Other Fan Fiction ❯ Atomic Galaxy ❯ Chapter 7
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: MikariStar 
Miscellaneous: Other Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Comedy / Drama / Sci-fi | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 07.23.2012 | Pages: 8 | Words: 9.4K | Visits: 229 | Status: Completed
Miscellaneous: Other Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Comedy / Drama / Sci-fi | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 07.23.2012 | Pages: 8 | Words: 9.4K | Visits: 229 | Status: Completed
Atomic Galaxy: Solar System VII
Planet 61: Kissed by the Sun
Iciclea sat under a large umbrella at the beach. All the super villains were there that day. Nuclea came by and sat next to her. Iciclea gave her a deadly glare. "What? Can't I sit under your umbrella for a while? When Solovem comes back I'll go away. I'm not here to be the third wheel," the sunburned electric alien assured.
"It's not that. It's just that you're sunburned," Iciclea was jealous.
"It's not contagious," Nuclea rolled her eyes.
"I wish it was," Iciclea bitterly admitted.
The confession caused Nuclea to give her a strange look. "You're kidding, right? You actually want to have sunburn?"
"Yes! I would look beautiful with sun kissed skin, but I can't even do as much as tan, let alone get sunburn. I'll melt before I get burned and when I turn solid again, I won't have any sunburn, not even a light tan." Iciclea sighed sadly and looked around the beach.
Chameleon had turned into an alien dolphin and was jumping around in the water. Infantor was making a sand castle. Enormo was buried in the sand up to his neck; Infantor buried him before going off to build a sand castle. Bernadette was cooking barbecue. Narcissitad was getting a tan. Pontifadora was swimming. Dr. Cerebral's brain was over heating because of the effect the sun had on the glass. Minimus was playing with a beach ball with some other sidekicks and rookie villains. Maximus had fallen asleep on the beach.
Iciclea directed a deadly glare at the sleeping lynx. "Look at him, frying in the sun without a care in the world!"
"That's gonna hurt when he wakes up, but I least I'll know someone has sunburn worse than mine," Nuclea laughed.
"Sure, rub it in," Iciclea grumbled.
xoxox xox xoxox
Meanwhile, Atomic Betty, Sparky and X-5 had gone to make sure the super villains were only having a beach day and weren't causing trouble. "I want to go surfing and build and sand castles and play ball and have lots of beach food!" Sparky cheered.
"Sparky, why are you carrying all those beach? I must remind you that this is a mission, not a vacation." X-5 had his cooling system activated at maximum capacity to keep the metal cool under the hot beach sun.
"Aw c'mon X-5, have some fun once in a while!" Sparky gave the robot a friendly pat on the shoulder. "Yeouch, you're frozen!"
"I don't want to overheat," X-5 informed.
"Good, hold on to this," Sparky handed him a cooler full of drinks.
"What am I supposed to do with this?" X-5 asked.
"Keep the drinks cool," Sparky smiling.
X-5 was not amused. "Stop this nonsense at once and put all these things back in the Starcruiser!"
"He's got a point Sparky we're here on a mission. Let's put all this things back in the Starcruiser and if we finish early, then we can hang out at the beach for a while," Betty offered.
"I still don't understand what's so fun about this place. This is boring and pointless." X-5 went silent as he saw someone familiar. It was that princess that they helped cross the dessert.
The royal couple was at the beach with their robot. Despite the villains being in the same beach, they didn't seem to mind since they weren't bothering each other. The robot girl recognized X-5 and went to talk to him.
Sparky pointed at X-5, who was walking, or floating, along the beach talking to the other robot. "I guess he doesn't think the beach is boring and pointless after all."
"Let's go see what the super villains are doing. If they haven't kicked everyone who's not a villain out of the beach yet, then maybe they're not going to cause any trouble today," Betty concluded.
As they approached the area of the beach where the villains were, Sparky smelled something. "Chief it smells like fried lynx. There must be cannibals in this beach! What if that poor lynx they caught doesn't fill them up and they come after us?"
"Sparky, look over there," Betty pointed at Maximus, who was still asleep.
"So that's what it was," Sparky grimaced, "that's gonna hurt when he wakes up."
Betty nodded in agreement, "he'll probably take it out on Minimus."
As they continued walking Sparky's nose caught another sent, but this time Betty smelled it too. "Barbecue!" Sparky cheered.
"I think chef Bernadette is cooking for the villains," Betty pointed.
"But I'm hungry!" Sparky rushed over to Bernadette, looking hungrily at the burgers. "Can I have one?"
"No," Bernadette replied.
"Can I have one of those then?" Sparky pointed at a hotdog.
"This food is for the villains," Bernadette warned.
"But I'm hungry!" Sparky complained.
"Fine, I'll let you have one burger and one hotdog; then you have to stop bothering me!" The chef could not work with such an annoyance.
After Sparky ate, he continued complaining that he was hungry, but Betty dragged him. "Ley's go Sparky. If you eat the villain's food they might get angry and blow up this planet or something."
They continued seeing what each villain was doing. Chameleon was still playing in the water as an alien dolphin. Dr. Cerebral had a little umbrella hat now and was looking at some sea shells. Infantor was standing near the ocean going in and out of the water and splashing around in the low tide. He was had big orange floaters on his arms and legs, and a large matching lifesaver. Enormo was no where to be found. Narcissitad was putting on more suntan lotion. Pontifadora was surfing and Nuclea had joined the other villains in a game of beach valley ball.
Iciclea was sitting under an umbrella looking bored and angry. This caught Betty's attention, because it looked like the ice queen was the only one was wasn't enjoying her time at the beach. "What's wrong?" Betty asked curiously.
"I want to get sunburned but I'll melt instead," Iciclea complained.
This was the first time Betty had heard of anyone who actually wanted to get sunburn. "But sunburn is no fun, it's painful!"
"How would you know?" Iciclea continued getting jealous.
"I know because I've had it and trust me, it's not good," Betty assured.
"It's not fair! Everyone good and evil can have sunburn except me!" Iciclea snapped. "Everyone can enjoy their time at the beach and have sometime to show for it the next day, but I can't! Why doesn't my skin glow with the beautiful light of the sun?"
"I guess sometimes those who have something don't want it and those who want it don't have it." Betty thought it was ironic in a weird way. "Maybe you can do other things besides getting sunburned."
"It's no use, all I really want to do today is get sunburned," Iciclea frowned.
Needless to say, Betty would never understand her logic. Seeing that there was no danger, Betty returned to the Starcruiser to change out of her galactic guardian uniform and enjoy the rest of the day on the beach. It didn't look like anyone was bothered by her precense anyway, as if there was an unspoken truce.
xoxox xox xoxox
A little later, Solovem finally returned to Iciclea. "I have it, the magic sunscreen you wanted!"
Iciclea saw a ray of hope. If this magical sunscreen worked, maybe she could get sunburned without melting. She tried it on and stayed in the sun all day without melting. However, she didn't get sunburned. "I'm not sunburned."
"No, not one bit," Solovem smiled.
Iciclea glared, "I wanted to get sunburned!"
Solovem blinked confused. "I thought you were being sarcastic and meant you didn't want to get sunburned. I mean who would want to? I thought you only wanted to make sure you didn't melt."
"Meow!" The tide had gone up enough to reach Maximus and the water woke him up. "Ow, ouch, sunburn, oooooh! Minimus why didn't you wake me up?" It looked like it hurt.
"You know what?" Iciclea came to a realization after witnessing Maximus' unfortunate fate. "I changed my mind, sunburn looks painful, I don't want it anymore."
xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox
Planet 62: Intergalactic Delivery
It was a sunny day in Moose Jaw Heights and today the students of Betty's school were going to audition for the annual play. As they entered the drama classroom, they heard a very familiar laugh. "I hope you're not thinking about auditioning," Penelope was followed by Sarah and Megan, one standing at each side. "You have no chance, unless of course they decide to make it a horror story," Penelope laughed at her own sarcasm.
Betty stood up to the challenge like she always did. "We'll see about that Penelope," she was determined to earn a role on the play.
"So you're actually auditioning? Oh good, I get to see you make a total fool of yourself in front of everyone, I can't wait!" Penelope left with her usual mocking laugh, followed by Sarah and Megan.
"We'll see who's the fool," Betty approached the table with the lists where the students signed and wrote what role they wanted try out for. There was one list for each character on the play. Betty wrote name under Penelope's in the list to audition for the role of the princess. She thought it was a boring role, but she wanted to spare the audience of having to watch Penelope on stage. Then she handed the pen to Noah, who happened to be passing by at the very moment.
"Oh no Betty, I'm not good at standing in front of people," Noah preferred to watch plays, not be in them.
"C'mon Noah, it'll be fun." Most of the time, Betty was the one who convinced him to participate in the school's events.
"I doubt I'll be chosen for any role."
"The important thing is that you tried out and did your best."
Noah wished he had her confidence, "I guess so." 'Here I go again,' he thought, 'letting Betty get me into what could turn out to be another mess.' Noah picked a list and wrote his name on it.
As Noah finished writing his name, Paloma arrived, "hi."
"Hey Paloma, are you going to try out for the school play too?" Betty asked.
"I think I'll try it out, it must be fun to be up on stage." Paloma looked over the lists and chose one, then wrote her name on it. The students were given a copy of the script the week before and the auditions were to take place later on that day.
As it tends to happen, Betty's bracelet suddenly beeped. "I left my copy of the script in my locker. I'll go get it," Betty, as always, rushed off to answer the call from the Galactic Guardians.
xoxox xox xoxox
Once out in the hall, Betty looked around to make sure no one was coming and activated her bracelet. "Atomic Betty reporting for duty!"
"Atomic Betty," the hologram of Admiral Degill was projected from the bracelet. "I have a very important mission for you. The wedding of princess Peachream and prince Jurio of the Mushpipe Galaxy is close to taking place. However, before that can happen, certain items need to be safely delivered. You must transport each of those items from the palace to certain people across the galaxy, then return to the palace. The future peace of the galaxy depends on you!"
"I won't let you down admiral!"
xoxox xox xoxox
Betty was beamed up to the Starcruiser and took her usual seat at the captain's chair.
"What kind of food do you think they'll have at the Mushpipe party?" They weren't even at the palace yet and Sparky's mouth was already watering.
"We're here on a mission Sparky, you can't be distracted by food," Betty reminded him.
"He always thinks with his stomach," X-5 commented.
"You don't know what you're missing because you a robot!" Sparky showed X-5 his tongue then hurried to the Mushpipe Galaxy at full speed.
xoxox xox xoxox
Upon arriving at the Mushpipe palace, Betty, Sparky and X-5 found that everyone there was quite busy. Finally, someone noticed their presence. "You're the galactic guardians here to help us aren't you? Come this way please." The alien guard looked a little like a human but had an odd looking hat, which was actually part of his head, shaped like a big mushroom. They followed him into a secret passage that appeared when he shook hands with what looked like an ordinary statue of the king.
After going down some stairs, they arrived at a large room with many safes. "This is where the royal family's most valuable treasures are kept. Only the most trusted servants know the combination to open these. Now please look away for a moment."
Betty, Sparky and X-5 did as they were asked.
"Okay, you can look now." One of the safes was opened and from inside the guard took a box. He opened it, revealing a pair of glass slippers. "The princess must wear these slippers on her wedding. The problem is that, as you can see, they are broken."
The slippers had small cracks in the glass, but still somehow held together. "They are magical so they're not as fragile as they look, but they are very old and the magic protecting the glass is starting to fade away. Please take these to the wizard shoe maker and he will repair them. You will find him in planet Mortavio. Even if he lives there, he's a good wizard so you shouldn't have any trouble." The guard closed the box and handed it to Betty. "There are other items that must also be delivered, but those need to be collected outside of the palace. I will tell you were to find them after you bring back the slippers." He then gave them directions to find the wizard shoe maker's house.
"Isn't it faster if I get all the items on the way?" Atomic Betty asked.
"I'm afraid that's not possible. Only the princess is allowed to hold more than one of the royal family's treasures at the same time," the guard explained. "We normally don't hand these to anyone from outside of this galaxy, but we're making an exception this time because you are Atomic Betty and everyone knows you."
Sometimes Betty forgot just how famous she became, but after that time Maximus disguised himself as El Gato and tricked her, she promised not to let it go to her head, "I understand."
"What about me?" Sparky asked, "you must have heard about me too!"
"Sparky, we have to go," Betty dragged him away, they had a mission to fulfill.
xoxox xox xoxox
Betty, Sparky and X-5 traveled to planet Mortavio where they hoped to find the wizard shoe maker. They followed the directions they were given and as they walked, Sparky sang. "We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of shoes!" He stopped singing when he saw the house. "What a dump!"
"There is a 97.4% chance that someone broke into the shoe wizard's house recently," X-5 calculated.
"Maybe he just doesn't like to clean up," Sparky took a look inside since the door was left open.
"I doubt anyone is as unorganized as you are," X-5 replied, he and Betty went inside as well. The house was a mess with broken shoes of all kinds all over the floor.
"Who's unorganized? I'm very organized. I cleaned up my room every three years!" Sparky defended.
"That's more often than I thought," X-5 retorted.
"I found something," Betty picked up a note. "It says, 'to whom it may concern, let this be an example of what happens to good wizards on Mortavio,' and it's signed by Solovem!"
"Poor shoe wizard. He didn't deserve to be captured by Solovem even if he never cleans his house," Sparky frowned.
"We need to save him!" Atomic Betty squeezed the note in her hand.
"Good thing I kept this," X-5 handed Betty a wand to put on her bracelet like she had that time King R-turmex was kidnapped.
xoxox xox xoxox
Disguised as wizards, Betty, Sparky and X-5 headed to Solovem's castle. They made it past the guards and overheard something about a good shoe wizard being kept in the dungeon. So far so good, they slipped past the dungeon guards and found the shoe wizard.
The entire dungeon was full of shoes of all styles, colors and sizes. "Hey Mr. Shoe Wizard," Sparky whispered. "We're here to save you!"
"Save me? I'm the one who needs to save everyone in this castle! Did you see their shoes? Maybe that's why they wear long robes, cloaks and capes, because they need to hide their horrible shoes!" The wizard shoe maker was horrified.
Betty unlocked the cell with the wand on her bracelet. "We need to get out of here before we're discovered."
"Too late for that!" They turned around to find that Solovem had teleported right behind them. "You'll never get away with the shoe maker!" Solovem shot fire magic at them, which Betty blocked with a shield created by her bracelet's wand.
"Maybe I can give you a hand, or shoe," the shoe wizard used his magic to trap Solovem inside a giant shoe. They ran past him as the shoe wizard continued trapping all the guards inside shoes.
Of course the giant shoe wasn't going to hold Solovem for too long. He broke free from the shoe and chased them, creating all sort of magical creatures to go after them. "There is a 0.08% change that we will reach the ship before Solovem and his highly evolved creatures disintegrate us," X-5 calculated.
"Highly evolved? Don't you mean magical?" Sparky asked.
"There is no such thing as magic," X-5 insisted.
"I'll help, put these on and we'll fly out of here," the wizard shoe maker gave them each a pair of sandals with wings.
"But I don't even have feet," X-5 reminded.
"You do now," Sparky pointed at the robot's newly 'evolved' feet.
They all flew out a window with Solovem chasing them. "He's catching up!" Betty looked at their pursuer.
"Maybe some more shoes will distract him long enough," at the shoe wizard's command, it started to rain shoes all over Mortavio. A large shoe fell on Solovem and kept him strapped long enough for them to land and go inside the Starcruiser. They took off at full speed immediately.
xoxox xox xoxox
Betty, Sparky, X-5 and the wizard shoe maker were in space, traveling in the Starcruiser. After X-5 took off the winged sandals, his robotic feet disappeared and he was back to normal.
"That was fun, but I will have to return to Mortavio later. The shoes need me!" The shoe wizard decided.
"Why would you make shoes for the villains? I thought you were a good wizard," Atomic Betty asked.
"I am, but I make shoes for whoever needs them. I'm the one who made Maximus IQ's very cool shoes. I also have an order for three pairs of shoes for Atomic Rodger." The wizard showed them a sample of Rodger's shoes. They were red and white with a little yellow decoration at the end that looked like his wig. The shoes then disappeared as mysteriously as they appeared. "Would you like a pair of shoes?"
"Actually, we need to have some shoes repaired," Betty showed him the glass slippers.
"This should be easy," in a few seconds, the glass slippers were as good as new. "I added some magic to make them more resistant. Those won't need another repair for at least a thousand years." After his job was done, the shoe wizard left the Starcruiser, surrounded himself in a magical bubble, and returned to Mortavio pushing the bubble from inside with a pair of winged sandals to propel himself.
"That wasn't too hard," Betty watched as the wizard disappeared in the distance of space.
"Aw, he left so quickly, I wanted him to make some cool shoes for me," Sparky complained.
"This is no time to think about shoes, the mission isn't over yet," X-5 reminded.
"Right, we need to return to the palace and learn about the other items," Betty agreed.
"Do you think they'll have a snack ready for us? I'm starving!" Sparky was eating some caramel covered slog worms.
"How could you starve while eating? It is illogical," X-5 reasoned.
"It is illogical," Sparky mocked, "so what? Your growing feet and ungrowing them is illogical too and it happened!"
"That was evolution," X-5 insisted.
"But you're a robot!" Sparky argued.
"It's technological evolution!" X-5 reasoned.
"That's enough you two! I need to get back to Earth on time for the auditions so we can't waste any time," Betty ended the argument.
xoxox xox xoxox
After returning the glass slippers to the palace, Atomic Betty, Sparky and X-5 met princess Peachream herself. She was of the same species as the guard with a pink spotted mushroom on her head and blond hair growing out under it. "I thank you for repairing my glass slippers, galactic guardians. But there are other things that I need before the wedding can take place."
"Don't you worry," Sparky assured. "The universally famous Sparky will find all the items that are needed. You have heard of me, right your highness?"
"Of course I have. You were in that movie where you fell into the black hole at the end," Peachream recalled.
Sparky was pleasantly surprised to know a princess actually watched his movie. "You watched it? You really watched it?"
"Oh yes, I liked that movie very much, but I have to say Maximus needs acting lessons. He didn't sound evil at all, which is quite odd since he actually is a super villain. But you were very heroic in that movie Sparky, so that makes up for it," Peachream smiled.
xoxox xox xoxox
Meanwhile far away, Maximus sneezed. "Did you catch a cold your evilness?" Minimus asked.
"I don't think so, but if I did I'm blaming you for it!" Maximus answered.
"Why?" Minimus already got blamed for many things that were not his fault, but getting blamed for a cold that had nothing to do with him was too much.
"Because I can!" Maximus hit Minimus on the head, making his head spin, then returned to his reading, while Minimus mumbled something inaudible and returned to cleaning the lair. On the cover of the book the titled was 'How to take over the universe world in five easy steps.'
xoxox xox xoxox
At the Mushpipe galaxy, Betty thought it was time to remind the princess of the situation, or she would continue discussing movies with Sparky for who knows how long. "Princess about the mission..."
"Oh yes, the next item I need is new bouquet of roses from planet Flora. You will find the roses in the indoor garden in the highest room of the tallest tower, in a castle guarded by a fire breathing dragon, in the middle of a boiling lake of lava. You must be very careful not to touch the thorns or the rose's magic will turn you into a beast." Peachream calmly explained.
"Isn't that a little dangerous?" Betty asked.
"Don't worry, the thorns will be removed by experts before the wedding," Peachream assured.
"Alright, we'll bring the roses. We'll be back soon your highness," Betty replied.
"May you have a safe journey, galactic guardians," Peachream saw them off.
xoxox xox xoxox
Once in the Starcruiser heading for their destination, Sparky voiced his concern, "chief, I'm really hungry and ran out of snacks. I was so exited about a princess watching my movie, that I didn't even remember to ask for food in the palace. Can we stop and get something to eat?"
"We're a mission, Sparky. We need to find all the items the princess needs. Besides, I need to return to Earth on time for the auditions, so there's not much time," Betty tried to explain.
"But chief I'm hungry! I'm so hungry I smell cookies," Sparky took a deep breath, even in space his nose could smell food near by. "I really do smell cookies!" Just ahead lived a little old lady and her pet dragon Theodore, they soon received a call from her and went to see what she needed.
xoxox xox xoxox
When the Starcruiser landed Sparky was the first to jump out. "How nice of you to stop by, would you like some cookies?" the old lady asked.
"Yes!" Sparky cheered.
"Do you need help with anything?" Atomic Betty asked.
"Yes, I do need a little help. I'm feeling kind of tired today and Theodore needs to take a walk." Sitting beside the old lady, was her pet dragon, looking sad while wagging his tail.
"I guess I could take him along," Betty agreed. After somehow getting Theodore inside the Starcruiser Atomic Betty, Sparky and X-5 continued on their journey to find the roses.
xoxox xox xoxox
The castle was easy to find, since it would be hard to miss the big lake of boiling lava. Once inside the castle, Betty, Sparky, X-5 and Theodore started searching for the stairs or elevator, which led to the highest room in the tallest tower. So far there had been no sign of the dragon.
The tallest tower where the roses were, was too small for Theodore to enter. The dragon was a little frightened by the eerie looking castle, so Sparky and X-5 stayed with him, while Atomic Betty went to find the roses.
The room at the top of the tower was quite dark, but the magic roses had a light glow around them. Each rose was encased in glass. Betty lifted the glass covering them and carefully took the roses without touching the thorns. That's when she heard Sparky yell "dragon!" and she rushed down the stairs.
xoxox xox xoxox
Meanwhile in another planet, Maximus and Minimus were walking around a museum as any other tourist would. "There's no work today, I'll just relax and enjoy my day off." Maximus had finished reading his book and the five steps to taking over the universe were: device an evil plan, eliminate those who stand in your way, implement the evil plan, rule the universe and number five was an optional step. If steps one through four were not successfully accomplished, the final step was to take a break and try again later from step one.
"No work for you, but what about me?" Minimus' angry face complained. He had the task of carrying Maximus' souvenirs, which he would probably never use anyway and would sit in a corner of the lair collecting dust, if not in the bottom of a closet. Then Minimus would have to clean them, along with the many other useless things Maximus bought on this day off.
"Shut up and take a picture!" Maximus stood in front of a statue.
Minimus set bags full of souvenirs on the floor and prepared to take the picture. "A little more to the left, your evilness," Maximus moved to his left instead of Minimus' left. "I mean your other left," the sidekick clarified.
Maximus moved again and watched as Minimus prepared to take the picture. "What are you doing?"
"Taking a picture of the statue like you said, your evilness," Minimus answered.
"Not the statue!" Maximus yelled. "I want a picture of me, who cares about some statue? It's not even a statue of me!" Just as Minimus was about to take the picture, Maximus received a call from his lair and answered it. The hologram of a guard informing him of the latest news came out as blur of light on the picture. "Minimus! You should have waited!" Maximus kicked his sidekick. "This better be important news for ruining my picture!"
"You told us to call if we saw Atomic Betty," the guard in the hologram reminded.
"You captured Atomic Betty?" Maximus asked.
"No, we saw her ship pass by," the guard answered. "Were we supposed to do anything besides calling you?"
"Idiot! You' let her go? I'm returning to the lair and you better find out what she's doing before I arrive," Maximus yelled.
xoxox xox xoxox
On planet Flora, Betty, Sparky and X-5 were having a little trouble fighting the dragon to escape from the castle with the roses. She was of the same species as Theodore, but he looked like a harmless kitten if compared to her fighting skills. "We can't die now, that lady said she would give me more cookies when we return Theodore!" Sparky cried.
"Don't worry we'll get out of this," Atomic Betty reassured.
Theodore, who had been hiding since he heard the other dragon coming, came out to defend his friends. But what luck did they have that the dragon girl fell in love with him. It looked like it was love as first sight for the dragon and she was a lot nicer now. It seemed that all along Theodore wasn't scared, he was just being shy.
xoxox xox xoxox
The group returned with Theodore, as well as the dragon girl, and the old lady was happy to take care of both dragons. So far, two missions had been accomplished, Sparky got more cookies and everything appeared to be going well.
xoxox xox xoxox
"Look, there's Atomic Betty again!" One of Maximus' guards at the lair called out, seeing her ship fly by. "I'll see what she's doing," he sent a transmission to the Starcruiser and asked.
"We're on a mission and I won't let you stop us!" Atomic Betty replied.
"I'm not calling stop you, I just need to know what you're doing. That was Maximus' order," he took notes. "What kind of mission is this?"
"We're making an intergalactic delivery of lots of valuable items for the Mushpipe galaxy!" Sparky answered.
"Sparky, no!" It was already too late for Betty to stop.
"This highly increases our chances of having Maximus interfere with the mission in the near future," X-5 pointed out.
"But he said he wouldn't try to stop us!" Sparky argued.
"Never mind, we'll just have to hurry," Atomic Betty said.
xoxox xox xoxox
The three galactic guardians returned to the Mushpipe palace once again. "Oh, how wonderful, I already have two of the four items I need," Peachream cheered. "The next item is kept right here in the palace. It is a sapphire crown, made especially for my wedding."
"Then recovering it should be easy right?" Sparky asked.
"Oh no, it might be a challenge because of all the traps that were set to keep it safe. The problem is there is no way to disable the traps, so you must get past the obstacle course. But I'm sure it won't be too hard for a galactic guardian. Another important detail is that only one person may enter the crown's safe at a time, otherwise the lasers will be activate and no one can avoid a rain of lasers like that, plus the room will be filled with poisonous gas," Peachream explained.
"I'll go," Betty offered.
"I wish you good luck, may you accomplish your mission safely. Please join us at our tea party when you return," Peachream smiled cheerfully and calmly.
"Tea party? Hurry back chief!" Sparky cheered.
"I'll be back as soon as I can,"thus Betty was off to face the obstacles of the crown's safe.
xoxox xox xoxox
After she entered the large safe, Betty found a boiling lake of lava. "Boiling lava, how predictable." She jumped from one stone to another, until she made it to the other side. "That wasn't so bad." Just when she thought she was standing on solid ground, the entire obstacle course began to sink into the lava and Betty hurried to climb a stone wall. Once at the top she had bought some time, but the structure continued to sink. There was no only an obstacle course, but also a time limit to clear it.
Next up she saw a large hoop around a metal pole that went down to the next area. "All that climbing and I end up going down." There was no time to give it much thought or the entire place would sink. Betty swung down on the hoop and landed in the platform bellow. Then it was time to climb up a log that kept spinning from side to side. She almost slipped at the end, but managed to hold on.
"That was close, I better be extra careful." The next part was rather easy, going up several ladders and jumping from one to the other. Of course, the challenging and slippery parts were to come. Staying on top of a giant stone boulder, while rolling it across the lava before it melted, was not an easy task.
After climbing another cliff, Betty found herself staring at a rope that appeared to have no end. She started climbing. Suddenly the lava started coming up faster. That's when she realized that the structure wasn't sinking at all, it was the level of the lava that was going up. The end of the rope caught on fire and was burning fast. Even if the lava didn't reach her, if the fire did, she would fall. "I should have borrowed Sparky's jet pack." It was too late for extra preparations, so Betty just tried to climb as fast as she could.
Finally, Betty reached the top without a second to spare. It seemed the lava stopped rising, but the entrance was blocked, so she couldn't leave the way she came. The crown was easy to find, but solving the puzzle code on the small glass safe was a time consuming task and her team begun to worry.
"How do I get back?" Betty saw no other way out than the way she came. That is until she noticed an air conditioner vent on the roof and climbed out that way.
xoxox xox xoxox
After a lot of crawling through the air conditioner tunnels, she made it to the room where princess Peachream, Sparky and X-5 were waiting.
"I'm worried about the chief, she's taking a long time to get back," Sparky said.
"If I had more information about the obstacles the captain must face, I could calculate the estimated time she needs to return with the crown," X-5 replied.
"She is the famous Atomic Betty, I'm sure she'll drop in on us any time," as Peachream said this, Atomic Betty literally dropped in.
"I found another way out of the safe," it would have been good for Betty to know about this before she took the long way to the crown.
The princess stared up at the open air conditioner vent. "There was a security flaw like that?"
"Fortunately the sapphire crown was still there," Betty presented the item.
"Wonderful!" Peachream was very pleased. "Then we can proceed with the wedding as soon as the preparations are complete. For now, join me for ice tea and cookies!"
"Ice tea and cookies, yay!" Sparky was certainly happy about it.
"Princess, wasn't there another item you needed?" Atomic Betty asked.
"Yes, but I haven't decided about that yet. I'll think of something while we have the tea party," Peachream replied.
xoxox xox xoxox
A short while later, the tea party was interrupted when a palace guard came to inform them that the castle was under attack and Maximus had been spotted near by. The galactic guardian went to see what was going on in the main hall and they found large beasts trashing about in the palace, attacking anyone and anything they saw.
"Maximus, I should have know you'd come to cause trouble!" Betty accused.
Maximus looked confused. "They're not with me, I was going to track you down and attack, but then received a call saying that I was invited to a wedding so I postponed the attack."
"You're here as a guest?" Atomic Betty asked in surprise and Maximus nodded.
"Oh yes, I want all the actors from my favorite movie to attend, all of you are also invited of course." Peachream still sounded calm and happy regardless of the fact hat her palace was under attack.
"Then who is attacked?" Betty asked.
A voice was heard, "over here galactic guardians and princess... and villains? What kind of a party is this, inviting both guardians and villains?"
"Waream, my baby cousin?" Peachream was shocked "Are you responsible for this?"
Waream looked annoyed. "I'm not a baby! In fact, I would be a much better ruler than you. That is why I used the thorns that your servants threw away to turns your guards into beasts and with this army of beasts-"
"That doesn't even listen to you," Maximus interrupted.
"Excuse me, don't interrupt my evil speech. Ehem, as I was saying with this army of beasts I will take over the planet!" Waream finished.
"You call that an evil speech? You didn't even do an evil laugh at the end," Maximus disapproved.
"Stop criticizing me!" Waream whined.
The large doors of the main hall were opened and Jurio, the princess' husband to be entered. "Jurio you're here! Oh goody we can start with the wedding soon!" Peachream cheered.
"Of course my love, everything is ready and it seems that our guests of honor from your favorite movie are here too," Jurio smiled.
"Hey! Are you ignoring me?" Waream complained. "Don't ignore me or the beasts will... Where did they go?"
"While you were busy with your speech, the guards who were not affected by the thorns, brought the. Everyone is back to normal now," Betty explained.
"Are you saying I was defeated already?" Waream was in disbelief.
"I'm sorry baby cousin, but I can't have you causing trouble in my wedding, so I'll have the guards take you away now. Don't worry, I'll send some cake to the dungeon!" Peachream had a bright happy smile, that never seemed to leave her face no matter what.
Maximus watched as Waream was taken away. "He just didn't have what it takes to be a villain."
"Do you have plans of causing trouble too?" Atomic Betty asked.
"Not today, I'm here as an invited guest and famous actor, so I'll leave the evil for another time," Maximus actually kept his word on that.
"Princess Peachream, my records indicate that you needed a forth item for the wedding and we have only recovered three," X-5 reminded.
"Oh yes, I've already decided what I want. Atomic Betty can I borrow your bracelet?" Peachream asked.
"My galactic guardian bracelet?" Betty asked.
"Oh no, I'm sure you need that one, I mean your other bracelet," the princess replied.
Besides her galactic guardian bracelet, Betty had another bracelet that her mother got her in hopes of making her stop wearing the old one. Of course, Betty needed her galactic guardian bracelet, so she simply wore the new one on her other wrist. "Okay, here it is."
"Now I have everything I need!" Peachream cheered. "Something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. The glass slippers are old, the roses and dress are new, the bracelet is borrowed and the sapphire crown is blue."
xoxox xox xoxox
Everything went well during the wedding, with no more attacks. Maximus actually behaved, since he was too busy signing autographs to cause problems. Sparky certainly enjoyed the banquet and by the time Betty returned to Earth, the entire day had gone by. She found Noah near the lockers at school.
"Betty, where have you been all day? You missed the auditions!" Noah finally found her, after such a long time of searching.
"I guess I lost track of time," Betty tried to excuse herself.
"Penelope changed the lists and the teachers didn't even question why there was so much liquid paper on them," Paloma revealed. "Because of that, she ended up being the only candidate for the princess and by default they gave her the part, she didn't even have to audition."
"That's terrible," Betty wished she could have done something about that.
"I ended up getting casted as the evil witch, but that's okay, this witch will give the princess a very hard time when she gets captured," Paloma grinned.
"At least you get to give her some payback, I was erased from the lists so I wasn't allowed to audition because the teacher said she was clear that we needed to sign our names on time," Noah wasn't too disappointed really.
Just then, Dylan walked by. "Betty, where have you been all day? I thought you were going to audition for the play."
"Sorry, I lost track of time and missed it," Betty replied.
"Dylan was casted as the prince," Paloma pitied him.
"Good luck putting up with Penelope," Noah added.
"Actually, Duncan agreed to trade with me and we talked the teachers into letting us. I'll be the evil wizard instead, I guess that means I'm on your team Paloma," Dylan smiled.
"Welcome to the team. So Duncan ended up with the role of prince?" Paloma was amused at the thought of Penelope's reaction.
"I wonder what Penelope will say when she finds out?" Betty laughed.
The four of them laughed, as Penelope walked by with Sarah and Megan. "Find out about what?"
"Nothing," Betty and her friends laughed again.
"What? What is it?" Penelope didn't find out until it was time for rehearsal, and it was already too late to make any other changes.
xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox
Planet 63: Lost in the Mall
Sparky looked scared as he walked around the mall. He had learned that Earth could be a dangerous planet. Never underestimate the potential of a pre-contact race. He had become separated from Betty because he was distracted by the scent of fast food coming from the food court.
Not too far from the food court was an arcade. Sparky knew he didn't have earth money to pay for the food so he tried to stay away from it to resist the temptation to eat everything he saw. She ran inside the arcade wondering if Betty had gone there. In the arcade, Sparky found Betty's earthling friend Noah. "Hi, have you seen Betty?"
"No, I haven't seen her, but how do you know her? I don't think I've seen you in school." Noah didn't recognize him as the new kid since now he wasn't green or had a big nose.
Sparky was now in a complete holographic human disguise. "I go to the same school as the sister of the best friend of the neighbor of her cousin," Sparky spoke quickly, hoping Noah wouldn't ask about it.
"Oh," Noah was confused, but he decided not to ask. "Well I haven't seen her since yesterday at school." Today was Saturday.
"Okay, thanks I'll find her," Sparky hoped it was soon.
He was about to walk out of the arcade but Noah followed him. "I'll help you look for Betty."
Sparky wasn't sure what to say. He didn't want to sound mean, but he wasn't sure if he could interact with earth people who didn't know about life outside of their planet for a long period of time. "Um, thanks."
Sparky and Noah headed off to search for Betty. "Maybe she's in the video store. She likes science fiction movies," Noah guessed. They entered the video store and looked around.
"This place is big," Sparky looked at the many aisles. To him, it looked like some sort of maze. He didn't understand why earthlings build their video stores in such a way. On his planet movies were kept on a server and copied to a standard disk at the moment of purchase. The process took three to five seconds depending on how long the movie was and how many extras the disk would include. If he was only renting the movie then the disk would automatically erase itself after the time expired and it could be recycled.
Noah took his comment as a suggestion to split up and search for Betty. "You go that way," he pointed to the left, "and I'll go this way," he pointed to the right. "We'll meet back at the entrance in ten minutes."
"Okay, I got it!" Sparky headed in his assigned direction. Maybe this was some sort of game. Like who could go in and out of the maze first. Sadly, Sparky got lost. He was sure he had walked by that little box with a picture of Anakin Skywalker on it at least seven times. He knew about Star Wars. Almost everyone in the universe knew about Star Wars.
Noah stood at the entrance to the video store waiting for that new kid to come out. It had already been twenty minutes and there was no sign of him. He was sure the boy had a watch, so he should know it was time to meet him. Of course Noah didn't know that the so called watch was actually the source of his hologram disguise.
"Great, he ditched me," Noah sadly concluded. Now not only Betty ran off all the time, but even some new kid he just met left without him. "Am I that boring?" Noah sighed sadly, no one wanted to be around him, and left the video store.
"Hi Noah," a girl's voice spoke.
Noah looked up from staring at the floor and saw Megan. "Hi Megan, what are you doing here?" He was a little surprised to find her by herself instead of following Penelope around as she usually did.
"Well I'm not following Penelope," Megan sounded a little upset. "She asked, no, she told me, to go with her to the make up store then she kept criticizing me when I tried on some make up. I'm not going to put up with it. She can carry her own bags today."
"I don't know how you put up with her in the first place," Noah admitted as they started to walk back to the arcade.
"She's popular and pretty and has a lot of friends. She's everything I'm not," Megan explained.
"Who would want to be like her? She's annoying, mean and a spoiled brat," Noah's comment caused Megan to giggle. "What? It's true."
"How come you never said that before?" Megan asked.
"I don't know, I guess I rather stay out of trouble," Noah admitted. They both laugh and entered the arcade.
xoxox xox xoxox
Meanwhile, Sparky had made it out of the video store maze and concluded that Noah ditched him. Those earthlings were so mean, with the exception of Betty of course.
The mall was full of people since it was a Saturday afternoon and he didn't know where Betty could be. Sparky sat on a bench near the food court, wishing he had earth money to buy some food and drown his worries in it. But he knew he would get into trouble if he ate anything without paying for it and he didn't want to get into any more trouble.
"I'm so hungry I could eat a horse," a boy said as he walked by.
"Oh yeah? Well I'm so hungry I could eat an entire alien race!" Another boy replied as the two headed towards the food court.
Sparky's eyes widened in fear. "Cannibals!" He ran for his life. Betty hasn't said anything about there being cannibals on this planet, but you never know what may come from such a strange place. In his panic, he bumped into a red haired girl.
"Sparky!" Betty was relived to find him. "I've been looking all over for you."
"Chief!" Sparky hugged her happily. "I was running away from the cannibals. Don't let them eat me!"
Betty hugged him back and petted his head gently. "It's okay Sparky; no one's going to eat you. Now let's go to the store, get what we need and leave." Betty wondered where Sparky got the strange idea that there were cannibals at the mall.
Sparky nodded, "okay, chief, I feel safe when you're here."
End of Solar System VII
Disclaimer, I don't own Atomic Betty, Star Wars or the other works referenced on Planet 62, which are as follows: Peachream (peaches and cream, also a reference to Princess Peach), Jurio (Mario, Jupiter), Mushpipe (Mushroom Kingdom and pipes), the Toad or mushroom people, Cinderella's glass slippers, Oz's wizard song, the wizard show maker and Matrix's key maker, mythological winged sandals, Dragon's castle from the first Shrek movie, the rose from Beauty and the Beast, some of the obstacles are from Ninja Warrior, the burning is from a stage in Donkey Kong Country 3, the air conditioner tunnel on the roof is from Mission Impossible, Waream (Wario, ended with ream since he's Peachream's cousin). The idea for Planet 61 came from the episode Evil Idol, where Iciclea melts.
Planet 61: Kissed by the Sun
Iciclea sat under a large umbrella at the beach. All the super villains were there that day. Nuclea came by and sat next to her. Iciclea gave her a deadly glare. "What? Can't I sit under your umbrella for a while? When Solovem comes back I'll go away. I'm not here to be the third wheel," the sunburned electric alien assured.
"It's not that. It's just that you're sunburned," Iciclea was jealous.
"It's not contagious," Nuclea rolled her eyes.
"I wish it was," Iciclea bitterly admitted.
The confession caused Nuclea to give her a strange look. "You're kidding, right? You actually want to have sunburn?"
"Yes! I would look beautiful with sun kissed skin, but I can't even do as much as tan, let alone get sunburn. I'll melt before I get burned and when I turn solid again, I won't have any sunburn, not even a light tan." Iciclea sighed sadly and looked around the beach.
Chameleon had turned into an alien dolphin and was jumping around in the water. Infantor was making a sand castle. Enormo was buried in the sand up to his neck; Infantor buried him before going off to build a sand castle. Bernadette was cooking barbecue. Narcissitad was getting a tan. Pontifadora was swimming. Dr. Cerebral's brain was over heating because of the effect the sun had on the glass. Minimus was playing with a beach ball with some other sidekicks and rookie villains. Maximus had fallen asleep on the beach.
Iciclea directed a deadly glare at the sleeping lynx. "Look at him, frying in the sun without a care in the world!"
"That's gonna hurt when he wakes up, but I least I'll know someone has sunburn worse than mine," Nuclea laughed.
"Sure, rub it in," Iciclea grumbled.
xoxox xox xoxox
Meanwhile, Atomic Betty, Sparky and X-5 had gone to make sure the super villains were only having a beach day and weren't causing trouble. "I want to go surfing and build and sand castles and play ball and have lots of beach food!" Sparky cheered.
"Sparky, why are you carrying all those beach? I must remind you that this is a mission, not a vacation." X-5 had his cooling system activated at maximum capacity to keep the metal cool under the hot beach sun.
"Aw c'mon X-5, have some fun once in a while!" Sparky gave the robot a friendly pat on the shoulder. "Yeouch, you're frozen!"
"I don't want to overheat," X-5 informed.
"Good, hold on to this," Sparky handed him a cooler full of drinks.
"What am I supposed to do with this?" X-5 asked.
"Keep the drinks cool," Sparky smiling.
X-5 was not amused. "Stop this nonsense at once and put all these things back in the Starcruiser!"
"He's got a point Sparky we're here on a mission. Let's put all this things back in the Starcruiser and if we finish early, then we can hang out at the beach for a while," Betty offered.
"I still don't understand what's so fun about this place. This is boring and pointless." X-5 went silent as he saw someone familiar. It was that princess that they helped cross the dessert.
The royal couple was at the beach with their robot. Despite the villains being in the same beach, they didn't seem to mind since they weren't bothering each other. The robot girl recognized X-5 and went to talk to him.
Sparky pointed at X-5, who was walking, or floating, along the beach talking to the other robot. "I guess he doesn't think the beach is boring and pointless after all."
"Let's go see what the super villains are doing. If they haven't kicked everyone who's not a villain out of the beach yet, then maybe they're not going to cause any trouble today," Betty concluded.
As they approached the area of the beach where the villains were, Sparky smelled something. "Chief it smells like fried lynx. There must be cannibals in this beach! What if that poor lynx they caught doesn't fill them up and they come after us?"
"Sparky, look over there," Betty pointed at Maximus, who was still asleep.
"So that's what it was," Sparky grimaced, "that's gonna hurt when he wakes up."
Betty nodded in agreement, "he'll probably take it out on Minimus."
As they continued walking Sparky's nose caught another sent, but this time Betty smelled it too. "Barbecue!" Sparky cheered.
"I think chef Bernadette is cooking for the villains," Betty pointed.
"But I'm hungry!" Sparky rushed over to Bernadette, looking hungrily at the burgers. "Can I have one?"
"No," Bernadette replied.
"Can I have one of those then?" Sparky pointed at a hotdog.
"This food is for the villains," Bernadette warned.
"But I'm hungry!" Sparky complained.
"Fine, I'll let you have one burger and one hotdog; then you have to stop bothering me!" The chef could not work with such an annoyance.
After Sparky ate, he continued complaining that he was hungry, but Betty dragged him. "Ley's go Sparky. If you eat the villain's food they might get angry and blow up this planet or something."
They continued seeing what each villain was doing. Chameleon was still playing in the water as an alien dolphin. Dr. Cerebral had a little umbrella hat now and was looking at some sea shells. Infantor was standing near the ocean going in and out of the water and splashing around in the low tide. He was had big orange floaters on his arms and legs, and a large matching lifesaver. Enormo was no where to be found. Narcissitad was putting on more suntan lotion. Pontifadora was surfing and Nuclea had joined the other villains in a game of beach valley ball.
Iciclea was sitting under an umbrella looking bored and angry. This caught Betty's attention, because it looked like the ice queen was the only one was wasn't enjoying her time at the beach. "What's wrong?" Betty asked curiously.
"I want to get sunburned but I'll melt instead," Iciclea complained.
This was the first time Betty had heard of anyone who actually wanted to get sunburn. "But sunburn is no fun, it's painful!"
"How would you know?" Iciclea continued getting jealous.
"I know because I've had it and trust me, it's not good," Betty assured.
"It's not fair! Everyone good and evil can have sunburn except me!" Iciclea snapped. "Everyone can enjoy their time at the beach and have sometime to show for it the next day, but I can't! Why doesn't my skin glow with the beautiful light of the sun?"
"I guess sometimes those who have something don't want it and those who want it don't have it." Betty thought it was ironic in a weird way. "Maybe you can do other things besides getting sunburned."
"It's no use, all I really want to do today is get sunburned," Iciclea frowned.
Needless to say, Betty would never understand her logic. Seeing that there was no danger, Betty returned to the Starcruiser to change out of her galactic guardian uniform and enjoy the rest of the day on the beach. It didn't look like anyone was bothered by her precense anyway, as if there was an unspoken truce.
xoxox xox xoxox
A little later, Solovem finally returned to Iciclea. "I have it, the magic sunscreen you wanted!"
Iciclea saw a ray of hope. If this magical sunscreen worked, maybe she could get sunburned without melting. She tried it on and stayed in the sun all day without melting. However, she didn't get sunburned. "I'm not sunburned."
"No, not one bit," Solovem smiled.
Iciclea glared, "I wanted to get sunburned!"
Solovem blinked confused. "I thought you were being sarcastic and meant you didn't want to get sunburned. I mean who would want to? I thought you only wanted to make sure you didn't melt."
"Meow!" The tide had gone up enough to reach Maximus and the water woke him up. "Ow, ouch, sunburn, oooooh! Minimus why didn't you wake me up?" It looked like it hurt.
"You know what?" Iciclea came to a realization after witnessing Maximus' unfortunate fate. "I changed my mind, sunburn looks painful, I don't want it anymore."
xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox
Planet 62: Intergalactic Delivery
It was a sunny day in Moose Jaw Heights and today the students of Betty's school were going to audition for the annual play. As they entered the drama classroom, they heard a very familiar laugh. "I hope you're not thinking about auditioning," Penelope was followed by Sarah and Megan, one standing at each side. "You have no chance, unless of course they decide to make it a horror story," Penelope laughed at her own sarcasm.
Betty stood up to the challenge like she always did. "We'll see about that Penelope," she was determined to earn a role on the play.
"So you're actually auditioning? Oh good, I get to see you make a total fool of yourself in front of everyone, I can't wait!" Penelope left with her usual mocking laugh, followed by Sarah and Megan.
"We'll see who's the fool," Betty approached the table with the lists where the students signed and wrote what role they wanted try out for. There was one list for each character on the play. Betty wrote name under Penelope's in the list to audition for the role of the princess. She thought it was a boring role, but she wanted to spare the audience of having to watch Penelope on stage. Then she handed the pen to Noah, who happened to be passing by at the very moment.
"Oh no Betty, I'm not good at standing in front of people," Noah preferred to watch plays, not be in them.
"C'mon Noah, it'll be fun." Most of the time, Betty was the one who convinced him to participate in the school's events.
"I doubt I'll be chosen for any role."
"The important thing is that you tried out and did your best."
Noah wished he had her confidence, "I guess so." 'Here I go again,' he thought, 'letting Betty get me into what could turn out to be another mess.' Noah picked a list and wrote his name on it.
As Noah finished writing his name, Paloma arrived, "hi."
"Hey Paloma, are you going to try out for the school play too?" Betty asked.
"I think I'll try it out, it must be fun to be up on stage." Paloma looked over the lists and chose one, then wrote her name on it. The students were given a copy of the script the week before and the auditions were to take place later on that day.
As it tends to happen, Betty's bracelet suddenly beeped. "I left my copy of the script in my locker. I'll go get it," Betty, as always, rushed off to answer the call from the Galactic Guardians.
xoxox xox xoxox
Once out in the hall, Betty looked around to make sure no one was coming and activated her bracelet. "Atomic Betty reporting for duty!"
"Atomic Betty," the hologram of Admiral Degill was projected from the bracelet. "I have a very important mission for you. The wedding of princess Peachream and prince Jurio of the Mushpipe Galaxy is close to taking place. However, before that can happen, certain items need to be safely delivered. You must transport each of those items from the palace to certain people across the galaxy, then return to the palace. The future peace of the galaxy depends on you!"
"I won't let you down admiral!"
xoxox xox xoxox
Betty was beamed up to the Starcruiser and took her usual seat at the captain's chair.
"What kind of food do you think they'll have at the Mushpipe party?" They weren't even at the palace yet and Sparky's mouth was already watering.
"We're here on a mission Sparky, you can't be distracted by food," Betty reminded him.
"He always thinks with his stomach," X-5 commented.
"You don't know what you're missing because you a robot!" Sparky showed X-5 his tongue then hurried to the Mushpipe Galaxy at full speed.
xoxox xox xoxox
Upon arriving at the Mushpipe palace, Betty, Sparky and X-5 found that everyone there was quite busy. Finally, someone noticed their presence. "You're the galactic guardians here to help us aren't you? Come this way please." The alien guard looked a little like a human but had an odd looking hat, which was actually part of his head, shaped like a big mushroom. They followed him into a secret passage that appeared when he shook hands with what looked like an ordinary statue of the king.
After going down some stairs, they arrived at a large room with many safes. "This is where the royal family's most valuable treasures are kept. Only the most trusted servants know the combination to open these. Now please look away for a moment."
Betty, Sparky and X-5 did as they were asked.
"Okay, you can look now." One of the safes was opened and from inside the guard took a box. He opened it, revealing a pair of glass slippers. "The princess must wear these slippers on her wedding. The problem is that, as you can see, they are broken."
The slippers had small cracks in the glass, but still somehow held together. "They are magical so they're not as fragile as they look, but they are very old and the magic protecting the glass is starting to fade away. Please take these to the wizard shoe maker and he will repair them. You will find him in planet Mortavio. Even if he lives there, he's a good wizard so you shouldn't have any trouble." The guard closed the box and handed it to Betty. "There are other items that must also be delivered, but those need to be collected outside of the palace. I will tell you were to find them after you bring back the slippers." He then gave them directions to find the wizard shoe maker's house.
"Isn't it faster if I get all the items on the way?" Atomic Betty asked.
"I'm afraid that's not possible. Only the princess is allowed to hold more than one of the royal family's treasures at the same time," the guard explained. "We normally don't hand these to anyone from outside of this galaxy, but we're making an exception this time because you are Atomic Betty and everyone knows you."
Sometimes Betty forgot just how famous she became, but after that time Maximus disguised himself as El Gato and tricked her, she promised not to let it go to her head, "I understand."
"What about me?" Sparky asked, "you must have heard about me too!"
"Sparky, we have to go," Betty dragged him away, they had a mission to fulfill.
xoxox xox xoxox
Betty, Sparky and X-5 traveled to planet Mortavio where they hoped to find the wizard shoe maker. They followed the directions they were given and as they walked, Sparky sang. "We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of shoes!" He stopped singing when he saw the house. "What a dump!"
"There is a 97.4% chance that someone broke into the shoe wizard's house recently," X-5 calculated.
"Maybe he just doesn't like to clean up," Sparky took a look inside since the door was left open.
"I doubt anyone is as unorganized as you are," X-5 replied, he and Betty went inside as well. The house was a mess with broken shoes of all kinds all over the floor.
"Who's unorganized? I'm very organized. I cleaned up my room every three years!" Sparky defended.
"That's more often than I thought," X-5 retorted.
"I found something," Betty picked up a note. "It says, 'to whom it may concern, let this be an example of what happens to good wizards on Mortavio,' and it's signed by Solovem!"
"Poor shoe wizard. He didn't deserve to be captured by Solovem even if he never cleans his house," Sparky frowned.
"We need to save him!" Atomic Betty squeezed the note in her hand.
"Good thing I kept this," X-5 handed Betty a wand to put on her bracelet like she had that time King R-turmex was kidnapped.
xoxox xox xoxox
Disguised as wizards, Betty, Sparky and X-5 headed to Solovem's castle. They made it past the guards and overheard something about a good shoe wizard being kept in the dungeon. So far so good, they slipped past the dungeon guards and found the shoe wizard.
The entire dungeon was full of shoes of all styles, colors and sizes. "Hey Mr. Shoe Wizard," Sparky whispered. "We're here to save you!"
"Save me? I'm the one who needs to save everyone in this castle! Did you see their shoes? Maybe that's why they wear long robes, cloaks and capes, because they need to hide their horrible shoes!" The wizard shoe maker was horrified.
Betty unlocked the cell with the wand on her bracelet. "We need to get out of here before we're discovered."
"Too late for that!" They turned around to find that Solovem had teleported right behind them. "You'll never get away with the shoe maker!" Solovem shot fire magic at them, which Betty blocked with a shield created by her bracelet's wand.
"Maybe I can give you a hand, or shoe," the shoe wizard used his magic to trap Solovem inside a giant shoe. They ran past him as the shoe wizard continued trapping all the guards inside shoes.
Of course the giant shoe wasn't going to hold Solovem for too long. He broke free from the shoe and chased them, creating all sort of magical creatures to go after them. "There is a 0.08% change that we will reach the ship before Solovem and his highly evolved creatures disintegrate us," X-5 calculated.
"Highly evolved? Don't you mean magical?" Sparky asked.
"There is no such thing as magic," X-5 insisted.
"I'll help, put these on and we'll fly out of here," the wizard shoe maker gave them each a pair of sandals with wings.
"But I don't even have feet," X-5 reminded.
"You do now," Sparky pointed at the robot's newly 'evolved' feet.
They all flew out a window with Solovem chasing them. "He's catching up!" Betty looked at their pursuer.
"Maybe some more shoes will distract him long enough," at the shoe wizard's command, it started to rain shoes all over Mortavio. A large shoe fell on Solovem and kept him strapped long enough for them to land and go inside the Starcruiser. They took off at full speed immediately.
xoxox xox xoxox
Betty, Sparky, X-5 and the wizard shoe maker were in space, traveling in the Starcruiser. After X-5 took off the winged sandals, his robotic feet disappeared and he was back to normal.
"That was fun, but I will have to return to Mortavio later. The shoes need me!" The shoe wizard decided.
"Why would you make shoes for the villains? I thought you were a good wizard," Atomic Betty asked.
"I am, but I make shoes for whoever needs them. I'm the one who made Maximus IQ's very cool shoes. I also have an order for three pairs of shoes for Atomic Rodger." The wizard showed them a sample of Rodger's shoes. They were red and white with a little yellow decoration at the end that looked like his wig. The shoes then disappeared as mysteriously as they appeared. "Would you like a pair of shoes?"
"Actually, we need to have some shoes repaired," Betty showed him the glass slippers.
"This should be easy," in a few seconds, the glass slippers were as good as new. "I added some magic to make them more resistant. Those won't need another repair for at least a thousand years." After his job was done, the shoe wizard left the Starcruiser, surrounded himself in a magical bubble, and returned to Mortavio pushing the bubble from inside with a pair of winged sandals to propel himself.
"That wasn't too hard," Betty watched as the wizard disappeared in the distance of space.
"Aw, he left so quickly, I wanted him to make some cool shoes for me," Sparky complained.
"This is no time to think about shoes, the mission isn't over yet," X-5 reminded.
"Right, we need to return to the palace and learn about the other items," Betty agreed.
"Do you think they'll have a snack ready for us? I'm starving!" Sparky was eating some caramel covered slog worms.
"How could you starve while eating? It is illogical," X-5 reasoned.
"It is illogical," Sparky mocked, "so what? Your growing feet and ungrowing them is illogical too and it happened!"
"That was evolution," X-5 insisted.
"But you're a robot!" Sparky argued.
"It's technological evolution!" X-5 reasoned.
"That's enough you two! I need to get back to Earth on time for the auditions so we can't waste any time," Betty ended the argument.
xoxox xox xoxox
After returning the glass slippers to the palace, Atomic Betty, Sparky and X-5 met princess Peachream herself. She was of the same species as the guard with a pink spotted mushroom on her head and blond hair growing out under it. "I thank you for repairing my glass slippers, galactic guardians. But there are other things that I need before the wedding can take place."
"Don't you worry," Sparky assured. "The universally famous Sparky will find all the items that are needed. You have heard of me, right your highness?"
"Of course I have. You were in that movie where you fell into the black hole at the end," Peachream recalled.
Sparky was pleasantly surprised to know a princess actually watched his movie. "You watched it? You really watched it?"
"Oh yes, I liked that movie very much, but I have to say Maximus needs acting lessons. He didn't sound evil at all, which is quite odd since he actually is a super villain. But you were very heroic in that movie Sparky, so that makes up for it," Peachream smiled.
xoxox xox xoxox
Meanwhile far away, Maximus sneezed. "Did you catch a cold your evilness?" Minimus asked.
"I don't think so, but if I did I'm blaming you for it!" Maximus answered.
"Why?" Minimus already got blamed for many things that were not his fault, but getting blamed for a cold that had nothing to do with him was too much.
"Because I can!" Maximus hit Minimus on the head, making his head spin, then returned to his reading, while Minimus mumbled something inaudible and returned to cleaning the lair. On the cover of the book the titled was 'How to take over the universe world in five easy steps.'
xoxox xox xoxox
At the Mushpipe galaxy, Betty thought it was time to remind the princess of the situation, or she would continue discussing movies with Sparky for who knows how long. "Princess about the mission..."
"Oh yes, the next item I need is new bouquet of roses from planet Flora. You will find the roses in the indoor garden in the highest room of the tallest tower, in a castle guarded by a fire breathing dragon, in the middle of a boiling lake of lava. You must be very careful not to touch the thorns or the rose's magic will turn you into a beast." Peachream calmly explained.
"Isn't that a little dangerous?" Betty asked.
"Don't worry, the thorns will be removed by experts before the wedding," Peachream assured.
"Alright, we'll bring the roses. We'll be back soon your highness," Betty replied.
"May you have a safe journey, galactic guardians," Peachream saw them off.
xoxox xox xoxox
Once in the Starcruiser heading for their destination, Sparky voiced his concern, "chief, I'm really hungry and ran out of snacks. I was so exited about a princess watching my movie, that I didn't even remember to ask for food in the palace. Can we stop and get something to eat?"
"We're a mission, Sparky. We need to find all the items the princess needs. Besides, I need to return to Earth on time for the auditions, so there's not much time," Betty tried to explain.
"But chief I'm hungry! I'm so hungry I smell cookies," Sparky took a deep breath, even in space his nose could smell food near by. "I really do smell cookies!" Just ahead lived a little old lady and her pet dragon Theodore, they soon received a call from her and went to see what she needed.
xoxox xox xoxox
When the Starcruiser landed Sparky was the first to jump out. "How nice of you to stop by, would you like some cookies?" the old lady asked.
"Yes!" Sparky cheered.
"Do you need help with anything?" Atomic Betty asked.
"Yes, I do need a little help. I'm feeling kind of tired today and Theodore needs to take a walk." Sitting beside the old lady, was her pet dragon, looking sad while wagging his tail.
"I guess I could take him along," Betty agreed. After somehow getting Theodore inside the Starcruiser Atomic Betty, Sparky and X-5 continued on their journey to find the roses.
xoxox xox xoxox
The castle was easy to find, since it would be hard to miss the big lake of boiling lava. Once inside the castle, Betty, Sparky, X-5 and Theodore started searching for the stairs or elevator, which led to the highest room in the tallest tower. So far there had been no sign of the dragon.
The tallest tower where the roses were, was too small for Theodore to enter. The dragon was a little frightened by the eerie looking castle, so Sparky and X-5 stayed with him, while Atomic Betty went to find the roses.
The room at the top of the tower was quite dark, but the magic roses had a light glow around them. Each rose was encased in glass. Betty lifted the glass covering them and carefully took the roses without touching the thorns. That's when she heard Sparky yell "dragon!" and she rushed down the stairs.
xoxox xox xoxox
Meanwhile in another planet, Maximus and Minimus were walking around a museum as any other tourist would. "There's no work today, I'll just relax and enjoy my day off." Maximus had finished reading his book and the five steps to taking over the universe were: device an evil plan, eliminate those who stand in your way, implement the evil plan, rule the universe and number five was an optional step. If steps one through four were not successfully accomplished, the final step was to take a break and try again later from step one.
"No work for you, but what about me?" Minimus' angry face complained. He had the task of carrying Maximus' souvenirs, which he would probably never use anyway and would sit in a corner of the lair collecting dust, if not in the bottom of a closet. Then Minimus would have to clean them, along with the many other useless things Maximus bought on this day off.
"Shut up and take a picture!" Maximus stood in front of a statue.
Minimus set bags full of souvenirs on the floor and prepared to take the picture. "A little more to the left, your evilness," Maximus moved to his left instead of Minimus' left. "I mean your other left," the sidekick clarified.
Maximus moved again and watched as Minimus prepared to take the picture. "What are you doing?"
"Taking a picture of the statue like you said, your evilness," Minimus answered.
"Not the statue!" Maximus yelled. "I want a picture of me, who cares about some statue? It's not even a statue of me!" Just as Minimus was about to take the picture, Maximus received a call from his lair and answered it. The hologram of a guard informing him of the latest news came out as blur of light on the picture. "Minimus! You should have waited!" Maximus kicked his sidekick. "This better be important news for ruining my picture!"
"You told us to call if we saw Atomic Betty," the guard in the hologram reminded.
"You captured Atomic Betty?" Maximus asked.
"No, we saw her ship pass by," the guard answered. "Were we supposed to do anything besides calling you?"
"Idiot! You' let her go? I'm returning to the lair and you better find out what she's doing before I arrive," Maximus yelled.
xoxox xox xoxox
On planet Flora, Betty, Sparky and X-5 were having a little trouble fighting the dragon to escape from the castle with the roses. She was of the same species as Theodore, but he looked like a harmless kitten if compared to her fighting skills. "We can't die now, that lady said she would give me more cookies when we return Theodore!" Sparky cried.
"Don't worry we'll get out of this," Atomic Betty reassured.
Theodore, who had been hiding since he heard the other dragon coming, came out to defend his friends. But what luck did they have that the dragon girl fell in love with him. It looked like it was love as first sight for the dragon and she was a lot nicer now. It seemed that all along Theodore wasn't scared, he was just being shy.
xoxox xox xoxox
The group returned with Theodore, as well as the dragon girl, and the old lady was happy to take care of both dragons. So far, two missions had been accomplished, Sparky got more cookies and everything appeared to be going well.
xoxox xox xoxox
"Look, there's Atomic Betty again!" One of Maximus' guards at the lair called out, seeing her ship fly by. "I'll see what she's doing," he sent a transmission to the Starcruiser and asked.
"We're on a mission and I won't let you stop us!" Atomic Betty replied.
"I'm not calling stop you, I just need to know what you're doing. That was Maximus' order," he took notes. "What kind of mission is this?"
"We're making an intergalactic delivery of lots of valuable items for the Mushpipe galaxy!" Sparky answered.
"Sparky, no!" It was already too late for Betty to stop.
"This highly increases our chances of having Maximus interfere with the mission in the near future," X-5 pointed out.
"But he said he wouldn't try to stop us!" Sparky argued.
"Never mind, we'll just have to hurry," Atomic Betty said.
xoxox xox xoxox
The three galactic guardians returned to the Mushpipe palace once again. "Oh, how wonderful, I already have two of the four items I need," Peachream cheered. "The next item is kept right here in the palace. It is a sapphire crown, made especially for my wedding."
"Then recovering it should be easy right?" Sparky asked.
"Oh no, it might be a challenge because of all the traps that were set to keep it safe. The problem is there is no way to disable the traps, so you must get past the obstacle course. But I'm sure it won't be too hard for a galactic guardian. Another important detail is that only one person may enter the crown's safe at a time, otherwise the lasers will be activate and no one can avoid a rain of lasers like that, plus the room will be filled with poisonous gas," Peachream explained.
"I'll go," Betty offered.
"I wish you good luck, may you accomplish your mission safely. Please join us at our tea party when you return," Peachream smiled cheerfully and calmly.
"Tea party? Hurry back chief!" Sparky cheered.
"I'll be back as soon as I can,"thus Betty was off to face the obstacles of the crown's safe.
xoxox xox xoxox
After she entered the large safe, Betty found a boiling lake of lava. "Boiling lava, how predictable." She jumped from one stone to another, until she made it to the other side. "That wasn't so bad." Just when she thought she was standing on solid ground, the entire obstacle course began to sink into the lava and Betty hurried to climb a stone wall. Once at the top she had bought some time, but the structure continued to sink. There was no only an obstacle course, but also a time limit to clear it.
Next up she saw a large hoop around a metal pole that went down to the next area. "All that climbing and I end up going down." There was no time to give it much thought or the entire place would sink. Betty swung down on the hoop and landed in the platform bellow. Then it was time to climb up a log that kept spinning from side to side. She almost slipped at the end, but managed to hold on.
"That was close, I better be extra careful." The next part was rather easy, going up several ladders and jumping from one to the other. Of course, the challenging and slippery parts were to come. Staying on top of a giant stone boulder, while rolling it across the lava before it melted, was not an easy task.
After climbing another cliff, Betty found herself staring at a rope that appeared to have no end. She started climbing. Suddenly the lava started coming up faster. That's when she realized that the structure wasn't sinking at all, it was the level of the lava that was going up. The end of the rope caught on fire and was burning fast. Even if the lava didn't reach her, if the fire did, she would fall. "I should have borrowed Sparky's jet pack." It was too late for extra preparations, so Betty just tried to climb as fast as she could.
Finally, Betty reached the top without a second to spare. It seemed the lava stopped rising, but the entrance was blocked, so she couldn't leave the way she came. The crown was easy to find, but solving the puzzle code on the small glass safe was a time consuming task and her team begun to worry.
"How do I get back?" Betty saw no other way out than the way she came. That is until she noticed an air conditioner vent on the roof and climbed out that way.
xoxox xox xoxox
After a lot of crawling through the air conditioner tunnels, she made it to the room where princess Peachream, Sparky and X-5 were waiting.
"I'm worried about the chief, she's taking a long time to get back," Sparky said.
"If I had more information about the obstacles the captain must face, I could calculate the estimated time she needs to return with the crown," X-5 replied.
"She is the famous Atomic Betty, I'm sure she'll drop in on us any time," as Peachream said this, Atomic Betty literally dropped in.
"I found another way out of the safe," it would have been good for Betty to know about this before she took the long way to the crown.
The princess stared up at the open air conditioner vent. "There was a security flaw like that?"
"Fortunately the sapphire crown was still there," Betty presented the item.
"Wonderful!" Peachream was very pleased. "Then we can proceed with the wedding as soon as the preparations are complete. For now, join me for ice tea and cookies!"
"Ice tea and cookies, yay!" Sparky was certainly happy about it.
"Princess, wasn't there another item you needed?" Atomic Betty asked.
"Yes, but I haven't decided about that yet. I'll think of something while we have the tea party," Peachream replied.
xoxox xox xoxox
A short while later, the tea party was interrupted when a palace guard came to inform them that the castle was under attack and Maximus had been spotted near by. The galactic guardian went to see what was going on in the main hall and they found large beasts trashing about in the palace, attacking anyone and anything they saw.
"Maximus, I should have know you'd come to cause trouble!" Betty accused.
Maximus looked confused. "They're not with me, I was going to track you down and attack, but then received a call saying that I was invited to a wedding so I postponed the attack."
"You're here as a guest?" Atomic Betty asked in surprise and Maximus nodded.
"Oh yes, I want all the actors from my favorite movie to attend, all of you are also invited of course." Peachream still sounded calm and happy regardless of the fact hat her palace was under attack.
"Then who is attacked?" Betty asked.
A voice was heard, "over here galactic guardians and princess... and villains? What kind of a party is this, inviting both guardians and villains?"
"Waream, my baby cousin?" Peachream was shocked "Are you responsible for this?"
Waream looked annoyed. "I'm not a baby! In fact, I would be a much better ruler than you. That is why I used the thorns that your servants threw away to turns your guards into beasts and with this army of beasts-"
"That doesn't even listen to you," Maximus interrupted.
"Excuse me, don't interrupt my evil speech. Ehem, as I was saying with this army of beasts I will take over the planet!" Waream finished.
"You call that an evil speech? You didn't even do an evil laugh at the end," Maximus disapproved.
"Stop criticizing me!" Waream whined.
The large doors of the main hall were opened and Jurio, the princess' husband to be entered. "Jurio you're here! Oh goody we can start with the wedding soon!" Peachream cheered.
"Of course my love, everything is ready and it seems that our guests of honor from your favorite movie are here too," Jurio smiled.
"Hey! Are you ignoring me?" Waream complained. "Don't ignore me or the beasts will... Where did they go?"
"While you were busy with your speech, the guards who were not affected by the thorns, brought the. Everyone is back to normal now," Betty explained.
"Are you saying I was defeated already?" Waream was in disbelief.
"I'm sorry baby cousin, but I can't have you causing trouble in my wedding, so I'll have the guards take you away now. Don't worry, I'll send some cake to the dungeon!" Peachream had a bright happy smile, that never seemed to leave her face no matter what.
Maximus watched as Waream was taken away. "He just didn't have what it takes to be a villain."
"Do you have plans of causing trouble too?" Atomic Betty asked.
"Not today, I'm here as an invited guest and famous actor, so I'll leave the evil for another time," Maximus actually kept his word on that.
"Princess Peachream, my records indicate that you needed a forth item for the wedding and we have only recovered three," X-5 reminded.
"Oh yes, I've already decided what I want. Atomic Betty can I borrow your bracelet?" Peachream asked.
"My galactic guardian bracelet?" Betty asked.
"Oh no, I'm sure you need that one, I mean your other bracelet," the princess replied.
Besides her galactic guardian bracelet, Betty had another bracelet that her mother got her in hopes of making her stop wearing the old one. Of course, Betty needed her galactic guardian bracelet, so she simply wore the new one on her other wrist. "Okay, here it is."
"Now I have everything I need!" Peachream cheered. "Something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. The glass slippers are old, the roses and dress are new, the bracelet is borrowed and the sapphire crown is blue."
xoxox xox xoxox
Everything went well during the wedding, with no more attacks. Maximus actually behaved, since he was too busy signing autographs to cause problems. Sparky certainly enjoyed the banquet and by the time Betty returned to Earth, the entire day had gone by. She found Noah near the lockers at school.
"Betty, where have you been all day? You missed the auditions!" Noah finally found her, after such a long time of searching.
"I guess I lost track of time," Betty tried to excuse herself.
"Penelope changed the lists and the teachers didn't even question why there was so much liquid paper on them," Paloma revealed. "Because of that, she ended up being the only candidate for the princess and by default they gave her the part, she didn't even have to audition."
"That's terrible," Betty wished she could have done something about that.
"I ended up getting casted as the evil witch, but that's okay, this witch will give the princess a very hard time when she gets captured," Paloma grinned.
"At least you get to give her some payback, I was erased from the lists so I wasn't allowed to audition because the teacher said she was clear that we needed to sign our names on time," Noah wasn't too disappointed really.
Just then, Dylan walked by. "Betty, where have you been all day? I thought you were going to audition for the play."
"Sorry, I lost track of time and missed it," Betty replied.
"Dylan was casted as the prince," Paloma pitied him.
"Good luck putting up with Penelope," Noah added.
"Actually, Duncan agreed to trade with me and we talked the teachers into letting us. I'll be the evil wizard instead, I guess that means I'm on your team Paloma," Dylan smiled.
"Welcome to the team. So Duncan ended up with the role of prince?" Paloma was amused at the thought of Penelope's reaction.
"I wonder what Penelope will say when she finds out?" Betty laughed.
The four of them laughed, as Penelope walked by with Sarah and Megan. "Find out about what?"
"Nothing," Betty and her friends laughed again.
"What? What is it?" Penelope didn't find out until it was time for rehearsal, and it was already too late to make any other changes.
xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox xox xoxox
Planet 63: Lost in the Mall
Sparky looked scared as he walked around the mall. He had learned that Earth could be a dangerous planet. Never underestimate the potential of a pre-contact race. He had become separated from Betty because he was distracted by the scent of fast food coming from the food court.
Not too far from the food court was an arcade. Sparky knew he didn't have earth money to pay for the food so he tried to stay away from it to resist the temptation to eat everything he saw. She ran inside the arcade wondering if Betty had gone there. In the arcade, Sparky found Betty's earthling friend Noah. "Hi, have you seen Betty?"
"No, I haven't seen her, but how do you know her? I don't think I've seen you in school." Noah didn't recognize him as the new kid since now he wasn't green or had a big nose.
Sparky was now in a complete holographic human disguise. "I go to the same school as the sister of the best friend of the neighbor of her cousin," Sparky spoke quickly, hoping Noah wouldn't ask about it.
"Oh," Noah was confused, but he decided not to ask. "Well I haven't seen her since yesterday at school." Today was Saturday.
"Okay, thanks I'll find her," Sparky hoped it was soon.
He was about to walk out of the arcade but Noah followed him. "I'll help you look for Betty."
Sparky wasn't sure what to say. He didn't want to sound mean, but he wasn't sure if he could interact with earth people who didn't know about life outside of their planet for a long period of time. "Um, thanks."
Sparky and Noah headed off to search for Betty. "Maybe she's in the video store. She likes science fiction movies," Noah guessed. They entered the video store and looked around.
"This place is big," Sparky looked at the many aisles. To him, it looked like some sort of maze. He didn't understand why earthlings build their video stores in such a way. On his planet movies were kept on a server and copied to a standard disk at the moment of purchase. The process took three to five seconds depending on how long the movie was and how many extras the disk would include. If he was only renting the movie then the disk would automatically erase itself after the time expired and it could be recycled.
Noah took his comment as a suggestion to split up and search for Betty. "You go that way," he pointed to the left, "and I'll go this way," he pointed to the right. "We'll meet back at the entrance in ten minutes."
"Okay, I got it!" Sparky headed in his assigned direction. Maybe this was some sort of game. Like who could go in and out of the maze first. Sadly, Sparky got lost. He was sure he had walked by that little box with a picture of Anakin Skywalker on it at least seven times. He knew about Star Wars. Almost everyone in the universe knew about Star Wars.
Noah stood at the entrance to the video store waiting for that new kid to come out. It had already been twenty minutes and there was no sign of him. He was sure the boy had a watch, so he should know it was time to meet him. Of course Noah didn't know that the so called watch was actually the source of his hologram disguise.
"Great, he ditched me," Noah sadly concluded. Now not only Betty ran off all the time, but even some new kid he just met left without him. "Am I that boring?" Noah sighed sadly, no one wanted to be around him, and left the video store.
"Hi Noah," a girl's voice spoke.
Noah looked up from staring at the floor and saw Megan. "Hi Megan, what are you doing here?" He was a little surprised to find her by herself instead of following Penelope around as she usually did.
"Well I'm not following Penelope," Megan sounded a little upset. "She asked, no, she told me, to go with her to the make up store then she kept criticizing me when I tried on some make up. I'm not going to put up with it. She can carry her own bags today."
"I don't know how you put up with her in the first place," Noah admitted as they started to walk back to the arcade.
"She's popular and pretty and has a lot of friends. She's everything I'm not," Megan explained.
"Who would want to be like her? She's annoying, mean and a spoiled brat," Noah's comment caused Megan to giggle. "What? It's true."
"How come you never said that before?" Megan asked.
"I don't know, I guess I rather stay out of trouble," Noah admitted. They both laugh and entered the arcade.
xoxox xox xoxox
Meanwhile, Sparky had made it out of the video store maze and concluded that Noah ditched him. Those earthlings were so mean, with the exception of Betty of course.
The mall was full of people since it was a Saturday afternoon and he didn't know where Betty could be. Sparky sat on a bench near the food court, wishing he had earth money to buy some food and drown his worries in it. But he knew he would get into trouble if he ate anything without paying for it and he didn't want to get into any more trouble.
"I'm so hungry I could eat a horse," a boy said as he walked by.
"Oh yeah? Well I'm so hungry I could eat an entire alien race!" Another boy replied as the two headed towards the food court.
Sparky's eyes widened in fear. "Cannibals!" He ran for his life. Betty hasn't said anything about there being cannibals on this planet, but you never know what may come from such a strange place. In his panic, he bumped into a red haired girl.
"Sparky!" Betty was relived to find him. "I've been looking all over for you."
"Chief!" Sparky hugged her happily. "I was running away from the cannibals. Don't let them eat me!"
Betty hugged him back and petted his head gently. "It's okay Sparky; no one's going to eat you. Now let's go to the store, get what we need and leave." Betty wondered where Sparky got the strange idea that there were cannibals at the mall.
Sparky nodded, "okay, chief, I feel safe when you're here."
End of Solar System VII
Disclaimer, I don't own Atomic Betty, Star Wars or the other works referenced on Planet 62, which are as follows: Peachream (peaches and cream, also a reference to Princess Peach), Jurio (Mario, Jupiter), Mushpipe (Mushroom Kingdom and pipes), the Toad or mushroom people, Cinderella's glass slippers, Oz's wizard song, the wizard show maker and Matrix's key maker, mythological winged sandals, Dragon's castle from the first Shrek movie, the rose from Beauty and the Beast, some of the obstacles are from Ninja Warrior, the burning is from a stage in Donkey Kong Country 3, the air conditioner tunnel on the roof is from Mission Impossible, Waream (Wario, ended with ream since he's Peachream's cousin). The idea for Planet 61 came from the episode Evil Idol, where Iciclea melts.