Episode 2

Episode 2. What do you want? ME TO TELL YOU THE WHOLE STORY?! GET OUTTA HERE!

Darod sat on a bench, wondering at what was ahead, "One assignment can take weeks, months. But this one could take years, with the war going on and all." Darod said to himself.

Suddenly the door to his cellar swung open and a robot walked in, "Gedrin, comma, Darod Black Hole has a message for you."

Darod walked over to the communicator on his desk and watched as a hologram appeared, "Hello." Black Hole said, "Have you finished scheming?"

Darod shook his head,  "With all due respect, it could take weeks to finish my planning. Bounties aren't easy especially with the war going and all."

"Oh, but Darod, you're on the winning side..." Black Hole said, "I can make any arrangements you need, if you need a ship, a crew, or anything, just let me know."

"I work alone."

"I respect that." Black Hole said, boredom in his voice, "Now hurry up with the planning! I don't have all YEAR!" And with that the hologram disappeared.

Darod picked up the communicator and threw it onto the ground.

He sat back down on his bench and thought hard, "If I ever want to leave this place, I need to kill Universe." he scratched his chin, "But how? He's a legend, he can hold ten planets!"

"Let's see..." Darod walked over to the communicator on the ground and picked it up, "Black Hole." he said.

A hologram suddenly appeared, "What now?! Do you have a plan?!"

"I need a profile on Universe, I want to know everything about him."

"I'm afraid that only Galactic Missions has such a profile."

"Then I'm going to go get it." Darod said bravely.

"Are you crazy? HAHAHAHA!" Black Hole laughed.

"What?! I can steal anything!!!"

"Darod, you need a professional. Talk to Osh, my personal master thief."

"Well, where is he?"

"Press the flashing button on your communicator, and then I'll transfer the call."

Darod pressed the red button and suddenly another figure appeared, this one was wearing an odd looking suit, "Hello, I am Darod Gedrin, and I-"

"Yeah, yeah you want me to steal something." Osh said in an annoyed tone.

"Yes that'd be nice." Darod said.

"And what would that be?" Osh asked impatiently.

"A file on Universe."

"Of course of course." Osh said, "I'll send it to you once I get it, bye." his transmission ended.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Darod approached his ship, "Baby, you're okay!" he said excitedly as he ran to his ship and hugged it tightly. He walked slowly over to the entrance, inspecting the ship closely, "Not one scratch. Good." he said as he finally entered the ship.

"Welcome back Darod." a voice said.

"Good to be back, Gerard." Darod said as he walked over to his favorite computer, "I have another job."

"I am not surprised." Gerard said, "And whom are we after now?"

"Captain Universe." Darod said as he sat into the front chair of his chip.

"Interesting." Gerard beeped.

Darod pressed a button on his chair and another computer pad rose from the ground in front of him, "It's been a while since I've manually flown the ship, what upgrades have you made, Gerard?"

"Two." Gerard said, as the hologram projector showed the ship, "Here," he said as an arrow pointed to the engines, "I have fixed the engine that had a little bit of damage after the last skirmish we were in. And I upgraded it to allow us to move twice as fast as we originally could."

"Marvelous, Gerard. Thank you. What was the other upgrade that you mentioned?"

Another arrow pointed at the ship, this time on the cloaking devices, located on both wings, "I have upgraded the cloaking device. Originally if we were near a very powerful sensor, it could still detect us, I have upgraded to the point where they cannot find any trace of us. We can sneak anywhere we want in the galaxy."

"And even the great King Orion can't find us." Darod said happily.

"Well, actually sir, King Orion is pure gravon and gravon is powerful enough to-"

"I know Gerard, it was an exaggeration." Darod said, annoyed.

"Where to, Darod?"

"I would like to find Universe."

"Would you like to fly sir?"

"That would be marvelous, thank you." He said as he took the controls. He guided the ship out of the launching bay and into deep space.

"So Black Hole is forcing you to do this?" Gerard asked.

"Correct." Darod said.

"Why would he allow you to leave his custody?" Gerard questioned.

"Well, there's no way I could run away and not come back. He could find me easily."

"How's your father?"

"He's dead." Darod said.

"How about your mother?"

"Died when she was giving birth to me."

"How about your sister?"

"Don't have one."

"Brother?"

"Gerard do you ever shut up?"

"I'm sorry Captain, but you programmed me to make small talk to keep you occupied."

"Not now, please." 

"Yes sir."

"I'm going to make a warp jump." Darod said as he hit a button.

"Yes sir."

The ship lurched forward, and then made a warp jump.

Darod peered over the scanners, "Gerard do a long range scan for Universe Tower."

"Yes captain." there was beeping and loud screeches. Finally Gerard's voice said, "No sign of them." Another beep, "Incoming message from Osh, captain."

"Marvelous, on screen."

"Did you get the files?" Darod asked excitedly as Osh appeared on the screen.

"I'm transferring them into your computer."

"I have received the files, captain." Gerard said.

"Thank you Osh." Darod said.

"Yeah yeah I've heard it all before, you say thank you, you don't repay me but then you call me and tell me to steal something else for you the next day." Osh's transmission ended.

"Observation: He is not very friendly." Gerard said.

"No he's not."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Darod looked over Universe's file as they flew, "He has a wife! Hmm... Galactica? The senan ambassador?"

"How odd." Gerard said.

"Yeah. Hmm... we'll have to keep her in mind for a hostage." Darod said as he flipped to the next page, "This has the list of his crew members." he thought as he looked them over.

Gerard's voice crackled, "Who is his first officer?"

"Nebula." Darod said with a frown.

"The boy who was frozen in an iceberg?"

"Apparently so."

"I heard he had mental...issues."

"Whatever the case, if he's a first officer he must at least have the basic knowledge that he'd need to work a ship properly. So don't under estimate him."

Darod turned to the next page, "What's this? The list of his assignments for this month and the next?" Darod smiled, "Perfect. Man I wish I had one of these for all of my assignments."

"Where do you think he is going, captain?" Gerard asked.

"Well I'll tell you. He's going to Rodentia."

"Why?" Gerard asked.

"Wait a second, why are you asking me? You have just as much information as I do!"

"I am sorry captain. But you programmed me for small talk."

Darod ignored him and continued, "Well by the looks of things, that's where some of Black Hole's robots are. So I'm guessing he's going down there to fight. Set a course!"

"Yes captain."

"Turn on our cloaking device, then go to warp."

"Yes sir!" Gerard beeped as the ship went to warp.

They came out of warp right behind his ship.

"Follow him, quietly."

"Wouldn't it be easier to take down his ship, captain?"

"Gerard, please stop trying to make small talk."

"Yes captain, it would be impossible. Their ship is much more advanced."

Darod ignored Gerard and kept looking over the files, "Gerard, I'll be honest with you, I don't want to kill him."

"Why not?" Gerard asked.

"Because Gerard, he is the galaxies-my only hope of defeating Black Hole!!"

"Then why not join him?"

"I'm not his friend or anything..."

"I didn't say you were, captain."

Darod sighed, "I do know him... more than you think."

"How?"

**Flashback**

A six year old Darod hummed as he skipped across the play ground. Suddenly, he tripped on someone's foot, he fell to the ground and rolled, "OUCH!" he turned around to see Comet, the school bully, sitting on a bench with his foot out.

"Sorry Gedrin, didn't see you coming!" Comet laughed.

"YOU DID THAT ON PURPOSE!" Darod screamed, running at Comet.

Comet shot a comet at Darod, hardly even looking.

Darod screamed as the comet approached him, suddenly, the comet exploded, but Darod remained unharmed. Darod looked around and discovered that a fist was in front of him, he looked up to see Universe, one of the nicest kids in school, "Thank you Universe!"

Universe smiled and bent down, "No problem kid, just stay away from the big kids." Universe faced Comet and gave him a glare. Comet jumped from his seat and ran.

**Flashback**

"What's wrong with Universe?" a ten year old Darod said to his rodentian friend, Gerard.

They both looked at Universe just sitting in the corner doing nothing.

"I think Comet made fun of him cause he doesn't have parents to come to the Open House and see his projects." Gerard said.

"Doesn't he have Rocky?"

"His adopted dad, that's not the same." Gerard said.

Darod looked with compassion at Universe, "I know what it's like to lose a parent. My mother died when giving birth to me." Darod said with a drawn, sad face.

**Flashback**

A twelve year old Darod laid on the grass, crying softly to himself.

The sounds of footsteps broke the silence.

Darod turned around, ready to kill anyone who dared approach him. He looked up to see Universe, "WHAT DO YOU WANT?!"

"I just wanted to sit here, is that a crime?" Universe said as he sat down next to him.

Darod ignored him and looked the other way.

"Darod, I'm an orphan too. I know what you're going through."

"BUT WHY DID HE HAVE TO DIE?! My ONLY parent!"

Comet walked up behind Darod, "Life sucks, and then you die." he said, almost laughing.

Universe glared at Comet. Comet spun on his heel and ran.

Darod covered his face, "I never even got to say goodbye."

Universe looked at Darod, almost as if saying, "I never got to say hello."

Darod almost lost all anger, but slowly his anger was fueled, "I WILL FIND THE MAN WHO KILLED MY DAD! I WILL! AND I'LL KILL HIM!" Darod leaped to his feet and ran away.

**End of Flashback**

"I didn't know you had a friend named Gerard." Gerard said.

"Yes. He died a week before I had finished creating you. So I named you Gerard. He was my best friend..."

"How was he killed?"

"By the same man who killed my father... I know it."

"How?"

"His arms were tore off and then when he fell to his knees, he was electrocuted to death."

Gerard beeped.

They rode in silence for the next hour, just watching Universe Tower as they continued to pursue it.

Author's Note

The Planning of the Plan