The Chase: Part 2

Our story picks up in deep space with the famous intergalactic photographer Captain Finnian, his co-captain navigator Quixly, and their strong yet gentle friend Bronxin, all flying away from their dangerous enemy Master Zvonix. Master Zvonix just followed them through a wormhole they thought was impossible to get through in a spaceship as large as his massive battleship, and now they are flying for their lives to escape him once again.

“How did he not get destroyed in the Giant Smasher!?” Captain Finnian yelled in frustration as he dodged blasts from the battleship behind them. Quixly had led them to believe that it was nearly impossible for a giant battleship to fly though the wormhole known as the ‘Giant Smasher’ in one piece.

“I don’t know!” Quixly yelled back, his three eyes all wide in fright at their dangerous situation. “It’s never been done before in a spaceship that big!”

Bronxin, a man who used to work with Master Zvonix before he changed his evil ways and escaped, spoke up. “You guys have seen Master Zvonix, you know he’s half robot. He has the precision of a computer and the skill and intuition of a person. It makes him quite the pilot.”

“He’s not a bad shot either!” Captain Finnian yelled as he continued to jerk their spaceship every which way to dodge the torrent of laser and plasma blasts coming towards them. “Quixly, plug in some coordinates and get us out of here NOW!”

“Yes sir!” Quixly yelled. He finished looking through several star charts, punched in some coordinates, and slammed all four of his hands down on the hyper speed button. “Hi-dee ho let’s go!” He said once they were safely in hyper speed. Master Zvonix would be able to follow them, but he couldn’t shoot them at this speed.

Captain Finnian bolted up from his seat and looked at both Quixly and Bronxin with anger in his eyes. “I can’t stand that guy!” He shouted at them. “He has the audacity to fly through the Giant Smasher in a ship that big as if it’s nothing!? As if he’s obviously a better pilot than me!? He thinks he’s so much better, doesn’t he!? Oh, I just can’t stand it!”

Quixly and Bronxin stared at him blankly for a moment. “That’s what bothers you about him?” Bronxin finally asked. “He’s been trying to kill us all day, not to mention he wants to take over the universe after we’re dead. And it bugs you that he’s a better pilot than you?”

Quixly chuckled. “I know ya like to win, Captain, but wowza, are you alright?”

Captain Finnian took a few deep breaths to calm down a bit. “I guess I just wasn’t expecting him to be so good. Oh, I hate that! But you’re right, I need to prioritize. We’ve gotta stop him from trying to kill us before I can figure out who the better pilot is. Where are we going now, Quixly?”

The green Grebotrabin smiled “We’re going to planet Drungklog. Its rings hold the material used to make Waqitill steel, one of the hardest metals in existence. I know Master Zvonix’s ship seems indestructible, but if we can get ‘im to fly through those rings we might be able to do some serious damage to it.”

“That’s not a bad idea.” Captain Finnian said. “It’s definitely worth a shot!”

“I agree, I like that plan.” Bronxin added. “I just hope it works.”

Drungklog was a few hours away at hyper speed, so the team used the time to figure out the details of their plan, and to mentally prepare for the challenging flight ahead of them.

“Wowza, time flies when you’re trying to escape an evil villain” Quixly said once they were nearly there. “Get ready to fly, Captain, this’ll be rough!”

Captain Finnian, back in his captain’s chair, nodded in response. More than just his competitive spirit, he wanted to fly well to keep his friends safe.

The ship pulled out of hyper speed a short distance away from the planet. The friends, all of them avid photographers, took a moment to take in the beauty of the scene in front of them. The planet itself was dark orange with small spots of green throughout. The rings were light blue and grey. All together it made a stunning sight.

Captain Finnian flew down closer to the rings, and as expected saw that they were made of countless pieces of rock and ice. His ship was relatively small, so he’d be able to fly between the obstacles. Master Zvonix’s ship was at least a hundred times bigger, and was almost spherical in shape, made up of armored hexagons. He’d have no chance of avoiding the obstacles if he chose to fly through the rings.

“Here he comes!” Bronxin yelled as he saw the massive battleship pull out of hyper speed behind them. Immediately, Captain Finnian thrust their ship into the rings and started ducking and weaving through the rocks and ice. Master Zvonix tried shooting at them, but there were too many obstacles in the way for the blasts to get through. So, as they hoped, he pushed his ship forward into the rings.

“Yeehaw, he’s following us!” Quixly cheered. “Watch closely, let’s see if this works!”

Quixly and Bronxin watched the ship behind them as Captain Finnian focused on flying through the rings safely. The massive battleship collided with hundreds of rocks and ice shards. Some of the obstacles were nearly as big as the battleship itself, but surprisingly he just plowed right through. Nothing was making even a dent in his ship.

“What on planet ZX-30 is that thing made of!?” Quixly moaned, watching his second plan to thwart their enemy fall to pieces.

“Goodness, I don’t know.” Bronxin replied. “Even the giant rocks are barely slowing him down. You’d need an entire planet to smash that ship.”

There was silence for several seconds, and then in unison both Quixly and Captain Finnian yelled “Rocky!”

“What?” Bronxin asked.

“You’re a genius!” Captain Finnian said with delight as he continued to expertly fly through the rings. “Why didn’t we think of that earlier?”

Quixly started looking through his star charts with a clear goal in mind. “It’ll be so fun to see him again!”

“What are you guys talking about?” Bronxin asked again, completely out of the loop.

Quixly punched some coordinates into his screen, and then turned to Captain Finnian. “As soon as ya get us clear of the rings, I’ll send us into hyper speed, the coordinates are in! Wowza, this’ll be fun!”

“Sounds good!” Captain Finnian replied and took a quick dive with their ship. He flew around the last few obstacles, and Quixly hit the hyper speed button as soon as they were clear, leaving Master Zvonix behind once again.

“What is Rocky? Where are we going?” Bronxin asked a third time.

“Not what, who.” Captain Finnian replied, a big smile on his face. “He’s an old friend of ours, and I think he might be the answer to our problem.”

Quixly spoke up as well. “You said we’d need a planet to smash that ship. Rocky’s the guy for the job!”

Bronxin stared at them confused. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re taking us to a living planet that can smash Master Zvonix between his hands.”

“That’s exactly what we’re saying!” Captain Finnian said joyfully.

“No way.” Bronxin said. “If that’s real, why have I never seen a picture of him?”

“We’re the only ones who’ve found ‘im.” Quixly said. “And our cameras were broken so we couldn’t take a picture.”

“You guys are messing with me.” Bronxin replied.

“You’ll see.” Captain Finnian said. He looked at the navigation screen in front of him. “But it looks like we have some time before we get there. Let’s enjoy the ride.”

For the next few hours, the three photographers looked at photos and talked and laughed. The thought of seeing Rocky again and having a solution to destroy Master Zvonix put Captain Finnian and Quixly in a great mood. Even though Bronxin was skeptical, he couldn’t help but lift his spirits as well.

It took several hours, and two wormhole jumps to finally get to their destination. Once there they pulled out of hyper speed and saw what looked like a giant wall of moving asteroids in front of them.

“Bronxin, take control of my guns.” Captain Finnian said as he approached the wall. “There’re too many obstacles here to take any chances. Shoot down anything in our way small enough to destroy. I’ll avoid the rest.” Quixly was setting up his guns as well.

Master Zvonix pulled out of hyper speed and started shooting at them right as they got to the asteroids. Captain Finnian accelerated, and they flew right into the mess. Bronxin and Quixly started shooting like mad to destroy as many asteroids as they could while Captain Finnian expertly dodged everything else. Behind them, Master Zvonix stopped shooting, almost as if to show off the brute power of his battleship as it smashed through all the obstacles in his way. Some of the asteroids were several times bigger than even his ship, and although it slowed him down, none of them even left a scratch.

Finally, after several minutes of intense flying and shooting, they came out the other side and saw what looked like an asteroid the size of a small planet ahead of them. Bronxin realized that it wasn’t a wall of asteroids they had flown through, but a bunch of orbiting asteroids around the planet.

“Hi Rocky!” Quixly yelled as he waved at the planet. “How are ya?” The planet didn’t move.

“Are you guys sure you know what you’re doing?” Bronxin asked.

“I sure hope so!” Captain Finnian replied as he flew closer to the planet. Quixly continued to wave and talk to the planet sized rock.

Master Zvonix then came through the last asteroids and slowed his spaceship down. Surprisingly, he didn’t shoot.

Captain Finnian had a firm grip on his controls as he waited for the blasts to come. But rather than lasers or plasma, a video call came instead.

“He must get lonely on that big empty spaceship of his.” Captain Finnian said, and then answered the call. Master Zvonix appeared on the other side, a malicious grin on his face.

“I must admit, you’ve avoided me longer than expected.” He told them in his robotic voice. “But alas, here we are. Surrounded by asteroids in a place where you can’t use hyper speed to get away from me. I believe you’re trapped.”

“Get on with it, why don’t you just shoot us?” Captain Finnian said. “Afraid you’ll keep missing?”

Master Zvonix chuckled. “Oh, I won’t miss for much longer, not in this environment. I just wanted to take a moment to reflect on the irony of it all. When your spaceship first came to my space station all three of you were trapped there. I made a foolish mistake in trusting Bronxin’s loyalty to me, and against the odds you escaped. Yet, in your attempt to get away from me you’ve come full circle. Back to me, trapped and in my control. And this time, you won’t get away.”

“We’ll see about that.” Captain Finnian replied. Quixly was still waving and talking to the planet, which had shown zero signs of life so far.

“Yes, we will see, and I’m excited to watch.” Master Zvonix replied. His evil grin was even more menacing with half his face being robotic. “Now that you can’t go into hyper speed, I get to use my favorite little weapon.” He pushed a button and one of the hexagons on his ship opened, spitting out a small round object that started to come towards them.

“It’s a tracking bomb.” Master Zvonix explained. “It will continue to accelerate until it reaches you, and it will have no problem avoiding asteroids if you try to escape that way. The only way to escape it is through hyper speed, which you obviously can’t use while trapped in a sphere of obstacles.” At this point the bomb had picked up speed, and Captain Finnian started flying away. He went as fast as he could, but the bomb slowly started gaining on them.

“Rocky!” Quixly yelled, panic starting to set in to his voice. “Wake up! We need you!” The planet remained lifeless.

“This might have been a bad idea!” Captain Finnian said as he continued to fly a losing race against the bomb.

“You think!?” Bronxin exclaimed. “What were you hoping for here!?”

“I was hoping for…” Captain Finnian started, when suddenly a sudden shadow appeared behind them, and the rattling of an explosion.

They all turned and saw the planet now in the rough shape of a man. The planet’s finger had reached out and stopped the bomb from reaching their spaceship.

“I was hoping for that.” Captain Finnian said, a look of relief on his face.

“Rocky!” Quixly yelled. “Thank you! We missed ya! How are ya?”

The planet, Rocky, smiled and waved back at Quixly. Bronxin’s jaw dropped. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. But it was there, and it had just saved their lives.

“What the…” Master Zvonix said, equally as shocked, and still on the video call. He released several more bombs, but Rocky reached out his hand and stopped those too.

“Thank you!” Quixly said again. “Now Rocky! The man in that spaceship is evil! We need you to smash ‘im!” He made a smashing motion by pounding a fist into his hand.

Rocky tilted his head and repeated the motion, but just in the air. It seemed he either didn’t understand or didn’t want to smash Master Zvonix.

“You think you’re so smart, getting help from this beast!” Master Zvonix yelled, rage building up in his voice. “Well, no one is more powerful than me! No one I say!” He turned his ship and started shooting at Rocky. Hundreds and hundreds of laser shots, plasma bolts, and bombs started raining down upon the planet. But while Master Zvonix’s ship was big, it was nothing next to Rocky.

Rocky looked down with curiosity at his chest where the blasts were hitting him. He didn’t seem to be bothered by the pain. Master Zvonix, on the other hand, started yelling profanities and smashing the control panel in front of him, sending more and more shots towards the planet.

Captain Finnian turned the video call off. “No need to ruin the show by listening to that.” He said. “Now we just need to figure out how to get Rocky to crush him.”

Rocky suddenly lifted his finger and started to move it towards the source of the incoming blasts as if curious about the attacking ship.

Master Zvonix made no attempt to move, and when Rocky’s finger reached the spaceship, he gently touched the front of it. At least, it looked like a gentle touch from the distance Captain Finnian and his crew were watching from. But the tip of Rocky’s finger was a hundred times bigger than even Master Zvonix’s ship, and so the collision destroyed all the guns on the front of it.

“I’m sure that didn’t make him happy.” Bronxin said, and the three of them imagined Master Zvonix pounding on his control panel even harder. The issue was that the guns were now smashed. So rather than shooting they started to flash brighter and brighter as if building up immense amounts of potential energy with no way to release them.

“Oh my gosh, he’s going to destroy himself.” Captain Finnian said.

The light kept increasing in intensity, when all the sudden it released in the largest explosion they had ever seen. Captain Finnian had to quickly grab his controls to dodge the shrapnel that shot towards them. For an intense few seconds, he flew with everything he had to keep them alive, and then the shrapnel was past, and they stopped moving.

The battleship was obliterated. Master Zvonix was destroyed. He ended himself through his own anger and pride.

After a moment of shock while the reality of what happened sunk in, Quixly was the first to speak. “Yahooie!!! Gee wizzy dizzy we won! We’re safe! The universe is saved! Yeehaawie!!!”

Captain Finnian started laughing, and Bronxin started crying, both releasing their pent-up emotions in their own ways. But they all rejoiced together, because they had finally won.

“We need a picture!” Quixly yelled suddenly. He ran to the closet and grabbed his ARV-3500, an older camera that printed out pictures it took. He set it up and put the timer on, then jumped over to Captain Finnian and Bronxin, who both were smiling at the camera. Behind them, Rocky smiled too.

The camera flashed, and out printed four copies of the picture. Quixly pasted his into his homemade portfolio he liked to put pictures in, Captain Finnian pinned his above his navigation screen, and Bronxin put his in the inside pocket of his vest. They ejected the fourth one out to Rocky, who they hoped would be able to see it and keep it for the memory.

As they flew away, Captain Finnian looked at his friends and smiled. “It’s a crazy life we live. Through all the wild adventures we have and all the changes that never seem to end, I’m so grateful to have friends like you.” The others agreed, feeling the same.

“So, what should we do now?” Bronxin asked.

“I could go for something to eat.” Quixly said.

They all laughed. “I guess some things never change.” Captain Finnian replied. “So, let’s go find somewhere to eat, and once we’re full and rested, let’s go exploring!”