Colin and Andrew walked along a dirt path near Knothole, talking. It was near sunset, so the sky made a very spectacular view. But, Colin and Andrew being themselves didnąt pay much attention to a regular old _sunset_.
"So," said Andrew shuffling his feet, "How's it going with you and Violet?"
Colin raised an eyebrow, mildly annoyed. "Is that any concern of yours?"
"No." Andrew grinned. "I just wanted to ask anyway."
Colin sighed and kicked a rock out of his way.
"Ouch!"
Colin and Andrew stopped. "Who's there?"
"Look down, you idiots!"
Colin looked down, confused. "Where?"
"I'm the rock you just kicked!" said the rock on the ground.
Colin and Andrew's eyes went wide. They bent down. "Seriously?"
"Well, duh. How else would I be talking to you?" asked the rock in an matter-of-fact voice.
The Hedgehog and the Wildcat both went white. "Wussamatter?" asked the rock, "You look like you've seen a ghost!"
"Even worse," said Colin, "A TALKING ROCK!"
With a puff of dust, Colin and Andrew were gone.
For a moment, all was silent. Then, suddenly, a fox head poked out from the bushes. Jakkon leaped out of the bushes, holding a microphone. He proceeded to collect the cord that protruded from the microphone and was connected to the rock. Jakkon grinned and picked up the rock.
"I just hate myself when I do things that that," chuckled Jakkon. He spread his arms. "Meet the King of Practical Jokes!"
He strode off in the direction that Colin and Andrew had gone, all the time smirking to himself.
"A stupid rock, talking!" snorted Jakkon. "Imagine that!"
"Excuse me!" said a voice.
Jakkon stopped.
"Stupid rocks indeed!" said the rock next to him.
"Imagine that!" said another, mocking his words.
With _another_ puff of dust, Jakkon was gone.
Jerena stepped out from the bushes opposite the one that Jakkon had stepped out of, tossing a microphone.
"King, eh? Well, King, meet the Queen!"
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1997 Liquid Metal II: The Error By Derek J. Barbee
Any resemblance to actual characters is not coincidental. ; )
Joseph, Bahb, and all other independent creations of Joseph DeLaCroix are the copyrighted property of JoCo Inc. Commander Packbell, Bookshire Draftwood, and Sandra Nightweaver are the copyrighted property of David Pistone. All rights reserved. Pause for bourgeois legalities: This story is copyright ©1996 by the author, who grants permission to reproduce and distribute it, so long as A) you don't screw around with it and leave the text as it is, and B) you don't try and make some cash off of it. If you're serious about the latter, drop me a line barbees@sonic.net and we'll discuss my cut. All the normal provisions of Title 17 (the U.S. Copyright Law) still apply.
Based on characters and situations created by Sega Corporation, Archie Comics and/or DiC Productions. Bookshire Draftwood may appear in this story courtesy of David Pistone Talent Associates.
A link to my Webpage is now in my Copyright notice. It can be reached at http://www.sonic.net/~barbees/derek/index.html Enjoy! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Time Line: A few weeks after "Retribution."
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Author's Note: A couple of things, really. This time I used a different format for my story (you may have noticed already). It is the same way they start the comic books: the story starts for a few pages, _then_ they put the title and credits and all that jazz. The second thing is, I'm going to start doing something new in my stories. In my Copyright notice there will be a link to my Webpage. That's all for now, so enjoy the story!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "A party?" gaped Colin. "Like one of those Fancy Ball Cinderella thingies?"
"Yes," sighed Violet," a ball."
Colin shook his head. "Uh uh! I do not do balls! None of that fancy stuff! Sophisticated and all that jazz!" He took on a rich and important face and pointed his nose up in the sir. He strutted around importantly, trying to look sophisticated. He stopped. "Ahh, my good sir. I couldn't help but notice that ugly little bump on your neck - Ohhhhhhh, I am so _dreadfully_ sorry! It's your head!" Colin strutted of in the other direction.
Colin stopped and turned around, shaking his head. "No way."
Violet giggled. "Not even for little ol' me?" she asked nuzzling up next to him.
Colin froze. "Did I say I didn't do parties? Oops! I meant I didn't do . . . beach parties! Yeah, that's it! All that sand getting up your nose . . . constant irritation. . . hot sun . . ."
Violet put a hand to his lips, silencing him. "Shhhh."
Colin sighed and melted into a chair. "Okay. I'll go."
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"Master Colin Glassman and Madame Violet Supra," announced the butler.
Colin looked around. "Whoa!"
The room was packed with people and rich, sophisticated people at that. There was one extremely large table in the center of the room, and all the animals sat together. Colin snapped his fingers. "If only I had a camera. The tabloids would have a field day with this!"
Violet elbowed him. "Please, Colin. Try not to act like a commoner."
"But Violet, I _am_ a commoner!"
"Well don't show it!" snapped Violet.
"Luncheon is served," said another butler.
They sat down at the enormous table, amongst the hundreds of other animals. Colin shook his head. "How the heck did you get access to this place? I never knew you were rich!"
Violet sighed. "When my father died, he left us a map of how to get to some money that he had buried in the forest."
"Cool! Buried Treasure!"
Violet smiled. "Yes, that's one way of putting it."
Colin rested his hand on Violet's. "But you realize that I was interested in you even before I knew you were rich."
"He shoots . . . he scores!"
Colin whipped his head around and groaned. Jakkon, Andrew, Chris, Jerena and the kits sat down the table a distance, but not to far from him and Violet. "How did you dimwits get in here? I thought this was supposed to be some sort of rich ball!"
Jakkon tapped a finger upside his head. "Ya forget, me heartie, that we know a princess!"
Colin groaned again. "Princess Sally let you in?"
"Yup!" said Chris.
"Great. Just great."
Violet put on an amused face. "So, Jerena," she called over, "How's married life treating you?"
Jerena smiled. "Oh it's . . ." she looked over at Jakkon and the kits. "Interesting," she finished.
Violet laughed. "Well, all of you don't just sit over there, come on over so we don't have to yell across the room to talk."
There was much scraping of chairs and shuffling as Jakkon, Jerena, the kits, Andrew and Chris all stood up and came over and occupied the chairs next to Colin and Violet.
"Well," said Andrew, "we're all here, so how about a game of annoy the waiter?"
Jakkon snapped his fingers. "I say, good show, old lad!"
"Old lad?"
"It's a figure of speech, ya dolt."
The waiter came over and began passing out menus. "Good evening, ladies and gentleman," he said politely.
"I don't know 'bout _gentle_man," said Chris, eyeing Jakkon, "last time I saw Jakkon here, he was blowin' up Robotropolis plenty good!"
"The special for today is Jorn, the meat of a small insentient creature much like a small boar," continued the waiter.
"Is it dead?" asked Colin in a peculiar voice.
"Yes, sir."
"That's good," said Colin, nodding his head.
Chris frowned. "Okay, that point for you, but I'm still ahead."
The waiter snapped his fingers and another waiter appeared, bearing a bottle of Champagne in a bucket of ice. "Who would like Champagne?" asked the waiter.
"Me me me me!" cried Dakkon, holding up a wine glass.
"Okay," said Jakkon, looking around, "Who wants ta break it ta him?"
"And Jakkon is in the game," said Jerena, smiling.
"Mommy?" asked Runa, turning to Jerena, "Why does that waiter have a cloud stucked on 'is face?"
"That's a beard, dear."
"Oh."
Colin passed the menu back to the waiter. "I'll have the Bean Soup, please."
"Very good, sir."
"Well, I should hope it is, that's why I ordered it! And how would you know, have you been sneaking little tastes in the back room?" asked Colin suspiciously.
"Point three for Colin!" exclaimed Andrew.
The waiter went to the kitchens and returned shortly, carrying a bowl of soup on a tray. "Your soup sir," said the waiter, setting it before Colin.
Colin was about to dig his spoon into the soup when Jakkon coughed. "Ah, Colin, do ya know what that sort of blinkin' soup is made out of these days?"
"Oh, no! Here we go again!"
Jakkon counted on his fingers as he spoke. "Dogwort for flavor, lizard's tails and claws, pig's feet and snouts, whiskers of cats, feathers of chickens . . . "
Colin dropped his spoon into the bowl. "Those are not in . . . "
Colin froze.
"What's wrong?" asked Jakkon. "Did ya finally taste some bally pigs feet?"
Colin quickly started shaking his sleeve and looking into it. "No! A bean went down my sleeve!"
Jakkon laughed and Violet slapped a hand to her forehead. Josh started dancing, imitating Colin's movements.
"You, shake it to left, you shake it to right . . . " hummed Chris.
An educated possum next to Colin took this moment to glance over to see what Colin was doing. The possum blinked and lowered his spectacles. "Excuse me, sir, but what _are_ you doing?"
"I'm looking for a bean," stated Colin, "go away."
The possum blinked a couple more times and turned away.
Violet stood up and put a hand on Colin's shoulder. "Come on, there's someone I'd like you to meet."
While Colin was getting up, Violet whispered to Jerena: "Anything to get him away from the beans!"
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"Now the chef we are going to meet is a an old friend of my father's," said Violet, walking down the hall with Colin. "He is the Grand Chef for this dinner and he can prepare anything we would like."
Colin raised his eyebrows. "Anything? Hmmmm."
Violet elbowed him. "That's right, so don't go pushing it."
Jakkon rolled his eyes. "That'll be the bally day. Colin's got enough push in one little finger ta knock over a blinkin' rhino!"
Jakkon had insisted on coming with them to the kitchens, just to make sure that Colin didn't get things all bungled up, he said. When they got to the kitchens, a squirrel in waiter garb came over to greet them.
"Ahhhh, Miss Supra!" bowing elegantly, "Chef Pierre De Lamont is waiting for you."
Colin looked over at Violet. "This guy French?"
Violet nodded and they continued into the main cooking room. A burly wombat smiled and came over to greet them, all the time speaking in rapid French.
Violet smiled and shook his hand. Colin followed her example. "Now's the time I get to try out my French!" he said to Violet.
Colin cleared his throat and stood up straight. "For my dinner tonight I would like votre soeur a la moutarde."
The waiter's eye's practically bugged out of his head. "Sir, you just ordered the chef's _sister_ with mustard!"
Colin flinched. "Keep practicing," whispered Jakkon.
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Colin sighed and plopped himself down in his seat. "Well, that was sure a disaster!"
"Really?" asked Jakkon, chewing on a piece of carrot, "I thought it was quite entertaining!"
"That's one man's point of view."
"Ahem! One fox's point of view!"
"Same difference."
A hare waiter came up, holding a bowl of soup, this time with no beans. At that precise moment, Josh ran out from under the table being chased by Dakkon and Runa yelling: "The Cavalry's here! Chaaaaarge!"
The poor hare attempted to keep his balance, but was unsuccessful. He toppled over onto the table, the bowl of soup flying in the air. Everyone either flinched or covered there eyes as there was a tremendous crash.
When everyone uncovered their eyes, The waiter was lying on the table with food scattered everywhere, and Colin's soup upside down on his head. Colin snapped his fingers at another waiter who was coming to see what the problem was.
"Oh waiter! Waiter! There seems to be a _hare_ in my soup!"
It was too much. Everyone cracked up laughing as the waiter looked at Colin with a look of contempt. The waiter stood up and looked at his soggy clothes. He pointed at Colin before striding off to the kitchen.
"May a squirrel the size of an elephant sit on your birthday cake!"
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The next day, Colin and Jakkon were sitting in a regular bar, after Colin insisted that they go nowhere fancy for a while. Colin groaned and looked over at Jakkon. "Well, that was certainly not the most successful evening I've ever had!"
Jakkon nodded. "It's good to get back to the basics again once in a while."
They both looked over at a rather scruffy looking rat who was pounding on the table. "Barkeep!" asked the rat, "Did I come in here last night and spend a twenty dollar bill on drinks?"
"Yes, you did," replied the barkeeper.
The rat sighed in relief. "Oh that is such a relief! I thought I lost it!"
Colin looked over at Jakkon. "The basics, you say? Maybe a bit _too_ basic for my liking."
"Check please!" called Jakkon.
As they walked out of the bar, Jakkon cocked his head. "On my signal . . . duck and move, troops!"
Colin and Jakkon both dove to opposite sides as two streams of water hit the ground where they had just been standing. Jakkon stuck his head out of the bushes. "I take it this means that you want to have the Official Paint Ball Gun Wars again?"
Andrew stepped out from behind a tree, bearing a Paintball gun. "You bet it does!" He scowled. "And how come you always know when we're coming?"
Chris fluttered down beside Andrew, holding his gun in his claws. "Yeah! Me want to know, too!"
Jakkon smiled. "Oh, ya know me. I've always had a little likeness for spy stuff. And a true spy should be able ta spot . . ." He tapped his ear, ". . . or hear, enemies."
"Punk."
Jakkon reached into his pocket and pulled out a mini Paintball gun. "A true spy should never be unprepared, either!" he exclaimed gleefully as he shot two blasts of paint at Chris and Andrew.
"Get down!" yelled Andrew and dove for the bushes.
Chris fluttered just out of the way in time to avoid the surprisingly large balls of paint. Jakkon pushed Colin toward the woods. "Go!" he called, "I'll be right with ya!"
Jakkon stopped firing and grinned. "And last but bally not least, a true spy should always have a 'Plan B'!"
With that he shot away into the bushes, following the route Colin had taken.
Andrew stepped out of the bush, spitting leaves left and right. He growled at the disappearing Jakkon as Chris fluttered down to join him. "You want war? You'll get war!"
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"Eulaliaaaaaaa!"
"Tu-Yaaaaaaaaaaa!"
"Chaaaaaaaaaarge!"
"Attaaaaaaaaaaaack!"
Three forces charged toward each other, firing paint as they went. The group had been divided up into three teams: Team JC, Team AC and Team JJRD. Team JC consisted on Jakkon and Colin, the J standing for Jakkon and C for Colin. Team AC consisted of Andrew and Chris, the A standing for Andrew and the C for Chris. Team JJRD consisted of Jerena, Josh, Runa and Dakkon, the first J standing for Jerena, the second J for Josh, the R for Runa and the D for Dakkon.
Team JC preferred the tactic of getting in as close as possible without getting hit, dodging paint balls as you went, then ducking off into the trees, where it was impossible to be followed. Team AC preferred the in-your-face tactic, always getting as close as they could and rapidly firing shots with amazing accuracy. Team JJRD preferred guerrilla tactics, hiding behind rocks and trees while they shot. This proved a very successful strategy.
Jakkon ducked low as Andrew fired a shot. "Is that the best ya can do?" he called out mockingly.
Andrew fired again while replying. "Is that an intelligent question?" he fired once more, hitting Jakkon on the tip of his long fox nose. Jakkon sneezed and leapt to his feet.
"Colin! To me!"
Colin fired one last shot at Jerena and another at Chris and came running to Jakkon.
"Ta the woods!" cried Jakkon.
Both Jakkon and Colin sprinted for the trees, with the other two teams hot in pursuit. Jakkon ducked behind a tree and began firing at the approaching threat. Colin followed his example and was rewarded with a cry from Andrew.
Colin laughed. "I got 'im right in the schnozz!"
Jerena kneeled behind a pair of bushes with Josh, Runa and Dakkon. "Okay," she panted, "Here's the plan! In the Official Paint Ball Gun Wars, if you are hit on any part of your body, it renders that part of you useless. Andrew hit your father on the nose, but that won't help us much because Jakkon doesn't use his nose to fire a paint ball gun!"
Runa made a face at the thought and Jerena continued.
"Try to hit him on his right hand. He's not very good at shooting with his left, so it'll give us an advantage." Jerena looked at Dakkon. "Since you're amazingly good at blending in with the background, camouflage stuff . . ."
Dakkon grinned and twirled his gun. "I picked it up from Dad!" he contributed.
". . . you'll try to get your father and Uncle Colin from behind. Runa, you and Josh come with me. Let's go!"
Team JJRD deployed themselves silently.
There was an enormous amount of crossfire going on between Teams JC and AC.
It all abruptly stopped in three seconds flat when the ground started rumbling.
Andrew cursed as he was thrown flat on his back and Chris squawked in surprise. Jakkon said something but no one heard it because Jakkon had his face mashed into the grass. Colin didn't fare much better. He wasn't even _trying_ to get back up.
The ground continued rumbling and now a section in the ground was crumbling. Everyone held on as an immense abyss appeared in the center of the battlefield. The rumbling noise stopped, and was immediately replaced by the swirling roar of wind. Gales of wind roared out of the chasm, tearing a hole in the treetops. The wind stopped and a green mist floated out of the hole.
By now, everyone was wondering what in Ezekiel's name was going on.
The green mist began to solidify as it touched down on the ground. It molded and twirled finally ending up in the shape of . . .
"Joseph!" cried all that were present.
Joseph smiled and shrugged his shoulders.
"Surprise!"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After a bit of explaining was done, it turned out that this was a summons. Joseph had come to ask them if they would like to see a new invention that he had come up with. Also, Joseph was learning some new magic from Mob and he wanted to have a little . . . display, as Joseph coined it quaintly.
Jakkon eyed Joseph and then the hole in the ground. "All right, we'll go. The main road is a few miles away, though . . ."
Joseph grinned and glanced at the hole. "I was thinking more around the terms of a slightly . . . shorter route."
Andrew groaned. "You can't mean...?"
Joseph pointed to the hole. "We'll be at my dome in about fourteen seconds."
"Oh, all right."
Without a word, Joseph leaped into the hole. Colin gulped and followed, and soon the rest of them, even Andrew joined him.
Falling through the hole was like limbo. You felt like you were falling, yes, but at the same time you still felt like your feet were on the ground. After about ten seconds everyone began to see light at the end of the tunnel.
"Almost there," came Joseph's voice.
Everyone popped out of another hole in the ground identical to the one in the forest. Everyone came out, yes, but they were all in the form of green mist! Colin laughed as he began to solidify.
"Cool! I look like a ghost!"
He began to reach his hand to touch a tree, but Joseph stopped him. "If you touch anything while you're solidifying, even other people, when you fully solidify, you'll become merged with that object."
Colin hastily pulled his hand away.
When Joseph was fully solid again, he explained further. "You see," he said, "When you become a green mist, your molecules, the things that make up your body, are floating around very freely. But when you're solidifying, your molecules are coming together to form you again, so if your molecules with anything else's, the two sets of molecules will become merged, make one _big_ object."
"Jeez," snorted Jakkon, "ya're worse than Rotor!"
"Anyway," said Joseph, ignoring the wisecrack, "that's not what I wanted you to come here for."
"Oh?" questioned Jerena, raising an eyebrow.
"We wanna know! We wanna know!" chimed in the three young vulpines.
Joseph waved at hand at them. "What I really wanted to show you is in the lab. Sandra is already waiting there."
Everything around them shimmered and faded. Then, almost as quickly as their surroundings had disappeared, they reappeared. Now they were underground, in Joseph's lab.
As Joseph had said, Sandra was waiting for them and she came over to greet them once they arrived. Jakkon looked around and whistled. "Whew! Rotor would love this place!"
The room was brimming with test tubes that contained bubbling concoctions, bowls of steaming liquid, and just about everything else you'd expect to find in a laboratory.
Joseph walked over to one corner and hit a few buttons on the wall. With a swish, a panel in the wall opened. Everyone gasped at what they saw. Inside the small space was what looked like a suit of armor. It was completely silver, and gave you the feeling that it was moving. Yet it never moved off the stand where it stood.
Jakkon blinked and turned to Joseph. "Now tell me honestly here, Joe. Did ya or didn't ya make a suit of armor out of _liquid metal_?"
"So that's what it was!" thought everyone in the room except Joseph, Jakkon and Sandra.
Joseph smiled and walked over to it. "After our experience with Liquid Metal Sandra and Liquid Metal Joseph I decided to do some experimenting." he said, gesturing toward the armor. "I thought that if I just heated the Liquid Metal pair up again, they would come back to life. Well, that would be interesting, but they would probably still be under our deceased friend Packbell," stated Joseph, eyeing Jakkon as he mentioned Packbell, "and we couldn't risk having the pair storm around Knothole, destroying everything."
"True," came the reply.
Joseph continued. "So what I did was I slowly cut off bits of the pair, and melted those down separately. It worked. Apparently, the chemicals that Packbell had included while making Liquid Metal Joseph and Liquid Metal Sandra expired." Joseph sighed. "Most of this suit of armor is held in place by a small chip that I put in." He winked. "But not before I induced some magic into it."
Colin glanced at the armor. "So how does it work? I mean, how would you get it on? It's liquid! Have you every tried to bend water to a shape that you wanted?"
"Oh, yes, Colin," murmured Andrew, "many times, many times."
Colin shot a look at Andrew that could have frozen fire before continuing. "So what, do you have some sort of remote control for it?" he asked Joseph.
Joseph shook his head. "All you have to do is . . . touch . . . it . . . KID, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
All this time, Josh had been sneaking closer to the suit of armor, and now he was reaching a hand toward it. Joseph dove, but it was too late.
Josh touched it.
The swirling metal mass jumped off the stand and latched onto Josh's arm. Josh shrieked and shook his arm. The liquid metal moved up his arm with amazing speed, covering his arm in a plaster of liquid metal. In a few seconds, Josh was completely covered and all that stood there was a liquid metal form of Josh.
Jakkon ran over and grabbed Josh. "Can ya breathe in there?" he asked hurriedly.
Josh nodded. When he spoke, it sounded just like him, only his voice sounded slightly like he was speaking underwater. "I can hear you, too!"
Now Josh looked over his new armor. "Cooooool!" he exclaimed.
Josh had all the same features, only it looked as though he was made of liquid metal.
Everyone was rather thunderstruck at this sudden event, but after a moment they recovered. Jerena began screaming at Joseph, demanding to know why he let this be within a child's reach, while Dakkon and Runa went over and began feeling Josh's new set of armor. Colin, Chris and Andrew didn't know how they could improve this situation, but they definitely knew that if they tried to talk to someone, it wouldn't help things much, so they stayed quiet.
Jakkon folded his arms. "Get the blinkin' armor off. Now!"
Joseph faltered. "Er . . . well, that's sort of the problem."
Jerena joined him. "And what is _that_ supposed to mean?"
Joseph sighed and gave in. "I don't know how," he admitted. He turned to Josh. "Look. It's liquid! Like Colin was saying, there is almost no way to form liquid to your will."
Dakkon added in a comment as he walked by casually. "Why not just undo magic spell that you put on armor, Mista Jofeph?"
Joseph blinked.
Jakkon snapped his fingers. "Why not?" he exclaimed.
Joseph thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. "No. I'd have to get the chip out of the armor to do that."
"So can't ya part the armor with yer magic ta get the chip?"
"I would, but I might hurt Josh."
"Can ya at least find the chip?"
"No, the armor is metal and so is the chip so I couldn't find it."
Jakkon threw up his hands in disgust. "Isn't there something ya can do?"
Joseph looked at Josh, who was at this point making little shapes pop out of his armor and doing a miniature puppet show for Dakkon and Runa. Joseph looked warily at his equipment. "I could send a slight power surge to the suit of armor and it might make the chip come to the surface of the suit of armor, letting us grab it!"
"Would it hurt Josh?" asked Jerena with equal caution.
Joseph shook his head. "No, only give him a slight jolt."
"Jolt or no jolt, you're getting that friggin' armor off my son," demanded Jakkon, jabbing a finger in Joseph's face, making him take a step back.
"Eesh!" muttered Joseph and walked over to a control panel and began hitting some buttons.
Jakkon knelt beside Josh and pout a hand on Josh's shoulder. Jakkon found it difficult to look Josh in the face when he could not see Josh's normal eyes, face, or even his whiskers. But he spoke to him anyway. "Hey, kid," he said, "ya like tickling, right?"
Josh giggled and nodded.
"Well, how would ya like ta get a _big_ tickle?"
"Okay!"
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A few minutes later, Josh was hooked up to so many wires he looked like a porcupine with veerrry long quills. Joseph had instructed Sandra on which button to push. Joseph explained that when the chip was removed and the magic was disabled, the armor would disintegrate into a metal dust. Joseph stood over Josh with pliers ready, but not before explaining that it would not be easy to just pluck the chip from the armor.
Josh found it all rather unnerving, Joseph standing over him with pliers in his hand and him with thousands of little metal wires sticking into him, er, the armor. And most of all, himself! He was covered in a layer of metal that felt incredibly weird, but he didn't say anything in fear of upsetting his parents. He couldn't even see in his own vision anymore! The eyes he saw through now gave everything a rather silver tint that made reflections look like something out of a dream.
Joseph turned to Sandra. "Now!"
Josh jerked as countless volts of electricity went rippling through him. After a moment it stopped.
Josh rapidly tried to regain his senses. The armor was still there, and he was still alive, yes. But something felt . . . different. He felt as though he wasn't alone, there was someone else in this suit of armor with him.
Josh was unsure what to think. Who or what he was feeling was no one that was in the room, but rather in his head.
Then . . . suddenly . . . he heard the voices.
"Wheeeeeow! Now _that_ was some funky trip!"
"Ouch! Yeah. I know what you mean. I feel like I was thrown through a processing plant!"
Josh was confused now. These voices sounded like Joseph and Sandra. But Joseph and Sandra hadn't moved their lips! These voices were coming from his head!
Josh tried reaching out with his mind to whoever he was occupying this suit of armor with.
"Hello?"
"Huh?"
"Whoozat?"
"Wait," said the voice that sounded like Joseph, "I think I know who it is!" The voice seemed to be directed at the other voice. "You Josh?" asked the voice, now directed at him.
"Yeah. Me Josh. Who you?"
Josh felt a pain lance through his head. "Don't get smart with me, punk."
Josh now realized who this was. It was Liquid Metal Joseph and Liquid Metal Sandra!
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Jakkon frowned. "Something's wrong. Why's he not answering us?"
Joseph matched his frown. "I don't know. He's moving his lips like he's trying to talk to us but no sound is coming out. And to top it off, the chip didn't come to the surface!"
Joseph walked over to the control panel and plugged in another wire.
Colin raised an eyebrow. "_Another_ wire?"
Joseph nodded. "Something in the suit of armor is blocking out what he's saying. This one will let us hear what he's trying to say."
Joseph plugged the wire into Josh's suit of armor and suddenly, they heard the conversation. Joseph's eyebrows shot up so high that Andrew thought they were going to hit the ceiling. Everyone else merely jumped.
"That's ya talking!" said Jakkon in an accusing tone.
Joseph shook his head. "No it's not. It's Liquid Metal Joseph and Sandra! They're back! And they're in Josh's suit of armor, possibly controlling it . . ."
". . . and we don't know how to get the armor off," finished Andrew grimly.
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TO BE CONTINUED . . .
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