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Chapter 36: To Save the Planet

Teisel blinked and found himself suddenly floating on his back, curled up in a ball, and face-to-face with a green, translucent barrier. His eyesight seemed to have returned to normal, which was a good sign. He tried to raise his arm and activate a sword in an attempt to slice his way out, but it became evident all too quickly that his weapons had been confiscated, and as soon as he yanked his arm up, he felt like he'd ripped out some kind of sensor.

He glanced down and realized that his weapons hadn't been the only thing Trigger had confiscated, either. The Purifier Unit thankfully had the decency to leave him his underwear, but without his armor or weapons or those jump springs he'd literally just been given, he was at a serious disadvantage. On top of that, his free arm was covered in a cluster of small cuts from whatever device it was that Trigger had attached to him. It took every ounce of willpower he had not to linger around trying to hang onto the little details like Bon's voice and his mother's comforting words. Who knew how much time he had left? As much as he wanted to commit Data's simulation to memory, he needed to prioritize, and for what was perhaps the first time in his life, he was fully aware that his priorities just couldn't include his family this time around. "Come on," he muttered under his breath as he shoved up against the wall of the stasis field in which he'd been trapped. He desperately tried to force his way out into whatever spacecraft this nutcase had dragged him onto. "Get me out of here!"

Whether his temporary hibernation had any detrimental effect on his physical strength or not was up for debate, but after about a minute of shoving up against the barrier, it popped open and he toppled out and onto the ground with an unceremonious thud and a searing pain along the side of his forehead. Trigger must have attached something there, too. A mechanical voice stated, "Data upload terminated at 71%. Some functions may be unavailable."

After a quick inspection to make sure he didn't rip off half of his face on the way out, Teisel quickly spotted his jump springs and weapons and pulled them on, grumbling under his breath as he realized the rest of his armor was nowhere to be seen. He'd need to have a word with Trigger about that. He glanced back at the pod from which he'd awakened, only to find that the other side of the room was empty save for Data, who was standing on the floor dancing as if everything were perfectly normal. "What...what happened to the green stuff?" Teisel asked as he knelt down next to the monkey. "Is this the spaceship, Data? Can you do that healing thing again?"

Data stared cheerfully up at Teisel, then responded with the same old unintelligible chatter that the former pirate was accustomed to hearing from him. Much to his relief, though, either Data understood the instruction and delivered on the healing, or he noticed that Teisel needed a boost on his own. "I suppose I can only understand you when you're in my head, huh?" he asked rhetorically as he scanned the room one more time for his missing armor. There was really nowhere in that little chamber for Trigger to have stashed it. He heaved a sigh and scrambled out of the room and into a hallway. He clamored up the ladder he spotted at the end, with Data following close on his heels, and hoped he wouldn't have too far to go before he found Trigger.

At the top of that ladder was the bridge of the ship. It looked like it encompassed the entirety of the conical protrusion that Teisel and Data had passed along the way to the Klicke Lafonica, back when they were still in the ruins. Trigger himself stood in front of a dashboard and gazed out a massive, panoramic window. It provided him a sweeping view of space, Elysium, and a number of indistinguishable Eden satellites, one of which posed as their current destination.

The Purifier Unit smiled to himself, satisfied that the virtual playground he'd implanted in the Carbon's mind would keep him happy and busy enough to enable him to complete the necessary preparations. He would manually re-initialize all of the landmasses on Terra while his cohorts investigated the flaw in their artificial race's genetic structure. After the researchers obtained their genetic sample, he and Teisel would return to Terra, and with this last Carbon's assistance, wipe the Elders from the face of the planet so Trigger could repair the Master's handiwork on his own and restore a stronger, more resilient batch of Carbons to live there in perpetuity. The Master would have definitely approved. Of that much he was certain.

Before he could dwell on his goal for too long, however, he snapped to attention as a voice he wasn't expecting to hear so soon pummeled through the peaceful silence and suplexed his auditory receptors. "OKAY, BLUE BOY, WHERE IS IT?!"

"Ah, Teisel. I did not expect you to regain consciousness so quickly." Trigger explained with an oddly confident smile. "We are currently well outside the confines of Terra's atmosphere and will be arriving at our destination in a little under two hours."

"You never answered my question!" Teisel pressed as he stormed across the room to a spot about eight feet from where the Purifier Unit stood. "WHAT DID YOU DO WITH MY ARMOR!?"

"Upon examining your equipment after hooking you up to my peripheral memory storage device, I deduced that while the quality of your greaves and gauntlets is acceptable for the upcoming mission, the armor's craftsmanship was subpar. I opted to leave it behind to save space. Upon our impending arrival at our destination, you will be provided with a superior suit of armor."

"But apparently you thought my underwear was up to code?"

Trigger just kept smiling. "To be frank, I find your race's sense of modesty endearing," he stated. "However, if you would prefer to have that replaced as well..."

"I think I'll hang onto it for a while longer." Teisel quickly responded.

"Very well, then." Trigger replied. "It's a shame you woke up as early as you did. I was hoping to have uploaded a set of nanomachines containing combat data into your system in order to better assist you during your upcoming encounter with the Elders. After scanning your memory, I discovered that your battling skills required considerable enhancement to allow you to better keep up with me, but you caught onto the artificial environment's nature so quickly that I'm not sure the upload was able to finish. I'd been hoping you might have wanted to spend more time with your lost loved ones, especially since I had Data take the time to present you with a situation that allowed for you to potentially improve the quality of their lives. It is unfortunate that you did not remain inside the simulated environment long enough to reach the scenario that could have enabled you to reconcile with your father. I was quite happy with the way the writing for that quest turned out. Data and I even risked the session's early termination because it seemed more appropriate for your sister to refrain from simply dismissing your accusations. I didn't want Data to break character, but clearly it appears as if you're over their untimely..."

"No." Teisel suddenly, decisively cut him off. "I'm not over them. I will never be over them. I can, however, tell what's real and what isn't, and you really tipped me off big time when you married me off to a cartoon character."

"...Cartoon character?" Trigger repeated. "I don't understand. She appeared to be the person with whom you'd had the strongest romantic attachment in your entire life. I opted to dismiss the blip that occurred in 8401 due to its overwhelming dependency on events that had been wiped from..."

"Despite what I might have thought about her when I was a kid, Kimiko was never a real person," Teisel interrupted again. "Gray hair doesn't normally occur in children, either, and as much as I hate to admit it, my family is dead. Why would you DO that to me?!"

Trigger took a step back as the taller man closed in on him. "You were acting irrationally when we first met back on Terra, and it seemed like the most pleasant means of keeping your mind occupied while I..."

"I had to come to terms with losing them all over again because of your mind games!"

"I apologize. It was not my intent to hurt or upset you."

Teisel opened his mouth to further incriminate the Purifier Unit, but he stopped himself before he could say anything he might have regretted. As cathartic as telling the android off might have been in the short term, it wouldn't do him much good in stopping Trigger from killing any more of the people he cared about. He stepped back and re-evaluated the situation. The first thing he needed to do was get back to his own planet. He was sure that with enough time, he'd eventually be able to figure out the controls to the ship, but with Trigger standing between him and the dashboard, it would probably be more effective to get him to turn the ship around on his own somehow.

He suddenly realized that he didn't have very much to lose. If he really was the only Carbon left on the planet who was physically capable of getting blown up and living to tell the tale, and if Trigger really wanted to preserve that characteristic, there wasn't much that he could do to Teisel without running the risk of losing his genetic blueprint. Teisel actually had the upper hand this time around. "Look, uh..." he began, "I've been thinking about your plan, and I don't think you've thought this research stuff through."

Trigger suddenly perked up. "Would you care to elaborate?"

Teisel straightened up his posture and tried his hardest to look somewhat competent in his underwear as he critiqued the ancient combat unit's strategy. It had been a while since he'd studied biology. "If you're trying to figure out why this one trait only exists in me, then you'll need to go back and pick up at least one other Carbon. One who possesses the weaker characteristic you're trying to avoid. That way you can compare our genes and figure out what went wrong a little more efficiently."

"Hmmmm..." Trigger considered the proposition. "I suppose it does make sense, but...I don't know. It would probably be best if I consulted my peripheral memory storage unit to ensure that this is a valid scientific approach. After all, I was forced to subdue you back at the launch site."

Data squeaked and chattered as he scampered forward and offered his opinions. As much as Teisel wanted to trust that Data had really decided to side with him back in his mind, he had no idea what that monkey was telling Trigger. After a tense exchange, Trigger gave Teisel a nod and replied, "Alright. We'll head back, and I will allow you to elect a Carbon without your genetic advantage to bring with us and use as an experimental data set. While I can't guarantee that the Carbon will be allowed to survive to procreate, I suppose if you must retrieve that suit of armor, you may do that as well."

"Thanks, Trigger," Teisel replied with a grateful smile as he turned to further explore the spaceship. "I'll be sure and make the trip worth your while."

The moment the spaceship re-entered Terra's atmosphere, Teisel raced up to where Trigger was driving and lunged at him in an attempt to skewer him in one hit. His lack of subtlety gave his opponent plenty of time to sidestep the strike. "Teisel, I am afraid that if you continue to exhibit such violent behavior, I will have to prohibit you from retrieving your armor upon disembarkment." Trigger stated.

Teisel would have none of it. "I can't let you kill everybody because you don't think they're going to survive on their own!" he retorted as, somehow or another, he managed to mirror the ancient fighting android's footwork and slash at him in a wide arc, forcing Trigger to duck to avoid a sudden decapitation. He stepped back in astonishment. Trigger hadn't been bluffing about enhancing his combat skills. If Teisel ignored the whole eugenics experiment and mass genocide, it actually seemed as if Trigger had genuinely wanted to help him out.

"If you must persist with this irrational behavior, I am afraid I have no choice but to stun and sedate you again." Trigger announced as he fired off a buster shot, which Teisel deflected with his swords. The shot ricocheted straight into the wall behind Trigger and dented an embellishment that Teisel was unable to identify. "According to the data output summary on screen 3, you've only acquired around 70% of my combat techniques. While it should provide a vast improvement in your endurance and fighting prowess, I will have no difficulty subduing you for the requisite amount of time. I can assure you that because of your repeated infractions, your second mental diversion will not be as pleasant as your first."

"BRING IT ON!" Teisel shouted. He sidestepped a barrage of buster fire containing more shots at once than he'd ever been able to effortlessly dodge in his life. That combat upgrade couldn't have happened at a more opportune moment. Whatever Trigger had done to his mind during that crazy summer house fantasy, it had backfired. Hard.

Trigger, however, seemed unfazed as he sprinted around his assailant and fired off as many shots as he could before he had to recharge his buster. He wished he could risk a fully charged shot, but Teisel wasn't wearing any protective gear. He wasn't entirely sure that the man would be able to survive a direct hit without armor, but the fact that Teisel was able to parry everything Trigger threw at him with only 70% of the upload completed was unsettling.

Data hopped to the dashboard and danced his dance as Teisel took careful aim and volleyed a shot straight back at Trigger. As Trigger nimbly slid underneath the incoming projectile and released a series of four buster shots at once, Teisel hopped to the side and kicked off the wall, using his double-jumping capabilities to catapult him out of the line of fire and into Trigger's blind spot. As he crashed to the ground, he let his greaves absorb most of the shock and used the momentum to wind up for a swift, low, sweeping kick that actually managed to knock the android off his feet and onto his back.

Trigger rolled with the blow and hopped back up to his feet without so much as missing a beat. He immediately shielded himself with a sphere of energy just as Teisel's swords came crashing down on him for what the Carbon believed would be the decisive blow that would finish Trigger once and for all. The weapons bounced back off the energy field with an aggravating clink and sent Teisel staggering backward.

Miraculously, Teisel managed to avoid getting slashed in the face with his own sword as he flailed around in an attempt to regain his balance. He was losing his focus, and he couldn't afford to take any hits. Not with the world at stake. He suddenly went on the defensive. He dashed along the edge of the room and reversed direction as Trigger anticipated his movements. Data watched on all the while, wondering what Teisel was up to, and certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that there had to be some kind of method to the madness, assuming his preliminary message from back in the storage room had managed to get through to him.

"Stop toying with me at once!" Trigger ordered.

Teisel leaped on top of the control deck and glanced over his shoulder. They were clearly under the influence of the planet's gravitational force, but he still couldn't discern any islands or landmasses from under the clouds. If they crashed into an island, he was sure he'd survive, but the same couldn't be said of any innocent bystanders who happened to be wandering around the vicinity.

Trigger narrowed his gaze at the big guy. "If you're trying to subtly trick me into shooting at you and destroying this ship's heat shield from the inside, you have clearly underestimated my capacity for perception."

"That's...I'm not...how did you...?" Teisel stammered. He almost seemed to cave in on himself in embarrassment. Standing there in his underwear didn't help much with that.

"You're wielding melee weapons, yet you are somehow on the opposite side of the bridge, in no position to attack me at all. Even I can see what you're trying to do. Face it, Teisel. All you're doing is stalling. Once we land at the launch site, it won't matter if I break anything, will it?"

"You'd be able to fix it in time for the return trip?"

"You say that like this is the only spaceworthy vessel we've stored on your planet," Trigger taunted. "Now why don't you make this quicker and more painless for both of us and hop down so we can get this over with?"

As Trigger and Teisel argued, neither of them noticed Data as he padded across the control panel and started making his own adjustments. Data had been created to preserve Trigger's memories when he was reset and deposited at Nino Island, but in spite of his original function, he'd grown attached to their Carbon foster family. Like Roll, he'd hoped Trigger would have been able to recall his time with the Casketts and their cactus. He'd only ever truly known Trigger as the confused, naïve boy who lived on the Flutter, blissfully unaware of his role in shaping the world as he knew it.

Needless to say, he was incredibly disappointed in the newly-revived Trigger, whose memories he'd worked so hard to restore.

"WARNING! DISENGAGING HEAT SHIELDS WITHIN A PLANET'S GRAVITATIONAL FIELD MAY RESULT IN ACCIDENTAL SELF-DESTRUCTION!" a voice suddenly exclaimed as the entire helm was bathed in a sea of bright red emergency lights. "DO YOU WISH TO DISENGAGE THE HEAT SHIELD ANYWAY?"

"Data! NO!" Trigger shouted as he leaped toward the control panel in a desperate lunge. For the first time since his activation, he had completely dropped his pretenses. Unfortunately, his panicked dash was in vain. Data confirmed the command and leaped straight into Teisel's arms. He buried himself in the impact-resistant Carbon's chest and hoped Teisel would know to shield him from the oncoming wave of fiery destruction that would engulf the spacecraft and cause a critical meltdown in its core refractor. With any luck, Teisel would be able to keep the inevitable explosion from ripping the mechanical monkey to shreds and taking the last known link to the Master System and their technology in its wake.

Thankfully, from the time he'd spent manipulating the big guy's mind, Data knew how much Teisel Bonne needed a hug.