(Disclaimer: A warning to those who continue.  This is a sequel to a previous story.  Both of these were written in the mid-1990’s.  While the first one was slightly edited and vanity press published, this one has not been touched in over 20 years.  I figure I should do something with it and people may get a laugh or fright from how I used to be.  Every author comes from somewhere, so this is part of my origin.  To that end, I am deeply sorry for whatever nightmares I will inflict on the literary world and the American English language.  Enjoy?)

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On the huge deck of the U.S.S. Intrepid, Adriana waits for her very late allies.  She has spent the past six hours wandering around the aircraft carrier’s hallways and she has gotten lost countless times.  When the voluptuous immortal does find the way to the deck, her head hurts from being constantly hit against low hanging pipes and painful falls down the steep stairwells.  Before she takes a long, impatient breath of cool air, a semi-transparent ship lands on the Intrepid.

“Nice choice.  One has to relish in the irony.  An ancient ship of mortals to hide a new ship of immortals,” mentions Tegam as he jumps out of the space shuttle.  The prankster is no longer wearing his comical jester outfit.  In its place is a decent pair of jeans, a button-down shirt made of silk, and cowboy boots.  All in all, the redheaded immortal looks pretty handsome.

“What took you so long?  And, why are you wearing normal clothes?” asks Adriana.  A few yards behind her, a large form climbs onto the slick deck and starts hacking up gallons of seawater.  Draveon steps into the light while shaking both water and some slimy seaweed off of him.

“Hello, Draveon.  I take it that you’ve encountered some, if not all, of the guardians.  As you can both see, I’m a changed man.  My memories are starting to come back to me.  So, I won’t be with your team for much longer, Adriana.  I estimate that you can count on my services for less than an hour.  It is so good to be a free man once again.”

“Good for you, prankster.  So, I guess it’s finally time for you to join your old friend.  Tell Solix that we say rot in hell,” mutters Draveon.  He is about to move toward Tegam, but Adriana steps in his way.

“Let me handle this.  Just go into the shuttle and call the backup transport.  Try to dry off as best you can because you smell like a wet dog.  So, Tegam.  What exactly do you remember?  Your connection to the guardians?  Your, now dead, true love, Brina?  I’d really like to know,” whispers Adriana while she wraps her arms around Tegam’s neck and stares into his deep, blue eyes.

“To be honest, not everything has returned.  Only my connection to Brina has come back, but even that tends to disappear every now and then.  If I were you, I would not try to seduce me.  It is a pointless move, Adriana.  Just let me leave this fake life behind me.  We were friends before all of this happened.  I would request in the name of our friendship that you let me go.”  Without warning, the busty blonde kisses the prankster and wraps her legs tightly around his slim body.

“What were you saying about my powers?”

“I said that your powers are useless if used against someone with as much willpower as I have.  But I guess I said a half-lie.  My body is yours to command, but my mind is still mine to regain and control.  God I hate hormones.”

“Who cares about your mind?  As long as that sleek, slender body is under my power, I don’t give a damn.  You know, Tegam, I never noticed how sexy you look in a good set of normal clothes.  Maybe after this is all over, we can ditch the muscle and the metal.  Take a nice vacation in the Bahamas.”

“Excuse me.  Should I go somewhere else and leave you two alone?” Draveon asks.  Adriana unwraps herself from Tegam and walks over to a nearby jet.  She pretends to ignore both of the men, who are carefully whispering to each other.

“Are you still with me?” whispers the larger man.

“Not anymore.  Even if I was not going be to what I was before I joined this group.  I’ve . . . learned some things that must be said before Adriana dies.  She has a secret that even Startrix could not have predicted,” responds the redhead.  He sits on the space shuttle’s wing while Draveon paces in front of him.

“So tell me the secret and then you can help me kill her.  Now, do we still have our original deal?”

“No.  It’s not my secret to expose.  Only Adriana has the right to tell you.  And she has decided to die before any of us can find out.”

“Then that is exactly what will happen.  Why did she tell you this big secret anyway?  You may not be the annoying disease that you used to be, but, in my personal opinion, you can’t be trusted.”

“I can be trusted a lot more than you, Draveon.  The only reason she told me was that I was there when she discovered the truth.  Hard to lie about the truth when I have already seen the evidence.  But I do have something to tell you that is of major importance to your current plan.  Major being an understatement.”

Draveon laughs and asks, “What could that possibly be, jester?  Adriana is weak and nothing she does can stop me from eliminating her.”

“Oh, really?  There’s a hidden reason Adriana brought us to Earth.  You see, Startrix knows about your little assassination plan.  She had told Adriana about it and that was when this plan to attack Earth was thought up.  Our cunning leader is trying to trick both you and Fate into fighting each other to the death.  Once that fight is done, she will simply pick off the weakened survivor.  It’s a very clever plan, isn’t it?  Get you and Slane to do most of the work for her while she watches from nearby with a bag of popcorn.  Actually, I think she brought some peanuts for the fight instead of popcorn.  I forgot to ask.  Although, certain current events may change her plans ever so slightly.  But you will still be her primary target.  The guardians are nothing but an excuse to get you killed,” explains Tegam.

“My prey is trying to hunt me?  How adorable is that?  Well, it seems that I will have to eliminate both of my enemies at the same time.  Fate and Adriana will inevitably do battle during this little trip.  That cannot be prevented when they are this close to one another.  I will catch them and torture them before I gladly finish the job.”

“Incoming!” yells Adriana as a silver form flies toward the Intrepid.  The object hits the boat’s deck and bounces into the side of the villains’ space shuttle.

“I am having a very bad day,” mentions Cybro, who has become nothing more than a smoking piece of scrap metal with a head, that is slowly putting itself back together.

“You and me both.  What happened to you, Cybro?  And, where the hell is your hand?” inquires Adriana.  The cyborg stands up on injured legs to reattach his arms while the woman picks up his rolling head.

“Draveon and I ran into all four of the planet guardians in the middle of Times Square.  You will be happy to know that Hydrana and the lucky guardian are back to normal.  We had already stopped three of them, but then Draveon left me alone with the water sprite.  She knocked me into an electric billboard, which shut down most of my systems for hours.  My body managed to bond itself to the scrap metal around me, so this is why my body is messed up.”

“Hey!  I didn’t leave of my own free will.  Hydrana used a geyser to launch a chunk of the street into the ocean.  It just so happened that I was standing on that particular chunk.  Besides, Cybro said that he could handle the brat,” says Draveon.  He helps Adriana put Cybro’s head back on while the robot replaces his missing hand with his large stomach claw.

“You’re going to have to get a different kind of titanium claw when we get home.  That one is far too big to put on your wrist.  By the way, where’s your hand and the Neptune weapon?” questions Adriana.

“The hand should still be sitting in Times Square unless some of the rats that I saw took it away.  At least, I think they were rats.  Honestly, they looked too big for normal vermin, but they acted like rodents.  Anyway, it was not my real hand, so I do not care.”

“Neither do I, metal head.  But I do care about that magic ring.  Please tell me that you managed to get that weapon back.”

“Well, I was a little busy.  The high voltage that was continually shutting my body down preventing me from acting.”

“That’s not a good excuse,” laughs Draveon.

“Stay out of this, Draveon.  Just stand there and look menacing, which is the only thing that I think you were created for.  Now, who do you think has the ring, you glorified toaster oven?” the blond immortal says while Draveon wanders off and grumbles to himself.

“Since Hydrana is the Neptune guardian, I would assume that she has it.  But we cannot do anything about it, so we should not bother worrying.  What is your plan to finish off the guardians?”

“Simple.  Each one of us will take on the guardian we’re more suited to fight.  I will take care of Fate, although that should go without saying.  There are some things I found that can be used against him.  Draveon and Cybro will confront the water sprite and bird boy.  But first, I want Cybro to lead our backup in order to weaken the planet guardians.  So, Draveon will be on his own against the two guardians if the tin can get knocked out.  Tegam’s target is going to be Miracle,” explains Adriana.  She goes into a nearby doorway and takes out a gift wrapped box.

“I have a question,” Cybro announces.

“This present is a little something for Fate and it is none of your business.  All you should know about this thing is that I have had this surprise prepared for fifteen years.  Startrix helped me get this ready.”

“That was not what I was thinking about.  Would it not be better to tell Tegam his part in our plan when he is here?”

“He is here.  He’s probably just invisible as usual.  Didn’t you see him when you crash landed?”

“No.  I have always been able to pick him up on my heat scanners even when he was invisible.  He is not on this aircraft carrier.”  The expression on Adriana’s face turns savage as she yells so loud that one of Cybro’s glass eyelids shatters.

“Are you okay?” asks Draveon with a smile.

“No!  This is an historic first, guys.  I have just met the first man that I can say I truly despise.”  She storms off into the space shuttle and tries to get some sleep while the others rest outside.

“What is the problem?  It is only Tegam,” states the cyborg, whose body is finally back in one piece.

“Tegam didn’t fall for her powers.  And, you know how well she takes that kind of rejection from men,” replies Draveon.  A look of extreme pain crosses his face for a second as a distant, agonizing memory returns.

“That jester is a dead man.”