Other Fan Fiction ❯ Atomic Galaxy ❯ Chapter 10
[ 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: 7 | Words: 9.8K | Visits: 260 | Status: Completed
Miscellaneous: Other Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Comedy / Drama / Sci-fi | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 07.23.2012 | Pages: 7 | Words: 9.8K | Visits: 260 | Status: Completed
Atomic Galaxy: Solar System X
Planet 81: Date Interrupted
At an intergalactic mall, "what do you think of this outfit, Gilly?" A younger Pontifadora asked.
Her boyfriend Degill, who was not yet the admiral of the Galactic Guardians at that time, looked bored, "it's nice."
"That's what you said about all the others!" Pontifadora complained. Two hours of watching her try on clothes and he was already bored. How could he?
"Everything you wear looks nice on you," Degill suppressed a yawn, he loved Pontifadora, he really did, but he had been sitting there for two hours and his tail was starting to hurt, those chairs in that store weren't exactly the softest in the galaxy.
Iciclea walked near the same store where Pontifadora and Degill were and went in.
"I just saw Iciclea!" Degill exclaimed.
"I'm right here in front of you and you're looking at her?" Pontifadora was annoyed.
"I don't mean it like that, she's a criminal and I must arrest her or I'll never get promoted in the Galactic Guardians!" Degill explained.
"You're not working today!" Pontifadora reminded him.
"A Galactic Guardian is always on duty!" Degill saluted dramatically.
"Gilly, you promised me that you wouldn't work during our dates!" Pontifadora argued, while Iciclea stole clothes from the store. The fish woman picked up her boyfriend and held him back.
"She's getting away! I'll take you on another date just let me arrest Iciclea!" Degill complained but Pontifadora didn't let him go and Iciclea left. "There goes my promotion."
Pontifadora shook her head, "one of these days I'm going to start doing my job in the middle of an important occasion and let's see what you do then..."
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Planet 82: Bubblegum Beauty
Everything was quiet in the galaxy for a reason unknown to Betty. She wondered if the super villains of the universe were planning something big. Most of them were known to take a week or so off after a defeat, all except Maximus who was probably the most stubborn of all the villains. It was strange that he hasn't done anything evil for days. Betty was on her guard, expecting to be called any second.
Until it was time for another mission, Betty spent some time with her friends on Earth, Noah and Paloma. The three of them had finished eating lunch and were hanging out in the school yard. Paloma was listening to music and dancing as if she felt like she was the only one there; the music had taken her to her own little world.
Noah was playing with a yoyo, trying to do some new complicated tricks, but the yoyo kept getting tangled up. He didn't give up, he would get it right eventually. He had brought a little remote control helicopter which he let Betty borrow.
After flying it around for a while, Betty took a break and landed the toy helicopter. The lunch hour would soon be over, but before it was, she wanted some bubblegum. Without giving it too much thought, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a blue gumball. She put it in her mouth and started to chew, she knew it might not be such a good idea, but the temptation to make a bubble was too much. Betty blew a bubble and made it bigger, and bigger. Maybe she should have stopped, but she wanted to see how big the bubble could be, so she made it even bigger and bigger, until the inevitable happened, the bubble popped, covering Betty's face with blue gum.
Noah and Paloma looked at the blue faced Betty, then started laughing. Betty joined in as well; she should have known this would happen.
Before Betty could clean off the gum, Penelope walked by, she looked at Betty, then ran off angrily. Anyone would think she would laugh to see Betty defeated by her own bubblegum. Maybe she thought it was something else.
The school bell rang and the students headed to their respective classrooms. Betty and Noah had a few classes together, but not the one right after lunch, so they went their separate ways. Paloma was in the same classroom as Betty for the next hour so the two girls were walked to their classroom joking about how hard it was to get the gum off Betty's face. Noah had been waiting outside the entire time and said he had started to worry that they got lost in the girl's bathroom because they took so long to come out and both girls were known to randomly disappear. At least Betty was all clean when it was finally over.
As Betty and Paloma turned a corner and were about to enter the classroom, they heard the scream of a very frightened boy. "That was Noah," Betty ran to see what happened.
"What?" Penelope snapped.
"No-Nothing" Noah stammered.
"It better be nothing" Penelope stomped away, her face was covered in some sticky stuff in an odd shade of green. 'If Betty puts on a beauty mask during the lunch hour, I will too,' Penelope had thought. 'There's no way she'll become prettier than me. Not even with all the beauty products in the world.'
"Noah, are you okay?" Betty asked.
"Did you see Penelope? For a minute, I thought it a radioactive monster!" Noah was still in shock.
The two girls laughed. "It was Penelope, so it was worse," Paloma voiced.
"Yeah, you're right, a monster would probably be nicer," Noah agreed.
"I wonder why she was wearing that stuff in her face? Couldn't she wait until she got home or something?" Betty shook her head, Penelope Lang, the most popular girl in school and also the most spoiled and bratty, would always be a mystery.
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Meanwhile in Maximus' lair, "I don't think that's such a good idea your evilness," Minimus watched Maximus make a bubblegum bubble.
Maximus looked like he was saying something but it was impossible to understand him with the bubble in his mouth, yet somehow Minimus understood.
"Yes, I know you haven't done that in years, but maybe it's a good thing you haven't. Remember what happened last time?" Minimus warned.
As expected, Maximus didn't take the warning and continued blowing a bigger bubble. This was high-tech futuristic bubblegum, which could make much bigger bubbles than Earth's outdated bubblegum. Nevertheless, even if the bubble could reach a size that was illogically big for the amount of gum it was made from, it would eventually pop. "Ah! Minimus! Get this stuff off me!"
"I told you, you shouldn't have done it. Now it'll take forever to clean that stuff off," Minimus's normal face said. "It serves you right!" His angry face added.
"Shut up and get it off!" Maximus yelled.
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Planet 83: Frozen Hearts (PenelopexDylan)
"It's... soo-o... cc-ol-d..." Penelope Lang didn't think she would find herself in this situation when she decided to set the air conditioner to maximum. She was pretty sure that the AC was working far beyond what it normally should, even with the power to the max. Of course that was her fault for breaking the controls, but she blamed Betty anyway.
There would be a very important basketball game for the girl's team. If Betty was there, she was sure to win the most valuable player award, which Penelope wanted for herself. She couldn't possibly learn to play better than Betty in a life time, let alone a day, so the only way was to eliminate the competition.
Lucky for Penelope, Betty's mom's cat, Purrsey had stolen her homework and ran off with it towards the school's basement. Many sheets of paper containing Betty's hard work were dropped all over the basement as Purrsey ran. Noah and Paloma offered to help and with them on the search, it looked like Betty would have her homework back in no time, unless Penelope could stop her. If Betty didn't hand in her assignment on time, she wouldn't be allowed to participate in the game tomorrow.
Somehow, Betty, Noah and Paloma made it out of the cold dark basement and recovered all the homework. Meanwhile Penelope got locked in the same room in which she broke the air conditioner's controls, which was like a refrigerator now. Surely Penelope would catch a bad cold and miss tomorrow's game. Then Betty the ball hog would be there to steal all the glory that should have been hers.
"C-caan... any-oo-nee... he-he-ar m-mee?" Penelope could see her breath as she tried to get those words out. She should have sent Sarah or Megan to change the air conditioner's temperature but she wanted the satisfaction of doing it herself. This wasn't supposed to happen, Betty and her friends should be the ones freezing.
Penelope sat in a corner, waiting for someone to rescue her. The classes had ended for the day but the school remained opened for a few more hours. Most students were either gone, playing sports or practicing various extra curricular activities. The halls were practically deserted. Sarah and Megan had already gone home thinking Penelope was gone too.
"Penelope?" A voice? Could it be that someone had come to rescue her or was it all a nice dream?
"Dy-la-an?" Yes, it was him! He had come to her rescue, well sort of.
"Did you do this? Why?" Dylan asked.
Penelope couldn't tell him the truth, but right now there was one thing that was more important to her. "Do-or!" But it was too late, Dylan had gone inside and let the door close behind him.
Wondering what Penelope meant and fearing the worse, Dylan tried to open the door and found that he couldn't. It could only be opened from the outside. "It looks like we're going to be here for a while."
"We'll di-e... fro-zeeen..." Penelope was becoming desperate.
"The janitor has to come turn the air conditioner off before closing the school for the night. He'll be here in a few hours and let us out," Dylan sat down next to her and prepared for a long wait.
Penelope remained silent for a while, waiting. She was too cold to think of any conversation to make with Dylan, until she felt something warm on her shoulders. "Dy-lan... your jacke-et?"
"You've been here longer than I have, so you're colder, you need it more," Dylan said.
"Tha-nks" Penelope smiled. Maybe turning into an icicle wasn't so bad if she was with dreamy Dylan.
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Planet 84: Feline Eyes
Atomic Betty was in space in her final mission of the day. While she was busy with a battle against Maximus, Paloma and Noah were on Earth searching for Betty's homework. Purrsey had stolen the homework and ran into the school's basement, leaving pages of homework everywhere as he ran.
If Betty was to play in the basketball game the next day, she had to hand in her homework on time. Trying to steal the most valuable player award from Betty, Penelope decided to set a few traps for them in the basement. She turned off the lights, she changed the temperature, she did anything she could do to stop Betty, Noah and Paloma from accomplishing their mission.
Paloma knew that things would turn out well in the end, they always did. She didn't need to use her ability to look into the future to know that. While they searched, she snuck away from Noah.
The boy looked around a bit confused. "Paloma?" She was nowhere to be found, which meant he had been talking to himself for the past minute or so, thinking Paloma was right behind him. "Great, first Betty disappears and now Paloma. What's wrong with me?" What started as a search for pages of homework and the cat who stole them, ended up as a search for pages of homework, the cat who stole them, the girl who was supposed to hand them in and the girl who volunteered to help look from them.
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Paloma had found Purrsey. "It's okay Purrsey, come here."
Sir Purrsefus guarded the last page of homework, refusing to let anyone take it from him.
"C'mon Purrsey, I wont hurt you." Paloma came closer and Purrsey hissed. "It's alright, don't be frightened." Her eyes changed to orange feline eyes.
Purrsey didn't look scared, he was curious. He had met aliens before, when he accidentally boarded Betty's ship and learned that only the ones that looked like vacuum cleaners were dangerous.
"That's it Purrsey, come here." Paloma smiled as the cat approached curiously. She picked him up and petted him gently. "Good boy!" He purred happily and didn't mind that she took away the last page of homework.
"Paloma!" She heard Noah calling and went to find him.
"I'm over here!" Paloma replied. "I found Purrsey and the last page of homework."
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Planet 85: Lullaby
"Sparky, it's lunch time!" Zulia was certain her son would be at the table in less than a second, but he didn't even answer. "Sparky, hurry up before it gets cold," again there was no answer. The house felt so empty, but Sparky said he would be there for lunch. Maybe he went out unnoticed and would be back soon, but Zulia couldn't help it but to get an uneasy feeling about this. There was no way Sparky would miss lunch on purpose. Maybe he was with X-5 and he was eating so many snacks he lost track of time.
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It was already mid afternoon and to make sure her theory was correct and get rid of all the worries she had, Zulia called X-5 on the Starcruiser, but the robot had no news of her son. "I haven't seen Sparky since yesterday."
"This is so strange. Sparky would never miss lunch," Zulia was seriously worried.
"For Sparky to miss lunch there are several possibilities," X-5 theorized. "He could have been kidnapped and is being held prisoner by a super villain or he purchased a large amount of food and is distracted eating it right now."
"Let's hope it's the second one. I know Sparky is a galactic guardian and he can take care of himself, but missing lunch is something he would never do," Zulia replied.
"I will assist you in locating him," X-5 offered.
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The Starcruiser soon arrived at Zulia's house and they were off to search for Sparky. Their first stop was chef Bernadette's restaurant, where Zulia explained the situation. "That's what happened. I know he would never miss lunch. Has he been here?"
"No he's banned from this restaurant because he ate all the food even if he couldn't pay for it," Bernadette reminded.
"But I paid for that," X-5 pointed out.
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Sparky had used the Starcruiser as a payment so Bernadette would let him leave. He said he would come back as soon as he got his piggy bank from his house, but then it turns out that because he couldn't pay for the taxi, the driver got angry and took him to a far away part of the galaxy. X-5 knew that would happen, but Sparky didn't listen.
Finally, the martian remembered that he had a jet pack and used hat to get to his house. He returned with the piggy bank, but of course that wasn't enough to pay for all the food. By the time Sparky's alien lemonade stand earned him enough money to pay his dept and recover the Starcruiser, and X-5 with it, Bernadette had gone off to cook Maximus' dinner and things went down hill from there.
Maximus started shooting at the Starcruiser until he realized it was actually Bernadette in it and not Atomic Betty. Then he insisted on buying the ship and the way it was left the chef was more than happy to sell it. Maximus, curious as lynx are, practically took the Starcruiser apart, convinced that it was hiding Atomic Betty's secrets deep inside. He found things that X-5 thought were lost forever, but nothing secret.
It didn't end there, the Starcruiser was left in ruins, but things got worse when Maximus decided to give X-5 a makeover, since technically he was the robot's new owner. "Stay still you bucket of bolts!" Maximus yelled while he tried to paint X-5.
"I don't like these new colors," X-5 didn't want to match Maximus' ship in colors that made him look like an evil robot, but the guards wouldn't let him go.
"Get used to it, you're my robot now and you'll be whatever color I want you to be. There all done. Don't you feel better now?" Maximus finished and the guards finally let go of X-5.
"No, I don't!" X-5 was very annoyed.
"It doesn't really matter," Maximus laughed evilly. "This is perfect, Atomic Betty's ship and robot are mine to do with whatever I want! Minimus prepare to melt it!"
"I don't care if you're technically my new owner; I'm not going to let you melt me!" X-5 complained.
"Not you, the ship, or what's left of it," Maximus clarified. "Why would I bother giving you better colors if I'm going to melt you?"
"I'm not going to let you melt the Starcruiser either!" X-5 said.
"You don't have a say in it. Minimus, hurry up!" Maximus laughed evilly again to pass the time until Minimus arrived.
"I'm coming, your impatient-ness!" Minimus' normal face replied while trying to carry a large flame thrower. "This is really heavy!" His angry face complained.
"Stop complaining and melt Atomic Betty's ship!" Maximus hit Minimus on the head, making him drop the flame thrower. Fire shot from it but missed the Starcruiser. "Idiot you missed!" Maximus hit him on the head again.
Things got better after that, Atomic Betty and Sparky arrived to recover the Starcruiser. Sparky knocked out X-5 because he thought he was a new evil robot Maximus got to destroy them. After a battle of fire, lasers and light sabers, they were finally able to escape. "I'm sorry X-5; I didn't know it was you!" Sparky hugged the robot.
"My systems shut down from the hit. A sack full of coins can be a dangerous weapon. I told you this would end badly, but you didn't listen to me," X-5 complained.
"X-5, you're alive!" Sparky cheered. "Alive for a robot I mean. I'm so sorry about what happened. I'll never eat again for as long as I live!" There was moment of silence as both X-5 and Betty stared at Sparky. "Okay, let me rephrase that. I'll never eat what I can't pay for."
"That sounds a little more believable, but there is a ninety nine point ninety nine percent chance that you will get into trouble because of your appetite again," X-5 calculated.
"Try to be more careful in the future, Sparky. Now we need to fix the Starcruiser and get X-5 some new paint," Betty knew that would keep them busy for a while.
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After that, Bernadette didn't want to take her chances with Sparky, so she refused to let him in the restaurant. If he wasn't there then where could he be? The search continued in every restaurant in the galaxy, with no sign of Sparky. There was a possibility that Sparky might have been kidnapped, but before they went to investigate, they thought it was best to inform Atomic Betty.
Once again, Betty had to make up an excuse and leave in a hurry. At least this time Noah wasn't all alone, since Paloma was there too. But she was worried Paloma was starting to get suspicious about the Betty's disappearances.
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The first stop after Atomic Betty arrived was Maximus' lair. Everything was very quiet, maybe too quiet. When they were seen, the guards ran after them. Betty kicked one of the guards noisily.
"Sshhh!" All the guards hushed her.
"What's going on?" Atomic Betty whispered.
"Maximus is sleeping. He said that who ever dares to interrupt his much needed nap will be thrown into the nearest star," one of the guards answered.
"We won't make any noise, we only want to look around, then we'll leave quietly," Zulia explained.
"Maximus will be angry if we let you look around," another guard pointed out.
"Yes, but he will be angrier if they wake him up, besides he'll never know they were here," Betty reasoned.
The guards nodded in agreement. "You may pass, but don't make any noise. I'll contact the other guards to let them know you're coming, we don't want any noisy battles."
"I knew we could come to an agreement," Zulia smiled.
"Do you really think, Sparky is here? Why would Maximus take a nap right after kidnapping Sparky? Wouldn't he know we're coming to save him?" Betty reasoned.
"Maybe it wasn't him. There are other villains that could have done it. Oh my poor Sparky, I hope he's alright!" Zulia worried.
"Statistically he has very good chances of survival," X-5 pointed out.
"Survival? But what if he gets hurt?" Zulia insisted.
"Keep it down, look who's over there," Betty whispered. As they walked around the lair, they reached Maximus' room. He was sleeping like a kitten, on top of a large pile of pillows on his bed.
"But if he didn't kidnap Sparky, then who did?" Zulia asked.
"We should investigate with the other villains. It's still not confirmed that it was a kidnapping. Sparky could have simply fallen into a black hole or something of the sort." X-5 didn't understand why Betty was giving him that look. "Captain, why are you looking at me as if I've said something wrong?"
"Never mind X-5, let's leave before Maximus' wakes up," Betty urged.
Zulia started crying noisily, worried about Sparky. Soon they were surrounded by guards. "You said you wouldn't make any noise!"
"Run!" Betty called. They better get out of there quickly. Maximus would be cranky because they woke him up.
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"Minimus, what's all that noise?" Maximus woke up.
"Nothing, your evilness, it's nothing at all, you should go back to sleep, listen to this." Minimus gave Maximus some headphones and as soon as he started to listen to the music, he fell into a deep peaceful sleep. "I knew this recording would be very useful."
As Sparky left Maximus' lair he thought he saw the Starcruiser flying away into space. "Nah, it couldn't have been." He headed to his house. He already ate lunch at the lair, but having two lunches wouldn't hurt.
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Atomic Betty, X-5 and Zulia visited many super villains and had a some battles along the way. No matter where they went, they still couldn't find Sparky. They returned to Zulia's house to think of where they would search for him next. "Sparky must have really fallen into a black hole," Zulia cried.
"I'm sure he's alright. Don't worry, we'll find him," Betty tried to console her, as they entered the house.
"Who are you looking for captain?" Sparky asked.
"Sparky!" They were all surprised to see him.
"Where were you?" Zulia asked.
"Minimus called and asked me to record a lullaby so he could give it to Maximus. Then he can get some sleep and not be so cranky all the time. I ate lunch while I was there, but I came back and found lunch on the table, so I ate another lunch. I didn't even know there was a recording studio at Maximus' lair, it was fun!" Sparky was certainly in a good mood, not only did her get to play in he studio, but he got two lunches that day.
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Thanks to the lullaby, Maximus caught up on all the sleep he had missed and no longer suffered from insomnia. Everything was peaceful for a few days, but then Maximus was full of energy. After a long battle with a very energetic Maximus, Atomic Betty and her crew were very tired.
After finally returning to Earth, Betty went to bed and closed her eyes. Finally, she could get some sleep, that day felt like it lasted a year. "Meow," oh no! "Mew, meow, meow," Betty looked out the window. There was Purrsey and a bunch of alley cats, loudly meowing the night away. They jumped on the roof of the house and Betty could hear their steps directly above her room, then they continued signing to the full moon all night long.
Betty hid her head under her pillow but she could still hear the noisy cats. It was as if Purrsey had purposely chosen the night when she most needed sleep to invite his cat friends over for a night long concert. At that moment in time, Betty's only wish was that every living creature, every planet and every galaxy was in complete silence.
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Planet 86: Disguise
Due to severe boredom in the past few days, the super villains of the galaxy decided to create a little suggestion box where they could anonymously contribute their ideas. Usually, they simply said what was on their mind, but since everyone appeared to be so idealess lately, maybe this little trick could work to motivate the shier villains into suggesting something evil to do.
One idea, that was not particularly evil, was to have a costume party, but not just any costume party. The irony of this event was that all the villains would be dressed up as heroes. Some suspected it was Infantor's idea for his own childish amusement and other insisted that their club house of evil had been infiltrated by someone good, who would have a great time laughing at them all dressed up as their enemies and rivals.
Either way, due to the lack of better evil ideas, they accepted the anonymous suggestion, which was written in a very hard to decipher crayon scribble. Infantor denied having anything to do with it, which either meant he was a liar, an already known fact, or that an intruder had infiltrated their facilities in the name of good, to play a joke on them. In truth it was all Chameleon's idea so he could win the best costume contest by cheating with his special ability, but he framed Infantor by scribbling with a crayon.
Everyone eventually found out, since Infantor can't write anyway, not even in scribbles. But boredom was the most important issue for the super villains at that time, after Atomic Betty's destruction of course. Given the fact that the red haired Galactic Guardian stopped all their evil plans when they had barely started, a party to relive stress sounded like a good idea.
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"Minimus hurry up!" Maximus yelled earlier that evening. He took one last look at himself in the mirror before putting on his mask and helmet, which was a part of the costume. He was going to be dressed as Razor, a famous hero from planet Lynxia. Razor and T-Bone were the local super heroes for Lynxia and Splatty, along with the Enforcer Army, which had their main base in the Mega Kat capital, which is why those two planets never needed assistance from the Galactic Guardians.
The interesting part about it and the real reason why Maximus decided to go as Razor, was because they were in reality heroes, but also legally criminals at the same time. They didn't do anything evil or commit any real crimes but the leader of the army, Commander Feral, hated them. He claimed that if they really are the good guys, they should reveal their identities, which no one knew; they were vigilantes, so they were technically illegal.
"Minimus! What's taking you so long?" Maximus left his room and headed to the space ship. "Hurry up or we'll be late! Forget being late, I'm leaving without you!"
"I'm coming, your impatient evilness, I'm coming!" Minimus rushed over, trying his best to get the large blond wig to fit in his head. "I can't get the Atomic Rodger wig to stay on."
"Atomic Rodger?" Maximus shook his head. "Why is it that everyone is going as a Galactic Guardian? I bet everyone will be dressed as Atomic Betty, Sparky, X-5, Atomic Rodger, Admiral Degill and every other Galactic Guardian. Am I the only one with some originality in the universe? What happened to the local heroes? I did hear Iciclea and Nuclea planned to do something different, Sailor Mercury and Sailor Jupiter, that's what I heard, but my costume is still the best!"
Finally, Minimus had solved his wig problem by tying the scarf around his head to keep the wig from falling off. He was about to leave, but noticed the scarf was like a bow now. No way was he going to the party with a pink bow on his head. Minimus removed the scarf from his head and placed it around his neck again. He tried to think of a way to keep the wig and had an idea. "Just a minute your evilness, I'm almost done!" Minimus glued the wig to his head. What he didn't know what that the glue won't be very easy to get rid of and he would be stuck with a wig like Atomic Rodger's for a long time. On the bright side, it protected his head a little from Maximus.
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Maximus IQ, dressed in a blue and red uniform, wearing a black mask and a blue and red helmet, enters his lair and collapses into the nearest piece of furniture. "Ow," he felt that every inch of his body hurts. "I thought exercise made people feel better," his breathing was heavy and uneven, as if it would take a long time for him to catch his breath. "Minimus!" Due to the lack of oxygen in his lungs, Maximus didn't yell as loud as he usually did. He took a deep breath and tried to call his sidekick again. "Minimus!" Yet again no one answered. "Minimus get over here before I die!" He yelled his exaggerated complaint as loud as his oxygen thirsty lungs allowed him to. "Minimus! I'm too tired to move, you have to carry me!" Once again there was no response.
When Maximus recovered, he would have to hit Minimus on the head many times to teach him to come running to the rescue right away when he was called. Then a thought came, Maximus remembered something. Minimus didn't come to his rescue because he wasn't in the lair, he must still be at the super villain's costume party. He was planning to hit Minimus anyway to get the stress out of his system later, when he had the energy to move. Yes, the party, he should have never gone to that party. Who knew his costume would be so good he would be chased out with lasers and bomb, thought to be a hero spy.
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Planet 87: Bracelet Yourself Again
The boiling lava continued to melt the rocks that once formed solid ground. Now they found themselves floating in hot rocks on a river of lava but Atomic Betty and Maximus IQ didn't stop dueling. They jumped from one rock to another, their light sabers crashing against the other in the air.
"Captain, this entire planet is an active volcano. The conditions will soon become uninhabitable until the eruption stops," X-5 announced.
It was already hard to breath and the heat was too much, but they didn't stop. "I'll be there soon X-5, just let me finish this duel," Atomic Betty replied.
"This duel will end soon, but I will win!" Maximus threatened.
The duel continued until X-5 thought it was best to leave, even if Betty didn't agree. "I'm going to beam you up captain, we can't stay any longer!"
"Not yet," Betty insisted.
"Chief, come back to the Starcruiser or I'll go out there to get you," Sparky was very worried.
"Your evilness, aren't you coming back to the ship?" Minimus called.
"Net yet!" Maximus yelled.
"Why must they be so stubborn?" X-5 knew no one would be able to give him an accurate answer, biological creatures were hard to understand at times.
"I think we should beam her up," Sparky decided.
"Betty is the captain, we should listen to her, even if that's what I've been saying all along," X-5 said.
"We're her crew and she should listen to us too," Sparky argued. "Chief, come back!"
Atomic Betty jumped away for a moment and landed in a large rock floating in the river of lava, which was actually more like an ocean of lava. The planet was really dangerous during eruption. Soon the radioactive rocks would melt, realizing toxics into the atmosphere and the planet would be impossible to inhabit for the next few months, until the lava dried up and turned into rocks and the toxics dissolved. Then this planet will become a desert of rocks once more, until the next volcanic eruption that happened once a year almost in the same date. "Sorry about keeping you worried for so long," Betty looked up at the Starcruiser, "you can beam me up now."
Maximus jumped onto the large rock that Atomic Betty was standing on. "You're not thinking about running away, are you?"
"We'll have to finish this later or this volcano planet will kill us all," Betty replied. "Beam me up!"
"Finally!" Sparky tried to beam Betty back into the Starcruiser.
"Sparky, no!" X-5 said. Maximus was too close and he got caught in the beam too. However, the Starcruiser's beam had a little glitch that was never fixed completely. After being hit by a meteor, the ship had trouble beaming up more than one person at the same time.
Betty and Maximus were lifted off the rock, then they fell back on it, but they were holding each other's light saber. "That's mine," Maximus took his red light saber from Betty.
"That one is mine," Betty took back her green light saber from Maximus.
The closest volcano erupted with balls of fire that rained down on both ships and would had fallen on Betty and Maximus if not because the Starcruiser was above them "This planet is coming apart. Minimus, get me out of here!" Maximus was beamed up to his ship and flew away into space, heading back to his lair.
X-5 tried to beam Atomic Betty into the Starcruiser again and this time it worked. The Starcruiser flew away from the volcanic planet, taking a few hits along the way and making it out just on time. "That was close, sorry I stayed there for so long," Betty apologized.
"It's okay chief, I'm just happy you're safe," Sparky hugged his captain.
"I guess I might as well join the group hug too," X-5 joined.
A transmission from Admiral Degill was received and automatically displayed. "I'm guessing the group hug means you were victorious and Maximus wasn't able to use the volcanic energy to power his new weapon?"
"Mission accomplished, Admiral Degill," Atomic Betty saluted. "Maximus' ran out of time and left his weapon behind, it was destroyed by the volcanoes."
"Excellent, the galaxy is safe again," it all went as Admiral Degill expected.
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At Maximus's lair, the super villain was taking a nap. All the action made him tired and he needed to recover his energy so he could come up without another plan to take over the galaxy. What Maximus didn't know was that the Starcruiser's glitched beam not only made him and Betty them switch light sabers, but gave Maximus Betty's bracelet and he didn't even notice.
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"Where could it be?" Betty, Sparky and X-5 searched for her bracelet in the Starcruiser. "It's not here. I must have dropped it on the volcano planet. Do you think it'll survive that?" Betty asked.
"It probably will," X-5 assured. "Galactic Guardian bracelets are very resistant, but it will be buried after the lava cools off. We'll have to wait until then and try to track it, to dig it out, or you could get a new one."
"I want to keep the same one. It just wouldn't feel the same with a new one." Betty remembered what happened with the light sabers. "Do you think Maximus has it? Maybe he got it when we switched light sabers."
"If he has it, there's a ninety nine point nice percent possibility that he will use it against us by taking control of the Starcruiser," X-5 reasoned.
"Do you think he really got it? I thought you only switched light sabers and wasn't that glitch supposed to be repaired by now?" Sparky inquired.
"At headquarters, they said it worked well enough," X-5 wasn't happy with just well enough, but they wouldn't listen to him.
"Something needs to be done, that glitch is dangerous!" Sparky argued. "When we get back to headquarters, let's tell Admiral Degill about it, he'll get our ship some decent repairs!"
"You're just upset because it's so easy to find a picture of you in the captain's uniform in the Galactic Guardians network and pink isn't your color," X-5 remembered the incident.
Sparky glared, "you made a computer wallpaper out of it!" The glitch was worse before. This time they only switched light sabers and Maximus got Betty's bracelet, but nothing else. Before that, when Betty and Sparky were beamed up at the same time they ended up with each other's uniforms and weren't taken inside the Starcruiser either. X-5 had to beam them up one at the time. But somebody took a picture and leaked it in the Galactic Guardians database.
Suddenly the Starcruiser started flying at light speed and stopped near a star. "I think Maximus does have the bracelet," X-5 suspected.
"We need to get away from that star before we get caught in its gravity. Engage manual override!" Betty commanded.
"Manual override engaged," X-5 replied.
"Don't worry chief, we'll get out of this and get your bracelet back," Sparky encouraged.
"Our odds of recovering the bracelet before the Starcruiser is destroyed are 5,745,250 to one" X-5 calculated.
"Why are our odds so bad?" Betty inquired.
"Because X-5 is a pessimistic," Sparky pouted.
"I'm not programmed to be pessimistic; I'm programmed to calculate real statistics. The Starcruiser took a lot of damage escaping from that volcanic plant and the manual override might stop working any second," X-5 explained.
"Then Maximus will have complete control of the Starcruiser," Betty concluded. "We have to get my bracelet back before that happens. Set a course for Maximus' lair at full speed!" Suddenly the Starcruiser spun around, flying in random directions when the manual override failed. "Try to engage the manual override again!"
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Maximus had moved around in his sleep, unknowingly getting the bracelet's cover open and pushing small analog stick against the pillows. He woke up and finally noticed it, why was he wearing such a thing? Did Minimus put it on while he slept? The sidekick would pay for his bad joke. Maximus assumed that the bracelet was only a replica with no real value.
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"We're here," X-5 announced when they finally arrived at the lair. The Starcruiser was in bad shape due to flying into an asteroid field on the way. "What is our plan, captain?"
"Recover the bracelet as soon as possible and get the Starcruiser repaired," Betty replied.
Sparky looked towards the lair and saw Maximus near a window. He zoomed in to the image and clearly saw Maximus throwing something out a window into space on the Starcruiser's screen. "Chief!"
"We'll have to sneak in and take the bracelet," Betty continued.
"Chief!" Sparky called.
"Not now Sparky, I suggest that our plan should be structured in more detail," X-5 requested.
"Chief!" Sparky repeated.
"You'll eat a little later, Sparky. You're right X-5, Maximus is probably waiting for us."
Clearly they were not going to listen to him, so Sparky went outside and recovered the bracelet, which Maximus had angrily thrown out the window, and returned to the ship. "I was trying to say I saw Maximus throw this out the window."
Betty, Sparky and X-5 never understood why Maximus would literally throw away such a good chance to destroy Atomic Betty and Maximus never found out the truth of his mistake.
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Planet 88: Alarming
Sparky's new human disguise was working perfectly. This time nothing could go wrong, or at least not too many things. It finally looked as if he was getting the hang of acting like a human and would have no problems. They had been at the mall for a while visiting different stores. In her bag, Betty carried a flashdrive. "It's so tiny," Sparky had said when he saw it at the electronics store.
"Tiny but kind of expensive," Betty really wanted one of those, plus they were compatible with most computers in most planets so it would be useful. Of course no one knew the technology was 'infiltrated' into Earth from space, but some suspected they were too good to have originated on Earth with their current technological level or lack thereof.
The item was practically flat and only half an inch long. Yet even if it was so small, it could store a lot of data, pictures, video, sound, pretty much anything. "Are you going to buy it chief?" Sparky asked.
"I think I will," Betty tired of carrying a billion disks whenever she needed to save information for school or her missions, the universal serial bus was well, universal.
After purchasing the item, Betty and Sparky were walking around the mall. "Look, comic books!" Sparky pointed to a near by store.
"Let's go take a look," Betty and Sparky walked to the store. But when they entered, something unexpected happened. The alarms at the door sounded off.
"The Earth is under attack!" Sparky yelled. "Run chief run for your life!" He took her hand and ran.
"Stop Sparky, it's okay," Betty was being pulled in circles, until she finally got Sparky to stop. "It's alright; calm down, the Earth isn't under attack."
"Excuse me," an employee from the store approached.
Betty didn't take anything so there was no reason for the alarms to go off. But the mall was full of sales with big signs with the word free printed in bright colors. Of course you only got a free item if you purchased a certain amount of items from those stores. What if Sparky thought free literally meant free? What if he assumed it was alright to take things without paying and took something? No one on Earth would believe his alien innocence and they couldn't find out he was an alien in the first place.
Betty had warned Sparky after that incident at the candy store that free didn't actually mean free. After a long explanation, she thought he understood. He found it very strange, but somehow he understood, it was an Earth thing. "We didn't take anything," Betty voiced.
"It's alright I know you didn't take anything. I see you've been to that electronics store near by," the employee looked at the bag Betty was carrying. "They always forget to deactivate the security chip."
"But it didn't make a sound when I left the store," Betty said.
"That's because their alarm system doesn't activate when a product is registered as sold on their database. The security chip is still active, but it won't cause the alarm to activate because it identifies the product. The only problem with that is that it may still activate alarms from other stores. Ours is really sensitive, it happens all the time. You're the third person today. Let me deactivate it for you so it doesn't go off anywhere else." The employee held a devise that looked similar to a space pistol with its red light aimed at the bag Betty was holding up.
"Chief look out!" Sparky tackled his captain. "You will not hurt the captain villain of Earth!" He aimed his space pistol at the suposed villain.
"Sparky, no!" Betty took the pistol away from Sparky. "Sorry about that." The sound of the alarm at the door had attracted the attention of a few people in the store and now because of Sparky many more were staring.
"It's alright," the employee deactivated the security chip without even taking it out of the bag. "All done, you two have fun looking around and let me know if you need help with anything. But you should leave that kind of water gun games for when you're playing outside. Water isn't good for books."
After the employee was gone, Betty returned Sparky's space pistol, "I told you not to use that here."
"But chief, she had a weapon and she was aiming it at your new keychain. I doubt the keychain would protect you. The laser would have burned through and hit you!" Sparky tried to explain.
"It's a flashdrive not a keychain, they have those in Mars, you should know, X-5 would give you a speech about it if he heard you. Besides, that wasn't a laser weapon, it was only part of the security system," Betty tried to explain. Clearly there were a few things about malls that Sparky still didn't understand. "She was only trying to help to prevent the alarms from going off for no reason again."
Sparky gave Betty a confused look, before letting it go and settling for staying confused, at least for now. He couldn't think with empty stomachs anyway. "I'm getting kind of hungry."
Betty looked at the time display on her bracelet. "It's lunch time. Let's got back to the Starcruiser and get something to eat at a space restaurant."
"How come we can't eat here?" Sparky asked.
"Because you were banned from the food court, remember?" Betty reminded him.
"Oh, yeah, I still don't get it. The offer said all you can eat and I only filled two of my stomachs when they were already throwing me out. Such false advertisement, we should tell the Galactic Guardians," Sparky paused for a moment until he realized who he was. "Wait, we are the Galactic Guardians!"
"Forget about it Sparky. I don't think the Earth is ready for your appetite. Besides, do you remember what I told you about secrets?" Betty asked.
"I remember, chief. I only wish that something could be done to make things less confusing," Sparky thought the mall appeared to be eternal as they continued walking among a large group of people.
"I think putting them out of business because of lack of food was punishment enough." Betty had the consolation that they didn't have to pay anything extra for the food, since the offer was supposed to be all you can eat, but they still got banned.
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Betty and Sparky finally made it out of the mall and contacted X-5 so they could be beamed up to the Starcruiser from the parking lot, between two cars where no one saw them. The sound of an alarm could be heard in the parking lot. Betty looked at Sparky as if telling him she knew he had something to do with it. "I didn't do anything, I only poked it!"
"You're not supposed to poke cars," Betty scolded.
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"I knew you couldn't make it without causing trouble," X-5 greeted them as they were beamed to the ship.
"Hey, I didn't get kicked out of anywhere this time and the alarms only went off twice!" It was not a very good defense for Sparky.
"Need I say more?" X-5 shook his head.
Sparky's stomachs started making loud odd sounds. "Don't say anything, just take us somewhere to eat, I'm starving! Sorry about the alarms chief."
"Never mind," Betty thought she saw Penelope passing by at the moment the alarm went off at the store. Betty had a feeling she wouldn't hear the end of it any time soon. If Betty caught the inconsiderate idiot from the electronics store that forgot to deactivate the security chip after she paid sixty for flashdrive, whoever it may be, would be in big trouble. Betty had a feeling that Penelope would start spreading rumors at school.
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After eating lunch at a space restaurant that was prepared for the appetite of Sparky's species, Betty headed back to Earth. "Betty I'm so glad you're home," her mother greeted as soon as Betty arrived.
"You are?" Betty knew there had to be a catch.
"I was just about to leave to go shopping. It's nice that Purrsey won't have to stay all alone in the house. Take good care of your little brother!" Betty mother left.
The hours passed and Betty spent most of her time trying to keep Purrsey from making a mess that her mother would blame on her.
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Finally, Betty's mom came back from the mall and as usual had many gifts for Purrsey. Betty headed to her room, but her mother called. "Betty wait, I have something for you too!"
"Really?" Betty went to see what it was.
Her mother handed her a bag. "I thought it was simply adorable. It's a little sci-fi so I thought you might like it. The best part is it might remind you of your little brother!"
"What is it?" Betty couldn't imagine what could be sci-fi and remind her of Purrsey. The item inside the bag felt soft, like a plushie and that's exactly what it was, but it wasn't any plushie. This was a Maximus IQ plushie. There was no mistake, the plushie was a miniature replica of the super villain lynx, holding a little red light saber.
"I knew you would love it!" Betty's mother took her daughter's surprise as happiness; then continued giving Purrsey more gifts.
"Thanks mom," Betty managed to say before heading to her room. Could this plushie be one of the items from Max Land? Could this be Maximus' way to tell her he knew of her home planet?
Maybe it wasn't a plushie from Max Land after all, it just couldn't be. Besides, if Maximus knew of her planet it would probably be raining lasers by now. Or he would destroy a random city as a warning. He wouldn't send plushies of him to the planet if he was planning to blow it up. Betty's mother bought that plushie at the mall; it was all only a strange coincidence. Yes, it was only a coincidence; Betty's secret had to be safe.
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In Maximus' lair, what appeared to be a human arrived. He deactivated his holographic disguise and turned into Minimus. "Mission accomplished, your evilness. All the merchandise was purchased by a store at a mall where they will resell it. It was selling quite well before I left," Minimus' normal face spoke, then he switched to his angry face and continued, "I can't believe I actually found someone stupid enough to buy the left over junk from Max Land. What a planet of shopaholic fools!" A hit to the head made it quit clear that Maximus wasn't going to let his sidekick call his fine merchandise junk.
"Those are high quality products!" Maximus yelled. "What is the name of that planet where my merchandise is being sold?"
"It's Earth, your evilness. A very strange pre-contact planet of humans," Minimus revealed.
'Humans? Could it be Atomic Betty's planet? No, she wouldn't live on a pre-contact planet. There are more than one planet where humans live. Besides, if the people of Earth have such good taste in high quality products, then they can't be anything like Atomic Betty,' Maximus thought. "Minimus, remind me not to blow up that Earth planet."
End of Solar System X
Disclaimer, I don't own Atomic Betty, Swat Kats or Sailor Moon. Planets 82, 83 and 84 are based on the Gameboy Advance videogame. Planet 85 is based on the episode "Sleeping Like a Baby". Planet 87 is based on the episode "Bracelet Yourself".
Planet 81: Date Interrupted
At an intergalactic mall, "what do you think of this outfit, Gilly?" A younger Pontifadora asked.
Her boyfriend Degill, who was not yet the admiral of the Galactic Guardians at that time, looked bored, "it's nice."
"That's what you said about all the others!" Pontifadora complained. Two hours of watching her try on clothes and he was already bored. How could he?
"Everything you wear looks nice on you," Degill suppressed a yawn, he loved Pontifadora, he really did, but he had been sitting there for two hours and his tail was starting to hurt, those chairs in that store weren't exactly the softest in the galaxy.
Iciclea walked near the same store where Pontifadora and Degill were and went in.
"I just saw Iciclea!" Degill exclaimed.
"I'm right here in front of you and you're looking at her?" Pontifadora was annoyed.
"I don't mean it like that, she's a criminal and I must arrest her or I'll never get promoted in the Galactic Guardians!" Degill explained.
"You're not working today!" Pontifadora reminded him.
"A Galactic Guardian is always on duty!" Degill saluted dramatically.
"Gilly, you promised me that you wouldn't work during our dates!" Pontifadora argued, while Iciclea stole clothes from the store. The fish woman picked up her boyfriend and held him back.
"She's getting away! I'll take you on another date just let me arrest Iciclea!" Degill complained but Pontifadora didn't let him go and Iciclea left. "There goes my promotion."
Pontifadora shook her head, "one of these days I'm going to start doing my job in the middle of an important occasion and let's see what you do then..."
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Planet 82: Bubblegum Beauty
Everything was quiet in the galaxy for a reason unknown to Betty. She wondered if the super villains of the universe were planning something big. Most of them were known to take a week or so off after a defeat, all except Maximus who was probably the most stubborn of all the villains. It was strange that he hasn't done anything evil for days. Betty was on her guard, expecting to be called any second.
Until it was time for another mission, Betty spent some time with her friends on Earth, Noah and Paloma. The three of them had finished eating lunch and were hanging out in the school yard. Paloma was listening to music and dancing as if she felt like she was the only one there; the music had taken her to her own little world.
Noah was playing with a yoyo, trying to do some new complicated tricks, but the yoyo kept getting tangled up. He didn't give up, he would get it right eventually. He had brought a little remote control helicopter which he let Betty borrow.
After flying it around for a while, Betty took a break and landed the toy helicopter. The lunch hour would soon be over, but before it was, she wanted some bubblegum. Without giving it too much thought, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a blue gumball. She put it in her mouth and started to chew, she knew it might not be such a good idea, but the temptation to make a bubble was too much. Betty blew a bubble and made it bigger, and bigger. Maybe she should have stopped, but she wanted to see how big the bubble could be, so she made it even bigger and bigger, until the inevitable happened, the bubble popped, covering Betty's face with blue gum.
Noah and Paloma looked at the blue faced Betty, then started laughing. Betty joined in as well; she should have known this would happen.
Before Betty could clean off the gum, Penelope walked by, she looked at Betty, then ran off angrily. Anyone would think she would laugh to see Betty defeated by her own bubblegum. Maybe she thought it was something else.
The school bell rang and the students headed to their respective classrooms. Betty and Noah had a few classes together, but not the one right after lunch, so they went their separate ways. Paloma was in the same classroom as Betty for the next hour so the two girls were walked to their classroom joking about how hard it was to get the gum off Betty's face. Noah had been waiting outside the entire time and said he had started to worry that they got lost in the girl's bathroom because they took so long to come out and both girls were known to randomly disappear. At least Betty was all clean when it was finally over.
As Betty and Paloma turned a corner and were about to enter the classroom, they heard the scream of a very frightened boy. "That was Noah," Betty ran to see what happened.
"What?" Penelope snapped.
"No-Nothing" Noah stammered.
"It better be nothing" Penelope stomped away, her face was covered in some sticky stuff in an odd shade of green. 'If Betty puts on a beauty mask during the lunch hour, I will too,' Penelope had thought. 'There's no way she'll become prettier than me. Not even with all the beauty products in the world.'
"Noah, are you okay?" Betty asked.
"Did you see Penelope? For a minute, I thought it a radioactive monster!" Noah was still in shock.
The two girls laughed. "It was Penelope, so it was worse," Paloma voiced.
"Yeah, you're right, a monster would probably be nicer," Noah agreed.
"I wonder why she was wearing that stuff in her face? Couldn't she wait until she got home or something?" Betty shook her head, Penelope Lang, the most popular girl in school and also the most spoiled and bratty, would always be a mystery.
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Meanwhile in Maximus' lair, "I don't think that's such a good idea your evilness," Minimus watched Maximus make a bubblegum bubble.
Maximus looked like he was saying something but it was impossible to understand him with the bubble in his mouth, yet somehow Minimus understood.
"Yes, I know you haven't done that in years, but maybe it's a good thing you haven't. Remember what happened last time?" Minimus warned.
As expected, Maximus didn't take the warning and continued blowing a bigger bubble. This was high-tech futuristic bubblegum, which could make much bigger bubbles than Earth's outdated bubblegum. Nevertheless, even if the bubble could reach a size that was illogically big for the amount of gum it was made from, it would eventually pop. "Ah! Minimus! Get this stuff off me!"
"I told you, you shouldn't have done it. Now it'll take forever to clean that stuff off," Minimus's normal face said. "It serves you right!" His angry face added.
"Shut up and get it off!" Maximus yelled.
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Planet 83: Frozen Hearts (PenelopexDylan)
"It's... soo-o... cc-ol-d..." Penelope Lang didn't think she would find herself in this situation when she decided to set the air conditioner to maximum. She was pretty sure that the AC was working far beyond what it normally should, even with the power to the max. Of course that was her fault for breaking the controls, but she blamed Betty anyway.
There would be a very important basketball game for the girl's team. If Betty was there, she was sure to win the most valuable player award, which Penelope wanted for herself. She couldn't possibly learn to play better than Betty in a life time, let alone a day, so the only way was to eliminate the competition.
Lucky for Penelope, Betty's mom's cat, Purrsey had stolen her homework and ran off with it towards the school's basement. Many sheets of paper containing Betty's hard work were dropped all over the basement as Purrsey ran. Noah and Paloma offered to help and with them on the search, it looked like Betty would have her homework back in no time, unless Penelope could stop her. If Betty didn't hand in her assignment on time, she wouldn't be allowed to participate in the game tomorrow.
Somehow, Betty, Noah and Paloma made it out of the cold dark basement and recovered all the homework. Meanwhile Penelope got locked in the same room in which she broke the air conditioner's controls, which was like a refrigerator now. Surely Penelope would catch a bad cold and miss tomorrow's game. Then Betty the ball hog would be there to steal all the glory that should have been hers.
"C-caan... any-oo-nee... he-he-ar m-mee?" Penelope could see her breath as she tried to get those words out. She should have sent Sarah or Megan to change the air conditioner's temperature but she wanted the satisfaction of doing it herself. This wasn't supposed to happen, Betty and her friends should be the ones freezing.
Penelope sat in a corner, waiting for someone to rescue her. The classes had ended for the day but the school remained opened for a few more hours. Most students were either gone, playing sports or practicing various extra curricular activities. The halls were practically deserted. Sarah and Megan had already gone home thinking Penelope was gone too.
"Penelope?" A voice? Could it be that someone had come to rescue her or was it all a nice dream?
"Dy-la-an?" Yes, it was him! He had come to her rescue, well sort of.
"Did you do this? Why?" Dylan asked.
Penelope couldn't tell him the truth, but right now there was one thing that was more important to her. "Do-or!" But it was too late, Dylan had gone inside and let the door close behind him.
Wondering what Penelope meant and fearing the worse, Dylan tried to open the door and found that he couldn't. It could only be opened from the outside. "It looks like we're going to be here for a while."
"We'll di-e... fro-zeeen..." Penelope was becoming desperate.
"The janitor has to come turn the air conditioner off before closing the school for the night. He'll be here in a few hours and let us out," Dylan sat down next to her and prepared for a long wait.
Penelope remained silent for a while, waiting. She was too cold to think of any conversation to make with Dylan, until she felt something warm on her shoulders. "Dy-lan... your jacke-et?"
"You've been here longer than I have, so you're colder, you need it more," Dylan said.
"Tha-nks" Penelope smiled. Maybe turning into an icicle wasn't so bad if she was with dreamy Dylan.
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Planet 84: Feline Eyes
Atomic Betty was in space in her final mission of the day. While she was busy with a battle against Maximus, Paloma and Noah were on Earth searching for Betty's homework. Purrsey had stolen the homework and ran into the school's basement, leaving pages of homework everywhere as he ran.
If Betty was to play in the basketball game the next day, she had to hand in her homework on time. Trying to steal the most valuable player award from Betty, Penelope decided to set a few traps for them in the basement. She turned off the lights, she changed the temperature, she did anything she could do to stop Betty, Noah and Paloma from accomplishing their mission.
Paloma knew that things would turn out well in the end, they always did. She didn't need to use her ability to look into the future to know that. While they searched, she snuck away from Noah.
The boy looked around a bit confused. "Paloma?" She was nowhere to be found, which meant he had been talking to himself for the past minute or so, thinking Paloma was right behind him. "Great, first Betty disappears and now Paloma. What's wrong with me?" What started as a search for pages of homework and the cat who stole them, ended up as a search for pages of homework, the cat who stole them, the girl who was supposed to hand them in and the girl who volunteered to help look from them.
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Paloma had found Purrsey. "It's okay Purrsey, come here."
Sir Purrsefus guarded the last page of homework, refusing to let anyone take it from him.
"C'mon Purrsey, I wont hurt you." Paloma came closer and Purrsey hissed. "It's alright, don't be frightened." Her eyes changed to orange feline eyes.
Purrsey didn't look scared, he was curious. He had met aliens before, when he accidentally boarded Betty's ship and learned that only the ones that looked like vacuum cleaners were dangerous.
"That's it Purrsey, come here." Paloma smiled as the cat approached curiously. She picked him up and petted him gently. "Good boy!" He purred happily and didn't mind that she took away the last page of homework.
"Paloma!" She heard Noah calling and went to find him.
"I'm over here!" Paloma replied. "I found Purrsey and the last page of homework."
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Planet 85: Lullaby
"Sparky, it's lunch time!" Zulia was certain her son would be at the table in less than a second, but he didn't even answer. "Sparky, hurry up before it gets cold," again there was no answer. The house felt so empty, but Sparky said he would be there for lunch. Maybe he went out unnoticed and would be back soon, but Zulia couldn't help it but to get an uneasy feeling about this. There was no way Sparky would miss lunch on purpose. Maybe he was with X-5 and he was eating so many snacks he lost track of time.
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It was already mid afternoon and to make sure her theory was correct and get rid of all the worries she had, Zulia called X-5 on the Starcruiser, but the robot had no news of her son. "I haven't seen Sparky since yesterday."
"This is so strange. Sparky would never miss lunch," Zulia was seriously worried.
"For Sparky to miss lunch there are several possibilities," X-5 theorized. "He could have been kidnapped and is being held prisoner by a super villain or he purchased a large amount of food and is distracted eating it right now."
"Let's hope it's the second one. I know Sparky is a galactic guardian and he can take care of himself, but missing lunch is something he would never do," Zulia replied.
"I will assist you in locating him," X-5 offered.
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The Starcruiser soon arrived at Zulia's house and they were off to search for Sparky. Their first stop was chef Bernadette's restaurant, where Zulia explained the situation. "That's what happened. I know he would never miss lunch. Has he been here?"
"No he's banned from this restaurant because he ate all the food even if he couldn't pay for it," Bernadette reminded.
"But I paid for that," X-5 pointed out.
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Sparky had used the Starcruiser as a payment so Bernadette would let him leave. He said he would come back as soon as he got his piggy bank from his house, but then it turns out that because he couldn't pay for the taxi, the driver got angry and took him to a far away part of the galaxy. X-5 knew that would happen, but Sparky didn't listen.
Finally, the martian remembered that he had a jet pack and used hat to get to his house. He returned with the piggy bank, but of course that wasn't enough to pay for all the food. By the time Sparky's alien lemonade stand earned him enough money to pay his dept and recover the Starcruiser, and X-5 with it, Bernadette had gone off to cook Maximus' dinner and things went down hill from there.
Maximus started shooting at the Starcruiser until he realized it was actually Bernadette in it and not Atomic Betty. Then he insisted on buying the ship and the way it was left the chef was more than happy to sell it. Maximus, curious as lynx are, practically took the Starcruiser apart, convinced that it was hiding Atomic Betty's secrets deep inside. He found things that X-5 thought were lost forever, but nothing secret.
It didn't end there, the Starcruiser was left in ruins, but things got worse when Maximus decided to give X-5 a makeover, since technically he was the robot's new owner. "Stay still you bucket of bolts!" Maximus yelled while he tried to paint X-5.
"I don't like these new colors," X-5 didn't want to match Maximus' ship in colors that made him look like an evil robot, but the guards wouldn't let him go.
"Get used to it, you're my robot now and you'll be whatever color I want you to be. There all done. Don't you feel better now?" Maximus finished and the guards finally let go of X-5.
"No, I don't!" X-5 was very annoyed.
"It doesn't really matter," Maximus laughed evilly. "This is perfect, Atomic Betty's ship and robot are mine to do with whatever I want! Minimus prepare to melt it!"
"I don't care if you're technically my new owner; I'm not going to let you melt me!" X-5 complained.
"Not you, the ship, or what's left of it," Maximus clarified. "Why would I bother giving you better colors if I'm going to melt you?"
"I'm not going to let you melt the Starcruiser either!" X-5 said.
"You don't have a say in it. Minimus, hurry up!" Maximus laughed evilly again to pass the time until Minimus arrived.
"I'm coming, your impatient-ness!" Minimus' normal face replied while trying to carry a large flame thrower. "This is really heavy!" His angry face complained.
"Stop complaining and melt Atomic Betty's ship!" Maximus hit Minimus on the head, making him drop the flame thrower. Fire shot from it but missed the Starcruiser. "Idiot you missed!" Maximus hit him on the head again.
Things got better after that, Atomic Betty and Sparky arrived to recover the Starcruiser. Sparky knocked out X-5 because he thought he was a new evil robot Maximus got to destroy them. After a battle of fire, lasers and light sabers, they were finally able to escape. "I'm sorry X-5; I didn't know it was you!" Sparky hugged the robot.
"My systems shut down from the hit. A sack full of coins can be a dangerous weapon. I told you this would end badly, but you didn't listen to me," X-5 complained.
"X-5, you're alive!" Sparky cheered. "Alive for a robot I mean. I'm so sorry about what happened. I'll never eat again for as long as I live!" There was moment of silence as both X-5 and Betty stared at Sparky. "Okay, let me rephrase that. I'll never eat what I can't pay for."
"That sounds a little more believable, but there is a ninety nine point ninety nine percent chance that you will get into trouble because of your appetite again," X-5 calculated.
"Try to be more careful in the future, Sparky. Now we need to fix the Starcruiser and get X-5 some new paint," Betty knew that would keep them busy for a while.
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After that, Bernadette didn't want to take her chances with Sparky, so she refused to let him in the restaurant. If he wasn't there then where could he be? The search continued in every restaurant in the galaxy, with no sign of Sparky. There was a possibility that Sparky might have been kidnapped, but before they went to investigate, they thought it was best to inform Atomic Betty.
Once again, Betty had to make up an excuse and leave in a hurry. At least this time Noah wasn't all alone, since Paloma was there too. But she was worried Paloma was starting to get suspicious about the Betty's disappearances.
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The first stop after Atomic Betty arrived was Maximus' lair. Everything was very quiet, maybe too quiet. When they were seen, the guards ran after them. Betty kicked one of the guards noisily.
"Sshhh!" All the guards hushed her.
"What's going on?" Atomic Betty whispered.
"Maximus is sleeping. He said that who ever dares to interrupt his much needed nap will be thrown into the nearest star," one of the guards answered.
"We won't make any noise, we only want to look around, then we'll leave quietly," Zulia explained.
"Maximus will be angry if we let you look around," another guard pointed out.
"Yes, but he will be angrier if they wake him up, besides he'll never know they were here," Betty reasoned.
The guards nodded in agreement. "You may pass, but don't make any noise. I'll contact the other guards to let them know you're coming, we don't want any noisy battles."
"I knew we could come to an agreement," Zulia smiled.
"Do you really think, Sparky is here? Why would Maximus take a nap right after kidnapping Sparky? Wouldn't he know we're coming to save him?" Betty reasoned.
"Maybe it wasn't him. There are other villains that could have done it. Oh my poor Sparky, I hope he's alright!" Zulia worried.
"Statistically he has very good chances of survival," X-5 pointed out.
"Survival? But what if he gets hurt?" Zulia insisted.
"Keep it down, look who's over there," Betty whispered. As they walked around the lair, they reached Maximus' room. He was sleeping like a kitten, on top of a large pile of pillows on his bed.
"But if he didn't kidnap Sparky, then who did?" Zulia asked.
"We should investigate with the other villains. It's still not confirmed that it was a kidnapping. Sparky could have simply fallen into a black hole or something of the sort." X-5 didn't understand why Betty was giving him that look. "Captain, why are you looking at me as if I've said something wrong?"
"Never mind X-5, let's leave before Maximus' wakes up," Betty urged.
Zulia started crying noisily, worried about Sparky. Soon they were surrounded by guards. "You said you wouldn't make any noise!"
"Run!" Betty called. They better get out of there quickly. Maximus would be cranky because they woke him up.
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"Minimus, what's all that noise?" Maximus woke up.
"Nothing, your evilness, it's nothing at all, you should go back to sleep, listen to this." Minimus gave Maximus some headphones and as soon as he started to listen to the music, he fell into a deep peaceful sleep. "I knew this recording would be very useful."
As Sparky left Maximus' lair he thought he saw the Starcruiser flying away into space. "Nah, it couldn't have been." He headed to his house. He already ate lunch at the lair, but having two lunches wouldn't hurt.
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Atomic Betty, X-5 and Zulia visited many super villains and had a some battles along the way. No matter where they went, they still couldn't find Sparky. They returned to Zulia's house to think of where they would search for him next. "Sparky must have really fallen into a black hole," Zulia cried.
"I'm sure he's alright. Don't worry, we'll find him," Betty tried to console her, as they entered the house.
"Who are you looking for captain?" Sparky asked.
"Sparky!" They were all surprised to see him.
"Where were you?" Zulia asked.
"Minimus called and asked me to record a lullaby so he could give it to Maximus. Then he can get some sleep and not be so cranky all the time. I ate lunch while I was there, but I came back and found lunch on the table, so I ate another lunch. I didn't even know there was a recording studio at Maximus' lair, it was fun!" Sparky was certainly in a good mood, not only did her get to play in he studio, but he got two lunches that day.
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Thanks to the lullaby, Maximus caught up on all the sleep he had missed and no longer suffered from insomnia. Everything was peaceful for a few days, but then Maximus was full of energy. After a long battle with a very energetic Maximus, Atomic Betty and her crew were very tired.
After finally returning to Earth, Betty went to bed and closed her eyes. Finally, she could get some sleep, that day felt like it lasted a year. "Meow," oh no! "Mew, meow, meow," Betty looked out the window. There was Purrsey and a bunch of alley cats, loudly meowing the night away. They jumped on the roof of the house and Betty could hear their steps directly above her room, then they continued signing to the full moon all night long.
Betty hid her head under her pillow but she could still hear the noisy cats. It was as if Purrsey had purposely chosen the night when she most needed sleep to invite his cat friends over for a night long concert. At that moment in time, Betty's only wish was that every living creature, every planet and every galaxy was in complete silence.
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Planet 86: Disguise
Due to severe boredom in the past few days, the super villains of the galaxy decided to create a little suggestion box where they could anonymously contribute their ideas. Usually, they simply said what was on their mind, but since everyone appeared to be so idealess lately, maybe this little trick could work to motivate the shier villains into suggesting something evil to do.
One idea, that was not particularly evil, was to have a costume party, but not just any costume party. The irony of this event was that all the villains would be dressed up as heroes. Some suspected it was Infantor's idea for his own childish amusement and other insisted that their club house of evil had been infiltrated by someone good, who would have a great time laughing at them all dressed up as their enemies and rivals.
Either way, due to the lack of better evil ideas, they accepted the anonymous suggestion, which was written in a very hard to decipher crayon scribble. Infantor denied having anything to do with it, which either meant he was a liar, an already known fact, or that an intruder had infiltrated their facilities in the name of good, to play a joke on them. In truth it was all Chameleon's idea so he could win the best costume contest by cheating with his special ability, but he framed Infantor by scribbling with a crayon.
Everyone eventually found out, since Infantor can't write anyway, not even in scribbles. But boredom was the most important issue for the super villains at that time, after Atomic Betty's destruction of course. Given the fact that the red haired Galactic Guardian stopped all their evil plans when they had barely started, a party to relive stress sounded like a good idea.
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"Minimus hurry up!" Maximus yelled earlier that evening. He took one last look at himself in the mirror before putting on his mask and helmet, which was a part of the costume. He was going to be dressed as Razor, a famous hero from planet Lynxia. Razor and T-Bone were the local super heroes for Lynxia and Splatty, along with the Enforcer Army, which had their main base in the Mega Kat capital, which is why those two planets never needed assistance from the Galactic Guardians.
The interesting part about it and the real reason why Maximus decided to go as Razor, was because they were in reality heroes, but also legally criminals at the same time. They didn't do anything evil or commit any real crimes but the leader of the army, Commander Feral, hated them. He claimed that if they really are the good guys, they should reveal their identities, which no one knew; they were vigilantes, so they were technically illegal.
"Minimus! What's taking you so long?" Maximus left his room and headed to the space ship. "Hurry up or we'll be late! Forget being late, I'm leaving without you!"
"I'm coming, your impatient evilness, I'm coming!" Minimus rushed over, trying his best to get the large blond wig to fit in his head. "I can't get the Atomic Rodger wig to stay on."
"Atomic Rodger?" Maximus shook his head. "Why is it that everyone is going as a Galactic Guardian? I bet everyone will be dressed as Atomic Betty, Sparky, X-5, Atomic Rodger, Admiral Degill and every other Galactic Guardian. Am I the only one with some originality in the universe? What happened to the local heroes? I did hear Iciclea and Nuclea planned to do something different, Sailor Mercury and Sailor Jupiter, that's what I heard, but my costume is still the best!"
Finally, Minimus had solved his wig problem by tying the scarf around his head to keep the wig from falling off. He was about to leave, but noticed the scarf was like a bow now. No way was he going to the party with a pink bow on his head. Minimus removed the scarf from his head and placed it around his neck again. He tried to think of a way to keep the wig and had an idea. "Just a minute your evilness, I'm almost done!" Minimus glued the wig to his head. What he didn't know what that the glue won't be very easy to get rid of and he would be stuck with a wig like Atomic Rodger's for a long time. On the bright side, it protected his head a little from Maximus.
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Maximus IQ, dressed in a blue and red uniform, wearing a black mask and a blue and red helmet, enters his lair and collapses into the nearest piece of furniture. "Ow," he felt that every inch of his body hurts. "I thought exercise made people feel better," his breathing was heavy and uneven, as if it would take a long time for him to catch his breath. "Minimus!" Due to the lack of oxygen in his lungs, Maximus didn't yell as loud as he usually did. He took a deep breath and tried to call his sidekick again. "Minimus!" Yet again no one answered. "Minimus get over here before I die!" He yelled his exaggerated complaint as loud as his oxygen thirsty lungs allowed him to. "Minimus! I'm too tired to move, you have to carry me!" Once again there was no response.
When Maximus recovered, he would have to hit Minimus on the head many times to teach him to come running to the rescue right away when he was called. Then a thought came, Maximus remembered something. Minimus didn't come to his rescue because he wasn't in the lair, he must still be at the super villain's costume party. He was planning to hit Minimus anyway to get the stress out of his system later, when he had the energy to move. Yes, the party, he should have never gone to that party. Who knew his costume would be so good he would be chased out with lasers and bomb, thought to be a hero spy.
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Planet 87: Bracelet Yourself Again
The boiling lava continued to melt the rocks that once formed solid ground. Now they found themselves floating in hot rocks on a river of lava but Atomic Betty and Maximus IQ didn't stop dueling. They jumped from one rock to another, their light sabers crashing against the other in the air.
"Captain, this entire planet is an active volcano. The conditions will soon become uninhabitable until the eruption stops," X-5 announced.
It was already hard to breath and the heat was too much, but they didn't stop. "I'll be there soon X-5, just let me finish this duel," Atomic Betty replied.
"This duel will end soon, but I will win!" Maximus threatened.
The duel continued until X-5 thought it was best to leave, even if Betty didn't agree. "I'm going to beam you up captain, we can't stay any longer!"
"Not yet," Betty insisted.
"Chief, come back to the Starcruiser or I'll go out there to get you," Sparky was very worried.
"Your evilness, aren't you coming back to the ship?" Minimus called.
"Net yet!" Maximus yelled.
"Why must they be so stubborn?" X-5 knew no one would be able to give him an accurate answer, biological creatures were hard to understand at times.
"I think we should beam her up," Sparky decided.
"Betty is the captain, we should listen to her, even if that's what I've been saying all along," X-5 said.
"We're her crew and she should listen to us too," Sparky argued. "Chief, come back!"
Atomic Betty jumped away for a moment and landed in a large rock floating in the river of lava, which was actually more like an ocean of lava. The planet was really dangerous during eruption. Soon the radioactive rocks would melt, realizing toxics into the atmosphere and the planet would be impossible to inhabit for the next few months, until the lava dried up and turned into rocks and the toxics dissolved. Then this planet will become a desert of rocks once more, until the next volcanic eruption that happened once a year almost in the same date. "Sorry about keeping you worried for so long," Betty looked up at the Starcruiser, "you can beam me up now."
Maximus jumped onto the large rock that Atomic Betty was standing on. "You're not thinking about running away, are you?"
"We'll have to finish this later or this volcano planet will kill us all," Betty replied. "Beam me up!"
"Finally!" Sparky tried to beam Betty back into the Starcruiser.
"Sparky, no!" X-5 said. Maximus was too close and he got caught in the beam too. However, the Starcruiser's beam had a little glitch that was never fixed completely. After being hit by a meteor, the ship had trouble beaming up more than one person at the same time.
Betty and Maximus were lifted off the rock, then they fell back on it, but they were holding each other's light saber. "That's mine," Maximus took his red light saber from Betty.
"That one is mine," Betty took back her green light saber from Maximus.
The closest volcano erupted with balls of fire that rained down on both ships and would had fallen on Betty and Maximus if not because the Starcruiser was above them "This planet is coming apart. Minimus, get me out of here!" Maximus was beamed up to his ship and flew away into space, heading back to his lair.
X-5 tried to beam Atomic Betty into the Starcruiser again and this time it worked. The Starcruiser flew away from the volcanic planet, taking a few hits along the way and making it out just on time. "That was close, sorry I stayed there for so long," Betty apologized.
"It's okay chief, I'm just happy you're safe," Sparky hugged his captain.
"I guess I might as well join the group hug too," X-5 joined.
A transmission from Admiral Degill was received and automatically displayed. "I'm guessing the group hug means you were victorious and Maximus wasn't able to use the volcanic energy to power his new weapon?"
"Mission accomplished, Admiral Degill," Atomic Betty saluted. "Maximus' ran out of time and left his weapon behind, it was destroyed by the volcanoes."
"Excellent, the galaxy is safe again," it all went as Admiral Degill expected.
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At Maximus's lair, the super villain was taking a nap. All the action made him tired and he needed to recover his energy so he could come up without another plan to take over the galaxy. What Maximus didn't know was that the Starcruiser's glitched beam not only made him and Betty them switch light sabers, but gave Maximus Betty's bracelet and he didn't even notice.
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"Where could it be?" Betty, Sparky and X-5 searched for her bracelet in the Starcruiser. "It's not here. I must have dropped it on the volcano planet. Do you think it'll survive that?" Betty asked.
"It probably will," X-5 assured. "Galactic Guardian bracelets are very resistant, but it will be buried after the lava cools off. We'll have to wait until then and try to track it, to dig it out, or you could get a new one."
"I want to keep the same one. It just wouldn't feel the same with a new one." Betty remembered what happened with the light sabers. "Do you think Maximus has it? Maybe he got it when we switched light sabers."
"If he has it, there's a ninety nine point nice percent possibility that he will use it against us by taking control of the Starcruiser," X-5 reasoned.
"Do you think he really got it? I thought you only switched light sabers and wasn't that glitch supposed to be repaired by now?" Sparky inquired.
"At headquarters, they said it worked well enough," X-5 wasn't happy with just well enough, but they wouldn't listen to him.
"Something needs to be done, that glitch is dangerous!" Sparky argued. "When we get back to headquarters, let's tell Admiral Degill about it, he'll get our ship some decent repairs!"
"You're just upset because it's so easy to find a picture of you in the captain's uniform in the Galactic Guardians network and pink isn't your color," X-5 remembered the incident.
Sparky glared, "you made a computer wallpaper out of it!" The glitch was worse before. This time they only switched light sabers and Maximus got Betty's bracelet, but nothing else. Before that, when Betty and Sparky were beamed up at the same time they ended up with each other's uniforms and weren't taken inside the Starcruiser either. X-5 had to beam them up one at the time. But somebody took a picture and leaked it in the Galactic Guardians database.
Suddenly the Starcruiser started flying at light speed and stopped near a star. "I think Maximus does have the bracelet," X-5 suspected.
"We need to get away from that star before we get caught in its gravity. Engage manual override!" Betty commanded.
"Manual override engaged," X-5 replied.
"Don't worry chief, we'll get out of this and get your bracelet back," Sparky encouraged.
"Our odds of recovering the bracelet before the Starcruiser is destroyed are 5,745,250 to one" X-5 calculated.
"Why are our odds so bad?" Betty inquired.
"Because X-5 is a pessimistic," Sparky pouted.
"I'm not programmed to be pessimistic; I'm programmed to calculate real statistics. The Starcruiser took a lot of damage escaping from that volcanic plant and the manual override might stop working any second," X-5 explained.
"Then Maximus will have complete control of the Starcruiser," Betty concluded. "We have to get my bracelet back before that happens. Set a course for Maximus' lair at full speed!" Suddenly the Starcruiser spun around, flying in random directions when the manual override failed. "Try to engage the manual override again!"
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Maximus had moved around in his sleep, unknowingly getting the bracelet's cover open and pushing small analog stick against the pillows. He woke up and finally noticed it, why was he wearing such a thing? Did Minimus put it on while he slept? The sidekick would pay for his bad joke. Maximus assumed that the bracelet was only a replica with no real value.
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"We're here," X-5 announced when they finally arrived at the lair. The Starcruiser was in bad shape due to flying into an asteroid field on the way. "What is our plan, captain?"
"Recover the bracelet as soon as possible and get the Starcruiser repaired," Betty replied.
Sparky looked towards the lair and saw Maximus near a window. He zoomed in to the image and clearly saw Maximus throwing something out a window into space on the Starcruiser's screen. "Chief!"
"We'll have to sneak in and take the bracelet," Betty continued.
"Chief!" Sparky called.
"Not now Sparky, I suggest that our plan should be structured in more detail," X-5 requested.
"Chief!" Sparky repeated.
"You'll eat a little later, Sparky. You're right X-5, Maximus is probably waiting for us."
Clearly they were not going to listen to him, so Sparky went outside and recovered the bracelet, which Maximus had angrily thrown out the window, and returned to the ship. "I was trying to say I saw Maximus throw this out the window."
Betty, Sparky and X-5 never understood why Maximus would literally throw away such a good chance to destroy Atomic Betty and Maximus never found out the truth of his mistake.
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Planet 88: Alarming
Sparky's new human disguise was working perfectly. This time nothing could go wrong, or at least not too many things. It finally looked as if he was getting the hang of acting like a human and would have no problems. They had been at the mall for a while visiting different stores. In her bag, Betty carried a flashdrive. "It's so tiny," Sparky had said when he saw it at the electronics store.
"Tiny but kind of expensive," Betty really wanted one of those, plus they were compatible with most computers in most planets so it would be useful. Of course no one knew the technology was 'infiltrated' into Earth from space, but some suspected they were too good to have originated on Earth with their current technological level or lack thereof.
The item was practically flat and only half an inch long. Yet even if it was so small, it could store a lot of data, pictures, video, sound, pretty much anything. "Are you going to buy it chief?" Sparky asked.
"I think I will," Betty tired of carrying a billion disks whenever she needed to save information for school or her missions, the universal serial bus was well, universal.
After purchasing the item, Betty and Sparky were walking around the mall. "Look, comic books!" Sparky pointed to a near by store.
"Let's go take a look," Betty and Sparky walked to the store. But when they entered, something unexpected happened. The alarms at the door sounded off.
"The Earth is under attack!" Sparky yelled. "Run chief run for your life!" He took her hand and ran.
"Stop Sparky, it's okay," Betty was being pulled in circles, until she finally got Sparky to stop. "It's alright; calm down, the Earth isn't under attack."
"Excuse me," an employee from the store approached.
Betty didn't take anything so there was no reason for the alarms to go off. But the mall was full of sales with big signs with the word free printed in bright colors. Of course you only got a free item if you purchased a certain amount of items from those stores. What if Sparky thought free literally meant free? What if he assumed it was alright to take things without paying and took something? No one on Earth would believe his alien innocence and they couldn't find out he was an alien in the first place.
Betty had warned Sparky after that incident at the candy store that free didn't actually mean free. After a long explanation, she thought he understood. He found it very strange, but somehow he understood, it was an Earth thing. "We didn't take anything," Betty voiced.
"It's alright I know you didn't take anything. I see you've been to that electronics store near by," the employee looked at the bag Betty was carrying. "They always forget to deactivate the security chip."
"But it didn't make a sound when I left the store," Betty said.
"That's because their alarm system doesn't activate when a product is registered as sold on their database. The security chip is still active, but it won't cause the alarm to activate because it identifies the product. The only problem with that is that it may still activate alarms from other stores. Ours is really sensitive, it happens all the time. You're the third person today. Let me deactivate it for you so it doesn't go off anywhere else." The employee held a devise that looked similar to a space pistol with its red light aimed at the bag Betty was holding up.
"Chief look out!" Sparky tackled his captain. "You will not hurt the captain villain of Earth!" He aimed his space pistol at the suposed villain.
"Sparky, no!" Betty took the pistol away from Sparky. "Sorry about that." The sound of the alarm at the door had attracted the attention of a few people in the store and now because of Sparky many more were staring.
"It's alright," the employee deactivated the security chip without even taking it out of the bag. "All done, you two have fun looking around and let me know if you need help with anything. But you should leave that kind of water gun games for when you're playing outside. Water isn't good for books."
After the employee was gone, Betty returned Sparky's space pistol, "I told you not to use that here."
"But chief, she had a weapon and she was aiming it at your new keychain. I doubt the keychain would protect you. The laser would have burned through and hit you!" Sparky tried to explain.
"It's a flashdrive not a keychain, they have those in Mars, you should know, X-5 would give you a speech about it if he heard you. Besides, that wasn't a laser weapon, it was only part of the security system," Betty tried to explain. Clearly there were a few things about malls that Sparky still didn't understand. "She was only trying to help to prevent the alarms from going off for no reason again."
Sparky gave Betty a confused look, before letting it go and settling for staying confused, at least for now. He couldn't think with empty stomachs anyway. "I'm getting kind of hungry."
Betty looked at the time display on her bracelet. "It's lunch time. Let's got back to the Starcruiser and get something to eat at a space restaurant."
"How come we can't eat here?" Sparky asked.
"Because you were banned from the food court, remember?" Betty reminded him.
"Oh, yeah, I still don't get it. The offer said all you can eat and I only filled two of my stomachs when they were already throwing me out. Such false advertisement, we should tell the Galactic Guardians," Sparky paused for a moment until he realized who he was. "Wait, we are the Galactic Guardians!"
"Forget about it Sparky. I don't think the Earth is ready for your appetite. Besides, do you remember what I told you about secrets?" Betty asked.
"I remember, chief. I only wish that something could be done to make things less confusing," Sparky thought the mall appeared to be eternal as they continued walking among a large group of people.
"I think putting them out of business because of lack of food was punishment enough." Betty had the consolation that they didn't have to pay anything extra for the food, since the offer was supposed to be all you can eat, but they still got banned.
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Betty and Sparky finally made it out of the mall and contacted X-5 so they could be beamed up to the Starcruiser from the parking lot, between two cars where no one saw them. The sound of an alarm could be heard in the parking lot. Betty looked at Sparky as if telling him she knew he had something to do with it. "I didn't do anything, I only poked it!"
"You're not supposed to poke cars," Betty scolded.
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"I knew you couldn't make it without causing trouble," X-5 greeted them as they were beamed to the ship.
"Hey, I didn't get kicked out of anywhere this time and the alarms only went off twice!" It was not a very good defense for Sparky.
"Need I say more?" X-5 shook his head.
Sparky's stomachs started making loud odd sounds. "Don't say anything, just take us somewhere to eat, I'm starving! Sorry about the alarms chief."
"Never mind," Betty thought she saw Penelope passing by at the moment the alarm went off at the store. Betty had a feeling she wouldn't hear the end of it any time soon. If Betty caught the inconsiderate idiot from the electronics store that forgot to deactivate the security chip after she paid sixty for flashdrive, whoever it may be, would be in big trouble. Betty had a feeling that Penelope would start spreading rumors at school.
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After eating lunch at a space restaurant that was prepared for the appetite of Sparky's species, Betty headed back to Earth. "Betty I'm so glad you're home," her mother greeted as soon as Betty arrived.
"You are?" Betty knew there had to be a catch.
"I was just about to leave to go shopping. It's nice that Purrsey won't have to stay all alone in the house. Take good care of your little brother!" Betty mother left.
The hours passed and Betty spent most of her time trying to keep Purrsey from making a mess that her mother would blame on her.
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Finally, Betty's mom came back from the mall and as usual had many gifts for Purrsey. Betty headed to her room, but her mother called. "Betty wait, I have something for you too!"
"Really?" Betty went to see what it was.
Her mother handed her a bag. "I thought it was simply adorable. It's a little sci-fi so I thought you might like it. The best part is it might remind you of your little brother!"
"What is it?" Betty couldn't imagine what could be sci-fi and remind her of Purrsey. The item inside the bag felt soft, like a plushie and that's exactly what it was, but it wasn't any plushie. This was a Maximus IQ plushie. There was no mistake, the plushie was a miniature replica of the super villain lynx, holding a little red light saber.
"I knew you would love it!" Betty's mother took her daughter's surprise as happiness; then continued giving Purrsey more gifts.
"Thanks mom," Betty managed to say before heading to her room. Could this plushie be one of the items from Max Land? Could this be Maximus' way to tell her he knew of her home planet?
Maybe it wasn't a plushie from Max Land after all, it just couldn't be. Besides, if Maximus knew of her planet it would probably be raining lasers by now. Or he would destroy a random city as a warning. He wouldn't send plushies of him to the planet if he was planning to blow it up. Betty's mother bought that plushie at the mall; it was all only a strange coincidence. Yes, it was only a coincidence; Betty's secret had to be safe.
xoxox xox xoxox
In Maximus' lair, what appeared to be a human arrived. He deactivated his holographic disguise and turned into Minimus. "Mission accomplished, your evilness. All the merchandise was purchased by a store at a mall where they will resell it. It was selling quite well before I left," Minimus' normal face spoke, then he switched to his angry face and continued, "I can't believe I actually found someone stupid enough to buy the left over junk from Max Land. What a planet of shopaholic fools!" A hit to the head made it quit clear that Maximus wasn't going to let his sidekick call his fine merchandise junk.
"Those are high quality products!" Maximus yelled. "What is the name of that planet where my merchandise is being sold?"
"It's Earth, your evilness. A very strange pre-contact planet of humans," Minimus revealed.
'Humans? Could it be Atomic Betty's planet? No, she wouldn't live on a pre-contact planet. There are more than one planet where humans live. Besides, if the people of Earth have such good taste in high quality products, then they can't be anything like Atomic Betty,' Maximus thought. "Minimus, remind me not to blow up that Earth planet."
End of Solar System X
Disclaimer, I don't own Atomic Betty, Swat Kats or Sailor Moon. Planets 82, 83 and 84 are based on the Gameboy Advance videogame. Planet 85 is based on the episode "Sleeping Like a Baby". Planet 87 is based on the episode "Bracelet Yourself".