off and turned to Cindy. "Cindy, I need you to find your way to the piloting station of this ship. I want you to divert sixty percent of excess power to the engines and forty percent to whatever weapons this bird has. Goobot may have sent out a distress signal, and a Yolkian fleet may be on its way here. I want to be able to blast out of here the second I tell you to, but don't move this ship until I give the word. I want to be one hundred percent certain that our parents are on board."

  Cindy nodded her head after carefully listening to Jimmy's instructions. She turned around to find the piloting station, but quickly stopped and spun back around to stare at Jimmy. "I don't know how to pilot this thing."

  Jimmy didn't look up from the computer. "I don't care, Cindy. Find a way, I know you can. Just please do it now." His tone was harsh, but he made sure to compliment her so as to soften her temper. He didn't want her second-guessing him. Not now.

  Cindy sensed the urgency in his voice and immediately ran out of the room, towards the bow of the mother ship. Pilot an alien ship. Yeah, piece of cake.

  Ever since Jimmy had boarded Goobot's ship, he had been fighting a physical battle. But as he rapidly inputted commands into the alien computer, he was able to give off a small smile. He was fighting a different type of battle now, one that he was used to. It didn't matter how alien the computer was, it was still a machine, and he knew that he could figure out how to work it. He became caught up in a daze as he wildly pressed buttons and tried to decipher the symbols that appeared on the monitor.

  After five minutes he managed to wake himself from his trance and flicked on his headset. The sound of gunshots flooded his ears. "Nick? Nick! What's going on?"

  A groan was heard, and then a shout of triumph. "We're heading down to the second floor, chief. We just killed a small band of aliens. Can you give us some directions?"

  Jimmy bit his lower lip and thought about Nick's request. The third floor was little more than a maze of hallways. It was sheer luck that had enabled Cindy and himself to find the staircase to the second floor. "Sorry, Nick. As I'm sure you noticed, it's basically a labyrinth. Follow whatever trail Cindy and I left behind."

  "Everyone, this way! I found the stairs!" a voice that Jimmy couldn't put a name to shouted.

  "We're coming down, Jimmy!" Nick shouted while firing off two more shots. "Hang on!"

  Jimmy suddenly looked behind him, surprised that none of the surviving Yolkian soldiers had tried to attack him as they did Nick. They must be busy fighting off Nick's army for the moment.

  He shook these thoughts out of his head and turned back to the computer and resumed mashing the keys. After another minute of studying the monitor, he heard the sound of footsteps behind him. He turned around, and let out a sigh of relief.

  Nick running into the room, pistol gripped in his hands and held out in front of him. "Stay alert! Guns ready!" he barked while to his army behind him. More than a hundred and thirty kids filed into the room. Only four carried guns. The rest had had to make do with what they could find. Dozens clenched rocks in their fists, three or four had managed to steal working spears, and the rest were empty-handed.

  Nick came to a step several feet behind Jimmy, and his squad rested several feet behind Nick. Nick gave a crisp salute, which Jimmy gladly returned. "Good to see you, chief!" Nick shouted.

  "Did you suffer any casualties boarding the vessel?" Jimmy asked, not sure if he wanted to hear the answer.

  Nick smiled and shook his head. "A few scratches and bruises, a couple bloody noses, and a couple of people got sliced by those spears. Nothing serious, though. We managed to pick off most of those alien bastards with our before they could get within fifty feet of us. We simply surrounded and pummeled the ones that managed to get in close," Nick said, visibly beaming with pride and joy.

  Nick then looked around the vast room that everyone was standing in. "Now, what is going on? I thought you were supposed to be captured by now."

  Jimmy rubbed his chin, struggling to find the best way to explain the chaos that surrounded them all. "Basically," Jimmy began, "there were a lot less soldiers on the ship than we had expected. Less than a hundred. Whether that wa
s a tactical error on Goobot's part is a mystery, but some guards mentioned an assassination attempt on his life. This is strictly conjectured, but it's possible that the majority of Goobot's soldiers are employed in some sort of civil war on his planet."

  Nick stared at Jimmy for a few seconds after he was done talking, and then shook his head. "Hold the phone. I don't give a crap about some Yolkian civil war. You're saying that there was merely a lot less soldiers than you had expected?"

  "Basically," Jimmy said with a shrug.

  "Ok," Nick said while letting out a deep breath and letting his usual happy demeanor crawl back onto his face. "I understand now. Let's move on. Where's that king … Goobot, that's his name. Where is he?"

  Jimmy pointed at the floor where Goobot had disappeared. "Jimmy," Nick continued, "that's a floor, not Goobot."

  "I know it's a floor!" Jimmy angrily shouted. "Goobot is somewhere below the floor. It's some sort of elevator or something of the type. Regardless, I'm hacking into the Yolkian computer system and attempting to override the locks that Goobot put in place. It will take a few more minutes. Position your men around that circle on the floor and have your weapons ready. Don't go down until I give you the command."

  Nick nodded. "You heard him! Circle that circle!" After Nick shouted his command, he turned back to Jimmy. "Where's Cindy?" he nervously asked.

  "She's fine. A little roughed up, but fine. She's familiarizing herself with the alien piloting system so that she can fly this rocket home as soon as we confirm that our parents are onboard," Jimmy told him.

  Nick still had a lot of questions, and Jimmy saw that he was about to open his mouth again. "Nick, save it for the ride home. I have got to unlock that elevator before Goobot pulls another trick out of his sleeve." Jimmy ran back to his computer before Nick could respond. Nick just checked his gun and joined his soldiers around the circle on the floor where Goobot had descended.

  For the first few minutes, all of Nick's soldiers kept their gaze firmly on the floor where they stood, but soon they started stealing glances at Jimmy, wondering what was taking so long. "Jimmy, what's the holdup?" Nick asked.

  Jimmy scowled at their impatience and continued pressing buttons. "The lock is more thorough than I expected. I'm trying to find an override, but there's something blocking my progress. I think Goobot has a computer down there. That, or they have a defensive artificial intelligence. Hang on, yes, it's an artificial intelligence. It's not that advanced, only around the same level as the U.S. army's."

  "That's not advanced?" Betty asked.

  "Not by my standards," Jimmy said with a smile. "I'm cornering it," he explained in laymen’s terms. He knew they would never understand the true mechanics of how he was disabling the A.I. "There. Its code is erased. Yes, hang on, yes. This is easy now. I've got half the override code. Sixty percent now."

  Jimmy suddenly paused and looked at the ground beneath him as a roaring sound emanated from below. "What was that?" somebody asked. "Sounds like engines," another said.

  I told Cindy not to move the ship yet! He angrily thought. But as he listened to the low rumble, he realized that it couldn't possibly be the ship's massive engines. He tapped a few keys on the keyboard and tried to find out what was going on.

  "Son of a bitch," he whispered. "He's trying to get in an escape pod!" Jimmy shouted to everyone behind him.

  "Don't let him get away!" Brittany screamed.

  Jimmy stopped working to stare at her. "Thanks for that advice." He shook his head and turned back to his work. "I'm overriding the escape pods. Give me a second." A few seconds later the rumbling died down. "There. He can't escape. I've locked it down." He pressed several more keys and looked over his shoulder.

  Suddenly the floor began to shimmer, and everyone took several steps back. It then disappeared altogether, and all of the kids stared down into the darkness beneath them. "Let me activate the lights," Jimmy offered while pressing several more buttons and staring back at the monitor. The dark first level was suddenly flooded with white light.

  Jimmy left his computer, he didn't need it anymore. He stood beside Nick and peered down the hole. "I want a gun," Jimmy demanded.

  Nick snapped his fingers, and a girl standing next to him handed him her pistol. Nick in turn handed it to Jimmy, who pulled back the slide and stared down the hole. "Six foot drop or so. Everyone, move in!" Jimmy shouted, resuming his post as commander.

  The dozens of kids jumped down the large hole at once. They landed within seconds of each other, causing the floor to shake under their sudden impact. Jimmy, Nick, and the three other kids with guns stepped away from the rest and aimed their weapons around the room.

  "Stick together," Jimmy ordered. "Weapons ready. Do not, I repeat, do not kill him. I want him alive."

  Several groans arose from the crowd, and Nick glared at them. "You heard the chief! Take him alive!"

  Jimmy and Nick led the way, with the three other armed kids standing right behind them. The two boys led the crowd through the large room. They found no sign of Goobot. "We know you're here!" Jimmy shouted. "Show yourself!"

  As soon as he rounded a corner in the cavernous bowels of the ship, Jimmy saw the king. He had his back braced against a wall some thirty meters from them, and a spear was clutched in his grasp. The five armed soldiers unleashed a torrent of fire. Goobot started to flee, but it was useless. Dozens of rounds of ammunition pierced his reinforced shell and sent him crashing into the ground.

  "Hold your fire!" Jimmy shouted, as he fired all but three of his bullets. Everyone stood still and watched as their two leaders walked towards the alien.

  "Don't kill him," Jimmy whispered. "I need to talk to him."

  "Whatever you say, chief," Nick answered.

  Goobot's eyes widened in fear as the two bipeds approached him. Nick smiled as he saw the alien's fear. He kicked in the cracked glass shield that formed the upper part of his shell as he walked up to the fallen alien.

  "Our parents," Jimmy said as calmly as he could while looming over his old nemesis. "You will tell us right now. Where are they?"

  "I already told you I don't know what you're talking about!" the king screamed, his voice cracking. Without his guards to protect him, he was a sniveling coward.

  "He's playing dumb," Nick whispered to Jimmy.

  Jimmy nodded. "I'm going to ask again. Think this time. Where are our parents?"

  "I don't understand! We didn't take your parents!" the king cried.

  Nick looked to Jimmy, Jimmy nodded at him. Nick leveled his gun at one of the alien's eyes and fired a bullet. The delicate organ seemed to explode, and Goobot let out a pathetic shriek of pain as green blood painted the wall behind him.

  Jimmy knelt down and grabbed the stalk of the other eye. "These vapors you told me about. What did you mean? What happened here? Why were there so few soldiers guarding the place where you stored our parents."

  The Yolkian seemed to lose some of its fear as Jimmy asked these questions. At last, something I can answer, the Yolkian thought in relief. "I don't know why you ask, Neutron," Goobot spat with hatred, "as you obviously know. But the vapors are what you humans may refer to as a gas. I was talking about the disabling gas that you used to incapacitate my crew, soldiers, guards, and ultimately myself!"

  Nick looked to Jimmy for a translation. Jimmy seemed puzzled. "He's talking about a knockout gas. He's saying that we used some sort of a knockout gas against him earlier. Like what he did to you and the other kids," Jimmy told Nick while contemplating the king's words.

  Nick shook his head. "He's trying to buy some time until some more guards attack us!" Nick shouted. "Or something!" he added after a moment.

  Jimmy nodded, agreeing with Nick. Goobot obviously knew where their parents were, and was trying to confuse Jimmy until a fleet of his ships could come to his rescue.

  "One last chance," Jimmy said while reaching inside the Yolkian and grabbing its brain. Any forcefulness that the king had gained a moment ago was lost as Jimm
y wrapped his hands around the organ. Goobot began to quiver and moan. "Where. Are. Our. Parents?"

  "I don't know!" Goobot shouted while locking eyes with Jimmy, pleading for him to have mercy.

  No dice. Jimmy dug his fingernails into the alien's brain and yanked it out of Goobot's head. The pile of green slime in front of him lost its sheen and instantly began to turn grey.

  Jimmy tossed the brain on the ground and jumped onto it, sending small pieces of slimy flesh sliding across the room. The brutality of his actions shocked him, but he felt a sense of peace he hadn't felt since fourth grade. Finally. Goobot's dead once and for all. One less super villain to deal with. Jimmy breathed a sigh of relief and wiped a slime-covered hand through his hair.

  "Uh, Jimmy?" Nick asked. Jimmy let go of his hair and turned to face Nick. "Was that a good idea? I mean, I wanted to kill him too, we all did, but he was the only one left who knew where our parents were. How are we going to find them now?"

  Jimmy smiled at Nick's naiveté. "Nick, if he wasn't going to help us, then he was impeding our progress and was a threat. I can easily find our parents. I'll just lock onto their location with this," he said while pulling his DNA tracker out of his pocket and turning around to face the crowd.

  A wave of cheers and applause raced through the group of soldiers as Jimmy assured them that their parents could be found. Goobot was dead, and their ordeal was finally over. "Yes, yes, it looks like we've won!" Jimmy said, trying to remain nonchalant, but he couldn't help but let out a laugh himself. "But let's save the cheering for the ride home. There could still be a few hostiles hanging around the ship, and I have to find our parents."

  Jimmy motioned for everyone to follow him as he ran to a computer that he had found when he jumped down to the bottom level of the ship. He began pressing buttons and continued inputting commands for another minute, as everyone watched in silence. Suddenly, the hole above them was filled with a shimmering of light, and then the light solidified into a piece of floor. Jimmy pressed another button, and the new circle of the floor slid down to them. "So it is an elevator," he mumbled while shaking his head in disbelief.

  "Ike, Brittany, Betty, lead everyone back to the piloting room. It should be somewhere near the bow of the ship. Cindy's probably going to need help getting this rocket moving. Nick, stay here with me and help me find our parents. Everyone, move out."

  "Yes sir!" everyone shouted while stepping onto the elevator. Jimmy pressed a button on the computer, and the soldiers were lifted up to the second level of the ship.

  Nick stared up after them as Jimmy stepped away from the computer and powered up his DNA tracker. "Um, Jimmy?" Nick asked.

  "Yeah?"

  "Shouldn't we have given those guys our guns? Theirs are probably nearly empty," Nick told Jimmy.

  Jimmy nodded his head as he activated his invention's scanning process. "Yes, but they shouldn't encounter many enemies. They still have some ammo, and they vastly outnumber the enemies. Whereas down here, we're all alone. I think we might need the guns more than them. I don't think we'll encounter anything, but better safe than sorry," Jimmy said with a shrug.

  "Whatever," Nick said while strolling up to Jimmy; staring around at the vast cavernous room they were in. "What the hell is this room, anyway?"

  "No idea, Nick," Jimmy muttered. "Hang on, this is strange," Jimmy said while staring at the DNA tracker's monitor.

  Nick sadly shook his head and looked over Jimmy's shoulder at the invention in his friend's hands. "Of course it is. What's wrong?"

  Jimmy pressed a few more buttons and continued frowning. "It says the parents are in an extremely close proximity. Somewhere in this room."

  Nick and Jimmy quickly looked around. There appeared to be no places where the parents could be. "You sure they're not above us?"

  Jimmy held the device towards the ceiling, and frowned deeper. "No. They are definitely on this floor, somewhere in this room."

  He led Nick around the vast room, but saw no signs of their parents. They rounded the corner that led to the dead end where they had killed Goobot moments before. Nick stared down the corridor at Goobot and shook his head. "Nothing down here." He was about to turn around and walk away when Jimmy grabbed his arm.

  "Nick, wait. The signal's even stronger in this corridor. There must be a secret passage or something that's holding our parents." Jimmy led the way towards Goobot, and the signal steadily increased.

  They reached the end of the hallway and paused. Nick started tapping all the walls and running his hands along them to feel for cracks, but there was no sign of any secret passageway or room. "Jimmy, there is nothing here besides us and Goobot. No secret passageway, nothing."

  Jimmy shook his head as he stared down at the device in his hand. "Libby, am I reading this wrong?"

  There was a short pause before Libby answered. "Negative, Jimmy. I'm picking up the signal your DNA tracker is sending to the lab. You're reading it right. Our parents should be within a foot of your current position."

  Nick threw up his hands. "The thing's broken, Neutron. Let's check the other areas of the ship." Jimmy didn't respond, and Nick clapped him on the back. "It's alright, dude. Not every invention is a winner. Just…"

  "Will you shut up?" Jimmy snapped. Nick jumped backwards and stared at Jimmy. "I'm trying to figure this out!"

  Nick sighed and ran a hand through his long hair. "Maybe the parents are camouflaged. You know, like the bad guy in those Predator movies?"

  Jimmy shook his head. "We would have bumped into them or shot them if they were in this room. I don't understand what is going on," he said while rubbing his head.

  Jimmy stared down at Goobot. The DNA tracker said the parents were at the exact location where Jimmy was standing. Jimmy took a step back, and the signal weakened slightly. He frowned, puzzled. He then stepped back towards Goobot, and the signal strengthened. He knelt down and held the scanner over Goobot's head, and the readings on his tracker went off the scale.

  Jimmy stared at Goobot. He made sure that his DNA tracker was checking for his parents' DNA. Running a scan for Judy and Hugh Neutron's DNA. Why is it telling me they're Goobot?

  Jimmy was about to stand up when he noticed something odd on the Yolkian's broken control panel. He stared at Goobot's shell.

  The shell's control panel was basically a belt of innumerable gadgets, circuits, and microcomputers. Yet something stood out. Jimmy reached for the panel and pulled off a small black circle the size of his thumbnail and as thick as a quarter. He put it under the DNA tracker's scanner, and the reading once again increased.

  Jimmy angrily stood up and tossed the black circle several feet away. His parents' signal faded, and then increased when he walked up to the strange device. Jimmy picked up the circle and turned it over. Engraved in the back was a small message, the letters barely large enough to be legible. Got you.

  "Oh shit," Jimmy shouted.

  "What is it?" Nick asked, running over to join Jimmy.

  Jimmy handed Nick the black gadget and started to bite his fingernails. "The Yolkians didn't do this."

  "What?" Nick shouted.

  Jimmy started pacing around, and then ran to the computer near the elevator. Nick grabbed his arm and pulled him to a stop. "What the hell are you talking about?" he asked Jimmy.

  Jimmy put his DNA tracker back in his pocket and rubbed the back of his neck. "Goobot must have been telling the truth. Someone or something used knockout gas, the vapors he talked about, to render everyone on this ship unconscious. They put that device on him, which sent the signal of our parents' DNA to us. It led us here. This whole thing is a trap!" Jimmy tried to run back to the elevator, but Nick stopped him once more.

  "That's crazy," Nick told Jimmy, but he began to replay the terrified Goobot's last words over in his mind. "This could just be some sick joke by Goobot or something."

  "That doesn't make any sense!" Jimmy shouted. "Why would he have this stupid device on him? It made us kill him! He was telling the tru
th, Nick! This whole thing, it's all been a set up!"

  Jimmy didn't give Nick time to reply. He grabbed his headset and pulled the microphone to his mouth. "Cindy, something's wrong down here. Fire up the engine, blast off, and get us the hell out of here."

  Jimmy waited for a response, but none came. "Cindy, answer me!" Once again, there was no response.

  "Ike, Betty, Brittany, Jacob!" Nick shouted into his own headset. "Does anyone read us?" Jimmy and Nick looked to each other as there was only silence.

  "Jimmy, what is happening on that ship?" Libby asked, just as confused as Jimmy and Nick.

  Suddenly, the ship's loudspeakers buzzed on. Jimmy and Nick stared up at the ceiling, and a low, menacing laugh surrounded them.

  "This is freaking me the hell out!" Nick shouted while pulling out his gun. Jimmy did the same, and they stood back to back, their guns leveled at the ceiling.

  Suddenly, Jimmy heard a hissing sound above him. He and Nick looked up at the ceiling. A pinkish gas was coming out of a ventilation shaft. It spread around them and enveloped the room quickly. Nick and Jimmy started coughing violently.

  "This, this…" Nick struggled to say while coughing and clutching his throat. He tried to speak again, but he lost consciousness and collapsed onto the floor.

  Jimmy tried to listen to Nick's words, tried to fight off the all too familiar swirling blackness, but knew it was futile. He fell onto the floor, and the last thing he heard before blacking out was Libby's frantic voice shouting, "Jimmy! Jimmy! Are you ok? Jimmy!"